Krullins’s Crusaders: A Spy on Venomshroud Part 3

Never show up to gunfire without a friend who has super strength.

“How bad are you hurt?” John asked, dropping beside Nora Merrill. The blonde woman with a black highlight in her hair grunted from the wound in her side. She wore the same coat as the other two men standing beside her, but her coat had a hood, and it was over her head. Her pointed chin curled up in agony from the gunshot.

                “I’m not that bad,” Merrill said, trying to stand up, but the pain itself pushed her back to the ground. “A little worse, maybe.”

                “Sir?” Lowes asked, standing behind them. “The target?”

                John hissed, looking back at him as he keeps looking down both alleyway.

                “Go, get her,” Merrill said, pushing John away. “Make her pay.”

                “Lowes stay with her,” John said, pointing down at his friend.

                “Yes, sir,” he frowns, kneeling beside his friend and pulling out a small med-kit, but all it could do was keep Merrill from passing out from the pain and for her not to bleeding out. John glanced back at his oldest friends, tired of losing his people, but the words of the masters were law, and he had a mission. He had to stop the spy.

                “You do not have orders to die,” John said, taking off down the alleyway heading for the spaceport. He didn’t wait around to hear her say a word. He had to stop Claudia. The more he headed for the port, the more he didn’t care about the mission. All he wanted to do was kill Claudia.

                They were only a few blocks from the port, which made him get there a bit quicker than Claudia would be planning, but she would still be trying to get her ship ready. “Beiler, did you sabotage the ship?”

                “Engines are down, bay doors are locked, and weapons disabled,” Belier whispered back, “but that is not the worst of it.”

                “What am I walking into?” John asked, nailing against the doorway into the port. He pulled his pistol freed, checked the battery, and went into the hallway with the gun at the ready.

                “There is a Metalvivent with her,” Beiler said.

                “S**t,” John said, dropping his head a bit,” can you handle it?”

                “I can take the metalhead,” Beiler said, “if you get the other one.”

                “Oh, I plan on it,” John said, moving quickly to the ship, but checking the walkways as he did. He stepped out on the dock to see Claudia trying to open the door to her ship; it didn’t work. The tall woman with long black hair and a nice body for a Solarten stood beating the keypad. The Solartens were known for their beauty, some would say they were the perfect creatures in all the stars, but John didn’t think so. His human women were far better looking in his mind than those Solartens.

                “Ship trouble?” John asked, and Claudia rolled from her spot, firing her rifle at him, making John jumped from his place. The spikes whacked against the steel wall, and John smirk at them again. “You know, you are not a good shot. This is the second time you missed me.”

                “You standstill and I’ll make sure to hit you,” Claudia shouted. “Did you come alone? Is your lady friend still breathing?”

                “Yes, she is,” John said, moving away from the voice, hoping to flank the spy.

                “You shouldn’t come alone,” Claudia said. “I made sure to bring a friend.”

                John heard the heavy footstep of the massive metal looking man. He stood about eight feet tall with a chest as broad as the wall. His face, if you couldn’t call it that, looked like a mix between a bug, a knight, and all made of metal. The Metalvivents were a race of creatures made from living metal, most of them were in human form, but some of them were starships as well. And all of them carried their weaponry made from the energy within them. They were the mortal enemies of Specters, which John wish he had one of them on his team at the moment.

                They had wonder who or what extraction team would be to get Claudia out, but now they knew.

                John looked over the box, sighing at the sight of the Metalvivent. But so did the metal man see him too charging up one of his cannons. John rolled from hiding places as the box he was behind vaporized.

                “You should leave now,” Claudia said. “I don’t wish to kill you.”

                “I can’t let you leave with the data,” John said.

                “You do not know who were masters truly are,” Claudia said. “You don’t know what they have done to you.”

                “I have orders,” John said, “and they are to destroy you and the data.”

                “As you wish,” Claudia said.

                “Anytime you want to jump in Beiler,” John said over the com-link.

                “Aye, aye, sir,” Beiler said, and John could hear the smile from the man. Beiler was a big man who was a fierce warrior from Hawaii and wore all the tattoos of his people. Although, none of John’s team truly knew much of their homeworld. They had no idea where it was or how they got to the stars, and the masters told them it was the most sinful place of all. When the holy war came, they would find a way back to Earth to take it over and build a new army of Crusaders.

                John wished he cared more about his homeworld. He tried to wonder if all of Beiler’s people were like him, but he doubted it. He was sure most humans didn’t have super strength.

                John heard Claudia cruse and the loud crashing of metal on metal. He jumped over one of the caters seeing Beiler picking up the Metalvivent like a doll before throwing him into the ship. The metal monster hit the ship with enough force the whole thing rocked to its side. The Metalvivent hit the floor but still rushed to get to his feet. Beiler kneed the man in the face throwing him backward.

                Claudia aimed Beiler for only a second before John fired a shot at her.

Author's Note

If you had made it this far, then I appreciate it, and before you start to tear my work apart (which doesn’t bother me too much), let me explain something. The most common critique I see is about my spelling and grammar. It is an understandable critique, and I do not blame you for pointing it out. After all, spelling and grammar are the tools in which we use to craft our work, like a paintbrush or a chisel. The artist must know how to use these tools well, but like an artist who has a tremble in their hand's somethings will never be perfect.
My tremble in my hand is caused by my dyslexia. It is something, no matter how much I learn, study, or works on, it will never go away. It is the reason you will find a good bit of spelling and grammar mistakes in my work. I ask you to keep this fact when you are about to write your critique.
Also, I feel the need to point this out, this website is like a journal for me. A messy journal I used to work out problems in my stories or to simply warm up before digging into my novels. I do not hire an editor for the work here. I do not spend hours and days pouring over these stories to make them perfect, that energy is saved for the project I plan on taking to market. Everything on this website is my world-building exercise or sketches for other projects.
I do hope you enjoy my work, but this website is not a publishing house for me, and it shouldn’t be for you either. Something to keep in mind as you write your critique.