“Almost there!” Savita shouted over the radio, “but we got a tail!”
The four surviving refugees in the car with me slowly rose to their feet.
“Does anyone know how to start this fucking thing?” I asked.
I couldn’t see their faces, but I could feel everyone’s anxiety when nobody spoke up. I hissed through gritted teeth and started forward, smashing through the door into the seventh car and continued marching up the train, bent over. The other refugees followed behind.
Savita said something, but I paid no attention as I walked into the sixth car and kept going. The sound of gunfire drew closer. More voices over the radio, but only the general sense of urgency registered to me as I walked through the fifth car into the fourth. Bullets hit metal somewhere outside, an explosion causing the third car to vibrate. A blur went by out the window, and then another and another as MBRAVs sped toward the tail end of the train, unaware of us entering the second car.
Finally, I reached the first car. The controls. Yet I could do nothing. It all required ARs for a user interface. I looked helplessly about at the cramped car, feeling reverberations as bullets pounded the train at the rear cars. Savita shouted over the radio for us to get going, but there was nothing to do.
“What now?” Marlina asked.
I turned to face her, only seeing the reflection of my chipped, scorched and cracked exo in her visor. And then something else flickered into view in front of her. Something I recognized. The face of Masaru in my visor display.
“You ready to get out?” his voice asked through my exo.
“Yes,” I said, “can you get it going from there?”
His reply came as the entire train began moving forward, toward the entrance of the large vacuum tunnel.
Chapter 67
The train quickly picked up speed, gliding through a tube suspended above the highway. Snow covered the clear polymer cylinder, dimming the light. The monitor showed tube pressure dropping, falling to its target of 100 Pascals. Nearly a vacuum.
“We made it?” Marlina asked apprehensively.
“It looks like it,” I sighed.
The train accelerated to over six hundred miles per hour. I turned and started heading toward the back of the train where Savita and her group were, Marlina following me.
“How many of you are there?” Masaru asked.
“Twenty-nine,” Savita answered, “we’re down to just twenty-nine of us.”
“Sachi’s dead,” I said.
Marlina and I made it to the third car when something rocked the train. An alarm went off, floor vibrating. Another explosion.
“Fucking MBRAVs,” Savita hissed.
“More than that,” Masaru said, “you got a Tempest following you outside the tunnel. It’s making holes.”
“So…” I said.
“It’s re-pressurizing the tunnel,” Masaru said, “I have to lower your speed or the train will be torn apart.”
Another explosion rattled the train. I started running toward the back as we decelerated. Gunfire clattered somewhere outside the train. I came through the next door, finding Savita and her group of survivors in the seventh car, the two behind that mangled from the gunfight.
“Do you see them?” Savita asked, facing out the large window.
“No,” Rocky said, looking out on the other side, “They’re gonna catch up if we slow down.”
Even with their exoskeleton suits on, I could sense that the survivors were all rattled. Aveena sat with Yukiko wrapped in the Kevlar from a B-009, Akira sitting still beside her. I approached, kneeling down and raising my visor. Aveena looked up into my remaining eye.
“Your face,” she said in a dull tone, “you’re…injured.”
“We all are,” I said, turning to Akira.
I reached over and undid her helmet, slowly removing it to inspect her injuries. Akira’s face was gaunt and pale, looking more like a zombie. The skin was lined with veins full of congealed blood, making a dark red spider web over her flesh. Her eyes bulged from their sockets, trickles of blood coming from her nose and ears. Yet she was still alive, looking at me blankly. I put the helmet back on her head and fastened it before getting to mine.
“She’s not going to make it, is she?” Aveena asked.
Before I could answer, an explosion burst into the train car before being sucked back out into the vacuum. I jumped to my feet, seeing Savita back away from the blown-out window as the air from the car went gushing out into the tunnel. I scrambled to fasten my helmet. Over the sound of rushing air, I heard screeching wheels. And then gunfire. Another window cracked and exploded out into the tunnel.
“Everybody move forward!” Savita shouted, looking out the blown-out window.
