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The airlift door opened, revealing a scene of chaos and confusion. Mantis guards and prisoners were rushing around in a state of panic from the aftermath of the explosion. Jason studied the scene before him, holding one hand up in the air to restrain his crew inside the lift.
He turned to Seattle. "It looks like the explosion has caused an uprising with the prisoners. The guards will have more attention on them than on us. It can only work to our advantage. Send Wompun and three others down to the prisoners' chambers and see if there is any way to let more of them out. We'll have to round them up later, but for the time being, it will work to our advantage to keep the guards occupied."
Seattle nodded and turned to give the order to Wompun. Meanwhile, Jason studied the situation to get his bearings. He motioned to the rest of the team to stay put, while he stepped out to look around. As he did so, he felt the sudden flicker of heat on his right shoulder and he dove to his right to avoid the beam. He rolled for several feet, then bolted for the nearest shuttle. He hoisted himself on top of the shuttle to get a better look. From there, he could clearly see the towering stiletto of the portal system, and off to the left side of it, the shorter, but equally impressive two towers that marked the power supply. He traced a path back to the lift, noting the various shuttle cars they could use as shelter, and one more thing—a stack of backpacks near the communication room. A plan started to hatch.
Standing on top of the shuttle made him a perfect target, so he quickly lay on his belly and slid towards the edge of the roof. Then he motioned to Tinker to have three kids make their way to the shuttle, while those inside the lift covered him as he slipped off the roof to recover several of the backpacks. Within a matter of moments, everyone crouched behind the shuttle in relative safety. Jason laid out the plan. They would break into three groups of three, with Seattle, Jason and Wompun leading.
Jason turned to Tinker. "I want you in my group, okay?" He knew Tinker had wanted to be chosen as one of the leaders, but Jason felt like he owed it to Seattle to keep a close eye on her favorite child. Besides, once they made it to the power station, Tinker could help him decide the best way to destroy it. Tinker nodded, his look of disappointment immediately changing to a smile.
Jason laid out on the floor a map of the scene he had seen from the shuttle roof, using his remaining worth credits to represent the shuttles. As he did so, he thought, if all goes well, these small chips would likely become worthless within a matter of days.
"Seattle, I want your group to take this path," he said, outlining a path along the left flank.
"Wompun, you'll take the right path. My group will head straight down the middle. Hopefully, all three groups will be able to get to here." He pointed to a five-year life credit that represented the power station.
"If any of the group leaders see an opening to get a pack of explosives under the station, don't wait for the other groups. Just move. I noticed earlier that objects can only pass through the portal system in one direction at a time. It takes about thirty-minutes to reverse direction. The system is in that phase now, but if we don't knock out the power soon, bug reinforcements will pour out of there like cockroaches from under a dirty sink. The important thing is to get the explosives where they'll do some good, no matter what it takes. Is that clear?" Everyone nodded. He looked around at the group. Nine grim and determined faces stared back.
"Okay. Let's go. This is for the future of our planet and humanity." He stuck his hand out in a fist and everyone else did the same. Such small hands to be holding the future of our humanity, Jason thought, just before everyone shouted and separated.
He turned to look at Tinker and another teenage girl, whose name he couldn't for the life of him remember.
"I'm Runt," she said with a smile. "Thanks for picking me."
Jason couldn't remember that he had, but decided it was best to let it slide.
"Okay, you two, here we go. Stay alert and keep down. We want to draw as little attention as possible. The object of the game is not to kill these bugs. That will come later. Right now we need to knock out the portal system."
The two of them nodded. "Runt, you cover our backs. If you see any of the mantises, shoot to kill and warn us at the same time. Tinker, you stay close to me and watch the right and ahead. I'll cover the front and to our left."
Jason slipped to the side of the shuttle and peeked around the corner. After a moment, he nodded, and the three of them made their way to the next shuttle, about twenty yards away. They ran in a crouched position, each one concentrating on watching their respective areas. All three of them made it safely to the shuttle without incident.
