The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Page 16

  “Any idea where it goes?” Minu asked.

  “Down,” the man who’d found it said.

  The other leaned over the emitter a bit and looked down, the gravitic field causing his short hair to stream upwards. “Yep,” he agreed.

  Something made the hair stand up on the back of Minu's neck. Her hand slid to the grip of her shock rifle and she turned without even knowing why. Two Tanam were about twenty meters away, wearing dark colored scout armor and they were leveling weapons at the unaware humans. Just like at the firing range, Minu raised her weapon to her shoulder, stabbed the energizing button with her left thumb and swept off the safety in the same action.

  Bzzaacrack! Bzaacrack!

  Both Tanam crumpled to the floor dead as the rest of the soldiers spun. “Always have eyes out,” she warned them. And like that, her legend grew. “Scouts, by the look of their armor. You two,” she indicated the ones who’d found the lift, “check the approaches. They probably know we're here.”

  “Limits our options,” the sergeant said. Minu eyed the jump tube and nodded her head.

  “Okay squad, with me,” Minu decided.

  “With all due respect, Chosen,” the sergeant complained.

  “Don't even say it, Sarge, form up and follow me.” Minu took a good two handed grip on her shock rifle, one more deep breath, and stepped out into the jump tube.

  She plummeted downwards with no concern for such things as human physiology, cartilage, or blood pressure. It felt like ten G’s of acceleration and she almost blacked out. Luckily the trip was as short as it was brutal and she came to a mind numbing stop at the bottom, stumbling off just in time before the first of the squad behind her would have slammed into her back. In moments men and women were tumbling out of the tube like laundry from a drier. Minu, still shaken from the trip, found herself at the bottom of a dog pile. “Well that was fun,” she mumbled through someone's boot. A moment later the two men who’d watched the rear dropped into view and added to the pile.

  Once Minu extracted herself from the bottom of the pile she set men out to make a perimeter and figure out where they were. Her virtual battlefield filled in quickly as the soldiers data filtered into her computer. They were almost a kilometer lower, most of the way to the floor. Almost ideal for her plan, if you could call it that.

  “Sarge, take your men out to the central landing and prepare for the assault.” The man nodded his head, and the wall exploded.

  Minu didn't expect the Tanam to guard all the landings, it wasn't worth the effort and manpower. They would set up a sensor to watch for an assault of her type, only they'd expect it to land via transports, not drop out of nowhere. There would probably be a couple to tend the back door. It was just luck of the draw that one of them was on their floor. The battle suite crashed through the blown out wall, all weapons firing and middle arms lashing out with scythe like metallic claws. That the warrior was wearing a battle suite was the worst kind of luck.

  Soldiers not immediately killed dove for cover or fired on the suite. The massive war machine could not stand up all the way in the three meter tall lift space as shock rifles flashed against its fields. The operator dropped to all six legs and charged like a runaway train. Minu just managed to grab her rifle from where she'd leaned it against the wall and roll to one side, the sergeant she'd just ordered wasn't so lucky. The Tanam warrior sliced him nearly in two with a casual gesture, hot blood spraying Minu like a sprinkler as she rolled. The floor was instantly soaked in it and she went sprawling.

  Four soldiers knelt and fired their beamcasters at the suite in volley fire. The overlapping fields and shields of the suite flashed from yellow to red in the second it took to lumber around and kill two of the gunners. It spun once more and went after another group of soldiers organizing an attack. Minu slipped and slid on the floor until she reached one of the downed men and snatched up his beamcaster. One of the other dead was a girl, no more than fifteen. She stared up at Minu with glazed eyes wide in surprise.

  Minu swallowed and slung her shock rifle then hefted the beamcaster. Taking careful aim she thumbed the override on the controls and fired a sustained shot next to the Tanam. The particle beam vaporized a long gouge of floor, pelting the suite’s defenses but causing no damage. Another override and another shot, this time the other side. The Tanam turned, finally noticing the attack behind it and pointed an arm. Minu took an instant to slap the switch on the back of her left hand and her personal shield popped into life. As the enemy fired she unleashed her final shot.

