Then it would be up to the Monarchs to decide the fate of this world, and he would have his full abilities restored. Our great plan can resume and I can finally be rid of my responsibilities.
“Your Majesty, I’m detecting a large aircraft inbound. Its trajectory indicates it will pass over the top of The Songstress.”
“Is it within range of the main shinkari cannon?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Thalia replied, her form sparking into view beside the wireframe map, which proceeded to zoom in and show the red of the inbound enemy aircraft.
“Destroy it,” he commanded.
Heinrich staggered as the ship shuddered and trembled violently without warning. The wireframe geographic map and the hologram avatar of the AI dissolved. “Thalia, report!” he commanded as the sound of alarm rang throughout the ship.
She didn’t respond. No! Thalia. Without her …
“Sire, the aft cannon just exploded. We’re coming under shinkari fire from the downed transport. It must be the enemy snipers,” reported one of the main console operators in a panicked voice.
“Send engineering to Thalia’s core and inform the countess. I’ll deal with this,” he answered in a frigid voice as his form blurred.
China paced in the three-by-three cell under the watchful eyes of the drone. He felt much improved after receiving Sis-B and food. Now he had nothing to do but wonder when King Heinrich would return to make him choose between the father that raised him after his mother was murdered by the Royals, and the team with their critical mission.
How many of my loved ones have to die for this damned key?
China fretted. He questioned his own reactions. He had expected more pain from King Heinrich. He hadn’t expected to be given a choice. Everything he knew about Heinrich indicated that the Walker King was a ruthless bastard.
China scratched idly at the healing scars left by the prince as he paced back and forth. Some time ago, he’d felt a slight queasiness and knew that the ship had transferred. He wondered where, whether the ship was still pursuing his wife, Snake, and Mack. He didn’t know. That bastard Heinrich. He’s right. Not knowing is the worst.
He felt slight vibrations through his feet. Something was happening, and he dared to hope that they would at least temporarily forget about him. He wracked his brain for any way to escape from his predicament. He’d examined the plans for a frigate before and knew he was buried in the bowels of the ship, away from anything important like the AI core or battery array. But the drone remained at its station. He couldn’t use his feet to escape with the tin soldier ever-present.
Without warning, the ship bucked, and the motion threw him to the metal floor, earning him a fresh bruise as he slammed into the sleeping pod. Dazed, he looked around. The drone was slumped over with no lights or other indicators of activity. Then he heard them. Alarms rang in other parts of the ship and echoed through air vents and down the hallways to reach him.
Is this a trick? he wondered, approaching the force wall that held him captive. Tentatively, he stuck out a hand and … nothing. It was gone! He sprinted across the cell to the drone. Its shinkari pistols remained locked inside the leg mountings; he just needed something to pry them open. Casting his eyes about, he spotted his repulsor boots and grinned.
It was the work of a moment to pry out one of the steel reinforcements in the boots and open the leg housing. Hastily, he extracted the weapon. How do I get off the frigate? Pity I can’t leave an explosive surprise behind.
He checked the door as the alarms continued to sound. It didn’t budge, but he had the shinkari. Two quick blasts opened the wall enough to reach through and activate the dilation. Taking a quick glance, he stepped out, stamped his boots onto his feet, and grinned at the sounds. The torture had left him weakened, but he was still a capable man and owed it to his family to escape.
He checked the corridor before slinking like a cat up the hallway. He expected guards to descend upon him at any moment, but as the seconds rolled by he continued, unimpeded, to the chorus of alarms. The only explanation was that something had disabled the ship’s AI. He spotted a ship’s map on the bulkhead, and after insuring he was alone, he stole a look at the diagram.
Holding cells, right. I’m here. How to get off the ship? He looked for something, anything that would allow him to escape. He considered the hangar bay, but there was a distinct possibility that the launch platform would be coded or the bay doors might be completely inoperable under these conditions. And then he saw it. The compartment for the drones and the side launch area. The drones in New York had jump packs on their backs. If he could make it to the launch bay while the AI was offline, he could steal a pack and get off the ship.
