Fourth Vector Ch. 20

He knew their best chance of survival was in awaiting reinforcements in the south and then to eventually push north. The enemy had moved too quickly to consolidate their hold on the city, but perhaps with more soldiers, they could.

Adalbert also knew he couldn't escape alone. Magda had to come with him. She was too important to be left to die.

He waited until she turned her back on him, still babbling about the defenses of the palace, before he grabbed an empty porcelain plate from her dinner and brought it crashing down on her head.

Magda went out cold, crumpling to the floor. He kneeled down beside her, making sure she was still breathing, and then finally grabbed her body and tossed it over his shoulder like a slab of beef.

Her own servants were staring at him, no doubt wondering if they should try to stop him or let him go. He knew that they knew who he was, probably the only reason they let him proceed without any resistance.

"Let's go, we need to get out of the city," said Adalbert finally to the last remaining men. "Those that stay in the palace will die one way or another." He tapped his front pocket, where he held the key to his revenge on King Aedan.

"Let's move out!"

Panic seemed to descend on the staff at the final acknowledgment of their hopelessness of their cause. As Adalbert carried Magda's lithe body along his shoulder, he used his other hand to operate a sidearm, ready for resistance. It wasn't a moment too late. He could hear the gunfire at the front of the palace, knowing it was only a matter of time before the enemy entered.

Yes, come into the palace now, he thought.It will be the last thing many of you do.

As he walked along one of the main halls of the palace, a window just to the right of him was shot out with gunfire, requiring him to shield himself from the wall of glass. Screams erupted all around him from several female servants as the gunfire seemed to be at the very front hall of the palace. Enemy soldiers were only a hundred yards away, and so he picked up into a jog despite the pressure of carrying Magda starting to wear on him.

Finally, he emerged out of the back entrance where about five Swabian soldiers were guarding a truck. Not far behind them was a Picard battalion, marching toward the palace and the sounds of fighting. Normally, such a sight at this crucial junction would fill Adalbert with fear, but he knew the commander had been personally ordered by Aedan to work with them.

"Get this thing moving quickly," snapped Adalbert as he laid an unconscious Magda in the back. He hopped up beside her, keeping his head down as the other soldiers filed in.

"You there, the enemy is at the gates," said Adalbert to the Picard commander. "Take your battalion around the palace and smash them!"

Even though the Picard looked at him with disgust, he nodded anyway. Soon the mass of blue-uniformed soldiers were moving around the palace, and Adalbert smiled at the thought of them soon falling on the invaders.

Soon enough, the engine began to roar, whisking them away toward the western gate of the city. With any luck, they might be able to avoid the envelopment by the two armies as they converged on the palace. Either way, he was prepared to shoot his way out of any scuffle they might come across. At least they had the advantage of wheels to get out of the city.

Many of their soldiers wouldn't be so lucky.

Adalbert waited until they were about six city blocks away before he pulled out his last revenge on the king, hitting the button without remorse. He scarcely turned around to watch the show, the sound satisfactory enough. With a coolness rarely seen outside of battle, he held onto his sidearm grimly as the little truck sped toward the gate.

Thankfully, they ran into no resistance along the way, not even a Picard patrol. For that he was thankful, especially seeing as most of the Picard soldiers appeared to have deserted during the night.

Useless pricks.

The sun was just starting to rise over the western gate as they arrived. One of the soldiers hopped out of the truck to raise the gate. Adalbert wasn't sure if it was the stillness of the vehicle or the low hum of the engine, but Magda seemed to be coming back to consciousness as they began to pull through the gate.

"What the . . . where am I? Adalbert?" she asked foggily before her eyes snapped to full awareness.

"We're leaving the city," he said firmly.

She reached up to rub the spot on her head where the plate crashed into it. "You son of a bitch," she swore softly, her eyes filled with daggers once more.

"We'll have better luck in the south. My cousin will see to it that we continue to get fighting men. This isn't the last that this city has seen of us."

"Quite the opposite, Adalbert." Magda sighed heavily, her tone soft for once. It was quite the change from the screeching he'd come to expect from her. "You've killed us all. You couldn't have just let me die in that palace."

