“Can you get us out of here?” Dax asked Sacerdos.
“I know a way through the ancient cave tunnel system under the temple,” Sacerdos said. “But Morlok will not allow you off the planet.”
Dax took to a high platform. As he climbed the ladder, his mind flooded with images of his wife. His trembling hands gripped the rungs. He felt the familiar pressure on the top of his head.
He shook his head to clear his mind, but couldn’t keep at bay the tsunami force of fear that engulfed him. The prospect that his son would share a similar fate to his wife. I will find you Ben. Even if it’s the last thing I ever do...
“Attention,” he shouted to the crowd, but no one seemed to notice. “Attention!”
Again, the mass of humans ignored him.
Glaw climbed Dax’s platform.
“Listen up, humans,” Glaw roared, “or die where you stand.”
The crowd of humans looked up at the platform.
Dax turned to Glaw. “Subtle.”
“’Subtle’ is my middle name. OK, technically my fifth middle name. Right after ‘Badass’. What? Worked didn’t it?”
“Don’t you have a T.Rex to play with?” Dax asked.
Dax turned back to the crowd. “I am Commander Dax of USF Valiant. I’m here to rescue you. If the captain and crew of Hermes are amongst you, please identify yourselves.”
A tall middle-age woman stepped forward. She was accompanied by a young man.
“Captain Faraday,” she said and pointed at the young man. “My first officer, Nathan Armitage. What’s your plan Commander?”
Glaw whistled under his breath. “We could stampede these sheep,” Glaw said. “Crush the first wave of Vanguard legions. Escape in the chaos. Steal a ship while the legions are busy slaughtering them.”
Dax shot a dark look at Glaw.
“What?” Glaw growled.
“That counts as Ursu field tactics does it?” Dax asked.
“Won my first battle at age eleven, that way,” Glaw said. “Granted, it was with actual sheep, not humans. They went down mighty fine in the victory feast. Not that I remember much after the first gallon of honey wine. But I do remember there was this one sweet honey-beer maid who had this trick where she--”
“No!”
“Maybe some of the strongest will survive.”
“Are you deaf?”
Glaw held up a paw. “Just saying.”
Faraday looked back and forth between Glaw and Dax.
“The Ursu speaks for the USF?” she asked and shook her head.
“Glaw does not,” Dax said. “We intend for each and every one of your passengers to escape with their lives.”
“What do you need from us Commander?” Faraday asked.
“Ensure your surviving crew or nominated passengers with leadership skills organize everyone into groups of fifty. Divide them equally between the fittest, the weakest, the elderly, and the young. Each group leader is responsible for aiding the weakest to move at the pace of the fittest. Any questions?”
“We’re on it, Commander.”
“Act up the hero all you like, buddy,” Glaw whispered to Dax, “but we both know these people are cannon fodder for the Vanguard. You may be their leader, but do they know you’re leading them to their deaths.”
“Anything is better than the fate that awaits us if we stay here,” Faraday shouted up at Glaw.
“Second that,” Nathan said.
On the far side of the main doors, a rapid-fire sequence of shots sent the crowd into panic.
“You have five minutes, Captain Faraday.”
The doors shuddered under the force of a barrage.
“Maybe less.”
Faraday and her first officer began hastily directing their crew and passengers.
Dax climbed down from the platform and found First Officer Nathan Armitage with Bron and Codi.
“Never thought I’d see you two again,” Nathan said.
Bron flushed red and smoothed back her matted hair from her face.
“Your aunt, is she--”
“Gone,” Bron said.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re done?” Dax asked Nathan.
“We’re ready for your departure orders, Commander,” Nathan said.
An explosion rocked the cavern. The main doors spun across the crowd and crushed a dozen people.
Smoke billowed across all their heads. The flames of a hundred Makhairas ignited inside the smoke cloud.
“Right now would be a good time or that stamped,” Glaw said.
Dax grabbed Codi by the arm.
Codi cowered. Dax saw Codi’s fear and felt his own anger.
