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  Eddie knew full well that not every Kezzin was like that, but these were soldiers, here for a single cause, to wipe out Federation settlements. Would they really do something so vile if they didn’t fully believe in it?

  A large ship sat in the dock a short distance from where the Q-Ship hovered. It looked to be a cargo vessel, with several Kezzin soldiers piling crates into its hold. Was that one of the ships set to hit the colony? It didn’t look like the sort of ship one would expect for a combat mission. Then again, neither had this Q-Ship.

  Eddie turned away and faced Julianna. “Anything yet?”

  “I’m detecting a lot of shit down there,” she said, looking over her readout. “I’m also picking up some chatter on the outgoing line.”

  “What kind of chatter?” asked Eddie.

  “The translation software is processing it now. Hold on.” She tapped her finger on her knee, biting the inside of her lip. “Any second now.”

  “For having such advanced tech, this shit sure does take a while sometimes.”

  “Here we go,” said Julianna, finally. She read over the display. “Oh, fuck.”

  “What is it?”

  “They’re getting ready to leave in a few hours. We don’t have very long.”

  Eddie glanced back at the larger ship. Its doors were rising, concealing its cargo, and several dozen men were boarding via the side entrance. At the same time, a few smaller fighters were lifting off their landing platforms. “Oh, fuck,” he repeated.

  “We don’t have time to return to General Reynolds. We have to take care of this now,” said Julianna.

  “By ourselves?” asked Eddie, slowly smiling at the implication.

  “It’s either that, or we signal the Atticus Finch and request they head to the colony to cut the pirates off before they can attack.”

  “But if we do that, it defeats the purpose of our mission,” Eddie pointed out. “They’ll know the Federation’s onto them. Open a channel to General Reynolds and ask him what to do.”

  “General Reynolds left this up to us. If we are going to prove we can lead then we have to make the decision. That’s what he’d want. Not us calling him up every time we have a question. This is our call.”

  “Our call?” he asked, blinking. “Fucking hell.”

  Julianna stared at him, waiting for a real answer.

  It had been ten years since Eddie had given an order. He’d almost forgotten how. If I make the wrong call, thousands might die. Hell, we might get shot. Either way, I can’t just stand by and wait like a helpless baby.

  He had to act.

  “Let’s do our jobs,” he finally said. “We might get blown to pieces, but we have to take down those ships so they don’t find their way to Praxus.”

  “You think a few fighters are enough to take down a Q-Ship?” asked Julianna, suddenly smiling, taking the controls. “Watch and learn.”

  Eddie released the sticks. “By all means, Commander.”

  Julianna turned the ship around and faced the rising fighters as they hovered off the ground. She flipped the switch to ready the guns. “Ready?” she asked, looking at Eddie.

  “Light ‘em up,” he grinned.

  She pressed her fingers to the triggers and unloaded the ship’s armor-piercing rounds on the dozen fighters before them. The bullets seemed to appear out of thin air, with the Q-Ship cloaked, and they split apart the wings and engines of the other vessels. Several ships exploded at once, annihilating the pilots and sending flaming debris to the ground. Half of one ship landed, slid across the platform, and plowed straight into the large transport vessel. Several dozen troops attempted to mobilize, but couldn’t seem to figure out where the attack was originating from.

  Julianna continued firing and, with the flip of another switch, let loose a barrage of rockets that hit the hull of the transport ship, blasting it apart and spilling its guts—the same crates Eddie had seen the men loading previously.

  Two fighters fired at them from the side—apparently realizing that there was a cloaked ship attacking them—and the shots hit the Q-Ship dead-on. To Eddie’s surprise, the cockpit barely shook.

  However ugly this thing might be, he realized, it sure is handy in a fight. He smiled to himself. I really love this ship.

  Julianna switched her aim to the two attacking ships, utterly destroying them in a single motion. Both vessels ignited in flames, spiraling to the ground. One landed in a nearby field, while the other flew straight into the main building of the base, disappearing through the roof before an explosion rocked the complex.

