Jeff Kozzi

Chapter 204:  Opening Gun

Emkay hovered to the humans’ sides and spoke on low volume. "Master Bolas, Miss Domenika, we have problems."

They turned to the robot in a fluid motion that they shared as equally as the "Now you’re telling us look?" Kronduiltrey, Exel, and Elodee remained in their sight, but Emkay had moved specifically to the two humans, despite the fact that either Exel or Elodee would have been able to hear if they trained their audio receptors specifically for Emkay’s hovering globe.

"What’s going on?" Bolas whispered.

"The Liberators have begun mobilization," Emkay reported. "They have apprehended my Master Kass and Miss Kristen."

Bolas! The telepathic voice was distinctly Simmellian; Bolas and Cop had been friends long enough for the human to easily recognize Cop’s mindvoice.

"Hold on, Kay." What’s going on? he asked Cop.

One moment...!

Cop was obviously dividing his attention between upsets. Bolas ground his teeth. "Kay, yell Dom what’s the matter. I got Cop in brain, and it don’t sound too good."

Bolas, the Liberators! Bolas eyed Emkay with discomfort while the robot spoke in low volume to Domenika.

Coppi, what’s going on?

They’re taking Kortez and I prisoner as we speak.

"What?!"

Everyone within earshot turned in response to his shout.

Not entirely prisoner—they spoke as if we had some choice. We went along because we did not wish to alarm our patients.

"Kay says the Liberators’re taking Kass and Kristen from his room," Domenika said to Bolas.

Shit, Coppi! I think they're moving in for everybody that deserted them on Simmel—

Exel moved with quick fluidity, pulling Kronduiltrey by the arm towards Bolas, Domenika, and Emkay. Elodee maintained a perimeter around them. "We’ve got trouble!"

"They’re moving all around us—right at us," Domenika said.

Bolas would have expected Domenika to be more panicked. She remained hushed and calm while she pulled her lasertron from its holster.

Make that I know they’re moving in for all of us! They got Kass and his sister, and there’s a few squads heading for us right now!

Should we fight or go along? Cop asked.

Why do I have to make the decision? Bolas asked.

From the beginning we have followed your lead, Bolas. I have not had any complaints, so I intend to stay with the proven commodity.

Cop could read the thoughts that nagged just below the surface of Bolas’ mind: his wife was dead and he blamed himself for her condition.

Fine, then. Get Tibia on T-line. Tell her what’s going on and tell her to ready as many guns as she can. I think we should be able to work with them. We were all Liberators to some degree, one way or another. But if they try to take any of our circle—including Kass or his sister—from Pixe, I want Tibia’s people to move in. If they separate us, we’re dead.

"Put the ‘tron down!" a Liberator commander barked to Domenika as Liberator squads encircled Kronduiltrey and the five Renegades.

Exel stood by, the pinheads of his internal lasertrons sticking out from beneath his skin. Elodee maintained hir targeting sights on the Qualmloid commander’s throat.

A reasonable plan, Cop stated in Bolas’ mind. I will maintain a light link with you, Bolas. 1 will not fail you, as I did when Veronika was stricken.

You didn’t, Bolas answered. Out. He turned to the Qualmloid and purposefully stepped towards the man and his assembled troops. "What the hell do you want?"

A Liberator Authoriti diplomat, the Qualmloid ignored Bolas’ tone and demeanor. "What’s your name, son?"

Bolas resented the address. The Qualmloid seemed forty or so Intergal years old. Bolas bitterly realized that, in strict chronology, he was probably the Qualmloid’s senior by several years, despite his body’s twenty-year escape of aging within the Eye of Kordozza. Being treated as a youngster brought out the youth within him. He caustic tone sounded suspiciously like Blane. "I’m Bolas Scharo, grampa, former governor of Shelswun."

Casually and quietly, the Liberator troops fanned out around the six Renegades, surrounding them but holding their distance.

The Qualmloid’s eyes flashed some anger at the address, proving him as sensitive of his age as Bolas. "Who are your companions, sir?"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Major Mench, Liberator Authoriti. Please answer my question, Mister Scharo."

"This is Domenika Bruel." Bolas waved his hand to the woman.

Domenika knew that Bolas had used her maiden name on purpose, not out of habit. Telling the Liberator Authoriti that she and Blane had legally married would only increase the pressure they would force on her. She greeted Mench coldly. "Major."

