One of the guards near them had just turned a corner and was no longer in sight of his colleagues. Ryonna grabbed him from behind and broke his neck as silently as she could. She made no noise laying his lifeless body on the floor.
Nice kill, said Alix mentally.
“Go secure the elevator. I’m right behind you.”
Alix moved fast, but when he reached the middle of the lobby, something went wrong. He was struck by a couple of lightning bolts, revealing his position. Alarms wailed almost instantly and all hell broke loose.
“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” came out of the speaker system of the lobby.
Holes appeared in the walls in all four corners of the lobby and laser-guided blaster turrets started firing at Alix. He jumped out of the way as he activated the super-speed feature of his suit. His cloak had been temporarily disabled by the security feature that had struck him with lightning. His armor still showed a ninety percent power level. He jumped and, while in midair, grabbed his MR-227 blaster rifle, shot one grenade towards the nearest turret, which promptly exploded.
“So much for a stealthy entrance!” he shouted.
Ryonna was already on the move. She threw a pair of flash bangs towards each side of the lobby. When they exploded, the guards in range were blinded and disoriented. She wielded both blasters and fired at her first two targets. The commotion from the flash bang made it difficult to aim precisely, so she activated the homing feature and locked onto her targets. The next shots hit them in the face, and they were dead before their heads hit the marble floor, accompanied by the satisfying sound of skulls cracking.
Three shots from a nearby turret hit her armor and it shone blue, revealing her position. She went evasive and slid along the floor, locking onto the nearest turret and unleashing a flurry of blaster shots; but its shields were too strong for the blasters to do much damage. She used an explosive charge in each blaster, in the middle of the normal firing sequence, and the shields blinked just enough to let the next few laser blasts through to destroy the turret.
On the other side of the room, Alix dispatched one of the temporarily disabled guards with a perfectly thrown morning star that severed the guard’s carotid artery. The other two guards had started shooting blindly with their blasters, and one of the shots finished off the guard whose blood had already spilled all around him. A few more shots grazed Alix and illuminated his armor slightly. He skidded on the marble floor, approaching the nearest guard still frantically shooting in his general direction, and exploded the guard’s kneecap with a kick.
The guard screamed in agony, but Ryonna instinctively silenced him with a well-placed headshot that blew most of his brains out of the side of his head.
“Get the last two turrets,” said Ryonna. “I’ll finish the guards.”
“Roger that.”
Alix activated both super speed and friction control the moment he jumped towards the nearest wall. In a fluid motion he ran along the wall leading him towards his next target, the north-east corner turret that had acquired him as a target and was now shooting a flurry of blaster fire his way. His armor took many hits, but he was fast enough, and as he shot past the turret, he stuck a mine on it, just before jumping to the adjacent wall, already running towards the last turret. He detonated the mine, which disabled the turret’s shield, but it kept firing at him. His HUD registered the shield’s power at twenty percent, so he somersaulted away from the wall, turned in midair, aimed at it with his rifle and finished the turret with a precise, full-power blaster shot. Sparks flew from where the turret stood.
Ryonna received a volley of fire from the last turret as she approached her next targets. One guard was in front of her, and two approached from the sides. She swapped weapons, using her own blaster set in lasso mode, to shoot at the incoming guard’s feet. He stumbled and skidded on the marble. Ryonna grabbed him and used him as a human shield against the incoming turret fire.
“I need that last turret down!” she said.
“On it,” answered Alix, who used the grenade launcher from his rifle to dispatch it.
When the turret was destroyed, Ryonna threw the blasted, hole-ridden body of the guard towards the nearest incoming foe, but not before snatching his access card. The dead guard slowed the incoming guard’s momentum. He had to dodge the dead body coming his way. Ryonna performed a reverse, circling kick that sent the guard’s weapon flying high in the air. He went for his service blaster, but Ryonna cut him in half in a fluid motion as she drew her thin blade from her back scabbard. The top half of the guard fell to the floor and blood pooled around it. The guard’s legs and part of his trunk remained upright, which really looked odd.
