“Great job,” I said as I squeezed her shoulder.
“I have a visual on Uffe’s suite,” she said as the screens on the front flickered to show a large man sitting on a golden throne. The throne was decorated with sculptures of wolves, and he was surrounded by what looked like thirty women. Some were naked, but others were in various states of undress. All of them wore silver chokers around their necks that looked like dog collars, but I didn’t see any men or guards wearing armor.
I did notice that Uffe, and most of his women were cyborgs. Both of the man’s arms were made of metal, his bare chest was covered with a canvas of dark wolf tattoos, and the top half of his skull looked completely robotic.
“Looks like the party is in the throne room,” Kasta said.
“If they are cyborgs, they might be immune to my powers,” Eve said.
“You can still move objects,” I said. “That will be all the help we need. Do what you can. It still looks like he doesn’t know that we are coming. Zea, how is their system? Have you figured everything out?”
“These terminals are connected to everything on the fortress,” Zea said. “It’s like they never thought anyone would be able to get into this room.”
“Do you have access to a drone network?” Paula asked.
“Just got it,” Zea sighed gratefully. “Jump to your terminals, and I’ll patch you in.”
“Fuck yeah,” Kasta laughed, and then the twins jumped to adjacent chairs that had drone controls.
“Get eyes on Layalina and Riecka if you can,” I said. “We are going to Uffe.”
“I’ll help you navigate,” Kasta said, and then she pressed a button on the collar of her aegis armor, and I heard my transponder beep on.
“Let’s go,” I said to Eve, Aasne, and Elana. The three of them nodded, but I could see the fear in Elana’s eyes. She wasn’t used to fighting, but she had done well so far.
“I’ve got some wolf drones,” Paula said. “They are on the ground floor, and I’m sending them our way. I don’t think they can open doors though.”
“I might be able to pop them,” Zea said. “What’s your location?”
“You three figure it out,” I said, and then I turned to Juliette.
“I will keep them safe,” she said before I could ask, and then Eve, Aasne, Elana, and I ran out the other exit door.
The hallway past the door was made of a smooth gray metal with copper rivets on the seams. Viking themed tapestries hung on the door, and we skidded to a halt after we had reached a four way intersection.
“Kasta?” I growled
“Shit, sorry. Having fun with drones, go right. Elevator is another fifty meters on your left side.”
We followed her instructions and then reached the elevator in a few moments. It had a decorated wood face on the doors with gold inlays of wolves and Valkyrie warriors. I reached out to hit the call button, but the doors opened before I could touch them.
“That’s me,” Zea said. “I’m over riding the alerts on the elevator, they won’t see a light or hear a ding when it gets to the bottom floor. Don’t worry about pressing any buttons.”
“Got it,” I said as we stepped inside.
“Drones are heading down from the main floor,” Paula said. “I have eight of the wolves and four disc model fliers with light pulse guns. They probably won’t go through any of the aegis armor, but those women looked naked.”
“Their collars are their aegis,” Aasne said. “We should not underestimate them.”
“If you guys can wait five minutes, our drones will be--” Paula started to say, and then I heard her scream.
Then I heard gunshots.
“Paula?” I hissed, but there was no answer, and our elevator stopped with a head spinning jerk.
“Kasta? Zea? Juliette?” I asked as I felt my stomach continue on downward.
“Shit,” Aasne growled.
“They are not injured,” Eve said. “I can still sense them.”
“Thank goodness,” Elana said.
“We are here!” Zea gasped. “Sorry. I’ll get the elevator moving soon.”
“What the fuck happened?” I asked.
“Layalina happened,” I heard Juliette say, but I also heard the Jotnar woman shouting.
“She’s saying she had no intention of betraying us,” the redhead hissed into her transponder. “Hey! Shut up! We don’t fucking care! I will pistol whip the fucking tattoos off your chest if you don’t shut your hole!”
“Uhhh, everything okay?” I asked as the elevator started to move again.
“Oh yeah,” Juliette said, “We’ve got her tied to a chair with some cables. And I’m about to shove a fucking pair of underwear from one of these guards in your mouth if you don’t shut up!” Juliette’s voice turned away from the transponder for the last part, and then Kasta came on.
“Sis has her drone-wolfs reconfigured to follow us, they are guarding the door, but we are still going to keep two more here just in case. Our other drones are at the elevator right above you, and they will take the next car down.”
“Got it,” I said as a bit of relief poured through my chest.
Then the elevator halted.
“You are there,” Kasta whispered. “Good luck. I love you.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I love you too.”
“Get that elevator back up so I can load the drones,” Paula said as soon as Eve, Aasne, Elana, and I stepped out of the elevator. The doors closed with a faint hiss behind us, and I heard the car ascend for a few seconds before it was silent.
The receiving foyer was lit by a faint glow coming from the crown molding on the top corners of the walls. The light was a slight purple shade, and it reflected a bit off the polished marble floors in a way that made it seemed like they glowed as well. There were more hanging tapestries on these walls, but these were all of naked women who looked to be wrestling with wolves. Then I did a double take when I realized that the naked women all looked like they were being raped by the animals.
“I like Uffe less and less the more we learn about him,” Elana hissed under her breath as we walked past the forth tapestry picturing bestiality and a woman screaming silently.
“Soon,” I growled as we passed a group of pedestals arranged against the marble walls. These each held decorative weapons with small lights beneath to highlight their edges. The first two were ancient six-shooter single action pistols. The next pedestal was a lever action rifle with a brass receiver. The next pedestal was an old style single action shotgun that looked like it might have been eight gauge.
The firearms gave way to melee weapons. Knives of various curved and straight shapes, swords made of ancient and pitted metal, and axes. As we got farther away from the elevator door, the weapons appeared to be more modern, and we were soon walking next to the kind of ultra-sharp longswords and axes that were often carried by Nordar warriors.
Then we came to a pair of three meter tall double doors that looked to be made out of solid gold. There were more wolves embroidered on the surface of this metal along with human women, but I didn’t pay attention to the various poses that they were in.
“Ready?” I whispered to the three women, and they each nodded.
“Elana, you are in the back. Take out anyone with a long-range weapon first, but save Uffe for me.”
“Yes, my king,” she whispered.
“Here we go,” I said as I squeezed the grip of my rifle in my right hand and then pushed open the double doors with my left. The doors swung wide open as if they were on automated power hinges, and the three of us walked into the throne room with our weapons pointed toward the large golden chair sitting high on the dais.
“Ahhhhh. You are here,” Uffe grumbled as he adjusted his large gold crown.