by Jan Domagala
“Cool ’eh?” he added with a smile, then becoming more serious said, “C’mon, let’s move, I just hope they hadn’t figured out which direction we were headed and send more guards to stop us.”
“What if they were tracking both of us?”
“I’m banking on them only tracking me, no offence but they will need me now that I’ve destroyed their source of the serum and any future ability to recreate it. I’m hoping they only thought to track me.”
“Hope you’re right.”
“Me too, c’mon let’s get moving,” he repeated.
* * * * *
Anders received confirmation from the computer that the signal from the tracking codes was lost. For a second he was unsure what to do because he’d been assured the signal would be a constant. He asked the computer if the signal could be masked in any way, such as if the subject had entered an area where it could be interfered with, and received the same reply. The signal had just ended.
Having no other recourse but to change his strategy, he ordered the computer to correlate the data from the position where the signal was first intercepted to when it was lost and compute a possible destination.
Within a second he had the answer he was looking for and a location for Stryder, so no great harm done.
Using his NI he accessed the comm battle channels and, ordering the guards to surround the Life Support station, he told them to await the arrival of Stryder and to detain him until his team got there.
He had him now he thought, as he quickened his pace.
* * * * *
Stryder and Hardy carried on down the corridor until they reached the end where a door barred their way. It opened to Stryder’s touch and they walked through onto a huge gangplank that stretched out for a hundred odd feet before them across a deep chasm. Hardy looked down and saw that they were standing on top of a walkway that was fifteen feet wide with a drop of over three hundred feet straight down.
“Whoa!” she said when she saw how high up they were.
“Yep, the reactor room is on the lower level and we need to get down there. There has to be an access panel to the vents for the exhaust gases from the fusion reactor.
“And how the hell do you propose we get down there?” she asked a little incredulously.
“I’m working on it,” he replied as he looked around at the room.
Just then a plasma bolt was fired from beneath them. It just missed him, passing by his shoulder on its way up to the ceiling.
“Good job that guards a piss poor shot,” Hardy said as they both dodged towards the centre of the walkway.
“Things have just become a little more complicated,” said Stryder. Leaning over the edge of the walkway he returned fire to warn the guard against shooting again. As soon as Stryder fired his assault rifle over the edge three more guards took the opportunity to try and blast him off the walkway.
Plasma bolts whizzed past him and burned the very air as they passed so close to him that his clothes were singed.
“And how the hell are we going to be able to get down there now then?” asked Hardy once the firing had stopped. She was lying face down on the walkway to minimise her target profile. The guards down below on the balcony around the perimeter of what was in fact a huge shaft could not locate her.
“Like I said, I’m working on it,” Stryder replied as he glanced over the edge of the walkway taking in more with one glance than a normal person could after studying the scene for several minutes.
“And how did they know where we are? I thought you said you turned off your tracker,” Hardy asked. She was getting angry at the thought that the little hope of escape she had garnered from the seemingly hopeless situation was about to be torn from her and trampled under her feet.
“They must’ve guessed where we would go and sent guards on ahead,” Stryder said.
More plasma bolts struck above their heads as the guards below continued to fire at them. A few struck the edge of the walkway near Stryder and Hardy, forcing them to keep back from the edge.
Getting to his knees and shouldering his assault rifle he said, “Right, cover me.”
“What!” Hardy gasped sensing he was about to do something absolutely reckless.
“I’m going to draw their fire to give you the chance to fire back. If you manage to hit any of them, that would be great. All I’m hoping for is that your covering fire will give me the chance to do what I have to. Trust me.”
Before she could argue he had scooted down the walkway and then bobbed up into view of the guards below.
Their attention was drawn to where he was, farther down the walkway from where Hardy remained under cover so they opened fire on him.
He threw himself down on the walkway as plasma bolts struck the edge blasting chunks of plascrete away from it breaking his cover.
Hardy was up on one knee, her assault rifle up against her shoulder as she sighted down the barrel and fired a short burst at them.
Her first salvo caused them to cease fire and retreat to find their own cover.
“Go!” she said and Stryder sprung into action as she kept the guards pinned down with a burst of sustained plasma fire.
Stryder grabbed hold of the edge of the walkway and threw himself over, swinging out beneath it using his momentum to propel his body across the chasm and onto the balcony several feet below, the same balcony on which the guards were positioned.
The second he landed he retrieved his assault rifle from over his shoulder and positioned it to fire.
Caught in a vicious crossfire from both above and in front the guards died as the plasma bolts tore their flesh up in a mist of blood.
Once the guards were dead Stryder looked up at Hardy and said, “Well, what’re you waiting for?”
A smile crossed her lips and as she was about to say something plasma bolts from behind her tore up the air. She leaped over the edge, flinging herself at the balcony below, narrowly evading the deadly weapons fire from above. As she landed a few feet from Stryder, she rolled exactly like her jump commander had taught her in basic training back at the academy. She came up on her knees still holding her assault rifle.
