I took a look around and shook my head. One of the nester soldier’s hadn’t been too lucky. A small piece of pipe, no wider than a half an inch had struck her in the chest clean through her heart.
“Dammit!” I cursed turning away from her corpse and gritted my teeth. Too many people had died already. That’s not to say going in I hadn’t expected casualties, but her death was on my hands. It had been my choice to make a run on the Sub-Ascendant’s estates knowing full well what could happen.
“Rayland,” I said my voice barely more than a whisper. “Go check on the strike team and get them prepped. We need to get moving, it won’t take the gray skins long to crack through the hull. I want to be ready when they do.”
Those weren’t the only preparations that we made, weapons were gathered, explosives packed up and the very last was the most important step. Getting inside the building was going to be hard with more than a few warriors and dozens of fighters ready to fire on us once we stepped out into the open. If it weren’t for the equipment we’d brought along we would probably die before we even got close. Fortunately, there was something inside the ship that could tilt the scales in our favor, a holocloaker. If they couldn’t see us they couldn’t hit us.
I didn’t even bother moving it, I just slammed my open palm into the activation switch and let the device do the rest. I wouldn’t know if it was working until I stepped out in the open, but given that it had been tossed around pretty good in the crash there was good reason to worry. Quite frankly it was our only hope, so there was nothing to do, but give it a try or wait for the gray skins to come for us. Either way, our mission would end that day whether we succeeded or fell to the onslaught of our enemy’s fire.
“Go, go, go!” I screamed as I went tearing across the open space between the wreckage of the Renegade and the sub-ascendant’s residence.
Besides the nameless nester we’d lost five members of our strike team, which put our total number down to forty-four. It didn’t seem to be enough, but it was the largest number we could have conceivably fit inside the Renegade and not overwhelm the life support systems.
Phase cannon blasts pelted the ground around us, but none of the shots even came close and I opened fire with my twin phase pistols shooting a pair of hunters. Clearly, the holocloaker was working, but there was nothing from stopping the gray skins who were already inside the barrier or ones who are on the outside from coming in and attacking us.
“Lily!” I screamed as we approached the wall.
She complied, setting a small explosive device on the wall, and we clasped our hands over our ears as the section in front of us was blasted to bits. I was last to climb inside, waiting for every last member of our crew to make it, but as the last five soldiers came tearing toward the opening, a phase blast shot down from above and blew them to smithereens.
I ducked inside just in time to avoid any harm to myself, but even so Khala managed to absorb a lot of energy from the blast. Unfortunately, it also consumed portions of my shirt and pants. Enough remained to maintain my modesty, but only just so and it would not take much, for what little remained of my clothes to be torn from my body.
I didn’t spend much time worrying about it, which I doubt would surprise anyone since the moment we stepped inside the building we were assaulted by a cadre of Qharr warriors who took down three more our guys before any of us could blink. Lily pounced taking down one guard by blasting him in the chest and a second with a slice of her knife across his throat. She looked so small, going up the massive gray skins and yet she was like a whirlwind demolishing anyone who stood in her path. There was a terrible sort of beauty about the way she moved and I wondered if that was how I looked when I fought.
I didn’t let my awe keep me back for long, I hopped in opening fire and took out three guards right off the bat, but when I turned to meet a fourth he grabbed me by the throat and tossed me away. I hurtled back and my arms twirled uselessly through the open air before I landed a quarter of a dozen meters on the opposite side of the corridor. I landed hard without any sort of cushioning effect, which probably meant Khala had been caught off guard by the attack too.
I lurched back to my feet and slammed myself into the nearest attackers and opened fire on a second and third before ducking out of the way as a fourth pounced on me. He would have gotten me, if it hadn’t been for Becca who entered the fight by throwing her slender form at the hulking gray skin. I turned to take on another opponent, but one of our Nester friends blasted him away before I could even so much as lift a finger.
We overwhelmed the guards in the corridor with sheer numbers, but that particular advantage was fleeting at best. Our strike force was large, but our crew didn’t even remotely compare to the total number of gray skins in Jykkar’s compound. The entire future of the planet was riding on our venture, and so far we’d gotten lucky, but it was going to be one hell of a fight getting where we needed.
“Rayland,” I said turning to the Nester Major then glanced down the left side of a three-way fork. “You take Becca and your crew down that way. I’ll take the center path, and Lieutenant Teadman you take Lily and the rest of the men that way.” I threw my thumb over my shoulder down the right corridor.
Each crew consisted of an even mixture of nesters, ERF and the handful of us that were left in the resistance. I took the doctor and Rayland took Farris and Max which meant Teadman’s team had Lily, but given that she had more technical know-how than anyone else put together and her K’teth enhanced strength, speed and reflexes meant she was by far the most valuable remaining member of the resistance. My stomach churned at the thought of what might happen after we separated, but I knew it was the logical thing to do. We shared a brief kiss, just before my sister rushed in and all three of us embraced.
No one said a word, as we split. We knew the importance of what we were doing. Some of us would die and if any of us survived something told me that it would not be an experience we would want to remember. Even so, we would soldier on, if for no other reason than our path had already been laid out for us. We would fight because humanity had no one else to rise up on their behalf.
