Chapter Four: Left Hook

Chapter Four: Left Hook

Barracks

            The work on the starship went much faster with two people, and Danielle and Stefan naturally talked while they worked.

            “So,” Dani asked, “where are you from? Toss me the coupler slicing kit, if you would.”

            Stefan pushed the goggles he was wearing back on his head and slid the black toolbox toward her. “Mars, originally. When Earth…blew up, there’s really not another word for it, that’s where most of the Russian and Eastern European population went. I was born to poor parents, near as I can figure. Wouldn’t know, given that they threw me out on my ear as soon as I was old enough to walk. The man who raised me was a street fighter named Alexei Evanovitch. He taught me most of what I know about fighting. I made a name for myself, and the local mob thought I might be helpful to them. So they conscripted me into service, and it was there that I got this.” He held up the prosthetic arm briefly before he went back to welding the cannon’s plates back on. “And the leg, too. The government busted me during a heist and I…made it abundantly clear I didn’t want to be taken alive. Got my butt kicked or my trouble, but then they offered me a job. Being in the army sounded better than being a mob hit man, so they took me on. What about you?”

            Dani lowered her eyes. “I was born on the frontier, in a backwater settlement. Most of the houses were corrugated tin, and that was the middle class. We were dirt poor. Didn’t have much, and the government taxed what we did.”

            “You talk about possession in the past tense,” Stefan noted, locking the plate into place. “What happened?” Dani looked down at the floor, suddenly uncomfortable.

            “I killed them,” she said.

            “Ooookay…”Stefan said, linking two muon capacitors. “Do you mind if I ask why?”

            “Because I was a stupid six-year-old,” Dani snapped. “I liked lights, okay? And matches made light; my father always found a way to get some, and he used them for birthday candles. One day, while my mother was in the house, I found a stash and started playing with them. I sparked one, and then the whole world exploded. When I came to…” she sniffled a little, trying to hide the tears. “…they were gone. I’ve been on my own ever since.” Stefan pulled down his googles and spliced a few of the ship’s controls together. She stared down at what she was doing; rewiring the ship’s one railgun for more efficient energy use. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

            “What can I say?” Stefan asked. “It won’t be anything special.” He crawled out form under the instrument panel. “Like it or not, there really isn’t anything I could say. Nothing makes the pain go away. Believe me, I know.”

            She nodded. It was nice to finally meet someone who understood. Restoring the magnetic couplers to the railgun, she began riveting plates back into place. Suddenly, she heard an alarm Klaxon howl. She dropped her magnet drill, only to swear in surprise and pain as the tool struck her foot. Stefan wormed his way out of the ship and refastened his hand into place.

            “What’s wrong now,” He said.

            “Task Force Epsilon,” A voice boomed over the speakers in the barracks. “Report to the training yard immediately. Bring your weapons.” Dani picked up her launcher and slipped back into her jumpsuit. Stefan hurriedly sealed up the gun he had been working on and pulled on his own orange uniform.

            “I thought we were done for the day,” he said, pulling the goggles off his eyes and letting them hang around his neck.

            “Guess not,” Dani answered. “Come on, we should haul it.” And they did; the other trainees were already dressed for whatever it was they were doing. They fell immediately into formation, with Dani at the head and Stefan at the rear. Their newly appointed leader called step, and they jogged through the barracks area to the place indicated on the maps all around them as the training yard. When they arrived, they saw an official-looking man standing at the entrance to the white building holding a shock rifle.

            “Epsilon,” he said, keying his communicator. “Right on time and looking prissy.” Stefan couldn’t help a mental eyeroll at this statement. The military was made up of a bunch of average guys; overachievers weren’t popular. The man punched a button on the door, and it swept back. “In you go,” he said. “I’d haul it. Anders is wound up like a spring.” Taking a cue, Dani called double time as they entered the training building. The blank passageways wound their way around and around, causing Dani no end of angst, but she somehow managed to find the room that Anders was waiting inside. The commanding officer sat at a desk, looking at her watch. As the task force group entered, she looked down at her watch. Then, she locked eyes with Dan and said a single word.

