John looked at her. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving anyone behind. How were they going to manage this?

  “Okay, I’ll take Miss Nasty. You get Paige.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Yeah. I’m also not afraid to die, and I’ve got these.” He tapped the xix together.

  Dante didn’t argue. She shifted her focus to reaching Paige as John stepped in front of the queen.

  “One of you bitches took my boss’ arm,” John said. “And one of you took my voice and half my face. I owe you for that.”

  The queen hissed in response.

  “Let’s go,” John said.

  She did, shooting toward him like a rocket. He tapped the xix together, creating a web that he spread in front of him. Her claws hit it, her charge still enough to force him back as she cried out in pain..

  He reversed, driving forward with the xix. She spun away, and he cursed as her tail smacked him in the chest, throwing him to the ground. He rolled over, getting up just in time to catch another claw on his xix. He glanced over. Dante was kneeling next to Paige, shooting at the consorts trying to reach her. What was she doing? They were out of time.

  He blocked another claw and then tried to circle the queen. Her tail lashed at him again, and this time he ducked below it before rolling forward and getting almost under her body. He saw the delicate area between her legs and jabbed the xix up into it, causing her to scream so loud it hurt his ears.

  She reached down for him, and he rolled back out of the way, staying agile despite the armor. The queen continued to howl, in pain and plenty angry.

  John was on the right side of the fight, the exit directly behind him. Where the hell was Dante?

  He looked to where Paige had fallen. She was still there. Damn it. Had Dante left her? Had she died? He noticed her sidearm was beside her helmet, and her helmet had a fresh hole in it.

  Damn.

  “Sarge, let’s go!” Dante shouted, appearing in the teleporter room. “It’s charged and ready.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Modulator housing, maybe? I’m not sure.”

  John backed up. The queen was approaching more cautiously, limping slightly. Dark blood ran between her legs. She didn’t try to attack again. John continued to retreat until he was through the archway to the teleporter.

  “Paige?” he said.

  “She was paralyzed. She wanted it that way. She told me to—” Her voice broke.

  “Roger that,” John said.

  They reached the teleporter, stepping onto the platform.

  They were out in a flash.

  Chapter 47

  The teleporter brought them to another small teleportation room. John glanced at Dante, waiting for her to identify where they were on the HUD.

  “This is the place,” she said.

  He nodded. “See if you can reach Kiaan. We need prep for immediate pickup.”

  “What about the engineers?”

  “We’ll see what we can do in the time it takes for the Mengin to circle back.”

  “Roger, Sarge.” She cut the external mic, her mouth moving inside her helmet. John turned his attention to the closed hatch leading out of the room. Did the enemy know they had made it out alive?

  Some of them, anyway.

  He felt the clenching pain of losing a team member tight in his gut. It always hurt, but this one was more personal. This one was his, not Caleb’s. It was his lead. His team.

  “Sarge,” Dante said. “We have a problem.” Her face was pale. “Actually, we have a lot of problems.”

  “What is it?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

  “We’re too late. The Free Inahri are on full retreat. Everything they had left has already pulled back.”

  “You’re saying we’re trapped here?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell Kiaan to get his ass down here for pickup.”

  “I did. Believe me, I did. Sarge, he said Colonel Jax is holding him at gunpoint. If he tries to come back, they’ll kill him.”

  John couldn’t believe it. What the hell was going on? “And leave himself without a pilot?”

  “Jax is a pilot. Or was. He knows how to fly the transport.”

  “Damn it. So our allies just hung us out to dry?”

  “It gets worse.”

  “How can it get worse?”

  “Kiaan said they got an emergency communication from the compound. The Relyeh attacked their base. It’s destroyed. Completely destroyed. Even the civilians...”

  “What? How?”

  “It gets worse,” Dante said, her eyes tearing up.

  “How the hell can it get worse than that?”

  “Kiaan said Caleb was with them.” She could barely keep her voice going. “Caleb was helping them.”

  “No,” John said, shaking his head. “No way. It had to be a projection. A trick. Caleb wouldn’t change sides like that. He isn’t made that way.”

  “I want to believe that too,” Dante said.

  “Then believe it.”

  “The Free Inahri don’t trust us. They think we betrayed them. I’m worried they’ll go after the Deliverance.”

  “They don’t have the resources to hit the Deliverance. Especially if the Relyeh are moving against them.” John paused to think. “Okay. Screw them, Sheriff. We deal with one thing at a time. First order of business is to take out the engineers. We still have to slow the Relyeh down.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the way I see it, there’s only one way out of this. We have to get the colony off this planet. Between the Relyeh, the Inahri, and the Axon, this place is worse than Earth by a long mile.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “I don’t know. If we don’t, we’re all going to wind up dead or worse. We need time, and the only way we can get it is to do some damage and slow the Relyeh down.”

  “They’re going to be waiting for us.”

  “Maybe. If we die, we have to hope the real Caleb is out there, and he’s thinking the same way I’m thinking. I’m willing to bet he is.”

  Dante’s face told John she was terrified. He was scared too. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to, but the stakes were too high now.

