“Down to forty percent,” Emma reported. “I’m surprised they’ve lasted as long as they have. That portends less effective resistance inside.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Erik returned.
He expected more yaoguai reinforcements.
He was surprised they’d made it all the way to the perimeter of the mansion’s grounds without running into reinforcements or additional traps. He wasn’t going to complain about an easier approach after the dire wolf horde, but he also doubted the enemy was done flinging death at the squads.
Was there some clever strategy informing the whole thing? Throwing monsters at them in narrow internal hallways might benefit the exos more than the yaoguai.
He was going in regardless, so they would find out soon enough. Before that, they could help Beta Squad with their job.
An eight-barrel turret protruding from some hedges spun back and forth, filling the sky with rounds as it attempted to bring down the rest of the drones. Another cannon fired exploding shells with a steady thump. A missile launcher with four racks sat ready, recently raised out of the ground, judging by the damaged grass. The enemy was smart enough not to waste their missiles on mere drones.
It was an impressive setup. If the team had tried to make a direct landing, the air defenses would have shredded them, especially in a flitter. Even dedicated fighters and close-air attack craft would have had a hard time.
“Alpha Six, take out the SAM launcher,” Erik ordered. “We don’t want any surprises, but we can leave the rest for Beta squad.”
“Yes, sir.” The soldier spun his exo toward the target. “Backblast area clear.”
Blowing up readied SAMs was easy. After all, the enemy was providing them with massive amounts of explosives waiting to be set off.
With a whoosh and a roar, a rocket shot from Alpha Six’s launcher and sped toward one of the missiles. It struck, and its impressive primary explosion was consumed by a massive secondary explosion as the missiles went off. The shockwave knocked over some nearby trees and launched a massive cloud of dirt, grass, and rock into the air. If Erik hadn’t been in his exo, he would have clapped.
Erik had chosen the target well. Although it’d cracked and scorched the walls and windows of the mansion, it was far enough away that nothing more than minor surface damage was inflicted. He doubted they’d stuck the informant outside next to a missile launcher.
“Target neutralized,” announced Alpha Six, pride in his voice.
More loud blasts sounded from the front of the mansion. The ground shook, and dark smoke filled the air. The percussive drumline of AAA weakened with the destruction of more turrets and launchers. It wouldn’t be long before the enemy would be vulnerable from the air.
The colonel wanted to avoid calling in air support for political reasons, but the enemy didn’t know that. While the primary point was to secure their safe exfiltration, the focus on air defense also served as a feint, focusing the enemy on a strike from the air rather than the exo team heading into the mansion.
A loud grinding noise sounded from all around. The ground shook.
“Detecting thermal traces from right underneath the surface,” Emma reported.
She sent targeting markers to Erik.
“Enemy at 9 o’clock,” he shouted. The constant jamming was damned inconvenient.
A massive covered ramp erupted from the ground, ripping apart the carefully manicured lawn and opening into a darkened tunnel. Dirt and rock tumbled down the sides and front, accompanied by the unpleasant dissonant rumbling of the rising structure.
Short bellows sounded from inside, inhuman, loud, and angry. Something was coming.
Thunder echoed from inside, something heavy and hard striking the metal of the ramp as it charged up. Loud snorts and bellows echoed from below.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jia muttered. “Is this a demon zoo?”
“Something like that,” Erik offered. “Let’s close it down.”
He knew it’d been too easy to get close to the mansion.
A group of stampeding monsters crested the ramp, each almost the size of the MX 60. Thick, dull gray plates covered their four-legged bodies all the way down to their black hooves. Narrow red eyes peeked out from slits in the natural armor. Their size was weapon enough, but four spikes protruded from the fronts of their bodies.
The exos opened fire with their rifles. Velocity and size granted deadly penetration power to their weapons, enough to rip through a lot of targets, manmade or otherwise, but their rounds bounced off the armored plates with sparks and minor gouges. Erik didn’t know whether to be impressed or worried.
