Activating the night-vision, I studied what lay before us, everything detailed on what looked like a schematic of the outpost. The structure was comprised of two levels and honeycombed with oversized corridors, anterooms, and tunnels that snaked off in every direction.
Jezzy, still not happy and grumbling under her breath, cued up the thermal imaging application which was similar to a device we’d had back on the hoversurf.
The thermal imaging on the viewscreen highlighted the infrared radiation given off by whatever was waiting for us ahead. The brighter colors, mostly reds, oranges, and yellows, indicated warmer temperatures, the heat that was (at least in my experience) commonly released by an alien’s eyes and face. I knew that most of the scuds had a kind of membrane around the rest of their body (almost like a caul on a baby), that acted as an insulator and messed with the thermograms. Bottom line was, we’d have to track Alpha Timbo and his peeps largely by the heat from their eyes.
Something flashed on the viewscreen.
Several pairs of yellow dots.
Alien eyes.
“I SEE THE BASTARDS!” I shouted.
“IT MIGHT BE A TRAP!” Jezzy replied. “REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED IN TRENTON!”
“DON’T REMIND ME!”
She had to go there. Trenton … damnable, accursed Trenton. Another job we’d done on behalf of the good Mister Blades. We’d been transporting bags of metal powder (iron oxide and the like), that was destined for a resistance unit that used the powder to create explosives. We were minding our business when a small unit of scuds, who’d worn some kind of contact lenses to obscure their heat signatures, ambushed us. They’d destroyed our hoversurf and stolen every ounce of metal powder, forcing us to work almost as indentured servants to Buddha for several months. Anyway, there was always the possibility that the scuds in the outpost were doing the same, but it was a risk we’d have to take.
I glanced up and a few dark shapes slipped through the end of the corridor up ahead. The Spence mech’s arms came up and flames leaped from the cannons, illuminating the interior of the outpost, spraying rounds in every direction.
We heard what sounded like alien screams and then we were charging forward, storming down the corridor.
A small object was tossed at us—
BOOM!
An explosive that created a blinding flash of light.
“FIRESTOCK!” Jezzy shouted, referencing an incendiary device (not unlike a thermite bomb) that the aliens used to set things on fire.
The explosion was followed by what sounded like a peal of thunder and then there was a burst of sparks that set the corridor on fire.
We squeezed off more cannon fire and followed this up with several rockets that tore holes through the areas up ahead.
My eyes dropped to the viewscreen and I could see three pairs of yellow dots hit the ground and then fade to black. Our alien ambushers were dead.
We waded through the fire, navigating by the viewscreen, stepping over the bodies of three dead alien soldiers.
I steered the Spence mech left, then right. I could see a cluster of red and orange objects one floor below us.
“I’VE GOT A LOCK ON THEM!” I shouted.
“DAMMIT, DANNY, WE SHOULD WAIT FOR THE OTHERS!” Jezzy replied.
I looked back at her. “Every second we wait is another second of our life we’ll never get back!”
“What the hell does that mean?”
I shrugged. “I saw it spray-painted on the side of a building once.”
“Great, just … super,” Jezzy replied. “We’re being guided by graffiti now.”
No way in hell was I going to wait, I thought to myself, revving the mech’s engine. The longer we waited, the more time we gave the aliens to prep and set off the bomb. There was just no way I was going to risk the end of the world to wait on backup.
Storming down a ramp that led to the lower level of the outpost, we jumped through the air and—
WHAM!
Planted our metal feet on a landing as alarms screeched in the cockpit, announcing that somebody or something had locked a weapon in on us.
I activated our exterior lights to see an alien soldier aiming a rocket launcher the size of a tuba at us from the other end of a large anteroom.
Light flashed from the launcher’s tube.
Quick as a wink, we fired a rocket and—
The rocket from the alien met our rocket halfway across the anteroom with a tremendous—
BOOM!
“HOLY SHIT!” I screamed. “YOU HIT IT!”
