“I’ve had enough of this shit,” Jael whispered.
He dropped to one knee, got out his rifle, and shot Mungo in the face. His hands went slack as Tam dove away. The rest charged as Jael fired two more bursts. One cannibal down. Keelah killed one with a vicious swipe of her knife, and Tam jabbed his blade into another’s back. The last one left alive tried to run, and Tam tackled him. The spymaster wasn’t usually much for hand-to-hand combat, but from the bruises and bite marks on him, he wanted the pleasure of this death, so Jael stood back while he worked.
“That was a timely arrival,” the smaller man said a few minutes later, wiping his blade. “Thank you.”
“Thank Keelah. She heard the fight.”
A few seconds later, Dred ran into the room, covered in blood, but from what Jael could tell, she was in one piece. She seemed almost disappointed by the fact that Mungo was already on the ground. “I guess you don’t need me after all.”
Jael crossed to her and leaned his forehead against hers. “That’s a filthy lie, and you know it. Back to Queensland, love?”
43
Not So Quiet Riot
It should’ve been easy from there. With the enemy defeated and Vost in hiding, where he’d either starve or be killed by Silence’s crew, Dred expected to stride home to a heroine’s welcome. After the fight, Keelah had asked for solitude to mourn her fallen mate, leaving the others to return without her. Outside the checkpoint, they met up with Martine, who was bloody but not too badly injured.
“You all right?” Dred asked.
The other woman nodded.
By now, Cook should be preparing a welcome feast. Instead, the chef was up on a table, using up all the words he’d saved over long turns inside.
“The time is now! Join me and be among the lucky five. I’m not dying here.” The huge man’s eyes focused on her, and he leveled a finger in her direction. “Stand with me and kill the Dread Queen.”
Dammit.
She tried to shout, “Vost’s men are dead, the transport’s blown,” but the growing shouts of agreement drowned her out. She cursed the need for secrecy now, the fact that the men wouldn’t have understood Tam’s decision to sabotage the ship. In trying to prevent a mutiny, she’d ended up causing one. Some things were, apparently, inevitable. The nearby Queenslanders looked at her small group speculatively, violence brewing in their eyes. Then someone threw a knife. It sliced past her ear and embedded itself in the wall behind her. As if that was the spark the kindling needed, the fighting broke out in earnest. It was hard to tell who belonged to what faction unless the men attacked her directly.
“Mary curse it,” Tam spat. “Are they truly this stupid?”
“Most are.” Jael ducked a punch and threw one of his own.
“We have to rally the defenders,” Dred said.
“How?” Martine asked.
“I’ll clear a path,” Jael said.
True to his word, he hurtled like a madman into the teeming crowd. Now and then, men lashed out at him, but most of them had learned not to mess with him. He didn’t carry the title of Dread Queen’s champion for nothing. Dred charged after him; the armor she wore would protect her from most attacks, but Queenslanders were dying left and right in the scrum. Blood spattered from a man’s mouth, scenting the air with a coppery tang. The noise was overwhelming, snarls and screams overlaying whimpers from dying men, and those who were being trampled underfoot.
“This keeps up, it’ll be a handful of us against Vost and the rest of Silence’s crew,” Tam growled. It was the first time she’d heard such obvious temper in his voice.
“It’s not your fault.”
Jael pushed through the melee and headed down the hall to her quarters. At first, she wasn’t sure why, but then the answer became obvious. While the four of them were armored and had good weapons, they were too few to put down a rebellion without the body count becoming astronomical. Silence would swoop in and mop up. Dred couldn’t let that happen; everyone had fought too long and hard for the tale to end that way.
Tam shook his head, not letting himself off with the absolution she offered. “I’m in charge of intelligence. I should’ve seen the betrayal coming. There were likely signs among the men—”
“Cook was always too quiet for anyone to know what was going on in his head,” Martine put in. She sounded breathless from the run, and her blade was slick and red with blood. The drops spattered on the dented floor as the other woman dragged it against the wall to scrape it clean.
