“Vyysarri troops have broken the defense line at the shield generator. The com has been cut.”
“Get some men down there on the double! Where’s Khai’s team?”
Trall grimaced at the name. “He’s quelling with a riot on the east side of the Corporate Sector near the Slums.”
“Raise him on the com. Order him to go protect the shield generator at all costs.”
“But, sir.” Trall said in a whiny voice. “He’s miles from the west side. He’ll never make it time. Even with airlift— which isn’t available anyway.”
“Damn!” Puar growled. “Who do we have over there right now?”
“Nobody, sir,” Trall hissed. “The Corporate Sector wasn’t the projected target. The Honorifical Office was. Which brings me to my next order of business, sir, you’re not safe here. I suggest we move you to the Emergency Bunker in Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon. Just in case our initial projections still prove accurate yet.”
It was only a thirty-minute ride to the bunker, which was the single most impenetrable fortress on the planet. It was located in Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon, named by the explorer who discovered it several millennia earlier. It only had two ways in and out. There was the main entrance, which housed a large retractable landing platform big enough to hold a capital ship in the event that the Prime Minister needed to be whisked off-planet. This entrance was fortified by an impenetrable force field and heavy-duty, high-caliber sentry guns. The other entrance was less known, though. It started several hundred feet at the bottom of the canyon, underwater. There was an airlock at the bottom of the river, which flowed through the entire surface area of the canyon floor. It was only accessible by submarine that docked with the airlock. There was a long shaft that went all the way up the engineering level of the bunker, which was the bottom level. When a sub docked with the airlock—and the entrance code was provided and confirmed—the water in the shaft was purged into the river and the lift car became accessible. The lift would take them up to the engineering level where the arrivals were greeted by Security Patrol Enforcement and Assault Robots, or SPEARs—automated security forces, essential artificially intelligent sentry guns on treads.
The whole bunker was automated, and self-sufficient. From hydroponics, to air-scrubbers, to automated maintenance robots, there wasn’t a single task that needed to be tended to by a Seryysan making it the perfect retreat for the Prime Minister if he wanted to escape marauding Vyysarri or insistent politicians. The automated security forces were impossible to bribe and the only way to control then was from the control/panic room deep within the rock walls attached to the main hanger.
“Do you really think that’s necessary?” Puar asked incredulously.
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“Knowing you, old friend, you’re not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.” Puar sighed. “But, I’m still the Prime Minister, and I’m staying here. I’m not going to add to a hysteria that will cost more innocent lives.”
Trall sighed, then said, “Then will you at least go home for the day? I have your personal shuttle idling on the landing platform for you right now.”
“I thought you might,” the Prime Minister said with a warm smile. “Let’s get going.”
The Honorifical Office had a lift car that provided direct access to the landing platform on the roof in the event of a full assault on the Capital Building. This wasn’t necessarily the by-the-book way to get the Prime Minister out, but with the invasion fleet broken through, there was a good chance that the enemy could’ve also sent a team to find and kill the Prime Minister.
Khai and his team ran. “We’re… not gonna… make it,” Koon said between gasps for air.
“We don’t have a choice!” Khai snapped. “If that shield goes down again, we’re all dead!”
“Quit your crying and get moving!” Captain Dah ordered.
They started running again. Suddenly, though, Khai stopped.
“What is it?” Dah asked. The others stopped, too—and nearly collapsed.
“I see our ticket to a faster mode of transportation.”
The sun had just set, casting brilliant shades of pinks and oranges and blues across the horizon. It was getting dark enough now that the Vyysarri would not need protection from the sun’s harmful rays. Khai peered down a deep, dark alley, between two tall apartment complexes and spotted a large tarp covering something that resembled the curvy lines of a classic hovercar, the hovercar that originally caught his attention. Khai ran over and pulled the tarp clear to reveal an older, classic car on wheels. That was both good and bad: good because it would be easier to steal, bad because they would have to dodge obstacles on the road which would slow them down. But still—
“It beats running!” Puar said with another deep breath, finishing Khai’s thought.
