by Hal Archer
The guard who'd first seen the approaching vehicles was stopped as he was running back to his post to do what he could from there.
"Wait." A Waudure woman grabbed him by his shoulder as he passed her. "The Elders want to speak to you."
The guard looked at her and at his rifle he'd planned to use from his post.
"Come with me," the woman said.
"Of course."
He followed her through a series of corridors, some of which sloped downward. He knew the Elders met deep down in the caves, where they were secure and undisturbed. He'd never been as close to them as he was getting. Soon, the woman brought him to a door.
"Here. Leave your weapon and enter," she said.
He did as she instructed.
"You have seen them?" The Elder spoke as he entered. He saw the woman standing near the middle of the room. Behind her, seated on the ground, were the other two Elders.
He stopped short of coming up to her. "Yes. At least nine vehicles. Assault vehicles. Coming fast from the north."
He noticed the lack of alarm on her face. A condition quite different from his own.
"When will they arrive?" she asked.
"They'll have to pass the crags that lie in the north. The beasts might slow them slightly, but I'd say an hour. They were moving fast."
"I see."
"They must've known our forces would be away," he said.
"I feared such a thing," the Elder said. "She denies her path."
"Who? What?"
"Never mind," she said. "Go and join the others. Do what you can to slow the Cracians' approach."
"We don't have the numbers to stop them," the guard said.
"Do what I have told you. The Cracians do not belong here. You will not fight them alone. Now, leave us."
The guard nodded and left the room.
As he closed the door, he paused, thinking of what the Elder had said. "We won't fight alone?" He placed his ear against the door. He heard the female Elder speak to the other two.
"We will enjoin them to come to our aid."
He spoke to himself again, "Who?"
Then the guard ran back to take his station to do what he could to slow the Cracian advance.
CHAPTER 32
T he storm whipped about just outside. In the corridor where they stood, Jake and the other four of them girded themselves for what came next, though none of them knew for certain what that would be. The hall stretched long in either direction. It was clean and barren, aside from the dust and debris blowing in through the open wound in the outside wall. Lights ran every ten feet along the ceiling. Jake recognized them as closer to the sort he was used to seeing elsewhere, not the glowing blue crystals the Waudure had.
He peered down the hall to each end. "Which way to the lifts?"
Nadira looked at both options before answering. "I think they're this way." She headed down the path to the right of where they'd entered.
"You heard the lady," Jake said, pulling his blaster out again and following her.
Brun went next. The width of the hall spanned only a few feet, so they moved single file.
Alara held up her pistol, checking the side of it and wiping a spot with the thumb of her other hand. "You go ahead." She gestured, waving the barrel of her weapon at Hanlan then down the hall toward Brun.
"It's alright," Hanlan said, flipping open the bottom portion of his jacket and retrieving a distinctly unusual blaster. The barrel came to twice the length of that carried by Alara, Nadira, or any of them. He reached under his jacket on the opposite side, pulling a small metal cylinder from a pouch affixed to his belt. "From back here," he said, pushing the cylinder into an opening in the back of his gun, "I'll be better able to handle any surprises that come our way."
Alara stared at him, but he only returned the stare. She waited. He didn't move.
Finally, she said, "Suit yourself." Then she went down the hall after Brun.
Hanlan followed her.
Without incident, they traveled down several corridors, following Nadira as she decided each path to take. Then Jake held his arm up, signaling the others behind him to stop, and they did so.
He watched Nadira slowly back up. He could see her effort to step as quietly as possible as she took three steps behind her, moving away from the corner she'd passed.
She turned to him and held up four fingers, then jutted her hand toward the corner. He took that to mean they'd come upon four guards. Since no one was shooting at him or anyone else, he assumed the guards hadn't seen Nadira.
He looked behind him. Brun, Alara, and Hanlan had seen Nadira's pantomime. He brandished his blaster, cuing the others to be ready.
With weapons drawn and trigger fingers primed, they rushed around the corner. The four Cracian High Guards embarrassed themselves at how slowly they reacted to the ambush. Only four shots were fired. The sounds of the blasts echoed down the hall, resonating off the hollow walls.
All the guards lay on the floor, blast burns on their uniforms. Three of them had managed to draw their weapons, but none fired, though Jake saw they would have, given enough time. He wasn't interested in being so generous, nor was anyone else on his team.
Nadira turned to the group. "The next ones will be ready."
"So will we," Jake said. "Let's get to one of those lifts before they have time to call everybody in."
They rushed down two more corridors before coming to one of the elevators that lead down to the central facility level.
Nadira pulled a card from her pocket and passed it over the reader on the wall to open the lift door. It didn't open.
"I don't understand," she said. Then she tried it again, but still nothing happened.
"They must've locked your access out of the system," Brun said.
"No," Nadira said, giving the card one more try. "They wouldn't have known about this one. It isn't mine. I got it long before I left. It should still work."
"They must've shut down the lifts," Jake said. "Maybe because of the Waudure attack. Maybe they heard our shots and locked it down."
Nadira slammed her fist against the wall above the card reader. "We have to get down there!"
"The other lift," Alara said. "You said there were two. We should try the other one."
