Alien Sentinel’s Mate by Mina Carter

17

They were too late.

Risyn’s expression tightened as he looked at the planet on the view screen at the front of the raider’s bridge. He didn’t need the scans Berrick had shoved into the command stream to know Quveth and everyone on it was in trouble. Two huge weather systems were warring with each other, and ground zero was a small area on the northern continent.

“Any life signs on the planet?” he asked, his commands in the stream rather than disturbing the silence of the bridge. It was one of the things that unnerved others about the B’Kaar, the way they could operate in complete silence, and he saw no reason to change it for one AI who could access the datastreams as easily as they could.

“Multiple life signs at coordinates…” Berrick replied, his voice trailing off as a data packet delivered the coordinates directly to the ke’lath data node in Risyn’s brain. A small nudge and he opened a map of the northern continent and then narrowed it down to the area where the life signs were showing.

“There’s a settlement,”he commented. “It’s smaller than I expected.”

“The Vorr’s presence has substantially diminished over the years,” Miisan said, a frown on her face as she studied the screen in front of them.

Rare amusement rolled through him as he noted the irregular pattern of her avatar’s simulated breathing. Of the two of them, she would appear more lifelike to the casual observer, even though she was anything but.

“How diminished?” he asked, answering her aloud when she refused to answer his ping in the stream.

“Just this planet now with a listed settlement. Less than fifty individuals. Seventeen planets listed to the Vorr clan but most as uninhabitable.”

Shock rolled through Risyn. He’d known few of the Vorr bloodline were left, but he hadn’t thought they were on the verge of dying out. Although, without females of their own, the entire Lathar as a species was in danger of dying out, which meant any male with a mate match, Vorr or not, was valuable and couldn’t be risked.

“Can we shut it down?” He directed the question at Miisan.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” she snapped. “This system is older than anything I’ve ever worked on. My authorization codes aren’t working.”

“Sitek, link with the AI,” he ordered, “and try a brute force attack. Are there any launch capable ships on the surface?” he asked, directing his comment to his command crew.

Berrick, lounging in the second officer’s chair next to Risyn’s own, shook his head. “Nothing with engines spooled up and that secondary storm is about it hit. It’s alevel nine event. A planet killer.”

Risyn nodded, his jaw clenching. Even if they had a ship big enough to get them all up off the surface, it wouldn’t matter now. “Will our shields hold?”

There was a point-four-second delay, which meant that Berrick had run the query multiple times.

“Yes. But not for long. I’d advise that all aboard suit up.”

“Noted. Direct all power to the shields and charge the hull armor,” he ordered. “Then take us down.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Risyn’s expression didn’t change as the ship plunged through the upper atmosphere. The only reaction he gave was to activate the mag-boots of his suit. That way if the turbulence got too great, he would remain in place.

In the stream, his crew pinged online, all of them registering as linked to their suits. Good, that meant if the ship needed an extra boost, he could take life support offline to all but a small area and divert that power to the armoring.

He kept his thoughts to himself as they drove down into the storm, the black and red clouds on the view screen triggering the emergency lighting on the bridge. Instantly alarms started to blare as they entered a vertical dive, the quickest possible route to their target.

“Start scanning for life signs, and bring us down as close as possible. And see if you can find Seren K’Vass and the human female, Gracie Shardlow,” he said, naming the only two samples they had.

How a Vorr had the K’Vass name he couldn’t guess, but given they were matched, they had to be the priority. Or rather, the female did. They had males aplenty and there would be another match if necessary. Perhaps even a B’Kaar. Sliding a sideways glance at Miisan, he kept that thought to himself. There was no saying how the AI would take to any suggestion not to try too hard to find Seren.

The ship was pummeled as they dove through the storm, so fast that the clouds were a blur and rain drove against the view screen. He almost expected to feel the wind against his face even though the shields kept them well protected. He was grateful for this fact when, a second later, a bolt of electric fire slammed into the front of the ship, and a scarlet spiderweb flared over the screen.

“Shields?” he barked.

“Drop of fifteen percent but holding,” a voice replied from the left of the bridge. “Energy allocation system is operating at full efficiency. As long as we don’t spend too long here we should be good.”

He nodded. It was as good as they were going to get.

“Bringing us up on the coordinates now,” Berrick said, his voice smooth as he piloted the big raider down into the lower layers of the storm. They dropped out from under the clouds to a scene of devastation. The settlement they’d been expecting was in ruins, buildings charred and smoldering from repeated lightning strikes, the fires only burning for seconds before the rain put them out.

The center part of the village wasn’t being bombarded anymore as the lighting focused itself at the other side.

“That has to be where they are. Take us in closer.”

The ship banked that way, but before Berrick could bring them in, a sheet of lightning appeared in front of them like a wall. The deck tilted as Berrick swung them away with another barrage of alarms sounding. Only Risyn’s locked magnetic boots kept him upright.

“What the draanth? Try again!” he ordered sharply.

“Already on it, boss.” Berrick swung the ship around to take another run, but as he did, the lightning sheeted again.

“It’s not gonna let us through,” his second shouted over the alarms. “And our shields won’t let us punch through.”

Risyn growled in the back of his throat. No storm was going to stop him getting to the survivors. He shot a look at Miisan. “Any luck on the brute force attack?”

She shook her head, lines of strain showing on her face. “None. There’s an adaptive security algorithm. I can’t break through it.”