  The Tanam's beamcaster smashed into her shield with enough energy that Minu felt the skin on her left hand holding the fore grip of the beamcaster blister. Another half second and her shield would snap off, and she would cease to exist. Her own shot flashed just behind the Tanam, tearing up more floor. She got a glimpse of the feline warrior, her face partially shaved and covered in tattoos, teeth bared in perceived victory, just as the floor gave an ear splitting screech of failing dualloy, and collapsed.

  The warrior began to fall, all six limbs shooting out to grab at something, anything to arrest its fall. The forcefield that made it almost invulnerable also made it difficult to grab anything outside the field. Looking for all the world like a cat that missed a jump, the Tanam dropped through the hole, scrambling and yowling. Minu had no idea what was below them, but the crash of the suite’s landing took five long seconds and was immediately followed by an explosion. She looked down at the shield control on her wrist. Five percent remained. Maybe another tenth of a second?

  Minu checked her virtual battlefield for the status of her two squads. Ten were down, seven dead for sure. They'd defeated the suite armed Tanam warrior, but at a catastrophic cost. Rescue was out of the question now, no way with only eleven men. The second squad sergeant was looking down at the unblinking eyes of his first squad counterpart while the lone surviving medic went around quickly checking for anyone that could be saved. There were two. “Stay with them,” she ordered the man who nodded gravely.

  The nine soldiers still able to fight followed her through the wreckage from the brief battle to the interior of the Spire. The inside was hollow; it’s inside walls lined with platforms and jump tubes. She pulled her binoculars from their pouch and began scanning. Below every square meter of floor was covered with vehicles and formations of troops, just as she knew it would be. She wasn't out for vindication, she was looking for something.

  “Can I help, Chosen?” asked the surviving sergeant.

  “No, not unless you've spent a few hundred hours studying Concordia troop deployment procedures.” She slowly panned along the groups finding bot carriers, troop transports, there was a squad of tanks in a design she'd never seen before; she pressed the record button on the binoculars, and next to them four transports carrying the feared heavy energy cannons. They were deployed near the rear, far from the door. The intention was not to use them here then. They would be saved for the next target, Herdhome. “Damn it, where are you?” she growled as her gaze moved on. She dialed up the power on the computer magnification all the way and individual Tanam warriors came into view. There were no other species present, and that was unusual. Most of the elite species preferred bots to do their dirty work. Or even better, lower order species. You didn’t have to pay to have a dead alien repaired or replaced.

  Just when she was about to admit defeat she found what she was looking for. “There,” she told the sergeant and clicked a button on her binoculars. The coordinates transferred to the rest of the unit and soon they were all looking where she was. A few dozen meters of floor far off to one side, protected on three sides by load bearing walls, were three Tanam females standing in the center of a group of warriors. The warriors were all resplendent in shiny battle armor and kept their eyes trained outwards, watching for any threat to their charges. A pair of the nearly unstoppable battle suites also stood guard. “Highborn,” she told them, “and likely the assault commanders.”

  “So what's the plan?” the s
urviving sergeant asked.

  She took a deep breath and considered. While she watched another warrior would occasionally rush up to the three, bow low and wait, then run back out. No field, she realized. They almost certainly have a shield up, even if we can't see it, so sniping is out of the question. Besides, with the Tanam, taking out the highborn will more than likely drive the rank and file insane, instead of forcing retreat. The last thing we need is a fight to the death against thousands of crazy cats. Then as she was watching, the pair of warriors in suites that were guarding the highborn turned and stomped away. It could only mean one thing, another attempt to break out was about to begin. It also meant that the highborn were no longer guarded by the massive suited warriors. It was the chance she was looking for.

