Severed Bonds

by R S Penney

  From a couple hundred feet up, she could still see the tiny black-clad figures of men scrambling down the stairs to escape the gas cloud. Hopefully, there was no one left on the wall. She didn't want to kill them, but…

  She fired.

  EMP rounds pelted those cannons from above until they exploded in a shower of sparks. That took care of the front wall, but there were still cannons on the side walls, and those men were shooting at her.

  She let her shuttle descend with its nose forward until the castle came into view right in front of her. The cloud had mostly dissipated and she could see men operating cannons on the back wall and the side walls.

  They seemed to have guessed her purpose.

  Many abandoned their posts, choosing instead to run down stone steps that led to the courtyard. One or two opted to point their guns at her and fire.

  She targeted each of those cannons.

  The shuttle turned ninety degrees to her right and then began a slow leftward yaw, firing on each cannon as it passed. One after another, they all exploded, each one going up in a bright flash of electric blue.

  The last cannon got off a few final shots.

  Her screens lit up with a warning that Jack immediately echoed from the back of the cockpit. “We're losing the altitude stabilizers,” he shouted. “Our artificial gravity field will collapse in five seconds!”

  Thinking quickly, Anna spread her hands over the console and brought up a menu to access the conventional drives. She used the ventral thrusters to slow their descent and the port-side thrusters to push them sideways over the castle wall.

  She was thrown about in her seat, but she had only half a second to contemplate the nausea she felt before they dropped unceremoniously into the middle of the courtyard. At this angle, her shuttle was facing the castle's side wall.

  And there were already men swarming around them.

  Chapter 27

  Larani was the first one through the airlock, dropping onto the springy earth to find scorch marks on the wing. Just a few paces away, the heavy iron portcullis was shut tight, and there was nothing on the wall except for the sparking ruins of cannons. Already, she could hear men shouting on the other side of the shuttle.

  “Move!” one cried out. “Surround them!”

  Anna hopped out next, grimacing and shaking her head. The young woman drew her pistol in one smooth motion, to aim for the shuttle's nose as if she expected someone to pop out at any moment. Which they very well might.

  Next came Cassiara, and then a very queasy Jack gave her a worried expression before he drew his own weapon and took aim over the wing. Rajel and Keli followed; the telepath was breathing hard.

  “We cannot remain here,” Larani said. “If they-”

  One man in black armour came around the nose of the shuttle, spinning to point his rifle at them. A stun-round hit his neck before he could fire, and the man spasmed as he fell flat on his face.

  Another followed him, but that man screamed and lifted his gun to fire aimlessly into the open air, trying to kill something that wasn't really there. While he was still lost in his mad delusion, a charged bullet hit the side of his neck.

  He fell.

  Spatial awareness alerted her to the presence of two men creeping around the back of the shuttle, lifting their rifles to take aim. A storm of non-lethal ammunition from Jack, Cassi and Rajel pelted both of them, and they collapsed.

  Quickly, she scanned the area and took note of a line of rectangular windows near the top of one wall. An excellent position for snipers. If she were the enemy commander, she would already have men on their way.

  Shutting her eyes tight, Larani breathed slowly to calm herself. “We can't hold this position,” she said. “If they start firing down on us from above, we're dead.”

  She turned on her heel.

  “Where are you going?” Rajel asked.

  “To buy you all some time,” she answered. “I'll try to keep snipers off your backs, but you'll have to handle the men in this courtyard on your own. Out here in the open, you are vulnerable. Get inside as soon as possible…Good luck.”

  With a surge of Bent Gravity, Larani jumped and launched herself toward the large rectangular window on the second floor. She curled her legs against her chest and hid her face behind folded arms. The glass shattered.

  Larani hit the stone floor, landing in a crouch.

  Allowing herself a moment to catch her breath, she took the opportunity to examine her surroundings. Centuries ago, this room might have been some servant's bedchamber, but it was utterly spartan now. No furniture of any kind, no tapestries of paintings on the walls. Just plain gray bricks. Nothing that she could use as a weapon.

