Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike (28 page)

Too bad, boyo,”
he thought of the young
hero. 
I stood at your side when you married, now you can do the same for
me.
  The other people serving as Men of Honor, nine of them, stood to the
side of Walborski.  They included three cabinet Ministers, two Admirals, and a
Field Marshal, as well as three other nobles, including Major General Sir
Samuel Baggett.  One of the
men
was Lord T’lisha, the Phlistaran
Minister of Security, looking splendid in the formal clothing of his own
people, cloak over his shoulders.  The Minister looked as uncomfortable as the
Best Man did, though for different reasons.  He was in charge of all security
services in the Empire, and had to have been informed of the possibility of an
attack. 
And surely he wishes he were in the command center.  Or, knowing
the old barbarian, with one of his people’s great axes, charging and enemy,
just like his ancestors.

The Emperor looked up and around for just a
moment, his eyes taking in the hundreds of drones that filled the air.  Some
were from the news services, getting high definition 3D images of the
ceremony.  Some were from the security services, scanning every face in the cathedral,
sniffing the air for particles that might have DNA samples, then triangulating
on any that might be of interest.  And there were drones tasked with knocking
down anything in the air that tried to get too close to the couple.

Sean walked to his place, aware of all the eyes
on him, waiting for the moment when they would all be drawn elsewhere, as his
were at this moment.  The music started, and Jennifer walked down the aisle,
her own proud looking father holding her arm, her ten Maids of Honor in a line
behind her.  And, just as Sean predicted, every eye left him, drawn to the
radiant beauty who was walking forward to join her life to his.

“You do have the ring?” he asked Cornelius out
of the corner of his mouth as the procession walked down the aisle.  “Tell me
you have it, so I don’t have to order you on a suicide mission to the Caca home
world.”

“I have it, your Majesty,” said the Ranger,
patting one pocket, then another, then acting like he was about to panic.

Sean almost burst out laughing in a relief of
tension as the young man reached into the first pocket he had pretended to
check and pulled out the box.

“I guess the Cacas are safe, for now,” said
Cornelius.  His face broke out in a smile, and Sean almost broke out into
laughter again.

Straighten up
, he thought as Jennifer walked up to
stand beside him. 
This is big boy stuff now, and you need to act it.

The party all faced the Patriarch, who started
to recite the ceremony that had been old when humankind left the Earth.  “My
brothers and sisters,” intoned the deeply resonate voice of the man who had
served in the priesthood for over a hundred and seventy years, rising to the
pinnacle of his profession.  “We are gathered together, in the sight of God, to
celebrate the joining of two people into one.  Sean and Jennifer have
proclaimed their love for each other in their betrothal, and now they will
affirm that love with their joining.  Let us pray.”

The ceremony seemed to fly by to Sean’s
perception, while proceeding with agonizing slowness at the same time.  There
were the two readings from the book that had guided the Christian faith for
thousands of years.  That book, no longer considered the inerrant word of God
by the space faring race of humans, was still considered the basis of the
religion.  One reading was from the Old Testament, and Sean was not even sure
what it had been about when it was finished.  The second was the timeless story
of Jesus and the wedding feast, and the changing of the water into wine.

Did any of this ever really happen?
thought the Emperor as
the words were read.  He had not been the most religious of adults, though
raised in the church, like all in his family.  Appearances had to be
maintained, and so he had attended services whenever possible.  At this time
his belief or disbelief was not really all that important.  Many of his
subjects believed, not all in the way of the Reformed Catholic Church, but in
traditions close enough, even if that similarity was only that they had also
originated on the planet of the species’ birth.

And then came the part that everyone was
waiting for.  Jennifer’s father symbolically gave his daughter to the man who
would be her husband and protector, the rings were produced, and it was time to
say the words.

“I, Sean Ogen Lee Romanov, take this woman,
Jennifer Conway, to be my lawful wedded wife.  To have and to hold, in equal
partnership in all that I do, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in
sickness and in health, till death do us part.”  Sean slid the ring on her
finger, then presented his own left hand for her to hold.

“I, Jennifer Conway, take this man, Sean Ogen
Lee Romanov, to be my lawful wedded husband.  To have and to hold, in equal
partnership in all that I do, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in
sickness and in health, till death do us part.”  She slid the ring onto his
finger, symbolizing their joining.

