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  “Adam Beedie, Pilot, BeeA Shuttles.” He nodded to his co-pilot.

  “Matthew Pike, Co-pilot, BeeA Shuttles,” Matt replied.

  A different voice came over the line. “Gentleman, interesting names. Do you mind if we view each other in video?”

  Adam leaned forward and hit the video button, and two faces appeared. One was an older person and the other was younger, but had very hard eyes.

  “Are you,” Adam asked, leaning toward the screen to get a closer look, his confusion evident, “humans?”

  “I’m John Grimes,” the younger face on the right answered, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Are you elves?”

  “No, we are Helagethians,” Adam replied. As he was speaking a shadow crossed his window, and he looked up from the video monitor. His ability to converse was suddenly impaired due to his mouth hanging open.

  Matthew swore, and Adam nodded in agreement. “You got that right.”

  The older-looking human spoke up. “We appreciate you not moving, and should you have sufficient power to remain in the air, we suggest you don’t land for about thirty more minutes.”

  “Wh-why?” Matthew asked, his own jaw dropping as the warship passed through the atmosphere above them. While it looked close enough to touch, that effect was due to the sheer size of the ship, not proximity.

  A second later they were behind the ship as it continued toward Citiseereth.

  “The Empress does not appreciate one group of people trying to subjugate and hurt another,” John replied.

  “What about our princess?” Adam asked, concern in his voice.

  “Protected by an Empress’ Ranger,” John replied. “She is safe. We are dropping now.”

  The video cut out.

  Four flashes occurred simultaneously and what looked like a bunch of mosquitoes dropped from underneath the massive ship. They departed at tremendous speeds in different directions, including a couple of handfuls that flew under their ship toward Peeg’eth, where their flight had originated.

  “Adam, look.” Matthew was holding a tablet with some faces on the screen. Adam looked closer and his eyes widened.

  Even in their insular society, they had heard of the Etheric Empire. Matthew swiped, and another face came up. In fact, about fifteen photos and images were arrayed across his screen.

  Adam whistled.

  “That,” Matthew said, “is the Empress.” He swiped again and Adam grimaced. “That,” Matthew pointed to an artist’s sketch of a dark-faced human with white hair, “is Baba Yaga. She comes out when the going gets tough.”

  “She,” Adam returned to looking out the front of the shuttle, “is a hideous creature.”

  “Do you think they can do it?” Matthew asked as he read more about the Empire.

  “Take out the Skaine?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s hope so.” Adam changed the ship’s route and turned on the microphone to speak to the passengers. “This is your Captain. We are going to be slightly delayed…”

  As they approached Citiseereth thirty minutes later, large smoke columns became visible above it. “I’m taking us around the city,” Adam commented. The shuttle dipped, then tilted its wings to fly in a large circle. The two pilots viewed the destruction.

  “I believe they have completed their work.” Adam blew out a breath.

  “Thou shalt not mess with the Etheric Empire,” Matthew responded.

  The shuttle leveled off and headed toward the port as the two pilots double-checked their instruments. “This is Shuttle 889CC requesting permission to land,” Adam said over the comm link. It was a formality, since their shuttle had digital connections and had already received digital permission to land. The verbal request was just politeness.

  “First, second, and probably third drink are on me,” Adam told Matthew as the shuttle landed.

  Hours later the two pilots left a favorite bar in Citiseereth, singing into the night with the abandon that only alcoholic beverages can provide.

  Their princess was safe.

  Planet H’lageh, Holy City, Royal Palace

  Tabitha had entered the room and was looking to her right when shots were fired from her left, causing her to dive back into the hallway she had come in from. She rolled over on the ground, stood up, and blew a few strands of hair out of her face.

  She peeked to her left, and pulled her head back in when she noticed the little bit of movement. “I cannot believe,” she mumbled, “I almost got shot by a virtual sentinel.”

  “A what?” the princess asked from six paces away. She had been hiding around another corner, and only her head was visible. She watched the Ranger with interest as she patted down her coat, then stopped. Tabitha reached inside the coat with her left hand and pulled out a small box. She flipped open the top of the box with one hand and jerked it to the left. Two silvery objects flew from the box into the large room she had just vacated.

  Tabitha was looking up at something the princess couldn’t see from her position. “One moment!” she called as weapons fire started once again. This time the princess thought she could discern three different weapons as they fired, stopped, and then started again.

  The room beyond was virtually destroyed, chunks of the rock walls flying everywhere. The princess didn’t want to seem unappreciative of the rescue, but the rock from which the room had been constructed had been received as a gift generations ago.

  She flinched when a large chunk of a wall went crashing to the ground.

  “There!” the monster yelled, and two large explosions occurred as she turned the corner, brandishing her own weapon and firing at the third emplacement.

  She was out of the princess’ sight for only a moment before she heard a third explosion.

  “CLEAR!”

  The princess walked forward and peeked her head into the large, previously beautiful discussion hall. One wall had been adorned with an old fresco, and she was surprised to see that it had sustained no damage at all.

