Killer Edge: Navigator Book Three

by SD Tanner

  “Niiiice,” Ark drawled.

  Setting the distance on the gun to thirty yards, he maintained a continuous beam on one critter. The hole it formed in the middle of its torso began to glow brightly on his visor. Continuing to fire at the target, the burning light spread wide, until there was nothing left of the torso and its many limbs dropped to the ground. The effect would have been comical, but more critters were already piling up behind the ones he’d just killed.

  Trigger wasn’t doing as well and muttered, “Fuckin’ thing isn’t doing anything. This sucks.”

  “Trigger, maintain your rate of fire on one target,” Ark said.

  “What fire?” Trigger asked in a complaining tone. “I’m holding down the trigger, but I’m not sure it’s doing anything.”

  “It is,” Ark assured him. “I can see the impact by using infrared. It’s just really slow to have any effect.”

  “Oh, great, so while I wait for it to do something I’m critter meat.”

  Ignoring Trigger’s complaints, he asked, “Tuck, do you have the chips?”

  “Yeah, but they were buried behind some crap. I’m on my way out now.”

  “Ark, sitrep on Tank and Lexie.”

  “Not good. They’ve attracted unwanted attention.”

  “Tuck, Trigger, time to go. And, Trigger, ditch that piece of shit.” The sound gun was bulky and Trigger dropped it like the dead weight it was, swinging his normal weapon into a firing position. “Trigger, take the delivery from Tuck. He’s got the laser and it’s working pretty well.”

  Tuck handed the well-packaged box to Trigger. It was only three feet square and it didn’t look like much to him, but according to the engineers, Trigger was now holding a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of electronics. Given how critical the chips were to everything CaliTech built, they were lucky the building hadn’t caught fire as so many had.

  Breaking into a run, they headed back in the direction they’d come. Critters were following them and he turned, giving them a short burst from the Hellfire laser. Between him and Tuck, they were managing to cover their six. When they arrived back at the building, Lexie and Tank were running as a tag team to the trucks. Lexie left immediately, leading another dozen survivors through the fence.

  “Tank, how many?”

  “About sixty or so.”

  That was more than they’d planned for and he worried they’d have enough transportation. He stopped and looked towards the trucks, immediately seeing a cluster of pink blobs inside and outside of the vehicles. “What’s their condition?”

  “They’re mobile.”

  Lexie returned to the building and Tank left with the next group. As she selected another six people from the cluster of pink blobs, she warned, “Leon, there’s movement underground.”

  Looking at the ground, he flicked the visor to deep scan and felt his eyes object. The sudden change in spectrum could trigger migraines and he cursed. Just as Lexie had warned him, the critters were scooting beneath their feet and they would be at the fence line within moments.

  “Last batch,” he called.

  Flicking his visor to reality viewing, the pink blobs around him became the faces of anxious and frightened people. At least twenty people remained. It was a number the four remaining Navigators could easily lead through the fence, but he worried about what they would do once they were on the other side. For as long as they were behind the fence, the critters largely left the people alone, but he doubted that would remain true if they tried to escape.

  “Leon! What are you waiting for?” Lexie asked sharply.

  “We don’t have enough transportation for this many people.”

  “It doesn’t matter. They can squeeze into the trucks. We’ll run the distance.”

  Silently agreeing that being outside of the fence was better than staying behind it, he looked ahead at the wall of green blobs making their way towards them. If they were going to take these people with them then they had no time to waste.

  Flicking his lower visor up, he shouted, “You’re gonna have to run as fast as you can. Lexie, get ‘em to the trucks. We’ll cover your six.” He dropped his visor down again. “Tank, Tuck, Trigger. Form a line and let’s cut ‘em down. As soon as Lexie gets them into the vehicles, get ready to run for your lives.”

  There was no point wasting their ammo or power packs until they were guaranteed a kill shot, so the four of them formed a line across the wide road while they waited for the wall of green to draw closer.

