Free Xantoverse Shadowkill by T. F. Grant, C. F. Barnes Page A

waved her across. When she stepped inside the corridor she noted they were in the mess hall.
    Tables were overturned and silver trays lay strewn about the floor. The noise they heard was louder in here. Tai removed one of the stun grenades from his pouch and slung the Kraken over his shoulder, preferring to wield his Dorian in his free hand.
    Kina kept both hands on the Piercer and crouch-walked through the debris toward the sources of the noise beyond the far wall at the back of the mess, all the while scanning around and above her, concentrating through the green-algae light of the night-vision.
    The place smelled of dust and more carrion.
    She didn’t think that was of the Wraith’s doing. She’d heard tales of murder victims being dumped here. Given the gang signs sprayed on the walls in white and lurid yellows, that didn’t seem to be too hard to believe.
    Tai took the right side of the room and covered their rear as Kina took the left and focused forward and up. Her foot hit something heavy and soft. She stopped and stepped back bringing her aim to a shape in front of her.
    She kicked it. No movement beyond a swarm of flies that made her swat frantically as they bounced off her face and goggles. A ruined covering came away from the shape to reveal the rotten corpse of a long-dead man. His eyes appeared to have been cut out.
    “Sick freckers,” she said under her breath and moved on, hoping their fate wouldn’t be so gruesome. If she were to go, she’d prefer it be clean and preferably without her knowing about it. Tai reached the end of the mess and waved her forward.
    He gave her the sign for human—the walking fingers—and pointed to the dark hole in the wall that used to be a door before someone had clearly blown it out with explosives, given the inward-facing jagged edges.
    She quietly and quickly joined Tai on the other side of the door, transferring the Piercer to her left hand, she draw a dagger with her right. Silently, Tai pointed to the stun grenade in his hand and held up five fingers—five seconds. He mouthed each second, counting down. When he reached two he pulled his arm back ready to throw the grenade through the hole into the room beyond.
    An explosion erupted from behind the wall. The blast and debris through Kina onto her back. Tai dropped the grenade as he too fell away. The grenade bounced once, twice, rolled to Kina and exploded with a loud crack, making her ears pop and whistle. The bright flash of light blinded her. She scrambled to her feet and fell back, dizzy and unable to balance properly. She struck the body, but managed to stay upright until she clattered into a table.
    She hit her head hard on the metal deck, sending bright spots of light to flash in her overloaded vision. “Tai,” she screamed, “you hear me?” Her words were muffled and far-off sounding.
    “Kina, down!” he yelled back before opening fire. She couldn’t see who or what he was shooting at, she just recognized the sound if his Dorian emptying a full cylinder.
    She crawled forward, never letting go of the Piercer as it clanged against the deck. She reached the body, and using it as a reference, vaulted over and roll to the left side beyond the blasted wall. Her body crunched over debris making her wince as her spine hit a section of hot steel. With her vision slowly returning to her, she wiped the dust from her goggles and got her bearings while bringing the Piercer up in front of her, ready to shoot.
    But there was nothing. No Tai, no enemy… nothing but an empty room beyond the blasted hole in the mess wall. She stepped through, careful not to tangle in the wire that snaked from a dark black smoking section of wall to farther into this other room.
    The room widened toward the end. Through the flashes and blotches in her vision she made out more gang signs scrawled on the walls. Panels had been pulled off and salvagers had stripped wires and other infrastructure.
    “Tai,” she called out with as much