Dynamo (Mech Wars Book 2)

by Scott Bartlett

  The flashbang went off, but Lisa had closed her eyes, mitigating the effects somewhat, though it did cause her ears to ring shrilly.

  She dove again, just as a burst of rifle fire scored the closed hatch. Rolling onto her back, Lisa spotted her adversary and leveled her SL-17 at her. She fired.

  The white-haired woman also jumped out of the way in time, taking refuge behind the corner Lisa had just turned. Tessa Notaras was just as fast as the stories about her claimed, it seemed. She was arguably Quentin Cooper’s best operative, and she was known for her ruthlessness.

  Regaining her feet as quietly as she could, Lisa crept down the corridor toward Tessa’s cover, doing everything she could to make no sound. She doubted her adversary would expect the move, and when she popped out to fire again, Lisa hoped to take her unawares.

  But instead of Tessa’s face or torso, a grenade came around the corner. Lisa turned to flee, but it was too late. The grenade exploded directly underneath her, blowing her apart.

  The simulation deposited her back into the high-lucidity lobby, where most of the participants were already waiting, including Andy.

  “Things didn’t go so well in the labs?” Lisa asked.

  “Nah,” Andy said, shaking his head. “I guess they cared less about the equipment than I thought. Looks like Daybreak wins this one, judging by who’s here already.” Phineas Gage, Bob O’Toole, and several others from the team tasked with infiltrating the Daybreak hillside facility were also in the lobby, meaning they’d died in the sim. “Who got you?” Andy asked.

  “Tessa. It was close, though. Sort of.”

  This was the umpteenth time Lisa had gotten her militia to run this scenario, and she would likely get them to do it umpteen times more. For one thing, it helped them to better grasp the principles of a good defense, when they were on the side of the Daybreak defenders. For another, it gave them practice performing a strike with the aim of disabling a facility, which was exactly what Lisa planned to do to Daybreak in real life, after successfully defending Habitat 2 from them.

  As an added bonus, the exercise would hopefully help them get inside the heads of Daybreak’s operatives a little more.

  The objective of the scenario was for the invaders to reach the facility’s life support system and blow it up. That had happened in roughly three-fifths of the simulations, which Lisa viewed as a promising sign. That said, there was a very strong correlation between the winning team and whatever side Tessa Notaras happened to be on.

  Soon, the simulation ended, with Daybreak having successfully defended their illegal settlement. Now, everyone waited in the high-lucidity lobby while Lisa set up the next scenario.

  “We’re running the same one again,” Lisa said. “This time, we’re switching sides.”

  Without any more warning than that, she loaded them all into the simulation again.

  Lisa’s team fared a little better in this one, despite Tessa still being on the opposing side. The older woman had been teaching Lisa about commanding a unit—tactics, formations, prioritizing objectives, and so on. Unfortunately, that made it fairly easy for Tessa to recognize whatever approach her pupil was trying.

  Even so, Lisa felt proud when they succeeded in holding out against Tessa’s onslaught for the longest period yet. Tessa herself even went down, to a lucky shot from Andy. But in the end, the opposing team pressed on toward the life support infrastructure, and victory.

  Lisa managed to survive for the entire simulation, this time, which she decided to view as a minor victory, as well.

  In the seconds before the simulation ended, it always gave her a few moments of increased lucidity, during which she became aware again that she was not in fact a member of Daybreak trying to protect their secret facility.

  This time, during those brief moments before getting sent back to the lobby, she strolled around a bit, wondering how accurately their implants had depicted the hillside facility. They knew it existed, based on the intel she’d extracted from Leonardo Fiore, but they knew nothing about its layout.

  A figure appeared at the end of the corridor she walked along. Lisa didn’t recognize him as a member of her militia, and his behavior wasn’t typical of the simulation’s AI.

  When he saw her, he turned to run.

  Lisa brought her assault rifle up, spraying the corridor with bullets in a line, meaning to cut across the man’s legs. She was trying to disable him, so she could catch up and identify him before the simulation ended.