            “Punctual.” And then she turned around and pointed to a side door. “Step through there, please. The sergeant will explain to you what you are to do next. And, by the way, well-structured. I will note that in the assessment.” Dani sighed, feeling extremely exasperated with Anders’ nonchalance. The emotional ignorance that she showed infuriated the Epsilon leader. Nevertheless, she had a task to perform, and thus she gestured to the others.

            “Come on,” she said. “We have things to do.” Inside the door was yet another chamber, though this one looked far different. At the center of it was a large machine with a pockmarked door at its front. Beside it stood a man in a uniform, carrying another shock prod. He looked as they entered the room.

            “You’re here,” he said simply.

            “So it would seem,” Psynder quipped. The man’s eyes narrowed.

            “Hilarious,” he responded. “Now, if you could bother being serious for a few minutes, we have something not attend to. Orders have come down from high up that your training is to begin immediately. We’ll feed you a quick meal and then put you through your first run with Sfeer.”

            “Sfeer?” Stefan echoed. “Who’s Sfeer?”

            “What, and our training system,” the man answered. “It’s an advanced artificial weapon system. Essentially like an AI crossed with a psychopathic serial killer.”

            “So Anders as a subroutine,” Tyler quipped.

            “Hardly,” the sergeant replied. “Anders is merciful compared to the boss. He’s the one who had the brilliant idea to kick your training off so early.”

            Dani cracked her knuckles like a concert pianist. “Enough talk. Are you ever going to let us actually hit your module or not?” The man nodded.

            “I’ve been instructed to put you through a live-fire exercise. We’ll generate a holographic battlefield on which you are to conduct yourselves, complete with faux enemies. Be warned that, while they may be fake, their weapons are not. You can be killed by them.” He reached into a white box and pulled out several headsets with HSCD (Holographic Simulation Crystal Displays) lenses on them. He handed one to each trainee, talking while he did so.

            “Your objective is to obtain a small, spherical object at the center of the battlefield,” he explained, “and bring it back here. How you do that, and how many of your enemies you kill on the way, is up to you. The location will be marked on your communicator HUD, in the unlikely event that you lose your way.” They each took the devices from him and strapped them on. “All set?” He asked. They nodded. “Any other questions?” No one asked him a thing, so he pointed them at the door. As they stepped through, his voice crackled in their ears with one final, chilling piece of advice.

            “I have to warn you,” he said. “Anything Sfeer sees, it archives. It is in control of each of the enemies you fight, and each one you destroy only increases the chance that the next one will defeat you.”

            “So beat this quickly,” Dani said. “Got it.”

            “And try not to die. We always have trouble cleaning the module up.”

            “Thanks,” Stefan said. “But 10-WD-40 comes up easier than blood. You’ll be fine.” They found themselves inside a large, circular white chamber, with lights at regular intervals around the structure.

            “What is this?” Tyler said. “I thought he said ‘battlefield’.” As soon as the words left his lips, the sterile room suddenly dissolved before them, being replaced by what looked like an urban disaster area. Buildings lay in ruins all around them, some blasted to bits, and almost all were pitted and scarred by the effects of time. Bullet holes riddled everything, and Dani thought she might see a few craters in the street before them. Stefan looked around briefly. Then, he clicked the safety catch on his gun off.

            “All right, boss,” he said. “What’s our plan?”

            “We have one?” Tyler asked. Dani turned and threw a rabbit punch across his jaw.

            “Shut up,” she snapped. “All right, listen up. Our objective is approximately two miles from our current position, on a northeast vector. Here’s the plan; we’ll divide our forces into two groups. Stefan, you and Kane are with me. We’ll approach the square from the south. Psynder, you, Brooks, and Shepard take a northern route. Any questions?” No one volunteered either a concern or objection, and Dani took that as an equivalent of agreement. “All right, then. Task Force Epsilon, move out.”

            As they picked their way through the charred city, Stefan could not help but experience a few moments of reminiscence. The problem with fighting on the front lines for several years was that seeing destruction lie this always took him back to his worst memories.

            “You okay?” Kane asked.

            Stefan nodded. “I’m fine. Just…missing something.” He looked out into the charred buildings and wrecked street.

