Stars Gods Wolves by Dan Kirshtein (best classic books .txt) 📕

watched the girl with tired eyes, and nearly drifted off to meditation before something woke him.

It was a pang, a sudden loss in his soul. The only way to describe it in Human terms was like juggling: the sensation of losing grip of something, and then finding it again in a different hand, except he didn’t have control of the hands. He felt Josie’s soul slip from one world to the next, quickly and quietly.

His roar began with grief, weak and low. It ended in anger, deep and needful. Ula bounced in surprise, as if she didn’t know his kind could roar. Still hunched in a sitting position, the Waykind’s eyes landed in the doorway and saw two of the Eighth making their way into the frame, rifles in arms. Had the Waykind not felt the death of his compatriot, he would not have viewed the automatons as hostile. They would have taken him by surprise. But the instant they stepped into view, Ox met them with ferocity. He barreled through the doorway and pounced upon them with a snarl.

He found it difficult to topple them, though he crushed one of their heads upon reaching them. The second one in his doorway managed to fire its rifle, catching Ox in the leg. He roared again before grappling the body of his defeated foe and beating the other one with it. A quick glance down the hallway revealed four more of the Eighth, two at each doorway of his crew.

The doctors and their assistant all died quickly and painlessly. Each laser-burst was carefully placed and executed accurately. Mitch was the last to die, and he only screamed for a moment.

Harper sat in a crouched position, biding the time with Gally until Martin’s return. Gally had made it very clear that she “didn’t give a fuck” about Martin, and was only waiting for Nitro and Boomer to give the signal. He was grateful for the downtime, as she certainly needed to cool off.

That time was cut short, however, by the Waykind’s original roar. When Harper heard Ox attacking the assailants, he leapt up. Instinctively, Harper grappled the door and pulled it shut. As he did, he met eyes with one of the Eighth in his doorway, and gave it a nervous and apologetic look. Gally sat up from the floor to see Harper waving his hand, urging her to get away from the doorway.

Being able to hear the ruckus going on in the hall, she did as he instructed. Just as she’d crawled into one of the bed slots, laser fire ripped through the door. The first bolt had just missed Harper, tearing a hole in the side of his environmental suit. He jumped to the side of the doorway as more beams of hot, red light pierced through. He drew his pistol from its holster and fired back through one of the holes. The move was panicked, blind. His actions indicated that he felt no control over the situation, and he was certain he would soon be dead.

And he would have been, had Ox not begun to draw the fire of the others. He had used one of the Eighth as a shield and blocked the oncoming laser fire with the body. It didn’t hold together long, but the Waykind did not need much time. He trounced the pair in front of the scientists’ rooms; an animalistic rage fueled him. He struggled, briefly, as he attempted to rip one of the rifles away from the assailants.

“Parasite!” Ox called. “Staff!” Ula came running out of the room and threw the staff to the Waykind. Only taking a moment to look behind him, Ox grappled the staff, and turned back to the Eighth. Well before he’d made the full turn back to face them, the rocky terrain below the steel structure rose up through the floor, ripping the attackers from Ox’s grip. With a roaring crunch, the two of the Eighth were crushed against the ceiling.

Harper used this time to open what was left of his door and discover the other two of the Eighth firing at the beast. He extended an arm and fired, point blank, into the back of the closest one’s head. It took two shots, but the Eighth fell. The second one began to turn, taking its eyes off Ox for a moment. It nearly fired, but Harper was already upon it, executing the automaton in a similar fashion to the first.

When the smoke cleared, Gally ran over to Ox, who was pretty badly shot up. Harper was still standing over his two fallen adversaries, still unable to believe he’d accomplished such a thing. Ula came out, the most visibly upset, and Ox looked at her first, trying his best to smile through the pain. “It’s alright, little one. You did well.” He winced, not being able to move much. He didn’t want to look, but the laser fire had burned away skin in nearly every spot he’d been shot: his right leg, his arm, his shoulder, and his chest. Though it didn’t burn clean through, there were blackened and bloodied holes, and the pain was excruciating.

With his mind and soul focused on the others to avoid the pain, Ox looked at Harper. “I felt Josie’s passing. I know not what happened to Martin. The others…” He groaned, giving up trying to stand on his own. Harper and Gally tried to help him remain standing. “We must contact them.” He leaned heavily on his staff.

“Can you walk?” Gally urged, grabbing a laser-rifle from one of the fallen Eighth and throwing one to Harper. The pilot’s eyes anxiously drifted toward the rifle, which didn’t need to be cocked or primed, it just hummed.

Ox nodded and spoke through gritted teeth. “It is not yet my time.” While he wouldn’t admit it, he dreaded walking with his wounds. “Pilot,” his head motioned to the other rooms. “The bag.”

Harper nodded and ran into the mercenary’s room. He grabbed the large bag with one