by Drew Cordell
“Breach squads, you’re clear to commence ops.”
The three squads moved forward, placing breach charges on the exterior of the train, positioning them on the doors where the metal hull was probably at its weakest. My heart thudded in my chest as I watched. Three explosions rippled across the surface of the train and illuminated the darkness below for a brief second before everything went dark again. Faint popping sounds sounded in the distance as the sound made its way to us on top of the apartment complex.
“All charges cleared. Commencing breach,” someone said.
I toggled the feed on my wrist link, watching from the helmet cams of the squad members that swarmed into the train with weapons raised. The inside of the train was hollow—empty. Flashlight beams and laser dots danced across the interior of the train scanning for something, anything.
“It’s empty,” a voice called. “Raven? Lancer? Do you see anything?”
“Negative. Empty over here as well.”
“We’re not reading an Omniscience Engine wavelength at all and the train reactor is offline,” the voice from Command said.
There was humming in the distance, and it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. I pulled off my headset and listened. It was louder now. “Do you hear that?”
Adam pulled off his headset and tipped his head. “That doesn’t sound good. Where is that coming from?”
The others in Knight Squad removed their headsets, listening to the droning sound that was growing louder—it sounded like engines.
“Marwin, Edgar, take off your headsets. Do you hear anything?” Caeldra said after replacing her headset.
“Nothing over here. It’s silent,” Edgar responded.
“We hear something, and it sounds like engines.”
“Roger. Scan the skies and streets with your rifle sights; we need the camera’s uplink system fixed on the train.”
“Copy,” Caeldra said.
Shouldering our rifles, we scanned the sky and streets with the rifle sights, looking for anything moving in the night vision optics.
“Dropships to the east!” I yelled, spotting a squadron of dots in the sky that appeared out of nowhere.
The others moved their sights over and caught the black dots barely visible against the backdrop of our night vision.
“Command, we spot a fleet of Dropships coming from the east. Please advise!” Caeldra shouted, patching the view from our rifle sights through the uplink.
“Raven, Paladin, and Lancer, establish a defensive front. You’ve got incoming!” the voice from command yelled.
“Copy,” the squad leaders called.
“Shadow Squad, start heading east. We need backup.”
The man from command interrupted. “We’re deploying a drone to scan their cargo. Standby. Knight Squad, hold your position and get that main camera on the incoming dropships.”
“Roger,” Caeldra said, running over to the camera and repositioning it to face the oncoming swarm.
“ETA is ten minutes; the drone is five minutes out,” Martinez said. “Knight Squad, have your EMPs ready. We want you to detonate on top of the roof as they pass over; we’ll tell you when. Place the EMP at the highest point on the roof and get inside the building. Go a few floors down and wait for instructions.”
“On our way!” Caeldra called, pulling the EMP from her backpack and placing it on another AC unit as far away from the uplink as possible. With the EMP positioned, we rushed inside the apartment building, descending the stairwell while we watched the Dropships approach on the camera feed.
“Drone is positioned. We’re reading hundreds of Omniscience Engine frequency transponders. There are hundreds of Dropships, but we’re not seeing anything inside them,” the voice from command said.
My heart sunk. “HKs. They’re probably full of HKs; they don’t run on the signal. They’re autonomous,” I said.
“The Dropships are still running on the signal and we’ll try to take out as many as we can with the EMP on the rooftop,” Martinez said. “If we time it right, we should be able to take down most of the ships.”
“We need to get to the surface and be ready to move. Once that EMP goes off, we need to support the breach squads and help them get out of this,” Caeldra said.
“We need to be evacuating into the Undercity,” Mary shouted. “I’ve seen what those things can do.”
“They’re autonomous. If we let them get into the Undercity, the Guild will be trapped underground forever. They don’t know where the Guild Hall is, but it sounds like there is enough of them to spread out and kill anyone unfortunate enough to run into them,” I said, trying to keep my voice level.
