Terminal (Visceral Book 4)

by Adam Thielen

  As if to read Taq’s thoughts, Abe scanned the building. “Halfway up,” he said.

  Taq looked at the windows in the midsection of the tower and spotted Courtemanche.

  “Somehow you thought a magic research corporation would be unable to detect a distortion field,” she said. “But don’t feel bad, there is no method you could have used to get past our sensors.”

  Steam began to rise from the silo as Anne continued. “Your timing is impeccable,” she said. “This missile will make history, and you get to see it in person, though there’s also a good chance the first stage’s heat wave cooks you.”

  “Anne!” yelled Taq. “Stop this madness before it’s too late.”

  “It’s already too late,” she replied as the ground shook under Jones’s feet.

  An eruption of noise engulfed all watchers.

  Taq grabbed Daria’s shoulder as she tried to break away. She turned to him, and he shook his head, then pointed at a small brick utility shed. The three stepped in unison toward it with Taq holding his magical barrier toward the mech as it took aim at them.

  The robot unleashed its barrage, but Taq’s shield was impenetrable. As they marched toward the cover of the building, Daria watched in despair as the nose of a massive rocket protruded from the missile silo, then quickly towered above them. As they made it behind the brick, the thrusters emerged, spewing smoke in all directions. A cloud of debris and fire washed over the grounds.

  Taq dropped his barrier and conjured a partial globe of ice around them. He wiped at his brow and leaned against the wall of the shed trying to catch his breath. Daria pulled out a large patch and stuck it to the mage’s forehead. A chemical reaction started by her agitation turned his sweat to frost.

  The missile gained altitude, and the conjured igloo quickly melted, but not before serving its purpose. Daria stared at the rocket as it escaped. “We failed,” she yelled.

  The weapon soon became a small dot in the sky and the noise faded. Abriham huddled between Taq and Daria.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said.

  “Is that what we want?” asked Taq.

  “Betches won,” said Daria. “They don’t have to live to see it.”

  Abe nodded.

  “If we can neutralize security, I will threaten Anne into shutting it down,” said Taq. “Or we can escape.”

  “I can’t decide that sort of thing,” said Abriham.

  “If I say one way, you’ll just agree with me,” added Daria.

  “We have to make a move,” said Jones.

  “Paper or rock,” said Cretu. “On the count of three. Paper wins, we book it.” She held out a clenched fist and waited for Taq and Abriham to join. Once they had all put their fists together, she lifted her hand, and the boys mimicked her motion.

  “One… two… three,” she said as each of them put their hand forward to vote. Three fists met in the center.

  The top half of the brick building exploded, knocking Taq down and exposing all to the sight of Cepheid forces. Abe pulled him to his feet, and the mage threw his arms out, creating a translucent green cylinder-shaped force field around them. “Stay inside!” Jones yelled as the mech and officer were joined by two human-sized robots and a second officer, all firing on the intruders.

  Taq’s shield did not outright deflect the projectiles. Instead, it acted as a net, letting them travel past the perimeter, but ensnaring them so they slowed and fell to the ground before reaching its occupants. It was the most efficient barrier the mage knew.

  “We are taking too much fire,” said Jones as the steady barrage from the mech pushed metal further and further inside the circle of protection.

  Daria pulled the three-barrel minigun from her back. “This bullet blocker both ways?” she asked, referring to Taq's spell as the barrels of her gun spun up.

  Taq shook his head. “Have at it.”

  Cretu opened fire, sweeping from one robot to the next and then chasing the human officers as they ducked behind cars parked outside. Additional robots appeared from behind the far end of the tower and from a lift that ran parallel to the silo while two more guards broke out windows on the first floor of the building and shot at Taq from cover.

  Abe saw the barrier caving further and further in, and dropped his backpack at his feet. He pulled out several black orbs like small bowling balls and began tossing them. One landed in front of Taq’s barrier, then one landed on each side of that one but further out. Another dropped closer to the tower, and one rolled to a stop near the mech while the final one hit the ground further toward the silo.

