“These things materialize drugs I've never seen,” Stephanie held up her wrists, showing her the two part command and control unit. “I didn't have a chance to read up.”
“It's okay, at least I'm on my feet. We won't get any help from Lewis or the Clever Dream though. He managed to tell me he's leaving the system to send some kind of transmission. Then whatever virus infected him tried to infect me.”
“Are you okay?”
“My mental comm is burned out, but I'm fine.”
“Glad to hear you're up and about lass! I have incomin' and he's pissed!” Frost interrupted.
Both women peeked up over the counter and they couldn't see Frost, but his pursuer was brutally obvious. A three meter tall load lifter running on heavy armoured treads was speeding down main street. It had uncountable scorch marks across the front of its broad metal body but showed no signs of real damage. The four heavy arms all reached forward towards something ahead of it, ignoring everything else in the street.
Anyone still in the broad thoroughfare ran for their lives, those who didn't make it were crushed under the wide treads of the load lifter or butted aside by its reinforced metal body.
“He had to find the biggest robot in the city and piss it off,” Stephanie complained as she checked the power level on her sidearm.
“I only got its attention when it was makin' for someone else.” Frost said, he was gasping for breath. He came into sight then, running up a staircase, half looking backwards. He was firing like mad at its small head like sensor suite. The tip of his handgun was white hot and he actually managed to hit his mark two or three times. “Damn thing's heat shielded!” he shouted as he jumped over the railing and landed in a cart full of tourist trinkets. The lifter's left arms burst through the stone staircase and he kept after his target.
Frost was on his feet again and running for his life, trying to put more distance between him and his much larger peruser. “Can't hide from the damn thing either! Who in blazes gives a load lifter a scanning and targeting suite?”
“I've never seen anyone who looks like Frost move like that. I would have never thought to look at him,” Alice said as she watched Frost and set her large sidearm to full automatic. The weapon made a whining sound as it began to draw power from the energy cell in front of the trigger.
“He has his moments,” Stephanie commented.
“Thank you luv, just tell me you have some extra firepower waitin' for this bastard.”
Alice took aim and braced herself. “I have something that should penetrate,” she opened fire and her blazing white hot stream of shots went through the transparesteel store front window like paper. They went flying past the loader's head at first, but then she began to hit it. The sensor suite was filled with holes seconds later, and the load lifter started to rotate, flailing its arms near Frost. One caught his ankle, flinging him head over heels.
He flinched away from the arm as it made another grab for him, and it missed. Another arm caught his leg and hauled him into the air. “Get this thing offa me!” he shouted.
Alice started firing bursts down the robot's body, being careful not to hit Frost.
Stephanie jumped over the counter and ran out the door, pulling two grenades out of her left leg pocket. Her sidearm was in her other hand. She squeezed the trigger as fast as she could, hitting the chest plate of the large target but not penetrating it.
“Stay away lass! I'd be as good as gone if anythin' happened to ya!” Frost said as the load lifter tried to grip his head with another arm. He was pushing himself away from the two pronged hand, holding it off as best he could.
Stephanie ignored him and came to a sliding stop right beside one of its treads. She tossed one grenade in between the armour plate and the gears then ran behind it, looking for an opening. “Fire in the hole!” she called out.
“Bloody hell!” Frost said as he curled into the fetal position best he could while hanging upside down.
The load lifter rocked back and forth as the grenade went off. Its right tread was rendered useless. Some of the plating on the lower half of its body came loose and Stephanie caught a glimpse of its power supply. “You okay Frost?”
The load lifter dropped him and he landed head first. His vacsuit protected him, hardening over his head, bracing his neck and spine. “I think you got its attention.”
Stephanie saw its torso just about to rotate towards her and took her shot. She tossed the grenade at the small opening revealing its power cell and it bounced off. Without a second thought she ran between its tractor treads, picked up the live grenade, attached it to the underside of its torso and pulled herself over its working metal tread.
To Alice and Frost's amazement she barely made it, putting the armoured tread between herself and the blast. She was still in the air when it went off, and she was sent rolling away by the concussive force.
Frost was there in a heartbeat, and seeing no obvious injury, he picked her up in his arms and ran for the head hunter's office. The load lifter, deprived of power, went limp.
“I'm all right.” she said quietly.
“You're a little touched in the head lass.”
“I saved your ass, didn't I?”
He burst through the door, crossed the room and put her down on the counter. They both got behind it for cover.
“ Triton to ground team, our communications were offline, are you all right?”
“Good to hear your voice Cynthia. We're under cover for now, but need a pickup.”
“Building lockdown in progress,” said a calm voice over the audio system. Heavy security doors started rolling down over the display windows.
The trio were on their feet, jumping over the reception counter and rushing the exit. Alice and Frost made it through the door while Stephanie jumped through the hole in the transparesteel window.
“We're trying to get something off the deck for you now, but it's a mess in orbit. Every ship with an AI is shooting down manually run vessels. Even the space station started firing for a while,” Cynthia replied.
“We have to get under cover,” Alice said as the three of them looked around. The streets were starting to empty, corpses, ruined fixtures, scorched ground and broken storefronts marked the passage of the recent carnage. Most of the machines had moved indoors, chasing after people who tried to take cover.
“Tell us if you manage to get anything off the deck and on it's way. We're heading for the port,” Stephanie said finally.
“We've got company,” Frost said, looking up to a pair of surveillance drones. They were unarmed but speeding towards them.
All three of them drew and fired. One of the green oval drones was sent spinning off to the right, the other was destroyed in mid air and they had to dodge the husk as it crashed between them. “This is going to get worse before it gets better, lets go,” Stephanie said, heading out at a run towards the load lifter's remains.
General David Collins
The bridge of the RGS Saviour was quiet but busy. General Collins watched the thirty posts from where he sat at the rear of the large triangular compartment. The slanted transparent panels along the front two sides of the bridge provided a breathtaking view of the Pollanis system. The distant planet of Daracka hung in the distance, while the dark side of a large rogue planet obscured a third of the view.
The rogue planet was erupting with plumes of ice and water as nearby gravity compressed it from the outside in. The particles drifting across the vista looked incredible, but more importantly the moon and it's debris masked the presence of the Saviour, a small but well armed Regent Galactic Destroyer.
Most of the bridge staff were busy collecting data from Daracka, the first deployment site for the aptly named Holocaust Virus. Every time Collins heard or had to say the name he was tempted to shake his head. Gabriel Meunez, it's creator, had named it. The man may program fifty four lines a second but he doesn't have a truly creative bone in his body. Even the Holocaust Virus, God, that name again, is only derivative and it took him forever to finish it.