“Don’t… any… here.” His words were garbled.
While Kait was trying in vain to spot him, she didn’t notice her Minotaur twisting to one side. In front of her, Del swerved to avoid a jagged rock in the “road.” There was a horrible, teeth-juddering sound as the outcropping scraped along the underside of her truck. Kait grasped the steering wheel and heaved it, trying to straighten out, but it was a move of pure instinct—totally ineffective in the vehicle’s current state.
She ground to a stop. The chain connecting her to Del started to pull taut, and then her whole cabin shuddered as his truck came to a stop too, unable to pull her any farther.
“Woah,” Del said, “hold up everyone. Got a problem back here.” Kait got out and climbed down, her foot sinking into the soft-pack ravine floor as if it were loose snow. On hands and knees she studied the vehicle’s underside.
“It’s punctured the undercarriage and into the drive shaft,” she said to Del, hearing his footsteps as he approached. “Going to need to lift it off.”
“Cole, you read me?” Del said. “Need a hand down here. A mech’s hand, I mean.”
No reply.
Del swore. “Damn rocks.”
Kait stood and looked at him. She was about to suggest they take a break, when the shadow fell across the ravine once more. Only this time, it didn’t go away.
Then Del crashed into her, tackling her to the ground.
The whole ravine seemed to shake as something massive slammed into the broken Minotaur, crushing it. Kait felt the shockwave of the impact even as she and Del landed in the rubble a few feet away. Bits of metal and rock sprayed over them, but Del took the brunt of it.
Kait clambered to her feet as quickly as she could. Rocks continued to fall, a cloud of dust obscured her world, but there were hints in that cloud of Cole’s mech suit, and something large grappling with it.
“Juvies!” Lovings shouted on the comm.
No way that thing on top of Cole is a Juvie, Kait thought. She went for her Lancer, only to realize she’d left it in the cab of the Minotaur, which was now crushed flat under the Mega Mech. She had her sidearm, though, and it would have to do. It was a Talon Autopistol, after all. A marked improvement over the MX8 she’d first learned to fire when Reyna thought she was old enough.
Del was up, smartly with his Lancer. He glanced at her, saw her weapon, frowned, but said nothing. Visibility was down to ten feet or so, and shrinking fast. Bursts of gunfire rang out from somewhere at the front of the caravan, echoing off the ravine walls. She heard the gasps and alarmed shouts of several Outsiders, as well as Pasco’s stern orders.
“Out, out! Get to the edges! Hide!”
Stones rained down, jostled loose when Cole fell into their midst. Kait pressed herself against the rock wall, pulling Del toward her just as a boulder the size of a fabricator landed where he’d been standing.
“We gotta get to my Minotaur,” he said to her, then coughed as the dust became so thick they could taste it. “Got to get the hell out of here.” She nodded and took the lead, running along the edge of the ravine, keeping as close to the wall as she could.
Something swung at her from the dusty air. A massive blue metal object. She ducked under it, rolled, came up running. It was the leg of Cole’s mech, she realized.
“It’s gonna be like that, huh bitch?!” Cole shouted somewhere off to her right. “Two can play at that game!” She heard what sounded like a giant fist slamming into an equally giant wall of metal.
Del flinched at the sound. “What the hell’s he fighting?!”
“I don’t know—”
A foot slammed down beside her. Kait was thrown against the wall, bounced off, landed on the huge armored boot, jumped as it lifted off the ground, and dove through the air a good eight feet before she tucked into a somersault and came up running again.
She glanced behind her in time to see Del slide beneath the foot. He made it through an instant before the massive appendage slammed back into the rubble with an earth-shattering thud.
The other foot stomped down nearby. Cole, digging in. Then a third foot, just beyond it, and a fourth.
6: FEEL FOR A PULSE
Kait turned, running hard. The Minotaur had to be somewhere close. She found a small crevice in the wall and ducked into it, taking a second to catch her breath. Del almost ran past her. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“Where’s the truck?” she shouted in his ear.
“No fucking idea!” he shouted back. “Should have been right here!”
