“Cheers?” Wang lifted his one blue vial into the space in front of his helmet. The vial looked like a test tube with a needle on one end and a thumb depressor on the other. “This probably isn’t a good time to warn you of the side effects, is it?”
“Side effects?” Riot repeated the words as she clinked one of the three epinephrine shots she had against Wang’s. “What side effects?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” Wang said as if he were some kind of pharmaceutical commercial. “Severe itching in the nether regions, temporary loss of taste, swelling in your tongue, hard of hearing, dry eyes, club foot, hangnails, warts, a severe case of the mumbles, and anal leakage. There are some other ones I forgot.”
Boots slamming against the floor hall and shouts from the Karnayer troops interrupted whatever Riot was going to say.
“Do it, and if I get anal leakage from this, so help me God, Wang,” Riot said as she drove the syringe into a spot in her abdomen where a blaster round had left a small opening in her armor.
Riot pushed the plunger with her thumb. The feeling was a brief prick of pain, followed by the strongest rush of energy Riot had ever felt. It was like liquid electricity coursing through every inch of her body. Her eyes widened, her heart rate doubled, and she had the urge to move—and move fast.
The sensation came at the perfect time. The four Scarab ships full of Karnayers had gathered in force and came charging from around the corner. They came so fast, they nearly collided with Evonne who, true to her word, took a shield-like stance in front of Riot and Wang.
Blaster fire lit up the hall. The Karnayers opened up on Evonne, who waded through the green bolts of energy like she was some kind of bulldozer traveling though a hailstorm.
Riot’s trigger finger was a blur as she aimed around Evonne and mowed down the enemy with her Destroyer T9. The Syndicate weapon modified by SPEAR was like a tommy gun married to a Benelli shotgun. It sprayed a volley of red blaster fire at the enemy, chewing through their black armor and helmets.
The pure focus in Riot aided by the epinephrine shot made her duck and roll out of the way from the incoming fire. Although Evonne was taking the bulk of it, green blaster rounds were still managing to find their way to Riot and Wang.
“Use Evonne as cover,” Riot shouted into her comms as she ducked and weaved through the blasts. She sent another burst of fire that hit a Karnayer in the chest and sent him reeling backwards into his comrades. “Don’t let them catch you standing still.”
“What!” Wang shouted, still firing his own weapon and moving just as quickly as Riot.
“I said keep moving!” Riot repeated.
“What! Who’s chewing?” Wang shouted so loud into his comms, it made Riot’s ears ring.
Riot remembered one of the side effects of the augmented epinephrine shots being hearing loss. It seemed Wang was suffering one of the signs now. Riot wondered if anal leakage was coming next.
Watching Evonne wade into the Karnayers was epic. The robotic AI took blaster fire point-blank and kept moving forward. The Karnayers who lived past the initial engagement were starting to understand this black-haired woman who didn’t blink could not be taken down with their weapons. Instead of trying to push past her, they backpedaled down the hall, ducking back into the exercise room, around corners, and into doorways of other rooms.
Evonne stalked after them like a terminator on a search-and-destroy mission.
Riot and Wang followed, blasting at anything that moved.
Riot tracked along with her weapon at incredible speed. If she were capable of slowing down, she might have, but at the moment, the drugs screaming in her system demanded action.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Wang took out a Karnayer peeking around the corner to their right. Riot took out two more on the left. A green blaster round caught Wang square on the helmet, sending him stumbling backwards. He struck the ground hard and didn’t move.
“Wang! Wang!” Riot backpedaled and knelt next to her corporal. “Wang, you have to get up!”
“What!?” Wang shouted back, sitting up from his spot. He reached for the Villain Pulse Rifle on his back as he readied himself to return to the fight. “Who? Has what?”
“Fight!” Riot said as she was struck in the torso and the right shoulder. She grimaced past the pain as the rounds took her breath away, causing temporary pain that her nanites would soon repair. “Fight!”
The remaining Karnayers were wising up to Evonne’s impenetrability and began changing tactics. Small disks the size of hockey pucks slid across the floor. They landed feet from Evonne, who was in the lead.
