The Last Horizon by Anthony Hartig Page B

mistake Scott would exploit. He let Edik walk by and enter the chamber.
    “Rell, you dumbass!” Edik bellowed as he stepped into the shuttle and trudged into the cockpit where he saw his partner sitting in the pilot seat facing forward. “Wake up you idiot! Grey’s really pissed!” He grabbed Rell’s right shoulder and shook him.
    Rell’s head lolled back and forth lifelessly and his body slumped forward and fell against the instrument panel. Edik jumped back in shock and turned around when Scott pulled the trigger of the Raven and put two rounds into Edik’s forehead. The back of Edik’s skull blew open and canopy was splattered with blood, small lumps of gray matter, and bone as his body was thrown backwards from the impact.
    Scott grabbed the drone and smashed it against the wall where it blew apart with a shower of sparks and smoke. He moved quickly through the Zephyr’s cargo hold with the Raven drawn in front of him and stopped at the bulkhead that led to the cockpit…

    T he Zephyr shook hard and almost knocked me off balance when warheads detonated and rocked the Moria Balá. I looked through the canopy and saw the flash of the Moria’s pulse cannons firing rapidly; the Seekers had arrived and were making their run. They homed-in on Seinz’s heat signature and strafed his vessel with their pulse cannons.
    “ We need to get back to the ship!” Grey shouted as he turned his attention to the unfolding chaos outside.
    I started laughing when one of the Serrenian drones attached itself to the Moria’s fuselage and drove a tentacle through a gun turret and began pulling the panels apart.
    “Echo! Let’s get back to the shuttle!” Grey shouted in a panic as he stumbled backwards toward the pressure lock. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”
    Echo gr abbed her rifle and growled. “What about her?”
    Grey looked at me. “What the hell are you laughing at?”
    “Sequence, 3M-TA3.” I chortled, “Initiate.”
    “What the hell was that?” Echo blurted.
    The bridge lights dimmed, flickered brightly three times, and began to pulse in red. “The beginning of the end.” I smiled and glanced at the control panel. “Seinz can you hear me?”
    “Who is this?” Seinz screamed back over the intercom. I could hear the pandemonium of his crew’s hysterical shouts mixed with loud popping noises and explosions in the background as the Moria engaged the Seekers in battle.
    “How do you like our new friends?”
    “I think she enabled the ship to self-destruct!” Echo piped as she looked at the blinking lights on the instrument panels.
    “YOU DID THIS!” Seinz roared.
    “Hubba-hubba-hubba!” I laughed.
    Grey stepped into the pressure lock and the door to the cargo hold slid open. “Echo, NOW!” He yelled and turned, “Let’s get the hell out of…” Scott stepped in front of him and punched his throat with a left jab before he had a chance to finish his sentence. Grey’s eyes widened with surprise as he dropped his weapon and clutched his neck; he made a loud croaking noise then his eyes rolled white before he collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.
    “Grey!” Echo screamed in horror as she turned her attention to her fallen comrade. I dropped to the floor and spun counter-clockwise with a leg sweep that knocked Echo off her feet and sent her sprawling on her back against the grating while her rifle bounced out of her hands and landed a few feet away.
    Echo jumped back up immediately and pulled out a Kirsten Automatic pistol as I dove for her assault rifle, grabbed it, and fired a burst into her abdomen as I lay prone on the floor. The impact slammed her against a support column, and her body went limp as she slid down to her knees and fell face first to the grating.
    “Bitch!” I cussed.
    “Nikki, you okay?” Scotty asked.
    “W e need to get these scumbags off the Zephyr and strap in!” I replied as I picked up Echo’s sidearm.
    The Zephyr lurched hard to the right and we were thrown against a