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  The group completed the detour without further incident and were back on course for the strip that led up to the Mercen facility. Once they were close, Bor turned and said, “Stay low,” even though everyone was already crouched. He twisted a knob on his goggles.

  Josh copied what he was doing and watched the lenses on his goggles re-adjust until he was able to see what was in the distance up-close. Not heavily guarded, he thought, scoping out one Mercen on the strip near the landing platform and two more at the entrance of the facility. He saw there was a transport ship and what looked like some sort of hauling craft on the platform. There’s more craft behind those, but I can’t see enough of them to tell what they are. I sure hope there’s a fighter or we’re going to have hard time making it back to the Rampage.

  “Three outside,” said Bor.

  “We’ll need to take them out simultaneously just to be sure they don’t sound an alarm,” said Scope.

  Bor nodded. “Yes.”

  “What will we do if there’s no attack craft on the other side of those big ships?” Josh asked.

  “Pray we don’t get shot down,” said Rolly.

  Figured, thought Josh.

  Bor turned to Scope. “Can you take out the one at the platform?”

  “Aye,” the captain replied. “Let me know when you’re in position.”

  Bor nodded and said, “Follow me,” to everyone else. All but Scope trailed behind.

  When they arrived at the side of the facility, Josh wondered if Bor would be able to take out both guards at the entrance without either triggering an alert. The long plants that had covered most of the field ended about twenty yards from the strip, so there would be no sneaking up that way for a close-range attack.

  Bor tapped his transmitter and said, “We’re in position. Striking within the minute.”

  “Copy that,” Scope responded.

  Josh watched the marine pull his modified rifle from over his shoulders and lie on his stomach with the blaster aimed.

  “There’s a silencer on this rifle, but it’s not nearly as quiet as the D-72s. Let’s hope no one inside hears the shots,” said Bor.

  “What happens if you miss?” said Rolly.

  “I’ll get ’em with the follow-up shots,” said Bor. “If by some odd chance one escapes, we’re going to have to rush the doors and do this the hard way.”

  Mentally, Josh felt like he was shaking his head, though he wasn’t.

  “I shouldn’t miss,” said Bor. “Once they’re down we creep hastily to the doors. We have to be fast at every stage, since even a dead body can blow our cover if detected.”

  That’s right, thought Josh. He peeked at Dazzler, who looked cool under pressure.

  There was silence. Then Bor whispered, “Taking them out,” into his transmitter.

  Thoot! He fired one shot.

  Josh saw matter explode from the side of one of the Mercen guards’ heads, then noticed a delay in Bor firing again. Fire, fire! Before the second one reacts! he thought.

  The guards at the entrance dropped simultaneously to the ground. Bor’s shot had struck both through the temple.

  Thoot!

  Josh snapped his neck in the direction of where the third guard had dropped dead over by the landing platform from Scope’s kill-shot. Damn, he thought, looking back over toward the entrance. Flawless.

  “Go, go, go!” Bor whispered, scrambling to his feet.

  Josh drew his D-72 and crept behind the marine with the others. Scope was already darting down the strip to meet up at the doors.

  Bor lifted one of the Mercens’ hands to a reader to open it up. Then he peeked inside to check the layout. “One at a desk, twenty yards away. Got to get him before he sees us!” Bor moved his rifle around the side of the door and aimed. Just as the Mercen turned his way—thoot! Bor’s shot tore through the enemy’s head, causing him to crash face first against the desk. “We got to hope no one heard that!” He peered up toward the ceiling, left and right. “Cameras. Switching to paint rounds.”

  Josh watched Bor twist a cylinder on his rifle.

  Toof! He nailed the lens on one. Toof! Then the other. “Move in!” he whispered, raising up, but remaining crouched. “Stay low.”

  Josh and the others followed inside and trailed Bor’s lead past the Mercen who’d been sniped at the desk. Bor inched open another set of doors, then pushed them open completely after seeing the coast was clear.

  They hustled down a long corridor until Bor stopped abruptly. He turned instinctively and looked up to a hidden camera mounted on the ceiling behind them. “Shit.” He raised his rifle and blasted the lens with paint.

