“Shoot where they will be when your shots are out, not where you see them!” I barked. “Shoot in their path, and they’ll run into your weapons fire!”
The next small craft took a hard hit near its center and began to vent smoke, but it wasn’t out of the battle. For a moment, I caught sight of a much larger Xeno ship, before ours banked hard to the left, then right, then performed a barrel roll.
“Sorry,” Nyna said. “We had one on our ass. I shook it loose, though.”
The big ship came into view again. It was headed toward us but didn’t look like it was moving as fast as the others. Nor did it seem as maneuverable.
“Looks like a small carrier,” Reaver said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said as I opened up on another small craft but missed it by a fraction of an inch.
I grunted as the ship shook hard.
“We’re hit!” Nyna said. “But we’re still good. Damn. They’re shooting some kind of beam at us!”
Another small craft cut in front of us and fired green beams from its center. Yellow energy bolts shot all the way around it, and I saw my opportunity. I waited until I was sure, then pulled the trigger and sent four well-aimed blasts through the cockpit. The Xeno vessel exploded and disappeared in a black cloud.
Another came around, flew through the cloud, and headed right toward me. I pulled the trigger, as did two other gunners, and tore the craft to shreds. For a moment, I saw the pilot as his craft fell apart around him. He had two arms, two legs, and looked very human. He was also wearing a Martian Navy uniform. My breath caught in my throat.
They’ve been infected, just like Demetrios, the former king of Brazud, I realized. Demetrios was nothing more than a skin. The parasite was using it like a costume. My crew have become zombies doing their sworn enemies’ bidding.
A hard jolt spun our ship and slammed my head against the bulkhead, interrupting my horrified stare. I touched the spot, looking for blood, but there wasn’t any. The bulkhead had a dent in it though.
“Damn!” Nyna hissed. “That was a hard hit. It’s the big ship. It’s joined the fight. We can outrun them if you want. Or we can fight. But that thing’s a monster!”
A barrage of green bolts lanced up from somewhere beneath our ship and caused us to lose power for a moment and drop. It felt like my stomach might hit my eyeballs before Nyna recovered and took evasive maneuvers. She grunted as she fought to shake off our pursuer. I felt her increase, then decrease the throttle.
“I’m about to do something stupid,” she warned. “Hang on!”
I gritted my teeth and held on to my harness. She hadn’t been kidding. We stopped mid-air and turned completely around. I only had a second to grab the yoke and pull the trigger. A second was long enough.
There’s nothing of their humanity left, I thought. The pilots of those Xeno vessels are the enemy, they’ve died and their powerful, disciplined bodies are being exploited by those parasites.
The crescent-shaped ship chasing us had trouble stopping, but as it slowed, it exposed its belly, increasing the profile of our target. Several guns fired at once and tore the ship into pieces, but not before the pilot jumped from his disintegrating craft and leaped for ours.
“Holy shit!” Nyna exclaimed. “Was that a human?”
I’d hoped they wouldn’t have noticed during the battle. We had to remain focused on our goal, these bodies were beyond saving, but the Xeno were not beyond defeating.
“It was,” Reaver said, her voice mournful. “And it was one of our crew. The fuck is he doing, Jacob?”
I heard a thump on the top of the ship followed by several more sounds. The creaking, snapping noises told me he’d survived his jump and was up to no good.
“Right now,” Nyna said, “he’s taking the ship apart. He’s pulling antennae off! Oh, there goes a sensor. I don’t think I needed that one, a ground surveyor. But shit, quick, someone do something!”
“Spin the ship!” Beatrix said.
“Can’t,” Nyna answered, “got to run. We’ve got another one inbound!”
I turned my gun but didn’t have a shot. I could hear him breaking things, but I couldn't see my target.
“Does anyone have a shot?” I asked.
Nobody did.
I glanced around the pod looking for something, anything that could help me get rid of the invader before he properly damaged out only ship. I found a short, handle-like rod. I squinted at it, and smiled when I realized what I was holding.
“Slow the ship,” I said.
“If you say so…” Nyna replied uneasily.
She slammed on the brakes, and we took three hard hits from the last crescent ship as it buzzed past us.
I unstrapped my harness, turned the handle, and a hatch irised open above my head. I drew my pistol, squeezed one shoulder out, and took aim at the human clinging to the top of our ship. He was badly burned, and, though I didn't know his name, I did recognize him and the logo on his shoulder. He’d been part of the engineering team aboard the Revenge, our stolen Xeno ship that was supposed to have taken us all the way to a Xeno world. Now, his purpose was to kill me and my companions, to aid the Xeno’s plan of universe-wide domination.
He noticed me, turned toward me, and removed all doubt as to his loyalty. He opened his mouth, and two very Xeno-like mandibles stretched it grossly out of shape. I squeezed the trigger. The top half of his body vaporized. The bottom half bounced across the deck and fell.
I quickly pulled myself back