"The Shorlak is Trey," Bolas said, unable to remember Kronduiltrey’s full name. "The human with him is Buddi Fibb."

Exel and Kronduiltrey seemed braced for an assault. The Shorlak leaned back, ready to run. Exel leaned forward, ready to fight. Bolas wondered if Exel’s eagerness had anything to do with his Kajerist construction in the face of amassed Liberators.

The Qualmloid stared at Exel for a few moments, his doubt to Bolas’ report of the seeming-human’s identity obvious on his face.

Domenika observed the Qualmloid’s interest in Exel, and spoke to distract him. "How can we help you, Major?"

"Who are the robots?"

"They’re not ‘who’s,’ they’re ‘what’s’," Bolas said. "Private property."

Mench scowled. He checked the portterm strapped to his hip then looked back at Bolas. "MK-1 and LOD-1, I presume." Mench broadened his scowl as he turned to Exel. "XL-4, Kajerist construction, and convicted Liberator traitor!"

The Liberator troops kreeped forward, halfstep by halfstep. The circle around the six Renegades tightened.

Bolas swallowed. They’d been in easier positions against the Kajerists. By his estimation, Elodee would be resistant to working with Exel, and would need to be prodded by Domenika, unless the Liberators first launched a threat against her directly. The doubts that Elodee had raised—and Mench’s reference had reinforced—festered in Bolas mind, and he wondered how thoroughly he could trust the Kajerist-built android. Emkay was without armament, and in Bolas’ estimation, Kronduiltrey was more of a bully and sniper than a combatant. The only one he felt he could truly trust or rely on was Domenika. The only thing that surprised him by that was how incognizant of that fact he had been. "Real hotseat," he grumbled under his breath.

Mench heard his comment. "It will only be if you people make it so, Mister Scharo. All we want from you people is cooperation."

"We’ve cooperated so far," Bolas said.

"See that it continues." Mench threw a sour glance in Domenika’s direction. "Miss Bruel has not dropped her weapon."

Domenika smiled and bolstered her weapon. Elodee hovered closer toward her as Mench’s attention fixated on hir mistress.

"Good enough?" Domenika challenged. She restrained herself from glancing to Exel. Unlike Bolas, she held full faith in the android. If hostilities broke out, he and Elodee would have to take charge for the first few seconds, until she, Bolas, and Kronduiltrey (if he proved willing) could draw their weapons. She purposefully did not seal the holster over the butt of her pistol.

"For now," Mench said. "We want Miss Bruel and XL-4 to come with us. The rest of you can stay here."

"So kind of you," Bolas rasped.

The circle of Liberators tightened. "Any sign of resistance and you will all be taken by force. " Mench began to say something else when his portterm bleeped. He looked down at it in time to see the screen darken. The commotion within the ranks of the Liberator troops revealed that the failure of Mench’s unit was not the only such circumstance. His lieutenants forwarded questions to him.

Bolas glanced to Emkay. Domenika resisted the urge. The robot whirled on hir axis and flashed a facial display, the one with a smile. It looked mocking, more pridefully devilish than Bolas had ever noticed before.

"Nint," Mench hissed. He reached for his communicator. "This is Major Mench. We’ve got a problem with the portterms." He waited for a response. None came.

Emkay flashed the same display.

Bolas forced himself not to return the compbot’s smile. He winked instead. While he would never forget everything that Emkay had accomplished for them, he had forgotten certain details, such as the fact that Kass had never revealed Emkay’s capabilities to the Liberators. The robot was still an ace up their sleeves, and was acting independently now, to their benefit.

"Yopted! What’s—?"

"They’re all out, sir," a young Jadan shouted.

Mench turned abruptly to Bolas. Emkay’s face flashed to its neutral display. "What’s going on, Scharo?"

"Got me. Not my equipment buzzing off. Could be a storm blowing in. Welcome to Pixe."

Mench glared at him. "I don’t think so. Bruel, android, come with me."

Domenika and Exel exchanged glances. Exel nodded a determined "yes," then stepped toward Domenika. Deprived of his only cover, Kronduiltrey winced.

Exel clenched his fists.

Domenika rushed to meet him before the Liberators could separate them.

"Where are you taking them?" Bolas demanded.

"Nowhere," Domenika whispered.

Mench turned to her with a scowl. "Do you have something to say, Miss Bruel?"

With a draw faster than any of her companions would have thought within her capabilities, Domenika raised her lasertron and fired. A crimson blast burned through Mench’s throat. He fell over, gagged for a few seconds, then silenced forever.

