OMEGA Exile (21 page)

When the shift came to an end, I followed Dotta out the southern exit. Three blocks later, we entered a small abandoned business. Several years before, it had been a thriving retail store that sold imported housewares. That business had dried up with an increase in taxes and a faltering economy. Imported items became a luxury at a time when the middle and working classes were shrinking. Fading pictures of exotic creatures wrapped around everything from pottery to curtains adorned the walls. I sat beside Dotta in a row of folding chairs.

Within fifteen minutes, the room had filled to more than several hundred. All but one of those were Igari.

The first speaker stepped in front of a makeshift podium. "Fellow Adicans. It has come to our attention that an effort is being made to inspect the warehouse on Modicus Street. We cannot allow this to happen. I know that many of you have been waiting for the day that we take back what is rightfully ours. For those who are apprehensive about conducting such an effort, it is time for you to step up for your people. Tonight we begin that effort!"

The room erupted in cheers and applause. As the others stood, I remained seated in my chair so as not to tower over the crowd. I could see the excitement in their eyes, and I envied their spirit. They were going to do what I had partly wished for, but could not do on my own. I knew the Adicans to be true in their cause, but I was sworn to uphold the laws of the New Alliance.

The meeting was short, with the final direction given to the excited mob. They would proceed to the warehouse where the insurrection would begin. From there they would spread outward to preplanned launch points. Five other warehouses with arms existed in the capital city, with two such warehouses in every remaining city that housed any security forces.

In the faces surrounding me, I could see excitement, fear, anxiety, and anger. Was this it? The beginnings of the end of the New Alliance? If Adicus were to fall, Orwall, Cordello, and Zanus would follow immediately behind. For all I knew, a dozen other colonies were waiting to do the same. Perhaps the huge store of blaster tips that I had captured had all been a ruse, a decoy, part of a plan to ready the colonies for all-out rebellion. Before the darkness in the city turned again to light, I was certain I would soon find out.

I found myself jogging alongside Dotta as the soon-to-be rebels hustled toward the warehouse. I slowly fell back in the crowd and slipped down an alleyway as the others rounded the corner to Modicus Street. I sprinted down the alley and out onto the next roadway for a six-block all-out run to the bar and lounge where Mo was waiting. I burst through the doors nearly out of breath.

Mo came up behind me. "What is it? What’s happening?"

I took several deep breaths. "It’s starting. They are at the warehouse now. We need to act if we are going to stop this!"

Mo pulled up a holo-display over his arm pad. "This is a report stating that the warehouse has arms. Sign it here and hit send. The security forces here will be called into action immediately. We have to get to my helocycle so I can get you outfitted with the proper gear. Let’s just hope they haven’t started by the time we get help!"

The helocycle was parked just down the street. Mo opened a pod on the back and pulled out an arm pad, a blaster, and a chest deflector. It would offer the minimum of protection, but I was happy to have it.

Mo climbed on the small personal bike. "Get on. We are hitting that warehouse. If we are lucky, they haven't busted open any containers yet."

I climbed on and the helocycle lurched forward, scraping along on the ground every few feet as it struggled to keep us in the air. By the time we reached the warehouse, Joni was pulling up on a bike behind us.

Joni jumped off the bike and spoke. "What’s the plan!"

I pointed toward the door. "We get in there and hope they haven’t started distributing anything!"

The three of us ran toward the door with our blasters raised.

As Mo reached for the handle, I yelled out, "Wait!"

Mo stopped. I continued, "Don’t you find it strange there isn’t anyone guarding this place? No lookouts? I don’t like it!"

Mo opened the door to a hail of blaster fire. Before he could step back, a full bolt struck him center chest. Only the isolation gear he wore kept the bolt from ripping him apart, but a consequence of that protection was a brutal concussive impact, throwing Mo past us and into the front lot.

I pointed at the helocycles. "Get on that cycle and get out of here! It’s a trap!"

I took two large steps, grabbing the injured and unconscious Mo by the arm and pulling him up in front of me. As I jumped onto his helocycle, it bottomed out hard on the ground. Joni turned and fired several bolts from her blaster as the front door to the office area began to open. Screams could be heard as the ion bolts did their dirty deed.

