Tia was squished against the wall beside her. Sedge, Tick, and Thatcher stood their ground, blasting laser fire into the oncoming creature. It screeched but did not slow down. It fell upon the men, talons raking the air.
The mercenaries hurled themselves to the side, ducking or rolling to avoid the attack. Those talons were longer than daggers and one sliced within an inch of Sedge’s head. He flung himself to his back but kept firing as it sailed past. Kalish rose to her knees and shot at the creature’s backside, a leathery tail whipping back and forth in agitation. At least one of her laser bursts hit it—she was sure of it—but the crimson beam bounced off the scaly hide.
“Down, everyone,” Striker barked.
A split second later, a soft thunk sounded, and one of his grenades arced out, chasing the creature.
“I’m not sure blowing things up in here is the best idea,” Kalish said, thinking of booby traps as well as the danger of machinery and roofs toppling and crushing them.
She had no sooner than finished the sentence, when someone grabbed her and forced her head down. A deafening explosion rang out, and a blaze of yellow and orange flames brightened the upper corner of the building like a sun. Heat roiled from the inferno, and Kalish needed no further urging to bury her head on whomever’s shoulder that was. Metal screeched, or maybe that was the creature. Kalish could not trust her battered ears. Then came the shrapnel, pelting the walls and pinging off the vats. A piece sliced through her clothing and embedded in her shoulder. She gasped, tears springing to her eyes.
“It’s coming back,” someone yelled.
“Outside,” Sedge said in her ear. Only then did she realize he was the one with his arms around her, protecting her head. “We’ve got to get back to the ship.”
He pushed her toward the door, and she didn’t object. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the winged creature flying back toward them. It shrieked, and she could not tell if it was injured or merely angry.
She rolled through the square hole she had cut, bumped into someone, and landed without grace, her pack on top of her. Kalish scrambled to her feet. Tia was already outside and grabbed her arm.
“Back to the ship?” she asked.
Lifting her pistol, Kalish scanned the mounds of ore around them, searching for more trouble. Just because there was one creature inside did not mean there was not another out here.
“Wait for the men,” she said, expecting them to fling themselves through the hole right behind her.
But another explosion came from inside the building. The walls shuddered, and something that must have weighed a ton slammed to the ground, causing a chain reaction of clatters and bangs. Someone shouted a battle cry that almost matched the ferocity of the creature’s screeches.
Kalish scowled at the hole, realizing the men had pushed her out here to protect her and that they were not following, not until they dealt with their attacker. An attacker that could survive direct hits from lasers and had flown through the blast of a grenade...
“You were close,” came Sedge’s voice. “See if you can drop that thing over there on it. You can—”
“Look out!”
Kalish crouched, torn between jumping back in to help and not wanting to get in their way. What could her small pistol do against that thing, anyway? Still, it felt cowardly to wait out here while they battled such a deadly foe. Maybe she could think of something more effective than laser fire to hurt the creature. Maybe—
“Kalish,” Tia whispered, tapping her shoulder frantically. “More trouble.”
Another crash came from inside, but Kalish had spun to see what her sister was looking at and barely registered it. A blocky humanoid construct had walked around the corner of the building, its hide—or was that armor?—gleaming an oily black under Tia’s flashlight. It must have been eight feet tall, and as it walked toward them, its eyes burned a malevolent crimson from the shadows of its helmet.
“Robot?” Tia asked.
One of the construct’s arms lifted, the barrel of a weapon existing where a person’s hand would have been.
“Security robot,” Kalish barked, grabbing her sister and pulling her out of the way. “Sedge,” she yelled as they scrambled up the slope of the hill Striker had been digging into earlier. “More trouble out here.”
The robot fired its weapon, a short burst of energy that made the air crackle with blue lightning as it blasted into the ground where Tia had been standing. Ore and limestone flew up, pelting her and Kalish in their backs. They raced behind the mound, but not before Kalish glanced back and saw the size of the smoking crater that shot had left behind. The words swimming pool jumped into her mind.
She ducked around the mountain of ore, hoping it would provide enough cover if the robot fired straight at them. Though it probably was not wise, Kalish risked a peek back to see if their attacker would follow.
At the same time, another boom came from inside the building. Half of the roof collapsed. A cloud of dust rose into the dark air, and dirt and metal rained down outside, landing all around the robot. It continued walking, unfazed even when a rock the size of its head glanced off its shoulder.
“Got it,” someone inside cried. Striker? The voices were muffled, and Kalish couldn’t tell.
“Don’t come out the door,” she yelled in case they had not heard her before. “There’s trouble out here. A robot.”
Said robot reached the square in the door and turned straight toward her. Another crackle of electricity burst from its arm. Kalish was already flinging herself down the back side of the mountain of ore. She lost her footing and tumbled, rolling halfway down the pile. That was fortunate, because the assault blew the top of the mountain away.
Tia had been higher up than Kalish had been, and she was hurled down the slope, arms flying in all directions, her terrified face lit up by the electricity from another bolt flying toward them. On hands and knees, Kalish scrambled to her sister, grabbing her.
“Tia, Tia?” She resisted the urge to shake her, but barely.
