The Athena Operation by Dalton Cortner Read Free Book Online

seythra in the room directly across from them. The gunfire ceased for a moment, and Seraph popped out of cover.
    Seraph fired his gun into the wall across from him twice. Ret nudged Seraph and made a motion with his hands, indicating that he was going to go back through the hole in the wall and circle around to try and get the jump on the seythra. Seraph nodded to Ret and waited for the next break in gunfire.
    Ret moved through the hole swiftly, revolver cocked and aimed. He planted his back against the wall next to the doorway. He ducked and rolled into the hallway and charged into the adjacent room.
    Ret fired at the only seythra in his view, a large female. The bullet opened her chest, and she slumped to the ground, dead. Ret could hear shotgun blasts close by. Seraph must be doing some damage , Ret thought. Just as Ret was about to move again, a bullet grazed his left arm. He cried out and fell to the floor. He could hear another wave of shotgun blasts, but this time, they were accompanied by handgun fire and what sounded like suppressed rifle fire. After a moment, most of the gunfire ceased. Ret eased up and aimed his revolver through a hole in the wall. He skimmed over the scattered seythra corpses.
    Seraph was standing in the doorway, along with two othal. One of the othal was wearing a security uniform, stained black with the blood of battles past. He was holding a pistol, his hands slightly shaking. The other othal had a nasty scar running over of the left side of his face, through a blind eye. He was wearing a dirty, beaten piece of armor over his chest. His elbows and knees had protective pads, beaten just as badly. Half of his little finger on his left hand was gone, though it wasn’t a fresh wound.
    Othal were a predominantly diplomatic species, but Ret thought that these two looked anything but. With the seythra attacking, diplomacy was coming in the form of bullets and plasma.
    Ret turned to Seraph. “Who the hell are they?” Ret noticed blood dripping from his bullet wound. He tore the uniform off one of the seythra and begin wrapping it around his arm.
    “I’m not entirely sure.” Seraph motioned to the two othal. “They helped, though. They’re with us.”
    The othal wearing the security uniform turned to Ret. “I’m Jirani. Jirani Lhim, I’m a security guard at the Million Armory down the road. I was just getting ready to finish my night shift, and all of this . . . this shit happened. I need to get to the west area of Koss; my family’s there.”
    The other othal scoffed. “Good luck with that. I just came from there.” His voice was low and harsh. “It’s wrecked. Your family’s dead, and your best chance of surviving is sticking with us. I’m Drever. Just Drever.” He moved to scavenge ammo from the dead seythra.
    Jirani glared at him. “Don’t you dare say that. They’re alive; I know it.”
    “Whatever you need to tell yourself, kid.” Drever pulled two magazines from a dead seythra’s belt.
    Ret glanced back and forth between the two othal. “So, you two, uh, know each other?”
    Drever grunted. “If by ‘know’ you mean spent a few hours fighting together, then yeah. Otherwise, no. He’s not the type of person I’d pal around with.”
    “Why are you here? Why did you help us? Are the top floors secure?” Seraph asked.
    “Same reason everyone’s out there on the streets with guns,” Drever said. “Same reason kids and priests are taking up arms. The seythra are attacking, and anyone who wants to stay alive has to fight.”
    “And the top floors are clear, we came from there,” Jirani added. “We actually had one drop his gun and beg. He started going on about how the others made him come. He started crying. Then, all of a sudden, he picked up his gun and fired.”
    “This whole thing is fucked,” Seraph said.
    Ret and Drever grabbed what ammo they could, and Seraph propped himself up against a broken dresser.
    Jirani pulled a shot of aceso from a small pack on