Warrior- Integration

by David Hallquist

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  Chapter 35

  Time to gun up.

  Stacks of Sharron’s gold chips are on one side of the chipped ceramic table, and the weapons are on the other. Gan, Sharron’s armorer, sits on the other side, the smoke from his stimulants curling past his scarred face and cybernetic eye. He looks like, and was, a pirate, but he will be straight with a deal.

  The table has a good selection of weapons. Real guns are highly restricted on Luna; people get nervous with things that can punch through walls when you live in hard vacuum. There’s all kinds of regulations and limitations on their use up above. Still, there’s a nice range to choose from down here because criminals just don’t care. Anyone with a small fabricator can build almost anything; you just need the plans, raw materials, and energy.

  All the goods, here, were either created in a private fabricator or modified heavily. Recognition codes won’t be a problem, nor will tracking or ID signals from the weapons or projectiles. They all come pre-wiped of anything that could identify them after firing or where they came from.

  I ignore the long guns I usually favor and look mostly at the pistols and lighter gear. A lot of the fighting is going to be in close, and I’ll need to be able to hide most of what I’m carrying.

  The laser pistol looks like a clone of the IL-27. It is a lightweight, even elegant, weapon encased in black ceramic with fractal patterns to help dissipate heat. It’s accurate to over a kilometer, and in vacuum, its beam won’t diverge for at least ten times that distance. The beam will cause instant third degree burns and blindness, even on an indirect hit. Generally, whatever the focused beam hits is vaporized, and the expanding gasses cook and shatter whatever is nearby. Even brief, sustained fire can boil body fluids in the head or chest. You can select between single shot, pulse, or continuous beam. Continuous fire drains the energy cell rapidly, though, so I get a spare cell. An integrated telescopic and multi-spectrum sight will link with VR goggles or cybernetics for tracking and target identification. The UV frequency beam will be invisible, but the flash of light when it fires and hits will still show up. The weapon will also glow with heat like a mini oven after a few shots.

  The railgun is a blocky, gray, heavy piece of work that can double as a club. The transonic, ultra-dense darts will hit hard enough to penetrate any non-military armor and most internal bulkheads. Once it hits, the impact is enough to make the projectiles explode inside the target. One hit will blow off an arm or leg, even through a wall. The automatic fire selector is only for people with boosted strength; the recoil is almost enough to break a normal man’s arm. I take a spare energy cell, four spare magazines of a hundred darts, and two magazines of canister shot that will fire short range cones of lethal micro-darts. The biggest disadvantage is the thundering echo that weapon will make, and the magnetic field it gives off when it fires is easily detectable.

  I get a small charger for both guns.

  A small, palmable needler will help when I need people asleep rather than dead. Compressed gas silently fires a spin-stabilized sub-sonic dart loaded with a powerful knockout drug. It’s short range and silent and can be set for fully automatic fire. I take another spare magazine of a hundred sleep needles and a magazine with lethal neurotoxin.

  All of these weapons can be easily broken down into their components. I get a number of specially designed devices that can attach to the weapon components, disguising them against search and scan, although the weapon components will still work with the devices fused to them.

  For in close, I go for a pair of mono-atomic-edged, diamond power-blades. I am always more comfortable with a blade, and they always prove useful. On the powered setting, they should go through anything but military armor.

  I also grab a small spool of molecular, mono-filament thread. Several kilometers fit into the ring-sized and shaped dispenser. I slip it around my index finger. It will be useful for its tensile strength as well as its cutting ability.

  I don’t want to get any cybernetic boosting or nano-ware. I don’t know how it will interact with the monster. Besides, it was all I could do to get that crud out of me when I left Earth. Lots of bad memories there. You need a lot of trust to hook your brain up to a computer someone else built.

  Instead of a phone implant, I go for a patch. The rice grain-sized phone adheres invisibly to my ear and is loaded with crypto and hacking programs which are illegal, even in the Belt.

  For computing power, I go for a wearable array of pinhead-sized processors, scattered about my clothes, each able to function in the network if another in the array goes down. They can access the hidden, encrypted accounts holding the remainder of my funds. The hacking, encryption, and security programs are all top notch. This is Luna, after all.

  The sunglasses combine telescopic and spectroscopic vision with light amplification and pattern recognition. They don’t improve my augmented vision much, but the laser and flash proofing could save my vision when I need it most. The main reason for these, aside from looking good, is to link to the targeting computers in my pistols. If I have to engage at long range, I’ll need those scopes.

  If you get in enough fights, eventually, you are going to get hit. So, I get an armored vest to hold my internal organs together while the monster patches me up. The mono-molecular, smart fiber weave will stop anything short of a power blade or railgun. The fibers will tighten up to distribute force and are thermally conductive to spread the heat from a laser. And their super-conducting property spreads the load from stunners or ion beams. Anything heavy will go right through, but it’s light enough to wear under normal clothing. The nice thing about this armor is that it has no E/M profile until it’s charged and active.

