Reforged (Bolt Eaters Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  “No,” Crusher said. “But he calls me Crusher.”

  “Old habit of mine.” Eric gazed over the treetops as he leaped to the next set of boughs; he caught sight of the airships. The closet craft was about a hundred meters away now. Another Devastator mech was caught in the tractor beam of the central airship, and currently being loaded. He landed on the target branch and lost sight of the airships behind the treetops. “Besides, you told me you prefer the name Crusher over your real one.”

  “And so I do,” Crusher said. “Just as Bambi prefers hers.”

  “Ah, the military tries to tell us that we’re robots with minds of silicon and copper, that our neural networks contain nothing more than the patterns of our former humanity,” Dunnigan said. “And yet sometimes we’re more human than they are.”

  “Just because we don’t like to be called by our real names?” Crusher said.

  “No,” Dunnigan said. “Because we’re willing to risk our lives to save our brothers and sisters, when we could have gotten away scot free.”

  Eric continued vaulting between branches, coming in from an angle that would take him between two of the outermost airships on guard. He passed underneath the Dragonworms that hovered there. One of them was a big one with plasma mandibles.

  The creatures noticed him immediately.

  He dove, vanishing into the lower boughs, as did the three Cicadas with him.

  A plasma beam ripped into the branches above him. He wasn’t sure if it was sourced from the bigger Dragonworm, or from the airship itself.

  He and the others continued swinging between the branches, staying just inside the boughs so that he wasn’t visible from above the treetops, or from the forest floor below.

  A Dragonworm head smashed through the trees ahead, chomping down, barely missing him.

  Eric swerved to the side and leaped past. He fired at the head with the P-21 plasma weapon embedded in his left arm. The point-blank shot penetrated deep into its skull cavity, and the creature collapsed. Its weight carried it down a few meters, until the body was firmly snagged by the remainder of the branches and it halted.

  Eric reached one of the trees on the periphery of the opening in the canopy. The airship hovered overhead. A Devastator mech was being drawn inside by the tractor beam at that very moment.

  Slate.

  Eric leaped toward Slate, but froze, becoming suspended in midair as soon as he touched the outskirts of the tractor beam. He could see the alien tanks below, along with Manticore’s support units; they’d gathered around the perimeter of the tractor beam.

  “What the jism!” Slate said. “Nicely done. You had your chance to get away and you went and got yourself captured instead. Brilliant, bitch, just brilliant.”

  Eric felt something tug at his leg, and he was ripped from the beam.

  He glanced at his feet as the branches blurred past: Crusher hung onto his ankles. She’d apparently vaulted from one of the nearby trees and grabbed onto him when she flew past.

  “How did you avoid getting caught up by the tractor beam?” Eric asked her.

  “Your feet were protruding,” Crusher said. She landed in the boughs and jerked to the left before finally releasing him. Behind Eric, the tree was ripped apart as plasma bolts and energy beams from the alien tanks and Manticore’s support units struck.

  They joined up with Brontosaurus and Dunnigan, and looped back toward the opening in the canopy.

  “This time, let’s not run headlong into the tractor beam, okay mate?” Dunnigan said.

  “It’s one way inside the ship,” Eric said.

  “I wouldn’t recommend it,” Brontosaurus said. “Enter that way, you’re frozen in place, a sitting duck for whatever the Banthar have waiting inside. We have to find another way.”

  A Dragonworm broke through the trees above. The four Cicadas scattered, and then unleashed their weaponry at it. The creature shook with each impact, spasming under the blows, and then collapsed, plunging a few meters before catching on the surrounding branches.

  Eric leaped onto its back and clambered up the body. To his tactile sensors, it felt cold and slimy to the touch. Slippery, too: he had to press down hard with his fingers, digging into the skin, just for purchase.

  Operating in Bullet Time, he quickly made his way to the hooked tail at the top of the body, and then he leaped toward the next Dragonworm that was hovering just above.

