Mech

by Isaac Hooke

  They checked the fuel drums in each of the garages, but were disappointed to find that there was no propellant to siphon away.

  “Looks like our jetpacks are going to remain empty,” Rex said.

  Then they reached an open door leading to the main armory area on the right. It was essentially a series of crates stacked on shelves that lined the room. Rade and the other two made their way through the aisles, peering into the different crates. There were old-style weapons in most of them: revolvers, assault rifles, and so forth.

  “Well, at least the aliens haven’t looted the hell out of the place,” Rex said.

  “The Draactals wouldn’t understand how to fire our weapons even if they knew what they were,” Bender said. “Bitches be bugs.”

  “Yes, but they’re controlled by the Nemesis,” Rex said. “Who are in turn controlled by the Anarchist. So I assume they’d understand how to use our weapons. Too bad most of this is useless. Projectile weapons. It’s like we’re back in the caveman days.”

  “Not all projectile weapons are bad.” Bender picked up a rocket propelled grenade launcher from a crate. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.” He slid the strap over his shoulder and let the bulky thing hang from his side. He grabbed three small rockets from the crate and shoved them into his harness.

  Rade also grabbed three ordinary fragmentation grenades, securing them to his belt.

  The trio continued looking through the different crates until they discovered the cache of demolition blocks they were looking for.

  Rex and the others already had one or two demo bricks each, taken from their mech storage compartments, but it wasn’t enough for what Rade planned. So they gathered up as many demolition blocks as their harnesses could hold, and when their midsections were bulging with the explosives, they stepped back.

  Now they had enough.

  Well, at least the three of them.

  Before leaving, Rade also found a box of small, bottle-cap sized repeaters, and secured the whole thing to his belt. Those would be useful in extending the range of the remote interface each detonator came with. He had Bender program them to operate on the same band as the detonators, and then quickly returned to the main entrance with the man.

  “Anything?” Rade asked.

  “Clear as watered-down piss,” Tahoe said.

  “That’s my kind of piss,” Bender said. “Means you’re well hydrated.”

  “Load up on demo blocks,” Rade told Tahoe and Snakeoil. “Rex will show you where they are.”

  The pair dashed inside, leaving Rade alone with Bender. He scanned the street, and the windows of the different buildings, looking for targets. In the distance, the Draactals still milled about. He kept returning his scope to them, worried that the aliens would suddenly rush their position.

  “Do you ever miss the old days?” Bender asked.

  “What do you mean?” Rade replied.

  “The early days,” Bender told him. “When we were back in Mongolia, kicking insurgent ass. I mean, sure, there’s something to be said about shooting down some high-quality bugs. In fact, I prefer it to killing humans. Well, discounting the little mishap we had earlier in the mission, when the Anarchist a-hole hacked our Implants and made us do that very thing. I don’t blame myself in the least.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Rade said. “You’re doing better than a lot of the men, in that regard.”

  “Yeah, I’m just resilient like that,” Bender said. “But anyway, as I was saying, I still miss those early days. Back when everyone was still alive. Big Dog. Alejandro. Ghost. I also miss the others that joined the platoon later… Hijak. Harlequin. Grappler. Keelhaul.”

  Rade remained silent. He’d put down Keelhaul himself. He’d been forced to when the MOTH had turned on them, his mind infected by nano machines. He’d never really forgiven himself. Doubted he ever would. All he could do was avoid thinking about it, because to dwell on Keelhaul’s death meant only pain, followed by sudden spurts of uncontrollable rage. Usually, when he thought of how Keelhaul had died, things became smashed around Rade. Quite a few times on base Tahoe would walk in on him to find a desk smashed or a chair broken to smithereens. Tahoe never asked why. He’d simply sit down and pretend nothing had happened. Tahoe was content to give him the space he needed, never prying, so that Rade could share his feelings in his own time, when he was ready. And for that, Rade was forever grateful.

