by Isaac Hooke
Some of her mechanical troops had taken up positions on either side of the front doors, which sat askew their hinges; enemy troops fired at them from inside, pinning them.
With one Ban’Shar held directly in front of her and the other behind, Rhea raced right past her troops and plowed through the front doors. She worked her way through the enemy robots that formed a semicircle just inside, cutting off heads, and slicing through torsos. One of the robots, a walker, managed to strike her in the leg with its foot, and she was sent careening to the side, sliding across the floor. She spun her Ban’Shar toward it to protect herself, but a moment later it was shot down by plasma bolts as Will and Horatio entered.
She heard a clatter to her right as the constituent parts of a robot that had been split in half toppled to the floor. It had been lurking behind a pillar, and no doubt had been ready to fire its built-in plasma rifles straight through her brain.
But Min stood there above the robot, next to an open window she’d evidently utilized for entry. The X2-59 she’d used to slice open the robot glowed with electrolaser plasma in her right hand. In her left, she held a pistol.
When Rhea met her eyes, she gave her sensei a grateful look. Min bowed her head, then turned to fire off her pistol at the next approaching robot.
Rhea glanced at her overhead map and took stock of her remaining troops. All the Wardenites were still alive, but her robot army had been reduced by about half.
“Those of you still outside, take up defensive positions on the doors if you can!” She highlighted the alternate entrances on her map, to clarify that she wanted all access points guarded. “Don’t let any more of them in! Those of you already inside, with me!”
And so she fought her way through the hall to the throne room. Burhawk and Will were at her left. Horatio and Min at her right. The other Wardenites followed behind her, with the remaining robot troops forming a defensive circle around them. Two of the robots moved ahead of the party, acting as scouts. They headed west.
Pillars lined either side at intervals. Between them, tapestries or paintings hung from the walls. Occasionally a bust stood upon a pedestal. Rhea didn’t pay any of the art much heed, as she was too intent on looking for enemies.
The scouts took cover behind pillars as plasma fire came from ahead. Rhea broke away from the others to face these latest attackers: a pair of walkers standing at the main entrance to the throne room. The iron monstrosities unleashed a steady stream of plasma fire at Rhea, which she deflected back at them with her Ban’Shar. As the robots collapsed into smoking piles of slag, a black slab slid over the arched entrance, sealing off the throne room.
Rhea and her companions hurried toward the black seal.
“Hm, don’t like the looks of that.” Will fired repeatedly at the blockage as he approached, causing red heat circles to appear. The incandescent patterns quickly faded when he ceased firing, and otherwise left no marks in the material.
When Rhea arrived, she took a run at the black seal, swinging her Ban’Shar disks into it with all her might, but the weapons bounced away. She nearly cut off one of her legs in the ricochet, but quickly opened her hands, disabling the Ban’Shar.
She took cover behind the wreckage of one of the walkers, along with the other Wardenites. The robot troops meanwhile formed a defensive half circle around the party, crouching behind nearby pillars.
More infantry units appeared down the hall, and her companions opened fire with their robot allies, pinning down the aggressors.
“Burhawk?” Rhea asked. “The door?”
“Working on it,” Burhawk replied.
She switched to her plasma pistol and joined the others in firing at the distant enemies.
“This palace was built around the wreckage of a Ganymedean starship,” Burhawk explained. “The core, right here, is mostly impenetrable. It’s the perfect place to build a throne room.”
“If the palace was built around the wreckage of a Ganymedean starship, that implies the architects weren’t able to move the ship,” Rhea said, thinking of the wreckage she’d found in the Emerald Highlands. “And yet, they were able to seal a door.”
“The Martian scientists managed to link our door interfaces to theirs, but little else.” Burhawk paused, then shook his head. “The codes have changed. I can’t open it this way.”
“Maybe you can open it?” Will asked her, hinting at what she’d done in the Emerald Highlands.
