Higgs shot her. Paula’s body hit the ground with an audible thud. Rani stared in shock, trying to comprehend what she’d seen. She’d killed before, but never at close quarters. An icon vanishing from the display didn't have the same impact as a lone person shot right in front of her eyes. Bradbury coughed, then froze as Higgs turned to look at him. The rest of the operators stayed as quiet as mice.
They can surrender, Rani told herself. Paula was the only one who might be shot on sight.
“Admiral, come on,” Higgs said. “We need to move.”
Rani took one last look at the control centre, then followed him out the door. His security squad fell in around them, weapons at the ready. They looked tough, but they weren't wearing combat armour. They’d be at a disadvantage when the shit hit the fan.
And if the enemy controls all the exits, she thought grimly, we don’t have a hope of getting out.
She drew her pistol from her belt and held it in her hand, one finger toying with the safety. If nothing else, she was damned if she’d allow herself to be taken alive.
***
“They’ve got powerful disruptor fields up,” Gwen reported, as Ed plunged into the yawning abyss. “The drones can’t get very far into the building without losing their control links.”
“Get them setting up a relay network,” Ed ordered. The fortress was immense, larger than any building on Avalon. Even a handful of microscopic drones might make the difference between success or total failure. “And order Platoon Six to reinforce Platoon One.”
He landed on the metal floor and looked around. The cracker had melted its way through several layers, leaving the fortress badly damaged. Governor Brown hadn't lined the interior of his fortress with hullmetal. There was no sign of any resistance, something that didn't surprise him. Anyone exposed to the heat would have been killed instantly, if not vaporised outright. The scorched walls bore mute witness to the sheer power of the cracker.
They’ll be in the lower levels, he thought, as they crashed through a series of rooms. He thought they were offices, but it was hard to be sure. The damage wasn't so bad, the further they moved from the entrance, yet it was still staggering. Everything flammable had burst into flames, blazing brightly as he moved from room to room. His suit kept flashing up alerts, warning him that the air wasn't safe to breathe. There’ll be a panic room at the lower levels.
“The guards must have pulled back,” Gwen said.
“Yeah,” Ed agreed. It would be nice to believe that they’d already killed all the guards, but he didn't dare take it for granted. “Find the way down ...”
He cursed as red lights flared up in his display. Platoon Three had found the stairwell - and an enemy ambush. He snapped commands, ordering Platoon Two to reinforce, just as Platoon Three started hurling grenades down the stairs. The floor shook under his feet and the shooting stopped abruptly. And then there was another explosion.
“They rigged a plasma cannon to blow,” Lieutenant Fellows said. “Waters is down, sir.”
“Understood,” Ed said. The combat suits were good, but they weren't invulnerable. Waters hadn't stood a chance. He pushed the thought aside, bitterly. There would be time to mourn later. “Keep moving.”
“They’re trying to slow us down, sir,” Gwen said, as they blasted their way through a second ambush. The enemy knew the terrain better than the marines and worked hard to use it against them. “They’re not trying to drive us out.”
Ed nodded in grim agreement. Admiral Singh knew she was trapped. The only thing she could do was throw her people into the fray and hope for the best. Unless she did have an escape tunnel, after all ... he cursed under his breath, silently promising himself that it would end. Admiral Singh would not have a third chance to gain supreme power. He would make sure of it, whatever it took. No shuttle would be allowed to leave the planet without being inspected and cleared for departure.
A sane opponent would be trying to surrender by now, he thought. But she knows she cannot expect any mercy.
He sighed, inwardly. There was nothing for it, but to keep going ...
... And hope that - this time - the bitch was definitely trapped.
***
“They’re in the upper levels, making their way down,” Higgs muttered, as the small formation came to a halt. “I can't track the second group.”
Rani nodded, feeling sweat trickling down her back. The fortress was supposed to be soundproofed, but she could hear shooting echoing down the passageways. Her wristcom keep flashing updates, each one warning that the enemy had made further progress into her fortress. She was running out of options ... no, she had run out of options. Her only hope was to escape.
The lights flickered, then dimmed. Her wristcom bleeped up a final alert. The fortress’s command network had failed. Rani ground her teeth, certain that Bradbury or one of the others had deactivated it. The fortress’s datanet had been designed to survive much worse than rampaging enemy forces tearing their way through the building. A series of nuclear strikes wouldn't be enough to destroy it. And it was completely isolated from the rest of the planet’s datanet.
Higgs caught her arm as his men opened the next set of doors. “We need to hurry,” he said, grimly. “If they block us now, we’re trapped.”
Rani nodded. And if we do make it out, her thoughts mocked her, we would still need to get to a shuttle to escape.
***
Jasmine launched two grenades down the corridor, then hurled herself forwards as they detonated together. The blast smashed the enemy position, allowing the marines to take out the remainder of the guards before they recovered. Jasmine glanced in both directions - the enemy appeared to be retreating further into the fortress - then plunged onwards. The enemy couldn't be allowed time to set up more barricades.