  Within thirty seconds, every ship in sight was obliterated, with scattered soldiers fleeing for their lives. Eddie had never seen such a one-sided defeat in all his life. He didn’t know what to say.

  With the ship still cloaked, Julianna set it down in front of the main building. “Our target is inside. Are you ready?”

  “Should we just leave the ship here?” asked Eddie.

  “Only authorized users can access it or drop the cloak. Anyone tries to touch it, they’ll be electrocuted.”

  “Fancy,” he smirked.

  “Now would be the time to turn back,” proposed Julianna. “If you aren’t totally certain.”

  “I wouldn’t have come all the way here if I wasn’t sure,” Eddie answered.

  He popped the hatch and prepared to exit. Julianna handed him a rifle, which he took and secured at the ready.

  “In that case, after you, Captain Teach.”

  He grinned at the sound of his designation. “Let’s hit it.”

  Chapter Six

  Ox King’s Foyer, Praxis III’s Third Moon, Alabaster System.

  Eddie busted through the door, immediately met by a rushing Kezzin soldier. Before the attacker could reach him, Eddie raised his rifle and blasted the alien through the chest. The alien was a corpse by the time it hit the floor.

  “Good reflexes,” commended Julianna.

  Eddie examined the rifle in his hands. “Been a while, but guns and I are old friends.”

  “Come on, we need to move further in. We have to find the second control room. Scan shows that’s where their database is.”

  “The target was a database?”

  “Logs, records, access codes. We get our hands on that, we’ll have more information than we can handle.”

  “I thought you meant our target was Ox, maybe we can snag him before we leave?” Eddie reminded her.

  They raced through the foyer and into the nearest corridor. The Kezzin inside were screaming that the base was under attack.

  “Get to the ships!” one of them cried in a deep, scratchy voice. “Protect the King!”

  “Who’s doing this?!” yelled someone else.

  “Must be the Krin. They’ve finally decided to make a move on us!”

  Eddie crouched behind a wall, listening to the aliens ramble on about things they didn’t understand. “Hey, you hearing this? They think we’re the Krin. Wait…who are the Krin?”

  “Another faction of Kezzin. They must be in another feud. Our intel said there were a handful of skirmishes between the two groups not too long ago,” explained Julianna, whispering behind her hand.

  “As long as they don’t know it’s us, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

  A side door opened, and the two aliens ran out of the building, fleeing the scene. Eddie took the opportunity to push ahead, swinging around the corner and staying low as he ran.

  “Up there,” Julianna motioned toward the end of the hall.

  Eddie approached the door and stood to the side with his back against the wall. He waited for Julianna to get into place beside him. He looked at her, waited for her confirmation, and then he opened the door. He remained against the wall and then twisted through the opening, his rifle pointed and ready.

  As he entered, he spotted two pirate soldiers, both of them armed. They noticed him right away, but it took a second for them to react. In that moment, two shots hit them, one in each of their heads, a shot fire
d from each of the two humans’ rifles.

  Dead and dead.

  Eddie didn’t flinch. He simply continued moving, sidestepping the bodies as he and Julianna made their way through the hall.

  They neared a stairwell further in, and a guard came running down. In a single, quick motion, Eddie lifted the gun and fired, clipping the pirate in the neck. He fell, tumbling down the stairs, only for Eddie to shoot him again—this time in the forehead.

  He looked back at Julianna. She pointed upward.

  Eddie nodded and began to climb.

  At the top, Eddie shot two more armed soldiers who had come running at the sound of the nearby gunfire.

  While he finished them with shots to the head, Julianna took aim at another Kezzin who appeared from within one of the nearby rooms. This one was armed with two hand-cannons, raised and ready.

  The alien fired at the two humans, but they dived out of the way. As Julianna rolled to safety, she unleashed three shots from her gun, hitting the alien each time.

  He staggered backward, stunned. Before he could move again, Eddie turned from behind a wall and shot him straight in the chest.

  Done and done.

