The Suns of Liberty (Book 3): Republic

by Michael Ivan Lowell

  “I’d remind you, Commander, you are addressing a superior officer.”

  “Nothing superior about you, pal! And besides, you don’t have any authority over me. Or did you forget?” Reynolds spat, just before he rammed through a drone.

  He had no idea if Jenkins had replied, but he didn’t care. “You’d never have gotten close to taking command if Diana Rocco hadn’t died, and you know it. If she were here, she’d be leading this attack, not hiding from it.”

  Jenkins sighed over the com. “Rocco isn’t here, precisely because she did lead all those attacks. We need a leader, not a soldier. And I’m not leading these volunteers into a slaughter just because you want me to.”

  Reynolds’s retort was wrenched from his own throat by a massive explosion below him. It was centered in the heart of a group of Minutemen near the Capitol reflecting pool. A hellfire missile from an X-1 Apache.

  Three more detonations erupted further out in front of him. “We gotta take out those helos!” Reynolds turned and shot back toward the Apaches. In the distance he saw the android taking out Guardsmen. “Spectral, help me—”

  No sooner had he spoken then the android had flashed away.

  In a nanosecond, he teleported directly in front of the X-1 that had fired the shot and disappeared inside of it. The next thing Reynolds knew, the helo exploded. Sending its fragments careening into the city. There, in the spot in the sky where the chopper had been, was Spectral, floating in light-form.

 

  Reynolds shrugged, peering down at the broken bodies of the Minutemen below him. “If you say so. I say they have it coming.”

  With that, Reynolds charged through the sky, catching an X-1 in the tail section, ripping straight through it as the engine ignited across the sky.

  The android opened fire with optic beams of deep red. The first X-1 it hit, the cockpit exploded, killing the pilot instantly. Then another and another. The Apaches spun, careening into the city.

  Tendrils of smoke rose to mark their landing spots.

  The rest of the helicopter gunships turned on Spectral and returned fire. Half a dozen hellfire missiles zoomed his way from all across the sky.

  “Spectral, look out!” Reynolds shouted.

  But the android was way ahead of them. He phased to pure light in an instant, allowing the missiles to soar right through, nothing to lock onto.

  The android’s voice dripped with regret.

  Collision-avoidance systems prevented them from colliding into one another. Instead, they zoomed out into the city, striking random targets in massive explosions in every direction across the horizon.

  “This is getting out of control! We have to keep this fight centered on us!” Revolution shouted into the com from somewhere below. “Jenkins, we need your troops!”

  Reynolds grinned at that. He couldn’t help it. This was a sad day. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t find little bits of joy here and there. Like that coward Jenkins actually having to fight.

  He spun around and spotted another Apache.

  He smashed though the chopper, and it shattered into a million burning pieces.

  Yep, little bits of joy.

  CHAPTER 53

  Lantern heard the gunshot.

  It rang out above the cacophony of gunfire. Meaning the muzzle had to have been pointed right at him. He and Scarlett had slipped out onto the outer balcony that ran around the widest part of the dome to give her better access to the Guardsmen. They had kept crouched down, hoping no one would spot them.

  That didn’t work.

  Concrete exploded inches above his head. The window behind him shattered. A split second later a window to the right of Scarlett did the same. Then another hit just above Lantern’s head.

  “Sharpshooters!” Lantern bellowed. He spun toward the door they came out of. A good fifty feet away.

  Scarlett turned to him. “Hold me!” she shouted.

  “What?”

  “Hold me. Just do it!” Scarlett flung herself into his arms, and he had no choice but to latch onto her.

  Just as he did, a bullet, fired from the top of the National Gallery of Art, lodged itself into the dome above their heads. The bullet’s supersonic trajectory, captured in beautiful 3D rendering in Lantern’s helmet, showed that it had blasted out at them straight on target, but as it had gotten within two feet from them, it curved in midair.

