Operation Mongolia (S-Squad Book 8) Page 12

  In the end, that’s all this was. And he and Recon Elite Six were the spearhead for humanity, necessary agents for the ultimate survival before Earth fried like an ant under a magnifying glass. Not only could Boggs feel the power of Mawholla, but he could feel the power of his men, too. Fit as bull elk thanks to years of weight training and cardio work. Boggs didn’t want to say they were the “best of the best”, because that was a bullshit cliché. But they were good. Real fucking good.

  Boggs’ LifeForm device beeped, this time revealing a yellow icon.

  Caution.

  The device wasn’t entirely sure what species lay before them at forest’s edge.

  Which sucked.

  A red icon meant the animal was dangerous, take no risks. There was a sense of comfort in knowledge. But the unknown? Not so much.

  The great thing about T-Bone was he loved trouble. He glanced at Boggs, and Boggs gave a thumbs up. T-Bone inched ahead to tree line, his ZR-15 aimed and ready.

  The rest of the squad aimed their ZR-15s without hesitation, as if purely on instinct. Boggs raised his weapon, expecting whatever was behind the ferns to launch right at them.

  But it did not.

  Instead a large moose-like animal emerged slowly, its ears pinned back. But this was not quite a moose, with much smaller ears, and very narrow eyes.

  And it wasn’t quite healthy.

  A chunk had been taken out of its rear, and the animal paced and whimpered.

  “Holy shit,” Emoth said, inching closer to T-Bone, who was already crouching in the grass and way too close. “Something took a hell of a bite out of this bad boy.”

  Blood trickled from the animal’s rear flank, and glistened in the dim sunlight.

  “Anyone hungry?” Portman asked as he raised his rifle.

  Boggs stepped over to Portman and lowered the rifle barrel with the palm of his hand. “We don’t have time for this shit,” Boggs said. “We have weeks of medically-approved sustenance, and a planet to explore. We can’t play gourmet chef right now.”

  “Gourmet?” the young Staunch asked.

  “Never mind,” Boggs said.

  The moose-like animal limped off into deeper forest, and they never saw it again.

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