City of Phants (Argonauts Book 6)

by Isaac Hooke

  Rade and the others backed away, aiming their weapons at the seal.

  “What if Surus is trying to come back at this moment?” Manic said.

  “Too bad for her,” Lui said.

  “You know, it would suck big time if the Acceptor suddenly activated,” Fret said. “Carrying us to an alien world.”

  “Shh!” Bender said. “Don’t jinx us!”

  “Station security forces are approaching the ship via the entry tube,” Tahoe transmitted from the Argonaut. “I’ve shut the airlock, but they’re demanding entrance.”

  “Looks like the gig is up,” Rade said. “Tahoe, pull the ship away. Target and take out the station defenses if you can, and get out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” Tahoe said. “We’re going to stay and fight.”

  “You have to leave us,” Rade said. “You can come back when this is over. It’s up to you now to protect my ship. And Shaw. The twins... this is a big responsibility. I hope you don’t take it lightly.”

  Tahoe didn’t reply for several moments. Then: “Goodbye, Rade.”

  Rade smiled wistfully. “Goodbye, Tahoe.”

  Why did it feel like he was saying goodbye forever?

  Probably because I am.

  Rade couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going to die there, on that station.

  On the overhead map, Rade watched the Argonaut disconnect from the space station. White lines appeared momentarily, indicating lasers fired by the vessel, and then the starship rapidly accelerated away.

  So it’s done.

  That was one less thing to worry about, at least for the time being.

  He kept his weapon aimed at the security door. Waiting for something, anything, to happen.

  “I just lost my comm signal with the rest of the base,” Fret said. “The InterGalNet is down.”

  “That’s purposeful, I would think,” TJ said.

  “TJ, see if you can get access to the storage facility’s security cameras,” Rade said.

  Blue-colored smears appeared in the door as the metal began to heat rapidly. Someone was firing a plasma rifle into it from the other side.

  Rade sealed his faceplate. He heard similar whooshing sounds around him as the others did likewise.

  The time to die had come.

  eight

  Rade steadied his scope, and as the metal of the door dissolved away, revealing the corridor beyond, he opened fire at the enemy Centurion that stood there with a plasma rifle in hand.

  The gap enlarged as another Centurion fired a plasma weapon into the door; someone else took down that robot as it too came into view.

  An Enforcer stepped forward, and Rade unleashed his rifle. He wasn’t the only one.

  As the robot dropped, someone tossed a grenade out there, and the sound sensors in Rade’s helmets muted what would have been an otherwise eardrum-busting detonation.

  With those three robots terminated, several seconds of calm passed.

  “Algorithm, Brat, clear the hall!” Rade said.

  The two combat robots approached the door and leaned past the tears; they swept their weapons back and forth.

  A long metallic limb abruptly crashed through the door from above, shoving Algorithm aside; before Rade could react, the long appendage was wrapping around him.

  “Boss!” Manic said.

  Rade was yanked outside and up toward the ceiling, where a large, spider-like robot lurked. It pulled Rade toward a chomping maw made of steel.

  Since his rifle arm was pinned to his body, Rade grabbed a grenade from his harness and tossed it into the open mouth instead.

  The grenade detonated, and the inner core of the spider exploded. Rade was sent flying into the wall from the shockwave. He slid to the floor, landing opposite the storage unit. Shrapnel was embedded in the leg area of his jumpsuit. He flinched at the pain.

  Bender leaped onto the floor beside him. “Boss! You all right?”

  “Pristine,” Rade said. He gazed down the spiraling hallway, intending to survey the area, but a wave of dizziness overcame him and his head swayed. It took him a moment to blink the vertigo away.

  “If you’re all right, then what was that?” Bender asked.

  “Happiness.” Rade studied the hallway. Other than the wreckage of the attacking robots, the corridor was clear, for the moment.

  “I’ve accessed the backdoor Noctua left in the security cameras,” TJ said. “Got more incoming! These look like mercs.”

  Red dots appeared on the overhead map, marking the locations of tangos streaming inside the storage facility.

