“Good luck Hunter One.”
He drove the MUV up the exit ramp a couple of stories but then they came across a panel van that was over turned and blocking the way out on the other side. Fortunately, it easily slid as Torian pushed it up the ramp with the heavy bumper on the MUV. That was, until it was caught when the ramp tunnel narrowed and they were stuck.
“Some people and where they park …” Torian complained. He began to rev up the MUV sending dust and debris underneath the hover space. The engine whined as the vehicles locked, but the van was not going to budge.
“Um, Torian …” Siiri glanced underneath the military vehicle, “The air stuff coming out underneath is cracking up the concrete.”
“Yeah. Hold on.” He began to back up.
“Whoa whoa, Space Jockey, what are you going to do!” May called from the back seat.
“Bust through …”
“Seat belts, Siiri, strap up!” She leaned forward and helped the blonde girl with her shoulder strap, “You, too!” to Torian who did the same, “I don’t think this is a good idea!”
Firing up the thrusters underneath the hover vehicle he accelerated with a good amount of force slamming into the overturned van, punching a big dent into the roof, but still unable to dislodge it. All three were thrown forward and then back, shaken but uninjured.
Torian turned back grinning, “That was fun.”
May growled, “Officers!”
“It didn’t work.” Siiri poked her head out the side and assessed the damage, “And you damaged the vehicle.”
The brown eyed young man tried to back up the MUV but it barely moved, stuck onto the crumpled van dragging it back a few feet as small bits of concrete flew out from underneath while the engine groaned.
“Oh now you’ve done it.” The Dragon Marine sighed.
“I’ll bet you don’t even have a driver’s license.” Torian replied.
“I’ll bet yours is suspended.”
“Ok, well on to the second option.”
“Oh no …”
“What?” Siiri glanced at them both while Torian grinned.
“No no no!” May shook her head.
“Shoot it, big Dragon.”
“You’re the most insane fleet grunt I’ve ever known!” the tall woman protested.
The handsome young man turned to the pretty girl slipping on his helmet, while she did the same, and pulled her down to duck.
“This is going to hurt … probably me …” May clenched her teeth and opened up with the plasma canon firing a couple of rounds. Heat from the impact engulfed the MUV, but the shields kept them safe. The van turned into a melting blackened metal frame glowing red as Torian fired up the thrusters and began to plow through.
“Shields 80 percent.” Siiri called out as May ducked in the back.
With the engines on full the MUV broke through the burning steel carcass sending red-hot pieces flying over and around them. The shield did not deflect slow moving objects so May and Siiri, wearing combat issue gloves, scooped out the burning debris, protected by their fire resistance fatigues.
The side street where the underground parking exit was located was relatively clear so Torian sped like a sky demon charging down the side streets. Siiri held on but was not looking as green as she did before and was willing to sacrifice a little motion sickness to get to safety. She did have to admit that Torian was a very good driver, swerving around parked and abandoned vehicles with precision. And even while he was concentrating steering and accelerating, he still caught her watching him and gave her a quick wink through his visor.
“Hunter One, this is Sierra Two, be advised fleet is engaged in orbit, rebels are counter attacking.”
“Roger, Sierra Two.” Then he glanced back at May and then Siiri, “Almost there. May watch the sky, they could drop a cruiser into low orbit.”
“That would be unpleasant.” The marine grimaced.
“They know something is up and are trying everything to stop us.”
They rounded another corner and entered into a main boulevard that lead to the hospital, but unexpectedly, obstacles from a long dead traffic jam of hover vehicles blocked their way. Torian steered onto the overgrown island in the middle of the boulevard and managed to gain some ground. The large white four-story hospital with a single tower on one side was visible now.
“Torian …” Siiri peered nervously in the sky, “Fighters!”
Craning his neck back, sure enough, two Solvairs were streaking down from the sky still a few kilometers off. May whipped the turret around and readied the canon.
