Chapter 24. Robo-Cop

I froze where I stood. Why didn’t anything appear on HUD? Why did the guards know we were here? I had so many questions at that moment.

“Exit the ship or we will be forced to extract you!” the voice said again with a firm robotic tone.

I looked over at the suit CJ was currently controlling, “what the fuck, man? How did they know we were here?” I asked with a whispered, panicked tone.

“Elvis and Tiff both assured us that the guards wouldn’t know we were coming, so how do they know?” I was now pacing back and forth trying to formulate a plan.

The CJ suit stood up, “Listen, Andy, I will walk out, and I’ll be able to see how many of them are out there. I will let you know what to expect before we dive into a fight we can’t win,” CJ said, walking toward the back door of the Pup.

“Even if they take me out, you still have a chance to complete the mission. Just stay back, and let’s be smart about this.”

I took a deep breath and nodded to CJ, “if they did somehow scan the Pup and saw a life sign on board, they will more than likely assume that I am in the suit. This could work.”

CJ began walking down the back ramp then stepped around the left side of the ship, hands raised. He slowly made his way out of sight.

“Hey guys, didn’t you receive the communication?” CJ asked, “it takes three of you to welcome one hab-tech?” CJ made sure that the communications channels were open so I could hear what he was saying.

Good situational awareness I thought, he was able to let me know there are three of them hopefully he could get me a little more info.

“There is no maintenance scheduled for today. The facility maintenance was completed 12 cycles ago and isn’t scheduled for another 78 cycles,” the robotic voice responded.

“The facility control systems were alerted to multiple undocumented ships in the vicinity when one of the ships opened fire on the other. We have been on alert since that time. You will be taken to a holding cell until the next Council inspection at which time you will be transported to a more secure facility for questioning and sentencing.”

“Your transport vessel will remain in the cargo dock until it is searched and cleared of threats, at which time it will be launched and destroyed.”

I could hear all of this going down through my comms channel as CJ spoke directly to me.

“Okay Andy, there is one Level 10 Mech and 2 Mech support guards. The mech guards are level 9. The Mech looks like the damn bad guy from Robo-cop.”

I needed to do something. I couldn’t let these things take CJ, and I needed to make sure they didn’t find me in the Pup.

The rear of the Pup was facing the entrance to the cargo dock, there was just open space 100 feet from me. I assumed that there was some sort of force field keeping everything from getting sucked out into open space. If I could disarm that field, then I could possibly take all three members of the security detail out at once.

I was pretty sure the Pup would be okay. It was big and heavy, but I needed to make sure CJ would be able to secure himself before I did anything extreme.

“CJ, I’m going to do something a little crazy,” I said.

“I don’t know if it will work, but I think it's worth a shot. Do you see anything that you can grab onto and secure yourself?”

There was silence for a couple of seconds, “yeah, I see some sort of anchoring system right in front of me. It looks like it was built in case the cargo bay loses containment. I think I can send you a picture. Let me know if you get it,” he said.

Immediately after he spoke, an image populated on my interface. I saw what looked like a large metal post sticking up out of the floor with a yellow caution square painted around it. The top had what looked like some sort of large ring on it, presumable to secure items with safety straps. In front of the anchor stood the Mech and the two guards.

“Okay CJ, here is the plan. I’m going to get their attention. I see some sort of panel on top of what looks like some sort of generator beside the cargo bay door. I think I can disable the force field. We're gonna suck these fuckers out into space,” I said.

“Sounds risky, Andy. How are you gonna make sure you don’t get sucked out as well?" CJ asked.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan. Just make sure you get to that security anchor when shit hits the fan. Understood?” I asked.

“You better make a move soon. They are getting impatient," CJ responded.

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I ran down the rear ramp of the Pup and began shouting and waving my arms. The security detail snapped to attention.

“Halt, Intruder! Drop your weapon and lie on the ground. Comply or we will use lethal force!" The Mech had no mouth, and the words were electronic in nature.

The guards had their weapons trained on me and the Mech had its two huge arm/guns trained on me as well.

The Mech was huge; it had to be at least 12 feet tall. Its body was sort of octagonal, and its legs bent backward like a giant mechanical bird. It was completely black, and around what I guessed was the face a red light softly glowed. The Mech support guards looked much like CJ’s Havok Hound suit, but way less advanced. These guys were definitely on high alert.

“How about I don’t do any of that?” I shouted at the robotic trio.

As soon as the words left my mouth, I spun and fired my weapon at the panel. The generator groaned and ground to a halt as a shower of sparks flew out of the top. The force field on the cargo bay door immediately took on a blue electronic hue and began blinking.

“Get to the anchor, CJ!” I yelled.

The mech raised its guns and began firing at CJ as he made a dash for the anchor. The guards both rushed me firing their weapons as well.

