Steel Apocalypse

by Rodney Hartman

  Maggie’s hologram turned to face the windscreen before glancing back at Jake. “He’s prolonging the fight because of me. He thinks if he can get me worried enough about your safety, I’ll complete the emotional link he told you about. I calculate he’s right. My concern for you is growing. I’ve run over two million algorithms in an attempt to figure a way out of this. I keep coming up blank. There’s no logical way to save you.” Her eyes turned a light green. “I’m afraid for you, Jake.”

  Casey fired a burst of three rounds from the 75mm phase cannon at the Gargantuan’s footpad. The large cat stopped trying to turn around and bent its knees, reducing its height a good meter and a half. Two of the phase rounds exploded on the cat’s force field. The other bounced off the ground and exploded against the cat’s leg about a meter above the arena floor. The Gargantuan returned to its full height and began turning again in an attempt to get the agile Paladin within the field of fire of its forward weapons.

  “Why does he keep stopping?” said Casey.

  Maggie stood up, her eyes losing some of their green color. “I think I know. That old fool must’ve used a force field generator from a Kraken to protect his cat. The Gargantuan’s a good three meters taller than a Kraken. He’s probably installed the shield generator lower in his cat to make up some of the difference in height, but it’s still over a meter short from the ground. He has to bend his cat at the knees to get the force field to reach all the way to the arena floor. When he bends, he can’t move his legs.”

  Jake dodged another beam of orange energy. “Can you hack into his system and lower his shields?”

  “Negative,” replied Maggie. “Believe me, I’ve been trying. The security on that cat’s computers has been modified to keep me out. From a logical viewpoint, if Casey keeps her fire close to the ground, we can force the Gargantuan to stay bent. That’ll keep him from turning. We’ll still take damage from his side weapons, but not near as much. The bad news is that even with the reduced fire, my shields are down to fifty-two percent. I calculate we have less than two minutes before my force field fails.”

  Jake eyed the distance from the Paladin to the Gargantuan. The two cats were only twenty meters apart now. We’re close enough, but close enough for what?

  Firing the last of the rounds in the 75mm, Casey released the empty autocannon from the Paladin’s right claw, letting the weapon fall to the ground. She glanced at Jake, catching his eye. “I agree with Maggie. It’s only a matter of time before our shields give out. We’ve gotta do something.”

  An image of a meter-square box came to Jake’s mind. A wild idea formed as he remembered how every cat in the tournament had been forced by the controllers to install a tracker on their rear. He also remembered what was inside the overly large device besides a tracker. “Maggie, can Gegorma set the tunnel-mine on our tracker off?”

  Maggie shook her head. “Not anymore. I was finally able to hack into our tracker’s control system a couple of hours ago. That old man couldn’t set it off now if he tried, but I can. However, if you’re thinking about having me set off a tunnel-mine on his cat’s back, you can forget it. He wasn’t stupid enough to put one on his own vehicle. Pity.”

  Jake smiled. “I wasn’t thinking about a tracker on his cat. I was thinking about—”

  Maggie burst out laughing, her eyes turning the brightest blue Jake had ever seen. “I think I know what you’ve got in mind, Tiger. And to answer your next question, yes, I can set off our tunnel-mine whenever I want. By the way, I calculate your plan is illogical and pure crazy.” She laughed again. “I think I like it.”

  Casey fired a short burst from the twin 30s at the Gargantuan’s feet, forcing the large UHAAV to bend at the knees and stop turning. “Well, I’d appreciate it if somebody clued me in on what you’re talking about? I could use a good laugh right about now.”

  Jake glanced at the force field icon on his heads-up display. The Paladin’s shield was down to thirty-one percent. He hit the quick-release for his safety harness and jumped out of his seat, heading for the access door at the rear of the cockpit. “No time to explain. Maggie, take over driving. You know what to do. Be ready to release the tracker’s magnetics when I get to the ground. Casey, don’t fire at the cat’s feet any more. Aim at the side of Gegorma’s cockpit. I want you to piss him off. Keep his attention. I want the Gargantuan to stay at its full height.”

  Before Maggie or Casey could argue, Jake punched the emergency egress button on the escape hatch.

