Drew jumped into a garbage bin.
One of the Slade’s guards pulled the trigger and a bullet punctured the metal bin. An obvious warning shot.
Drew jumped on the lip of the bin and did an acrobatic flip to the ground, running the moment his shoes touched the pavement.
Back in Lookout Mountain, the real Drew snorted in derision. “No one’s going to believe an acrobatic flip…”
Anderle shushed him, his eyes glued to the screen.
The guards chased fake-Drew, body-double-Drew, holographic-Drew, whatever-he-was-he-wasn’t-real-Drew, through the alley and onto a busy street, cars honking and swerving, their lights blinding him as they swept by.
Drew raced onto the street, right in front of a car. He slammed his hands on a hood. Predictably, the car had stopped just inches from him. The driver screamed profanities, then jerked back as a bullet—possibly meant for Drew—sliced the driver right between the eyes.
Drew ran around the car and behind a two-story apartment complex, disappearing into another building. The military men ran after him, then the scene ended.
President Jefferson stepped in front of the camera, a United States flag pin on his suit-coat pocket. “That’s Drew Avera. Our savior. Our champion. Our patriot. Thank you, Drew.”
Anderle turned, grinning from ear to ear. “What do you think, buddy?”
Drew stood, mouth flapping in the wind. “Why?”
Anderle patted Drew’s shoulder. “Look, we need you.”
“Why? For what?” Drew had that, 'no pot for three months' feeling in the pit of his stomach. The one that told him 'bad things will happen'. Now. He would have given a steaming, dripping kidney, just to be allowed to light up and kick back. His old friend Anderle had shifted into some bad shit. Drew wasn’t sure he wanted to know what kind of shit exactly, but as soon as that thought entered his mind, he knew he had to dig deeper. The journalist in him always won out. Even over the stoner.
Anderle slipped his hand off Drew’s shoulder and walked toward the doorway. He spun on his heels, lips curled. “I’ll let you and Mya stay safe if you’re game with what we need you to do. I won’t if you decide to sit on your ass and do nothing. You’re living like a prince, Drew. Don’t be a disrespectful prick.”
It was true. Drew was being treated like a king and Mya like a prisoner.
Drew put his hands behind his head in what he hoped was a show of casual nonchalance. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”
Anderle smiled. “It’s for the benefit of all.” He eyed a soldier. “Take over the other guards watch over Mya.” The man nodded, and he and Anderle disappeared around the corner. Drew sighed, then stood when a clack of boots pierced the hallway, slowly coming closer.
Click.
Clack.
Click.
General Yu took a step into view, cocking his head in Drew’s direction. He pointed, shaking his head, making sarcastic puppy-dog eyes, his lower lip pushed out in an exaggerated pout. He pointed his finger at him, pushing his thumb, creating a fake gun with his hand. “This for Mya,” came out of his mouth. He cocked his thumb back with his other hand and released, dropping his thumb down, “Phta, Phta,” he sounded, spit shooting out of his mouth. It was the sound of a silencer on a gun. “Pour little Mya. She important to us. You be careful or we make her dead. Then you die.”
8
Leonia, Canis Major - Galactic Arm, Milky Way Galaxy
“We’re going all out to get these monsters where it hurts. They won’t understand what hit them. What comes next is unknown. We win? We lose? We can’t say. All we can say is we do battle against the Agadon with our all. Sync up!” said Zara.
Jaxx was inside a combat-mech. It had several blasters on its forearms, dozens of missile launchers on its chest, cannons mounted on its shoulders, and a giant sword holstered to its back, the hilt sticking up above the mech’s head. The cockpit—inside lion’s head—had a large window that wrapped from the front to the sides of the mech’s face.
“Jaxx, you’re the only one not syncing up. We can’t leave until all units are linked together through our nexus,” explained Zara.
“How?”
“Behind you is a Kepi, a hair harness. Put it on.”
Jaxx twisted in his seat, eyeing something sticky. It looked like a jelly fish stuck to the wall. “The slimy thing?”
“It’s not slimy, Jaxx. Put it on.”
