18. Hazel

18

Hazel

I charged through the village, searching everywhere for Daphne, Merrit… Anybody. I didn't know the best way out of here to the shuttle, and this mission was too important to screw up.

But I had no idea where they might be, and I didn't have the time to spare. I gave it up and raced for the cavern entrance. I ran up against a flank of warriors headed by Tennar, Nissaya's mate. He almost didn't notice me diving for the tunnel, but at the last second, he caught me by the arm. "Where do you think you're going? It's not safe out there!"

"I'm just going to—"

A massive concussion cut me off. It rocked the cavern with such force that I stumbled off my feet. I had to support myself against the wall to avoid falling over.

Tennar yelled something to his men. They all rotated toward the tunnel. At the same instant, a swarm of unfamiliar soldiers poured through the opening. They ran full tilt into the defenders and a devastating battle broke out.

These invaders didn't look like anything more than human men, but in half a second, I realized that was wrong. The first wave pinned down the Kavians with little effort. They plowed the Kavians to the ground and fired their laser pistols at the fallen defenders. The battle swung in the enemy's favor within moments, with no reprieve in sight.

I huddled against the wall, trying to decide what to do. As I watched one Kavian after another fall, I realized this couldn't go on. Someone had to stop this, and that someone would not be the Kavians. If this went on, the Kavians would fall. Valmore would fall. This entire colony that I came to think of as my family would cease to be.

I made my decision and dove into the tunnel. There was only one way to save the colony, and that was with the shuttle. I couldn't try to be sneaky about it. I had to make a bold run for it, everything else be damned.

I darted into the forest, crawling with soldiers. Everywhere I looked, I saw Kavian warriors dropping left and right. Three of them attacked a single soldier while another ten ran past them, heading for the cavern.

I hesitated. I couldn't believe the battle was so bleak. The Ranxi were clearly here to finish the job—to kill every last Kavian with their super-soldiers. I was the only person who could stop them.

I turned my back on the Kavians. I had a job to do, and I knew where I had to go. I hid behind one tree trunk after another, avoiding the soldiers at all costs. Even when they did see me, they didn't stop. They must've had orders to only target Kavians and the cavern. The inhuman way they moved almost convinced me they were brainwashed—or maybe connected to a hivemind. But now wasn't the time to try to make sense of it.

In a few minutes, I came to the edge of the trees. I skimmed sideways. More waves of soldiers mindlessly ran past me as they headed for the mountain. Paying them no mind, I crashed through the undergrowth. I no longer cared about staying hidden. I had to reach the shuttle.

I burst into the clearing where we had once landed. I caught one glimpse of Kasik and Palu lying bloody and motionless a few yards away. It looked like they must've tried to fight, but all it did was draw the ire of these invincible soldiers. I chose not to look at them, instead diving inside and lunging for the pilot's station.

I sat down and hit the communications relay. The console flickered and a Methuselah crew member's face blinked onto the display. "This better be pretty damn important. We're under massive attack up here!"

"I know! Patch me through to IPA Command, or we're all dead!"

"All right, give me a second."

His face vanished. The display flickered again. I counted down the heartbeats until the IPA Command logo flashed on the screen. The next minute, I looked into my captain's office. For some reason, it hit me how clean and sterile it looked.

"Well, well, well," he drawled. "If it isn't our newest Diplomatic Envoy. Congratulations, Simmons. You are now ranked Emissary to the High Court."

"Forget that," I interrupted. "We have a massacre going on down here. The Ranxi are attacking the Kavian colony with hybridized warriors. They're already overrunning the colony and wiping out civilians. I need you to drop the strike force into hyperspeed for immediate intervention."

"I can't do that, Simmons," he replied. "You know that. I have procedures I have to follow. I can't just order a political intervention without some solid proof of…"

"I've given you plenty of proof!" I bellowed. "The proof is in your own long-range scans. The Ranxi already killed over nine-tenths of the Kavian population before this. The rest are holding out on this planet with nothing but spears and swords to defend their lives."

"They're on that planet illegally, I should add. The IPA is doing them a favor by allowing them to remain there at all. If anything, the Ranxi are acting in the IPA's interests by clearing the illegal colonization so we don't have to."

Something snapped inside me. Everything Valmore told me about the IPA was true. They would stand by and do nothing while the Ranxi murdered the Kavians to the last man, woman, and child. They only sent out the strike force to save their own faces. They never intended to help the Kavians at all.

My heart went cold and hard. I lowered my voice to a dangerous murmur. "So you don't intend to drop the strike force into hyperspeed?"

"You know I can't do that, Simmons—and don't throw a tantrum and say you're going to call your daddy to get what you want."

"That's Emissary Simmons, to you. I'm not your subordinate officer anymore, and I'm ordering you, as an emissary to the High Court, to comply with my order or face the consequences. I'm ordering you, on penalty of court martial, to drop the strike force into hyperspeed now."

I looked down at my console. He seemed to be listening now. I continued. "I'm switching on my long-range scanner. If I don't see the strike force dropped in ten seconds, I'll report you to the High Court for dereliction, mutiny, conspiracy, and genocide."

