From behind a stone planter, Isaac stared in terror at the android pacing in circles around a small, raised plaza ahead. It carried an ancient large-bore kinetic rifle with two hollow-boned metal arms. A few steps ahead of Isaac, Erik rested on one knee, concealed behind a park bench. He twisted his hips to point his helmet toward Arne who also took a knee next to Isaac. The Alucar drone had perfect line of sight to see along the many city blocks.

The bipedal machine, clad in white panels. Its head was dotted with thousands of microsensors that refracted glints as its head swiveled. Mounted between its two face plates was a single spherical red sensor with a black dot, its main eye. It scanned like a sentinel but was unwilling to move from its spot. While it wasn’t facing towards it, the drone had a clear line of sight to the station. It guarded the tracks and stood ready to shred anything that came along to pieces.

“Get that thing ready to move.” The sergeant called to Arne, pointing toward the train powered down at the station.

“Roger.” Arne pivoted, moving toward the corner of the planter closer to the tram, and readied himself to move.

Then Erik turned toward Ivar, who laid prone behind a tipped over trash bin. “Pop chaff, then go help them. I’ll draw its attention.”

The private looked toward Erik and gave a strained nod. Ivar pivoted, slid a canister grenade off his vest, and pulled the pin. Then he waited for acknowledgement from Arne. The tech sergeant gave him a stern nod and latched onto Isaac’s collar. Rolling from shoulder to shoulder on his back, the private hurled the chaff grenade and sent it soaring over the road toward the raised plaza. As the grenade flew, Erik stood up and burst into a sprint, away from the tram. Isaac’s heart leaped into his throat. It was hard not to realize the danger Erik put himself in. Blow-for-blow, that model of drone was an equal match for a fully kitted marine but as the lifeboat was running low on critical supplies, so were Erik and the rest of the marines.

As soon as the sergeant moved, the android spun on its heels, it tracked his movement in a fluid motion, sweeping the cannon. The chaff grenade exploded. A cloud of white smoke burst outwards in a sphere and a stream of iridescence weaved through the form, refracting the violet rays of the signage above and the emergency lights around, a moment of dazzling visual chaos. Through the smoke, the Alucar fired a shot. It missed Erik, nipping at his heels, boring a hole in the cloud, ricocheting off the pavement just behind him, and crashing into the side of a tall residential structure. Shards of stone exploded from the building’s façade, flew across the plaza, and crashed into the ground around Erik.

Arne yanked Isaac up by the collar and dashed toward the open door of the tram car parked at the station. It wasn’t far, only about a dozen paces. In a panic, Isaac tripped over a dead body as he entered the train car and slammed into the closed door on the opposite side of the train. The smack caused his ears to ring and dazed him as his head smashed against his helmet’s full-face visor. Arne jumped into the control station and began flicking switches.

"No power, dammit.” Arne shouted and began looking for an emergency charge station.

Ivar rushed over to Isaac and pulled him to his feet. As Isaac rose, he spotted the hand-powered generator under a seat near the control station.

“I got it here.” Isaac stumbled forward. He sat down on the cushioned passenger bench and reached between his legs. With his whole shoulder he began rotating the crank, the typical clatter from these archaic generators absent in the vacuum of space.

After a few moments of spinning the generator, the control room lit up. Displays turned on and the tram’s computer began booting up. Isaac began to tire and his stomach growled, but he dug deep and continued to pump away at rotating the generator, worried it needed a partially charged battery in order to safely reconnect to the grid.

Down the line, near the track bridge that brought the tram up and deeper into the ship, Erik hip fired bursts of lasers from his light machine gun, a few glowing coolant cells launched from its ejection port with each volley. The rays of red light smacked into the android and bounced off, sending diminished flickers ricocheting off and burning bulkheads in the distance.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Damn that thing is invulnerable.” Ivar stared out the window, hints of fear tinged his voice.

Arne grit his teeth in irritation and turned to the private. “Take over working the generator.” Then he pointed to Isaac. “Come help me get this thing going.”

Out of breath and sweat pouring down his face, Isaac stood up and made way for Ivar who rested his rifle on the seat in front of him and continued churning the generator. Isaac stumbled into the control room and looked at the tram controls. They were fairly simple—the touch panel set the destination and there was a physical throttle handle to move the train.

