Sacrifice

by T. Y. Carew

  And Xander would come for her. He always did.

  This seemed to be enough to get Paton's head back in the game. He issued several quick commands, getting his small unit to lead them back to the camera hub room, encouraging everyone with them to lightly jog. If the investors thought of protesting, the sound of Dairos growls and footfalls coming from behind only silenced them and added to the urgency.

  Within another minute they were back in the main cave of the network, Matt stood by the door, Paton and one of his men by her side.

  She reached out her Adamanta eyes with her mind, bringing them to positions where she could monitor the influx of Beltine, but have them far enough out to stand a chance of seeing someone like Xander as he came to their rescue. It was a delicate balance between usefulness now and usefulness as the battle wore on. And between being able to control them well within the Adamanta-laced network without them straining her too much while still having them far enough out to give her valuable intel.

  As soon as they were in place, Matt reached to her pack with her mind, unzipping it and feeling for her weaponry. The zappers within had limited charge, but she had many other devices, increased production having made the military a little more accommodating to her desire for more and more equipment.

  Along with her usual ten swords, she had another six daggers, twenty sets of zappers, several grenade-like devices with small Adamanta triggers, the remainder of her ten pairs of eyes, and the newest addition to her kit, something Drew and Atum had recently come up with.

  It was an Adamanta device that attached to organic material, such as a Dairos, and interrupted the local brain waves trying to control Adamanta while helping to boost her own. It might not stop a Dairos entirely, but it might slow one down.

  Admittedly, it was untested, but if she got the opportunity she was going to use it. If nothing else, it might distract a Kyraos and buy her some time at some point. And if it worked, a single Dairos going rogue in such close tunnels might cause havoc. The thought alone made her grin.

  Wondering if she looked like a mad woman eager to take on the Beltine, Matt turned her back on the room of delegates, barely listening as Paton encouraged them to the back of the room.

  “Is there anything we can do to help?” Margaret asked, her voice breaking through the chatter as Matt twirled her swords in the entrance.

  “No,” Matt called back. “Not unless you can try and get those cameras looking at more strategic locations like I was doing earlier.”

  “I can get one of my men on it,” Paton replied before any of the civilians could.

  “Negative. I need your team to back me up, catch any stragglers that get past me and help me keep the Dairos out there when they die. We don't want dead Beltine building up in here and pushing us back.”

  “Me, then.”

  “I need you to keep searching for an alternative route out. Other than me, you're the best at using the eyes, and I need to try and get in touch with the colonel.”

  “I'll try and control the cameras in here,” Kepernick piped up. Margaret added her voice a moment later. As Matt glanced back at them, she saw both step up to a console each.

  She'd shown Kepernick some raw Adamanta and let him play with it during their journey. He hadn't been that good and had easily grown frustrated when he couldn't wield it as well as her, something that made more sense given their recent conversations, but if his ego and desire to control the stuff helped them out now, so be it.

  With Margaret trying as well, Matt could only feel more confident they might achieve something. If she was anything like her husband, the older woman was going to have a calm and clear head when others wouldn't. She just might succeed out of pure force of will. And having never controlled Adamanta at all might benefit her. The console was different, made by a race who evidently controlled the metal in ways she and her parents had never thought of.

  Taking a deep breath, Matt reveled in the last of the calm before the storm. She could hear the Dairos coming and see them with her Adamanta eyes. It wouldn't be long now, and then she would have to concentrate, to fight with no let-up, and hope Xander reached them in time or she managed to overcome every single Beltine chucked her way.

  Given the size of a Beltine hive and the crew they could carry, Matt pushed the latter thought from her head. Even she wasn't that good yet.

  “Steady, guys. Use a set of eyes to spot targets that I've missed and keep them out of this doorway. Work with me and we'll all manage better.”

  It wasn't much of a pep talk as far as they went, but the three men on Paton's team all nodded their heads and lifted their own Adamanta weaponry in the air. Everyone knew they would be fighting for their lives. She just needed to keep them thinking survival was possible.

  Not too far from them Paton stood, his eyes closed, his mind seeing something elsewhere.

  And then they came, the Beltine pouring from the left hand tunnel, their red eyes glinting even more creepily than normal in the low light.

  Matt had to fight to keep calm as Katrina squealed behind her and one of the men swore. They'd evidently never seen the enemy face to face before. But Matt had, and she knew exactly what to do with them.

  As one, her swords, twirling in a pattern her mind knew well, launched forward, shredding the first row of Dairos in no time at all. She tried not to flinch as blood and body parts went flying. The Dairos wouldn't stop coming so she couldn't stop fighting.

  The Beltine continued to lurch forward, the Kyraos in control already trying to counter her attack and find a way around the weapons. But she wasn't alone. The three Adamanta users with her sent their swords and zappers to fill the gaps, forming a barrier no Dairos could fit through.

  When the Kyraos pulled them back momentarily, Matt knew something else must be coming.

  “Energy shield!” she yelled as she saw the pistol-like devices the stronger Dairos usually carried. “Please tell me we have one!”

