by Chris Fox
“That will prove difficult,” T’kon said, moving to stand with Nolan against the wall. “They are holy relics, and their theft would provoke relentless pursuit.”
“Yeah, I know we can’t afford to grab one right now. Hey, Oako tracked me down and we had a little chat. I let slip that we have a massive naval shipyard where we produce most of our cores, and he immediately beelined for his people.” Nolan tensed. “Looks like they’re about to make a move. We need to get the hell out of here.”
“Agreed. Remember the plan, Nolan. It is the best way,” T’kon rumbled.
Nolan turned and sprinted for the exit, knowing that such a move would draw the attention of every elite in the room. Only prey ran.
Several guards shouted, and a few began the breathing that would transform them into mech-sized opponents. Plasma fire shot over Nolan’s shoulder, scorching the wall. He sprinted forward, weaving erratically up the corridor as the Ganog howled after him.
16
Put 'Em Down
“Annie, are you in position?” Hannan demanded. She trotted up the ridge, crouching behind a massive granite slab. Her screen put the spire at one point three clicks, well within particle cannon range.
A steady trickle of Ganog weaved into the spire, though none seemed to emerge. Not that she could blame them. The alcohol was inside, and so was the food. Soldiers inevitably beelined for both, regardless of species.
“I’m on the south ridge, in position. If those Ganog get uppity, I’ll put ’em down easy like. Got a clean line of sight on the tunnel leading inside.” Annie’s voice was excited, but relaxed. Hannan knew she’d do her job.
“Nuchik, what’s your status?” Hannan dipped a bit further into cover, resting her mech’s particle cannon against the rock slab.
“In position.” Nuchik’s response was clipped, as expected. She was so much like Mills.
Hannan had stationed Nuchik at nine o’clock, at a right angle from Annie. Elites that came out would see Annie’s position first, and the elites would be too busy dealing with her to find Nuchik’s sniper position. She had free reign to end targets, and if they came after her she could fall back with her stealth belt.
“There’s flashes inside the tunnel,” Annie called. “Looks like the captain is running in our direction, like a pack of kids that just farted into the O2 processor.”
“What about T’kon?” Hannan asked.
“He’s lagging behind,” Annie drawled, “and I can see six…seven…nine of the big apes after him. How do you want me to play this?”
“Weapons free. Gun down anything that isn’t our people.” Hannan thumbed the thruster switch, warming the mech’s main booster. It was the first time she’d piloted a post-atmospheric mech, but she had had plenty of sim time.
Particle beams shot from Annie’s position, lancing out of sight inside the tunnel. The captain sprinted into view, then faded from sight as he engaged his stealth belt.
“Looks like T’kon is in a bad way,” Annie said, as the loud whine of his particle cannon came over the mic. “Should I haul him out of there?”
“Captain said we were to escort only, and fall back to the ship as soon as we were able to disengage. Let’s see if he’s willing to change those orders.” Hannan opened a channel to the captain. “Sir, we’ve got a phenomenal tactical position, and I believe we can force the elites back inside the spire. T’kon has fallen behind. Permission to send in Annie to get him?”
“Negative, Lieutenant.” Nolan said, almost immediately. “You have your orders. Escort Lena and I back to the ship, best possible speed.”
“But sir, T’kon—”
“I know, but you’re going to have to trust me, Hannan. I’ll explain when we get back to the ship. For now, fall back as quickly as we can. Try to minimize enemy casualties.”
Hannan killed the channel, cursing under her breath. She burst from cover, vaulting into the air on a rush of superheated flame. She flared the mech’s thrusters, sailing hundreds of meters above the enemy forces. Hannan lined up her particle cannon with an elite. “Sir, can I get confirmation on that last? Minimize enemy casualties?”
“You heard me. Pick off a few, then cease fire. Fall back like we’re fleeing before a superior foe.”
Hannan didn’t understand the strategy, but she didn’t need to. The captain must have a reason. She stroked the trigger, and her particle cannon discharged a beam of superheated particles into the elite below. It caught him in the neck, coring the unfortunate Ganog. He collapsed in a heap, joined a moment later by a target picked off by Nuchik. Annie caught a third, and the rest fell back inside the spire to regroup.
