Operation: Catspaw: A Gamer's Universe Story

by S. R. Witt

  The drone was much bigger than Heck, and had to resort to bending the panel's frame with his good arm before he could push his armor plated torso into the maintenance tube. "Look at these scratches," he said, pointing at curls of peeled paint dangling from his chest. "I just had this carbon black coating applied. Who's going to pay to have me recovered?"

  Heck shrugged and pointed down the tube. "I don't know, probably the same person who's going to pay to have Throd's red goo replenished so the next shot doesn't turn him inside out. Are you going to stand around and bitch about your expenses all day, or can we go score some fucking points?"

  Hive's status indicators flickered to black and his faceted eyes rotated to focus on the tube past Heck. "You know where you are going? Or are you winging it again?"

  Heck walked away from the drone. "For someone without a butt, you sure are an asshole."

  Hive lowered the volume on his vocalizer, "And for someone lacking even the most rudimentary data analysis and research modules, you sure act like you know a lot."

  Heck chuckled to herself and consulted the AR map provided as part of the scenario. She wasn't sure if Hive was trying to make jokes, or if the sarcasm was some new aspect of his Awakening, but she kind of liked it. It made him feel more like one of the team, and less like a piece of equipment. Given how Zotz, the team’s technician felt about drones, she hoped that would be a good thing. Keeping the outfit together was sometimes harder than fighting the Ogre.

  Though she’d die before she admitted it to anyone, Hive was right about her winging it. The maintenance tubes weren't on her map, but their entry and exit points appeared as pale orange lines against the blue walls denoting the main station rooms and corridors. She didn't know precisely where she was going, but she had a pretty good idea.

  How complex could some maintenance tubes be?

  There should be a right turn, just up here, she thought to herself as she traced a likely path through the blank spots on the map with her eyes. The maintenance tubes were thick and the augmented reality overlay flickered and popped out of focus when she passed too close to electrical conduits. It was a real pain in the ass to figure out—

  Heck’s combat harness bit into her chest and hips, and the collar of her armored shirt pinched off her breath as something snatched her off her feet. She kicked and swung her elbows back, but couldn’t land a blow on her unseen attacker.

  “Stop struggling!” Hive barked.

  He dropped Heck onto the tube’s floor next to him, and she punched him in the chest with her cybernetic arm.

  "What the hell, Hive?" She snapped. "You trying to choke me to death?"

  Hive pointed his remaining index finger at Heck’s nose. He didn't say another word, but slowly lowered his arm until his finger was pointing at the spot Heck had almost stepped onto.

  There was nothing there. The maintenance tube widened to accommodate a hole in the floor that let out onto a startling empty space below.

  Heck peered over the edge, and gulped despite herself. The hole opened onto an observation blister, a 30 meter diameter semi-sphere bulging from the outside of the station. Given that the blister was on the down side of the station's artificial gravity, Heck had almost taken a serious fall. If she was lucky, she would've only broken a few bones after falling that distance. If she was unlucky, the blister would've cracked open and spilled her into the vacuum of space. Despite her cybernetic implants and other enhancements, Heck knew she wouldn't last more than a few seconds in the void.

  "Oh," she said. "Sorry about, uh, you know, the punch. And, um, yelling at you."

  Hive stepped past Heck and skirted the opening to the observation blister. "I detect a significant amount of energy consumption in this direction. I believe our target can be found there. And, you know, you are welcome for my saving your life. Do not mention it."

  The drone led them down a narrow tube lined with thick conduits and heavy pipes wrapped in wire insulation.

  When he stopped without warning, Heck bumped into his back. She peered around his shoulder and a stiff breeze made her eyes water. A meter ahead of Hive, the air in the tube seemed thick, almost blurred. A black sphere floated in the center of the tube, unmoving. "What is that?"

