by Skyler Grant
Still, it wasn't a lead we could ignore. Whatever security they had, we had some decent firepower on our own, and depending on just what warehouse she was in we might even have some connections we could call upon. The only way to find out exactly what we'd be facing would be to get on scene.
"Tell the team to gear up," I told Ismene. "We leave within the hour."
29
It was a rainy night.
The Ferris spaceport wasn't quite the high security nightmare I'd been imagining. It looked weary and tired somehow, as if the best days were long ago past.
Oh, there were well-defended areas, the hangars in particular housing the orbital shuttles were patrolled by scout mechs and armored security. However, the warehouses looked to be largely abandoned.
The exception was, of course, our target of interest. Galatea's signal was coming from warehouse G21. Here the guards were exclusively human, no combat mechs or turrets visible. They wore featureless black, not marking themselves as belonging to any corporation.
Special operations then, unusual in a place as public as a spaceport. Their weapons looked to be of Liberty manufacture and their armor by Camelot. That didn't tell me much, if you want the best, that's where anyone would go.
We'd set up in a nearby warehouse, also abandoned and filled with rotting foodstuffs. It had always been a goal of Olympus station to become more self-sustaining without the need of shipments from the surface. It seemed all the stations over time had done the same and places like these were no longer in use.
"What do you think?" I asked.
Sparks and Ismene were checking for any data vulnerabilities. Through binoculars, I was surveying their defenses along with Diva and Inanna.
"No Network presence at all in that building. Galatea only has any sort of connection at all because of the spaceport hub," Ismene said.
"It's going to be tough going in through the front. Heavily armored, versatile guns with a kick, and they move like they know what they're doing," Diva said.
"What about the roof?" Inanna asked.
It was an intriguing idea.
I had Sparks dispatch a drone so that we could get a visual.
Two snipers with rifles and additional heavy weapons up there, but compared to the ground that was lightly defended.
"I'm fast and quiet enough to get through their patrols. I'll get up to the roof and clear out those snipers. Do you think you can steal us a shuttle?" I asked Inanna.
I thought that would be the harder job, the hangars really were thick with security. Inanna was also proud of her skills as a thief and, as we'd discovered, she was a talented pilot.
"If I can borrow Masque and Sparks," Inanna said.
"They're yours," I said. "By the time you get a shuttle I'll have the way cleared. Get everyone aboard and punch a hole in the warehouse roof. We drop down, find our Galatea, and extract."
"Messy plan," Inanna said. I didn't disagree. The one virtue was there weren't too many moving parts to go wrong.
I slipped off and triggered my bodysuit into stealth mode. Nanites can pull off a good stealth suit as well as armor, adapting the camouflage to be optimal from any angle.
The security patrols were making sure each area regularly got inspected, but also added an element of unpredictability. Whoever these soldiers represented, they knew their stuff.
Fortunately, modern security tended to rely heavily on cameras and that was missing here—they feared Aphrodite might hack into any electronic surveillance.
I positioned myself behind a cart near one of the runways and waited for a patrol to pass. By my timing that gave me forty-three seconds to get to the warehouse wall. A ladder leading up was too exposed, but with my enhanced muscles I shouldn't need one.
The instant they were out of range I began running. With my stealth suit, even if visual contact was made, I'd appear little more than a blur. However, to trained eyes that would be enough to raise an alarm.
I tensed my legs as I drew near and used my momentum to leap towards the roof. I barely made it, fingers digging into a rain gutter as I pulled myself up and over.
I hadn't gone as unseen. Olympian reflexes weren't a help at all when you're hanging off a roof. A fist caught me just as I was pulling my head over the side.
Had the punch been a normal one it would have been one thing, but it crackled with electricity and it hit me like a high-powered taser. I went flying from the roof as my muscles convulsed with the shock. I landed on my back, driving the wind from my lungs. Already my nanites were resetting from the charge and after a moment I felt them kicking in to slow my heart rate and deaden the pain.
My muscles still weren't answering me.
I heard the crack of a rifle from somewhere above. A body tumbled down to crash beside me. It was the sniper who had punched me, he was missing a part of his skull.
Inanna was making a go at the roof even without me there to pitch in.
Another few seconds and I was back on my feet. Guards were closing in. I drew my spear and drove the point into the steel of the warehouse wall. It was no match for the blade's alloy and I cut a jagged hole to crawl through.
It wasn't hard to locate Galatea. She was blindfolded, gagged and bound to a chair in the middle of a wide circle of light. The trap couldn't be more obvious. She wore a short red dress and heels, and looked for all the world as if she'd gotten interrupted during a night at a club. I'd think about that later, I had to focus on the trap. Clearly there was one. The question was, what kind of trap? Inside the warehouse there were no guards at all.
Well, I might not have a clue, but Galatea might. That meant I just had to really be a great shot. I wasn't on my own—with Ismene's assistance my aim could be much improved.
I leveled the Silversmith and fired a low intensity round. The bullet grazed the gag binding her mouth and the strap frayed, coming undone. Galatea spit it out.