  Rade ignored the pain in his leg and clambered to his feet, shoving away the gloved hand Bender offered.

  Rade limped back toward the storage unit and dropped down near the entrance; he aimed his rifle at the bend below.

  Bender took up a position on the other side of the passageway and aimed in the same direction.

  “TJ, Lui, watch our rear,” Rade said. “I wouldn’t put it past the security forces to drill a hole in the top of the storage facility in an attempt to come at us from behind.”

  TJ and Lui hurried into position behind Rade.

  “The rest of you, we defend the Acceptor,” Rade said. “Fret, Manic, set some charges on the device. If we go down, we’re bringing it with us.”

  “What about Surus?” Manic asked.

  “She’ll have to find another way back to our region of space,” Rade said. “I don’t want this Acceptor falling into the hands of the Greens. If they use it to open a portal to their homeworld, we could be dealing with a new Phant invasion.”

  “Why would the Greens want to invade?” Fret said. “I thought their so-called High Council had voted to stop interfering in human affairs.”

  “No, they voted to stop interfering with the preparatory activities of the other Phants in the region,” Lui said. “So the door to interfering with humanity has been left wide open. Just because they were once our friends doesn’t mean they won’t suddenly decide it’s in their best interests to invade. Their policies regarding humanity have flip-flopped enough times over the past six months to give a dolphin a belly ache.”

  “Or a naked sprinter’s dick a friction burn,” Bender said.

  “That’s certainly a lot of flopping,” TJ agreed.

  “Your shaft gets chafed!” Bender commented.

  Rade kept his eye on the red dots of his overhead map as the security cameras updated the position of the incoming tangos.

  Bender fired. Up ahead, a figure in a jumpsuit slumped onto the floor, falling into Rade’s line of sight. A hole appeared in the helmet as Bender unleashed the kill shot.

  Rade edged backward, toward the gap in the storage unit’s security door.

  Bender suddenly leaped toward Rade. Where he had crouched an instant before a plasma hole burned into the wall. A portion of the concourse was visible beyond it.

  Rade returned his aim to the bend. A grenade of some kind dropped into view.

  “Smoke!” Rade shouted.

  The grenade detonated and the passageway filled with smoke.

  Rade switched to echolocation: a squawker began emitting from his jumpsuit. The outline of the passageway appeared through the smoke around him, represented as a white wireframe.

  A crouching tango emerged from around the bend. Rade squeezed the trigger and his opponent toppled.

  Something wrapped around Rade’s waist and he was dragged rapidly across the floor. He was pulled through the hole in the far wall, and emerged from the smoke into the concourse outside. He was held in the forelimbs of another of those giant spider robots, which clung to the upper exterior of the storage facility. The fifteenth floor walkway was four meters below him.

  The robot drew Rade toward the grinding segments of its maw.

  He reached into his harness and withdrew the last grenade, but this time when he threw it the robot turned its head aside and the grenade bounced off harmlessly, detonating when it hit the ground below. He was c
arried toward the grinding maw once more.

  “Shit.” He turned the rifle down on the limb that held him, aiming for the servomotor box, and squeezed the trigger.

  The appendage loosened its hold, and Rade plunged the four meters to the concourse deck. His strength-enhanced suit took the brunt of the blow, the electroactuators humming in disapproval. He allowed his knees to bend so that he hit rolling, and then clambered to his feet a short distance away.

  The robot dropped down hard behind him, and the floor rumbled.

  Four independently tracking lasers attached to its back locked onto him instantly.

  Limping, Rade ducked into a nearby restaurant as the robot opened fire.

  Patrons huddled on the floor around him, hiding behind the tables. Others fled.

  A part of his mind wondered what kind of AI would first try to grind a man to death, and failing that, resort to lasers. Another part of him wondered: if the robot was truly part of the station security services, why was it firing at him while he hunkered down inside a packed restaurant, and risking casualties?

  Sure enough, a man fleeing the scene in a long flowing robe happened to run into the crossfire, and was mowed down.

