Sky Hunter by Chris Reher Read Free Book Online Page B

they saw no one. In the distance the
decommissioned shuttle they had been using for their patrols stood
open and deserted, its com array a twisted wreck. Someone lay
sprawled halfway down its entrance ramp.
    “ Which way,” she said. With a half
dozen years of combat behind him, Reko’s instincts on the ground
were something to study and emulate and she was bothered not one
bit about outranking the sergeant on this mission.
    “ Into town,” he replied after studying
the terrain for a moment. “We won’t be as easily found as out here.
Might have to ditch the uniforms.”
    A rattle of gunfire tore up the ground not
far to their right, leaving them little choice but to go with
Reko’s suggestion. They ran toward the first of the low buildings,
dodging fences and farm animals along the way. Once past the first
of the structures, they entered a maze of alleys that had never had
to accommodate anything wider than a push cart. The single-storied
houses huddled close to each other, made of some mortarless
arrangement of interlocking triangular bricks common to this part
of Bellac Tau.
    An explosion shook the ground under their
feet.
    “ Let’s get indoors and figure out where
we are.” Reko knocked loudly on the wooden door of one of the
buildings. No one answered.
    Nova checked the scanner on her data sleeve.
“Three in there. Bellacs. Hiding in a back room.” She looked around
the empty alley, deserted by locals who cowered in their darkened
homes, hoping to be bypassed by both rebels and soldiers alike.
Distantly, explosions thundered at uneven intervals and the sharper
rapport of projectile weapons added to the sounds of battle.
“Everything past that is jammed. We won’t get through to the base
in here.”
    He tried another door, with the same result.
“While we were expecting an aerial attack from the desert, they’re
sneaking in the back door through the hills. And what’s with those
guns? Damn coilers? Who’s selling those to Shri-Lan these
days?”
    “ And who’s adapting them. They’re not
even designed to work in this gravity. Seen them take down a Kite a
while back. Just drilled through the skin.” She raised her arm to
attempt a com link to the base when they heard voices. Someone
slammed a door nearby. They ducked when something whistled
overhead. A dud, apparently – no explosion followed. The quick slap
of sandaled feet came from the alley, followed by the sound of
guns. Someone screamed.
    Rifles in hand, Nova and Reko moved silently
into the next alley where they found a thickly-robed Bellac male
sprawled on the ground, moving his limbs in a feeble attempt to
crawl toward a nearby doorway. She knelt beside him while Reko
stood guard.
    She hissed when the man on the ground raised
a pistol to her throat. Instinctively, she moved to disarm him when
a blinking blue light above his finger caught her attention.
    “ Flash!” she gasped and recoiled. Reko,
too, stepped back when the man, little more than a youth, scrambled
to his feet.
    He gripped the pistol in both hands, arms
stretched out toward them. Three other boys appeared by his side,
also wielding guns. They were dressed in the loose robes of the
desert nomads but the yellow dye in their hair was more common in
the towns. “We are Shri-Lan!” he shouted in his native Bellac
dialect. “You are hostages. Guns. Down!”
    Nova spread her hands out from her body and
dropped her rifle. “Look,” she said as calmly as she could manage,
aware that her command of Bellac mainvoice was barely passable.
“That gun might not be what you think it is.”
    “ Shut up!” he waved his pistol at Reko.
“Down the gun. Down the gun.”
    The sergeant complied. Nova tapped the side
of her helmet to drop the sun shield over her eyes. “Shri-Lan,” she
tried again, using the term to flatter him although she found it
unlikely that the rebels would use these urchins for anything more
than messengers or servants. “See that blue light on the side of
your