"She's right," Jake said. "Where is it?"
Nadira, who had been shaking her head and looking at the ground after hitting the wall, looked up. She seemed to collect herself mentally, then she answered. "Farther down this corridor. We take several turns, but the other lift lines up with this one. It's quite a way. We'll pass by several rooms. It's not going to be easy. We're sure to run into more guards."
"It's still our best option," Jake said. "We can't just sit here waiting for them to come after us."
"He's right," Brun said. Then he looked at Alara and Hanlan.
"I'm with you," Alara said, leaning against him, hugging him with one arm.
Jake watched her. She was so convincing, he thought.
You poor bastard.
Hanlan merely gave a nod to the others.
With all on board, they set out. Weapons ready.
It took a while, but no one stopped them. They made it to the other lift. It was easy. No alarms. No Guards. They reached it without incident.
"We got worked up for nothing, I guess," Brun said.
Nadira took out the access card once more.
"Hold on," Jake said. "That was too damn easy.
"What do you propose?" Alara asked.
"Brun," Jake said, "can you shape a charge to blast in only one direction?"
Brun raised one eyebrow. "Can you hit the side of a mountain with your blaster?"
"Ok then." Jake turned to Nadira. "Can we keep the lift from going down long enough for Brun to set something up inside?"
She looked at Brun.
"Thirty seconds," Brun said.
She turned back to Jake. "Yes. I can hold it, but if they realize we've activated it they'll be waiting for us."
> "That's what I'm counting on," Jake said. "Hold on."
He ran a short distance back down the way they'd come and stopped at the first door he came across. Standing off to the side of it, he blasted the hinges. They were metal, like the door, but not nearly as thick as it was. The door fell from the frame, hitting the floor with a loud thud. He picked it up and hustled back to the others.
"What the hell do you have planned?" Nadira asked.
"Trust me," Jake said. "Swipe the card and hold the lift while Brun does his thing."
She did as he asked. Brun got to work, pulling equipment from his pack and one of the two explosive charges left on the strap across his chest.
Everyone stood by watching Brun set up the blast. He was positioning it so that it would go off in the direction of the lift door.
"It'll go off when the door opens again," he said. "I've attached a sensor to it."
The elevator was large enough for ten people, as it was used to transport squads of guards, as well as the other officers and staff of the Cracian base.
After a few seconds of silence, Nadira asked the question. "Why are you holding a door, Jake?"
Brun, not looking up from his work, said, "So we don't die when this thing goes off. It's steel. Should block much of the blowback from the blast."
"Oh, no," Nadira said. "We're not riding down with the bomb, are we?"
"We can't be sure the lift will still be working once that thing goes off," Jake said. "We have to risk it."
"It's ready," Brun said, standing up and tucking away the rest of his gear.
"Right then," Alara said, extending her arm toward the door.
Everyone piled in, Nadira, Hanlan, then Alara. Jake got in last, since he had trouble getting the steel door through the lift opening. He bumped somebody with it, but wasn't sure whom. "Sorry about that. Almost there."
There was some repositioning. All of them settled in behind the door, which Jake braced in front of him. The explosive charge sat on the ground on the other side of the makeshift shield.
"If we're ready then," Nadira said, drawing her blaster. She reached for the button on the inside of the lift, next to the door, just past where Alara stood. She had to stretch. Brun scooted forward to give her room. Then she pressed the button to close the door.
As it began to slide closed, Alara quickly stepped out of the elevator.
"Alara." Brun reached for her, but couldn't get to her in time.
The door shut. The lift started moving.
"What the hell!" Nadira turned toward the door, bumping into Brun with her arm and shoulder.
"That's what I thought," Hanlan said.
"What's she doing?" Jake asked.
Brun stepped out from behind the metal door Jake held.
"Brun!" Nadira swiped her hand to catch his coat as he moved. She couldn't reach him. She, along with Hanlan, were pinned behind Jake and the door.
Brun smacked the button on the wall with his fist. "Come on!"
They felt the elevator settle onto the floor below.
"Get back here," Jake said, still holding the door to shield himself and the others from the impending blast.
The elevator opened, and Jake, his head tilting to the edge of the door he held, caught a glimpse of the Cracian High Guards positioned outside the lift, about ten feet away. He counted twelve of them, but he couldn't be sure. All of them targeting the elevator with their weapons.
The blast went off as the elevator was still opening. Almost all the force escaped the enclosed space, hitting the guards as intended. Powerful, the detonation shredded most of the guards. The delayed smaller explosions of several of the guards' weapons, each fitted with high-energy capacitors, took out the few guards that didn't die from the primary blast.
Jake's hands, holding the sides of the metal door shield, burned. He let go of it, though the metal barrier stayed upright. Then it smacked him in the face and pushed him back against Hanlan and Nadira.
Unfortunately, some of the blast hadn't made it out of the lift door, which wasn't yet fully open when the bomb went off. Aside from the burns on his hands and his busted now bleeding nose, Jake fared as well as could be expected. Nadira and Hanlan only suffered bruises from being pressed between Jake and the back wall of the lift.
