Recruit by Jonathan Brazee (the best ebook reader for android .txt) 📕

Unlike modern Federation personnel armor, which tended to be flexible plates that were attached to or inserted inside of clothing, all three pirates had outer shells.  That didn’t mean the armor was not effective.  All that meant was that they probably acquired it outside of Federation space.

The pirate to their left had what looked to be newer armor, but either he didn’t have a helmet or hadn’t a chance to put it on before the four Marines burst the space.  His clean-shaven face and perfectly-groomed blonde hair gave him a look far different from that of the first pirate, an indication that this group was multi-cultural. 

As Ryck and Wan arrived, the man spun first toward them, then back toward Sparta and T-Rex, who had their weapons trained on him.

“Stop, or . . .” he began.

“Or” what, the Marines could guess, but never know for sure as Wan calmly put a couple of darts over the shoulder of the captive passenger and into the pirate’s handsome blonde head.  The tiny turn the pirate made back to Sparta and T-Rex had given the lance corporal all the opening he needed.

The captive stood still as the pirate fell back.  He slowly turned around, hands still tied behind him, and stared at the dead man for a moment before taking a step forward and leveling a powerful kick at the corpse’s head.

“There’s three more,” he said matter-of-factly to the four Marines.

“Wan, did you get anyone else?” Sparta asked.

“One down,” Wan replied.

“Where are the others?” Sparta asked, his external speakers broadcasting his voice into the compartment so any captives could hear.

It was only then that Ryck really noticed the other four bodies on the deck, all with their hands tied, all executed.  He hadn’t been able to see them from the front hatch, and his attention had been on the pirate when they’d gotten up there.

“Over here!” a voice shouted out from within the deployed bunks to their left.  “There’s one of them here!”

A heavy report sounded out from that direction, followed by a cry of pain and sounds of somebody crashing around the bunks.  At the same time, a finger of lightning reached out from between the bunks to their right, splashing across Sparta’s EVA suit.

Someone had a plasma weapon over there, but this was a case where the EVA suits had an advantage over skins and bones.  All the plasma had to do was to touch open skin, and it would essentially short-circuit the body’s nervous system.  It acted like it had a life of its own when it stuck, seeking out the ground through a living body.  It could be devastating to Marines in just their standard combat armor.  To an EVA suit, though, it had no effect. 

The crewman they’d just saved dropped to the ground, whether kissed by the plasma or not, Ryck couldn’t take the time to check as he and Wan instinctively spun toward the sounds on the other side of the space.  They split on each side of a line of bunks, then sprinted forward, trusting the other two Marines to take out the plasma pirate.

The berthing space was not really that big.  Any hangar was much larger.  But with the bunks deployed and blocking the view, it seemed pretty vast.  Ryck tried to keep abreast with Wan, glancing through the bunks to keep even with him.  Blood covered the deck about eight or nine bunks down from the common area.  Ryck took a quick glance at the bottom bunk where a man had dragged himself.  A huge chunk of the man’s side was simply gone.  The man was struggling to breathe, and Ryck knew he needed medical care ASAP.

“One friendly WIA, needs immediate care,” he hit on the medical circuit, knowing the AI would add Ryck’s position. 

That was about all he could do for the man at the moment.  A sudden boom sounded, and the rack between Wan and him simply exploded.  The concussion hit Ryck, actually pushing him aside a few centimeters. 

“What the hump was that?” Wan asked on Ryck’s direct circuit as both Marines hit the deck.

Even though the EVA suits were not particularly bulky, they were not made for crawling around under gravity.  The helmet’s design made looking forward while prone difficult, and the power packs, thrusters, and oxi cells added bulk to the back.  Ryck wished they had stopped to get out of the EVA suits and into skins and bones after the breach, but with the time crunch, EVA suits in the attack it was.

Another blast sounded over them, raining bits of bunks down like dirty snow.  Whatever the pirate had for a weapon, it was pretty big.

“He’s heading for the front hatch!” Wan said.  “We’ve got to stop him before he gets there.”

“Corporal Pallas, can you cut this guy off?  He’s trying to get out the front,” Wan passed on the team circuit.

“Negative, Wan.  We’ve got our hands full here.  You two take him,” Sparta responded.

