Broken Soldier (Book One) by Bruce George

understand when you see the dead Sauran.”
    “Jo, I just had a thought. Wouldn’t one of these
robot have cleaned up the dead guy by now.”
    “No. They can only enter the Operation Center if
called upon to do so by a master. As I have told you, Saurans are
cautious. They don’t take chances with their safety.”
    Mike didn’t respond out loud. But he felt that
somehow, the Sauran’s overcautious attitude could be one of their
weaknesses. Certainly, there must be a way to exploit it.
    The tall alien announced, “We are here.”
    There was a heavy looking armored hatch that was
open and behind it was a closed hatch that had seen a lot of use.
Mike saw the wear on the floor where the entrance had opened and
closed. It opened like an elevator door, with two opposing panels
that slid to the sides. Once open, it must have been ten feet tall
and twelve feet wide.
    Jo closed his eyes and the door opened. The stench
was overpowering. Something horrible had been rotting in here for a
while. Mike waited for Jo to enter, but the Thorian had frozen in
place, his fear so great.
    The entrance was very wide compared to anything one
would find on a Navy vessel of Earth. Mike was reminded it had been
designed for taller wider beings. He stepped around Jo and walked
in, holding his hand over his nose.
    His senses were alert, as his combat experience
kicked in. It had been many years since his Army days and his
training had been so thorough that he couldn’t have subdued his
instincts if he wanted to.
    As he entered, his eyes began to sweep from left to
right. Without conscious thought, he ducked and rolled away, as
something went whirling by his head. He came backup to a fighting
stance and found himself facing an eight foot tall Sauran
warrior.
    The creature must have been the one that Jo had
killed, or thought he had killed. He saw the burn wounds on its
head and the eye sockets were still empty. With amazing speed, the
huge beast launched at him and kicked out at Mike’s new legs. This
type of fighting wasn’t new for Mike and he easily sidestepped the
alien’s foot, as he parried it with his hand.
    As he pushed the leg aside, it felt like his hand
had struck a metal bar and that bar just kept coming at him,
kicking out blindly. Mike could almost predict the enemy’s moves;
but that didn’t make those moves any less effective.
    Mike called out, “Jo, give me a hand here.”
    There was no answer and Mike wasn’t about to take
his eyes off the huge muscle bound Sauran. He assumed that Jo was
frozen in place where he last saw him, or he had run away.
    How in the hell was this thing seeing him, if its
eyes were gone. The monster was attempting to pin him into the
corner, so Mike circled like a boxer.
    The alien didn’t bother with feints or subtle jabs.
Every move was designed to land a brutal blow. If this guy ever
connected, at the very least, he would brake a few bones, and if he
landed a kick or punch to Mike’s head, it would be over.
    The Sauran lunged at him and Mike quickly moved to
his left, tripping over an object on the floor. Instinctively he
rolled twice, just as fast as he could, and the creature came down
knee first, right where Mike would have been.
    Mike scrambled to his feet and gave a quick look
around for some sort of weapon, anything that might inflict harm on
this beast. That brief glimpse around the Control Center cost him.
The Sauran’s hand lashed out, as Mike leaned back away from it at
the last second. While the alien didn’t land a fatal blow, he was
able to swipe him across the face, leaving three deep gouges in his
cheek that hurt like hell.
    He grunted, but held his scream inside. You never
let the enemy have any idea how badly you were hurt. The enormous
bulk of the Sauran, followed too quickly for Mike to dodge it, as
it crashed into him, sending them both to the floor. God must have
been with him, because the Sauran didn’t land on him. If it had, he
might have been crushed beneath the four