Gunship (3 page)

Ty grumbled, “I’m a deception expert, not a mind reader. I actually have to be in the same room with someone to…” He went quiet as Reilly raised her fist.

The breeze stopped and the grass went still. They both tensed, waiting, frozen in place.

“Do you see them?” Ty whispered. “They should be right…” He poked lightly at the grass just in front of them.

The ground erupted. Two machines launched at them, crossing in midair.

“Enforcers!” Ty shouted. He unleashed a spray of laser fire at the nearest threat.

The machines were made of metal coated with nano-polymers that changed with the environment, allowing them to better blend in with the grass. As they leapt, the gold and brown stripes changed to a dull metallic gray. A single eye-like sensor emitted green as it tracked the targets, recording height, weight, armament, armor. Reilly rolled to the right, hitting the ground and firing up as the machine attempted to adjust to her movement, rolling and twisting in midair itself. Its knife-like claws grasped at where she had been as she blasted upwards into the thin underbelly plating. The primary processor resided there, and damaging it would limit or completely destroy the machine’s ability to prosecute its target. The first shot missed, and she dove again as the Enforcer hit the ground and leapt in an arch above her, firing as it moved. The machine hit the ground on its forelegs, and Reilly swung her boot, placing a kick against the closest joint and forcing the machine slightly off balance. The rear legs compensated, and the Enforcer turned again in a dizzying circle, launching directly at her head and chest. At the last moment, Reilly threw herself backwards and punched up with her blaster firing several rounds. The machine fell to the ground, fading between gray and grass stripes as it lurched forward, attempting to reach its target. The mouth snapped open, revealing a set of titanium fangs that receded only to be replaced with a rifled laser shot barrel, forcing Reilly to roll as it blasted two large holes where she had been. She shot it again, this time just behind the plating that guarded the neck and shoulder connection, severing the metallic head.

Meanwhile, Ty had blasted his machine in the face, blinding the sight and heat sensors, forcing it to revert to secondary tracking mechanisms. The machine searched for vibrations by sending out a quick sonar ping to detect his heartbeat and movement. It came at him a second time, swiping with sharp claws and metal fangs that could easily cleave body parts. Whoever had set these machines up liked to see them play with their prey first. He twisted away and rolled, landing on his stomach as the machine seemed to turn on a dime to come back at him. Ty pulled a black, segmented grenade off his tac-vest and rolled it out. The device split into six pieces that began to give off heartbeat signatures that mimicked his own and immediately spread out around the periphery. The machine, confused for a moment, turned, trying to decide which one was the appropriate target. Ty lurched forward, put his weapon under the metallic beast’s head, and pulled the trigger, obliterating the entire front end. He staggered up, getting to his feet just as the third machine emerged from the grass behind him.

“Ty, drop!” Reilly ordered. He fell to the ground like a rock, rolling onto his back as he realized what was happening. He shot twice into the machine’s undercarriage, paralyzing the back legs and taking out the processer as it passed over him. He lay there a moment getting his breath, then jumped to his feet. Reilly was a few feet away looking down at the last machine. She had shot it as well in the front visor, blinding it, but not before it had torn a nice slice down her arm.

“Shit.” She was bleeding all over the place. Ty jogged over. “Looks like it got a piece of ya.” He quickly elevated her arm, tore the tattered sleeve away, and then pulled an olive drab cloth out of his side kit, wrapped it twice, and cinched it down to stop the bleeding. She winced.

“You think? That’s just fraggin’ great!” Reilly angrily tested the arm. It was painful, but she could wait until she got back to the ship to get it looked at. The muscle was intact, so she could still pull or lift with it, which was good.

Ty wiped his brow and looked around. “Well, what do you want to do, Cap? We weren’t expecting any kinda welcome, but we’re sure getting one. Not in the price I remember getting quoted for this job.”

Reilly swept angrily at the thin trickle of blood that was seeping out from beneath the makeshift bandage as she looked around. She pulled out her handheld and scanned the area again while she thought. At this rate, who knew what else was going to come up. She had half a mind to turn around and forget the whole thing. But she had never failed to complete an op before, no matter what came up, and she was damned if this cursed mess was going to be the first.

“I got nothing.” She met Ty’s look. “Let’s get Maude and finish this.”

They jogged back to the TORR and continued cautiously on to the squat gray concrete building that was currently the cause of all their troubles. It was nothing special. Small, made of cinder blocks and cement, with a standard tactical force field around it. Reilly used her handheld to run a quick security hack, and then they pushed the heavy metal door open. The inside was equally unimpressive. Three walls were lined with metal and mesh lockers, while the floor was covered in green crates. Ty shot the locks off the cages and looked for the box they had been sent to retrieve. Once he found it, he secured it in his pack and turned to Reilly.

“Got it. What now?” Ty walked over to where she stood and gave a low whistle.

Reilly stood staring at the contents of the containers she had opened. The two crates up front were loaded with weapons and HEAT grenades which could blast through titanium plate like a knife through butter. Another crate had breacher charges which could be put out an airlock, remotely guided to another ship’s hull, and then detonated. This was top-grade military weaponry, hard to come by even on the Allied-controlled planets, let alone in someplace like this shithole of a moon.

“What did we get us into, Captain?” Ty muttered.

“I don’t know, but we’re here now. Let’s load it up. All of it.” She glanced around again. “I think me and Welch are going to have a bit of a chat when we get back to Arias.” Reilly tossed her torn, bloody jacket aside, cinched down the black bandage, grabbed a crate, and headed out.

They had been working for around twenty minutes, loading all but a few of the crates up, when their earpieces crackled to life.

“Um, Captain?”

