Hunter Raze, page 3
“I don’t know, but Roth told me to look here. The Earth freighter had life pods. He said her last message stated that she planned to take one to our target planet. It’s the only one capable of supporting life near the wreckage.”
“How long ago was this?” Bruck glanced at the screen again.
“I’m not certain. Roth wasn’t either, but he was told she was shuttled to the Earth vessel over four months ago.”
“I have no information on this planet except for what I’m picking up on long-range scanners. Its oxygen-based and can support life. There isn’t a warning beacon to mark who it belongs to.” He paused. “There are no signals being broadcast from its surface. We’ll have to get closer for more detailed scans.”
“It’s far from any known shipping lanes. Maybe these aliens are reclusive.” Raze got more comfortable in his chair, navigating around the damaged freighter, and finally increased speed once they were clear of the debris.
“I’m not picking up any planetary defenses.” Bruck scowled. “No traces that the freighter was destroyed by something originating from the planet.”
“Keep me updated.”
Twenty minutes later, Bruck spoke again. “There are no large cities or signs of any technology. It all points to being a primitive planet.”
“Keep scanning. Are you picking up any distress signals? Earth pods normally have those.”
“No. They may not have the range to transmit into space.”
“Go in closer and keep scanning. It’s a big planet. I’d like to sit us down close to our target instead of having to fly from continent to continent, searching.”
“I hoped this would be a quick, easy hunt.”
Raze snorted. “We rarely get those, Bruck.” He glanced at Hern’s chair again, his chest aching. That was supposed to be an easy hunt too, finding their missing grouping male when he hadn’t returned to their ship on time. They’d believed he’d just lost track of time. Instead, they discovered he’d been murdered.
“I’m running through our database of Earth building materials that shouldn’t be found on this planet, focusing our scans on them.”
He nodded. Bruck was an excellent hunter. He was also skilled at using technology to assist in finding whatever they were paid to retrieve.
Raze piloted them closer, setting up in orbit low enough to help with the scans but high enough to avoid the pull of gravity created by the planet.
Hours passed before Bruck caught his attention again.
“Reading ten locations with Earth materials.” He tapped at his screen. “They’re all on one large land mass.”
Raze looked up as the view screen zoomed in on one of the continents. The sun didn’t currently shine on the surface, but their enhanced scanners still gave them visuals. It was a heavily vegetative area with rolling hills and mountains. Massive rivers snaked along the surface in a few areas. Red dots appeared where the scanner had detected what had to be the emergency pods. They were spaced apart, but the distances weren’t too great. “Are you reading distress signals coming from any of them?”
“No. I researched information on Earth pods. Most would run out of power after sixty Earth days.” He paused. “That implies they’ve either been on the planet longer than we suspected, or all the pods were damaged during landing. They’re also programmed to lock onto other pod signals and land closely together, if possible. That’s probably why they’re on the same land mass. I’ll focus on life signs in those areas. I need to deploy a robot scout to gain more accurate readings. We’ll also be able to get better visuals.”
“Do it,” Raze ordered. “Deploy the robot scout ahead of us landing.” He paused. “But don’t program this one to fly over deep water. They are expensive to replace.”
Bruck snarled. “It wasn’t my fault a massive water creature leapt into the air to eat our last bot.”
Raze hid a smile at annoying Bruck as he picked up a data pad and turned it on. He scanned over the little information they had on the human female. Anabel Brick. An image had been transmitted, but it wasn’t recent; he’d been warned that it had been taken approximately nine years prior.
He stared at the image. Most humans of that sex had long hair, but not this one. The female’s shiny black hair had been shorn close to her head. Big green eyes stared back at him. She didn’t wear any of the colored paint the few humans he’d met liked to smear on their faces.
He studied her fragile-looking facial bones. Her nose was small, but her lips were slightly puffy. A tiny scar marred her forehead, near her hairline. She appeared young, maybe not fully grown as a female.
“That’s the target?”
Raze lifted his gaze to find Bruck had walked over to stand behind him, staring at the pad he held. “Yes.”
“She looks helpless. I doubt we’ll find her alive.”
“She’s older than this now. Nine years.”
“Roth’s grouping didn’t have a more recent image?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Roth is a male of few words. All I know is that this female is important to him. He wants her returned unharmed to his grouping.”
A low growl of displeasure came from Bruck. “She’s one of their mates? What was she doing so far from her male?”
“No. She’s an important family member to a mate.”
“That makes sense. Why didn’t the humans track this female?”
“They’d have to fly through heavily patrolled Kriror and Elth territories to come this far. Both races would attack a human fleet vessel.”
Bruck shook his head. “Neither of those races took out the ship we passed. Both would have completely destroyed it or hauled it away for the scrap.”
“I agree.”
“So, who attacked the humans? It wasn’t the planet. As I said, they have no defenses.”
Raze glanced down at the image on the data pad, then held it up. “She did.”
Bruck snorted in disbelief. “I won’t fall for another of your pranks.”
“No prank. It is the only detail Roth knew with certainty. The female purposely damaged the freighter and planned to use a life pod to reach the planet below.”
