“Take it,” Trinity ordered. “Try not to shoot your blue friend or me.”
The short female held the weapon by the stock and forward grip as she stared at it. Looking up, she said, “I… I don’t know how to use this thing. I’m a scientist.”
The alarm bells didn’t allow Trinity time for niceties. “Then I hope you’re a real fast learner, sweetheart.” She pointed at the rifle. “That’s the trigger, and that’s the safety. The safety’s off now so all you have to do is point the end of the barrel at anything shooting at us and pull the trigger. I’d appreciate it if you kept your eyes open when you do.”
Glancing at her heads-up display again, Trinity selected a section of the building that was relatively empty. She began moving in that direction. When she noticed her two companions standing still, she turned her head and snapped, “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” said the Eorian.
Trinity turned around with a few choice words on her lips. The blue humanoid was kneeling beside the tattooed man and going through the man’s breast pockets. The Eorian pulled out a disk and stood raising it in the air. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”
Spinning back around, Trinity set a fast pace down the hall. She sensed her two companions hard on her heels. When she neared an intersection, she pulled one of her two antipersonnel grenades off her utility belt and flicked the activate switch. She threw the grenade so that it bounced into the adjourning hall. Reaching out with her right arm, she stopped her two companions and shoved them against the side wall.
Boom!
Rounding the corner, Trinity spied two armored soldiers just starting to scramble to their feet. She put a phase round through the faceplate of one soldier and knocked the other up the side of the head with her phase rod. The modified riot baton glanced off the soldier’s helmet, but she sensed the rod’s phase energy crack the soldier’s skull while scrambling his brain. Both soldiers fell to the floor and remained still.
Trinity jumped over the two armored bodies as well as three other unarmored ones who were bleeding profusely from the effects of the grenade. She sensed the Eorian and the female following her down the hall.
“At least they’re not frozen in fear,” commented Jennifer.
“The day’s still young,” Trinity replied. She’d worked with civilians often enough in the past to know it was impossible to rely on them to act rationally during a firefight. They weren’t soldiers. Still, she had to admit these two were holding up better than she’d expected.
“How’d you get here?” asked the Eorian between pants.
“I was teleported planet side yesterday,” Trinity said as she took a side corridor to avoid a group of approaching life forms.
“Are you going to teleport us out?” asked the short female.
Trinity opened a door in the side of the hallway and shoved her companions inside none too gently before following. Shutting the door, she held a finger to the lower part of her battle helmet’s face plate in a shushing motion.
The sound of running feet came from the hallway. When her passive scan told her the coast was clear, Trinity opened the door and began moving down the hall once more. Her two companions followed close on her heels.
“The technicians at the teleporter on Velos don’t have your baselines,” Trinity said answering the female’s question. “They can only teleport me out. Since I’m stuck with you, we’ll just have to find alternate transportation.”
“So how are you getting us off this planet?” asked the Eorian. “You must have a backup extraction plan otherwise you wouldn’t have come to rescue us.”
Trinity fired two phase rounds at three unarmored men rounding the corner of the hallway carrying rifles. One of the phase rounds went through the lead pirate’s neck and blew a hole in the head of the following pirate. Her second phase round took out the final man blowing a hole through his chest.
Brrrp!
A series of plasma rounds passed dangerously close to Trinity’s head as the short female fired a belated burst of rounds from her plasma rifle.
“Hey!” Trinity yelled as she reached back and grabbed the rifle out of the female’s hands. She threw the weapon to the floor out of the female’s reach. “Change of plan,” Trinity said. “I get the feeling you’re going to be more of a help to the pirates than me. No weapons for you, sweetheart.”
“She tried to tell you we’re scientists, not soldiers,” said the Eorian. “I’m Professor Jaskok from the Imperial University on Risors. This is my graduate student, Telsa Stremar.”
Trinity threw her remaining antipersonnel grenade down the hall. When it hit the wall, it bounced out of sight around a corner.
