Guerilla

by Mel Odom

  Advancing with his fists in front of him, the Lemylian grinned and shouted more invective in his language. Around them, several bar patrons lay stunned and bleeding. No one appeared dead, but they hadn’t caught the brunt of the blast. Most of that had occurred outside in the alley.

  Setting himself in an L-­shaped stance with his left foot behind him, Sage blocked the Lemylian’s left-­handed blow with his right forearm, then swiveled his hips as he swung his left hand into his opponent’s face. The blow rocked the Lemylian’s head back, but he set himself to return the attack. Blood trickled from a split lip and he pulled his chin farther down on his barrel chest.

  Small-­arms fire chattered out in the alley and muzzle flashes tore holes through the darkness and the neon.

  “Blue Jay Twelve,” Sage called over his comm. “Can you see my team outside the bar?” He focused on the Lemylian, concentrating on removing one obstacle at a time. He’d forgotten how dangerous Lemylians were in close quarters.

  “Top, this is Blue Jay Twelve,” the jumpcopter team leader called. “Your team at the back of the building is down. Looks like they were hit with a high-­explosive round. Maybe an Arayo Defender munition.”

  “Copy that, Blue Jay Twelve.” Stepping forward, Sage shifted his lead foot, blocked the Lemylian’s right hand with his left forearm, and swung his right foot in a roundhouse kick that caught his opponent in the face. While the Lemylian tried to recover, Sage placed his right hand on his opponent’s face and pulsed an electrical charge.

  Overcome, the Lemylian staggered back with his hands covering his face and fell onto a table, shattering it and dropping heavily to the ground.

  Sage turned toward the door and pulsed electrical blasts into the next Lemylian that tried to engage him and caught a third Lemylian in the throat before he could block the blow. Both went down.

  “Rasheed.” Sage strode out into the alley as his software sorted out his ­people inside the confusion raging inside the bar. All the Terran Army soldiers inside the bar were still on their feet, heading for the back of the Weeping Onion while the bar’s clientele headed for the front door because they’d recognized it as the path of least resistance. The explosion had sealed the deal.

  Jahup took up a position behind Sage. Overhead, both jumpcopters continued to circle the area. Sage patched into the overhead feeds and saw himself looking around the downed bar patrons in the alley. The dizzying spin provided by the jumpcopter views almost proved disconcerting, but Sage dealt with them.

  “Here, Top,” Rasheed croaked. He and his fellow soldier lay sprawled on the ground, only now trying to get to their feet. Their armor glowed phosphorus white and made them stand out in the night and the neon. “Caught us by surprise. Wasn’t expecting something so powerful.”

  Sage figured the explosives Vekaby and his ­people had used were Arayo Defender rounds. The Defender was used in close proximity to blast opponents back and disorient them, throw their tech off-line for a short time, and mark their armor for suppressive fire and snipers.

  Kiwanuka and Noojin, followed by the remaining two soldiers, joined Sage in the alley.

  “These guys are carrying serious hardware,” Kiwanuka said as she observed the other two white phosphorus soldiers stirring on the other side of the door. “Somebody’s bankrolling them. There’s no way they got that kind of tech on their own.”

  Sage silently agreed, and that was going to be one of the first questions he asked the ambushers when he caught them. He scanned the alley as bar guests ran toward either end. “Which way did Vekaby and the others go?”

  “Don’t know, Top,” Rasheed answered. The other recovering soldier answered similarly. “They were in front of us, then we got hosed.”

  “I’ve got your targets, Top,” the jumpcopter leader announced. “Two of them caught trace blowback from the phosphorus and are lit up. I’m assuming the group is staying together. Sending coordinates now and we’ll keep them in sight.”

  “Copy that.” Sage waited till the signal relay popped up on his street map overlay, then turned and ran past Rasheed and his men while assigning the two soldiers who had followed Noojin and him inside to remain with Rasheed and his team till they recovered.

  Sage pounded down the alley, pouring on the speed available to him through the hardsuit. The AKTIVsuit’s power drained faster when the bumped-­up strength and speed and electrical shocks were used, but the levels remained satisfactory.

