Kant spun around the corner, keeping close to the wall. “Clear!”
Erik stepped into a sprawling hallway with several intersections. Another set of thuds sounded, but this time they sounded closer and not toward the end of the hallway, which to the best of Erik’s recollection pointed toward the hangar.
The noise continued, now followed by loud, echoing clangs. Something was approaching the corridor on both sides at an intersection ahead. Erik and Kant stayed near the wall on their side of the hall. Anne and Jia darted across to set up, the latter kneeling, allowing them both good cover and firing arcs.
“It sounds like a big yaoguai,” Erik muttered. “Another factory, probably.”
Kant shook his head. “You know, brother, you might be a tough guy, but you’ve got shit for luck. Not complaining about the opportunity to take down a monster or two and earn some stories, but…seriously?”
“My luck depends on who you ask, but at least we don’t have to worry about local yokel security guards.” Erik raised the TR-7. He wouldn’t need any fancy targeting interfaces, just the basic scope and smart lenses in this hallway.
Large shadows from opposite sites joined together, announcing the arrival of something. The thudding and clanging stopped.
“Hold your fire,” Erik ordered. “We need to know what’s going on here.”
“You need to know what’s going on?” came a man’s voice from ahead.
He had a faint accent. It didn’t sound local, Terran, most likely Eastern European, but there was an odd hollow timbre to it.
“You must know who we are,” Erik shouted. “That’s got to make you worry.”
“Of course,” the man called back. “You’re famous in my organization. They call you the Last Soldier and Miss Lin, the Warrior Princess. You’ve caused much trouble, you and your friends in the government and police. I suppose it was inevitable that I would be forced to deal with you.”
Jia narrowed her eyes and yanked a plasma grenade from her vest. “If you know our reputation, then you know you might not walk away here alive if you try to take us on. Cyborgs, yaoguai, that half-Leem freak on Venus. We’ve taken the best your conspiracy has to offer, and we’ve beaten them again and again. You should be asking yourself if you think you’re tougher than all of those?”
“Ah, yes,” the man replied. “I can understand how that might inspire a certain confidence. Arrogance, some might say.”
“I call it a clearly documented record of successfully applied violence,” she retorted. “Not arrogance.”
Erik kept his TR-7 pointed down the hall, all four barrels ready to go, but the large shadows intermixed in the center of the intersection ahead bothered him. He’d assumed a large yaoguai was coming, but he didn’t understand what he was seeing. They had not been separated long enough for him to get a clear idea.
Judging by the clanging, the most likely explanation was exos. He ducked behind the wall, ejected his magazine, and caught it before it fell. He stuffed it in his pocket, yanked out an armor-piercing magazine, and loaded that under the confused gaze of Kant.
Erik took up position again before nodding to the magazine. Kant ducked for his own switch. An exo with a good shield would have the advantage in the corridor, but enough AP rounds and explosives could take it out.
“Unlike some people in our organization, I don’t view you as a threat,” the man continued. “Erik, Jia…can I call you that?”
“What do we call you?” Jia asked.
Erik was content to let Jia do the talking while he checked the other hallway for an ambush. The wide, hard floors echoed from their footsteps, so it would be difficult for the enemy to surprise them.
“You can call me Luca,” the hidden man replied. “I would tell you more, but you’re too resourceful, and I can’t risk you somehow getting information outside this place.”
“Oh, not confident you can beat us?”
“The wise man prepares for all possibilities. The fact that you’re here proves your skill beyond mere violence.” Luca chuckled quietly, the shadows quaking. “Would you mind explaining how you found this place?”
Jia scoffed. “What, you mean you didn’t have a big trap set up for us all along? What about your exploding flitter full of innocent suckers?”
“That was, as you say, a trap,” Luca responded. “I can assure you that had we known you two were here and hunting us, we would have taken stronger measures. We did become aware of something unusual, but alas, we thought it was a foolish local syndicate who didn’t know their place, not you two. Perhaps the greater question is, how did you get here? I know you were on Earth not all that long ago.”
