Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2)

by Adrian D. Roberts

  She let him go and turned to the Spartans. “OK, I counted twenty-one dead and our friend here. That leaves eight. Anyone got anything different?”

  “No, Valerie.” Briseis replied with a firm shake of her head. “You are correct in your count.”

  “Good, we’ve got eight guards through that door who are going to be ready for us. I’m point, you three back me up. Todd,” she turned to the Rebel guard. “Are the nerve bands turned off?” she held her own wrist up for emphasis and he shook his head. “Can you do that before those outside realise what’s going on?”

  “Yeah, I can do that,” he turned to the console. “You hit us so fast, no one had the chance to hit their panic buttons.” Todd’s fingers punching the buttons in front of him as he talked. “Done. Only this floor, though.”

  “That’s fine, now you’re going to open that door on my command.” He nodded furiously and turned back to the console. “Alright, ladies, let’s do this.” Valerie crouched down to one side of the door. The Spartans moved expertly into positions around it to take them out of the line of fire.

  “On my mark, Todd. Three, two, one, mark!” Todd was quick and the door slid open right on her last word. Mag rounds came careening through. Valerie waited a couple of seconds for the shots to stop. The person behind the gun made the mistake of emptying her clip before seeing a target. With a rough idea of her target’s location, from the angle of the shots, Valerie dove through the door.

  A guard stood frantically trying to reload his pistol in the middle of the corridor. The burst from Valerie’s Pulse rifle took him squarely in the chest. It blasted him back off his feet. Another guard began to come out of a doorway behind. The flying body sent him tumbling to the ground. Before he could recover, Valerie’s second burst ripped into his side. The angle was awkward and it wasn’t enough to kill him. He wouldn’t be getting up any time soon, though. Valerie ran forward, her eyes scanning for targets.

  It didn’t take long to winkle out the remaining guards. Only the first two were up for a fight. The others scattered and tried to hide. They surrendered when they found hiding from Valerie and three Spartan warriors was not a possibility. The only way in or out of the floor was through the single lift shaft. A failsafe had activated and a blast door was now sealing the entrance, stopping the prisoners from leaving. It wasn’t the strongest such door Valerie had come across, but it was enough to stop them. A quick search revealed nothing able to cut through it. As a precaution, Valerie left two of the Spartans with their rifles pointing at the door and headed back to the Guardroom.

  Quin was in there studying the monitors when Valerie arrived. Picking two of the prisoners who held rifles from the gun racks, Valerie pointed back the way she had come.

  “You two. There are six guards out there. Get them stripped of their armour and secure them in one of the offices. Make sure you clear out the room first.” The two women looked at her a little wide-eyed before nodding. “Oh, if any harms come to them, you answer to me. Understood?” Valerie finished firmly and from their expressions, she knew they had gotten the message.

  “What can we see, Quin?” Valerie asked the rebel.

  “You were right. All hades is breaking loose out there.”

  “Just before you attacked,” Todd said from where he stood next to Quin. “We got a message the prison was under attack and would be boarded.” He’d had a bit of time to gather himself and looked less in shock than before.

  “What were your instructions?” Valerie asked.

  “Secure our floor, hole up and wait for back up.”

  “As far as we can tell,” Quin said. “That’s what they did on all the other floors, but we can’t be sure. Someone has been smart and cut us out of their com net. Todd can’t even talk to any of the other floors. The lifts have been shut down. I think they plan to just leave us here until things get sorted out.”

  Valerie nodded in agreement. “It makes sense. They’ve also dropped a blast door over the lift entrance. Todd, is there any cutting equipment here we can use?”

  He shook his head. “No, it’s all kept up on the admin floor, at the top of the wing. If prisoners do overpower the guards, the plan was to seal the floor to stop them getting out.”

  “OK, we’ll leave that for the moment. I need to know what’s going on first. What exactly did they say to you about the attack?”

  “Here, I’ll play it for you. This came from Captain Percival. She’s our shift’s head of security.” He tapped some commands on his armour’s wristcomp and it played the recorded voice clearly.

