Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3) Read Free Page A

and placed the targeting dot on the heat source. A command to his suit pushed the aiming point over his link to the first sergeant and the fire support team. This action allowed everyone to see where Travis had his rifle aimed at. Now Philippa had the amassed firepower of the majority of the platoon to back her up if it all went wrong.
    Philippa noted the lieutenant’s aiming point in her suit and was slightly reassured as she slowly approached the heat source. She noticed the heat source grew bigger as she moved closer and her optics got a better look at it. The source expanded in her HUD until a perfect horizontal line formed, about a meter and a half across. Faint red lines dropped vertically away from each end of the horizontal line, fading into a cool blue as they went, "Are you seeing this, Lieutenant? It looks to me like heat escaping from a badly sealed hatch."
    Travis called the image up to the corner of his own HUD. Damn if she wasn't right! Nature abhors straight lines and those heat lines were perfectly straight and joined at right angles. "Sit tight, Corporal, I'm coming to you." Travis opened his link to the two scientists. "Can your gear get me a good reading on whatever the hell that thing is?"
    "Get me close enough Lieutenant and our equipment should be able to penetrate anything but battleship shielding," replied the lead scientist.
    "OK, you pair stay behind me and shout when we get close enough for you to get a good reading. Move out." Travis moved off with the scientist trailing a few steps behind him.
    Just as they came level with Philippa, the scientist spoke over the link. "That’s close enough. I'm pushing the image to you now. It’s some sort of airlock door to a narrow corridor cut into the rock, it slopes down at a shallow angle away from our position before skirting around and disappearing out of range about fifteen meters below the surface..." The pause in the scientist’s report got Travis' full attention.
    "And?" Travis asked, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. For the briefest of seconds the scientist said nothing, then Travis saw in his HUD that both scientists were backing away.
    "And there’s something in the airlock now and it’s cycling."
    Crap ! "Corporal! Heads up, we're about to have a visitor!" Travis' warning call came not a moment too soon.
    In Philippa's HUD, the thermal image bloomed as the airlock opened. Outlined in its center was a figure in cooler blue. Philippa's rifle came up, her aiming mark centered on the chest of the unidentified figure only scant meters from her. The alien seemed as shocked to find the marines outside the airlock, as they were to see the alien.
    Philippa saw the alien take a step back into the airlock. If whoever or whatever it was raised the alarm, the marines could be in for a world of hurt. Before she realized she was doing it, Philippa sprang forward, her rifle falling slack on its sling and freeing her arms as she tackled the figure. She took it to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
    Philippa's Wraith suit’s servos should have given her an unfair advantage, but as she tried to pin the alien to the ground it managed to hold her off. Either it was incredibly strong or it was being aided by its own mechanical suit. The fight came to swift end as Travis entered the airlock behind Philippa and leveled his PEP pistol at the alien’s obscured faceplate. The space-suited figure got the message and assumed the prone position on the airlock’s floor.
    Philippa pushed herself back to her feet, taking out her own PEP and quickly scanning the small airlock for threats. Lying by the door was a large metal case with the lid propped open. She took a tentative look inside to see a neat stack of a multitude of tools. Is this guy on the floor a maintenance tech?
    "Looks like some kind of tools to me, Lieutenant," she said as she completed her scan of the airlock. Satisfied they were alone, Philippa relaxed slightly but kept her PEP at the