Unsung Heroes

We’re dead.

Tola could think of nothing else as the eight Varrcaran soldiers rounded the corner with their guns at the ready. His hand reached instinctively toward his utility belt but he was too slow to do anything. Then, just as they were about to fire, a series of massive explosions went off in the distance. Out of the corner of his eye Tola saw that Loralona had pressed the detonator in her hand to obliterate the Coalition ships.

The explosions were so loud and bright they drew the attention of the Varrcaran troopers away from the pair in front of them. It only lasted an instant, but it was enough for Tola to lob a flashbang at their feet. A burst of white light ensued, momentarily blinding them. Though he wasn’t much for firearms, Tola reached for the pistol at his side anyway. He had no more than drawn it by the time Loralona had gunned down all eight.

She’s good. That kind of skill is usually only found in bounty hunters, soldiers, and operatives. I’ll have to remember to ask her what she does for a living when we’re not on a time crunch.

“Is your pistol just for show?” Loralona asked, her own still pointed in case any more stopped by.

Tola laughed. “Haven’t used it much so I never got good with it. It’s not my style anyway.”

Loralona gave him a curious look, like she had misjudged him. “Haven’t you killed before?”

Tola holstered his pistol and took out another flashbang. He started jogging toward the base—with Loralona right behind—before he answered.

“Only when there’s no other choice,” he admitted. “I’ve never grown too comfortable with it. My methods are usually more subtle or surprising.”

“I see,” she said, drawing out the words. There was a long uncomfortable silence as they ran toward the factory, with only the sounds of warfare coming from their right.

“What’s your plan to get inside?” she asked, her tone closer to normal. “There’s a hole in the wall near the main entrance; I’m guessing that’s how the other two slipped inside.”

“Well, it’s not the way we’re dropping in,” Tola replied, fetching the grappling gun from his utility belt.

Taking hold of Loralona, Tola fired an adhesive dart connected to a forty-five meter cable that stuck to the top of the roof and pulled them up to safety.

“Now what?” Loralona asked.

“Varrcaran buildings are all similar in design,” Tola explained, skulking across the rooftop. “If you’ve seen the inside of one, you can bet the others will be almost identical. Barracks are always near the main entrance, and classified information is stored on the top floor.”

“Why? If a fire broke out it would be quicker and smarter to keep sensitive material on the ground floor.”

Tola shrugged. “I’m not a Varrcaran. Perhaps it’s for sieges. In assaults the top floor is generally searched last, leaving more time for reinforcements to come in and turn the tide.” After a few minutes they reached the sky bridge connecting the other half of the base across the lava river. “In any case, I’m guessing what we’re after is on the opposite side of the bridge.”

“You don’t think they’ll be ready for us?” Loralona asked skeptically. She and Tola started jogging across the roof of the sky bridge, a rushing flow of lava half a kilometer below them.

“That’s why I sent Terrik and Dex in first. They’ve been drawing attention away from this part of the base. We should be fine.”

There were no safety railings on top of the enclosed sky bridge. Though it was wide enough to accommodate them both side by side, Tola knew that a single misstep could still prove fatal. Moving carefully, Tola saw that the battle outside was drawing to a close. The Coalition had gained the upper hand, and were beginning to mop up the last resistance. Tola estimated another five minutes or so before Coalition troops and Biomancers entered the stronghold.

“Sounds like you know how to steal the schematics,” Loralona admitted. “But what about leveling the factory? We only have two plastic explosives left.”

“I’ve given that some thought,” Tola replied, nearing the end of the sky bridge. “See those smokestacks? This place is still operating. If we can seal enough of those, build up the pressure, the factory will blow on its own.”

“We don’t know where the controls are for that,” Loralona pointed out as they reached the other building. “And time grows short. It might be wiser to just steal the armor designs and let the Earth Alliance overrun the facility when they arrive.”

“Believe me, I haven’t ruled that out.” Tola stopped about fifteen meters beyond the sky walk. “Here. I’d wager the blueprints we need are somewhere beneath this spot.”

Loralona glanced around. “No windows—how are we getting in?”

Tola took the lasertorch from his utility belt and started burning a circle into the roof. To his surprise, however, the beam had great difficulty cutting through.

Uh oh. This must be titasteel to resist a lasertorch.

“This is taking too long,” Loralona noted, a hint of concern in her voice. “We need a quicker way inside before the Coalition storm the place.”

“You’re right.” Tola racked his brain for a solution. It would take too long to climb back down to ground level, and they would still need a way inside. C4 might do the trick, but it could just as easily destroy what they were after. Even if it didn’t, they would only have one explosive left to destroy the stronghold.

Suddenly he had an idea. It was wild and risky, but then, so were most of his plans. Pulling the plasma pistol from his side, he ejected the energy pack and connected it to the lasertorch to give it a little more juice. With a bit of tweaking, he adjusted the laser’s power output way beyond the safety levels. Tola ignited the torch again, and this time it cut through the reinforced roof at a substantially quicker pace.

But the excessive power output was draining his pack dry. Both his pistol and lasertorch would be useless after this. Worse, the torch’s cutting beam was spitting off copious amounts of sparks in every direction. Tola gritted through the intense pain as several of the sparks burned into his hands and arms.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, a small section of the roof caved in, plummeting to the floor below. Tola powered down the lasertorch and hooked it to his utility belt; he holstered the empty pistol, too, just in case.

“We’re in. Ladies first,” Tola said with a wink.

Loralona wore a look between amused and irritated. “You just want me to clear out any guards before you go in, don’t you?”

