Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3) (31 page)

The trucks slowed to a crawl where the mist was the heaviest and stopped at the edge of the sea. A tall concrete embankment marked the dropoff. Rust stains and streaks of corrosion ran down the ugly barrier. On the other side, a scattered field of debris slid into the sea. Waves ran in from the distance and rolled up almost silently.

With Emmet’s guidance, the truck lurched backward and he plopped back down with a grumble. The second truck pulled up alongside and the remaining militia stepped out.

Kari hopped over the embankment and dropped into the mist. Emmet pushed open a stained door with a kick and squeak. Bark walked up to Emilie and stared into the empty space.

“Where is it?” Bark asked.

Emilie pointed out into the fog. “Out there.”

Emmet stepped into the darkness and called from inside. “It ain’t gonna unload itself, ladies.”

Bark glanced at Emilie and stepped into the darkened space. Emilie followed with the rest of the militia behind. A slender light popped on behind them and illuminated stack after stack of bulk containers. Behind them, a cargo elevator disappeared below.

“Huh,” Bark said.

Emilie smiled and popped open the first case. Inside was a heap of additive constructed Colt assault rifles. “Will this do?”

Bark ran a finger on the edge of the weapons and nodded slowly. “As long as you have slabs.”

“We got ‘em, lady. Best start hauling.”

The group broke into pairs and heaved the heavy cases out and into the back of the trucks. First came case after case of assault rifles followed by slab racks of ammunition.

Even with the cool mist Emilie was hot from the exertion. Her legs stumbled and shuffled forward as the handles bored into the joints of her fingers. “Hold on,” she said and dropped her edge of the case.

Bark stood and looked out to the sea. “All this right here?”

Emilie nodded and squeezed her hands open and closed. She wasn’t used to work like this. “It’s actually under water.”

Bark took two steps closer to the embankment and stared out into the debris. “In that?”

Emilie nodded.

Bark looked impressed, but just for a moment.

“Drones, too!” the driver of the truck called as he shuffled past with a case.

“Anything you didn’t make?” Bark asked as she laid her hands on the edge of the case.

Emilie heaved the case up and shuffled to the back of the truck. She spoke through clenched teeth. “Armored vehicles, the cells weren’t big enough.”

“I was kidding,” Bark replied, as the two heaved the case up and pushed it into the back of the truck. She turned and looked at Emilie. “I talked to the Councilor.”

She tensed and stepped away from the truck. “And?”

“She’s trying to work the diplomatic route.”

“Wait a second? We’re committed here. What’s she doing?”

Bark said nothing and walked towards the door.

“Does she know where we are?” Emilie asked louder. “Hey! Talk to me. What is she doing?”

Bark turned and looked at Emilie with her face set hard. “She went inside to talk to them.”

Emilie felt the fear rise in her stomach. Trust. “Can you trust her? Absolutely?”

Bark faltered a moment and her eyes darted away. “Yes.”

Emilie saw it and ran inside the dark room. “We’re done! Get it buttoned up.”

“What is it?” Emmet said loudly over the clang of the rising elevator.

“We need to go, we’ve been here too long.”

One of the militia grabbed a long case and tossed it over his shoulder. “They’re all at the immigration facility, ain’t no trouble here.”

Emilie threw her shoulders back, jabbed her hands onto her hip, shifted her posture and exuded as much power as she could. “We’re moving. Now.”

Emmet raised an eyebrow and grabbed his weapon. “Right, so what’s the plan?”

A single high pitched crack echoed out through the mist.

“Move!” Emmet yelled. “Troops coming in!”

The militia rushed out of the room and jumped into the backs of the trucks. Emilie took Bark’s offered hand and hopped up onto the stacks of crates. Her eyes darted into the fog as she tried to pick out details. One of the militia dropped his knockoff weapon with a clatter and loaded one of the Colt rifles.

A second crack sounded and Emmet yelled from the other truck. “Two squads coming up! One flanking!”

Bark leaned towards the cab. “Get going!”

“Where?” the man asked.

Muzzle bursts flashed through the fog and rounds pinged against the truck and skidded on the street. The side window of the truck puckered and hummed.

“Immigration!” Bark called out. “Get to that lockdown!”

