Metal and Ash (Apex Trilogy) (52 page)

“Because now is the right time to tell you,” the Mayor replied. “This is the first battle test for this system. There could be glitches.”

“Could be?”

“We hope not,” the Mayor said. “But you’ll need the extra help soon.”

Dog swerved around an HAV and came to a hard brake. A line of shock troops were running straight for him, their rifles barking at full auto. Dog took several hits to his chest, but held tight to the cyce, his suit keeping him from being opened up.

“Yeah,” Dog gasped as he spun his cyce around and sped away. “Could be right.”

“Hang tight, boy.” The Mayor said. “This will even the score.”

Dog didn’t know what to expect, but he did know that the battle had started to turn. The HAVs were no longer trying to run down the cyces or blast them from the earth. Most had stopped and taken a position where they could concentrate their fire and target the cyces more easily. They had also unloaded their shock troops and the soldiers were busy picking of riders one by one.

Immy came up on Dog’s right and nodded.

“You ready?” she asked over the com. “This is gonna get freaky real fast.”

Before Dog could respond a Line of blue light shot from his cyce and connected to Immy’s. No matter how he dodged and swerved, the Line stayed with them. A group of four troopers held their ground and fired at Dog and Immy, but were sliced in half as the Line ripped right through them. Dog looked over his shoulder as they sped past and blood sprayed into the air.

“Holy shit!” Dog shouted. “That’s gonna help a fuck ton!”

***

Lines formed between most of the riders on the field. Those that had experience with the new weapon used them to their best advantage, targeting loose groups of troopers first then HAVs. Flesh and metal fell in large chunks and slices as the riders carved their way through the battlefield.

Reginald watched all of it from his HAV and grew increasingly irritated. “How do they develop a weapon like that in this backwards hellhole?”

His driver was smart enough not to answer.

As guts spilled from sliced torsos of his troopers, Reginald shot to his feet and stormed back to the rear ramp of his HAV.

“Alert the troopers that I am entering the field,” Reginald said. “They should follow my lead.”

“Yes, sir,” his driver said as he immediately sent the news across the com.

***

“Who the fuck is this guy?” Agnatha called over the com as Reginald stepped from his HAV and walked right into the battle. “Interesting time to commit suicide.”

Agnatha spun about and started firing her mini-guns at Reginald. The man turned as the slugs hit him and his body danced and stuttered. He fell to the ground quickly and Agnatha laughed.

“Idiot,” she said as her cyce zipped past him.

She never saw the BC that shot out at her.

Reginald got to his feet as the thin line of BC that extended from his hand pierced Agnatha’s helmet, splattering the inside of her visor with blood. Reginald twisted his hand and the end of the BC became barbed as he yanked backwards. The back of Agnatha’s helmet was ripped open and her brains and skull showered the wasteland earth. Her body was pulled right off her cyce and the vehicle slammed into two other riders, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Reginald whipped the BC back to him and it melded right into his hand. He looked down at the holes that were in his chest and abdomen, frowning at the damage.

“Non-biochrome bullets,” he frowned. “Inconvenient.”

He walked over to a destroyed HAV and placed his hand upon it, drawing the extra metal into his body. The bullet holes filled instantly and the slugs dropped from his body to the ground, having been pushed out by the extra mass of BC that Reginald absorbed. He shivered all over and then looked at the battle at hand.

The grin on his face as he casually walked towards an approaching duo of riders would have terrified anyone, but the riders were too confident in the Line that connected their cyces. Reginald let them come at him, not bothering to dodge the Line that would surely slice him in half.

The riders cheered as the Line sliced Reginald at mid-thigh. They spun about to see the damage then both gasped as Reginald acted as if nothing had happened.

“Your cheese slicer is a nice trick,” Reginald said as BC ripped from his fingers as deadly flechettes and ripped through the riders’ suits like they were nothing. “But useless on a man of my kind.”

The riders fell from their cyces and Reginald picked up a stray hunk of BC to replace the mass lost by the flechettes. He kicked the dead riders with his foot to make sure they were down then looked about for more targets, the smile never leaving his face.

***

“New player on the field,” Styles 1 said over the com as he lowered the BTT towards a chunk of HAV wreckage. “This guy ain’t like everyone else.”