  Abriham clicked a red button on a small tube-shaped module. Lights spun around the orbs and the steady stream of gunfire turned into lead spaghetti, with the trajectory of bullets curving around the orbs, their paths varying wildly. Tracer rounds from the enemies’ guns created a swirling light show.

  The torrent that had pushed against Taq’s shield abated, and he sighed in relief. Daria growled as her own rounds fell victim to Abe’s magnetic pulsers. She dropped the minigun and pulled out her SMGs.

  Abe grinned at the pandemonium. The robots understood before the guards that they would have to get close to attack, but found their own advance impeded by the occasional magnetic wave repelling their steel bodies. They pushed in between the pulsers and charged the barrier. The hulking man reached behind his back and gripped the handle of his double axe. A thin line of red traced the heads with a dim glow. He pulled the weapon from his back and readied it in front of him with his legs in a wide stance.

  As the first robot tried to cross through Taq’s force field, Abriham stepped forward and swung laterally, the superheated edge of his axe slicing through its waist. The torso fell next to him, and Abe finished it off with a stomp to its metal skull.

  Daria unloaded at a second robot as it neared the barrier. Her gunfire darted to the side from one of the orbs. With just one pulser interfering with the bullets’ trajectory, she was able to adjust her aim. She punctured the machine’s torso covering, laying into it until sparks flew and its body collapsed.

  Cretu checked her magazine capacity readout. “There’s too many of them, not enough ammo,” she yelled.

  “The pulsers won’t last more than a minute,” said Abriham. “Taq, you gotta stop that mech.”

  “I can’t,” replied Jones. “Too many stray bullets, have to maintain the barrier.”

  “Crapola,” said Daria, reacting to the large robot’s grenade-launching arm taking aim.

  “Flee over the wall,” yelled Taq. “I’ll block it.”

  SCREE!

  A harsh whistle filled the air for a brief moment, whizzing past the three toward the enemy.

  BOOM!

  The mech’s arm blew apart. Its body bent back with the force of the explosion but refused to fall all the way over.

  Nina’s voice came over Abe’s shortwave radio. “Room for one more?”

  “Two more!” shouted Sai.

  * * *

  Anne Courtemanche watched with pride as her baby took flight, leaving its nest of many years. The entire building shook violently enough to convince her that it might come down. She could feel the heat through the panes of glass overlooking the silo. She turned to the board gathered around her.

  “You see?” she said. “They never posed a threat to our launch. Let us toast.”

  She raised her glass of champagne, and the seven board members each picked up their own glasses and lifted them to her in congratulations.

  “I suppose we should wait here until you’ve put them down,” said Khan.

  “Why leave at all?” asked Anne. “Stay and enjoy the food and drink. We’ve accomplished something today which will change the world forever.”

  Broadus approached Anne and whispered in her ear. “We still can’t reach UTI security. I should go down there.”

  “Nonsense,” said Anne. “Stay.”

  He sighed, moved back to the corner, and then stepped out of the room.

&n
bsp; “Is there a way we can track the missile’s flight?” asked a councilwoman.

  “Abso,” effused Anne, turning the conference table into a three-dimensional hologram display centered on the rocket.

  “Oh my,” said the woman. “It is going really high.”

  “It will leave the atmosphere soon,” Courtemanche explained. “Then it will begin its southward journey, moving several times the speed of sound.”

  The noise of stray bullets hitting the side of the building startled one of the men into a standing position.

  “It’s fine,” Anne assured.

  The air screamed and an explosion rattled the champagne glasses.

  “Perhaps we should evacuate,” suggested Khan. “Just as a precaution.”

  “No!” snapped Courtemanche, her face flashing anger before returning to its relaxed state. She smiled. “That would be foolhardy.”

  “Surely we could use the rear exit,” said one of the women.

  “I must insist that you stay,” Anne said. “It’s just too dangerous. This building is the safest place for us. Reinforcements will be here shortly.”

  Broadus stood just outside the conference room, barking orders into his com. “Spread out!” he said. “Flank them and overwhelm them with our mechanized infantry.”