  When he finally did tell Tahoe, the Navajo nodded sagely, and said: “I always just assumed it was just roid rage.”

  He was joking of course, in that way Tahoe did, always defusing the tension and unease from any situation.

  “I think of my own death all the time,” Bender continued. “I know it’s coming soon.”

  “It’s not, my friend,” Rade said.

  Bender shrugged. “Could come this very mission, and you know it.”

  Rade didn’t have an answer to that, because Bender was right. They could all die.

  “Either way,” Bender continued. “I’m ready for it. I figure I’m going to meet it on my own terms anyway. Why do you think I’m still here after all these years? And when I do meet my untimely demise, you have my permission to clone me.”

  “I thought you didn’t want your mind backed up and restored?” Rade asked.

  “Oh I don’t,” Bender replied. “But I told you, you have my permission to clone me. Biologically. You know, so you can raise me from birth. From little innocent Bender to lean mean killing machine Bender.”

  Rade chuckled slightly. “I don’t think so. I couldn’t handle little Bender.”

  Bender shrugged. “It’d be an honor, either way, chief. To have you as my dad.”

  Rade studied his friend uncertainly before returning his attention to his rifle scope. “I’m not sure how to take that.”

  “Take it for what it’s worth,” Bender said. “An honor.”

  Tahoe, Snakeoil and Rex returned, their midsections weighed down with demolition blocks.

  “How are our friends?” Tahoe asked, taking a position beside him.

  “The Draactals are still blocking the distant intersection to the west,” Rade said. “They haven’t spotted us.”

  “I meant you guys,” Tahoe said.

  “Oh,” Rade said. “As good as can be expected. It’s time to plant these blocks. Back to the subway! Bender, Rex, go!”

  The pair moved at a crouch into the street, and weaved between the debris. Once again, the background blending provided by their jumpsuits allowed them to avoid detection by the aliens at this range. That and the fact the alien echolocation and thermal vision seemed to be limited.

  Rex tripped at one point, in full view of the aliens between two crashed vehicles. Bender stopped, turned back, and helped Rex to his feet without a word. Then the pair continued as if nothing happened. The aliens remained oblivious to the west.

  When they reached the subway shed, Rade let go the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He glanced at Tahoe and Snakeoil. “Our turn.”

  He and the other two moved into the street. They moved between the crashed aircraft and the pieces of buildings; the howling from the aliens abruptly increased in volume, and Rade dodged behind a broken portion of a skyscraper. He almost impaled himself on a jutting piece of rebar in the process. That wouldn’t have been good.

  Tahoe and Snakeoil took cover behind him, and all three peered past the edges.

  “Looks like they’re moving again,” Snakeoil said. “Flowing into the upper gaps in the blast shield. They must have breached the MOTHs waiting in the stairwells.”

  Rade didn’t particularly like that conclusion.

  “Let’s go!” he said, and rushed into the street once more.

  The trio weaved between debris and reached the subway shed, where Rex and Bender waited. None of the aliens noticed them, no doubt mesmerized by the skyscraper, and their own brethren flowing eagerly inside the breaches in the topmost portion of the building.

  The team race
d down the stairs to the subway platform, and leaped into the tunnel with its tracks. Rade strategically placed repeaters along the way. As they traveled deeper, dark sections were common, as the emergency lights were far apart.

  “Activate LIDAR,” Rade said. “Let’s illuminate the shadows.”

  As he turned on his own, white polygons filled out the shadow regions. He could see the tracks in intricate detail—well, minus any coloration or texture. They were mere outlines. But that was all he needed to see by.

  Rade pulled up the overhead map and overlaid the aliens that crowded the streets above; he updated the overlay using his latest estimates, based on the easternmost portion of the throng he had just seen, and a donut-shaped mass appeared around the skyscraper, overflowing into the streets beyond.

