“They think we are working for Lith Dae, but I’m telling them the story,” Kasta said to me before she started speaking in Russian again. I saw a few of the citizens start to nod, and the motion drew my attention to their faces. They were all very skinny. Not as skinny as Jatal’s people were when we returned with our massive shipment of food, but it was apparent that the citizens in this bunker weren’t eating more than a few hundred calories every day.
A group of men was looking through our car, and I saw them yank our rifles out, and toss them at the feet of a man who did most of the talking with Kasta. He was a bear-looking man, with a long black beard speckled with gray. He looked down at our rifles, shook his head a bit, and then picked mine up. He asked Kasta a question, and she turned to me.
“He wants to know how your rifle works.”
“It shoots any caliber bullet. The barrel and firing systems adjust so it won’t have a failure to feed or a failure to eject. Did you tell him that Lith Dae is sending a bunch of marines down the lift and we don’t have a lot of time? We need to upload that drone code.”
“I keep telling him. As I said, they are having a problem believing me.”
“They aren’t going to have a chance to change their minds when Lith Dae’s marines drop down the lift.”
“I will tell them again,” Kasta said and then she spoke to the burly man. He glanced down at the rifle, over at me, and then I saw his eyes drift up to the shaft where the lift was.
The man turned to me. Our eyes met, and we stared at each other for a good fifteen seconds. Then he nodded at me and barked an order to the others. They lowered their guns and helped us to our feet, but they didn’t give us back our rifles.
“Do your cars up top have a visual on Lith Dae?” I asked Kasta.
“Too far,” she said as she shook her head. “I didn’t see them land, we were already out of range.”
The burly man said something to Kasta, and she gestured to me and the lift while she spoke to him.
“How many more minutes until they make it down?” I asked.
“The lift will reach the top in another minute,” she said.
“Do they have anything else we can use for cover?” I asked as I looked around the massive room. Besides our ruined car, the space was empty.
Kasta asked the man, and he shook his head. Then he pointed up the lift and back toward the double doors leading out of the place.
“He thinks they can hold them off at the doors there while others take us to the terminal that controls the drones,” Kasta translated.
“Hmmm,” I said as I looked at the far doors. If this bunker were laid out similar to the southeast one, which would lead to the major hallway of the living areas.
“Ask him if any of his people have explosives that can be remotely detonated.”
“Okay,” Kasta said to me before she turned to the other man. She asked the question, and he nodded. Then he barked an order, and one of his men stepped up to him. That man was carrying the rocket launcher, and he opened his vest to expose blocks of what looked like explosive plaster.
“Does the car still drive?” I asked Kasta.
“I think so,” she said. “But I’m not going to move it now. It might scare them.”
“Tell them to move the car over here,” I said as I pointed toward the door. Then I pointed at the burly leader and made a motion for the car to move. I beckoned for them all to follow me, and I walked toward the double doors leading to the main area of the bunker.
“Set it here,” I said as I pointed at a spot some fifteen meters from the doors.
The other man started speaking, and Kasta nodded.
“He likes the idea. They will run here for cover, then his team can blow up the car at the opportune time.”
“Yeah, but tell him they might have their own vehicle. Their shuttlecraft is large, so we don’t know what’s going to come down the lift. We need to get to the drone control terminal as soon as we can so we can upload the code and then help them defend.”
Kasta translated, and the man barked another order. A bunch of his men ran to the car and started to push it toward the spot I had marked while the one with the explosives started peeling the plaster out from behind his vest.
“He wants us to follow him,” Kasta said after the burly man spoke to her. I nodded, and we all jogged toward the double doors. Two of his soldiers went with him, both women, and they carried our rifles over their shoulders.
We pushed through the double doors and ran down the long hallway. I expected him to make the first turn where Housing block 1A was in the southeast bunker, but the trio ran past the hallway.
“There isn’t anyone around,” Paula said after we jogged down the corridor for another minute. Kasta spoke to the three in front of us, and one of the women answered with a curt sentence.
“An alarm sounded when the bunker doors opened, and they thought it was Lith Dae, everyone is taking refuge on lower floors.” As soon as Kasta finished speaking, we rounded a corner, and there were thirty armored guards waiting behind a barricade. The big man shouted out an order, and the wall of armored bodies parted to let us through.
We ran through more empty hallways, turned two more corners, and then came to an open common area that looked as if it could function as a cafeteria or an auditorium. There was another group of soldiers here, and they let us through after the leader shouted at them.
Then we were at an elevator, and one of the women who accompanied us pressed the button to call the car.
“What’s his name?” I asked Kasta.
The android turned to the three and introduced us, and then they replied with their names. The large man was named Yegor, and the women were Varya and Svetlana. The elevator doors opened as soon as they finished introducing themselves, and the six of us stepped inside the car.
“How many people do they have down here? Is this the only bunker where people retreated to? Did you tell him we went to the southeast bunker?” I asked Kasta.
“I’ll see if they will tell me. They seem to like us a little more now that you told them to blow up our car.” Kasta turned to the trio and began to speak in the unfamiliar language.
