Burning Bright

by Michael-Scott Earle

And we ran through the dark abandoned streets of the massive space station.

  Chapter 4

  We made it to the gate between District H and B about five minutes later. Zea and Juliette were running at their full speed, but it was just a mild jog for me. As we ran, I was able to update Paula, Kasta, and Eve about the situation. Paula was still out trying to buy supplies, so she was returning to Persephone empty handed.

  “Are you going to change back?” Juliette asked as she swiped her card into the keypad with a quick flourish.

  “He can’t. He has to sleep as soon as he does,” Zea said.

  “Shit. Well, looks like everyone in District B will have some horrific stories to tell about a giant tiger-man with a bunch of guns running through the streets. Of course, I’ll be running with you, so it’s going to be hard to deny any of the tales. Fuck me.”

  “It could be worse,” I said. “Nebula Gammon could have taken the station. Everyone could be dead or enslaved.”

  “True.” She smirked at me as we all ducked under the door and into the lighted streets of District B.

  There were plenty of people on the streets, and most of them screamed when they saw me running.

  The beast didn’t care. It enjoyed the sounds of their terror and the scent of their fear. It was pure animal nature. The part of my brain that wanted to kill, fuck, or rule the galaxy was pleased. These people should be screaming because the monster was their better.

  But my human mind still felt a sting of shame when I saw a pair of children look at me and scream with absolute terror.

  These people feared me. I scared them. They thought I would kill them with my guns, maim them with my claws, or eat them with my jaws. I hadn’t wanted to be this monster; it wasn’t my choice, but now I was this horrific effigy that would give those poor kids nightmares.

  It was my fault. If I hadn’t deserted the Marines, I wouldn’t have joined the Yakuza. Then I wouldn’t have gone to prison or been sold into slavery.

  But then my sister would be dead, and my mother would have been in lifelong debt.

  I forced my mind from the past to focus on the future. It didn’t matter if these people were afraid of me. I wasn’t going to hurt them. I’d made plenty of mistakes in my life, but I always tried to do right by others. I should have been killed a thousand times over, but I wasn’t dead. I was alive, and on a ship with four beautiful women. Two of which I was in love with. Yeah, we seemed to find trouble at every turn, and we had a long list of enemies, but life was pretty damn good, and I was going to fight to keep my friends safe.

  “Adam, my drones are hearing gunfire out in the harbor.” I guessed it was Kasta’s voice on the transponder.

  “Shit,” I growled and debated sprinting ahead of Zea and Juliette. I could probably make it there in a few minutes, but there was still another group of Elaka Nota soldiers on Queen’s Hat, and I was certain they knew what Zea looked like.

  “Almost there!” Juliette yelled, but I guessed there was still another two kilometers to run.

  “Kasta, can you send some of your recon drones out into the harbor to see what is going on?” I asked into the transponder.

  “The battle is out past the tube. Security has set up a barricade, but Elaka Nota has these fast moving spider drones that look to be armored. They are cutting into Juliette’s forces.”

  “Fuck!” the redhead shouted as she started to run faster.

  “You want us to stay inside of Persephone? Or should we take some of our drones out and see if we can help?” Kasta asked.

  I looked at Juliette, but the woman was too busy running to answer. If the twins took out either the knight or spider drones, they would probably be able to help the police forces fight back against Elaka Nota, but we ran the risk of losing them if we had to hyperdrive out of here on Persephone.

  “Yeah. Help out Juliette’s people. If we can stop Elaka Nota here, we might not have to leave,” I said.

  “Got it,” Kasta replied, and then we continued our run.

  We hit the main stretch of street which ran parallel to the tube train and took a left. The route would take us past the police station and into the harbor, but we still had another kilometer to go. I did see the lines of battle up ahead, and I realized we could ambush Elaka Nota from behind.

  “Hold on,” I said as I slowed. Zea and Juliette looked at me with confusion, and I pointed to the edge of the nearest tube platform. It rose a good two meters up before it met the area where the train boarded, and I leapt up the stairs in a single jump.