  “What does that tell us?” Quin asked. “It must be the Rebellion. Who else could be doing this?”

  “An enemy of unknown capabilities...” Valerie said quietly and smiled.

  “What?” Quin asked.

  “What have the Rebellion got that could crack open the Rock?”

  The woman shook her head. “I don’t know, it’s not my area. They wouldn’t tell me before sending me in here.”

  “From your description of the defences, they would need a battleship. I doubt you’ve got one of them squirreled away.”

  “Are you saying it’s not the Rebellion?” Todd asked.

  Valerie shook her head. “Not exactly. I think one of my friends is out there, though I would love to know who’s doing the flying. Can we get any signal from outside the Rock?”

  It was Quin’s turn to shake her head. “Not with the coms the guards have and nothing in this lot,” she waved to the monitoring equipment, “includes coms.”

  “We’re connected to the central computer though, surely.”

  “We would be if it wasn’t completely locked out.”

  “It was the first thing to go down,” Todd clarified. “I was in here when it all started. The lockdown kicked in sealing Wing Five, that’s the crew quarters, and then everything else went. We’ve only got local control. Nothing outside this floor will talk to us.”

  “How did they shut the lifts down?” Valerie asked.

  “The simplest way possible,” Quin explained. “They unplugged it.”

  “OK, then. That leaves us safe but cut off. Let’s see if we can open up communication to the attackers. Do we have a message board we can access?”

  “I don’t know,” she looked over to Todd. “Do you have anything like that?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, the gaming systems have those.”

  “Bring it up.” Valerie ordered.

  Stepping in, Todd tapped in a few commands and a menu of games came up on the screen, many of them Valerie recognised from those the prisoners were issued on their datapads.

  “Which one do you want to use?” he asked.

  “It doesn’t matter, any of them will do.”

  “OK,” he shrugged and a text box popped up on the screen in front of him.

  “Good, now I need you to type this. ‘It could be Sneaker, but my money’s on Hanna. How about you let me in on the plan?’”

  “Come on, Valerie.” Quin said as Todd typed the message in. “Even if that’s one of your people out there, they’ll never be able to notice two sentences in all that data.”

  “Three years ago, I would have agreed with you, but you haven’t seen these people do what they do best.”

  The screen in front of them blanked and flashed a bright pink before reverting to all black. In simple white text were the words:

  It’s Hanna, who else? Valerie, only you would manage to break out of a maximum security prison before we got to you. You’ll never guess who’s heading your way though.

  “Who in hades are these people?” Quin asked and Valerie smiled.

  ***

  Red lights flashed and alarms sounded all around Button. He smiled inside his helmet. Was there anything the kid couldn’t do? “Crew quarters are sealed, Hanna has control of the sensors and camera’s.” Lieutenant Saito said over the com and Button’s smile got a little wider. Evidently not, he thought as the Lieutenant continued. “She has confirmed Major Carter’s l
ocation in Wing Six, Level three. Button and Wester, get those doors open. We’ll be right behind you.”

  “Copy, Lieutenant.” Stealth was now a thing of the past. He rose from his position and charged towards the blast doors. With a flex of a muscle in his left arm he engaged the Plasma Cannon attached. Wester was right beside him, with her Plasma aimed at the door in front. At twenty metres they both opened fire. White balls of heat and energy shot forward and hit the thick metal in the centre. Button and Wester were well briefed on this type of door and each sent a second and third blast into them.

  When they arrived, a hole big enough for even their armoured forms had been melted in the centre. In a well-practised manoeuvre, Wester dropped back enough for Button to leap through the hole dripping with metal, before following him. Landing on the other side, Button cleared the way for Wester as he searched for targets. None could be seen.