Caeldra put a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “Jake’s right. We fight and listen to our orders. We’re soldiers fighting for something bigger than ourselves. If we let them into the Undercity, then we’re all dead. The Omniscience Engine wants us to run into the Undercity so it can track us and eliminate the Guild. If we take the bait, everything we have fought for is gone. We fight until we win or die,” Caeldra said firmly.
Mary nodded, and Adam and Leroy continued down the stairs with Mary, Caeldra, and myself close behind.
“ETA is two minutes. We’re taking control of the EMP remotely. Knight Squad, get down to the lobby and be prepared to group up with the breach squads. The other reconnaissance squads are on their way,” Martinez said. “Make sure you’re inside when the EMPs go off. You’ll have to wait to move until the ships have crashed.”
“Already on it,” Caeldra responded through labored breathing.
My headset crackled again. “Raven, Paladin, and Lancer, set up your EMPs outside of the train. We’ll have you detonate them to take out the Dropships if some manage to get past Knight Squad and into your airspace.”
We continued to race down the stairs, scrambling to reach the streets where we could make a difference.
“Pick it up! We’ll rest when we get to the car,” Caeldra yelled.
The droning sound was louder now, audible through the thick walls of the apartment. I couldn’t help but wonder how many Dropships there had to be to make that kind of noise.
“EMP detonation in one minute. Be sure you’re inside when it goes off, Knight Squad. It’s going to rain fire when it detonates.”
“Faster!” Caeldra yelled. We all knew what she was thinking, but we continued. If we were trapped inside the apartment complex when the Dropships fell, we wouldn’t be able to help the others.
My legs were throbbing, tensing up and burning with pain as I continued to propel myself downward. One wrong step and we’d break our ankles; it was an accident waiting to happen, but there was nothing we could do but move faster down the treacherous stairs. We passed the fifth-floor marker on the wall, barreling down toward the street.
“Thirty seconds,” Martinez called. “Knight Squad, do you copy?”
We were too winded to speak, focusing on breathing and moving as fast as possible. When Martinez started his ten second countdown, we broke out onto the street, running to the car and jumping in. Caeldra flooded the engine and sent it rocketing away from the apartment building as the Dropships came into vision behind us. There were hundreds of them, dark in the sky with bright LED flood lights sweeping the streets. There was an explosion overhead followed by darkness in the skies as hundreds of Dropships suddenly disappeared. Explosions started to ripple across buildings and the ground as the ships crashed and burned.
We all screamed as a Dropship hit the ground in front of the car, exploding and sending a shockwave through the frame. Somehow our gear protected us, and Caeldra kept control of the car, swerving around the burning debris and continuing to drive us toward the Docks. More ships were coming into sight now, their floodlights still powered on. A couple of them swooped down and started trailing behind us, shining their blinding beams on us. Adam started shooting his rifle at the Dropships trailing us, but they were shielded and the shots bounced off harmlessly.
Two more dropships dropped in and f
lew beside us. I pointed my rifle beam up toward the opening in the cabin where multiple silhouettes stood huddled together. One of the robots was manning the turret and it started shooting, sending a torrential volley of energy bolts toward us. Caeldra swerved and punched the accelerator, bringing the car out of the volley and avoiding most of the shots.
“Shoot the gunners!” Adam yelled.
“Save your ammo. If you take down a gunner, another will take its place!” Caeldra yelled, cursing profusely and attempting to get us to the train. “Breach squads, we’re bringing the party to you. Have those EMPs ready; we spot Enforcers or HKs in the Dropships. We’ll be there in three minutes!”
“EMPs on standby,” Martinez called.
“Keep your heads down,” Caeldra shouted as another volley of bolts struck, some of them entering the open-framed car and piercing through the seats and floor of the vehicle. “Taking a detour, hold on!” She took a hard left, causing the car to whirl around the corner and drift way too hard to the side. The car struck the side of a building and bounced off in an explosion of sparks and a crunching impact. Somehow, we were still alive. The Dropships trailing us to the sides hadn’t made the turn in time, and we were temporarily out of their deadly gunfire.
