Page 131 of Decadence

“I’m on the roof,” Kail said softly. “Our precious cargo are being prepared for retrieval. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the sound of incoming.”

Ikriss went still for a heartbeat. Kail was right; he could hear it too, the distant sound of crude, noisy engines, growing closer and closer.

A human craft.

Were they insane?

Surely their human masters would have alerted them to their presence by now.

Ordinarily, he would order Makhel to shoot it down, but he was no longer in the business of risking innocent lives. A burning wreckage could hit the settlement below… or even their precious humans.

“I need four snipers, now,” Kail snapped. “Neutralize the threat and get the females out before this cursed human transport arrives.”

Ikriss moved to the front of his Division. Lukin, Gryke, and the others slowed, allowing him to pass. They reached a glass-walled winding staircase that led up onto the roof space, where the flight platform jutted out into the night sky.

“Coming up now,” he informed Kail. “Just tell us where to shoot.”

“Three-six-one, nine-four, seven-half, four-and-six,” Kail snapped, giving the squad valuable co-ordinates in a mathematically precise way that only they would understand.

Ikriss ran up the stairs and out into the warm night.

The stars were there to greet him, brilliant and alluring, but he hardly noticed, because he was raising his guns, one in each hand, the sights perfectly aligned to the co-ordinates Kail had given, and…

Boom.

Boom.

Two humans disintegrated, filling the warm night air with the stench of charred flesh.

Boom. Ruk took out one.

Boom. Lukin got the other.

The Syndicate guards died with their guns in their hands.

For all their heavy armor and massive guns, their trigger speed was just too slow.

Screams from a dozen human females split the after-echo of plasma-fire.

In the background, Kail was busy eviscerating his second victim with his hunting blade. The First Division warrior casually threw the dead human’s body off the side of the roof.

Now Ikriss could see the transport in the far-off distance. A grey triangle-shaped human flyer made of metal, it was crude and ungainly looking.

Destroy it.

No. Not yet.

It was right over the city, slowing as it neared its destination. If they shot it down now, it would fall and incinerate the densely populated settlement below.

He would not kill innocents in her name.

She would never forgive him.

“Can I take this fucking thing down already?” Makhel comm’ed in, his voice taut with urgency. “You’re not going to believe this, boss, but somehow, they got past our surveillance undetected. If I were a wagering type, I would almost suspect they had cloaking tech like ours.”

Cloaking? That was strange. Ikriss couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that something wasn’t right.

Humans shouldn’t have been able to get past their surveillance net.

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