Warriors at the Gates- Trojan Wars

by Rick Royster

  "An inconvenience? Hemorrhoids are an inconvenience; this is suicide."

  "Chase, do we have time to land, hide and depart the ship?" Winter asked.

  "Land and hide the ship where?"

  Winter and Rhys turned to Cayden.

  "We'll lose them in the trees and mountains. Their scans will never pick us up and they wouldn't dare to follow. And even if they did, they'd be crazy to shoot," Cayden said.

  "The radar won't pick us up because we'll all be dead, and there'll be nothing left to shoot," Chase moaned. "And even in a fighter this small, it's not humanly possible to navigate that mountainous terrain. The rocks are too close. I couldn't do it even if I was crazy enough to try. No human could."

  "I can do it," Cayden said with a gleam of light in his eyes.

  The pilot shook his head.

  Cayden knew under extreme circumstances that a soldier could disobey a direct command and not be court-martialed, but if the Cube fell into Global Union hands, the Coalition could be overthrown overnight.

  "Flying through those mountains is madness, sir," Rhys said.

  Moments later, Rhys gathered the parachutes as Winter turned on and eyed the viewport. She watched as the Cobras slid in behind the Raven. The cannons next to their cockpit in the gun turrets glowed red, indicating they were ready to strike.

  "We're about to enter the canyon," Winter announced.

  "Incoming," Chase screamed, focused on the holographic monitor.

  Laser cannons fired, streams of brilliant gold lines cutting through the air. Cayden drove the ship down so quickly that the crew briefly felt weightless. Winter stumbled against the wall. Rhys was flat on his back.

  "Strap in." Winter strapped herself into a section on the back wall and Rhys followed. Cayden pulled hard on the controls and leveled the Raven's nose horizontally.

  "I think your boyfriend is trying to kill us."

  "Maybe they won't follow us?"

  "I've always been lucky, but never, ever, that lucky," Rhys said.

  The monitor's scans showed the incoming blizzard, sheets of ice falling from the sky. They beat against the ship's exterior as though being pelted by stones. Winter stumbled but was held in place by the support as the Raven accelerated.

  "He's even crazier than I thought," she said. "He's going to run the canyon at full speed."

  "Running the canyon at full speed is impossible," Chase said.

  Rhys swiveled toward Chase, "It does leave the Cobras with two bad choices. They can let us go and allow the Raven to get lost in the mountains, maybe try and bomb the area and hope they kill us. Or follow the madman down in the depths. Considering the clones were programming to accomplish their mission at all costs, I think we both know they are going to follow."

  It was like flying a plane in a subway tunnel, with tremendous speeds and no idea of the next turn, but instead of the darkness, just a sheet of white rock.

  The Cobras were quickly closing the distance between them. They moved in and out of view as the Raven flew deeper into the canyon, making hair-curling turns, just missing massive rocks again and again. The closest Cobra clipped a snow-covered rock, cartwheeled wildly out of control and shattered in a ball of fire against a white wall.

  The view was now nothing more than white space, the blizzard making it impossible to distinguish between mountain and air. Cayden didn't have room for the slightest error.

  Cayden glanced over his shoulder at Winter. She closed her eyes and did a Hail Mary across her chest.

  Cayden knew the Imperial pilots were being helped tremendously by their ship's computer, that along with their computerized programming allowed them to navigate the mountainous terrain without the benefit of sight. Cayden flew on instinct. His sixth sense alerted him to danger well before it presented itself, but he still had to make split-second decisions.

  Cayden let go of fear and worry and went inward, then gave himself over to his instincts and numerous hours of training. He paid no attention to the laser fire skimming their ship. He felt the terrain, the cold mountainside, the weight of the falling snow. Now, the ship was like an extension of his body. It moved as he willed it to. His subconscious mind had taken over. Action preceded conscious thought, his hands a blur on the controls. The Raven whipped around corners, squeezed through tight crevasses and tiny places between rocks and explosions.

