"I could...hide in the tube again."

"They would find you eventually. Or you might suffocate in there."

"I don"t think so," Telisa said. "Maybe I could even become Konuan again. Fight them that way."

"Out of the question," said Magnus. Telisa turned and saw him entering from one of the connecting pa.s.sageways. She walked over and embraced him.

Thank the Five we"re back together.

Even with the UED moving in, something about his physical presence steadied her.

"These tunnels are long and straight. They"ll be able to overwhelm us easily here. We need to move up into a building and dig in. Those tiny cubic rooms have a lot of vents, but they have a lot of corners, too. We might be able to stand them off for a while. The fact our links operate again means Shiny has been working some magic. Maybe he can rescue us."

"That scaredy cat? He probably left," Cilreth said.

"I doubt it," Telisa said. "He"s got our back."

Chapter 22.

Within the Gorgalan ship far above Chigran Callnir Four, a golden creature with forty legs burst into a room. It sent a signal to a large walking machine, causing a c.o.c.kpit atop the machine to open. Kirizzo marched inside and curled up within the tight confines. He didn"t hesitate. His planning phase had finished while aboard the s.p.a.ceship high above the planet. He activated the walker. The shining metal machine lifted on its eight slender legs and walked into another s.p.a.cious chamber. A bay door slid open to accept the machine. Anchor tentacles slid out to secure the machine within the small bay.

Then the part of the starship holding the walker detached and dropped toward the planet, taking Kirizzo with it. He watched the events piped into his long, thin brain from sensors outside the drop module. The planet"s surface below expanded to take over more of his field of vision. The drop module descended unerringly toward the ruined Konuan city.

An invisible beam of concentrated energy lanced out of the sky. Kirizzo saw it only with the help of his drop module"s sensor array. His vision magnified the target far below. A black cloud of smoke rose up as he descended on the ruins. Kirizzo took note of the hit. The Terran artillery machine had been destroyed by fire from his ship. In all likelihood the other artillery robots would quickly share the same fate.

Kirizzo watched many sources of data, among them a video feed from the Clacker. It showed an object in the sky growing from a distant silver dot to the size of a small house as it dropped onto the surface. A battle walker burst from the belly of the drop module, hitting the ground running.

From his position nestled inside the walker, Kirizzo issued a series of rapid commands with mental impulses. Tiny spherical drones dropped out of the machine and flew in all directions. The drones would be able to block incoming fire from the Terrans.

Kirizzo"s scan told him dozens of Terrans had advanced across the ruins toward the Clacker. No doubt the alien ship was their primary objective.

The spider-legged walking machine clambered over the sharp red rocks toward the UED base. The Terran soldiers were deployed directly in his path. To get even more details about their disposition, he contacted the Clacker and told the ship to launch two reconnaissance drones to scan the landscape from low alt.i.tude. Between those drones, the ship in orbit, and the Clacker, Kirizzo should have total information about the battlefield. It was also enough to give his information net some redundancy should some of his machines be destroyed.

Projectiles started to strike the walker. Portions of the power reserve were expended to hold the outer surface in place as the kinetic energy of the rounds slammed into it. The walker hunkered down on its legs, making itself harder to spot.

Six attack drones shot from the belly of the walker. They hurtled away, gaining alt.i.tude as they left. Meanwhile more large projectiles rained toward the swerving walker. One struck the outer surface of the machine in a vulnerable spot. The energy reserve wasn"t sufficient to defend against the round, so it damaged the outer skin of Kirizzo"s machine. The walker rotated, carrying the damaged area away from the line of fire until it could be repaired.

The attack drones arrived at the Terran line and selected the large robots that fired upon the walker. The flying spheres each split into six pieces and accelerated further. Within the next second, several of the attack machines and a dozen of the Terran soldiers were obliterated.

The other nearby Terran squads had taken cover. The walker shot ten seeker bullets into the sky. The guided projectiles started to patrol. One by one, they spotted enemies below and dove down, going supersonic as they accelerated toward their targets. Each one killed a Terran, easily punching through the light battle suits then exploding. Terran body parts started to rain across the landscape.

But Kirizzo was not paying much attention to the devastation he visited upon the faction of Terrans in compet.i.tion with him. He could have disabled that force from orbit if it had been his only goal. He was focused on the anomalous life form he had tracked across the surface.

He suspected it might be a Trilisk.

The creature of interest had disappeared underground within a minute of his arrival on the surface. Kirizzo decided to enlist the aid of his allies to track the anomaly.