  “They’ve got a long-range sniper,” his lieutenant reported.

  “Bring out the minitank,” ordered Broadus. “It will take care of that.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  * * *

  Nina pulled the lever back on her .50-caliber cannon, admiring the large stabilizers mounted to the barrel that had never been used. She picked up a shell and placed it in the receiver, then pushed the heavy loader forward, locking it in place. The rounds she used were double the length and weight of standard bullets, capped with pointed titanium tips, and their propulsion was aided by an attached mag-rail.

  She fired again at the mech, this time hitting its upper leg. The bullet tore through the metal, but failed to sever the limb or hit any circuitry.

  “You still playing with that thing?” taunted Sai.

  “Maybe you can do better?” she called back.

  “It looks like they are prepping artillery,” he said. “I think you got their attention. I’m sending in the girls.”

  Bots continued to emerge from the hatch next to the silo as Abe’s orbs began to die. They resumed concentrated fire on Taq’s shield as the leader mech spun up its minigun. The mage groaned as steam wafted from his wispy, soaked hair.

  Three large discs, like toy monocopters, swooped down in front of Jones, the small arms fire deflecting off their metal plating.

  “Daria,” yelled Taq between heavy breaths. “It’s time. Think green.”

  The slayer mage-in-training concentrated, shifting her aura to that of a warlock, then stared at her bare forearms while channeling a basic skin-hardening spell. What felt like goosebumps traveled up her arms and through her body, then up her neck to engulf her face. Feckin’ aye, she thought.

  “Sai,” said Abriham. “Take me in.”

  “You got it, ryda,” returned Sai.

  From a hillside overlooking the Cepheid campus, Sai commanded his drones, or more accurately, he was his drones as he lay facedown on a padded table inside the parked van next to Nina’s sniper position. Cables connected to jacks on the back of his skull and under his ears. A neural interface pad rested on his forehead, and all of his senses were channeled into experiencing the sights and sounds and data collected by his three large saucers. He simultaneously saw through the eyes of all three using a specialized implant that repurposed his smell and touch receptors into sight.

  At Abe’s request, he turned one of his drones sideways, acting as a floating shield as Abriham charged the large mech. The bots grouped with it tried to fire around the disc, but Sai anticipated their aim and repositioned.

  A second drone continued to protect Taq as he rested. The third protected Daria, who took off in a sprint toward the tower. Sai’s flyer rammed open the entrance doors, and Cretu somersaulted inside, bringing up her SMGs as she rolled and opening fire on her first victim while the minicopter guarded her back. The officer in front of her loosed two shots before falling, hitting Daria in the stomach, but her hardened skin held together.

  With security forces distracted by Cretu’s breach and Abe’s charge, Sai righted the drone protecting Taq and opened fire at the man-sized bots with a pair of automatic barrels positioned at the edge of the disc. When one fired, the copter spun one direction. And when the second barrel lined up with the target, it fired in turn, reversing the rotation. Back and forth it oscillated with a barrage of bullets at the mechanical troops, one of which managed to get off several shots at Abriham. The hulk held his axe flat in front of him, deflecting gunfire that didn’t slam into his steelweave.

  Nina watched the big mech’s remaining minigun take aim at Abriham. She quickly reloaded her cannon and fired. The bullet bounced off the thick metal frame of the gun, knocking it sideways.

  A deep thud sounded and Sai spotted an artillery shell launch into the air from a small tank sitting behind the line of bots.

  “Shit, Neen, got a shell incoming,” he said. “Com is still calculating trajectory. Sorry, Dar, gotta pull a drone back.”

  “Dammit, Sai, it’s worth the risk,” said Nina.

  He ignored her, flying his drone into the air and locking on to the falling shell. His neuro-com gave it an eighty percent chance to land near their position, and he directed his minicopter to intercept. It rammed the falling explosive canister, blowing them both up high in the air.

  “Taq, we need that artillery gone,” Sai barked, now down to two flyers.

  “It’s too far for anything effective,” Jones responded. “Abe, veer right.”

