Horseplay

by Cam Daly

  Connor looked at another shadowy point near the wall, off to the far right this time, and pointed. “There! I saw something else. Near the shipping container.” Harris and DeVries both turned immediately, the former walking slowly along the window towards the latter as if trying to get closer to the phantom outside. The Knights continued to face to their left out the window, oblivious for a moment to Connor’s latest fabrication.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Connor saw Sousa start towards the window to look as well. Without turning his head, Connor took one hand off the plasma cannon, grabbed the scientist by the arm and pulled him back towards the opposite wall. None of their enemies noticed.

  DeVries was still standing at the window but was now shouting at his phone. “No, I didn’t see anything!” Harris almost walked into him, trying to give his master a closer view from his headset.

  DeVries took a distracted step away from Harris and the window, now paying more attention to his phone conversation. Harris was almost next to the three Knight mechs, all looking for the non-existent intruders. Almost there…

  Connor was so focused on the positioning of his enemies that he had forgotten that Kery was still listening through Park in the bathroom. “Connor - whatever you are doing - don’t miss. Then get my head and get us out!”

  “Get your what?!?” Park's exclamation from the bathroom was loud enough to hear in the hall.

  DeVries looked over from his conversation. Saw Connor and Sousa standing together. Whipped his head towards the bathroom and back again, a startled look of realization now plastered on his face. “You-“

  Connor yanked off his Craven headset with one hand and brought up the plasma arc cannon with the other.

  Fired.

  The wave of energy screamed forth in a red-orange fan, incinerating the upper torso of the Tumorish Harris and the three mechs. Glass exploded outward into the morning twilight and the industrial curtains caught fire. DeVries dropped his phone and clutched at his face, screaming. Apparently he had been just far enough to the side that he was injured instead of being killed outright.

  Connor ignored him for a moment. He squatted, laid the headset on the ground pointing away from the carnage and muttered close to its microphone, “De…Vries. Sousa…” then stomped on it and kicked the pieces away. It was a relief to be free of the thing.

  The bottom half of Harris’s body was in flames but still propped against the glass, while the remains of the Knights sparked and slumped to the ground.

  Park came sobbing out of the bathroom and into Sousa’s arms, practically throwing the Sneaker phone at Connor in the process. “I thought they were going to kill you. Oh thank god you’re okay.” The two scientists clutched each other.

  DeVries staggered and cursed but stayed on his feet. Connor checked the hall in both directions then trained the cannon on the tall man. He thought about getting weapons for the two scientists, but the Knight’s rifles looked like they were fused with their bodies. He didn’t want to even touch the needlegun near Harris’ feet.

  With a hand covering the burned side of his face, DeVries glared with one eye at Connor. “Connor James. You! What the hell are you doing here? Do you know what you’ve done?”

  Park and Sousa turned towards Connor as well, still in each other’s arms. Park asked the question that Connor was most afraid to hear. “What did she mean, get her head? Where is she? What is she?”

  DeVries provided a partial explanation with his next question. “The Active’s head is here?”

  Connor was saved from having to answer any of them by the not too distant sound of gunfire and an explosion. It came from somewhere below them, but it was hard to tell if it was in their building or a different one. He looked at Park and Sousa. “Get to the control room. Now!” The two of them ran down the hall.

  He turned back to DeVries and raised the Sneaker phone so that its camera pointed towards the man. He was about to ask Kery what to do with him when a loud bang sounded just outside the window.

  A step forward took him to the edge of the smoldering frame of the window. From there he could see that the VSE shipping container near the security fence had changed. It had split lengthwise and fallen open like a giant dark cocoon, but the thing inside was no butterfly. Its serpentine body was almost ten meters long, with six legs and the barrel of some long weapon extending along each side of its back.

  The view was brief, however, as gouts of darkness seemed to suddenly erupt from two points just behind its neck, billowing out to quickly conceal everything around it. The last clear glimpse was off its head, which had squat cannons where its eyes should be.

