Instead, the room fell silent again and it seemed the attacker had once again gone on the prowl. The bounty hunter glanced at the door and wondered if he would try to sneak out and target Cyra and her team while they were still reorganizing. More dinging noises clinked from several different directions. Obviously, the sniper now tried to distract him. With an inward sigh, he reached for his audio switch again but hesitated. If his opponent was aware of that trick, he could simply set off a small explosion or drop a few of the hanging droid rigs to deafen him while he listened using the enhanced audio.
Something clicked, followed by a high-pitched screech that told him something was coming online. Magellan acted on instinct and raised his rifle quickly. A droid aimed at him from where it hung on the racks above. He fired and caught it squarely in its unarmored chest. Something fell as the mechanical powered down and he recognized that it was a gun. The sniper had used his gun’s core to briefly power the droid. Shit!
He pivoted and held his rifle up as his attacker plunged toward him with a plasma blade in hand. A vicious swipe seared the blade into the side of the rifle barrel. The bounty hunter had paid good credits to make sure the barrel was reinforced in case he had to defend himself at close quarters, but the heat of the blade still gouged into it as they struggled against one another. He grimaced when his assailant drew his other arm back and a long blade jutted from the top of it. With a swift, unexpected twist, he kneed his attacker in the chest and flipped his rifle to thump him in the side of his helmet with the butt.
His adversary collided with the side of the assembly line. Magellan dropped the rifle, drew his pistol once again, and prepared to fire when the man thrust his arm forward and the long blade fired out of the gauntlet. He tilted his head instinctively but it still slid along the side of his neck. A hiss escaped him as he fought the shock of the deep incision and the man turned and flipped his plasma blade to go for the kill. The bounty hunter had little room to maneuver but was determined not to fall back. In fact, he let the blade strike him in the chest where his armor was thickest and caught his opponent by the arm in a surprise attack. He raised a leg, drove it into the man’s knee, and held him as he fell, then placed the barrel of his gun against his foe’s helmet.
The man looked up and his visor slid to the side, a small admission of defeat. “Can I have your name?”
The bounty hunter nodded before he pulled the trigger. “Magellan Desperaux.”
He closed his eyes. “Well fought.”
Lycan hurled the hacker who clung to his arm into the wall and glowered at Chiyo, who fiddled with the device on her arm.
“Are you trying to hack my gear?” he asked with a smirk. “It’s no good. You techie types are easy pickings for me. I don’t have anything fancy for you to try to get your slimy little—” His words broke off when a redline appeared on the left of his screen. For once, he was shocked. “Jalloh?” he whispered as the vital sign vanished.
He dragged in a deep breath and trembled a little before he uttered a furious howl. “You goddamned bastards!” he roared as he drew his cannon and began to fire randomly in a blind rage. The infiltrator and her remaining team either dove for cover or tried to get out of the room. He was forced to stop firing when the weapon overheated and he began to swing it wildly to shatter the consoles and other equipment. He kicked and stamped on both the already destroyed droids and unconscious bodies alike.
Chiyo, however, used the chaos to finish what she had started. She had already deduced that all his equipment couldn’t be sabotaged, although she wished she had come up with whatever had set him off. Instead, she completed her mission to shut down the interior defenses in case this beast of a man destroyed the place—which seemed very likely. But as she finished and all sections of the building she had access to went dark, Lycan caught her with a backhand and flipped her. She landed awkwardly and banged the back of her helmet against the hard floor. As she tried to force herself to her feet, he snatched her by the neck, lifted her up, and pressed the heated barrel of his cannon into her abdomen.
He snarled at her while the heat of the barrel began to burn through her underlay and dug it deeper as if he tried to skewer her with it.
“Purge!” she cried and the power in her shields expunged to create a wave of energy, enough to thrust him back and loosen his grip. She kicked off his chest to finally wrench herself free. He had already recovered when she landed and lunged at her with his cannon raised. She stared helplessly, all out of options, but an orb of green energy rocketed into his chest and shoved him back a few feet before it exploded and drove him into the wall, which cratered with the force of impact.
Kaiden walked up, already charging another shot. “Are you done here?” he asked.
She nodded and gestured for any of the hackers who could still walk to help move the unconscious or wounded out of the room. “I have access to most of the systems and I’ve shut down what I can.”
“Good. Kit is getting into position and we’ll wrap this up soon. Where’s Cyra?”
Before she could answer, Lycan charged out of the hole in the wall. The ace fired another shot but his gauntlet glowed red and he simply released the orb as they flung themselves to the side to dodge the giant.
Kaiden vented his rifle as Chiyo drew her sub-machine gun. “What did you do to piss him off?” he asked.
“I think something happened to a teammate of his,” she explained and aimed as their adversary turned and finally vented his cannon. “But you did shoot him into the wall.”
“Fair enough,” he admitted as he closed Sire’s vent. “I’ll go for the head this time.”
Chapter Thirty
Wolfson shoved the barrel of his shotgun into the chest of a droid and fired with a broad grin. He continued to run down the line and fired at any droid in his path while four Rider heavies provided backup with chain gun fire that obliterated the mechanicals in wide swaths to either side.