Any reaction was delayed momentarily, as if time had suspended motion. The Liberator troops had expected resistance, yet they had been briefed that their targets considered themselves Liberator allies, and would not use full force unless full force was first used against them. The situation had been tense on everybody, but nobody had expected blood to be drawn.

Domenika paused only long enough to ensure that her target was dead. She spun and landed another laser in the closest Liberator’s chest.

Exel followed Domenika’s lead. The shock was passing from the Liberators, and the troops began moving, some raising their lasertrons and advancing, others ducking for cover. Exel’s wrist lasers fired, and the three closest Liberators fell.

Elodee’s chest lasers spat fire. Computerized targeting mechanisms ensured proper aim, and hir lasers whizzed past Domenika and Exel and slammed into the scattering Liberators.

"You people are crazy!" Kronduiltrey bellowed as he dove into the ferns for cover.

Bolas’ lasertron was drawn and raised. His first rounds cut into two scrambling Liberators. "Welcome to the Renegades, Shorlak!! Now pick your target and fire!"

The more distant Liberators returned fire. Raindrops hissed to steam. The tips of some chest-level branches and leaves ignited. Elodee and Exel took the point; both could withstand lasers without damage, and covered their companions with their own bodies.

"I surrender, I surrender!!" Kronduiltrey shouted. The Shorlak threw down his lasertron and held his boney hands high.

"You frigging piece of coward shit!" Domenika spat as she shot down a Noshinsi. "They got Kristen!!"

The Shorlak lowered his hands and froze for a moment. Lasers sailed around him. He could not bring himself to consciously trust Domenika, or her companions. He knew her but not any of them, and had never trusted her so wasn’t inclined to trust them. But they had discussed the fact that Valkris had been taken with her brother, and he had indeed heard nothing from her. Making a decision he knew he would later regret, Kronduiltrey dove for his lasertron and returned fire in the Renegades’ favor.

Lasers crisscrossed the clearing. Elodee employed hir wave disruptors to rebound the Liberators’ hasty shots while Exel directly covered Domenika with his own impervious body. Bolas activated his pushers and rained fire down on the Liberators. Kronduiltrey fired sporadically, without accuracy as he shivered with fright. One of the reasons he had joined the Kajerists on Shorns was because he knew, after the deaths of his mother and Melissa Bruel and Kristen’s mother, that not many people left alive would find the courage to shoot any Kajerists.

It had taken two years and the Blakkarrion Master Assassin, but Domenika Bruel had been one of the four Shornsmen who had found that courage. She hadn’t lost it since. Not a single shot that she fired in the Pixian bog missed her intended target as she fought for her own defense, and that of her absent, missing husband.

More Liberators stormed from the paths.

"They are all around us, Miss," Elodee stated as se spun and released a surge of lasers to the group’s rear quarter. Aware of Domenika’s opinion of Kronduiltrey, se turned to Kronduiltrey and barked, "Concentrate, before you cause us harm!"

Kronduiltrey sank into the ferns, hyperventilating. Imaginings of his father’s death in a battle not unlike this one, surrounded by people Kronduiltrey never genuinely cared for, flashed through his mind. He hated himself for having consented to Valkris’ pleas to find her brother.

Bolas activated the cybernetics in his legs and pushed himself through the rain-drenched trees. Liberator troops were assembled through the jungle, all moving towards the center of their ring, weapons drawn. He opened fire, cutting several down, and instigating a panic as a wave of heavier rain blew through the branches.

Tibia! Coppi! Kortez! Can any of you guys hear me?

You’re in my mind! Cop responded, Bolas’ situation evident in the human’s thoughts.

Tibia replied, equally aware of the firefight in the clearing. I’m sending people to you! Hold your position however you can!

This is going to blow it for all of us! Bolas stated, firing on a quartet of Liberators who guarded a tread-wheeled transport pirated from captured Kajerist stockpiles. The Kajerist insignia had been removed, leaving a not-as-weather-beaten shadow in the vehicle’s paint. Tibia! You’ve got to get Coppi, Kortez, Kass, and his sister clear! The Liberators will never let them go after this!

The Pixians are on the move, Tibia replied. When my people come to your assistance, they will provide you escort to the Starcade. I will personally see to our allies already in Liberator custody. Out!

