Burning Bright Read online

  “He moved into the first building where Uniform Squad is. I think he’s on the second or third floor. He’s really fucking fast, I almost didn’t’--” the sound of my fragmentation grenade going off in the stairwell cut off the rest of his words. There were screams from the squad below, and I leaned over the stairs with my carbine ready.

  I spotted two of them easily, it looked like the grenade had shredded through the armor, but I pumped a few extra shots into them for good measure. Each of the carbine’s bullets tore through the armor as if it was made of cheap aluminum. The bullets were much more effective than the shots from my submachine gun, and I realized these fuckers were probably all carrying armor piercing rounds.

  Elaka Nota wasn’t playing around. They wanted Persephone back.

  They wanted Eve.

  The beast in my soul thrashed through my brain, but I ignored it and jumped down the center of the stairwell. It was only a six or seven-meter drop, and the maneuver surprised the two other Elaka Nota soldiers who managed to escape my grenade by ducking back into the hallway. My bullets tore through both of their helmets, and they died before they could update the rest of their squads.

  “Uniform Squad? What is your status?” Control asked, and he sounded quite concerned.

  There was no answer, of course, and I replaced my carbine’s empty magazine with one of the full ones from a corpse. Then I remembered they were armor piercing, and grabbed another four of the ammo pouches. Then I snatched a few more grenades to replace the two I just used. I wanted to take my time and get all of the ammo from these fucks, but it would weigh me down too much, and probably cost me too much time to loot.

  “Uniform Squad? Do you copy?” the man paused. Then I heard him growl into the headset. “Charlie Squad, where are my drones?”

  “Be there in five seconds, Control,” a voice answered.

  “Bravo Squad, I need you to double back and enter the front of the building behind Uniform Squad. Be prepared for resistance.

  “Roger, Control. Moving back,” a voice confirmed.

  “Whiskey Squad, hold your position and keep eyes on the building from the back side. Alert us to any movement.”

  “Understood, Control,” the sniper said.

  I looked around at the bodies and contemplated my next move. The sniper was a problem. The drones were a problem. The men about to come in through the front door were a problem, but the real pain in my ass was this fucker directing everyone. I needed to put a bullet in his head; then it would be much easier to take down the rest of these soldiers.

  I yanked the last two bodies out of the hallway and into the stairwell area. The door opened inward toward the stairs, and an idea popped into my head. I pushed one of the bodies up against the door, yanked a grenade off the ammo belt, and then wedged it between the corpse's’ leg and the door frame. The jury-rigged bomb squeezed into the spot just fine, and I carefully slid the pin out of the handle. The release didn’t pop, and I let out a long sigh.

  I crouched by another corpse and untied the laces of their boots. It was actually easier than I thought it would be with my claws; I merely sliced through the knot at the top, pinched one end, and then yanked the long cord out. Soon I held four long laces in my paws. I tied them together, looped it around the door handle, and ran the line up the guardrail of the stairs one level up. I tied this end to the pin of another grenade, and let it dangle under the bar. The two traps were primitive, but it would at least let me know as soon as Bravo Squad tried to access the stairs.

  I hauled ass back up the steps to the second floor while I considered my next steps. Control needed to die, but the tiger in my soul didn’t like the idea of leaving his women alone in the building. Still, the man needed to be dealt with, and it wasn’t going to happen if I sat in here. I had no idea how many more squads there were out there, and I didn’t like the idea of being trapped in this building for another minute. There was probably another group of Elaka Nota assholes heading toward Persephone, and each minute I spent here was also putting Eve, Kasta, and Paula in danger.

  I ran toward the front of the building, in the direction of the main street, and slowed a bit when I reached the door to an office that I thought was close to the end of the structure. I pushed the door open slowly and glanced into the dark room beyond.

  The area looked as if it had once been an employee lounge. There were broken vending machines, a smashed up refrigerator, destroyed couches, and broken chairs littering the space. Across the way were windows, and most of them were broken.

  “Drones are here, Control,” a voice reported.

  “Can you send them into the building?” Control asked. “I see broken windows on the second and third floor at the front.”

  His words were a clue, and I ducked down to see if I could get an angle out of the windows that would reveal the man’s position. If I were him, I would have taken a spot on the roof across the street from the target building. Then I would have been able to get a good visual on the place while I directed the troops.

  “Control, there are also two broken windows on the rear of the building,” the sniper from Whiskey Squad said.

  A growl escaped my chest. If the drone came in through the back window of the fourth floor, it would see Zea and Juliette. I was sure they could handle themselves, and shoot down the robot, but then Elaka Nota would know exactly what their position was.

  “Charlie, send your drones in the front and back.” I heard Control say through my headset wire.

  “Roger, Control.”

  I readied my carbine and stepped back in the hallway so I was only peeking out a bit. The eyeball-done drifted past the window outside of the building, and it turned to see through the mess of broken glass. The pilot didn’t appear to notice me on the other side of the wall, so I guessed the drone wasn’t running any sort of thermal vision.