Am I a monster in their eyes?
Dax released the pressure of his grip on Codi’s arm.
“We got you and your sister to thank for the for the T.Rex stampede? Dax asked.
Codi avoided Dax’s eyes and shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Codi, right?”
“Yes, um, Commander Dax.”
Dax nodded. “Consider yourself deputized into the United Space Fleet, Codi.”
Codi shivered. But it didn’t seem like he was still afraid. It seemed more to Dax like pride.
Dax caught Bron watching them.
“She with you?” Dax asked.
“Bron, my sister, she helped with the Rexes.”
Dax beckoned her over. “We could do with those Rexes, right now,” Dax said. “Any idea what happened to them?”
“After we split,” Bron said, “Vanguard Legionnaires took control.”
“Rounded them up,” Codi said “But I could go see if you--”
The thought of being responsible for the inevitable death of a boy who reminded him of Ben was too much to bear. “No,” Dax said and almost squeezed the life out of Codi’s arm.
He released his pressure. “Hold up your right hand,” Dax said. “Both of you.”
Codi and Bron glance at each other with wide eyed expressions.
“Repeat after me,” Dax said. “I hereby swear allegiance to the United Space Fleet. To defend the rights of the people of Earth and all its colonies. And if necessary lay down my life in the line of duty.”
They repeated his words.
“Bron and Codi, you two are now junior officers of the USF. Congratulations, you should be proud of each other.”
He brought his right hand at a forty five degree angle to his forehead in a salute
Codi and Bron avoided each other’s eyes. Codi returned a crisp salute. Bron’s left hand hesitated saluted.
“Yea, we’re work on that,” Dax said. “Your orders are to assist the evacuation. Dismissed.”
The cavern erupted into a cacophony of deafening screams.
Dax turned to Sacerdos.
With his eyes, Sacerdos said to Dax, “Follow me.”
CHAPTER 79 - BRIDGE OF DEATH
“The Bridge of Death is up ahead,” Sacerdos said.
Bron wanted to ask why they called it the Bridge of Death, but it was all she could do to swallow and gulp for another breath.
Bron ran beside Nathan. For a mile of dark, dank tunnels she fought against the pain in her side. Each step felt heavier than the last. At last, a dim light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter.
Every weary minute she heard a scream from a straggler. She glanced over her shoulder and tripped in the darkness.
She fell onto her knees. She glanced over her shoulder. Another distant shadow fell to the slashing arcs of flaming Makhairas. She caught sight of Codi’s determined grimace as he hobbled along behind her.
She resigned herself to the knowledge there was nothing she could do about any of it. “Codi, keep up.”
She leapt up and ran after Nathan.
“Just watch where you’re going,” Codi said and then pointed, wide-eyed ahead of them.
Bron whipped around and felt her next heavy step sink into thin air. She fell headfirst, tumbling endlessly into a dark abyss. Until a sharp crack in her ankles me
ant she had stopped. She felt herself dangling and looked up at Nathan’s firm grip.
Crumbling rocks pummeled her as she swung in the air.
“I see you found the Bridge of Death,” Nathan shouted.
She could see nothing but a narrow cliff face that seemed to extend far out into a misty abyss. “What bridge?”
Dax helped Nathan pull her to safety.
Bron sat up and stared at Nathan.
Now or never.
She grabbed the back of Nathan’s neck and pulled him to her. Exhilarated by the near-death experience, she kissed him hard and fast.
“Euuwww!” Codi gasped from behind her. “Your timing stinks.”
She pulled away from Nathan’s full smiling lips.
“No,” she said. “I think it’s spot on.”
Nathan helped her to her feet.
“You just gave me an idea,” Dax said to Bron and kicked at the crumbling rock at the entrance of the bridge.
“She’s taken,” Nathan said and put his arms around Bron.
“Steady on sailor,” Bron said and shrugged Nathan’s arm off her shoulder. “All ahead slow, please.”
