Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) (39 page)

“I think Briseis is right, something’s happening,” she looked at the tall Spartan.  “Get ready, when you see me running, get into position.”

Briseis nodded and waved to her sister warriors.  “Now?”  Quin asked, as Valerie tilted her King over in surrender and stood. 

“Maybe, it’s worth being prepared,” she answered and she walked away across the open area to the opposite wall.  Turning, Valerie waited for everyone to get into position.  Luisa and Ingrid followed her out.  They waved the other prisoners back to clear the floor between Valerie and the tables.  The three Spartans clustered around the table behind the one Valerie and Quin had been using.  Quin stood to one side holding the chessboard with the table clear.

Glancing up, Valerie was just in time to see the guards all frozen.  They were listening to their coms simultaneously.  Something was deeply worrying them.  Then it happened, almost as one, they turned and started to head to the exit.  That was her cue and Valerie started to run.

As she dashed past Luisa and Ingrid, she caught a flash of wide eyes and open mouths.  Quin had an almost identical expression.  Valerie’s left foot hit the top of the first table and launched her into the air.  The Spartans didn’t let surprise slow them down for a moment.  As the well trained warriors they were, they were already in position.  The three women stood on the second table, all six hands interlinked and were already putting all their combined strength into the throw, when Valerie’s right foot landed.

Timing was everything in this manoeuvre and it was impossible to practice.  Right at the top their throw, Valerie put all of her power into the jump.  With their help, she flew straight up towards the guards walkways.  Her hands caught the very edge, finger tips barely curling around, but that was all she needed.  Her feet swung up and landed solidly against the bottom.  With a push she swung back out and pulling with her powerful arms, she sprang up.  Grabbing the top of the railing, she swung her feet up and around, into the face of a surprised guard.

Her feet landed solidly and sent him toppling over the railing, down to the prisoners below.  Dropping onto the walkway, she spun to face a guard behind who was frozen in position.  Valerie didn’t give her time to respond and shoulder charged her.  The force of the impact was so great, it lifted the guard clear over the railing and sent her after her comrade.  This time Valerie snagged the guards baton from her belt before she was out of reach.

Valerie’s target was the door out of the playpen.  She needed to secure that, it was their only way out of here.  There were three guards between her and the open door.  In the panic they were all experiencing, it had been held open to help the guards escape.  This was her opportunity and Valerie went for it with all the speed and power at her disposal.  All three guards went tumbling over the side in seconds.  Valerie dove through the door before it slammed shut behind her.

Rolling to her feet she found herself in a guard room.  Screens covered an entire wall, on the wall opposite were rifles lined up in gun racks, another secure door led further out of the prison at the other end.  Guards stood all around like a frozen holopic.  Disbelief at the sudden arrival of a prisoner welding two Energy Batons in their midst, stopping them from moving.  Only one guard was at the gun rack, reaching for a Pulse rifle.  Each rifle was locked into place, but the one he was reaching showed the glowing red light of an unsecured weapon.  He was her first target.  Valerie’s right hand baton struck his knee hard, the crack of bone was audible even through his armour.

As his body fell to the floor, she scooped up the Pulse rifle and spun, finger on the trigger.  Guards died all around her.  They went to draw their Mag pistols, but the holsters were designed to stop prisoners grabbing them.  It wasn’t much, a sensor pad to verify the user was wearing guard armour before it would release the weapon.  That was all it took to slow them down enough to be gunned down by Valerie.

One guard raised his hands high above his head and her lightning quick reactions saved his life.  In seconds, eleven guards lay on the ground dead.  The survivor standing amongst them.

“Don’t shoot,” he said unnecessarily.  “I work with Quin!”

“Unlock these guns,” Valerie ordered and went back to the door leading into the playpen.  A monitor showed several guards outside, trying to get in.  They hadn’t realised what had happened yet.  They would in moments and that was all she needed.  Slapping the door controls, she pointed the rifle and was ready as it slid open.  These guards had their guns out.  It didn’t matter.  Valerie’s Pulse rifle tore through their armour at point-blank range, sending their bodies flying back.

