The ace tried to return the gesture but they spun hastily in an effort to dodge a sniper shot. One was hit in their pack, which ruptured and exploded and knocked the other one out of the sky. He grimaced and told the others to keep moving while he went to go check on the jockey. A machine gunner followed and he recognized the man’s helmet as the one belonging to the gang member with the rosary.
They reached the fallen man, who struggled under a droid’s leg that threatened to crush his chest. Kaiden raised his weapon but the machine gunner fired first. The strike flung the mechanical off the fallen merc but he hadn’t vented his gun so it overheated. Their enemy simply focused on him and fired. The ace grabbed him and pulled him down and the lasers careened overhead. He fired and demolished the droid’s legs. The body tumbled but it pushed itself up and aimed at them once more. He dropped Sire and drew Debonair to deliver three quick shots into its head and complete the job.
The machine gunner stood and proffered a hand. “Thanks,” he said as he took it and the merc hauled him to his feet.
“Same to you,” the gunner responded. “My name’s Vick.”
“I guess we didn’t really have introductions on the ship,” he recalled and shook quickly before releasing his hand. “I’m Kaiden.”
“The gate isn’t opening!” Fritz announced over the comms in an irate voice. “They must have flushed the code out already.”
“We’re all dead if we can’t get backup,” the merc stated flatly.
Kaiden nodded. “It would take too long to blow through it, even if it’s possible with what we have.” He looked at Chief in his HUD. “We need to get it open. Where to, Chief?”
“Outside the main building. I pick up a terminal near the gate itself, probably a fallback method. Get me to it and I’ll get it open,” the EI promised.
He motioned for Vick to follow. “All ground troops, head to the main gate,” he hollered into the comms. “We’re gonna crack that thing open and need cover while we work.” He received several responses. Some confirmed while others stated they were pinned down. Quite obviously, the gate was the priority now and they needed to move quickly.
The two moved through the winding paths and used the grid to their advantage as they darted around corners when they were set upon by droids. Opening the gate was their main focus, although after their last attack, he made sure to keep an eye on the roofs as well. The duo made a right turn and a trail of lasers from above shrieked down the line they had previously run through. A fighter banked and circled away. While he was thankful for the intervention, he also wished he had actually waited until they were out of the way rather than their safety simply being a happy coincidence. Things were becoming hectic.
When they were close to the gate, Chief nodded to him and disappeared to access the terminal. Two other groups—one of heavies and the other mostly ground troops with shotguns and machine guns—joined forces. They brought company as several bots tailed each group. The two teams circled and fired with abandon through each line. While the maneuver funneled the droids directly to them, it was a mixed blessing as their numbers grew rapidly. It felt more like they were merely staving them off rather than actually decreasing their numbers. A group of jockeys landed on the roofs around them and fired at the unsuspecting droids to some effect. Unfortunately, it didn’t take them long to react. Several switched their guns or cannons for arm blades and bounded up the buildings to drive the jockeys back. While some fought them off or took to the air, pained cries on the comms weren’t encouraging.
Several large blasts from above pounded the mechanicals with impressive results. Kaiden grinned as Wolfson’s ship circled. A few on the roof turned their attention to him as well. The ace charged a shot as they tried to aim at the ship, fired in the second it was ready, and swept them off the roof as the head officer pulled away to focus on another cannon.
“Got it!” Chief declared.
Several loud clicks confirmed that the main gate had unlocked and the doors began to pull apart. “Keep it up. I’ll stay in here in case they try to shut it again before everyone is inside.”
“To the main path,” Kaiden ordered. They could meet the reinforcements as they poured in. The heavies cleared a route and one raised an arm to signal the others to follow. The group rushed out, firing behind them and above as they raced to the center. They fortunately didn’t have to wait long. Once the first crack of light gleamed from the other side of the gate, it was immediately blocked by fighters in red, blue, or copper armor who surged inside. The new arrivals fired wildly as the doors opened wider and more raced into the fray. The droids finally began to retreat and find cover of their own when a couple of hundred troops joined the attack. More importantly, a large horde of their own mechanicals began to assault the enemy bots. Some even dropped in from above, having tried to climb the walls before the gate was opened and now finally made their way across.
A large whir sounded above and a giant ship appeared with pods all along the underside. These detached from the ship and descended in free-fall. The sides opened as soon as they landed and Azure Halo droids emerged, some even virtually on top of their opponents. Metal fists immediately engaged in a battle and hammered noisily into metal heads and chests.
The ace smiled as he vented his rifle. If those assholes in the tower thought they were trouble before, they were gonna cause some real chaos now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“All troops, get out there and support the droids!” Lycan bellowed as the AO soldiers ran past him to join the fight. “Raz, I’ll leave a contingent with you, but we need the cannons— Three are down? Well, that leaves three more. Use those. Then get them working!” he shouted as he dragged his battle gauntlets on and stormed down the hall.
Magellan peered around the corner and watched the feral man march away. He looked back and nodded. “It’s probably best we don’t try to confront him here directly.”