He didn't answer that question, mostly because he couldn't find a reason that he would admit out loud. Even though Magda was the head of this operation, and even though she gave him a hard time, for some reason, he didn't want to let her die here today. It might have been the acknowledgment that she was competent, and that if they had the time to regroup in the south, they would still have a fighting chance.

Of course, it still could have been those lips that he liked looking at so much.

Whatever the reason was, he couldn't leave her behind. As the truck rolled through the western housing district beyond the wall, Adalbert still had to figure out a way to get to their forces in the south of the country.

Though the city was falling behind them, he had to remain focused on the future if he was to survive his cousin.

And they still had a lot of fight left in them.

*****

Jack, Dustin, and about three squads of marines were the first to breach the front entrance of the palace, finding a scene of chaos contained within. It looked like the place had been ransacked. Broken ornaments and furniture were everywhere. There was food on the ground and cowering servants huddling behind one of the hallway pillars. There were still lots of voices to be heard, even from the front door, and Jack knew a good portion of them were still Swabian.

The worst part about it was that several of those still shooting at them were Picard by the uniform.

"We have to find Aedan and Ciara," said Jack as they set up a temporary perimeter. "If we can reach the king, we can use his help with getting all the remaining Picard forces in the city to stop fighting!"

"Any idea where to start looking?" yelled back Dustin. "This is one huge ass palace."

"The residence wing," replied Jack before pointing down one of the halls. "Let's get going down that way."

"You heard the commodore, men. Let's move!"

As they started to fight their way down to the residence wing, Jack exchanged fire with two Picard guards making use of an upturned heavy table for defense.

"Stop shooting us!" he yelled. "We're on your side! We're trying to rescue your king!"

"Fuck you!" yelled back the Picards as they continued to fire.

Jack swore under his breath before directing a marine to open up covering fire for him. As the sounds of rapid bursts of shooting soon filled his ear, Jack dashed out from his hiding place to the opposite wall, stopping just short of another table. It gave him some leverage on one of the Picards, and two quick shots ensured he was down quickly.

His partner didn't seem to be the least bit affected by the death, continuing to fire rapidly at them. Jack heard the sound of screaming as one of the marines was wounded in the exchange, but he couldn't get a good shot on the Picard as he stopped to reload. The pause in gunfire allowed him a brief moment of opportunity.

Jack dashed forward toward the remaining Picard's position. He watched as the guard looked up in astonishment to find Jack standing over him, not prepared to offer the slightest defense as he tried to grab a full magazine for his rifle. Jack brought the butt of his rifle down on the guards face, knocking him out cold but not killing him.

"You showed more restraint there than I would've," said Dustin as he caught up to Jack. "I would've shot the son of a bitch."

"These guards are going to be tough. They are utterly loyal to the royal family and they're well-trained," said Jack. "Let's just hope we don't have to go through too many of them on the way to the king."

As they neared the residence wing, Jack noticed that the place was still crawling with Swabians. There were easily more enemy soldiers in this part of the palace than any others, and Jack couldn't help the nagging suspicion that they were up to something. Thankfully, they seemed too disorganized to offer an effective defense, so they made for easy pickings. In addition, they didn't run into too many more Picard guards, better fighters all around than their Swabian co-defenders.

At last, Jack's group of marines moved down one long corridor that contained all the personal quarters of the royal family. Jack found out from a wounded Swabian that the king and queen were being held hostage in their bedroom, and he rushed to free them.

The corridor held the most Swabians yet, but they were cleared out as the marines continued to move toward the king.

"Aedan has to be down this way!" yelled Jack. "One more push, boys!"

As Jack was moving down the side of the hall, he felt a grazing pain against his arm. He gave a small shout as he then pushed to cover himself against an indent in the wall. Looking down, he could already spot blood splattered against his uniform, but at least it was a grazing wound. As he switched out for a fresh magazine, he caught Dustin's eye across the hall.

"Looks like we're even now!" yelled the marine with a boyish grin, before he pointed to his own wound.

Resisting the urge to give him a rude gesture, Jack slid home the new magazine and continued working his way down the hall. The remaining Swabian force was starting to thin out now, and less than five men now stood between them and the royals.