“There are around six hundred thousand in this bunker,” Kasta said.
“That’s a lot of people,” Paula said with gasp.
“He said they have been in communication with the northeast bunker. They were never in communication with the southeast bunker, but the southwest bunker lost contact with them four months ago. He said they were leaving during the day to try and get supplies. The leadership thinks Lith Dae or the drones must have gotten in.”
“Was that the bunker we found the note directing us to Faddy’s place?” Paula asked.
“Yes, I told him it was closed when we explored the city a few days ago. Both of the north bunkers decided not to go topside. They are running out of food though, and the people are starting to riot. If we can really fix the drones, they will be very thankful. They also have a way to send word to the other bunkers on the planet, but they kept radio silence on the channel because they didn’t want Lith Dae overhearing anything.”
“Good. They might be able to send word now, and Lith Dae won’t know because Zea broke their communication systems.”
“That was what I was thinking too,” Kasta said with a nod. “They might not believe me if I tell them though. They don’t seem very computer savvy.”
“Don’t they have any programmers here who could have figured out the code to the drones?” I asked. “They are sitting on it here.”
Kasta turned to ask Yegor the question, and she nodded at his response before translating for me. “They have computer engineers, but they are used to civil works. The code they got for the drones was from Lith Dae, and they haven’t been able to figure out how to edit it yet.”
“I can see that,” said Paula. “Zea had to help me break it open in the first place, and it took me a bit to figure out all the moving parts. If they have never worke
d with drones before, or don’t have a hacker, it would probably be impossible.”
One of the women, Varya, spoke to Kasta. My friend answered, and then Yegor made a sharp comment as he shook his head. The two turned to talk to each other, and I waited for Kasta to update me.
“She asked us how many ships we came with and how many Lith Dae had. I told them they had six to our one ship. Yegor told her to worry about it later, and it wasn’t our problem. He just really wants us to fix the drones. They have been living in terror for many years.”
“That is what we will do,” I said as I nodded at Yegor. His cold eyes met mine again, and he returned my nod.
“I have bad news,” Kasta said. “The lift has just lowered. I left my drones out there. Lith Dae has a small armored vehicle. I couldn’t get an exact count on the marines before they shot my drones down, but there are at least eight of them.”
“Shit,” I said. “We’ll come back and help as soon as we deploy the code.”
The elevator door opened, and we followed Yegor, Varya, and Svetlana out down the hallway. There were more armored men and women in the corridors here, but the weapons were looking a little shabbier. Some of the guards even carried bolt action rifles that looked like something pulled out of a museum. I guessed the planet never really had any major military conflict, and the military weapons I saw so far were probably tools they traded when other ships visited the planet. These guns looked like they were hunting tools.
Yegor pointed us to a room, and we walked inside. This was a command center about half the size of the room we used in the southeast bunker, but this place was filled with a dozen techs watching terminal screens. There was a tall woman sitting in a chair in the center of the room, and she rose to meet Yegor.
“This is the leader of the bunker. Her name is Alava,” Kasta said, and the woman nodded to us.
Alava looked to be in her mid-fifties in Earth years, but it was always hard to tell for sure on off worlds. She could have been twenty, or a hundred. Her hair was black with a few streaks of gray. Her face was a diamond shape and her features sharp. She nodded to us and then gestured to the terminal where she sat. Then she said a few words to Kasta, and my friend nodded.
“This is where they want us to update the code,” the android said.
“That’s me,” Paula said as she pulled the data fob from her belt. Then she sat down in Alva’s chair and plugged the device into one of the ports there.
Yegor started speaking to Kasta, but his eyes were on me the entire time he spoke to her. Kasta nodded at his words, and then she pointed to Paula and said a short sentence.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“The usual. If this doesn’t do what I said it would do, he’ll kill us.”
“Oh great, no pressure,” Paula groaned.
“You’ll do fine. You are a genius with drones and programming,” I said.
“Thanks, Adam. I’ll make it work.” Paula gave me a quick smile and then she started to type on the computer’s keyboard.
The entire room was standing around us now, and everyone seemed to be holding their breath as the beautiful engineer worked. Five minutes passed, and I saw a drop of perspiration form on her smooth forehead. Her face was a blank canvas of concentration, but I noticed Yegor cross his arms and frown.
Another few minutes passed. It was obvious Paula was working because her fingers were moving across the control of the terminal, and the screens were changing, but I could tell the burly man was getting a bit impatient. Alava was the other power in the room, and a quick glance at her face convinced me that she didn’t share any of her comrade’s annoyance.
For now. Who knows what she would do in another five minutes.
Then Paula let out a shout of joy, threw her arms up in the air, and leaned back in her chair.
“It’s done! They took the code!” she shouted.
Kasta didn’t need to translate, two of the techs leaned in over Paula’s shoulder, looked at the graphical display there, and then grins split their faces.
The rest of the room erupted into a cheer.
“It’s not going to be instant. They will have to wait for all the drones to go around the planet and then return,” Paula said to her sister as Yegor hugged her.
