Blade Through The Heart – Carrie Vaughn

But over comms I tell her, “I’ve got this.” And what do you know, she backs off. I pop open my faceplate and try to look nonthreatening, even while I’m keyed up and stressed out and wearing a combat-grade hard-shell environment suit. Avery’s fists are closed, and she’s got this jaw-clenched expression of desperation, like she thinks she’s going to have to fight me, however useless that would be.

“I’m Commander Graff of the TGS Visigoth. This is your rescue.” She breathes out a sigh and drops to her knees. We don’t have enough water and ration bars for everyone, but we distribute what we have, just to get people woken up and on their feet. This many hostages changes our escape plan. I don’t think we can bring everyone back to the tower roof for extraction by shuttle.

The bombardments are getting closer, and the periodic explosions rattling dust from the ceiling aren’t helping anyone’s mood. I dig into my very good memory to review the schematic of the tunnel systems, various ingress and egress points, whatever reconnaissance could tell us. We’d skipped ground-level exits before, assuming they’d be too well guarded. I send Brown to scout ahead to find the path of least resistance, with instructions on where the likely exits are.

I tap Xun’s shoulder. “See, that right there is one of my enhancements. Detailed instant memory access? That’s artificial. You didn’t even ask.” She stares. “I just always thought you had a really good memory.” “I do.” I’m a little offended. “Yeah, but not like artificially good.” If I’ve had it my whole life, is it even artificial? Avery explains the extra people. They folded a group of Trade Guild diplomatic observers into the medical unit when fighting broke out.

They were two hours from a planned extraction when the fortress people captured them. “I’ve got four injured,” she says, when I ask for a briefing. “Three ambulatory, but one has a broken leg. Stable now, but—” “Right. It’s fine, this is just the kind of thing we do.” More complications. Wouldn’t want the job to get too easy, right? Kind of thrilling, facing a challenge I know we’re prepared for. Everything would have to go just right for us to pull this off. So we have to make sure it does.

“But there’s just three of you!” She sounds skeptical. I’m really tired of skepticism just now. “You’ll have to trust me. We’ve done this before.” “I’m just … depressed that this kind of thing happens that often.” Yeah. “We need to work out a marching order.”

Thank you for buying this Tor Publishing Group ebook. To receive special offers, bonus content, and info on new releases and other great reads, sign up for our newsletters. Or visit us online at us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup For email updates on the author, click here. 1kitap1.com/en The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way.

You may not copy, reproduce, or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillan.com/piracy. 1kitap1.com/en The three of us perch on a ridiculous tower on an impregnable fortress on an inhospitable planet at the start of an unexpected war.

Bombardments pound back and forth on the front lines some ten kilometers away, with primitive gunpowder-launched projectiles, the shit people used to mix up by hand and shove into iron tubes with sticks. It sounds like endless thunder. “Is this a joke?” Xun asked when we reached the tower after our insertion a few kilometers back on the mountain and got our first look at the local infantry: maybe fifty guys in homespuns carrying spears and swords.

We have stun pistols and plasma weapons. We could take over the whole region without effort. “It’s feudalism,” Brown answered. Xun huffed. “Yeah, but why?” “Because when you have a planet like this with shitty conditions and not many resources, people band together for protection, and then one guy takes over everything, and…” He waved his hand at our surroundings, a wordless conclusion. Except usually, you get a few guys trying to take over everything, and they start fighting with each other, and the Trade Guild medical outreach mission that was here trying to vaccinate children and teach about clean water gets caught in the middle and taken hostage.

The Visigoth crew has a pretty specialized skill set, getting into and out of situations like this, both in space and on the ground.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 763bb330db22b3b3
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,501,430 bytes (5.247 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 34
• Language: English (en)

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