by Nathan Jones
Standing from the pilot's chair, Aiden relinquished it to Barix, who was staying aboard to watch things. Belix and Lana would be as well, the elfin woman manning the guns in case they needed to shoot their way out, and his newest crew member in the shields room in case they took fire.
That left him, Ali, the gunner, and Fix as the boarding party.
Belix, watching them make their final preparations for the mission, smirked as she called attention to the audacity of what they were attempting. “So when these ERI knuckle draggers realize you're attacking them with four people, you think they'll burst out laughing before or after they start shooting?”
Aiden smiled thinly. “Whichever it is, they'll stop when their own robots start shooting back at them.”
“Assuming our old crew mate gave us real codes,” Barix said.
“If not, this'll be the most pathetic raid in history,” Aiden replied grimly as he tucked his trusty old cauterizer, the one he'd been issued when he joined the Preservationist Fleet, into a hidden pouch on his uniform at the small of his back. It was EM shielded, although a careful scan would reveal its presence.
Then again, if security was suspicious enough that he was being carefully scanned, he probably had bigger problems than a concealed weapon.
He led the way down the ramp and towards the reinforced airlock leading deeper into the facility. Unfortunately, that's as far as they got before running into trouble; a security officer was waiting in the corridor beyond, flanked by two hulking combat androids that looked almost exactly like Fix: big and blocky and vaguely humanoid, but not enough to make people uncomfortable.
Aside from the ERI logos on their chests, backs, and shoulders, that is.
“Detach your glove from your suit and roll up your sleeve, please,” the guard said in a bored voice as Aiden and the others filed into the corridor and the airlock cycled closed behind them. While the man spoke, one of the security androids extended an arm and a small sterile blade extended out from a concealed slot.
Aiden did his best not to look alarmed as he stared at the robot stomping forward brandishing the weapon. Had they been found out, and this was a novel way to keep them confused while the robots took them out?
“What, um, is going on?” he asked as he fumbled with his glove to comply, conscious of his concealed cauterizer at the small of his back. With his hands positioned near his waist, he could get at it in an eyeblink.
The security officer snorted. “They didn't give you a heads up? Typical . . . those pencil pushers at Central Coordination probably wouldn't bother to let us know Uris's sun was about to explode until it had incinerated this planet.”
The man shook his head, motioning to the android's blade while it waited patiently to complete its task. “Apparently HAE's companions are some sort of terrifying monsters that rip people apart with their bare hands. New security measures passed down from on high demand we cut everyone coming in and check their blood. Make sure they're not secretly some robotic boogeyman trying to infiltrate.”
“Has that actually happened?” Ali asked, sounding alarmed. Although probably not for the reasons the guard thought. Aiden gave her a sharp look to shut her up before she blew their cover, but the damage was done.
The security officer eyed her dismissively; they were back in their disguises from when they'd visited the Ceras spaceport, so she wasn't her usual eye-catching self. “Void if I know. Although the way this war with HAE is going, it wouldn't surprise me. So this might become standard security protocol for every spaceport and colony world in the universe . . . I'd expect to go through it a lot.” He smiled reassuringly. “Don't worry. It's just a small cut, and we've got antiseptic spray to seal it afterwards. Won't even leave a scar.”
Aiden smiled back, feeling sick to his stomach. Which clenched in a knot when he heard Ali once again speak behind him. “I thought the entire point of companions was that they put human wellbeing above everything else.”
Okay, he got that this subject was one of particular interest to his companion. Even so, he couldn't believe she was pressing like this.
“Guess not,” the guard replied with a shrug. “We've got multiple eyewitness reports and recordings of the things going berserk and violently murdering Movement soldiers. Some sort of new combat protocol, ironically named “Caretaker”. Although honestly, I don't expect to see one showing up here anytime soon.”
It was obvious the man's patience had run out; he gestured curtly to the combat android. Aiden nodded and stepped forward, trying not to panic and tense as the robot's blade descended towards his arm. He expected it to slash deep, opening his wrist lengthwise and leaving him bleeding to death on the floor, but with barely a tug of pressure and mild sting it sliced a short, shallow cut on his arm.
Apparently satisfied, it then produced a standard medical wound sealant and sprayed the cut, then motioned him forward down the corridor. He went, walking behind the ERI guard and his robotic muscle as Dax stepped up to the android.
While Aiden was doing his best to appear casual, he was tensed to act immediately. Because as soon as Ali, at the back of the group with Fix, stepped forward to get cut, the void would rip open and suck them all into pure chaos.
They'd made plans similar to a complication like this, although they hadn't planned specifically for an adult companion checkpoint of all things. Since who could've anticipated anyone viewing HAE's gentle robots as bloodthirsty killing machines? Was that ERI propaganda to incite fear against their hated competitor, or was there some truth to it?
And what the blazes was a Caretaker? He fully intended to ask his companion, assuming they survived the next few minutes.
The security officer was eyeing Ali again, although in interest rather than suspicion; even plain as she currently looked, maybe the man was so starved for companionship on this backwater assignment that he was willing to hit on her anyway.
She smiled back a bit shyly, playing along and keeping his attention.