  Hive reached out with his remaining hand and pressed his index finger against the black sphere. The scalded cat screech of metal grinding on metal filled the tube, along with a whirling shower of sulfurous yellow sparks. Hive withdrew his finger and showed Heck its polished metal tip. "It appears to be a high velocity, low turbulence ventilation fan. I assume it provides airflow for the station, and I also assume it would grievously harm either of us should we attempt to bypass it."

  "You can't just punch it?"

  Hive's antennae flattened against his skull. "No, I cannot punch it. The potential for serious damage to my single remaining arm is quite high. Even if I managed to destroy the motor, the sudden change in velocity would cause the fan blades to shear off. There would be a significant amount of collateral damage, and I imagine no small amount of bleeding on your part. Also, if I lose my remaining arm, I will not be able to save you if you try to walk into another hole."

  Heck reached up to feel the wire insulation wrapped around the pipe nearest her. "You think you're so smart, Mr. Robot. Let me show you something."

  Her cybernetic fingers pried the wire insulation loose from the pipe, then stripped a few meters of the stiff stuff free of its casing. She handed one of the loose ends of scrap to Hive. "Hang on to this."

  She grabbed the other end of the wires with her cybernetic hand and made a fist around it. She twisted the wires into a stiff metal braid and clamped the ends between her metal fingers. "You're probably going to want to stand back for this next part."

  Hive took a single step away from the fan and Heck waved him back. "Further than that. This could get messy."

  She joined Hive five meters from the fan and coiled the metal braid like a lasso. "Watch this."

  She flung the coiled braid at the fan. Its stiff length twisted, then straightened as it sailed through the air. Heck thought she might have fallen short but, at the last second, the twisted insulation unwound and sprang forward another meter.

  The leading edge of the cable disappeared into the blurred air around the fan's motor, and one of the blades snatched it. The cable whipped around the fan, twining through the blades. Its free end scraped across the walls, floor, and ceiling, slicing through conduits and denting pipes as it whirled.

  The motor groaned, and the blades slowed. Sparks burst from the metal sphere, spiraling like a fireworks display.

  And then the motor screamed once, belched forth a cloud of thick, black smoke, and died. Sparks jumped from the motor and the lights in the maintenance tube flickered. In the distance, something else ground to a halt.

  Heck grinned at Hive. "How about that for optimal efficiency?"

  Hive's antenna flexed and his status indicators turned yellow. "Impressive, but am I to assume you no longer need oxygen to breathe?"

  Heck led the drone past stopped fan blades and around the corner of the maintenance tube. "What are you talking about?"

  They stopped at another maintenance access panel. Hive crouched down to peer through the narrow grate. "That fan was part of the station ventilation system. Which you murdered."

  She joined Hive at the grate. This was the place, all right. It looked like every other lab she'd ever seen, all white surfaces and ceramic benches and weird machines that looked impressive, but probably only heated up coffee for the local scientists. "I didn't murder that fan. I broke it. See, this is why people get irritated. You can't kill inanimate objects that don't have consciousness."

  Hive's eyes took in the laboratory. He shared his AR data panel with Heck and highlighted what he felt were the most important sections. "Be that as it may, when you murdered the fan, you also murdered the ventilation system. Whatever air you’re breathing is the only air you're going to get until we get back to Dragora. I believe that
is our target, right there."

  Heck didn't know whether to be more disturbed by the fact she was going to suffocate as soon as the air in the station went stale, or by what she saw in the laboratory below. "That is not what we came here to get."

  A tall glass tube stood at the far end of the lab. It was filled with a pale blue fluid, and surrounded by a sinuous, almost feline metal housing.

  Hive turned to face his partner. "I believe this scenario is somewhat misleading."

  That was an understatement. They'd been sent here to retrieve a piece of technology. But the kit highlighted on the AR panel in bright green was in the tube.

  And it was attached to to the spine and skull of a naked young woman.

  4

  Heck rested her palm against the side of the glass tank. The young woman floated in viscous fluid; her eyes were closed and a plethora of tubes snaked into her every orifice.

