CHAPTERONE
Blasts of sand pelted Adriene’s back as the dropship’s thrusters flared into blinding blue-white halos. It lifted off the ground, kicking up a static hum of fine white sand that pelted the carapace of her hardsuit.
“We’re skyward,” the pilot called over comms. “Good hunting, Specialist Valero.”
Adriene acknowledged him with a quick two-fingered salute. The ship’s silver hull blanched, then became a mere shimmer of light as the stealth system engaged and it shot into the darkening atmosphere.
She switched to squad comms. “Rhodes?”
Private Harlan Rhodes approached, obscured through the eddy of sand drifting in the wake of the dropship. “Go for Rhodes.”
“Any hits?”
“Nothing, boss.” Harlan stopped next to her, his scuffed, dark gray hardsuit dusted with a layer of fine sand. He flashed a grin from under his shaded visor. “You’ll be the first to know, Valero. Er—sir. After me. Obviously.”
Adriene humored her second’s congeniality with a stilted smile. “Thanks for the clarification.”
He nodded. “You got it, boss.”
Through the lingering haze of sand, Adriene surveyed the planet’s landscape. Beyond the inlet of a choppy sea, the fragments of an ancient metal city jutted up through dense forest, colossal husks of some once-great civilization. On the horizon beyond the water, the system’s red dwarf star hovered like a massive dying cinder, casting the long-abandoned landscape in a hazy amber glow. And there it would sit, always watching, skirting eastward along the rim of the world until morning, when it’d pull itself back up into the sky and make its lazy, almost forty-two-hour arc back to this spot. The same amount of time she’d been given to complete this mission.
“Overwatch is up,” Private McGowan announced, stepping to the other side of Harlan. Her fingers flashed across her survey tablet. “Clear, presently.”
“Keep an eye on it.” Adriene glanced back at the hunched man towering off her shoulder. “Booker, what’s our ETA?”
The private’s deep voice crackled through her earpiece, “Er, ’bout fifty minutes if you wanna keep boots on the ground. Twenty if you’re up for a little rappelling.”
Adriene’s squad fell in behind her as she crossed a few meters of rocky terrain toward an uneven cliff edge, dusted with tawny saltbush.
She peered over the edge to the turbulent surf three hundred meters below, where algae-laden waves crashed against the worn basalt cliff face.
“Book, you got a local survey?” she asked.
Booker pinged her HUD, and Adriene quickly reviewed the topography. The descent was doable, but it’d be a risk with the rough surf.
“Nah, let’s hoof it,” she said. “We’ve got time. Rhodes, you got the COB kit.”
“Copy,” Harlan acknowledged.
McGowan stowed her tablet, then helped Harlan lift the heavy Colonial Operations Base kit onto his back.
Adriene double-checked the atmospheric readout in her HUD before sliding open the visor of her helmet. She drew in a slow inhale of the warm, salty air. It wasn’t every day they were deployed in breathable atmosphere. And she couldn’t remember the last time she’d smelled an ocean.
“Atmo’s clear, guys.”
Harlan slid his visor open and sucked in a long breath through his nose. “Ahh. Isn’t it nice when a planet’s not trying to kill us?”
“Not yet, anyway.”
McGowan and Booker opened their visors as well. Adriene shouldered her own pack and let Booker lead the way north along the edge of the cliff. The breeze off the sea cooled with the waning sunlight as they descended along a steep game trail, worn into the landscape by some manner of vertically accomplished fauna.
“So, Rhodes,” Booker said, “what’re we thinkin’?”
Harlan lifted his chin and sniffed the air deeply. “I’ll give it an eight point five.”
“That high?” Booker asked, skeptical. “I’m pegging it at a six.”
McGowan perked up, her voice crisp over comms. “Preliminary reports do support the likelihood of a high viability rating.”
“I wouldn’t put too much stock in the reports,” Adriene warned. “Their survey was scant at best.”
Harlan sighed. “Seems to be the case more often than not these days, huh?”
