The Sentinel: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Hunter's Moon Book 3)

by Walt Robillard

  “The whispers.” Norris was playing the part of the chemist who’d found the lost ingredient to a formula. “Your new Dreadmarr palls used me to trace my communications back to the control center so they could take it out. OK. I guess I’ll to have to do this the hard way.”

  He yanked his rifle from the debris, leveling two shots at the Doom Cat. Vai was close by, easily pulling the bolts in the Crucible to strike away from anyone. Undeterred by the brutish Justicar, Norris charged toward the doors.

  Twin blaster cannons emerged from over Doom-Snuggle’s shoulder, auto-tracking the escaping agent. Offset pulses flew to target, striking him in the back. The bolts rended Norris' shoulder free from his body along flaming craters in his upper torso. The cat gloated at his precision shooting with so big a weapon. “Someone should have told him that when you run, you just get tired and shot!”

  Marshal Truveau hovered over the smoking corpse, her Requiem rifle leading the way. The matte black surface seemed to draw in the light, making it hard to focus on the intricate parts of the weapon. Her HUD soaked in all the targeting data from the holo optics sighting down the barrel. “Nice holes, Fluff. Should I hit him with another dose?”

  “Come on, Marshal. That’s some quality shooting. He’s dead or my name’s not Fluffang Doom-Snuggle!”

  Lasher had been staring at Norris during the exchange. Without shifting his gaze, he called over to Kat. “You have him locked?”

  “I’m there.”

  Tolin burst through the silence in the lab, giving everyone a start. “Guys, I don’t mean to be pushy, but we’re tracking a horde of reinforcements that just hit the ice pack above you.”

  Kat continued to work the spectral globe hovering between her hands. Each rotation or placement of fragmented pieces floating into view seemed to make the globe smaller. “Lasher. We have incoming.”

  “All right, we should...”

  A tangle of excited panther mech collided with Lasher like an avalanche smashing a chalet. The duo rolled across the floor, coming to rest under a smattering of lab debris. “My human! I mean, my half-breed, human-Vosi-hybrid with violent tendencies to match my own!”

  Lasher couldn’t stop laughing. “I told you we’d be together soon.”

  “Twin Hells! I have so much to tell you.” Fluff roared with fiendish delight. “After you left, Kel died, and we teamed up with Madame Tarot! Her bots are fun but for some reason she snores. I wasn’t aware that Dreadmarr did that. We’ve mostly buried the hatchet over the whole Striker Main thing. Then she took me to Robot Shangri-La, where we got us all some serious upgrades! Did I mention she snores. Ooo! We totally went on a thug hunt!”

  “Fluff! We’ll catch up in a bit. We have incoming,” Lasher said.

  “Right! Here, take this! It’s murder time!”

  Lasher took the duffle bag Fluff slammed him with. He pulled armor and his gun belt from the sack, tossing an object over to the Vosi. “Were you the voice in my head?”

  The Justicar looked at the handle, like a toy in his hand. “Kosha mal hissiome’?”

  “Grip the handle,” Lasher replied.

  His massive hand squeezed into the guard of Lasher’s Gavoc sword. The handle chimed, the sound reminding the Templars in the room of wind swept instruments hanging in the Athalon's gardens. The guard opened, giving the handle room to screw along its length, broadening the base and depth of the weapon. It finished its cycle, locking into a form more suitable for the immense warrior.

  “Kadroma’s Hammer?” Vai said in awe.

  Lasher held up his Plasmaxe. “My mother wanted me to have weapons I could grow with while retaining a link to both sides of my heritage. The tomahawk, a link to my mother’s people and my time as a gladiator. The Gavoc sword, a tie to a father and people I barely knew.”

  “I will return it to you in good order except for the stains.”

  “Ew. stains?” the Doom Cat called back.

  Lasher made a slashing motion across his neck. “Blood of his enemies.”

  A thumbs up hovered next to Fluff’s mayhem soaked grin. “I'm okay with that.”

  Lasher joined Kat next to the other warrior. He placed a hand on his armor, hammer fisting the plate, finally drawing the smaller man into a hug.

  “Can't fight if I can't breathe,” came the warrior’s retort.

