8. Celestial Specters
8
Celestial Specters
Ki’REMI
T he Rider jerked awake to consciousness and the acrid pall of burning components and smoke.
The ship was half-buried in the dense rainforest, thick vines and fragmented trunks tangled around the wreckage.
The entire starboard of the vessel was sheared off, letting in the jungle, creepers, rocks, and shattered tree limbs and branches.
Inside, the cabin was chaotic.
Systems flickering, emergency lights blinking.
He pushed himself up, shaking off the disorientation.
‘Everyone alive?’ he growled.
His eyes lit on a figure moving through the compartment, stepping over the carnage.
Issa, safe and sound.
A stab of relief went through him until an unbidden rush of feeling ripped through him.
Why the fokk was he so vested in her wellness?
He ignored his musing, leaping to his feet to assist.
Issa was on Zera, whose hover chair was still upright, checking vitals, pressing fingers to the Allorian woman’s throat.
Klash, still out for the count, was being attended to by Juno while Bear was racing to the armory.
Issa glanced up as he approached, her visor up, her eyes unreadable.
Ki’Remi’s voice was pure gravel. ‘If you’re responsible for this shit -.’
The sky erupted into a maelstrom of heavy fire.
‘Incoming,’ Riva shouted from the edge of the sheared-off hull, where she stood guard, weapons hot.
Energy lasers rained down, turning the clearing around the ship into hell.
Riva returned fire as Bear joined her.
Ki’Remi raced to the rear deck and slammed open the munitions hold, pulling out an armored suit.
Fokk yeah.
Twas Sable tech, the best freakin’ combat gear in Pegasi.
He stripped, got the battle attire to his waist, and jammed on a HUD helmet in rapid jerks, pausing as steps sounded behind him.
He turned to see Issa standing there, her eyes dilated as she stared at his naked chest.
‘What the fokk do you want?’ he growled.
‘I’m coming with you,’ she announced.
‘The hell you’re not.’
‘You’ll require backup.’
He was on the cusp of retorting when he caught the look in her eye.
She knew more than she was letting on.
‘The fokk who’s out there will tear your ass up.’
‘No offense, but I’ve never witnessed you in battle,’ he groused. ‘I’m better equipped to do this with Bear. He’ll have my six, given his heavy extraction and defensive experience. You need to evacuate with the others. We’ll cover you.’
‘ Nada ,’ she countered, reaching for a power suit.
‘You have no combat expertise, woman,’ he growled, coming up so close to her they almost touched. ‘You’ll be toast. Keep to the fokkin orders I give.’
She smirked. ‘No chance, Sable. Let’s see who bleeds first.’
They glared at each other as Bear and Riva crashed into the space.
‘We need to get the fokk out,’ Bear snarled. ‘The assault ship is now landing their soldiers.’
Juno had Zera and Klash in hover med chairs outside the corridor, and Ki’Remi prowled to them.
‘How bad is he?’ he rasped, gesturing at Klash.
A concussion,’ Riva called. ‘We have to get to cover.’
‘Will we die?’
The halting question came from Zera, strapped in her chair, still on a drip and appearing wan and frail.
‘ Nada , no fokkin ’ way,’ the Sableman countered. ‘My ancestors would be horrified by your implication, for I never let anyone in my care get harmed.’
He gave the young woman a comforting chin lift, and she shot him a tentative smile.
Taking an inhaled hiss of breath to gather himself together, he addressed the crew. ‘Riva, you go with Juno, need to get Klash and Zera out and into a cave or some shit like that with adequate shelter. Bear and me -.’
‘And I -’ Issa called.’
He ignored her. ‘We’ll rock up to these mofos and push back on their freakin’ cowardice, attacking a medical ship.’
‘ Fokk them,’ Issa snarled.
‘For now,’ he growled, ‘take cover in the rear deck. Its shielding is holding.’
The team obeyed, moving off.
Out of the corner of his gaze, he spotted Issa reach for the meta suit hanging in the weapons locker.
She stripped in seconds, revealing flesh.
He canted his eyes away to protect her privacy, but his eyes could not unsee what he caught a flash of.
Curves for days, tits high and tipped with rosy pebbled nipples, voluptuous waist, and rounded hips between which nestled a dark lushness.
Scorching desire burned under his skin.
Fokk!
Also, how fast and efficiently she’d undressed was like a soldier.
Unashamed, comfortable with nudity, fast to suit up, readying for battle.
Which only added more intrigue to his growing list of questions.
‘Almost ready.’
He swiveled to see Issa zip up the smart meta under-suit over her form.
It was designed to handle any concussive forces and had sensors built into key points to provide biofeedback to the powered joints and musculature.
It likewise helped with load support and tracked body functions.
When she smoothed her palms over the material, it contoured around her sexy, rounded curves, and he almost groaned.
She lifted her eyes to meet his, sensing his torn reaction to her.
Another burst of firepower sounded outside.
Without a word, he handed her the suit’s hard exo frame, a meta-flow textile.