“They’re falling back,” Stewart said.
Jasmine’s earpiece buzzed. “Jazz, I’ve got local reinforcements plugging the hole,” Meade said. “They’re ready to flood the lower floors if necessary.”
“It may be necessary,” Jasmine said. The fortress was huge. All sixty marines were rattling around like peas in a pod. The microscopic recon drones were expanding their coverage, thankfully, but the enemy countermeasures were still effective. They didn't have anything like total saturation. “Can you hack their systems?”
“No,” Meade said. “I’ve got a datalink, but the system is heavily secured. I think they have a rotating code-lock sequence based on random numbers and ...”
“Keep working on it,” Jasmine said, cutting Meade off. She didn't need a long barrage of technobabble to tell her that they’d have to clear the fortress the old-fashioned way. An enemy sniper appeared at the far end of the corridor. She shot him down without hesitation and hurried over his dead body. “Can you update the plans?”
“Not any further,” Meade warned. “The fortress was designed by an idiot.”
Some idiots can be very capable, Jasmine thought. The fortress wasn't very organised - or efficient - but she had to concede that the design had slowed their plunge into its innards. It didn't look as though the designers had bothered to include stairwells that ran from top to bottom. And whoever designed it may have meant to do it too.
Meade coughed. “I’ve noticed they’re sending more troops towards you,” she added. “They may be trying to cover for something.”
“Like Singh’s escape,” Jasmine said.
She thought, fast. The gates were sealed, covered by local forces. Admiral Singh would be shot down like a dog if she showed her face there. And there were no tunnels, according to the locals. But Admiral Singh might just be trying to sneak out. How? One of the other exits would be her best bet, perhaps ...
Admiral Singh won’t be alone, Jasmine thought. She’d done close-protection duty during her stint on Han. She’ll have a team of bodyguards. How would they try to get her out?
Her mind raced. Not the rear exit, she told herself. That’s too obvious. They’d go for one of the side exits. And w
e’ve had more attacks coming at us from the east.
She tongued her mouthpiece. “Colonel, we’re moving to cover the east side,” she said. The locals didn't have a hope of breaking in, unless they used a cracker of their own. “The target might be going out that way.”
“Understood,” Colonel Stalker said. “We’re moving in on the command centre now. Good luck.”
***
“Now,” Ed said.
There was a shattering explosion. The solid metal doors blasted inwards, revealing a giant command and control centre. Ed hurried forward, rifle at the ready. The men and women inside were standing against the far wall, their hands where he could see them. Clearly, they’d decided to surrender as quickly as possible. A dead body - a middle-aged woman - lay on the ground, blood leaking from her forehead. There was no sign of Admiral Singh.
He swept the room, matching names and faces to the files stored in his suit’s database. A handful of senior officers, all part of Admiral Singh’s inner circle; five younger operators, all clearly terrified. Ed didn't really blame them. The operators had nothing to fear from the marines, as long as they behaved themselves, but they knew what the locals would do. Ed had heard more than enough horrific reports to know that handing any prisoners over to the locals would be nothing more than execution by proxy.
“Contact your fleet,” he ordered, once the room was secure. “Order it to surrender.”
An older man - Commodore Bradbury, according to the files - stared at him wildly. “But ...”
“You’ll be taken into our custody if you behave,” Ed told him. Bradbury might be dumped on a penal world - or turned into an indent - but he wouldn't be executed out of hand. “If you don’t ...”
Bradbury sagged. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll send the orders.”
Ed nodded. “Where is she?”
“She left,” a bitter voice said. Ed turned to see a young woman, leaning against the wall. “I ... she just left us.”
“I see,” Ed said. “Tell me ... are you really surprised?”
There was no answer. He hadn't expected one. Instead, he detailed marines to take the prisoners into custody and secure the enemy computer network. If they were lucky, Admiral Singh was still using it, allowing them to track her down easily. If not ... Admiral Singh’s fleet and the remaining loyalists were already receiving orders to surrender. She could run, she could hide ... but she couldn't regain control of the planet. She’d never be a threat again.
And if she runs straight into local hands, he thought, she’ll be executed on the spot.
***
Higgs swore. “Admiral, the main network has been subverted,” he said. “I’m crashing it now.”
Rani glanced down at her wristcom, then deactivated the device and dropped it on the floor. It was a danger now, even when powered down. The tiny monitoring chip would be more than enough to lead the enemy to her, now they had the computer network under their control. Higgs might not manage to crash the system before they locked him out ...
The sound of shooting was growing louder. She gritted her teeth as they hurried on, picking their way through a maze of maintenance corridors. There was no way to know where the enemy were or what they were doing, let alone avoid them. She just hoped there was enough confusion outside for them to slip away into the streets, then make their way directly to the spaceport.
“We’ll need to slip into the main corridors here,” Higgs said. He stopped outside a solid metal hatch and glanced at his men. “Be ready - anyone not one of us is a potential enemy.”
