by David Beers
Relm interjected, "This gets better and better."
Looking to the left and right of the building, Alistair saw the same defensive towers. He assumed there was one on the far side, too. "Caesar, this is your home. What do we do?"
"Like I said. We're here. If you want to go in, we die."
Relm laughed as he looked at Faitrin. "How's it feel to be born again, only to die a few days later?"
"At least I won't have to listen to your shitty jokes anymore." She looked down the row at Caesar. "I think what Pro means is, what's the best way to get inside? The way that's least likely to kill us?"
The giant nodded and pointed at the tower. "Through there."
Servia spoke from the end of the line. "Alistair, I need to talk to you. I can do it here, or I can do it in private. Which do you prefer?"
Alistair kept his eyes forward. He hadn't expected that. He'd thought he and Servia had worked out their issues about Thoreaux, and now as they were about to attack an insurmountable force, she wanted to tell him not to? Again?
"Private," he said curtly. He turned away from the cliff's edge and walked back to the transport a half-kilometer away. Servia followed. When he reached the transport, he turned quickly. "This isn't the time, Servia. If you have doubts—"
She raised a hand to stop him from speaking. "Hear me out, okay?"
"Go."
"I need to ask you this. How important is Thoreaux to you? Is he worth losing everything?" She met his eyes and was calm as she spoke. "It's a fair question since we will have to risk everything to get him back. Do you need him to do what you're supposed to do? Is he irreplaceable in this machine?"
It was a fair question, Alistair couldn't deny that, and it came down to this, as selfish as it was: did he need Thoreaux to get back to his wife? Could someone replace him?
Alistair leaned against the transport and retracted his suit's hood into the neckline. He stared into the distance, unable to see the fortress in detail. "Is there someone else in the universe who can do what Thoreaux does for me? Yes. No one is irreplaceable, Servia. Not you, not Thoreaux, not me. Maybe the AllMother. Will I find another Thoreaux with no time to plan or search? I won't. I'll get far without him, but at some point, I'm going to need him, like I did back in that dreadnought."
Servia nodded. "I believe you, and I'm all in. Thoreaux is like a brother to me. I had to hear you say you need him before I went along with getting us all killed. The giant isn't going to be able to figure this one out. He's gotten us here, and he's telling us the easiest way in, but that's as far as he'll be able to think through this. He's not dumb, but his tactics center around brute force. We're all going to die if we do that."
"Do you have a plan?"
Servia smiled. "I do, though I only give us a ten percent better chance of living if we use it."
I'm going to die, Alistair thought. It had come up in his mind many times before, and in all honesty, he should have been dead by now. Despite everything, however, he was still alive, but now it seemed as if he’d decided to take his own life.
Nothing else could explain what he was about to do. Truly, if anyone in this group could think clearly, they would have gone back to the Terram. At least, that was what Alistair thought as he sat inside the transport. The AI was ready to fly it, and everyone else had left a couple of hours ago. They, of course, were en route to the tower on foot.
It was Alistair's job to meet them there.
He'd invaded dreadnoughts, killed countless men, became Rex at the Academy, yet he'd never attempted anything like this. He'd never even thought of doing something this crazy.
He spoke into the comm, hiding his pessimistic outlook on the endeavor. "Confirm you are ten minutes out."
Servia's voice came back. "We are, Pro. Good luck."
Her voice was solemn. She'd presented her ridiculous plan, and he'd tried his best to come up with something different. There was nothing.
"Taking off," he said. Faitrin had managed to connect Jeeves to the transport, boxing the current AI into a small portion of the ship’s mainframe. "Jeeves, let's go."
"Yes, sir," the AI responded.
The transport rose into the air and started flying toward the tower. Two minutes passed. Alistair flew in silence, saying nothing to Jeeves. The AI remained quiet as well.
Another three minutes. Alistair spoke into the comm. "Five minutes out. Same for you?"
