by Grover Young
I squirted it back at the damn thing.
My belched-up plasma ball took it dead center. With a brilliant flash, it exploded!
Again, I juggled sucking in the power, staying on course and trying not to run into anything.
More proof they were being directly controlled, additional drones zoomed up, but these didn't shoot at me. They'd seen what happened, and tried a different tactic. Slamming into me, three sandwiched and shoved me towards the snowy landscape not all that far below.
Knowing how to manage my 'power' a little better I 'drank' most of it, but left out just enough. Punching the first machine, my glowing fist sank into it like hitting a soft pillow. Remembering my first encounter with these things, I grabbed what I could by touch, and pulled. With a loud 'pop' it lurched away spewing smoke and sparks to impact into the snowy mountain.
Drone Two got punched in the sensors as hard and as fast as I could. Not being 'energized' meant my fist wasn't glowing and that made it take more effort, but the result was the same. After I'd made an opening, it was grab bag time again. Maybe it didn't blow up, but it just blindly breaking away was good enough for me, since the last of the trio could be avoided.
Or so I thought because the drone twirled around in front trying to slow me. When I saw all the 'bots on the ridges above me readying their rail-guns, I knew why. I was being invited to a turkey shoot and I was the turkey!
However, that was the thing about push/pulling. If you worked your judo right, you could get the other guy do all the work for you. Perhaps it was more the way my powers worked than skill, but a quick twist had the drone pushing me in the direction I wanted to go. Plus, since I knew it was going to happen, I kicked off against the 'bot going even faster.
With my fight with the drones, I'd lost track of exactly where I was, but I did see the tall commo tower of a T-Rex tank. That was good enough as I arrowed right for it.
As far as Doc could tell, once I 'ate' the energy, it gave me some temporary benefits like stronger, faster and other things we hadn't been able to nail down yet. The entire 'holding' it meant I glowed with the power and had even learned how to spit it out, like with that plasma ball, for short distances. The downside was 'holding' it made getting hit by the energy hurt more plus the more I 'held,' the more it hurt.
However, there was a downside to 'eating' it, too. Once done, it was unavailable for offense or defense. The glowing thing and all the advantages were over. So what if I didn't have oomph to make the frigging thing blow up because they weren't obliging enough to shoot the right stuff at me. I would kick it to bits if I had to!
“Argh,” I grunted as my old 'friend' Drone Three rammed into my back.
Its weapon pods snapped out which along with its superior speed, had me trapped like a bug on a windshield. The intent was still the same. Make me a sitting duck for the command tank's rail-gun heavy escorts.
Like Hell!
I twisted around like a mad, wet cat, tearing into the Drone. All that energy I'd 'drank' had significantly supercharged me. My fingers dug deep into its metal hide as I ripped off an armored plate slinging it aside like a Frisbee.
Unlike Drone Two, I didn't need just to cripple this machine. I needed a shield and a fire-boat all in one. My fury had me half inside my enemy like a shade tree mechanic inside the open hood of an old Ford.
Arcs from its power plant were running all over me, as I tried to 'drink' deep and still multitask my plan while keeping track of my position. There was a lurch as the drone's quantum engine died, but I used my own flight to keep us airborne.
That was about the time the command tank put two and two together. A tsunami of death flew through the snowy night as its escorts went to full auto.
Having one hell of a Slim Picken's moment just like his Major T. J. 'King' Kong, I let out a 'Yee Hah!' as the shot to hell drone and I slammed into the command tank.
Threatened with the drone's wreckage and unfired missiles, the unit fired its own twin main plasma batteries. The explosion, munitions cooking off and last but not least me, blew a clear hole in the stormy clouds vaporizing metal, mountain and mere frozen water with equal disdain.
I woke in a tangled mass of burning pines, my energy charge aura still glowing bright. The mushroom cloud was still climbing into the winter sky, making this weird doughnut shape as its great heat burned the colder clouds away.
