Chapter 41: Chapter 41

SILIAN

Silian held on for a minute, not wanting to let go, but the daunting task ahead of them filled his mind.

If they were going to risk everything and try to rescue Dakira, Izzy, and the Princes against impossible odds, he wanted to give them the best chances of success possible.

“Prime, can you arrange one of the rooms near the transfer room into an armory? We need some equipment.”

“Of course, Silian.”

He gave Amy a squeeze. “Come on, let’s get suited up.”

Amy took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

He led the way to the transfer room, where a blinking blue dot on a door across the corridor indicated which room Prime had established, and stepped inside.

Myriad weapons and armor stood on racks around the room with metal tables and Prime dolls of various sizes wearing types of armor.

“Whoa!” Amy said, entering beside him. “Gun heaven.”

She moved to one side, where a rack contained a number of handguns and heavy weapons.

“Nothing loud,” Silian said.

“What?”

“We’re twenty against thousands. Our only hope of getting in and getting out is not attracting attention,” he said, looking over the stores.

“Prime, I’ll keep the force projectors, give me the negative refraction suit and twin shock blades as backup.”

He spread his arms and Prime morphed the gear onto him with a swirl of nanites rising from the floor. When the swarm finished, he twisted to make sure the suit fit and didn’t limit his range of movement.

“Hello, soldier,” Amy said, giving him an appreciative look. “You look like the better class of ninja, but aren’t these pieces here too shiny?”

~What’s a ninja?~ he wondered. “Suit on,” he said, and within the light helmet he saw the symbol and charge level for the suit.

Amy’s mouth dropped open. “No way! Invisibility? Prime. Do me.”

Silian chuckled and turned off the suit to conserve power, stepping over to the gun racks and frowning.

As his eyes traveled over the weapons, only two stood out as being usable. He picked up the first one, judging the weight of the handheld cannon.

“Here, try this,” he said, holding it out. “Is it too heavy?”

After the swarm subsided around Amy, she stepped forward and took the long weapon.

“What is it?” she asked, hefting it in her arms. “Looks like it would make a hell of a bang. Hey, weren’t these the things Kasana’s goons were carrying at the battle zone?”

Silian grinned. “It’s a sonic blaster, so while it is technically true that it makes a hell of a bang, it’s at a high energy frequency. It can’t be heard, even by Homeworlders.”

“Lethal?” Amy asked with a glint in her eye.

“Very.” He glanced back at the weapons rack. ~There’s only one, but if anyone should have it, it’s her.~ “Prime, give Amy the Xinthas.”

“Are you sure, Silian?”

“I trust her with it.”

Amy looked at him, raising an eyebrow, her face visible through the clear visor of her stealth suit. “What exactly are you giving me?”

As Prime ported the hideous weapon onto her, he pointed at the sonic blaster in her hands. “Long range, and very accurate.”

Then he pointed to the fist-sized round blocks now mounted on each of her shoulders and the heavy bracing for the weapon. Two thick metal belts ran from the blocks down to the mass reservoir on her back.

“Short range. Very destructive. These are Xinthas, named after one of the most feared predators in the Realm. The other name for them is rippers. No recoil, no flash, no bang, but whatever they hit will be torn to shreds.

“These delivery systems spin at half a million rpms on frictionless tracks and spin out a thousand projectiles at five miles per second. They are illegal on every world in the Realm as even a nanite suit cannot withstand them.

“There’s a targeting system in your helmet. You’ve got enough mass for three minutes of sustained fire. Only use it if you really have to.”

Amy squinted at the things. “On one hand, part of me is saying, what is it with aliens and shoulder pads? On the other hand, I’m thinking it’s the nicest thing you’ve ever given me. Now let’s go get our family back.”

Silian grinned and pulled her into a hug.

“The rebels have arrived,” Prime said. Silian let out a sigh, but didn’t let her go.

“There’s always something,” he whispered and pulled himself out of her embrace. They walked across the hall to the transport room and were met with ten rebels, dressed in an assortment of fighting gear.

He felt like he stood back at the battle zone as his gaze was met by a Gallobarean and a remarkably clean-looking Bolith with the rest Homeworlders.

He frowned as he saw that one of the Homeworlders was female and then dismissed it.

~Hemkon said they were the best he had~.

A rush of adrenaline ran through Silian at the sight of his enemy, standing armed on his ship like this. He took a deep breath to steady himself and spoke.

“Who commands you?” he asked. A tall, dark-skinned Homie male stepped forward, his eyes a bright-yellow color.

“I do. My name is Haark,” he said, his deep, crackly voice carrying through the room.

“I am Silian. I am in command of this battleship until we retrieve my captain. This is Amy. She will join us.”

“What good will a tiny thing like that do us?” Haark said, looking Amy over.

“Give over, Haark,” the female said. “She’s wearing rippers.”

Amy glanced at Silian and smiled. “I love your present.”

“She is coming with us,” Silian said, stepping into Haark’s line of sight.

“We will not wait for her. If she can’t keep up, she is your problem,” he said and turned back to fix the woman in his group with lowered brows.

“Well, isn’t he charming?” Amy said.

“We’d best get to it. Kasana could make her move at any moment,” Silian said, feeling the heat flickering in his eyes. “Haark, the rest of you, follow me.”

Amy stayed close to him as they walked toward the secure operations room.

When they entered, a small group of Orbanite crew was already suited and waiting. Silian nodded at them before everyone crowded around a large screen at the back of the room.

