“You went to Nexus?” Magellan asked, honestly surprised that he had never learned that detail.
“For a time. It wasn’t a good fit, really.” He chuckled. “I was in the Medic Division, if you can believe it, and swapped between surgeon and battle-medic. I ended up leaving after my third year. I bounced around, sharpened my skills and blades, and joined a gang or two before I settled with the Star Killers, but you know how that turned out.”
Lazar shot a grenade to a floor above and the explosion knocked some debris to the ground. Magellan looked at him. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting impatient.” He armed the launcher with another thermal. “Will you actually come out and fight, or merely prattle on? I’ll level this entire place to find you.”
“That would be quite an accomplishment with what I’m guessing is five thermals?” Gin inquired. “Take it from a seasoned vet, my big buddy, threats only work when they are both feasible and detailed.”
“Enough, Gin,” Magellan demanded and received another head-tilt from the killer. “I’m tired of this. Do you really want us to fight for the rest of our lives?”
“Considering our chosen professions, the ‘rest of our lives’ could be much closer than we think.” He chuckled and looked at the floor. “I’m surprised you seem so forlorn, Magellan. You’ve always taken my little excursions personally, ever since the first time we met.” He looked at the bounty hunter. “But this time, you didn’t get to play hero, did you? You didn’t show up in the nick of time to scare off big bad moi from harming any more innocents. It’s not what I would call them, but it fits the scope better, I would say.”
Magellan fired a shot through the hologram. The figure warped for a moment before resolving, and the static and haze became clearer.
“You need to find better company, Magellan,” the killer mused. “This one’s temper seems to rub off on you.”
“I’m not picking anything up,” Magellan told Lazar and now ignored the hologram’s snide comments. “At least, not him. There’s something along the edge of the hangar, though, and some signatures outside the dome to our left.”
“Then let’s ditch this glorified inflatable and see if we can find him. He can’t have gone far,” Lazar suggested. The partners turned to leave.
“Actually, I can,” Gin interjected, and the two stopped momentarily. “As much fun as this has been, you were right, Magellan. I’ve grown a bit bored by it all. I’ve already left the building.”
Lazar turned, and anger crept into his eyes. “You lying sack of—”
“I have many vices, big boy, but truth is one of my many virtues.” He placed both hands on his chest. “Like I said, few options remain at my disposal, and as much fun as it would be to play a game of hide-and-go-slay with the two of you, I am a little late for my meeting already.”
“Meeting?” Magellan asked, “Who reached out to you?”
“A gentleman never asks and a lady never tells,” he chirped. “It’s not how I would usually describe myself, but I can be prim and proper when the mood strikes me.”
Lazar slammed his hand against his leg. “So we’ve been pissing time away,” he muttered, “Maybe we can get the pilot to hunt him down if we get back to the ship.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Gin responded cheerfully. He held up his thumb and forefinger and scaled the gap down. “You may have one slight problem with that, however.”
“Lazar, these readings are moving toward us. Multiple targets—more mutants.”
“Because we haven’t had enough of that,” Lazar growled. “We’ll blow them to bits and make our way out. There’s no point in sticking around.”
“I think you might underestimate what is coming your way.” The hologram ticked off its fingers. “Much like I underestimated the time it took those pheromones to activate.”
“Pheromones?” Magellan spun around, “You had more?”
“Another vial.” The hologram glanced downward. Magellan could scarcely make out the dark brown liquid which almost blended in with the dirt and grime on the floor. “Different blend but similar results, though. I was a little disappointed with my findings here, but I certainly got more use out of this stuff than I expected.”
“Lazar, let’s hurry and get out.” Magellan froze as something ripped the dome’s wall. A large beast with jet-black fur leapt into the hangar. It stood on all fours, with sharp claws and bloodied fangs, and stared at them with sharp black irises surrounded by muddy-green eyes.
