DogForge (25 page)

Behind the gunships more dropships soared. These were larger, heavier, slower. Fusion fire from the wall slammed into them. They wavered, hovered, and finally settled onto the ground.

“Get ready!” Captain Maya barked.

Wiss charged across the open ground and took cover next to one of the new dropships.

“Covering fire!”

Belle let loose with her sniper rifle and snapped shot after shot into the heights above. Garlan deployed a string of robotic drones, each shot up and detonated against the wall. Kane snapped out of cover and fired a single round out of a back mounted mortar tube. It left with a
hawoosh!
and exploded against a mass of piping. Black oily liquid poured down.

All of the fire the Recon squad sent up was dwarfed by the hail of steel from the Ninth. Kinetic pods launched barrage after barrage while heavy weapons teams setup portable cells and blasted rounds against the walls.

The first dropship opened and a Praetorian rushed out. More of the metal-dog hybrids charged out and headed directly for the facility. The legion followed.

“Wait for them to breach, then we go in,” Captain Maya called.

Denali sprinted across the open ground. She leapt over a broken suit and didn’t bother to look down. Poor bastard, hardly got out the door. She thought for a second that it could happen to her, but pushed it out of mind. Not today. She slid next to Wiss and felt the comfortable feeling of having a giant dropship above her.

The Praetorians spread out in three groups and weaved across the open yard. The only weapons fire came from the walls around the facility. The ancient building loomed, the silence unnerving. The lead squad of Praetorians, more armor than flesh, crashed against the outer walls and tumbled inside.

Denali peered around the massive lander. That’s it? She glanced at Wiss and then back to the others. They were all watching as the rest of the Praetorians surged in.

“This is different,” Belle grumbled.

“Comms clear,” Captain Maya barked.

“What’s different?” Denali asked Kane.

“Last time they hit us in the open,” Kane replied.

“Move! We got a hole!”

Denali sprinted out of cover. Kinetic cells from above slapped down charges around her. Her heart slammed in her chest. She felt an impact on her shoulder but the armor deflected it.

Praetorians fired from the edge of the facility and blasted away with heavy kinetics and fusion launchers. One of the Praetorians blasted back and crumbled onto the ground. A mix of oil and blood tumbled to the ground.

“Go GO!” Captain Maya urged.

The squad surged across the grounds.

Denali made it to the Praetorians first and scrambled into the darkness. Her suit changed the spectrum and illuminated the darkness.

Praetorians smashed into the floor of the facility. Sparks blasted back in a cascade of iron. With each strike the floor buckled farther.

She glanced back at the rest of the squad. The facility felt small, almost tiny compared to the walls around it. What is this place?

“Get in position, we’re dropping through as soon as we have a hole.”

Denali paced behind one of the Praetorians. It turned, faced her, and she saw under the helmet. Jagok. Her heart slammed into her throat and she stumbled back.

He turned away, his weapons pods scanning the darkness. Mechanical legs whizzed and stomped. Seamless joints attached his upper body to the mechanical frame.

Denali couldn’t stop watching. She knew it was him, it had to be him. The face was one she’d grown up with. Did he know? She crept up closer and popped back her faceshield. Smells of burnt iron tickled her nose. “Jagok?”

The Praetorian turned, cocked his head slightly, and returned to his task. The eyes that looked down at Denali were lifeless things, like sharks eyes.

“Jagok?” she asked once more. Nothing.

“Get sealed up! What are you stupid?” Garlan snapped.

Denali sealed up her suit and listened to it purge. If Jagok didn’t know me, would my father? Was that what he was, an unknowing machine? Her eyes cast across to the other Praetorians and searched for any feature like her own.

“Focus!” Captain Maya called to her.

“Is one of these my father?” Denali called back.

“No! Now focus,” Captain Maya snapped.

Denali fought to control her emotions. She peered into the hole and fear gripped her. Beneath the floor was a tight jumble of salvaged metals and materials all compacted beneath. “Where do I go?”

“Look for a passage, see?” Kell pointed to a gap between the materials.

Denali studied the weave of the materials and saw that it wasn’t totally random. “I see,” she mumbled.

The Praetorians stepped back.

“Denny, get ready.”