“Move, people. Get back to the ship.”
Nolan’s voice was iron, and Hannan knew better than to press the issue. She feathered her jets, angling the mech toward where they’d parked the cruiser. Lightning flashed on the eastern horizon, the resulting explosion lightening the sky. She dropped lower, a little uneasy, despite the storm being several clicks out.
Below she could see Annie hauling ass toward the cruiser. There was no sign of Nuchik, but she’d have been shocked if there had been. Nuchik was like a ghost.
Hannan fed more thrust to the booster, then throttled it back. She began to plummet, her arc carrying her toward the cruiser’s location.
Then she saw them. “Oh, crap. Sir, we’ve been had. They’ve got two dozen elites approaching from the northwest. It’s an ambush, sir. Looks like they knew where we were parked.”
17
Last Stand
T’kon took a series of deep, frenzied breaths. He glared at his foes, channeling his anger, his loathing, and his burgeoning hatred for Ro’kan. He channeled it all into his body, using his metabiology to swell his size and strength.
The Azi warriors skidded to a halt, waiting for his transformation to complete before beginning their attack.
“Prepare yourself, traitor,” a young warrior boomed. He rushed T’kon, who waited patiently. The youth wielded a double-bladed axe, and was both larger and stronger than T’kon. But he was slow, and had overextended himself.
T’kon kicked off the spire wall, flinging himself into the air above the youth. The youth’s face split into a comical look of confusion, and T’kon seized his head in both hands, ending him with a single twist. The crack was audible even over the din of combat.
The axe clattered to the ground, and T’kon scooped it up, backpedaling away as more foes approached. “Come, then. I am ready!”
They surged forward as a mass, and he caught a glimpse of Ro’kan at the back of the pack. T’kon roared his fury, his fur going red-black as he sliced an elite in half. Two more rushed forward, pressing him. T’kon dropped the axe, batting away their blows with his armored forearms.
An elite tackled him around the waist from behind, shoving him into the wall behind him. T’kon ripped his dagger from the boot sheath, ramming the blade into the elite’s eye. He struggled free of the mass, scooping up a discarded chopping sword.
T’kon sliced off the nearest warrior’s arm, then beheaded a second warrior. He backed up to the wall, launching frantic strikes at anyone who approached. His enemies fell back, waiting on their leader. Ro’kan approached slowly, stopping outside T’kon’s range.
“You fled with the human, because you knew he’d let slip his secret, didn’t you?” Ro’kan’s face twisted, his fur brightening to a wild scarlet.
“You’re mad, Ro’kan,” T’kon protested. He swung the sword in a tight arc, lopping off the hand of a warrior who strayed just a bit too close. “The human ran because he fears the seeker. Can he be blamed? Oako interrogated a potential ally, ruining everything I have brought you. Can’t you see that, Ro’kan? This is the seekers, not the human.”
Ro’kan looked conflicted, sizing T’kon up silently. Oako rushed forward, whispering into his ear. Ro’kan nodded grimly. “Oako believes that you know the location of these shipyards. If you do, tell us and I will accept your words as truth. If not, then it wi
ll prove what Oako claims, that you’ve been subverted by this…Coalition.”
T’kon considered his response carefully. If he gave the location, Oako might suspect it was a lie. No, he needed to make them work for it. “I don’t know where this world is. You assume they’d tell me such a thing? If you wish to learn the location, why are you wasting time with me? Find the human.”
“Take him,” Ro’kan growled.
The Ganog surged forward in a mass. T’kon collapsed under their collective weight. Kicks and punches rained pain upon him, and a fist caught him in the temple. Blinding light shot through his vision, and vertigo spun him into nausea. He refused to give up, roaring as he struggled to stand. T’kon caught one of the Ganog in the chin with his elbow, gaining a moment to breathe. It wasn’t enough.
Ro’kan lunged, his sword punching through T’kon’s shoulder, pinning him to the wall. He twisted the blade, and T’kon bellowed his agony.
