by TR Cameron
He returned to stand near the door. “Ethan, Athena, do your thing.”
It took about forty-five seconds, but then alarms started to go off throughout the facility. Kimmel reported, “I’ve created fake fires in several locations and a radiation alarm in the reactor area. The hangar doors are locked down, both the ones to get into the space and the large blast doors. I don’t have access to the security systems, however.”
Athena added, “I have cameras and sensors and have located Arlox.” A map of the station popped into his display glasses, with a yellow line displaying the fastest route to their quarry. Jax snagged the fallen weapons and stuck them in the back of his belt, then re-holstered his. He couldn’t restrain a grin. “All right, everyone. Get a move on. We have a date with a very special scumbag, and we don’t want to be late.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jax caught up to his allies as they emerged from the hangar. O’Leary’s team quickly dropped the guards who waited there with stun blasts. As he climbed into his heavy armor, Athena displayed station cameras showing the station’s fast response. Several security teams were suiting up in heavy armor to deal with the crisis. He called, “Kimmel, can you lock all the doors in the facility?”
The computer expert replied, “Sure. Why?”
“Do it. Any delay we can put in these people’s path is a good thing, and we’ll route past the locked doors or have you open them when we reach them.” He conferred with O’Leary on a private channel, and they agreed it would be best for them to remain as a single group and replicate their tactics from the assault on the Intelligence Division ship. They lined up with the Special Forces troops in front and headed along Athena’s indicated path. Unlike the vessel, which had provided a straight line to the target and only a few ways to flank them, the Intelligence base’s layout seemed comparatively haphazard, almost maze-like. I wouldn’t put it past Arlox to do that deliberately.
Athena replied, “It wouldn’t be the worst strategy. Sowing confusion everywhere one can.”
Shouts of contact rang out from ahead, and Jax threw himself to the side as weapons fire came down the center of the hallway. From the sound of it, the defenders were using heavier weapons than they’d faced on the ship, which made sense. Although the risk of decompression was still present here, one would assume the walls were much thicker than the vessel’s hull, and they were deep into the interior of the facility in any case. O’Leary ordered, “Fall back,” and they complied, funneling out of the main corridor into side hallways to avoid the projectiles and energy cascading down it.
Jax inquired, “Kimmel, anything you can do with the internal systems to make their lives more difficult?”
“No. Also, now there are people in the system working against me. I can’t guarantee I can even keep the current level of lockdown that I have going.”
Athena, you have the hangar under control?
“Unless they kill the wireless network, which they likely won’t based on their people’s needs for surveillance access, absolutely.”
Good. “Gotta keep moving, Wasp.”
O’Leary growled, “Tell me something I don’t know. Let’s go with grenades.” The sound of launchers firing and canisters rolling echoed down the hallway, and a mix of knockout gas and incendiaries went off.
Sparks reported, “They’re all still up. Electrical and thermal both.”
He could envision O’Leary’s frown from the tone of her voice. “Well, of course they’d have heavy armor. Why wouldn’t they? So this will be more of a fair fight than the last one. I hate fair fights.”
Jax laughed to himself, having said the same thing on any number of occasions. He suggested, “Some of us could circle, try to hit them from the sides.”
She replied, “Except they might see you coming like they saw us. Still, I don’t have a better idea. Books, Strings, hook around from the left. Jax, take one of yours and go right. Everyone else, let’s give them some more grenades to keep them occupied.”
Transponder signals appeared on his map as colored dots that showed his allies in green and their enemies in red overlaid on a wireframe schematic of the facility. He tapped Marshall on the shoulder and led the other man to a nearby hallway, then pushed him aside and dove to the ground as a turret suddenly dropped out of the ceiling and spat rounds at them. He blasted it apart with a sustained burst of projectiles from his rifle and growled, “Kimmel, what the hell?”
Their computer expert sounded frazzled. “There’s more of them than of me. I’m working as fast as I can, but there will be gaps here and there.”
Athena, can you help him?
“I already am. However, I’m also facing pushback against my access to the cameras and other surveillance systems. We wouldn’t want to lose track of Arlox’s whereabouts.”
Good point. What’s the bastard doing?
“Hiding in the lab where he was when all this started.”
Hooray for overconfidence. I guess he thinks we won’t reach him. I can’t wait to smash that arrogance out of him. The hard part will be choosing whether to use my rifle or my baton. While Jax conferred with the AI, he led Marshall forward until they reached the corner of the hallway where the enemy troops were.
She replied, “Why not both?”
He laughed. I like the way you think. “Marshall, we go when the next attack hits. You take the left one, and I’ll take the right. Remember that thing I said about not trying to kill anyone? They’re in heavy armor, so we don’t get that option. They need to go down before they take us down.”
“Affirmative.” There was no fear in the other man’s voice, only determination.
“Wasp, we’re ready. Give us a distraction.”
“Incoming.”