“But how?” The blue eyed girl held onto her helmet.
“Remote drones.” Torian sighed, “Not very effective since countermeasures can negate the controls, but we don’t have those. Let’s hope the boys at the base can do something.” He called on his Comm, “Sierra Two, this is Hunter One, we got drones, over.”
“Roger, Hunter One, on it.”
A steady stream of plasma bursts erupted from the anti-air gun emplacements on the base, and as the fighters got closer, May let loose. Pilotless, they would be less maneuverable, but still carried a deadly arsenal. They were meters away from the hospital parking garage, but vehicles were blocking everywhere and Torian had to be creative to find openings. The fighters were getting closer.
“Torian.” He knew by May’s tone that they had to do something quick.
“May, Siiri, grab your kit and get ready to jump out. Run to the parking garage!”
“I’m not leaving you!” Siiri called.
“They’re targeting the MUV! I’ll jump out after! Now go!”
The towering tan skinned marine grabbed Siiri by her webbing, “Let’s go girl!” and she jumped followed by the shorter female. Both landed on an overgrown grassy lawn dotted with large bushes and immediately began to sprint past rusted hover vehicles towards the multistoried parking lot. Torian drove the combat vehicle away from the hospital and locked the accelerator, then fearing to look in the sky to see how close the fighters were, jumped from the driver’s side. Almost immediately, as he hit the pavement with his boots he felt a rush of heat that sent him flying forward into the front seat of an old fancy sport coup convertible. Ducking for a moment, and feeling to see if his legs were still there, he took a quick peek to see the MUV, a melted blackened core, and thankfully, both fighters ascending. Then one took a hit from anti-aircraft fire and began to wobble with smoke pouring out of an engine.
He did not have time to cheer, and with the EMP backpack and rifle, there had been no time to grab his commando rifle, he hopped out of the convertible, though with a quick whistle of admiration at the classic blue and white sports car, then took off towards the hospital parking garage. Running fast, fearing artillery, he skirted jammed rusted cars and vans, with bones and skeletons in chaos, surrounding the large hospital in vain hope of medical reassurance in their last hours of desperation. Siiri and May peeked out from under the roof of the garage between a rusted red sporty sedan and a silver pick up truck. They anxiously waved him to hurry and Torian did not have to look back to know that one of the drone fighters was sweeping around. He hopped over the trunk of a downed hover car and then slipped between two more vehicles before reaching the half-high wall of the first floor parking garage.
Hands grabbed him as he climbed over and flew inside to the ground, then mostly May they hauled him up, “Run!” she yelled and all three tore through the ground level parking building as a fireball shot through and missed them by a few meters incinerating several vehicles in the path. Fortunately, they charged into a stairwell leading down just as another plasma canon bolt blew away more vehicles. Down underneath layers of concrete they were safe from the fighter drone circling overhead.
When they finally collapsed panting against an underground concrete wall in the lower levels of the parking lot Siiri wrapped her arms around Torian’s neck and he squeezed her waist despite the equipment she wore. May then joined in circling her long arms arou
nd both. No one spoke, just breathed in and out deeply in relief.
Their brief respite was interrupted by Torian’s helmet Comm, as a worried Neil anxiously called, “Hunter One, sitrep, over. What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“Sierra Two, the is Hunter One, lost our ride, but we’re underground.”
There was a pause on the other end, “Ok, Hunter One, we’re happy to hear that, over. And the drones are down now.”
“Thank you Sierra Two, we’ll report in when we’re in the tunnel.”
Chapter 24: Casualties of War
Meandering through the dark concrete with small tubular flashlights attached to the shoulder straps of their webbing the trio found stairs leading up to the main hospital. The wiry officer reached for Siiri’s gloved hand and she gladly accepted as they braced for the horrific pandemonium that had ensued a century ago. Bones littered the hallways blocked by cracked flat panel monitors and collapsed grav stretchers. Bony hands clutched skeletal necks and skulls lay crushed or scorched by blunt and ranged heat weapons.
