The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration (32 page)

Troiano looked at Mark and thought, ‘
You owe me a raise when all of this is over.’

‘If we survive this, it’s your
,.’
Mark replied.

‘I’m holding you to that,
’
Troiano nervously countered.

Outside the base, Red’s heavy assault troops fired everything from blaster rifles to Red’s favorite weapon, the handheld energy cannon. They took their toll on their enemy’s forces, but what the Agalum missed in technical savvy they made up for in numbers.

“Red, we’re starting to get overrun
,” Security officer Malcom Joiner shouted.

“No kidding Joiner.
There’s fifty of us but there must five hundred of them.”

“What are we gonna do?” Joiner practically begged.

“Keep fightin’ till the last man drops, if we have to,” came Red’s guttural reply.

All about the embattled troopers the Agalum forces began to circle and close in upon them.
Red fired his cannon repeatedly, almost non-stop, but it seemed like for every five Agalum the
Cagliostro
troops would take down, ten more would take their place. The Agalum came down upon the small fifty man team in waves, firing concentrated energy blasts of their own upon them.

Joiner called Red once again.
“These heavy suits are all that’re keepin’ us alive.”

“Why do you think w
e’re wearin’ them, Joiner? The boss knows what he’s doing,” Red shouted above the roar of battle. Then added almost silently, “I hope.”

The battle continued to rage. The small group of fifty began to spread out, slowly backing away from their
enemies. There was a plan to all of this, but that plan was badly hampered now without the natives joining them.

But then Red Robinski grinned, something he never did. He had an idea
…

***

Above the small green world, the two fleets were engaged in an epic battle. The five remaining Earth ships weathered devastating assaults from almost three times their number of Agalum ships.

“
Carlson, bring the
Revenant
around to mark zero two zero one five,” Captain Nagata ordered. His own ship, the
Coronado,
rocked violently under multiple attacks.

“Shield status?” Nagata barked.

“Forty five percent and holding, but barely,” his security officer advised. 

“It’ll have to do. Helmsman, bring us about to mark seven zero nine four five
.”

Again the
Coronado
shuddered savagely from multiple attacks.

“Hold together, girl. Hold together
,” Nagata muttered.

“Captain, that G’Kor is releasing small fliers, dozens of them
,” the security man informed Nagata.

“My God, here they come
,” Nagata whispered.

Akin to bees from a hive, a steady stream of the ships th
ose aboard the
Cagliostro
had battled and called ‘Predators’ were issuing forth in streams from the remaining G’Kor planet crusher.

“Concentrate all heavy weapons fire on the larger ships. Smaller guns can be brought to bear on the
‘Predators’,” Nagata commanded his fleet.

“Come through for us
, Johnson. A lot of lives are depending on you,” Nagata muttered.

***

Deep within the mountain base Mark Johnson and crew slowly made their way down winding passages.

‘How much further?’
Dan asked.

‘
According to the intel we received from the probe, we’ll be at the communications center as soon as we clear this corner up ahead,’
Mark replied.

Still camouflaged and invisible, the crew
surreptitiously moved through the darkened hallways, avoiding groups of Agalum workers and officers when they had to.

‘I still can’t believe how empty this base is
,’
Ariel commented.

‘They’re all outside battling Red’s troops
,’
Mark replied.

‘I know
. Still, it’s very empty, Mark, don’t you think?’
Ariel mentioned.

‘She’s right
, Mark.’
Dan agreed,
‘This is too empty.’

‘What do you all think?
A trap?’
Mark queried.

‘It’s possible,
and it’s definitely not out of the probable,’
Dan offered.

The two security personnel had stealthily padded ahead and stopped by an open section of the wall.

Dorn’s deep, basso telepathic voice intruded,
‘Sir, this room appears to be exactly what you had surmised. It is their communications hub.”

Mark and the others moved forward invisibly, until they were standing near the edge of the huge opening in the wall, which looked upon the communications hub.
Inside the room was filled with Agalum techs with only a few officers near the front of the room, surrounded by several guards.

‘How do you want to play this?’
Dan asked.

‘As planned.
We’re the invaders and we’re outmanned here. We bomb this room.’
Everyone nodded their silent agreement.

Dorn and Crosby removed several grenades from their packs, and after Mark nodded his approval, they rolled the grenades into the room
, then quickly back peddled out into the hallway.

An instant later the floor rumbled like a
n Earthquake. Flames shot from the opening to the hallway as screams filled the corridor.

The crew backed up and
silently ran back toward the main corridor.

‘Where to now?
’
Eddie asked.             

‘Now we go to the base commander’s office.
He either walks out on his own or he gets carried out. It’s going to be his choice.’

The group moved quickly through the poorly lit corridors, then turned directly into a group of Agalum soldiers, who were thundering down the corridor
toward the devastated communications facility.

There was nowhere for them to go
. The troops were heading where they had just come from.

‘To hell with it!
’
Mark telepathically roared.
‘Open fire!’