  “Got it,” Abe replied.

  Jones raised his hands to the sky, and a shadow fell over the robotic troops. The mage clenched his hands and yanked downward. A bright bolt of lightning crashed onto one of the bots. Sparks flew and smaller bolts arced from one machine to the next, branching out as it traveled until each troop had been hit multiple times. They powered down with a sizzle and crumpled into a pile.

  The large mech continued tracking Abriham, unaffected by the jolt. Its gun whined to life, then a low buzz filled the air as a stream of bullets splashed against Sai’s drone-shield.

  “My girl can’t take much more of this, Abe,” Sai yelled.

  “Almost there,” said Abe. He dashed forward and braced his hand against the bottom of the minicopter, helping it along. Its metal plates crumpled and began to rattle, with bits and pieces flying off.

  Another thud registered on the dwarf’s sensors. “Another shell incoming. Find cover, Taq.”

  “Dammit, Sai,” said Nina.

  “If it hits us, my flyers go too,” he replied, commanding the drone protecting Jones to intercept the artillery.

  Taq was not much of a runner, but he hurried toward a small vehicle parked not far from his position in the tower’s lot.

  The mech’s gun ceased firing, its barrels red-hot. Steam shot out from a release valve and coolant sprayed from another. Abe emerged from behind his floating shield and leapt at the robot. He pulled his axe over his head and behind his back, then swung it forward as he descended. The superhot edge sliced open the bot’s chest, and a blue fluid streamed onto the turf.

  As Abriham yanked the blade out, the mech swung its arm, backhanding him. Abe groaned as he rolled back, his chest in agony. His axe landed with a thud several meters away. He stood in time to see a compartment on the robot’s side flip open. It was tightly packed with large needles. With a pop, they flew forth with a wide spread. Sai’s drone moved in front of Abe, and the darts pierced what remained of the flyer’s hull.

  The drone, having sustained too much damage to fly properly, tilted and hit the ground, then began to spin on its side, zooming away like a yo-yo. Abe ran forward and grabbed his axe, then spun around, driving the blade through one
of the mech’s legs. The giant machine fell to its side. Lacking a head to decapitate, Abe buried the axe in the top of its chest, yanked the axe head out, then swung again, slashing open its side. He lifted his weapon and drove it down again, then yet again. He continued chopping until the machine stopped moving.

  THUD.

  Abe looked as another artillery shell whizzed into the air. “Sai?”

  “I’m out of flyers,” he replied. “Move, Neen! Get in here!”

  Nina ignored him, squeezing the trigger and tearing a hole in one of the guards still inside the lobby of the tower with Daria.

  “One more shot,” she said, reloading her cannon.

  “There’s no time,” urged Sai.

  “This is the only time,” she said, peering through her scope. Nina’s implant coordinated camera feeds and sounds from several locations to tell her the likely location of men even through the walls of the building, but the images faded the longer the guards were out of sight. Nina did not rush her shot but instead waited patiently. She needed each bullet to count.

  Inside the lobby were more guards than Cretu had anticipated. They had used shock darts to disarm her, but she continued to focus on her skin-hardening and fought back with her fists. She ran behind a pillar, then ducked behind furniture, doing her best to conserve her strength.

  “Bring them to the front,” Nina said into Cretu’s ear.

  The slayer herself moved toward open windows, but the men did not follow, so she did the opposite, dodging her way to the far end of the lobby to flank them. It worked. The guards circled with her to keep distance. The first one to expose himself to Nina’s line of sight watched three-quarters of his own leg fly across the room. The chest of another exploded, droplets of his blood painting the furniture and walls. A third man spun around as his arm and shoulder tore from his torso.

  As the shell whistled downward, Nina admired her handiwork.

  A haggard and soggy-faced Taq looked up at the sky with his palm out, but he couldn’t spot the falling explosive. He sat against the side of the car and closed his eyes. His mind yanked itself free of his body and he flew into the sky to meet the descending bomb. From inside the Ethereal plane, he gathered enough strength to cast a weak ignition spell.