Space Cadets Read Online Free PDF

of the remaining suits. He was accompanied by a woman named Peggy. It was their job to stop the saboteurs.
    They did a good job too, but as soon as all but one of her men was dead, Mrs. Salazar played a dirty trick and pulled out an EMP device. She figured, if she was going down, so was everyone else. That EMP would kill everyone wearing a mech. skin.
    Because Rick Pringle is reckless, he didn’t give a damn about the EMP and he refused to drop his weapons. We might have all died because of his insolence except that the ship started acting nuts at that precise moment. All the lights went out and the gravity generators went on and off intermittently. By the time our systems came back online, an alien spacecraft appeared on the monitors.
    That’s our current situation. It sucks.
    My heart would be getting a workout if I had one. I’d be sweating if I wasn’t a robot.

Captain Wilkomen
     
    Samantha Salazar clutched the EMP even tighter when the ship came into view. That scared the pants off of me.
    The newly minted captain of the Conquistador issued his first order: “Prepare for attack.”
    His nametag said, Jerry Wilkomen, First Mate. The old captain’s blood and brains still streaked down my faceplate. That was the reason we had a new captain.
    The crew was well trained. They stepped over recently destroyed Marine suits and took their stations.
    Thankfully, the ships systems seemed to be back online.
    Mrs. Salazar was so transfixed on the image on the monitor that Rick Pringle simply walked over to her and snatched the EMP device right out of her hand. Too late, she tried to grab it back. Rick dropped it on the floor and stomped it flat with his humungous metal foot.
    Mr. Humboldt, my interrogations instructor, placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “Let them worry about the alien ship. We need to turn off the all-stop and free the students. We’re toast if that ship attacks and all of our mechs are frozen stiff.”
    I nodded absently. I didn’t really want to take my eyes off the monitor but I’d never had the guts to tell one of my teachers to get fucked.
    My fellow students were going to go crazy when they found out that Rick Pringle was here with us. He was the ultimate badass. He was a living symbol of human might.
    As we left the command room, Rick and Peggy were busy restraining Mrs. Salazar and her single remaining cohort.
    The captain was saying something like, probe the ship. See if we can hack its systems and two dozen mechs stood stock still, frozen by the all-stop.
    The all-stop was pasted in blood. The person in charge of it had been popped like a zit by whatever energy weapon Mrs. Salazar had used on him. Mr. Humboldt switched it off and we made our way back to the command room.
    Rick was explaining to the new captain that he had to take the suit bay off-line. If he didn’t, he risked more saboteurs uploading themselves from Mars’ orbit to the ship.
    Mrs. Salazar smirked and Peggy slapped her so hard in her fake, rubber face that her nose broke off. Peggy laughed like a nut and stepped on the nose. She ground it into paste beneath her immense foot.
    To her credit, Mrs. Salazar didn’t seem too fazed.
    The students’ mechs were now mobile again. Luckily each of them had a magnetic nametag on or there was no way I’d be able to tell who was who.
    The captain said to Rick, “I need to keep the link to camp Eighty Seven open long enough to get these kids out of here. I need soldiers in those suits, not children.”
    Rick shook his monolith sized head. “If there are Skeptics at camp Eighty Seven still, then you’d be sending the children to their deaths.”
    “I don’t care. This is bigger than the lives of a couple dozen kids. I need experience.”
    Rick slammed his fist down on the captain’s console hard enough to get all of our attention. “It’s within my rights to take command of this vessel. You know who I am. You know I’ll do it. The kids stay.”
    The captain shook his head