  “What the hell?” Lantern breathed. He studied the bullet’s trajectory. This really was a “magic bullet.” It should have continued on a direct path right through Scarlett’s skull, but instead had curved at the last second.

  “It’s my choker,” she said. “It’s not just fashion.” She unfurled from his embrace but kept one of his arms locked around her waist. “Stay close to me and you won’t get shot by mistake.”

  Revolution charged across the line of Council Guard, smashing them left and right. He was deep into the Mall now. The green grass had been churned to black dirt by marching feet, exploding shells, gunfire, and laser blasts. Trees were burning; the sky was grey with smoke.

  Suddenly, in the heat of the battle, every weapon simply...

  Froze.

  Revolution felt his armor grind to a halt.

  Minutemen and Council Guard alike checked their weapons, some pounding on them, hoping they would reboot back into action.

  In the sky above, the drones and Spores hovered.

  Reynolds, Ward, and Spectral all did the same, just floating in place.

  What the hell? It was like gravity had suddenly ceased to exist.

  And then he realized.

  They weren’t floating.

  His armor’s power hadn’t gone out.

  Everyone had simply been stopped at once. It made his blood run cold, because it could mean only one thing...

  Doctor Rage had arrived.

  It had been a long time since Revolution had had to think about the Doctor, but now his mind raced to retrieve the facts he knew. Kiernan Rage could direct whole armies with his mental command. If Lantern’s intel was correct, the main reason he’d been recruited for the Legion was to control the Aztech. So if that was true it meant that, at that very moment, along with every weapon, every gun, every aircraft, and every hero’s battle suit in the theatre of war today, he was also mentally directing the most advanced machine on the planet. The Aztech alone was far more difficult to control than any army.

  How the hell had the Doctor grown so powerful?

  At that moment, Ward, Reynolds, and Spectral dropped from the air, crashing into the ground around him. The Doctor was being distracted by the enormous mental command it took to keep control of the Aztech. And that meant something else.

  The Aztech is here, too.

  As if on cue, the buzz saw of one the robot’s terrible celestials hummed in the distance.

  No sooner had he heard the awful sound than—

  Revolution felt his armor power down—and then immediately re-boot. A voice shouted across his com as soon as it did.

  “Rev, duck!” It was Scarlett’s voice.

  She had powered down his suit, breaking her father’s control over it. Revolution’s onboard motion detector and 360-degree cameras caught sight of an incoming bogie, closing fast.

  An alarm blared in his ears.

  The spinning blades of a celestial screamed in straight for his head. Revolution flinched—and dove for cover.

  The celestial glanced off the near unbreakable titanium-osmium alloy—called TO-4—of his helmet, spitting sparks into the air.

  The blade, made of the same TO-4 mixture, Revolution reminded himself, ricocheted into the squad of Council Guard.

  They had control of their guns back from the Doctor and were dropping to one knee and preparing to fire away when the blade hit.

  It ripped into them, sli
cing off heads, arms, torsos, or anything else that got in the way like a weed-eater through grass, before it arced back into the battle-scarred sky.

  Their screams filled the air.

  Revolution winced at the horrific sight. Bodies twitched in death or pain. Grievously wounded Guardsmen ran, senseless from the pain, in search of help.

  A slow-growing metallic roar echoed across the Mall. Dropping out of the smoke and clouds...

  The silver visage of the Aztech swooped down.

  Its orange eyes glowing.

  Energized claws extended outwards from its monstrous robotic hands.

  All seven remaining celestials that rested across the machine’s massive shoulders and arms launched out at the Minutemen troops—easy targets as all Resistance weapons other than Revolution and Scarlett’s disabling powers were on hold.

  They sliced through with impunity.

  The slaughter had begun.

  Tracer fire again erupted, this time only from Council Guard guns, into the heart of the kill zone in the center of the Mall.

  Each of the robot’s monstrous claws fired a set of five luminescent beams. And like Spectral, the Aztech’s eyes doubled as optical weapons.

