The sleds scattered immediately, but there were so many of them the barges couldn’t miss all the time. With no force shields to protect them, they exploded into flames and fell from the sky like so many burning leaves. Dozens were blown apart in the first few seconds, screams sounding briefly in the wind, and then the survivors of the first rank of sleds threw themselves in close to the barges, so they couldn’t keep firing without hitting each other. Ducking and dodging the barges’ few smaller weapons, the sleds opened up with their own disrupters. At first they were too few to hurt the barges’ force shields, but soon there were hundreds of them, and hundreds more, buzzing around the barges like bees around a bear, hitting the shields again and again until they overloaded and burned out, unable to cope with being hit so often in so many places at once. The sleds fell on the barges, their weapons tearing ragged holes through the heavy armor by sheer persistence. As the sleds’ fire continued, inner explosions rocked the barges, and smoke billowed out the holes, thick and black and shot with flames. One by one the great heavy ships lurched or tilted helplessly in the air, drifting in the wind, already beginning their slow but inevitable descent to the ground. The armada of one-man sleds, only slightly depleted, left them behind and headed for the first of the pastel Towers, standing tall and proud against the early-morning sky.
The sleds filled the sky now, thousands of them descending inexorably on the last redoubts of the Clans. The Towers waited till they were safely in range, then opened up with their own disrupter cannon, blowing great holes in the armada. Sleds plummeted from the sky, twisted metal wrecks leaving long shaky trails of smoke and fire behind them. The majority pressed on. There would be time for grieving later. The Towers’ guns punched through the massed sleds again and again, filling the sky with blood and screams, explosions and shrapnel, but still the armada pressed on. There was no point in turning back now. The Towers would only shoot them in the back. And this close to their target, there was no longer any point in evasive tactics, so they just opened their throttles all the way and bore in on the Towers like so many guided missiles, driven by rage and determination and a lifetime’s grievances. Random was still right there at the front, with Ruby and Storm at his sides. He was howling and roaring now, shouting old battle cries and slogans, and hundreds of responses rose up behind him. For many, Jack Random’s name was battle cry enough. The rebels fell howling on the Towers, and the sound of their blood rage filled the morning sky.
The Towers’ disrupters fired again and again, blasting sleds out of the sky, their blackened husks falling on all sides. Hundreds of good men and women died, blown apart with their craft, consumed in fire, or thrown from their sleds by the impact of nearby explosions. They screamed in fear and pain and rage as they fell to the earth far below. Random and Ruby and Storm still led the advance, fire and explosions and people dying all around them, whipping their sleds through daring, dangerous maneuvers as the thermals around the Towers rose up to meet them. Behind them, the oncoming sleds darkened the sky, casting a dark, looming shadow over the Towers. For all the hundreds that had fallen, and continued to fall, there were still thousands of them, and they would not be denied. And the leading sleds were close now, so close the Towers’ disrupter cannon could no longer train on them. They shot inside the defensive perimeter, heading for the great steelglass windows on the top floors. Random thought he could see faces staring out, eyes wide with fear and shock, and his heart warmed at the sight.
He was still grinning when a disrupter beam from Tower Chojiro hit his sled. He grabbed the controls and hung on grimly as the sled bucked beneath him, and then the whole control panel exploded. Blinded by smoke and flames, Random hung on to the dead throttle as the sled dropped out beneath him. The sled fell like a brick, leaving the smoke behind, and Random could see the armada falling away above him, leaving him behind. Random cursed and struggled with what was left of the controls. He wasn’t afraid of dying. He was too angry. He hadn’t come this far, been through this much, to fail now.
The sled’s engine coughed briefly, and the sled lurched beneath him, almost throwing him off. Random snarled something indistinct, and concentrated on the controls, trying to coax a miracle out of the burning remnants of the crippled sled. And one of the gods he was praying to must have been listening, because the sled’s engine fired back into life. It sounded ragged and uncertain, and the sled lurched and tilted this way and that, but gradually its headlong plummet slowed to a halt, and then, as Random whooped and howled and shook his fist in triumph, the sled slowly began to rise again, heading up the side of the Tower Chojiro toward the Family on the top floor.
