Destiny Abounds (Starlight Saga Book 1) (45 page)

“I’m sorry, Captain. But I have to agree with Merlo.” Sirrah gently entered into the conversation. “What you’re asking of him is something I would expect to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.” Branwen opened her mouth to dispute the point, but ultimately knew little of the technological intricacies of which they spoke, and wasn’t sure what to say to the others to convince them.

“I can do it.” Mr. Leonard said it quietly in the pause between Sirrah speaking and Branwen attempting to. “Please, everyone. Just trust me. I want to help.” When he looked up at everyone, his eyes were soft and slightly watery. “Please.”

Breaking her pseudo-military stance next to Merlo, Zimi threw an arm abruptly around the
Destiny’s
resident technician and gave him an impromptu hug. “Well, that’s sure good enough for me. If Mr. Leonard says he can do it, I trust him.” She smiled at him broadly. “Why, just look at all the awesome stuff he’s done right here on the
Destiny
.”

The engineer fell silent, reddening slightly more, as Merlo considered, then shrugged and nodded. Meanwhile, Sirrah briefly studied them both. “If you’re certain, Captain.” The Kala finally said after a moment’s pause. Branwen was still certain she hid a layer of nervousness, buried somewhere deep inside where it could be felt, but wouldn’t be visible to observers.

The Captain cleared her throat once more, summoning her older, more authoritative presence. “If that is settled and there is nothing more, we all have work to be about.”

16.2
- Merlo

Merlo didn’t really know what to expect from a fortified compound, at least not one based on a planet’s surface. Or under the surface, as was the case here. Any defensible structures that had belonged to her people, like the secluded Starlance station she’d been trained on, were simply fortified, distant space stations, reinforced, defended, and not casually accessible. How did one go about keeping people out if the structure was built on the ground? Intruders would be able to walk right in, like they had at Don Mateo’s mansion.

Gazing ahead at their target, she saw that Stone's home had a much higher, brown carved rock wall, and even the basic cyber suites in her nanotech armor could identify that the perimeter was thick with sensors and electronic defenses. The location was positioned far back and off in a smaller side cavern from Kharvid proper, not really near enough to be easily accessible by the authorities. Their information from Medlava stated that Stone held the contract for a moderately sized Urzran mercenary group, and that he preferred to deal with “minor matters and infractions” himself.

If Mr. Leonard couldn’t hold up to his offer to deal with that perimeter defense, there was no way they’d get within five meters of the property without being ass-deep in mercenaries.

Something thumped heavily into her back, entirely too loud for her tastes, though it didn’t really echo and Branwen, crouching beside her, didn’t cringe at the noise. “So! You ready to have some
fun
, Merlo?” 286 wasn’t quite talking with her normal, boisterous tone, but still seemed pretty loud to Merlo’s ears. She slapped her on the back again.

“Shhhhhh. Shut up, Six,” she grumbled back at the woman, shrugging off her arm and keeping her own tone to a proper whisper. “Do you
want
to alert the guards?”

286’s face lit up, drawing an ear to ear grin. Maybe that
was
exactly what she wanted. “Don’t get your ass in a bind, Merlo,” she drawled. Merlo glared at her as hard as she could manage in response. “What? Don’t give me that shit. I know how far my voice carries.” Despite the tone of her words, the Prisoner didn’t seem aggravated. Manic, if anything, and definitely excited, though.

Merlo refocused her vision slightly as her visor instantaneously extended, snapping the amber, mostly transparent piece across into place in front of her right eye as it was suddenly needed.
Look up ahead, Miss Merlo. The outer defenses should be going down now.
The brief message scrolled across her view.
Mr. Leonard always seemed far more confident when he could act without having to be there in person.

Sure enough, she scanned up ahead with the limited in-suit scanner suite, and found an increasing amount of inactivity and misdirected surveillance equipment. Mr. Leonard had said that, with enough time, he could likely improve her suit’s scanning ability, but Merlo still found that hard to believe. But, after watching this, maybe she shouldn’t dismiss his abilities so easily.

