Free Warlord's Invasion (Starfight Book 1) by Lee Guo

all spectrums, including infrared. He saw the sudden movement of a bipedal as it ran into opening of his corridor from the opposite end. He saw it limp with its hands clutching its elbow. He saw the fear in its eyes, as it looked straight at the black armored monster that was Kubersly. It was about to turn and run, when Kubersly waved in a friendly gesture.
    The woman stopped cowering and her blood soaked face brightened. She waved back, looking relieved. “Oh, thank god for marines!” She looked about thirty, obviously a member of the hospital staff. She smiled, a weak ash-filled smile when a hypervelocity slammed into the back of her head, which exploded like a firecracker. A sudden red mist of blood and gore expanded where her neck was. Before her body could fall to the ground, another hypervelocity round penetrated her torso. Pieces of skin, organ, blood, and clothing exploded in a well-blended fleshy fireball.
    Explosive rounds. The enemy had a variant of the human incendiary armor-piercing round.
    Kubersly’s first reaction was to be silent, but he knew the enemy probably saw the woman wave at him. Thus, the enemy that was out of sight had to know he was right there in the same corridor as the woman. As soon as the enemy entered that corridor, it would have angle of fire on him as well. His first idea was to wait, since he knew they were coming and could see them the moment they entered the corridor whereas, it would take a slight moment for them to see where he was. Then, he realized that the enemy probably had around-the-corner cams or worse—bite sized recon probes which could tell them where he was before they entered line of sight.
    Suddenly, Kubersly found himself back peddling, so that he entered another T into the first corridor prior to this one. He was now out of line of sight from the enemy if they chose to enter the corridor where the woman was. Then, he positioned his finger around the turn, so that he could see the woman’s scattered carcass and anything that entered her corridor.
    He waited and waited, then he saw movement. A large piece of metal, a foot, entered the corridor from the opposite T and then the entire body of a large exoskeleton came into view. It had its gun aimed right at where Kubersly’s finger was, but it didn’t shoot.
    The alien knew he was there.
    It waited and waited. For the longest moment, there was a cold silence, only interrupted by the burning of plasticrete. What was the alien waiting for? Then, Kubersly realized it. The alien was waiting for him to dive around the corner and start shooting at it. Both opponents, him and the alien, knew the whereabouts of the other, but were just waiting for either to make move.
    Too bad, his chassis wasn’t equipped with a XG-103 Doorman rifle, which could bend around a corner and use a camera as sight. Then again, those types of rifles didn’t have the acceleration chamber that could push a round fast enough to pierce armor.
    He was left with only two choices. Wait for the alien to come to him, or come to the alien by diving around the corner.
    Well, this is it. I’m not a person to wait. I’m gonna make the first move.
    He retracted his finger that held the camera so both hands held his magno-gun. He readied himself for the charge by taking deep breaths. This was it. The moment of action was about to come. 1 …2...3. Here I come!
    He intended to leap around the corner, then his helmet sensor alarm triggered like a siren. Then, before he could turn around the bend to fire at the first alien, a second alien approached in the same corridor behind him. The sensors at the back of his helmet had detected the intrusion. Kubersly swiveled around and aimed his magnetic rifle at the new intruder from behind. He saw the sudden emergence of a black alien exoskeleton and fired. The round sped through open air at 2000 meters per second, penetrating the second alien’s body, which exploded in a gigantic armored fireball. The wall behind