Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6]

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

  “Epic, how long were we out?”

  I cannot imagine much longer than twenty-four hours. However, whatever they shot us with dampened all my systems. When I came back online my internal clock had not progressed.

  “Well, I’m not any hungrier than I was when we came out of Q-space, which is to say I’d eat a horse, hoof and all right now. But beyond that, yeah probably a day or so.” The room is full of empty pods just like the one I came out of. The ceiling is a hundred feet up and I can’t locate the walls. “Switch to echolocation. Maybe we can pick up something.”

  Affirmative.

  “Oh, and Epic?”

  Yes?

  I grin as I speak, “One ping, one ping only please.”

  Very funny.

  The suit pings and I watch the sound spread out on my heads-up display, bouncing off various outcroppings and walls. It doesn’t go far enough for a complete map. Walking forward I trigger another ping. This completes the picture a little better.

  Keep walking to your right. I think one or two more pings will complete the map.

  The place is huge and if we’re on a ship, it has to be some kind of cargo hold. If we’re on a planet, a warehouse. The last ping fills in the missing pieces. The room is three hundred feet by two hundred feet, with a hundred-foot ceiling. It is jam-packed full of weird stuff. A hundred pods like the one I was in. Fifteen vehicles that look like some kind of farm equipment? A few hundred crates of organic matter Epic identifies as a nutrient paste. I almost want to crack one of those open. With my luck, it would be paste for a silicate-based life-form or something. The inventory list goes on with no rhyme or reason. It’s like someone flew through the universe and picked up whatever passed…

  “They’re salvagers, Epic. Or some kind of bizarre free trader. That has to be it.”

  Their cargo appears consistent with your hypothesis, and I recommend we find a way to leave. I would imagine an exotic species such as yourself, would make for a good pay-out. They seem to have weapons capable of taking us out, and I would hate to be knocked offline again. We might not wake up.

  A chill runs up my spine. Poor Kate, the hell she must be going through. Waking up only to find herself missing an arm. Heart racing, I numbly nod at his proclamation. “Okay, stealth mode; keep the ZPFM at minimal power. If we can find a terminal, maybe we can hack it and figure out exactly where we are?”

  Good plan.

  Epic kills the LED’s and switches my display to purely a map overlay from the sonar. With no active signals emitting from the armor, we should be all but impossible to detect. Making a best guess, I go right, staying close to the wall and doing my Mission Impossible imitation, moving from cover to cover.

  I guessed right. The back of the room has a massive door split in two. Next to it is a console of some kind. Ducking down beside it, I place my hand on the front and let Epic do his thing via induction.

  The good news is, the console is not hardened. The bad news is, it has no power.

  I flick through the menus for my ZPFM and reroute power to the glove. Epic handles the flow and within a second the panel lights up.

  Amelia, we have a problem.

  “I see it… who the hell built this tub?” The console isn’t a computer. Or at least, not the kind I would think of. It has knobs, switches, even a large lever. There are no controls to hack because all the controls are analog. Which…

  “This is actually better. We won’t set off any intrusion countermeasures while we toggle things.” Making sure to continue to give it juice, I pick a knob and turn it. From the back of the room, a loud screeching noise echoes in the big chamber.

  Not that one.

  “Some kind of gantry?”

  Possible.

  If I were designing this thing, the lever would open the door… I wrap a hand around it and pull. It won’t budge.

  Perhaps there is a safety toggle to flip first?

  “Good call. I think it’s safe to have some light.”

  The helmet light flares to life allowing me to scan the buttons. There are indeed two shielded buttons. I flip both covers and press the buttons underneath.

  A massive klaxon blares as red lights flash in the interior. “I like the sound of that,” I tell Epic over the noise. I take a deep breath and pull the lever again—

  Amelia, stop.

  My hand freezes on the lever. “What?”

  I think this is an automated cargo vessel. Hence the manual controls. Someone would have to board her to open the cargo doors. Plus, if it is automated then we can—

  “We can commandeer her! Oh, Epic! Are we going to go home?”