I turned the helocycle and followed Joni out of the front lot while firing back at the door. Several bolts struck the buildings around us as we moved up the street and out of sight.

I pulled down a side alley and stopped. "I think Mo stopped breathing!"

I laid him out gently on the ground as Joni covered the alleyway entrance.

Joni spoke. "What do we do?"

I checked for a pulse but found none. Mo’s rib cage had been sufficiently crushed to the point where I could not perform the old tried-and-true CPR. I attempted to blow air into his lungs. It became apparent that nothing could be done when his lungs did not fill and the air dispersed into his abdomen.

I picked up his lifeless body and turned back toward Joni. "Get on the bike and let’s get out of here. They will be spreading out through this district and encircling that spaceport. If we don’t make it back to the
Daunte
, we will be either dead or captured. And I doubt they are in the mood to treat those of the security forces with any kindness. Especially since I was a spy among their ranks."

We sped down the alley and turned up the next street, heading away from the warehouse. Mo’s helocycle continued to struggle as his body lay slumped across my lap. We turned onto Spaceport Way and I could see the brightly lit government buildings rising up a kilometer away. As we passed Modicus Street, several ion bolts struck behind us as the surging crowd of Igari rebels spread outward from the warehouse.

When we had reached a point only two hundred meters from our goal, the lights of the government sector went dark. We quickly pulled to a stop as a flurry of blue ion streaks lit up the dark sky. The rebels were in front of us. The assault on the security forces was under way.

I spoke. "Down that alley to the left! We have to get ahead of that mob before that complex is completely cut off!"

A quick run down to the next throughway showed a section that was open. We managed another hundred meters forward before the section in front of us turned into a storm of ion blasts. A second side jaunt brought us to a street that ran deep into the complex. We pushed our helocycles to the limit in a final attempt to get through to our kindred fighters.

As we approached the main avenue that sat perpendicular to our direction, ion blasts began to strike buildings to each side of us.

I yelled, "Have to get through that intersection, or we aren’t going home!"

Joni raised her weapon and fired two bolts at Igari rebels that were in the street in front of us, but facing the other way. Their bodies exploded and their remains crumpled to the pavement. I fired at an approaching rush of Igari, which drew a hail of return fire. I was first through the intersection. Joni was not so lucky.

An ion bolt struck the tail end of her cycle, sending her spinning out of control and crashing into a barrier on the roadside. I fired repeatedly in vain as my ward, my trainee, lay motionless on the roadside. As the pavement around me erupted in sparks and flying pavement, I pushed the throttle of the helocycle to full and maneuvered in close to the buildings on my right.

As I approached the first government building, a second hail of ion bolts shot past me, heading back out toward the intersection. I pulled up short and dove over a stone barrier, leaving Mo’s crumpled body in the street. I fired repeated bolts toward Joni’s direction in an attempt to drive off the attackers.

Two security agents were soon kneeling beside me, firing at the oncoming mob.

I yelled, "I have to get back to our other agent out there!"

As I began to stand, the agent to my left grabbed my arm. "That’s suicide!"

I pointed down the road. "That’s Harden Salton’s niece out there! If they get to her, she is as good as dead!"

I jumped the barrier and attempted to run in a zigzag pattern. Fifteen meters into my run, an ion bolt caught me hard in the chest protector. It was a blow like I had never felt. My lungs squeezed tight, compressing the air within, knocking me backward onto the street. For a moment I lay confused. A hail of ion fire sizzled through the air above me in both directions.

For a minute the security forces pushed back the rebels, and hands grabbed my arms, dragging me backward, grunting under the physical stress of hauling my heavy mass with their human muscles. I attempted to speak as I pointed down the street toward Joni, but the words would not come out of my stinging lungs.

I was soon on a stretcher, with four Humans hauling me back into one of the buildings as the rebel force regrouped and once again surged down the street. I could still see into the street through a window. A medic of sorts gave me a quick shot to dull the pain. As I looked back to see Joni’s position being overrun, I closed my eyes. If she was alive, her fate now rested with the enemy.

