Rise of the Resistance (War for Orion Trilogy Book Two) (21 page)

“There has to be a way out of here,” Kanti
said. “Shouldn’t Nimesha be here by now?”

Falcone looked around the cell. “There's no
way out without something that can cut through that part of the
wall,” he pointed. “The guard put a code in there, so if you can
access the wires behind it, maybe you can find a way to short
it.”

Anlon smiled. “I may have something that can
do that.”

“You do?” Falcone asked. “I sure don't see
anything.”

“It's right here,” he held up his arm. “I
took this from the shed. It has a laser on it. I'm sure it'll cut
through the wall.”

“Try it and see if it works,” Camillus
said.

“And what about after that?” Kanti asked.
“What about all of the armed crodillians roaming about their ship?
Do you really think we're going to get far before being
caught?”

“We'll worry about that once we're out of
the cell,” Falcone replied. “Right now, we're getting out of here.
I hate feeling like I’m trapped in a cage.”

“And when we all get shot?” Camillus asked.
“What then?”

“Just don’t get shot,” Falcone winked.
“Pretty simple, if you ask me.”

“Oh. That's right,” Camillus responded.
“It’s easy to avoid that, especially when we're sneaking through
their
ship!”

“Calm down, Camillus,” Kanti said. “I’m sure
they have orders to use non-lethal rounds.”

“How do we even know where to go from here?”
Camillus asked.

“I was paying attention on our way up,”
Anlon said. “I think I can take us back to the ship.”

“And what about the hangar full of
crodillian soldiers?”

“Hey, it's cutting through,” Anlon shifted
their attention to something else. “It's going through this like
it's paper!”

“Great!” Kanti hurried over. “But that looks
nothing like Emer taught us.”

Anlon stared at the tangle of wires in
disbelief. “I guess they do things differently in the other
galaxy.”

“What now, metal man?” Falcone asked.

“I break you guys out of there,” Nimesha
popped from around a corner.

“Am I glad to see you!” Falcone spread his
arms. “No one here knows how to break out of here!”

“Just hold on,” she approached the pad. “I
should be able to open from out here.”

The feleen took something from her pocket
and waved it over the pad. The numbers that were used the most
stuck out from the rest with a bright blue mark and she punched
them in a random order. The green field flickered and shut off.

“How’d you know the code?” Kanti asked.

“I had to get through a couple other
security doors on the way up,” she turned. “I saw them use the same
code so I just crossed my fingers that this one was the same.”

“Thank you,” Falcone playfully hugged her.
“Now you can get us all out of here alive.”

“Quiet!” Camillus hissed. “We can't just go
running around the ship carelessly.”

“Calm down, Camillus, there's no one in
here,” Kanti walked out of the cell.

As Anlon followed her out of the cell, the
door to the holding room opened and a crodillian holding a rifle
walked in. He ran to the guard without thinking and tackled him,
grabbing for his throat.

“Go!” Anlon shouted. “I'll catch up to
you!”

Nimesha led the others out of the room and
quickly down the hall. Anlon started to swing back to hit the
crodillian, but was thrown off. He hit the floor hard with a hard
thud and looked up in time to see the guard grabbing for his
weapon. He pounced to his feet and lunged forward to hit the weapon
from his hands. The rifle fell to the floor and the crodillian
swung his razor sharp claws in Anlon's direction. He dove to the
floor and rolled around the guard in a circle, going for the laser
rifle. As he reached out for the hilt of the weapon, he felt blades
dig in to the back of his leg. A searing pain shot through his leg
as he wailed out and grabbed his calf.

The crodillian jump on top of him, grasping
his long fingers around Anlon's throat. His fingers frantically dug
at the nails around his neck, but the grip was too strong. Life was
quickly leaving his body and he stretched out his arm as far as he
could for the rifle. The guard grinned, salivating at the dying
boy, when a laser beam entered his forehead, extinguishing his
life. Blood spattered on Anlon’s face and the body dropped on top
of him. He pushed it off and bent over his knees once to his feet,
gasping for air.

He ran out of the room after regaining his
breath and saw the others waiting at the end of the hall. He’d just
caused a lot of noise battling with the guard, but there were no
crodillians to be seen. As he began running to the door as an alarm
rang through the halls and the door started to hiss shut.

“Go!” Anlon ran towards them. “I'll make
it.”

The others moved through the door, but Anlon
knew he'd never make it in time. The door shut with him on the
opposite side as his friends. He looked around frantically to find
a place for cover since the halls would surely be filled with
crodillians any moment. He darted in a dark room and hid under a
table.

Pattering of crodillian feet echoed down the
halls, but none entered the room he’d taken cover in. They were
barking orders at each other, looking for the Princess! Anlon
stayed in the room silently until he was sure there were no more
guards around. Obviously, no one had noticed the group was short
one person, or they didn't care about anyone but the Princess. He
snuck through the halls, careful to check every corner before he
rounded it. The halls were like a maze, leaving him completely lost
in an unpopulated part of the ship. It was eerily quiet, and there
wasn't a single crodillian in sight.

He hoped his friends were able to escape,
but looking at his situation, he wasn’t all too confident they’d
have any better luck. The guard back in the holding area hadn’t
tried to subdue him, he’d tried to kill him. If the crodillians
didn’t care about his life, the others were also in danger of the
same thing, except for Kanti. He rounded a fourth corner and let
out a deep breath when he found a dead end. An air-locked door that
was shut was all that stood before him.

