Haywire (42 page)

Alex chuckled and closed the empty case, then took a step back. “Good luck, Artemis. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet under better circumstances. You’re a hell of a soldier, and when that armor isn’t up you’re not too damn hard on the eyes either. Give that bastard hell.”

He then stepped over and shook Shawn’s hand. “You’re a good man, Shawn. You’re parent’s are proud of you, and they should be. If I was your father, I would be too. Not that I’m... um... trying to be... Well, you know what I’m saying.”

Shawn wanted to laugh, but his stomach was knotted up too tight for that. “I know. But listen, if we don’t . . .” He suddenly found that his mouth was dry, and though his biometric displays said his oxygen levels were fine he felt like he couldn’t breathe properly. “You uh... tell my mother…”

“
Hey, you tell her yourself, okay?” Alex interrupted, shaking his head and waving his hands. “You’ll make it through this. Trust in yourself, strike with everything you’ve got, and then come home. Your mother will be waiting.”

A tear rolled down Shawn’s face, and he nodded. Alex clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed before stepping back and gathering his team together. Hutchins did the same with his people. Less than a minute later the agents all had a canister in one hand and their weapons in the other, then marched off toward doors on opposing sides of the landing area.

When Shawn looked over at Artemis, the light in her eyes pulsed and her armor trembled. Blood would be in the air soon, and the virus raging through her body knew it. Shawn wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold out, but he hoped it was long enough.

“
I won’t a-a-ask if you’re ready,” she said. “I know you aren’t, and I’m-m-m not going to make you say it out loud. Just stick c-c-close to me, follow my lead, and keep hope alive. Wha-whatever you do, keep your hope alive. Sometimes it can b-be the difference between standing over your enemy, and be-being buried under them.”

Shawn didn’t know if he could do that, but he nodded and tightened his jaw to keep it from quivering. “I will.”

Artemis mirrored his nod and then turned to face their uncertain future. In the distance, howls reverberated down corridors, and metal beat against metal as armored beasts raged.

When Alex came to an intersection, he had to stop and put the canister in his left hand down. It weighed a ton, and his arm was starting to go numb from holding it with one hand while the other held his computer tablet in front of him, showing him where he needed to go. In spite of the burden they carried and their unfamiliarity with the alien ship, they were making good time.

“
If we make it to our target first,” Hutchins said, his face like a blue ghost in the upper right corner of Alex’s helmet visor, “your team owes mine lunch.”

Alex laughed, thankful for the extra motivation. “I don’t mind taking bets I know I won’t lose. You’re on.”

Hutchins’s blue face smiled, but suddenly a tinny screeching sound filtered through the comm and the distant SWAT commander stopped moving. Alex watched as Hutchins looked around, his eyes trying to see everywhere at once.

“
What was that?” Hutchins asked.

“
I don’t know, Sir,” someone replied off screen. “It sounded like–”

“
Titans!” another off screen voice shouted.

Seconds later the sound of guns being fired filled the comm channel. It was a roar of noise, and Alex instinctively wanted to drop his tablet and draw his sidearm.

One of the SWAT agents with Alex stepped close and bumped him on the shoulder. “Should we go help them?”

Alex started shaking his head, but he stopped when a terrible scream ripped through the comm. It sounded like a howling animal looped through a microphone until the feedback turned it into an ear-piercing, unrecognizable squeal.

“
Keep firing!” Hutchins said, his breathing so loud it nearly overpowered his radio. “Don’t let up!”

The comm channel was all screams and gunfire, but the wall of sound quickly started to lessen as screams became death rattles and gunfire was replaced with the distinctive sound of splashing blood and flesh being torn apart. Hutchins’s pale blue eyes were wide and frantic.

“
They’re tearing us to shreds!” he shouted. “We can’t stop them! There’s just too many!”

“
Fall back,” Alex said, his heart hammering in his chest. “We can–”

“
I can’t,” Hutchins replied between trigger pulls. “I hear them behind us too. We’re surrounded. I... I’m going to release the kill switch now.”

