The Link

by Isaac Hooke

  When Eric had reviewed the alien shield designs, he hadn’t been sure if taking down one generator would deactivate the entire force field. But if not, then Jason and his team would simply have to destroy however many awaited inside.

  “Taras, get ready to move into position,” Jason sent over the comm.

  He received a chorus of replies from Tara and her clones.

  He wanted to move to a closer tree, to get a better view of the alien construction site, but the moment he left cover, an energy beam drilled into his shoulder. He quickly dodged behind the tall, thick tree once again.

  But the wood quickly melted away in front of him, and he was forced to flatten himself to the ground. Above him, the beam shot through the bark and struck a boulder behind him, finally stopping.

  “Stay in cover!” Jason said. “We’re under attack!”

  14

  Jason glanced at his map.

  The other War Forgers had taken cover nearby. The clones of John and Jones were just to the north, while those of Jerry and Julian resided to the south, also in hiding.

  A beam struck lower on the tree, and Jason was taking the hit on his chest assembly. He quickly rolled to his feet, and vaulted over the boulder just behind him. He ducked, and was relieved when the rock held up under the bombardments.

  “Everyone okay?” he asked, glancing at the status indicators. Everyone was in the green.

  Just to the north, he spotted Tara crouched behind a thick tree. To the south, was Aria, though she’d deployed the ballistic shield unique to her mech model, and had dug in. She wasn’t taking any hits at the moment, which was good, because he wasn’t sure how long her shield would hold up.

  “Tara, you might want to relocate,” Jason said. “That energy beam eats through wood pretty easily. And Aria, same with you, your shield isn’t going to last long against that.”

  He leaned past the boulder and aimed at the source of the plasma beams: a defense turret that had been raised just outside the construction site, in front of the shield.

  He opened fire, offering covering fire, while Tara and Aria retreated into nearby blast craters, where the other War Forgers had hidden.

  His energy cannon struck the target, but a local energy shield activated in front of it, absorbing the blow.

  “Of course,” Jason said.

  “Gotta love personal energy shields, huh?” Tara said.

  “I was wondering how it escaped the aerial bombardments,” Jason said. “Is there only one of them?”

  “As far as I can tell, there’s just the one,” Cheyanne told him.

  Jason grabbed the boulder, and lifted. Carrying it in front of his body as a shield, he made his way forward, through the thin trees.

  The rock began to feel hot

  “You know, the front of your rock is growing red hot from that beam,” Tara said.

  “Must be some strong rock you got there,” Lori said.

  “Whatever it’s made of, it’s certainly tough,” Jason agreed.

  “Well it’s not strong enough,” Tara said. “Because it’s going to melt away before you reach the target!”

  Jason was ready to toss the rock; he planned to leap into the blast crater instead. But then the external temperature began to subside, according to his sensors.

  “It stopped firing,” Maeran said, seeming stunned.

  Jason couldn’t help the smile that painted the lips of his avatar. “Overheated.”

  He dashed forward, out from behind the last of the thin trees, and smashed the boulder down into the alien defense turret. The impact caused the energy shield to light up, and the rock split in two, melted down the middle.

  But this shield didn’t work the same as the bigger one that enclosed the construction site, because the force field abruptly clicked off.

  Jason pointed his energy cannon at the turret and fired at near point blank range. The metallic structure melted away.

  “Scratch one defense turret,” he said.

  Movement drew his attention to the north. He spotted another defense turret deployed there, and ducked between the rock fragments as it, too, opened fire. Another turret tracked him and opened fire from the south, but the other rock piece protected him.

  “War Forgers and clones,” Jason said. “Concentrate your fire on those turrets. Their shields work differently than the bigger shield that envelopes the base. They can only take a certain amount of damage before they fail.”

  The teams to the north and south opened fire, and in short ordered they’d depleted the shield enough to strike at the turrets inside, melting them.

