Broken Stars Read online

  “No,” I said. “I will go out and kick ass. While I do, you get emergency medical personnel up here to deal with survivors. Then point me at the next batch.”

  I didn’t wait for the ‘but’. I dashed around the corner and raised the rifle to my shoulder. Lorn called out behind me, but I didn’t respond as the first round left the muzzle of my rifle.

  Chapter 4

  My new weapon had zero recoil which made keeping it on target as easy as pie.

  My new legs worked far better than I expected and they propelled me forward faster than my original legs ever could. That was helpful, considering the distance I had to go. No one told me how big the ship was and now I was getting a feel for the scope of it. My targets had to be a good three hundred yards from the intersection Lorn waited at.

  Soldiers from outside began filing back one at a time, providing coving fire as they moved. I was glad they had some sense of good tactics.

  When I was within a hundred yards I started running into retreating soldiers and had to jump over them. Literally. My legs propelled me well over even the tallest of them, my head near touching the roof. I fucking loved my new legs!

  The problem with the troops advancing toward me was not being able to fire at the enemy. The chances of friendly fire were high. So I had to wait until they were clear, which didn’t take long at all.

  Green bolts flashed past me as I moved away from the defensive line. My speed let me dodge the attacks that came too close, although one bolt was close enough to giving me a fresh shave on the left side of my face. I slowed down a little to give myself a better reaction time.

  A trio of bolts came down the hall, cutting off all avenues to dodge. Without thinking I went up on the wall to the left and kicked off doing a flip that carried me over the blasts and to the right side of the hallway. I dropped to a knee and snapped off three shots. I was back up and running before the shots hit the shield.

  I had hoped that projectiles would pass through the barrier, but that notion was quickly put down. The small silver needles bounced off and clattered off the floor, walls, and ceiling. I gritted my teeth and pushed on, saving my ammo. I just had to get passed the barriers then it was on.

  A bolt hit my left chin and I stumbled. I recovered quick enough and a quick glance showed me the damage was minimal. A dark hole an inch in diameter marred the new leg, but I was still going with no signs of slowing. I imagined another shot in the same spot would probably do some serious damage.

  Leaping up, I flipped upside down then kicked off the four-meter-high ceiling, rocketing toward my first target. My new robot arm wrapped around his head and I jammed the muzzle of the rifle against his helmet. Two shots left the barrel before I hit the ground in a roll.

  I sprung up and kicked the next guy in the chest as he was bringing up a bar to set his own barrier. I spun and saw the holes in the first guy’s head as well as brains and orange goo all over the floor.

  All the gory proof I needed to know that my weapon had punched through their armor and ended their life. Good to know.

  It turns out, I had some hard lessons to learn about combat in the high-tech space era. The next combatant in line let his weapon drop and it was sucked to his chest plate. A baton snapped out from one forearm and a blade snapped out from the other. The baton began to snap and hiss, letting me know not to let that touch me. Not letting the blade touch me was a no brainer.

  The blade swung for my head and I blocked it with my rifle. It was followed by the baton coming at me from an underhanded swing. I jumped back and winced as the weapon grazed my side, giving me a tingle. “Motherfucker,” I grumbled.

  The soldier’s response was to swing again with both weapons from left to right, then back to the left. I backpedaled to keep from being stung by the baton or cut. I dodged back from thrusts and parried slashes.

  “Fuck this.” I blocked a strike from the blade with my weapon, then pushed back. To my surprise, the guy fell back, landed on his ass and slipped into the next guy, knocking him over.

  My rifle came to my shoulder and four shots, two to each guy’s head, ended them both. I moved to the next guy. He threw down his rifle and put his hands up. Even in space the whipped knew how to surrender.

  I jumped forward and kicked him in the gut. When he doubled over, I threw him to the ground. Troops wearing my colors rushed and jumped on the guys slapping restraints on him.

  One gestured to the hole and the guys at our feet, but spoke in a language I could not decipher nor had I heard it before. I looked at him like he had two heads and shrugged.

  “He says that is all that makes up a squad of death knights,” Senator Lorn said. “ He also thinks you should activate your armor instead of letting it lay dormant on you chest.” She stepped over a black-clad corpse and pressed herself against me. “That was amazing,” she whispered.

  “What is this shit about activating my armor?” I asked, annoyed.

  “Oh, right. Sorry.” She flashed me a smile that said more about her offering an apology then her words. “I was so caught up in the moment I forget to tell you about that. Then you were running and ignoring me when I tried telling you.”

  “I suppose I can forgive that since it was partly my fault. How do I turn this thing on?” I rapped against the piece on my chest.

  “Everything can be accessed through your interface. Except me. If you want to …” She glanced down at my crotch. “Interface with me, just ask.” She purred.

  “Now is not the time,” I said. I took her chin in my hand and raised her head so I could look in her eyes. “You better believe that we are going to come back to this conversation once I’m done stomping a mud hole in these fucks.” While I acknowledge that I become an asshole in battle, it didn’t make me any less of a ladies man. When I kissed her, I found she tasted sweet and I hungered for her. But I had work to do so I broke the kiss.