  Ark spoke through his headset. “That’s a lotta critters coming down on your position. I think they’re pissed.”

  Steadying his laser, he checked the power levels and saw that he still had eighty-five percent left. “Yeah, I don’t think they liked your trick. Thanks for pissing them off, Ark.”

  The wall of green was growing closer with every passing second, and he forced himself to resist the desire to fire early. Once they were fifty feet from their position they all opened fire. Trigger was using his freestanding gun. He and Tuck used the Hellfire lasers to cut across the line of critters, while Tank unleashed his belt-fed machine gun firing four hundred rounds per minute. The first line of critters fell in an untidy mass of shattered limbs and carved up bodies. Behind that line, was another wall of critters and they maintained their rate of fire.

  “Lexie, we’re waiting on you.”

  “Working on it, Leon. It’s a tight fit.”

  Glancing at the screen on his laser gun, he noted he only had fifty percent left. It was yet another piece of CaliTech gear that drank power. If they used these weapons in fierce combat, they’d never be able to maintain the rate of engagement. Wave after wave of critters were continuing to fall under their barrage of fire. Without any need to save their own, the next layer of critters simply leapt over the fallen bodies of their buddies. Critters didn’t need logistics or medical support and that gave them an advantage that he didn’t have.

  The seemingly endless wave of critters was moving closer to their position and it wouldn’t be long before they were overrun.

  “Lexie!”

  Replying for Lexie, Jenna said brusquely, “Trucks are oscar mike.”

  It was time to leave and in a single fluid movement, they all turned and ran like hell. Tank was hampered by his heavy shoulder weapons, but Bill had given him heck for dumping his gear in the field last time and he didn’t ditch it now. His orders had differed from Bill’s and he’d taken Tank aside, telling him to do whatever he thought was going to keep him alive in combat. Some days Bill could be a real dumbass, but he’d given up arguing with him. Bill could gripe all he wanted, but he and his squad would do whatever was needed once they were in combat.

  The critters were rapidly closing the small gap between them, and he was surprised when hundreds of them launched into the air flying north. “Ark, what are they doing?”

  Ark’s amused voice came through his headset. “Falling for the same trick twice.”

  Breathing hard, he asked, “What have you done?”

  “Cassie thinks you’ve got drone air support.”

  Despite struggling to breath, he laughed. “Can you drop some imaginary bombs?”

  “We are. Damn, if these critters are as dumb as they are smart.”

  Ark’s decoy scenario was clearly confusing the critters and it would be his resourcefulness that would save them. Passing through the critter fence, they found themselves on the tail of the departing trucks. Just as Lexie had said, it was a tight fit inside of the vehicles. While he continued to run at fifteen miles per hour, he was satisfied that not only would they return with the chips, they’d also saved over sixty people at the same time.

  It had been a good day.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: Tiny killers (Ark)

  Leon and his squad had arrived back at CaliTech with sixty-four people from Albuquerque. After interviewing them, Jo reported that the story they told was the same as the one they’d heard from Jonesy’s survivors. The critters didn’t do anything oth
er than to snatch a few of them, and he suspected they were only taking enough to feed themselves. Their rubbery black bodies were an exoskeleton protecting the red jelly that acted as a central nervous system. The medical team had said that with so little of the reddish carbon-based jelly inside of them, they didn’t need many nutrients. Further examination of the critters inside of the spider shed had revealed, aside from the variations in type, they didn’t have unique features. Given they all looked the same, he was increasingly of the opinion that the critters were not a species, but were a manufactured biological weapon.

  Getting inside of the nest was becoming critical to their mission. They needed to understand what was controlling the critters and, unlike Boris, he didn’t think a missile could penetrate deeply enough. There was a risk that by blowing up the nest, they might cause whatever was inside of it to move, and then they wouldn’t even know where it was. At least for now they had a target.

