by Isaac Hooke
The two Octoraffes in the lead swerved directly toward him.
“Oh no you don’t,” Jason said. He swiveled the railgun and energy weapons into his arms. Then he lined up the crosshairs and opened fire, mowing down those Octoraffes.
He cleared the remaining mutants that blocked his path to the closest Nightmare, and then began hammering at the big creature’s legs. His weapon caused big craters to form in the legs, and blood and gore gushed everywhere. But the Nightmare remained on its feet.
Meanwhile, Tara teleported to the torso of the huge beast, and stabbed her glowing sword into the base of its neck.
“Hey, no fair,” Jason said. “Stealing my kills.”
“They take more than that to kill!” Tara said.
As if to prove her point, the stricken Nightmare flicked its head around, and scooped her up in its jaws. It crunched down, but she’d managed to orient her sword toward its palate, and the blade stabbed right through the upper part of its mouth, emerging on the surface.
The creature howled in pain, and flung her to the side; she went tumbling away, and her blade slid out.
She fired her grappling hook as she plunged toward the ground, and it impacted underneath the jaw. She drew the connecting chain inward, reeling herself in toward the neck. When she reached it, she struck once again.
Jason continued firing at those legs; the tentacled jellyfish sections had tightened together, drawing the Octoraffes they’d snagged all along their feet to act as shields. He simply raised his aim, and began taking chunks out of the creature’s underside.
But then another of the Nightmares came at him, and its head impacted his torso, sending him hurling away. He struck the ground hard several meters away, and slid quite a ways before coming to a halt. He had a large dent in his chest assembly, as reported by his Damage Report screen.
“I got this one!” Tara said. “You help the Highlander!”
Jason scrambled upright. Octoraffes kept coming in at the three Nightmares, keeping them occupied. Tara seemed to have everything under control, at least with the current Nightmare she fought.
So he focused his attention on the Highlander’s last known position. It wasn’t there. He checked his overhead map: the Explorer was still traveling overhead, and it fed the positions of all friendlies and tangos directly to his overhead map. The Explorer had marked off the Highlander’s latest position: he cast his glance that way, about two hundred meters into the valley, away from the main fighting, where another cluster of Octoraffes had gathered.
Well, gathered was perhaps too mild of a word. More like swarmed. If the Highlander was still there, then it was buried underneath at least twenty of the Octoraffes that were trying to get a piece of it. He couldn’t see the actual mech, not with all those bioweapons piled on top of it.
The Rex Wolves were fighting along the periphery of that horde; they knew they wouldn’t be able to take on the Nightmares, so they focused on what they could handle, instead.
As he watched, Bruiser tore into the neck of an Octoraffe, and pinned it to the ground. Lackey watched his back, and kept the other mutants at bay.
The pinned creature tried to wrap the tentacles from its head around the dog, but Bruiser ignored the suction cups that wrapped around his fur, and simply kept up the pressure. In moments, those tentacles flopped to the ground. Bruiser released him, and with Lackey at his side, picked out another foe.
Shaggy meanwhile bit into an Octoraffe that was bothering Runt, and scared it away. Then another Octoraffe plowed into them both, and all three wrestled on the ground.
For a moment Jason found himself rooting for the Octoraffes. He didn’t really want the burden of protecting these mutants from the uninhabitable zone. He would have enough trouble taking care of himself as it was, he was sure. He hated taking care of animals, or dependents. It was why he’d never had any pets.
No, that’s cruel thinking on my part. Besides, there’s no litter to clean. And I could use the company. Tara’s going to raise them, anyway.
Those thoughts passed through his head as he switched to Bullet Time and fired in turn at the different Octoraffes that had enveloped the Highlander’s position. He used only his energy weapon, wanting to conserve his railgun ammunition. He kept an eye on his power levels, which were draining significantly, especially without the sun to recharge.
Before he could finish, a swarm of what could best be described as insects slammed into the Octoraffes, ripping several of them away. Those that remained had the flesh ripped from the upper halves of their bodies, revealing muscle and sometimes bone underneath.
The Highlander abruptly smashed through the weakened creatures.
Jason caught a glimpse of its body: the upper half was very much like his own, with a blocky head, arms, and torso, but the lower half was radically different: in place of legs, the hips were connected to a steel carapace, from which emerged eight jointed appendages. It was like a Centaur of sorts, except instead of a combination of a man and a horse, it was a man and a spider. Jumpjet nozzles poked out from everywhere underneath the carapace, which no doubt served as a massive fuel repository for all the propellant required for the mech to take flight.
And then the swarm of insects surrounded the mech, crawling all over the surface, forming a protective, spherical shell that enwrapped the midsection.
Jason realized those weren’t insects, but micro machines.
More alien tech we’ve stolen for ourselves.
Two more Octoraffes attempted to leap onto the Highlander, but the micro machines lashed out, forming living spears that impaled each one. The spears retracted, breaking apart to return to their shell around the mech, and the mutants meanwhile dropped dead.
“I don’t need your help,” a female voice intoned over external speakers.
Here we go again…
“All right,” Jason said, using his own speakers. He raised his hands. “You won’t get it.”
