Shades of Gray (36 page)

“Enough!” said Kusac. “Turn off your virus, Valden. Give control back to the AI, and then we can change the codes.”

“How’d you know about that?” demanded the youth, turning around so quickly he almost dislodged Kusac’s helmet from the console.

“Take it easy, youngling,” said Khadui, grabbing it before it could fall.

Kusac let out a growl of annoyance. “Just focus on what you’re supposed to be doing! I’m going into the guardroom to contact Kaid and the HALO team.”

 

“We’re on,” Kaid said quietly over the Command channel to all eight Fire Packs. “Form up with the rest of your Pack now. Aerial support should be here any time to give us cover.”

Can you alert the captives, Kusac?
Kaid sent.

Will do,
came the terse reply, then his mental presence was gone.

Kaid sighed and turned to Carrie just as a large dark shape came lumbering toward them through the driving rain.

“I with you, Carrie,” said a well-remembered voice in their headsets. “Kaid says I watch your back. Better I do than last time. Nothing will I let near you,” the young Sumaan said firmly as he settled his large bulk on the ground.

“Ashay!” she exclaimed, reaching out to put her gloved hand on the knee of the large suited figure beside her as the reptilian Sumaan bent his mobile neck down to her level.

Stay with him at all times, Dzinae,
sent Kaid.
He’s heavily armored and can look out for both you and himself if need be. I’ll stay with you whenever possible.

“Toueesut, Heokee, let me know when you start the main gate assault.”

“Aye, Kaid,” was all the reply Toueesut made.

Kaid rose to his feet, making sure that his small team was beside him. At least while they’d waited for word from Kusac, he’d been able to orient them on the exact part of the City wall he wanted to penetrate. They’d waited out the delay by making their way to a point only a few hundred yards from the fifteen-foot-high wall.

“Packs Two through Eight, move out on my six,” he ordered. “Missiles to the front with me.”

You’ll be with me if I need Ashay to breach the wall, Carrie. Remember to keep clear of our armored tails,
he added.

Aye,
she sent.

 

Carrie held her heavy assault rifle close as she followed behind Kaid. Around her she was aware of the shapes of the others and the comforting bulk of the Sumaan fighter on her right-hand side. Though nervous, she wasn’t unduly so. They’d been in less clear-cut combat situations before. This time she knew who the enemy was, and she was well armored.

Kaid called a halt just short of the high wall, ordering them to hunker down once more and wait.

The order to advance came suddenly. “Heavy units to the front. Take down that wall.”

“Aye,” said Zsafar and Shartoh, running forward with their missile launchers. Another four people joined them. Moments later, a section of the wall erupted in a fountain of debris that was quickly dissipated by the rain.

“I go!” said Ashay, almost before Kaid gave him the order. “Carrie stay here.”

She watched the youth bound across the gap between them and the irregular hole in the wall, his heavy hind legs propelling him forward in leaps and bounds.
Like a cross between a dinosaur and a puppy,
she thought.

More like a large and friendly velociraptor,
sent Jo.

Grinning, she turned to look at the other woman and almost missed Ashay’s shoulder ramming the side of the wall while his tail delivered a mighty blow to the other side, opening the gap up to one they could now easily get through.

“I didn’t realize they were so powerful!”

“Oh, yes, and still some growing I have to do,” said Ashay cheerfully as he shook the debris off his suit and trotted back to them.

“Good work, Ashay,” said Kaid as he passed him. “Let’s get in there. Maaz’ih, you’re on point with me.”

She followed at the rear, stepping through the gap into the City grounds just before Ashay did. Through her visor she could just make out the outline of the domed force field glowing around the Palace and its walls, and the dark shapes of the surrounding city.

“Buildings to the left,” murmured Garras.

“Animal shelters,” said Maaz’ih. “Beyond them is the farmhouse.”

“Check it out,” said Kaid. “See if there are any lights showing.”

“None, Captain,” Maaz’ih said a few minutes later.

“Let’s move,” Kaid said.

“I’m reading a power source ahead,” said Zsafar suddenly. “Looks like a gun turret.”

“Maaz’ih?” Kaid demanded.

“I know nothing about them, Captain. They must be new. No lights in the animal shelters.”

“Or very ancient,” muttered Zsafar, continuing to fiddle with his scanner. “Power source is almost depleted, and I’m picking up an underground elevation system under it. My guess is they’ve been buried for a long time.”

“Is it functional?” Kaid demanded, halting them.

“If it were, the farmhouse would be a ruin,” Zsafar said dryly.

On it,
she replied, already reaching out for him.
Not under the main AI control, he says. They can’t access that network, doesn’t even show up.

“Damn,” Kaid muttered. “Zhookah, take it out.”

