Pride x Familiar (52 page)

I caught sight of Maya moving quickly toward the
east side of the cafeteria.

*
Let’s hurry
, she called out.

I looked down at Haruka. “Sorry, I have to go.
This is going to hurt a little.”

Rina suddenly called out to all of us. *
Wait!
We can’t leave them like this. They’re barely staying conscious
under so much weight. It’s six point seven gees inside this
building alone.

*
We don’t have time for them
, Maya
retorted.

Rina refused to give up. *
At least let me
take down the gravity generators.

Maya stopped walking, then spun round to face
the girl. *
How?

I watched Rina raise her gun-blade. The black
mist that usually preceded a Fragment’s appearance and
disappearance surrounded it. When the mist faded, the gun-blade was
more like cannon-blade. However, Rina had no trouble holding it up
for Maya and the rest of us to see.

*
Won’t you let me try?
she asked.

Maya debated yay or nay for a few seconds.
*
Constance, can Severin tell Rina where the effect-field
generators are for the school cafeteria?

*
Yeah, I think so.

*
Rina wants to shoot them with her Fragment
cannon.

I looked at Maya. *
Do you want us to go
ahead?

Maya shook her head. *
No, we stay
together.

We had to wait for Severin to give Rina the
location of the nearest generator. Constance said it was straight
down the middle of the atrium, buried around ten feet under the
ground floor.

Rina walked to the balcony and lifted the cannon
over the railing. She took aim at the floor three levels below.

*
Rina, what about the students on the ground
floor?

*
The closest one is twenty seven feet away.
That’s good enough. Don’t worry. I won’t hit them.

Motes of light began to dance around the tip of
the tapered barrel. The weapon looked like something that belonged
on a tank, not in the arms of slender girl dressed in a school
uniform.

But Rina’s arms were steady, and when she fired,
the beam of light would have burned my eyes had I not looked
away.

A loud screech filled the air and a heartbeat
later a boom resounded throughout the interior of the cafeteria.
The floor shook with the strength of a small quake. Students
screamed and cried out, but Rina ignored them. The particles of
light dance again around the barrel, and she fired a second shot at
the floor. This time the boom was quieter and the ground shook a
little less. Then I heard a second explosion, and felt a shockwave
ran through the cafeteria. The air shimmered as it raced by. It
brushed my barrier-field with enough force to make me stagger.

I noticed quickly the pressure on my
barrier-field had eased. The simulated gravity generated by the
effect-field emitters buried under the cafeteria must have dropped
in output.

Some of the students were looking around slowly,
and some were even struggling to sit up.

*
That’s one,
Rina reported.
*But I
need to go outside to snipe the second and third generators that
are buried in the north and south courtyards.

Maya asked, *
What’s the gravity down
to?

*Around four point four gees.

Rina started walking along the circular length
of the cafeteria level, heading for the south side of the
building.

*
Rina, where are you going?
Maya
asked.

*
Maybe I can snipe the south generator in the
courtyard from the window. I won’t need to head outside.

Maya complained. *
We don’t have time for
this. That shot is going to alert Crescent’s team. And that
starship is watching is from overhead.

*
Just one more shot, Maya
, Rina
stated.

*
Rina, I’m ordering you to stand down. Follow
my orders.

The girl was walking toward me so I had no
choice but to block her way.

*
Rina wait a moment,
I said, then looked
at Maya. *
You and Jaxon go ahead. I’ll stay with her. We’ll
catch up after this last shot.

Rina blinked, maybe surprised I’d taken her
side.

On the other hand, Maya was clearly annoyed. She
looked up at the starship floating menacingly overhead.

Jaxon waded into the situation. *
Maya, let
her do it. If it’ll help these Aventis a little more, then let her
do it.

Rina added, *
Let me make the shot. Crescent
already knows we’re here. They can see right through the ceiling
into the cafeteria.

A few moments went by before Maya retorted low
in our minds. *
What good is my being team leader if you won’t
follow my orders? Or do you plan to follow them only when they suit
you?

She glared at all of us. *
You want to help
them? The best way is to get to that hacker and have them reset the
gravity field emitters back to normal. And we’re wasting
time.

She turned and walked in a hurry toward the east
exit of the cafeteria.

Jaxon yelled out to her. *
Maya—wait!

*
Jaxon, go,
I said to him.

He didn’t wait to be told twice. He ran across
the cafeteria’s circular floor. *
You guys catch up as soon as
you can.

Rina walked around me and hurried over to the
glass wall facing south. However, she waited until I used my bladed
gauntlets to cut the trans-steel glass and make an opening for her.
The heavy winds from the storm raging around the starship blew in
through the ragged hole I’d cut. Rina forced her cannon-blade
through the opening, took aim and then fired.

Light danced around the barrel tip for a few
seconds before a narrow purple beam of light burned through the air
and the courtyard below. I squinted and watched as a cone shaped
crater was burned into the courtyard.

Rina fired a second time, and I saw secondary
flash followed by concentric ripples flowing outwards through the
air. The shockwave rocked the floor of the cafeteria.

When the ground settled I asked, *
What’s the
gravity down to now?

*
Around two point seven gees
, she
replied. *
It varies across the cafeteria.

I pursed my lips for a moment. *
That will
have to do. We can delay any longer.

Rina argued. *
The effect-fields from both
courtyards overlap, so this only helps about half the
cafeteria.

*
It will do for now. The sooner we get to
that Hacker the sooner we can address the situation. So let’s
go.

Rina stared at me through narrowed eyes. *
No,
there’s one more thing we can do.

She walked away from me and toward the balcony
overlooking the atrium in the middle of the cafeteria.

*
Rina?

