“It’s the Circus Song,” Antarius said with a smile.
The music continued and the balloons started buzzing through the crowd of soldiers, dropping flash bang grenades at the enemy’s feet.
The immediate reaction was panic. The soldiers started trying to shoot the balloons as they sped around the plaza, ducking in and out of the crowd. This led to several incidents of friendly fire and a couple of “hey you shot me” retaliatory murders.
It took several measures of the song before the commander regained control of his men. By that time there was something else added to the mix. Somewhere in the song was a low bass sound. It wasn’t rhythmic. But it was consistent. Like it was part of the song but poorly played.
“Do you feel that?” Stendak asked with her palm against the shop’s dirt floor. “I can feel it in the ground.”
She was right. Cason could feel the thumping beneath him.
“What is that?” Antarius asked.
It finally dawned on Cason and he smiled. “The cavalry.”
A ten-foot mechanical clown came crashing through a wall behind the invaders’ force, stirring up a cloud of dust and debris as it went. The clown giggled—it was a freakish sound—and kept giggling as pink smoke poured from the machine, filling the square and enveloping the soldiers.
The music continued to play. The ground shook. The invaders screamed. Flashes of gunfire were the only hints at anyone’s location. Bodies started to fly. One bloodied corpse landed in the shop at Cason’s feet. The body was filled with bullet holes.
“What the hell is that thing, Cason?” Antarius said with one leg out the hole in the back of the wall.
“It’s a clown,” Maze replied.
“I don’t like clowns and you know it!”
“You’re afraid of clowns?” Reynolds asked.
“I’m not afraid of them. I just don’t like them.”
“You’re afraid of clowns,” Reynolds said with a laugh.
“Shut up, Reynolds! Lots of people are afraid of clowns.”
“It would appear so,” Cason said, and moved closer to the hole in the front of the shop to watch the show.
The smokescreen was beginning to dissipate, and he could see Vides’s armor clearly in the fray—a ten-foot monster with a red nose and a permanent blood-red smile on its face. Its eyebrows were pitched in a permanent scowl and, somehow, even the rainbow wig looked scary. The feet were comically large in proportion to the rest of the machine, but they did an amazing job of crushing helmets.
The clown grabbed the last standing invader by the neck with a giant gloved hand and lifted the man from the ground. The soldier’s legs kicked frantically and the final scream choked from his mouth. The clown pinched the man’s head between its thumb and forefinger, and as the soldier’s helmet cracked and his head exploded, the clown went, “Honk!”
The flock of balloons gathered around him, and the demonic clown turned toward the group.
Antarius started making his way through the wall and would have run if Stendak hadn’t pulled him back into the shop.
The clown stepped through the opening, spotted Cason and gave a quick salute.
“A clown?” Cason asked.
There was a hiss and a squeak, and the canopy to the power armor opened to reveal the old soldier inside. “There aren’t many universal constants. But gravity, the speed of light and the fact that half of the people in the galaxy will wet themselves when they see a 10-foot clown are three of them. Giggles here has made more aliens piss their pants than a bowl of warm water at a slumber party. Now, if you’re done gawking at how fine I look, I’ve got some more ass to kick.”
“We need to get to the west hangar,” Cason said.
“Yeah, that genefreak was gabbing in my ear the whole time. So why don’t you all get on your feet and we’ll get moving.”
Antarius helped Reynolds to his feet.
“What’s wrong with gimpy there?” Vides asked.
“He’s been injured,” Stendak said.
“Well, we can’t let that slow us down.”
“You can’t kill him!” Stendak said.
“We can’t?” Antarius asked.
“Relax, little lady. I’m not going to kill him.” The clown’s head closed and Vides’s voice changed as it was processed through a filter that turned him into Giggles the horrifying clown. “I meant I’m going to carry ‘Mr. Help Me Walk Please Because I’m Stupid And Got Shot In The Leg.’”
Antarius laughed. “Now this clown I like.”
Giggles picked Reynolds up off the ground and held him in his arms like a fainted damsel. “Now, let’s get you all to your ship.”
The clown turned and stepped through the shop wall. The second giant clown shoe caught on the remaining portion of the wall, tripped the machine and Giggles fell flat on the ground.
The man in his arms exploded like a water balloon filled with blood and whatever other chunky bits make up a Reynolds.
Vides rose to his knees and stared at the blood covering his hands, arms, torso and pretty much everything. “Oh, no. Not again!”
“You fiend!” Antarius screamed. “You’ll pay for the death of…”
“Reynolds!” shouted Stendak. “His name was Reynolds!”
“No, I know,” Antarius assured her. “I’m just not as upset as I was when I started shouting.”
Giggles rose and turned toward them. The entire front of the armor was covered in blood. “I… it was the freezing I think, probably, the freezing, my legs have been tingling all day. I…”
“Shake it off, Giggles,” Antarius said. “Just get us to the ship.”
The clown nodded and turned west. Over the next several minutes the armored soldier blazed a trail through the war-torn streets of Kartoka. Angel helped them avoid most of the invading forces. Vides dealt with the rest.
