Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3)

by Casey Calouette

  The convicts, wiry and worn thin like an old rag tucked tight to the wall. A woman, with hair like steel wool, edged up and nodded to Vale. Vale pushed her finger tips around the corner of the door and nodded to the woman. “Two, go.”

  The woman dropped herself down onto the floor and scooted just her head and shoulders out. Two men grasped her tightly by the legs and then she opened fire. The weapon barked in a slow cadence. A gust of gritty recoil gases flared back and into the room. A bellowing noise like a enraged bull burst through the air. She grinned and scooted back in.

  “Nice,” Vale said, her fingers still on the door frame.

  More of the heavy caliber rounds burst out in the distance with more of the bellowing. The grating of steel stopped. Vale nodded, checked her weapon and sprinted out into the street with the convicts close behind.

  Emilie went to move and felt Bark’s hand on her shoulder.

  “Hold, we’re going to—” Bark said and was slammed backwards.

  The ripping roaring sound of the tank firing was, at this range, beyond loud. The decibel count was on par with a shredded turbine engine, spraying nickel and alloy in a cataclysm of fire and noise. The walls tumbled. The sooty light rolled in as the roof expanded away. It was blasted apart, a mixture of corroded roof panels and waterlogged insulation.

  Emilie tried to scream, tried to cry out, but she couldn’t hear anything. Her heartbeat was dead quiet in her ears. Her eyes danced from side to side and she stood shakily. A hand pulled her down and she stared out through a gaping hole in the wall.

  A brute stood with an autocannon. Light flared from the barrel but Emilie couldn’t hear a thing. Next to it a second brute rolled on the ground, a slow and ponderous roll, and clutched at its face. A jellyfish like mass of an eyeball was tangled in it’s fingers.

  The barrel of the tank slewed to the opposite side and then back towards her again. Waves of heat rolled off with tendrils of steam riding the thermals. Sparks flared off of the glacis as small arms fire smashed into it with gouges laid in from the heavier weapons. It stopped and the barrel hummed.

  Emilie tried to stand again and found that she couldn’t. Her eyes drifted down and she saw Bark. Then she saw Bark’s mouth moving and it hit her: she was deaf. Completely and totally deaf. She spoke, but she didn’t know if anything came out. “I can’t hear you,” she screamed as loud as she could.

  Bark pointed down with two fingers.

  Emilie sat hard and watched. She felt detached, lost, the tank was going to fire again, she knew it. So why weren’t they moving? She glanced around and saw the debris, one wall was missing with the roof slanting down. The only way out was towards the barrel of the tank.

  She heard a hiss. The slightest ringing on the edge of her ears. She was relieved, it meant that some hearing survived, but then she knew the tank was going to fire again. She caught movement and watched Vale, urging her on while feeling utterly helpless and, at the same time, serene. The only thought in her mind was how to salvage one of the brutes, it had to be priceless, that sort of bioaugmentation.

  Vale sprinted up from cover and leveled the barrel towards the standing brute. It took a moment for the wide eyed creature to respond. It tried to swing the autocannon but she was too close. She was inside of its reach and jammed the muzzle of the rifle into a seam of armor and pulled the trigger.

  A wall of sparks and shrapnel sprayed back and then the creature threw its head back and clanged against the tank. It dropped the autocannon and pushed Vale away. She clattered against the ground and continued to fire the weapon. A gusher of blood pumped out from the seam of the armor and the creature lolled over onto its partner.

  The first of the convicts sprang over the brute and clambered onto the rear of the tank. He danced as weapons fire stitched into him. The second, and third, convict met the same fate. But the fourth, the steel wool haired woman, was lucky and jammed an explosive package into an access port and rolled off into the shelter of a dying brute.

  She grinned back, a face rimed with grit.

  The charge detonated in an anti-climactic thud.

  Emilie felt a wave of relief. At the same time she focused on the dead Hun soldiers. All bioaugments. Good god, she thought, it was banned by the Covenant, no one could do that sort of research. But someone else did, and if she got a hold of it the research would be priceless. Thoughts of how to salvage her operation and stick it to Samson all came together. She stood slowly and felt every joint in her body creak.