The fighting continued into the night, with one building falling after another. We were outmanned and outgunned. I was shuffled into a room and one casualty after another was brought in to see if they could be patched up. I stood, only to have the lone medically trained person in the room tell me to lie back down.

"I’ll be OK," I said. "My chest is sore, but nothing is broken. Where is my blaster?"

The nurse called me to her side. "If you can stand, then get over here. I need pressure on this wound while I try to cauterize this artery. This guy is going to bleed out in a hurry if I don’t!"

I moved over to apply pressure as the nurse used a heating laser to attempt to stop the bleeding. The smell of burning Human flesh filled the air as she worked.

I covered my nostrils with my other hand only to have the nurse pull it away. "You can go. He’s a goner. There is a stack of blasters over there with the other gear these people were wearing."

A moan from another patient called the nurse away. I picked up a blaster and started out into the hallway. The blaster fire was drawing nearer.

I moved down the hall in the direction of the
Daunte
. I exited the building as the windows in most of the third floor above me blew out. I flipped my chest protector around in time to shield myself from most of the glass. My tough Grunta hide did the rest.

I stood up and sprinted toward the next building only to start taking fire before I reached the door. At a forty-meter distance, the ultra-deadly ion bolts caused minimal damage as they struck the face of the building around me. The untrained Igari were poor shots at best.

Once into the next building, I began to build up steam with my run. My lungs ached with every breath, but my strength was beginning to return. I continued my run from building to building until I reached the complex that housed the
Daunte
. I stopped for a moment to clear my lungs of the fluids that wanted to fill them. My Grunta body was trying to heal itself. My running and heavy breath were working against that process.

I soon faced a group of Humans who were running in my direction.

The lead Human yelled, "Go back! They are in the parking deck! That whole complex will be overrun in a few minutes!"

I continued forward, pushing my way through the onrush.

The last Human looked back and yelled as he ran, "You’re a dead man if you go in there!"

I continued into the now-dark ship-parking complex. The low glow of the emergency lighting showed the dimly lit way. I made my way up to the third floor deck, where the
Daunte
was parked and waiting. Using my arm pad, I punched in the codes to lower the ramp-way and start the ion generator. I could hear the blaster fire echoing up from the floors below as the Igari rebels forced their way through the building.

As I turned the last corner, the
Daunte
came into view. It was a sight that brought hope, a hope that I could survive the night and somehow return to rescue my partner, if she was still alive. I raced across the deck toward my ship as the rebels emerged from a doorway on the far side. Ion bolts lit up the mostly darkened deck as I wove and dodged my way to the ramp-way.

I let out a long, hard breath as I reached the top step. A happy Raptor stood up to greet me as I stepped past him. I plopped down in my pilot’s chair and brought up the nav screen. The ramp-way closed. The Igari rebels could no longer hurt me.

I lifted off and began to taxi toward the throughway to the launch port. I didn’t bother to fire my twin cannons, as I was now secure in my ship. The now-tiny ion bolts struck the
Daunte
’s hardened exterior, melting into the ship's armor without effect.

When I reached the throughway, a violent explosion rocked the building. The hangar shook; the throughway in front of my path gave way. The pathway just above, now without support, came crashing down upon it, along with the remaining sixteen decks above.

The throughway, my way to the launchpad, was blocked. I brought up the weapons screen and fired several rounds into the debris. But there was too much rubble, and it only worked to make the remaining building supports unstable.

In a last attempt to free myself, I turned and fired at an exterior wall. My hopes were soon quashed as the deck above collapsed, closing the hole that had only briefly opened. I turned the
Daunte
in a slow circle as I looked out on the flood of Igari rebels who now filled the deck.

I had the urge to open up with the twin cannons, but my conscience said that the fight was over. My senseless slaughter of a people who only longed for their freedoms was not worth any reward the Saltons could pay. A sixth star would not have been received with honor.

I sat for several seconds looking out at the hundreds of Igari fighters gathered before me. When my eyes locked on the gaze of Sergeant Dotta Briggae, I set the
Daunte
gently down on the deck and lowered the ramp. My fight with the Igari was over.