Chapter Fifty-Five

“No,” I called over the external speakers, cutting off the major. “Oshbob, don’t do it.”

“Fuck off, Kabutt! They—and you —trashed my shit! Nobody fucks with what’s mine!”

“And you can kill them if you want, later !” I forced out, planting my one working arm and forcing myself upright again. “I need information, and I need goddamn parts!”

“There’s plenty here in scrap,” he shot back.

“They’re working for Major Marcial!” I retorted. “You want him to get away with this? You want him to win? We need to find him! He’s the one that started all this shit!”

He hesitated and I saw the look in his eyes, saw the rage that was barely constrained, before a scream rose off to the right. I twisted, looking over and saw, amongst a line of dead enemy bodies, a blur of blackness, and the flash of blades.

Fucking assassin! Oshbob’s, they had to be!

“Stop him!” I called to the orc. “We need the information!”

He looked at me, sneering, clearly seeing some weakness in my demand, rather than the fact I wanted to make sure I could set fire to that cockroach and piss on the ashes.

“Unara,” he snapped after a few seconds, having made his point that he did what he wanted, not what I asked. “Leave two to talk, and make them ready to.”

With that, he turned on his heel, and I turned, seeing Richie in his suit, staggering over, then stomp one foot down atop the APS that was being repeatedly shocked, and rest his rifle against the damaged armor.

“Open up, or I’ll fucking blast you out,” he snarled furiously.

I glanced, seeing Richie’s bio readout on my suits interior and wincing. He was badly injured, whatever the hell had happened upstairs…

“Reign…” I whispered, flicking the system up and reaching out to her, and getting no response. My tac-net showed she was alive, the bios from Richie far more informative as he was in a suit that was designed to track such data, but she was definitely not doing well.

“Reign! Gessh? Luna?” I tried. “Sync?” I yanked the emergency releases, what was left of my fucking suit popping and clicking around me.

“Reign and Luna are down,” Todds told me, moving over to help as my suit cracked open. “Alive, but… Luna needs new legs, again, or one at least, and was knocked out by a falling beam. Reign was shot three times, she’s bad.”

“How bad?” I asked, hissing in pain as my leg flared, before seeing my left arm refused to respond properly. I glared at it, seeing the shredded limb, more than half of the lower arm just a mangled mess, while the upper was crushed and warped.

When they’d taken the suit arm off, they’d mangled my own, and I was just fortunate that it was a cybernetic replacement, all things considered.

My left leg in the suit had ended below the knee, and while the suit had faithfully transmitted the information to me, my own leg was just the same as earlier, probably a hairline fracture, but that was it.

“She’s bad, boss,” he admitted grimly.

“Hospital?”

“Already called for an emergency airlift, they’d not set off until all fighting was confirmed over, they’re inbound now.”

“Liolet? Julius? Fuck, Liolet’s team?”

“The team were all killed, I think.” He shook his head. “They were outside, most of them, didn’t stand a chance. Liolet is alive, but… he’s broken, catatonic.”

“Julius?” I asked, hobbling forwards as Richie dragged the pilot out of the suit and threw him through the air at the other prisoners with a scream.

“He was the luckiest, explosion picked him up and threw him through a wall, ended up unconscious on someone’s bed, out for the entire fight, I hit him with a medikit when I grabbed my stealthsuit.”

“That stealthsuit, the kill, you did well,” I said, forcing the words out as he helped me through the hole in the wall and into the remains of our home.

“Not fast enough.” He growled. “Fuck that fight! It was over so fast, the explosion, the suits…”

“Where is she?” I asked, before pausing, finally seeing Sync. I’d known she was injured, fuck’s sake, I knew she was, she was my friend, my squad mate and yet, I’d forgotten her in my demand to see Reign.

“Sync…” I asked, looking over at her, Gessh having left her and returned presumably to her sister’s side.

“I’m okay,” she said, wincing. “Gonna need some work, some mods probably, but I’m okay…”

“Lion!” I snapped, nodding. “We’ve got a carver. I’ll get him here.”

“Best make it quick,” Richie grunted, tearing a section of the half slumped wall free and climbing in. “That asshole won’t give us long.”

“Marcial?” I asked, and growled in agreement. “He’s got a job. New suits.”

“More?” he asked, looking around his armor popping and hinging open.

“He thought he needed our suits to get them,” I explained. “Some new prototypes…”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“And he thought he could just hit us, steal our suits, then go get them?”

“Apparently.” I growled. “He tried to recruit me, after all of this.” I shook my head in amazed disgust. “I’ll get the carver.”

“Get him, and tell him I need fixing up as well, fast. How long have we got?”

“Before…?” I asked, still leaning on Todds as he helped me across the floor towards the remains of the stairs to the upper floor.