Step by step in an unbelievably rapid sequence, she watched Mr. Leonard’s influence spread through the system like a virus, deactivating or turning aside device after device, before finally rippling like an electronic wave and spreading further than her scan range could reveal. Thoroughly impressed, Merlo paused a moment to whistle lowly under her breath, then took another deep, settling breath and looked to her Captain. “We’re clean. I mean, the security systems are down, Captain.”

Branwen nodded once, sharply, and checked her sword in its sheath as she replied. “Then it is time to go.”

One by one, they streaked across the brief opening and took turns boosting one another up over a corner of the wall obfuscated by a layer of shadow. Except for Prisoner 286, who simply leapt to the top and then dropped onto the other side before the rest of them could manage themselves over. Once on the opposite side, Merlo crouched low and paused, scanning her surroundings. Beside her, she noted Branwen doing the same as Zimi dropped down behind them, sliding off the top of the wall and touching down surprisingly lithely and with hardly a whisper of noise.

They were in front and off to the far side of a large manor house. Not nearly as large as Don Mateo’s had been, but still far more extravagant of a building than Merlo could see any reason for. The style differed greatly, of course; this structure was taller and made from the same stone as everything else in Kharvid, though here, the stone was decorated with figures and art, carved into the blank canvas of its rocky sides and corners. Odd, deformed little monster-men with wings leered down at her from the shadow of arches and rooftops, countered by elegant carvings of women or vine-like patterns adorning the flat expanses between windows, of which there were many.

The manor home didn’t quite reach up to the top of its sloping cavern roof, leaving a ten meter gap at its closest. The roof of the building was steepled, with multiple points reaching up in a seeming carved mimicry of stalagmites, making the space between Stone’s roof and the cavern ceiling resemble a massive, rocky maw riddled with creepy fangs. On a more pertinent note, Merlo noticed that a footpath ran around to the right of the building, skirting the manor and disappearing behind it, where the house didn’t meet the cavern’s back wall on that side. From a distance, one might not have noticed it, but up close one could tell there was actually a small yard tucked neatly behind the house.

She raised an arm, pointing it out to Branwen, who nodded. The Captain’s eyes were fixed on distant, passing guards, only easily visible to Merlo because of Mr. Leonard highlighting their silhouettes on her HUD, a helpful act that brought an appreciative smile to her face. The Captain could see them just fine with her better-than-normal visual range, she supposed.

They waited for a break in the guard patrols, watching as hired men spread out to investigate the malfunctioning equipment. As soon as they spotted a wide-enough gap in the guards’ movements, they darted across to the side of Stone’s manor. Crouching there in the long shadows cast by the embellished carvings around them, Merlo looked to Branwen; they didn’t have long to observe and craft a plan of entry. The Captain’s eyes, however, were focused forward, on the even taller wall now revealed at the back of the compound.

Merlo followed Branwen’s gaze to the back of the cavern where it looked like the back side of the stone formation disappeared into darkness. The layout of the terrain implied that there was a further area concealed by a four meter wall that mostly blended with the grotto’s rock all around it and by the positioning of Stone’s home.

“Seems much effort to undertake, unless one has something to hide,” Branwen commented quietly. “I would know what Jori Stone keeps in such a place.”

Merlo looked from the Captain to Prisoner 286, who was staring at her and grinning. She caught the Captain’s attention again. “Do you want us to split off and check it out?” Branwen looked heavily doubtful. “It would be much quicker that way, Captain. And if we happen to get spotted, we could draw some attention our way before we pull out. Either way, you get a good chance to look around.”

Branwen still looked hesitant, already shaking her head. “We do not know what is back there, or even what awaits in the manor…”

“Hey, no worries. She’s with me.” 286 stood up straight. “Nothing here’s a threat to me.” She broke stealth casually and started off toward the back wall, sauntering with her hands in her pockets. “Coming, Merlo?” She called offhandedly over her shoulder.

