Kheris Burning (Thieves' Guild Origins: LC Book One): A Fast Paced Scifi Action Adventure Novel

by C. G. Hatton

  And just like that, I was escorted into the garrison.

  The sergeant was arguing with the others as they took me in. I didn’t even know his name. He fended them off and walked me past a holding room where there were a couple of KRM hard men, in cuffs, looking sullen, staring at me as I was walked past like they knew exactly who I was.

  The whole place was buzzing with military police, wounded, soldiers running everywhere, officers shouting commands, but there was no sense of panic. They knew the garrison would hold. Battered though it was, it was built to withstand anything the resistance could throw at it. Except they didn’t know the KRM had a great huge siege engine of a mining robot.

  I kept my head down. One of the MPs stopped us, protesting, trying to take hold of my shoulder. The sergeant stepped between us and squared up to the guy. I didn’t catch everything he said, but he finished up clear enough with, “He’s just a kid, and he’s one of us.” The MP muttered something, backed down and waved us through.

  The sergeant was swearing to himself as he took me through to the medical centre and sat me in a seat in the corridor, staff hurrying past and no one taking any notice of us. He unfastened the cuffs, still looking like he didn’t know how to speak to me.

  I mumbled a thank you.

  He stood and looked down at me. “Stay put, you understand?” he said and he left.

  A medic came by after a while. I recognised her voice from when I was there before. She was the one that had argued with Charlie that they had to let me go.

  She looked at me with dismay as she recognised me and was fraught as she checked me over, gentle as if she felt guilty about the state I was in, as if she wanted to say something about Charlie but didn’t know how. I didn’t know what to say either.

  I looked up at her and said quietly, “There’s a girl called Maisie…”

  She shook her head without a word, checking my stats, not looking happy with whatever she was measuring, and giving me shots. I palmed an extra injector of painkillers from her tray while she was looking away and stashed it for later. I took the pass out of her pocket too. She told me they had shuttles in the courtyard, evacuating civilian staff and the worst of the wounded, and she told me to wait until she could get me a place on one. Then she left.

  I had my way out but I wasn’t going to take it alone.

  It was way too busy for me to leave so I sat there, feeling the drugs kick in. I wanted to go find Maisie but every time I thought there might be a chance, more people would rush by. All the bays were full so they started to leave wounded in the corridor. Not all of them were soldiers. I stared, not wanting to look but wanting to know that none of them were people I knew.

  The bombardment was so heavy now, some of the rockets were getting through the defence grid, the building shaking with each blast. The lights flickered. I hunkered there, on the verge of running out, when there was a direct hit overhead.

  The corridor plunged into darkness. Debris rained down. I covered my head and ran.

  Chapter 24

  There was another hit. The floor trembled. I ran, limping, holding onto anything that steadied my balance, through dark corridors, heading towards the lockup. Half the corridors were blocked by rubble.

  I found a way through, ducked into a mostly intact office and used the medic’s pass to access the base records through a terminal. The prisoner details were limited to stats, no names. It was going to take too long to scan through them and figure out which one was Maisie and which cell she was being held in so I opened all of them. I ditched the terminal and moved out, more cautiously as I approached the secure area, but there was another explosion, right on top of us.

  I was thrown off my feet. I curled up and covered my head, coughing dust.

  There was shouting, sounds of gunfire. The prisoners were running loose, fighting with the guards. I staggered to my feet and started to yell for Maisie, pushing past people who were running in the opposite direction. I heard her shout back, “Luka,” then someone ran past me and shoved me aside. I fell.

  There was a blast, a shockwave of pressure and darkness.

  It was probably only for a second but I flashed right back to Rainfall. I was held there frozen in time, trapped, cold, and hurting so bad I couldn’t even feel it any more. It was like I’d imagined the last eight years, dreamed up a life that hadn’t happened, and I was still there, trapped under that building, and I couldn’t breathe. But that time, the hand that reached for mine was warm and soft and it was Maisie who was calling my name. She brought me back. She pulled me clear and held onto me and I clung to her as she stroked the back of my neck.

