Free Bounty Hunter 1: The Bounty Hunter's Revenge by Joseph Anderson

and
caught it in my right hand. I put my armored hand onto the control panel on the
inner doorway of the ship so Cass could interface with it. I turned into the
ship as I held my hand there, holding the gun out and shifting my eyes rapidly from
each of the two entrances at the far end of the ship’s bay.
    “Done, Burke.”
    The ship’s door began to rise behind me
and I didn’t move until I heard it close up and lock into the ship’s hull. I
shifted on my feet and led forward with my left arm as a shield. I wanted to
change which hand held the gun for more protection but I couldn’t risk firing
with my left hand. I was a better shot with my right hand and couldn’t risk
hitting something vital in the ship. I was so close to finally leaving that I
refused to take any chances.
    Something was moving in the other end of
the ship. I took a few more steps forward before the man appeared in the
rightmost entrance way. He had what looked like a shotgun in his hands and he
wasted no time in pointing it at me. I tucked my right arm tightly into my back
and brought my left hand to cover my face.
    A succession of quick blasts forced me
to a standstill. Whatever he was firing wasn’t enough to pierce my armor, but
it was hard enough to knock me over if I didn’t brace against it. The hole in
my visor hadn’t felt so large and vulnerable since the night the crawlers
attacked.
    I heard the click of the shotgun trying
to be fired without any ammunition and took my chance. I brought my right arm
from behind my back and shot at the doorway, purposefully aiming for the frame
of the door and not inside of it. I continued to fire as I walked to the door,
timing the shot with my steps to mask exactly how close I was, and keeping him
behind cover so he couldn’t pop out and take another shot.
    When I got to the doorway I put my back
to it with my left arm closest to the entrance. I cocked the handgun quickly
and snatched out the bullet from the chamber, yanked out the magazine and fired
it empty twice quickly, emphasizing the gun trying to be fired while out of
bullets.
    He reacted as I planned, storming around
the corner with his shotgun out. I twisted my left forearm as he did so and
slammed my elbow into the doorway. He dived out right as the intact blade on my
left arm punched its way out of the armor and directly into his cheek. I hoped
he died instantly. His skull was lodged firmly into the blade and it collided
with my arm when I retracted the blade back inside. It made a sickly popping
noise before he fell, dead, to the floor.
    “Did you get into the ship’s network
from the control panel?” I said as I walked into the heart of the ship.
    Cass had been correct with her
assessment. The ship was small, and most of it was indeed the engine. The
cockpit was a tiny room connected to three small rooms. The center one was a
chaotic mess of food, plates, and trash. The rooms adjacent to it were the crew
quarters, which was in an even worse state than the first room with piles of
dirty clothes everywhere, and some sort of storage room that doubled as a
weapons stockpile.
    “Not much information on the network,”
Cass explained as I rummaged through their weapons for a decent rifle. “Five
crew in total. I don’t know how they’re all crammed in here. Captain Marcus is
the only one named. I think you killed him already. The other two must have
been sent out to search the desert around the base. The late captain didn’t
exactly keep formal logs.”
    “Or a clean ship,” I said with a grimace
as I scraped what looked like crusted food off of the only rifle with a scope
that I could find. “It’s like Adam found the worst mercenaries in the galaxy.
It’s an insult.”
    “You don’t know that it’s him for
certain.”
    “I’m pretty sure.”
    Cass lowered the ship’s bay doors for me
again. She linked the rifle’s scope with my visor and I used it to carefully
poke outside of the ship for any signs of the remaining two men.