Free HAB 12 (Scrapyard Ship) by Mark Wayne McGinnis Page A

The most dangerous, like HAB 12, were not supposed to be accessible at all—by anyone—and held the highest security level of ten. Ricket continued inputting information at the virtual keypad. He was getting a beep beep response from the portal interface. Not a positive sign. Jason had come to realize that if Ricket couldn’t bypass the security protocols, no one could. Then the floor began to shake.
    Everyone stopped and turned towards the opposite end of the corridor. A procession of ten seven-foot-tall rhino warriors approached. Each was a thousand pounds of muscle beneath thick grey hide, with legs and arms like tree trunks, and bodies strong and ripped without an ounce of fat. Built more hulk-like than human, and with the heads of rhinoceroses—horns and all—the ten beasts moved forward with heavy grace and determination. They carried the rhino warrior weapons of choice: a heavy hammer in one hand and an energy weapon strapped onto the wrist of their other arm.
    The beasts halted in unison several paces in front of Jason. His friend, Traveler, battle worn and missing an ear, stood before him. Then, to Jason’s surprise, they saluted him. He returned their salute and brought his attention back to Ricket.
    Beep beep . Access still denied—but he wasn’t giving up.
    Orion was positioning a hover cart, stacked high with equipment, over to the center of the group. Billy rushed to help her and was rewarded with a glare—a glare that spoke volumes: don’t you even come near me. Obviously, they’d yet to clear up their tiff. Jason only hoped it wouldn’t interfere with the mission.
    “Listen up, everybody,” Gunny Orion announced, while holding up a new kind of rifle. “This is a multi-gun. Do not try to reload it—as long as you are aboard The Lilly , or within the confines of HAB 12, it utilizes the JIT munitions. They’re automatically phase-shifted to the weapon’s micro port.” Orion pointed to a round expanded casing at the mid-section of the rifle. “This weapon interfaces with your HUD. Review your menu settings, folks. Three separate plasma bolt configurations, four separate mini-rail gun configurations, two separate micro- missiles with integrated tracking capabilities … Get to know your weapon. There’s also radical changes made to the helmet and HUD systems, as well as to your battle suit configurations. We’ll be reviewing these changes once we get going.”
    “Dad!” Jason turned to see Mollie running down the corridor.
    “Hey, kiddo.” He gave his daughter a hug. Nan, back to wearing her spacer’s jumpsuit, was close behind. Jason noticed Nan and Dira exchanging cordial nods, but something was going on there.
    “Mollie wanted to say goodbye before you headed out,” she said. Jason saw Nan had applied lipstick and makeup to her bruised face and was smiling. A good sign.
    Nan said, “We’re staying aboard The Lilly this time. I can continue working and communicate via FDL linkups to the outpost. And the safest place for Mollie, if that alien fleet arrives, will be here on board, don’t you think?”
    “I do, and she feels more at home here than anywhere else right now,” Jason said, liking the direction their talk was going. “Do me a favor, though—when you check in with the outpost, see how my father’s doing, okay? I’m leaving one of the shuttles behind for him. If things go badly, he’ll be able to move underground until we get back. I mentioned this to him, but he may need reminding.”
    “I’ll tell him, I promise. One more thing, and I hope you’ll agree to it. While I’m on board, I’d like to go through that procedure, you know—to be nanotized and have that NanoCom thing installed in my head? I never remember what hand signals to use on those damn DeckPorts and it would be nice to be able to keep in contact with Mollie. I’d just feel safer considering what we’ve been through. Can you authorize that before you go?”
    Jason smiled and brought up his