Death Defied

by Justin Sloan

  Willom turned to Kalan and smiled. “So you have other friends here on the moon. Maybe I’ll go take care of them when I’m done with you.”

  “Ha. I’d actually like to see you try.”

  Quicker than Kalan would have thought possible, Willom grabbed him by the throat. His cold fingers held on tight.

  “I’m going to keep my hand around your throat for our entire flight. If I even sense you trying to fight me or interfere with the flight in any way, I’m going to squeeze. Understand?”

  “Yes, I understand.” The words were bitter in Kalan’s mouth, but he needed to go along with this now if he wanted to have any chance of survival later.

  “I understand too,” Wearl said, her voice thick with anger. “I understand that the minute this guy lets go of your throat I’m going to rip his damn head off.”

  Kalan’s eyes widened, but he didn’t react. Inside, he was smiling.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Tol’s Moon

  She hated leaving the others behind, but if this guy was a threat—which if he was alive he likely was—she couldn’t have him off doing whatever he wanted. Loose ends like that had a way of destroying everything.

  The stairs were easy enough to find and the passages were dark, but that didn’t bother her.

  What bothered her was the sound coming from ahead. While she had expected a bunker and maybe guards at the ready, gunfire echoed from that direction. Not just normal rifles either, but large cannon.

  When she burst into a well-lit room, large in a way that reminded her of the hanger back home where all the Pods had been kept, she saw the source of the shots. Some of the soldiers from outside had doubled back into here and were making a move to get to their small fighter planes. In their way, however, were several other fighters and, in their midst, one crazed Palnik. Apparently he wasn’t as timid as Valerie had guessed him to be, because here he was in what she could only assume was the beta mech.

  The short Skulla sat in a cockpit, moving large handholds that controlled the mech’s movement. He fired a barrage at his opponents, then saw Valerie.

  “Let me guess, it’s our time to dance?” He smiled and aimed at her. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The shots he fired were like a fifty-cal on crack and tore through the wall behind her as she dodged, one exploding on impact to send her staggering sideways. Now it was clear why he was having such a good time. She would be too if she had one of those things.

  That thought gave her an idea. She would have one of those—that one. Instead of taking the risk of charging straight in, though, she ran for the soldiers on the far side, shouting for them to get back. When they had pulled away and were using the wall for cover, she told them who she was and what they were doing.

  “All I need is cover fire,” she told them. “Just try not to shoot directly at the mech, since I’ll be right there and would prefer to not get shot.”

  “You’re saying you don’t want us to shoot the mech?” one of the soldiers asked, unable to believe it. “Did you see that thing?”

  “Shoot those around it,” she answered. “Trust me. The mech won’t be a problem for long.”

  They agreed, so she turned the corner and darted out, already hearing the clicks and subsequent explosions from the mech’s weapons. Then the shooting started from behind her, and the mech took that to mean easy targets.

  Taking advantage of that moment, she sprinted across the deck. The fighter jets were being riddled with holes as she passed, but at the last one, parallel to the mech, she threw herself against the wall and kicked off to land on the jet, then ran to the opposite wing and leaped up and onto the mech, slamming her sword through the glass to keep her footing. She kicked off from the mech, levering the sword at the same time, so that she was able to pry the glass right off.

  “Impossible…” Palnik muttered in disbelief, but managed to reach around with one of the mech arms to grab her. She struggled, pushing against the hard metal, but it was no use.

  Next thing she knew she was being lifted into the air, and suddenly thrown against the wall. She let out a yelp, hands out as if that would save her, and made contact with a crunch.

  Nothing was broken, but damn that hurt.

  BOOM!

  Something hit her and she went flying. As she rolled she wondered how the hell her armor had stayed intact—or if it even had. Another shot was coming, she was sure, but lying here waiting for it wasn’t an option.

  After pushing herself up with a grunt, she at least managed to throw herself behind one of the fighter planes before the next shot connected. Instead it hit the plane and slammed it against her helmet.

  Biting her lip in frustration, Valerie imagined herself pulling that little bastard out of there and tearing into him with her vampire teeth. That ought to put the fear of Valerie into those sons of bitches.

  Two quick breaths and she was up, feinting one way but quickly going the other. Her sword was still on the ground, glass dome from the mech still attached, and she grabbed it and hefted it up just as the next shot came. It hit the dome, sending a shower of shattered glass all around her, but then she had her sword and was pushing off a fighter plane’s wheel assembly to leap right at Palnik.

  His eyes went wide and he pressed a button that made the mech fly back with thrusters, only now the beta part made sense. Apparently it hadn’t worked as he thought, because as the out-of-control mech kept going he unstrapped himself and leaped to safety.

  When the mech slammed into a back wall and crumpled to the ground, Palnik was already up and running.

  “You can’t run from me!” Valerie shouted, charging after him.

  Thwtt-twtt-twtt!

  Rounds pounded into the wall by her head and she dived, cursing, and came up to see one of the manned fighters aiming right for her. The moment’s distraction had been enough apparently, because then a metal door slid down behind her, blocking her off from Palnik.

