Zero Hour

by Mark Walden

  Otto flicked another switch and activated the FLIR sensors mounted on the front of the Goliath, illuminating the pitch dark of the hangar with infrared light and allowing him to see where he was going via the canopy’s night vision filter. Ahead of him were the enormous doors to the hangar bay. He could hear bullets from the assault rifles carried by the guards pinging harmlessly off the armoured hull of the Goliath. They might as well have been using rocks and pointy sticks for all the good they were doing. Otto reached out for the mechanisms controlling the doors but found that, just like the rest of the facility, they were currently without power. He grabbed the control sticks on either side of the pilot’s seat, swinging the Goliath’s massive arms forward and opening the triple-clawed pincers. He closed the claws around the framework of the doors and heard the sound of metal grinding against metal. Putting the Goliath into reverse he started to drag the massive doors inwards. With the hydraulic rams offline it was surprisingly easy. The gap between them widened and light from the canyon outside flooded into the hangar, the sounds of pitched battle increasing in volume.

  Otto opened the doors just far enough for the Goliath to pass through and set the giant machine walking forward into the early morning light. He could see the two other Goliaths several hundred metres away, their backs towards him, laying down an impenetrable field of fire that was driving the friendly forces back down the canyon. He directed his Goliath towards the two other machines, raising the giant Gatling cannons on the back of each arm and spinning their barrels up to speed. One of the Goliaths started to turn towards him. He had no idea if the pilot of the other mech had realised that he had taken control of this machine but he wasn’t going to wait to find out. He centred the cross-hairs displayed on the glass of the canopy and squeezed the triggers on the arm controls. Both of the giant cannons opened up, sending a hail of shells the size of milk bottles into the hostile mech. The enemy Goliath staggered under the force of the assault, its front armour smoking and pockmarked where the barrage of fire had struck. It raised its own cannons towards Otto and opened fire. Otto activated the engines on the back of his mech and launched into the air, narrowly avoiding the torrent of shells that ripped apart the rock face directly behind where it had been standing seconds before. The enemy Goliath managed one burst of fire before Otto’s Goliath screamed down towards it feet first, sending the machine flying backwards into the canyon wall in an explosion of dust.

  ‘Warning, anti-missile system damaged,’ a soft mechanical voice said inside the Goliath’s cockpit.

  ‘Not good,’ Otto muttered.

  Staying within minimum safe range relative to the hostile armoured units will ensure that they cannot use their offensive missile systems, H.I.V.E.mind suggested.

  ‘Get in close, got it,’ Otto replied. He pushed the pedal down hard, sending the Goliath running forward, and slammed shoulder first into the enemy mech, crushing it against the rocks, then swung the Goliath’s arm around to grab hold of the cannon on the other machine’s arm, wrenching it from its mountings with a screech of tearing metal. Otto ducked in his seat involuntarily as he saw the closed claw fist of the hostile mech’s other arm swing at his canopy. There was a colossal boom inside the cockpit as the punch landed, cracking the glass but not shattering it. Otto swung the remains of the Gatling cannon that he was still holding, using it as a club and bringing it crashing down on the other mech. The enemy Goliath staggered and Otto pressed home the advantage, dropping the ruined cannon and grabbing at the reinforced structure of the other mech’s cockpit canopy with both claws. He yanked the arm controls apart and the armoured struts around the enemy’s canopy started to give way with a screech. There was a sudden explosion of shattering armoured glass and the canopy exploded, leaving the pilot exposed.

  Incoming, was all that H.I.V.E.mind had time to say before a barrage of half a dozen missiles from the other Goliath slammed into both him and the remains of the hostile mech. The exposed pilot was killed instantly, the flaming remains of his machine toppling forward in a ruined heap of burning metal. Acrid smoke filled the interior of Otto’s cockpit and he coughed violently as his badly damaged Goliath struggled to its feet. The undamaged mech was striding towards him, cannons raised. Both guns fired just as Otto managed to bring his own Goliath’s arms up in front of the canopy, the giant shells shredding the raised limbs of Otto’s mech but leaving the cockpit mercifully intact.

