A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3)

by Michael G. Munz

  “Drone!” Marette and Cartwright shouted it together, and then everything happened at once.

  The drone flared with the lightning that it would soon turn loose on them. Cartwright opened fire. Marette tugged her to the partial cover of the ramp’s side as two of the freelancers, misconstruing Cartright’s target, loosed a hail of bullets in her direction. Two others ducked out of sight as the one who’d spotted the drone backpedaled and added his attack to Cartwright’s. Bullets ricocheted off the balcony wall and the drone itself, and electricity lanced through where Marette had stood moments ago.

  “I’m hit!” Cartwright yelled. “Moondog, get your metal ass out here!” With a puncture in her suit venting air and a mist of blood, Cartwright ducked over the ramp wall and fired an EMP pod at the drone.

  Marette couldn’t tell if she hit. Another drone had emerged from the balcony on the left side. It would have a clear shot down at her and Cartwright. “Second drone!” Marette grabbed onto the back of Cartright’s suit belt, ready to pull her back to the safety of the alcove. “Left side! RavenTech soldiers, we’re not your enemy! Follow us to—”

  “Third drone!” Marc called over the comms. “Third drone in the alcove!”

  * * *

  For as long as he dared, Felix peered out from the cover he’d taken after his rush through the hole Zoë had blown in the RavenTech building. Just as Suuthrien had described, it led them into a broad engineering bay easily ninety feet to a side. Thirty feet away—atop a three-foot high dais not quite flush against the wall behind it—stood a wide, glowing oval structure. Crates were scattered around the dais, as were personnel in static-free technician jumpsuits, all of whom still reeled on the floor from the stun effects of Zoë’s rocket.

  As hoped, the rocket’s tailored blast had blown a modest hole in the building’s wall for their point of entry, with little damage to the other side. The pair of inactive assembly robots a dozen feet from the crate that Felix and Juan crouched behind appeared undamaged, as were the free-standing computer consoles to their right where Juan’s twin hunched. Gideon took cover against an engineering station along the wall to the right of the hole.

  “Alright,” Felix shouted, “we’ve got our beachhead! Now comes the next part!” It was a terribly banal thing to say, but the best he could do while noticing not all the bay’s occupants were as stunned as they’d hoped. The RavenTech security in armored suits had recovered and scrambled to cover of their own when Felix and the rest had rushed in.

  Bullets ricocheted across the industrial tile flooring to their right. Two guards were firing from opposite the engineering station that sheltered Gideon. Felix pressed further behind the assembly bots and Juan tried to follow suit, but from that angle the guards still had Juan flanked. The moment the guards got half a second to take aim . . .

  “Cover me!” Felix called to Juan. “And take my spot!”

  Felix hurried around the ‘bot in a crouch, relinquishing the position to Juan and making for the side of the dais on which the oval structure sat. Out of the corner of his eye came a flash of gunfire from across the room, answered by another from Juan. Intent on reaching cover between the back of the dais and the bay wall, Felix couldn’t look to judge the gunfire’s goal; he only knew that he wasn’t hit.

  A journey of no more than fifteen strides seemed to take minutes. At last he burrowed into relative safety behind the dais. His hands pressed to the smooth metal, trying to grip the sheer surface as its warmth pulsed against his fingertips. Felix swallowed against a tingling sensation suddenly assailing the back of his nose and throat.

  Across the bay, Gideon had rushed the guards who’d flanked him and Juan. One already lay on the bay floor, unbloodied but unmoving. Gideon grappled with the other over the guard’s rifle. Juan traded fire with an encampment of other guards taking cover across the bay beside what moments ago had been an octagonal box that was now unfolding into something else.

  Juan’s brother bolted from behind the free-standing consoles to gain new cover behind a stack of crates near the front of the dais, firing as he went.

  Meanwhile, Felix scrutinized the bay walls for what he’d come to find. Two double-wide doors led out of the bay on either end of the wall opposite the hole Zoë had blasted. Centered between them were further consoles, work areas, and technical equipment, much of which the bay’s remaining guards now used for cover. Behind those, fifteen feet up from the level of the bay floor, a wide window looked down on it all, tinted and impenetrable.

