ASSAULT
Governor Kisch K’ta looked very worried. This was exactly the kind of situation he had hoped to avoid by sending out the android assassin. His confidence in its ability may have been premature.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Governor. The city’s perimeter defense systems just picked up this attack force five minutes ago. They appear to have originated from one of the region of Mt. Vaseer. They’ll be within nine miles by now.”
“Activate the defensive batteries at once. Destroy them all,” Kisch K’ta demanded.
Setaru’ lek pressed the intercom button on the Governor’s desk and patched into the cities defensive control room.
“Vescotta, lock on approaching targets and fire at will.”
“Yes, sir.”
Defensive laser cannons on the west side of the city powered up as the gunners worked to lock on the approaching vehicles. They were still out of visual range, but quite visible on Vorn scanners.
“Sir, the vehicles are widely dispersed and too small to get a positive lock while moving at this speed.”
“Tell the turrets to strafe across their flight path. That should take out some of them,” Vescotta said.
The large laser cannons expelled their massive firepower with great moans of energy buildup and release. The beams trailed away from the city and into the twilight toward their distant targets.
Ranul saw what he thought was heat lightening building in his peripheral vision. A massive beam of energy lit up the terrain ahead of their transport group. The laser beam instantly cut a horizontal track across their path, catching two transports along the way. They burst into fiery fragments as inertia carried them onward, distributing the burning wreckage along their previous flight paths.
The transport group scattered even further apart as more laser fire blasted at them from the city in the distance. The pilots made erratic maneuvers in order to evade the assault. Estall grabbed the communication hand-set and yelled into it saying, “Increase speed to full throttle! Evasive maneuvers!”
The entire transport group surged forward faster, making them even harder to hit. They were still three miles outside of the capital and closing fast.
A beam of energy blazed near Estall’s transport, cutting across their flight path behind them. Ranul suddenly realized why he liked being a scientist rather than a warrior. The city perimeter came up fast now. Estall and the others in the transport prepared their firearms for battle. It appeared most of the ships had made it through the gauntlet and were now too close to be targeted by the large cannons, which now fell silent.
Another barrage of fire began to sweep across the distance between their transports and the Vorn facility. But now the firestorm came from the hundreds of Sentinel robots around the facility’s perimeter.
Pulse-laser blasts rang out from the transports as the Aolene returned enemy fire. The shots impacted against the forward deflectors as Estall pushed on through the line of Sentinels with their ship. The deflector shield bounced the robots out of their way as they rammed their way through. The warriors activated their electromagnetic shields and hurried out of the transports, firing their pulse weapons at the Sentinels.
The robots took multiple hits, but had greater numbers at their disposal. The Sentinel’s armaments were too much for handheld pulse rifles to be effective against them. As the robots approached, their own guns still blazing, the Aolene warriors secured their rifles in favor of Barudii blades and kemsticks. More and more warriors drew their blades, put shields ahead, and moved into the oncoming Sentinels.
The E.M. shields gave them cover as they closed the distance needed to strike. The Barudii blades sliced through the Sentinel armor like butter. The powerful blows of the Aolene warriors dispatched robot after robot. The Sentinels appeared helpless to stop the Aolene advance as robots fell to their human foes.
Estall shouted for the other warriors as several hundred came against the cloning facility’s wall. Using handheld grapples, they fired them over the perimeter of the roof and quickly began to scale the walls. Ranul didn’t like this part one bit. He detested heights. And he didn’t enjoy being pulled up the height of this wall any more than he had being pushed off by Orin the night before. When the warriors had all reached the roof, they ran across to ventilation shafts and sliced open the vent heads, allowing them to enter. Estall instructed them to fan out through the facility and take the main control room.
“Whoever gets to it first, contact me.”
Ranul stayed glued to Estall as they all plunged into the dark maze of tunnels comprising the facility’s ventilation system.
“Governor, the facility has been breeched by enemy forces,” Setaru’ lek reported. “They have bypassed our ground forces at the building entrances and are moving through the ventilation system. Several floors are reporting gunfire while others don’t respond at all.”
“Get more soldiers up here at once!”
Behind the room’s ventilation screen, Estall, Ranul, and several warriors listened.
“That’s him,” whispered Ranul. “That’s Governor Kisch K’ta. If you can take him, you’ll control the Vorn.”
Estall ran at the vent screen and crashed through it, rolling into the room. The other warriors followed. Several Sentinels responded by firing upon them. Their E.M. shields repelled the laser blasts while they engaged the robots with Barudii blades.
The governor and Setaru’ lek, along with several other men, crouched on the ground in fear. The governor’s office door slid open, allowing several Horva guards to come inside. Like sleek predators, they leaped at the Aolene warriors, attacking furiously. One of the Aolene near the entrance was caught from behind by one of the clones as it plunged a knife into his throat. The wounds were fast and fatal, and the dark skinned clone kept coming.
Ranul blasted at the Horva with several bursts of pulse laser fire from his crouched position just inside the vent shaft, dropping the clone. Two more Horva came in for the kill.
The Horva swiped his dagger at Estall as he brought his blade up to defend himself, causing the brute man to sever his own hand upon Estall’s weapon. As the wild man recoiled in pain, Estall followed through with a quick thrust through its chest to dispatch the feral man. As the last Horva lunged at the third warrior, Vasad, it met a spicor disc in flight, which vaporized the majority of his body. Ranul leveled his pulse rifle on Governor Kisch K’ta.
“Hello, Governor…surprised to see me?”
“I should have given you and your family to the Horva long ago, Ranul.”
“Governor Kisch K’ta, you will broadcast to your soldiers, telling them to stand down immediately or you and your people here will suffer excruciating deaths for crimes against my people,” Estall said.
“You would torture us?” Setaru’ lek asked.
“Exactly as you tortured my wife, you filth.” Ranul responded.
“You have killed millions of our people and sent our children away to be massacred by your clones. There must be some retribution for their deaths,” said Estall.
“I will order my men to stand down, but it will do you no good. When our reinforcements come through the rift, you and your rebels will be the ones made to suffer.”
“Where is my wife, Governor?” Ranul asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, you can do better than that,” Estall said.
“I tell you, I don’t know. She was taken as a prisoner across the rift months ago after you agreed to build the android prototype for us.”
“Then I’ll find it in your data files,” Ranul said.
He made his way to the closest computer terminal and input his translator code allowing him to read the files. The display changed from the Vorn language to Castillian, but access to the information he wanted was denied. He turned back to the Governor. “The code, Kisch K’ta? Now!”
The Governor remained sternly silent, until Estall raised his blade. He brought the tip close to Kisch K’ta’s throat.
“Governor, the code.”
Kisch K’ta swallowed hard, listening to the hum of adomen, then grumbled the voice code in his native tongue. The computer responded, allowing Ranul to begin scanning through the Vorn database.
