Biem Hoa Republican base, central hospital.
Jay had been released from her restraints and was given a shower, which she had to take with a nurse, both to watch her and to help her with her broken ribs. It had been a very pleasant moment, a little spoiled by the reflection she had seen in the bathroom mirror.
"I'm already quite ugly"she thought to herself, "but then, with the haematomas, that's the last straw!""
A huge purple bump was just beginning to deflate on her left temple, and her lower lip still bore the trace of the hook she had partially dodged.
"If I'm not left alone now, it's to despair" she concluded, putting her facial mask back on.
His clothes had been washed, which cheered him up. A Republican jacket had also been added, a delicacy she appreciated. When she had finished getting dressed, one of the two soldiers that watching her said to him:
"It's time to head for the space trip. The carrier will be leaving soon"
They set off on foot towards the space zone of the base, Jay flanked on each side by a soldier. They had walked about a hundred yards when it all went down. A little surprised, the two soldiers stopped. Jay asked them:
"What's going on? Is this an alert?"
"No. If it was an alert we'd hear the siren, it's not on the main grid"
"It's pretty damn quiet, don't you think? "
There was a shot from somewhere. The soldiers listened, but the noise remained isolated.
"We're going on" one of the soldiers finally said as he took his blaster out of the holster. "An order is an order"
His comrade took off without a word and they started off again in the darkness. Jay thought to himself:
"Strange though, this lasting blackout, this silence..."
Suddenly she froze up. The voice had just spoken to her, but it was neither soft nor pleasant. It was orders shouted by thunder.
The two soldiers noticed her halt and believed that he was rebelling or attempting to flee. The taciturn grabbed his wrist while his companion said, a little irritated:
"Don't be silly and follow us! "
She was about to leave again when a shadow stood in front of her. The two guards turned around and pointed their guns at each other.
"Don't moving! "
No answer. The thing that dominated them a good half meter did not move.
The hood was then folded down in one fell swoop and Jay and his two guards were stunned by what they saw. The gesture had revealed the figure of a man who was watching them from afar. Only this figure was not unique, it was repeated on each side. It looked like the reflections of a flesh-made kaleidoscope.
The face was motionless and silent but they saw the lips of the two lateral mouths moving in silence, as if the heads were talking to each other.
The apparition made a slight rotation, and they were observed by other eyes, different but similar.
The two guards opened fire together.
The form dodged.
Jay then realized that three complete men had been assembled by the back. The most chilling thing was that this assembly was not lacking in elegance, its flexible and perfectly synchronized movements reminiscent of those of an octopus or a jellyfish.
Two arms sprang from the dust cover and the first soldier's neck broke.
Jay shook off the paralyzing fear, turned his heels, and started running down the alley. Behind her she heard a blaster shot followed by a crackling sound. The second soldier had just been killed.
"He's gonna catch me, he's gonna catch me, he's gonna catch me..."
She saw a narrow path on her right. She skidded down on the dirt floor.
"To get out of his sight, to become invisible..."
A silhouette appears before her. She almost swept it away with all her momentum, but the shape dodged and grabbed her in his arms. It was Bujac.
"Follow us, Major"
She saw Blom and a few others in the shadow of the alley. Blaster shots were heard. Bujac listened:
"They're being hung up by the garrison. That's Good for us"
They left in the shadows. Jay was so shaken that she followed them without a word.
Republican flagship RSV115 "Emancipator", elevator "Capricorn".
It was a bunker rat that woke up Jed. These parasites were brought into the vessels during stopovers and their tracking was one of the basic occupations of the crews. He felt a patient biting at his right middle finger, which brought him back to the surface of consciousness.
At first, he saw nothing, which made him believe that he had been blinded by his opponent's shot.
Then his retinas opened, and he made out the ceiling in the hallway. The power had been cut off because everything was in the dark. Only the emergency lights spread a greenish glow from far to far.
He turned heavily to his left side and began to get up. His breathing was bad. He nevertheless managed to stand up and wobbled. He felt his right side, where his wound was, and felt a huge bump above the wound.
No choice. He bent down to look for his dagger in his boot, found it and stuck the tip right in the haematoma. The right leg of his pants stuck to his skin and he felt his boot fill in.
