by Isaac Hooke
But I had already depressed the trigger, and the particle beam rended the crab in two. The “overheated” indicator reappeared immediately thereafter.
“You should have let it cool a few minutes more,” Surus finished.
I felt a surge of anger. “Bit late to tell me that now, isn’t it?” I stood up, moving off the Acceptor, swinging the cannon like an oversized baseball bat at the crabs before me.
“Azen!” Chief Bourbonjack sent. “Whenever you’re ready . . .”
“Something’s wrong,” Azen returned. “The bomb isn’t responding to my commands. The crabs must have damaged the arming mechanism.”
I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. The kind I got when a mission was about to fail. Were we going to mess up this one, too?
“What the hell are you saying, Azen?” Chief Bourbonjack transmitted.
“Someone will have to teleport up with the bomb,” Azen replied. “And manually fire a particle weapon into its core.”
Damn it. Nothing was ever easy, of course. But I had come to expect that in my line of work.
I turned around and stepped onto the Acceptor. “I’ll go.”
“Rade, no,” Shaw sent.
Chief Bourbonjack moved onto the Acceptor beside me. “Stand down, Rage. I got this.”
I advanced toward the bomb. “Sorry Chief, I don’t have to follow your orders. You’re just a grunt this time round, remember? I’m going.”
The Chief positioned his mech in front of mine. “Can’t let you do it, Rage.”
“Neither of you can go,” Azen transmitted while bashing aside a crab. “Both of your particle cannons are overheated. Someone else must do it. And unfortunately, according to the team roster it appears only one of us has a weapon that’s currently active.”
“That’d be mine,” Shaw sent, climbing her mech onto the Acceptor. “I knew I was saving it for something. Rade, Chief, get off the Acceptor.”
“Stand down, Shaw,” I told her severely, punching a crab that had sneaked onto the Acceptor with her. “You of all people can’t do this.”
Shaw opened a private vid call so that I could see her face in the corner of my HUD. “Good-bye, Rade.” She smiled sadly on the feed. “I’ll miss you. We had a good run.”
A glowing green liquid began flowing from her mech, emerging from beneath her cockpit as if the ZEUS had sprung a leak.
I took a step toward her, dodging a swipe from another crab that had breached our defensive ring. The Chief immediately leaped onto the entity and wrestled it.
“It has to be me who does this,” Shaw continued. “You know that. It always had to be. This is my lot in life. My destiny. I’m here to save others.”
“This isn’t your lot at all,” I said. The last of the glowing liquid trickled from her mech, and the puddle that had formed began to flow off the Acceptor. “What is this?”
“I instructed Halios to leave the mech. It seemed needless for him to die, too.”
“Always thinking of others before yourself, huh Shaw? Let someone else make the sacrifice this time. Anyone but you.” I had a vague notion of drawing this conversation out until another team member’s particle weapon cooled. If I could have taken her weapon, I would have, but the cannons were locked to their respective units.
“You’re just stalling,” Shaw said, seeing right through me as always. “Putting us all at risk.”
Around us, the company continued to defend the Acceptor from the horde.
“Are you ready, Shaw?” Azen sent over the main comm.
“I am,” Shaw returned. “Tell your agents to clear the target Acceptor.”
“Belay that,” I told Azen. “Shaw’s not going. We’ll just have to wait until someone else can fire.”
Shaw still had the vid call open and she spoke over the private line: “Please Rade, let me go. You know we could have never been together anyway.” She was referring to our Naval ratings; we’d always have to perform our jobs worlds apart. “It’s better this way.”
But I refused to listen. I knew she’d say anything right then to make sure I stayed behind. She had done the same thing to me before, the first time I’d lost her, and I wasn’t going to buy her arguments again.
I decided in that moment if she was going to die, then damn it, I wouldn’t let her do it alone.