  “What are you--” Juliette started to ask, but I interrupted her.

  “How many rounds do you have for this?” I asked as I set down my carbine and took the sniper rifle off my back.

  “I’ve got four more clips. Here.” She yanked an ammo pouch off her belt and threw it up to me.

  “I want you two to take position over behind that stone planter,” I said to them as I pointed off to my side. The wall was about a meter tall, and it held a planted tree and grass. The small patch of nature was three meters wide by four meters long, and I guessed the dirt and rock would be able to stop Elaka Nota’s armor piercing rounds. “Don’t give up your position until I tell you to start shooting, just sit there until my command. Got it?”

  “Got it,” they both said in unison as they ran over to the planter and readied their carbines.

  I went into a prone position on the raised platform and arranged the magazines on my left side so I could reach them quickly. Then I peered through the digital sight of the sniper rifle. The display was very high quality, and I could see a combination of mixed heat signature and detailed optics. It was no wonder the asshole almost put a bullet in me half a dozen times. If this weapon shot even half as good as the optics, I’d be able to clip a fly’s wings at five hundred meters.

  I panned the crosshairs over the gathered Elaka Nota troops. None of them were looking in my direction, so I assumed that they were confident we weren’t here. I’d probably be able to get four or five shots off before they guessed I was behind them, so I’d have to make them count. I passed over a group of what looked like drone pilots and then swung my crosshairs back toward them. There were three, and they were sitting behind a group of heavily armored soldiers who carried heavy riot shields. The pilots looked like very juicy targets, and I set my crosshairs on one in such a way so it looked like I might be able to take two of them out with one shot.

  I pulled the trigger, and the skulls of both pilots disappeared in a cloud of red mist and flying skull bits.

  I moved the rifle to the side a half a millimeter and put another bullet through the third and final pilot before he even had a chance to realize I’d just killed his two friends. The rifle’s firing action was incredibly smooth, and the beast only kicked back in my shoulder a bit. It felt like I could fire the thing all day without fatigue, and I noticed there was a useful bullet counter displayed in the right corner of the sight. There must have been some sort of sensor in the magazines that connected up to the optics. It was a nice feature, and the reading notated I had four more shots left before I would have to reload, or five if I cared to yank back on the lever and put a fresh round in the chamber.

  It only took those two shots for me to fall in love with the weapon.

  I panned over to one of the guards holding the shield and his chest vaporized as soon as I feathered the trigger. The shield he held also cracked, split, and crumbled as the bullet punched through it. The other Elaka Nota soldiers were focusing their fire on Juliette’s guards taking cover on the far end of the harbor, so I squeezed the trigger three more times to take out the rest of the shield guards. Each of them seemed to explode as the large bullet blew through their armor.

  I felt the beast’s bloodlust screech through my chest as I reached for another magazine. I hadn’t checked these bullets to see if they were of the same armor piercing material as in my carbine, but it might not have mattered. The bullets were twenty centimeters deep and three centimeters w
ide. I imagined each round had more than enough power to pierce everything short of spaceship armor.

  I popped the new magazine in and adjusted my aim toward the next set of Elaka Nota soldiers. Only a few seconds passed since I first began firing, so none of my enemies noticed the death of the drone pilots. I needed to make the most of my opportunity, so I fired as quickly as I could aim. The rifle was beyond accurate, and each of my trigger pulls resulted in the instant death of each of my targets. The shots soon filled the air with the sweet smell of gunpowder, and the scent made the monster in my DNA howl with glee.

  I was tearing into their main forces now, and each of my ten shots brutally murdered one of their armored soldiers. There was still some dozen of them left, but the tide of the battle had taken a dramatic turn, and the Elaka Nota group were now falling back to cover instead of aggressively pressing against the Queen’s Hat police force.

  I should have retreated or tried to change position, but I decided to risk a few more shots and reloaded the rifle. The movement did cost me a bit of time, and I felt a few bullets hiss past my head.