  And then Felix saw it: maybe fifteen feet beyond the other end of the dais, along the same wall that bounded Felix’s position, hung the circuit breaker panel he was looking for. It wasn’t far. He needed only to crawl behind the dais to its other edge where he’d make a dash for the panel—and hope he had time to throw the switch from a completely vulnerable position before he got the hell out of there. Bloody—

  A mechanical whir from across the bay cut short Felix’s curse moments before a more violent volley of gunfire erupted. In place of the unfolding octagonal box now stood a seven-foot tall RavenTech-branded security ‘bot that reminded Felix of a centaur with stunted haunches. Coolant steam rose from a Gatling minigun mounted on its right arm. As it finished firing, the minigun’s whirring gave way to the agonized screams of Juan’s brother. He writhed in a mess of blood amid a shiny black liquid spilling from a crate that had proved useless for cover against the ‘bot.

  The New Eden Biotechnics logo emblazoned one shattered piece of crate. Juan’s brother’s screams of pain echoed through Felix’s memory. They evoked out another liquid from New Eden, not black but silver, that Felix’s mind had compelled him—forced him—to bring to Easy Jack for testing. Though the black liquid did not appear to harm Juan’s brother, the combination of the memory and the sight of the man’s agony sent Felix back behind the dais, quaking.

  He had to get out of there! He had to get them all out of there! But he couldn’t, not until he’d gotten to the breaker panel and done what she was forcing him to do.

  Felix forced his eyes open and crawled his way behind the dais to the other side. Inside the triangular opening of the object on the dais, there glowed a wavering image of a dark chamber flashing with bursts of lightning. Strange, spiny shapes flitted about humanoid figures that he couldn’t see clearly. Was it a screen? Why?

  He couldn’t afford to dwell on it. He pushed close to the far corner of the dais—until the breaker switch was just a mad, foolish dash away through unrestrained weapons fire—and peered over the dais’s top.

  The assault ‘bot had its hands full. Gideon was now on its back. One of his legs hooked the minigun arm, fighting to keep it down while he attacked the ‘bot’s back. The ‘bot’s other arm, mounting some bulkier weapon Felix couldn’t identify, battered Gideon’s side in an attempt to shove him off. Gideon grabbed the arm and fired into it with the explosive burst of a weapon hidden within his own arm.

  The ‘bot’s arm casing ruptured, spilling dozens of cylindrical objects to the floor. They exploded in a chain reaction that surrounded Gideon and ‘bot alike in fire, debris, and smoke. The floor crumbled out from under them, and both tumbled through the resulting hole and out of sight.

  Felix turned toward the breaker panel, steeling himself to—

  A RavenTech guard loomed in front of him. Surprise froze them both; the guard must have been rushing to take cover behind the dais himself, expecting it to be clear. Yet the guard recovered first: he brought his weapon up to shoot. All Felix could do was watch it happen.

  The guard’s right shoulder bloomed in shattered armor and blood that knocked him backward before he could fire, and it was then that Felix remembered that Zoë had remained at the gully to cover him with her rifle. He breathed a silent thanks that she was as good a shot as she’d claimed, and then scrambled for the breaker panel.

  Felix barely made it a step into the chaos before the fallen guard seized his ankle. Vulnerable and panicked, he stumbled and then tried to kick ba
ck at the guard’s face. It wasn’t enough. Even with the adrenaline rushing through Felix’s veins the guard’s grip was like a bear trap. Before he could think to do anything more, another shot from Zoë pierced the guard’s skull.

  Yet he’d already caught the outside of Felix’s thigh with the muzzle of his gun, and—whether by intent or death-spasm—the gun fired. Felix screamed and sprawled forward, slamming his face into the floor where he lay stunned, wounded, and out in the open.

  XXX

  IF THE DRONE hadn’t entered the alcove right next to Moondog, Marc realized, he might be dead already. Too close to bring its mounted weapons to bear, Moondog had instead slammed itself sideways into the drone, smashing it into the corner of the wall compartment from which it had emerged.