Boom!
Moving forward, Trinity reached around the corner with her right arm and fired the remaining rounds in her phase pistol. Three yellow dots on her heads-up display disappeared. Pushing the catch for the pistol’s ammunition slot, she let the expended magazine drop to the floor as she shoved in a fresh clip and chambered a round.
“What say we save the introductions for later, eh, Professor?” Trinity said. “If we get out of here alive, we can trade business cards and everything. And by the way, I didn’t come to rescue you. I was just supposed to pinpoint your location for a follow-up team.”
“Then how are we going to get off the planet?” asked Telsa. “You’re one of those wizard scouts, right? Surely you have a backup plan.”
“Hmm,” said Jennifer in their shared space. “She doesn’t know you very well, does she? You should’ve talked things over with me before you made your command decision to attack.”
“They were going to kill the female,” Trinity replied. “I had to act. It’s called using my initiative.”
“I calculate a thirty-one percent probability the Carsoloian was bluffing,” said Jennifer, “but that’s neither here nor there. What’s done is done. Fortunately, I’m not you. I do have a backup plan.”
“Well…?” Trinity said as she began moving down the hall again. “Are you going to clue me in? Or are you keeping it a secret for my old age or something? And how come you didn’t tell me about this big backup plan of yours before now?”
“Oh, there’s lots of things I don’t tell you, wizard scout. The central computer supplied me with thousands of possible backup plans. Do you want me to explain all of them to you now?”
Trinity fired three rounds at a trio of unarmored guards. They all went down with head shots.
“I’m not in the mood for jokes, Jennifer.”
“I’m a computer,” said Jennifer, “I don’t joke. I was just putting it in a vernacular you could understand. To save time, I’ll just say that the backup plan with the highest probability of success is to rendezvous with a civilian recon ship. I’ve taken the liberty of sending out the coded distress signal. The recon ship’s crew is on their way now. You just have to get outside the spaceport’s primary force field before they can pick you up. Naturally, you’ll have to get far enough away so the spaceport’s anti-ship weapons don’t blow the recon ship out of the sky.”
Changing directions ninety degrees, Trinity bulled her way through the side wall into an empty office. The battle suit’s assistors made easy work of the wall’s thin sheet-metal. Barely slowing down, Trinity crashed through three more walls in order to circumvent a large group of life forms in the adjacent hall. A quick glance at her passive scan told her that the professor and his grad student were sticking close behind. Several flashing blue lights on the heads-up display heading in the direction of their building drew her attention.
“What are those dots?”
“They’re armored vehicles,” said Jennifer. “From its sonic vibrations, I calculate the lead vehicle is a R3 light hover-tank.”
Turning to her two companions, Trinity said, “Stay here. Count to thirty and then follow me.”
“How will we know where you are?” asked the short female, Telsa.
“Oh, believe me, you’ll know,” Trinity replied as she lowered her head and ch
arged through the thin wall of the adjourning office. She crashed through a series of offices before tumbling through the building’s outer wall.
“You’re lucky this building’s more of a warehouse than a secure facility,” said Jennifer. “If we were up against anyone but pirates, I calculate it would’ve been hardened.”
Once through the outer wall, Trinity tucked and rolled before jumping to her feet. She laughed from the surge of adrenaline. “Then I guess it’s a good think they’re pirates.”
“Incoming; nine o’clock,” said Jennifer. “The light tank’s firing its primary weapon.”
Without taking the time to verify, Trinity drew Power from her reserve and threw up a hasty defensive shield to her left as she flattened to the ground. A large ball of plasma energy glanced off the shield and streaked into the sky leaving a trail of smoke behind it.
“Thanks for angling the shield for me,” Trinity said as she dropped her defensive shield and jumped to her feet.
“It’s what I’m here for,” replied Jennifer. “I’m just a humble battle computer who lives to serve her illustrious wizard scout.”
“Yeah, right,” Trinity snorted. “Like I believe that.”
