Metal and Ash (Apex Trilogy)

by Jake Bible

  ***

  “I may be leaking hydraulic fluid from my groin region,” Stomper said.

  “Yeah,” Masters agreed as he watched the deaders coming at them. “I just pissed myself too.”

  Forty-Six

  “On your eight!” Lt. Murphy shouted at Specialist Grendetti. “Aim for the knees!”

  Specialist Grendetti spun about and fired his RPG. The rocket blazed and shot towards the three Cans that were headed towards them as the Special Ops team ran towards Bisby’s downed mech.

  The RPG nailed one of the mechs square in the right knee, shattering the leg and sending the mech falling back into the other two. The wounded mech was quickly tossed aside and out of the way as the two Cans continued their run at Bisby.

  “Hit the cockpit!” Specialist Sol shouted as he opened fire with his assault rifle. The bullets ricocheted off the CM like ineffectual bugs. “Mother fuck!”

  Lt. Murphy realized that even if they made it to Bisby first they had no cover and were just sitting ducks. It was suicide. She smiled at the thought.

  “Sticky packs!” Murphy ordered as she dodged the line of BC bullets that strafed the ground next to her.

  “Got ‘em!” Specialist Kafar called as he sprinted towards Bisby’s mech.

  “Prime them and get ready to detonate!” Murphy ordered.

  “What?!” Kafar shouted. “We won’t get clear in time!”

  “Yes, we will!” Murphy countered.

  The team was almost to its destination when Kafar pulled the sticky packs from his pack and prepped them.

  “How short?” he asked Lt. Murphy.

  “10,” Murphy asked as the team dove behind the cover of One Arm, bullets flying about their heads.

  “10?!” Sol shouted. “Not enough time, LT!”

  “Bullshit,” she replied as she grabbed a sticky pack, activated the detonator and threw the explosive at one of the approaching Cans.

  The sticky pack nearly fell short, but the Can walked right into its trajectory and the explosive stuck to the mech’s leg. The rest of the team got the idea and all stood and threw the ones Kafar had handed them.

  The first pack detonated and the Special Ops team barely had time to duck back down behind One Arm as tons of BC shrapnel filled the air. The rest of the packs detonated and One Arm’s fallen body shuddered from the impacts of the chunks of BC.

  “HEY!” Bisby shouted from inside the mech. “Are you fucks done playing with your fucking fireworks? I could use some help to get the fuck out of here!”

  “Keep your panties on, Pilot,” Lt. Murphy said. “We’ll get you out. Hope you can run because there’s some space to cover between here and the Hybrid.”

  “I’ll fucking outrun you all,” Bisby shouted. “Just get me the FUCK OUT OF HERE!”

  ***

  The legs had to go first, was what Harlow learned as she spun about battling Can after Can. Separate the legs then kick them away from the mech. It kept the Cans’ BC from auto-repairing. Unfortunately for Harlow there were way too many Cans crammed together for her strategy to be 100% effective. She’d kick a leg away and it would slide next to a different Can that was missing stability below its torso.

  So the massive blades of Harlow’s mech never stopped. They tore through the Can ranks in a constant motion of hack and slash ballet. She separated torsos from legs, arms from torsos; she impaled the drive systems and stabbed the cockpits; she rendered RPG launchers and mini-guns useless.

  She made her way through the Cans like she was the four horsemen in one deadly mech. Then started over again as the Cans constantly and continuously repaired themselves.

  Harlow saw the Special Ops team working to free Bisby from his downed mech, but she couldn’t focus on that. Not with the way the Cans resurrected themselves. If she had been in a laughing mood she would have chuckled over how the Cans were more deader than the dead mechs in the way they could rise from their destruction and keep fighting.

  But Harlow was not in a laughing mood.

  Her mech twisted and turned. She ducked punches, leapt over mini-gun fire, dodged RPGs, and just kept moving. Her heart rate was through the roof and she’d never felt so exhausted in her life, but she never quit. She made every single move count even if it was futile against the constant self-repairs.

