Eclipse blackout book 5, p.4
Eclipse (Blackout Book 5), page 4
“Slow down, buddy,” Jackson told him. “Take a breath and tell me everything from the beginning.”
Roy took a breath, but he still had to talk loudly to be heard. “We assaulted a Krakzid base like you told us to. The Grocit got a little overenthusiastic, if you know what I mean. Then we discovered all these other Grocit being held prisoner there.”
“How did they get here? Why would the Krakzid bring Grocit here, to Apra?”
“Don’t ask me. The Krakzid must have brought them here for some reason. Anyway, when we liberated them, they showed us the Krakzids’ tactical landscape spread out over five or six systems. It was wild!”
“How did they show you? You aren’t making any sense. The Grocit…” Jackson glanced around him. He hesitated to say it out loud. “These Grocit aren’t exactly technological wizards, if you get my meaning.”
Roy cackled with glee. “That’s what I thought. They’re pretty swift—a lot swifter than we are. They must have been locked up in that Krakzid base for a long time…and I mean a long time. They understand everything about the Krakzids’ systems. They understand the Krakzid systems a hell of a lot better than I understand the Zenith systems, I can tell you.”
Jackson started to say something about how he found that nearly impossible to believe. He didn’t get the chance to say that or anything else before a thunderous noise made conversation impossible.
The whole company turned toward the cavern’s top end. The assembled Grocit stamped their feet and pounded their chests. Some even punched their fists into the floor, and their bellows quaked the chamber.
Roy joined them. He pumped his fist into the air and hooted in mad celebration. The sea of bodies parted, and a small posse of Grocit emerged in the center of the floor.
These were the same Grocit that had taken off toward the power coupling that Roy mentioned. The words rang in Jackson’s mind: Take out the power coupling and they’re finished.
That explained why the Krakzid ships shut down so suddenly. Of all the alien species involved in this offensive, the Grocit were the ones who’d figured out how to disable the Krakzid. They’d shut down the fighter craft at the source.
The mob crushed the victors in a monstrous victory dance, with Roy and Benedict right in the middle of it. Jackson stood off to one side. He still struggled to believe this was all real, but it had to be. The Grocit had invaded the Krakzids’ stronghold and triumphed over a near-invincible enemy.
In that moment, Jackson’s whole view of the war flipped. He didn’t really believe until this moment that he or anyone else could stop the Krakzid. They’d invaded and conquered Zenith, Keter, Urval, Silden, and who knew how many other systems. They must have attacked and enslaved quite a few Grocit, too, to carry off this many from their homeworld.
He’d underestimated the Grocit. Never again.
4
“Nice and easy,” Lana murmured. “We’re just coming home from a routine patrol. Nothing new.”
Liri steered the racer into the landing hold of the Keter Legion Guard Post in central Lulin. She’d executed this sequence so many times she could do it in her sleep, but now she had to concentrate to stop her hands from shaking.
Guards, soldiers, and officers crisscrossed the hold in all directions. Dozens of racers, Primals, Radicals, Rebels, and other battle craft crowded the runways. Maintenance personnel worked all around them, with supply vehicles buzzing from one ship to another.
Lana bumped Liri’s arm and pointed to an empty berth near the back. “Over there. That gives us a clear shot to the stairs.”
“How are we going to get through the Guard Post without anyone recognizing us?” Liri asked.
“Keep your hoods on,” Aitera suggested.
“No one keeps their hoods on inside,” Liri pointed out. “That on its own would make them suspect that we aren’t supposed to be here.”
“Just land it,” Lana ordered. “We’ll work out the details later.”
Liri glanced over at Aitera, who made a face, but the trio had come too far to go back now. Liri lowered the racer into the berth and powered down the engines. “Now what do we do, genius?”
“Now we get the hell out of this Guard Post.” Lana grabbed herself a hood from the supply compartment. “We get onto the street as quickly as possible.”