  Boom!

  The access door blew outward, landing on the arena floor. Jake dove out the opening, switching on his anti-grav unit as he went. He landed lightly on his feet and turned around, looking up at the rear of the Paladin. Its twin 30s and the 20 megawatt plasma rifle were firing for all they were worth at the Gargantuan’s cockpit.

  Jake’s respect for Casey went up another notch. She has no idea what I’m trying to do, but she’s too good a soldier not to obey orders.

  The Gargantuan rose to its full height as its articulated head tried to face the Paladin. It couldn’t quite get the agile cat in its field of fire. Jake caught sight of Creao Gegorma in the pilot’s seat, shoving the controls to force the big cat to turn on its ten legs. As it did, Jake noticed several anti-personnel weapons built into the side of the large cat rotating in his direction.

  “Now, Maggie!” Jake shouted.

  Maggie released the tracker’s magnetics and the meter-square piece of metal hit the arena floor to Jake’s right as the controllers’ device fell off the Paladin’s back. Grabbing a handle on the back of the tracker, Jake jerked up. The meter-square piece of metal barely moved.

  The tunnel-mine’s forty kilos, and its brerellium-steel armor’s gotta be another hundred. I’ll never lift it.

  Low-watt beams of plasma energy designed to repel personnel shot out from small, automated turrets built into the side of the Gargantuan. They bounced off the Paladin’s force field as Maggie positioned herself between the large cat and Jake. It was all too obvious the slowly turning Gargantuan only needed a few more steps until its heavy weapons had a clear field of fire at the Paladin.

  Maggie can’t hold her ground much longer. Gegorma will take out her force field as soon as he can get a clear shot.

  Jake looked down at the heavy tracker and remembered how Casey had once used her anti-grav belt to lift them both. Ripping off his belt, he strapped it around the tracker as he took a tight grip on the handle. He thumbed the anti-grav’s control unit to max. The tracker rose into the air, lifting him off his feet. He quickly thumbed the control back until his feet were firmly on the ground. Pulling the armor-plated tracker close, he held it in front of him like a shield. Hoping his plan was so illogical the Gargantuan’s computer would never think of it, Jake ran through the Paladin’s force field, toward the larger cat.

  Anti-personnel beams hit the tracker’s thick armor and bounced off. Green beams tore up the ground around Jake’s boots as he bent lower to protect as much of his body as he could. He continued running toward the shimmering air surrounding the Gargantuan. Thumbing the control switch on the anti-grav belt down a notch, he dove toward a meter of non-shimmering air just above the ground. Rolling beneath the Gargantuan’s force field, he came up on his feet and stepped under the large cat’s belly while holding his makeshift shield over his head.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  A series of small explosions sounded as thousands of metal balls from anti-personnel mines built into the belly of the metal beast rained down all around him. Dirt from the arena floor kicked up into the air, momentarily obscuring his view. Something hot bit into his right foot. Something else bit his leg. Down he went. Somehow he managed to keep the armored tracker over his body.

  A surge of adrenaline rushed through Jake, giving him the strength to regain his feet. He ignored the pain in his right leg and foot. When no more explosions sounded over his head, he lowered his makeshift shield.

  Either they expended all their anti-personnel min
es at once, or they’re holding off on killing me for some reason.

  Jake didn’t know or care why they’d stopped firing at him. He only knew he had a job to do. Stepping under the part of the big cat he figured was directly below the disintegrator displacer, he thumbed the anti-grav’s control to max. He let go of the tracker’s handle as the meter-square piece of metal rose into the air. It shot up, gaining speed until it slammed into the belly of the Gargantuan. Jake heard the distinctive click of the tracker’s magnetics locking the tunnel-mine onto the cat’s underbelly.

  My job’s done. The rest is up to Maggie.

