“Scratch that plan!” Taia shouted. “That last missile knocked the port-side engines offline. We’re going down!”
Nolan’s whole body tensed. Not again!
The Phantasm yawed wildly, and the world outside the viewscreen spun as the ship plummeted toward the ground.
“Brace for impact!” Taia shouted over comms.
“We’re already fucking braced!” Nolan shouted back, driving his feet into the ground and pushing his back into the seat. His teeth clenched and he squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see the dizzily spinning treetops of the rainforest racing up toward him.
Their descent suddenly slowed, just enough that Nolan no longer felt as if they were going to die. Somehow, Taia managed to arrest their downward momentum and pull them out of the wild tailspin. Too late. The ship’s nose tore through a thick stand of trees with a rattling chorus of snapping branches and cracking trunks. Every shuddering jolt set the ship shaking so violently Nolan’s teeth clacked and his helmet struck the seat’s headrest. The forest floor raced up toward them and, with a violent crash, they impacted.
Nolan was thrown forward, but his flight harness snapped taut, stopping him from slamming face-first into the flight console. And although his armor cushioned the impact and protected his neck just enough to prevent whiplash, the collision with hard earth knocked the wind from his lungs.
Just for a second, though. He sucked in a ragged breath, fighting to regain control over his furiously beating heart. Everything hurt—his neck, his upper back and shoulders, his chest, his arms—but he was alive! On the ground, too, but “alive” was the word that mattered most of all.
“Shitting hell!” Bex cursed from the co-pilot’s seat.
Nolan pushed himself upright. Ignoring the twinges running down his neck and upper back, he unstrapped his flight harness and climbed to his feet. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Bex gave a snarling groan and unbuckled herself. “I know they say that any crash-landing you walk away from is a good one, but, fuck, let’s never do that again!”
“Come on,” Nolan said. “We need to move.” He snatched up his Balefire Mark 2.1 from where he’d left it tucked between his seat and the wall. After a quick once-over to ensure the rifle had survived the harsh landing, he clipped it to the two-point harness over his shoulders and darted toward the rear of the ship, where Taia had already begun lowering the ramp.
Beyond, dappled sunlight streamed through the dense temperate rainforest foliage, but Nolan had no time to enjoy the lush beauty. Behind the sparking, smoking Phantasm, a trail of ruined trees marked the trajectory of their graceless landing. Nolan’s mind locked onto the threat awaiting them—or, more likely, on the way to deal with them in person.
“Taia, where’d we touch down?” he asked as he raced down the ramp to take cover behind the thick trunk of an enormous Imperial maple tree. “Inside or outside the interference field?”
The map popped up on his HUD, with three blinking red dots to mark his, Bex’s, and the Phantasm’s positions. “Just outside,” Taia replied. “Half a kilometer west of our original approach vector.”
“That’s three and a half klicks from the cabin,” he said, thinking aloud. “Boot thrusters could make that trip in a matter of minutes, but will the Mule Kick clock us?”
“It will,” Taia said. “It’s got soundwave scanners that picked us up the moment we dropped below supersonic speeds. Your combat suit’s ion engines will definitely be detectable, even from this range.”
Nolan growled a curse. The stealth technology integrated into the Phantasm was beyond anything he’d ever seen, but even it couldn’t defy the laws of physics. It had made the ship harder to spot, but not utterly invisible or undetectable—especially not to a Mule Kick, with its systems designed to pick up anything within its scanning range.
“Think they knew we had this particular ship?” Bex asked over comms. She’d taken cover a few meters away behind another tree and crouched with her rifle held at the ready, facing the general direction from which the enemy would come. “Or is that Mule Kick here just to put down any ship we might use to get out?”
“Given the fact that the Dawnrunner is a prototype ship,” Taia said, “I calculate a twelve-point-four percent probability that the Black Crows knew of its existence.”
“Whether they knew or not,” Nolan said, “we’re damn near fucked. We need it as our ride out, but we can’t lift off if that Mule Kick’s still active and waiting to shoot it down.”
