Ep.#6 - Head of the Dragon (The Frontiers Saga)

by Brown, Ryk

  “Jessica,” Tug called in a whisper from nearby, “this way, quickly, before the lights come back on.”

  She could barely see his shadowy figure in the darkness, the clouds blocking the moonlight that had provided modest illumination during the first phase of their descent. She ran after him, bent over with her weapon held up and ready to fire. It was difficult going due to the extra weight of both the reentry suit and the auto-nav parachute rig, and if it had been much farther, she wondered if she could have made it.

  Finally, she found herself huddled against the side of a maintenance building at the edge of the athletic field.

  “How many made it?” she asked between breaths.

  “Sixteen,” Dumar reported.

  “We lost four?” Jessica said in disbelief.

  “Considering what we just did, sixteen is impressive,” Tug commented as he began to remove his jump rig.

  “Well where are the four?” Jessica wondered. “If they landed somewhere else, that might alert the guards…”

  “I suspect they did not survive reentry,” Tug explained, “which means their remains, if there were any, are a long way from here. Now everyone, inside the building. We will leave our suits here.”

  Jessica obliged, following them into the building as she tried to ascertain who had not made it from their teams. For a moment, she felt guilty for being disappointed that Jalea had survived. “That was something, wasn’t it?” Jessica exclaimed as they entered the dark building. She pulled her helmet off and tossed it to the ground.

  “That was the easy part,” Tug joked. “The worst is yet to come.”

  * * *

  The city of Answari, the jewel in the crown of the Ta’Akar empire, waited silently for the nearing dawn. The city was covered in a low hanging blanket of predawn fog that rolled in from the massive bay along which the city was located, and there were few people on the streets at this hour. One of the capital city’s many automated street cleaning vehicles sat on the side of the empty boulevard that ran past the number four air defense battery on the outskirts of the city. Another vehicle, much smaller than the street cleaner, pulled up behind it and came to a stop. Two men climbed out of the service vehicle’s cab and made their way to the front of the street cleaner, pulling their collars up against the chilly fog.

  “A crying shame it is, that we have to come out in such conditions,” the first man complained to the elder technician.

  “It’s our job,” the more seasoned man stated.

  “It’s our job to maintain these beasts during proper hours,” the younger man disagreed, “not to be pulled out of our warm beds because some idiot upstairs doesn’t take our service requests seriously.” The younger man opened the access doors on the side of the street cleaner’s drive section and turned on its inside light to take a look. “I reported the control unit on this one here more than a month ago. I’ll bet you a week’s pay they haven’t even ordered the new one yet.” The man turned back toward the service vehicle. “I’m going to need the tester…” The man stopped in mid sentence at the sight in the distance. Not more than ten meters behind their service vehicle, two men clad in black pressure suits floated down from out of the low hanging fog and touched down gracefully in the street. “What in the name of Caius?” The technician turned around to face his partner as he spoke. “I think we’re being…”

  The man’s eyes opened wide. Standing in front of his partner were two more of the black-suited men. No longer connected to their parachutes, they brandished energy weapons, both of which were aimed directly at him and his partner. “Whoa, don’t shoot, mate! We’re unarmed we are!” A sharp pain struck the man in the neck, and he fell to his knees. The Corinari paratrooper that had come up behind him caught the man before he hit the ground as a fourth paratrooper stabbed the other man in the neck, rendering him unconscious as well.

  The second paratrooper checked the pulse of the fallen Takaran service technician nearest him. “What do we do with them?” he asked somberly.

  “Put them back in their vehicle,” their leader instructed. “Make it look like they’re sleeping, and make it quick. We’ve got charges to set.”

  Eight Corinari soldiers made their way quietly up the hill toward the air defense battery. Having discarded their pressure suits immediately after touching down, the team was now clad in flat black combat. As they continued up the hillside, they could barely make out the base of the massive plasma cannon. It was one of eight that would automatically protect the capital city against attack from as far above as high orbit over Takara. So thick was the fog at even this modest altitude, that when standing against the base, they could not see the barrels of the cannon itself. It was no matter, however, as they could see that which was needed.

  As the eight men arrived at the base of the weapon, each man dropping to one knee. The leader signaled men at each end of the line to spread out in opposite directions. Two pairs of soldiers, on the right and the left, began to work their way around the base of the cannon, their weapons held high in case they met armed resistance. The gun emplacements were constantly guarded. However, the cold, early morning fog could have driven off the guard, and the fact that no one had ever attempted an attack on the Takaran system, let alone the capital city of Answari, meant that the guards had likely grown complacent over the years. This was especially true of battery number two, which was the only gun that sat on an elevated hill, which placed it inside the fog layer. The younger guards that had been stuck on the night shift at one of the least prestigious postings available had no desire to brave the moist, chilly, morning air.

