The 360-degree vision provided by the three cameras in the Wraith’s head allowed me to see the other four Wraiths in the pale ambient light. Our systems were still running quiet. Underneath the algae we could see the Spoke’s own lighting providing areas of brightness in the dark, the line between light and darkness much more defined in water than it would be in the air.
Of course the mermaid was a hallucination.
It was a hallucination with a steel gun. I could see the wakes in the water from the steel gun firing. It looked like many small fish darting towards me. The hallucination wasn’t a mermaid, it was a merman. Now there was an explosion of bubbles from his weapon as a compressed-air charge launched a mini-torpedo from its under-barrel grenade launcher. I could hear what sounded like rain pattering off the skin of the Wraith. It was a very violent hallucination. My skull was about to burst – too much blood, too loud, too much internal pressure.
My internal visual display came alive. Tiny explosive charges blew the clasps that attached the foam we’d wrapped the Wraiths in. At a subconscious level I was aware that Pagan and Morag would now be jamming comms traffic from the cybrid and any other comms and scanners that were turned against us. Motion detectors, sonar and several other passive and active scanners formed a three-dimensional image in my head. There was the cybrid, and there were now drones in the water as well as independently targeted seeker torpedoes.
‘Did you see them? Did you see them!’ Mudge shouted over the comms line, his voice full of wonder. I think he was as high as I was but on something else. The Retributor started firing. As did other Retributors. The cybrid had realised he was outmatched and was trying to flee. I saw the harpoons impacting into his heavily converted cyborg frame. There was an explosion off to my left as one of the drones went up, a brief blossom of orange surrounded and quickly snuffed out by the water. The cybrid merman seemed to get churned up, turning in on himself as the integrity of his reinforced frame gave way. With the low-light amplified vision the blood in the water looked quite black.
The next explosion shook my Wraith, knocking it back. I ignored the creaking sound of distressed metal. One of the torpedoes had gone off nearby. I didn’t think to check if any of the Wraiths had been damaged. I just wanted to destroy. The Wraith’s propulsion system was on full, pushing me deeper into the ocean on the most direct route to where we assumed the facility was.
In my internal vision I had windows open showing me feeds from the cameras on each of the Wraiths. I also had a blank window up which would accept a feed from the net once Morag had entered it. I wasn’t paying any attention to that. I was ignoring the comms chatter as more and more drones and torpedoes were launched. Two of the steel gun emplacements on the Spoke came to life and we began taking heavier-calibre fire. Through the blood-fuelled fire in my head I was thinking that I was fighting one of the pillars of heaven. More cybrids appeared in the three-dimensional rendering of the battle. The gun was silent. There was no recoil as I began firing nearly constantly, stopping only to change target when I was rewarded with flame or blood.
After the sensory deprivation of the descent, suddenly the deep was very much alive. Everywhere I looked I could see the conical turbulence from the wake of multiple ordnance. I launched two torpedoes at a submersible gunboat. Somebody, I don’t know who, vented sensor-confusing ink from their Wraith. We fixed targets with our smartlinks, the Wraiths’ acquisition software plotting the targets’ most likely movements, and we fired blindly through the cloud.
I was laughing when we emerged from the ink cloud in a wake of our own turbulence, tendrils of ink grasping for us. There was a cybrid right on top of me, extending his steel gun at point-blank range. I didn’t care. He was snatched sideways in the water as Magantu appeared from nowhere, powerful, mechanically assisted jaws clamping down on the cybrid’s armoured body. The Wraith’s propulsion system pushed me through a cloud of blood and mechanical fluids.
My audio dampeners kicked in at the thunderous sound of a super-cavitation attack sub heading straight down towards us, falling through the bubble of air it surrounded itself with.
Ahead of me I saw that three Wraiths had stopped by the bioluminescent, algae-covered wall of the Spoke. Two were covering while the third seemed inert. I could make out the propulsion system on the inert Wraith making small adjustments to hold itself steady in the water by the wall.
The net feed window in my internal visual display came to life. I could see the horrible visage of Morag’s blue-skinned hag icon standing on a plane of glass. Ahead of her a waterfall fell from a pale sky, filling the screen from left to right. I saw Black Annis drawing symbols of smoky shadow in the air more rapidly than I could understand. They dissipated just as quickly.
I reached the wall and turned round to see a busy ocean filled with turbulence. Warning signs regarding the integrity of the Wraith began appearing in my internal visual display. I ignored them and provided covering fire for Morag’s run into what we hoped was the facility’s airlock. Either that or we were trying to enter a maintenance area really violently. The Retributor was always busy. I nearly dropped it when the submersible gunboat went up. The explosion was so close I was slammed back into the wall by the concussion wave.
In the net I saw figures like humanoid mirrors rise from the glass plane. I figured this was a manifestation of security attack programs. I watched as Annis traced more smoky symbols in the air with her other hand. The mirror figures were running towards her now, casting a distorted reflection all around them. I watched as one by one they started to burn with a pale-blue fire the colour of Annis’ skin. They continued running though they were melting, the reflections they cast becoming more and more distorted.
Balor swam out of the darkness above me. He was so close to my field of fire I paused and adjusted my aim. He looked at home. He looked exactly like what he wanted to be, an ancient sea demon. The extending spear he carried was in a trident configuration. I watched as he swam down on another cybrid and despite her armour and reinforced frame jabbed the trident down into her spine and twisted. He left the corpse hanging there, tendrils of blood escaping into the water, as he continued to swim towards us. Whoever was in the fifth and final Wraith joined us, back to the wall and firing at the security forces. As shots from a steel gun rained off my armour, chipping concrete from the Spoke, I realised how much I wanted this. If I went out now, it would be okay. Of course this is what you’re supposed to think on Slaughter, so it’s all right to die.
In the net I saw the waterfall part slightly like a curtain being twitched open. The audio sensors on the Wraith picked up the grinding noise of the external airlock door opening just enough to provide us with room to propel the Wraiths in. Morag’s Wraith came alive again and the net feed went dead. Balor was in first, a Wraith following him, I had no idea whose, but it turned and started providing covering fire for the rest of us.
One after the other the Wraiths moved into the airlock. The second to last was moving as I interfaced with the propulsion system and, still firing, manoeuvred myself into the dark interior, the doors already closing. I fired my last few bursts, watching them arc through the water just before the doors shut. Then I heard rather than saw the water begin to pump out of the chamber, as without a word we prepared ourselves to face whatever was coming when the internal door opened.