Golden cleavage was plainly visible despite my Skins doing the best they could to re-clothe me. From the now very flat plateau, I hoped the great state of North Carolina wouldn't be too mad at me for taking a couple of inches off the top of one of their mountains.
Climbing to my feet, my whole body was just this side of being unbearable. It felt like an all over, very bad, itchy, burning sunburn. I could deal with it. First order of business was to 'inhale' more of that energy since my footsteps were hissing as they hit the granite of the shortened mountain.
Signs of the destruction were all around. Burning trees laid flattened, facing away from the blast. Twisted and wrecked 'bots littered the mountain slopes. A bizarre volcano lahar like mudflow from the melted snow flowed downward complete with more Sha'leian wreckage.
Crouching behind a smoldering limbless 'bot torso, I scoped out the situation while buying time for my Skins to regenerate to the point of providing useful protection again. It wasn’t good. Instead of coming down on one of the ends formed by the flattened triangle of the three Sha'leian landing zones, I'd come down on the one in the center. The end would've let me take the next without the last one able to provided supporting fire. With me in the center, I had the worst possible situation where both could shoot at me without fear of hitting the other.
The thought that maybe I'd been herded here entered my mind. At the most, I had only seconds before the machines were able to target me again. Then, I saw the really bad news.
The torso I was hiding behind had a black drip running down it. Checking my hand, I saw I'd left a black hand print on the wrecked 'bot. Halcyon eyes, however, revealed the whole truth. Like watching a time-lapse film of it rusting, the machine was disintegrating before my eyes.
Wide-eyed, I stared down at my kneeling legs seeing a black pool beginning to form underneath me.
Standing in alarm, I'd only had enough time to cuss before a belt-sander-like road-rash from hell grabbed me in a fist of pain.
“Aw shit!” I cussed. Screw the 'bot. I was melting!
They'd nano-bombed their own site!
Their nano-tech hadn't, in the past, been programmed to attack living tissue, but then again Halcyon wasn't exactly made of living tissue.
Gold dribbled down my arms along with blue streaks from my sapphire hair. An instant trench appeared cut into the mountain's summit by a stream of rail-gun fire as the 'bots searched for me. Stumbling as best as I could off the exposed high ground, I tumbled a short way down the furthest slope from my attackers.
Sure enough, more lines were drawn into the new summit from the surrounding peaks. Feeling too much like Frosty the Snowman on a hot summer day, I really had only one choice. If I was wrong, it wouldn't matter much, I would still be dead.
I changed back.
One immediate advantage was with my smaller size my distressed Skins covered me a little better. That was a good thing. Another was the golden ooze was gone, although it took me a few moment to recognize that the pain was gone. The aftershocks of it had lingered after the fact.
Alive was good, but now I'd lost my biggest advantage. Plus my Skins were still under assault by the nanites. A probing hand found I was bald as a cue ball missing even eyebrows. Strange the things you can worry about during a crisis.
It was still hot enough for me to 'inhale' the energy coming at me. The rocks and slagged parking lot glowed red with heat even to my normal eyes. That actually made me feel better as the power flowed into me.
Logic said it was time to abort. I got one of three, but they had made a serious attempt at killing me. Not knowing how big of an area thi
s 'trap' covered I couldn't risk changing back. Hell, the odds were I couldn't, given the 'cool-down' thing.
On the other hand, there were people depending on me. Plus there was an entire city fighting for its life. I wasn't sure what I could do as Kingfisher, but we would see. Lifting off, I kept to the air, hoping that would keep my Skins in one piece for a little longer. At the very least it helped me move across the difficult terrain.
Somewhere in all the excitement my Q-Box had been either smashed, melted or disassembled. That was why my Skins had turned back to their default black. That was yet another sign my brains had not fully come back online.
It was dark as hell out here, but I made my way as best as I could towards the closest area. I hoped it'd been hit hardest by the blast. Each and every advantage I could get was priceless.
