Crash Flux 1: Welcome To The Machine (14 page)

Raydin backed away from the corpse, stumbling as he fell backwards onto his behind.  He dropped his weapon and started hyperventilating.  His eyes were wild, dancing across his friend’s faces.  White flashes and vivid scenes replayed themselves in his mind, like a lucid dream, overlapping reality.  

Remembering, he began to retch over the tunnel floor.

*

Adon was shaking, breathing in cold, shallow breaths.  The shivering and nausea were part of the shakes you got when you used a combat skill cheat.  “Ray, you okay?”  Adon looked around, realizing nobody was listening.  Burk lay on his back, not breathing.  Irule was still unconscious, and Raydin had curled his knees up against his chest, rocking back and forth.  The skill cheat’s post combat protocol took effect, the instructions burning into his mind.

He thought, “Okay, assess situation.  Burks probably dead, Irule is knocked out, and Raydin is in shock with a bullet wound to his chest and multiple impact wounds from blunt trauma through his vest.  Emergency first aid; triage.  I need to wake Irule.  She is the only medic available.”

Adon searched through Irule’s black bag, finding a neural stimulator.  It would probably wake her up, but it might make her concussion more severe.  It was a chance he had to take.  He popped it into Irule’s nose, and the white powder was forced into her system with a puff of air.  She jerked awake, coughing.  She began stammering, “What, where’s Burk, who, what’s going on?”  Irule orientated herself, and then began crying.  “Stars, I killed those… they are dead because I shot them! I never killed anyone before!”

Adon squeezed her painfully by the shoulders, got in her face and yelled, “They’re dead!  We are still here.  You can’t fix us up unless you get your head straight.”

Unnatural calm spread across her face.  All emotion drained out of her expression as she began talking.  “Where is Burk?”

Adon said, “Right behind you.  He took the brunt of the explosion.  I think he’s dead.”

Irule pulled out the small pouch with the Lazarus treatment hardware.  She removed the wire cap with the tiny connection plates connecting the wires together.  She forced the net over Burk’s skull.  She found the main cord, fitting it into the small black case.  She rummaged through her black bag until she found the circuitry card.  Irule pushed it into the boxes slot.

Adon said, “What are you doing?  Burks not breathing, his spine is exposed.  There isn’t a damn thing we can do for him!”

Irule said, “Yes, there is.”  She entered the activation code.  Needles concealed in the tiny plates pierced his skull and impaled themselves deep inside Burks brain.  His body began convulsing, his muscles and ligaments tearing.  A small green bar counted down the time on the black box.  Towards the end, Burk’s spine broke into three more fragments, his brain sending amplified signals to his body.

Adon said, “What the hell was that?”

Irule said, “You can worry about that later.” She held up the circuitry card.  “Burk is going to be fine.”

Adon face became suspicious, “The Lazarus treatment?  Why didn’t you tell us?”

“You can be pissed at me later.  Raydin is going to die if I don’t help him.”

Irule’s faced flat lined again as she moved towards Raydin.  She extended her hand towards his body.  His snake flew out of his arm, wrapping the phase wire around her neck in a noose.  His eyes were furious, out of control.  He breathed in sharp breaths, ready to react.

Irule spoke very slowly,  “Raydin, its okay.  You’re with friends.  Just ease back, no ones trying to hurt you.”

Raydin’s eyes grew softer, his breathing more steady, until a wash of calm came over him, allowing his body to feel the incredible exhaustion he had been suppressing.  He retracted his snake, and allowed Irule to begin treating him.

Irule said, “He has heavy blunt trauma to his chest, his face is severely burned, and he has a bullet wound in his side that has pierced his lung.  I can patch it up for a couple of hours, but he needs serious medical attention.”

Adon said, “Down here?  How are we going to do that?”

Irule said, “I don’t know.”

Irule looked Raydin in the eye.  “Are you cool, Ray?  Do you understand what’s going on?”

Raydin wheezed, “Yeah.  Just… for a minute I was in a different place.  What happened to Burk?”

Irule turned her head.  “Burk’s spine was broken from the force of the explosion.  I downloaded his mind into a circuit card, using the Lazarus treatment.  Right now, he is in limbo, it will take a couple hours for his brainwaves to readjust to the circuit card.  He will be able to talk to us through my C-MAX, and he can still interface with VR, so he won’t go into shock.  But until we find a body, there isn’t a much more I can do for him.”

