"Is he... okay?" Essa perked up. "Boy, can you hear me?"

  "Save your strength," Lysa said. "Just wait until we get back to the ship. We're almost out of this."

  Kyle's HUD displayed the incoming enemies. At least six of them charged down the hall. He cursed under his breath, picking up the pace despite the pain in his lower back, the ache in his knees and ankles. He made the door, cutting inside without even a glance. Crates lined the walls with a path leading to an opening leading outside.

  Thank God. Brahn didn't have to go far after all. Where it led, that was another story. Kyle figured they must've walked at least a block, maybe two. The HUD showed a high concentration of salt in the air. He couldn't smell it, but he imagined something briny... the sea. Maybe they take deliveries from boats down here.

  "We're almost there," Kyle said. "Can you close the door behind us? Maybe try to seal that one too?"

  "I'll lock it," Essa replied. "Can't necessarily seal it per se. Not without more time."

  "Then do what you can as fast as you can. We've got to move." Kyle didn't slow down. He got Uldin outside, who stirred a lot more. Every time the man writhed, he struggled to maintain his grip. "I don't want to drop you. Just stay still. I'll put you down soon, man. I need a few more minutes."

  Engine roar made the ground shake. Kyle emerged into the sunlight, standing near a small landing pad nestled up against a body of water. Off in the distance, some half a mile away, an expanse of sea extended to the horizon. A shadow fell over him as the ship hovered nearby, coming in for a landing.

  "Guys," Kyle said, "can you hear me? Um... Jok? Anyone up there?"

  "We read you," Jok replied, "and we have to hurry. Stand back. That's a tight spot for this big of a ship."

  Transports, Kyle thought. They drop supplies off, then they carry them into the tunnel. Those crates in the last room are probably empties waiting for pickup. Then whatever servants work here take the important resources to the priests.

  Lysa stepped up beside him while Essa worked on the exterior door. He got it closed, tapping the panel while the ship set down. The ramp dropped a second later.

  Milna stood at the top of the ramp. When her eyes fell on Kyle, she ran to him, helping him take Uldin off his shoulders. "What happened?" she asked. "Is he dead?"

  "Took a shot to the chest just below the throat," Kyle said. "He moved a few minutes ago so I think he'll be alright if we get him medical attention right away."

  "Do you have the key?"

  "I do!" Lysa shouted. She pulled Essa from the door. Gunfire went off inside, at least a dozen as they tore at the door rather than even trying to open it the normal way.

  As if that wouldn't make us flee the area all the faster. These people... Kyle neared the ramp when a beam hit the ground a few inches from his left foot. Sparks scattered across his armor. Several armored security forces stood down the street on a small incline, aiming down. "We have to move faster! Lysa! Watch yourself!"

  Milna drew her pistol, putting it behind her back before firing in their general direction. The first two shots seemed to startle them, making them dance around. When the blasts didn't get close, they redoubled their efforts. They swept their weapons, blanketing the area. Just as they started up the ramp, Kyle felt like a boulder struck him in the ribs.

  Breathing hurt, but he shoved it aside, growling to get the last few feet to safety. He and Uldin went down together when Milna couldn't support them both. She burst away, heading back down the ramp to lay down some additional fire on the enemy forces. Lysa pulled Essa up the ramp a moment later.

  "What happened?" Lysa shouted. "Kyle? Can you hear me?"

  Kyle couldn't manage any words, but he did nod a couple times. He gestured to his side before lifting his arm so she could see. As she leaned over him, she hissed then pat the armor itself a few times. The blows made him groan, each one sending waves of dull pain straight to his head.

  "The armor stopped it," Lysa said, "but..." She ran a scan. "You cracked a couple ribs. It'll be okay. After we help Uldin, we'll get you some pain pills." She sat up, bellowing, "We need some help down here! Right now! Brahn, Jok... someone hurry it up!"

  "You've... got a loud voice," Kyle muttered. Continued gunfire made him wince, even though he knew they weren't in sight of their attackers. "Is... Milna... okay?"

