Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Scout’s Honor
By
Henry Vogel
Rampant Loon Press
Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Copyright © 2014 by Henry Vogel
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by Rampant Loon Press, an imprint of Rampant Loon Media LLC, P.O. Box 111, Lake Elmo, Minnesota 55042. “Rampant Loon Press” and the Rampant Loon colophon are trademarks of Rampant Loon Media LLC.
www.rampantloonmedia.com
Cover illustration: Aaron Starr
ISBN: 978-1-938834-41-7
First publication: April 2014
In memory of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett
Chapter 1
“Wormhole ejection in one minute,” warned the nav computer.
“Acknowledged,” I said. “Computer, verify the emergency message drone is receiving the sensor data feed and is ready to launch.”
“Verified,” the computer responded.
For the remaining few seconds, the computer was silent, leaving me to mentally prepare for as many wormhole endpoint hazards as possible. Unfortunately, there are some hazards you simply can’t prepare for—exiting into the middle of an asteroid field is the worst one of those.
The collision alert began wailing at the same time my scout ship emerged from the wormhole.
“Computer, launch the drone!” I said, firing thrusters to avoid an asteroid larger than my ship.
“Drone launched,” responded the computer in its unflappable, calm voice.
“Tell me when the drone enters the wormhole,” I said, diving under a rock the size of an aircar.
“Unable to comply,” said the computer as I spun the ship starboard as fast as possible, barely sliding between two large asteroids.
“Unable to comply?” I asked. “Why?”
“Ship’s sensors are blocked by the asteroid field,” the computer told me.
“Acknowledged,” I said for the hundredth time since my ship had first entered the wormhole.
Then I tuned out the computer and worked on staying alive. I almost made it out of the field without taking major damage, too. With the edge of the field only a short distance away, my scout ship shuddered from an impact. It was a small asteroid, just a few meters across, but it was more than large enough to breach the hull and damage internal systems. With air rushing out of the breach, my ship tumbled out of the asteroid field.
A planet lay just beneath me, far closer than one should be to an asteroid field. Out of control, the scout ship plunged toward the planet below!
Chapter 2
The ship spun and tumbled dizzily as the air in the cabin shrieked, leaking out into space. Strapped tightly into the pilot seat, there was nothing I could do to repair the hole in the side of the ship. Even if I were free to move, I wouldn’t survive more than a few seconds of being tossed about the cabin.
“Abandon ship protocol initiated,” the computer said inside my head, broadcasting directly to my implant to overcome the screams of my dying ship.
The pilot’s seat dropped through the deck and into the escape pod, plugging itself into the control interface. The interface showed green and the escape pod launched itself from the ship. As it plunged toward the unknown planet, I had my first real chance to look around. I hadn’t been in an asteroid field. The wormhole exit was inside a planetary ring!
My sightseeing was cut short when sensor readings started coming in. The readings cut off as the pod hit the atmosphere, but what I’d read looked promising. The planet should support human life, at least.
I held the pod’s flight steady until it completed entry into the atmosphere, absently noted a fuel leak alert, then issued the command to deploy the wings and stabilizer. The expected whirring of the wings unfolding was replaced by a harsh grinding. That sound told me there was a major problem before the lights started flashing. I guess the asteroid impact had managed to damage more than just the escape pod’s fuel tank. Fortunately, the designers had taken many possibilities into account when designing the escape pod, including fuel leaks and wing damage. The escape pod was a lifting body and could glide without the wings. More or less.
I worked the controls, slowly changing the angle of descent, waiting for the pod to begin generating some lift. At two hundred meters, with the pod finally leveling out, I found my glide path blocked. A primitive airship floated dead ahead! Instinctively, I dove beneath it—and the escape pod lost most of its lift.
The ground rushed up, ready to crush me!
Chapter 3
My eyes slid over the controls, desperately searching for a way to create some more lift. Almost on their own, my eyes slid back to the fuel gauge. The remaining fuel barely registered on the ga
uge, but it might be enough to fire the maneuvering thrusters for a few seconds. If I could nudge the escape pod toward level flight and add some forward momentum, maybe...
