"Fuck me!" Dee husked as she slowly let her head rise from where she had been shielding it under her arms. Already in low light mode, her visor now was nearly blinded by the steady rain of dust and debris that was tumbling down from the gaping wound in the convention center's roof. A wound torn by what had looked like a massive bolt of lightning that struck then stayed in place to rip the roof to pieces.
"Just what the hell was that??"
But the tall detective wouldn't get the time to consider what had happened as more pressing matters abruptly clamored for her attention.
"Alpha Two!" Danik hissed as he alligator crawled across the floor towards her, keeping half an eye on the hole in the roof and half on the delegates crouching in moaning fear behind her as he held his Shiva at the ready.
"Alpha Five!" Dee fired back, staring hard at her teammate. "Why have you left your position?"
"Because that was a psionic attack," Danik replied tightly as he pulled up beside Dee. "I'd wager a large amount of hard currency that the Brotherhood has discovered their initial plan has failed and is currently engaged in a secondary plan!"
"The attack that Mordecai warned might be coming!" Dee hissed, grimacing.
"Apparently," Danik confirmed, glancing back up at the hole in the ceiling. "As doughty my people are as warriors and as protected they are by Mordecai's psionic technology, they won't stand long against a concerted Brotherhood assault. It'll be shortly after that the Brotherhood reinforcements will enter this building to finish the job their assassins started."
"Shit," Dee spat. "Then we need to forget Lash's orders and get the delegates out of here as soon as possible. Or we won't be getting them out at all!" She looked back at Danik. "Round up Alpha Seven, Eight and Ten. We're going to secure one of the rear exits and attempt to exit the grounds through a back entrance!"
Lash jerked as scintillating cables of energy darted out to slam into three of his Qos Viran, nearly incinerating them on impact as they were knocked out of line. Still he kept firing, running through his first magazine before reaching for a second out of his bandoleer to ram it into place in his Shiva's hot belly. A new round was chambered and then he was firing again, spraying the dark mass of Brotherhood psionics standing resolutely in front of him.
Then plasma bolts, shivering shockwaves and deadly ion blasts, were cutting down more of his team. The big vampire couldn't help twitching in reaction as a searing tongue of pyroken, the finger of fire ripping through her body as if it were tissue paper, burned down the female beside him.
As her charred body fell limply to the ground beside him, Lash snarled silently, snapping his head to the side to examine what was left of his team after the Brotherhood's first counterattack.
"Kadasa!" he hissed tightly at what he saw.
His team, numbering easily close to twenty people, had been reduced by the Brotherhood attack to only five, including himself. A quick glance at the mass of Brotherhood psionics facing them yielded a number of bodies on the ground, but nothing close to the level of devastation his team had experienced. They simply didn't have the numbers to make a significant dent on the enemy.
It was time to call in reinforcements ... if they would risk the psionic booby traps scattered all over the convention center grounds!
Dropping behind a nearby overturned concrete bench, Lash frantically activated his comlink.
"Alpha Command, this is Alpha Leader, come in, Alpha Command." He rasped into his throat mike. "Alpha Command, come in! We've encountered heavy Brotherhood reinforcements and have taken massive casualties. My entire team has nearly been wiped out! We need reinforcement. I repeat, we need reinforcement!"
But, as Lash's desperate pleas hissed out of the speakers back at the command bunker, they echoed in a chamber that was now mostly empty. And the only person that was left was in no shape to hear the big Qos Viran commander's words as, with a soft moan, Mordecai rocked back and forth in a chair in the corner.
With the possibility node now exploding all around him, the powerful hardwire had finally been overcome with the probability energy raging through the city. He couldn't hear Lash even if he wanted to.
"Alpha Command, come in!" Lash grimaced darkly at the static that filled his ear. 'By the Dark Father, nobody's there!'
A bright flare of light and Lash glanced over at another overturned bench that two members of his team had chosen for cover. Just in time to see them both die in a second column of light like the one that had killed Tahsis, their thin screams barely rising above the sound of battle to reach his ears. 'If we aren't reinforced soon, there won't be anybody here either,' he mused darkly. At least the presence of the column told him that the hardwire was still alive.