“Keep mobile, and don’t let those bastards run you over,” Erik ordered. He fired another burst to no effect. “See if it’s weaker on the other side. Grenade and rocket use is a go. Switch to plasmas. These things might be tough, but they’re still creatures some scientist cooked up, not advanced alien crap.”
Different-sounding roars from the front signaled an attack on Beta Squad. Erik didn’t regret splitting up. It also meant the enemy had to split their forces. The ramp descended shortly after the last yaoguai emerged.
No easy way in for the team.
While the new monsters, which Erik had taken to thinking of as demon rhinos, lacked the numbers of the dire wolves, their ability to take a punishment made the latest battle a more dangerous engagement. Another barrage didn’t accomplish any more than the first shots and the exos scattered, using their jump thrusters to spin and clear the charging yaoguai.
Despite Erik’s suggestion, the rear and side armor of the enemy didn’t look any thinner than the front. The squads’ rifles came alive again, along with satisfying thumps as the grenade launchers fired their latest choice. A rocket screamed from Alpha Six.
A demon rhino roared when it was hit by the white-blue blinding explosion of a plasma grenade. Another bellowed its displeasure at Alpha Six’s explosive surprise.
“Tough bastards,” Erik muttered. “But if you feel pain, that means you can die.”
A plasma grenade stood a decent chance of taking out a military exoskeleton, depending on where it hit. The grenades had blasted free and cracked the plates, exposing softer flesh underneath, but they didn’t kill the monsters. The rocket attack had about the same effect.
Erik was satisfied. It took a stronger punch, but they could win.
Jia ran to the side, spraying bullets toward one of the newfound openings. Her demon rhino reared back, blood splattering from the wound before landing with a loud thump and rushing toward its tormentor.
Another monster galloped toward Erik, preventing him from helping his partner. He fired another plasma grenade before activating his jump thrusters for a lateral dodge, narrowly avoiding the vehicle-sized monster. He sent a burst into the weak spot. The monster shook his head and let out an angry snort before continuing its charge. These were definitely tougher than the dire wolves.
Another rocket from Alpha Six screamed across the lawn and struck the hole. The explosion blew out a huge chunk of the demon rhino’s body, and it collapsed to the ground with a dying moan.
“Don’t go crazy with those,” Erik ordered. “We might need them later. I’d hate to run into a ridiculous armored giant elephant and only have our rifles.”
Jia jumped over her target with careful timing, using the demon rhino itself for a mid-jump boost. She angled her rifle down and sent a stream of bullets into its weakened area, and it jerked and bellowed before dropping to its knees. She didn’t stop when she landed, instead rushing to the enemy to keep firing at point-blank range until it stopped moving.
One of the soldiers lacked Jia’s exquisite timing, and the demon rhino slammed into him before he’d cleared it. His shield took the brunt of the spikes, but the blow sent him careening through the air. Erik couldn’t risk a grenade or call for a rocket strike with the exo so close to the enemy, so he sprinted straight toward the yaoguai, drawing its attention with harassing strikes
against its wound.
The damaged exo hit the ground. The pilot’s life signs were stable, but he was groaning and not moving.
Erik continued firing at the monster until it turned toward him. He picked up speed and jumped into the air to avoid it connecting with him. Twisting, he launched a plasma grenade into the wind. The explosion sheared a leg off and sent the monster’s body into another demon rhino, knocking the second over.
The monster rolled back onto its feet with some effort, but the precious seconds it lost let Jia and another soldier riddle its wound with bullets. It fell to the ground again, head lolling to the side.
The roars and screams of the dying monsters stopped from the direction of Beta Squad, replaced by a triumphant cheer. Alpha Squad needed to hurry up and not be outdone.
“Probably had easier yaoguai,” Erik muttered.
With a pattern now established and the enemy numbers reduced, it was a simple matter for Erik, Jia, and the remaining soldiers to put down the last group of demon rhinos. The downed soldier groaned and righted his exoskeleton.
