Survive and Conquer
"Either I will find a way, or I will make one." - Sir Phillip Sidney
-
It could have been an hour or five minutes later when Zechs became aware of his surroundings.
Everything was dim and quiet. Something snapped and sparked in the background. There was a heavy weight on his back, and a fierce ache in his head. He felt as if someone had brained him with something hard and buried him alive. Common sense told him otherwise.
He shifted, and the weight fell off his back. It was a large metal slab; if it had landed at another angle, it might have killed him.
Suddenly, he remembered what had happened. The beam weapon firing, him diving on Noin . . .
She was lying on her side beneath him, nursing a nasty gash in her temple. Her eyes fluttered open, and she murmured, "Are we still alive?"
"As far as I know," he said in a low voice, rising to his knees.
"Great," she muttered, and slid into a sitting position.
He tested a few limbs to make sure everything was working properly, and when he moved his shoulder, he felt a stabbing pain and gripped it in one hand.
Noin saw this and asked, "Is it dislocated?" Zechs nodded. "Let me help. I know a technique that should fix it." She got into a kneeling position and placed her hands on strategic places on his shoulder.
"This is going to hurt," she warned.
With one sharp push and a relentless twist, she relocated the shoulder. Zechs gritted his teeth and rode through the blinding pain until it faded.
That finished, they both got to their feet and surveyed the damage. Part of the ceiling had come down, but no one seemed buried beneath the wreckage. Equipment sparked where it had been hit by flying debris, and the emergency lights glowed blue. The others were gradually gathering their wits also, groaning, trying to get it together.
Grant stood and let out a stream of curses before asking, "Everyone alive?"
There was a chorus of affirmatives, after which he demanded, "Damage report."
Xack was immediately at the console, and he pulled up some base scans. "The base is still standing. Elle, get over here, I can't read these architechtural schematics."
She limped over to him and looked at the screen, then sighed, part relieved, part alarmed. "We're still good, but we can't put up a defense any longer. The upper sections are on the verge of collapse, and I hope no one was in the western wing, because it no longer exists. A couple of passageways are blocked by debris, and a water line has burst, but the five docks are still intact. Several more shots like the last one, and this entire place will come down around our ears."
"They won't fire again," Zechs said. "They need the base intact. We're crippled, now, so they'll start the invasion."
"They've already started," Xack said suddenly, and everyone looked at him. "They're in."
Zechs acted fast; if there was one thing he knew, it was battle. As easily as Grant had done, he started giving the orders. "Xack, listen to me very closely: Open every door in the base, and shut down the electrical systems."
Xack frowned. "But - "
"They'll only use it against us. Just leave the environmental systems and emergency lights on. Do it now."
The younger man obeyed, nodded to his fellow workers, and they got to work.
Immediately, every console in the room went blank, and a strange, dying sound echoed throughout the base as everything went off-line. The doors to the security section all snapped open and stayed that way, and blue lights glowed everywhere.
Meanwhile, Noin went over to the weapons lockers and pulled them open. They were well-stocked just for an emergency such as this. Everything from P-20 military rifles to semi-automatic laser handguns were collected there, with plenty of extra ammunition and audio communicators.
"When the hell did we get fire power like that?" someone wanted to know.
"The lockers seemed a bit understocked, so I ordered some extra firearms," Noin replied. "Better safe than sorry, you know. It's an advantage we can use. They won't be expecting weapons like these."
She started pulling the weapons free while Grant said dryly, "So surrender isn't an option, huh?"
"It doesn't matter whether or not we surrender," Zechs said quietly. "Celluci won't want anyone reporting back to the Preventers; his men are probably on a kill or capture mission. Raiders aren't known for their mercy. Our only choice is to fight back and try to escape."
Noin nodded as she loaded a charge into a laser rifle. "Their efficiency depends on how many men they have. If Celluci's confident about taking out almost two hundred personnel, he likely has about thirty or more armed men. It wouldn't take more than that."