  Behind the enemy mech one of the Alpha squad ran up and fired her grappler unit into its back. Using the electromagnetic adhesion system in her boots and gloves she dragged herself up the armour-plated surface, pulling a disc-shaped charge from the pouch on her hip and slapping it down on the dome of the anti-missile laser. She turned and dived off the top of the Goliath just as the missile pods on each shoulder swivelled towards Otto, locking on for a final fatal strike. She landed hard but managed to get to her feet, pulling the detonator from her belt as she ran. With a single squeeze of her thumb she triggered the charge and destroyed the armoured dome.

  ‘All Alpha missile units, take that thing down!’ she yelled into her comm as she ran.

  Otto saw the rockets spear almost simultaneously from half a dozen different positions as more of the friendly forces decloaked and fired. They hit the Goliath’s back in an enormous fireball, knocking it to its knees and destroying the vectored thrust unit on its back and one of its missile pods. The enemy Goliath stood up slowly and turned towards the remaining Alphas, arm cannons already spinning.

  Otto looked at the damage control readout for his own Goliath and saw red lights across the board.

  All weapon systems are offline. Our offensive options are limited, H.I.V.E.mind said.

  ‘We’ve still got one weapon left,’ Otto said, checking that one particular system was still working.

  We have? H.I.V.E.mind replied.

  ‘Yeah,’ Otto said with a grin. ‘Gravity.’

  He fired the controls for the thruster unit on the back of his own Goliath and launched it at the other machine. There was a thunderous boom as the two mechs collided and Otto grabbed on to the hostile unit with his own Goliath’s badly damaged arms, wrenching at the control stick and sending the two machines soaring into the sky. After a few seconds they had passed fifteen hundred metres and he pulled the arm controls apart. The other Goliath grabbed at one of Otto’s machine’s arms, tearing the damaged limb away at the shoulder, and then Otto watched as the enemy mech tumbled helplessly down towards the desert far below.

  ‘Happy landings,’ he said, turning his Goliath back towards the AWP facility and flying down into the canyon just as the thrust unit gave out completely. His Goliath slammed into the rocky ground and slid to a halt a few hundred metres from the facility’s blast doors. The surviving members of the Alpha team ran towards the wreckage, unsure what they would find. As they approached the ruined machine a series of explosive bolts fired and the canopy cover popped off. Otto half climbed and half fell out of the smoking hole, getting slowly to his feet as the Alphas gathered around.

  ‘Ow!’ he said.

  ‘Otto Malpense, I presume,’ one of the Alphas said, helping him to his feet.

  ‘Yeah,’ Otto replied as he rolled his head around his shoulders, ‘and who are you guys?’

  ‘Well, actually, that’s sort of complicated.’

  Darkdoom breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Otto climb from the wreckage of the Goliath. The attack on the Alphas had already cost them nearly a third of their team.

  ‘Darkdoom to Alpha team,’ he said, ‘get inside now. We’re going to turn the power back on once you’re through the doors. Be prepared for heavy resistance inside.’

  ‘Roger that,’ one of the Alphas replied.

  ‘It’s worse than that,’ Otto’s voice said over the comm. ‘Is Nero there?’

  ‘No,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘He, Shelby and Wing are inside the base. They got us into the AWP network and were about to open the blast doors but you beat them to it.’

  ‘Can you p
atch me through to him? You both need to hear what Overlord is planning,’ Otto said.

  ‘Of course. Hold on one second,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘Max, I have Otto on comms. He says he needs to speak to us both.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ Nero said, his voice sounding strained.

  Otto quickly explained the details of Overlord’s plan to Nero and Darkdoom.

  ‘My God!’ Darkdoom said quietly as Otto finished.

  ‘That might just be what Overlord will be if we let him do this,’ Otto said.

  ‘Overlord has to be stopped before he can release these Animus nanites,’ Nero said.