  The team of two men that had gone right stopped momentarily. The lead man dropped to one knee and kept his weapon up and ready as he scanned the area for threats. Meanwhile, the second man stuck a small explosive charge to the side of the cannon base and activated its timer. He tapped the first man on the shoulder, and they proceeded on to the next preplanned location to set the next charge. One charge at a time, they worked their way around the weapon, being careful to avoid the line of sight from the control house atop the weapon, until they joined up with the two men that had gone in the opposite direction.

  A minute later, the four men rejoined the rest of their team. Skillfully, the eight men descended the hill the way they had come, walking backward down the slope, their weapons still held high and ready. The first phase of their mission completed, they would now make their way through the empty city streets, avoiding all contact with the city’s residents until they reached their assigned rally point. Once there, they would provide cover fire for the incoming jump shuttles that would begin arriving shortly.

  “There is no other approach available,” the Corinari soldier reported to his squad leader. “The emplacement is surrounded on four sides by warehouses, all of which have their own security systems. Even if we could get past one of them, we would need ropes to get down into the gun yard.”

  The squad leader studied the control house on the upper level of air defense battery number seven. “If we take the control house out with weapons fire, it may alert others. Even if no one around hears us, it will likely activate some type of automated alarm.”

  “It will only take us a few minutes to set the charges,” the other Corinari soldier reminded his squad leader.

  “After we take out the control house, we will set the charges to detonate by remote instead of times. If help comes sooner than expected, we will blow the charges early.”

  “Won’t that jeopardize the other teams?”

  “Perhaps. We will try to wait as long as possible and blow them at the correct time using the remote detonator. But we cannot take the chance that help will arrive early and disarm the devices. Even a single gun could ruin the entire mission and cost thousands of Corinari lives.”

  “Understood,” the second Corinari confirmed.

  “Shooters,” the squad leader called out. Three men from the group that had been huddled down against the building came forward, remaining lo
w as the moved. “Target range is fifty-two meters, five meter up elevation. The control house on top of the gun base. On three we blast it, tight rounds, lowest destructive intensity. Let’s keep it as quiet as possible, but nothing lives, understood?”

  The three men nodded as they adjusted their energy rifles to the appropriate settings and prepared to shoot.

  “Move into a firing line when I start counting. Fire on my order. As soon as that control house is down, haul ass over there and set those charges as quickly as possible. This may bring trouble our way.” The squad leader looked at the faces of the seven men on his team, ensuring they understood the plan. Satisfied that they did, he adjusted his own weapon and got ready to fire. “Three……”

  The other three shooters moved out into the open, staying as low as possible.

  “Two……”

  The three shooters dropped to one knee and raised their weapons to take aim, as did the squad leader.

  “One……”

  All four men flipped off the safeties on their weapons. As they looked through their targeting scopes and zoomed in, they could all see the face of the guard as he noticed the four armed men taking aim at him. The guard’s eyes grew wide in disbelief as he reached for his communications device.

  “Fire.”

  A rapid succession of three shots of bright red slugs of energy struck the control house, shattering the glass window and destroying the inside of the room. With all four of the men firing in unison, a total of twelve bolts of energy ricocheted off the internal metal walls of the control house, sending flashes of light and debris in all directions. With their intensities set to the lowest destructive setting, their weapons made little more than a zing with each bolt they fired, and it was doubtful that anyone would hear the weapons fire from a distance. The end effect was devastating however, leaving the four men inside the control house in a smoldering bloody pile on the floor.

  “Go,” the squad leader ordered. The other four men went charging down the driveway that led from the street to the front gate of the gun yard. It took them only a moment to disable the gate’s lock and force it open enough to get inside the perimeter. After which, they made their way to the base of the mighty gun.

  “Spread out. Watch for anyone approaching,” the squad leader ordered. “You’re weapons free.” The other three shooters went off in separate directions to keep a lookout for approaching assistance from the Takarans. If they were lucky, none would come.

  “Where is everyone else?” the first Corinari paratrooper asked the second.

  “I do not know. I cannot find them anywhere.”

  “Should we call them?”

  “We cannot break radio silence, Lomal,” the second paratrooper warned.

  “What if they did not make it down?”

  “What?”

  “What if they all burned up on descent?”

  “All six of them?”

  “It is possible,” Lomal insisted.

  “It is more likely that they landed off target and are trying to make their way to us.”

  “Or they could have been captured,” the first paratrooper added.

  “Doubtful. If that were the case, they would be at a heightened state of alert.”

  “What are we going to do, Jonah? We have no charges.”

  “We must attack,” Lomal stated, reminding Jonah of their duty.

  “Of course, but how? We are undoubtedly out numbered.”