“Then in the name of God, the Almighty, through
his son, Jesus Christ, I name you man and wife.  May no man break asunder what
God has joined.” 

Those last words had always struck Sean as
silly, since the divorce process in the Empire, and even in the Church, was
simplicity incarnate.  But looking at his bride, his heart beating faster, all
he could think was
we can make this last a lifetime.

“You may kiss the bride,” said the Patriarch,
whose own wife was looking on from the chorus with a beaming smile.

Sean wasted no time in taking Jennifer into an
embrace, and kissing her tenderly for all to see.  The kiss went out all over
the news nets, and hundreds of billions of citizens saw that, for the first
time in over a year, a couple again sat the thrones of the Empire.  And with
that couple, could an heir be far behind?

“I present to the congregation, the Emperor
Sean, and the Empress Jennifer.  May they share their love through the decades,
and may that love be brought forth in their wise rule.”

The crowd erupted into a deafening roar that
lasted for minutes.  It quickly died off as the Patriarch again spoke, and the
ceremony continued with the Eucharist.

Sean and his new Empress walked back up the
aisle while flowers flew through the air.  The doors opened, and the double
line on Fleet, Army and Marine officers appeared, stretched from doorway to the
stairs, forty meters away.  All held swords overhead, forming an archway of
blades for the couple to walk through.  The pair had taken the first step
outside the church when something exploded off in the distance, and the angry
humming buzz of particle beams reached through the air over the screams of the
crowd.

Chapter
Eighteen

When
the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

Winston Churchill

CAPITULUM, JEWEL. 
DECEMBER 12
^TH
, 1001.

 “Everyone ready?” asked Detective Lieutenant
Ishuhi Rykio over the com.  The acknowledgements started coming back quickly
from all the elements of the operation.  Higher ranking members of the
department were also on the link, monitoring.  But the operation was his, and
he meant to strike hard.

The Lieutenant looked over his dispositions on
his link.  He had snipers on every rooftop, teams of SWAT in heavy armor waited
across the street from every entrance, while other troopers crouched on those
same rooftops, ready to spring into action.  There were even teams set up in
every known underground passage beneath the building. 
And we scanned down
there thoroughly
, thought Rykio.  If there was a still hidden tunnel down
there, it wasn’t because the police hadn’t tried to find it.

OK,
he thought, taking one last look at the
building, then back at the team behind him.  “Go, go, go,” he said into the
com, running into the street with ten other men on his tail.

Everyone was dressed in combat armor, the light
type worn by police during raids, and much like the Army version used by their
light infantry divisions.  It enhanced their strength by about three times, and
gave them protection from moderate sized projectile weapons, and just a touch
of laser fire.  The com and sensor suites were almost on par with the much
larger medium and heavy suits worn by the Army and Marines.  The two men
closest to the Lieutenant were wearing the same type of heavy suits used by the
SWAT teams.  Their function was a little different than that of the other cops.

“Take it out,” shouted Ishuhi over the com,
pointing at the heavy warehouse door.

The two men in the heavy suits ran flat out
into the door, the strength of their armor smashing the steel alloy barrier off
its hinges and into the room.  They followed after, pulling their laser rifles
off their backs and sweeping the large room with their light enhancing sights.

A shot rang out, a chemically propelled weapon,
such as used by many civilians, including members of the criminal underworld. 
The round sparked off a wall, and one of the heavy suits fired his laser into
the area where he had determined that the bullet originated.  A scream echoed
across the mostly empty room, and more shots followed.

“This is the police,” yelled Ishuhi over his
suit speakers, feeding into all the other suits of the raiding party.  “We have
this building surrounded, and you are outgunned.  Drop your weapons, now, or we
will be forced to fire on you.” 
First with stunners
, he thought
hopefully. 
I would rather have this crew alive than dead.  Or at least with
intact brains, where we can get something from them.

We give up,” called out one of the men in the
shadows.  A chemically powered assault rifle clattered across the floor, out
into the light.  Pistols followed, until a dozen weapons were laying on the
plasticrete floor.”