“That’s not the only problem,” Taia said. “The port-side engines were damaged by that last missile blast. I’ve activated the ship’s auto-repair mechanisms. However, the operating system is telling me that it will take forty-four minutes to resolve the malfunction, run the engines through their restart cycle, and get the Phantasm airborne again.”
Nolan’s jaw muscles clenched, but Taia hadn’t finished delivering the bad news.
“I’ve alerted the master sergeant of our predicament,” she said, “but they’re a full forty-eight minutes away. And if that ML3 K-1K is still active when the Scimitar arrives, they won’t be able to land close enough to reach the cabin in time to make a difference.”
“Shit!” Nolan cursed. “Where’s that fucker at?”
Taia called up an image onto his HUD, displaying the map of the Celestial Cascades before the interference field went up. “Based on the launch plumes, I can place its location here.” She dropped a large red dot eight kilometers away, closer to two of the properties Taia had purchased to cover his presence in the area. However, with its range, it could still lock onto and bring down the Scimitar well before the ship drew within firing range.
This particular threat needed to be eliminated ASAP.
Nolan glanced over at Bex. “Tell me you’ve got something explodey on hand.”
Bex snorted. “Really, Cerberus, what kind of dumbass question is that?” She gave an exasperated shake of her head. “I’ve got three charges, but I’ll only need two to knock that Mule Kick offline. Split up?”
Nolan shook his head. “Not until we know for sure we need to. We need to get into that interference field and re-establish contact with Jadis. If the Black Crows haven’t reached the cabin, we can figure out how to deal with both problems at once.”
“Sounds good.” Bex nodded and hefted her MK75. “And we’ll keep a sharp eye out to say hello to the greeting party they’re probably sending our way.” She patted the three grenades she carried—two Gatecrashers and a flashbang, all that remained after fighting clear of their safe house. “We pick off a few along our trek, it’ll make life that much easier when going after the Mule Kick or getting into the cabin.”
“Then let’s go,” Nolan said, rising from his crouch. “I’ll take point, watch my six.”
“Oh, I’ll be watching,” Bex said, adding extra emphasis. “Don’t you worry about that, sweet cheeks.”
Nolan couldn’t help smiling as he set off northeast into the forest. Trust Bex to be cracking jokes and dropping innuendoes even at a time like this. Damn, he’d missed her!
He glanced at the energy readout on his HUD. 92% power, it read. “Going cloaked,” he said. “Activating Omnistalker and anti-grav boots.”
“Copy that,” Bex said.
Nolan didn’t need to glance back to see if she fell in behind him; he could feel her presence at his back, sense the wary tension radiating off her as she moved in his wake. Like him, she was an apex predator, perfectly at home—and often at her finest—in life-and-death situations. She might not have been Warbeast Team, but she numbered among the Silverguards he’d want at his back when fighting a desperate battle.
He thumbed the switch of his Balefire Mark 2.1 onto burst-fire but kept it in sniper mode. He wanted the extra barrel length for additional range and the denser energy bolts to punch through trees as well as the enemy’s armor.
They moved at a steady skim-skate, rifles held in low position, ready to shoulder and fire at a moment’s notice.
Nolan’s eyes never stopped scanning the rainforest around him in search of the enemies he knew would be on their way even now. His job was to keep watch on the way ahead—from ten o’clock to two o’clock—and Bex kept a sharp eye on the rest of their surroundings. His helmet’s thermal imaging would pick up any heat signatures up to four hundred meters away, even through the dense trees.
“Four hundred meters to the interference field,” Taia said in his earpiece.
Nolan acknowledged her words mentally but never lost focus on the way ahead. He had to stay sharp, had to be ready for when the enemy eventually reached their position.
Without eyes on the Celestial Cascades, he couldn’t know how the Black Crows had divided their forces. With five properties to scout and an estimated force of a hundred contractors, he guessed they’d split into companies of twenty with two ten-man strike teams as they had in the Cyberwarrens.