  Julianna motioned for Eddie to move, and together they bolted through the hall, examining each of the rooms while moving as quickly as possible.

  “Move, you idiots!” someone yelled from behind one of the open doors ahead of them.

  Eddie and Julianna stopped before the entryway. Eddie took a deep breath and then stepped next to the opening. With his rifle extended, he turned into the room, scanned from left to right in a single motion, his rifle and eyes moving as one in case he saw something that needed to be shot.

  He spotted three Kezzin standing together, frantically reaching for their guns. Behind them, another one stood atop a raised platform. He wore a more elaborate chest piece than the others, showing more medals and the insignia of a higher rank, demonstrating his superior station.

  The three Kezzin attempted to take aim at Eddie as he entered the room, but before they could unload on him, he fired—hitting all three in the chest, one after the other.

  The first hit the floor, dead, while the other two only staggered. Julianna stepped in and followed up with her own shots, striking the second and third Kezzin before they could bring their weapons to bear. Her well-aimed rounds hit both in the head, sending them to the floor to join the first.

  “Bastards!” yelled the only remaining Kezzin. He was tall, thick, and muscular. His yellow eyes blinked as he stared at his opponents. “You think you can attack the Ox King in his own facility? Are you mad?!”

  Eddie reloaded. “Are you Ox?” he asked. “About time we found your scaly ass.”

  Just then, the door on the other side of the room opened, and in ran two additional soldiers. They sprinted straight for the two humans.

  Julianna reacted instantly, grabbing hold of one of the guard’s arms and using his momentum to throw him to the floor. The alien faceplanted, cracking his forehead, and screamed in pain.

  Eddie charged his opponent and hit him in the chest with the butt of his rifle, then slashed the barrel across the alien’s face, causing him to stagger. He hit him again, this time in the neck, crushing his windpipe. The soldier coughed and wheezed as he fell backward.

  Julianna and Eddie both raised their rifles and shot each of their targets directly in the head to finish them.

  With five Kezzin bodies strewn across the floor, the two human assailants turned to look at the Ox King standing above them on his platform.

  “As I was saying,” continued Eddie. “Glad we found you, Ox.”

  “You think that’s impressive?” asked the Ox King. “I’ve fought and killed hundreds. You two are nothing compared to the strength of the Ox, and once I’ve ripped the pink flesh from your bones, I’ll go after your families. I’ll kill every—”

  A blast struck the alien in the shoulder, leaving a crater in his flesh. Eddie turned to look at Julianna; her finger was resting on the trigger, and her rifle was raised.

  “Enough monologuing,” she said. “This isn’t a Saturday morning cartoon.”

  Eddie grinned. “Now we’re talking.” He took his rifle and raised the barrel to the Ox King, who was holding his new wound and shaking where he stood. “You hear that, Oxy?”

  “W-What kind of cowards would shoot an unarmed—”

  Julianna shot him in the other shoulder. “Don’t preach to us about honor. You wiped out two Federation colonies and ordered the deaths of countless humans.” She took a step forward. “You’re the coward, you piece of shit.”

  “You can either come with us or die where you stand,” Eddie offered. “What’s it gonna be?”

  “I-I’ll surrender!” stammered the King, his arms hanging impotently from his ruined shoulders.

  “You try anything, and I can’t promise my friend here won’t blow your head off,” explained Eddie.

  Julianna scowled at the alien.

  With her weapon aimed at the King, Eddie climbed the short staircase on the side of the room, which took him to the raised level only a meter off the bottom floor.

  Eddie drew closer to Ox, his weapon ready and aimed. He could see blood dripping from the shoulder wounds. There was little reason to expect him to bleed out, given Kezzin biology and their penchant for quickly adjusting to a flesh wound. Any second now, the two holes in his shoulders would soon clot and stop bleeding.

  “We just need to cuff you,” said Eddie, reaching for a set of restraints he’d brought, hoping to use for this very purpose.

  The King was motionless, standing and waiting, occasionally glancing at the rifle in Julianna’s hands.

