ABC - Penance

The Santa Velona, Coral Sea

There were dozens of the vicious little mechanicals, swarming at us like metal spiders. My gun fired until it clicked empty, the AP rounds blasting the machines into writhing scrap. Ghost was more methodical, firing his Assault Rifle in short bursts, shattering one or more drones with each pull of the trigger.

We stood about two meters apart, close enough to support our partner yet giving us room to fight. Those old tales about the heroes standing back to back as they battled the enemy legions are a lie. No-one can fight properly with someone hard up against your shoulders, it just doesn’t work.

When my gun signalled it was empty, I knew I didn’t have time to reload. I dropped my Machine Pistol, letting it dangle from the straps as I drew my pistol. The fuckers were on top of me now, so it was close and dirty work anyway. I smashed the first away with a low sweep of my Shock Rod, adding a pulse of power to my Kinetic Enhancer.

The black and steel machine burst open with a satisfying crack of noise, spinning into the rest of its fellows. I cocked my pistol and put a shot through the head of another as it tried to pierce the armoured greaves covering my shin, then stomped the smoking body with my heel.

“We need to move” I heard Ghost shout to me, his voice coming through my comm link at the same time. “These are just a delaying tactic”

I knew he was right. The machines would be savage against lightly armoured targets, but our Ceramite plates meant only a lucky strike could pierce our defences. We had moved barely five meters from our grounded VTOL, held here by the swarming metal beasts.

“Okay!” I called back, sending another pair of the horde to whatever mechanical hell they believed in. “I’ll take the lead”

Before he could protest, I jumped the nearest group of machines and ran towards the bow. Mechanicals crouched and sprung themselves at me, some clawing wildly at my armour, a couple latching on and trying to pierce the weaker joints. I raced like a drunken athelete at the towering forward structure, then with a sudden cry ran out of containers.

My arms flailed wildly as if I could suddenly fly, then I dropped the height of three stacked containers to the hard deck. I managed to turn the fall into a tumble as I landed, my legs jarring violently then I was expending the momentum by somersaulting up to a white painted wall.

I was upside down, my head at an angle against the ribbed surface of the deck and my ass in the air, when Ghost leapt like a cat from the containers, landing with a hefty thump close to me.

“You Okay, Alvarez?” he asked me. “You look like you may be dead”

“Nah, I’m good” I assured him. “But could you get that drone off my ass? It’s nearly through my armour weave”

He plucked the offending machine from my butt and smashed it against the metal bulkhead I was braced against. Without further comment he got me onto my feet and pointed at an oval shaped door fixed into the bulkhead wall.

“The schematics show this door should lead us to the passenger compartments”

“Okay, I’ll get it open” I replied, rearranging my weapons and sheathing the Shock Rod. With my pistol in both hands, I put power into my right boot and slammed it against the solid looking hatch. Metal screamed and the door buckled.

“Maybe you could hurry this up?” Ghost asked me politely. He began firing his rifle in bursts, targeting more of the mechanicals as they followed us from the containers. I focussed my energy, feeling Judy stirring angrily inside of me, then released it all in another kick on the hatch. It flew inwards, pivoting on the bent hinges as I ripped the locking bars out of their sockets.

“Right, call the rest of the team” I asked my partner and stepped into the brightly lit interior. I heard him summoning the five Guards to our position while my eyes swept the white painted corridor I found myself in. A couple of plastic doors filled the nearest openings, with an open shaft at the end showing a ladder leading up and down. A woman stood beside the hatchway in the floor, dressed in a white jumpsuit. She regarded me with a faint smile, the upper half of her face covered by Smart Goggles and her hands raised, palms facing towards me.

“What the hell are you doing here, September?” I demanded angrily.

“Observing, Inspector Alvarez” she answered. “Please continue on your mission as if I was not here”

“Fat chance!” I said and strode to her side, my eyes darting left and right in case of any ambush. I stopped just out of arm’s reach, my pistol pointed at her belly. “Where are Acres and Tan?”

“I can’t reveal information to you, Inspector” she admonished me like I was some schoolkid at the Hall of Remembrance exhibits. “My role is to record your actions, not to influence them”

One step more and the pistol ground into her taut waist. My eyes locked with hers and I let Judy rise up within me to say hello. September blanched but she stood her ground, not even pulling back from the muzzle I had jammed into her stomach.

“That’s bullshit and you know it” I told her flatly. “The Observer changes the experiment just by being there. You came aboard with those assholes so you know where they are. Tell me now or you’ll get to observe me at my worst”

“Very well, Inspector” she conceded. “The people you are looking for are in the lowest level of the ship. Follow this ladder to where it ends and you will find what you are seeking”

“Thanks, Nine” I replied and took my gun away. Ghost and the five Guards had filled in the corridor at my back, watching the pair of us with interest. September glanced at my partner, her eyes heavy, then looked away. There was something I was missing, I knew that, but I didn’t have time to worry about it.

“You may want to find a way off this ship. If we don’t succeed here, they’ll sink us all”

“I can’t leave yet” she said with a perplexed air. “I have to record what comes next. Those are my orders”

“Fine!” I responded curtly. “Just don’t get in our way”

“I understand, Inspector Alvarez”

One of the Jacks, CB-Eighty-Three, took the lead despite my protests. As Ghost reminded me, it was why they were here. Another Jack followed the first, then Ghost and me, with three Jacks covering our rear. As we climbed downwards, I looked up past my companions. September waited until the last Jack had begun his descent, then she stepped nimbly onto the rungs and followed us, her arms and legs moving with the same precision as the clones.

