The Battle for the Ringed Planet (33 page)

  From there the tunnel was easy to find and like the others easy to navigate. Signals were weak for a Con global position from the cruisers in orbit, but they had estimated the approximate tunnel locations from Neil’s map and could calculate the distances. As they moved north, they came upon a branch that led in the direction of the university and followed it. Checking his Con Torian noted that there were no other creatures in the tunnel except a few rats. After he calculated that they should be under the main university campus, they came upon a solid steel door, with no obvious means of opening.

“A touch door?” he glanced at May.

“I think.” the tall woman opened the commando satchel with lock pick devices.

Siiri frowned, “What is that?”

May answered quickly, “It varies, but there are sensors all over the surface. The unlocking mechanism is usually a four-finger sequence at various points on the front. Sometimes you need a correct DNA. And usually it has to be a certain finger for each point.”

“Wow.”

“I know, pretty old technology.” the Dragon marine stood up close to the door with her Con, checking the surface.

Removing her helmet the shorter girl undid her auricomous
hair letting it flow and peered at Torian who was intently studying his Con, “You lost your other rifle.”

He glanced up watching Siiri through his clear visor, “Yeah, but this will do.” Torian patted the other weapon that resembled a metal rod.

“You can have my pistol, you’re better with it.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that … keep it.”

May stood back, “Ok, I got the model, they used these a lot for back doors of jewelry shops.”

“Convenient for us.” he studied the door.

“Maybe …there are lock smith codes to get in, I’ve gotten through this one before, but just to be safe, the commandos have this.” she held up a small tube that looked like a flashlight, “It will mark the touch points.”

“Your old man must have been thrilled that you used his codes.”

 “I know. It cost him his license with the bureau.”

“You’ll be home soon, May, and you can make amends.” the blue-eyed girl put her hand on the woman’s shoulder.

The towering marine activated the device and it displayed a virtual door in front of the real one showing the finger points, a number for the sequence, and a text displaying which finger.

“What about the DNA?” Siiri asked.

“Not on this model.”

“It would be impossible to crack a lock like that if it needed DNA.” Siiri mused.

“Oh little girl, there hasn’t been a lock made that can’t be cracked.”

Torian added, “They have fake gloves that can be encoded with DNA, you just need to get a sample, which isn’t that hard, especially from drooling marines.”

“Those are expensive, only a crew going for big bank or major corporations could afford them. We were just a small time crew with locksmith codes.”

May turned to Torian, “Would you like to do the honours, since I drool too much? I’m holding the code cracker.”

“All right …” he removed his gloves and used both hands because the four touch points were spread out from top to bottom, index finger on one, thumb on the other, middle finger, and pinkie. There was a click and a hum and the door slide noiselessly open. Inside were corridors of smooth material and a slight blue glow that provided dim lighting.

The lanky officer raised his hand signalling stop, “May, take point, and keep alert, I don’t like this at all.” he levelled his EMP rifle. The Dragon marine held her assault rifle out ready to fire as they rounded a corner, all three watching their Cons. Automatically, their camouflaged uniforms all conformed to the eerie blue dim light, turning into the same hue, rendering the three explorers into ghostly visages in the shadows. 

“Umm … I’m not reading anything ahead on my Con.” Siiri spoke from behind.

“Yeah …I think the shield control area is blocked from scanning.” he felt her hand on his shoulder, and then it stiffened.

Turning, he was always startled when he saw her eyes turned a bright gold, and he jumped back, “What is it?”

“Kayla doesn’t trust Jarlan, she thinks this is all a trap.”

“That makes two of us.” Torian sighed and Siiri’s eyes returned to normal, and briefly he gazed into them while she stood unmoving.

“I hear something.” May announced, “But my Con is blank, hold on …” the tall muscular woman poked her helmeted head and rifle into a ‘T’ intersection and then gasped, instantly firing her plasma rifle. A loud popping sound erupted from down the corridor and May took hits from projectiles grazing her right upper her arm, but striking the armour on her shoulder and helmet sending her flying back into Torian, arms flailing and rifle slipping from her hands.

