Jaedo shook his head sadly. “No, not many of the acolytes or Brothers Superior made it out. A few survived, thanks to their gifts, but I only saw a handful.”
Fabois looked at Jaedo warily. “Are you with a group? Is it just you?”
“I’m here on my own.” Jaedo puffed his chest up. “A Josti seeks to get justice, no matter the odds.”
Cierra smiled at him warmly. She was glad to see a familiar face in such an unlikely place. “You don’t have to be alone, now. Join us.”
“Cierra!” Cherish’s voice was a fearful whisper. Joining forces in the monastery was one thing. Brining an unvetted person into a Carbonari mission was something different.
“We’re on the same side!” Cierra turned on her. “The imperials are a common enemy. I’m the commander now. What I say, goes.” Cherish lowered her head, but didn’t say anything.
The awkward silence was broken by Makka. She pointed towards a small building, near the perimeter of the base. “I think that must be a guardhouse!”
Jaedo nodded. “There could be information on the base in there.” He started to move out of the cover they were in. He was prepared to charge in without another word.
“Wait!” Cierra grabbed one of his arms, and held him back. “We can’t just charge in there like that. We need a plan.”
The Josti seemed uncertain, but willing to listen. “What did you have in mind?”
Cierra looked around at their group. “We have gifts. Let’s use them. Fabois or Makka, would either of you be willing to cloak Jaedo? If we can use the invisibility and the body manipulation, you should be able to get inside undetected.”
Fabois spoke up immediately. “I’ll do it.”
“Good man!” Jaedo pounded him on the back. “Let’s go!”
“Be careful.” Makka kissed her husband on the cheek. He caressed her hair gently.
Cierra stopped them again. “Here, take these.” She dug some earphones and a pin out of a small pack she was carrying with her. “Put these in, so we can talk if we need to. The pin actually has a camera in it. We’ll be able to see what you see.” She pulled out a thin tablet and turned it on to show them how it worked.
Cherish tilted her head to the side. “It may be best if Fabois wears the camera. I’m not sure how well it will work if Jaedo has to manipulate his body while wearing the camera.” She took the small pin, and clipped it on his shirt.
Cierra tilted the tablet to show the others after tweaking the image some. “Perfect. I can see everything clearly.” She put in her own earbud. “Can you hear me?”
Jaedo gave her four thumbs up. “Loud and clear.”
“Good.” Cierra looked both of the men in the eye. “Don’t do anything too dangerous. This is just a recon mission. Understand?”
Fabois nodded. “Understood.” He awkwardly reached out his hand.
After a moment, Jaedo held his hand. Neither of them seemed too excited about the arrangement, even though they were jumping at the chance to go into danger. In a second, both of them had faded out of sight. Cierra, Cherish, and Makka watched as the ferns moved around them. The two men left the cover of the forest, and walked towards the guardhouse. Cierra kept her eyes glued to the tablet.
The image shook with every step they took, but it was working perfectly. Cierra could keep an eye on her operatives. It was hard to let two people she barely knew be in charge of the recon for the mission. She tried to calm the knots in her stomach. The last thing she wanted to do was feed nervous energy to her group. She had to have faith that they could do what was necessary, and if they needed help she was only a whisper away.
Cierra watched the guardhouse come closer. They were almost there. “Okay, look inside before you go in. The door’s ajar, but there may be someone inside.”
Fabois turned to the window. The camera showed a guard. Cierra felt her body tense. It was strange indeed to have people who could be invisible on her team. A small snoring sound was coming from the open door. The two men hesitated. She realized that they were waiting for her to give them instructions.
She took a deep breath. Their lives were in her hands. “If you think you can go in without waking him up, then go ahead. If you don’t feel comfortable with that, then come back. We can figure something else out.”
