Some 275 of them altogether. The first wave of the largest fighting force the Resistance had ever assembled. The men and women who had come in the first wave were the best of the best.
The plan was to lead this elite force into battle and do as much damage as possible, hopefully concentrating most of the fighting here at COR and drawing in the Council forces that were causing havoc at the mayor’s office. Eventually, ninety percent of the Minutemen volunteers from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia would join them—if they lasted that long.
It would be just a mass of human beings. A ragtag force to be sure, but in sheer numbers, it gave them an edge. If everyone showed up, the fighting force could be well over 10,000 souls.
But that could still be hours away. In the meantime, they had to stay alive. Rachel had gone on ahead to sneak into the Green Dragon, while Lantern and Drayger had stayed behind to help launch the assault.
Presently, Lantern and Drayger were in the middle of a group of about one hundred Minutemen marching straight ahead toward the compound. Another squad had split off to their left and would attack the open northern wall of the building while a third squad would do that same for the tree-shrouded southern side. Rachel, by now inside the Green Dragon, had maintained radio silence.
Without Ward, they knew their air support, never exactly strong, was now halved.
“General, the troops are ready,” Lantern called out to him over the universal com so that everyone could hear. “What’s the word?”
Revolution was creeping up to the first window from the edge of the building, hoping Rachel had managed to slip off to somewhere safe. But he couldn’t worry about that now. His eyes were fixed on the barrel of what he recognized as an M110 semi-automatic sniper rifle jutting out of the open glass pane. As he crept forward, he realized that rifles were poking out of every window that ran along the front of the building. Fortunately, the old power plant had consisted of only one story with an enormous ceiling, so the snipers would only be on the ground floor and probably the roof.
“For God and country,” he said into the general com—and the sniper rifle trembled as the Guard wielding it heard him speak. “The word is freedom. Freedom or death!”
And with that, he grasped the barrel of the rifle and yanked the would-be sniper clean out of the window, taking part of the wall with him in an explosion of glass, wood, and concrete—just as an enormous cheer erupted from the fields as the Minutemen on all three sides charged the compound.
The front doors of the Green Dragon Tavern burst open, and two tight lines of Council Guard came streaming out, weapons up, ready to fire.
Nearly three hundred Minutemen, Lantern, and Drayger, all sprinting, weapons drawn—even Lantern, a pistol in each hand. Drayger, with his stolen laser pistol reloaded and ready in his right hand, his left ready to help him focus the neurolyzer, ran alongside him.
Sophia, meanwhile had arced high into the sky and came zooming in from behind them at supersonic speed. She zipped over their heads, her engines roaring, leaving a long cobalt trail across the twilight sky. “This is it! We’ve all lost someone at the hands of these bastards. Think of them! Sophia shouted over the com. “Attack!”
Revolution leaped into the void of the shattered wall, and three more Guardsmen engaged him. But he was in no mood for mercy. He could hear the gunfire erupt outside and he knew that at that very moment good men and women were dying. And it was he who had drawn up the plans that would lead to their deaths. It was he who had given the order that would take them to their graves.
No, he was not in the mood for mercy.
The first man he encountered was too close to him to discharge his own M110. Revolution more or less landed on him and in one brutally swift move jammed his fist through the man’s skull. It exploded.
Two more to go. One to the right, one to the left.
They opened fire, and one of the ricocheting bullets embedded itself into the man on the right’s skull, killing him instantly. The other turned to run, but the Revolution charged him and in one swift blow to the center of his back severed the man’s spine with a single punch through his light infantry armor.
Outside, at that exact moment, the Council Guard assembled around the compound dropped to one knee and aimed their rifles. Behind them, the second row aimed handheld pistols.
“Ready...fire!” came the order from the Guard commander.
The bullets zinged into the ranks of the sprinting Minutemen, and puffs of pink mist rose immediately. Running full force, those who were struck looked as if they had hit an invisible wall, the might of the rounds was so violent. They were flung to the ground in a shower of gore.
Undaunted, the northern squad crossed Beach Street and began advancing on the exposed north wall of the compound, all the while returning fire.
The southern squad did the same, tromping through the earthen gullies ripped open by the Revolution and Sophia only moments before, shooting through the tree line.
Arbor could see that bullets alone would not slow the Minutemen’s advance. “Velocity,” Arbor commanded from the roof, “thin the ranks.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, peering out at the oncoming Minutemen on the northern side.
And then she was a blur. Speeding straight at them. Robotic limbs and titanium armor. When she hit them it was just a haze of black, pink, and red. The fluid of the human body spewed into the air.
The Revolution hit the large open floor of the tavern like an unstoppable force of nature. He sprinted forward, pulverizing the first two Guardsman he met, bringing his fists down on the tops of their heads before they even knew he was there.
The sound of gunfire muffled his attack. Council Guard were running in tight lines toward the back exit of the tavern, just as Revolution had expected. They hadn’t even noticed him. He’d seen that line of Guards come up from around the back of the compound and put two and two together. This attack came from the Aquifer.