“You always have to be the hero, don’t you?” I said over the main comm so that everybody could hear. “Always have to sacrifice yourself. Well, not this time. I won’t go through the pain of losing you again. I refuse. You go, I go. Azen, if you send her up, you’re going to damn well send me, too.”
“Wait, don’t I have a say in this?” Surus interrupted.
And then my stalling tactics backfired. Before any of us could react, a massive slug swept into the room at high speed from one of the side corridors. Its body was about the same height as our mechs, though it was twenty times longer.
The thing crushed any crabs that lay in its path and pummeled through our ring formation onto the Acceptor, smashing the bomb aside.
The blow sent me hurtling backward through several ranks of crabs. Body parts broke off or were shoved away all around me. Eventually I landed and a thick cluster of the aliens basically pounced on me. Even though crabs couldn’t harm my mech, the sheer weight of them all pinned me down. It was only after much effort I tore free.
My vid call with Shaw had cut out when the slug hit me, so the first thing I did was to try to reach her.
“Shaw, are you all right?” I sent.
No answer.
I cleared a space around me and scanned the immediate area. I had been hurtled to the far side of the chamber. My brothers and our allies had suffered similar fates, and battled in small groups at various points throughout the chamber, mostly against the crabs. The slug blocked the Acceptor. Chief Bourbonjack and Azen were trying to draw it away.
I couldn’t see Shaw in all that mess, but according to the HUD map she was in one of the side tunnels. She’d probably been flung there when the slug impacted the Acceptor.
“Shaw, are you all right?” I sent again, taking down more crabs.
Still no answer. Her green dot wasn’t moving.
I was about to go to her when I spotted the particle bomb; three crabs were methodically dragging the heavy device into a nearby corridor.
“Someone get the device,” Azen sent.
“We are the closest,” Surus said privately.
The green was right. Additionally, the crab ranks were relatively thin between the bomb and our ZEUS. We had a small window of opportunity, and if we didn’t act while that window was available, we might irretrievably lose the device.
But what about Shaw?
Choose, Rade.
I had wondered earlier what decision I would make, given the choice of saving Shaw or humanity.
It was all crystal clear to me now.
This was my fault. I had taken too long arguing with Shaw, and because of that the mission was quickly unraveling.
I had to set things right.
I steered toward the particle bomb.
“Hang in there, Shaw,” I sent her.
She would have wanted this, I knew. Besides, she was a grown woman, inside the cockpit of a superpowerful alien mech. She could fend for herself, at least for a while.
My path quickly became clogged with members of the horde. I fought my way forward, stepping over one of the large architectural ribs in the floor, and dove into the side corridor where the aliens had dragged the bomb.
I batted the crabs away from the device in moments, but when I attempted to lift it I was stymied. The damn thing was far too heavy.
A shadow fell upon me; I turned around, wondering what evil I had to face next, only to discover Bender’s golden mech.
The two of us folded away our overheated cannons a
nd hoisted the incredibly heavy payload between us.
“Particle bomb secured,” Bender sent over the comm.
We slowly made our way back into the main vault, kicking and stomping any crabs that got in the way. When the fighting became too intense, we lowered the device and bashed with our fists.
I wasn’t sure how we’d get it onto the Acceptor because the slug was still blocking half of the disc with its body. Maybe we could sneak the bomb onto the far side or something.
On my map, the dot representing Shaw still hadn’t moved, nor did she answer my comms. I was seriously starting to worry, as these ZEUS units didn’t seem to have the inherent safety mechanisms of ATLAS mechs, and it was possible she might have broken her neck when the slug had bashed her aside. Her vitals were still indicated in green, but even so I had to wonder if the aliens had gotten that part of our tech right, given the other shortcomings.
Most of the other members of the company converged on the slug and seemed intent on removing it from the Acceptor. Good.
Hijak joined Bender and me, and positioned himself in front to help clear the way.
“Hijak!” I sent him. “Take over!”
He took my spot on the heavy device, and together Hijak and Bender carried the load forward.
I had done what I set out to do. Hijak and Bender could handle things from here.
