Yet he would go through that horror again if need be, just to have had Retav as his guardian. Just to have had a part in the older man’s world.
Arga didn’t know if he and Selena could have the love affair of Ilatar and Notlin. Yet something told him that maybe instead of running from the potential for loss, he should be chasing the potential of reward.
Arga saw a misty vision he’d never realized was possible. He had to dare a lot to reach for it, as much of himself as he’d nearly lost with Retav. Perhaps more. More than he’d ever chanced, even against the Monsuda.
Was a lifetime of love worth it? Especially if that lifetime somehow ended up cut short?
Though he was sure he hadn’t commanded his legs to do so, they were carrying him to Selena, walking up to her as Tidem left and she turned in Arga’s direction. All he had to do was look in her shining face that brightened more as she gazed up at him, and the answers clicked into place.
“I need you to come with me.” It was all he could force out, because once again, he could barely breathe.
* * * *
Autumn had arrived in truth on the mountain peak Arga brought Selena to. The scents close to the top were crisper, sharper, more refined. The breeze was almost bitter in its chill.
The nearby shelter they could have ducked into was a warm haven, a large dome that could accommodate twenty Risnarish who might choose to spend the night. The best view was outside, however, a breathtaking panorama of the surrounding countryside.
Despite the thick blanket Arga had claimed from the shelter, Selena shivered on the perch where they looked out over the valley where Yitrow nestled. He held her close, thinking himself several times the fool. Not only was it chillier up there, but the wind was brisk. So much for enchanting vistas as a backdrop to a discussion of their future.
“This wasn’t a good idea. I forgot you don’t armor.”
“Don’t be silly. This view is worth frostbite. I’m glad we had the opportunity to come here.”
Though her teeth chattered, she grinned brightly. The scene was magnificent, with the lush, green valley surrounding the town. A river cut through the south end of it, the water glittering with sunlight. Yitrow itself was picturesque, domes of all sizes sprinkled along its haphazard streets. The settlement hadn’t been planned out; it had grown organically from its humble beginnings of a few ancient Risnarish huddling close together for protection. The lanes meandered randomly as the residents had built with little regard for order, and many were so narrow that no more than four people could walk abreast. It was a picturesque maze, easy to get lost in when one wasn’t familiar with it.
At the far edges, farm plots and animal herds reminded Arga of his home village of Hahz. Only the presence of mountains in the background and the lack of vast woods close by kept the agricultural area from being identical to his childhood grounds.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” He found himself awed despite having seen it before.
“It makes me glad I’m claustrophobic instead of afraid of heights. This is the place to be. I could stay for a week or so.”
Arga regarded her curiously. “Are you afraid of enclosed spaces? I would have thought I’d have noticed when we were in the hive tunnels.”
“Trust me, the hive is nothing compared to some of the places diffusing explosives has taken me. There was this one incident that put me in a warren of cramped caves, and let me tell you, that was scary. Those narrow places, with all that rock over me, and the potential for a bomb to bring it down on my head? Yikes.” She shuddered, and a haunted expression crossed her face.
Arga glanced at the area at the edge of the mountain range, where the hive’s entrance was hidden in the mountains’ shadows. He was glad it hadn’t bothered her to be within the polished walls.
Three hives were in Risnarish possession. Soon, they would try to take them all from the Monsuda. Arga’s destiny lay with the hive on the other side of the very mountain he and Selena stood upon. He’d lead Anneliese and other warriors to clean it out when the time came. He’d fought in hives against the Risnarish enemy before, and the knowledge he would have to do so again soon wasn’t pleasant. Hives in battle were cramped places, with few avenues of retreat. Once an invasion party was committed, there was no going back.
“I know what you mean. Fighting the Monsuda and their drones in the hives, with all the firing, can be suffocating. I’m not looking forward to that.”
“Where is it? The hive you’ll be taking over?”
He pointed in the general direction of the hive on the other side of the mountain. “Actually, the fissures that opened up from the recent quakes aim straight to it. Too bad we can’t use those to sneak up on—” He stopped short as his hearts gave twin lurches. Selena peered up at him questioningly, and he asked, “Selena, have you ever had a blast occur underground?”
“Oh yeah. It’s actually the norm for mining on Earth, using explosives to open up a mountain the same as you guys do. Tests of larger, more devastating explosives are also done underground so the environment isn’t poisoned.”
“And those kinds of explosions—can they cause earthquakes?”
“We call them anthroquakes. Moving thousands of tons of earth, if not done right, can destabilize a region. Not just from blast testing either. Simply digging a tunnel can—” It was her turn to stop, for her eyes to widen in a horrified stare. “The Monsuda. They’re tunneling under the village. Right to the middle of it. The way the tremors went on all morning—”
“All-Spirit, they could break through at any moment.”
Selena flung aside her blanket and raced him to the nearby dartwing.
Chapter Eleven
The attack had already begun.
As Arga’s craft approached Yitrow, a cloud of dartwings and shuttles rose into the sky over the town. Selena gripped the edges of the cockpit opening, crying out to see more Risnarish racing on foot toward the edge of the settlement. They twisted here and there in confusion, many trying to avoid small gray creatures that sprinted after them or cut them off. Screams rang out, piercing and awful.