  It’s best not to get hit in the first place, so I clip six small diffusion canisters to my belt. You just activate and throw. The cloud they release looks like smoke, but it has small crystals to scatter lasers and carbon fibers to scramble radar and microwave, and the condensing cold gas helps fool IR. It isn’t perfect, but at least there is a chance an enemy will miss.

  The monster patches me up better than any first aid kit, and I don’t know what a med computer would do if it saw my blood sample. Probably freak out and call for an ambulance. So, I get spray cans of sealant gel and medical smart tape to hold me together while I regenerate. They can also double as restraints.

  I get a full code breaker and lock set with all the bells and whistles. While the weapons may not be the best in the system, I can get the finest cracking tech right here. The crystalline nanotechnology of the breakers is hidden away in a set of pens, a watch, and a button. These little gems would have gotten me out of that murder-lab all by themselves.

  A couple of vials of smart dust should do the job for surveillance and tracking. These cameras and microphones are almost invisible to the naked eye, able to float through the air or adhere to a subject with static electricity. They can network as a sensor array or go silent and only transmit stored info in an encrypted burst.

  The disguise kit is made up of small vials of symbiotic cells that can be grown for different skin and facial appearances. Skin and hair that are real. You can even change your scent. I’ll still have to avoid any real bio-scans, though.

  I get a mask and oxygen cylinders, of course. This is Luna, after all, and no one trusts the air.

  All this gear tucks away easily into the standard, baggy clothing common near the surface. Lots of pockets and straps on everything so it’s easy to hide gear. Thank God, the Lunars are a pragmatic people.

  The suit is smart cloth. Fully stain resistant and tough, it’ll need to stand up to what I’m about to put my clothes through. It can change color and style, slowly, which will come in handy. Holes and tears slowly seal up. The real added feature is the adaptive interference array built into the weave of the clothing. That will let me hide powered weapons and the shapes of other things from casual scans.

  Over everything goes a thermal cloak. Nothing special, just an outer garment to produ
ce heat or cool my body’s temperature to whatever is normal. Too many of the lower tunnels have malfunctioning temperature controls, so that will help me blend in. I’ll roll it up and put it away for now.

  I figure I’m ready for anything when the lights go out and the alarms sound.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 36

  They’re here.

  I was sure they would bushwhack me in a tunnel once I left. I thought I would have a few days to rest and rearm here. No one is crazy enough to take on this place. Everyone is packing, and the police don’t ever come down here. Anyone who messed with this place would be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.

  Unless they just don’t care. Like if they pack enough firepower to knock over Sharron’s easily. Or if they were the kinds of people so far above the law that an angry Lunar gang didn’t even register to them. Like the kinds of people who could hide a murder-lab of horrors under a hospital and get away with it.

  I load and initialize my weapons, pull on my armor and gear, and make for the door. Gan is getting out a pair of cyber-linked laser pistols, and his eye begins scanning, while two big, boosted guys go past with rail-carbines. It’s going to be an interesting fight. The monster begins to boil in my veins with excitement.

  Red light fills the hallways, and there are a lot of shadows between the few emergency lights. A few people wander about, confused. Others, who might live through this, get their weapons and look for cover. I hear the roaring sound of railguns on full auto. A low boom echoes. It’s all coming from the main floor. I don’t know what I’ll be walking into.

  I try to access the club’s computers remotely. Nothing. There is heavy jamming, and something trashed the main computers. I order my personal computer array to do a quick preventative scrub. Hopefully, they didn’t get too corrupted by whatever viruses are being transmitted through the air.

  We come up to the door leading to the main floor. Gan looks at me. I nod back.

  He clicks open the door, and we fly through, each in a different direction. A roaring stream of railgun fire thunders into the hallway. I stay low, sliding along under overturned tables for concealment, and make it. Gan gets caught in the burst, and only half of him makes it.

  The main floor of Sharron’s has turned into a battlefield. Red emergency lights hide the blood and gore from the wounded and the dead. People with horrible burns and missing limbs clamber over each other, desperately looking for safety or shelter, or just fleeing in panic. Smoke rises from small fires, and splashes stain the railgun riddled walls. Here and there, guests and Sharron’s security return fire at the attackers.

  The world slows as I take it all in. Eight guys in light armor vests are firing into the crowd with a mix of light arms. Four of the original team of twelve are already down. Everything they have looks concealable. One is sweeping a red-hot laser across the crowd in front of him, trying to burn a path in the fleeing, screaming, charred flesh. Another laughs, the roar of his railgun drowning out the sounds of his laughter while the darts tear off limbs and burst through tightly packed clusters of bodies. Blue bolts fly from a thug’s miniature plasma blaster, and eye-searing blue flashes mark where the energy torpedoes hit a target and release their plasma, turning whatever is nearby into clouds of ash. All the noise drowns out the scream of a sonic disruptor, but I can see the effects as people go down bleeding from the eyes and ears in convulsing mobs. Trails of fire leap from the man with the twin gyro-jet pistols, and the streaks of the miniature rockets flash into the room and explode in a series of white flashes.

  They’re going to kill everyone here. This isn’t an assassination or a raid, this is an extermination squad. They are targeting the armed guests and security first, and computer-controlled reflexes are burning people down as fast as they can target them.

