Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  The Skaines fired as soon as they saw her coming, and Nickie leapt and twisted through the air to dodge laser bolts. She ducked behind the ship that had brought the initial invasion and pulled her drones from her belt. As she huddled behind the ship, she tapped one of the drones on its top and cooed, “All right, you messy little fuckers. Do your thing.”

  She pitched the three metallic orbs into the air, and they zipped through the air toward the oncoming Skaines.

  Nickie relegated the video feeds from the drones to the corner of her vision, letting Meredith monitor them for the time being. Each drone tore straight through the skull of a Skaine on the way down the gangplank, and three bodies dropped to the ramp. The doors began to close, but the drones zipped through at the last second.

  She glanced at the feed every so often, watching the drones herd unfortunate Skaines still on the ship through the corridors until there were enough in one place to simply bounce around the room like a trio of pinballs. They ripped elegantly through skulls and torsos as they ricocheted. The ship would be empty in no time, so all Nickie had to focus on was the group making its way across the airfield.

  Nickie peered carefully out of her hiding place, gun in hand. She ducked under a shot that passed a few inches past her scalp, and as she straightened back up, she fired at the barrels of fuel stored just a few yards from where Karvar’s ship had landed.

  A barrel exploded stupendously, leading to all the others exploding in rapid succession. The blasts launched debris and flaming gobs of fuel into the air to pelt the airfield with fire. The Skaines scattered, but four of them still wound up falling when they couldn’t quite avoid the flaming liquid raining down on them. Soon the fire had halfway surrounded Karvar’s ship, creeping along both sides of the gangplank.

  Just five more of the ground team.

  Nickie looked at the ship she was hiding behind and then climbed up the landing gear to drag herself into its undercarriage. She pressed her back flat to the jagged metal, arms and legs spread out to brace herself. She could hear the Skaines arguing amongst themselves beside the ship, trying to figure out who was going to drag her out of hiding. Finally, one of them stumbled forward after being pushed.

  He made it two steps beneath the ship before Nickie hooked her knees around the ship’s undercarriage and dropped to hang upside-down, just low enough to wrap her arms around the reluctant Skaine and haul him off the ground.

  When the others opened fire he made a very nice shield, and when she dropped the body her gun was already in hand. Soon she was down to just three, and she dragged herself up into the undercarriage again.

  She scuttled forward like an upside-down crab, ducking into the gap behind the landing gear and all but disappearing, so she was nowhere to be found when the three remaining Skaines finally trekked beneath the ship to find her.

  She fired at one of them, shooting him through the top of the head before she backflipped down from the undercarriage. She landed on her feet, using another Skaine as a landing pad; his neck snapped loudly on impact.

  Nickie blinked at the last Skaine, who had his gun on her from scarcely more than an arm’s length away.

  The world seemed to slow to a crawl as Nickie surged forward, flowing like water as she sidestepped the blast. She closed the space between them and snapped his elbow, slamming the flat of her hand against it and forcing it to bend in the wrong direction. His gun fell from his hand, and Nickie caught it, leveled it at his neck, and pulled the trigger. Scarcely more than a few seconds had passed before the Skaine crumpled to the ground in a heap and Nickie was alone again.

  She was barely out of breath. Meredith interrupted her.

  Captain Karvar is the only one remaining. He is still on the ship. I assume you would prefer I not handle him with your drones.

  You got that right. That fucktard is mine, she confirmed, racing toward the gangplank. But how do I get on? I can’t open the doors from out here.

  The doors at the top of the gangplank sparked suddenly and slid partially open. She could hear the humming of her drones on the other side, and she could just barely smell smoking electronics over the smell of the fire.

  With a wild grin, she sprinted up the gangplank and onto the Skaine ship, catching her drones out of the air as she passed them.

  Nickie met the captain as he tried to flee to the bridge to barricade himself in. She caught him by the collar before he could get through the door, and with a vise-like grip on the back of his neck, she hauled him back toward the gangplank.

