Derek cursed as he watched the Bounty disappear through the portal to Verlan Beta with a flash. The distraction was enough for the House Werrick soldier he had been fighting to knock him flat on the deck.
The guy was good, but ultimately at a disadvantage because he had clearly been ordered to take Derek alive. That wasn't going to happen.
Derek swept the man's legs out from under him, knocking him to the deck, and quickly dispatched him with his knife.
"You won't be needing this," Derek said, removing the dead guy's anti-grav pack and strapping it on his own back. He then retrieved his rifle while he took in the situation.
The last of the sailors on the Esmerelda were either dead, or soon would be as the remaining soldiers from House Werrick finished them off.
A familiar whoosh told him that the portal had begun to close. Time to leave, he thought, and keyed the grav pack.
The response was instantaneous and Derek arced up toward the wormhole at full throttle, firing parting shots at the House Werrick scumbags as he went. He dropped at least two, and the others, having activated their own packs, were headed for their ship when he spun to face the rapidly approaching portal.
Just before he entered it, Derek wondered how much Verlan Beta had deteriorated since he and his imperial marines had pulled out a few years ago. It was a murderous hell hole then, he thought, and with a flash, he was on his way to find out.
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