Grace Goodwin - Fighting For Their Mate

Beside me, Jack’s face was grim. “And if he goes beast?”

Jack knew the answer to his own question, but our entire unit needed to hear it. “We keep the integrated Atlan busy until the charges blow. Whatever happens, no one gets past us. Are we clear?” The experimental DPG, Disruption Prototype Grenade, was so new, we would be the first to use it. The Coalition Intelligence Core had gotten their hands on some new Hive tech, tech my friend Meghan had taken from the skull of a blue freak in a cave during the battle on Latiri 4. I didn’t know much, and she couldn’t tell me more, but I was willing to try anything to get my soldiers off this ship alive.

“Crystal.” That smoky, sultry voice belonged to Trinity, the only woman on my team, a hardworking, hard-playing Brit from somewhere around London. She’d been with me for two months and I didn’t know her story. I didn’t bother to learn their stories anymore. I’d lost so many soldiers to the fucking Hive, learning the details just made it hurt more when they died. Near as I could figure, I lost about a third of the team every few months.

The odds of going home were pretty much zero, and we all knew it. How I’d survived for so long, I would never understand. The other ReCon teams had started calling me Nine, as in nine lives, like a cat. I knew the truth. I’d been lucky. When the Hive took me the first time, my sister, Sarah, and her beast had come for me and dragged me out of hell. After that, I’d been more cautious, more meticulous in my planning. But nothing I did saved everyone. They all thought I was a lucky charm. Everyone wanted to be on ReCon 3.

“You’re out of time, Mills.” Captain Dorian’s voice was harsh and a roar reverberated through the corridor with such force that the vibrations passed through my chest like a clap of thunder.

“Holy shit.” That was Trinity, and she spoke for all of us. The Atlan had gone beast. A cyborg enhanced, Hive controlled, beast.

“Keep your shit together, people. Ion blasters will take him down. We’ll take them all down.”

“Not without dying, we won’t,” Trinity said.

“We’re all going to fucking die anyway, Trin. So shut the fuck up and do your job.” That was Jack, my second-in-command, and that hardcore order was the reason. “Unless you want that beast getting back to the Karter and taking out the whole goddamned world.”

Battlegroup Karter was a collection of ten military and civilian ships holding this sector of space from Hive advancement. More than five thousand warriors plus civilian support staff, mates and children lived under Commander Karter’s protection. And we served Karter. “These bastards aren’t getting anywhere near the Karter.” We spoke specifically of the main battleship where we were stationed, but the nickname covered the entire group. My voice was a snarl but it calmed everyone down just in time.

Another roar.

One more turn. Thirty steps. Maybe less.

I motioned the bulk of my team to stay back and ran forward with Jack and two others on my right. DPG in my left hand, blaster rifle in my right.

“Low.” I yelled as I slid down onto one knee and threw the DPG. “Fire in the hole!”

The Prillon warriors were close enough that I heard them shout and take cover. The Hive…I had no idea what the Hive did because my men and I were crouched on the other side of the turn, ears covered. Waiting for a blast that never came.

“One-one-thousand. Two-one-thousand. Three-one-thousand.” Jack counted out as we waited.

Nothing.

“Well, we can officially tell the IC that was a bloody dud,” Trinity’s clipped British accent was icing on the cake.

Swinging around with my rifle, I took a look. The Hive were doubled over in silent screams, hands covering their ears. Two vomited, several stumbled into one another. They were disoriented and scrambling, confused. The DPG was working…on the Hive.

Except the beast wasn’t affected. He stood, hands in fists at his sides, staring me straight in the eye. Shaking. He was shaking, but not reacting as the other Hive were. I couldn’t explain the way the DPG worked and I didn’t want to take the time now to figure it out. But, it was obvious it was set up to fuck with those fully integrated and the beast’s response proved there was still some Atlan left.

Jack peeked around behind me and yelled for the others. “Take them all out. Now. Shoot to kill. Open fire.”

The rest of the unit raced up the corridor behind us and it was like shooting fish in a barrel. The beast took a hit to his shoulder. His leg. His hip. The rest of the Hive Soldiers, mostly Prillon warriors converted by their evil Integration Units into Hive servants, were going down easy. But not the beast. Killing an Atlan in beast mode was difficult, but I’d never seen one take so many direct hits and stay on his feet. Hell, he acted like we were shooting paint balls at him.

I didn’t want to kill the beast, but I had no doubt, if he were in his right mind, he’d prefer death to the condition he was in now. I’d been a Hive prisoner, faced the possibility of being turned into a mindless drone. The reality was beyond terrifying. I had fought alongside enough of the other alien races to know their warriors felt the exact same way I did.

Even my sister’s mate, the Atlan Warlord Dax, had spoken of it on many occasions. No one wanted to end up covered in Hive tech, mind not his own.

It was a fate worse than death. And this poor Atlan? He needed to die for his own good.

“Hit them all. Trinity, you’re with me. Focus your fire on the beast. We need to take him out.”

The Hive Soldiers were falling fast. It took three or four shots to take them down, but they were still frozen, paralyzed by the new experimental weapon vibrating at their feet with a strange, high-pitched whine, like the buzz coming off high voltage electrical wires. My team and the Prillons inside the other room fired without mercy. Some of these Soldiers were once Prillon warriors, or Trion, or human. Hell, I had no idea where they were from. Some had oddities that I assumed had come from halfway across the galaxy, in a world I’d never seen or heard of.

We all knew death was better than being a Hive. Not only was the existence hell, but we would be turned into killing machines. Killing Coalition fighters, those we’d fought beside until the Hive took over.

And a mindless beast could destroy entire ships. There was a reason they built containment cells on their home world. Executed unmated beasts after a certain age. They were one-man wrecking crews.

I shot the beast, dead center in the chest. A merciful kill shot to his heart. He barely swayed.

“Jesus, what did they do to him?” Jack came up on my left, Trinity on my right and we all aimed at the beast just as he lifted his huge hands and removed his helmet. Most of his face was covered in silver, but there were pieces of him showing through. Dark eyes. Not silver.

I lifted my rifle for a headshot and his gaze locked with mine. Sane. Himself. Desperate. Hands at his sides, he dropped the helmet on the floor and waited for me to kill him. What the hell?

I hesitated.

“Kill me, Mills.” The deep voice rumbled, but not with threat. It was a plea. And how the hell did this Atlan know my name?

“Do it now. I am Warlord Anghar. Kill me.”

“Shit. Angh?” My body turned to stone. This was Warlord Nyko’s friend. Nyko’s best friend and commander. I’d served with him for two years and hadn’t known he’d been taken by the Hive. Fuck. Shit. “Damn it. Hold your fire.”

I glanced to Trinity and Jack, the raw pain I saw in Trinity’s eyes a shock. Jack, however, looked at me like I had lost my damn mind.

“As soon as that signal goes down, he’s going to be gone. You know that.” Jack grimaced, his rifle still aimed. Steady.