The guards who had fired at her from above followed her down with their assault rifles and were about to fire at her again when Stryder shot two of them. They went tumbling over the edge to spiral into the shaft below, their blood leaving a gory trail in the air tracing their descent into the shaft. The other two dodged back over the edge of the walkway to avoid being shot.
Glancing over at where the guards lay dead on the balcony Stryder said, “Go and see if they have any grenades on them.”
Hardy turned and, crouching again to minimise her target profile, she ran as best she could over to where the bodies lay. In moments she was back with a handful of grenades, small, black and deadly.
“Great, just what we need,” Stryder said.
He pushed the central rod situated at the top of the egg-shaped grenade, enabling the safety clip to spring free and thus armed two of the weapons. He then had five seconds before they exploded and he tossed them up onto the walkway expertly dropping them right next to the two remaining guards.
Seeing the grenades, the guards tried to run for it but hadn’t gone more than a few paces before the explosions ripped into them shredding their bodies and tossing flesh and bone into the air in a shower of blood. The walkway was damaged and a huge chunk of it fell into the shaft.
Stryder and Hardy watched as the slab of the broken walkway passed by them and he said, “Well that will stop anyone following us from up there, unless they have grappling hooks.”
“You’re full of good cheer,” she replied with the hint of a smile then she looked around and asked, “Now what do we do?”
Just then an explosion erupted from below sending a ball of white-hot flame up the centre of the shaft. The shockwave from the blast sent shudders through the walls of the shaft threatening to throw the two of them off the balcony into the ball of flame rising up.
Stryder saw the ball of fire coming and knew there was no way to outrun it. They would be dead in seconds if they didn’t find shelter.
* * * * *
General Solon was just exiting the facility when the explosion shook the entire building. He spun around to look behind him and said, “Well, that can’t be good.”
He turned back and continued on his way. “Maybe waiting for Anders and his team will be a waste of time. If there are any more explosions like that then they might not get out before the whole place goes up in flames.”
Seeing his shuttle in the distance on the landing pad, he quickened his pace. Accessing his NI he called Anders through a combat channel. “Anders, your time is limited, locate and capture Captain Stryder and bring him to my shuttle on the landing pad. Is that understood?”
Anders replied almost instantly, his voice seeming to echo in the General’s brain, and he said, “Understood, sir.”
* * * * *
Stryder dived to cover Hardy with his body as the wall of flame engulfed them both. The heat was unbelievable. He could feel his clothes burning and his skin begin to blister as the heat boiled away its moisture.
The second before he landed on top of Hardy he saw the terror in her eyes and heard her scream as she realised what was about to happen.
Pain assailed his senses as the flames washed over them. Unbelievable pain as the temperature soared to extreme heights in the space of a few seconds. The human body was not designed to withstand that kind of abuse as Stryder was well aware and trying to withstand the pain from the heat his thoughts dwelled on how he had failed his mission and in doing so had cost the life of a lovely young woman with whom he had fallen in love.
The fireball passed them by searing everything in its path and, amazed at the fact he was still alive, he rolled off Hardy screaming in agony as his clothes were still smouldering, nothing but rags left of them. Hardy was up in a flash rolling over to him, the thought that she was unscathed not even entering her brain. Her one and only thought was the safety of the man she loved, the man who had saved her life by risking his own.
Whatever she could do, she would, anything to help ease Stryder’s pain.
Stryder was rolling on the balcony trying to put out the flames in his clothing, or what was left of it.
His back, which had been in contact with the flames, was a mass of blisters, but amazingly the rest of him seemed almost untouched.
After he had put out the flames he stopped rolling and looked up at her as she crouched over him.
“You’re okay!” he said amazed at his success in keeping her alive and equally amazed that he too was still in the land of the living.
“How did you do that?” she demanded, knowing that both of them should be dead.
“I have no idea except to say that I’m not complaining,” he replied as he got to his feet.
“It must be your enhancements, they work better than even they expected,” Hardy said with the biggest grin across her face. They had both cheated death and perhaps, just perhaps, they might make it out of there alive after all.
“Does your back hurt still?” she asked amazed at being alive.
“It’s easing off now. Wow! That was intense!” he said, and looking over his shoulder he saw the blisters begin to dry up right before his eyes. He was healing himself at an amazing rate, one he never thought possible.
Hardy saw the expression of wonder on his face and looking at his back was speechless at what she saw. The blisters were almost all gone by that time, having dried up and new skin forming over the burnt areas. As they both watched, his body formed new tissue to replace all the burnt and scarred tissue that moments earlier had covered his entire back. Within a few minutes he was as good as new.
“I think the greater the threat, the faster the immune system kicks in,” Stryder offered as he got to his feet.
Hardy looked at him and smiling said, “I’m not complaining.” It was then that he saw her eyes wander over his body and he realised that he was wearing nothing but tatters. All his clothes had been shredded by the blast of super-heated flame. His shirt hung from his broad shoulders in shreds exposing his muscular torso and washboard abs whilst his leggings were nothing more than strips of seared cloth hanging from his waist attached by the belt.
