by Mark Wandrey
The Rasa squads quickly salvaged the still-functioning beamcasters from the first wave, a fact not lost on Minu. Before she could share that information, new particle accelerator beams began splashing around the courtyard. Several soldiers combined their fire, and, in an instant, two Chosen died when their small capacity personal shield overloaded and exploded. Several Rasa soldiers died as they organized and began working with the turtle-bots. Now their fire teams had shields, and those shields were considerably more robust than the personal shields the Chosen used. Minu recognized the changed tactical situation as soon as Dram did.
“Take the turrets and fall back inside,” he yelled. “Give them cover fire!”
Minu helped Aaron remove the beamcaster turret from its mount, pain distorting his face as he strained to lift the massive weapon. With a snap the power cable disengaged, and their shield went down with it. Minu dropped to one knee and leveled the handgun at the nearest Rasa. The gun boomed, and the alien fell back. The soldiers now coming through the portal were no longer the heavily-armed shock troops that had first appeared; these only wore light armor and helmets suitable for stopping small ballistics and lasers. She shot three of them in quick succession as Aaron stumbled under the turret’s weight toward the nearest exit.
A line of hypervelocity darts tore through the air just over her head and made her duck. She checked over her shoulder to make sure Aaron was under cover. Minu took a deep breath and ran as fast as she could, tracer fire chasing her all the way to the door. Reaching relative safety, she used the door frame as cover so she could reload and fire at one of the few Rasa in heavy armor who was trying to sneak toward her position.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Alijah pull his gun free of its mount. The heavy weapon overbalanced him and he fell back onto his butt. “Cover him!” she yelled and fired as quickly as the monster handgun would allow. Alijah struggled to his feet and took a halting step backwards, then a burst from a flechette gun cut him nearly in half.
“No!” Minu screamed and tried to run to him even as his body fell, spurting a fountain of blood. Someone grabbed her from behind. The arms that encircled her were strong but gentle as they restrained her from rushing to her death.
“He’s already gone,” Aaron said. Minu saw the shocked expression on Alijah’s face as his body settled to the ground, the gun falling back and pinning him in a widening puddle of his own blood. Centipede-bots swarmed his body, and Minu savagely emptied her gun into them.
“Clear the doors,” she heard Jacob yell. Aaron forcefully pulled her clear, and the doors shimmered as they activated the force field. A line of flechette darts popped across the field in a spray of light. The shields were more than enough to protect them from the deadly projectiles.
“We need to get back to the next level of defense,” Aaron yelled, letting her go.
“He didn’t have a chance,” she said. Outside, on the other side of the force field, she could see a Rasa dispassionately kick Alijah’s body, making sure he was dead. Considering the beam had nearly cut him in two and the centipedes had ravaged the corpse, it seemed a needless act. Soldiers began to flood through the portal three abreast, filling the portal courtyard.
“He was doing his duty; now we need to do ours.”
Minu looked down at her gun, surprised to find it empty, and mechanically reloaded. Her left wrist was throbbing from the repeated recoil of the massive weapon. Reloaded, she offered it back to Aaron.
“Keep it,” he told her, “we made fifty of them.” Even though he was carrying the massive beamcaster turret over his shoulder like a fallen log, he still had the strength to steady her as they walked back toward the jump-off room. There, dozens of Chosen worked furiously assembling dualloy plates and sacks of sand to create defensive firing points. Quite a few carried Aaron and Gregg’s new hand cannons. She’d spent months developing hundreds of high-tech weapons that sat partially assembled up in her lab, but the two scouts had cobbled together a very effective weapon in their spare time. She felt like a fool.
“Is she okay?” Minu heard Jacob ask. She hadn’t seen him come over.
“Alijah, one of her team members, died out there.”
Jacob nodded gravely and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he told her. She nodded. “We’re in it deep, can I still count on you?”