  Jenkins had brought a baby bot to the grounds outside of the spider shed. It was the size and shape of a football with eight mechanical legs spreading widely from its torso. The underbelly had clawed arms designed to carry a bomb or a signal repeater. Made of lightweight titanium, the core of its body contained the power packs, and the engineers had buried the circuit board with the programmable chip deep inside its belly. Sticking six inches out of its back were several antennas. For the moment, Jenkins was controlling it using a tablet, but ultimately he would be given an application that he could use in the command center. Four cameras had been mounted on each side of the main body, plus it had another on its back that was able to film anything above it.

  He wanted to know if the critters would react to the tiny robot, and Lexie and Tank were standing on either side of the door to the spider shed. The baby bot was unsteadily walking across the grassy ground, rocking from side to side as it awkwardly lifted its eight legs above actual and perceived obstacles. Its cameras were covered in hoods that blended with the black and silver body, making them almost impossible to see.

  Saying what he suspected they were all thinking, Lexie remarked, “It looks drunk.” Leaning over the baby bot as it approached her, her upper lip curled in disgust and she poked at it with her gloved finger. “It’s gross.”

  “We’re not asking you to date it,” Jenkins replied distractedly.

  “What happens if it tips over?” He asked.

  Jenkins looked up from his tablet and gave him a wide grin. “We thought of that.”

  Instead of explaining what they’d done, he showed him. Using the tablet, Jenkins made the baby bot fall over to one side and roll onto its back. The legs then reversed and it stood up again, only now its antennas were pointing into the ground. Using the same technique, he made the baby bot fall on one side again and its legs reversed so it stood right side up.

  Sounding satisfied, Jenkins said, “It has inbuilt self-righting logic, so it’ll always put itself upright again.”

  “Cute,” he said with genuine admiration. “Okay, Tank and Lexie, get the door open and scoot our little guy inside.”

  “It’s not a puppy, Ark,” Lexie replied dourly.

  “If it was then we wouldn’t be doing this.”

  Following his instructions, Lexie opened the door and the little robot rocked its way inside. Before the critters had time to react, she slammed the door closed and he looked at the screen on his tablet. The baby bot was continuing its ungainly walk across the floor inside of the spider shed. Being ever conscious of adding extra weight, they hadn’t attached any lights to it. The cameras and sensors gave them a wide range of spectrums to use and he was relying on the thermal imaging vision. Having not been fed anything other than leftover food from the barracks, the critters inside the shed were sluggish.

  “Get the baby bot to poke one of those lazy fuckers,” he ordered.

  Just as he’d asked, Jenkins made the little robot march up to one of the critters crouched on the floor. Raising one of its eight legs, it sharply jabbed the critter. The critter didn’t seem to notice the tiny assault and it continued to crouch on the floor.

  “I’m guessing they don’t recognize it as being alive.”

  “It’s not alive, Ark,” Lexie said irritably. “It’s an effing toy.”

  Grinning at her bluntness, he replied, “It’s a toy with a bomb and that doesn’t make it any kinda toy I ever had as a kid.” Turning to Jenkins, he asked, “Okay, so now we know they won’t try to destroy them, how long before we’ll have a hundred of them?”

  “That’s a question of manpower that I don’t have.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I’ve got engineers designing and building the new weapons. Any other spare resources I have are assembling ammo. If you want the baby bots as well then I need more grunt power.”

  They couldn’t keep hand finishing the uranium-tipped bullets as they’d eventually run out of raw materials, so the laser or sound gun had to work or they wouldn’t have any weapons at all. Leon had said the new weapons weren’t entirely successful. The laser gun drank power and the packs couldn’t carry enough for it to be used in anything other than extreme circumstances. The sound-based weapon hadn’t really worked at all and they’d dumped it in the field. Bill had ordered the weapons division to focus their efforts on the laser gun and assembling the uranium-tipped bullets.

  “We have to get into that nest, so we need the baby bots ASAP. We also need those new weapons to work.”

  Jenkins sighed deeply and he noticed how gaunt the man was looking. “It doesn’t help when your squad loses the prototypes. We only had three of the sound weapons and now we only have one.”