  Several ­people, most of them offworlders but with a few Makaum mixed in, had come out to the street to find out what all the noise was. As they took in the Terran Army hardsuits running toward them, they dodged back inside the nearest building or alley. Several of them reached for weapons, then relaxed when Sage and the others passed them by.

  The op had already exceeded the parameters Sage had hoped for, but if Quass Leghef could manage it, he planned on stepping up the police action in the red light district. More weapons than they’d believed possible were hitting the streets. The Terran Army had to make more of an appearance.

  Sage spotted the phosphorus-­stained figures 53.67 meters ahead and locked on to them. He drew the coilgun as he ran and made sure it was set to stun. He wanted the men alive so he could talk to them about the attack and about the weapons.

  An old man driving a cargo cart pulled by a dafeerorg unintentionally blocked the street when he tried to turn around. Seeing the Terran Army soldiers bearing down on him, he struggled to turn the big lizard around. Already frightened by the loud explosion and the action going on around him, the dafeerorg fought the reins, shaking his head and bawling in deep-­voiced terror.

  Without breaking stride as he closed in on the cart, Sage leaped the dafeerorg, which stood 1.5 meters tall at the shoulder. Covered in light gray scales, the lizard stumbled in the harness as it tried to avoid Sage.

  Effortlessly, Sage landed four meters on the other side of the cart, gaining quickly on the fleeing men. Vekaby spun and brought up the big-­barreled Arayo Defender and fired a gel round at Sage. Already twisting, anticipating the trajectory of the round, Sage dodged to the left, dropping down far enough to put his fingers on the ground to keep his balance.

  The Defender munition zipped past his shoulder, missing him by millimeters. Five meters behind him, the gel HE round slammed into the corner of a massage parlor. The blast shredded the building’s corner, reducing it to a cloud of flying plascrete shards. A section of the roof collapsed onto ­people gawking beneath it.

  Sage lifted the Birkeland and fired at Vekaby, but one of the other Makaum men with him stumbled into the stun charge and went down like he’d been poleaxed.

  “Jahup,” Sage called over the comm. “Secure that man.”

  “He’s down,” Jahup argued. “He’s not going anywhere.”

  Vekaby and the other four men split up. Two of them went to the left and two of them ran to the right. All of them disappeared in the tangle of ­people in the alleys.

  “He’s alive and we have him,” Sage said. “I don’t want him to disappear.”

  Jahup cursed, but he dropped out of the chase and took the unconscious man into custody.

  The jumpcopters split up as well, staying out ahead of the chase so they could provide support in case other ­people tried to stop the soldiers.

  “Sergeant,” Sage called as he slowed and took the corner, following Vekaby and his companion. A knot of ­people blocked the way. Sage ran toward the wall on his right, leaped, triggered the boot sole claws, and hit the wall with both feet. For a moment his velocity held gravity at bay and he managed three long strides across the wall with the claws digging purchase. As gravity pulled at him again, he leaped from the wall and landed in an open area past the crowd bottlenecking the alley. He stumbled for a second, then retracted the boot claws.

  “We have the others,” Kiwanuka replied. She and Noojin were stride for stride together as they vee
red off in pursuit of the other two men.

  Twenty meters ahead of him, Sage saw Vekaby turn to the right, following the twisting path of the alley.

  Red Light District

  New Makaum

  0041 Hours Zulu Time

  Your blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate are elevated outside of recommended parameters, the near-­AI said. Do you require adjustment?

  “No,” Noojin replied. “Leave me alone.”

  Her anger flared at the AKTIVsuit. Even after all the training she’d endured to learn to operate the hardsuit, just trying to keep up with Jahup’s new interest, she still resented the combat gear. She didn’t like not being able to feel the air around her, to hear sounds in their natural environment rather than the electronically enhanced versions of them the hardsuit provided, and she missed the smells of everything around her that told her so much. The Terran soldiers didn’t realize how much they gave up by being in the armor.