Shriekers battered the door behind them, and their telltale screeches betrayed their bloodlust as they attempted to force it from its frame. Hisses sounded from the floor above, accompanied by the sizzle of naga venom sprayed against a wall or door as they tried to make their way in.
“A panzer, nagas, and shriekers.” The killer laughed, and Magellan and Lazar readied their weapons. Their gazes scanned for a way out of the hangar as the panzer stalked slowly toward them.
The helmet of Gin’s hologram faded to reveal a wide, devious grin on his face before the hologram began to shimmer out of existence. “Oh my.”
Chapter Nineteen
The panzer crept closer and closer to the men. Lazar scanned the upper level and flicked his gaze between the horde of shriekers that had almost battered their way in and the rapidly melting door that barely held the nagas at bay.
Magellan raised his rifle. The mutant cat flinched slightly and eyed his weapon with as much curiosity as hunger. It paced from left to right and watched to see the bounty hunter’s next move while it considered whether to simply make its own.
“How do you wanna play this, Lazar?” Magellan asked, his voice calm but grim. “He’s gone, and it would be pointless to chase him at this point.”
“You would know best about that, right?” the merc grunted, and Magellan’s hand tightened around his rifle’s grip in annoyance. He forced himself to relax. Lazar wasn’t wrong. The bounty hunter wanted to kill Gin more than he wanted anything else, but he was clear-headed enough to know that to rush into the dense jungle while low on supplies wouldn’t achieve much. The killer had escaped again, and Magellan already felt that his reputation suffered each time it happened. He despised the way the merc taunted and mocked him, but he began to feel that he had simply pointed out facts than indulged in childish mockery.
“Are you going dark on me, Magellan?” the merc snorted. He lit up another cigarette— the last from the box, it would seem, as he crushed it in his hand and tossed it to the ground. “I didn’t think a little ribbing would get you so ornery. I thought guys like you were more cool-headed than that.”
Magellan remained silent. The panzer now moved to hide behind a fallen chunk of the dome. “This hasn’t exactly been a great showing on my part.”
“At least you didn’t lose your men.” Lazar looked at the level above. A couple of the shriekers grabbed onto the ledge, ready to drop down. He raised his launcher a few inches and warned them to back off. They replied with bared their teeth and smacked the floor in an angry display along with their piercing shrieks. The merc frowned and shook his head. “Dammit, that’s annoying,” he muttered and held one ear with his free hand. “I wish I had a fancy helmet like you and the kid to dampen that.”
“How are your ears still functional?” Magellan asked as he patted his jacket to check his pistols.
“Years of going to metal shows and hanging out with a boisterous group of assholes gave me a tolerance for yelling and high-pitched shrilling.” Lazar stuck his pinky casually into his earhole and twisted it. “Or it deafened me. I should probably have it checked at some point.”
Magellan withdrew his volt pistol. “We don’t have a lot of time left before the dropship leaves. We can fight the freaks off, but I don’t wanna stay here while you fire your popgun. The scaffolding doesn’t seem very stable.”
“Well, you did have the pilot blow the ceiling apart.” Nagas now slithered in through holes in the partially dissolved door. “I never liked snak
es—the real things, mutants, or the metaphorical ones.” Lazar gripped his machine gun in his other arm and looked over his shoulder. “Go ahead and get out of here, Magellan.”
The bounty hunter looked at the gang captain in shock. “What are you—”
“I ain’t dense and neither are you, so don’t act like it,” he retorted before Magellan could finish. “We can’t both make it back to the ship and deal with this mess at the same time. It’s better that one of us make it back than neither.” His gaze darted to the approaching mutants. “And I probably look like the better slab of meat between the two of us.”
“Lazar, I said I would take care of the situation if Gin showed up. I wasn’t able to do that, but I can at least make sure you and Kaiden get out of here alive.”
The merc laughed. “Jesus, do you think this is a suicide stand or something?” he demanded and aimed his grenade launcher at the nagas and his machine gun at the shriekers. “I guess I won’t rely on you for moral support.”
“And you think you can take them all? Madness leads to many things, suicide included.”
