Free Marauder Aegus by Aya Morningstar Page A

make it to the top, and tempting as it is to catch my breath and rest, I hear the soldiers still progressing close behind, and know I have only precious minutes left.
    I reach into my satchel for the small knife I found in Tomas’s room. It will serve as a good weapon at close range, but for now I use it to begin carving sharp points at the ends of the branches.
    I cut and hack into the wood, forming rough points. I get them as sharp as I can, but the wood is thick and the knife is small. I hope that the thick density of the wood, and the advantage I gain from the high ground, will be enough for the javelins to cut through the soldiers.
    The footsteps are nearly at the bottom of the ridge now, and I can hear the soldiers’ voices.
    “The alien is on the high ground,” a man’s voice whispers. “Two heat signatures. The Tsarina is still with him and sedated. Kill the alien, but take the Tsarina alive!”
    I sigh in relief. They won’t kill Anya, but if they take her alive, a fate worse than death could await her.
    I need to kill every last one of them to protect her.
    I grab a javelin and listen for their approach.
    “His armor is like a full arsenal!” a soldier hisses. “We need to completely overwhelm him! If you get a good shot, don’t just take it, take ten!”
    “Roger,” another says.
    Fuck. If only my suit were active, I could take them all out with ease. I remember how I bragged to Anya that I didn’t need the suit, but I can hear no less than twenty soldiers, fully armed.
    I have...eight sharp sticks, a small knife, and my ability to shift into bear form. This gives them a slight advantage, depending on their weaponry.
    I wait for them to begin climbing the ridge, but I hear them stop short of the ridge line.
    I hear small squads of three or four men each fan out to the left and right. Shit. They are flanking me. They are going around the ridge, and they’ll come around from level ground. I need to kill the ones below me before the others can get around the other side, or they’ll completely encircle me.
    I look down at Anya to steel my resolve. She’s blissfully asleep and unaware, and if I do my job, she’ll awake none the wiser. But if I fail, she’ll wake up to the man who killed her father–alone and unprotected. I can’t allow that to happen.
    I grab the javelin in my hand and pop out from behind the tree.
    I hear shocked cries and spot movement out of the far corner of my eye. It’s the squads moving to flank me–they have run out of cover as they walk along the ridge.
    I throw the javelin using my full strength. It cuts and swooshes through the air.
    Without waiting to see if it will hit–I know it will hit–I dive back behind the tree. Before I’m even behind cover, I hear a roar of gunfire, and suddenly tree bark flies out from both sides. They are unloading their arsenal into the tree.
    I hear a grunt, and the smell of blood hits my nose. My javelin hit, but now I’m completely pinned down by gunfire.
    “Why the fuck is he throwing twigs at us?” a soldier shouts.
    “Twigs? That thing rammed through Chavez’s throat!”
    “But it’s no fucking power armor!”
    I hear rustling at the ridgeline on either side of me. The flanking teams may have decided to cut me off aggressively, figuring I’m totally pinned down without my biosuit.
    I grab a javelin, one in each hand, and crawl on my belly away from the tree and away from Anya. If I want to protect her, I need to draw the fire away from her. If I’m pinned behind that tree, she’s as good as captured.
    When the tree is a few dozen meters behind me, I risk standing up to a low crouch and move parallel to the ridgeline.
    I hear shouts from below–they know I’m moving.
    But before they can pinpoint me, I dive to my belly again and crawl across the foliage like a snake hunting its prey. I smell two men just below me.
    As I near the ridgeline, I pop out and throw the javelin straight down at one of the soldiers. It hits him