John Ringo: East of the Sun, West of the Moon

But they were getting close enough he had to wonder if he could connect to the New Destiny power systems. If he could, this fight would be over fast.

“Mother, are you out there?”

Ferdous Dhanapal thoroughly enjoyed fighting orcs. He’d liked fighting before the Fall, competing in boxing and martial arts but only if the pain circuits were dialed down. He just enjoyed beating the hell out of a tough opponent.

And these orcs weren’t exactly easy. The full suit of armor made them clumsy, but with their long halberds pushed forward, it was hard to get down to the suit. He’d flicked a magnet at them, fending off the halberds with his light buckler, but the suits weren’t magnetic.

He blocked one of the halberds up with the buckler and ducked under it, pushing another to the side and pinning two of the orcs against the back wall.

“Berghaus, get in here and pound these sons of bitches,” he snarled, pressing into the crossed halberd with both hands. “Puncture their armor.”

“Think you’re smart, do you?” Tur-uck muttered, snatching a halberd away from one of the Durgar. The Blood Lord had Garack and Purdop pinned in the entryway, but while he was doing that he couldn’t defend himself. The spearhead of the halberd darted in and out like a snake.

“Aaaaarrrr!” Ferdous shouted, reaching up to clamp a hand over his left bicep where the halberd head had slipped past the armor. The wound was spouting red into the vacuum faster than he could stop it and he could feel his arm going numb as blood pumped out through the small cut. The suit gel was spurting out as well, creating a small cloud in the entryway. He let go of the cut and reached for his mace, slamming the spike into the armor of the orc on his right as he stumbled backwards. His left arm was useless, he couldn’t even feel it anymore, and the air in the airlock was filled with a red cloud.

And his heater system was failing as well, he was getting cold…

Manos Berghaus didn’t like his situation at all. As his triari sergeant stumbled backwards, his mace buried in the helmet of the left-hand Durgar, the halberd dropped way from the right-hand one and more started flooding through the human-sized hole in the airlock door.

The Durgar had mostly dropped their halberds and drawn their short, broad, curved swords, which were far more useful in the tight confines of the airlock. The swords were about as long as the gladius the Blood Lords carried but much heavier, almost like cleavers.

Berghaus blocked the blow from the first Durgar through the door as he slammed his mace into the right arm-joint of the right-hand Durgar’s armor. It didn’t pop the seal but the articulation was cracked and the Durgar at least couldn’t use that arm.

He backed up to give himself room and swung overhand at the Durgar on his left as Line Sergeant Nasrin slid into place beside him. Two more Durgar had forced their way in and Nasrin took the right-hand one as Berghaus fought the left.

There wasn’t much room to swing the mace but there was enough and Berghaus flipped it around so he was striking with the spike end. He caught the next blow from the Durgar’s sword partially on its buckler but it slid off, skittering across his lorica in a shower of sparks. Berghaus slid up under the Durgar’s arm and swung upwards, slamming the spike into the underside of the Durgar’s arm and then working it out with a back and forth motion like a can opener.

However, before he could get the spike all the way out, the Durgar whose arm he’d damaged proved he could work with both hands, slamming his cleaverlike sword into the Blood Lord’s extended arm. The heavy hacking blade chopped right through the grieve on that arm and sliced open his suit.

“Herzer, Berghaus and Ferdous are down,” Cruz said, panting. “It’s pretty tight in here.”

“Just hold on another second,” Herzer said, watching the group of techs retreat. “Then turn around and run like hell.”

“Will do,” Cruz replied. “We’re faster than they are, that’s for sure. Give me the word when you’re ready.”

“Any sign of the scorps?” Herzer asked.

“None,” Cruz admitted. “I don’t think they want to mingle them with the Durgar.”

“Or they’re somewhere else,” Herzer said as he looked over his shoulder. The entire group of techs, and Megan, had already cycled through the far airlock.

“Going somewhere, Councilwoman?” Reyes said to himself as the group of Blood Lords climbed out of the airlock onto the hull of the ship. He’d gathered his six remaining scorpions and now waited in ambush. “Fire,” he said, gesturing at the scorpions.

“Bloody hell,” Sergeant Yamada said as the line of scorpions squirted at the Blood Lords. The scorps had been low to the hull and he hadn’t actually seen them until he was fully emerged. The viscous fluid seemed to drift through the microgravity at them and he ducked so that most of the material passed overhead. But from the screams on the net, some of it had impacted. And the scorpions were charging the suddenly broken line of Blood Lords.

Megan lifted herself out on the far side of the hatch from the Blood Lords, her eyes still closed. Using the energy from the engines was getting easier, she could feel when she had hold of something solid. Of course, she’d probably done some damage to the ship finding those solid holds, but that was the price of trying to stop it plummeting to the Earth.

She turned as she heard the screams and her control dropped away at the sight of the line of scorpions. And the ejected acid from their tails.

“Mother!” she called, hoping against hope that they were inside the area of the protocols.

“Holy shit,” Nicole said, backing away from the Blood Lords and ducking to let the spittle fly by. The scorpions had fired as they would in gravity and the majority of the fluid went past overhead. But she was not about to stick around to get hit with the next firing. She grabbed the bar by the opening of the airlock and ducked back in, huddling by the inner door. Most of the techs had climbed back in for that matter. Better than being out where the scorpions could get them.

“Megan,” she snapped, “get out of there.”

“Yes, Megan,” Mother said.

“Personal protection fields on all our people,” Megan said. “Right now. Use the ship power I have access to. Can you?”

“No, Megan,” Mother replied. “The field is attuned to you and is specifically locked out from my control. If you were closer, I could override that. But from here, I cannot at this time.”

“Shit,” Megan said. There were only five Blood Lords standing and the scorpions had closed with them. Reyes was standing behind with three of the Durgar, watching the fight. “Herzer, we need help here,” she said, dialing the airlock shut and stumping “downward” on the ship. Reyes was probably after her. Let him chase her and leave the others alone.

“Move,” Herzer said, looking at Van Buskirk’s team. “Cruz, pull back. Megan’s getting hit on the far side.”

He turned and flat out ran to the far airlock, keying the inner door open and then the outer door, overriding the safeties to clear the way fully.

He entered the lock and grabbed the overhead grab-bar, swinging himself up and onto the surface of the ship.

The only Blood Lord still standing when he got there was Van Krief and she was battling three scorpions, using her gladius in one hand and mace in the other to keep them at bay. Two of the other three scorpions were stuck on the deck, unmoving and presumably dead, while the area above the deck was littered with the desiccated bodies of the dead Blood Lords. Since the ship wasn’t accelerating, they were drifting slowly along with it. As his feet hit the deck, he saw her lean right to avoid a shot of acid but then the right-hand scorpion slipped past her guard and got its claw on her arm.