When another two troopers had been cleared from the encampment, someone yelled over comms. “I’m hit!”
Awen checked her visor’s overlay to confirm the name. It was Reimer in Bravo Platoon.
Magnus took a knee and looked toward Reimer’s position. The former Marauder had stumbled backward and was taking cover within a doorway.
“You’re fine,” Magnus said. “Check your shield’s percentage.”
“Eighty—I’m at eighty percent,” Reimer replied, his voice less shaky than before.
“Right. That was just…” Magnus paused to send a stream of blaster fire into a second-story window. “That was just the kinetic energy dissipating around your suit. Keep your blaster downrange, and bring the pain.”
“Copy that, sir.”
No sooner had Reimer finished speaking than someone else mentioned being hit. It was Dozer. “I’m at fifty percent,” he said. Awen could see him clutching his chest. Apparently the wind had been knocked out of him.
“Sixty percent!” yelled another voice—this time, it was Jaffrey.
Why are the gladias taking so many hits all of a sudden?
“They’re tracking the blaster rounds,” Piper replied over their dedicated channel.
Awen ignored the fact that Piper was openly reading her thoughts. “You sure?”
“Yup. I can see the recon guys looking down the blue streams. Magnus’s super suits are really neat, but the NOV1s are still giving them away.”
“Magnus,” Awen said over a direct link.
“Go ahead!”
“Piper says they’re tracking you by your blaster rounds.”
“Copy that.”
“You think that helped him?” Piper asked.
Awen shrugged. “Don’t know. But let’s hope so.”
The fighting continued as Magnus and Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie Platoons forced the enemy troops out of the plaza and into hiding. At least three more troopers met their ends in the encampment. One combatant’s torso exploded from a single round to the gut. His shoulders and head dropped onto his collapsed legs. Awen closed her eyes and turned her second sight elsewhere. This was horrible.
“Find cover, gladias! They’re tracking our blaster fire, and now they’re holed up in those buildings.” Magnus sat against a large container in the middle of the enemy encampment. Several members of Alpha Platoon rested near him, catching their breath. “Rohoar?”
“I am ready, scrumruk graulap,” the Jujari replied.
“I want you taking your platoon in through the side door of that center building. I’ve marked the entrance on your map. You should see a new waypoint vector too.”
“Affirmative.”
“Good. Wait for my command. And, Titus?”
“Go ahead.”
“I want you entering the second building here.”
Awen watched in her map as Magnus placed a second entry icon on another building’s perimeter adjacent to the first.
“You clear those two buildings, we have ourselves the beginnings of a victory.”
“Copy that, sir,” Titus said.
“Consider it done,” Rohoar added.
No sooner had Magnus finished speaking than a massive explosion erupted five meters in front of his crate. The force of the blast sent the gladias in the encampment flying. Every window in the plaza must have shattered at once, filling Awen’s head with a deafening cacophony that made her stumble.
“Magnus!” Awen watched his suit’s telecolos system blink out. He slammed into a nearby building and fell to the ground in a heap. “Stay here,” Awen ordered Piper. She forced the girl to stand just inside what once might have been an office building’s entrance. Then Awen took off, covering the remaining half block in only a few seconds.
Blaster rounds crisscrossed the open square, which was now covered in thick black smoke. Awen used her second sight to find Magnus’s body just to her left. He was struggling to get up but moved very slowly.
“Magnus!” she yelled, kneeling down to examine him in the smoke. “Are you okay?”
“Damn remote bomb,” Magnus said, shaking his helmet. “Yeah, I think I’m fine.”
The glossy-white surface of his armored suit was stained black and had several pockmarks in the plating. She assumed that whatever personal shield the suit had left was now depleted. Its chameleon mode seemed out of commission too.
Magnus swore and let out a pained groan.
“What?” Awen asked, tensing. “What is it?”
“Damn suit just stuck me!”
“What?”
“It stuck me! But…” His voice seemed to relax a little. “It feels… good.”