Kari ran out from the fog. The truck stopped and threw everyone in the back off balance. The silent Marine hopped up in the back, her eyebrows set tight as if concentrating. Another high pitched crack sounded out. She nodded to Emilie and pulled out a short stocked bullpup sniper rifle.

“Go!” Bark yelled again as more rounds sang through the air.

Impacts rang out and shards of alloy splinters flew threw the back of the truck. The truck accelerated at a steady rate, as quickly as its reactor would allow, away and towards a sweeping curve. The front truck was pulling away slowly. Emmet stood with a hand locked onto the side.

Emilie crouched down and felt the truck dodge and dance. The gunfire sounded distant in her ears. Tired. She felt like she could curl up and lay down. It was tired mixed with an overdose of adrenaline, the sort that had burned in her for nearly twenty-four hours. She looked over at Bark and watched her drive a slab of ammunition into a rifle. “What are we going to do?”

Bark stopped, cocked her head slightly, and listened. “Once we lose the fog, we’re going to have a fight,” she said as she pulled the rifle up to her shoulder and let fly with a three round burst.

Emilie flinched at the sound. “After that?”

She never heard the answer. The lead truck slammed sideways as a Hun transport slammed into the front edge. The entire box leapt up as the leading edge tipped and rolled. Containers flew out and slammed against buildings and curbs. The Hun transport spun sideways with a screech of synthetic rubber. The following truck heaved and the driver slammed the brakes.

“Go, go!” Bark bellowed out as she spun and laid the rifle onto the top of the cab. The weapon barked out the first rounds just as the Hun troops spilled out of the back.

Emilie couldn’t find Emmet through the debris scattered on the road. Her eyes picked out detail after detail without regard for the Hun soldiers taking position around it.

“Get a fucking weapon!” Bark yelled to Emilie as she continued to shoot.

The truck weaved and accelerated. Rounds pinged all around. Bark fired and dropped down. She kicked open a dull gray box and pointed with her muzzle.

Emilie crawled over the uneven space and felt the truck decelerate. The case was filled with cylinders about the size of her forearm. She snatched one out and tucked in next to Bark.

“Fuck,” Bark said and pushed herself low.

The Hun troops laid out a wall of fire. Rounds slammed into the front of the truck and riddled the cab with holes. The plastic window made pong noises as more rounds burrowed through it. Only a heavy steel cargo barrier kept them from punching through to the other side. The driver was quite and totally dead.

Kari spoke in a grating voice. “Driver! We need a driver!”

A militia soldier dropped down into the street and his weapon clattered from his hands. He took two steps and opened the door. He fell to the ground screaming, clutching his legs before more gunfire silenced him.

The truck coasted driverless. The bloodstained arm of the dead driver hung out from the open door.

Emilie felt the fear like she’d never felt it before. Her eyes caught movement from behind and she saw Hun soldiers through the mist. She looked down at the canister and popped the top open. A small ball rolled out. She peered at it and had no idea what it was.

Bark grabbed two of the spheres and tossed them out of the truck. A concussion sounded as each slammed into the ground.

Emilie grabbed the last one and pitched it out like it was on fire. She felt the blast inside of her as it detonated close to the truck.

“Get ready to move!” Bark shouted, rising with the Colt. She dropped back down and leaped over the opposite side of the truck.

“Emmet!” Kari called out.

Emmet stepped from behind the fallen truck with his Browning heavy assault rifle cradled in one arm. The other arm was shorn clear away and his chest was a mass of bent and scarred alloy. Blood ran down from the corner of his mouth and one side of his face was pulped and torn.

A heavy
thud-thud
sounded from his weapon. Thick iridium backed slugs punched into the Hun troops sheltering in the debris. The troops turned and returned fire. Emmet trained the weapon from side to side as he lurched sideways. A second cluster of rounds slammed into the ex-Marine and he stumbled.

Bark dragged the corpse out of the driver seat and leaped inside. The truck slammed forward and accelerated once more. Kari crouched on the back with the bullpup rifle to her cheek and punched out one round after another. Hun troops fell in the distance.

Emilie felt her heart pull tight as she watched Emmet take one more step and fall to his knees. He dropped his weapon and toppled forward. The scattered Hun troops took cover behind the crashed trucks.

Kari finally stopped shooting and slid back into the truck. She wiped away tears from her eye and clutched the rifle to her breast.