  “Rade, where are you?” Manic transmitted.

  “A fifteenth floor restaurant,” Rade replied. “I was dragged through a rent burned in the wall. I’m trying to get back... though I’m a bit tied up at the moment.”

  Rade scrambled deeper into the restaurant, doing his best to ignore the pain in his thigh, and ducked behind the lounge separator wall. He fired two quick shots, taking out one of the robot’s lasers, but was forced to duck as the remaining turrets focused on him. Boreholes appeared in the separator above him, and he slid lower, scrambling deeper inside.

  He heard screams, followed by the crash of plates and glasses—the robot was forcing its way into the restaurant.

  Rade crawled past a counter and shoved through a swinging door, emerging in the kitchen area of the restaurant. Flinching in pain, he pulled himself to his feet and went to the stoves. He realized immediately they weren’t gas-based. Too bad.

  He hurried deeper inside, searching for a back entrance. Found it.

  Limping, he ducked through. He was in a small, white-painted service corridor that linked the shops together. He continued forward, leaving a trail of blood that stood out readily on the spotless floor.

  Behind him, the wall broke outward as the spider arrived. Rade took cover in a side corridor and aimed his rifle past the bend.

  The spider’s form emerged from the metal fragments of the caving wall.

  Rade let off several quick shots, taking down another turret. He was forced to duck behind the bend as the remaining two lasers focused on him; circular bites appeared along the edge of the wall. He dropped, and aimed past again.

  The robot was having difficulty fitting into the cramped corridor. It couldn’t retract its legs enough to squeeze inside. It was effectively stonewalled.

  Rade withdrew as more shots came in; he quickly crawled backward and scrambled to his feet, retreating. He half ran, half hopped, unable to place too much pressure on his right leg. He instructed his exoskeleton to compensate by upping the strength on the right side, and that helped.

  He glanced at his overhead map. He was still in signal range of his companions. Though that wouldn’t last for long, especially with the InterGalNet denied to his team.

  He reached the exit to the service corridor, opened it a crack, and carefully peered past.

  A klaxon was sounding outside. He noticed that the walkway was clear of people, as were most of the shops. He spotted a few people hunkering down in some of the stores, but the security grilles were quickly closing to seal them off from the rest of the station. The escalator leading down to the fourteenth floor was just to the right.

  Rade tentatively opened the swinging door wider, and checked both sides with his rifle.

  Two men in jumpsuits topped the escalator. The odd colorations and patterns on the suits shouted mercenaries.

  Rade released a quick shot, downing one of them. The second tango dove behind a trash bin.

  Rade readjusted his aim and squeezed the trigger. The man fell.

  But then four more mercenaries fanned out from the escalator. Rade wasn’t able to track them quickly enough, and they took cover behind various nearby objects: a pillar, the garbage bin, a railing.

  Rade was forced to duck inside as laser fire came in. Bore holes appeared in the swinging door beside him.

  “We can’t hold!” TJ sent. His signal cut in and out; Rade was almost out of range.

  “Don’t give up your lives!” Rade replied. “Join me if you can... leap through that plasma rent. Bender will have it marked on his map. And then detonate the charges on the Acceptor.”

  “We’re pinned down,” TJ replied a moment later. “We can’t make it to the rent. We’re going to have to detonate the Acceptor while we’re in the vicinity.”

  “No,” Rade said, feeling a rising panic deep inside him. “Hold. I’ll get there!”

  “Boss, we’ll be overrun in moments,” TJ said. “Gah!”

  “TJ,” Rade said. “Do you read? TJ?” That panic had neared boiling point.

  “TJ’s down,” Bender said. “If you want us to blow the Acceptor, now’s the time.”

  “No,” Rade said. He refused to allow his team to die for the Acceptor. Without Surus or Noctua, the Greens wouldn’t have the necessary linkage codes they needed to access it anyway.

  “Wait,” Lui said. “The tangos are backing off. I think they’re worried about damaging the Acceptor. Or maybe they’ve hacked our comms?”