I turned around.
“Wait, where you going, Rage?” Hijak sent.
I was already bashing my way toward a side corridor. “To find Shaw!”
I spotted a swordlike particle weapon lying on the cave floor—probably the very same one that had been knocked from my grasp earlier.
I scooped up the weapon and fired into the seething masses.
According to my HUD, Shaw was on the move in the side passage, except she wasn’t coming toward this chamber but rather away from it.
I dove into the tunnel, shooting and bashing my way forward. I refrained from using the particle weapon as I grew closer, not wanting to accidentally hit her ZEUS.
Finally I spotted her mech up ahead, located amid a knot of crabs. Her once-golden hull was steeped in black blood and barely glowed. The crabs dragged the lifeless ZEUS toward a host slug that lurked farther down the tunnel, seemingly waiting for her. I didn’t know what the slug planned to do with Shaw but I wasn’t about to wait and find out.
I felt a sudden surge of rage as I approached.
“Get your claws off her!” With the swordlike particle weapon I severed the umbilicals of the crabs in one smooth sweep, and then I plowed through the corpses to stand at her side.
I glanced at her ZEUS, making a quick survey for any abnormal limb positions.
I forced back the next wave of crabs, firing a warning shot toward the host slug, and then I knelt beside the mech.
“Shaw, are you all right?”
She didn’t answer.
Abruptly my left arm shot sideways on its own, connecting with a crab and sending its body hurtling into the wall. The creature had evaded my notice entirely.
“Thanks,” I told Surus, watching as the crab’s fissured carapace slid lifelessly to the floor.
I waited the requisite five-second cooldown period, fired off another shot against the incoming crabs, then tucked the swordlike weapon beneath one arm, lifted her ZEUS, and made my way back toward the chamber. I seriously hoped I wasn’t aggravating any injury she might have.
My movements were slow and plodding thanks to the weight of her mech. Crabs assailed me and I was forced to repeatedly set down Shaw to deal with them. I used the swordlike particle weapon with impunity, striking at the distant source slug whenever possible. Eventually the larger entity faded from this dimension in the way that only slugs could. Its linked crabs unfortunately remained to harass me.
As I was lifting Shaw’s ZEUS into my arms for my latest drive toward the Acceptor chamber, she stirred. “Whoa. What the heck?”
“There you are,” I sent, lowering her. “Anything broken?” I smacked a crab’s claw from my face and lashed out with the particle weapon.
“No,” she returned. “Last thing I remember was that slug ramming into the Acceptor. I must have blacked out somewhere along the way.”
“Yeah, doesn’t surprise me. These ZEUS mechs seem to be missing the usual pilot safety mechanisms.”
She scrambled to her feet, bashing aside a claw that came at me from behind. “I appreciate your coming back for me, but what’s the status on the bomb? I hope you didn’t put the mission at risk to save me.”
“Not at all.” I unleashed the swordlike particle weapon at an incoming wave of crabs. “I left the device in the capable hands of Hijak and Bender.”
“Azen, is the bomb away?” she sent over the main comm.
Chief Bourbonjack was the one who answered. “We’re working on it!”
Together we bashed our way past another rank of crabs.
“Why didn’t your mech’s AI take over when you were under?” I asked her.
“Another difference from ATLAS 5s,” Shaw returned, “is that the AIs of these mechs won’t automatically seize control if a Phant isn’t aboard when the human pilot becomes incapacitated.”
“Nice.”
Side by side, Shaw and I finally fought our way into the Acceptor chamber.
The place was a mess. Crabs continued to swarm in from the tunnels, along with Centurions and ATLAS mechs. The previous slug was gone, but another slug had appeared for the company to fight, this one white hot—in burrowing mode. That would explain the new, large sinkhole that had been drilled into the floor beside the Acceptor. The slug had likely been aiming for the teleportation disc itself, probably hoping to melt it, but the creature had fortunately missed. Incidentally, more crabs flooded into the vault from that sinkhole, further reinforcing the horde.
