Second Life of Mr. Hunt: Book 3: Failover

by Gerrit Overeem

  A volley of las-blasts flew past her from a stack of storage crates to her right, and the few that were on target dissipated off her energy shield. She knelt and returned fire, but shots from behind her overwhelmed her shielding, disabling it.

  Nora got up, ran toward the storage crates, and slammed her shoulder into the stack, causing it to fall forward. The crates crashed down, and a male voice yelled out a string of expletives. She leaped on top of one of the fallen crates, and las-fire exploded around her from a pinned mercenary firing blindly at her.

  Nora jumped down, but not before one of the blind shots hit her las-rifle, causing a rainfall of sparks to emanate from it. Tossing the rifle aside as she landed next to the trapped mercenary, she slammed her foot down on the mercenary’s las-rifle, pinning it to his chest.

  Without missing a beat, Nora quickly drew her las-pistol, giving it a command to overload each shot with maximum energy release, then turned and fired on the other mercenary flanking her. The shots exploded through the mercenary’s energy shield, burning his arm and disabling his las-rifle.

  The wounded mercenary shook off the pain, pulled a metal baton with his good hand, snapped it open, and charged at Nora. She jumped around to face him, switching her foot to the other one to keep the las-rifle pinned on the mercenary trapped under the storage crate.

  Nora blocked the baton strike; its electrical shock dissipated across her frame. The last time she was attacked with this type of weapon was on a mining planet some time back and it caused massive damage to her systems. She had learned from that and adapted her internal shielding in case she ever encountered this weapon again, and the update paid off. The mercenary’s eyes widened when Nora shook off the electrical discharge and slammed her foot into his midsection.

  The mercenary went flying back and hit the ground hard. Nora dropped to a knee, flipped her now empty las-pistol in the air to grab it by the barrel, and smashed the butt of the pistol into the face of the mercenary she had trapped under her, crushing the respirator and embedding the las-pistol in the mercenary’s skull. She then tore the las-rifle from the mercenary’s dead hands and fired at his partner charging at her with the baton. The shots spun him, and he fell dead at her feet.

  Nora got back up and ran toward where she had heard Gideon’s screams. The stacks of cargo containers ended, and about thirty feet away, she saw Gideon chained to a wall with a large man standing over him and another body kneeling limp next to him. The large man hammered Gideon with an electrified baton, causing him to scream.

  Before Nora could react, a masked individual stepped out of the shadows between her and Gideon. The individual raised its index finger, and the large man wailed on Gideon again.

  Nora increased the output of the las-rifle and fired multiple bursts at the masked assailant. The las-blasts bounced off a protective shield as if they were a mere inconvenience.

  Nora flipped the las-rifle around to use it as a club and charged the masked individual, but was blindsided by someone yelling, “No!”, followed by an explosion and cloud of smoke.

  Red lights blared in Nora’s heads-up display, indicating that she had taken an overload to her audio and visual sensors, and recalibration was in process. She looked to her left and could barely make out Vicki lying next to her, bloody and tattered from the explosion.

  Vicki lifted her head. “Techno-Spy…distraction…not re—”

  Nora’s vision was shimmering, and she could not hear what Vicki said. She rolled up to her knees and squinted through the smoke and haze. A foot hit her face before she could stand up, spinning her to her back. Nora didn’t feel pain like a humanoid would, and it would take a harder blow to crack her metal and composite frame, but blood trickled from the organic material that covered her. The haziness in her vision remained, but her hearing was starting to return.

  “Not supposed to kill you, but you killed some friends of mine on the mining planet, and I’m going to make you pay,” said the Techno-Spy.

  Nora rolled toward the Techno-Spy and caught the foot before it could stomp down on her and sharply twisted it.

  The Techno-Spy flipped over her own twisting leg and landed like a cat in a crouched position. Nora quickly got back to her knees but was forced to dive to her right as two slim darts whizzed by her, and two minor electrical explosions echoed from whatever they impacted. Her vision began to clear, and she rolled toward Vicki to get out of the way of two more projectiles. They flew by and exploded in the distance.