She snapped, "Superhuman hearing. Could you not go around shooting off rounds next to my head?"
Really, the gun made the noise, not the bullet. It didn't seem the time to argue the point.
"Aphrodite sent me—I think. No clue if you are best buds or bitter enemies, and I don't care. I think you're in the middle of giant trap, do you know what kind?" I asked.
"They didn't fill me in, but it's most likely some kind of EMP. If you aren't a robot or a cyborg you should be fine," Galatea said.
"Not either of those, but I am covered in a skintight layer of nanomachines."
"Really?" Galatea said. "So get naked and get over here."
"Ismene?" I asked.
"Never recommended, which is why I've not suggested you do it before, but I don't think we have a choice if we want to get out of here. You are not going to be as combat-capable for awhile afterward. That is a damn shame, because it is a major firefight out here," Ismene said.
Yeah. Great.
The black armor flowed like syrup off my body. For the first time since Olympus station I really felt cold, the chill air of the warehouse unpleasant on my naked skin.
I made my way into the light. From the floor came a brilliant flash. It was intense enough it left me dizzy and nauseous, and I stumbled a bit as I closed the distance to the chair. I worked to loosen Galatea's bonds.
As soon as she was free Galatea slipped off her blindfold. "You weren't kidding. I really hope you go for rescue sex."
"I think that requires we complete the rescue first," I said. I moved back to the goop that was the puddle of nanomachines. Nothing happened, they didn't slide back up to reform my armor. That's what Ismene meant when she said not combat-capable—no suit.
There was the sound of hinges squeaking and guards began to pour into the warehouse, rifles pointed in our direction.
"Got a gun?" Galatea asked.
She wanted to fight? I wasn't dressed for it, but I was pretty sure that while they might want to keep Galtea as bait, I wasn't the fish they wanted to catch. They didn't need me alive.
I kicked th
e Silversmith over to Galatea and reached down to grab my spear.
30
There were too many guards. I'd seen the patrols outside, and the numbers swarming through the doors were far more. They must have been quartered nearby and called to respond when the EMP went off.
I didn't have time to dwell on it. I threw my spear and caught the leading soldier in the throat before his gun could level on me. I crossed the distance and wrenched the spear free as he was falling.
Despite it being rather traditional to do gymnastics naked in the Olympian tradition, fights were another matter. My support suit served so much as a second skin I was accustomed to the feel of it, but not the feeling of vulnerability. Effectively there's little difference between bare flesh and street clothes, but I was having trouble convincing myself.
A woman tried to butt me with the stock of her rifle and I twisted, crouching low and thrusting upward to bury my spear in her midsection. It was a difficult blow even with my boosted strength. My spear could penetrate their heavy armor, but it was a struggle.
I caught a glimpse of Galatea out of the corner of my eye and had to tell myself this was no time to stare. To a well-trained combatant a fight could be a dance. Beautiful movement almost choreographed between those seeking each other’s destruction. Galatea danced incredibly well, ducking and flowing between the ranks of guards, delivering powerful blows with her fists and well-placed shots with the gun. I'd downed two, she'd already downed three.
I wrenched my spear free and pain exploded along my side as I took a shot from behind. I rolled into a crouch just as several more shots passed through the air where I'd just been standing. My spear caught the shooter in his arm and the rifle went clattering to the floor.
I charged him and a hit from my shoulder sent us both stumbling to the ground. I was in no position to wrestle. I was already losing blood, and his armor would prevent any sort of choke hold. One of his hands grasped at the spear and I grabbed the other arm, shifting back into a crouch and wrenching with all my might. I was rewarded with the crack of bone breaking.
Another soldier, a woman with hard green eyes, was aiming her rifle at me from a few feet away. A black jet of fluid erupted from her chest and slammed into me. It was familiar and welcome, nanites oozing back along my flesh and hardening into place. It was no more than a few seconds until my armor was restored.
"Sweet trick. Liked the view better the other way," Galatea said, as she pointed the pistol at the face of the man whose arm I'd just broken and pulled the trigger.
The fight inside the warehouse was over, Galatea had already killed the others. She wasn't fond of leaving survivors, then.
"Flirt later. Ismene, where I am extracting to?" I asked.
"Rest of the team has pulled back. Shuttle got downed and Inanna is hurt pretty bad. They're at the southwest corner of the runway, but I don't think you're getting out with them," Ismene said through Comms, so that Galatea could hear.
Ismene projected an image hacked from a drone. It was somewhere outside the warehouse. The spaceport looked nothing like when we'd arrived. Every light was on and bright, and shuttles were landing with troops pouring in and out.
We hadn't fought the whole backup, we'd only faced the first wave. There were hundreds of soldiers out there. I couldn't blame the team for retreating, it was surprising they'd managed to get out of this trap at all.
"Sewers? Service tunnels?" I asked.
"I wish. I've got nothing," Ismene said, sounding panicked.
Galatea just grinned at the display, the sight of such overwhelming force being brought to bear not bothering her in the least.
I appreciated the ability to keep cool in a crisis, but I wasn't that carefree.