However, the presence of the Mule Kick proved problematic. It spoke of a greater degree of preparation than the quick-reacting teams that had been deployed after Agent Styver’s signal got cut off. The Black Crows might be operating on incomplete intel, but the size of that transport ship indicated they were prepared for a serious battle with a dug-in force of Silverguards. Heavy armor, thermal goggles, a plethora of grenades, and high-caliber assault rifles would probably be standard loadout for the contractors.
“Three hundred meters,” Taia said.
“Copy,” Nolan replied.
Even as he scanned the rainforest around him, searching the dancing shadows for any sign of movement or red-orange heat signatures, his mind continued working the problem. The Black Crows might not be the best-trained force he’d faced, but they far outnumbered him, Bex, and Jadis. It would be a bloody long forty minutes until reinforcements arrived and Taia got the Phantasm back online.
“Two hundred meters,” Taia said.
Nolan’s muscles tensed, but he forced himself to relax. Knotted shoulders meant slower reaction time and faster fatigue. Though his mind and eyes had to be sharp, his body had to stay loose until the moment of contact.
Something flashed across his field of vision. Instantly, Nolan slowed his skim-skate, swiveled to the left, and shouldered his rifle. His finger was already on the trigger and his crosshairs settled on-target before his brain registered the shape of the heat signature. A black bear, five hundred meters to the east, moving in the opposite direction.
Letting out his breath, he lowered the rifle and set off again. Bex fell in behind him without a word of question and matched his steady pace without difficulty. She might not have had years of practice skim-skating, but full muscle control of her entire body gave her a competitive edge in this particular arena. Her natural predatory grace certainly helped, too.
“One hundred meters,” Taia said.
Nolan leaned into his forward motion, every muscle in his body straining against his iron self-control. He knew the dangers of rushing into hostile territory, but worry thrummed through his nerves and set his pulse racing. It was only a matter of time before the Black Crows reached the cabin and the battle began. He couldn’t let Jadis face that alone.
“Twenty meters,” Taia said. “Entering interference field in three, two, one!”
“Contact Jadis, now!”
“Already re-establishing connection with my local systems and placing the call,” Taia said. “Connected.”
“Jadis?” Nolan shouted. “Can you hear me?”
“Nolan, is that you?” Jadis sounded shaky, surprised.
“I’m here, Jadis. I’m coming for—“
A distant BOOM shattered the relative quiet of the rainforest. A moment later, the crackle of gunfire answered the explosion.
Ice slithered down Nolan’s spine. The sounds had come from the direction of the cabin.
The Black Crows had reached his safe house, and the battle had begun.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nolan’s stomach lurched. “Shit!” He almost broke into a run, almost activated his boot engines and rocketed toward the cabin at full burn. But his iron will stopped him from making a mistake. Rushing in like that was the sort of reflexive action that he’d learned to ignore—the sort that got a soldier killed. With supreme effort, he forced himself to slow down, to think before acting.
“Taia, do you have eyes on the cabin’s exterior?” he asked.
“Affirmative,” Taia replied.
Four camera feeds popped up onto the left half of his HUD, giving him a clear view of the property surrounding the cabin. Smoke and dust from an exploded mine still hung in the air, and a stream of blaster bolts tore through the jungle, raking across the trees, bushes, and the contractors hidden there.
Hope flickered in the back of Nolan’s mind. The sudden ferocity of Taia’s defenses had taken down seven of the Black Crows assaulting from the north and south. The rest had fallen back—even they weren’t stupid enough to charge into the teeth of the turrets’ gunfire without a plan. Instead, the contractors had retreated, doubtless to regroup, lick their wounds, and figure out what to do next. They’d likely wait for reinforcements from the other properties.
That gave Nolan time. Not long—ten, fifteen minutes tops—but it had to be enough.