“Vakrexid can hardly contain myself. It will be most tumultuous, will it not?”
“Yeah doc, it’s going to be a blast,” I mumbled under my breath as I stopped to peak around a corner.
“A blast?” He asked his big bulbous eyes blinking rapidly, in wild and seeming wild movements. “Vakrexid detects no blast.”
“Never mind, it’s just a figure of speech. Just be quiet would you, this is easily ‘the’ most heavily armed compounds on Earth. We don’t want to attract any un-do attention, do we?”
“Vakrexid would think not, but I have been wrong before.”
I didn’t respond to that, I just rolled my eyes, gritted my teeth and let out a sigh of relief when the doctor grew silent. He was just so alien, sometimes it was hard to believe that his people had descended from humans. He seemed so oblivious to everything. As much as I hated to admit it, we were more like the Qharr than the Dexagarmatrax, as most the differences were cultural. The doctor had a different way of looking at things which made me think the Phyrr Lesch must have altered his progenitor’s brain chemistry. I could never know for sure, but something told me it was to make them either more obedient, or docile, or perhaps both.
“Get down!” I yelled pushing him out of the way as a stray phase bolt came rushing down the corridor.
It struck me in the chest, leaving a sizable hole in my shirt. I didn’t let any sense of modesty deter me, however, I rushed forward slamming a fist into the face of the offending gray skin. He crumpled under the force of the blow and I turned to meet the next opponent. She jabbed the barrel of her weapon into my neck and opened fire. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it happened to be a coil gun.
I dropped to the ground clutched at my throat gasping for breath or would have if I could have drawn any in. The bullet must have lodged itsel
f inside the air passageway preventing the flow of air. It was one of those many moments since joining the resistance that I’d come close to death, but this time it felt different. The usual fear washed over me, but this time there was despair. Fortunately, my stubborn defiant nature set in before I let it consume me. I had to survive, I had to press on. I wasn’t so arrogant to believe that our mission wouldn’t succeed without me, but the more fighters we had the better chance we stood.
Khala voiced screamed out inside my head just before air flooded back into my lungs. I gasped taking in as much as I could just before leaping back to my feet. My vision was still blurred and fuzzy, but that didn’t stop me from grappling with my attacker and forcing the gun out of her hands. I turned it on her, blasting a hole through her dense skull.
My vision was clearing up, but I didn’t have much time to celebrate. A trio of guards came dashing toward me. I clenched my teeth, opened fire on the first, a gangly fellow whose proportions were a more than a little lean for a Qharr, shooting him dead, then swung the rifle around like a club, which sent the second reeling away.
Phase fire, surged and fizzled all around me splashing the walls and splattering, first against his shoulder, then against his chest and a third and final shot took him right in the mug. His body collapsed to the ground, his countenance little more than a steaming crater.
Three more guards went down and I turned my attention to the final one who had ducked inside a doorway. His only weapon was a single phase pistol, but when I approached him he stood to face me, fists clenched at his side as he let out a single roar of defiance. I struck slamming him in the chest. He staggered back, but shrugged off the blow with much more ease than I expected. I hit him again, but he caught it in his hand.
Rather than grapple with him I release my hold, drew my pistols and blasted the bastard to bits. I re-holstered my weapons and grabbed the rifle from his steaming remains before turning back around to face Private Beckman, my ERF techie who had a small handheld device clasped firmly in his massive paws. “Is that thing picking anything up?”
He had more the look of a brawler than a tech expert, but after hearing him arguing with Lily I was certain he was more than capable. He wasn’t accustomed to unconventional thinking like my Lil’, but he did know his way around a computer network. He stared up at me as he always did, that hungry look in his eyes and nodded. “There’s a dampening field which is interfering with sensors. I can only detect a handful of grays and our own people. Anything above this level isn’t showing at all.”
“Shit,” I said slowly shaking my head as I glanced down the corridor. “Why can’t anything be easy? It’s always climbing up stairs or through secret tunnels. Why can’t we ever just go on a mission and find the baddy without having to jump through a shit-ton of hoops?”
He nodded, his eyes lingered just long enough on my breasts to make me want to haul off and smack him. I got a lot of hungry looks from the ranks of the ERF and nesters and was starting to get used to it. It sounded cliched, but it made me feel like a piece of meat rather than an actual human being. I hated being objectified, but any time I found myself getting angry over it I felt like a hypocrite. How often had I looked at a woman the same way? Lusting after one because of her body rather than her personality or her intellect.
Beckman nodded. “Ma’am? I-I’m not sure I know how to answer that question.”
“Doctor, you take point. If the gray skins see you, they’re going to be much less liable to open fire.”
“Indeed! Though it not a certainty!” He replied letting out a long drawn out squeal. “Vakrexid shall proceed with caution. Triggers pulled much too quickly could result in a very early end for me, but worry not death is not something in which I fear!”
“Good to know, doc.” I grinned wiping the sweat from my brows. “We need to find a set of stairs or lift or even a damn access hatch.”