  Aria came forward with Tara. Aria held her ballistic shield in front of her, and Tara crouched behind her body, long metallic sword in the hand of her Shadow Hawk.

  “Loris, cloak,” Jason said. “Circle the perimeter and report back. I want to know where the other defense turrets are. As soon as you can confirm that the path directly in front of us is free from their line of fire, let me know.”

  Lori, who was crouched inside a blast crater behind him, became invisible and dropped off the map. Other Lori clones vanished from the map as well.

  “So?” Tara’s avatar appeared in the lower right of his HUD. She looked at him expectantly.

  “Wait,” Jason said.

  Sixty seconds later, two Loris appeared almost simultaneously on the overhead map, outside the perimeter of the construction site, one to the south, one to the north.

  “There’s an active defense turret here,” Lori broadcasted, on the southernmost position. “But as far as I can tell, you guys won’t be in the line of fire. Clones, included. The construction site obscures your positions.”

  Lori 2, to the north, sent: “The turret here is offline, and I haven’t spotted any others yet. You’re clear.”

  “Thank you,” Jason replied, and both Loris vanished from the map as they cloaked yet again.

  Jason nodded at Tara. “Move into position. Tara clones, join her.”

  “Finally!” Tara dashed forward, leaving cover. To the north and south, other Taras left the forest line where the War Forger clones were dug in.

  The five of them converged in front of the energy field—or rather where the team had recorded the shield’s location, since it wasn’t visible at the moment. Then they simply stood in place.

  “It’s not working,” Sophie said.

  “No…” Jason said. “Taras, report?”

  “Damn it,” Tara sent. “The autogating field won’t let us teleport inside. We’re too big.”

  Though the Mind Refurbs had managed to send a shuttle past the energy shield of the world killer in orbit, Eric had warned Jason that because the field of the planet-side world killer was so much smaller, there was a chance the teleported matter would have to be commensurately compact.

  “All right, backup plan,” Jason broadcast.

  The Taras raced back to the closest blast crater and jumped inside so that they weren’t as exposed to potential fire. Then Tara 6 turned toward the other Taras. “Help me rip out my teleportation gear.”

  Tara had promised it would take a maximum of half an hour to finish the repurposing, though it would require one of the Taras losing the ability to teleport, namely Tara 6.

  Tara 2 worked on her, leaving the other Taras to cover them, as necessary.

  Tanis connected. “Be advised, we’re picking up movement in the trees, coming from your three o’clock.”

  Jason heard a sudden screeching coming from somewhere behind him, corresponding to the three o’clock direction Tanis had mentioned. Turning around, he saw hideous shapes of fur tearing through the trees. They were about as big as the trees themselves, and thus the mechs. They looked like a combination of porcupines and pigs, with the claws of velociraptors and the razor-like teeth of sharks.

  “Bioweapons!” Jason said. “Things are about to get hectic!”

  “Porcupigs!” Xin said.

  “You say it like they’re cute!” Cheyanne said.

  “Th
ey are!” Xin said.

  Jason fired at the lead porcupig with his energy cannon. He struck it in the center of mass, and it fell with a large gaping wound in its chest. He targeted the next bioweapon, and took it down as well. He continued attacking them as fast as he was able, but they kept coming.

  “Do we combine?” Jerry asked.

  “Not yet,” Jason said.

  One of them got close enough to leap at Xin, and it ripped open her chest assembly before she managed to fire her plasma beam from her eye area. It melted through its face and she shrugged the lifeless body off of her.

  “Not so cute!” Xin said.

  Other bioweapons began to leap at the other mechs, and Jason found himself wrestling on the ground with one of the porcupigs a moment later. He fired his laser at its chest, and the thing hissed, biting into his shoulder. He felt a sharp pain as its teeth sunk deep, but it was unable to tear away the metal—the material was too strong.

  Jason punched upward with his huge fist, slamming it under the creature’s chin, and fired the energy cannon at the same time, causing the head to explode, spraying his body with black blood.