Adriene grunted her agreement.
“Guess we’ll leave it up to good ol’ COB kit to decide.” Booker thwacked the large pack on Harlan’s back, causing Harlan to stumble slightly. Harlan glowered, but kept walking.
Half an hour later, the cliff-side path ended abruptly in an over two-meter drop to the sandy shore. Booker and McGowan hopped down first, then Harlan slid the COB kit off his back and passed it down to Booker.
Harlan leapt off the edge, landing with a grunt. “They couldn’ta dropped us a little closer?”
McGowan replied, “Radiological signature’s too easy to trace. A COB’s only good to us if we can keep it from the scrap heaps.”
Harlan hefted the bag onto his back again. “Sure, but Intel says we’re by our lonesome, yeah?”
Booker scoffed. “A Mechan-free system? In this sector? I’m not buyin’ it.”
Harlan gave a soft grumble of acquiescence. “Maybe not. Doesn’t mean they’re hangin’ around on this deserted rock, though.”
Adriene slid off the ledge and landed beside them. “Keep comms clear, guys.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Booker pulled a laminated sheet of paper from his utility belt, turning to get his bearings. “Eighteen degrees, one point six seven klicks.”
“Copy,” Adriene said. “Lead the way, Private.”
Booker tucked the sheet away, then started along the narrow shore at the foot of the cliff. They remained quiet as they found their footing on the rocky beach, strewn with pools of glassy water that teemed with variegated marine life. Thick strands of latticed coral-like invertebrates covered the reef, their orange and lime-green bioluminescence already visible in the dwindling daylight. A trio of flat, fishlike fauna skimmed the surface, staining the glowing display like drifting sunspots.
Adriene’s chapped lips had just started to go numb when her suit beeped a warning. She checked the flashing atmo sensor on the arm of her hardsuit. “Temp’s dropping, seal up,” she ordered. She waited for the distinctive hiss of three visors closing before she sealed her own.
“Nice while it lasted,” Harlan’s resigned tone mumbled over comms.
Twenty minutes later, they rounded a corner into a large cove. A wide basalt cliff face sat a hundred meters back from the shore, covered with a mask of corroded scaffolding—the framework of some ancient sentry post. Adriene spotted a single, narrow entrance barely visible between two vertical striations of dark stone.
Booker came to a stop. “This’s it, sir.”
Adriene glanced back. “Mac, any other entrances?”
“Not according to survey,” McGowan said. “But the basalt doesn’t always make for the most accurate readings.”
“All right. Drop a patrol beacon at the threshold.”
Harlan nodded. “You got it, sir.”
“Otherwise, we stay dark.” Adriene opened the control panel on her arm and switched off her hardsuit’s master controls. “No tech except comms and overwatch till we’ve cleared the interior.”
“Powering down,” Harlan said, and the others echoed him. The few dim lights on the exterior of their hardsuits faded away.
“And don’t forget mods,” Adriene said.
Booker grumbled something unintelligible but distinctly sullen, then turned off the targeting unit on the side of his rifle. Adriene hauled the heavy coilgun rifle off her back and did the same. She checked the charge on the weapon, then shouldered it and led the way to the cave’s entrance.
The interior wasn’t nearly as imposing as the facade had suggested. The single-entrance tunnel branched off every dozen or so meters, but each new path quickly culminated in a dead end. Fifteen minutes in, Adriene arrived at the apparent end of the main passage, where it widened into a black abyss. She swept her headlamp across the darkness, and the light caught the edge of a rocky outcropping a few meters in.
“Light drones?” Booker suggested.
“Overwatch?” Adriene asked.
“Still clear,” McGowan confirmed.
Adriene nodded. “Deploy illumination drones.”
Harlan knelt and opened the narrow hardsuit compartment that ran along the outside of his calf. He pulled out a half dozen palm-sized discs, activating each before tossing them into the air. They buzzed off, illuminating slowly with a faint aura of white light. They landed equidistant from one another throughout the fifty-meter-wide, roughly square-shaped chamber. The mouth of the tunnel opened onto a raised tier, perched on a rocky platform four meters above the rest of the chamber.