Wan glanced over at Ryck across the bottom rack that separated the two of them and said, “You heard the man.  I don’t know what the hump that bastard’s got with him for sure, but I think it’s like our bunker buster.  Whatever it is, we can’t let him get away.  I want you to flank him.  On three, you scoot through these racks, keeping your ass low.  I’m gonna get up, hit the bulkhead up ahead, and rush the arsehole.  Iffen you get a shot, take him out while he’s glommed onto me.”

“Oh, man!  You sure?  Maybe we both need to rush him, so he has to choose a target, you know, confuse him until we light him up,” Ryck said.

“Nah, this is the way it’s gonna be.  Iffen what he has is a bunker buster, you know the range is limited, and it’s about as accurate as throwing rotten apples.  And you know the Wan man.  I can move it.   I’ll be juking and jiving, so no way he hits me.  You just be sure to nail him.”

He slowly reached up and hit the helmet release.  There was a hiss as the slight overpressure inside the suit puffed out into the ship.  He lifted the helmet up and placed it on the deck, detaching the comms buds and sliding them into his ears.  This was against policy.  If the ship suffered a catastrophic breach, Wan would have only seconds to find a pressurized space.

He shrugged at Ryck’s questioning look and whispered, “Gotta be loose and light, you know.”

He held up his hand, then counted down three, two, one with his fingers.  On one, he stood up and rushed forward to the compartment bulkhead, five more bunk-lengths ahead.  At the same time, Ryck turned to dive over the bottom rack next to him.  After clearing it, he gathered his feet to dive over the next one.  He barely noticed another body as he passed it.  At least the guy hadn’t died like a sheep at the slaughter.  He’d tried to get away. 

Just as he cleared the third rack, a huge boom sounded, and flames shot down the passage along the bulkhead.  That pinpointed the pirate for him.  He was just on the other side of the next line of bunks.  Ryck slid over the next bunk and looked up. 

The pirate standing in front of him was not in some hodgepodge body armor.  He was fully protected with black, interlaced, external plates that looked like ceramosteel.  Ryck didn’t recognize the actual make, but it was doubtful that is was Federated or Brotherhood-made. 

There were two main trains of thought on body armor.  The Federation went with flexible inserts that reacted within a split instant upon impact, hardening to stop a projectile before reverting back to its original state.  The armor was far more comfortable than plate armor and was better at stopping solid projectiles.  Plate armor, on the other hand, relied on sandwiched materials that were strong enough to withstand modern projectiles.  The PICS relied on plate armor, but they were big enough and powerful enough to carry pretty heavy plates.  It was easier to make plate armor, and it didn’t have to be custom made for each soldier.  It was actually better for protection against some energy weapons.  However, it was bulky and heavy, and even with exoskeletal assists, it limited mobility.

The armor was the first thing Ryck noticed.  The second thing was the stubby tube-like weapon the pirate was holding.  Wan was probably correct in that it was the pirate version of the Marine’s M-77 Bunker Buster.  The bunker-buster was designed to break or penetrate hardened targets.  It sent a focused energy “shell-less shell” that would shoot forward and either re-focus that energy into a shaped charge or simply explode in a blast ring.  Due to the physics of energy dissipation, it had a very limited range of about 5 meters with a huge drop off in effectiveness beyond that.  Within 5 meters, not much could withstand its power.  It could even take out a Davis from point-blank range.  Due to its power, it was almost never used aboard a ship.  It could easily rupture the ship’s skin, opening it up to vacuum.

Evidently, the pirate was not too concerned about that.  They were only a deck away from the skin of the ship, but that was far enough, along with whatever was between the weapon and the ship’s skin, to keep the pirate from creating the rupture.

Bunker busters were not made for man-to-man fighting.  The weapon was not very accurate, and there was a considerable re-charge time.  The Marine Corps M-77, for example, carried six charges in a load, and each one took approximately 12 seconds to cycle and recharge.  That was fine when taking on a hardened target, but not so fine when the shooter’s target was men who were attacking him.

The pirate was looking down the passage alongside the bulkhead.  Even with the pirate in his armor, Ryck could see that he was focused on something, yet he was not scrambling to either move or fire again.  The only conclusion Ryck had was that Wan had been hit.

Ryck didn’t know how much