Warrior Chronicles 2: Warrior's Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

possible.” Cort looked at them all. “I’m only going to say this once. If this goes south, that is, if it goes badly, you lock down. No one but family. You have my old-style body armor and weapons. Use them. Start working on defensive plans. Most importantly, do NOT attempt to help me. Am I clear?”
     
    “Yes, sir,” Rand said as Kay and John nodded.
     
    “Good. I’m loaded up. I’ll be back.”
     
    --
     
    Oxia Palus
     
    “Give me a threat analysis, Chief,” Cort said as he drove the last kilometer to the colony.
     
    “What’s a threat analysis?” Rhodes responded.
     
    “I thought you were military. Your job, the title ‘Chief’, how did you serve?”
     
    “I didn’t. Chief is what my mother named me.”
     
    “Oh, shit. It’s your given name. I see.” Cort’s job just got a lot harder. “Where are they and which of them are the greatest threats to my success tonight?”
     
    “There are six in the main common area. That’s the place their ‘night shift’ hangs out most of the time.”
     
    “Okay. Is Keen with you yet?”
     
    “I’m here, Mr. Addison,” Keen responded.
     
    “Override security now. Lock everyone up, wherever they are. Rhodes, only open doors as I approach them, and constantly feed me their locations. Tag them ‘red’ with the software I sent you. Got it?”
     
    “Yes, sir. I’ll start feeding it now. Keen has locked the facility down. Only my console has airlock and entry access.”
     
    “How many colonists are outside their quarters?” Cort asked.
     
    “Three hundred or so, mostly service people in other areas of the base. People avoid the main commons at night.”
     
    “Tag the good guys green with the software. I don’t want to shoot the wrong people. As you well know, I don’t use disruptors. I’m not here to arrest them. They all die tonight.”
     
    Cort watched the display light up like a Christmas tree with over a hundred red lights and hundreds more that were green. “That’s too much information. Can you only feed me ‘greens’ for areas I’m approaching??”
     
    Rhodes studied his console. “Stand by.” A moment later he said, “Yeah, I can do that. Good thinking.”
     
    Cort had an idea. “Do they have any kind of night vision gear?”
     
    “You mean like IR stuff? No. They only carry prowlers and disruptors. Why?”
     
    “As I open the inner airlock kill the lights in the corridors and their quarters. I can see in the dark. They can’t. Kill the emergency lights too.”
     
    “Okay. Can I ask you something Mr. Addison?” Keen didn’t wait for a response before he said, “How does a man become so adept at this? How did you become such a man?”
     
    “Too much practice, Mr. Keen. I’m coming in.”
     
    --
     
    As the inner airlock spun open like, Cort’s night vision illuminated the area perfectly for him. He broke into a run toward the common area Smith’s men were in. It appeared Rhodes mistimed Cort’s speed, and Cort rammed the doors to that area like a bulldozer. The door sections flew inward and landed on the other side of the room.
     
    “Don’t let that happen again Rhodes. Anticipate my speed and direction.” He raised his MAT carbine and fired a dozen rounds into the room.
     
    “I can’t. The lights are out. Sorry,” Rhodes said.
     
    “Fuck. You don’t have IR?”
     
    “Not inside.”
     
    “Okay. Those six are dead anyway. Bring the lights back up. Except in their quarters. I’m heading there now.”
     
    As Rhodes and Keen brought the lights back online, they were shocked. They shouldn’t have been after seeing what Addison had done to Taps’ men the last time he was here, but they were. Blood was everywhere. One half of the door set had destroyed a billiard table. The other was lodged in a wall to the kitchen area. But the real destruction was the bodies. There were six corpses lying around the room. None of them had heads. One was also missing a shoulder and arm. They hadn’t been