Awen guessed it was the medical nano-bots doing their thing. “Come on. Let’s get you to cover.” She moved to the top of his head and placed her hands under his shoulders. Magnus was heavier than she’d expected, but she was able to pull him around a corner and out of harm’s way. Then she squatted next to him and placed a hand on his chest. “How are you doing, Adonis?”
He coughed over comms and started to sit up. “Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Feeling better. I shoulda seen that coming.”
“It certainly would have been nice to avoid, yes.”
“What about the others…?”
Awen could tell Magnus was reviewing the company roster. She did the same. “Looks good. Couple bumps and bruises but no casualties. You all just survived a bomb blast. These suits are incredible.”
“Remind me to kiss Azelon on the mouth when we get back to the Spire,” Magnus said, struggling to get up.
“I feel no need to experience or reciprocate human osculation,” Azelon said over comms.
Awen laughed as she helped Magnus stand up.
“Don’t care, Azie. You’re getting a smooch.” Magnus groaned as he stretched his back and rotated a shoulder.
Awen was so relieved that Magnus was okay. But there was something beyond relief too. She remembered how So-Elku had tried to take Piper, how he tried to hurt Magnus, and how Kane had tried to hurt Sootriman. She felt indignation. And raw anger.
“You sure you’re all right?” Awen asked.
“I am. Now, where’s my blaster?”
“Sir,” TO-96 said, “there should be a directional vector marking the location of your—”
“Got it, ’Six. Thanks.” Magnus stole a look down the street then ran several meters toward a pile of burning rubble. He slid to one knee and retrieved his NOV1, which—despite several burn marks and the absence of its color-changing skin—seemed operational as far as Awen could tell.
“It’s good?” she asked.
Magnus tilted the weapon left and right as he ran back to cover. “Yup. I think she’ll still shoot straight.”
“Well, what are you waiting around here for?” Awen asked. “Get back out there and kill something!” She swatted him on the butt.
Magnus took a step forward and turned to look at her. “Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
After looking to make sure that her mother was okay from the bomb blast, Piper used her second sight to track Rohoar down one of the side streets. It led right to the building that Magnus had indicated for the giant doggy. He stood just outside an entryway that led to a stairwell, presumably waiting for Magnus to give the order to enter, like he’d said he was going to.
Magnus left Awen after she touched his butt—gross—and moved back into the smoking plaza. Most of the enemy’s equipment had been blown to itty bits, and there was a big crater in the middle of the open space.
“Rohoar, Titus, you both still good to go?” Magnus asked. As soon as the two platoon leaders responded positively, he gave the order to move in.
Piper watched as Rohoar stormed up the stairwell, taking five or six steps at a time on all fours. The rest of his warriors followed closely behind. When they got to the first landing, half of Rohoar’s platoon broke off to search the floor while the other half doubled back and bounded up a second flight of stairs.
From with
in her second sight, Piper could see five Paragon troopers taking cover beside windows that looked down into the square.
“Do you smell them?” Piper said over comms to Rohoar.
The Jujari seemed to hesitate. “Piper?” he whispered.
“It’s me, yup. I just wanted to make sure you sniffed them.”
“Yes, I smell them.”
“And there are five more on the floor above you too.”
“Thank you, Piper.”
“You’re welcome. Get ’em good, okay?”
“I shall endeavor to.”
“’Kay, bye.” Then she added in a whisper, “I’m watching in case you need my help.”
Rohoar didn’t respond to that, but she figured he was busy thinking about how to eat the bad guys. Plus, she knew he would be appreciative of the help if she gave it.
Rohoar and his first four Jujari stalked toward the rooms that each trooper was holed up in. At the same time, the other four Jujari did likewise on the floor above. Piper could feel herself tense up, anticipating the clash. The enemy troopers were so busy firing down into the plaza that they forgot to check their… What did Magnus call it again? Piper got stuck on the word. Their six, she suddenly remembered.