  Elaka Nota realized I was picking them off, and three of their soldiers made a sprint toward the planter Zea and Juliette hid behind. They intended to flank me, and I grabbed the magazines from the ground before I began my backward crawl away from the ledge of the train platform.

  My opponents saw my movement, so they leaned over the top of the planter to shoot at me. I tried to press myself into the stone platform, and it felt like their bullets were hitting only centimeters above my back. Still, I couldn’t continue my crawl backward without risking a bullet, so I would have to leave the three men to Juliette and Zea. It wasn’t an option I liked, but I’d waited too long to change position.

  There was another spray of gunfire from where the majority of the Elaka Nota soldiers were and another spray from the planter. One of the bullets grazed the top shoulder piece of my armor. It didn’t do any damage, but it reinforced the fact that I was pinned down.

  Then I heard a pair of machine gun sounds from the direction of the harbor. It sounded like two amplified chainsaws revving at full speed. The noise was almost immediately followed by a chorus of alarmed screams. I risked a glance up past the edge of the train platform where I lay and saw two armored knight-drones, Kay and Arthur, lumber toward the line of Elaka Nota soldiers. Half of the armored figures were down, but I counted six more taking shots at the shield carrying drones. The bullets actually pierced Kay and Arthur's armor, but the damage didn’t seem to slow the gait of the massive robots.

  Then they both swung their machine guns toward the Elaka Nota soldiers, and a stream of bullets poured out of the business end while a rainbow of copper casings arched through the air.

  The Elaka Nota soldiers melted under the hail storm of bullets. Their corpses littered the ground in a heap of blood, guts, and brain matter. I glanced over to the trio of soldiers who now took cover behind the planter next to Zea and Juliette, and I saw both of the women standing over Elaka Nota corpses.

  It looked like we’d won this second round.

  “You okay?” I shouted over to Zea and Juliette.

  “Yep,” Juliette called back, but Zea just nodded.

  The redhead turned to the hacker and leaned into her ear. I couldn’t hear what she said to Zea, but my friend nodded as she stared down at the corpses by her feet.

  I slung the sniper rifle over my shoulder, put the magazines in one of my ammo pouches, and then picked up my carbine. By the time I finished, Zea and Juliette had made their way over to me, and I saw thirty of the Queen’s Hat security team members making their way toward us.

  “Smith, what’s the status of the third group? How about the other Elaka Nota ships? Are there any more assholes coming out?”

  “Third group has been held up at District G, ma’am. No more soldiers are exiting the Elaka Nota ships.” Smith sounded relieved.

  “Who is the lieutenant on duty in District D now? Natat?”

  “No ma’am. I think he was killed by Elaka Nota. Freeda also.”

  “Shit. Who’s the shift sergeant? I want him or her to manually eject their ships and blow them out of fucking space with our cannons.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Smith replied.

  “Things are clear here, connect me with him and I’ll give the order.” Juliette looked at me as she spoke to her.

  “We’ll go cheeeeeckkk on Eve, Paula, and Kasta,” I growled, and the redhead nodded to confirm that she heard me while she yelled at someone else through her transponder.

  Zea’s eyes met mine, and I gestured for us to walk through the battlefield toward the hulking shield robots.

  “You okay?” I asked the hacker after we moved out of earshot from Juliette and away from the police officers who stared at me.

  “Yeah,” Zea replied. “Just… I shot that guy. Juliette shot the other two. I don’t think I’ve ever killed anyone before. They didn’t even know we were there. I guess I’m glad, but I moved over to him, and then shot him again to make sure he was dead.”

  “You did what you hadddd to do. He would have killeddddd me, or you, if given a chance,” I said, but my voice was hanging on some of the words. It must have been over twenty minutes since I shifted. I was going to need to return to my human form and sleep. I didn’t like the idea since there was a unit of Elaka Nota soldiers still roaming around Queen’s Hat, but I didn’t have much choice.

  “Yeah. That’s what I keep telling myself. It is what Juliette said also, but I keep wondering if he was a good guy. Maybe he only took the job because he needed money for his wife and kids. The living isn’t easy in the Trappist system.”

