Chapter Fifteen

  Ambushed…Again.

  Nellie slammed her hand against the controls for the display table, the holographic map flickering from the impact before it stabilized again.

  “A fucking trap,” Nellie snarled. “What kind of twisted bastards were these people?”

  “From what we saw in their early history, it makes sense,” Lucy said soothingly. “And this time, our people are prepared.”

  “There weren’t any traps in the first segment,” Nellie shook her head, fingers flying over the controls as she spun off areas and readings into their own separate mini displays and screens. In moments, she was able to watch the events unfolding across multiple screens. It wasn’t as good as being there, but she was determined to help her people more this time. Nellie keyed a comm line to speak to the entire party.

  “Everyone route your sensor information to this comm line and keep it open at all times,” Nellie ordered as Lucy smiled and pushed a chair up behind her.

  “Aye, Ma’am,” Cheape responded for her team as information began to pour through the open line.

  It wasn’t that long ago that this much information would have completely swamped her, but a short stint as the controlling intelligence behind the entire Imperium had changed all that. As soon as the information flowed into her brain, she spun it off into dozens of separate runtimes and fed the results back to her conscious mind.

  “Right, everyone,” Nellie sat down, rolling her neck. “I’m going to be calling out incoming warnings, so be ready to react.”

  “Aye, Ma’am,” Cheape said, her voice tense.

  While Cheape deployed her forces outside the entrance to the building, Nellie monitored every fluctuation in the energy waves, every eddy in the mists, and change in the magnetic fields around them. The thing about sensors was that they were really two separate systems. First, you have the actual sensors that collect readings and information; second, you have the software to interpret that information.

  You could have the most sensitive and accurate sensor suite in the universe, but if the software running it didn’t recognize something as important, you were stuffed. That was what Nellie wanted to prevent. There was just no substitute for having an AI watching your back, and today, she was planning to be that for each and every member of the team.

  Movement trackers only tracked something when they sensed the item itself; Nellie noticed the change in the mist. It was a split second only, but that could mean the difference between life and death in battle.

  “Andy, top left.” Nellie sent the message without actually speaking to save time. “Cheape, something is coming on the right, across the street. Halfway up the building.”

  Seconds later, two more of the pyramid turrets had been destroyed.

  Any sense of success was short-lived, however, as the readings started to escalate quickly.

  Splitting her mind was getting easier, but she still found splitting her conscious mind a chore. As her focus bounced around, giving warnings and calling incoming directions, the turrets simply kept coming.

  A mistake was inevitable, and when it happened, Nellie was just glad it wasn’t her fault.

  One of the Rigs, being run by a man by the name of Mace Gardener, moved two steps forward. It wasn’t much, but it put him out of position with the defensive line of the team, and the turrets reacted.

  Nellie called a warning, but the man was slightly too slow to pull back.

  For the first time since they had first encountered them, one of the turrets managed to get a shot off before being destroyed—a small, pinkish object shot from the barrel on the top.

  Nellie sped her mind up, giving her time to zoom in and get details from the sensors. For a moment, the egg-sized pink shard seemed to hang in the air, resolving into hyper-focus. Feeling her blood run cold in her veins as Nellie recognized it as a type of crystal, there was little she could do now. It was clearly going to impact the Rig.

  It struck, digging deep into the Haven-Steel plate armor on the shoulder. A split second later, the pinkish glow spiked, and the crystal shard shattered, sending hair-thin needles shooting out through the Rig.

  Mace screamed in pain as his Rig tottered, one arm sparking and going limp before Cheape leaped forward, taking the second shot on her back as the brave young woman dragged the damaged rig back into the store.

  The pink shard slammed into the suit's armor but fell away before it could explode, leaving only a tiny dent and a deep scratch behind.

  “I knew we needed those Boost Suits,” Nellie muttered, forgetting the line was open.

  “Aye, Ma’am,” Cheape replied bitterly.

  Nellie winced but shook it off. Their people were still under attack.

  Pressure was mounting as more and more of the turrets showed up, sliding along the walls of the surrounding buildings before riding across the walkways to open fire on the team.

  “Five seconds until next contact,” Nellie called. “Units three, five, and two focus fire on the track under the walkway to the north.”

  She watched the railgun rounds hack away at the track and the walkway, soon joined by plasma fire. In four seconds, the walkway itself was on fire, and the track was comprehensively destroyed.