  Laser fire ripped golden lines through the air just outside their cockpit and Cayden banked hard left, accelerated toward the earth, then swooped up in an arc and burst out from the bottom of the mountains into the open air. He saw the Cobras now below him, trailing each other like links in a chain, or a snake slithering through rocks. More gold and red laser fire painted the white sky with color, and Cayden put the Raven into a roll and nosed the ship back down. The Cobras stayed on his tail.

  "Man, they're good," Rhys said. The Raven's interior erupted into a raucous series of klaxons and warning sirens. The ship’s rapid shifts and speeds pasted Winter to the wall, as Rhys fought against the Gs to make it to the back gunport. He pulled out the energy rack of lasers and inserted the parachutes.

  "If we have a choice between hitting the mountain head-on or getting clipped by one of their lasers, I'd much rather get crushed by the white rock," Winter said.

  Rhys smiled. "The idea of surviving a crash then freezing to death or serving as a meal for some wild predator doesn't appeal to you?"

  She shook her head, "Running into a Centurion would probably be worse than both of those fun options."

  Cayden saw two Cobras on the edge of his peripheral vision. As he turned his head for a full view, a third emerged. He flicked the master arm with his left hand and stared at the holograph. His instincts took over as he lined up the vehicles less than two miles behind him.

  "Are you slowing down?" a wide-eyed Winter asked.

  "I'm drawing them in," Cayden said.

  The idea was, he would draw them in so close that they'd have no choice but to follow him; if they pulled up, they risked losing him because from the sky, the jet’s mirror defenses made him invisible, and this low he was completely invisible to their radar so they had to track him by his thrusters or by sight.

  Cayden could see the pursuing Cobras off his left wing. The guns and missiles flashed in his mind like fangs, and he turned hard and eyed the other Cobras at his ten o'clock. He skidded sideways to slice through the narrow mountain, then one of the Cobras opened fire at him. An angry row of golden lasers arced by his left flank as the Cobra closed in. Cayden ignored the hissing sounds streaking by his wing, and seeps of smoke.

  He leveled his jet, then dropped lower and let the Cobra get in better firing position.

  "Come on," Cayden said as he gritted his teeth. He forced his aching jaws to relax as he pulled the throttle back further and dropped the Raven's nose a few degrees toward the ground. The jet descended toward the rocks, and Cayden was unaccustomed to the anxious twitches stabbing at his gut.

  Cayden licked his lips. He had been exerting himself, and the increase in stress didn't help, his tongue rolling over dry skin that hadn't tasted water in hours. The Russian mountains were beautiful, he thought, no two ways about it. Cayden thought there shouldn't be a fight in such pretty places. It was a mass of gorgeous rock that looked as if someone poured a blanket of white sugar over it.

  The Cobras were close enough to read the marking on Cayden's jet. The Raven nosedived and dropped lower, then suddenly the shuttle shot upwards, and Cayden squeezed the trigger and launched a missile at the oncoming rock; it exploded, filling the space with fire and debris. The Raven shot through the flames, but the trailing Cobra wasn't so lucky. The enemy fighter disappeared into a sudden fog of chewed-up rock and a hail of fire. An instant later, the Cobra erupted, setting off a brilliant explosion that swallowed the second jet behind it.

  Cayden swooped up hard and to the east, yanked on the stick to spoil the remaining Cobra’s aim, then looked over his right shoulder. He could feel his heart thumping in his ch
est. He swallowed to get some moisture back in his throat.

  Cayden looked back behind him as their enemies approached. The closest enemy jet was closing fast and the Raven's danger sensors were a continuous barrage of noise; all the lights were flashing red. "Hold steady. Hey, kid, does this thing have air brakes?" Cayden said.

  "Air brakes?" the pilot said.

  "Hold on everyone," Cayden said. He closed his eyes in an attempt to focus himself.

  The lead Cobra flipped and rolled and accelerated to close in, then got itself lined up twenty meters above the Raven. "Now," Cayden ordered.

  The Raven dove at a flat downward arc just as gold laser fire streaked by the top of its canopy. It spiraled close to the mountainside, flipped sideways and streaked around a range of rocks. It was dark, visibility was bad, neither jets had lights - and this low to the ground, they couldn't be tracked by radar. And besides, the Raven had excellent stealth and anti-tracking abilities.