Heading straight for the approaching light hover-tank, Trinity noted the locations of several other pieces of armor on her heads-up display. The other vehicles were still out of sight, but she knew the timing was still going to be close.
At a series of flashes from the hover-tank’s turret, Trinity threw up another defensive shield. The plasma rounds from the light tank’s automatic rifles reflected off her shield and flew into the air. When she detected a large buildup of energy in the turret, Trinity dodged to the right just as a ball of red plasma energy burst out of the tank’s main gun. Most of the energy reflected off of her defensive shield streaking into the air, but enough penetrated the shield to knock her to the ground. Pain erupted inside Trinity’s chest as several ribs cracked.
“You’ve got internal bleeding,” said Jennifer. “Your right lung’s collapsed. I’m shooting adrenaline into your veins. I calculate it will take twelve seconds for your self-heal ability to return your body to baseline.”
Trinity felt a cool liquid shoot into her veins through one of the battle suit’s thread-needles. At the same time, she sensed Power from her reserve wrap around her injuries as her self-heal ability began the healing process. Ignoring her pain, she jumped to her feet and continued running toward the hover-tank.
“Recommend you get on top of the tank before it fires its main gun again,” said Jennifer.
Taking her battle computer’s advice, Trinity used the assistors in her battle suit’s legs to jump to the top of the tank’s turret just as she sensed a large buildup of energy in the tank’s main gun. Swinging her phase rod at the hinges on the turret’s hatch, she heard a loud crack as the rod’s phase energy made short work of the lightly armored hinges. Ripping the hatch off with the help of her suit’s assistors, Trinity dropped into the compartment below.
Firing at pointblank range with her phase pistol, Trinity took out the three-man crew before they knew what hit them. Shoving the gunner’s body off his seat, she rotated the turret and fired the main gun just as an Ultra Heavy Ambulatory Assault Vehicle rounded the corner of the building.
The model of the UHAAV, or ‘cat’ as the soldiers called it, was a Tomcat scout. The three-legged, light cat was a reconnaissance vehicle never intended to trade blows with even a light tank. The rounds from the Tomcat’s 20mm autocannon ricocheted off the light tank’s armor. Unfortunately for the cat, the tank’s main-gun round slammed into the center of the Tomcat’s chest. The cat rocked back and forth on its three legs for a moment before falling backwards to the ground and exploding in a blast of fire and plasma energy.
“Jennifer,” Trinity said, “Hack into this tank’s computer and take over the driver’s controls. I’ll handle the main gun.”
“Compliance.”
The light tank began moving toward the opening Trinity had made in the building. The figures of the professor and his short grad student appeared in the opening. Trinity kept track of her two companions with her passive scan as she traded fire with a newly arrived UHAAV and another light tank. Firing her main gun, Trinity wrapped the ball of plasma energy with Power and guided it down the barrel of the opposing hover-tank.
Boom!
The turret of the pirate’s tank flew into the air landing near the remaining UHAAV which also happened to be a Tomcat.
“You’re down to twenty-six percent Power in your reserve,” said Jennifer. “That trick with the plasma rounds was expensive. I could’ve aimed the main gun for you and accomplished the same thing.”
“Then take over the main gun,” Trinity said. “I’m going out to get the blue guy and short-stuff. I assume you can still operate the tank if we’re not inside.”
“Naturally. I’m a battle computer. What do you take me for, an amateur?”
Climbing out of the hatch, Trinity jumped to the ground and came up out of a roll running.
“Incoming,” warned Jennifer.
Sensing the inbound 20mm rounds from the Tomcat, Trinity threw up another defensive shield. She sensed the shield angle slightly as her battle computer adjusted it for maximum efficiency. A half dozen autocannon rounds glanced off the shield blowing holes in the side of the building.
Boom!
Trinity risked a glance at the remaining Tomcat. A gaping hole in its chest with flames leaping out told her that Jennifer had no problem aiming the tank’s main gun when she wasn’t inside.