  Two Cans dove at her. She leapt over them both, but was blindsided by a third that had come up on her and tackled her about the waist. Harlow lost one of her massive blades and watched as it was kicked into the wasteland by another Can. She took the hilt of her other blade and pounded it against the Can that had tackled her. The BC smoothed back out almost instantly with every impact. She would dent it and it would smooth. Again and again.

  Claxons blared in her cockpit as her mech’s systems became critical. Hydraulics on both legs were failing as more Cans converged on her. She was too close to all of them to be blasted, so the Cans just began to beat the holy hell out of her mech. The impacts became so many that she was knocked about inside the cockpit like a pinball. Even being strapped in, her body was slammed from side to side.

  A Can fist came down hard on her cockpit and she winced as the exoskeleton buckled in towards her. Another blow and she was pinned.

  “Ah, fuck,” she whispered as she watched more fists aimed at her.

  ***

  Lt. Murphy noted that Harlow was down under a pile of Cans and that the other mechs were turning their attention to the Special Ops team.

  “We need to pick up the pace!” Murphy shouted as she and Grendetti helped Bisby hobble towards the Hybrid. “We’ve got eyes on us again!”

  The team looked over their shoulders and they all stepped it up. The dozen or so Cans sprinting at them was a great motivator.

  They were almost to the Hybrid when the bottom ramp lowered and Campbell, with full dog team and mag-sled, came hurrying past them.

  “Get the Hybrid out of here!” Campbell yelled as she passed them. “I’ll give you some time!”

  Murphy didn’t argue as she hurried her team to the Hybrid. They made it to the ramp and rushed up into the machine. Each of the team member’s eyes fell on Campbell for a split second, making note of her sacrifice.

  “Get us the fuck out of here!” Murphy ordered as she sat down and took control of the weapons system. “Grendetti! You’re driving!”

  “Yes, sir,” Grendetti answered as he grabbed the control sticks and turned the Hybrid around.

  “Where the fuck are we going?!” Bisby shouted. “Harlow is still out there!”

  “She’s not reachable,” Murphy insisted. “She’s a big girl and knew the risks. Not everyone makes it, Bisby.”

  “So much for not leaving a man behind, eh?” Bisby snapped. “But then I guess Harlow isn’t part of your team so who gives a fuck, right?”

  “Cool it, Biz,” Sol said. “You know we have no chance against those things. If you and Harlow couldn’t take them out then what can we do?”

  Murphy kept all weapons aimed at the Cans that were pursuing, but didn’t fire. She wanted to conserve ammo for as long as possible. It was a long way back to the Stronghold.

  “Fucking cowards,” Bisby muttered, but a voice at the back of his head knew better. Harlow had gone down. There was nothing that could have been done.

  ***

  Campbell pushed the dogs on and maneuvered the sled between the legs of one of the Cans. She was Canadian and she knew the mechs almost better than anyone else. She’d helped with their design over the years and had been part of a hundred field tests. So even though she was a just a small speck to them, she didn’t feel completely hopeless. Or completely helpless.

  “Keep steady,” she yelled at the dogs as they jerked to the side when one of the Cans’ feet stomped down next to them. “Stay the course!”

  As the sled whipped between the legs of one of the Cans, Campbell looked up and tossed a sticky pack right where the mech’s junk would have been if it had junk. Not that the spot wasn’t equally as vulnerable. Cam
pbell knew that a well placed detonation in a specific spot could lead to an explosive chain reaction in the mech’s power system. She just hoped her aim was good enough.

  Campbell kept the dogs moving, pushing them, egging them on, calling to their aggressive nature and competitive breeding. The canines understood her urgency and dug deep, blocking out the battle sounds and imposing sights of mechs rushing towards them. They turned on her command as if they knew where she wanted to go before she did. They intuitively adjusted course, knowing that they only had a split second before being crushed underfoot. Fueled by the excitement and adrenaline of battle, the dogs came alive as they never had before in the snows of Canada.

  They had become a wasteland team and they were loving it. Their tongues hung from their mouths as they barked and yipped their way across the packed earth of the wasteland. They didn’t even flinch when the mech they’d just run under exploded in a shower of BC particles, ripped apart by a complete power system detonation. Even a BC mech couldn’t self-repair from that many fragments.