“Assuming we can actually do that without getting our heads shot off, we’ll be walking around on the streets of Lulin in Keter Legion uniforms.”
“Is that a problem?”
“You tell me. Is it a problem? We wouldn’t be coming to Lulin for something that might bring us into contact with people who consider Keter Legion officers their enemy?”
Lana cracked a huge grin. “You’re too smart for your own good, Liri. I should have known better than to keep you in the dark.”
“Uh,” Aitera stammered. “Am I missing something? What are you guys talking about?”
“She’s taking us to Arlyane,” Liri told her. “She’s carrying a message from Uzud to Arlyane. It’s obvious. She wouldn’t have any other reason to come to Lulin.”
Aitera frowned. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Uzud wouldn’t have given her a perfectly functional racer, complete with clearance codes and spare uniforms, if she wasn’t doing a job for him. It would have to be one whopper of an important job if he agreed to repair the Blackout for her in exchange—unless she finally agreed to marry him.”
Lana curled her upper lip in a sneer. “Har-har-har. Let’s get this over with. I hate this place with a passion.” She turned to the hatch and released it.
“You still haven’t explained how exactly we’re going to get through the building unhooded.”
“I don’t have to wear a hood.” Aitera transformed before their eyes. Her translucent skin melted, and she changed her appearance into a middle-aged Keteran man. Even her eye color changed.
Lana whistled. “I will never understand how you do that.”
“That’s it!” Liri cried. “That’s the solution.”
“What is?” Aitera asked.
“We’ll pose as your prisoners. It’s so simple.” Liri dove into the supply compartment and took out her old clothes—the one she’d been wearing when she and her friends boarded this racer.
She ripped the sleeves off her tunic and quickly tied knots in the ends of each. She shoved one into Lana’s hands. “Put this over your head. Keep your hands behind your back. Aitera, you’re going to march us into the Guard Post at gunpoint.”
“Very funny, Liri,” Lana chided. “That will never work. No one would believe any officer would walk his hooded prisoners through the front door.”
“Unless you have a better idea, we’re doing it this way.” Liri tugged the knotted sleeve over her own head.
The world went dark, but Liri could still see a little through the scratchy fabric. Lana took a moment to comply, but with no other option, she made a face and pulled the hood over her head, too.
“What am I supposed to do with you?” Aitera whispered.
“Improvise,” Liri told her. “You’re a computer. You should be good at that.”
“Yeah, but…” Aitera glanced over her shoulder. The hatch stood open, with Legion staff walking past the gap. Any of them could hear the women’s conversation if they only stopped to listen. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Now’s a perfect time for you to learn. We won’t be able to help you, because we have to keep our hands behind our backs. You have to be confident. You have to act at all times like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be and doing what you’re supposed to do. Don’t act uncertain, or you’re sunk.”
“Great!” Aitera muttered. “How am I supposed to act any other way when I am uncertain?”
Just then, a maintenance crew approached the hatch. The corporal in charge bent into the opening and called up to Aitera. “Are you ready to fit out, sir?”
“Just leaving now,” Aitera replied over her shoulder. “Give me a second.”
“Yes, sir.” The corporal turned to his team and started talking.
Aitera pulled a hand weapon from the compartment. “Here goes,” she breathed to Liri. Then, louder, she boomed in a commanding male voice, “Move it, bung-nugget!”
She shoved her weapon hard into Liri’s spine and sent Liri lurching toward the hatch. The next minute, Aitera propelled Liri and Lana down the ramp onto the floor. Aitera almost knocked the maintenance crew out of the way in her zeal to make a good show.
“Bung-nugget?” Lana teased when they got out of earshot. “Who comes up with something like that?”
“Quiet!” Aitera hissed. “Don’t make me laugh.”
Aitera marched the twins down the stairs, and they emerged on the Guard Post’s main corridor. Offices, conference rooms, and tactical stations lined both sides, with readings coming in from all over the city.
