It spun in response to the mag fire, bringing its claw about in a wide arc. Alifair jumped to avoid it, but it caught him in the shoulder. The domari cried out and fell, but did not stop firing into the Ghar’s exposed compartments. The claw swung up one final time and crashed down on the injured domari, silencing the concussive retort of Alifair’s mag rifle permanently. Firing off another dozen shots, Nacen saw the severed head of the battlesuit fall to the floor. A moment later, the rest of the carapace fell forward with it, carving out a large chunk of the floor.
Glancing over the battlesuit that he was propped against for cover, Nacen saw the Algoryn retreating. As he felt a lugger round slam against his chest, he turned back to the staircase and saw why. Heaps of bodies piled up outside the doors, but the Outcasts kept coming. Several guns poked over the slight ridge formed by the dead and lashed out a volley of ballistic slugs at the squad.
“They’re using the bodies as cover!” Nacen shouted. “Let them run to the corridor before you take them out, there’s too many piling up at the door!”
“We can’t get out this way, we need to find a different path to the balcony,” Jeta said, firing her mag rifle into the corridor where Outcasts continued to pour out.
“Agreed. No telling how many more are coming, or when more battlesuits will show up.” Nacen glanced back down the hallway and saw that the Algoryn had vanished. “Let’s move further into the facility for now. That way we know is clear, of Ghar at least.”
The squad emerged from their positions among the wrecked battlesuits and began to retreat, all the while firing round after round into the Outcasts still emerging from the hallway. Camlo had indeed been hit in his arm of flesh and bone. The vardanari was now firing wildly with his prosthetic, gripping the mag rifle one-handed in his alloyed fingers.
Every time Nacen took a step backward, searing pain coursed through his right leg and back. He pushed it to the far reaches of his mind and studied the layout of the gorge on his retinal display. There were precious few viable routes left to take. They could retreat down a few more corridors, then circle back around to emerge on the level above not too far from the balcony that housed their airbikes. A distant pounding of metal against stone echoed down the hallway. Nacen recognized the heavy tread of more battlesuits.
“Fall back, full retreat!” Nacen turned to the nearest domari. “Jeta, did you bring any grenades?”
The domari slung her mag rifle over her shoulder. She turned to run and raised an eyebrow at Nacen. “Depends. What do you have in mind?”
“Nothing too insane, trust me. Throw two grenades at the battlesuits when we round the corridor to set off their reactors. It’ll buy us some time.”
Jeta nodded and withdrew a gleaming plasma grenade. “Afraid I only brought the last one in the armory.”
“It’ll do.” Nacen kept the counters of rapidly diminishing ammunition in the corner of his eye to himself.
The squad rounded the corner, slugs pounding into the wall beside them. Jeta turned to hurl the grenade. As she wound up to send it down the corridor, now filling rapidly with Outcasts, she was struck in the chest by a slug. Five more shots pelted her reflex armor and the grenade plummeted to the floor. A bright light revealed that it had been armed.
Nacen dashed forward and grabbed Jeta’s arm with one hand, reaching out frantically with his left leg to kick the plasma grenade. He made contact and saw the device skitter down the corridor, but not nearly far enough to do any damage to the battlesuits’ plasma reactors.
Jeta quickly regained her composure and the pair limped into the adjacent hallway as the grenade detonated. The blast flung rubble in all directions, but the passage remained intact.
Camlo stopped to catch his breath. “Okay, it’s safe to say we’re not going back that way.”
Nacen consulted the layout on his shard one more time. They would go down this corridor, take a left, go a short sprint, and up one level. They should be able to make it. There didn’t appear to be any enemy movement between them and the next level. He laid out the path as a clear blue line and transmitted the directions to the Vardosi. He sucked in a breath and ignored the pain as the squad continued their run. His combat stimulants should be blocking most of the unpleasantness. Some stray mag rounds must have torn deep into his leg. He was grateful he could still run.
Nacen checked the domari’s ammunition over the squad’s shard. No grenades, as expected. Mag rifles still had plenty of shots left, thanks to their compressed munitions. Shukernak’s plasma support gun’s reactor was getting low, however. It had dropped to nearly forty percent.