“Get down!” Evonne shouted as she spread her arms and legs, trying to create a larger shield between the explosive and the marines.
BAM!
Riot wasn’t really sure where she landed as she tried to struggle to her feet again. All she remembered was the grenades going off, then being flung into the air so hard she slammed through a door into the weight room, and finally sliding to a halt.
Neither Wang nor Evonne were in the room with her. Riot’s ears were ringing like they never had before. Her armor had held up well under the blast, but burning pain lanced around her body where her armor had already been exposed by previous shots.
Her Destroyer was gone somewhere, lost in the mix. She unslung the pulse rifle from her back to find it still in working order. As the smoke settled near the entrance to the room, a movement caught her eye. Riot rose to one knee, looking down the sight of her weapon. Two Karnayers were using a helmetless Wang as a shield.
Wang was bleeding from his nose and his lip. Swelling was forming and healing was taking place around his right eye as Riot looked down her scope. The Karnayer directly behind Wang held a small firearm to his head. The other behind the two pointed a rifle at Riot.
“Drop your weapon, or we’ll blow his brains into the next galaxy, human scum,” ordered the Karnayer directly behind Wang. “Do it—now.”
85
That was disappointing,” Riot said as she took a breath and aimed down her sights. “I thought I was just going to be able to shoot whatever came at me through the door. You know, kinda like when you get the mail, all excited something interesting might be coming, but it’s just bills?”
“What are you talking about?” the other Karnayer said through this helmet, as he pointed his weapon at Riot,. His voice sounded stressed, like he sensed some kind of trap. “Lower your weapon, or you both die—now!”
“I’m going to have to take a hard pass on that,” Riot said.
BOOM! BOOM!
The Karnayers behind Wang didn’t even have a chance. They fell at the same time as Riot’s two shots hit them, a millisecond apart. Her aim was perfect. Twin smoking holes had blossomed from the center of their helmets.
“You could have shot me!” Wang jumped away from the dead Karnayers, feeling his body with his hands for the signs of an entry wound.
“I was willing to take that chance,” Riot said, handing her weapon to Wang as she unslung her warhammer from her back. “Besides, you would have healed.”
“Not if you shot me in the face!” Wang yelled again, unable to hear how loud he really was.
“It would have been an improvement on your features.” Riot grinned under her helmet and moved past. “Want to take a look at the halls?”
Evonne stood over a pile of broken Karnayer bodies. Her clothing was ripped to shreds, circuitry showing under her skin in a handful of different places. Half of the skin on her face had been ripped away, along with her right hand. Underneath the fake skin, a metal skeleton reminded Riot of a machine. A series of sparks fell down Evonne’s back.
“The Karnayers are gone, but I seem to have taken damage from the grenade—seem to have taken damage from the grenade.” Evonne’s Australian accent failed for a moment as she spoke so slowly it sounded like a song on half speed.
“Riot, are you okay back there?” Vet asked over the comms. “We heard an explosion.”
“We’re still here,” Riot said as Evonne twitched and Wang pounded his right ear with his glove. “We’re okay-ish.”
“Good,” Vet said in a strained tone that worried Riot. “Because we’ve got trouble. We need you on the bridge, ASAP.”
“En route,” Riot said over her comms. She motioned for Evonne and Wang to follow. “Let’s go. Back to the bridge.”
“Why … why do you keep looking at me like that—like that?” Evonne asked Riot as she gave her a last glance before jogging back to the bridge.
“Because you’re doing that whole not blinking thing again,” Riot said, shaking her head. “And half the skin is peeled back from your face.”
Riot jogged back to the bridge with the AI and Wang in tow. She remembered how much Evonne had held true to her promise and took the brunt of the blow from the Karnayers, and a little voice inside her head that had somehow begun to grow in volume since she started the whole space travel thing told her she should say something nice.
“But you worked well as a shield,” Riot said, replacing her warhammer on her back and taking off her helmet. “I mean, for a robot, you did well.”