In theory, her mind-machine interface was able to interact with Ganymedean technology in ways ordinary human tech could not. She focused but couldn’t detect any remote interfaces. Nor did any holograms appear.
She glanced at Min. “Anything?”
Min shook her head. “I have nothing. If there was an interface here, it’s long since been disabled.”
“There’s another way,” Burhawk said. “Hurry.” He scooted out from behind the wreckage and continued past the doors, moving further west.
Rhea holstered the plasma pistol and reactivated her Ban’Shar.
She and her companions weaved between the pillars, following Burhawk. They utilized “leapfrog” tactics: one group of Wardenites and robots would lay down suppressive fire, while the other group relocated. Meanwhile, Rhea also deflected any plasma bolts that came her way.
Burhawk paused before a tapestry-covered wall. The tapestry bore the big, smiling face of the Paramount Leader Qui Fon Chin. Rhea stood behind him and deflected any bolts that came his way. The others took cover behind nearby pillars.
“I told you the throne room was built around the core of a Ganymedean starship,” Burhawk said. “Well, that core wasn’t seamless… there were openings in its bulkheads. Gaps filled over with walls that are like papier-mache in comparison. Or hot butter, before the Ban’Shar you wield.” He beckoned toward the tapestry.
Taking the hint, Rhea took a run at the tapestry. When she reached it, she carved a glowing hot circle into the fabric and the wall behind it, using the edges of her Ban’Shar disks. The round section of tapestry dropped away, leaving behind plastered-over bricks whose outermost edges still glowed incandescent. She deactivated the knuckles long enough to slam a shoulder into the center of that white-hot circle, causing the wall section to collapse inward, revealing the room beyond.
She held one Ban’Shar in front of her, and another behind her as she studied the expansive, vaulted interior. A red carpet bisected the marble floor, traveling from one side of the room to the other. Tapestries, paintings, and pedestals lined the walls, much like the hall out here. However, the central area was devoid of any furniture, and there were no pillars to block the view, or to provide cover. On the far side, she could see a series of stairs leading to a platform that held a metal box. The dimensions of the latter were roughly in line with that of a small vehicle. There was no sign of Khrusos, or any other occupants for that matter.
She viewed all of this from a slightly off-center angle, of course, given her current position relative to the actual entrance.
“Where’s Khrusos?” Rhea asked, leaning first to the left then the right as she peered past the edges of the circular hole to check for potential assailants hiding next to the interior wall. There were none.
“He is there,” Burhawk replied. He had taken cover behind a pillar as the incoming fire from the hall hadn’t lessened.
She glanced at Will.
“It’s a trap, of course,” Will said.
She nodded. “It always is.”
She selected three of her robots and commanded them to enter. She followed, vaulting over the bottommost section of the gap. Burhawk, Min, and Horatio came next, while five more robots brought up the rear. The purpose of the latter machines was mostly to give the beam turrets something else to target other than herself and her cyborg companions, but she hadn’t told that to Horatio, who most certainly wouldn’t have approved.
The remainder of her robots stayed behind with the Wardenites. They would watch her back, and protect her human companions, at lea
st until the automated plasma cannons could be disabled. Then, in theory, everyone could enter.
She advanced slowly, focusing on the stairs ahead, the platform they led to, and the metallic box at its apex.
“Khrusos resides there,” Burhawk said, nodding at the box.
15
Rhea continued to advance cautiously into the throne room. Flanked by Min, Horatio and Burhawk, she followed the three lead robots toward the staircase on the far side. She occasionally glanced over her shoulder, past the five robots that followed, letting her gaze fall upon the entrance she had made, but her companions were doing a good job of holding the outside attackers at bay.
Burhawk had shared the locations of all the disabling beam turrets, along with the plasma cannons and she had them marked on her map. So far, none of those weapons had made an appearance. Burhawk promised they were hidden behind panels in the wall, ceiling and floor, structures that had been built on top of the base starship framework.