“Few more minutes! We’ll be going in hot,” Bark said.

A pair of militia crouched in the back of the truck. One bound the shoulder wound of the other with a torn stretch of cloth. Emilie reached into a case and pulled one of the rifles out. She held a heavy slab in her hand. It was still slick with nanite residue. “Kari,” she said softly. “I don’t know how to load it.”

Kari wiped away another tear and looked up at Emilie with red eyes. She nodded and grabbed the weapon gently. She slapped in the slab and punched the lever. A light glowed for a second and dimmed. “Ready,” she said, with a hint of a sob on the edge of her gravelly voice.

“Thank you,” Emilie said. She meant it for not just the help, but also to the man who’d saved them all. She sat with her back against the side of the truck and felt very small and very unimportant.

The rising dust cloud blocked out the sun. Rumbles cascaded through the ground and shook the chassis of the truck. The stout vehicle pushed as quickly as it could directly towards the immigration center.

The air was almost still and the silt began to fall from the sky. Bits of shredded plastic, fabric, and grit fell in sheets. The street took on a look of dull gray.

Emilie sat up quickly. “Stop! Bark! Stop the truck.”

Bark turned her head quickly and pulled the vehicle off the side of the road and bumped the front against a heavy dumpster. “We’ve got to—”

“How did they know?” Emilie asked as she scrambled over the cases of weapons. “No one knew where to find us. Even you didn’t know about that facility. How did they know?”

Kari dropped down from the truck and kept watch around the side of the dumpster. She watched silently down the long street. The remaining militia soldiers watched the exchange.

“Give me the cell,” Emilie said. “I’m calling her.”

Bark shook her head. “She’s on our side, she walked in, I can’t compromise her.”

“Give me the damn cell!”

Bark jumped out of the cab of the truck and pulled herself into the back with her alloy arms. She jammed a finger at Emilie. “I saved your ass! She told me to!”

Emilie took a breath and questioned herself. “Then is she compromised?”

Bark shook her head. “No, she didn’t use any of the words.”

“Then let me talk to her,” Emilie said and held out a blistered hand.

Bark licked her lips and looked over her shoulder. She pulled a slender flexible cell out from a pocket and tapped on it. “Here.”

Emilie pushed the device to her face and felt it conform. A tone sounded in her ear followed by silence and another tone.

“Where are you?” the voice asked.

“This is Rose.”

There was silence for a moment. “Where’s Bark?”

“Organizing the militia.”

“Why?”

Emilie looked up at Bark and saw the anger on her face. “We’re assaulting the elevator. Militia coming in from west. As long as they’re tied up with the bombardment, we’ve got a chance.”

“What are you doing?” Natyasha hissed back. “You don’t even understand, you’ll get those people killed!”

“Get clear, the assault will begin soon,” Emilie said and halted the call.

“You bitch,” Bark spat. Her alloy hands pushed Emilie down onto the litter of cases. “You lied!”

“If she was under duress you would have known?” Emilie said.

Bark glared at Emilie and didn’t answer.

“If we don’t see any movement, then she’s with us. If we see troops move, then we know she’s not.”

Bark shook her head. “You don’t know her. She’d give everything for this planet. She’s the real hero here.”

Emilie smiled. “Then she can prove me wrong. We have to wait for the next bombardment, anyway.”

The sound of tires and high pitched gear boxes grew louder. Bark crouched down and stared over the back of the soot layered dumpster. Emilie watched Bark’s face and saw it change from anger to disgust.

A half a kilometer down the long lane a set of three heavy Hun transports passed into view for a brief moment and disappeared, heading towards the elevator. The sound disappeared as quickly as it came.

“Let’s go,” Bark yelled down to Kari and hopped out of the truck. She got into the cab and stared into the steel wall of the dumpster.

Emilie watched her for a moment and felt that something was lost there, but she didn’t know what.

Bark backed the truck up and halted when the nose cleared the dumpster. “I’m gonna bust down the gates.”

“Oh boy!” the militia soldier said. He pushed himself against the truck and grinned through a set of stained teeth.

Tires skidded for a moment on the debris strewn street before finally catching and lurching the group forward. The truck accelerated quickly before slowing and making the corner that the Hun trucks had come from. Down at the end of the road, a wide set of heavy steel gates hung with guard towers on either side.