When the last man fell from a blast to the abdomen, Jack and Dustin stepped out from the pressed indents in the hall and surveyed the carnage. Fallen gray-robed warriors were everywhere. Blood had gotten on just about everything, and spent ammunition littered the floor. The only thing that remained was Aedan's door.

"Major Culver! Major Culver!"

Dustin whipped around to find a Javan marine running at full sprint down the halls of the palace. The man wasn't known to Jack, but Dustin soon greeted him by name as he stopped for a breath beside the major.

"What's going on, Private Reed?" asked Dustin.

"Sir, we're under attack by Picards on the south side of the palace," said Private Reed. "There's a shit load of them, sir. Most likely a company or more. We need help!"

Dustin turned to face Jack. "You good here?"

Jack nodded. "Go ahead. Take a few squads with you. Just leave me one in case I run into any trouble."

"You got it," replied Dustin before raising his voice. "Marines! On me!"

As Dustin led the majority of their forces back outside for a confrontation with the Picards, Jack moved to the door of Aedan's bedchamber. It had been locked from the inside and wasn't budging. Looking around, Jack found something heavy enough to use as a ram.

"You there, Corporal, help me with the other side of this," he said to a marine, and together the two of them battered down the door. It was made of surprisingly stout construction, and it took them several furious blows before the door buckled off its hinges and crashed in front of them.

Inside, Jack immediately found a wild-eyed Aedan pointing a pistol at him. Ciara wasn't far from him, hiding under the bed away from danger. Aedan didn't seem to register who was at his door for several moments, and it was only just after that his expression seemed to soften.

"Jack, thank the gods, is that really you?"

Jack grinned. "I figured you could use some help!"

Aedan finally relaxed and lowered the pistol. "You have no idea how good it is to see you!"

"About as good as it feels to see you both alive and well," said Jack. "You are well, aren't you?"

Ciara stood up from the bed to approach him, rapidly throwing her arms around his waist. "We are just fine now, thanks to you."

"Jack, we've been secluded in here since we got word of your approach. What's happening out there?"

"We've taken the city, or rather most of it. The Carinthians are with me, fighting with us to help rid Picardy of the Swabians."

Aedan beamed with a smile. "Truly? You got through to Reina?"

"I'll admit, she didn't give in easily at first," replied Jack. "But she's a friend to you. Her forces are here on the north side of the city while mine are on the south. We've moved to envelop the Swabians between us."

Aedan grabbed Jack's arm. "We must get the ringleaders of this whole affair. Magda Bulow and Adalbert, the cousin of Lord Avila."

"Adalbert?" said Jack with a raised eyebrow. "He was one of the troublemakers from Andalucia."

"He only arrived a short while before you too," said Aedan. "The two of them are the center of all of this."

"Where did you last see them? Are they in the palace?"

Aedan shrugged. "I haven't seen them since they had us locked in this room. They could be anywhere in the palace."

"There are a lot of dead Swabians in the palace right now. Any chance they could be among them?"

Ciara shook her head. "I really doubt it, Jack. Those two are too crafty. I wouldn't be surprised if they were out of reach by now."

"We'll find them eventually," said Jack with confidence. "In any event, I'm just glad that you two are free now."

"As are we. What else did we miss?" pressed Aedan. "It feels like we've only been spoon-fed the information the Swabians wanted us to know for a week now."

"We had a feeling that was the case in Carinthia," said Jack. "Some of the messages that came out of the palace definitely didn't come from you."

Aedan paled. "I fear to see the damage they may have caused politically because of all this."

"We can still fix that," promised Jack. "Reina, Kat, and I know the real story. That's good enough for now."

Before Aedan could respond, all three of them turned their attention to the southern wing of the palace, where heavy sounds of gunfire erupted. It sounded like an entire army was just a few walls away, and Jack remembered the private that had tracked down Dustin.

"There will be more time to catch up later," said Jack before gesturing outside. "For now, we need your help Aedan. We still have various Picard army forces that are fighting against us."

"That's entirely my fault," the king replied while shaking his head. "I told them to give in to the Swabians. Ordered them, rather. Out of a misguided optimism that it would protect my . . . family," he said, ending with a long look at Ciara's stomach.