  That particular bioweapon decided to fire a silken net from its tail, but Eric had vaulted upward just in time, and the net missed.

  He latched onto the body, and the creature began squirming wildly. He increased his time sense further, and amped up his servomotor output, and climbed onto its back. He glanced at his power levels, and saw that he was down to 52%. He was expecting it to be far lower, but it made some sense: his Cicada had the same solar panels as the Devastator mech he’d left behind, and although the surface area of those panels was smaller, his power requirements were far less. And he’d been charging all the times he was exposed to the sun above the treetops, like now.

  He pulled himself closer to the head region, and then leaped off, toward the underside of the airship above and behind him. He held his breath as he approached, and half expected to slam into an energy field.

  But no field materialized, confirming his theory that the shield had to be offline in order to use the tractor beam, and in moments he was latching onto the hull. He activated the magnetic mounts in his palms and ankles, and was relieved when he remained affixed to the surface: the material was magnetic. He attempted to press his fingers into the hull, but it was too dense for him to create his own hand or footholds.

  He reduced the magnetic intensity on the right side of his body, and pulled himself higher before returning the intensity. He did the same with the left side, and in that way he crawled upward.

  The other airships, and the Dragonworms, seemed reluctant to fire at him—didn’t want to harm their friend.

  That said, one of the Dragonworms was coming in toward him. It’s big mandibles opened…

  Eric released the magnet on his left arm, and swung his hand toward the Dragonworm. He fired a plasma bolt into its mouth, and a portion of the bioweapon’s head blew away. It instantly dropped, crashing through the trees below.

  He continued upward. Small hexagonal superstructures protruded on occasion, and similar hexagonal areas provided hollows, but otherwise the surface was relatively smooth. If he didn’t have those magnets…

  Brontosaurus, Crusher and Dunnigan had also reached the hull of the airship, and were similarly clambering across its surface.

  “So what now?” Crusher said.

  “Working on it,” Eric said.

  The airship began to climb away from the forest—apparently it had already loaded up all the Bolt Eater mechs. The other four airships joined it, and the Dragonworms flew in escort.

  Panels began to open along the surface of the airship around them.

  Spheres, roughly the same shape as the scout units the aliens liked to deploy, but half the size, emerged from those openings. The spheres had deadly seeming muzzles protruding from the front, and rolled along the hull, perhaps via varying magnetic forces; those muzzles were on some sort of gyro, because they remained fixed, pointed at him, or the other Cicadas.

  “Uh, I don’t like the looks of those,” Crusher said.

  Eric pulled himself behind a small superstructure just as several of those spheres released energy bolts from their muzzles. The other Cicadas had similarly taken cover, either behind superstructures, or within hollows.

  Eric released the magnetic attachment in his left arm, and aimed past the superstructure with his plasma weapon. He switched to the POV of its scope, and targeted one of the spheres.

  Please don’t have a portable energy shield.

  He fired, and was relieved when the plasma bolt struck, causing the sphere to drop away from the hull. He had to drop back in cover an instant later when a barrage of energy bolts released fr
om other spheres nearby.

  A panel opened just to the side of Eric.

  Two spheres rolled onto the surface.

  Releasing the magnetic attachments in his feet, while keeping his hand firmly secured to the hull, he swung his body and kicked both spheres like soccer balls. They flew away from the hull, and plunged to the treetops, vanishing within.

  More spheres emerged, and he fired the plasma weapon embedded in his forearm, taking them down in rapid succession.

  The panel began to close.

  Eric shoved off from the superstructure and latched onto the panel, pulling himself inside. Before it could seal, he thrust his right arm and the L-52 laser attached to it into the opening on the deck, and the panel jammed. His arm was held fast, and he couldn’t move it.

  He was inside a small staging compartment of some sort. It had ten of those spheres waiting there on the floor.

  They all opened fired.

  Eric thought he was done for, but this time, instead of energy bolts, they released webbing similar to that of the Dragonworms. The nets wrapped around his body, and pinned his remaining weapon arm to his side. The only part of him that wasn’t bound was his right arm, but it was trapped by the panel.