  In an instant, she was on her feet and marching toward the heavy wooden door on the other side of the room. Of course, the damn thing slammed open just before she got within arm's reach, revealing three men in black tactical gear in the corridor, all carrying assault rifles. The one in front lifted his weapon.

  Larani fell backward.

  Twisting her body to land on her side, she caught herself with one hand on the floor and brought her leg up to kick the rifle just as it spat bullets at the window. The weapon went flying out of the guard's hand.

  A quick twirl brought Larani to her feet, and she spun around to face the man. She kicked high, striking his chest with the tip of her boot. The man tumbled backward into his comrades, and they all spilled into the hallway.

  One of the two in the back got free of the tangle, but he had dropped his rifle in the commotion; he reached for his sidearm instead, pulling it from its holster and trying to raise the weapon for a clean shot.

  Larani grabbed the one in front.

  With a quick shove, she sent him careening into his industrious companion. Both men hit the wall, stunned and disoriented. That only left the third one, and he was already lifting his rifle.

  Larani spun out of the doorway.

  Pressing her back to the stone wall, she winced and drew in a deep breath. I forgot how much I don't enjoy this part. Her heart was thundering, her breath ragged. And yet she had to admit it was somewhat invigorating.

  The man with the rifle was the first one through the door, moving cautiously into the room with his weapon pointed forward. His head swiveled, eyes widening slightly when they fell upon her.

  Too late.

  Larani kicked the side of his knee.

  With a squeal, the man fell to his knees and dropped his rifle, folding up on himself as he groaned in pain. A light touch on the shoulder was all it took. She twisted gravity around the man's body, changing its direction.

  He was yanked across the room toward the open window, screaming as he tumbled through it. A moment later, her Bending fizzled out, and she heard the loud thump of a body hitting the ground.

  Another one came through the door with his pistol clutched in both hands. He spun on his heel, pointing a gun at her face.

  Crouching down, Larani brought laced fingers up to hit the underside of his wrists and push the gun upward. A bullet sped toward the ceiling, and bits of stone rained down on her. She drove a fist into the man's stomach.

  The impact made her opponent stumble backward, all the way to the corner, where he hit the wall and doubled over with a wheeze. This fellow was down and out, barely able to hold onto his weapon.

  Larani rushed him.

  She jumped and spun in midair, kicking out behind herself. The sole of her boot connected with his face, and the man was knocked senseless when his head rebounded off the wall. He slumped to the floor.

  She landed.

  Grabbing the unconscious man as he fell, Larani quickly whirled him around and used him as a shield against the third guard who came through the door with an assault rifle in hand. This final adversary hesitated before firing, unwilling to harm his comrade; so, these men did have some sense of honour.

  Larani shoved her hostage toward him and watched as one man collided with the other. Both fell to the floor, though one man
stayed down and the other pushed himself up on extended arms.

  She moved in to finish this.

  The final guard looked up in time to receive a fist to the face, a hit that bloodied his nose and left him dazed. Moaning, he landed flat on his belly and passed out right there in the middle of the room.

  Larani crouched and retrieved one of the fallen rifles. Pressing a small blue button near the stock set the weapon for stun-rounds. “All right then,” she said, getting to her feet. “Let's do this.”

  She strode through the door with grim determination on her face.

  As she watched Larani crash through that second-floor window, Anna suppressed a vexed tsk. And people called her impulsive! Their goal was Leo, but there was no way to know where he was or even if he was here. Getting their hands on Slade's computers – or even just some of his data files – would be more than enough to make this trip worth it. She was the most tech savvy of all of them; that meant the job was hers.

  With her back pressed to the side of the shuttle, Anna lifted her pistol up in front of her face and took a breath. “They have to have a server room,” she said. “I'm going for it. The rest of you execute Larani's plan.”

