She had turned to the doors and now twisted her hands before her. If anyone had been watching, it would have looked like she was winding more magic around her fingers.
If they’d looked very closely, however, they’d have seen small bolts bouncing between her hands and the door as she explored a way through. When the wave of magic faded, the team moved out and each one chose a different aisle of the barricade to clear.
Lars signaled Johnny and Elizabeth to take the top row and grasped his smallest squad member before he moved out.
“Help her,” he instructed and shoved Frog toward the Morgana. “The doors.”
He didn’t stop to explain but took responsibility for the aisle of rebels that would have been his teammate’s.
“Get the door, Frog,” the small man muttered. “Mind the shuttle, Frog.”
He eased cautiously to the Morgana’s side and hoped she recognized him as a friend and not a foe.
“Babysit the Morgana, Frog,” he huffed but stopped when he noticed the magic play between her hands.
Carefully, he examined the doors and let his eyes travel over their edges and down the seam where they met. It took him a moment to recognize the slightly flatter surface to one side. Tentatively, he tugged on her sleeve.
When she snapped her gaze to glare at him, he let go hastily and his mouth went dry as he met the darkness in her eyes.
“What is it?”
Frog flapped his hand at the panel and his mouth gaped as he tried to find the words.
“The control…” he finally managed and pointed at it. He fumbled at the pouch that contained his toolkit and unclipped the cover. “I need the…the…”
He yanked out a small tablet-like device and a length of cable. “If you could get the…”
She arched an eyebrow. “Not nervous, are you, Frog?”
Frog shook his head quickly and licked lips that had gone suddenly dry. “No, I—”
When she flicked a hand up and aimed her palm at the panel, he yelped. She chuckled and a dark-blue wave streaked forward to vaporize the metal from over the controls. “Don’t burn your fingers.”
He scuttled forward and she turned her back on the door to watch the team while they cleared the barricades. “Who knew there were so many?” she murmured.
Frog heard her but didn’t take his eyes off what he was doing. Guns he could do. Blowing shit up, he could do. But this? It was what he did best. He only hoped she wouldn’t let him get shot while he did it.
Stephanie he could have relied on, but the Morgana… He shivered. Her heart was in the right place, he guessed, but it was so very, very cold. Stephanie’s was warm. She might burn like fire, but she always knew where you were.
She didn’t forget. The Morgana, though… Frog honestly wasn’t sure how well she was paying attention.
He worked fast, glad of his armor when something punched him in the back and delivered a shock that jolted through his chest.
“Now, that was unwise.”
Lightning sizzled past him and something heavier followed. The space where she had stood was empty. Frog drew a shaky breath and leant his forearms on either side of the control panel.
“Man, that’s gonna leave a mark.”
He lifted his tools away and bowed his head. For a moment, he closed his eyes and took a breath to control the pain before he opened them again and went back to work. His efforts were rewarded by the sound of metal grinding as internal locking mechanisms released.
“Yeah, baby,” he rejoiced. “Who’s yer daddy?”
“I don’t know. Who’s yours?” The reply from behind the doors brought him back to the reality of where he was, and he flattened himself against the wall a split-second before a short burst was fired from the inside.
“Oh, crap…” Frog stuffed his tools into their pouch and raised his rifle from where it hung in front of him. Bruised muscle screamed as he fired through the ever-widening gap between the doors. “Guys! We have incoming.”
“Yup, we do.” Johnny’s voice was matter of fact and was immediately drowned out when the missile batteries above them roared.
The heat of their launch was diluted by distance, but not by much. Frog resisted the urge to turn and watch their flight. He kept his eyes on the entrance to the base and fired bursts at every impression of movement, no matter how small.
As he did so, he backed away until he found the remains of the closest barrier and took cover behind them. Around him, the sound of gunfire died and the foreboding that accompanied the Morgana returned.
A wave of blue rolled past him and screams erupted from the corridor into the rebel base. The sound of falling bodies reached him, and he risked a peek around the edge. Nothing moved beyond the doors.
“I have killed them all,” she informed him, “but more will come.”
“Hold!” Lars commanded, and even she stilled. “Johnny! What are they shooting at?”
From behind a barrier closer to the shuttles, he replied, “We have incoming. Friends, I think.”
“Well, they are shooting at them,” Frog snarked but he cast a cautious glance at the entrance into the fortress and scurried to join Johnny. “Where?”
Lars and the Morgana followed, and they looked in the direction their teammate pointed. “There.”
It took them a moment to see them, but when they did, the team leader cast her a worried look.
“The Meligornians have come to our aid,” she declared. “We must defend them.”
Vishlog moved swiftly to the edge of the plateau they’d landed on. Brenden and Avery raced to the dropship, quickly confirmed that it wouldn’t lift again, and changed direction to one of the Navy shuttles. Fortunately, the pilot saw them coming and the engines rumbled to wakefulness.
“They won’t make it,” Frog muttered but he raced toward the shuttle after them.
“Marcus, you’re with me,” Lars ordered and headed around the edge of the barricade. “We’ll disable that battery.”
