Pixie Hazard, Archibald Bradford [100 best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

suddenly, with Eniella’s words coming just as the cat finished speaking.

“Skipper, Sledge is on the line, says Kyle’s got something.”

Bunny leaned forwards.

“Whoa! That was crazy! I just finished telling you that we weren’t going to find-”

The captain held up her hand to silence her.

“Bunny, cut the chatter for a sec sweety. Mendez, can you give me a piggyback and link our coms?”

“Nah, relays are for shit down here, too much interference, I have their coordinates though. They don’t know what they have yet. You and Bunny girl are pretty close if you want me to redirect you?”

“Hey! Cat-girl! I’m a cat-girl, my name is Bunny!” The girl in question said in exasperation.

Donnie grit her teeth at the inane chatter, but continued.

“Send the co-ordinates to my HUD, and let the others know what’s up.”

“There’s no such thing as a bunny-girl, that’s stupid!”

“You got it Sk-” Eniella suddenly broke off, though Donnie could still hear the empty crackle of the open line even over Bunny’s protests.

In the distance she suddenly heard the faint sound of thunder and the all-too-familiar popping of Maria’s charged-projectile heavy repeater going off.

Immediately afterwards the FCO was back on with her, her urgent voice loud enough to crackle with static.

“Contact! Maria is reporting contact! You need to book it to heading two-two five! She is engaged, I repeat she is taking fire!”

Donnie reflexively shouldered her weapon and crouched lower as she scanned the horizon in the direction Eniella indicated.

Without turning she sharply gave her companion her marching orders.

“Bunny! You head back to the ship, you hear me? Straight back! And stay off coms unless it’s an emergency!” The frightened cat nodded earnestly and bolted, sprinting through the debris recklessly while Donnie likewise moved towards the coordinates now flashing on her HUD; “Eniella! You know what we’re up against?”

“Negative ma’am, Sledge is too busy. Stand by.”

Donnie kept moving, tensely listening to the continued fire in the distance. Whoever had pissed off Maria, she was pouring it on ‘em, and though the skipper was anxious for more intel she was also disciplined enough to wait for it.

Before she was even a quarter of the way to Maria’s position the noise of thunder abated, with just a few more deliberate pops from her repeater.

When Eniella spoke again the relief was plain in her voice.

“Contacts terminated ma’am. A squad of Junkers with dinky little powder-based weapons, they must have been shadowing her and Kyle, waiting for them to find something. Maria tore them to pieces. Says the survivors are booking it. Sounded like fun actually.”

Donnie stopped her headlong pace.

“Injuries?”

“None Skipper, though Kyle’s cute little onesie got ripped in the excitement, he’s bleeding air but in no immediate danger.”

“Copy that. Bunny? Do you read, you hearing me kitty-cat?”

No response.

“Shit. Mendez, you got eyes on our Bunny? I sent her back to you when the excitement started. Poor girl’s probably still running.”

“Nothing yet Skip, I’ll get you her transponder coordinates.”

“Standing by.”

It took Eniella less than two seconds to get back to her.

“Yeah I got her, she’s moving at a fair clip, not answering her coms.”

“That’s my fault, I told her to stay-”

There was another crackle of static as Eniella’s voice cut her off, louder than before.

“Holy shit! I’ve got a big-ass biological moving towards her position fast!”

Donnie was running before she finished speaking.

“Give me her heading on my HUD now! Can you spin up one of the Javelins?”

Her legs were pumping, the gyros in the suit turning her movement into loping strides that would’ve broken long-jump records on Old Earth.

As fast as a panicked cat-girl can run, a zero-G marine in an exo-suit was much faster.

“Negative ma-am, Javelins won’t track on this thing, it’s too small!”

“Can’t you go manual?!”

Eniella’s answer came back and she was clearly trying to hide her mounting panic.

“I’d have no time for target acquisition! Skip! That thing’s heat signature is right on top of her!”

Donnie vaulted over the crushed remains of an industrial refrigeration unit, landing with a curse as her gyros whirred to absorb the impact.

“Dammit! I see her!”

She was still a good fifty metres away when she spotted her target, barely able to make out the orange of Bunny’s suit overlaid by the transponder icon on her HUD.

But just as the captain caught sight of her, something that looked like a friggin pregnant lizard-horse landed on her, bowling her over into the ground hard.

Even without the wings the scrap-hawk was the size of a one-seater air-car, and its taloned feet were quickly working to tear through the durable mesh of Bunny’s suit in a bid to get at her tender flesh.

Donnie closed the distance in several long strides to get right up close to the ugly ass thing as she shouldered her weapon.

Scrap-hawk, meet high-energy plasma shotgun.

The weapon bucked and the brilliant green of the scattered particles ripped through the beast’s scaly hindquarters like tissue paper, the superheated plasma shredding its flesh and searing into its bones.

The big beast wasn’t done though; it let out a shriek of rage and agony, its clumsy wings buffeting the air and stirring up crusty yellow dirt from the mucky ground as it turned to face the threat to its meal.

Its mutated and fang-filled beak swung around on a neck easily three feet long to screech down into Donnie’s face as her left hand worked the pump to charge another plasma shell.

“You kiss your mother with that mouth you scaly bastard?!”

She let another round go, hardly feeling the powerful recoil of her gun against her shoulder with the adrenaline pumping through her.

This time it caught the beast center mass below its neck, and abruptly the nasty critter let out a keening wail with far less aggression