  Hive joined Heck at the target, and rested his hand on the machinery surrounding the tank. "We cannot remain here for long. We need to retrieve the technology and return to Dragora before the Ogre catches up to us.”

  Machinery coiled around the base of the tube and arced up the rear side and over its top. Umbilicals descended from the machine into the tank, and then into the girl. Heck tried to imagine removing them without a doctor on hand and immediately rejected the idea. "We can't get her out of this tank without killing her. Or at least really, really fucking her up.”

  The drone said nothing. He shifted his position to watch the lab’s only entrance, other than the access panel they'd removed to sneak in, and powered up his weapons systems. "I will leave this decision to you, but please be aware hostiles are incoming very soon.”

  Most of the young woman's body was untouched. Her head was shaved, and a pair of triangular antenna jutted up from her skull just above her ears. Metal glinted at the tips of her fingers like artificial claws. But her back…

  Heck walked around the cylinder to get a look at the real problem. Someone had splayed the girl’s back open from the base of her skull to her tailbone. A segmented metal cylinder replaced her spine, and continued outside of her body like a prehensile tail. The skin was sutured to the metal, but the edges were still raw and red.

  Heck blinked away a stinging tear. There was too much of her own past in that lab, too much evidence of a human being transformed into property for the sake of someone’s curiosity. I can't leave her.

  Throd's voice broke over the comms. "Not many guards left after I used up what I found in that vault, but the Ogre's barely scratched."

  Hive threw his weight against one of the lab tables and sent it screeching across the floor toward the doorway. "How much longer can you hold the platform? We have a dilemma here."

  Throd chuckled, a gravelly rumble. "I'm not holding anything. The Ogre is in pursuit, and I'm headed in your direction. We need to pack up and haul ass."

  Hive spat static from his vocalizer and stomped across the room to remove to the beginnings of his makeshift barrier. "I suppose our large friend is coming this way. Because that makes perfect sense. Bring the most dangerous opponent to the objective."

  Heck traced the sinuous curves of the life-support machinery around the giant test tube. A single camera with a slit iris watched her like the eye of an enormous predatory cat. She ignored it and searched for some way to open the cylinder. She found a featureless keypad at the base, and extended it. "We have to get her out of here."

  Hive joined her at the cylinder. His faceted eyes focused on the keypad, and he gave a mechanical shrug. "I have no advice for you. Do what you feel is right, and we will deal with the consequences whatever you decide.”

  Heck frowned at the awakened drone. "Thank you for being so damned helpful."

  She paused, her fingertips over the keypad, then dropped her hand onto the flat slab of glass.

  The keys lit up at her touch, four labels springing to life beneath her fingers. "Well, this is different."

  From somewhere nearby, an explosion rattled the station's passageways. The power flickered for a moment, filling the laboratory with stuttering shadows, then stabilized.

  Heck stared at the illuminated keys and their labels: Flush, Extract, Cycle, Disconnect.

  "What do you think, Hive? Flush?"

  The drone didn't change its focus from the door. "I am not in charge of this mission. If I choose incorrectly, you will blame me for killing this specimen."

  Heck furrowed her brow. "I'm sick of being in charge. When we get back to the ship, I say we take a vote. Winner gets to be the boss."

  Then, before she could change her mind, she tapped the Flush button.

  Another explosion, this one much closer, reverberated through the station. This time, the lights did go out.

  Inside the laboratory, emergency power kicked on instantly. A single red light flashed over the door indicating they were on backup power, but there were no sirens or other warnings. The scientists who worked here probably didn't like being bothered when they were monkeying around with their latest subject.

  The cylinder responded to Heck's touch, and small ports in its floor irised open. The blue fluid rushed out of the cylinder. The young woman descended with the level in the tank, until she lay huddled on its metal floor.

  The next explosion couldn't have been more than a few meters away. Something heavy slammed into the laboratory door, and one of the emergency lights fell from its bracket on the ceiling and crashed to the floor. Glass shattered and flew every direction, and the light’s crystalline filament popped like an arthritic knuckle.