  Then again, when the hardsuit’s mechanical “muscles” were engaged as they were now, she was faster and stronger than she’d ever be on her own. Taking meat from the jungle wasn’t just about strength and speed, though. A hunter had to be clever, had to know the terrain, and had to be patient.

  Noojin watched Mosbur running ahead of her. He was easy to spot because he was one of the men who had gotten marked by the phosphorus blowback. When the man glanced over his shoulder and saw that she was within twenty meters of him, panic widened his eyes. She enjoyed that more than she knew she should, but she couldn’t help remembering how Mosbur had tried to kill her and would have killed Telilu as well if he’d gotten the chance.

  Mosbur split off from the other man and they went in different directions in the same alley. Turning, Mosbur fired a particle-­beam weapon that threw up a cloud of dirt and rock and grass in front of Noojin. She ran through it and leaped the crater that had opened up in the ground.

  “I’ve got Mosbur,” Noojin said as she and Kiwanuka closed on the intersection.

  “Be careful,” Kiwanuka told her.

  Unable to turn right as sharply as she’d thought she could in the soft dirt of the alley, Noojin bent her knees and lowered her center of gravity, shoving her left foot out to broaden her base. Her feet skidded through the dirt, leaving tears centimeters deep. Then, when the majority of her momentum had been exhausted, she started forward again.

  Above, the jumpcopter trailed after Kiwanuka.

  Mosbur continued running, but the AKTIVsuit’s amplified hearing picked up the ragged breaths he was sucking in. Sometimes the hunting band had to run down creatures as well, but usually they ran in teams, some resting while others gave chase as long as their prey was boxed in.

  The alley wasn’t a proper box. Realizing he was going to be overtaken, Mosbur darted left into a bar, shoving through three Makaum ­people coming out.

  Noojin switched over to thermographic vision and tracked the hot spots on Mosbur as he ran through the building. More patrons choked the doorway, making a human barrier.

  Checking the other side of the large plate-­glass window that took up a three-­meter by two-­meter area on the wall a short distance from the door, Noojin saw that no one was there. She drew the Birkeland from her hip holster and leaped through the window.

  Noojin crashed through the transplas. Shards flew in all directions and ­people still inside the bar dropped to the floor. She landed on the plascrete surface and slid for just an instant before locking down.

  Panicked, knowing he’d exhausted whatever lead he’d had, Mosbur seized a young Makaum woman who had been trying to escape unnoticed with a young man. Her companion protested and reached for Mosbur. Mosbur slammed his weapon’s barrel into the young man’s temple and he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

  Mosbur pulled the woman in front of him as a shield and pressed the barrel of the particle beam weapon against her neck. “Stay back, Terran! Stay back or I’ll kill her!”

  “I’m not a Terran.” Noojin cleared her faceshield so that her features could be seen.

  Several of the ­people in the bar were Makaum and recognized her.

  Mosbur grinned, but his breathing was still ragged. “Noojin. So you’re responsible for the Terrans hunting us.” He raised his voice. “Do you see? The Terran Army is here to make us their slaves. They’re already luring away the young ­people among us, turning them against those of us who wish to remain true to our ­people.”

  Anger surged inside Noojin and she switched the Birkeland from stun to lethal.

  “Noojin,” Jahup said over the comm. “We agreed that we would bring these men in alive.”

  “He’s a killer,” Noojin argued. “He doesn’t deserve to live any more than a khrelav who’s learned to hunt at the fringes of the sprawl.” Killing the occasional flying lizard that turned to hunting ­people was dangerous because they were big enough and powerful enough to take down a jumpcopter.

  “If you shoot him, he may kill the woman.”

  “I’m not going to let him go.” Noojin addressed Mosbur: “Lay down your weapon and you won’t be harmed.”

  “So the Terrans can lock me up?” Mosbur shook his head. “Maybe you’re going to turn traitor to your ­people, Noojin, but I’m not.”

  “I’m here acting on the authority of the Quass. You and Vekaby and other men were responsible for the attack on the fort this morning. You have jeopardized the treaty we have with the Terrans.”