  The great machine let loose with it all. Each beam of dreadful orange energy that made contact with a Minuteman burned them away like a blowtorch through paper.

  Revolution felt the monster’s deadly eyes fall upon him. A blast of fiery hell launched out. Revolution braced for impact and dove for cover. The massive column of energy sideswiped him and blasted him through the air. He sliced through grass and dirt, rolling to a stop. “Scarlett, you’re up. It’s now or never! Shut the damn thing down! Spectral, protect her!”

  If the plan had any hope of working, it would need to happen fast.

  Instantly, the android teleported next to her.

  Spectral expanded his energy field around her and Lantern on the Capitol dome’s outer walkway.

  Scarlett aimed her outstretched arms at the robot, putting her full power and concentration into it. The Aztech immediately fluttered in midair, nearly falling from the sky, but regaining its control at the last second. The robot fired its bioluminescent energy at the two of them, and Spectral stepped quickly in front of Scarlett to take the full brunt of the Aztech’s blast as she and Lantern huddled behind him.

  The energy field blocked some of it, but Spectral’s energy shield had never been designed to handle bioluminescence. The substance hadn’t even been invented back then. Most of the Aztech’s beam ripped into Spectral, lifting him off the ground and slinging him into the dome—hard. A long crack snaked up its ornate side.

  “This isn’t working!” Reynolds yelled into the com, zipping by the monster machine, firing on the Aztech as if to draw its attention to him. It worked and the robot sent two quick blasts his way, but Reynolds dodged them expertly.

  Spectral was up again and teleported next Scarlett, helping her to her feet.

  he said to Scarlett.

  Scarlett did not hesitate, she returned to firing her disabling beam at the Aztech. Again the impact was immediate but limited. The robot faltered, resisting her powers.

  “We’re sitting ducks up here. We need to get below,” Lantern said.

  A millisecond later, a streak of orange zoomed by and the balcony exploded beneath their feet as the trio was blasted into the sky.

  Instantly, Spectral enveloped them in his energy shield, and the three of them crashed to the ground, cocooned by it.

  The impact still hurt. Still took Scarlett’s breath away and sent razor-sharp daggers up Lantern’s legs and back. Old wounds stopping by to say hello.

  Scarlett gasped for breath. As the Aztech located her on the ground.

  Took aim.

  And fired again.

  Spectral blasted the pavement just beyond Scarlett’s feet with his optical lasers, ripping the concrete, knocking Scarlett off her feet—

  And out of the way of the Aztech’s luminescent blast.

  She crunched to the concrete on her side, moaning in pain.

  Reynolds came zooming in above them, headed right for the great robot. He opened fire, drawing its attention away from them once more.

  Scarlett rose to her feet. Her elbows and knees scraped and bloody. She aimed her arms at the Aztech and concentrated—despite the hailstorm of bullets and bombs exploding all around as the Guard and Minutemen continued their battle.

  Lantern limped toward her, stiff and bleeding. He needed the cover of her choker. He patted his pockets, his belt, his vest and realized he’d lost his pistol in the explosion.

  “I’m without weapons,” he told her. He could barely stand.

  Spectral marched to her side as well, stood in front of her, and raised his force field around the three of them. Keeping Scarlett blocked from direct aim of the Aztech and the cacophony of projectiles zinging everywhere.

  It was then that Scarlett noticed a chill run down her spine. At first she couldn’t place it.

  Spectral turned, his eyes glowing white.

  “What is it?” Scarlett asked, trying to keep her concentration absolute, ignore the cold dread she felt. But the android did not respond.

  In the next instant, Spectral burst forward, his hand extended for Scarlett’s heart, and fired a beam of optical heat into Lantern’s chest, ripping him off his feet, planting him in the bushes twenty feet away.

  At the same time, Scarlett swiveled on her heels and aimed her disabling beam at the android. Spectral froze a millimeter from the curve of her breast, his hand already phased to light. Ready to plunge inside her heart, solidify, and rip it out, killing her instantly.