  “I heard you were dead,” Lasher said.

  The helmet came away with a jerk, dropping the armored visor to reveal a close-cropped beard and hair that had spent much too long under a helmet. “Didn't take.”

  Kat joined the two for a quick hug. “I love you both but could you table the bromance for another time? We literally have angry people who want to shoot us and retrieve him, coming around that corner at any moment.”

  Kel Durado, former crime lord and corpse, returned the brotherly tap to his friend. He slammed his lid back in place, making for the hallway. “Madame Tarot! You have anyone left who can shoot?”

  “Drop shields and drones going in place, now. That platform is too small for the Baby Doll to come get us, so we're going to have to climb or swim,” Tarot said.

  “Climb. What're we doing with that?” Kel asked, pointing to Norris.

  The panther mech kicked the corpse. “Burn it to ash.”

  Kat reconstructed her holo interface. “Let me make one more pass to make sure that his consciousness dies with the body.”

  Twenty-Two

  “Oh, no! No one ever wants to listen to what I have to say! Tone down the violence, Fluff. Stop playing with your food, Fluff. Don't set it on fire, Fluff!”

  “We get it, murder mouth! You wanted to burn the body before something happened. Well, something happened and now we deal with it!” Kel shouted back. The sextet was on the move, fighting through a myriad of hallways while chasing down an errant K-900 that had turned tail to run at the first sight of them. Norris had triggered some sort of self-destruct of his body, which signaled one of the incoming bots. Kat suggested that the K-900 was making its escape to broadcast the record of events to a remote facility for when the agent's preserved consciousness came back online. He would know everything that happened and take immediate precautions against them.

  Lasher's team, with the addition of Mara and Vai, chased the escapee through the facility while Tarot and the Cards Arkana fought off the bulk of the reinforcements, eventually making the climb to the surface. Every few twists the bot took, they'd encountered a mass of resistance, forcing them to fight through, demanding they pour on the speed to catch up. To his credit, Vai had meshed seamlessly with the crew, using his advanced knowledge of the Crucible and the Way to burn through enemy troops.

  “I think it's heading for the Control station,” Kat said.

  Although there was a Dreadmarr team on site that had infiltrated the control center, the mystics in the group all agreed that something was off.

  Lasher drove his Plasmaxe through an oncoming Doberman, punching it into the floor. Fluff followed his lead, tossing the broken bot at a gaggle of K-900s rushing them. Kat and Kel worked with the Crucible wielders to put bolts on target until the threat had passed.

  “Man! We could have used all this space magic back on Tythian!” Kel cheered.

  “Focus!” Kat roared back, nudging him out of the way of a stray bolt, looking to make room at the top of his shoulders.

  The group came to an atrium that spanned the height of the facility. The K-900 was climbing the wall to get to the upper level heading for the Control Center. Interrupting their view, a gigantic bot slammed on one of the crossbeams radiating across the open space. Its armor resembled an ancient knight from Old Sol, with junctures in the armor tight enough to make it appear like skin. A horn swept back from its helmet, dominating the top of its head above two glowing green eyes in a black slit visor.

  “Uh oh,” Fluff blurted.

  “What oh? That? Just shoot it,” Kel said.

  “Ah, Grandad's mad. Everyone run!”

  The bot rolled backwards along
the beam, shifting plates to alter its shape as rods redirected its bulk into a slender profile. Hands and feet shifted to infantry crushing talons that took hold of its perch. The helmet lengthened into the face of a monster, complete with teeth any Doom Cat would envy. It spread its jaws, sending a snapping bolt of lighting that tore across the wall, ripping up the cover the crew had ducked behind.

  Kel primed a grenade into his M-721 carbine. “What the Hells is that?”

  “RIM-I. Drakenmech,” Fluff said as if he'd just been shown up by a rival.

  Vai stood, priming the Gavoc sword in front of him. “Get the other robot. I'll keep this busy.”

  Fluff flanked the mech under a covered banister. “You ever fight one of these?”

  “Ten were made, deployed into the Frontier. I've killed four of them. Mara! Follow!” He charged.

