Chương 129: Chapter 128 – Big Guns

"He's joking, right?" asked Howie, looking between Cole and Elliot.

"It's got a massive flaming hole in its side." Alexa fished in her rig for a pair of binoculars and peered through them.

"If the keel isn't cracked and the damage is above the waterline, it's possible," she said.

"But then why did the bots all shut off?" Elliot put his front legs up on the short wall at the edge of the roof " I can still hear the hexcore's instructions. It's using its charges to keep from sinking instead of empowering the soldiers. Everything it's got is going to buff its repair bots instead of the soldiers."

"The ship? Has charges?" asked Alexa.

"Yeah, for sure," said Elliot." Dreadnaught hex cores interface with the Layer the same way a person does. It's way stronger than one, though. It's like, the equivalent of level five-hundred something. It's got thousands of charges that it's constantly using and refreshing." That was… alarming. So they hadn't stopped the attack—simply forestalled it. Even as Cole watched, a huge, billowing white cloud expanded from the dreadnaught and masked it with a massive smokescreen. Cole grit his teeth.

That would make anything short of outright destroying it just delaying the inevitable. Down below, over the clatter of rifle fire and energy weapons, Cole heard the solid-state brrrrrrt of a SWCC boat's forward gun.

"Come on," said Cole, moving back toward the stairs.

"That's our ride." On the first level of the building, they had to practically wade through a pool of dissolving metal parts. Besson and Roxy had already begun to police the bodies and stow any interesting loot for later. Nona was siphoning any LF residue she could find. They were all soot-smeared with hair made ashen from the pulverized first floor. The walls were a mess of torn plaster and splintered wood. The beach-facing side looked like more hole than wall.

But with the dreadnaught on the back foot, the remaining bots inland of the beachhead had been dealt with.

"Boats are coming," said Cole.

"Take two mikes, then we're headed to the waterfront." He turned to Therza.

"Are you going to be able to link up with your people?" The school-teacher-turned-warrior grinned.

"Just a quick jog south through bot and bug-infested territory." She glanced at clockwork Elliot.

"I'm glad you found him, Cole. I'm sorry it turned out like…" It was never easy to learn a mission was FUBAR from the outset. All the blood, sweat, and tears… but it wasn't a total wash. Unlike Vael or Babel, both worlds might actually benefit from what should have been an unmitigated disaster. Cole pulled his pack around and began slotting fresh magazines into his belly pouches and dipped his head toward the clockwork body.

"Yeah. Me too. But he ain't. Thanks for all your help, Therza." The woman surged forward and wrapped Cole in a bear-hug, squeezing him tight.

"No, thank you, Cole." She pulled back and hugged Roxy, Howie, and Alexa as well before turning back to Cole and grinning.

"And if you have any more of those angels hiding…" Cole chuckled.

"No promises. But y'all have info Earth's real keen on learning. About how the Higgs-Bennet Layer works."

"Hodges-Bri—you're teasing me, aren't you?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny," said Cole, unable to keep a straight face. Even though it felt like a victory, at least enough of one to shed some of the built-up tension, the mission wasn't over yet. Outside the building, the streets were choked with smoke and dust blowing in from the waterfront. The terrain sloped down, and they made their way around the old, pockmarked and rusted vehicles that still jammed the streets.

Further ahead, the water glistened from the sun starting to rise over the city at their back. Many of the defenders still held the approaches, but more of them were moving behind the line, policing loot, and tending to wounded. Above flooded streets to the south, the two SWCC boats cut through the water maybe a klick away.

"Howie, flare," said Cole. Howie generated a small, red shell in his palm and hand-loaded it into the breech of his cannon. He fired it up, and a red cloud of smoke and motes that looked more like a firework than a flare burst in the air. Good enough, apparently, as the boats angled in their direction and put on the throttle as Cole waved them on. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"It's been fun," said Therza. She scrunched up her face.

"Except for the J Line. Stay alive, scrap some tin. I hope I see you again."

"Likewise," said Cole, accepting the second hug the woman offered. She pulled away and started to jog back to the dry part of the city. The boats covered the distance in just a couple minutes, pulling up to the waterline where the road dropped away. Alexa squinted down.

