“Keryn, are you there?” The radio broke her from her meditations. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
Keryn keyed her microphone. “I’m fine,” she said calmly, before remembering why she came aboard in the first place. “You need to get your group out of there now, Yen. They know where you are and are closing in on your position.”
Suddenly, the lights went out, casting the interior of the Destroyer into impenetrable darkness.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Yen frowned in the darkness. The inky blackness was so encompassing that he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. “Everyone switch to thermals,” he ordered.
The world slowly came back into focus, bathed in the cool blue hues of the ship’s interior, contrasted sharply by the vibrant reds and oranges of body heat being emanated from his team. Under the scrutiny of thermal imaging, Yen could see the quickly cooling puddles of heat, pools of blood that had poured from the bodies of his injured men. Already three of his men were injured, one severely. Though they had broken through the Terran ambush, the enemy had taken their toll on Yen’s small strike force.
Yen looked down the hall, where shades of increasingly deep blue stared back. The view was unnerving. While using the thermal goggles, Yen lost his depth perception. Objects that were dozens of feet away looked no further than Yen’s own men, who stood less than ten from him. At first, Yen felt a sense of vertigo wash over him. He remembered feeling the same way during his first trip into space. He had seen planets on the front view screen of the ship and they had appeared as massive orbs hanging in the night sky. But as they flew closer, at speeds rivaling the speed of light, the orbs grew no closer. With no sense of depth, it was nearly impossible to tell how near or far an object truly was.
Straining to look down the hall, Yen could see no sign of the pursuing Terran force, but Yen wasn’t fooled. It would only be a matter of time before the wide hallway was filled in an angry yellow glow as nearly thirty Terrans reached Yen’s position. Turning back toward his team, Yen watched as they loaded the wounded onto collapsible litters. Though his soldiers needed medical care, Yen refused to leave until they had completed their mission. Still, their mission would have been unfortunately brief had Keryn not risked her own life to warn Yen.
Keying his microphone, he called to Keryn. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she replied. “I lit a glow stick, so at least I can see again.”
“I need you to go back to the ship,” Yen said sternly, eager to cut off any argument before she could make foolish recommendations about coming to his rescue. “There are too many Terrans between you and my team. You’d never make it if you tried to come get us.”
“So what about you? I just leave you all here to die?”
Yen looked around the darkness. “We’ll find another way.”
“How?” Keryn asked defiantly.
“I don’t know,” Yen replied harshly. He didn’t want to argue with Keryn right now, not when he had so much more to contend with. They were finishing loading the wounded soldiers onto the litters and were almost ready to move. Yen wasn’t happy about the arrangement, however. Three soldiers were wounded and unable to fight, but six more would be slow to react since their hands were full with the litters. Until they escaped the ship, Yen knew that his team would be moving slowly, which put them at a greater risk of the Terrans surrounding them before they could escape. All the more reason, Yen realized, to complete their mission, find a way to escape, and put some space between his team and the Terran Destroyer. Without speaking, Yen gestured for his team to move out. Moving deeper toward the aft of the ship, Yen felt his frustration build. Logic and emotion battled within him. He knew Keryn was just concerned about him and wanted him to be safe, but in a time of war emotion was a detriment. She needed to think less about keeping him safe and worry more about self-preservation.
When his radio clicked back on and he heard Keryn’s voice again, Yen realized how long the uncomfortable silence had stretched between the two. Is this what it would be like to date Keryn? Uncomfortable silences as both played their passive aggressive roles? Shaking his head, Yen pushed aside thoughts of a future relationship with her. It was a distracter he didn’t need right now.
“I think I might know a way out,” Keryn said excitedly, snapping Yen free of his wandering mind.
“How?” Yen asked.
“When we docked, there was another Cair ship that docked near the far end of the Destroyer, just above where the hull swells to compensate for the engine room. It was still there when I left the Cair Ilmun, which means that the infiltration team may still be somewhere around your location. You’ll need to head up one floor, but you should be able to evacuate the Destroyer on their Cair.”