“We’re too late!”
“The drones are coming out of the main temple. I’ll do a flyover so we can see the situation through the dome.” Arga piloted his vessel to the vantage point. He and Selena leaned over the sides to have a better look.
Selena spotted three massive vehicles, each four times the size of any tank she’d ever been around. Behind them were vast holes torn through the floor, leading to beneath the ground. The giant drills affixed to the fronts of the machines told her these devices had been tunneling beneath Yitrow all this while, digging paths so that they could invade the Risnarish capital.
Worse was seeing the masses of the tiny gray creatures, looking like Roswell aliens, spilling from the open hatches along the sides of the vehicles. They were the drones; robotic tools of the Monsuda. In addition to the vast numbers erupting from the drill machines, more were racing out of the tunnels they’d dug.
“It’s a full-scale invasion! Were you trained to shoot like Anneliese?” Arga shouted.
“Yeah! Do you have an extra of those shooter tubes?”
“In this bin.” His foot kicked a small hatch next to their legs.
Selena leaned down to claim her weapon as Arga pulled his own off his utility belt. She popped up to watch as he bombarded a pack of drones chasing a knot of Risnarish women and children. Other dartwings swooped in to provide additional cover for the escapees.
Selena paused before shooting to listen intently. “Hold your fire a sec, Arga. I’ve got someone talking into the helmet.” Arga complied, taking the dartwing out of the group of fighters. Selena listened intently to the speaker imbedded in the head protection Arga insisted she wear when they flew.
“Can you hear it?”
“It’s Yitrow’s head enforcer. Bej Bolep? He says to defend the larger crowds, particularly the females and kids. Hold the drones off while civilians are evacuated to the hive.�
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“Got it.”
Selena fiddled with the unfamiliar shooter that resembled an oversized flashlight. After listening to Arga’s hurried instructions, she shot at the bunches of drones, sending out a wide spray of white projectiles that burst into flame upon impact. Arga did the same with his own shooter.
“Doesn’t this craft have firepower?” Surely the Risnarish hadn’t overlooked weaponry on the dartwings.
“Only for a wide spread, not precision aiming. If I fire at the drones, I’ll hit the people too.”
“What about those bore machines? Take them out with whatever enemy is still in them.”
“We’ve tested the few we’ve captured. They’re made to withstand our weaponry, even the boom cannons. Since they’ve never been used to attack, we haven’t needed a defense against them.”
“Are you kidding me?” Damn the Risnarish for centuries of a peaceful resistance strategy. They hadn’t recognized how mere tools could be weaponized. “You’ve been hiding behind village containments too long. The Monsuda may as well have been keeping you in pens, picking you off for their experiments as their needs demanded. They could have taken you out at any time.”
“I believe the proof of that is what we’re seeing now.”
“This is a shit show, Arga.”
“I’m not arguing.” The horror in his voice spoke volumes, and it shut down Selena’s ranting.
The full weight of the situation hit her. The Risnarish, complacent in their belief that the Monsuda couldn’t reach them in their villages, had been caged like lab rats. They’d made those cages themselves, never recognizing their safety was a lie.
For what she estimated to be the next half hour, Selena did her best to take out large swaths of invaders. It wasn’t easy. She was unfamiliar with the shooter, which was hard to wrap her small hands around. Arga kept the dartwing dodging and cutting in different routes, working to avoid return fire from the drones while keeping a defensive posture over the fleeing Risnarish. The dartwings around them were flying in just as complicated patterns, and more than once, Selena had to hold her fire for fear of hitting the good guys.
She’d seen some nasty things in Afghanistan, but Selena thought the turmoil below them ranked among the worst scenarios. As hard as the warriors in the dartwings fought, too often Risnarish fell under the drones’ strikes. Others simply froze with abruptness, grabbed by what Arga said were capture fields. Those fields left their victims motionless, unable to do anything but wait to be taken wherever their captors decided. After a while, it seemed as if a macabre and enormous game of Statues was being played beneath the bald glare of sunlight.
The number of drones was overwhelming. As the crowds of Risnarish dwindled, through escape, capture or death, the drones turned their attention to the dartwings, firing scatter-shot with terrible precision. The arrowhead-shaped vessels began falling from the sky in large numbers. When a shot narrowly missed Arga’s craft, he screamed in rage.
A muttering sound tickled Selena’s ear. “Message coming in!” She paused to listen before repeating the orders they’d been given. “There’s too little firepower in our possession to continue fighting. Conserve your ammo and fall back to the hive. We have to regroup and protect those who made it out of the village.”
Arga shouted another curse. Selena looked over the side of the dartwing. The numbers of Risnarish running for their lives, though greatly diminished, were still too great. Even more numerous were the unmoving inhabitants, frozen in the act of fleeing.
“We’re leaving too many behind!”
The other dartwings had received the message too. They raced from the horror, obeying their leaders even though Selena saw their pilots screaming and pounding their consoles in impotent fury as Arga did.
