Extensis Vitae: Empire of Dust

by Gregory Mattix

  “CorpSec is onto us. We have to call off the meet.” Mason looked back down at the other feed and saw Marcus clambering through a hole in the Apex Robotics fence. “Shit,” he cursed. “They’re gonna catch Marcus, and then this whole thing is blown.”

  “Comms are being jammed,” Junior noted with alarm.

  “They are readying an assault—Keeva, you need to evacuate the team right now! Get everyone out of here!” Mason shouldered a grenade launcher and raced for the ladder to the roof. “Junior, patch the camera feeds through to my HUD.”

  “What are you going to do?” Keeva called behind him.

  “The only thing I can,” he bellowed. “I need to prevent them from capturing or killing my son.”

  ***

  Marcus tramped his way through the knee-high weeds choking the parking lot, eyes fixated on the loading dock seventy yards away. He heard what sounded like a door banging shut just before Taciturn extended a massive arm across Marcus’s chest, halting his progress.

  “Roof,” Taciturn grunted, pointing with his SMG.

  “Father?” Marcus watched as Mason appeared at the edge of the roof facing the abandoned building across the street. His father braced himself before raising a large weapon and aiming at the other building.

  Whump. Whump. Whump. The gun’s canister rotated and spat out round after round. Seconds later, the grenades struck the building across the street, and explosions rocked the structure. Fire bloomed on the rooftop and then in quick succession across the front of the building. Figures inside the building raced to escape as Mason pumped grenade after grenade into the building.

  Shit, that must be the CorpSec operation! Marcus realized. The CorpSec team inside the building returned fire, forcing Mason to duck as energy bolts crackled around him.

  Beefy and Taciturn shielded Marcus. Beefy picked Marcus up under one arm like a sack of potatoes and began unceremoniously hauling him away toward the fence. Taciturn backed toward them, ready to return fire if any rounds came in their direction.

  Marcus struggled against the big man’s grasp, but he would have had as much luck trying to dislodge a steel bar. “Wait! We have to help them!”

  “Negative. The situation is spiraling out of control. The two of us alone cannot guarantee your safety,” Beefy replied. “The safest course of action is to evacuate the area.”

  Marcus’s last image of his father was him falling within the hail of energy bolts.

  ***

  Mason’s grenade launcher clicked as it ran dry. A dozen grenades rocked the warehouse across the street, and the ancient walls buckled and collapsed under the explosive assault.

  Energy bolts crackled into Mason’s ceramic mesh vest, and he staggered back under the assault. With relief, he noted that Marcus’s bodyguards were hauling his son away to safety. Hopefully, I drew their attention and they didn’t see him. Any warning would have drawn their attention to him.

  A round sizzled into Mason’s unprotected thigh, and he fell. He counted six skins racing out of the collapsed building and toward the Apex factory. Shit. Too many for us to handle—I hope Keeva got them out of there.

  He cycled through the camera feeds on his HUD and saw the panel van still idling near the rear warehouse door. In the driver seat, Mack was gesturing frantically for the others to hurry. Sawyer and Turner were wrestling open the factory’s overhead door. He couldn’t see Keeva or Ciera anywhere.

  “What the fuck are they waiting on?” Mason regained his feet and staggered painfully toward the stairwell. His leg felt as if it was on fire. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the first two CorpSec skins vaulting over the twelve-foot fence without missing a beat and streaking across the parking lot with inhuman speed. Mason made it to the stairwell just as he heard the banging of heavy footsteps on the fire escape. I’m never gonna make it down these stairs before they blow me away. He reached for his .357 Magnum, knowing it wouldn’t do him much good.

  “Whoa!” Keeva cried as Mason bowled into her and Ciera as they came through the doorway. “Slow down, Cochise.”

  “What are you still doing here?” he growled in frustration. “They’re on us! You’ve got to move, now!”

  Then he noticed the two women were lugging Mason’s massive gatling laser between them. They hefted it up and slammed it into his chest. “Bad Mother Bitch,” read a garish orange stencil on the weapon, courtesy of its previous owner.

