Anxiety dumped acid into my stomach as we waited for the scheduled start time. We were in position, everyone knew their job, and now we just had to execute the plan. I bounced in place, unable to pace, but needing some sort of movement.
Alex laced his fingers through mine. “You’ve got this,” he murmured. He hadn’t activated his com, so the words were just for me.
I took a breath and shared my biggest fear. “People are going to die. If I fail, they’re going to die for nothing.”
Alex ran his thumb over my knuckles, his expression solemn. “Everyone out here volunteered. They know the risks. They listened to your plan and decided that it was worth it. And you’re not going to fail.”
I wished I had half his confidence. I was never meant to lead a group. I would have felt so much better going in on my own, because while it probably would have ended in failure, I would bear all of the consequences. Now, friends and strangers were throwing themselves into the line of fire so that I would have a better chance of getting the gates up.
I could not fail them. I would not fail them.
I pulled Alex’s face down to mine and kissed him, slow and deep, until desire replaced anxiety and my nerves steadied. “Thank you.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re welcome. Do what you need to do; I’ve got your back. Always.”
I kissed him again. His support bolstered my own confidence.
We all stood silently watching as the last seconds counted down. When the timer hit zero, I held my breath. Fire bloomed in the distance as something large blew up, then closer as another target was hit.
I could hear distant blaster fire start up as the troops in the base rallied to fight back. And still, we waited.
It felt like two eternities, but I knew from the schedule that it was only five minutes. Finally, Marta’s voice came over the com. “Omega team, you’re good to go. May the stars shine brightly on you.”
I held the blessing close and led the group toward the base. Aoife was behind my right shoulder, her rifle held loosely. She was still the main lookout, but because I knew the base better than she did, I was now in charge of getting us inside. If I fell, the job would go to Ying.
I really hoped it didn’t come to that.
We’d decided to save Esteri’s access until absolutely required, so we blew the checkpoint’s outer door with breaching charges. As soon as the door swung open, we swept inside. One soldier in a black Syndicate uniform was down from the blast and two more fell to our weapons. I hadn’t heard them send any warnings, but my ears were still ringing from the blast.
I opened the checkpoint’s heavy main gates, then shot the control panel so they couldn’t be closed again. Now that our exit was secured, we needed to move.
The base had dozens of buildings, both above and belowground, but we’d decided to stay aboveground as long as possible. It was riskier from a someone randomly spotting us standpoint, but the aboveground surveillance wasn’t as extensive, and it gave us more room to maneuver. We hoped we’d be able to disappear in the chaos.
And it was chaos. Armored soldiers, both in Syndicate black and RCDF camo, ran toward the various attack points. A few lower-ranked Syndicate officers in red and green uniforms were relaying information back to the commanders safely hidden on ships or in the command center.
Our black fatigues and black armor let us both blend in with the night and also with the Syndicate troops around us. We formed two lines and jogged like a squad on a mission, but I kept us to the shadows as much as possible without being obvious about it. A squad moving with purpose was far less interesting than one skulking in the shadows and peeking around corners.
Marta’s voice in my ear kept me apprised of the situation. Two squads were falling back under heavy fire. A third had pressed their advantage and taken a guard tower. They were using the heavy tower guns to lay down suppressive fire. Friendly squads were warned to avoid the area. Grenades and explosives were being used to maximize the distraction level.
Our squads were doing their part, now I just had to get us inside.
Because we were moving forward without double-checking every corner, we often ran into enemy squads. Every time we passed close, I waited for someone to recognize that we were part of the invading force. None did because they were all too busy obeying their own orders. But it never got any easier, and by the time we were close to the heart of the base, I was once again a bundle of nerves.
The last major hurdle before we descended to the tunnels came into view. We just had to cross the parade grounds and then we’d be at the science and technology building where Esteri worked. Its basement connected to the tunnels leading to the command center a short distance away.
Unfortunately, the parade grounds were a large, open space, and long enough that going around would add more danger than crossing in the open. A few other squads were crossing, so hopefully we wouldn’t stand out too much.
“Activate shields,” I murmured quietly. I activated my cuff and heard quiet affirmatives from Ying and Esteri. We would have to watch our distance now, because overlapping shields sometimes behaved in unexpected ways. We’d coached Esteri, but it would be up to me and Ying to keep an eye on it.
We started across the open space at a jog, still in two lines. I tried not to get tunnel vision on the science building, but it was difficult. We were so close.
So, of course, the universe decided to help.
We were most of the way across the parade grounds when a Syndicate officer in red and green stepped out from between the science building and the building next door. Spotting us, he impatiently waved us over.
I had no choice but to comply. We were too exposed here.
