by TR Cameron
The barrels on top spun and spat projectiles at him. Jax raised his arms in front of him to shield his face and felt himself slow from the sheer force of the impacts. Jolt me, Athena. Everything you’ve got. He spent the additional energy in a burst of speed that delivered him to the robot, then lifted his rifle and stuck it where the join between the top weapon and the cylinder should have been.
It turned out to be seamless, not even enough of a gap for him to get the rifle barrel into it. The torso cylinder spun and one of the arms whipped around to strike him, throwing him into the corridor wall. A leg snapped up, and he blocked it with a downward punch. Electricity coursed over his suit as the thing used another arm to attack him, and a small gauge in his display showed how long he had until his absorption ran out.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all that much more powerful than a standard stun weapon. The thing’s algorithm probably suggested it would be the most effective choice if his suit was compromised, and thus worth testing. Oops. Stupid robot is stupid. He shuffled close to its torso while using his armored shins to block the strikes from its legs and staying under the barrels that whirred over his head. Its torso spun, and he moved around with it by grabbing the arms to keep himself in place. When he faced back toward his team, he planted his feet and yelled, “Now.”
Weapons appeared around the corner at three heights and fired a stream of energy at the robot. Simultaneously, he chopped the edge of his right hand in at the spot where the arm connected to the cylinder. It gave slightly, and he pounded it several more times until it finally broke off. He stabbed his hand directly forward into the stump and knocked it back into the robot, which created a hole. He lost control of the other arm during the process, and shouted in pain as a spike pierced the armor on his left shoulder from behind and came out the front, pinning him to his metallic opponent.
Jax knew its next action would be to tear him off and toss him away so it could shoot him with the spinning barrels on its head. He went with the only option he could think of. He grabbed one of his grenade launcher’s incendiary rounds from the bandolier across his chest, jammed it into the hole as far as he could, then punched it. The detonation hurled him backward, but it also damaged the robot, which fell over. He heard the muffled sounds of his team shouting instructions to shoot into it while it was down, followed by the sizzle of their weapons. The power to his armor had failed, and he couldn’t move. Sirenno was the first to enter his field of vision. “Jax, you okay?”
He got his wits about him again and nodded inside his helmet. Athena, can you get me restarted?”
“Negative. The explosion damaged the suit’s internal power relays. We would need more tools and time than we have here.”
Could Sparks do it? He remembered the toolkits the man carried.
“Maybe, but not in a timely fashion. Plus, they’re a little busy right now.”
As much as he hated the idea, he ordered, “Okay, then pop it.”
Every heavy armor suit had a small set of self-powered actuators on it that permitted escape in a situation like this. The pieces of his armor detached from one another, and his team pulled them away. When he climbed out, Verrand snapped, “You’re bleeding. Hold still for a minute.” A self-adhesive bandage clawed into the skin of his back, then she came around to his chest and applied one to the exit wound as well.
He growled, “Ow.”
She slapped him on the unwounded side of his chest. “Don’t be a baby.”
He shook his head. “Athena. Tell me there’s not another one of those nearby.”
“I can’t confirm it. The good news is that Kimmel’s back in the system and should hopefully be able to shut them down or draw them away.”
“Okay. Then let’s get a move on. We can’t let these bastards slow us down any more.” He went to retrieve his rifle, only to discover that it had been destroyed. He drew his energy pistol instead. “Nothing’s going to stop us from making sure this is Arlox’s worst day ever.”
Chapter Thirty
They encountered no additional resistance until they reached the laboratory door. They’d known the defenders would have sentries guarding the space, and Jax counted himself lucky when they weren’t in the heaviest suits. They thought they could stop us before we got here.
Athena replied, “Foolish people.”
He laughed. Damn right. He turned to his team. “Okay, those jerks need to go down. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
Two minutes later, Marshall and Verrand jumped around the corner into view of the guard pair and covered them with bullets. They staggered back under the unexpected onslaught, and Jax ran forward to deliver a double punch directly into their faceplates. His prosthetic fists penetrated while smashing the duo against the wall and dropping them. A blast door descended from the ceiling.
Athena growled, “The guards must have had a failsafe. I can’t keep it open.” He palmed the normal door, which she’d unlocked, and dove through in a roll. He tumbled up to his feet to find the politicians cringing and Arlox holding up his hands.
The Intelligence Director said, “Jackson, thank you for coming.” The sound of the bulkhead slamming shut informed him he was on his own. Arlox smiled at the others. “See? As I promised. All copies of the AI, right here for our use.”
Athena?
She replied, “Kimmel has locked down the automatic defenses in the room. Stun turrets are positioned in several locations, and more heavily powered projectile ones in others. He’s giving his full attention to keeping them deactivated.”
Tell the other teams to join together for defense. However Wasp thinks best. He crossed his arms and shook his head at Arlox. “Oh, please. As if this is some grand scheme of yours.”
The man gave a soft smile. “Who’s to say it isn’t? In any case, we couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.”
“My people will have full control of your facility in no time. You’re done, Zavian.” He put a little sneer into the man’s name.