She hefted the cannon-blade, aiming upwards at
the atrium’s ceiling – aiming at the visible starship.

Light particles began to swirl in a raging
maelstrom a foot from the barrel. This was different from what I’d
seen before. In heartbeats the vortex grew to a span of several
feet. The loud screech became an earsplitting one. I tried covering
my ears as I yelled out to her through the Fragment Link.

*
Rina—don’t. If you fire on them they’ll fire
back.

*
Not if I make this shot count.

*
Stop it!

The swirling vortex suddenly contracted and was
sucked into the cannon’s barrel.

A millisecond later the weapon fired, and a
tight beam of violet light connected the cannon to the atrium
ceiling. The beam burned through the trans-steel as though it was
paper and struck the reaction shields protecting the Crimson
Crescent starship.

For a second the vessel’s shields held it back,
flaring brightly as they did.

But it was only for a second.

The beam pierced through and then struck the
starship’s narrow, wedge shaped prow.

Through my squinting eyes I saw the skin of the
ship glow deep violet then crimson before bursting apart.

I didn’t realize it until later that many of the
students in the cafeteria were crying out in fear and panic.

I was too entranced by the sight of the
starship’s prow billowing smoke. The ship’s auto-repair functions
must have kicked in because the smoke died out quickly. But the
damage was visible.

*
Rina…what the Hell have you done?

*
Now it’s their move,
she declared softly
in my head.

The black mist surrounded the cannon-blade, and
a short while later it returned to the smaller gun-blade form.

I began fearing the worst, and concentrated on
strengthening my barrier-field. If they fired down on us, how long
would my barrier hold?

All around me, students were struggling to their
knees.

Struggling to get away.

But if they left the confines of the cafeteria,
they would once again run into the crushing gravity fields
afflicting the rest of the building.

Rina had made a difficult situation worse for
them.

*
Maya,
I called out.
*We have a small
problem.

*
What did she do? What the Hell did Rina
do?

So Maya had heard my cry through the link.
*
She fired on Crimson Crescent’s starship and blew a hole in its
hull.

*
Gods damn her.

I swallowed and hesitantly asked, *
How’s your
end?

*
Actually, we’re a little busy so get your
ass over here now!

*
Busy?

*
We need backup, Caprice. These guys are
tough as Hell, and they’re just playing with us.

So the fight had been joined.

I looked up and saw the starship swing away. It
was still hovering over the academy, but from its new position it
would be difficult for Rina to make the shot. She would need to
find another vantage point.

Something black fell away from the ship.

I wondered if I’d just seen someone jump down
from it.

I didn’t have to wonder for long.

To the east side of the cafeteria a loud boom
resounded and a massive hole appeared in its ceiling. With gravity
around two to three gees the debris rained down with added
momentum. Aventis students crawled away as best they could, many
fleeing into the exit corridor. Behind them, and through the
billowing cloud of pulverized permacrete, a dark shadow dropped
down to the floor with an impressive thud.

Then the shadow stood up and I saw it was an
impossibly large man, covered in a skin-suit from head-to-toe,
wearing a helm much like a warrior from holovid role-playing
game.

Rina and I reacted immediately, taking a combat
stance. The blades on my gauntlets extended to their full length,
and I concentrated my will on the Valkyrie Armor, urging it to
strengthen the barrier-field.

*
Maya, we have company here in the cafeteria.
I don’t think we’ll be there any time soon.

There was a delay before I heard a reply.

*
I understand…do your…do your best.

I swallowed. Without taking my eyes off the huge
man facing us from across the open atrium, I said, “Rina, if this
guy doesn’t kick our asses first, I swear I’m going to kick yours
when we’re done.”

In my peripheral vision I saw Rina shoot me a
nervous glance.

I shook my head slowly.

“You are so dead, Rina.
So dead
.”

#

(Alessandro)

I stared in awe and disbelief at what I was
seeing.

From inside a school building, probably the
white donut known as the cafeteria, someone had fired a bright
lancing beam of light into the Crescent vessel.

The ship took the hit amid a flash of light,
smoke and fire, then shied away. It put an extra hundred feet or so
of distance between itself and the cafeteria below.

The beam that struck it was too strong to a hand
held weapon used by the Special Intervention Enforcers. Even a
shoulder cannon couldn’t achieve a tenth as much. That meant one of
the Familiars had used a Fragment or Artifact against Crescent.

I could only think of one person.

Rina Sayen.

The girl bonded with the Artifact Brahmastra – a
gun-blade with the ability to augment into an incredibly powerful
quantum reaction cannon. It was a weapon that could strike a target
tens of thousands of meters away with millimeter precision.

Her profile described her as a follower, not a
leader, so I believed someone had instructed her to take the
shot.

Maya Khayman? Perhaps. I doubted anyone else
could have convinced Rina Sayen to fire upon a starship.

But what if I was wrong? Well, the only way to
know would be in a post battle debrief – provided anyone survived
to attend it.

I replayed the scene from various angles as
recorded by the holocams.

Yes, in response to that shot someone had
definitely dropped out of the ship and into the cafeteria.

I felt utterly helpless sitting in my office.
All I could do was watch, with no power to affect the proceedings.
With that ship floating overhead, the area around Galatea Academy
had been evacuated, but the school was still full of students. And
with the underground passages locked down, there was no way to
evacuate without being seen. Making matters worse the effect-field
generators were outputting a simulated gravity in excess of six
gees within the academy grounds.

So for now a small army of Enforcers was camped
around the perimeter of the school, keeping to within a district
block of Galatea Academy.

That was as much as the Enforcer Division could
do.

And Special Interventions wasn’t faring any
better.

A report had come in a minute ago.