“I’ll explain,” Kasta said. She was being hugged by Svetlana and another man. They were actually crying with joy, and their emotions seemed to have caught the android woman a bit by surprise.
Varya gave me a hug, and Alava shook my hand while someone else patted me on the back. I heard Kasta trying to explain to them that they still needed to wait, but I don’t think any of the citizens cared. Waiting a few hours was nothing when compared to how many days they had been stuck in the bunker.
Then we heard the gunshots, and the crowd’s celebration skidded to a halt.
“Give me my rifle,” I said to Yegor as I held out my hand. “There is more work to do before you are free of Lith Dae.”
The man didn’t need Kasta to translate. He just nodded, gave me my weapon, and gestured for his companions to give the twins back their guns. Then I turned toward the exit door of the command center and prepared myself to kill a bunch of these Lith Dae assholes.
Chapter 19
The hallway outside the command center door was clear of enemies and allies, so I paused for a second to get my bearings, then I heard a blast of gunfire to my left, and I jogged in that direction.
“Ugh. Wish I had a drone,” Kasta said from behind me.
“I want you both to stay way back,” I said. “These will be trained marines. They will be able to put a bullet through a fingernail at two hundred meters.”
“Got it,” Kasta said.
“You can’t do everything by yourself. We want to help you,” Paula said, and I glanced over my shoulder as I ran. The woman’s blue eyes were big, and I could smell the fear coming from her body.
Her words were sincere though, and I recalled first meeting them on Queen’s Hat. I had thought of them as arm candy for Byron, but I’d been so wrong. They were both amazing women, and I felt my stomach flip flop when I realized how fortunate I was to have them both with us on Persephone.
“I haven’t done everything by myself. You both have done more than I have this mission. You fixed the code for the drones, and your sister built all the cars that we used so far. Each of us has our specialty, and I’m good at shooting people with guns. I might need your help, but you have to let me do the heavy lifting. Stay far behind me.”
The twins nodded, and I turned to continue my run down the hallway. The sounds of gunfire were getting closer, and I realized the Lith Dae troops were probably at the center auditorium room we ran through a bit earlier. I was surprised that they made it down here so quickly. We had passed at least thirty other hallways, then taken an elevator down, and then passed another dozen doors to reach this place. Even if Lith Dae had sent two hundred marines down here, there was no way they could have split up and gotten this exact trail correct.
They knew where they were going, and the thought wasn’t comforting.
I turned the last corner and saw the back part of the main room. The Uraniel natives were taking cover behind a bunker they set up, and I saw a stream of bullets pelt the concrete walls they hid behind. The hallway where I emerged was kitty corner to the line of skirmish, so I figured I would have a few seconds to get some shots off before the Lith Dae marines could return fire. I flipped the safety off on my rifle, glanced down to make sure the power meter was still close to full, and then moved to dash to the corner. A strong hand closed over my shoulder before I could move, and I glanced over to see Yegor standing next to me. The big man held a rifle in his left hand, but he carried a grenade launcher in his right, and he passed the weapon to me.
“Big boom,” he said with a wide and slightly insane smile.
I was starting to like this guy.
“Fuck yeah.” I grinned at the bearded man, flipped the safety of my rifle back on, and then tossed i
t back over my shoulder as I grabbed the grenade launcher from him. I must have used hundreds of different firearms in the course of my career, and the grip to this beast felt very comfortable in my hands.
I darted to the corner and heard Yegor’s heavy footfalls behind me. The beast in my stomach wanted to be released. It wanted to rip, tear, maul, and bite my enemies. It wanted to crush them under my boots and turn them into liquid with a spray of bullets. Letting the beast free would be a bad idea, so I pushed it back down into the dark recess of my stomach. I doubted these people would be comfortable with a tiger-man running around near them without some sort of long winded explanation that would need to be translated.
I poked out from the corner and pointed my grenade launcher. Then I let out a grunt and ducked back around before I thought any of them noticed me.
The Lith Dae marines were actually using a single battle drone as a vanguard to their assault. It was a good three meters tall, shaped vaguely like a man, and carried a heavy caliber assault rifle in one hand and a half-melted shield in the other. The marines were taking cover behind the hulking drone, and the bullets from the Uraniel guards were just bouncing off the armor as if they were made of glass.
These Lith Dae assholes had a moveable barrier that could shoot back at opponents. It was no wonder they were able to tear through the bunker to get here so fast. It still didn’t explain how they knew to go in this direction, but I could worry about it after I killed them all.
How would I kill them all? My new grenade launcher would make short work of the marines taking cover behind the drone, but they were positioned in a way that would make it very difficult to hit them, and I doubted my rounds would do more than tickle the robot. The melted shield it carried probably got that way by blocking the fire from the plasma rifle the guard up on the second floor had carried.
The easiest way to kill a drone was to kill its pilot, and I suspected the controller was positioned some ten meters behind the group of marines I saw. He or she probably had a pair of marines guarding them. If I wanted to get the controller, I was going to have to run past the drone, the group of eight marines, and then the two or three more marines who might be around the corner.
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