There was a slight pause, but then the camera continued moving forward. The guard door creaked open. Jaedo and Fabois walked into the small building. A few blasters were laying on the desk. The snoring was even louder in the guardhouse. The tablet showed a quick span of the room. A few coms were tossed in a basket. Overall, the room didn’t seem to have much in it. Just as Cierra was about to chalk the recon up as a loss, the door was shoved open by someone else. Makka’s face went white. They watched in horror as Jaedo and Fabois were trapped in the building, huddled in a corner away from the door.
An imperial soldier burst into the guardhouse. “Wake up!”
The guard on duty jolted awake. “I’m up! I’m up.”
“The commander wants this uploaded to the database.”
Wiping drool off of his face, the guard behind the desk held out his hand to take a data sphere. “I’ll upload it.”
“Good.” The second guard left, and slammed the door behind him.
The guard still in the room tossed the data sphere in the basket with the extra coms. “Jerk. If it were up to me, I’d just stay in the motor pool. No people. Just vehicles.” In a few minutes, he was dozing off again. This time, there was no snoring.
Cierra could hear her heart pounding in her ears. That data sphere could have anything on it. Would they be able to get it without getting caught? Would it be worth it if they did? She had a decision to make. Taking a deep breath, she made the call. “Get the sphere, and get out of there.”
Makka looked from the tablet to Cierra, with fear in her eyes. “That’s my husband in there!”
Cherish pulled Makka into a side hug. “He can do this. It’s going to be okay.”
Jaedo reached out and started to grab the sphere. Suddenly, the guard seemed to sense someone in the room with him. His eyes flew open. His hand automatically moved towards his blaster, even though he couldn’t see an immediate threat. Cierra figured his adrenaline would now keep him awake. They needed a new plan to get Jaedo and Fabois out of there, and they needed it fast. She didn’t know how long Fabois could keep using his gift, but it had to be draining his energy. She looked around, trying to think of anything that might help. Her eyes landed on a cart near the base. The soldiers probably used it to help move heavy artillery or other supplies.
“Cherish,” Cierra turned to her with light in her eyes, “do you see that cart over there?”
“Yes. What are you thinking?”
After Cherish’s operation, Cierra wasn’t sure how much of her functions had been fully restored. Hubard had seemed confident that everything would be back in working order. As far as Cierra was concerned, now was as good a time as any to find out. “Do you think you can control it? If we make a distraction, they might be able to get out.”
“I’m on it.” Cherish gave a curt nod, and then focused her mind on the cart. A thin bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck.
A moment later, the cart sputtered to life. The alarm system blared. Driving erratically, the cart plowed into the side of a nearby ship. The cargo ship’s alarm screamed alongside the cart’s repetitive beeping. Soldiers ran to see what was causing the commotion. They struggled, and failed, to get the alarms to cease.
Inside the guardhouse, the guard grumbled. “You have to be kidding me! What’s going on out there?”
The door flew open. An angry commander loomed in the doorway. “Roberts, do you mind telling me why a transport cart just crashed into my ship?”
“Sir, I wouldn’t know, sir!”
“Isn’t that how it always is with you, Kripke? Making excuses? Aren’t you typically in charge of vehicle updates and maintenance?”
The guard’s face turned bright red. “
Sir, I—”
“I don’t want to hear it! Just get out there and make the damn thing stop honking or I’m going to have you moved to the front lines!”
“Sir, yes, sir!” The guard saluted and left the guardhouse, followed by the still-yelling commander.
Once the two were out of the guardhouse, Jaedo grabbed the data sphere and the two of them rushed outside. The camera bounced around. Cierra had to look away from the tablet. The footage was giving her motion sickness. Still, they had done it. The two men joined them in the tree lines. Fabois dropped Jaedo’s hand. The Josti was happily spinning the data sphere on the tip of one of his long fingers. Behind them, Kripke must have managed to get the vehicles back in order, because the alarms stopped blaring.
Cierra gave them both congratulatory smiles. She took the sphere and tucked it into her pack. “Great job! Now, we just have to get back to Hubard. I’m not really looking forward to the climb back up the cliff.”
