Suddenly, the cyborg’s helmet flew off.
Grabbing the Gathendien by the forehead, Simone yanked his head back. When his jaw dropped open in surprise, she shoved a Bex-7 stun grenade inside his mouth and clamped both hands over it.
Janwar’s eyes widened. Oh, drek.
He waved at the others. “Get back! Get back!”
The Yona warriors tackled Allie and M’kor, taking them to the floor.
Janwar raced forward, intending to do the same to Simone as soon as she leapt free.
But she didn’t leap free. She clung tenaciously to the struggling Gathendien, never relinquishing her grip.
Blue light erupted from the cyborg’s eyes and nose and poured through the fingers Simone clamped over his mouth. As the Gathendien jerked and spasmed, more crackled over the surface of his armor, which seemed to contain most of the Bex-7 stun grenade’s blast.
Atop his shoulders, Simone stiffened as the blue light swept up her arms and legs and everywhere else she touched him.
Janwar ran toward them, absolute terror infusing him. A stunner could incapacitate soldiers twice and thrice her weight. She was so much smaller. Would it harm her more? Would it stop her heart? She’d said if she died, her body would deteriorate within minutes. If this stopped her heart, would he even have time to try to revive her before—
The blue light vanished.
The cyborg wavered, then toppled forward, taking Simone with him.
Janwar grabbed her before she hit the floor and sank to his knees. “Simone?”
Her body twitched in his arms, muscles convulsing from the electricity zipping through her.
Why the srul had he tuned all the Bex-7s to the highest settings?
“Simone?” He was on the brink of breaking his own rule and removing both their helmets when her eyes fluttered open.
Bright amber irises locked with his. “M-merde,“ she gritted with a final twitch. “Th-That hurt l-like a bitch.”
Laughing with relief, Janwar hugged her as close as his armor would allow.
“Did I get him?” she wheezed.
“Yes, you got him. Even though it scared the srul out of me, shoving the Bex-7 in his mouth was brilliant.“ It had likely fried all of the cybernetic implants in his brain and taken him down much faster and more efficiently than trying to penetrate his armor would have.
“Good. Help me up, will you?” she said, sounding more like herself, if a little cranky.
Janwar ignored the painful protest of his ribs and rose, pulling her up with him.
Grimacing, she placed her hands on her lower back and arched it, pushing her chest out. “Damn, I feel old.”
“Me, too.” He felt as if he’d aged thirty solar orbits in just the past few seconds. “But we aren’t safe yet.”
She looked around a moment, then retrieved the sword she’d dropped when she’d been shot and—just like that— was ready to dive back into battle.
Drek, he loved her.
On the other side of the downed cyborg, Denu helped M’kor and Allie up. None of them appeared hurt. And the lekadis still protected the unconscious Purveli.
Vedon walked over to the cyborg, aimed his tronium blaster at the back of the Gathendien’s head, and fired. “In case his cybernetics are stronger than the Bex-7.”
Janwar nodded.
Krigara’s voice carried over the comm, accompanied by rifle fire. “Janwar? Why did you stop? Do you need backup?”
“No. Simone just needed to kick a little ass. You taking fire?”
“Yeah. But we’re handling it. T just completed the download.”
Janwar waved for the others to follow him and took off jogging again. “Good. We’re almost there.”
“Keep an eye out for the officers. It looks like almost every one of the cowardly grunarks is heading this way, ready to flee the base.”
Janwar grunted.
They did encounter a couple of officers but took them out quickly. The only other soldiers they ran into attacked them from behind and were swiftly defeated by Vedon and Denu.
At last, they swung around a corner and found Krigara, Elchan, and Soval waiting in front of the opening of a tunnel that looked as if it had been carved out of ice.
Elchan’s armor flickered as his camouflage fluctuated. One second, he appeared to be there. The next, he faded into the background and seemed to vanish. Then he reappeared again.
“Where’s T?” Janwar asked as they tromped toward the trio.
“Firing up the transport.”
“Any hostiles outside?” Janwar positioned himself on one side of the tunnel and gestured for the others to enter ahead of him.
“No.” Krigara grinned as Vedon pushed the lekadis into the tunnel. Denu urged Allie and M’kor to enter, then ducked inside behind them. “T is attacking with more enthusiasm than we anticipated. I think this is the only entrance or exit to the base and the hangar that hasn’t been completely demolished.”
Shaking his head, Janwar rested a hand on Simone’s back and drew her with him into the narrow passage. Firing erupted behind them.
“Grenade,” Soval called. As he, Krigara, and Elchan joined them in the tunnel, an explosion rumbled through the corridor they’d just left.
Cracks crawled across the surface of the ice above their heads as fine white powder sifted down.
Janwar swore. “Don’t blow up the drekking mountain while we’re still under it!”
His friends laughed as they reached a broader space that housed the outdated officers’ transport. Krigara had melted a sizable hole in the exterior wall to gain access.
Janwar and the others hustled through it and stepped into a blizzard. The transport that had carried them from the Tangata waited outside, engines running. But the only part visible was the glimpse of the interior the lowered ramp revealed.
He glanced toward the front of the base. Flames reached for the sky as K-6 drones zipped back and forth, firing at targets he couldn’t see through snow and heavy smoke the wind tossed around.
Return fire was sporadic at best.
Once they all piled into the transport, he and Vedon secured the lekadis to one wall. Then everyone found seats and strapped themselves in. Simone sat beside her friend while Krigara replaced T-2 as pilot. Janwar claimed the co-pilot’s seat.
No one fired on the transport as it lifted off and sped away. The Gathendiens likely had never even been aware of its presence, cloaked as it was. But Janwar didn’t allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief until they left the moon’s atmosphere and approached the Tangata‘s bay.
He glanced back at Simone, who murmured reassurances to Allie as her friend clung to her as much as their harnesses and suits would allow.
She met his gaze. “We did it.”
And they’d all made it out alive.
He smiled. “We did it.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Simone bit her lip as she paced the bridge and stared through the Tangata’s windshield.
As soon as they had made it back on board, Janwar had bombed the crap out of the base, reducing it to a smoldering pile of rubble and kicking off one hell of a landslide in the mountain behind it that completed the base’s obliteration.
Chalk one up for the good guys. They’d struck quite a blow with their little rescue.
Almost forty-eight hours had passed since then. Everyone they rescued had visited Med Bay, received treatment, and settled in. Thanks to several consultations with Chief Medic Adaos on the Ranasura, Luft’a was recovering from the virus he’d been infected with and posed no threat to them. Allie was, too. The rest had been cleared medically after undergoing standard decontamination procedures.