  “We’re a team, remember?” Keeva snapped. She drew her twin S&Ws from their holsters, and Ciera unslung an AK-47 from her shoulder. Their faces were grim but resolute. “I told Mack if we aren’t down the staircase with you in two minutes, to take off.”

  “We don’t have two minutes, damn it.” Despite his frustration because they hadn’t listened to him, Mason was touched by their loyalty. He fired up the gatling laser; the weapon whined for a split second as it powered up. The first skin leaped onto the roof, pulse rifle in hand. Mason moved to his left to clear some space in the stairwell for the women as he slammed the trigger down.

  The gatling laser thrummed in his hands as it blasted smoldering chunks out of the roof and knee-high parapet. Keeva and Ciera joined in, their combined firepower blasting the skin back to the edge of the roof. He bumped into the low wall and toppled over the side, chest and face turned to ground beef from the sustained damage.

  Gunfire erupted down below in the Apex factory. Shit, they need to get out of there now, or we’re all dead. “Mack! Get the hell out of there now! We’ll meet you at the eastern side of the building.” Mason waved Keeva and Ciera toward the eastern side of the building and another emergency ladder.

  “Copy,” Mack replied over the Datalink, sounds of gunfire loud in the background.

  Two more CorpSec grunts came over the parapet, weapons blazing. Blatblatblatblat. The gatling laser spat energy bolts at over two hundred rounds per second. The skins dodged and tumbled, their speed allowing them to keep from getting instantly shredded to pieces as Mason tried to get a bead on them.

  “To the ladder—Mack’s meeting us down below!” Mason barked. “I’ll cover you!” Seeing an opportunity, he concentrated his fire on the roof, strafing the area around the skins. Energy bolts flew past him as the women made a run for it.

  Ciera cried out as she was hit. Keeva caught her before she could fall. She put Ciera’s arm over her shoulder and helped her toward the ladder. Ciera laid down cover fire with her AK as they approached the ladder.

  Two more bolts struck Mason in his chest plate, but he just scowled in concentration, focusing his fire on the roof. Finally, a fifty-foot-diameter section of roof broke loose and collapsed with the groan of strained metal supports. The two skins tumbled silently out of sight.

  Mason ran for the ladder as best he could on his injured leg. Keeva was just getting on the ladder, having helped Ciera manage first. The parking lot waited five stories below. More gunfire came from outside the warehouse now, and with a squeal of tires, the van careened around the far side of the building, racing for the ladder.

  Ciera was halfway down, Keeva right behind her as Mason slung the unwieldy gun over his shoulder. The hot barrel burned his forearm before he got it in place. He clambered atop the ladder and prepared to descend just as another CorpSec skin came out of the stairwell. A second one hopped over the fire escape.

  We might end up taking the fast route to the ground. No way we’ll get clear in time.

  ***

  “Stop, goddamn it! That’s an order!” Marcus’s face burned with anger and embarrassment as Beefy finally released him. Marcus stumbled to regain his balance and quell his roiling stomach. They were outside the fence line of the Apex grounds by the time the bodyguards heeded his command. Marcus had been unceremoniously handed off like a football to Taciturn upon reaching the razor-wire fence. Beefy had leaped over the fence first before Taciturn gently tossed Marcus over and into Beefy’s waiting arms.

  “We are not yet out of danger, Director.” Beefy frowned at him.

&nb
sp; “I don’t care. You follow my orders, remember?” The two skins exchanged a glance before nodding curtly.

  Half a dozen CorpSec grunts raced out of the burning building. They hopped over the twelve-foot-high fence as smoothly as racing gazelles and charged the Apex building. The first clambered up the five floors of the fire escape as quickly and easily as any monkey by leaping and pulling himself up. He came tumbling back down a moment later, and two more took his place while another two broke open a door on the ground level. The last straggler started up the fire escape while furious firefights raged from the roof and inside the factory.

  Marcus didn’t know if any more skins would escape the collapsed building, but he feared the six he counted would overwhelm the rebels. From what he had seen, his father and a couple of the others had augmentations, but none of them were combat-spec skins. But Marcus’s bodyguards were.

  “We need to help them,” he decided.