Considering the options, Cherish thought out loud. “I could probably carry two of you and fly. I think some people flying to the top of a cliff might draw some attention, though.”
“But what about the other two?”
“Ahem.” Jaedo morphed two of his arms into giant wings. “I can carry the other one.”
Cierra shook her head. “You Josti never cease to amaze me.”
Makka spoke up timidly, “If Fabois and I split up between you we can cloak everyone.”
Her husband looked at them uncertainly. “I’m not sure how much more I have in me. I need food and rest.”
Cherish reassured him. “I can fly quickly. I promise it won’t take long. Just try to maintain your invisibility as much as possible.”
Reluctantly, he agreed. Fabois climbed behind Cherish, and hopped onto her back. Cherish held Cierra tightly in her arms. The whine and low roar from her jets caused Cierra to look around nervously. It would certainly get the imperials’ attention.
Cherish’s jets sputtered a little. Cierra noticed that flying seemed to be taking more effort from Cherish than before, but as long as they remained airborne, that was all that mattered.
With a mighty flap of his wings, Jaedo made taking off look effortless—had one been able to see them. He held Makka in his arms. He was able to follow the others by listening to the sound of sputtering jets, since he couldn’t see them. The two groups flew through the air, cloaked by the gift of invisibility. The wind threated to knock them off course, the higher they flew. They pressed onward.
In a few minutes, they were landing on the top of a high cliff, near where they had parked the ship earlier. Hubard had chosen the location because it was just out of sight of the base. The recon group landed just as Fabois became too exhausted to stay invisible.
Hubard jumped as they appeared out of thin air. He placed his hand on his heart. “Holy Batumah!”
“We made it back!” Cierra was thankful to be on solid ground again. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but being battered around by the wind, and enduring Cherish’s erratic flying patterns, made her stomach turn. Being invisible was disorienting, too. It was an odd sensation knowing her body was there, but being unable to see it.
“Yes, I can see that. Maybe give an old man a warning next time.” Hubard pushed his glasses up again. “Cierra, I believe you left in a group of four. It looks like you managed to pick up someone else on your way back.”
“This is Jaedo.” Cierra introduced the Josti to Hubard. “He was with us at the monastery.”
Nodding, the scientist shook Jaedo’s hand. “I see. It’s good to have you with us. But… wings?”
Jaedo’s wings formed back into arms. “It’s good to have comrades in arms again. No pun intended.”
Pulling the sphere from her pack, Cierra handed it to Hubard. “His gift is body manipulation. I don’t pretend to know all the forms he can take. But, we managed to get this. They have guards stationed outside the garrison. The data sphere was all we were able to get. We have no idea what’s on it.”
“Well, we can soon fix that.” Hubard hooked up a machine to the data sphere. He pulled up some diagrams of the base they had just come from, and started sorting through the information.
Jaedo looked around the group curiously. He walked over to Cierra, and looked at her with concern. “Where’s your husband? I don’t see Theo or Irane anywhere. Did they…”
“No, no, no! They’re both still alive. I think. They had something else to do. I’m sure they’ll both be excited to see you.” She hadn’t thought about it before, but Jaedo still thought that she and Theo were married. Soon, she would have to decide how much of the truth Jaedo needed to know. Until then, it was kind of nice to still have someone that believed in the cover story they had concocted.
Hubard clapped his hands excitedly. Digging through foreign, enemy information technology was always one of his favorite hobbies. “This data sphere might be exactly what we needed.”
“What do you have?” Cherish stepped closer to get a better look.
“It seems they have three different armories onsite.” Hubard pulled up the diagram showing the layout. “There is one close to the entry hangar that would be relatively easy to get to. Then there’s another one here. It’s next to a lab that might be worth our time.”
“I did manage to find—oh, hello.” Seneca emerged from the ship. His eyes rested on Jaedo. An unimpressed sneer turned up the corner of his lip. “I only have a few imperial uniforms. I didn’t know we’d be collecting someone else.”