  But then it did end, and she was back in the lobby with the others. The man she’d seen was not among them.

  “You look spooked, Lisa,” Andy said. “Did you see something?”

  “I saw someone who shouldn’t be there.”

  “Who?”

  “Not sure. I’m guessing it was either a Darkstream employee or a Daybreak operative…unless it was someone else altogether. Either way, none of those options seem great.”

  Chapter 22

  Imminent Danger

  Jake and Ash walked the perimeter of the camp, outside of their mechs, assault rifles held at the ready, pistols in holsters, and a healthy helping of grenades distributed among their persons. Plus, a couple of combat knives each.

  They were trying to follow Roach’s command to spend as much time as possible out of their mechs—during the night watches, in the evenings before sleep, and in the mornings before they started out for the day.

  “Still can’t believe the chief put you in charge and not me,” Ash said, her short, light-blond hair waving as she walked. “I’m clearly smarter and more resourceful than you.”

  Jake laughed. “I’m not about to disagree with that, Steam. But the smartest people don’t always make the best leaders. I think Chief Roach recognizes that.”

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense. Of course they make the best leaders. They’re smart.”

  “I don’t mean your ability to lead is less because you’re smarter. You’d probably make a better leader than me, in a lot of ways. But that doesn’t mean much if your subordinates won’t follow orders as readily as they follow mine.”

  “Why wouldn’t they?”

  “Because I’m dumber than you. And people trust dumb people way more than they trust smart ones.”

  Ash paused, seeming to contemplate the idea. “You know, that does ring kind of true.”

  They walked on. Somewhere on the other side of the camp, Beth and Richaud would be doing the same thing. The night remained quiet, just as every night had since the attack when the Quatro had liberated one of the quads. Oneiri Team took turns with the Force Multipliers and the soldiers from the Plenitos garrison in patrolling the camp at night, though Oneiri took a disproportionate number of shifts.

  Jake had requested that, to build time outside the mechs into their journey. For their part, the soldiers from the other divisions didn’t seem to have much problem with taking fewer watches.

  No one’s about to turn down extra sleep.

  “Do you think the chief will make it back?” Ash said as they rounded one of the armored personnel carriers.

  “Well, he’s made it through a lot.”

  “He has, but I’m worried about his mental state, lately.”

  “You too, eh?”

  “We all are,” Ash said.

  “Really? I was making a point not to bring it up to the team. I didn’t want to bring morale down any lower than it is.”

  “Well, we’re not stupid. Anyone can see Chief Roach is falling apart. Part of me wants to say you should have tried to prevent him from chasing the quad. But I doubt I would’ve had the guts to do anything different, in your position.”

  Jake decided to change the subject. “Have you heard from your mother, lately?”

  Ash nodded. “Yeah. She’s settling into Valhalla.”

  “Wow. Valhalla, eh?”

  “Yep. My father left a fair number of credits behind when he died, and she’s too scared to stay on Eresos, considering the Quatro managed to get ins
ide Plenitos and the same thing nearly happened to Ingress.”

  “I can hardly blame her. I’d get out of here in her position, too, if I had the credits. Or if I didn’t have access to a giant robot to protect me.”

  A chuckle from Ash. “How about you? Have you been getting any messages from your family?”

  “Yeah,” Jake said with a long sigh. “I have. Sue Anne took a turn for the worse, last week. The doctors aren’t giving her very much longer.”

  “Oh, wow. I’m so sorry to hear that, Jake.”

  “Thanks. It’s weird, you know. Sue Anne’s been such a large part of my life, for so many years, and yet I barely feel like I know her. I mean, sure, we lived together for the first five years of her life, but then she got sick, and soon after that me and dad started up the comet development business to try to raise enough money for her treatment.” Jake shook his head. “Sue Anne’s why I’m on Oneiri Team at all. I mean, yes, it’s my dream, but thinking of how much the pay would do for her got me through training, and it keeps me acting like an okay soldier and not questioning orders too much. It gives me my drive in battle. If she goes…”

  “You’re going to be okay, Jake. No matter what happens, you’re going to be okay. You have us. You have your team. And we have you. We need you, as a matter of fact.”