  The eyeball rose in the air a bit, bobbed a few times, and then moved through an opened spot in the window. It was a tight fit, and I gave a bit of kudos to the pilot for getting through it without scraping the glass.

  I was still going to kill him.

  An explosion sounded behind me, and I heard a distant shout of surprise. I didn’t know if both of the traps triggered, but the shout was comforting. I guessed I had at least hurt one or two soldiers in Bravo Squad.

  “Megat and Nik are down! There was a grenade planted behind one of the doors! We’ve found the bodies of Uniform Squad! They are all dead.” The voice was a woman’s, and she was more angry than surprised.

  I didn’t wait for Control’s response. Instead, I shot the eyeball shaped drone in the room. Then I sprinted toward the window and checked the roofline of the buildings across the street. There was a glow of magenta colored light from the window in the top floor of a building at my two o’clock position. I guessed that Control was in there.

  “Someone just shot my drone down! Front of building, second floor!”

  I jumped back from the window as lights poured over the glass. Then the bullets started to zip through the air, and I dove back behind the wreckage of the tipped over fridge. I doubted the metal there would stop one of the armor piercing bullets, but I would take whatever protection I could get.

  The bullets stopped a few moments later, and I prepared myself to sprint. The bullets confirmed my suspicion that there was another squad of soldiers out front or guarding Control. I’d killed a lot more of these fuckers, but I was still trapped in the building, and I wasn’t really any closer to being able to end the conflict.

  I thought of another risky idea and pulled one of my flash grenades out of my pocket.

  “My drone has spotted him! He’s still in the room. Southeast corner behind some--”

  I threw my flash grenade out the window and waited for the explosion to pop while my head was turned. I could still see the brightness through my eyelids, and I guessed anyone looking in my direction were blinded. I’d only get this one chance to try and kill Control, so I was going to risk leaving Zea and
Juliette alone for a few minutes.

  People started screaming into my headset.

  I ran toward the window, shot out the glass of the nearest one, and then dove to the street below.

  I rolled as soon as I landed and came up with my carbine pointed toward the glow of control terminals. There was a cluster of drone pilots with stations set up under the stone awning of the building across the street there, and they were guarded by three armored soldiers.

  All of them were covering their faces or helmets with their arms.

  My borrowed carbine sang, and the bullets shredded through computer terminals and armored bodies with morbid indifference. The group of pilots and their guards died before they could see their killer, but these people wanted to murder me, and my women. They worked for a company who had enslaved most of a solar system. They deserved whatever death my bullets brought them.

  “He’s out on the street! He’s killed all of Charlie Squad! Fall back to the front of the building! He’s running toward my location! Hurry!”

  I reached the side of the building where Control just confirmed he was. There was a fire escape on that side of the structure, and I ran up the side of the wall some three meters before I pushed off and jumped. My left paw hooked around the edge of the fire escape’s bottom railing. My bicep and back flexed as their strength launched me up onto the platform. Then I was running up the stairs toward the top floor.

  “Does anyone see him?” Control’s voice was frantic.

  It should have been.

  “I’ve got him!” It was that damn sniper from Whiskey Squad, and a bullet smashed into the wall of the building a half meter behind me.

  But I was already on the top floor, so I dove through a window before he could get another shot off. The glass cut my face, ears, and arms in a hundred places, but they healed some five seconds later, and I didn’t pause my run toward where I thought the Control fucker was located.

  I turned a corner, then turned another corner, and growled with frustration because he wasn’t where I thought he would be located. Then I heard the sound of a gun’s slide being pulled, and I immediately turned toward a closed door. My ears gave me a pretty good idea of where he was, so I held down the trigger of my carbine, and sent a full magazine of bullets punching through the walls and door.

  His scream cut off in mid crescendo, and I reloaded before I went through the door. This man was obviously an officer of some sort. His armor wasn’t as bulky as the other soldiers, and it bore three golden flower looking stars on each shoulder.

  He had a terminal opened, but my bullet punched through the screen in two places. The actual computer was only the size of my human hand, so I disconnected it from the screen and slid it into my pocket. I was feeling pretty good about us getting out of this alive, and I was sure Zea would be able to dig into the hard drive for juicy details.

  “Zea and Juliette. There are two more soldiers in your building and one sniper outside.” I spoke softly into the transponder and hoped the two soldiers who had been in their building left to stop me from killing their commanding officer.

  Three against one was still shitty odds, especially if one of them was a sniper with a good guess about my location.

  My friends didn’t answer me. I hadn’t wanted to communicate with them earlier for fear that our attackers would hear the transmission, but it might have been a terrible idea.

  “Shit,” I growled under my breath and tried to keep my imagination in check. The women were probably okay, but their lack of a response made the animal rage against my chest while my fear spun in my stomach.

  I crouched low and moved toward the window facing the building my friends were in. I had a good idea about where the sniper was, so I kept to one of the parts of the wall that didn’t have a window positioned so he could see me. It also meant I couldn’t see if he changed position, but that was okay for now. If he decided to move on to the street, we would be on equal footing.