She peered into the dust and smoke. Pasco was twenty feet away, tucked into a crevice, and she could see the faces of Outsiders behind him. Her eyes met his and she saw only concern and determination in them. As she started to look away, another detail caught her eye.
There was a gun in Pasco’s hands. A Tri-Shot. The other Outsiders behind him carried Enforcers.
“Oh, Pasco, you magnificent bastard,” she said.
“What?” Del asked.
Kait pointed. Pasco still looked at her, and Kait realized it wasn’t determination in his eyes, but a need for something. They’d taken these weapons from the Minotaur—likely broken into a locker in the back—and they intended to join the fight. But he was asking her. Or daring her to defy him and toe the COG line.
“Where’d they get those?” Del asked.
“No idea,” Kait replied, “but it’s our last chance at reinforcements, and I say we take it.”
“Under the circumstances, I agree.”
Kait held Salvador’s gaze, nodded once, and saw him return the nod. He turned away then, and started giving orders to his people. In that instant something massive whooshed through the cloud of dust, and in the process it cleared the air for a moment.
Kait caught a glimpse of Augustus Cole in his Mega Mech suit, holding Del’s Minotaur by its nose and swinging it like a club at the second Mega Mech. The gigantic robot suit took the blow square in its face, and flew back into the ravine wall opposite Kait. Cole drove in hard with a knee into the thing’s midsection. It doubled over, bits of metal and sparks flying out in all directions where the two collided.
As it fell, Kait caught a glimpse of its back. She had to blink to make sure she wasn’t seeing things—but no, it was real, and she finally understood.
“Del, look! The pilot of the other mech!”
“A goddamn Reject? Are you fucking kidding me!?”
DeeBees had piloted the mech suits back when their purpose was purely for constructing settlements. To see a Reject inside one… Kait couldn’t begin to imagine how that had happened, or how the thing would behave.
It was tough, that was for sure—and smarter than the other Rejects she’d seen. Somehow it found its footing and cold-clocked Cole’s mech with a mighty blow, right to the side of the head. Cole lost his balance, fell sideways, further pulverizing the already smashed Minotaur that Kait had been steering moments earlier.
Had it fallen the other way, it would have probably demolished the other vehicle, leaving them entirely stranded.
“Enough of this shit!” Cole shouted, loudly enough for them to hear even without comms. “I’ve got better things to do than deal with your ass!” He righted himself, grabbed the other mech by its legs, yanked it off its feet. He twisted, and the mech’s hydraulics strained as Cole heaved the bulky mass back down the ravine.
“Get moving, people!” he shouted. “I’ll hold it off!”
“We can’t leave you alone with that thing!” Kait replied.
“What the hell are you going to do to it?”
“The man has a point,” Del replied. “Marcus! Regrouping at the forward truck!”
“Copy that,” the veteran replied. “Kait, I’m near the Outsiders. They seem to have armed themselves.”
“They’ll help,” Kait said in a tone that cut off any argument. “Join up with them, get them to Lovings’ Minotaur. We’ll meet you there.”
“Let’s move!” Del shouted, alre
ady running.
There was a hellish screech from above. A Flock, swooping down with fantastic speed. She knocked Del to the ground just before they hit.
Shit, this is all we need…
Across the Ravine, Marcus and the Outsiders opened fire on the group of Leeches. It was quite a sight, she thought, seeing Marcus with his Lancer and Pasco right beside him, balancing the Tri-Shot against his hip, the two of them pouring hundreds of rounds into the writhing mass.
The creatures roiled, trying to find a way out of the line of fire. Their dead fell. Five, ten, then more. Splatting against the ground like so much discarded meat. Pasco shouted an Outsider war cry as he pushed the Tri-Shot right up to its overheating point and beyond. Smoke streamed off its spinning barrels.
Marcus finally elbowed him and got him to ease off.
Pasco listened, nodded, let go of the trigger. His people were still firing into the flock. Controlled bursts, and they fanned out to give each other clear lines.
