Beware the Black Battlenaut Read Online Free Page B

Battlenaut was pointing at itself. "It was nothing personal."
    "How do you figure?" said Braeburn. "I reached out to you as a friend, and you murdered me. How is that not personal ?"
    The hypo cuff squeezed tight around Raw's arm, shooting in more go-juice. "You would've done the same to me if you were in my shoes."
    "You know that's not true," said Braeburn.
    "I saw my chance and I took it," said Raw, his upper lip curling in a growl.
    "So you think it was fair , what you did? You don't feel any remorse for killing a man in cold blood so you could steal from him?"
    "It was war !" said Raw. "It was no different from war !"
    "I have a message for you from the other side," said Braeburn. "You will suffer for all eternity for what you did to me. And that's not all."
    "Get out of my head!" said Raw. "I don't want to hear any more!"
    "Redeye Base to Redeye Squad. Come in Redeye Squad."
    It took an instant for Raw to realize that the male voice he was listening to was no longer Braeburn's. The new voice was coming from the comm.
    "Redeye Base to Redeye Squad."
    Raw punched the comm button. "Redeye One here."
    The voice on the comm sounded urgent. "What is your status, Redeye One?"
    "Request immediate extraction. Repeat. Request immediate extraction."
    "Negative," said Redeye Base. "You have new orders."
    "No can do," said Raw. "We're falling apart out here."
    "Enemy squad is converging on your position." Redeye Base sounded even more urgent. "We're transmitting telemetry now. Prepare to engage."
    "Redeye Two and Three are off comms," said Raw.
    "Negative," said Redeye Base. "Comms have been restored."
    "Redeye Two here," Grist said over the comm.
    "Redeye Three responding," said Freak.
    "Redeye One is...out of control," said Raw. "I strongly recommend immediate extraction."
    There was a pause before Redeye Base spoke again. "Prepare to engage. Repeat, prepare to engage."
    The cuff squeezed Raw's arm again. He knew there would be no extraction.
    The only way they'll come for us is when we're dead. That was what he'd thought earlier. All they want's our autopsies and telemetry.
    Only one way out of this, and he'd known it deep down from the beginning.
    "Redeye Squad! Form up!" Raw's hands flew over the controls. The Battlenaut responded smoothly, with no hint of rogue action.
    At his command, the laser cannon that had been aiming at the cockpit window pointed away from it again.
     
    *****
     
    "Arm weapons!" Raw said over the comm. "Lock and load!"
    "Roger that," said Grist, playing the controls with new purpose and alertness. The need for battle readiness had snapped him back to reality.
    It didn't hurt that he finally felt at peace with his role in Cray's death. It was a burden he'd been carrying around for years, a burden that had slowly been crushing him.
    At last, he felt free of it. So what if his forgiveness had been granted by an hallucination?
    Why not use a little insanity to inoculate himself against a greater madness?
     
    *****
     
    "Armed and ready, Lieutenant," Freak said over the comm. "Fit to fight, sir," she added, and she meant it.
    She hadn't slept for what must have been days, but she felt fitter than she had in years. She felt like a new woman since her encounter with Gwen.
    Freak only wished the visit could have been longer. There was still one thing she'd left unsaid, one thing she'd wanted to say more than anything else.
    She switched off her comm just long enough to say it. Gwen was gone, but Freak said it anyway.
    "I love you, Gwen. I'll never love anyone the way I love you."
     
    *****
     
    "Here they come," Redeye Base said over the comm. "They're coming right over the ridge."
    "Stand by, Redeye Squad," said Raw. He kept his weapons aimed in the direction of the enemy, ready to unleash the Battlenaut's full fury at any moment.
    When he checked his visor display, however, his resolve faltered. The telemetry he saw there wasn't at all what he'd expected.
    Not for ten seconds anyway.
    After ten seconds, the