‘No jokes this time, heretic,’ said Ralan. He tightened his hold around Scabbs’s neck. ‘Come down now or I kill your friend.’
‘I don’t think you want to do that,’ said Kal. ‘He won’t be much of a shield when he’s dead. You kill him then I kill you.’
‘Then we just stay here while the Cardinal handles his business and then go our separate ways.’
Kal seemed to consider the words. He twisted around on the ladder and hooked one arm through a rung. His other hand brushed away the strands of hair that dangled around his face. ‘I don’t have time for this,’ he said. ‘Foot or groin?’
Scabbs could feel the arm around his neck slacken a little and Ralan pulled the weapon away from his head to point it at Kal. ‘I don’t understand,’ said the deacon.
‘Fine,’ said Kal. ‘I’ll let Scabbs choose.’ He stared right into Scabbs’s eyes and nodded. ‘Now!’
Scabbs pounded the soft arch of Ralan’s foot with his heel and slammed his elbow into the deacon’s groin. The deacon’s gun erupted as Scabbs dropped to the side. At the same time, he heard a laspistol blast whip past his ear.
After he hit the ground, Scabbs looked up to see Ralan crumpled on the ground with a neat, round hole burned through his forehead. He glanced at Kal, who simply holstered his weapon and shrugged.
‘Him or us,’ said Kal. ‘Not a tough choice, really.’ He began climbing again, adding over his shoulder, ‘Get his weapon. Go help your people.’
Scabbs picked up the weapon, but was thrown from his feet by a massive explosion. Worried about Kal, he looked at the ladder. It cracked in half and fell to the ground. Kal was nowhere to be seen.
He turned back toward the miracle body and saw Arliana’s still form draped over it. He didn’t know what had happened. Perhaps Ralan had got her. Maybe the explosion. Either way, it was obvious she had died protecting the miracle. Now it was Scabbs’s turn. He screamed a guttural, primal cry and ran back into the fray.
‘There’s weapons fire coming from the dome, Mr Tavis, sir,’ said the sergeant.
‘Well don’t just stand there,’ said Tavis. ‘Deploy your men. I want that dome cleared by nightfall. If it moves, kill it.’
‘But we have men in there as well, sir.’
‘You heard my orders, sergeant.’ Tavis grabbed the guard by the shoulders and twisted him around. ‘I want my dome cleansed, top to bottom!’ He gave the guard a shove down the tunnel and followed a few moments later once the squad had moved through the hatch.
Inside was bedlam. Tavis had expected a minor uprising between guards and slaves. What he saw was a war – a war with several armies and at least two fronts. And were those Goliaths in his dome? ‘What in Helmawr’s name is going on here?’ called Tavis. Nobody answered.
‘Secure this area,’ called the sergeant. ‘Form a phalanx and drive a wedge through those Goliaths. Cut their forces in half and surround them.’
Tavis was impressed with the sergeant. It was too bad he’d probably have to ship him off to the slave mines after this. He couldn’t afford to have anyone left who had seen the supposed miracle body.
The squad dropped several grenades into the middle of the Goliaths, creating a huge explosion that rocked the ground. Those Goliaths not blown off their feet were staggered by the concussive force. The sergeant led the charge into the middle of the gang, shooting in a cross pattern to drive those left standing to the sides.
In a matter of minutes, the Goliaths had been separated into two groups, and once the squad linked up with the remaining Guilder guards on the other side, both groups were bound on two sides with the dome wall pressed up against their flanks.
Tavis jogged down the widening corridor. ‘Excellent work, sergeant,’ he called as he ran past. ‘Now to see what can be done about those blasted slaves. Ander, bring your men. I will need your help.’
‘Yes sir,’ said the Orlock ganger. ‘Time to cut the tail off that little rat for good.’
Crimson slapped a bony hand on Francks’s chest to hold him down. He balled the other hand into a fist and smacked Francks in the face. It felt like getting hit by stack of razors. The sharp edges of Crimson’s knuckles cut into his cheek. He pulled his hand back and punched again. Francks could feel trickles of blood run down his face into his ear.
Crimson struck again. Francks’s head rocked to the side into the dirt. Another blow followed and another. It was like a constant barrage of rocks falling during a hivequake, but there was no pain. Just a dull thud ringing in his ears as blow after blow rained down on him. Francks smiled.
