Unsung Heroes

Loralona tried to keep her focus on the mission, but more and more she felt her concentration drawn to Tola instead. By now she was all but convinced that the Shock Syndicate had lied to her about Tola’s background. From the way he held his weapon, the things he said, and his non-violent methods, things didn’t add up to him being a cold-blooded killer. Which left Loralona with a real problem: What should she do with him?

The Shock Syndicate had paid her to eliminate Tola for good. If she left him alive, the crime syndicate would send assassins after her to cover their tracks. She could try to talk him into disappearing, but Loralona doubted he would listen. Tola was technically a freelance agent after all; he was bound to show up sooner or later where the Shock Syndicate would spot him—and if that happened they would be very, very upset with her.

The only other option was to kill him.

Yet, in spite of that fact that it was the best option for her, it felt like the worst of all. Loralona had developed a fondness for the quirky, handsome man. Infatuation, even, if she was being honest. Perhaps that was what scared her most of all. She was no good at relationships, and she hated having attachments that gave her something to lose. Besides, what would Tola see in a criminal like her, anyway?

Maybe the Varrcarans will kill him and none of this will matter.

As cold as it was, it sounded like the best scenario. Too many problems arose from him remaining alive.

“Is it clear?” Tola asked, awaiting her signal before he jumped in behind her.

“Er, yes,” she replied, trying again to clear her mind. “Terrik and Dex must be doing their job well; there’s no one in sight. You said the schematics will be in a safe, right?”

“I’m guessing,” he corrected. “They could just as easily be in a vault, with as gigantic as this place is.”

Loralona frowned. If that was true, they were woefully under-equipped. “Go ahead and start looking. I’m going to place some motion detectors nearby to give us a heads-up if anyone is coming.”

By the time Loralona had placed her three motion detectors, Tola had already spotted the safe in the adjacent chamber from where they started.

“Aha! Just like I said!” he exclaimed with a grin.

“Assuming the schematics are in there. If the Regime really wanted to hide them they should have just tossed the blueprints in with all these stacks of papers,” Loralona mumbled, leafing through the open documents.

“True. But that leaves it exposed to an inside job,” Tola pointed out. “And with a facility this defended, that would be a much bigger threat. If you can contact Terrik and Dex, I’ll start cracking this baby open.”

Loralona thumbed her transceiver. “Terrik, do you read me? This is Loralona.”

“I read you,” came the bounty hunter’s voice. “Tell me you’ve had better luck than us.”

“We’ve just about got the prize, but we need a way to blow this joint. Do you know where the controls for the smokestacks are?”

“Exhaust? I’m pretty sure we passed it on the way here. We’ll double back and let you know for sure.”

“Understood. Over and out.” Loralona ended the transmission and turned to Tola. “How’s it coming?”

“Good. This is an ancient tumbler lock, scarcely seen these days. Few know how to unlock them, but those who do have an easier time of it thanks to modern technology. And voila!”

Loralona watched and waited, but the door didn’t open.

“Er . . . hold on a second.” Tola went back to work. After a few moments he repeated: “Voila!” Inside, just as Tola had guessed, were the blueprints for the plasma-resistant armor.

“Why would they keep a physical copy?” Loralona asked.

“They’re harder to steal. Digital schematics could be taken by computer experts across the galaxy without ever having to set foot inside this structure. Though I’m sure this isn’t the only hard copy the Regime has.”

He certainly knows his stuff, Loralona thought.

“Amazing,” Tola added a moment later. “The suit is a bio-engineered symbiote from some of the galaxy’s top scientists.

“Apparently,” he continued, “they have made some sort of hybrid of two different creatures—one that resists plasma, and one that nullifies preternatural powers. The former layers the inside to protect against weapons while the latter coats the outside.”

“Um, okay,” Loralona murmured.

“Only the process is far more complicated. I’m guessing a side-effect the Varrcarans hadn’t counted on was that the armor only acts as a one-way shield to repel powers, allowing the wearer to still use them. There are actually several other organic compounds in the armor which buffer the effects, but the—”

The sound of Loralona’s motion detectors cut him off.

Someone was coming.

“You have any more flashbangs?” Loralona asked.

Tola nodded and threw her one. She activated it and tossed the grenade down the hall where the motion sensor had gone off. Just as four or five Varrcaran troopers rounded the corner, the grenade exploded in a flash of white.

“We need another way out,” Loralona said, even as she fired her rifle. One of her shots struck true, but the other soldiers had fallen back behind cover even in their daze.

Without warning, Tola grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back to the original chamber. Loralona was torn between pulling her hand free and squeezing his tighter.

“Here,” he said, aiming his grappling gun through the hole in the ceiling they had dropped through earlier.

“What are you going to latch it to? There’s nothing above us!”

“No building,” he said, firing the grappling gun. “But the side of the volcano is.”

The adhesive dart hooked onto the volcanic crust at an ascending forty-five degree angle. Tola tested its weight to make sure it was firmly attached before wrapping his arm around her.

“Needless to say: hold on tight.”

He retracted the cable, yanking them both through the opening he had cut just as the sounds of plasma fire erupted beneath them..