“Plenty of time for that girl,” he joked. “Let’s get off this planet first before we make any plans though.”
“What do you think happened down there?” Hardy asked dragging her mind back to the job at hand and off his perfectly formed abs.
Peering over the edge of the balcony he looked down the shaft to where the fireball originated.
“It looks like the slab from the walkway damaged one of the Life Support generators,” he said after assessing the damage below.
His brain was working faster than he thought possible dealing with many issues, multi-tasking faster than he thought a human brain was capable of, consciously at least. He was aware that the subconscious mind was capable of many things that the conscious mind could not even comprehend. Now though he seemed to be able to do more, concentrate harder about more than just one subject and correlate plans and strategies for each topic he was mulling over.
“Will that affect us in any way?”
“There’s no way of knowing that until we get down there and look,” Stryder said and led the way towards the elevator to the next level.
Elevator was perhaps the wrong word to describe what it was. A slab of plascrete attached to a belt at right angles that ran up the wall was all it really was. To use it you simply stood on it and the belt took you up to the floor you needed. On the other side of the belt it travelled in the opposite direction and took you down to the level you wanted.
They grabbed hold of the handles placed at head height and, stepping onto the ledge, they allowed it to take them down to the next level. Just one more level to go and they would be at the bottom where the Life Support station was. Smoke was billowing up from the blown generator and filling the shaft making it hard for them to breathe. Tears began to stream from Hardy’s eyes as the acrid smoke affected them.
“Are you okay?” Stryder asked when he noticed she was struggling. His own eyes were coping far better than he thought possible, again another new development from his enhancements that he never expected.
“Can’t see a damn thing through this blasted smoke, my eyes are streaming,” she replied reaching out a hand to touch him for reassurance.
“You’ll be fine, just keep hold of me and I’ll make sure we get there okay,” he said, clamping his hand on top of hers on his forearm to let her know he wouldn’t abandon her.
“How come you can see where we’re going and I can’t?” she asked, almost knowing the answer before he gave it.
“Must be another advantage of these enhancements they gave me. I’m not knocking it if it helps us get the fuck out of here with both our skins intact,” he replied.
“Me neither,” she said through gritted teeth.
As they hit the bottom floor Stryder helped Hardy off the belt elevator and as he tried to get his bearings through the dense smoke he heard something that put him on edge. Grabbing Hardy by the scruff of the neck he pulled her down to the floor roughly just in time as a series of plasma bolts seared the air above them.
“What the fuck?” Hardy asked as she hit the floor.
“Guards,” Stryder said as the bolts went harmlessly overhead striking the walls behind where they had been standing mere seconds earlier.
“How the fuck did you know they were there?” Hardy asked.
“Heard them,” he replied quickly. Then, taking his assault rifle from his shoulder, he returned fire. His plasma bolts struck nothing except the far side of the chamber. He would have heard the shots hit bodies if his aim had been true.
“Damn! They’re wearing visors,” he said when he realised why he had missed them. The visors had increased visual acuity and because they were fixed to a full-face mask it enabled
them to breathe in the smoke-filled shaft.
“We’re screwed,” Hardy said, when she realised what they were up against. They had no idea where the guards were, what they were armed with or even how many were there. The worst part of it for her was that in her present condition she could not help Stryder. She could not see anything at the moment because the smoke had rendered her eyes useless.
“C’mon, we have to keep on the move, they can track us via infra red and all I’ve got is my hearing to help us, my eyes may not hurt but this smoke is too dense for even me to see through,” Stryder said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her after him. There was a doorway to his left, which he pulled Hardy towards. Although the smoke had not affected his eyes in the same way he still couldn’t see anything farther than a few feet in front of him, so he did most things by relying on his hearing and his sense of touch.
Another burst of plasma fire struck the doorframe to the side of him helping him decide whether to go through the door or not. He went through as fast as he could, closing the door behind them.
Hardy was doubled over in a coughing fit as her lungs tried to purge the smoke from them. The air inside the room they had just entered was fresh and clean with just a trace of the smoke that had followed them inside when the door was opened. Stryder could see clearly again and quickly took in his surroundings as he waited for Hardy to get her breathing back under control. They were at the very end of a corridor, a few feet from a corner, and the thing that had niggled at him since the very first attack by the guards soon became apparent.
He had wondered why the guard’s gunfire had been so erratic and unfocused. None of the shots had come close enough to warrant any danger. Certainly they had had to move out of the way for fear of getting shot, but the accuracy he had expected was just not there, almost as if they had been herding them in a certain direction. But why would they try to herd them in a direction when Stryder and Hardy were running away from them? It didn’t make any sense until Hardy stood up. Two figures dressed in combat fatigues and armed with assault rifles walked around the corner and blocked their path.