            “I don’t like this,” Dani muttered. “It seems a little too open. Like there might be…” Her words were cut off by a sharp crack. Before she could do more than turn her head, she felt something slam into her and she went sprawling. Then, someone seized her but the shoulder and pulled her behind a raised piece of concrete. Turning, she saw Stefan beside her, and Kane beside him. “What…” she began. Stefan raised a finger to his lips.

            Sniper, he mouthed. Rooftop, seventy meters away.

            What do we do? Kane asked. He’ll see us and kill us for sure if we try to get him.

            Stefan, Dani replied. Do you think you could get up there without him seeing you?
            Probably, he told her. Even if I can’t, I might have a couple tricks up my sleeve. So, me?
            Dani nodded. Go bust his chops. She turned to Tyler to see if he was all right. Seeing that they were both uninjured, she did an about-face toward Stefan…only to see that he was already gone. Peering around the piece of cement, she scanned the area for some sign of her teammate, but she saw nothing anywhere except the glint of sunlight off the sniper’s scope. He sighted her (if it was a him; Dani had never been good at assigning robots genders) and fired again. But Dani had already gone back to cover by the time he locked on, so the shot merely splintered the asphalt beneath their feet.

            Stefan was weaving his way from building to building, doing his utmost to avoid the light. Not that he had anything personally against the sun, but he knew that shadows were an infiltrator’s best friend. Thus, he rolled from cover to cover, moving faster than most people’s eyes could follow. Because he worked alone, few people had true insight into the scope of his abilities. Many simply believed that he was an extremely skilled infiltrator. In reality, however, he was far more than a mere man. Although he could not explain it, Stefan knew that he was possessed of superhuman abilities. Further, he had developed a clinical skill in their employment, a precision he balanced with a near-psychopathic lust for battle. While he did not actively seek fights, he savored each one, even though he often ended them before he felt he had seen full satisfaction. He was now within twenty feet of the entrance to the building that housed the sniper’s roost, and he was busy deciding how to best close the distance. A blind rush was almost certain to end in failure, but a painfully extended attempt to sneak in would give the sniper time to lock onto and kill his new teammates. So, he decided on a modified approach. Raising his left arm, he opened a small control panel, took aim, and pressed a red button. His hand locked in the open position, and it suddenly shot from his wrist with the force of a rocket launcher. The appendage extended on a long, thick trail of wire, and it latched onto the roof underneath the sniper’s position. Then, he hit a second button, and the length of wire abruptly shortened, yanking Stefan up seven floors in a matter of seconds. He clambered up, seeing the holographic enemy sniper turn in surprise, the rifle pivoting for a killing shot. But the infiltrator was faster; he raised his molecular disruption rifle and fired a bolt of vermillion energy directly through the rifle’s scope lens. The projectile tore through the scope’s glass and punched a hole in the holo-soldier’s head. The fighter suddenly went rigid, teetered, and fell backward. From below, Stefan heard a loud, ominous crunching noise. Then, he keyed his mic.

            “This is Stefan,” he said. “Sniper neutralized.” When Dani responded, she sounded far from thrilled. In fact, Stefan thought he heard gunfire in the background.

            “Good,” she shouted. “Maybe you could come down here and give us a hand?”

            “On my way,” he responded simply, stooping to pick up the sniper’s rifle, which he added to his arsenal. Then, without a second thought, he aimed his arm again at an adjacent building, fired it, and grappled his way across.

           

