Read Online Haven 6 by Aubrie Dionne - Free Book Online Page A

have been spying on them this entire time while Mars and Tank played Galaxy Battlefield .
    And we’re supposed to be the more advanced society.
    The code: 66459. Eri finally remembered and keyed it in. Her laser buzzed underneath her fingertips. Now or never. She peeked around the side of the container, chancing another foray of arrows. Two more perimeter poles had gone down, making a gaping hole in their defenses, big enough for an alien the size of her wallscreen to run in.
    “I don’t see them!” Tank shouted from the other side of the ship. “What are we firing at?”
    “Anything!” Litus shouted. “Just hold them back. Get to the ship.”
    Arrows hit the hull with click s and bounced off, raining on top of Eri and Litus. She covered her head with her arms as the shafts fell around her. One of the arrows bounced on the ground at Eri’s feet. She picked up the slender wood and ran her fingers over the carved rock tip. It looked so human, like something right out of her texts about Columbus conquering the New World. But these natives were conquering her team.
    Dark figures trailing leaves darted into the perimeter and rolled behind a stack of supplies. Eri nudged Litus’s arm. “Over there.”
    Using the supply container as a shield, two sets of feet carried it back into the jungle. Feet. The bunches of leaves had feet.
    Eri whispered, “What are they doing?”
    Litus’s voice hardened as his laser fire wove straight through their feet. “They’re stealing our supplies.”
    Tank howled in pain from the other side of the ship. Litus gave Eri a hard stare. “We have to make it back. Are you with me?”
    Her hands gripped her laser so tightly, she’d have to pry them off later. Eri nodded. “I sure as hell don’t want to stay out here.”
    “On the count of three, we make a run for it. You stay on my right and use me as a shield.”
    “What about you?”
    “You’re much more important to the mission. Besides, Aquaria made me promise to protect you.” Litus gave her a wink. “We can do this. One, two…three.”
    Litus pitched forward and tugged her with him. They ran against the hull as the arrows whizzed past, clicking when they hit the metal. As they rounded the corner, a member of the team lay on his back with two arrows protruding from his chest. Blood pooled around him. Eri’s stomach clenched as she realized she hadn’t even learned his name.
    Litus crouched and felt for a pulse. He looked up at Eri and shook his head.
    Dead. Eri’s whole body shook with fear. She’d just seen the same man walking around camp twenty minutes ago. Anger sizzled inside her. These were the best the Heritage had to offer, and they’d already failed.
    Was it really their fault? They were colonists not soldiers. For all their tough demeanor, her team had no real experience in combat. They’d lived their entire lives in a bubble in the sky.
    Whoops and calls of triumph echoed from the forest around them. Litus grabbed her arm and dragged her forward. “We have to leave him.” He shot his laser sideways into the jungle as they ran. Arrows whizzed from all angles, and Eri ducked as best she could, feeling like a big target was painted on her back.
    The front of the ship was empty, containers spilled on their sides with debris blowing in the wind. Smashed energy cells tainted the air with an acidic smell. Eri stepped around the glittering pools of battery acid. Two hours into their exploration and they’d already contaminated the scene.
    The ramp lay open and unguarded. Eri huddled with Litus behind a row of water jugs.
    “Where is everyone?”
    For once, Litus looked overwhelmed, and his wide eyes scared Eri more than the arrows shooting from the trees. “I don’t know.”
    “Do you think they made it?”
    He shook his head. “They would have closed the ramp, or at least defended it.”
    Eri couldn’t imagine those savage creatures firing arrows at their control screens or tearing through the wiring of the