“It’s so dark here, I can’t see anything. God, I wish I had your eyes.”
“They aren’t all that. My kind gets a lot of problems with cataracts when we’re older. Plus, we get headaches if the light is too bright sometimes.” Aileena had let her rifle go loose now they were under the cover of the sewers.
“Hah, well so do my people. You’re still coming up a winner honestly.”
“Really? Oh, sucks to be you then.”
There was a noise, a loud plop in the water ahead. Aileena snapped the rifle to her shoulder in a moment, readying the weapon. The plop was followed by an angry hiss as one of the fighters cracked open a flare. Furious red light filled the tunnel, bathing everything in crimson.
Ahead of them, illuminated by the flare, was a swarm of small machines, miniature versions of the collectors above. There were scuttling across the stone like insects, the water splashing over them. They lacked the eyes of the larger units, instead, each arm ended in a long needle-like appendage. Deadly blades ready to strike.
Akob and his fighters were quick, snapping off shots with their weapons, energy pulses flying down the sewer tunnel. The glowing rounds slammed into the swarm, the machines pouring out from the darkness into the light of the flare. Several fell, their legs clutching inwards like dying spiders. Still more came, an overwhelming tide of metal.
Michael drew his sidearm, adding his shots to the barrage. He hit something, a miracle by his standards, though with the number of machines pouring at them missing seemed impossible. Aileena was stood beside him, adding her rifle to the attack, firing over the Purnaxian fighters who had all crouched. Mellok was cowering behind them, his feathers shifting to match the glowing of the flare.
The machines kept coming, two more replacing each that had fallen. Michael felt his finger begin to ache as he continued to pull the trigger. They would be on them in moments. After everything he had been through, dying in an alien sewer seemed the least glamorous way he could have gone.
There was a clatter, something flying over the wave of Unmind machines. It was a silver orb. It was swiftly followed by another, though the second one had glowing red lights.
The first orb sprung open, a wall of energy forming between the machines and the makeshift gun line. Michael had seen something like it before when he had been kidnapped from Earth. The shield proved its worth as a fraction later the second orb exploded, the blue wall rippling as the fire washed against it.
A few more gunshots rang out as the fire faded, a twisted mess of mangled machines remaining. A figure strode through the smoke and darkness, the familiar shape of a suit of Council trooper armour becoming visible. The figure wasn’t wearing its helmet, revealing a purple-skinned alien female, small horns studded around her head, long emerald hair flowing over her shoulders. She carried an impressive multi-barrelled weapon in her hands. At her waist, magnetised to her armour, was another set of grenades.
“Getting into trouble, Akob?” she said as she slung her weapon onto her shoulder.
“I think it’s impossible not to. These things are everywhere now, Colonel.” Akob allowed himself to relax, the tension in his shoulders from clutching his rifle easing away. He stood up and turned to face Michael and his friends. “We’ve got us some visitors. With a ship. We were on our way to find you, actually.”
“A ship, huh? Just the thing we need.”
Chapter Eighteen
There was a constant low murmur, fevered whispers about the newcomers from the handful of people clustered around the spluttering fire. The resistance wasn’t what Michael had expected. He hoped there were more of them, hiding in the city, waiting in ambush, otherwise, it consisted of about ten people total. If that was the case, it was more an angry annoyance to the Unmind than an effective defence. Michael smiled at one group of them, their eyes narrowing in suspicion.
The Colonel placed their scary-looking weapon against the wall. The thing was nearly as tall as Michael and the trooper had lifted the weapon like it weighed nothing. The woman had been silent since meeting them. Simply leading them through the sewers with a series of hand gestures and grunts. The shattered remains of the small machines had been scattered about as they journeyed, remnants of the Colonel’s work.
“Right, welcome to resistance HQ. Or as close to one as we have. Hardly worth shouting about,” the Colonel said. “The HQ or the resistance.”
The chamber they were stood inside seemed to be a supply room of some kind. Some of the crates that had once rested inside had been moved to form a makeshift barricade by the entrance, whilst others were being used as tables or seats. There was only one entrance from the sewer itself but at the back of the room was a long ladder that seemed to lead to the street above. It was a decent place to hold up. Hidden, easily defended but with an escape route. Even to Michael, it was obvious the Colonel knew her stuff.
“I should probably be a little more formal. I’m Colonel Ivona Dir’ilk. I was the head of the troopers assigned to public order in this city. Only reason we survived really; they didn’t think cops were worth pulling off the beat to assist in the initial landings.” Ivona sat down, the crate she had chosen creaking under the weight of her armour. One of the resistance members by the fire passed her a metal dish that held mixed vegetables in a thick blue slime. “Not that it helped my men much. Most of them fell when the Unmind hit the city. Probably floating face down in a digestion unit somewhere.” Ivona shovelled a mouthful of the slime into her mouth with a spoon.
“You said you needed our ship,” Aileena said, cutting right to the point.
Ivona placed the spoon back into the goop. It began to sink slowly. “Well yeah, of course. Hanging around here is a death sentence. With a ship, we can get these people off-world. I’m not stupid. I can’t stay here forever fighting a losing fight. If I bug out with these people now, at least I save someone.”
“We aren’t going anywhere. Those fleets in orbit will lock something coming out of the atmosphere and blast it apart. They won’t even scan us properly; they’ll just assume its ordnance and fire first.”
“I have Council codes. We can broadcast them, mark us as friendly.”
“The Unmind ships still won’t care.”
Ivona just shrugged, her armour rattling as she did. “Not much to be done about that. The Unmind down here aren’t exactly the friendliest things. I’d rather get atomised in space than captured and turned into slurry.”
“Are those our only two options? They don’t seem great.” Michael ran his fingers through his hair, letting out a long-exasperated sigh. “This was supposed to just be a shopping trip. Pick up some supplies, some spare parts. Being attacked by evil robots wasn’t on the list.”
“I don’t believe we can categorise the Unmind as evil, Knower,” Mellok said. “It is a machine, acting in accordance with its programming. Is the Seeker evil?”
“Is Clive? Clive’s a machine, he acts based on programming. But he’s clearly capable of making decisions, choosing right from wrong.”
“You raise an excellent point. Though I think debating the inherent nature of a construct is probably unwise. Hmm, maybe something for the congregation though.” Colours rippled across Mellok’s feathers as he thought to himself like his brain waves were being reflected physically in his plumage.