  He fought the entire way and even managed to break her hold halfway there. He rounded on her, army knife in hand and outrage in his eyes. At such close range, it really wasn’t a surprise that he managed to sink the knife into Nickie’s hip. She yelped, the sound caught between pain and offense.

  She lashed out, one hand yanking the knife out to let her healing kick in and the other curling into a fist to punch Karvar right in the face, although she pulled the punch so as not to kill him right then and there. It rattled him enough to keep him from struggling the rest of the way to the gangplank.

  She had to pause for a moment once she got there, though. She hadn’t expected the colonists to congregate on the airfield to watch the Skaine ship. A hush fell over them when the door opened and she appeared at the top of the gangplank with Karvar.

  Grim watched from just below the Skaine ship’s gangplank as Nickie frog-marched the captain halfway down it. Fire encroached on both sides of the gangplank, so the only ways to get away were back onto the ship—a dead end—or down the gangplank, right into the colonist’s arms.

  The captain, however, seemed disinclined to try to run. Either he was proud, or he simply knew it was no good by that point. Grim didn’t know enough about Skaines to try to hazard a guess as to his thinking, and he was too busy straining to hear what they were saying to give the idea much attention.

  “What do you think?” Nickie asked, and though her tone was friendly and pleasant enough, the grin on her face was like a barracuda’s. “Anything you’d like to say for yourself?”

  “Just get it over with,” Karvar snapped. “You’re the only one here who gives a shit about your posturing.”

  Nickie snorted out a laugh, though it wasn’t a particularly cheerful sound. “Whatever you say,” she agreed, and she sank his knife into his throat and yanked it to the side. She sidestepped to avoid the spray of arterial blood, with limited success.

  His body stayed upright for a moment, swaying slightly in place until Nickie placed two fingers in the middle of his chest and pushed. It tumbled over the side of the gangplank to burn up in the fire.

  Grim cringed when the flames flashed higher for a few seconds, and as the colonists erupted into cheers, he looked away.

  Chapter 17

  Tabitha

  Aboard the Achronyx

  “I swear, every time we go to that place, I need three showers to get the stink off me,” Tabitha complained, again to no one in particular. She appeared in the main conference room wearing new clothes. She looked around. “Are we close to the drop point?”

  “Yes.” Hirotoshi waved her over to look at the layout of a small town he was studying. He tapped a point on the screen. “Achronyx found a report of an abandoned colony at those coordinates and even a map of it. Our guess is that the thief, whoever he is, will set down at the south end of the colony and make the rendezvous before turning over the goods.”

  “Why wouldn’t he bring the goods with him?” Tabitha frowned.

  “The information Don Guido provided traces back to someone who usually operates alone. Achronyx can’t find any criminal record for this guy.”

  A profile picture popped up, with the same pink-toned skin and delicate features as the alien who had attacked Tabitha in the bar.

  “Those guys are dangerous!” she accused, staring at the picture on the screen. “How the hell do you tell them apart?”

  Hirotoshi ignored her.

  “Perhaps as a species they c
an be difficult, but there are no reported issues with this one,” Katsu remarked, then shrugged. “His name is Hlith’ven. There’s a weird click thing in the middle of it none of us can pronounce.”

  Tabitha scowled at the screen. “So he’s good at hiding his tracks?”

  “Maybe.” Hirotoshi didn’t look convinced. “I saw the security footage of him approaching the medical supply store, however, and he doesn’t act like a hardened criminal.”

  “Hirotoshi is correct,” Achronyx said over the speaker. “This alien is not very good at any of this. He rented the ship for more than necessary, meaning he did not have his own ship in the first place since we could find nothing about him outside of this effort. All of these actions are highly unusual for a criminal.”

  “Could be he’s just never been caught.” Tabitha chewed on the inside of her lips. “I think he’s just sneakier than we might realize.”

  “Perhaps you are correct, Kemosabe.” Hirotoshi dipped his head in her direction, then added, “But I doubt it.”