  Marc backpedaled into another wall and pressed to it alongside Angela as both struggled to manage an offensive. The miniature recoilless rifle he carried—smaller than those Marette, Kotto, and Cartwright wielded—wobbled in hands made clumsier by his suit gloves. Somehow Marc got the weapon’s safety disengaged. He remembered to toggle to the specialized ammo ESA had designed to pierce the drones’ armor.

  And then he froze.

  Moondog slammed itself against the drone again. Kotto jockeyed beside it for a firing position. Marc had only the barest training with the rifle and saw no clear shot to take. Gunfire exploded constantly outside the alcove, echoing around the chamber from various points, surrounding them. He had no idea what was going on out there. Marette and Kotto both shouted through the air and across the comm-channel, trying to coordinate. Both called for Marc and Angela to keep to cover. Yet with the drone within the alcove, what cover was there?

  The drone’s top continued to glow red. Lightning flared along its base but dissipated each time Moondog body-slammed it into the wall. And then: a clear shot! Marc yanked at the trigger. The rifle fired a crackling volley, humming against his gloves. He couldn’t tell if he hit or not before Moondog slammed it again.

  “Triton!” Kotto called to him. “Sheridan! Hold fire! Get down!” Kotto stepped in front of them to circumvent Moondog, finally pressing his rifle’s muzzle to the drone’s side. Somehow Moondog knew to hold it there, and Kotto fired, point blank, into the drone. Marc and Angela ducked at once, shielding themselves; the drone-killer ammo should pierce the drone’s armor and expand inside it rather than ricochet, but instinct was instinct.

  When Marc looked again, the drone lay on the metal floor, smoke pouring from the hole Kotto had blown in its side, with tiny licks of residual lightning flitting intermittently across its surface.

  “Alcove drone down!” Kotto called over the comms.

  Cartwright shouted back almost before Kotto had even finished. “We need Moondog out here n—” Her voice broke on a scream, which cut off as abruptly as it had begun. Moondog clambered past Marc out of the alcove on the left side, toward her position.

  Was Marette—?

  “Cartwright is down!” It was Marette. So she was okay, so far. “Three RavenTech down!” An explosion, followed by a crash, echoed in from the main chamber. “One drone destroyed!”

  “I’m coming in on the other side!” Kotto rushed toward the opposite exit from the alcove on the right side. “Triton, Sheridan: Stay back and stay low!”

  Marc nodded fruitlessly, and then leaned to his left to try to get a better view of Marette’s position. He couldn’t see the remaining drone, but Cartwright’s body lay sprawled a short distance away.

  With a glance at Angela, Marc crept forward, took hold of Cartwright’s ankles, and dragged her back to the alcove. Maybe he could still help. Maybe he could stop her bleeding and keep her alive, if she wasn’t gone yet. Angela hurried forward to help him, and together they pulled Cartwright further back, to the wreckage of the drone. Tiny tendrils of energy still flickered across its surface. Marc kicked it aside and set himself to undoing the seals on Cartwright’s helmet. If he could get her suit open, check her injuries . . .

  “Drone number four coming out!” Kotto shouted. “Right side, center lower wall!”

  Shit!

  Angela caught Marc’s gaze with an unspoken question and traded her rifle for Cartwright’s larger one. He gave her his blessing with a nod, and she dashed off to help Kotto.

  Marc pushed Cartwright’s helmet off. Blood pooled at the corners of her mouth, but he saw no head injury. He fumbled with the rest of the suit, too clumsy to deal with his bulky gloves and his shaking nerves at once. The gloves had to go. He’d unscrewed one and was working on the second when he became aware of a rapid flashing behind him.

  Marc spun on his knees to see the fallen drone surrounded in a storm of electricity that suddenly flared wider to blast Marc into the alcove wall. Pain jolted through him as every muscle in his body contracted at once until he thought the force of it would tear him apart.

  The lightning faded, taking Marc’s consciousness with it. He fought to keep awake, unable to move or make a sound, with pain still tingling across his senses. As his vision faded, Marc registered that the black material had withdrawn from the rear wall of the alcove to reveal a door.

  A door? They hadn’t explored that area yet! Marc battled his failing senses in order to get a clear look up at the figure that emerged from behind it.

