“A send-off? I’m touched, guys. This is so nice.”
Jape came forward. He looked unhappy, but he managed a tight smile. “We wanted you to remember us well. Though we may have wondered about your people, you are an honorable woman—and a true warrior. Be well, Anneliese.”
Behind him, Mirtan nodded and tipped an ear. Dinu called, “Don’t drink any bad ale.”
Anneliese laughed with them and saluted Snim, the maker of her favorite brew. He put his hand on his chest with a broad grin.
“Thank you. All of you.” She turned her attention to the Bonch sitting on his haunches nearby. “How’s my knee smell, Efno? I’ll have plenty of snow to shovel at home, and I put more stock in your opinion than any doctor’s.”
Efno got up and came over, sniffing at her leg. The Risnarish hid smiles as he did so.
His orange eyes shining, Efno said, “Give it at least two more days, please.”
“Better still, ask for help. I promise, it won’t kill you.” Salno stepped from behind the control podium to stand in front of Anneliese. The two women looked at each other with affection, Salno’s undisguised fondness radiating. “What will you tell those who question your absence?”
Anneliese shrugged. Except for the protest she’d been due at in Ottawa, possibly no one would have missed her. If her extended absence had been noted, it wouldn’t have been greeted with a lot of surprise.
Suddenly lonely, she said, “I’ll tell them I got a call from another of the survivors, a fellow soldier I served with. That he was in bad shape and I had to leave without telling anyone. It’s happened before.”
“How does a close friend on Earth say goodbye?” Salno asked.
“With a terribly explicit show of love. Brace yourself.”
Anneliese wrapped her arms around Salno’s willowy frame and hugged her. Salno chuckled as she squeezed her in return.
Anneliese stepped away. “Loosen up, woman. Learn a joke.”
Salno nodded. Her smile trembled and her ears flattened as Nex’s did when he was hurt. Anneliese turned before she could crumble at the overt sign of her friend’s distress.
Anneliese followed Nex to the platform where the saucer awaited, its hatch open. She took his hand and paused before gingerly mounting the ramp, a task her knee did not appreciate. She looked at the Risnarish, the people who would continue the fight she could not. The fight for both their worlds, to keep them all safe.
She placed her hand over her heart. “From my spirit to yours, thank you on behalf of my people. May the Creator guide you and keep you. Be well, my friends. I’ll miss you.”
With the exception of Efno, they copied the gesture. “From my spirit to yours,” they chorused. Some added well wishes, but Anneliese had trouble making them out. The sudden surge of profound grief made sound dull and distant.
Nevertheless, the sound of a hiss behind her was loud, and the startled expressions that erupted on the faces pointed in her direction warned Anneliese. Ignoring the warning tinge in her knee, she whirled with Nex in time to see the hatch to the saucer closing. The next second, the retrieval pod rose in the air. The portal opening burst into roaring life, a whipping, red-tinged circle of golden fire.
“It’s not me!” Salno cried, racing to the podium. “The portal has been activated from a remote location!”
Nex grabbed Anneliese around the waist, lifting her up and retreating from the platform as the hatch finished closing. A second later, the saucer flung itself into the golden fire. It disappeared with a loud cracking sound, as if the earth itself had split wide open. Then the fire disappeared. The portal had closed.
Jape pulled his shooter from his belt. “It’s some sort of Monsudan trick. Arm yourselves!”
The rest of the men readied their weapons, but they had nothing to shoot at. For a few seconds, silence pulsed through the room as they waited for something to happen. Anneliese clutched Nex, her attention riveted just as intently on the portal.
The staccato sound of scatter-shot and sudden yells of surprised anger came from the corridor behind them. The group whirled to face the doorway.
Jape’s furious shout rose above the growing din. “They got through our defenses again! Form up! Salno, Anneliese, Efno, stay close!”
“Activate your belt. Stay with me,” Nex snarled, setting Anneliese on her feet and drawing his shooter. Anneliese switched on her containment field and listened to the nearing sounds of desperate fighting. Her hands itched to snatch Nex’s weapon from him.