  The Vosi Justiciare spun as he advanced in preparation for twin auto cannons flaring to life on this new threat. The kite tail blade extended to flare around him, drawing in the bolts as though they were debris caught in a hurricane. He struck with the energized whip, the trapped bolts exploding along the RIM-I's surface. The whip cord retracted in an instant before the handle energized. Vai punched the mech square in the chest, knocking it into the far wall. Mara sprinted along the beam when the two combatants hit the other side. Thrusting her hands forward, she pushed the power of the Crucible across the expanse, slamming them through the structure. They tumbled out of sight, but not out of earshot as the sounds of the warrior gods filled the chamber as they fought to see who would win the right to use the title.

  “Okay then,” Fluff said nonchalantly. “Orin! Slingshot!”

  Lasher jumped into the expanse toward the panther mech. Fluff snatched him out of the air with a tendril, bracing himself against the heavy stone banister. The panther mech shot him over the enormous chasm of the atrium, landing him against the wall right next to the fugitive bot. The mongrel used his Plasmaxe to sever its head, gripping it in his other hand like a murderball player. Both fell away from the surface as gravity demanded they obey the laws of physics.

  “Gotcha!” Mara yelled as she strained in the Way. Invisible fingers of force played along the lanky jumper, guiding him back to the crossbeam with her. The two made their way over to the fracture in the other side of the building. They met Vai coming out with the Drakenmech's head held by the horn. The red brute was smoking from several gashes in his skin.

  “You good?” Lasher asked.

  Lasher’s only answer was to smile, exposing the wicked canines indicative of his people as he tossed the RIM-I's head from the balcony.

  The Assault Shuttle, Baby Doll, pulled a frantic climb away from the atmosphere, leaving the Halikos Moon for the black. Once Doll had the ship safely into hyperspace, Tolin and Yuzheff came aft to greet their lost friend. Tolin hoisted Lasher into the air in a bone-crushing hug that would have ended a typical human. Orin returned it by hoisting the enormous simian in turn.

  “You had us worried, little man,” Tollin said.

  “Who’re you calling little?” Lasher said, patting his friend on the back. “Alright, Kat. We have a hot minute before we hit Tythian airspace. How bad is it?”

  “Could be worse,” Kat offered.

  Fluff pushed his way in between them. “Wait! I have to be the one to tell the story!”

  Kel pulled on Fluff’s ear. “No, no, no. Every time you tell a story, we end up having to tell it a second time to decode it to whoever you tell.”

  “I am a master orator. You wound me, sir!”

  Kel shook his head. “You’re a master at getting people to run in terror, especially when you’re telling a story!”

  “I’ll be right back, friend,” Fluff said to Lasher. He tackled Kel to the deck, the Doom Cat allowing the former gangster to flip him over, making a show of being accosted.

  “We work with children,” Kat said, rolling her eyes.

  Lasher appeared happy. He always seemed most content when it was just them, taking some time to just be a family. “Beside that, where do we stand?”

  Kat moved away from the tussle, trying not to look amused. “After you left, we were forced to go on the offensive against the cartel. Kenner, taken over by an Exile Noble, managed to slither his way back to Tythian. Our plan was to do enough damage to ut him out, or at least get him to make a mistake that would make him easy to find.”

  “Thug hunt!” Fluff interrupted. “Ahem, I didn't have any fun while you were gone.”

  “I missed you too, Fluff.” He patted the upside down mech on the chin.

  Kat continued. “Our best bet to get you back, or at least make contact with you was to nab Kenner. He knew where the Gun Wraith was taking you, so we started leaning heavy on the other cartel seats so they'd reach out. It sparked an all out war inside the Cartel. Kel used his connections to broker a meeting with the top three captains, and we devised a plan to force out the Seven Seats in return for something more manageable.”

  “Is that the way you sold it to them?” Lasher asked.

  “Fluff helped.”

  The mech stretched, his cyber-strand muscle coils creaking from the effort. “I was pretty vital, wasn't I?”

  Lasher's eyebrow went up in feigned surprise. “He threatened to eat them if they didn't cooperate?”

