World of Grey

By R K Athey

You've probably seen the vidcasts of young Federation soldiers with perfect Old World features risking life and limb for Federation and family. Adoring Civs gather around afterwards cheering them for their sacrifice and courage.

This story isn't about them. It’s about the other guys. The ones who serve the highest bidder without concern for collateral damage.

Sarge is a tactical savant and the leader of a Hellhound squad from the Void Hammers mercenary guild. With advanced armor and weaponry, there are few threats on the Federation’s frontier his Hellhounds can’t handle. But, when tasked with retrieving an ancient artifact, he faces a threat no technology can overcome and a decision that could lead to destruction on a planetary scale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R K Athey
• Release date: Oct 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310533976

R K Athey

Keith Athey is a father and husband living in the Austin, Texas. By day, he's an Enterprise Architect. At night, he dons his computer glasses and types well into the night telling tales of horror and adventure. Mr. Athey is active in the gaming industry, writing reviews and serving as the marketing manager for the open source gaming products found on rptools.net.

Book preview

World of Grey

A Hellhounds Story

by

R. K. Athey

Copyright 2013 R. K. Athey

Smashwords Edition

License Statement

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

DEDICATION

This story is dedicated to my son Zachary who tells me daily I'm the best dad in the world and to my wife Debbie who keeps the household afloat while I'm buried in the writing process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to thank my friends who patiently read, reread, and read again my work providing suggestions and criticism. I can honestly say this would not have happened without you.

Special thanks to Matt Jackson for the cover design and the prompt which resulted in this story, Derek Brown for being a marathon beta reader, and Salomé Jones of Flourish Editing for her patient and professional copy editing. You folks rock.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Not Well Enough

Chapter 2: Regulations

Chapter 3: No Fekking Way

Chapter 4: Vape Some Feak

Chapter 5: Betelgeuse

Chapter 6: Bad Day

Chapter 7: Indigestion

Chapter 8: Artificial Insanity

Chapter 9: No Good Deed

About R. K. Athey

Connect with R K Athey

A Request

Chapter 1 - Not Well Enough

I shoved another det charge into place, forcing it into the packed dirt ceiling. The soft white light announced its activation, revealing the gruesome tangle of dead and dying insectoid bodies in a way the thermal images hadn't. The Bugs' green blood and internals formed a muddy soup at the intersection of several tunnels. It mixed with the red of my fallen squad members as it oozed to the lower realms of the Kzzick warrens.

I swung the barrel of my triple threat assault rifle in an arc, scanning the nearby area. The holo plate showed bad news.

Angel, the Bugs are amassing for another charge. If you hear the det charges, get out and don't look back.

Angel's soft, feminine voice came over the comms. No need, Sarge. We found them.

My voice cracked as I spoke. How many?

Twelve, including the Governor and Ms. Hahn.

Twelve Civs in exchange for five Hellhounds. No fee was worth that. Understood. Notify Doc we'll be using Plan B for egress. I'm en route.

Understood.

I looked down at the bodies of my compagnons d'armes. I'm sorry, were the only words I had for them. There wasn't even a way to recover their armor.

A soft rumbling sound caught my attention, but before I could move, the ground beneath me gave way. I fell, clawing at the loose dirt until my armored fingers found at ledge of immobile rock. Soil and rocks fell past, seeking company in the long fall to the darkness below.

My armor switched to thermal imaging. The chitin of the Bug bodies didn't radiate much heat but their eyes did. The hot orbs of Kzzick eyes bobbed upward preceded by the chirps and clicks of their speech.

My free hand found the incendiary grenade on my belt. Fekking Kzzick, I yelled and released the grenade into the Bugs below.

I activated the boot thrusters as the grenade exploded. The white hot flames caused my suit's shielding to glow as the thrusters pushed me upwards. Even with the shielding, heat entered through the biomesh underarmor causing spikes of pain at my joints.

It wasn't true flight. More like rocket assisted leaps up the vertical tunnel walls. I bounced from one side to the other and landed with a thud at the nexus of corridors.

My head fell back as I lay on the tunnel floor, my breath fogging my helmet's visor. Fekking rookie mistake. Kzzick loved attacking from below.

The skittering sounds of large insect feet echoed from the other tunnels.

Son of a Baktar. I rolled over and crawled until I could run upwards to the remnants of my squad. I heard the Bugs behind, gaining ground quickly. The smaller ones were fast, really fast. I didn't need to look back. I knew what I'd see. I activated the det charges at the nexus.

My suit burped, indicating I was still within the blast's lethal radius. I overrode the warning. Better to be buried than eaten.

There wasn't a sound, at least not one I heard, but the pressure wave struck like a hammer. The last of my shielding vanished as I rolled up the tunnel with small bug bodies shooting past. As if the day weren't going badly enough, the tunnel began a slow collapse behind me.

Ah, fek, I said. My limbs refused to move but I forced them into action. More dirt fell. I felt like the last bit of paste being squeezed out of a food tube as I stumbled up the sloping corridor. Loose earth grabbed at my feet, trying to anchor me in place for an unceremonious burial. I couldn't see as debris choked out any form of light. I trusted my suit's sensors as it charted a course past falling boulders, rocks, and soil.

It wasn't enough.

My armor's servos whined at ever higher frequency pushing through the torrent of earth until I was unable to move. The weight against my body increased with every passing second. Each breath left less room in my lungs for air as the tunnel collapse crushed my chest cavity. I spoke into the comms but the only sounds I made were wheezing gasps.

The auxiliary atmosphere supply kicked in as my suit detected my low oxygen level. It would do no good. The air had nowhere to go.

A crack appeared on my visor. It turned into a spiderweb, cutting the electronic displays showing my status and position. I closed my eyes, waiting. The crystal visor shattered, shards cutting into my face. Pressure from either side of my helmet pressed against my skull.

Earthen debris flooded in, filling my nose. I breathed out, spitting dirt but more snuck in with each attempted breath. Grit pressed through my clenched teeth trying to work its way