Dragon: A Histories of Purga Novel

Chapter Twenty-Three

Blak Soldiers dropped from the ceiling of the tunnel where they had been clinging to the rock with nano-weapons that looked like clawed gloves. They were silent and didn't make any noise.

The rebels crashed into their seemingly infallible phalanx and destroyed it. They used those clawed hands with deadly fury. Fiona watched as one of the Pillar's Infantrymen was stabbed in the stomach and then slashed across the throat. He collapsed to the ground in a gurgling heap. Another woman lost four fingers on one hand before she was able to ram her blaster into her attacker's chest and pull the trigger. A bolt from the mini-ballista speared one of the rebels in the thigh. Fiona watched in horror as the man let out a harsh cry and pulled the arrow out of his leg. Then he attacked Pillar with it. The Lieutenant saw him coming, though, and managed to avoid death but not a minor gash to his shoulder. He grunted and then ripped the arrow out of the rebel's hand. He reversed his grip, laid his other hand on the bolt's shaft, and rammed forward. He speared the rebel in the belly and then lifted him up and over his head. The guy hit the ground with a loud thud and stayed down.

Screams and cries filled the air as men and women grappled and fought for their lives.

As soon as Fiona felt the formation break apart, she dove forward and turned it into a roll. Her shoulders and arms burst into pain as her tender limbs rolled over rocks or were scraped by small pebbles. She willed the shield to burst apart and tapped a blueprint a second later. The nanos switched direction and formed her long spear, which she then started twirling. She gutted one rebel, yanked the spear free, and twirled again. Her gauntlet came up and she took quick aim. Twin pulses of harsh violet light filled the air and smashed into a Blak Soldier's head. The rebel hit the floor, smoke curling up from the blasted ruin of te woman's face.

Fiona smiled and silently thanked Garina Jernin (a soldier under her father's command that had sneaked her the blueprint for the gauntlets when he went missing, even overriding the civilian block on weapons to do it).

"For your protection," was what she had told Fiona then, by way of explanation. Her eyes had been deadly serious at the time. Now she was glad that Garina's foresight paid off. The gauntlets were deadly in their accuracy and intensity.

She aimed again and fired three shots. A Blak soldier crumpled to the ground right behind Pillar. He looked at Fiona for a moment and gave her a slight nod of gratitude. She nodded back.

Pretty soon, Pillar's soldiers (exhausted and worn out) finished up with the rebels. Fiona started counting bodies.

"Ten," she finished. Her hands trembled slightly and her racing heart was still pounding close to what felt like two hundred beats a minute. She forced herself to control her breathing and calm herself down. She had trained to fight at an early age, true, but she had never really tested herself in a real battle before. Upstairs in the prison and here in the tunnel were the extent of it. Her nerves were starting to go haywire. After several more deep breaths, she was finally able to get control over herself. Her heart slowed down and that uncomfortable, trembling feeling slowly faded from her body. She turned back to the others.

"There was also the one that we nailed down there. That makes eleven. Didn't they say there were twelve rebels down here?" she asked.

"Where's the last one?" the woman with the dark skin added.

"Be on your guard," Pillar commanded. "Mera?"

A blonde woman came up with a thick bandage wrapped around her left hand. Blood soaked through it and dripped onto the dirt floor, creating a muddy little puddle. Fiona realized she was the woman that had lost four of her fingers. She saluted with her right hand.

"Sir?" she asked.

"Casualty report," Pillar replied, his voice stiff as he took in the carnage. "How bad is it?"