But then the huge head of a Nightmare bashed into the Highlander from the side, and the mech was sent flying from view.
The itsy bitsy spider…
His proximity alert sounded, and he narrowly dove to the side as one of those giant legs came down on him. The Nightmare’s foot slammed into the ground, and several tentacles wrapped around him, hoisting him into the air. He tried to break free, but he was held fast.
Shit.
The other nearby Octoraffes scattered, along with the Rex Wolves. They knew a losing fight when they saw one.
That’s loyalty for you.
“Hey Tara, baby, I could use some help here,” Jason transmitted.
“Don’t call me baby,” Tara replied.
A loud shriek pierced the air, and beside him, one of the Nightmares hit the ground with a stentorian crash. He realized that the shriek hadn’t come from that particular Nightmare, but the one that held him prisoner. The huge beast that had fallen wouldn’t be shrieking ever again: Tara had managed to completely slice off its head.
The head of his captor came in on Jason, obviously intending to pluck him from the snare and into its mouth.
“Oh no you don’t.” Jason’s railgun arm had enough mobility for him to aim it directly at that open maw, and he fired.
The head snapped backward, and issued a thunderous moan that was so loud his noise cancelers kicked in to stifle it.
He tried to lift the railgun higher for another shot, but the tentacles tightened around him, and he couldn’t move the arm at all.
His right arm was little better: he could shift the aim of his energy weapon a little bit to the left and right, and that was it.
To the right…
The Nightmare’s hind foot was behind him, and on his right. He just needed to line up the crosshairs…
He shifted his energy weapon as far to the right as he could, but wasn’t able to get a bead. His machine memory told him that according to the manual, the muzzle had a free-floating mode that allowed him to adjust the aim a further ninety degrees in
dependently of the direction of the weapon itself.
Nice.
He swiveled the muzzle another few degrees to the right, lining it up with the Nightmare’s leg. Most of the snagged mutants were situated in the outer section to act as a shield, leaving the inner flanks exposed.
He unleashed several shots. He altered the aim each time, slowly directing the muzzle upward, so that it was like he was ripping a long, lengthwise wound up into the leg.
The entire limb split open, and the Nightmare roared in outrage.
And then collapsed to one side.
He was drawn upward as those legs swung outward, and then bounced as the upper body hit the ground, transmitting the force to the legs. He was bounced again when the legs hit the ground, and then he settled in place.
“Thanks for the distraction,” Tara said, her Shadow Hawk running alongside. She promptly cut through the neck.
He glanced at the Nightmare. “You really like cutting off the heads of these things, don’t you?”
“It’s the fastest way to kill them,” Tara said. “Besides, the neck was already partially severed, thanks to our Highlander friend.”
“Yeah, that might be a misclassification,” Jason said. “She should be called a Spider.”
“Check your database,” Tara said. “Highlanders look like Spiders.”
“Oh.” Jason turned toward the last Nightmare.
It was currently occupied by the Highlander, which had jetted onto its broad back. Micro machines had formed a large blade, and were attempting to saw through the neck while the head repeatedly flung backward, trying to knock the Highlander off. But the spider mech was agile, and either dodged to the side with its legs, or its jumpjets.
“Let’s help her out,” Tara said. She wrapped an arm around Jason.
“Wha—”
Before he could get the word out, Tara had fired her grappling hook. It struck the upper body near the dorsal section, and she reeled it in, drawing Jason and herself upward.
When they smashed into the flank, Tara released him, and Jason began to fall. He promptly punched his hand into the flesh of the beast, but it wasn’t good enough to break the surface. It was like punching into elephant skin; but he was a machine, and not even the thickest skin in the world could stop him. He switched to Bullet Time, amped up the power output of his arm servomotors, and tried again.
This time his fist penetrated. He slammed his arms into the surface, pulling himself upward. When he was high enough, he used the holes he created as footholds.
In that manner he scaled the flank, and pulled himself onto the upper surface. Tara was already there. He switched to normal time, and hurried to the forward section of the Nightmare’s back.
Tara stabbed her blade into the neck next to the wounds created by the micro machines. Jason meanwhile fired his energy weapon beside that, and together, the three mechs finished severing the head in under two seconds. The Nightmare didn’t even have time to bring its head in for another sweeping pass of its back before the neck fell away entirely.
As the creature began to fall sideways like a chopped-down tree, the Highlander jetted away, and the micro machine swarm followed her, wrapping around her body.
Tara meanwhile teleported to the ground.
That left Jason alone to ride out the crash.
“Uh, thanks for the lift?” Jason said.
He leaped away at the last moment before impact, and felt the shockwave along the ground. He stumbled forward, lost his balance, and ended up rolling into the rocky dirt.
He clambered to his feet, but the Highlander was already running out of the valley, and toward the city. Jason could see why: now that the Nightmares were handled, the whole herd of Octoraffes was coming out.
Bruiser, Lackey, Shaggy, and Runt were at the forefront of the herd; necks tucked in, ears held back, tails streaming out behind them, as they fled at their top speeds.
“Time to go!” Tara said.
9
Jason amped up his servos and leaped over a single story building in his path like a track and field athlete would leap a hurdle.