Azen and the others stood on the Acceptor; they appeared thoroughly occupied defending the teleportation disc.
The particle bomb wasn’t there.
I scanned the room, searching for it. I spotted Hijak and Bender, who should have carried the payload to the teleporter by then. The Chief was with them. All three had been separated from the bomb by several ranks of crabs—a group of the alien entities were dragging the device away at that moment.
“What the hell happened?” I sent Bender as I ripped a crab apart in front of me.
“Hey, our cannons are overheated, okay?” Bender returned. “Without you to clear our way like you were supposed to, we had to keep lowering the bomb. Then that new slug came, and the damn crabs overwhelmed us. If the Chief hadn’t come to our aid, the bomb would be long gone by now.”
Shaw and I fought our way toward them.
“I thought you said you didn’t put the mission at risk to save me, Rade?” Shaw sent.
I ignored the jibe.
Puddles of blue Phants roved the chamber floor here and there, sourced from the smashed combat robots scattered throughout the room. Without the emitter installed in my jumpsuit, I knew those Phants could easily seep inside my ZEUS and incinerate me, so I either avoided them or “snipped” them from this universe with the particle weapon.
Finally we reached Bender, Hijak, and the Chief, and together made a coordinated push for the bomb.
We reached it.
“Catch!” I sent Hijak as I hurled the swordlike weapon toward him.
I wrapped both hands of my ZEUS around the provided handles on this side of the bomb, while Shaw did the same on the other. I would have preferred that Bender or Chief Bourbonjack had grabbed it instead, but there wasn’t time to argue.
We hoisted the heavy device between us and proceeded forward. Hijak and Bender kept our fore clear, while the Chief guarded our rear.
About half of the surviving ZEUS mechs made a sudden sally from the disc, forcing the white-hot slug to one side of the chambe
r. The trailing cords yanked several of the linked crabs sideways, and the things were pulled right from our paths.
The other golden mechs stayed on the Acceptor to keep the remaining crabs at bay. Sometimes our allies fired their particle cannons at the enemy during cooldown periods, which caused their weapons to overheat again, but for the most part the company relied upon the tried-and-true bashing method.
Pincers and mandibles continuously scraped our mech’s hulls, as did bullets from the occasional ATLAS Gatling, but Shaw and I kept moving forward, staying close to Hijak and Bender. We carried the device over the riblike projections in the floor, and after several grueling moments we finally brought the bomb around the sinkhole and onto the Acceptor.
We lowered it near the center of the teleporter.
I was just about to order Hijak to return the swordlike weapon when Surus informed me: “Our particle cannon is ready to fire.”
“Perfect timing.” I unfolded my cannon and remounted it, then spun toward Azen. “I’m going up. Check your roster, Azen. My cannon is good. No arguing this time. Get that destination Acceptor clear for me!”
I didn’t glance at Shaw’s mech but I could almost feel her cyclopean eye on me.
“I have relayed the order to my agents on the Ship,” Azen sent. “I will apprise you when the destination is clear. Be ready.” Azen turned to go, then paused. “You have my thanks, Rade Galaal. Humanity, and all my kind, will remember this day.”
Azen hurried from the Acceptor along with the others who were guarding it, and stepped into the thick of the horde.
Chief Bourbonjack lingered on the teleporter alongside Shaw.
I spoke first, preempting him. “I know what you’re going to say, Chief. But there’s no time. Another slug could come burrowing up through the Acceptor at any moment and end this mission once and for all. I have to go now, while there’s still a chance.”
His mech nodded, resting a golden hand upon my shoulder. “Give ’em hell.”
He turned around, dashed to the edge of the disc, and leaped into the horde.
Unsurprisingly, Shaw remained on the teleporter beside me. She was the only one left.
I initiated a vid call, wanting to see her face before I died. “Get off the Acceptor, Shaw.”