Bullets whizzed by her helmet. She staggered back. Another explosion sounded, causing the train to rock back and forth. Survivors scrambled through the door into the next car. Rocky went to the back door, the XSS-080 tearing it open with ease. He stepped back and fired his 50 mm at the connector, the two ruined cars detaching from the train. They started moving slowly away from us.
And then two MBRAVs came around it from either side, up at a forty-five-degree angle on the sides of the tube. Their MX196 mini-guns opened fire. Savita ran back to join Rocky, both firing their 25 mm chain guns out the opening in the back. The two unmanned motorbikes swerved back and forth, moving up the curved sides of the tube and crisscrossing in the middle. I walked up and joined the two of them, firing bursts from my 25 mm as the MBRAVs mini-gun fire ate away at the back of the train.
One of the bikes took a direct hit and spun out, tumbling end over end. The other pulled ahead of it to avoid being hit. An explosion racked the tunnel. As we sped forward, the hole blown in the tunnel appeared. More MBRAVs poured down into the tunnel through the hole, roaring forward at full speed, able to just catch up with the train.
“We have to go faster,” Rocky said through gritted teeth.
“It’ll tear the train apart,” I said.
“Move to the next car,” Savita barked.
There were now eight UGVs, all firing dual mini-guns. Bullets chewed through the train car with ease. I followed Savita and Rocky forward, getting into the next car with the other survivors. Savita directed them forward again. Rocky blew the seventh car off the train. We pulled away from it, the MBRAVs swerving around it on the sides of the tube.
Bullets began consuming the sixth car almost immediately. I launched a grenade out the back door, its explosion washing over the UGVs, but not slowing them down. Rocky fired a grenade, scoring a direct hit on one, the bike tumbling into another and sending it into a spin up the side of the tube, crashing into the ceiling.
Another explosion blasted from above. Something landed on top of the train.
“What the fuck was-”
Before Savita could finish, the roof of the train car was peeled back. I looked up just as an EXO:B-128 slammed down onto the floor. The mech remained crouched over, bent ninety degrees at the waist, but was able to raise its arms. Before I could even say anything, the 75 mm cannon belched, the side of the train behind me exploded out into the tunnel.
“Move up!” Savita shouted, “everyone to the front car, now!”
The 75 mm caught one of the survivors as he scrambled for the front door, blowing him through the door into the next car. The train swayed back and forth. MBRAV mini-guns rained bullets into the mangled car. The mech struggled to maneuver as I ran around it, peppering it with 25 mm rifle fire.
The B-128 swung around, clumsily grabbing for me. Its hand caught one of the survivors, picking her up and squeezing, its powerful hand meeting almost no resistance from her B-024. The woman’s body squashed like a rotten tomato, her legs detaching and falling to the bullet covered train floor. I took a step back, now caught between the mech and the back of the train. I was the only one there with him.
“Eshe…” Rocky said over the radio.
“Detach the car,” I said.
“But-”
>
“Do it!”
I fired a grenade at the mech. The direct hit exploded over thick armor, causing him to stagger back one step, but doing little damage. He aimed his 75 mm cannon at me, firing as I dropped to the floor, the shell going over my head and hitting the tunnel behind the train. Another explosion rocked the train car. I looked ahead, seeing that Rocky had destroyed the connector, now pulling slowly away.
The mech turned around to face the sound. He stomped awkwardly forward, still bent at ninety degrees. And then started charging the railgun, raising it toward the train. I scrambled to my feet and ran forward. The hum of the charging railgun grew into a ferocious crescendo as I slammed into the back of the mech.
The mech fell forward, gun erupting, projectile exploding into the tunnel bottom. The detached sixth car sped right into the hole, its front catching. I screamed as the car somersaulted forward, tossing me around in a disorienting frenzy. My limbs clattered against objects. Head whipped around. The entire world seemed to fall away. Nothing made sense. And then I found myself outside the train car, skidding across the tunnel.