  Lomal thought for a moment. “We must approach with stealth and find a way to get close enough to take them without warning. Once we have killed the guards, we can figure out how to disable the gun from inside.”

  “Disable the gun? How do you propose we do that?” Jonah wondered.

  “It must have an off switch.”

  “Maybe we should wait to see if the others find us,” Jonah proposed. “We should at least wait until the shooting starts. Then, we can call for back up.”

  “By then it will be too late,” Lomal reminded him. “The jump shuttles will arrive, and this gun will burn them from the sky. We must act now.”

  Jonah nodded his agreement. Lomal rose to move. “Follow me.” The two of them ran low along the fence line, staying as low as possible in the darkness to avoid detection. To their advantage, the guard in the control house was paying little attention to the well-lit perimeter of the gun yard, obviously content that there would never be anything to see out there. They continued along the fence and around to the far side of the gun yard. Satisfied that they were out of sight of the guard, Lomal pulled his cutters from his cohort’s pack and began slicing through the metal fence using the silent laser cutter. He quickly made a slice in the fence and pulled it back to create a small hole through which he and Jonah crawled.

  Continuing to stay low, they ran across the yard, wanting to get to the gun base and out of the well-lit yard as quickly as possible. What they did not realize was that there were two technicians working at a power relay box just beyond the gun. The technicians took notice of the two Corinari paratroopers running across the yard and immediately notified the control house.

  As Lomal and Jonah made their way around the corner of the gun’s base, they were met by four armed guards who immediately opened fire. Lomal managed to duck and roll, firing his weapon as he did so and taking out one of the four guards. Jonah was not as lucky and was sent flying backward, his chest and neck burning from two separate energy weapon blasts. Lomal scrambled to get another shot off, but it went wide. The surviving guards continued to fire, and Lomal fell backward, rolling out of the line of fire and around the corner of the gun’s base.

  Lomal scrambled to his feet and threw himself against the wall of the base, moving back to the corner. He stuck his gun out around the corner and fired in rapid succession, sweeping back and forth. He heard someone scream in agony and fall to the ground with a thud. The two remaining guards returned fire, forcing Lomal to withdraw his weapon back around the corner. He checked behind him, then began walking backward away from the corner, watching for the two remaining guards to peek their heads around the corner. As he continued backpedaling, one of the Takaran guards obliged him, receiving a quick shot to the face as his reward. As Lomal reached the other corner, he paused, hoping the fourth guard would be just as ignorant as the third one had been. After nearly ten seconds, he turned to head around the corner behind him, only to find himself face to face with the fourth guard who must have quickly circled around the gun to come up behind him. Lomal cursed himself for being so foolish as the fourth guard’s shots struck Lomal about the head, left shoulder, and left hip. He fell to the ground, twisting to his left in agony as he fell, his weapon falling from his hand. As the guard scrambled toward him, Lomal pulled his combat knife from his right hip and waited. As soon as the guard drew near enough, he swung his right arm out in a wide arc, hoping to catch the guard unprepared. Lomal’s knife slashed across the guard’s abdomen, carving neatly through his outer coat, his uniform, and finally deep into his skin, drawing copious amounts of blood that sprayed out in the direction of the knife’s swing. The guard grabbed his abdomen and fell to his knees, a gasp barely escaping his lips.

  The force of his swing caused Lomal to roll over onto his belly, his arm splayed out to one side. He struggled for a moment to rise to his hands and knees, hoping to get the strength to finish off the last guard. He squinted to see his enemy, his vision blurring. The guard was young, clean shaven with perfect hair—no doubt the son of a noble house who had just recently entered the service and whose father had managed to get his son this safe assignment. The young Takaran’s face was pale as he was already going into shock. Blood continued to ooze up from between the young man’s fingers as he tried to hold back the flow with his left hand. The young guard began to slowly raise his weapon, summoning every ounce of strength within himself to do so.

  Lomal, still on his hands and knees, fought through his pain, pushing the guard’s weapon aside with his left hand as he fell forward, his ri
ght arm extended, driving his knife into the young guard’s chest. The guard made a gurgling sound as he tried to take a breath. Lomal removed his knife and pushed the guard backward. Lomal knelt there for several seconds. His wounds were serious, possibly even life-threatening, but he still had strength within him. All four guards were down, and he still had a chance to disable the weapon. He struggled to get to his feet, leaning against the big gun’s base to steady himself as he rose. Finally, he was on his feet again. He could do this.

  Suddenly, Lomal heard a high-pitched zing and felt a burning pain in the middle of his back. His vision blackened as the zing repeated itself two more times, and he fell forward onto the ground. As his life drained from his body, he realized there were more than four guards.

  * * *

  “What was that?” the woman asked her husband as she sat bolt upright in their bed.

  “What was what?” her husband asked, still half asleep.

  There was another distant thud and the house shook once more.