He walked over to it and examined, rubbing
his hand across the cold metal, trying to find a way to open it.
His finger hit a button and he readied his weapon for whatever lay
on the other side. The door hissed open and revealed an empty
evacuation bay. The only thing in the room were evac pods, or
that’s what they appeared to be to him. He’d much rather leave with
the others on
Drakos Mavros
, but he couldn't expect them to
wait for him with the crodillians after them. Kanti’s safety was
now top priority. If he wanted to get off this ship, he had to do
it on his own.

Anlon walked over to the closest pod and
squeezed inside of the opening. It wasn’t too cramped, but it was
definitely designed for only one. He closed the latch behind and
looked at the controls of the pod. To his surprise, there was
absolutely no was to fly it, but a small holomap popped up with
planets displayed. None were familiar to him and all were labeled
only by numbers and letters.

He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes,
and pressed one of the circles, hoping it was a planet where he
could quickly find someone to get him to Ares. If the others got
off the crodillian ship, he could meet up with them there. If they
didn't get off, he still had a duty to tell the Council how to
defeat the crodillians. The cylinder released with a sudden hiss
and the pod dropped from the holding area. His pod hurdled out into
the darkness, on its way to an unknown planet. He craned his neck
and watched as the crodillian ships got smaller and smaller.
Hopefully, Kanti and the others were as lucky as him and were able
to get off of the ship alive.

“We can't leave him back there alone!” Kanti
banged at the door. “They're going to kill him! Falcone, Nimesha,
you have to help me get him back!”

“Kanti we need to move,” Camillus pulled
her. “They'll be after us once they see we made it to the other
side of the door. Our time to escape this ship is running out.”

“He's right,” Nimesha agreed. “Anlon is
smart, he'll find a way out, but we need to get to
Drakos
Mavros
alive. Once we do that, I’m sure we can find him if he
escapes, or come back for him with more firepower on our side.”

“We can't leave Anlon!”

Nimesha started to run forward, with Falcone
close behind. “We're moving
now
!” She shouted. “If you want
to stay to die, then so be it! I’m not letting those things get
their claws on me.”

Kanti followed behind them, with Camillus by
her side. She didn't want to leave Anlon, and she’d rather be
caught, but she knew he wouldn't want that. He'd want her to go
forward and get off this ship, with or without him.

Nimesha stopped and held her hand up.
“Shhhh.”

Kanti stopped close behind her and peeked
around the corner to see why she’d stopped. There was a single
guard walking down the hallway with his weapon pulled out. As he
got closer, they could hear orders coming to him through a
walkie.

“Jahdiel says the human woman that escaped
is the Queen's daughter so we can't shoot her,” someone said. “We
locked down the closest hallway, but we haven't found them yet, so
they may be further down the ship. Keep your guards up.”

As the guard was about to round the corner
Nimesha pounced on him and wrapped her legs around his neck. He
clawed at her, leaving dark gashes on her, but she refused to let
go. Her leg muscles flexed and she dug her nails into his eyes, and
couple seconds later, the body dropped lifelessly to the ground
with a thump.

“Looks like we may have a little luck on our
side after all,” Falcone moved forward.

“Luck?” Camillus repeated. “They know who
she is!”

“But they can't shoot us,” he winked.

“He's right. If they shoot at us, it’ll risk
her getting shot too,” Nimesha said as she moved down the hall.
“That may just give us a fighting chance to get off of this ship
alive.”

“Do you think they'll kill Anlon?” Kanti
asked. “He's not with me.”

“Don't know,” Nimesha shrugged. “I would
guess not, because if they don't find you, he's their best chance
of tracking you down,” she held up her hand again. “Clear.”

They walked down the black and green
hallways and saw the hangar approaching quickly through open
doors.

“We can't just run in there,” Camillus
pulled at her arm.

“We're not,” she pushed him away. “I was
looking around when we came in. This place is filled with stuff we
can use as cover. We'll sneak our way to get to the ship.”

“And to think I wanted to kill you when we
first met,” Falcone said.

“Let's go,” Kanti moved past them.

“Slow down,” Nimesha caught up. “Follow
my
lead. I’m the one who does this type of stuff for a
living.”

Nimesha darted out the hallway and dove
behind a large crate in the hangar. The others followed her lead
and she pointed ahead.
Drakos Mavros
is over there. We can
use their ships to help conceal us once we get to that crate,” her
finger pointed to a smaller crate fifty yards away.

“So, we're just going to be out there
exposed until we get to that one?” Camillus asked.

“I don’t like it either, but we don’t have
much other choice,” Nimesha turned to him. “If we move quickly, we
won't be seen, but after that crate comes the fun. We’ll have to
dart to the ship because there’s no other cover.”

“I like her plan,” Falcone smiled. “It's a
little daring, more than I like myself, but I think it's
doable.”

Kanti held in a laugh. “Well, what are we
waiting for? Let's get off this ship.”

They all ran towards the crate in the middle
of the bay, keeping close to the enemy ships, and waited behind it
as group of crodillians passed. They had come out of nowhere, and
if they had waited a couple of more seconds to go to the crate,
they surely would’ve been caught. Nimesha peered around the corner
of the crate and darted out once there were no enemies nearby.
Kanti followed behind Falcone, who was gaining on Nimesha and
eventually passed her to beat her to
Drakos Mavros
. Halfway
to the ship, Kanti heard guards yelling from above and looked to
see them pointing towards her.

“There they are!” Shouts echoed through the
hangar. “There's the Princess! Stop her before she gets to the
ship!”

Kanti sprinted, putting in everything she
had, trying to reach the ship before she was caught. It was already
slowly starting to lift off the ground, and she didn't know if
they’d forgotten about her during the dash to the ship. She pushed
harder and dived for the ramp just as it began to go up. The
engines roared as she ran to the cockpit to meet up with the
others.