War Criminals by Gavin Smith (ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📕

attached another plasma thermite frame charge to the inner airlock door while Bean watched his back.

We very nearly look like soldiers, Miska thought, as the prison shuttle docked with the aerostat. Strobing light from the laser torch mounted on the ceiling over the shuttle’s airlock entrance bathed the corridor in red light as it cut through the aerostat’s external airlock door. Nyukuti moved down the corridor and kicked in the glowing rectangle of metal. The resounding clang echoed through the prison shuttle. Through the feed from Nyukuti’s helm-cam, Miska could see him attaching a hydraulic ram to the aerostat’s internal airlock door before returning to his position on the other side of the corridor with Kaczmar. The strobing light started again. Nyukuti nodded at Miska as he readied his grenade launcher, his own boarding shield leaning against the wall. He got down on one knee, using the corner of the corridor as cover.

Miska checked the lens feed from the Ultra. It was blank. She had expected no less. She was still going to have to discuss that with him.

Miska was gritting her teeth. She just wanted it to start. The time waiting for her action ‘hit’ seemed to stretch out in front of her and into eternity. Waiting for the laser cutter to do its thing was interminable.

Then came the clang of the hydraulic ram beating on the aerostat’s cut-through internal airlock. Nyukuti was already firing the grenade launcher. The first three-round burst of 30mm grenades was in the air before she heard the clang of the airlock hitting the aerostat’s deck. In Nyukuti’s hands the grenade launcher looked like a massively oversized carbine. He adjusted for the weapon’s recoil, fired another three-round burst, then another and finally a fourth burst, emptying the magazine. He ducked back behind the corner. The defenders hadn’t even started returning fire yet. All four of the Bastards turned away, closing their eyes, hands over their ears, mouths open. All the multi-spectrum stun grenades went off in quick succession. Even with her artificial eyes polarising, the bright phosphorescent glare managed to creep through her eyelids. Her audio filters had shut down her hearing. She was effectively deaf for the time being though she would still be able to receive direct comms. The stun grenades were individually designed to overwhelm protections like audio dampeners, polarising goggles and artificial eyes. Nyukuti had fired twelve of them. It must have been hell for the defenders in the aerostat.

A few moments after the final explosion she opened her eyes and looked at Gunhir. He signalled for them to move down the corridor. Miska nodded and readied the boarding shield. She held it in her right arm. The medgel covering her hand allowed her to grip it just enough. She had the SIG Sauer GP-992 in her left. She could shoot with her left but she wasn’t nearly as good. She had the pistol resting in a small indent in the shield but she didn’t clip it in place. She was excited.

Gunhir touched her shoulder, the signal for her to move down the corridor. She did so. Nyukuti advanced next to her, his reloaded grenade launcher clipped to the boarding shield. As her hearing returned she heard the rapid popping noise as he fired fragmentation grenade after fragmentation grenade into the aerostat. The shockwaves from the detonations rocked them as they advanced. Through the holes cut in the airlock all Miska could see was the orange bloom of nearly constant explosions. They were getting shrapnel in the airlock corridor. She felt it hit the shield and the moulded ceramic armour plates strapped to her legs. The inertial armour hardened to absorb the impact. Her head was pulled back as a fragment bounced off her half-helm. She couldn’t make out any targets yet but she was mostly a shield carrier in this fight. Then she saw it. A silhouette wading through fire, force, and the storm of shrapnel like some impervious demigod. Miska knew she should be afraid. Instead, she found she was smiling.

‘Skel! Skel! Skel!’ she shouted out loud and over the comms. Skel was short for combat exoskeleton. Gunhir was firing immediately, putting plasma pellet after plasma pellet dead centre in very quick succession. Miska could feel the heat of the weapon as it was triggered in close proximity, felt her skin blister. Her hair was mostly tucked under her helmet but she was a little worried that it was about to catch fire. Miska’s hearing cut out again as Kaczmar fired his railgun. The front of the Honey Badger was lit up. Gunhir had emptied a very expensive magazine into the combat exoskeleton and was rapidly reloading the plasma weapon. The tungsten-cored penetrators fired by Kaczmar’s railgun were splashing into the Honey Badger’s now-molten chest at hypersonic velocity and travelling straight into the merc wearing the armour. The Honey Badger tottered and fell over.

‘Grenade!’ Nyukuti screamed. It had bounced off his shield and landed just in front of him. Miska didn’t have time for anything else. She just hunkered down behind the shield, aware of Gunhir doing the same behind her. The fragmentation grenade exploded. Miska’s own shield hit her in the face and she found herself lying on top of Gunhir some distance back down the corridor. Her head, arm and most of the front of her body felt like one big bruise. She managed to push herself on to her feet with Gunhir’s help. Somehow Kaczmar had stayed upright. It looked like Nyukuti had bounced off him. Miska noticed that Kaczmar had blood running from his ears. The fool hadn’t worn any ear protection and was probably deaf now. He was, however, still laying fire down the corridor.

‘Skel! Skel! Skel!’ Nyukuti shouted. Instinctively Miska raised her shield, her wired reflexes slowing the moment down as she sped up. It looked as though her shield was being eaten away. Then she felt the impact. The arm holding the shield felt broken. Then the impact picked her up