'I think we have to consider what we're going to do if we can recover the boys.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, considering what we saw trying to get through the city, and if this has been happening in all the other cities…' said Wynn.
'We can't stay on this planet,' finished Grod.
'What? But there might be a way to…'
'Tiet, its over,' said Wynn.
They were sobering words to his ears and he couldn't reply. He had no words to confront the facts being forced on him now. He had ruled this society, this planet, for fifteen years, and it was all shattering to pieces around him. He had often thought of how far this brotherhood between the Vorn and Horva could go; of what could be achieved and how his rule would only be the beginning of the greatness that would be realized in the future for them.
And yet the undermining of it all had been building like a disease that grows silently unnoticed in the body until it is discovered too late to save the person's life. He had been living a fantasy all this time and it was time to wake up.
'Tiet, we thought we had beaten the Baruk but all this time those creatures have been continuing the war and we are beaten. We're beaten,' said Wynn.
'We have to escape this planet,' continued Grod.
'How. Where could we go?'
'I have an idea about that,' said Grod. 'When the Horva acquired the compound at Nagon-Toth from the Vorn military, we also stumbled upon a secret underground compound linked to it by a hidden tunnel from inside the compound. This is where we acquired the transgate portal from, but that's not all that was there.'
They listened more intently now.
'There was a prototype transgate, only it was implanted in a ship. We never got around to testing the ship's ability to create and enter a portal, but according to the data we found in the chamber it had been done successfully; there were even a number of test planets and their coordinates left in the ship's computer. I think they might have been trying to prepare for conquering them, but we could escape to one of them and the Symbytes would have no way of finding or following us.'
Tiet thought about all that had happened in the last hours and his own wife and child still on the run. They were right and he knew it. He had no other ideas to offer in the situation.
'Let's do it. Once we have Mirah and the children we'll make a run for your ship.'
Wynn and Grod looked relieved as though they thought he might not be willing to leave; as though he might not be willing to give up on all he had tried to build. The irony for Tiet was that Wynn had been the one who had nearly twisted his arm into accepting the council's proposal to ascend to his father's throne.
'Look's like we're entering the wilds,' said Grod.
'I'll begin scanning for their life signatures,' said Wynn. 'It shouldn't take us long to pick them up and any ships that are in the area.'
'Once we have their position,' said Tiet. 'We'll evacuate them and dust off as quickly as possible.'
Wynn eyed Grod whose composure changed quickly at that suggestion, but Tiet was already aware of what the proposal meant for his old Horva friend.
'Grod, I know you want revenge, believe me I would like almost nothing more than to join you in that fight; nothing more that is except to save my wife and our children and hopefully get off of this rock with our lives. You and Wynn talked to me about a hopeless fight and you're right. Now our priority has to be saving them and getting away safely.'
Grod looked at him and his anger softened when he thought of saving his son. Emil was all he had left; Tiet was right and he nodded his agreement.
'I've got the wreckage of the Whiplash on sensors.'
'They crashed?'
'It looks like a controlled landing, but the ship's just sitting there smoldering. Something must have happened and they've left it to burn.'
'Any other ships in the area?'
'I've got three military transports on the ground and…wait a minute…yes, I've got them. Four people are traveling toward the transports; I don't think they realize their heading into a trap.'
'Alright then, let's get in there fast; ETA five minutes.'
'WE'RE coming into a clearing, Kale!' shouted Emil from the brush ahead of them.
The girl had not let go of him since they found her, but her trembling had stopped. He turned to look at her face as she raised it from his shoulder. Suddenly he felt something; another presence was with them now. The girl's expression was strangely cold and blank, then she moved her hand almost faster than Kale could see and much too fast for him to react with her hanging around his neck. Her hand was over his mouth in a flash as she pulled herself up, putting her knees into his chest and her hand around the back of his neck to leverage her arm into his mouth.
Her strength was unbelievable for a girl her size. He was off balance before he knew it and her weight and effort forced him back to the ground. He could feel something more driving down his throat from her hand, like a slimy tentacle of some sort. He was strangling on the appendage and trying unsuccessfully to beat her off with his fists.
Despite his inability to scream for help, his mother was quick to respond. Mirah was beating and clawing at her, but the girl relentlessly remained fastened to her victim.
'Emil, help him! She's one of them!!'
Kale could see only cold blackness in her doll's eyes. She was killing him, he thought. He noticed Emil coming upon her with his ignited kemstick, but the little monster was faster than expected. Emil swiped at her, but she suddenly disengaged from Kale and rolled off of his body under the weapon's strike and sprang in one move over Emil's head to land on his shoulders.
He was caught off guard and the girl used his surprise to her advantage. She plowed her gnarled hand into his mouth as she pulled his jaw down with her other hand from behind him.
Now Emil was flailing with the girl on his back; her small legs were dug into his hips to brace herself. Emil dropped his weapon and Mirah grabbed it and swung at the girl. She disengaged her second attack under the threat and bounded away from him, landing on the trunk of a large tree nearby. She looked like a large squirrel clinging to the tree.
Kale was on his feet as fast as he could recover, with his own kemstick coming alive in his hand. The girl hissed, then boldly launched herself at him. His vision was blurred a little as he tried to focus on her and clear his throat from the choking. She bounced off of the ground under his first strike then tumbled in the air over his head. His second strike guided by his kinetic senses struck the girl in mid air as she came down behind him. It was a clean strike; she didn't move again.
'Are you boys okay?' asked Mirah. 'Let me get a bioscan.'
'We don't have time,' said Kale, 'The soldiers are near-I can feel it. We've got to keep moving.'
The group tried to recompose themselves quickly and moved on their previous path, leaving the girl behind. They came into the clearing that Emil had spoken of and almost immediately Kale could sense the soldiers waiting for them on the other side of the open area.
'Wait.'
'What's wrong?'
'I think we're walking into a trap here. They're waiting for us on the other side of the clearing. Let's move back into cover.'
They turned to recover their position back in the brush. Immediately blaster fire erupted on their position. Emil noticed that the blasts were meant to stun only, as they bounced around the trees without charring the timber.
Soldiers began to move out of their cover into the clearing and close the space between them. There were at least fifty or sixty heading for them while laying down a steady rain of stunning laser fire. Emil and Kale blocked many of the stun blasts that were coming at their position as they retreated further into the cover of the