  With that thought, Jake turned and ran toward the front of the Gargantuan. Rolling underneath the big cat’s force field, he came up facing the cockpit. His maneuver apparently caught the cat’s crew by surprise because none of their forward weapons were aimed at him. Their surprise didn’t last long. Jake noticed a slew of anti-personnel turrets on the chest of the Gargantuan rotating in his direction. Glancing at the cockpit, he saw Creao Gegorma staring at him with a puzzled look on his face. The old man glanced at the Paladin just as Maggie dived to the ground cockpit first to avoid a salvo of missiles. Gegorma’s eyes seemed to take in the now visible backside of the UHAAV and lock in on the spot where the tracker should be. The old man’s eyes grew large as he began punching at something on his armrest.

  Catching Gegorma’s eyes one last time, Jake gave him an uncomplimentary hand gesture he’d picked up in his youth from the copper miners on Aretillo.

  Boom!

  A massive ball of purple energy erupted from the belly of the Gargantuan. Another blast of purple and orange shot out the cat’s sides and top, blowing torn pieces of armor into the air. The ten-legged cat’s front force field held just long enough to direct most of the explosion up and to the rear. Even so, the shock wave blew Jake off his feet and knocked him back a dozen meters. He hit the ground hard.

  Everything started fading to black. Somehow Jake managed to stay conscious. At least he thought he did. Maybe not, because the next thing he knew, two hands were lifting him to his feet. He shook his head and looked into Casey’s eyes.

  “Come on!” said Casey. “This isn’t over.”

  No longer wearing her flight helmet, Casey’s black and purple hair blew across Jake’s face as she half-dragged, half-carried him toward the section of the arena where they’d seen Tilley, Jason, and the others. Glancing down, he noticed Casey holding her mini-light in her left hand. The connector Jason had installed at the end of the light’s casing flapped in the air.

  Still shaken by the explosion, Jake said, “Where are we going?”

  Casey pointed in the direction of a small door in the wall of the arena near Tilley and the others. “We’ve got to find a controller’s station. That’s as good a place to start as any.”

  The shimmering in the air between them and the opening told Jake she was wrong. “The arena’s force field’s still up.”

  “Not for long,” came Maggie’s voice from behind Jake.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Jake saw the Paladin walking behind them. The cat’s empty right claw stretched out and picked both Casey and him up off the ground and began carrying them.

  “You guys are too slow,” said Maggie over the Paladin’s external speakers. Her voice took on a concerned note. “It’s no wonder. Your right leg’s bleeding. You’ve been hit.”

  Jake remembered the bites he’d felt when the Gargantuan had fired its anti-personnel mines.

  Crammed tight against him though she was, Casey somehow managed to rip off her belt and wrap it around his leg, jerking it tight. “That’ll have to do for now.” She glanced at the Paladin’s cockpit where Maggie’s hologram sat in the pilot’s chair. “We need to get past the arena’s force field!”

  The shimmering in the air near the door in the arena’s wall disappeared.

  “How’s that for service,” said Maggie as she lowered Jake and Casey to the ground ten meters from the doorway and opened her right claw. “Gegorma must’ve been handling some of the force field’s security from the Gargantuan. Now that he’s gone, hacking into the part of the network controlling the arena’s force field was easy.”

  The sound of shots came from Jake’s right. Having fallen to the ground when Maggie released him, he stood with Casey’s help and looked for the source of the sound. A group of the arena’s spectators were trading small-arm’s fire with some of the guards. Jake recognized Tilley, Jason, and the Trecorians. They were vastly outnumbered.

  “Help them,” Jake ordered. “Casey and I’ve got to find a controller’s station.”

  “No,” came Maggie’s voice over the Paladin’s speakers. “I need to stay with you. I’ve got to protect you.”

  Jake glanced at the two-and-a-half-meter-high door in the arena’s wall. “You’re too big. You’d never fit. Casey and I’ve gotta do it. Help the others. Send them after us once you’ve taken out the guards.” He switched to command voice. “That’s an order.”

  Maggie’s hologram glared at him through the windscreen, but the word “Compliance” came out of the Paladin’s external speakers. The agile cat spun on its footpads. Beams of red energy shot out the windscreen’s twin 30s as Maggie ran in the direction of Tilley and Casey. The twin beams of energy blasted into a group of guards, throwing body pieces into the air.

  “Come on,” said Casey as she wrapped Jake’s arm across her neck and began running toward the door, dragging him with her.

