My feet weren’t all the way in the boots and the face mask was a little higher than ideal, but I’d used oversized armor before. It clamped around me tightly enough that I could make it work. I put my com in the chest compartment and closed the face guard. I didn’t have time for squeamishness.
I strapped one long gun to my back and held the other one with the muzzle pointing down. I activated the external speaker. “Go as soon as I’m on the ground,” I said. “They must not catch you. I’m going to shift blame to Silva. If questioned, do the same.”
“I’ll make you a hole while the door closes. Make use of it. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I hoped I did, too. If Ian was already dead, I’d personally revive him just so I could yell at him for being a lying bastard.
Aoife started picking off the soldiers. I bounded down the ramp, shooting as I went. I wasn’t nearly as accurate as Aoife, but not too many of the soldiers wanted to take on an armored opponent. They scattered for cover.
I had an extremely narrow window of time where that shock would carry the day. Then they’d armor up and overwhelm me. I had to be gone before that happened.
Once I was clear of the ship’s shield, I brought the suit’s shield up. Aoife’s armor was top of the line and responded beautifully, even with the bad fit. I barreled toward the soldiers who were dragging Ian toward the elevator. If they got him inside, I was done for.
With Ian mostly on the ground, I had a clear line of fire on the soldiers around him. I did not waste the opportunity. After two of them went down, the rest dropped Ian and ran for cover.
Ian did not move.
Dread curled through my belly. Ian wouldn’t give up; he would fight to the end. Was he truly dead?
I skidded to a stop next to him. The suit’s heads-up display detected a faint heartbeat, thready and too fast. Not dead, but seriously injured. I carefully scooped him up in my left arm with the suit’s help. His torso left a bright red smear on the hangar’s floor. He hung limply from my grip.
I spun and checked my options one last time before I decided. Opportunity was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief. Even if my stupidity got me killed, at least Ferdinand had a shot.
A small Rockhurst planet hopper sat outside, covered in a layer of snow. Another small Rockhurst transport ship was parked in the hangar, but it hadn’t been here when we’d arrived. That meant it had likely jumped in more recently than the hopper. Neither would have a sophisticated medbay or FTL drive.
There were no other options. Where in the hell did they keep their military ships?
I would have only one shot at this. If I chose wrong, we were captured at best, dead at worst.
Trusting my instincts, I ran for the ship outside. Ian was inside my shield, but I shot at anything that moved, trying to keep them from returning fire. I couldn’t tell Ian to hold his breath, so I’d have to give him CPR once we were inside. I silently prayed he would hang on.
The cargo ramp was down, and the door opened when I pressed the button. Alarms sounded as unbreathable air came in with us. The ship automatically began a purge as soon as I closed the door. I locked it behind us. It might buy us a few seconds.
Once the air was safe, I laid Ian on the floor and stripped off my gloves and helmet. He wasn’t breathing. I started CPR, pressing his chest and filling his lungs with oxygen.
When he took a shallow breath on his own, I nearly cried. My hands came away red, but I had to get us in the air before I could do more for him.
I pulled out my com and searched for the Rockhurst override codes I’d recently found for Ada. In addition to the six standard codes spanning a dozen years, I had five newer specialized codes I could try.
I started with the standard codes because they were the most likely to work on a nonessential ship like this. The newest standard code didn’t work, nor did the second newest. But the third code, the one from six years ago, gave me administrative access to the ship. How long had