City of Phants (Argonauts Book 6)

by Isaac Hooke

  Rade glanced at the synchronization indicators on his HUD, and when they had all turned green, he aimed at the center of the door and fired.

  The enhanced lasers created a small hole.

  “It’s working,” Rade said. “Electron, program a cutting pattern. Get us through!”

  “Affirmative,” Electron replied.

  Electron took over and began firing; the mech paused every few moments to let the lasers recharge. A long dark line slowly grew along the left side of the blockage ahead.

  “Got tangos on our six,” TJ said.

  Rade glanced at the overhead map and saw the red dots of two enemy units behind them.

  “Damn it,” Rade said. “TJ, Lui, unlink and defend!” The latter individuals were on drag, and spun about to protect the rear while Electron worked.

  “And TJ, Lui, deploy your shields,” Rade said.

  “Done!” TJ said.

  “How will that help?” Fret said.

  “So far, we haven’t seen any indication that the shock troops are linked to any AIs aboard,” Rade said.

  “What are you saying?” Fret asked.

  “The troops seem to know our general location,” Rade said. “But when they close with us, they appear to rely on their local sensors for targeting. With the shields deployed, they won’t have targets to shoot at.”

  “Other than the shields themselves...” Fret said.

  “I’m hit,” TJ said. “Lost both legs of my mech. They cut right through my shield. I’m out of action.”

  “Fret, fill in for him!” Rade said. “And take down those tangos!”

  Rade thought Fret mumbled some curse over the comm, but the man’s Hoplite moved into place in front of the fallen mech without hesitation.

  TJ’s cockpit opened, and TJ emerged, carrying the cylindrical AI core of his mech. He hurried between the other Hoplites, taking cover. He grabbed a laser rifle from Tahoe’s storage compartment and clambered up into the passenger seat. Retrieving that weapon was a mostly symbolic gesture, as the rifle didn’t have the intensity necessary to penetrate the domes of the enemy jumpsuits, not like the cobras.

  Electron continued to work, slowly shifting the laser upward.

  “My mech is down,” Lui said.

  “Moving in,” Manic said. He maneuvered in front of the second fallen Hoplite.

  Lui emerged from his cockpit a moment later, carrying the AI core, and leaped into Rade’s passenger seat.

  With fewer cobras participating in the breaching operation, Electron’s cutting speed slowed to about half. It was taking far too long. At the rate the Hoplites were falling, Electron wouldn’t even be halfway through the blockage before there were no mechs left at all.

  “Lui, TJ, try syncing your rifles to the cobras,” Rade said.

  The two men did so, and in moments their beams fired in sync with Electron’s cobra bursts. There was no noticeable improvement in cutting speed.

  This mission wasn’t going to end very well. Not at all.

  twenty-nine

  Rade glanced back and forth between the Hoplites on drag, and the blockage ahead. He felt helplessly trapped. There had to be a way out of this. He just wasn’t seeing it.

  As he watched more particle beam slashes appear in the shields of the rearmost mechs, Rade had an idea.

  “We can use their lack of AI access against them,” Rade said. “Tahoe, Harlequin, proceed to the drag area. When you’re past the last Hoplites, shove your shields into whatever crevices you can find in the deck, and sever the shields from your arms. Then squeeze your mechs into the ditches on either side of the raised walkway. Hump the floor.”

  Tahoe and Harlequin moved into position. When they were in place, they rammed their shields hard into the undulating pipes composing the walkway below, finding small gaps to secure them. Then they fired their cobras into the attachment locations, severing the shields from their arms, and then pressed their mechs down into the ditches between the raised walkway and where the deck met the bulkheads on either side. The upper back areas of their mechs were exposed, namely the passenger seats.

  “Everyone else, drop inside those ditches and clear the main walkway!” Rade ordered, and the remaining Hoplites obeyed. Since Lui and TJ were exposed in the passenger seats, they dismounted and lay in the ditch directly.

  “Floor humping time, bitches!” Bender said.

  Rade dropped into said ditch, but was only able to partially fit: his right shoulder protruded above the lip of the ditch a bit more than he would have liked. The bulkhead pipes undulated against him, bobbing his mech to and fro.