The defeat of Shandor was all but over. The citizens had turned on the king’s men and the planet was in full revolt. The Shandoran soldiers were finding it difficult to stay in the fighting spirit, and they started laying down their arms across the city.
But still, the assault continued.
The invaders’ ships in orbit continued to fire. With Kartoka all but secured, the new targets were over the horizon as the forces neutralized other cities around the planet. It was better to knock the legs out from under the uprising before it could get to its feet.
The invaders were swarming into the city in numbers that Cason couldn’t believe. These new units seemed oblivious to the fighting and went about their mission to set up the infrastructure required for an occupation force. Building sites were being cleared. Checkpoints were put in place. Antennas were going up all around the city. It was impossible not to respect and fear their coordination.
Vides led the group up a set of stairs, and Antarius spotted the giant enemy mech for the first time. “Good Lord, what is that thing?”
“Intimidation,” Vides said through Giggles’ voice box. “Designed to terrify the primitives into submission. Scare them into obedience.”
“This planet is lost,” Stendak said.
“We’ll be lucky if it’s the only one.” He should have been more reassuring, but no one who had witnessed the invasion of Shandor that day could be the least bit optimistic. The best they could hope for was to escape the planet and join the fight that was coming for the rest of the galaxy.
Another set of stairs took them back to the sandy streets. They raced by more shops and more hovels and soon found themselves in the shadow of Shandor’s western wall.
“This way,” Giggles said. The voice filter added a chuckle at the end.
“Quit using that voice!” Antarius screamed. “It’s freaking me out.”
“We can’t go right,” Angel said in Cason’s ear.
Cason relayed the message to the clown. “That way’s no good, Vides.”
The man in the clown suit either didn’t hear him or didn’t care. Vides turned right and began to sprint.
; “It’s a dead end,” Angel explained. “He’s running right into the wall.”
“Vides!”
A blast of air swallowed his scream as a patrol craft skimmed over their heads. The group hugged the walls closely to escape detection.
It wasn’t enough. The patrol craft banked and turned back toward them. More soldiers leapt from the craft onto the surrounding rooftops. Several more dropped into the streets and raced toward the group.
“Clown!” Antarius screamed, and he ran after the old soldier.
Cason knew there was no way out, but he’d rather be trapped with a power-armored soldier on his side. He and Meena chased after Thurgood.
The path zigged and zagged and turned enough to keep the pursuing patrol off their heels for the moment, but it didn’t change the fact that they were racing toward a dead end.
“Do you think he has a plan, Angel?” Cason asked.
“I don’t think so,” the computer responded. “He’s headed right into the wall. It’s just around the corner. There’s no way through.”
The crash that came from up ahead was not a good sign, and Cason found more speed than he thought he had. He and Stendak rounded the corner. Angel had been right—the path led right to the city wall.
22
The hole in the wall wasn’t exactly clown shaped, but you could still sort of tell that the machine had plowed into it straight on and just kept going. Dust and debris blew out the other side where Priscilla sat nearby.
The clown rose to its full height and turned toward her. It wasn’t the scariest clown she had ever seen, but it was up there. It was mostly in the eyes. There was something familiar about them.
The mechanical clown stomped toward her and giggled in a terrifying voice. “Hello there, little miss.”
“Vides?” she asked. “Is that you?”
“As you can see,” the clown said, and gestured toward the wall, “I’m not about to let anything stand between us.”
“At this point I can’t tell if you’re hitting on me because you’re attracted to me or because the bad puns are a reflex.”
Vides leaned in close. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” The synthesizer threw in another random giggle.
“At least this face is an improvement over your other one.” Priscilla reached up and honked the machine’s nose.
“That was pretty awesome, clown,” Thurgood said as he emerged from the tunnel. Cason and a woman followed after him. They were in turn followed by several balloons.
“So, this is the great boy wonder?” Priscilla asked with a finger outstretched toward the captain.
“Boy wonder?” Antarius asked. “I see you’ve heard about my time in the harem.”
“This is him,” Cason said. “Vides, they are right behind us.”
“I’m on it,” the clown said, and pointed to the hole. An orange balloon responded to the command and shot into the hole at the base of the wall. He turned back to Priscilla and said, “Pop!”
The balloon exploded inside the tunnel and brought down enough rubble to block the pursuers. It would take them hours to get through unless they had a giant monster clown machine of their own.
“Where’s the ship?” Cason asked. His jacket was torn and had at least one hole shot in it that she could see, and he still stood there and brushed the dust from his shoulders. Such a professional.
The silliness of it all made her smile. She turned and pointed to the small warship sitting on the closest landing pad. It was part of the invading force, most likely an escort or patrol craft. As best she could tell it was nimble, fast and had enough guns to put up a decent fight. “That’s our boy right there.”
“Ha,” Antarius laughed. “Ships are women. Always have been.”
“Whatever works for you, Captain Kidnapped. But I’ve always had a better touch with men. So, that’s our boy.”
“It makes no difference to me,” Cason said with a shrug, and turned to the clown. “Vides, can you secure the ship?”