  Hive pointed at the door and a scatter laser popped out from his forearm. "My estimates tell me we have less than thirty seconds to evacuate this area before the Ogre arrives."

  Heck looked down at the keypad and slapped the Disconnect button. The machinery around the cylinder twitched and the umbilicals retracted from the young woman with a liquid slurp.

  The test subject gagged and retched, clutching her throat as the breathing tube in her neck flopped out of her like an overgrown tapeworm shedding its host.

  Heck punched the extract button and the cylinder disconnected from the machinery with a puff of pressurized gas.

  The young woman remained on the floor, panting as her lungs tried to remember how to draw air. Heck didn't wait for her to regain consciousness. There wasn't time. She grabbed her and flopped her over her shoulders in a rough fireman's carry.

  She ran for the hatch leading to the maintenance tube, and shouted for Hive to join her. "Were moving out!"

  The drone grabbed the table and slung it over to the wall beneath the hatch. It would be close, but they should be able to reach it from there.

  Throd's voice growled through the comms channel. "Sorry, coming in hot."

  Then the door blew inward and Throd's limp form slid across the floor.

  5

  Hive whipped his arm toward the oncoming threat and unleashed a crimson blizzard of laser fire through the ruptured door. Seething bolts of power glanced off the Ogre's armored carapace in sparking showers, leaving thick trails of smudged soot on the station’s walls and deck.

  ..::||//UMBRA SCENARIO REPORT BEGIN

  Congratulations! Collateral Damage Objective achieved!

  Your outfit is a regular wrecking crew!

  Securing this objective earned 500 points toward your outfit’s aggregate score.

  .::||\UMBRA SCENARIO REPORT END

  Heck shoved the AR display out of sight before it could finish showing her the fabulous prizes she’d just won. It was nice to know they’d completed at least one of their objectives, but they still had to get back to the ship if they wanted to collect their points and whatever rewards they’d earned. Her pulse pounded in her temples, and her heart tried to climb up into her throat when she thought about the Ogre closing in on their position.

  She hated to admit it, but moments like these filled her with an excitement she couldn’t get enough of. The thrill of battle, the adr
enaline rush of pain given, and pain received. Being an Operator was hard, deadly work, but there was nothing else that could satisfy her darker cravings.

  She barked orders to her team. "Throd, I didn't buy those bigass guns so you could lay on your back. Lay down some cover fire so that Ogre doesn’t get anymore free shots on us. Hive, think of something to get that thing off our backs, and do it."

  Their objective stirred across Heck's back. Her voice was thin and weak, atrophied from lack of use. "Kitty," she gasped, her voice piteously weak. "Don't leave kitty."

  Heck followed the girl's pale fingers to the cylinder. There was nothing there but a tangle of tubes and wires. Heck didn’t have time to figure out what the semi-conscious girl was going on about. "We'll get kitty later," she said, hoping that would keep the girl calm.

  Not that the young woman was putting up much of a struggle. She was so weak and tired she could barely hold her head up.

  "Dragora, prep the medical bay."

  The starship's musical voice responded. "Underway. You should know, a familiar ship is entering this sector. It should arrive in a few minutes."

  "What the hell, Dragora. Put it on the AR."

  Heck's stomach fell when the image appeared in her vision. It was a familiar ship, all right. It belonged to Cinder, her former boss. The last time they’d been on the same planet, she’d killed most of his outfit and stolen his starship.

  Hive unleashed another volley from his scatter laser, and said, "I thought we killed Cinder.”

  Me, too, Heck thought. He was going to be really pissed when he finally caught up to them.

  The Ogre, tired of playing games, launched a mixed ordnance salvo into the laboratory. Heavy shells tore through the walls and floor like bowling balls dropped onto a sheet of glass. Flechettes whistled through the air and ricocheted with high-pitched whines like the buzzing of a kicked hornet’s nest.