“I guess this is something I didn’t learn about in my ten-minute training.” He rolled his eyes. How would ten minutes give him everything he would need to know about combat, let alone driving one of these massive machines? Still, he couldn’t not do his duty. He’d brought this hell down upon them. The least he could do was to slap a jellyfish on his head.
Jaxx unclasped the helmet from the bulkhead panel. A gold wire of some-sort was attached to it and rolled out like a hose when Jaxx put the helmet over his head.
A shock of electricity bolted down his brain, through the central nervous system, connecting to every synapse he knew he had and many more he thought were non-existent. He stiffened and a dynamic blue vortex encompassed his vision. He lifted his chin. He unconsciously sucked in a gulp of air. He spasmed as a charge went into his sacrum. A moment later, everything settled and his vision normalized.
“Your Kepi connects with your hair. Your hair is an antenna to your psyche, your mind, and your heart. Your mech is now synced up with you, and you with us. The rest I do not need to repeat, as you have learned all you need to know in your training download.”
Jaxx checked over his mech’s stabilization screen. Everything checked out fine. He pressed back and forth on his gyro lever and his mech bent at the knees and then straightened. He smirked. The power was like nothing he’d felt before. Screw being an archeologist, he was a warrior.
The gyros were online, balancing his hips and torso. He checked his instrument panel and flinched. The display readings extended outward, then slowly poured through his eyes and into his brain. His mind erupted in images, gauges, and numbers in his language, everything telling him that he was good to go: heat syncs on-line and stable, weapons fully charged, missile batteries fully loaded, and the Ashanti sword—medium-width sword at the hilt and three times as wide from mid-sword to the tip—was sharpened and magnetized to his mech’s back. And gyro-joints were at full strength.
He leaned back and flicked on the engines. A thunderous roar zipped through his cockpit, then quieted, purring like a cat.
“Defensive assault ready to commence,” said Zara.
The ceiling cracked in two, opening slowly. Dirt and brush fell into the underground facility like sand into the bottom of an hourglass. The two-suns in this planet’s system shone above, lighting everything, including Jaxx.
Several Agadon starfighters flew overhead, their heavy rocket boosters spat out blue fire.
Jaxx's console told him the starfighters flew at thousands of miles per hour. It was a wonder he could see them at all. Must be the mech-tech at work.
Jaxx tapped some buttons on the console, bringing up an Agadon starfighter blueprint. A holographic image of a starfighter popped up and spun in front of him. The craft had long wings that curved ninety-degrees halfway and jutted forward several meters past the craft’s nose.
“Commence!” yelled Zara.
Each Leonian combat-mech crouched, then jumped, igniting their boosters. They blasted out of the opening.
Jaxx pulled a lever toward him, putting his mech into a crouch, then released the lever and pressed his mech’s feet boosters at the same time, shooting him out of the underground facility. He lifted over the lip and landed on a wheat field. He lunged back and vibrated violently as a missile cluster bombarded his position.
He balanced himself and checked his diagnostics. A few missiles had singed his mech’s legs, melting a thin layer of armor. Nothing catastrophic.
He took a step forward and halted, spinning his cannon barrels online, readying to step around a few L
eonian mechs in front of him.
An explosion jerked his head back and he shielded his eyes. The eruption dying down and he lowered his forearm. A Leonian mech in front of him teetered forward, armor on fire, internals spraying sparks like an active volcano. It smashed, face-first, into the wheat field.
Another Leonian mech moved backward, absorbing the shock. A sizzling blue electricity spiraled from its crown to its armored boots. It lurched forward, and in a flash, the mech raced across the wheat field, and unsheathed its sword. The more steps it took, the more of a blur the mech became.
It slammed into an Agadon mech. The Agadon wavered as the Leonian dug its sword through the enemy’s torso. Fire blasted from the Agadon mech and slabs of armor dropped to the ground. Puffs of smoke rose where each slab fell. The Leonian slashed upward, slicing through the Agadon mech’s chest, neck, and head, sparks and fire splashing against the Leonian mech, like blood.
The Agadon teetered but was so compromised, the Leonian only needed to swat its palm onto the Agadon’s shoulder to push it over and onto its side. The Agadon’s metal crashed upon the ground, and a secondary glow of fire burst toward the heavens.