I heard a gut-wrenching scream from Mary and turned to face her. She was staring at Adam. It turned out we hadn’t escaped unscathed. Where Adam’s head should have been, there was nothing but a burned stump. As Caeldra rounded another corner, his body toppled over and fell across the bed of the open trunk.
“Don’t look, Mary,” I called against the wind and growling of the engines overhead, pulling her flashlight beam away from the gruesome sight.
“What happened?” Caeldra shouted.
I shook my head, trying to clear my increasingly frantic thoughts while the adrenaline coursed through my veins. “Just drive!”
More Dropships were approaching from above, shining their lights on us while others flew parallel with us, trying to line up a shot.
A ship raced overhead, lowering itself and flying directly over the street in our path. The turret in the Dropship revved to life and spat energy bolts, but Caeldra was already evading, shifting gears and activating an auxiliary thruster that blasted from the side of the car, swinging us into a cramped alleyway before we exited on another road.
Leroy gripped his rifle and the handrail overhead on the frame of the car. “We’re running out of time.”
“We’ll make it; we’re so close,” Caeldra said. Dropships were all over the sky now, converging on our location as we neared the train. “Breach squads, clear the doors on the train! We’re coming in hot!”
“EMPs going off in ten seconds; stay in cover,” Martinez said.
“Caeldra, we’re not going to make it! Stop right in front of the train!” I screamed.
“We’ll make it. We have to make it.”
She pressed the accelerator even harder, and we raced forward. The train was only a few hundred feet away now, and I could see the outline of the hole in the door where the breaching charge had gone off. It was impossibly small.
“Caeldra, there’s no way!” Leroy’s voice was filled with panic.
“Hold on,” she growled.
A Dropship flew directly in front of us blocking the path, and she punched the side thruster, shooting us around it and knocking us off course. My body was tossed to the side, pulling against the seat belt and causing me to collide with Mary. When we cleared the Dropship, Caeldra punched the other side thruster and pulled us back in line. The car groaned in protest as it executed the maneuver, and my vision blurred from the intense force. Caeldra cut the engine and hit the reverse thruster, punching the button to give us lift off the ground as well as propel us toward the train with impossible speed. I was certain we were going to die.
Caeldra’s maneuver gave us just enough lift to clear the space leading up to the elevated entrance on the train, and the car was swallowed in darkness. Using side thrusters and our forward momentum, Caeldra flipped the car in a horizontal 180-degree arc so we were facing the opposite way of our momentum. With our direction changed, Caeldra punched the rear engine again, stalling the car and causing my head to press into the back of my seat before I blacked out. When I opened my eyes, there were flames all around the outside of the train, illuminating the darkness in a furious orange blaze.
“Mary? Caeldra?” I croaked, trying to regain coherence. They weren’t in the car with me, and I saw a figure shifting around inside the train. I fumbled for my rifle, trying to pull it free, but it snagged against my seat belt. I was panting for breath, trying to free my weapon and shoot at the figure approaching. With shaking hands, I pulled my CZR-7 out and pointed it at the nearest figure, flashing on the light and positioning my finger on the trigger. I wasn’t looking at a robot at all; it was a man in an EPX suit, and he was shouting something.
“I can’t hear you!” I yelled over the roaring fires and the continued booming of explosions in the background.
I felt hands on my back, pulling me backward, and I turned to see Mary and Caeldra. There were blurs of motion in the air, and the man in the EPX suit in front of me was suddenly flung, flying back and twisting in the air before landing on the ground several feet away. He tried to stand, but a blast of green energy punched through his armor, crumpling the chest plate and blowing out a spray of red mist. He wasn’t dead yet, and he tried to stand, but more of the energy rounds hit him and quickly ate through the heavy armor. I was still in shock, and Mary and Caeldra pulled me out of the car and away from the train doors and surrounding carnage.
