Bryce

“We’re facing the compound’s main building. The portal room is in Rajak’s office on the third floor,” Sora shouted as the hold’s doors slowly moved. “Expect heavy resistance.”

The doors opened to reveal just over a dozen members of the Syndicate facing away from us while they used the ship as cover. Half of them were unarmed mechanics.

The pack opened fire, and the Syndicate were dead on the ground before they could even recognize the danger.

“Protective formation around the captain, keep moving, and kill everything. Leave no witnesses,” Daria ordered, and the pack moved to surround me.

Mazi was standing behind me to my right. She placed a hand on my shoulder, keeping it there to direct me. “Don’t fall behind, captain. I’m responsible for you.”

I nodded in response, and we moved off the ship as a group. I couldn’t see Sora, but I had to assume they were following behind us.

The compound was set up exactly as Sora’s map had indicated. It was a large, fenced square with a dirt landing pad surrounded by utilitarian buildings, the largest of which was twenty meters directly in front of us. That was our destination.

To our left was the building that housed the FTL array, made clear by a series of cylindrical antennas arranged on the roof. There was a scattered stream of armed Syndicate soldiers rushing towards the building.

Most of them seemed to come from the other side of the compound, but anybody who got in our way was quickly shot and killed.

We nearly made it to the large double doors of the main building before the soldiers stopped blindly running to the FTL array and started firing at us. We returned fire but didn’t stop moving as we passed through.

The doors opened into a large common area, where they had set up several couches. To our left was a cafeteria with a large number of tables.

Drinks and plates had been scattered across the room where we had interrupted them mid-meal, but we didn’t see anybody still in the area.

“To our left, up the stairs beside the kitchen,” Daria shouted, and the formation immediately shifted, heading in the indicated direction. “Dezra, Davix, clear the kitchen.”

The two wordlessly broke formation to jump over the buffet-style counter.

The rest of us continued at pace up the stairs to the second floor. The stairs led to a hallway with labeled office doors on either side.

I could see from there that the hallway eventually turned into a large open floor office space with desks arranged to allow the maximum number of people possible to be seated at workstations.

“Robby, Nikko, you two clear the offices in this hall. There’s an elevator on the far side of this floor that leads to Rajak’s office, and that’s our next destination,” Daria said.

The two split off and began opening doors, occasionally firing into them. The group rotated to fill the gaps in the formation and we continued forward.

Gunfire filled the air the moment we stepped out of the hall. Mazi pushed my head down and fired across the room as the group split into two and hunkered down behind a pair of desks.

I barely peered around from where we were hiding before Mazi pulled me back into a more defensive position.

They were firing at us from behind a barricade that had been set up on the far side of the room.

“Status check!” Lysc shouted.

“They hit me in the gut, but it was a low caliber round. It didn’t make it past my armor,” Patches said.

“We’ve got incoming from behind!” Dezra shouted from the other side of the hall.

“Mazi, explosives now,” Lysc said.

Mazi took her hand off my shoulder to reach into one of her vest pockets and pulled out a brown rectangle wrapped in clear plastic. She inserted a small metal cylinder into one end and stood to throw it, but stopped when the constant stream of gunfire disappeared.

“We’re clear over here,” Sora shouted from behind the barricade.

“The fuck?” Mazi shouted back. She pulled the metal cylinder out of the brown block of explosives and tossed it aside. “I almost blew your ass up. Let us know next time, fucking idiot.”

There was a small pop from the cylinder exploding on the floor, and the group slowly stood.

“Oops?” Sora said as they vaulted the barricade. At this point, the pack members who were clearing out the witnesses had joined back with us.

“Push the desks to the sides of the room to create a killbox, be quick,” Lysc said. “Mazi and Dezra, come with me and the captain to the next floor. Everybody else, stay here and shoot anybody who comes through that hallway.”

We rushed to the elevator while they got to work moving the desks out of the middle of the room.

The elevator came when we called it, and we climbed in.

“Stand to the side, out of the doors,” Lysc said. I moved to the corner on the right, and Mazi stepped beside me while Dezra and Lyscantra stood on the opposite side.

I pressed the only button, causing the doors to close, and the elevator started moving. Mazi pulled out another metal cylinder and pushed it into the block of explosives she was still carrying. I shot her a concerned look.

“I didn’t get to use it downstairs.” She shrugged.

The doors opened before I could protest and a hail of gunfire filled the elevator, impacting the back wall. Mazi tossed the explosive through the doors without looking. There was an explosion, followed by a cloud of dust and silence.