Nathan grinned.
“No,” Dax said. “I’m talking about the bridge.”
He turned to Sacerdos. “Once everyone is on the other side, is it possible to--”
“With the help of the Brethren, yes, it may give us time to get to the surface.”
“What you got in mind?” Bron asked.
Dax yelled down the tunnel. “Everyone hurry.”
Fyre came running up.
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll wait on this side,” he said. “When everyone is safely on the far side, I’ll start a landslide. Take out the bridge. Make it impossible to follow. With luck it should give us time.”
“You’ll be trapped,” Fyre said.
“I’ll make my own way.”
Glaw trotted up to them. “Ever the martyr, huh, dude?” Glaw said.
“I can’t leave anyone behind, Glaw,” Dax said. “Not again. You understand why, right?”
Glaw nodded. “Sure, dude.”
Glaw stepped away and indicated Myf should follow. When they were alone he whispered, “We should cut our losses.”
“You’d abandon everyone?” Myf asked. “Even my mother and me?”
“We stay, we die.”
Myf clenched her fists. “After everything we’ve been through, I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
Glaw sighed and whispered, “Look, Myf, you and me can give the Vanguard legions the slip. I know a guy in the lower city. He owes me a favor. We can be off-planet in an hour. But we got to go now.”
“Which guy?”
“Remember that girl and thing at the casino and the misunderstanding--”
“Raznuki? She caught you cheating on the wheels and--”
“Misunderstanding--”
“She told you next time she sees you, she’ll hang you from the gaming wheel by your--”
“She’s got a great sense of humor!”
“I’ve seen her sense of humor, remember? I was the one who had to remove her bullet fragments from your butt!”
“I like them odds better than staying. So you in?”
Myf stared at him like she was seeing him for the first time. She nodded.
“See, you know I keep it real,” Glaw whispered. “I’ll give you the signal when it’s cool to slide on out of here.”
Fighting back tears, Myf turned her back on Glaw and returned to where Dax and her mother stood.
“Dax,” Myf said, “I’m staying, too.”
“No,” Dax said. “If I don’t make it, I need you to go to Mars and find my son.”
Fyre stepped between them. “We need you alive, Zen,” Fyre said. “I’m staying here with you.”
“And what? You think you can fight off an entire legion?”
“No, but their forward scouts, maybe.”
Dax grabbed Glaw. “Get everyone off the bridge and onto the surface.”
Glaw swallowed hard. “Shepherd the sheep?”
“Afraid to be a hero?”
“Heroics cramp my style, dude. But, OK, leave it with me.”
They shook. “See you topside.”
“Um, yeah, sure,” Glaw said and glanced at Myf’s back. “Guess I’ll see you around, Myf.”
Myf said nothing.
Dax turned away.
When the last of the stragglers reached the far side, Dax climbed up the cliff side to a loose boulder. He kicked out at it. Rocks slid and crashed down onto the bridge. It shuddered and buckled and a few seconds later a large section of the bridge collapsed and plummeted down into the ravine.
“So that’s it then,” Dax said and turned back to the tunnel mouth and flaming Makhairas coming out the darkness.
“Death Hawks,” Fyre said. “Elite Vanguard. Unsurpassed in the known galaxies.”
Dax clenched his fists tighter and glanced back at the misty abyss below. He swallowed hard and fought the nausea.
“With the mood I’m in,” Dax said, “they’ll need to be.”
CHAPTER 80 - DEATH HAWKS
“I got this,” Dax said and stepped in front of Fyre as two Vanguards in Death Hawk uniforms and skull masks ran at him.
Fyre shoved Dax aside and leapt at the Vanguards. A flaming Makhaira cut through the air in a tight arc.
She somersaulted through the air and landed feet first on the shoulders of the first Death Hawk. Almost too fast for Dax to register her movements, she crossed her feet and rotated on his shoulders. She swiftly leaned over the Death Hawk’s back and down to the ground. She whipped her feet violently in opposite directions and snapped the Death Hawk’s neck.