They repeated the exercise three times with only minor confrontation. Jason and Tinker both spied a couple of prisoners who were beating up one of the guards. They waited until the prisoners had finished the job, then shot the two before they could get the guard's weapon away.
Not until they were making their way to the fourth shuttle did they run into serious trouble. The shuttle was almost thirty yards away with nothing to hide behind. They sat behind their shelter, watching for any signs of guards or prisoners. Just as Jason nodded to move out, Runt shouted behind him and he heard her stunwand fire repeatedly, then suddenly fall silent.
He turned in time to see three guards, one of them wounded, running towards them. Runt lay on the ground, unconscious, yet twitching.
"Behind us, Tink," Jason shouted. As he leapt to one side and rolled, as two energy beams smoked the area just vacated. He came out of the roll firing and a half-second later heard Tinker's stunner go off as well. Two of the guards were hit at the same time. The third one dove to the ground, scrambling on all fours to get away. Jason followed him in his sights until he was sure he had a clear shot, then fired. The mantis sprawled out, twitching violently from the full force of the blast.
Tinker moved to help Runt. "Not now. There's no time to care for our wounded. We'll come back," Jason said, as he grabbed Tinker's arm and turned him back towards the power station.
Tinker didn't hesitate, but only nodded. He started forward again. Jason started to join him, then remembered the pack of explosives that Runt was carrying. He quickly went over to her and pulled the pack from her back. As he did so, he checked for a pulse and was relieved to feel one.
He shouldered the pack and joined Tinker. They made the rest of the journey without further complications and soon found themselves behind the last shuttle. Jason glanced around its edge and could make out the power station, which stood about forty yards away from the shuttle. To its left was the portal system with about twenty yards separating the two. The bad news was that two separate groups of guards had set up positions on either side of the power station. Jason counted at least ten well-armed guards in each unit.
It explains the reason for the light resistance, Jason thought, as he pulled his head back before any of the guards could take a shot. Now what the hell do we do? As he pondered the question, Seattle and Wompun joined him. They had each lost one of their team members as well, leaving six of them against the twenty or so guards. The odds were not in their favor.
But when had the odds ever been in their favor? Jason asked himself. If they had managed to reduce those odds to twenty against six, they were in a better position than ever before. Still, it was going to take a miracle to shut down the portal system in the next ten minutes, which was about the maximum amount of time they could have before the system recycled and started sending reinforcements storming in.
He crawled over to the rest of the group. Each grim and grimy face looked up at him as though expecting him to have the answer. Seattle grasped his arm and gave it a light squeeze of encouragement. "What do you think?" she whispered so the other couldn't hear.
"We're in deep shit," he answered. He told her what he had seen.
"What should we do? We can't stop now."
"I know, but I'm fresh out of ideas. Any thoughts?"
"We could fan out along the two sides and storm them," Seattle replied.
"We wouldn't stand a chance. There are too many of them and they're too heavily armed. Try again."
The two of them remained silent, trying to come up with a viable plan. They were still thinking when Wompun came up to them.
"Tinker's missing."
"What?!" Seattle and Jason replied at the same time.
Wompun nodded. "And he took some of the explosives. We found the empty pack just a moment ago."
"What's that fool kid trying to do?" Jason shouted.
Before anyone could answer, one of the kids yelled, "There he is, crawling along the tracks."
Jason and Seattle rushed to the end of the shuttle where the shout had originated. They each took a turn glancing around the corner. Sure enough, Tinker was slowly making his way towards the power station. His oversized coat was bulging in a number of places.
"We found all his tools and things in the pack," Wompun said behind them.
"Oh, my God, he's a human bomb." The pain in Seattle's voice cut through everyone.
"Quick, we've got to give him as much cover as possible." Jason shouted, "You three, fan out over on that side and the rest of you stay here. Just keep shooting for all you're worth."
Within seconds, the group laid down a line of fire in an attempt to keep the guards' attention on them and away from Tinker. For the first couple of minutes, it worked like a charm until Tinker was almost halfway to the power station.