“Wraiths to Jeggets, making first sweep now,”
said a voice in Carrie’s helmet.
“Targets identified by markers. We have two, repeat two targets in red zone and two in the field.”

“Copy,” said Kaid.
So that’s what Tirak was up to,
he sent to Carrie.
Painting the turrets for our fighters.

Seems like,
she agreed.
Who gave him the orders, though?

Ahead of them, the dark shape of the gun turret seemed to crumple as the missile hit it.

“First strike on its way,” Kaid told them over the Command channel. “Time to head on up and join the party.”

They were still a good fifty feet away from the broken generator when the lasers on the fighters hit it. It erupted with a satisfying
crump
, leaving a small pillar of debris hanging momentarily in the air. To their right and left, other missiles were exploding around the edges of the force field or actually against it.

With any luck they’ll overload it, and it will shut down,
Kaid sent to her.

“They know we’re here now,” said Maaz’ih, his tone one of satisfaction.

“Packs, disperse to your allotted targets,” Kaid ordered as they began to advance on the Palace walls.

A dark shadow darted across the surface of the force field, guns streaming plasma bursts at the generator on the corner to their left. Chunks of soil and rock were propelled into the air from the shots that missed; then suddenly the whole corner of the wall bellied outward before collapsing. The force field flickered, the blue-white glow dimming then brightening again as the field compensated for yet another missing generator.

“Generator 1 is down,” said Rezac. “Field is defaulting to a straight line between 2 and 7.”

“Alpha One to Jeggets. Generator 6 is also down. New targets are 2 and 7. Repeat, concentrate efforts on 2 and 7, and the force field will collapse.”

Kezule
, she thought, aware of Kaid changing his plans even as he absorbed the new information.

“Copy. Packs Two and Three, take out relay 2. Packs Four and Five, unit 7. Rest of you with me,” said Kaid. “We’re going in through that breach. Pull up your TAC maps now. I need those laser turrets taken out ASAP.”

Stay with Ashay, Carrie,
he sent, heading off into the night at a run.

 

“We’re under attack?” K’hedduk repeated, sitting up in bed and staring disbelievingly at Fabukki.

“Look out the window, Highness. The force field is absorbing damage—for now. We must leave immediately!”

“Take charge of the troops and set up defenses on the first floor,” ordered K’hedduk, flinging back the bedclothes and getting to his feet.

“I’ll send up your bodyguard, then see to that, Highness.”

“No! See to our defenses,” he hissed, heading for his dressing room. “I’ll be safe as long as no one gets past you!”

“Yes, Highness,” murmured Fabukki, bowing as he left.

Many things were running through K’hedduk’s mind as he pushed the racks of clothing aside until he came to where he’d concealed his body armor. Returning to M’zull with the Empress beside him, he could spin the truth any way he wanted. She was his link to the Throne of Light; he needed her. But taking Fabukki along, never mind any of the other four of his original crew, all witnesses to his inability to hold this backwater planet, was not part of his plan. He intended a victorious return, one where he and the Empress had narrowly escaped Fabukki’s plot against him.

Struggling into the suit, he thumbed on his communicator, praying it would work. It did. “Zoshur, we’re under attack. Take the troops down to the first level and prevent them gaining access to the Palace at all costs.”

“Yes, Majesty,” came the reply. “Want anyone up there as bodyguards?”

“No. You take control along with Fabukki. Make sure he stays with you. I’ll be safe here.”

He cut the connection and, thrusting the communicator into a belt pouch, grabbed his helmet. Hurriedly he crossed the bedroom and headed for the communicating door between his room and his Royal harem, where he kept the Empress.

 

Red and gold light blossomed from the wall opposite, catching Carrie’s gaze as Ashay took her firmly by the arm and pulled her to his side.

“I guard you now, Carrie,” he said, lowering his long, suited neck until his head was level with hers. “Stay in safe zones we must, where turrets cannot hit us.”

Momentarily overwhelmed by the information that Kaid was mentally processing and the orders he was calling out to the other seven Fire Pack Leaders, she nodded her head, forgetting Ashay probably wouldn’t see the gesture.

“I can see them on my TAC screen, Ashay,” she said, finding her voice at last as Ashay led her through the breach in the wall and into the outer grounds of the Palace.

The telltales of each team were showing clearly on her HUD as the Packs with them spread out, targeting the laser turrets spaced out on both sides of the outer wall. Realizing she was clutching her rifle too hard, she loosened her grip, readying it, but there seemed to be no opposition to them—no enemy telltales.

Placing her between the wall and himself, Ashay let her arm go to grasp his own firearm more firmly.

“Back here we’ll stay,” he said, even as Kaid’s order to him came over her helmet comm. “We watch for enemy coming through doors ahead. They go to disable turrets and set rear charges behind generator,”