Star Brigade: The Supremacy (SB3) (7 page)

Sam then returned focus to burning through the box cell as if uninterrupted. One firm shove later, and the makeshift circle fell inward with a dull
thunk
.

Habraum, witnessing the exchange, laughed aloud. Sam gave him a shrug and a lopsided grin.

A Korvenite warily poked his head out. Seeing Sam, a human, he and a few others recoiled and yelled out in Korcei.

“[It’s okay,]” Sam said in impeccably ennunciated Korcei, holding up her hands disarmingly. “[You’re safe now and we’ll get you out.]” The words calmed the Korvenites enough to let Sam explain what was happening.

Near the smoking remnants of the vehicle lot, Jan’Hax appeared and vanished repeatedly, delivering a flurry of acrobatic punches and kicks at the remaining CoE operatives wherever he appeared next. His invisibility served as an advantage against their foes, fortifying Sam in choosing him for CT-2’s roster.

But Jan’Hax missed the faraway hostile aiming her pulse pistol at him, ready to fire.

Sam called Jan’Hax’s codename in warning, startling the Korvenites gathered around her. Then the hostile’s pulse pistol exploded with a bright green burst, the stunned woman yelping and shaking her burned hands in pain. Jan’Hax wheeled around, holding another hostile by the throat, just as surprised. Sam, however, already knew who was responsible. “Here comes trouble,” she whispered.

Right on cue, Jan’Hax’s statuesque rescuer sailed through the smoky billows from behind the CoE hostile. Bounding over the hostile’s shoulder, Marguliese straightened out in midair with a flawless back kick. The blow dropped the CoE woman to her knees and into unconsciousness. Jan’Hax recoiled in fiendish delight. The Cybernarr landed on her feet and assessed the scene with cold, probing blue eyes. Her power over certain forms of machinery had destroyed the pistol, but Marguliese could deal with foes just as efficiently using hand-to-hand combat.

A brilliant white glow flashed from Marguliese’s cybernetic hand and instantly extended into a long, double-sided blade of energy. Two strapping CoE hostiles popped out of the vehicle-lot breach. Pulse rifles cocked, both unleashed a brilliant, barking volley at the Cybernarr. But Marguliese approached casually, deflecting their pulse blasts with expert whirls of her blade in one hand. Whatever courage these hostiles possessed shrank away steadily. The Cybernarr stalked closer and closer, her golden face chillingly blank…

SWISH!
A swift arc of light chopped the barrels of both rifles clean off.

“Shit!” one hostile exclaimed.

“Truly.” Marguliese pivoted sharply, pulling her energy blade apart into two smaller blades. It happened in a flash, the two operatives frozen in stupefied shock. The next instant, the Cybernarr was facing away from her foes, a blade impaled through each hostile’s chest.

“Marguliese!” Jan’Hax called out as she curtly yanked out both blades and reconnected them, not bothering another look as her victims fell over.

“They attacked, I retaliated,” Marguliese’s reply was as glacial as her stare, silencing Jan’Hax.

Sam caught Habraum frowning at the scene briefly, then moved on. Her eyes found Jan’Hax’s and they exchanged a dark look.
Just tolerate her for a little longer,
Sam promised, before soaring across the smoke and debris in search of the cell’s leader, Kingston Reyes
.

She didn’t have to look far. Reyes was on the periphery on all fours, scurrying past fallen minions. He had never looked more pathetic, in Sam’s eyes. Seeing an exit just a few metrids away, Kingston gritted his teeth and crawled faster.

Covered in dust and rubble, one of Reyes’s underlings reached for his leader with a trembling hand, moaning for help. Kingston glanced at the man. Then, to Sam’s further disgust, he kept crawling toward the breached wall. A strong gust of air whooshed by Kingston, the kind that just rippled with power. Sam smiled as Khrome’s hulking metallic form landed in Kingston’s path.
This’ll be amusing.

“Some unity you ‘Earthborn’ have. If I were human, I’d sign up!” Khrome said dryly.

Kingston scrambled to his feet and backpedaled, nearly falling over. “Get
away
from me, you mechanical abomination!”

Khrome’s cobalt-blue face filled with mock sadness. “Now my feelings are hurt!” Then he smiled. “And that’s
techno-organic
abomination. You xenophobes never get it right!” The Thulican advanced on him now. “Be a respectable bigot and surrender.”

In response, Kingston whipped out a pulse pistol from his belt and lowered his aim at Khrome’s face, as the Thulican stood inches shorter. “Not to you, alien,” Kingston snarled, “NEVER to you!”

