Ixan Legacy Box Set

by Scott Bartlett

  I can’t let them put Lisa in a cell for the rest of her life. If she tried to kill Price, she must have had a damned good reason. Hell, he’d wanted to kill Price on a few occasions.

  A pair of flashing muzzles appeared ahead—marines with R-57s, firing at him from two hatches opposite each other. Clearly, word of Andy’s actions had spread quickly.

  He charged, managing to neutralize one of them right away, but the other ducked behind cover before Andy could target him. When he reached the hatch, he ducked low and spotted the surprised-looking marine, who was crouched against the metal frame. Clearly, he hadn’t expected Andy to come right up to him.

  They still aren’t used to fighting mechs. Andy extended his left bayonet and stabbed the marine with enough force to pierce his para-aramid body armor—and then his torso.

  It took him ten minutes and seven more kills to reach the brig. The guards there gave him little trouble. Once he’d pumped them both full of lead, he ducked through the hatch they’d been guarding and strode between the cells.

  Lisa occupied the second-last one to the left. She was already at her bars, tight body pressed against them. Her jumpsuit was pulled taut, accentuating her curves and making Andy’s heart race. That’s what I’m fighting for, right there.

  “I knew you’d come for me,” she said.

  From deep inside the mech dream, he grinned, even though the expression wouldn’t register on his MIMAS’ face.

  Stepping forward, he bent down and gripped two adjacent bars of her cell. With a quick wrench, the bars parted as though made from cheap aluminum. That made him feel powerful, even though it was the mech doing the actual work. I am the mech.

  He stepped back to make room, and Lisa turned sideways to squeeze herself between the crooked bars, emerging into the corridor between the cells.

  “Where next?” she asked.

  “Follow me. We’re getting your MIMAS, and we’re getting out of here.”

  Chapter 10

  A Grim Logic

  Jake woke from a nightmare of gunfire and screaming to discover it wasn’t a nightmare.

  He heard a rhythmic pounding from somewhere in the corridors outside sick bay—and he felt it, too, as vibrations that reached him through his bed from the deck. The pounding stopped, and the harsh staccato of a heavy gun followed. He’d recognize that sound anywhere: a MIMAS’ rotary autocannon.

  A deep, disorienting ache gripped his skull like a vise, which had been the case ever since he’d woken to find Husher sitting at his bedside, with a young woman who turned out to be his daughter.

  I need to concentrate. His first thought was that someone had figured out how to infiltrate and control one of the mechs, which would involve learning how to navigate the mech dream.

  That seemed unlikely. More likely, he realized, was that this was a member of Oneiri Team. It wouldn’t surprise him to learn Lisa was the perpetrator, if she’d managed to escape the brig somehow. Lisa had been his friend, but Jake had noticed her acting weirdly since before they’d left the Steele System. No one had believed him. Not until she tried to kill him.

  The pounding outside sick bay receded, which meant the attacker was moving away. Isn’t the brig in that direction? That didn’t make much sense, but ultimately, it didn’t make any difference to his actions. No matter who was piloting that MIMAS, Jake needed to reach his own mech to stop them.

  His legs felt like lead weights as he swung them over the side of the bed and planted them on the deck. When he tried to stand, he staggered forward instead, careening through the curtain surrounding his bed. Gripping it, he yanked it from the rod it was suspended from, so that it barely slowed his fall. Next, a narrow metal table in the next enclosure crashed to the floor, and he stumbled over it, catching himself on the next bed over, which shifted with his weight. Thankfully, the bed was unoccupied.

  “Seaman Price,” a harsh voice said from somewhere to his right. “What in Sol are you doing?”

  “Saving the Vesta,” he muttered, scrabbling against the deck with his feet and pushing down against the bed with an immense effort of will, till he’d reached a standing position.

  A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he planted his hands on the bed once more to steady himself.

  “You’re in no condition to save anything,” Doctor Bancroft said. “What’s more, you’re disrupting my sick bay.”

  “Once I reach my mech, I’ll be fine. I need to get to my mech.”

  “You need to get back into bed. There’s no way I’m letting you leave. Look, if you go any farther you’ll pull out your IV tubes.”