“Do you have another reactor, ‘Nak?”
“Yeah, let me just pull one out of my ass.”
“Well, that doesn’t do us any good,” Jeta said, “considering you must’ve dropped it when you lost your shit back there.”
“Hey, I took care of those Ghar, didn’t I?”
“Cut the noise, ‘Nak, and check our corners. The rest of you watch our rear,” Nacen snapped. “They should be right behind us.”
The squad picked up their pace, and several empty intersections whisked by.
“I’m not detecting any gun fire,” Nacen noted. “Has anyone else picked up anything?”
Camlo gave a quick shake of his head as he ran beside his cousin. “I haven’t heard any shots since you kicked that grenade down the corridor. Maybe it scared them off?”
“I doubt it.” Nacen focused on his breath, allowing the rhythmic beating of his heart to calm his nerves. “We did interrupt them as they were pursuing the Algoryn squad. Maybe we weren’t the target.”
“Yeah, well, sure didn’t seem like it,” Camlo said, slowing at the chosen intersection. Merripen led the group now and jogged around the corner. A single shot rang out through the hallway, and the thin domari fell.
“Merripen!” Jeta cried out, falling to her knees to help him.
A voice bellowed from behind the corner. “Drop your weapons, all of you!”
Nacen raised his pistol, but immediately lowered it as eight Algoryn infantry rounded the corner, plasma carbines leveled at his crew. At this range, outnumbered and outgunned, they stood no chance. He let his pistol fall to the floor, and his crew followed suit. His now empty hands shook with rage. How had they managed to avoid detection on his squad’s shard?
Jeta still knelt by Merripen, muttering softly to herself. She bent down and looked for a wound to mend. Her prying fingers eventually found a large exit wound in the back of his head.
A single Algoryn emerged from the back of the assault squad. He wore the same bone reflex armor but carried an ostentatious emerald cloak around his shoulders. As he approached, Nacen recognized the pointed nose and spiraled ridges along the keratinous forehead.
“Kordata,” Nacen said behind clenched teeth.
“You Freeborn really do have trouble staying in one place,” Kordata said with a thin smile. “Imagine my surprise having reached the safety of the bunker when I was alerted of your cell door opening. I will say, you were quite the inconvenience to track down.”
Nacen could feel the distant rumble of heavy talons under his feet. Merripen and Alifair were dead, he couldn’t change that. But he could get the rest of the crew out of here alive. There would be time enough to pay back the Algoryn for what they’d done.
“We don’t have time, they’re com–”
Nacen’s plea was cut off by the butt of the Kordata’s carbine. The captain held his hand up to his face and blood leaked through his gauntleted fingers. Nacen waited for his nanite treated blood to clot the fluid and wiped it clean.
“Wait, sir,” one of the Algoryns said. “I could feel it. The battlesuits were close.”
Nacen could no longer feel the pounding of stone that heralded the Ghar’s heavy suits. “They were right behind us, pouring out of the upper levels. They should be here by now.”
“Well, they have to come through this hallway to get below to the bunker,” Kordata said.
&
nbsp; Nacen brought the structure’s layout back into his vision and scanned the labyrinthine network of corridors and storage holds. “What if they’re not going for the bunkers?”
“Nonsense. That’s where our civilians are,” Kordata scoffed. “That’s why the Ghar are assaulting the Gorge. We’re the last line of defense between them and our leadership. Officials, diplomats... hell, even the astral administrator are all in the bunkers.”
Nacen raised an outstretched hand impatiently. “The Ghar were right on our tail. They disappeared. Where else would they go?” Kordata pondered this for a moment. Nacen didn’t allow him to waste any more time. “They’re not going for the bunkers. They’re stopping at the cargo holds.”
“That doesn’t make sense, there’s nothing there except…”
“Except what?”
“Well, nothing much here aside from raw materials and food. But there are tunnels going to infrastructure all over Folasi. Hemryx Gorge ships material to mines, factories, even the underground agricultural centers.”