  ***

  Mason slid down the fire escape with his hands on the rails, stopping just in time to avoid knocking Keeva off. Ciera struggled valiantly, but she was still twenty feet above the ground. Mason knew the skin would have them in his sights in seconds.

  Time seemed to slow down. The van roared toward them. The three of them kept descending the ladder. A CorpSec grunt’s face appeared at the top of the ladder with the barrel of his pulse rifle pointing down at them. They were helpless.

  Braaap… braaap. Automatic weapon fire rang out nearby. The skin on the roof ducked back and returned fire somewhere in the distance. Mason thought the rebels were shooting from the van, but they were focused on a skin pursuing them.

  ***

  Marcus watched his father, Keeva, and another woman, obviously wounded, struggle down the ladder. Two more skins on the roof were charging toward them. A van raced around the back of the building, a skin in hot pursuit, exchanging fire with a man hanging out the passenger side window. The running skin looked almost comical, pumping his arms and legs mightily while still taking the occasional shot at the fleeing van. Marcus guessed they were approaching fifty miles per hour, and the van wasn’t pulling away yet.

  Beefy and Taciturn sprinted across the parking lot to assist the rebels. Taciturn fired a burst and took out the running skin’s knee. His speed was so great that the grunt flailed and tumbled awkwardly across the parking lot as he fell. Taciturn moved in cautiously, firing a steady stream of lead at the skin until he lay still on the ground.

  A head popped up over the ladder, and Beefy instantly fired a burst at the grunt. The skin fell back, returning fire, but Beefy didn’t flinch. He moved forward in a crouch, weapon trained on the roof.

  The van screeched to a stop, and a couple men got out to help the women on the ladder. Marcus thought they were going to make it when a fiery streak erupted from the rubble of the collapsed building across the street. The Apex Robotics building’s wall rocked from the rocket strike, the explosion causing the ladder to break free, dumping Mason and the women off.

  ***

  Mason saw the incoming rocket and just had time to yell out a warning before it struck the building. The wall seemed to ripple from the shockwave before he was blasted by a wave of heat and shards of brick. The ladder buckled and twisted, pulling free from the building. Mason could only hang on and watch the ground quickly approaching from thirty-five feet below.

  Ciera let go, and Junior and Turner caught her, quickly pulling her away toward the van. Keeva lost her grip and slammed hard to the ground. Mason jumped free at the last moment, twisting to get his feet beneath him. He landed off balance, his augmented leg muscles partially absorbing the impact, but the weight of the gatling laser tipped him over like a boat anchor. He tumbled sideways, his cybernetic arm hitting the pavement with a clang. The gatling laser slammed painfully against his side, and Mason felt a rib crack. He bounced over, and his meat arm was wrenched painfully, sending a sharp pain through his shoulder as the heavy gatling laser tore free on its sling. His head smacked the warped pavement, and he rolled over a couple more times until he lay there dazed.

  A loud rumble shook the ground, and he wondered if an earthquake was beginning. He was dimly aware of gunfire around him. Two huge men in TI uniforms with SMGs raced past, exchanging gunfire with the remainder of the CorpSec forces. Mason tried to regain his senses, focusing on the puffy white clouds floating across a bright blue sky.

  “Dad, are you alright?” Marcus appeared beside him and dropped to his knees, breathing hard. His face was full of concern as he leaned over Mason.

  “What are you still doing here? You’re in danger—you can’t let them see you.”

  “Don’t worry about that now—we came back to save your asses! Your team would’ve been dead if it weren’t for my men.” Marcus looked around at the scene of the battle, and following his gaze, Mason noticed that the rocket’s explosion had caused the rest of the roof of the Apex factory to collapse. One of Marcus’s skins was stalking through the rubble, looking for any survivors.

  Good riddance to that place. If only the ghosts of the past would be buried inside there.

  “We should be all right if we don’t have any witnesses,” Marcus continued. “My guards went to finish off the last of them. Can you sit up?”

  Mason grunted noncommittally. He winced at his cracked rib as Marcus helped him sit up. His vision swam momentarily. The rebels were gathered around a figure lying still on the ground. “Are there any more CorpSec skins? Is everyone all right?”