I stopped in front of him. This close, I could see he was a second lieutenant, the most junior officer. I snapped a tidy salute and prayed everyone else followed my lead. “Sir?”
“Why are you out of regulation armor?” he demanded. “I should write you up.”
The base was under attack and this little man was on a power trip about uniforms. I kept the distaste off my face and tried to sound young and scared. “Sarge told us to scrounge what we could find, sir, then head for the northeast wall.” It was the direction in which we were heading, as well as one of the places we’d hit hardest, just so this excuse would seem believable if needed.
His lip curled. “Who is telling you to disregard orders? What was his name?”
It said something that he automatically assumed the sergeant was a man, but I didn’t bother to correct him. I needed him to lose interest, pronto. “I didn’t catch his name, sir. But he was in the armory.” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, back the way we’d come and approximately in the armory’s location.
“Wait here wh—”
Aoife didn’t wait for him to complete the sentence before she struck, quick as lightning. The lieutenant slumped into her arms, his heart shredded by the glistening blade in her hand. She sheathed the knife and easily swung the lieutenant into her arms while I stood frozen. I’d rarely seen death dealt so swiftly up close. When I didn’t move, she tilted her head at the science building.
I shook myself out of my shock and led us around the building. Alex kicked in the building’s service door. We entered, then propped the door closed with a nearby desk. Aoife disappeared down the hall and returned without the lieutenant’s body.
“How do we get to the tunnels from here?” I asked Esteri.
“The back stairs have tunnel access. They are down the hall to the left, but the tunnel door is five-centimeter-thick steel. There will be no kicking it down and even breaching charges might not work.”
“How far is the command center from that door?” I knew the answer from the maps, but I wanted to be sure that Esteri’s estimate matched what the map showed because she’d actually used the tunnels before.
“Less than a hundred meters. Science and technology employees are often needed down there, so we have our own access tunnel that comes out just a few meters down from the command center door. That’s where we’ll run into the most resistance, if they’re expecting us.”
We had a few things to deal with resistance, but it would be best if we could make it all the way into the command center before we had to fight. I checked the time. We were running right on schedule. The second wave of attacks would begin in the next five minutes, splitting the attention of whoever held control.
Hopefully.
I led us to the stairway, with direction from Esteri. She’d worked in the building for more than a decade and had spent many nights and weekends exploring its depths, mindlessly walking while she mentally worked on complex problems. She was a far better resource than I’d ever expected and I wondered if Mother knew just how valuable her contributions were. Maybe her presence at the brunch hadn’t just been for novelty’s sake.
At the bottom of the stairwell, a single steel door without an obvious chip reader sat flush against the wall. Esteri waved her arm at the wall and we all held our breath. The entirety of my plan rested on this door opening. If it didn’t, I’d wasted all those lives for nothing.
My heart thundered in my chest, too fast, as I waited to see if everything had been for naught. I balanced on the edge of despair, sure that the door wouldn’t open, that my one attempt to lead would fail.
The door opened.
I hardly believed my eyes when the gap around the door became clearer and the heavy metal slab swung inward, revealing an empty hallway.
“Is that an illusion or did my plan really work?” I asked.
“If it is, I’m seeing it, too,” Alex said. “Let’s move before it vanishes.”
Aoife and I started into the tunnel and Ying and Alex dropped back to defend our rear. Cira covered Esteri in the middle of the group. Because Ying, Esteri, and I all had shields, we’d offer a little protection to the person next to us, if we stood close enough.
Esteri didn’t know if entry through the science building sounded any sort of alarm, so we’d decided that speed was now more important than stealth. We ran, only slowing to peek around the corners before dashing back into a sprint.
“This is the last corner,” Esteri said as we approached. “The command center door is five meters to the left.”
This was our last hurrah, our do or die. We ran for the main hallway, counting on surprise and shields to tip the scales in our favor. Aoife fired a fraction of a second after she cleared the corner, and a heartbeat later, I found a target of my own. She went down.
The squad of eight defending the door wasn’t dug in and we’d caught them flat-footed. Aoife had hit three before my shield took the first hit. Scattered and shocked, the rest of them fell in a hail of blaster bolts.
We pressed forward. Alex and Aoife tossed smoke grenades in both directions. They would limit our visibility, too, but soldiers couldn’t stand at the next corner and pick us off. Now if they got close enough to see us, we could see them, too.
And they didn’t have Aoife.
Smoke filled the hallway. Without a breeze, it hovered in place, creating a little bubble of calm. I looked everyone over. They seemed okay. Aoife had a graze on her arm, but it wasn’t deep. I met her eyes. “Ready?”
She nodded and slung her rifle over her shoulder and drew both of her blast pistols. “Let’s do this.”