  “Put your wrists out,” Eddie ordered, stepping closer with the cuffs.

  The alien did, and as Eddie drew near, the two watched one another, their eyes fixed. This was almost over. If they could just get this asshole on the Q-Ship and off this moon, they’d be home free. Just a few more—

  The alien’s eye twitched, and he looked at the floor to his right. Eddie’s eyes did the same, and he saw what appeared to be a weapon, resting in the bottom shelf.

  Eddie clutched his rifle and dropped the cuffs. “Don’t even think about it.”

  The alien froze, looking at the business end of a rifle, millimeters from his face.

  “Pick up the cuffs,” growled Eddie.

  Ox stared back at him, not moving. He slowly looked down at the floor and the handcuffs, then again at the gun.

  “Don’t you fucking do it,” said Eddie.

  “What’s he doing?” asked Julianna.

  “There’s a gun back here. He’s debating whether to go for it.”

  “Hey!” barked Julianna. “Are you stupid? Do as you’re fucking told!”

  Ox blinked his yellow eyes as he looked at one rifle barrel to the other and back again. He slowly reached down for the cuffs. “I’m no fool,” he answered. “See?”

  “Good,” replied Eddie. “Now, put them on.”

  Ox lifted the cuffs, holding them in one hand, and then dropped them. “Oops.”

  “I swear to God,” said Eddie. “Don’t you fucking do it, Ox.”

  “I’m not doing anything,” he said, bending down to retrieve the cuffs.

  “If you do, you’ll end up with a bullet in that tiny brain of yours. You know that, right?”

  Ox squatted and touched the cuffs again, thumbing them and inching them towards his leg. “Almost got it,” said the alien. He began to lift them, but they fell once more, and he finally swept them up in his hand, beginning to stand.

  Eddie felt himself relax. Maybe this will all go smoothly after all.

  Ox looked at the cuffs in his hand, then back at Eddie.

  “I’m telling you, Ox,” said Eddie. “I can see the gears in your head turning right now and I’m telling you, don’t you fucking do it.”

  Ox grinned. “Do what?”

  “Goddammit, Ox,” said Eddie. “Don’t you fucking dare. Not if you
want to make it out of—”

  Before Eddie could finish the sentence, Ox dipped to the floor, tossing the cuffs at Eddie’s face as he reached for the gun in the cabinet.

  Eddie sidestepped the cuffs, and squeezed the trigger in one swift, immediate action, shooting the Ox King directly between his yellow eyes.

  The alien’s head exploded as his body dropped to the floor. He twitched in his death throes mere centimeters from the gun at the base of the shelf.

  “Goddammit, Ox, I fucking warned you!” snapped Eddie. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Is he dead?” asked Julianna, who was blocked by Eddie’s position from seeing the hole in the alien’s forehead.

  “What little brains he had are gone,” confirmed Eddie with a sigh.

  Julianna ran up the stairs to join him. She spotted the dead, still twitching alien where he lie. “Ouch.”

  “I knew what he was going to do. He knew that I knew it.”

  “Sometimes people are just stupid,” she commented and pulled out her pad. “Pip, are you ready to do some hacking?”

  “Of course,” remarked Pip.

  “Aren’t you going to lecture me about how we lost the target?” asked Eddie.

  “It’s not your fault that he was a fool,” she said simply, walking to the nearest terminal. She plugged her pad directly into the system, using a universal connector. “Sometimes you just can’t fight stupidity.”

  “Initiating file transfer,” confirmed Pip. “Thirty seconds remaining.”

  Eddie checked the Ox King’s body and found a small pad, similar to Julianna’s but less sophisticated. He tucked it away in his own pocket.

  The King also had a stack of delios, the Kezzin currency. Based on what Eddie knew about the exchange rate, it was no small amount—still, he left it where he found it. His job wasn’t to loot, but to gather intel and complete the mission.

  “Got anything?” asked Julianna.

  “Found a pad. It might have some data.”

  “Nice work,” she said approvingly.

  “Transfer complete,” announced Pip.