Trall. They were running out of options. He nudged the stream and threw the life sign readings up ahead onto the main screen. The storm was interfering so he couldn’t tell how many there were, but whatever they were doing, they would be hammered by the lightning if they didn’t get to them in time.

“How powerful are those strikes?” he asked, the information appearing in the stream within nanoseconds. He frowned as he analyzed it and then turned.

“Sitek, and Hel, your teams are with me. Berrick, take us in close for a combat drop.”

* * *

He’d never meta storm he liked, but this draanthing one was definitely trying to kill them.

Cade shook his head to clear the rain from his eyes and forced his frozen muscles to cooperate. They’d all been soaked to the bone within moments of leaving the long hall, the storm dumping near-blizzard conditions on them as well as murderous lightning and driving rain. He snarled at the storm, tapping into the primal power of the other side of his nature to keep forging forward.

The rest of the clan were behind him, those few like him at the front using their larger bodies to protect the others. It wasn’t much, but it was all he could offer them as they ran for the Skev and safety.

Scarlet bolts slammed into the ground around them, dirt and rocks flying with each strike. Adrenaline surged, galvanizing his entire body as he dodged the debris from each strike. Pained cries behind him told him that some hadn’t been quick enough.

They raced down the side streets, weaving between the buildings. Automatically he took the most covered route to the edge of the village. From there on they would have no cover until they reached the woods. The Skev was in a concealed hangar beneath a mound hidden within the trees, invisible from the air and from satellite surveillance. Deliberately so. The empire didn’t know about the Skev and every Vorr knew they had to keep it that way.

His chest heaved with exertion as they turned the last corner. They were on the home straight now. All they had to do was get across the last field to the tree line.

“Keep together!” He turned and urged the group forward, the metal torque of the khaaitan on his wristgleaming in the red-tinged light. Part of his mind wanted to bellow in triumph at the honor while another was freaking out about his brother, lost in the storm somewhere as he searched for his female and Tarveth.

Cade ignored both. He couldn’t help Seren, even though he wanted to. The survival of the many was paramount. Their bloodline had to survive. They had to survive or their hidden brothers would be lost, stranded on their planets with no means of escape or resupply.

His arms pumped, legs like tree trunks eating up the distance across the field heading for the woods. Only to skid to a halt as three lightning bolts slammed into the ground right in front of him, the sizzle of the electric charge raising the hairs on his skin.

“Trall!” he gasped, backpedaling. Three more bolts hit right behind him. A glance behind him revealed the awful truth. They were trapped, lighting dancing between the scattered members of the group as they ducked and dodged. Each time he took a step forward, another bolt hit the ground, like the storm itself was baiting them and playing with them before it killed them. He caught his breath as he watched his kinsman go through the same thing. Then he frowned, watching the patterns.

“Stay still!” he bellowed. “Movement activates it!”

They all froze, even though every instinct in their bodies had to be clamoring for them to move, to run, just the same as his was. Every moment he expected red death to streak from the sky and send him to the hall of the goddess Liaanas in a blaze of glory and fire.

But it didn’t. The wind still howled overhead, and the rain drove into them so hard he was surprised it hadn’t broken skin. But the lightning stayed in the clouds overhead.

He looked up and then shielded his eyes. Something else was streaking down toward them. Lots of somethings, metallic and with a blue aura that turned the red stormy sky around them purple.

“What the…” he breathed, just as heavily armored warriors dropped from the sky to land in the muddy field around them.

He recognized them instantly as they straightened up, the armored suits and the glowing lines on their skin making them instantly recognizable.

What the draanth were the B’Kaar doing here?

“Create a net!” their leader bellowed, his enhanced voice rising above the storm, and the cyber-warriors spread out among the Vorr. The lightning, stimulated by the movement, rained down, each bolt glittering off the armored suits.

One hit, sparking over metal as the B’Kaar diverted the blast to the ground. Cade’s eyes widened. The cyber-warriors were drawing fire so the Vorr could get to cover.

“Stay low!” he shouted to his people, but either their survival instincts had kicked in or they realized what the B’Kaar were about. Slowly the two groups moved toward the tree line. Once within, they could make a run for the hangar. Screw the B’Kaar finding out about it. They needed off the surface, fast.

His jaw clenched as determination filled him. He’d storm surfed in the past. He was a good enough pilot to do a search run for Seren and the others before heading for orbit.

The charge in the air and the way his hair rose on his arm warned Cade a half-second before disaster hit. Turning to yell a warning, he watched in horror as three lightning bolts converged in the sky and streaked down toward them. The Vorr scattered but one of the B’Kaar, their leader, stayed put and drew the fire.

A scream of pain and fury split the air as his suit lit up, jerking into a hard arc as he splayed his arms wide. Glowing red tendrils licked over the exposed metal, the face within the suit a rictus of agony.

Draanth…

“Keep moving!” he ordered, already running toward the stricken warrior. The male was dead. He had to be dead after taking a hit like that. Surely?

His kin obeyed, heading for the trees as Cade reached the B’Kaar. Some of the suit had melted into place, a glowing red statue, but as he got there, the front opened up. The male inside fell forward, half-conscious and reeling. Roaring, Cade turned and hauled the cyber-warrior over his shoulder, breaking into a sprint as he headed for the tree line and sending a prayer up to the goddessthat she would favor a crazy half-Lathar and save him.

It was no use being a hero if there was no female to witness it or you died in the attempt.

Right now… he’d accept just staying alive.