In that instant, Kait saw the future.
One future, anyway. Outsiders and COG, side by side, fighting the Swarm. It was how it should be. Getting them to the safety of New Ephyra might be a first step, but it didn’t have to be the last. She needed to convince First Minister Jinn of that. Tell her what happened out here.
Del tugged at her sleeve. Kait broke from her train of thought and ran beside him, motioning for Marcus and the Outsiders to do the same as the flock finally darted off toward safer ground, most likely wanting to build speed for another pass. Everyone piled into the one remaining Minotaur.
The Outsiders crammed in back. Kait, Del, and Marcus all stood on the running boards, Lancers at the ready. Lovings remained at the wheel. Once Kait pounded on the door he floored it.
The tires spun in the gravel, found purchase, and they roared ahead.
In the back, Pasco continued to fire on the flock, using his Tri-Shot with a bit more finesse now. Easing off each time it started to smoke.
A work in progress, she mused.
Behind them, Cole stood in the middle of the ravine, facing away from them. Beyond him Kait could see the lumbering Reject-driven Mega Mech working its way back up. Its limbs twitched, its head and torso bending and snapping as if the parts weren’t put on properly. The freakish, inhuman way it moved made her skin crawl.
Cole waited, letting it come. He hopped back and forth like a boxer waiting for his exhausted opponent. Then the dust kicked up from the Minotaur’s tires started to obscure them.
“Slow down,” Kait shouted. “We’ll lose him.” She bellowed out the back, “Cole! We’ve got to go!”
“I’ll catch up!” he hollered back. “Got some unfinished business.”
“If that flock hits him…” Marcus said.
Kait nodded, but what could they do?
The answer came a second later.
The ravine’s path had straightened out, giving Lovings a chance to build up some speed. Only, he wasn’t.
“There’s another Minotaur ahead!” Lovings shouted. Twisting forward, Kait saw it, too. The truck was parked at an angle, blocking one side of the pass. It appeared to have skidded sideways and hit the ravine wall, partially collapsing its tail section. DeeBees lay on the ground around it, Leeches attached to their backs, shoulders, or legs.
“I guess that’s our reinforcements,” Del growled. “Jinn couldn’t spare any Gears.”
Lovings swerved to avoid the vehicle, slowing slightly in the process. Kait leapt from the running board and landed in a crouch next to the truck.
“What are you doing?” Del shouted.
“Helping Cole,” she replied. “Keep going!”
“Hell no—we stick together!”
He hopped down too, as did Marcus. The pair of them flanked her, covering her as Kait raced to the door of the Minotaur and yanked it open.
“Fahz,” she breathed.
The Gear lay slumped over the steering wheel. Blood ran down his face from a broken nose. His eyes were shut, and he wasn’t moving.
“Kait?” Del called. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast please!” He and Marcus started shooting. At what she had no idea. She was distantly aware of the receding sound of Lovings’ Minotaur as it raced away, and the rattling gunfire of the Outsiders in the back, punctuated by occasional salvos from Pasco and his Tri-Shot.
She felt Fahz’s neck. Found a pulse.
A strong one. She shook him.
“Fahz,” she urged. “Get up. We’ve got to move.” He stirred. His eyes fluttered. Then in the blink of an eye he rocked back hard into the seat and swung his right hand up. His sidearm, an MX8, was pressed to Kait’s neck.
“It’s me,” she said, “it’s Kait.”
“We’re here to rescue you,” he said blearily, the gun still under her chin.
“Yeah. Thanks. Thought we’d return the favor.”
The man shook his head, and when he opened his eyes again they were a little clearer. He moved the gun away, glanced around, then fixed his gaze on her.
“We need to go,” Kait said. “Now.”
“Right. Right. Okay.”
She helped him down to the dirt. He was unsteady on his feet, but seemed to gain more of his senses with each second. Blood still trickled from his nose.
“The Mega Mech,” he said, gesturing in a random direction. “I think it—”
“We know,” Del said. “Cole’s handling it. Or, trying to.”
“And we should be helping him,” Marcus added.