  The Techno-Spy laughed, stood back up, drew an odd-looking pistol, and fired three small disks. Nora’s defensive systems were still down. Unable to assess the situation, she quickly grabbed Vicki’s body and used it as a shield.

  The disks embedded themselves into Vicki’s armor and arm, causing her unconscious body to twitch and flop around. Tossing Vicki aside, Nora gave a neural command and the armor on her left forearm popped open to reveal the inside of her arm. She pulled a dagger that was black as night from her forearm and pointed it at the Techno-Spy.

  The neural command she gave next caused the ballistic knife to fire its blade at supersonic speed. The blade went through the Techno-Spy’s eye goggle and stuck out the back of its head. The Techno-Spy stood there for a second before falling over dead.

  Nora looked at the empty knife hilt and then at the dead Techno-Spy. Mr. Hunt was correct when he said his assassin knife was an excellent weapon. He is never getting it back.

  She slowly stood up, assessed the situation, and stared at the man beating Gideon. The large man looked over at her, the dead Techno-Spy and Vicki’s body, which twitched every few seconds, dropped the stun baton, and took off running. Nora wanted to chase after him and make him sing a symphony of screams, but was more concerned about Gideon. She might not have seen the attacker’s face through the respirator, but she would remember his eyes.

  Gideon’s attempt to stand brought her back to the task at hand. She rushed over to him and began evaluating his injuries. His leg was scorched from a las-blast, and he was burnt and bleeding from multiple wounds. She moved him to a sitting position, snapped the chains off him with ease, and caressed his cheek.

  “Gideon, can you hear me?” said Nora.

  He opened one eye and looked at her. “We might have to hold off from dancing any time soon.”

  “I can wait.”

  Gideon lifted his head to take in the smoke and bodies in the distance. “I take it they’re all dead?”

  “All but one, but I plan on hunting him in my free time.”

  Gideon snickered. “I almost feel sorry for the guy, but make sure he suffers.”

  “Oh, he will.”

  “Now, help me up,” said Gideon, cringing as he moved. “We need to get to Commander Seymour.”

  Nora assisted Gideon up, and he was forced to put most of his weight on her. He could feel some internal nanotech starting to repair and initiate pain management, but with a variety of injuries, the tech was spread thin. He was about to say something when he had to squint to make sure he was seeing correctly.

  Nora looked over to see Vicki carrying the Techno-Spy’s body over her shoulder, sucking the blood out of its arm, which her teeth were clamped down on.

  Vicki released the arm. “Don’t judge, stud,” said Vicki. “I was blown up and somehow hit with a tech frying disk. A girl has got to heal somehow. Be happy it’s not you.”

  Gideon looked back at Nora. “If we’re going to date, you need to give me an overview of your friends. I have a lot of questions.”

  Nora smiled. “I accept your proposal as your girlfriend, and I will definitely give you a full dossier of everyone I know, plus some things you might not be aware of.”

  “Sure, very formal dating contract. I like that in a woman. Now, let’s see to the commander.”

  “No need to rush. It is not Commander Seymour,” said Nora.

  “What do you
mean?”

  “I analyzed the body when I initially surveyed the room and would have assisted him first due to the pool of blood around the body, but the frame size is incorrect for Commander Seymour.”

  “Then who the hell is it?” asked Gideon.

  Nora leaned Gideon against the wall, moved over, and removed the bag covering the head. It was an old man with a beard. Half of his head was a mess of wires and covered by a clear plastic that revealed part of his brain. A gray box with red numbers counting down was spliced into the wires and, based on the cracked plastic around it, was forcefully pushed through and into the brain via a tapered bottom.

  “That’s not good,” said Vicki, dropping the Techno-Spy body and wiping the blood from her mouth with her sleeve.

  “What do you mean?” asked Gideon, trying to avoid making eye contact with Vicki.