  “Thanks, Ash.”

  Beth’s voice came over the team-wide channel.“Clutch. Steam. We have something over here.”

  “What is it?” Jake said.

  “Richaud thinks he just saw a man running off through the trees. Looks like he might have been spying on the camp. You think it was someone from Red Company?”

  “Possibly.” At least it wasn’t a Quatro. Red Company, they could deal with fairly easily, or so Jake figured. He pondered whether he should wake the rest of Oneiri Team and order them into their mechs, until they were certain no danger was imminent. “If you see anything else, anything at all that seems out of place or unusual, let me know straight away.”

  “Will do.”

  “Jake!”

  He turned, and immediately, he saw what had put so much fear into Ash’s voice.

  It was the stolen quad, barreling toward them at full gallop.

  Chapter 23

  Back in Business

  Both Jake and Ash turned as one, barreling back through the camp. As they did, Force Multiplier and Plenitos soldiers closed around them, doing whatever they could to try to slow the charging quad.

  And just as fast as they lined up to oppose it, they died.

  Ash reached her mech first, and Jake saw her pop a sedative into her mouth before slapping the machine’s calf and climbing up the ramp that lowered.

  He breathed a sigh of relief that she’d made it to safety. But he didn’t dare stop to celebrate.

  Instead, he asked everything of his body that it had to give as he strove toward his own mech, which was several meters away.

  Fumbling with the belt pouch that held his fast-acting sedatives, he finally got one out and into his mouth. Rounding his MIMAS’ leg, Jake slammed his palm into the biometric sensor on the back of it. The ramp lowered promptly, and he clambered inside his mech, already beginning to feel better—safer.

  He started to slip into lucid, but before the ramp had time to close, the quad crashed into the front of the MIMAS, knocking it backward so that it slammed against the ground.

  Jake was half-asleep, his body partially drooping out of his mech. With a great effort, he pulled himself back into the cockpit, grunting, pain making his body spasm.

  At last, he managed it, and the back of the MIMAS sealed up.

  Back in business, he thought from within lucid, ignoring the med-alerts telling him he’d pulled at least two muscles while straining against gravity.

  Turning on the spot, he scanned his surroundings for the quad, but it had moved on to another foe—or, more accurately, foes. The thing rampaged through the camp, cutting through the ranks of humans like a scythe through wheat.

  Jake would have pursued, but he had his own foes to deal with. The camp wasn’t just under attack by the quad—there were also Quatro all around them, fighting to access the personnel carriers, and humans as well.

  Red Company. That seemed certain, now.

  Jake fired up his flamethrowers, using the streams of flame to sweep several targets at once.

  A Red Company fighter ran toward him, grenades clutched in both hands, and Jake simply raised his foot, stomping the human so that he slammed backward onto the hard ground.

  Stepping forward, Jake’s left foot found the man’s head, causing it to pop like an overripe melon. He didn’t even turn when the twin explosions ripped through the night.

  Stowing the flamethrowers for now, he forewent his rotary autocannons as well, wary of hitting friendlies with their powerful yet somewhat less controlled spray of armor-piercing rounds.

  Instead, he detached the heavy machine gun from his back and chose his targets carefully.

  A Quatro went down to a prolonged burst. Then he lined up the machine gun with a row of three humans, who were creeping toward a personnel carrier, clearly trying to be stealthy. Jake put bullets in their backs, and they all went down, never to rise again.

  When he realized that everyone surrounding him were enemies, he switched to his autocannons after all, mowing down as many foes as he could.

  It wasn’t enough. The combined numbers of Quatro and Red Company were overwhelming the remnants of the Force Multipliers, and the Plenitos garrison soldiers weren’t used to this sort of pitched combat.