  On her left, Jack was squatting down with a pistol raised up beside his head, using the shuttle's wing for cover. “You heard the lady!” he barked at the others. “Get ready to lay down a suppressing fire.”

  Cassi was next to him with her back turned, aiming over the wing and shooting when one of Slade's goons came around the back of the shuttle. Her bullet only hit the man's vest, and he quickly ducked out of sight. “Do I have to remind you,” Cassi panted, “that going alone is suicide?”

  “Anna can handle herself!” Jack said.

  She loved him for that.

  Keli was next to Anna with her back pressed against the shuttle, her eyes shut tight as she concentrated. “More coming,” she whimpered. “Their captain is ordering them to take up positions inside the keep and fire on us from the upper windows. Over a dozen of them have that thought in their heads! We have to get out of here! Now!”

  “Okay,” Anna said. “We move-”

  Of course, Rajel decided to ignore her, jumping up onto the wing and trotting along it to the shuttle's fuselage. He fired a few shots at the guy who popped out from around the shuttle's back end.

  Rajel leaped.

  With a quick somersault through the air, Rajel flipped upright to land on top of the shuttle, right out in the open where anyone could shoot at him. What was the idiot doing? “Cover him!” Anna shouted.

  Sighted people relied too heavily on their eyes. So heavily they often failed to pick up the non-visual signs of imminent danger. Rajel was willing to bet that no one else had noticed the soft clank clank of boots on metal.

  When he landed hard on top of the shuttle, he realized that his suspicions had been correct. Two men were bent low as they climbed up the wing on the opposite side, hoping to get on top of the small craft so they could fire down on his allies. It was slow going for them; neither one had the enhanced sense of balance that came with a Nassai Bond.

  In that split second, he noticed something else. Spatial awareness showed him over a dozen colourless, human-shaped figures all down on one knee with their rifles pointed at the shuttle. That was why so few of them had attacked directly! They were setting up a kill zone so that snipers could fire down on his allies from the upper floor windows while these guys in front picked off anyone who ran for cover.

  He reacted instantly.

  Rajel leaped, flipping upside-down in midair with one arm extended, firing down on the men scrambling up the wing. One shot and two. Charged bullets hit the back of each man's neck, and they collapsed.

  Rajel turned upright to land crouched in the mucky grass and without so much as a second thought, he stretched out one hand to craft a Bending. Space-time warped in front of him, and bullets that would have chewed through him curved to his right instead.

  Of course, he was pinned here now, his skin tingling from the strain to his Nassai. It would become painful soon enough. Could he maintain the Bending long enough to get behind the shuttle again?

  He was distracted by a shrill scream, and then a man came flying out of the window that Larani had crashed through, arms and legs flailing as he sailed across the courtyard and suddenly dropped like a stone to the ground. The others kept their focus, continuing to pummel him with bullets.

  There were sudden yelps, grunts and squeals, and the gunfire that he deflected with his Bending lessened somewhat. He had literally crumpled the fabric of reality between himself and his attackers, so he couldn't tell what was happening with spatial awareness. But he suspected that his new friends were picking off some of the men who had focused all of their attention on him.

  Hurry…he thought. Please hurry.

  Cautiously, Jack crept alongside the shuttle with his pistol gripped in both hands, its muzzle pointed down. His face tightened with anxiety. That one frustrating guy was still lurking behind the shuttle's back end.

  As he got close, Jack listened for the sound of heavy breathing, the rustle of boots on soft grass. Anything that would give him even an instant of advanced warning. If he could incapacitate that guy-

  The man popped into the open, aiming his rifle.

  By instinct, Jack turned and pressed his back to the shuttle just before a stream of bullets sped past in front of him, mere inches from his stomach. He aimed low with the pistol and shot the guy's shin.

  Stun rounds didn't travel fast enough to do much more than bruise, but they did hurt. The armoured man hopped on one foot for half a second before the current raced through his body and he collapsed.

