The Phoenix Crisis (49 page)

“
This is it,” said Rafael.
He took a deep breath. “I can smell it in the air. Today is the day
we save the Empire.”

Calvin had ordered the police to clear this
section of the city of civilians so the streets were empty. As the
car turned a corner and began speeding down another street the
first report came over the radio.

“
Bravo taking fire. Six
o’clock and three o’clock. Ninth and Meadow. Requesting
assistance.”

“
Charlie to flank. Stay
down, Bravo.”

“
Roger. We’re pinned down.
Taking heavy fire.”

“
Alpha has a visual. There’s
a machinegun nest on the third floor balcony of the Transport Union
building.”

“
Confirmed. The machinegun
nest is pinning us down. We’re going to try to grenade the thing.
Standby to deploy smoke.”

“
Negative, Bravo. Alpha
sniper is in position. Keep your heads down.”

As Calvin listened to the
radio reports being exchanged, he imagined the troops sweeping
through the city. Encountering resistance as they made their way to
the tunnel entrances that would take them to the Phoenix Ring’s
secure underground bunker. He wished he was with them; all the
tension and all of the anxiety he’d felt over the last several
weeks—made worse by not having any equarius in his bloodstream—made
him want to jump into the action, guns blazing, and… either succeed
or die. It almost didn’t seem to matter which outcome prevailed. He
just wanted it to be over. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in…
longer than he could remember. And he’d lost weight and felt sicker
and weaker than ever before
. Just a little
longer
, he told himself.

“
Machinegun is down,”
reported a soldier from Alpha team. “Bravo you’re
clear.”

“
Roger that, Alpha. Thanks
for the support. Moving to new position now.”

“
Streets Three-hundred West
through Winter Lane are clear,” reported Delta team. “TOC vehicles
are clear to approach.”

“
Confirmed,” said
Calvin.

About ten minutes later his motorcade came
to a stop and Calvin jumped out of the car, followed quickly by
Nikolai, Rafael, and a host of eleven heavily-armed soldiers. They
met with one of the field commanders, who’d set up a forward
position on the side of the road. She was giving orders to various
teams. Calvin’s forces had met some firm resistance in different
parts of the city, and had sprung several ambushes, but through
caution, cooperation, adequate preparedness, and superior training,
their force had only sustained three casualties as they captured
the grid surrounding the Phoenix Ring bunker. Enemy deaths were
over a dozen, and a dozen more had fled into the underground
tunnels, included an unknown number of wounded.

“
The surface is secure,”
reported Lieutenant Colonel Aarya Sadozai. She gave him a salute
and he returned it. “Alpha is holding position while Bravo,
Charlie, and Delta converge on the tunnel entrances.”

“
Excellent work,” said
Calvin. He led his force at a jog to the nearest entrance into the
underground. The tunnel network that led to the Phoenix Ring
bunker, and other underground facilities, would prove difficult to
take. Flanking maneuvers were next to impossible down there,
visibility was limited, and the enemy knew they were coming.
However, they had no choice, they had to proceed and proceed
quickly. Calvin felt as though the Phoenix Ring leaders, and all of
their secrets, and all of the answers to the many mysteries that
had plagued him since Praxis, were mere centimeters away. For the
first time ever, completely within his reach.

“
Move. Move.
Move.
”

He found himself wishing Pellew was there.
Despite the captain’s ruthlessness, Calvin remembered how much of a
relief it had been to have the man at his side during the mutiny,
and on the Rotham ship, and most recently on the blood-soaked
surface of Remus Nine. For that matter, Calvin found himself
wishing Rez’nac was there. The tall, muscular blue alien charging
ahead, seemingly invincible. Unfortunately Calvin had to do
without.