  A wild laser shot hits the disco-ball. The mirrors shatter into glowing fragments, and flashes of burning light radiate into the packed room. Everyone screams and covers their eyes.

  Almost everyone. I take advantage of the temporary opening to dash from the table toward the bar, firing as I go. I lead with the laser as I don’t know who is behind the walls. My shades indicate the targets, and my eye movements confirm the orders to fire. Every time an enemy silhouette crosses the targeting reticule, it burns.

  Their armor stops the lasers, but it doesn’t cover everything. I move my eyes, bringing the targeting reticule across weak spots, only firing when there is a vulnerable spot. A man’s eyes explode, the side of a neck opens up, a throat burns to ash, a man’s hair burns as the laser bores into his brain.

  Some people cannot handle computer-controlled fire and have to shoot the old-fashioned way. Others grow dependent on automated systems and lose their initiative, letting the cyber systems do all the work. I become one with the weapon, letting the computer do what it does best, while I do what I do best. Just like old times. I manage to make it behind the bar before the hail of return fire.

  The bar explodes into fragments of burning wood and molten metal. I stay low.

  Fire suppression systems go on, and it begins to rain. Water runs along the blood-slick floors but cannot wash all the blood away. Nothing can. Brilliant flashes of light strobe as lasers hit the water droplets, turning them into clouds of steam. My laser is now useless in this environment.

  I tear pipes behind the bar, and coolant and steam jet into the air, forming an opaque cloud. They cannot see me through the bar, and all the heat, fire, smoke, and steam are blocking their sensors. They will have to come to me.

  The gunfire stops. I can hear the cries and screams of the wounded and the sound of rain. I can hear the remaining killers taking cover by the entrance vestibule. Three left; one of Sharron’s men has taken down another. I know where they are, but if I expose myself, even for an instant, I’m toast. I wait for them to make the next move.

  The next move is a self-propelled grenade screaming at me.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 37

  Time slows.

  If I pop up and shoot the SPG, it’ll go off and frag the wounded on the floor. It’ll also give the remaining three a shot at me. If I duck for cover, the SPG will fly down right next to me before it goes off.

  I toss a diffusion canister into the air to scramble the grenade’s targeting. It pops and diamond dust and charged carbon fiber fill the air with swirling clouds. I rip a cabinet door off and get ready.

  It is a second that stretches forever.

  I can hear exactly where the SPG is as it flies over. It bathes the area with sonar pulses, trying to find me while flying blind. I wing the door at it and then protect my head with my other arm, turning away with the throw.

  Head to the ground, eyes shut, flash-shades on so I can still see the blinding flash. Heat burns my exposed skin, then the shock wave slams into me like an angry titan. My vest goes hard, stopping the spray of darts. Stabbing pain erupts as a half dozen darts pierce my limbs and shatter into razor-sharp fragments inside me.

  I’m lucky none hit my head. The door must have stopped most of the darts. I feel the cuts on the back of my head, and I cut myself on razor-sharp micro-shrapnel. Maybe not so lucky. Somehow, my skull deflected some of the darts. How? What has the monster done to my bones?

  The monster goes crazy, and heat and pain fill my body. I convulse as it seals up the hemorrhages and torn muscles around the exploded darts inside me. I feel new musculature grow, and my bones seem to bend and twist.

  I have to get control of it. I cannot turn into a monster here, and I have to move, now, not when it is done reshaping me. It fights me for a few precious seconds, then relents, and I remain human, for now.

  Around me are flames guttering in the rain. That would be the good stuff kept behind the bar going up in flames. Shards of Lunar glass glitter everywhere. I can’t hear anything yet; the grenade took away my hearing for a moment. I can feel the vibrations of the last three coming out from cover and readying their weapons. They are getting ready
to execute the survivors.

  Time to make my move.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 38

  They aren’t ready when I come over the bar. They may be pros, but who would expect I’d live through an SPG without a hardsuit?

  The laser is useless in the rain and fog, so I’m already aiming and beginning to fire the railgun before I clear the bar. I’ll just have to hope that no one is on the other side of the walls behind them. Boom! Boom! Boom! The first one’s head explodes before he even knows I’m there. The second takes it just as he sees me. I drop the third as he’s bringing his weapon up.

  They are down. My hearing pops back, letting me hear the agonized cries of the wounded and the dying. I listen for an instant. Are there any more coming? No. Just the rest of Sharron’s people and the sound of others fleeing.

  Sharron. She was up here. Not anymore. She and her two bodyguards went down fighting. I close her eyes. Good luck wherever you are, Sharron.

  I get out the medical tape and gel. Triage. Who will die no matter what? Who needs immediate treatment? Who can wait for treatment? I focus on the second group. The tape and gel aren’t much, but I use them to seal severed arteries and stop the worst bleeding. Precious time passes, but I can’t just leave them here. The killers came here because of me. All this death, just to get to me. No place will be safe until this is finished.

  I have to go. The police will come, even down here, after this. Hopefully, now, some of these people will live to get to a hospital.

  Which hospital do you think they will go to, Brandt?