Everything began to get confused and he leaned against the wall of the corridor. But he was breathing better.
The dizziness passed, and he looked around in a circle at what was around him. The trooper who had him shot was lying at his feet. The workshop that had been their last position was totally obscure.
"And I didn't even take a torch!" He thought to himself, cursing his unpreparedness.
His gaze fell on the dead trooper. "What if..."
He stooped and turned the body over. Like the lieutenant, he had been disarmed and the magazine pockets were empty. But the rest of the equipment remained in place and miracle! Jed saw a torch hanging from the belt.
He took it quickly and lit it. Now he was no longer blind.
He passed the workshop frame and walked to the freight elevator to see that it had been destroyed. By his group or by the enemy, he knew nothing about it, but nothing to hope for on this side.
He sat down on a crate to take stock of the situation.
Obviously the front line had moved and he was now in enemy territory. Abseiling down the stairwell was impossible in his condition and it would be like jumping into the wolf's mouth anyway.
Returning to the ship's castle via the corridor from which he had come posed the same problems. There was no place to hide and he would inevitably be spotted and taken prisoner when he reaches the combat zone.
There was one last solution: follow exactly the same path as the attackers, return to the service platform by the holds. From there he could either go back down to the friendly zone if the imperials had been blocked before, or else look for a service suit and reach the castle from the outside.
It was only to be hoped that the imperials had not left any sentries.
That was all that remained to be done, so he set off immediately after having put on a rough bandage.
Republican base at "Biem Hoa", headquarters.
The commander was standing in the middle of the room listening to the report given to him by the lieutenant in charge of the garrison. To his left, a little to the rear, the intelligence officer was not missing a tiniest part of the conversation.
At the end of the report, the commander spoke:
"How could there have been infiltration without the alarm being raised?"
"Due to losses, we had to lighten the service. The sentries have not been doubled for two days"
"You say that the main generators have been sabotaged. How? "
"A conductive organic material has been sprayed on the cables. It put everything in short circuit"
The intelligence officer ticked, but stood his ground. The lieutenant continued:
"Technicians are working on it now, but this material is extremely toxic. The first electrician who intervened without protection died in less than ten minutes"
"How long before we at least get the lights back on?"
"In one hour"
The commander looked up at the ceiling.
"In one hour! And we are unprotected apart by the droids and the minefields! Let us pray that the imperials know nothing about it!"
"Rightly commander. The prisoners managed to blow up the enclosure gate and spread throughout the base. They're unarmed apart from a few clubs and knives, but they have already attacked a few isolated soldiers to take their weapons..."
"And what did you do? "
"I entrenched my platoon around the central core of the base. As soon as the lighting comes back, we will rake the peripheral districts sector by sector"
The commander turned to the signal station.
"Have you still some electric supply left? "
"Yes, sir, we're on back-up batteries"
"Contact the Angel of Mercy immediately. Tell him not to send the shuttle"
"It's too late, Commander. It's already gone and the descent has begun. The radio waves are only passing more"
The commander clenched his jaws. Everything was going to rack and ruins.
"Is at least the space zone secure? "
"Yes for the hangars, no for the runways"
"It's going from bad to worse. Can we send a squad down there to pick it up?"
"That would be dangerous, commander. I barely have enough men to hold the central core. But as soon as it is in atmospheric flight we can contact them by radio to tell her to come back up"
"How soon does it get here?"
"Half an hour" replied the radio station. "Given the low power of the emergency transmitter, it will have to be called just before landing"
The commander thinks briefly. He didn't like this solution, but there weren't any yet.
"Good" he concluded, addressing the head of the garrison. "We can consider that the situation has stabilized. The top priority is restarting the generators. Do you have full powers, understood?"
"Yes sir!" replied the lieutenant, bowing and turning on his heel.
A moment passed and then the intelligence officer spoke:
"Commander, this story is not at all clear…"
"That is the least one can say!"
"I'm not kidding, Commander. This doesn't look like an attack by imperial commandos"
"If it's not them, who can it be?"
"I don't know. But I'm going to go see the generators and take a sample of this material. That may give us an indication"
"Watch out anyway!"
"Don't worry about that, I'll take my precautions. I will also have to question all the soldiers who were on guard. They may have seen something"
"Do it. But for now the priority is to take back the base"