His enemy replied, “I don’t think so. See, when you thought you were all the way into our systems, you didn’t realize there are places that even we don’t want to watch over.” Doors slid up at the sides of the room to reveal two alien guards on his right, one from each species, and two on his left. They boiled inward as the former pair pulled edged weapons and the latter fired pistols. Jax dove to avoid the initial barrage and slid behind a large exam chair that looked a lot like the one he’d been in when Marshall had added Athena to his brain. Suggestions?
“Beat the hell out of them.”
Okay then, let’s do that thing. He popped up and ran toward Arlox, knowing the guards would move to protect the man. When they shifted their balance, he stopped, spun, drew his pistols, and fired them at the two humans. One struck its target, and the stun charge dropped the man. The energy blast missed as the other guard dodged. He turned to face the aliens, both of whom were tall, strong-looking and approached at an angle to him. There was no time to shoot them before they forced him to defend himself.
They swung together, and he spun away to close the distance to the one on his right. He hammered a backfist into that one’s skull and kicked at the other. Jax almost lost his foot as a blade swept across in a block but dropped to the floor so it passed over his leg. He rolled, narrowly avoided a stomp from the one he’d punched, then rolled back as that guard stabbed down with his sword. Jax released his pistols and grabbed the blade in his left hand before it could pierce him, then chopped his right across to snap it in the middle. Kind of nice not having to worry about cutting myself, anyway.
“Roll,” Athena ordered, and he complied without hesitation. The other alien’s sword missed his head by an inch, and he kept the roll going until he could get to his feet. A laser blast burned into the formerly unwounded side of his chest. He gasped and dropped to one knee, then threw himself to the floor to avoid the follow-up shot.
He realized he was still holding the broken blade and breathed, “Athena, help me,” as he
rose again and whipped his arm forward like he was hurling a javelin. She took over to adjust his aim and increase his power, and the shard of the alien weapon flew across the room and stabbed the other human guard deep in the chest. He noticed in passing that the politicians were cowering and Arlox was moving, but there was no time to react to them.
He rose warily to his feet and faced the aliens. The one holding the sword was advancing, and the other had drawn a pair of small daggers. He twitched toward the human he’d taken down, but the one wielding the longer blade moved into his path. “Okay, let’s do this.” He charged in a circle away from that opponent and toward the one with the knives. The alien guard seemed happy to meet him and waded in with a flurry of slashes and stabs. Jax took them all on his prosthetic arms. Sparks shot out at the impact, but none damaged him.
He was suddenly inside the alien’s guard. He crouched slightly, twisted his body, and exploded upward to ram his palm into the underside of the being’s chin. It lifted the creature off its feet and snapped its neck with a loud crack. Jax’s left arm shot out to grab one of the daggers as it fell. He tossed it in the air while thinking back to his juggling lessons, then whipped his right hand forward as he caught it by the point and threw it in a single blurred motion. He had no idea whether the action was him, Athena, or the two of them in perfect harmony.
The alien’s block wasn’t fast enough, and the blade sank deep into its forehead. It fell backward, and Jax searched for more foes. His last sight of Arlox showed him sitting in a large chair in a hidden closet as a transparent canopy lowered over it. The man gave him an arrogant smile as the escape pod blasted off from the base. Belatedly, he realized the other man had been holding a metal case, likely with whatever copies existed of Athena. He shouted, “Oh, hell no.” Athena, get me Cia. He scooped up his pistols and kept them trained on the remaining people in the room.
The pilot’s voice broke into the comm channel. “Jax, are you okay? Athena has been keeping us updated, more or less.”
He choked out a laugh and peered down at the scorched burn hole in his chest and the blood soaking the bandage on the other side. “I’ve been better. More importantly, Arlox just shot out of here. You have him?”
She growled, “Nothing on the sensors. Let me try the different bands.” After a few seconds, she reported, “Still nothing.”
Athena replied, “He probably has sensor countermeasures built-in. A lot of interesting research has been going on here. Start pinging the nanoparticles and don’t stop.”
Cia replied, “On it.”
He coughed. “Do you think that will work?”
Athena replied, “It depends on the delay. It should at least give a general sense of where he is.”
Cia cut in, “I have him now. He’s going really fast toward a jump point. Is that thing capable?”
Jax nodded. “It’s probably based on the lover’s coffin. Those can go through jump. You need to stop him, Cia.” Athena, can you get me a view of what she’s seeing?
“Working on it.”
The pilot grumbled, “Damn, that thing is fast. It’ll take us a few minutes to catch up. Do you think it has weapons?”
He replied, “I’m not sure I’d put anything past him at this point. Maybe you should blast it with your missile.”
“I already have it primed and locked. We can use it as a last resort, but I think we have a better option.”
Jax smiled when he remembered their first flights together. “The EMP?”
“Yep. The Grace has enough boom to take out a full-size ship. It should be able to deal with that little thing, even if it’s hardened.”
“If it can’t, there’s always the missile.”
“Yep.” Shouting came from her copilot in the background, and Cia yelped.
Jax demanded, “What’s going on?”
“It’s armed. Lasers, surprisingly high-power. He’s burned off part of a wing.”
“Shoot him down. Don’t wait.”