  “Yup,” one of the men replied, their voice only just audible as Matt was forced to step back. Laser fire scorched the wall beside her earlier position, sending up puffs of dirt and zipping rock chippings as it did.

  A few seconds later the shield was positioned over the entrance way, a small gap at the top the only weak point. The erection hadn't been entirely flawless, one of the men taking a blast to the arm when he stuck it out a little too far.

  Laurence Dujing tended to him, the only civilian of the five with any kind of medical training, as Matt and the remaining two men stepped forward again, protected by the shield. It flashed again and again as it stopped the weapons' fire. It wouldn't hold against any Dairos that reached it, but for now it protected them against the worst of the assault.

  With her Adamanta holding back the enemy for now and the bodies beginning to pile up and slow them down further, Matt took a moment to stretch herself and run through her sets of eyes again, hoping to see a slow in the Beltine or become pre-warned of any other tactic they might use against them.

  She also wouldn't have denied she wanted news of Xander and what he was up to. If the Kyraos had known there were humans up ahead, then they probably knew the colonel and Trey were out there, somewhere, as well.

  For the most part her cameras showed the Beltine were simply still coming, and from both sides, none of the Kyraos to be seen currently. She frowned, knowing it wouldn't be long before she'd have to split her arsenal and fight them off from both directions.

  Concerned she wouldn't get to check again and divide her focus up so much, Matt moved to the next set of eyes and immediately noticed a strangeness in the Beltine there. The Dairos had turned and were forming some kind of defensive wall at a wider space in one of the junctions. For a moment she couldn't see why, but then she saw a blast of laser fire from human guns, briefly illuminating Xander and Trey as they crouched protectively behind their own barrier.

  Half concentrating on the battle right in front of her and half concentrating on the battle they waged, she watched as m
ore and more Beltine fell to their deaths, both teams efficient and effective.

  It made her grin again and consider letting Paton know the good news. Xander was helping clear the path in one direction, attacking the Beltine from both sides, but as she looked again she saw the Beltine bring something strange forward and lob it towards Xander.

  An explosion rocked the tunnel, quaking the ground so much rubble fell from the roof of the cave they were in. She cried out as the eyes went dead, losing sight and connection with her, buried under Adamanta and rock.

  But the loss of her kit didn't bother her. Xander would have been equally impacted. The Dairos had sacrificed themselves to take out her commander and Trey. A pain so intense that she had to check it wasn't a physical wound filled her chest.

  “What was that?” Paton yelled a moment later, trying to get her attention. She didn't respond, not sure what to say. She'd just watched Xander and Trey get buried. And on top of that, it had blocked the best way out of the cave network.

  All her hope had been snuffed out in one go.

  What could she say now? What could she do to keep them alive if the Beltine could just bury them all under metal and rocks?

  Chapter 8

  A frown fixed on Paton's face as he felt his cameras wobble. The Adamanta in the rock around them was interfering with his ability to push the small devices much farther, and still he hadn't found them another way out.

  Taking a break to gather himself, he let his eyes wander until the fixed on Captain Adair. She stood just behind the energy shield, her jaw set and her eyes lit up. From his position he could just see down the tunnel far enough to watch her Adamanta swords as they flew back and forth, tearing into Dairos at a speed no human could match with their limbs.

  It wasn't the first time he'd seen her in battle, but it had been far too long, and the promotional videos the military used of her didn't do her justice. She was a single-handed and single-minded Beltine killing machine, and he was starting to truly understand why Xander's orders had been to protect her and not the delegation if it actually came to it.

  Her skills and ability with Adamanta were so effective and advanced compared to anyone else's that she could easily be deployed in battle and change the fate of hundreds if not thousands of lives. It was beyond impressive.

  On top of that it was evidently inspiring. His own men stood beside her, pushing themselves and achieving far more than they usually did in simulations and training against drones. The same set look of concentration was fixed on each of their faces as well. They would collectively hold out as long as possible, not one of them wanting to be the first to flag or slow down.

  After allowing himself another few seconds, Paton refocused on his own task—finding a way out. Henton stood nearby, evidently frightened and trying not to look it.

  “Do you have a map of the caves you've explored so far, or anything on you to map things out further?” he asked the quaking Cordak. For a moment he wondered if he'd been heard, but eventually Henton nodded, pulling a device from the knapsack-like bag on his side. It looked simple, but once turned on displayed a 2D mapping of the cave network.

  After explaining how it worked, Henton handed it over. Immediately Paton added the tunnels he'd already explored, working with a combination of his memory and some small backtracking of his Adamanta eyes. As he went, he marked where the Beltine forces were thickest and where they didn't seem to be at all. Finally a pattern started to emerge, and he could detect a clear route the enemy must be using. He pointed it out to Henton.

  “Oh. Darka mentioned an opening on the surface. Small, in trees east of here.” Henton took back the handheld mapping device as he spoke before pressing several buttons. Immediately an overlay of the topography above appeared in faint gray lines. The opening was marked, less than half a mile farther than he'd managed to map in that direction.

  “Brilliant,” Paton replied. “I'll scout it out.”

