Dimension Shift (Hammer's War Book 2)

by James McEwan

  Marcus had hidden the fact that Doctor Hammer’s guardian was an alternate version of himself, who was proving to be quite the adversary. He had never failed to carry out a mission, and the mounting failures were starting to take their toll on him. The stress of failure was new to Marcus, and it was hard for him to deal with. He thought I will burn that damn hotel to the ground and kill everyone in it if I have to. I will not fail again.

  Chapter 31

  Meanwhile, Thad and the others were led by armed guards to a suite and onto a balcony where a large round glass table was set with a spread of meats, cheeses, bread, fruit and a variety of veggies, some of which Thad had never seen before.

  Quincy’s mouth fell open. “Man, would you look at that spread!”

  “By all means, dig in, the food is for you" St. Claire’s voice came from behind them.

  Thad turned to face his host. “I must admit that I’m bit confused. Stunners and head bags to suits and fine food. Not the normal treatment of prisoners.”

  “True, but this is not a normal situation, now is it.” St. Claire said, as he waved his arm towards a chair.

  Thad understood the gesture, pulled out the chair, and sat down. Quincy had already filled his plate and was happily munching away. Doctor Hammer also sat down and took up a plate. Over lunch, Thad explained everything and answered every one of St. Claire’s questions the best that he could.

  “So this is a lot bigger than I thought” St. Claire said, holding a glass of beer.

  “Yes, and it is up to us to expose it.” Doctor Hammer said. “We need to get to Earth so that I can get to my lab. Once there, I can fix the device that brought Thaddeus here and I can send him home.”

  “I think I can help with that.” Mr. Black said from balcony doorway.

  Surprised by his appearance St. Claire jumped up and introduced him. “Gentlemen, I would like to induce our generous host and my friend Mr. Black.”

  Doctor Hammer knew who Mr. Black was, as he was a former patient. “Calling yourself Mr. Black now are you, Dickie?”

  Mr. Black flushed a bit red at the use of his real name. “Yes, it seems to fit me better considering my occupation. One does not become the head of an interplanetary criminal organization with the name Dickie Robertson.”

  “I guess not, but I must say that I’m disappointed that you chose to go this way” Doctor Hammer said. “What happened? You were such a bright young man. I thought that you would have done more with your life.”

  St. Claire was shocked. “Wait, you two know each other?”

  Mr. Black smiled. “Yes, the good doctor here treated me years ago.” St. Claire was still looking shocked. “Dom, do you remember all the trips that I took to Earth when I was a child?”

  “I seem to recall at least once a month you and your family would leave for Earth, yeah I remember.”

  “Once a month I would give Dickie an experimental treatment for Zürich’s syndrome” Doctor Hammer said.

  “But wasn’t Zürich’s Syndrome fatal?” St. Claire asked.

  “Yes it was, but thanks to Doctor Hammer’s experimental treatments, they not only worked, but turned out to be the cure, as well.” Mr. Black said.

  “What a small universe.” Thad interrupted. “Now, I hate to interrupt the reunion, but I have a small problem.”

  The three men were so caught up in their conversation that they had failed to notice Thad. He had partly phased out again. He was now standing alone, as he had moved away from anything that might be a problem when he phased back.

  “Oh, I see” Doctor Hammer said.

  “What is happening to him?” St. Claire and Mr. Black both asked in unison.

  At that moment, Thad snapped back, the pain overcame him, and he crumpled. Doctor Hammer was there to catch him before he hit the floor. With the help of St. Claire and Doctor Hammer Thad was placed in a chair.

  “It is very complicated, but the short version is that his subatomic particles are not stable in this universe and if we don’t get him back to his own universe, and soon, his particles will become so unstable that he will dissipate and not reintegrate.” Doctor Hammer paused as he checked on Thad’s stabilization device. He held it up. “It must have been damaged by the stunners.”

  Totally confused, Mr. Black looked at his friend. St. Claire read his look and understood his question. “Long story I will explain it later.”

