I rolled to a stop at the intersection of 6th Street and Liberty Avenue, then I put down my feet to hold the bike upright while I stayed seated. Half of my attention remained alert to the streets around me while I watched the dot on my map move across the city toward me.
When the dot turned onto Fifth Avenue, I figured I could seem as if I were just returning from scouting and let them run into me almost naturally. I dismounted from my bike and returned it to my inventory before I jogged across the intersection, angling south around the small Triangle Park and onto Market Street.
When I stepped out to turn onto Fifth Avenue, just before the dot on my map reached the same intersection from my left, a line of tracers and bullets skipped off the pavement in front of me, and I danced backward as automatic weapons fire thundered from the same direction as the dot on my map.
Bullets chipped through the glass at the corner of the building beside me as I backed around the corner and ducked below the windows. My brief glimpse of the source of the gunfire made me realize my mistake. A second Wolverine drove ahead of the one I tracked, which threw off my timing and apparently startled the gunner in the turret mount of the vehicle at the front of the column.
“Cease fire,” someone called, the command audible even over the thunder of the machine gun.
The voice sounded familiar, but it took me a moment to place it.
“Come on out,” said Warden Hughes. “We won’t shoot.”
I poked my head around the corner for a quick peek but pulled back before anyone could get a shot off, just in case. After my glance failed to draw fire, I stepped out from behind the building, prepared to duck behind cover at the first sign of another attack.
Nobody shot at me this time, and I took my time to get a better look at the vehicles stretched out down the road. The pair of Wolverines led the convoy, followed by a more heavily armored quad-axle vehicle with a sleek twin-barreled turret. The first, larger barrel was some kind of cannon, while the coaxial weapon appeared like a smaller energy weapon. Though the vehicle had the same black-and-gold color scheme, the armored vehicle towered over the pair of smaller vehicles in front of it, and I gave it a quick once-over.
Grizzly Urban Assault Vehicle (Class III)
Armor Rating: Tier IV
A few seconds after I stepped out from around the corner, the rear doors of the lead vehicle swung open, and the warden herself climbed out, followed by Jahgg’d, the Krym’parke from the warden’s office at our first meeting. Pearce quickly ran up to the warden’s side as they stepped forward to meet me in the middle of the intersection ahead of the convoy.
“Sorry about that, Hal,” the sergeant hurried to explain. “We’re a little on edge after that goblin attack earlier.”
“Understandable,” I replied. “No harm done, but I might have to change my shorts.”
Even the alien chuckled darkly at my comment. Several other officers walked up to join our gathering in the street. The first two to approach wore pristine uniforms, as if their gear had never seen combat, while the rest of the police were clad in gear marred with scratches and dents. It was easy to see which of the group most actively patrolled in the monster-infested city.
“Thank you for the warning you sent back with Pearce. We might have been caught unprepared if you hadn’t taken out those scouts that attacked you. Did your own recon turn up anything?” Warden Hughes asked after everyone gathered.
“The goblins were swarming over at the casino like a kicked-over beehive,” I replied. “They’re gearing up for something big.”
Several frowns appeared throughout the cluster of officers, followed by muttered worries over the goblin threat.
Surprisingly, Jahgg’d spoke up to silence the concerns. “We have provided you with new armored vehicles. Their vehicles are assembled from scrap and nowhere near as advanced as the weapons you possess. Your attacks will tear through them like one of your paper tissues.”
The mumbles faded away, and the Krym’parke nodded confidently.
“If there are issues, which I doubt,” Jahgg’d continued, “we will stand by to provide air support.” Then the alien focused on me. “What vehicles did you see prepared?”
“Maybe a dozen or so of the bikes and two of the bigger trucks with the gun platforms,” I replied. “None of them had left yet when I started back to report in, but it’s probably been fifteen to twenty minutes.”
“They have more, but that is within expectations,” the alien commented. “Though the real threat will be if they deploy any Advanced Class forces within the expedition that use the regular troops for cover.” The alien looked serious as it pointedly glanced around the assembly. “If any of their higher tier individuals join the conflict, they must be immediately engaged.”
The alien paused to let its words sink in. With the exception of the alien tactician, I had seen no Advanced Class fighters amongst this group, so the threat of one showing up amongst the enemy force sobered everyone. Since everyone still thought I was a Hunter and my true Class remained a secret, hopefully no one would expect me in the center of the fight.
Tension built in the silence, and I realized that even the distant fireworks from the casino had ceased. The lack of the regularly fired explosions felt almost unsettling after days of listening to them whenever I’d been outside.
Then my ears caught the high-pitched whine of a distant motor as it grew louder, the source drawing closer. The noise grew as other engines joined it, and Jahgg’d cocked its head as the alien also picked up on the sounds of the approaching goblin motorbikes.
Hughes looked at Jahgg’d and nodded. The alien pulled a device from its belt and growled something unintelligible into the silver box. A voice growled back from the handheld communicator in the same alien language, and Jahgg’d grinned at the warden.
Then the whine of the engines peaked as a squad of goblin bikers raced out from behind the parking garage at the corner of 6th and Liberty, the direct route into downtown and the same path I had taken from the casino. The squad split up when they hit Liberty Avenue, and a trio of bikers headed in either direction.
