Disclaimer: Please see Prologue
Part Twelve: Siege
"Here's the plan. One, body armor. Lots of it. Rosie, that's your job. Stay in well-lit areas and stay heated up. You're back to normal, right?"
"Yeah Harlan."
"Two: weapons. Radu, you're in charge of that one. We are going to need seven fully automatic weapons that can hold at least five hundred rounds. Do the same as Rosie and take the gun with you. Get some like it if you can."
"I've got it."
"Three: ammunition. That guy at the police station said that they carry a brain case. According to you, Radu, the first time you ran into this Xenia person she was wearing body armor on the chest and torso only, right?"
"Yes... I think that's where they keep their brain case."
"I think so too... so I am going to get bullets that explode on impact. Deadly, and they take out a lot of tissue. We'll be able to vaporize them. Let's go, and we meet back here in an hour."
[pic]
"When they come in, we gas them. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. We gas them and we keep them alive. They are going to be desperate and desperate people have a way of finding things out, so keep yourself covered. Whatever you do, don't go down to the warehouse floor. Stay up here with the hostages. They will have a lot less incentive to fire on us if their friends are in the way."
[pic]
"They'll probably try to get us with a long-distance weapon, like trank darts or gas. The armor I got has 30-minute oxygen canisters in the helmet, so if you think they are going to gas you, shut your breathing holes and turn on the air conditioning."
"As for the warehouse, we'll try to bring them down to our level. I've been trapped in that loft twice already and I'm pretty sure that's where they'll be holding our friends. While you two go in the front door, I am going to scale the wall on the outside of the warehouse and try to get onto the loft from the roof. When I get there I'll try to push as many as I can off the platform, but you guys have to watch them. I fought Xenia at my full strength and she was a match for me blow for blow. Use your guns, not your fists."
[pic]
"Use your guns, guys. Not your fists. And Ethios! Stop looking at the firebug! Do you want him to have a heart attack and die! NOT YET!"
[pic]
They say the darkest hour is just before dawn. I've always thought that the darkest hour is midnight in the warehouse district, when you and two of your friends, weak and beaten, march steadily forward to certain death. I don't believe that we will survive this siege, but I will die trying to save my family. I say family because that's what they are, maybe not through blood, but through sweat and tears and devotion. We've spilled enough blood in this journey to make us all brothers and sisters twice over, and tonight the people I walk with and the people I walk toward are my family. I never had a family before, and if I have to, I will give them my life.
[pic]
"Before I climb this wall... I want you guys to know I love you both. I hope I see you on the other side of this battle."
"Thanks Radu. Let's go."
Radu began to climb. The outside wall of the warehouse was brick, with adequate space between the bricks to grab a good hold. Radu had no place to put his feet, and so he climbed with his hands only, the toes of his boots and the kneepads of his body armor scraping the wall as he inched up the first of sixty-five feet.
[pic]
It all seemed to happen in slow motion when it did. Rosie and Harlan burst in through the double doors at the same time, marching into the lair of the demons.
They stood at the edge of the platform, looking down.
"You can't beat us... you might as well join us! Your bodies, anyway. Gas them, Ethios," said Xenia, turning her back on the two below and walking to where the platform would hide her from any bullets.
The blue-skinned Ethios took the lid off of a five-gallon bucket of liquid and spilled it over the side of the platform. The liquid splashed over the cold floor, vaporizing on contact.
Harlan and Rosie closed their helmets. Half an hour.
[pic]
Thirty more feet. Thirty to the roof.
[pic]
"Come on down here and fight!" yelled Harlan through his helmet. He doubted that the aliens could hear him anyway. He realized his mistake had been turning the oxygen on: they had twenty- five minutes to go and if they climbed that ladder they were dead as soon as they reached the top.
[pic]
Radu placed one armor-plated hand over the roof's ledge. He saw what he wanted: the door to the loft. Sending a silent prayer to whoever was listening, Radu wrenched the door open and jumped in.
"You! I knew you were somewhere around here, snack food!" yelled Xenia, still wearing his face. A quick look around told Radu that fate had landed him in a good spot: His crew, bound and their mouths duct-taped shut on one side, the lifestealers in a row on the other side. He opened fire and sent three of them off the platform at once. Another set of shots and three more were gone, leaving Xenia and him alone at the top.
[pic]
As soon as Harlan heard the shots, he knew Radu had hit paydirt. The falling bodies of three, then three more of what he took to be lifestealers (all different species on the outside) assured him that Radu had made it to the top.
