Perdition (Dred Chronicles 1)

She’s got them back, right in the palms of her pretty hands. They’d die for her.

So would I, he realized a few seconds later, as she unwrapped her chains from her in an unmistakable sign she was ready to go to war. Dred swooped them over her head in a deadly arc, then slammed them down on the table. The echo reverberated around the room before she lifted her chains and twirled them; it seemed she would strangle herself or get tangled up in them, but her arms never slowed their graceful motion.

“What’re you gonna do?” she called.

“Kill!”

“I can’t hear you.” She lashed again.

“Kill!” With his amplified hearing, the roar nearly blew out Jael’s eardrums.

Fortunately, she took that as a sign that the men were sufficiently jacked up, and shouted, “Report to your commanders and don’t let me see your faces until the enemy is dead.”

Come home with your shield or on it. He couldn’t recall where he’d heard that, but it echoed in his head as his men formed up around him. Though that wasn’t strictly accurate, as several women were assigned to his company, including Calypso. He knew firsthand, however, how ferocious women could be—and if she’d been shipped to Perdition, then she could fight.

“We have the east corridor. Move out.” He didn’t wait to see if they followed him.

A few seconds later, footsteps assured him they had.

Dred would be approaching from the west and Einar from the south. Martine would be mopping up stragglers. He had no idea what back approach Silence intended to employ, but maybe her people knew hidden ways in the ducts, like Tam, or she could be coming up from underneath, through the Warren. Though Katur and his aliens wouldn’t like it if they knew, Jael suspected that the silent killers could pass undetected.

His squad was large for the size of the corridors, however. Jael divided them up in pairs, so they formed a fairly long column. He chose Calypso to guard the rear, mostly because he thought she’d appreciate the responsibility. Retribution should feel sweet—and she would make sure their group wasn’t ambushed on the way. From the gleam of her teeth as she accepted the assignment, she didn’t want to miss out on the bloodbath to come.

Jael took point. It was an easy progress past the east checkpoint. The turret was looking good, and the man standing behind him couldn’t have looked prouder as the troop marched by. You’d think this was happening on a much larger scale. But maybe it didn’t matter. It was still important. Even though this wasn’t a country or a planet, it was still their world.

It’s all we have.

He realized it was human nature to make the best of all awful situations, even one as bad as this. The cream would always rise to the top. And that’s Dred.

A few minutes later, Jael laughed when they ran into their first patrol. Men less fanatical would’ve fled. Priest’s four guards ran at them with suicide in their eyes. Jael obliged two of them himself; he made it clean and quick, then he stepped back so the rest of the men could get their shot. It was a bloody, horrendous mess, and his soldiers laughed as they stepped over the mangled bodies. He’d served with chem-head mercs less bloodthirsty.

“Keep it up,” he called.

“Maybe you should lead from the rear. You didn’t leave much for the rest of us.” He recognized Calypso’s voice.

“Nobody will go home hungry, I promise you.” He hoped they knew he meant sating their yen for violence. Someone had told him that people who ate their fallen enemies ended up in Munya—Mungo’s domain—sooner or later, as they weren’t welcome in other territories, not even Entropy.

“I’m holding you to that,” someone said.

“I think we need some marching music. Anybody got a military background?”

A tall man near the back answered, “I served. Want me to lead the chant?”

He nodded. “Make some noise. We’re not trying to sneak up anybody’s ass.”

With the former soldier leading the call and response, they rolled through four more patrols, and he made sure to stand clear, letting his men do the actual killing. The convicts shouted their appreciation and stomped the floor. Jael saluted and kept moving since there was a schedule to keep. Timing played a vital role in the plan Silence had offered. If the diversions didn’t occur at precisely the same time, it would impact the effectiveness of her sneak attack. Likewise, if she betrayed them, and the attack didn’t come, Dred’s forces would be cut down by the automated defenses.

But he’d learned from the best and didn’t let any of his doubts show. He pushed his squad forward though he could hear combat in the distance. Before long, they were hearing it, too.

“Are we late to the party?” Calypso yelled.

He answered, “Hope not. I’ll be pissed if they started without us.”

“No shit,” she came back.

“Double-time! Let’s move.” Jael set a bruising pace, and most of the men kept up.

Their feet rang out against the floor, announcing their arrival, but something was already going down in Abaddon. Dammit, I was keeping the count. This wasn’t supposed to start for another five thousand ticks. Since they didn’t have radios, they’d agreed to count down the action and begin as close to unison as they could.

His crew burst into the east corridor and were astonished to find Priest’s people already engaging the enemy—but not Queenslanders. These were aliens, every last one of them. Some species he recognized, like the furry, larger-than-life Rodeisian, a stray Ithtorian, no Morgut, thank Mary, some humanoid, looking similar to humanity but half-baked—they probably came from adaptive colonies—and then there were creatures he’d never seen before. Ones with trunks and tentacles; others that looked like walking amphibians. And every one of them was fighting Priest’s fanatics.

The battle raged just outside the range of Abaddon’s turrets. The son of a bitch had more than one, too. Breaking them wouldn’t be easy once he decided what the hell to do about this mess. Beyond the combat zone, he spotted a couple of Peacemakers, too. Mary only knew how Priest had managed to subvert them.

“What the hell,” Calypso said, shoving to the front.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“So what’s the play?” she demanded.

“I’m thinking we wade in. I didn’t come to this party to watch other people dance.”

Calypso’s smile lit up her hard face. “You’re my kind of ass**le.”