“Why would she do that? How could she do that? It was a large ship by human standards. And she appears harmless. The other humans would have stopped her.”
Raze turned off the data pad and shrugged. “Those are questions you can ask after we have her locked inside my sleeping place and are on our way to deliver her to Roth.”
He activated the enhanced controls to land their ship. It could become dicey, entering an unknown planet with possible hidden dangers. The gravity pull wasn’t severe as they transitioned from space into the atmosphere, though Bruck braced against the side of Raze’s chair during some slight turbulence. Raze activated night vision and the ship’s sensors, since the sun currently didn’t light up the continent.
“There,” Bruck said minutes later, pointing at the view screen.
“I see the clearing. Do you want to fly?”
“No.” Bruck strode to his seat and deployed the planetary robot scout.
Raze hovered over the long grass in the clearing, running scans to make certain it would be safe to land Satrono. Once assured the ground was solid, he parked and leveled the ship on the slightly uneven surface. “We’re down.”
“I’m already getting verified readings from the scout. It’s confirmed. Ten pods are registering on sensors…unless some broke apart during transition and I’m only reading the largest pieces of the wreckage. I doubt anything from the Earth vessel managed to reach this distance, only to get destroyed in the gravity pull. That will mean more humans than the female down here. What if there are hundreds of survivors? We don’t have the capacity to take them all.”
“We weren’t hired to retrieve other humans. Only the female.” Raze knew he sounded cold, but their ship had been built for speed and defensive capabilities. Life support could handle only twenty life forms without strain. They couldn’t sustain or house more than that.
“We could pack some humans into the cargo hold and put the bunks from our holding cells in there, for them to sleep in shifts. It would keep them contained. Then drop them at the first space station we reach.”
Raze growled. “Do you remember the last humans we helped? They attempted to kill us and steal our ship. Do you really believe it’s a good idea to allow that many onboard?”
“They may outnumber us if there are enough survivors, but they’re also easy to kill if they attack.”
Raze straightened in his seat. “Gather more information from the scout and we’ll see how many humans survived. I’ll decide then.”
Bruck nodded. “The robot scout will have precise information for us after it does a flyover of the region.”
“We’ll eat, rest, and then begin our hunt when the sun rises. It will give the scout enough time to do a thorough scan.”
Chapter Two
Anabel woke early and made her way to the opening of the cave with her view scope. She peered out at the lightening sky. Dawn was her favorite time of day. The planet was beautiful, with a purplish-pink sky that gave the surface a fairytale kind of appearance. She wasn’t as fond of the chilly, damp air, though, as she shivered in her shirt.
She lifted the scope to one eye and closed the other, starting her search of the wide valley below. It didn’t take long to find a thin stream of smoke rising from the treetops. It was just enough to mark where someone had set up camp. They were a few miles to her right.
The camp was likely where the two crew members who’d nearly captured her the day before had come from, based on where she’d been when they’d spotted her. She didn’t like that anyone had moved within visual distance of her cave. She had no way of knowing how many were in the camp, but the smoke told her they were smart enough to have figured out the wildlife avoided fire, and to keep it burning all night.
She returned to her bed and snuggled into the top sleeping bag to get warm again. That was another reason to keep a fire going until morning. She didn’t have that luxury. Smoke could be seen for miles, and it was too big of a risk to make a fire for warmth or cooking in her cave.
She blindly slid her hand out from beneath the cover, found an energy bar, and tore it open. “I hate these,” she muttered. “But I’m still grateful to have them. Food is food.”
The emergency pods each contained a large supply of them. She’d not only taken the stash from hers, but also the pod of the four-man crew she’d killed. Rationing the bars was a must until she’d tracked and killed the rest of the survivors.
At some point, she’d have to figure out what she could eat on the planet without poisoning herself. That was at least a month away, though; maybe more, if she found more pods to steal supplies from. She finished the bar, took a sip of water, then slid out of the bed to quickly dress in her jumpsuit. It still left her a bit cold, but she couldn’t stay huddled in bed all day.
“Too many people to kill before they find me or murder more innocent aliens,” she muttered.
Boots on, she fastened the belt around her waist last, hooking weapons to it. The two modified ones she’d come with were great, but the ones she’d taken from the first set of men she’d killed had longer shooting ranges. She had a feeling she’d need them. Anabel had no idea how many of the crew had managed to reach those nine life pods, but with six seats each, she could be facing off against about fifty pissed-off ex-cons.
“Bad odds,” she muttered. “But it’s not like I have a choice.”
She walked to the cave entrance and glanced to the right. The smoke still rose. It probably meant they hadn’t broken camp yet. At least she hoped they were smart enough to put out a fire in a heavily wooded area instead of leaving it unattended. Then again, she didn’t have much faith in the intelligence of the Soapa Six crew.
She removed the gloves from her pocket and put them on. Getting down from her cave was tougher than getting up. She faced the entrance and slowly backed up, hating the feeling of falling as she stepped off the ledge. She bent her knees a little to cushion the impact as she landed on the ledge ten feet below. Her synthetic legs made it painless. She climbed down the remaining fifty feet to the ground before pocketing her gloves again.