“May!” Siiri screamed.

Instantly Torian pulled a grenade out from a pouch and yelled, “Frag out!” and whipped the green ball around the corner. A crunching echoing boom sounded as he pressed Siiri against the wall. More popping erupted from down the hall to their left and projectile bullets whizzed by.

“What is it?” she clutched Torian.

“Sentry bot, I was afraid of that. That bastard Jarlan!” kneeling quickly he picked up May’s assault rifle, and noted smoke emitting from her prox shield box on the side of her webbing. Lying on her back he was relieved to see that her chest armour was raising and falling to her breathing.

He checked the Con on her rifle and there was no target to lock, “We have no targeting.”

“Jarlan didn’t mention anything like this.”

“Yeah.” he edged around the corner.

“Torian …”

“Pull May back, she’s still alive, I think the prox shield protected her.” that bot would be waiting for him to poke his head around the corner, too. So he pulled off his helmet and took a deep breath. Siiri used all her strength to drag the heavy muscular marine back further along the corridor and knelt beside her.

Clenching his teeth, Torian then tossed his helmet across the corridor and automatic machine gun fire erupted from the bot disintegrating the object into tiny pieces. But at the same time the young officer rounded the corner with his rifle and opened up with a steady stream of plasma supplemented by grenades from the launcher. It took a lot of firing and still the cylindrical floating bot with machine gun arms managed to hit Torian with a round in the shoulder armour throwing him back towards Siiri before it expired into a small fireball.

“Torian!” Siiri rose up to catch him staggering back.

“I’m all right, bounced off me!” he regained his footing, “But I got it.”

“This isn’t worth it, Torian, let’s go back!”

“No, I got it. How is May?”

“Oh no …” Siiri went back down beside the injured marine, who opened her eyes slowly. The blonde girl removed the tall woman’s helmet, with a dent on the right side, and brushed away her long black hair. A trickle of blood ran down from her scalp to her cheek.

But the almond eyed beauty grinned, “That was a close one. I don’t know what’s worse; hanging around you two or back with my unit.” she touched her scalp and examined the blood.

“How is your shoulder?” Siiri reached her hand to check for injury.

“Between the prox shield and the armour, I think it’s only bruised. But my shield burned out.”

Torian held the rifle ready watching the T intersection, “There will be more. That was a model SR12, with heat shields, two automatic projectile machine guns, and armour piercing rounds, nasty.”

“I think we figured the nasty part out.” May sat up and rubbed her head.

“Still lethal after a hundred years, but I think someone’s been keeping them running.” he leaned over and held his hand out for May, and the tough soldier grasped it rising to her feet.

“It’s too dangerous to go any further.” Siiri touched Torian’s arm.

“It’s too dangerous to go back on foot with enemy artillery and drones.”

“You know about those sentry bots?” May took her rifle back.

The wiry officer checked the tubular weapon attached to the metal backpack, “A little, and I know the frequency setting for their multiprocessors, including that particular model.” he adjusted the settings on his tubular rifle on a tiny flat screen near the trigger.

“He studied robots in college.” Siiri remembered.

“Oh, you didn’t sleep through that class?”

“Oh no, not that one, across from me sat this cute red head, Lindy Monahan, in a white summer dress.”

“I see.” Siiri folded her arms while Torian grinned.

“I remember the number for the SR12, floating in the holo right where she watched me with those big green eyes.”

“Nothing like a pretty girl for motivation,” May nudged Siiri.

“Are you going to be all right?” Siiri stared up directly into the marine’s eyes.

“I’ll be fine, just a little headache, along with exhaustion and battle fatigue.”

Peering both ways around the ‘T’ intersection, Torian waved them forward into the corridor where the hazy blue glow was strongest. May followed Siiri, checking the other direction in case another robot came up from behind. Both May and Torian were helmetless and listened intently for any noise. Their Cons were totally useless for scanning, but their weapons still worked.

“Torian!” May hissed, and he heard it too. All three ducked and squeezed against the wall. Up ahead there was another turn, and something was coming. Then May whispered again, and pointed back down the other corridor, where they heard a noise down there, too.

