Chương 122: Chapter 121 – Mark I

After another forty minutes and two more encounters as brief and brutal as the previous, the patrol turned west toward the ocean and the rising glow on the horizon. One of the automatons extended an antenna and the whole patrol stopped in place as if frozen. A blue light began to pulse like an IFF strobe on the back of each bot.

"What are they doing?" asked Cole. He glanced at the schoolteacher, whose eyes had gone as wide in shock. She pulled at his plate carrier." We have to run!" Trust the local's sense of danger. Didn't matter if it was Syria or Hexighast. Therza hadn't survived this long by being foolish.

"Go!" he said.

"Everyone, pull back." Therza took off down the street at a dead sprint. Cole followed her, preemptively burning one of his charges to mark any nearby monsters. There were lots of them. Dull glows lit up in several structures on either side of their path. Before Cole could shout a warning to Therza, the automaton tank's foghorn sounded again, and bright lights at their back cast the street into stark relief.

"Off the street and cover!" said Cole.

"Howie, smo—" Before he'd even finished his sentence, Howie flushed the entire area behind them with thick ice fog, completely blocking the automaton patrol from view. Cole veered left, crashing through a boarded-up window and rolling through a half-inch of dirty water flooding the interior. The automaton's cannons droned and bullets tore through the fog, the street, and the building at chest level.

Most of the squad was already low behind hard cover, and Roxy had her shield angled back with Therza crouched behind her. On the level above them, a chorus of angry chittering filtered down along with the buzz of wings. Cole pushed himself back up, moving through the first floor of the building.

"On me!" he called. The street was suicide, so the only option was pushing through the building. The cannons howled again as the disturbed nest on the higher levels boiled out onto the street. Luckily, the ground-level was mostly clear, but a red glow began to mount at a section of collapsed ceiling.

"Left, high," said Cole. He stopped and took aim as dozens of armored wasp-like insects the size of footballs forced themselves through the opening, immediately locking in on Cole and his squad. His rifle shifted to its shorter, multi-barrel form with a hiss of steam and he sent a storm of rounds into the swarm. Bugs exploded in bursts of goo, ricochets carving holes in multiple monsters with each shot.

The rifle in his hands started to buck as the modified fire control group triggered his stacking on-kill damage and recoil increase over and over. His rounds started to completely mulch the enemies they touched as if they'd been hit by a. 50 cal instead of a carbine. His gun sent a pang of extreme satisfaction, and another of hunger. Cole pulled out another magazine and fed it to the waiting tentacles. Where the foul fluid in the wasps landed, it began to hiss and smoke. Some sort of acid venom, maybe.

Not something they needed right now, that was for sure. Cole raised his voice to be heard over the screeching of the disturbed nest.

"Howie, plug that hole!"

"On the way!" Howie's cannon thundered, sending a bright red shell into the ceiling that exploded in a cloud of crackling flame that lingered at the opening, searing the wasps. The ones still fighting to get through the opening started shrieking and pulling back, instead, causing a huge jam-up that roasted dozens of the evil-looking wasps. But some had managed to get through. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Keeping moving, I got this!" shouted Alexa. Her familiar ran past, guns swiveled backward and picking off the wasps giving chase. But that wasn't the only gap between levels, and more monsters—and worse—were coming. Up ahead, Besson reached the far wall and smashed through a double door, pushing through with his machine gun raised. Two short bursts and a screech later, he called back." Clear! This way!"

Cole risked a glance back and watched as the world's worst laser concert sliced up the swarm on the street behind them. Red reaper. Several humanoid silhouettes approached in the fog, backlit by the floodlights of the massive automaton tank. Cole watched, wary of the little walking trashcan to appear. Therza hung back long enough to swing her hammer through one of the support pillars as she passed, causing the floor above to start crumbling down.

They kept ahead of the falling debris as it cut the deadly automaton's line of sight off. Luckily, it was almost dark enough in the lower level for even Cole to need NODs, so it was likely that the bot hadn't been able to track them from that distance. Would that laser have slashed right through his plate carrier and carved him in half faster than he could blink? Cole had seen lasers shoot drones and rockets down, but they hadn't been anything like what that little trashcan packed.

Cole refreshed his target marking as they busted out the other side of the structure. Ahead looked clear, but blinding lights swept over them from the right, where a second automaton patrol approached. A massive cannon swung in his direction.

"Cole!" Roxy skidded to a stop in front of him and Therza, slamming the bottom of her shield into the ground. Cole felt the charge of an ability pop and a half-dome of crackling blue energy spread out from the shield just as the tank fired. This one had a gun more akin to the 25-mil on a Bradley. Roxy shouted in defiance as its shells thumped against her extended shield. Even hunkered behind it, the concussive shockwaves pummeling them knocked Cole on his ass.

Still, no way Roxy would have been able to shrug off a hit like that before. The woman was becoming as tough as a tank, herself. It seemed like Therza was also made of sterner stuff, because she mostly kept her footing in the blast, leaning against Roxy to bolster her footing. The concussion only managed to force her down to a knee, where she drew her revolver and burned a charge. A beam of white light shot across the distance that looked like it hit back just as hard as the automaton's cannon.

The automaton slumped over, losing its footing for a moment.

"That won't hold it long," she said. Other automatons were firing as they advanced, answered by return fire from the rest of the squad in cover. Cole rolled and pushed himself up, keeping behind Roxy's shield as they pushed across the street. Therza looked up and around as they found cover.

"I know where we are. We can get off the street in the metro station on the next block over."

"Lead the way," Cole replied, then keyed his radio.

"Fall back, around the corner." Therza twisted and sprinted for the corner of the building with Roxy and Cole in tow. Cole touched Besson's shoulder as they passed, and then Nona's as she held the corner waiting for the rest of the squad. She ducked back behind cover and looked at her gun.

"I can't believe I survived without one of these," she said.

"Neither can I," said Cole. He pushed up beside Therza as they moved down the cluttered alleyway.

"What's going on? Why'd they suddenly key in on us like that?"

"It's the dreadnaught," said Therza.

"Direct line to the hex core means they'll know where we are because Hextant knows where we are."

"Great," said Cole.

"Which means we can expect them to keep coming. We can't dodge them forever.

"We won't need to," she said.

"Once we're underground, the connection signal should be blocked." Howie chuckled.

"So they'll just be regular murder machines, not super-charged murder machines."

"Small blessings," said Cole.

"Let's get off the street while we can."