Lucky Legacy – Raw Excerpt [Part 2]

Jiang flashed across his field of vision, spearing the fighter’s midsection just as his weapon discharged. Lucky felt the white-hot blast electrify the air in front of his face.

The stream of energy jerked wildly across the sky, scorching the ceiling of the room. Sparks rained down. Someone screamed.

How many screams did people have in them?

Jiang leaped up and fired two pulses into the prone figure, shredding his body completely in half. She looked at Lucky.

“You son of a bitch. You want to kill yourself, fine. But you do that on your own goddamned time. We have—”

She didn’t finish. A bolt of blue light reached out from the gator cannon and sent her tumbling backwards.

Before Lucky could react, something exploded overhead.

Clunky Union security drones dropped like flies form the sky and converged on the cannon, lighting it up with deadly accuracy. It all happened too fast for the operator atop it to react.

The cannon overheated and exploded, sending fragmenting flying everywhere. The operator was blown in half, ass to armpits. Blue-black blood splattered the ceiling.

A robed fighter dove away and was instantly transformed into a smoldering pile of bloody pulp. A dozen more met the same fate in a matter of moments.

Malby came walking up, hot box in hand.

“Pretty effective security drones for Union shit!”

He smiled down at Jiang, who had a huge gash in her stomach and chest. Her face was pale, but it wasn’t fatal. Her biobots were furiously repairing the damage.

“You alright, hot mama?”

She said something in a language that Lucky didn’t know, but the gesture she offered Malby was universal.

She refused his offer to help her up, choosing to stay on the ground while her bots worked.

“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Didn’t have access until Lucky’s little stunt distracted everyone enough for me to get to a panel.”

“I thought you didn’t have access at all.”

“They released the locks everywhere when they dropped the shield. Guess they didn’t count on anyone else accessing the system except them.”

Malby turned to Lucky.

“How about you, Cowboy? You hangin’ in there?”

Lucky gave him a frown.

“Cowboy?” he echoed. “Please don’t let that become a thing.”

“I’m fine,” Lucky said.

“No, I’m fine,” Rocky said. “You’re just the usual.”

His mind was still swirling. Everything he did seemed to make things worse. “That was good thinking, Malby,” he said. He was trying to get back on top of the situation.

“Don’t thank me,” he said, nodding over at Valdin. She still had Malby’s punch pistol in her hand and she looked like she knew just what she was doing with it.

“I know these systems,” she said with a shrug. “Even numbnuts here can handle them.”

Malby shook his head, but a wry smile crossed his lips. Middle-school insults were a quick way to his heart.

Nuchik shouldered past Valdin and the scientist gave her a cold stare. No love lost between those two.

Lucky hadn’t realized until that moment how short the scientist was. Nuchik was nearly a foot taller.

Jiang finally sat up. Lucky knew better than to offer her a hand.

He wanted to thank her. Instead, he said, “I had it under control.”

Jiang rubbed some mud off her exposed ribcage. The gear was ripped, but her skin seemed to have already been repaired by the bots. Her knew better than to think that everything internally was sealed up, and the way she walked gingerly past told him as much. “You’re welcome, asshole.”

Malby watched her go. “You guys are a trip,” he said.

“Have I mentioned lately that I like him?” Rocky asked.

“My AI sends her best.”

Malby broke out a in a big grin.

“Let’s move,” Nuchick said. She gave Lucky an approving nod. “You too, Cowboy.”

Rocky snickered. “It’s a thing,” she echoed.