Rohoar seemed like he was about to strike when an alarm suddenly sounded. The Jujari in the rear—a doggy named Lugt, Piper thought—looked down to see he’d triggered some sort of warning device.
Only it wasn’t a warning device.
Piper screamed as the grenade detonated.
Awen was beside her in an instant. “Piper! What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”
“Poor Lugt!” she cried. “Poor, poor, Lugt…”
“Piper, talk to me! What’s Lugt?”
Piper could hardly feel Awen patting her body down, checking for injuries. She was thinking about the Jujari who’d just died. The poor doggy’s legs had been—
Piper noticed the troopers in the rooms spin around and charge into the hallway. But Rohoar was there. Saladin too. Arjae seemed like he’d been hurt by the blast but was still on his feet.
The trooper in the room ahead of Rohoar turned into the hallway and fired his blaster. Several shots hit Rohoar but were absorbed by his personal shield. The man stared in disbelief as the Jujari just kept coming.
“Good doggy!” Piper screamed. “Get him!”
The next instant, Rohoar clamped down on the man’s raised forearm, splitting the bone in two places. The trooper cried out, but Piper guessed only those on his comms system could hear him. She could hear him, too, of course, but that was different.
The man fired a few more rounds into Rohoar’s midsection, but the Jujari batted the weapon away. Rohoar swiped at the trooper’s chest, neck, and groin. Within a matter of seconds, the man lay still on the floor, bleeding out.
Rohoar looked up at a second trooper, who came from farther down the hall. The man was a good shooter, taking smooth steps and aiming directly at the center of Rohoar’s chest. But it didn’t matter. Piper smiled as Rohoar reached down, grabbed the first trooper’s body, and flung it at the advancing man. The force knocked him over, and the two bodies tumbled down the corridor. By the time the second trooper reached for his blaster, Rohoar was on him, slitting his throat and kicking his weapon away.
Behind Rohoar, Saladin had clasped a third trooper’s helmet in her jaws. Still, the trooper fired his blaster, bolts ricocheting off windows and walls. Saladin continued biting down until her teeth penetrated weak points in the helmet. The man screamed. His punctured skull sent him into convulsions until, finally, his arms and body went limp and he fell to the floor.
Arjae took on a fourth bad guy, pushing him back into the room he tried to emerge from. The two warriors struggled. Piper was surprised at just how big this trooper was. She’d never met a person as strong as a Jujari, except maybe Abimbola and sometimes Magnus. This trooper was like that—big and strong. Arjae had managed to knock the man’s weapon from his one hand, but the trooper held a knife in his other. The two struggled to hold each other’s wrists, exchanging swipes with claws and blade and blocking with their arms.
As the pair neared the open window, Piper thought to warn Arjae of the danger. But just as she was about to speak, a single blaster round struck the trooper in the back from the outside. It was Magnus who’d fired it. The round went through the trooper’s body and slammed into Arjae’s shield, causing the pair to fly backwards and land on the floor. Piper watched as Arjae’s shield flickered and died out. The Jujari raised his head and shoved the trooper’s body off him in disgust.
It was the fifth and final Paragon trooper on this floor that worried Piper the most. He emerged from the opposite end of the hall behind Lugt’s dead body. For some reason, Rohoar hadn’t noticed him, and neither had Saladin.
Piper could see the trooper smile as he brought his weapon up and aimed at Saladin. Somehow, Piper knew the rounds would go straight through the female Jujari and strike Rohoar too. She wanted to blurt something out over comms, but there was no time. This was happening much too fast. She had to do something herself.
Several thoughts went through Piper’s mind at that instant. They ranged from creative things, like pushing down a wall or opening up the floor, to more direct things like…
Like crushing the man’s heart.
Perhaps it was fear for Rohoar. Or maybe it was just nervous excitement about everything she’d witnessed. Piper didn’t know. But in that instant, she envisioned the trooper’s heart being squeezed like a tomato under a Boresian taursar’s foot.