He just had to get there.
As the alarms rang throughout the ship, Anna staggered along the corridor towards the engineering decks. She needed to remedy the problem with Thalia. Most likely, the explosion of the main cannons severed a vital connection. Any number of systems in that part of the ship could be responsible for taking the AI offline.
Thank the Monarchs the shielding is still working, she thought.
In the midst of battle, it was critical that she restore Thalia as soon as possible. She’d waved off the assistance of Doctor Cross when she hurried out of the medbay. Her head ached and the blood around her nose felt tacky-wet as she checked to make sure it hadn’t started bleeding again. Neither mattered half as much as reaching engineering.
As she stumbled doggedly towards the lower decks, another blue-uniformed, engineering crew member thundered out of a side corridor in front of her. This part of the ship was almost a maze of crisscrossing passageways that curved around major structures of the ship. As she was about to call out to him, a shinkari bolt screamed across the corridor and slammed into the crewman’s chest. The sucking, wet sound of the implosion was loud enough to cover her involuntary gasp of surprise as the Rebel she’d captured stepped forward. A feral gleam of satisfaction shone in his eyes as the explosion ripped a brick-sized chunk from the crewman’s torso and flung him against the steel side of the corridor to crumple limply to the floor.
Anna froze like a rabbit in the headlights, mind trying to work against the lingering disorientation of her latest disconnection sickness. The Rebel pivoted towards her. As he raised the pistol, Anna fell to her knees.
“Don’t kill me, please don’t kill me,” she babbled, trying to present as unthreatening a target as possible.
The man sneered in distaste at her display and stepped closer, heavy boots clunking on the steel deck. “Where’s the drone bay?” he asked menacingly.
“If I tell you, do you promise not to kill me?” Anna babbled, managing to squeeze out a tear. Just a bit closer asshole, you must be on your last legs after what the prince did to you. Of course, I’m not much better after that last disconnection. If I can just get the pistol away from you …
“Royalist whore, I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me,” the man spat, taking another step forward, almost close enough for Anna to try for the weapon.
Anna covered her face in her hands, leaving enough of a gap to peek between her fingers, and started sobbing. She muffled her words to come out as moaning gibberish.
“What? What did you say?” the man demanded, taking another step forward. Perfect.
Anna exploded into action, slapping the shinkari weapon out of his hand to clatter against the wall, and with a quick movement, she managed to strike him in the thigh and heard a satisfying cry of pain as the man toppled backwards.
Anna dove for the pistol, stretching out her hand to grasp the handle. She almost had it when the Rebel’s foot came scything around. With a dull thud, a projective, concussive blast exited the heel of the boot. Anna screamed as the bones in her hand shattered. The gun, sparking and broken, spun down the hallway as if shot from a cannon.
Anna screamed in pain and aimed to strike the man in the face with an elbow. She missed as the Rebel backed off with a measuring gaze in his eyes and took a
practiced defensive stance. Oh no.
“I recognize that move. Not so tough when you’re not inside a tin soldier, are you?”
“Please don’t kill me!” Anna begged, this time for real.
“You had your chance. Why shouldn’t I?” he replied as he balanced on the balls of his feet. The heavy repulsor boots looked like deadly black hammers on the ends of his legs.
“I can get you out,” Anna said desperately.
“I’ll find my own way,” he replied coldly, boots humming against the steel deck. The sound reached her ears, and she felt her face twist unwillingly into a cry for mercy.
Before the words could leave her lips, the man’s boot slammed into her chest.
“C’mon you Royalist bastards,” Sarge muttered. She’d switched her cybernetic eye to thermal and turned off the surrounding lights. In the dim distance of the corridors, she could see the first of the hovers approaching. “I’m right here, come and get me,” she said, looking through the scope, willing the first of the approaching soldiers to show themselves so she could act.