“Poor souls.” Siiri grimly observed.
“Never liked hospitals,” The almond eyed marine mumbled.
A cracked panel map on the wall still displayed an outline of the floor plan and Torian ran his gloved fingers tracing possible tunnel entrance locations. The writing was English, Finish and German and showed several locations where stairs led down, but he pointed for the others.
“I’m guessing the nearest stairs are near the main pharmacy.” He glanced at Siiri who nodded. And he was right, recent activity was evident all around the rooms that contained the medicine and drugs; opened boxes, dried spilled liquids, and dirty footprints.
From there the tunnel was easy to find and like the others easy to navigate. Signals were weak for a Con global position from the cruisers in orbit, but they had estimated the approximate tunnel locations from Neil’s map and could calculate the distances. As they moved north, they came upon a branch that led in the direction of the university and followed it. Checking his Con Torian noted that there were no other creatures in the tunnel except a few rats. After he calculated that they should be under the main university campus, they came upon a solid steel door, with no obvious means of opening.
“A touch door?” he glanced at May.
“I think.” the tall woman opened the commando satchel with lock pick devices.
Siiri frowned, “What is that?”
May answered quickly, “It varies, but there are sensors all over the surface. The unlocking mechanism is usually a four-finger sequence at various points on the front. Sometimes you need a correct DNA. And usually it has to be a certain finger for each point.”
“Wow.”
“I know, pretty old technology.” the Dragon marine stood up close to the door with her Con, checking the surface.
Removing her helmet the shorter girl undid her auricomous hair letting it flow and peered at Torian who was intently studying his Con, “You lost your other rifle.”
He glanced up watching Siiri through his clear visor, “Yeah, but this will do.” Torian patted the other weapon that resembled a metal rod.
“You can have my pistol, you’re better with it.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that … keep it.”
May stood back, “Ok, I got the model, they used these a lot for back doors of jewelry shops.”
“Convenient for us.” he studied the door.
“Maybe …there are lock smith codes to get in, I’ve gotten through this one before, but just to be safe, the commandos have this.” she held up a small tube that looked like a flashlight, “It will mark the touch points.”
“Your old man must have been thrilled that you used his codes.”
“I know. It cost him his license with the bureau.”
“You’ll be home soon, May, and you can make amends.” the blue-eyed girl put her hand on the woman’s shoulder.
The towering marine activated the device and it displayed a virtual door in front of the real one showing the finger points, a number for the sequence, and a text displaying which finger.
“What about the DNA?” Siiri asked.
“Not on this model.”
“It would be impossible to crack a lock like that if it needed DNA.” Siiri mused.
“Oh little girl, there hasn’t been a lock made that can’t be cracked.”
Torian added, “They have fake gloves that can be encoded with DNA, you just need to get a sample, which isn’t that hard, especially from drooling marines.”
“Those are expensive, only a crew going for big bank or major corporations could afford them. We were just a small time crew with locksmith codes.”
May turned to Torian, “Would you like to do the honours, since I drool too much? I’m holding the code cracker.”
“All right …” he removed his gloves and used both hands because the four touch points were spread out from top to bottom, index finger on one, thumb on the other, middle finger, and pinkie. There was a click and a hum and the door slide noiselessly open. Inside were corridors of smooth material and a slight blue glow that provided dim lighting.
The lanky officer raised his hand signalling stop, “May, take point, and keep alert, I don’t like this at all.” he levelled his EMP rifle. The Dragon marine held her assault rifle out ready to fire as they rounded a corner, all three watching their Cons. Automatically, their camouflaged uniforms all conformed to the eerie blue dim light, turning into the same hue, rendering the three explorers into ghostly visages in the shadows.
“Umm … I’m not reading anything ahead on my Con.” Siiri spoke from behind.
