Overdrive (47 page)

“You want the good
news or the bad news guys?” he said to the others.

“Is there any good
news?” asked Tarquin.

Logan smiled.
“Well kind of. I can see the doors to Gabriella’s chambers. The bad news is
that its heavily guarded. I count a couple of Sefiroth, a squad of what looks
like Gabriella’s Valkyrie shock troops and any number of Templars. We don’t
have a choice though. According to the schematics, there’s no other way in.”

Tarquin shrugged.
“Nothing for it then.”

“If I might
propose an option?” ventured Ram Terry.

“Shoot,” said
Logan.

“If I can get
close enough to the Sefiroth and the other Angels, I may be able to disable
their fields long enough for you to get a clear shot.”

Logan looked at
Tarquin. The other man shrugged again. “Its worth a shot Logan. No better
options are currently presenting themselves.”

Logan nodded.
“Very well. Just make sure you get down when the fun starts.”

◊

Serap wasn’t
unduly concerned. Along with Lilith, one of the other Sefiroth, he stood guard
outside Gabriella’s personal chambers. He’d heard that there were intruders
running about the palace and that they had somehow managed to kill off three of
his brethren. That would imply that they had Afers. Afers didn’t scare him
though. They’d disable his fields, sure, but he still had a number of other
skills and abilities to fall back on.

Gabriella had
personally asked him to stand guard outside her chambers. A rare honor and one
that he was not about to fail. Not that the intruders stood any chance of
getting in here. Not only did they have to contend with himself and Lilith but
also the heavily armed Valkyries and 2 platoons of Templars. No chance. You’d
have to be crazy to try but then again sanity obviously wasn’t one of their
strong points otherwise they wouldn’t be in here in the first place.

He was about to
have a chat with Lilith when he heard a strange trotting noise coming down the
corridor. He turned and watched in disbelief as a small wooly animal calmly
trotted towards him. It stopped a few meters from him and sat back on its
haunches.

Something
registered in the back of his mind. Sammael had warned him about this animal.
Apparently, the sheep was, laughably, the head of the Church of the Holy Lamb.
He knew that this sheep was more than it seemed but what threat was it to him
and a large group of heavily armed angels? He gestured for two of his Valkyries
to step forward and seize it.

Just then, he felt
a quiver throughout his entire body. Something had happened. What though? He
mentally checked his physical status and was alarmed at what he found. His
field generative ability had apparently disappeared.
What the fuck?
He
was about to order his men to fire and obliterate this animal when something
struck him on the chest. He looked down in time to see his chest disintegrate
and then everything went black.

◊

Logan stepped over
the still smoking body of what, until moments ago, was an Angel and pushed open
the large doors leading into Gabriella’s personal chambers. Behind him, Tarquin
lifted his weapons, prepared for anything. Ram Terry still sat in the same spot
he’d been during the attack, looking bemusedly about him at the carnage
littering the floor.

The two Sefiroth,
the Valkyries and the assorted Templars lay about him in various stages of
dismemberment. Not one had survived. His personal fields had enabled him to
withstand the explosions of the microprojectiles launched by Logan and Tarquin.
It was quite impressive watching the former military intelligence operative and
his gladiator friend at work.

Ahead of him,
Logan and Tarquin had just passed the doors and had stopped dead. He got up and
trotted towards them, curious to see what was going on. He drew level with the
two men and froze when he saw what lay within.

The room was
obviously intended for use as a small personal audience chamber. Lavish use of
gold, gems and tapestries were in evidence, bedecking every wall. At the far
end of the room was a small raised dais upon which rested an ornate throne.

Sitting on the
throne was Gabriella. On the floor below her stood Sammael, Tynan, and her
three remaining Sefiroth guarding the shackled body of Felix. Two other Angels
supported the limp figure of a woman Ram Terry immediately recognized. Crystal!

Gabriella smiled
broadly at the three of them. “And here’s the Holy Ram himself. Now that we’re
all here, we can begin.”

She stood up and
lifted her hand. Held by its hair, she brought a severed head into view. Asel’s
face still betrayed the shock he had felt at death. Blood still dripped from
his neck.

Gabriella watched,
savoring the horrified expressions on the faces of those below her.

“Friend of yours
was he?” she asked pleasantly, before throwing the head casually down onto the
floor. “He shouldn’t have betrayed me. You do know he was working for me don’t you? It was Asel who was responsible for killing all of Felix’s colleagues.
I suppose it doesn’t matter now. Certainly not to Asel.” She laughed happily.

Logan took a step
forward. “Now look Gabriella…”

“No, you look,"
she screamed. “Look at what I have before you. Your friends life balances upon
a pin head and you presume to tell me to look.” She took a breath and continued
on in a calmer voice. “Now I will talk and you will listen.”

She sat down again
and crossed her legs elegantly. “You will surrender to me now and lay down your
weapons. I hold all the aces you see. I have your friend, I have the advantage
and most importantly, I have the Overdrive. You, on the other hand have
nothing, if you count your lives as something and you’re only holding onto
those by the slimmest of margins.”

She looked down at
the female figure supported by two of her Valkyries. “I even have Ram Terry’s
greatest creation and the object of Felix’s affections. Crystal."

“I think you’re
wrong there bitch,” said a woman’s voice from the rear of the chamber. “You may
have something that looks like me but she’s a far cry from the real thing.”

All eyes turned to
look at the figure standing at the chamber’s doors.

“Crystal?” said
Felix, confusion evident on his face.

“Yes, its me
sweetcheeks. Who’d you expect? Someone had to save you.”

“We were just
doing that,” said Logan defensively.

Crystal looked
around her, taking in the Sefiroth and the Valkyries before looking at Logan.
“And a great job you were doing to by the looks of things.”