            Dani Watkins was a little more than busy; shortly after Stefan had left to deal with the sniper, she and Tyler had been attacked by nine holographic enemies. She had retreated to a safe range, from which she used her grenade launcher to rain fiery death on the attackers. Tyler, for his part, used his shotgun for crown control, blasting at any of the soldiers that got too close. However, the situation was worsening. More of the enemies seemed to materialize as their comrades fell, and they were growing smarter. They were pushing the battle line closer to Dani, to a point where she could actually feel the heat as her grenades exploded. And they were staying frustratingly out of Tyler’s range, as well. The duo had managed to destroy about twenty of the holographic soldiers, and now Dani was slashing through them with her combat knife. The first one ran at her with a shotgun, which he cocked and was about to fire when she slammed the blade into his throat. The robotic fighter staggered and fell, and she immediately spun around and impaled another through the side of the head. The machine shuddered and, spraying sparks, fell. Kane’s escrima sticks whirled like two miniature electrically charged tornadoes, zapping first two, then four, then eight enemies into oblivion. But they were being overwhelmed, and they both knew it. Dani sliced a robot’s head clean off, but she saw in her peripheral vision that another was coming up behind her. She turned to face him, but she saw that she was too late. His finger was already moving to depress the shotgun trigger. She braced for the pain…but it never came. Instead, she heard a familiar crack, and the robot stopped dead, rocked, and fell, bursting in a shower of metal parts. Then, another shot took out two robots about to attack Kane from behind, and a subsequent one tore through another pair of the metal menaces.

            Stefan, she thought. The infiltrator had taken the sniper’s rifle and was using it to pick off the soldiers who drew to close. Suddenly, she heard his voice come across their comms channel.

            “You guys better move,” he said. “I’ve got at least forty hostiles moving in on this position. I think we got their attention.” Dani smiled as she strapped a grenade to a robot and flip-kicked him into a crowd of his fellows, all of whom exploded in a corona of fire.

            “Good,” she said, scrambling to her feet. “Let’s keep it.”

            “Move,” Stefan told her. She heard a click on his end, followed by the crack-whizz of the sniper rifle. Another robot went down, and the bullet ricocheted off a piece of steel jutting up from the ground, striking a second drone through the head. “I’ve got these rust-buckets under control.” The rifle fired again, and two more enemies fell. Kane, having heard the transmission, had already begun to move. Dani followed, tossing a grenade behind her as an afterthought. She head the explosive detonate, and then the sound of metal hitting concrete. She and Tyler ran inside the building, the robots close at their heels. They were six steps inside the door when the concussion grenades exploded. An avalanche of metal and synthetic stone crashed down their pursuers, cutting them off. Dani stared at the door in disbelief.

            “What the…” she began, her eyes wide.

            “What?” Stefan was standing in front of her, a small red detonation stick in his right hand. He had a wicked grin on his face. “Too close for you?”

            “A little tight,” Tyler responded, looking uneasily behind him and then up at the roof. “How’d you know the roof wouldn’t come down?”

            “He didn’t,” Dani snapped, glowering at Stefan. “Did you?” The Russian shook his head.

            “No,” he answered. ‘But I took the chance. Now, where to? If we stick around, we’re going to get vaporized.”

            “I agree,” Dani said. “But we’re not going through the street. They’ll see us for sure.”

            “Then what do you propose?” Kane queried. Their leader took a grenade from her belt and slid it into the launcher’s chamber.

            “This is an old subway station,” she said. “If the training module is completely true to the original source material, the tracks will be beneath us.”

            “Without lights,” Stefan pointed out. “This city’s power plant can’t have been used for decades, from the looks of the place.”

            Dani nodded. “I have a fusion lantern, and we can use that. Did you see any stairs?” She asked. Stefan nodded.

            “Rear of the building,” he said. “I’ll show you.” Already, they could the sound of boots on the asphalt outside. This added motivation to their strides, and they reached the rear of the building in almost no time at all. Without a second thought, Kane barreled down the stairs, Stefan and Dani close behind. Once they were inside the old loading bay, Stefan reached over and, with a superhuman effort, pulled the titanium alloy blast doors shut. And not a moment too soon; they heard, several seconds after, an explosion of gunfire, which rattled harmlessly against the metal surface. They waited in the darkness, absolutely silent save for the sound of Dani rummaging through her jumpsuit for her fusion lantern. After an agonizing eternity, she found it, and then the darkness retreated in the face of its cold yellow light. The station, like the world above them, looked like a battleground; there were scorch marks on the walls, bullet holes through the ticket window, and a half-destroyed train on the tracks. Looking around, Dani saw a dust-covered map of the subway on a wall, which she cleared off so that she could read it. According to the information here, there was an access tunnel that led to a building that had once been a repair drone dispensary.

