Inherited War 3: Retaliation (31 page)

She got very lucky during her mad dash to have not fallen into one of them, but she would wait for morning before she continued. There were signs and markers by known quick traps, and she needed to avoid them at all costs. Her suit had absorbed the fetid swamp water, and filtered and disinfected it so she once again had plenty of portable water to drink. She drank her fill and waited. If she remembered correctly and wasn’t too lost, there was a clearing with some high ground near here. It had some plants with edible berries that should be ripe this time of year. She would make her way there and gorge on the fruit before deciding what to do next.

She was up and moving with the dawn. She chose her path carefully and stuck to the massive roots of the swamp giants. She stopped just as the noon sun hit its zenith. She had found the clearing. She scanned the area, and found nothing evident. Birds and some small rodents ran around in the clearing. Clearly no one was there, or the wildlife would have already left. Slowly she crept out into the noon sun. She stopped in the dead center of the glade and turned her head to face the burning sun. Suddenly her suit kicked on again and without missing a beat, she deactivated her helmet and took in a lungful of fresh air—her first in many days. She had been worried that she might have to mash up the sweet berries and let her suit absorb the juice in order to get their nutrients, but she had gotten a little more good luck.

She smiled and held her face to brilliant sun. She relished it as it warmed her face and blinded her closed eyes. She had never dared hope that she would be standing free under her people’s sun after the building had collapsed, but here she was. Suddenly she felt something hard and round press into the back of her head.

“Don’t move,” a rough voice sounded from behind her as the barrel of a weapon rested against the back of her head.

Thalo flopped down onto a chair in the command center. The second set of buildings had just fallen and the shield was back up. So far they had made the Roche pay dearly for every inch of ground they had taken, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t supposed to be enough. They were buying time, and were doing a damn fine job of it. The second shield had stayed up for eight days before it collapsed, and they had held the line for almost half the next day before the buildings were evacuated and brought down. They were back to the third line of defense and still had many blocks to go. Plenty of time for Cole to come pull their collective asses out of the actual fire.

Sleep is what he needed now, and it’s what he was going to get. He closed his eyes and drifted off into peaceful oblivion. If he’d had any dreams, he was unaware of what they were about. He had closed his eyes into darkness and had stayed there for what seemed like only a few minutes but ended up being a few hours. He would have loved to keep sleeping but someone else had plans for him.

“Wake up, brother.” The deep rumble came from the doorway to his left.

“I’m up,” Thalo shouted as he came suddenly awake and didn’t realize where he was. “I put them back, I promise,” he shouted in confusion. Thalo stopped and realized where he was. “What are you doing up here?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and turning towards Jeth.

“Where is she? Where did you send her?”

“Her? Her who?” Thalo sounded confused.

“Snow, where is she?” Jeth clarified.

“Back underground with you, I thought. Speaking of which, why are you up and about?” Thalo replied. Jeth ignored his question and spoke again.

“Don’t evade. Answer.”

“Fine, not much to tell really. She came to the command center and I sent her packing. More than that, I don’t know. Why, hasn’t anyone seen her?”

“No, she never came back down. Her vitals monitor went offline for a while a few days ago. It’s popped back on a time or two, but it wasn’t good,” Jeth said, pain in his voice.

“Look, she was supposed to go take care of you.” Thalo scratched his face and thought. “Hold on, let me talk to some people.” Thalo spent the next few minutes on the coms with the medical units and personnel.

“Ok thanks,” he said to into his com. He looked back at his brother. “As far as I can tell, she may have disobeyed me and hung around for the attack. I have someone at the hospital talking to a gunners mate right now that might shed some light on this for us.” The wait was short, and Thalo got the info they were looking for.

“Damn, this isn’t good,” he started.

“Tell me,” Jeth interrupted.

“That gunners mate said that Snow was with them in their position on the first day of battle. They had been requesting a replacement for their sick loader and had mistaken Snow for their replacement. “She never told them who she really was but the name she did give was flagged in the system as her alias.” Thalo paused. “She was in the building next to the command building. It went down early. The gunners mate only survived because he got blown into the back of the building and down a few floors. When we detonated the first block, he got lucky again and ended up getting thrown free of the building. Someone picked him up as they ran by. He has been in the hospital ever since and was certain no one else had survived. He said the room the gun was in took a direct hit. No one else made it out.” Thalo watched his brother closely.

“That explains it then,” Jeth said.

“What?”

“Her suit must be malfunctioning, damaged in the blast and the collapse of the building. She is still alive out there.” The two beings locked eyes. “Thalo, go get her for me please.” The pain that swelled in Jeth’s eyes as he asked his brother to do the impossible plunged like a dagger into Thalo’s heart.

“Jeth,” he stammered. “How? There’s no way. There’s millions of Roche and a bunch of Esii out there. Even if she survived and is still alive, she must be trapped under tons of rubble. I would need a crew and heavy equipment to get her out. Not to mention we would have to drop the shield.” Thalo stopped as something smacked into his chest and plopped onto the floor. Thalo looked down at his feet dumbly and frowned at what he saw.

“One for you, and one for her,” Jeth rumbled.

“Shield phase modulators,” Thalo whispered.

“They will allow you to pass through the shield. Your talent at invisibility will allow you to move unnoticed through the Roche formations. They have pushed past the first block and are ignoring it. You can do this. You will do this for me. You owe me this.” Thalo sighed. Jeth was right. He owed his brother a thousand times over but this was a suicide mission.