  “What the hell is that?” He didn’t really expect an answer from DeVries, but he got one.

  “Next generation urban combat system. We call them Dragons. One of them took out your friend’s predecessor. How do you think Keryapt would do against a dozen?” DeVries’ face and hands were already blistering, but the sight of the thing seemed to bring him relief from his pain. He might even be trying to smile.

  The head of the Dragon emerged from its own cloud to angle back and point at something above the complex, cannons suddenly erupting with fire. The sound was like someone cutting sheet metal with a chainsaw. It leapt into the air, leaving a swirling vortex of oily black smoke, and passed up and out of sight.

  “Dual gatling cannons. Multi-payload recoilless rifles.” A strident alarm came on, long wailing tones that warned of immense danger. DeVries shouted over it. “Real time dynamic attack pattern synthesis. Full spectrum defensive smoke screen. Molu design made by human technology. Practically-“ There was a deafening blast from just above the building. Pieces of Dragon mech rained down in front of them, covering the shipping container and exterior wall with bits of burning debris.

  It was Connor’s turn to delight. “You were saying?” He gave DeVries a gloating look.

  Keryapt’s shouted voice sounded through the Sneaker phone, audible to both men over the alarm. “Connor! Fleet didn’t destroy the Dragon. Something else did. Take DeVries, get my head, and get the decoherence field down. We need Horseplay!” The connection ended. He was on his own.

  Some secondary explosion sent a piece of metal ricocheting off the building not too far from them. Connor and DeVries both ducked instinctively, then looked at each other. Connor took some small comfort that DeVries looked even more miserable and tired than he felt.

  The sprinkler system chose that moment to come on. Connor had to shout even louder to be heard over it. “You heard her. Go!” He didn’t know why Kery wanted the DeVries with them, but he couldn’t discuss it with her now. He prodded the tall man into motion and raced towards where her head was hidden.

  CHAPTER 13

  Connor could hear sounds of battle but was shocked that they didn’t encounter any enemies on their way to the control room, just evacuating workers. Sousa and Park were already at a terminal when he and DeVries entered a minute later.

  The morose technician was still there as well. “Shouldn’t we all be evacuating?”

  Park gave the man a brief glance. “Tom, this is something Rafael and I have to take care of. You should get outside. Head for the heavy equipment entrance.” She gestured towards the large doors at the end of the collider bay.

  Tom was distracted by Connor, who still held the plasma gun on DeVries. “Mr. DeVries? What’s going on?”

  The tall bald man turned his half burned face towards the technician. “Tom, was it? Susan is right. Get out. Tell everyone to run as fast as they can.”

  As if to emphasize his point, the entire building shuddered.

  Tom ran out the door. A moment later he was visible again, running across the walkway above the collider.

  “Connor. It’s done.” Sousa looked triumphant.

  Connor raised the phone again. “Kery! Are you there? The field should be smaller.”

  Tom was halfway across the walkway towards the collider bay doors.

  All four of them could hear Kery’s re
sponse. “Hawk just burned out its power supply to send its message. Horseplay should be here in two minutes. Get outside!”

  Connor noticed that Tom had abruptly frozen in place, with one hand clutching the walkway rail. His upper body seemed strangely…thick.

  Behind Connor, Sousa suddenly started shouting at DeVries. “You said she would be safe. Did you know about those Tumor-things? What they would do to us?”

  Park followed Connor’s gaze towards the technician. “Tom?” The glass window of the control room prevented any sound from reaching the man. He suddenly thrashed in place.

  DeVries either hadn’t noticed or wasn’t concerned about Tom’s plight. “Rafael, they were never part of our plan. I was working on a way to get you away from them.”

  Connor took his eyes off the technician on the walkway to face the arguing pair. “Weren’t part of what plan?”

  “TOM?” Park’s voice was more as much a scream as a question.

  Connor jerked back around. Tom’s entire upper torso had exploded in flames.

  “TOM!”

