::Get that one,:: she said, taking off after the second. ::Try not to get killed.::
Jared followed the Rraey soldier, who used its powerful, birdlike legs to build a considerable lead on him. As Jared raced to catch up, the Rraey spun and shot wildly at him with a one-handed grip on its weapon; the kick knocked the gun up and out of the Rraey’s hand. The bullets spat up dirt directly in front of Jared, who veered for cover as the weapon clattered to the ground. The Rraey ran on without retrieving its weapon and disappeared into the colony’s motor pool garage.
::I could use some help,:: Jared said, at the bay of the garage.
::Join the club,:: Harvey said, from somewhere. ::These fuckers outnumber us at least two to one.::
Jared entered the garage through the bay. The quick glance showed that the only other way out was a door on the same wall as the bay and one of a series of windows designed to ventilate the garage. The windows were both high and small; it seemed unlikely the Rraey had gone through those. It was still somewhere inside the garage. Jared moved to one side and started a methodical search of the shop.
A knife shot out from a tarp on a low shelf and slashed Jared in his calf. The nanobotic fabric of Jared’s military unitard stiffened where the knife blade made contact. Jared didn’t receive a scratch. But his own shocked movement tripped him up; he went sprawling on the floor, ankle twisted, his Empee clattering out of his hand. The Rraey scrambled out of its hiding place before Jared could get to it, clambered over Jared and pushed the Empee with the fist that still held the knife. The Empee danced out of reach and the Rraey stabbed Jared’s face, cutting him savagely in the cheek and drawing SmartBlood. Jared yelled; the Rraey scrambled off him and toward the Empee.
When Jared spun around the Rraey had the Empee trained on him, its elongated fingers awkwardly but solidly on the stock and trigger. Jared froze. The Rraey squawked something and pulled the trigger.
Nothing. Jared remembered that the Empee was trained to his BrainPal; it wouldn’t fire for a nonhuman. He cracked a smile in relief; the Rraey squawked again and jammed the Empee hard into Jared’s face, tearing into the cheek it had already slashed. Jared screamed and scrambled back in pain. The Rraey threw the Empee onto a high shelf, out of the reach of both of them. It reached onto a counter to grab a tire rod and advanced on Jared, swinging viciously.
Jared blocked the swing with his arm; his unitard stiffened again but the hit made his arm ache in pain. On the next swing he reached to grab the rod but misjudged the speed of the approach; the rod came down hard on his fingers, breaking bones in the ring and middle fingers of his right hand and driving down his arm. The Rraey moved the iron sideways and clocked Jared in the head with it; he went down to his knees, dazed, retwisting the ankle he’d fallen on earlier. Jared groggily went for his combat knife with his left hand; the Rraey kicked the hand, hard, sending the knife spinning out of his grip. A second rapid kick tapped Jared on the chin, driving his teeth into his tongue, causing SmartBood to spurt into his mouth and over his teeth. The Rraey pushed him over, pulled out its knife, and bent down to cut Jared’s throat. Jared’s mind suddenly ricocheted back to a training session with Sarah Pauling, when she straddled him with her knife on his throat and told him he lacked focus.
He focused now.
Jared sucked in suddenly and spat a gobbet of SmartBlood at the Rraey’s face and eye band. The creature recoiled, revulsed, giving Jared the time he needed to instruct his BrainPal to do with the SmartBlood on the Rraey’s face what it did when it was ingested by the bloodsucking bug on Phoenix: combust.
The Rraey screamed as the SmartBlood began to burn into its face and eye band, dropping its knife as it clawed at its face. Jared grabbed the knife and drove it into the side of the Rraey’s head. The Rraey issued an abrupt, surprised cluck and then went boneless, slumping backwards on the floor. Jared followed its example, lying silently, doing nothing but resting his eyes and becoming more and more aware of the heavy, acrid smell of smoldering Rraey.
::Get up,:: someone said to him some time later, and prodded him with a boot toe. Jared winced and looked up. It was Sagan. ::Come on, Dirac. We got them all. You can come out now.::
::I hurt,:: Jared said.
::Hell, Dirac,:: Sagan said. ::I hurt just looking at you.:: She motioned over to the Rraey. ::Next time, just shoot the damn thing.::
::I’ll keep that in mind,:: Jared said.
::Speaking of which,:: Sagan said, ::where’s your Empee?::
Jared looked up at the high shelf the Rraey had flung it onto. ::I think I need a ladder,:: Jared said.
::You need stitches,:: Sagan said. ::Your cheek is about to come off.::
::Lieutenant,:: Julie Einstein said. ::You’re going to want to come over here. We found the settlers.::
::Any of them alive?:: Sagan said.