I was really wondering where all the drones were. It was possible they were searching for me further away. It'd been a miracle I hadn't been blown to the next mountain. Also, perhaps my power thingie was interfering with their sensors. I was continuing to work on pulling in all the energy I could. Those medical scans of Doc's did fail, so maybe radar and other things would as well, another item to talk to Doc Schneider about, if I survived.
It didn't take long for nature to take great offense at that explosion from hell. Those damn missiles the drones carried packed a wallop, and a dozen of them went off all at once. First rain and then ice with snow whipped in, turning the night even darker. I kept to the edges of the still glowing hot spots hoping the heat would help hide me from infrared and/or other night-vision systems.
The hissing, popping and cracks as the surface cooled as the sleet and snow pelted down covering up what little noise I made hovering along. I made short rushes from cover to cover, each time hoping I wasn't seen. Time wasn't on my side. Soon, the Pantheon and Special Forces teams, as well as the Air Force would be making their own attacks.
I was running late and behind schedule.
The thunder in the distance signaled the 3rd Infantry Division had begun its drive to relieve Asheville. The crossing to the other mountain was nerve wracking as I felt driven to take more chances, trading safety for speed. The cold was getting to me because my Skins had so many outright holes and thin spots, but I thought the 'melting' had stopped.
I'd just begun working my way up the slope when the air was full drones flying over. Burying my body in the snow covered rocks and trees, I prayed for them to just go on by. Wondering just what was happening, I hurried to the top.
Peeking though the rocks and trees, I had my answer. There were 18 of them in three neat rows of six. In a low revetment, stacks of missile pods stood ready as they were reloaded by the autofac's worker 'bots.
The timing made sense. These were the machines that'd been harassing the whole area. More than likely, they'd just come from shooting up the 3rd Infantry Division and now were here to reload at their forward airfield.
A few hundred feet away the T-Rex class tank sat in another revetment surrounded by its ever present guards. Off to one side partially hidden by all the activity, the autofac had half buried itself, looking for raw materials as more new made missiles rolled out the back.
I had a so very evil thought, but the question was did I have enough 'bang' left to do the job? All the while I'd kept some of my energy in my 'mouth'. Just like holding something in your real mouth, it was uncomfortable after awhile, and there was a huge urge to either swallow or spit it out.
I had no idea if it was even in range given how clumsy it was 'spitting' energy at a target. However, if I could pull it off, well, think of an aircraft carrier packed with planes reloading on the deck. It would be glorious!
And it would let me get closer to that T-Rex. I didn't dare hope for more. The other problem was if I was going to do this I had to do it now or the opportunity would be missed.
Going low, I got as close as I dared. Using my finger like a gun, I aimed at one of the conical warheads.
“Bang!” I whispered.
A not so bright ball of light shot from me. There was a bright flash as it impacted then nothing.
“Oh Crap!” I used my flight to keep me on the deck as I backed out fast, as every 'bot and drone on the mountain looked at me!
I'd just scooted down the crest of the slope when the first explosion cooked off. It wasn't one huge boom like that last command tank, but a lot of smaller ones. However, that was only relative. Each one of those missiles was powerful enough to kill a tank, but being quantum motor powered, there wasn't any propellant to join the party. Not that it was needed. The whole summit was lit up like an enormous string of firecrackers was going off!
Making myself move, I heard the crashing of 'bots through the trees I'd just left. Stepping up my speed, I did my best not to run into trees or rocks since my belly was scrapping the ground.
Feeling like a submariner, I 'surfaced' up to check the lay of the land. Unlike humans in this situation, there were no firefighters or support personnel to help. There were burning drones all over the place and more than a few 'bots, too. The command unit looked fine, but all its guard 'bots were over where I'd fired my golden 'BB.'
My target was wide open, but I didn't have a damn thing that could hurt it.
Submerging again into underbrush and staying low, I silent glided to as close as I could get before committing myself. Racking my brains for a solution all I came up with were the bad and the real bad.
Kingfisher might have powers, but he didn't hold a candle to Halcyon. He, I, was flesh and blood, but she for all of her outrageous appearance was metal and about the toughest thing to kill even Project Prometheus had ever heard of, which was saying a whole lot.
