by Scott Rhine
“Johnny?” Rachael sobbed.
“Feel later,” Oleander said, slapping the woman. The act was less satisfying than she’d imagined, but the bitch wasn’t at home now. “There are eleven more of us, and we’re all going to die unless you lead.”
No response. Oleander turned on her boss’s suit, and then reached inside her own shirt to punch the emergency button on her badge. “All hands, sniper on the north ridge with a Magi energy weapon. Stay inside. Repeat, stay inside. Rachael and I are by the distillery. Johnny is dead. Is anyone but Herk trapped outside on the mesa?”
At the death notice, Rachael wailed inconsolably.
Because of light restrictions, everyone had moved indoors, but the pink-purple light swept the area again, searching for victims.
Herk sent a private query to Oleander’s suit. She had to put on her helmet to respond. She gave him the unofficial situation report, including Rachael’s state. He replied, “As senior security officer, you’re in charge. Drag Rachael to the spaceport office and report in to Z. Damn Toby. If he’d stayed, I’d have a spare sneak suit in here to use. Once Z has been informed, strip the zombie out of her shimmer armor and bring it to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rachael staggered along with her, but the open ground between buildings seemed to stretch forever. Oleander lived in terror of hearing that sound again.
Risa already had Olympus on the line when Oleander reached the control room. After they described the attack, Lou said, “That solves one mystery. The pandas love words based on sounds. If you cut out the ‘ee’ sound that’s not in their language, the blasters go bloo—hence the name of the tribe. It all makes sense now: the elevated ones, the thick stone construction, and hiding from anyone who might be on the canyon rim.”
“How does this affect our rules of engagement? Can we shoot back?” Oleander asked.
“Hell, yes,” Lou said. “Snowflake puts the Bloo tribe on par with rabid animals. Z is busy establishing our parameters now.”
“Why would anyone shoot Johnny?” Risa asked. “He’s a damn cook.”
Lou cleared his throat. “My guess is a cultural misunderstanding. By feeding three women at once, Johnny marked himself as our tribe’s alpha male.”
Removing her helmet, Oleander wiped sweat and tears away that prevented her from seeing clearly.
Nadia crawled into the crowded control room and said, “The targeting device sounds like a hydrogen-band laser.”
“Can you use it to spot him and hit back with the COIL?” Oleander asked.
“No. He’s over the canyon rim. I wouldn’t have line of sight, and he’s probably moved by now. I would have,” the Russian high-energy physicist admitted.
“Damn,” Oleander complained. “He’s just outside my astral-projection range.”
“Just as well, the moment we fire at him, the enemy will shoot holes in the shuttle, and we’re stranded. The good news is that the laser won’t work worth crap in fog or a dust storm.”
“Wonderful. Rachael has a bruise on her forehead. I think she took some stone chips from the explosion,” Oleander fibbed. Any bruising would be from the tackle, but she wanted to give her former rival a chance to save face in the history books. “Risa, peel her out of this armor. Until I bring back Officer Herkemer, he’s placed me in charge.”
“Then you have to send someone else on the rescue,” Yvette interrupted.
“He’s waiting for me,” Oleander said.
“Then you’ll have to delegate fast,” Yvette countered, checking Rachael’s pupils and pulse, “or I’ll tell Lou why someone else needs to go.”
Oleander wanted to scream. “Fine. How about Park?”
“Negative,” Lou said over the radio. “He’s your only way out of there. Get him into the cockpit as soon as possible, and keep him under guard. Give Auckland one of the gauss guns. He can’t run or move cargo like the rest of you anyway.”
“Right, those two should put on spacesuits, and we’ll figure out how to sneak them into the shuttle once Herk is safe,” Oleander said, refiguring. “Yuki, you’re an acrobat and run the fifty-meter dash faster than anyone left. You wear the shorter set off Rachael. I’ll pack mine up for Herk. How do we temporarily cover for the fact that the shimmer armor won’t quite cover all of him and he’s too wide to fit in Toby’s camo fatigues?”
“I have a wild idea,” said Yvette. “Open the hydra deer pens and let them roam free. You hide behind the deer like cowboys behind a horse.”