  She looked at him before asking, “Don’t you have push-ups to do?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “A thousand each for you and Katsu, and five hundred for Ryu?”

  “In time. Perhaps after the battle, Kemosabe.” Hirotoshi’s lips moved in the direction of a tiny smirk. “We have arrived.”

  Tabitha stood up, scratching her face. “You’re going to go for triple or nothing, aren’t you?”

  “I might have had that idea, yes.” Hirotoshi headed for the armory.

  Tabitha and the Tontos were geared up and ready to go without much time spent, and they headed out into the ruins of the colony to wait for their contact to arrive. When they looked around, the buildings seemed fairly well-preserved, some with windows boarded up and For Sale signs written in seven different languages in others.

  One of them reminded Tabitha of Morse code.

  “This place is weird.” Tabitha slowly turned in place, looking at the complete lack of people. “How does a whole colony just stop being a thing?”

  It was on a trade route, Achronyx answered a moment later. After one of the treaties fell through between two major systems, it wasn’t a convenient stopping point anymore. It gradually faded. There was no major catastrophe, which is why you see multiple stages of abandonment.

  Tabitha nodded.

  She had seen similar things happen in Buenos Aires. Neighborhoods and small towns near the city would stop being a destination for some reason or another, and half the buildings would go derelict.

  Of course, in her experience, other people moved in and started their own black market economy. That was just more difficult in space.

  “He’s coming in,” Ryu reported. There was a boom somewhere above, and Tabitha and the Tontos moved, hiding inside one of the abandoned buildings while they waited.

  It wasn’t long before their target appeared. He had dressed in nondescript gray clothes, the usual station-worker’s uniform, but they only served to emphasize his pink skin.

  He looked very delicate and nervous. His eyes moved erratically, and he stumbled twice as he walked down the street.

  “Hey, you!” Tabitha stepped into the street, and he looked at her in confusion. “I hear you stole medicine from Tiw.” She put a hand on her waist. “Want to explain that?”

  Clearly, the alien did not want to stand around and talk with her. He panicked and took off.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Tabitha sprinted after him. “Come on! I don’t want to get dirty.” She tackled him to the ground. To her relief he didn’t pull out any of the glass knives, but instead cowered in front of her, arms wrapped around his head.

  “Please,” he whimpered.

  Tabitha leaned close to him, knocking the dust off of her pants, “Please what?” she asked as the guys caught up with them.

  “I’ve never done anything like this before!” he answered, still holding his arms around his head.

  “I told you,” Hirotoshi said, faintly smug.

  Tabitha, sensing defeat, pointed down at him. “He could be lying!” she said, although her eyes gave away what she really thought.

  “I’m not lying!” Hlith’ven turned and sat up. He looked at Tabitha and Hirotoshi. “He’s right. He’s…” His eyes narrowed. “You’re male, yes?”

  “Yes,” Hirotoshi agreed patiently while Tabitha and Ryu snickered. He just looked at them and both stopped, deciding that staring at the alien was a better choice at the moment.

  Tabitha tried again, waving her hand in front of her. “Nothing he can say is going to convince me to let him go.”

  “I was just doing this to pay off my debt to Rotciv,” Hlith’ven explained.

  “Then again,” Tabitha blew out a breath of annoyance, “I’ve been known to be wrong.”

  “Yes, but you’ve never been known to admit it,” Katsu supplied.

  She glared at him and then looked back at Hlith’ven. “What’s this about Rotciv? You know who that Skaine son of a bitch is?”

  “I don’t know if he’s Skaine,” Hlith’ven replied.

  “He is,” Tabitha told him, her previous mistake forgotten already as she answered confidently.

  The alien stared at her. “O-okay. Anyway, my parents’ colony was getting attacked by slavers all the time, so we hired some people to guard it. They charged way more than they said they were going to after they fought off an attack, and the next thing I know, I’m being contacted by this Rotciv guy.”

  Katsu turned to the side and whispered to Ryu, “How does this thing translate ‘okay?’”

  Ryu shrugged. The technology worked—at least for the most part—and that was all he needed.