“Figure out where we need to go and get this thing moving. I’m relieving the sergeant.” Arne slipped out from the control room and ran back to the platform.

Isaac flipped his wrist over and pulled up the route diagram. The destination was the last stop on the line. He prayed there was enough juice in this section of the ship to get them there. It was a long, winding path with many ascents and descents otherwise. He punched in an express trip to the final station. The screen ignited with a red warning indicator and text flashed.

Error: Tram drivetrain link failure. Ensure positive and negative connector alignment.

Erik launched another suppression volley as he sprinted away from the tram toward cover. The Alucar fired another high-caliber round in his direction, which landed low and shattered a planter, sending dirt flying in every direction. Isaac needed to get this thing going and fast.

Arne took cover far away from the tram and began firing bursts of lasers from his rifle at the android.

As he rushed out onto the platform and toward the rear of the tram, Isaac threw himself between the wide tracks and began crawling under the cars, toward the front of the train where the connection should have been. He wasn’t an internal engineer, but he had an interest in trams when he was younger and sometimes information about these ancient vehicles could be found in literature.

On the engine car were two hooks that were linked to a slider on the rail. The positive slider looked firmly linked. The negative connector was mangled, wrapped up in a mummified leg. Isaac shuddered, reminded of the carnage at the bulkhead gap. These old trams were variable link and powered via AC voltage. One misplaced hand would close the circuit between him, the tram, and the rail. It would kill him and hurt the entire time.

Rubbing two gloved fingers together Isaac psyched himself up. He braced his shoulder against the tram, hoping if his body closed a circuit, it would only burn and not fry him. He yanked the gored femur from the link wire. A subtle giddiness filled him. The lack of a shock reassured him. Then he reached for the cable. As his finger touched the braided metal, it arced. Isaac recoiled. Then he spotted the two marines taking fire from the android and recognized there were far worse places to be right now.

Isaac took a deep breath, steeled himself, and then with one hand began to straighten out the link cable. It smacked against the motor receptor’s case and bolts of electricity flew from the wire as it bobbed along the tram’s metal drive wheel. Fighting off an instinctual flinch, Isaac gripped the wire and smacked it into the motor’s slider. With a bit of a jolt running up from his fingers, he wrapped the link cable around the connector plate and bound it to the hook on the slider. Then he retreated, confident the connection would hold long enough to get them where they needed to be.

As he crawled out from under the tram, sprinted onto the train and into the control room, Isaac punched in the destination and the tram accepted it. With hope in his heart, Isaac pushed the horn button on the control panel to get the two marines skirmishing with the android to move back toward the tram. Nothing happened. Of course it wouldn’t, this entire section of ship was decompressed.

“Train’s leaving, let’s go.” Isaac called out over the radio.

He hoped the chaff was enough cover to keep the tram from being destroyed by the drone.

As Arne waved over to Erik, the android dropped his cannon. It was out of ammo. The Alucar produced twin blades from beneath its armor-plated arms and launched itself toward the skirmishing marines. The sergeant retreated while Arne failed to suppress the android that continued its unwavering advance toward him.

Erik slid into the door and jammed his hand toward Isaac. “Get this thing going now!”

“The doors are going to close when it starts moving.” Isaac placed his hand on the throttle.

“Go, go, go!” The sergeant yelled.

Isaac punched the throttle to full and the doors shuttered. The tram’s wheels spun for a moment then it lurched into motion and began accelerating rapidly.

“Move it marine, we are leaving.” Erik shouted over the radio to Arne.

The sergeant began kicking out the door that just closed. With hydraulic-augmented muscles it only took a few hits before the doors flew off their rollers and tumbled away from the train.

Arne stopped shooting at the quickly closing Alucar and with a charged jump, launched himself up over the planters and onto the road which ran in parallel with the tram. In a powered-assisted sprint, Arne raced along the side of the train, gasping over the radio as he reached out for Erik.

The sergeant leaned out of the open door and crouched down, extending an arm to the sprinting marine. With the gap between their hands widening as the tram accelerated, Arne dug deep, throwing himself in desperation toward Erik.

Behind, the android caught up to Arne, ready to strike him down.