Raif and about half a dozen Sentients stumbled towards them, dodging the falling rocks. Sierra joined them. The hollow-eyed rabble staggered through the deluge towards the open bay. The chamber crumbled apart behind them, but up ahead lay a vast array of ships, for the most part unaffected by the quake. They sat there unattended, beckoning them forward, just waiting to fly them to safety.
Thirty-Five
The Staging Area
With Raif beside her, Sierra ran from ship to ship, her yellow blade piercing the sides of the thick metal hulls where the bioseine controllers were located. The lancers were long, sleek, triangular ships with dark gray exteriors that seemed to swallow the light. As soon as Sierra cut the controllers out from the ships, the prisoners came in behind her, activated the outer doors and jumped inside. Each lancer could hold ten people, but they spread themselves out into four ships to make sure they’d have room to pick up any survivors.
The tremors had stopped shortly after they’d left the ramp to the vault. A cloud of dust now hung over the area behind them.
“We’ll fly back and pick up any survivors,” Von informed them. “Raif, Nance, and I will go. Halerin, your ship is already full so you stay here and watch for trouble. Let us know if they send reinforcements—which they certainly will. Only use the ship-to-ship communications if you have to. The Admins are sure to be monitoring them.”
“Got it,” came Halerin’s response.
One by one, the ships took flight. Sierra was onboard with Raif. They soon lost contact with Halerin and the others as they moved out of bioseine range. Raif’s eyes sparkled with delight as the lancer’s controls moved deftly in his hands.
“This thing floats like a cloud,” he gushed to Sierra, who sat beside him. “The controls are so intuitive, who needs a bioseine?”
Sierra looked out one of the view panels and spotted an open section of the ramp where the dust had begun to dissipate. “Let’s land there,” she said, pointing.
Von and Nance had spotted it as well and the three ships lit down near one of the cavern walls.
“I’m picking up twelve survivors on my ship’s modulator,” Von informed them as their bioseine connection was reestablished.
“So, four per ship,” Sierra replied, confirming the locations on her own ship’s modulator.
“Let’s do this quick,” Raif added.
They left the lancers and fanned out to the positions from the modulator. It was tiring work bringing back the Sentients one by one. Some were able to walk on their own, but most had to be carried or supported in some way.
Sierra and Raif were bringing back the third of their four passengers when Halerin’s voice came over the ship’s sound system.
“We’ve got ships incoming,” came the strained message. “A dozen attack skiffs, piloted by somatarchs. They’ll be here any moment.”
Von and Nance were already done and were just waiting for Raif and Sierra to finish.
“Take off without us, Halerin,” Von said. “We’re not ready. Nance and I will stay back and run interference for Raif if we have to.”
“No,” Raif objected. “You’ve got your passengers. Don’t let us hold you back.”
“We’re staying,” Von said flatly. Sierra had heard that tone many times before. It meant discussion on that topic was over.
“Fine,” Raif said. “Let’s hope your shield hold.”
“We’re scattering,” Halerin informed them, “We’ll see you on the surface.” Sierra saw the lights from his engine flare in the haze above the docking bay and disappear. Nance and Von’s ships lifted off, but they remained hovering in the middle of the cavern, ready to protect Raif and Sierra while they went for the last survivor.
Raif and Sierra rushed towards the back of the ramp, near the door to the vault. Sierra trampled an empty pair of clothes as she ran, all that remained of one of the Sentients.
She shuddered, but kept running. They soon found the last of the prisoners, a woman who looked a lot like Sierra.
“Let me take her,” Raif said, scooping her up. “She doesn’t weigh that much. It will be faster if I carry her by myself.”
Sierra nodded and took off running for the lancer, reaching it well in advance of Raif.
“Is Nona going to be okay?” one of the Sentients waiting on the ship asked.
“She’ll be fine. Get inside and strap yourselves in. We’re taking off.”