‘What are you smiling at?’ asked Crimson as he continued pounding Francks. ‘You enjoying this, you sick pervert? You like pain?’ The sharp edge to his voice bordered on shrill as he shrieked at Francks.
‘You can’t hurt me anymore,’ said Francks in between punches. ‘You’ve caused a lot of pain in your life, Ignus. But your time is coming. The Universe knows what you are, and soon the world will know, too.’
Crimson grabbed Francks around the neck with both hands and squeezed. The skeletal fingers dug into his flesh like a knotted rope. Crimson’s face was a patchwork of bright red skin stretched across bleached white bones and teeth. Francks felt like he was looking into the face of death. He laughed at the image, which enraged the Cardinal even further.
‘No one laughs at me,’ he screamed. ‘Least of all a heretical witch. Prepare for your redemption, wyrd. Your laughter will echo all the way to the bottom of the acid pools.’
‘I am ready for redemption,’ said Francks. He could draw no breath, but could still speak. ‘I am at peace with the Universe. It is you who must prepare. Your trials are just beginning.’
‘Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!’ screamed Crimson.
‘Look at those people down there, Ignus,’ said Francks. ‘They have seen the miracle of the body. They will soon see you for the murdering little gangster you really are. Are you prepared for your own redemption? Because it is coming and now there is no way for you to stop it. You can’t kill everyone.’
‘Oh, can’t I?’ said Crimson. The Cardinal stood while holding onto his neck, dragging Francks to his feet. With surprising strength, Crimson lifted him off the ground. Francks let his feet dangle in the air. His moment was near. There was no stopping it now. No use fighting anymore. His pattern was nearing completion.
Crimson glared up into Francks’s milky-white eyes as he held the taller man in the air. ‘At the end of the day, I will still be Cardinal Crimson, and you will have joined Bowdie in death. Then we’ll see who is laughing.’
Francks smiled again. He could feel the light of Bowdie warming his back and limning his head. ‘I won’t argue with you, Ignus,’ he said. ‘Syris always said, “Never argue with a crazy person.” But you couldn’t bury Bowdie and you can’t bury the truth. We will rise up to defeat you. The truth will be my redemption and your downfall.’
Crimson moved one hand to Francks’s groin and lifted him over his head. He turned toward the edge of the pit. ‘You pathetic old man,’ he said. ‘The truth is over-rated. People don’t want truth. They want carnage. They crave excitement to give their miserable lives some meaning. They want death… as long as it’s someone else’s and they can watch it happen. I will win in the end for I am Cardinal Crimson, and I can give them exactly what they want. You can’t stop me. Nobody can.’
‘I believe I can,’ said Kal Jerico.
‘What in the Spire has happened here?’ asked Yolanda. She came to a screeching halt as soon as she entered the dome, and then backed up to the dome portal to get a better look.
Themis stood next to her in the doorway. ‘I thought you said it was just a few Guilder guards and some Orlocks.’
‘It was,’ she said. ‘Just a few hours ago. Now it’s a war zone.’ She scanned the worksite, looking for Scabbs, but there was simply too much confusion. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘All I needed was to get the Guilder’s men out of the way long enough to get my friend. Well, mission accomplish
ed. Take the ’Cats and get out now before we all get drawn into this war. I think I can make my way through the chaos.’
Themis pointed to the group fighting to their right. ‘Isn’t that our friend, Gonth?’ she asked.
Yolanda wiped her dreadlocks away from her eye to take a closer look. ‘I think it is,’ she said.
An evil smirk played across Themis’s face as her eyes lit up. ‘You go get your friend. We’ve got a score to settle with that Goliath.’
Yolanda returned her friend’s smile. ‘Go get ’em, girl,’ she said. ‘But keep your back to the door and don’t get squeezed.’
As Themis and the Wildcats moved off to flank the Goliaths, Yolanda took a deep breath and ran through the lane between the two battles. She’d almost made it to the far end of the Guilder line when the leader stepped in front of her.
‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded.