  “I think there were a couple, but Beefy and Taciturn went to take care of them. Everyone is more or less okay, I suppose. Could have been a lot worse.” Marcus tugged on Mason’s artificial arm and helped him stand. Something popped in Mason’s back, and his rib and shoulder ached from the abuse. The wound in his leg went nearly unnoticed in the mix.

  “Getting old is a bitch,” he grumbled when he noticed Marcus looking him over with concern. “Don’t worry about me.”

  With Marcus’s aid, he staggered over to the group. Keeva lay on the ground beneath a piece of the metal ladder that had sheared off. Her face was pale and her eyes wide in shock. One of the rungs had twisted and broken free of the rail, impaling Keeva’s forearm against the ground. Ciera sat there looking worried, holding Keeva’s head in her lap.

  “Guess I didn’t need that arm too much anyway,” Keeva said, trying to show some bravado in front of her men. “I’ll just get one of those shiny new ones like yours, Mason. I’ll rock a diamond-studded one—a girl’s best friend, ya know?”

  Mason chuckled as he knelt painfully beside her. He examined the wound. It appeared that the rusty piece of metal had torn through the meat of her forearm, neatly splitting the radius and ulna bones. It didn’t appear to have torn open a major vein or artery in the process, but they couldn’t be sure until they removed the metal bar. “You’ll live, kid,” he pronounced. Looking around, he didn’t see Sawyer.

  When Mason inquired, Mack shook his head. “Sawyer held them off so we could get out of the factory.”

  Mason sighed. Another good man lost. “Can you guys get her squared away? You might want to put a tourniquet around her arm, just in case. Get her patched up with some nano-styptic.”

  Marcus had walked a short distance away to consult with one of his bodyguards. When Mason joined him, he reported, “That’s the last of them—six down in the factory, and the one across the street with the rocket launcher. We should get out of here in case any more crawl out of the rubble.”

  Mason eyed Keeva. “We aren’t going anywhere for a few minutes yet. Might as well take care of business real quick. You got the plans?”

  “Right here.” Marcus pulled out a chip the size of a thumbnail. “It wasn’t easy getting these. Do you think we actually have a shot at pulling this off?”

  Mason slipped the chip into a pocket. “Sure, we got a shot. Royce has a good amount of men ready to move. If we get some boots on the ground from the Yakuza, it’ll make a big difference.” He turned back to
the collapsed, smoldering buildings. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to step up the timeline, though. CorpSec was acting on some intel to find us, so the cat’s out of the bag. Time’s running out.”

  “I think so too. If they up the security posture much tighter, no one will be able scratch their nuts without CorpSec up in their face wanting to know how they’re hanging.”

  Mason’s laughter boomed despite the dire situation. He gave Marcus a rough hug. “Well, we’re still alive so far. You’ve done good, son. We’ll get you out of there and spring your little lady in the process. It’ll work out somehow.” He hoped his words convinced his son—he had yet to convince himself.

  Chapter 20

  Rin walked through the grove, the grass cool on her bare feet. The weather was mild: clear skies and warm for early spring. The layer of ice that had covered the koi pond had melted, and the fish languished in the gloomy depths beneath the bamboo footbridge. The cherry trees were nearing full bloom, the blossoms an enchanting pink in the sunshine. A perfect day—too bad it won’t last. Dark times lie ahead, but this makes for a nice respite.

  She was at her family’s estate outside of Sea-Tac, taking a break from the city and spending some time in meditation before the pressures of preparing for the operation stole all her free time. Reznik was supposed to join her in a short while. She had invited him to the estate, and he had agreed but seemed to sense she needed some time alone, so he had promised to come out later.

  Memories filled Rin’s head as she walked. She thought back to her childhood growing up at the estate. How naive I was—I had no idea what the family business even was back then. She remembered her most recent sparring match with her brother with their bokken, and the discovery of her medical condition. After that, she thought of the visit the past fall to see her ailing father and the bittersweet time they had spent in the garden together. Haruto Takahashi hadn’t recognized his daughter at first, but his dementia eventually cleared for a time, and that had been as much as Rin could have hoped for. Those moments held a special place in her heart since that had been the last occasion she had seen him lucid.