But there were too many of them, and the Lakra had too little time. Even as Twister added his BlasTech's firepower to theirs, three of the former prisoners made it all the way across the shooting gallery. With their backs pressed against the wall to either side, they jammed the muzzles of their weapons into the slits and fired half a dozen bursts each. There was a single dying stutter from the sniper's weapon, and then the muzzle abruptly tipped upward and slipped back inside.
"Sha-mees craa shes-ayi," Su-mil called. "I have praised their valor in your name," he added to Twister. "I trust that is acceptable."
"Absolutely," Twister assured him as another pair of Eickaries ran to the quiet sniper hollow, firing a few volleys into the slits to make sure it stayed quiet. "Add our thanks for the timely assist, and then tell them to spread out and stand guard while we get this door open."
Su-mil called out another order, and the Eickaries obediently spread out across the room, pushing over tables and chairs for cover and digging in for combat. Old rivalries or not, Twister thought wryly, there was nothing like a common enemy to draw people together.
He shifted his attention back to the door. Watchman was kneeling in front of it, his BlasTech on the floor beside him, nearly finished assembling the components he would need to safely short out the current. "Status?"
"Almost ready," Watchman reported.
Twister nodded and turned back to Su-mil. "Another minute—"
He broke off. Su-mil was staring at the door, his highlights a very dark green. "What's the matter?"
"This door," Su-mil said slowly. "There is something not right about it."
Twister felt a tingle at the back of his neck. One soldier with a bad feeling might be nerves or overreaction. Two soldiers with the same bad feeling was something worth paying attention to. "Can you tell what it is?"
"No," Su-mil said, his highlights going a shade darker as he frowned a little harder.
"Hold it a second, Watchman," Twister said, his eyes running methodically across the door. The sensors still read it as solid metal charged with a high-voltage current. The lock? No; that looked all right.
He looked around the room where the Eickaries were preparing for battle, painfully aware that precious seconds were ticking away. The Warlord would have to be both deaf and stupid not to realize his sanctum had been breached, and no matter how badly his mercenaries might be pinned down he would absolutely find a way to shake some of them loose to deal with this threat.
In fact, they were almost certainly on their way. Twister glanced back at the corridor they'd come in by, half expecting to find a mass of armored Lakra already marching toward them. But the corridor was still deserted, as far back as he could see.
As far back as he could see...
He snorted with exasperation. So simple, and so obvious. "Put it away," he told Watchman. "This isn't the door."
"What?" the other demanded, sounding stunned as he looked up.
"It's a decoy," Twister said, pointing behind him. "Would you put the door to your stronghold right at the end of a long hallway, where your enemies would have a fifty-meter running start to slam a battering ram into it?"
"Or a clear shot for a missile barrage," Su-mil added, his highlights fading again to dark orange. "Of course. The real door will be concealed, and offline with any of the hallways."
Twister nodded. "So let's find it."
It didn't take long. Now that he knew what to look for, he quickly spotted the subtle cracks in the mortar between the stones a couple of meters to the side of the rightmost sniper hollow. "Here it is," he announced, gesturing to the others with his BlasTech. "We must hurry," Su-mil warned as the two stormtroopers started stuffing flash paste around the door. "There may be other ways through which they can escape."
"None that your people know about, anyway," Twister told him, focusing his attention for a moment on the streaming reports coming in through his headset. "Even if there are, it won't gain them anything. Aurek Company's just broken through both tunnels and are forming up now with Cloud and Shadow and the rest of your people. Another minute and they'll be on their way here."
"You think we should wait for them?" Watchman asked.
"No," Su-mil said firmly, his large eyes shining. "We have come this far. Let us be the ones to present to them the prize."
"Besides, they're still controlling their main defenses from in there," Twister reminded him. "The sooner we take him, the sooner we can shut them down."
Thirty seconds later, they were ready. "Stand clear," Watchman cautioned the Eickaries, who had gathered together in front of the hidden door. "When it goes, it'll go hard."
"And tell them to let us go in first," Twister added as Su-mil translated Watchman's warning. "They'll still have plenty of firepower waiting in there, and we're the only ones in armor."
Su-mil gave another order. "Do not worry," he told Twister, switching back to Basic. "We will do what is necessary."
"Okay," Twister said, taking another step back himself. "Watchman: go."
The other squeezed the detonator, and the flash paste lit up with its usual destructive brilliance. Twister checked his sensors one final time, half expecting some of the Lakra inside to have slipped out through one of the stronghold's other doors and launch a last-minute sortie. But apparently the Warlord preferred to keep all his bodyguards between him and the attackers.
The flash paste hit its final crescendo, and Twister caught a glimpse of the sudden network of stress cracks in the stone before the entire door abruptly shattered into a spray of blackened gravel. Reflexively, he winced back as the shower of rocks washed over him—
Twister was nearly knocked off his feet as the Eickaries surged past him. Screaming in defiance, they charged through the opening.
"Wait!" Twister shouted. "Su-mil—"
But Su-mil had already joined the general rush through the door. "Our world!" he called back over his shoulder. "Our ways!"
With that he was gone, vanished into the stronghold and the heavy weapons fire now coming from inside. Snarling a curse, Twister regained his balance and tried to force his way through the rear of the Eickaries' formation, listening helplessly to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of the casualties.
Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the firing ceased. Shouldering his way past the last cluster of Eickaries, Twister finally made it inside.
The stronghold was a scene of carnage. Eickarie bodies were everywhere, some still twitching, others lying motionless with the heaviness of death. Another dozen were still standing, several of them clutching painfully at torsos or limbs. Sprawled on the floor beyond them were a dozen Lakra bodies, the last of the Warlord's bodyguard. None of those bodies were twitching.
And beyond them, still wearing his fancy full-body armor, was the Warlord himself.
He was lying on his back on the floor, his dark faceplate turned upward, his arms spread to the sides. Standing over him, his feet pinning the Warlord's wrists to the floor, his projectile weapon held ready for action, was Su-mil.
But his gun wasn't pointed at the Warlord, prepared to deliver the final killing shot that Eickarie honor demanded. It was pointed instead at the semicircle of Eickaries facing him.
His eyes turned to Twister as the stormtrooper stepped through the ring of Eickaries. "I have told them," he said, his voice wheezing; and only then did Twister notice the blackened section of clothing on his left side. "We made a bargain. You freed our people; I have left the Warlord alive."
"Thank you," Twister said, touching his comm tongue switch as he stepped to Su-mil's side and turned to face the other Eickaries. Over by the main status board, he noted peripherally, the thudding of heavy circuit breakers could be heard as Watchman began closing down the fortress's defenses. "Command; Aurek-Seven," he called. "We've penetrated the stronghold, and are shutting down the remotes."