Read Maximum Offence for Free Online

adolescent, one old and on the edge of the group. Another waves his hands and grunts, returning to the same sounds repeatedly. No one in command needs to make that much fuss about anything.
    Knocking those three off my list, I edge close as one of those who crested the dune begins to shuffle down the near side. The others fall silent and face the naked newcomer.
    Their leader is female .
    A xenohuman, from when people changed to suit planets. This was before planets changed to suit people. She’s whipcord thin, muscles sliding over one another and sinews locking like rope as she swivels to glance uphill. A deep-throated growl sends the scout loping away into the darkness.
    Franc’s problem .
    With that decision, I move. Five steps take me to their group.
    As an older male slashes, I catch his blade on my wrist and sparks fly. It is enough to make him hesitate.
    Bad mistake.
    A twist of his head and his neck’s broken. My next move shatters the jaw of a creature behind. When he stays standing, I sidekick his knee and hear the wet suck of cartilage rupturing. He howls, but that stops as I stamp on his throat.
    It is brutal.
    Battles always are.
    At least the kind I fight.
    The next creature dies in silence, my hand crushing his larynx so viciously my fingers meet in the middle. He’s dead, but I rip his throat out anyway.
    Stepping back, I kick the balls of the adolescent opposite. She doesn’t have any. Female , I realize, as she screams. All the same, my boot doubles her over and I grip both sides of her head.
    I knew another girl like her, on a different planet. The ferox ate her.
    ‘ Fuck it .’
    I don’t do guilt, and I don’t do regret for something occurring half a spiral arm away. Twisting hard, I break this one’s neck; and let her drop, trying not to stare at a dark triangle of hair and two perfect breasts.
    As a howl comes from their leader, I realize I’ve done it. The fight is now personal.
    Her daughter, her granddaughter?
    Doesn’t matter. This tribe runs with a female as the boss and her successor is lying dead at my feet.
    ‘Come on then,’ I say.
    The other two fall back as the female stalks forward.
    She is huge. A good head taller than me, and I’m the tallest person I know. A blade hangs from her right hand. It is filthy along most of its length, but its edge has been sharpened on stone.
    These creatures didn’t make that blade.
    Also, they don’t belong on this planet, because none of us belongs on this planet or any other still in existence. The planet we belong on ate itself. Only that is heresy, so I try not to say it, even to myself. Because our beloved emperor hates heresy. You would be surprised the number of things he hates.
    Well, perhaps you wouldn’t.
    It’s still true though.
    I have time to think this because the creature wants me to make the first move. Her remaining followers stand off to one side. Neither approaches me; she has them too well trained for that.
    She circles, I circle.
    Stepping sideways, we keep a safe distance between us. I am flicking my blade hand-to-hand, Franc-style. It irritates the leader, because she thinks I should have attacked by now.
    But I’m waiting and circling, until light from the largest of the three moons hits her eyes.
    That’s when I move.
    It is just for show, a lunge towards her gut.
    As she twists away, I make my second move, sliding my feet from under me to hit her ankle with the edge of my boot.
    I have Franc’s accident to thank for that idea.
    Rocking back, the creature then steps forward again, straight onto her freshly dislocated ankle. One shout of pain joins another as I cut her hamstrings, good leg first. She goes down hard as a falling tree. And I’m rolling myself up her, ending with a palm strike under her nose. The usual happens: bone enters her brain, her brain stops working . . .
    Not that it was that hot in the first place.
    By now, I am back on my feet.
    Neither of the others tries to stop me as I walk away. From