  “They’re just as bad as the others.” Mosbur backed slowly toward the door, pulling his hostage with him. ­People behind him cleared out of the way. He shoved a table over, clearing it from his path. “All the offworlders want our resources. They’re all poldyn, determined to leech our blood until we’re just skin and bones.” He reached for the door. “Now put your weapon down or I’ll kill her.”

  “Is she an enemy to you, Mosbur? Does she side with the Terrans?”

  Mosbur pressed his weapon into his captive’s neck more forcefully. “Do it!”

  Noojin stretched her left arm out and started bending to lower her weapon to the floor. She deployed the grappling hook set in the housing of her left forearm. The grapple came online silently and established a reticle on her faceshield. The hook penetrated in slim line formation, then flared out when it reached its target.

  When Noojin released her pistol, Mosbur took his weapon from his hostage’s neck and swung it toward Noojin. Aiming at Mosbur’s right calf where it was exposed outside the woman’s leg, Noojin fired. The grapple was designed to penetrate plasteel and plascrete. It drove through flesh and blood with ease, tearing through Mosbur’s calf and breaking his shinbone.

  Squalling in pain, Mosbur stumbled to his right, away from the woman, and looked at the bloody wound that had exploded out of his leg. He managed to remain standing and tried to pull his weapon up.

  Noojin gripped the thin buckyball strand attached to the grappling hook and yanked. Mosbur screamed in agony as his wounded leg flew up and he fell back. He left a bloody streak as he skidded across the floor like a hooked jasulild, but he was the smallest of those Noojin had ever taken.

  Moving swiftly, Noojin plucked the beam weapon from Mosbur’s hand and laid it aside. She roughly rolled the man over onto his stomach, then she reached into a thigh compartment for a binding strap to secure his wrists behind his back.

  Mosbur continued groaning in pain.

  Taking her knife from her sheath, Noojin sliced through the buckyball strand and secured the hook back in her forearm compartment where she would rearm it later. She removed a slap patch and compression bandage from the medical kit in her chest armor and put the patch on Mosbur’s neck, rendering him unconscious at once. Then she put the compression bandage on his leg to stop the bleeding.

  She didn’t feel sorry for Mosbur. With the way the man had menaced the young woman—­with the way he had threatened Telilu—­he d
eserved death. Noojin wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him.

  Using the suit’s enhanced strength, she stood and threw Mosbur over her shoulder. She still felt conflicted about aiding the Terran Army against her ­people, but after what Mosbur had done—­this morning and now—­her actions felt more certain.

  TWENTY-­SIX

  Red Light District

  New Makaum

  0043 Hours Zulu Time

  As Sage turned the corner of the alley, he threw himself backward to avoid a direct hit from the Arayo Defender, but the gel charge struck the building above him as he crouched and tried to bring the Birkeland to bear. The explosion dropped a large chunk of the building onto him, burying him in a glowing pile of plascrete.

  Sage pulled his arms free and levered himself up, shoving through the debris, which fell away all around him. Static filled his systems for a moment, throwing the feeds into a vortex of confused images across his faceshield. He searched through the confused haze of information filling his faceshield and tried to make sense of it as he scanned the alley.

  Vekaby and his companion had disappeared.

  “Sage?” The voice belonged to Blue Jay 12, hovering somewhere overhead. The jumpcopter pilot said something else, but he lost her words in the jamming effects of the munitions charge.

  “I’m here.” Sage scanned the alley ahead of him, seeing that it opened out into a small street forty meters away. He was certain Vekaby and his partner hadn’t returned past him. They would have been brought down by the wreckage if they’d tried to retreat. “I’ve lost my targets.”

  “They’re in the street ahead of you.”

  Sage lurched forward through the rubble. He hadn’t heard from Halladay since the explosion in the Weeping Onion and guessed that the colonel had had his hands full dealing with public relations—­or the general. Sage ran, opening his faceshield and using his eyes as the hardsuit’s systems and musculature came back online. Unfiltered dust and pollen filled his nose, causing him to sneeze and choke as his lungs tightened.