We swooped down on the Household Industries compound under dark skies. The Sweet Stuff was cloaked – a black bat, completely invisible to all defensive fields, electromag or visual. Inside the cabin, we appeared to be bathed in blood from the red night-vision lights.
"Approaching compound. Disabling aircar deflectors. Disabling electric fencing," Rob said. I could see the compound out the simports. Honey highlighted two guards at the main gate and two guards meandering around on the rear side of the compound.
"Insertion," Rob said. "Good luck, Angels! If you need firepower, just call. I'll be right overhead." Our call sign was Angels for this operation. We landed right inside the compound, not far from the sprawling bloc of portable building modules. The assault doors snapped open and we leaped out. The backblast from the Tri-Ark's thrusters was tearing up the compound, blowing random debris everywhere, but the Tri-Ark was completely silent and invisible. And now it was gone.
Arie and I ran for the rear of the compound. We intercepted the two guards who were jogging towards us to investigate the sudden dust storm. They each carried an SG clone. We took them down with buzzing blasts of canister darts that tore them to shreds. That creepy buzzing always made the hair on the back of my neck rise up.
"Prophet and Nitro in position," I reported. We squatted, invisible, by the wall of one of the building mods. The guards’ quarters were not far away. We knew there were sixteen more guards in there, armed with SG's. We watched as the tacmap showed the Prof and Smiley taking out the two gate guards at the compound entrance. There was a brief burst of x. One of the sentries had gotten off a few rounds before falling in a hail of silent darts.
"Damn it," Prof said.
"It didn't take long for the alarm to be raised. The door to the guards’ quarters popped open and several guards ran out, hauling SG's and struggling into A-vests. Arie and I were waiting for them. We fired canister darts and shredded the first few targets. The rest of them came out firing wildly, auto xmax, spraying the rounds around the compound while trying to spot us. We were invisible and we continued firing autodarts. They shrieked and fell, and several side doors snapped open at the guards’ quarters and x started to erupt all around us, riddling the building walls behind us. The Prof and Smiley joined in, and a tacstar exploded before the quards’ quarters like the crack of doom, ripping upwards in a mushroom cloud, flashing lightning bolts all around us.
"No more tacstars near the main housing bloc!" I ordered. "Finish 'em off! Bees, Prof, get in the rear door, Arie will support you, Smiley and I will handle the outside." I switched to xmax and fired auto xmax, spraying the fleeing guards. "Rob, try out that chainlink, get any hostiles that are moving outside."
Rob didn't even bother to answer. A bloodcurdling electronic shriek and a glittering, blinding cascade of tacstars fell from the sky and danced through the compound, multiple stars, disintegrating everything that was out there, shaking the compound, multiple mushroom clouds wreathed in fire, rising into the night.
Arie blew open the main rear door to the interlocked cube complex, followed by the Prof and Bees. Our ear-shattering announcement preceded them: "ATTENTION ALL GIRLS! ATTENTION ALL DETAINEES! YOU ARE BEING LIBERATED BY MILITARY UNITS FROM THE CONFEDERATION OF FREE WORLDS! RUN IMMEDIATELY TO THE MAIN DOOR AND GATHER IN THE FOYER. KEEP YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AS YOU RUN! DO NOT BRING ANY POSSESSIONS! WE ARE OFFERING FREEDOM AND LIBERATION FROM YOUR CAPTORS! THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE! RUN IMMEDIATELY TO THE FOYER, NOW!"
Arie and the Prof went first, right down the central corridor that led to all the detainee rooms, fully cloaked, pulling open doors and leaving them open, on the lookout for resistance. Bees was next, checking every room, cloaking off so she could direct the girls if necessary.
Outside, the surviving guard force appeared to have fled. I didn't blame them. My tacmap revealed Bees chasing a flock of girls down the main corridor before her, with Arie and the Prof ahead of them. The eyemotes and our tacmods were counting off the girls, each one labeled, to ensure we didn't miss any.
"Angels, Rob. We've got a couple of aircars headed this way from the vicinity of Star City. Looks like somebody has called for help."
"Take 'em out, Rob!" I ordered.
"Will do."