  His gaze followed the tubes protruding from his arms to a tall, wheeled rack. I can use that to keep my balance. Fighting the dizziness, which continued to intensify until he worried he might faint, he stumbled back across the divide and clutched the IV rack like a drowning man would clutch a floating log. The bags of liquid hanging from the crossbar at the top wobbled with the effort.

  “Seaman!” Bancroft said.

  Price turned, hobbling toward the foot of the bed—toward Bancroft. The rack tipped forward dangerously, and for a moment he worried he was going to go crashing with it to the floor.

  Jake drew a shaky breath. “I need to reach my mech, Doctor. Someone’s rampaging through the Vesta, and that puts us all in danger. Major Gamble may not even know about the threat yet, or his people may be out of position to do anything about it. But my mech is in Hangar Bay Zeta, which is pretty close. I can make it there. And maybe I can end this.”

  She said nothing, her lips a firm, whitening line. But he could tell she was coming around to the realization that he was leaving this sick bay, one way or another.

  “Unless you plan to wrestle a gunshot victim back into his bed, I suggest you move out of the way, Doctor,” Jake said.

  Shaking her head and sighing heavily, Bancroft moved off to the side, crossing her arms.

  “Thank you.”

  He pushed the rack forward then stumbled after it. Push, stumble. Push, stumble. All the way across the sick bay. By the time he reached the hatch, he felt more tired than he ever had in his life. His eyelids felt like they held too much Ocharium, and a yawn stretched his mouth wide. All he wanted to do was crawl back into his sick bed and sleep for days.

  Instead, he slapped the hatch’s control panel, and it slid open to let him leave.

  Glancing down the corridor to his right, he couldn’t see the rogue MIMAS, not that he’d expected to. He did see the motionless leg of someone in a marine uniform. Unconscious or dead. Probably dead, given the marine had gone up against a MIMAS.

  He turned left, making his torturous way toward the hangar bay where his mech was housed. Every step was agony, sending fresh pulses of pain through his skull. It felt like someone, somewhere had a knob controlling the force with which the Ocharium nanites in his body attracted the Majorana fermion matrix in the ship’s deck, and they were gradually turning it up.

  After a few minutes, he came across a noncombat crewmember sprawled across the corridor, her body shredded by what had to be autocannon fire. Jake scowled darkly. Whoever did this, I’m going to kill them.

  At last, he made it to the hatch that led into Hangar Bay Zeta, where another marine lay dead on the deck, eyes staring lifelessly across the cavernous space.

  As Jake shuffled past, he heard the rhythmic pounding again, in the distance but getting louder.

  They’re coming to this hangar bay. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did. Somewhere deep inside his foggy consciousness, a grim logic had gone to work, and it knew exactly what to expect.

  The distance between him and the twin rows of mechs that stood on the opposite end of the hangar bay seemed to stretch for miles and miles. One of the rows had only three MIMAS, of course, and the other row—the closer row, thankfully—had two, along with Rug’s quadruped mech and his own alien mech.

  He struggled toward it as the pounding grew louder behind him. It didn’t seem as rapid as before, and ag
ain, his subconscious provided an explanation: Whoever’s piloting that mech is escorting someone who’s not in a mech.

  Everything clicked into place for him, then, and he actually gasped, there in the middle of the hangar bay. Andy. The bastard had managed to gain access to the hangar bay somehow, and then he’d gotten inside a mech to begin his killing spree. All with the intention of freeing Lisa and then fleeing the Vesta together.

  The treachery of it filled Jake with a berserker’s rage, and the anger’s intensity was such that it startled him, a little. But it didn’t matter. I won’t let them get away. Not after this.

  Gathering his will, he forced himself to move faster across the hangar bay. The alien mech opened for him as he neared. Behind him, the pounding sounded like it was coming from the corridor outside. Jake let go of the IV rack and stumbled for the last few steps, catching himself on the ridged ramp projecting from the mech’s front torso.

  He wasn’t sure how he managed it, but he climbed, turning to deposit himself into the smooth, metallic cocoon that awaited.

