Free Starship Tomahawk (The Hive Invasion Book 2) by Jake Elwood Page A

something," Hudson murmured. "Bottom of that hill on the left."
    Nicholson was reaching for the binoc when the damaged branch fell from the laser-scorched tree. He flinched, barely managing to suppress an undignified shriek. When his breathing was under control he brought the binoc to his eyes.
    A vehicle came rolling around the base of the hill. It was an electric Rover, and he could see two people in the front, perfectly ordinary human beings. One of them was actually steering, something you hardly ever saw on Earth these days. The Rover took a meandering course, zigging and zagging across the grass, making it challenging for him to zoom in.
    He managed it, though, and found himself staring at the magnified face of a young woman. She had a scab on her cheek surrounded by a dark bruise. She wore a light jacket, and he saw her smile as she spoke to the person beside her. Then the Rover swerved and she disappeared.
    Nicholson lowered the binoc in time to see Hudson bringing up his rifle. "Stand down," he said. "It's a couple of colonists."
    Hudson gave him a dubious look. "They're coming right at us. What if they're collaborators?"
    He thought of the woman's smile. "They're a little too relaxed to have murder on their minds."
    Hudson nodded. He kept a hand on the rifle, though.
    Nicholson rose to one knee when the Rover was almost to the end of the road. The front of his armor was covered with dust, and he gave it a couple of ineffectual pats before turning his attention to the Rover.
    The vehicle slowed as it moved onto the end of the road, and he heard gravel crunch under the tires. The others stood up as the Rover rolled to a stop. The woman was at the controls. A lean middle-aged man sat beside her, grinning as he looked at each of the sailors in turn.
    "Sorry about the shot," the woman said, gesturing behind her at the fallen branch. "It was the quickest way to stop you." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "The whole area is full of booby-traps."
    Nicholson stood. "In that case, I guess you're forgiven. I'm Lieutenant Nicholson." He indicated the others. "This is Gillett, Hudson, and Parrish."
    "I'm Tanya," the woman. "This is Ron. Welcome to the Naxos resistance."
     

Chapter 11 – Nicholson
    "Quiet! I think it's finally working."
    Nicholson broke off a quiet conversation with Gillett and crawled over to join Ron at the edge of the trees. There were eight colonists with the four navy personnel at the ambush site, and six more at a secondary firing position in the rocks along the crater wall. Ron was the only one Nicholson could actually see. Two of Ariadne's moons were in the night sky, but they did little to dispel the darkness.
    The water pumping station was a kilometer distant, still blasting music from its speakers. The revolving light continued to spin but was mostly drowned out by a bonfire that blazed beside the big metal cube. The idea was to draw in the aliens. The resistance had been manning the ambush site for two days, doing everything they could think of to draw the attention of the aliens. Now, it seemed they had finally succeeded.
    A flying machine swooped in, hovering low over the pumping station. It was an ugly craft, covered in lumps and protrusions, so unfamiliar in construction – so alien – that Nicholson couldn't get any sense of size until it was quite close to the cube. The ship was three or four meters long and about half as wide. A white beam like a spotlight shone down on the cube and the fire, then swept around in a lazy circle.
    Nicholson murmured, "Shoot now, while it's not moving."
    Ron shook his head. "Sometimes there's ground troops. I'm waiting for one of them to step on a mine."
    "Look," someone said, and Nicholson saw movement at the edge of the fire's glow. A line of creatures came into view, ugly, insect-like things with four curving needle-like legs, a strange hinged torso, and a couple of needle-like arms. They were roughly human-sized, but built nothing like a human. The