by Alma Boykin
Obstacle disposed of, the group continued on slowly and steadily. Rada’s helmet crackled, “Ground One, Sun One,” Kirlin called.
“Sun One, go ahead,” she replied.
“Encountering light resistance, but they seem to be falling back ahead of our advance. Be advised that the Lord Defender’s quarters were cleared with cluster grenades.” Kirlin sounded a bit apologetic and Rada tried not to laugh.
“Understood. Continue as briefed,” she ordered.
“Wilco. Sun One clear.” Who cares about my quarters right now? she wondered. Someone like Kirlin would, especially someone with no military experience. At least he’d been listening to the top sergeant from the Defenders’ group that came with him from Sunblast, Rada sighed, then ducked at Biss’s signal. “What’s up?”
Biss gestured and Rada eased past him and Zabet for a look. “How do you want to divide, Lord Mammal?” he asked. They’d reached their initial objective, the Defense Command Center. From here the Raiders and traitors could see and hear much of what went on around the planet and could track everything from armored vehicles to arriving spaceport traffic for the southern continent. It also tapped into the main power circuits for the palace, as well as having double backup fusion generators.
“Who’s got the smoke grenades?” she hissed. Biss edged backwards, letting Schriik and another soldier ease ahead. “You two and Zabet with me, the rest continue towards the rendezvous point.” The quartet hung back as the others worked along the edges of the hallway. Someone took a pot shot from just ahead of them and before Biss could stop him, Skeet had charged in through the part-open door. Rada ignored the fuss and led her group around a corner to the doors of the DCC. “First we empty the room, then I get the critical equipment,” she told her men. “Zabet, on my six.” The silvery reptile finished changing gas packs on her blaster and nodded. On a whim and a hunch Rada crept across the hall, took off her gauntlet and pushed her hand against the plate beside the door.
The Defenders heard the “whrrr Click” of the door locks retracting and bared their fangs as someone inside called, “What? Who authorized that?” The two soldiers pulled the doors open and rolled their smoke grenades in as hard as they could, then slammed the doors again and waited. The sound of gagging and coughing reptiles rewarded their efforts and someone tried frantically to push the doors open. After a few more seconds the mammal nodded and the Azdhagi hauled the doors open again, releasing a cloud of eye-burning smoke and six or seven miserable reptiles. Rada dropped back a little, letting the temporarily harmless group get past (and the air clear a little) before getting ready to slide into the DCC. All at once chaos erupted behind her and everyone turned, then dropped.
“Fuck!” She staggered back, crashing to the floor as a grenade went off in the next room, blowing the door into the corridor towards her. Blaster shots whined over her head and Rada squirmed out from under the wooden panel, then returned fire. She got to her feet, edging along the wall to the semi-cover of the doorframe as Scheer, Zabet and the third soldier provided cover fire. OK Lord, your turn she sent skyward, then dove around the corner, hoping her memory of the control room was still good and that the purge system had started clearing the smoke.
It was and it had. Rada slid into the gap between a radar projection console and the wall. She reached over and unplugged the console’s power supply, then pulled herself along the wall until she found the gap she remembered. It was wide enough that she could see and shoot, but that was all. And if someone noticed her, well, too bad for her. Rada increased her blaster’s setting to max power and sighted on the main communication power control computer. She fired a three shot burst and closed her eyes against the flashes and sparks that resulted, pushing herself back out from behind the console. She’d almost made it back to the end of the console when one of Dissch’s bodymen peered down at her from over the equipment bank. Rada shot him but his compatriot hadn’t been far behind. Aw, bugger all. Sorry Zabet, you win the wager Rada cursed as she felt the pop of an empty gas clip ejecting from her blaster. The reptile grinned down at her, apparently savoring the annoying mammal’s frustration as he took his time sighting on her.
“Thanks, furbearer. You’ve just guaranteed me a ten thousand credit reward,” he informed her.
“May your juniors have pelts and your mate carry the pox!” she snarled in return, still trying to get free.
An angry screech interrupted the execution as a silvery battering ram slammed into the soldier. He howled as steel talon-guards sliced into him before a blaster shot sent him to Hell. Rada squirmed out from behind the equipment in time to see Zabet slice off the end of the traitor’s tail. <
“Thanks, Boss. How’s get down!” Rada snapped two shots through the space formerly occupied by True-dragon. Zabet rolled and came to her feet, hissing.
<
“Affirmative. And the com transmission controller. Let’s get out of here before the fire-extinguishers trigger,” Ni Drako suggested, heading out the door.
The pair ducked into a side room. Rada typed a command onto her forearm pad calling up the map of the palace complex. She, Zabet and her squad seemed to have cleared out most of the resistance in this area but Lord Shu’s people had attracted a lot of hostile attention. “Biss, come to my signal,” Rada ordered. At her nod Zabet took a position beside the door, just in case.
Biss, Schriik, Skaer, Skeet and the others straggled towards her. “You, stay out in the hall, just in case,” Biss ordered five of the ten. “Lord Defender?” he asked.