Alex’s face went numb as blood drained away from it. “You can’t. Artemis and Shawn... They haven’t called. They’re not ready.”

“
It’s now or never, Delgado. Sorry.”

Hutchins looked down, and then several sharp electronic notes hit the air. A moment later there was a hissing sound, and Hutchins’s face was obscured by a billowing fog. The distant agent waved it away, then started shooting again, and with each shot the hissing sound increased, as did the amount of fog.

“
Breathe deep, assholes!” Hutchins said, a toothy grin on his face. “Yeah, take–”

Alex flinched as blood exploded from Hutchins’s mouth in a viscous flood, silencing him forever. In his place were the mad growls of the Titans that had killed him. But, as Alex listened, the growls became panicked shrieking, and within seconds the screams were so loud he had to close the channel. The sudden quiet was much preferable, but within moments the sound of metal screeching against metal and crazed growling came at him from seemingly everywhere at once.

“
Let’s go,” he said, picking up his canister. “We don’t have much time.”

The increasing volume of the growls and tortured metal made his point better than his words ever could.

Shawn ran through the dreadnaught, his feet thundering across the metal deck plates. In the distance he heard roaring, weapons firing, and screams. As much as he wanted to know the status of the agents who were helping them, there wasn’t time to stop and assess the situation. They had a job to do, just like he did, and he had to trust them to do it.

Ahead of him Artemis came to a closed hatch, and she barely broke stride as she grew blades and tore through it. Shawn was hot on her heels, so when she suddenly stopped he had to scramble to avoid mowing her down. Once he was next to her, he looked around to see what had brought her up short.

By the number of stacked crates around them, it appeared that they were in a cargo bay. Red lights bathed the area in a bloody glow. But, it wasn’t until his eyes fell on a quivering mass at the far end of the room that he saw why Artemis had stopped.

If he’d thought he’d been living a nightmare before, it was nothing compared to what he saw now. Titans trembled as they shuffled forward, their limbs and heads moving erratically. They were a sea of metal that undulated endlessly. One of them started laughing, and the sound moved through the rest like a wave. It was a terrible sound.

“
I see you’ve finally joined us, Ar-r-rtemis,” one of the mutating multitude said. “I- I- I always hated you. Did you know that?”

Artemis craned her neck forward, seeking out the speaker. When a figure clad in red armor stepped forward, she shook her head. “You aren’t Uzume. I do-o-on’t know what you are anymore, but you aren’t her. Your words me-e-ean nothing.”

The Titan’s armor reminded Shawn of samurai vids he and his friends had watched when they were kids. A kabuki mask covered her face, but instead of white it was black, and its features were twisted. It was then that he remembered her from the memory recording Artemis had showed them earlier.

“
We are… Argh! We ar-r-r-re stripped, Artemis.” Uzume’s shoulders and hips twitched, and she dropped to one knee before catching herself with a hand that barely stayed in her control. “You should-should have stayed. We are more, now. B-b-better. You- you- you left us, and now-ow you fight us. We are who…” Her voice trailed off, and she hammered at the deck until the metal plates were torn and gouged. “Argh! We are true-true! You will not-not save anyone, even yourself.”

Artemis shook her head dismissively. “You ta-talk too much, Uzume.”

As fast as Shawn’s reaction time was, he had a hard time keeping track of Artemis as she launched herself forward. She was a blur of blue, red, and gold, and when she leapt on her former friend, it was like a comet streaking through the air. Uzume barely had time to bring her body under control and grow wicked talons before Artemis drove her to the ground. Uzume’s talons flashed, and the two women tore at each other in a flurry of sharp blades and claws.

A loud chorus of growls caught Shawn’s attention, reminding him that they weren’t alone. The Titans behind Uzume moved as one, their metal bodies unstable but still quick, and they would be on Artemis in seconds. Shawn searched for some way to break them up, to take away their numerical advantage. When his eyes lit a stack of metal crates a few meters away, he dashed over and picked one up. The HUD in his eyes said it weighed half a ton, but he barely grunted as he lifted it up and hurled it into the center of the shambling Titans. It hit two and sent them spinning backward, while the others howled and jumped clear. He grabbed another one, threw it at the group that had dodged to the left, and then sent another to the right. The crash of crate against Titan was ear shattering, but it was worth it to keep the Titans scrambling and disjointed.