  Even if their encryption is as good as the Th’un, we should still be able to crack her in a few days at most.

  “Epic? Make it so.”

  120

  San Diego

  Luke winced as the massive robotic arm crashed through the facade of the five-star restaurant. Rolling under the swinging arm and debris, he regained his feet at a dead run.

  “TK, keep that mess from hurting anyone,” he yelled over the comms. The roar of the robotic monster drowned out all sound for a moment after Luke issued his order as the giant metal beast recovered from swinging at him.

  Luke leaped over a car, hitting the pavement on the other side to drop into a slide. Behind him, the car exploded into bits.

  “You’ve pissed it off now,” Kate called over the radio.

  “Not sure how I did that. We could really use a Protector right about now, Kate!”

  Rolling on his shoulder, Luke came up with a manhole cover, spun, and let it fly. The iron Frisbee shot through the air like a bullet to clang off the creature’s jaw. The six-story-tall Mega-Dinobot had the body and head of a T-rex but the arms of a gorilla—arms it had used to breach seven banks so far. It wasn’t bothering with tellers. The thing ripped the vaults right out and swallowed them whole!

  “He’s in Chile helping with the earthquake, he can’t come here for a glorified bank robber when so many lives are in jeopardy down there,” Kate, the hero known as Domino, told him.

  Ringing the Dinobot's bell seemed to refocus it for a second, giving Luke a moment to breathe.

  Think Luke, think! What would Amelia do? She’d say something relevant to pop culture and then blast it with science. He let out a sigh; it wouldn’t do any good to sink into despair at this particular moment. He shoved all thoughts of his missing girlfriend aside in order to come up with a plan. It walked on two legs, but it used its arms for balance. Shifting armor plates and reinforced metal made up its exterior but it had to see, right?

  “Fleet, how’s the evac going?”

  Fleet’s voice came back over the radio in bursts as he raced throughout the battlefield rescuing civilians. Of course, this was the week Lux went home to check on her people. Both his heavy hitters were out of town, so to speak.

  “Another three minutes… and I will have them… all in the green-zone… with the Doctor.”

  The green-zone was the call sign they used for the evac spot. A place for The Doctor to set up and treat the wounded. Not only was Teddy a world-class physician, but his own powers accelerated a person's natural healing ability. More than once in the last year, Luke had seen miracles happen with Teddy around.

  “Luke, look out!”

  He blinked—it was too late. A massive three clawed foot stomped down on him with enough force to flatten a dump truck. Luke grunted from the pain and pressure. The ground beneath him cracked before exploding down into the sewer pipes. Water pipes exploded under him, followed by electrical conduits. For a brief second Luke managed to regret not paying attention. Then the pain hit him as tens of thousands of volts coursed through his system.

  His vision went red and his heart rate tripled. A roar of pain ripped out of him as his powers kicked in. Muscles and bone expanded, and strength flooded his system. With it, he lost virtually all rational thought and ran on instinct alone.

  The monster hurt him, so he was going to hurt i
t back.

  When the giant foot lifted from him, he leaped up, latching onto the toe and climbing up over the top of it. He balled his fist and slammed it down as hard as he could. Maxed out as he was, his fist hit like a jackhammer being held by a bull elephant. Reinforced steel buckled as he slammed his fist against it over, and over again.

  Laser focus and unwavering force held Luke to the foot as he worked on breaking the armor. He didn’t notice the creature looking down, nor did he feel the heat as molten fire built in its belly.

  Kate did, though.

  “Crap,” she muttered. When Luke got like this, there was no warning him. Sure, his danger sense might protect him, but it worked much better against smaller threats. He couldn’t dodge a wall of flame.

