Truehearts & The Escape From Pirate Moon by Jake Macklem (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

“Think it’s a Shonda nest?” Ace asked. I hate spiders.

“It is a cave.” Cam started into the opening and Ace followed quickly behind. They traveled on an upward slant about five meters. The dryness in the cave seemed to wick the moisture from their skin and clothes. As the cave leveled out, Cam hugged the wall and shined the light in all directions as he walked. The misshapen tunnel was three meters across in the widest portions, sloping down as it continued on.

Ace tasted the stale air. “It smells funny in here.”

“Musty,” Cam whispered in agreement. “I don’t think anything has been through here in some time.”

“That would be nice.” Ace walked up next to him. “I’ll take point, you cover me?”

“Lead the way, Red.” Cam winked.

Pulling her metal spike, she advanced to the dip in the ground. The tunnel was on a steep grade, and the floor uneven, but using the wall for balance she continued deeper into the cave. Cam smoothly moved the light from left to right and back again, lighting her path as she went. She came to a corner and peeked around.

Beams of light streamed down from the ceiling, illuminating the open space. A warm feeling spread through her body as she saw the boxes and canisters neatly stacked. Tons of organized materials filled the colossal chamber. “Cowboy, I think I just lost my mind.”

Cam hurried forward and stepped around the corner, pointing his flashlight over the supplies. “Huh.”

“You see that?” Ace asked.

“Yep.” Cam concurred as she reached to his neck and pinched him. “What was that for?”

“Making sure you're not dreaming.” Ace walked deeper into the chamber, examining the crates and boxes.

“That’s not how that works.” Cam walked to the nearest pile and yanked off the tarp. “I got boxes here. They’re labeled in Sol. Tools. Tents. Purifier…” his voice trailed off as he continued to scan the labels. “These are colonizing supplies.”

“More here. Labeled in Gargin though. More there.” Ace saw it sitting on a crate, set up on its bi-fold legs. “A got a sniper rifle here!” She picked it up and pushed the lid off the crate. Boxes of ammo stacked in the bottom right corner. “And lots of ammo. Different types.” As Cam came to stand next to her, she was loading a second magazine.

Cam scanned the labels on the ammo boxes and picked one out. He opened it and grinned sheepishly at Ace. Ejecting the empty magazine from his rifle, he quickly began feeding rounds into it.

It was empty? Ace laughed more manically than she would have liked. “You didn’t have any bullets?”

“Used the last one on the chargin’ Tree-knocker,” Cam answered.

He’s crazy.

Fully armed, they swept the chamber, finding nothing other than the supplies. As they opened a box full of MREs and another with jugs of fresh water, Ace asked, “You think people came here to colonize? Maybe they were eaten. Or washed away.”

“No. I don’t think so.” Cam grabbed a random MRE and a jug and settled on some crates. “The company would have a record of that… even a failed attempt. This was a first-landing. Find out if it was worth spending the credits on the rock.”

Ace was digging through the box of meals. “I vote no.”

“Seconded.” Cam pulled the string on his meal box.

Ace lifted a meal from the crate, her face awash with reverent joy. “Brownie! Cosmic.” She also grabbed a jug of water and sat near Cam.

“So… who does all this stuff belong to?” Ace asked as she pulled the string to heat her dinner.

“I don’t know. It makes no sense at all.” Cam shoveled the food into his mouth.

Ace ate slower. It wasn’t in the intel, but the intel was shit. It can’t be far from the base. It would be perfect for them. If I’m right, we’re in danger—but we may also have a way off this moon. She finished her dinner wrestling with the decision. It went against everything she was ever trained to do as a STAR. But I shouldn’t be a STAR anymore. My time is up. And it’s not like they came looking for me. Ace stared at the brownie knowing she had to choose. “I think I might have an idea where it came from.” Shaw is a good man.

Cam stopped shoveling. “Yeah?”

Ace picked up the brownie, inhaling the delightful treat’s scent. I can trust him. “I came to this system with a sixty-person team, sent to investigate and shut down an increase in criminal activity and possible Sol insurrection. We were to infiltrate their base of operations, download their mainframe records, damage their infrastructure, and report our findings. They were shooting at us before we hit the ground. The mission was blown before it even started. Only six of us touched down.”

She took a bite, chewed, and swallowed.

“We stole some of their Warthog fighters and came under fire again as we were taking off; two more went down.” She paused, with a heavy sigh. “We cleared atmo but they had a shanking cruiser in orbit and two more of my team were killed. That just left me and Smith. We tried to use the gas planet—”

“Ophelia?” Cam asked.

Ace could not stop the shudder of emotion. That’s what Smith called the planet.

“Red, you don’t have—”

Ace wiped her face with the back of her hand and continued, “We tried to use Ophelia as cover for our escape, but they used a rail scatter gun on us. I think Smith got hit harder than I did. She went down and her ship exploded. The explosion sent out some sort of EMP and everything in my ‘hog went dead. I crashed here. The ship chasing us got pulled into Ophelia; must have been affected too.” Ace absently took a bite of