In less than a minute, they met Blake and Thaddeus. Blake immediately knelt, as they were still thirty meters away, and aimed his pistol with a two-handed grip. “Crap!” Asterope said. “Stop!” All three girls braked hard.
“Hands in the air!” Blake yelled. They did as he commanded.
“It’s us! Don’t shoot!” Asterope shouted.
“Oh…” Blake lowered his weapon. Thaddeus, who had been about to throw an e-bomb, lowered his arm. The girls then rode slowly to Blake and Thaddeus, who were positioned in the middle of an otherwise empty road.
“Why the hell are you leaving the fight?” Blake demanded. Taygete explained the plan.
Both Blake and Thaddeus looked stunned. “No! Get back there and fight!” Blake said, angrily. “We’re way outnumbered and outgunned. Delta squad’s all dead, except for one guy.” It was the girls’ turn to look stunned. Asterope pulled off her ski mask, as a sign of respect. The others followed suit.
“Victor are in a firefight too,” Thaddeus said.
“Then let’s bring the power of the real army down on the enemy!” Kassandra said.
“What are you planning to attack APCs with? Knives and e-bombs?”
Asterope sighed. “We haven’t quite figured that out yet.”
“If we could just get some of those rockets…” Taygete said.
“Oh yeah, good luck with that,” Thaddeus said.
“Well let’s hear you come up with a better idea!”
“Go and fight, like men. And women.” Thaddeus said. His jaw was set.
“And let them overrun us and then attack the silo?” Kassandra said. “Let’s face it, we’re dead if we don’t so something.”
Blake sighed. “You’re probably right. I’m not gonna ask JC about it. I know what he’d say.”
“Neither were we,” Asterope said.
Blake smiled. “Alright, let’s think about this. If we can ambush another Sixer squad that has rocket launchers…”
“I bet there are more headed out right now,” Thaddeus interjected.
“Yeah. Well, we don’t want to get wiped out in the process. Hide at an intersection, and then ride up behind them,” Taygete said. “We look just like them with our active camo. Then shoot their tires out or e-bomb them.”
Blake’s eyes narrowed in thought, as he looked at her. “That’ll work,” he said. Taygete grinned widely. “What are we gonna do for bikes, though?” Blake said, looking at Thaddeus.
“Ride pillion,” Kassandra said.
“It’s all we’ve got,” Blake said. “I’ll ride with you,” he nodded at Kassandra. She smiled.
“And I with you,” Blake said to Taygete. “Now, let’s go to the next circular route, and then head towards Silo 6. We’ll then come back across to CR 19 and wait for them.”
“Right,” Asterope said.
“Let’s go.” The riders all mounted up. Blake and Thaddeus got on behind Kassandra and Taygete, respectively. They held on for dear life as they accelerated south, towards Silo 6. They were soon back at the bus. The riders hung a left, and sped east towards the city center. Two hundred meters later, they turned right onto Circular Route 18. They sped up again. The rushing air rippled their uniforms. They narrowed their eyes against the rushing wind. “I forgot to say we should lead,” Blake yelled in Kassandra’s ear, to be heard above the wind. She nodded. “I can’t get my map out either,” he continued. “I figure if we turn after three intersections, that’ll put us near enough to them.” Kassandra nodded again. The lights that studded the roof in an unbroken row flashed past. The road curved very gently to the left, following its ring pattern around the city center. This also meant they could only see 300 meters ahead.
As they zoomed across the next major intersection, they could see the tail lights of two black armored personnel carriers several hundred meters down the intersecting road.
Blake looked ahead again. “Oh crap!” he said. “More motorcycles! Headed straight for us!” Kassandra, Taygete and Asterope braked. “They’ve seen us!” Taygete said. Asterope, on their left, and Taygete, on their right, looked to Blake. The oncoming posse was moving very fast. “Fight!” Blake said. “Lay your bikes down in the road as obstacles!” All five stopped, dismounted, and laid the heavy machines on their sides. The road was much wider than their blockade. The oncoming machines were now less than 100 meters away. Blake crouched, with his right knee on the asphalt, drew his gun, and aimed. The girls pulled e-bombs out of their belts and rolled as many as they could across the ground. Thaddeus also drew his gun and aimed. Blake’s eyes narrowed as he pulled the trigger. One rider, near the center of the pack, slumped over. His bike fell. The machine slid, generating sparks as it grazed the road. The corpse was flung to the ground. Thaddeus fired, taking down another one of the charging pack. Blake pulled the trigger a second time. A third Sixer went flying.
