Chương 130: Chapter 129 – Under the Radar

Howie's mouth dropped open.

"I can't believe you're doing it. It's fucking awesome, don't get me wrong. But, holy shit, Cole." The rest of the team looked at him with a mix of incredulity and awe. He met each of their eyes.

"This is off-mission. You can all say no. In fact, Nona, Roxy, Besson, I want all three of you on that boat making sure Elliot makes it back to Earth." Nona and Besson nodded, though neither looked happy about it. Roxy scowled openly.

"With all due respect, team lead, you can shove that fucking squid gun up your ass if you think I'm going to let you do this without me."

"Fuck," said Besson.

"Was that an option?" Cole scowled at Roxy, but she met his gaze, unflinching. And if Cole was being honest, he was glad.

"You'll need me too. The familiar body is still my ability. No me, no clockwork Elliot, and no way you're getting five feet inside that dreadnaught without him disrupting the hex core's local control." Cole looked at Deadlight.

"Why do you think I'm here? Just try and fuckin' stop me, Airborne," grinned Deadlight.

"I'm gonna make those F-35s look like paper airplanes."

"Talk's all well and good," said Cole.

"But we still have to get onboard. I don't think those SWCC boats are going to cut it."" I've got another bad idea," said Elliot, already shifting back down to his four-legged form." Alexa, I'm going to need some of your charge, there's not enough in Archie." Why the fuck not. Apparently the kid was already calling the shots. Seventeen years old and already smarter than Cole. They stayed long enough to watch the rest of his team clamber into the boats and peel out back through the flooded streets.

Clockwork Elliot bounded back up the street, heading for the waterfront. It was all Cole could do to keep pace with the kid.

Deadlight jogged beside him, each footfall sounding like a gunshot against the asphalt as the man huffed. Alexa struggled the most, and Roxy even burned one of her own charges to flood the woman with enough resilience to keep her pace up. Elliot scrabbled as he changed directions toward the waterfront. The waterfront where disabled automaton boats had been cleared of enemies but still bobbed in the water.

"You going to repurpose one of those?" asked Cole, pointing." Something even better!

"said Elliot. He surprised Cole by turning again." When I was flying up to the roof I spotted where it went down, and it looked mostly intact." Ahead, the crashed aerial transport had taken out the corner of a building and come to rest among the rubble. The ruined engine still smoked, and parts and pieces of the soldiers it had carried littered the ground. Some of them still tried to move, and a few stumbled around, so heavily damaged they were barely functional at all."

Mostly in-tact might not cut it," said Cole." Ye of little faith." As they drew closer, Cole felt the pop of an ability being used, and a blue light winked on every surviving bot. Several pieces began working themselves back together. Cables connected, limbs dragged themselves across the ground, and less than a minute later a handful of the tiny scrabbling bots had pulled themselves into functioning bots. The automatons skittered toward the downed transport and climbed right up its side to the damaged engine.

The whine of power-tools and metal cutters rose as the small bots began pulling debris from the wreckage. The electric blue of arc welders even started flashing as they pieced together the outer cowling. Every few seconds Cole felt Alexa and Elliot both using charges and figured she must be passing all of hers to the clockwork familiar to power its own abilities. The skitterers made quick work of the patch job. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Brick dust and ruined plaster still covered the transport in a chalky, orange coat, but it looked more or less in one piece. The repair bots cleared and the transport rumbled to life. It kicked up a cloud of black smoke and debris from the damaged engine as it spat out the last of the FOD obstructing it. Bricks and splintered wooden posts slid away. Under its own power, the transport pulled itself up to a hover and slid through the air to clear the building.

Cole held a hand up against the wind and heat from the engines. The thing was louder than a Chinook. The transport lowered to a few feet off the deck and Cole pushed forward and vaulted up onto the deck of the cabin area underneath the main body. He helped the other three up, nearly getting pulled right back out of the transport trying to get Deadlight up into it. But he hauled the enormous Kicker up, predator pack and all.