  At least not without her help. She slipped her pistol into the custom holster, freeing up her one arm. She didn’t wear the prosthetic when she suited up; even with its advanced electronics, it wasn’t useful in combat. She started running. Leaping on a red sports car, she pushed off with all her might. At the apex of her jump, twelve feet off the ground, she ‘ported. In a blink, Kate vanished from one point and re-appeared two feet from Luke. The momentum of her jump carried through the teleport and she crashed into Luke and triggered her power again.

  The two landed hard on the grass of the small park a half a block from where they had been a moment before. Luke twisted out of her grip, springing to his feet, chest heaving, his breaths coming in massive gulps.

  “Calm down, Tiger!” she said, pointing. “Look!” A massive gout of flame erupted from the Dinobot’s mouth, turning the street to slag.

  He breathed in and his body relaxed—two inches flowed off of him.

  “Thanks,” he said with a grin. “I’m glad you came out of retirement to help.”

  “I didn’t. This is a one-time thing. Once we track down who’s making these things, I’m out. I’m a liability in most cases—I won’t risk the team on me.” She pushed herself up, wiping off her black form-fitting pants. “Come on. We still need to find a way to stop this thing before it gets away like the one in New York.”

  Luke nodded, “Let’s regroup.”

  121

  “Unmanned, huh? Great call,” I say, ducking behind the bulkhead as red beams of energy lash out from the security drone.

  Technically I am correct.

  “You mean like, technically Mass Effect 3 had different endings?”

  I see your point.

  The security drone had come out of nowhere, firing at us with a barrage of laser weapons, missing us but melting the bulkhead. When the last beam fades, I leap out, roll on my shoulder and come up firing my particle beam. The blue hyper-accelerated silicate lashes out, splashing against the black, crab-like hull for half a second before eating through the armor to the soft gooey interior. The crab explodes in a shower of sparks and debris. Metal bits ping off my armor and the walls, filling the hall with super-hot pieces of drone.

  “Score!”

  I would wait to celebrate after we get through the door to the bridge.

  I sigh, my elation abolished by the facts. The bulkhead door leading to what we believe is the bridge is made from some form of metal I don’t recognize. The panel to the side is another one of these hardwired controls with a keypad. We could try running permutations but it’s a twelve-digit keypad—with a possible 8,916,100,448,256 solutions. Even if I punched one every four seconds, it would take me one thousand three hundred days and change to try them all. I’m not sure I have that kind of time or patience.

  “Let’s try the particle beam again. We’d just gotten started when the drone attacked, maybe that’s the only one?”

  As one of your favorite fictional characters stated, “If wishes were horses, we would all be eating steak”.

  I can’t help but laugh. It’s a great line. I fire up the beam with a smile on my face. In my old suit, the heat of the particle beam would limit its use to three-second intervals. With the MK V, I have no such limitation. The beam lances out, striking the door in a shower of energy.

  Locking the armor to focus the beam on one spot.

  “Roger that.” While Epic takes over the firing systems, I use the sensors to scan the ship. It doesn’t have any wireless signals and whatever conduits it might have, are shielded. Whoever built this thing didn’t want there to be the possibility of a wireless takeover. Smart, too. Since the only way to prevent something from being hacked is to make it not accessible. Otherwise… hackers gonna hack.

  I glance back the way we came—a fifty-foot-long corridor leading to the hatch we discovered. I have no idea how big this ship is, but it was easy enough to find the bridge. It can’t be too big?

  Being in control of the ship before it reaches the next jump point would be ideal. I don’t want to meet whoever put me in the pod. Especially since they have weapons that can shut me down like a light switch. I glance at the hallway again.

  “Epic, I have an idea.”

  Is it a really good idea? Or a really bad one?

  “Some days there isn’t a difference. Any progress on cutting it?”

  Negative. Whatever this hull material is, it seems impenetrable to our beams.

  “Free up my arm.” He does. For science sake, I extend my sword and swing it against the door. I’m not sure how they could manufacture a metal resistant to my Sword O’ Doom, but they have.