  “Move!” Bark yelled.

  The pair clambered over the rubble and paused near the front gate. The convicts pushed past the pitted side plate of the tank and climbed over the bodies of the not quite dead brutes. A rising heat rolled off of each one as if gripped by a fever. One moaned and coughed up phlegm-clotted blood.

  Emilie watched the brute convulse and die. Even a few meters away she could feel the heat. She worried for a moment that it would catch fire, and she’d lose out and not be able to get a DNA sample. A popping sound pushed into her head and the sound rushed back in like a distant river.

  “Tell ‘em to hold the gates!” Bark said to Consuela. The woman juggled a handful of cells. The other cell-bearers were nowhere to be seen. “Koyo? Koyo?”

  A chubby man with cheeks like limes waddled up. One arm was wrapped tight to his chest and in the other he held an old style pistol.

  “Cowboy? For fuck’s sake, Koyo,” Bark said, smiling.

  Koyo waved it in front of him. “Can’t very well shoot a damned rifle.”

  Bark nodded and pointed to the gate. “Bring your boys in, hit the east gate, get it open. Grab as many of the convicts as you can for support.”

  “Where’s the boss?” Koyo asked with a glance towards the space elevator ribbon.

  Bark shook her head and set off towards the gate.

  Emilie followed. She could sense the change in Bark when Koyo asked about the boss. Dousman, she assumed. She caught movement out of her eye and saw Kari run up next to her. The sniper rifle was missing but she held onto a rifle like the convicts arrived with. “Kari! I thought I lost you.”

  Kari shook her head and rushed past the dead brute.

  On the other side of the wall, the complex was wide, sprawling, and open. The main building was surrounded by inflatable habs and row upon row of cargo container. The concrete embankments that once sorted out the grid of cargo containers was completely ripped out and layered near the wall as a secondary defensive perimeter. A completely empty defensive perimeter.

  Vale ran up and crouched next to the secondary perimeter. “They’re massed on the east side, do you have troops coming in?”

  Bark shook her head and gave a quick glance at Emilie. “We placed some misinformation, they think we are.”

  Vale looked impressed and sighted down the length of her weapon towards the main building. “You’re sure about those drones?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Emilie replied.

  “Can we take them without the drones?” Bark asked.

  Vale licked her lips and squinted into the sky. “Eh. I could use those drones.”

  The troops, convicts, militia, and a single UC Marine looked across the empty expanse. The elevator rose like a smashed coal stripe into the cloudy sky. The plain building beneath it was braced by a set of empty cargo lifts. The front was almost quiet with the heaviest fire coming from the distance, towards the east.

  A trio of convicts ran up from behind the tank with a screeching of steel. Emilie snapped her head around and watched as three men hauled out the chest armor from one of the brutes. They huddled behind it at the edge of the perimeter wall with a clever look on their faces.

  “Listen up!” Vale called out, her voice enhanced by her suit. “Make for the main complex and hold it. They’ll be coming from the east side,” she said with a wave of her arm. “Now move!”

  Emilie went to rise and felt a metal hand on her shoulder.

  “Hold on,” Bark said.

  The first w
ave sprinted across the broken, crunched concrete and slowed after the first fifty meters. A few rounds snapped out and then nothing. The advancing line spread out around the inflatable habs and sporadic fire issued towards the east.

  Kari nudged Emilie and pointed to the building. “Gantries.”

  Emilie nodded. The sniper would want to be up high.

  Bark rose and began a quick trot without giving a glance back towards Emilie.

  Emilie followed after and hoped more than anything that the Core neural net hadn’t been destroyed. She glanced to her right and caught glimpses through the habs of the east side. Muzzle flashes and the forms of brutes flashed through the gaps. She picked up the pace and felt her heart slamming into her chest.

  Kari split off and disappeared into a stack of shipping containers. Bark took a position next to a metal door with no handle. Convicts, citizens, and a single old man with no weapon took position next to her. “We’re moving in, down two levels, and into the Core headquarters.”

  Grumbles rose from the citizens and the old man gawked. Emilie felt uncomfortable but she noticed Bark didn’t seem to mind.