  Unaware to all of them were the events taking place in the streets below. Outside the hotel, the local police were closing off all the streets and rerouting all the air traffic. They were told that there were wanted terrorists inside the hotel. They had no idea they were being used to help facilitate murder.

  High overhead a hunter drone was circling, sending back real-time information to Marcus, who was on the street level in a command vehicle. He was watching the lunch meeting and once he was able to identify all the parties he was like a kid on Christmas morning. “I can’t believe my luck! All the people I need to kill in one place, not to mention the local law boys will love to know that we killed the infamous Mr. Black.”

  “Should I send a javeline missile in, Sir?” The drone pilot asked.

  “No, not yet, my orders are to take Doctor Hammer alive.” Marcus said, then he keyed his mic. “Alpha team, are you in place?”

  “Yes Sir, we are positioned at all the entrances and exits. We are ready to go in on your order, Sir” the voice came over the speakers in the command vehicle. The command vehicle was nothing more than an armored van with banks of computers and screens. The concept of the command vehicle had not really changed since the first time men used a vehicle to run any kind of operation.

  “Delta team, are you ready to go?” Marcus asked.

  “Delta is on station ready to deploy, Sir” a deep voice replied.

  “All right ladies --- it’s go time. Delta you are a go, Alpha stand by.” Marcus gave the order.

  Doctor Hammer was working on Thad’s stabilization device with a tool kit that one of the hotel’s maintenance bots had brought at Mr. Black's request, while Kára, who had been sitting at the table and until now had not said a word spoke. “Gentlemen, we have a problem.”

  She stood up just as the half a dozen heavily armed jet-belted troops landed on the balcony in a semicircle. “Get on the ground!” several of them were yelling. By the look of their weapons and armor, it was no doubt these were Starguard Marines.

  No one moved. The marines took a step closer and repeated the command. Kára spoke softly. “Do as they say.” Mr. Black was the first to comply due to his complete trust in Kára’s abilities. As each man lay on the ground, she still stood above them. She moved until she was in the center of the semicircle. Her white dress shimmered, then dissipated, being nothing more than an illusion. As is disappeared it revealed that she was already clad in her black and silver armor. This change of clothing distracted all of the marines; they were all watching her now.

  Blue electricity was building around her waist and chest, as the charge built up, the troops were fascinated having never seen anything like this before. Marcus however, was watching from the van and realized what she was. “Shoot her now, dammit!” He screamed into his mic. “Dammit, she’s an Eli, kill her now!” But his shouts went unheard. The electromagnetic energy from her armor was blocking all the comms.

  Kára raised her arms and in one fluid motion, she flung her hands outwards and a blue shock wave exploded from her. It was about chest high and moved through the marines in a blink of an eye. The energy wave was so powerful that it cut the men in half. It happened so fast that the brains of the men didn’t have time to realize that they were dead. They stood motionless for what seemed like hours, when in fact, only a second passed before the top half fell over backward leaving the lower half to drop to the floor. Luckily for them, the energy wave that had killed the troops also cauterized the wounds, so no blood was spilled.

  In the van, Marcus was beside himself with anger. “Alpha, go now!” He turned to the dr
one pilot. “Fire!” The pilot didn’t waste time with an answer and he fired the missile immediately. High above the scene, the drone let loose one of its high-explosive guided missiles. Marcus watched as the missile screamed downwards until it struck the floor of the balcony. A massive explosion rocked the hotel, and the holographic generator that projected the illusion of the massive hotel momentarily blinked out and for a brief moment, the actual structure of the hotel was revealed.

  After the smoke cleared, the balcony was gone and a large smoking hole was in its place. Standing in the hole was Kára. She waved at the drone as it passed overhead again. In the van Marcus was stunned. “That is impossible!” Then in a fit of rage, he kicked open the van door and stormed out.