“This is hardly better than dummy practice,” the security officer hollered. He retrieved a metal stick, pressed a button on the side that revealed a plasma blade in the shape of a hatchet, and cleaved into the side of a droid’s head. “They’ve gone sluggish. Is this your doing, Sasha?”
“Perhaps, in a minimal way,” the commander conceded and his breathing seemed to have grown slightly heavier. “I’ve yet to destroy the last array, so I would think that this is due to Cyra and her team’s efforts, but I can’t establish a link with them.”
He lodged the plasma ax into another droid’s chest and fired his shotgun at one that tried to approach behind him. Something clunked into the side of his head and his visor cracked as he toppled. He felt his helmet gingerly and found a hole through which he could feel the foam touching his scalp and grunted as he unlocked his headgear and yanked it off.
“Sasha! You haven’t dealt with that sniper.”
“I’ve been a little distracted,” the other man retorted and a shot echoed in the comms. “On top of that, she’s using a stealth generator. Isaac can’t locate her unless I’m close.”
“How close?” Wolfson asked and glanced in the direction of the shot.
“About twenty to twenty-five meters,” the marksman explained.
He flipped the ax decisively. “I’ll get ʼem to come out. You be ready to take ʼem out,” he ordered as he barreled forward to find the sniper. He hacked and blasted his way through the horde as several jockeys landed around him, followed by a couple of dozen of their droids that immediately entered the fray. They were finally pushing back.
Lycan shut the vent on his cannon and took a moment to look at his chest. Although he still growled with real annoyance, he did have the look of someone mildly impressed. “You’re a sneaky little bastard,” he muttered and glared at Kaiden. “But that was a good strike.”
“I didn’t exactly tip-toe around,” he retorted. “I sprinted down the hall, in fact. You’re merely a big-ass target.” He tilted his head to the side and studied him. “You also seem fam
iliar.”
“He was part of that team at the arena on Vox,” Chiyo explained. “I thought the same thing when I first saw him.”
“You’re the one who beat Jaxon,” he stated angrily as the memory became clear.
The man’s face contorted between his anger and newfound amusement. “The last time we were at ArenaMax… Yeah, that Tsuna.” He shook his head. “I told Jalloh we should have simply dealt with you there. We were supposed to eliminate some Nexus students and a group happened to be on Vox? It was too much of a coincidence.” His face finally set into a grim frown. “I guess I’ll make up for the mistake.”
“Kaiden, keep him in place,” Chiyo whispered over the comm. “Look above.”
He risked a furtive glance and noticed a string of cables and wires, nodded to her, and raised his rifle. “The mistake was working for the AO, and we’ll correct that.”
The giant snorted and held his gauntlet up, which began to glow red. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, kid—neither me nor them.” He attacked as Kaiden fired and Chiyo broke off to the side. The large man once again batted the charged shot aside, but the ace had only charged it halfway and quickly fired another while he was in mid-swing. This one struck him in the stomach, thrust him back, and cracked his armor. Kaiden holstered his rifle, retrieved his shield emitter, and activated it as he lunged into the larger man.
Damn, he was strong. His feet scrabbled for purchase as Lycan tried to force him back while his other hand moved to his cannon. “Dumbass, what are you trying to prove?” he asked and prepared to fire.
Chiyo leapt up, grasped his shoulder, and hoisted herself up. She snatched one of the cables above the giant and stabbed it into the back of his neck. He shrieked as a surge of electricity sizzled through him. His erratic jerks dislodged the infiltrator and she fell as her partner broke away and covered them both with his shield. Their adversary’s gauntlets began to spark and in seconds, they burst to burn and mangle his hands. His cannon clattered free and his body soon followed to collapse face-first.
The ace deactivated the shield and helped Chiyo to her feet. “Do you think he’s dead?”
“I pick up a faint pulse,” Chief informed him. “Do you wanna finish it?”
He looked at the man’s burnt, crippled hands. “I don’t think he’s in any shape to run off or fight back for now.”
“And as a contracted member of the organization, he’ll be useful for information, possibly even in testimony,” she added.
Kaiden shrugged. “The first part, maybe, but I don’t think we can get our hopes that high.”
“Either way, I was able to get some data about this facility before he trashed most of the consoles,” she continued. “But nothing more than some of their server information and security protocols. Nothing of much use outside of the facility.”
“I ran past a ton of different server rooms and offices on the way here. One of them is bound to have something.”
“I have a location,” she stated and showed him a map on her tablet. “Part of those security protocols mentioned this room several times. I’m sure they are storing something of importance there.”
“That’s near Kit,” he pointed. “I need to get back there and make sure everything is okay.”
She nodded and put her tablet away. “Go on ahead. I need to check on the rest of my team and we’ll head over if everyone is in good enough shape.”
“Okay.” He nodded and drew his rifle once more. “And good job with the giant. It seems you can cause as much of a ruckus as I can on occasion.”
“About as much as you can remain quiet,” she teased and headed out the door. “We’re close, Kaiden. Let’s finish this.”
He nodded, about to say he agreed when a garbled voice spoke over the comms. “Ca…ne…hear me?”