Tia’s eyes were closed, and Kalish did not know if she could carry her sister all the way back to the ship. Fortunately, her eyes flew open.
“It’s coming.” Tia jumped to her feet, even though she wavered, her legs shaking. Her hair stuck out—she must have caught some of that electricity.
“I know.” The sounds of fighting in the building had quieted, and Kalish could hear the thud of heavy feet climbing the ore pile. Heavy inhuman feet. “Let’s get back to the ship.”
She wrapped her arm around Tia’s waist and headed in the direction of the ships, guided only by the light coming from the end of the platform.
“What about the others?” Tia asked, her words slurred.
“They’ll have to find their own way back.” Kalish hated to abandon anyone, but that security robot had a bead on them. They needed to return to the ship and get the hell off this platform.
10
“Kalish?” Sedge called as soon as he stepped outside the remains of the building and did not see her. He swung his flashlight around. He had thought he had heard her yell something a minute earlier, but the posts and machines toppling inside had drowned most of it out.
Striker and the others clambered out beside him, but Sedge barely noticed. His flashlight had chanced across a crater smoldering on the side of the closest mountain, a crater that had not been there when they went in.
“Good work,” Striker said, thumping him on the shoulder. “If you can’t shoot your big ugly bird enemy to death, bury it under half a building. Always a good plan.”
“The women,” Sedge said, pointing with his flashlight. “They’re in trouble. There’s something else out here with them.”
“Uh,” Tick said, facing a corner of the building. “There’s something out here with us, too.”
“A robot?” Thatcher asked, shaking a layer of dust out of his hair. There was dust on the robot, too, but that did not hide its powerful, humanoid form as it strode toward the
m. Its arms lifted, aiming toward their group.
“An armed robot,” Tick said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“This way,” Sedge ordered, racing toward the smoking crater. If the robot had shot in that direction, it must have been aiming at something. Kalish and Tia.
Without waiting to see if the others followed, he sprinted up the lumpy side of the ore mountain. Energy crackled in the air, and something slammed into the wall of the building behind him.
“Shit,” Striker cursed.
Footsteps pounded up the ore pile behind Sedge. More blasts followed, the air charged and full of energy with each one. Sedge did not look back to see the results. He raced in the direction he believed Kalish had gone—back toward the ships.
The mercenaries’ rifles blasted laser fire.
“Oh, great,” Striker growled. “Something else that’s impervious.” A second later, the rapid-fire of his automatic pistol pierced the air, bullets instead of lasers pounding his target. “Those bounce off too.”
“Duck,” Thatcher demanded.
Sedge had gone over the top of one mound and was about to scramble over the ridge of another one, but he paused to see if his comrades needed help. As much as he wanted to check on Kalish, he could not simply run away from the other men.
But they were running too, sprinting down the backside of the first mountain. A blast landed on the ridge behind them, and ore and shattered rock burst into the air, shooting up like a geyser.
“Where are your grenades now?” Tick demanded as they ran.
“Keep going,” Thatcher ordered, his voice calm but forceful. “Two more came from around the corner a second ago.”
The men needed no urging. They soon caught up with Sedge and sprinted over the rocks. He ran with them, trying to catch sight of the women up ahead of them or at least the glow of their flashlights. He could see the larger glow of the ships’ lights, a third of a mile ahead, but he did not see any smaller beams. The undulating landscape thwarted his eyes, hiding far too much of the vista ahead.
They passed another smoking crater, this one so large Sedge had to run around it instead of through it. His boots might have melted if he had tried—the limestone and ore certainly had.
“Grenades away,” Striker hollered.
The explosion came seconds later. Striker yelled something else, but the noise buried his words.
Still running, Sedge topped the last ridge before the landing platforms. He spotted Kalish helping Tia up the ramp of their ship, but he also spotted a black robot striding down the backside of the mountain, not ten meters ahead of him.
He halted so quickly he almost pitched onto his face. His flailing arms saved him, and he skittered backward, even as the robot turned toward him. He had to get away before that thing created a crater right on top of him.
“Watch out,” he rasped as he raced back over the ridge, expecting the others to be right there, about to crest the top. “Not that way. It’s—”
The robot’s weapon crackled, and a lance of pure energy leaped from its arm. Even though Sedge had managed to scramble to the other side of the ore mountain, the blast struck the front with such power that the force flung him ten feet in the air.
He soared right over Thatcher and Tick, who ducked, their eyes wide. Sedge landed with a roll, trying to distribute the force evenly across his body, but the rocks were still hard and jarring. They pounded the air out of his lungs, and he struggled to draw in a breath when he landed.
“Go around, Thomlin,” Thatcher ordered.
He and Tick had stopped, their weapons trained up the hill, what remained of it. The entire top had melted, with plumes of smoke clouding their visibility.
“Tell Calendula to get in the air and shoot these with the shuttle’s weapons,” Thatcher added at the same time as Striker launched his first grenade.
Though Sedge hated the idea of leaving the group, he obeyed the order. The robot would simply pick them off if they all tried to run around the mountain and to the landing platforms. But the shuttle had more powerful weapons, laser cannons that might make a dent in the construct’s incredible armor.