This situation required skills Yolanda loathed to use, and yet she knew it would work all too well. She rolled her shoulders back slightly and turned and tilted her head to the side. The effect of which was to accentuate her long neck and raise her breasts up just slightly in her skin-tight vest. She curled one lip up to give the guard a sly smile.
‘Me and my girls are here to help,’ she said. Yolanda turned her head to glance back toward the three-way battle, making sure her hair flipped around her face as she moved. When she looked back at the guard, she wet her lips. ‘Do you suppose there might be a reward?’
‘There, um, might be,’ said the guard. He was totally mesmerised. His eyes had focused well below Yolanda’s face and his mouth hung open slightly. Yolanda felt herself hating men for being so easily manipulated and hating herself for sinking to the level of one of Kal’s barmaids.
‘Well, why don’t you go help them,’ suggested Yolanda, ‘and then we can discuss my reward later.’ With this last line, Yolanda reached out and stroked the guard’s cheek with a finger.
‘Um, okay,’ said the guard and he moved off, somewhat reluctantly, glancing back at Yolanda several times as he walked down the line.
She waved at him. ‘You might want to help Themis,’ called Yolanda. ‘She just loves a man in uniform.’ Yolanda watched the guard for a moment longer, realising that even if Themis didn’t kill him, she’d probably just lost any chance at that reward.
‘Oh well,’ she said. ‘It was worth the price.’ She jogged off to find Scabbs. That was a man she could understand. He was a disgusting little rodent, which didn’t differentiate him from most men, but he had simple needs: food, shelter, delousing. Yolanda shuddered and decided that after this bounty she needed to find new friends.
‘Come on, girls,’ called Themis. ‘We have a date with destiny.’ She pulled the ripcord on her chainsword and turned toward Gonth and the Goliaths. ‘Fate brought us to this dome. Vengeance will carry us home again.’
‘Orders, ma’am?’ asked Lysanne. She pulled at the bandages around her hand and jammed a plasma pistol in amongst the linen.
‘If it growls,’ said Themis, ‘shoot it. Avoid grenades if possible. We can’t afford to harm the guilders. If any ’Cats come through this, I don’t want a bounty on our heads.’
‘But don’t be afraid to use the Guilder’s men as shields,’ added Lysanne with a smile.
‘That’s why you’re my second,’ said Themis. ‘You’re always thinking.’ She turned to her gang. ‘For the fallen,’ she cried.
‘For the fallen,’ replied the Wildcats.
Themis revved her chainsword and strode into the dome. As she and the ’Cats worked their way around behind the battle, a guilder guard came running up to them.
‘Ladies,’ he called. ‘Hey! Girls!’
Themis stopped and glared at the approaching guard. ‘Did you say, “girls”?’ she asked.
The guard smiled a broad, stupid, male smile. ‘I heard you might need some help,’ he said. ‘Well, you girls stick with me and I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.’
Themis licked her lips and smiled back. ‘You’ll make sure we don’t get hurt,’ she said.
The guard nodded.
‘Well, who’s going to keep you from getting hurt?’
Themis looked down at her rumbling chainsword. The guard glanced down as well, and his smile faded. With his attention on the sword, Themis snapped her leg up and out, kicking the guard a few centimetres below his belt. He fell to the ground, groaning.
‘Come on, girls,’ said Themis. ‘And remember what Lysanne said about using the guards as shields.’
Up ahead, Yolanda saw another three-way battle. Scabbs and his slave pals were caught between Redemptionists and a group of advancing Orlocks. There were a lot more slaves than she remembered – and many of them were better dressed than the average slave – but they were completely outgunned. And Scabbs seemed out of it. He sat by a couple of bodies lying upon some stones.
‘Time to even the odds a little,’ said Yolanda as she pulled out her laspistols. She let loose with a volley of blasts that hit the ground in front of the Orlocks. They stopped advancing and scattered, diving behind whatever cover they could find nearby.
She kicked over an ore cart and ducked behind it. ‘Scabbs?’ she called out. ‘You armed?’
Three blasts hit the other side of the steel cart and bounced off after she spoke. A moment later, Scabbs called back. ‘Yolanda? Is that you?’
‘What kind of stupid question is that, you son of a ratskin?’