"Team. Enemy not pursuing."

"Not pursuing you or me?" Telisa replied.

"However, target of intense interest spotted in ruins," Kirizzo said. "Prepare to a.s.sist with capture of possible Trilisk in lower tunnel system."

There was a delay.

"It"s good to hear you, Shiny," Telisa replied. "We"re fighting for our lives, will a.s.sist if you get us out of this."

Kirizzo reviewed his status information of the Terrans on his side. He located their signals within a building. Several clues indicated they had been engaged. Kirizzo altered the course of his walker toward the building. The machine made good time, walking over the uneven rocks gracefully, dodging around patches of vegetation and even clambering right over the lowest Konuan buildings.

Occasional Terran small-arms fire zinged by the walker or bounced off its surface. Kirizzo ignored it until larger, more significant projectiles clanged against his machine, affecting the energy reserves. Another Terran fighting machine had acquired him. His drones accelerated to intervene. Automated systems returned fire, sending out four seeker rounds to counter the attacker.

The rounds slammed into the machine and detonated. The flimsy machine exploded. Metal parts flew in all directions. His drones veered away, seeking other targets.

"Battle machine outside shelter neutralized," Kirizzo reported. His walker showed him the attacking Terrans within the building. They were split into groups to surround his allies. "Enemies moving in to flank, trap, surprise you from below."

"Below us? Which direction are you? Should we make a run for it?"

Shiny a.n.a.lyzed the disposition of enemies in the alien construct.

"Proceed south. Will cover retreat, withdrawal, emergence from building."

Chapter 23.

A round smacked against the floor next to Magnus. He felt the sting of a tiny fragment of hot metal impacting his cheek. His attendant spheres had stopped orbiting. Now they darted back and forth in front of the grille he faced p.r.o.ne.

If that round had another meter to arc toward me, I"d be very dead.

But it meant his position was about right. He had taken a position just far enough to the side of the fire corridor through the grille opening that the incoming projectiles couldn"t alter their course sharply enough to hit him. Though he had cut it a bit closer than intended. In fact, the attendant drones seemed to be oblivious to the limitation of the incoming rounds, and they tended to intercept them anyway, which sent shrapnel flying. He considered overriding them but decided he was not that confident a round would not hit him.

"We"re going to be split by this grille corridor as soon as they make it in here, and if they get to either side we"ll be pinned. Then the grenades will come," Telisa said.

Magnus smiled. She knows a h.e.l.l of a lot more than when I met her. "Don"t forget you and Cilreth have stealth options. You can cross over these grill corridors if you time it right. You have your attendants? I don"t think their a.s.sault robots will fit in here."

Though they might be able to just blow through the walls. I wonder if they"re low on supplies.

"I lost one sphere in the tunnels," Telisa said. That made Magnus frown. Shiny had given them each two for good reason. The alien himself had five or six at all times since he resupplied upon returning from Thespera.

The grille corridors created long fire lanes by the way the grilles lined up in each direction through the building: roughly east/west, north/south, and to a lesser degree, even up/down. Magnus armed his last grenade and sent it out toward the entrance they had used. Most likely the UED forces would open all the outer grilles.

"I could go find a tube and try to become Konuan again," Telisa transmitted. "I bet I would be able to take some of them out, maybe do some hit and run. And if they mistake me for the one that"s been hunting here for a long time, they might break and leave."

"I don"t want to be separated again," Cilreth said. She activated her stealth suit. "I"ll scout another way out. Pull a grille or two if I have to."

"No. You"re better off dug in here with us," Magnus said. "I have an edge. I have still access to a UED sensor module. I can see most of them."

He didn"t mention that he could see they were very outnumbered. But they had the defender"s advantage, good cover, and a few high-tech tricks to pull.

Telisa seemed to accept his opinion.

We just survived one close call, and now we"re about to die all over again. We were supposed to be better prepared this time.

His grenade detonated on an enemy grenade in an empty room before them.

"They"re coming," Magnus said. He watched the enemy in his link along with the views from his team and the attendant spheres. "One squad is covering them, and another has moved forward, just three chambers ahead of us."

Cilreth and Telisa exchanged looks. Telisa put her smart pistol back at her belt and took out the prize weapon from Shiny"s vault: her chain lightning gun.

"Don"t move," she sent Cilreth and Magnus. She moved to the side of the advancing enemy, into an adjacent room. Magnus saw the UED forces were already moving to flank them on both sides of the building.

d.a.m.n, those grille pullers of theirs work fast.