“Keep the hall clear if you can,” Dred said.
There was no point in assigning blame. It was possible Cook had always been crazy—or at least desperate to escape—he just didn’t communicate his feelings. She ran off down the hall, leaving Jael to stand watch with Tam and Martine. She lost precious seconds keying in the security code on her door; she’d taken to locking it while she was out, mostly because she kept spare weapons and ammo in here.
Along with the remote for the Peacemaker.
Without Ike to maintain it, if the thing was damaged in this firefight, Dred wasn’t sure if anyone could put it back together again. But that’s a risk I have to take. There was no other way to shut down the riot fast enough. The Peacemaker delivered shock and awe along with heavy ballistic rounds. When it stomped into a room, men took notice.
Vost’s voice came over the loudspeakers, as if he knew about the riot. When a drone cam zoomed by, Dred realized he probably did. “My offer’s still open. When your numbers dwindle to five, I’ll take you with me.”
Cheers rang out, then Cook shouted, “See? We made it to the final round. Now it’s time for sudden death.”
“Lying bastard,” Jael bit out.
“Which one?” Tam asked.
Dred understood the question. Did Cook really believe the bullshit he was peddling? There was no question that Vost was stirring things up, hoping more convicts would kill each other, so he stood a better chance of getting out of this alive.
Got news for you, asshole. Nobody else has so far.
Jael ignored the spymaster’s question. “Look there, he’s with Pietro. I knew there was something off about him—”
“Who the hell is that?” Dred demanded.
“One of Grigor’s. He’s been slipping around, stirring the pot. I had an . . . odd encounter with him, but there was so much other shit happening, I didn’t think to mention it.”
She bit back the urge to swear. It was certainly understandable that Jael might’ve had other shit on his mind . . . or maybe he hadn’t realized just what Pietro was up to. Either way, they had a hell of a situation to handle. It only needed this.
Someone shouted, “They’re breaking into the armory.”
“I’m on it,” Martine said.
The dark-haired woman shouldered her rifle and took off at a dead run, leaving Tam and Jael waiting for orders. She made a snap decision. “Back in the common room. Get me to the throne. I need people to see me send in the Peacemaker.”
Tam nodded. “Remind them who the queen is.”
Theoretically, it shouldn’t be too tough, but there were only three of them amid a roiling mass of bodies. Jael shoved toward the large, scrap-metal chair, but men quickly surrounded them, makeshift weapons in hand. Dred thought for a few terrible seconds that she could make them turn away, tear into each other with mindless violence, but—
I can’t do that to my own people. If I do, I truly am the monster everyone said I was back on New Terra.
“Defensive posture,” she ordered. “Ready weapons, but try not to kill any of our men.” She cut a look at Jael. “If you say ‘I was born ready,’ I’ll shoot you.”
“We don’t have time for sex-pain games right now, love.”
Tam made an uncomfortable noise in the back of his throat. “How are we supposed to know which ones are still loyal?”
“They’ll be the ones not trying to pull our heads off,” Jael replied cheerfully.
She drew her laser pistol but before she had to fire it, loyalists attacked the men facing her and the circle faltered. “Go,” one of them yelled. “Get clear!”
It wasn’t a question of whether she could win the fight, only that some of these men still believed in her right to lead. That had to be enough. Quickly, Dred scanned the room. They had to fight to the throne without killing or maiming too many loyal Queenslanders. Just as she was trying to figure out how to make that happen, Jael grabbed her gloved hand and towed her toward the throne. The remote felt heavy in her palm; this would probably be a massacre, one that could be laid directly at her door.
What kind of person are you if you can lose track of how many you’ve killed?
Jael and Tam laid down fire behind them, keeping the men from pushing too close. The warning shots were effective, as most people couldn’t absorb a laser blast—one shot, and the target went into shock. It was rare for a victim to die of the burns.