  “I need to finish up,” I said.

  “I’ll show you where to go next,” she said breathlessly. While Bridget was fit, she wasn’t in fighting shape. Neither was I, but the additions to my body seemed to compensate. I didn’t think her breathlessness was because of trying to keep up with me, though.

  “No. Go to the bridge and coordinate my movements from there. I will be far more effective if I’m not worried about you.”

  “But …”

  “Please, do this for me?” I asked in all sincerity. The woman would be a distraction I couldn’t afford and I hoped she understood.

  “Okay,” Bridget nodded. “I’ll send you a map with the next incursion point. Please be careful.”

  I laughed. “You didn’t bring me here to be careful, Bridget. I’m here to kickass and chew bubblegum, and there is no bubblegum in space,” I replied with a smirk well aware that she would get the reference.

  “Funny,” Bridget said. “I’ll see you once this is done. Get that armor activated and hurry up.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I replied. I enjoyed the view as Bridget’s rear end swayed back and forth while she walked away. Once she was gone, I brought my arm up and activated my interface.

  There was now a couple of extra circles, one containing a generic rifle symbol and another with a tactical vest. I selected the vest

  Would you like to activate your MK3 body armor?

  I selected ‘yes’, and watched as black liquid streamed out of the chest piece and wrapped around my body. In just a few seconds, I was covered from head-to-toe in the black goo. Then plates formed over my vital spots and the goo solidified to the look and feel of a mesh fabric. I checked my interface once more.

  MK3 armor active.

  Upgrade

  Customize

  The options available intrigued me, but I had a job to do. I changed the view to the map and saw that Bridget already had the route marked for me. I sprinted down the hall away from the troops cleaning up the aftermath of my battle. The map led me to the far side of the ship, which turned out to be a quarter mile away. The best part was how fast
I ran without having to slow or stop. I moved like a cheetah, no bullshit.

  In just one minute and twelve seconds, I reached the hatch on my map. I spun the wheel and entered the ladder way. Down two floors I went, exited the ladder way, and entered a warzone.

  Death Knights and Alliance soldiers fought hand to hand and sword to sword. As I scanned and assessed the situation I saw a line of Alliance soldiers with rifles pointed in our direction but no one fired. Once more I was glad to see their training was adequate enough to keep them from killing each other.

  A Death Knight bumped into me as it fought off two soldiers very effectively. I grabbed it’s blade arm as it went to parry a sword strike. It’s arm was stopped cold in my grip and a sword bit deep into his chest. The second soldier added his blade and the knight fell.

  I ran at another group fighting and yanked a soldier away just in time. A blade swished through the air where the man had just been. I spun him around and used the momentum to kick the Death Knight that almost killed him. With that one gone, three more remained. The next one in line was surrounded by Alliance soldiers who were holding their own. As great as that was, it wouldn’t do.

  I ran up the wall two steps and kicked off. Another flip brought me over the Knight with my feet straight up and the muzzle of my weapon just over his head. Before I moved out of range I managed to fire off three point blank rounds into his skull. The knight dropped like a stone. That left two.

  Alliance troops in the line opened fire and dropped a knight that moved far enough away to not be a threat. He danced a pretty jig until his brain was no longer capable of sending signals to his legs. That left one.

  The remaining knight turned away from the Alliance troops and faced me. I waved off the troopers and relished the thought of some one on one action. Then I signaled the Death Knight Bruce Lee style with my left hand. “Bring it, bitch.”

  This Death Knight snapped out two blades from the armor on his arms then both blades started to glow a bright orange. It didn’t take a brain child to know not to get hit with those.

  The Death Knight swiped down with an overhead blow which I side stepped. His other arm came down and I jumped back. The heat coming off those blades was intense and it distorted the air around them like heat off asphalt in the middle of summer. A horizontal slash brought the blades to within a couple of inches of my face. Sweat beaded on my brow and trickled down from the heat.

  “I would love to play with you, but you are way too dangerous,” I said.

  The Death Knight let out the first sound I heard from any of them in the form of a very feminine scream. He, or she, charged at me. I dropped below her outstretched blades, grabbed the front of her armor and planted my foot on her stomach. As I dropped and rolled, I kicked out, sending her flying. I really hoped it was a her, or he really needed to go find out who stole his balls.

  Performing a flawless kick-flip I went from laying on my back to standing on my feet in time to watch her finish her flip and land on her feet. She spun, taking the head off an Alliance trooper as she did. The wound cauterized so the fountain of blood which should have accompanied a decapitation was absent. The Death Knight crouched low and stalked toward me.

  I grabbed my rifle from my gear and sent a few dozen rounds at her. The burning blades came up and crossed in front of her. Rounds bounced off armor, were turned to slag and splashed harmlessly against armor, or in one case, penetrated armor. I let the weapon fall and rushed her. The rifle snapped back to my armor by whatever force was used to hold it there.

  A few feet from the knight I dropped to a slide. Her blades came down and sunk into the deck right in my path. A small grin crossed my face as I slammed my mechanical arm into the deck and pushed up with my feet. I flew up higher than I thought I would and my back slammed against the ceiling. I fell straight down onto the knight pushing her down and her blades farther in the deck.