  “Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head, coughed and gave her a grin. “I came to rescue you.”

  She laughed. “Nice rescue. How do we get away?”

  Walking out of the front door wasn’t an option.

  “There are shuttles in the courtyard,” I said. “They’re evacuating the civilian staff. We just need to sneak on board.”

  We stood up. I wobbled, daggers stabbing into my knee. Maisie put her arm around my waist and I didn’t complain. We just needed to avoid the fighting, hope another rocket didn’t land on us and get the hell out.

  We took a few steps towards what we thought was an empty corridor but there were shouts, beams of flashlights bouncing. We shrank back.

  Maisie was clutching my hand, my arm draped around her neck. “You can hardly walk,” she whispered. “Is there no other way?”

  I shook my head. “We can’t stay here. Come on, we just need to time it right.”

  We timed it really badly. We slipped out of a door and hugged the outside wall. The Imperial troops were regrouping. The courtyard was flooded with light from the towers, from hovering gunships, APCs moving into position with gun turrets and searchlights spinning. We could hear the hum of the powered armour of the heavy infantry as they set up portable auto sentries and mini-guns. They were getting ready to move out and push back against the onslaught.

  We shrank into what shadow there was against the wall of the building. The air was heavy with dust and oil fumes. It was hard not to cough and I was starting to struggle just to stand. We could see the shuttles, one taking off as we watched, another with its ramp open and medics hustling. We just needed to get to it.

  I squeezed Maisie’s hand in readiness and opened my mouth to say, “Now,” when there was a roar above. The defence grid was pounding at the incoming ordnance but the attack was relentless. A rocket made it through the grid and screamed in, exploding against an airborne gunship, chunks of burning metal flying out and cascading down in a billowing glow of orange. We flinched back from the heat, trying to shield each other, ears ringing.

  There were shouts, screams.

  It was our best chance.

  I grabbed Maisie, whispered, “Go,” and we stepped out, staying low.

  I couldn’t move fast enough. We took two steps and there was a yell.

  Time froze.

  I turned and looked right at the IDC guy. He was wearing full powered armour, standing there in the open, helmet in one hand, like he was invincible, a gun in his other hand. I had his access key in my pocket. We stared at each other for a heartbeat, rockets raining down on his base, the resistance forces pushing up in force, and the entire city rising against them. I could almost read his mind. I knew all his dirty little secrets and I would have bet my right arm that half the deals listed on that ledger were unsanctioned. If he wanted me dead, we were dead.

  I grabbed Maisie’s hand, ducked and ran.

  We made it back inside, and round a corner, shots ricocheting off the walls next to us. We scrambled through another door. There was shouting behind us. I knew there was a maintenance access somewhere along that corridor but in the dark and with adrenaline pounding, I almost missed it. Maisie was all that was keeping me on my feet. I found the hatch, bust it open and pushed her in.

  She wriggled through, twisting to look at me as I climbed in behind her, slamming
the hatch shut and urging her forward. We made it up and into the twisted knotwork of cables before we heard the hatch open, cursing and shouting. He was screaming at us, yelling at his men to get us. There was no way they could follow us, not in powered armour, but they’d be able to track us.

  I tugged on Maisie’s ankle and crawled past her. We needed to move and we needed to move fast.

  I led the way through the crawl spaces, feeling the walls tremble every time there was another hit. We could hear the distant echo of gunfire.

  “How do we get out?” she whispered at me.

  I turned back to her and shook my head. There was no way we’d be able to get out in one piece.

  Not now.

  “We don’t,” I said. “We go down.”

  I twisted and started to unstrap the brace from my knee. I could hardly move in there with it restricting the joint.

  She didn’t look impressed. “Down?”

  “The tunnels go right under the base. There’s one that goes to the space port from right under here.”

  You know I said she never questioned how I knew stuff. She did then. She blurted out, “How do you even know that?”

  I screwed up my face. “You have to get under the AI core to get to it.”

