The task was simple: place sonic piles at the base of each mountain and another at the peak, along with a hydration capsule. With the battle focused on the inner city that meant a lot of flying from point to point and giving Juny permission to place the next device. It still took time to get to each location, which only added to how tedious the task was.
It gave me way too much time to think. I couldn’t see the landscape even if I wanted to, so my only remaining option was to sit and stare at the door, unable to even crack open my graphic design software because the shaking would make it impossible to work with. My mind kept going back to Major Thompson- and what he was doing in the CO’s office.
Something was off about that entire encounter and I hadn’t had a moment to ponder it before now. Thompson hadn’t reported his location to command, even when he was attacked, and they hadn’t detected the automated defenses activating either. That meant they weren’t hooked into the defense systems. I wasn’t sure why it would be set up that way, and didn’t really have any guesses. The other strange thing was that Thompson hadn’t left with anything. That didn’t rule out the possibility that he’d been taking pictures of documentation, of course, but what would he gain by doing that?
Was he planting something there? False evidence that exonerated himself, somehow? A listening device? Or was there a device he needed to use situated in that office, like a secure line of communications? It was likely that whatever he’d been doing, he’d already finished by the time I arrived, and that it was already too late to do anything about it. Thompson was under watch now, but…
“Ma’am, strap in, we have incoming,” the pilot announced. Checking the map, I realized we now had skyscrapers between us and the inner city. The Antithesis must have waited until now to attack because they were wary of the AA battery on the mercenary headquarters building. They’d certainly lost enough of their air power for even the yams that passed as brains for them would have gotten the hint.
Well, that or they just ripened.
I was jolted from my thoughts when the gunship lurched, beginning evasive maneuvers. I grabbed onto my seat and held on tight, an undeniable feeling of helplessness coming over me. This was the same sort of situation my fear of falling came from- being in a position where I had no control over what happened to me and having to wait and let fate decide how it ends.
It was clear, though, that this gunship hadn’t survived this long due to any dearth of opponents. With four jets on struts at each corner it was insanely maneuverable, capable of moving side to side while descending, spinning while rising, and even lifting one side or corner just by changing the output of each jet engine. All I could see through the cockpit window was a kaleidoscopic panorama, changing faster than I could even process the colors as the pilot took his gunship through movements that had me jerking from side to side, convinced I’d be a pinball if I lost my grip.
Occasionally I heard the thump of a rocket launching or the ship rattled with gunfire. We were changing direction so quickly I wouldn’t have been able to tell how many Antithesis were out there even if Juny put it up on my augs. All of my focus was on fighting down a tidal wave of nausea rising from the depths of my stomach. If I lost this battle, I’d have to buy a new helmet, because there was no way I would ever put this one on again.
“Ma’am, we’re running low on ammo! We could use a refill!” the copilot shouted into his mic, nearly making me lose control of my breakfast. How many Antithesis were out there? Alana’s reckoning had clearly been off.
“Juny…” was all I managed, the effort leaving me nearly retching. Juny took the hint, though, as my points dropped. I think the copilot thanked me but I barely even perceived it. When the spinning and shaking had finally stopped I saw that it had only been a few minutes. “What the hell was that?”
“Wasn’t too many Elevens, but they got the drop on us using a Twelve and a flock of ones. They were too close for us to thing them out by the top we noticed ‘em, so it took some tricky flying to clear them out,” the copilot answered, tension still in his voice. Hopefully that time they’d actually exhausted their supply of air units, because I wasn’t sure I could take another few minutes of my own personal vomit comet.
There was nothing to stop us now, though, or so it seemed for a while. We were nearly three-quarters of the way through when Nguyen’s voice came over the comms, tight with worry.
“HQ to Sigma-1, we have an emergency, repeat, we have an emergency,” he announced, inducing a groan from deep within my soul. Alana answered immediately.
“Sitrep, HQ?”
“Front line has been breached. A Model Twenty Three shrugged off everything we threw at it and smashed a hole in the wall- we think it’s a heavy-armor variant. McIntire and Alvarez squads have mobilized but they’re only slowing it down,” Nguyen relayed. I cursed internally but kept my mouth shut- I might be in on the communications, but I doubted anyone expected me to have a solution for this. “We plugged the hole with reserves but the big guy is still on the loose.”
“Shit. Erica, I’m doubling back. I’ll take care of the variant and head back ASAP, so keep going, but wrap around to my side when you finish with yours so we don’t lose too much time,” Alana instructed. I was all too happy to follow her lead on this. Though…I did feel like I’d put a whole lot of effort into deploying those Titans for nothing. Hopefully they were keeping everything else out.
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“I hope you’ve got a plan, given that everything that was supposed to kill it failed,” I replied apprehensively.
“I’ve found that most Antithesis have less armor on the inside,” Alana replied ominously. I chose not to say anything, but I was very much hoping she intended to shoot something into its mouth and not dive into it and shoot her way out. She struck me as smarter than that, though, and she had two very competent squads of mercenaries to call on for the job. They’d probably find some way to make the Model Twenty Three sit still long enough to kill it.
Now that I thought about it, I had no idea what a Twenty Three looked like. I wasn’t in a hurry to find out, though.
