Different Paths (40 page)

Ernspiker snapped his attention to the bomb tech
and grinned. “You know…I hadn’t thought of that. I guess now we’re even.”

Kristopher said, “It will all be a moot point if
you don’t disarm that bomb.”

Spike moved over to the tech and asked, “Anything
I can help you with Butterfingers?”

Muncy nodded and nudged a toolkit at his feet.
“Get me out a number two ratchet and a pair of snips.”

“Sure thing.”

Spike bent down and froze. A blinking red light on
a cone-shaped metal object caught his attention. Shifting his position, he saw
that the blinking light was actually a countdown timer in red LEDs. Spike
swallowed hard before saying, “El-tee. Would you look at this?”

Leaning down, Kristopher almost fainted when he
saw the nuclear warhead.

“Oh shit…”

Chapter 36

If the battle in the Grand Rotunda was chaotic
before it was utter pandemonium now.

There was the crack of a rifle fire from above and
one of the Praetorians that had been still alive on the podium flew backwards
with a fist sized hole in his chest. Unfortunately he had been squeezing the
trigger on his disruptor at the same time and still got a shot off before he
died. That shot went wide of its mark and blew a hole in the floor at Xerxes’
feet which in turn caused him to stumble.

Which was all the opening Aeneas needed to hammer
home a deadly thrust. His gladius entered the Mantodea’s carapace just below
the joint of his left forearm. Xerxes flinched and fell to the side, dropping
his silver spear. Aeneas pulled free his sword and paused to look around before
moving in for the kill.

He could see that two of his Praetorians were
battling an armored human in a HAVOC suit. This must be the Marine Achilles had
warned him about. Speaking of the twins, Aeneas turned around quickly to try
and find his deadly brothers. 

Achilles and Hector were still battling about
fifty feet away. They were like two waves crashing against each other; one
would attack while the other gave ground only to counterattack immediately. It
was mesmerizing. After watching them for all of twenty seconds, Aeneas knew that
Hector had been right. There was no way that he could’ve stood toe to toe with
either of them. It was a bitter pill to swallow knowing that someone was more
deadly than you. But with them occupied, he still had ample time to complete
his mission.

Stepping up to the injured mantis, Aeneas raised
his swords high and prepared to end the life of the troublesome bug. That was
until the silver-tipped spear went through his back and out his chest. Aeneas
stared down at the offensive shard of metal that was now protruding from his
torso and tried to figure out where it came from. For some reason, it just
didn’t make sense.

As his lifeblood poured from the wound, he dropped
both swords since he no longer had the strength to hold them and turned to face
his killer. Of all the people in this room, seeing the General holding the
other end of the spear was the greatest shock.

He opened his mouth to say something profound but
his throat was full of blood. He coughed once, gurgled something unintelligible
and died.

*   *   *   *   *

DJ was surprised that he was holding his own
against the two Marshals. Of course, they had both scored a dozen hits but the
armor of the HAVOC-V was still holding up. Suit integrity was below fifty
percent but holding steady. Both Marshals were injured but they were more
skilled with their blades than he was and it was only a matter of time before
they scored a hit that the suit couldn’t take. DJ circled left. It had been a
struggled to keep the two Marshals in front of him. He couldn’t afford to have
one in front and one behind, so he had to keep moving with his attacks to keep
the Praetorians guessing.

Outnumbered and out of options, DJ decided to try
something unorthodox.

He knew going in that it was a life or death
solution. It was all on the roll of a dice. Either this worked and he won or it
didn’t and he was dead.

Seeing the two Marshals almost directly in front
of him, DJ highlighted them with a flick of his eye and a thought. The twin
rocket launchers on his shoulders homed in on their targets. With a double
blink of his eyes, he emptied the six rockets he had left in the tubes, three
from each side. The first rockets slammed into the floor of the Grand Rotunda
at almost the same time the last ones fired.

DJ felt the explosions all the way to the core of
his bones and knew he was flying backwards. But the explosion had either
knocked out his systems or he was dead…either way he had no idea of the outcome
of his little trick since all he saw and knew was darkness.