“Who is this?” he asked and noticed that the infiltrator had also stopped to listen.
“Cy…a… Thi…is Cyra.” The woman’s voice cleared suddenly. “The power was knocked out. I’m trying to get everything back to normal, but comms are still in short range. Can you hear me?”
“Perfectly now,” Chiyo stated. “Are you all right?”
“Me and my team are finally in the facility and shutting everything down,” she explained. “We’re fine now, thanks to Magellan, but he’s hurt. He had some medical supplies we’ve used to help him out, but he needs evac.”
“I’ll get Julio to swing around,” the ace said quickly. “He should still be in the air and has the space. If you have explosives, blow a hole in the wall and ping your position. If not, ping your position and make sure your heads are down. He’ll take care of it.”
“Speaking of explosives, Kaiden,” Magellan added, his voice shallow and weak. “I have a few planted on the upper and middle levels. I planned to use them if they decided to return and take their base back. You could still use them if necessary.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he stated. “But Kit is at their core now, and if we have to, we can blow this entire place to smithereens.”
The bounty hunter chuckled. “I guess that means my little bombs are simply rather quaint now, eh?”
“You were a great help, Magellan,” Cyra assured him.
“You hold tight, Magellan,” Kaiden ordered. “I’ll get on the line with Julio and let him know to swing around, Cyra.”
“Understood,” she answered. “Thank you.”
They signed off and he glanced at Chiyo. “I guess we’re closer to wrapping this up than we thought.”
“The droids are still activated,” Chief noted. “I guess their main control wasn’t in the facility.”
“Then I would assume it’s in the main power station with Kit—or the room I’ll be heading to,” she reasoned.
“Then let’s get this done,” the ace demanded. “We’ve been here a little over an hour, now, and we’ve definitely sent a message to the organization, but I don’t think we want to be here if they want to reply.”
She nodded. “Agreed.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Wolfson kicked down the door to one of the storage units and a small lighting device activated on his shoulder plate to emit several thin green beams as he walked slowly inside. A jockey had notified him that he saw the sniper run into this section of the plaza after their stealth generator dropped. Either they were running low on energy or they were wounded.
A trap was also possible, or they could have fallen back here to— Wait, was that array Sasha was looking for over there? The lights continued to scan the room in a cone shape. Without his helmet, he hoped to catch his quarry by having the lights refract off their cloaking. At a thud to his left, he turned and fired his shotgun to demolish a barrel and pepper holes into a box of parts but there was no sniper or active droid. He was getting tunnel vision and needed to remain alert. The droids had become active again out there so they weren’t out of the woods yet.
A crunch at the door made him whirl in that direction. He almost fired when he saw the bright eyes but he noted the blue colors in time. They were droids but those on their team. They entered the room, their blades at the ready on their arms, and he turned to continue his exploration but paused when something occurred to him. Why were they there? The droids were supposed to be on the front lines, not wandering about. Shit.
The security officer yanked his arm back to drive his ax in a blind blow behind him. It dug into one of the hacked droids’ chest as it tried to sneak up on him. The arm still descended and he raised his shoulder defensively. The blade bounced off his armor but sliced his light emitter off. He booted the droid off his weapon as the other tried to leap on top of him. Wolfson caught it by the neck on the underside of his blade, hurled it down, and fired his shotgun into its head. His first assailant was apparently not quite as dead as he thought and raised an arm to fire the blade at him. He thwacked the weapon out of the air with his ax before he delivered two shots at the stubborn robot. One felled it and the other was simply for good measure. T
he lights in its eyes died as he walked up to it and triggered another lighting device from the opposite shoulder, this one a normal flashlight.
As he examined the mechanical, he caught something in his image as it reflected off the metal chest. A red line streaked from his chest to his head. Shit! Wolfson raised his ax in the same moment that a shot was fired. The blade exploded and shards speared into his face as he scrambled back and emptied his shotgun in the direction of the laser light. Most seemed to strike the railing, walls, or ceiling in his blind fire, but at least a couple found their mark.
A pained shout was quickly followed by the thump of something hitting the floor. He tossed the handle of his blade aside and reloaded. The sniper’s cloak fell away and he lost a second to surprise when he realized it was a woman. She drew her pistol and took aim at the security officer. He raised one arm and two kinetic rounds lodged into his gauntlet. With his free hand, he raised his weapon as a third bullet seared along the side of his forehead.
Wolfson fired and gripped his weapon tightly to right it from the kickback. His assailant had rolled away but some of the spread caught her side. Still, she staggered to her feet and vaulted over a conveyor belt. He fired again and heard only the loud clank of metal.
“Sasha, she’s at my position!” he called. “She’ll get away!”
“She won’t,” the commander stated calmly. A door at the other end of the building began to slide open in the same moment that the woman reactivated her cloak. “Sasha!”
A figure appeared in the doorway. The loud report of a rifle was followed by another thump. Sasha flipped his rifle and aimed it at the fallen sniper while Wolfson hurried over. The woman’s cloak dissipated as quickly as it had activated.
“Humph.” The large man grunted and slung his shotgun over his shoulder. “Were you simply waiting to make some grand entrance?”
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