  Valerie was pissed. This son of a bitch cost her her dinner. With a loud shout she ran for the fighter and again it started shooting, but she flung herself forward, sliding right under it, and came up on the other side. Then she was on the wing and Palnik’s Skulla guard was looking up at her with terror-filled eyes. She growled and threw him from the plane.

  She stepped into the cockpit and put her into flight mode. Autopilot, right for the door, and as she picked up speed she opened fire. Shots rang off the metal, putting dents in it, and then Valerie threw herself free, rolling and shouting in pain as she tweaked her leg in an unnatural direction. Ignoring the pain, she turned to watch as the plane made contact with the metal door.

  It slammed into it and burst into flames, not doing as much damage as she had hoped but denting it enough. She ran over and thrust her hands into the opening, relying on her strength to pull the door the rest of the way open.

  Her leg would heal in a matter of minutes, she knew, but waiting wasn’t an option. That traitor had gotten away for now, but he wouldn’t escape her grasp again.

  When she was through the gap she found herself following a trail down through tunnels that became rock and dirt, wishing she could use her enhanced sense of smell to ensure she was on the right track. It would have been hard, since down here the methane and other gasses were visible, so she had to keep her helmet on. She figured she might possibly heal from whatever effects breathing in such gasses might have…but she wasn’t certain.

  Probably not worth the risk.

  So she continued through the tunnels, hoping she would soon have him.

  ***

  Valerie was getting pissed. Where the hell was this traitorous Skulla bastard? She had traveled these tunnels to the point that she was starting to wonder if she was lost, and either the fighting had stopped above or she was so far down she couldn’t hear it anymore.

  Either way, she was starting to hate this place.

  Each turn brought her back to early memories of her days as a vamp
ire—that feeling of being helpless and hopeless. They had put her in a militaristic training camp along with the rest of the freshly made vampires, taught her to utilize her new ability to see in the dark, told her that if she didn’t fight to survive she would die. It had all been so foreign, just like moving around in armor with a helmet through methane-clouded caverns was now.

  At least in this situation she didn’t have some vampire brother shouting at her, hitting her every chance he got, and killing innocents all while expecting her to do the same.

  She hadn’t then, and hoped to all that was holy that she never had since.

  If she could help it she wouldn’t kill Palnik either, though each minute down here made her question that a little bit more.

  One more turn, and she thought she would start punching through walls until she had him or was out of this place. However, on that next turn she caught something else—a face full of flame as a grenade went off, blowing the place to shit. She dove backward and the walls and rock ceiling crumbled and retreated as the flames kept coming.

  She leaped over a fissure in the ground, grabbing the other side and pulling herself up before finally turning back to see the devastation.

  “Take that, you piece of gornor tail!” he shouted, though the insult was lost on her.

  He was on the other side, barely visible through all the smoke and debris, but at least now she knew she was on the right track. As he took off, she figured there had to be another way to get to him. Doubling back, she took every route she could to veer his direction, and nearly whooped with excitement when she came out on a ledge and saw him running along a trail on the far wall.

  Below them, however, was more of that methane river with its strange floating white bubbles.

  She almost took her chances with that, but after turning to see where the two ledges went she just smiled instead. There was no way out of this now. He didn’t see her until she was almost upon him.

  Relying on her agility and balance she leaped the last bit, slamming him into the wall as she landed beside him.

  “What the fuck have you done?” she demanded, then slammed him into the wall again. “You’ve at least doomed your people and your entire star system. For all I know, you’ve helped start the beginning of a full-out war against the Federation!”

  “Fuck you and your Federation,” he replied, a blade shooting forth as he jabbed one of his arms toward her.

  She moved aside, blocking it and nearly sending him to his death in the river below. She caught him by the back of his armor right where it connected the neck and the helmet and pulled him back, then kicked him to the floor.

  “It was all over the minute you decided to stage your little coup,” he growled. “Don’t point the finger at me, hypocrite.”

  She glared, chest heaving within her armor, then bent to pick him up. “You’re going to spend many years thinking about what you’ve done, and then you’ll die a lonely, sorrowful death.”

  “Not likely.” He smiled, pulling out a narrow cylindrical object that flashed.

  Not a grenade, but where they were it threatened to be just as bad. When he started to slam it against his body to ignite the flare the only move she had was to kick it, but he lunged at that moment and her foot connected with his head instead. The force spun him around and he fell, but this time she couldn’t catch him.

  He stared up at her from behind his faceplate as he fell, and he smiled as he lit the flare.

  “FUCK ME!” Valerie screamed, sprinting at full vampire speed into the next corridor over.

  On the one hand it was unfortunate that the opening led to a cliff, because when she fell it hurt like hell. On the other hand a burst of flames tore through the spot she had been seconds ago, so all in all it worked out okay.

  Now there was the issue of getting out of here, and hoping her legs and back healed fast enough for her to not waste any more time.