Bullets started to fly back towards the five fighters, grazing the ground. Two of their bikes exploded in a sizzle of electricity, as their power packs were hit by bullets. Kassandra and Asterope were thrown backwards by the force. Blake and Thaddeus kept firing. The pack was now twenty-five meters away. They encountered the first of the rolling e-bombs, which exploded in a shower of sparks and lightning. Several bikes began to wobble. Three fell over, flying across the asphalt like high speed bowling balls aiming straight for the girls. They managed to scramble backwards, in opposite directions, as the machines hit their own crippled bikes, sending them airborne. The Sixers who had been flung to the ground rolled in a mass of flailing limbs, and then were still. Kassandra clenched her teeth, drew a knife from her belt, and aimed at one of the four remaining hostile riders. Shots rang out. Asterope cried out in pain, as she was partially spun around and flung backwards by the force of a bullet. Blake’s gun discharged, and one more Sixer went down. E-bombs were launched at Blake and Thaddeus. One found its mark. Blake was enveloped in lightning, and dropped to the ground. Kassandra flung her knife at the leftmost rider in the pack. It found his neck and dug in up to the handle. Blood spurted in great flying globules as he lost control and went sprawling across the ground. Kassandra watched, her mouth open in horror. The bike’s front tire hit the ground and it bounced, doing a pirouette in the air, before landing on its rider. The last remaining Sixer skidded into a U turn, drew his gun, and fired at Taygete with his right hand while steering with his left. The Sixer charged at her. Taygete dove to the right, out of his way. Thaddeus was also close to his path and line of fire. He dove to the left. The enemy rider uttered a guttural “Yarrrgh!” as a battle cry. He holstered the gun and drew out an e-bomb in one movement. This was tossed gently at Taygete, as she lay on her back, winded from her dive. She did a backflip with every ounce of strength she had left as the silver orb approached. It missed her left leg by less than a meter, just shy of its trigger range. Thaddeus drew out an e-bomb and flung it as hard as a baseball pitch. It intercepted the Sixer just as he was skidding into a U turn to make a second approach. It exploded in a flash of lightning, stunning him. He lost control and his head hit the ground, as he and his machine slid to a stop.
Suddenly, all was quiet. Kassandra stared at Taygete, open-mouthed. Taygete turned and looked at Thaddeus, four meters to her right. He just blinked. “Asterope!” he said suddenly. She was bleeding profusely from a bullet wound to her shoulder. The girls quickly got up and began to run over. At the same time, Thaddeus put his right hand into a pouch in his belt, and whipped out what looked like a large Band-Aid. He ripped open Asterope’s blood-soaked shirt to the shoulder, and slapped the dressing onto the wound. It conformed to the contours of her skin and stuck fast. Thaddeus then lifted her torso up as gently as he could. “Is there an exit wound?” he said urgently.
“Yes!” Taygete said, wide-eyed with panic.
“Reach in and stick another one on!” Taygete reached into the same pocket on his belt, drew out another patch, and applied it. The bleeding stopped immediately.
“Ugh,” Asterope said.
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“How are you feeling?” a terrified-looking Thaddeus said.
“Like I want to kick their asses!”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re in no condition to fight,” Asterope said.
“Fine. Someone else can drive, and I’ll ride.”
“Blake got hit with an e-bomb,” Kassandra said to Asterope, as she crouched by her side. “Is that… fatal?”
“Depends,” Thaddeus said, gravely. “If the electricity arcs across their body and hits the heart muscle, yes. If it arcs across their head, their brain is toast. Otherwise, he’ll wake up, but with a few burns to show for it.”
“Check his pulse.”
Taygete sprang over to the prone Blake. She pressed her fingertips to his neck, and put her cheek to his nose. “He’s alive!”
“Phew!”
Kassandra stood up and looked at the bodies and crashed motorcycles strewn about. “This is absolute goddamn carnage. And I killed another person.” She looked down at Blake. Taygete was still by his side. “I guess our mission’s over, since we’ve got two injured people, one of whom is still out cold.”