"Smiley, Prophet, we cover the front!" I said.
"Tenners." We sprinted there. Off in the distance, the night sky lit up and flickered and flaming debris appeared to be floating gently downwards.
"Two aircars down," Rob reported. "Crap, there's more on the way! They're splitting up!"
"Angels, Cloud. Are you ready for me?" Cloud was the cargo shuttle, unarmored and uncloaked.
"Negative, Cloud. Stay out of the way for now. We've got to clean up the site first. Watch out for enemy aircars."
An aircar shot over our heads at low level, gone.
"Rob, we're being buzzed. Get him, can you?"
"Yeah, gimme a mo." The nearby forest exploded, bursting into a raging inferno. "Two aircars landing in the forest. Inserting armored troopers. I'm going after them," Rob said.
"Smiley, let's make it hot for 'em," I said. "Nitro, we need more firepower up front." Auto xmax fire was suddenly hitting us hard, erupting all around the main entrance to the housing bloc, the walls exploding with the hits. I fell to prone, firing auto xmax, spraying the tree line past the tall wire fences. Smiley did the same. We had one big problem – we may have been cloaked and invisible, but there was no cover at all for us in front of the housing bloc. Smiley fired a tacstar, and a screeching, gibbering star blasted away a large patch of forest, spraying tree fragments and roaring up into the night sky. I spotted a couple of DefCorps A-suits, sprinting from the forest, firing auto xmax. I fired back. Man! These people must pay a lot of taxes, to be able to call on this much firepower on such short notice.
A glittering cascade of tacstars sliced through the sky, falling right into the tree line, erupting into a blinding terrifying holocaust, shredding everything within its fatal embrace. Rob was at work. A tacstar erupted seemingly right on top of me, deafening me, tossing me aside like a leaf. I lay there smoking, white-hot stars dancing around my vision. I struggled to get up. The main entrance had been blown away and was burning fiercely. It seemed the hostiles had tacstars, too.
"Prophet, attention, eleven hits on A-suit, all hits sealed. Recommend..."
"Main doors have been hit," I announced. "Get the girls out of the foyer! Arie, we…" Arie answered me with a burst of autofire. I saw an armored aircar falling from the sky, smoking – like a dream. A hostile trooper in a bronze-colored A-suit ran right up to me, firing his SG clone. I could see right into his faceplate – a young Outworlder – but he could not see me. I fired a brief burst and the xmax powered into his armor and upwards into his helmet and his head turned to a bloody mush, blood splattering over the inside of his faceplate. He fell right before me.
"Rob, where are your eyes, we've lost T01, we've lost T01, where is she, where did she go?" It was Prof.
"ALL GIRLS STAY DOWN! LIE ON THE FLOOR! DO NOT MOVE!"
"Frontal attack," I said. "We attack! Smiley, Nitro, attack now! Finish 'em off!" I got up and the world spun around me, but I regained my balance with Honey's help and headed towards the tall wire fence firing full auto xmax. Several more A-suited hostiles emerged from the tree line, firing blindly. We had one big advantage – we could see them and they could not see us. I gunned down one trooper, targeting his chestplate until the xmax ripped a hole in it, then I switched to another target, drilling him with the laser. It screeched against his armor and he twitched and dropped. Two or three other armored hostiles fell as well, smoking with hits. Rob did another firing run with the chainlink, tearing up the tree line and ripping up the burning forest.
"Cease fire!" I said. "Get the girls out of the buildings and into the compound!"
"Angel, Cloud. Is now a good time?"
"Now, Cloud. Land in the compound where you see the red smoke." I threw a red smoker past some bodies and it spread a giant
red cloud all over us.
"Count, count! Have we got all the girls?" It was Bees.
"T01 is missing," the Prof said.
"ATTENTION ALL GIRLS! EXIT THE HOUSING BLOC AND GO OUTSIDE! THE BUILDINGS ARE ON FIRE! USE ALL EXITS AND PROCEED OUTSIDE FOR RESCUE!"
"Go back," Bees replied. "We're going back, got to check all the rooms."
