Ten Thousand Fleets Chapter 16: 16. Predator

Read chapter 16 of Ten Thousand Fleets by DavidNiemitz on NovelPedia.

16. Predator Jungle southeast of San Teodoro, Vidako Imperium Stellarum September 15, 2847 Time seemed to slow down. Arc had the sense that the Vidakan tree-cat was moving in slow motion, like an actor in a martial arts holo-vid. He had all the time in the world to see what was happening, to know that Maja Seidl, who was just brushing her hands, still wet from filling canisters at the waterfall, off on the thighs of her pants, was completely unaware of what was coming. Arc started to rise to his feet, to reach a hand out, to open his mouth, and she must have seen something in his suddenly wide eyes, because her face changed in the instant before impact. The tree-cat took Seidl to the ground in a crushing pounce, and everything burst into motion at once. Cassie was the first to move, and one small, inane part of Arc’s mind wondered just how many tailored genetic modifications were pushing her forward in that instant. She swung the barrel of her BA-50 flechette rifle up and squeezed off a three-round burst. The flechettes weren’t hooked into a neural-lace system. They didn’t acquire the tree- cat or register it as a target, and the optical sensors at the front of the .50 caliber bullet didn’t have time to process, even if they had. The tree-cat, standing on Maja Seidle’s unmoving body, was perhaps five or ten meters distant from where Cassie took the shot—and the flechettes left the barrel of her rifle at a muzzle velocity of well over nine hundred meters per second. There was no time for the actuators inside the sophisticated bullet to adjust the fins, or to steer it through the air for increased accuracy: there was no time for anything but the flechettes to enter the tree-cat’s chest, then blow out its back in a spray of blood. “Get it off her!” Arc shouted, and dashed across the water-slicked rocks along the edge of the cascades to throw his shoulder against the still warm, shuddering body of the tree-cat. John Rixey was there at his side, and though they’d hardly spoken two words to each other before this expedition, they threw themselves against the carcass with a common will and determination, straining with every ounce of muscle. Arc had come to Vidako, and to Academy Hill, with the slender body of a boy who’d always disdained physical exertion. He’d never been interested in sports during his time at secondary school, and his parents had never forced him to work a job that involved hard labor. Now, in this moment, he regretted it—because while four weeks of torture at Lieutenant Kekoa’s hands had given him a sort of wiry strength, it wasn’t enough. If he’d only used his time better before coming here, he could have done more. With a shout of anger, as much at himself as at the tree-cat, Arc gave one final push, and John Rixey, perhaps unwilling to give any less, screamed at his side. Somehow, they rolled nearly four-hundred kilograms of dead weight off Maja Seidl, and then collapsed, panting, next to her. Even having done it, Arc could hardly believe that it was possible, and he could barely even hear what anyone else was saying over the pounding of his heart, the thudding of his pulse in his ears. Natalie Ramírez, who’d dropped her compass and map somewhere back among the rocks, fell down to her knees next to Seidl, and pressed her fingers to the other woman’s neck. “I’ve got a pulse,” Ramírez said. “She’s still alive.” Arc desperately thought back to their first aid training. “We need a stretcher,” he said. “You two –” he pointed at two of the tech cadets, Tremblay and Moore. “Get your knives out and find two straight branches, just like they taught us. Shave them down. We’ll need to use our coats.” The two cadets nodded and got to work, while Ramírez stayed next to Seidl. Cassie came over and crouched next to Arc, and he was grateful to see that John Rixey was up, flechette rifle in his hands, scanning the surrounding jungle. The tree cat had broken a trail through the brush; it must have been moving fast, and somethin