Minu thought for a moment. What were her options? Go down to the command bunker and hide? Curl up in a ball and wait for a centipede-bot to chew her head off? Or kill as many of the Rasa as she could? The last option sounded pretty good. She walked over to a table piled high with the new guns and took a second one. Then she crammed as many of the five round magazines into her belt as she could fit. “I’m good to go,” she said in a rock-solid voice.
Jacob nodded and grinned viciously at her. “Glad to hear it. Take your team up to the third-floor mezzanine and establish a firing position.”
“We want to help here.”
“I understand that, but you need to follow orders.” Dram walked over and nodded toward Jacob.
“We spotted a team of Rasa soldiers out there preparing hoverfield belts. We think they’re going to try and attack the higher floors. Only this floor and the third-floor mezzanine have large windows. The smaller windows have force fields in place. Between the fields and the ceramic concrete they can pound at them all day and get nowhere. The shutters are in place over the courtyard roof, so their only choices for getting us are straight through one of these three doors or the mezzanine.”
“Yes sir,” she said, nodding first to Jacob, then to Dram. She thought that maybe she’d underestimated Jacob. He looked as cool as ice and his plan of defense had worked well thus far. “Where’s Pip?” she asked suddenly, spinning around looking for him. Last time she’d seen him was when he’d screamed at Aaron.
“He left during the first bot assault,” Gregg said. Now unlimbered from his turret, he wore a handgun on each hip and had a beamcaster slung over his shoulder. Aaron wore the same equipment, while Terry hefted one of the new guns with obvious trepidation.
“Gregg, show Terry how to use that so he doesn’t blow his foot off. Do you know where Pip went?” she asked Aaron.
“He yelled something about counter-attack and ran inside.”
“I didn’t think he’d run from a fight. He might be little, but he doesn’t lack courage.”
Down the short hallway toward the courtyard the force field flashed bright red. The Rasa had Alijah’s beamcaster turret and had turned it on the complex. “Cut the power to those turret points,” Dram ordered. The Rasa got off two more shots before the gun went silent. They weren’t nearly enough to breach the powerful main force field.
“Let’s get upstairs before we get any more unwanted visitors,” she said. A squad of heavy crab-bots waited by the door of the jump-off room, their flat backs laden with piles of dualloy plates to add to the defenses. As she approached, they turned and started following her. Jacob was again thinking ahead. Making sure the crab-bots were behind her, she ran toward the lift.
* * * * *
Chapter 5
Julast 13th, 518 AE
3rd Floor Mezzanine, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
When Minu reached the third-floor mezzanine, she carefully crawled around the corner from the lift. The building’s five spoke-like hallways went off in different directions from the central courtyard. The normally-open area had benches for people to sit and enjoy the sunlight streaming in through the courtyard roof and the smell of flowers and fresh grass. It was dark now as they’d closed the shutters to try and contain the Rasa. She swept the space with her binoculars.
At first glance it appeared clear, then she saw movement. Halfway around the courtyard near the hub heading to the command branch a group of Rasa hovered on the other side of the moliplas, setting up some sort of scaffold.
“What is it?” Aaron asked, peeking around the corner.
He pressed against her, making her shiver, then sh
e clamped down on the emotion like a safe door slamming. Not now, damn it! “Whatever they’re setting up has to be something that can penetrate our force field.”
“Can you do that to a force field?”
Minu shrugged. You could walk through a shield. All they did was absorb energy. A force field was an entirely different monster; they consumed vast amounts of energy and employed the nuclear strong force to create a nearly impenetrable barrier. Problem was, they were hard to shoot out of, kind of like shooting down stairs. Shields were transparent to fire from the inside and basic levels of physical force. The turrets had shields and fields. The fields were weak, only intended to stop someone from rushing the turret and engaging the operator hand-to-hand. They used the complex’s massive energy stores deep underground to power hundreds of fields. Outside, the Rasa continued to assemble their device.
“All right,” Minu said, “we need to do more than stop them; we need to take out that device, too.”