"Bees, the whole place is on fire, get those girls and get out!" I ordered. The fire was ripping through the entire housing bloc. The girls were running out any exit they could find. Female overseers were also running out. The pink-smocked girls were labeled in pink on our tacmaps; the female overseers were in blue and all the males were in red. We shot at anything red but tried to ignore the rest. T01, the Prof's daughter, was supposed to be in fluorescent gold but I didn't see her on the tacmap.
"Smiley, Nitro, guard the front, I'm going in," I announced as I charged into the front entrance. I deactivated my cloaking. I was worried about getting shot by one of the others in the confusion, but I was not worried about the fire. Our armor could handle that easily.
"Prof, deactivate your cloaking," I said. "Where are you?" The fire was interfering with our tacmaps. Bees appeared out of the smoke with a skinny girl that she was pulling by one hand.
"Have you found T01?" I asked.
"No, but this one has no idea what's happening," she said.
"Take her outside, we're evacing the girls. Don't have much time."
The corridor was filling with black smoke. Movement down one end. "Prof, Prof, is that you?"
The smoke slowly cleared and revealed a glowing A-suit, staggering down the hall. It was the Prof. He was carrying something. A girl in a dirty pink smock, thin arms flung around his armored neck. He was clutching her to his chest with one arm, the other wielding his E. T01, the fluorescent gold label read. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.
"Let's go, Prof! We've got to go!" I reached out for him. He fell to his knees but he did not release his daughter. I looked down. His armor was torn open at one side of his groin, smoking white-hot armor, black blood spurting forth and bubbling.
"Bees, Bees, Prof is hit! Get in here!"
Bees charged in and we helped the Prof and his daughter out of the growing holocaust. The girl appeared to be suffering bad burns from the fire and from her father's red-hot A-suit.
As we helped Prof towards the cargo shuttle squatting outside in the middle of that hellish red cloud, we passed a group of female overseers huddled on the grass. One of them was labeled in red on the tacmap – H01. "Just a mo," Bees said. Then she pointed her E at H01 and shot her in the face, blowing her head clean off.
"Angels, Rob. More aircars on the way!"
"Hold 'em off, Rob," I said. "Anybody counting? Do we have all the girls?" We dragged Prof into the cargo hold, laying him out on the deck, surrounded by a host of girls. He was out cold, but would not let go of his daughter. She was gasping in his armored grasp.
"Unlock the chestplate," I suggested, snapping his faceplate open. Bees found the catch and the chestplate loosened.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Don't die! Daddy, I love you! I love you so much! Don't die, please don't die!"
"Get to work, Bees," I suggested. "Attention all Angels, all Angels, get onto the cargo shuttle now, now, now! We're lifting off NOW! If we've missed any girls, bring them! Got to go! Count off, Arie where are you?"
"Right here," he said, leaping into the cargo dock.
"Smiley, where…"
"Smiley is here," he announced, dragging a girl with him into the craft.
"All right, Prophet and Bees and the Prof are here. That's it, pilot, let's get the hell out of here NOW!"
"Gotcha!" The cargo door slammed shut with a mighty crash and the ship shot upwards abruptly, knocking all the standees to the deck like bowling pins.
"How is the Prof?"
"Gimme that cyro."
"Got to stop the bleeding."
"Pressure!"
"Get that god-damned armor off.''
"No no, stop the bleeding!"
"Please don’t die, Daddy, please don't die!"
"Somebody get her outta the way."
"Stuff this pressure pad in there. Yes, yes, yes."
"Scut! Life signs falling!" All four of us were clustered around the Prof – Arie, Smiley, Bees and me. Blood was splattering everywhere.
"Biotic charger – stand back!" The chestplate was off by then. Bees slammed the device against Prof's chest and triggered it. His body jerked. The life signs shuddered, then dropped off again.
"Again, again. And again!" Bees wasn't about to let up. Her brow was beaded with sweat.
"Please don't die, Daddy! Please please please! Dear God, don't let him die, dear God I pray to you don’t let him die!" She was frantic, hot tears streaming down her scorched face.
I think I was in shock by then. Who the hell could I pray to? I didn't have anybody to pray to, I suddenly realized. Deadman, I'll pray to Deadman. Deadman, let him live, damn you to hell! You let him live!