“Standard IDs deployed,” Harlan confirmed. “Positions locked.”
Adriene kept her rifle raised as she crossed the threshold. A steep but serviceable ramp-like slope led from the ridge down into a large, open area. Piles of unrecognizable, rusted-out metal sat in mounds around the chamber, the remnants of ancient furniture or machinery.
“On me.” Adriene led her squad clockwise around the perimeter, checking every narrow slice in the stratified basalt for entry points, but found nothing.
They trudged back up the ramp to the entrance, and Harlan slid the COB kit off his shoulders onto the dusty gravel floor. “One way in, one way out.”
Booker grunted. “Least it’ll be easy to defend.”
“Tough to get supplies in, though,” Harlan said. “Shit’s narrow.”
Adriene gestured to McGowan. “Mac, boot up the COB, run a geo survey. See if the structure will hold if we blow the entrance tunnel a little wider.”
“Yes, sir.” McGowan passed her overwatch tablet to Booker, then knelt beside the COB kit.
Booker’s heel tapped out an anxious rhythm in the dry dirt. “Can we light up?”
“One at a time,” Adriene agreed. “Harlan, sync on my marks. Book, keep an eye on overwatch.”
“On it,” Booker acknowledged.
Adriene tapped the control panel on her forearm. “Therms up.”
“I got nothin’,” Harlan said.
“Me either,” she confirmed, then tossed another switch. “Sonic.”
Harlan nodded. “Clear.”
“Seismic.”
“Golden.”
“Nothin’ on overwatch,” Booker said.
“All right, we’re clear. Keep visors down, though. CO2’s reading elevated in here.”
Booker switched his systems back on with a single swipe of his large palm. “Permission to check out this old junk, sir? Maybe somethin’ of use in the rubble.”
“I doubt it,” she replied, “but go ahead.”
Booker tossed the overwatch tablet to Harlan, then made his way down the ramp toward the ruins.
McGowan mumbled, “Strange…”
Adriene knelt beside her. “What is it?”
“GPR shows a passage above this room.”
“Another cave?”
“No, it’s vertical.” McGowan angled the screen of the survey kit toward Adriene, indicating a narrow spike in the radargram. “Depth estimations say it’s over three hundred meters. I think it connects to the surface.”
Harlan asked, “Like a sinkhole?”
“That wasn’t on Intel’s orbital survey,” Booker put in, already halfway across the room, digging through a pile of rubble.
McGowan shook her head. “I know. But it should have been visible.”
“Could it have been masked by something?” Adriene asked. “Obscured on radar?”
“It’s possible,” McGowan said. “Especially if there was weather in the area.”
“Or the eggheads just missed it,” Booker groused. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Could it be outdated intel?” Harlan asked.
Adriene shook her head. “They did the survey three days ago.” She flinched as an alarm blared in her earpiece, accompanied by a readout in her HUD: Warning: Seismic activity detected.
“Fuck,” Booker groaned. “Anyone’s seismic just have a heart attack?”
“Yeah.” Adriene silenced the alarm and glanced at the seismic sensor in the corner of her HUD. It only showed a generic warning.
A faint sound crackled against Adriene’s visor, like dry pine needles crunching underfoot. She looked up as a dusting of rock floated down from the ceiling five meters overhead. A barely discernible vibration rumbled in the cavern floor, sending a prickle up her spine.
“Mira’s end,” Harlan cursed, his congenial tone flattened with concern. “You guys feel that?”
“Booker, get back up here,” Adriene ordered.
“On my way.”
Adriene turned to McGowan. “What’s the tectonic rating of this site?”
“A1, sir,” the private assured. “All plates were designated stable and inact—”
A sharp crack rang out as the stone ceiling over the main area split. Shards of rock rained onto the corroded metal debris, followed by a torrent of gravel that quickly overtook the cavern with a plume of basalt dust.