“Stupid cow” I muttered to myself, then switched my attention to the direction I was heading.

Like most of my life, it was always downwards.

=====

Guard clone CB-Eighty-Three died one level down, a remotely detonated fragmentation mine cutting him in half when he climbed past the invisible sensor beam. His fellow clone, CB-Ninety-One, dragged his upper torso onto the blood stained decking, checked for vitals, then continued his descent.

We all looked at his body as we went past, only my eyes betraying the pain I felt. When our tail end Observer reached the still warm corpse, she surveyed him for a moment, then followed the team. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard her say something. It sounded like “Sleep well my brother, until you walk again” but I was probably wrong. I often am.

=====

A group of Crew mechanicals attacked us two levels further into the bowels of the ship. They were only broadly human shaped, a concession to their need to fill the same roles and places in the ship as organic crew. They came at us with wrenches and hammers, cutting torches and kitchen knives, all the while emitting a piercing metallic whistle from their vocoders.

Our guns, all loaded with Ceramite tipped Armour Piercing, tore swathes through their numbers. Sensor heads shattered, power cells were splintered and mechanical limbs severed. There was no finesse to the attack and little in our reply, just a fury of gunfire as the mob rolled into our group without stopping.

Guard Unit CB-Forty-Five died when a sturdy mechanical hurled itself against him, its lower legs shattered and fluid leaking from a ruptured power cell. The machine rammed a long screwdriver deep into Forty-Five’s neck with inhuman strength, ripping it out with an almost bestial electronic wail of triumph.

I channelled energy into my left hand, smashing the demented machine’s head open with my Shock Rod. The Jack gave me a final, agonised look in his organic left eye, then collapsed to the decking.

Judy came surging up from within me, letting my Machine Pistol fall on its strap and using only gloved hands to punch and smash every mechanical I could reach. I screamed my defiance and hatred, showing no quarter to the machines as they tried to fight me.

After what seemed an eternity, the deck was littered with broken mechanicals. I came to my senses, seeing September recording every moment with her Smart Goggles. My breathing was ragged, small cuts stinging where a chance blow had bypassed my armour plates to pierce the weave.

“Is this what you wanted to see?” I growled to our Observer. “Are your friends happy with how their plans are proceeding?” I hadn’t escaped my notice that in the fury of the pitched battle, not a single mechanical had attacked Ms September.

“I don’t know their plans and happiness is not important to me” she responded calmly. She kept her face neutral, which was just as well because at any sign of a smile or raised eyebrow I would have killed her.

“Team Three, we have captured the bridge” came Trixie’s voice over the comms link. “We are commencing a turn, to bring the ship on a return heading. Have you located the primary targets?”

“Negative, Command” Ghost said in response. “We have engaged armed Crew and taken casualties”

“Are you able to complete the mission, Team Three?” she asked.

Ghost met my fierce gaze and nodded before replying.

“Copy that, Command” he said. “Team Three will continue with the mission”

=====

Our ammunition was getting dangerously low, even after we took the spare magazines from our fallen comrades. The defenders were wearing us down, sending low cost enemies against us to use up our limited resources. It was a bastard of a technique but punishingly effective.

“How much further, September?” I asked the Observer. She regarded me coolly and gestured at the closed hatch one level down.

“Acres and Tan will be in there” she answered. “You know they will be waiting for you”

“Yeah, we know” I responded curtly. I looked over our team. Ghost was relatively untouched, as was I, however our three Guards had taken minor penetrations in the gaps of their armour. Their internal systems had stopped any serious bleeding, leaving them weakened and tired. As fast as the clones could recover, we were under-strength for what I wanted to do next.

“Okay Ghost, time to move out. Take Sixty-Two and Seventy-Four with you and I’ll take Ninety-One with me”

My partner scowled and shook his head no.

“Look, I need you ready to provide back-up. I know we planned on having Eighty-Three and Forty-Five with me, but that’s just how it panned out”

“Why are you always the bait, Alvarez?” he demanded.

“Because I’m so delectable” I grinned in reply. “Nobody would want to swallow you”

“That’s not what you told me last night” he retorted and strode off, taking his Guards with him.

I stood there dumbfounded for a good ten seconds, then burst into laughter. He really had changed in his time with me. The only downside was I think he was changing into a pervert, just like his little sister.

“Okay, Ninety-One, let’s do this thing!”

“Affirmative, Inspector” he responded.

We climbed the last section of ladder, then opened the lowermost hatch. It was dark below us, only a faint light shining from somewhere off to the side. The ladder rungs were visible descending to the grated floor, a stink of rust and oily water drifting upwards.

I began to climb down, waiting for the trap to spring. Ninety-One climbed after me and we were soon on the metal mesh decking. The chamber was maybe ten meters wide, the walls floor and ceiling covered in the same mesh grating. It was a perfect cube, yet something about the rear wall seemed odd.

Faint light could be seen flickering through it, as if the wall wasn’t solid and there was another chamber beyond it. I looked up at the open hatchway above our heads, seeing the white suit of September bending over, watching me.

“So where are they?” I called out.

“Behind you” she said and closed the hatch with a clang.

The pulse ran through the room, blacking out my Chameleon mask and dropping Ninety-One to his knees. I ripped off the useless device, looking for a target when yellow tainted gas pumped in from concealed vents.

I lifted my Machine Pistol and fired a wild burst at that rear wall, seeing the AP rounds punch through the metal grating before I succumbed to the Stun Gas.