“Yeah …I think the shield control area is blocked from scanning.” he felt her hand on his shoulder, and then it stiffened.
Turning, he was always startled when he saw her eyes turned a bright gold, and he jumped back, “What is it?”
“Kayla doesn’t trust Jarlan, she thinks this is all a trap.”
“That makes two of us.” Torian sighed and Siiri’s eyes returned to normal, and briefly he gazed into them while she stood unmoving.
“I hear something.” May announced, “But my Con is blank, hold on …” the tall muscular woman poked her helmeted head and rifle into a ‘T’ intersection and then gasped, instantly firing her plasma rifle. A loud popping sound erupted from down the corridor and May took hits from projectiles grazing her right upper her arm, but striking the armour on her shoulder and helmet sending her flying back into Torian, arms flailing and rifle slipping from her hands.
“May!” Siiri screamed.
Instantly Torian pulled a grenade out from a pouch and yelled, “Frag out!” and whipped the green ball around the corner. A crunching echoing boom sounded as he pressed Siiri against the wall. More popping erupted from down the hall to their left and projectile bullets whizzed by.
“What is it?” she clutched Torian.
“Sentry bot, I was afraid of that. That bastard Jarlan!” kneeling quickly he picked up May’s assault rifle, and noted smoke emitting from her prox shield box on the side of her webbing. Lying on her back he was relieved to see that her chest armour was raising and falling to her breathing.
He checked the Con on her rifle and there was no target to lock, “We have no targeting.”
“Jarlan didn’t mention anything like this.”
“Yeah.” he edged around the corner.
“Torian …”
“Pull May back, she’s still alive, I think the prox shield protected her.” that bot would be waiting for him to poke his head around the corner, too. So he pulled off his helmet and took a deep breath. Siiri used all her strength to drag the heavy muscular marine back further along the corridor and knelt beside her.
Clenching his teeth, Torian then tossed his helmet across the corridor and automatic machine gun fire erupted from the bot disintegrating the object into tiny pieces. But at the same time the young officer rounded the corner with his rifle and opened up with a steady stream of plasma
supplemented by grenades from the launcher. It took a lot of firing and still the cylindrical floating bot with machine gun arms managed to hit Torian with a round in the shoulder armour throwing him back towards Siiri before it expired into a small fireball.
“Torian!” Siiri rose up to catch him staggering back.
“I’m all right, bounced off me!” he regained his footing, “But I got it.”
“This isn’t worth it, Torian, let’s go back!”
“No, I got it. How is May?”
“Oh no …” Siiri went back down beside the injured marine, who opened her eyes slowly. The blonde girl removed the tall woman’s helmet, with a dent on the right side, and brushed away her long black hair. A trickle of blood ran down from her scalp to her cheek.
But the almond eyed beauty grinned, “That was a close one. I don’t know what’s worse; hanging around you two or back with my unit.” she touched her scalp and examined the blood.
“How is your shoulder?” Siiri reached her hand to check for injury.
“Between the prox shield and the armour, I think it’s only bruised. But my shield burned out.”
Torian held the rifle ready watching the T intersection, “There will be more. That was a model SR12, with heat shields, two automatic projectile machine guns, and armour piercing rounds, nasty.”
“I think we figured the nasty part out.” May sat up and rubbed her head.
“Still lethal after a hundred years, but I think someone’s been keeping them running.” he leaned over and held his hand out for May, and the tough soldier grasped it rising to her feet.
“It’s too dangerous to go any further.” Siiri touched Torian’s arm.
“It’s too dangerous to go back on foot with enemy artillery and drones.”
“You know about those sentry bots?” May took her rifle back.
The wiry officer checked the tubular weapon attached to the metal backpack, “A little, and I know the frequency setting for their multiprocessors, including that particular model.” he adjusted the settings on his tubular rifle on a tiny flat screen near the trigger.
“He studied robots in college.” Siiri remembered.
The Battle for the Ringed Planet Page 26