"Ah, so that's what they meant about sending the big guns." A bear of a man stood up on the prow of the boat, M60 held in one hand with a feed chute running to his backpack. Three small orbs of light circled around him. Deadlight jumped from the front of the ship, clearing the five-meter gap easily and landing on the hood of a car, crushing the metal beneath his feet. He reached up and raised his ballistic face mask, making sure Cole and his team could see his shit-eating grin.

"Cavalry's here, bitches. What's up, you guys see those F-35s? Bet you didn't know we could do that. They didn't even leave me anything worth shooting." He came forward, left hand up and open. Cole grabbed it with his own, then felt like he'd been hit with a fridge as the high-level Kicker pulled him in for a chest bump.

"DOR must really want this place in one piece," said Cole.

"You got that right," said Deadlight. He looked around.

"Sup, Alexa? Where's the kid?"

"That's… complicated," said Cole. Clockwork Elliot stepped forward and waved nervously.

"Hello, I'm Elliot." Deadlight cocked his head.

"The kid is a robot?" he asked.

"Complicated," said Cole. He shook his head.

"But what are the chances of getting those F-35s back for another pass? Dreadnaught's not dead, just on the back-foot. Locals are making the best of it, but they're hard-pressed." Deadlight spit to the side.

"Lodged firmly between nil and not happening," he said. He wiggled his fingers in the air.

"You wouldn't believe the strings Bricker pulled to get them here at all. Moved heaven and Earth. Chair Force doesn't like sending a hundred-million worth of airplane into the most dangerous airspace since Desert Storm. Fuckin' pussies, right?"

"Then Hexighast still has a major problem," said Cole. He turned to Elliot.

"How long before that thing's ready to go on the attack, again?" he asked. The clockwork automaton shrugged its shoulders." Hours, maybe? It's still weak. I can feel everything it's doing through the HBL, like looking right at the back-end." Deadlight snorted and looked out to the west.

"Back end."

"What other tricks does DOR have up its sleeve?" asked Cole.

"Anything that can take out something level, what did you say, Elliot, five-hundred something?" Elliot clenched and unclenched the familiar's hands." I mean, uh, there's something powerful enough to shut that thing down. Maybe Hextant, too." Cole took a deep breath.

"Kid, you get real squirrely when you're thinking something you don't think someone wants to hear. Anyone ever tell you that?"" Probably why I'm in the robotics club and not the debate team," Elliot replied.

"Out with it." Elliot tapped his fingers together for a moment, as if debating whether he should say it or not. Then he pointed at Howie. Roxy slugged the Marine in the arm.

"Howie you motherfucker, you been holding out on us?"

"What? No," said Howie, looking himself over as if the answer was in one of his chest pouches.

"I don't know what he's talking about."

"Not Howie," said Elliot. He walked over and tapped the small pelican case strapped to the bottom of Howie's pack." Me. Specifically the me that's actually sitting on a piece of modern hardware."

"It's barely even a computer," said Cole. He moved over and unstrapped the case, opening it up.

"Basically just a piece of government-issue shit."" Doesn't matter,"said Elliot. He took the alligator clips and started hooking them to his own chest. The laptop booted up, screen going fuzzy and then displaying a datastream of command lines." I don't think you realize how powerful even this is compared to computers on Hexighast. Like, this thing is ten years out of date and it's still about ten thousand times faster than the hex core aboard that dreadnaught.

That thing's memory would be measured in megabytes, not gigabytes. If you could get this computer a physical connection to the hex core…" The computer's tinny, poor-quality speakers spoke up." I'll be Dreadnaught Elliot at the very least."

"That," said clockwork Elliot.

"Hard no," said Cole.

"Our mission is to get you out, not have a seventeen year old kid hack a level five-hundred battleship." Clockwork Elliot slid a palm-sized insert from the side of the laptop and held it up to Cole." This is me. This is as much me as the me handing it to you. It's either all you need, or none of me is enough. They brought me to this world to save it. You came to save me. I can do both." Cole bit his lip, looking between the hard drive and the rest of his team. This was nuts to even consider. But this world…

all that knowledge being lost… hell, how much had already been lost? Knowledge about Lewis Fields that Earth could use to understand its connection to other worlds.

LouixCorp alone had documented methods of how to reach across and snare someone. Maybe people smarter than Cole could use that knowledge to stop it from happening again. It wasn't something Cole could let pass them by. He snatched the hard drive out of clockwork Elliot's hand and pushed it against Howie's plate carrier.

"This is crazy. This is fucking crazy. Howie, make sure this gets back to Earth."