“Stop resisting, fool,” Ro’kan growled. “You know I won’t allow them to kill you, so don’t think you can escape that way. Not yet, anyway. Not until you tell us the location of the human’s shipyard. We will pry the secret from you; I can promise you that.”
Yes, T’kon thought, keeping the grim joy from his fur. You will.
18
Ambushed
Nolan sprinted up the road, kicking up little puffs of dust. The slightly lower gravity made every leap take him much further than normal, and he ate up the distance toward the cruiser. He wanted to explain the plan to his squad, but he’d promised T’kon not to utter it until the deed was done.
Besides, he needed to save his breath for running.
He risked a glance behind him, and Lena wasn’t too far back. Behind her, the elites had slowed, discouraged by fire from Hannan and Annie. Unfortunately, that left them wide open for the ambush the elites had set.
The first thing Nolan noticed about the group of charging Ganog was that several wore the stylized white gis. They were smaller than the Ganog warriors in armor, but moved with impressive grace. The Ganog moved swiftly, fanning out to encircle the cloaked cruiser. Nolan had no idea how they knew where it was, but clearly the improved stealth wasn’t as improved as they’d hoped.
Either that, or Sissus had sold them out.
“Hannan, see if you can get them to scatter. Annie get your ass back to the ship ASAP, or we’re going to need a new ride home.” Nolan leaned into the sprint, angling away from the enemy elites as he tried to circle around the ship. “Nuchik, if you can get into position to deliver suppressive fire, that would be helpful.”
Instinct saved Nolan’s life. He darted left, moving erratically down a gentle slope. A shot from a particle rifle cored a boulder less than a meter from Nolan, peppering his armor with shrapnel. “They’ve found me. I could definitely use an assist.”
Nolan sprinted right for about thirty meters, dodging another particle blast. The Ganog were swarming the ship, and several fired at the spot where they had parked the vessel. The plasma washed over the shields, and the ship flickered into view.
“Sissus, this is Nolan. We’ve got company, and unless you want your shiny new ship to get all banged up, I’d suggest opening up with all turrets. Might be worth deploying your clutch in the cargo bay to give us cover while we board.”
“I could do that, human. But I won’t. Who do you think told the Ganog where to find you? You’ve brought us nothing but trouble, and shown nothing but discourtesy. I will not sacrifice my people to atone for your pet Ganog’s arrogance.” The ship began to rumble, then the engines fired. It rose slowly into the air, canting toward the storm to the south.
The Ganog went berserk, and those with energy weapons unloaded on the ship’s engines. Beams of scarlet streaked into the housing, and the left engine died with a sputter.
“Hannan,” Nolan barked. “End them.”
The shadow of Hannan’s booster mech passed over Nolan, and a moment later a full salvo of missiles streaked down on the Ganog. They were flung about like toys, shrapnel and flame from the piranha missiles dropping several of the giant warriors.
The smaller adepts fared better, with only one getting caught by the blast. The rest leapt nimbly away, moving faster than any human could hope to match.
The distraction was exactly the cover Sissus needed to escape. The cruiser’s remaining thrusters fired, and it accelerated up and away. It flew low and fast, popping over a decent-sized hill, then disappearing on the other side.
“Hannan, we just lost our ride home. This just became win or die.” Nolan skidded in the dust, plastering his body against a rock. Not that it would stop a plasma shot, but hopefully breaking line of sight would encourage the Ganog to pick other targets.
“So, the usual, basically,” Hannan said. “I wish we had Edwards, but there’s still plenty we can do. Annie, you have your shotgun with you?”
“Yes, sir,” Annie drawled back.
“Run your mech over to Nolan, and swap out. Captain is a better pilot. Once you’re clear, find some cover in those rocks.”
“What about me?” Nuchik asked over the comm, in a rare show of verbosity.
“Kill things,” Hannan ordered. “All the things.”
Nolan could hear the smile in Nuchik’s voice. “Can do.”
A flash came from the ridge about two clicks over, and an instant later a streak of blue-white punched through the back of the rearmost elite’s head. Its headless corpse toppled into the dust.
