A bold of energy flashed by Jake's head and scorched the wall behind him. He ducked down low, taking several steps backwards.
“Be careful, some of those soldiers probably made it inside, we already took out about half a squad,” Oz said over the communicator.
“Hi Oz, great timing as usual,” Jake said, smiling to himself and creeping up around the next corner of the stairwell, rifle muzzle first.
“Already spotted them?”
“Well, they spotted me, but I'm all right,” Jake caught sight of one of them, crouched low, his right side just exposed enough. He took aim and fired, blasting through the soldier's armour in one shot. One of his comrades leaned out just a second later and returned fire.
Instead of taking cover Jake took his shot and as the crude head's up display showed that the sight was lined up perfectly with the soldier's head the trigger made a resounding, empty click. Narrowly ducking under several deadly shots himself, he almost fell back down the stairs but instead splayed out, bashing his knee hard against the concrete stairs. “God dammit!” he shouted as he hurriedly loaded his last cartridge into the stolen rifle.
“Everything okay?” Ayan asked.
“Just a chaos minute, I'm fine,” Jake tried to shoot back and watched the connection between his rifle and the fresh energy cartridge fail. He smashed the butt of it against the wall, forcing the cartridge to make the connection and watched the indicator flicker from red to green. “What I'd give for a good armoured vacsuit and a replacement sidearm,” he said as he peeked around the corner, saw the leg of the fallen soldier he'd shot and rushed forward.
The attack was an execution of training and instinct. He was up the next flight of stairs in three steps, rolled onto the landing and opened fire on the four soldiers who were waiting for him. He caught one of them in the hip, the next fully in the face, shot the third in the chest and before he could shoot the fourth an energy bolt caught him in the shin, burning the flesh clean through.
His next shot missed entirely, striking the ceiling instead, but the following one caught the last soldier in the chest. The pain of his framework body regenerating and repairing the dead tissue of his shin and calf forced him to grind his teeth together in a grimace that brought on tears. After a few seconds the regeneration was complete. “Surrender and I'll put you in stasis so your people can treat you,” Jake said to the soldier who held one hand to a grisly open wound in his hip while he tried to hold his sidearm up in his general direction.
The West Keeper soldier's shaky hand dropped his sidearm; “Just take the pain away.”
As the fierce itching and wrenching pain in his calf faded Jake stood up and set his command and control unit to administer a dose of emergency stasis medication. He picked up the man's sidearm and injected him. In seconds the soldier sighed and passed into deep stasis.
“The stairway is clear,” Jake said as he holstered the sidearm, picked up a rifle and took four clips from the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
Alaka was right behind him in seconds, his great bulk moving with surprising grace and ease up the stairwell.
“We've come under fire from the outpost they set up here! They have reinforcements. We can hold the way to the Clever Dream but I don't know for how long,” Ayan informed him over the sound of weapons' fire.
“We have to get moving, everyone ready?” Jake asked.
“Ready,” Alaka answered flatly.
They pushed on the metal door that the West Keeper soldiers had almost completely cut through and with a ear piercing creak Alaka, Jake and a few other resistance fighters managed to pry it open enough to get through. As they entered the oldest section of the spaceport they were greeted by the lights and sounds of an active firefight nearby. “Through there! Get everyone through there! There's someone down the hall who'll direct you!” Jason directed Alaka before seeing Jake. He and two other refugees were waiting by the double doors to help Alaka's group.
Jake caught sight of Jason as Alaka and he helped people through the doorway. “I promised your wife I'd get you back to the Triton, are you packed?” he asked with a grin.
“Oh my God, it's good to see you!” Jason exclaimed in surprise. “We need help holding them off! This way!”
Jake, Alaka and several of the fighters from their group followed Jason down a grey and green hallway marked by the passage of millions of feet, the metal floor had a permanent dip where the material had been worn down. Generous archways led into an old grand foyer that was gilded with scrollwork and old fashioned wooden facades over top the metal and concrete structure. The more recent addition of scorch marks and evidence of small arms explosions made the contested space look more like a ruin than an old section of the port.
Ayan, Oz and their comrades had taken cover behind the archway supports and the walls behind it. The enemy were in a similar position across the grand foyer.
The exchange of fire was fierce, and Jake could see there were already two wounded being carried out as they made their way inside just far enough to see what the situation was.
Alaka took a quick look around the corner and retreated back. “I hate tunnel fighting.”
“We're above ground,” Vernen countered out of the corner of his mouth.
“Most factors are the same. There's so much weight on these supports that damaging the wrong one could bring the structure down.”
“Whatever you say,” replied Vernen as he leaned out and took several shots between the fighting refugees under cover and the supports, not striking anything in particular.
“Hey! We can't fire from here, there's too much in the way!” one of the soldiers shouted crossly.
“I'm not going out there! In case you haven't noticed they're picking people off!”
Jake peeked out and caught sight of Ayan and Oz, each taking cover behind metal counter tops on either side of the arches. He looked past them and his heart sank. “They're setting up an armoured stationary weapon.”
Alaka checked the charge on his beam cannon and peeked out briefly. “I can slow them down,” he nodded. He broke for forward cover in a dash that was more like several long leaps. In the space of two seconds he covered the distance and was behind cover. The enemy tried to take several panicked shots at him and managed to graze the very top of his helmet, doing no damage to the man beneath. He waited just a moment then rolled into a space between arches, opening fire on the soldiers trying to set up the enemy weapon emplacement under the cover of the thick supports holding up a section of the ceiling. Alaka strafed as the air around him vibrated and the intense stream of energy from his beam weapon cut through soldiers, part way into a structural support and into the comparable weapon they were setting up across the foyer.
“Cover him!” Vernen called out as he stepped out from behind cover and unleashed dozens of particle rounds per second over Alaka's head, down to his right side, and continued firing until several of his shots struck the counter Ayan and her group of nine solders were crouching behind.
Jake leapt from where he was squatting and tackled Vernen, pressing him down to the ground. When he looked back towards the foyer Oz and a few of his comrades were dragging Alaka behind cover and Ayan was laying limply on her side behind the opposite metal counter.
Jake didn't think, he only stood and ran for Ayan as quickly as he could. He was half way to her when energy bolts struck him in the shoulder, chest and thigh. The pain was blinding but he managed to jump towards the counter using his good leg. He hit the ground hard, his helmet bouncing against the worn metal flooring, but as he skid to a stop his hand touched Ayan.
Her back was riddled with holes, her vacsuit broken down under the stress of more particle energy impacts than he could count. There was so much blood on the floor already, and as he rolled her over his worst fears were realized. The transparent faceplate revealed her still, anguished face. Through the haze of his own pain he managed to try and inject her with a stasis dose but he had used the only one available and the materializer in his command and control unit had been damaged while he was still on the surface.