Up ahead, Tara led the way in her Shadow Hawk, while beyond her was the eight-legged Highlander. That mech moved from building to building with ease—it used its jumpjets whenever a distance was too far, or a wall too high.
Behind him, the Rex Wolves were hot on his heels, followed by the Octoraffes, which were quickly flowing into the city like a river that had burst its banks. The creatures leaped over the single story homes just as easily as Jason and the dogs.
“You’d think they’d thank us for saving them from the Nightmares, and for providing them with a month’s supply of quality meat,” Tara said. “But noooo, they have to get greedy.”
“Maybe they can’t help it,” Jason said. “Maybe they chase anything that moves.”
“Go ahead and stop moving then if you want to test your theory,” Tara said.
“That’s all right,” Jason said.
He occasionally held his energy weapon over his shoulder as he ran, and squeezed the trigger. He switched the weapon to “smart targeting” mode, and the muzzle rotated to fire at the designated mutants. He’d marked the four Rex Wolves as friendlies, so the animals remained untouched. Even so, he tried to point his weapon away from the dogs, and he kept an eye on his overhead to confirm that the green dots of the big animals remained following behind him.
“We have to get her!” Tara said, swerving left to follow the Highlander.
“Why?” Jason said. “We should be heading to the tallest buildings. Find a defensible position.”
“Well, that’s what she’s doing for one,” Tara said. “But I want her, because we need to know what she knows. Maybe she can tell us what’s going on in the world!”
“I somehow doubt that,” Jason said. “She’s probably just as in the dark as we are.”
He heard a yelp behind him, and a glance at his rear view feed told him Runt had gone down. Shaggy had stopped to intercept the Octoraffe that had grabbed Runt. In seconds more would be on them.
Jason paused, and spun about to bring his energy cannon fully to bear. He jumped onto the rooftop of a nearby dwelling to get a better view, but unfortunately the roof couldn’t take his weight, and he crashed inside.
Ah well.
He opened fire at the mutants that were racing toward Shaggy and Runt; he was doing his best to keep the creatures at bay.
Meanwhile Shaggy finished biting away the Octoraffe that had pinned his brother, and the two resumed their flight; Jason shot the Octoraffe as it got up to pursue, and exploded its tentacled head.
Bruiser and Lackey passed him, and he waited for Shaggy and Runt to reach him before he continued the flight. He kept firing at the incoming mutants the whole time.
The Explorer mirrored his movements from above, keeping track of the enemy. They were slowly closing. They would have already overwhelmed his position if he hadn’t been firing.
A dark smear abruptly swept across the night, passing over the pursuing creatures. Several of them howled, others were knocked into the air.
It was the micro machines.
Jason ran faster. He didn’t want those machines to mistake him for an enemy.
He scooped up Shaggy in one arm, and Runt the other.
Up ahead, Tara had done the same with Bruiser and Lackey.
Past her, the Highlander had fired its jumpjets to land halfway up a tall skyscraper in the downtown core: the mech was using its eight legs to climb the rest of the way, with the tips latching onto the concrete, or using the adjacent empty window frames for support. All metal in that building would have been stripped away, no doubt making it dangerously unstable. Then again, it had been standing since the invasion, so it should be able to hold the Highlander’s added weight. And the weight of Tara and Jason.
Tara reached the edge of an adjacent building, which was taller, and teleported to the rooftop with her two charges.
“Whoa, what’s the rang
e on your teleporter?” Jason transmitted.
“The top of this building is at the very limit at the moment,” Tara responded. “I can go a little farther when I’m not carrying dogs with me.”
She materialized in front of him, and held out her arms. Jason tossed her Shaggy and Runt as he rushed toward her.
She grabbed them out of the air and disappeared once more—according to the map, she was back on the rooftop.
“What about me?” Jason said as he continued toward her building.
“Not enough power,” Tara transmitted. “You’re on your own, sorry Hun.”
“Ah, shit.”
Jason amped up his servos and took a running leap at the building. He slammed into the surface several stories up, causing pieces of concrete to break away and plunge down to the street. He began climbing. There were open windows on either side of the edge he’d landed on, and he used them for purchase, making good progress.
Unfortunately, those same open windows provided the Octoraffes with the perfect hand and footholds. They flowed onto the four faces of the building and began to pursue. He saw it all on the overhead map, which was continually updated by the Explorer.
He paused every few meters to fire at the climbers within his line of sight. Usually he could take out two or three with one shot: the stricken Octoraffe would release the building, and then plunge into the others below, ripping some of them off before bouncing away.
In that way, he continued climbing the southeast corner, keeping the south and east faces clear.
“You might want to watch the northwest corner,” he transmitted to Tara.
“On it,” Tara said.
He glanced at the overhead map, and saw her move to the northwestern corner. The red dots climbing the building on the two adjacent faces began to drop away. She had a laser in her right arm, and apparently was putting it to good use.
The Highlander was also doing a good job of keeping the Octoraffes at bay on the other building: she’d reached the rooftop, and had her micro machines swirling constantly around the upper half, hamstringing the mutants so that they released the walls, plunging to their deaths.