March To The Stars

'Okay,' the captain said to Kosutic. 'We're through the gates. Now all we have to do is collect our charge and get him safely back under our protection, instead of the other way around. Oh, and somehow break contact with several thousand screaming religious fanatics. Any suggestions?'

'Well,' a disembodied voice said from the darkness overhead, 'I think using the plasma cannon is right out.' Roger hit the release on his descender harness to flip out of his head-down position and dropped the last few meters to the ground. 'Morning, Captain.'

'And good morning to you, Your Highness,' the Marine said tightly. 'Having fun?'

'Not really,' the prince replied. 'I seem to have gotten my asi the next best thing to killed, I lost a Marine and four Vashin, and I seem to have really pissed off the Krath. Other than that, everything is peachy.'

'Yeah, well,' Pahner said, after a moment. 'We'll talk about it later. I doubt from the brief bit Eleanora told me that you could've done much different.'

'I'm of the same opinion,' Roger admitted. 'But that doesn't make me any happier about it. And the fact that I keep having to shoot my way out of these situations is becoming ... annoying.'

'I'd say that it was 'annoying' for your enemies as well, Your Highness,' Kosutic observed with a bark of laughter. 'Except that they don't usually survive long enough to be annoyed.'

'Sor Teb did,' Roger admitted. 'That pocker is fast. I took out the arquebusier first, and by the time I'd shifted target, Teb was behind the throne and thengone.'

'It happens.' Pahner shrugged. 'The important point is that we've got you back, along with most of your party. We're into the gatehouse, and we've closed up our forces, too. Now all we have to do is break contact.'

'Poertena's working on that,' Roger said. 'We need to get everyone to this side of the gate, though. And we need to do it fast.'

Pahner looked at the traffic jam of turom, Mardukan mercenaries, porters, and hangers-on in the gateway and sighed.

'I don't know about 'fast,' Your Highness. But we'll get to work on it.'

'As long as the gate is cleared by ...' Roger consulted his toot, 'fifteen minutes from now.'

'Got it,' Kosutic said. 'I'll extricate some of the Vashin and get them out here as security, then get the noncombatants moving.'

'Do it,' Pahner agreed. 'In the meantime, we need to start planning what disaster we're going to have next.'

* * *

Poertena took another peek through the hole in the floor and shook his head.

'Come on, You' Highness,' he muttered. 'Time's a'wastin'.'

'We've got company,' Kileti said from the demolished doorway. 'There are Krath in the gate control room.'

'Good t'ing we smashed t'e control, t'en, huh? T'ese gates ain't closing until somebody get a whole new set built. T'ey can drop t'e portcullis, but even t'at won't be easy, not wit' t'e way we jam it!'

'Yeah, but if they get into the second defense room, we're cut off,' the rifleman pointed out.

'Yes,' one of the Vashin cavalrymen standing by the barrels of oil said. 'And then we go kill some more of these Krath bastards.'

'Timing on t'is is tricky,' Poertena said, with another glance through the hole as the sound of axes biting into wood came from the far room. 'I t'ink you Vashin better get in t'e other room and keep it clear, huh?'

'Right,' the Vashin NCO said, and nodded to his fellows. 'Let's go collect some horns, boys.'

Poertena shook his head as the four cavalrymen left the room.

'I swear, t'ose guys enjoy t'is shit.' There was movement below, and he saw the Diaspran infantry reforming and beginning a slow back march into the gut of the gate tunnel, all the while keeping up a steady crackle of rifle fire. 'Almost time to start t'e ball.'

* * *

'Back one step, and fire!' Fain barked. His throat was raw from the combination of gun smoke, ash, and shouting, but the company was maintaining a good fire, and at least half of their steadiness was because of their confidence in the voice behind them. He wasn't about to stop now. He did turn at the polite tap on a shoulder, though.

'Good morning, Captain Fain,' Roger said. 'I need to adjust your orders slightly, if you don't mind.'

Fain looked at the prince, then shook his head. He could tell by now when Roger was being tricky.

'Of course, Your Highness. How can the Carnan Battalion—what's left of it—be of service?'

Roger winced at the qualification.

'Has it been bad?' he asked.

'Now that we have the Krath on a limited front, it's much better,' Fain said, gesturing to the gate opening his men filled. 'But the street fighting was quite bloody.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Roger said quietly. 'I'm getting tired of losing friends.' He gazed into the smoke and ash for a heartbeat or two, then drew a sharp breath.

'We need to break contact sharpish,' he said more briskly. 'Sergeant Major Kosutic has gotten everyone out of the way behind you, with the exception of one rank of Vashin. I need you to coordinate a high-firepower retreat to the rear of the gate area. It's imperative that the city half of the gate tunnel be absolutely clear of all our people, including the wounded. Understood?'

Fain looked upward at the murderholes above him. He been half waiting for them to open up on his company at any moment, and he hadn't enjoyed the mental image of that eventuality which his imagination had conjured up. Now, however, the thought of descending slaughter was downright comforting.

'Understood, Your Highness,' he replied, with a false-hand flick of grim amusement. 'Will do.'

* * *

Poertena waved in an ineffectual attempt to disperse the smoke drifting up through the hole as the Diasprans went to a higher rate of fire. That wall of lead couldn't be sustained for very long—individuals would quickly run out of ammunition, for one thing—but while it lasted, it permitted them to begin retreating, opening up the gap between them and the pressing Krath.

'I t'ink it's time to get to work,' he said, as another volley of pistol shots sounded from the far room. He pulled out his wrench one last time and waited until the first Krath came into view through the hole.

'Say hello to my leetle priend!' he shouted, then swung over and down at the head of the barrel like a golfer.

* * *

Fain nodded as the first gush of fish oil fell through the holes. The Krath, who'd expected it to be hot or even boiling, were pleasantly surprised that it was neither. The slippery substance made it even harder for them to move forward over the bodies piling up in the tunnel, but as far as they were concerned, that was a more than equitable trade-off. Fain doubted they'd feel that way much longer.

'That's right,' he whispered. 'Just a little further... .'

* * *

Poertena rolled the third, massive barrel aside as the last of the oil gushed from it, then nodded at Neteri and pulled out a grenade.

'One, two, t'ree—'

He thumbed the tab on the grenade and dropped it through the hole. Neteri dropped his own grenade simultaneously through the hole beside it, then both of them moved on to the next pair of holes and repeated the process.

'Time to get t'e pock out of here,' Poertena said, headed for the door and accelerating steadily. 'T'is t'e next best t'ing to teaching t'em bridge!'

* * *

The incendiary grenades were ancient technology—a small bursting charge, surrounded by layers of white phosphorus. Simple, but effective.

The burning metal engulfed the interior of the gate, and some of it spread as far as the front rank of the Diaspran infantry. Despite the weight of their rifle fire, they had been unable to keep the fanatic Krath from staying closer to them than Roger had hoped. Unfortunately, in the words of that most ancient of inter-species military