Hubard waved away Seneca’s distrust. He was much too focused on the plans in front of him to be distracted by the doctor’s negativity. “He was with them at the monastery. Look at what they brought back, though.”
Seneca clicked his tongue. “I’m not sure what good that’ll do. There’s no way we’re getting all those weapons out without a ship.”
“Funny you should say that.” Hubard pulled up another file. “They have a pilot training program that rotates the imperial guard every two hours. All we’d have to do is fly into the hangar behind one of them. With Fabois and Makka cloaking the ship, it should be a piece of cake.”
Makka had managed to get part of a freeze-dried ration out of one of the packs they had brought along. “We’ll need to rest some before we attempt anything like that. Fabois can’t do much more until his energy’s back up.” She offered him part of her food, which he gratefully accepted.
“Not to worry.” Hubard reassured her. “I’ll need some time to hack into their security system though the data sphere, anyway. They may not be able to see the ship with their eyes, but the security system’ll still register the ship’s codes. We’ll need more than an invisibility gift to get past that. I need to put in our information. That way it doesn’t throw up any red flags.”
Cierra tapped the toe of her boot on the rocky ground. “Hubard, you said there were three arsenals at the base?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I think we should blow all three of them.” She raised her eyebrows, and smiled. “It’ll do more damage, and it’ll help cover our tracks better. If they know we only hit two of them, they can figure out the missing inventory in no time. If we put delayed charges in all three, it’ll make it harder for them to piece it together afterwards.”
Seneca peered over Hubard’s shoulder thoughtfully. “With the information on this sphere, I don’t think much more would be necessary to get inside.”
Hubard looked behind him, and squinted at the doctor. “You’re being much more helpful than I thought you were going to be. I thought you were against all of this.”
“I am, but if I leave you to do it on your own, something is bound to go wrong.”
“Hey!” Cherish glared at him.
“Look at your group’s track record, and tell me I’m wrong.” He crossed his arms over his chest. No one said anything. “That’s what I thought.”
Cierra tried to get everyone back on track. “When do you think we can do it?”
Hubard examined some of the security system schematics, and leaned his head from side to side while he thought. “I would think we could do it as soon as…tonight?”
“Is that a question, or a plan?” Seneca snorted at him.
Hubard turned on him. “You keep it up, and instead of your death being a question, I’ll make it into a plan.”
“Great. So, it’s settled.” Cierra tried to make her voice sound as cheerful as possible. “We’ll attack tonight.”
Six
The ship carrying Irane and Theo popped back into existence, over Mount Kinyah monastery. Below them, the purple, pink, and green Dargani lanterns were floating. The monastery was still preparing for the festival. Irane pulled up an image on the screen. To his surprise, Theo watched as Karl emerged on an upper balcony with Makram held at blade point.
Makram turned around once he made sure no one else was around. “Do you think you can put that thing down now?”
“I think I like you better on the end of my sword.” Karl sneered, but placed his weapon in its scabbard anyway. Theo was shocked at the familiarity between them. Even though he was watching it with his own eyes, he still had a hard time believing it.
Stretching his cramped muscles, Makram took in a breath of fresh air. “You know, I actually thought we had a chance.”
Karl laughed. “Maybe you should leave the thinking to the professionals.”
“So, now what?” Makram brushed his dirty, black hair out of his eyes.
Karl pulled a com out of his robes. Before speaking into it, he addressed Makram again. “Pay attention. Maybe you’ll learn something.” Then he pressed a button. “Commence the takedown.”
Theo inhaled sharply and his eyes widened, as imperial ships entered the atmosphere, glowing with plasma trails behind them.
“Shouldn’t we go?” Theo asked shakily.
“No. They aren’t paying any attention to us.”
“But that one’s coming awfully close…”
A loud sonic boom rocked their ship, as the black, snub-nosed vessel cruised in below their vantage point. It crashed into the central ziggurat of the monastery, tearing apart in a sheet of flame.
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 45