by Z H Brown
Ansaria considered the proposal. She wasn’t sure she should trust this outsider, but he had been amenable to everything so far and his suggestion did have merit. Besides, this would give her an opportunity to find out more about these outsiders.
“All right, Eberius, you’ve got a deal.”
“Excellent,” he responded. He gestured to his men. “Captain, you and your men are to accompany the Xenlongian soldiers while I remain here with the Sergeant.”
“Sir,” said one of the armored figures that Ansaria assumed was the captain in a terse and deep voice. “We cannot leave you alone with an unknown combatant. We have our orders.”
Eberius tilted his head in an apologetic manner.
“Forgive me, Sergeant, but my men are extremely dedicated to their task. Would it be possible for one of them to remain here while the others accompany your troops?”
Ansaria thought it over before answering.
“That seems fair: three and three, keep it nice and even.”
Critter spoke up.
“Yes, but I doubt they have someone near your size, Critter, so for all intents and purposes, it’s even.”
“Are you sure about this, Sarge?” questioned Alvara, the concern plain in her voice. Ansaria slung her rifle before answering. “Two on one is almost decent odds for them; .I’m sure I can handle myself if anything happens.”
Eberius gave her a small bow. “Excellent. Captain, you and two others are to accompany the Xenlongians. Work with them and contact me if anything happens.”
Neither side moved for several moments, so Ansaria spoke up. “Time’s wasting, Alvara.”
“Yes ma’am. Let’s move squad.”
Alvara led the others down the hall, while Eberius’ people brought up the rear. The sound of their echoing footsteps filled the room until it gradually began to fade. Eberius’ guard took up a position by the door they had entered, while Ansaria and Eberius remained where they were.
Ansaria decided to break the silence. “So you’re explorers, huh? Where are you from?”
Eberius fiddled with the clasp of his cape before answering.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you. I was given explicit instructions to preserve the safety of our homeworld.”
“Ok…why are you out exploring?”
Eberius tilted his head in the apologetic manner again.
“No answer, huh? Ok…how long have you been exploring our region of space?” Eberius’ silence answered for him. Ansaria was beginning to get frustrated. She made a small sound of annoyance before turning to look out the window. After several moments of tense silence, Eberius came over to the window with her.
“This view reminds me of home. Not the asteroids and debris field though, but the glow. However, we’re used to a vibrant shade of blue. It’s rather nicer than this unappealing red.”
“So you can speak. I was beginning to think you’d suddenly gone mute,” the sergeant commented, making no secret of her waning patience.
“Indeed. Might I ask what you and your squad are doing here, Sergeant Ansaria?”
“We’re on a mission. Top secret.”
“Ah. So we have more in common than overly protective subordinates.”
Though she couldn’t see his face, she could hear what sounded like a smile in his words. Ansaria chuckled, sensing a release of tension. She, too, was sworn to certain levels of secrecy, but was glad Eberius had been able to share something after all.
“That blue light does sound nicer than this red one,” she admitted. “My planet has mostly shades of gray and purple; well, only since we got rid of all the green smog and brown sludge.”
“That would explain the lovely shade of your eyes.”
Ansaria gave Eberius a surprised, sideways glance before looking away. “I do hope our troops our getting along,” she said to fill the silence.
It seemed to Alvara like she had known nothing but anxiety and dread the last few days. Between being constantly hunted by a killer android, encountering a planet isolated by a scientist with dreams of becoming a demigod, and fighting monsters from another dimension, she was surprised that they had made it this far, let alone that they were so close to their goal.
And now she had a new reason to worry: a mysteriously-empty refueling station, outsiders who just happened to be here when they were, and to top it all off, a trio of these unknown and possibly hostile soldiers were bringing up her rear. This mission just got better and better.
She shot another look at the black-clad soldiers accompanying them. If they did decide to start a fight, she wasn’t sure if their armor and weapons would give them an edge, but she was loath to test it. After everything they’d been through, she knew she and the others could hold their own in a fight, but these guys had an aura of deadly confidence about them. She’d’ve felt better if Ansaria were here, instead of with Lord Enigma. Still, their temporary allies better not step on her tail…
As they traveled down the hallway, they finally began to see signs of what might have occurred. They found dried streaks and puddles of blood in varying shades on the walls and floors. Here and there were pockmarks from weapon fire. It definitely looked like some kind of fight had occurred here, but most of the evidence seemed to have been swept away. It made Alvara all the more paranoid of their “allies.”
They finally reached the stairs that led to the next level and headed up, Alvara allowing Tread to take the lead so he could take them straight to the computer. He led them a short distance before reaching a room with a large, secured door. He inspected it.
“It looks like whoever was here before us locked down the mainframe room. It’ll take me a few moments to get it open.”
With that, he went to work. The room was quiet aside from the sounds of Tread’s work, and Alvara kept glancing at Eberius’ men. None of them had said a word this whole time, at least not to them; it was possible they had a private helmet comm. system and could be talking to each other at this very moment. Alvara was getting more and more anxious.
Nothing here added up.
Finally, the doors slid open and Tread led the way in. He reached the computer and booted it up. After a few moments, he was in the system.