“The last information I have is that the Chosen One, her sons and my captain are here, a base on the top of this plateau. We cannot transport to the surface, so we will need to take the shuttle.

“The best place to land is here, on the other side of the river, there is a clearing in the jungle large enough.”

He watched as the group absorbed the information, all focus and attention as Prime showed aerial photographs.

“Once we land, we move on foot. Two miles to the river, and then half a mile to the base. It’ll be night, and we will use the cover of darkness and stealth suits to make our way through the maze of soldier housing.”

“Some of us don’t have your fancy tech, Fleet.”

“Prime, how many stealth suits in storage?”

“Eighteen.”

“Take what you want from the armory, but nothing loud,” Silian said to a round of grins from the rebels. “There will be armed guards everywhere, and we do not know what Kasana has brought with her,” Silian said.

“What if we created a diversion, something to draw the men away?” Haark said.

“The aim is to do this quietly, and without anyone finding us. We are only twenty against thousands. The longer we go undetected, the better,” Silian said.

“I agree with Haark,” Amy said. “If this goes pear-shaped, we still need something to distract them. Something big that will draw all the men away while we sneak in and get Izzy.”

“What’s a pear? Never mind, what were you thinking?” Silian asked.

“Explosives on a trigger. This place is an airfield, right? There must be fuel stores of some kind for the fighters, or something flammable we can ignite.

“If we do it right, then they can’t ignore it, or they risk the grounded fighters going up,” Amy said.

Haark leaned forward and pointed to a spot. “If I wanted to destroy the base, I’d plant them here, the cooling towers for the main reservoir generator.

“It won’t blow the reactor immediately, but everyone will either have to stop what they are doing to restore the reactor or evacuate before the reactor blows.”

Silian frowned. I don’t know, is that too destructive? We don’t know how long we’ll have. “Prime cannot get through the planet’s cloaking shell. She will not be able to set or ignite explosives remotely.”

“Then we do it the old-fashioned way,” Amy said. “Build a few homemade bombs here, and take them with us to the ground.”

“Prime, if the reactor blew, how big would that explosion be?”

“It’s an approximation only, but four point one times ten to the power of nine ernetz of energy.”

“Simulate that onscreen.”

Silian watched as a quarter of the plateau slid off the mountain, taking most of the barracks on the east side and the airfield with it. ~It could work. None of the main buildings look destroyed.~ “Prime?”

“Yes, Silian?”

“How upset would Garia be about this?”

“Less upset about this than if Izzy died. She can restore it later if she has to.”

“All right. Prime, get to work on that. And, Prime, hurry. We don’t have much time,” Silian said.

“What about us?” Haark asked, crossing his big arms over his chest.

“When we land, your team will take the lead. Clear a path to the river here. Once we get to this point, your team can split off through the jungle and set the explosives near the cooling towers.

“We’ll be here, waiting for you to circle around to this point. Once we are inside the base, I will ask you to find the princes. They are innocent young boys who have no part in this fight.”

Haark nodded slowly a few times. “Very well. We will retrieve the boys, but they will not be returned to you until we have Alianat and the package. Deal?”

“Once we are all back on this ship safely, you can take Ali back with you.”

“How do you plan to get back to the ship? You can’t expect the shuttle to still be there once we have them,” the female Homie asked.

“Prime is sending some nanites through the shield. Once she has enough, she’ll be able to port us out of there. Once we’ve secured the Royal family, we just need to hold out until she can retrieve us by hiding in the jungle.”

“Very well,” Haark said, and his team nodded.

“I will take my crew and find Izzy and my captain. We leave in ten minutes,” Silian said, and moved for the door, Amy at his side. A chatter erupted between the crew and the rebels.

Silian turned to look and was surprised to see them all standing together, talking the plan over. No fighting. No hate. Just a group of people, all working together for one common goal.

He felt his lips pull at the corners at the sight. ~This is what the Realm should be like. Not fighting and death.~

They walked toward the landing bay quietly for a few minutes. “Do you trust them?” Amy finally asked.

“No. But we have no choice. We can worry about them once we have everyone back.”

“One fight at a time, right?” Amy said.

Silian stepped out onto the loading bay, his eyes trailing over the sleek shuttle. He looked down at Amy as she smiled at the small ship.

~She finds such wonder in the smallest of things. If we survive this, I hope she never loses that.~ Amy led the way aboard the shuttle before he moved to the front and sat by the controls, commencing a diagnostic.

“Come sit next to me,” he asked.

“Sure, but I can’t fly this thing,” she said.

“You won’t have to. I just want you close.”

“Silian, the explosives are ready. I have placed them in the secure storage area, at the back of the shuttle,” Prime said.

“Good. Guide Haark and his team to the landing bay. It’s time to go.”

He waited until he heard the men’s boots on the metal floors before firing up the engines. Once all the crew and rebels were on board, Amy clutched at his arm. “Wait, I’ve thought of a problem!”

As the shuttle hovered off the landing deck, he turned to her and frowned. “What?”

“How are we going to get past the flyers?”

Prime’s voice echoed in the small craft. “Like this.”

Silian felt the familiar sensation of a teleport, and suddenly the planet entirely filled his vision. He gripped the controls in shock. ~She must have ported us just outside the screen.~

Silian grinned, hitting the throttle, blasting through the upper atmosphere, as Amy made a whooping sound beside him.