She and I would lead the charge into the command center, clearing the way for Ying and Esteri to work on getting the gates up. Alex and Cira would help hold the room and prevent soldiers from flooding in behind us.
It was a solid plan—if everything worked perfectly.
We stacked against the wall by the doors. At my nod, Esteri swept her arm over the reader. The double doors slid apart. Unlike the soldiers in the hall, the soldiers inside weren’t caught unaware. Blaster bolts streaked out in a wave of death.
Aoife and I looked at each other across the doorway. My shield would protect us for a few seconds. We would have to use those seconds to find cover and take out as many as we could. She inclined her head, and I dashed through the doorway before my nerve failed.
The room was a wide semicircle arrayed around a flat wall of screens that showed surveillance video from various points around the base. At least fifteen people were in the room, a mix of civilians, officers in Syndicate uniforms, and soldiers in Syndicate black. I didn’t see any RCDF uniforms. I also didn’t see Riccardo Silva, so I focused on the soldiers first.
I crossed the entrance to the right and continued into the room, faster than they might expect, Aoife on my heels. My cuff vibrated as the shield took hits, but I gave as good as I got. I hit two and Aoife hit four before the shield failed and we were forced to duck behind a console for cover.
“Don’t shoot the electronics, you idiots!” a male voice shouted.
Without the need to stick together because of my shield, Aoife and I split up. I went back toward the center of the room while she hugged the outside wall. The civilians were hunkered down. Smart.
I shot at two soldiers and missed both before ducking back into cover.
Ying and Esteri were working their way toward one of the consoles at the edge of the room, using the other consoles as cover. No one was paying them much mind because they weren’t shooting.
Alex and Cira were.
I joined them. None of us was as good as Aoife, but by and large, we were better than the soldiers in the room.
And far better than the officers.
We were down to just a handful of remaining soldiers when searing heat blossomed in my left shoulder. Icy numbness followed and I couldn’t feel my left arm. I sank to the floor, stunned.
The ballistic armor I wore was designed in such a way that it protected most of the torso, but a narrow strip at the top of the shoulder was unprotected to allow the garment to lay flush.
A stray blaster bolt had punched straight through the top of my left shoulder. Blood streamed from the wound at an alarming rate. My nanos and natural healing would take care of it, but seeing my life leak out made me lightheaded.
I didn’t have time for squeamishness. Hundreds of people were counting on me to get the gates up. And in the rest of the ’verse, billions waited for the supplies and news the gates brought.
I closed my eyes and counted to three, then drew my second blaster with my right hand and lurched to my feet. I wasn’t as fast as I had been, but I was still fast enough to shoot the soldier who’d shot me. She went down and I knew she wouldn’t be getting back up.
I pushed away the revulsion I always felt at taking a life. Fight now, mourn later.
The last soldiers went down and the civilians remained hidden under their desks. “Everyone up and into the center of the room,” I shouted, trying to sound authoritative and not like my shoulder was an inferno of pain. “I’m Lady Catarina von Hasenberg and we’re taking back the command center.”
“I’m with the RCDF,” a woman said.
“That’s nice. Get to the center of the room. We’re not going to hurt you, but we are going to restrain you while we get the gates up and fix the defenses.”
She timidly stood. She was in her late fifties, with graying dark hair and pale skin that looked like it hadn’t seen the sun in decades. Her clothes were rumpled and tiredness showed in her posture, but her eyes were sharp with intelligence. “You don’t have authorization.”
I waved her to the center of the room with the blaster in my right hand. “We do.”
She shook her head. “They changed the codes. I know what they are. I can fix the orbital system.”
Esteri looked up and squinted at the woman. “What’s your name?”
“Idoya Bolasti. I usually work in the systems’ security department. I had the bad fortune to be tracking down an issue in here when the attack happened. We didn’t have time to escape.”
Esteri waved her over. When Idoya approached, Ying smiled at her, showing a lot of teeth. “If you are lying to us and you do something to break the system, I will kill you. Slowly.”
Idoya swallowed and nodded.
Cira, Alex, and Aoife rounded up the rest of the people who were still alive and bound their hands behind their backs, then sat them on the floor in the middle of the room. I holstered my weapon and scanned them for bugs and trackers, but they were clean.
We barricaded the doors as best we could, but the room lacked an emergency lockdown that would override the door controls. I wasn’t sure if the lack was due to hubris or budget constraints. Either way, it had originally worked in our favor, but now it worked against us.
Cira and Aoife were stationed across from the main door, blasters at the ready. Esteri, Idoya, and Ying stood in front of a console, arguing quietly about timing sequences, tachyons, and a host of other words that sounded scientific but that I had no idea what they meant. I’d known that Ying was interested in science, but I was still impressed by her ability to keep up with an astrophysicist with a doctorate.