  “Sorry about the pocks in all the walls.” The princess jumped, having not realized Tabitha had gotten so close to her. “I tried to keep the damage down, but even I’m not fast enough to shoot out three of those anti-personnel emplacements at one time,” Tabitha told her. “I’d say I know someone who does good work on stone, but he died last year.” She looked around at the damage.

  “Saving someone?”

  She shook her head. “No, from radical efforts to safely prove he couldn’t kill himself.” She turned around and started walking toward the hall at the end of the room. “He failed.”

  “My princess,” Tealah whispered as she and the other two ladies-in-waiting caught up with their liege, “who is this strange woman?”

  Sis’talana glanced down the hall and followed Tabitha, whose coat was flapping as she yanked her pistol out. She shot to her right and dove as weapons fire blasted out of the wall on the left, then completed her turn and fired into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. A moment later a door opened and a body crashed through. “C’mon,” Tabitha called. “It’s safe now.”

  The princess turned to Tealah and shrugged her right shoulder. “Pay attention,” she told her, then looked at her other two ladies and pointed to Tabitha, who was farther down the hall. “That is our future.” The three women were in shock as Sis’talana walked to the dead Skaine in the hall. She put a foot on the wrist of the male, grabbed his pistol, and turned toward the formerly beautiful discussion hall. The three ladies jumped out of the way as the princess aimed at the fresco.

  She pulled the trigger and the blaster bucked in her hand as the shot blew a three-inch hole in the rock, just left of center.

  “Princess!” Heena and Jeela cried, surprised she would purposely damage the antique painting.

  Princess Sis’talana’s head turned toward them, her face grim. “As long as we have a Holy City,” she pointed to the hole she had just created, “that will never be fixed.” She dropped her hand. “It will stand as a test
ament that this House of mine knows how to defend our people.”

  Heena and Jeela watched as the princess followed the strange female down the hall, and turned when they heard a slam behind them.

  “Tealah!” Jeela put a hand to her mouth. “What has gotten into you?”

  Tealah stuck her hand into the hole she had created with her foot and pulled, stepping out of the way of the body that dropped out of the little hiding place. She grabbed the pistol that had dropped with him. Standing up, she nodded to the other two ladies. “Are you coming?”

  —

  Achronyx spoke in her ear. “We have twelve Skaines coming from outside, running through the main entrance.”

  “Ryu and Hirotoshi?”

  “Ryu has attacked a smaller group on the west side. They were using the roofs to slide into the palace. Hirotoshi will be there in thirty seconds.”

  Tabitha heard the princess coming up behind her. She had listened in as the royal and her ladies talked, and decided it was time to help the princess cement her future. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out two six-inch-long silver metal triangles. She checked the ends and reversed one of them, then put the two together and twisted to lock them. She looked around and shrugged. “Here is as good a place as any.” She put the device on the floor and stood back, putting out an arm to stop the princess as she reached her.

  “It’s time,” Tabitha told her. “That blaster has about fifteen more shots, I’d guess. There are twelve Skaines coming in this direction.” She jerked a thumb behind her. “You sure you’re willing to change your future with violence?”

  The princess gripped the blaster tighter.

  Tabitha turned around. She pointed to Tealah, and jerked her thumb at a spot behind herself. Then she pointed to Heena and Jeela, and gestured toward the door. “Hide in there for a few moments.”

  Bring it online, Achronyx.

  Both the princess and Tealah took an involuntary step back when a blue shimmering light sprang up from the floor.

  Tabitha grabbed the princess and pulled her two steps over. “Stand here.”

  Tabitha then grabbed Tealah. “You go on her right side and I’ll take the left,” she told her, and walked to the other side of the princess. “Leave your pistols at your sides.”

  Tabitha reached into her coat and grabbed three more spheres. She looked down at them and grinned, then threw them into the air.

  “Smile, ladies!”

  —

  R’bark scanned left, then right as he led his group down the hallway toward the large receiving room two floors above his present location. He had his team formed up three abreast. Each time they passed a set of hallways, the front right and left person would veer off and remain in the hallway, guarding it as the other ten passed. Moments later they would leave the hallway, taking up a position at the back as the now-front row took the next hallway.

  Those in the back kept watch.

  R’bark, Rig, and Gott were at the front when they went up the last set of stairs and turned the corner. The princess was standing in the middle of the long, wide hallway which led to the room they had been heading for.

  “Princess,” R’bark snarled, “you are out of your area.”

  “And you,” she replied, “are not welcome on my planet.”

  “This will cost you a lot of lives, you fighting us like this.”

  Tabitha kept her head lowered, trying to hide her face as well as she could. It had been a few generations since she and the Tontos had been such a scourge to Skaine plans, so she doubted she was as recognizable to them now as she had been decades before.

  It had been too quiet for too long, or perhaps she just hadn’t been listening hard enough. Obviously the Skaines hadn’t quit being Skaines, so the problem was on her side.

  She grimaced in recognition of the mistake she had made.

  She listened to the Skaine and the princess verbally joust, wondering when the first shot would be fired so she could bring a little justice to all those who had been killed on this planet. The guilty had already been judged, and the executioners had arrived.