As I recuperated and started moving on my own, I could see hundreds of silhouettes approaching through the flames that burned outside. The breach squads were firing their weapons out of the train, trying to hit their targets, but it was blind fire. Most of the Guild members had taken up defensive positions at the edge of the breaches where they repelled the approaching enemies with automatic rifle fire.
“Recalibrating the EMP for full-spectrum pulse,” Martinez said over comms. “Don’t let them take that position.”
“I found a way into the maintenance ducts of the train where we can lie low,” Leroy said, running to our position and trying to catch his breath.
“No way. We need to help the breach squads hold them off until Martinez can activate the EMP,” Caeldra replied.
“That’s what I’m saying. We can sneak out the back and flank them—draw their attention while Martinez works,” Leroy said.
Caeldra nodded.
“This is Commander Thompson. Knight Squad is going to buy you some time,” Caeldra said, motioning for Leroy to lead us to the duct. He somehow had the third and final EMP strapped to his backpack.
We didn’t have much time; HKs had pushed up to the doors of the train now, and a lot of the breach squads had already gone down while others were struggling to defend against the relentless onslaught. Leroy opened a grate on the floor and jumped down, landing on his stomach and moving through the cramped crawlspace with his handgun drawn. We followed him and pulled the grate back into place as the gunfire and screaming above continued to reverberate through the train. I was shaking, and the adrenaline rush showed no signs of slowing down.
Moving as fast as we could, we cleared the tunnels and exited the train through an exhaust port into the streets. Burning Dropship debris and broken HKs littered the ground, and it took us a second to recognize our surroundings. Shouldering my rifle, I lined up a shot on an HK and fired a HexTox burst, taking the robot down. We ran away from the train, searching for cover and taking down stray HKs that approached from the wreckage of the Dropship fleet as we worked to gain a flanking position. Finally, we found a large bus in the street and took a defensive position behind it, firing at the backs of the HKs that were still trying to overtake the train from the last of the breach squad survivors.
Energy bolts pierced through the haze of smoke and found their targets, scrapping some of the HKs that weren’t expecting
our flank. Where was Shadow Squad? We needed their help.
“EMP is ready. You need to throw it at the HKs!” Martinez yelled.
Bolts of energy slammed into the side of the bus—they were coming from behind as more HKs moved toward the scene. Pulling Mary to the side, I kicked open the door on the bus so Mary and Caeldra could take cover.
“Cover us from behind!” I yelled to Mary and Caeldra, moving with Leroy as he unfastened the EMP from his pack. The screen on the top was glowing red, flashing with a countdown—thirty seconds.
Throwing my rifle to Caeldra and Mary, I unsheathed my sword and held it in my right hand, drawing my CZR-7 with my left. I took point, moving forward and activating my blade, the orange light glowing through the haze of smoke. Leroy trailed close behind, hauling the bomb and shooting at the HKs that were starting to retaliate. With full power on my blade, I used the deflect mode, holding the Hellfire Blade and deflecting the blasts from the HKs in front of us as they scrambled to shoot us down. I lined up a shot and squeezed the trigger on my CZR-7, landing a headshot and dropping an HK.
“Ten seconds,” Martinez’s voice echoed.
Leroy dropped his rifle and started spinning, holding the EMP with both hands by the handle and hurling it through the air. I grabbed him and we turned to run away, but nothing happened.
“Jake, Leroy, something went wrong. You need to manually trigger the EMP,” Martinez said. Before I could do anything, Leroy was already running back toward the EMP.
“Leroy, wait! There are too many,” I called.
“We’re coming to help!” Mary yelled.
A blast of energy caught me off guard, hitting my mask and blowing a hole through the side. I choked as smoke flooded my face and blurred my vision. Cursing, I tore it off and squinted my eyes to see through the stinging clouds of smoke.
Raising my sword, I charged forward, unable to hear anything but the crackle of gunfire and roar of the surrounding fires. The smoke burned, and it was almost impossible to keep my eyes open. Without the mask, I was cut off from comms and the rest of the augmented vision capabilities of Artemis.