  * * *

  Michael took hold of Felix’s ankles and dragged him back to the relative safety between the dais and the wall. He, Jade, and Caitlin had reached the building soon after the rocket had torn it open, and had rushed in to help. Michael had been first to reach the dais, with Caitlin close behind him despite both his and Jade’s insistence that she stay outside. There had been no time to argue.

  Now, as Michael pulled Felix—wounded but conscious—to the center of the dais’s rear side, Jade squeezed past him to guard the edge where Felix had fallen. Together, Michael and Caitlin helped Felix turn onto his back.

  Felix’s pallor looked as gray as the bay floor. “Let me go! Damn it, Flynn, I told you not to bring her!”

  Caitlin gripped him by his shoulders. “Felix, you bloody sod, you’re shot!”

  Michael held onto Felix’s ankle and tried to gauge the injury. It was on the outside of Felix’s right thigh so the femoral artery didn’t look hit, but it was hard to be sure. Even if it wasn’t, that still didn’t make the wound a laughing matter. Struggling to recall his first aid training, Michael shoved a hand against the wound and tried to keep pressure on it. Continuing gunfire echoed through the bay.

  Felix fought against Caitlin’s grip. “I’ll live! Just let me up!”

  Jade fired a volley from her assault rifle over the edge of the dais at Michael couldn’t tell what. “The second that adrenaline fades you’re gonna be in a world of hurt, bud!”

  “Then let me go while I’ve still got it!”

  “Felix, we need to get you out!” Michael called. “Caitlin, I have to keep pressure here. We need a bandage!”

  “Bandages: side pocket, right thigh!” Jade called to Caitlin, offering the pocket with a shift of her hips as she fired again.

  Caitlin made for the pocket and Felix struggled to rise as her hands left him. “I can’t leave yet!”

  “Why not?!” Caitlin yelled. “Why are you here!”

  “That breaker box, on the wall!” Felix groaned. “I need to switch it back on!”

  Michael’s hand was slick with Felix’s blood. He pushed down on Felix’s shoulder with the other to keep the struggling man down. “Felix, why? What’s it—”

  “Incoming!” Jade’s warning came a blink before she fired, this time toward the center of the room. Michael peered above the top of the dais and, through the shimmering triangular window, caught sight of three RavenTech guards charging straight for him up the dais’s ramp. Still keeping pressure on Felix’s leg, Michael pulled the Panther 9mm with the other. Yet before he could fire, all three had passed through the window and vanished.

  No, not vanished, Michael realized. He could still see them for a moment on the other sid
e, within the image displayed there in the triangular window. They dashed out of view to reveal more of the area behind them that Michael could just barely make out: a hemispherical room illuminated by flashes of light, and—was that Marette Clarion? Another shape glided past, one Michael had only before seen in AoA briefing files: a Paragon security drone.

  The device was a portal into Paragon?

  Caitlin pushed the bandages into Michael’s hands, breaking him out of his shock. He lay down the Panther and set to dressing the wound as Caitlin’s grip returned to Felix’s shoulders. Felix continued to fight against both of their efforts. His eyes seemed near bursting from their sockets as he stared at the breaker box. Felix’s arms grabbed for it as if they could stretch the distance. His good leg kicked in an effort to get him to his feet.

  Trying to keep his friend still, Michael could hardly even get the bandages open. “Felix! Stop fighting us!”

  Caitlin’s hands dug into Felix’s shoulders, her arms rigid as she fought to hold him still, yet her attention was on the bay. “Jade! A bloke behind those consoles near the breaker! Look out!”

  “I see him!” Jade tugged a cylindrical grenade from her pocket, flicked a safety off with her thumb, and jammed the button beneath it. “Shield your eyes!”

  She whipped the grenade at the consoles, about fifteen feet from the breaker. Michael lowered his head, concentrating on Felix’s leg below him as Jade’s flashbang grenade erupted in a burst of light to stun whoever lurked behind the console. The light faded just as quickly.

  Caitlin let go of Felix. “I’ll hit the breaker and we can get out of here!” She’d already turned, poised to go.

  Michael lunged after, seizing her by the back of her belt. “We don’t know what it does!”