I fired the thrusters.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three-
The thrusters cut out, all of the fuel depleted. But the escape pod was moving forward again and slowly generating lift. I wrestled with the controls, trying to make the escape pod glide by force of will alone. The pod was leveling out slowly but it was losing altitude much too quickly for comfort. I yanked back on the controls, forcing the pod to nose up. If the nose of the pod hit first, it would cartwheel across the landscape, leaving pieces of itself—and me—scattered all over the place.
With a bone-jarring impact, the back half of the pod hit the ground. Skipped into the air. Hit the ground again. Skipped again. And suddenly, there was a small lake below me. The pod splashed into it and bobbed to a stop. With all the holes and rips in the pod’s skin, I didn’t think the pod would stay afloat for long. Slapping the harness release, I grabbed the standard issue survival pack. The pod was sinking even faster than I’d hoped, so I popped the canopy and dove into the water.
I struck out toward the shore, about fifty meters away. A couple of minutes later, I staggered out of the water. Scrub brush grew up around the water. Beyond that little ring of greenery stretched desert as far as I could see. From the other side of the little lake, I could hear something moving through the bushes. It sounded like something big, like something I didn’t want to meet. Keeping an eye behind me, I struck out toward the desert.
At that moment, a man’s voice cried out in pain and then cut off abruptly. The cry was followed by a woman’s scream!
Chapter 4
Dripping from my swim to shore and clutching the emergency pack, I looked about for the source of the scream. A couple of hundred meters away, I saw a jumble of boulders. Now that I was alert to it, I could also hear the sounds of fighting going on beyond it—weapons clashing and voices shouting.
I ran to the boulders and quickly scrambled to the top. Below me, battle whirled between two human warriors, struggling to defend their position with swords, and about two dozen spear-thrusting wild...men? No, they were humanoid but not human, having squat, powerful bodies, blue skin, and sloping foreheads. Blood darkened the ground around bodies from both sides.
The warriors were backed against the boulders, forming a wall of flashing steel between the humanoids and a beautiful, raven-haired young woman. She moved restlessly behind her two guards, her sword poised to slash out should a humanoid come within her reach. As I took in the scene, one of her guards fell, a spear thrust completely through him. Even dying, the man found the strength to drive his sword into the stomach of the blue man who had thrust the spear. There was no scream from the young woman this time as she stepped forward to take his place.
Reflexively, I reached into the survival pack and grabbed the Onesie. The techs and quartermasters called it a Single-Shot Solar-Rechargeable Survival Blaster. All the scouts simply called it a Onesie because one shot per charge was all you got. Holding the Onesie over my head, I gave a wordless bellow. The fighting stopped as everyone turned their attention to me.
Brandishing the gun, knowing none could understand me, I yelled at the humanoids, “Leave or face the wrath of the Sky Wizard!” Then I fired the Onesie at the ground before the blue men..
I guess the blue men didn’t like wizards. With guttural shouts, they charged at me!
Chapter 5
Dropping the survival pack and the discharged Onesie—it would be hours before it could be fired again—I leapt to meet the charging blue men. Boost, I thought to my implant. Instantly, the implant flooded my body with adrenaline. Unless I could finish the fight quickly—not likely, given the odds—I’d pay a serious price for the abuse Boost put on a human body. But if I was going to save the man and the beautiful young woman, I was going to need all the strength and speed of Boost.
With adrenaline raging through my veins, I moved among the wild blue men so fast that none of them could land a solid hit. The blue men crowded around me, plunging their spears into each other as I dodged and wove among them. I felt no pain from the scrapes and cuts I picked up. When the blue men got too close, I used my enhanced strength to lift one of my attackers above my head and wielded him as a club, beating his fellows from around me.
Tossing aside the broken body, I scooped up a fallen spear and continued my dance of death among them. As the bodies of the blue men piled up behind me, the blue men still fighting with the man and the young woman realized the greater danger lay at their backs. They couldn’t seem to decide whether to turn to face me or try to overwhelm the other two humans. Their hesitation doomed them, as the remaining guard shifted from defense to attack. We drove toward each other, cutting down all who stood before us.
Even as my spear plunged into the last of the blue men, I was turning to see if the man or young woman were wounded. My eyes met the flashing, green eyes of the young woman. She spoke in a language my implant’s translator had not yet interpreted. I assumed it was some form of thanks.
I smiled and replied, “No problem. Glad I was able to help.”