His mouth fell open and his eyes bugged out. "You can't…"

"Five seconds, captain." I didn't look at him. I looked down at my console. "Two seconds."

He gulped and tapped something on his desk. A blip appeared on my display. "Perfect, captain. Well done. I'll speak to the Court about issuing a commendation for you."

I switched the communication off. The strike force was on its way. My instruments registered its estimated arrival time at seven minutes. That left me with one option.

My hands shook as I went through the pre-flight sequence. I powered up the shuttle. It took way too long. The only good thing was that it had a full complement of ammunition in its weapons array.

At last, the display read, "Engines at Full Power. Shuttle Clear to Launch." I hit the elevators, and the shuttle lifted off the ground. I swiveled toward the mountains and slammed the throttle down.

The little vessel rocketed over the jungle. The defense turret that Merrit controlled kept bombarding the ships with fire, but that only seemed to keep them from dropping off soldiers right on top of the mountain. All it did was buy us time.

I streaked over the canopy on a beeline for the cavern entrance. I peered down at hundreds of super-soldiers plunging toward the tunnel. Maybe blades did nothing to them, but there was no way they were impervious to high-powered laser blasts from this shuttle.

Taking careful aim, I mowed down every soldier in sight, clearing the tunnel entrance. I couldn't stop the soldiers who had already made it inside the cavern, but at least I could give the defenders a fighting chance.

In a few seconds, no more soldiers came out of the trees. My instruments registered a bunch of Kavian life signs just ahead of me. From up in the air, I could hardly distinguish one Kavian from the next.

That was, until I saw the only Kavian without tattoos. My red, brave devil of a mate.

And there was a super-soldier right on top of him, gun pointed at his head .

Time slowed as I swung the shuttle's weapons around to aim at the bastard attacking my mate. I unloaded a barrage of laser fire into him until all that was left were the bloody stumps of his legs.

Had I shot the soldier in time? Was Valmore safe?

I couldn't tell.

And it killed me.

I landed the shuttle, my heart pounding as I jumped out of my seat, headed for the hatch.

Someone banged on the fuselage, and my heart skipped a beat when I heard his voice. "Open up, Hazel!"

Valmore! I released the hatch, and he ran up the ramp, covered in blood. I gasped, but he shook his head, and a devilish grin told me everything I needed to know.

He wasn't hurt. I had gotten to him in time.

I jumped onto him, squeezing him with all my might, not caring at all that I was getting super-soldier blood all over me. "I thought you were dead," I said, and a short sob escaped my lips.

"I did too. You're one hell of a shot."

I pulled away, suppressing any further tears. He was alive. I had nothing to cry about—not unless we failed to stop the Ranxi.

"So the IPA?" Valmore pressed.

"The strike force is on its way, but there's more super-soldiers being dropped off. Thousands more, from what I could see." I pointed at the radar.

He frowned at the solid block of life signs collected a few hundred yards farther down the mountain. More Ranxi transport ships drifted into the atmosphere. "Shit!" he muttered.

"They'll flood the entire planet with these super-soldiers. Only the IPA strike force can stop them now."

Footsteps pounded up the ramp, making both of us turn. Daphne dove into the shuttle. "I've been searching everywhere for you! I picked up a Ranxi signal coming from the atmosphere. It wasn't directed at the transport ships. It's coming from a single Ranxi vessel, and it's scattered to every soldier on the surface."

"What does that mean?" Valmore asked. "Why would the Ranxi want to communicate with each individual soldier? Don't they have commanders for that?"

Daphne took a moment to heave and catch her breath. "That's what I'm telling you. They don't have commanders, and it's the same signal going to all those soldiers. The Ranxi are remotely controlling the soldiers from orbit. We have to neutralize that ship. If we can do that, the soldiers will be cut off. They might even stop functioning. "

"How do we do that?" I asked. "We can't take out that ship with firepower alone."

"We'd have to infiltrate it," Valmore interrupted.

"Huh?" I turned to face him.

"Destroy it from the inside. I know this model of ship. I infiltrated one for a job a few years back. That ship's shielding makes it impervious to firepower, but this shuttle has a scramble field that can allow it to slip past the ship's radar undetected. I can land on it and blow it up from the inside."

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked.

He nodded. "Ranxi ships run on a reactor core engine system. I can overload the reactor and blow it up. They won't have many soldiers patrolling inside, not when they're sending their full force at us."

"I'm coming with you," I told him.

I half-expected him to argue with me, but instead he faced me and nodded. "I never want to be separated from you again. We work better together anyway."

"You got that right," I said, squeezing his hand.

Daphne turned away. "Try to hurry, okay? We can't hold the soldiers off much longer."

She jumped off the ramp and dashed for the tunnel. Valmore kept his eyes locked on mine, seemingly in no hurry. I blinked, about to ask him if something was wrong, but he interrupted. "I love you," he said. "I don't know why the hell I didn't say it before, but I'm telling you now."

I stood there, at a loss for words. He took one step forward, swept his arm around my back, and kissed me. I could have kept kissing him, but he managed to pull me away, returning me to the task at hand. "Let's do this."