“Thank yo—thank you,” Evonne said, and if robots could sound happy, she did. “I’ll try to blink—I’ll try to blink more in the future.”
The energy from the epinephrine pen had died in Riot’s body now and the familiar fatigue had crept back in. It seemed Wang’s little miracle drugs shone bright, but not for very long.
“Why does everyone need freaking words of affirmation around here?” Riot said as she stepped next to the closed doors of the bridge. “Evonne, open the doors.”
Evonne stepped forward, still sparking from the wounds she had taken in the fight. The doors to the bridge opened a moment later.
“I am not a victim!” Doctor Miller opened fire with the Vulcan. A wild spray of red rounds careened all around Riot, Evonne, and Wang as the doctor let out a mild war cry that sounded more like a whimper.
A second later, Doctor Miller released her hold in the trigger and dropped her weapon.
“Oh, my gosh.” Doctor Miller tore off her helmet and ran to see if she had hit anyone. “I’m so sorry, Riot, I’m so sorry! I thought you were the Karnayers coming for Rizzo and Vet. I wasn’t going to let them get taken alive.”
“You were going to kill them?” Wang said from his spot behind Evonne, where he had taken cover when Doctor Miller opened fire. “That’s what that saying means.”
“Oh, gosh no.” Doctor Miller looked even more panicked than before. “I just mean I was going to protect them and not let them get shot in the back.”
Riot was about to lay into the doctor, when a shout from Vet drew her attention.
“I didn’t want to worry you before, but shields are at ten percent.” Vet gritted his teeth at his control panel. “Another shot, and we’ll be wide open.”
Rizzo still maneuvered the craft like the expert pilot he was, but it was clear the extra weight of the four Scarab ships in their hull were weighing them down. Riot looked out at the screen to see hundreds of the small Karnayer ships still permeating the night sky. A distant glow of the two rising Hoydren suns told her how close to morning they were.
“Can you send any more power to the shields?” Riot placed her warhammer by her command chair and took a seat. “How is the Titan faring?”
“I’ve sent everything I can to the shields already,” Vet said, grimacing as he looked over to Riot. “The Titan is in as bad a spot as we’re in.”
The Valkyrie shook again. This time, sparks flew through the air and a small fire broke out behind Vet’s command console.
“Shields are gone!” Vet yelled as he looked to the others still standing. “Strap in! The next hit is going to take us down.”
Wang, Doctor Miller, and even a sparking Evonne, obeyed Vet’s words and raced to find their seats.
Riot did the same, bringing the harness down on either side of her shoulders to a clasp that came up from the bottom of the seat.
BOOM!
The Valkyrie shuddered like a whale in its death throes.
We’re going down, Rizzo said over the main screen.
Riot’s stomach clenched, then raced up to her chest as the thruster in the Valkyrie died and the ship began to glide instead of fly.
“Rawww!” Vet still made use of the guns as he lit the night sky with red blaster fire. Riot saw him take out at least two more Scarabs as they went down toward the alien planet’s jungle floor.
Why didn’t you just go out on a date with him? Riot was surprised to have her final thoughts be on Ketrick. Because you’re still damaged goods from the past. Because you don’t want to open up again. Well, now you’ll never get to open up to anyone. Hope you’re happy.
The weightless feeling hit Riot again and snapped her out of her own train of thought while the Valkyrie continued to lose altitude. Rizzo, being the ace pilot he was, maneuvered the ship away from the city and toward the jungle to the south.
The ship scraped the tops of the jungle trees, its lush green-and-purple foliage just visible in the morning light. Riot braced herself for the impact, but her mind was now on her crew.
“Heads between your knees!” Riot yelled as the ship lost more altitude and began battering down the trees and shrubbery on the jungle floor.
The Valkyrie broke itself on the many thick trunks of the Hoydren jungle. It slammed into the ground so hard, Riot thought for sure she’d have cracked teeth. The Valkyrie continued to slide along the Hoydren jungle floor until it finally came to a stop at the base of a giant rock.
