A gunship emerged from the passage and opened fire on the loyalists. Plumes of weapons fire blossomed from the wings. It careened to the side and bumped into one wall. The hull scraped against the floor in a massive screech. It halted, hung in midair, and let loose a barrage.
Missiles streaked out from the wings, fusion launchers thudded rounds across the hall, and a chain fed kinetic cannon stitched tracers all through the loyalists.
Explosions and heavy weapons fire tore through the line. The two skeletal robots stood, unflinching, as rockets exploded around them. One of the robots tilted to the side and collapsed to the floor. Its robotic leg blasted off into the air.
The line of loyalists held. The gunfire decimated the front line. Dead and wounded dogs lay in heaps and clusters. Others stepped forward to fill the gaps. Still more fell as the gunship slid across the floor, its engines raging.
A line of plasma scorched across the hall and burned a hole through the nose of the gunship. It buckled to the side and dove straight into the floor. The wings crumbled and the rotors detonated in a cloud of shrapnel. There was a pause, a strange moment of silence, and it exploded. Pillars of flame licked the ceiling and spouted tar black smoke.
Marshal Cerro charged in with the legions of rebels behind him. More rebel legions raced in from the other passages. Squads of armored bears plodded in and mixed throughout the dogs. It was a stampede of iron and flesh.
They halted just inside the hall and the line swelled.
Denali felt it in her stomach, like the moment between lightning and thunder. She could feel the anticipation, the moment was coming, the charge was on them. She could taste it.
Captain Maya stepped out and merged into the battle line. “Wait for the charge, we go in after the first line.”
Kane walked behind Captain Maya. “Is this it?”
“Caesar opened a quarter of the ship to vacuum. He’s killing everyone who isn’t standing with him,” Captain Maya said.
Denali stepped out and felt numb. A quarter of the ship, gone to vacuum. She blinked away tears and pushed it out of her mind. A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? She didn’t know how many, but more were going to die.
“We’re running out of time,” Captain Maya growled. “Caesar just defeated the human defense fleet.”
Marshal Cerro stomped out a dozen steps before his line. Even at a distance his body was massive, almost the size of the bears. The plates of his armor glittered in the firelight. He saluted across the hall.
Then the lines charged. Marshal Cerro loped out in front but slowed his pace until his legion caught up. It was a mixed line of massive dogs, born on the death worlds, and smaller dogs born on the tech worlds, worlds that knew they were slaves. Descendants of miners, technicians, machinists, and farmers raced next to killers, hunters, and those bred for war.
Denali stepped out and watched as tens of thousands of dogs and bears raced towards each other. She heard an occasional crack of a kinetic cell firing, or a fusion pod, but she knew this would be a close fight. A fight where mechanical maw would tear and rend. It was too personal, too close. It was more than a civil war, it was genetic.
Captain Maya padded slowly, letting the waves of assault suits pass her by. She glanced back at the recon squad. “Denali, stay close to Kane and Wiss.”
Denali felt the reassuring mass of Wiss come close. She glanced over and knew her friend would protect her. Around her the recon squad formed a cell and they raced into the fight.
All across the hall the battle was met. In the center the remaining skelebot thrashed and rended any which came into its reach. Its eyes burned with a rippling blue as it tore into the dogs. On either side the Praetorians engaged with the legions slamming against the machine-dog hybrids. Hundreds of dogs died in that first charge, a dozen Praetorians fell, but more poured out from the rear. The crush of dogs was so tight the Praetorians had to smash through their own troops to reach the front line.
Then the masses came together. It was a roar of colliding steel, a snarl, an animal rage. Any semblance of order was lost, it was an all out brawl.
Suits leaped and crashed in mid-air. When they landed they fell in the crush of suits and fought to surface or were shredded by their opponents. Across hundreds of meters dogs snarled and raged into each other. The only sound was the crashing of armor on armor and the burning of the gunship. The suits held any whimpers of pain, or growls of anger.