  He rolled away from the corpse, only to be assaulted by yet another bioweapon.

  “We’re combining,” Jones said.

  “We are, too,” Jerry said.

  Jason decided to let them. Even if he told them not to do it now, they probably wouldn’t listen to him. He almost felt like combining, too, but he was worried about being targeted by other defense turrets on the other sides of the construction site. The other War Forger clones, led by John and Julian, couldn’t combine at the moment of course, since Tara 2 and 6 were occupied.

  Beside him, Tara swung her sword in a flourish, slicing through the bioweapons and leaving a mess of shredded body parts in her wake. Cheyanne worked beside her, gyrating in place, her swords spinning in an impenetrable wave. The two were like an indomitable fan, and the shit was hitting it.

  Aria unleashed her lightning weapon at the porcupigs, and it sparked between the creatures. Sophie sent her micro machines forth, and they ate through the flesh of her enemy like hungry insects. Maeran spat that binding substance from her mouth, gluing bioweapons in place. She finished them off by launching her three drones, which formed a deadly energy field between them, slicing through the targets. Iris pounded the ground with her four feet, causing the incoming bioweapons to lose their balance. She flung out those energy whips she wielded, slicing through opponents; sometimes she wrapped the whips around one of them, drawing it toward her, so that she could finish it off with localized energy beam her maw fired.

  Jason’s energy weapon overheated, and he switched to the laser, but it wasn’t good enough. A porcupig leaped on him, and he punched it with his left arm, firing the railgun. He kept firing until he depleted all the rounds stored in his bicep.

  Then he grabbed one of the dead porcupigs from the growing pile of dead bodies in front of him, and ripped away a huge chunk from its leg, big enough to form a gory, wet club. He swung it about his head as a weapon. He struck the first opponent with it in the face, and the creature fell back, stunned. He struck again, and the meaty leg section broke away.

  So much for that.

  Nearby, the Cataphracts of Jones and Jerry towered over the battlefield. The huge, combined mechs smashed their fists into the faces of the porcupigs they faced, and pulverized them.

  Plasma beams flashed by overhead: the defense turret to the south, which the team hadn’t yet taken down, was firing at the Cataphracts. It hadn’t fired at the team before, because as Lori mentioned, the construction site had obscured them from view, but the Cataphracts towered well above the site, and the forest.

  Jones and Jerry held their huge ballistic shields toward the incoming beams, doing their best to protect themselves while they dealt with the bioweapons.

  The overheat indicator on his HUD clicked off, and he fired his energy cannon once more, exploding the head of his latest foe.

  “Tanis, let’s try some air support,” Jason said. “Can you target the bioweapons streaming in from the forest, and leave us, and the dome, alone?”

  “I’ll instruct the jets to drop the bombs no closer than five hundred meters from you,” Tanis said.

  That sounded a little close, but Jason decided to trust the admiral’s judgment.

  He continued to fight. Jets roared past overhead a moment later, and pounded the exposed enemy lines in front of him. Explosions filled the air only five hundred meters in front of the team, and body parts and earth rained down upon them.

  None of the bombs dropped on the War Forgers themselves, but he heard a keening coming from behind him: a moment later some of them exploded above the energy dome that protected the construction site.

  “Don’t hit the energy field!” Jason sent the admiral. But it was too late.

  “Sorry about that,” Tanis said. “I told them to target the bioweapons alone. The bomber Mind Refurbs are a bit trigger happy.”

  Explosions continued to mar the northern half of the energy dome even after the bombers passed.

  “Tanis, what’s going on?” Jason said. “The world killer is still under attack.”

  It stopped.

  “Artillery was firing from the north,” Tanis said. “Somewhere our orders got mixed up along the way.”

  “Damn it,” Jason said as he exploded another head. “They’re just making that shield stronger. We might have to take out all four generators now, instead of just one, thanks to you.”