  ‘The only way to completely neutralise that threat is to destroy Overlord,’ Otto said. ‘We have to find him.’

  ‘If he knows the facility has been breached he’s going to retreat to the most secure area of the base,’ Nero said. ‘We just need to find out where that is.’

  ‘It’s not clear from Drake’s plans,’ Darkdoom said, looking at the three-dimensional schematic of the base on the display in front of him. ‘We need to locate the hostages too.’

  ‘Leave that to us,’ Nero said. ‘Get the Alphas inside and start to clear the facility of resistance. It’s a safe bet that wherever Overlord is, he’ll have surrounded himself with his best men. Otto, once we have taken the hangar you are to stay there with a protective detail. We cannot risk letting you fall into Overlord’s hands now.’

  ‘I know that,’ Otto replied, ‘but you have to promise me that we don’t leave without Laura and Lucy.’

  ‘I don’t leave people behind, Otto – surely you’ve realised that by now.’

  g

  Chapter Eleven

  Furan was blinded for an instant as the lights inside the hangar flared back to life. His men were scattered around the chamber in good defensive positions but without the support of the Goliaths he knew that they were vulnerable.

  ‘Hold your fire – they have to come through there,’ he said, pointing at the hangar doors that Malpense had forced open just a few minutes earlier. He activated his communicator and tried again to contact Raven but there was no response. He needed her up here – if there was anyone who could help hold the line it was her. A moment later there was a beep from the device and he hit the receive button.

  ‘Raven here. What do you need?’

  ‘Where have you been?’ Furan demanded. ‘We need support in the hangar. The Goliath units are down and I’m expecting a full-scale assault by the G.L.O.V.E. forces at any moment.’

  ‘I was dealing with the team that had managed to infiltrate the facility,’ Raven said.

  ‘You found them?’ Furan asked. ‘How did they get inside?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Raven replied. ‘I did not have much time to ask questions. Suffice to say the problem has been neutralised.’

  ‘I have no doubt it has,’ Furan said. ‘Get up here as quickly as you can.’

  ‘On my way,’ Raven responded, and the line went dead.

  Furan looked back towards the open door. He did not understand why the G.L.O.V.E. soldiers were not attacking. Suddenly one of the men thirty metres to his left let out a startled cry and fell to the ground, clutching at his throat. Furan knew instantly what was happening.

  ‘Open fire! They’re cloaked! They’re already inside!’ he yelled, activating his communicator as the men around him started to fire randomly at shadows. ‘Security control, this is Furan. Activate the fire-suppression system in the hangar area NOW!’

  A few seconds later there was a loud hissing noise and water began to cascade down from the numerous sprinklers mounted in the ceiling overhead. Furan saw ghostly shapes moving in the torrential downpour, far closer than he had expected.

  ‘Hold the line!’ he yelled, even as he himself backed towards the exit. ‘Aim for the muzzle flashes.’

  His men were falling left and right, cut down by silent ghosts that seemed to vanish as quickly as they appeared. He turned and ran out of the room. He had seen enough combat in his time to know when a skirmish was lost. Whoever these people attacking them were, they were no standard G.L.O.V.E. assault force, that much was clear. He headed down the corridor for the area of the facility known as the Vault.

  ‘Furan to all units. Protect the corridors leading to the Vault. Enemy forces have breached the facility. Repeat, enemy forces have breached the facility.’

  He reached a set of massive steel doors and waited as the camera mounted behind thick glass above it scanned him. A moment later the heavy door rumbled upwards and he hurried inside to find Overlord sitting in a high-backed chair staring at the bank of monitors that had recently come back to life. They showed images of Furan’s men falling back as they continued to be cut down by ghosts, fleeting flickers of movement and shadow the only clue as to what was happening to them. The mysterious attackers advanced through the facility and the screens blacked out one by one as the cameras that fed them were destroyed.