  After gathering himself for one final push with his Adamanta, Paton reconnected to his eyes, but only a few seconds later he was jolted, almost falling and tripping before Henton reached out a large paw-like hand to steady him.

  “What was that?” he called towards Matt, who seemed to stagger under some unseen blow. Her eyes went vacant and her swords drooped, barely moving and hindering the Dairos.

  “Captain!” he yelled at the top of his voice, already fearing the worst if she didn't snap out of whatever had hit her. “Report.”

  Still she didn't respond, her eyes watering up as her hand went to her chest, almost clutching at it. Had the Beltine done something to her somehow?

  An errant shot from a Beltine weapon slipped through the gap at the top of the barrier, crashing into the ceiling and sending down a rain of debris onto the heads of the entire team of Adamanta users. Most of them barely reacted, the light dusting nothing they weren't getting used to, but it was enough to snap Captain Adair out of her strange trance. Her eyes met his as her weapons lifted again, hampering the Beltine once more.

  He could see tears as they tracked down her cheeks, washing away thin lines of dirt.

  “The Beltine blew up some of our reinforcements and sealed the usual path out. We need a different escape route,” she said, her voice deep, her fists clenched around the hilts of two daggers so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

  He nodded, not needing her to explain that she'd just lost a team member. It was obvious now, the pain understandable, his own memories full of similar occurrences. There wasn't anyone in the military who'd served more than a year who didn't know exactly what she was now going through.

  The big question was what she'd do with it. Would she fold in on herself, her own hope snuffed out, or would she use her pain as fuel to fight all the harder?

  As she took a small step forwards and launched four daggers from her pack into the fray as well, he got the answer he was looking for. The Beltine would pay for hurting someone she cared about, and everyone else would be the safer for it.

  Not wanting to be the one to let them down, Paton once more went back to his own task. He had to find them a way out, before Adamanta—Captain Matilda Adair—exhausted herself protecting them.

  ***

  Tyra tried to stay calm as she waited for some kind of assistance to arrive. At the first sign of Beltine trouble, a hive ship coming into orbit around Rokku-Sai, she'd done as ordered and moved Lady Contessa towards a nearby moon, using the mass of rock to hide herself. She'd then sent a message to military headquarters on Netera letting them know what had happened.

  General Kelton had responded within twenty minutes but his message hadn't been comforting. Apparently the military were stretched and didn't have anyone very close to help. She'd been ordered to sit tight and wait out the danger for now as well as look out for the colonel and everyone he was responsible for.

  It had left Tyra with a bad taste in her mouth. It seemed that her team had become just a touch too effective, and the military brass were willing to wait and see if they could rescue themselves. Something they'd done on perhaps one too many previous occasions.

  Despite her annoyance, she didn't currently feel too worried. The strange link all Lentarins shared with their twins meant she was fairly certain Trey was alive and okay, but it didn't mean that couldn't change. Drew had radioed to let her know the Beltine had just landed. Her brother was only now wading into battle, and battles were ugly affairs. People got hurt. Some people never came back.

  A sigh escaped her as more minutes slipped by, her radar showing her the movements of the hive right on the edge of its range as she kept back only just far enough that it couldn’t detect her. She never liked this part of her duty, but she was the ship captain. The person who stayed with the vessel and was responsible for it.

  And it wasn't the first time she'd considered asking to be reassigned from the navy section of the human military service to the air force section, properly underneath Colonel Xander, but then someone else would be the main pilot, a
nd she just couldn't see anyone else at the helm of her ship. No, she'd see her duty through, just like she always did.

  The beeping of another incoming message made her jump before she could press the button to play it.

  “Good news, Tyra,” General Kelton's voice called, live on a radio feed that meant he must be closer than Netera.

  “How so, General?” she replied, hoping he'd explain quickly. She had a thousand questions already, and only her understanding of the general's personality kept her from bombarding him with them.

  “Some nearby ships have rallied and decided to come to your aid. Three of them, including the Polinark. I've offered to help coordinate with the most senior captain, a man who served in the military with the late Captain Pharo Johnson. Is the situation still the same?”

  “Yes, sir. One hive in orbit, troops on the ground.”

  “Then we'll be with you within two hours. Keep safe and update me on this channel if anything changes or you hear from your team.”

  “Yes, sir.” Tyra sat up in her chair, feeling the relief flood through her. Three ships plus the Contessa would be more than enough to put up a fight, even if they weren't military vessels, and it was obvious where the help had come from. Five powerful, wealthy individuals were currently trapped on Rokku-Sai. News had evidently got to at least one of their friends that they were in trouble.

  Despite the human determination and steadfast resolve that had inspired Tyra and Trey to sign up to their military rather than their own, it was clear there was one human flaw. Money meant power, and that still played too big a part in their culture. Having it gave some of the race an advantage over others.

  She could only hope the immature aspect of the human race slowly died out as they continued their fight against the Beltine, but even Matt had found herself having to work with the current system, impressing those who held power and money to get what they needed. If it wasn't working, Tyra would have been disgusted by it.

  It made Tyra shake her head despite her hope. The human race were strange creatures.