"Oh yeah," Caillen laughed. "They find out you guys are here and they're liable to keep you. On second thought... What the hell are you doing here, Syn? You get locked up and I have to face the sister-beast. You know, she don't hit like no girl and since I'm her baby brother, she has no compunctions against beating my ass. And I know you know this, she strikes below the belt when she fights. I'd like to have a son someday and for once at least match if not outnumber the estrogen army in my home."
Syn arched a brow at his tirade. "Are you finished? Or do I need to sedate you?"
"I'm temporarily finished. However, if you get taken, kill me. I don't want to face Shahara."
Darling would take Caillen to task, but he well understood those sentiments. Shahara could be a hellcat when something set her off. He definitely didn't envy her brother those fights.
Nykyrian, Maris, and Hauk joined them and rounded out their number.
Even though Nero was still in agony with his migraine, he, Chayden, Drake, Fain, Jayne, and the others were on standby to come in and transport their people home as soon they brought down the prison's network.
Like the rest of his group, Darling didn't remove his helmet and he kept the voice distortion on as they quickly prepped for their assigned roles. Only a very small handful were privy to their identities. The rest of the Tavali and Sentella with them knew that Darling fought with them and made weapons for them, but none of them needed to know he was really Kere.
Not until he was dead.
Syn was the only one of them who'd never hidden his real identity. The son of one of the most notorious serial killers and outlaws in history, he didn't care who knew his name or face. Not until he'd married Shahara and had a family to protect.
While Syn worked on hacking the prison's relays and feed, they checked in with their waiting ships to make sure they were ready to land as soon as the shields were down.
"So Nero," Hauk said into his link. "We're going to get out of this, right?"
"Not psychic. I can tell you what is, but not the outcome. Why can't you people get that through your heads?"
"Not people, human. I'm Andarion. Why can't you human's get that through your heads?"
Darling cleared his throat to get their attention. "Once Syn has their transmitters down, I'm going in, explosives blaring. I'll have them diving for cover. Let me know when you have the prisoners safe and I'll protect your exit."
Nyk inclined his head to him. "You got it."
Hauk grabbed extra blasters and tucked them into his holster, within easy reach. "I'm ready to cover you. Just don't lob one of your toys at me by mistake."
Darling clapped him on the back. "Don't worry, Dancer. By the time you see it coming, it'll be too late."
"Great... just great. Love your sense of humor." Hauk glanced at Nykyrian over his shoulder. "Why didn't one of us train him on how to use blasters?"
"He liked explosives better," Syn muttered as he typed furiously.
Maris grabbed an extra rifle. "I'll pull the back."
Darling shook his head. "I want you to stay behind. Hauk and I are a team. We've done this thousands of times."
"And I know every thought you have three seconds before you do. An extra gunner won't hurt."
He would argue, but he knew better. Maris always won their fights.
"All right," Syn said. "Feed is down. Sentella and Tavali, land the ships and Kere... it's your show now. Run it."
"Thanks." Darling gave a nod to Maris and Hauk. "Let's paint some walls with entrails."
But before Darling could leave, Nykyrian pulled him into a man hug. "May the gods walk beside you every step of the journey, little brother."
The meant a lot to him coming from the Andarion prince. Nyk had been an atheist who believed in nothing until Kiara had entered his life. For him to whisper a prayer for Darling...
It was special indeed.
One by one, the others did the same, and wished him well. It was something they'd never done before. Which made Darling wonder if they did it to try and keep him from killing himself or if they'd accepted the fact that he wasn't coming back and they wanted to say their last good-byes.
They kept him so long, that it gave Nero and Jayne time to land and join them.
As Darling turned to head for the prison's back entrance, he froze. There was a Kimmerian Corps uniform in with Nero's crew. It stood out as much as Maris's Phrixian battlesuit.
He frowned at the unknown soldier. What the hell was a Kimmerian doing here? They were a vicious breed of freelance assassins. Highly trained, they were known for their ruthless kills and merciless natures. Their uniforms were jet black, and like the Sentella's tinged with whatever color the blood of the wearer was so that it would camouflage them should they ever be wounded.
This one was red blooded.
"Can we help you?" Darling asked him.
"I'm here for you, brother. To the end and beyond."
Darling's jaw went slack as he recognized a voice he knew as well as his own. "Drakari? What the--"
"You're not the only one harboring secrets, Kere. One ass-whipping in a lifetime was enough for me. I won't ever go down like that again, and by the gods, you're not going down today. I won't let you."
Darling wanted to both hug and slap sense into his brother. Simultaneously. "We can't both go in there. You know that." If they both died, it would leave Caron without a governor.
But Drake wouldn't be swayed by logic. "Then we both better get out alive. I mean, c'mon, do you really think I should lead anyone anywhere besides the local pub?"
He did have a point with that.
Touched by his brother's loyalty, Darling reached out and cupped the back of Drake's helmet in his hand. He pulled him forward and hugged him close. Nipple to nipple--just to piss him off. "I love you, little brother. You die on me today, and so help me, I'll spend eternity kicking your ass."
"Ditto."
Darling released him and looked to Maris. "Keep him safe."