  A minute earlier, the bodies of the dead had just hit the balcony floor when Kára ordered everyone back into the room. She stood in the balcony doorway, her armor crackling with more blue energy. As the missile screamed out of the sky, she put both her hands together in front of her as if she was pushing something. In front of her, a bubble of blue pulsing energy appeared and grew until it covered the whole of the doorway. When the missile hit and exploded the room shook so violently that all but Kára were thrown to the floor. They watched as fire and smoke bent around her energy shield. Then, as fast as it started, it was over, and the smell of burnt explosives filled the room. Kára, still standing, waved.

  On the ground level, more heavily armed marines rushed the entrances tossing stun grenades and shooting anyone with stunners that were still standing. Marcus stormed through the front doors and up to the team leader, who snapped a quick salute. “Sir, the first floor is secure.”

  “Good, now hand me your weapon.” Marcus said with his hand out.

  “Sir?”

  “I said your weapon, Captain!”

  “Yes Sir” he said and handed Marcus his standard issue laser rifle.

  “Now, you take a small team and hold the lobby. No one gets out, got it?”

  “Yes Sir.” He snapped another salute.

  Marcus pointed to the rest of the men. “You men are with me, and shoot first and use deadly force. The targets will not hesitate to shoot you on sight.” The men understood and followed. They reached the first lift where there were two hotel security guards. They had barricaded themselves behind some trash bins and lobby chairs. Not sure, who or what was attacking them they shot first. Their laser pistols cracked again and again, but their fire was panic fire and as a result, their shots went wild.

  Taking fire, Marcus took cover and signaled to his men to toss grenades. A soldier moved up next to Marcus as laser fire flashed overhead. He never flinched, but instead placed one hand on Marcus’ shoulder, which was the signal to duck, which Marcus did. The soldier tossed a grenade over the top of Marcus and towards the makeshift barricade. The men on the other side of that barricade never stood a chance, and with a loud thud, their lives came to a bloody and violent end.

  Marcus, taking point, exposed himself to any possible fire and moved towards the bodies. After confirming that they were dead, he moved on. Inside the lift, Marcus found that it had been disabled. “Dammit! We will have to use the stairs, which means we may have to fight our way up.”

  “No problem, we are ready for a fight Sir” one of the men said.

  “I hope so because I have the feeling we are in for one” Marcus replied.

  Up in the suite, Mr. Black had regained his feet and had run to the nearest data terminal and started to punch in commands as fast has his little fingers could type. “If those bastards think that they can kill me in my own hotel, well --- they have another think coming!” Mr. Black said.

  The computer locked down the building and all lifts stopped working. All doors locked and down in the basement in a storage room, the lights came on. Inside the storage room were a dozen Conqueror class combat robots. They powered up and marched out of the room on their way to defend the hotel.

  A marine was standing in front of the access door that led to the lower levels. He had heard the thud from the grenade, but now everything was quiet and he was wishing for a little action in his sector. The action came in the form of the door slamming into him from behind with enough force that it knocked him to the ground, breaking many of his bones. He was stunned and wounded, but still alive. There had been no explosion; the door had simply been kicked off its hinges by an eight-foot tall Conqueror class robot, still painted the factory light lime green paint. It stepped into the lobby and the marine under the door shouted out for help. The robot stepped onto the door. Its weight, combined with the robot’s downward force crushed the marine and his head popped like a grape. A red wash of blood and brains expanded out of from under the door.

  In the robot’s hands was a tri-barreled power gun. Power guns fire pellets of energy, which explodes with a massive amount of force when it strikes its target. The force of one round from a power gun is enough to reduce a human being to a pile of smoking meat.

  The robot scanned the lobby and marked its targets. One of the Marines saw the robot and fired a grenade, which slammed into the robots chest. The grenade exploded with a thud, and when the smoke cleared the robot was still standing. The paint on his chest was gone exposing the raw metal underneath. The burn marks on the remaining paint were the only indication of any damage. “Oh shit” the marine said, just before the Conqueror robot pulled the trigger and unleashed Hell.