Flashes exploded from the haze.
A shock of pain lanced Adriene’s shoulder, knocking her to the ground.
Harlan’s voice crackled through comms. “Boss, what the—”
“Enemy fire!” Adriene shouted. She flipped over, then crawled into cover behind the rocky ridge along the edge of the raised tier. Her HUD flashed a warning: Hardsuit quadrant R2b compromised. Integrity: 7%.
She slid her rifle off her back, flicked the targeting unit on, and engaged the primer. The coils magnetized, buzzing through the thick layers of her hardsuit gloves.
“What are we fighting?” she called out. “Give me something, guys!”
“Scrappers!” Harlan shouted. “Confirmed four Mechan transponders a second ago, but my readout’s fucked.”
“Four? Mira’s ashes,” Booker cursed, giving voice to the swell of unease souring Adriene’s stomach.
Four bots would make for a hell of a fight, but it wasn’t impossible. She took a deep, steadying breath. Her squad could handle it. They’d survived far worse odds.
Adriene squinted through the settling dust. Harlan and McGowan crouched behind a rocky outcropping six meters away, near the top of the ramp. The incoming fire didn’t cease, an endless flurry pinging the ridge and cavern wall behind them.
“Everyone fall back to the exit, behind me,” Adriene ordered. “Booker, I don’t have eyes on you—what’s your status?”
“Eh, fuck. I’m fully pinned down ’ere,” he growled, his full Provan accent let loose now that shit had fully gone sideways. “Gonna need a leg up gettin’ out.”
Adriene shimmied toward a low point in the ridge, where she could barely catch a glimpse of two Mechan units crouched halfway across the cavern. The sentient hunks of metal sat folded in on themselves, their long, triple-jointed limbs covered in dull gray plating—discernibly, if not grotesquely, humanoid in structure. Their scuffed metal chassis seemed to meld into the corroded piles of ancient debris. Any aesthetics the scrap heaps may have once possessed had clearly been lost after centuries of “self-improvement.”
The thinner of the two Mechan painted a steady stream of rifle fire in Harlan’s direction, while the beefier one yanked a large module off its thigh plate. It placed the device on the ground, and a violet blaze shot toward the ceiling, forming a thin wall of semitransparent light. The shield crackled with electricity as dust drizzled onto it from the crater in the ceiling.
Adriene cursed and craned her neck, but Booker was nowhere to be seen.
“Dammit.” She grimaced. “Harl, you see Book on overwatch?”
“No. Too much interference.”
“Shit. All right, old-fashioned way, then. Book, what’s your twenty?”
“Maybe halfway ’cross, three-forty degrees from the ramp. Clear path ’cept those two Troopers that just deployed that damn shield construct. I’m ’bout five meters to their six.”
“Copy, I see them.”
“Hate to break it to ya, Book,” Harlan chimed in, “but one’s actually a Cuirass.”
“Mira’s fiery death—”
A blast of rocky debris shot from the ceiling fissure.
Three more Trooper-class Mechan dropped into the cavern. They landed in a haze of dust, just behind the violet wall of light. Their limbs straightened with stilted rigidity as they rose to their full height.
Harlan and McGowan let loose a flurry of fire, but their bullets melted into the surface of the shield, disappearing in a blaze of flashing electricity.
Adriene let out a sharp sigh, heart thudding hard in her chest. “Shit. That makes seven. Mac, call in an evac.”
A few seconds later, McGowan’s rushed voice replied, “No-go, sir; scrappers are jamming it.”
Adriene ground her teeth, silently cursing whatever blighted species invented these manufactured fucks, then had the sensible idea to make them self-aware before letting their murderous, hive-minded junkbots loose on the galaxy. It was at least satisfying to know they’d in all likelihood been wiped out by their own terrible choices.
“All right,” Adriene sighed. “We’ll have to put some distance between us, then. Harl, Mac…” She took a deep breath and pulled a grenade from the supply compartment at her calf, then readied the charge. “Chaff incoming. Then let’s give Book some covering fire.”