Striker’s grenade went off at the same moment as the robot crested the rise. A cloud of black smoke swallowed it. Sedge sprinted for the valley between the mountains, hoping the robot had been destroyed. If not that, he prayed it would at least be distracted.
The ships came into sight. Val’s shuttle was already rising into the air and turning to face the battle. With no pilot at the helm, Thatcher’s remained stationary. Sedge did not know if he had the skill to get it in the air and firing, but he angled toward it anyway. Tia had disappeared into the clunky freighter, but Kalish had paused on the ramp, her pistol in hand.
On the ore pile, the smoke cleared, even as chunks of rock slammed to the ground all over the place. The construct had been knocked down the back side by the force of the explosion, but impossibly, its soulless red eyes still burned. Its armor did not appear dented, and it lifted its arm, not aiming for Striker and the others, who were hidden behind the hill, but for Sedge.
The ground was flat here, with no cover to hide behind. He fired a few times over his shoulder, hoping to distract the construct, but he never slowed down. He sprinted for Thatcher’s shuttle, the closest ramp available to him. The hatch stood open, inviting him in.
Shouts came from behind the robot, the other three men reaching the top of the hill and trying to draw its fire. But the crackle of the energy weapon sounded, and Sedge could only hope he could make it into the shuttle first. He reached the ramp, ran two steps up it, but then something slammed into the back of his shoulder with so much power that it spun him around and knocked him from the ramp. He hit the ground with the momentum of a train.
Knowing the edge of the platform wasn’t more than a meter away, with a hundred-foot drop after it, he clawed at the ground, trying to stop himself. But only one of his arms worked—excruciating pain came from the shoulder of the other, and he could not move it, not even to save himself. He slowed as he reached the edge, but not enough. He fell over.
He flailed with his good arm, trying one last lunge to get a grip. His fingers caught on the bumpy limestone at the very edge of the platform.
Panting, he gritted his teeth and struggled to hang on. The hundred-foot drop yawned beneath him, the rocks in the shadows below offering nothing soft to land on. If he fell, he would break his neck.
Again, he tried to swing his other arm up, but it would not obey him. Tears of pain and frustration seeped from his eyes. All of his weight hung by four fingers, and the ledge threatened to crumble beneath his grip. His forearm was already trembling from the effort of holding himself up.
“Help,” he called upward, but the sounds of laser fire and explosions came from the distance, and he feared the other men could not hear him or could not escape to help even if they knew what had happened.
Footsteps sounded above him, and a candle of hope lit in his chest.
Kalish looked over the edge and gaped down at him.
Damn, she wasn’t strong enough to lift him up. She would only end up being pulled over with him.
“Don’t—” Sedge started, but she had already clenched her jaw and backed out of sight.
With the finality of a gong sounding, he realized she might not have been planning to help at all. He had pried into her affairs and knew more of her past than she was comfortable with. Maybe she would find it simpler if he ceased to exist.
More tears blurred his eyes, less from the pain this time and more from the realization that he had caused those feelings in her, made her see him as a betrayer. As a villain.
His fingers slipped a little farther. The pinkie fell off the edge, and he hung only by three. With defeat in his heart, he stared down at the drop again, seeing his inevitable end in those unyielding rocks far below.
A crunch came from above. He blinked his eyes, struggling to see. Kalish’s head popped back into sight, lower this time. She knelt on
the edge.
“Hold on,” she said as she tied a slender rope around his wrist. “Two more seconds.”
“I shall... endeavor to do so,” he whispered, watching her tie, hoping she could make an excellent knot and hoping even more that the other end of that rope was tied to something sturdy.
She said something else, but the words were lost in the blast from another explosion. Then she backed away.
Staring up at his trembling fingers, Sedge tried not to feel utterly alone again. He lifted his pinkie, trying to lock it around the edge again. But the rock under his other fingers finally crumbled and gave away. He gasped and lunged, trying to regain the handhold, but he was falling.
“No,” he cried.
And then the rope went taut. He didn’t quite feel like a fool for what might be considered, at that point, a melodramatic cry. Not when he was dangling in the darkness of an unfriendly cavern with booby traps, man-eating creatures, and even killer robots all around him. The rope tightened, and then pulled him upward. A shudder of release went through him as the reality sank in that he had been saved. He was not certain his right arm had been saved, but he would wait to mourn that until he knew for certain.
His knuckles bumped against the bottom of the platform. Then a calloused hand gripped his wrist and pulled him over the edge. Sergeant Tick. Kalish was there, too, and she gripped him under the armpit, helping him up. With his right arm useless, he could do little more than let them drag him up, like a whale being hauled up a beach.
“Thanks,” he rasped when his entire body was finally on solid ground again.
“You’re bleeding, buddy,” Tick announced. “Looks like that thing shot a hole all the way through your shoulder.”
“I hope you killed it for me.”
“Blew the head off it.”
“Good.”
“Unfortunately, there are still three more.”
Sedge groaned, eyeing the plumes of black and gray smoke that had swallowed the entire landscape in front of the ships. Val’s shuttle fired lasers into the cloud.
Mandrake Company- The Complete Series Page 96