“We’ll head that way,” Yen said. Though they were speaking on a private channel, Yen still lowered his voice so as to not let others hear what he said next. “Be careful, Keryn. I mean it.”
“Always,” Keryn replied confidently before turning off her microphone.
Yen looked over his shoulder at the blue shades of hallway behind them. There was still no sign of the Terrans, though that barely put him at ease. They knew the ship significantly better than did Yen’s team. They also knew where Yen and his team were now headed. From their current position, it left little doubt that the engine room would be their target. Even now, they could be moving parallel to his position, taking shortcuts in order to cut them off. The more Yen thought about it, the more real the possibility became. This was their ship, after all. It made sense that they would be flanking Yen, trying to destroy him before he could complete his mission. He glanced nervously left and right. Though there were no shadows in the blue glow of the thermal goggles, Yen could feel the presence of Terrans all around him. It had been over a century since the last Alliance soldier was on board a Terran ship. No one knew what technology they had in their possession. Maybe they were able to cloak themselves from heat signatures.
Yen raised his fist, calling the team to a halt. Penchant, from the point position, and Adam, from the rear of the group, came to Yen’s side to find out what made them stop. They both looked at Yen inquisitively, though the psychic’s focus seemed a million miles away.
“We need to keep moving,” Penchant said quietly.
“We’re almost above the engines,” Adam added. Yen knew he was right. He could feel the gentle vibrations in the floor. “Let’s get this mission done and get out of here.”
“No,” Yen said sternly, his eyes slowly coming back into focus. “No, they’re waiting for us.”
“You can’t know that,” Penchant replied impatiently.
Yen frowned. Through the goggles, Penchant couldn’t see the stern look Yen gave, though the intent was obvious. “I can know it. I can feel it in the walls, under my feet, in the air. They’re all around us, even now.”
Adam looked around nervously. Gesturing, the team spread out further, hiding as well as possible in the surrounding alcoves. “I hope you’re not right, Yen,” Adam whispered. “We’re too close to the back of the Destroyer to suddenly run into a small army of Terrans.”
Yen closed his eyes, letting the contrasting blue and red heat signatures disappear into an open field of black. There was a use of his psychic power that Yen had used before, when he served as a spotter on a sniper team. Then, he had used his abilities to look through solid walls to find Terran soldiers before his team entered a building. Breathing deeply, Yen let that same power saturate his mind.
Adam took a step back as waves of heat patterns danced in the air around Yen. The patterns swirled as though Yen were caught in the center of a raging inferno. A stab of pain bit into Yen’s forehead above his right eye, but he shook it away without a second thought, concentrating instead on finding his focus. As he opened his eyes, the walls around him melted away. His thermal-enhanced vision pierced the solid structures of the ship, revealing a gentle glow of heat from a short distance ahead, near the rear of the Destroyer. Push
ing his second sight deeper into the ship, the glow consolidated into individual heat signatures. Yen had been right. Not only had the Terrans flanked his position and cut him off from the engine room, they had already set up defensive positions around the stairwell and elevator lifts that would grant access to the lower engines. If they were to complete their mission, Yen and his team would have to find a way through the Terran defenders.
Walls slowly reformed in his vision as Yen retracted his psychic powers until, finally, he found himself standing back with his team. Grimacing, his head pounding, Yen rested his hands on his knees as he waited for the nausea to subside. “They’ve set up another ambush for us.”
“Where?” Penchant asked. “How many?”
Yen took a deep breath and stood upright. The world swam before his eyes for a moment before settling. “There are about thirty or so Terrans dug in around the stairs and elevators at the rear of the ship. They’re set up around some sort of open foyer.”
“Then we go another way,” Adam stated.
Yen shook his head. “There is no other way. By now, the Terrans have cut us off from behind too.”