“Here’s us. Here’s the main goal, and here’s trouble,” she pointed to the display projecting from her armor. She hesitated for a moment, distracted by the symbol for the King-Emperor as it moved towards the Imperial Wing. Who called for backup and how’d I miss it? she wondered, then came back to the more urgent task. “Suggestions, aside from clean them out from behind?” and Rada typed a command, highlighting a back corridor.
Biss and the others shook their heads. “No my lord,” the sergeant said.
“Lord Mammal, Kirlin’s com specialist says they’re now meeting little or no resistance,” Schriik informed her.
Rada, Zabet and Biss spoke simultaneously. “Trap.”
Rada thought hard. “OK, slight change. After we meet up with Shu’s troops, we intercept and re-enforce Kirlin.” Or clean up what’s left of him. Biss and the others memorized the projection, then she shut it down. “How are we set on weapons and ammo, Sergeant?”
“Pretty well, my lord,” he told her as they started along the back passage. “We’ve been collecting spare weapons and ammo from the enemy and Skeet found this in one of the rooms near the DCC,” and the private handed a rifle forward.
It wasn’t just any rifle and Rada bared her fangs as she took the weapon. “Very good work, Skeet,” she said over her shoulder. The private handed forward a bandolier with spare gas packs, which Rada draped over her head and shoulder. They’d covered several dozen meters and Zabet raised an armored forefoot to stop the movement.
Rada started to shift to point, but Biss and Schriik both stopped her. “Too valuable, Lord Defender,” Biss reminded her. She growled but let him and about half the men go past as she flattened herself against the passageway wall. “On three,” Biss announced. Everyone checked their weapons, and Rada caressed the butt of her heavy rifle, then flipped up the special monocular sights. “One, two, three!” and the heavy sergeant slammed his shoulder against the light paneling concealing the entrance.
He tumbled into chaos as Rada and her men slid into the middle of a firefight. She took two seconds to confirm who the hostiles were, then started firing. The heavy rifle’s fire knocked Rada’s targets off their feet. Oops, don’t need that much she winced a little, sliding the power control back to “kill” from “annihilate.”
Shu’s troops rallied behind the new arrivals. Yells of “Azdhagia!” and “Shudali!” rose as the opposition began fading, then collapsed in a clatter of dropped weapons and claws on stone as some of the enemy began fleeing. Rada and her men stepped aside to let the others lead the counter charge.
Biss grabbed one of Shu’s men. “Where’s your lord?”
“Back around the corner. He’s wounded,” the man answered.
Rada detoured to check on the noble. <
“I can’t keep him sedated, my lord; he’s burning through the drugs too fast,” the medic explained, her tail beating the floor in frustration.
“Don’t waste time,” Rada ordered. “Go take care of the others.” The reptile hesitated, torn between loyalty to her lord and Rada’s order. “Go,” the mammal repeated, and the medic trotted off as low to the ground as she could get.
“My lord?” Rada asked, touching his foreleg and trying to dampen some of his agony.
He hissed, then screeched as his thrashing hind leg caught in a loop of muscle from his shredded tail. “End it, Lord Defender! Give me mercy.”
She didn’t wait for a second request, but shot him in the heart. “Go to your ancestors with glory,” she told the body, as Zabet retched in a corner. “Come on, I have another life to avenge,” Rada announced, turning back towards the sound of the guns. She, Biss, and Zabet caught up with her men as they were stripping the remains of their opposition of their weapons. Shu’s captain sent four of his men to escort the prisoners to the holding area in the main courtyard.
Rada paused for a quick situation update. The Defenders were pushing the Raiders and traitors back, towards the Imperial chambers and the Great Throne Room. A few Azdhagi had been re-tasked with putting out fires started by the combat and no one had accounted for the servants yet. “On to rendezvous with Kirlin and Tirahla,” the Lord Defender ordered. Shu’s men continued along the main halls, while Rada and her men slipped into another back passage, led by Zabet. They hurried along, kicking up dust and startling a few eight-legs and other insects. <
“You just answered your own question,” Rada managed to laugh. Then Zabet skidded to a halt as the wooden paneling that formed the side of the passageway exploded in a few meters ahead of them.
Two Azdhagi tumbled into the dusty way, gripped in claw-to-talon combat. Biss and the others shoved past Rada to boil into the room. <
Rada caught sight of Lord Kirlin. “Where’s Tirahla?” he asked, stopping for a moment to check a bandage on his tail.
The Lord-Defender called up her tracking projection. “He’s almost at the main throne room. It shouldn’t be much long . . .” and something heavy slammed her to the floor as a brilliant flash exploded behind the two nobles. The force of the blast knocked the air out of her lungs and she gasped and coughed in the dust and smoke. Rada ran a quick check and found all her limbs still attached, then gritted her teeth and pulled a splinter of wood out of her right calf. At least that leg’s already bad, she groused as she got to her knees.