            “This way,” she said, pointing to the gray-marked track. “If we follow this tunnel, it should take us right to the city center.” Then, she keyed her communicator. “Beta group, come in. This is Alpha. Hostiles have been encountered and engaged, and we are now travelling underground. Over.” Static. No response. “Alpha to Beta. We are now travelling to the city center underground. Over.” For a moment, there was silence. Then, the mic clicked and a voice spoke. But it was not Psynder’s voice, or that of any of the other Beta Group members.

            “That is interesting,” came the cold, harsh voice. “I think I just might have to pass that on.”

            “What the-who is this?” Dani asked.

            “Isn’t it obvious?” The voice asked. “I am Sfeer. They are Sfeer, Everything around you answers to me, watches for me. Your friends discovered that, all right. They gave me quite a bit of trouble, and they’re still bothering me now. Still, they did do me a favor. Now I know where you are. I’d run, if I were you. Those tunnels are a nasty place to get into a firefight. Oh, and one last thing: you should probably find your friends. They’re already in the square, but they’re running out of time. Best you hurry.” And the line went dead. Dani clicked the mic twice, took of the headset, and muttered a curse.

            “Great. Now, they know where to find us.” Her brow wrinkled with concentration. “What should we do now?”

            “Go,” Stefan replied. “Get there as fast as you can and complete your objective. That’s the only way we can end this nightmare.”

            “But what are we going to do about Sfeer?” Kane asked.

            “Let me handle that,” Stefan replied. “I’ll take care of his troops. When he activated the communicator, he also activated the radar system in them.”

            “How?” Kane asked. “I had no idea we even had one of those.”

            “Neither did I,” Dani said, looking at her HUD. “But apparently, we do.”

            Stefan nodded. “With that tech, I can see his men coming and pick them off. Dani, can you scramble the GPS signal?” She nodded.

            “I think so,” she answered. “But it will take time.”

            “Then do it on the fly,” he responded. “They’re coming. I should go.”

            “They’ll see you,” Kane warned. “What’s going to happen then?”
            “They won’t see me coming,” Stefan told him, a Cheshire Cat-like smile on his face. Then, he was simply gone, leaving a shadow of the expression behind and his words hanging in the darkness. “No one ever does.”

            Dani shook her head. “How does he do that?” She wondered aloud.

            “He’s scary, that’s what he is,” Kane said. “I think he has some kind of stealth field or something. There’s no way that he could vanish like that on his own.”

            The leader of Task Force Epsilon shrugged. “Either way, let’s move. That object won’t retrieve itself.”

Subway

Red Line

            Three of Sfeer’s robotic soldiers were running down the tracks, the lights on their helmets turning to sweep the subway tunnels in all directions. According to their GPS systems, this was where the group’s infiltrator was hiding, most likely looking for the avenue of approach least likely to be used by his enemies. Too bad that Sfeer had algorithms that allowed for such things. They were rapidly approaching the GPS signature, but they could see no sign of him. Nevertheless, they could hear the sound of someone’s voice crackling over a communications system.

            “…I need reinforcements at the pickup point, stat. Repeat, we are pinned down under heavy fire, and I don’t think we can hold them…” The transmission trailed off in a crackle of static, and the robots quickened their pace. According to their internal positioning systems, they should have been right on top of the man; in fact, the leader should have been standing on him. Looking down, he saw the source of the sound and the GPS signal; the infiltrator’s communicator headset, propped up against the cement wall of the tracks.

            “Move!” Sfeer’s subroutine shouted. “It’s a-” but he got no further, because precisely at that moment, a disruptor bolt punched through his chest, incinerating vital circuitry. The robot fell backward, uttering his final word. “-traaaaaaap…” The other two robots turned to fire on him, but he was gone, just like that. They turned every which way, looking for some sign of him, but to no avail. Then it happened; the robot in the rear suddenly lurched forward, and the second turned to see what was the matter. All that appeared, though, was an ugly metal hand tearing through his companion’s chest and reaching for his head. It seized the metal man by the cranial shell, twisted, and pulled. The robot’s head ripped clean off, and Stefan yanked it through the first soldier’s damaged midsection, widening the crater in the metal. Then, he turned the robot’s face around to face his.