  “It is doubtful that he’s innocent,” I said with a shrug.

  “How can you be so sure? Eve isn’t here to tell us that she’s read his mind and knows of his evil. You were in the Marines. I’m sure you had to do a few things you didn’t quite agree with.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted.

  “Look, Adam. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to become a pacifist here. I know we are going to have to hurt and kill people who need it. It’s just that I stood over the guy and then put another bullet in him. I’d do it again if it meant protecting you. I love you. I’m just--” She let out a long breath. “I don’t know. He’s dead now by my hand. I never saw my work up close before. I shot at fuckers, but I never examined the bodies afterward. I think this whole time I kept thinking it was your bullets that killed them, and not mine.”

  “I get it,” I said. “I was thinking about this when we were on Uraniel. None of you have combaaaaatttt training, and I keep asking you all to be maaaarines with me.”

  “And we do it because we all care about you, and you care about us. I’m doing this wrong.” Zea let out a chuckle and wrapped her fingers around my arm. “This is where I want to be. I know what we are up against. I just need some time to get over it.”

  “I understand,” I said, and our eyes met. “We have a lot to thinkkk about.”

  “No. I’m done thinking about it,” she said, and her lips twisted into a smirk.

  “Oh?” I asked.

  “Yeah, uhh, I kind of wanted to talk to you about it when you weren’t--” Zea gestured to my body and then shrugged. “--but I also don’t want to--”

  “Hey!” I heard one of the twins yell, and we looked down the harbor to see Kasta, Paula, and Eve. They were outside of the tube entrance to Persephone about a hundred meters ahead of us.

  “What’s the status?” Kasta’s voice came over the transponder.

  “Their ships are still docked in District D. They have another group of soldiers in District G, but it looks like they are getting pushed back,” Zea said.

  “Are there any prisoners?” Eve asked, and her voice sounded like a calm breeze, and the animal in my soul relaxed a bit.

  “No,” I answered. “There migggght be some in District G.”

  “What is the plan?” Paula asked, but we were close enough to hear the feedback fr
om everyone’s transponder, so we put the devices away and stood in a circle at Persephone’s docking tube.

  “I don’t think the thrrrrreat is over,” I said.

  “We should leave,” Zea said.

  “But I didn’t get the food,” Paula sighed.

  “You aren’t going to get any. It’s going to take them days to clean up all the fucking mess in the station. Juliette will probably close all the harbors. It’s going to be a pain in the ass to trade anyone for anything.” Zea shook her head as she spoke, and her blonde bangs fell over her eyes before she swept them back with her slender fingers.

  “What about the shipment of farming supplies to Uraniel?” Kasta asked. “They will need something in the next few weeks, or they will starve.”

  “There has to be something on Epsilon Tauri-b. Or maybe we can get a list from Juliette of all the stations she knows of. Some might not be active, but I just don’t think we are going to get what we need here. Elaka Nota’s still on the station. We need to get the fuck out.” Zea crossed her arms when she finished talking and then turned to me. The other three women did as well, and I debated our shrinking options.

  I’d taken a huge risk by trying to dig for the data that Madalena Vaish and her crew had searched District H for. We’d gotten lucky, again, but now the path forward was even more unclear to me. If we stayed, there was a possibility more Elaka Nota troops would come out of the docked ships. Or more ships could come. The entire station would be on lockdown after this attack. Instead of selling food, the traders would probably hold onto it and watch the value increase for the next week or two.

  If we left, we threw our fate back to luck. We’d have to hope Epsilon Tauri-b had an active civilization that could sell us food, if not, we’d have to go somewhere else, or come back here in a few weeks.

  And we still didn’t know how Elaka Nota was tracking us.

  Part of me, the human part that strategized plans more than ten minutes ahead, wanted to run to the front-lines of the battle and try to catch one of the Elaka Nota soldiers so Eve could interrogate him. The animal in my DNA also agreed with this plan, but I’d never make it there in time. I was probably about twenty-five minutes into my shift. I could only hold it for another ten minutes. Anything longer would risk me transforming into a full tiger.