Chapter 15
Someone up there was pounding the crap out of the city of Verd. Hoss guessed it was an enemy of the cybermonks. He found a safe place to observe the sky.
And it was the Xatar, judging by the markings and types of ships. He couldn’t get hold of Ember at her room, on their internal link, or with the city comm system. Worrying, very.
He sprinted though the corridors looking for the location that was supposed to be where Baz Rutland was abiding, as of last night, then crashed into him at an intersection. For a second, despite the general disruption, the sounds of things cracking, crashing, collapsing, and exploding, the cyborg captain’s appearance made him pause.
He’d always seemed mildly deranged, but now? Baz was redder of eye, flightier? That might be a good description. Where they were exposed by his short-sleeved flight suit, his muscles were twitchy.
“You okay, man?”
“Sure.” Baz swiped a forearm across his face. “Sure. There’s an attack happening.”
As if the Armageddon noises weren’t a dead giveaway.
“The Leaf okay?”
“Don’t know.” He shook his head. “She should’ve taken off with the city under an attack. Safest thing to do. She’ll be back. Once it’s over.”
Hoss rolled his shoulders. “If.”
“Huh?”
“If it’s ever safe. The whole city is coming down around our ears.”
It was true. The cybermonks might’ve had drones and auto-defenses, maybe some great orbiting batteries, but this appeared to be overwhelming. He’d spotted so many Xatar squadrons zooming overhead he’d lost count.
One of the roach bots zipped up to them and his comm buzzed to life. Incoming holo-message with a big CM logo onscreen. Hopefully it really was them. He thumb-tapped to pop up the big screen, broadcasting it so Baz could see and hear.
The three cybermonks wobbled to life in front of a small garden across the way.
“Greetings.” He nodded at them. “News? Can we get off-planet? Where is Ember?”
“You cannot.” Stryng shook his braided head. “Your companion, Ember, has been abducted by a squad of Xatar. Though shot down, their ship crashed in the high-rise jungle. We thought you might wish to rescue her, considering your job description?”
“Fuck, yes. Direct me. Provide a ride if you can. Hours away by foot, I assume?”
“Indeed. Days. By flight it will be less. We will direct you to a small but fast scram ship. No armaments but it will outrun many Xatar ships.”
“Many?” He grunted. Better than none. “Show me.”
Baz spoke up, stepped closer to the holo. “I’m coming too. How many soldiers can you spare us?”
“None.” Erroar smiled toothily. “However our predictions say you two will be enough.”
Predictions? Using side-eye, he watched Baz. Why was he coming? Smitten by her? Being heroic for some other reason? “This could be a death mission, spacejunker.”
Baz ignored him. “You said crash. Have you seen survivors emerge? How many Xatar were on board?”
“Our images show survivors departed the site. Ember was one. We counted fifteen Xatar but our imaging device was in orbit and has been destroyed.”
“Huh. Fifteen?”
That was a lot versus two. “You up to this, Baz?”
“Do we get weapons?” Baz stayed facing the cybermonks, as if he, Hoss, were nothing.
He bit back a growl. “I am weapon enough.”
Now Baz turned, his mouth crooked. “Me too. I’ll fuck up half. You get the rest.”
A cybermonk tried to speak but Hoss talked through his words. “We will see who kills more.”
“We have extra weapons for you!” Stryng said, loudly. “They may be old however. We don’t use them here, much.”
It didn’t matter to him. He grinned at Baz, who narrowed his eyes and smiled back. “I will take these weapons. We both will. Hopefully they will shoot the right people.”
Something was happening here, had happened, and he wasn’t sure what, but as long as they could rescue Ember he was okay with playing ‘I’m the biggest man’ with Baz. Maybe the surgery had left Baz confused.
“You ever get the predictions wrong?” he asked the monks.
“Sometimes.”
Hoss wasn’t sure which one had said that. Didn’t seem to matter.
But of course. This explained how the Xatar had accomplished a surprise attack. The cybermonks hadn’t seen it coming.
Another enormous explosion rocked the building and pieces cracked from the wall and fell, shattering on the floor.
“Hey, monks, is there going to be a city left to come back to?”
“We do not know.”
He decided it was best to set off on a friendlier tone with Baz. “Hey. Cyborg man. Is this a good day for rescuing princesses?”
Baz looked puzzled, but after a few seconds his mouth twisted in amusement. “It is. It is a very good day for rescuing princesses.”
“Excellent.” Hoss held out his hand. Hesitantly, Baz took it then shook.
* * * * *
The scram ship was a bit rusty and had seen better times, as in a few hundred years ago. The weapons ditto. Nevertheless Hoss armed himself with a nice selection, slung a bandolier of ripper grenades over his shoulder, along with an automatic sledge gun. Those’d knock over a dinosaur from Old-Earth, though most humanoids would get concussion using one. He’d be fine. The other guys, not so much.
The Xatar had good armor, though. Reactive power armor and more, much more. This was going to be close.
First they had to find them. And they had to avoid injuring Ember.
It took a few hours to zero in on the crash site. The Xatar ship had plowed into the middle of the sky-high forest. Lots of green trees down below. Enough room to hide a million rampaging Xatar. They hadn’t even asked what sort of predators roamed in this area.
Surely nothing big would be in the trees?
Baz circled the place and heat sensors found the trail of warriors further to the south.
“They’re climbing out,” Baz murmured, tapping the screen. “But partway down inside it still. Scans show this forest isn’t just forest. It’s growing atop a city, an ancient one. When the cybermonks arrived, this planet was barren of intelligent creatures.”
“So whatever built this city, it’s thoroughly dead apart from the forest.”
“Yup,” Baz agreed. “Or whatever else likes living in forests.
“The Xatar’ll be looking to rendezvous with one of their ships, organize a landing. Maybe once they get clear of the trees. There’s one solid rock here where I can land.” Hoss pointed. “We do that. We climb down and ambush them. You know, I count only ten Xatar, so something happened to a few. Maybe they fell?”
“Doubt that. Maybe Ember ended a few of them.”
Could be. He nodded. He’d always thought the girl had balls.
Baz chuckled.
“I’m serious. You haven’t seen her when she’s in a mood.” He straightened in his seat, unravelling a few muscle kinks. “Get us in there. I hope your cyborg ass is ready to go full cyborg?”
“Half. Half cyborg is enough.”
“Hah!” Hoss buckled himself into the copilot seat a little firmer.
Ten Xatar was better than fifteen, but they might’ve bitten off more than they could chew. This was his job, though, and he was doing it even if it killed him.
Of course, as well as job, it was Ember.
Mostly, that was why. If they’d hurt her he’d do more than kill them. He’d pull out their entrails and knit them to the trees. If Xatar had entrails. Inside that armor was a humanoid, so they should. Headshots killed them and gut shots. They bled. He’d forgotten the rest of the Xatar lecture.
A growl bubbled up from way down low in his chest.
Baz steered the scram ship in on a shallow glide, skimming the trees. The tree tips swayed and flocks of birds burst forth, scattering into the sky like black confetti.