  ***

  The smell of blood was what brought Harlow back around. Her guess was that she was only out for maybe a couple of seconds, judging by the attack that was still coming down on her mech. She unstrapped and squeezed past a broken strut that had come loose and was only a couple inches from impaling her. She reached behind her seat and grabbed her own long blades and affixed them to her back.

  The constant attack on her mech made it near impossible for her to get to where she needed quickly, but after a few painful moments she was able to get to a hatch on the floor of her cockpit and wiggle her way into the storage compartment below. She yanked off a panel and keyed in a code on the small number pad. She held her hands over her ears and waited. After a count of three an explosion shook her mech and bitter smoke drifted into the compartment.

  Not wasting a second, Harlow wiggled back up into the cockpit and out the front where the cockpit hatch should have been. Smoke drifted up from where explosive bolts had detonated, shooting the hatch directly into the crowd of Cans. It had knocked most of them back and she took the opportunity to scramble from her cockpit and drop to the ground.

  She wormed her way through mech legs and was in a dead sprint for the Hybrid before she was noticed. A blast to her right sent her flying through the air, but she tucked and rolled when she hit the dirt, coming up on her feet. She shook her head and ignored the intense ringing in her ears and just kept going. Another blast sent her flying forward and the breath was knocked from her lungs when she slammed into the ground. She pushed herself up and saw plumes of dirt puff up about her.

  Harlow realized she was being shot at, but that didn’t scare her one bit. She’d been shot at a thousand times. The fact that she couldn’t hear the gunfire was what sent terror through her. As she struggled to her feet she reached up and felt the warm wetness trickling from both ears. She hoped that whatever damage had been done could be repaired.

  With nothing but the ringing in her head to keep her company, Harlow zig-zagged across the wasteland towards the Hybrid. It took her a moment to realize that the Hybrid was getting smaller and smaller instead of bigger as she got closer.

  They were leaving her behind and she couldn’t do a thing about it. She tapped at her com, but the blood pooling about it, and the fact she could hear absolutely nothing, meant the thing was worthless to her.

  She doubled her efforts and pushed her legs past the point of exhaustion. The odds of catching the Hybrid were pretty small, but Harlow hadn’t made it as far as she had as a mech pilot by just giving up.

  ***

  Campbell angled the sled to the right and cut between five mechs. She tossed her last sticky pack at the center mech, but missed the sweet spot. The sticky pack still exploded and shattered the mech’s legs, sending it toppling into the mech next to it. It gave Campbell just enough breathing space to whip the sled around and head back to the Hybrid.

  To say she was surprised to see a sprinting figure in front of her was an understatement. It didn’t take her many guesses to figure out who the person was.

  “Harlow! Hop on!” Campbell yelled as she came up on Harlow’s left. The mech pilot didn’t respond. “Harlow! Get on!”

  It wasn’t until the dogs passed Harlow that the mech pilot turned to look over her shoulder, her eyes wide with disbelief. She stared at the dogs, the sled, Campbell and shook her head.

  “Get the hell on the sled!” Campbell shouted. Harlow pointed at her ears. “Oh, Christ!”

  Campbell pointed in turn at the sled then ahead at the receding Hybrid. Harlow looked at the mech transport then back at the sled and nodded. Without losing a step she leapt onto the sled and crouched down. She grabbed the rails and held on as Campbell pressed the dogs faster. The animals’ tongues lulled and foam frothed at their mouths, but the creatures didn’t slack. Instead they lowered their bodies and stretched their legs further, adding just a little more speed to their drive.

  Campbell could hear the incoming RPGs and she prayed they’d be wide. The first was well off target, but the second impact was too close for comfort, showering them all with clods of dirt. Campbell risked it and opened her com.

  “Hey!” she shouted into the com. “We’re still alive back here!”

  There was no response.

  “Goddammit!” Campbell snapped. “I have Harlow and we are in pursuit! Slow the hell down so we can catch up!”