  “Contact, left. Contact, right.” Nellie warned and scanned the map for the next closest overpass. It was around the far side of the factory, which would leave the team open to a blizzard of fire on all four sides. There was only one way they could do it, and it meant they needed Gas Tank to stop messing…

  Looking over at his feed, Nellie felt her mouth fall open as the alcove hissed and opened as a new weapon trundled off the production line. It was massive and clearly sized for the Boost Suits. While she watched, he picked it up and passed it over to Cheape.

  “Returning to the fight,” Cheape called, her voice dark and thick with anger.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  The fear and anger were pulsing through her temples like an incoming migraine as Cheape marched forward with the new weapon system Gas Tank had designed.

  As she walked, the coding in her Boost Suit infiltrated the rifle, bringing it up on her HUD as a new icon complete with ammo count and power readouts. Examining the weapon in her hands, Cheape found it nothing like the sleek, smooth Nanite Pulse Rifle so common in the Imperium. This was a beast. Three thick, short barrels in a triangular arrangement led back into the body of the rifle, which was blocky and thick with heavy venting in a line down both sides. The ammo itself was held in a drum at the base of the rifle, while the power and plasma cells were packed in everywhere Tank could find room. While it was clearly an improvised and cobbled-together thing, Cheape could see the nascent weapon it would one day become.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  For now, it would do.

  Three quick steps and a kick of thrusters as she leaped over the front line left Cheape in a prime position to take out the clustering turrets. She opened with the slug thrower, the hardened metal shooting from the uppermost barrel with a satisfying thump against her hands as the powerful weapon fought a losing battle with the Suit to force the barrel up.

  Before the last slug landed, Cheape pulled the second trigger, launching burning plasma bolts into the tracks beneath, scouring and warping them. The replacement turrets found themselves jammed in the twisted tracks, soon to fall victim to more slugs.

  “Cheape, there is another crossway around the corner, can you take it out?” Queen Nellie asked over the comm.

  “I’ll try,” Cheape started forward, crystal shards shattering around her as they bounced off the shaped plating of her suit.

  Alternating between the two triggers, she fought her way through the turrets, cutting off the tracks that would allow replacements.

  Ten steps, twenty, and then she was there, leaning around the corner to find the walls clustered with densely packed turrets. The impacts quickly threatened to overwhelm her Suit, so Cheape knew she had mere seconds to act. Taking a deep breath, she rolled out of cover, finger tightening on the triggers as she rolled upright.

  Without the benefit of nanite upgrades, Cheape had to rely on her implant and suit to help her target and fire quickly. Raking one wall with a stream of slugs and plasma, she danced backward, crystal shards detonating around her like hail. No sooner had the turrets adjusted than she leaped forward, thrusters firing as she spun through the air, using the third trigger to send a laser beam through a dozen more turrets.

  It still wasn’t enough. There were just too many.

  “Cheape, combine the firemodes!” Gas Tank called over the comm.

  “What?” Cheape missed a step as she tried to figure out what he meant. A dozen warning lights lit on her HUD as shards hammered at her temporarily still suit.

  “TRUST ME!” Tank yelled. “Plasma first, then slug it!”

  With no better ideas, Cheape did what he suggested. She aimed at a dense cluster of turrets—spoilt for choice when it came to targets—and sent a burst of plasma at it before sending a slug a fraction of a second later.

  The slugs moved slightly faster than the plasma. As the metal round passed through the plasma, something happened. The plasma acted like a liquid and seemed to stick to the bullet, wrapping around it and being dragged forward, leaving a small trail like a comet before the combined round hit its target.

  With a ‘boom,’ the turret went off like a firework, destroying several around it.

  Combined fire mode learned. Automatic fire is now available.

  The readout on her Hud changed, and Cheape grinned as she spun, the combined rounds spraying the walls and taking out dozens of the turrets at a time.

  The joy was short-lived, however, as she was running low on slugs.

  The laser beam was thin, barely a quarter-inch across, as it cut a line between the barrel and the target walkway. The plasma bolts it passed through were sucked into the beam like water up a straw.

  The orange-yellow beam flickered as the plasma traveled along it, flaring blue and white before the plasma arrived at the far end and collected into a tight ball for a fraction of a second before the area vaporized with a flash of light.

  Combined fire mode two learned.

  “What happens if I put them all together?” Cheape asked hungrily as she watched the walkway lurch and tear away from the building, crashing to the street below.

  “DO NOT DO THAT!” Gas Tank yelled, sounding panicked.

  “Just wondering,” Cheape chuckled as she stroked her new second-favorite weapon in the universe lovingly. “Also, can we do this with rail-gun rounds?”

  “Well, yes,” Gas Tank offered as the sounds of combined fire modes lit behind Cheape, and she realized that Tank had equipped others with his new design. “But how much difference it would make is unclear. I mean… it’s already a railgun, right?”

