Chapter 3-2
2277 Words
Positioning myself to cover the female’s position, I checked the power level on the weapon. It was fully charged, and I set the ion pistol to maximum damage. “I’ll hold them off. Do you know how to work transport controls?”
She glanced back at me, over her shoulder, the look full of irritation, her lips tight and thin. “Keep them off us and I’ll get us out of here. We’ll have to come back for any other prisoners.”
“Done.”
She stood, turning so her back was to the wall as I continued to cover the corridor. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Quinn.”
She blinked slowly, as if my name startled her and her gaze roamed my face with intense interest. With something more than simple fighting instinct. “You’re Everian? An Elite Hunter?”
I nodded. “I am.” She seemed to know a lot about my kind. Unusual. Most of the aliens I’d met from Earth barely knew my planet existed.
“Good. Then you should be able to keep them off me.”
It was my turn to be irritated. “Of course.”
She grinned, the mischief in her eyes made me want to kiss her. f**k. Who was I kidding, I wanted to slam her against the wall and bury my c**k deep. But that would have to wait until we got off this rock. I’d silence that sass. Turn it into gasps. Breathy moans of pleasure.
Without another word, she dashed to the control panel, and I turned back to the hallway as the first attacker appeared. The integrated Atlan beast was front and center. The ceilings on this base were ten feet tall, and still he ducked as if afraid he’d strike the top of his head.
He wouldn’t, unless he leaped for a kill.
I fired, non-stop, until the beast hit his knees. Like water flowing around a rock, the other two moved in front of him and kept coming. Prillon warriors, or at least they used to be. They were not my main concern. Two shots for each and they were down, writhing on the ground as the Atlan behind them fought to stand.
“Hurry,” I called. “The beast is coming again.”
“I’m working on it.” The female was bent over the control panel, her fingers flying furiously. The concentration on her face was another fascinating addition to her repertoire, but I didn’t have time to stare, as I would have preferred. I filed the image away for later when I would be able to take my time, perhaps trace her lips with my fingertips as I watched her expression change under my touch.
“We. Kill.” The integrated Atlan was in full beast mode, and apparently, he—they—the trio of Hive, had received orders to kill me. Most likely, they would kill her as well.
“Not today.” I fired, taking my time, hitting the vulnerable spots in the beast’s armor. His neck. His knees. His face, when I could take time for an extra shot.
I heard his helmet crack and fought down a shout of victory. As I watched, he took his helmet off and threw it aside, forgotten.
Gods, he was f*****g huge.
I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t. One head shot would take him down now, but I knew him. Had worked with him for the last few months. Before being captured. Since the Hive invasion of this base, I hadn’t seen him once. Until now. Until he’d been integrated enough to be under their control. To fight, to try to kill me.
He was a good male. Honorable. A true warrior.
“Damn you, Zan.”
Adjusting the settings on my blaster, I hoped the lower setting would knock him unconscious, not kill him. The Prillon warriors I’d killed were not from this base. They were not newly integrated, as this Atlan was. They were old converts, their minds long gone, only shells now, bodies with so many integrations they were all Hive. All enemy. I’d heard that the Hive would pair conquered, reliable soldiers like these two Prillons with the Atlans in a bid to help control their beasts.
With the integrated Prillon warriors down, there was no hope of that. Zan was charging me now, completely out of his mind.
Fuck.
I raised my rifle, took aim. Fired a stun shot.
His head snapped back and he toppled like a felled tree. Racing forward, I checked him for a pulse.
Still breathing. Good. The stun setting had worked, even on a beast.
Pausing to listen, I heard the female cursing under her breath as more footsteps headed our way. Clearly, she could hear them as well. They were probably two corridors back, but we only had a few minutes. Three at the most. And there were more than three this time. A lot more.
And the Atlan was huge but he needed saving. I couldn’t leave him here if there was a chance of him surviving, even if it was on The Colony.
I grabbed the only thing I could manage to wrap one arm around and pulled him by the leg into the transport room. The three transport techs she’d killed were on the floor, dead. Ignored. The female looked up from the control panel, glanced at the Atlan, and frowned.
“He’s a friend.” Zan was an honorable warrior, I would not leave him behind. And none of us would be leaving if that blue bastard made his way down here. “Get us out of here before the Nexus unit arrives. Zan won’t stand a chance against him if he wakes up.”
Her movement stalled. “There is a Nexus unit on this base?”
“Yes.” I wasn’t sure how or why she knew what a Nexus was, as the information was for top level operatives and commanders only, but I was too busy wrangling the beast’s oversized body into position to ask.
“We’ve got bigger problems. Incoming transport and I can’t override the command. It’s too late.”
I dropped Zan’s leg, leaving him stunned and sprawled on the floor. There wasn’t much space to maneuver with him taking up most of the space along with the dead transport techs. I turned to face the transport pad. As she’d warned, the buzzing charge filled the air and vibrations moved through my feet. “Friendly?”
“No. I don’t think so.” She grabbed the weapons from the dead techs, tossed me one. I checked the settings, armed it. Never hurt to have two weapons instead of one. “They’re bringing more Coalition fighters… prisoners, to integrate.”
Readying her own ion pistol and taking a knee, she now had a weapon armed and ready in each hand, like me. She used the control panel as cover. Waited.
“How many?” I asked.
“Seven.”
Fuck. That was a lot, if they were all Hive. “The Hive work in threes. Always. They’re f*****g consistent. There wouldn’t be two groups for one prisoner. It’ll be three guards with four prisoners. Happens several times a day. I know.” Unfortunately, I knew all too well.