"Yes, sir," Servia responded.
At four minutes, they were nearly at the point where the defense tower could fire, though a direct hit would be hard. Jeeves spoke up. "I hate to bother you right now given your near-certain death, Pro, but I'm beginning to wonder if you're alive. Your resting pulse rate is still at fifty-five beats per minute."
Alistair smiled. "My body never panics, Jeeves."
"You and I are a lot alike in that fashion then, even though I don't have a body."
The first laser streaked through the sky. Jeeves controlled the ship with ease, shifting to the left and dodging it.
"Those people are extremely rude, Pro. They didn't even send me a warning."
"That was the warning," Alistair told him.
More lasers ripped through the sky, and Jeeves stopped speaking. All of his computing power was being used to bridge the distance from his ship and keep this transport from exploding. Alistair held onto his seat as the vessel moved up and down, left and right, spinning through the air as it barely avoided the streaking death rays.
"Thirty seconds," Jeeves said curtly.
Alistair was dressed in Caesar's gear. It didn’t fit him, but it was better than the simple SkinSuit he wore. He stood and moved to the back of the transport. Inside his armor, even walking was hard. The side door opened, and the wind ripped at him.
"Five seconds. Good luck, Pro."
Lasers whipped past the transport. Alistair looked at his target, closed his eyes, and fell.
As he dropped, he brought his body into a fetal position, the armor surrounding him.
He opened his eyes and heard the transport explode above him at the same time.
Three...
Two...
One.
He slammed into the glass walls on the top of the tower. He heard people yelling as he skidded to a stop. His body ached, but the armor had done its job. He got to his feet in a fluid motion, pulling the giant's armor off as he did.
Four men stood in front of him, stunned and staring. Servia had been right about them. They might be criminals, but they spent their time manning a tower that was never attacked. Now, a huge man with red eyes confronted them, bright red lasers streaming from the hilt in his hand.
Alistair moved through the four men quickly, taking their lives as they'd tried to take his.
"I'm in," he announced into the comm.
"About time," Servia said with relief in her voice.
Alistair walked over to the control panel. Glass was strewn across it. "Gods damn it," he said. "This thing is like reading a different language."
"Don't worry, good chap, I'm still here," Jeeves responded in his ear. "Faitrin managed to get me hooked up to you too. Will you give me access to your SkinSuit?"
Alistair did. He didn't feel anything, but he knew the AI was looking through his hood. Seconds passed, then Jeeves told him what to press. Alistair touched the panels in front of him, then asked Servia, "Did it work?"
"Door just opened," she responded.
"On my way down." Alistair grabbed the gigante’s armor, then found the stairs and rushed to the bottom. Everyone but the AllMother and Obs was waiting there for him. The gigante led them underground, following the same staircase.
Alistair looked down a long tunnel with lights on either side. They were a kilometer from going underneath the walls.
"We will meet opposition," Caesar said. "They are coming to kill us now."
"Get us to the rest of your kind," Alistair instructed.
The giant nodded. "Yes, master."
The group starte
d down the tunnel. Alistair and Caesar walked side by side, two gods coming to take their vengeance.
Chapter Nineteen
“Death? That’s for other people.”
—Hel vi Thraxus
Hel's head was cocked, and she held a torch in her hand. Fire shot from the end of it, and she watched as Thoreaux’s skin blackened and bubbled.
The Subversive was screaming, but Hel had chained him up for this little experiment. She had never burned flesh without a purpose before, and she wanted to see how long it would take to burn down to the bone.
She kept the flame on the lower arm, but the screaming had stopped. Hel looked up and saw the Subversive had fainted from the pain.
"Damn it!” She'd have to go get a stimpack to wake him and keep him up. Truthfully, she should have already administered one, but she had been anxious to get started.
She stood up and walked across the room to the door. She reached to push it open when someone on the other side pulled it.