The alien quickly reloaded and we moved laterally, ducking behind a metal post, firing our cannons. One of the rounds from our cannon blew the top off the alien’s head while another punctured the launcher, detonating the other rounds slotted inside.
The blast chewed through the faraway wall, exposing the other aliens waiting inside.
I caught sight of Alpha Timbo, who immediately directed his soldiers to open fire on us.
The anteroom filled with the howl and shriek of sabot-fire and rockets. I twisted the controls, positioning the Spence mech behind the metal post before springing forward—
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
Rounds from the aliens chewed into our Spence’s turret and quicksilvered off the cockpit glass.
Still, we didn’t slow, we didn’t stop, the rumble of the engine and the slapping of the mech’s metal feet causing the entire machine to shiver and thrum.
Braving the incoming fire, we ducked and dove to the ground. Coming up from our stooped position, we unleashed fire and brimstone on the aliens, our cannons spinning furiously, rounds from them punching the life out of the scuds, obliterating the faraway wall.
“WHERE’S THE BOMB?!” I shouted, scanning the viewscreen.
“I DON’T KNOW!” Jezzy replied. “I CAN’T GET A READ!”
Rising up, we set off, absorbing a few additional shots from the three or four alien soldiers who were still left alive.
We fired four rockets that cut down the aliens and then we bounded into the hole we’d opened in the wall.
And that’s when we caught sight of Alpha Timbo again.
All seven feet plus of him.
He’d obviously dressed for the occasion, because there he was, hidden inside some kind of exosuit, a fighting apparatus that some of the scuds had used during snatch and grab operations against the resistance during the occupation. The exosuit was a wearable mobile machine that looked like a metallic skeleton fitted over the user. It had long, alien-alloy legs and insect-like arms that were studded with all manner of weapons.
And in the hands of Alpha Timbo was another weapon.
I’d hate to call the weapon a rifle because I’d never seen a rifle with a barrel as big as a friggin’ manhole cover. The sonofabitch had his own Sump’n Sump’n gun.
“We are toast,” I said.
A burst of what looked like lightning leaped from the barrel of Alpha’s gun and whatever came next struck the Spence mech, full-force in the turret.
31
Ever fallen from a significant height? If the answer is yes, you know that there’s this moment where you’re suspended, just hanging there for a millisecond before gravity reaches up and tugs you down.
We were like that in the meta-instant after Alpha Timbo shot us with his giganto-gun.
Our metal feet left the ground and we were just hanging in the air and then reality snapped back and we were flying, sailing through the air in the direction we’d just come from before—
WHAM!
Hammering into a wall and sliding slowly down to the ground.
The impact snapped my head back and the cockpit filled with smoke and hot air. My hand dropped down and I was amazed to be in one piece. The Spence mech had absorbed the shot from Alpha’s gun, which had sheared off a lower section of the turret and taken away one of our cannons and a rocket pod. I checked our shields and integrity of the operating systems and everything was orange. Not. Good.
“You
okay?” I asked.
Jezzy nodded. “Anybody get the license plate on the car that hit us?”
I looked up and saw something toiling in the murkiness.
“He’s coming,” Jezzy said. “Your buddy is coming to finish the job.”
I thumbed the mech’s engine which sputtered, but didn’t turn over.
Alpha Timbo appeared out of the shadows, moving with menacing purpose towards us. The giganto-gun was in his hands and he was indeed bringing it up to finish us off.
“Any final words?” Jezzy asked.
I shrugged. “Wherever you go, there you are?”
She stared at me. “You are such an idiot.”
I keyed the engine again and it caught … and then sputtered and died.
“C’mon!” I shouted, firing the engine again and again as that big ass gun came up in Alpha’s hands and—
CRACK-BOOM!
The ceiling imploded and down dropped another mech!
It was Simeon’s machine and he’d damned near fallen right on top of Alpha!
