This time the young man didn’t miss.

The ship’s cannon, a weapon designed to blast away stray asteroids, hit the Warped dead center. Everyone was hurled away again by the blast, and the monster simply disappeared, a red mist filling the spot it previously held.

“Phew, that was close,” Bulco called from below, getting back to his feet. “Nori, bring the ship down. Diamond will give us some people to go help Martin’s shelter. Hurry up.”

Nori rushed back toward the bridge.

Cattie stood staring at the young man and shook her head. “Damn nice shooting, kid.”

Nathan looked down, not meeting her eyes.

Cattie frowned. “What?”

“It’s nothing.” Lana stepped forward. “Nathan just abhors violence.”

“Hard to avoid it these days,” the woman commented dryly.

Unity lowered to the ground, landing in front of the torn walls.

The Sharpshooter shook her head. “Damn, those Warped did a real number on the shelter. They’ll have to find someplace else to hole up now.”

“No.” Diamond stepped into the cargo hold. Thirty armed men and a dozen civilians followed him in. “This ends, now.”

“That’s right.” Bulco stepped inside. Looking backward he shouted. “Hurry up and get in, the Warped won’t wait for us forever.”

“What’s going on?” Lana asked.

“Reinforcements.” Bulco flashed her a savage grin. “First, we’re going to help the Old Stadium with their Warped-pest problem, then we’ll go deal with their mommy.”

***

“What’s the holdup?” Cattie demanded. “Martin and the rest of my shelter won’t last long without help.”

“We’re gearing up to go as quickly as possible, girl,” Diamond answered in his thick voice. “I know it’s hard, but going in unprepared won’t be doing your people any favors.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Lana asked the impatient woman.

“Martin sent me to bring a message to Diamond,” she answered shortly. “I got here just before the first Warped arrived.”

“We’re nearly done,” Bulco declared from the entrance. “The last batch of loaded magazines is almost ready.”

“Shouldn’t we bring more people?” Lana asked nervously. Despite the shipping containers taking up most of the space, there was easily enough room for at least twenty more people.

“Can’t,” Diamond said. “We don’t have enough people who are good enough with a gun to leave behind to defend the place if we do that.”

Nori came from the bridge and took in the determined faces around her. Some of the guards were level one or two, but most of them, along with all the civilians, were still at level zero.

She shook her head. “That won’t do. We need to extract the Tec from the dead Warped as quickly as possible. The extra levels will give us a huge advantage for the next battle.”

“How do we do that?” A guard asked.