“Cloaked ships?” Jeff asked.
“None apparent,” the TACO replied. “But we can’t detect them at more than five light seconds.”
“Stay alert,” Captain McNair said. “And get word to the colonel that he needs to either get the Imeg and get out or abort.”
“Clear,” Payback said as he fired the cutting charge. He opened his eyes and looked at the charge which was just sitting there. The initiator had gone off, but not the charge. “Dust Devil!”
“Trying,” Adept Hoover said, his teeth gritted. The charge flared, died, flared, died.
“Ain’t gonna do it,” Payback replied.
Gerrard, Pawle thought, calling to one of the support adepts on the Des Moines. Take over for me.
It is… hard, Highlands replied. The Imeg is immensely powerful.
Fuck hard, Pawle thought, savagely. Take over for me. I have more important things to do!
The charge suddenly flared white-hot and the door flew into the far corridor.
“Go!” Skank shouted.
“Easy for you to say,” Mangler muttered as green fire filled the corridor. He was laying down railgun rounds like he had unlimited ammo and he didn’t. He was down two thirds of his initial load.
He pulled his railgun back to reload and was just seating another mag, both hands occupied, when what looked like a green-glowing crystal ball bounced down the corridor.
“Uh-oh.”
He dropped his rifle and magazine, reaching down to scoop the thing up when there was a white flash.
Pawle held his hand up, deflecting the plasma explosion away from himself and Redman. But that was all he could deflect.
Mosovich winced as most of Alpha team was wiped out in one blast. The Hedren grenades were as bad as suicide bars.
“Bravo, bound forward and clear the corridor,” he said, looking around. Most of Charlie had been out of the area of effect. The only portion that wasn’t was Pawle and his team. Pawle and Redman were still there, and apparently unharmed, but Gombo and Leaf were both burned to a crisp.
“On it,” Ugly said as Bubbles trotted down the corridor. “What the hell was that, Snake?”
“Bad stuff,” Mosovich replied.
Bubbles extended his hand around the turn and fired two suicide bars down the corridor.
“Go!” he shouted as the explosions rent the air.
Chicklet and GE rounded the corner and laid down fire into the smoke of the explosion. There probably wasn’t anything there, but it never hurt to be sure.
They trotted to the holes left by the suicide bars and maneuvered past them then down to the third door.
“This the room?” GE asked.
“Supposed to be,” Chicklet said then gasped, grabbing at his head.
GE turned his head to the side just to late to avoid having blood and brains splash all over him. He circled in place, looking for a threat. Then his head began to throb.
“What the fuck is happening?”
Concentrate on the Imeg, Kang thought. Place all your power on the Imeg.
We are, Sissy replied. It is all we can do to keep it from destroying your team.
Get the Indowy to protect us, Kang replied. Keep the ship from communicating and attack the Imeg. That is your sole job now.
“Dust Devil?” Hooter said, looking at the door. Two charges had gone out so far.
“Busy,” the adept gasped, grabbing at his head. “Very busy.”
“Got it,” Pawle said. “Redman, get me up to the door.”
Redman maneuvered the adept up to the blast door and set him in front of it. Like the other two, Pawle had his eyes closed. But he seemed to be seeing anyway.
The adept laid his hand on the door and leaned forward.
“The bonds of this material are a poor reality,” Pawle muttered. “A bare semblance of reality… ”
“Stack up and cover Skank,” Jake said. “Entry team, get ready.”
“You. Are. Not. Real,” Pawle gasped as the door disintegrated into dust.
And Redman blew back in a welter of crimson.
“Oh, holy fuck,” Dumbo muttered.
They’d found the Imeg.
“What the hell are those?” Hannibal screamed. He was pumping railgun rounds into the compartment and all he was getting was bouncers. The rounds wouldn’t scratch the nightmares in the room.
“Imeg,” Wind shouted then blasted backwards to thump into the far bulkhead.
The two creatures in the room were nightmare, a mass of rippling black tentacles and armored bodies. The tentacles were coated in blades but that was not what was killing the team. It was the half dozen weapons each of them wielded. Expertly.
Suicide bars wouldn’t detonate. Railgun rounds bounced off a hard-held shield. And still they continued to fire and slice, destroying anything that came near them.
“Back up,” Kang said. “Get out of the doorway. Skank, Devil, on me. Mule, behind us. Target the one on the left.”
“On it,” Mueller said, managing to get a firing angle over the smaller adepts.
The three adepts managed to establish a shield that stopped the fire from the Imeg. Then they pushed back.
Keep them from reinforcing each other, Kang thought.
Trying, Dust Devil replied.
Sissy, support here.
We… have them separated, Sissy replied.
Drive down the shield of the lesser, Kang thought. It is not reality.
Mueller could see the effect of the battle between the two groups. The air in the compartment was heating up as irresistable force met immovable object. He could even see the shields of the Imeg, now, glowing white-hot under the power of the dozen human adepts.
And he could see when the one on the left finally collapsed.
Railgun rounds, though, bounced off the armor of the body. He searched for weaknesses and finally found one at the juncture of the tentacles and the body. The nuckle there was tough, but it finally surrendered and the Imeg was blasted back in a green spray of ichor.
Suddenly, the railgun was ripped from his hands, turned, and slammed forward, barrel-first, into his brain.
As the redoubtable NCO dropped, Pawle shuddered and mentally stepped back.
Skank, what are you doing? Kang thought.
Wait, Master.
You can’t hold up a stress card, Dust Devil thought.
WAIT.
Pawle, in fact, did not know what he was doing. But what they had been doing so far wasn’t working. So he reached.