Comrades in Arms by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

extreme changes in the crystal pattern. As his mistakes piled up and his options became more limited, the three-dimensional map of Click’s life became more jumbled. The holystal was a sorry mess, a lump with no discernible paths leading into the future.
    “We can’t just stay here and hope no one finds us,” Rader said. “We’ve got to get off of this asteroid.”
    During basic training with his squadmates, Rader had studied the layout of the Fixion Belt. He knew the handful of human outposts and remembered one of the first facilities the League had built here: an automated observatory on a small outlying asteroid, established before the initial encounter with Jaxxans. Observation dishes mapped the deep cosmos and monitored the Belt’s other asteroids. Years ago, those telescopes had been the first to spot Jaxxan incursions into the asteroid belt, watching the aliens build their own bases on the handful of habitable rocks.
    The observatory was out of the way and uninhabited, but with functional life support installed and left behind by the original construction crew.
    “I know someplace safe. We’ll have time and breathing space—if we can get there.”
    After Rader described the observatory, Click said, “But we cannot live there for long. It can only be a temporary measure.”
    Rader’s voice was bleak. “My life is just a temporary measure. If we reach the observatory, maybe I’ll stick around long enough to help you find a safer place. One step at a time. First, we’ve got to get from here to that little asteroid.”
    Click pondered for a moment. “If we need nothing more than an in-system ship to take us through the asteroids to the observatory, the Jaxxan base’s landing field has many capable vessels. We could take one.”
    “I couldn’t fly it,” Rader said. “How about you?”
    “That depends on the specific type of vessel. I flew several of those craft during my team’s work on the System Holystal. We could try.”
    “We could try,” Rader agreed.
    Click looked across the landscape to where the distant Jaxxan base and its landing field glowed above the foreshortened horizon. Suddenly his holystal shifted, adjusted itself to the new reality—and one new bright spire emerged.

— 11 —
    Commissioner Sobel traveled in secret to a landing field near the main Jaxxan base, where he would meet with Warlord Kiltik. Together, they would unleash their special team behind battlefield lines to take care of the embarrassing situation before rumors could leak out.
    Sobel could cover up the problem for another few days, but high command would know about it before long. He wanted to be able to announce that he’d eliminated the defective Deathguard before uncomfortable questions came down the pipeline. He didn’t have much time. Although he had no understanding of Jaxxan politics or military protocol, he sensed that Kiltik felt just as much incentive and anxiety.
    As he and the alien Warlord watched the ten human and Jaxxan trackers demonstrate their cooperative efforts, Kiltik startled him with an unexpected comment. “I have learned that your people call us ‘cockroaches,’ Commissioner.”
    Sobel tried to cover his embarrassment. “Roaches? Yes, I’ve heard that. It’s just an Earth insect. There are some … physical similarities.”
    “Not just an Earth insect, Commissioner, but one that is considered filthy, one that wallows in or feeds on garbage. In reality, the Jaxxan race is quite fastidious.”
    Sobel gave an unconvincing laugh. “I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s a common practice among grunts—er, lower level soldiers—to create derogatory names for the enemy. I’m certain your race does the same. Don’t you have any insulting terms for humans?”
    Warlord Kiltik twitched. “We call them humans . That is all the insult we need.”
    The ten-member hunter squad continued training. The human soldiers had already been briefed specifically on how to kill a Deathguard (details