Rising up onto the walkways came Briseis, Cheimon and Phrike, using grav-belts retrieved from the guards Valerie had thrown down to them.  Quin would be organising the other prisoners, getting as many of them up as possible, while Valerie and the Spartans secured the area.  The Spartans jogged into the guardroom behind Valerie and didn’t waste any time, they each grabbed an unlocked Pulse rifle.

The Rebel guard retreated to one side and took off his helmet.  He wasn’t very old, probably about twenty Valerie guessed, and absolutely terrified.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Todd, err Todd Hall.”

“What’s behind that door, Todd?” she pointed to the only way out.

“Err, kitchen and offices.”

“Anything else?” she demanded.  “Lifts?”

“Yes.  Yes, lifts and the automated food and laundry facilities.”

“How many guards?”

“I, I don’t know,” he looked around at the bodies on the floor.

“How many are there normally, Todd?” he didn’t answer.  He continued to stare at the dead around them.  Marching over, Valerie grabbed the front of his armour, lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the monitors behind.  “Look at me, Todd,” his eyes met hers, the pupils completely surrounded by a sea of white.  “How many guards per shift?” she asked slowly.

“Thirty, there’s thirty.”

“Is that the same for all of the levels?”

“No, no.  We had more for, for you.  Normally fifteen.”

She let him go and turned to the Spartans.  “OK, I counted twenty-one dead and our friend here.  That leaves eight.  Anyone got anything different?”

“No, Valerie.”  Briseis replied with a firm shake of her head.  “You are correct in your count.”

“Good, we’ve got eight guards through that door who are going to be ready for us.  I’m point, you three back me up.  Todd,” she turned to the Rebel guard.  “Are the nerve bands turned off?” she held her own wrist up for emphasis and he shook his head.  “Can you do that before those outside realise what’s going on?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” he turned to the console.  “You hit us so fast, no one had the chance to hit their panic buttons.”  Todd’s fingers punching the buttons in front of him as he talked.  “Done.  Only this floor, though.”

“That’s fine, now you’re going to open that door on my command.”  He nodded furiously and turned back to the console.  “Alright, ladies, let’s do this.”  Valerie crouched down to one side of the door.  The Spartans moved expertly into positions around it to take them out of the line of fire.

“On my mark, Todd.  Three, two, one, mark!”  Todd was quick and the door slid open right on her last word.  Mag rounds came careening through.  Valerie waited a couple of seconds for the shots to stop.  The person behind the gun made the mistake of emptying her clip before seeing a target.  With a rough idea of her target’s location, from the angle of the shots, Valerie dove through the door.

A guard stood frantically trying to reload his pistol in the middle of the corridor.  The burst from Valerie’s Pulse rifle took him squarely in the chest.  It blasted him back off his feet.  Another guard began to come out of a doorway behind.  The flying body sent him tumbling to the ground.  Before he could recover, Valerie’s second burst ripped into his side.  The angle was awkward and it wasn’t enough to kill him.  He wouldn’t be getting up any time soon, though.  Valerie ran forward, her eyes scanning for targets.

It didn’t take long to winkle out the remaining guards.  Only the first two were up for a fight.  The others scattered and tried to hide.  They surrendered when they found hiding from Valerie and three Spartan warriors was not a possibility.  The only way in or out of the floor was through the single lift shaft.  A failsafe had activated and a blast door was now sealing the entrance, stopping the prisoners from leaving.  It wasn’t the strongest such door Valerie had come across, but it was enough to stop them.  A quick search revealed nothing able to cut through it.  As a precaution, Valerie left two of the Spartans with their rifles pointing at the door and headed back to the Guardroom.