  Tabitha crouched and glared at Hlith’ven. She rolled her eyes when he gave a yip of terror.

  “Okay, I’m beginning to believe you,” she looked up at Hirotoshi. “He really doesn’t seem like he—”

  “He sold us out!” Tabitha’s better hearing caught an alien talking behind them. “Look, it’s those humans! Get them and get the merchandise!”

  The first shots cracked into the air and Tabitha snatched Hlith’ven by the collar to drag him into a nearby house. She pointed at him and then the floor. “Stay the fuck here! I can’t let you die until we find out more about Rotciv, so keep your damned head down!”

  Hirotoshi and Ryu had taken shelter on the other side of the street, and Ryu looked out, aimed his Jean Dukes, and fired. The alien who had been yelling orders, bare skin speckled and otherwise covered in bristly fur, screamed and fell.

  “That is for attacking us without provocation!” Ryu called to the rest. “I suggest the rest of you go back to your ship and leave. The deal is off.”

  “Fuck you, motherfucker!” the call came back.

  “And that?” Katsu asked. “How many aliens can have fornicating with one’s mother as a thing?”

  “Rude.” Tabitha popped out of the doorway of her shelter to shoot the one who had yelled and ducked back in as several of them fired at her. The slams of the projectiles splattering stone chips were annoying enough without the actual damage from being hit by one.

  They had brought shields with them, some sort of collapsible contraption that sprang up to give them cover in the open street. She doubted it would do much against Jean Dukes over time, but it was a nifty thing.

  “Hirotoshi!”

  “Yes, Kemosabe?”

  “We should bring some of our shields next time.”

  It was a damned shame. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the shields. They just didn’t usually use them except during ship actions.

  Tabitha checked her pockets. Nope, she didn’t have any.

  “Yes, Kemosabe.” Hirotoshi shot two more, and Ryu picked off a third.

  The traders had come around their barriers and were sprinting up the street toward Hlith’ven’s ship. They must have decided that their random shots had taken out some of their adversaries, or perhaps they thought they could shoot them when they came out into the street.
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  Either way, they were wrong.

  Hirotoshi and Ryu stepped out into the street, swords flashing in the sunset.

  Three had come past the barriers to get to the ship. Ryu took two steps and vaulted into the air so that he and Hirotoshi could attack from opposite sides. They did not want to drive any of their enemies into the building with Hlith’ven.

  The merchant closest to Ryu managed to draw his gun, but Ryu slashed at his arm. Blood splattered when the hand still holding the butt of the pistol dropped into the dirt. The merchant screamed in pain as Ryu cut him down with a return slice.

  Hirotoshi took out one merchant almost instantly, but the second had a grenade launcher pointed right at him.

  “Don’t move!” the merchant ordered. “You just stay right where you are. We’re going to take that merchandise—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish his orders. Ryu stabbed him through the back, yanked down to pull the aim up on the launcher and pulled his sword out with a slight twist to break the vacuum as the merchant fell.

  Ryu nodded at Hirotoshi, and both of them ran for the shields.

  Tabitha had left Hlith’ven where he was and climbed up to the roof of her building. Now she ran across it and leapt down to the street behind the shields.

  “Nice to see you,” she told Hirotoshi and Ryu. “Wondered when you’d show up.”

  The five remaining merchants screamed. Two of them dropped their weapons, put their hands up, and cowered.

  The other three made the very unwise decision to try to take Tabitha and the Tontos down. One of them grabbed two guns and tried to fire them both at the same time.

  “Seriously?” Tabitha asked, looking at the merchant’s grip on his pistols. He wasn’t used to holding guns, and Hirotoshi merely ducked under the pistol’s aim as he fired.

  Not only was the merchant horrible at aiming, but the recoil from the two pistols also sent both shots wide and the alien went ass over teakettle. One of the shots hit the building where Hlith’ven was hiding and they heard him scream, but given where it hit the building, the scream was almost certainly just surprise on Hlith’ven’s part.