He and his group reached the nearest
entrance to the underground and put on their night-vision goggles
before beginning the two-story descent into the tunnel network.
Nikolai insisted on going ahead of Calvin, wanting to make sure
they weren’t walking into an ambush. Calvin disliked having so much
security assigned to him, as if he needed to live inside an
insulated bubble. The Khan attack on his motorcade was still fresh
on his mind and he couldn’t stop thinking about the faces of those
who’d died protecting him. He wasn’t more important than them, not
truly. And here, in the dark tunnel network where they were certain
to meet opposition, he refused to let himself believe that any
person with him was less entitled to life than he was.

“
Clear,” the lead soldier
said, as the group of them took the forward landing and proceeded
into the tunnels.

“
All teams report,” said
Calvin into the radio.

“
Alpha is in position,
proceeding north by northwest. No resistance.”

“
Bravo has just taken the
entrance at junction three-oh-six by two-two-three. Minor
resistance. Enemy forces seem to be in retreat.”

“
Charlie is under heavy
fire, I repeat we are under heavy fire.
Requesting immediate assistance
,
over.” The noise of gunfire could be heard over the radio, somewhat
drowning out the speaker.

“
All teams converge on
Charlie’s position,” ordered Calvin.

“
Roger that.”

“
Understood.”

“
Wilco.”

Calvin and his group accelerated their pace
to a light jog, moving through the poorly-lit underground—which
seemed like a lime green haze through the goggles—with all speed.
He hefted his carbine and pointed it anxiously down every adjoining
hall as they went, expecting to see a strong enemy position
awaiting them.

Alpha was first to arrive. “Fire in the
hole!” the team leader’s voice came over the radio. It was followed
by a loud ringing that could be heard echoing down the narrow
passageways. Then, a moment later, “hostiles down. I repeat,
hostiles are down. Area is secure.”

“
Calvin and his team arrived
on the scene to see several mercenaries doubled-over in puddles of
their own blood. Most had been cleanly shot in the head. Probably
shortly after being stunned by the flashbang grenade.

“
Bravo here, shall we
continue to converge on Charlie’s position?”

“
Negative,” said Calvin.
“Return to prior path.”

“
Roger that. We’ll be in
position in less than a minute.”

Calvin directed his team to continue down
the long passageway while Alpha and Charlie teams split and took
other paths. There were many routes in the tunnel network, and many
different storage facilities, but all of them could be used to
reach their destination. And all would coalesce about a hundred
meters before the main entrance to the Phoenix Ring bunker. As for
Bravo team, they moved swiftly to take the power generator. There
wasn’t much power in the underground tunnels, nor was there much
light, but Calvin believed it best to deprive his enemies of even
the small amount provided by the generator. Zane Martel was no
fool, and probably had his own power-source inside his bunker, but
his men wouldn’t be so useful in the tunnels once they went
completely black.

“
Encountering minor
resistance on our flank,” reported Bravo Team after about a
minute.

“
Do you need support?” asked
Calvin.

“
Negative, the enemy is
routing.”

“
Casualties?”

“
Two of ours, seven of
theirs. Maybe more. They have a strong position inside the
generator control room. Recommend we blow it, controlled
demolition.”

“
Do it,” said Calvin,
understanding what that meant. They were going to use a small
amount of strategically placed explosives to destroy the control
room and the generator without upsetting the structural integrity
of the tunnels. He was no demolitions expert but he assumed they
knew what they were doing.

About a minute later there was a deep rumble
and all the lights went out.

“
The generator is down,”
reported the Bravo Team leader.

“
And the enemy position?”
asked Calvin.

“
Scattered and in
retreat.”

He heard the echo of gunfire and the whine
of a high-caliber, suppressed sniper rifle firing every few
seconds. “They’re dropping like flies. They seem to be in a
panic.”

“
Charlie here, we don’t see
anything.”

“
Alpha confirms that the
enemy is scattered and in retreat. They appear to be falling back
to the target destination.”