Domenika and Exel stood back to back, circling slowly in a counterclockwise motion. Elodee hovered in an outside radius, working with Exel to keep Domenika covered. Hir remark to Kronduiltrey had fostered some reaction. The Shorlak still aimed with less accuracy than any of his current—and he hoped temporary—companions, but showed some improvement. With the small coalition formed by Domenika, Elodee, and Exel such an obvious target, few of the Liberators noticed the Shorlak, who had not been part of the briefings.

Bolas circled above his companions, snipering the Liberators.

The Liberators carried the weight of numbers on their side. The perpetually-renewing circle closed slowly. Bolas’ flight did little to distract them; to that point he was evading them successfully, until two Eanbis flapped over the treelines and swooped down upon him and enwrapped his limbs in their tentacle arms. Bolas struggled, firing his lasertron blindly while the smaller Eanbi pulled his gunarm skyward.

Two Drooths crouched in the ferns, waiting as Domenika’s circling motion brought her closer to them. Elodee scanned and noted their presence. Perhaps Mard Bruel’s hatred of the bill-beaked mammalians remained prominent in Elodee’s circuits. Se cut them both down with meticulously-aimed lasers. A satisfied-sounding grunting noise broke from hir speakers.

Keeping his left arm firing into the massing Liberators, Exel raised his right skyward. He split his attention momentarily and shot one of the Eanbis grappling with Bolas. The sudden dead weight shocked Bolas and the other Eanbi alike. Both crashed back into the Renegades’ perimeter. "We’re going to have to take flight," Exel stated. "We’re outgunned. Luck won’t hold us forever." Proof of his statement came in the form of a series of blasts that carbonized his bare chest.

"You and Bo can’t carry us all! I’ll leave Trey in a heartbeat, but we can’t leave Odee or Kay behind!"

Three Orfezzin broke their perimeter and lunged at the mostly-forgotten, non-combatant, Emkay. The compbot spurred hir gravitzers, dodging, but the third hooked her arm and caught Emkay in the wingflap that ran from her ankle to wrist. She grasped the loose ends of her flap with her left hand, enwrapping the small robot.

The surviving Eanbi entangled all six of his three-fingered tentacles up Bolas’ chest, grasping for the human’s throat. Too entangled in the tentacles of the dead Eanbi, Bolas fell over in his struggle.

Domenika yelped as a laser ripped through one the pouches on her belt. A vial broke, dripping thick yellow fluid into the grass.

Exel’s chest had become ashen gray as his absorbing cells overloaded in their processing of so many laser strikes. He stuck closer to Domenika, covering her more fully as the Liberator circle tightened. He yanked one elbow and shot down the Polint who had almost killed Domenika.

A Quoopen bound forward. She used her rifle as a club, whacking Kronduiltrey upside the head. He’d been ducking away from a round of lasers, luckily. The blow grazed him, knocking him forward, and the rifle from the Quoopen’s hand. Undaunted, the bulky baseform ran forward and landed a solid punch in the nape of Bolas’ neck. Domenika perfectly aimed a double discharge in the Quoopen’s throat while Bolas rolled through the grass, trying to fire anywhere on the live Eanbi, and on the tight tentacles of the clinging dead one. The live one pecked at Bolas’ head and squawked as his beak cracked against Bolas’ helmet.

Two Futolins encircled Elodee, their lasers harmlessly burning into hir barreled casing, but their tactic separated hir further from Domenika and Exel.

The Liberators’ numbers wore them down. A Koon dashed from the ferns and aided the struggling, now dizzied Eanbi by biting Bolas in the leg. The human yelped, kicked, missed. The Koon screeched then ran after Elodee, small enough to evade the sekbot’s sensors, which scanned higher off the ground. Two more Koons followed, bounding after their leader in complete mimicry: each took a bite into Bolas’ leg around his protective padding then hopped for Elodee.

Bolas swung both legs and the dead Eanbi still attached to them. He caught the fourth Koon as it bound forward, teeth bared. The furry little alien, barely larger than Emkay and almost as round, shrieked as it flew through the clearing.

Thinking the gray projectile was a grenade, Elodee shot a burst of hir wave disruptor to deflect it. Hir angle rebounded the Koon skyward, well above all their heads. Either the Koon’s shrill shriek or the fact that the Koon’s compeers opened fire on Elodee raised the sekbot’s awareness to the speeding gray mass’ organic nature. Elodee recalibrated hir sensors and discovered seven other Koons, all firing tiny lasertrons at hir that couldn’t penetrate hir shields. Se dispersed them with wave disruptor releases, dodging the dead Eanbi swinging from Bolas’ legs.