  “Right,” Cheape shrugged. “Still, worth a trial or two.”

  She turned around, her suit dented and scored from the battle with the turrets, and marched back toward her team. They had a lot more of this place to investigate, and if this was just the welcome wagon, who knew how much worse things were going to get?

  “I want to hit every building in this area before we move on,” Cheape ordered. “No more reacting AFTER we get attacked.”

  “YES, BOSS!” Her team called back.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  Nellie shook her head as she kept calling out targets to the team within the segment. She really had to remember to send Crush a thank you for recruiting Cheape.

  Watching the young woman fight those turrets had been an education. She was not so much elegant as simply too stubborn to stop. More than that, the young Emissary seemed to have an almost instinctive drive to overcome whatever it was that the segments placed in front of her.

  Better still, the backwater planet seemed to have sprouted more than a few geniuses under her care. Gas Tank was one of those people. He seemed to see the world a little differently than anyone else. For a start, he saw just about everything as flammable, combustible, or explosive. A natural weapons designer.

  Even more surprising was the reaction of Cheape’s people to her orders.

  There should have been hesitation or at least questions.

  They didn’t question her.

  They didn’t hesitate.

  It was almost like watching Crush’s people or even… her own.

  “Remind you of someone?” Lucy asked, winking.

  “Is this what we look like to other people?” Nellie asked.

  “I think so,” Lucy shrugged.

  “It’s impressive, but also kind of…” Nellie trailed off.

  “Scary.” Lucy finished for her. “That kind of dedication is always going to be a little scary.”

  “Me, Crush, Cheape… how does it keep happening?” Nellie asked.

  “You, silly.” Lucy laughed. “You set an example others want to follow. Like attracts like in this universe.”

  “Do you really think she is that much like me?” Nellie asked.

  “We won’t know for sure until someone tries to take something from her.” Lucy shrugged. “Like that planet of hers.”

  “Ours, technically,” Nellie pointed out.

  “Yeah, not sure she would argue, but…” Lucy smirked. “They are all our people, but those ones are most definitely HERS.”

  Nellie thought it over and nodded. There was definitely a separateness to the Haven people that wasn’t present in the rest of the Imperium. They considered themselves a part of the Imperium, clearly, but more than anything else, they were Haven people.

  That might cause problems in the future, but what could Nellie really do? Any attempt to enforce the Imperium mindset on them would only drive them further away. They had pretty much dumped the place on Cheape and moved on. This was the result. Trying to fix it now would only make the situation worse.

  Nellie kept the connection to the team open as they searched through the surrounding buildings, picking up bits of tech here and there, but nothing really stood out. Still, Cheape was as thorough as a professional salvager, checking everything twice and searching every nook and cranny for even the slightest bit of tech or information.

  It was during one of these searches that they found the new posters.

  *** Heed the Call of Othar! ***

  The stars have opened and spit forth the enemy of the ages.

  Invaders have dared to cross our borders.

  Will you heed the Call of Othar and take up arms?

  Join the Heros of the Houses today!

  Read the Words of Othar:

  My people,

  As before, so it is again. A challenge has been issued, and an enemy has been found. These invaders have dared to bring battle to us, and they will face the same fate as all others who have doubted the ascendancy of the Empire!

  I call on you, my people, to take up the arms we had laid down.

  I call on you, my people, to defend what we have claimed.

  I call on you, my people, to heed the power in your blood.

  This call comes not just from me, Othar, but all the Othars that ever ruled over our people.

  Rise, my children.

  Rise and strike back against the enemy once more.

  Othar, 842nd of his name.

  Glory, Honor, and Legacy await.

  See your local recruiter today!

  Hey all,

  First of all, thank you to every one of my readers for your patience and understanding as I move through the process of grieving the loss of my amazing wife.

  That said, I will be returning to running things here and on Patreon full-time from later this week.

  Additionally, I am completely revamping my Patreon this week with new rewards and advantages. The full details are up to read for free over there, but these are the highlights.

  $1 - We will be moving ahead even further after book six, get a short story each month, and will be getting a free copy of the spin-off ‘Level One and Loving It.’

  $2 - Everything else, plus a chance to vote on the subject of the monthly short story.

  $3 - Free copies of any ebooks not included in Kindle Unlimited, plus everything else.

  Additionally, look forward to blog posts to keep you updated on the latest news, including exciting news about new stories.

  So, if you want to support me and can spare at least $1 a month, this will be well worth it, and much appreciated.

  Cheers.