Two of the three bikes headed toward us were standard two-wheeled motorcycles, but the third bike had a sidecar with a second rider. The rider in the sidecar held a gadget in front of its face that it peered through as it looked from side to side. Through the thin trees planted in Triangle Park, it caught sight of where we clustered in the street and called out to the other riders as it pointed toward us. All three bikers followed the pointing finger and swung toward us.
Lights blinked along the side of the sidecar passenger’s binocular-like device, indicating it was more high-tech than most gear the goblins used. I swept Greater Observation lightly over the pair of goblins on the bike to get a feel for the incoming forces.
Gribbari Spotter (Level 24)
HP: 170/170
Gribbari Scout (Level 25)
HP: 190/190
While I processed the goblins and their Classes, I ducked out of sight behind the lead Wolverine as everyone also scattered for the cover of their vehicles.
Spotters had two main uses within a military organization. Though often paired with snipers as rangefinders and overwatch, I didn’t think that was the case here. That increased the likelihood of the second option—that some kind of artillery needed the goblin as an observer.
The Wolverine in front of me pulled forward to clear the corner of the building beside us, then it stopped once it had a clear field of fire across the open expanse, the roof-mounted turret opening up on the goblins as they darted through the small park. Shots from the machine gun splintered trees and chipped cement as the trio of bikers spread out. The bikers wove around the benches and planters that covered the plaza as they attempted to avoid the hail of fire.
Then tracers from the Wolverine’s machine gun punched through the front wheel of the lead bike, and it disintegrated under the attack, flinging the rider through the air as the bike flipped end over end. The sidecar
motorcycle turned away sharply as the damaged bike plowed into a planter and exploded, while the other biker veered off to angle in front of the lead Wolverine.
The second Wolverine pulled into the empty oncoming lane and drove around behind me as I circled to the rear of the first vehicle. The pair of machine guns bracketed the oncoming scout and perforated both the bike and rider.
I crouched beside the hotel and peered through the already broken windows of the building lobby as a cheer went up from the Wolverine gunners. The machine gun fire slacked, and the mangled wreck of the goblin bike coasted to a halt in the middle of the street, but the scout’s death took long enough that the spotter vehicle disappeared out of sight around the block ahead before the gunners could retarget.
Thunder ripped through the square, and fire blossomed along the side of the forwardmost Wolverine. The impact of the surprise attack lifted the vehicle from the ground and tipped the vehicle onto its side with the armor panels along the passenger doors crumpled inward, though they remained in one piece.
Across the plaza, one of the goblin wreckers pulled out from the street where the goblin scouts had first emerged, and its cannon belched deafening fire as it took a second shot. This time the attack hit the undercarriage of the Wolverine. Screams echoed from the vehicle as it rolled over onto its roof, flattening the turret with the vehicle’s own weight.
The remaining Wolverine advanced to place itself between the wrecker and the toppled vehicle. With the space to move forward, the Grizzly UAV pulled up behind the pair of smaller vehicles and engaged the wrecker with both turret weapons. A flurry of ruby energy beams streaked across the park and left spots of molten metal across the plates welded to the wrecker’s armor.
Behind me, the police force dismounted from the transport vehicles at the rear of the column and entered the buildings facing the developing firefight. Across the park, similarly deployed goblins opened fire from the second and third floor of the parking garage that blocked the line of sight to anything behind the armored wrecker. Bullets and energy beams crisscrossed the plaza as the ground forces from both sides fully engaged. Nobody hit much of anything, but the center of the park quickly turned into a free-fire zone.
A side door on the flipped Wolverine opened, and a person flopped halfway out onto the pavement. Before I could regret my decision, I sprinted toward the prone officer.
A cannon shot impacted the Grizzly as I darted behind it, and the shockwave of the attack staggered me. I stumbled past the UAV, barely keeping my feet beneath me as the Grizzly returned fire. When I reached the flipped vehicle, I leaned down to grab the collar of the man who lay half out onto the street.
The man screamed in pain as I dragged him from the vehicle, and I looked down to see that below the thigh of his left leg, only a mangled mess of blood and shattered bone remained. Despite his cries, I kept moving and heaved us backward through the window of an apparel store behind us.
I barely heard the sound of the glass shattering over the weapons fire around us, and I pulled the sobbing man down behind the cover of the raised level of the window display shelves. The officer’s helmet fell off when he hit the ground, and I recognized the wounded man.
Kevin groaned in pain, barely conscious from the injury to his leg. If Kevin was here, then Pearce and Zoey were probably still trapped inside the rolled vehicle.
I glanced at the flipped Wolverine but saw no movement. I gathered myself to run out to check the vehicle when a series of blasts detonated over the plaza and the upper stories of buildings around us.
None of the explosions hit the armored vehicles, but they pitted the pavement in several spots across our side of the plaza, all well away from the goblins. From the nearly circular impact craters, the barrage had to have come from almost straight overhead. The indirect nature of the fire meant the goblin spotter had returned and was directing fire toward us.
The arrival of the artillery support shifted the tempo of the firefight in favor of the goblins.