“If I get to close to just one Esii, I’m dead. You realize that, right? If I get caught digging in a building, I’m dead. If any number of things goes wrong, I’m dead.” Thalo looked at his brother and once again saw the pain in his eyes. His shoulders slumped and he reached for the dampeners. Securing them, he looked back at Jeth. Love. Love for Snow was blinding his decision but Thalo couldn’t say no. He had volunteered Jeth to fight the female Roche, not once, but twice. He had convinced Jeth to join him on his mission to Pitt. He had risked both of their lives countless times for less than love, and he owed Jeth. He walked up to his brother and put his hand on the giant’s forearm.

“Brother, I do not feel good about this.”
Thalo said directly into Jeth’s mind.

“You do not have to feel good. You have to do. For me.”
Was his response. Thalo activated his com and called for his second in command.

“General, you’re in command now. I am going outside of the shield. Change the timing and order of movement of all subsequent fallbacks and shield drops. Hold out, general, as long as you can. Thalo out.” He didn’t give the general a chance to respond.

Thalo left the room and slid past his bond mate. He stopped and looked into Jeth’s eyes one more time. Jeth was lost, and Thalo knew the feeling. Jeth couldn’t go rescue Snow; he would never make it past the shield. Thalo nodded to his friend and walked out of the building. He took a pair of small plasma blasters, a brace of knives, and nothing else. Stealth was the watchword for him this day. He found the shield and followed it around until he found a spot that wasn’t currently being pummeled by incoming fire, and scanned his surroundings.  He was about to do something not many beings in the galaxy knew about. He vanished. He didn’t teleport away; he just disappeared from sight. It was an innate ability his people had developed prior to first contact with the ancient humans. Only twice in his life had he ever been caught while invisible, and that had been by Cole and Ghost. Thinking of the small being who could walk through solid matter Thalo hoped the little guy was safe down in the bunker below the city.                         Thalo wasted no more time. He activated his shield phase modulator and walked right through the shield and out to the other side. He sprinted across the open ground that had been a busy street of the capitol city just weeks ago. Making his way to the other side, he got up close to the rubble and began to work his way down the street to where their primary defense had been staged.

It looked nothing like it had when he last saw it. The buildings were demolished, and some still smoked and smoldered. The Roche had cleared a few streets and were moving troops and heavy weapons down them to assault the shield. Thalo smiled to himself. The dumb bastards had really bought into his plan. Hundreds of thousands would die before they got to the city center, and if they got that far, the Nixa would already be gone. Of course, his plan didn’t take that into account seeing how Cole should be along soon to rescue everyone.

He made it to Snow’s building in under thirty minutes. He could move fast when stealthed and as long as no Esii were around keeping an eye on things with their minds, he should be ok. He compared his surroundings with the prewar map and found the building he wanted. It had been a three story building a week and a half ago, but now it was lucky to top ten feet at its highest. Thalo approached the building and started a slow circuit around its perimeter. He had his mapping function up and working on scanning the pile of rubble. He found it on the west side. A window frame that had fallen over a hole in the pile.

Climbing up to where it sat on the pile, he could see a dark hole on the other side. It might be a tunnel. If the building fell just right, it could have created pockets of space on the interior. He pinged it a few times with his sonar to get a better idea of what was down there. He gave his map maker a moment to work.

There was definitely a tunnel that wound its way down to a large cavity in the center of the pile. Thalo sighed and entered the tunnel. He wormed his way down to the bottom and into the room. Besides a dead body crushed on the side of the room, there was no one else here. Nothing to show anyone had even ever been here since the place had fallen. There was a small hole in the far wall, but nothing could have fit under it so he bypassed the small hole and went to the body.

He got close enough to see that it was a male’s hand poking out from the ruble, not Snow. If she wasn’t here, then she made it out, and since she couldn’t turn invisible, then she must have been captured. He could go back now and tell Jeth that Snow wasn’t here, and he had no way to find her wherever she had gone. Jeth might accept it, but Thalo doubted it highly. More than likely Jeth would leave the shield and try to kill everything between himself and Snow. Thalo would just have to keep looking.

He wormed his way out of the rubble and back to the surface. He proceeded out of the city and to the planes beyond. He avoided large groups of enemy and worked his way towards their camps. If she had been taken prisoner, that’s where she would be. Roche were undeniably rough on their captives, especially females. Of any species, Roche would rape anything that wasn’t male. He spent the morning going from camp to camp, but had no luck. There were many prisoners, but no blonde Nixa.

He moved further out and away from the city. He continued his search and looked everywhere he could think of. His luck ran out a little after noon. He crested a rise and was sitting on his haunches looking down at a camp of Roche, when an Esii flew out from inside a makeshift building. He was staring right at Thalo. Now he was pointing at Thalo. Now every Roche in the area was running at Thalo.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Thalo cursed as he turned a one eighty and ran for his life. He heard and felt the impacts of the Roche rounds as they tried to stop him from running. Damn Esii and their mental abilities. It was cheating if you asked Thalo. Luckily for him, he was on the edge of the camps and pointed himself away from the army and out into the open plain. He closed his eyes and trusted in his agility and quick reflexes to keep him upright. As long as he couldn’t see where he was, the Esii couldn’t either. Or so he hoped. He tripped and went sprawling.

He did a full somersault and rolled to his feet, deciding in the process that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. He turned off his vision modes, turned on the terrain-mapping feature, and looked at the ground a few feet in front of himself. He ran until the incoming fire died away, and he ran for another hour after that. He finally collapsed into a breathless heap and stared up at the sky while he tried to calm his slamming heart and ease his labored breath.