The sled’s engine wanted to cut out at any moment, but Random wouldn’t let it, nursing the controls along with scowling concentration. The armada was still flooding by above him, dark shapes racing unstoppably toward the many Towers. The guns still sounded, and great ragged gaps were appearing in the dark tide, but still the sleds pressed on. Some had already made contact, blowing holes in the steelglass windows and crashing into the top floors of the Towers. There were troops waiting for them with sword and gun, but the first wave of rebels fought well, with a fierce desperation, refusing to die until they had established a beachhead for those coming after them. Many of them died anyway, cut down by overwhelming odds, but more rebels were appearing all the time, and slowly, foot by foot, they forced their way into the Towers.
It was a fight the Families had never expected to have to fight. After the Wolfes’ sled attack on Tower Campbell, most Families had added extra disrupter cannon on the roofs, and invested in a few gravity barges, but they’d never anticipated such a near-suicidal charge.
More and more gravity sleds made it past the Towers’ defenses and crashed their way into the top floors. Random cursed regretfully as his sled slowly rose nearer the top floor of Tower Chojiro. He’d always meant to be one of the first in, Fighting to provide a landing ground for those coming behind him. Jack Random had always believed in leading from the front. He couldn’t see what had happened to Ruby Journey and Alexander Storm, but he couldn’t think about them now. The sled lurched up past the last few floors, and came to a halt facing the top floor of Tower Chojiro. And Random’s stomach lurched as he found himself facing a dozen leveled hand disrupters. Someone had smashed a hole through the steel-glass window but obviously hadn’t survived it. Random’s adrenaline kicked in, and everything seemed to move very slowly. He seemed to have all the time in the world to study the situation and think about what to do. He didn’t trust his control over the sled enough to risk dropping below the guns’ range, and he was moving too slowly to rise above it. And if he used up his last few moments trying to raise the sled’s force shield, only to find it didn’t work, the disrupters wouldn’t leave enough of him to bury. So Random did the only thing he could, as time crashed up to speed again. He gave the sled all the speed it had, and slammed the craft right into the waiting guards.
Their shots went wild as he was suddenly among them, but some hit anyway. The sled exploded, throwing Random forward over the controls in a cloud of flames. He flew blindly through the air, smarting from the heat of the flames, trying to get his feet under him. The guards scattered as what was left of the sled crash-landed among them and exploded again. Random hit the carpeted floor hard, driving the breath from his lungs. He curled into a bail, hoping the smoke from the explosions would hide him, desperately trying to draw his sword and gun. He could hear shouting and the crackle of flames and general chaos. And then what was left of the fiercely burning sled crashed down on top of him, pinning him to the floor, and there was only blazing heat and the roar of the fire all around him.
The surviving guards called for reinforcements as they fought the fires breaking out all over the top floor. The Clan Chojiro had already retreated to the floor below sometime back. More men arrived, and some fought the fires while others took up positions at the broken windows, keeping up a steady fire on the advancing sleds. Tower Chojiro had more disrupter cannon o
n the roof than most, and for the moment most of the one-man sleds were concentrating their efforts on the less well defended Towers. A handful of guards cautiously approached the blazing wreckage of the downed sled. There was no way anyone could have survived such a crash and its aftermath, but the guards were taking no chances. They’d been hearing disturbing things about some of the rebels. One of the braver guards leaned over the wreckage and poked it gingerly with the tip of his sword. The heat from the fire kept him from getting any closer, but he thought he could see a single blackened leg protruding from under the rear of the wreckage. He poked that with his sword too, and then leaped back as the leg twitched. He scrambled backwards to rejoin his fellows, and the whole wreckage lurched to one side as something underneath it rose up from certain death, determined to be free. The burning sled overbalanced and fell away, revealing a dark human figure. Its clothes were charred and smoldering, and the bare face and hands were blackened and red raw from burns. But its back was straight and its head erect, and the blistered hands held gun and sword securely. The eyes were pale slits in the dark face, but white teeth flashed suddenly in a disturbing smile.