*   *   *   *   *

Lt. Kristopher flinched involuntarily when he heard
those explosions. The floor rattled with the concussions and dust fell from the
ceiling. Picking up his dropped screwdriver he asked, “How’s it going up
there?”

Muncy leaned over and wiped the sweat off his forehead
the best he could given the delicate situation he found himself in. He had
nearly jerked the wire out of the bomb casing when those explosions went off
above his head.

“I have the timer free from the case and I’m
nearly through to the primer. How about you?”

Kristopher nearly laughed at the situation. Here
he was wedged between ten barrels of what they believed to be the Mars Virus
and his only qualified bomb tech was disarming a proton bomb while he tried to
crack the case of a century old nuclear bomb. “Just peachy.” Since he was in a
very awkward position, he couldn’t see the timer he had to ask, “Time?”

Spike had nothing else to do except watch the two
clocks countdown toward his death. At least they were on the same time. “One
minute and fifty two seconds.”

Kristopher muttered to no one in particular. “This
is going to be close.”

*   *   *   *   *

Athena and Pax had no idea what was going on inside
the Hall of Justice and at this precise moment, they only partially cared.
Their concern was the five missiles homing in on them and the flight of
Coalition Dragons vectoring in on an intercept course. Not to mention the dozen
Galactic Marshal skimmers still on their tail.

Both girls knew that if they broke orbit from
around the building, they would have a fighting chance but with Iaido inside,
they weren’t leaving. Even after the pairing of their matrixes by Jay, Pax had
remained the logical and practical AI personality. As Diana, she had almost
always responded emotionally. While Athena seemed to have gained a more pragmatic
and sensible outlook but if staying meant their destruction, then stay they
would.

Pax said, “Ten seconds until impact.”

Athena said nothing but nodded to her unseen
sister. Nothing needed to be said between the two.

When the five missiles shifted course at the last
seconds to explode on the leading five Galactic Marshal skimmers, both were at
a loss for words. Then a voice came over the radio that answered their
questions and unspoken prayers.

“To all vessels in the vicinity of New Atlanta, be
advised that the charter with the Galactic Marshals has been revoked by
Executive Order twenty-two thirty-one. All Galactic Marshals are hereby ordered
to cease and desist any and all operations on Terra. Any hostile act, or action
suspected to be hostile, toward any citizen of the Coalition will be met with
overwhelming force.”

It was obvious that one of the remaining Galactic
Marshals had keyed up his mic and wanted to argue the point. “We are in the
process of apprehending a known fugitive and are operating within the
parameters of our charter.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time. Your
charter has been revoked by executive order. You have no authority on Terra.
Power down and land your craft.”

“So you say. Who is this?” the Marshal asked.

“This is Chief…I mean, Ensign Ed Brockbank…call
sign Tinman of the newly reformed Coalition Air Group SE55 – the Screaming
Eagles.”

“Well Tinman, I don’t recognize your authority….”

Whatever he was going to say died with him as
Tinman and his flight of Dragons lit up the sky with missiles. In seconds, the
only ships in the air around the Hall of Justice were three NAPD skimmers, the
Nemesis and the five Coalition Dragons.

“Tinman to Nemesis, come in Nemesis.”

Athena keyed her mic. “This is the Nemesis, how
can we help you Tinman?”

“Just checking on your condition. Sorry for our
delay in getting here.”

Athena stammered for a second before answering,
“No worries on our end. We’re just happy you arrived in time. How can we ever
repay you?”

“No need ma’am. We’re just returning the favor you
once showed us.”

Both Pax and Athena were at a loss since he was
referring to the time in the asteroid belt and that was when they were both
damaged. Athena realized that it must’ve happened during her ‘dark times’ which
is how she had started classifying anything that happened during the time
between Diana’s memories and her own.

“Either way Tinman, I would like to buy you a beer
someday.”

“It’s a date. How about next Friday on Starbase
Alpha? That’s where we are billeted now.”

Athena smiled. “If I can make it, I’ll be there. I
have to check with my boss first.”