“Move into the light with your hands up,” called
Rykio over the speakers.  “Fingers laced behind your heads.”

Men and women started to appear, coming into
the light, and the Lieutenant began to think this might be a fairly bloodless
operation after all.  He was still thinking that when a pair of particle beams,
angry red, came lancing out of the dark to strike one of the men in a heavy
suit.

The suit could withstand the hit of a particle
beam rifle for several seconds before the armor failed.  Two beams struck at
the chest, within a centimeter of each other.  In less than a second they had
eaten a hole through the armor and vaporized the thorax of the man within.

“Shit,” yelled the Lieutenant, dropping to the
floor with his stunner out.  “Bring them all down.”

The room filled with the sound and vibrations
of sonics, and the people who had already surrendered fell limply to the
floor.  That didn’t stop the pair of particle beams from lancing out again. 
One hit a wall and burned a deep runnel into the plasticrete.  The other hit a
cop in the arm, slicing through the alloy and vaporizing the limb underneath. 
The cop fell to the floor, screaming in agony.

At least he’s alive
, thought Rykio,
checking the man’s status on his HUD.  It would take some weeks to grow back
the arm, but when it was done, he would be good as new.  A thought flashed
through the Detective’s mind of the days when that was not true, and losing a
limb, or several, was considered a tragic loss.

“Open fire on those people with the particle
beams,” he ordered over the com.  “Full powered lasers.”

A moment later the lasers lanced out as well,
visible through the air that was cloudy with the smoke of vaporized biomass. 
The police swept the beams through the darkness that hid the criminal gunmen,
several moving at ankle level, a couple more at waist, and still others at
chest level.  One particle beam came back, barely missing one of the cops. 
Another sweep of lasers and the return fire stopped.

“Hit that area with some stunners,” ordered the
Lieutenant.  He fired the grenade launcher under his own rifle, loaded with a
sonic stun grenade, which impacted along with several others in the corner.  By
the light of the flash the grenades put out he could see a pair of bodies, one
laying at an angle that showed it was missing a head.

“Cover us,” he told the rest of the cops,
designating one to move up with him.  Police doctrine called for them to stick
together.  Rykio was having none of that shit.  He had been a Naval Commando,
and in his experience it was always better to keep the possible targets
separated.  He waved the other man to the far side of the room while he moved
to the other, then they both walked toward the downed criminals, in some cases
stepping over the prone bodies of the stunned humans.

“And these aren’t human,” he said over the com
as he looked down at the headless being.  The skin on the neck looked human,
but the next layer of flesh under that didn’t.  And the spine looked alien in
the extreme.  “We have shape shifters here.  Everyone be careful.” 
And I’m
calling the Fleet in on this one
, he thought, linking into the Naval
Intelligence circuit and sending out the call.

“We have some people trying to leave the
building,” called out one of the rooftop teams.

“Try to take them down with stunners,” he told
the team leader.  “If they don’t go down immediately, kill them.  And don’t let
any escape.  They might be shape shifters.”

As he received the acknowledgement he waved the
rest of his team forward.  Men moved out to search the warehouse, while others
secured the criminals with magnetic restraints.

“Over here,” yelled one of the men, and Rykio
ran to see what was going on.  “There’s a door here, sir,” said the officer,
pointing at what looked like a very heavy barrier in the frame.

Rykio tried to open the door, but it would
budge.  “Get over here and see if you can bust this down,” he told his
remaining heavy suit man.

After two minutes of hammering on the door it
was readily apparent that it was not opening by force.  Lasers burned into the
metal alloy, which was similar to what was used on warship hulls.  They didn’t
burn through enough, and the door stood here and mocked them.

“We need demolitions in here,” he called out
over the com.  “Now.”

*    
*     *

Prime was having trouble believing that the
humans had found him.  After all, hadn’t his people only gone out late at
night, being very careful to make sure that they were not followed.  Or at
least his own kind had, but could the same be said for the humans he had
hired?  They were only criminals, after all, only in it for the money.  And not
the brightest of people.

My mobile units should be striking at their
Emperor and his reproductive unit now.  If they are successful, this Empire
will have been decapitated.  If not, we will still have had an effect on them
that they will have trouble recovering from.  Now, I must make sure there are
more of us here, on their capital world.