The debris from the roof showered Alpha Timbo, knocking him to the ground as I keyed the engine a final time. It sputtered and roared back to life as I flipped the commlink back on.
“We’re not out of quarters yet, baby!” I shouted.
The Spence mech rose and charged past Simeon’s machine, which was partially covered in roof debris. Our metal hands telescoped out to grab Alpha Timbo who dropped low and used his power suit to toss us over his head. We somersaulted forward, crashing into a bulkhead.
Before we hit the ground, Timbo had his talons hooked on the outside of the cockpit. He grabbed the turret of the Spence mech and using the force of his exosuit tossed us into another wall. We slid to the ground and came up and traded blows with the alien gladiator.
We threw a punch that he ducked under before pounding us in the turret with a series of uppercuts. A thin layer of ballistic glass and alien alloys was the only thing that separated us. Alpha glanced at me and I held up a middle finger which caused him to unleash a bestial shriek.
Timbo grabbed a piece of the fallen roof and brought it back over his head—
BAM!
The piece of roof was shot out of his hands.
I looked back to see Simeon firing on Alpha Timbo, his cannons spinning, spitting hot lead at the alien who’d grabbed up his giganto gun before galloping for cover.
The tracer rounds from Simeon’s mech stitched the walls and ground, barely missing Alpha Timbo who slid on his belly in the exosuit, managing to evade the fire.
From our vantage point we could see the alien readying his rifle, waiting for the right opportunity to fire.
“HOLD FIRE!” I shouted to Simeon.
Simeon didn’t, he just continued to send rounds down toward Alpha while moving forward. I could see that the alien was anticipating this, slithering sideways to get a shot.
“SHOOT HIM!” I shouted to Jezzy.
We opened fire with our remaining weapons, managing to graze Alpha’s exosuit as he disappeared from view.
Simeon ran after him, crashing down into the heart of the structure as we followed. We thundered over a catwalk, watching Simeon fire at the retreating alien. The viewscreen showed that we were headed toward the center of the structure which had begun to glow bright orange.
“Something’s happening, Danny!” Jezzy shouted.
“Maybe it’s the bomb! Maybe he’s remotely setting it off!”
I screamed at Simeon, trying to warn him, but he wouldn’t slow. I could see on the viewscreen that Simeon and Alpha were headed directly toward whatever was causing the outpost to glow orange. The bomb was presumably just up ahead!
We rounded a bend and then there was another flash of light and Simeon’s mech was launched back to the ground. I gaped up to see Alpha holding his rifle. He’d just fired a shot that breached the cockpit on Simeon’s machine.
Before Alpha could get off another shot, we fired a rocket that spiraled down and struck him near his neck. The resulting blast ripped the exosuit from him, sending his body spinning across the decking of the outpost.
My attention turned back to Simeon.
Smoke rose from his cracked cockpit.
“Jesus, Danny,” Jezzy said.
“Give me the Lazarus!” I shouted.
She handed me the case and I grabbed my rifle and crawled out through the top of our mech. Holy Fahrenheit and Lord Celsius it was cold outside! The frigid air hit me like a hammer blow, but I knew I only had seconds to act.
I dropped down from our machine and ran to Simeon. I fought my way through the smoke and steam that continued to pour from his mech and cockpit which was cracked in half.
Simeon was visible, slumped over the mech’s controls.
I could see a gory, black and red exit wound on his back.
His breathing was labored and I knew he’d be dead in minutes, maybe just seconds.
Grabbing his shoulders, I eased him back. His color was bad and his eyes were rolling over. There was only one thing to do. I plucked out one of the Lazarus syringes from the case, inserted it in Simeon’s neck, and pushed the plunger down.
Simeon’s flesh was so pale that I witnessed the amber fluid from the syringe enter his body and then his torso and legs began to buck.
It was as if Simeon was being jolted by thousands of volts of electricity.
He bit a portion of his tongue, but there was nothing I could do for him as his limbs flailed and his eyes jitterbugged. My assumption was that everyone had a different reaction to the drug, and Simeon’s was worse than mine.