Deadlight twisted around and dropped to the deck, dangling his legs out the side of the transport with his gun on his lap." Everyone ready?" asked Elliot. Before waiting for an answer, he spooled the motors up and the ground began to drop away." I've got the transport still hooked up to the dreadnaught's network. I'm spoofing the signals it's sending out, so the dreadnaught shouldn't figure out I'm controlling it until we get close enough for its electro-optical sensors to see you guys aboard."

Deadlight twisted his head back.

"Electro- what?" he asked.

"Electro-optical," Alexa shouted down.

"It means a daylight camera. It's the EO in EO/IR."

"Huh." Unfortunately there wasn't much they could do to avoid being seen. The deck of the transport was little more than a skeletal framework and a platform to squeeze automaton soldiers onto. That fact was probably the only reason the defenders on the waterfront weren't already shooting at them. What with Deadlight waving down at the LouixCorp corporate cultists as they flew over. Elliot steered them over the water, skimming low enough for Cole to feel the salt spray against his face.

The dreadnaught loomed ahead, but already it was further out of the water than it had been and less smoke billowed from its side. Deadlight pointed at it.

"That's our ingress," he said.

"Right through the hole the F-35's punched."

"Can you get us close enough, Elliot?" asked Cole. The clockwork automaton didn't immediately answer." I can, but the dreadnaught will notice as soon as we deviate. It's still got defenses, though I know where they are and I can predict their tracking."

"Keep us quiet as long as you can, Elliot." As long as he could turned out to be about a klick out from the massive ship, when another transport passed just a little too close and the automaton soldiers aboard opened fire. Deadlight immediately returned, M60 spitting bullets like a gun with twice its rate of fire, cheering himself and shouting the whole time." Get some! Come get some!" Tracers arced out, cutting across the distance.

The transport's engine noises increased as Elliot poured on speed and dipped to the left. The guns on the dreadnaught itself came alive too. Roxy slammed her shield into the deck, spreading out her ethereal shield wings to protect the cabin of the transport, but rounds still pinged off the hull of the transport itself. The skittering repair bots mobilized, scurrying up the frame of the transport. Two other aerial transports changed direction, as well, moving to pursue.

Elliot burned another charge, and the roar of the engines intensified even further. Deadlight leaned back, grabbing onto the frame of the transport." This thing's toast before we get close enough. Airborne, you able to fly people around, yet?" he shouted." I can glide pretty good," Cole shouted back over the engine noise." Why, you bailing out already?" Deadlight grinned and stood up, shaking out his legs and making sure everything was secure." How's this work?"

Cole hooked his fingers around Deadlight's plate carrier shoulder strap. He looked down at the others." Roxy, you gotta keep this thing in the air."" No promises," she said. But she burned another charge and the shield pulsed with energy again. Cole tugged Deadlight back to the other side of the deck to get what little running distance they could. Then pulled him along, burned the ability of his sword for what extra speed they could eke out, and then burned two charges of Meteoric Leap.

The pair of them shot out of the side of the transport like a cannon round, launching up toward the dreadnaught.

Deadlight whooped below him as they cut through the air. Some of the fire from the dreadnaught shifted towards them, buying the transport a little leeway. Cole upped their gravity at the apex to build some momentum and burned the ability in his dartwing coils. They shot forward into a flat glide. Deadlight brought his machine gun to bear and started firing down at the deck as they passed over the top of the massive ship, raining down rounds on the automatons guarding the top deck.

Metal shredded under the withering fire. Automatons manning gun emplacements were torn to shreds, and even one of the larger, MK 1 style walking tanks crumbled under Deadlight's supercharged weapon. The M60 hit like a weapon three times its caliber and had at least triple the rate of fire it should have." Never thought I'd understand what being an A-10 felt like!" shouted Cole. Deadlight just laughed. Time to see if this crazy plan was going to work or if none of them would be leaving Hexighast.