“I don’t die that easily,” said Jack Random.
The guards stood where they were for a long moment, paralyzed at the sight of something that should have been dead and still, but instead had risen up to challenge them again. But they were trained Tower guards, conditioned to serve their Family unto death, and the moment passed. They threw the fear off with a cold shrug and started forward, swords raised to carve the burnt specter into a hundred pieces and see if it rose again. Random aimed his disrupter carefully and took out three of the guards with a single shot. They fell silently, and the rest came on. Random put his gun back in its charred holster, took a firm grip on his sword, and wondered how many he might take with him before they finally pulled him down. Even he had his limitations, and he could feel how close they were. Surviving the crash had taken a lot out of him, and he wasn’t going to be given enough time to recover. He would have shrugged if it hadn’t hurt so much. He’d always known he’s die alone, overrun at last by too many enemies. And that was when Ruby Journey’s voice suddenly grated in his ears.
“Hit the floor, Random!”
He threw himself down without questioning, and the room was immediately full of the roar of gunfire as Ruby opened up with the heavy projectile weapon mounted on her gravity sled, hovering outside the shattered windows. The guards jerked and convulsed as the bullets tore through them, falling helpless before a weapon they had never been prepared for. The few shots they got off went wild, and soon they were all dead, lying in tangled bloody heaps on the expensive carpeting. The gun finally shut off, and the sudden quiet in the room was almost deafening. Thick trails of smoke curled lazily on the air. Ruby ripped the heavy gun from its moorings, jumped easily through the shattered window, and hurried over to Random, who raised a tired hand in greeting. Ruby stared at the charred and blistered hand, then at his red raw face.
“Jack . . . you look awful.”
“Thanks a whole bunch. I think it probably looks worse than it feels, though it feels pretty bad. But I’m healing. I can feel it. I’m still in the game.” He looked down at the projectile weapon she had cradled in her arms. “Guess you were right to bring that thing along after all. Is it as much fun as it looked?”
Ruby chuckled. “Bet your ass. Hold it for a while.” She dropped it into his arms, and moved purposefully toward the dead guards. She knelt beside them and began going through their pockets with professional speed and skill. Random frowned.
“Ruby, what are you doing?”
“Just looking for valuables. Credits, jewelry, anything going.”
“We don’t have time for looting!”
“There’s always time for looting. When I joined up with this rebellion, I was promised all the loot I could carry, and this is the first down payment. Though I have to say we’re talking lean pickings here. Cheap bunch. Still, by this time tomorrow, I fully intend to have stripped this entire Tower bare. If it’s small and valuable and can be carried somewhere on my person, I’m having it.”
Random shook his head sadly and moved over to the stairs. No point in trying the elevator; it was bound to be booby-trapped. It was what he would have done. The Family would be on the next floor down, no doubt barricaded in, and surrounded by a small army of protectors. Not that it would do them any good. Random grinned like a wolf, and felt the skin of his face crackle. He reached up automatically and rubbed at his mouth. Black flecks of dead skin fell away. He peered at a small mirror set on the wall by the stairs. Fresh new skin showed where the dead had peeled away. He was healing. He still felt like shit, but he didn’t have time to bother with that. He pushed open the stairway door and peered down the brightly lit metal stairs. Quite deserted and utterly quiet.