  Backed up by the evident power of the quad, the enemy seemed unstoppable. The Darkstream battalion was crumpling, and not even the combined might of Oneiri Team could stop it.

  The Quatro had almost reached the personnel carriers, where they clearly planned to enter quads of their own. If that happened, Jake was certain the night would be lost altogether.

  “Jake.” It was Chief Roach’s voice, coming over what Jake’s HUD told him was a two-way channel.

  Hearing his first name in Roach’s voice gave him a momentary sense of surreality as he continued to unload with his autocannons. “Uh…sir?”

  “Turn around.”

  Jake did, stopping the stream of bullets and stowing the autocannons by reforming his mech’s hands in front of them.

  He saw Gabe’s mech walking out of the woods toward him, but it was moving oddly—stumbling, limbs moving in a fashion that was awkward and cumbersome. Certainly not how they’d been designed to move.

  The mech itself had a crumpled look, with dents and deep furrows all over it, as well as a massive scorch mark all down its right side.

  “I see you did a fine job with taking command,” Roach said, his voice acidic. With that, the chief switched to a team-wide channel. “Oneiri Team, this is Chief Roach. You are to abandon this camp and rendezvous at a location I will send your implants. Now.”

  “But, sir…” Ash said. “The quads! And Tommy’s mech!”

  “Listen to me, Sweeney. If we stay, we will be defeated by the Quatro, who will soon access those quads. There’s no preventing that. The camp is lost, and if we remain, the mercenaries will kill us and get our mechs, too.”

  “What about the Force Multipliers?” Jake said. “And the soldiers from Plenitos?”

  “They’re lost,” Roach barked. “And so will all of Eresos be if you don’t do your job and follow my order, right now.”

  Chapter 24

  On Patrol

  Lisa missed having Rug and Tessa with her during patrols of the city streets. Returning to her old duties was a change in more ways than one, and few of them were exactly pleasant.

  Other than the lack of companionship, and her diminished role and authority, she also felt fairly tired most of the time.

  She attributed that to the training she conducted every night with her militia. Even though they did it while sleeping, there was no question that lucid affected quality of sleep.

  She refused to ta
ke stims except during battle, and even then only when she truly needed them. Coffee, on the other hand, she drank by the gallon.

  It’s worth it. To hold on to Habitat 2, it’s all worth it.

  Today, her patrolling mattered more than it normally did. The entire Darkstream battalion had donned pressure suits and headed outside Habitat 2, to scout the surrounding terrain at the request of the council, so that they could prepare for the coming battle with Daybreak.

  The idea was to consider each possible attack angle, and also what the defensive strategy would be for each one.

  Lisa would not be a part of those discussions. Even though she’d played a major role in retaking Habitat 2 from Daybreak, she was still just a lowly seaman as far as Darkstream was concerned.

  Before the Darkstream soldiers fanned out of Habitat 2 to scout the neighborhood, Lisa had covertly contacted Rug over an encrypted channel, warning her and the other Quatro not to remain near the city for the time being. A chance encounter between Darkstream and Rug’s drift was the last thing they needed. Not to mention the last thing Lisa needed.

  A man farther down the street caught her eye, and she started walking briskly toward him. He seemed to notice her approach, slipping into an alley as though to hide from her.

  I’m sure that was Samuel Dalton. He was the Daybreak member who she’d offered leniency to, in exchange for information on Quentin Cooper.

  Except, he was supposed to be in a jail cell.

  She quickly checked her SL-17’s action and broke into a run. Her first impulse was to barrel around the corner and into the alley, but remembering her training from Tessa, she checked that impulse.

  Her restraint saved her life. Two more soldiers waited with Dalton in the alley, and all of them were armed.

  As soon as her head appeared around the corner, all three of them pointed their guns at her. She pulled back just as they began to fire.

  Lisa wasn’t authorized to carry actual grenades while on patrol, because of the risk of structural damage to Habitat 2.