  “If they have to call it then they’ll dump the gear that doesn’t work and don’t expect me to tell them to do any different.” Seeing a flash of irritation cross Jenkins’s face, he added, “We haven’t got time to follow standard testing procedures, so stuff is gonna go wrong.”

  They were moving too fast and he knew it. The Navigator squad were barely on their feet, and the weapons were so untested that they could just as easily have killed the operator as the enemy. Rubbing his forehead tiredly, he tried to think of alternatives, but couldn’t come up with anything other than to forge ahead. He didn’t believe the critters had taken control of the world for no reason. Although he’d told Lexie he wouldn’t quit, it didn’t mean he had a solution. The critters and their controllers kept stepping up their game before they ever got a chance to get the war onto an even playing field.

  Giving him a tired look, Jenkins crouched down next to his chair. “I get it, Ark. We’re about to be fucked and not in the good way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “These assholes have a plan and they’re following it. To date, we’ve done nothing to stop them. We haven’t managed make the slightest bit of impact on the process they’re clearly following.”

  He couldn’t argue and replied, “Everything is taking too long. We can’t get the people to train as navs. We can’t get the new weapons working fast enough. We can’t assemble enough ammo that can kill them with one shot.”

  Jenkins nodded. “I know. My engineers can get the weapons working well enough for a nav to test, but I need to free them up if we’re gonna speed this up. You need to organize more resources. I don’t care how the hell you do that, but get me warm bodies with half a brain and do it fast.”

  Clearly, he had the same sense of growing urgency he was feeling. “Why fast?”

  “Just follow their process for a moment. They used half of the population to create the critters, and they don’t have a brain of their own, which means they’re only a weapon for something else. They killed twenty-five percent of the remaining population to intimidate the remaining people and then locked them up. Now, why would they be doing that? What do they want them for? We know they don’t need much food to keep them going, so what’s the game plan here?”

  Initially they’d assumed the critters wanted the people for food, but the ones inside of the spider
shed had proved that they didn’t need much to stay alive. If the critters were only a weapon, and they didn’t need people as food, then why did they want them? The thing inside of the nest controlling the critters probably didn’t need millions of people to survive either.

  Giving Jenkins a puzzled look, he replied, “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  Jenkin’s mouth twisted into a cynical smirk. “I don’t think we’ve seen the face of our enemy yet.”

  “You mean we haven’t seen what’s inside of the nest?”

  “No, I don’t think that’s the endgame either.”

  Closing his eyes, he visualized their situation. Millions of people had been transformed into weapons and millions were now being held captive by what was once human. Why would anyone hold people prisoner? Hitler had built concentration camps to exterminate entire segments of the global population, but if the critters wanted to do that then the people would already be dead. It wasn’t as if they could stop them from killing everyone they had trapped inside of the cities and major regions. In effect, the critters had reduced the population down to something they could control, and now they appeared to be in a holding pattern as if they were waiting for something.

  “Give me your theory.”

  “A weapon is only useful if it has an operator, otherwise it’s just a hunk of metal. And an operator uses a weapon to achieve an end result. If the critters are just a weapon then they’re being used to achieve an end result. If they wanted to kill all human life then they could have done that already, but they’re not, so I think they’re waiting for something.”

  “Like what?”

  Leaning closer to his chair, Jenkins rested on the arm. “What if they’re all just weapons? What if that thing inside of the nest isn’t the big cheese that we think it is? What if they’re all just waiting for their master to show up?”

  “If that’s the case then what is the big cheese? Where is it?”

  Jenkins tapped the side of his head. “Now, you’re thinkin’. The critters are like smart drones. They’re all doing the same thing at the same time and in the same way. We’re assuming the thing inside of the nest is controlling them and it certainly does look that way. You’ve managed to feed it misinformation and it responded to it as if it was real, which proves the critters are dumb drones or they could have instantly disproved your lie.” Giving him a knowing wink, he added, “But the big dumbass in the nest fell for it too, so it’s not too bright either.”