Lysc crouched low and peered through the doors before exiting the elevator. We waited in silence before she shouted back. “Clear!”

Mazi held me back while Dezra went first, then she motioned us to move ahead and we followed.

This floor was significantly smaller than the others. The wall opposite the elevator used to be made entirely of glass, but now it was shattered. Three corpses and the remains of a wooden desk had been placed on its side to act as cover.

To our left was another glass wall with a door that led out onto the roof where an expensive looking shuttle was parked.

Finally, to our right was a pair of waist-high pylons, placed three meters apart. This was where Rajak’s portal had to be.

“How long will it take to open the portal?” Lysc asked.

I walked over to the pylon, casting a quick spell to check for residual magic. It felt like the portal had been opened only a few minutes ago, which would make this easier.

“I’ll need five minutes,” I said.

“Good. Mazi and Dezra, you two wait here with the captain. Defend her with your lives. Mazi, the moment she opens the portal, throw the bomb through and detonate it.”

“Yes, boss,” the two of them chorused.

“The detonator works through subspace. So, please wait until I close the portal to detonate it,” I said.

Lysc laughed. It sounded extra threatening coming from her half-wolf form. “Do as the captain says, don’t kill us all.”

Lysc stepped back onto the elevator and the doors closed, leaving the three of us alone.

“Get started, captain. Dezra and I will defend you,” Mazi said.

I nodded and stepped towards the portal array. I concentrated on the mana signature, reconstructing the spell that had been cast here countless times. It was hard work, and I had to tune out the distracting noises from around me.

I located the spell and when I felt like I fully understood it I started casting. Much to my surprise, a portal began opening a mere thirty seconds later.

It started as a tiny crimson mote of light floating in the air, but quickly spiraled out until it was a flat circle, wide enough to span the full distance between the two pylons. I stopped casting and stared, dumbfounded.

“That was fast,” Mazi said. She pulled the briefcase off of her back and started walking towards the newly opened portal.

“Wait, Mazi, that wasn’t me.”

A figure stepped through the portal and into the office. She was a bit shorter than me, had unnaturally flushed skin, black hair that flowed and floated behind her, short black horns sprouting from her forehead, and golden eyes that glowed with barely contained power.

Above all, she was supernaturally attractive in a way that even her tight clothing and exaggerated figure didn’t explain. I couldn’t help but stare at her, unable to form a single thought, outside of how incredibly beautiful the woman was.

“You must be Bryce, this place reeks of your magic,” she purred. Every word she spoke felt like sex. “Really, dear, casting all of these spells directly overtop a nexus point? You made it far too easy for me to find you, a girl likes to be challenged sometimes.”

I stepped forward. My body was on fire with need, and it physically hurt to be in the same room and not touch this woman.

Nodding dumbly, I couldn’t speak. My throat was dry and my heart was beating against my chest. I swallowed before trying again. “I… Yes, I… Uh, hi, I’m Bryce.”

My fucking voice cracked when I said my own name.

The portal closed behind her, and the woman stepped forward. She was smiling as she placed a hand on my chest.

“Good.” She wrapped a hand around my throat before slamming me against the wall beside the elevator, halfway across the room.

I felt my breath be forced out of my lungs as the shielding spell flared up, protecting me from most of the impact.

The spell ended. Dezra roared and Mazi opened fire, as I dropped to the floor, unable to catch my breath.

I lifted myself to my knees, but Esme was moving faster than I could track. I heard bones break and saw Dezra fall to the ground, dead.

Mazi let out a wet curse before joining the shifter in an expanding pool of blood.

“Oh, what’s this, I wonder?” Esme picked up the briefcase containing the positron bomb. Her right arm was covered up to the forearm with Mazi’s blood.

“Wait don’t, that’s…” I wheezed out, but she threw the bomb through the shattered window and into the distant jungle.

She knelt down to look me in the face, and her eyes glowed with power again, causing my mind to fog over. I reached up to touch her, but she stopped me just short.

“Not yet. You’re going to cancel whatever fucked up pact you forced on Thea, then you’ll tell me where she is. And finally, if you’re really good, then I’ll kill you. But first I’m going to hurt you in every way that you hurt her. Do you understand me, Bryce Virra?”

I nodded vigorously, needing to obey the beautiful woman, and wanting nothing more than what she had just offered me.

“Good. Now cancel the pact, along with every other spell you’re channeling. There’s no reason to let this little shield of yours get in the way of our fun, now is there?”