When the grenades went off, Jax ordered, “Go,” stepped into the hallway and lifted his rifle. Athena gave him a target, and he sighted in on his enemy’s transparent faceplate. The defender was in profile with his back against the wall as he ducked back from the grenades. Jax squeezed the trigger, and heavy projectiles flew out at the soldier. His armor withstood the initial ones, but then he made the mistake of turning toward Jax rather than turning away. It was a natural response, but it allowed the bullets to stitch across the already weakened faceplate. He fell in a spray of red as the armor failed.
Marshall had gone for his opponent’s legs, doubtless because a headshot would be too uncertain and the chest plates were always the most well-armored spot. Again, the armor worked as it was supposed to for a few moments, but the weapons his team carried were designed to deal with their level of protection. The man went down. Jax slotted a grenade into his launcher and propelled it into the intersection, where two soldiers stood firing forward down the hallway.
The attack from the side distracted the defenders enough that O’Leary’s charge took them down, and in moments, Venn and Welker had dropped their foes as well. Their transponders allowed them to remove the helmets of the ones still alive, and Sparks injected them to ensure they wouldn’t wake up until the battle for the facility was over. O’Leary growled, “Forward, people. That took too long.”
They encountered an identical group a short while later and used the same tactics to defeat them, but again lost precious time their enemies could use to mobilize a stronger response. Jax shook his head and connected directly to O’Leary. “Wasp, this isn’t working. They have more people and firepower than we anticipated.”
“Stop telling me things I already know.”
He barked a laugh. “Just like old times, eh?”
O’Leary snorted. “Time to split up?”
He nodded. “Yeah. You maintain contact with them and fight a delaying action. Athena can do her best to ghost us in the cameras, and we’ll circle and go after Arlox.”
“You know this doesn’t have a huge chance of success, right?”
“Yeah. I get the tactical disadvantage. The chance of us maintaining secrecy for long is pretty small. But if they come after us, you can go after the ba
stard. If they come after you, we can go after the bastard. Either way, as long as someone gets him, it’s a win.”
“And if they come after both of us?
He shrugged. “At least Cia is out there to take word of our failure back to Maarsen and Stephenson. The fight will continue, I’m sure, but no longer with our involvement.”
She gave the dark laugh that was typical of Special Forces missions, the one that acknowledged courting death was a dangerous game. “Let’s do our best to avoid that outcome.”
“You got it. Good luck.”
“You too.”
He activated the channel for his team. “Athena, make sure that Kimmel has access to cameras and sensors as well. Ethan, you need to assist the Special Forces squad in navigating to their destination. Athena will guide our group.”
He offered a clipped reply. “Acknowledged.”
“Athena, we want to stay unnoticed for as long as we can. Take us along whatever route works for that.”
“On it.” She led them through a twisting and turning route that avoided many of the red dots on the map. The problem was that they were spreading out, either by design or at random, which reduced the advantage of his team’s access to the cameras and their transponders. Eventually, contact was inevitable. He was forced to stop at a T-intersection with another corridor. They needed to head to the left, but two red dots moved toward them from that direction. He asked, “Visual?”
The camera view popped into his display and showed a pair of heavily armored defenders marching down the hallway. Their gear was equal to his and superior to his team’s. He growled inwardly, wishing he’d had the foresight to make them all wear heavy armor despite the fact that it would have been counterproductive. Using such equipment required extensive training, and without it, they would bumble around like characters in an old slapstick film.
“Okay. Everyone but me tosses grenades. You’ll bounce them off the wall so you don’t have to expose yourselves. Then I’ll go out and take them down. You do not want them shooting at you. Those rifles will tear holes through your armor, then through you.”
The others nodded. Sirenno remarked, “Good plan. I like this plan. Unrelatedly, do you think Kimmel needs anyone to help him back at the ship?”
They laughed, and Jax said a small word of thanks to the universe for providing him with such strong-willed allies. He paused a moment, waiting until the angles were right, then ordered, “Throw.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
As the grenades detonated, Jax charged around the corner. The Intelligence Division troops were well-trained and confident that their armor would protect them from the incoming damage. The rifles were already coming up toward him, and his eyes widened in surprise as he saw that they looked even heavier than his. His finger tightened on the trigger automatically, but the bullets sparked off their suits without penetrating.
He growled, “What the hell,” as he dropped into a slide. His armor scraped along the facility’s plastic floor, which slowed his momentum faster than he expected. His hope had been to at least knock the legs out from underneath at least one of them since a problem with heavy armor was that if you didn’t use it on a very regular basis, getting upright when you fell was a decided challenge.
The move caused the bullets to fly over his head. He planted his feet, used his momentum to lift him back up to a crouch, then drove ahead to hammer the one on the right-hand side with his shoulder. The man dipped his rifle’s stock to block, but the impact was powerful enough to send him flying anyway. The collision stopped Jax’s forward motion, and he whipped a backfist at the opponent on his left while twisting his torso and putting all the power of his prosthetic limb into the blow. It clanged off the armored figure’s helmet, and she turned to face him with a smile.
He breathed, “Damn bloody researchers.” He leapt to his right as she pulled the trigger, and the bullets deflected from his chest armor.
Athena reported, “If those had been head-on rather than at an angle, they would’ve penetrated.”
