Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) Read Online Free

obsidian armor. The monster collapsed against the deck, its limbs twitching.
    “This works just fine,” Steuben said. He wrenched the spike free and tapped the hammer against his thigh to knock away clinging viscera.
    Hale scrambled to his feet and aimed his weapon at the fallen creature.
    “What the hell is it? Some new kind of Xaros?” Bailey asked.
    “It isn’t disintegrating.” Torni kicked the creature’s arm, her armored boot clanging against the armored limb.
    “Howled like a damn banshee,” Orozco said. “Low-power shots didn’t do much to stop it. We go high power and that should take them down faster.”
    “We miss with a high-power shot and the round will go through three decks before it stops,” Hale said. “Shoot those banshee things in the face until they stop moving. That work for everyone?”
    “Sir, you’re my kind of Marine,” Bailey said.
    Another banshee howl set Hale’s nerves on edge. “That’s coming from the rail battery,” Hale said. He opened a channel to the bridge as they ran down the corridor.
    “XO, this is Hale. The boarders are not Xaros. I repeat, not Xaros. Q-rounds are ineffective but they will go down to massed fire. Pass that on to the other defense teams,” Hale said.
    “Hale, we need you in rail battery one ASAP. We need that gun back in the fight and we’ve lost communications with them,” Ericcson said through his helmet’s IR.
    “Almost there. What about video? Can you see what’s in there?” Hale asked. He stopped at a corner and glanced down the passageway leading to the main entrance of the battery. The double doors were shut, warning lights spinning above the frame. Blood stained the manual locking handles on each door.
    “Video is down too,” Ericcson said.
    Hale looked at the entrance controls embedded in the bulkhead as smoke wafted up from the panel and the reek of ozone mixed with the iron tang of spilled blood.
    “Torni, can you bypass the damage?” Hale asked his head enlisted Marine. Once the squad’s tech expert, she’d stepped up to fill Gunnery Cortaro’s position after he’d lost a leg on Anthalas.
    Torni flipped a panel up and shook her head at the mess of burnt-out circuits. “No chance. Someone fragged the whole system, sir. Looks like we either blow down the doors or open it the slow and painful way,” she said, nodding toward the dogs, the circular handle in the middle of each door. She looked up at the thin strip of lighting where the ceiling met the doors; the strip flickered twice every few seconds. “Extra slow, something tripped the emergency locks.”
    “Blow the doors in,” Hale said.
    “That’ll kill whoever’s still in there,” Orozco said.
    “Orozco, Steuben, on the doors. Our suits should be strong enough to overpower the locks. Open them just enough to get us in,” Hale said. He stepped back, took a knee and readied his weapon. The Marine and the Karigole grabbed the dogs and twisted, the pseudo-muscles built into their armor laboring against the emergency brakes.
    The doors cracked open slowly, revealing darkness within the rail gun battery. Twenty sailors manned the cannons, but the space beyond was silent. Hale switched on his infrared filter to look through the six-inch and widening gap and saw a pair of sailors lying on the deck in pools of blood.
    “Frag it?” Bailey asked. She slipped a grenade off her armor and hooked a finger around the pin.
    “Not yet, there might be—stop!” A blood-caked gloved hand slid into view at the edge of the doors.
    “I’ve got him.” Yarrow stepped forward and reached for the hand, just as a clawed hand snapped out of the darkness and clamped onto Yarrow’s shoulder. The banshee snatched Yarrow off his feet and pulled him to the door. Yarrow managed to get his hands up and slammed them against the doorframe, his augmented strength barely able to match the banshee.
    The banshee’s face thumped against the opening, teeth snapping at Yarrow.
    “Shoot it!