Officers, soldiers, and support staff passed the trio going both ways. Liri recognized a few of them through her mesh hood. She breathed a sigh of relief that none of them could see her.
“Now where do I go?” Aitera whispered from behind.
“All the way to the end of the corridor,” Lana told her. “See the door? It will take us into the stairwell. Then we have another security checkpoint before we get outside.”
“Security checkpoint!” Aitera squeaked. “You never said anything about that! How am I supposed to get through that?”
“Don’t worry,” Lana breathed. “I have a pass.”
“Oh, listen to this!” Liri cut in. “She has a pass. Now I know she agreed to marry Uzud.”
Aitera boomed out behind her so the whole corridor could hear her deep, manly voice. “I said shut up!”
She nailed her elbow hard into the back of Liri’s neck for good measure. Liri yelped and almost buckled. Aitera was really going all the way with her Keter Legion act.
Several officers nodded greeting to Aitera on their way past. No one stopped to question…until Aitera halted her supposed prisoners at the exit door. Aitera shoved the twins against the wall while she kicked the door open.
She seized Lana to push her across the threshold when a different voice yelled out, “Stop, you!”
Liri froze. She knew that voice only too well. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to see who it was, and she felt Lana stiffen next to her.
Captain Igaraine Brance strode up to Aitera. His voice dropped to a new low in his chest. “What are you doing? Where are you taking these prisoners?”
Aitera rounded on him. “I don’t see that you have the authority to question my actions…Captain.” Aitera stressed the last word with an extra dose of acid in her tone.
Brance raised his hackles. If Aitera realized how badly he reacted to her ploy, she didn’t show it. “Prisoners go straight to the lockup. They shouldn’t be on this level at all, and they definitely shouldn’t be going into the public spaces down below. Take them back upstairs where they belong.”
Liri cringed. She wished like anything she could whisper instructions to Aitera on how to handle Brance, but that would be impossible with him standing so close. She feared something exactly like this would happen, and the three women couldn’t be facing a worse adversary than Brance.
“These prisoners,” Aitera countered, “have an appointment with Commander Kwex. These prisoners were directly involved in mounting a Votek insurrection at the Kizcury Transit Hub. Commander Kwex thinks they have information that could break the insurgents and end the movement once and for all. I don’t think he’d be too pleased to find out you delayed him from questioning them. Do you?”
Brance scowled even deeper. “If that’s true, you won’t mind me signaling him that you’re on the way. After all, he just left the Guard Post half an hour ago. He left specific instructions that he wouldn’t be back for a week.”
Liri’s stomach plummeted into her boots. She watched in horror as Brance pivoted to a control room at the corridor’s end. He took three steps toward the door.
Liri braced herself to do something drastic. If he signaled Kwex or any other Krakzid commander, Aitera and the twins might as well hang it up. They would be real prisoners for as long as they survived the aftermath.
Liri didn’t get a chance to make the first move. Aitera spun around, pivoted her weapon away from Liri’s neck, and blasted Brance right between the shoulder blades. The officer pitched forward into the control room and the whole corridor erupted in mayhem.
Soldiers and officers alike whirled around to capture the intruders. Aitera whipped her weapon back and forth in rapid jerks. She fired an incessant stream of pulses that flattened everyone before her.
One weapon couldn’t keep up with all those Legion personnel in the heart of their own stronghold. They charged out of offices and stations to flank the friends.
Liri ripped off her hood and pulled her own weapons. She fired at the soldiers closing from the right to drive them back. She backed into Aitera at the same time to consolidate their position. She thought she could nudge Aitera and Lana toward the exit, but Aitera had other ideas.
Lana reacted just as fast. She laid down a steady spray of blasts to the left. Together, the twins forced the Legion staff to form ranks across the corridor. There was only one way out—the door.
Liri took another step backward, but instead of joining them, Aitera rocketed forward. She let out a shriek and sprang off the ground. She took a flying leap and landed smack in the middle of the assembled Legion personnel.
