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

as good as dead. He locked himself in with it to keep it from going anywhere else.”
    “We’ll give him the respect he’s earned once this thing’s dead,” Hale said. “When we’re down there, don’t shoot the omnium reactor.” Hale emphasized the last words.
    “Knew we should have kept that thing on the flight deck,” Bailey said. “But MacDougall and Lafayette’s precious little toy just had to go someplace designed to withstand a battle.”
    “Flash bangs now, complaining later,” Hale said. “Combat circle the whole way down, call it out when you see the target.” The lieutenant took a flash-bang grenade from his belt, designed to overwhelm an enemy with enough noise and light to shatter human eardrums and temporarily blind whoever was unfortunate enough to get a good look at the explosion. Hale pulled the pin and tossed it down the shaft; his four Marines followed suit.
    Hale turned away and tucked his face into the crook of his arm. The deck rumbled as a ripple of nonlethal explosions boomed. He stepped into the opening the banshee made and fell. The walls blurred past as he worked the anti-grav linings along the soles of his boots to keep his descent under control. The linings flared as he neared the deck, but he still hit hard enough to jar his bones from his feet to his skull.
    Marines and Steuben landed in a circle, their weapons humming with energy. The flash bangs had scorched the ground around them, and there was no sign of the banshee.
    Hale looked around and saw pallets of gauss ammunition for rifles and every caliber of weapon on the ship. Large containers for the three foot long rail cannon munitions took up nearly half the armory and were evenly spaced like trees in an orchard. The containers were taller than Steuben, and the banshee.
    Against the far bulkhead, a purpose-built container housed the omnium reactor.
    “I don’t see it,” Torni said.
    “Negative here,” Orozco said.
    “Who wants to go wandering around the maze of ammo cans?” Standish asked. “Hey Mr. Monster…come out and play.”
    Steuben slid his helmet’s visor up to the top of his head and breathed deeply. “I smell it,” he said. He pointed his rifle toward the reactor.
    “Keep a 360. Don’t let it sneak up on us,” Hale said.
    Steuben led them through the forest of containers—some open and bare, most locked shut. Droplets of gray blood left a trail down a row, joined by a smear every few feet. Steuben raised a fist to signal a halt.
    Steuben’s double set of nostrils flared. “Something’s not right. The trail continues but—”
    A container’s doors burst open and slammed Steuben off his feet. The Karigole flew into Orozco and the two went down in a heap of limbs.
    The banshee stepped out of the container and swiped at Hale. He brought his arms up and managed to block the worst of the blow that hit him like a mule’s kick. He had a brief sensation of flying before impacting against the graphene-reinforced steel of a container.
    White flashed across his eyes as he fell to the deck. He tried to get up, his vision swimming as his arms and legs seemed to want to do anything but what he needed. The flash of gauss rifles brought him back into focus. His Marines were fighting and they needed him.
    The banshee had its back to him, one claw wrapped around Standish’s neck, hoisting him into the air. Standish drew a pistol from a holster on the small of his back and unloaded on the banshee’s face. The creature roared in pain and tried to turn away from the assault.
    Hale got to his feet and ran at the monster. He twisted his wrist twice and his bayonet snapped out of his gauntlet. Hale drove the blade into the banshee’s armored back. It roared and dropped Standish, swinging its arm around with enough force to turn Hale into pulp.
    He ducked under the strike as the blow knocked a dent into a container. The banshee tried to whirl around to get at the bayonet still embedded in its flesh and took Hale