When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) by T.R. Harris Page A

elevator.
    Adam moved aside, and within three seconds the elevator was full of sweaty, foul-smelling Humans. Adam grimaced. If the trail of dead Sol-Kor didn’t give them away, the smell surely would. He pulled the dead alien away from the doorway.
    “Where to, Captain?” Johnson called out.
    “The top.”
    There were three rows of white push panels, each with strange symbols on them. Johnson lifted a small table computer to the array and pressed a button. The image was absorbed by the device and the translation program quickly deciphered the symbols. Even then, it didn’t help much. They were names, along with other labels, but no numbers. Taking a guess, the officer pressed the first panel on the first row.
    The door slid shut…and then promptly reopened.
    Johnson shrugged, and then pressed the bottom-most button in the third row.
    This time when the door closed it remained so, and the car began to move upward.
    “What’s the plan, Captain?” Johnson asked.
    “Taking a wild guess here, but I’m assuming the Queen will be at the top of the pyramid. This ride should end at a restricted area, so the aliens we find there should be armed. When the doors open, we go in blasting. Riyad and I have been here before, so we’ll be on the lookout for anything familiar. They won’t be expecting us, so that’s our only ace in the hole.”
    “Yeah, that’s what she said,” commented Sergeant Alex “Ace” Harbison from back in the crowd of commandos.
     “How do you know it was a she who said it, Sarge? We know how confused you can get at times.”
    “There are some things that are hard to mistake—”
    “Knock it off,” Adam commanded. He glanced at the panels on the wall of the elevator car and noticed them lighting up at each floor they passed. They were quickly approaching the last one. “Get ready. We’re almost there.”
    The team separated to each side of the door, pressing against each other so as to give anyone outside the elevator a clear shot. When the car bumped to a stop, the door slid open smoothly.
    From his vantage point crouched down to the right of the door, Adam immediately spotted four Sol-Kor, two seated at utilitarian tables and two others standing nearby. The two standing had holstered flash weapons on their hips.
    The Human rushed the room, making short work of the four guards. To the left was another cluster of desks with about a dozen Sol-Kor spread between them. The bulk of the team split off and rushed this part of the room. Two of the aliens managed to get off two flash bolts—neither impacted the commandos—and within five seconds of the elevator doors opening all the hostiles were down.
    Adam glanced up and noticed what looked to be security cameras at each corner of the ceiling. He took them out with bursts from his weapon.
    “Someone’s monitoring those cameras. Time to move.”
    Fortunately, there was only one main exit from this room, and it was through a pair of tall glass doors with an extremely wide corridor beyond. When they tried the glass doors, they were locked—a rarity among the Sol-Kor, but what one would expect within the chambers of the Queen. The men stepped back and took aim.
    From the results of the initial barrage, it was evident the glass was intended to be shatter-proof—for the first burst. The cracked and splintered material gave way to a second round of hard lead slugs.
    The team rushed through just as two squads of aliens rushed from side rooms, weapons ready. Their first flash bolts were wild, though a few struck the commandos, doing little damage to the reinforced armor they wore, which was just the opposite result their M-91 fire had on the unprotected bodies of the defenders. Even fourteen guards were no match for the charging Humans, and the team soon left the carnage behind, moving further down the passageway.
    Riyad was next to Adam. “These corridors look familiar, if only because of their width. But this could be anywhere.”
    “I agree.