  The lobby of the hotel turned into a combat zone with marines and robots locked in a bitter firefight. While the lobby was in the process of being turned into rubble Kára led the men to a room on the top floor. She pressed her hand on the scanner and the door popped open. She hurried the men inside. The room was an armory with all manner of weapons. Thad went straight to the far wall and pulled down a heavy cone rifle. Kára handed him a combat vest that was already loaded with extra magazines for the rifle.

  Thad slipped the vest on and then found a sidearm, which he strapped on to his leg. St. Claire grabbed a bandolier of grenades and swung them over his shoulders. He then picked up an Eli blast rifle. “Yeah, this will work.”

  Quincy picked up a small submachine gun and slammed the bolt home. “Say hello to my little friend.”

  Thad laughed. “OK, Scarface.”

  “Hey! A fellow student of classic film.” Quincy said.

  “Quincy, if we live through this we will have to sit down and watch a few films before I go home.” Thad said, as he stuffed a few grenades into the pockets of his vest.

  “Ready to kill some bad guys?” St. Claire asked, as he flipped on the blast rifle’s power. It hummed as it powered up.

  Thad smiled. “Yeah, I’m tired of people trying to kill me. Time to take the fight to them.”

  Thad switched the safety off and walked out. St. Claire and Kára followed. Quincy said. “I will stay here and keep them safe.”

  As the battle raged floors below, Marcus and his men made their way up the stairs, skipping floors heading for the top. “Shit!” Marcus grumbled when he discovered that the top floor could only be accessed from the lifts or the internal stairway from the arboretum that occupied the floor below the top.

  Marcus led his marines out of the stairway and into the arboretum. They fanned out, making sure to cover each other as they went. Marcus didn’t like it. It was too quiet, aside from the occasional rumble from the battle far below.

  As Marcus was carefully making his way across the arboretum, the battle for the lobby was not going well for the marines, at least not at first. The Conquer robots were awfully hard to stop and they were making short work of the marines. The lobby no longer looked like the posh five-star hotel that it had been. It was now reduced mostly to rubble and broken, burned bodies. The marines were taking heavy losses, but they had numbers and ingenuity on their side. The marine Captain was still alive and directing the fight. “Sergeant, take a breaching charge, attach it to a jet belt and shoot it at the bastards.”

  The sergeant did as ordered. He and another marine stra
pped a large breaching charge to a jet belt and then did their best at aiming it. They launched it with the jets on full. The package blasted across the lobby and slammed into the chest of the lead robot. The jet on full produced more than enough force to knock the bot backward. It was pushed back several feet before the charge blew.

  The explosion was far greater than anyone guessed it would be. The whole building shook ferociously and the police and onlookers were thrown to the ground as glass shattered in the neighboring buildings. In the command van the young marine manning the comms lost control of his bowels when one of the combat robot arms blasted through the side of the van nearly taking his head off.

  Up on the top floor, the building shook and swayed. “I don’t think the building can handle another blast like that” Mr. Black said, as he got off the floor.

  “What are they using down there, tanks?” Quincy said, as he too picked himself up.

  “I don’t know, but it is time to leave, I think.” Mr. Black pulled out a personal comm and began to speak into it. Quincy wanted to listen in, but Doctor Hammer cried out for help, he had fallen and a bunch of boxes had fallen off the shelves, leaving him under the pile.

  When the explosion rocked the building, Marcus was about half way across the arboretum. The shaking was so violent that the marines who weren’t able to grab onto something ended up on the floor. Thad had been kneeling with his rifle braced on the hand railing awaiting his target. Marcus had just stepped into his sights. He squeezed the trigger and a short burst erupted from the barrel. The explosion threw off his aim and the rocket assisted explosive bullets missed Marcus and harmlessly exploded in a tree behind him.

  Marcus saw a trail of bullets flash past him as he was thrown to the floor. When he hit, he rolled and then the arboretum lit up like a techno rock show. Lasers blazed every which way. The trees in the arboretum were cut to pieces and the marines were showered in burning debris. As if that wasn’t bad enough for the marines, St. Claire was blasting away with his blast rifle and it was setting everything on fire.