“Good.” Genovese glanced to Taylor. “Let’s go play fumigator, boys.”
* * *
Genovese had brought along 30 Mk 8 CASPers, which were unloaded and waiting for them when they arrived at the Tortantula icosagon. They quickly mounted up, fired up the mechs, and raced to the dome. The Tortantulas near the dome parted as they jogged up.
Walking through the giant aliens was one of the creepiest things Taylor had ever done. The hair stood up on his arms and shivers ran up and down his spine with every mandible that clacked as he passed. Every spider had ten eyes…half of which appeared to be staring at him the whole time. The Flatars also watched the CASPers through suspicious eyes, as if they considered the Humans the enemy every bit as much as the KzSha. Before they should have made it to the end, though, they were past the Tortantulas.
“Wait. Weren’t there more of them earlier?” Taylor asked.
“Yeah, there were,” Genovese said. “I sent some around to the other exits and to watch for anyone trying to flee. There are too many innocents inside the dome to send the Tortantulas in while they’re in a slaughtering mood; if we want Akoya, we’ll have to do this ourselves.”
“Well, I’ve got some things I want to discuss with Akoya, so I’m all for doin’ this,” Taylor said.
“As do I,” a high voice said.
Taylor turned in time to see what he assumed was the aliens’ commanding officer emerge from the crowd. “In exchange for our assistance with the KzSha, we get custody of the renegade Sumatozou when the Battle for Droxis is over,” said the Flatar riding the largest Tortantula Taylor had ever seen.
Taylor wasn’t sure how to address the Flatar, so he went with colonel for lack of anything better. “I’m grateful for the help, Colonel; I really am. That said, my people have earned first crack at Akoya when we find him. We’ve spilled blood for it, in fact.”
“You would have spilled far more blood without our help,” the colonel said. “My contract clearly stipulates that Akoya Vello is to leave this planet in our custody, dead or alive. It is non-negotiable.”
Taylor arched an eyebrow. “Your contract with who? Genovese?”
“That is not important,” the colonel said. “Do you accept these terms, or do you not? Decide now.”
Taylor hated being backed into a corner. Screw it. We can argue about this later. “Fine. Let’s get to work.” He glanced to the dome exit. The guard post was recessed into the dome so it couldn’t be seen by overhead imagery. That also meant—once the cameras mounted nearby were taken out—the KzSha stationed there were completely unable to see anyone coming at them from the sides.
They quickly destroyed the cameras, split into two groups, and approached from both sides. Taylor gave the signal, and they assaulted through the guard station…but it was empty.
“This is the worst guard post ever,” House noted.
Motion on Taylor’s Tri-V caught his eye. “Hey, Mike, is that dome panel moving?” He pointed to a spot farther into the dome.
“Yeah, it is,” Genovese said. “Akoya must have a ship in here. We need to get there fast, or he’s going to get away!”
“All right, Eagles, you heard the man!” Taylor ordered. “The bastard who had Stan killed is gettin’ away. I say we put an abrupt halt to that plan. Ayew?”
“Ayew!” the others shouted in unison.
Taylor turned and sprinted toward the moving panel in the dome. He didn’t know how far it had to open, but a sick feeling in his stomach told him he was going to get there too late. Not happenin’. He ran faster, and the rest of the company stretched out, as not everyone could maintain his speed.
“Not gettin’ away,” he chanted, forcing himself to run faster. “Not gettin’ away.”
The panel was about halfway open when he rounded the corner of a building and drew up short. There on a landing pad was a corvette, surrounded by about 60 KzSha in CASPers.
Several rounds passed by in front of him as he braked, then he dove back behind the cover of the building. The rest of the CASPers arrived.
“What have we got?” Torrio asked.
“There’s about three platoons of KzSha in CASPers between us and the ship,” Taylor said. “There’s about 50 yards of killing ground between us and them.”
“I’ll take a group a block south and we’ll hit ‘em with a two-pronged assault,” Torrio said.
Taylor nodded. “House, take a squad north a block, and we’ll turn this into a three-pronged assault. Set your timers. We’ll go in one minute. Mark.”
Torrio and House’s groups departed.
“I’ve got an idea,” Jack said after a few seconds. “We’ve got plenty of time to set it up, too.”
* * *
“Go, go, go!” Taylor transmitted as time ran out. He didn’t know if comms were still being jammed, but it didn’t matter. He toggled his jumpjets and blasted off from the roof of the building, with Jack and three others in trail. From the roof of the building next to them, five other Swamp Eagles lifted off.
With the other two squads racing toward the KzSha at ground level, they didn’t see the aerial troopers at first, and Taylor covered over half the distance before the first shot ripped past him. He returned fire as more and more of the KzSha began firing in his direction.
Leaving the troops on the ground unhindered to take the KzSha under fire. Several dropped as the Humans’ MACs ripped through the aliens’ formation.
Then Taylor was landing. He picked a KzSha who raised its MAC toward him and crashed down on top of the mech. Blue blood ran from the cracks in the mech as he flattened it to the