For some reason, that realization filled the big vampire with a grim sort of hope. At least the hardwire would be around so that he could kill him himself. Lash grinned tightly. 'And, by the blessing of the Dark Father, I'm going to enjoy that!'
"I just hope I live long enough to make the attempt!" he said hoarsely out loud.
"Don't worry." A new voice husked just behind him. "You will."
Dee pressed tightly against the wall, her Shiva held up and ready as she stared hard at the double doors in front of her. Across from her and on the other side of the double doors, Danik stood just as tautly ready.
"Alpha Ten," the tall human hissed, waving Olira forward with a free hand.
Seeing the gesture, the Qos Viran healer eased away from the knot of shivering delegates to slide across the debris-covered floor. It didn't take her long before she crouched behind Dee.
"Scan the door," Dee indicated softly without turning around. "We need to know if there are warm bodies out there!"
Nodding, Olira carefully stepped around Dee and, with a glance at the lethally-ready Danik, placed her gloved hands on the painted metal of the right hand door. Closing her eyes, the vampiric healer extended her senses into the metal and beyond. It didn't take her long before her eyes were opening once again.
"Nothing," she husked quietly. "My range extends only a couple of meters but there's nobody within that circle that I can feel. The space immediately around the doors is clear."
The redheaded detective nodded her understanding as she waved Olira back and out of the way.
"Alpha Seven, Alpha Eight, take your positions," she directed into the darkness and Alpha Seven, Jebith and Hanlon, Alpha Eight, stepped out of the darkness to stand in front of the double doors, Shiva's held up tightly against their shoulders and legs braced wide.
At a ready nod from Jebith, Dee sucked in a dusty-tasting lungful of air as she prepared herself. This was it; they had identified this particular emergency exit as the best pathway out of the building for its position close to the rear entrance to the convention center grounds. Hopefully no psionics stood outside of Olira's sensory range, just waiting for them. Because they had some delegates bleeding to death and they had to get them out of here now if they were to live longer than the next few minutes!
After what seemed like an eternity to steel herself and calm her nerves, Dee felt ready. It was now, or never! Carefully she looked over at Danik and gave the lean vampire a slow nod. Which he immediately answered with a nod of his own as he renewed his grip on his weapon.
Seeing that nod of acknowledgement, Dee held up three fingers and began to silently count, dropping a finger for each number.
"Go!" she barked when the last finger dropped. Smoothly and in unison, she and Danik stepped forward to kick the doors open with a loud 'clang'. Then, with Jebith and Hanlon tight on their heels, they stepped into the opening, Shiva's ready.
And found nothing. But before Dee could heave a sigh of relief, a movement just to their left forced all four to spin tightly, Shiva's to their shoulders and twitching fingers on the triggers. Only to find themselves facing an equally determined Kohl and Radim as they stood over Duffy, weapons ready and aimed at the four members of Alpha Team.
"For shit's sake!" Dee snapped hotly, dropping her Shiva from her shoulder. "We just about fragged you two! What the hell are you two doing here? I thought Lash took the team to the front of the grounds to check on that explosion."
"He did, Alpha Two," Kohl replied as he and Radim also lowered their weapons. "He ordered us behind to protect Duffy."
"Duffy??" Dee took a quick step forward to fall on her knees beside the unmoving Brit. "Alpha Ten! Get over here!"
Olira quickly jogged up, dropping to her knees on Duffy's other side.
"Give Duffy a scan and see what's wrong with him!" Dee commanded tightly. Then she was looking up at Kohl and Radim. "You two, take Jebith and Hanlon and secure the rear entrance to the grounds. We need to evac the delegates ASAP!"
"We're on it," Kohl confirmed with a nod, then the four of them were jogging into the darkness, heading west towards the rear entrance hidden in the darkness.
As soon as she had visually confirmed that the four Qos Viran had vanished out of sight into the darkness, Dee turned back to Olira, who was slowly running her hands over Duffy's unmoving body. But, before she could speak, a low male voice rumbled out of the darkness just in front of her.
"Hold, in the name of the Brotherhood," he growled and, looking up, Dee felt a cold chill go through her as five Brotherhood psionics, complete with black trench coats, stepped out of the gloom to advance on them, hands already glowing with psyken energy. Damn, that was some brutal timing, the psionics showing up just after she sent half of her team off to look for the rear entrance.