Then one of the guards spotted him and pointed him out to the rest of the guards.
"Keep firing," Jason shouted. "Don't let them get a good shot off."
He's not going to make it, Jason thought, as he watched the line of guards turn their attention to Tinker. He had to do something quick.
"Cover me," he shouted as he crouched down and ran around the end of the shuttle towards Tinker.
He made it almost halfway to Tinker, when the first blast hit him in his left shoulder, numbing his entire arm. He kept running and firing as he felt the cold numbness spread out through his left side. The second blast hit his right knee, sending him crashing to the hard deck.
He kept firing.
Tinker turned in his direction just as he fell. As Tinker turned towards him, Jason shouted, "Keep going. You can make it."
Tinker nodded, then suddenly stood up and started running towards the power station, stunner blazing, his coat tail fluttering behind him.
He was within ten yards of the station when the three blasts hit him. The two that hit him in the chest were from stunners, but the third one, which hit him in the right thigh, was from a laser. His momentum took him to within five yards of the base of the station, where he lay motionless, his right leg smoking from the laser blast.
Jason thought he could hear a roar of approval come from the guards.
"You sons-of-bitches," he said, as he raised himself up on one elbow and fired. His beam struck one of the guards just as it lifted its head up from behind the protective wall.
Jason pulled himself towards Tinker's fallen body, praying that the boy hadn’t been killed by the two stun blasts. As he pulled himself forward, he could see Tinker's right-hand twitch, then move to his side. Tinker managed to pull a grenade out of his coat pocket, but before he could release the catch, he was struck in his right shoulder. The grenade fell from his hand and came to rest a foot or two away.
Jason continued to pull himself forward, fighting to remain conscious. As he did so, he saw Tinker turn and look back at him. The small boy's mouth moved, but nothing came out.
"Lie still. I'm coming," Jason shouted to him, then felt his right side go numb as he was struck again.
"The grenade...shoot...the...grenade." Tinker struggled to get the words out.
Jason shook his head, trying to clear it. What was Tinker trying to tell him? It didn't make sense. If he shot the grenade, the blast would set off the entire pack of explosives Tinker was carrying.
He couldn't do it. It would mean Tinker's life. There must be another way. But even as Jason thought about it, he knew there wasn’t. He was quickly losing consciousness, and he was the only one close enough to have any hope of making the shot. At any moment, the portal would finish recycling and the entire effort would be thwarted. Humanity would continue to live under the rule of the alien mantises.
Jason raised his rifle and took aim at the small sphere. "Seattle, forgive me," he said. He slowly squeezed the trigger, but at the last instant, he heard a loud shout from behind him.
"Lion Pride!" Wompun shouted as he charged towards the power station with a second pack of explosives over one shoulder and holding a coffin cover out in front of him.
He ran past Jason and straight towards the station, continuing to shout at the top of his lungs. The coffin cover protected him from being hit by the stunners, but it was being destroyed by several laser shots.
Wompun reached Tinker's position, where he dropped the rest of the cover over the small boy and, in the same motion, spun around like a dancer, flinging the pack of explosives at the power station.
"Shoot it! Shoot it now!" Wompun shouted.
"Get down!" Jason shouted back as he redirected his aim. He waited until the pack smacked against the wall of the power station before opening fire.
A fraction of a second later, there was a tremendous explosion, a blinding flash, and an instant later, darkness.
Jason wasn’t sure how long he’d been unconscious, but it didn’t feel that long. His ears still rang from the explosion, and he could smell smoke as well. Also, he hurt all over. He lay there for several seconds trying to get his bearing when he heard someone approaching. As the person drew nearer he caught the familiar fragrance of Celeste’s perfume. What the hell is she doing here, he wondered? He tried to open his eyes but for some reason they didn’t seem to be working.
“What have you done now?” Celeste asked.
“It’s a long story...” Jason started but Celeste interrupted him.
“I wasn’t asking you. I’m asking Tinker.”
What? How does she know Tinker? He was still asking himself that question as the darkness of unconsciousness flowed over him again.