Thaddeus, who was still crouching by Asterope shook his head firmly. “No. It’s too important. We have to finish it.”
“I second that, as one of the injured people,” Asterope said. She tried to prop herself up on her elbows, winced with pain, and settled back down again.
“But…” Kassandra said. “How are we going to get him home?”
“And for that matter, do they have any of those stupid rocket launchers, after all this?” Taygete said.
“I’ll go check. Anyone know what they look like?”
“No,” Thaddeus said. Kassandra started with the nearest Sixer, who was prone on the ground four meters away. Blood pooled on the ground as it oozed from his ski mask. She pulled his body up slightly to look behind his back. Seeing nothing, she headed to the next one. She didn’t even have to move the body. Next to it, about a meter away, was a gray cylinder about as long as a golf bag and half as thick. It had a strap from one end to the other to allow it to be carried across the shoulder. Kassandra picked it up. On the side, next to the insignia ‘Mk III’, was a small touchscreen. On it were two buttons, which said ARM and SIGHT.
Kassandra turned to Thaddeus. “I think this is a launcher!” she said, holding the object up.
Thaddeus looked at it carefully. “Yeah, I think so. Get as many as you can, while I try to figure out what to do about Blake. It’s not like we can carry him on a bike, since he can’t hold on.”
“We don’t have much time,” Taygete said. “This place’ll be crawling with Sixers soon.”
“Yeah.”
Taygete sat down, cross legged, to Blake’s right. They were near the center of the road. With her right hand still on Blake’s neck to feel for his pulse, she rested her chin on her left hand and stared off along Circular Route 19, back the way they had come. The road curved to the right. She sighed, as Thaddeus tended to Asterope and Kassandra made a pile of weapons.
“How long until some of these guys start waking up?” Kassandra asked.
“Minimum half an hour,” Thaddeus said. “But, it’s already been at least ten minutes.”
“Do you think we could steal a car or a truck?” Taygete said.
“Maybe, if we knew where to look,” Blake said. “There are none parked anywhere about.”
“Or we could put him in a GDN capsule!” Kassandra said. Thaddeus looked at her, and narrowed his eyes. “I was just joking!” Kassandra said.
“I think that might be the answer,” Thaddeus said. “I’ve never heard of humans traveling through the GDN, but the capsules are big enough…”
“He might suffocate,” Taygete said. “I expect they’re airtight.”
Thaddeus sighed. “Possibly. He might break his neck, too, with the acceleration as the capsules are shot through the tubes. But, it might be our only hope.”
“Yeah. Where’s the nearest GDN access point?”
Thaddeus took out his display unit and opened a map of the city. “Overlay GDN,” he said. The yellow road network of the area around them was overlaid with red dots. “There’s one about two hundred meters further down this road. That’s closer to Silo 6, unfortunately, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I’ve still got my lock pick on me,” Taygete said.
“Right. Get a bike, ride up there, and break in. Then we’ll take Blake and all our stuff and regroup in there.”
GDN terminal 441N looked just like the one Kassandra had seen only hours previously. The full capsules were on the right, and the empty ones were on the left. All were yellow. A gantry crane picked up full ones from the twin rails on which they sat after leaving the chute. It stood them on their end. An octopus-like fluid robot would then come over and unscrew the top, while moving it to a work area at the rear, where it would be unpacked. Kassandra, Thaddeus, Taygete, and Asterope looked on. Thaddeus walked over to a large touchscreen terminal at the left side of the facility. His brow furrowed, as he concentrated on it. “I think it’s pretty simple to operate,” he said. “Once a capsule is on its side on the rails, you just enter the destination terminal.”
“Good,” Taygete said. “But, what about once he gets there? We don’t want one of those things”—she pointed at a silver worker robot—”yanking him out of there. Humans will have to intercept him.”
“Then we’ll have to call ahead and tell them to be ready,” Thaddeus said.
“I’m not sure how they’ll react when we tell them we’re sending a wounded soldier home through the mail.”
“I’m not sure how they’ll react to all the other crap we’ve gotten up to either.”