The Thulican’s round yellow eyes flicked from gun to holder and he abruptly laughed. “Like that’ll work.” Khrome approached everything with a smile or a laugh, one of the things Sam adored about him.

Kingston pulled the trigger. A blistering pulse bolt struck Khrome point-blank in the face as Kingston squeezed that trigger repeatedly. A sadistic smile lit up his face along with every shot of bright, yellowish energy blasting out of the barrel. Kingston’s pulse pistol was finally spent, leaving just the hollow clicking of a trigger.

The smoke created by the pulse blasts cleared…along with Reyes’s sneer. Khrome stood in the same spot, barely a blast burn on his face or any trace of amusement. “Told ya it wouldn’t work.” The Thulican’s thick, stubby fingers snaked forth, grabbing Reyes by the collar and practically digging into his flesh. With one hand, Khrome effortlessly tossed the human over his shoulder and through the breach behind them. Kingston shrieked, flailing his limbs uselessly as he sailed over two walkways.

Khrome peered over the breach where he had thrown Reyes. Tyris ambled up beside him, idly twirling his staff. The Tanoeen shook his spiky head. “Our enemies never learn,” he said, his voice like a frosty draft.

“But if they learned,” Khrome replied, “our jobs wouldn’t fun!” The teammates fist-bumped up and down before mockingly saluting where Reyes plummeted into the stifling darkness.

The echoes of Reyes roaring every known swear word in the Standard language floated up from the breach. While the fall wouldn’t kill him, Sam knew of Habraum and UniPol’s plan to release Reyes into the wild and see who he contacted. Hopefully that would produce locations and IDs of Reyes’s masters, and then the Children of Earth’s upper echelon.

A distant splash signaled the end of Reyes’s plunge. “Really hope that fall hurt,” Sam snickered, returning her attention to helping the Korvenites from their cell box.

Habraum watched Khrome and Tyris emerge through curling white smoke still fouling the air. The Tanoeen’s spiky, ice-sculpted body shook with mirth. “Eleven,” he declared.

“So?” Khrome snapped. “I got thirteen.” The pair was caught up in another friendly debate over who took down more hostiles during a field mission.

Tyris’s indigo eyes widened in shock. “Lies! Don’t count the five you threw me into! I did the work.”

“No,
I
did the work while you just stuck your arms out,” Khrome parried, glaring up at his taller and lankier friend. “Meaning that I, Khrome-tastic, get finder’s credit for those takedowns.”

“Finder’s credit?!” Tyris’s voice was a sharp slap.

Habraum snorted. Sure, Tyris got on great with his CT-1 teammates, even V’Korram. But the Cerc’s doubts lingered over whether the Tanoeen could be his true right hand like Sam could. “Time will tell,” Habraum muttered to himself before approaching his two subordinates. “Khrome.”

The two ceased their debate. “Yes, oh captain, my captain,” replied Khrome.

Habraum towered over Khrome and whispered, “You tagged Reyes, yea?”

The Thulican looked almost offended. “Did you expect any other outcome, Reign?”

Habraum smiled and played along, “Of course not. Let me know when he makes contact with his peers.” He patted the Thulican on the shoulder.

Near the parking-lot breach, V’Korram, Jan’Hax, and Marguliese rounded up the fallen CoE hostiles into piles. The containment field around the hostiles also kept them insensible. “Nearly all are alive,” Jan’Hax heaved another limp form onto the ground and glanced bitterly at the short row of body bags nearby, “besides those killed in the vehicle explosions, only two perished.” The Ciphereen glared at Marguliese, who remained stone-faced and detached.

Sam stood near the first of the five cell boxes, quietly conversing in Korcei with its prisoners. They chose not to release the rest of the Korvenites until UniPol arrived with reinforcements. Liliana, after scanning those Korvenites, strode past to inspect the tinier fifth cell.

“Found another body!” the doctor announced after a short while. Her diluted Spanish accent was typical of someone from the Terra Sollan city-state Alcazar. Lily stood over the body, eyes fixed on her scancorder readings. “Elderly male Korvenite with no broken skin, puncture wounds, or considerable bruising to indicate a cause of death besides dehydration and malnutrition.”

Habraum couldn’t look away from the dead Korvenite slumped outside the cell box. The corpse’s eyes were pupil-less and as white as his skin, indicating death.
Like Maelstrom’s were
, the Cerc recalled.

V’Korram loped over to the cell, craning his head inside and sniffing around. “Cell looks damaged and forced open,” he growled. “Two beings were in here. One scent’s unfamiliar and fresh.” He whipped out his own scancorder, running it over the cell interior and Korvenite corpse. “Snapshotting unknown’s foot and handprints now.”