Sierra kept the door open, watching Raif lumbering towards her out of the haze.
Come on, hurry.
It took forever for him to reach the ship. When he did, Sierra helped him strap the last Sentient down.
“They’re here,” came Von’s voice over the ship’s audio. “We’ll try to keep them occupied.”
Through the still open door, Sierra caught sight of Nance and Von’s lancers disappearing into the haze-covered bay. She could hear the hum of new ships arriving. She glanced back at Raif just as a yellow light flashed through the air above them. Sierra tackled him to the ground and they hit the floor as a beam ripped through their lancer.
There was a hiss and then a loud snapping sound. When Sierra looked up, the lancer had been cut into two disproportionate pieces. The pilot’s compartment tipped forward until the nose of the ship touched the ground while the back section, where everyone was, tilted up in the middle.
“Pulsers!” Raif slammed his fists on the controls. “Man, why didn’t I get the shields up in time?”
“Is everyone okay?” Sierra looked over the Sentients in the back of the ship. Everyone was still strapped in.
“We’re fine,” one of them said. “Should we get out?”
“Everyone stay here,” Raif said. “Pulsers only affect inorganics. They weren’t trying to kill us, just disable us. Unfortunately, they did a pretty good job of that.”
“But why stay? The ship’s useless,” Sierra said. At the same time there were too many of them to fit into Von and Nance’s ships and escaping on foot was out of the question. They were stranded.
The glint in Raif’s eye told her he’d already come up with a new plan. “Wait here while Sierra and I look for another ship,” he told the Sentients. “You’ll be safer if you stay inside.”
Through the dense haze, more lights flashed above them, white ones this time.
“Nance and I will try to hold them off with the lancer’s disrupter bursts,” Von promised over the audio. “Are you about ready to take off?”
“Not exactly. This ship has…issues,” Raif said. “We’re going to have to jack another one. We’ll be back in a micro.”
Von didn’t reply. He was probably too busy fighting for his life.
Sierra and Raif leapt out of the now gaping hole in their broken ship and sprinted into the haze of the bay. The scuttling sounds of an attack skiff grew louder as one of them burst out of the haze, nearly clipping their heads.
The skiff doubled back. They’d been spotted.
Sierra and Raif plunged into the endless rows of docked ships. The skiff, heedless of the danger, skimmed the floor behind them, zipping under the wings of the larger vessels.
As Sierra ran underneath the massive wing of a hovland assault ship, she jammed the cutter onto her arm and sprang into the air, straining to reach the wing with her yellow blade. She only just cleared the distance, managing to slice through most of the wing. The excessive weight pulled it crashing to the floor.
The skiff came in too fast to adjust its course as a section from the enormous span collapsed on top of it. The skiff and the somatarchs piloting it were crushed beneath the massive wing. Sierra barely managed to avoid getting caught herself.
Her maneuver put her slightly behind Raif. As they turned the corner around the front of the hovland they came upon another row of lancers. They raced over to them, but Raif shot right past.
“What was wrong with those?” Sierra asked.
“Nothing,” he replied, “But I didn’t see these before.” He ran past the lancers to a group of six
narrow, low-profile ships. “Citus axomvacs.”
“They look like reconnaissance ships. Do they even have weapons?”
“No, but they’ve got what we need: speed.”
They slowed down in front of the new row of vehicles. The ships barely came up to Sierra’s chin and were even more narrow than the lancers. They did have two large lev propulsors attached to the back of each one, but little else to commend them as escape vehicles.
“There is no way one of those can hold all of us.”
“It has an axom field generator underneath it for lifting things. The ship’s propulsor engines are big enough for it to haul a ship twice its size. It only seats two crew, but we can use it to pick up the remains of the lancer and we’ll be faster and more maneuverable.”
Sierra had never questioned Raif’s judgment before when it came to technology, but even if they could haul the remains of the lancer with this tiny ship, it looked like a disaster waiting to fly.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked.
