Mauled by Destiny [Tales of the Citadel 17] (7 page)

“One system over, and we have clearance for a within-system jump. Rolland-Saru will contain any spill over when we go.”

She nodded and got into the shuttle, stowing her suit and taking a seat. “Ready when you are, gentlemen.”

Argen nodded, and Rhanos raised his eyebrows. Argen said, “Right, well, we had better be on our way.”

Rhanos took the seat next to hers and held her hand while they lifted off. A data screen came up in front of them and gave them a briefing on the situation they were entering into.

One hundred fifty priests were being held hostage in their abbey. The nine men who were holding them for ransom were killing one every six hours.

Priina looked at Rhanos. They would arrive with one hour to go before the next one was scheduled to die.

The ransom that was requested would never be paid. The release of twelve dissidents who had been convicted of terrorist actions was not something that the Regar government was willing to engage in. The priests of Universal Harmony were going to pay the price but not if Priina and Rhanos got there first.

“What is the order for treatment of the kidnappers?” Priina’s voice was quiet as she stared at the image of the first two dead priests.

“Treat with extreme prejudice.” Rhanos nodded.

“We are half an hour out.” Argen announced.

“The priests are vegetarians, so that should make identification easier if the attackers are wearing robes.” Priina unbuckled and reached for her suit, stroking the spot that put it into position for her.

As it unfolded, she removed the new robes and the boots and bodysuit. By the time she was ready, the suit was in position, and she backed into her protection with supreme confidence.

Rhanos looked at her with envy. “I have got to get one of those.”

“Wait until we see how good this is at deflecting whatever they are using. Then, we will see if you are worthy enough.” She snickered and pressed a kiss on his lips.

She helped him into his armour, and when Rhanos was ready, Argen announced, “I will be touching down in a minute. The local government knows we are coming, so hopefully, they won’t shoot.”

“Keep your mind open to mine. I won’t use words, but if I see something, I will let you know.” She grinned and patted his cheek. She walked to the rear of the shuttle near the hatch and waited.

Rhanos came up next to her and whispered, “What makes you think I will be behind you?” She chuckled. “I have seen you try to track me. I am a little faster than you are. Try to keep up.” The shuttle dipped and rocked as Argen settled it on the grass. Through a speaker, she heard, “I will be here until I hear otherwise, and if you are not coming back alone, let me know.” Rhanos grinned at her confusion. “The com is the button at your neckline. Argen will only use it in an emergency.”

She touched it and clicked it open and closed.

Rhanos did the same, and Argen came back.

“Coms confirmed. We are ready to go.” She shifted inside the shuttle, and the moment the door opened, she was out. She ran for the nearest cover and identified the hilltop abbey from the data she had been given. Rhanos caught up with her.

I can see it. The lights are all blazing.

He growled.
They are. You take point. I will follow.

When we get to the abbey, we will go over the walls.

Right. Time is running out for one of the priests. We had better move.

He nodded his huge, shaggy head, and together, they ran toward the abbey and the men and women trapped inside.

Priina didn’t know how she would react when she saw the first attacker, but she was prepared for whatever happened.

She went left, and Rhanos went right. Two of the hostage takers were visible on the wall as she climbed nimbly to the upper walk. She listened as the one nearest her came around and quickly slipped in behind him and grabbed his mouth. He tried to bite her, so she twisted and felt his neck snap.

Sighing, she dumped the body over the edge of the wall. Her beast had no trouble with the death, and the Cial in her that remembered the picture of the slaughtered pacifist was not heartbroken.

She hunched down and made her way into the abbey proper by the walkway entrance. She had a duty to perform and several hostage takers to deal with.
I have one.

Me as well. What did you do with yours?

Tossed it over the wall.

Good. Where are you now?

Entering the abbey, there is one in front of me.
She reached out and gripped the man’s arms, snapping them between elbow and shoulder. She stifled his initial scream with her hand but let him drop when she felt the first strike against her armour.

She turned with a snarl and lunged at the new attacker. He felt the caress of her claws as they sliced through his body armour into the flesh beneath.

Three down in total, Rhanos. How are you doing?

I have two. Four to find. I am heading to the main hall.

I will meet you there.

She scented the herd of priests and followed her nose to where four men were standing over a wave of kneeling priests and looking around with nervous tension. She could see Rhanos in the shadows on the opposite side of the hall.

She straightened slightly, letting the gleam of her armour show in the shadows.
I am going to get their attention. Hopefully draw them away from the priests.

Be careful. It may backfire.

Fair enough. Watch my back.

It is your front I am most worried about. Watch it.

She took a deep breath and howled, a low, eerie hunting call that brought the heads of everyone in the room up and had them looking for the source.

The noise reverberated around the room, and the hostage takers could not find the origin point, so their guns came up and aimed at all the shadows.

Excellent.

Rhanos followed up with a howl of his own.

The men whipped around and faced the back wall where the symbol of the Universal Harmony was carved, which gave Priina the opportunity to grab the priest that had been selected for culling, and she tucked him into a hallway near the hall before she turned around.

No one had been looking when she moved, but as the kidnappers turned, they shouted in alarm that the newest sacrifice was gone.

The priests started a droning chant, and Priina bared her teeth. The chant gave her cover to move, and she shifted in the shadows until she was behind one of the gunmen, waiting for her chance.

The moment that the other three were looking elsewhere, she gripped the man by the neck, and he dropped to the ground. She whirled away before anyone noticed, and when shots were fired to the spot she had just occupied, she kept moving.

And then there were two.

“Come out, come out, or I will kill this one. You don’t want an innocent death on your hands!”
Damn. I will step forward. They might shoot, they might not.
Priina shifted to her skin and armour and spoke. “I am coming out.”