I reached out to grab onto something. Anything to make the world stop spinning. I grabbed onto something and kept skidding. But I wouldn’t let go. Shards of debris rained down everywhere. A feeling of nausea swept over me when I saw flaming chunks of train car tumbling through the tunnel next to me.
And then an even more frightening realization struck. I was still moving, scraping over the sides of the tunnel. I had grabbed onto an MBRAV. It was dragging me along, swerving back and forth over both sides of the tunnel. I reached up with my other hand and grabbed it, trying to pull myself up. One of the mini-guns pivoted to aim at me. I grabbed onto it, squeezing with the 080s considerable grip, crushing the gun as I pulled myself up onto the bike.
Mind muddled, everything ached, but a thought kept recurring as I mounted the bike. The XSS-080 and the MBRAV were both Sovereign made. The UGV rocked back and forth, trying to throw me off. The thrashing made me dizzy. Consciousness began to slip. But the same thought kept coming back. It took what felt like an eternity for the significance of the thought to come to me.
I put the exo boots into place on the bike, grabbed onto the front where grips fitting my exo’s hands were molded into the sides. A new menu came up on my visor – I was now in control of the MBRAV.
I accelerated forward. Ahead I could see other MBRAVs. I pivoted the remaining mini-gun to aim at them and opened fire. Rapid strafing took two out easily, the others breaking, getting behind me. I gunned it forward as fast as it could go, seeing the train ahead of me, fifth car already riddled with bullet holes.
The MBRAVs fired on me. I zigzagged, climbing the sides. A bullet hit the side of the bike near my leg. I swerved, regaining control as I slowly caught up to the speeding train. The tunnel shook with another explosion from outside.
I inched forward, getting close enough to touch the train when the fifth car shuddered. I quickly swerved left, getting onto the side of the tunnel just as the front end of the fifth car erupted in an explosion. The train car flipped forward, tail end slamming into the ceiling of the tunnel, the screeching sound deafening as inertia carried it forward, hurling shards of polymer everywhere. I dodged around it, speeding forward as chunks of tunnel hurtled forward.
I could see survivors through the blown off back end of the fourth car. I accelerated forward. The survivors opened fire on me.
“Stop!” I shouted hoarsely over the radio, “it’s me!”
“Christ,” Rocky said, “its Eshe.”
I inched closer. The MBRAVs behind me opened fire again. I stood up on the bike, getting just behind the opening of the train and jumped. The UGV wiped out. I reached forward, grabbing the jagged edge of the opening, my exo’s grip holding tight as my legs dragged over the tunnel behind. Rocky and Emma reached down, grabbing my arms and pulling me into the train.
“Holy fucking shit, dude!” Rocky exclaimed as I staggered to my feet.
The rest of the survivors had moved ahead on the train. The hail of bullets had ceased temporarily, but I could still see MBRAVs tailing us.
“Nobody’s ever gonna believe that shit just happened,” Rocky said with a single laugh.
“Let’s go,” Emma said, walking toward the next car.
Rocky and I followed. He detached the fourth car and we watched it pull away. The MBRAVs swerved around it, but still weren’t shooting.
“Ya think they ran outta ammo?” Rocky asked.
“No idea,” I coughed, falling to me knees as adrenaline wore off, allowing pain to be felt without filter.
I grit my teeth, wincing, looking down at the floor and seeing blood dribble from my face onto the already red-stained visor. I couldn’t open it or low air pressure would suffocate me, so blood continued pooling. My arms and legs throbbed with pain, head pounding, the world feeling like it might slip from my grasp.
“You okay, buddy?” Rocky asked.
Both he and Emma knelt down on either side of me. My arms trembled, fists clenched in the exo’s powerful gloves, the world around me red and swirling. Every breath came in agony from broken ribs. The train seemed to vibrate in sync with the throbs in my head.
It was only a passing curiosity that Emma and Rocky lifted me up, carrying me forward to the next train car. Consciousness wavered. Our footsteps sounded as if they were occurring in a dream.
“Just let yourself die,” Evita said, her voice the only thing that was clear. “You have no reason to stay here anymore in this broken body.”