  “All clear,” he reported. His armour’s sensors continuing to sweep around them. At his command, a schematic of his area of the Rock came up on his HUD, showing Alpha team’s location. They were underneath the shuttle bay situated at the top of Wing Five. To get to Wing Six they would have to use the lift shafts connecting the two wings. As part of the lockdown, Hanna shutdown the power to all inter-wing lifts, Alpha team would be walking through those tunnels. The shaft they needed was accessible a little further along from their entry point.

  In the other direction, Button could see the massive doors Hanna’s activation of the lockdown caused to lock into place. They would not be easy to re-open. The Plasma cannon on his arm would not be strong enough to burn through, even if they combined all five of their fire power.

  Alpha team were the first to arrive and were ahead of the Helos carrying the rest of the Company. The plan was for them to secure Wing Six’s shuttle bay in preparation for the Company’s arrival. To enter the wing itself, to free the prisoners, they would need to enter via the shuttle bay, go across the top of the wing, through the administration area and back down the other side. They expected the heaviest resistance to be in that admin area. It would make the most sense for the guards not caught in the lockdown, to stand their ground there.

  Lieutenant Saito and the other two caught up. He waved for Button to continue on point. None of the remaining doors were locked and Button stalked down the corridor. They were thinner than the one they left. There was plenty of room to move on his own, but it would be difficult for one of the others to walk next to him. They proceeded along in single file.

  An icon flashed on his HUD. “I’ve got life signs, LT. I’m checking it out,” he reported.

  “Copy that. Wester, back him up,” the Lieutenant ordered.

  “On it, LT.” Wester’s signal moved up closer behind Button, ready to assist him if needed. The door opened easily to his touch and, with his Plasma Cannon leading the way, he stepped through. He wouldn’t actually use the Plasma, the twin Pulse guns on his wrist would be more than sufficient.

  The room was a mixed sex toilet. Stalls with closed doors ran down one side, with sinks on the other. His HUD easily identified three life signs hiding in the last three stalls. Button concentrated to keep the laughter from his voice and switched on his external speakers.

  “I can see the three of you in here. Step out of the stalls or I will open fire on my count of three. One, two.” At the very moment he began the t of two, all three stall doors slid open. Two men and a woman tumbled out.

  They got a good look at Button’s wide, matt black, hulking shape. He had disengaged his armours camouflage system, when he had charged the blast door, so they got to see him in plain sight. One of the men took one look and threw up all over the floor. Fortunately none of it splattered onto Button’s mechanical boots, the other two weren’t so lucky.

  “Don’t kill us. Please!” the woman begged and the second man wasn’t far behind her.

  Button let them get it out of their system for a moment before raising his arm and directing his guns away from them.

  “Is there anyone else in this area? Any guards?” he asked.

  “No, no one. Just us. We were down here running maintenance when the lockdown started. We thought the prisoners had escaped and hid here!” The woman explained.

  The man who emptied his stomach on the floor and was now on his hands and knees looked up. “Are you here to rescue us?”

  Again Button tried to keep the laughter out of his voice. For these people it really wasn’t funny, but there was a certain irony to him being here. Normally it would be exactly what Shadow Company would be doing.

  “No. We’re here to rescue the prisoners.” Their faces went even paler than they already were. A thought occurred to him. “Is there a way to get to Level three of Wing Six from here without going through the wing’s shuttle bay?”

  The man and woman who were still standing, looked at one another and then back at Button. He leaned in a little to add some menace. They backed away hurriedly and the man on the floor looked like he was going to be sick again.

  “Yes,” the woman answered. “There’s a conduit shaft going all the way down to the bottom of this wing. Down there, you’ll be able to find a maintenance tunnel running to Wing Six. If you follow it through, it will take you to the main lift banks. From there you have access to every level.”

  “What do you mean by the shaft?” Button asked and shifted his arm down slightly to increase the level of menace he was projecting.

  The woman got the message and held her hands up in front of her as she cowered further back. “D, don’t shoot!” she said hurriedly. “The lifts here don’t go down that far, only the shaft. It’s too narrow for them and it’s used as a utilities trunk only.”

  “Show me,” he told her and projected the holomap procured by the Rebellion in front of them.

