The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Dogs of War

"Fuck me!" Dee husked as she slowly let her head rise from where she had been shielding it under her arms. Already in low light mode, her visor now was nearly blinded by the steady rain of dust and debris that was tumbling down from the gaping wound in the convention center's roof. A wound torn by what had looked like a massive bolt of lightning that struck then stayed in place to rip the roof to pieces.

"Just what the hell was that??"

But the tall detective wouldn't get the time to consider what had happened as more pressing matters abruptly clamored for her attention.

"Alpha Two!" Danik hissed as he alligator crawled across the floor towards her, keeping half an eye on the hole in the roof and half on the delegates crouching in moaning fear behind her as he held his Shiva at the ready.

"Alpha Five!" Dee fired back, staring hard at her teammate. "Why have you left your position?"

"Because that was a psionic attack," Danik replied tightly as he pulled up beside Dee. "I'd wager a large amount of hard currency that the Brotherhood has discovered their initial plan has failed and is currently engaged in a secondary plan!"

"The attack that Mordecai warned might be coming!" Dee hissed, grimacing.

"Apparently," Danik confirmed, glancing back up at the hole in the ceiling. "As doughty my people are as warriors and as protected they are by Mordecai's psionic technology, they won't stand long against a concerted Brotherhood assault. It'll be shortly after that the Brotherhood reinforcements will enter this building to finish the job their assassins started."

"Shit," Dee spat. "Then we need to forget Lash's orders and get the delegates out of here as soon as possible. Or we won't be getting them out at all!" She looked back at Danik. "Round up Alpha Seven, Eight and Ten. We're going to secure one of the rear exits and attempt to exit the grounds through a back entrance!"

Lash jerked as scintillating cables of energy darted out to slam into three of his Qos Viran, nearly incinerating them on impact as they were knocked out of line. Still he kept firing, running through his first magazine before reaching for a second out of his bandoleer to ram it into place in his Shiva's hot belly. A new round was chambered and then he was firing again, spraying the dark mass of Brotherhood psionics standing resolutely in front of him.

Then plasma bolts, shivering shockwaves and deadly ion blasts, were cutting down more of his team. The big vampire couldn't help twitching in reaction as a searing tongue of pyroken, the finger of fire ripping through her body as if it were tissue paper, burned down the female beside him.

As her charred body fell limply to the ground beside him, Lash snarled silently, snapping his head to the side to examine what was left of his team after the Brotherhood's first counterattack.

"Kadasa!" he hissed tightly at what he saw.

His team, numbering easily close to twenty people, had been reduced by the Brotherhood attack to only five, including himself. A quick glance at the mass of Brotherhood psionics facing them yielded a number of bodies on the ground, but nothing close to the level of devastation his team had experienced. They simply didn't have the numbers to make a significant dent on the enemy.

It was time to call in reinforcements ... if they would risk the psionic booby traps scattered all over the convention center grounds!

Dropping behind a nearby overturned concrete bench, Lash frantically activated his comlink.

"Alpha Command, this is Alpha Leader, come in, Alpha Command." He rasped into his throat mike. "Alpha Command, come in! We've encountered heavy Brotherhood reinforcements and have taken massive casualties. My entire team has nearly been wiped out! We need reinforcement. I repeat, we need reinforcement!"