An alert blared in Jaxx’s cockpit. Adrenalin shot through him and his heartbeat quickened. He scanned the battlefield.
An Agadon mech landed a clip from him, pointed its arm in Jaxx’s direction and shot a burst of cannon fire.
Jaxx’s mech reeled back, its shoulder absorbing the shock. His cockpit shook and his torso twisted, while its hips and legs remained planted in place. He narrowed his eyes and twisted back around.
The Agadon ran in his direction.
Jaxx lunged forward and went into a run himself.
The Agadon lifted his mech’s arm and a blaster popped up. It shot several slugs Jaxx’s way.
Jaxx side stepped. In the next moment, he lifted his mech’s arm and smacked a fist into the Agadon’s outstreched arm, then zipped two shoulder mounted cannon slugs of his own into the enemy mech’s belly. Armor blasted outward and melted and fell, pelting the ground, running off the mech like hot butter.
The Agadon maneuvered away and sent an avalanche of cannon fire at Jaxx.
Jaxx anticipated and crouched, his mech’s actuators growling in the process. He pressed a holographic weapon’s button on the console, demagnetizing his sword, letting it drop toward the ground. He brought his mech’s arm behind his back, catching the sword at its hilt, and swung it at the Agadon’s knees.
A waterfall of sparks shot out as the Agadon mech’s joints failed. The sword cut through, toppling the Agadon onto its side. The ground shook on impact.
Jaxx jumped into the air, landing flat footed on the Agadon’s mechanized chest, caving the armor inward.
He shifted his mech’s view screen from forward to holovid cams near his mech’s feet, seeing green fluids sludging out of the mech’s chassis, exposing gold and silver wires bundled and torn in half.
He switched cam views and dug the tip of his sword into the mech’s neck, severing the head. A sea of flames exploded as wires, valves, and hydraulic dynamos split in two, charring the ground.
He picked up the enemy mech’s head and held it in front of his cockpit, eying the enemy pilot—the asshole invader, someone like Slade or worse yet, like Fox and the Kelhoon slime that invaded Taiyo when Jaxx was in the Secret Space Program.
To his surprise, the Agadon was human-looking with wider eyes, grayish skin and no hair. He was hooked into the mech via several hoses and wires that dug into the top of his skull. He looked taller and wider than the average human, his neck only a few inches in length.
The Agadon bared his teeth, screaming words that Jaxx couldn’t hear. He threw his fist in the air.
Jaxx dropped him, instinctively knowing what was coming next and jumped his mech away from the impending explosion. The mech’s head detonated and blew into a thousand pieces, spinning Jaxx off his feet and landing him onto his mech’s hands and knees. His eyes widened when he saw a handful of Leonian warriors glaring up at him in the wheat field, their translucent shields up, covering themselves.
One dipped his head at Jaxx and waved his hand forward, ordering Jaxx to follow them into battle.
Jaxx pushed off the ground, standing his mech upright. An enemy starfighter zoomed across the sky and descended toward the troops Jaxx had almost crushed. The starfighter’s cannons lit, strafing the ground, barreling in on the Leonian soldiers.
Jaxx adjusted his targeting. His mech wined as the missile casing in his mech’s chest opened. He pulled the trigger.
Whooooshka! Whooooshka!
His hip gyros acclimated to the missile’s pushback. A second later, the starfighter went up in a ball of flames.
Jaxx ducked as another starfighter flew through the fireball, ions blasting out of its wings. He lifted his sword jabbing through the starfighter’s belly just as it flew overhead, and flung the starfighter across the field, lucky to hit another Agadon mech heading his way.
He stood, letting loose everything he had, blanketing its chest with blaster fire and dozens of missiles.
Fire splintered outward from the opposing mech and Jaxx ran forward, lifted his sword over his shoulder and threw it at an immense speed, digging the tip into the Mech’s cockpit where it glided through to the other side, cutting the Agadon cockpit in half.
The mech went lifeless and fell over. Steam puffed outward in all directions.