  “I know, hopefully it won’t happen again,” Tanis said.

  Hopefully. That’s all he can offer.

  The bioweapon attack began to subside, and then in a few moments, the last of the porcupigs went down.

  “Well, that was… entertaining,” Tara said.

  Around the War Forgers, the forest was filled with big walls of towered bodies that were piled well above the tree tops.

  “We can use those as defensive bulwarks, if we need to,” Jason said.

  He turned toward the construction site, and the alien drones working just out of reach beyond the energy shield that protected it. “Now where’s Lori?”

  As he spoke the words, Lori materialized. “I’ve got the position of the final defense turret.”

  She sent the data his way, and he accepted.

  “We should probably take out the two remaining turrets as soon as possible,” Jason said.

  Beside him, Jones and Jerry ducked their Cataphracts behind the piled bodies of the dead porcupigs, which protected them from the attacks of the southern defense turret. The Cataphracts stepped out from behind the cover for a moment, and fired the plasma beams from their hips at the enemy weapon.

  “Southernmost turret is offline,” Jones announced.

  “Just like that?” Aria asked. “Why didn’t you take it down when it first started firing?”

  “Actually, we’ve been attacking it intermittently while dealing with the bioweapon attacks,” Jones said. “Those last beams finally broke through its energy shield.”

  “The teleporter is ready,” Tara 6 announced.

  “Finally,” Jason said, turning toward the blast crater where Tara 2 was working on her.

  “Let’s hope this works,” Tara 2 said. She retrieved an energy grenade from her storage compartment and bent over to open a small box that resided on the ground.

  “That’s looks suspiciously like a microwave,” Lori said.

  “A micro what?” Cheyanne said. “Wait, I just looked it up. Someone’s from an ancient era…”

  Tara 2 shoved the grenade into the machine and shut the door. She passed the device to Tara.

  “Aria, join Tara,” Jason said.

  Aria went with her, holding her ballistic shield toward the forest as the pair retreated.

  “Did you set the timer?” Jason asked over the comm.

  “Of course,” Tara 2 sent.

  Tara 6 rubbed her back nearby. There was a gaping hole where Tara 2 had remov
ed the device. “Damn, I’m going to miss my teleport ability.”

  Tara reached the energy field, and then set the device on the ground. She stepped back, with Aria continuing to provide cover.

  A moment later the device disappeared. Jason zoomed in on the generator on that side of the construction site, and spotted the teleportation device at its base. The door opened, and the energy grenade rolled out.

  It detonated a moment later, reducing the energy shield, and the teleportation device beside it, to so much slag. The energy shield flickered, becoming visible for a moment, only to fade from view once more.

  “All right,” Jason said. “Let’s see if this shield is down.”

  He aimed at the construction site and opened fire.

  But the convex shape of the energy field flickered into existence once more.

  “Damn,” Jason said.

  “You think it’s because air support kept bombing it?” Sophie asked.

  “Could be,” Jason said. “Looks like we’re going to have to eliminate the other three.”

  “Assuming there are only three,” Tara said.

  “I can confirm,” Lori said. “I saw only three more in my scouting.”

  “Yeah, but there could be more in the center of that donut building,” Tara said.

  “Let’s hope not,” Jason said.

  Some of the alien drones inside the construction site moved away from the torus they were building, and instead hovered above the melted generator. Their telescoping limbs laid down fresh materials.

  “They’re repairing it…” Jones said.

  “How long do we have until the generator comes back online?” Jason asked Z.

  His Accomp was silent a moment. Observing.

  “At the current rate of repair, I’d estimate three hours,” his Accomp replied. “Assuming they don’t run out of the materials they need.”

  “I don’t think they’ll be running out,” Jason said. “They brought enough to build a world killer, after all.” He paused. “Three hours. That’s about just enough time.” He turned toward Tara 2. “It’s time to repurpose another teleportation device.”