  "I'm sure she's fine," Lysa said. The ship started rocking. "I guess we're moving now!" She shouted again. "Come on, people! I've got two injured who can't move! You fly now and they'll flop all over the damn cargo bay! Move your asses!"

  "Relax," Brahn called back, "I'm right here. What the hell? I didn't notice he'd been shot when we left."

  "Get Uldin," Lysa pointed, "I'll help Kyle. Milna? Can you secure Essa?"

  "No." Milna hurried up the ramp. "You have to start transmitting that data to the control tower. Or at least prep it. That's your number one priority."

  "But... my nephew!"

  "If you don't get that information to the right place, then it won't matter! This whole system will be a death trap!" Milna grabbed him. "Let's go! I'll take you to the computers right now. Lysa, drop the key off on your way to Medical." The ramp rose as she spoke. "We have to keep this efficient, people. This is why we came here!"

  And we pulled it off, Kyle thought. Somehow. The last part shouldn't be too bad. Just a little upload. What could possibly go wrong with that? The ship shook, causing the pain in his ribs to consume all his attention for a moment. Alright, that was fate giving me a kick for being a dumb ass. Come on, though. Can't we have a little break?

  "This will be slow!" Essa shouted. "We need to get closer! I can't even get them on the comm to start the transfer!"

  Nope, Kyle thought, we sure can't.

  Chapter 9

  The Triton neared the planet. The defensive satellites loomed ahead. Titus waited for them to open fire. Sam had several of them targeted as did the Brekka. Punching a hole through the defensive net might give them some breathing room but without taking down a sizable region, they'd be in constant jeopardy.

  "Violet?" Rhys asked, "shouldn't they already be firing at us? I thought they had pretty serious range."

  "They do, sir." Violet shrugged. "I can't say why they aren't going. Power's running through them. Connection to the surface hasn't been interrupted. Honestly, they should be tearing into us right now."

  "Hold your fire," Titus said, "maybe we're looking at an act of peace here." He tapped his console to bring up the Brekka. "Griel, what do you make of these weapons staying silent? Any thoughts?"

  "Trev said we've got some allies down there with the resistance for that just turned up. Maybe they've done something. I'm reaching out on the frequency we've been given. It'll be a moment." Griel paused. "Looks like they're holding two military bases against a pretty sizable force. And all kinds of carnage is going on throughout the city."

  I didn't think the resistance had the power to cause that much trouble, Titus thought. I figured they'd be carried by us. They must have been planning this for a while. He scowled at the viewscreen, staring at one of the guns orbiting the planet. Those satellites were little more than massive cannons with thrusters.

  The ships coming their way seemed to veer off, heading toward the fleet. With the arrival of the resistance vessels, the Kahl may have been more worried about losing their military capability rather than the planet itself. Titus didn't understand them. Despite having studied their battles, seen their tactics, they were incomprehensible.

  What is happening on the surface? Titus switched his personal screen to look at the planetary scans. Smoke covered much of the city, blocking out a casual view of the buildings. When he switched to thermal, that unveiled a quiet location. Yes, some fights broke out here and there, but life signs seemed to be clumped up.

  Likely in shelters. So the civilians fled. The military forces in the different bases are fighting to maintain their positions. But there are others. What are they doing? When he focused on sites listed by Prytin intelligence, they appeared to be abandoned. Resistance maybe? He had no idea.

  But the planet had been primed for an attack... one they'd lose in the case of an invasion. Particularly since they were looking at an internal assault. People that used to be their allies now lurking amongst them, hitting their bases where they'd least expect... places invaders like the Prytins wouldn't even know about.

  "Hey," Griel came back, "seems the allies we've made along the way were employed. Those boosted soldiers on that one planet are hitting one base. The religious guys Niva and your crew helped on another. Then there are people the resistance cultivated pulling some kind of scheme."

  "Know anything about it?" Titus asked.