  Her father had control of the android.

  “Fight him, Spectral!” she screamed, and the whiteness of his eyes wavered. Blackness tried to return.

  Just then she felt the cold shock of her father’s power trying to counter her own abilities.

  Her concentration waivered. Just enough.

  Spectral’s eyes glowed full white again, and his hand plunged into her heart.

  She screamed.

  And Spectral’s eyes turned dark again. The android withdrew its hand, but instantly the Doctor had him again. Scarlett stumbled backwards, her vision swimming. Even in light form, the insertion of Spectral’s hand into her heart had caused her discomfort.

  The android rose into the air, his arms above him in a menacing pose, ready to leap down upon her—

  Just as Reynolds slammed into him and drove him fifty feet backwards. The android slid across the pavement. And Reynolds was on him instantly, swinging a cracking-hard right across the machine’s jaw. Bullets stitched the ground all around them, but the two combatants ignored them. Spectral parried with an optic blast that lifted Reynolds into the air, slamming him down on his backside.

  But he was having none of that. Reynolds fired his thrusters in the bootjets and launched at Spectral. Reynolds lowered his head, set his shoulders, and prepared for ramming. But the jets shifted and he rose, zinging just above Spectral, missing him by inches, and he began to circle back toward the android.

  “What the hell?” Reynolds exclaimed.

  The Doctor.

  In control of his armor. He landed right next to Spectral. Both he and the android began to sprint toward Scarlett, whose eyes flew open wide as she realized what was happening.

  “Scarlett, run! Your father’s in control!” Reynolds yelled to her over the com.

  It was enough to try to disable Spectral. But now Reynolds was added to the mix. Her father was trying to kill her. She roared a guttural cry against the fear and locked eyes with Spectral. Then with Reynolds.

  She sent the disabling beam.

  The two just kept coming...

  Lantern awoke to darkness in the bushes. His HUD was out. Light was seeping in under the helmet, but he was blind to the world outside. His chest burned. The brown l
eather jacket was charred open, and the skin beneath was blistered and red. Lantern took in a sharp, painful breath.

  “Sir, my HUD is down. We’re flying blind.”

  “Get it fixed, Lantern. I’ll take up as much slack as I can until you do,” Revolution told him.

  Lantern lifted the helmet just a bit so that he could peer out beneath the black visor. The body of a very dead Council Guardsmen was less than a foot away. A head shot had taken the young man down where he stood. Within arm’s reach was the man’s sidearm, still holstered. An automatic rifle was lying a few feet away. Lantern couldn’t reach it, but the pistol, a Luger by the looks of it, that he could reach.

  He snatched it up, and in a low crouch, he skittered toward the stairs of the Capitol, bounding up them as gunfire stitched the concrete around him. In seconds he had made it back into the building. He scanned the hallways, but the place was deserted. Finding a window to serve as lookout against anyone approaching from outside, he slipped off the helmet, unlatched his utility belt, snatched out his tools, and went to work on repairing his HUD.

  A noise caught his attention. Out through the window he could see Spectral and Reynolds stalking Scarlett. The Doctor had taken them both.

  She was far outgunned.

  There was nothing he could do but watch as the two closed in for the kill.

  CHAPTER 54

  Paul Ward swooped down from out of nowhere, firing his disabling darts rapid-fire into Spectral and Reynolds.

  The duo took three more running steps...

  And crumpled to the ground.

  The darts combined with Scarlett’s efforts were too much for the Doctor to counter.

  At the same moment, Ward swept Scarlett up in his arms and flew her up behind the Capitol Building. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  Ward ignored her as he spoke into the com. “Rev, we need a new plan. This isn’t working.” Ward mentally clicked off his com and leaned into Scarlett’s ear. “We’ve got to figure out how to take down that machine without Papa Bear turning us all into psychopathic killers and you our damsel in distress.”