“Of course they would have,” he cursed. On his right, the other one was struggling to regain his feet. Jax dashed to him and yanked at his arm while twisting his own body in such a way that the other man lost his balance and stumbled. Jax propelled him toward the woman, then lifted his rifle and aimed it. Right before he pulled the trigger, he saw the damage her shots had inflicted and realized it was too dangerous to use.
He hit the quick release on the weapon’s strap and threw the gun at the two figures. She’d reflexively fired a couple of rounds at her partner as he careened toward her, but now they were both up and facing Jax. He charged the duo, slammed into them, and knocked them both into the wall. He grabbed the woman’s weapon and ripped at it, and her strap broke. He hurled the rifle down the hall.
Going for his sidearms wasn’t a valid option since unless he breached their armor, the weapons wouldn’t be strong enough to have an effect. He thought, Here goes nothing, and formed a spearpoint with the fingers of his right hand, pushing the digits against each other to create as small an area of impact as possible. He stepped forward, twisted his hips, and drove it at the woman’s faceplate.
Although almost everyone used transparent panels for the front of their helmets, in case they lost internal displays, the practice came with a trade-off. The material was inherently weaker than other armor plate options. The cold rush of adrenaline had filled him at the start of the move, Athena’s contribution to the attack, and his pointed fingers pierced the faceplate, cracked it, and caused a piece to fall away. He re-chambered the arm and punched a fist into the gap he’d created, widening it enough that the barrel of the stun pistol he lifted in his left hand could fit.
He pulled the trigger and enough electricity transferred to the woman that her eyebrows stood on end before she fell. The man behind her fired, and Jax felt the rounds penetrate his suit and deflect from his left arm as he twisted out of the way. One slammed off his helmet and made his ears ring, but he dove forward into a roll and grabbed the sharp-edged fragment that had fallen from the woman’s faceplate in his metal hand.
He popped up and jammed it directly at the man’s eyes. His foe backpedaled, reflexively afraid of the sharp and pointy thing being thrust at his face, and Jax used the distance to deliver a kick that sent his foe sprawling. He ran toward the man and leapt into the air before he could recover, landing with his armored knees on his foe’s chest plate. It crumpled, and the man lifted his arms in surrender as Jax rose to pummel him again. Jax motioned at his helmet, and the other man removed it. Verrand pressed a syringe against the side of his neck and pushed the plunger. Jax gave her a quizzical look, and she shrugged. “Borrowed some from Sparks.”
He nodded. “Good work.” Athena, am I compromised?
The AI snorted. “Only mentally. But your suit probably won’t take too many more direct shots in the chest before it lets one through. Also, more blows to your left arm could render it unusable. The metal is tough, but not indestructible.”
Add convincing Juno to create indestructible arms for me to our to-do list, please.
“Noted.”
He checked his display, which indicated they needed to move out. Another pair of red dots headed in their direction from behind. “Come on people, let’s hustle.”
He kept an eye on the green dots that represented the Special Forces team, gratified to see that they stayed more or less in motion, although more attention was being paid to them by the red dots than to his team. Good work keeping them off us, Athena.
“I’ve created images of you in the system all over the base. They haven’t yet figured out that they’re duplicates and are sending teams to check them out. It won’t last.”
Kimmel blurted, “Damn, I lost connection to the security overrides. Be careful. I’ll get them back,” he promised.
What does that mean for us, Athena?
“Nothing at the moment. Keep moving.”
Jax complied and grew increasingly h
opeful as they neared the yellow-outlined lab that was their primary objective. Arlox still inside?
“Yes. Him, some other people, and some aliens.”
Fighters?
“Doesn’t look like it. More like politicians.”
He grinned. Excellent. When they rounded the next corner, an intense wash of fire flowed over his helmet. He shouted a warning and ducked back into the previous corridor. “What the hell was that?”
Athena replied, “Security robot. Doesn’t have a transponder, and the security cameras are apparently programmed not to notice them.”
“Any suggestions?”
“Retreat is out of the question, so I guess you have to fight it.”
Jax sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.” He turned to Sirenno. “Give me your rifle.” The other man complied. “I’ll go out and grab its attention. You all do what you can and try your best not to hit me. I should be able to take a few shots, but eventually you’ll chew through even my armor.” They nodded. “Okay, here we go.”
He charged around the corner, this time prepared for the wash of fire that came at him. His suit was adequate to it, and Athena switched his display to electrical and fine-tuned it so he could see his opponent’s shape through the flames. It was a tall cylinder with four arms, each of which ended in a fork. The upper tine contained the barrel of a weapon, and the lower one a wicked-looking spike. It had four legs. He’d seen similar setups before and knew it would probably scuttle like a spider. Fighting spikes appeared to have been added to the bottom appendages as well.
In place of a head, it had a series of gun barrels arrayed in a circle. It was an amalgam of two designs he’d seen before. The bottom half minus the spikes was for street patrols in occupied areas, and the four arms and rotating skull were from a frontline combat droid model rendered obsolete by heavier armor. However, he imagined the Intelligence Division researchers had found a way around that problem.