  "Basically, trying to rally the people from the shelters, I guess. Ensure they have control over them. If they succeed, they'll have the primary control tower soon. Which will allow them to talk to the military vessels. Hopefully, ending the fight when they tell them they have control. I guess... well, Trev said someone was sent to take care of the Lord Marshal."

  "To kill him?" Rhys asked.

  "Pretty much."

  Titus sucked a breath through his teeth. "Starting a new regime by executing the last one... not exactly the best course of action. Tends to make the population twitchy about your methods. But then, I don't know the Kahl. You think that was a good idea, Griel? Can it work for them?"

  "The man's been alive for a long time," Griel explained, "so I think it might be the only way they can get out from under him. They'll have a long climb, though. There are temples on their various colonies with priests that will try to take over. It all comes down to how the resistance handles the residual problems."

  "Sir?" Violet interrupted, "I think more of those projectiles are being launched. Five of them. And... at least three are coming our way."

  "How soon?" Rhys asked.

  "Six minutes right now. They only barely left the ground."

  "Sam," Titus said, "target those sites. Bombard them right away. Jane, move as needed and prepare for evasive maneuvers. Griel, we might need you to double down on this if we're going to stop those things from getting through." How'd they launch if the sites are locked down?

  But it made sense. The military forces continued to fight for their ground. If any of them got through, broke the interference or whatever else, then they could've launched weapons. Even gotten the defensive satellites back online. I guess I should be glad it's these. Being blasted by fifty lasers at once would've been problematic.

  "Firing now," Sam shouted. Beams from the cannons disappeared into the planet. One of the satellites happened to be in the way, turning to dust in a second. Several screens appeared on the main viewer, depicting their targets.

  They erupted into flames, great pillars of fire rising up from deep within the ground. The collateral damage was extraordinary, taking out a good three block radius. Nothing remained of the military installation on the surface though blasting the launch site did some subterranean damage too.

  The Brekka opened up on a second location, one at sea. Steam filled the air as the projectile detonated. Scans showed structural damage beneath the surface of the water as the silo itself broke apart. Any additional ordnance from those sites would be useless to them without the facilities to deploy them.

  Unfortunately, that left three more coming their way.

  Jane pulled away from the planet, burying the throttle. Turrets sprung into action, attempting to get a lock on the incoming threats. Something about them defied the scans. They saw the things coming, but every time the combat computer made a connection, it immediately lost it.

  "Blanket the area," Titus said, "lay down so much fire it has to go through hell to get to us."

  "We're trying something," Griel added. The Brekka pulled alongside them then broke off to the left. "Maybe these satellites can do some good for us."

  "You're hacking the satellites?" Violet asked. "I'll talk to Molush. That seems... not very easy. Especially since they're down and..." She continued muttering as she reached out to the other ship.

  Seems like a good enough idea to me, Titus thought. If they can do it, they should. Though if it was a possibility, I'm not sure why we didn't think of it sooner. We could've saved ourselves a lot of stress on approach. In fact...

  "Why is that going to work?" Titus asked. "And it wouldn't have when we thought they were active?"

  "If the signal isn't controlling them," Griel said, "then they're open to suggestion. Which is how we're going to pull this off. The way they are now, no one can actively prevent us from hacking in."

  "But..." Violet interjected, "you have to maintain proximity, don't you?"

  "That's why we veered off," Griel replied, "to keep close to them. Once we have the defensive satellites, we can prevent any more of these projectiles from giving us grief. After they took out the Dahs battleship, we can't let another volley of them leave the surface. Not if we want the fleet to survive what they're doing."

  The Dahs lost their ship? Titus checked the combat log. He frowned at the information. Wow. That was the last vessel in their military. They came here for vengeance. I hope they felt like they got it in the end. He couldn't imagine what that must've been like. The Dahs lost everything before they sent that ship.

  And after the destruction of the vessel, whatever population remained no longer had a military. The last bastion of their government, the only method they had to protect themselves, died from those nasty missiles. One of which seemed intent on hitting the Triton... and may well claim another battleship before the fighting ended.