Scabbs didn’t even reply. No sarcasm. Not even any pouting. Something must be really wrong with the little man. Two more shots clanged off her ersatz shield. Yolanda knew she had to return fire soon or the Orlocks would move to flank her. The last two shots had come from her left so she rolled left and fired right. As she suspected, the gangers on the left had taken cover again, but she caught one sticking his head up on the right and plugged him in the shoulder.
‘If you have a weapon, Scabbs, I could use a little help here,’ she said as she scrambled back behind the cart. ‘It’s called a cross fire. But it only works if you fire as well. Whatever’s wrong, push it down for now. Focus on the problem at hand. That’s how you stay alive.’
Another volley of shots ricocheted off the cart followed by a single shot that came nowhere near her.
‘I got one,’ yelled Scabbs. ‘I got one.’
‘Great,’ said Yolanda. She thought he sounded a little too happy about it, but people dealt with pain in many ways. ‘Gloat less. Shoot more.’ She rolled to the right and saw one of the gangers repositioning to get cover from Scabbs. She fired twice, hitting him in the leg and foot. He dropped to the ground and screamed. The odds were definitely getting better.
As Yolanda rolled back to safety, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye right before running into a boot. She looked up into the barrel of a pistol. At the other end of the weapon stood the Orlock ganger who’d kidnapped Scabbs. He was smiling.
‘Don’t even try it,’ he said. ‘Drop the pistols and maybe you live long enough to know the pleasure of Ander.’
Themis and Lysanne had worked their way around the guilder line, leaving the rest of the Wildcats behind their walking shields to provide cover fire. Working in tandem, the duo had already taken down two Goliaths.
Lysanne would light them up with a ball of plasma in the chest. This did little more than stun the hulking behemoths, but it gave Themis time to close to melee with her chainsword. Even with blades rotating at thousands of revolutions per minute, the chainsword would have trouble cutting through tough Goliath muscle, and their underlying bones were like bars of steel.
Themis didn’t bother going for the vital organs in the chest or stomach. She aimed a little lower. One quick slash through a Goliath’s loin cloth dropped them to the ground in a whimpering heap. It was then an easy matter to kick their weapons out of reach and leave them curled up in a ball in the dirt.
They made their way toward the next Goliath in line. Luckily, the Guilders and the ’Cats prov
ided enough distraction that their infiltration hadn’t been detected yet. Themis nodded at Lysanne. ‘Now,’ she said.
Lysanne grabbed her bandaged wrist to steady the plasma pistol and fired, but as she moved in behind the ball of plasma, a huge explosion rocked the dome behind them, knocking both ’Cats to the ground. Lysanne looked back through the guilder line to see a fireball erupt into the air.
‘What happened?’ called Themis.
‘Looks like someone in that other Goliath battle didn’t get your message about not using grenades.’ Lysanne rested on her good hand and pushed herself up to her knees.
The ground beneath them shook again. Dust rained down on them from the dome ceiling. Both women stayed on the ground.
‘One more blast like that and this whole place will come down on our heads,’ said Themis.
But Lysanne had other problems to worry about. As she struggled back to her knees, the Goliath she had shot reared above her. She raised her plasma pistol, but he slapped it away with a big, meaty hand. He kicked her in the chest, sending her flying back several metres. She landed on her back with a spine jarring crack.
The world around her went fuzzy. She shook her head to try to clear the gathering fog in her vision. The Goliath strode toward her, pulling out a shotgun and pumping a shell as he approached. Laser blasts and bullets slapped him in the chest and arms, but didn’t slow him down.
Then, behind the Goliath, Lysanne saw something even worse. Gonth had appeared from out of the smoke and dust. With a single, massive hand, he grabbed Themis and lifted her off the ground by the throat. His other hand held her arm out to the side. With a quick flip, he snapped her wrist, and the chainsword fell from her grasp. It jumped and flipped on the ground.
Gonth looked over at Lysanne and the Goliath standing above her. ‘Kill her,’ said the Grak gang’s new leader. ‘Kill them all. This one I’ll take home for a little fun.’
The Goliath lowered the barrel of the shotgun and pointed it at Lysanne’s face.
‘Do not presume to meddle in my work, heretic,’ yelled Crimson over his shoulder. ‘After I cast down this witch, I will turn my attention on you. Leave now and your redemption might be commuted… for a while.’
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