In answer, Raif simply raised his eyebrows and pointed towards the bioseine interface panel.
Sierra scrunched her mouth disapprovingly. “All right, then,” she mumbled.
Yellow and white lights glittered through the upper reaches of the cavern, the sound of pulser fire peppering the air with discordant whines. Even with shields, Von and Nance could not last long in that.
She sliced out the bioseine panel and tossed it underneath the ship. They slid inside the vehicle, leaning forward on their stomachs, their feet behind and slightly below the rest of their bodies.
Raif’s mind jittered with excitement, oblivious to the attack skiffs whizzing above their heads.
“This machine uses an adaptive steering system. We both have input into the controls and the vehicle will choose whichever input it deems to be the best course to take.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Sierra asked, though she knew he wasn’t. “So we’re both going to be flying this thing?”
“With help from the ship itself. If we hadn’t ripped out the interface it would be a lot easier, but you and I know each other well enough that it should work out.”
“Let’s hope so,” Sierra answered, liking Raif’s choice of ship even less than before.
Raif didn’t give her any more time to second guess his decision. He engaged the accelerator and the ship jettisoned into motion, vaulting them above the docked ships below.
They shot above the thicker parts of the haze. Nance and Von’s lancers were still airborne, but Von’s wing had been badly damaged. Part of it was blackened and bent, causing the ship to fly erratically. Skiffs swarmed around them, pelting them with pulser fire, but most of the blasts got absorbed by the lancers’ energy shields, which shimmered into existence whenever they absorbed an attack.
Raif turned sharply into the area in front of the vault, bringing the citus to a sudden halt above the severed lancer.
“Make sure everyone’s strapped in snug under the covers,” Raif warned the lancer’s passengers. They were hovering only three or four spans above the wrecked ship, allowing for bioseine communication.
“We’re ready for you to get us out of here,” came the relieved reply.
Raif engaged the ship’s axiom field and the remains of the lancer floated off the ground. As the two sections from the hull clamped onto the bottom of the citus, Raif’s voice went out over the ship to ship channel. “All right, Von, Nance—time to trek.”
“Couldn’t be more ready,” was Von’s reply.
“Same here,” added Nance.
Raif punched the accelerator controls, thrusting Sierra back in her seat. They shot under and past all the skiffs and most of the docking bay. It was like someone slung the ship out into the middle of the cavern.
Raif slowed down to let the lancers catch up.
“That’s what I mean, see? I’ll take speed over fire power any day.” Raif told Sierra.
Ahead of them three hovland cruisers rose from the docking stations to test Raif’s theory. The heavily armed ships climbed so slowly into the air Sierra knew they wouldn’t be able to catch them, but the array of disruptor canons nestled beneath their wings made her wonder whether that really mattered. Involuntarily, she moved the steering controls so that the citus swerved out of their firing arc.
“We shouldn’t have to worry about those,” Raif assured her, “They may be nasty, but they’re slow as cryo.”
The citus, with Von and Nance following, streaked towards the upper reaches of the cavern on its way to one of the many exit tunnels. They did not get far before the hovlands wheeled around and opened fire.
A single shot erupted from each ship at the same time, all aimed at the citus. They were slow pulses, but Sierra thought from the way Raif was piloting, he only spotted two of the three. He was steering them directly into the path of the third pulse. Sierra pushed down hard on the steering levers. Their ship dipped at the last moment and avoided the hit.
“Oops,” Raif acknowledged his mistake. “I owe you one.”
As they sped towards the exit, the cruiser closest to them laid down a swath of locus disruptor fire, along with another emitter blast, in an all-out effort to bring them down.
Raif and Sierra reacted to avoid the blasts, both of them piloting simultaneously. In the end it wasn’t clear who was actually controlling the ship as it whirled on its side and back level to avoid the cluster of lights swarming around them. Then the ship shot straight up, spinning through a second wave of beams which neither of them had noticed. Sierra’s stomach was doing similar maneuvers, but they were alive.