  As the burning man collapsed, two figures became visible at the farthest end of the walkway. One was the Tumorish Mason, wielding one of the double-barreled pyrotanglers. The other had a smaller pistol.

  Connor felt a renewed surge of hatred for the Tumorish. He fired the plasma cannon in their direction, shattering the gigantic control room window with an immensely wide arc.

  The plasma beam didn’t seem to affect them but they responded in kind, firing as they ran across the raised walkway. Sousa and Park both fell screaming to the ground. Connor ducked behind a workstation, trying to change settings on his weapon. The plasma arc was uselessly wide for long range.

  He straightened up and fired, playing a narrow orange beam over both attackers as best he could from this distance. Fire and smoke sprang from them and the walkway as they tried to evade his attack.

  A ball of tangler goo ignited right next to Connor, sending him ducking for cover again. DeVries was gone, fled back into the bowels of the building.

  Park was on top of Sousa’s prostrate form, screaming like a wounded beast as she tore at the goo now covering him.

  Connor scrambled over to them and tried to push her away, afraid she would hurt Sousa or herself. “Stop! You’re hurting him. Give me a second.”

  Sprinklers had come on in the control room, making it hard to see anything more than a few meters away. He peeked up again, but couldn’t spot movement from where either Tumorish had just been. The sides of the walkway were partially covered by equipment, making it even more difficult to see signs of motion.

  Park was still straining as hard as she could but the strands of goo wouldn’t come off of Sousa. They formed a spiderweb around his torso and arms, pinning them in place. He turned his head towards Connor. “It’s not burning! It’s not…thank god. What makes it burn?”

  “A laser or maser or something, fired from the same gun. We can’t let him even point it at you for an instant. Or else…”

  Sousa spat out sprinkler water and finished for him. “Like Tom. But you got them, right?”

  “I don’t know for sure. I hurt them. Mason was still moving some, but I’m sure I got the other one in the head.”

  Connor had seen burn victims before as a police photographer, but watching the technician be consumed by fire was completely different. He felt like he was going numb.

  Park obviously felt the same way, as she stopped scrabbling at the gel and sat back heavily. She had a blank look on her face. Slowly, as if it took great effort, she turned her head towards Connor.

  There were two Tumorish needles protruding from her cheek. Another two were in her shoulder, visible now as she slumped towards the wet floor. Connor leapt over Sousa’s form and caught her before she fell sideways. Only her eyes were moving now - the paralytic poison of the needles was overwhelming her system.

  There was a small trash can next to the door and he fished out a scrap of plastic to protect his fingers. The needles were harder to pull out than he would have expected, drawing the skin of her cheek up with them like a tent before sliding out. He dropped all four of them in the trash as Sousa struggled to his knees.

  “What are those? Are they from those…things?” Sousa’s anger was returning. “They are, aren’t they? She’s going to be one of them? Is she?!?”

  “We have to get her out of here. All of us.” He looked around. The large bay doors were the closest exit, but they were thirty meters away. Past Tom’s charred remains and the pair of hopefully dead Tumorish.

  “Susan? Susan!” Sousa was leaning closer to her, shouting as if that would somehow free her from the paralysis.

  “COOPER!” Mason was alive, and had moved closer. “What are you doing, Cooper?”

  Cooper? So perhaps Broaalg still hadn’t realized Connor’s betrayal. Or maybe he didn’t have a direct way to inform all of his forces.

  Connor shouted back through the exploded window. “I have orders to keep everyone away from them! No exceptions.”

  The Tumorish’s voice was labored. “I…understand. What…can I do…to help?”

  Could the ruse really work? “I have the plasma rifle, but could use your pyrotangler in case the Fleet Active is here. Why don’t you throw it over?”

  “Okay.”

  Connor almost couldn’t believe his luck. He crouched higher to see if the Tumorish was really that stupid.

  An object came flying from the walkway. It was way too small to be a tangler, but about the right size to be a grenade. It was thrown on an arcing path, which would take it over his head and into the control room behind him.