  “You’d be surprised how many times the guards supposed to be monitoring those things aren’t even paying attention,” said Scope.

  “Let’s hope so,” Rolly muttered.

  They hustled to the end of the hall and rounded a corner. A lone guard was walking toward them roughly ten feet away. The Mercen reached for his blaster—but all five Creston soldiers fired their already drawn D-72s.

  Thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot! The guard shook from being riddled with laser fire, then dropped to the floor.

  Hell! thought Josh, staring at the corpse with wide eyes. He was just as startled as the others.

  The group jogged through the second corridor toward another set of double doors. REN! REN! REN! Alarms blared throughout the building as they neared the end of the hall.

  “We’ve been detected!” Bor blurted. “Standard blasters! On three,” he said, staring at the door and rocking back and forth. The count was silent. Then… bam! Bor kicked open the door and stepped into the next room, which was huge and split into three separate corridors a ways in.

  The coast looked clear at first, but then guards rounded the far corners of the left and middle halls. Thoot! Thoot! The Mercens fired immediately.

  Josh and his team spread out and shot back.

  Thoot! Thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot! Thoot! Blasts flew up and down the halls.

  Oh, man, thought Josh, extending his arm and letting off a few rounds. He watched Bor shoot beams lying flat on his stomach before the marine hustled over to a side gap, tucking his body into it, then leaning back into the open and blasting some more.

  Rolly and Dazzler had fallen back behind the doors to exchange fire. Scope and Josh rolled on the floor between shots.

  Bor yanked a grenade from his vest and threw it down the left corridor the way a pitcher would a baseball. Boom! There was a loud explosion. He snapped another bomb from his chest and ran to the middle corridor and chucked it down the hall. Kaboom! Mercen bodies flew off to the sides.

  Bor turned and motioned Scope over to him. Then he looked at Rolly and said, “Secure the secondary. We’re going for the primary.”

  “Got it,” said Rolly, giving a nod. “Dazzler, Josh, with me,” he said, running for the hall on the right.

  Josh hopped up and headed that way. He saw more guards pushing through the smoke down the middle corridor, then heard shots whizzing by. Fuckin’ A! he thought, diving out of the enemies’ sight, rolling to his feet and running behind Rolly with Dazzler. He glanced back, seeing Bor and Scope heading down the left pathway.

  At making it to the corner, Rolly halted while holding a hand to the pilots. He took a quick peek around the corner and said, “Clear!”

  The group hustled into the next hall and ran down the long corridor until making another right into a shorter one. There was a door leading to a dark room at the far end. “There’s going to be guards behind this one. Be ready!” said Rolly, leading the charge up to the doorway and blasting a panel, after which the door slid open.

  Josh burst into the room right behind Rolly with his gun aimed to the left, since the officer was already covering the front.

  “Straight ahead!” said Rolly.

  Just as he did, two guards rushed into the left hall.

  Josh and Dazzler blasted them both. Once the Mercens had collapsed, they hurried to catch up wit
h Rolly.

  Rolly fired a shot down a side corridor, then kept straight about sixteen feet farther. “This one,” he said, stopping in front of the third door in a row of five. “Stand back.”

  Josh and Dazzler moved away, as did Rolly.

  Rolly blasted the knob and pushed the door open.

  Josh and Dazzler joined him at the doorway before stepping inside. Josh was staring as if seeing something that couldn’t be real—but it was. “Smokey…” he let out.

  The old pilot was lying on a filthy metal bench. His beard had grown longer than Josh was accustomed to seeing, his clothes were dirty and ripped, and he looked to have lost a lot of weight.

  “Get him!” said Rolly, before peeking outside the door to see if any Mercens were coming.

  Josh and Dazzler scrambled over to Smokey’s side. For a moment Josh thought he might be dead, but the old pilot grumbled and opened his eyes. He too looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “Young buck,” the old pilot uttered.

  “We got you, Smokey. We’re going to get you out of here,” said Josh.

  Dazzler leaned down and placed his shoulder under Smokey’s armpit. Josh did the same on the opposite side.