  My momentum carried me off of the knight and into a tumble which ended at the wall. Nice of the wall to stop me.

  I rose quickly, expecting the knight to be ready for more foreplay. She was hunched over and trying to pull her blades free. I rushed to her and sent a roundhouse kick to her dome. Then said dome tore free from her shoulders and spun through the air like a foot ball.

  “And there is the fountain of blood,” I said.

  Chapter 5

  With another group still out there I had no time to hang out with my new alliance buddies. I checked my map and found that there was already a path to the next incursion as well as a note from Bridget.

  Activate the MK3’s helmet so I can talk with you.

  I pulled up the controls for the armor and saw no such control. My display beeped and a blinking icon on the bottom left grabbed my attention. I clicked on it and another message popped up.

  There is a button on the left side of your collar. Sorry. :)

  I felt for the button as I took the next turn to fast. I skidded to the right running into the wall and using it to get back in control of my run. The neck of my armor liquidated and ran up over my face and head blinding me for a moment. Then my vision returned with a partial grid of blue lines taking up the outsides of my vision. Unknown symbols, I took to be language of some sort, scrolled by on the left.

  “Can you hear me, Tom?” Bridget said into my ear.

  “I read you five by five, how me over?” I felt a little dumb talking to her as if she were on a Marine Corps radio but habits being hard to break and all that.

  Bridget chuckled. “Ten four, and roger dodger. I copy your traffic, Big Daddy.” She laughed some more.

  “Har, har,” I said. “Give me a sitrep … er … how are things looking at the last incursion point?” I asked.

  “Not good, Tom.” The mirth was gone from her voice now, it was time to get to business.

  “What do I have to look forward too?”

  “The Alliance troopers are all dead. We have Death Knights in multiple locations. Two groups are heading to various places and we can’t get troops to intercept them. Tom, we need you to deal with the three headed to the engine room. If they kill power we are all dead. Can you do that?” She asked me with more than a little concern in her tone.

  “Just point me to my target. I’ll take care of the rest,” I replied.

  My map sprang back to the front of the display and a new route appeared. I skidded to a stop and backtracked to a hatch with a ladder way leading down. I once saw a show about sailors in a world war two vessel and these guys would get around the ship quickly by pressing their hands and feet against the sides of the ladders and sliding down. I always thought it was ridiculous because they didn’t have on gloves and were sure to tear up their hands, but I’m a ground pounder and not a squid so what did I know. Point is, when I opened the hatch and saw the ladder the idea came to me. I pressed in on the ladder with my hands and feet ready to slide down. The sides of the ladder crumpled in and I went nowhere.

  “One more time, Jarhead,” I said to myself.

  I climbed down a couple rungs then placed my hands on the outside of the ladder. Making sure to not squeeze much I put my feet on the outsides and away I went. Deck after deck went by in a blur. My map beeped at me and I squeezed stopping on a dime and destroying the ladder in the process.

  I pulled my armor clad hands from the mangled metal and shrugged. You win some and you lose some. Life goes on.

  I opened the hatch and peeked out. Huge machines like nothing I had ever seen took up the bulk of the huge space. Aside from a low buzzing there was almost no sound coming from them. The place reeked of oil though.

  “The engineers are helping a couple of soldiers hold off the Knights, but they won’t last long,” Bridget told me.

  “I copy. In route to targets.” A giggle came through the radio as I ran along the metal catwalk.

  The sounds of blasters and metal ricochets found me before I found the fight. Screams mingled with the cacophony so I picked up the pace. I came to a gap in the machines and the catw
alk split into a T. A trooper backing away from the fight ran into me tripping us both. We fell in a tangled heap and as we helped each other up another Alliance troops was thrown into the guy that tripped me. Both fell over the railing screaming.

  I dashed forward trying to grab them but I was too late. I watched helplessly as they plummeted into darkness. A second latter there were two thumps and the screaming stopped.

  ***

  The Humvee rolled along at a decent clip but as the passenger I didn’t pay it much attention. The convoy traveled through territory we controlled so I dozed off and daydreamed when I was awake.

  Mostly my mind went back to Harley. She sent me a letter like always that smelled like honey and melon. That one was different though. And as I carried the folded slip of paper in my pocket with one sentence written in blue ink I felt the weight of it dragging me down.

  I lost the baby, Tom.

  We hadn’t known the sex yet as it was still early in the pregnancy when I left. Hell, she didn’t know she was pregnant until I was already in the sandbox.

  When I read it I made the mistake of holding on. I held fast to the joy I felt when she told me over the phone on my weekly call home.

  “I’m late, Tom.” That was the first thing Harley said when she got on the phone.

  “Wait, are you saying you’re pregnant?” I asked.

  “Yup.”

  I whooped and hollered so loud the other Marines in the phone center, which was just a large tent with plywood booths and simple tan phones, shouted at me.

  “I love you!” I declared to a giggling Harley.

  I found out what happens to joy when you hold on tight during the pain. It becomes tainted. The memory of me celebrating the birth of a family caused as much pain as the first time I read those words.