The Kota

by Sunshine Somerville

  Sure enough, as Rave watched the guard in the left tower, the man lurched before collapsing in his nest. A moment later, the guard in the right tower also collapsed.

  Rave glanced back at the sunny, tree-covered hillside where Bullseye was positioned with her sniper rifle. He motioned for Tigris and Whitewolf to be ready to move.

  “Weapons out,” he whispered to his partners. “We’re going in.”

  Tigris adjusted her facemask but nodded at him, and Whitewolf cocked his gun.

  Rave jumped up and ran for the hill toward the entrance gate’s security station. They’d positioned themselves so their approach wouldn’t be noticed, but they still had to hurry. Rave twisted to reach the belt-like strap on his back, and he pulled off one of many tube-shaped grenades. After activating it so the tip glowed red, Rave judged his throw before tossing the grenade around the security station, right at the base of the gate.

  One of the guards saw the grenade and cried out in alarm, but the three Warriors ignored him and dropped to cover their heads. The explosion shot flames past them, and chunks of debris flew into the open road in front of the main gates.

  Showtime, thought Rave.

  He jumped back to his feet, gripping his guns, and led the way through the flaming debris to what was left of the gates. A few drones inside the base ran to protect the entrance, but Rave shot two and Tigris took out one more. Whitewolf grabbed the mangled gate and tore it apart with his bare hands, creating a gap large enough for them to enter. Then they were inside the drone farm.

  Because of satellite images they’d studied, Rave recognized the layout from this ground view. In front of them lay a parking lot filled with transport vehicles that regularly shipped out batches of drones. A wide lane ran from the gates, between the rows of transports, all the way to a large science facility in the center of the compound. This grand building blocked their view from the barracks and training facilities on the far side.

  For now, thought Rave, I’m interested in these vehicles here. They’ll provide a nice distraction.

  He led Tigris and Whitewolf to take cover behind the nearest vehicle as drones ran out of the science facility. He signaled Tigris to cover them, put away his guns, and grabbed a grenade for each hand. Whitewolf did the same from his own grenade belt. As per the plan, they darted out from their cover and threw grenades in and under the transport vehicles on either side of the wide lane. Only twice did Tigris have to shoot at drones who discovered them. Then the first explosion erupted behind them. Rave didn’t dare look back, but he tossed one more grenade at a transport on his side before running at full speed down the lane. Whitewolf and Tigris ran with him.

  They didn’t get far before explosions created bursts of fire and flying shrapnel. These explosions set off a chain reaction down the rows of transports, and the Warriors were thrown to the ground. Rave picked himself up and finally looked back, and a transport flipped into the air and crashed to the dirt in a burst of flame.

  “Move!” he shouted.

  They scrambled to their feet and ran on toward the science facility. More drones appeared at the head of the lane and shot at the Warriors, so the trio split up and ducked behind the remaining transports for cover. Rave drew his guns again and snuck around the backside of a transport. Now he ran with the row of vehicles between himself and the drones.

  Most of the drones. As he rounded a transport he found a gun in his face, and he kicked out the drone’s legs before shooting it dead. Another blast behind Rave started a new chain reaction down his row of vehicles, and he saw he was right in the destruction’s path. He gritted his teeth and ran back out into the main lane. Here he fired at a few drones before running onward. An explosion shot more shrapnel across his path. One piece came dangerously close to spinning and cutting off his head, but he slid to his knees and rolled before picking himself up to run. The fires on either side of the lane were ahead of him now as they jumped from vehicle to vehicle. It was intensely hot, even through his protective suit.

  Right when he reached the end of the lane, more drones and operatives ran out of the science facility. Rave dove for cover behind the nearest charred vehicle and readied his guns.

  “Your left!” Whitewolf shouted.

  Rave aimed in time to see four drones appear from his left. He shot the first, but three discovered his position. Fortunately Whitewolf had him covered from wherever he was positioned.