“How do we do that?” Terry asked. He cradled his new handgun against his chest like a child would hold a stuffed toy, his face looking desperate and sweaty with fear. “The fields work both ways, you know.”
We need soldiers, Minu thought. “Here’s what we do.”
* * *
Julast 13th, 518 AE
Science Branch, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
The Rasa device activated with a flash, and tiny lightning bolts of energy began arcing back and forth. Immediately the slightly translucent effect of the force field began to fade. “They’re coming through,” she told her people. The dozen Rasa who’d assembled the device backed away slightly and began preparing weapons. They carried short-barreled flechette guns designed for close-quarters fighting. With a flicker the field around the scaffolding failed, creating a hexagon shaped opening about a meter across. The Rasa flooded through it. Minu held her hand up until the last one was through, then dropped it in a slicing motion. The four of them moved around the corner and opened fire.
To Minu’s surprise, all four had direct hits. The gun bucked in her right hand, making her cybernetic muscles whine in protest. On either side, Aaron and Gregg held a gun in each hand. They fired, and their weapons roared. With the guns blasting centimeters from her ears, she was glad to have the ear protection the boys had provided.
The four Rasa went down. Even Terry, firing the monstrous handgun for the first time, scored a perfect hit. His target was the first one through the hole, and the impact shattered the enemy soldier’s chest armor and flung him back against the two behind him. Minu switched to a two-hand grip and shot two; Gregg nailed the other one. An instant later a dozen more Rasa flooded through the hole.
The huge guns roared, firing as fast as the Chosen could pull the triggers. Wounded and dying Rasa rolled onto the floor or back through the hole. Minu stuffed the first gun into her belt and drew the second one. Terry and Gregg ran out of ammunition, too, and in the couple of seconds of reduced fire, several Rasa made it through the hole and dove for cover.
“Minu to Dram, they’ve gained a beachhead,” she said urgently over the tiny radio that was part of their field kits.
“Acknowledged. Fall back and inflict as much damage as possible.” Jacob responded, not Dram, and Minu worried that the big scout leader was down. While she fired her gun one handed, she used a tablet to access the facility’s defensive controls. Kilometers below in the control bunker, a team of Chosen was monitoring the battle and doing everything it could to slow the Rasa and keep them contained. Minu confirmed they’d sealed the corridors to either side, then noticed the one right in front of them was about to be cut off. She pushed a few buttons and overrode the command.
“Chosen Alma,” came an unfamiliar voice, “this is the base defense coordinator, why are you disabling our defensive field?”
“Because if we cut them off from my section, they’ll go back out and pick another direction. My team is the only one here. If they’re coming at me, they’re not loose in the base.”
“Acknowledged,” came the reply. “Jacob wants you to make them pay for every meter. Hold as long as you can.” As the Rasa continued penetrating through the breach, they tested both hallways and found there was only one way to go.
Minu told the coordinator she understood and turned to her team. “Let them come a little,” she said. The first two rushed into the open toward them. She held her breath as they passed the halfway point between the hub and their position. “Now,” she said and raised both guns to double fire. The recoil from the one in her left hand traveled down her spine causing her to bite her tongue, but both rounds scored. The right-handed shot took off the top of a soldier’s head, and the left tore a fist-sized chunk of flesh and bone from the other’s leg. It fell to the floor, hissing and spitting as it slid almost to their feet. When it tried to fire at them, Aaron shot it point blank in the head. Brains, bone and blood splattered the hallway. He grabbed the soldier’s weapon and dragged it behind cover.
“Bots, get to work!” Minu barked.
For the next few minutes the Rasa made three skirmish runs at them, testing their rate of fire and accuracy as the crab-bots quickly welded dualloy plates to the floors to construct a hardened defensive point. Minu almost wept at the wanton waste of life. The soldiers continued to come and never withdrew under fire. It reminded her of army ants. The Rasa disabled two of their three bots, but they’d already finished their job by then. Finally there was a pause, and she evaluated their condition.