Denali stepped to the edge.

Looks like a mess.

“Ready?” Denali asked Captain Maya.

“Ready, we’ll be right behind you.”

Denali leaped into the maze and the insectoids attacked.

T
he insectoid darted out from beneath a wall of iron and stabbed at Denali with a chisel tipped spear.

Denali dodged the blow, rolled to the side, and lashed out with the monofilament dagger. It connected and one of the insectoid’s arms clattered to the floor. Ick. Little bastard. She lashed out again and carved a hole through the edge of its abdomen. It fell without a sound.

Another dropped down behind her and Denali spun to face it. The insectoid hefted a stubby nosed kinetic launcher. She tensed to dodge and then the alien’s head exploded.

Wiss thudded down behind Denali and Belle dropped, sniper rifle glowing, just behind. The rest of the squad followed and set off with the Praetorians watching.

“Give me a ping,” Captain Maya ordered.

Denali keyed up the suits scanner. A red band of energy flooded through the debris. The results came: everything, but nothing they wanted. She shook her head.

The squad pushed through the passages. Bulkheads of starships, half stripped tanks, and armor plating made up the walls.

Denali felt the tightness in her chest. The weight of everything, just above, and so close to coming down. She didn’t even want to scrape against the walls.

An insectoid darted out. Before Denali could stab, it  disappeared in a flash.

Wiss grumbled, “You got another one.”

“Gonna let that sniper out do you?” Kane said.

Denali grinned back and the next time she ran into one of the gangly armed aliens it didn’t last long enough for the sniper to get a bead on it.

As they moved deeper, Denali felt that she belonged. She snuck glances behind, they were her pack, she was as much a part of them as they were of her. All of her life she wanted this, to belong, to be useful, to do her duty. Now she had what she wanted, her place in the universe. She served them, and they served her.

The pack. My pack. It was something deeper than just a squad of dogs, it was instinct.

“We’re on our own now, Hango has command,” Captain Maya said. “Caesar left orbit.”

The squad tensed and pushed deeper.

“Ping it.”

The red wave of energy flared through once more. Nothing.

“Passages beneath us go deeper than my scans,” Denali said. A line of passages snaked together and disappeared beneath.

“Kane!” Captain Maya barked.

Kane trundled up and dropped a pair of charges onto the floor. He studied the floor, the walls, tapping with his armored paw before settling on a spot. He tapped the explosive charges. “I do love this part.”

The squad moved back in the passage and huddled around a corner.

“Fire in the hole!”

A muffled roar rippled through the floor.

Wiss charged through the settling smoke and met the first aliens as they surged up from beneath. Her massive arm pinned one to the floor while her mechanical maw shredded another. The armor took on a sticky green sheen from the blood of the aliens.

More came. Armed with chiseled spears, hammers that crackled with energy, and hooks. They fought with no fear.

A hook latched onto Wiss’s back and one of the aliens pulled her to the ground.

Denali sprinted. “Wiss!”

A second raised its spear into the air and stabbed down at the joint in the armor.

A drone, the size of a dinner plate, leaped onto Wiss’s armor and deflected the blow. A second drone, a squarish thing, crawled onto the alien’s face and stabbed out with a tiny fusion lance.

The alien fell, headless, and the drone leaped onto the closest insectoid.

Denali fought in the crush of aliens. She stabbed out with the monofilament daggers, punched the fusion lance where she could, and bit down with the mechanical mouth.

“Clear?” Captain Maya barked.

“Clear!” Kane replied.

Denali staggered to the side and stared at the bodies all around her.

“These are drones,” Til muttered.

“I know, we have to keep moving before the warriors arrive,” Captain Maya said, and dropped down to the next passage.

“Warriors?” Denali gulped. It made sense, if the diversion was somewhere else, they’d have to defend with their best elsewhere. What happened when they figured that out?

Then we’ve got a real fight on our hands.

“What’s this
we
business?”

Moral support.

Denali chuckled and dropped down behind Wiss.

The passages snaked deeper. Denali tensed at every corner and junction, but the passages were silent. The walls felt older. At a certain point everything changed, she wasn’t aware of it until she halted and read a panel.