Riot blinked past the smoke coming from a dozen different fires on the bridge. Wires had been torn loose from overhead compartments, and sparking electric panels and fuses blown by the impact were hazards all on their own, but none of that mattered to Riot. Her crew needed to come first.
Smoke burned Riot’s lungs as she unhooked herself from her seat. She was lucky the Valkyrie had remained in one piece. Her view outside the front window was nothing more than the jungle interior.
Riot fell to the ground once her harness had been unlocked, still coughing from the smoke. A burning, itching feeling clawed at her eyes as she looked for her helmet. Somewhere in the event of the crash, it had been lost.
Out of the white-and-grey smoke, Rizzo came with an unconscious Doctor Miller in his arms. His eyes were watering, but he looked like he was in one piece.
Riot fought to her feet, keeping her head low to avoid as much of the smoke as possible. “Vet, Wang!”
“I’m here, I’m here!” Vet came in from her right. A metal piece of paneling stuck out of the right side of his body like an open panel showing off the inside of his guts. “I know, I know I have to take this thing out, but let’s get out of here first.”
The smoke was so thick, Riot couldn’t see far enough to her left to make out Wang and Evonne. She was almost on top of them when she found them. Evonne had taken a protective stance over Wang, shielding him from any further debris. Apart from a line of dark red blood that came from the left side of Wang’s head, he didn’t look any the worse for wear.
“On your feet.” Riot coughed into her hand as she led her group from the bridge. “Let’s get out of here before we all die of smoke inhalation.”
Riot grabbed Wang around his shoulders to help him out of his seat and through the Valkyrie to the cargo bay door.
“Evonne, are we in any danger of the ship exploding?” Riot asked as she blinked through the hot tears brought on by the smoke.
“No. The ship has undergone major damage; however, we are not in immediate threat of a—we are not in immediate threat of an explosion,” Evonne said as she walked with the others, impervious to the smoke. “I’ve also opened the exterior hatches and cargo bay doors to help with the smoke. I’m trying to get the emergency systems back online to quell the fires. They were diverted to the shields previously.”
“Good,” Riot said as her group reached the cargo bay doors. “I’m
going to need you to gather our helmets and weapons while we get to the exit.”
“Of course—of course.” Evonne stopped mid-stride, looking at Riot while she blinked so many times, it looked like she had something in her eye. “I am so glad I have a body now so I can help you—help you better.”
“Yeah, okay,” Riot said as she and the rest of her unit made it to the jungle outside of the smoke-filled interior of the ship.
Riot let Wang walk under the power of his own two feet. He went to go look at Doctor Miller, who was still unconscious as Rizzo set her down to the right of the ship.
Riot spat the taste of charcoal and smoke from her mouth as her eyes took in the devastation. A deep landing trek had been punctured into the ground of the Hoydren jungle. As far as her eye could see, a lane of dark brown soil had been churned up by the downed Valkyrie. Foliage to either side of the lane burned as tiny flames tried to consume the dense brush of the jungle.
A scream lit up the sky as a unit of Scarab ships circled Riot and her crew. Four of the dark, pointed crafts hovered around her and her defenseless men.
Before Riot could decide whether to try to run back inside the burning Valkyrie, or to just stand there and give them the single finger salute, a roar filled the sky.
86
Riot already knew what the sound was, and despite her situation, a smile cracked her lips. The four Scarab ships hovering above her shifted in the sky as their pilots moved to meet this new threat.
Riot lifted her right hand to shield her eyes from the bright morning suns still cresting the horizon. Dozens of tiny dots formed in front of the bright light as flying beasts took shape.
“Riot, come in, Riot!” Colonel Harlan’s voice cracked over the comms. By the sound of his voice, Riot knew he had been trying to raise her for a while. “What is your status? We saw your ship go down.”
Thanks to the nanites embedded into Riot, she had access to communications, even without her helmet.
“I’m here,” Riot said, not taking her eyes off the scene of a dozen dragons joining the fight. A sense of joy and pride filled her heart. She couldn’t make them out yet, but she knew Ketrick and Vikta were leading the charge.
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 43