Dazed, Kronduiltrey saw the Koons bowl or scamper past as they respectively were repulsed by or fled from Elodee. He fired at the double-images his blurred eyesight gave, missing each time. A Puyan leaped forward. Larger than the evasive Koons, Kronduiltrey shot it accurately. But his hasty defense angered the Koons enough for three of them to turn their lasertrons on him. The first shot grazed the bone skin of the Shorlak’s arm. Perhaps questioning the value of hir energy expenditure, Elodee dispersed them further in the Shorlak’s defense.

The unwillingly airborne Koon dropped onto Bolas’ head and died by impact with his helmet.

Exel brushed against Domenika. They both reacted ready to fire on one another. "I’ve got to get you out of here!"

Stubbornness ran too thoroughly through her family. "I’m not leaving them!"

"We’re outnumbered!"

"They must have thought Blane would be here! We’re holding out for Tibia!"

A third Eanbi swooped down from the sky and entangled Elodee. As se lifted higher from the ground than se normally hovered, se reversed hir gravetics and brought hirself and the Eanbi quickly back to the ground. Hir coil arms entangled with half the Eanbi’s tentacles, leaving the other half to constrict around hir torso.

Exel squeezed closer to Domenika. The Liberator circle tightened.

A Polint in the purple stripes of a Liberator major held his lasertron to the side. "Renegades! Surrender now!" For a second, all fire ceased.

Domenika answered with a clean laser to the fur between the Polint’s eyes. The clearing brightened again with crisscrossing lasers. Dazed by the Koon collision, Bolas wobbled in his further attempt to disentangle his legs from the dead Eanbi. Mostly forgotten by the Liberators, despite his grunting and wheezing against the small burn on his arm, Kronduiltrey snipered what targets he could from the cover of the ferns. Bolas, Emkay, and Elodee struggled with their foes while Exel considered grasping Domenika and flying off with his pushers.

Explosions rippled through the trees. Flashes of flame burst outwards. Kajerist g-cars carried Wasdf and Kollins through the flames. Gunners tore into the Liberators. Resoids and Norins swarmed in flight through the foliage, swooping down and into the Liberator forces.

"Saviors!" Kronduiltrey sighed with lifting distress.

"Frig you, Trey!" Domenika spat. "We haven’t gotten this far by letting other people fight our battles!!"

The Shorlak sprayed fire into the Liberators. "If you had, maybe my father would still be alive!"

The Pixians caught the Liberators completely off guard. Doismeni’s briefing had predicted that the Pixians would remain uninvolved. He had clearly underestimated the kinship Tibia felt for people like Kabenta and Scharo.

The Eanbi proved careless. Elodee’s chest lasers drilled through her grasping tentacles. The alien yelped and retreated. Elodee hovered for Domenika’s side.

Kollins led the attack, leaping from the speeding cars to tackle individual Liberators. Little difference between Liberator and Kajerist existed to most Pixians. Offworlders were all the same, save only those who had personally aided Pixe’s liberation.

Emkay ejected every probing arm at the same time. The Orfezzin cried out. Blood spurted from multiple holes in her wingflap. Emkay hovered clear, dodging the two other Orfezzin before three Resoids dove into them, mandibles snapping.

The near-perfect sphere of the Liberators’ front rippled, then broke. Someone in the back lines panicked. The call for retreat sounded.

A Kollin-driven g-car slammed into a trio of Liberators, sprawling broken bodies into the mud and running over the Eanbi who still tangled with Bolas. Bolas stood quickly, not even calulating how close the tread had come to his head. He grinned at the Kollin. "Devon, there’s Dom!"

The Kollin Duchess accelerated again, rerunning the twisted body of a human Liberator that she had already hit once. The g-car swerved, spraying mud when it came to a stop in front of Domenika, Exel, and Elodee.

"Kronduiltrey, come along!" Emkay snapped. Emkay hovered from hir hiding place, somewhere in the ferns behind the Shorlak. Kronduiltrey mumbled to himself, then broke into a run after the compbot.

Devon accelerated once Bolas gave her the "all clear" sign. Kronduiltrey and Exel were almost thrown from the vehicle as Devon sped through waves of rain and flame.

"Pixe is burning," Bolas gasped.

"Yes!" Devon barked. "Many ways, Bo-bo! We will, now, rid ourselves of offworlders, once and for all!!"