  She turned back into her human form. “Is that better, soldier boy? I would hate for you to have nightmares about me. Then again, they could be fun.”

  “Vicki, what does it mean?” Nora asked sternly.

  Vicki sighed. “I told you Fredrick was dramatic. He’s done the countdown thing before, and it always ends in something big. What exactly it is, I’m not sure, but the C-Tec hanging there is probably your clue.”

  “Fredrick was here earlier in a virtual comm and said Mr. Hunt would suffer,” said Gideon.

  Nora looked up and then at both of them. “I know who this is. We need to get to Mr. Hunt now!”

  “Why, what’s wrong?” asked Gideon.

  “I will explain on the Tempus. I am opening a call to them now,” said Nora, flinging Gideon over her shoulder while he protested. “The jet packs should have enough power to get us back to the stealth ship, and we should be able to sneak back to the cruise liner and meet up with the Tempus.”

  Vicki pulled out a small black communication device. She placed her thumb on it and held it for five seconds. The top of the rectangle opened, and she pushed the button. “No need. Too slow,” she said.

  A Wolfkin appeared on a small virtual screen above the communication device. “Mistress, scans are revealing an external cargo hatch on your level.”

  “Excellent, I’m passing you on to someone. Provide them with the details.”

  Vicki handed the device to Nora, and a small tendril came out of the device and stuck into Nora’s finger to provide a neural comm link. A few seconds later, the tendril retracted, and she handed it back.

  “Ah, what the hell are you two doing?” asked Gideon, unable to see.

  “I have connected to Vicki’s associates and now know the location of the external cargo hatch. I have also notified the Tempus of the plan.”

  “What plan?” yelled Gideon.

  “Nothing for you to worry about, my dear,” said Nora.

  The facility rocked from explosions, making them stumble as they rushed down the passageways to the exit location. Three heavily armed Wolfkin were waiting for them by the open cargo hatch, and the larger of the three with a white stripe down its chest moved forward upon seeing them.

  “Mistress, your forces have engaged the Karyot.”

  Gideon was now leaning against the wall. “What forces?”

  “I was worried my trip could go sour, so I had my fleet stalking the cruise liner.”

  “You have a fleet?” asked Nora.

  “A lady needs to protect herself somehow, but we can banter some more inside. Now let’s be off.”

  

  The Tempus docked with a medium-class cruiser from Vicki’s fleet. The Tempus was severely outgunned. The fleet consisted of eleven ships of various designs. There was an Artesian command cruiser, a stealth ship, six Earth Consortium medium-class cruisers, an AI fighter dome carrier, a Karyot scanning and counterintelligence ship, and one Florarien medium cruiser disguised as a civilian ship.

  The docking hatched open, and Nora exited first with Gideon on a hover medical gurney, followed by Vicki in the middle of six heavily armed Wolfkin. The atmosphere in the hangar bay was tense. Commander Gordon stood there with ten OTKE soldiers pointing weapons at them.

  “Nice to see you again, my dear commander,” said Vicki, stepping past the Wolfkin in front of her. “I’m glad to see the face has healed. Still holding a grudge?”

  “I cannot say the same for you, and if I could—”

  Nora stepped in between the two parties. “Now is not the time to settle our differences. We need to get out of here and fast.”

  “I concur with Nora,” said Vicki. “My fleet cannot hold out against the reinforcements that are on the way.”

  “Then, I assume you are not coming with us?” asked Nora.

  Vicki looked past her at Commander Gordon. “Not this time. I wouldn’t feel…welcomed. Give Mr. Hunt my regards and, if he needs me, he knows where to find me.”

  Nora grabbed Vicki’s shoulder as she was turning around to leave. “Thank you.”

  She reached back and patted Nora’s hand. Then raised her finger in the air and spun it in a circle. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The Wolfkin made a path for Vicki to walk by, fell into formation behind her, and exited back to her ship.

  “I was not expecting to see her again,” said Commander Gordon.

