by James Somers
another twenty hours at this rate of replenishing.”
“Good, that gives us plenty of time. Is the team ready?”
“Yes sir. They’re waiting for you to join them for the assault.”
Grod headed away from the firing line toward an area to the south. The pulse cannons continued to pound away at the defense shield as the city’s gun systems attempted to repel the attack.
He made his way to a work site away from the main group. Malec was waiting for him with three hundred warriors outfitted for battle. The work site was relatively hidden from view of the city, just as Grod had planned.
“I’ve sent an advance team ahead of us, sir, to begin the breach on the tunnel barricade.”
“Excellent, Malec. The intercepts on local transmissions show that the Baruk may have already answered their distress call. They could be here within the twenty hours it will take to get through the perimeter shield.”
“Once we come into the city from the tunnel, we will be very close to the cloning facility. We should be able to disable the shield and allow our forces to continue the main assault while we begin the regeneration process,” Malec said.
“Let’s go.”
Grod went to the head of the group and into the tunnel they had been working on. It descended into an old magnetic rail system tunnel that had previously connected the city to the compound now controlled by Grod’s forces hundreds of miles away. Once inside, the Horva warriors began their rapid move to enter the city beneath the perimeter shield.
The tunnel had been barricaded at the city entrance, but the small team ahead of the main group would have it breached by the time they arrived. It was imperative to Grod to get to the cloning facility in time to complete the regeneration process before the Baruk could arrive on the planet. If he was to have any hope of success against that fierce race, he would need the advantage of the Barudii Way.
The tunnel was dimly lit by the emergency lighting which was still powered by the city. Main power to the entire system was split between Grod’s compound and Baeth Periege, but with the tunnel collapsed many miles from the city perimeter; it had been left abandoned.
Grod’s forces moved swiftly toward the perimeter barrier which had been put in place by the Vorn military at Baeth Periege. The demolition team, Malec had sent, would have everything ready by the time they arrived. They were going to use some old salvaged Barudii technology to get through the barrier. It involved molecular dispersion fields and would, with the power they were supplying to the device, completely vaporize the barricade in a moment of time.
It took them about twenty minutes to make it to the position where the demolition team was waiting.
“Is everything ready?” asked Grod.
“Yes, sir,” said one of the team, “we can remove the barricade at any time.”
“Excellent. My brother Horva,” said Grod to the entire group of warriors, “it is time for us to go beyond the designs of those who created us as improvements of themselves. We shall remake our own image with a far greater power than we have ever known before. We shall conquer our oppressors and be free. And if the Baruk should come, we will defeat them as well.”
It had been on everyone’s minds. The Baruk were going to come in response to the uprising, now that Grod and the Horva were beyond being defeated by the Vorn military. But they would not arrive in time to save their principle base of power here at Baeth Periege.
“As soon as we are beyond the barricade and come into the city I want my team, with Varen, to accompany me to the cloning facility. We will take it and begin the regeneration process while the rest of you attack the main power couplings for the perimeter shield generators. With the shields down, our brothers will swarm in, and the city will quickly fall. We need not worry if any ships try to escape. It is the city and the cloning facility that we want, not Vorn prisoners. Their time of rule is at an end no matter what else happens.”
He turned to the demolition team and gave the final order. “Detonate the device!”
They complied. Up ahead, a brilliant blue burst flashed down the tunnel at them. The entire barricade to the rail system tunnel was engulfed in a molecular dispersion field causing the metal and stone to vaporize. The light of the sun shone through into the tunnel. Grod’s soldiers immediately rushed ahead toward the opening.
As they came out of the end of the tunnel and crossed the semicircular smooth crater left in the tunnel floor by the dispersion blast, they saw the rail system’s magnetic rings. These were spaced out along the remainder of the distance to the cloning lab compound. The rings allowed the rail cars to continue above ground while still being propelled magnetically.
Grod’s group maintained its push down the track toward the cloning lab with Malec personally bringing Varen with him. Acting as both protector and jailer to the Vorn scientist, Malec carried the cryo-pod holding the Barudii genetic samples for use in the regeneration procedure. Varen would be performing the technique on Grod and his Horva against his will.
The hinder group, comprised of the remaining two hundred Horva warriors, was splitting off to attack the shield generators. They were already coming under attack from the Vorn military including many brutish Horva as well.
The shield attack group laid down heavy fire, maintaining a steady advance. The Vorn military had not expected to be attacked from behind their own positions at the city perimeter. They were not prepared. Beyond the perimeter shield pulse cannons battered the energy barrier as thousands of Grod’s Horva warriors waited to enter Baeth Periege.
Grod and his team had very little resistance in getting to the cloning complex. Only a few of the brutish Horva slaves had stood between them and the entrance to the facility. Grod did not enjoy the fact that they had to be killed. He pitied the poor creatures. But as they could not be brought from the loathsome state they had been created in—as dumb beasts to be exploited by the Vorn—he thought death was better for them.
Grod and his one hundred warriors rushed into the complex and quickly secured the lab facility they needed for the regeneration procedure. Varen’s identification card had allowed the group quick access to the interior of the facility. Malec gave the cryo-pod to Varen and led him to the control boards.
“Varen,” Grod said, “remember your family. I want this done perfectly.”
“I understand, General,” Varen said nervously.
Varen tapped the controls and a multitude of the cloning pods opened up, allowing Grod and fifty of his warriors to climb into the horizontally situated units. They first removed their weapons and battle gear along with their clothing then positioned themselves individually within the pods.
The remaining warriors would ensure that no one interfered with the three hour procedure.
Varen secured the pods once the men were situated inside then removed the Barudii genetic material from the cryo-pod. He inserted it into the matrix chamber housing the genetic material. Varen inserted a command disk containing the necessary changes to the standard process in order to bring about the automated sequences for a regeneration of their tissues and structure.
Once the data was received by the automation system, Varen activated the program and the process began, even as the thunderous battle continued to rage within and without the city.
Grod drifted off into a medicated sleep as the system prepared him and his warriors for genetic enhancement and regeneration. His final thoughts were of the glorious spectacle he had witnessed in his battle dome. The young Barudii warrior had skillfully vanquished everything arrayed against him in the dome, even the teragore itself.
☼
When Orin, Tiet, Wynn and Daooth arrived in the rail system control room, they found minimal power available. Daooth located the grid controls and brought the system online. The rail cars were kept in a docking bay apart from the magnetic propulsion tunnel. Daooth brought one of the cars from the bay on a loading arm as Wynn and the others brought the explosives into the loading area. It was quite a bom
b they had rigged—almost too much for the hover carrier to support. It consisted of two containers of inert chemicals which became volatile when mixed; a Trilithium matrix and B7 accelerant.
“Two of us will need to go ahead of the car with the explosives and begin clearing the rubble from the tunnel,” said Wynn. “After that, one person needs to accompany the bomb into the city, in case there are any other obstructions in the tunnel.”
“Tiet, why don’t you go with Wynn and I’ll take the explosives on through after you,” Orin said.
“Are you sure?” asked Wynn.
“I’ll make sure nothing interferes with the car reaching the facility,” Orin said.
“Daooth can load the cars into the propulsion tunnel and send us through from the control room here. So, you will not need to operate the rail car yourself, but you will have to escape after it comes above ground inside the city. The rail system becomes a series of magnetic rings which are spaced along the track until it enters the cloning facility. You will be inside the city at that point, so you will have to be careful. Grod’s forces have certainly begun their assault by now.”
“What about our rail car that will be setting in the tunnel?” Tiet asked.
“Daooth can move our car into a passing cell, located at different positions along the tunnel. They allow for cars to be displaced while others pass,”