Harlan and McGowan voiced their acknowledgment, and Adriene tossed the grenade over the outcropping. It exploded into a shower of glittering metallic light, raining down tiny shards of lightweight radar-jamming material that drifted lazily toward the ground like feathers.
The Mechan onslaught paused as their auto-targeting protocols were briefly disoriented. Adriene set her rifle aside and grabbed her sidearm. She leaned out to pelt the edge of the shield construct with a barrage of fire. Harlan and McGowan broke from cover as well, the muzzles of their ballistics rifles flashing as they lit up the rusted metal barricade in front of Booker’s position.
Booker rolled backward out of cover, then sprang to his feet, sprinting toward the ramp through the drifting bits of chaff. He made it almost ten meters before the Mechan fire resumed, pinging into swirls of dust in the gravel at his feet.
He slid behind a large stone slab near the foot of the ramp. McGowan and Harlan’s rifles went silent as they ducked back into cover.
Booker panted, “That’s s’far as I can get for now.”
“Okay, hole up,” Adriene said. “We got a good line of sight up here; don’t risk drawing their attention.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Harl, Mac, focus-fire that shield construct. If we can force them to pull back a ways, it’ll give Book time to get up the ramp.”
“Shit, Valero,” Harlan said, a hard warning in his tone. “We got a Shade incoming.”
Adriene’s pulse spiked. She holstered her sidearm and took hold of her rifle again. “Bearing?”
“Dunno, it disappeared—overwatch is fucked. It’s this bloody basalt fortress. Who picked this site, anyhow?”
Booker grunted. “Some brain in Intel who’s never stepped foot on terra in their life.”
“Shut up and focus,” Adriene barked.
With a break in the fire, Booker leaned out with his pistol and let loose a volley of bullets. “I can shoot and bitch at the same time.”
“Dammit, Book, I just told you not to draw—”
“Got our Shade back, boss!” Harlan called out. “Cloaked, bearing one-zero-five, thirty meters. Headed straight for Book.”
Adriene retrained her aim, hunting for the target. She defocused her gaze enough to catch a hazy shimmer against the stone wall.
With a smooth squeeze of her trigger, the conductive projectile pummeled the vaguely humanoid metal carapace into the wall, revealing the Shade’s svelte body as its stealth deactivated. Its limbs screeched as it crumpled into a mangled heap on the cave floor.
Harlan scoffed a laugh. “Mira’s end—nice shot, Valero.”
Adriene shook out her tingling hand, the aftermath of the intense kickback on the coilgun. She readjusted her grip on the firearm and primed it again. “Harl, watch incoming that direction,” she ordered. “And keep an eye on that fucking skylight too—let’s light ’em up before they hit the ground.”
“Copy that, boss.”
“Mac, what can we do about the interference on overwatch? Can you narrow the range?”
“That could work, sir,” McGowan replied, “but it will fully cut us off from Command until we can get sight line on satellite again.”
“Do it.”
“Copy, sir. Going slim.”
McGowan recited the scripted callout, and Harlan’s panicked voice broke in as the interference cleared. “Fourteen contacts!”
“What?”
“Sixteen! Two more just dropped.”
“Gah—shit!” Booker’s strained voice rang over comms, followed by fraught, muffled grunts.
Adriene peered out of cover to find Booker wrestling with a Trooper who’d left the safety of the shield construct. The Mechan seized Booker by the neck, then slammed the burly man into the ground with consummate ease. Booker roared and tried to slide out from under its grip, but he couldn’t match its strength.
Adriene shouldered her rifle, then caught sight of McGowan charging down the ramp. “Mac!” Adriene yelled. “Stay back!”
The Trooper lifted Booker up again, then paused. Its head swiveled with unnerving rigidity as it turned toward McGowan who was rushing its flank. While the bot was distracted, Adriene took aim at the back of its head and fired.