Or what was left of it, considering the morning sunlight was shining through the smoke and shredded building.

“Before that fucker goes after the protypes!” Richie snapped. “If he had a chance at them tonight he’ll still be taking it, just trying to do it with normal troops now, if he’s lost his ghosts. He’ll not let the chance pass by, so we’ve still got a chance at him!”

“We just need to find out where and when,” I agreed. “You and me.”

“Me too,” Sync demanded, and we both looked at her, seeing the way she was leaning against the table, clearly unable to stand on her own.

“We’ll see,” I said.

“No,” she ground out. “We finish this the way we started it, the three of us, together.”

“Together,” I agreed, knowing there was no way it was happening, but unwilling to argue it right now. I was already turning away as Richie clambered free of his armor, hissing in pain as he used a nearby hoist to drag himself free. He swore, and gritted his teeth through the pain, his lower body clearly not responding properly as he fell on his way to Sync to help her.

“Lion…” I breathed thankfully as he answered the call through my key.

“Hey, Kabutt.” He yawned, clearly half asleep still. “It’s early man, what do you—”

“We got hit.” I cut him off. “We won, but we’ve got badly injured and broken people here, I need you, whatever it costs, I’ll pay, but we need you here , now.”

There was a brief seconds pause, then he nodded.

“I’ll bring my gear, send me a list of what you need and—”

“Thank you. Talk to Todds, he’ll fill you in,” I said, adding Todds to the call, then cutting myself out of it, as the first flashing lights illuminated the upper floor, shining through the damaged walls and roof.

“Reign…” I whispered, dropping to my knees by her side. A spar of a roof support had rammed through her upper chest, by her shoulder and into the wall behind her, a bubble bursting through the blood that foamed and ran.

I could see swarming nanites, the only reason she was still alive at all, and the two used medikits that Todds must have hit her with, but fuck…

“Which is the victim?” came a general question from a voice I didn’t know, and I turned, staring dully at the two figures that had jumped across from a floating aircar.

“Who the fuck do you—” I started to question, anger rising, as one of them shook his head.

“We were called for a ‘Rain’? She’s got a medivac and basic suite paid for, which one is she?”

“This is Reign.” I snapped, stepping back so that they could get a clearer look at her.

“Move back,” the EMT ordered, moving forward as the second one dragged a suspension stretcher into place.

They were elites, that was clear as I stared at them, caught between panic, resignation, fear and exhaustion.

They were both decked out in full EMT suites. As Emergency Medical Technicians they had access to a level of kit that was almost comparable to my own suit, but where that was an instrument of war and death, theirs…

They were dressed in white with red and blue highlights around armored plates, their helmets hiding their faces even as they projected all the information they needed. Both had back mounted additional arms, one sparking to life as the first guy braced Reign. The articulated arm ending in a laser that carved through the metal pinning her easily.

They picked her up and set her on the stretcher, utterly unconcerned about the condition of Luna where she was laid, broken, with Gessh helping her, nor of Julius who’d just stumbled out of the bedroom he’d apparently been napping in.

“The receipt will be sent to the contracting keystone.” the EMT declared, all professionalism. “Any additional charges will be notified and treatment paused until the cost has been addressed. Considering her condition? I recommend not taking time to try and negotiate the rate, but that’s your call. Remember, as per sub-section five, if the patient terminates while awaiting approval of additional expenditure, you may still be charged for any procedures that were due, and you will not receive any discount on credit extended.”

With that, and before anyone could say anything else, they were gone, lifting her into the back of the transport, and taking off.

“How much?” I croaked, knowing it shouldn’t matter, but I couldn’t leave it to someone else to pay for her care, not to make decisions that might leave her in limbo while they slept or whatever.

“Two hundred grand,” Todds said. “It was her only chance though. I paid for it a few days ago, its an insurance policy for me, to be fair—I’ve got two kids relying on me, after all—and it covers any on site emergency work, with additional work costing. It seemed like a hell of a price, but to make sure I’m there for them…”

“I’ll pay you it back.” I promised, starting to reach for my access, only to have Julius speak over me.

“No,” he said. “This happened because you came out to help me. The guild will pay.”

“Thank you,” I croaked, before coughing and clearing my throat. “Thank you all,” I tried again, before looking over at Luna.” How you doing?”

“Good!” she lied, forcing a smile, one leg a mass of smashed metal, the other looking pretty fucked as well.

“Bullshit.” I snorted. “Lion’s on his way, can you hold on, or do you want me to medivac…?”

“I’ll wait,” she said. “He’s going to have his hands full, but, it’s all cyber.” She nodded to her legs, ignoring the blood on her face and the generally shitty way she looked.

“What now?” someone asked, and I stared at the bloody remains of the metal that had nearly killed Reign.

“Now?” I replied flatly. “Now we end this.”

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