"I intend to keep you both safe."
And Darling was determined to see his people freed and then to blast this place to the real Kere's domain. After that, while his friends, family, allies, and people headed back to Caron, he was going to fly to the League command center and drive his assassin's blade straight through Kyr's chest cavity where his heart would be if the man had one.
But he didn't tell them that. They'd find out about it later, on the news.
Darling grabbed his backpack and headed for the rear entrance where there would be fewer guards. Thanks to Syn's magic, all their sensors and alarms were deactivated. None of them detected anything.
Not until Darling reached the door and set off an explosion so massive, it brought down the entire back fence and two guard towers.
Hauk made a "heh" sound as the explosion echoed all around them. But for the dampeners in their helmets, they'd be partially deaf from it. "I think you overrang the bell there, Kere. But just in case some of them are sound sleepers, shall I wake them?" He opened a volley of cover fire.
Darling started forward to set another explosive for the inner door that was also locked.
All of a sudden, something went sailing past his head to land in the prison's doorway. It beeped once, then blew the door wide open.
Cursing, Darling jerked around to see Drake pulling out a fresh round from a pocket on his leg and loading it into the launcher that was attached to his right wrist.
"You didn't really think you'd hogged all the chemistry and engineering genes, did you?" He locked his weapon and lowered his arm. "I managed to pick up a few things from those diagrams you left laying around the house."
Darling had a whole new respect for his brother's abilities. Drake was right. He wasn't a baby anymore and it was time Darling acknowledged that fact.
"All right. You win. You're an adult who can kick ass on his own. Now get behind me and cover Maris."
Maris laughed. "Face it, babe, you'll always be five years old to your brother
. Now get back here with me before I spank you."
Drake returned to Maris's side. "I'm not afraid of that threat, Mari. My fear is that you'd do it and enjoy it."
"I would, but not for the reasons you think... And only because a good spanking for you is a long time overdue."
"Incoming!" Darling snarled as a rocket came at them from somewhere inside the prison.
While Maris and Drake dove for cover, Darling returned the attack with one of his own.
Hauk moved around to Darling's front so that he could lead, and the two of them did what they did best.
They kicked ass, took names, and nailed that list to the foreheads of their enemies.
Moving forward as a single unit, they tore a hole through the prison big enough to drive a freighter through it. Nykyrian and the rest shouldn't have a bit of trouble getting in here and extracting the prisoners.
Smoke billowed around them as they went through the prison systematically taking out any threat to the others. Soldiers, assassins, androids, unmanned canons... everything.
Because of the extreme heat, it interfered with the enhanced vision in their helms. Darling switched his optics as Syn's voice navigated him through the halls, toward the cells where his people were most likely being held.
"We're right behind you," Nykyrian said.
League soldiers poured out into the halls as alarms blared everywhere. One of their techs must have brought part of their system back online.
Ignoring the intense, piercing sound, Darling concentrated on confusing their enemies as much as he could.
He took a number of shots straight to his body from their blasters, but so far nothing had penetrated his armor. While those shots bruised and hurt, they didn't wound. And so long as those shots didn't wound, he could do major damage.
An assassin came out of the smoke on his right. Darling threw the explosive in his hand in the opposite direction, then tackled the assassin. They went for each other with everything they had.
Darling wrenched the man's arm and sent him to the ground at the same time Maris came in behind another assassin and cut his throat before the assassin could shoot Darling.
As Maris dropped back, Darling realized his friend was alone.
"Where's Drake?"
"With Nero."
Good. Nero would make sure nothing happened to his brother.
As they blew through the first doors to the holding cells, Chayden cursed through the link in Darling's ear. "They've split the prisoners up. There are more in the basement and on the first, fifth, and eighth floors."
"We're heading to the basement," Darling told them. That would be the heaviest fortified area where they would most likely be keeping the gerents and Resistance leaders. And from down there, his explosives could do more structural damage.
It'd be easy to set the charges that would bring down the whole damn place.
This is for you, Zarya.
"Get everyone out," Darling told them.
"Trying to. Promise I'm not scratching my butt." Chayden's words were punctuated by blaster fire.
Darling didn't comment as they made it to the stairs and blasted open the door off its hinges. He listened to the others who were making good progress extracting his people and running them to the transports.
They were all taking heavy fire, but so far no fatalities and very few went down who couldn't get back up.
Completely calm, he lobbed three more charges down the stairs in front of them to handle anything that might be waiting as a surprise. They were bio-charges that wouldn't detonate anything inorganic such as the stairs they were using.
However, if you had flesh on your body...
You didn't want to be near them when they went off.
At the bottom of the stairs, they stepped over the remnants of several guards.
Darling pulled up short when he saw the holding cell area and realized how bad it was down here for those prisoners. Whoever was being held in those cells was extremely important to the League. All the assassins had fallen back to this area to protect it.
This was most likely where Zarya had died.
That knowledge almost sent him to his knees.
Suppressing his agony, Darling started to go forward, but Maris caught him and whirled him around, then pinned him to the wall.
Armor-piercing blasts flared and would have ripped him to shreds had Maris not acted.