Erik’s brow lifted. They’d assumed that everyone in the conspiracy knew about the jumpship. They’d also assumed the conspiracy had a major communications advantage because of their infiltration of Hermes, but it wasn’t doing them any good if they weren’t keeping their field operatives informed.
“They must not tell you everything.” Jia’s thumb stroked the plasma grenade. “You might be able to figure it out if they did. Too bad.”
Anne kept still, her rifle at the ready. The familiar frown and look of disapproval had vanished, replaced by intense concentration.
Luca sighed. “I’m sure you’re aware by now that we’ve jammed the entire area. We know you have whoever is supporting you in the flitter outside, but we also know there’s no one coming to reinforce you. I admire your bravery, coming to this place with only the four of you and your flitter pilot. It might be a waste of my time, but my organization could use people of your talents. This doesn’t have to end in pointless bloodshed.”
Jia’s eyes widened. She trembled in rage before nodding at Erik. She knew he wanted his turn.
“You assholes killed my soldiers on Molino,” Erik shouted back. “And you keep thinking if you ask nicely, I’ll join you? I traveled fifty light-years to find the people responsible, directly and indirectly, and kill every last one. I don’t know how many bases I need to blow up for you to get that message.”
Luca let out a harsh, mocking laugh. “Such passion, but what will it accomplish? Nothing. Let me make something clear. You’re used to dealing with pathetic cannon fodder, Erik, and when you’ve attacked our bases, you’ve come in with greater force. You’ve let your legend go to your head, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be of use to us. If you joined, you’d come to understand something important in time.”
“That your guys are deluded, crazy sons of bitches?” Erik asked. Kant snickered.
“No, no. Well, that might be true, but that’s not what I’m speaking of. You’re fixated on Molino and the deaths there, but people die every day, Erik. Countless people. They die for the most foolish of reasons, on Chiron, on Earth, and on other planets and colonies. Those men and women who died on Molino had something that none of those other people did.”
Erik’s trigger finger twitched. “They had me as their commander.”
“No, no, no. Something else far more important. Their deaths had meaning.”
“Meaning?” Erik bit out through gritted teeth. “They were slaughtered by mercs hired by your people, and that was supposed to be meaningful?”
“They were sacrifices for a greater future.” Luca sounded almost euphoric. “Don’t tell me you never ordered soldiers into likely death when you were in the Army. Sometimes people must die for others, as your soldiers did.”
“Why don’t you come out and say that to my face?” Erik yelled. “Right before I blow it off? There’s not going to be a negotiation that ends with any of us joining your sick conspiracy. Here’s the only negotiation I’m willing to offer. You come out with your hands up and get on your knees, and you don’t have to die. Otherwise, well, you die.”
A scratching noise came from the hallway ahead.
“I’m not an idiot, Erik,” Luca replied. “I know that if we fight, damage will be done to this place, and we’re not through with it yet. I’m willing to make you another offer. You
can turn around and leave right now. We won’t try to stop you. You have to know you can’t win, but I’d rather avoid the losses that would be associated with confronting you. Consider this a stalemate, if you will. We both lose certain things.”
“How about you give us the alien artifacts you brought here?” Jia called. “Then we’ll leave, and we’ll call it even.”
Luca let out a resounding laugh. “You are as impressive as I believed. You even know about our special shipment! Ah, of course you do. Unfortunately, I cannot hand them over to you, despite my respect. Those items aren’t my property, but you should understand there is a special breed here, the Elites. You’ve faced none like us before in the conspiracy. The Elites are the culmination of many dead-ends to make something better and stronger—the ultimate warrior.”
“I’m scared,” Erik replied in a mocking tone. “I’m pissing myself.”
“Me, too.” Kant laughed.
Anne’s mouth tightened, but she kept quiet. She might as well have been a statue with a gun.
