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just as Veidt had promised. The fugitives made it through the door and onto
the big rotunda beyond. They kept to the shadows along the walls, working
their way in the opposite direction from that taken by Zibyl and the others.
They were headed for the slave cages.
Enforcers and Armored Officers, along with a scattering of scientists and
other Evolveds, were running back and forth, taking no notice of the
interlopers at first. Vince, leading the way, was thankful that the Invid had
decided to make their Glike slave operation an Enforcer-and Officer-run
facility; if there had been Inorganic bipeds, the Sentinels and the Praxians
would have had little hope of coping with them.
The checkpoint to the slave cages was a guard station one quarter of the way
around the gleaming green circle of the rotunda. They were nearly there when a
passing Officer noticed them and skidded to a halt, heels striking sparks from
the superhard substance of the floor.
"Halt! Identify yours-" was all he got out before Vince waxed him with a
sustained burst from the rifle. Guards were just becoming aware of the danger
when Vince and Wolff went charging at them assault-style, firing on every
other footfall as they fast-walked. Rick dashed for the fallen officer, to
relieve it of its sidearm.
Karen rushed forward to help Vince and Wolff, laying down rounds with the
pistol. The guard station had been stripped of all but three soldiers in the
emergency, and they only lasted a few quickened heartbeats once the shooting
started.
But at least they left behind more weapons. Everyone was armed now except for
Veidt, and Cabell, whom Rem had once warned, Stay away from guns or you'll end
up burning your foot off! Even Miriya was in the fight, insisting on having a
pistol. After studying the Haydonite-installed equipment for a few moments,
Veidt judged that escape from the slavepens could be cut off by Invid in the
command center, or even there at the guard station if the stations were
retaken intact.
Wolff solved that with his usual panache. Cycling the heavy security lock
doors to open all through the slavepen maze with the station's controls, he
then brought up the rifle's mouth and blew the controls to wreckage.
"One problem down, but they'll be sending reinforcements here any time now,"
Lisa said.
Wolff ran a fingertip over his superbly groomed mustache. "Then, dearest
Captain, may I suggest that we not be here at that time?" He turned and set
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his rifle across a control console, checking fields of fire, preparing to hold
the position while the others effected rescue. At Lisa's command, Karen stayed
with him, handing her pistol to Jean and taking another rifle in its place.
Rick had readjusted his own Invid rifle's sling so that he could lug it,
leveled in firing position, at waist height with the sling over his left
shoulder, right hand on the grip and trigger. It was unbelievably heavy, the
sling pressing deep into his flesh. He said, "Everybody ready? No objections?"
No objections. The Sentinels descended into the slave-pens of Haydon IV.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Awright, so the mecha are in dinged-up shape and the weapons barrels are shot
out and the replacement parts stocks are all gone. Boys and girls, we're all
functioning beyond manufacturer's specifications.
Rick Hunter, quoted in Mizner's Rakes and Rogues: The True Story of the SDF-3
Expeditionary Mission
"I forbid it!"
Vowad hovered before Sarna as she sought to take control of the giant flying
carpet. Some two acres in area, it would hold all the Sentinels and all the
freed slaves, too-provided that any of them survived the uprising.
And it wasn't every Haydonite who could command and control such a carpet
alone. But she was the daughter of the greatest intellect of her species.
Nevertheless, Vowad blocked her way as she tried to take control of the carpet
there on the immense landing surface at the summit of the city's tallest
tower-the roof of her home.
"I forbid you to become involved in this bestial business!" Vowad ranted. "Let
the lower orders settle their own vendettas! Let them kill and kill one
another if that's what they want so badly! You have a far higher destiny!"
"Why do you always talk like a god to me," Sarna asked him, "but bow your head
like a slave to the Invid?"
Hearing that he went rigid, the only movement being his robe's hem wafting in
the breeze. She went around him, took control of the vast carpet, and bade it
rise into the air.
Moments later, she was streaking for the Central Slave-pen.
Bela stabbed her shortsword tip in the elevator floor to jam the doors open.
The Invid in the command center were preoccupied with reports of a firefight
at the arsenal, and the sudden silence from the guard station by the slavepen
entrance, when Jack and his raiders opened up.
The two ranks put out the heaviest volume of fire they could, aware that the
Invid would respond very quickly, and that the pneumatic reservoirs of the
Karbarran long-guns would empty rapidly. Even the submachine-gun magazines
would last only three or four seconds at full auto. The Sentinels were all,
including Burak, on the firing line; Gnea and Bela had abandoned their
traditional weapons in favor of automatic weapons.
Tesla, Garak, and Pye cringed in the furthest corner of the elevator, making
no move to either interfere with or break past their captors.
In that first onslaught the team threw the command center into complete chaos
and irreparably cut the Invid chain of command. Explosive armor-piercing
bullets could penetrate vulnerable spots even in Enforcer alloy at such short
range; the unarmored Invid were targets assigned to Burak, the ursinoid
Karbarrans, and the foxlike Garudans.
And the vital equipment that made the Invid nerve center function was
everybody's bull's-eye.
Components exploded and clear-polymer indicator faces blew apart; power
connectors shorted and splintered housing became deadly shrapnel. Invid who
had been calling for mass execution of hostage-slaves only a moment before
died, clutching terrible wounds.
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