  She nodded. “Okay. Standby.” She looked at her HUD. “The housing is through the hatch, to the right down a short corridor, through another hatch. I don’t have readings past the corridor. The coast is clear right now. Since we can’t see them, I don’t think they can see us either.”

  “A little bit of good news.”

  “We’re still going in blind, Sergeant.”

  “I’ve never let that stop me before. I wish I had some explosives.”

  “Me too.”

  John stared at her a moment. “I’ve got an idea. Let me borrow your helmet.”

  “Why?”

  “Just hand it over. That’s an order.”

  She did as he said. He snapped it into place, the display adjusting to his system. He navigated through the menus. He couldn’t read any of them, but he remembered the instructions Hori had given. He found the self-destruct and set it to five minutes. It started counting down, and he disconnected the helmet and gave it back to Dante. Then he quickly started loosening the connectors keeping him in his armor.

  “What did you just do?” Dante asked in response to the activity.

  “We’ve got five minutes. Then this thing is going to blow.”

  “Sergeant—”

  “Not your decision,” John replied. “Time’s wasting. Knuckle up sheriff. If these are the last five minutes of your life, how do you want to die?”

  “Doing my duty,” Dante replied.

  “Me too. It’s been an honor, Sheriff.”

  “You too, John. You’re a good man.”

  “I’ve done the best I can. Let’s move.”

  Dante leveled her rifle. John tapped the xix together, forming an energy web between them.

  “For Metro,” she said.

  “And for Caleb,” he added.

  The hatch opened ahead of them.

  They attacked.

  Chapter 48

  It briefly occurred to John, as he was charging down the short corridor toward the modulator housing area, that he and Dante were running directly into another trap, and rushing headlong to their deaths.

  In that same moment, he also realized he didn’t care. As long as he damaged the housing, as long as he slowed the Relyeh’s attempt to get the Seeker back online, he would consider his mission accomplished and his death worthwhile.

  Dante was still with him. She had to feel the same.

  The hatch required pressure and proximity to open, so John threw one of the xix at it, hitting it and causing it to move aside. The weapon ricocheted off with a loud clang, hitting the floor and bouncing up to where he recovered the fumble with practiced ease. He burst through the open curtain without slowing, taking in his surroundings as he barreled in.

  Dante loosed a shot past his head, hitting a target that appeared on her sensors before he saw it. An Inahri in a white uniform, who was walking directly toward him. An engineer, he guessed. The shot quickly caught the attention of the other engineers, who were spread across the area.

  John took in the surroundings in as fast as he was able. He had emerged onto a grated metal catwalk at least ten meters over the area below, which appeared to be composed of dark, bowl-shaped material. He could easily imagine the bowl collecting the energy passed out by the QDM. He glanced up, noticing the same shape above. The catwalk split ten meters ahead, winding around a central pillar he took to be the housing and extending out to the walls, where thick conduits and computer terminals were arranged, along with a few monitoring stations. There was a second entrance on the opposite side of the room, allowing the housing area to be used as a passage across the ship.

  He quickly counted eight engineers and four soldiers. Two of the engineers were working at the central pillar, which spread from the center into dozens of smaller spike-like cylinders aiming at the bowls above and below. It was surrounded by a visually chaotic arrangement of parts. The four soldiers were at each of the corners around the pillar, and they began leveling their rifles at John before he had finished his sweep of the room.

  He didn’t slow or hesitate, continuing toward them at full speed. The battle armor shook the entire catwalk. It was too narrow for him to maneuver much as he headed for the housing, tapping the xix together. He spread them out ahead of his face, catching the bolts the soldiers fired at his chest and face.

  But their aim adjusted quickly to the weapon, and they shifted their fire to his knees and feet, sending blasts of energy into the lower part of his armor. He smelled the burning metal and felt the heat of the bolts as they bombarded him, piercing the armor and trying to stop him before he reached the platform.

  Dante fired back at them, sending rounds of her own into their midst, hitting their armor without punching through. They didn’t redirect their attack, not immediately concerned with her. Not when the large Marine was rapidly approaching.

  John saw the shot that pierced his knee. He watched it flash by and then felt the sudden burning in his leg, followed by the loss of feeling that caused him to stumble. He was close. So close. He pushed off with his good leg, throwing himself at the nearest Inahri soldier, leading with the xix.

  He tumbled into the enemy with enough force to knock the soldier down, driving the xix into the man’s helmet with enough force to crack the faceplate. He struck him twice more. Still moving — rolling with his momentum to keep from being shot in the head—he came up in front of another Inahri and jammed the xix into his helmet from both sides. He sent energy arcing through the material and into the soldier’s head, dropping him immediately.

  “Two minutes!” Dante shouted. She kept shooting, and the third Inahri soldier fell.

  The fourth came around the pillar, trying to get an angle on John. He limped in the other direction, using the housing as a barrier. He had two minutes to finish this and find cover.

  “Dante, the engineers,” he cried out.

  Dante shifted her attention. She hesitated to shoot the unarmed workers, but only for a second. She knew what was at stake. Red bolts struck the unarmored Inahri one after another, dropping three of them in a hurry.