  She pulled a face of her own. “What? You sure there’s no other way?”

  I couldn’t think of one. We were cornered, the only way out was down.

  Maisie struggled in a few places and I had to take it slower than I would usually but we made it round to the main manifold. Up was the comms centre, down was the command level and the AI core.

  She leaned close as I wriggled into place and hacked into the garrison’s control system.

  “What are you doing?” she said as she watched.

  I was scanning quickly through a sitrep. The AI was struggling. It was never expected to operate at the level it was currently being expected to. Kheris was a backwater, low threat rating. A full on assault on multiple targets was never considered in the possible scenarios it should have to deal with and for eight years it had never really been tested. Right then it was struggling and its learning algorithms were desperately trying to update and adapt to the worsening situation. But things were changing faster than it could keep up with. I felt torn. I wanted more than anything right then for the garrison to hold out and I didn’t want to screw the AI up and risk tipping the balance but there was only one way out that I could think of.

  “Finding us a way through,” I muttered.

  “What happened with Dayton’s key?”

  “Dayton’s dead,” I said as I worked. “He’s been betraying us.”

  I felt her tremble.

  “You killed him?”

  “Calum killed him. Dayton’s been working with the Empire this whole time. And at the end, he was even trying to sell them out to UM.”

  “Why?”

  “Money.” I didn’t mention that I’d transferred it all to her. If we survived this, she’d find out.

  I could almost feel the next question brewing before she asked it. “What about Benjie?”

  “Same? I dunno.” I was trying not to care. “You were right, he was just using me.” I shifted my weight, pain flaring in my knee. “Listen, Spacey was evacuated. Peanut’s waiting for us with a ship. I want you to come with us.”

  She was staring at me. She didn’t say anything else but I could tell her mind was running at a million miles an hour. She went to speak a couple of times but stopped herself, finally just snapping Charlie’s band off her wrist and back onto mine and keeping her hand there.

  I gave the AI a few more problems to worry about, no need to screw with the power, half of it was out already. I did what I could, winging it to figure out a way down the levels, and wrapped up fast. My hands were shaking by the time I was done. We could hear the Imperial forces, distant sounds echoing as they tried to reach us, breaking in and shouting, hammering on the hatches and yelling warnings to stop or they’d open fire.

  “Come on,” I said, “we need to find the lift shaft.”

  I was reckoning that was our best bet to get down to the lower levels. I’d never tried it before.

  I led the way, climbing through and squeezing past the thick knots of cable to get up into the comms centre where the lift shaft ended. That was the only way we could get in – get above it and drop down.

  I found the access panel I was looking for and leaned in close to release the catch.

  “Won’t it know we’re here?” Maisie whispered.

  It. The AI.

  “It’s busy.”

  There was a chance it would but I’d sent enough conflicting reports and queries to it, in amongst all the damage reports and sitreps it was getting, that it wouldn’t know what was what. It was trying to maintain the perimeter. It was holding. Just.

  There was a clang and a hatch above us was ripped open.

  I glanced up. A figure in powered armour burst in, flinging the hatch cover aside and roaring.

  Maisie grabbed me and pulled me away as shots pinged off a pipe next to me. Steam hissed. I flinched back, shouldered the access panel open and pushed her through.

  The air in the shaft was stale, cold. We clambered in, more shots hitting the walls around us. I risked reaching back, snatching the hatch shut behind us and flinching from shards of flying metal. It shut with a clang.

  Maisie coughed, looking over my shoulder, hanging onto the ladder and leaning out, looking down. She swore. “Can you do this?” she breathed into my ear.

  Dim lighting illuminated the shaft. The next access panel was half way down. I could just about see the top of the elevator at the bottom. My knee was throbbing again. I had no idea if I could make it but I nodded. “Race you to that panel.”

  She went and didn’t look back. I ended up half falling down each rung of the ladder, balancing on my right leg and taking my weight on my arms. I had an increasing tickle at the back of my throat, a catch in my lungs that I knew was electrobes.