            “You will kneel before me…” Sfeer threatened, in one last feeble effort.

            “Really?” The Russian said, dropping the head. Then, he raised his metal leg and crushed it beneath his titanium heel. “I actually rather think you’ll do it first.”

            Training Room Battlefield

            City Center

            Psynder rolled behind a concrete barrier, narrowly avoiding getting vaporized by a rocket that came flying her way. Though her body was still bathed in the radiant heat, at least she hadn’t been blown to bits. From up above her, Arthur brooks took aim, sighted the mechanical rocketeer, and fired. The sniper rifle’s bullet streaked through the air and tore the robot’s head apart, even permanently deactivating the soldier behind him. Both went down, but more of the mechanical beings were flooding the square by the second. Ali Shepard was doing her best to pick them off with her chain shock rifle, which fired bolts of electrical energy that lanced from target to target in quite the elegant display of shocking pyrotechnics. For her part, Psynder had chosen a mid-range thermobaric carbine, which fired lethal projectiles that had time-delay explosive charges embedded in their tips. Once they penetrated the target, heat and homeostatic pressure caused the charge to detonate, literally blowing the unfortunate being to bits. While not quite so effective on robots, the telepath had managed to lay waste to several platoons of the fighters with the gun. And they were making steady progress toward the square; each dodge and roll brought her one evasion closer to the objective, and her comrades followed her lead. Brooks moved a bit slower, simply because he was seeking out cover for a sniping positon, but he still kept pace just fine. Suddenly, the droens topped coming. As Psynder, Ali, and Arthur destroyed the final six enemies, they were surprised not to see more of them rushing to supplant the fallen. Brooks’ voice echoed in Psynder’s mind. While she might be a tactile telepath, she could also set up remote links with willing participants. Since Ali and Psynder had lost their communicators, they had both decided to use her telepathy as a viable alternative, while Brooks would serve as a link between Alpha and Beta.

            Where did they go? He asked. These blokes don’t just stop.

            I know, Psynder replied, looking around. But it seems for all the world like they have.

            Doesn’t matter, Ali pointed out. We’re twenty yards from the objective. Let’s move it.

            Right, Psynder agreed. And, as one, they rushed toward a building adjacent to the square and laboriously climbed up several floors to get a better view. Looking down into the town’s center, they laid eyes on a horrible sight. Almost a hundred metal men stood in neat files, marching back and forth in front of an energy field that contained the object they were to retrieve. The force field itself was powered by a generator inside its protective embrace, making it nigh impossible to assail. Beyond that, Psynder saw the holographic sunlight glinting off rifle barrelys in a few high-rise buildings, indicating that there were snipers present in each one.

            This looks awful, Brooks thought. How could it get much worse? And just like that, his question was answered as a forty-foot mechanized battlesuit stalked into the square. Alison was unable to stop herself from a little gasp of surprise.

            What is that? She asked.

            That would be a Thracian Class Armored Combat Exoskeleton, Heavy Variant, Brooks answered mentally. Then, seeing surprised looks on his teammates’ faces, he shrugged. I’m a weapons tech guy. It’s my thing. Psynder shook her head.

            How could it get worse? She mimicked mentally. You had to ask, didn’t you? Just had to open that big mouth.

            Brooks keyed his mic. “Alpha, this is Beta. We’ve got Tangos in the square, including one heavy hitter. Over.” He heard nothing on the other end, only static. Then he tried again. “Bakrylov, do you copy? This is Beta. We have visual on Tangos between us and the objective. Requesting backup, over.”

            The voice that answered was not Stefan’s. “Greetings, Beta. It’s been at least fifteen minutes. I wouldn’t be expecting your Russian friend to call you back.”

            “Sfeer,” Brooks growled. “Where is he?”

            “Right now?” The malevolent AI asked. “Two steps from hell. If you miss him, don't worry. You'll see him soon. You'll be joining him, in fact.” And the line went dead again.

Author's Note

Please note grammar errors, plot holes, and mechanics goof-ups. Positive feedback is appreciated, but is not required.