The distraction cost Ryonna half a second she didn’t have, which she realized soon enough when the last guard cocked his blaster towards her helmet. But before he could fire, he was kicked in the torso by Alix, who sent him flying. Both Ryonna and Alix lined up their blasters and tore one hole after another in him. He was long dead before his body hit the ground, smoke rising from his multiple, deadly wounds.
“Guys!” said Jonas on the communication channel.
“What is it?”
“Hurry up. The next security team will be there momentarily. Your triggering of the alarms has diverted a lot of patrols in the area. In a few minutes you’ll be surrounded by more forces than you can possibly engage. There’s also a heavy transport inbound for the building’s roof. It’s been sent to evac Atrak. There’s a full platoon onboard. You have to hurry before he gets to the roof.”
“Can you do something to delay the arrival of the transport and other reinforcements?”
“I can, but I won’t be able to buy you more than a few minutes. You really must hurry!”
“That’s fine. Every second counts. See if you can shut these damn alarms off as well.”
“Done,” said Jonas as the wailing stopped. “Hacking the transport now. Crap! They’re trying to jam my sig—”
The communication ended.
“Jonas! Jonas come in?”
Ryonna looked at Alix. “Perhaps you should go now, while you still can.”
“You may still need my help with Atrak. I’m staying put.”
“Alix!”
“The more we argue about it the less time we have.”
They ran towards the elevator but its doors split open before they reached it. It revealed a glistening, metal mech with a soldier at the controls. He started firing the second he saw them. Intense blaster fire shot between them. They had the same idea and jumped to the walls at each side.
“Cloak now and get to the seventieth floor, Ryonna. I’ll distract this thing so you can accomplish your goal. I’ll join you when it’s turned into scrap metal.”
She activated her cloak and the mech’s aggro was turned towards Alix, still running on the wall. He jumped to the ceiling and ran by boosting the friction control settings to maximum, as well as magnetizing his boots to lock onto the nearest metallic structure between floors.
“Thank you, Alix, be careful.”
“You too. Atrak might still have forces or other nasty surprises waiting for you upstairs, so stay sharp.”
Ryonna shot like an arrow inside the elevator and pressed the button to the seventieth floor on the touch panel, but it blinked red. She took the swipe card she had acquired earlier and placed it on the touch panel. It flashed green and the elevator doors closed. The last thing she saw was Alix jumping from the ceiling back to the floor and retreating from the intensifying fire from the mech.
Alix found it more and more difficult to avoid the mech’s fire. Whatever evading trajectory he chose was quickly anticipated by the armored man. A heavy blast passed his head and exploded into the wall nearby, reminding him that he really needed to stay focused if he was to survive this fight. Failure was not an option. Ryonna might need backup to finish her mission. She was so close now, so close to her objective, to get the chance to save her son. Alix knew his own little quest for redemption was mis
placed, but it gave him something to believe in, a mission that mattered to someone; something to accomplish that actually had a meaning other than a big paycheck.
When the next blaster shot struck his back and disabled his armor’s shields, he was thrown off balance and stumbled. When he turned around he saw the mech jump, on its way to landing on him.
Trying to crush me like a bug? I don’t think so!
Alix activated his cloak, dropped a live grenade and rolled to the side in the nick of time. He activated his super-speed feature and ran away just as the concussion grenade exploded, engulfing the mech in flames. Alix then took his MR-227 blaster rifle, shot two more grenades at the fiery mech, and quickly swiped its color-coded band twice. The blaster morphed into a mounted cannon turret. Alix fired one powerful laser blast after another towards the fiery inferno. After almost a minute of intense firing, and seeing that the blaster’s power pack was almost depleted, he stopped firing.
Flames still burned, and he could see metallic shapes here and there, but he didn’t know what state the mech was in. Not taking any chances he threw two smart mines on either side of the hall and ran the other way, back towards the elevator as his cloak ran out of juice.