Rosie and Harlan opened fire on the lifestealers, cutting them down. Huge holes appeared in them but closed almost as fast as they were formed, tendrils flying over open wounds.
A Derezian lifestealer advanced on Rosie. I know him, she thought. He's the one who drugged me. Lowering her gun, Rosie let loose all of the heat energy she could muster from her left hand, directly into the torso of Ethios. He screamed shortly and then fell, a hole in his middle going clear through to his back. Harlan fired several rounds into him and this time the tendrils did not come to fix his wounds.
"One down!" yelled Harlan. "Five to go!" He and Rosie had a system now.
[pic]
"So, we meet again. Are you ready to fight me one last time, snack food?"
"I think you will find, right before I kill you, that it was a bad idea to call me a snack food, Xenia. And also... you look like me. But I'm the real thing. See those people you have bound up there? That's my family. I thought when I came here that I would die for them tonight. But you know what. I'm not going to die."
Radu fired at his double's midsection, blowing holes everywhere. Apparently it's not too easy to hit an armored seed the size of a small egg because Xenia healed as fast as he fired... until his gun was empty.
Radu had four more on him. But guns were for another day.
"I lost to you twice. My people have been known to tear the heads off of their enemies when they are aggravated to a certain point. Come on, lifestealer, I'm going to win this time."
They fought. As before, they were evenly matched, neither getting ahead of the other for long. Radu and the demon in his form fought for their lives, trading punches in the head for kicks in the gut, smashing each other into the wall and the platform, gashing each other on sharp corners. Radu grabbed Xenia by the upper arms and pressed him into the wall. Slid his hands down to Xenia's wrists and spreadeagled him there. Stepped on his feet and held him.
Radu transferred both wrists into his left hand and help them up high. His balance was solid.
"You lose, Xenia."
"You can't kill me."
"You can't shapeshift unless you're hurt. I knew that much when you cut your hands open. You're stuck. And I know better than to cut you now. You see, you never thought how I knew you were there when you first attacked me. I can hear everything, Xenia. Before I didn't know what to listen for, but now I do. As I speak the sound of my voice reflects off of one point in your body. A small hard spot right here." He pointed to a place on Xenia's abdomen.
"You are going to die," said Xenia.
"No. *You* are going to die."
Radu had four guns strapped to him. He pulled one off of his hip and pointed it at Xenia... and fired.
Part Twelve: Siege
"Here's the plan. One, body armor. Lots of it. Rosie, that's your job. Stay in well-lit areas and stay heated up. You're back to normal, right?"
"Yeah Harlan."
"Two: weapons. Radu, you're in charge of that one. We are going to need seven fully automatic weapons that can hold at least five hundred rounds. Do the same as Rosie and take the gun with you. Get some like it if you can."
"I've got it."
"Three: ammunition. That guy at the police station said that they carry a brain case. According to you, Radu, the first time you ran into this Xenia person she was wearing body armor on the chest and torso only, right?"
"Yes... I think that's where they keep their brain case."
"I think so too... so I am going to get bullets that explode on impact. Deadly, and they take out a lot of tissue. We'll be able to vaporize them. Let's go, and we meet back here in an hour."
[pic]
"When they come in, we gas them. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. We gas them and we keep them alive. They are going to be desperate and desperate people have a way of finding things out, so keep yourself covered. Whatever you do, don't go down to the warehouse floor. Stay up here with the hostages. They will have a lot less incentive to fire on us if their friends are in the way."
[pic]
"They'll probably try to get us with a long-distance weapon, like trank darts or gas. The armor I got has 30-minute oxygen canisters in the helmet, so if you think they are going to gas you, shut your breathing holes and turn on the air conditioning."
"As for the warehouse, we'll try to bring them down to our level. I've been trapped in that loft twice already and I'm pretty sure that's where they'll be holding our friends. While you two go in the front door, I am going to scale the wall on the outside of the warehouse and try to get onto the loft from the roof. When I get there I'll try to push as many as I can off the platform, but you guys have to watch them. I fought Xenia at my full strength and she was a match for me blow for blow. Use your guns, not your fists."
[pic]
"Use your guns, guys. Not your fists. And Ethios! Stop looking at the firebug! Do you want him to have a heart attack and die! NOT YET!"
[pic]
They say the darkest hour is just before dawn. I've always thought that the darkest hour is midnight in the warehouse district, when you and two of your friends, weak and beaten, march steadily forward to certain death. I don't believe that we will survive this siege, but I will die trying to save my family. I say family because that's what they are, maybe not through blood, but through sweat and tears and devotion. We've spilled enough blood in this journey to make us all brothers and sisters twice over, and tonight the people I walk with and the people I walk toward are my family. I never had a family before, and if I have to, I will give them my life.