“It seems that whoever was here before us wiped the records and logs before they left,” he said.
“Can you still get the system back online?” asked Alvara.
“Working on it,” he typed away. A few seconds later, the lights came on, followed by the ear splitting shriek of alarm sirens.
“Tread, what is that!?” shouted Alvara so she could be heard over the noise. He gestured at the screen as he frantically continued typing:
Automated Defenses Activated.
Security Drones Deployed.
COMMAND: Eliminate targets.
COMMAND: Preserve the silence.
COMMAND: Ensure the arrival.
Alvara keyed her comm.
“Sarge! The saboteurs infected the system! We’ve got incoming!”
Alvara’s voice filled Ansaria’s ear with the news of their discovery. Ansaria had unslung her rifle as soon as the alarms had started, and was unsurprised to see Eberius wielding his pistols. They weren’t pointed at her though; rather, held at the ready for whatever was about to happen.
“I need you to clarify, Alvara,” Ansaria shouted. “What’s coming?”
“The automated defenses have been activated, and security bots have been deployed. I think whoever we’re trying to stop turned this place’s defenses against itself!”
There was a sudden flash of energy and a small explosion above her. Ansaria dropped to a crouch to get her bearings. In the ceiling above her were the remnants of a security turret that had descended from a hidden compartment; Eberius was pointing his pistol at the spot.
“Looks like I owe you one,” she acknowledged with a grateful nod.
The sound of multiple doors opening was briefly audible over the alarm. Ansaria didn’t know how many security bots this place had, but it w
as apparently enough to kill the entire crew and whoever else had had the unfortunate luck to be here when it had happened.
The first attackers were a pair of floating spheres. Ansaria recognized them as Tialian Shock Spheres, non-lethal security devices that delivered a debilitating shock to whatever target they were programmed to subdue. They came racing down the corridor from which Ansaria and her squad had come and she opened fire. The first two shots missed but the third caught one of them dead center and the orb exploded in a shower of sparks and pieces. Eberius fired off two shots from his pistols, the bright blue energy lancing through the remaining sphere and obliterating it.
Ansaria swept the room for new threats. Eberius’ guard was watching the hall he and his entourage had come from when three orbs appeared, racing toward him. He destroyed two of them with a blast from his heavy rifle, but the third managed to get in close enough to zap him. The guard grunted in pain and surprise and dropped his weapon, but lashed out with a fist that struck the small machine and sent it whirling away. Eberius destroyed it with his own weapon.
“Are you all right?” he asked the soldier as he bent to pick up his weapon. “Yes sir; my armor protected me from the worst of it.”
Ansaria briefly wondered how her own squad was doing, but those thoughts were cut short by the sound of clanking footsteps from down the hall leading to the stairs.
Alvara squeezed her trigger and a floating orb was reduced to slag. They’d been pinned down in the computer room as soon as the security system had booted up. One of the black-armored people had been hit by a turret that had come from the ceiling, but their armor had absorbed most of the damage, and one of their comrades had destroyed the automated weapon.
After that, a half-dozen floating orbs had come zooming towards their refuge.
Tread was busy trying to get the system to respond and Critter, without his drone, was limited in range, so that left the fighting to herself, Slog and Eberius’ men. Alvara had to admit, they were good shots, as they took out four of the drones while Alvara picked off the rest.
From out of a room towards the stairs came a trio of diamond-shaped bots, propelled by a trio of metallic tendrils extending from beneath them. As they slowly advanced down the hall, their top casings opened up and began rapidly firing energy blasts at the soldiers.
Slog dropped to the ground and peeked out of the room as far as he could. He opened fire and destroyed the lead machine, but was forced back into the room as the remaining two targeted him.
“Anyone have any grenades?” asked Alvara over the ear splitting clamor of alarms and weapon fire. One of Eberius’ people pulled a small, pill-shaped device off their belt. She nodded at them. They gave the device a twist and then threw it into the hall. An instant later there was a brilliant flash of blue light and the gunfire stopped. Alvara poked her head out and saw the semi-melted remains of the machines, as well as the surrounding walls and floor.
“Ok, I’ve got to get some of those,” she said, though no one apparently heard her. From the opposite direction she heard a rhythmic clanking, and turned to see bipedal metallic forms heading toward them. They were bulky, with bullet shaped heads, wide shoulder armor and a repeating plasma blaster in place of their hands. Alvara had encountered newer models of these during training.
“Zeta bots!” she shouted. The machines chose that moment to open fire, once again filling the hallway with energy blasts.
“I hope Sarge is OK down there!” shouted Slog as he reloaded his weapon. Alvara silently agreed.
The Zeta-class Defense Bots, Model Two relentlessly marched toward Ansaria, Eberius and his guard. Thankfully, they’d discovered, the exterior safety glass was apparently strong enough to survive most handheld weapons fired at it, because the heavy rounds from the bots were striking the glass without leaving so much as a scorch mark.
The trio had been forced to split up, with Ansaria and Eberius taking cover in one hallway, while the guard was on his own in the opposite hall. While the security bots continued to pour on suppressing fire as they made their way toward them, Ansaria and the others were forced to wait for a clear shot.