“Alpha Five, you okay?” Erik asked.
“I’ve been hit harder than that and lived,” the soldier replied cheerfully. “But I’d rather not do it again.”
“Yeah. That’d be best.”
Jia had been right. It was a demon zoo, or they’d taken a wrong turn on the way to France and ended up in Hell.
Acrid smoke filled the area, along with pieces of metal and plastic from the destroyed missiles and downed drones. The mammoth corpses of the demon rhinos formed a maze, their blood soaking into the grass. Craters from explosions and hoofprints left the lawn dangerously uneven.
“We still jammed, Emma?” Erik asked.
“Rather thoroughly,” she reported.
“Guess we’ll need those flares.”
“We know they have some sort of subterranean facility,” Jia observed. “Should we try to dig up the tunnel?”
“No,” Erik replied. “It’ll take too many of our explosives to do it, and I’d rather not walk right into any yaoguai pens. Besides, we’re still looking for Ahmed, and if he’s alive, I doubt they’d keep him with the monsters.”
Erik couldn’t get much of anything off the thermals to tell him what was inside the mansion. They could be stepping into an empty facility or a place filled with every type of yaoguai imaginable and some that weren’t. The jamming meant Emma would need direct IO port access to do anything about the systems, so there was only one choice.
“Alpha Squad, prepare for breach,” Erik announced. “Beta can finish clearing up out here and watch our asses.”
He headed toward a large pair of double doors in the back. “Alpha Six, get ready to say hello.”
Chapter Eighteen
If Jia could travel back in time a couple of years and talk to her younger self, there was a surprising truth she would have loved to pass along: explosions can be fun.
She smiled as a rocket sped from Alpha Six’s exoskeleton and blew a jagged, smoking hole in the back doors of the mansion. They had their way inside.
Her momentary entertainment was replaced by a somber truth. A weapon that could easily blow open a reinforced door with a single shot had only weakened one of the monsters they’d just fought.
Her hand trembled for a moment at the memory of the Hunter ship. That was the end of the road for the path the conspiracy now walked, hideous, twisted creation completely disconnected from nature with no other point than to kill.
Jia scoffed. Once humanity’d had to reach into dark myths of gods and demons when they thought of monsters, but modern people weren’t content to leave them in the shadows. It was almost as if humans couldn’t become gods, so they’d decided to make flesh-and-blood demons real, to become kings of the underworld.
Erik ran toward the door, jarring Jia out of her ruminations. She stayed in formation, heading in after him. He slowed as he arrived inside and whistled.
“Not what I thought,” he mumbled.
Jia understood why. She expected some sort of hallway or fancy room, not a vast cavernous chamber filled with data windows and large silver tanks. Tubing ran through the walls and into the tanks. One of them was open, blue fluid staining the floor around it. Bright, harsh light illuminated the whole space. Huge tunnel-like hallways extended from the chamber.
Small drones equipped with delicate arms and probes were parked in tall racks on either side of the room. They weren’t active, not that they would represent much threat. A child could probably bat the small machines out of the air with ease. It was a welcome relief after the last set of yaoguai.
“This isn’t a mansion.” Jia hissed. “It’s a damned lab.”
“That place we took down in the Scar might have been a prototype,” Erik suggested, walking toward the open tank but not lowering his rifle. “And this is the industrial-scale version, or maybe the opposite.”
“You mean they’ve got more than just those wolves and those other things?” asked one of the soldiers, his voice quiet.
“Probably.” Erik fired a burst at one of the drones, blasting it to pieces. “But if they jump us in here, they don’t have a lot of room to maneuver. No matter what, this is a big loss. Even if we can’t find the informant, they have to know we’ll bomb this place until it’s a crater.”
“I’m not seeing any IO ports,” Emma commented. “The jamming strength is stronger inside this building. Please continue to move around in case there’s one in this room.”
