Free Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) by T. Jackson King Page A

face masks with IR vision ability. The shots missed as the running marines zigzagged left and right.
    Behind those ground level marines there now appeared five Mars marines, their red heat glow descending from the end skylight. Each of them fired.
    Five of the six running bodyforms dropped to the ground.
    Jack aimed his revolver at the sixth running heat shape.
    “ Boom! ”
    The running marine staggered, then lifted his purple rifle.
    “ Ka-boom! ”
    A grenade blew the man into red-glowing pieces.
    Giving thanks to whatever gods ruled the universe, Jack reached his sister and threw his arms around her.
    “Cassie!”
    She shuddered at his touch. “Ouch! Brother!” she breathed into his helmet pickup.
    “Idiot!” yelled Maureen from his left side. “Get your hands out of the way so I can cut those straps loose!”
    Jack pulled his hands to each side of Cassie, making sure to protect her body with his enviro-suit.
    Green light flared at the back of the metal seat holding his sister.
    “Free!” yelled Maureen. “Pick her up and head for the bay door! We’ve got just ten seconds of darkness left!”
    Jack grabbed his sister about her waist, lifted her, heard her moan from bruises and a laser cut somewhere on her body, then cradled her against his chest. No antique over the shoulder carry that would expose her heat glow to laser fire. They would have to get through his laser resistant enviro-suit before they could get to Cassie!
    “Come!” yelled Ignacio from his side.
    “To our right!” shouted Max over the comlink.
    “Running!” he yelled back, holding his still breathing sister tight to his chest.
    Dodging the red body glows of unarmed people, Jack made for the blue coldness of the middle bay’s lift door. A door now sealed against the snowy windstorm that had descended just before his fleet’s antimatter beams had vaporized the six buildings of the academy.
    “Stop!”
    It was the voice of Fleet Admiral Santiago Narváez. Coming from a red heat shape that ran toward them from the tunnel entry portion of the factory. The man’s body glow weaved between milling people, telling Jack the admiral also wore an IR face mask.
    “Mabry!” Jack yelled over the comlink. “Blow that hangar door!”
    The strap of his laser rifle loosened. Someone was pulling the rifle off his shoulder. His infrared vision said it was Cassie, who twisted in his arms to bring the laser down to her belly and point it outward.
    “Die you bastard!”
    A green beam shot from Cassie to Jack’s right, hitting the Unity admiral in his upper body.
    Gurgling sounds came from the man. His running bodyshape slowed, stopped, swayed and then fell to the ground. The purple glow of a weapon, likely a laser handgun, clattered loose and tumbled away from the man’s grasping reach.
    “ Kla-bam! ”
    Gale force winds gusted against Jack and his people as the middle bay’s exit door grew a giant hole.
    Yellow light came on.
    The blue-suited shapes of academy students and some older staff looked around in confusion, most of them sitting or squatting on the concrete floor. Black-suited academy guards were scattered here and there about the floors of the three bays. All were down and unmoving, or barely moving.
    Five marines wearing the red patch of Mars ran toward him and his people just as they reached the hole in the giant metal door. They aimed laser rifles at the shocked people, only a few of whom were trying to stand up. Jack’s peripheral vision showed the other two teams of Mars marines sprinting toward him and his people, pushing people aside when needed. One of the sprinting marines carried the factory’s computer pedestal strapped to his back. Yes! Maybe it held the specs for the grav-pull drive. The Mars marine closest to Jack stopped, touched his face mask and looked at the milling crowd.
    “Interfere and you die!” yelled Mabry, using his mask’s loudspeaker function. “Move back to the tunnel! This factory will be vaporized in