Page 40 of Ulfar

I grimace. I remember all too well the devastating defeat we faced at the hands of the Syndicate all those years ago. But we have grown since then. We are stronger and better prepared. And this time, we have the element of surprise.

“I’ll be careful,” I promise Soren, but in truth, I’m not sure if I can be. My warrior’s blood is hot with desire for revenge. I know my battle brothers will back me up, but we still can’t afford to mess this up.

Rathgar holds out his arm and taps a cuff on his wrist, pulling up a holographic map of the compound below us. It’s shaped like a wheel, with a large central hub splitting off into multiple long spokes. “I’m beaming the coordinates to all four of you. We’ll each take a different cardinal direction and meet up in the middle. Deal?”

“Deal.” I gaze at the glowing map on my wrist comm.Wait for me, Sarah. I’m on my way.

* * *

I’mat the south entrance and so far, so good. They haven’t noticed a thing. If I want to keep it that way, I have to stay stealthy. As much as I want to go in there guns blazing, I have to think about what’s best for Sarah.

If they have enough warning that we’re coming, they can move her, maybe even get her off the planet before we get to her location. And I’m not going to let that happen. Not again.

So I swallow the roar building in my throat and rush toward the door when the single guard turns his back. A single, quick blow to the back of his skull and he’s down for the count. One down.

I grab his hand and wave it over the scanner to register his fingerprint. With a beep, it accepts his credentials, and the door slides open.

I’m in.

A long, windowless steel corridor stretches out in a straight line in front of me. No sounds, no movement. No guards either. Odd. If they’re not patrolling that means they’re elsewhere.

Or we’re walking right into an ambush.

The good thing about this long corridor is that no one can sneak up on me. I can see anyone approaching from meters away. The bad news? Anyone else can do the same.

So when I hear footsteps approaching, there’s nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. I just have to arm myself and wait for the inevitable.

An unsuspecting guard rounds the corner and freezes the moment he sees me. We stand off like that for a fraction of a second, and I’m rushing him before he has a chance to radio in for backup. Blaster at the ready, I fire off a barrage of bolts as soon as I’m in range. He jolts and falls to the ground, twitching as the electric pulses shock his system.

He’s a strong one, though, and his shaking hand moves to his belt. He clicks some sort of button on a panel strapped to his leg before looking up at me with a triumphant gleam in his eye. “You’re toast,” he coughs.

And then the whole place goes up in flames.

I cough and pull down my visor, switching on the filter as I struggle to pull clean air through my lungs. Eyes burning, I tear through the smoke and look for the exit. That little self-destruct trick may have slowed me down, but nothing will keep me from the love of my life.

The downside? That explosion alerted every guard in the compound, and they’ll be converging upon my location in a matter of seconds.

“Got a little problem here!” I bark into the comm, hoping that the others are faring better than I am.

The channel opens, but all I hear is static and the sounds of gunfire. Great. So no one is coming to help me. Taking a deep breath, I summon up the shimmering holo shield from my wrist unit. It won’t last long, but if I can slice through enough of them to get to Sarah…

As the alarms sound off and bathe the corridor in red, I let out the primal roar I’ve been holding back.

No one captures my girl and gets away with it!

* * *

It’s a fucking bloodbath.I scream and cry and shoot off blast after blast into those bastards. They fall like flies, twitching corpses piling up along the corridor as I rush for the center. With a whoosh, an electromagnetic pulse speeds toward me and plasters sweaty strands of hair against my forehead.

Frantically, I tap the comm at my wrist, but I know what the response will be. The bastards scrambled our electronics!

“Orri!” I bark into my earpiece. “Orri, come in!”

Only static and silence await me.

With a growl, my fingers close around the hilt of my blade. The sound of metal rings out in the dead air.

Looks like we’re doing this the old-fashioned way.

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