  I caught a glimpse of the two soldiers from Bravo Squad exiting the other building. One of them was limping, but they still pointed their carbines toward the window where I hid. There was no light in the room because the terminal screen was destroyed, but each of the Elaka Nota soldiers had lights at the end of their short rifles.

  I aimed at the one who wasn’t injured and sent a burst of bullets through the window. The figure twisted on the street, but my shots were well placed, and they ripped through the woman’s chest piece and helmet. Her gun twisted as she fell, and the light spasmed through the sky of the deserted city.

  I moved my sight over to the soldier who was limping. He tried to duck behind the doorway, but I filled the edge of the building with bullets, and his dead body toppled over.

  Then I dived down to the floor of the room and rolled to my right. The sniper’s rounds punched through the walls, windows, and ceiling of the room a second after I rolled, so all of the shots missed me. When he stopped firing, I crawled back toward the door opposite the window.

  “Adam?” Juliette asked through the transponder. Her voice was a whisper.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Where is Zea?” I asked.

  “I’m okay. Back in the room where you both left me,” the hacker whispered.

  “Juliette left?” I asked.

  “I just shot this sniper in the back of the head,” Juliette said. “Snuck up on him when he was trying to pump you full of bullets.

  “Damn, good job. I think that is the last of them, but just to be sure, let me check the streets.”

  “Are you okay?” Zea asked.

  “I’m fine. Just stay put. I’ll let you know when to come out.” I stood and moved back to the fire escape. It would be quicker getting down than taking the stairs in the building.

  “I’m okay also. In case you were wondering,” Juliette huffed.

  “Give me a break,” Zea moaned.

  “What? He’s all worried about you. I have feelings too, you know.”

  “I’m glad you both are fine. Now shut up so I can make sure it is safe,” I growled, and the women stopped talking.

  I moved out the window and onto the fire escape. It only took me a few moments to get down, and then I paused at the corner before I darted across the street.

  Still no movement, so I risked turning on the lights on my flight suit. A few of the beams came out from my waist where there was a break between my jeans, jacket, and armored coat, but it was enough to see most of the street.

  Still no movement.

  “Zea, hold your position. Juliette, come meet me at the southeast corner of the building Zea is in.”

  “Got it,” the policewoman said, and I ran to the edge of the building to meet her. She was carrying the rifle of the man she just killed. It had a barrel about three times longer than the carbine I carried, and a massive thermal screen display scope.

  “Zea, we are coming for you,” I said, and Juliette followed me into the building. We made it to the stairwell now filled with ruined corpses, and then continued our way up the stairs to the fourth floor.

  Then I opened the door, checked the hallway, and told Zea to come out.

  “Hi,” Zea whispered to me as soon she joined Juliette and me.

  “Hi,” I replied. I was a bit surprised when my voice came out like a purr.

  We moved down the stairs, and I told each of the women to pick up a carbine and as much ammo as they could carry.

  “I can’t carry the sniper rifle and the carbine,” Juliette said.

  “I can take it,” I replied as I took the long gun from her and then put the strap over my shoulder. The weapon was going to be useful to take with us, but I wanted to make sure we were all carrying firearms we could use at closer range.

  “Hurry,” I urged as Zea picked through the bloody bits of body parts. Her face was pasty white, and she definitely looked like she was going to puke.

  “There were more corpses out front with guns and ammo,” Juliette reminded me as we moved out of the stairwell.

&nbs
p; “I think we are clear,” I said once the women looted the rest of the ammo from the two corpses at the front of the building. “Let’s get back to Persephone.”

  “Smith, we got attacked in District H. What is the status of Elaka Nota?” Juliette asked into the transponder.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Larns! I couldn’t reach you through your transponder. I thought you were--”

  “Save the small talk, Smith. What the fuck is going on?” Juliette barked.

  “I’ve alerted all security captains in all districts, and I have all of the Elaka Nota on screen. There look to be two groups. One is going the long way counter clockwise, and they are at District F. The other is at District C, that one is stuck on the tube train at the blue stop, and Captain Horn’s Spec Op team has weapons on them.

  “What about the one in F?” Juliette asked.

  “We are still trying to contain them, but Captain Manpre has a blockade set up at-- Holy shit!” The man let out a shout of dismay, and Juliette’s jaw hardened.

  “Smith? What’s wrong?”

  “The group in District C just deployed a half dozen dog sized spider drones. They are tearing into Horn’s men!”

  “Fuck!”

  “They are heading to Persephone,” Zea said. “I hate to say I told you all so, but I told you all so.”

  “Smith. Tell Sergeant Yeffers to get all of our team suited and guarding the entrance to our harbor. Got it?”

  “Yes Ma’am,” he said.

  “I’m going to meet you there.” She clicked off her transponder and looked at us.

  “How long will it take for Elaka Nota to get to the harbor where Persephone is at?” Zea asked.

  “Hard to say. If they run, ten or fifteen minutes,” Juliette answered.

  “How long will it take for us to get--” I started to ask, but she interrupted me.

  “More than fifteen, even if we run.”

  “Then we better fucking hurry,” I said.