Tola shrugged and gave an innocent smile. “You have a weapon! I just fried mine creating this hole for us to get inside.”

Loralona didn’t say anything else, but Tola thought he caught a smile before she jumped through.

Terrik leapt clear of a beam aimed at his head and returned fire. Three shots from his assault rifle struck the magmatrooper in front of him, but it wasn’t enough. The man’s armor was weakening, but it would take many more shots to break through it.

A second cannon blast fired at Terrik. Twisting his body, he managed to avoid the majority of the attack, but not all of it. The bolt scorched and dented his armor as it propelled him backward. Terrik hit the ground hard, but rolled with the motion until he was back on his feet.

Activating his jet pack, Terrik flew straight up to avoid the next blast—but it never came. Two of the prisoners had jumped the magmatrooper from behind, pinning him to the floor. Even in his powered armor, the magmatrooper was no match for the strength of two Choakins. The soldier did the only thing he could do: He fired at point blank range.

From the air Terrik watched as the plasma cannon detonated instantly, swallowing all three combatants in an explosion of green plasma. Terrik knew the Choakins could never have survived, but he wasn’t so sure about the magmatrooper. To be on the safe side he fired a concussion grenade dead center into the cloud of smoke. The second explosion left no doubt to Terrik that the magmatrooper was down for good.

A scream caught his attention; the other magmatrooper had been bathed in molten metal. The armor—unlike what its name suggested—was eaten away, killing the man inside.

That left only one Varrcaran left: a fury commando. The two surviving prisoners had taken cover behind an adamanticrete pillar. Between them they had a single sonic accelerator, probably picked up from the dead, and were exchanging fire with the fury commando.

Terrik fired twice as he flew back down to the floor. The commando heard the whine of his jet pack, fell to the ground, and rolled to avoid the barrage. Hopping to her feet, the commando fired her weapon once. The projectile nailed Terrik in the chest plate. His armor was among the toughest in the Milky Way, but it was shielded more against energy attacks than high-powered ballistics. It had still ablated the shot enough to save his life, but not without cracking one of his ribs.

With the breath knocked from his lungs, Terrik saw the woman aiming a follow-up strike. He took two steps forward, ignoring the pain as best as he could, then slid on his knees beneath the projectile as she fired. Immediately Terrik reached to his left wrist gauntlet and activated his flamethrower.

Superheated gases jettisoned across the woman, engulfing her in a torrent of fire. With a cry she fell prone and rolled, stamping out the flames clinging to her black armor. But in her desperation to snuff out the fire she had left herself completely open. Terrik fired four rounds from his plasma rifle at minimum range, ending the fury commando’s life.

Terrik looked wildly around the room, bracing himself for more opponents, but all were dead. Air returned to his lungs, and he slowly hauled himself to his feet.

The Two Choakins who had survived shouted some kind of remark, but Terrik didn’t understand a word of their language. So he simply nodded and gave them a farewell salute. Dex jumped down from the conveyor belts and landed beside him.

“We need to continue our search—fast.”

“Thanks, I’m fine,” Terrik muttered. “And did something change in the last two minutes while we were fighting for our lives?”

Dex narrowed his eyes, not angrily, but in an extra-serious manner. “Janus is here. He’s heading for the factory.”

Terrik groaned. Things just get better and better. “Right. Like I said, let’s get back to searching.”

We have to fall back.

Even as she gave the order to retreat, Colonel Scalith knew it was the right—but difficult—thing to do. The two Biomancers late to the fight were too powerful, and her army had grown too slim to defeat them. The pair were easily the strongest of the remaining Coalition forces; Scalith had witnessed that firsthand as they slaughtered her troops.

Though she longed to test herself against either of the two, she wasn’t confident she would survive, and it was far more important that the Regime maintain its hold on the factory. All around her, Varrcaran soldiers scurried back to base—save for the select few ordered to keep fighting to buy the rest time. Scalith fell in with her ranks and retreated back to the stronghold, determined to make their sacrifice meaningful.

“Sir!” one of the senior officers called. “We have word that the intruders are still in the grounds.”

Though she never stopped moving, Scalith was stunned. She had ordered the infiltrators terminated once the first alarm broke out. How many had made it inside?

“This complicates matters,” she muttered.

“What are our orders?” the officer asked as he punched in the access code to open the main entrance.

Scalith considered the problem at hand. With an unknown—and obviously dangerous—number of enemy soldiers inside her base it would be almost impossible to defend against the approaching Biomancers. Though she hated to admit it, a full-scale retreat was the only tactical option.

“Alpha unit is with me; everyone else: make for the shuttles. Use the transceivers to call an evacuation—don’t broadcast it through the speakers. We can’t hold the factory.”

“Are we going after the schematics?” the officer asked, even as dozens of his fellow troopers ran toward the hangars.

“Yes. We have to recover them before we can leave the system. How many of Alpha unit is still alive?”

“Us five sir,” another trooper said, falling into line beside her.

Scalith considered her options. It was paramount that she secure a way off-world. “Very well. Naomi: go prep a shuttle for takeoff.” Naomi was the finest soldier serving under her; she was well-trained to handle any would-be thieves—even the Coalition. “Inform our troopers that your ship is reserved, and defend it to the end.”

“Understood.” Naomi left to follow her orders while the other four fell in behind Scalith. Only the Colonel knew the access codes to the safe where the armor schematics were kept, and she knew the way better than anyone.

A few minutes was all it would take to retrieve them.