Grant frowned. "So what do we have going for us?"
"Knowledge of the base, a few experienced soldiers, and a life-or-death decision," Zechs replied grimly. "Not much, but if we strategize, perhaps enough."
"Anyone who can hold a weapon, grab something," Noin ordered, tossing a P-20 to Zechs, which he caught easily. "Anyone who can't, this is the best time to learn. We've got to get out there and do as much damage to their numbers as possible."
Relieved to have something to do, the technical and security personnel started handing out firearms.
Meanwhile, Noin pulled Zechs to the side, and looked at him with violet eyes narrow and glittering with the prospect of battle. "We've got maybe fifteen people altogether who can hold a gun, a hundred and seventy-five civilians to protect, about thirty armed men to defend this base against, and not nearly enough resources to pull it off," she hissed. "This is insane."
He smiled very slightly. "Favorable odds for the Lightning Count."
"Of course." She shook her head. "You would say that, you old war-hardened fool. All right, then."
Zechs looked at her, his partner, and felt the old camaraderie. It had been months since they had been on a mission together, since Mariemaia's army posed a threat. Did they still have the old skills?
There was only one way to find out.
Laurence Ridde, the head security officer of the Pirate, the most ruthless raider ship to ever cruise the stars, as far as he was concerned, led his team through the east side of the Terra-forming Base.
They'd gotten in with fairly little resistance, since the hacking of the core system took care of the surface defenses pretty easily. The little group they'd found on the surface were already locked away, and Celluci had given the order for his raiders to move in and clean up.
So, following orders, the crew of the Pirate stormed the base, splitting into
seperate teams to make sure no one missed anything. They didn't expect much trouble.
Inside, it was dark, excepting the emergency lights. The tunnel where the water line had burst was semi-flooded. Ridde scowled as he and his team sloshed through the ankle-deep water.
"When do you think we'll see trouble?" a scruffy blonde asked no one in particular.
Ridde shrugged but didn't look towards the blonde. "From this half-assed fortress of computer geeks and scientists? Probably never. But pay attention. Celluci warned that Merquise and that Preventer Noin might try something. Those two ain't leading officers for nothing."
Suddenly, they heard splashing up ahead, from what sounded like someone running away.
The raiders froze, then Ridde nodded at two of them, and those appointed two went forward into the dark tunnel.
They came back a few minutes later, dragging a woman and a man in lab coats with them. The man was unconscious. The woman was fighting, but she was small, and didn't stand a chance.
"Hold her still," Ridde ordered. They tightened their grip and forced the woman to face their leader. She was attractive and terrified, Ridde could see that.
Ridde's scarred face was serious and unamused, but behind him, he heard some of the others making lewd suggestions at the woman.
"Hey, Ridde," one said, "when this is over, can we have a go at her?"
The leader shrugged. "Doesn't matter either way to me. Tie them up and take them back to the surface. When we're done here, you guys can do whatever you want to her. Prisoners are free game."
"No!" she screamed as she was being dragged away.
Suddenly, there was a loud banging noise from overhead.
The team all brandished their weapons, with Ridde demanding, "Come out and we won't kill you" but it was too late.
The door of the hidden compartment in the wall slammed hard into one of the raiders, and a pair of hands grabbed the civilians, and yanked them out of the water.
That person yelled, "Now!"
An ominious buzzing crept through the hall, and without warning, the water came alive with a high-voltage electric charge. It was a slaughter. Five minutes later, most of the group was out cold in the water, excepting their leader, who had run off in the chaos just in time.
The only sound was the woman in the lab coat sobbing with relief.
Eyes narrowed, the Elle pushed aside the compartment door. "Are they dead?" she asked.
Xack kicked out the grating in the ventilation system overhead. "Unfortunately, no. The charge from that shorted wall unit was medium at best. It's going to be a hell to repair later on, but it was worth it to do this."
She smiled. "Definitely. What a bunch of bastards."
