Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and right, as if confused about what was happening. I used the opportunity to swipe one of his legs with my own. The shaking already had him off-balance, so when I tripped him, he fell over onto his back.
    “His arms and legs started wriggling madly. He wasn’t stuck, but just like a lot of Old Earth insects, he had trouble getting up from a recumbent position. As I got to my feet, he stopped struggling long enough to swing at me with the lance, but from the way he was laying, he couldn’t get power or accuracy. I gripped it by the shaft, then yanked it away from him.
    “Remembering Cho, I sliced down at him with the blade – not knowing where any weak spot was, just trying to do some damage. He twisted wildly, and the blade ended up connecting with one of the middle arms, severing it almost where it joined his body. If I thought his limbs were wriggling crazily before I was wrong, because now he was like an insane octopus.
    “Before I could strike again, there was movement in the corridor that I had tossed the flash grenade into before. The bugs in there were recovering. I flung the lance in that direction, not knowing if it was going to hit anything, then I turned and gave the one on top of the shuttle with me a good solid kick in the side.
    “I didn’t hold anything back, and with the armor augmenting the force of my punt, he went flying. A second or so later, he was outside the shuttle’s gravity and started to float.
    “Satisfied, I scrambled into the shuttle. Powell was still strapping Bennett in, so I jumped into the pilot’s seat and took us out of there, not even bothering to take my helmet off. Surprisingly, our ship was still there, waiting.”
    Browing lifted an eyebrow. “And that was surprising because…?”
    “The entire time we’d been fighting our way back to the derelict’s landing bay, I had been in contact with our ship, the Orpheus Moon . She was helmed by Captain Wendren, a good man. I had ordered him to take off as soon as the attack started, but he hadn’t.”
    “Wait a minute,” Dr. Chantrey said. “You were a master sergeant – a non-commissioned officer. Since when does a NCO give a captain orders?”
    “I can answer that,” General Kroner interjected. “The captain was in charge of the ship, but Gant was in command of the mission. As his assignment took priority, Gant had the authority to direct Captain Wendren’s actions.”
    “As I was saying,” Maker continued, “Captain Wendren disregarded my order to leave. Even more, he kept the ship’s shields down so that our shuttle could make it back. And we almost did.
    “We were closing in on the landing bay when this vessel just appeared out of nowhere. It was an alien construct – again, something foreign to my experience – but there was no doubt that it was a warship. Cannons, turrets, missile tubes…after enough campaigns, you learn to recognize weapons, no matter how exotic the design. And the barrel swinging towards us was another dead giveaway.
    “A second later we got hit by…something. Whatever they nailed us with, it wasn’t like laser or plasma fire, shearing through metal like a giant overheated scalpel. Instead, it was like a fist punching through a paper bag; one second we were fine, and the next, the rear portion of the shuttle – where Bennett had been – was pretty much ripped away. As for Powell, he hadn’t strapped in. Even worse, he’d taken his helmet off. He was sucked out into the void, screaming.
    “We were already on our final approach when the shuttle got hit. Afterwards, I fought like the devil just to crash the thing. As it was, the shuttle scraped along one wall, gouging the metal of the hull but, thankfully, not piercing it. Then it skidded along the bay floor, sparks flying like fireworks, before banging into another shuttle and coming to a halt.
    “I unstrapped myself and raced out of the shuttle through the torn-open rear. Klaxons were sounding all over, and the bay doors were