The battle was lost. Yitrow was lost. With ammunition low, there was nothing they could do. Arga pointed the bow of his craft toward the hive, following the other dartwings. They flew over the jagged lines of those who’d gotten out of the town, hundreds of Risnarish running for shelter. With Selena relaying Bej’s orders to Arga, he joined the formation of airborne warriors protecting the escapees.
Selena couldn’t hear those they left to the drones. Yet her imagination conjured the cries of people who hadn’t been fast enough to escape, an auditory hallucination of desperate screams for help, for her to return for them. Though not real, it was among the most hideous sounds she’d ever heard.
* * * *
A vast, oily-smelling chamber in the hive’s uppermost level became the war council’s designated meeting place. Selena couldn’t discern what the space had originally been used for. The walls were lined with what she took to be computer stations, none of which seemed to be in operating order. The center of the room was immense, empty.
The chamber’s former occupation didn’t matter. Critiquing Monsudan interior design was far down on the list where Selena was concerned. She rocked from foot to foot, unable to keep still at Arga’s side. Her every instinct screamed at her to go, go, go.
As the silent and shocked company joined the Assembly, of which all members were present and accounted for, an aide rushed in and gave Notlin a stricken gaze.
Here comes bad news, Selena thought. As if there would be anything else.
“How many?” Notlin asked the shaking aide.
“By our count, only thirty-eight percent of Yitrow’s residents made it here.”
Arga and several other men cursed. Selena rubbed her hand over her hair and fought off a wave of nausea.
Notlin trembled. Her silver eyes brightened, but no tears fell. She squared her delicate shoulders. “The situation is dire for us who made it here as well. There is little food in the hive, since only about fifty scientists and twenty warriors were staying here. Ah, Nex. Did you shut down the portal access?”
The olive scientist pressed his hand to his chest as he joined the loose circle of those who’d gathered. “Yes, Elder Notlin. The Monsuda will not be able to launch a surprise assault on the hive through that route. I’ve also been in contact with Jape Bolep of Cas Village. He is ready to coordinate with Hahz Village to bring in warriors to help us take back Yitrow, along with sending us supplies or taking in refugees, whichever you wish.”
She managed the smallest of tight smiles. “That is something, at least. Arga, what are your thoughts?”
On the flight from Yitrow, he and Selena had already discussed the biggest issue they faced with the drones in control of the town. “Selena and I must lead a team into Yitrow at once.”
That garnered surprised cries. Notlin held her hands up for silence, and after a moment, she got it. “Go on.”
“With the drones’ invasion, the Monsuda have access to our files. We have to keep them from learning of our attack plans on the hives and the Earthside portals.”
Ilatar groaned. “He’s right. We can’t eradicate records or affect the system in that way from here.”
“A precaution in case the Monsuda somehow got this hive again,” Arga told Selena.
Notlin called his attention to her. “Can you achieve such a task with the village overrun?”
“We don’t have a choice. Not only do we have to purge the files, but also destroy or hide the explosives the armament guild has made,” Selena explained. If the enemy discovered the work that had been done, they’d be able to guess what the Risnarish had planned.
“Forgive me for being short, but there’s no time to debate this, Elder Notlin. We have to go now.” Arga tempered his abrupt statement with a soft tone.
“Then do so. May the All-Spirit guide you and keep you safe.” She put her hand to her chest.
Selena was glad Arga didn’t pause to offer the salute, not when every second counted. He ran out, and she was hot on his heels.
* * * *
A team of twenty warriors, along with Selena and Tidem, landed their dartwings a distance from Yitrow’s containment-protected borders. They’d opted to sneak in at the end of the farmlands opposite from the
hive. The unit proceeded on foot, using natural cover where it was available to avoid detection. Though they wore containment belts and scatter-shot resistant vests, no one took the danger lightly. Once they were in sight of tall poles that indicated where the invisible barrier had been set to fend off the Monsuda and their drones, they stayed hidden from the invaders patrolling inside the zone. They were near open fields, recently harvested.
The drone sentries on the far edge of Yitrow were few, as they’d hoped. Selena prayed it boded well for their mission.
The containment system, or some version of it, had been the Risnarish’s supposed protection against the Monsuda for centuries. When Selena had asked why they’d believed the planet’s aggressive second sentient species would never dig under it, Arga had explained that the containment field had extended far beneath the earth, nearly twenty miles down through rock. That the Monsuda had never breached that distance in the effort to break into a Risnarish village had assured them it couldn’t be done.
“We were fools,” he’d said. “We knew about the bore machines, but supposed either we weren’t worth the effort or there was some reason the Monsuda couldn’t tunnel that deep.”
Selena had a vision of cattle contentedly grazing in a pasture, blissfully unaware they were being kept tame for the slaughter. She’d kept that observation to herself.
Now faced with sneaking into their own prison, Arga spoke into his CPP unit. “We’re in position.”
Bej responded. “Stand by.”
Seconds later, the report of shooters firing echoed in the valley. Most of the drones dashed to the northeast, the focus of the fighting. With only half a dozen drones left nearby, Arga, Thompson, and the other warriors rushed in, past the poles, dropping the surprised sentries within seconds.
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