A man lurched into her path, and she tried to move around him, but he lunged at her eyes with a knife. No helmet. Damn. She pistol whipped him in the face, then kicked him back so she could shoot him. She unloaded while taking hits from behind. Jael tried to block for her, but she shouted at him over her shoulder.
“I’m wearing armor, you idiot.”
“Ah, your words of love and dulcet tones never fail to enchant me.”
Tam’s voice was dry. “Should I leave you two alone?”
A hard shove rocked her, and she stumbled forward. “Please don’t.”
Before her loomed a man with broken yellow teeth and a mad look in his eyes. He looked strong enough to snap her neck, so when Jael called out, “Get down,” she dropped without hesitation, giving him a clean shot, and he took the bastard through the head.
Bodies shoved against her, and she tried not to think how many of them were trying to kill her. She just had to press forward until she got to the throne. Someone had started a fire somewhere—that always seemed to happen during a riot, and if the station emergency system didn’t kick in soon, they’d all asphyxiate. Her eyes burned from the chemical fumes wafting in lazy spirals, but she couldn’t spare the time to dash away the tears. They collected on her chin, dripping down to her armored chest. Four wounds burned in a low, constant throb: shoulder, left arm, thigh, right flank, but she could feel a tickling tingle from where they were starting to heal.
Thanks, Jael. Leg still hurts like a bitch.
She lashed out with a kick to clear the rest of the way—so close now—but her weak leg buckled. She went down hard. Somehow, she held on to the remote, even with three enraged Queenslanders who were ready to rip her apart attacking, so she popped the closest one with her laser pistol. The red power meter on the side said she had fewer than five shots left. As Jael and Tam took aim at the other two, one of them cracked her in the head. The blow made her head wink black spangled with the old gold of ancient stars interspersed with white-hot sparks.
She kept the pistol in her hand, even on the ground. Dred swept with her good leg and knocked one of them down. Prone, the enemy was clumsy, buying her time to shoot. He died writhing like a worm on his back. The other lunged, and she rolled, then crawled toward the scrap-metal throne.
44
Garden of Evil
Jael shot the Queenslander chasing Dred.
The common area swarmed with men. At this moment, Jael missed Einar. The big man could clear some space with a few, casual swings. Without him, the battle was tighter and more chaotic. Most of their best fighters had gone down in other sorties, so at least he wasn’t squared off against pure talent. These were desperate men with nothing to lose. Or so they thought.
The situation can always get worse.
He flashed to days on Nicu Tertius, thigh deep in mud and walking on the corpses of his comrades as their bodies built a bridge the survivors used to scramble to higher ground. To this day, he couldn’t stand in the rain with soft ground under his feet without imagining that the earth was churning with the bones of the dead. With effort, he fixed his vision on the melee all around him. The distraction cost him a slice across his ribs, another invisible scar.
“We can’t let them wear us down,” Jael said, parrying a lunge and breaking the arm of the man who tried it.
Tam said, “I agree. If our numbers get too low, Silence will kill us all in our sleep.”
Fortunately, their side had the better weapons and armor. Dred was wearing one of the suits at the moment; Tam and Martine had the others. Vaulting onto the throne, the Dread Queen brought up her pistol and took aim as a mad-eyed Queenslander charged. The laser blast caught him in the chest, sizzled, and stopped him. His body tripped a couple of his fellows.
“There’s only one way to end this quick,” he said. “You have to do it.”
Nodding, Dred pressed the button on the remote and deployed the Peacemaker. He’d never imagined she’d use it on her own people. Their unit had solid plating and two different heavy weapons, one on each arm: laser gun and Shredder. It limped these days, and the repair work they’d cobbled together after Ike’s death left it half-assed effective, but it would be enough to strike fear in the hearts of the traitors.
The mech lumbered in, warning the dissidents in indifferent, electronic tones. “You are guilty of civil disobedience. This scene will be pacified. To avoid bodily harm, desist and vacate the area.” It paused a few seconds to let that sink in, then added, “Countdown commencing.”