Anabel inhaled fresh air, glad that the planet had an abundance of oxygen. She’d visited others during her career that had been difficult to breath on without a mask. That would have made her job even harder.
She headed toward the smoke, taking her time and avoided getting too close to tree trunks. The tree beasts tended to sleep during the cold night hours, but they stirred early. The last thing she needed was to risk injury again while fleeing an attack. It had happened once already on her second day on the planet. They hadn’t caught her, of course, but one of the beasts had thrown a huge rock. They clearly had great aim; it nailed her in the upper back. No bones had been broken, but it was days before she was able to move without pain after the bruising set in.
She’d walked for over a mile when she heard laser fire and quickly ducked down behind a bush. It had been close, but judging exact distances could be difficult in the valley. Sound tended to echo off the surrounding mountains. She cocked her head in the direction that it seemed to have come from, straining to hear voices with her enhanced hearing implant. She wasn’t disappointed.
“I hope this meat doesn’t poison us.” It was a man speaking, and he didn’t sound happy.
“Dodge ordered us to find something to cook for breakfast. Something large enough to feed us all,” a second man replied. “This thing might even get us through lunch and dinner today.”
“Well, I’ll let the others take a bite first. Remember that yellow snake we tried the other night? It gave me stomach cramps and a case of diarrhea,” whined the first.
Anabel grimaced. This Dodge guy led the men from yesterday, too, if they were taking orders from him. She only wished she could identify the would-be leader. The crew had nicknames that weren’t listed in their employee files. She’d avoided talking to most of the men while working. Since there’d only been four women aboard Soapa Six, all the men tended to think conversation was a green light to hit on her. No one named Dodge had ever introduced himself. At least she’d confirmed the men who’d chased her were from the same camp.
Also, she’d learned to avoid eating the yellow snakes.
“Let’s pick this thing up and carry it back. I don’t like being out here. Wayne and Kevin didn’t come back last night.”
“Maybe they found the cyborg bitch and are holed up somewhere with her.”
“They wouldn’t dare keep her to themselves. Dodge would kill them. They’ve seen how good he is with his knives.”
Something clicked in Anabel’s mind. One of the mechanics had always kept at least half a dozen deadly blades strapped to his hips and thighs on Soapa Six. His real name was Herbert Shore. He’d served fifteen years in prison for murdering three bar patrons from a colony planet. He’d slit their throats in cold blood after a dispute over a card game.
He’d then been linked to seven more suspected murders, but there was no proof to charge him. She’d avoided him on the freighter after catching a single glimpse of the man. He’d clearly spent his time behind bars bulking up. She could see how he might easily take control of a group of men. They’d be terrified of the overly muscled brute.
Dread pitted in her stomach. She hoped she didn’t have to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Herbert Shore, a.k.a. Dodge. She was skilled, but he’d spent fifteen years surviving Milio Prison. It was well known the guards there turned a blind eye to their charges murdering each other. There had been talk of closing the prison after some vids surfaced of extremely vicious, deadly fights. Few walked out of the place alive. Shore had managed to do it. It meant he must be one tough son of a bitch.
Anabel carefully straightened when she heard the two men grunting a bit, muttering complaints about how heavy the animal was to carry between them. She followed the sound, carefully darting between bushes and trees to keep them from spotting her. When she finally caught sight of movement, she stopped. Both were men she recognized.
Paul was in security. Dirk worked in food prep. It made sense why they’d been teamed together to hunt for food. The creature they carried was an alien version of a wild hog. It probably weighed three hundred pounds. She’d encountered many on the planet. All had run away instead of attacking. They weren’t aggressive animals.
“This thing better taste damn good,” Paul grunted.
“I’ll do my best.” Dirk struggled with his side of the animal, weaving on his feet.
Anabel crept closer, aiming for Paul, who had a blaster strapped to his thigh. She deemed him the greater threat. She waited for him to turn her way slightly before she fired.
The laser hit him in the chest. He went flying backward, releasing the dead animal.
“Freeze, Dirk,” she ordered.
He dropped his end of the alien hog, eyes wide, and threw up his hands. “Don’t shoot!”
She darted her gaze between him and the downed security officer. As she drew closer, she realized her shot had been fatal. Paul’s eyes were wide open, a hole burned through his uniform shirt where his heart would have been. She gave her full attention to Dirk.
“Don’t shoot! Please!”
She stopped five feet away. “Dirk Bee. You served five years for trying to murder your own mother so you could sell her property and get your inheritance early.”
He paled.
“That’s cold. The woman birthed and raised you on her own. They included her parole statement with your work file. Even after you attempted to kill her, she tried to find excuses for your shitty actions. That’s the kind of love you don’t deserve. She swore you got in with the wrong crowd…I guess some things never change.” She jerked her weapon toward the dead guy. “He served twenty years for murdering two women just because they said no when he wanted sex. He raped them before stabbing them to death.”
