“Yes, sir. You can count on me.”
Augustus smiled. He knew he could, but her team would take the heaviest casualties after Unity reacted to the threat. His feelings for Zoe had waned since their initial rutting, but he would make sure she was remembered in history as one of his brave commanders.
“I’ll give you forty minutes to get into position. Confirm any counteractions and attack immediately.”
Zoe controlled the human contingent of Augustus’ army. They were more expendable in terms of resources. Croatoans numbered far less on the planet, but they could operate the more sophisticated resources he had at his disposal, and couldn’t be replaced as easily.
Maria stood at the end of the front rank. She bowed her head when Augustus fixed his glare on her. The possibility remained that she could be used as leverage. Once they saw the overwhelming force they faced and came to negotiate with him.
“One last task before you go,” Augustus said to Zoe, keeping his voice low, knowing that she’d enjoy it. “Restrain Maria and have a croatoan bring her to me.”
“With pleasure,” Zoe said. She turned away and spoke with another commander.
An alien from the rear rank of his group division bounded around the back of the humans and pulled chrome rigid cuffs from his hip compartment.
Maria spun around, saw the alien approach, and backed away. “I’m with you, Augustus. You don’t need to do this.”
“I’m sure you are,” Augustus said. “But I intend to maximize your presence.”
The croatoan wrapped her in a tight one-armed hug. Maria struggled, slapped a hand on its visor, but couldn’t stop the cuffs being crushed around her wrists.
Augustus moved toward her while the croatoan kept her in a tight hold. “Let’s see how your friends in Unity react when your life’s in danger.”
Maria dropped to her knees. “Please. I’m on your side. I can speak to them for you. Tell them what will happen if they don’t leave.”
“Leave?” Augustus laughed. “There’s only going to be one side in an hour, and you’ll find out that you chose the right one.”
Zoe’s piercing voice echoed around the square, barking orders to her division. They marched away through a gap in the buildings toward their destiny. Augustus stood in front of the remaining army with Maria at his boots. “Men, women, and croatoans, the time has come to start our advance. Your actions today will be legendary in the future centuries. Grab history with both hands, and together, nobody can stop us.”
Augustus turned, walked forward, and raised an arm.
All one hundred hover-bikes raised twenty meters in the air and twisted to face north. The shuttle’s engines roared, blasting out a rush of warm air through the mouth and eyeholes of his mask. Thousands of boots crunched on the cracked concrete behind him.
Their next stop was Unity.
Chapter 22
ALIEN ROUNDS CONTINUED to pin Charlie and the three other prisoners behind a large jagged rock. Red streaks zipped over their position. Muzzles flashed from different angles around them. So far, none of the slavers had made a sprint across open ground, telling Charlie that they did value the preservation of their own lives.
A hollow pop sounded between the metallic bursts from the slavers’ rifles. Sand rained over Charlie and a tunnel of fire belched into the air behind him. The mortar-like weapon’s shells were getting closer. A direct hit would end it.
One of the tredeyan prisoners slumped to the ground. Vingo turned him over and ran his hand along a deep gash in his chest. He’d been taken out by some hot shrapnel, and if they didn’t address the issue, they would all go the same way.
The problem was having enough time to locate the position without Charlie getting a bullet drilled into his skull. He edged toward Vingo and the other remaining tredeyan prisoner and paused to catch his breath. Every movement without the suit sapped his energy in the heavy atmosphere.
“You two, listen in,” Charlie said. Vingo continued to lean over the dead prisoner. Charlie grabbed his greasy shoulder. “Pay attention or we all die.”
Vingo turned to face him. The other tredeyan sat with his back to the rock, clutching the captured rifle, murmuring to himself. Under pressure, they displayed a more human side to their behavior, and Charlie understood they were sandwiched between the croatoans and the scion, but now was the time to show some guts.
“Give me covering fire,” Charlie shouted over the incessant crackle. “I need to take out whoever is firing the mortar.”
“Mortar?” Vingo asked.
“That thing that’s about to blow the shit out of us. Both of you aim over the rocks and sweep the ground ahead.”
By sending rounds in the direction of the slavers, Charlie hoped to get their heads down for a moment. He knew the alien in green armor fired the shells. When it broke cover, that was his moment.
Vingo picked up the rifle and they all crouched behind the rock. He babbled in tredeyan to the other prisoner and turned to Charlie. “We’re ready. Say when.”
“Now!”
Both tredeyans sprang up and fired their weapons in an arc from the cave on the left to the open rocky ground on the right. Two rounds sparked off the shuttle nestled in a crevice at the bottom of the cliff face directly in front of them.
A moment of silence followed. Charlie rolled to the side and peered down his sights, waiting for signs of movement behind the cluster of rocks surrounding them.
It was a classic but effective move that he knew well. Anyone can fire accurately down a range, but facing a person who shoots back tends to unnerve a lot of people, and aliens, it seemed.
Two figures darted between rocks to his right. Charlie’s captured rifle wasn’t calibrated with the helmet. He peered down a sight on top of the smooth metal forestock and curled his finger around the trigger.
They hugged the edge of the cliff and advanced toward the battleground. Their suits were the same design as his. Human-adapted tredeyan armor. It had to be Denver and Layla.
Excitement surged inside. Charlie had his doubts about ever seeing them again, but he never should have. For the last ten years, whenever the shit hit the fan, he could always rely on Denver. “Den, Layla, is that you?”
More rounds pinged off the rock next to Charlie, spraying sand against his visor. He rolled back to cover. Denver and Layla’s arrival distracted him from the plan, but it was a good distraction. When they attacked from the side, they would have the slavers in their own pincer movement.
“Charlie!” Layla said through the intercom. “Where are you?”
Relief washed over him. “I’m behind a large rock to your left. Six to eight enemy directly ahead.”
“I can see their direction of fire,” Denver said. “I’ve got four with their backs to me from here. That should even it up.”
“I’ll wait for your move.”
An ominous hollow pop sounded ahead.
Seconds later an explosion ripped through the air, directly to Charlie’s left.
The remaining tredeyan prisoner let out a gargled scream and collapsed. Vingo dropped his rifle and clutched his leg. Blood ran between his chunky fingers. His already injured left arm hung limply by his side.
Incoming fire continued to hit and whizz past the rock, although the rate had dropped considerably.
Charlie grabbed the dead tredeyan’s rifle and released the magazine block off the side. All rounds were spent on the previous covering fire. He checked his own and still had a few left, but a visual inspection of the top didn’t tell him how many.
“Get ready,” Denver said, followed by a static hiss.