  Connor wasn’t an athlete. He didn’t grow up playing baseball or football. But instinctively he jumped to grab it.

  Somehow, impossibly, he caught it. He even managed to keep the plasma cannon in his other hand.

  As he landed, preparing to fling it back, he realized it was too large and irregular to be a grenade. It was a booted human foot.

  Revolted, Connor dropped it. He looked up.

  Mason was propped up on the edge of the walkway, waiting for Connor to expose himself. The pyrotangler burped and Connor’s arm was slammed into a large control console, still clenching the cannon. The thrown foot had been a trick to draw him out.

  “Cooper! We are eternal.”

  Mason slumped back down out of view, but between gaps in the sides of the walkway Connor could see him crawling forward.

  His trapped arm felt like someone had just hit it with a baseball bat. He looked around in despair. The plasma cannon was stuck in his hand but aimed out and away at a useless angle. Sousa was on his knees next to Park, arms still pinned to his sides.

  “You are going to join us, Cooper.”

  Mason was slowly approaching the door to the control room, but Connor’s plasma cannon was aimed the opposite direction. It pointed down the length of the collider bay. He turned his back to the door and grabbed the barrel of the gun with his left hand. He could just barely get it aimed at the far off bay doors.

  “Connor! What are you doing?” Sousa was trying to get to his feet.

  Connor squeezed his trapped hand against the goo and fired the plasma cannon, guiding the barrel with his left hand. He burned an angular black furrow through the heavy bay doors.

  Mason’s voice was coming from the door now more than the shattered window. He was almost to the room. “After we finish here, then together we will kill all the Molu at Alcatraz, and anyone aiding them.”

  Connor put his weight into changing the cannon’s aim point, trying to ignore the pain from his hand trapped between the gun and the console. He fired again, adding a V shape next to the line he had just cut.

  “And then Broaalg will give us the entire world. Can you imagine how glorious that will be?”

  Connor braced himself and pushed, trying to move the console enough to get his stuck arm into the correct position. It wouldn’t budge. “Sousa! Help me!”

  The ent
angled man froze halfway to Connor, staring at the door. Connor turned his head to look.

  Mason had shambled into view, his left arm dangling from its shoulder socket by a few shreds of burnt flesh. A charred channel zigzagged across his chest and down to his right leg, which ended just below his knee. He was mortally injured, but the alien tissue in his brain drove him onward. He still had the same ghoulish grin he had given Connor after he converted the VSE guards.

  Mason struggled to bring up the pyrotangler. Seeing it, Sousa dove sideways and out of sight. Leaving Connor to his fate.

  Mason’s voice was lower, more guttural than before. “You know what I say in a situation like this?”

  Another test? Some other cryptic thing that all Tumorish would know? He turned away from Mason. Rising panic gave Connor the strength to shift the console a tiny bit further. A wave of agony swept up his arm as his hand was crushed between the gun and the console but he fired again, twisting the cannon by its barrel to make a circular shape on the far off bay doors.

  Mason finally got the tangler propped up on a workstation. Sprinkler water mixed with blood and other bodily fluids to create dark puddles. He didn’t seem to notice when its left arm finally gave way and fell off. “I say, ‘Drive it like its stolen.’”

  A sudden stab of pain burned Connor’s cheek and he whipped his head back and forth, screaming.

  “You really aren’t one of us, are you?”

  Mason had used the maser. It hadn’t directly hit the gel wrapped around Connor’s arm and cannon, just his face.

  Connor reached desperately about with his left hand, trying to grab a tool or weapon of some kind. There was nothing. He turned back to look at Mason, gasping for breath.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw something silver flash by above the collider for a split second. Then Mason hobbled closer and blocked the view.

  “No native has done what you did.” He dropped the heavy gun and pulled a needle gun from his waist. “I can’t wait…for you to tell us how you did it.” He suddenly started leaning away from Connor. “What?”