The Fleet by John Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

Smiling
lips peeking from his overgrown beard.
    “You do that
you old hound dog, I'm heading back to our room. I've got to get a
little sleep,” Cambria said. “Are these brutes that keep following
me around necessary?”
    “Yep,” Dalton
replied. “Just until we get settled in. It just takes one pissed
off soldier and you in the wrong place, wrong time. I want them
with you to keep you safe.”
    “Aw, you're
such a big teddy bear.” Cambria remarked. Kissing her man on the
cheek and turning to exit the bridge. Two very large Husk warriors
shadowing right behind her and providing a buffer of safety, if
need be.
    Yep. But
keep it on the down low. Dalton thought. Knowing damn good and
well he had a reputation to uphold.
     
    *
     
    “Alright Adam,
it's time.” Sarah said.
    As she stood
waiting, dozens of Hunters gathered with her – the sun peaked over
the mountains of the small moon. Each of them waiting to turn Adam
and his son to their cause.
    Standing to
his feet, one arm securely wrapped around his son, Adam prepared to
do the unthinkable.
    “Me first,” he
said. “Please.”
    “It makes no
difference.” Sarah replied.
    “It does to
me,” Adam said. “Many of your people have spoken to me of things
they remember from their mortal lives. I do not want to carry the
memory of my son being turned for the remainder of mine.”
    Sarah looked
him over thoroughly. Trying to understand a pleading father's
reasoning.
    “Very
well.”
    “Thank you
Sarah,” he replied. “I've always loved you. I want you to know
that.”
    “I do.” she
admitted.
    Beginning to
hold a hand to the brow of his face, lowering it a bit to display a
praying cross in front of him, Adam appeared to be doing just that.
Praying for forgiveness.
    “Now.”
    As his thumb
clicked a small 2-way com device, Adam knelt a bit to bow to his
soon to be queen, though it would never be. With a single motion,
the gunslinger grabbed the iron horse from its holster and jolted
up to fire a single shot.
    Piercing the
neck of Sarah Blaine, Queen of Vampires. Rendering her truly
dead.
    Blindly firing
several more shots into the crowd of Hunters in chaos, Adam scooped
up his son and dove behind the thick of a large tree. Its trunk
providing enough cover until it was finished once and for all.
    “Now, now,”
his second in command shouted from a distance. “Give 'em all you
got!”
    And they
did.
    The small team
which had been left to guard the shuttle had went into shallow
orbit under orders. Adam's plan to stall the Hunters long enough to
allow them to get into position. As Adam pleaded through his com,
the orders were relayed from his team to the team in orbit. Lead
raining down from the heavens and punishing what remained of the
Hunters.
    A single shot
remained in the chamber of Adam's holster as the champion smuggler
cried fiercely. Part of it fear for his son's life – hoping the
team in orbit did their job. The other part of it was the act of
killing Sarah Blaine. A woman he'd once loved so very deeply.
    As the
exploding rounds which fell from blue skies above began to thin
out, Adam could hear familiar voices around him. The distinct
voices of team members that Dalton had hand selected to protect his
best friend.
    “All
clear.”
    The Hunters
were dead. Every last damn one of them.
    For all of the
death and destruction they'd brought humanity over the years, their
reign of terror would come to an end on this battlefield of cooling
embers and sunlit grass.
    “Are you
alright sir?”
    “Who me?” Adam
asked, standing to his feet – his son firmly in his arms.
“Absolutely,” he added. “You don't ever count Adam Michaels
out.”
    “We have the
package. Zone is all-clear,” the soldier told his com device. “We
are ready for extraction.”
    “Copy that
ground team.”
     
    *
     
    “Commander.” A
crewman said as the bridge was now filled once more. Every
workstation going as they continued to recognize the day schedule
in deep