  The soldier got around the pillar, outpacing the injured Marine. John stopped, ducking low and spinning on his good knee, forcing himself forward and staying upright on willpower alone, driving his xix into the soldier’s chest. It was enough to disable the battle armor for a second. That was all the time John needed.

  He grabbed the soldier, straining and grunting as he lifted the armor and heaved the Inahri over the side and to the bowl below. The soldier hit hard, the black material cracking as he rolled over and started to get back up.

  John slumped against the pillar, his knee finally giving out. He grabbed at the buckles of his armor. Dante arrived beside him, assisting him.

  “I’m hit,” he said. “Knee is busted. I can’t run. You should leave me.”

  “Bullshit. We’re leaving together.”

  “Sheriff—”

  “I already did that duty once today. That’s enough for a lifetime.”

  “Roger that.”

  They got the armor open. Dante helped John lift himself out of it. She would never have had the strength without her exosuit.

  The door opposite them slid open, revealing a squad of Relyeh Inahri soldiers. Dante fired at them, her shots making them hesitate just long enough for John to finish abandoning the battle armor and pull himself up on her arm. He glanced down at his knee, wincing when he saw the swelling and blood. It wasn’t in good shape.

  “Get behind me,” Dante said.

  “Sheriff—”

  “Get behind me!”

  Washington did as she said, ducking behind her armor as best he could. She backed away, keeping a steady stream of fire on the enemy. They shot back, rounds hitting her armor and leaving deep scuffs and scores. It was only a matter of time before one of them broke through.

  But time was something they wouldn’t have.

  “Dante, take the xix!” John said.

  “I can’t hold them both in one hand.”

  “Pass me the rifle. You can use them for a shield.”

  The exchange of weapons was awkward under fire, but they managed. John used his height to fire over Dante’s shoulder, while she used the xix to block the incoming assault.

  The Inahri soldiers reached the modulator housing, glancing curiously at his armor. One of them must have realized what they were trying to do, because the soldiers stopped shooting, two of them grabbing the armor and heaving it over the edge, away from the housing.

  It exploded in mid-air, sending shrapnel everywhere. Hot metal blasted through the soldiers’ armor, sank into the pillar and struck the xix’s web, threatening to kill them. It also battered both collectors bowls, creating more cracks in the parabolic shapes. Would it be enough to slow the Seeker’s repair?

  It would have to be.

  The detonation left two of the Inahri soldiers badly wounded, and the other three shaken. Dante continued pushing John back until they were through the hatch. Then she turned around, helping support him while they quickly stumbled away.

  Chapter 49

  The Relyeh transport met Caleb and his captors in the hangar of the Deliverance, already resting on the stained and scuffed metal flooring when they arrived. Riley had let the Inahri out through the secondary exit, using her identification code to open the sealed hatch and guide them the short distance from the hidden armory.

  The soldiers remained silent during the trip, including Sergeant Harai. He remained out of his battle armor, clothed in a robe not all that different from the Free Inahri dress, while one of his men carried his scuffed and beaten battle armor. The metal suit had some kind of personal value to the sergeant. It had to, considering its condition.

  Caleb spent the walk glaring at Riley’s back, wishing he had something to sink into it. She could say what she wanted about handing over the energy unit. She could claim she had saved the colony. He knew it was bullshit. They would come back for the colony later.

  It seemed Harai had more important business to deal with first.

  The Inahri sergeant walked briskly and with purpose, the body language and movements of a man on a mission. His silence was evidence of his eagerness. There was no time to waste with words.

  The Relyeh transport was nearly identical to the one Caleb had been brought to the Free Inahri compound in. The main differences were in the color of the outer shell, which ran a deeper shade of gray and the shape of the wings which, on the Relyeh version, were a delta configuration.

  They shared the same interior. Same cockpit. Same seats. Same cargo area. Caleb expected the soldiers to drop him there, but instead they shoved him into a seat beside Riley and across from Harai.

  “Welcome aboard the Mogu,” Sergeant Harai said in crisp English. How was he able to speak their language so well?

  The rest of the Inahri finished getting settled. The outer hatch closed, and the transport vibrated slightly as it lifted from the hangar floor, rotating in mid-air before accelerating out and up.

  “Why do you want me alive?” Caleb asked.

  “He thinks he’s special, Sergeant,” Riley said before Harai could answer.

  “Please. My name is Ohno Harai. Sergeant Ohno Harai. And you are?”

  “Your death,” Caleb replied.

  Harai smiled. “I might have been a little overdramatic. The heat of battle pulls me up sometimes. Please, Earther. Your name.”

  “Sergeant Caleb Card. United States Space Force Marines.”

  “Military, obviously,” Harai said. “And a fellow sergeant. A leader of men.”

  “Caleb was part of a special forces team on Earth,” Riley said. “The best in the world.”

  “You’re a disgrace to them,” Caleb said.

  “I knew you were special,” Harai said. “The way you fight. I haven’t been challenged like that in years. You nearly killed me.” He said it like it was something to laugh about. “You would make a powerful member of Arluthu’s army. We’re going to war, Sergeant Card. We could use someone like you.”