  “Damn. I didn’t really expect that to work anyway. Come on,” I tell him as I head for the back of the hall.

  I am right behind you.

  The hall splits into a T. One way goes toward the cargo hold, the other toward some kind of temporary bunk area that hasn’t been used in a very long time. Hiding most of my body behind the corner, I bring up my arm with the mass driver.

  Amelia. This is a VERY bad idea.

  “Define bad?”

  Worse than when you allowed yourself to be swallowed by the mutant sea creature?

  “Nah, that was awesome. Spin up the SDF-1 por favor.”

  Spinning up.

  Hidden away in the thicker sections of my suit, the ZPFM feeds my supercapacitors more power than required to run the Empire State Building. The amount of electricity needed to fire the weapon is far too much for a regular superconductor; I circumvented this by building two supercapacitors capable of storing an immense amount of energy for a brief while.

  Once the SCs show full, I start the pre-fire. Around my arm, the animetal molds to form a large barrel. The actual diameter isn’t that wide—only point two inches—and the rest is to help with the retort. Down my backside a rigid line forms, bracing me against the deck. The lights in the suit dim and the whine from the ZPFM increases to ear-splitting decibels. Epic cuts it off to protect my hearing because what comes next is truly loud.

  The tungsten ball bearing drops into the pocket and rolls down my spine to where my foot is, before shooting back up like a rocket. When the ball hits the magnetic field, the railgun fires. Thirty-two megajoules fling the tungsten projectile down the hallway at Mach 10. The boom and fire are enough to dent steal and burn everything in the hallway black. Save me.

  The smoke clears after a moment and I stand there open-mouthed and wide-eyed. No wonder the sword couldn’t cut through it. The door didn’t break… it shattered. The hardened crystalline form lays in pieces across what can only be the bridge.

  You did not die. Congratulations.

  “Why do I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

  Because you are perceptive. Step through the doorway.

  I’ve only seen two bridges of alien ships; Lux’s tiny little scout vessel, and the Th’un frigate we commandeered. This is nothing like either of those. Tiny to the point of cramped. One console, one chair, and a hundred and eighty-degree panoramic view of the ship. Like an Earth-made cargo ship, the alien bridge sits near the back, overlooking the main deck. We must have been in one of a hundred cargo holds.

  “Holy… Epic, it’s—”

  Three miles long.

 
“Well… crap. A ship this size, I doubt I’m the only living thing on it.”

  Sit in the chair and we can connect to the computer.

  I follow his instructions. The chair isn’t made for a human or a bipedal person at all. The right side is reinforced for a larger arm, and the back creases inward sharply. I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon. Lights spring to life as Epic initializes our connection to the ship’s computer.

  This has only basic programming. It should not take me more than a few minutes to work it out.

  “While you do that, I’m going to look for a list of the ship’s cargo.”

  After cracking military codes and fighting soldiers, breaking into this cargo hauler seems simple by comparison. It only takes Epic twenty minutes to figure it out. Once he has complete control it’s easy enough to find the manifest.

  “There’s a lot of living things in cryopods, just like I was. Doesn’t look like anything sentient though. Animals, bacteria, that kind of thing. Whoever took me must have thought I was a robot or something.”

  I wonder what gave them that idea?

  “Quiet, you.” With the manifest tucked away I look around for engineering specs… but with no translation they are meaningless. “How’s the navigation system coming?”

  Confusing. Give me a few more minutes.

  “Does the ship have a wireless receiver?”

  Yes.

  “Activate it so I can move my hand.”

  Done.

  I take my hand off the panel and stand up, stretching while I do so and letting out a low moan. A week in the armor is getting old. And I’m hungry. We used up all my food in Q-space. I need to locate some more, but I doubt this tug has what we need.

  Amelia, we have a problem.

  “Of course we do. What?”

  I walk over to the station and look down at the console. Epic switches the screen to what looks like two blips coming up fast on the freighter.

  “I’ll give you one guess what those are.”