The long and short of it, I had to absorb something in order to shoot it back, but trying to do it might kill me. At the very least, I could end up crippled or maimed. What I had in my favor was 'drinking' in as much energy as I could earlier, so I was about as strong and fast as I could get. Plus my Skins had made headway in repairing themselves.
I could beat the pants off just about any normal human including those given super-soldier treatments. Kick the ass out of a big bad T-Rex, not so much. Glancing up, the carnage I'd caused had just about run its course, and the command tank was getting its act together. It was now or never.
I used my flight to launch myself to my feet running right at the impregnable object.
Both of its main batteries smoothly rotated to bear on me. Without hesitation they shot out arcs of 25,000 degree C plasma closing in to roast me in the crossfire. I used my flight to throw myself underneath the beams while trying to pull all the power from them that I could.
Part of one of the beam just came near my leg, and it folded under me. Crying with the pain, I rolled next to the revetment that protected the tank. I was under the guns. A quick check seemed to say my leg seemed okay, but damn did it hurt!
The protective wall of dirt and rocks shifted as the big machine pivoted on its tracks. It was going after me the old fashioned way, trying to crush me under its tracks. Rolling to the side, I aimed at the top of the tall commo tower amidships.
My plasma ball zapped the sphere containing its transmitter. I was hoping if I disabled its command and control, it would be less able to send for and get help.
“Crap!” I was pelted with razor sharp shards as a 'bot's rail-gun missed by inches, but only because I was too close to the tank for a clean shot.
I limped, ran, flew to the other side of the tank only to be sideswiped by its fender as it reversed direction.
Knocked back to the ground, I fired at the round dome of a secondary communications array on top the nearest turret.
It popped like a soap bubble, but I found myself looking down the wrong end of a plasma burner's emitter.
“Shit!” I hissed, rolling towards the tank, again to the dubious safety of being under-the-guns. There the tank's weapons couldn't depress enough to target me.
The near miss of the blast had me again, and I was
patting out flames that weren't there. It sure felt like I was on fire. However, that meant my mojo was recharged again.
A 'bot skidded around the corner, as the tank sped away trying for separation. I popped a plasma ball at the 'bot and then one at the retreating tank's last secondary commo unit.
Proud of myself, I was going to dive for the safety of the revetment when it disappeared in a salvo of rail-gun projectiles. I had just enough time to see the tank's rear turret swing at me. I tumbled and fell behind the 'bot I'd just shot. The plasma washed over its carcass making my Skins hiss from the heat.
“Drink it in,” I muttered to myself past the pain. The withering heat had the 'bot's metal hide that was as tough as any armored vehicle, melting like an icicle being hit by a blowtorch.
My flight pushed me out of the way of the slagged machine. Using all my remaining energy I'd built up, I fired a sustained plasma blast right into its ass.
It rolled forward a few more paces before lurching to a stop.
“Thank Gawd!” I muttered, trying to get to my feet before I got attacked again. I took one long moment to draw as much energy as I could from the ruined 'bot I'd covered behind. That was as much time as I dared.
Flying only inches from the ground, I departed, only one more to go. Letting my flight carry my weary body, I slipped away into the darkness. Using the mountain's slope, gravity sped me towards my last objective and not a moment too soon. Through the tilted and abused pine trees I saw the command tank's tall tower, with its ruined commo dome, collapse on itself.
Nanites!
This time I'd gotten out fast enough. However, just to be certain I desperately piled on the speed, whipping around and through the trees with reckless abandon. I might run into a tree, but the threat behind me would absolutely damage my Skins which was the only thing helping keep me alive.
I ended up at the mountain's base, more or less in one piece, but tired, so very sore and weary beyond belief. Within me, I felt all that energy I'd 'eaten', but it was a little like the alertness that came with caffeine. It came from outside of me, propping me up. Sure, I was awake, but the exhaustion was as much mental as physical.