Quin was in there studying the monitors when Valerie arrived.  Picking two of the prisoners who held rifles from the gun racks, Valerie pointed back the way she had come.

“You two.  There are six guards out there.  Get them stripped of their armour and secure them in one of the offices.  Make sure you clear out the room first.”  The two women looked at her a little wide-eyed before nodding.  “Oh, if any harms come to them, you answer to me.  Understood?”  Valerie finished firmly and from their expressions, she knew they had gotten the message.

“What can we see, Quin?”  Valerie asked the rebel.

“You were right.  All hades is breaking loose out there.”

“Just before you attacked,” Todd said from where he stood next to Quin.  “We got a message the prison was under attack and would be boarded.”  He’d had a bit of time to gather himself and looked less in shock than before. 

“What were your instructions?”  Valerie asked.

“Secure our floor, hole up and wait for back up.”

“As far as we can tell,” Quin said.  “That’s what they did on all the other floors, but we can’t be sure.  Someone has been smart and cut us out of their com net.  Todd can’t even talk to any of the other floors.  The lifts have been shut down.  I think they plan to just leave us here until things get sorted out.”

Valerie nodded in agreement.  “It makes sense.  They’ve also dropped a blast door over the lift entrance.  Todd, is there any cutting equipment here we can use?”

He shook his head.  “No, it’s all kept up on the admin floor, at the top of the wing.  If prisoners do overpower the guards, the plan was to seal the floor to stop them getting out.”

“OK, we’ll leave that for the moment.  I need to know what’s going on first.  What exactly did they say to you about the attack?”

“Here, I’ll play it for you.  This came from Captain Percival.  She’s our shift’s head of security.”  He tapped some commands on his armour’s wristcomp and it played the recorded voice clearly.

“What does that tell us?”  Quin asked.  “It must be the Rebellion.  Who else could be doing this?”

“An enemy of unknown capabilities...”  Valerie said quietly and smiled.

“What?” Quin asked.

“What have the Rebellion got that could crack open the Rock?”

The woman shook her head.  “I don’t know, it’s not my area.  They wouldn’t tell me before sending me in here.”

“From your description of the defences, they would need a battleship.  I doubt you’ve got one of them squirreled away.”

“Are you saying it’s not the Rebellion?” Todd asked.

Valerie shook her head.  “Not exactly.  I think one of my friends is out there, though I would love to know who’s doing the flying.  Can we get any signal from outside the Rock?”

It was Quin’s turn to shake her head.  “Not with the coms the guards have and nothing in this lot,” she waved to the monitoring equipment, “includes coms.”

“We’re connected to the central computer though, surely.”

“We would be if it wasn’t completely locked out.”

“It was the first thing to go down,” Todd clarified.  “I was in here when it all started.  The lockdown kicked in sealing Wing Five, that’s the crew quarters, and then everything else went.  We’ve only got local control.  Nothing outside this floor will talk to us.”

“How did they shut the lifts down?”  Valerie asked.

“The simplest way possible,” Quin explained.  “They unplugged it.”

“OK, then.  That leaves us safe but cut off.  Let’s see if we can open up communication to the attackers.  Do we have a message board we can access?”

“I don’t know,” she looked over to Todd.  “Do you have anything like that?”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, the gaming systems have those.”

“Bring it up.”  Valerie ordered.

Stepping in, Todd tapped in a few commands and a menu of games came up on the screen, many of them Valerie recognised from those the prisoners were issued on their datapads.

“Which one do you want to use?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter, any of them will do.”

“OK,” he shrugged and a text box popped up on the screen in front of him.

“Good, now I need you to type this.  ‘It could be Sneaker, but my money’s on Hanna.  How about you let me in on the plan?’”

“Come on, Valerie.”  Quin said as Todd typed the message in.  “Even if that’s one of your people out there, they’ll never be able to notice two sentences in all that data.”

“Three years ago, I would have agreed with you, but you haven’t seen these people do what they do best.”