The paint had flaked off, but it was still readable.
Data Research - Villeau Institute

We should go back. Now.

“What?”

“Denny, scan.”

Denali sent the next ping out. The waves of red rippled and the data streamed back in. She glanced around at the squad. Go? What the hell was Cicero talking about.

Wiss guarded the front, Belle the rear, with Kell holding tight to Denali. The rest of the squad huddled in cover and waited.

Ping.

“I’ve got something!” Denali cried out.

A single red ghost of an image blinked. “Four hundred meters, it uh, opens up in about two hundred, then it’s inside of a structure.”

“Kell, take point,” Captain Maya barked.

Denali followed after Wiss and kept Kell in her view. Kell moved gracefully, he shot from one side of the passage to the next. His small frame snuck in and out of wreckage and hatches.

The passage narrowed. The air stilled. Temperature readings rose up a few degrees and a light layer of moisture clung to everything like the morning dew.

“Where are they?” Captain Maya mumbled.

Denali felt it in her stomach, a nervous tightness that grew into her muscles. Tense. Breath, calm down, there’s nothing.

“Hold,” Captain Maya ordered. “Ping again.”

The red wave of energy flared once more and an almost immediate ping came back.

“Two hundred meters,” Denali whispered.

“Keep moving, hold on the edge.”

They crawled up to the end of the passage. Water dripped from the ceiling of the cavern. A structure in the center dominated the chamber. The aged walls were devoid of windows. Only a handful of rust encrusted doors allowed entrance. Green stained cooling towers soared from the roof and disappeared into the space above.

“Why’d they leave it open?” Garlan said.

“Better to defend?” Wiss replied.

“Maybe they’re afraid of it?” Til said.

“Cut it,” Captain Maya said. “Anyone see anything?”

No one said a word.

The squad surged across the open space. The chamber echoed with the slaps of armored paws on the muddy ground. Drips fell in cascades and the suits glistened in the moist air.

Denali snapped her eyes from side to side. Her heart slammed in her chest as she followed. Her shoulder crashed into the wall of the building and she panted. Cover, where’s the cover? She felt naked next to the wall.

“Hit it, Wiss!”

Wiss battered her suit against the hatch. “Locked!”

“Stuck or locked?” Kane asked as he prepped a charge.

“We don’t blow anything. Til, check the console,” Captain Maya said. Her voice cracked.

Til tucked around the edge of the hatch and wedged himself against the frame. He kicked an old console and the front dropped open. Electrical interface leads snaked out from his suit and sucked onto the dead face of the console.

“It’s old,” he muttered. “Really old.”

He needs to reduce the hydraulic pressure, the mag cylinders are genetically keyed, he won’t get in. That’s human engineering there, they were good at keeping people out.

“
I can’t tell him that,” Denali said.

A whine hissed through the air, an almost electric charge rippled every pool of water in the room.

Captain Maya spun around and barked out, “Incoming!”

Denali crashed against the ground. Kane latched onto her back and drug her up against the crumbling concrete. Kinetic rounds smashed against the wall with fusion points vaporizing concrete.

Belle fired round after round out of her sniper rifle. The barrel glowed white in the darkness. The others fired back as best they could, but the Kadas were in heavy cover.

“I’m gonna blow it!” Kane cried out.

“Negative!” Captain Maya snarled. “Til?”

“I can’t get it!”

A round smashed against the crumbling concrete and opened a meter deep gash. Kell flew out into the open, tumbling head over tail in a cloud of debris, and dug a furrow into the mud when he landed. His suit twitched and smoked.

“Kell!” Denali cried and ran out to him.

Tell them! The hydraulics!

Denali latched her mechanical jaws onto Kell and pulled. She could feel twitching in her suit. Synthweave alarms blasted in her ears, her suit overloaded. Kell! Kell! Her heart thrashed in her chest.

Rounds smashed into the dirt around her and ricocheted off her armored flank. She felt a sting in her stomach. She growled inside of the suit, ignored the pinch, and pulled on Kell with everything she had.

Garlan charged out towards Denali with his head low. A pack of drones blasted away from his suit and sought targets in the darkness. He slid to a stop, took one glance and pushed Denali aside. “He’s dead! Go!”