Aiden reached back for his cauterizer as his companion stepped forward to be sliced. And as the blade was lowering with machine precision to cut her, he drew the weapon and pressed it to the security officer's temple, wrapping his other arm around him to bind his arms and hold him close.
It actually surprised him how smoothly he and his crew worked together over the next few seconds. Most of that was probably thanks to the superior abilities of the Construct and adult companion, although he thought he did well enough with his own part.
As he was taking the guard prisoner, Ali moved in a blur, not to tackle the combat android she faced but to read off its priority override in record time. The gunner did the same for the other combat android, impressively enough almost keeping pace with Ali as he rattled off dozens of syllables in the alphanumeric code. Behind them, Fix stood poised with its cauterizer attachment ready to blow either hulking robot to slag if they so much as twitched.
In no time at all, the companion was getting to work reprogramming the machines they'd just captured, while Aiden manhandled the security officer to the floor to disarm and restrain him.
“What the void is going on?” the man demanded, seeming bewildered that he'd just been attacked by three people and a combat android who'd snuck aboard his facility on a light freighter disguised as a legitimate resupply ship, and had somehow taken over his own androids. Aiden replied by gagging him, then clamped restraints on his hands and feet.
Before they could pat each other's backs on how well that had gone, the light in the corridor dimmed to blood red and a deafening klaxon began blaring along it.
Guess someone had been watching them. Aiden cursed, glancing at Ali; she shook her head, indicating she wasn't done reprogramming the robots.
“Gunner, Fix, with me!” he snapped, tossing the security officer's kinetic force multiplier, or KFM, to the gunner as he charged down the corridor, cauterizer at the ready. Within a few steps Fix had smoothly pushed past him, graceful for all its bulk, to take the lead. The gunner pass
ed him soon after, hefting the KFM in one hand and his cauterizer in the other.
Well, guess he would lead from the back.
Behind them, according to plan, Ali would finish reprogramming the combat androids and make for where the others were stored, ready to begin disabling or reprogramming them to join the attack. She hadn't liked the thought of leaving Aiden's side, but if he and the others ran into trouble she was the only one who'd be able to get them out of it, and having an army of ERI's own security androids at her back would certainly help with that.
Barix abruptly spoke up over his earpiece. “Hey, just a heads up that it looks as if the orbital platform is trying to get a target lock on the ship. Which should be a trick, considering we're in this reinforced docking bay.”
Fantastic. “What can you do about it?”
“I dunno, hover around the bay so it misses? Right now we're a bit occupied dealing with the internal security weapons. Although most of them are antipersonnel and are barely scratching our shields.”
Aiden ducked around a corner, the corridor ahead still looking clear. Although at any moment defensive turrets could pop out of the walls or ceiling or even the floor and start trying to fry them. “Great. While you're at it, see if you can hack into the facility using the codes Elyssa gave us and help us get to the control room. I want to finish this before it gets messy.”
“We must have different ideas of what constitutes “messy,” the slight man muttered.
Almost on top of that reply, Ali spoke over the comm. “I'm working on hacking in, my love, but it's going to be more difficult than expected. Apparently, HAE's got a reputation for their hacking abilities and ERI's gotten paranoid since starting this war with them. They've got an ironclad lockdown going . . . even the security codes we've got, which are valid by the way, aren't going to help us until we're in the control room.”
That wasn't what he wanted to hear at the moment. And what he didn't want to see was the four combat androids pouring out of a room up ahead, smoothly opening fire the moment they came into view.
Fix reacted just as quickly, spraying smoke and foam into the corridor ahead of it to foul up the enemies' visual and other sensors, and sending out a spray of noisemaking chips from a pneumatic launcher in one arm to throw out their auditory sensors. On top of returning fire with its cauterizer, of course.
His combat android still took a few shots before completing those countermeasures, although thankfully they all looked to be superficial.
Aiden had already hit the deck, using Fix as cover and firing around it blindly down the corridor. The gunner was doing the same, although he broke off long enough to rush to the nearest door and slam his captured KFM at it. The first hit made the solid metal fold inward around the blow with a deafening screech, the weapon's amplified force crumpling it like it had been struck by a battering ram. The second hit knocked the door completely free and sent it flipping across the opened room.
The young man immediately dove inside, barely an instant ahead of chillingly accurate fire from down the corridor as the ERI robots homed in on the noise he'd made.
Aiden used those shots to determine where the enemy was firing from and returned fire, which quickly diverted the cauterizer blasts back his way. Fix made a tortured noise and slumped onto its knees, its torso almost completely slagged and glowing red, then orange, and finally white; it was scrap, and wouldn't even be useful as a shield for much longer.
Taking the hint, Aiden dove through the open doorway after the gunner, cursing as he slammed his elbow on the twisted door. Behind him, cauterizer blasts screamed through the spot he'd just abandoned and continued on down the corridor as Fix became a molten puddle.
“Coming, my love!” Ali said urgently in his ear. “Hold tight, we'll be there soon!”
Aiden hoped the “we” with her would be dozens of reprogrammed combat androids. He'd ended up in some sort of robotics lab, all gleaming metallic surfaces and expensive equipment, as well as what looked like parts of combat androids.