Alex came over with a strip of cloth he’d gotten from somewhere and rigged a bandage for my shoulder. It had mostly stopped bleeding but it still stung like a horde of angry bees had taken up residence.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“I’m still kicking.”
He smiled and clasped my right hand. “I’m glad.”
I squeezed his hand. “Me, too.”
He lingered for a moment longer before going back to patrolling the room. I’d already written the message to Benedict and had an additional message from Evelyn to send to Richard, in case the gate was up for only a short time and she missed the window.
Because the gates had been down for so long, the message backlog would be deep, so I’d tagged both messages as high priority and attached my House seal, which would let them skip to the front of the queue.
I’d copied all of my siblings on the message to Benedict. I wanted to send them all individual messages, but I couldn’t risk clogging up the queue any more than absolutely necessary. I’d have to send another message to Benedict with a jump point as soon as I could get one from the gate, but even without that, at least my family would know what had happened and that the war was over.
With nothing else to do, I found a working console and flipped through the various surveillance videos, relaying troop information to Marta.
Our forces were slowly being overwhelmed and falling back. If we were to have any hope of escape, we needed to leave soon.
“Ying, how’s it going? We have ten minutes max, and that’s pushing it.”
“We’re almost there,” she said without looking up. She and Idoya were standing over Esteri’s shoulder, pointing at various things on the screen. Esteri impatiently waved their hands away.
“Can you set it up so that Silva can’t use it to jump away?”
“If we had more time, yes,” Esteri said. “But as it is, no. Limits require a lot of checks and authorizations because they are meant to be used sparingly.”
“Too bad.”
She flashed me a smile. “Not usually. It’s one of the things that keeps the Consortium from using gate access as a weapon.”
I dipped my head in rueful acknowledgment.
True to her word, a couple of minutes later, Ying whooped with victory. “The gate is ours! It’ll take sixty seconds or so for the changes to roll out to the other gates, but I can request jump points now. Where do you want Benedict?”
“Put him an hour out. That way he won’t jump straight into an ambush. I need at least a pair of points, and it would be best if they were emergency points so they’ll be good for longer than the standard two hours.”
“On it. We’re close on the defensive systems, too.”
A moment later, Ying sent a trio of emergency points to my com, all of them an hour away from Earth. I attached them to a quick note to Benedict and sent it high priority and sealed. I started a ninety-minute timer on my com. If Benedict wasn’t in com range by the time it went off, then something was wrong.
“We couldn’t override the changes to the defensive system,” Ying said, “so we deactivated the targeting system. It’s a risk if the Syndicate jumps in more ships, but if we leave it up, it’ll attack our friendly ships.”
“Deactivated is better,” I agreed. “Can the backup command center override your changes?”
Esteri shook her head. “No, we locked it down. As long as this command center is still functional, the backup command won’t be able to override it, unless they have two High Councillors on site.”
“Can someone override it from here?”
“Yes, just like we did. I changed the codes, so it’ll take longer, but they can do it.”
I looked around. There was no way the six of us could hold this room against an attack, not unless my guardian angel wanted to drop in a six-pack of mechanized armor.
No armor appeared. She must be on a break.
“Will the messages have time to go through before they shut the gates down again?”
Esteri looked thoughtful. “They should. Gate communication takes priority when they come back up, but that should just be five or ten minutes. After that, messages start transferring. The backlog will be steep, but I’m assuming you sent it priority?” At my nod, she continued, “Then I would expect it to be delivered within thirty minutes. If they can defeat my safeguards in that time, I’ll resign my position.”
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The video screen had changed to an internal view of a tunnel. I didn’t know where it was, but it was full of soldiers wearing Syndicate black. “Time to go!”
“What about us?” a male voice from the crowd on the floor asked. “You can’t just leave us here!”
I could and probably should, but my conscience wouldn’t allow it. “We’ll cut you loose in the hallway, then you’re on your own. But if you come back in here and try to override what we’ve done, I’ll find you in a dark alley and make you wish you hadn’t. Understand?”
Heads nodded.
“Incoming communication,” the computer system intoned. It was too soon for Benedict to be able to contact me, so who was calling?
I moved to a console that faced away from the main door and accepted the link. The console camera’s limited field of view wouldn’t give the person on the other end of the connection a view of the entire room.
The screen blinked, then Riccardo Silva’s handsome face appeared on the screen. If he was surprised to see me, he hid it well. His eyes lit up and he smiled as if all of his holidays had come at once.
“Lady Catarina von Hasenberg, how very good to see you.”