Chapter 10
A Distant Music
Well, Deadman came through for us. The Prof lost a lot of blood, but Bees stabilized him and he survived his wounds. Bees said it wasn't her, it was God. God or Deadman, I didn't know, but from that day on, I prayed to Deadman every day. I didn't let anybody see me do it, but that's what I did.
In stardrive on the Voodoo Honey, heading back to Pandaravos, we heard about Galinta. It was a pioneer world way out in the Gulf frontier, an independent world of mostly Outworlders who wanted to make their own future without interference from any of the regional Gulf slave states. The Demons hit them hard, and launched a full-scale invasion. They used the same tactics they had with the O's – flood the skies with hundreds of saucers, drop a heavy rain of antimats on the main population center, annihilate it, land vast numbers of armored troops and slaughter any survivors. In Galinta's case, they didn't have to worry about any opposition. The locals didn't have space or air defenses. Yes – it sure looked like this was the entire Demon race, migrating into our universe, into our little slice of the galaxy. First Traunair in the outer reaches of Omni vac, now Galinta right in the Gulf. I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen.
"How you feeling, Prof?" I settled down on an airchair by his bed in one of the posh passenger cabins of the Voodoo Honey. His lovely daughter Carol was by his side, and she hadn’t stopped smiling since Bees had announced that her dad was going to make it. A crowd of teen girls was at his service at all times. They all knew that he was the man who had liberated them, and they worshipped him. The ship was full of girls now, and it was a lot nicer aboard than the grim atmosphere that had prevailed when we were heading for Quatar. Arie and Smiley were both getting to know all the girls better. They found out quickly that some of them had severe psychological damage. I was keeping my distance, I guess. I didn't really trust myself around all those lovely, shattered souls.
"Better, Prophet. Much better." He gave me a weak smile.
"What do you think the Legion will do about Galinta? Will we be landing there?"
"Certainly. Absolutely. We must counterattack, and crush them, and show them that they cannot continue to attack us."
"But can we do that? Are we ready?"
"We'll see. I have to check our progress with the ship, and on the Demon weapons. We'll see. I don’t think we'll attack until we believe we can be victorious."
"We're going to live happily ever after, Daddy," Carol said. "Just like in the fairy tales. You're my hero. I'm never going to leave you!" Her joyous face was gleaming with medgel.
I guess that one moment, that one sight, was justification for all the misery I had endured in Basic and on Planet Hell.
Δ
Once we returned to Pandaravos, we dropped the girls off in Sajadhervana where ConFree Ambassador Burke and his staff took charge of them – all but Carol, who accompanied the Prof back to Site S. There were going to be thirty-four joyful family
reunions, all over the inhabited galaxy, thanks entirely to the Professor.
When we arrived back at Site S, things had changed a lot. Everyone appeared frantically busy. The Prof limped off on a metal crutch to see Bird and the ship and Kimmie and the Demons. I reported to Doggie that we were back. He was looking over a huge, glowing wall screen when I walked into his office. It showed a gigantic swath of space, scattered with stars and nebulae. Blackie, our wolf mascot, noticed me before Doggie did. Blackie stood up but did not react with hostility. He appeared to have been expecting me. What a beautiful animal!
"Prophet!" Doggie said, "how did it go?"
"It worked out fine," I replied.
"I heard that the Prof turned down a peaceful turnover of his daughter in favor of raiding the detention facility and freeing everybody."
"That's right. And it almost cost him his life. The man is a saint."
"That's a ten. Easy, Blackie. Friend!" Blackie was sniffing me anxiously. At the word from Doggie, he settled down again, panting lightly, lying on the floor.
"What's the starmap?" I asked.
"Area of Operations," Doggie replied, turning back to the map. "That's Galinta, right there." He lit it up with a crimson laser. "Right in the middle of nowhere. It's the armpit of the Gulf, too far away and hostile to be claimed by anybody except for the crazies who settled it." It looked like a jewel, floating in paradise, surrounded by sparkling nebulae and glowing molecular clouds. "The closest major human settlements are Asumara, Nimbos and Angaroth and nobody there has any interest in the fate of Galinta." He lit them up with the laser.
"Don't those fools know they will be next?"
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