Chương 67: Chapter Sixty-Two - Drone Warfare

We made it to the first bend in the corridor and instantly I knew we were in for some amount of trouble. A trio of drones were waiting at the end, their little tracks humming along as they charged across the corridor. It seemed like they'd mostly slipped out of small openings placed in the walls, with sliding doors that hid them rather well.

"Fuck shit," Jenny said. She slid to a stop, arm coming up straight before her, her gun tilted to the side. She fired a dozen shots, and about a third of them hit. That was enough to take out the rightmost and middlemost of the three, but the last shifted around and opened fire. We all flinched as a line of bullets shot across the space between us. Fortunately, whomever had bought these bots cheaped out, because their targeting software was awful.

Sharp fired her shotgun twice, both shells full of buckshot ripping into the remaining bot. Then she turned and took two more shots into the remaining drones, just to be sure.

"Let's keep moving!" she shouted.

"Don't forget to reload," I reminded her. Sharp nodded and fumbled around the side-pocket of her pack for a few loose shells. A couple spilled to the floor, but she got a handful and started to reload the gun, shells slipping into the bottom tube one at a time. The hum of tracked wheels became louder behind us, and I realized that we were in something of a trap. The corridors here were long and narrow.

There wouldn't be any cover until we were around the next bend, and there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be more adversaries waiting for us there. We didn't have a huge amount of choice, however. We needed to go and go fast. Staying on the floor and mopping it up of any drones was... well, it was technically an option, but we'd run out of ammo before the drones did. Jenny tossed an empty magazine aside and slid a fresh one into her gun.

"How many shells you got?" she asked.

"A few," Sharp said.

"There's maybe a handful in my other pocket." Could she summon up shotgun ammo with her power? Did bullets count as tools? I'd usually say so, but with a massive caveat and even then, that'd be stretching the definition of tool.

"Shit," Jenny said.

"If I can have two minutes, I can cast something to help," Alyssa said.

"But I'm nearing my limit."

"Yeah," Jenny replied.

"Any chance we can steal those drones' guns?" It was a smart question, but the answer was a resounding no. The guns were fixed on there tight, and they weren't designed for human use in any case. They didn't have handles or stocks, just an electronic trigger mechanism and the lower receiver of whatever assault rifle was cheap at the time of creation.

"It's useless, just move," I told Sharp.

"We can't," Sharp said.

"Fuck," Jenny replied, and so we ran past the three destroyed drones and around the next bend in the corridor, the girls moving so fast their sneakers squeaked on the plastic tiled floor. Fortunately, the next corridor was empty. Unfortunately, we slowed down before taking the next one blindly, and Jenny turned to Sharp and whisper-shouted.

"Can you send the cat around to see if there's more drones ahead? We're like, two turns from the door."

"I think so," Sharp said before she looked at me.

"Can you do that? Can you manage it, Princess Buttercup Bristle... uh... Bomb?" Princess Buttercup Bristle Bomb? Her head was really not in the game.

"I'll scout," I agreed with a very obvious nod for the benefit of the others. Then I slipped around the corner, keeping close to the wall where the light wasn't as strong. There weren't any drones here, and I called back as much to Sharp. Still, I ran ahead as fast as I could go, which was admittedly pretty quick. Cats weren't known as slow animals, and I was quite certain that even as a juvenile cat, I could outrun even the fastest unaugmented human.

I made it to the next corner and winced internally at what I saw. Seven of those drones. They were even parked across from the door into the stairwell we'd taken to get here. Were they on some sort of network smart enough to have them investigate the area? That sounded dangerously plausible. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Seven of them ahead," I called back to Sharp.

"They're blocking the entrance. Do you think you can take on that many?"

"Seven?" I heard Sharp gasp. The sound had two of the drones slowly wheel around.

"If you can take careful, clean shots, then I might be able to distract them," I said. It would be a huge risk, and I didn't really want to put Nine Lives to the test, but... well, it was time for action, not for needless pauses. I was pretty sure I could weave and duck well enough to avoid getting hit, in any case, and the depression on the turrets didn't look very good. They wouldn't be able to hit anything near their base.

"I'm going in. Watch your aim. Take out those furthest from me first, and aim high." And with that, I was darting around the corner and moving for all I was worth. The drones slowly turned my way, and I could almost imagine their primitive systems wondering if a ballistic cat was a threat or not. Then I leapt up and onto the first of them, using the added height to give me clearance to hop onto the second.

The first had been the one furthest to the left of the pack, and it was the one Sharp shot a few seconds later. The drones turned. Two of them towards the end of the corridor where Sharp and the others were, the rest following my movement through their group. That would have to do, I figured as I started to run in circles around the group, keeping drones between myself and the furthest from me whenever possible.

The drones shifted around, moving surprisingly fast to try and run me over, but that was all they could do. Their guns just couldn't aim low enough. Then Jenny and Sharp continued to fire, and I found myself ducking down as a hail of bullets and pellets whizzed by overhead. I swear I felt some ruffling the fur on my eartips a couple of times. I couldn't do much more than I already was to help, but I supposed it was enough.

The last drone went down with a clatter, and then the girls came running out around the corner. Sharp scooped me up on the way by, and I scampered up onto her shoulder.

"I'm out of shotgun ammo," she said.

"I, uh, missed a few times."

"That's fine," I said. I did notice that she had her handgun out in her free hand, so she wasn't entirely unarmed, which was good. Jenny opened the door into the stairwell, and we practically jumped down the stairs, the door slamming shut behind us. Then it was into the poorly lit basement section, with just the marks left on the walls to guide us back.

"Think... think we're safe here?" Jenny asked as she paused for breath just past the wall we'd torn down.

"Should be... more or less," Alyssa said.

"We might want to move out further, but for now, I think this is safe from whatever's in the building. The drones can't go down stairs, right? And if they could, they'd need to find us." Sharp moved to the side and leaned up against one of the walls, heedless of the dust and grime on it.

"That was scary at the end there, but it wasn't so bad overall, I think."

"No mission that ends with you being shot at is good," I said.

"Yeah, that was pretty alright," Jenny said.

"I'll wire you your pay. You were... not so bad to have along."

"Thanks!" Sharp said.

"Was the thing worth it? The big book you stole?"

"It's not theft if the owner is dead," Alyssa said.

"Isn't it just... looting in that case?" Sharp asked.

"I'm not sure if that's much better." The mage didn't seem to care about the distinction much. She just ran a hand over the tome in its plastic bag. I had the impression that whatever magical lore it contained wasn't going to be good for the overall health of the city, but I also didn't care so much.

"Mission complete," I said.

"Let's get paid and get home."

"Yeah," Sharp agreed. And then I jumped as a few notifications popped up before me. Reflex Has Levelled Up! Reflex 3 > 4 Anima Has Levelled Up! Anima 2 > 3 Judging by Sharp's little intake of breath, she'd been hit by a reward as well.