Stars Gods Wolves by Dan Kirshtein (good books for 8th graders .TXT) 📗

the firing mode on plasma, and flipped a switch by the battery. He then took out his own rifle in the other hand and flipped the same switch. A high-pitched whine erupted from each rifle as the batteries illuminated with fierce, neon purple.

Josie wanted to help, but there was no room. She stood with her back to the wall, with a sidearm in each hand, biting her lip in hesitation as Nitro and Boomer took up the only two windows. She would have said something to the captain, had him slide over or even confirmed that she wasn’t needed there. But something in Nitro’s eyes stopped her. It was a sad sight, a rage that she knew came from years of pain and loss: the wide, feral eyes of a berserker. As the batteries wailed into an overloaded state, she heard him snarling.

The rifles burning his hands only seemed to fuel his rage as he watched the beasts approach. Once the Carrion were within range, the plasma rifles roared, and he with them; Nitro was popping off. Not to be outdone, Boomer lobbed several grenades from his own window, grinning from ear to ear. The entrance to the complex was a lightshow of purple fire.

Harper made sure Gally did not stop running for some time, even once they’d entered the building. He made sure she was nearly to the exit before he slowed his own pace. When he was satisfied of their distance from the entrance, he leaned against a nearby desk to catch his breath. The pilot heard the explosions and plasma fire slow to a halt. The ensuing silence left him suddenly remembering the voice over the hail. It haunted him. He couldn’t shake the fact that they were announcing their presence to whatever shot them down.

“Captain!” he called out, not waiting for Nitro to calm down. Before the mercenary had turned around, Harper continued. “A word?”

A minute later, Harper and Nitro stood off to the side, just out of earshot of the rest of the group. The captain was still whirring; pacing as if he didn’t want to calm down. But Harper didn’t seem concerned by this, and provided the man a good distraction. “Thoughts on who shot us down?”

Nitro’s wild eyes finally centered, landing on the man. “Heruleans?” He recalled his own battles during deployment. As certain as he was that they’d abandoned this planet, he found it difficult to disassociate them from the enemy.

Harper shrugged, recalling his own time in the military. “The hailing code wasn’t anything I’d seen before. And the voice didn’t sound like one of them.”

“So you’re saying somebody else made themselves at home here?” Harper blinked in response, [his stance remaining solid]. The captain’s pacing slowed, but the anger hadn’t quite left him, and it reflected in his tone. “Who?” he nearly snarled, as if being held back from a well-deserved fight.

Harper shrugged. “Well, who else has access to hard lasers?” The captain stopped pacing. The casual question froze Nitro in his tracks. Hard lasers were top of the line and devastating. It wasn’t like plasma, which was more similar to burning liquid than actual air. Lasers were fierce, disintegrating, and unstoppable. They were mainly used by galactic top dogs. That factor alone eliminated mostly everyone Nitro originally considered. Now he was more interested than angry. Harper continued his own train of thought. “They called us poachers.”

“Poachers?” Nitro raised an eyebrow, grinning at the ridiculous idea. “What, those things are endangered or something?”

Harper smirked, looking at the ceiling, his voice coming out like a sigh. “Or something.”

Nitro grunted as he remembered that the plan was to steal a ship from these well-armed individuals. “Easy to track, at least,” he conceded as he looked out the nearest window. Many air particles had been obliterated in the laser fire, and three large streaks of black traced the sky. “Still.” He walked back over to the table to make eye contact with Harper. “You get the feeling she’s not telling us everything?”

Harper didn’t hesitate in his response: kneejerk honesty. “Well, I get that from all women.”

Nitro tried his best to be patient, his jaw clenching. “About the mission.”

“Oh,” Harper replied before giving it a good think. He eventually made eye contact with the captain. “Yeah,” he admitted, weakly.

6

Hey Darlin,

I miss you.

And I’m bad at these things. So.

I wish I was allowed to tell you more.

Shit, I wish I was allowed to know more.

We received a transmission a few days ago that’s got the captain pretty spooked. We’ve been at full speed ever since.

I uhm, I wanted to send you this in case—well, in case.

You’re my number one, and I, uh.

I love you.

And I’m sorry I don’t say that enough. I’m so proud of you, and I know that whatever you do with your life, you’re gonna be great.

Just be careful, okay? For me.

G’night.

Drafted Transmission from the Terminal of Lt. S. Ramone,

File Created September 8, 2314

Unsent

Sabile:Former Herulean shopping center

Gally sat in a corner, arms wrapped around her knees, staring at a dilapidated table. The gray snow wandered in through the open windows, dusting the floor next to her. It reminded her how insignificant she was, how the universe didn’t give a damn about anything. It just carried on, so why couldn’t she?

Finally away from her office life, she was forced to wonder who she was without it. She wondered if she’d ever get to kill Rook. And if she did, what then? What would she have to go back to? A foreign thought occurred to her, one that blind-sided her and didn’t sound like her at all: her mom. Not that anyone noticed, but her head shook at the thought, as if she could simply shake it out.

Her mom’s efforts, she decided, were too little, too late. It wasn’t her that read to her at night, made her favorite breakfasts, or consoled her whenever he found her skulking in a corner because she missed her mom. Now, she missed him, and