  Soon the firing stopped. Rave looked out. More drones and a few operatives arrived from the science facility. He looked across the lane and finally spotted Tigris and Whitewolf where they too took cover behind a vehicle.

  An operative took charge at the head of the lane. “Fan out!” he shouted to the drones. “Cover-” He stopped with a jerk as a bullet pierced his chest, dropping him to the dirt.

  The drones and operatives scrambled for cover, but three shots left three more operatives dead as Bullseye fired from her position far outside the gates. Rave waited until she’d cleared the path before darting out to run for the science facility’s doors. Whitewolf and Tigris were right behind him.

  Rave threw open the doors and collided with an operative. He punched the man and shot him dead. Drones ran into the entrance room from a hall to Rave’s left, and he got off several shots before they noticed him. Whitewolf dove for cover behind a reception desk, and he also fired at the drones. Tigris crouched beside her brother. When she remembered her job, she threw a grenade into the hall.

  Rave ducked behind the desk with them and covered his ears. The explosion erupted in the hall and rang around the enclosed space. A drone was thrown against the desk right over his head, and Rave flopped the body away as he looked to assess the damage.

  “Clear for the moment,” he told his partners. He felt a tingling burn as he listened. “There are drones back there, but they won’t be coming this way with the hall collapsed. Any further trouble will come from there.” He pointed at the entrance doors behind them and reloaded. “They should be distracted outside for a while. You two find the generators. We’ll meet behind the building and teleport back to the rendezvous, then teleport home.”

  Whitewolf also reloaded. “Follow me, sis.” With that, he took off toward a far right hall, Tigris trailing.

  Rave left them to it and sprinted to a central staircase. This, he knew, would lead to the sublevel lab. He descended the stairs, and the lights flickered from the damage done to the building’s wiring. He heard more drones above and knew they’d spread out to find the intruders, so he hurried his descent to the lower level. Here he ran through a concrete hall until it intersected a glass hall with rooms on either side.

  Despite what he’d prepared to find, Rave slowed and gaped. He felt his stomach tighten.

  Inside the rooms, rows and rows of glass tanks held growing drones. The ones on Rave’s left appeared the youngest. Those on his right were full grown. The rooms were lit far into the rows, and there must’ve been thousands of tanks.

  Rave forced himself to continue, and he ran until he came to the lab’s entry. He recognized the security system, so he went to the panel by the door and did a quick re-wire. This shorted out the system and released the door locks. Rave then threw open the doors and entered the heart of the drone farm.

  A few scientists worked at stations around the enormous lab. Apparently they’d been sheltered enough not to hear the commotion above. They looked up in surprise at Rave. He froze and stared back before snapping out of it and shooting the nearest. This sent the others into a panic, and Rave would’ve felt guilty about killing unarmed scientists except that they weren’t so defenseless. One man scrambled to a control panel and punched a few keys before Rave could stop him, and doors on the far side of the room flew open. A dozen drones ran into the lab.

  Oh, sand! he thought.

  The drones fired across the lab at Rave, and he crouched and ran along the lab tables until he reached the end of the row, where he rolled out firing. He dropped the first wave of drones and glared over
at the scientists clustered near the controls. More drones were coming, so he reached for two grenades. These he threw toward the doors before running back the way he’d come and firing behind him.

  The first explosion rattled the sublevel with such a blast that he stumbled as he reentered the hall. But he kept running, now shooting out the glass of the long hall. Every few strides, he threw more grenades into the rooms with the drone tanks. He was panting by the time he saw the stairs ahead. But, explosions started behind him, and he forced himself to the ground level.

  He reached the top of the stairs just as bursts of flame rushed from below. Rave threw himself to the ground and covered his head as the blast shot debris up the stairs. He didn’t need MOB senses to hear and feel that the facility was burning from underneath.

  He was about to jump to his feet when another enormous explosion shook the building, this time from the direction of the generator rooms. Bits of ceiling fell around him.

  Good job, partners, he thought.