Emergency klaxons blared through the factory, shifting from the sporadic bursts he had gotten used to into a long, looping wail. Dex guessed the change in sound was meant as a signal to evacuate. Most likely the Coalition had overpowered the Varrcaran troops outside and entered the base by now. Which meant Janus was coming.

“This way,” the bounty hunter said, leading Dex back through one of the chambers they had already gone through. “We need to find the computers that operate the smokestacks.”

“Ahead and to the right,” Dex said, remembering the layout of where they had gone.

They barged into the empty chamber and found what they were looking for. To no surprise, though, the computer was guarded by a password, and neither Dex nor the bounty hunter knew how to bypass it.

“Now what?” Dex asked. “Time is short.”

“I know. You’ve told me,” Terrik muttered. He activated his computerized gauntlet. “Tola, we’re here but we can’t access the computer.”

There was a brief delay, then Tola spoke as if short on breath. “The evacuation code has been activated; that should open a backdoor to circumvent the password for emergencies. Press the following buttons . . .”

Terrik followed his instructions, bypassing the code in seconds and allowing him to run programs.

“Okay, I’m in. What now?”

“Crank up production as high as it will go. Ignore safety limitations and power everything up to full.”

While Terrik worked, Dex watched the two doors into the room, wary of an ambush.

“All right, that’s done. Next?”

Tola’s voice crackled over the comm, as if there were magnetic interference. “—to seal the smokestacks.”

“What was that? I didn’t copy,” Terrik replied.

“—should be a program to seal the chimneys in case of lava.”

“I thought the heat shielding was for that.”

“It’s a backup. Should be on the same screen you were at,” Tola informed him.

Terrik shook his head. “There isn’t. The only option I’ve got is to send a team out to put a physical cowl over the chimneys.”

There was another pause. “Really? That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Huh. Well, all right, then, I’ll just have to think of something else. We’ll meet you at the hangar. Send the coordinates once you get there.”

“The hangar? What about my ship!?”

“The Coalition is already making a perimeter around the building, covering all exits. Even you and Dex won’t be able to fight your way out of there without heavier ordinance.”

“So you’re suggesting we steal a ship to fight our way out so we can get back to Retribution?”

“Exactamundo.”

“Fine. But you better be able to hack the command codes, or we won’t be going anywhere in a Varrcaran shuttle.”

“Leave that to me. You just handle the guards.”

“Roger. Meet you there.” Terrik ended the transmission, then addressed Dex. “Do you remember going past a hangar on our way through?”

“No.” Dex closed his eyes and reached out with his other senses. He couldn’t locate rooms by themselves, but he could smell the people inside. And the largest mass of people was roughly south of their location, two stories down. “Follow me,” he told the bounty hunter.

Terrik snorted and gave him a mock salute, but followed anyway.

“I hope you’ve caught your second wind,” Dex said. “We’re not out of this yet.”

The battle had become a massacre. Janus stood over the bodies of hundreds who had perished—both Varrcaran and Coalition alike. Rage burst forth from his being like the endless lava churning across this planet’s surface. His senses were sharpened by the heat of battle.

But the slaughter was not done.

“Come with me,” he told his apprentice.

Aurora nodded and fell in behind him, using her ability to augment her speed to match his. The surviving Varrcaran soldiers were retreating toward the safety of their base. But that would not last long.

A plasma beam struck Janus’s back, the damage ablated by his armor. The Biomancer telekinetically snapped the shooter’s neck without ever breaking stride. A small platoon had been left behind to cover the retreat, and one by one Janus was killing them all. He hurled his chainsword at his opponents, curving the blade in mid-air to slice through three more beings before it returned to his waiting palm.

He could see the pain, suffering, and fear of those around him. Janus cackled with glee, leapt at the next trooper, and chopped him in half. Nearby, Aurora stretched forth her hand and closed her eyes. Another soldier dropped to the ground, frozen in a block of ice Janus removed her suffering along with her head.

The last of the Varrcarans fell to his apprentice’s blade, leaving them free to assault the base. Four other Biomancers joined them, the only beings worthy enough to have survived the deadly battle. They reached the factory in under a minute.

“What are your orders, my lord?” one of the Biomancers asked.

“Spread out through the building and kill anyone you find.”

The four Biomancers didn’t hesitate to follow his command. With a sadistic grin, Janus craned his neck toward his apprentice.

“You and I will find our way to the hangar and cut down the cowards who fled.”

Aurora matched his grin with one of her own. “Excellent.”

Plunging his chainsword into one of the doors, Janus carved a hole through which he and his apprentice entered the facility. The signs of disruption were already here—blackened walls; gashes left in the floor; the smell of smoke. And underneath it all, Janus sensed the trail left behind by his former student.

So they did survive.

The faint imprint of Dex’s path shone like a candle to Janus. But his powers only showed what had been, and Janus wanted to catch up to Dex more swiftly.

“Aurora. A Latoroth is somewhere in the facility. Find him and take us there.”

His apprentice’s eyes glowed softly, then she set off on a path to intercept him. Janus followed, all the while humming a grave, lurching theme evocative of a lullaby gone horribly wrong.