Random smiled again. He had no doubt Clan Chojiro had all kinds of unpleasant surprises lying in wait for him. But they wouldn’t stop him. Nothing was going to stop him now, not all the armed forces in Golgotha or all the loot in the world. He’d chosen Tower Chojiro for his target quite deliberately. He had long acquaintance with the treacheries of the Chojiros, and now he was finally here, he was going to send all their souls shrieking down to Hell, whatever it took and whatever it cost him. He called sharply to Ruby, and she paused just to pull a few more rings from a few more fingers, then hurried over to join him, her pockets bulging with all sorts of expensive items. She took the projectile weapon back from him, cradling it tenderly in her arms. She’d have a few sharp words with him later, for having dared snap at her as much as for interrupting her looting, but for the moment she was content to follow wherever Random led, secure in the thought that the journey would no doubt involve satisfactory amounts of blood, savagery, and general mayhem. She took the lead when Random indicated, and started down the stairs, Random right behind her.
They hadn’t got far when a determined band of elite troops came hammering up the metal stairs to meet them. Ruby opened up with her gun at once, the sound horribly loud in the confined space, but the guards had already turned on their personal force shields, those at the rear holding them over their heads. Bullets ricochetted harmlessly from the shields, and Ruby had to stop firing as her own bullets came flying back at her from the walls of the stairwell. She dropped her gun and drew her sword, expecting the guards to lower their force shields and charge with drawn swords. But instead, the shielded guards moved slowly forward, filling the stairs, forcing Ruby and Random to back away before them. There was nowhere else they could go. It was a simple tactic, its only function to keep the rebels from getting to the Clan. With anyone else it might have worked, but Ruby and Random had been touched by the Madness Maze. They reached out to each other mentally, linked their thoughts, and pyrokinetic fire roared away from them, filling the stairwell with a heat so extreme the metal steps and walls began to twist and bubble. The brilliant white flames swept around and over the guards’ force shields, blasting them out of the way, and incinerated them all in a few moments. Some had time to scream, and a few turned to run, but the fire was everywhere, and when it finally disappeared, the stairwell was full of charred and blackened bodies and the thick heavy smell of burnt meat. Ruby and Random broke their mental link and looked dispassionately upon what they’d done. There was no room in them for quarter or mercy anymore. Ruby winced back from the heated air, and scowled at the twisted bodies blocking the stairway.
“I suppose we’re going to have to shift them out of the way before we can go any farther. Maybe we should have let them run after all.”
“No,” said Random. “A foe you let run away is a foe who might come back to fight you another day. Let’s get to work. All these obstacles are making me impatient.”
Ruby pulled on a pair of gloves to protect her hands, and they set about lifting and pushing the charred bodies to one side. Ruby wrinkled her nose at the smell, but Random didn’t seem to notice. He’d smelled worse in his time. Thick black
specks fell away from his face and hands as he worked, revealing pink new skin underneath. And though he started out looking much like the bodies he was shifting, by the time they’d finished he looked much like his old self again. His clothes were still a mess, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about that.
He and Ruby were just manhandling the last of the bodies out of the way when they heard a single set of footsteps coming hurriedly down the stairs from above. Ruby quickly grabbed up her projectile weapon, and Random drew his disrupter. They stood back-to-back, looking up and down the stairs, just in case the footsteps were a feint to draw their attention away from the real attack. The footsteps seemed to take a long time to arrive, and then Alexander Storm rounded the corner of the stairwell, stopped, and blinked mildly at the gun Ruby was training on him.
“If you were a man, I could make a very damaging psychological remark about the need to carry such a large gun,” he said calmly. “But as it’s you, Ruby, I don’t think I’ll bother.”
Ruby looked back at Random. “Is he saying what I think he’s saying?”
“We’ll discuss it later,” Random said diplomatically. He lowered his gun and grinned up at Storm. “About time you got here, Alex. I was wondering what was keeping you.”
“Traffic was murder,” said Storm. He sniffed the air and pulled a face. “I see you two have been raising hell again.”
“Just doing what we have to,” said Random. “Fall in behind us, Alex, but don’t start dragging your feet, or we’ll leave you behind. We’re right on the Chojiros’ heels now. I can feel it.”
“Yeah,” said Ruby. “Time for all fate’s revenges to come home.”
Deathstalker War Page 52