A different voice broke into their conversation.
“Dragon leader, this is Lt. Robert Brown of the NAPD SWAT-Six.”

“Go for Tinman.”

“Be advised we are on final approach to the Hall
of Justice and expect touchdown in twenty-seconds. We would appreciate you
keeping the skies clear for us.”

“Roger that El-tee. We have orders to remain in
overwatch until this situation is resolved.”

“Ten-four Tinman.”

“Good hunting El-tee…just remember, don’t bunch
up.”

Lt. Brown chuckled slightly on the radio before
adding, “Roger that!”

Athena watched as the SWAT skimmer nosed up to
what was left of the thirtieth floor and the officers disembarked. She glanced
at the chronometer on the upper left corner of the Nemesis’ HUD. It showed less
than two minutes. This time had been calculated on their best guess as to when
the Major’s GOTH bombs would go off. She knew that they could be off by several
minutes either way.

One way or the other this was going to be over soon.

*   *   *   *   *

DJ’s gamble had paid off…kind of. The two
Praetorians he’d been fighting were nothing but bits of flesh and bone and not
really much of that. However, the concussion and flying shrapnel covered the
entire room. Unfortunately, a softball size piece of the marble floor struck
Achilles in the back of the leg causing him to stumble.

Hector didn’t pass up this opportunity.
Sidestepping and rebounding off the nearby wall, Hector spun in the air and
caught Iaido with a wicked thrust through his lower abdomen.

Iaido flinched with the wound and tried to roll
out of it. He instinctively knew that the gash wasn’t fatal but left untreated,
he would bleed out within a quarter hour. The ten inch long laceration also
caused Iaido to drop one of his blades and brought him to his knees. 

Hector paused in his attacks and stalked back and
forth like a caged lion. “So brother, it ends here.”

“Really? Does that mean you’re going to
surrender?”

With a puzzled look, Hector furrowed his brow and
cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean? You’re beaten. You know it and
I know it.”

“You really don’t get it do you?”

“Get what? I won. I beat you.”

Iaido held his side with his right hand, doing his
best to stem the tide of blood. As reverently as possible, he laid the Blade of
the Elements in front of him. “Really? Look around. Go on, take a good look
around.”

Suspecting a trick, Hector took an involuntary
step backward and panned his gaze around the room. The General was still alive
and hunkering down behind his brother’s energy shield. His bug pet was standing
nearby guarding him. The heavily armored Marine was beginning to move again. It
seems that HAVOC –V suits were extremely tough and now a whole squadron of SWAT
officers in full TacArmor were pouring in through the busted doorway.

“You are outnumbered and alone. Omega’s true
strength was never in our bodies or our weapons, it was in our unit. Together
we were unbeatable, separate we were weak. Come…take my hand. Come back to the
light. Come, be a part of Omega once again.”

One very small part of Hector heard and understood
what his brother was saying and offering. But it was so small that the darkness
that he’d become flexed once and it was gone.

Giving his brother a sly grin, “You are right in
the fact that you have the reinforcements but you forget…I am never alone. And
your friends cannot save you now.”

Taking a strong two-handed grip on the Blade of
the Void, Hector raised the ancient katana high and began his death blow.

Iaido didn’t flinch or cry out but just calmly
said, “Now.”

A crack from the Keres RG50 Sniper Rifle filled
the room and a fist size hole appeared in Hector’s chest several inches above
his heart. Bone and flesh sprayed the area but very little blood.

Suddenly, there was a loud screech and it seemed
as if the shadows of the room came alive and surrounded Hector. One second
there was a bunch of swirling black mists and the next them, and Hector, were
gone.

Iaido tried to stand but found that his legs wouldn’t
respond properly and fell face first on the rubble covered floor of the
Rotunda.

*   *   *   *   *

Spike knew that there was something he should do
but he was damned if he knew what it was. That was until he wrenched his eyes
away from the countdown time to find the emerald orbs of Eve. Without a word,
he held out his hand and the half-Sylvan climbed into his lap and buried her
face into the side of his neck. With a heavy swallow he said, “Twenty seconds.”