The flames died down but there was still a lot of smoke, and Alix still couldn’t get a visual to confirm whether or not his foe had been neutralized. But then the mech emerged from the smoke and started firing at him. He ducked to avoid the incoming fire and detonated the smart mines the moment the mech was in range. Its shields were still up. His own shields, however, were slowly recharging and barely ten percent operational. Those weren’t odds he liked. An idea struck him.
He swiped the weapon back to an assault rifle, ejected the power pack and replaced it with a spare, but not before putting the pack into a feedback loop. The weapon was getting hot, so he ran towards the mech, who had just recovered from the exploding mines and resumed firing at Alix, one salvo of blaster after another. Alix jumped from one wall to the other, then to the ceiling, and when he was above the mech, who had destroyed half the hall, trying in vain to kill him, he dropped down and lodged the rifle, that was now red hot, between the mech’s shoulder plating.
He then pushed with all his might and flew to the side, grabbing a hand-size blaster and locking onto the rifle with his HUD. He crashed unceremoniously to the ground a few yards away and heard the mech turning around to reacquire him. Alix took careful aim.
“Goodbye, asshole!”
He squeezed the trigger of his blaster and a flurry of lasers hit the rifle, still locked into the mech’s plating, promptly exploding the rifle. The resulting detonation severed the mech’s arm, and he was thrown into the opposite wall. Lights flickered, and water shot from broken pipes. Soon the hall was plunged into darkness.
Alix switched to night vision. The mech had crashed through the men’s room. It seemed disabled. He zoomed in for a better look at the pilot. His eyes were closed. With no time to lose, he ran back towards the elevator past the hole the mech had crashed through. When he arrived at the elevator, he heard a mechanical noise. When he turned around to check the hall, he didn’t see anything, but then a giant hand punched through the wall a few inches past his head.
“Dammit! What do I have to do to kill this thing?”
Then he saw multiple vehicles approaching the building.
“I don’t have time for this shit!”
The damaged mech emerged from the hole it had just punched through the wall and positioned itself in front of Alix. The pilot was bleeding, and the glass protecting him was cracked. Determined to end this fight, Alix took two morning stars and locked his targeting system on the pilot. He threw the first morning star, which exploded the protective glass separating the pilot from the outside world. The pilot’s reaction was immediate. He swung his mech’s only remaining arm like a hammer, trying to smash Alix. Alix jumped backwards and dodged the attack. The fist broke through the marble floor and became stuck there. Before it could release itself, Alix locked onto the hydraulic cables showing atop the mech’s shoulder. The morning star sliced through with diabolical precision and the pilot lost control of the arm. He looked at Alix with fear.
“I’ve wasted enough time with you,” said Alix, as he ran atop the disabled arm. The pilot grabbed his side arm and started shooting at Alix. The shields of Alix’s body armor had recharged enough by now. When he was at shoulder level and out of reach of the pilot’s blaster, Alix took a light-blade from his belt and back flipped in the air to face the pilot. He raised his blaster but Alix was faster. In a fluid motion he activated the bright-white light-blade and sliced through the mech’s plating, as well as the pilot himself. When Alix landed on the floor, one knee on the ground, he turned the light-blade off. Drops of blood hit the floor in front of him, soon mixed with oil and fuel.
Alix turned to see a dozen armored security forces approaching the building’s entrance. They were armed to the teeth.
“I think we’ve overextended our welcome.”
At the elevator he used his light-blade to seal the doors together, trying to buy Ryonna as much time as possible. By the time the security forces had stormed through the hall, Alix was already climbing stairs three at a time, pushing the super-speed feature of his smart armor to the maximum.
Chapter 12
When Ryonna was near the seventieth floor she received an incoming transmission.
“Ryonna, do you hear me?”
“I hear you, Jonas. Glad to hear your voice.”