  Bark faced the door, raised the weapon to her shoulder, and slammed a three round burst into the frame. It popped open gently. She glanced at a convict and nodded.

  “I ain’tcha bitch,” the convict said.

  “Open it then,” Bark said without lowering the weapon.

  The man stuck out the barrel of the rifle and pushed the door open. The hallway inside was littered with debris, as if the entire facility was ransacked.

  Bark stepped in with her rifle welded to her shoulder. Each step was methodical, silent, and purposeful. She made it a dozen meters inside and beckoned without turning around. Then the rabble followed in.

  The group pushed through the first hallway and met a wider hall. The main immigration hall was down one path. Bark ordered three to remain behind. The rest turned away and went down a flight of stairs.

  Emilie felt that something was missing. The entire building felt empty to her. “Where is everybo

  The sound of gunfire erupted above them and outside. The heavy tut-tut of the autocannons shattered through the silence. The old man in the group cackled and ran back upstairs with wild eyes.

  “Dey moving in from the east!” Consuela said.

  “Let’s go!” Bark said, and advanced into the darkness below.

  Emilie followed and walked into an inky black. Her eyes adjusted a moment later and a dim band of light rolled along the floor. She could see breaks every few meters where a door broke the line. Sounds barely touched her ears as she shuffled behind Bark.

  “Almost,” Bark whispered.

  The Core logo loomed up out of the darkness. It was framed, and normally lit, but now dim. The barest touch of light illuminated the letters blue.

  Emilie felt a touch of something—nostalgia? Relief? She didn’t know, but she wanted to get inside. She saw the secured door was open but didn’t expect any different. The doors were beefy, but not beefy enough to keep anyone out who was determined to get in.

  Bark waved up a pair of convicts and the three advanced on the door. She pushed open the heavy panel with one hand and advanced into a space that was totally dark. Emilie followed, willing herself to be as quiet as possible. It felt wrong to be loud.

  Lights blared on and Bark sprang to the side with augmented speed. A pair of creatures leapt out from behind a set of supports and savaged the two convicts. Each of the beasts had the body of a man, but with a spine like an animal and a face like a snarling wolf. One held a submachinegun like the other bioaugments while the second wore claws of alloy.

  The first convict dropped where he stood as the beast shot a burst of rounds through his chest. Blood and gore exploded out from his back. The second convict raised his weapon and punched out a three round burst that caught the submachinegun wielding augment in the throat.

  The creature tumbled back and rolled on the ground. The second bioaugment was already on top of the convict and the claws were tearing into him. Bark stood, sighted her weapon, and was slammed back behind a mess of crates and containers. A single crack from a weapon laid her out.

  Emilie stood alone in the midst of the room and looked at the bioaugment. Behind her a woman stood. A woman she’d only seen through the eyes of a toy.

  Natyasha Dousman lowered the barrel of her pistol and glared at Emilie. “Check on the other one.”

  The creature bounded across the room towards where Bark had fallen. Natyasha watched it run, but kept the barrel pointed in Emilie’s direction.

  It reached where Bark had fallen and pounced down. A gunshot exploded. It howled, rolled, and thrashed downward with its claws raging in and out. The sound of ringing alloy and guttural yells said that the fight wasn’t done.

  Emilie saw the moment of distraction and rushed to the side and into the cover of more containers. A crack followed behind her and she expected to feel the pain of being shot but the second shot missed too. She saw the door that led into the depths of the Core facility, lowered her shoulder, and slammed through it.

  Her feet ran faster than she ever thought they could. Her back felt hot, expecting to feel a nanite round pierce into her. But the shot never came.

  The door to the neural network was bashed open, the delicate and sophisticated lock shredded and destroyed. Her heart fell when she saw it and hoped that the equipment inside survived. Lights flickered on and bathed the room in a low blue shade. A wall of displays blinked on and all requested the same thing. Proper authorization.

  Emilie knew that if she ran across the room Natyasha could step in and shoot her in the back. There was nowhere to hide near the main control console. She wanted to run to the consoles more than anything but there were no drones to protect her, it’d be a martyr’s job. And she didn’t feel like a martyr, not yet. Instead she ran next to the door and waited out of sight.