  A group of operatives entered the building. They hadn’t spotted him lying in the debris, so he waited to see which way they’d go. He was low on ammo.

  “Check the lab!” ordered an operative.

  “Sir,” said another as he looked over at the stairs. “It must be completely destroyed! I doubt we can even get down there to check for survivors!”

  An operative ran from the hall Whitewolf and Tigris had taken. His arm bled, and he was covered in soot. “Sir, they took out the generators! The entire northern wing is burning!”

  “Why aren’t the sprinklers working? Are the containment fields in place?”

  “No, sir! We’ve lost power! We have to evacuate!”

  A chunk of ceiling fell not far from Rave’s hiding position, and smoke now filled the room. The operatives and drones started backing up toward the exit.

  Their leader seemed more stubborn. “How many rebels are there? Have we called for reinforcements?”

  “Can’t! A rebel shot out our transmitter right when the attack started. We’re on our-”

  “Hey!” One of them had finally spotted Rave.

  Rave shot the man dead before he could grab a weapon. He jumped to his feet, firing into the group. Two drones fell. A bullet whizzed by his head, and he threw himself across the floor, firing back at them. An operative went down.

  Click. Click.

  His guns were empty. Throwing them away, Rave rolled to his feet and turned to run.

  He found a hall that cut through to the back exit, and he ducked into the hall as shots splintered the wall beside him. He ran as fast as he could with the ceiling collapsing and smoke clogging the air. Several dead bodies lay along his path, so he hoped Whitewolf and Tigris had already gotten out. The door to the back exit stood slightly ajar, letting smoke out, and Rave hurried to it and yanked it open to flee.

  Outside, Rave sucked in air and jumped over the railing to crouch against the landing. While he caught his breath, he examined the state of this western side of the compound.

  The barracks were clustered together in narrow blocks. Drones ran around on orders while operatives scrambled to organize the survivors. They had a few transport vehicles parked on this side of the compound, and drones loaded equipment into the vehicles to get the goods away from the flaming science facility.

  Sand, thought Rave. There are hundreds left. Some exit route I picked.

  He spotted Whitewolf waving from behind a stack of crates. Rave dashed over to join his partner, and he knelt in the dirt so they faced different directions.

  “Where’s your sister?”

  “She teleported to the rendezvous.”

  Rave frowned under his facemask. “So we’re stuck here.”

  “Sorry. There were drones all over the place, and we didn’t know where you were. I thought it was better for Tig to get to safety. There’s always plan B.”

  Rave looked at the blocks of buildings ahead.

  Fair enough, he thought.

  “Well, thanks for staying with me, Whitey. How’s your ammo?”

  “Low. We ran into more drones in the generator rooms than we expected. Got plenty of grenades, though.”

  Rave reached back and pulled free a grenade for each hand. “Same here. We’d better move fast.” He pointed toward the nearest transport vehicle. “There’s our first stop. Lead the way.”

  Whitewolf nodded and moved around the crates, then ran to the transport. Rave followed. Once they stood at the back of the vehicle, Rave signaled Whitewolf to be ready to run. He tossed the grenades in, and together they turned and ran across exposed ground toward the closest block of buildings.

  A few drones and operatives spotted them, but the exploding transport distracted them. A handful of drones were thrown to the ground, and the operative in charge caught fire, screamed, and also fell. This drew more drones as the same thing that’d happened in the front of the compound happened here – the parked transports caught fire and exploded as their fuel and cargo ignited.

  Whitewolf and Rave pressed against the side of a building as more drones arrived. Rave signaled for Whitewolf to run down the alley, but a group of operatives spotted them.

  “They’re over here!” one shouted.

  Whitewolf fired, forcing the operatives to take cover rather than pursue. Rave knew they were sitting ducks in the narrow alley, and Whitewolf didn’t even look back as he made a run for it. Rave sprinted after him but lost Whitewolf in the twists and turns through the narrow alleyways. He accidentally ran back out into the open again, and shots hit the dirt right in front of him. His sense of balance allowed him to pull up in his run, and he dove back between the buildings.