  Andy reached the hatch just as the ramp was closing. He hesitated only a second before raising an already-exposed autocannon, but that second saved Jake’s life. He fished out a sedative from an internal compartment and slapped it into his mouth as bullets ricocheted off the sealing mech.

  He’s ready to turn on me that easily? Jake entered the mech dream full of rage, ready to use the alien mech’s might to rip Andy apart.

  But the mech wouldn’t move.

  It wouldn’t do anything. Try as he might, Jake couldn’t get it to budge.

  Bond with me, the mech whispered to him. If you wish to ever access my power again, bond with me now, or be barred from it forever.

  Andy opened fire again.

  Chapter 11

  Rogue MIMAS

  With her implant routed through her com, Ash could follow Major Gamble’s progress through the ship. Ten minutes ago, he’d broadcast his location to every marine on the Vesta, along with orders to converge on him.

  “A MIMAS pilot has gone rogue,” the message had said.

  “This way,” Ash called to Beth when she made to run straight through an intersection. “It’s quicker if we hang a right.”

  They sprinted down their chosen corridor, getting closer and closer to Gamble, who appeared to be heading toward Hangar Bay Zeta. That’s where our mechs are.

  She and Beth had been enjoying some private time in an unused bunkroom, but when they’d received the alert, they’d pulled on their jumpsuits with record-breaking speed, grabbed their sidearms, and rushed into the corridor.

  They found Gamble with his back to a bulkhead, combat shotgun at the ready. In the corridor with him were eight of his marines, looking twitchy, to Ash’s eye.

  From inside the hangar bay, heavy gunfire roared, pinging off something metallic.

  “Major, what’s going on?” Ash asked, not bothering to raise her voice over the tumult—Gamble’s embedded ear piece would deliver her voice straight to his ear canal.

  “There are two active MIMAS inside the hangar bay, both firing on the alien mech, which apparently contains Price. I got a message from Bancroft that he left sick bay, and with the other mechs firing on it, that’s where he seems likely to be.”

  Ash’s heartbeat ramped up till it throbbed inside her chest. “What’s our plan?” she asked, fighting to keep her voice steady.

  “Till now, it’s been to wait for MIMAS pilots to get here, in the hopes of getting you across the hangar bay to your machines. But it might be risky to go with just you two. Maybe we should wait for Rug and Odell to get here, too.”

  “No way,” Ash said. “Sorry, Major, but Jake’s mech can only withstand that kind of punishment for so long. I don’t know about you, but I’m going now.”

  Gamble nodded. “Then we all go.” He turned to the rest of the gathered marines. “Spread out as soon as you’re through the hatch, covering Sweeney and Arkanian as best you can. Getting them to their mechs is our number one priority. The Vesta’s in danger, people. We protect our ship.”

  “Oorah!” came the answering cry, and Gamble turned toward the hatch, raising a hand then flicking it forward once. He charged through, raising his shotgun to his eye, and the other marines followed.

  Ash drew her sidearm, locked eyes with Beth, and nodded. Beth nodded back, and they swept into the hangar bay together, pistols raised and seeking targets.

  The two MIMAS mechs had turned their focus on the marines, who were spreading out to the cover provided by consoles, booths, and crates distributed throughout the hangar bay. Ash and Beth split up too, racing across the deck before the opposing MIMAS pilots could figure out what their plan was.

  Ash could hear bullets deflecting off the deck behind her just before she reached her mech. She dove behind it, arresting her momentum by gripping the ramp that had already lowered, thanks to the command she’d sent while sprinting across the hangar bay. Two mechs over, Beth was just reaching her machine, and Ash felt a wash of relief as she swallowed a sedative and climbed into her MIMAS.

  Once inside the mech dream, she stepped backward, using the other stationary mechs as cover against the attackers. Gunfire flashed to her left, and she realized that one of the attackers had already circled around the formation to get a cleaner shot.

  Panic seized her an instant before she turned and registered what had happened:

  Beth lay slumped across her MIMAS’ ramp, her body riddled with bullets.

  The entire hangar bay turned blood-red with Ash’s rancor. Heedless of the autocannon rounds glancing off her machine, boring closer to her body nestled inside, she charged at the MIMAS, extending both bayonets and introducing a weave into her path to throw off her attacker’s aim.