Hannan’s mech glided over a cluster of Ganog, loosing a flight of missiles. They arced into the air, bursting into a swarm of micro missiles that peppered a trio of adepts. All three were flung away from the explosion. Two didn’t rise, but the last stumbled off into rocky cover.
High above, lightning crashed, and a deafening explosion brightened the sky. It was echoed by a second, then a third. Nolan’s head rang like a gong, and once again he wished he had his helmet. It was inside his mech…in the ship Sissus had just stolen. Along with Lena, and Aluki.
“Hannan, you okay?” Nolan asked, scanning the sky as he returned his focus to the battle. He blinked past the afterimages, unable to locate her mech.
“Yes, sir. Boosters are down to forty percent, so I’m going to have to land soon.”
“Probably just as well with the storm. See what you can do to keep them off balance. Maybe we can get them to retreat.” The ground shook, and Nolan spun. He relaxed when he realized it was Annie approaching. Her mech stopped several meters away, and he could hear the whirring of her cockpit opening.
Nolan rushed over, skidding to a halt next to her mech’s leg. The chest module slid up, and the waist module slid down to reveal the cockpit. Annie hopped out, landing heavily in the dust. Her shotgun was cradled between her arms like a child. “All yours, sir. I’ll get my ass to cover. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Annie.” Nolan leapt onto the mech, pulling himself inside the cockpit. It was impossible to ignore the explosions and screams in the background, but he forced himself to tune it out. He settled into the command couch, and began keying in his command override.
The cockpit whirred shut, and the curved view screen lit up. It loaded the profile from his previous mech, grabbing the configuration from his comm. The reactor was still hot, so Nolan took an experimental step.
Annie’s mech was functionally identical to his own, but it felt different somehow. For one thing the cockpit reeked of tobacco, but it went deeper than that. The control sensitivity just felt…a little off.
Nolan shook it off, turning the mech to face the combat. Friend and foe tags began appearing over every combatant in his field of view, though the system was incapable of differentiating between elites and the kung-fu versions.
“Shit,” Nuchik over the comm. “Captain, I’ve been spotted. Not sure I should chance using my stealth belt with the storm so close.”
“Nuchik, hightail it out of there,” Nolan ordered. “Hannan, get their attention.”
“On it, sir.
I’m running out of missiles, though,” Hannan panted into the comm. Her mech glittered in the air above the Ganog, a particle cannon shot taking off a leg at the knee. Six missiles streaked from her tubes, one at each target. Four found their targets, flinging those Ganog into the air. The last two dodged, bounding away into the boulder field. “Sir, I don’t have the ordnance to put these guys down. Better do whatever you’re going to do, Captain.”
Nolan scanned the mech’s readouts. Twelve missiles remaining. He popped the tubes, tapping his view screen twice over each visible target. He only fired at the elites, as they seemed less able to avoid the missiles.
His mech was forced back a step from the force of multiple launches, and the missiles streaked into the air, contrails in their wake. They swam unerringly toward their targets, detonating in rapid succession. Some of those targets were already wounded, some unprepared. Five of the six elites died, and the last lost a leg.
Definitely a good use of his last missiles.
“Captain,” Hannan called, a frantic note to her voice. “I just lost my particle cannon. I could use an assist.”
“Nuchik, get to cover and give the kung-fu-looking Ganog something to think about.” Nolan sprinted toward Hannan, firing a hip shot that nearly hit a robed Ganog. The shot made his opponent back off, giving Hannan time to block a kick from the other adept. She deflected it with her blade, but the blow still knocked her back a step.
Nolan poured on the speed, igniting his plasma blade as he closed. The adept seemed to sense his approach, spinning away from Hannan and turning to face Nolan. Hannan lunged at the adept’s back, but the adept elbowed her arm away. In that moment, Nolan risked another hip shot. This one caught the adept in the side, knocking him off balance. Hannan capitalized, ramming her blade into the adept’s neck. The Ganog collapsed, sputtering as he coughed out purplish blood down the front of his white robes.