“That was…interesting,” came Raif’s thought. “Was that you?”
“I thought it was you,” Sierra answered as she glanced below, amazed the lancer was still attached to them.
“Are you okay down there?” Raif asked.
A chorus of affirmatives came back. There was dizziness, and some touches of nausea, but the seat straps had held during Raif and Sierra’s escapades.
Nothing but open space now separated them from the exit tunnel. Sierra glanced back to see if the others had made it through.
Von’s ship had sustained more damage. Part of the tail had been clipped off and ragged gashes scored both wings. It was a wonder the ship was still flying. Nance’s ship had pulled back and was laying down cover fire to protect Von from the hovlands and skiffs. The skiffs were more of an annoyance than anything, but there was only so much one lancer could do against three fully loaded assault cruisers.
“We’ve got to go back and help them,” Sierra told Raif.
Raif took one look at the scene and sent the ship doubling back around.
“You know we don’t have any weapons,” Raif reminded her.
“We don’t need to take down the cruisers,” Sierra told him. “Just get near that damaged lancer.”
“The citus won’t hold two lancers,” Raif informed her, like a teacher trying to put an overly ambitious student in her place.
“Will it hold two halves?”
“Yes, but—”
“Just get us close and I’ll take care of the rest,” she assured him.
She let go of the steering column as the citus joined the fray. Disruption beams and locus pulses flew everywhere. Von’s lancer avoided most of them, and the ones that did hit were absorbed by what remained of his shields.
“Don’t worry about us,” Von’s voice came over the audio. “Save yourselves.”
“Not a chance,” Sierra said. “We’ve got you. Just hold tight.”
“Everyone down in our ship,” she addressed the Sentients in the sliced up lancer they were hauling, “Hold on tight. We’re about to take on some additional passengers.”
Once everyone was in place, she adjusted the axom field so that the unoccupied section of the lancer they were hauling fell away and crashed into the buildings below in a shower of metal and sparks.
She flipped the citus so it was flying upside down and maneuvere
d the ship beneath Von’s struggling lancer.
“I see what you’re up to,” Raif commented.
He manipulated the citus so that it dipped down, dodging more incoming pulser beams from the attack skiffs. He brought it back up a moment later and slid up under the lancer.
“Von, get yourself and your passengers to the forward part of your ship, as far as you can—and hurry,” Sierra instructed. “We’re going to grab onto your vessel with our axom field.”
“But your ship won’t hold—”
“I’m going to cut you in two. Just make sure everyone is forward of the exit and let me know when you’re ready.”
Nance’s ship continued to fire its feeble disrupters at the hovland cruisers while Von’s passengers got into position. Nance was now drawing the bulk of the fire. His own ship’s shields were failing in several places and the nose of his lancer was charred and falling apart.
“We’re ready,” Von said.
“You’d better make it quick.” Nance’s voice popped in across the audio. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.”
Raif nudged the citus so it was almost touching the side of Von’s lancer.
“Okay, Sierra,” he told her, “Time for a little remodeling.”
Sierra pushed the manual release on her window and flipped herself onto the underside of the upturned citus’ wing, hanging upside down with her legs from the safety handles embedded there. It was bad enough that Raif and Von had to continue maneuvering their ships to avoid enemy fire, being upside down didn’t make things any easier.
As Raif guided her over the top of the lancer. She engaged the cutter and shoved it into the fuselage below.
“Go, Raif!”
The citus shifted, swooping beneath the battered lancer, rolling so Sierra’s blade stayed thrust into the guts of Von’s ship. As they popped out on top, the lancer below split in two. The citus dove after the forward half of the plummeting ship until the axom beam caught it, a few spans before it crashed into one of the buildings below.
“Got you,” Raif told them. A mixture of exhilaration and relief flooded his thoughts.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 65