“Of course I—”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “This is my part of the job here, and I don’t want to give Thurgood any reason to argue about my fee. I said I’d get the ship, and I’ll get the ship. You all just be ready to board.”
Priscilla turned and started walking toward the ship.
Vides let her get out of what he assumed was earshot and leaned over to Cason. “She honked my nose, Maze.”
“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to hear this, Vides.”
“Do you have any idea how long it’s been since a woman touched my honker?”
“Vides, if we’re not still talking about your nose, I’m leaving you here.”
The clown giggled.
“And those giggles better be random,” Cason said.
The clown shrugged. “Mostly.”
Priscilla made no effort to mask her approach, and the guards spotted her right away. She was impossible to miss, after all. The fact that she was able to slip in and out of star systems and through the fingers of so many law enforcement agencies was quite something. She drew attention wherever she went.
“What the hell does the hot woman think she’s doing?” Antarius said.
“Calm down, son,” Vides said.
“Shut up, clown. She’s going to need to help.”
Cason found a nearby crate and took a seat. “Sit tight, Anti. You’re going to enjoy this.”
“Enjoy what?” Meena said, taking a seat next to him. “Who is that woman?”
“The Oncilla,” Cason said.
“That’s the Oncilla?”
Cason nodded.
“Your nemesis, Oncilla?” Stendak asked.
“What? She’s not my nemesis.”
“Wasn’t the Oncilla the only criminal you could never catch?” Stendak asked.
“Yeah, but—”
“The one who kept making you look stupid,” she said, trying to help jog his memory. He didn’t need the help.
“I didn’t look stupid.”
“Didn’t she steal your ship once?” Thurgood asked.
“Oh, you’re on her side now?” Cason snapped.
“Her side is way prettier than your side, Case.”
“You all shut up. I want to see this,” Vides said, and then the clown giggled.
“Can’t you at least turn off the giggles?” Antarius asked.
Vides turned to face the captain, giggled and turned back to watch the show.
When the guards finally snapped out of their trance, they started shouting for her to stop. She responded with a wave and a smile. “I’m afraid I’m a little lost. Can you help me?”
They probably couldn’t understand her, but the tone she was using to communicate had no hint of a threat to it. The guards rushed off the landing pad and raced toward her. Four of them surrounded her. Their weapons weren’t aimed at her and they seemed like they were trying to help her. She kept inching toward the ship. The guards kept putting themselves in her way and started to point her in the other direction. They didn’t start treating her as a threat until one of them put a hand on her.
The hand was broken a second later, and she had taken out another’s knee.
“Holy damn,” Antarius said. “Where is this coming from?”
She drove a palm into one guard’s chest while grabbing the barrel of the other’s rifle. She stripped the rifle out of his hands and used it to club the one with the broken hand across the head. The one she had taken the rifle from was staring in confusion at his empty hands.
“I think I’m in love,” Thurgood said as he pulled up a seat on the crate next to Stendak.
“Right?” Vides said. “She is something else.”
“She sure is.”
“No, I mean it literally,” Vides clarified. “She’s one of them genefreaks. Practically my sworn enemy. But I think I’m ready to switch sides.”
The empty-handed soldier screamed as the Oncilla lifted him from the ground and tossed him over her shoulder into the
guard with the broken knee. Both men crashed to the ground. The only one left was the guard with the, probably, broken ribs. He staggered back away from the fight and drew his sidearm. There was twenty feet between Priscilla and the soldier, a distance she closed with three quick strides. The guard was on the ground and the gun was in her hand less than two seconds later.
“That does it. I’m in love. I can’t deny it anymore,” Vides said as the clown clapped. It was much more a banging of metal on metal, but he continued all the same.
“That was… something!” Antarius clapped as well.
“Don’t you get any ideas about her, kid.”
“You called her genefreak,” Thurgood countered.
“That right there…” Vides said, and pointed to the woman, “…that’s my Genie.”
Priscilla heard the clapping and took a quick bow. She quickly surveyed the area to ensure it was free of trouble and waved for the others to join her.
“Coming, Genie!” Vides shouted, and raced ahead with Antarius close behind him.
“No wonder you couldn’t catch her,” Stendak said.
Cason studied the criminal and smiled as he nodded.
Meena turned his face toward her own and kissed him like she hadn’t seen him in years. Their time apart was always long, and their moments together were all too brief and had to be stolen from her duties to the fleet. But the way she kissed always made up for it. They kissed longer than was probably wise, but halfway in, he stopped caring if anyone found out about them.
Sadly, it ended and she pulled away. “Don’t forget about me.”
“You’re my real nemesis,” he said with a smile.
She let it hang in the air for a long time before she shook her head. “Nah, I don’t like that one.”
“I know. It sounded bad as I was saying it.”
“Just don’t go falling in love with any criminals, okay?”
“Deal,” he said, and stole another kiss before they raced across the desert to the landing pad.
When they arrived, they found the captain and the commander trying to shout compliments over one another. Priscilla was more concerned with getting everyone on the ship and getting herself off the planet.
Shattered Alliance Page 19