“I don’t suppose you’ve got a spare shooter?”
Nex grimaced. “Sorry. We could use your skill, but you’re going to have to rely on us this time.”
Great. The one thing she could never do.
Chapter Nineteen
“Get ready to move out. Those who are unarmed, stay in the middle of the company. We’ll get you to Cas—hold on.” Jape paused in barking orders to grab something from his belt. Rapid-fire Risnarish speech issued from his CPP. The system didn’t translate the tinny voice for Anneliese.
It did translate Jape’s answer. “They’re using short-hop ports? That shouldn’t be possible with the containment in place! Alert Cas and try to hold them at bay while we evacuate the civilians from the hive.”
He turned to the group. “Form up ranks. Nex, you stay behind with the women and Efno. Let’s keep them out of it—”
He was cut off as the portal roared to life again. They whirled as the saucer returned. Striped arms rose, pointing shooters.
“Don’t shoot into the portal!” Salno shouted over the gale-like din. “The plasma bullets are powered devices. It will explode if they go into the vortex!”
She needn’t have warned them. The portal shut down again, and the great golden fire ceased once more—but it was replaced by smaller ones. Oval blooms of gilded flames opened throughout the room, scattering the Risnarish. Meanwhile, the saucer hatch opened, and more drones poured out of it.
“Drones coming in!” Nex shouted, shoving Anneliese to the floor. In the next second, scatter-shot and plasma fire filled the room.
A high-pitched scream got Anneliese’s attention. Salno cringed behind the podium, her expression far from placid as she was struck by glancing shot. Tiny rills of blood marred the yellow skin of her stomach and chest.
“Salno!” Anneliese crawled frantically to her friend, staying as low as possible. She was peppered by shot, but the activated containment belt kept her safe. There was only the glare of the fire hitting her field, making her squint.
She reached Salno. “Get all the way down!” Anneliese grabbed the woman’s wrist and pulled her to the floor. She felt the hardness of Salno’s skin and breathed a sigh of relief that she’d at least had the sense to armor. “How bad are you hurt?”
“Not—not badly. It’s just scratches. I’ll be fine.” Salno blinked. She breathed hard, but Anneliese saw long-practiced control chase most of the panic from her friend’s face.
Fighting raged all around them. Efno crept to their sides, his heaving sides painted with a pinkish-gray liquid that might have been blood. Risnarish warriors circled around them, fighting dozens of drones.
Anneliese peered through a forest of striped legs, looking for Nex when she realized he wasn’t among those protecting her. She saw him near the portal, cut off from the main group she was in. He fired at the drones, which were still arriving via the small, temporary portals. His face, usually so gentle, had become a bestial mask. He roared like an animal, firing and firing and firing, taking down drones as fast as they came at him. Though small wounds sent dribbles of blood running down his body, he never reacted. High on adrenaline, he probably didn’t feel a single hit.
“Nex, look out!” The portal behind him had flared to life once more, depositing a second saucer on the platform. Another squadron of drones marched from the newly arrived transport pod, moving
directly at Anneliese’s lover.
Jape, who stood over Anneliese, roared, “Incoming! Nex, Lan, get over here. Everyone, gather with us! Regroup!”
There were a lot of drones, however. The Risnarish who were isolated from Anneliese’s group by the swarms of drones, began to fall. Some stopped firing, turning to statues as the drones surrounded them with capture fields.
Jape’s second-in-command, a brown and green warrior named Lan, was among those who fell. A point-blank scatter-shot burst exploded his armored chest. His shooter spun from him, landing between the screaming Jape’s feet.
The weapon was within Anneliese’s reach. She didn’t hesitate. She grabbed it and jumped to her feet, shoving past the cordon that had protected her for long enough. She fired a concentrated burst, trying to open a path to the still-fighting Nex.
The drones were closing in on him. They were too numerous for him to take out with the short bursts of fire that told Anneliese he was running out of power.
For an instant, Nex’s eyes met hers. He shouted, his bellow rising above the fire. “Leave me, Jape! Salno! Efno! Grab Anneliese and get out of here! Go before it’s too late!”