Their speaker headsets crackled with incoming messages. A voice said, "Xack, Elle, report."
"Five down," Xack responded. "Two civilians recovered. And the ring leader's already hightailed it."
"Roger that. Keep moving."
With a nod to each other, the two helped the two civilians to their feet and started forward.
-
"Something's wrong," Rupena muttered, readjusting the comm. unit in her ear.
Some of her team looked at her, and Jax, who'd had a crush on her since she'd started working on the Pirate raider vessel, sent her a smile. "You shouldn't worry your pretty little head about these prisoners," he said, indicating the frightened group of dockhands their team was holding at gunpoint in the third docking area. "We got 'em right here we want 'em."
Rupena resisted the urge to smack Jax for the "pretty little head" comment. She didn't like him, the idiot. "No, I mean that I can't contact team B. Their comm. links are offline."
Jax frowned. "Whadda ya think happened?"
"Don't know. We ought to check it out."
Suddenly, the door to the dock slammed open, and the entire team prepared to fire.
The person lifted his hands, looking at them all with wide eyes. "Hey, no need to get violent. I'm just here to say hi. So . . . hi."
He smiled and his gaze shifted just enough for Rupena to realize that there was something going on behind her.
Shots rang out, and the yells of her companions made her whirl, eyes widening, to open fire, but the feel of a muzzle in her stomach gave her pause.
"Drop it," a guy she didn't know ordered. "Or I'll blow your kidneys out."
She obeyed, and looked angrily at the scene before her. All of her team was being held in check by at least four individuals she had never seen before. They all looked competant and royally pissed. One of their own had been shot dead by her men, and that probably hadn't helped their mood.
"Damn," she muttered. "How the hell did you people get in here?"
"You ever think to check the vents?" one of them said.
Rupena sighed. No, she'd been told that the enemy couldn't possibly be that well prepared. Oh, well. At least she wouldn't have to deal with Jax anymore.
-
Such attacks were going on around the base, quiet ambushes, taking out the enemy because the enemy was too cocky to expect a defensive. The main defense in the security section was getting regular updates on this.
"What's the score?" Noin asked, looking at the viewcreens.
"Fifteen out," Grant answered. "We have one casualty and two wounded. One got away. That would be the little boy going to cry wolf."
"Yeah." She grinned dangerously. "So let's go wake the wolf."
" . . . Let me warn you, this plan is completely suicidal by military standards, and some of us won't be coming back. I leave you the option of staying with the civilians in the lower sections, but you will not be allowed to surrender to the enemy and risk giving away the entire mission. Now that you know what we plan to do, you're either with us or against us. Understood?"
The collection of security personnel and a few individuals who knew how to fight nodded their understanding, and Noin gave a grim smile of satisfaction.
Zechs had been briefing them on the plan he and Noin had put together. It was crazy at best, but they were low on time and it was the most likely thing to work that didn't involve detonating the entire base.
As Grant had said, destroying the base would defeat the purpose of fighting for it. They had to keep it as intact as possible, and still eliminate the raiders.
She was reminded of her days as Lake Victoria's Head Instructor; those potential soldiers had depended on her lessons to get them through situations such as this. Now she was doing it all over again.
"Is everything ready?" she asked Zechs as she came up to him.
He was busy loading a charge into his assault rifle. "Our 'soldiers' have their orders," he answered without looking up.
"Good."
He looped the rifle's strap onto his shoulder. "Let's go."
She caught him by the arm, stopping him. "Hold on, Colonel Reckless."
"What is it, Noin?"
"I want to remind you of the fact that this entire plan is pure lunacy," she stated dryly. "And just to make sure you don't go off trying to play the suicidal hero, I'm going to fight right beside you."
He looked like he wanted to object, but knew there wouldn't be a point. Zechs just sighed and nodded. "If that's what you want."
Lucrezia grinned. "It is. Now, let's go win this battle, Preventer Wind."
Her partner smiled slightly. "As you wish, Preventer Fire."