The stretch of island we were on was near the ocean, somewhat green, but mostly bare, as the thick tropical forest emerged a little farther inland.
Not that I could see much of anything through the dense thicket of mercenary humanity forming a moving circle around us, with a radius of about ten yards. These mercs had probably been warned not to get too close to a woman who was without question the most lethal on the planet.
Escape was impossible, even if Tessa was willing to make the attempt, which she decidedly wasn’t. She was marching me to my death without a second thought, other than a possible lament that Nari wouldn’t be happy with her.
I found it hard to sympathize.
As I took yet another step forward, I was suddenly hit with a concussive wave of air, driving me to the ground, as a tic-tac UAV swept in from out of sight and swatted all four helicopters from the sky like so many flies. Each exploded, crashing into land or ocean almost fifty yards away from me.
It was hard to digest, regardless of one’s mental processing speed. One moment a large group of soldiers were on their feet, and four menacing helicopters were hovering overhead. The next, every last one of us were on the ground, and the helicopters had burst into flames and been crushed like flimsy soda cans under heavy boots.
It all happened so suddenly it was like watching a war movie with all but the first and last frames removed.
I turned my head to take in the spectacle and tried to process what had happened. We had all been blown to the ground, forced there by the explosive displacement of air caused by a bulky UFO changing directions at incomprehensible speeds.
Rather than shooting down the four helos and risk having them crash into the small throng of humanity, the alien ship had simply slammed into them like a battering ram, crushing them into oblivion and sending them catapulting away from us.
Before I could even grasp what had happened, over a dozen additional alien craft rained from the skies, striking the UAV that had destroyed the helicopters with the same forces that had been directed at the energy dome. The lone craft took the brunt of the attack for only a moment before shooting straight up and out of sight, gone in the blink of an eye.
Within seconds this fleeing UAV returned to visible altitude, this time accompanied by numerous reinforcement ships, and the sky was now filled with too many alien spacecraft to even count. Each sent immensely powerful beams of energy at the other before nearly all of them shot upward in various formations and out of sight—perhaps into space—engaging in an AI-powered dogfight far too fast for a human to follow or comprehend.
The presence of these ships could only mean one thing. Nari was coming to the rescue, after all. If this rescue failed, I’d be dead. If it succeeded, I’d have my mind wiped of what I had just learned, leaving me vulnerable to further manipulation.
I wasn’t certain which outcome was worse.
Just before the last two UAVs shot out of sight, one brushed the circle of mercenaries surrounding us with just a fraction of the energies it had used while battling fellow ships, and fifteen men burst into flame. At the same time, the second ship deposited a dozen human soldiers on the ground—no doubt men in Brad Schoenfeld’s group that Nari had directed here—and the battle was quickly joined.
It was complete and total chaos. A battle was raging in space, one that had to be unleashing a fury that was beyond human experience. Nearer to home, numerous mercenaries had become blazing infernos, running around like headless chickens and shrieking in agony as the raging flames quickly consumed them—the ultimate horror show.
About seventeen of Michelle’s mercenaries remained, although neither they nor the incoming soldiers had any real cover. Still, both sides did their best to minimize themselves as targets. The men Nari had sent pressed themselves low to the ground, while Michelle’s mercs did the same, some taking cover as best they could behind the grisly corpses of their charred comrades.
Nari’s forces began picking off the remaining hostile mercs in short order, and it soon became apparent that it wasn’t a fair fight. Nari’s soldiers had the superior body armor. Several were getting sprayed with dense thickets of bullets, but the fire had no effect, never seeming to even touch them, which would have brought welts and agony to even those wearing the most advanced body armor known to science.
It was clear that they possessed personal energy shields. Apparently Nari had decided I was important enough to make an exception to his no alien tech policy. The same couldn’t be said for Michelle, who hadn’t wanted to give away her alien origin, so hadn’t outfitted her mercenaries nearly as well.
This all became clear in a span of only fifteen to twenty seconds, as what should have been a deadly battle between equally matched forces—with Michelle’s soldiers actually outnumbering Nari’s—was quickly becoming a bloodbath.
Tessa threw herself to the ground to avoid stray bullets, and I ran a healthy distance away from her before following suit. She had obviously decided to let Nari’s forces do the heavy lifting, especially since he had made them virtually invulnerable.
Just then the equation changed dramatically. One of Nari’s men came into view, and Tessa and I both recognized him at the same time, even though she and I were thirty feet apart.
Only it wasn’t one of Nari’s men. It was Nick Nicola.
This changed everything.
It meant that these men hadn’t been sent by Nari, after all.
I had assumed the duplicitous alien was behind the attack because only he had access to UAVs, but this wasn’t true. Nicola had claimed to have access as well—a claim he and his Sentinel team were now backing up. And they had no love for any Federation faction.