But it wasn't until Darling moved that he realized Maris had been wounded.
Badly. At least a dozen rounds had hit him. Most didn't penetrate his armor, but three were definitely embedded in his body.
"I'm all right," Maris assured him in a strained tone. "Nothing major pierced... Except... my battlesuit." He stepped back to glance down at it and let out a sound of extreme anger. "Would you look at what those bastards did? They ruined it! Handmade, Phrixian silk. Do you know how hard this is to come by? And the blood is impossible to get out of it, especially after it's soaked in." He straightened up and Darling was sure he was glaring at him from underneath the helm that hid all his features. "And you wonder why I hate battle so much." He gestured down to his torn battlesuit. "You see!"
Darling laughed in spite of the danger. "You're insane, Mari."
"Ha! It doesn't matter how you feel so long as you look good while you feel it."
"We need to get you out of here."
Maris fisted his hand in the fabric at Darling's shoulder and held him by his side. "Not without you."
Darling growled at him. "You're such a stubborn bastard. I really hate you."
"I hate you, too..."
Wanting to strangle him, Darling moved forward, down the hallway, blasters out so that Maris could check the doors behind him. But just as he neared the end, he realized the mistake they'd made...
"Do you hear that?"
Zarya could barely understand Ture's words. Something kept buzzing and it wouldn't stop. "Hear what?"
A blast hit their door. At first she thought she imagined it. Until it struck again.
And again.
Could it be...?
You're dreaming. It's not real. Just a hallucination brought on by your fever and pain.
In her mind, she imagined Darling carrying her out of this nightmare like he'd done when she'd sprained her ankle in the kitchen. I swear, if I get out of this alive, I will never leave the palace again.
An instant later, the door lifted. Smoke billowed into the room, filling it instantly. She choked and coughed, trying to breathe around it.
Ture tightened his arms around her, holding her close as two League soldiers spilled into the room. Preoccupied with whatever was happening in the hallway, neither of them looked back at them.
"Grab the woman!" someone shouted from outside the cell. "We have to have her or we can't leave."
The two soldiers turned around.
Zarya's heart pounded as she tried to understand what was happening. Why they wanted to take her again. Aching to the point it hurt to breathe, she didn't move until they closed in on her--in their hurry, they'd forgotten to handcuff her.
Their mistake.
She reverted to her strict training. Grabbing the blaster from the first one, she used it to shoot his partner. Shrieking, the soldier went down.
Before she could move, the one she'd grabbed brought his fist down across her face. The room spun, nauseating her.
Ture lunged at him and slammed him back against the wall as more soldiers poured into the room.
Zarya fought as hard as she could, but she was injured and outnumbered. Still, she didn't let it daunt her.
There were more battle sounds out in the hallway.
A new group of soldiers rushed her and Ture. She leveled her blaster at them and pulled the trigger, only to discover it was out of charges.
Turning it around in her hand, she intended to use it as a blunt object against their heads.
But the men didn't make it. Before they could reach Ture and her, blasts struck them and sent t
hem to the ground at their feet.
A second later, the smoke cleared enough to show another soldier coming inside to check on the League soldiers who'd fallen.
He'd barely stepped inside before he was attacked by three more League soldiers. With skills that defied description, he turned and caught the first one with a blow so hard, he shattered his attacker's nose. The next, he flipped and stabbed and when the third saw what awaited him in the bodies that were littered all over the room, he turned around and retreated.
The newcomer turned to face them.
He wasn't with the Sentella. Her heart sank as she saw the burgundy battlesuit with foreign markings she couldn't identify.
Unable to fight him, she prayed this was an ally and not another enemy out to do more damage to her and Ture.
Bleeding profusely from several wounds, he froze the instant he caught sight of her. Then he spoke in a language she didn't recognize.
Although... there was something vaguely familiar about it.
Where have I heard it before?
More blasts ricocheted in the hallway behind him.
In one smooth, impressive move, the soldier hit the floor, slid on his knees and spun around to shoot the three League guards who ran in behind him. He rolled over and came to a stop by her side.
"Zarya?"
Tears filled her eyes as she recognized that deep voice. "Maris?"
He nodded. "Can you walk?"
Before she could respond, the room was invaded by even more League soldiers.
Darling heard the mayday from Maris, but he couldn't get to the room where they had Maris pinned down. There were League soldiers everywhere now. All of them shooting.
Were they cloning the bastards in a back room somewhere?
Instead of their numbers decreasing, they seemed to be multiplying by the heartbeat. Like some mythic beast. Kill one and two emerged to take his place.
"Mari?" he called, needing to know his friend hadn't gone down.
No answer.
Darling checked for Maris's vitals on his bio scanner.
There weren't any. Nothing at all was registering. His heart stopped beating as cold panic consumed him. And his anger went to a place so fierce and foul that it screwed up his vision even more than the jerking did.
Letting out his battle cry, he charged the soldiers who had him cut off from Maris. All Darling could think about was getting to Mari before it was too late.
He flipped one assassin who came at him over his back and stabbed him through the throat. Turning, he took down another and then shot a third and a fourth.