  Mock indignation dripped from the panther-mech. “I would never. I told them that anyone against us was racist. And since I like the taste of that particular flavor of meat bag, that's when I threatened to eat them if they didn't cooperate!”

  Lasher's smirk told present company he wasn't at all surprised. “No more online forums for you. It's tough enough that you're homicidal, we don't need you political, too.”

  Fluff paw pumped the air. “Power to the people, my brother.”

  “Ugh. Kat?” Lasher said, pleading for her to continue.

  She was covering her mouth, unable to hide that her shoulders were bouncing from the laughter she was trying to contain.

  The Doom Cat rolled back into Lasher's lap. “I didn't have any fun while you were gone.”

  Kat raised her voice a bit to butt into the conversation. “Anyway, we got the top three Cartel seats and showed how Kenner's use of their network was actually hurting business. We detailed his plan to them and they were quick to jump on board. They call themselves the Triple Crowns, Three Kings, or Viper Kings depending on what branch you talk to. We got the Torres, Sokolov, and the remnant of the Chen cartels to form their own group. After that it was just convincing everyone else the Kings were a better option.”

  “I helped,” Fluff added.

  “Yeah, I really had an easy time convincing the new Chen to join us after you hung him from a roof,” Kat said, sarcastically.

  “At least I didn't drop him. Hey, after we get revenge for my friend, Lasher, can we do more gang wars?”

  “Sure, Fluff. But let's give Tythian a minute to breathe. We can pick a new planet to terrorize,” Lasher said, patting him on the chest.

  Kat continued. “It's not like there's much to hunt anymore now that the Kings or Crowns or whatever they're calling themselves this week have control. Although control is a loose term. After we upended the criminal underworld in Kabran City, Kenner went missing. Things became problematic after that. Two tribes that had been enemies for centuries, suddenly buried the hatchet, and went on a terror spree in the city. The place descended into full-blown civil war when the local tribes squared off with human colonists representing off-world companies. The fighting was ferocious, with the humans being overwhelmed by the tribes. No one thought to ask any questions about how hardened security with robot support could get smacked down by locals using bows and arrows. They just sent in the heavies. Big merc companies made landfall not too long after that, bringing the fighting from brutal to barbaric. The mercs eventually withdrew into the city center, leaving everything outside of the green zone to the locals.”

  Lasher had stopped patting his friend. “How many dead?”

/>   “Too many.,” Kat said. “The colonial cities were quick to take up mercenary aid from the CORAL to protect their holdings. There was dead on both sides, even though it should've been an easy fight for the contractors. We have no doubt that Kenner's swarm-tech allowed the Tyth to even the odds. Now we have divisions of troops calling Tythian home until the corporations get what they want. It's not just the ones that were already here. Big pharma corps stepped in to stake claims on all sorts of things around the planet. Jasido International even hit the jungles next to our old stomping ground to mine it. More claims are coming in everyday. If they have their way, they'll strip the planet down to its bones. The funny thing is, about that time, we started getting strike packages telling us where to hit to control the spread of the violence. A Tyth target here, colonial there. It was crazy.”

  Kel sat next to Lasher and Fluff on the deck. “You wouldn't know anything about that?”

  Lasher let a hint of a smile touch a corner of his mouth. “There are old forces sleeping on Tythian that woke up when we first got together. They have a vested interest in seeing us succeed, so they pushed power to me through the Crucible when I was a prisoner. Despite Koda's best efforts, I used that power to invade the minds of those around me, siphoning information I could send back through the same link. Field Commander Hylaeus was my anchor on Tythian.”

  It was Mara's turn to interrupt. “Is that where he's been all this time? Hiding on Tythian so he could hand out the info you were feeding him?”

  Lasher pointed to her, verifying her guess. “Intel to show the connection between Kenner, Norris, and Haas. Norris' plan to create upheaval so the merc companies could benefit, opening up inroads to plunder Tythian's resources. They sold the Swarm-Tech to those same companies to create a 'Tyth problem.' Because I was being so tightly scrutinized by the three patriarchs, I had access to all of them through the Crucible. Hylaeus would receive the info from me so he could process it into action plans for the San Verone monks, the Athalon, and you. The only thing I couldn't find was my exact location on Halikos.”