“Enough of this,”
roared Gabriella. “Sammael. Kill them all. I’ll take care of the woman
personally.”

Activating her
personal field, she launched herself out of the throne, using her innate powers
to carry herself over her henchmen. She landed, sword already drawn, to stand
before Ram Terry, Tarquin and Logan. They brought their weapons up but before
they could fire, they were brushed aside by Gabriella.

“Don’t worry boys,”
said Crystal, her eyes never once leaving Gabriella’s. “You sort out the
others. I’ll deal with her.”

In front of the
throne, Felix used the momentary distraction of his guards to make a run for
it, hiding behind the throne as plasma blasts splattered around him.

Sammael took
command of the situation.

“You two,” he
said, pointing at the two Valkyrie who held the mindless form of Crystal. “Drop
that and take care of him,” he said, indicating Felix. He turned his gaze on
Tynan and the three remaining Sefiroth. “Deal with those two” he said pointing
at Logan and Tarquin. “I’ll take the sheep.”

As they moved to
obey, first one, then the other two Sefiroth were hit by the unmistakable
energy bolts of Afers fired by Logan and Tarquin. Fields disabled, the three
Angels drew swords and marched purposely towards the two men.

Tarquin looked at
Logan. “Any ideas?”

Logan examined his
microprojectile launcher, discarding it when he saw the gauge read empty. He
drew the short handled plasma cannon from his belt and dropped the Afer from
his other hand.

“I’m not sure,” he
said sarcastically, “but how about ‘kill the bastards?’”

“Sounds like a
plan to me,” replied Tarquin, drawing his own plasma cannon. They fired in
unison, cutting down one of the Sefiroth. Then the Angels were upon them.

Both men used
their cannons to block the sword thrusts from the two Sefiroth, rapidly losing
ground as they were forced out of the audience chamber.

Self preservation
being foremost on his mind, Tynan saw his opportunity and sprinted out of the
chamber. He raced around the corner and ran straight into a hairy chest.

“You just never
know who you’re going to run into next around here," said Bruce, smiling
pleasantly down at Tynan.

◊

Sammael flexed his
arm and brought his sword up to test the edge. He glared evilly at Ram Terry
who squatted calmly before him. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he said, preparing
to lop the head off the animal.

“I don’t think you
want to do that,” said Ram Terry.

Sammael ignored
him and brought his sword back for a mighty stroke. He brought his sword down,
channeling ever ounce of power into the blow. It struck a seemingly solid
barrier centimeters from Ram Terry’s wooly head and bounced back. In disbelief
he tried again and then a third time, each time meeting with failure as he
tried to lop the silly little animals head off.

“I warned you,”
said Ram Terry.

Unbelievably,
Sammael’s sword started to move towards him of its own volition. “This isn’t
happening” he rasped, straining to force the sword away from him.

“I’m afraid it is,”
said Ram Terry, who hadn’t moved at all during the encounter.

The sword
inexorably made its way towards Sammael’s head and with a final jolt, buried
itself to the hilt in his neck. He fell to the ground, surprise still etched on
his handsome features.

“I wonder if
Goliath said the same thing to Samson?” Ram Terry wondered aloud. He gave the
sheep equivalent of a shrug.

◊

“Do you like
that?” snarled one of the Sefiroth, twisting his sword into Logan’s side.

“Not really,”
Logan managed to grunt. He looked around him desperately. Tarquin wasn’t faring
any better, still retreating from the other Sefiroth and covered in cuts. No
help from that quarter.

The Sefiroth
withdrew his sword and brought it back for a final stroke. Just as he was about
to sweep it down, his head exploded, gore raining down on Logan who lay
confused and shaken on the ground. A hairy hand reached down to pull Logan to
his feet.

“What kept you?”
he said to Bruce. Nearby, Walter was shooting a continuous stream of plasma
bolts onto the other Sefiroth assaulting Tarquin.

The gorilla
smiled. “Me and Walter have been keeping Gabriella’s troops busy. I also had to
take care of an old friend.”

Logan looked
around him. “Speaking of Gabriella. Have you seen her or Crystal anywhere
around here?”

The gorilla
shrugged. “Nope.”

“That’s funny. I
could’ve sworn they were behind us. Never mind. I think we have more pressing
problems. Felix is still in there and I’m pretty sure he’s not playing cards. I
think he might appreciate a little help."

◊

“How did you do
that?” demanded a startled Gabriella.

Crystal smiled
infuriatingly “How did I do what?”

“Bring us into
Nospace. You shouldn’t be able to do that?”

“Do you really
care?” asked Crystal.

Gabriella tugged a
strand of her hair nervously. “Maybe in some deep theoretical part of my mind,
but generally, no.”

“Good then.” She
drew her sword, willing herself to move closer to Gabriella. When in range, she
struck, forcing Gabriella to parry. The Princess struck back, penetrating
Crystal’s field and nicking her shoulder.

Crystal drew
backwards, avoiding and parrying the slashes of Gabriella’s sword.

Gabriella’s lips
drew back in a fierce snarl. “Not as good as you thought you were, are you
girl?”

Crystal fell
further backwards, bleeding from a number of minor wounds. Gabriella was good.
Two hundred years of combat training would do that to a woman. She parried
again desperately, Gabriella’s sword still managing to sneak through, leaving a
vivid line of red across her thigh. The back slash made a matching line on her
right arm.

Almost out of
options and her field strength rapidly being depleted, Crystal made her desires
known and focused the thought even as she evaded the lightning sword strokes of
her opponent. Another cut appeared above her eyebrow, the blood dripping down
to impair her vision.

She parried again,
her reflexes slow now so that she left her right side wide open. Gabriella saw
it and exploited it, stabbing in. When she brought her sword back, the tip was
covered in a darker shade of grey. Crystal’s blood.