The twenty growths attached to his body were
not ready yet.  Half of them were still in the early stages of formation, no
larger than human children, missing even the limbs they needed to walk.  The
other half were about a day from being ready. 
But they must be used now, so
I can guarantee that my kind survives here.  One or more of them can become a
Prime.

The Prime sent a thought through his body into
the half of the mobiles who were almost ready, waking their brains, turning
control of their bodies to the newly awakened consciousnesses.  The mobiles
started to move, pulling themselves away from the Prime, ripping the last
strands of biomass holding them to their progenitor.

Go
, signalled the Prime to his progeny through a
release of pheromones. 
Leave this place.  Seek dark places, mature, and
grow more of you.

The mobiles started for the door, looking like
incomplete humans.  They would be spotted immediately if they were to go out
into the open.  They could only survive by hiding, until they could capture
some of the genetic code of a human and make themselves over.

The creatures had almost matured mentally, with
the capability of thinking for themselves.  As soon as they were through the
door they scattered, heading into the sub-basement, where half a dozen tunnels
led from the complex.

Defend me
, the Prime ordered the smaller, less
complete mobiles.  Those creatures, with the mental capacity of a human toddler,
pulled themselves away as well, breaking off, then crawling with their
partially developed arms toward the walls of the room.  Reaching them, they
scrambled up the surfaces and onto the ceiling, secreting a resinous compound
to hold them to the surface.  There they waited for a target to appear.

*    
*     *

“Fire in the hole,” yelled out the demolitions
specialist, a woman from the Fleet who had come with the force that had
responded to Rykio’s call.  With a bright flash the door blew off its hinges and
out into the warehouse.   Smoke swirled for a moment, then cleared, revealing
another room.

“Hold up,” order Rykio, reaching out his hand
to stop his men from advancing.  “You guys, stay up here and make sure nothing
comes out.”

The Lieutenant followed the other people
through the hole, a team of Naval Commandos sent by the Fleet, eleven in all. 
Rykio, also augmented as a former commando, made twelve, and the men moved
quickly and silently into the room.

One of the commandos waved and pointed, and
half the men turned that way while the others kept up their observation of the
other surfaces in the room.  The doors looked like a lift, something that was
on the schematic of the building that Rykio called up on his HUD.

“This leads us where we want to go,” he said to
the Lt. Commander in charge of the team.  Since Rykio was a full Commander in
the reserve, he was in charge of the party, and the other officer nodded and
waved one of his men forward.

A few moments later the doors slid open,
revealing an empty shaft that plunged down about ten meters, ending on the top
of the lift.  Two commandos jumped the short, to them, distance down to the top
of the lift, then opened the top hatch to go through. 
It looks clear,
sent one of the commandos over a com link.  Two more commandos leapt down, then
another, until all of them were through the car and into the basement on the
other side of its door.

The men fanned out and searched the basement. 
At one point a man was found, holding his hands out and making sure that they
knew he was unarmed.  “It was only a job,” said the man, stammering.  “I didn’t
know what kind of a monster I was working for.  You gotta believe me.”

“Who the hell are you?” asked Rykio, walking up
to the man whom the commandos had already put restraints on.  “And what do you
mean, monsters?”

“That damned thing in the subbasement.  When I
found out what it was doing, I wanted out, but I saw what the damned thing did
to my buddy, Gavin.  No one should be torn apart like that.”

“And where is this, thing?” asked Rykio, not
really interested in what happened to Gavin.

“In the room, under the subbasement,” stammered
the man.  “Go into the subbasement and look for another lift at the northeast
corner.  It goes down about fifty meters, then it’s a maze down there.”

Police started coming down into the room, SWAT
troopers in heavy suits.  The backup that the Lieutenant had requested.  “Let’s
go, people.  We’ve got a monster to hunt.”

It was easy enough to get into the subbasement,
as the lift they had found in the basement went down there.  Two men rode the
lift down, then the rest jumped down onto the roof a pair at a time.  The other
lift was a bit more difficult to find, hidden as it was behind a false wall.  A
couple of the commandos carried deep radar sets, and after a complete sweep of
the northeast corner the door was found and pulled open.