Read Scourge: Book Two of the Starcrown Chronicles Page 20
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Jimmy Hunter continued aft along the B deck passageway toward the engine room. Just like on the Prometheus, the engine room spanned all three levels of the ship. It was the single largest compartment aboard, occupying the entire aft quarter of the ship. Because it was so large, the cavernous space could be accessed from all three decks via hatches which opened onto one of the many catwalks that ran throughout the compartment.
When he reached the end of the passageway Jimmy paused at the hatch to check the screen on his inner forearm. The six pirates in the engine bay were scattered throughout the compartment as they searched for an explanation to the sudden failure of their ship’s systems. None of them were near the hatch in front of him so he pulled the manual release and slowly slid the door open enough for him to slip through. The railed catwalk he crept onto wrapped around the entire compartment halfway between the deck and the overhead. Scattered around the room were the bobbling lights from a number of hand held torches. Jimmy reached up to his right temple and switched his headset from infrared to light amplification. The illumination from the flashlights was enough for his visor to make the room seem like it was bathed in daylight.
Jimmy lowered himself to one knee and cradled the stock of his sniper rifle against his shoulder. It was a long range needle, one of his favorite weapons. He looked through the scope as he thumbed up the magnification to zoom in on the first of the pirates. Once he had his target dialed in, Jimmy slid his finger into the guard and lightly touched the trigger. With his target zeroed in, his finger on the trigger activated the targeting laser which painted a red dot on the exact spot where his shot would go.
Exhaling a long slow breath, Jimmy gently squeezed the trigger until the gun gave a soft pop as the induction chamber sped the dart on its way. He watched through the scope as his target jerked once then slowly slumped over. In the weightless environment the pirate didn’t fall but simply floated limply where he was. Because they were looking for prisoners to interrogate he had loaded the weapon with a clip of anesthetic rounds instead of the lethal, neurotoxic needles. The pirate would wake up in a few hours with nothing worse than a mild headache and a bad taste in his mouth.
“One,” he whispered to himself.
Jimmy lowered his rifle and looked around for his next target. He had clear shots at two more pirates from his position and he took them out quickly before he was forced to move. He shuffled sideways along the catwalk and paused when another of the pirates came into view around the side of the hyperdrive housing. Raising his weapon to his shoulder again he quickly zeroed in on his target and fired off another shot.
“Four.”
Jimmy continued to shuffle around the perimeter of the room until he saw a partially concealed light bobbing among the tangle of equipment underneath the enormous engine mounts that held the drive system in place. The man had crawled completely under the engine and even through his headset Jimmy could barely see him amid the tangle of twisting conduits and brace struts. He saw no clear target presenting itself from this position so Jimmy stretched out on his belly, flipped down the pair of small support legs near the end of the barrel, and settled the rifle on the edge of the catwalk as he played with the zoom setting on his scope to search for a shot. It took a while but eventually he found a small, triangular opening barely a dozen centimeters across that would give him a shot at the man’s leg, if he held still. He waited until the pirate stopped moving for a moment and squeezed off the shot. The pirate jumped like he’d been stung by a bee. He tried to twist around in the narrow confines of the space beneath the engine and grope for the dart in his calf, but after a few seconds his body went limp.
“Five,” Jimmy whispered and lifted his face away from the scope’s eyepiece to sweep his gaze around the room as he searched for the last man. There was no movement anywhere. He pushed himself up into an easy crouch and was just starting to shuffle along the catwalk again when he heard something behind him. He snapped his head around and saw the last pirate lunging for him, the massive spanner in his hand an instant away from caving in his skull.
Although the pirate attacking him was an experienced spacer who was no stranger to weightlessness, he didn’t have Jimmy’s training or the advantage of his electrostatic boots. Warding off the potentially lethal blow with a sweeping arm block, Jimmy grabbed the man and pivoted around, pulling him into a tight corkscrew around his body and launching him head first at the bulkhead behind him.
The throw should have slammed the pirate into the wall plating and stunned him at least momentarily, but he reacted faster than Jimmy expected. In one fluid movement the pirate tucked into a ball and rebounded. Almost as soon as Jimmy had propelled him toward the bulkhead, the pirate was soaring right back at him, the spanner once again swinging for his head. Jimmy was forced to throw himself over backward in a move that was only possible in zero gravity. With his boots keeping him connected to the catwalk, he arched his body back, bending at the knees until he was parallel to the deck. An instant later he felt the rush of air brush his cheek as the pirate’s sweeping blow barely missed connecting with the side of his head.
The momentum of his swing caused the pirate to begin to spin wildly when his blow did not connect. But before he went corkscrewing away like a top, the pirate managed to grab the catwalk railing with his free hand. With a powerful, one handed jerk he launched himself back at Jimmy once again.
This time Jimmy was ready for him. He was already upright and facing the pirate as he flew back toward him. It was only then that Jimmy realized that the pirate was wearing his own light amplification headset. But that wouldn’t help him now. Just as the man started his swing Jimmy lunged to the side, slipping just out of range. As the pirate flew through the space he had been occupying a moment before, Jimmy sprang back toward his attacker. He swept in, grabbed the pirate by the scruff of his neck with one hand and the seat of his pants with the other and drove downward with all his strength, smashing the pirate face first into the catwalk. A powerful spasm shook the pirate’s body accompanied by a loud smack as the man’s head connected with the metal grating. Then he was still.