[pic]
"Before I climb this wall... I want you guys to know I love you both. I hope I see you on the other side of this battle."
"Thanks Radu. Let's go."
Radu began to climb. The outside wall of the warehouse was brick, with adequate space between the bricks to grab a good hold. Radu had no place to put his feet, and so he climbed with his hands only, the toes of his boots and the kneepads of his body armor scraping the wall as he inched up the first of sixty-five feet.
[pic]
It all seemed to happen in slow motion when it did. Rosie and Harlan burst in through the double doors at the same time, marching into the lair of the demons.
They stood at the edge of the platform, looking down.
"You can't beat us... you might as well join us! Your bodies, anyway. Gas them, Ethios," said Xenia, turning her back on the two below and walking to where the platform would hide her from any bullets.
The blue-skinned Ethios took the lid off of a five-gallon bucket of liquid and spilled it over the side of the platform. The liquid splashed over the cold floor, vaporizing on contact.
Harlan and Rosie closed their helmets. Half an hour.
[pic]
Thirty more feet. Thirty to the roof.
[pic]
"Come on down here and fight!" yelled Harlan through his helmet. He doubted that the aliens could hear him anyway. He realized his mistake had been turning the oxygen on: they had twenty- five minutes to go and if they climbed that ladder they were dead as soon as they reached the top.
[pic]
Radu placed one armor-plated hand over the roof's ledge. He saw what he wanted: the door to the loft. Sending a silent prayer to whoever was listening, Radu wrenched the door open and jumped in.
"You! I knew you were somewhere around here, snack food!" yelled Xenia, still wearing his face. A quick look around told Radu that fate had landed him in a good spot: His crew, bound and their mouths duct-taped shut on one side, the lifestealers in a row on the other side. He opened fire and sent three of them off the platform at once. Another set of shots and three more were gone, leaving Xenia and him alone at the top.
[pic]
As soon as Harlan heard the shots, he knew Radu had hit paydirt. The falling bodies of three, then three more of what he took to be lifestealers (all different species on the outside) assured him that Radu had made it to the top.
Rosie and Harlan opened fire on the lifestealers, cutting them down. Huge holes appeared in them but closed almost as fast as they were formed, tendrils flying over open wounds.
A Derezian lifestealer advanced on Rosie. I know him, she thought. He's the one who drugged me. Lowering her gun, Rosie let loose all of the heat energy she could muster from her left hand, directly into the torso of Ethios. He screamed shortly and then fell, a hole in his middle going clear through to his back. Harlan fired several rounds into him and this time the tendrils did not come to fix his wounds.
"One down!" yelled Harlan. "Five to go!" He and Rosie had a system now.
[pic]
"So, we meet again. Are you ready to fight me one last time, snack food?"
"I think you will find, right before I kill you, that it was a bad idea to call me a snack food, Xenia. And also... you look like me. But I'm the real thing. See those people you have bound up there? That's my family. I thought when I came here that I would die for them tonight. But you know what. I'm not going to die."
Radu fired at his double's midsection, blowing holes everywhere. Apparently it's not too easy to hit an armored seed the size of a small egg because Xenia healed as fast as he fired... until his gun was empty.
Radu had four more on him. But guns were for another day.
"I lost to you twice. My people have been known to tear the heads off of their enemies when they are aggravated to a certain point. Come on, lifestealer, I'm going to win this time."
They fought. As before, they were evenly matched, neither getting ahead of the other for long. Radu and the demon in his form fought for their lives, trading punches in the head for kicks in the gut, smashing each other into the wall and the platform, gashing each other on sharp corners. Radu grabbed Xenia by the upper arms and pressed him into the wall. Slid his hands down to Xenia's wrists and spreadeagled him there. Stepped on his feet and held him.
Radu transferred both wrists into his left hand and help them up high. His balance was solid.
"You lose, Xenia."
"You can't kill me."
"You can't shapeshift unless you're hurt. I knew that much when you cut your hands open. You're stuck. And I know better than to cut you now. You see, you never thought how I knew you were there when you first attacked me. I can hear everything, Xenia. Before I didn't know what to listen for, but now I do. As I speak the sound of my voice reflects off of one point in your body. A small hard spot right here." He pointed to a place on Xenia's abdomen.
"You are going to die," said Xenia.
"No. *You* are going to die."
Radu had four guns strapped to him. He pulled one off of his hip and pointed it at Xenia... and fired.