Chương 119: Chapter 118 – Unintended Consequences

"Lemme have a listen," muttered Coach, taking the headset and pressing one side to his ear. He scowled.

"Damn fools cloggin' up the EMwaves. This is no time to be… hold on." He glanced at Cole with an eyebrow raised.

"Son, I think they're callin' for you." Cole accepted the headset and listened. The message had a pre-recorded vibe to it, which he confirmed when it stopped for three seconds and then started from the beginning of a script." Angelic emissaries of a world unknown. We bid you welcome and hear our call. What you seek is here. We have planted the seed of salvation and its fruit has ripened, but our time is limited. Hextant has seen past our shroud and sends a devil to quell our efforts. Seek us at…"

Cole listened a while longer until the message finished and started to repeat before handing the headset back to the operator.

"Those guys are scientists?" he asked.

"They sound more like cultists."" Computer scientists. But… you ain't wrong on the second count," said Coach.

"How the heck they got wind of you bein' in the city is anyone's guess. But if they know somethin' they ought not, maybe it's to do with your missing boy. And they seem to know something's coming."

"An invitation is better than a warning," said Therza.

"But that's leaving the engine for the caboose. We still have to get you there."

"True enough," said Cole.

"Alright. Ms. Therza, as soon as you're ready."

"Just Therza is fine," she said, slapping his shoulder as she headed for the door.

"Unless you're one of my students or Coach." She grinned at him.

"I guess you're not that far out of the classroom yourself. You're younger than you look, aren't you?" Cole didn't answer that one. Life in the infantry aged everyone prematurely—and only the least of it showed on the face. Twenty minutes later the rest of the team assembled on the parking deck. Therza had two vehicles with drivers. They'd be split between a van and a flatbed truck with a mounted gun in the rear.

"These can get us part of the way," she said.

"But there's a flooded band with no passages wide enough for vehicles. We're on foot from there."

"Roger that." Cole looked up at the gun mount.

"That machine gun a loot drop?"

"Manufactured," said Therza.

"It'll work for anybody."

"Alright. Besson, take that technical. I'll ride shotgun in the truck. Everyone else in the other vic." Besson heaved his pack over the side of the truck bed before vaulting in and inspecting the gun. Cole swung his own bag into the footwell of the bench seat in front. Therza climbed in the middle seat next to the driver and Cole took the outer seat, shortening his rifle to a carbine length with a hiss of steam so that he could freely move it in the truck cab. Therza eyed the gun with some wariness.

"I take it you found that on one of your excursions? Can't imagine it came out of a factory."

"Less an excursion, more some uninvited guests," said Cole.

"Hate to see the thing that dropped it." Cole thought back to the abyssal monsters that flooded the Oak Ridge laboratory, the giant venomous sea-snake and the tentacled masses with multiple mouths and watery eyes. He suppressed a shudder. He'd see them again, if they went to Ryan's world. Despite what Bricker had said, there was no way he'd sit out any mission to try and contact Ryan if he was still alive. As the vehicles rolled out, Cole fished in his bag.

He still had the field stripped parts from Babel, and his gun had at least proved that it would be reliable in a fight. The fire control group of Blood Gorging seemed like it would go well on his ravenous rifle, so he held it against the receiver and used Tinker. The gun sent him a pang of discomfort and resisted the part at first, but gradually accepted it, and he could feel the piece sink into place. The vents on the right side of the receiver expanded, and now softly pulsed with thin red veins.

Now lethal hits would make his rifle hit even harder. If Howie was right, that should even proc on enemies killed by his penetrating bounces. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Therza watched him.

"Field armorer?"

"Probably similar," he said.

"I can break down firearms and add their affixes to other weapons."

"Yeah, we had someone that could do that. But one of Hextant's marksmen put a hole in his chest almost a year ago." Cole considered. One of the primary reasons Bricker ran the training through Curahee was the arquebus engineer subclass. If Hexighast had something similar…

"You know, if you don't mind folks from my world coming to scrap a few of your bots, could be cause to visit more." Therza laughed.

