Chapter Nine

  Step by Step

  “Keep your heads down!” Nellie ordered. “We’ll tell you when to move.”

  “Understood!” Cheape’s transmission cut out as she was drowned out by the roar of the cannons on the squadron of security bots that had them pinned down.

  The further into the segment the team moved, the more advanced the buildings had become. Just as they moved into a section full of sleek-looking buildings made of shining steel and glass, they ran into a single robot.

  Unlike the patchwork things they faced in the first area, this one had been clean and shining, like it was fresh from the production line. The large, spherical body sat on a pair of legs that ended in wide, three-toed feet. The powerful legs had reversed knees, like birds, that allowed it to move and reposition shockingly fast.

  It had two ‘arms’ mounted on a track that allowed it to rotate around the body, making it even more effective at tracking targets.

  They took it by surprise, but before it was destroyed, the thing managed to emit a loud warning klaxon. It had summoned a squad full of backup, forcing Cheape and her people to retreat into a nearby building.

  “Each bot has two main arms,” Nellie relayed to Cheape and her team, “The left one, the long boxy thing, features a pair of cannons, while the circular one on the right is the minigun.”

  “Minigun?” Cheape queried. “It looks pretty big from here!”

  “Uh, sorry, I meant a high-speed slug thrower that uses rotating barrels to enable a truly staggering rate of fire,” Nellie explained. “But both weapons have a weakness we can exploit.”

  “We’re listening,” Cheape yelped as Nellie saw a large chunk of the wall her team was hiding behind blasted free.

  “The cannons are slow to reload,” Nellie explained. “And there is a small space of time when the minigun has to spin up to speed. When both those things happen at once, that is your opening.”

  “Opening for what?” Cheape said. “We’re surrounded!”

  “Yes, which is why you can do this,” Nellie said, trying to calm the young woman down. “We can see a pair of these things on each side of the building you're hiding in. That means you can take them out two at a time if you are fast. And, Cheape, you will have to be fast.”

  “Ma’am, I—” Cheape started.

  “You can do this, Cheape,” Nellie said as calmly as she could. “But only if we move fast. Trust me.”

  There was a long moment of open air on the comms before Cheape responded.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  One minute later, Nellie was leaning over the map table, a cutaway of the building Cheape’s team was in taking up the full area. At this scale, the two remaining T-Rigs were almost seven inches high.

  “Stop arguing with me, Gas Tank,” Nellie snapped. “I told you that floor would hold, so it will hold. Get that metal ass up onto the second story. Now!”

  Swearing and cursing the whole time, Tank finally got into position.

  “Cheape, start the distraction.”

  Looking over toward the front of the building, she saw the heavy shield from Cheape’s Rig slam over the gap in the front wall while a pair of exo-suited troopers started throwing stones.

  Nellie couldn’t believe her people were reduced to throwing stones, but it worked. Taking the bait, the security bots unloaded on the front wall, the echoing thumps of the cannons, and the whine of the chainguns drowning out everything else.

  “Now!” Nellie yelled. “Go! Go! Go!”

  Focusing on the back of the building again, Nellie could only watch and hope her plan succeeded.

  An Exo-suit kicked open the back door, causing the two waiting bots to turn and focus on it, unloading with both cannons from each bot.

  Glass shattered, the sound coming clear through Cheape and Gas Tank’s feeds as she watched the two rigs leap from the second floor and descend on the security bots.

  They reacted immediately, aiming both arms up, chainguns beginning to spin up.

  Before they could reach firing speed, the Rigs landed.

  Gas Tank brought his massive mace down on the spherical body, smashing it in a split second before his rig landed on top of it, driving it to the floor.

  The other security bot jumped back and started firing, but Cheape landed in a crouch before leaping forward, twin chainsaws chewing through its armor until sparks flew and a flash heralded the death of its control system. It went limp, hanging from the chains jammed into its innards.

  “Retreat inside,” Nellie ordered, seeing the other bots beginning to move. “Quickly!”

  “I’m stuck!” Cheape was trying to jerk her blades free, but they were snagged on something deep inside.

  “Gas Tank, help Cheape and get inside. You have six seconds.” Nellie counted down as the other rig dashed over, ducking to lift the corpse of the snagged bot off the floor before they both dashed into the still-open rear door.

  It slammed shut a split second before the reinforcements arrived around the corners of the building.

  “I meant to pull it free, but whatever works,” Nellie said with a smirk. Only as the security bots split up to cover all sides again did she notice the single Exo-suit running madly down an alleyway and away from the fight.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  “A what?” Cheape yelled as the two rigs tumbled through the door, their cargo clattering and banging along between her and Gas Tank. “Who is it?” She groaned. “Andy! What the fuck do you think you are doing?”

  “I’ve got a god-dammed plan!” Andy called back before closing the comm line and blocking it from reconnecting.