We might be shooting our own people, Rani thought. But it didn't matter. They’d betrayed her. They’d all betrayed her. All that matters is getting out.
The pistol felt slippery in her hand. But she held it tightly, bracing herself.
“Now,” Higgs said. The hatch crashed open. “Move!”
***
Jasmine heard the sound as she slipped down the corridor towards the exit and forced herself to move faster. The enemy attacks had dropped off completely, suggesting ... what? That they were running out of manpower or that they were hoping to make a break for it? The command datanet was down, spelling the end of the fight. Anyone left alive would know that the battle was over. The marines had won.
Not quite, she told herself. Admiral Singh is still free.
She rounded the corner and jerked up her weapon. Five men - no, six - moving with the easy precision of trained bodyguards, surrounding a tall dark-skinned woman. Jasmine had never laid eyes on Admiral Singh before, but she knew the enemy commander as surely as she knew her own name. The surge of sudden hatred she felt was overpowering. She could understand why Admiral Singh would want to seize power for herself, but not unleash a war that had already killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
“STOP,” she barked. “THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!”
***
Rani barely had a second to realise that they’d been caught before Higgs shoved her hard, sending her falling to the floor. She crawled forwards as her bodyguards started shooting, a brief splutter of fire that ended with their dead bodies falling around her. Rani glanced back and saw Higgs die, the marines running forward at terrifying speed. She rolled over, lifting her pistol, only to have it knocked out of her hand by an armoured gauntlet. A marine hauled her to her feet, searched her roughly and then wrapped a plastic tie around her hands. Rani kicked out, but it was futile. The armour was too strong.
“Got you,” a voice said. “Hold still.”
Rani saw the stunner. And then the world went black.
***
Jasmine looked down at Admiral Singh’s limp body and shook her head, torn between relief that it was over and an odd kind of disappointment. The end of the war was a good thing, but ... part of her knew she’d miss it. She’d been a marine for so long that she couldn't imagine a life outside the military. There would be other challenges, she told herself, firmly. Some of them wouldn't put so many lives at risk, too.
She tongued her mouthpiece. “Colonel, we have Singh,” she said. “It’s over.”
“Very good,” Colonel Stalker said. “Hold position. We’ll escort you out once we have the entire building under control.”
Jasmine nodded. Admiral Singh was the prize. Everyone would want her. Mouganthu and the other directors would want to kill her personally, while the Commonwealth would want to put her on trial on Avalon before sending her to her death. Corinthian, too, would have a claim on Admiral Singh’s life. Or ... Jasmine had the feeling that the diplomats were going to be very busy, sorting out just who had the right to execute the former admiral.
And there’ll be a big crowd to witness the execution, she though, remembering the captured bandits on Avalon. They’d been publicly hung, just to make it clear that the rules were different now. The planetary council had been horrified, but the public had loved it. We should sell tickets.
She pushed the thought aside as more updates flashed up in her HUD. The fortress’s remaining defenders had surrendered, the starships and orbital fortresses were being secured ... the war was effectively over. Admiral Singh’s reinforcements, in the end, had turned out to be nothing but drones. A trick, one that had backfired spectacularly. The remaining outposts - the fleets and garrisons - would have to be rounded up, but that wouldn't take too long. She just hoped that none of the enemy commanders decided to turn pirate.
“It’s over,” Stewart said, as Platoon Six appeared. “Now the real work begins.”
Jasmine nodded, then picked Admiral Singh’s limb body off the ground and slung it over her armoured shoulder. “We’ll get her to the shuttles,” she said. Admiral Singh felt slight, as if she was too small to have caused so much trouble. “And then we can relax.”
“For now,” Stewart said.
“For now,” Jasmine agreed.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“It’s time,” Colonel Stalker said.
Rani rose, not bothering to offer any resistance as the marines cuffe
d her hands and shackled her feet. She’d never had any doubt of her eventual fate, after she’d woken up in a cell. The only real question had been just who would have the pleasure of executing her and now, it seemed, the question had been answered. She would die on Wolfbane, like so many others.
She felt numb as she shuffled out of the cell, as if she was past caring about her life. She’d done everything in her power to seize power for herself, only to realise - too late - that she had mounted a tiger. She had never believed she had a choice, not after her former superior had destroyed her career because she wouldn't give in to him. The universe was divided into victims and victimisers and, if she had to choose, she’d be a victimiser. It was unpleasant - she acknowledged as much - but it was safer. The meek and powerless did not inherit the universe.
The trial had been nothing more than a formality. She hadn't been permitted to speak, merely forced to listen to a long list of charges. Some of them had been laughable, but others had been deadly serious. She wouldn't have bothered to mount a defence if they had allowed her to speak, even when she’d been accused of rounding up young men and keeping them in a personal harem. There had been no hope of any other outcome, but death. That had been clear to her from the start. She was too great a symbol of the former regime to be allowed to live.
Wolf's Bane (The Empire's Corps Book 14) Page 39