“Yeah, they jammed our communications channel. It took a while to pinpoint the source of the jamming, but it’s been taken care of. There are two guards waiting for you by the elevator.”
“Thanks, Jonas.”
“You must hurry. I managed to deviate the incoming transport, but they regained manual control of the craft. They’re back on course and will reach the roof in less than five minutes.”
“Roger that.”
When the elevator’s door opened, Ryonna was already cloaked and crouched against the ceiling of the elevator, thanks to the magnetic feature of the smart armor. Multiple laser fire impacted the back wall of the elevator. When the firing stopped, she heard footsteps approach. She had her blade in her hands, ready to slice through whomever came looking. One guard made the fatal mistake of peeking inside the elevator. Ryonna swung her blade and decapitated the guard. His head fell to the elevator’s floor and blood sprayed all over the elevator’s cage.
Heavy laser fire resumed. She was still cloaked and on the elevator’s ceiling, waiting for the next wave of fire to stop. That’s when she heard metallic clunks and saw two concussive grenades roll inside the elevator’s cage. She unlocked her magnetic lock and landed on the floor. She ran in super-speed mode but wasn’t fast enough to get out of range of the grenades. Most of the blast was absorbed by her armor’s shield, but she was thrown to the ground and lost both shields and cloaking ability in the process.
She jumped back up just in time to see the end of the second guard’s blaster in her field of view. Her reaction was immediate. She grabbed the blaster, but not before it fired one shot at her shoulder. Fortunately, the armor took the brunt of the damage and soon the guard was disarmed. She lost no time breaking the guard’s arm, kicked his leg to drop him to his knees and, in a fluid motion, she broke his neck. He fell like a log to the carpeted floor.
Then she saw him. Sector Atrak had opened the door at the end of the hall, but when he saw her execution of the guard he closed the door immediately. The blinking holographic HUD inside her helmet told her one thing: the armor was badly damaged, and she wouldn’t be able to rely on it much anymore, at least until its auto-repair systems kicked in. She ran towards the door and punched through it as if it was made of cardboard.
At first she didn’t see Sector Atrak. She turned around in time to see him wave a light-blade at her neck. She grabbed his hand in midair, punched his wrist and he dropped the light-blade. She punched him square in the face, but he was wearing
a personal shield and a jolt of electricity ran through her body, paralyzing her for a second. The armor had again protected her from most of it.
Atrak went for the light-blade but she kicked it to the other side of the office. The look in his eyes confirmed that he didn’t expect her to be able to move so fast. She grabbed a small, wooden table and smashed it into his torso. He lost balance and fell on his ass. She took out her blaster, set it to maximum firepower and shot him three times. His personal shields held and he was already back up and running towards his large, ebony desk. He jumped and slid across its surface to land behind cover as Ryonna kept firing at him.
“Who the fuck are you? Do you have any idea who I am?” shouted Atrak from behind his desk.
“You’re a dead man! That’s who you are.”
“Look, it’s obvious you want me dead, but I think you’re making a mistake. I haven’t done anything to you.”
Ryonna felt a sting in her heart when she heard the words. Nothing? You killed the man I loved more than anything in this universe. She paused her firing for just a second, but that was one second too many. A green, cylindrical force field trapped her in place. It exerted a strong magnetic field that made it almost impossible to move a muscle.
Atrak rose from his cowardly cover, sat at his desk and typed some commands onto his holographic computer screen.
“You’re done, whoever you are. My forces will be here shortly, and you’ll be sent to the worst jail there is, a dark hole in space from which there is no escape.”
Ryonna couldn’t help smiling. Even if she didn’t kill Atrak today, she had still succeeded in her main objective.
Jonas, do you hear me? she thought, hoping her armor’s communications tech was still working.
“I hear you and I see you as well. I’m working to remove that force field, but whatever personal security this guy has in his office is protected by multiple adaptive firewalls with incredibly strong encryption. You need to keep him talking until I find a vulnerability.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 42
