Asterion (34 page)

Christine interjects, “Listen to Phil, and don’t engage him alone. It’s too risky.”

Taylor stands up, “That’s better than a suicide plan.”

They travel through the debris to the lab where they assist Taylor as he dons the suit. Taking an elevator to the surface, he peers out from the rocks hiding the entrance. “Magnify five.” His view through the visor shows that Asterion and his troops are just over the rise, planning their final attack. “Visual camo.” Taylor’s image disappears except for the minor distortion of his shape. He begins to run perpendicular to Asterion’s position. The suit allows him to achieve a speed of forty miles per hour and he quickly covers two thousand yards where he turns ninety degrees left to follow a tree line and flank Asterion’s position.

Taylor, keeping an eye on Asterion stumbles over something on the ground. Turning back to see what it is, he sees a robot’s shield lying on the ground. He sees the image drawn on the shield by the soldier before battle. He furrows his brow and wonders who drew it on there. He regains his focus and looks back at Asterion’s position.

He takes cover behind some trees and turns off the camo to preserve power. He sees Asterion putting on an infrared camera over one eye. “IR camo.” The suit responds and his heat signature becomes that of the surrounding area. He reveals himself when Asterion looks in his direction. Asterion looks hard at him. He recognizes the shape and as Taylor strides away, he is sure that is his walk. Focused on his nemesis, he leaves his troops without a word and begins to pursue Taylor. Taylor reengages the visual and infrared camo modes.

Asterion is stunned, “Where did he go?”

Taylor moves a short distance and briefly turns the camo off and on again. Asterion catches sight of him for a second and then he is gone.

“Am I seeing a ghost,” he mumbles and moves toward Taylor’s last location.

Taylor realizes that he must get Asterion to follow him into the trees so his troopers lose sight of him, lest they follow their leader. He teases Asterion and he follows him deeper into the tree line. Asterion gets closer and starts to see the slight distortion of the suit. He levels his sidearm and shoots. Striking Taylor in the calf, the impact causes him to stumble and Asterion is on top of him in a fraction of a second.

Grabbing Taylor by the throat, he tosses his pistol away and strips Taylor of his weapon. Pulling him up by the throat, he peers through the visor and snorts. “I want to feel you die.” He squeezes with all his strength and the flexible material reacts and hardens, preventing him from crushing Taylor’s throat. He grabs with both hands and he can’t compress the material.

Taylor joins his hands and thrusting upward parts Asterion’s hands and he falls to the ground. Asterion’s face shows his astonishment at the suits abilities. “Not this time Asterion. No more running.”

Asterion snorts and bellows, then he snarls, “I’m going to destroy you.” He lunges at Taylor. He sidesteps the advance and delivers an elbow to the kidney that drops Asterion to his knees and a back kick to the head puts him on his face. Taylor turns to attack and Asterion rolls over delivering a roundhouse kick with his hoof sending Taylor into a tree. The suit’s heads up display starts to give warnings about the failure of the camo modes. Now he can’t use that to try to escape. Asterion plunges his fist at Taylor’s head hoping to catch him between the tree and his fist. The muscle assist is still working and Taylor dodges the blow. Asterion howls as his hand impacts the tree.

Taylor thinks, “Good, some damage.” From his position, he kicks Asterion’s knee. It does not break, but it does strain it and Asterion howls from the pain and bellows in frustration at Taylor’s good fortune.

“Surrender now and your life will be spared.”

“Are you kidding me? You will die, you and that woman.”

Taylor rolls to move out from under Asterion who is standing over him. He catches Taylor’s leg and he hurls him against a tree.

Taylor hears a crack. “Is that the tree, the suit or me?” He stands up, dodges several roundhouse punches from Asterion, and delivers an uppercut to Asterion’s snout. He reels from the pain and Taylor sees his chance to lead Asterion into the minefield and tries to run, but the suit loses its power and Asterion catches him easily.

“Time for some pain little man.” He pins Taylor to the ground and looks around. He finds a large rock, raises it above Taylor’s head. “Time to see just how many blows this suit can take and then, how many your head can take.”

He hears the swooshing sound of a rocket propelled grenade. Instinctively he flattens himself over Taylor and it explodes when it strikes a tree behind him. He stands up and spins around to see another suit and recognizes that it is Christine. “Good, I can get rid of both of you at the same time. Who will see the other one die first?”

Christine aims the second missile, “Give up now or die.”

“What is it with you people? I’m not giving up. I’m winning. I’m going to kill both of you so you should have the decency to try and kill me. Otherwise, it’s no fun.” Asterion’s eyes get wild and he wrinkles his face in that distorted smile staring down Christine as she moves closer for a better shot.

“Fire,” the missile flies from the shoulder mounted launcher. Christine sees the heads up display flashing too close to arm. Her eyes open wide as the missile finds its target and she wonders if she made a mistake.

The missile strikes Asterion in the breastplate with a thud as a wave radiates through his thick skin outward from the impact. His eyes go blank and his jaw drops. He falls on top of Taylor.

Christine races up to them, “Are you alright?”

A muffled voice from under Asterion replies, “No I’m not. Get this thing off of me.”

She quickly rolls Asterion off Taylor and leans over him. “Are you hurt, can you get up?”

“Yes on both counts. Is he still alive?”

She quickly checks for pulse and breathing and detects none. “I think he’s dead.”

“Let’s get out of here. I’m sure his troops heard the commotion.”

CHAPTER 36 - MAKE A BREAK FOR IT

She leads Taylor to the ATV she used to get to him. They ride off in advance of the approaching beasts. Some go to attend to Asterion while the rest pursue them.

