Read Undying Mercenaries 2: Dust World for Free Online Page B

reached up in response, throwing a hand around my neck.
    “Forget about it for a second,” she whispered.
    Then she kissed me, dragging my face down to meet hers. We had a serious height difference…but we’d always managed to find ways to get around it.
     
    * * *
     
    The next day went by quickly. We were tested some more, and the tests themselves made me feel suspicious about this mission. Most of the metrics being measured centered on our tolerance for irritation, pain, heat and pressure. Could we take it? The answer for most of us was yes . The legionnaires in Varus weren’t like most of the others I’d run into. We might not be the smartest or the best-equipped, but we could take a beating and keep marching on.
    By the third night, we were tired but not defeated. We were herded aboard a sky-train going to the spaceport sometime after midnight. No one complained. No one said much of anything. We were going off-world and, unlike fresh recruits, we knew that meant we’d be in for a rough ride.
    Fortunately, the officers didn’t play any tricks on my unit on the way up to Corvus . We weren’t here to go through boot camp. We were veterans: flat-faced, dark-eyed. No one smiled or fooled around much. We all had the feeling that we were going to have entirely new reasons to regret signing up before this mission was over.
    Corvus was an amazing sight just as it had been the first time I’d laid eyes on her. Over five kilometers long, the ship was of the dreadnaught class. She had sharp angles, sleek lines and acres of burnished metal hull plates that were so long they boggled the mind. Corvus was big enough to carry an entire Earth legion plus a crew of aliens call “Skrull” and all of our equipment. Thousands of troops tramped aboard from dozens of transports which had lifted off from spaceports all around the planet.
    After we’d found our assigned quarters, we were summoned to the mess hall for a unit-wide briefing. I was happy about that, as were most of the rest of my comrades. Often, the brass didn’t bother telling us what we were facing. This time, they’d felt the need was great enough to clue in the grunts.
    “Zeta Herculis,” Centurion Graves said, as if that explained everything.
    He stood at the front of the mess hall with a laser pointer aimed at the wall-screen. Depicted in blazing color was a system with two stars: one was a big K-class with an orangey hue to it, the second was a smaller white dwarf.
    Graves looked around the group, and we stared back blankly.
    “My God, people,” he said. “Don’t they teach you anything in school anymore?”
    Carlos perked up. He couldn’t help it.
    “Yes, sir! They teach us to join the legions and see the stars, sir!”
    Veteran Harris stepped closer to Carlos and loomed over him. I could tell he was angry and dying for a hint from Graves that he should lean on Carlos, but Graves didn’t give him an excuse.
    Carlos’ comment seemed to amuse Graves. He chuckled and shook his head.
    “Yes, I guess that’s all troops come in with. Heads full of happy-talk and lies. But today, we’re going to tell you a little secret: we’re not alone in space.”
    I don’t think a single one of us knew what the hell he was talking about, but we knew enough to keep quiet and stare. Even Carlos kept his mouth shut.
    “That’s right, Earth isn’t alone. There’s another colony out there in space. Right here, in fact.”
    He smacked the wall-screen which comprised one entire end of the mess hall. The wall didn’t even shimmer. It wasn’t a projection, but an image generated by photosensitive organic LEDs sprayed onto the wall itself.
    A murmur swept over us. A lot of hands raised. We were allowed to do that during a briefing if we had a question.
    “Tech Specialist Elkin?” Graves asked, calling on a woman in the front row.
    My eyes searched for her. There she was, sweet Natasha. Like Kivi, I’d had a thing going with her back on Steel World, but it had fallen