"Cole, I don't think anyone will have a problem with people from your world hunting tin for us. But that's easier said than done. And these waters… well, there might not be much city left in a few years." Cole looked out the window at the flooded city as they drove across a section of highway. Below them, the rooftops of two-story buildings made little islands in the water.

"What's causing the flood? I get the bots are bad, but at least you can hit them with your hammer. You seemed to think the flood was related, but I don't get how that's possible." Therza looked at him.

"It's Hextant. The automatons, the flood, everything. When he took over the Hodges-Bridger Layer, his processing load multiplied exponentially. His cooling systems relied on heat exchanger pumps running hundreds of miles up past the polar line. It was supposed to be sustainable, so much mass to absorb the thermal energy that the sea level rise wouldn't even be measurable. But now the load is so great that it's melting the ice cap."

"Jeez," said Cole. The driver spoke up on Therza's other side.

"Ms. Therza, we're coming up on the—" Something twitched at the edge of Cole's vision just before the glass on the driver's side window shattered and a spray of blood erupted from the driver. He shouted and slammed on the brakes, causing the truck to swerve.

"Contact left!" shouted Cole. Therza pulled the driver's head down as another round skipped off the windscreen, leaving a spiderweb crack. Besson swiveled the rear gun around and hammered the structure on their left side. Cole pushed his door open and moved up beside the engine block, sighting for the threat. The van also pulled up, and his team dismounted.

"How is he?" Therza was pulling the driver out and into cover behind the truck.

"Hit his arm. He'll live." Cole raised his voice.

"Roxy! Need you over here." Roxy pushed up behind her shield. Another round arced down from the high rise and left a dent in the metal. Cole raised his own rifle, which elongated back to DMR length. Where are you?

"Cole!" shouted Nona. She had her otherworld submachine gun up. While the bot would be out of its effective range, its optic was supposed to highlight robotic enemies.

"Fifth level from the top, right side!" Cole followed her directions, seeing a flash of sunlight on metal and a small muzzle flare before another round skipped off the top of the truck. He sighted in and spotted the automaton, whose right arm and shoulder were one whole gun assembly. He lifted his crosshairs just a bit to account for the drop and squeezed the trigger. His round arced up, riding its meteoric trail as it accelerated, then smashed into the chest of the automaton, just left of centerline.

The bot erupted in a shower of sparks and slumped to the side.

"Any others?" asked Cole. He burned half a charge to activate his marking and swept around. Nona scanned too.

"I don't see anything," she said.

"Wait! Dead ahead, behind the bus!"

"Got 'em!" Howie called. He raised his cannon and fired several projectiles that pierced the bus and erupted into frost clouds that arced with lightning within, silhouetting several humanoid forms. Cole continued sweeping as Roxy used a Malleable Mender charge to staunch the bleeding from the driver. Therza grimaced up at him.

"The bots aren't usually this far out of the Dark City. This is as far as the vehicles go, I'm going to have them both take the van back."

"Guess we're on foot, for now," said Cole.

"We would have been anyway, we're coming up on the end of the navigable road," said Therza.

"Then let's move. You said they see worse at night?"

"They do." Cole considered and looked at the sun dropping in the sky. It was only about a finger's width above the horizon.

"Alright. Let's get under cover and push deeper under NODs."

"Good plan," said Therza.

"Just so you know, moving at night here has its own risks. But it's better than being picked off from the towers." They stayed to cover the two drivers retreating in the van before pushing out of cover toward the nearest hard structure. Many of the buildings still above water had improvised foot-bridge access to the main highway, and to each other. As soon as they reached one, Cole sent the others to clear the level to make sure no surprises were waiting for them.

"Our foragers built out these connections in the early days," said Therza.

"Once the waters started to rise, we needed ways to get around on foot. The highways were too dangerous without a vehicle. Elevation rises north of here, so there's still some dry land. That's where we're headed."" Cole, this deck is clear," came Besson's voice over the radio. Nutmeg's bark echoed through the hollowed out structure.

"Alright," Cole sent back.

"Eyes on staircases and access points. Stay sharp. We hold here until dark."