‘I’m not playing games.’ Kyo shouted through shivers of pain, and he gagged a little, gasping as strings of saliva spilled over his lips. He held himself back from vomiting before speaking again. ‘Not anymore, you bastard. You hear me Krupin? I’m not playing your games. This is how we win. We let suckers play the games.’
The ominous B’Two’O stood in the darkness. He’d been watching quietly for some time now, contemplating, fascinated by Kyo’s insanity. Krupin was growing flustered, ever more so that this little bastard chose now to humiliate his authority in the presence of B’Two’O and his prisoners.
‘Then, we shall change rules of betting game.’ Krupin offered. ‘I bet to anyone here a year of freedom from labouring that this gene-freak will be begging to do anything, if only to stop pain.’
The guard fired the ultra-sonic cannon again and Kyo screamed as his skin felt like it was on fire. The waves of vibrations focused, getting to deeper tissue, shaking his bones and vibrating through his stomach and lungs. He could hear the micro quakes on his voice, like he was stood on a power drill, the quaking waves dithering on his screams. He dropped to the floor, curling up and holding his guts still.
Krupin had been yelling orders and taking bets from up high, laughing and stomping the gantries with excitement, when suddenly he became quelled by an abrupt pain in his back.
In the first second, he coughed a great dollop of blood into his palm, and in the next a velociter wake tore his entrails out like a confetti cannon and split the paunch man in half. Krupin’s offal trailed horizontally through the air, chasing the long passed bullet like an Indian rope trick far across the yard.
The sudden and violent death left the rambled union of betters silent, and their blood freckled faces craned to stare up at the gantry, where their leader’s porcine carcass now heaped in meat piles and draping entrails. And the shock left a long silence in the camp. Above, Cedalion soared on high from the guard-tower where taciturn inmates gazed on, he wingspen displaying Cerise Timber’s Three Circles. Their complete attention snared by the bird, as though some soul snatching vulture had stolen off with Krupin’s life. And there was an affinity of death in the air.
‘What the fuck?’ Gasped an incredulous Vadim, aiming his rifle up at the bird but before he could fire, explosions of dust and concrete tore in from West side of the perimeter wall, punching through the two meter thick iron enforced concrete. In the gathering of people six were thrown dead across the yard like ragdolls. And, as another velociter round punched in through the concrete the scattering and strident droves were tossed apart. Another three were spread like jam across nearby huts, which too burst into splinters of wood and dust where the bullets entered. B’Two’O’s soldiers were dropping like flies.
‘POSITIONS!’ The monster hollered at his shocked infantry. At which point, whilst the men bumbled and organised into battle positions, three more rounds burst through the Western wall and collided with their suits, breaking armour up into a myriad shards and spinning their limbs off into the distance. Those with lungs still left in their bodies would scream in agony and collapse in shock.
Muddy and gasping for breath, Kyo sat up to realise the chaos now upon the camp. Boots slogged quickly around him through the silt and loam and people tripped over wires snaking hidden in the mire as they shambled for safety. More velociter wakes tore over their heads from freshly punctured fist sized holes bursting in through the rigid perimeter walls all around. What the hell was going on here? Kyo watched the great rents open and saw the bullets trailing long dust tails, unzipping chalk-lines far, scored diagonally through the air.
‘GET TO THE TOWERS!’ The skeletal and blanched Titan five shrieked. ‘MAN THE TOWERS AND TRACK THE TARGETS. FIND THEM.’
Kyo scrambled to his feet and ran across the yard, toes sliding through the ooze. Above, he saw Cedalion wheeling in the sky, giving Artex the perfect advantage of knowing where his enemies were standing or running to from an aerial view.
‘HERE.’ Kyo screamed waving up to the bird. ‘HERE, THIS ONE.’ And he pointed at the iniquitous pale B’Two’O.
The monster turned to see the boy pointing right at him while screaming into the grey abode, and the Titan five’s eyes peeled back wide, revealing those odious marbles. Growling with an affronted fury, B’Two’O finally realised the purpose of the bird on high was not random, but part of a transqualia. But it was all too late. By the time B’Two’O had pieced it together, a green spot of laser found the monster’s chest and a velociter bullet tore through the South-Western wall and put a perfect hole in its abdomen. B’Two’O’s black organs flaccidly drooped and drew with it the dark rivers of blood spilling over his suit. First, the creature dropped to his knees, then collapsed to the floor face down in the mud.