  Rade felt an immense relief. He glanced at the overhead map, focusing on the storage facility: the red dots had retreated a short ways down the corridor, away from the particular storage unit, as determined by the facility’s hacked security cameras. Apparently the cameras outside the facility weren’t in TJ’s pocket, because the tangos didn’t update near Rade’s position.

  He pushed his laser rifle through the swinging doors and switched his point of view to that of the scope. The tangos near the escalator hadn’t backed off, and remained in cover behind the different objects. Rade moved the targeting reticle between the different hides, but couldn’t get a clear shot.

  Why aren’t they trying to close?

  And then he realized they were likely attempting to outflank him.

  He glanced over his shoulder, but the long service corridor was empty behind him. For the moment.

  He retreated from the swinging doors and stood up. Flinching at the pain caused by each step, he quickly made his way back through the passageway. He paused near the laser-riddled bend and peered past. The spider robot was no longer present.

  It was then that a voice from his distant past came over the comm.

  “Rage?” the voice said. “Is that you? What the hell are you doing, abetting this traitorous criminal?”

  “Master Chief Bourbonjack?” Rade said.

  nine

  Rade couldn’t believe it.

  Bourbonjack was once the master chief of his platoon. Rade had served under him for many years, when Bourbonjack had been the platoon’s acting chief. Rade had once thought the man would never leave the military. In fact, he was still serving when Rade retired.

  “Just Bourbonjack, now,” the old man replied. “In the flesh. Or rather, those parts of me that aren’t bio-printed!”

  Rade spotted mercenaries approaching far down the corridor to his right. More movement drew his eye to the left. The other mercenaries had entered via the swinging door. They were crouched, advancing in single file formation, their laser rifles raised to eye level.

  Rade kicked in a side door in the service corridor and dove inside. He hurried through a small room full of fabrics set aside for 3D printing, and tried another door. Locked. He attempted to kick it in with his strength-enhanced suit, but the door was reinforced, and refused to budge. All that repeated kicking effor
ts did was cause the pain to flare in his right thigh.

  Rade was trapped.

  “Look, Rage, we got you and your team surrounded,” Bourbonjack said.

  “It’s Rade, now,” Rade replied. “I don’t use my callsign anymore.”

  “Fine,” Bourbonjack said. “Listen to me very carefully. I’m working for the Greens who’ve remained behind in this part of the galaxy. They harbor no ill will against you and your team, especially after all you’ve done for them. Your client is the traitor here, not you. Surrender the rogue Green to us, and they’ll let your team go. You have my word.”

  Rade thought of the Artificial women that had been executed in a long line at Surus’ base of operations.

  “How do we know you won’t do to us what you did to the women at the base on the Franco-Italian moon?” Rade asked.

  “Women, what women?” Bourbonjack said. “You mean the Artificials? I heard about what Ghal and his team did. I wasn’t there, but apparently those Artificials refused to make the Titans stand down, so Ghal began executing them, hoping that one of them would see reason and surrender peacefully. Stubborn fools.”

  “You know that AIs are sentient, don’t you?” Rade asked. “Self-aware?” He retreated to the door he had kicked in, and shoved his rifle past to aim at the closer mercenaries who were slowly making their way forward.

  “You’re going to give me hell for the death of a bunch of robots?” Bourbonjack said. “Something I wasn’t even involved in? Is this really the Rade I used to know? Come on, you owe me some credit. If I was there, and those were actual women, my team would have never fired. I’m the one who should be pissed, here. You’ve killed five members of my team so far. Human members at that.”

  “But you’re not pissed.” Rade kept his crosshairs centered around one of the approaching men in jumpsuits. “Because you don’t care about them. You hardly know them, do you? They’re just random mercenaries the Greens assigned to you, and told you to lead.”

  “Wrong, they’re my men, and I knew them well enough,” Bourbonjack growled. “Just as I know you. By the way, I have someone on the comm who would like to speak with you. I’m putting them on now.”