The drones between Anneliese and Nex were a swelling tide, far too many to fight through. Anneliese snarled and kept firing. She would not leave him. She would not.
Jape’s shout sounded strangled. “Pull back! Everyone, pull back! Retreat!”
Anneliese had no intention of doing such a thing. She had to get to Nex. She’d been so focused in doing so that she hadn’t realized her containment field had failed until she was grabbed from behind. She jerked a glance to find it was Salno yanking her by the arm. Efno dug his teeth into her pants leg, and he braced all four legs, fighting to tug her toward the corridor. Away from Nex.
Nex continued to fight, but the drones were too close. A shot from their front line would kill him. Anneliese shrieked as she tried to pull free of Salno and Efno, as she attempted to fight to the man she loved, paying no attention to the scatter-shot painfully smacking against her vest-covered chest. “Nex! Nex, come on! Let me go, damn you!”
Her voice froze in her throat. Her gaze had been drawn to two figures leaning out of the second saucer for an instant, peering at the desperate fighting. They didn’t venture past the sides of the hatch, and they didn’t stay visible for long before ducking into the supposed safety of the pod—but the glimpse Anneliese got was plenty.
Human men. One wearing a U.S. Air Force uniform, the other in Marine-issue camo. Mirtan had not made a mistake.
There was no time to consider the issue. Nex continued to fight, though he did not attempt to join Anneliese’s group. “Go, Jape! I’ve got your rear covered! Get her out of here!”
She screamed a denial against the sacrifice he’d decided to make. “Nex!”
He was so close, only yards away, but it might as well have been a million miles with the seething mass of firing drones between them. Nex’s scream grew more desperate as they pressed in on him. “Get her—”
He froze. As still as a statue, his gaze riveted on Anneliese’s face, he stopped in mid-shout. He’d been caught in a capture field.
Anneliese shrieked and lunged forward. Salno let go of her arm, which she’d been tugging all the while. Her long, hard arms circled Anneliese. With surprising strength, she lifted Anneliese and hauled her behind the firing lines.
The Risnarish scientist sounded as if she were sobbing. “You can’t help him. You’ll be captured too.”
“Let me go! Nex! Nex!”
The main group was fighting to the corridor, and Salno was carrying her along. Away from Nex. Leaving him behind for the Monsuda. Anneliese fought to escape Salno, to go to him. “Jape! Don’t leave him! They’ve got Nex! Jape!”
The head enforcer shot a wretched look at her before returning his attention to the fight to escape. “We’ll have to come back for him. We’re overrun.”
“We have to help him!” She kicked harder as Salno bore her into the corridor where more unarmed Risnarish women, the scientists, cringed behind the men for safety.
Jape bared his teeth at her. “You have a weapon. Your job is to help me escort these scientists to safety. Now, warrior!”
Anneliese had the urge to shoot Jape and fight for Nex’s life. Yet she’d been given an order by her commanding officer.
Soldiers fell, no matter who loved them or how much. Nex was a trained fighter who knew what was expected of him in battle. He had done his duty by his company.
Anneliese understood her duty too. She hated it with all of her being at the moment, but she had no choice but to do it. There were civilians to evacuate.
Furious and bawling, she called, “Put me down, Salno. I need to help you and the rest out of here.”
Salno set her on her feet. Anneliese took her place in the columns at the front, doing her part to clear a path to the outside of the hive.
It felt like an eternity of ducking scatter-shot, of firing on the small but inscrutable drones, of coughing through the rank, oily smoke of the mechanisms burning, of screams of dying men, of sheer hell. Anneliese got through it as she’d been trained to: sighting on the enemy, blasting them out of the way, moving forward, her only goal to see the mission through. She did her best not to think of anything else. For the most part, she succeeded.
It went on forever, but the open door to the outside came into view. Warriors streamed out, still fighting, securing the means for the scientists to board the dartwings and fly to Cas. Anneliese personally saw to it that Salno got on her way. Her friend didn’t scream or cry, but her usual tranquility had been replaced by the staring blankness of deep shock. Wide-eyed Efno raced through the tall grass on his four legs, disappearing within the waving fronds.