  Smokey grunted in pain as the pilots lifted him up and moved for the door. He looked Josh dead in his eyes and said, “They ate four of my toes—right in front of me, young buck. They ate my toes… and one of my fingers.” The old pilot’s sweaty head shook in disbelief.

  Josh felt a swarming of disgust fluttering in his stomach, which was followed by a surge of anger. “Those mother fuckers!” he spat, glancing at the ripped cloth wrapped around Smokey’s feet and hand.

  “Vile serpents!” said Dazzler.

  “Move it! Move it!” barked Rolly. The officer led the way back out of the corridor and into the next. They hurried down it and started to turn left down another before jerking back.

  Thoot! Thoot! Thoot! A beam came within inches of blowing Rolly’s head off. There was a metal machine rolled out into the hall with Mercen guards firing from behind it.

  “They’ve got a damn blockade set up!” said Rolly.

  “What the hell do we do?” said Dazzler.

  Josh glanced at the alternate routes.

  “There’s another way,” said Rolly. “I remember seeing it on the map. Back that way, go, go, go! Hang a right, just before the cells.”

  Josh retreated with Smokey.

  Officer Rolly stuck his hand around the corner and fired a few shots to try and ward the Mercens off. Then he dashed to the pilots who’d just turned into a narrow hall. “Keep going! This is going to loop around the long way to the entrance. We take two lefts and one right when this corridor ends.”

  Josh and Dazzler moved as fast as they could with the injured Smokey in their clutches. It wasn’t long until they reached a metal bridge with small holes in its flooring and rails. Josh glanced at both sides of the area below, which was only about a fifteen-foot drop. Some sort of laboratory, he thought.

  Thoot! Thoot! A laser whizzed through the air and tore through Smokey’s upper chest.

  The old pilot cried out in pain. “Aaaah!”

  Josh and Dazzler released their hold and drew their blasters. They returned fire as Smokey crashed to the floor. Both knelt to a knee to make themselves a smaller target.

  Rolly had started shooting too, but dropped his gun and turned when a blast grazed his upper arm. Thoot, thoot! Thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot! A flurry of lasers flashed from down the hall—one of which grazed Rolly’s lower thigh and forced him to flip back over the side of the railing. “Ugh!” he grunted, hanging from the bottom of the bridge with both hands.

  Josh glanced in Rolly’s direction and said, “Sir!” but had to focus his attention forward when another round of lasers buzzed by his head. God…

  Josh shot back with Dazzler and struck one guard in the center of his forehead—but there were two more. Then he heard a thump and saw Officer Rolly had fallen to the next floor. From what he could tell, the officer looked all right and was trying to make it slowly to his feet. “We’re coming for you, sir,” Josh shouted.

  “No! You’ll never make it! The mission will be more of a failure. Take out those Mercens and rendezvous with Bor and Scope! That’s an order!”

  Josh tightened his lips, knowing Rolly was right. He frowned toward the guards and let loose a barrage of laser fire, and could tell Dazzler was just as determined.

  Thoot, thoot! Thoot, thoot, thoot… thoot, thoot, thoot, thoot! Lasers struck one of the Mercens twice in his chest, the other violently through the throat.

  Josh glanced down for Rolly, but the officer was no longer in sight.

  “You heard him—we’ve got to get the hell out of here!” said Dazzler.

  Josh nodded and reached down for Smokey. He and Dazzler held the old pilot over their shoulders just as before. “We better pray no more of those suckers pop up on us. I hope to hell Rolly makes it out.”

  “Aye,” said Dazzler, giving his head a tilt.

  They hurried down the corridor past the dead Mercens, where they hung a left and eventually a right.

  “There it is! The entrance!” said Dazzler.

  “I see it,” Josh responded. He heard a loud explosion. Bor and Scope came running toward them from one of the halls.

  “Move your asses,” said Bor, arriving at the pilots’ sides.

  Josh was exhausted, but knew he was going to have to push harder if they were going to escape.

  “Where’s Rolly?” asked Scope.

  “He fell to the next floor, back near the cells,” said Dazzler.