Kyo laughed with elated relief.
‘YOU GOT HIM.’ He cried victoriously, fist to the air where Cedalion sailed. ‘YOU GOT HIM, YOU GOT HIM.’ He repeated, punching the sky with joy.
The bullets soon stopped coming in through the walls as the Chinook infantry opened fire from the watch-towers and guard-houses, their rifles chattering over and beyond the perimeter tops and into the horizon of the Novus. Beams of light flashed as mounted laser cannons pulsed and sonic weapons whip-cracked violently, eruptive blasts resonating from mounted resonance dishes. The infantry manned the gantries and surrounded the perimeter walls, and magneto alarms started to siren as the EMP defence perimeter suddenly went down.
Kyo looked around for some place to hide and ran when he saw the Perigrussia Skybus. If he could fly it, they could get out of this place. He started to sprint, when suddenly, out of nowhere, Vadim leapt to tackle him by the waist and they both glissaded over the sludge. Kyo tried to roll over but Vadim had him pinned, sitting his weight over Kyo’s chest. He brought the butt of his rifle down hard on the gene-freak’s eye and Kyo cried out with incensed pain.
‘Got you now, little fucker.’ Vadim heaved, drawing back for another strike. Then, something coiled around Vadim’s throat, tightening like a leather belt. He was dragged away by the snag, spinning him flailing into the slippery mud.
Kyo never knew he had so much power and dexterity in his tail, but he was glad for it. Caked in thick dark grime, Kyo got quickly to his feet but kept them wide and stayed low. He moved crabwise and ready to pounce at his enemy, eyes carefully locked on Vadim as he too got back to his feet.
The chattering of weapons mottled the Novus outside, and people started screaming and abandoning their posts as more velociter rounds tore in through the guard-tower.
Rubbing his aching neck, Vadim scrambled and made a grab for his rifle which protruded from the thick clay ground.
Kyo gasped, prompted by Vadim’s effort, and saw the rifle. Instinctively he seized some of the power cables worming through the mud and silt and pulled them tight, tripping Vadim on the tension of cables. Raw-Dog hit the dirt and sprawled toward the weapon, making a grab. He unlocked the safety, and dropping to one knee took aim for Kyo’s head. Kyo froze with a stupid and terrified expression, wondering why he wasn’t dead. Vadim’s rifle clicked several times, the sound of an empty chamber, something blocked. The mud had caused a malfunction, bunged it up with clay. Cheap fucking rifles!
But no sooner had Vadim tried to unclog the cartridge, did a bright and blinding light shine into his eyes, stifling his vision from the left. Kyo froze a second, dumbstruck, then dove face first back into the mud. Vadim sat back and covered his face myopically, barely able to make out the jeep now careering towards him, headlights on full beam. A new cartridge slid into the rifle’s load, with maladroit aim, fired a few shots sparking over the jeep’s bull bars, winch and tow wire. But the vehicle rode him down, smashing his bones beneath the chassis like a bag of wet twigs. It passed and veered obliquely into a tail-spin, riding a great tidal splash of mud.
Kyo couldn’t believe his eyes. The passenger door flapped open and he saw Pania screaming at him from the driver’s seat.
‘COME ON!’
Without a second to spare, Kyo dove into the passenger seat and snapped the door shut.
‘That way!’ Kyo shouted, pointing to the corrugated sheet-steel facility ahead. Kyo kept low as the pop and ting of ballistics mottled the jeep’s armour. Pania forced his head down and pumped the accelerator, driving the jeep headlong through the main cross-mesh gate. The structure gave way with a crash and slid inside with the vehicle, the jeep’s engines roaring through the dark and isolated space now, shards of metal spilling out scintillating sparks. Headlights landed upon several caged prison cells in the dark, one of which Kyo was not ten minutes ago inside, and the vehicle pulled to a dirt-trail stop.