  He glanced at the shields on drag. They were still jammed into the deck. With them blocking the passageway like that, the attackers would have no idea where the Hoplites resided beyond. Assuming Rade was right about the aliens having no fine-grained access to their positions.

  As expected, holes rapidly appeared in the shields as the tangos realized that the Hoplites had ceased returning fire. But those holes were matched by twins that appeared in the seal behind Rade. The enemy was effectively drilling through the blockage for them.

  “Bitches have no idea what they’re doing, do they?” Bender said.

  “Sort of like you in bed with a girl?” Manic quipped.

  “Ha.”

  After two minutes, the shields were so riddled with holes that Rade could readily peer past them and into the upper sections of the passageway on drag, though from his position on the deck he was unable to sight any of the tangos beyond. The Argonauts closer to the shields would have a better angle.

  But before giving the order to engage, with his rear view camera he confirmed that the blockage was just as badly pocked.

  “Reminds me of Phooey Lui’s face,” Bender commented.

  “Time to take down our tangos,” Rade said. “Tahoe, Harlequin, do you have a bead?”

  The latter pair rose slightly from their positions on the deck. On the overhead map, Rade saw that more tangos had joined the previous two, so that there were eight of them out there.

  “Roger that,” Tahoe said. “Engaging.”

  Two of those tangos winked out, and the rest took cover, flattening against the bulkheads and deck. Some dove into the ditches on either side of the walkway, like the Hoplites.

  “Tahoe, Harlequin, continue firing,” Rade said. “Cover us.”

  Staying on the deck, Rade rolled onto the raised walkway and turned toward the blockage, then slipped back into the ditch once more; he synced with the cobras of the remaining Hoplites that weren’t covering the rear and fired at the joins between pockmarks, drilling through them. He carved out a square section shortly, and when he severed the last join, the bore-riddled piece fell away, leaving an opening big enough to fit one mech at a time.

  “Tahoe, Harlequin, let’s get some heavy suppressive fire back there!” Rade said. “Bender, join me!”

  Rade got up and dashed toward the entry. Bender joined him in his mech. Rade entered high. Bender Low. There were no shock troops inside.

  “Clear!” Rade said. “Except for a few Phants.”

  “So do the rest of us come, or not...” Fret asked.

  “Come!” Rade said.

  In order to make room for the others, Rade moved along the small path that bordered the glowing orange-yellow pool in front of him. That pool was composed entirely of Phants, of course, forming a moat around a floor-to-ceiling pillar located in the center of the compartment. Five meters tall, that pillar was covered in the same orange-yellow Phants, and appeared wider at the top and bottom than in the middle, sort of like a conjoined stalactite and stalagmite pair. There was a small shelf surrounding the pillar, just above the liquid.

  “That would be the Observer Mind...” Lui said.

  Purple Phants, presumably guards, were positioned on the walkway around the pool and swerved to intercept Rade. However, the EM emitters in his Hoplite repelled them.

  Rade glanced at the overhead map. Everyone had entered except for Tahoe and
Harlequin, who still resided in the passageway beyond. “Give Tahoe and Harlequin some suppressive fire.”

  Fret and Manic had already assumed positions on either side of the entrance, and they unleashed their weapons into the tangos beyond. Rade noticed that Lui and TJ had clambered into the passenger seats of either mech.

  In moments the Hoplites of Tahoe and Harlequin entered.

  “Continue firing, Fret and Manic,” Rade said. “Keep those bastards pinned. Meanwhile, it’s time for the rest of us to work. Or rather, one of us. Bender, if you don’t mind?”

  “Oh goodie goodie gumdrop!” Bender said. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day! Hell, all my life! Tell me how this feels, you Phant bitches!”

  Juggernaut’s cockpit dropped open and Bender emerged. He swung down onto the leg area. The liquid Phants closest to him suddenly surged upward toward his jumpsuit, forming a fingerlike mass. But the EM emitter installed in his suit stopped the Phants cold.

  “Ha!” Bender said. “Stupid bitches.”

  He opened the storage compartment, singing to himself. “Bugs bugs bugs.”