Dorn, Crosby
, and Eddie fired immediately and invisibly, Eddie being the first one on the trigger by a hair.

The Agalum soldiers were
taken totally by surprise. Blasts seemingly from nowhere tore through them. They scrambled backward under the withering attack of the
Cagliostro
’s crew.

‘Fire and move, don’t sta
y in one spot. Move, move, move,’
Mark implored.

The crew split about the hallway, separating and leaving large gaps between themselves.
Agalum laser bolts splashed against the walls and floor, but hit no one.

“Find them, kill t
hem!” Shouted an Agalum officer, his purple skin turning a deeper shade driven by his anger.

“I don’t think so
,” Mark replied and dropped the Agalum with one blast of his pistol.

Now panic w
as careening through the Agalum. They fired where the voice came from en masse. But Mark was no longer there. He and the rest of the crew were running backward the way they had come. Mark looked at his suit’s display being played out upon his wrist.
‘Back two corridors then left. There’s a maintenance passage we can cut through.’

The group quickly
disappeared down the maintenance hatch, shutting it silently behind them.

Back in the corridor they had just escaped from, laser blasts seared the air
. The Agalum troops knew they obviously had enemies about, but had no idea where to aim.

“Stop firing, you idiots
,” a salad headed Agalum ordered. The bald headed purple skins ceased immediately at his command. “They are obviously no longer here,” he continued. “Find them and bring me their skins.”

The Agalum troops spread out and began cautiously searching for the escaped and so far undetectable enemies who were running rampant within their compound.

***

‘Where the heck are we?’
Eddie asked.

Mark replied through their telepathic link,
‘Maintenance shaft that bridges levels, hence this ladder we’re climbing down. We get off at the next level and head across. We probably should have done this to begin with instead of meeting those salad heads straight on.’

‘Hindsight an’ all
that,’
Danny rumbled. He turned toward Ann Troiano.
‘Are you okay, Ann?’

‘All I can tell you
, Dan, is that this is the most excitement I’ve had in years, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.’

Dan smirked.
‘Just stay near me like ya did back there, Ann. I’ll protect ya.’

She reached up and hugged his arm,
‘Thank you, Danny. If I could reach you I’d give you a kiss right now.’

Dan blushed beneath his goggles, but replied,
‘I’ll take a rain check on it fer now, okay?’

Dr. Troiano nodded and smiled.

They continued their climb down, leaving the ladder behind and now invisibly padding down the dimly lit, circular maintenance tunnel.

‘Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but ain’t you guys surprised no one else is
scourin’ these maintenance tubes yet? I mean they gotta think we ducked down here,’
Eddie mused.

‘Honestly I’m not that concerned. I’m more worried about exiting this tube into
a barrage of Agalum laser fire,’
Mark replied while staring at his sleeve and reading the information displayed there.
‘We should exit here,’
he announced.

Dorn and Crosby once more took point, cautiously opening the panel from within. They looked outside
and stepped out.

‘Come out it’s clear,
’
Crosby confirmed.

Within
an instance they were all standing in the corridor.
‘This way,’
Mark ordered. They all followed, pausing at every corner to stare down long corridors either filled with running Agalum troops or surprisingly empty, with no in between.

Mark
held up his hand and hissed mentally,
‘Hold up something’s happening here.’

Immediately Dorn and Crosby slid before him, protecting him from whatever he was viewing
.

Everyone’s eyes widened at what they saw coming toward them
.

‘Oh no…’
Ariel squirmed.

Walking toward them alone in the corridor was a creature out of
a nightmare. A monstrous, foul smelling horror they had encountered twice before.

‘I see it.’
Mark hissed,
‘It’s a ‘Quel’. One of those anti-telepath ghouls we encountered a few years back when all of this began.’

‘Mark I have to get out of here, it’ll hear our thoughts
.’

But it was too late. The horrible eight foot tall creature turned toward the spot Ari was standing, its gaunt physique spinning about
seemingly in slow motion, like a creature out of a fantasy vid. It slowly reached forward, its horribly formed hand and multi jointed fingers flexing toward Ariel. She immediately dropped to the ground clutching her head painfully.

Mark did not hesitate. He pulled his blaster and fired. So did Eddie. Both men looked at one another and nodded.
The Quel hit the ground even as its head exploded and splattered the ground about it with gore.

Dan helped Ariel to her feet slowly. She still held her head. Dr. Troiano moved to her side and beg
an speaking to her in a whisper. “Are you all right, Ari? Can you talk?”

“This is a bad spot. W
e must move,” Dorn advised in a hiss.

Mark nodded and whispered
, “Agreed, Dorn. Keep your head up, all of you. I may have to carry Ari. The last time we met one of these things Ari defeated it, but the time before that it almost killed her.”

“Maybe we should abort the mission
,” Dan suggested.

‘No! I-I’m all right,
’
Ariel interjected telepathically. “Ari, no, you’re still recovering from what Chakix did to you. You should never have come on this mission,” Troiano breathed.