Last Mission

By Anne Wheeler

When Michel arrives back on his home planet of Esint after fleeing an enemy invasion the year before, he has one thing on his mind. One place he needs to be. One plan that can't go awry.

 

And that one final mission—a personal one this time—is about to be interrupted.

 

Last Mission is a 10,000-word (50 page) novelette.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne Wheeler
• Release date: Nov 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781951910082

Book preview

Last Mission

©2020 Catherine Wheeler

www.anne-wheeler.com

Cover art

©2021 Tegnemaskin

www.tegnemaskin.no

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-951910-08-2

For the other Daniel.

CONTENTS

Last Mission

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Anne Wheeler

LAST MISSION

Behind enemy lines.

It was a phrase ominous enough to make most men cower, but as Michel slammed the door of the shuttle and hefted up his rucksack, the only thing he felt was calm. Strange, wasn’t it, how a sense of mission and routine eased one’s fear, no matter what they were about to face. Perhaps the sniper rifle slung across his back helped. Maybe it was the fact he’d infiltrated Esint as cautiously as he had, waiting until the quasar had fired and showered the entire system with interference. There could be no mistakes this time, even if his rucksack dug into his back like it never had before. Not when he was hunting one last target.

Burning the one-man, civilian shuttle that had brought him home would have been for the best, but fire would draw too much attention to his landing site. He might be good at disappearing, but no one was invisible. So, before he’d entered orbit, he had crushed the navigation chips with his teeth and shoved them out the airlock, then burned through the launch rocket cable with a lighter. That move had rendered the shuttle useless for him, but more importantly, for the Sult as well. He might be desperate, but he still had honor. He still remembered his oaths. He had betrayed no one.

Or, at least, that was what everyone thought. What would they do if they knew otherwise?

It took more time than he wanted to leave a dozen swerving, almost hidden trails, but he did it anyway, pacing from the shuttle to the edge of the woods, and then following his tracks back to the center of the landing site. Long as it was taking him, it would take any trackers much longer, and if the fates smiled down on him, they would choose the wrong route. Just the thought of a Sult patrol marching three klicks in the wrong direction through the pines made his lips curve upward. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and he clung to it as he set off on his chosen course. It might be the last smile for a very long time. Maybe the last ever,