When they told him over the comm, Herk said, “I like it. When you’re in a gunfight in the west, stick to the classics.”
****
Yuki put the pile of sample containers and the computer from Toby’s lockers down on the console in front of Oleander. The Japanese woman tried to sound calm as she reported, “Everything you asked for, sir. The only casualty was one of the deer close to the gate. The noise and death panicked the rest, and the animals kicked up a little dust cover for us.”
“Good,” the thin blonde said. “Are the explosives set?”
Caked with sweat, dust, and smelling like hydra spit, Herk dropped Johnny’s body just inside the control room airlock. “Affirmative. How’s Rachael’s head injury?”
Risa hugged her husband the moment his arms were free. “The doctor has her sedated. He analyzed Johnny’s body, and his bet is that microwave energy killed him. He was cooked from the bone out.”
Oleander grimaced and turned her head away at the explanation.
Herk said, “Z has authorized lethal force while invisible on three missions: eliminating the snipers, escorting Pear Blossom’s faction to safety, and holding the mesa until we’re able to leave. I’ll handle the mesa wetwork myself with our long-range rifle. I’ll wait till the Bloos attack en masse to blow the first bridge so it inflicts maximum damage, but that means I’ll be too distracted to coordinate.” The security chief pointed at Oleander when he said, “Specialist Dahlstrom, you’ve got the clearest head in a crisis. You’re in charge here for the duration. Commandeer whoever you need to work the camera or be your invisible minions for the other missions.”
Oleander sighed. “I’ll scout the perimeter every few minutes Out-of-body during the dark hours. I can let you know if there are any probes. Yuki, you’re my best asset for stealth and hand-to-hand. I’ll put you in charge of leading the rebels out of here. They should be safe enough at the copper town to the north.”
Yuki nodded. “Glad to. It’s the duty of the strong to protect the weak.”
“Do you need me to give you a refresher class on fighting with a staff?” Herk offered. “You women will need to keep those monsters out of arms’ reach, or they’ll beat you to death with their bare hands.”
Waving the idea away, Yuki said, “Relax. Z has been preparing me for this day for years. I just didn’t realize it till now.”
Herk clapped her on the shoulder in approval.
Indicating Yvette, Oleander said, “Our nurse is the best at hiking and endurance, so I’ll have her take a shift in the small scout armor after Yuki. Any allies we still have around by then will probably need medical attention. Meanwhile, could you get Toby on the line and sweet talk him into stabbing that sniper for us?”
“The Charter will allow him to attack armed soldiers to save our lives, especially now that war has been declared, but it will take at least another seven hours plus time for him to sneak up. What do we do till then?”
Herk shrugged. “Eat, sleep, and bury our dead.”
When Yvette left to speak to Toby in private, Oleander whispered, “Sir, I want to take Johnny along with us on Ascension.”
“Why?” Herk asked. “Those pods can’t bring back the dead.”
“These people are cannibals. I don’t want them . . .” The rest stuck in her throat.
When Herk hesitated, Yuki added, “The Magi would insist on no evidence left behind, sir.”
“Fine, I’ll have the doc bag Johnny for transport,” he said, moving past th
em to the narrow staircase. “Choose your team from the women while I grab coffee for my water bottle and food that will fit in my pockets.”
Yuki resisted the urge to remind him that the pandas would smell him coming. What did it matter at this point?
When the two women were alone, Oleander mouthed a thank you to Yuki.
Yuki asked, “Who else should we bring up here to help you? While you’re hopping around astrally, someone has to guard your body and talk to us in the field.”
“This is rough,” Oleander said. “I’ll put Pratibha on the cameras at night. Risa should carry the second gauss rifle and guard this room. Set it to projectiles the size of a pencil eraser for quick stopping power. If anything in the control room needs a repair, Risa can probably handle it. Come daylight, she can finish her repairs to Ascension’s hull.”
Yuki reminded her, “Tomorrow is umbra. We won’t have light for long.”
“I’ll put Nadia in the shuttle with the two men and have her arm the COIL just in case we need to bring down the wrath of the graniths. She and the men can push the essential supplies over on the antigravity sled and might be able to make a few of the repairs while waiting. The moment the sniper situation is resolved, we can be ready to leave.”