  “Quick, before they start feeling vulnerable,” Minu urged and was up and running. The soldiers were hot on her heels as she ran as fast as she could around the interior of the Spire to reach the same side as the highborn. The battle outside was increasing in intensity once more and Minu could feel the Spire vibrating with weapons fire as they ran. Halfway around, they started taking fire.

  From opposite them, a team of Tanam warriors was firing beamcasters at the racing humans. The suite clad warrior she'd disabled had gotten off a call for help after all. Minu dodged between supports and equipment as quickly as possible while doing everything she could to maintain her forward momentum. A glance towards the new arrivals showed still more coming up a jump tube. They were about twenty meters from their destination when another squad of warriors began arriving almost in front of them. Her squad all dove for cover behind a huge machine, all but one man making it.

  Beamcasters burned from two directions now. One of her fire teams set up suppression fire as Minu consulted her virtual battlefield. They either had to take out the squad in front of them, or give up on their objective and find a route of retreat. She turned and could see the burned corpse of the soldier who didn't react in time. The sounds of battle outside intensified still more. The breakout was under way. She had to do something, and quick.

  “Sergeant, how far is it to the jump tube we were heading for?”

  The man used his binoculars and risked popping his head up a couple times to take the needed readings. “About forty meters.” Minu's fingers worked on her tablet, manipulating the controls on her virtual battlefield. She chewed her lip for a second and made her decision. It's too far, time to improvise.

  “Okay soldiers, we've got one chance to stop this slaughter, and it's a long shot. If we pull it off, we can save Serengeti and the Beezers. Are you ready?”

  “Yes sir!” they all barked.

  “Okay, let's do it!”

  Chapter 15

  Octember 24th, 521 AE

  Portal Spire, Capital City, Serengeti, Beezer Leasehold

  With a hail of fire the soldiers broke cover. They split their fire between the two groups trying to pin them down. First one man then another went down from enemy fire. The Tanam near the jump tube began to move to cut them off. And that was when Minu in the lead, turned and jumped over the railing followed by the surviving soldiers.

  “This is crazy!” one of the men yelled as they plummeted towards the floor.

  “Trust the technology,” Minu called back. Halfway to the floor hidden hoverfield generators kicked in and each of them was caught, their descent slowed and controlled. Minu took her binoculars and oriented herself with their target. She dropped the glasses onto their strap and brought her Shock Rifle up. Firing a scoped weapon while falling in a hoverfield was not something she'd trained for. Luckily she practiced regularly for just about every other situation.

  Minu acquired her target and fired in rapid order, dropping the three closest Tanam guards even before she gently set foot on the floor. The safety mechanisms in the Spire's inner core had worked as designed, delivering the entire team within meters of their objective.

  The other soldiers began firing and the other nearest Tanam guards died in quick order. As Minu saw from above, no one was using fields and the shields were transparent to the Shock Rifles. The last of the dozen guards went down, tossing a small case of bots on the floor as she fell. One of Minu's squad flipped on their PUFF and the bots went inactive as soon as their case broke open. The Tanam guards had gone down so quickly the surprise of the attack was still rippling through the formations of warriors nearby.

  “On me!” Minu yelled and charged through the opening, her men spread out into a tight spear around and behind her. Ahead in the center of the circle of warriors, the three highborn Tanam turned at the commotion to see Minu and seven soldiers charging towards them.

  Veka was so surprised to see the humans, a bare paw full, and unarmored, charging into the center of her invasion force that she first turned to look at her sisters Kelaa and Seela before responding. Charged with protecting their higher ranking sister, the other two were less surprised. Veka had all six eyes on Kelaa as she responded to the situation as she would to any other, she activated her personal shield, drew two miniature beamcasters one in each middle hand, and charged the humans with a roar.

  “Wait,” came the pleading voice of their older sister, “let the guards-” but she never finished the sentence. Kelaa took two great bounding leaps and her abdomen exploded as if a bomb was hidden in her food. She gave a hideous screech and crashed to the floor in a bloody heap. “No!” Seela cried and drew a beamcaster of her own.