  “Is there any chance of retrieving him, or should we wait for him?” asked Josh.

  “No. Leave him,” said Scope, continuing on, almost as if he didn’t care.

  When Josh and company had made it to the landing platform, Bor turned and dropped to his stomach with his rifle aimed. “Get that transport moving! I’ll hold them off.” Thoot! Thoot! He fired some shots.

  Scope ran up to a transport and entered a code that opened its cargo door. “Put him inside. Hurry!” he ordered, to Josh and Dazzler.

  The pilots carried Smokey on board and strapped him into a seat.

  “Now get to those fighters and cover us!” said Scope.

  Josh hustled down the ramp with Dazzler at his side. He turned to his left and saw three Notle-made titan fighters, which he thought basically looked like missiles with wings. Just like in the pictures, he thought, running over to one, while Dazzler climbed another.

  “When a green circle pops up on your side monitor, press the round button below your targeting screen,” said Dazzler.

  “Okay.” Josh nodded and got into the craft. After closing his cockpit and starting up the ship, he saw the green light that Dazzler was talking about.

  He hit the round button and heard Dazzler transmit: “We’re now synced for comms. We’ll also appear as friendlies on each other’s radar. Let’s get these titans in the air.”

  “How did you know how to do that?”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve flown one of these craft.”

  Josh could tell Dazzler was probably smirking.

  “I’m linking up the transport ship too,” said the 2nd squadron hotshot.

  The transporter carrying Scope, Smokey, and Bor blasted into the air.

  Josh and Dazzler shot off after.

  Josh heard beeping from his screen. Bee-deet, dee-dee-dee-deet. It then started to flash.

  “Oh, shit!” Dazzler transmitted. “We’ve got missiles incoming!”

  Josh stared to where his mini-missiles button normally would be in a striker. “Mini-missiles, where the hell are the mini-missiles on this thing?!” he transmitted.

  “Triangle, left side, with the black symbol that looks like a carrot top.”

  Josh scanned his dash, peeking frantically at the missiles getting close on radar. Where is it!? Where is it!? “Found it!” he said, punching the button. A drove of scattering mini-missiles shot
out from his ship and honed in on the incoming projectiles.

  Boom! Boom, boom!

  “They’re all down,” Dazzler transmitted.

  Josh shook his head and wiped a bead of sweat from under his eyebrow.

  “We’re not clear yet,” transmitted Scope, right when they were nearing outer space.

  Josh looked down at his radar and saw four dots approaching from the east.

  “Take them out,” said Scope. “You’re two of the best pilots in the entire fleet; this shouldn’t be a problem for you. Do not fail.”

  “Yes, sir,” Dazzler transmitted.

  Josh smirked and shook his head. Four against two—gotta love the odds. “Let’s waste these suckers, Dazzler.”

  “Copy that. Breaking right.”

  Josh veered off from the transporter on Dazzler’s wing. “Any plan of attack?”

  “Just scatter when in range—and don’t die.”

  “I like your style,” Josh responded. A moment later: “Enemies at fifty miles.”

  “Stay tight, till they’re in targeting range,” Dazzler transmitted.

  Josh kept a keen eye on his main monitor. He gripped his control stick tight. Here they come… almost in range.

  Boom! One of the enemy fighters exploded. The other three scattered.

  Dazzler tore up into a wide inverted coil and fired again.

  Josh hooked left to intercept one of the titans.

  Kaboom! A second enemy fighter was blown to bits.

  Good grief, Dazzler! I don’t know how the fuck he does that!

  Thoot! Josh fired a wild shot that missed, but edged one of the enemy ships into a crooked loop. Josh counter-coiled into a stint of mutual circling, before dropping down at the Notle’s rear and discharging a blast. There was a flash of light. The enemy craft ignited into a ball of flame.

  Creston’s finest, son, thought Josh, cutting right, to where Dazzler was mixing it up with the final titan. Deep down he hated to add in on a clean one-versus-one when it involved a pilot as amazing as Dazzler, but Josh knew the priority was to secure the transport. No screwing around!