Jaxx continued to race forward, dodging enemy fire until he reached his sword. He pulled it out of the enemy and swung it over his shoulder, magnetizing it to his back.
Jaxx took a breath and gathered himself. The battlefield—which only minutes before had been full of grain fields, huts, and barren land—was ablaze. Smoke billowed. Fallen Leonian soldiers carpeted the ground, along with enemy and friendly mechs. Those still standing were dodging and firing, puncturing through mech armor, evading starfighter strafing, and throwing everything they had.
The ground rumbled and a large craft the size of a star carrier with a lion’s head at its bow lifted out of the ground on the horizon. Jaxx’s mouth opened as he eyed a starfighter battle raging in the sky, pitting Leonian starfighters—thin craft with two small wings that lined both sides—against Agadon starfighters.
The heavens thundered.
The large Leonian star carrier rotated its turrets, targeting an inbound Agadon ship the size of a destroyer. The star carrier sent purple energy bursts its way. The Agadon ship turned, exposing its side, just as the Leonian ship’s blasts tore through the Agadon’s starboard. Fire spewed and the ship tilted and dipped, righting itself seconds later.
“Get to battle, peach-face!” demanded Zara.
“Right.” Jaxx spun, seeing two Agadon mech’s with their backs to him a hundred yards away, fighting with a Leonian mech.
He pressed his mech forward and catapulted himself into the air. He pointed his feet toward the center of each of the enemy mech’s and slammed his feet into their armor, fracturing one mech, pushing him face down into the ground.
His foot impacted the other mech, though only managing to push it aside.
A sword plunged into the Agadon’s chest armor. The enemy mech lost power and fell to its knees. The Leonian mech pulled the sword out and dipped its head to Jaxx. “Thanks for the assist.”
It was Zara.
“No proble—” His mech’s feet were swiped out from under him and his cockpit shivered as Jaxx’s mech landed on its back. An Agadon mech loomed and pointed a blaster cannon at Jaxx’s cockpit. The cannon’s barrel reddened and a sizzling hot energy charge expelled.
9
E-Quadrant, Earth - Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
Drew opened a door onto a barrage of flickering computer lights and rows upon rows of people working at computers stations. Some had their feet on their desks, leaning back against their chairs, others were hunched over their keyboards, watching two or three monitors at a time.
This was Anderle’s family, his crusader
s of the Dark Net, his hackers. And there was a shitload of them.
A screen covered the entire south wall. Smack in the center of the screen was Mya’s picture. She was in the arms of a man in camo, his face excited, as if he hadn’t seen her for some time. They had the same skin tone, tan, Puerto Rican. She leaned on his arm like a comfortable child with a parent.
In the corner of the screen was a map of North Carolina, a dot hovering over the words Marine Corp Base Camp. Data streamed across the screen, tabulating United States military movements. They were tracking someone or a group of people, perhaps an entire brigade. That was a shit ton of manpower to dedicate to track a military group.
Drew studied the data as it streamed by. Little by little, a picture emerged. It wasn’t a platoon. It was a single individual, code name, 'Arecibo'. It was the name of Puerto Rico’s most famous observatory. Did that mean he was the observer or the observed? It didn’t add up. Mya was at the center of something.
Drew pressed his brain, but nothing popped.
A young guy twirled around in his chair and nodded. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen-years-old. “Hey, sailor. Whatcha’ in for?” He chewed gum, smiling just a tad.
“I’m Michael Anderle’s friend. I’m just visiting.” He didn’t know if he could call Anderle a friend anymore, but maybe it would work in here, a place he could get some answers—he hoped.
The guy cocked his head, his mouth straightening, eyes serious. “You’re not a patriot hat?” He dropped his feet off his desk. “You’re that Drew guy.” He quickly typed on his computer and the main screen shut off. Commotion filled the room. He pointed to the door. “Get out.”
“A patriot hat?”
“A hacker for the New United States of America. We protect our country. Now, go.”
“I was told—”
“Whoever told you anything about being in this room told you shit. Now get your ass out or we’ll throw you out.” He flicked his nose, then wiped his finger on his shirt. “Guards!”
Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Page 53