Nacen let the thought sink in and realization dawned on the man’s face.
“They’re using the Gorge as a staging ground,” Kordata continued, his confidence draining with every word. “They’ll hit everyone from below. Damn, when did the Ghar get brains?”
Maybe they could recommend you a nice specialist, Nacen thought.
“Peithon, Lagoras, gather up your explosives from corridor G3 and meet us in G7. We’re taking this fight to the interior. Are you Freeborn going to help, or does this hallway look like a decent enough grave for the rest of you, too?”
Nacen felt the sting in his back, the ache in his leg. His chest was heavy and his throat tightened, knowing this Gorge would be Alifair and Merripen’s final resting place. If Nacen was lucky and played along, the crew might not have to join him. He raised his head and looked into the Algoryn’s indifferent eyes. “We’ll help.”
“Good answer,” Kordata stiffened. “Now pick up your rifles and lead the way. Any of you so much as look behind you, we fry another one of your Freeborn hides.”
Nacen crouched to pick up his mag pistol. “You heard the Al. Let’s go.”
* * * *
The Algoryn matched the crew’s brisk pace with eerie silence as they navigated the corridors of the Gorge. The Vardosi had been running for several minutes now, Kordata guiding them through the twists and turns. Now and again they would come along some trace of the Ghar’s passage - piles of debris from scourer cannon fire or the bone-white armored bodies that followed, strewn around the ground like dolls left by a careless child. The putrid stench of the Ghar battlesuits mixed unwholesomely with the reek of burned bodies.
“Left ahead, we’re nearing the first cargo hold. Looks like significant Ghar presence there. Expect trouble. Check your corners.”
“So what’s the plan?” Camlo asked over the squad’s shard. “We’re not helping out Kordata, are we?”
“As soon as we can make a move without getting obliterated by their carbines, I’ll let you know. This stopped being our fight the moment Kordata threw us in a cell.”
“Works for me.”
As they approached the next junction, Nacen slowed and peered around. In the cargo hold beyond, mobs of Outcasts were being forced into ranks by hulking battlesuits. They drifted through the crowd like icebergs among an ocean of flesh.
A figure shoved Nacen to the side, and he had to step on his injured leg to keep from falling. Five of the Algoryn passed him, leaving Kordata and three more pointing plasma carbines at their backs. The squad leader roared as he advanced in the hold. “For the Prosperate! Freedom for Folasi!”
The assault troopers took up the cry as they marched forward. A second later, the grenades rocked the cargo hold and the frenzy of pressed bodies in the entryway became a slaughterhouse. Shots from the plasma carbines lashed out and cut down the Outcasts that survived the initial blast, and the room quickly became choked with dust. Beskin bowed his head and followed the Algoryn into the large room, finding cover behind a nearby crate. Shukernak moved to the side to find a flanking position. Jeta and Camlo joined in with their mag rifles.
The Ghar offered precious little return fire. Occasionally, one of the Outcasts under their tread would raise a lugger and fire a few shots before being cut down. The group continued their implacable advance into the hold, attempting to peer through the dust.
With a clang, a grapple attached itself to the top of the crate in front of Nacen. He flung himself away as far as he could, knocking aside one of the Algoryn. Harsh white light washed over him. It was followed immediately by a booming pressure wave. After that, all he heard was a ringing in his ears. The ground rumbled and suddenly the battlesuits were upon them, climbing over compressor crates to their flanks. The ground continued to rock with the detonations of grenades, and Nacen felt another searing pain in his leg. He could not make out any of his crew in the chaos.
Forcing himself up, he unloaded his pistol into the nearest armored monster. The Ghar stepped toward him and swiped at a nearby Algoryn with its plasma claw. Having no room to maneuver, the man was cut in half. Around Nacen, other assault troopers were beginning to struggle to their feet. Many others lay still, armor charred from the violent lightning storm the Ghar’s crude grappling devices had unleashed. He backed up and continued to fire at the advancing battlesuit. It closed the distance between them rapidly now.
