Jax Davis feared three things equally above all others. In no particular order, those three are: Kansas City Royals fans, time-stopping vampire construction workers, and being in the vacuum of space. A ship offered protection. A barrier. In a way it was natural, like the way that the human race had isolated itself against the sea and the roads which it had built.
He tried to convince himself that this task was different. Necessary. It had to be him. Through fate or dramatic compulsion, he knew he had to be the one who followed through.
So he and Arna made their way to the midship airlock. He threw his coat over a bench meant to assist exomarines and mechanics in changing out of their usual uniform and into something suitable for the environment. A handful of heavy shells flew from the pocket and clattered against the metal floor.
Arna had managed to get the suit on first, the glossy gray material almost blending into the darkness, visible only by the reflectors on the shoulders and hips. He struggled to get into what was basically the space equivalent of a one-piece wetsuit and invented several clever new curse words until Arna came to his rescue.
He bounced his head off of the wide-visored helmet that shone a distorted reflection of his face in the dim light.
"I'm sure you can do the helmet on your own, but we'll have to put the jump-packs on each other." Her voice came out of the cyberpunk-diver-helmet in a warble barely recognizable as hers.
He was halfway into the helmet, his under-cared-for hair pressing uncomfortably against his face when Arna made an excited sound and struck him with her forearm.
"Hey, Jax! You'll need these!"
When he had gotten the helmet fully on after nearly being bowled over, he saw Arna holding three of Triple Regret's rounds. The ones in her clutch were slightly different, slightly shorter, and with bright metallic teal bands that separated the projectile from the rest of the shell.
"Load these instead of what you have."
"Why?" Jax pulled his weapon free of his coat pocket and emptied it, letting the heavy ammunition fall carelessly to the floor.
She handed him the bullets one by one as he loaded them, "Those blue bands? That's oxidizer. Bullets need combustion to work and there's no combustion in space. Blackwatch weapons have oxidizer tanks in the foregrip so they don't need to worry about it, but everyone else does."
He clicked the cylinder shut and placed the weapon back down. "I 'preciate the chemistry lesson. Let's get out there."
Arna double-checked the seal on his helmet, and pressed the only available button on the wall panel to cycle the airlock. There was a porthole window on the outer hatch, and through it leaked the burning green aura that cast strange shadows throughout the room. Just beyond the field of color, the lower portion of the tranquilized KNIGHT ERRANT was visible. Dark and sleepy.
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Soul of a Gambler
कल्पित विज्ञानOn the verge of going broke in an oppressed galaxy, super-criminal Jax Davis makes a deal with an offworld crime boss to get rich--but when the Blackwatch captures their most wanted man, Jax must rely on a team of prisoners to escape the grip of Gen...