  He retrieved the stun rifle and turned around to aim it at the pillar. That fingerlike projection from the pool surged even higher—apparently the EM emitter didn’t extend far enough around Bender to protect the rifle, because the Phants were able to snatch it from his grasp. In moments the rifle was sinking, and then vanished entirely into the liquid.

  “Um,” Fret said. “Brilliant.”

  Bender glanced around frantically from behind his faceplate, as if struggling to comprehend what had just happened. For a moment Rade thought he was going to cry. Instead he just slumped against the leg area of his mech.

  “Tahoe, Bender, jump into that pool and find that rifle before the Phants destroy it,” Rade said. “Your EM emitters will repel them.”

  “Doh!” Bender said. He released Juggernaut and dove into the pool. The liquid instantly moved aside. “And he parted the Red Sea!”

  “It’s orange, bro,” Lui said.

  Bender had landed on the undulating pipes of the deck, located only a meter below the walkway. On either side of him the liquid walls hovered, lurking, forming a spherical shape half a meter around him. Juggernaut leaped down, as did Tahoe’s mech, and more of the liquid cleared away.

  “There!” Bender said. He dove across the deck and grabbed onto the stock of the rifle, which was protruding from the liquid.

  Juggernaut walked forward beside him, expanding the circular clearing so that the rifle was revealed in its entirety. Bender clambered back onto Juggernaut using the rungs on the hull, all the way to the top of the mech, then he aimed his rifle at the pillar.

  “I hope this works,” Tahoe said.

  Bender fired. The plasma beam hit the pillar and deflected blindingly in all directions, arcing from Phant to Phant, sending hundreds of beams into the pool. Ordinarily the sound of the plasma was muted, but in that confined place, and with so many arcs, it literally thundered.

  The beams faded.

  “Again,” Rade said.

  “You like it bitches?” Bender said, unleashing another round of arcing plasma. And another. “You like? That’s right!”

  The Phants began to flow down from the pillar, joining their brethren in the pool below. As Bender continued firing, more and more of them seeped down, until there were none clinging to the pillar at all.

  “Hmm,” Bender said. “Can’t fire anymore. Guess I broke it.”

  “Probably just needs a cooling period,” Rade said.

  “So wait a second, how do we know if we did anything?” Manic said from where he yet defended at the entrance. “To the ship I mean. Because the tangos outside are still firing at us.”

  “If they use inertial dampeners, then we won’t notice anything,” Lui said. “At least until we hit the ground.”

  The deck careened to the right and a loud rumbling passed through the compartment.

  “Looks like the ship just impacted the ground!” Tahoe said.

  Rade slid into the far wall, along with the remaining Hoplites. The orange pool splashed down toward them, the substance stopping half a meter from their mechs, simply floating in midair.

  Rade and the others clambered back to the exit, the Phants parting the whole way. Once there, the team terminated the remaining tangos. Only three of them remained, and the Hoplites made short work of them. The rest had fled, apparently.

  “Manic, Fret, Tahoe, I want you to clear out the rest of the ship,” Rade said. “Eliminate any shock troops. And tag any Phants you see. TJ, Lui, you might as well get down from those passenger seats, since you can’t really help them. You’ll stay here with me, along with the rest of the Hoplites. We guard this control center until the cavalry arrives.”

  “Yes boss!” Tahoe said.

  The designated Hoplites departed.

  “Surus,” Rade tried. “Do you read?”

  “I’m here,” she replied.

  “Give me a sit-rep,” he said.

  “The city is ours, for the most part,” she answered. “There are still a few areas of isolated fighting. Most of the salamanders and dragons have been shot down, so the Taenia have been staging rampage attacks against the holdouts. They’ve been surprisingly successful against the robots, thanks to the tactics Noctua has come up with.”

  “We could use some of those Taenia to help us clear the ship,” Rade said.

  “I’ll lead a small group there personally,” Surus said. “That was quite the crash. I’ll join you in the Observer Mind room when I can. Tell Bourbonjack to send down the shuttle as soon as he’s ready.”