Khai kicked in the window and pulled apart the dash. Using wires from the ignition switch, which was ridiculously easy to find on an oldie like this, he fired her up and unlocked the doors. The others clambered in and Khai hit the accelerator. The car fishtailed around the corner coming out from the alley and sped off in the direction of the shield generator, which was still several miles away.
It took nearly another thirty minutes to get there and it was now night in the big city. They passed the flaming wreckage that used to be the lander Puar shot down on their way. Puar had a very satisfied I told you so look on his face. When they arrived, Khai stopped five blocks short. “Get out.” Khai ordered calmly.
“What? Why?” Naad asked.
“Because, I don’t want to get anyone hurt.”
“What are you going to do?” Dah asked, unbuckling his crash restraints.
“You’ll see,” Khai said with a roguish grin, waiting patiently. “Let’s just say that I’m not about to let these Vyysarri bastards leave. Now hurry up and get out.”
They filed out of the car. Khai spotted the drop ship and revved the engine. He stepped on it and the car sped off. He was less than a hundred yards from the lander when he hit a hundred and fifteen miles per hour. Just before the car collided with the ship, Khai jumped out and painfully rolled to a stop as the car rammed into the ship eliciting a huge explosion and grabbing the attention of the Vyysarri watching guard at the front entrance.
“Holy shit!” Dah nearly whispered. “He’s crazy.”
“You can say that again!” Puar agreed.
“Let’s move!” Dah yelled.
The others ran for the building that housed the shield generator. The Vyysarri charged at them. From a lying-down position, Khai dropped two of the six with headshots from his pistol. But the others ignored him. They simply charged at the others.
“Drop ‘em!” Dah yelled. They stopped their charge and opened fire on them.
The Vyysarri were hardy people. It took several shots to bring them down. The leader of the group took a full spray from Naad’s guns before he even slowed down. Koon had the most luck, one-shot-kills to the head with his sniper rifle. Dah killed the one fighting him with his machete and felt younger than he had in a long time because of it.
“Still got it,” he said, smiling and sheathing machete.
“What about Khai?” Puar asked, concern filling his voice.
“Go check him out, Naad,” Captain Dah ordered. “You’re the medic.”
When Naad reached Khai, he was sitting up and grimacing as he stretched his sore muscles.
“Khai!” Naad shouted. “Khai. You all right?”
“I’m fine,” Khai said flatly. “Is everyone else okay?”
“Yeah,” he said as the others approached. “We made short order of them.”
“Good,” Khai said. “You leave any of them alive?”
“Why would we do that?” Puar asked.
“To find out why that building is still standing?” They all exchanged bewildered looks. Puar actually rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “Brilliant. Well, it must be explosives. We just need to find them and disable them, preferably before they go off
.”
“So, what? We’re going in?” Puar asked.
“Not all of us,” Khai said, looking back at the building. “Just me.”
“Are you crazy?” Puar yelped. “Do you even know what you’re looking for?”
“Detonite—or a variant,” Khai replied to Puar’s question.
“So, what if it goes off while you’re still in there?” Brix asked.
“Then you should have nothing to worry about,” Khai answered, not an ounce of fear in his voice. “It’ll be nice to be able to die with dignity.”
“Ah, hell!” Puar said. “I can’t let you go in there alone.”
“You don’t have to go either. You can just wait here. I’m going to be honest with you; I probably won’t make it out alive. I can’t let you throw your life away. Besides, you’re the best the city has to offer and losing any of you will leave this city vulnerable if I fail.”
“Well, here, then,” Puar said, handing Khai a device with a small display. “This’ll detect and track the electronic triggers for the detonite. It’ll detect any triggers within a hundred yards.”