Denali saw nothing but a line of suits in front of her. Her eyes darted through the crush and tried to pick out a path. She saw a path, but just as she was about to speak the skelebot stepped into the gap and scythed its claws through the line.
A fusion round pulsed over Denali. She crouched down and nearly tumbled.
Wiss steadied herself and fired a second time.
The fusion rounds bloomed in a cascade of sparks on the chest of the skelebot. It shrugged off both strikes and waded forward.
“Tough bastards,” Wiss mumbled and kept running.
The momentum of the rebels ebbed and both lines were firmly locked into battle. Now was that critical time, the time when the only thing that mattered was strength of heart and violence.
Captain Maya ran down the line. The recon squad followed. A Praetorian broke through and tumbled to the floor with a squad of assault suits rending his flesh. The metallic arms beat against the floor and was still.
“There!” Captain Maya barked and darted into the opening left by the fallen Praetorian.
Denali rushed past the armored legs and felt the crush of combat around her. Assault squads surged into the gap where the Praetorian came from. She raced between legs, underneath armored stomachs, and totally lost the rest of her squad. Fear set in, and she did the only thing she could: kept running.
“Denny!” Kane called over the comms.
Denali stopped and spun and tucked behind the corpse of a massive dog. Blood poured out from the neck and dripped from a ragged wound in the armor. She glanced down and saw the icon for the Ninth Legion.
A suit of armor twisted through the air above her and crashed to the ground. It jumped up and was slammed to the ground by a pack of rebels.
Denali kicked back against the corpse and locked eyes with the suit on the ground.
The visor slid back and a brown eyed dog strained, fear wracking his eyes. Denali couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He strained, his eyes pleading, and then was finally still.
Wiss slammed into the ground next to Denali and wrestled a suit of armor beneath her. Her maw locked onto a leg and her head thrashed from side to side.
Denali leaped out and jammed her fusion lance into the dogs side and engaged the weapon. It sparked, thumped against the armor, and the dog was still.
“Thanks!” Wiss barked. “Follow me!”
They darted through the line with the heaviest combat just meters away. Denali leaped over corpses, wounded dogs, and dodged beneath the giants heading into the line. Kane limped next to Wiss with Garlan just behind. Belle was nowhere to be seen.
“Fifty more meters,” Captain Maya growled.
The squad picked through the lines and avoided any engagements. A squad of bears tackled a Praetorian and wrestled him to the ground just before them. Captain Maya leaped away from a pursuer and Wiss clamped down and finished him off.
“Cerro is making a hole, get ready!”
Marshal Cerro charged with a squad of heavy assault suits. They were armored like bulldozers. Each wore strength enhancing weaves and cradled alloy shields that crackled with energy.
In the center of the group a dog limped, barely able to stand, half of his armor sheared off. Puncture wounds and raked flesh oozed blood. Strapped to his back was a rack of explosives.
The Heavies bored into the enemy line and slammed back the defenders. Cerro was at the front, a raging bull, snarling and thrashing. He grabbed a dog, tossed him behind, and the rebels laid into him.
When the charge stalled, Cerro pulled his shield back and the wo
unded dog rushed through. The shield bearers came together and the squad hunched down.
Denali watched in horror. Her path was to be bought with the life of another, a willing life, someone was dying so she could get through. She saw the corpses around her, saw the dying, but seeing the one who raced out chilled her.
The explosion was a crack, a peel of thunder. Armored suits tumbled to the sides. Cerro’s team buckled back, one of the brutes slumped to the ground, the front of his shield vaporized.
Captain Maya slapped Denali and snapped her out of her daze. “Run!”
Denali sprinted into the gap. She leaped over a mound of corpses, dogs broken and burned. Suits were open to the air and she was thankful she couldn’t smell the burning flesh. The wall loomed closer and her heart leaped, so close! There it was, she could just pick out the grate.