“Kirlin? Zabet?” she called and was rewarded with a masculine groan from a few meters down the hall and a stream of profanities, followed by <
Someone called in Trader, “Damn it, they’re not dead!” Rada fired toward the voice as she backed to stand between the Raiders and Kirlin, Zabet falling in beside her. “Are you and Biss counting mammals or just reptiles,” she asked as she crouched, bracing for a steadier aim.
<
“Get them alive! The Colonel wants them alive,” another human voice cautioned as a shot sailed high over the trio’s heads.
Rada shook her head as Kirlin rolled upright. “My lord, they want us alive,” she informed him in Azdhag.
He snorted. “Never heard of suicidal mercenaries before,” and started edging backwards.
“Me either and that includes me. Let’s go.” The three rushed away from the oncoming soldiers, sprinting down the hall and around a corner to find Biss and Skeet coming the other way.
“Pursuit, mostly human, looking for hostages,” Kirlin explained as he and Zabet passed through the soldiers. Ni Drako started to stop but Biss pushed her on.
“Tirahla’s calling for re-enforcements. He’s found Col. Gray and the traitor lords. Caught them trying to get to the spaceport,” the sergeant reported. Rada slapped him on the back armor, then picked up speed, leaving her men to cover her.
The two nobles found the Prince Imperial standing outside the Great Throne Room, his tail thrashing in frustration. “Situation report,” Rada ordered.
“Gray claims to have a hundred of the servants hostage in the throne room. He, Sheekar and Rashkali want a cease fire and safe passage for all surviving Raiders and the lords’ personal troops off the planet,” Tirahla snarled.
“What about Dissch?” Kirlin demanded.
The Prince bared all his fangs, throat spines snapping out straight. “My honored sire sent him to explain his actions to the Lords of Hell,” and he pointed with his tail.
<
“He’s definitely related to Shi-dan,” Rada observed. She scratched under her nose. “Um, Imperial Highness, where is your Honored Sire?”
Tirahla started to answer, then hesitated. “He said he was taking part of the surviving Palace Guard and checking on the females’ wing.” All three commanders looked at each other as Zabet gave a whistling groan. “Which leads into the Imperial quarters, and then into . . .”
“Oh, shit,” the Lord Defender stated quietly as Kirlin covered his eyes with a forefoot. “Zabet, do you remember . . ?”
The True-dragon pointed, then led the way to a battered tapestry, which she pushed aside. She fiddled with a knothole in the panel, pushed in a stone beside the paneling, and shoved. The wall opened just enough for a very skinny Azdhag, or a small humanoid, to slip in. Rada handed Zabet her rifle, bandolier, and weapons belt, adjusted the setting on her blaster, slipped in a fresh gas pack and started easing her way into the hole.
“Lord Defender, what are you doing?” Tirahla hissed, grabbing for her. Zabet blocked him, shaking her head.
“Trust me, Imperial Highness,” the woman asked, then vanished into the dark hole.
“What’s he going to do? Kill Gray and the others?” Tirahla demanded from Zabet as Kirlin turned to brief the newly arriving soldiers of Shu’s command.
<> the smaller reptile admitted. <
The prince’s talons screeched on stone, then he made himself relax. “Yes,” he admitted. Then all conversation stopped as a roar came from behind the throne room’s locked doors. The Defenders heard what sounded like blaster shots and screams and a surging growl. Several heavy somethings slammed against the doors. Then the sounds muted before changing into hisses and a shudder of tail thumps. The bars holding the door shut grated back, the large wooden panels slammed open, and a stream of Azdhagi in the robes of Palace servants flowed out of the room. A few caught sight of Tirahla and Kirlin and bowed, but kept moving out of the doorway in a very rapid but orderly manner.
The soldiers outside began working their way into the throne room as Zabet ducked off to the side, making sure no one saw the gap in the wall. A path opened for Kirlin and Tirahla as the remaining servants eased off to the sides of the room, giving the two nobles a clear view of the dais at the head of the chamber. Several dead Azdhagi and humans lay scattered around the Throne Room, while Palace Guards had rifles trained on three nobles and four human officers on the dais. A female in Healer’s robes was taking care of the King-Emperor, whose tail thumped the floor weakly. “What happened?” he demanded.
“And where’s the Lord Defender?” Tirahla asked, looking around for any sign of the mammal.
It took a few minutes to sort out the chaos and when they did, no one knew if they should thank Lord Ni Drako or execute him on the spot. As Tirahla and the others had feared, Chi-tak had brought the Guards in through the Imperial entrance, hoping to surprise the enemy. It hadn’t worked, but as he started to surrender in order to stop the enemy from killing the servants huddling in the middle of the hall, someone shot him. And Gray, and Sheekar as well. The servants and Guard reacted by attacking the hostage takers, killing several before Captain Eishti yelled, “His Majesty’s alive! He’s only stunned and the Prince is outside! Open the doors!” That was the thumping commotion, followed by the orderly flight from the room.