“After Toby makes it back here,” Yuki reminded her.
“Damn. Right. He’ll take another six hours or so to travel back here after his mission.” Oleander put her hands behind her head and growled in frustration at the delay. The main assault would arrive tomorrow night some time. This plan only left two hours’ safety margin.
Yuki tried to encourage and keep her occupied with simple challenges so she wouldn’t think about the noose closing around their necks. Any problem could be broken into manageable chunks. “Sounds like you’ve made the best of a bad poker hand. I suppose when Rachael snaps out of it, she can take guard duty on the control room.”
“I don’t know if I trust her near me with a gun,” Oleander said.
“Right, but you’ll give Nadia a gun that can mow me down from twenty klicks away?”
“Point,” the security specialist said, chuckling.
“How are you planning on those three people reaching the shuttle?”
“The invisibles could haul out the cylindrical skylight covers,” Oleander brainstormed. “Spray paint them or toss dust on them so the sniper can’t see inside. Our people could crawl through.”
“That would take too long,” Yuki said, remembering when she’d watched Mercy hang laundry. “We have sheets for twelve people, plus some extras, right? It would be cake to string a few ropes from the door here to the shuttle airlock. We clip sheets along one side and over the top so the sniper can’t see.”
“He can still fire through the sheets when he sees movement.”
“We stake them down and have the guys carry a sheet of metal as a safety precaution,” Yuki suggested.
“The reflecting panels from the solar array would be perfect,” Oleander decided.
“Great. Have Herk carry about six of those over when he’s done kissing Risa goodbye, and we have a plan. Can you handle the board for ten minutes alone?”
“Sure.”
“I need to say goodbye to Park.”
“Make it fifteen,” Oleander said with a shaky voice. She pulled out a computer pad to take down all the assignments.
Once she ran out of life-or-death problems, Yuki could tell that woman was going to fall apart.
Chapter 43 – Sacrifices
When Yuki volunteered, she thought it would be a simple assignment: call Momma panda over the cave radio, and Pear Blossom would leave. No. When her door guardian collapsed due to a spear wound, she closed the door to the cave of secrets and barricaded herself inside with the two cubs.
On to plan B: invisible, Yuki would traipse through infested woods, sneak in the back tunnel, and lead the rebel scholar out to safety. On her back, she carried the last gauss gun instead of a water pouch. She had the dial set to throw chunks the size of a nine-millimeter slug—one solid hit would take out an enemy, and a graze would certainly discourage him for long enough for her to jog out of range. At the bottom of the mesa path, Herk informed her that she would have about ten rounds per magazine in this mode. She gripped the Über-Taser in her hand, hoping to accomplish her goals by stealth.
Pandas were loud when they moved, and most of the students were fleeing in terror. Burning rooftops lit her way through the chaos. The Japanese woman had forgotten how well a nonmoving panda could blend into his surroundings. A few meters from the cave’s back entrance, she literally bumped into a large, black-furred native. The moment he turned his head to look, her armor detectors went wild. He knocked Yuki into the underbrush as he spun. The enemy soldier managed to shout a brief warning to the others before she Tasered his fat ass and cut his throat. Then she picked up the soldier’s spear to use as a staff while her weapon built up another charge. Yuki slipped into the cave’s back entrance with no further problems.
As she led the family into the woods, Voice who Shines frolicked ahead of the others. Then the assassins struck. Spears rained from the tree branches above her, and one pinned the cub through his right leg. As she leaned over the cub to shield him from further harm, the armor held, but she felt like someone was beating her bare back with a ball-peen hammer. She should have worn the neoprene underwear for more cushioning, but it made her sweat so much. When the assault paused, Yuki could hear Zeiss’ cautionary voice in her memory, like a parent lecturing.
“Full audio-visual with infrared,” Yuki ordered the helmet, and her visor highlighted panda heat signatures. The advantage was worth the heavier drain on her suit battery.
Starting with the one who might be able to harm her before she unlimbered her gun, she chucked her spear at a native crouched on a low branch, which caused him to plummet.