A loud clank sounded in front of them. Faint humming followed.
“Too bad we couldn’t come to some sort of accommodation,” Luca called. “But I’ve been curious to see what one of my Elites can do with such as you. Please kill them, Primul.”
Chapter Forty-Four
With a clank, a jet-black metal leg cleared the corner, followed by another, then another. Rather than an exoskeleton, a spindly six-legged metal construct turned into the hallway.
The machine was far larger than normal security bots but more compact than a King Sentry. The central body was thin, with a bulbous protrusion in the back and two large cylinders connected underneath.
Jia really hoped those didn’t turn out to be rocket launchers.
The bot carried no other obvious weapons unless someone counted its legs, but the air shimmered a couple of meters in front of the bot. Whatever that was didn’t bode well for the team’s future.
A stun field was one possibility. The bot might charge people and knock them unconscious with an area attack, but the Elite moved slowly, its legs clanking on the floor with each heavy step. Clever undercarriage attacks aside, even Erik didn’t try to take on large security bots at close range.
Once her mind was done sorting through the tactical possibilities, the Elite’s appearance surprised Jia. Given Luca’s big speech, she’d been assuming some new breed of half-Leem super-agent would run around the corner, or something more perverse—maybe a Zitark crossed with a human, a Leem, and a Hunter.
All bots, large or small, were unimpressive, nothing more than simple machines that were easy to defeat once one understood their weakness. She might not recognize the bot’s design and hadn’t studied it, but that didn’t make her more afraid.
They would not fall to this lumbering beast.
The Elite continued its advance. There was no reason to wait for the enemy to open fire. They had given Luca his chance to surrender, and his solution was to hide around the corner and send a bot after them.
He needed to understand who he was dealing with.
Jia hurled her plasma grenade as the team opened fire. Erik’s TR-7 spat fire and lead, its four barrels creating a deadly storm of rounds. They crashed into the Elite, creating a shower of sparks. A person or a normal bot would have fallen from a single burst, but the Elite continued its slow advance.
A mocking laugh sounded from the machine. The conspiracy must have paid some scientist a lot to come up with the best ways to intimidate people during an attack. Too bad it wasn’t working on Jia.
Erik’s bullets gouged a chunk out of the advancing machine, leaving damaged but not destroyed armor. Anne and Kant concentrated on different parts of the bot, their bullets created neat pockmarks but no holes.
Jia didn’t have to worry as the grenade tumbled toward the advancing Elite. The grenade struck the shimmer and exploded early with a blinding blue-white flash, scorching the walls and floor.
She squinted and switched to her rifle, ready to fire at the smoky remnants.
The Elite emerged from the smoke scorched, and cracked in a few places, but not showing any distress. It laughed again, this time louder.
“Have to admit that’s creepy,” Kant complained.
“Ignore it,” Anne snapped.
Jia ground her teeth. The Elite was tougher than she expected, but a slow machine with no weapons wasn’t a weapon. It was target practice.
Panels retracted, and rotary gun barrels extended from the Elite. Jia had been right about target practice, just not right about the targets.
The laughter got louder and rang out continuously.
“Oh, shit,” Erik offered with a grunt. “This could get annoying.”
The gun barrels roared to life, their rounds forcing the team back around the corner on both sides and shredding the wall in a shower of sparks and metal chunks. Bullets passed through, striking the walls behind them and knocking more chunks out, leaving a hole- and crack-covered mess.
Jia’s safe corner disappeared under the withering barrage, forcing her back, but the laughing machine ripped enough of the corner away to give her a new firing position.
“What does that thing have around it?” Kant asked, selecting a plasma grenade. His earlier joy had vanished from his voice. “A shield? Jia’s grenade blew up a couple of meters early.”
“Some sort of energy field, but not a shield,” Jia shouted over the endless gunfire, grateful no one had challenged her throwing accuracy. “The bullets are getting through to the armor fine. It must set off most explosives.”