  Crouched on the ground, he pulled off his grenade belt and checked the remaining grenades. His enhanced hearing detected the drones and operatives who’d gotten smart and tracked him, and they slowed as they entered the alley. With a deep breath, Rave activated each grenade on the belt. Then he threw the entire belt up the alley and fled in the opposite direction.

  The explosion rocked the surrounding buildings, and a mass of bricks flew down the alley after him. Rave threw himself to the side and covered his head. His ears rang from the echoing explosion, but he looked back and saw a plume of fire and smoke as the buildings collapsed behind him. The drones wouldn’t be coming that way.

  Get moving, he thought.

  Quickly rising from the dirt, Rave drew his last remaining weapons – his katars. He felt lighter now without the grenade belt, and it was easier to move as he ran deeper into the blocks of buildings.

  When he was far enough away from the commotion he’d started, Rave slowed and searched for a fire escape to climb to a roof. He soon spotted a set of metallic ladders and headed here only to encounter a group of drones and their commanding operative emerging from the building.

  The operative was startled long enough for Rave to rush at the group before they could react. Rave slashed a katar across the throat of the operative before grabbing the man and using him as a shield when a drone shot at him. He shoved his human shield into this drone before throwing himself into another drone, and he heard a shot ricochet off the brick building behind him.

  Whitewolf ran into the fray with a shout. Together they fought off the remaining drones. When all were dead, they stood over the fallen to catch their breath.

  Rave looked at a drone corpse Whitewolf had broken in at least five places. “You know, you’re a cuddly teddy bear when your sister is around, but…”

  Whitewolf motioned to his empty holsters. “Ran out of ammo.”

  “Still got grenades?”

  “Yeah, about a dozen.”

  “Good. I kinda had to use all mine.”

  “I heard.”

  Rave sheathed his katars and ran over to the fire escape. With Whitewolf behind him, he climbed higher and higher to the roof.

  Once here, Rave looked over the drone farm. Everything in their wake was burning. Smoke filled the air. Cries and shouts reached his ears. Rave tr
ied to ignore his overactive senses, and he turned to run with Whitewolf in the opposite direction. They reached the edge of this building’s roof and jumped onto the roof of the next, then sprinted across this roof to reach the next, then the next.

  At the edge of this roof, they pulled up. They’d reached the far side of the compound. The exterior fence was now all that stood between them and escape. The fence was only a little higher than the roof, but it would be quite the jump to reach it. Rave feared discovery at any moment, and this fear fortunately outweighed his fear of falling to his death.

  It also may outweigh common sense, thought Rave.

  However, he took a deep breath and backed up several paces. Whitewolf did the same.

  “You’re sure the electric is off?” Rave asked.

  “We blew the generators, so… Pretty sure, yeah.” Whitewolf shrugged and twisted to crack his back. “I’ll go first.”

  Rave didn’t insist. Whitewolf hesitated only a moment longer before taking off for the edge of the roof. Rave held his breath as Whitewolf launched off the roof, flew through the air, and caught hold of the metal fence. The big man held tight as his body flopped against the fence, and he gripped with his feet to support himself. He then climbed to the top of the fence and straddled the wires before looking back and giving Rave a thumbs-up.

  Rave closed his eyes and rocked back and forth on his heels to prepare for the jump. He felt a tingling, burning sensation run through his body, and his sense of touch flared so he could perfectly measure every stride. When he opened his eyes, he took off at a dead run for the edge of the roof. His strides widened until his final touchdown, when he pushed off with all his strength and jumped. He didn’t look down but kept focused on the fence as he flew through the air. His body hit the fence with such an impact that he bounced off.

  “Ahhh!” he cried in alarm as he started to fall.

  But his gloves latched a hold, and he stopped with a jerk. Using his feet like Whitewolf had done, he climbed to the top of the fence and threw a leg over to straddle the top. Finally, breathing hard, he returned Whitewolf’s thumbs-up.