The team had split in two, half on each side of the hall. Aaron and Gregg, both in heavy scout armor, were in good shape. Aaron seemed to be tolerating his earlier injury well, and Minu suspected he’d popped another buzz. A flechette dart had pierced the meat of Terry’s left hand, and a particle beam had burned some of his hair when he wasn’t quick enough to drop behind their new cover, but the wounds seemed to toughen his resolve; any signs of fear or nervousness were gone. Minu hoped she looked as assured as he appeared.
Ammo was a bigger issue. The belt held twenty magazines, and she’d grabbed half. Half of them were empty. Aaron and Gregg had started out carrying so much ammo, she’d wondered how they could walk. Of course, they were much more effective with the guns and burned through the ammo at a stupendous rate. They each still had fifteen magazines, even after giving five more to Terry. Terry’s rate of fire was the slowest as he was unsure of his weapon and his marksmanship. Gregg assured him he was doing fine, and Terry smiled in appreciation. Neither of the scouts had used their beamcasters; they were saving them for more desperate conditions. Each weapon only held one power pack.
“What about that?” Minu asked Gregg, indicating the Rasa flechette gun he’d grabbed.
“Nice little piece of engineering,” he said and showed it to her. The magnetic accelerator gun used a block of super dense moliplas impregnated with iron slivers for ammo. Little teeth sheared off needles of the plastic material, then loaded them into the accelerator.
“Damn,” she said in appreciation, “they’re plastic machine guns.” She thought it ironic that Alijah had died from a gun that shot plastic darts.
Across the hall, Aaron’s gun roared, quickly followed by Terry’s. The Rasa were making another attempt. At the same time a couple of dull explosions sounded. Minu looked at her tablet and saw that they’d disabled the field generators between her and the courtyard. “We’re committed now,” she told them, “no way to cut them off.”
“Fine with me,” Gregg said and reloaded both his guns. He sat his beamcaster on the floor within reach and got ready. The small firing slits in the metal defenses the bots had built were now torn gouges thanks to the repeated Rasa attacks. Minu slid the alien gun out of the way, then she looked around to see if anything in the room might prove useful. The surviving crab-bot stood nearby, patiently waiting for orders, still holding a few dualloy plates. There wasn’t enough time to do anything with them. They were in a storage room used by the labs. The latest attack ended quickly, and she lo
oked around again. She saw a long line of cylinders along one wall, and she smiled and ran to them.
Minu rejoined Gregg just as the shooting stopped. She set two cylinders down and peeked past Gregg. “What are they up to?”
“Can’t be good,” he said, reloading. As they watched, a hoverfield platform rose into view from the courtyard below.
“Heads up Minu,” Jacob’s voice said in her ear, “they’re boosting something up to your level.” She could hear weapons fire in the background and knew the assault was not limited to her area.
“Got it,” she said. “Here they come!”
Everyone tensed as the platform came level, and they saw what it held. A pair of turtle-bots rolled through the small field breach, and they unfolded shield generators that came on one at a time. Minu didn’t need to say anything. Aaron and Gregg grabbed their beamcasters and started firing. Crraack, crraack, crraack, went the weapons, as they concentrated fire on the first bot. Its shields changed color as they absorbed energy. Halfway between the courtyard and their cover, the first one exploded with enough concussive force to break plates off the defensive emplacement and knock Minu off her feet. The explosion cracked and pulverized the ceramic concrete next to the bot, filling the hall with dust and flying pieces of debris.
“Shield!” Minu yelled over the echoing blast. Gregg and Aaron each carried one of the Chosen’s precious personal shields. The air around them shimmered as they activated the devices. Terry and Aaron crouched behind one while Minu and Gregg shared the other. The second turtle-bot shuffled into view through the dust and scuttled across the remains of the first bot. The boys opened fire, and this one shot back. Tiny flechette darts cut colorful lines across Gregg’s shield, making Minu jump.