I jumped to my left and rolled to my knees as I summoned my armor. The armor materialized just as the two guards reached me. I knelt on one knee and extended my arms to each side as I summoned my black hole daggers.

The first guard reached me. I swung with the dagger in my right-hand, slicing across its chest and under its arm. As I spun to my left and stood to both feet, the second guard approached me from behind. I braced myself and spun into the approaching guard burying both of the black hole daggers into its abdomen. The guard stopped and fell to its knees. A timer appeared in the center of my interface.

3.

The first guard had gathered itself by now. Still injured, it spun and centered its weapon on me. I leaped over its head positioning myself between the guard and the failing force field.

2.

“CJ, you better hold onto that damn anchor with everything you have!” I shouted.

1.

The Black Hole ability from my daggers activated. The guard that was currently impaled began to scream a robotic, chilling scream. The guard's arms pulled completely into its body as the rest of its body began to break and implode in on itself. After another second the guard was completely gone in a flash of blue and black light as a tiny black hole appeared and immediately disappeared.

“What the fuck?” I said as I tried to figure out what I had just watched.

I didn’t have time to consider what I had just witnessed any further. The remaining mech guard opened fire. The rounds were kinetic and even though I could feel them hitting they were barely doing any damage to my suit.

“Here we go, CJ! HOLD ON!” I shouted.

I dropped to one knee, pointed one hand at the mech guard, one hand at the giant mech, and activated pulsar blast. A burst of energy emanated from my suit, spreading in a bubble all around me. Two bright white beams shot from my hands hitting the mechanical mech and support guard.

The Pulsar Blast ability was meant to disarm enemy combatants. Assuming the combatants were biological in nature, it would disarm due to the electromagnetic nature of the blasts. The blast would also injure them severely if it didn’t kill them outright.

In the case of the Mech and Mech support guards, they were not biological in nature, they were robotic in nature. This meant the blast would literally drag them toward me.

As the blast bubble expanded outward from my body, the two concentrated blasts hit the Mech and Mech guard. Their metal bodies sizzled and melted as it hit. The blast began dragging them toward me. At that moment the force field failed completely.

The energy bubble receded around my body, pressing me harder down to one knee as the beams from my hand dissipated. A ten-second timer populated on my interface. I couldn’t move, I was stuck in place. My hope was that nothing would be able to move me. Luckily, I was right.

As the force field failed, everything got sucked out into the vacuum of space. Various boxes that were staged in the cargo bay began flying past me along with the giant Mech and the support guard. CJ was holding onto the anchor, but his body was still being pulled toward the open door.

“CJ, YOU HAVE TO ENGAGE THE SAFETY SEAL TRIGGER! THERE IS A PANEL BESIDE THE ENTRANCE TO THE MAIN AREA. DO YOU SEE IT?" I was having to shout over the noise of air and other objects being sucked out of the cargo bay.

I could see CJ looking around until he spotted it. The safety seals were outlined in yellow and red alternating paint. There was a glass cover with a big red button underneath. The words Emergency Safety Seal was outlined in bold above the panel.

In that moment of total chaos, I wondered how I could read that. Surely these aliens didn’t use the English language. I assumed my interface had something to do with it and I would ask Tiff later, if we didn’t die that is.

The time ticked down on my interface. It was now at seven seconds. CJ planted his feet on the ground somehow and began walking toward the emergency seal panel. He looked like one of those mountain climbers that you would see scaling Mount Everest as a giant blizzard pushed against them. Only there was no snow here, just the force of space creating a vacuum in this cargo bay.

My time was down to 2 seconds as CJ reached the wall, broke the glass, and pressed the red button. A giant metal door slid down behind me, sealing the cargo bay as the timer on Pulsar Blast ran out.

My suit disappeared completely as the ability ended. “I guess that is why the description said to use this as a last resort,” I said as I tried to catch my breath.

CJ ran over to me in his armor to help me up. "Damn it bro, do you have to do everything the hard way?” he asked as he grabbed my arm and lifted me up onto my feet.

“Hey, we got ‘em right?” I asked rhetorically, “I didn’t really wanna test that Mech in a head-on fight if I could help it. Now we gotta hope that Elvis’ worm does its job, and we can get into the main facility.”

“We need to move fast. The secondary security team is probably on its way here now. I’d rather avoid them and fight them on our terms if we can,” I said as we walked toward the facility entrance.

I took the key card thing that Elvis had created and stuck it up to the security pad. The keycard attached itself to the pad with four small tendrils, one extending from each side. The tendrils attached themselves to the panel as we waited.

“C’mon Elvis, this better work,” I said.

A green light glowed around the edges of the panels as an audible beep was heard above the door.

“Hell yeah! We're in!” CJ shouted as I grabbed the keycard, and we ran into the facility.