“Thanks,” Khai said, strapping the radar to his belt. “If I’m not out in twenty minutes, get clear of the building and find cover. Got it?” They all nodded. “Good.”
Khai breached the front doors and was greeted by a bloodbath. Wires hung, sparking small discharges, and water dripped from ruptured waterlines for the fire suppression system. This was clearly the maintenance level, as there were hundreds of pipelines and conduits lining the ceiling, several workbenches with tools lying about and circuit breakers every few feet. Plus, the constant rumble of the power generator made listening for enemies increasingly difficult. Security guards and maintenance men lay about, dead. Puncture wounds—two, to be exact—existed on each of the necks of the guards in the front area. Bloody leaches were feeding on these guys! The left-over blood made the floor slick and the stomach-turning odor filled Khai’s nose. He took a breath through his clenched teeth and grimaced. Khai activated the radar and ventured deep into the bowels of the building searching for explosives that had to be there. The radar detected five within a hundred yards of his position.
Three of the five were on higher levels, so he went for the two on his current level. As he ventured deeper into the building, one more blip appeared on the radar on his level. So that made six bombs, total.
In short order, he had located and disarmed the first three bombs, which were placed at strategic places on the first floor—two of those being support beams that kept the place up, only one was placed on the power regulator. It was going smoothly, and the bombs’ triggers appeared to be not set to a timer, but to a remote trigger that would set them all off at once. Why they hadn’t been set off yet was still a mystery, but Khai knew not to let his guard down for even a second. Not only could a searing, fiery death call at any moment, Khai also didn’t put it past the Vyysarri to leave some behind to die protecting their handiwork.
He worked his way up to the second of ten levels. There was nothing on this level; only offices of people who monitored the shield generator—some of those people present, but dead. Khai grimaced again. The Vyysarri did an exceedingly proficient job leaving nobody alive.
Khai pushed on.
The third floor was all computer equipment; server panels and diagnostic readouts. Thousands of blinking lights winked at seemingly random intervals. This particular room/floor was at least fifteen degrees cooler than the first two he had explored to keep the computers from overheating. His radar indicated that there was one charge on this floor. It was placed on the floor at the center of the room—hopefully to take out all the regulatory systems in one shot.
Moving to the fourth floor, he was taken aback. Though from the outside the building appeared to be ten floors, the next six levels were comprised of what looked like an engineering level. There were catwalks that hung like streamers at a party from one side to the next on multiple levels. The constant grind of machinery echoed off the walls. One large cylinder—probably fifty feet tall and twenty feet in diameter—was marked:
Generator Coolant. HOT! DO NOT TOUCH!
There was, according to the radar, one bomb placed on the cylinder. There was a ladder that led up to a catwalk that went right by the midsection of the cylinder.
“Great,” Khai growled. “Why is it always heights?”
He clambered up the ladder and ran his white-knuckled hands over the rail as he walked up to the bomb. He was almost there when he heard the low roar of a Vyysarri warrior as he leapt down from the top of the cylinder. He landed right on top of Khai and drove him to the grating floor of the catwalk with a pained grunt.
“I will feast on your blood, Seryysan,” the Vyysarri warrior hissed.
“Maybe later,” Khai grunted, pushing himself up—to the astonishment of the Vyysarri.
Khai threw his head back whacking his assailant on the chin, eliciting a grunt of his own and the weight being lifted off his back. Khai immediately sprung to his feet, readying himself for another fight. The Vyysarri also stood to his full height of over six and a half feet. He took a threatening step toward Khai. But he was in no mood for games. He was far too tired and hungry to deal with this nonsense. So, with the lighting speed of a Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon Sabercat, Khai quick-drew his pistol and popped one shot dead on into his opponent’s forehead. The force of the blast staggered him a bit, but certainly didn’t stop him. To Khai’s dismay, he lunged forward with more speed than Khai could have anticipated and knocked the gun from his hand.
The gun clanked on the floor three stories below.
Damn!