  ‘Leave us,’ Overlord said to the two guards who had been standing just inside the room. The two men left, the door sealing again behind them. ‘You told me your men were the best, Furan,’ Overlord said, his voice little more than a frail whisper now, his chest rising and falling with each painful rasping breath. His current host body seemed as if it might fail at any moment.

  ‘They are the best,’ Furan said, staring in disbelief at the ease with which his men were being eliminated, ‘but these forces attacking us are not standard G.L.O.V.E. soldiers. They are much too . . . efficient.’

  ‘It seems that Nero had one last trick up his sleeve,’ Overlord said with a sneer. ‘Not that it matters. Once I have Malpense it will all be irrelevant.’

  ‘But Malpense is with them,’ Furan said, gesturing towards the screens. ‘How can we get to him?’

  ‘We don’t have to,’ Overlord said, nodding towards Lucy and Laura who were handcuffed to a steel handrail on the other side of the room. ‘Because he is going to come to us.’

  Raven walked down the corridor towards two guards standing outside the mess hall. They nodded as she approached. Her swords flashed from their sheaths so fast that neither man even had time to make a sound before their lifeless bodies crumpled to the ground. Raven walked into the room and looked at the frightened faces staring back at her.

  ‘It’s time to go,’ she said calmly, sliding her swords back into the crossed scabbards on her back.

  ‘How are you going to get us out of here?’ one of the hostages asked. ‘Those terrorists have an army and you’re on your own.’

  ‘That’s not strictly true,’ Raven said as the air around her seemed to shimmer for a moment. Three figures in black body armour and full-face helmets appeared out of thin air standing alongside her. The tallest of the three took a step forward and spoke.

  ‘The man who captured you is still somewhere inside this facility. He represents a threat to not only everyone in this room but quite possibly every man, woman and child on Earth. We have to find him immediately. He will probably have retreated to a secure area of the base. What I need to know is where that might be.’

  ‘The Vault – he’ll have gone to the Vault,’ a young woman in an AWP uniform replied. ‘It’s supposed to be the one place that any surviving members of the staff here can retreat to if there’s a catastrophic hazmat containment failure.’

  ‘Escort the hostages to the facility entrance,’ Nero said and Wing, Shelby and Raven began to shepherd the group of survivors out of the room. As the last of the hostages left he stumbled and placed a hand on the wall for support. The pain in his abdomen was getting worse and he seemed to be feeling weaker every minute. He gritted his teeth and forced himself away from the wall. He couldn’t stop now – this wasn’t over yet.

  Otto watched as the frightened hostages were ushered into the hangar bay by a group of Alpha team operatives who led them out through the giant blast doors at the far end. Two of the remaining Alphas walked towards Otto and pulled off their helmets.

  ‘One day we’re goin
g to get tired of saving your sorry behind,’ Shelby said, giving Otto a hug, ‘and then you’re really screwed.’

  ‘I think what Shelby means is that we are glad to see that you are unharmed,’ Wing said with a smile.

  ‘It’s good to see you guys too,’ Otto said, his smile turning into a slight frown as he realised who was still missing. ‘Has anyone found Laura and Lucy yet?’

  ‘No, but we did manage to round up one stray,’ Shelby said as Raven walked into the hangar.

  ‘The antidote worked,’ Otto said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Shelby replied. ‘Not before we all got a royal ass-whupping though.’

  Nero walked towards them. He looked pale and his skin was clammy. Otto could not help but notice the ragged bloodstained hole in his armour.

  ‘We can’t find Miss Brand or Miss Dexter,’ he said with a frown. ‘We believe that Overlord has retreated to a part of this facility known as the Vault and I’m afraid it’s starting to look like they may be with him.’

  ‘Sir,’ one of the Alphas said suddenly, ‘I’m receiving reports from one of the squads who have fought their way to the Vault entrance. They say that it’s sealed tight. The only way to get inside once a lockdown is initiated is to release the locks from within the Vault itself. The team that searched the laboratory that Otto described have said that the clean room inside was empty. The canister containing Overlord’s weapon has been moved.’