“The battery…” the Morgana murmured, but he flung an arm toward the missiles.
“Stop them,” he shouted as Frog scrambled into the shuttle.
The pilot slewed the craft and the doors began to close. Frog caught hold of the rail near the entrance and hauled himself into the cabin. Brenden was in the co-pilot’s seat and Avery had seated himself behind one of the remaining consoles.
“Port guns are over there,” he said and pointed at the other as he dragged himself into position.
He didn’t wait for instruction but let his gaze rove over the controls that looked both familiar and not. As soon as he thought he knew what he was doing, he began pressing buttons. The shuttle’s guns came to life and he targeted the first missile.
Before he could actually fire, a second pair were launched, and then a third. Across from him, Avery swore and danced his fingers over the controls.
“We won’t make it,” he muttered. “We won’t make it.”
“We’re gonna try,” the Navy pilot declared. “Now, less talking and more shooting.”
They raced after the first two missiles and the gunners did everything they could to intercept them. It took seconds and the pilot yanked the shuttle into a steep climb.
“Hey!” Avery’s protest died when another projectile flashed past.
Blue lightning followed and both the pilot and Brenden struggled to bring the shuttle under control. More lightning flared and alarms sounded in the cockpit. Lights flashed and Frog resisted the urge to scream.
Instead, he made himself focus on the weapons controls. He didn’t know if he could hit anything with the shuttle moving the way it was, but he sure as shit intended to try. How Stephanie would react if the Marines were hurt on her watch was one thing.
How she would react if her Meligornian allies were hurt while coming to her aid did not bear thinking about. He plugged his HUD into the console and pulled the visor low. If he was gonna crash, he didn’t want to know about it anyway.
At the edge o
f the cliff, the Morgana pulled more magic from her environment while Lars and Marcus tried to climb faster. Vishlog and Johnny had stopped watching the rockets and the infuriated Witch. They’d turned to cover the entrance into the fortress.
Her initial blast had stopped the first wave and made the second seek cover, but its effects were fading. The first shot had caught them by surprise and Vishlog had moved to cover the Witch’s vulnerable back. He’d caught the round in the chest but was saved by his armor, although he grunted with pain. She didn’t seem to notice. As more deadly ordnance streaked overhead, she directed blast after blast of magical lightning after them.
Unfortunately, the attacks were launching faster than she could respond and one of them made it through. She screamed with outrage as one of the three small craft spiraled into the ocean and smoke rose from where its tail used to be. The next three exploded in quick succession.
“We’re going back,” the Navy pilot told Brenden.
He took his hands from the controls and nodded. “We can’t do any good out here.”
“One got through,” Frog observed.
Avery’s comment was succinct and to the point. “Sonuvabitch.”
“Get us back, and fast,” Brenden ordered.
“Copy that,” the pilot acknowledged, and Frog wondered why the man didn’t argue.
The Meligornian ships caught up and landed alongside them and the Morgana shielded them while three mages raced out of each craft to join her. Frog winced when he caught the look on her face but he didn’t let it stop him from coming alongside Johnny as they raced down the funnel to the doors.
The chatter of small arms fire drew their attention to the battery above them. Lars’s voice came over the comms a moment later. “We’re in and the battery is disabled and wired. We’ll blow it on the way out and meet you inside.”
Their HUDs showed green blips above them, and the map of the base began to expand.
“Roger that,” Johnny acknowledged.
“Understood,” the Morgana echoed and looked at the first team of mages. “Keep them company.”
They did not argue. Their fists clenched around the gems they carried, and they levitated into the air. Frog wondered how they knew where to go.
“Lars,” Johnny said. “There are three Meligornian mages headed your way. I’ve patched them into our comms net. Don’t shoot them.”
“Noted.” The team leader didn’t sound happy.
He was even less happy when the other man reported that they’d reached the other side of the tunnel and discovered they’d actually moved through a hundred yards of pre-fabricated rock wall instead of into the base itself.
“Of all the conniving, devious, ass-munching, rock-jumping, ground-hugging—”
“We will find them all and kill them,” the Morgana assured him and her eyes blazed.
As she spoke, the ground shook and an auto-turret emerged from under a rock.
Chapter Forty
Frog swung his rifle toward the emerging turret. “Aww, man. Who tripped that?”
He knew he would be too slow, but he would try anyway. In the end, though, it didn’t matter.
The Morgana slammed a shield down as the gun fired. She created another barely in time for a burst of high-explosive rounds to impact three feet from their heads.
“I’ve got this,” Lars announced from above them, only to prove that he very much did not.
The ground gave out beneath his feet and the ledge he’d found disintegrated with the low rumble of another explosion. He and Marcus would have died if the mages with them hadn’t encased them in bubbles of purple light and floated them down to rest beside her.
The walls rose around them to form a courtyard set against a sheer cliff of dark-colored rock that Frog eyed with a jaundiced gaze. “I don’t like the look of this.”
His dislike was justified seconds later when doors slid open in each wall and more rebels poured out. Above them, hidden emplacements opened fire and the sheer volume of destruction forced them into the shelter of the tunnel from which they’d so recently emerged.