  “What happened?” Tank asked, his image flashing up in the corner of her HUD.

  “Andy did a runner out the side door. She has a plan, apparently.” Cheape said dryly.

  “I hope she makes it,” Gas Tank shook his head. “Let’s get a look inside this thing while we can.”

  “You look,” Cheape said shortly, her anger and worry erasing her usual politeness. “I’ll keep moving about to make sure our friends out there don’t come in for a closer look.”

  “Right you are!” Gas Tank said, not bothered in the slightest by her anger.

  Stomping loudly through the ruined interior of the strange building, Cheape seethed as much as worried. Andy J had done a runner, and it irked her in a way that surprised her. Logically, she could understand running. Either the woman was running away or ignoring orders to do her own thing. Either way, Cheape wanted to wring her neck.

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  It was a very un-Cheape-like feeling.

  “Ma’am?” Cheape called quietly into a private line between her and Queen Lucy.

  “Go ahead, Cheape,” Queen Lucy replied.

  “I am having a small issue that I was hoping to talk through with you, Ma’am,” Cheape said, aware she was putting off actually asking the question she needed to. “I’m sorry to bother you with this, but—”

  “I’m listening,” the queen replied.

  “Is it normal to be both concerned for Andy and to be planning graphic details of her murder at the same time? I’m worried I am cracking from the stress of command, Ma’am.” Cheape swallowed hard as the queen laughed.

  “No, Cheape, that is simply being in charge of humans,” Lucy sighed. “They often behave in infuriating ways.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am,” Cheape coughed as she wondered how many times Lucy had planned her own murder.

  “None, Cheape,” Lucy’s line flicked open again, “and before you ask, I didn’t need to read your mind, just your face.”

  “I know why they aren’t kicking the doors in,” Gas Tank told her a few minutes later.

  “Why?” Cheape asked when he didn’t volunteer the information.

  “The interior of these things is two-thirds ammo, and this one was down almost fifty percent already.” Gas Tank replied. “Most of the remaining ammo is Chaingun rounds as well.”

  “Which our makeshift shields would stop,” Cheape nodded to herself. “At least for a while.”

  “Right, and this one only has space for twenty shells for the cannons. So, ten shots per barrel.” Gas Tank offered. “There are twelve left in this one.”

  “Can we mount those barrels on our rigs?” Cheape asked.

  “Better. I can adapt these shells to work with our railguns.” Gas Tank grinned like an alley cat. “Send them back at twice the speed.”

  “Do it,” Cheape said with a nod. “As soon as they are ready, we go after that other wreck.”

  Gas Tank looked hesitant to say anything else, looking away but not leaving.

  “What?” Cheape asked.

  “What are we going to do about Andy?” Gas Tank asked, hands clenching nervously. “She’s out there on her own.”

  “First, we take out these bastards,” Cheape replied grimly. “Then we go find her.”

  “We won’t leave her behind?” Gas Tank asked, looking relieved.

  “We don’t leave people behind,” Cheape promised. “But I am so kicking her ass when we catch her.”

  “I’ll help,” Gas Tank nodded.

  Ten minutes later, Cheape kicked open the back door again.

  The security patrol had left two replacements back here, and they both immediately raised their weapons, scanning the windows as they waited for the rigs to appear.

  Cheape stepped out, unleashing three improvised rounds from her railgun into the nearest one. The hyper-accelerated rounds punched straight through the center of the orb-like torso. It slumped forward as Cheape aimed at the next target, firing two rounds. The enemy bot dodged back, escaping the first shot, but the second clipped the leg, punching a hole through the hip. The leg gave way, and it fell, spraying the side of the building with rounds from its chaingun as it toppled onto one side.

  Cheape put the last round through the torso, ending the fight.

  “Now!” She yelled.

  Exo-suited team members jumped down from the windows above, each one carrying crude hooks and cables. While Nellie relayed the positions of the approaching security bots, Cheape’s team attached the hooks to the downed bots and then ran back inside, spooling the cables out as they went.

  “Five seconds,” Nellie warned.

  “Moving,” Cheape confirmed as the team attached the cables to her rig. The moment they were clear, she fired the last of her thruster fuel, shooting forward as she dragged the fallen robots inside.

  “Clear!”

  The door slammed shut as Gas Tank burst out of a window on the second floor, dropping onto the security bot below, firing point-blank before grabbing the body and carrying it in through the front door.

  “Bang! Three new sets of parts!” Gas Tank crowed as he dropped it on the floor.

  “Well done, everyone,” Cheape congratulated her team. “Now, let’s get to work.”

  “You know,” Cheape offered as she took a swig from her last water tank. “I would have sworn you couldn’t retrofit one of these rigs with just the toolbox before we came in here.”

  “We’ve done a lot more than that.” Gas Tank smirked. “These buggers will never know what hit them.”