Here, she could create a choke point and give Jay time to get to the key. That’s all that mattered now. Jay had to succeed, and if she had to die to give her daughter that chance, then she’d take as many of these bastards with her as she could.
Faint, green light appeared on the rocks in front of her and she spun, drawing the shinkari pistol at her waist with a snapping movement and almost putting a bolt through Snake as he stumbled toward her, holding up his hands.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she barked. “You’re supposed to be with Jay!”
“No. I’m meant to be right here,” Snake said, stepping forward with a determined set to his shoulders. “I’m not running any longer.”
Sarge cursed and turned back to the tunnel, scanning for heat as more hovers appeared around the bend and the sound of boots echoed towards her. She didn’t have time, and who was she to say when it was appropriate for a person to lay down his life for what he believed in?
As the first of the Elites came into view, Sarge fired, feeling the kick of her rifle as a screaming, high-powered bolt sliced into the opposing soldier’s head, causing him to crumple. Only a head shot would take out an Elite in full body armor.
“Nice shot,” Snake complimented as more troops came round the corner, firing from the hip and laying down suppression fire. “My turn.” Running his fingers rapidly over Sheila’s control keys, he picked out a discordant harmonic on the strings and a force wall ballooned forward, collecting incoming shinkari bolts like deadly black butterflies in a net and flinging them forward in a pelting rain.
The Elites returned fire as Sarge pulled Snake behind a rock column. “Sheila, you have the battery power to do that again?” she asked the instrument while adjusting the rifle to create multiple flechette rounds.
“I’m fully charged, Sarge. Our proximity to the world key is rapidly restoring my battery array,” Sheila responded.
Sarge grinned. A mobile force emitter might make the difference between this being a brief one-sided fight and giving Jay a significant lead. “Give me a wall fifty feet down that corridor. Now!” Sarge bellowed before stepping out and covering both of them with a hail of flechette fire that screamed down the tunnel like a swarm of black bees.
Snake nodded, picking a deep, bass string and holding the note with the compression bar. A green-tinged wall of force wavered in the air before moving, several lines of force behind it reinforcing the wall. Shinkari splattered against the green wall, trying to chew through the force wall to no avail.
Sarge stepped alongside Snake and blasted several powerful bolts into the ceiling. As rocks started falling from the ceiling and filling the tunnel, Snake cut the connection to the force wall and created a second one, closer, which held the dust at bay.
“They’ll look for a way around that,” Sarge said. “We have to move; we need to block off as many entrances to this area as we can find.”
“Won’t they split up? Come at us from different angles?” Snake said.
“I’m counting on it.”
Jay held the bag as Mack struggled to unpack the stubborn ropes. She couldn’t completely shut out the panic received from the desperate medic. The emotional vibration beat on her mental shield its message of haste. She just tried to ignore it and weave a tighter shield. She couldn’t help any more than she already was. As the rope came out of the bag, Mack hunted desperately for an anchor point that could take their weight to abseil down the shaft and Jay went to look at the dim opening.
It does look like a throat, Jay thought madly. A faint glow illuminated the sides of the chasm from far below. Beside her, Mack outwardly appeared to be keeping it together, but Jay could feel her emotions fluttering like a bird in a cage.
Frequently she turned towards the sounds of shinkari fire that floated to them from the adjacent tunnel and trebled her fear. Swallowing involuntarily, she took a couple deep gulps of air in a desperate attempt to calm herself. She couldn’t afford to accidentally project her fear right now. “They’re still alive. Hurry Mack, we can do this. I can save them,” she said, stepping closer to the shaft and peering down into the dim light.
Like the evening star alone in the sky at dusk, a bright point of light sat far below. The distance was too great to simply drop and rely on her telekinesis to slow down. She’d probably faint from the weight of both of them before reaching the bottom. She wasn’t even sure she could manage just herself; it was hard to determine distance in the dark. It’s pretty far, but why not try.
