Page 112 of Star-Crossed Captive
Chapter forty-one
Theinfiltrationteamgatheredat the freighter’s hatch. Each of the techies stared at Mace with wide eyes, their hands either clamped around their satchels or palettes. The tapping of Callista’s fingers was the only sound until Grey lifted a pulse cannon to his shoulder and Spiro snorted.
Grey shrugged. “Never leave home without it.”
“Autonomous shielding?” Cache asked Callista.
The techie swallowed, her face pale. “Sending you the frequencies now.”
Cache nodded to him, and Mace took point. Their vambraces beeped as one. The warriors adjusted the settings on their weapons to the frequency of the defenders’ personal shielding.
“All right, people.” Cache stared at each one of them. “Let’s get this done.”
Weapons aloft, Mace opened the hatch. As they’d hoped, thePhalanx’sfrontal assault had distracted the defenders. All CORE personnel in the bay ran to battle stations, no one paying attention to the freighter.
They’d gotten halfway to the exit when they were noticed. In rapid succession, Mace took out the three defenders closest to them. Laser fire erupted behind him, but he trusted Spiro, Betel, and Cache to take care of it while he cleared the path ahead. Beside him, Grey used the pulse cannon, wiping out five defenders with one blast.
As the last of the weapons fire behind him died down, a shadowy silence followed them out the bay and into the corridor. A pair of defenders cornered ahead of them, and Mace fired two shots taking them out. Each corridor they cleared brought them closer to the command center.
Their luck ran out in the Section B atrium, the area laid out almost identical to the one in Section C.
Backs pressed against the bulkhead, Mace stared at each of team members, mind racing. He should have expected it. They were trapped. Defenders guarded every angle of the atrium, and they’d taken defensive positions behind them as well. Those pairs of defenders, easily neutralized, had only been decoys.
Right now, they had no place to go. If Mace stuck his head out, his brains would be splattered against the bulkhead.
“Any suggestions?” Cache asked beside him. The techs on her other side vibrated with fear.
It was such a blasted mistake to bring them. He glanced at Grey, who shook his head. Betel and Spiro didn’t share any ideas either. Mace settled his eyes on Cache. “I have one, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Try me,” she said, her tone edged.
“Blow a hole in the lift and rappel twenty decks.”
Cache’s eyebrows arched with understanding. “I actually do like it. Subtle.”
He cocked his head to the techs.
“They’ll be fine,” she said in answer to his silent question. “They’re tougher than they look.”
Mace shook his head. If they were any less tough, they would be a puddle of piss. “Grey, open up the lift on my mark. Cache, get the techs secured into bungees.” He looked at Spiro and Betel. “What are you two hoarding?”
“A little of this. A little of that,” Spiro said, pulling out a smoke grenade from the vest he wore.
Betel grunted and took out a flash bomb from his pant pocket.
Raising his eyebrows in appreciation, Mace waited for Cache to secure the last techie, then nodded to Grey. His friend aimed at the main lift and fired. A deafening blast echoed a second later, shattering the lift’s walls.
“Eyes,” Mace said in a low voice.
Everyone looked away as Betel and Spiro threw their toys. An earsplittingboomaccompanied a blinding flash. Smoke billowed everywhere.
Cache ran the techies through the chaos, adding her cover fire. Their bungees stretched tight as they fell through the chasm Grey had created. Mace heard one of them scream the entire way, thought maybe it was Newton. The five warriors used ropes to follow a second later, landing on a heap of rubble covered in dust.
“Seal that,” Mace ordered Grey, motioning for the techies to get as far away as possible.
“Fire in the hole.” Grey tossed a grenade upward, then ran for cover as Mace ducked around the corner with the others.
The explosion rocked through them, raining more debris until the shaft was totally unusable.