“I’m mad, not insane,” the merc clarified and shifted his fingers on the triggers of each weapon. “You have a ship waiting back at the port, right? The pilot may be too much of a pansy to break protocol, but the least you can do is scoop me up once you get back. I’ll make a smoke signal or something and cook a couple of these bastards while I wait for ya.”
Magellan was taken aback by the man’s sudden bravado. He studied the debris the panzer lurked behind. “I can scale up with my hook. I’ll toss it back down and—”
“Don’t start with that trash.” Lazar snarled. “Get out of here. I need to kill some more. Come back if you feel like it, and if not, I guess I’ll become one with the jungle or something. I don’t look that far off from a gorilla so I’ll blend right in.”
Magellan pursed his lips and sighed as he pulled the brim of his hat down. “I’ll come back for you. Don’t die on me, ya hear?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Lazar!”
“What? Do you want me to wrap my pinky in yours or something?” he barked, and a few of the shriekers above leapt back. “Get going.”
Magellan placed his rifle on his back, switched the pistol to his other hand, and raised his free arm to fire his grappling hook to the top of the building. “Thanks, Lazar.”
“Thank me by taking out that pissy pussycat before you head out,” he grunted.
The panzer climbed on top of the debris and snarled at him as he ascended. “I didn’t think you would simply let me waltz out of here,” he sniped and aimed his pistol. The mutant cat roared and lunged at him. Magellan fired, and the force swung him away from the beast’s claws as the electric bolt hit the panzer in the jugular. It sparked and the beast twitched and spasmed around a frazzled hiss as it was jettisoned back to the ground.
The shot released pandemonium. The shriekers cried and leapt from their platform, and the nagas spat their acidic venom at both men. Lazar dove quickly out of the way and fired a grenade that erupted in the middle of the coil of mutants.
Magellan used his body weight and twisted himself in the air to avoid the deadly spittle, but a small splash landed on the wire of his grappling hook a few feet above him. As he wound closer, he huffed and swung himself quickly to a ledge on his right. The wire snapped as he whipped himself onto the edge and the sudden disconnect enabled him to make the couple of extra feet it took to grab the ledge and hoist himself up. He readied his rifle and placed a few quick shots through the heads and chests of the shriekers before Lazar looked angrily at him. The bounty hunter raised his rifle and held up a hand before he turned to search for a staircase or ladder he could use to climb the rest of the way.
“This is bad,” the pilot muttered as she examined the wounded soldier. An open holoscreen of his vitals hovered above her. “This kind of wound…getting stabbed by anything is horrible enough, sure, but such a precise strike? Who did this?”
“A serial killer named Gin Sonny,” Chief said. She looked around for a moment before she saw the small orb in the corner the vitals screen.
“What are you?”
“I’m his EI,” he explained. “We can make proper introductions later. Right now, there isn’t much we can do. We’ve treated the wound as best as we can physically, but he lost a lot of blood. Do you have any regen or hemoreplicant?”
“I have replicant.” She nodded, fished it out of the box, and grabbed an injector from the bench.
“Administer the entire vial. If you have any relaxant, administer a small dose of that as well.”
“Right,” she acknowledged and focused on his arm. “I need a place to inject him.”
“Disengaging his armor locks.” The buckles and grips on Kaiden’s arm unlocked with a quick hiss and slid off. The pilot pried the armor along his arm off and left only his underlay, then cut a hole with a pair of snips so she could look for a vein. “It’s so shallow,” she whispered.
“Quickly, please,” Chief instructed. She found a spot and administered the replicant.
“That should help with the blood loss, but everything else needs further treatment,” she explained as she sorted through a collection of vials. “The wraps and the foam will keep him alive, but it’s not a proper fix. Will this work?” She held up a small vial of purplish liquid.
Chief scanned it. “That’s too strong, at least to administer in full. A fifth of the vial.”