The robots followed the path Rhea had laid out, one that gave the hidden turrets a wide berth. She wasn’t certain whether or not she should simply rush the closest turret, and destroy it before it could open fire, so at least she’d start the fight with a slight advantage. As she neared the center of the chamber, she considered doing just that, when panels throughout the room began to open in the wall, floors, and ceiling.
She transformed one Ban’Shar into a blade and raced forward just as a beam turret emerged. It was a pyramid-shaped, menacing looking thing, its metal polished to a burnish.
She cut through it, destroying the turret.
Other beam turrets in the room emitted telltale glows, indicating they were preparing to fire. Rhea switched to the gymnastics of her muscle memory, and somersaulted forward, twisting her body around the long, thin beams that cut through the air. Beside her, Min was likewise maneuvering. Horatio and Burhawk dodged as well, leaping out of the way. The robots tried to do the same, but two of them were struck, and fell.
“Choose your targets!” Rhea shouted.
She picked off a target on her map and marked it in green. Other turrets became similarly marked off as her team picked the remainder.
As she raced toward her selected turret, a plasma cannon fired nearby, and she deflected the blow with the Ban’Shar she’d kept in shield mode.
Ahead, the beam turret glowed a bright white as it prepared to fire at her again.
She leaped upward, arcing over the beam that appeared, and struck down with her sword as she landed, rending the turret in two. Then she deflected another plasma attack with her Ban’Shar and raced toward the next target she had marked.
Three disabling beams came in at her at once. Rhea somersaulted rapidly forward, landing on her hands, then her feet, then her hands again, narrowly avoiding them all. Then she shoved herself upward as a fourth beam activated somewhere above and to her left. She twisted her body, forming a U in midair, and the beam just missed her.
She landed on her feet and leaped into the air immediately, avoiding two more beams. She easily reached the ceiling in the lower gravity and slammed her Ban’Shar into the turret that had fired a moment before.
When she touched the floor, she bounded forward, and took out two more turrets in rapid succession, just as they began to glow with firing intent. She swerved between two plasma cannon attacks, deflecting a third plasma bolt with her Ban’Shar.
She glanced at her overhead map. There were only three beam turrets left, according to the map. Meanwhile, seven plasma cannons remained untouched.
Horatio had been hit by a beam, as had Burhawk, and the two were frozen in place. Min yet stood, along with three other combat robots. The remainder of Rhea’s mechanical troops had been hit, either by the beam turrets or the plasma cannons—the work of the latter evident in the smoldering wreckages scattered across the floor. Rhea was thankful the plasma cannons didn’t target Burhawk and Horatio to finish the job started by the disabling beams, but it made sense that the cannons would concentrate on the most dangerous targets first.
Rhea deactivated one Ban’Shar and unholstered the pistol from her belt, as the remaining beam turrets were halfway across the room. She raced toward one of them, firing at it, while Min concentrated on another, and the combat robots fired at a third.
Rhea released five shots, but still the beam turret hadn’t gone down—it was taking quite a few more hits than she expected, spoiled as she was on the quick kills of the Ban’Shar. The turret returned fire as she approached, and she dodged the attack, along with a second beam launched by another turret nearby. She deflected two incoming plasma bolts to boot, continuing to fire at her target the whole time. Finally, she melted it into oblivion.
Min destroyed the other turret, while the combat robots handled the third. Unfortunately, the latter robots were mowed down by the plasma cannons, so that left only Rhea and Min.
“Just the two of us,” Min said, racing past her to charge a plasma turret. “Just like old times!”
“Too bad I don’t remember these old times you speak of!” Rhea said.
“You will!” Min responded.
Rhea fired at the plasma cannons with her pistol; they were much easier to destroy than the beam turrets. She kept moving, dodging and reflecting plasma bolts. Min and Rhea spread out to make life more difficult for the cannons.