Veena was standing in front of her, disgust written on her face. Hel gave her the most charming smile she could muster. "How can I help you, Primus?"
"He's here," Veena said, her eyes flashing to the unconscious Subversive.
"Who?"
"Who the fuck do you think?"
A shiver of fear ran down Hel's back. It was involuntary, and she couldn't hide it from Veena. The assassin closed her eyes for a moment to settle herself, but when she reopened them, her right hand was trembling—the one that held the torch. "Kane?"
The Primus bitch smiled. "That's right. All of your plotting and planning has brought him here. He somehow took out one of their defense towers, and from what I understand, he's in a tunnel trying to go beneath the ground."
Hel looked over her shoulder at the unconscious Subversive. She didn't understand what could make the man chase them this far. It was a loyalty she could never feel, to give up his life for someone like the cretin in the corner. Hel understood what this meant for her. If he did make it through this fortress and find her?
Death would be a welcome release from what Kane would do.
She turned back to Veena. "Where's Ares?"
"He's preparing for battle."
"Have you talked to Manius?" Hel asked. The man ruled this fortress and a quarter of the underworld on this giant planet. There were so many rumors about the man that Hel couldn't keep up with them all. He took cold credits, however, and had been willing to entertain her plans.
"No, but that's why I'm here. One of his lackeys said he wanted to speak to you. The lackey wasn't keen on coming down here to talk to you. Even the worst criminals find you vile."
"Thanks for the message. Tell the lackey I'll go to Manius now." Hel reached out and closed the door, then turned around and stared at the man in the corner. She'd met with Manius once before when he allowed them to stay in this fortress. It'd cost a lot of credits, but she hadn't wanted to be in the wilderness with Kane hunting her for this exact reason. The man simply defied odds.
She didn't know what Manius was going to say about any of this. All she knew for sure was that Kane’s arrival wasn't good, not for her, and not for anyone she traveled with.
Hel knew she couldn't keep the underworld boss waiting. She left the Subversive chained up and locked the room as she left. She wasn't taking any chances with him getting loose. She understood that if she was caught by him or his friends...
No, she wouldn't think about it. Right now, she had to deal with Manius.
Hel made her way through the castle-like fortress. There was a lot of movement around her, but that was usually the case in here. She couldn't tell how seriously they were taking Kane.
She reached Manius' quarters. Two guards stood outside, and they recognized her and were expecting her. One opened the door without saying anything, and Hel walked through. Her Whip was still on her hip, so she could cut her way out of here if she needed to.
The underworld leader sat on a couch to the right of the door. A fireplace was in front of the couch, burning the same as Hel's torch had been, only lacking the flesh to destroy. Manius had a DataTrack on his lap, and he'd pulled up a holocam. Hel saw that he was looking at a tunnel.
She heard the door close behind her.
They were alone, and Manius didn't look up as he spoke. "Things haven't gone as you expected. This man you said I would be able to kill has killed my men, and from the looks of it, converted one of my gigantes to his cause."
Hel didn't know what a gigante was, but the underworld leader sounded less than pleased.
He pressed a button on the DataTrack, and the holocam floated above the fireplace. A creature larger than anything Hel had ever seen was on the right side of the hallway, and Kane was on the left. The creature almost made Kane look small, which was saying something.
"My men will meet them momentarily," Manius said as he watched the group walking through his tunnel. "The gigante must have told them about the tunnel, meaning he's flipped." His eyes fell on Hel. "You're going to have to pay extra for this. I hope you understand and agree."
"Certainly," Hel said as she watched the crew that was coming for them.
The underworld leader touched the DataTrack, and the holocam disappeared. He placed the device next to him. "The man you're torturing. Is he still alive?"
Hel nodded. "He is."
Manius crossed one leg over the other and thought for a moment. "This Kane, he's coming for that man, right?"
Another nod from Hel.