  He flew into the dark canyon and narrow mountain valleys.

  The Cobra followed, the Raven's blue thrusters serving as its honing beacon. The Cobra fired, just missing the tail of its target as the enemy ship slipped past a series of rocks.

  Cayden felt another laser blast coming toward them. He banked slightly, careful not to crash into the mountainside. He punched the exhaust and let out a plume of smoke that blanketed the cavern. It blinded the Cobra, causing the pilot to lose control and collide into the side of the rock, rendering the formidable attack jet a ball of flame.

  As Cayden rose through the air, his heart sank. He was heading into a collision with a Cobra, and the Raven was locked into a gravitational pull. Two Cobras trailing behind had him in their crosshairs. "This is going to get interesting."

  Rhys turned to him. "This is your idea of interesting?"

  "Everyone get your jumpers on. We're leaving," Cayden instructed.

  They looked at him, then out at the looming Cobra rushing toward them. It was a quick scramble by all to the right of the vehicle, where they put on their emergency jetpacks.

  He overrode the controls, and the door of the Raven swooshed open.

  "Let's go," Cayden commanded.

  Although he attempted a brave charge through the doorway, Chase froze on the aircraft's edge, as if gripped by fear's icy hands. Cayden had seen that form of brave charge then capitulate into dread. Winter grabbed him and leaped from the jet, and Cayden and Rhys jumped right after her. A moment later, combat lasers ripped through the back of the Raven, rendering it a burning ball of metal which violently dipped through the sky. It clipped the GUs attack jet which spiraled into the side of a rocky edifice, lighting the sky up into a brief, roaring fire.

  Cayden grimaced. Flames above, darkness below, and a shrinking number of places to go.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  E pluribus unum

  Creamy white clouds marshaled together and rolled toward the nearby mountains. Beyond the coast lay the ocean, a thin layer of blue that rested on top of the gray and black waters that sat quietly beneath. Snow fell in thick yards, blanketing the hard ground.

  Cayden saw the smoke rising from the mangled metal of their jet where it crashed a few miles out. He walked over to Rhys and glanced out at their surroundings.

  Rhys stood on the mountainside; he looked down below through a pair of infrared holo-naculars. He shifted and placed his rifle on his back, then put the goggles to his eyes and scanned the area.

  "What do you have?" Cayden asked.

  Rhys shook his head, mumbling an expletive. He pointed out. "She's down. We had the incredible bad luck of landing at a ski resort; hundreds of civilians, families are down there." Rhys put the holo-naculars back to his eyes. "And beyond those trees, six hostiles headed her way."

  Cayden felt Rhys staring and awaiting a response.

  Would they leave a fellow soldier and press on with their mission?

  Cayden squinted, saw the Arctic Knights; six floated in her direction with parachutes out, like slow-descending torpedoes waiting to detonate in her direction. His eyes scanned the grounds, looking for Winter within the throng of people and he found her. A small group of people had gathered around her.

  "How long does she have?" Cayden asked.

  Rhys peeked back up at the soldiers. "Three minutes, more or less."

  "Where's the pilot?"

  Rhys shook his head. "Yet to locate him."

  Cayden's right hand was numb from squeezing his katana. He closed his eyes and holstered his weapon. Protocol said they were to leave her behind and continue with their mission. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wanting to make an emotionless decision.

  Winter did have the tracker, and while he could probably find Tressa without it, they would have a much easier time if they had Winter and the tracker.

  "She has the tracker so I'm going down; cover my six."

  Taking on six Arctic Centurions wasn't for the faint of heart, even for a well-trained soldier. It still amounted to suicide. But Cayden was no ordinary soldier; this, the Global Union would find out the hard way.

  Rhys smiled and nodded. "Aye-Aye, Commander."

  Like a gymnast running across a trampoline, Cayden ran with speed and power, jumped, bounced and leapt his way down the icy mountainside.

  A soldier of Winter's rank, if taken alive, would be tortured for information the Federation knew she didn't have. Cayden would need to be fast.