  Earlier, with the help of his jumpsuit AI and Praxter, he had calculated the optimal placement of charges in order to collapse the tunnel, and thus produce a sinkhole that would engulf a portion of the aliens—specifically those that resided on the street above. The charge type was unknown, so he had chosen a random but feasible class for the estimates, but he adjusted his calculations now to account for the actual charge type they’d retrieved from the police station, and updated the virtual positions accordingly. Then he overlaid the placements with his HUD, so that the charge target sites appeared as glowing blue circles on the ceiling ahead. Most were concentrated on either flank of the tunnel overhead, with the occasional one appearing down the middle.

  “V formation,” Rade ordered.

  He shared the data with his companions, and the team switched to a “V” formation with Bender at its head.

  When the group passed underneath the outer edge of the alien overlay, they began hurling the demolition blocks upward, aiming at whatever targets lay above their particular paths. They peeled off the backing before each throw: each brick was self-leveling, courtesy of the small amount of propellant that was ejected from tiny nozzles, allowing the adhesive side to always face the target; once in place on the ceiling, a small green light on the block would activate, indicating it was armed.

  And so, in that manner they littered the ceiling with charges, stopping only when they reached the subway platform. They proceeded forward more slowly there because of the aliens yet congregated on the far stairwell leading to the surface. They moved at a crouch, hiding below the platform beside them as they advanced. When they passed below a target area, they peered over the lip of the platform to ensure no aliens were watching, and then tossed the necessary bricks toward the ceiling. They also launched some of the demolition blocks at the ceiling above the platform itself—wherever the virtual target sites were indicated.

  When they reached the far side of platform, they stood to their full heights and hurried deeper into the subway tunnel, leaving the aliens behind.

  They continued launching charges, slowing down to crouch from view every time they reached a platform. They passed four more of the latter areas, their path slowly tracing a curve beneath the streets on the overhead map. Rade didn’t place any more repeaters during all of that, because the charges would act as repeaters of their own.

  Finally, Rade called a halt when the team passed beyond the outer edges of the alien mass, as indicated by his map. By placing the charges in the subway tunnel along that particular route, the resultant sinkholes would take out roughly half the aliens, forming an L-shaped blast zone where the tunnel curved past the building.

  But there was still the other half of the aliens that needed to be dealt with, spread out across the two opposite streets around the skyscraper. There was no other subway tunnel that the team could take to plant charges beneath the remaining Draactal swarm; the sewer system passed next to the subway line in this neighborhood, so it wouldn’t help them either.

  No, in order to deal with the remaining half of the aliens, Rade and the others would have to head to the surface, undertaking the second, more dangerous phase of the mission.

  “All right, team, it’s time to find the closest subway stop clear of aliens,” Rade said. “We make for the surface.”

  31

  Rade and the others reached the next subway stop. There were no aliens crowding the platform, and so Bender and Rex pulled themselves onto the elevated surface and made their way up the stairwell to the surface shed.

  “Got aliens in the street, to the south,” Bender said. “But otherwise, clear.”

  Rade placed a repeater, and then he, Snakeoil and Tahoe hauled their bodies onto the platform and joined the other two at the top of the stairs.

  Rade saw the aliens milling about in the southern street, about fifty meters from the subway entrance. The Draactals filled the road that ran north-south along the eastern side of the skyscraper.

  He glanced east, gazing at the line of buildings that bordered the northern side of the road. The target building was almost right next to the subway stop.

  “Bender, Rex, lead the way to Target One,” Rade said. He highlighted the building on his overhead map.

  The pair left the shed at a crouch and proceeded up the stairs two steps at a time and rushed through the building entrance.

  “Clear,” Bender said.

  Rade placed a repeater, and then followed with Snakeoil and Tahoe. They moved quickly, and when they reached the revolving doors, they pushed them open manually.

  Bender and Rex were scanning the lobby within with their rifles. A cramped affair with an automated information desk at the front, and elevators lining the hallway behind it.