The two survivors pointed their weapons at her as she stepped out. Body armour and lank hair were their primary features.

One of them was holding a young priestess by her hair. Her eyes were serene, but her hands were clenched together.

“Let her go.” She extended her arms to indicate that she wasn’t armed.

“Where are your weapons?” The man who was free jerked his gun at her.

“With my partner. He is around here somewhere.” She shrugged and lowered her hands.

The priests of Universal Harmony were looking up at her with desperate hope.

“We want the freedom for our members, or we will continue killing these priests.” The one holding the young woman jerked her hair, and her serenity faltered as pain flared in.

“That is not going to happen. You can’t have them free. They are being held by the rules of your own world. If you want to kill innocents to free your companions, you have a seriously skewed perception of your place in the universe.”

“Stop where you are.” His hand shook as it pointed at her. “Where are the rest of my men?”

“Dead or really badly hurt.” She shrugged and kept advancing. “Some folk in the universe are predators, some are prey, but if the prey is lucky, some are defenders.”

She smiled brightly and kept pacing toward him. “Guess which one I am?”

P
riina felt the impact of the weapons on her suit and used the momentum to kick up and away from the blast path. In midair, she shifted to her beast form and landed behind the man with the hostage.

Her claws shredded his hand, and her arm around his torso cracked his ribs. She ripped the gun from his hand and broke his fingers to keep him from finding another weapon.

The other man was dead on the ground at Rhanos’s feet.
Two alive and seven dead. Do you think we could have done better?

Rhanos shook his head.
We were authorized to kill them all.

Fair enough. Are we assassins then?

No, you said it yourself, we are the defenders who are strong enough to take out those who prey on the weak.

“Excuse me, miss?” The man in the high priests robes came toward her.

She shifted and helped the young priestess to her feet, not looking at the man. “Yes, High Priest?”

“Abbot Wayling.”

“Abbot then. What may I do for you?” She smiled softly at the young woman, and the priestess gave her a watery smile before she burst into tears.

“We would like you to leave our abbey as soon as possible. We do not condone violence within our walls.”

Priina looked at him and cocked her head. “I beg to differ. You did indeed condone violence when the men began to pick you off one by one. I can smell the blood of two priests here in the hall.

You condoned that violence, did you not? You did outnumber them by over fifteen to one.” The abbot blinked in surprise. “We were outgunned. We do not believe in violence. There was nothing we could do.”

“Universal Harmony means that you have to accept the low points with the high, pacifism and violence, death and sacrifice, death and life, attack and defend, these are all opposites reflected in nature. A group of herd beasts with no herder to keep track of them soon dies out from predation.

Accept that we are the herder to keep the predators at bay.”

“You are the predators.” The abbot blustered.

“I beg to differ. My mate and I are both in the presence of a large group of herbivores, and yet, you will not find any of your priests or priestesses consumed, which is a hard thing for a predator to do, by the way.” She crossed her arms and scowled at the man.

Rhanos came up behind her and wrapped his furry arms around her. He tugged her away.

“
If you want to give this man medical attention, that is your business. There is another one wounded in a similar manner in the upper hall. I tried not to kill them, but as they were trying to kill me at the time, it became a matter of instinct.

Have a nice day.” She let Rhanos pull her away.

She pressed the com button at her neck. “We are coming back in. Are you ready?”

“It will be fired up and ready to go by the time you arrive.”

“Good. Running silent.” She disconnected the com and shifted. She opened the doors of the abbey, and she and Rhanos bolted down the hill and back to the shuttle.

The stretching of her legs was extra sweet because she knew that the shuttle would cause her to be inactive.

As they approached, the hatch opened and allowed them inside, sealing after they entered, and the shuttle rumbled into the air.

They shifted back into their other forms, and Priina was about to remove her armour when Argen’s voice came through her com. “Don’t strip down. We have another call. Grab a snack and hold on tight.”

Priina looked to Rhanos and shrugged. They grabbed ration bars and settled together, reading up on their next assignment. Escaped prisoners stole a shuttle and landed it on a developing world. Priina and Rhanos needed to get in, grab the men and get out before the society was damaged by the violence of the newcomers.

Priina grinned, “What could be difficult about that?”

* * * *

Twelve hours after landing, the six men were crammed into the back of the shuttle, cross-tied, and a few wore Lyran scratches. Priina had to keep a grip on Rhanos, because he was interested in ripping out the throat of one of the escapees.

An Alliance warship intercepted them and took the prisoners over, returning them to their high-security facility.

Argen smiled and piloted them to Udell Base.

“Your clothing is being forwarded to Udell, and from there, it will be forwarded to Lowel. The new base is almost ready.”

Priina was crestfallen. She had hoped that she would be able to run across Balen again. “That’s fine, I suppose.”

“It will be fine, Priina. Everything will work out.” Rhanos lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

“I know. I will just have to look forward to assignments like no one else does.” She chuckled and leaned her head against him.

He smiled and held her hand as they were taken to their new home. When they arrived, there was surprising news.

Guardian, the Base Commander of Udell, grinned, “The grounds at Lowel are completed.

Your rooms are ready in the primary unit and the connecting umbilicus is ready to the green space.” Priina perked up. “Green space?”

“Of course. We need an oxygen farm, and there was no better way to do it than to simply build a giant garden. It’s twenty miles wide and forty miles across, the entire structure is domed in.” He was smiling, and Priina knew that her excitement was visible in her features.

“How do we get there? Another shuttle ride?” Rhanos was restraining her with his arms around her waist.

“No. We have a direct means to transfer from one world to the next. I will show you.” Guardian walked them to the pod and smiled.

“Starborn and Comet are there and will show you around. The pod will have you to Lowel in a few minutes.”