Chapter Twelve—Return

The explosion sent a shockwave of debris across the forest floor. Kyle jumped behind a tree root for cover as the ground underneath him shook.

Thanking the gods that these trees provided a lot of cover and protection because of their extremely thick trunks Kyle snarled. “Fuckers!”

Getting back up from his sudden cowering from the laser, he peeked out and fired his entire clip through the canopy at the Strogaus shuttle.

He knew he was hitting it, because the sound of his lasers impacting the hull were thunderous and explosive.

Lasers from the ground came through the ferns. One of them nearly fried his head as he ducked down.

“May!” he called. “May—are you still alive?”

“No thanks to you!”

“I’m coming!”

“I’m almost out of rounds. I got one mag left!”

Grunting heavily as he got up, Kyle leaned out and a laser scored the tree in front of him as he moved back jerkily.

“I’m pinned!” Kyle said.

“Fuck!”

“As much as I’d like that—I’m kinda busy.”

“Not the time, Kyle!”

The coms chirped, indicating the third party speaking after remaining silent for some time. “The ship’s ready to go.”

“On our way,” May said. “By the way… Kyle?”

“Yeah?”

“Staxx just called me a minute ago.”

With a sigh of relief, Kyle put his rifle out while keeping under cover and shot off an entire clip of energy rounds—then he lurched out from his place of hiding and ran.

Lasers came through the clearing and crackled past him as he came to a cops of particularly thick trees.

Because of the protection, he kept running as lasers scored the trunks, but none of them came through the gaps.

May in her black latex came into view as he ran through a group of ferns. She was sitting down behind a fallen tree. She saw him just as a Strogaus agent all in black rounded the upturned roots.

She lifted her rifle and fired a fusillade of lasers at him. One landed, cracking his BD-S unit, the energy barrier shattering as Kyle fired the finishing round that scored a direct hit on his chest.

As he ran to her, lasers passed him overhead making the air crackle with lethal energy.

“Kyle—you idiot!” she screamed. “Get down!”

He landed on his hip next to her. “Hey!”

“I knew you were crazy—but I didn’t know you were nuts.”

The Strogaus shuttle hovered over the trees, blowing the canopy about violently. May covered her face with her arm as Kyle did the same thing.

“If they know we’re here, we’re done.”

“Let’s go!” Kyle screamed.

“We can’t! They’ll shoot us in the back.”

“Shit!”

The sound of a rail gun echoed through the trees. Kyle glanced about.

That’s got to be…

“That’s John!”

“How do you know?”

“I know!”