“Anneliese, with me,” Jape called from a nearby dartwing. When Anneliese looked at the hive door instead, where warriors grouped to shoot and hold off any attacks on the escaping Risnarish, he marched over and grabbed her. “Don’t make me knock you out. I’ll do it, damn you. I’m not losing one more warrior.”
She tried to shake him off. “You said we’d go back for him.”
“We will, as soon as we can.”
Anneliese jerked frantically, trying to escape his steel grip. “I can’t leave him. I won’t!”
Jape grabbed her by both shoulders and shook her. “The drones have the numbers. They’re ’porting in faster than we can destroy them. You go in there, you don’t have a chance.”
Anneliese hiccupped, a precursor to all-out sobbing. “Maybe I don’t want to live if it means losing him like this.”
“Then Nex will have fought for nothing. Is getting captured how you repay him?”
Anneliese had no answer for that. Instead, she screamed in wordless fury, frustration, and pain.
When her violent shriek ended, Jape nodded. “Exactly. Now get in the dartwing before Nex’s sacrifice becomes meaningless.”
Anneliese cried and cursed the whole trip to Cas.
They landed at the enforcement dome minutes later. Those who had come ahead of them were lined up and moving fast. Depleted shooters were given to Risnarish boys, who plugged them into portable recharge stations. Other boys handed off fresh shooters and extra ammunition cartridges to the adult warriors. Anneliese blinked, startled as always by the smaller Risnarish adolescent males who looked like miniature versions of the adults—they also had muscles on their smaller-scale frames.
The boom cannons had come out, hefted by the squad captains. Even if Anneliese had been spirited enough to lust for one, she didn’t have the luxury to do so. Jape shoved her out of the dartwing, yanked his own large frame free, and headed for the station. Anneliese ran after him to keep up, ignoring the warnings from her knee.
“We’re deploying as soon as we regroup, right? Going after the survivors?” Nex’s last look at her, the desperate fear which had not bee
n for himself but for her, was at the front of her mind.
Jape ignored her. He yelled to the men instead. “Everyone, take all the weapons you can carry! Poro, Taris, Rasotas, bring the backups and chargers. To the temple! We’ll stand there!”
“Stand? Jape, we have to go back to the hive!” Anneliese grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her.
His voice was impatient, his ears flat. “Anneliese, they used short-range portals to get into the hive. We had the barriers repaired and replaced, but they got through!”
“But—”
“If they got through those, they can ’port through the village’s force fields too. They could arrive here at any second.”
Anneliese drew a sharp breath. Cas itself was in danger. The women and children—open to attack from the Monsuda.
An entire village full of civilians versus the man she loved? Her heart screamed to go after Nex, but its cries had to be ignored.
Fending off another wave of furious sorrow, Anneliese stood at attention. “I understand. Will you let me fight for Cas?”
“If you can.” The big man’s expression filled with sympathy as well as hurt. “I’m sorry, Anneliese. Too many good men were lost today.”
The bleak look in his eyes was out of place for Jape. Anneliese had witnessed it before in numerous soldiers. “I’ll re-arm myself and charge my belt at the temple.”
“Thank you.” He hunched, shaking his head. “You warned us, didn’t you? That real war was more loss than victory. When we won a few days ago, I was not ready for the cost of that either.”
At instances such as those, there were no words. Anneliese put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. After a minute, Jape straightened. He moved off without speaking of his pain again, instead yelling out orders and mustering the strength to lead his people. Like any first-class commander.
Anneliese took a breath. She inhaled the scent of grass, of the shooters’ sharp burnt odor, of sweat, of blood. She got in the line to hand off her nearly spent weapon and claim a new one. As she did so, she forced herself to think of what she needed to do in the next few minutes, the next hour. Duty and saving others. She did her best to keep her mind from wandering to Nex. She failed.
Worlds Apart (Warriors of Risnar) Page 24