Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) Read Online Free Page B

one knee with his energy rifle held high against his shoulder. He scanned quickly back and forth, peering through the lingering haze left over from the explosion and finding no opposing forces. “Clear,” he reported.
    The second man appeared through the blown inner hatch next, moving to his right and dropping to one knee in similar fashion. Both men remained alert and ready, their weapons in firing position, as the remaining eight Corinari troops made their way from the shuttle, through the breaching box, and into the enemy frigate. Jessica was the last one through, closing the hatches on either side of the breaching box so the next shuttle carrying teams five and six could dock with the box and make their way in to join them. “ Breaching box is secure, ” she reported over the comms to the flight crew of the shuttle.
    “ Shuttle two-four moving off, ” the copilot’s voice reported.
    Jessica quickly descended the ladder and made her way through the chamber at the bottom to join teams two and three. She double-tapped her visor to call up the tactical display and immediately noticed that, although team four appeared to have already entered through the aft maintenance hatch, team one no longer appeared on her display. “Where’d team one go?”
    “They’re probably still trying to get through the hatch,” Lieutenant Waddell told her. “If they’re still outside the ship, we’ve got the hull between us and them.”
    “Oh yeah,” Jessica remembered.
    “ Shuttle two-two moving in, ” a voice reported over the suit comms.
    “ Team one! Contact! Taking fire! ” another voice reported.
    Jessica looked at the tactical display inside her visor. All five green dots representing team one were showing on the display again. She touched her faceplate with her thumb and forefinger and moved them apart to zoom in, sliding the map over as she did so. There were at least a dozen red dots just down the corridor from them, and team one appeared to be trapped in the entry airlock of the main forward boarding hatch. “Why was someone waiting for them and not for us?” she asked.
    “Their internal sensors are probably down,” Lieutenant Waddell surmised. “Looks like they’re running on emergency battery power only, which means gravity, life support, and minimal lighting, nothing more. They didn’t know we were coming. They just surmised that the forward boarding hatch was a likely target.”
    “They’re trapped,” Jessica warned. “They’ll get torn apart in seconds.”
    “They know what to do,” the lieutenant stated confidently.
    “ Shuttle two-two docking, ” a voice reported.
    “Team three, head aft,” Lieutenant Waddell reported. “Team two, forward.”

    “ Lorentz is hit! He’s down! ” one of team one’s men reported, the sound of multiple energy weapons’ blasts sounding in the background.
    Nathan winced at the report. Someone he had never even met was wounded, maybe even dying, because of an order he had given less than an hour ago.
    “ How bad? ” the team leader’s voice asked.
    “ I don’t know, but he’s in the open! ” More weapons fire was heard. “ Oh shit! They shot him again! ”
    “ Can anyone see if they’re wearing full gear? ” another voice asked as the energy weapons fire continued to sound.
    “ I can’t tell for sure, ” the first man answered. “ I don’t think so. ”
    “ Everyone! Ear-busters! On three……two……one……NOW, NOW, NOW! ”
    “What’s an ear buster?” Nathan asked.
    “Sonic grenades,” Tug explained. “They send out a sudden burst of high frequency sound that disrupts the inner ear. It kills your hearing for several minutes and throws you off balance for ten to twenty seconds. If you’re close enough to it when it goes off, it can completely incapacitate you for nearly a minute.”
    “Is that safe to use in such close quarters?” Cameron wondered.
    “Normally, no, as the metal corridors tend to create acoustic bounce-back which