Liliana nodded and shivered. “Do you feel a serious chill?” She rubbed at her arms with her hands to warm them, despite there being no breeze in her vicinity.

“Leaving the cold area usually helps. Shouldn’t a doctor know that?” V’Korram growled, his body fur noticeably shivering all the same. The doctor glared after V’Korram. After over five months, she still found his surliness just as insufferable.

Habraum eyed a transmission on his comband. “Bag the Korvenite as evidence, get what you can from the scene quickly. UniPol’s here for garbage pickup.” He looked pointedly at Liliana and V’Korram. “I want to know what killed that Korvenite. Might be a bigger threat than the Children of Earth.”

“A wet muffin’s a bigger threat than the CoE,” Khrome scoffed, earning boisterous laughs from Tyris and Jan’Hax.

A stern glare from Habraum instantly killed the laughter.
Nice example, Tyris.
Yes, this operation had been easy, but the Cerc refused to underestimate any foe. Why were the Children of Earth capturing Korvenites, beyond their unyielding xenophobia? And what killed that Korvenite? Before he could mull over the questions, Habraum noticed a Korvenite gaping at the corpse V’Korram had stuffed into a body bag. His insides tightened. The bruised and malnourished Korvenite looked barely older than Tharydane. The teary-eyed youngster fell to his knees and croaked, “Thaull…”

Habraum approached him slowly, waving off Sam’s intervention. The cruelty this Korvenite must have endured for years in an internment camp, only to be hunted by CoE extremists after being emancipated. The Cerc shook his bald head.
And he’s one of the lucky Korvenites
…

“Don’t worry, sprout.” Habraum knelt and took the Korvenite’s arm. “You’re safe now.”

The Korvenite turned to Habraum, and his reaction could have soured milk. “I know your face,” he said, “from the Unilink. You killed Korvan’s Anointed.” His colorless features twisted in hatred.

Habraum stiffened, but remained calm. He’d gotten similar reactions months ago from other Korvenites they rescued from the Supremacy’s Ruin. The Korvenite yanked away from Habraum’s grasp. “You killed my race’s dreams!” He lunged at the Cerc. “And for that I will kill y—”

WHAM!  
Habraum’s fist was a vicious blur, catching the Korvenite in the jaw and knocking him out before he even hit the ground. Every Brigadier stared. The nearby Korvenites gawked, quietly fretting in Korcei. Habraum looked up at nothing in particular. “You’re welcome,” he said wryly.

Later on, Star Brigade CT-1 used the
Ishliba
to transmat themselves, their prisoners, and the Korvenites above ground to
a stony outcrop overlooking Conuropolis. The dead Korvenite’s corpse had also been transmatted directly onto the
Ishliba
. Sometime during CT-1’s op, the sky had turned dark grey, now angrily spitting rain. Sporadic lightning splintered the brooding heavens, followed by an obligatory thunderclap. The low-level forcefield and heating systems integrated into Star Brigadiers’ uniforms buffered them from considerable amounts of rain or cold.

Habraum and his combat team met with a small contingent of UniPol agents at two transport vessels on the outcrop. At a glance, Habraum figured the larger vessel was for transferring the CoE to some appropriate holding facility. The smaller, unarmed vessel would ship the Korvenites to a new and secure habitat, a huge improvement from the now closed internment camps.

“Captain Nwosu.” A Galdorian strode toward the group, as evidenced by the beak-like mouth, rubbery purple skin and the two eyes jutting up from his face on slim, six-inch stalks. The red and gold uniform he wore was typical of a UniPol agent, fitting his slim build snugly. The Galdorian had turned off his uniform forcefield, undoubtedly relishing in the rainstorm.

“Senior Agent Hremhauish,” Habraum called back as he approached the UniPol agent. He extended his hand and shook Hremhauish’s webbed one. “The Brigade did more of your heavy lifting.”

Hremhauish’s beak wrinkled with amusement. “Quite the humorist, Nwosu. How much of this cell were captured?” He gestured toward the piles of CoE hostiles behind Habraum.

“The whole group,” Habraum said, nodding, “except Kingston Reyes.”

Hremhauish’s eyestalks straightened up, an indication of Galdorian surprise. “To possibly draw out bigger players in the Children of Earth?”

“As discussed,” the Cerc nodded. Another lightning strike split the sky in half, again brightening the dreary scene around him. The larger UniPol ship started transmatting CoE hostiles aboard in bright flashes.

The Galdorian calculated Habraum’s agenda in short order. “You’re using him as bait?”