"You will drop your weapons and prepare to die," the psionic, who had spoken before, continued as the glow around all five's hands brightened.
Just as quickly as the fear had washed through her body, Dee felt a wave of determination and courage fill her as she grit her teeth in rage.
"Um, no," she replied succinctly. Then her Shiva was up and chittering as it hurled a tight stream of ceramic ordinance towards the five psionics. At the same time Danik and Olira both opened up with their weapons, the vampire healer twisting in place to fire sideways, the vampires hosing the psionics with unrelenting streams of white hot ceramic shells.
Set to rapid fire, the Shiva's easily spat out enough firepower to scythe the unsuspecting psionics down before they could take a step further, the five Brotherhood heavies spilling backwards as the multiple impacts ripped through their shields and then their bodies. As the last body hit the ground, Olira twisted back around to put her hand on Duffy's forehead.
Without looking down, Dee slowly swung her Shiva back and forth. She'd be damned if the Brotherhood would catch them napping again! Just behind her, an alert Danik did the same thing, his vampire eyes stabbing through the darkness to examine every little shadow. Satisfied that they were secure, at least for the moment, she asked:
"Well? Is he hurt bad?"
"As far as I can tell, he isn't hurt at all!" Olira replied softly with a shake of her head. "No blunt force trauma, no lacerations of any kind, nothing." She looked up and over at Dee. "He is physically untouched. But that doesn't mean he hasn't suffered a psychological injury of some sort. A catatonic state induced by witnessing something that triggered a repressed memory of an event in his past."
"Is that a guess?" Dee hissed.
"Absolutely," Olira flatly responded, standing. "I'm a healer, not a psycho-surgeon. I can't do a thing for him!"
"Shit." Dee grimaced as she glanced down at her unmoving partner. "Then I guess we're going to have to carry his flabby Limey ass out of here! But he'll have to wait until we have the delegates clear. That's our first priority. Speaking of which ..." Thumbing her comlink on, she tapped the frequency control until the readout on her wrist read the emergency frequency used by the security forces that had been protecting the convention center during the conference. Hopefully there was somebody out there still monitoring it.
"This is Detective Tragedy McMaster of the Calgary Police Service, assigned to the convention center security force to anyone monitoring this channel. We have come under attack by a hostile terrorist force and the security force has suffered catastrophic losses. We need to evacuate the delegates immediately! I repeat, this is Detective McMaster of the center security force. We have suffered catastrophic losses and need to evacuate the delegates immediately. Does anybody read me?"
The tall detective paused for a moment to see if any response was forthcoming. And sighed with disappointment when she only had static hissing in her ear as her answer.
"I don't think anybody's monitoring this channel," she groaned, letting the hand that had been cupping the ear with her comlink receiver in it, drop to her side.
"I wouldn't be so quick to come to that conclusion," Olira pointed out in a quiet voice. "We're running a good chance that the Brotherhood forces that are currently facing Commander Lash and the rest of Alpha Team have a dampening field in place, preventing any communication with the outside. It's Brotherhood S.O.P. when they're looking to secure an area in preparation for ..."
Olira's voice trailed off, making Dee look over at the Qos Viran healer.
"In preparation for what?" she pressed the vampire tightly.
The healer looked carefully at the redheaded detective.
"For complete obliteration," she finished softly, her apologetic expression hidden behind her mask. But Dee didn't have to see the vampire healer's face to know that she was sorry; she could hear it in her voice.
As one, the two women, one vampire and the other human, slowly turned to look over the building where they could see the sky being lit up with the battle that was raging in front of the center.
"If they fail to destroy the center, they will most likely destroy the entire city to achieve their goal," Olira went on to quietly say as she stared at the dancing lights in the sky, marking plumes of psyken and pyroken being used against what was left of Alpha Team. She paused to look over at Dee.
"They will kill every human in the city, then level each building until there's nothing left." Olira rasped. "I know, because I've seen it happen many times before, in our war against the Brotherhood. They send in their destroyer cadres to wipe out any opposition, slaughtering everything living then completely obliterating whatever was left to ensure that their enemies wouldn't be able to use that place again."
"Yeah?" Dee hissed tightly, her face abruptly hardening. "Well, there won't be any complete obliteration today. Not on my watch!"
****