  Taking a step back, Cheape looked over her modifications and decided they would do for now. It didn’t hurt that they had the advantage of Lucy running design ideas every second, coming up with the best ways to do what they needed with what they had around them.

  It was kind of inspiring, actually. She was almost, almost tempted to get nanites if they came with a Silicate Intelligence like Lucy.

  Still, the idea of millions, if not billions, of tiny machines crawling around inside her, in her brain… she heaved, almost losing the precious water she had just drunk.

  So, yeah, no nanites. Not yet. Still, it did give her an idea.

  “Queen Lucy?” Cheape asked quickly before she lost her nerve.

  “Go ahead,” the queen sounded distracted.

  “Could we get Tee, I mean TRV-4, up here? His knowledge of improvised design would be fantastic.” Cheape held her breath.

  “He’s already on his way,” Lucy said, with a trace of irritation. “News got back to Haven that your team was stuck. He apparently borrowed a shuttle. We expect him within the hour.”

  The tight knot in Cheape’s chest released a little at the news.

  “Finished,” Gas Tank called.

  “With what?” Cheape asked. She had taken a short nap, getting ready for their breakout attempt in a few hours. The noise-canceling effect of her rig’s cab was something she was really coming to appreciate.

  Laid out on his improvised bench was one of the chainguns. It had been fitted with a crude stock and handle and matched with an ammo backpack designed to mount on the back of an Exo-suit.

  “Will the suits be able to manage the recoil?” Cheape asked.

  “Within a certain tolerance, yes,” Gas Tank beamed proudly at his new creation.

  An alarm beeped at Cheape, coming from the timer on her implant.

  “Okay, everyone, get ready. We’re moving in two hours.” Cheape sent the message to the group comms, seeing that Andy J’s comm was blocked but still active.

  Hopefully, that was a good sign.

  It surprised Cheape how quickly the two hours passed. It felt like a blink of an eye before the moment was there, and the queens were relaying instructions and information to them as the team split up. The plan was to overpower the three remaining bots by striking them all at the same time. While the Exo-suits attacked from the second-story rear of the building, Gas Tank would repeat his sneak attack on the side, and Cheape would charge through what was left of the Swiss cheese wall in the front.

  As soon as she or Gast Tank finished off their target, they would then move around to help the Exo-suits around the back. If everything went according to plan, they would catch the last bot in a pincer move while the Exo-suits stayed as safe as possible on the second story.

  It was a good plan.

  A solid plan.

  So why did she feel so sure that something was going to go wrong?

  As the sounds of battle rang from behind her, Cheape ducked her head instinctively as her rig slammed through what remained of the front wall. As the rubble fell around her, it revealed the enemy security droid was caught off guard as it had been rushing to assist the others.

  Still, it reacted quickly, the arms spinning around the torso to face her way. Fire belched from the cannon barrels as it unleashed two shots, which Cheape rolled away from, unleashing the power in her railgun to return fire.

  The damned thing ducked, the legs folding almost flat on those reversed knees before it sprang backward, trying to get out of range.

  Determined not to let it escape, Cheape dashed forward, shield raised to take the stream of fire from the bots chaingun. She clenched her teeth, praying the metal would hold. If they could use their laser arrays, this would have been a short fight, but without a way to recharge their batteries, it was just too big of a drain.

  The cannon barrels lowered again, and she was still too far away to be sure of killing the thing, so, out of options, Cheape threw her shield.

  The battered chunk of stolen steel was blown apart by the heavy weapons, but it brought her the time she needed.

  Sliding to a stop, Cheape raised both arms. Her railgun spat, sending two more rounds in quick succession while a high-pitched whine gave way to a deep roar as the chaingun she had mounted, on the other hand, unleashed a storm of firepower.

  The railgun rounds opened the holes; the chaingun chewed up everything inside them. It was over before the security droid could reload its cannons.

  Cheape turned at once, sprinting with all the speed her rig could manage toward the rear of the building.

  Just as Cheape cleared the side of the building, she saw Gas Tank coming around the other corner. Grinning, she already knew they had won.

  The feeling of joy died as she saw the pings on her motion tracker.

  “Cheape! Seven more signals coming in fast from the—” Queen Nellie’s transmission cut out as Cheape saw the seven security bots stomping up the narrow alley. Opening her mouth to order an immediate retreat, she stopped as a figure appeared on the building overlooking the alley.

  “Is that an Exo-suit?” Gas Tank asked.

  Before anyone could answer, the figure bent and appeared again, a large pipe clenched in its arms. With a little hop, it threw the pipe over the edge and down onto the bots below. More pipes followed as the alley below erupted into a nightmare of fire and concussive blasts that left not only the bots but the buildings on either side gutted.

  “I told you I had a plan!” Andy J’s voice line lit as her comm was finally unblocked.