  She just needed to make sure that the princess had the footage she needed to secure her crown and bring some much-needed ass-kicking to the Skaines.

  They will remember me, she told herself as her lips pressed together.

  —

  Princess Sis’talana lifted her pistol, aiming for his chest as she had been told in a hurried whisper by Tabitha. “There will be no more killing on my planet. We will go down fighting.”

  “Suit yourse—” R’bark was shocked when the princess pressed the firing button, and doubly surprised when he was violently blown off his feet. A second later his men returned fire, but something was blocking their shots. He grunted as the pain in his chest intensified when his men helped him stand.

  He looked down in shock. His armor wasn’t going to stand up to another blast like that. “Kill those bitches next to her,” he commanded.

  Tabitha smiled. “That’s enough, Princess.”

  Tabitha rolled her eyes. The princess and Tealah had ducked each time the shields flared with eye-searing brightness as Skaine shots hit them. Still, neither one failed to send shots back down the hallway. The Skaines had finally figured out there was a protective shield in place, but they obviously thought they could overwhelm it by unleashing a shitstorm of weapons fire against it.

  “My turn!” she yelled to the princess, who had dropped to one knee a moment before when shots hitting the roof had pelted them with stinging shards.

  The princess just looked at her. She had held it together so far, but it was obvious the knowledge that things could go wrong had finally caught up with the adrenalin or whatever she had used to power herself through the fight. “What are you going to do?”

  “What I was supposed to be doing,” Tabitha told her, and allowed her eyes to flicker just a little red as she smiled. “Taking care of the riff-raff.”

  —

  “Keep firing!” R’bark yelled when the three ladies started moving. The one to his right moved to the middle, and the princess and the other stepped back. She pulled her coat to the side, displaying the two pistols on her hips. As her head came up she had a smile on her face, and her eyes were glowing red.

  R’bark shot three more times right at the woman, but each time the force field deflected his shots, a light show playing out in ever-increasing circles each time a weapon’s discharge hit it. “This is just annoying. Who has ship-level shields inside a building?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air.

  The one still facing them reached up and felt around inside her shirt.

  Something in R’bark’s memory began to nag at him. Oh shit…

  “Retreat three by three!” he started to yell, but it was already too late. He heard someone from his crew yell, “RANGER TWO!” as the symbol dropped to her chest, and her eyes flared red. Her hands dropped to her pistols.

  R’bark flicked his blaster to full auto and squeezed the trigger. He saw three of his men break and retreat. Had he given the command, or were his men deserting him?

  A moment later his brains splattered the wall behind him, and he frankly didn’t care anymore.

  Tabitha issued the command to drop the one-way shield. She heard the click of a pair of boots coming up the stairs. She walked toward the Skaines and checked those who had fallen from her shots.

  A moment later Hirotoshi came into view, looking around at the destruction before striding over to a dead Skaine and bending over to clean off his blade. “You missed a few.” He stood up and slid the sword into its sheath. “We may have been sitting on our asses too much.”

  “Yeah,” Tabitha agreed. “We’ll have to do better.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The QBS Alexander reviewed the incoming intelligence as the four Empress’ Bitches dropped with the cohort of fighters, streaking across the sky toward their targets.

  Already he had been able to pinpoint locations which required additiona
l attention. Nothing like his first four major pulses, which had destroyed the buildings the subjugating force was using as barracks and armory. The secondary explosions confirmed they had larger weapons.

  But he waited, it was the Guards’ turn now. He was too large a weapon. The mighty Leviathan-class ship rose, breaking through the clouds into the thinner air high above. Low enough that he could assist if necessary, but not so low that a ship in space could attack him at will.

  The massive ship went silent in the darkness of the upper atmosphere. Without something visible, the sensors used on this planet weren’t sophisticated enough to figure out where he was.

  And, if an EI could be said to like something, he liked that very much.

  —

  Eric landed and looked the building over. Alexander’s shot had hit it hard, but it hadn’t caused much of a fire.

  The top floors of the five-story stone building were black; there wouldn’t be anyone alive in those levels, he suspected. However, he could still sense people inside.

  “You have multiple free agents inside the building, Eric,” Alexander said. “The primary armory seems not to have been hit.”

  “They might not have a primary armory,” Eric replied. “Please send in the sensor droids to take a look.

  Moments later his HUD lit up, showing rooms and passageways. There were tangos running all over the place, but in general they were heading toward a lower level. “What do you think the chance is that location is the armory?”

  “The probability, based on secondary explosions in the other three locations, reaches over seventy-eight percent,” the EI informed him.

  There had to be over thirty live tangoes in that area, and they were carrying substantial firepower. “My wife will have my head if I go in there,” he remarked to no one in particular, and looked around. The building was in a rather open area. “What are our kinetic options, Alexander?”

  “I can pound them from above.”

  “Have we found any bolt holes yet?” Eric asked, looking at the map of the building inside as the sensor droids continued their spying efforts.

  “None so far.”