Brun, however, wasn't as fortunate. When the door opened and the blast went off, he was standing next to the button he'd been hitting. He didn't have the protection of the metal barrier Jake held. Enough of the blast pushed back as it hit the still opening lift door to do Brun severe damage. His head struck the wall. His arms, legs, and face were badly burned. He fell to the ground unconscious.
Seeing the guards were no longer a threat and Brun badly injured, Jake pushed away the door he'd been holding, and it flew out of the elevator, landing on top of the pile of dead Cracian guards. He stepped forward, allowing Nadira and Hanlan free from behind him.
Then the three gathered around Brun to look him over and see how badly he was hurt.
The lift started to close again, but the bottom edges of the sliding door, mangled from the blast, dragged against the floor, keeping it from shutting.
"It looks bad," Nadira said, kneeling beside Brun. She felt for a pulse. "He's alive."
"We can't stay here," Jake said, stepping into the open lift doorway. He leaned into it, pushing it all the way open. He held his blaster up and looked around, past the pile of guards. He noted a single long hallway at the back left of the room.
"Hold the door open," he said to Nadira. "Hanlan and I will get him out of there."
She switched places with Jake. He and Hanlan lifted Brun, one at his legs, the other from his shoulders. They carried him out of the elevator and to a couch at the far side of the room.
Hanlan looked more closely at Brun. "He'll make it, but he's going to be recovering for months. He's strong, strongest I know."
Jake kept an eye on the hallway. He still had his blaster at the ready.
Nadira joined them. She pulled a few bandages from her pack, and a small canister. "This is a salve. It may ease the pain slightly." She opened it and applied it generously to the burns. "If Alara was here, we could do more. She has most of the medic gear. That bitch."
"I hate to be the insensitive one," Jake said, "but we still have a mission, and I'm sure it's becoming more impossible by the second."
"He's right," Hanlan said. "You need to make it to the bioweapon lab. From what I saw of the battle before I joined you, Kharn will want to make that weapon deployable as soon as possible."
Nadira looked at Brun, and then to Jake, as if needing his answer.
"I'll stop Kharn from activating the weapon," he said, looking at her, "but I need you to get me there."
Hanlan looked across the room at the metal door they'd used as a shield, and at the bodies of the guards underneath it. "I'll stay with Brun. I can build a barrier and hold off any Cracians as long as it takes."
Jake nodded to Nadira.
"Ok," she said. "You'll watch over him?"
Hanlan unslung his rifle. "We'll be here waiting for you."
Jake held out his hand to Nadira. "Let's go."
CHAPTER 33
T he two male Elders braced the woman Elder under her arms, helping her to stand. The chamber was empty aside from the three of them. What they had done, was for only those of royal blood to witness. She stood, but only with their aid. Passing her mind into the creatures' realm took a heavy toll on her.
"It is done," she said. "I must go now to the top to await their arrival. They will listen to me."
The man bracing her by her left elbow spoke. "You'll be in danger there, exposed to the Cracian attack."
"Yes," she said. "It's the only way. We've summoned the creatures. If I'm not there to meet them, they will destroy everything in their path, including this place."
The other two Elders nodded. Then they helped her on the long walk to the topside of the stronghold.
As they made their way up the series of corr
idors and rock stairways, they felt the attacks of Kharn's forces. While the Elders had contacted the strange elusive creatures from deeper within the Untamed Lands, the Cracian assault vehicles made their way across the barren northern plain. Now, the enemy, with heavy barreled energy cannons on their vehicles and dozens of ground troops equipped with laser assault rifles, pummeled the hills and rocks that served as the protective barrier around and over the subterranean Waudure base.
The three Elders stumbled as the blasts overhead shook the rock pathways under their feet. The closer they got to the upper levels of the base the louder the cries of the terror-filled civilians grew. They heard thunderous crashes, rock ceilings caving in. Many tunnels filled with dust too thick to move through. They pushed past throngs of people who were fleeing the upper levels of the stronghold to escape the destruction wrought by the attack.
The Elder woman called out to a nearby guard as he crossed in front of the Elders, no doubt hurrying to another position from which to counterattack the Cracians. The guard, seeing the three of them and the determined look upon the woman's face, came to their side.
"Lead us to the highest point outside," she said. "And quickly."
The man looked at her, and the other two, but didn't question her, as it was not his place to do so.
She and the other two Elders followed the man until they reached a set of stairs that lead to an opening in the rock ceiling. They climbed the stairs, coming out on top of the highest point of the natural formation that capped the underground Waudure stronghold.
"Thank you," she said to the guard.
He nodded to her. "Of course." Then he ran back down the stairs.
She stood up straighter and glanced to each of her companions. They removed their hands from under her elbows, and she stood unassisted.
Shielding her eyes from the wind with her hand, she looked out over the land to the west, farther into the Untamed Lands than any Waudure had ever ventured.
The ground shook as the attack continued. Sounds of their weapons, the charging cannons of their vehicles and the rapid firing of the ground troops' rifles, combined with the rushing sounds of the wind, which blew strong. Sporadic flurries of Waudure weapon fire blew in, but paled against the overwhelming power of the Cracian assault.