“So we just go forward,” Penchant said, his tone implying that it was not a question. Yen smiled weakly, knowing that if anyone would be eager for a fight, it would be the Lithid.
“Yes,” Yen confirmed. “We go forward and we finish the mission we started.”
“I’m assuming you have a plan,” Adam said, shrugging his shoulders in defeat.
“More or less.”
“That isn’t very convincing,” Adam frowned.
“Well, I have less of a plan and more of a good idea,” Yen said, smiling mischievously. “Adam, I want you to take a team over one hall and then turn toward the back of the ship. I’ll take the other team and continue on ahead. This still won’t be an easy fight and our only real chance is to hit them from multiple angles to keep them guessing.”
“What about them?” Adam asked, pointing at the three wounded.
Oradine, one of Yen’s Avalon soldiers, was still bleeding from an abdominal wound in spite of the coagulants applied to the gunshot. They would be a liability during the battle. He really only had one choice.
“We leave them here for now,” Yen said, regretfully. “Once we make a hole through the Terrans, we gather them up before we move to the Cair.”
Adam’s brow furrowed in disapproval. “What if the hole we make through the Terran ambush is only temporary? What if we don’t have time to come back and get them?”
Yen frowned, already foreseeing Adam’s line of questioning. He had wondered the same things before making the difficult decision. “We can say ‘what if’ all day, but in the end it has to be my decision. If I’m wrong about this and we have to leave them, then I’ll be the one that has to live with it.”
He could see Adam’s disappointment, but the Pilgrim said nothing else. Yen and Adam split the team down the middle, the Oterian remaining with Yen so that each group carried a heavy machine gun. As the others checked their weapons and any explosives they carried, Yen pulled Adam aside.
“This isn’t going to be an easy fight,” Yen explained. “Stay on your toes.”
“What do you want to use as the signal to engage?” Adam’s tone was completely professional, betraying nothing of his previous dissatisfaction.
“The Terrans will be on thermals too, but we’re going to try to minimize their effectiveness in this fight. Stay out of sight with your team until I initiate contact. If all goes well, I’ll be able to open a small window where the Terrans will be distracted. You move when that happens.”
Adam nodded in agreement. “In that case, I should be wishing you luck. Sounds like you’re just suicidal enough to need it!”
Reaching out, they shook hands before Adam turned away. Gathering his team, he jogged back down the hall, the way they had already come. Shortly thereafter, he found the side hallway and disappeared from sight. Yen watched a moment longer, making sure he wasn’t surprised by gunfire. When he was confident that Adam was on his way, Yen gathered his own men and moved down the hall.
After only a brief walk, Yen slowed his group. Ahead, an open doorway emitted a steady glow of heat. Slipping forward, Yen moved until he could peer around the corner of the alcove and examine the source of the glow. Beyond the open doorway, the room opened into a metal shop, which glowed with its own red aura of warmth. Stepping inside, Yen felt the heat rolling off of the majority of tools within the shop. When the Alliance had attacked, the shop must have been in full use, repairing and fortifying the Destroyer. Though evacuated quickly, the ambient warmth remained long after the Terrans were gone. Yen held his hand above a set of welding torches, the tips of which still glowed a brilliant white. The flame when lit, Yen realized, would have to burn incredibly hot to still leave such a high residual heat after being turned off for quite some time. Slowly, a plan began formulating in his mind. With a smile, Yen picked up the nearest torch, examining the searing tip. This would be just the distraction Adam would need to make his attack. Picking up a second torch, Yen rejoined his team. No one made a comment about his new weapons as he moved them further down the hall. Eventually, the hallway ended in a sharp turn, one that Yen knew would lead to the open foyer beyond.