  The other MIMAS began dancing backward, away from her, and it adjusted its autocannons to the right, but Ash anticipated the move. She jerked left while retaining most of her speed. Her enemy swept the autocannons back toward her, and she fell into a roll, coming up mostly unharmed—meters away from the other mech, who’d reached a bulkhead.

  Momentum and fury carried Ash forward, and both bayonets struck true, piercing the MIMAS clean through and pinning it to the wall. She withdrew the blades and struck again, right where its human occupant was nestled. The mech slumped to the floor.

  Then came the sound of a rocket whistling through the air, and Ash rolled sideways, coming up into a full-on sprint. The bulkhead exploded behind her, sending a blazing shock wave to speed her on her way.

  Ash reached behind her back, seizing the heavy gun that was stuck there with powerful magnets. She dropped to one knee, took aim, and fired at the remaining MIMAS’ head. It jerked backward just as it fired a second rocket, which went wide, taking out two marines.

  The remaining marines continued to put pressure on the rogue MIMAS. Ash stood, walking forward and supporting their fire with hers. Then she dropped the gun and extended her bayonets.

  The MIMAS raised both hands, and Lisa Sato’s voice came from it: “I surrender!”

  Like hell you do. Ash continued forward, intent on cutting Sato up into little bits.

  “Sweeney, hold,” Gamble barked. “She surrenders.”

  For a moment, incredulous rage burned through Ash, and she considered attacking anyway. They killed Beth. They killed Beth and they both deserve to die.

  Almost, she resumed the attack. It felt like she had nothing left to live for, and she didn’t know where she found the strength to restrain herself.

  But she did.

  Chapter 12

  Some Unknowable Monster

  “I should go in there with you, sir,” Gamble said as he peered through the one-way mirror from the darkened chamber where he and Husher stood.

  On the other side of the mirror, Lisa Sato sat in a brightly lit interrogation room, her hands bound together with metal restraints and her feet cuffed to her chair, which was bolted to the floor.

  Husher looked at the major, the side o
f his mouth quirked upward. “Seriously? That’s a bit much, Major, even for you. Sato isn’t moving from that chair. You’re welcome to stay in here and watch, but there’s absolutely no call for you to accompany me into that room for protection. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine.”

  Gamble actually reddened slightly. “Right. Sorry, sir. I’m still shook up after what happened.”

  “Fair enough. It’s unsettling when danger appears inside the ship you’re charged with protecting—at a time when you were sure she was secure. That’s not a criticism, Major. I’ve been in the exact same position myself.”

  Gamble nodded, though his eyes were on the deck. Husher headed toward the hatch leading into the interrogation room.

  Sato tracked him with her eyes as he walked toward the chair opposite hers, but she said nothing. She’s remarkably calm. Husher had no doubt that she’d seen a lot back in the Steele System, and that it took a lot to faze her. As much as he hated to acknowledge it, part of him admired her brazenness.

  “I’m not sure who to trust, anymore,” he said as he took a seat. “A few months ago, the mayor of Cybele proved a traitor, and now so have you.”

  “That’s the idea,” Sato said. “We don’t want you to feel comfortable trusting anyone.”

  “We?”

  “The Progenitors.”

  “Right. Well, before we continue, I should let you know that your treatment going forward will depend on how forthcoming you are during this session. I don’t have time to keep questioning you, so you have one chance to decide your fate, and that chance is now.”

  “Is that right?” Sato said. “In that case, my future’s looking bright, and I’ll be treated like a queen. I have no problem answering whatever questions you have the sense to ask.”

  That surprised him, and he wasn’t sure how well he was doing with concealing it. “All right, then. Tell me this, Sato. When did you turn?”

  Sato chuckled. “I never turned, Captain Husher. To say I turned would mean I was on your side at some point, and I never have been. Yes, there is a Lisa Sato who was on your ‘side,’ such as it is, but you’ve never met her. She was taken aboard a Progenitor warship in the Steele System, and she was never released. Instead, I was sent to take her place.”