Magnus rolled into the fire corridor and fired twice just to give someone something to think about. Somehow the attendant spheres knew to leave outgoing fire alone. He immediately rolled back to his previous spot. The feed from the probe showed he was getting some response. But what would likely happen next was going to be unpleasant. He expected a return volley from a heavy weapon, a round of grenades, or worse.

But the enemy decided to play it patient and wait for the flanking maneuver to complete.

Is that more evidence they want us alive? Or just low ammunition? Do they overestimate us?

Telisa disappeared from Magnus"s natural sight, but he watched the feed from her eyes: she moved up to the grille opening and rested the heavy body of the weapon in the center of it. Every second she sat there she risked a smart round flying through and nailing her in the forehead. Her attendant sphere darted back and forth between three grill openings fitfully. It actually looked agitated. Fear for her life gripped Magnus, yet he said nothing. She was doing what had to be done. Fortunately the moment pa.s.sed when she activated the alien weapon.

A bright flash of light burned his retinas. For the next second the only thing that really registered was a vague impression of Telisa rolling away to the corner to get back to safety.

Thunder rolled through the building; then everything became quiet. That, or his ears were damaged. His Veer suit"s diagnostic reported its ear-protection dampening system was working. Magnus checked the probe data. The connection had dropped, and it refused to come back.

"Magnus? Cilreth? Are you alive?" Telisa asked quickly.

"Yes. I"m still here. In one piece, I think," Cilreth said.

"I"m alive," Magnus said. "You took a lot of them out. But you must have also destroyed the sensor I was using, because I"m not getting data from it anymore."

"What now? Will more of them come?" asked Cilreth.

"Maybe you could take a peek," Telisa said. "You and Magnus."

Magnus realized she meant he still had the stealth sphere. Sheepishly, he rolled it over to her across the fire corridor. Then he sent his attendant ahead to take a look.

"It saved my life," he said.

"I was a Konuan," she said.

"What?"

"I"m just going to check around," Cilreth said.

"Send an attendant," Magnus told Cilreth on his link.

"A Trilisk machine turned me into a Konuan," Telisa continued. "There"s another one, a technology-using one. It has a stash of weapons and equipment. Maybe even Trilisk things. I was there in the building with you and that woman."

"Arakaki," he said. His attendant darted into the farthest room ahead, where they had entered under fire. There were blackened spots on the wall where men had been. Only two men remained, untouched but obviously sh.e.l.l-shocked. Magnus judged the entire left side flanking force must have been taken out. Then some remaining missiles must have come into the main room he saw. But they did not get everyone there, so the UED right side flanking force was still intact.

Magnus changed positions. "The threat is from the right now," he said. "Fall back into that room." He indicated the room where Telisa had launched the weapon. "Then we face this direction instead. Their right flank force is untouched, I think."

"Wow, that weapon did a number on the guys," Cilreth said. Magnus saw more evidence of dead UED soldiers through her attendant"s feed. His own attendant returned to cover his move to the other room. Meanwhile, a thread of his mind was working though what Telisa had said.

"You were seriously a Konuan? You were put into an alien body, for real?"

And she has a jealous streak for a UED soldier I just met?

"I was trying to save you from the other one, the dangerous one," Telisa said. "But I just got myself shot."

What the...?

"You were there! We killed you?"

Now Telisa stole his full attention, though he knew distraction during a battle was foolhardy.

"Then I came back to my original body," she said. "I guess it"s a kind of default."

How is that possible? The Trilisks... "You had no link, then? I had no idea. I"m sorry-"

"Of course I don"t blame you. Not consciously, anyway," she said with a hint of a smile.

"It"s insane. So the dangerous Konuan hunter is still out there."

"Yes. What happened to Arakaki?"

"Once the hunt was over, she took off. I don"t know why she didn"t capture or kill me. Maybe it was her way of tossing me a favor for helping her kill what we thought was the Konuan that"s been hunting them."

"She must have told them about us. Why do they want us dead?"

Magnus thought about the close miss and the lack of heavy hardware being applied in the attack. "Maybe they want to capture us," he said. "They have more than they"ve used. Unless they"re desperately low on munitions."

"Team. Enemy not pursuing." The new message came from Shiny.

"Not pursuing you or me?" Telisa asked.

"However, target of intense interest spotted in ruins," the alien continued. "Prepare to a.s.sist with capture of possible Trilisk in lower tunnel system."