Beckman nodded throwing a thumb over his shoulder. “If this thing is correct there should be a stairway down that way, but there’s a half a dozen guards blocking the path.”
“Right, of course there is,” I said with a nod before holding my hand out. “Doc, care to do the honor?”
Vakrexid blinked and cocked his head sideway before craning his neck and turning his head a complete hundred-eighty degrees. “Vakrexid does not understand why it would be an honor, but I shall move forward boldly and with much stealth!”
The doctor didn’t need any prodding to get going, but his movements couldn’t exactly be described as stealthy. He lumbered through the hallways his feet clattering and clomping against the organic-resin floors. Fortunately, I had anticipated this, and had set him down the path hoping that he’d distract the guards long enough for us to put them down. Given the gray skin’s aversion to harming his race it seemed unlikely that they would open fire especially since they’d see and hear him coming from a mile away.
It felt a little bit like I was throwing him out to the wolves, and felt a pit form in my stomach as my guilt began to gnaw at me. I could try to justify it all I liked, but the truth was the doctor was my friend and I had put his life in danger. I almost called out to him to retract my previous order, but by the time I did we’d already happened upon another group of gray skins.
The first four were easy enough to take out, but when I caught a flash of blue hair from the fifth that’s when I realized she was going to be a little more difficult to kill. The sixth ran off, presumably to call for reinforcements, before anyone could stop him. Which left our pal, the Edant K’teth.
She was a little short for a Qharr, and if I was an accurate judge her people’s standards her slender, sleek and well-toned body marked her as a great beauty. The rare pinkish hue of her skin was a feature I’d never seen before, but I instantly recognized it. She was part of a rare sub-race of Qharr, known as the Gieff who were said to be among the most agile of warriors. According to what Duvak had told me they had their own unique culture and religion and for the most part stayed apart from the rest of Qharr society. She lacked the usual tattoos and markings of other gray skins, which suggested she hadn’t completely given up on her Gieff upbringing. Why this particular warrior had chosen to join with her cousins was a peculiarity I doubted I would ever have the answer to. Then again… I had been wrong before.
The Gieff female pounced, her pinkish-gray skin glistening with sweat and the natural Qharr sheen. I was down on the ground before I even realized what had happened, but as her fist hurtled down toward me I scrambled back onto my feet and backed away hoping to regain my composure. My opponent remained hunched over then glanced up and met my gaze.
“You! Human you are as fast as they say,” she replied speaking with an accent so thick that it was barely intelligible. The typical Qharr accent was harsh and gutteral. Hers was singsongy and I probably would have found it charming if she hadn’t just tried to kill me.
“You’re pretty quick… for a Qharr. You caught me off guard, but believe me when I say it will not happen again.”
“I am not Qharr!” She replied between gritted teeth before leaping toward me.
I jumped back scrambling away and slammed my fist into her side. She retaliated hitting me across the face with a broad swing to my jaw. She was obviously much stronger than me, but the gap wasn’t nearly so wide as it had been against the other Edant K’teth I had come up against. Her speed however, was going to make things difficult. Every time I’d come up against an opponent bonded to a K’teth my speed had been my only advantage, but she was proving herself to be more than a match.
She pounced grabbing me by the throat and pinned me against the floor. “I am disappointed. Are you not the one who killed Corrector Taevok Typel and High Inquisitor Duvak Nakyrr?”
“That would be me,” I said barely able to form the words because her hand was gripped so tightly around my throat. “But it wasn’t just them. I’ve killed my fair share of guards and hunters too.”
“Why should I care? These kyffa could all die
and I would sing no songs for them. They speak of honor without truly understanding what it means. They enslave entire races in the name of the gods who abandoned their children. They are fools.”
“Then why are you fighting alongside them?” I asked digging my hands into her fingers trying my best to break her grip.
“I have been tainted by the touch of a K’teth beast. I cannot return to my people so I fight for the only reason that is left. The joy of battle, the pleasure of destroying my enemies and in the hopes that the ancestors may see my many victories and grant me a home in the afterlife, but it should make no matter to you. To you, I am the one who is about to end your life.”
“Not.” I said between gritted my teeth and slammed my fist into her face, “freaking likely.”
“Do you know how many times I’ve been in a strangle hold?” I asked just before kicking out and striking her in the chest. This time I managed to dislodge her and I staggered back to my feet just in time to see her do the same. “Jesus you Qharr are so damn predictable.”
“I am GIEFF!”
We circled one another, each of us looking for a weakness, but neither of us seemed to find one. While we were shuffling about I got a good look at the rest of my group, who had been forced to retreat when after a cadre of Qharr guards had happened upon them. I returned my attention to the Gieff who was unlike any opponent I had faced before and if I was going to be honest it was likely she could say the same of me. She may not have shared the same culture and values as the other Qharr, but she was still standing in my way. She had to be brought down quickly. She posed a threat I could not ignore, but she had already proven she was a skilled warrior and I wasn’t sure she could be defeated through conventional means. It was time I changed tactics.
“You serve the sub-ascendant.” I said making it a statement rather than a question. When she failed to reply I took it as a confirmation rather than an outright denial. “He has no honor.”
Battle For Earth Page 62