Before the other side could capitalize on the additional firepower, the air over the plaza shimmered, and one of the boxy Krym’parke aircraft became visible as it opened fire with a pair of energy cannons set beneath the cockpit.
The blasts tore chunks out of the parking garage that sheltered the goblin infantry, then punched into the armor of the wrecker’s cab. Smoke billowed from the driver compartment, but the turret behind the cab continued to fire.
With the aliens on both sides now fully engaged, I needed to slip away while the battle raged and kept everyone too busy to pay any attention to me.
A groan from beside me reminded me of one other little thing.
Pain clouded Kevin’s expression as the young man looked at me. “Thanks.” He gritted his teeth against the pain of his injuries. “This is twice now you’ve saved my life.”
“Maybe you can tell me something in return,” I said.
Kevin just looked at me in confusion.
“How many people did you gun down in the street before we met?” I asked.
Kevin recoiled at the chill in my voice, but I grabbed a fistful of his collar before he could push himself away. I leaned over, half on top of him to stay behind the cover of the front window ledge. My forearm pinned him in place, and my weight held him despite his struggles.
“How. Many?” I repeated.
“Six.” His voice wavered, and his gaze flicked nervously from side to side, as if looking for someone to bail him out of his precarious situation.
Gunfire, explosions, and beam fire continued to rage in the plaza, but I had Kevin’s complete attention.
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
Kevin flinched as I rested the cold edge of my knife against his throat just under his chin.
“Ten,” he blurted in panic. “I needed to level up faster, so I killed them when I found out I could get more experience from people than monsters.”
“Hmm.” I pressed the knife a little harder. “And how many of those ten were in self-defense?”
“None,” Kevin whispered.
“None,” I stated. “All of them just shot down on the street in cold blood.”
“Yes.”
Tears streamed from Kevin’s tightly closed eyes, and I held still for a moment.
Then one eye peeked open to look at me, as if to gauge my reaction, and I realized that the young man’s reticence was entirely faked. My expression caused Kevin to jerk both eyes open, and he struggled beneath me.
There were no courts or real prisons in this new world ruled by the System. Only the will of the strong, imposed on the weak. Maybe it wasn’t much, but I could make sure that this excuse for a human being would never kill another undeserving soul.
The blade of my knife rammed up under Kevin’s chin and slipped into his brain. The body twitched as the last of his health drained away, and I pulled out the blade as the stench of death rose around me. I wiped the blade clean on the dead man’s uniform and filched the few useful pieces of gear that remained on his belt.
I glanced up over the cover of the storefront just in time to see a wave of magic wash over the hovering Krym’parke gunship. Fireballs, shards of ice, and electrical blasts battered the airborne craft, and one of the engines failed under the assault. The ship drifted to one side of the plaza and jerked around as the pilot overcorrected. It twisted as it swung back across the park and bounced off the parking garage.
The impact, combined with the continued magical attacks, overwhelmed the protections on a second thruster, and the craft drifted back across the park as it sank toward the ground. The pilot managed to spin it completely around so that its chin-mounted turret kept pointed at the goblin forces, and the weapon continued firing even after the craft crashed into the ground.
Despite the grounding of one craft, another gunship shimmered into view and continued to attack the goblin positions.
Confident that I remained unnoticed, I scooped up Kevin’s helmet and left the body behind as I crawled thro
ugh the racks of clothing that occupied the store until I found my way to the back wall. Though there were several hallway storage rooms, there was no rear door.
I cursed my luck and stayed low as I worked along the back wall until I reached the far side of the store. An off-target mortar had shattered the windows on that side of the building, so I vaulted over the ruined display mannequins and turned left to sprint down the road toward Market Square.
I expected to be shot in the back as I ran since any goblin in the parking garage would have a straight shot down the street toward me, but either they were preoccupied with more immediate targets, or they deemed my retreating form no longer a threat.
Just when I thought I was in the clear, a mortar detonated in the street behind me and knocked me a dozen feet through the air. My left knee hit the ground first, and I felt bone crack from the impact with the pavestones.
Bruised and battered, I tumbled into the otherwise empty Market Square and wiped a bloody nose. I painfully crawled to my feet and hurried to break my line of sight to the battle that continued behind me.
Fortunately for my pride, I saw no one around to witness my airborne exit from the conflict as I hurried down another side street.
Chapter 28
Explosions and gunfire echoed through the streets behind me as I limped away from the battle. The fact that I had managed to walk away was a win in itself, and I now needed to use their distraction to my advantage.
I cast Minor Healing on myself and chugged down a healing potion to deal with my injuries, and the worst of the effects were healed by the time I reached the end of the next block.
Just before I reached the jail, I cast another spell on myself. Since I already wore the helmet I had lifted from the fallen officer, Lesser Disguise only needed to make minor changes as it shifted the color of my jumpsuit to the shade of black used by the police force and a badge appeared on my chest that read “Williamson.” The holstered weapons at my waist were camouflaged as the standard duty belt worn by the officers.
Fist Full of Credits: A New Apocalyptic LitRPG Series (System Apocalypse - Relentless Book 1) Page 37