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

away from her, causing her to laugh even louder as her eyes followed it.

Davie slid down the steeply inclined ladder from the cockpit to poke her head into the infirmary.

“Hey Skipper, how’s she doing?” The pilot didn’t try to hide the worry in her voice.

Bunny gripped Billy’s hand and blew a raspberry against her palm, evidently mimicking the glove.

Donnie snorted.

“She’s being silly. It’s what happens when you give a local to a K’or-Macka, different physiology. She’ll be okay though, yeah Billy?”

The medic had a holo-cam out and was recording Bunny’s antics with a slight smirk; not very professional but space got boring.

“Yup. I’ll keep her hooked up to the EEG overnight to be safe, but she’ll be fine. She’ll need to take it easy for a few days for the concussion though.”

“I guess I’m the cook again.” Donnie shrugged.

Davie smiled in relief, but then grimaced at the thought of the captain’s culinary skills.

“Good to know.” The pilot said sarcastically; “Anyways, the others want to come back in, Kyle’s worried about Bunny and his suit needs to be patched up. Whatever his sniffer picked up was a bust, just part of an old crucible or something.”

The captain ran her hand through her hair, frustrated at how badly their first few hours on Kentis had turned out.

“Right, get everyone onboard, looks like we might be spending the night. We’ll have to try again tomorrow. I had no illusions that this would be a day trip. But before we hunker down, I want to know everything about these Junkers that jumped Sledge and Kyle. I’d rather not bug out to orbit if we don’t have to, so let’s see what we’re up against.”

Davie nodded.

“Eniella’s all over the scopes, trying to figure out how they got past our sensors, I’ll send everyone to tac-ops once they’re back onboard.”

Bunny suddenly shrieked with laughter again.

“It’s because it looks like a TURKEY!”

They turned to see Billy still wearing a smirk and holding another inflated glove in front of Bunny’s face. The medic wasn’t even doing anything with it, but nevertheless the cat-girl had tears streaming from both eyes as she howled with laughter.

“Fucking hell I love that girl.” Davie smiled helplessly.

The captain offered her a sly look.

“Really, even when you have Kyle’s meaty cock down your gullet because Eniella is addicted to her magical tongue?”

K’or-Macka weren’t shy about sharing the details of their sexual adventures, even when people want them to be.

Davie’s cheeks turned pink and she rubbed at her sore throat.

“Thanks for reminding me.” She said sourly; “Now if you’ll excuse me I suddenly feel the need to be a pissy princess in front of my girlfriend. Don’t worry, I’ll get mine out of her eventually.”

Thirty minutes later and the rest of the crew were back onboard.

Kyle had to go through a decon shower because of the ripped suit, but once he saw his wife high out of her mind and laughing her ass off, not to mention in one piece, he took the whole thing in stride, opting not to play the role of the over-protective husband.

Donnie respected the hell out of him for that.

The fact was, there was no way she was going to bring Bunny into a firefight, and the way back to the ship had already proven itself to be reasonably safe, so she knew she made the right call, just bad luck was all.

Stupid chicken monster.

Soon the others were all waiting on the captain in the tactical operations room directly below the cockpit, except Billy and Kyle who were still in with Bunny.

While standing around the big tac-ops display table Maria was showing the others a familiar looking weapon she’d lifted from one of the Junkers she’d fragged.

“Check out the newest addition to my collection.” She said smugly.

Eva shook her head in disgust.

“I can’t believe people still use those ugly fucking things. Isn’t the design like seven hundred years old or something? I mean, it’s made of wood! Who makes guns out of wood?”

“Are you kidding me?” Eniella exclaimed; “That thing is a masterpiece! A fucking classic work of art! Maria, how much do you want for it?”

The towering blonde woman smirked as she worked the bolt of her new assault rifle, checking the action.

“Not a chance! this baby is mine, chica.”

“Oh come on! You can have Davie for a week!”

“The fuck?! Stop trading my sister like she’s currency you cunt!” Eva snarled and Eniella at least had the decency to look a bit sheepish.

Maria had a bemused look on her face.

“Yeah, what the fuck? Do I look like Bunny to you? No offense Davie. But your dick is, well, non-existent.”

“None taken.” She shrugged as she calmly put herself between her irate sister and her girlfriend.

“Stow it marines!” Donnie barked as she ducked through the hatch and into the room; “Sledge! Put that ancient piece of shit away before I break it in half!”

“Aye Skip.”

She set the antiquated weapon on the corner seat next to the hatchway leading down into the drop-pod ready room, eager to spare it from the captain’s wrath.

Meanwhile Donnie waved her hand over the table to bring up a topographical hologram of the terrain around the ship.

“Now, what can you tell me about the Junkers?”

Maria nodded and scrolled the hologram over to where she and Kyle were attacked so she could point out the particulars.

“They came at us hard and fast from these two sides like they maybe sort of knew what they were doing. They were pretty good at using the trash as cover, but they didn’t have any kind of answer for my armour. It wasn’t fair really. Kyle would have bought it just from the ricochets though if he hadn’t had the sense to chuck himself