Khai grabbed the Vyysarri by the throat and his face betrayed his surprise at Khai’s strength. Khai pushed him back several feet, before he caught his footing and was able to push back. There, a stalemate ensued; their equal strengths pushed at each other as their arms shook with exertion.
“You must be military,” a deep, gruff voice said.
“Yeah,” Khai said, maneuvering his enemy into what would be his finishing move.
“I have killed many of your kind,” he said plainly.
Khai didn’t say anything in response; he only grabbed the Vyysarri’s arm and using his enemy’s momentum, rolled to his back, flipping the Vyysarri over his head and onto his back behind him. For only one second, they lay head-to-head on their backs; Khai kept rolling into a backward somersault and ended up on his knees straddling his stunned opponent. One solid and bone-jarring punch sent the Vyysarri spiraling into a dark oblivion. As the Vyysarri stopped struggling, Khai pulled his knife and drove it straight down into the Vyysarri’s heart, not stopping until the tip of the knife found the grating floor and twisted the blade to make sure the job was done. The Vyysarri rattled out a final breath and collapsed.
Khai finished the disarming of the bomb and slid back down the ladder, retrieving his gun on the way to the lift car. As he rode the car up, he consulted his radar again. There were two left. One was the tenth level and the other was on the roof, most likely attached to the shield emitter.
The lift car stopped and before the door could even open, it was instantly riddled with bullet holes. The doors separated and smoke billowed out. As the smoke cleared, the irritated group of Vyysarri realized they only things they had hit were air and metal.
“Grand,” the leader grunted. “Go check it out.” Grand gave him a terrified look. Without hesitation, the leader shot Grand in the face, killing him instantly. “Bash, now you go.”
“At once!” he snapped, brining his weapon to bear on the lift car. He looked around inside the lift car. “He’s not here.”
“Where is he, then?”
Chapter Five
Khai had to chuckle to himself. Those Vyysarri idiots must be scratching their heads right now. On the ride up, he climbed up into the shaft and when the lift made it to the tenth floor, Khai climbed hand-over-hand up the safety cable to the roof. He knew that if he didn’t disable the bomb on the e
mitter, his whole trip would be for nothing. The bomb on the tenth level, though damaging, would not disable the shield generator.
He ascended the stairs to the emitter platform and found the bomb waiting. He disarmed it and turned, packing the detonator into one of the pockets on his flak jacket when a foot, moving at the speed of lightning, caught him square on the jaw, sending him stumbling over the railing of the platform and falling six feet to the roof.
“You’re a quiet one,” Khai said, slowly getting to his feet.
“The first of many things you will learn about me, Colonel Khail,” the Vyysarri said. “We met once before, on a distant battlefield, many years ago. You were a good fighter in your youth; you broke several of my bones and left me for dead. Do you not remember me?”
“I’ve killed a lot of you guys,” Khai said casually, wiping the blood from his chin
“I am General Sledge, a Vyysarri Warrior!” he boomed.
“All you blood suckers look alike,” Khai hissed. “Now are you gonna kill me, or talk me to death?”
The Vyysarri lunged with rage at Khai’s apparent lack of respect for a fellow warrior. That Vyysarri didn’t know the half of it. Once again, relying on his quick-draw abilities, Khai drew his pistol and put a bullet right between the monster’s eyes. He landed face first, sprawled out on the roof of the building, a pool of dark red—almost black—blood collecting where his twitching body lay.
“Eat shit,” Khai growled.
He took his knife and made yet another notch on his faithful gun. Holstering both the knife and the gun, he made his way back to the lift shaft to climb down into the building and clear the tenth floor and disarm that bomb.
Khai had been gone almost an hour when Captain Dah’s radio crackled to life.
“Captain Dah, do you read?” Captain Byyner’s voice was on the other end.
“I read you loud and clear,” Dah responded. “Go ahead.”
The Seryys Chronicles: Death Wish Page 6