  Stumbling along as best he could, Jake considered telling her to leave him behind. Logic told him she’d make better time without him. Something inside wouldn’t let him do it. I’ve got to stay with her. I need to protect her.

  The door opened into a well-lit corridor with a T intersection ten meters away. A helpful display screen attached to the wall at the intersection had a red dot with a ‘YOU ARE HERE’ label.

  Jake broke free from Casey’s grip. “I can walk.” He took two steps and stumbled forward.

  Grabbing his arm before he could fall, Casey wrapped it over her neck. “Sure you can. Now stop trying to be a hero. We’re a team. Get used to it.” Reaching the intersection, she concentrated on the screen, then pointed to the right side of the computer display.

  Glancing closer, Jake noticed a large room on the display labeled ‘CONTROL ROOM.’

  “Nice of them to mark it for us,” Casey said as she pulled him down the right corridor.

  Jake’s male pride made him want to jerk free and try to walk on his own. Logic kept him from doing so. He limped along as best he could, taking as much weight off Casey as possible.

  In less than a minute, they were at the door of a large, glassed-in room. The door stood wide open. Overturned chairs were scattered around the room near flickering computer terminals. Surprisingly, the room was as empty as the corridor had been. Muffled shouts and gunfire could be heard echoing in the distance, but Jake didn’t think any of it sounded close enough to matter.

  Releasing his arm, Casey ran for the nearest computer terminal. She reached out with the hand holding the mini-light. “Once I get this in, Maggie will have the planet’s shields down in nothing flat.”

  Before she could plug in the connector, a beam of green energy sizzled past the side of Jake’s head, catching Casey in the lower part of her back. She fell against the computer terminal and slid to the floor, still clutching the mini-light in her left hand.

  Jake spun around and caught sight of a slim, blonde-headed woman in a black jumpsuit with a blaster in her right hand. A beam of green shot out, catching him on the left shoulder. He was flung across the desk with the computer terminal, falling over to the other side. A burning pain in his left shoulder brought tears to his eyes.

  Thoughts of Casey lying helpless on the other side of the desk drove all sense of self-preservation from Jake’s mind. He wrapped his right hand around an overturned chair and flung it over the desk in the direction of the woman. Grabbing the edge of the desk, he leveraged himself up and charge
d. A green beam hit him in the left leg, knocking him to the tiled floor. He fought to remain conscious.

  Phyllis Gegorma walked forward with a Deloris blaster in her hand. When she was three steps away, she pointed the weapon at Jake’s head.

  Jake glanced around for some kind of weapon but saw nothing useful. Something moved to his right.

  Casey grabbed hold of the desk with her right hand and pulled herself to a sitting position as she stretched out her left hand. “I’ve got to get the shield down,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t let those weapons fall into the wrong hands. Trecor will be overwhelmed.”

  The connector for the mini-light in Casey’s hand was only a finger’s width from the computer terminal’s network port when another green beam struck her in the center of the back. The mini-light slid from her hand, onto the desktop, as she crumpled to the floor. Her head turned as if searching for something. Her eyes locked onto Jake from behind strands of black and purple hair. Her mouth moved as if struggling to say something. She stretched out her right hand in his direction.

  Jake dragged his wounded body toward her. For some reason, Phyllis didn’t fire. She kept pace with him until he was close enough to reach out with his right hand in an attempt to grab hold of Casey.

  “Oh, how sweet,” said Phyllis. “You’re trying to get one last kiss before you both die. I’ll save you the effort.” A beam of green shot out, striking Casey in the forehead. Her head jerked back as wet liquid splattered the underside of the desk and the floor.

  “Noooooo!” shouted Jake. He tried to push himself up but fell back to the floor.

  “Your turn, Jake,” said Phyllis. “You killed my father.” She shrugged. “I can live with that.” She smiled as she aimed her blaster at his head. “Unfortunately for you, you can’t.”

  Boom!

  A spray of blood and bone erupted out of Phyllis Gegorma’s forehead. Her body was flung forward and onto the control room’s floor. The blaster flew through the air, falling tantalizingly close to Jake’s hand. He reached for the weapon.