‘Look at me.’ Pania shouted, pulling Kyo’s head to her and checking his face.
‘I’m fine.’ He promised, throwing himself into her arms. She squeezed him tight, brought almost to tears with relief. Outside, an explosion burst through the yard, causing the strip lights of the facility to short out. They sat in the dark with only the jeep’s headlights to illuminate their way. They embraced a little longer while the engine purred.
‘I thought we lost you, Biter.’ She said.
‘Me too.’ And Kyo suddenly remembered something. ‘Hey…Pania. Wait here.’
‘What? Hey! Where you going?’
Kyo suddenly jumped out of the jeep and made his way to one of the cells.
‘Kyo! We’ve no time for this, we have to move.’
He reached the cell he was looking for and grabbed the bars to where Hattle was lying in a deep sleep.
‘HATTLE!’ He screamed at the top of his lungs. But Hattle didn’t respond. Pania put the jeep in reverse and backed up for some room. And Kyo made some room himself for what was to follow. Pania put her foot down and crashed into the caged cell at an angle, ripping the front bars away. The entire vehicle lodged its Bull Bar and tow into the metal, warping and twisting the alloy through the main integrity of the cage. It had pinned its nose down, rear wheels up off the floor. Kyo ran inside the cell and stood over Hattle, smacking his cheeks lightly to bring him round.
‘Hey,’ he said, ‘c’mon Mad Hat, we gotta go.’
Kyo heard the wheels of the jeep grinding, screeching against the ground and burning out the airless polymerite tires into a cloud of smoke.
‘FUCK.’ Pania screamed, punching the wheel. ‘We’re screwed.’
Kyo rested his hand over Hattle’s ribs. He sensed the pain there, could almost hear it through his skin, that something needed fixing. The wounds were mending slowly, but he needed urgent attention. Hattle was still intoxicated from whatever sedatives Krupin had been feeding him. His eyes fluttered open and he stared at Kyo drunkenly.
‘Hey,’ he said, drooling slightly. ‘It’s the gene-freak.’
‘Oh, good, back to normal,’ Kyo said, more to himself than to Hattle. ‘Help me out here.’ He told Pania.
‘The jeep is screwed.’ She cried hands up in surrender.
‘Forget the jeep,’ said Kyo, hauling Hattle’s arm over his shoulder. ‘We’re taking the Skybus.’
*
A fresh salvo of velociter rounds burst in from the North wall now and tore away heads, momentarily leaving their advancing bodies to take a few steps in their last positions before capsizing dead. Others dove for cover and fired back at the wall with futile resolve. Then, as the baking fires in the exploded workshops reached their climax, a fuel tank exploded somewhere in the engineering rooms. And a huge fiery mushroom engulfed a nearby guard-tower, which keeled over moments later with a loud and pained groan from the iron struts. Flashes and snaps of electrics blazed around the tower as it toppled like timber, tearing out a huge hole in the perimeter fence. And plumes of dust and smoke and fire then inflated from the furrowed ground where the tower came to a cataclysmic touchdown, smashing magnetic perimeter field arrays.
With his right eye aimed dutifully down the long barrel of the weapon, Gus followed the green laser curser wherever Artex pointed.
‘Ten O’clock.’ He said, while Cedalion helped him find his targets over and behind the walls where they took cover. Gus got the green spot in sight and pulled the trigger.
FWU-PHOW
cracked the sniper as the velociter round pulled a vortex of dense collapsing air moisture chasing way behind the ballistic.
‘MOVE!’ Gus shouted.
And the two mercenaries hurried through the abandoned roads and streets, ducking by the shanty half collapsed ruins of houses and setting up for a new position. Gus aimed his weapon.
‘Where is she?’ he roared like a bloodthirsty lion.
‘I saw her drive into a building,’ said Artex. ‘If she is not out of there soon we’re going to have to go in after her. That jeep is our only ticket through the Novus.’
FWU-PHOW and another velociter punched through the prison walls where Artex marked the laser.
‘MOVE!’ said Gus, weapon hauled over shoulder.