“That means the jammer is not a hidden array outside,” Erik concluded. “Good to know.”
“Somebody’s got to be sending the monsters at us,” one of the soldiers commented. “They wouldn’t program a security system to unleash all that every time somebody shows up.”
Erik nodded. “Yeah, you’d think. I doubt this entire facility is automated, and I’m guessing the people in charge are hiding underground. We need to find an IO port or take out the jammer so Emma can do her thing.” He headed toward one of the tunnels. “For now, we still have our informant to find.”
The squad fell in behind Erik. The large tunnels made it easy for the exoskeletons to proceed two abreast with space between them, and Jia assumed they were meant to accommodate equally large yaoguai. That didn’t bode well.
“Why bring him here?” Jia asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“This might have been one of the more secure facilities,” Erik suggested, but he didn’t sound confident. “You’re right, though. A yaoguai lab might be nice for some scares, but it doesn’t strike me as the best place to keep a prisoner, especially one they thought might be followed. They’re trading that prisoner potentially for this entire lab.”
“Unless we’ve hit them even harder than we realize,” Jia mused, her tone betraying her doubt. “You’re right, Erik. This whole thing feels off.”
A nearby soldier laughed. “What tipped you off, Lin? The giant wolves or whatever the hell those things were right outside? You waiting for a tap-dancing spider lady in a nice dress to show up and serenade us?”
“I’ve fought things far worse than yaoguai,” Jia replied, her voice even. “That’s not what is bothering me.”
The mirth left the soldier’s voice. “W-worse than yaoguai?”
Erik nodded grimly. He lifted his faceplate and wiped sweat off his brow. “I think he’s righter than you realize, though, Jia.”
“How?”
“We should never get too comfortable dealing with this kind of thing.” Erik slowed. “That’s when we’ll start making mistakes.”
The tunnel widened into a room even larger than their entrance point. Despite the sloping walls, it easily accounted for most of the mansion as seen from outside. Equipment and tanks similar to that in the previous room filled the room.
Disturbingly, the tanks were arranged in lines from small sizes that would barely accommodate something the size of the dog to much larger designs that would hold something almost the size of the dire wolves.
About twenty tanks filled the room.
“Is this where they breed them?” asked a soldier.
“Probably,” Erik commented.
“Where do the big ones come from?” the soldier asked. “You couldn’t fit any of the last monsters we fought in those tanks.” He pointed his gun at the largest tank. “Those camo wolves wouldn’t fit in there.”
Jia stared at one of the large tanks and sighed. “You’re asking the wrong question.”
“Am I?”
Erik lowered his faceplate with a grunt. “Yeah, you are.”
“Ask yourself this: How big is a baby when they’re born?” Jia asked. “You couldn’t fit Erik comfortably in a crib.”
The soldier gulped. “You’re telling me a baby monster fits in those large tanks?”
“That’s what I would guess,” Jia replied with a frown.
“Then how big are they fully grown? Bigger than the things we just fought?”
“Let’s hope we don’t find out.”
“I’ve spotted an IO port,” Emma announced. She sounded excited. “It’s time for the heroine of this story to take center stage.”
Someone in the group chuckled.
A nav marker appeared in Jia’s and Erik’s HUDs. Jia zoomed in on the marker. The lone port lay across the vast chamber. That didn’t seem all that convenient, but presumably the conspiracy personnel who worked at the facility didn’t normally have to worry about the entire area being blanketed by jamming.
“We’ve got movement at twelve o’clock!” shouted a soldier.
Jia frowned. That was near the IO port. Not a good coincidence.
The exoskeletons spread out in a line, the tanks forming natural rows that disrupted their attempts at decent formations, but most of the equipment was at waist level for a normal human, leaving their weapons and primary line of sight clear. Something much smaller than their last enemies darted between two tanks.
“I think it’s a person.” Jia switched to thermal and nodded. “I’m getting a humanoid outline.”
Desperate Measures Page 14