It made perfect sense. The back of the building was protected by the river. And if they knew about COR, they’d probably already discovered the secret underwater entrance. There was no more Hunley to protect the waterway, and even if there were, the Council would have known that he’d have been in Boston Harbor expecting an attack on the Suns’ HQ.
So, the troops had gathered in the large open tavern floor and now they were headed out to take on the Minutemen. Revolution juiced his servos and raced forward, and with all his might he leaped up into the air and slammed down on the midsection of the line of Guardsmen. They crushed beneath him like ripe tomatoes. In front of him, the secret door to the Hall of Chambers was open, and he stood in front of it. Six Guardsmen tried to take him down. Six Guardsmen died.
“Retreat!” one of them yelled, and the remaining Guard high-tailed it for the front entrance. Evidently deciding they’d rather take their chances stepping out into the massive firefight.
Revolution peered down at the stairwell leading to the Hall of Chambers. It was time to rescue the members of COR.
A huge explosion erupted behind the Minutemen. Lantern and Drayger turned—to see one of the Sikorskys crashing to the ground in a ball of fire.
On the roof, Fiddler and Fang were high-fiving over the incredible shot.
Off to the left of that horrible duo, Spectral began firing optical blasts into the oncoming troops, sending them flying from the powerful impacts.
“We’ve got to get closer!” Drayger yelled.
Up on the roof, Lithium spoke into his com. “Send the Spores.”
Revolution burst into the Chamber ready to fight, ready to kill. Instead, he found the members of COR all gathered around. As he stepped forward, he saw why. Rachel was there—in her new costume, such as it was. She had subdued the Guards that had been assigned to the room by using a small gun Ward had given her filled with his Paralysis Darts.
He saw the hole that had been ripped into the center of the floor.
“Thank God!” someone said as he entered.
&
nbsp; “Is everyone okay?” he asked. He met Leslie’s eyes. She shook her head no. She was unusually somber. And he knew. Not all the members of COR would be returning home.
Some of the members made faces as he came into the light. And for the first time, Revolution took note of what a collection of horrors his armor had become. Gore had dried on his arms and was splattered on his cape.
“I apologize,” he said. “It’s been a bit—”
Suddenly…
The room began to shake and tremble. Leslie grabbed the wall for balance. “What the hell is that, another sub?” she asked.
“I’m going to find out,” Revolution said, and he leaped down the hole in the center of the room.
He thudded onto the concrete below and raced along the walkway, at the edge of the water, in the shadow of one of the Council’s submarines, until the walkway reached the end. The concrete created what was essentially a large pool of river water. Normally the room seemed expansive, but now, with five mini-subs and one large submarine, the room was crowded indeed. At the end of the walkway, Revolution flung open the door to the outside and bounded out onto the rocky banks of the Delaware River.
And that’s when he saw it.
The riverbank was vibrating just like the Chamber. He braced himself as the shaking increased. The water began to bubble and boil. The river glowed white. A long line of alabaster spread across the waves, from one end of the compound to the other. Revolution took a step back.
A river monster rose from the Delaware. At least that’s what it looked like. Row after row of silver spikes jutted out of the roiling water. Shiny steel orbs with bright spotlights built into their faces, covered in spikes, launched out of the river with a pounding roar—each of them the size of a compact car.
Intercontinental Spores.
The water spewed over the Revolution as he watched them sail above him and disappear over the compound. Robotic and precise, they were built for only two purposes: to intimidate and to kill. But these were ten times larger than any intercontinental Spores he’d ever seen. A normal-sized Spore had killed John Bailey, the great Saratoga. What the hell could these things do?
Kendrick Ray knew exactly what they could do. Ray had slipped away.
He’d been ordered to by Chairman Howke himself. Unseen by everyone on the Legion or the Suns, Ray had snuck down the street and found an abandoned warehouse where he had kicked in the door and set up shop. Shop being an old but sturdy chair. And there he sat, controlling the massive Spores. Twelve of the coolest toys he’d ever gotten his hands on.
He didn’t have much time to play. Howke had sent a van to pick him up. It seemed that the Council’s top Locator was too important for this kind of open warfare. Which was okay with him. He valued his skin too much to just wade into a suicidal slugfest.
But he was going to miss playing with these Spores. Each Spore already had a prime directive that it had to follow, so Ray just let them rise on their own and get into position. Then he was going to splatter some melons! All over Beach Street, he hoped.
As the Spores rose above the compound, he saw all the juicy melons: droves of Minutemen, just waiting to be picked off.
Lantern and Drayger were sprinting for the wall.
It wasn’t much of a wall. More like a fence, a concrete hedgerow. Built to create a boundary for the Passport office when it had been here decades ago. Now all that was left of the entire building was this small brick fence.
They fired their pistols as they ran. Lantern had been an expert marksman in his days in the CIA. Now, he picked off the riflemen one by one as he charged forward. Drayger had his eye on another target. At the top of the roof, he could see Fiddler and Fang firing their own projectiles into the onrushing Minutemen. Fiddler’s horrific mini-harpoons lanced into their numbers, and the acid splattered out from the awful wound the blades made, taking out two or three Minutemen at a time. Fang’s spears carried with them an electric charge that guaranteed death to any they struck.