  Less than ten meters away Minu snarled in frustration as she fired again. The highborn were not supposed to spend their lives in reckless abandon like this, it was the first time she'd seen a species of the Concordia meaningfully deviate from the rules of warfare. She aimed to wound this time and her shot shattered the Tanam's left middle shoulder joint, the newly drawn weapon fell from now useless fingers. She looked ready to charge, so Minu added a shot to the hip region. Flesh and bone exploded and the highborn crashed to the floor. The handgrip under her right hand buzzed against her palm. A small part of Minu's mind managed to get her higher brains attention and told her that was the second warning from her shock rifle. The power pack was almost empty. “Swell.”

  She and her team passed the first highborn she'd shot. Despite the horrendous damage her shot had done, the female snatched out with her two top arms and grabbed one of the soldiers. He cried out in surprise and pain as razor sharp claws penetrated skin and started to dig deeper. The soldier next to him fired at point blank range, and the Tanam's head exploded.

  Minu finished covering the last few meters, her weapon held high against her shoulder and pointed right at the head of the last standing highborn. “You are my prisoner!” she yelled at her, the translator turning it into the growls and snarls of the Tanam language.

  “You have killed two of my sisters,” Veka snapped, only her incredible will kept her from snatching up the petulant human and biting its head off. That and the seven other humans now surrounding them. As she expected, none of the hundreds of nearby warriors were doing anything to stop the humans. They would never dare risk injuring a highborn. Seela mewed miserably and rolled in agony on the floor. Obviously the humans had no such convictions.

  “Only one is dead, and she gave me no choice. You are my prisoner.”

  “I acknowledge,” she said and gave the minimum head bow required. “How do you expect to remove your prisoner through all my forces?”

  “You will surrender your forces to the Tog and us, their human soldiers.”

  “Soldiers? I believed you were Tog Chosen.”

  “I am Chosen, these are soldiers. We have thousands more outside ready to assault this place and kill every one of you if necessary.”

  “You are a bad liar, the Tog would never engage in such warfare.”

  “We are not the Tog.” Minu used her left hand to flip on her headset, taking a quick glance at her shock rifle as she did. Three, maybe four shots remaining. The only down side of the shock rifles was it took a good five seconds to change power packs. This was
getting interesting. “Gregg, you there?”

  “On station boss.” His transmission was full of static and she could hear the sounds of combat in the background. She desperately wanted to ask him how it was going out there, but made herself keep to the script.

  “Are the Achilles all ready?”

  “Ready and standing by.”

  “Send the first one in, sector three.”

  “Acknowledged. Are you okay?”

  “Fine, we have the Tanam leader prisoner and are beginning negotiations.” Minu turned her attention back to the Tanam highborn. Despite her surrender Minu had not moved her shock rifle a millimeter, and the Tanam had not moved either. “You have five minutes to surrender your command.”

  “You are deranged.”

  Minu nodded and consulted her chronometer. “Five, four, three, two...” The Portal Spire was rocked by a blast that shook it to the core. Ceramic concrete dust and chunks rained down from high above and one platform in the distance collapsed a hundred meters to the floor with thunderous, slow crash. “Now four minutes, highborn.”

  “You will not destroy this place,” she spluttered, “You lack the weapons! The Tog do not own any energy cannons, we know this as a fact!” Minu glanced at her chronometer again and when it reached the right time counted down once more. “Do you think you can intimidate me, a highborn noble from the highest of the higher order species?” Crash! The building shook even worse this time, and a huge section of wall to one side caved inward, trapping and crushing dozens of warriors, their equipment and transports. Veka hissed nervously, her two sets of movable eyes darting around to take in the growing panic of her warriors. “You would not destroy this building, no matter how you are doing this damage; the Tog would never allow it.”

  “I already told you, we are not the Tog!” Crash, boom! This time the explosion penetrated to the Spire's interior. Flame blossomed through the wall followed by the bright afternoon sunlight. Above them, the entire Spire's immense bulk shivered.