As much as this maneuver surprised Liri, what Aitera did next almost made Liri stop firing. It did make the Legion personnel stop firing. Instead of shattering into her many manifestations the way Liri expected, Aitera changed into her mechanical wheel form. The appearance of a person vanished and left only the machine.
The device hit the ground and flipped onto its side. It spun and twirled, spraying laser fire in all directions. It mowed down the Legion staff by the dozen. Just as fast, it bounced, came down on its narrow rim, and started drilling its lasers into the floor.
The stunned Legion staff took a second to respond to this turn of events. For a moment, they stared as the robot punched a hole in the concrete floor.
A booming pulse cracked out of nowhere, and the impact smashed into the robot. The little device skidded out of position and banged into a lieutenant’s shins.
Liri whirled toward the source of the shot to find Captain Brance stalking into the corridor from the control room. Blood trickled from his eyebrow. It flowed down his cheek and gave him a murderous, feral appearance, but he never took his eyes off the robot.
He lugged a huge cannon across his shoulder and clenched his jaws, targeting the machine. Liri lunged for him and fired at his broad chest. He saw her movement and swiveled his weapon toward her instead.
“Liri!” Lana bellowed.
Liri didn’t have time to shoot before Brance’s weapon went off. Liri prepared herself to take the impact when Lana soared in front of her. Lana flew into the cannon’s path and the pulse pelted her in the torso.
The blow knocked her back and she hit Liri. Liri tried to grab her sister, but the blast dropped both of them to the floor.
In the moment’s reprieve when Brance’s attention shifted to the twins, the robot showered fire on the Legion personnel surrounding it. It skidded back to its original spot and started drilling into the floor again.
Brance turned his back on the fallen twins and rotated his cannon toward the robot. Liri feared the worst, but when Brance gripped the firing mechanism to blow the thing to kingdom come, the robot fired on him instead.
Brance fired five times in rapid succession, but the robot didn’t shoot at his chest or head. It sliced its lasers at his legs and cut him off at the ankles. Brance went down, but he kept a hold on his cannon.
He scooted across the blood-smeared carpet and scrambled to get his weapon into position for another shot, but Liri had seen enough. She clawed out from under Lana’s unconscious body and pounced on Brance’s back. She landed in a crouch across his hips and fired into the back of his head. His limbs flopped and he lay still.
Liri glanced around to assess the situation. Lana sprawled on her face not far away, while the robot pinwheeled in a thousand directions.
It directed most of its fire into the crater it carved in the floor, but the Legion personnel kept trying to get up and attack it. The robot had to stop every few seconds to drive them off, which slowed its progress.
Liri sprang to her feet and added her fire to the robot’s. She didn’t care anymore about hitting anybody. She had to get herself and Lana out of this damn Guard Post.
She held the soldiers at bay while the robot turned its full power on the hole. Liri inched over to Lana. She had to stop shooting to pick up her sister and sling Lana over her shoulder, but when she did, the robot punched through.
It plunged out of sight, and an almighty clang sounded from down the crater. The next instant, shots and explosions echoed out of the hole.
Liri hitched her sister onto her back and fought her way to the makeshift exit that Aitera had created for them. She had to fire both her weapons in a continuous rain of pulses to stop the Legion staff from preventing her escape. She really could have used Aitera and Lana right now.
Never mind. She sat down on the edge of the hole. A corona of laser fire lit up the darkness beneath her, but when she looked up, she saw the Legion personnel trying to get to their feet again. A lieutenant propped another cannon across his desk. If she was going to get out of here, it was now or never.
5
“Now what do we do?”
Jackson squinted into the sunshine streaming into the cavern. Rolling fields dropped down the mountain from the hollow where he’d reunited with Roy and Benedict.
“I don’t know, man,” Roy replied from his side. “I don’t know what their plans are.”
The Grocit streamed out of the cavern all around the two friends. They teemed down the hill, across the field, and through the protective dome on the far side. They didn’t stop to check on the men. “Where are they going?”
