Starfist: Technokill
Book V
Chapter One
"Move, move-move!" Sergeant Bladon's radioed shout reverberated
through Lance Corporal Rock Claypoole's helmet.
"Blow that hinge, Rock!" Corporal Kerr shouted, adding his demand.
"I'm trying, I'm trying," Claypoole shouted back.
"Want some help?" PFC Wolfman MacIlargie asked. "Let me in there,
I'll get it." He had already blown his hinge.
"Stay away," Claypoole snarled, and tried again to clamp the blower
onto the upper lever, where it hinged into the airlock hatch. MacIlargie
squirted closer and bumped him. For a vertiginous moment Claypoole
spun slowly away from the spaceship in orbit around Thorsfinni's World.
His tether jerked him to a yawing stop a few meters away. "Back off,
Wolfman," he snapped, and hauled himself back to the hatch that second squad's
second fire team was trying to breach. In his ungainly armored
vacuum suit, Claypoole struggled to lock his boot magnets to the hull and
hatch on either side of the hinge. He managed to seat the cup of the
blower over the hinge. He reached one thickly gloved hand to the crimper and
pulled on it. The cup closed securely onto the end of the arm.
Claypoole looked down the length of the meter long tool and ... read full excerpt from: Starfist Technokill ebook