"The credits you've given me aren't worth all this headache, but I can't simply give back a tortured man. Every person alive will think they can just show up here and demand something from me. No, this Kane needs to be an example." He nodded to himself. "I'm okay with that. Sometimes examples are needed."
His eyes met Hel's again. "I should kill you all and be done with this mess, but you've paid me, and I will honor that. Once he is dead, I assume you'll be leaving, correct?"
"That's correct," Hel responded. "With haste."
"I didn't ask a lot of questions before because I thought this would be a fairly simple task. Now it appears a bit more complicated. This man that has one of my slaves following him, so how dangerous is he?"
Lying would yield no benefit. If Kane had evaded death by the killers sent to him, somehow converted one of these assassins, and then showed up here? "He's the most dangerous human I've ever met in my life."
Manius stared at her for long seconds, looking as if he wasn't impressed with what she had to say. He eventually asked, "Do you plan on helping us repel him, or would you rather go back to your little torture chamber?"
It didn't matter what she told him; Hel wasn't facing Kane one on one again. No, if she had a chance to kill him, it would be using stealth, not brawns. "I'll help," she lied.
"Good." The underworld lord nodded. "Go on, then. I'll expect payment once he’s dead."
"They're almost here," Caesar said.
The group had only walked half a kilometer, but the reaction time in the fortress was impressive. They'd gassed the tunnel, though the SkinSuits had protected Alistair's crew. There'd been lasers on the walls, but Servia had taken them out with her StarBeam. The impressive part was the men on the ground, flooding the tunnel and nearly at their location now.
Alistair brought everyone to a stop. He could hear footfalls in the distance, though the tunnel had been built in a way that kept them from seeing the enemy. Slight valleys made it impossible to tell where they were.
He looked at Caesar. "You and I are going to take the brunt of this. I don't know how many they've sent, but I hope they don't see us as a serious threat. Regardless, we have to push forward because if we don't get to the other gigantes, we're dead. I can assure all of you on that point. We have to push through this no matter what they send our way."
Alistair pulled a blade from his belt and rolled the suit back on his arm. They knew what was coming, or everyone but Caesar did.
Alistair took a knee, a
nd those in front of him followed his lead. Caesar stared at the group, not understanding, but the Fallen Titan didn't pause.
"I do not kill for glory," he said.
"I do not kill for glory," was the response.
"I do not kill for malice. I kill because it is right. Because if I do not kill, those who seek to harm me and those I love will do so."
His soldiers' words echoed his own.
Alistair brought the blade to his arm and sliced his flesh. Blood dripped on the floor. He watched as those in front of him did the same.
"I do not fear the enemy. I do not fear death. I only fear living without protecting those I love. I only fear cowardice and hiding from my duty. As this blood flows, so will I. I bleed now so that I will not later. I bleed now so that those who sow harm against me know that blood does not frighten me. I bleed now because it is this blood that will conquer anyone in my path. See it and fear. See it and die."
His hood rolled back into the neckpiece, and Alistair took the blood from his arm and smeared it under both eyes.
His crew did the same, everyone but Caesar, who had turned to stare down the tunnel. "A few more seconds, master."
Alistair stood, and his hood rolled back over his face. He hooked the blade to his belt and grabbed his Whip. The lasers unfurled. "Forward."
He and the giant took off, their feet pounding the floor. They met the enemy at the top of the next hill.
Three men stood shoulder to shoulder, but only Alistair and Caesar could face them. The giant had his two laser blades out, and he launched one. It somersaulted through the air and pierced a skull. The enemy remained standing as if unable to decide what to do next.
He hit the floor.
Alistair and Caesar surged forward. The Titan saw everything and very little at the same time. His body reacted by instinct as he battled in the tightest quarters he'd ever experienced, yet the giant adapted to Alistair's fighting style. When Alistair needed more space, it was there, and when he needed support, the huge creature gave it.
Those behind the two gods of war watched in awe. They all had their weapons ready, but they didn’t get the opportunity to use them.
