Reaver peppered it with energy bolts until it stopped moving. Then, she shot it a dozen more times.
“Such fun!” Skrew said.
“You won’t win,” a voice said from an unseen loudspeaker somewhere above us. “You can’t win. This is my home, my city, my planet.”
I glanced at the others in the room and at those peeking through the doorway from outside.
“Ready to go kick Tortengar’s ass?” I asked.
Everyone cheered their own version of “Hell yeah!”
Chapter Twelve
The Ish-Nul leaned into the doorway, two on each side.
“What was that?” Neb-Ka asked.
“It was a Xeno,” I explained, “though I’ve never seen one like it. All it has in common with ours is the exoskeleton. But there’s a lot my people still don't know about them. For instance, we didn’t know they’d spread out so far.”
I almost said “to this part of the galaxy,” but I realized I didn’t know if I was in the same galaxy. I still had no idea where I was.
“Son of a shiggit,” Timo-Ran breathed, looking the gruesome thing up and down with wide-open eyes.
Suddenly, a maniacal laugh broke everyone’s concentration.
“Silly boy,” Tortengar sneered through his hidden speakers, “you think you can win? You have no idea what’s in store for you if you challenge me. You will think my pets were the sweetest, cutest things compared to the horrors I have in store for you. Leave now, and I promise to give you a one-hour head-start before I hunt you down. Who knows what you could accomplish in an hour? Maybe you can make peace with your maker? Oh, just think of the possibilities!”
“Stupid-head, ugly kakul-licker!” Skrew roared as he shook a little fist at the ceiling.
“Stop moving!” Nyna scolded as she pounded a fist against the mech’s canopy. “I’m not kidding. I’ll lock you in there and let you breathe your own farts until I say I’m done. Don’t make me do it!”
Timo-Ran and Tila stifled a snicker.
“Stay off the sand,” I warned them. “That Xeno was living in it.”
“You won’t hear any argument from me,” Nyna mumbled past the strange-looking tool she held in her teeth.
“So, what’s the verdict?” I asked Nyna, nodding at Skrew’s gun.
“Hard to tell at this point,” she said. “The thing’s got some parts that are beyond repair. In a normal situation, any decent weapons engineer would have them replaced right away, you know? No question. Even for the pilot’s safety. But I’ll try to do what I can with what we have.”
“That’s all I can ask,” I said, before turning to the others.“Beatrix, Reaver, I need you with me. I don’t know what kind of tricks Tortengar has up there or if he’s just a big talker, but I don’t want to take any chances.
“I’ll need Timo-Ran, Tila, and Neb-Ka to stay with Skrew and Nyna. Until the mech gets repaired at least enough to hold its own in battle, you three will need to keep them safe. One of you should keep an eye on the sand pit. The other two, the rest of the palace grounds. Don’t stray too far, and if you run into any serious trouble, Skrew can use his communicator to let us know.
“I want to inspect the contents of the armory, but we’ll have time for that later. Either the guards outside have given up trying to shoot their way through our barricade, or they think Tortengar is already dead. He’s probably got a communicator he’s screaming into, but we just whooped everyone’s ass to get this far. I doubt the regulars are going to challenge us.” They nodded, and, like soldiers who had been trained under my command for years, got into position.
“Stairs or elevator?” Reaver asked.
“Stairs,” I said. “The elevator seems like a thing Tortengar could boobytrap. It’ll take longer, but our enemy isn’t going anywhere. Let’s head out.”
“Oh, what a lovely plan,” the voice from above sneered. “Split up your team. That is a great plan, isn’t it? I have 200 guards, each in heavy battle armor headed this direction right now. They’re stealthy. They’re sneaky. They’ll get as close as they have to, and then, they'll start cutting throats.
“Don’t worry, though. Most of you won’t see it coming. There will be a sharp pain, followed by a short wave of dizziness, and then… well, you’ll die. What happens to your bodies afterward won’t be any of your business because you won’t be alive to care. Well, most of you won’t be. I have a special treat planned for your handsome leader, though.”
“He thinks I’m the leader?” Timo-Ran asked.
We laughed.
“I’m glad you retain some lightness until your very last moments. Come and meet your doom, human.”
I fully intended to meet my doom, beat my doom to a bloody, quivering pulp, and offer it a quick and painless death if he told me what I wanted to know. If he didn’t, he could die slowly.
I turned to the stairs, my pistol in my left hand, Ebon in the other. It was time to end this.
“That’s it,” Tortengar whispered from the speakers. “Keep coming, hero. Walk up the stairs toward me. Fall right into my trap. Let me guess; you’re too proud to admit you’ve made a mistake, right? You’re too scared to turn around, wondering if your friends are going to judge you?”
We started up the stairs, me in the lead, Beatrix in the middle, and Reaver in the rear. Reaver’s job was to pay attention to the ground floor as long as possible. She could be counted on to assist the Ish-Nul and Skrew if anything crawled out of the sand or came in the door. Beatrix and I would handle anything that came down the stairs to challenge us.
“Do you feel that?” Beatrix asked. “The power?”
I did. It was a heady, emboldening sensation, like I was having my batteries recharged by a lightning bolt. I became more aware of my surroundings, of the movement in the air, and the beating of my heart. I heard my footsteps like never before