“Good point. We’ll have to call after we’ve already sent him on his way. Better to seek forgiveness than permission in this instance. Kassandra, crack the door open and keep a lookout. Not that I’m really expecting them to come in here, but you never know.”
Kassandra, Thaddeus, Asterope and Taygete looked down at Blake’s limp body, stuffed into the one meter-wide yellow cylinder. It was still standing on its end. He was in a fetal position. Blake’s head lolled to the right. His eyes were closed.
“I just hope it doesn’t decelerate too hard,” Taygete said. “It’ll push him up to the top.” The others nodded.
“There’s a lot that could go wrong here,” Asterope said. “It could get misrouted or lost, the system could shut down while he’s in transit. You name it.” She shrugged. “But, it’s all we’ve got.”
“Yup. Okay. Screw the lid on and lay it down on the rails. Let’s check here… N33304 is our nearest terminal.”
“The one where this whole crapfest started,” Kassandra said gloomily. Thaddeus helped Kassandra and Taygete screw the lid on over Blake’s unmoving form. They then tipped the capsule onto its side. Thaddeus pressed a long sequence of buttons on the display, and a lift chain began to move between the rails. The cylinder moved horizontally for a few meters, before the rails took it up at forty-five degrees until it was out of sight.
Taygete closed her eyes. “Oh God, I hope we didn’t just kill him.”
Thaddeus nodded soberly. “It’s probably the lesser of two evils though. If we’d left him here until the battle is over, there’s a good chance he’d be dead anyway. Well, I guess I’d better call somebody to get him off the belt at the other end.” He walked a few meters away and, facing away from the others and put in a call to a perplexed JC to have a crew ready to intercept Blake at the GDN terminal.
“What in God’s name is going on?” JC asked. Thaddeus related their plan to draw the NPRF’s fire onto the Sixers. JC was silent for a few seconds. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard!” he said. “I’ve been looking all over here for Nishimura. She started this whole thing. I can’t find her anywhere.” Thaddeus spun around and looked at Kassandra. She had evidently overheard the exchange. She and Thaddeus locked eyes for a few seconds. “No idea where she is, sir.”
<
br /> “Well, go ahead with your plan,” JC said. “It can’t be any worse than how things are going now. We’re losing ground, and Defenders, fast.”
----
Thaddeus looked at the girls, in the dim confines of the GDN station. “Well, let’s get this thing done. We ride until we find an NPRF patrol, and then fire rockets at it. But, make sure you hit it from the right direction, to make it look like it’s the Sixers. And when you flee, head towards Silo 6, to draw them in that direction, until you shake any pursuers. I think we should stick together, but we all know what to do and where to go if we get separated.”
“Right,” Asterope said. “I won’t be of any use, of course; I’ll have to use my only good arm to hang on with. I’m riding with you, Sis,” Asterope said to Taygete. “If you go, I want to go too.” The sisters hugged.
“You know,” Taygete said, “there’s a chance we’ll never see each other again, if some of us die or are taken captive.” Kassandra looked down sadly.
“I’d better give you this.” Thaddeus handed his display unit to Kassandra. “You need this more than I do, in case you get lost.”
“Thanks,” she said, pocketing the device. Thaddeus made the X sign with his forearms. Kassandra and the others did likewise. He walked over to the weapons pile and grabbed two pistols and a rocket launcher. Without another word, he mounted a bike and headed silently to the metal door. When the others were ready, all three motorcycles headed out of the door and turned right. Thaddeus led, followed by the sisters, and then Kassandra. They soon passed the sea of splayed bodies and crashed bikes that was their previous encounter with the Sixers. They had to pick their way through the obstacles. One Sixer at the right hand side of the road was beginning to stir, as the effects of an e-bomb wore off. Wasting no time, they headed north, to the intersection with Cours Lafayette, and turned left. This took them east. Thaddeus opened the throttle on the wide, well-lit road. Since it was completely straight, there were no blocks to visibility for kilometers in both directions. The overhead lights flashed past, as they topped 150 kilometers per hour. A minute later, Thaddeus braked suddenly. The others nearly ran into the back of him. A pack of Sixer bikes was crossing from left to right, some distance ahead. They slowed to a stop. The patrol had not seen them. Once they had crossed, the four fighters resumed their high-speed cruise.
The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series Page 16