Taylor hangs on to Christine and they race back to the lab. He slowly turns and grunts from the pain. He can see the troops moving in with the centurions urging them on. Asterion must have commanded them to move on the facility before he pursued Taylor. They are carrying out his last command. They fly through the minefield as they start to come under fire and they take shelter in a building.

“Do we have weapons here?”

Christine looks around, “No.”

Small arms fire starts to pelt the building as grenades explode outside. Then they start to hear the explosions of the mines and howls from the beasts. The mines take out a large number of the beasts. They start to retreat, but the centurions rally them and urge them on.

They take the opportunity to retreat to a building further away, but they see the beasts getting across the minefield. Taylor looks around. “We have to try to make it to that building.”

“We’ll have to cross open ground. They’ll have a clear shot at us.”

“I don’t know what else to do and the closer they get...”

The sound of a missile battery interrupts their conversation. They duck for cover as the missiles fly overhead. The beasts stop in their tracks as the missiles arc down on them. Mortars go off and the chatter of remotely controlled machine guns mow down large numbers of the beasts.

They race off to the next building in the ensuing chaos and Taylor peers from around the corner. “How many of these beasts do they have. We’ve killed hundreds and they are still coming.

Christine squints as she looks out in the distance in the opposite direction. “A transport is coming.”

“Finally.”

The transport spins around and the rear ramp opens up. Sergeant Latcholet reaches out with his hand, “Get in here.”

Taylor and Christine are stunned. Taylor helps Christine in and looks at Sarge. “We thought you were dead.”

“Worse, I was drafted. Hurry up or we’ll all be dead.”

The ramp closes and the transport tears away from the building in a cloud of dust and debris. Shells are trying to find their mark as Phil takes evasive maneuvers from the driver’s seat. Milar operates the top turret taking out the closest pursuers. The few battle robots left give them cover from the flanks.

Christine leans toward Sarge, “We thought you sacrificed yourself for us. How did you get away?”

“Asterion had a little mind changing.”

“A little mind changing.”

“Yea, remember the spent RPG?”

“Yes.”

“I stuffed a sock in the end of it so he couldn’t see it is empty and leveled it at him. He changed his mind about killing me.”

A collective laugh fills the transport. That levity is short lived as the firefight continues.

They hear the roar of a bomber as it races low over them headed in the opposite direction and it rattles the transport as it passes. Missiles roar into life from under the wing of the bomber. It rises at a high angle over the remaining beasts. The bomb doors open and it releases fragmentary bombs that decimate the remaining beasts.

Burnsom jaw is open as he watches the destruction of the beasts. He does not want to lose the human assets and orders a withdrawal. He is not willing to anger the people with human loses. He calls Trent, “Have you seen this?”

“Yes I have. Asterion’s personal vendetta against Taylor and Christine distracted him from the fight. I have beasts with more intelligence that will fight better. They are in training now.”

“What about Asterion?”

“I had some centurions retrieve his body. He’s dead. They put him in a cooler and he is on his way here.”

“Why bring back the body?”

“An autopsy will help us understand our creation and we can develop better versions in the future.”

“What about their next leader?”

“I’m working on it now. Give it a few weeks.”

“Do we have that?”

“Trust me; they have exhausted their resources just as we have. They are in no better shape than we are at this time.”

“We need to make a larger beast. One that is meaner and faster than what we got now.”

“We’ve reached the limit of what we can engineer out of the DNA we have, but there might be something else available. I don’t know if it will work, but I can try.”

“We need more than try, we need success or it is going to get a lot uglier out there.”

“I’m sure we can keep the people from rioting.”

“I’m not talking about riots and rebellion. I’m talking last resort stuff here. I don’t want to use it, but I’m not going to let them string me up like some Italian dictator.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll keep that to myself if I think I know what you are referring to sir.”

“Then you know the pressure we are under. Keep that in mind when you are fatigued.”

“Point taken sir.”

Burnsom ends the call and sinks back in his chair. Now he has to explain the troop’s failure and prepare the people for a protracted conflict. He calls Devin, “Son, get back home now. We need to get you back here safe. We’ll gauge the people’s reaction before putting you in harm’s way.

“Yes sir, news is starting to spread already and the people are in a near panic.”

“What are they saying?”

“Some are afraid they or their children will be pressed into combat. Some are afraid that the South Central Province will retaliate and attack those close to the borders.”

“Who are they blaming?”

“I think they are still in shock and haven’t got to the blame stage yet.”

“Understandable. Tell the governors that we have many more beasts coming online and South Central is too weak to mount an offensive. Then get your tail back to Washington pronto.”

“Will do sir.” Devin hangs up the phone and turns to the governors who are waiting for some response from Burnsom. “I’ve been reassured that we have beasts on the move now. Also, the province is very weak and has exhausted most of its resources. A counterattack is not imminent. Tell your people that. Additionally, their contribution to the effort is to go to work and live their lives as they would normally do.”

Devin gets into a cab, “Airport, fast as possible.”

Trent hears Burnsom’s conversation with Devin through the tapping device he installed. He thinks to himself, “Now I got two idiots to get rid of. Devin should be the easiest. He would stick his head through a guillotine if he thought there is an opportunity on the other side to get ahead. That’s funny, guillotine, get a head, I’ll have to think about that one.”

Trent finishes some paperwork in his office. Looking at the clock, he walks to his lab, enters the maturation chamber, and walks up to the incubation chamber. Looking down his face is bathed an unearthly glow. He looks in, his eyes light up and his lips curl up in an evil grin.

Governor Stanley breathes a sigh of relief over the destruction of the beasts. He calls and congratulates Sanderson. “General, I want to thank you on behalf of the people for saving us from these beasts.”