The slug slammed into the base of its neck, erupting in a shower of sparks. The Mechan’s cylindrical head canted to one side, hanging on by a handful of wires and cabling.
Adriene primed her rifle again. But it wouldn’t be charged in time. And from this distance, her sidearm wouldn’t cut it. “Harl—”
“On it.”
The Trooper dropped Booker. It grasped to reseat its head, but Harlan pelted the exposed circuitry, and the remainder broke free. The headless bot deactivated, slumping to the ground lifelessly.
McGowan, still heading for Booker, was suddenly intercepted by a slim metallic flash. The Shade disappeared before it was even fully visible—and McGowan along with it.
Harlan shouted, “Fuck, a Shade has Mac! It’s got a crucible!”
Chrome streaks flashed in Adriene’s periphery as three more Mechan dropped from the opening in the ceiling.
Booker made for the ramp. Two of the new Troopers skirted the construct and headed for him. He fired his coilgun practically point-blank into the chest of one, sending it flying back into the shield wall. The Trooper shuddered in a violent storm of light as the shield electrocuted it.
Booker continued to scramble backward as the second bot pursued.
“We’re at nineteen, boss!” Harlan warned. “We’re fightin’ a losin’ battle—we gotta call it!”
“Shit.” Adriene pressed the remote comms link on her hardsuit controls. “Command, you read?”
“That’s a big fuckin’ negative,” Harlan said. “We’re slim, remember?”
“Dammit.”
“Forget it, Valero,” Harlan yelled. “We don’t have time—get McGowan before it’s too late!”
“I can’t see her!” Adriene shouted back, voice raspy and dry. Then a thread of hope stoked in her chest. “Harl, tell me you have a pulse grenade.”
“Oh—fuck yeah, I do!” Harlan grunted, then shouted, “Pulse incoming! Watch your gun, Valero.”
Adriene flicked the pulse shield on her rifle a heartbeat before a blinding flare erupted beyond the ridge. Her suit’s HUD flashed and deactivated, her earpiece giving off a shrill peal as the EM burst interrupted the comms.
Halfway across the cavern, the Shade appeared at the edge of the shield construct. It stood, momentarily paralyzed, clutching McGowan in its spindly arms.
“Valero!” Harlan’s panicked voice rang through the still-crackling comms. “Do it already!”
With her pulse hammering in her ears, Adriene took aim with her coilgun, and shot McGowan in the side of the head.
The private’s visor shattered, and her helmet crumpled into her skull. The force of the blast ripped her from the Shade’s arms. Her limp body smashed into the shield construct, then collapsed to the floor.
The Shade regained mobility less than a second later. It marched straight toward them.
Harlan leapt up and rushed down the ramp.
“Harlan!” Adriene yelled. “Get the fuck back here!”
“No way! I gotta get Book.” Harlan unloaded his rifle into the Shade’s torso as it charged him, but the scrap heap barely flinched, pausing only long enough to rip the gun out of Harlan’s hands.
“Dammit! I’ll get him,” Adriene shouted. But it was too late. The Shade grabbed Harlan, and they both disappeared from sight. “Harl!”
Harlan screamed—in terror or pain, she couldn’t tell. Heat scoured her cheeks, lungs burning as her breaths came too short, too fast. She blinked heavily, hunting for a glimpse of the cloaked Shade, but there was nothing.
Her rifle’s prime flashed green. With an effort, she pulled her attention back to Booker, who continued to wrestle with the Trooper. She locked her aim onto him.
“Book,” she called, voice wavering, “turn ninety degrees to your right.”
He obeyed, throwing his weight to spin himself along with the grappling Trooper. Adriene fired.
The blast ripped through Booker’s chest. His full weight slammed back into the Trooper, sending them both into the shield wall. The scrap heap thrashed as the shield’s power coursed through it, sending off harsh flares of violet light.
Booker’s limp body fell, and the contents of his caved-in chest cavity spilled onto the dirt. Adriene swallowed bile.
“Adri!” Harlan shouted, still invisible, clutched somewhere in the Shade’s arms. “Please!”