She grasped with a telekinetic hand down the dark abyss, reaching for the light with her mind. Her temples throbbed, the distance stretching her mental grasp like a rubber band pulled too far. Pressure built inside her head, the strain of pushing that distance exponentially taking a toll on her the farther down she reached.
Collapsing to the stone floor of the ledge, she gasped for air, suddenly realizing she’d been holding her breath for quite some time. Chest heaving to recover, she massaged a thumb hard into her left temple to relieve some of the pressure. Too far … I need another way down.
As Mack skinned a knuckle on a stubborn, tangled anchor device and swore, Jay let her senses roam, tasting the emotions around her and keeping her own under shield. Nothing besides me and Mack.
Jay turned as a renewed rain of fire echoed through the tunnels. A deep and ominous roar sounded over the screams of shinkari bolts, interspersed with notes of music from Sheila.
As Mack cursed again, Jay noticed her kneeling down and trying to force an anchor into a crack in the rock too thin to secure it properly. That won’t do. Jay looked for a better anchor point and started when she spotted a man in a white and gold robe standing at the back of the tunnel. Although his shoulders heaved with ragged breaths, the sounds of battle had masked his approach. Reflexively, Jay projected multiple strikes towards the stranger with a raise of her arm.
It was in that instant that she felt it, wrapped tightly around his thoughts and emotions like the concealing mask he wore: a strong, psychic shield protecting his mind in the ether as he answered her salvo with one of his own.
Snake panted as his raw, bleeding fingers struck another chord to raise a new force wall against the flames that threatened to wash over them. The pyro had announced his presence in the cave system with a blast of flame that nearly killed them both. His jacket smoldered where the fire had grazed his shoulder. Sarge had hastily patted the flame out of existence, but not before the skin on Snake’s neck and left ear blistered.
Back-to-back with Sarge in a junction, he tried to catch sight of the pyro, but only the red and gold Elites darted into view to harry them with a hail of shinkari bolts. His fingers slipped precariously over the strings, slick with blood. Sheila remained at full charge, soaking up energy faster than he could spend it, but his arms shook from exertion. One of these times, his fingers would miss and the shield wouldn’t rise in time.
“Why only sho
rt bursts of fire?” Sarge questioned under her breath.
“Can’t risk consuming all the oxygen,” Snake answered, equally quiet.
“You two are as stubborn as that Asian man we caught,” came a loud, sneering voice that echoed around the caves as the latest burst of flames died away. “My, he was fun … while he lasted.” The voice chuckled, the sound sinister as it bounced off the rock walls.
Snake grabbed hold of Sarge as she started forward. An Elite ducked his head quickly around a bend in one of the corridors to the south, snapping off a quick bolt that screamed before it impacted against the projected shield. The Elites were dug in, taking pot-shots from three passageways and effectively cornering the pair. Without the aid of cybernetics, Snake only caught brief glimpses of the cave as the flames lit the passageways.
“Hey dickhead! Come say that to our faces,” Snake called out, throwing a reverb into the sonic shield to thicken the depth of force.
The voice ignored him and continued on. “Yes, he lasted for quite a time. I think I must have branded him over a hundred times before he finally gave us this location. He’s not as pretty now. You may as well give up.”
“Bite me, knobstick!” Snake responded. Why’s he doing this? He’s just wasting time.
Snake could feel Sarge shaking with emotion against his back. He strengthened the shield again. If the key wasn’t this close he would have already drained her battery completely. He turned and caught the look on Sarge’s face in Sheila’s glow. It was terrible to behold, and her right eye practically glowed in the darkness. She’d been angry when China was taken; now she was furious.
“He’s just trying to rattle you, Sarge,” Snake whispered.
“It’s working,” Sarge responded, swapping the rifle to her cybernetic hand. Snake could still hear the faint tick-tick sounds as the metal cooled. It wouldn’t be long before it was completely unusable. Too much use in too short a time. If Sarge was alone she would have already been overwhelmed.
Suffrage (World Key Chronicles Book 1) Page 31