  There was still no response, but Campbell could see the Hybrid slow ahead, it’s legs skidding to a stop.

  “I said slow down, not stop!” Campbell yelled. “I have mechs on my ass and they’ll catch up in seconds! You have to keep moving too!”

  The unresponsive Hybrid didn’t budge and Campbell wondered if it had suffered a malfunction. But as she grew closer, and the RPGs nearly blasted the sled to pieces, she saw that there were forms in front of the Hybrid.

  Harlow had noticed the forms also and she squinted into the distance. Here eyes went wide when she realized what she was looking at. She motioned for Campbell to stop, but the engineer ignored her. There was no way they could stop with the Cans on their butts.

  Harlow drew her sidearm even though she knew it was pointless, and took aim, ready to do her small part to fight off the mechs ahead.

  Forty-Seven

  Not wanting to risk using the com, Lt. Murphy jumped from the Hybrid’s ramp and approached the group of strange mechs. She raised her hands in peace and slowly walked forward.

  “I’m Lieutenant Nancy Murphy, leader of the Special Ops team for the-,” she started.

  “I know who you are, Lieutenant,” Shiner said as he raised his cockpit. “We have met before. I am here to help.”

  “You got me at a loss,” Lt. Murphy responded, not recognizing the BC form inside the mech cockpit. She looked from mech to mech and shook her head. “You’re gonna have to help me out here.”

  “We fought side by side as Capreze took the Stronghold,” Shiner responded. “I am Shiner. I was the AI that was with Mech Pilot Mathew Jespers. Remember?”

  Lt. Murphy cocked her head and watched Shiner for a moment. “Weren’t you blown up? Coming back from the dead a new thing for mechs now?”

  “My CPU was ejected and retrieved by a team of Canadian operatives,” Shiner said. “I have been reborn in this biochrome form. So, yes, in my case, mechs can come back from the dead.”

  “Canadian operatives?” Lt. Murphy asked, hooking her thumb over her shoulder. “Just tangled with some Canadians. Not sure telling me that puts me at ease.”

  “Yes,” Shiner nodded. “Intentions were hidden by some. Just as with all governments, the true colors are never shown until it is too late.”

  The other mechs shifted from foot to foot, their focus obviously on the Cans that were heading their way.

  “There are life forms pulling a sled with two humans on it,” Awl Good said. “Should I go crush them?”

  Shiner turned his attention to the far off mag-sled that was c
oming at them. He adjusted his sensors and would have smiled if he could have. “No, Awl,” Shiner said. “That is Mech Pilot Harlow. She appears to have been rescued by Engineer Campbell. I am pleased to see Engineer Campbell alive.” He looked back at Lt. Murphy. “Not all Canadians have proven to be treacherous.”

  “Yeah,” Lt. Murphy agreed. “We have a wounded Commander LaFrance in the Hybrid. I guess he’ll be glad to see you.”

  “As I him,” Shiner said. “But reunions will have to wait. There is a threat approaching and it cannot be put off.”

  “Can we go kill something now?” Thunk asked. “Standing is stupid.”

  “No more talking, Shiner,” Hollow Eye said. “Time for action.”

  “Been waiting for this,” Bad Shell said. “Were wasting fighting time.”

  “Lt. Murphy, I would advise you wait here until Pilot Harlow and Engineer Campbell arrive,” Shiner suggested. “Then get moving as fast as possible back to the Stronghold. You will be needed there.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Lt. Murphy said. “Good to see you again, Shiner. Dig the new body.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Shiner said as he started to close his cockpit. “We will catch up later as soon as the Cans have been put down.”

  Without another word the mechs stomped past Lt. Murphy and the Hybrid and started to run towards the oncoming Cans, weapons hot.

  ***

  CMP Esther watched as the new mechs took the field. Her scanner showed that they were old metal and armaments were basic. And that they didn’t have human pilots. She shot the scan to the other CMPs and watched as the acknowledgments came in. Even with the superior BC, there were only twenty-two Cans left. She messaged for ten to move forward and engage the new mechs, sure that the tech at their disposal would wipe out the antiquated machines.