"Will you come with me then? Help me turn those units back to your command?"

"Of course," replied Aedan before turning back to his wife. "But a war zone is no place for a queen. Please, dear, you'll have to stay here in the palace."

Ciara wrapped her arms around her husband. "Just be careful, okay?" She then looked at Jack with imploring eyes. "Take care of him?"

"I will," promised Jack. "Come on. Let's get moving."

As soon as Jack and Aedan stepped out of the royal bedchambers, Jack heard Dustin's voice come through on the command radio.

"Jack, I really need you out here."

He grabbed the radio and brought it to his lips. "Talk to me, Dustin. What's going on?"

"We're going to lose the palace to these Picards! Our men are being pushed back. There's just too many of them!"

"How much longer can you hold?"

"Not long," came the brisk reply. "If you've got any more marines in that palace, we need them now!"

"My soldiers," said Aedan from Jack's side. "I can get them to stop."

"Are you sure? There seems to be a lot of confusion in the Picard lines right now. Think you're up to it?"

"I have to be or I'll go down trying," replied the king firmly. "Come on this way. We can use the back entrance to get to your men quickly."

Aedan set off with a brisk pace with Jack following not far behind. The king led Jack down a myriad of pathways, many of them devoid of people as the sounds of gunfire got louder. Jack would have been lost if not for Aedan, their weaving through the large palace taking them around corners, through rooms, and out to side hallways before finally exiting out of a side door.

Immediately, they found a small group of marines hiding behind several rows of hedges. Just directly to their right was Dustin, getting off several bursts of fire as blue-uniformed soldiers rushed their position.

Jack moved rapidly to get next to Dustin. "You weren't kidding about how many Picards there were."

"No shit!" Dustin got off a few more rounds. "Find the king?"

Jack thumbed his finger over to Aedan. "Right here. Safe and sound."

"I won't be sound for much longer if you keep killing my people though!" said a panicked Aedan. "You need to stop this madness!"

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, I didn't fight my way through your entire capital city just to die here by your men. I'll stop firing when they stop firing!" yelled Dustin.

"We need to do something," said Jack. "The bloodshed needs to end."

The panic left Aedan's face as he raised his head high. It appeared he already knew what he needed to do. "If something happens to me, tell Ciara that I love her."

With those final words, the king stood up as bullets still whizzed around them.

"Aedan, wait!" yelled Jack.

The Picard King was already too far gone. He marched out from behind the edges, moving down the path toward his own men. His arms were raised to show his lack of weapons but he rushed toward his own forces on nothing more than hope alone. It was almost suicidal, and Jack had to wonder if he'd spoken the last words to Aedan in that moment.

Yet, the effect it had on his forces was monumental. Many of them stopped firing immediately, recognizing their king as he moved toward their lines. Nearly all of them gawked at the sight of the sovereign emerging from the smoke of the firefight, an almost mythical figure come to life, a legend with no thought for his own safety.

"My brothers, it's time to stop fighting," said Aedan loud enough for all of them to hear. "The Swabians are our real enemy, not these men. Lower your rifles!"

If anything, the confusion in the Picard lines intensified. Many of them looked to each other, no doubt wondering what the next man was going to do. It was almost like they would do what their comrade did, and for several tense moments, Jack wasn't sure if they were going to keep fighting or listen to their king.

It was one of those extraordinary moments where the men closest to the front set the tone for the behavior of the rest of the group. It was those men that were closest to Aedan and recognized him first, and therefore, they lowered their rifles rather than point them at the human representation of Picardy.

"It's okay, my boy," said Aedan at a younger man still holding his rifle at his own chest. "The enemy is gone. It's all right."

The young man began to shake his rifle. Tears streamed down his eyes. He was truly in the middle of a personal dilemma, but as the king reached out to push his rifle down, the young man obeyed without protest.

The rest of the army did the same. The entire battalion soon gathered around their king, safe in their numbers even if their confusion hadn't completely abated. Many of them reached out to touch him, as if to make sure he really was flesh and blood and not an apparition come back to life.