About two hundred metres ahead now, he saw the great bistre of smoke rising above the main watch-tower, which suddenly fell and unsettled billowing mists of concrete. And he realised that Cedalion was no longer able to hunt through the pollution of dust that drew across the land. With visibility lost, he dropped out of the semi-qualia and looked upon the camp using his oculars only. Artex breathed steadily as he ran beside Gus who alone eased a steady pace with the weight of the twenty kilogram weapon.
‘Gus,’ he panted. ‘I lost visual. Cedalion can’t see through the smoke.’
‘Then they won’t see us coming in,’ Gus laughed. ‘Let’s go and fucking knock, brother.’
*
Pania let the nozzle of her rifle lead her into the daylight. She kept the weapon firm against her shoulder as Kyo dragged Hattle over his back in a fireman’s carry. He struggled to balance over the boxer’s weight, kneeling down and panting for air at every stop while Pania cleared the way. Her rifle chattered, and her bullets tore up the ground near the toes of scampering inmates dashing for cover.
‘Hurry, this way,’ she told him, hurrying ahead.
Kyo grunted as he followed, his legs stiff, not quite as zealous as hers. She fired at the guard-towers, a staccato of blasts rattling out an entire cartridge, bullets sparking over the rails. Kyo led her to the Perigrussia Skybus and he put Hattle down onto the loading ramp, gasping for air. His muscles burned with acid, his shoulders and back ached and he cursed to the sky for energy.
‘I said, move it!’ Pania said, dragging him to his feet as she raced along the loading ramp into the cargo hold. They each took one of Hattle’s wrists and hauled him inside on his back. And through the smoke and debris, they saw two figures advancing fast. Pania peered down and was about to open fire when she recognised Artex and Gus.
‘Where’s the ride?’ Artex shouted.
‘Got a new one,’ she claimed, thumbs up to the Perigrussia Skybus above them. Gus set up at the bottom of the loading ramp and fired another round into the smoke.
WHU-PHOW and something in the distance burst into hot crimson fires.
‘Fine! Inside!’ He shouted, shouldering the weapon and racing up the ramp.
*
Kyo had never seen the bridge of the Perigrussia Skybus before now. The seats were arranged in triangulation, five in all, one at the very front. He had already manned the main pilot seat and was staring in confusion at the holographic readouts.
‘Know how to fly this?’ Pania asked with a jubilant but ironic tone.
‘Not yet,’ Kyo said looking around.
Artex trudged quickly onto the bridge, heavy boots printing mudded black patterns across the floor behind him.
‘Out,’ he ordered, arriving at the pilot seat and pushing Kyo away. ‘Belt up.’
Pania and Gus jumped into side chairs and Kyo did the same. Their harnesses descended, pinning them into the inertial padding and their heads were braced in inertial support material.
‘Hey.’ Pania objected, ‘You’re a pilot?’
‘Not yet,’ Artex
said with a wry smile, ‘sit tight.’
From outside, flashes of light scintillated over the glass and vibrations rocked the ship as something opened fire from behind the veil of smoke. Artex squinted to make out what was there and he gazed in disbelief at the apparition of a slender and skeletal figure, its suit torn, its pale face smiling, vicious metal teeth beset into blackened gums.
‘What in the bowels of hell is that thing?’
‘Fear,’ said Kyo, also noticing B’Two’O now. ‘Pure fear. Get us out of here, Eagles.’
As B’Two’O stood and continued to bleed, its odious gurning affixed like a theatrical pantomime mask, the Chinooks gunner’s opened fire, blasting beyond the clouds of smoke from behind the monster. Cursing, Artex placed his hands into the seat rest and neurophased with the Perigrussia Skybus, running several encryption programs. Laux hadn’t fully applied his neurophase for a neurosphere and Artex knew it, but he was booted enough for basic navigational programs, which meant he could fly this Skybus at least.
The Chinook’s gunners flashed and stabbed with light, and B’Two’O was silhouetted ahead of the blitzkrieg, a distant smile acerbically depicted upon its warped features as it pointed at the Perigrussia as though his heil was an aim for the ship’s gunners. The Perigrussia Skybus took a beating as armour piercing bullets tore into the cadonavis like a tin opener. With a blast of fire the engines finally burned into action.
Chaos Cipher Page 61