I exhaled slowly, closing my eye and waited for death to take me. But the pain persisted, consuming my world. My body was laid down on the floor. Only the pain mattered anymore. The red tint of the world cleared away. The visor was opened, now in a sealed car.
“Oh, fuck,” Rocky’s voice said from somewhere a hundred miles away.
Faces looked down at me. All I could focus on was their widened eyes, and even that shot pain through my skull. One of the people knelt down, coming closer, reaching a hand toward me and wiping blood away from my visor.
“You look like hell,” Emma’s voice said.
“Let me…” I started, but the train gave a violent jolt.
“The hell was that?” someone I couldn’t see asked.
“Are they attacking again?” another asked.
“I don’t see the MBRAVs out there anymore,” Rocky said.
“They’re not after us anymore,” Savita’s voice said through my earpiece, “they just blew a chunk of the tunnel away about fifty miles ahead.”
“Can we stop the train?” someone asked.
“No,” Savita said, “we have to abandon it.”
Some of the survivors murmured about this. I kept my eye closed, waiting for death to overtake me. Waiting for the moment I’d awaken again as an infant and start all over again.
“Just…let me…die,” I said as I felt myself being lifted up again.
“No can do, bud,” Rocky said, his voice right next to me as he pushed my visor back down, his voice now coming over my earpiece, “we already lost Sachi, we ain’t losin’ you, too.”
“We’re just gonna jump outta the moving train?” someone asked.
“Not exactly,” Savita said, walking through the door into our car, “we’re going to detach and slow down first.”
The remnants of her team piled back into the car with us before Savita blew the connector between us and the front of the train, causing our car to lurch from the blast. The rest of the train began pulling away slowly.
I watched in a daze, breath coming in short, painful gasps, Rocky and Emma both holding me up. Consciousness began slipping away again for a time before I was startled back to reality by a loud crash and rending metal. My eye shot open, looking ahead through the mangled connector, seeing the train crumpled ahead of us, quickly approaching.
“Brace yourselves!” Rocky bellowed just as our car slammed into the wreckage.
Everything seemed to h
appen in slow motion. I lifted off the floor, seeing other people in exoskeletons hurtling through the air as well. Many held on, their exo’s strong grip keeping them anchored. My head whipped forward as something caught me. I had time to see a hand holding onto my arm before falling back to the floor, landing on my back.
The world spun. The taste of blood and vomit filled my mouth, spewing out and pooling in my helmet. Arms scrambled to lift me back to my feet. People screamed. Children cried. Nothing made sense, but my legs moved, pulled along by someone I didn’t even think I knew anymore. I panted in agony, climbing over the Escher-like hellscape of twisted metal and polymer shards.
Daylight crept into the tunnel. The confused mass of people scrambled for the breach, air rushing in from outside, blowing snow over the wreckage. The arms pulled me to the edge of the hole, the snowy road some twenty feet below. The refugees were taking the plunge, counting on their exoskeletons and the snow to break their fall.
“Just…let me…”
“Shut up,” Emma said, pushing me.
I fell quickly into deep snow, but this time consciousness did escape me. For how long I wasn’t sure, but when the hands lifted me, I was convinced for several seconds that I had been reborn. Bright light. Suited people. Pain. Blood and the sickly smell of my own regurgitated fluids. It had to be rebirth.
But when my vision regained what focus it was capable of, I found myself in a quiet, snowy pass. The survivors in exoskeleton suits stood around silently, like specters in the billowing snow. More focus returned. I could see a hundred yards down the road. Soldiers in exoskeletons. Vehicles. UGVs.
The CSA army.
“Should we surrender?” Rocky asked in a solemn tone.
“Something tells me they aren’t taking prisoners anymore,” someone said.
“Sachi’s revolution dies with a whimper,” Evita said.
“Well fuck that,” Emma said, “let’s not make it easy for them.”
“What’s are ammo situation?” Savita asked.
“Low, at best,” Rocky said.
“They have two of them,” someone said, “two EXO:B-128s.”
Incarnate- Essence Page 107