“A lot of good that does us,” Anne complained as a piece of shrapnel from the wall sliced her cheek. Her head jerked back. “It’s going to take a lot more than a couple of bursts to get through that armor.”
With the Elite concentrating on perforating Jia and Anne, Erik took his chance and cleared the corner with his barrel to fire at the bulbous portion near the back. The rounds didn’t penetrate the armor, but they ripped a chunk off the top.
The Elite stopped laughing and shuffled to the side, aiming its guns at Erik’s and Kant’s side.
It started riddling that side with bullets.
“Had to piss it off,” Kant muttered as the two men jumped backward, avoiding the huge bullets ripped through the wall. Jia wouldn’t have trusted a ballistic shield to protect her against the attack, let alone their vests.
Kant stumbled but righted himself. “We either need a plan in the next minute, or we need to get our asses out of here.”
Jia finally understood what the Elite was: a terror weapon. The laughter and the slow, methodical advance. Luca wanted them to be scared. The bastard might even be using this battle as a test.
She took slow, deep breaths, ignoring the Elite as it returned to pelting her side. They couldn’t get a grenade close enough, and the field appeared to extend in a dome, meaning a good throw couldn’t save them.
Bullets, particularly AP rounds, were working, but it was like trying to hack at a tree with a pocketknife. They needed time.
Her eyes widened. “We should blow some of the ceiling onto it. Anticipate its movements so it doesn’t set the grenades off early. We might get lucky and bury the thing.”
If anyone wanted to argue, they didn’t take the offered opportunity. Jia risked a lull in the fire on her side to check around the corner, yanking her head back as the Elite blasted the edge off the corner. At the rate it was demolishing the wall, they wouldn’t have much cover left, and the teams would be too far apart for her plan to work.
The bot was advancing slower than before, but there was no sign of damage to the legs. It was almost as if it was taunting them, but it had stopped laughing. Luca must have been controlling it directly. That would make the most sense.
He could have used a laser relay system, despite the jamming.
“Bounce near the ceiling at about five meters on my zero,” Jia shouted, estimating the rough distance of the enemy based on its current ra
te of advance. She’d gone through this kind of training with Erik, but she’d never thought she’d be using it in this sort of situation.
There was no fear, only uncertainty. What human hands had built, human hands could destroy.
She wouldn’t deny she missed her exoskeleton, though.
Everyone switched their rifles into their left hands before tugging plasma grenades from their vests and priming them. They couldn’t risk exposing themselves, so they would have to rely on blind corner throws.
If Anne or Kant panicked, they could end up bouncing their grenades off too close to the opposite side and killing half the team. It was time to test everyone’s skill level and see if Alina had picked competent partners.
Heart thundering, Jia shouted her count. “Three, two, one, zero!”
The team released their grenades in unison as if they’d been working closely for years. They tossed the grenades around the corner before jumping away from the wretched remnants of what were once corners.
The thunderous roar of the Elite’s cannon and her pounding heart grew distant as seconds seemed to stretch into eternity. They had no choice. If they tried to run, half of them would be gunned down, and the other two wouldn’t make it to the exit.
When there was no choice left but victory, which made the chosen path easy. The combined explosions shook the hallway, the flash so bright it was like they were around the corner from the sun. Heavy thuds followed, and a plume of flaming debris and smoke billowed out of the corridor.
Harsh tinging ricochets followed for a couple of seconds, the rotary cannons no longer demolishing the walls near the team. Then the guns fell silent.
No one waited for orders. They reloaded, shifted their guns back over, and spun around the corner to empty their magazines into the smoke. Kant yelled the entire time, with bright eyes and a huge smile. Jia thought he was enjoying the fight too much, but better that than the opposite.
Erik’s TR-7 ran empty first. He ejected his magazine to replace it with a new one while the others finished firing. They ducked, also taking the chance to reload, unsure if they’d destroyed the Elite and killed Luca.
Desperate Measures Page 32