Merlo sucked in a breath, as she heard Branwen curse quietly. “Blood and fire. Merlo, go.” Merlo nodded to the Captain’s instructions, a grin of anticipation of her own starting to grow. The pilot eagerly turned to leave, but paused abruptly as the Captain caught her elbow firmly. “Careful. If you receive no quarter, give none in return. I will be back for you.”

Merlo nodded again, and didn’t disregard the sincere warning conveyed by Branwen’s eyes, but she did put it aside for the moment as she charged across the compound’s imported lawn toward 286, keeping low and limbering up her compact muscles as she went. The woman stood near the tall stone screen, grinning broadly and tapping her foot in an impatient show. With the barrier as high as it was, she expected the Prisoner to give her a boost up and over it, but instead, the woman just turned, and with a smirk and surge of distorted light shot up and then over the wall.

Heh. Fine then Six, you’re on.
Merlo grinned and surged toward the wall and shoved mightily off from the ground, a jump propelled by her dense Arlesian muscles and the minor enhancements of her nanosuit. Urzran gravity wasn’t too much compared to what she’d been raised in, and she hit the wall halfway up, catching just long enough to grab and propel herself upward again. Slapping her grip firmly onto the top edge of the wall, she used the last of her momentum to flip her body’s weight forward, arching her back and flipping acrobatically over the wall entirely. She dropped the four meters to the ground on the other side and landed, kneeling, without complaint as she let her body and the suit absorb all the impact.

See? I can manage just fine on my…
As she rose, Merlo examined her surroundings. 286 stood near her, rimmed in a nimbus of beyond-black, distorted light. The Prisoner stood tall, facing off with the half dozen armed and armored security, who seemed just as surprised as Merlo felt to suddenly have intruders drop into their midst.

“Well, shit.” It seemed like she and especially 286 had gotten what they wanted. Merlo let her muscles relax as she prepared for the fight.

16.3
- Branwen

As soon as Merlo took off, so did Branwen. “This way.” Zimi followed her, a much quieter shadow, and Branwen edged quickly around the building, keeping low and in the dark. She stopped under the first lower window she came across. She looked back at her medic and occasional infiltrator. “Get us in?”

Instead of moving immediately, Zimi pursed her lips and looked the prospective entry point over for a moment. “Not this one, Cap’n. Try the next one down, ‘kay?” Branwen nodded. She hadn’t brought along someone more experienced just to waste time arguing against her expertise. They edged further down to the next low, elaborate window, and Zimi moved around her to work at it.

After only a handful of seconds of working her arcane methods on it, Zimi slipped a couple of slender metallic tools away and pushed the thick, heavy glasteel open with a grunt of effort. “You comin’, Cap’n?” She smiled through obvious nervousness back at Branwen, slipping lithely up into the house and offering a hand down.

The inside of the manor was paneled all in rich, dark, obviously imported woods, and they found themselves in a dimly lit hallway flanked by multiple doors, along with carved statuettes on pillars and fine art oil paintings. They weren’t inside more than a meager few moments before Branwen heard the first footsteps pounding on the wood as they headed their way. Zimi flattened back against a wall reflexively, but Branwen was far too bulky to accomplish the same thing, unless the Fade was kind and whoever was coming happened to be blind.

Instead, the Captain tried the first door handle she could reach, and to her relief, it popped open. She slipped inside, but had to close quickly it due to the rapidly nearing footfalls echoing down the hallway. Her last glance out of the cracked door showed that her young crewwoman seemed to have vanished, though. She waited with her hand on the handle, and the other hand on the hilt of her Skyblade, but the footsteps passed and then receded without any outcry from noticing an intruder in the hallway. She would have breathed a hearty sigh of relief, but she’d been all too easily able to hear the person speaking to someone on the com system about “intruders in the rear compound.”

Cursing again and worrying after Merlo, she pushed the door open, and after a second, Zimi stepped out from the shadows beside her. She even had her datapad out. “Mr. Leonard says he’s got the system good, or at least most of it. Says the office we’re lookin’ for’s prolly on the third floor, an’ in the back.” Zimi whispered.