Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga) Read Free Page A

themselves.
    The surrounding lights were still flickering and attempting to come back on.
    Ramek entered first, followed by the others.
    Kason pulled up a schematic of the data core, seven floors below their position. His eye scanned the readouts. All were clear.
    Kason circled with his hand towards the center of the room.
    Maddox approached from the command.
    He reached and grabbed a silver disc attached to his side. The disc was about 6cm in diameter and 1cm in thickness. It was a powerful shaped charge, usually meant for breaching blast doors or opening walls. The Reavers referred to them as flat bastards.
    Depressing a button on the top of the disc, he hurled it into the center of the room. The device sprang to life upon touching the floor and flung out eleven smaller discs in a circular pattern about three meters in diameter. Each disc was connected by a small wire to the others all were connected to the original center disc.
    “Set,” Maddox signaled as the team re-entered the corridor.
    With Maddox’s command, each of the outer discs ignited with a blue-hot jet of plasma. The center disc began to spin and the smaller discs became cutters slicing through the deck plating. Whoomp !
    The floor caved in and fell, sending up billows of smoke and debris throughout the room.
    The auditory buffers in each man’s helmet helped block the tremendous roar of the falling floors as the discs continued to cut, proceeding decks below. Their battle suits protected them from the immense heat emanating from the open shaft.
    Kason signaled the team with a simple “Go” and, one after the other, they jumped down into the opening.
    Ramek, the largest Reaver fell down first followed by the rest. Kason was last.
    Sounds of plasma bolts echoed through the adjacent corridors as each man fired as they fell.
    The Kryth soldiers in these corridors had no chance in the smoke-filled hole. The Reavers had no such hindrances as their battle helmets saw through the smoke as if it were day.
    The Reaver team sank at a controlled rate, slowed by their anti-grav devices on their boots.
    The first to the bottom was Ramek. He cleared the room with a burst of his weapon. Screams of the fallen Kryth were drowned out by the massive roar of Ramek’s plasma cannon.
    Soon, the others landed in the room from above.
    Jens glanced around at the now motionless Kryth soldiers. “Leave some for us, big man.”
    The other Reavers went into a crouched protective posture while Kason approached Ramek.
    “Grab the data core. Let’s finish this,” Kason ordered.
    Ramek moved to the console in the room.
    He attached a small device to a large circular panel. The device squeaked out beeps and whistles while interfacing with its host. A large click sounded and Ramek moved to pull the cylinder device out from the panel. He wrapped it in a stash bag and slung it over his back.
    With their primary mission complete, the team separated to finish secondary objectives within the outpost.
    Kason, now alone, his team splitting up to cover individual assignments, moved through a corridor searching out his secondary mission, a Cuukzen scout with vital information.
    Intel showed this Cuukzen was supposed to be visiting on the outpost for a few days.
    His HUD located the room this Cuukzen was assigned to, but his scan of the room came up empty of any life forms.
    Kason continued his search but now the Kryth had shrugged off their initial lethargy. His battle helmet pointed out incoming targets bearing down on his location.
    Two Kryth were approaching from an adjacent hallway.
    Kason lifted his weapon and pulled the trigger, letting off a single blue burst of plasma bolt just as the Kryth came around the corner.
    The bodies fell with a thud .
    He raised his weapon again and saw the other silhouettes of more incoming soldiers running down the hall, his HUD allowing a clear body image through the walls.
    Each of his next bolts found their marks as they cleared the corner to Kason. The