“Okay, I’m with you,” Fahz replied. “Just point me at them.” Then he walked off, in the wrong direction.
For fuck’s sake… Kait was about to say something snarky, but then he turned at the back of the Minotaur and started to root around in the cargo area. When he emerged, he was holding a Salvo rocket launcher with both hands. The huge weapon, meant for a DR-1 combat DeeBee to carry, was a handful, but Fahz hefted it with ease.
“Like I said, point me at them.”
“Uh. Right back there.” Del stepped aside.
Kait had a different idea. She quickly hopped back into the cab of the truck and tried the engine. It fired up on the first try.
“Get on!” she said, throwing it into gear.
They did so.
She stomped on the accelerator and pointed the truck straight toward the confusing cloud of dust and mech limbs back down the ravine.
“Be ready to jump,” she told her passengers.
“Jump?” Del asked. “We just got on.”
“Yes, jump! On my mark. Except you, Fahz!”
“Why the fuck not?”
“You want revenge on that Reject Mech? You’ll have it. Aim that Salvo straight up and be ready to shoot.”
“Shoot at what?”
“You’ll see.”
She eased off the accelerator.
The timing had to be perfect.
As they neared the two Mechs it became clear that Cole was losing, and the reason seemed to be the total unpredictability of the way his opponent moved. Piloted by a corrupted DeeBee, the other Mech was erratic, throwing wild savage punches, kicking and scrapping like a feral child with a thirst for blood. It was all Cole could do to fend the savagery off, much less do any damage.
Kait wondered if his plan was to tire the thing out. A fine plan if that had been an actual person in there. Watching from a distance, though, Kait could see what he couldn’t. Something about the DeeBee’s original code was showing through its mangled brains. The tendency to put its feet in a certain position before it delivered an attack, as if bracing itself against the kickback from a gun it didn’t hold.
“Oh shit,” Fahz said. He was next to her, in the passenger seat but with the door open.
“You see what I see?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Then you know what to do.”
“Hell yeah.” He’d done this before. Weeks earlier he’d sparred with a DeeBee configured to simulate a boxing opponent. JD had bea
ten it because, as JD put it, the DeeBee wasn’t programmed to win—only give him a good match. And this one, despite all its insane randomness, seemed to be doing the same.
It was the stance that gave it away. Bracing itself for a return punch, allowing its opponent a chance.
Kait aimed the Minotaur and floored it. Ahead, the mech was setting its feet to deliver another wild punch. Cole was rocked back against the ravine wall, and even without the comm Kait thought she could hear his grunt of pain. The Mech took the blow, but Cole was inside it, and it was shaking him worse than any tackle he’d ever suffered.
Kait drove right through the Reject’s legs.
Fahz leaned out.
Aimed upward.
Waited just long enough…
Then he fired.
The Salvo rocket launcher unleashed four projectiles in rapid succession. Kait couldn’t see if they hit, but Fahz’s whoop of victory told the story. He’d done it.
Skidding hard to the left, she slid in the gravel, almost throwing her companion from the vehicle in the process. As they ground to a stop, she looked left in time to see the wounded Mega Mech stagger. Fahz had scored a direct hit on the one place the thing was vulnerable—the pilot’s harness, halfway up the back. It was a ruin, now. Billowing flame and shooting gouts of sparks into the air.
Then the whole machine started to topple over backward.
Fahz grabbed her by the collar and yanked her from the vehicle. She fell out the passenger door and into the dirt next to him. Together they scrambled for cover as the huge machine fell onto their Minotaur.
When the dust settled, there was only the wreck of the machine, and Augustus Cole standing over it, triumphant.
“That’s what you get for takin’ on the Cole Train, bitch!” He whooped at the sky. It was a sight to behold, seeing a Mega Mech pound its own chest in a victory celebration.
“Should we tell him?” Fahz asked, coughing.
“Nah,” Kait replied. “Let him have this one.” She extended a hand and helped the Gear to his feet. There was a moment, then, where she felt some respect for the man.
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