"You aren't going to need them," Galatea said, staring me in the eyes. I suddenly had the idea that she wasn't talking to me at all, but to those watching through me. "Traps work both ways."
The words were no more said than the view outside vanished in a blur of white. Galatea flung herself at me and knocked me to the ground as the earth began to shake.
It really should have been me shielding her. I was the one in the armor, I was the one who'd come back from the dead before.
For some time talking was impossible. At first there was just the endless rumbling, then later the roof of the warehouse collapsing to bury us. I might not be able to communicate with Galatea, but I still had my channel with Ismene.
"We seem to be under fire. What is happening?"
"I don't know. I've lost my Network feed."
We were completely offline then. My fans would be worried.
"Let me know as soon as you get anything."
"We're buried. Oxygen is already getting thin."
"Is Galatea going to be okay?"
"Like I told you before, nothing human about that girl. It won't bother her."
It was over half an hour until I felt Galtea stirring and heard the debris shifting.
A hand reached down to help pull me up and I got my first sight of what had happened.
The spaceport was in ruins. Not a building remained standing and flames burned everywhere. Shuttles were torn into half and thick, oily smoke poured out of them as they smoldered away in the still drizzling rain. Then there were the bodies—there were rather a lot of those.
Galatea was covered in blood, although I didn't see any injuries. The back of her dress was shredded, so she'd been hurt. That meant she healed even faster than I did.
"Thanks," I said.
"I'd intended to get frisky, but then a building fell on top of me," Galatea said, looking around. "Killing gets me hot. Does it get you hot?"
It didn't. The first time I'd killed someone I'd thrown up. I hadn't done that in awhile, but I didn't enjoy it. Still, it seemed best to be diplomatic here.
"I enjoy the rush of a good fight."
Galatea beamed at that. It was like Aphrodite's smile. Devastating in impact. "I'm Galatea, by the way. You maybe knew that. You said Aphrodite sent you?"
"I'm Persephone. I think so. She has been leading me around from puzzle to puzzle."
Galatea laughed. "Not friends, then? Auntie and I don’t always get along."
"Too much alike?" I asked.
Galatea grinned and spun around. "Pretty good, right? I was supposed to be her way back when, but kind of became me instead. So, a maze of treats and a name like Persephone? Aspiring Goddess to be?"
I'd rather thought, with the way this had played out, that she'd know exactly who I was.
"Team is alive, if shaken up. They were just on the edge of the blast radius. They're getting Inanna back to base," Ismene said.
"I'm not sure why she had me playing the game she does," I told Galatea.
Galatea leaned in and sniffed at my neck. A long sort of inhalation before she pulled back. "Oh, you've been sipping the ambrosia all right."
It was a strange conversation, and one we shouldn't be having here.
"We should probably get going before whoever did all this decides to send more men," I said.
Galatea spared a glance for the surroundings. "This? They won't do anything for this. They'd wanted to pull her out into something small, something contained. This is too big and that means all their calculations are off."
I didn't have a frame of reference, but I could still make sense of that. These people had imprisoned Galatea and intended to use her to capture or kill some other agent of Aphrodite. That happened in war sometimes, you didn't play for a real victory, you played for points. Capturing a hill or defending it, its own reward.
It was a stupid way to fight a war. Aphrodite had just shown she wasn't playing for points, she was playing for blood.
I'd been bait to get them to put their pieces on the board and then she'd upended the whole thing.
"Then let’s get somewhere where you can get a change of clothes," I said.
Galatea picked at her dress. "Appeals to my vanity? You do know how to get your way. Lead on, then."
&nbs
p; I didn't know what the others would make of Galatea. I barely meshed with the group sometimes, and she was far less human than I was.
31
Getting the team to like Galatea wasn't a problem. When we got back to base it took less than an hour for her to borrow a party dress from Masque, then the music went on and the drinks were brought out. Inanna might have had a different opinion, but Inanna was having her insides put together by Ismene.
The party lasted for hours until Galatea finally pulled Masque and Hammer away for a threesome. It was no surprise about Masque, but I didn't know Hammer had any interest in that sort of thing.
I'd been hoping to get some answers, but was left disappointed. At least when the party wound down I was able to get some sleep.
I awoke before dawn. The team tended to wake up later, although when I made my way to the common area Galatea was sprawled out on a couch with a tablet in her lap.
"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.
"Don't need it. I was looking over your file on me," Galatea said.
"Which really was secured and encrypted. I promise," Ismene said.
I believed her.
"You're as good a hacker as she is?" I asked.
"Not even close," Galatea said, stretching out. "So it's true you're streaming everything you do nonstop?"
"It's true. In Network or out," I said.
Galatea slipped out of her top. "Hot."
"I'm Olympian. If you're hoping to shock me with skin, you're looking at the wrong girl," I said.
Galatea shrugged. "Just having fun. I get bored."
I didn't have much sympathy. In my experience being bored was a sign of not having any discipline. I could already tell Galatea was lacking in that area.
"Please tell me you two haven't crawled into bed," Inanna said, walking in slowly. Her side had a massive medical patch on it. At least her insides were staying where they belonged.