“Nice shooting,” Trinity said.
“I aim to please, if you’ll forgive the pun,” replied Jennifer. “Now get those two onboard the hover-tank and let’s get out of here. Additional armor and personnel are on their way.”
Before Trinity even got to the opening in the building, the professor and Telsa were running out to meet her. The light tank came rumbling up at the same time. Without taking time to explain, Trinity grabbed Telsa and threw her to the top of the tank. Seeing what happened to his grad student, the professor wasted no time in clambering up the side of the tank and into the turret on his own.
With a single leap, Trinity made it to the top of the hover-tank and scrambled down the hatch landing on top of the professor. He yelled as her weight plus that of her battle suit knocked him to the floor.
“Arrgh!”
Jumping into the gunner’s seat, Trinity noticed Telsa had shoved the driver’s body aside and was already buckling into his seat.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” Trinity asked dubiously after experiencing her lack of proficiency with firearms.
The short female glanced over her shoulder and nodded. “This I know how to do.” With that, Telsa gunned the engine and did a one-eighty in the direction of the main gate.
“Jennifer,” Trinity said in their shared space. “What’s the best path?”
“Actually, the little lady’s taking it,” said Jennifer. “The force field around the spaceport is still active. Once we get closer to the main gate, I can try to hack my way into the controls and open the gate long enough to get us through.”
A fast moving life form on Trinity’s passive scan drew her attention. She reached out with her mind forming an active scan and pinpointed the life form. It was two hundred meters above the ground and closing fast. Swinging the hover-tank’s turret in the direction of the life form, Trinity caught sight of a fighter-shuttle lining up for an attack run. She opened up with the tank’s quad auto-rifles as well as the main gun. The main cannon’s large plasma round made contact with the shuttle’s force field and glanced off.
Trinity sensed a weak spot in the force field where the main gun round had hit. She directed a burst of plasma rounds from the quads into the opening. The fighter-shuttle’s windscreen cracked before bursting inward. The fighter pulled up trailing smoke as the pilot chose retreat over a likely death.
“We’re coming up on the main gate,”
said Telsa. “What do I do now?”
“Give it all you’ve got,” Trinity yelled as she rotated the turret and began firing at the guards.
The hover-tank shuddered as something hard hit its force field, but nothing penetrated.
“They’ve got an anti-armor weapon set up in the ditch,” said Jennifer
“Got it,” Trinity replied as she spotted a two-man crew in the culvert at the side of the road. The loader was shoving another rocket into a launcher on the shoulder of his teammate. Lining up her sights on the two soldiers, Trinity fired a burst from the hover-tank’s auto-rifles.
Brrrp!
The plasma rounds from the quads obliterated the two soldiers throwing what remained of their bodies back into the culvert.
“I’ve hacked into the gate’s control panel,” said Jennifer. “I’ll only be able to keep the gate’s force field open for five seconds before the system’s backup computer retakes control.”
“Roger that,” Trinity said. “Wait for my command.”
“Compliance.”
Trinity sensed the hover-tank slowing down. “Keep going,” she yelled.
“The gate’s still up,” said Telsa. “If we hit the force field, we’ll all be killed.”
“It won’t be up when we get there,” Trinity said trying to sound confident for the woman’s benefit. “Trust me. Now step on it.”
Whether due to trust or sheer desperation, the little scientist revved the hover-tank’s engine and headed toward the gate at a rapidly increasing speed.
“Well, I’ll say this for her,” said Jennifer. “At least she knows how to take orders.”
Trinity watched the approaching gate. Her passive scan picked up the deadly force field as it drew ever closer.
“Now, Jennifer!”
The section of the force field protecting the main gate flickered and disappeared. The hover-tank’s engine whined even higher as Telsa sped through the gate. A heartbeat after they were through, Trinity sensed the gate’s force field closing behind them.
“Where now?” Trinity asked in her shared space.
Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Page 3