“If you’re with us, get clear,” Dred shouted. “I don’t want any of my people harmed.”
Her men stopped fighting at once and ran for the exits in all directions while she jumped down and took shelter behind the shield provided by the scrap-metal throne. Jael ran with her, though he could probably survive the attack. No point in wasting his healing power, though; it made more sense to marshal his strength. When the mech reached zero, it sprayed the room with a relentless ballistic onslaught. The rounds were old-fashioned but effective, especially against unarmored targets.
Dred tapped his shoulder. “Find Martine. Get to the hydroponics garden and don’t let anyone inside. You two defend it, I’ll hold down the fort here.”
They wouldn’t last long without the fresh food growing in the garden, so he took off right away, dodging the barrage the Peacemaker unloaded in his direction. By this point, the common room was almost clear apart from one man trying to crawl away in a smear of blood. Bullets sprayed the floor as Jael ran, pinging in sparks off the metal flooring. He dove for the hallway, came up in a roll, and sprang away.
“Martine,” he yelled.
“Over here!”
The men who’d fled from the common room had her cornered in a storeroom. Son of a bitch. Martine crouched behind stacks of supplies; the fact that she had a laser pistol kept them from rushing. Jael breathed in the lightning cordite zing from her weapon and the char of flesh. Two bodies on the ground. Eleven left. Here we go, lucky thirteen.
She shot one in the head at point-blank range. His flesh sizzled and burned, puckering into a black sore in which his mouth was a soft pink hole. The man screamed and clawed at his melting eyes, giving Jael the chance to break his neck. Blood fountained from his nose and hit her faceplate in a messy gush. Martine swiped a gloved hand across her helmet as Jael backed up for a running start and launched himself into the mix.
He swept the legs out from under one and immediately dropped on him, jabbing an elbow into his neck. As the enemy wheezed for breath, Jael rolled forward and snapped his arm. The pain incapacitated him, and Martine finished him with a shot to the chest. He couldn’t see her expression, but she gleefully opened fire around him. The men couldn’t get past him to touch her, and he let her use his body as a blockade. Jael took out two more in quick succession, leaving the others to scatter.
Martine shot another one in the back as he was running away.
“Glad you could join me,” she said, hurdling the crates she’d used as cover.
“Dred wants us posted outside the garden.”
“Makes sense.”
She cocked her head, probably listening to the distant rat-a-tat-tat of the Peacemaker. It fired intermittently, likely clearing the common room as enemies ventured in to check on its ammo status. Dred didn’t need to worry as long as it was functioning properly. With time and laser rifles, the mercs had taken out Mungo’s units, but the Queensland rioters weren’t so well equipped.
“Let’s go,” he said.
From the click of her boots, Martine was with him. The fighting had already reached the hallway leading to the garden. There were bodies everywhere, and until they attacked, Jael had no way to be sure which side they were on. Ahead, ten Queenslanders scuffled, slashing at each other with jagged blades.
“Coming through,” Martine shouted.
He wouldn’t have given warning, but a few of the men—too few—acknowledged her words with a jerk of their chins. “We have to help them.”
Seven others whirled to face the woman, who whipped out her laser pistol. “You want some? Come on then, bitches.”
She fired two quick shots, dropping opponents on either side of the scrum. From the light on her battery pack, she didn’t have too many more shots, but the traitors didn’t know that. The men who had been defending took the chance to stab a few more, neat kidney shots that would leave their targets dead in minutes. Now the odds were downright favorable.
Jael launched a kick at the nearest traitor, snapping his knee back, and when the man dropped, he finished with a blow to the temple. He had the strength to fight efficiently, and he used it. That kill flowed right into the next; he broke that asshole’s neck cleanly. There was one man left, and one of the defenders cut his throat in a wet slice. His blood jetted onto the wall, slowing as he toppled and died. The wet rasps of breath ceased.