Something heavy struck his back and Nacen fell to the floor again. The suit’s plasma claw crashed down where Nacen had been moments before. He turned to see Camlo crouched over him.
“Wouldn’t be much of a bodyguard if I let you get smashed, would I?”
Then he was sliding across the ground, battered reflex armor scraping against stone. He glanced up and saw Beskin standing over him, dragging him to a nearby mound of crates. The vardanari had salvaged one of the assault squad’s plasma carbines. Beskin sent two rounds into the front leg of the nearest Ghar battlesuit. It turned to face them but collapsed on its face. “We have to get out of this combat, it’s suicide!”
Nacen didn’t need convincing. He propped himself up against a crate and continued to fire into the brutal melee. The Algoryn had managed to destroy two of the suits, and only through sheer weight of firepower.
On the other side of the crates, Nacen saw that Kordata had made decent progress across the hall. They had escaped the melee by punching through the Ghar lines and making for the nearest of the pillars.
“Let’s move up to Kordata’s position. No sense staying here.” Nacen swung himself over the crate and sent a mag round through a nearby Outcast, which squealed as it went down.
Camlo vaulted over the crate in turn. “Where the needle goes, the thread shall follow.”
Nacen limped to the first pillar, ignoring the immense pain in his leg and back.
“You’re still alive!” Kordata exclaimed with genuine surprise. “I have to give it to you, Freeborn, you’re handy to have in a scrap.”
“What’s the plan?”
“We need to get charges planted on each of these pillars and the tunnel entrances at an absolute minimum. We’re going to collapse the hall on them and prevent any more of the bastards from entering the tunnels.”
Nacen took the opportunity to look around. The cargo hold was massive. Six stone pillars in the center supported a vaulted ceiling high overhead. The room was wider than the open platform where the party had been, and nearly twice as long to the opposite end. Rows of compressor crates lay in neatly organized stacks around the hold. Four tunnel entrances led out of the sides of the hall, marked by sweeping arches. On the opposite end, the hallway continued to the other side of the estate.
“What do you need us to do?”
“Assist my squad as they plant their explosives,” Kordata said, and turned to fire on a charging battlesuit. The plasma lanced out and caught the Ghar in the leg, and the suit crashed to the floor. “Think you can handle that?”
“We can try.
”
“You damn well better do more than try. Two of my men are working their way to the side pillars. Cover them while I take what’s left of my men to the other end of the hall.”
Nacen nodded and made his way to the next row of crates. Twenty paces ahead of him, two members of the Algoryn assault squad had reached the next pillar. Nacen checked the squad’s shard. The Ghar were still jamming the signal with their crude electromagnetic grapples.
Limping quickly, Nacen caught up to the two troopers. As the captain and his vardanari approached, two battlesuits emerged from a corridor on the side of the hall. Camlo and Beskin fired on them, mag rounds and plasma filling the air already laden with dust.
“Alright, these explosives have been planted. On to the next column, now. You first,” the man beckoned at the Vardosi with his plasma carbine. Nacen signaled Beskin and Camlo to follow him. He peered around the crate and saw two battlesuits approaching.
“We’ve got to make it fast. This is our best chance at getting away.”
The three Vardosi dashed across the short distance to the next set of crates, and Nacen felt intense heat behind him. As they reached the crate, Nacen glanced back. Camlo’s impact cloak was singed on one corner.
“Close call.”
“They don’t get much closer,” Camlo breathed heavily.
Nacen saw one trooper provide covering fire as the other closed the distance to the Vardosi. As the Algoryn stepped around the crate, he became the target of scourer cannons from the two advancing battlesuits. He ran forward to find more cover, but the searing beams caught him and tore him to pieces.
The remaining Algoryn was not as hasty. He hugged the crate for cover and shouted across the gap to Nacen. “We need to set one more charge on the next pillar before we can fully collapse the hall. Kordata has the final one taken care of. Just in case, you can set off the charges with an override code. Two-two-five, one-nine-nine-five. Make sure everyone is out of the–”
Beyond Antares Dimensional Gates Page 13