Stepping back, I watched in amazement as he continued to seize even as the puckered flesh near the edges of his wound turned gray, then fully black and fell off. The wound margins began bubbling and then the flesh started shifting, pulling together, more of old flesh falling away, new flesh somehow being regenerated.
In seconds the wound was still ridged and the clothing around the entry and exit holes still torn, but the hole through his chest was gone.
His chest heaved and he cried out and blinked.
My mouth pulled back in a wide smile because I couldn’t believe he was alive. There was no time to rejoice, however, because I had other matters to attend to.
Something about seeing Simeon return to life flipped a primal switch in me. It was time to hunt Alpha Timbo down and end this.
Setting my jaw, I wheeled around, rifle in hand, and stomped back toward Alpha Timbo who was crawling toward a raised platform, the area where I assumed the bomb was hidden.
The big alien had been struck by our rocket and was mortally wounded, leaving a wending yellow blood trail across the decking as he pulled himself forward.
He was dragging something alongside him, the long, black metal case I’d seen him bring up from the bottom of the alien vault in the desert. In one swift move, he threw the case open and removed a long piece of translucent material that was glowing. With much effort, he gripped the sides of the platform and hauled himself up.
“DON’T MOVE!” I shouted, aiming my rifle at him.
He looked back at me, yellow blood seeping between his razor-sharp teeth. I could see that he was angling the translucent material toward something, a partially obscured object that was vibrating, like a machine that was just powering up.
Alpha reached out a hand and I tensed, finger around the trigger of my rifle.
“I’ll shoot you before you set that bomb off.”
We exchanged a long look and then Alpha Timbo started laughing.
A deep, booming laugh that echoed off the outpost’s walls.
“Bomb?” he said in his deep, guttural voice. “Who said this was a bomb?”
His hand shot out and he slammed the translucent material down into something an instant before—
BOOM!
I fire a shot that blew him off the platform, blasting his body back down onto the decking.
The alien’s chest rose and fell rapidly, yellow blood leaki
ng from the wound near his neck. He gurgled, tried to rise, and then he collapsed to the ground. I stood over him, rifle aimed, ready for anything.
“This is the end, asshole,” I said. “You lose.”
“You are wrong,” the alien croaked, blood geysering from the corners of his mouth. “This is only the beginning.” The alien began laughing and with his dying breaths said, “There is a saying amongst your kind.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You … are … in deep … shit.”
That’s when I heard a clicking followed by the thrumming of what sounded like a large engine that was just beginning to spring to life.
I lurched to the platform and saw that Alpha Timbo had inserted the translucent material into some kind of device that was connected, via a series of hoses and pipes, to a silver-hulled canister whose exposed end was wreathed by a blue halo. Was this it? Was this the bomb that we’d come to destroy? If so, we were too late. I raised my rifle and—
BAROOM!
A cone of the purest light I’d ever seen doubled me over.
The light was blinding and soon flooded the room.
Shielding my face, I crabbed back. I fired several shots from my rifle to try and end the light, but the rounds had no impact.
The cone of light grew in circumference and then began rotating in the air like a vortex, a whirlpool of light that enveloped the whole room and then—
BOOM!
The light carved a hole in the ceiling that began breaking apart and collapsing to the decking.
Covering my hands, I scampered back, grabbing Simeon by the arm.
We dodged the falling roof debris, listening to the echo of the Spence mech as it moved toward us, Jezzy at the controls.
Realizing that Simeon’s mech was out of commission we had no choice but to cram into the Spence mech.
Simeon headed up first, followed by me, the tsunami of white light continuing to sweep over every inch of the outpost.
“We’re goners for sure,” Jezzy said as I squirmed into the cockpit, Simeon following me in, lying across my lap, barely able to fit under the canopy.
I manufactured a smile, taking over the controls again. “Thanks for the good news, sunshine.”
World of Hurt Page 21