Raydin said, “No time.  We need to get moving.”

Adon said, “What about tracking that little weasel who shocked me in the ass?”

Irule said, “Not a chance in hell of finding him in this mess.  Besides, we got to go.  More garrison troops will be here soon.”

Raydin took a look back at the acid washed corpse down the corridor.  He felt sick.  “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

*

The next tock was the longest any of them had ever experienced.  They were stopped at every turn as they evaded enemy patrols, forced to use their armors optics to see in the makeshift tunnels the squatters had created.  Twice they had to backtrack due to biohazard readings from their suits’ sensors, and another by the radiation counter.  By the time the Guard had discovered the fate of its missing squad, they had already gained a sizable lead, despite Raydin’s handicap lung.  Irule stopped when she thought they had put enough distance between them and the guard.  Irule grabbed hold of the communicator she picked up off of Goo.  It didn’t take her long to unscramble the signals from the Guard’s patrols.  They were scrambling to find them, they had been lucky so far to evade the patrols, but they knew they could not hold out on foot.  Irule started searching for active communication lines, calling out for assistance in desperation.  

Adon said, “If we do not do something soon, the Guard will be on top of us.”

Irule put her finger to her lips, “Shhh.  I hear something, like a battle.”

She turned up the sound on the UCD, the loud clamor of gunfire and explosions echoing throughout the sewers.  Irule ran a trace with her C-MAX, and said, “It’s coming from that way, about half a tock.

Adon said, “We’ll go around then.”

Irule said, “We need to head towards them.  Whoever they are, if they have managed to put up some sort of resistance, they might have some sort of medical aid available.  If we keep wandering around blind like we have for much longer we don’t stand a chance of making it out of here.”

Adon put his hand over his head, comforting the ache in his skull as if it were going to cause his brain to explode.  He said, “But that’s crazy…”

Raydin said, “Alone, we don’t stand a chance, together, we might be able to find shelter.”

Adon said, “Alright, looks like I’m out-voted.  Let’s go.”

They continued moving until they found themselves inside of an incredibly large tunnel, a little over a kilometer wide and stretching out into the distance in both directions farther than they could see.  It had a flat floor with walls that curved up at the sides, and large light panels provided just enough ambient light to see where they were going.  Raydin dropped onto the floor near the end of the tock, unable to carry on any longer.  His breathing echoed through the massive sewage channel they found themselves in.  He said, “Leave me.”

Adon said, “Not an option.  We break here until you are able to move again.  Don’t make us carry your ass.”  They continued down the tunnel for half a mile until they arrived at a series of what appeared to be military fortifications.  Irule said, “That’s strange, we didn’t hear any weapons fire coming up.” Adon activated his optics wet ware, magnifying the battered fortifications.  “A bunch of barricades and bunkers made of construction foam.  Looks like a tomb.”

They maneuvered through the battered maze of fortifications.  They were halfway in between when Raydin’s ears perked, hearing noise from far away.  It grew louder, until they could all hear.  The sounds were crashing, booming, echoing through the tunnels.

Adon said, “What the hell is that?”

Irule said, “Explosions.  Who else would be fighting the guard down here?” They could see blurry masses in front of them, large and growing larger as they ran towards them.  The forms shouted something unintelligible after them.  As the shadows retreated behind the barricades their forms became clearer.  Two giant humanoids taking cover behind the maze of temporary fortifications.  Standing twelve feet tall, Raydin could feel the ground shake as they approached.  Their enormous humanoid frames where composed of bulky polygons, the result of a massive exoskeleton designed to deflect projectiles away from their bodies.  They possessed massive skulls shaped like an upside-down bucket with a small base and a wide brim.  They had no necks, their heads connecting where the collarbone would have been, jutting out like a projection from where their pectoral armor plates met their shoulders.  Patches of bone were exposed where weapons fire had broken the skin and penetrated the plated armor they wore over their skin.  Two massive muscles rested where the flat back connected to the sides of the head, crisscrossing each other.  The creature on the left flexed its right muscle, rotating its skull backward at nearly one hundred-eighty degrees.

