Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

drop of blood fell from the hole in his chest where a branch had impaled him, until it caught on his ribs and tore them apart.
    Serves the cocksucker right.
    She stepped aside, and wiped away the blood on wide-leafed plant. A voice mumbled up ahead, muffled by the trees. Flying things scattered as she crunched into the undergrowth, and the drone flitted between the tree branches above her. She slowed and crouched as she approached the voice.
    She grabbed the nearest tree and peered around it. No-one moved among the plants ahead.
    “Comrade,” a hoarse voice yelled. “Help me.”
    About a metre from the tree, the ground disappeared into a dark square about three metres across and the same deep, with some rotten branches and dead leaves scattered across it. The interior walls were metal, as though someone had pulled apart one of the pods, and buried a metal box there to make a pit trap the occupant couldn't climb out of. Would be a good way to catch newbies without having to put in much work. She should have thought of it before now, and been on the lookout. There were a whole new class of dangers here she'd never seen before.
    She stepped closer to the edge, keeping her distance in case there was another pit nearby, and scanning the surrounding trees in case some asshole was trying to set up an ambush. Nothing moved, other than a hundred-legged beetle-thing crawling down the tree toward her hand. She flicked her arm and smacked the thing away. It flew through the air, into the pit, and the voice squealed.
    “I said help me. Not throw bugs at me.”
    Thumps came from the pit. She leaned over the edge, and stared in. The sun had almost set, but the light-intensifiers in her eyes boosted the shadows into a grainy green glow. One of the most useful damn body upgrades she ever bought.
    A man in an orange jumpsuit hopped around the base of the pit, slamming his boot onto the ground as he tried to squash the bug. It ran up the arm of a skeleton draped with tattered orange cloth, and sat on top of the skull, hissing at the newbie. He kicked toward the bug. His boot hit the skull of the skeleton, sending it flying across the pit. But the bug had already crawled down into the rib cage, and spat a stream of black goo toward him. The newbie screamed as the goo splattered his face, and bounced from wall to wall as he tried to wipe it away.
    “What the fuck are you doing?” Brunhilde said.
    He backed into the corner farthest from the bug, crunching the rib cage of another skeleton as he stomped on it. The bug raised a dozen legs and waved them in the air as it hissed at him.
    “I was running, and fell in. I've been stuck for an hour.”
    She shouldn't even think of helping him. Who knows why he was Condemned? Scrawny little fucker, but what did size matter, with all the black market body mods these days? Still, someone who could afford those kind of mods could also afford to bribe some PubSafe commissar to keep him out of Hades.
    The drone that followed her buzzed past, and descended into the pit. A light on the front clicked on, shining a narrow beam toward the man, then the bug. The bug spat goo at the drone. It dodged, and rose out of spit range.
    “From the look of those bones,” she said, “whoever built this pit forgot about it a long time ago.”
    The man glanced up at her hairy face, then at her hairy chest, where her breasts swung free. His eyes followed them for a second, then he hunched down in the corner.
    “On second thoughts, maybe I'll stay here with the bug.”
    She leaned forward, and held out her paw. “Come on. I'll help you out. But don't expect any more than that. And don't forget you owe me a favour, if I ever run into you again.”
    He waved her away. “No. I'm happy down here, thanks.”
    Some people had no gratitude. She grabbed a thick branch on the nearest tree, and twisted it. The wood stretched and creaked, and she twisted it in the other direction until it gave way with a loud snap. Then she tore it