And then, when there were only two plasma cannons left, Rhea suddenly froze. Her joints simply wouldn’t respond.
Min was running toward her. Behind the sensei, a diamond-shaped turret that hadn’t been marked on the map emerged from the floor.
Behind you! Rhea tried to transmit over a mental channel, but her comms weren’t responding.
The beam struck Min from behind, and her companion froze.
No doubt a similar turret, or turrets, had emerged from somewhere behind Rhea to strike her down. Burhawk’s map had not been complete.
The two remaining plasma cannons kept pointing at her, threatening to fire. But they did not.
Several seconds passed. A minute. Rhea could hear shouts from outside, and the occasional clang of metal as a robot fell, so she knew the attack had not yet let up. She was waiting for Khrusos to make an appearance, to mock her, but nothing happened.
Perhaps he’s already fled.
She could see Min’s eyes looking at her, pleading with her, so Rhea knew that her companion was yet conscious, like herself. But otherwise, the two could not communicate.
And then she heard footsteps behind her. At first, she thought Khrusos had at last presented himself, but then the plasma cannons swung toward the newcomer.
The footfalls increased in pace. The cannons fired. Small plasma bolts came in answer, as of those fired from a pistol, and slammed into one of the cannons. In only a few moments it went down.
The remaining cannon fired repeatedly, tracking some moving target she couldn’t see behind her. She thought it had hit that target when the cannon stopped tracking, and instead fired repeatedly at the same angle. But then return fire came a moment later. She suspected whoever it had been tracking was taking cover, probably behind the wreckage of one of the robots, and someone else was providing suppressive fire from the entrance.
Sure enough, the turret shifted slightly, no doubt to attack the source of the covering fire, but then more plasma bolts slammed into it from the side, and it went down.
The beam turret behind Min began to fire now, too.
Will appeared beside Rhea. He took a head-on hit from the disabling beam, but of course it didn’t affect him as he was human. He fired at the turret, but instead of sitting there taking the blows, it immediately retracted into the floor. Will shot past Rhea’s shoulder, likely causing the remaining turret to similarly withdraw, because he stopped firing a moment later.
“I got you,” he comforted her as he lowered her to the floor. He dragged robots in front of and behind her, to protect her from the beam turrets should they emerge before he could finish what he intended.
He doffed his backpack, letting it fall to the floor, and removed a canister. He opened it up, sprinkling the contents out onto her chest.
Metal insects crawled outward in all directions. They bored into her torso, vanishing inside her. She had collected a good ten percent of her total nano machines before the battle, stowing them in that container. She hoped it would be enough.
Inside her, they spread out, reactivating her body parts—consuming their destroyed brethren, remaking her damaged circuitry, and producing more of themselves in the process, so that she would soon be back at her iteration limit.
First, she could move her right shoulder, then bicep, forearm, and finally her wrist and fingers. Her left arm experienced a similar revival, as did her two legs, and finally her hips, neck and face.
She glanced at Will, who nodded.
She stood up in one smooth motion. Two new dots appeared on her overhead map, courtesy of the positions Will transmitted, which corresponded to the new beam turrets. She ran toward the closest.
The beam deployed as she arrived, and she cut the turret in half. Behind her, the second beam had already resurfaced, and Will was firing at it. The turret ignored him and targeted Rhea.
She somersaulted out of the way, and switched to her pistol in one hand, so that she could open fire at it with Will. Together the two of them reduced it to a smoldering pile.
Will joined her side and glanced at the entrance. “Not sure how much longer they can hold out there. Where’s your friend Khrusos?”
Rhea glanced toward the steps leading to the metal box. She started walking that way. Will joined her.
She slid the pistol back into its holster but did not reactivate her rightmost Ban’Shar. The leftmost, however, she kept enabled, leaving it in disk mode.
They passed Min and Burhawk. The two of them were still frozen in place, their bodies locked into the last postures they’d assumed before the beams hit.