Melissa hung from a harness under the BTT and grabbed onto the chunk of BC, instantly sending it flowing up a line that led into the belly of the aircraft. She followed the BC and shut the cargo bay door as she unhooked from the harness and began to form the BC into suits for more riders.

“What was that about a new player?” Melissa asked. “I was a bit busy there, cowboy.”

“I am interested also,” Stone said as he grabbed onto the BC.

“Hands off, killer,” Melissa growled.

“I can help,” Stone replied. “In fact, I can fabricate the suits much faster than you can.”

He quickly formed a half-dozen suits in the time it took Melissa to create one. She grabbed one of Stone’s and studied it, looking for any intentional flaws or weaknesses.

“I have no intention of helping you lose this battle,” Stone smiled. “You’re about to do that on your own if who I think is out there is actually out there.”

Finding no flaws, Melissa tossed the suit aside and picked up another one. “And who do you think is out there?”

“An old friend,” Stone said as he made six more suits. “In fact, before this gets too out of hand, I should pay him a visit.”

“You think I’m going to let you out of my sight?” Melissa asked.

“You don’t really have a choice,” Stone responded, a wicked grin on his face. “I could tear this aircraft apart in seconds, if I wanted to. All this BC? Putty. You know what I am talking about and you just watched what I can do.” Stone leaned forward, but Melissa didn’t flinch. “And I was holding back.”

“Styles?” Melissa called. “Give me a holo of the fight. I want to see this new player.”

***

Dog and Immy roared towards Reginald, ready to join the dozen or so riders that were converging on the new threat.

“Oh, fuck!” Dog roared as all of the riders were decapitated by a swing of Reginald’s hand. He couldn’t see the BC microfilament, but he knew it was there and ditched his cyce into the ground.

The bail threw Immy off balance and her cyce in turn went down.

“What the hell, cuz?” Immy shouted as she got up to lift her cyce back upright. “You go coward all of a sudden?”

“Stay down!” Dog shouted as he pulled her feet out from under her.

Immy dropped to the ground just as the whip-crack sound of the BC microfilament filled the air where her head had been. Dog rolled them both behind his cyce and pulled his pistol.

“Stay here,” he ordered as he crawled around the side of the cyce and took aim at Reginald. His pistol split in half and Dog felt a sting across his shoulder. He rolled back behind the cyce, gasping and grabbing at the wound.

“Oh, crap, cuz,” Immy said as she pressed a hand to Dog’s shoulder. “That got you good.”

“Perhaps I can help,” Stone said as he walked up next to them. “Just stay low and I’ll take care of this.” Stone motioned to the rest of the battle. “In fact you’ll want to tell all of your people to stay clear. Focus on the troopers. Leave the new guy to me.”

“Who the hell is that?” Immy asked as she pulled her hand back, the BC suit finally tending to Dog’s wound and stitching up the sliced shoulder.

“Not a fucking clue,” Dog said. “But he must know something we don’t if he’s just going to walk up to that guy.”

Fifty-Six

“What am I seeing here, Jethro?” Capreze asked as he stood in the mainframe room. “I’m a little busy. Couldn’t you have filled me in over the com?”

The Railer techs and medics had all gathered about the gurney that Beth had been rolled in on. June walked over to Capreze and took his hand.

“I think we have good news, but it may be a shock,” June said. “That’s why we couldn’t tell you over the com.”

“Good news?” Capreze asked. “This isn’t the time for fun or frivolity, people. Did I not mention the busy part of my schedule-?”

Capreze stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Beth sitting up on the gurney. But it wasn’t Beth. He could tell instantly from the smile on her face.

“What is this?” Capreze whispered.

“You can see it, can’t you?” June smiled. “That’s Rachel. That isn’t Beth Laughlin.”

“Hey, Papa Bear,” Rachel smiled from Beth’s body that was actually a clone of Rachel’s body. “I’m back.”

“Baby Girl?” Capreze asked. “Is it really you?” He took a step back as Rachel reached for him. “It can’t be. It’s not possible.”

“For most, no,” Beth’s voice said over the loudspeakers. “But Rachel and I shared a bond based on DNA and our technopathy. My body instantly grabbed her consciousness and held it when Rachel’s body was destroyed. We couldn’t function as two beings in one body, but once Jethro hooked me up to the mainframe I was free and so was your daughter.”