We continued on, making it almost to the end of my assigned section before we encountered any other issues. We had just dropped a sonic pile and were halfway to the next when the pilot cursed and spun the gunship around. I had no way of knowing why, but it was safe to assume it was more airborne Antithesis- while I turned out to be right, I was still slightly off the mark. The gunship shook for a few seconds as its machinegun fired, then the pilot spoke.
“Model Twelve almost got the drop on us. We shot it down, but some ground models jumped shipped before it went down and now they’re sniffing around the pile. They’re too close for us to fire, what do you want to do?” he said in a frustrated tone. I shared his frustration- after all, it wasn’t the first time Model Twelve ECM had gotten in the way today.
“Open the door and lower the ship. I’ll hop off and deal with them on foot,” I instructed him. As the gunship descended, I stood and grabbed onto a handle by the door to hold myself steady. “Any idea what I’m in for?”
“Threes and Fives, ma’am. Biggest problem is how close they are to the machine. I don’t think they know what to do with it yet, but it looks like they’re stopping it from burrowing.”
So I couldn’t just gun them down and be done with it, then. I would need to get in close and make sure I didn’t catch the sonic pile with a stray bullet. While I still had my assault rifle loaded with self-guided ammunition, there was always the possibility of an overpenetration causing damage.
The door opened and I hopped out, dropping a few meters to the ground. I’d actually been so busy thinking that I forgot to look before stepping off, but fortunately I was geared for it, and it didn’t take too much effort to look like it was on purpose. Even as I fell the Model Fives were already launching quills my way, each hit knocking a few percent off my shields. My trigger finger twitched instinctively, but since I didn’t have a weapon readied, nothing happened.
“Juny, I’m going to need something less explosive for this,” I said as I grabbed my shotgun. Of my weapons, I figured it was least likely to cause an accident so long as I handled it carefully. The SMGs had too much spread and the assault rifle…actually, I guess that would have worked too if I swapped its load, but the shotgun was already in my hands.
“Would you like standard slugs or nonlethal buckshot?” Juny asked, floating directly behind my back to keep the Eyebot safe from stray quills. I assumed by nonlethal she meant something like what we’d used against the last Model Twenty One, or maybe some type of cryo round, but I didn’t want to risk getting anything like that on the pile either.
“Slugs, please,” I requested as I unloaded the shotgun and cleared the chamber. Another drum of slugs appeared in my hand the moment I stowed the one full of high explosive rounds and I reloaded. Now I just needed to get close- and I didn’t have the points to spare for another shield drone right now, so my energy shields were going to be proving their worth.
I’d been dropped far enough away that the gunship wouldn’t be in too much danger, so I had some ground to cover. I ran forward, weaving around trees to give myself at least a small amount of protection but mostly taking hits to my shields. Taking cover long enough to let them recharge would just get me flanked by Threes, so I had to do this in one go. My shields flared over and over, dropping as steadily as the distance between myself and the Fives.
A Three jumped in front of me, but the Mistilteinn armor had a lot of mass, and I’d built up plenty of momentum. I practically ran it over, first toppling it like a nine-pin and then crushing it with my boot, which I didn’t really think through, because I nearly tripped in the process. Fortunately I caught myself, though, and there wasn’t much distance left to cover.
My shields finally fell. It was too late. I smashed into the first Model Five, demolishing its skull with the butt of my shotgun. Then I ducked under the sonic pile, figuring the best way to make sure I didn’t hit it would be to aim my gun from beneath it. Before the next Five could turn, I had it in my sights. It only took one slug to blow a big enough hole in it to be lethal.
A Three took the opportunity lunge in and grab my leg, but it wasn’t going to get through my armor anytime soon and I didn’t need to move anyway. I ignored it and shifted my aim around to another Model Five, pulling the trigger just as it launched a quill. Sadly for it, my weapon had a lot more kick to it, and while the quill was right on target, it just bounced off my visor without leaving a scratch. Our trade resulted in it falling over dead while I barely noticed I’d been hit.
There were two more, and this pair apparently came to a realization at the same time: the vulnerable spots on my armor were too small to reliably aim at. While another Model Three latched onto me, the Fives approached me from the left and right, wielding quills like daggers instead of arrows. I flipped my gun towards the one on the left and killed it, then hissed as the other planted its quill in the back of my thigh. Before I could react it tore the quill back out, taking a chunk of flesh with its barbed tip, and stabbed at me again, sinking it deep into my gut this time.
That was right about when I finished turning and planted the barrel of my gun in its face. If Antithesis had a digestive system, the bullet I fired travelled the length of it, making a new route from mouth to ass. I hardly even noticed when it ripped its quill out of my gut in its death throes at the same time, though I certainly felt it afterwards.
With the last Model Five dead, however, the Threes weren’t much of a threat. Even as my internal nanite reservoir went to work on my injuries, I mopped them up, leaving the sonic pile unharmed.
“All done and ready for pickup,” I reported. It wasn’t long before the gunship descended and I hopped back aboard. With the excitement over, we resumed our work, wrapping up the placement of my own allotted piles and starting in on Alana’s when I finally received an update. It wasn’t good news.
“Erica, you need to return immediately!” Nguyen shouted into the mic, the panic in his voice obvious. “Someone shot Alana, and she’s unconscious! Her team was able to extract her but they’re pinned down.”