Having far exceeded Boost safety limits, my implant read the relaxation in my posture. Determining I was now safe, the implant cut off Boost. The adrenaline stopped flowing and pain from my abused muscles slammed into me. I fell into darkness even before I fell to the ground.
Chapter 6
“Highness, let me bind this man,” a gruff voice said. “He could be one of the raiders!”
“He’s not, Rob,” said a lilting, female voice. “We’d never have escaped if he was. He’s the best fighter I’ve ever seen!”
“More reason to bind him,” said the gruff voice. “We can always choose to release him after he wakes up. We certainly cannot bind him after he is awake!”
The two must have been talking the whole time I was out. The translator in my implant had analyzed their language and was translating for me. Now that I was conscious, it would begin teaching me the full language, but I already had some words.
“He right,” I said, sitting up and finally getting a good look at the man and young woman.
The man was probably in his mid-forties and looked like an experienced soldier. He had drawn his sword the second I spoke, moving with lethal grace.
The young woman was perhaps twenty, only a few years younger than me, with a tall, slender beauty which was breathtaking to behold. She was pointing my discharged Onesie at me.
“Who are you?” asked Rob. “Where do you come from?”
“Not easy to tell,” I said. “Learn talk take time.”
“That’s another thing, Highness—” Rob began, cutting off as a shadow passed over us.
Looking up, I saw the airship I had nearly rammed. It was sailing a few hundred meters above us. I was drawing breath to shout to them when the princess gasped in dismay.
“Well, Highness, now we learn whose side this young man is on,” Rob growled. “The raiders have found us!”
Chapter 7
“Raiders chase you?” I asked, wishing my implant could imprint their language more quickly.
“Yes. We escaped yesterday,” Rob replied. “Now, those who sacrificed themselves so we could do so have died in vain.”
“No,” I said, grabbing the survival pack. Above us, the airship was clearly venting gas to lose altitude.
“Ha!” I said, pulling a large, thin cloth from the pack. “Safe now!”
“Are you mad?” asked the princess, holding out the Onesie, “Drop the blanket and use this weapon to destroy them!”
I checked the Onesie’s solar recharging unit. I’d been out longer than I thought because the gun would soon have enough charge to fire. But it would not be soon enough. Wrapping myself in the cloth, I dropped to the ground. “What see?”
The princess gasped, “ Rob, did he just turn into a rock?”
“Well, Highness" Rob considered, “he looks like a rock.”
“Chameleon cloth,” I said, using the Terran term. I handed the cloth to Rob, “You two, under. Hide.”
“What of you?” the princess asked as Rob wrapped the cloth around them.
“No room, Highness,” I said. “I distract.”
I handed the Onesie back to the princess and pointed at the controls, “Green good. Red bad. Point. Press button.”
Taking the gun, the young woman gave a brief nod. Rob wrapped the chameleon cloth around them and they blended into the terrain.
Ropes dropped from the airship as it neared the ground. I began running toward them, waving my arms as men began sliding down the ropes. Seconds later, I was surrounded, half a dozen sword points pricking my skin!
Chapter 8
“Where is the princess?” a voice asked as swords pressed in all around me.
“Princess?” I asked in return, trying hard to feign confusion.
A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped into view from the left. A very recent wound slashed down his right cheek.
“Do not try my patience,” demanded scarred-face. “My men saw you with her mere moments ago!”
“She princess?” I asked.
“Yes, idiot, she is a princess. And if you don’t tell me where she went, I’m going to have my lads poke several big, nasty holes in you.” He smiled warmly, “Now, talk or die.”
I pointed almost directly at Rob and the princess, “Go that way!”
“South? Farther into the desert?” Scarred-face laughed jovially, “The idiot thinks I’m a fellow fool! We go north. Prod the idiot along, boys.”
The raiders took scarred-face at his word. Every couple of steps, one of them poked me in the back with his sword. Soon, I was hopping forward with every other step, trying to stay just out of reach of the prodding. This drew laughs aplenty as my captors turned it into a game.
The game kept them so distracted that they didn’t notice the two meter drop off until I hopped over it and vanished from sight. Shouts rose behind me as I sprinted toward a nearby tumble of rocks. Nearly there, I looked back and was surprised to see the raiders had stopped chasing me.