Shepherd's Crook: Omegaverse: Volume 2 Read Free Page B

he and his friends were trying to end. Matt opened the visor on his helmet; now that they were inside, they could take advantage of the breathable air that the Arn had provided. Duncan and the two others followed suit. Duncan noticed that the ambient noises, no longer muted by the isolation provided by the helmet, were louder, clearer.
    Matt held his left index finger in front of his mouth.“Shh. Be vewy vewy quiet. I’m hunting Awn,” he whispered.
    Vince then let out a little laugh, a very creditable imitation of Elmer Fudd’s.
    Duncan shouldered his plasma rifle, drew the m1911 .45 caliber pistol instead. His friends did likewise.
    “Good idea,” said Clancey. “In these tight spaces, a pistol will be easier to use.” The room was not much more than a cube, two meters on each side, with the ladder dropping into the middle and a door to one side.
    “Shall we?” asked Vince, his hand on the door.
    “We shall,” said Matt, raising his pistol toward the door.
    Vince pushed the door, ducked and ran through, followed closely by Matt and then Clancey. Duncan moved into the doorway when all hell broke loose. Laser fire erupted from the other end of a long, high room; built almost to human scale, but with Arn sized furnishings. As Duncan fell back into the entrance room, he saw his three friends diving for cover behind what looked like child sized desks.
    “Hold up,” said Shannon, “I’ve got some shields to recharge. Duncan, drop some smoke, s’il vous plait.”
    Duncan saw that all three had taken multiple hits, their shields dropping dangerously low, as he opened his bag and took out a Snell grenade.
    “Last one,” he shouted as he threw it out, aiming for the area to his friend’s right, to try to get it between them and the murderously accurate laser fire.
    “Thank you, sir,” said Shannon, “I’ll have them repaired in a jiffy.”
    “Who even says jiffy ?” laughed Clancey.
    “The goddess saving your scrawny ass. Five more seconds and y’all will be good as new.”
    “Reverting to plan ‘A’,” said Duncan, re-holstering the pistol and pulling out his plasma rifle. “Cover me.”
    The other three rose enough from behind their desks to begin, as quickly as they could pull the trigger, sending .45 bullets downrange, through the protective laser diffusing smokescreen.
    Duncan ran out of the room, crossing in front of his friends, and ran to the other side of the room where he’d spotted a small alcove. He reached it after taking a glancing hit; whether from the Arn lasers or human bullets, he didn’t know. His shield dropped ten percent, then he was back under cover. He waited while his friends reloaded, then, when they started taking more deliberate, aimed, shots, he raised his plasma rifle to his shoulder and peeked out around the cover of the alcove. As he leaned further out, sweeping to his left, his gun sight swept across the first of the Arn ambushers; he put a blast into its head and it dropped from view.
    After a second, Vince stood, pointing his pistol, held with both hands, toward the other side of the room.
    “It looks like we’re clear,” he said after a second. Matt and Clancey both stood as well, and began to advance.
    “Really?” asked Duncan. “There was only one of them?”
    “Nope,” said Clancey. “They realized that you had a good position on them, and they fell back.”
    “Doesn’t that seem kind of smart for a video game?” Duncan asked.
    “It does,” said Matt, “and it is. That’s why we like fighting the Arn. They’re smart.”
    Duncan noticed that his shield had been recharged. “Thanks Shannon.”
    “If you’re going to thank me everytime I save your ass, you’re going to be too busy to do anything else. But you’re welcome.”
    Clancey was kneeling, facing toward the way that they’d come. He began talking, no doubt for Duncan’s benefit. “I’m setting a little surprise for any Arn that decide they want to try to flank us through some