  “Bourbonjack, we’ve secured the city,” Rade tried. “We’re ready to receive the package. What’s your status?”

  Rade waited for several moments, but received no answer. He opened his mouth to try again when Bourbonjack’s voice came over the comm.

  “We’ve handled the Raccoon,” Bourbonjack said. “The cost was a little higher than I would have liked. Many good men are dead.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Rade said. He didn’t ask the question that was foremost on his mind.

  “Shaw and the kids are fine,” Bourbonjack said, sparing him the suspense.

  “Thank you,” Rade said.

  “I’ve also disabled the merchant vessel, in addition to the Salient,” Bourbonjack said. “Mission accomplished.”

  “I never doubted you,” Rade said.

  Bourbonjack chuckled. “Yes. I’m quite the hero, aren’t I?” He didn’t sound too impressed with himself. “So you’re ready to receive the package, you say?”

  “We are,” Rade said.

  “Launching now,” the mercenary chief replied. “I hope you shove those Phants inside to the brim. Treat them like the cattle they are. Bourbonjack out.”

  Rade attempted to tap in Shaw aboard the Piranha next. The starship’s comm office transferred his call, and she answered almost immediately.

  “Hey big guy,” Shaw said.

  “How are you?” Rade said. “How are the twins?” But he already knew from her voice that everything was all right.

  “We’re good,” Shaw said. “A little shaken maybe, but good. There were some scares up here while you were gone. Being stuck in sickbay during a space battle, with no say in how the combat plays out, nor even any idea of what is actually going on, isn’t really the most calming of situations.”

  “No, it’s not,” Rade said. He was reminded of a time back in his MOTH days, when he had been aboard a ship that had been cut in half during battle. Wasn’t fun.

  “Well, I’ll let you finish up down there,” Shaw said. “Alex is crying again.”

  “All right,” Rade said. “Talk to you soon.” He disconnected.

  While waiting for the shuttle to arrive, Bender stunned the Phants with the arcing weapon a few more times for good measure. He always howled with joy when those bolts thundered about the liquid bodies.

  “Of all you humans, I understand you
the least,” Harlequin told Bender.

  “Why’s that, bitchy bob?” Bender asked.

  “Well,” Harlequin said. “While the others go about their duties with stoic forbearance, you on the other hand seem to take such joy in killing and inflicting pain on aliens. That, combined with your disrespectful behavior toward Artificials and robots, inclines me to believe you are a xenophobe.”

  “Perhaps I am, Harley boy,” Bender said. “But what’s that make you, a xeno lover?”

  “Hardly,” Harlequin said. “I believe I have made it clear on several occasions that I harbor no love for these Phants.”

  “But you love me,” Bender said. “Come on, admit it. You know you do.”

  Harlequin considered for a moment. “Despite your foibles, I have to admit that yes, I have developed a certain... attachment toward you. And I don’t mean physically, of course.”

  Rade was expecting the usual crude repartee from Bender, but the man surprised him with his next words.

  “Harlequin, you’re like the brother I never had,” Bender said. It sounded like he was choking up behind his faceplate. “If I didn’t have you, if I didn’t have any of you, I’d be half the man I am today. I swear I would.”

  “I—” Harlequin said. “As usual, once more you have surprised me.”

  “Ah, shut it, AI!” Bender said, the moment apparently already past. “Don’t be getting all sentimental on me now.”

  “I was hardly being sentimental—”

  “I said shut it, before I beat your ass!” Bender said.

  Harlequin remained quiet.

  Bender’s chortle came over the comm. “Sorry, couldn’t help it. All right. I admit it. I was the sentimental one. Enjoy this moment while you can, because it won’t last. Torching a bunch of Phants puts me in a mushy mood, I guess.”

  With that, Bender unleashed the arcing rifle at the Phants and he began howling with laughter all over again.

  thirty

  Rade received a tap in request from Surus shortly thereafter. He accepted.

  “I just received word,” Surus said over the comm. “The package has landed, along with Centurion and mercenary reinforcements. I’m heading out to meet them. I’ve already dispatched several Taenia into the Phant ship and instructed them to coordinate with your Hoplites, though communication might be difficult.”