I raced down a dry creek bed and across bare stone. Up a hillock.
“Shining,” Mateo said. “Shooter coming up on your two o’clock. In a tree. I’m too far out to hit him without using explosive weaponry which would be heard by Warhammer’s team.”
I slowed and ducked behind a dead tree, scanning the area Mateo described. I spotted an armored man sitting about six meters in the air, his legs wrapped around a tree, hardened to its trunk.
I wasn’t nearly the shot Jacopo was.Not good.
I rested the butt of my only fully charged blaster on a stub of a tree limb and studied his suit. I wasn’t familiar with this older model. “Jolene. Describe First Gen DSAH10 military armor.”
“DSAH10 military armor presents—”
“Design flaws and weaknesses,” I interrupted.
“Air filters have minimal shielding. Weaknesses also exist at the seams beneath arms and at the groin. Maximum damage may be achieved by sustained heat, lasers, or blaster fire, and by projectile weapons larger than nine-millimeter caliber rounds fired at close range.” Jolene sounded stiff and cold as she told me how to kill.
The shooter’s sitting position meant the seams were out. “Air filters,” I muttered. “Jacopo could probably hit them with both arms tied behind his back.” I auto-targeted, took a breath, and let three-fourths of it out.
I fired.
The blaster took five seconds to melt through the filter and damage the suit, and an additional two seconds to hit the man.
Bloody liquid splattered onto his face shield.
His head rolled back.
Mateo appeared behind me, faint whirrs and clicks the only sound, visible only now that he was close. “Nice shooting,” he said. “Try to keep up.” He was missing one entire short limb and another was damaged, metallic bits and cables dangling as he tore after Warhammer’s tracks.
I laughed softly and followed. My suit injected me with the last of the liquid, hormones, ’roids, and supplements. I’d be hyper and unable to sleep for a week.
Jolene said, “The cats with Warhammer are no longer progressing. They are at the remains of a building to your ten o’clock. Their vest cams have two humans in sight. It’s an ambush.”
Mateo veered right, then back in a zigzag motion. I went left and watched as he came around in front of the pile of rubble, his enviro camo vanishing. The sudden appearance of a nearly three-story tall spider gave him the moment of surprise he needed. He scooped up both snipers and threw them to the ground. Then tossed them high, caught them, and bashed them onto the rubble so fast, so hard, their armor buckled and cracked open. “Finish them,” he said to me.
I killed a female sniper in her cracked armor. The other might have been male. It was hard to tell. I shot him too. Three cats eased out of the building wreckage and surrounded me. They looked exhausted and thirsty. Spy leaped to my thigh and tried to hang onto my armor. I picked her up, put her on my shoulder, and tapped two pieces of shoulder scale. They lifted, just right for two of Spy’s four legs. Her claws came out and she gripped them.
She nudged me to look at Maul. The cat was bleeding, breathing fast. He couldn’t travel, not now. But he was still alert.
“Maul,” I said. “You and your other clowder cat—” I stopped when I recognized Notch. He was bleeding too.Bloody damn.“You and Notch stay here. We need you to keep your camera trained on this path. If other enemies come, that will let us know.”
Maul showed me fangs, then turned his head away. Notch sat down. I figured that was the only agreement I was going to get.
“Hang tight,” I said to Spy.
I sped after Mateo. Caught up with him in less than a minute. Side by side, the three of us chased the mini-tank tracks.
“According to the Maarsie cameras,” Jolene said, “there is a military convoy two klicks away.”
“Bloody hell. We can’t catch a break.” I was already running full-out, at the best speed the suit could give me. Mateo was taking easy strides, staying with me. In the distance, I heard the sound of the mini-tanks, the roars of the old tank engines at top speed, bouncing on uneven terrain.
Jolene said, “They just took out the Maarsie queen bee. I no longer have visuals.”
“I have visual,” Mateo said. “See if you can interfere with military communications and redirect the military convoy north, per my order.”
“Yessir, CO Mateo,” she said, all the Southern gone from her voice, reverting to herSunStarstarship AI. I realized that Mateo’s order might be construed as treason. “CAIT. Obeying orders not in compliance, re: 2045 USSS Articles of War.”
At her words, Mateo stopped.
CAIT.Not Jolene. CAIT was the ship’s AI designation before she developed sentience.