The pilot removed the empty vial of replicant, adjusted the injector knob to lower the injection pressure, and slid in the vial of relaxant. “I know I promised to wait, but seeing this…I’m not so sure I should wait for the other two. He needs help asap, and it’s a long flight back to the port.”
“They have a few more minutes,” Chief stated. “Give them that.”
“I thought you EIs had instructions to give your host’s life precedence in situations like these.”
“We do, but we also adapt to the desires and mindset of our hosts. He has his…faults, but he would tear himself up about leaving others behind for his sake, a point of stubbornness. I don’t want him to die, but I don’t want him bitching at me when he comes to, either. I can at least say we waited as long as we could.”
She unlatched the bottom of Kaiden’s helmet and removed it. He had paled dramatically, and his mouth was agape. Quickly, she traced her fingers along the neckline of his undersuit and moved it down his neck in search of a place to inject the relaxant.
“Then I hope they make it back in time.”
Magellan raced up the steps and headed for the top. He wasn’t sure if this would lead to the roof or not, but up was good enough for now. If he had to, he would blast his way through the ceiling.
A crunching sound stopped his ascent. A pair of shriekers munched on the corpse of another mutant or animal two stories up, too preoccupied with their meal to notice him. They must have been attracted by the pheromones but found the corpse more appealing than the smell. He leapt up the stairs and onto the platform of the next floor and steadied his rifle on the bars.
One of them turned as he fired and the top of its head exploded. The other, startled, jumped back and bit the bone in its mouth in half. It turned to the bounty hunter and bounded at him. The severed bone pierced its stomach and it screamed in anguish. Magellan moved aside, but it swung its long arms and knocked him down as it crashed to the wall. It grabbed the upper half of his leg and dragged him closer. He thudded the bottom of his boot into its head, raised his foot again, and brought it down into its eye. The shrieker yelled and swatted at the boot. The man rolled away and grabbed his rifle, fired a shot at the mutant, and silenced it as he continued to ascend the stairs.
When he reached the top, he found a hatch. He folded his rifle and slid it onto his back, gripped the lever, and pulled. The hatch clicked, and he pushed it open to the welcome hum of the dropship’s engines as he hoisted himself in. He was on the opposite side of the roof and ran for the
ship. As he passed the hole, he couldn’t resist looking down to where Lazar still fought below. Another pang of guilt coursed through him. The merc was bathed in blood, and he grabbed a naga and smashed it into a wall while he forced the others back in a hail of gunfire.
He should have stayed.
“Hey!” a voice called. The pilot waved him over. “Hurry the hell up. We need to get this kid to the port.”
The bounty hunter grimaced. He took one final look at the battle, then sprinted to the ship. As soon as he hopped in, the pilot closed the door and headed to the cockpit. “The other one didn’t make it?”
“He stayed behind. I’m coming back for him later,” he explained as he moved to look at Kaiden.
“I told you I can’t come,”
“I said I would,” Magellan snapped. “Don’t worry about it. Take us back as fast as possible.”
“Then strap yourself and the kid down,” she ordered. He nodded and crossed the straps over Kaiden’s body to fasten him in as the ship prepared for takeoff.
“You guys have trackers for us, right?” he asked and headed to the cockpit.
“Well, yeah, but nothing invasive,” she muttered as she took the ship into the skies. “Merely a basic one, to keep a lookout. But we only use it when a long time has elapsed or with your permission—”
“It’s fine,” he interrupted and held out a hand. “Let me see it.”
Blood dripped onto the floor with small plopping sounds and accompanied a few muttered groans and haggard breathing from the shriekers. Lazar sat on the crates that the Panzer had tried to hide behind. He looked at its unmoving corpse and decided he really had to get one of those guns if he made it back.
The merc scrabbled in the large pocket of his pants for another box of cigarettes. It was crushed, but he opened the lid and looked inside. Most of the cigarettes had either snapped or come undone, but a couple were still relatively intact. If he vaped, his device would have probably been destroyed in all the commotion, so he had the wiser vice.
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 107