  It was tough going. There was a sudden hum below me. I looked down. The lift was moving up, the noise from the mechanism getting louder. I wasn’t going to make it. There was a clatter from above, pieces of panel went crashing past me and the entire lift shaft resounded with a deafening rattle of gunfire. Maisie started yelling. I dropped down a couple more rungs, trying to stay small and trying to move faster than my leg would let me. Something hot hit my hand with a burst of pain. I lost my grip and fell.

  Chapter 25

  I tumbled, curled up and hit the top of the elevator as it rose to meet me. I hit it hard, breath driven from my lungs, shots punching down all around me. I scrambled to the side and crouched there, on the rising lift, flinching each time a shot came close, watching the access panel approach, feeling blood dripping off my hand, and clambered through as Maisie grabbed me, snatching my trailing foot out of the way as the lift continued on its way. She slammed the panel closed and held me, and we sat there clutching each other until I could breathe again.

  “You’re bleeding,” she whispered.

  I held out my hand, shaking. There was a ragged hole through it, oozing red. She pulled a cloth out of somewhere and bound it tight. I could hardly feel it. Charlie’s band was tingling, numbers scrolling across its surface. I stifled a cough.

  Maisie was struggling not to cough herself. “This is electrobes, isn’t it?”

  “Just ignore it,” I whispered back. “If it gets that bad, we’ll have to find some antidote somewhere.”

  She looked at me wide-eyed like I was mad.

  “It never gets that bad,” I lied. “Come on, we need to move. Stay close.”

  We climbed out and into the crawl space above the command level. There was a constant humming reverberation from the power plant and the AI core below us that was setting my nerves on edge.

  I led her around to a vent and we slipped down, squeezing our way through, feeling the temperature go up and the noise increase. It seemed like madness to drop further down i
nto the base but it was the only thing I could come up with. If we tried to run and make a break for the surface, they’d get us.

  We squeezed through conduits from one crawl space to another until we were above the power plant, every inch tough going. I didn’t care that I was leaving bloody handprints everywhere. The walls of the vent were vibrating, every noise banging through my head.

  Maisie grabbed my arm. “You okay?”

  I shook my head. My knee and my hand were hurting so bad the pain was making my stomach queasy. I fumbled in my pocket for the injector I’d lifted from the medic, almost dropping it, my hands were shaking that much. She took it from me and pressed it gently against my neck. It activated with a sting.

  It was tempting to hold onto her and just sit there, rest my head against her shoulder and close my eyes.

  She squeezed my left hand. “We need to go.”

  We dropped down into a dark corridor. Somewhere along the way, Maisie grabbed a length of bar and gave it to me to lean on. I shouldn’t have taken the brace off my knee. She was holding me up and we half ran, half limped through the power plant, squeezing past cables and pipes, making our way through the open blast doors that separated each compartment, the noise so loud we didn’t hear him come up behind us. A grenade clattered past, rolling, what light there was glinting off its surface. Maisie dropped me and ran right towards it, twisting and kicking it away. My leg gave way and I sprawled, seeing a looming figure in powered armour behind us as the grenade went spinning off, detonating with a flash. Stun grenades are nasty. Even catching the edge of it sent sparks flaring behind my eyes.

  Maisie cursed and pulled me up and back into a stumbling run. I could hear him pounding up behind us.

  We ran through the next blast door and I gasped, “Wait,” pushing her to the side as I punched down on the door panel. He opened up on us, shots pinging past us down the corridor. I hunkered in close, shielding her and flinching as bullets ricocheted off the wall next to us. One of the thick overhead conduits above us exploded, a sickly green glow of steam and vapour showering down as the door slammed shut. It felt like I was inhaling lungfuls of tiny, razor sharp, superheated pins. The band on my wrist started vibrating like it was about to explode. Maisie was coughing. I pulled off the door panel and yanked out wires, shorting out the controls and glancing back through the sealed air-tight door as the massive figure thundered up and started to pound on it with his armoured fist.