Excellent
, thought Calvin. He felt like he had the enemy by the throat
and was slowly squeezing. “All teams converge on the bunker
immediately. I repeat,
all teams
converge
.” As he spoke there was a whine
from a submachine-gun and the man immediately to his right went
down. Bullets slapped against Calvin’s chest armor like three small
punches, bruising his ribs. He let out a cry of pain and dropped
into cover, going to a firing position on his knees. He pointed his
carbine toward the source of the gunfire.

Not more than five meters away were four
enemies. Two were re-loading, the others continued to fire on
Calvin’s group, who swiftly reacted by getting low and scrambling
for cover.

Calvin fired and one of the enemies went
down. His face shredded to a pulp. An instant later the other three
dropped, taken down by Calvin’s people.

“
TOC
report
,” said the Alpha Team leader.
“Are you under fire?”

“
We were,” said Calvin, he
squinted through his goggles down the long hallway, searching for
more enemies but not seeing any. His men fanned out, scouring the
halls around them for any more ambushes. A field medic knelt next
to Calvin and began checking the fallen man for his vital signs; he
was clearly dead.

“
Current status?”

“
Area secure,” reported
Nikolai. Calvin was still shocked that they’d managed not to see
the enemy ambush until the trap had sprung. He’d been lucky to be
standing where he was, and that the shooters hadn’t used higher
caliber weapons.

“
Beware of stragglers,” said
Calvin, looking down at his fallen soldier darkly. The lifeless
eyes had rolled to the sides of his eye-sockets and looked strange
and unnatural. “It seems that not all of our enemies decided to
fall back.”

“
Understood.”

“
Bravo reports in
position.”

“
Alpha reports in
position.”

“
Charlie reports in
position.”

His teams were set up, there would be no
escape for the Phoenix Ring. He would take them into custody, and
not a moment too soon. He knew the Assembly was scheduled to begin
their vote any time now. Time was of the essence.

“
Commence breaching
protocol.”

***

The Harbinger burned its engines furiously,
struggling to maintain its maximum jump depth. As it screamed
through the blackness of alteredspace, Raidan stood on his bridge
and stared out the forward window array. Feeling a mixture of anger
and anxiety. It was happening. Everything that he’d feared,
everything that he’d bled—and killed—to prevent, it was all on the
verge of happening…

“
Faster, Mister Watson,”
said Raidan. His voice was steady and calm but the glint of steel
in his tone was unmistakable.

“
I cannot go any deeper
sir,” said the chief helmsman. He and a crew of a dozen other
officers worked cooperatively to pilot the ship. “We’re well-beyond
the maximum recommended depth.”

“
He’s right, sir,” said
Mister Ivanov. “I’ve disabled the safety protocols on the
alteredspace drive, as well as the automatic shutdown system, but
those features were put in place for a reason. I don’t estimate we
can keep up this pace. Not for much longer.”

Raidan ran a frustrated hand through his
hair and then closed his eyes for a moment. Blocking out the lights
of his bridge and the many people who worked tirelessly to follow
his orders and keep the ship working at peak efficiency.

“
I know,” said Raidan. He
knew his crew was doing all that was physically possible to get
them to their destination before it was too late. “Tell the
engineering staff to keep those engines firing… we just need them a
little longer. We’ll be arriving soon.”

“
Aye, aye, sir.”

“
And if there is anything
that can be done—
anything at
all
—to get us there faster, even if it’s
just by a millisecond,” said Raidan, “see that it’s
done.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Ever since the failure at Renora, which
remained ever-present on Raidan’s mind, the Harbinger had been on
its way to Capital World.

Big things were happening there. Tremendous
things. Things that would shake the Empire. And there, Raidan was
certain, the next—and perhaps final—note of the dark symphony would
be played. He intended the Harbinger to be there when it happened.
Intended to be of whatever assistance he could to try to preserve
the fracturing pieces of the Empire. But there was a dark, sinister
feeling in the ghostly emptiness of space. A foreboding. And Raidan
found it very difficult to tender much hope.