Mated to the Beast(13)

But we had those gigantic Prillon motherfuckers on our side, too. Thank God.

I watched silently as Recon Unit 4, my brother Seth’s unit, sneaked around the perimeter on the lower level, mirroring our positioning to make sure none of the Hive could escape down the lower level corridors once we started taking them out from above. I recognized my brother’s movements easily, despite the armor disguising him. I’d been sneaking around the woods with him since we were old enough to walk and I watched, heart in my throat as he got close, too close, to one of the Hive who appeared to be scanning the inventory.

Seth stopped moving, blending into the shadows behind the scout, and I let the breath I’d been holding leak from my lungs.

It had taken me eight weeks to find my brother. A month of that I’d been in training, our assignments based on former military experience. Earth’s soldiers were sent to ships all across the galaxy to fight the Hive. For me, it didn’t hurt that in addition to my military service, I’d had eighteen years of training from my brothers and father in the swamps of Florida. They’d taught me self-defense and other skills I’d never considered useful—not until I faced the Hive. I could shoot better than most. I could fight dirtier than the others. Hell, I could even fly better than others. I was also routinely underestimated by both the coalition troops and the Hive. As I was the only woman in my recon unit, the men had thought I would crumble and cry in fear, but I’d more than held my own.

Hell, when I finally made it to the front lines—had it been four weeks ago?—three of my fellow new recruits had nervous breakdowns and had to be sent home before we saw our first fight. Taking on the Hive was nothing like what any of us had experienced on Earth and six recruits from my first unit had been killed in their first skirmish. Half the team. Dead.

None of my men questioned me now, for not only had I saved the other five with my marksmanship alone, we’d taken back that freighter from twelve Hive scouts and saved the ship and I’d flown the team home. Well, what was left of them. My analysis and battle strategies had made the commanding officers take notice. I’d been promoted my second day and was now in command of my own team, as was my brother. Unit 7 and Unit 4. Sarah and Seth. We took every assignment together we could, mostly because Seth and I each wanted to keep tabs on the other.

I held my dark, gloved fist up in the air, hand closed as the last of my men moved into place. When I opened my fist, I’d begin a countdown from five that would signal the start of our attack. If things went well, it would be over in less than a minute.

If not—well, I preferred not to think about that.

Seth lifted his own fist, mirroring me to his team who were out of my line of sight.

We were ready.

Small squadrons like ours were made up almost entirely of humans from Earth. We were small, mean, and could get into tight places the hulking Prillon, Atlan, and other larger warriors could not. We humans were also more fragile and not as able to survive ground combat on some of the more hostile planet surfaces. I was perfectly happy to sneak around killing Hive in tight quarters rather than facing down seven- or eight-foot-tall giants on the ground.

No, humans, for the most part, were placed in recon units; small, strategic forces inserted into high-risk zones near a battle where we could either merge with other units to form a larger fighting group, usually behind enemy lines, or missions like this where we sneaked in and took back what was ours.

My brother’s eyes met mine and he gifted me with a broad smile. My heart shifted with a painful twist in my chest. I’d missed him. His dark hair, the same shade as mine, was cut military short. While I’d gotten my father’s height, Seth was half a head taller than me. He looked fit, well rested. Besides the tension of battle on his face, the constant awareness of his surroundings honed by the military, he looked exactly the same as he had the day he’d volunteered for the battle battalion with Chris and John.

I’d found him. I’d done it. I’d fulfilled my deathbed promise to my father and found Seth. While I couldn’t take him back to Earth—both of us still had time left on our terms of service—I could stay near him, even fight beside him as I did today.

A loud blast sounded over our heads and I dropped to the floor and looked at the three soldiers hidden with me to see if they knew what was going on. They all stared back at me with blank, shocked expressions but maintained radio silence.

What the hell was that?

The Hive were running and shots were fired down below. Radio silence was broken as Seth issued orders. “Fire! Fire!”

The hissing sound of ion blasters filled the air along with cries of pain as some of our men went down. The screen inside my helmet listed off two of my men as casualties.