He mentally activated the comms link to Jadis. “Jadis, listen to me. I need you to grab Roz and Jared and get down low. Better yet, get them down to the basement and—“
“I can’t fight back from the basement,” Jadis said. An edge of fear rang in her voice. “I’ve got a position in the living room where I have a clear line of fire on the north and east sides, and—“
“No!” Nolan’s voice cracked like a whip. “Do not engage with the enemy. Not yet!” He drew in a deep breath, forced his tone to calm. “Right now, they’ve just been hit hard, so they’re pissed and off-balance. But there are a lot more of them in the area than just the twenty that came for the house.” The mines and turrets had whittled that number down to thirteen, but more Black Crows would be coming fast.
“I’m five minutes out,” Nolan said before Jadis could protest. “Just get Roz and Jared to the basement, and as soon as I get there, we’ll come up with a battle plan that gives us a fighting chance.” He didn’t tell her that he had no idea what kind of armaments the enemy had, or whether their orders were capture or kill. “Just make sure Roz and Jared are safe first!”
“Okay,” Jadis said. Her voice had steadied, grown less fearful. “But hurry!”
“I will,” Nolan promised, and cut off the comms call.
He turned to Bex, but the words caught in his throat. How could he ask her to head away from the place where her daughter was in danger? Every instinct would be screaming at her to go to Roz.
Yet she had to know as well as he what would happen if that Mule Kick remained operational. Taking out the mobile SAM battery was their only hope of survival.
He didn’t need to say anything. Bex did know the stakes and the odds.
She stepped close and gripped his arm. “Keep her safe!”
“I will,” Nolan said. “I swear on my life, you will see your daughter again.”
That was it. They had no more time to spare.
Bex turned and raced off due west into the rainforest. Nolan guessed she’d swing wide out of the way before turning north. Better to avoid contact with the Black Crows that had likely been dispatched to take the downed Phantasm.
“Taia, are the ship’s guns operational?” Nolan asked as he, too, began his trek through the rainforest, heading northeast in a straight path toward the cabin.
“They are,” Taia said, “and the exterior optics and thermal scanners are active. If any Black Crows approach the ship, they’ll find a nasty surprise waiting.”
Nolan grunted acknowledgement. “Chart me a direct path to the cabin,” he said. “I want to go right through those fuckers on the south side.” The mines had taken down half of the ten-man team before they’d pulled back. Nolan could handle five Black Crows any day.
A dotted red line popped up on his HUD, tracing a route through the rainforest toward the cabin. He’d come at the Black Crows from the southwest, out of the path of the mines, and with any luck, they’d have their eyes glued on the house and never see him approaching on their six.
He covered the two klicks in six minutes, darting through the trees, leaping over roots, and ducking under low-hanging branches while maintaining his speed. Without hesitation, he ceded control of his combat suit to Taia. Her processors could make the millions of micro-adjustments required to keep him upright and forward-mobile exponentially faster than his human mind ever could, and it freed him up to focus on scanning the forest for the enemy he knew awaited him ahead.
But it was more than that. Since his time in the Vault, he’d been instinctively suspicious of everything about her. Time and again, she’d proven that he could trust her, but still he hesitated. Bex’s words to him had driven the point home. He needed to believe her. For his own sake as much as for hers. He needed to once again be able to trust Taia—his Taia, loyal to him only, as she claimed—the way he had before. It was the only way to get through this impossible battle alive. More importantly, to keep the people who mattered to him alive.
Giving her control of his armor was his way of forcing himself to put his faith in her. Or, perhaps, proving to himself that he was capable of doing so. By letting go and letting her take over, he took the first step down the path that led him to trust her fully once more.
Half a kilometer out from the cabin, he gave Taia the mental command to slow his pace and restored his control over the armor. He dropped into cover behind a thick tree trunk, his heart racing from the exertion but his mind calm as the surface of a frozen lake. Raising his Balefire, he scanned up the steep hill in front of him, letting the scope’s highly attuned thermal imaging help him find his targets in the rainforest ahead.
Sure enough, the Black Crows had pulled back from the cabin’s south side, taking cover behind the crest of the hill on which the cabin had been built. They were hunkered down, tending to wounds, and shouting into their comms for backup.
Rampant Destruction (CERBERUS Book 10) Page 23