“I won’t argue with that,” one of the hackers in the group muttered.
“We’ll split up here, correct?” Cyra asked and readied her pistol.
“It seems the best place.” The bounty hunter nodded and glanced at Chiyo. “Everyone knows where to go, right?”
“Of course. I’ll handle the interior security while Cyra targets the robotics facility. When we have control, we can allow access for Kit’s group to go in and take care of the core as well as let the soldiers inside to continue the fight.”
He held up an explosive. “I’ll cause a few distractions of my own. Are you sure you don’t need me for backup?”
They both shook their head. “We’re infiltrators. This is what we do.”
“Fair enough.” He chuckled and stowed the explosive. “But be careful. I’m sure most of the trouble is outside, but you’re still likely to run into a couple of droids and security along the way, and I’m sure that whoever is running the places you want to take over won’t simply lie down for you.”
“We’ll be convincing,” Chiyo stated. “We need to hurry.”
Magellan jogged down the center hall. The two women nodded to each other before the group separated into two teams, one with six members and the other with five.
Cyra and her five teammates were the first to run into opposition—two turrets hanging on the ceiling above the next hallway. She held her arm up and a holoconsole appeared around her gauntlet. These should be easy enough to control, if only temporarily. Metallic footsteps alerted her to a group of ten droids that turned into the corridor and she smiled when she realized this would work out well.
She connected to the turrets’ systems, issued the override command, and watched the link-up percentage gain as the mechanicals marched closer. Behind her, the other members of her team armed themselves quietly. A checkmark appeared when the command completed. It had taken eight seconds, which was longer than normal.
The turrets turned as the droids passed under them, fired, and destroyed about four before the others turned to retaliate. The infiltrator relea
sed the connection and transferred her focus to taking control of the remaining enemy. She managed to commandeer two a second before the turrets fell. The connection time had taken eleven seconds, and the control wasn’t strong. She wished she had more time to study what was some powerful security for remote OS.
Unfortunately, she had other priorities. She directed the mechanicals she had control of to turn and fire on the others, keeping their backs to her as she ran out. Two others remained and she drew her pistol and charged it while she grasped the back of one of the defender’s head. Electricity arced out of her glove and fried it as the other turned and an arm blade unsheathed. She simply raised her pistol and fired at its face at point-blank range.
Her adversary teetered noisily but didn’t go down, and she stumbled back but righted herself quickly and prepared to attack again. Several other shots resounded from behind her and saved her the effort. She grinned and looked at her team with a wave of thanks for their assistance before they pressed on.
Chiyo opened a door cautiously, hoping to get out of sight of approaching droids. She froze and aimed instinctively when she saw more mechanicals within. These, however, were immobile and no power seemed to emanate from them at all. Kaitō would have let her know if something was amiss. The group filed inside quickly and waited for the patrol to pass while she studied the inactive robots.
“Do you think they are defective?” she asked one of the hackers after a moment.
He shrugged and moved to the back of one to take a look. “They look like older models and don’t have some of the same details in the rig as I’ve seen on the others.”
“Do you think we should take them?” another asked.
“That’s exactly what I think.” She estimated that there were about eight in there that she could see and more could be stored in the pods in the back. It was more likely, though, that they’d been disassembled for parts or in preparation for reworks.
“Can we get them running?” she asked.
“They’re missing power units, but those should be easy enough to find,” the first hacker stated and motioned for another to come over. “Sala, do you have any spare drives with a droid OS? These are probably smoked.”
“I have one,” she said and held up a small rectangular drive. “I can copy it to others if we have spares.”
“Give it here,” he stated and held his hand out. “I’ll install it in this one and have it connect to the others and daisy-chain it. That’ll be easier and faster.”
“Good call.” Chiyo nodded and raised her pistol. “We’re close to the security room. I’ll have a look around and when those are ready, we’ll take it by force.”
“Got it.” He nodded. She opened the door and peered out in both directions to confirm that neither droids nor guards were present. Cautiously, she darted out and a hasty scan of the area identified a vent that would have access into the security room. She retrieved a multi-tool and opened the grate, clambered in, and followed the tunnel.
When she finally made her way to their destination, at least a dozen people worked on several consoles and clearly tried to reactivate or purge the systems Fritz had tampered with.
“Cannons are almost ready!” one shouted to a man in the middle of the room who worked on several holoscreens at once.
“When they are activated, blow as many of them away as you can,” he instructed. “I’ll have the droids hunt those who try to get away.”
Chiyo couldn’t let them get the cannons online. Even a few blasts could cause the attack to falter. Her expression grim, she focused on the console and activated her tech suite.
Raz stiffened and frowned when he had an odd reading from one of the consoles. The screen flashed and the technician working on the machine scrambled quickly to try to fix whatever had gone wrong, but he had seen this before.
“Interesting. A little techie spy is among us,” he whispered and a smile formed on his lips. “Finally, I have someone intriguing to work with.”