He tumbled backward as she grabbed his Makhaira and hurled it into the chest of the second Death Hawk.
She turned to Dax.
“Put on their uniforms,” she said.
“Dump their bodies and pretend to be these scouts? I like it.”
“That’s not exactly what I planned.”
“Then what?” Dax said as he stripped one Vanguard and threw his body into the abyss. “Fly out of here?”
She smiled, but said nothing.
They dressed frantically. Dax pulled on a Death Hawk helmet just as a squad of legionnaires came running down the tunnel. Fyre ran to the edge of cliff face where the bridge had once stood.
“Now what?” Dax said.
Fyre extended her arms and a pair of wings unfolded.
“You’re yanking my main sail?” Dax gasped.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Hurry, updrafts are erratic.”
“How?”
“Hold out your arms as I do,” she said. “Think ‘glide’ and your power-suit will do the rest.”
Dax held out his arms and black wings unfolded. He felt the draft lift his feet an inch off the ground.
“Whatever you do, keep your arms outstretched,” Fyre said. “Lean into the updraft, and...”
She leapt into the air and plunged into the abyss. She vanished in the mist.
“Fyre!”
She didn’t make it.
Dax felt a ringing in his ears. His throat felt too tight to swallow. He glanced behind him as another Death Hawk lunged at him with the thrusting arc of a flaming Makhaira incinerating the air.
Dax stumbled forward and fell.
For you, Ben.
CHAPTER 81 - UPDRAFT
Dax dropped below the mist toward the abyss. Razor sharp rocks seemed to rise up and reach out to him.
As Dax fell he felt a wave of nausea rise up inside him. Panicking, he pulled his arms over his face. His wings collapsed and he tumbled head over heels.
His mind screamed at him: Hold out your arms!
He thrust out his hands. The wings unfolded and instantly caught an updraft. He jolted upwards. The updraft carried him up through the mist with sudden force.
Soon he was above his launching point on the clif
f face.
A row of Death Hawk archers aimed flaming arrows at him. They released their arrows and the air about Dax burned. I need to move right.
He felt a motor whir in the arms of his power-suit. The wings tilted and he glided to the right of the archers.
The exhilaration of mastering flight sent a bolt of electricity up his spine.
He couldn’t help by think how much Ben would have loved this experience. Another volley of flaming arrows filled the air.
Higher!
The wings tilted and manipulated the warm currents of air and he flew higher. He felt he was quickly mastering the method of flying.
He looked below for any signs of Fyre without success.
A dozen Death Hawks leapt off the cliff face and glided up toward him. With ease they quickly surrounded him. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like the master of anything.
Jets of smoke emitted from their power-suits and miniature missiles exploded in the air around him. The shock waves buffeted him violently. Shrapnel ripped at his wings and tore tiny holes.
He frantically looked around for cover and spotted a fog bank above him.
Higher!
He rose sluggishly into the cloud. He soon realized his mistake. He might be invisible to them, but he felt equally blind.
A heavy weight descended on him. A pair of arms clung to his neck. He twisted violently and realized a Death Hawk had him. His wings crumpled and together they plummeted.
Dax lashed out at his assailant and struck the Death Hawk in his visor, shattering it. A Makhaira ignited and slashed down against Dax’s helmet.
Dax rode the blow and grabbed the Death Hawk by his chest armor. Dax climbed up the man and headbutted his jaw. Dax grabbed the Makhaira and slashed the Death Hawk’s wings. He raised his knees to his chest and kicked out at the Death Hawk.
The Death Hawk fell away in a screaming spiral. But Dax quickly followed. He thrust out his arms and caught an updraft. But before he could catch his breath he heard the tears in his wings shredding.
He fell.
As he plummeted into the sights of the archers he felt a dark shadow engulf him. Feet clamped around his neck. Someone seemed to be steering him into the cliffside. They glided to the far side.
Valiant (Jurassic War Universe Book 1) Page 35