Drayger wanted the Legion. He wanted Lithium. But these two thugs would do for now. He fired the laser pistol, and the luminescent bullets streaked out toward the roof. Both shots missed, but they did paint a target on Drayger’s head. Bullets strafed the area, and soldiers fell everywhere. There was nowhere to hide.
CHAPTER 45
They all heard the rumble. It was coming from the compound itself. Their jaws dropped. Rising above the compound, the giant Spores emerged as a long line of death—and then immediately split into four groups of three. And as Lantern’s spine turned to ice, he saw three of them drop from the sky and head right for him.
The spores opened fire with searing red lasers that cut deep valleys into the earth and ripped any human being they touched into gory fragments. The entire squad dove for cover—that was nowhere to be found. The result was chaos. The lasers blasted all around them. Lantern snapped his head around to find Drayger, only to see the man next to him take a wrong turn and pop in a red, frothy spray of gore, but the young Neuro was nowhere to be seen.
Drayger kept running. The Spores would either kill him or they wouldn’t. Either way, trying to dodge them was stupid. He kept aiming at the men on the roof, and as he got closer, he realized that laid out across the edge of the roof was a whole squad of snipers. He’d not been able to see them until now.
No one had.
“Hey!” he yelled to anyone who could hear him, “Take out those guys on the roof! The roof!” he repeated.
“Run for your life, kid! Are you crazy?” someone shouted, ignoring his plea.
“Who the fuck are you to give me orders?” another demanded.
It was a good question. He wasn’t even an official member of the Suns yet. Something that irked the shit out of him. Hell, he wasn’t even an official member of the Minutemen!
Drayger growled in response. He stopped running—and raised his left hand. Two Minutemen narrowly avoided plowing into him and cussed him as they sprinted past.
Drayger didn’t care. His eyes scrunched in concentration—even as bullets whizzed by—and laser impact craters opened all around him, rock and dirt raining down all over him.
He opened his eyes and saw what he wanted.
Across the compound, the Guard began to cease firing. They gazed around at each other, confused. Fear on their faces. Drayger knew what they feared.
The Fire Fly.
And he fed it to them with as much power as he could mentally muster.
“Fire!” Drayger screamed as loud as he could and let loose an entire clip of the laser pistol, taking out a dozen Guards in the process. A cheer rang up from the men around him, and they began to fire on the Guardsmen as well. Across the front line of the compound, the Council Guard began to fall.
Fiddler and Fang felt it, too. A creeping dread that made them scan their surroundings. What the hell was wrong with everyone? What did they know that he didn’t, Fiddler thought. Fang thought. Everyone within the range of Drayger’s neurolyzer had the same thought.
Back in the field, those close to him had all stopped to stare at Drayger. “Who the hell are you, kid?” one of them asked.
Just then Drayger saw another group of Guardsmen burst out of the front door, guns blazing. “Look out!” he yelled to the Minutemen around him and raised his hand, squinted hard, and the Guards all stopped firing and took up defensive positions against the front wall, searching the sky. Giving Drayger enough time to reload, charge forward, and start firing again. “The name’s Neuro!” he yelled back at the others. “And I’m with the Suns of Liberty!”
“Well, I guess so!” someone said, and the whole group followed Drayger toward the front door of the compound, guns raised, bullets flying. They overwhelmed the Guards out front in a matter of minutes.
Dust clouds were everywhere. Kicked up by the Spores’ laser blasts. Lantern could see nothing. He’d lost Drayger, and the kid wasn’t responding over the com. Looked like he’d switched his off.
Suddenly a light in the sk
y, emerging out of the dust cloud, startled him.
Lantern dove for cover as two Spores headed right for him. Dirt flew up from under him as he skidded across the ground, waiting for the horrible impact from the lasers.
Instead, the Spores just zoomed right over him. They blasted past the interstate, and as they reached the first row of businesses on the other side, they opened fire. Flames and explosions rose into the air.
“They’re going civilian!” Lantern screamed over the com.
Up top, Sophia froze, her boot-jets stabilizing into hover mode. “Shit!” she breathed. She knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted to her to follow, to be drawn away from the main fight. But the light industrial area they were targeting was largely empty. They might well be blowing up vacant buildings. They’d have to do better than that if they wanted to pull her away!
But then, she instantly regretted having that thought as she saw the Spores move further into the city, nearly on the horizon now. More explosions rose up, and she knew they’d flown out to the low-rent residential area just beyond the industrial sector.
She had no choice now.
She juiced the boot-jets and rocketed out to face them. Fires were rising in the neighborhoods. “Let’s hope Media Corp puts that on the evening news!” she said.
Suddenly, Sophia’s com crackled in her ear and a very welcome voice chimed through. “Hey, Blue, ya miss me?”
It was Ward.
‘”I figured as long as I was getting high, I might as well come out here and do it with you,” he said.
“You know, bug boy, I’m starting to see why you and potty mouth get along so well,” she said.
Ward dropped in beside her, and she slowed her engines to make it easier for him to keep pace.
“I’m sorry I left you hanging. It won’t happen again,” he said over the roar.
The Suns of Liberty (Book 1): Legion Page 29