  A crack of light shone through the morning sky. Ski-lifts strolled by overhead while skiers swooped up and down the ice, a snowy blanket covering the land. Winter blinked twice, the darkness receding and forming into a blinding bright light. She grabbed her head, feeling as though she'd been whacked by a bat. She then felt a prodding against her shoulder. She heard a stream of voices like you would hear in a busy restaurant.

  A girl of no more than nine years old nudged her arm. Winter was flat on her back, but she turned her head to stare at the girl who repeated the same phrase over and over again.

  "Gozha. Vstavay Ty, v poryadke?" the young girl asked.

  Winter ran her hand through her blonde hair and found a knot beginning to swell on the back of her head.

  I just fell out of a jet, of course I'm not okay.

  She sat up and looked around, noting the cold-weather-clad pedestrians carrying an assortment of boards, poles, related wintry sporting equipment as well as the odd cup of hot cocoa. She had landed in the middle of a ski resort. There was no sign of Cayden or Rhys. She gazed skyward, fighting the impulse to give in to the ringing sensation in her head, beyond the mumbling crowd that gathered around her and off into the distance.

  A half-dozen Arctic Centurions were parachuting to the ground. It was time to move.

  Winter's head whipped to and fro, searching for an isolated area where she could defend herself and, ideally, no civilians would get hurt. The Centurions would massacre everything in their path to get to her and later blame the Coalition for a terrorist attack on innocent civilians.

  She looked to her right.

  Crowds of people.

  Food and beverage stands.

  A maze of hotels and cabins.

  She looked to her left.

  Frost-covered trees.

  Children engaged in a friendly snowball fight.

  A dense pack of skiers and snowboarders descending a trio of hills.

  No obvious place to run to or hide.

  Winter flailed with both arms at the people, not trusting her ability to communicate in Russian. She then tried to shoo them away. "People, you must go, run. Get away from here." Instead, those closest to her backed away only a few paces, but an increasingly large crowd began to encroach on her with a mix of tepid fear, curiosity, and concern. If only she could tell them what they should really be scared of.

  Nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide.

  Winter flailed with both arms at the people, not trusting her ability to communicate in Russian. She then tried to shoo them away. "People, you must go,
run. Get away from here."

  A Centurion two hundred feet above her in the air released from his parachute and plummeted into a free fall, then ignited his jetpack to guide himself to the ground; he landed without breaking stride, barreling his way toward her.

  She pulled her gun and pointed it at the Centurion, then looked down at the little girl. "You need to run; I can't protect you."

  The lead Arctic Centurion had the look of a god killer, one that had ravaged the halls of Valhalla; his stylish snow-colored battle armor would have been the envy of kings. Fiery red hair and blue eyes as cold as death stared in her direction. A voice of venom bellowed ill intent, and five hunters identical to him followed close on his heels.

  The crowd looked back at the Centurion, a few reluctantly moved slowly away from her. The little girl reached for her hand, Winter glanced back down at her and nodded her head for her to move along. "Go. Go to your Mommy."

  Winter saw the brave look in the girl’s eyes. Her Mom hustled over and grabbed the girl by her shoulders, never taking her eyes off the fast approaching Imperial soldier. Only one other person, a man of about fifty, stood between them and the incoming holocaust.

  The Centurion was in Winter's firing range; a few unaware skiers whipped ignorantly by him and on the overhead ski-lifts, onlookers began to point in Winter's direction. Winter saw the Centurion raise his weapon and her blood froze. If she fired her weapon it would set off a shootout, and too many innocents were in the line of fire. She holstered her weapon and raised her hands in submission. "Move. Go. Run."

  She'd allow them to capture her and then die in a daring escape. No way she'd be taken alive. The Arctic Centurion aimed his weapon chest-high, squinted his fierce blue eyes and marched forcefully forward. A burst of gold laser fire erupted from his weapon, and Winter heard a loud thunk. The old bald man in front of her spun around, his face a mask of pain, and he collapsed with a gaping hole in his chest.

  Winter, not believing, still had her hands raised and eyes on the Centurion. She tried to process what her eyes told her was true. The little girl was also down, half her face blown off and her mother lay at the base of her feet with a fist-sized hole in the back of her head. Screams of anguish and panic sounded, faces twisted in horror all around.