  Her heart slammed in her chest so loudly that she was sure someone could hear it. The moments passed and the sounds of gunfire above her grew louder. An occasional shake and shudder passed through the building. The fighting was coming closer. She started to second guess herself but stayed patient.

  The door moved a fraction of an inch. A second later it crept open with the barrel of the pistol framed in the light.

  Emilie slammed her body against the door. The pistol flew through the air and clattered on the floor. She threw the door back open and tried to pounce.

  Natyasha slammed into her and the pair rolled onto the floor. Natyasha threw the first punch and connected squarely with Emilie’s nose.

  Emilie felt white pain across her face and spread her arms before dropping Natyasha on top of her. She squirmed to the side and threw an elbow in her opponent’s ribs. Natyasha let out an oof and rolled off of her.

  Emilie ran across the room and slammed a hand down onto the console. The screens changed color to a blinking orange. They all read ‘acquiring’.

  Emilie knew it was analyzing her nanite signature. A bio-nanite flora that was unique to her and no one else.

  Natyasha growled behind her and pulled Emilie’s legs away from the console. “This is my planet!” she yelled. “You fucking bitch.”

  Emilie fell to the floor raised an arm to block the kick but felt the blow tight in her chest. She scrambled away but the kicks rained down one after the next. Her breath was gone, and her muscles seized up and she couldn’t seem to move or breathe. Her training flashed back and she waited for the next blow.

  The toe connected against her stomach, driving even more air out of her. But her hand was ready and her fingers latched on to Natyasha’s ankle and pulled.

  Natyasha let out a surprised cry and fell to the floor.

  Emilie was on her. She latched both of her hands onto Natyasha’s throat. She squeezed with every bit of strength and fought to get a breath, a single breath. Her diaphragm was seized from the kicks. Black dots danced on her vision. Good god, she thought, I’m going to pas
s out.

  She dropped her eyes down and focused on Natyasha. The two locked eyes and Natyasha squeezed Emilie’s wrists. Fingernails gouged in with blood squeezing out.

  Natyasha shot a hand out to the side and Emilie looked. The pistol lay mangled just within reach. She could feel Natyasha’s ribs between her legs as Natyasha squirmed to grasp the pistol. She squeezed her fingers tighter against the cords of Natyasha’s neck. Her eyes focused on the pistol and she tried to wrench Natyasha away.

  Natyasha’s ring finger latched onto the checkered grip. A second finger pulled and the pistol skidded a bit. Finally three fingers.

  Emilie knew she wouldn’t have time. The pistol rose a fraction of an inch.

  And slammed down onto the floor with a blood soaked boot on top of it.

  Bark stood with horrific wounds on her face and chest. Her alloy arms were a mass of ripped alloy and splintered steel. Gouges, scratches, and ragged puncture wounds littered her upper body. Her eyes burned with a fury and she glared down at Natyasha.

  Natyasha’s lips moved but nothing came out.

  Bark watched Natyasha until her fingers went limp, then walked to the door.

  Emilie felt the life go from Natyasha and held on tight for a moment longer. The cords in Natyasha’s neck relaxed and the contractions in the throat stopped. Emilie lay on the floor taking her first breath in what felt like hours.

  The sound of gunfire was almost on top of them. An explosion ripped out from nearby. Gunfire rang from down the hallway.

  “Turn it on,” Bark said flatly and stumbled out of the room.

  Emilie scrambled to her feet, swayed like a drunk, and finished calling up the neural network. The system blinked green. She punched at the console and watched as it came alive. One drone after the next was acquired, onlined, and prepped. “Here we go,” she said and entered in an assault protocol.

  The system acknowledged the order with a ping and ninety-eight separate feeds rolled into action. The drones woke.

  *

  Throughout the city, the canisters popped open and drones the size of dogs exploded out. Each of the mechanical constructs communicated in bursts and waves through the nanite laced air. Control was levied, orders requested, and the machines gained altitude. Up they climbed and waited.