“What the fuck?” Capreze gasped as he looked at the wall of vid screens. “Jethro? I need answers now.”

“Beth just told you, sir,” Jethro said. “Her consciousness uploaded into the mainframe as soon as I started digging around. Let’s face it, her mind was too big to be held in a vessel like Rachel’s clone. She would have had a massive cerebral breakdown at some point soon. It was actually lucky we needed the data on how to make BC.”

Capreze, still wary, held his place just out of reach of Rachel. “And where are we with that?”

“No go,” Jethro said. “At least not short term. Long term we’ll have production up and going in the next few months. If we survive.”

“Papa Bear?” Rachel said as she got up from the gurney. “It’s me. Honestly.”

“No,” Capreze barked as he held up his hand. “You look like my daughter when she was a teenager. But you aren’t her.” He turned on June. “What were you thinking?”

“Okay, I know this is hard to take in,” June said. “But I’ve been asking her questions only Rachel would know. It’s her, sir.”

“No,” Capreze said again as he turned and walked from the mainframe room.

“Sir?” Jethro said over the com. “I’m sorry to spring that on you. I was hoping the good news would buffer the bad news.”

“What’s the bad news, Jethro?”

“An EMP went off north,” Jethro replied. “We have lost all intel on the fight up there with the Canadians.”

“Do we have any information?”

“No, sir,” Jethro said. “We are completely in the dark.”

“If any of our people survived then what are they in for?” Capreze asked. “How does this affect the techno-zombies? Will an EMP take them out?”

“It’ll take out their nano-tech,” Jethro said.

“But not the deaders themselves?”

“I don’t know,” Jethro said. “I wish I did, but this nanobot stuff is all experimental at best.”

“So if any of our folks survived they could be just fine and walking home or…?”

“Or they are facing a fuck load of deaders that are pissed off and under no one’s control,” Jethro replied. “Odds point to the latter.”

“Fucking great.”

***

Brother Reynaldo, Sister Gloria and Sister Candide stood next to the Pope as he watched the Disciples form into a wide line of defense around the perimeter of the Stronghold. The Disciples were six deep and spanned the entire length of the perimeter, almost stretching them out of sight.

“The commander is coming,” Sister Gloria said and they all turned to Capreze’s approaching ATV.

“Looks like we’ll need you pretty soon,” Capreze said. “We’ve lost contact with the northern front.”

“And those riders of Eden?” the Pope asked. “How do they fair?”

“They’re struggling,” Capreze said. “There’s some new weapon at play that we weren’t aware of. The Mayor says they have it under control, but I think he is being optimistic.”

“So these wonderful creatures are the last line of defense?” the Pope asked. “Humanity’s only hope.” He smiled broadly. “Fitting.”

“I’m going to assume you are referring to some irony that only you get,” Capreze said. “I just need to know that you can control these things. If we get hit then your Disciples are all that stand between whatever is coming and the Stronghold. If we go down then there’s really no chance anyone can stand against them.”

“And that ‘them’ is still a mystery, correct?” the Pope said. “Since we don’t know what is actually coming towards us.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Capreze said. “We’ll know soon, though. Once anything gets clear of the EMP blast then we’ll be able to pick it up on sensors. But nothing’s shown up yet.”

“Well, let us pray that your people haven’t completely fallen and are still fighting for us all,” the Pope said.

“Yeah, praying is a good idea,” Capreze answered.

***

“Ah, fuck me!” Masters shouted as he kicked at the cockpit hatch over and over again. “Fucking open!”

The hatch finally broke free and Masters grabbed his pump-action shotgun, his 9mm, and all the shells and magazines he could stuff into his uniform’s pockets. He pushed the hatch open and climbed out onto his mech as it lay on its back, surrounded by a sea of techno-zombies. Masters would have taken himself out right there with the numbers he faced, but luckily all of the techno-zombies were flat on their backs and unmoving. He guessed that the EMP had disabled the nanobots and sent them to the mat.

He grabbed his binocs, put them to his face, then tossed them back into the cockpit. No good, the electronics were fried. He slowly spun in a circle and took in what he could see. Which was a lot.