Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

“Dean!” I heard Stacy yell over the new blaster fire that erupted between the two factions. I wanted to yell that I was okay, but I was still somewhat breathless.

“More, deeper into the stairwell!” Sulk roared.

“Let them have it, now!” Dama ordered. The Rung let loose with a volley from their blasters.

“We can’t see them back there!” Tong added, panic rising in his voice.

I heard and processed all of this activity as I struggled up to my hands and knees. Oxygen was finally being allowed back into my lungs, and consequently, my brain. I looked down at the Remboshi armor, saying a silent prayer of thanks, remembering Lou’s simple words as he led us in prayer. The blaster hadn’t penetrated the armor. While the injury definitely sucked, it could have been a lot worse.

“Dean,” Stacy said by my side a minute later. She half dragged half carried me behind the firing line of the Rung warriors. “Dean, are you hurt?”

“Bruised a little, but it didn’t get through the armor,” I wheezed, finding my first long breath. “Ribs ache, but I’ll be fine.”

“We can’t see anything, it’s too dark!” John bellowed. ‘We either have to go in or retreat.”

“Follow me!” Maksim said.

I looked up in time to see the crazy son of a gun rush into the dark room, and I wondered if everyone would listen to him. How he didn’t get hit by either the rounds from the Rung or the infected inside was a true miracle in my eyes. The guy was like a cockroach.

The next second, he was gone, having disappeared into the stairwell. Sounds of fighting could be heard a second later. Everyone that was remaining waited for Dama to give the next directive.

“Cease fire!” Dama ordered. “Blades!”

The Rung warriors obeyed, holstering their weapons. Dama was the first to charge the stairwell, followed by Sulk, who wielded his blade above his head, clicking madly, and his band of assassins. The rest of the Rung warriors came next, right on their heels.

“These Rung are crazy,” John said under his breath as he and Tong jogged over to help me. “Dean, you good?”

“I’ll live,” I said, regaining my feet as they reached down, extended their hands, and hoisted me up as an assist. I went over and picked up my weapon.

“Let’s get in there and help them,” Stacy said, reaching for the Remboshi light blade that was called a ray. “Blades only. We don’t want to hit one of our own.”

I slung the Dragon’s Breath over my shoulder and grabbed the Skull Splitter.

The weight and grip of the weapon felt right in my hands, as if we were meant for each other. Grunts and screams and thuds could be heard from the darkened stairwell.

We rushed in, stepping carefully over the first wave of the dead infected that littered the ground like so many discarded peanut shells.

My heart rate doubled in speed again as we observed the battle taking place in the dark between the Rung and infected. The stairwell was a large room with steps going up on one side and down on the other.

Flashlights were on again as the combatants sought to outmaneuver and disable one another. The beams of light flashed and scattered around on the action, giving the area a surreal appearance as the Rung diced and sliced their way through the infected, felling more than falling themselves.

“Dean, keep on moving down to the next level!” Dama yelled from somewhere near the front of the pack. We were making progress through, and that was reassuring.

“Stay close!” I yelled to Stacy, John, and Tong. “We have to hurry. The longer we take to get to the armor, the more time Legion has to get more infected to our location.”

“Warriors!” Dama said, hearing my warning. “Forward as fast as you can!”

The Rung warriors turned into a meat grinder. Our columns moved forward, continuing to slice their way through the infected horde like a bulldozer pushing through piles of dirt.

I moved to the center of the pack, striking out with my hammer at whatever poor soul was unlucky enough to live past the initial lines of the Rung powerhouse.

I didn’t think about what I was doing. I couldn’t think about it, or even process the sound or sight of what I was seeing and hearing. Slicing through meat and crushing skulls was not something I ever wanted to do again, but if we didn’t make it to that armor, we were all dead. Not just us. If Legion got off planet, how many more innocent beings could be lost?

I took my thoughts out of my actions and simply reacted on instinct, swinging back and forth through the horde with my Skull Splitter, which was certainly living up to its name.

We paid for every step we took. As the Rung in the front lines tired, we relieved them, and they retreated to the back for a few minutes’ respite. At one point, I found myself fighting with Tong on my left and Maksim on the right. There was no time for talking as we pushed forward, hacking, kicking out, and always moving forward.

There wasn’t a single one of us not covered in the black substance that was a part of Legion. We pressed forward to the bottom of the stairwell and to the next level below.

Only then did Legion finally let up.

More than one Rung warrior collapsed from wounds and exhaustion.

“We can’t stop. Not yet,” I said, going over to Tong, who had fallen on his hands and knees.

The Remboshi took off his helmet to throw up on the ground in front of him, his shoulders heaving as he did so.

“We killed—we killed so many of them,” Tong gasped after vomiting again and gasping for breath as he spoke in a weakened voice. “They just kept coming at us like they wanted to die. I killed so many of them.” He was obviously traumatized, but I had to snap him out