The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 23



A round smacked against the floor next to Magnus. He felt the sting of a tiny fragment of hot metal impacting his cheek. His attendant spheres had stopped orbiting. Now they darted back and forth in front of the grille he faced prone.

If that round had another meter to arc toward me, I’d be very dead.

But it meant his position was about right. He had taken a position just far enough to the side of the fire corridor through the grille opening that the incoming projectiles couldn’t alter their course sharply enough to hit him. Though he had cut it a bit closer than intended. In fact, the attendant drones seemed to be oblivious to the limitation of the incoming rounds, and they tended to intercept them anyway, which sent shrapnel flying. He considered overriding them but decided he was not that confident a round would not hit him.

“We’re going to be split by this grille corridor as soon as they make it in here, and if they get to either side we’ll be pinned. Then the grenades will come,” Telisa said.

Magnus smiled. She knows a hell of a lot more than when I met her. “Don’t forget you and Cilreth have stealth options. You can cross over these grill corridors if you time it right. You have your attendants? I don’t think their assault robots will fit in here.”

Though they might be able to just blow through the walls. I wonder if they’re low on supplies.

“I lost one sphere in the tunnels,” Telisa said. That made Magnus frown. Shiny had given them each two for good reason. The alien himself had five or six at all times since he resupplied upon returning from Thespera.

The grille corridors created long fire lanes by the way the grilles lined up in each direction through the building: roughly east/west, north/south, and to a lesser degree, even up/down. Magnus armed his last grenade and sent it out toward the entrance they had used. Most likely the UED forces would open all the outer grilles.

“I could go find a tube and try to become Konuan again,” Telisa transmitted. “I bet I would be able to take some of them out, maybe do some hit and run. And if they mistake me for the one that’s been hunting here for a long time, they might break and leave.”

“I don’t want to be separated again,” Cilreth said. She activated her stealth suit. “I’ll scout another way out. Pull a grille or two if I have to.”

“No. You’re better off dug in here with us,” Magnus said. “I have an edge. I have still access to a UED sensor module. I can see most of them.”

He didn’t mention that he could see they were very outnumbered. But they had the defender’s advantage, good cover, and a few high-tech tricks to pull.

Telisa seemed to accept his opinion.

We just survived one close call, and now we’re about to die all over again. We were supposed to be better prepared this time.

His grenade detonated on an enemy grenade in an empty room before them.

“They’re coming,” Magnus said. He watched the enemy in his link along with the views from his team and the attendant spheres. “One squad is covering them, and another has moved forward, just three chambers ahead of us.”

Cilreth and Telisa exchanged looks. Telisa put her smart pistol back at her belt and took out the prize weapon from Shiny’s vault: her chain lightning gun.

“Don’t move,” she sent Cilreth and Magnus. She moved to the side of the advancing enemy, into an adjacent room. Magnus saw the UED forces were already moving to flank them on both sides of the building.

Damn, those grille pullers of theirs work fast.

Magnus rolled into the fire corridor and fired twice just to give someone something to think about. Somehow the attendant spheres knew to leave outgoing fire alone. He immediately rolled back to his previous spot. The feed from the probe showed he was getting some response. But what would likely happen next was going to be unpleasant. He expected a return volley from a heavy weapon, a round of grenades, or worse.

But the enemy decided to play it patient and wait for the flanking maneuver to complete.

Is that more evidence they want us alive? Or just low ammunition? Do they overestimate us?

Telisa disappeared from Magnus’s natural sight, but he watched the feed from her eyes: she moved up to the grille opening and rested the heavy body of the weapon in the center of it. Every second she sat there she risked a smart round flying through and nailing her in the forehead. Her attendant sphere darted back and forth between three grill openings fitfully. It actually looked agitated. Fear for her life gripped Magnus, yet he said nothing. She was doing what had to be done. Fortunately the moment passed when she activated the alien weapon.

A bright flash of light burned his retinas. For the next second the only thing that really registered was a vague impression of Telisa rolling away to the corner to get back to safety.