“Duv—yeah, I’m here, what is it?” Reilly responded as she finished tying down a set of crates on the TORR. Ty carried out a couple more boxes and went back in to get the last of the crates.

“We’ve been getting some real odd readings up here. Where are you exactly?” Duv asked. “You aren’t by chance those two little dots by that itty bitty little building, are you? Damn interference is making it hard to see…uh oh.” Duv inhaled sharply.

“That would be us. We’re finishing up the load-out, should be done here in the next ten minutes or so. Is there a problem?”

“Well, if by problem you mean five class-four Enforcers coming out of nowhere and moving in on your position from the west at about eighty clicks per minute…then yes, a big damn problem!”

Reilly dropped her crate in the vehicle and jumped on the TORR. “Ty! We got company! We gotta move!”

Ty ran out and jumped into the seat next to her. “Bad?” he asked as she strapped in and hit the throttle, jacking Maude into high gear and swerving out onto the road. She nodded tersely. He climbed into the back and snapped his harness into the turret post, looking out backwards over the cargo.

“Five class fours heading our way at eighty clicks from the west.” Reilly focused on driving, ignoring the ruts and hoping that they would come out of this best case with some of their haul, or at least with their lives and most of their limbs still intact.

“Maybe Chang was right; maybe this job really is cursed!” Ty turned the turret west as they bounced along the edge of the field towards the ship. “Where the hell did they come from? We scanned everything!”

“I don’t know. Maybe they were activated by something we moved, or maybe they were just hiding in the noise,” Reilly said as she touched her earpiece. “Duv, I need you to come our way. We’re going to need some cover fire to get to you.”

“Roger that. You know I have to lift off to fire, though—we may have to get creative with getting you guys on board.” Duv fired the engines, pulled on the comms-mic, and announced to the rest of the crew, “Lock it down, folks. We’re on our way to pick up the Captain, and we may experience turbulence, gunfire, and explosions.” He slammed the mic back into place and turned the ship low and fast, moving towards the canyon.

The grassland turned to red dirt as the TORR sped into the stretch of canyons. Right now, all they had going for them was speed and a laser turret, and that wasn’t much against class fours. Enforcers had been created by the black-market programmers as mobile security systems. They were relatively cheap and more reliable than regular human security forces. Over time, they had developed numerous forms, although many looked like overgrown metallic lizards, cats, or wolves, depending on the designer. Class ones were the cheapest models and could be easily defeated by anyone with the right training. The versions Reilly and Ty had encountered in the field had been class threes. It was rare to come across them, but someone with the right connections and enough cash could pick up a few and save some change on the care and feeding of regular thugs to watch over their stash. The machines were much more reliable and completely loyal to their programming. Each machine had its own unique code that was generated securely and provided to the owner to ensure that the system had not been compromised. After receiving the code, the owner could set up any number of daily tasks or situations for the machines to respond to, create a schedule, and then let the program run. A computer log and updates could be sent to the owner’s handset as well as alarms and resolution reports when a threat had been stopped or neutralized. The Enforcer series went up to class five. During her time in the ISUs, Reilly had only ever seen one class four. It had taken apart an entire platoon and a half of elites before the firepower from two other platoons and an interplanetary tank round rendered it a smoking hole in the ground. For someone to have not one but eight upper-class Enforcers running around in a small, uninhabited area on a semi-vacant moon was not a good thing.

Ty looked through the holographic sites, watching the horizon. He couldn’t see them yet, but the system was tracking the dots coming up on the outer proximity ring. Two split off and stayed west, while the other three headed south and east.

“They split—looks like they are trying to get above us on top of the canyon walls while the other ones run us down from behind,” Ty hollered to Reilly over the rush of the wind.

Reilly focused on the dirt track up ahead. The Heads-Up Display showed the rock outcroppings and the canyon walls beginning to narrow. Several box canyons off to the right would make great ambush spots for the machines. To their left, the rock wall was solid until they got to the main ridge. Then it disappeared into thin air with a thousand-foot drop to the canyon’s floor.

The red rocks flew by as Maude bounced and jolted along. Ty watched behind them. The three Enforcers coming from the rear were now visible and seemed to be speeding up.

“Probably because they have target acquisition and are waiting to get within range of the old girl to blast her to pieces,” he muttered to himself. A shower of rocks tumbled down on his left. He glanced up to see another Enforcer above them on the canyon’s ridgeline. The head was lizard-shaped and an odd metallic gold color. A sudden bright light flashed, briefly blinding him.

“Incoming!” Ty yelled.

The rockets slammed to the right of Maude as Reilly swerved behind a boulder using the terrain as cover for the vehicle. Two more augured in just behind them as she reversed direction and skidded back left down the track that led to the main ridge.

Ty blinked furiously, trying to clear his sight. The turret gun gave an audible tone indicating that a threat had been locked on. Ty gripped the trigger, pulling back hard. As his vision turned from splotchy dots to a gray haze, Ty saw the rounds connect with the target, knocking the Enforcer on the ridge back several feet. Smoking, it shook itself off and leaped forward, disappearing from view. The holo-sights showed the machine moving behind the ridge line but still keeping pace with them. He trained his gun to the rear on the three Enforcers there. He made solid contact with the first machine, laying down a stream of laser-propelled molten tantalum rounds until it dropped into a heap. He grinned and fired at the second one. The rounds bounced off like rain. Crap. They had phase shifted. He turned the dial to shift the laser and try again. The gun thundered, and a second Enforcer lay smoldering in a heap of molten metal.

“Yeah! Take that, you metallic bastards!” Ty unleashed another stream of fire, but this time nothing happened. These Enforcers had phase-shift adapters, which meant that they could read the gun’s output and adjust to the rate and type of fire as well as predict and defend against any variances that the system could produce after two shifts by the weapon.