Two red eyes with no pupils were spread wide across the circular face, giving it a wide range peripheral vision.  Four holes in the side of its head were what passed for ears.  In the center of it’s’ forehead a communication node glowed faintly, identifying it as belonging to the communal biological habitats of the Lifetree.  It opened the small slit that composed its mouth, exposing its huge blunt teeth and underdeveloped tongue, barking at them with a throaty gurgle.  Two massive holes sat in the middle of its face, in what Raydin could only guess was a nose.

They both wore plated armor and carried heavy equipment.  As they turned to face them, they reared their massive cannons towards the party.  Adon and Irule raised their hands in the air, staring down the barrels of the massive weapons.  The brute on the left carried particle projector cannon.  It had a wide barrel that had to be gripped from the side, and six prongs that formed the charged particle bolt and accelerated it towards its target. The other carried a high-density spheroid accelerator.  It possessed a long, thin barrel and was surrounded by massive magnetic accelerator coils that spiraled down its length. 

  A nearby explosion rocked them all.  The giant turned back around, returning fire with a barrage of charged particle bolts.  The other sprayed the area with his accelerator.  Thousands of tiny, high-density pellets accelerated to impossible velocities.  The tiny spheroids with traces of ferrous metal disintegrated their enemy’s cover in a cloud of debris, the blunt rounds expanding on impact.  

Adon said, “It looks like they’re brutes, from Lifetree.  They are in the shit with Datcora’s garrison troops, maybe lost a few already.  This isn’t the safest place to be.”

Irule said, “They are going to need a gene-splicer to fix them up.  They could probably treat Raydin.”  Irule and Adon carried Raydin behind the nearest barricade. Adon grabbed focused his optic wet ware, taking a peak above the large barricade.  Another giant with a massive construction foam sprayer was trying to repair a large hole in the forward fortification.  The nano-machines inside the sprayer grabbed nitrogen and oxygen from the atmosphere and temporarily forced them into a hardened barrier.  

A two-man rocket team on the forward fortification opposite of them spotted it, and sent a guided missile spiraling into its abdomen.  The creature roared in agony and fell to the ground, dying almost instantly.  The two man crew fell back behind another barrier wall just as the old one was completely obliterated by heavy weapons fire from the remaining two brutes.

Adon switched to telescopic, but all he saw in the distance was a severely damaged armored personnel carrier, its hover track half buried under rubble.  The brute’s fire trailed off as they lost track of their targets.  They all sat in silence for a moment, everyone waiting to see who would make the next move.  The silence was broken by a hollow thump, as six plums of smoke shot into the air in a wide arc.  A series of explosions pulverized the space the brutes had been occupying as they scrambled to displace.  Adon tracked the rocket team until they dug in and started to reload.  “I count three, two-man missile team, and another on a semi-auto hand mortar.  Too far to hit with my laser, the beam would dissipate into nothing at three quarters that range.”

Raydin thrust his rifle into Adon’s hands.  “Raydin, what…? I can’t…”  Raydin grabbed two clips off his hip belt.  “Explosive rounds.  Don’t need to hit 'em dead-on.”  Raydin wheezed, then continued.  “Just need to get close.”

Adon took the rifle, ejecting the clip and loading in the new one.  Adon flashed a weak smile.  “Close only counts in horseshoes and thermonuclear weapons, eh?”

Raydin continued, “Take off your gloves.  Aim for the torso… brace the rifle as you shoot.  Breath slow… fire as you exhale.”

Irule said, “I’ll keep Raydin safe.”  She carried him away from Adon, towards the brutes. She called towards them, “Were here to help you.  Do you understand, help?”  The giant turned its head all the way around.  It gurgled in a rising intonation.  “Heeelllgggppt?”  It hesitated for a second, then turned its head back around, searching the rubble.

Raydin gave clenched his fist and raised it in the air, giving Raydin the old sign from the revolution as Adon took off.  He weaved between the barricades until he found a breach, took off his helmet and went prone.  He crawled atop the rubble, spotting the rocket team as they prepared to fire another round.  He lined up the three-point scope, breathing as slow as he dared.  He focused, steadying his sweating hands as best he could, lining up the soldier’s breastplate.  He exhaled, squeezing the trigger slightly.