  Valerie’s legs weren’t hurting by the time she reached the command center, where she found Robin and Arlay celebrating. There were wires jammed into the dismantled drone, and they were watching screens and whooping.

  “What’d I miss?” Valerie asked.

  Robin turned to her with a smile, then wrapped her arms around her in a hug. “We did it! Well, the commander did.”

  “Turned them off?”

  “Better,” Arlay interjected. “The forces he sent against us? They’re now ours.”

  “No shit?” Valerie stepped up to the displays so she could watch the fighting outside. “What are they fighting, then?”

  “Seems our hack only got so far. He’s sending more at us, but if they get within a certain range they’re ours.”

  “So we’re going to have to get past the range, huh?” Valerie asked. “Take out the space station?”

  Arlay nodded. “That’s where our fighter planes come in. One-person fighters, simple enough that even an AI attack wouldn’t cause a problem.”

  “If there are any left,” Valerie countered, then told them what she had seen back in the flight bay with the mech and Palnik’s soldiers.

  “Damn,” Robin said, and Arlay kicked the chair over.

  “We’ll have to make do with what we have there. Can you both fly?”

  “I’ve never flown one of those,” Robin replied, “but I’ve seen a thing or two on the Grandeur.”

  “She’s flown a couple times in practice,” Valerie explained.

  “We might need all we can get, depending on who is left and what the situation is like out there.” Arlay considered, then gestured for them to stay with her as she walked out of the room.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To notify all the fighters we can spare to make for the planes. It’s time to fly.” Arlay motioned to one of the nearby soldiers and conveyed the message, then turned and ran down the hall with Robin and Valerie close on her heels. “Now we’ll see how well you can really fly, Robin.”

  Valerie glanced at her friend with worry, but Robin looked as determined as ever. If she was confident in herself, then Valerie could trust in her too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Tol’s Moon: Willom’s Junkyard

  Jilla pushed herself to her feet as Willom and Kalan headed for the ship. Her nose hurt from where it had hit the floor when Willom pushed her, and she was angry as hell.

  “He couldn’t let me do it, could he?” she asked. “I had Willom fooled but he just couldn’t let me take his place, the stubborn bastard.”

  Bob stepped to her side, his oversized rifle slung over his shoulder. “You didn’t really think he’d let you sacrifice yourself for him, did you? I haven’t known Kalan for nearly as long as you have, but even I knew that wasn’t going to happen.”

  She glared at Bob. “It wasn’t about sacrificing myself. Clearly Willom specifically needs Kalan for something. Pretending to be him would have kept me alive and bought the real Kalan time to figure out what was going on. When he got wherever he was taking Kalan I would have revealed my true identity, and he would have had to come back here for the real Kalan.”

  “I think I know,” Daschle said. His voice sounded weak and strained.

  “Well, spit it out, then,” Bob replied.

  Jilla trotted over to the bed where the Skulla was hiding. She didn’t like the sound of his voice. When she reached him, she put a surprised hand over her mouth. “Holy hell.”

  “Don’t worry.” He held a hand over the wound on his stomach, and thick blood leaked out from between his fingers. “It hurts something awful, but I think it looks worse than it is. I’ve heard most survive a gut shot.”

  Bob held up a finger, “Actually, when I studied—"

  “Shut up, Bob,” Jilla barked.

  “Right, sorry.”

  The Skulla didn’t seem to notice. “The pain is the worst part. If I can hold on until Kalan and Willom get back I’ll be okay.”

  Jilla wasn’t so sure about that logic. Besides, from the looks of him he’d be dead long befor
e the Grayhewns returned. If they returned.

  She stalked over to the robots. “Any of you bastards equipped for medical procedures? There’s so damn many of you, I’d imagine at least one of you can scan him.”

  The robots stared back at her blankly.

  “They’re not going to answer you,” Daschle said weakly. “Robots are good at a lot of things, but improvisation isn’t one of them.”

  Jilla groaned. “Willom ordered them to not let anyone leave this house, so they’re going to stand there guarding us until he returns?”

  “Exactly,” the Skulla confirmed. “How about your invisible friend? Is she still here?”

  “Good question.” Jilla turned back toward the room. “Wearl, you here?”

  There was no response.

  “That’s a good sign, right?” Bob asked.

  Jilla nodded. “Another advantage of robots being so literal. Willom told them to not let anyone else out of the house.”

  “Wearl must have already been outside,” Bob observed, “so they ignored her.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Jilla put her hands on her hips and looked around. Maybe there was a way they could use the robots’ literal nature to their advantage. “Willom only told them to make sure we didn’t leave. He didn’t tell them to stop us from doing anything inside the house.”

  Bob thought for a moment. “Maybe you could pretend to be Willom and tell them to stand down.”

  Jilla shook her head. “Those detection robots can tell I’m a Pallicon, remember?”

  The room was quiet for a minute while they thought.

  Finally Jilla said, “Bob, aren’t you supposed to be a programing genius?”

  Bob perked up at that. “I don’t know about genius, but, yeah, I know my way around a computer.”