  The woman pointed to the lift tunnels the team were planning to use and indicated an off-shoot. On their plan, it didn’t go anywhere. “It’s just here. You’ve got a general schematic, rather than the maintenance version, so it’s not showing.”

  “Good, throw your wristcomps on the floor in front of me.” They complied and his armoured foot crushed them into smithereens. “I’m going to seal the door. Stay here and you’ll be safe enough,” he ordered. The door slid shut behind him and a small plasma torch, which flipped out of his right wrist, stopped it from opening again.

  “Good work.” The Lieutenant congratulated him. His armour had relayed the entire conversation to the rest of the team. “Change of plan. We’ll go straight for the Major. Get us to the shaft, Button.”

  “Yes, sir,” he responded.

  Around the corner sat the nearest entrance. All of the cars were scattered up and down the shafts, none were in their way. The doors opened easily with a little encouragement from Button’s powered muscles. Inside it was pitch black, with no light sources in the tunnels. It did not matter with their armour’s night vision and sensor capability. What Button saw on the screen in front of his face, gave him a perfect view of every facet of the tunnel around him. He led them to the point the woman indicated. The conduit shaft was right where she said it would be.

  With Button in the lead, the team jumped down the shaft, using grav-belts built into the armour to descend. The trip down was a smooth one. A release on the door at the bottom allowed him to open it without resorting to force. Ahead of him ran a long straight corridor, just as the woman said. Wester was right behind him. They stepped out in a defensive formation while the rest of the team arrived.

  “Chao!” Hanna’s voice said over his com. “You’re not going to believe this. Valerie’s escaped and has taken control of her floor.”

  “Excellent news, Hanna. You really should be talking to Lieutenant Saito, though,” he chided her gently.

  “Oh, to lightning with that. He’s never met her.” Hanna replied indignantly and Button couldn’t help but smile. No matter what she did, there was something very likeable about that girl. Just about everyone in the Company were looking aft
er her and Deni like they were their kid sisters.

  “He’s still in charge. I’m putting you through to him now. LT, I’ve got Hanna on the line.”

  A slightly sulky Hanna repeated her message to him. “Can you get us a com link to her?” the Lieutenant asked.

  “No, the only coms they have are from the guards,” she answered. “They’ve all been shut down. It’s some sort of failsafe in case the prisoners get hold of them. Someone in that wing is thinking on their feet.”

  “Agreed. Get that information through to Sergeant Major Bickerstaff on Helo One. It’ll mean he could be meeting organised resistance.”

  “Already done, Michio.” Button could hear the delight in Hanna’s tone as she used the Lieutenant’s name. He might have to point out to her she was actually allowed to do that. Though her place in the Alliance was loose at best, her seniority in the organisation gave her the authority of a Captain. He’d have to wait until the right moment to burst her bubble around that particular rebellious streak.

  “Excellent, Hanna. Saito out. Button, the Major is waiting. Let’s hustle.”

  “Yes, Sir. Hustling now.” Button responded and loped off down the corridor. Wester and the rest of the team behind him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “Five minutes out.” Rush’s voice said over the Helo’s com. Julianna tried to shift her shoulders to ease some of the tension. Her armour and the straps holding her securely in her seat, prevented her from doing so. Instead, she moved her head from side to side. The movement now came naturally to her, unlike when she first donned her armour.

  When they gave her the suit of close fitting Medium Power armour, she stumbled all over the place. It took time to get used to the servo assistance. Hers was a lighter version than the FPB armour used by Shadow Company. It would protect her against all, but the unluckiest hits from a Mag round and most Pulse rounds. The servos doubled her speed, strength and agility and took the most time to learn.

  After Major Forlani’s strict and intensive training, Julianna and all of the Rebel fighters felt confident in their new equipment. That was about to be put to the test. Nerves were affecting her and she wished her cousin was in the Helo with her, rather than out on the Rock with the rest of First Platoon’s Alpha fire team.