  Beyond them, on the far side of the compartment, he saw what looked like a door. It had spiral markings that made him think it would open like an iris: if it actually was a door.

  “Okay guys, I might have a way in,” Eric transmitted. “Make your way to my position. But you should know, there are a few spheres in here. They won’t be too happy to see you.”

  Eric watched the green dots of his companions on the overhead map. Brontosaurus was the first to reach him.

  “Hey there, buddy,” Brontosaurus said. “Nice of you to hold the door for me.”

  “What are friends for?” Eric told him.

  Crusher and Dunnigan arrived next. Dunnigan must have been providing covering fire, because he remained a bit farther away from the opening. Crusher’s indictor maneuvered just on top of Eric’s own, and he saw two Cicada hands appear just above, wedging into the crack formed by his arm and the edge of the panel. Those hands shoved downward, forcing the panel wider, and Eric was able to pull his arm free.

  One of the spheres fired an energy net at that arm, and he rolled away before it struck.

  Brontosaurus’ twin heavy lasers rammed through the larger opening in the floor a moment later, and those weapons fired in the rapid succession of Bullet Time so that when next Eric regarded the compartment behind him, all of the spheres were reduced to smoking wreckages.

  Crusher forced open the panel all the way, and Brontosaurus pulled himself inside, followed by Dunnigan. The latter grabbed onto the edges of the panel; Brontosaurus dropped one of his weapon mounts to the floor, then reached through the opening and hauled Crusher inside.

  “Could have made it myself,” Crusher said.

  “Come on, you know you liked getting a boost from me,” Brontosaurus said. His avatar winked as he reattached his mount. For a moment Eric thought the actual Cicada winked as well, but it was an illusion: unlike the earlier models, their skin wasn’t covered in bendable LCDs.

  Dunnigan released the panel, but it wouldn’t close. He slid his arms outside, and began firing at the spheres that were no doubt encroaching on their position.

  Crusher turned toward Eric, and she began firing her laser rifle at the net that held him. Every impact melted away one of the strands.

  “I thought these nets emitted some sort of EM field that prevented lasers from firing,” Eric commented.

  “Evidently it only works at extreme short range,” Crusher said. “As in, when it’s plugging up a weapon’s muzzle.”

  Brontosaurus joined her, and between the two of them they severed enough of the strands to free him. He still had some of the material smeared across his hull, but as long as it didn’t restrain him, he didn’t care.

  Crusher stood back. “So. We’re in.”

  “We are.” Eric eyed the iris door on the far side of the compartment. “Our friends are waiting.”

  3

  Eric approached the iris door. It didn’t open.

  “Can’t hold them for much longer,” Dunnigan said.

  He glanced at Dunnigan, but Crusher joined him; she rammed her own arms through the panel, and added her fire to Dunnigan’s.

  “Say the magic words,” Brontosaurus said, coming to Eric’s side.

  Eric held his plasma and laser weapons to the iris door. “Open Sesame.”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of Chocolate Brownies,” Brontosaurus said. “But hey, we’re from different eras, so of course we’re going to have different answers.”

  “Chocolate Brownies?” Eric said. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

  The two of them fired their weapons point blank at the door. In seconds they’d poked enough holes that Eric thought they could bash their way through, if they wanted.

  “That’s good,” Eric said. He peered through the one of the holes, using the POV of his right arm scope, and surveyed the passageway outside. “Seems clear out there.”

  He switched to the viewpoint of his eye cameras, and glanced at Brontosaurus.

  “Lead the way,” Eric said.

  Brontosaurus hurtled his Cicada into the doorway. It crumpled before him.

  A klaxon sounded, and a menacing-looking dual turret descended from the ceiling, emerging from a very faint rectangular outline Eric had paid no attention to earlier.

  Brontosaurus ducked back inside as twin energy bolts erupted from that turret. They smashed into the far wall, digging blast holes.

