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but heavy disrupters would tear a body apart without damaging the
armor. The sleeves ended in skin-tight gloves that didn't interfere with
the operation of a weapon and the bottom of the coverall covered
shoes or boots as well as feet. A helmet that covered the entire head
attached to the collar, but the helmet didn't have to be put on until they
were ready to leave the ship.
"They've just assigned us a berth, Captain," Decker said over the
comm next to the airlock. "Less than five minutes before we change
course, and then about a minute to landing."
"Acknowledged," Tor said after pressing the switch on the comm.
"Give us a countdown for the last minute before the airlock is opened."
"Will do," Decker said while Tor turned to get his helmet. Tor felt the
urge to stop dead when he saw the girl Chayara just about into her
coverall, but staring would have been stupid if not suicidal. He needed
all his attention to be on the task at hand, and once they were all in their
helmets the job should be easier. He hoped&
Five minutes either drags or flies by, depending on what you're doing
and what you're waiting for, but this time the minutes managed to both
drag and fly. Tor was in the midst of wondering if Decker had forgotten
about the countdown when it suddenly began.
"One minute to open airlock," Decker's voice came over the general
intercom. "Fifty-seven & fifty-six & fifty-five& "
There was a general shifting in place as the assault group readied itself,
and Tor felt more excitement in the air than anxiety. They'd all been
waiting so long for this moment, the time when they'd try their best to
depose the most repressive government the human race had ever had
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to fight against. History had brought forth conquerors and tyrants in
fairly large numbers, but the worst of them acted not in an effort to
terrorize but in an effort to do "right." More horrors are committed in
the name of good than in the name of evil. Someone delighting in being
evil is a joke; someone delighting in being good is a nightmare.
Lanni handed Tor his rifle for the preliminary long distance work that
would be necessary, both of them already wearing their hand weapons
in holsters. A glance showed Tor that the girl Chayara also wore a
hand weapon, but she hadn't been given a rifle and that was good. Tor
didn't want the girl getting involved in the fighting, not unless her life
depended on defense, and the rest of the group had strict instructions
to guard the girl's life with their own. Guarding the girl would be
guarding their luck, but for Tor the effort would be much more - even
though he refused to think about what the much more entailed&
"Twenty-six & twenty-five & twenty-four& " Decker's voice said
over the intercom, making Tor wish he could hurry the count in some
way. It was nice to know exactly how much more time they had to
wait, but dragging the thing out second by second became
nerve-wracking. And the ship hadn't entered the control facility's
exclusion field yet, otherwise they would have felt the shock -
"Nineteen - I don't believe it!" Decker said suddenly, no longer
sounding mechanical. "Attention assault group! As soon as we entered
the facility's exclusion field, our presence seemed to cause an explosion
of sorts! All the guards stationed around the building have gone down,
and the ones in sight aren't moving! There are some heavy equipment
vehicles around as well, but I can't tell about their personnel. Watch
yourselves going out& Seven & six & five & four & three & two
& one & go!"
Tor hadn't felt it when the ship grounded, but the opening of the airlock
was impossible to miss. They were using a large freight airlock, and
Decker's controls allowed both inner and outer doors to open at once
as a ramp extended. Tor ran through the airlock and jumped onto the
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ramp with his rifle held at the ready, every sense he had alert for the
smallest movement as he rode the ramp most of the way to the ground.
Lanni and the rest of the assault group were right behind him, but Tor
had grabbed point and meant to keep it.
The heavy equipment vehicles were closer to the ship than the
unmoving bodies on the ground, but instead of protecting the people
inside them the vehicles had apparently acted as transmitters rather than
insulation. The crews inside the vehicles were very dead, as opposed to
the troops scattered across the ground. The ground troops seemed to
be no more than unconscious, just the way Chayara had been when her
talent had blown the exclusion and disintegration fields on Moradan's
station&
"Decker, close the airlock again and keep it closed until you hear from
me," Tor said at once into his helmet mike while he headed for the
building they'd come to take. "Most of these guards are unconscious,
and we don't want them deciding to tour our ship once they wake up.
Assault group, attention. We now need to find a way inside the building
before these sleepers come awake. Once inside we won't have to
worry about them any longer."
A handful of the members of the assault group had already started for
the building housing the control facility, and at Tor's orders the rest of
the group did the same. Tor himself was almost there, his attention on
the building's main entrance, when a voice sent his attention in another
direction.
"This small door is unlocked," the girl Chayara announced from where
she stood to Tor's right, an open door right in front of her. Three
members of the group were behind her, but even as Tor headed in that
direction two of the group members moved in front of the girl - where
they should have been all along. Tor wanted to ream them for letting the
girl be the one to find the open door, a door that could have had any
number of guards behind it, but now wasn't the time. Later, though&
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The small door led into a room that had chairs and drink dispensers,
not to mention a number of guards on the floor. It was most probably a
break room for the outside guards, but it also had a large double
doorway that led into the facility. Both the outer door and the double
doors could be locked securely, so once all of Tor's people were inside
he had the unconscious guards dragged outside and then ordered both
doors locked. The longer it took anyone to break in, the longer he and
his people would have to destroy the ships guarding the planet.
Tor sent a couple of his people to make sure all other doors into the
building were locked, then he led the rest on a search for the main
control room. They were actually attacked by guardsmen on the way,
men and women who seemed to have been protected from the field
backlash to a certain degree by their body armor, but only the first [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]