  Rade pulled up the blueprints he had on the building, and headed for the stairwell. He continued to strategically attach repeaters to the walls along the way.

  He paused before the stairwell opening, and allowed Bender and Rex to enter first. Then he and the rest of the team followed. They reached the basement without issue, and proceeded into the underground parking garage. Concrete pillars filled the area from floor to ceiling.

  “Cyclone, assign the targets,” Rade said. He transmitted the placement sites Praxter had calculated, and a moment later several pillars became highlighted on his HUD.

  Rade hurried between the pillars assigned to him, and attached two demolition charges to each, one on either side. The explosive force would take out not just the pillar, but the ceiling on either side.

  The other team members similarly attached bricks to their preassigned pillars, and when they were done, they gathered on the far side of the parking garage.

  “Will that do it?” Rex said.

  “According to Praxter’s calculations, it will,” Rade said.

  “Still think we should place some charges on the first floor, to be on the safe side,” Bender said.

  Rade shook his head. “Wish we could. But then we won’t have enough for the next building. Speaking of which, it’s time to head back up.”

  The building wasn’t connected to the subway, so they returned to the first floor. At the entrance, the team paused to allow a patrol of Nemesis spheres to pass by outside, and once it rounded the bend of the street beyond, Bender and Rex rushed outside. They proceeded east, keeping close to the northern line of buildings, and ducked behind a bench and some trees on the sidewalk.

  Rade and the others followed, and rendezvoused behind the bench with them.

  “Go,” Rade said.

  Bender and Rex proceeded forward, and the others followed not far behind them, crouching behind whatever cover they could find on the sidewalk: parked vehicles, bushes, trees, benches, stands, debris.

  Soon the aliens were lost from sight, occluded from view by the building to the south. Bender and Rex crossed to the other side of the street, and the others followed. Then they proceeded to hug the line of buildings as they continued forward. Rade placed a repeater every fifty meters or so.

  They reached the next intersection and turned south, traveling in the street that ran parallel to the aliens, and then when they reached the next intersection, they headed west. Ahead, in the distance, lay the milling throng
of Draactals that had gathered to the south of the skyscraper, in the street that ran from east to west. The aliens seemed more numerous here, the majority apparently having gathered on the southern side of the building, and they spilled out onto this street.

  Rade highlighted the target building, which lay on the right side, a corner building on the intersection ahead.

  “We won’t get them all,” Rex said. “Especially those crowding onto this street. They’ll escape the collapse zone.”

  “The goal isn’t to get them all,” Rade said. “Just to get most of them.”

  “The entrance to the target building is close to the aliens,” Tahoe said. “Too close for our camouflage to be of much use. They’ve spotted us at that range before…”

  “I know,” Rade said. “We have to be careful.”

  “Actually, we don’t all have to go,” Tahoe said. He glanced at the reduced number of demolition blocks that hung from the different harnesses. “One or two of us can carry the remaining blocks, and finish this. The rest of you could cover us, in case we were spotted.”

  Rade considered for a moment. “We could cover you, yes, but not for very long. As soon as we fired into the aliens, we’d draw a good portion of them to our position. So, we’d be running away at that point.” He paused. “I don’t want to break up the team.”

  “Check out the building blueprints,” Snakeoil said. “There’s only one other exit, and it opens onto the north-south street where the aliens are milling about. So, we go in there, and we’re spotted, we’re essentially trapped. I’d say it’s a good idea to leave a few of us behind, in case we need to draw some of the enemy away from whoever goes in.”

  Rade sighed. He knew Snakeoil was right. “Fine. Cyclone, Rex, you’ll go. The rest of you, give them your demolition blocks.”

  Rade and the others distributed the last of their demo bricks between Tahoe and Rex, who slid them into the remaining loops on their harnesses. Rade also gave them five repeaters each, the last of his cache. When they were ready, the team continued forward once more.