The trooper never fired a shot. Instead, he clutched his chest and gave a soundless scream. He was dead before he hit the floor.
* * *
“Piper!” Awen screamed. She ripped her own helmet off and grabbed the girl. “What have you done?”
Awen pushed the girl farther behind cover and pulled the small helmet off her head. Awen knew the act would help snap the girl out of the Unity.
Piper squinted against the bright light and started coughing as smoke filled her nose.
“Piper!” Awen yelled again. “Did you just kill a man?” Awen didn’t need to ask, of course. She’d seen the last few seconds of the battle in the building for herself. To her dismay, Piper had just ended another human life. On purpose. She just killed a man—at nine years old.
Awen was so mad she could… “Piper! Answer me!”
“Yes, yes,” Piper said, coughing into her arm. “Of course I killed him!”
“But—no! You’re not allowed to do that!”
“Why?” Piper coughed more. “We’re—we’re fighting, aren’t we?”
“But that’s not our job here. That’s not your job.”
“But he was going to kill Saladin and Rohoar, shydoh! I thought you said—” Piper coughed more. “I thought you said we have to protect everyone.”
“I did, but—”
“So I was protecting them!” Tears formed in the little girl’s eyes, and her lower lip started to quiver. “I was just protecting them…” Piper repeated, hands trembling.
“Oh, Piper.” Awen knelt and embraced the girl.
Piper rested her head on Awen’s shoulder and began to sob. “I was just trying to protect them.”
“I know.” Awen stroked the girl’s hair. “I know you were. And I’m sorry too. I…”
You’re what, Awen? Being too protective? Not letting her choose for herself? Not letting her be the answer that the universe is providing?
But the girl was still too young. Children shouldn’t be doing this. Yet… Piper was doing this. Could do this. In the deepest part of her heart, Awen knew Piper could probably save everyone’s lives if given a chance.
But that would mean so much death.
Only the alternative wasn’t any better.
Awen held Piper as the girl cried. As much as Awen had looked forward to a day like this, when the girl’s gift would be let loose for the galaxy to see, she’d also dreaded it, knowing it would bring… well, precise
ly what it had brought. Pain.
There was no right way to war. The best thing was just to keep going until they got through the other side. And that was what Awen decided to do. Keep going. Just get through.
“You saved them,” Awen said finally. “You saved them well.”
Piper pulled her head back, smearing snot and carbon across her cheek. “You really think so?”
“Yes, doma.” Awen brushed some of Piper’s stray blond hairs behind her ear as blaster fire echoed off the buildings around the block. “I do. And I know Rohoar and Saladin will thank you when today is through. Good job.”
“Thank you, shydoh.” Piper leaned back in and squeezed Awen’s neck hard. “I just don’t want them to die.”
“Neither do I, doma. Neither do I.”
37
Enemy fire subsided after Rohoar and Titus had finished clearing their respective buildings. Thus far, only Charlie and Delta Platoons had taken casualties, if Magnus’s roster was accurate.
“Report!” Magnus said from his position across the plaza.
“Building One secure,” Rohoar replied. “Two injured, and I have lost Lugt.”
Magnus noticed that the Jujari emphasized the personal pronoun.
“Building Two secure,” Titus added. “But Baker is down. And we have three injured.”
Magnus wasn’t sure if he should be happy or disgusted with the day’s results. On the one hand, his unit had just survived their first brush with the enemy—and it was a damn fine enemy at that. But had it not been for their superior firepower and stealth technology, this battle would have gone a lot differently.
“I want the wounded and the dead out of there ASAP,” Magnus ordered. “Fall back to the meeting point.”
Both platoon leaders acknowledged the order.
“Doc Campbell, Haney—you all green?”
“Affirmative, sir,” the two medics replied.
“Give Titus and Rohoar a hand.”
The medics acknowledged the order.
“But what about you, sir?” Rohoar asked.
Ruins of the Galaxy Box Set: Books 1-6 Page 99