Chiyo drifted between several cubes. The optimum attack would be to restructure them to suit her needs, but she didn’t have the time to locate each correct node and simply resorted to destroying or powering down as many as she found. She froze when everything shimmered around her. The blue, iridescent sky-like area above turned dark and red, while the nodes changed to various black shapes that made it difficult to distinguish between them. All the streams of data she had grown accustomed to had become mist-like and whirled in a frenzy rather than flowed as a steady wave.
“And who might you be?” She spun to locate the source of the voice and recognized the man who had stood in the center of the room. He held his hands behind his back and hovered only a few yards away from her, dressed in pants and a shirt that seemed too long and wide for his thin frame. Although she could see micro-chain in the lining, he didn’t wear typical armor and instead, simply had a guard around his mouth and a visor over his eyes.
The infiltrator glanced furtively around while she tried to assess the situation. She had bought a little time but this man had obviously done something since and she didn’t know if he had already righted what she had wronged.
“So you’re not going to answer?” Raz asked and held a hand up. “Fine. I had hoped for even a little real conversation after having to deal with the boring babble of these other techies, but if you don’t want to oblige, I’ll simply have to be rid of you that much quicker.”
Several of the nodes transformed into drones that immediately began to fire at her. She backed away quickly and tried to find safety behind others, but the same process repeated no matter where she went. In desperation, she paused at a pool of the data mist and tried to see if she could replicate whatever it was he was doing, but to no avail.
“You’re not used to someone having this kind of complete control, are you?” he asked teasingly as his creations continued their pursuit. His voice carried to her no matter how far away she was. “My EI, although I’m sure it’s not to the level of yours, has my personal touch,” he explained and grinned when several shots struck her. She spiraled down but managed to right herself and continued to flee—probably, he reasoned, in an attempt to find a point far enough away that she could safely disengage from. Even if she did, it was no matter. Even a small time in his domain would wrack the mind. It should be a simple matter to find and finish her.
In the next moment, she disappeared. But while her body was visibly absent, Raz still felt an odd sensation that implied another presence in his space. Was there another infiltrator he hadn’t seen? Suddenly, his brain pulsed and pain throbbed through him as he tried quickly to force himself out of the suite. Despite his desperate effort, something prevented him from disengaging.
“A basic rule of spycraft is to keep your ideas or talents a secret,” a female voice stated in his head. “I was blindsided by your attack, but if this is merely the work of a cracker EI, that’s much easier to disassemble—although I don’t know about the repercussions to you, given that you’re using it right now.”
“W-w-wait!” he cried, but the world around him began to crack and disintegrate in front of him. He slid through darkness with no point of return or floor to fall to.
Raz’s body stumbled back and collapsed, alarming some of the other techs as his screens went blank.
Chiyo, sweating and breathing deep to adjust after the infiltrator suite deactivated, took a moment to rest and rub her temples.
“They’re ready, Chiyo,” the Halo hacker informed her.
“Good, they’re distracted.” She shuffled in the vent to turn and head to the exit. “Let’s deal with them quickly and take control.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sasha ripped off the terminal covering, placed his pistol against the exposed plate, and fired several shots into the array. He stepped back when it began to spark and smoke. A small fire began as the lights died and the energy readings faded.
“One left, sir,” Isaac informed him. “Should you keep this up, your co
mpletion time for this objective will be among your best.”
“It only matters if it’s effective, Isaac,” he reminded his EI.
He began to move out when a loud voice demanded over the comms, “Sasha, are you there?”
“Julio?” he responded and after a hasty scrutiny to confirm that his position was secure, he leaned behind the relative protection of the walls. “Is everything proceeding well? The cannons haven’t come back on, have they?”
“No, Wolfson and I have destroyed most of them, and I assume the hackers are in position by now,” Julio reasoned. “But another wave is coming out—more droids, but there are guards on the field now as well.”
The commander pushed off the wall, turned, and vaulted up to grab the edge of the roof. He hauled himself up carefully and positioned his rifle to look through the scope at the entrance of the main building. Dozens of soldiers raced out decked out in white and gold armor and wielding obviously modified weapons. “It’s less of a complication and more of an annoyance,” he muttered and lowered his weapon. “Have the fighters make another assault, but be wary of mounted cannons and turrets along the roofs or on the—”
“Sir, incoming projectile—dive back!” Isaac warned as his HUD flashed red. Sasha obeyed and rolled off the building. A bullet clipped the edge of the roof a second after he landed.
“What was that, Isaac? A gyro round?” he asked as he moved into a jog.
“Indeed, sir, from a new opponent. None of the robotic hostiles have been tracked as using that kind of ammunition.”
Sasha nodded. “Another marksman. A pity Magellan isn’t around to deal with them.” He lowered the output of his rifle’s core and inserted a magazine of kinetic rounds into the weapon. “I won’t be able to go about my business as I please if I’m in their sights. I guess I won’t add a new accomplishment to my objective time.”
Raid (Animus Book 9) Page 15