Thunder rolled through the building; then everything became quiet. That, or his ears were damaged. His Veer suit’s diagnostic reported its ear-protection dampening system was working. Magnus checked the probe data. The connection had dropped, and it refused to come back.

“Magnus? Cilreth? Are you alive?” Telisa asked quickly.

“Yes. I’m still here. In one piece, I think,” Cilreth said.

“I’m alive,” Magnus said. “You took a lot of them out. But you must have also destroyed the sensor I was using, because I’m not getting data from it anymore.”

“What now? Will more of them come?” asked Cilreth.

“Maybe you could take a peek,” Telisa said. “You and Magnus.”

Magnus realized she meant he still had the stealth sphere. Sheepishly, he rolled it over to her across the fire corridor. Then he sent his attendant ahead to take a look.

“It saved my life,” he said.

“I was a Konuan,” she said.

“What?”

“I’m just going to check around,” Cilreth said.

“Send an attendant,” Magnus told Cilreth on his link.

“A Trilisk machine turned me into a Konuan,” Telisa continued. “There’s another one, a technology-using one. It has a stash of weapons and equipment. Maybe even Trilisk things. I was there in the building with you and that woman.”

“Arakaki,” he said. His attendant darted into the farthest room ahead, where they had entered under fire. There were blackened spots on the wall where men had been. Only two men remained, untouched but obviously shell-shocked. Magnus judged the entire left side flanking force must have been taken out. Then some remaining missiles must have come into the main room he saw. But they did not get everyone there, so the UED right side flanking force was still intact.

Magnus changed positions. “The threat is from the right now,” he said. “Fall back into that room.” He indicated the room where Telisa had launched the weapon. “Then we face this direction instead. Their right flank force is untouched, I think.”

“Wow, that weapon did a number on the guys,” Cilreth said. Magnus saw more evidence of dead UED soldiers through her attendant’s feed. His own attendant returned to cover his move to the other room. Meanwhile, a thread of his mind was working though what Telisa had said.

“You were seriously a Konuan? You were put into an alien body, for real?”

And she has a jealous streak for a UED soldier I just met?

“I was trying to save you from the other one, the dangerous one,” Telisa said. “But I just got myself shot.”

What the…?

“You were there! We killed you?”

Now Telisa stole his full attention, though he knew distraction during a battle was foolhardy.

“Then I came back to my original body,” she said. “I guess it’s a kind of default.”

How is that possible? The Trilisks… “You had no link, then? I had no idea. I’m sorry—”

“Of course I don’t blame you. Not consciously, anyway,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“It’s insane. So the dangerous Konuan hunter is still out there.”

“Yes. What happened to Arakaki?”

“Once the hunt was over, she took off. I don’t know why she didn’t capture or kill me. Maybe it was her way of tossing me a favor for helping her kill what we thought was the Konuan that’s been hunting them.”

“She must have told them about us. Why do they want us dead?”

Magnus thought about the close miss and the lack of heavy hardware being applied in the attack. “Maybe they want to capture us,” he said. “They have more than they’ve used. Unless they’re desperately low on munitions.”

“Team. Enemy not pursuing.” The new message came from Shiny.

“Not pursuing you or me?” Telisa asked.

“However, target of intense interest spotted in ruins,” the alien continued. “Prepare to assist with capture of possible Trilisk in lower tunnel system.”

Magnus swore. Shiny’s announcement was most unexpected, though at this point Magnus stayed focused on the danger. He doubted Telisa would be able to ignore the mention of Trilisks.

“It’s good to hear you, Shiny,” Telisa said. “We’re fighting for our lives, will assist if you get us out of this.”

Good call! He pulls us out of the fire; then we help the sucker.

“Battle machine outside neutralized,” Shiny reported. “Enemies moving in to flank, trap, surprise you from below.”

“Below us? Which direction are you? Should we make a run for it?”

“Proceed south. Will cover retreat, withdrawal, emergence from building.”