  “Yes, an unexpected event, but we can dwell on it later. Probably best that we leave this sector of space,” said Nora.

  “I have already relayed commands to jump into a wormhole as soon as we detach from the cruiser. We should head to the command deck while they take Commander Tucket to medical.”

  Nora nodded and headed off with Commander Gordon and his guards behind her.

  

  When Nora entered the command deck of the Tempus, she found Tilli furiously moving her hands around a virtual screen. Her goggles had a thin wire attached to the console in front of her. Star maps and calculations were racing across the screen.

  Commander Gordon took his place in the captain’s chair, and Nora moved to stand by Tilli. Her head cocked sideways as she evaluated the calculations.

  “Tilli, we need to find Mr. Hunt and get to his location.”

  “Lucky for you, we already have his location, but it will take a long time to get there.”

  “But your calculations showed otherwise.”

  Tilli smiled. “That is correct. The normal flight would take a long time, but I have figured out a way to use the orb in the same way Dr. Kat used it to travel in the black hole with Mr. Hunt.”

  Commander Gordon’s chair swung him over to Tilli. “Continue.”

  “Yes, sir. There is a wormhole eddy that goes by their location. It allows for enhanced travel. If I engage the engines with the orb and use the eddy, it will cut our time down by more than sixty percent.”

  “That sounds excellent, but what’s the catch?” asked Commander Gordon.

  “We use up the orb’s power and possibly fry the engines.”

  Commander Gordon turned towards Nora. “On our way up here, you mentioned that Fredrick was going to try something big. Are Mr. Hunt and Dr. Kat in danger?”

  “I am not sure, but there is a high probability that they are or will be in danger.”

  Commander Gordon leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed his chin with his fingers.

  “Tilli, go with your plan. We can always replace the engines, but we cannot replace our friends.”

  “Yes, sir. I will start configuring the navigation computer.”

  “Nora, go check on Gideon and give him an update,” said Commander Gordon. “There is nothing more you can do now.”

  Nora gave him a nod and left the command deck.

  Chapter 23

  Army of the almost dead

  Ryan observed the newly awakened soldiers. The first gentleman, with an accent close to the American Midwest, leaned against a wall smoking
a cigar. He was the highest ranking of the group and knew the two other Earth Consortium soldiers. One was a huge muscular man who was stretching out his legs and appeared annoyed that his right thigh was missing most of its muscle. Ryan didn’t want to ask what happened to him but assumed his leg got hit with something powerful. The woman talking to him had an indent on her head where a piece of shrapnel must have hit her.

  “You have a look of concern on your face, Earth human.”

  Ryan turned to see the fourth person released from a trauma pod. Her blue heavy battle armor differed from the lightweight, green armor the other three wore. She had what Ryan thought was similar to a Russian accent and assumed she was a different humanoid race. The woman was slowly rubbing an amulet she had pulled from underneath her armor that matched the Order of Eir symbol he and Kat had found on the crashed ship in the swamp. An ornate pistol and knife were strapped to her waist.

  “You could say that,” said Ryan, nodding. “The thought of waking all of you up troubles me, especially when I see all the injuries.”

  “Not your fault. The scars of battle and horrors of war. We chose our paths,” said the woman.

  “Yeah, I guess, but still…”

  Ryan’s sentence trailed off, and there was a long pause until the woman broke the silence.

  “It is a shame we meet at such a bad time. My name is Saasha, I hail from the Ozshanie race.”

  “Sorry for being rude, I’m Ryan Hunt and—”

  He was interrupted as the man with the cigar cleared his throat and stepped forward.

  “Enough of the chatter. Let’s get to business.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and moved toward the man.

  “For those who don’t know me, I’m Gunnery Sergeant Munter, or ‘Gunny’ for short. The big guy is heavy weapons specialist Private First-Class Conklin, also known as ‘Rainmaker’, and Corporal Miner, also known as ‘Splicer’, is our demolitions and electronics expert. The woman in the fancy armor, I ain’t got a clue about, but her face looks familiar.”