They didn’t have to wait long; as the first bot came into view, Ansaria opened fire. The shots to the machine’s torso only slowed it down, but when she fired at its head, it exploded in a shower of sparks and metal. The body toppled over with a metallic crash while the next one simply stepped over its fallen brethren. Ansaria gave another silent thanks to the ancestors; these Model Twos had thick armor on their torsos, but their heads where relatively susceptible to a direct shot. If these had been Model Threes, like the ones she and Alvara had fought in basic, they would’ve required an entire clip to drop just one.
Eberius took out the next one. While the machine paused to scan the room for a target, Eberius opened fire with both pistols. The first destroyed one of the machine’s weapons, while the other lanced through its head. The machine was pushed out of the way by the bot behind it, which began firing at Ansaria and Eberius’ position.
Eberius’ guard used this to his advantage, firing at the Zeta-Bot with his weapon. The heavy bolts struck the security bot in its back, denting and warping the armor. As it turned to fire on the new threat, Ansaria fired at the new weak spots. The blasts penetrated the metal and caused the machine to explode, pieces of it flying through the room.
The next bot to emerge was scarred by the explosion, one of its glowing red eyes now dark and cracked. This time, all three of them worked to take it down; the guard hammered the body with his weapon while Eberius blasted it in the head. Ansaria finished it off by firing at the weakened areas and for a second time an explosion filled the room with parts and pieces. The last machine to emerge was reduced to one weapon, its right hand blaster sparking as a piece of shrapnel extended from it. Ansaria, almost casually, fired at its head, eliminating the target.
“It’s hard to believe these machines are the cause of all this,” said Eberius loudly over the alarm. Ansaria was about to reply when the guard cried out in pain.
Eberius’ men were proving their worth. Their weapons were keeping the Zeta-Bots at bay, while Alvara picked them off with headshots. When she had to reload, Slog took over, his shotgun proving effective at penetrating the machine’s armor.
When the last drone fell, Alvara contemplated heading back downstairs to check on Ansaria, and asking one or two of the black-clad guards to accompany her. Before she could enact her plan, the sound of heavy, mechanical footsteps thundered over the piercing alarm. Alvara stuck her head out just enough to see into the hall, and from the end opposite the stairs appeared the owner of the heavy footfalls.
It was the same height as Slog, with a massive, spherical body. It advanced down the hall on four, crab-like legs. At its sides were two large plates that stuck out from its body. Each plate had three weapon barrels in it, while its singular, large, red eye scanned for targets. It caught sight of Alvara and opened up with a barrage of reddish-purple energy beams that left smoking holes in the wall.
“Slog, you’re up!” shouted Alvara.
Slog threw himself to the ground and crawled to the doorway. Not risking sticking his head out, he instead blindly fired in the direction the blasts were coming from. Alvara could just barely make out the dull thud as the shots hit the heavy metal body of the machine, but the constant stream of fire did not let up. She turned to the black armored soldiers.
“Got another grenade I could borrow?”
One of the armored figures detached the small explosive and handed it to her. She twisted it like she had seen them do last time, and then threw it into the hall. The laser fire stopped an instant before the explosion filled the hallway. After what she felt was an appropriate amount of waiting, Alvara peeked her head out. The hallway was a mess of melted metal, with several holes having been burned into the floor and walls. The killing machine was intact, but had curled up into a ball, with the plates covering the spot where its eye was. The front of it had been charred black, b
ut it appeared to be intact. As she watched, its legs began unfolding and it rose into a standing position, before the plates slid apart to reveal its glowing optic.
Before it could take a single step forward, Alvara took aim and fired at its only apparent weak point. The beam went straight through its eye, leaving a smoking black hole in its place. The machine remained standing for a moment before it tottered forward and hit the floor with a booming shake. When she was certain it wasn’t getting up, Alvara exhaled the breath she hadn’t been aware she had been holding.
“Tread, get this system under control now,” she said with an edge the others weren’t used to hearing.
“I should have control in a few moments. The infiltration is proving difficult to pin down and purge,” said Tread.
Alvara turned back to the hall, preparing herself for whatever was coming next.
Just hold on Sari…
Ansaria and Eberius wheeled around to find out what had happened to his guard. A long, thin blade had been jammed into his side, the metal penetrating one of the small gaps in his armor. A metallic hand appeared on the guard’s shoulder and pushed him to the side, pulling him free of the blade.
Standing in the hall was a tall, metallic gray machine. In its hand was a long, thin blade, the top third of which was slick with dark blood. Its face was blank except for the two red eyes that were staring intently at Ansaria and Eberius. Standing just behind it was an identical unit. As they watched, it raised its weapon into an attack position.
“So, it’s gonna be like that, is it?” said Ansaria. She slung her rifle and drew her own sword. Electricity crackled along its length as she assumed an offensive stance toward the machines.
“Eberius, check on your friend. I’ll handle this.”
Eberius looked from the blade bots to his fallen comrade. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Trust me,” was all she said.