‘It can resist any ballistic ordnance and laser beams. Its features include full stealth mode that extends to any weapons in your hands.’
Selene took the exterior armor from him and stepped into it.
Its metanoid-enhanced fabric appeared to come alive, sliding over her body, the overlapping flexible panels snapping into place.
Noids formed into anti-grav boots at her feet, with rugged neo-steel outer soles appearing under the incredible velvet-like insole.
‘Nice,’ she murmured, admiring the result.
‘Tis only the best,’ he rasped. ‘The nanoids embedded into the plates will counteract any dents or impacts and intuitively ‘heal’ the suit. It can withstand most kinetic forces and resist heat up to 1500 degrees Celsius. Plus, it houses a respirator that can stay powered for up to 25 hours. It also has inbuilt force amplification, which means you can jump up to six feet high and punch through light walls if needed.’
She slid on the headgear, with its shade guard up, as a 360-degree holo HUD lit up over her face, showing a full charge and scrolling telemetry.
He locked his laser blaster and rifle into place.
Issa did the same, checking her firearm with the precision of a soldier.
His eyes narrowed as she strapped it on.
She was freakin’ familiar with heavy weapons.
Again, her mystery grew.
She met his gaze and waggled her brows in a cheeky challenge.
He tapped his helmet, lowering the visor as he sucked his teeth. ‘On me. Tis your funeral.’
Ki’Remi’s neural HUD flashed a warning across his vision.
Hostile ground forces inbound.
‘Go! Now!’ he barked to his fellow medics.
The rear cargo door of the Ravager-Class cruiser screeched open, steam hissing from its hydraulics.
Juno sprinted forward, guiding Zera in her hover chair between them.
The Allorian young woman’s breaths heightened with fear as she attempted to ward off hyperventilated panic.
Alongside them, Riva ran with Klash, also in a hover chair.
Bear lumbered behind, covering their retreat, his massive frame moving like a living tank.
The sky split up once again.
Fire rained from the enemy ship overhead, golden lethal streaks ripping through the jungle.
Ki’Remi focused on giving the crew cover as they raced away from their ship, as it was hit with an incendiary bolt of freakin’ energy.
It blew with such force it knocked the running group to their knees.
Around them, trees groaned and splintered, their immense trunks collapsing into the undergrowth like felled giants.
Shadows flickered across the dense canopy.
Tall, humanoid figures descending, their celestial armor gleaming under the fire-lit sky.
‘Go!’ Ki’Remi growled to the team via their HUDs.
They rose and continued their zigzag run through the unfamiliar territory.
Bear grunted as a rail-gun blast tore into his flank, cutting through his heavy combat vest like paper.
He staggered and dropped, going down hard, massive limbs tangling in the foliage, his blood pooling dark against the jungle floor.
‘ Fokk !’ Ki’Remi snarled, vaulting over debris and sprinting to him.
Ghost and Riva were already at his side.
Riva’s cybernetic arm glowed as she pressed her palm over the wound, running a rapid internal scan.
‘Vitals erratic,’ she gritted out. ‘Shit, he’s losing too much blood.’
The Rider grunted, pulling a kit from his exo suit, flipping it open, and slapping a patch on Bear’s wound, where it immediately reacted, molding and reshaping around the gaping hole.
‘Tis a shape-shifting fast-acting tourniquet to stem arterial bleeding. It’ll hold for an hour or so. Now get him the fokk out of here.’
Ki’Remi reached into his combat belt, pulling out three metanoid stealth shields, small, compact spheres.
He activated one with a flick of his wrist, and a shimmering field appeared.
It bent light, making them invisible to scanning tech and the naked eye.
‘Riva, carry Bear. Lead the way,’ Ki’Remi ordered, handing over the device to her. ‘Find cover. I’ll locate you.’
Riva locked eyes with him. ‘If you don’t?’
‘You’re insulting me,’ Ki’Remi clipped.
Riva exhaled, then deployed her exo-frame.
The mechanical enhancements along her back and limbs kicked in with a whir, amplifying her strength. Without another word, she hauled Bear onto her shoulder.
Ki’Remi handed similar devices to Juno, who placed them on Zera and Klash’s hover chairs.
The stealth shield unfurled, and Juno nodded once. Then she sprinted, leading the linked hover chairs deeper into the forest.
Ki’Remi turned back toward the wreckage, standing alone in the clearing, his rifle humming as he activated its energy core.
His jaw tightened as he stepped forward.
The jungle rustled.
From the shadows in between the looming emerald trees, they emerged.
The enemy warriors moved like specters, phantoms flickering over their massive frames. They were unlike anything Ki’Remi had ever seen, towering, glowing entities clad in obsidian-black armor, their bodies lined with crackling veins of raw power.
Their eyes, twin, burning suns, locked onto him with unnatural intensity.
His pulse kicked up, and he flicked an eye, checking the charge on his weapon.
He was hot and ready to blast off.
The being in the lead tilted its head, almost in curiosity, as though it expected him to run.
Ki’Remi smirked, leveling his rifle.
‘Bring it the fokk on.’