Pixie Hazard by Archibald Bradford (top young adult novels .txt) 📕

her before he could get another shot off with the plasma repeater.

But the damage was done.

“Medic!” She cried out unnecessarily.

Still covering Bryan, Donnie’s HUD flashed multiple warnings about Maria’s suit integrity and she burned with icy rage as she realized their luck might have finally run out.

With the armoured Junker’s death they had a brief reprieve, so she moved with purpose towards the center of the room.

“I am over this shit! Billy, you do your thing!” She ordered in a snarl; “Hooker! Get on my ass! We’re ending this!”

With deliberate movements she scooped up the plasma repeater before tossing her shotgun into Eva’s waiting hands.

“Copy.” The redhead said coldly.

Ignoring the laser fire and a fresh barrage of repeater rounds slamming against their armour they tilted their heads down and rushed straight towards the enemy like a pair of enraged bulls, multitudinous blasts of green plasma leading the way as they left the room.

Meanwhile Billy quickly cleared the corners and looked to Bryan huddled behind the console.

“Eyes back on the feeds Bryan! Maria needs you to pull it together!”

By the time she finished speaking she was kneeling at the fallen woman’s side.

Years of training and experience kept her breathing steady and her mind focused on triage and assessment as she linked her suit with the wounded marine’s to check her vitals.

“Not kidding Bryan. On your feet. I can’t cover the room and keep her alive at the same time.”

As if to show the truth behind her words she left Maria’s side for long enough to sweep the entryways again before scooping up the container of medical-grade nanites she’d stowed earlier.

Dazed from being shoved to the floor by the armoured captain during the heavy’s assault, Bryan found himself unable to do anything but what Billy told him to do as he stumbled to his feet and leaned on the damaged console.

“North is just... people moving on the floor.” His voice was faint as his addled brain replayed the sight of Maria going down over and over, he’d been staring right at her underneath Donnie arm when the deluge of plasma particles had hit home; “West is the same. East I-I can’t really see.”

He could see, but it was a nightmare of blood and gory body-parts left in the wake of the merciless counterattack.

“Donnie and Eva went that way. Just focus on the other two corridors for now.”

Distantly they could still hear the angry roar of the two plasma weapons being unleashed on the Junkers, that and the moans and cries of the wounded and dying coming from everywhere.

“West!” Bryan said suddenly.

Billy scooped up her rifle and with surgical precision took down the two guys trying to sneak up on them, then returned to working on Maria as if there had been no interruption.

As she got more and more information out of her suit’s medical scanner she let out a sigh.

“Oh honey, we are going to get our money’s worth out of these nanites today.”

She set to work.

Meanwhile, not far from the sole airlock leading into the station, a man in a red-sequined dress was bleeding out on the floor, the imposing figures of Donnie and Eva looming over him, panting inside their armour.

There were several glowing patches on Eva’s suit from the pulse-rifle of the last Junker she’d fragged, but the two of them were mostly unharmed.

Dead pirates were everywhere, as were the scorch marks left by the plasma weapons.

Blood dribbled over Commodore Rufus Fairchild’s ruby painted lips as he stared up at the pair of marines that had so brutally and effectively ended his reign.

He smiled at them dreamily through his mighty beard.

“My daddy always told me that it was going to be a woman that-”

Donnie blew his head off with the final charge from the plasma repeater before casting the oversized and overheating weapon to the ground.

“Oh come on!” Eva complained as she emptied a container of water on her helmet and shoulder to cool off the laser burns; “You weren’t even a little curious about the drag-queen’s back story?”

“No. Were you?”

The fiery woman shrugged as she surveyed the carnage around them, still aware of her surroundings despite their earlier recklessness.

“Yeah. I mean... a bit. He had such a pretty dress.”

With adrenaline still coursing through both of their bodies from the high of combat, the topic of conversation had turned to the absurd.

In reality both of them were using the banter to push their concern for Maria to the very bottom of their stomachs where all it could do was gnaw at them without distracting them from the task at hand.

“You got me there. Red definitely was a good colour for him.”

Eva made an impatient noise in her throat.

“Again with the colour.”

With the redhead’s armour plates cooled off, Donnie took her shotgun back as the other marine unslung her heavy repeater.

“Come on. We’re not done yet. They sealed the airlock so if there is anyone left on that dildo of a ship the Pixie will have to deal with them. You clear to the east, I’ll head west.”

Minutes later Eva and Donnie finished their sweep of the station, executing three more Junkers in various states of cowardice before the captain sounded the all clear and commed Davie to see what was happening with the enemy vessel.

Returning to the main room, that gnawing question in their bellies was about to get answered; with the shooting over and the battle won, how pyrrhic the victory would be depended now on Billy’s expertise.

The doctor had used her medical overrides through her suit’s link with Maria’s to turn the expensive piece of hardware into an expensive pile of scrap, removing multiple damaged segments of armour and casting them aside to get at the woman’s injuries.

Ashen faced and unconscious,