Captain Maya tripped on a suit and fell to the ground. In a flash, the loyalists set upon her. Wiss and Kane rushed to her side.
Denali faltered, she stumbled and watched. Every part of her wanted to turn, to run back, to help. She’d seen it once before. Grat did the same, even still it haunted her.
Captain Maya’s voice burst out. “Don’t stop, damnit! Don’t stop!”
“Maya!” Denali cried.
Garlan charged beside Denali. “Move! They’re closing up!”
Like a wall of water coming back together, the enemy raced to close the gap.
Denali turned to run towards the grate and dodged back just in time.
The skelebot scythed with his massive arm and blasted Garlan to the ground.
“No!” Denali cried.
The metallic arm pulled back, the blue eyes locked squarely onto Denali.
Her legs wouldn’t move, she stared up into the dead blue eyes and felt death in her soul. Cicero screamed in her head, Maya’s voice bellowed out in her ears, but all she heard was her heart beating.
The skelebot twitched, raised an arm to strike, and a pair of massive dogs leaped onto its back. The first locked tight with the mechanical jaws on one arm while the other latched onto the other arm. The skelebot screeched and thrashed its head from side to side. The suits crackled with energy as they collided, but still they held.
Marshal Cerro leapt through the air and locked his suit on the neck of the skelebot and the three pulled it down to the ground.
The skelebot broke an arm free and snapped the leg clean off one of the dogs. The dog tumbled back and landed just in front of Denali. The front visor popped open.
Denali stared down at Mjol and watched the life drift from his eyes.
“Denali! Move!” Marshal Cerro barked. His head thrashed from side to side and the skelebot pummeled him with the claw, but his heavier armor kept it at bay. There was a great hiss, a relaxing and then the skelebot was still.
Denali raced past it and glanced back. It was Samson standing beside Cerro, she recognized the suit.
She ran the final ten meters and slid to the ground. Her body slammed into the grate and it dented beneath her weight. But it didn’t open, it was jammed.
“Garlan!” Denali cried. She needed his drones, the plasma cutters would make short work of it. Her paws raked at the mesh. It shook and clattered but wouldn’t open.
A dog charged at Denali with his maw open. The metal teeth inside glistened with blood and hydraulic fluid.
Denali bashed her suit once, twice, but the grate still held. She braced herself for the impact and decided she’d go down fighting.
The dogs head evaporated in a cloud static electricity. The front legs buckled and it tumbled end over end, coming to rest a meter from Denali.
“Belle!” Denali yipped and pushed at the grating.
Movement caught her eye and one of Garlan’s drones crawled on top of the dead dog. She pointed at the edge of the grate and the little drone waddled over and lanced through. Sputters of plasma fell and solidified on the floor. More drones crawled near it.
She ripped the grate free and gave one last look.
Clouds of black smoke bellowed up from the gunship. Crackles of fusion weapons and explosions ripped throughout the hall. Now howls echoed, barks, whimpers of pain. The crest of the fight was over, and now the battle was on the down side. More of the skelebots stalked through the hall. More Praetorians.
Denali crawled into the hole and the drones followed. The sounds of the combat dimmed and she felt alone once again. She wanted to cry, thousands died so she could get through. But this, this was her duty.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bridge
The passage dropped down and sloped away from the sounds of battle. It was like every other passage Denali trained in, old and worn smooth by a thousand years of rushing air.
Her suit adjusted for the darkness. She crawled ahead with her jaw clenched. Behind her they were dying. She knew it, but tried not to focus on it. Already all of her friends might be dead. She crawled deeper.
Her joints burned, her muscles felt like they were gripped with fire, the synthweave helped to propel, but the motion was still muscular. On she went.
Garlan’s bots clacked close behind.
“What will you do?”
There will be a console with many wires running into it.
“That sounds like every command room I’ve seen so far.”
This one is different, you will know it, it’s very large.
“Then?”