  Jack glanced back over his shoulder.

  Anna and Cassi were both crouching near the shuttle's nose, taking aim at the men on the other side. Keli had her back pressed to the closed air-lock, a look of concentration on her face. No one had been hit. Relief flooded through him like the torrent from a burst dam. If anything had happened to Anna…

  Don't think about that.

  He maneuvered around the shuttle's back side.

  In the middle of the courtyard, he saw maybe fifteen men down on one knee with rifles in hand, all firing upon Rajel who was crouched by the wing with only a Bending to protect himself.

  Jack chose the nearest man.

  A stun-round hit that guy's neck and he twitched violently before dropping his rifle and planting his face in the mud. Another shot took the man next to him, and then that one went down as well.

  Several of the others turned their heads to see what had knocked out their friends, expressions hardening when they caught sight of Jack. Uh oh…

  Jack ducked behind the shuttle.

  Bullets zipped through the air where he had been standing, each one passing with a high-pitched whistle. Some hit the castle's front wall and tore large chunks of stone out of it. Others shattered the windows of the gatehouse.

  “Seven hundred years of history,” Jack muttered. “All ruined by just a few poorly-aimed bullets.”

  In her mind, Keli walked the field of battle as easily as she would in the flesh. She moved between the men who were down on their knees and firing at Rajel, using their thoughts to map every detail of the courtyard.

  Her heart was still pounding from the terror she had felt when a man was thrown out the window and flung across the courtyard by Bent Gravity. She could see his broken body as a hazy image. The guards here weren't paying very much attention to their fallen comrade. They were focused on Rajel.

  The blind Keeper was crouching near the shuttle's wing, his image distorted into a smear of black. Every bullet that converged on him slowed at the last second and curved off to her left. It had only been mere heartbeats since he had put up his barrier, but she could already feel the man's strain and that of his symbiont.

  Pain.

  It came from a man to her left, one who had been hit by a stun-round, She saw him tremble and fall face-down in the muck. The one next to
him went down as well. It was Jack, she realized.

  More men on the other side of this little firing squad started dropping, falling to bullets loosed by Anna and Cassi as they popped up over the shuttle's nose. Now, they were down to eleven men.

  It was time for her to work.

  Standing in the middle of the battlefield, unseen by all, Keli threw her head back and focused. She rolled her hands around empty air and conjured an enormous black bat between them. One with teeth that could shred human flesh. No such creature existed in reality, but the mind was her domain.

  She sent it toward one of the men.

  The bat got in his face, snapping at him with its pointed teeth. With a shriek, the man dropped his rifle and began pawing at the empty air, trying to hit a monstrosity that was always just inches out of reach.

  A charged bullet hit the tip of that man's chin and bounced off. Keli felt the current surging through his body as he passed out. One more down. She had to focus. Had to get these men out of the way so that her people could move before snipers took positions in those second-floor windows.

  She focused on another man.

  Spiders appeared on his body, crawling over every inch of him, and he dropped his weapon in some sad attempt to brush them off. That one went down as well. Anna could sense Keli's intentions. She knew where to aim.

  Only eight men left.

  Seven now. Her friends were moving quickly.

  Pushing her abilities to their limits, she conjured an illusion that would appear to all of these men at the same time. The image of another shuttle descending over the castle and pointing its main guns at them.

  Men aimed their rifles into the blue sky.

  Rajel, she sent. Now.

  The blind Keeper released his Bending, heaving out a gasp. His face was flushed and coated with sweat. “Thank you.”

  He lifted his gun and shot.

  Several of the armoured guards were backing up across the courtyard, firing at the nonexistent shuttle. Bullets took them one by one, and they fell. Now, there were only four men left.

  They were retreating up the stone steps that led to a huge arch-shaped wooden door and firing randomly at false visions of Anna, Cassi and Jack. The three phantom Keepers went loping across the courtyard, firing imaginary bullets.