  “Lead the way, huh?” Brontosaurus said from where he was crouched behind the edge of the doorway.

  Crusher and Dunnigan were continuing to fire from the opening and onto the hull outside, no doubt at the armed spheres that continue to approach. They were angled just to the side of the doorway, and out of view from the turret.

  Brontosaurus leaned past and unleashed several blasts from his heavy lasers, but ducked back inside once again; two more energy bolts tore into the side of the doorway and smashed into the wall on the far side beyond.

  “Damn it, the turret is energy-shielded,” Brontosaurus said. “Bastards have good defenses. I was hoping for something meager, you know, airship-level defenses, not starship level.”

  “I was hoping the same,” Eric said from where he sheltered on the opposite side of the doorway. “But then again, we’ve never boarded any Banthar airships. Only starships. Maybe this is the norm for all their bigger ships.”

  “Maybe it is,” Brontosaurus said. “If so, sucks to be us.”

  “More than you know,” Eric said. “Why does that remind me of a song... I’m a bastard...”

  “Huh?” Brontosaurus said.

  “Sorry, a lyric popped into my head when you said that,” Eric told him. “You’d think after twenty years in the modern era, I’d forget all my twenty-first century culturalizations. Nope. I got a machine mind. Can’t forget anything.”

  Brontosaurus leaned past and let off several shots before ducking again. “Yeah, I hear you. And I don’t think our Cicada weaponry is going to be breaching those shields any time soon.”

  Eric aimed his scope past the entrance and froze time to study the target. “Maybe we won’t have to.”

  “What do you mean?” Brontosaurus asked. He’d synced to Eric’s timebase, courtesy of the packet header in the last transmission.

  “I’m looking at the ceiling next to the turret,” Eric said. “The distance and angle are about right…”

  “For what?” Brontosaurus said. “Speak, brother!”

  Eric let out a strained chuckle. “Sorry. If we concentrate our fire there, at the ceiling along the rim of the energy shield, eventually we’ll strike the innards of that weapon, shutting it down.”

  “It may or may not work,” Brontosaurus said. “But we don’t have any other options, do we?”

  “I’m assuming
the energy shield flashed into existing when your lasers hit?” Eric asked.

  “It did, yes,” Brontosaurus replied.

  “Send me your recordings when you fired at the turret,” Eric said. “I need to see its outskirts, so I know where to target the ceiling.”

  “I’ll go a step beyond that and outline it directly on your HUD,” Brontosaurus said.

  Eric received the marker request, and accepted. A red half-sphere appeared around the turret, delimiting the extents of the energy shield.

  Eric sped up time to something more manageable, but still far below normal. He aimed the scope of his plasma weapon at the base of the ceiling at the rim of the half-sphere marker, and fired several quick shots.

  The turret tips glowed a bright white, and he pulled his weapon back behind cover as the turret returned fire.

  He and Brontosaurus continued leaning in and out of cover, firing into the ceiling each time, draining their power cells, until finally they ate through enough of the ceiling to begin striking the base of the turret. It only took a few more shots to bring down the turret, which sparked with electricity before the dual muzzles drooped down and ceased firing.

  Eric glanced at his power levels. He was down to thirty five percent. And without sunlight, it wouldn’t be increasing. He had to conserve as much power as possible right now. That meant less Bullet Time sessions, and firing only when necessary.

  “Dunnigan, Crusher, let’s go!” Eric said. He leaped into the passageway outside.

  Dunnigan and Crusher fired a few more shots and then pulled their arms inside. They hurried from the compartment and followed Eric and Brontosaurus. Dunnigan kept his weapons pointed toward the rear, and let off a shot as one of the spheres entered from the hull opening.

  Eric hurried forward. There were iris doors at interval along the left and right sides of the passageway. They all remained closed.

  For now.

  He reached a bend, and held his left arm past to survey the area with his weapon. The passage beyond was clear.

  Eric hurried past with Brontosaurus.

  “So where are we going?” Brontosaurus said.