Leading the way, Yen flattened himself against the corner. He dared not peak around, knowing that even the fainted sliver of his face would give off a telltale heat signature. Instead, he lined up the rest of his team behind him before opening the valves on both the welding torches. A faint hiss was released, followed by the sharp smell of gaseous fuel. Opening his hands, the two torches floated weightless in the air, encapsulated in the soft blue glow of his psychic energy. Yen pushed the pair around the corner, hanging in the air at nearly head level. He could only imagine how the white-tipped torches would appear to the Terran soldiers. Side by side, they would have looked like the eyes of a demon, emerging from the cool blue of the surrounding walls. A demon was a fitting image, Yen realized, as he snapped his fingers. On the torches, flint and steel struck together on his command, showering the front of the torches with sparks. The burning embers ignited the leaking gas, erupting into jets of flames that burned scorching white.
Under the view of the thermal goggles, the light burned the Terrans’ pupils as it overloaded their goggles, casting them into a thick darkness. Yen could hear their screams of both surprise and pain as he suddenly released the valves and shut off the flames. Stepping around the corner, his men moving quickly with him, they began firing into the front of the Terran ranks.
The Terrans had taken cover behind barricades, but many had stood in agony as the flames left permanent lights dancing in their vision. Exposed to the still goggled Alliance team, the Terrans dropped as rounds tore through flesh and shattered bone. Taking advantage of the distraction, Yen charged forward, the rest of his team close behind. Hurdling the low barricade, Yen fired directly into the faces of the stunned Terran soldiers. Blood splashed across the floor as the Terrans fell and Yen tucked into a roll on the far side, narrowly avoiding their blinded counter fire. Turning to follow Yen’s attack, the Terrans were woefully unprepared as Penchant led the rest of the team through the barricade. His face elongated into a snout with razor-sharp incisors, Penchant clamped his powerful jaws down on the head of a nearby Terran. Shaking his head from side to side, the Lithid reveled in the coppery taste of the blood that filled his mouth. Penchant dropped the limp and mangled body to the floor as Karanath smashed into the barricade, shattering its weak foundation and sending wood, metal, and Terrans sprawling onto the floor of the foyer.
At the same time, he could hear Adam leading his team against the eastern barrier, his heavy machine gun tearing through the sheets of metal and the tender flesh behind it. As they tried to regroup to face the new threat, Yen flicked his hand toward the Terran defenses. Panes of metal sheeting and wooden slivers flew from the ground, tearing through the air like make-shift projectiles. The wood and metal sliced
through flesh, peppering the Terran soldiers. Collapsing to the ground in pain, the Terrans were easy targets for Adam’s team as they broke through the far barricade.
The Terrans that had survived thus far broke ranks as they tried to flee the combined assault, but found there was nowhere to go. With both major exits cut off by Yen’s team, they tried to run across the open foyer and charge up the stairs. Left in the open with no cover, however, Yen’s men made quick work of the last of the soldiers.
They stood in silence around the corpses of the Terrans, taking in the scene. As far as they knew, this was one of the first major engagements against the Terrans and, through two ambushes, Yen’s team had decimated their ranks. He felt virtually invincible, ready to take on the entire Empire. However, he had enough wits about him to know that it was time for them to move on. Giving commands, Yen ordered some of the team to go retrieve the wounded soldiers. Adam joined him as he stood in the gap between the staircase and the elevator.
“What are you thinking?” Adam asked.
“Up or down. I can’t decide which way I want to go.”
Adam turned toward Yen. The Pilgrim’s face was flushed from the exertion and he was smeared with blood, though Yen couldn’t tell how much of that, if any, was his. “I appreciate what we’ve been doing here as much as anyone, Yen. We’ve done some damn incredible things with a fairly small group. But this is just one floor. They know we’re going for the engine room, so we can expect this to get worse every step of the way. Let’s take the stairs up and get on that Cair and get the hell out of here.”
Yen nodded as though agreeing, but didn’t move. His eyes remained fixated on the elevator. “Where do you think it leads?” he asked cryptically.
Adam had started to turn away, but now followed Yen’s gaze. “The elevator?”
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