Her Cyborg Champion (The Drift Haven Colony #2) - Susan Hayes Page 0,58

an army lay hidden in the trees instead of just two lunatics with enough firepower between them to start a small war.

Wreck and Ruin flanked him on either side as the three of them broke cover near what they guessed was the ship’s stern. They moved at superhuman speed. To unenhanced eyes they’d be nothing more than a blur.

The invaders did exactly what he’d hoped. They focused on the Vardarians firing on them. Returning weapon fire seemed to come from nowhere with the defenders still hidden behind the cloaking shield.

“They’re cheating,” Ruin said via their shared link.

“Once we hit the cloak, you want to even the odds?” Striker sent back.

“On it,” Ruin replied.

“Wreckage, you’re with me.”

They barely slowed as they reached the ship and changed direction, charging into the distorted field that hid the attackers from view. Once they were through it, the view changed. Four men, likely human, had taken up defensive positions a few meters away from the ship’s main doors. The cloak had been extended to give them room to move while still remaining hidden. It was not something most standard ships could do. This was definitely some kind of military vessel.

Ruin slammed into the first invader at full speed, sending the man’s body flying out of the cloaked area.

A pair of almost identical battle cries came from the woods, and the covering fire stopped. Tra’var and Damos were about to join the fight, and he left them to it.

Running footsteps announced another wave of fighters leaving the ship, so he and Wreckage ducked out of sight beneath the ramp. Four more of the invaders charged out. They thought they were defending their friends. Striker knew they’d just signed their death warrants.

“Remember, there’s at least one hostage inside. Be careful who and what you shoot.”

“This is not my first firefight. Don’t worry. I’m not going to blast your woman.”

His woman. Damn, he liked the sound of that. Maggie was stubborn and beautiful with a soul as fiery as her hair… and she was his. Or she would be, just as soon as he got her back from the humans who’d taken her.

The first corridor they entered was empty and no automated defenses started firing on them.

“Shoddy security,” Wreckage muttered softly.

Striker agreed. Whoever they were, this outfit hadn’t prepared for the possibility they’d be boarded by hostiles. It was a costly mistake… for them.

“Fraxx you! We had a deal,” Maggie shouted, her voice loud and full of outrage.

Striker turned toward the sound in a side corridor not three meters away. He charged forward at full speed, but it felt like an eternity passed before he reached it. Every moment he expected to hear a blaster fire or Maggie’s scream as something terrible happened and he lost her forever.

Not this time. He wasn’t losing someone else he cared about. Not again.

Someone roared in fury, and it took him a moment to realize the sound was coming from him.

It echoed down the short hallway and bounced off several closed doors.

At the end of the corridor, one door stood open. The air reeked of cleanser and other, less wholesome smells—ones he remembered from Reamus. He shook the dark memories off and kept running. Not again.

Someone stepped into the doorway as he closed the last few steps. Male. Human. Dark haired. Blaster raised. That was all he had time to register before impact.

He’d never fought an unenhanced human before. He’d expected them to be knocked back and then come up fighting. That’s what a cyborg would have done. This was no cyborg.

He heard a meaty sound like a wet sack of bread hitting a hard floor, and the man flew backward. With another wet smack, he hit the bulkhead on the far side of the room, and when he slid to the ground, he left a trail of blood on the wall that told Striker he wouldn’t be getting up again.

“Striker!” Maggie cried out.

He turned just as another man fired at him. The shot went off target because Maggie grabbed the man’s arm, but it still managed to graze his bicep. Striker shut down his pain receptors before he felt more than the first twinge of discomfort.

“Bitch!” Maggie still clung to the male’s arm despite the blows he was raining down on her head and shoulders. “Let go!”

Another woman was in the room, and she flew at the man, too, but he knocked her away with a wild swing of his free arm before kicking Maggie in the stomach. Maggie sagged to