  "Increase speed," Titus said. He looked over the scans for any sort of obstruction, debris, asteroids, another satellite, a space station... but there was nothing in their immediate vicinity. Nothing to lead the thing to, no way to trick it. This is going to be a race. And it's one we might not be able to win.

  "How much power do those have?" Rhys asked. "They should run out of gas long before they hit us, right?"

  "Not likely," Violet said. "They have the equivalent of a warp cell in there, which could fuel a starship. They have plenty to throw themselves all over the place. The good news is that some of them were old enough that they failed on their way to the fleet. But that doesn't seem to be the case here."

  "Wait a minute," Rhys said. He got on the comm. "Andrews, how close are you to us?"

  "We could start docking if you'd let us."

  "You see that missile thing? I want you to pop its engines. Stop it from chasing us." Rhys shrugged. "If we can't target them with the computers, then let's allow our shuttle to do it manually."

  "We're on it," Andrews replied, "give us a moment. We'll close on the thing right away. Um... it's closing on you really fast. I'd say we're going to have less than a minute to stop it before it catches up."

  "Then you'd better hurry," Titus said, "and don't miss. Whatever you do, hit that thing in the rear."

  "Hey," Sam turned, "won't it blow up? Kill them from the explosion?"

  "Negative," Violet replied, "if they hit the engine, it'll stop. It only goes off when it connects the front with a shield or hull. And it's directional... the point is to open its target up rather than explode."

  "Wonderful," Sam muttered. "I'll stop shooting at it. I don't want to be responsible for Andrews going down."

  "Keep us informed about the hack," Titus said. "When those satellites turn on the enemy, I want to know about it." He clung to his seat. Won't help us right now... but hopefully, Andrews has this. Lucky for them, the shuttle disobeyed orders to join them. If they pull this off, they'll earn a reprieve.

  If they didn't... well, it wouldn't matter much. The Triton would be gone.

  ***

  Andrews initiated the course change while accelerating to full throttle. "Hold on. This will be... interesting."

  Tiller called from the turret, "You think chasing a battleship killing rocket is interesting? And you complained about us being crazy."

  Andrews shrugged. "The data suggests we're safe enough behind it. The trick's getting there and keeping pace. It's fast."

  "So what're we doing?" Vesper asked. "Wait. You're moving parallel to it?"

  "Yes." Andrews pointed to the scanner. "Look. We're too small for the sensors of the thing. So it'll be heading straight for the Triton. As it passes us, I'll scoot over to give Tiller a shot at the thing. Speaking of which, you ready on that gun? You have to lay into it. Everything we've got."

  "Yeah, I'm on the gun... but what're you talking about? How much could it possibly take?"

  "C'mon, man. Think about it. I'm not necessarily talking about the damage it can take so much as the fact we're dealing with speed. It'll pull away from us fast."

  "Ohh." Tiller clicked his tongue. "Sure. I got it now."

  Thank God for that. Andrews rolled his eyes. "Vesper, keep an eye on the scanner. When we pop the engines, we may have to shoot the secondary firing mechanism too."

  Vesper turned her full attention to the screen. "And you are positive it won't decide to hit us?"

  "Let's put it this way," Andrews set a countdown to when the rocket would arrive, "if that happens, you won't know about it for long. Now, we've got twenty seconds. Tiller, don't shoot until it passes. An explosion next to us might do some damage we can't afford. Here we go, guys. I'll call it out when we get down to the ten second mark."

  The projectile closed. Andrews brought up a screen to keep track of its approach. It appeared as a white glow; half as bright as a star. Looking directly at it dazzled the eyes even with the camera dimmed. The energy pushing it along may have been enough to provide some rudimentary defenses as well.

  If that has shields...

  Andrews ran a quick scan as it drew nearer. "Dammit." He sighed. "Tiller, if you've got a solution, open fire now! Immediately."

  "You said it would blow up," Tiller replied, "you told me we have to be careful or it'll kill us."

  "Just do it!" Andrews turned to shout. "It has shields!"

 

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