But Torian wasn’t going to wait, and charged towards the noise ahead of them, while May aimed her rifle behind and Siiri had her pistol out, not sure which way to aim.

Then, right in front of Torian, a sentry bot of the exact same model they had previously encountered rounded the turn, a floating sleek chrome armoured cylinder with two extended barrels for arms and a red sensor light on the top. It wasn’t any more than a meter in height, already floating about thirty centimetres above the ground.  The wiry young man wasted no time and the EMP rifle emitted a sharp hum and the red sensor on the bot began to flash. Then the bot abruptly halted, and fell unceremoniously to the floor with a loud clatter.

He turned around and strode up to where May and Siiri watched down the other way. All three saw the sensor light as another bot rushed forward from another corner further down. May opened up but before the bot could react, it shut down and with a clank fell straight down from Torian’s EMP rifle. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Siiri stood up and gave Torian a hug. May swallowed and glanced around warily.  

“And that’s why we don’t use armed bots in the marines; they’re just too easy to take down.”

“But good for mine clearing.” the dark haired woman added.

“What other kinds are there?” the blue eyed girl asked.

“Well …” Torian kneeled beside the deactivated robot, “Factory bots, agro bots, serving bots …”

“And don’t forget the most important kind.” May leaned close to Siiri, “Pleasure bots …”

“What?” Siiri turned to Torian with a questioning look.

“Yeah, those …banned on Kanata.”

“Mmm…” the tall marine continued, “oh so smooth skin you’d swear was real, and internal heat sensors to keep you warm at night.”

Shaking his head Torian muttered, “I swear May, you’re going to corrupt this poor girl.”

“I prefer the real thing.” Siiri glanced at May with a hint of disgust.

But then May grinned, “The male version has interchangeable parts, for whatever size you need…”

“I don’t want to know.” she turned away a little red. May winked at Torian who rolled his eyes again.

Then he checked his EMP rifle, “Come on, we have work to do.” walking up to Siiri he placed his hand on her shoulder, “Even in this blue light you’re cute when you’re all red.”

“Thanks. It only happens when May’s around.” she sighed.

They followed the corridor where Torian first took out the bot with his EMP rifle and came cautiously around a corner. At the end of the underground passage was an open room that glowed brightly in a hazy blue. The lanky lieutenant lead the others until they reached the entrance and he stood transfixed, as did the other two when they saw what he was staring at. Before them was a small flight of 10 steps leading a large room with three other sets of stairs in opposite directions. In the center of the large room was a florescent blue tubular tower reaching a couple of stories high, exactly the same as what they had seen in the alien city. Standing in front, with May directly behind, he spied a control panel was situated on the side of the glowing tower nearest them.      

 Then suddenly May cried out, “Torian!” and shoved him so hard he fell forward down the stairs, his EMP rifle clattering but still within reach when he landed prone.

From around the other side of the glowing blue tower a cylindrical object spun around and opened up its machine guns at May. The marine tried desperately to raise her rifle, but the bullets struck her across the chest, and since her Prox shield had burned out, they penetrated her armour and into her body. One round went through and struck Siiri in the arm but her shield held, though the impact sent her reeling backwards. Blood oozed from four neat holes in a straight line across the front of her upper body and she slowly sank to her knees. The bot fired another burst into her abdomen and the Dragon marine shuddered in a grotesque dance and then twisted falling to her front with her legs bent unnaturally. Her rifle fell from her dying arms behind, and a pool of blood grew around her motionless body.

“May!” Siiri wailed.

Torian raised his head and the sentry bot fired on him, but fortunately he was protected by the stairs as bullets ricocheted all around him spraying splinters of concrete and dust on his head. The sentry bot began to move closer circling around for a better angle to shoot Torian. He raised the EMP rifle and fired, but there was a slight glow revealing an invisible wall circling the glowing tower, a force shield of some type that the bot could travel through and the EMP pulse could not penetrate.

“Torian!” Siiri cried, “May is dead!”