Along with other parts; for a horrifying moment he thought he was looking at the people who'd been ripped to pieces that the security officer had been talking about, now scattered across the long shiny tables in the middle of the room. Then he realized he was looking at companions, either normal or adult, and concluded ERI must be trying to reverse engineer the technology.
The gunner was already scrambling for the other side of the room, where more doorways offered an escape. As the young man ran he quietly whispered terse, efficient descriptions into his earpiece, probably to Ali describing where they were going and how she could catch up to them.
Feeling exposed without a combat android to hide behind, Aiden settled for ducking below the surface of the tables and scuttling as fast as he could after his weapons officer. That didn't do anything good for his joints, and he was definitely feeling every one of his 41 years within the first dozen feet.
But considering the alternative was getting his head blown off by who knew how many angry robots hot on his heels, he grit his teeth and kept going.
The gunner was already to the door and punching in the access code. For a moment Aiden was afraid it wouldn't work, but then it soundlessly slid open and the young man eased inside, weapons ready.
Aiden threw a couple smoke grenades from his pouch, acutely aware of the six feet of open space to the door and the androids pouring into the room behind him. As soon as the billowing clouds obscured his end of the room, he braced himself for pain and dove across the space and through the opening.
Into, as it turned out, yet another firefight.
The gunner had thrown smoke grenades of his own that obscured the far end of the room, which looked like some sort of storage bay lined with shelves full of advanced robotics technology. The only thing that could be seen in the confusion were cauterizer blasts pouring back and forth between the shelves, signaling at least two robots were in here with them.
Aiden ducked behind cover at the end of a row of shelves and returned fire, counting off the seconds he had until the pursuing androids filled the doorway behind him and fried him. Somewhere in the chaos and obscuring smoke he heard his crew member give a sudden hiss, as good as a shout of pain for the disciplined young man, and bit back a curse as he fired a few final shots and made for the source of the noise to help if he could.
This was looking bad, as bad as any situation he'd ever been in, but he wasn't about to lose his gunner. However he felt about the weapons officer, he might as well just blow up his ship himself without that expert accuracy complementing his piloting skills.
He found the gunner on the ground, huddled behind the smoking remains of a combat android with his right arm a charred mess. He was probably in incredible pain, but if so he gave no sign of it as he used his left hand to fire blindly down a row of shelves.
Although blind or not, he was probably more accurate than Aiden on his best day. Not to mention he was using his off hand, although come to think of it the Construct was probably ambidextrous.
A few feet away, another combat android was slumped against a shelf with the stolen KFM buried through its head and halfway into its torso. Aiden could hear the heavy thud of robots coming down the next row of shelves, and acting on a burst of inspiration he threw his shoulder against the stack the destroyed android's weight already had started to tilt, grunting with exertion as he toppled it.
It was somewhat satisfying to hear it crash into the next row, which similarly toppled, taking two more with it like dominos.
In just the short amount of time it had taken him to do that, the gunner seemed to have finished off the android down the row shooting at them. Aiden glanced over his shoulder, expecting more robots to come looming out of the smoke from the door they'd just come through at any second. So far none had, so he dropped to a crouch and grabbed his weapons officer under the shoulder, hauling him to his feet.
The young man quickly and wordlessly shook him off, loping easily down the aisle with hi
s cauterizer at the ready as if his right arm wasn't seared like a steak. He probably needed urgent medical attention, but that was going to have to wait.
Aiden followed, running as fast as he could and still barely keeping up with his crew member. When more weapons fire hissed out of the smoke ahead, the young man didn't skip a beat in veering aside to run up the toppled row of shelves, nimbly hopping from one shelf to the next. Aiden bit back a curse and did his best to follow, without nearly the grace; the shelves were four feet apart and at an awkward angle, and he nearly slipped several times.
“Here, my love,” Ali abruptly said in his ear. She didn't breathe, of course, but probably to help convey her urgency she sounded out of breath. “We've cleared the way ahead, and I'm currently reprogramming two more combat androids. Sending the other four on towards the control room.”
Aiden immediately reversed direction back down to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief. “What's it looking like?”
Instead of his companion, it was Belix who answered. “Like you dragged us into a firefight in a heavily defended top secret base,” she growled. “By the way, the weapons platform seems to have given up on hitting us, but now combat androids are coming after the ship. They're no match for our weapons and can't get through our shields, though, at least not yet. Actually, blowing them to smithereens is pretty fun target practice.”
Yeah, he kind of wished he was behind his ship's shields at the moment. “Ali, the gunner's wounded.”
“I know, I'm ready to offer what aid I can if there's time.” She sounded slightly frustrated. “I know we anticipated this, but it's hard to identify the individual android units and recite their override codes while they're shooting at us. Especially with the smoke.”
“Yeah, well hopefully six is enough.”
“Five, actually,” his companion corrected, then sighed. “Make that four.”
Aiden hopped over a few destroyed combat androids at the end of the row of shelves and found Ali near the door, crouched over the gunner. She was simultaneously spraying his charred flesh with protective antiseptic sealant and injecting him with something that would hopefully dull the pain, but keep him functional.