Pear Blossom charged the fallen soldier to avenge her cub. The others wouldn’t use spears while the two were rolling so close on the ground. While vicious snarls sounded to her right, Yuki heard underbrush rustle to the left. She drew her fighting daggers. Three new soldiers were creeping up on the melee. Yuki tripped the closest and then sliced his throat. The two other ground soldiers froze in their tracks, alert for attack.
Yuki danced around the next target, knocking him flat on his face. When she stabbed between his ribs, the fat sealed around the hilt of her long dagger. Blood made her grip too slippery to pull out the knife. While she struggled, the soldier’s short partner grabbed her chest in a meaty paw. If his other arm joined the first, she was dead.
When she shouted a frantic curse to shrivel his member, the panda actually paused to look down and check for genital shrinkage. She pithed him in the back of his skull with her second knife. Even in death, the brute refused to release his prize, and as he crumpled, she heard something snap.
Not only did blood decorate her armor in polka dots, but a scale of her armor tore loose, displaying a tan, camouflage target over her left breast. The time for subtle was over.
As another spear flew down at her, Yuki fired the gauss rifle from her hip. It sounded like Chinese New Year. She lost count of the shots she peppered into the sky and the bodies that dropped like piñatas. After the clip ran out, there was a moment of silence that made her ears ring.
The cub Memory that Endures poked his head out of the cave, calling for his mama. Pear Blossom raised her bloody muzzle and soothed her worried child. She had torn the assailant’s throat out with her fangs. There was a dark patch of blood on the side of her forepaw, but she seemed otherwise unharmed.
You go, girl, thought Yuki. She had to pry the piece of broken armor out of the dead panda’s claws. As she shoved the piece into her pack to reattach later, Voice who Shines warned them about the tenth killer sneaking up on them. Running, Yuki had to blind him before he could get a fix on her. A flying kick to the nose took care of that problem. It was a simple matter after that to wear him down until he made a mistake and exposed a quick kill point.
Yuki took advantage of the breather to slam her last ammunition clip into the rifle and dialed up the bullet size to ‘stop a charging elephant’. She might get four rounds in this mode, but they would count. However, each shot would draw more of the enemy down on her.
After making certain no members of the kill team remained, Yuki liberated a few enemy spears, handing them to the family. When she asked Pear Blossom to follow the floating gun to the copper village, the mother panda refused. “My cub cannot run. I will not leave him. The strong must defend the weak.”
“Can’t he walk on three legs?” Yuki asked.
“Slowly,” Pear Blossom admitted.
Time for a creative plan C. “Bind his wound with this,” Yuki said, tossing a wad of gauze to the rebel woman. “Can he swim?”
“Very well,” the mother bragged.
Yuki had a choice: she could ask permission, or she could save this family. Sighing, she activated the aqua sled. “Come with me to the river. One of my magical water servants will carry him. You two follow him from the shore; you may need to run.”
During the slow crawl to the river, Pear Blossom kept encouraging her boys.
On the way to the muddy river bank, Yuki emptied the entire clip, killing three of the targets outright. She could tell by the size of the hole that the last bullet was smaller, the leftover. Chasing them downhill, the injured soldier kept coming. She had to use that momentum to flip him prone. A hasty rifle butt to the face didn’t convince the behemoth to stay down. Worse, the guy’s fangs tore the padding on the stock. Pear Blossom picked up the spare by thrusting with her spear into his lungs to keep the soldier from calling for help.
“Arigato,” Yuki panted. She was down to one short blade, and her mission wasn’t even half done.
Once in the water, the blood dissolved and Yuki faded from sight. She showed the cub how to operate the sled to carry him upstream. Delighted by the new toy, the boy wiped out twice trying daredevil stunts. She had to urge him to be conservative. “Travel at your mother’s pace. You are responsible for leading them to safety. If you hurt the magic fish, the soldiers will catch you. If you’re careful, it will carry you until nightfall. When it can go no further, release it, and the fish will return to me.” Actually, it would probably smash on the rocks in the rapids and end up at the bottom of the great lake, but that didn’t make a good fairy tale.