He could hear the scowl in Cia’s voice. “Oh, no bloody way. I need to have some words with this bastard.”
He cautioned, “Cia. This is really important. He can’t get away.”
“I get it, Jax. Trust me. I’ve got this.”
His first instinct was to argue, but he pushed it away. His second instinct was to offer advice that she didn’t need, but he shunted that aside too. “I trust you. Completely. Go kick his ass.”
He dug for his display glasses to watch the view from the Grace’s nose camera as it wove through the laser blasts seeking it, which seemed to grow increasingly frantic as the gap between them diminished. When she was close enough, Cia advised, “Talk to you on the other side.” The running lights on her ship suddenly went dark. He fretted during the seeming eternity while he waited for the Grace’s systems to come back up. Both ships were still heading on their original trajectories, so there was no way to tell whether the EMP had disabled the pod. The only positive sign was that the laser blasts had ceased. Now, it was more or less a race to see who could get their vessel back up first.
The Grace won. Athena gave him a rear view as the cargo hatch opened and a vacuum-suited figure fired a grapnel gun to latch on to the pod. Its motor kicked into gear and reeled the small ship in. Cia crowed, “We’ve got him. We’ll cut him out of there, sedate him, and come give you a hand.”
Jax grinned and slumped to the floor while keeping the stun pistol pointed at the trio of other figures in the room. Athena, see what you can do about getting the door open. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay conscious much longer.
She snorted. “Always leaving the hard work for me. That’s just like you, Jax.”
He decided that diplomacy was for the birds and shot the politicians with the stun gun shortly before he succumbed to the encroaching darkness.
Chapter Thirty-One
The Academy’s “back yard” was done up in lights and decorations that outshone the other parties he’d attended there. Professor Maarsen walked around the place with a huge smile on his face, and Jax couldn’t help grinning at the sight. The evidence they’d found at the base, plus Zavian Arlox’s capture, had given the older man closure on something that had vexed him for ages.
Jax’s team was present, as was Wasp’s team, as he’d come to think of them. He’d been impressed with the way they worked together and only a little put out that the transition away from his leadership seemed to have been handled so adroitly. He was sure he’d get over it, eventually.
Athena quipped, “Please, with your ego? It’ll take forever for you to get past that one.”
He shook his head. Shut it. Something had happened during the last weeks, a bonding of sorts that made it impossible for him to keep the AI out of his thoughts but also made it natural for her to be there. He considered it a feature rather than a bug, generally, although she still had to work on her understanding of when to speak and when to be quiet.
“Do not.”
Proves my point. He grinned wider as Major Stephenson approached him and held out a hand. Jax shook it, and the woman pulled him into an unexpected hug. When she let him go, she commented, “So. You did it. Nicely done.”
“We did it. This was a serious team effort. Well, a serious teams effort if you get right down to it. What do you hear?”
She shrugged. “They’re cleaning house in Intelligence and bringing in someone from outside to run it. They found evidence that his philosophy had spread throughout the organization. A lot of people are getting reassigned.”
“And the others involved in his game? The aliens and the Confederacy?”
“We informed their governments, of course, but that’s about all we could do.” She looked at him suspiciously. “What’s interesting is that Arlox kept talking about a case that he had with him in the pod, but it appears to have vanished.”
He nodded. “I saw it in his lap when he blasted off. Never saw it again.” That was true, although he’d had to choose his words with care for it to be
so. Cia had destroyed it at Athena’s direction before the ship had joined them at the base.
Her expression didn’t change. “Uh-huh. Sure.”
Jax laughed. “Really. Captain’s honor.”
“Which brings us to the reason I’m here.” She gestured around at the festivities. “I’m not all that fond of parties like this. I prefer a noisy tavern and bitter drafts.”
He’d been expecting something like this for a while and appreciated that she’d come to tell him in person. He’d gone pretty far afield, especially where the box he hadn’t seen was concerned, and figured that he’d ticked off some higher-ups. Well, at least I have a pretty good backup gig, right?
Athena snorted. “You’re happy because you don’t have to make a choice. You’re a coward.”
Correction. We’re a coward. His superior officer continued, “I’m getting kicked upstairs. Going to a bigger command. They need someone to replace me, and I told them I’d talk to you about it.”
He blinked in surprise. “What?”
She laughed. “They’re offering you a promotion. Major Jackson Reese. Has a ring to it. You’d get to stay on the Cronus and oversee the three teams. I’d be in charge of your ship and a couple of others.”
It took a few seconds before he could speak again, but he eventually found the words. “No. Hell, no. Like, so much no.”
Stephenson laughed again. “I figured. The allure of the Academy.” She sighed. “It’s fine. Lorenzo will step up. She’s ready for the job. I was never convinced about you, really.” Her smile revealed the lie. “Keep in touch, Jax.”
“You know it, Major.”
She snorted. “It’s Lieutenant Colonel now, thanks, but it’s probably time you started calling me Anika.”
“All right. Later, Anika.”
He turned away so she wouldn’t see his sadness at the change. Given his choice, he’d want to have it all. Working with his Special Forces team, working with his Academy team. Roaming the universe, staying at the castle. But I guess we can’t have everything.