Adriene darted a look around the cavern, searching for any sign of him. “I can’t see you, Harl!” Her voice came fractured as she forced the words out. She primed her rifle. “What’s your position?”
He screamed again.
“Shit, listen, please!” Her throat closed around the words. “I don’t know where you are—you need to get away from it or push it into the construct.”
Harlan roared. In a flash of light, he and the Shade appeared as he forced them into the violet wall of energy. The Shade convulsed and fell still. Harlan collapsed to the dirt.
From behind the shield construct, another Trooper rounded toward him.
“Adri!” Harlan pleaded, his voice breaking. He started to crawl toward her, his right hand now a bloody stump—severed at the wrist. His smashed visor revealed one eye, now nothing more than an indiscernible mess of blood and tissue.
With a quick glance down, Adriene found her rifle’s readout flashing green. She stared back at it, frozen for a few long seconds. Her breath came in short rasps, her vision blurred.
She gritted her teeth and narrowed in on the source of her reluctance: the natural instinct to protect the people she cared about. She stamped it out.
Then she sucked in a breath, took aim, and shot Harlan in the face.
His head erupted in a grisly shower of blood and bone. Bits of viscera pelted the approaching Mechan, and Harlan’s headless body went limp against the dusty gravel floor. Chunks of bone and gray matter slid off the Trooper’s sleek metal segments.
It looked up, following the angle of Adriene’s fire. Its glowing amber ocular sensors flickered as it locked onto her.
Adriene dropped behind the ridge. With shaking hands, she thumbed the primer on her rifle. The readout flashed a warning: Discharged. Reboot in progress.
“Fuck.” She tossed the stalled rifle aside, then pressed the button to open her visor. Her hardsuit let out a negative beep. A red warning lit in her HUD: Caution: Hostiles present. Visor retraction not recommended.
“No shit,” she growled, tapping the button over and over. “Override!”
It beeped in error and didn’t respond.
She turned to face the ridge, drew in a deep breath, then thrust her head face-first into the rocky outcropping. Lights danced in her vision. When they cleared, she saw nothing but smooth glass—not even a hairline crack.
The Trooper crested the ramp. In one hand, it held a halo of dark, segmented metal. A crucible.
“No, no, no…” Adriene slid toward a sharp protrusion of rock. She rammed her visor into it as hard as she could. Sharp pain shot down her neck as the inside of her hardsuit crushed against her skull.
The visor remained intact.
The Mechan closed in. The crucible device gave a shrill hum as it activated. Its cracks glowed red-orange from within like molten obsidian.
Adriene crawled away, but the bot’s long legs crossed the meters in a matter of seconds. Its spindly chrome fingers locked around her ankle. It dragged her toward the ramp.
She clawed at the ground, at every ridge she could find purchase, but the Trooper simply towed her along, no more than minorly inconvenienced by her pathetic struggle. She mashed the visor release button again as the bot hauled her across the rough gravel.
“Dammit, override!”
Her visor slid open.
Relief flooded her chest. An icy gust of air blasted her sweat-slicked face, carrying a sickly sweet smell like antiseptic metal polish. Bile crept up her throat as the unfiltered sound of the Mechan force hit her eardrums—a grating symphony of metal on metal accompanied by a thick hissing of hydraulics.
She fumbled her sidearm out of its holster, panic hastening her movements.
The Trooper stopped abruptly, looking back at her exposed face. It reached down and gripped her by the neck. Her feet lifted off the ground as it held her in front of its face—featureless, save its ocular sensors: a pair of glowing amber rings deep-seated in its cylindrical head. If a lifeless metal trash can stuffed with circuitry could look pissed, this one most certainly did. Mechan never seemed to appreciate a human’s attempts to zero out.
The bot thrust the crucible toward her face. But Adriene was faster.
She thumbed the safety of her sidearm, pressed the muzzle between her eyes, and pulled the trigger.
Copyright © 2023 by J. S. Dewes