“What will we do about that?” he demanded when more gunfire rolled out of the wall to the left. It was accompanied by explosions and whoops of hell-raising glee and culminated in the doors and emplacements exploding in spectacular fashion.
“Someone called for a Marine?”
“A Marine,” Frog stressed. “A, as in one, singular.”
A Marine emerged from the doorway to the left and laughed as he gunned down the few rebels who’d turned to fight. He gestured to the destruction behind him. “Some things are too good not to share!”
He jogged forward as disaster struck the wall to the right and more Marines broke through the rebels who’d turned back in an attempt to hold their position. Unfortunately, the rebels on the opposite wall had time to recover, and their emplacements opened fire.
This time, the Morgana’s protections wouldn’t have been enough, but the Meligornians stepped in to shield the ranks of running Marines from the incoming fusillade. With seven magic users to assist them, they managed to regroup.
On the opposite side of the courtyard, the doors swung shut and the firing intensified. The rebels trapped with them turned and launched an assault with everything they had.
“Man. Don’t these guys ever run out of ammo?” Frog whined and fired through a purple sheen.
“It looks like they’ve planned this for a while, sir.” one of the Marines returned fire and the three groups closed ranks to become one again.
“I sure wish I could mix energies,” the Morgana complained and sounded very much like Stephanie. “It would be nice to be able to destroy those emplacements while keeping you safe.”
As she spoke, more missiles launched, these from the other side of the wall.
“Damn. We need to get over there and fast,” Johnny declared. “We have more ships incoming.”
“Friend or foe?” Lars demanded.
“Friend. It looks like the Navy sent reinforcements.”
“Well, it’s about goddamn time!” Frog declared.
“Yeah,” the closest Marine retorted, “because you need all the help you can get.”
“Hey!”
“Nuff talk, more walk,” another one ordered and looked at Lars. “What do you want us to do?”
He pointed at the wall. “Take it down.”
“All of it?”
“Every last stone.” As he spoke, he took a small box from his belt and pressed a button. The wall behind them disintegrated into rubble as a chain of explosions rolled through it. He smirked when the Marine stared at him, his mouth agape. “You don’t need to launch a missile to blow shit up.”
“Well, dayum,” the man grinned. “Thank you very much for reminding me.” He hauled a similar box from his belt and depressed the button.
The ground shook.
Another Marine smirked and blew up his own wall of left-over enemy missiles. “Great minds think alike.” He looked at the guard. “You were a Marine in another life, weren’t you, son?”
Lars smiled. “Not quite, Gunny, but I had good teachers.”
He gave him a speculative look that included the destruction behind him. “I’ll say.” He gestured to the remaining wall and the rebels arrayed in front of it. ‘You heard the man. We got us another wall to destroy!”
The Meligornians divided into pairs. Two joined the Marines on the left and two added themselves to those on the right.
“We don’t need no stinkin’ mages,” Vishlog muttered, and one of the remaining two smirked.
“You can do the buying,” he told the Dreth, “when I stop your ugly Dreth hide from getting any more holes in it.”
More? Vishlog looked down at himself and then over his shoulder in an attempt to see over his back.
Lars snickered. “He got you good, Vishlog.” He gestured at the battlefield. “I think he volunteered to make sure you beat the Marines’ high score.”
The warrior
grinned and unslung a second blaster. He looked at the mage. “You got me?”
“You’re buying. Of course I’ve got you.”
That was all he needed. He turned and charged the rebel lines arrayed in front of Stephanie while the mage raced after him and maintained the shield.
“He’d better keep the big goon alive,” Frog muttered when Lars came alongside.
“It was the only way to keep the two of them from getting into trouble.”
The Morgana jogged forward as the cats leapt into battle and Elizabeth followed her. Lars slapped Frog on the shoulder and indicated their boss. “Keep her safe.”
Frog rolled his eyes and raced to get alongside Ms E. “Sure, Frog. Never mind the shuttle. Ms E needs taking care of.”
“What did you say?” She gave him a look of annoyance.
“Nothing!”
They had no sooner rolled through the final wall and silenced the missile batteries when more opened fire from farther down the slope leading to the sea.
“Incoming!” Johnny yelled, and everyone hit the ground.
The earth rolled and shook beneath them as it heaved under the impacts of multiple strikes that attempted to silence the batteries below. More projectiles rose in response but none of them reached their targets. They were obliterated before they even came close.
The team stared and didn’t quite believe their eyes.
“What is that thing?” Frog asked, his expression one of disbelief.
“Well, it’s not Navy,” one of the Marines replied.
“Are you sure? Because it’s painted all the right colors.”
He shook his head. “Too big.”
“Too big or not, our little friends don’t like it so it’s here to help. Let’s make sure it gets through.” Elizabeth made sense and they raced down the slope, running parallel to the cliffs that rose beyond the courtyard they’d just escaped.
“You know, we still haven’t found their front door,” Frog muttered.
Witch Of The Federation III (Federal Histories Book 3) Page 45