More crates crashed to the ground as Artemis and Uzume threw each other around and pressed their attacks. Uzume pierced Artemis with a talon through the shoulder, but Artemis pulled free, gritted her teeth, and spun the Titan around by her own arm before sticking a leg out and tripped her to the floor. Uzume struggled to reverse her position, but Artemis dropped a knee on her back, pinning her to the ground. “I’m sorry, old friend,” Artemis said as she brought her arm up, turned her hand into a broad, flat blade, and brought it down through the middle of Uzume’s back. Uzume didn’t move again.

Like a rolling fog, the scattered Titans swept around the clutter of crates and dove for Artemis, who looked up barely in time to see what was coming for her. Shawn, now out of crates to throw, ran forward, turned his arms into blades, and leapt at a Titan in spiked black armor. The blows that rang against his head and chest took his breath away, but they were as random as they were powerful, and he stepped in close to bury his blades in the Titan’s chest. The Titan bellowed, his red eyes wide and his mouth open to reveal a mouth filled with glistening metal fangs, and he smashed his arms into Shawn’s shoulders, driving the spikes into his armor and flesh. Jolts of pain lanced through him, but before the Titan could get close and take a bite Shawn changed his blades into scythes and pulled his arms through the Titan’s torso until they ripped free, dropping the mangled body to the floor in a pool of blood and liquid metal. The holes in Shawn’s armor closed quickly, and he felt his skin heal just as fast.

“
We-e-e have to go, Shawn,” Artemis said as she sent an armored body flying against a nearby wall so hard it bounced and didn’t rise again. Her own armor was covered in dents that were slow to repair, and much of the blood splattered across her was her own. She was strong, but against the flood of enemies that continued to pound against them even her strength wasn’t enough. No amount of skill and power could match their brutal numbers.

A Titan leapt at him, and Shawn made his fists into hammers. He spun on his heels, gave his hips an extra twist, and hit the Titan with every ounce of strength he had. A loud crack split the air as his fists struck, shattering the Titan’s neck and spine. He wanted to feel victorious, but instead his gorge rose in his throat.

Artemis pointed at a set of stacked crates to their far right and shouted, “Come on!” Shawn nodded and followed her as she ran at the crates and jumped from one to the other, covering two meters with each leap until she was at the top. Her hands clawed the ceiling open, and once he was next to her she pushed him through before leaping in after him, her feet pushing so hard that the crate stack shimmied and fell. The Titans screamed and raged far below them, but they barely had enough cognizance to fight. Restacking crates into a climbable pile was completely beyond them.

“
Good idea,” Shawn said, panting as he looked up and saw they were in a broad ventilation duct. “Now what?”

Artemis grimaced and looked down at her chest. Several gouges were slowly smoothing out as her nanites worked to repair her, but they were slower to respond than his were. Much slower. “The bri-i-idge is this way,” she finally said, pointing behind her. “We ne-e-ed to get this done now. I-I-I don’t have much time left.”

Shawn nodded and lifted her right arm over his shoulder. If she needed strength, then he was going to give her all he could. Together they hustled toward the bow of the ship.

Alex threw his computer to the ground as he ran and drew his gun. He knew the weapon was useless against the Titans that rampaged through the corridor behind him, but it was all he had.

“
Roe, just open it and let’s go!” he shouted.

Agent Roe shook her head, but as the Titan closed she finally set her canister on the ground and opened the top valve. A thick white fog blasted into the air, quickly filling the corridor. She then backed up and fired into the cloud.

Unsealing canisters was all that had allowed Alex and his team to get as far as they had. Titans came at them from nearly every direction, just as they had with Hutchins, but Alex had learned from his fellow agents’ deaths. When their way was blocked or the Titans got too close, one of his team opened a canister, and they used the Zeus clouds to cover them as they pressed deeper and deeper into the dreadnaught. With Roe’s canister now used up, that left only Alex’s.