She nodded but didn’t look my way. I returned my attention to the pad as seven figures appeared.
It was easy to distinguish Hive from Coalition. Easy to aim. Fire. Kill. The three Hive guards, just as I’d expected, hadn’t imagined being ambushed within their own facility. Prisoners didn’t escape. Didn’t fight back.
But I did. So did… she. She took down two of them nearly as quickly as I did one. She was magnificent. f**k, I didn’t even know her name.
The four Coalition fighters dropped to their knees and lowered their heads in protection. They could do nothing else they’d been trained to do. They had no weapons. They were restrained.
It was over in seconds. The guards dead. The prisoners looked up, took in where they were, what had happened.
“Where the f**k are we?” A Prillon asked, probably noticing it was a Coalition transport pad he’d arrived on.
“Latiri 4. I’ll explain more later. Get the Atlan onto the pad. We’re getting out of here,” she ordered.
She was already ignoring me, expecting me to do as I was told as her fingers flew over the controls. Damn the woman, I wanted her, and I wanted to bend her to my will, conquer her body and soul. This wasn’t the time or place to argue, however. And, she was right.
I took an electronic key from the nearest dead integrated Viken’s hip and motioned for the four prisoners to come to me. They did, without delay, and I released their bonds. The nearest, a fierce looking Prillon warrior the others seemed to defer to, motioned the other three toward the Atlan.
“You have your orders, get this Atlan onto the transport pad.”
The female behind the controls glanced up at the sound of his voice. “Good to see you, Prax. It’s been a long time.”
The Prillon captain, Prax, grinned at her. She grinned back, the expression a new one, and not directed at me. I blinked, trying not to stare. Gods, she was f*****g gorgeous. And who was she that this Prillon knew who she was and followed her orders without question? The Prillon wore a captain’s markings on his uniform, and I didn’t doubt his assessment of the situation. The two obviously knew one another, but how?
And did she belong to him? Was she his mate? Had he made a claim on my female?
My female. The thought raced through my head even as I handed the unknown Prillon captain my spare blaster and helped tug the giant Atlan onto the transport pad.
We worked as a team to hoist him up to the platform. Even five strong fighters struggled with the beast. Once we had him where he’d be transported with us, I handed off my weapon to another of the fighters and moved to the female’s side. I took her spare as well, tossed it to a third warrior and lifted the small ion pistol from where she had placed it within reach on top of the control panel.
The warriors settled into a defensive position around the unconscious Atlan and I moved between my female and the open door. I could hear the Hive coming, knew the prisoners would fight to the death, more than happy to shoot any Hive who f****d with us now.
“Can you get us out of here?” I asked her. She had been at the controls for what felt like hours, working those small hands with quick, deft movements.
“Yes. But I’m locking down the entire base first.”
What did she just say?
I turned to face her. “How?”
She didn’t even look at me, speaking instead to the control panel. “Initiate Lockdown Protocol. Command Code…” She rattled off a few words in the home language of Prillon Prime and waited. Something beeped and her shoulders sagged in relief. “They didn’t get into the main system. My command codes still work.”
What just happened? No one could lock down an entire base. It wasn’t conceivable. “That’s impossible.”
“I have Level Two command codes, Hunter. No one will get in or out of this base without my permission. Not anymore.” She glanced at me as she moved away from the control panel, toward the Prillon captain. I retreated from the door, moving closer as much because I didn’t like her being so close to the warrior as because it was time to transport out of this hell.
Level Two command codes?
Level One was Prime Nial himself, leader of the entire Coalition Fleet, ruler of the Coalition of Planets. He controlled everything. If what she said was true, only the Prime himself could override her lockdown of this base.
Battleship commanders, like Commander Karter, only had Level Four codes. Mine were Level Five.
Fuck. Exactly who was she?
“Let’s go.” Captain Prax shifted on his feet. “I need to check on the rest of my men.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were probably already locked down in cells deeper inside the base, being integrated. Destroyed.
The female jumped onto the transport pad and the Prillon captain positioned himself between her and the corridor in a protective stance, not just that of a warrior protecting a helpless female. There was too much knowledge in his eyes. Respect.
Who was she? I.C.? I didn’t know any fighters with command codes. Unless she was just the victim of an accident and a transport tech had accidentally sent her to the wrong place.
Yeah, no. She was too intelligent, too quick and keen for something as ridiculous as that. And if something that random had brought her to me, that transport tech was most likely headed for a Coalition brig.
I felt the vibrations, heard the hum.
“Everyone ready?” she asked, glancing up at the six of us on the transport pad. It had been about a minute since the prisoners arrived, and they were being sent right back out of here. They were lucky.
So f*****g lucky. The Atlan who was dead weight at their feet, too.
“f**k, yes,” I said. The others shouted and growled their agreement. They’d been defeated, but their fight was back. We were getting the f**k out of here.
I heard the pounding of feet with my Hunter senses. “Incoming,” I said.
She nodded, either she believed me or could hear them, too. It wasn’t time to wonder which.
“Five seconds,” she said.
I moved with speed to stand beside her. I tipped up her chin so she’d look at me. Made her take one of those five seconds to focus on me.
“Who are you?” I asked. The hairs on my body stood on end from the impending transport.
Three seconds.
Two seconds. The team of Hive ran into the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw their weapons raised. The other warriors fired at them, but I ignored it all. I could only see her. See the female who’d saved my life. The lives of six warriors.
“I’m your mate.”
One second.
And we were gone. Transporting out of the Hive hell and to safety. With my…
Mate.
- Writer