Then I’ll deploy the weapon, you’ll have to defend my canister.
“From what?”
There will most likely be a Praetorian there.
Denali groaned and pushed ahead. The drones clattered behind her, little mindless bundles with bottles of argon gas strapped to their backs. The electrode point of the plasma cutter rode like a rhinos horn.
She wanted to stand and run, feel her legs stretch out and bound down the passage. But every time she even tried to stretch her suit thudded against the ceiling. She felt why Kell hated the passages.
Comms chatter crackled in her ears and dissipated away into static. She strained to listen, to catch any news of what happened, but there was nothing. Too deep, got to keep moving.
A few minutes later she felt thudding through the floor. Her body tensed and she snapped her head back but saw nothing. She waited, her body still, and listened with every muscle but nothing came.
They launched the weapons, go!
Denali pushed herself faster, her metallic claws scratching and thumping forward with every step. The only joint that didn’t hurt was the leg they’d replaced with a cybernetic one. It moved differently and the suit sealed at the joint. It was almost perfect. Almost.
When it seemed her muscles wanted to burst into flames she saw the bulkhead. It didn’t look like a door. Pins anchored it to the hull. The passage spread out to either side and moved away from the core.
Chalk marked one corner with a set of numbers and a check mark.
Denali stared at it and wondered if she was the first person to see this since a human had built it.
The drones clattered up behind her and huddled next to the bulkhead.
Denali tore the inflatable airlock out of her pack and carefully attached it to the walls and ceiling. It was gossamer thin, like a spider web. She pressed the corners to the walls and then engaged the seal. The sides flapped and tightened.
She took a breath. They had no schematics to know what was outside of the passage. Only a general idea from Cicero’s memory. She knew it was vacuum, but beyond that it was a mystery.
The little drones went to work, one at a time. The first cut through a pin holding the bulkhead shut. Its little tank sputtered and hissed and it stepped away. The little drone sat down with a plunk and watched.
Drone after drone burned through the pins on the bulkhead. Each only lasted thirty seconds, burning brightly, a titanium white flare that melted away the metal.
The final drone stepped up and burned through the last pin. It halted the spray of plasma and clattered away.
&nbs
p; Denali stared at the door, one edge glowed slightly. Was it free? Would it burst? She tested it with her claw and tried to pry it free. Nothing.
She pushed and strained. But still, it would not move. Anger balled up inside of her, anger at her inability to move it. Her claws thrashed against it and she pummeled it with her legs. She tried to bite the edges, clamp down and tear it.
“No!” she cried out and sobbed. So close, everything, and now stuck behind a door. Everyone was depending on her, and she couldn’t open the damn door.
Denali.
“What!” she cried back.
It’s a vacuum on the other side. You need to equalize the pressure.
Denali stepped back and felt stupid. The animal conscious ruled for a moment. She studied the edge of the door and saw no way to vent it. Then she remembered her fusion lance. It wouldn’t do much beyond bore a tiny hole, but it might be enough...
She pressed the tip of the lance against the door and leaned into it with all of her strength. She closed her eyes and engaged the weapon. It thumped against her shoulder. She could see a spray of sparks through her eyelids, but when she opened them, nothing.
She furrowed her brow and leaned back. A hiss sucked through the hole. The air inside of the tiny tent whistled out into space. Alarms flashed in Denali’s eyes, the suit showed the pressure dropping. Then it showed vacuum.
She gripped the door and pulled it away.
Outside of the hatch was a gap between the starship and the core. Conduit and tubing ran across. In the center a tower stretched into darkness. The surface was smooth, dark, polished like a ceramic. Only where the conduit surged through was there any break in the surface.
She peeked out and glanced up. Stars winked by. She looked down, a planet orbited beneath.
That is the core, enter through one of the conduit shafts.
“Til, are you ready?”
Static hissed and a few clicks responded. Denali scrunched her nose.
DogForge Page 24