Parker Interstellar Travels 4: The Trilisk Hunt (20 page)

Chapter
26

Telisa stood on the outside
surface of an alien building, looking out toward the center of the habitat. She
brought up her link map. Cilreth and Shiny had plastered huge amounts of data
all over their working layer, but Telisa filtered it to the bottom line: there
was the building that held the Trilisk. And according to link transmissions, it
also held Magnus2 and Caden2. It was less than ten kilometers away.

She switched to a view of the
lock entrance PIT used to enter and exit the habitat. It had turned into a
bridgehead. Vovokan war machines walked along the “sky” around the depression
while squads of spherical machines flew off into the air around the houses in waves.

This is not really us
,
Telisa thought.
We never set out to be a military unit.

“I hope you’re not really
taking that stunner,” Magnus said from behind her.

“Do you really think I can
shoot you with anything else?”

“Magnus2 has killed before, and
he’ll do it again, under the control of the Trilisk. Take a real weapon. There
are some over there in that case,” Magnus said, pointing to an equipment cache
they had loaded off the shuttle. “And answer your own question before you come
along.”

Telisa looked at her stunner.
It felt tiny and powerless in her hand.

“You won’t have the chain
lightning gun anymore, either,” Magnus pointed out. They had disguised the
weapon and put it into a soldier machine nearby. Siobhan had devised the plan,
and Magnus thought it was good. No one would suspect the chain lightning gun
was so close. Siobhan could activate it in extreme circumstances. Even if
Caden2 and Magnus2 got a good look at the group, they would not spot the weapon
and would assume it had been left behind.

Telisa walked over to the
weapons cache. She asked the case what it held, and it gave her a manifest. She
opened the case and took out a powerful laser rifle. She slung the new weapon
over her shoulder and put the stunner back at her belt, just in case. But as Magnus
urged, she had made her decision. If she had to shoot, she’d do so with a
lethal weapon.

Within minutes the assault was
ready. The PIT forces had moved in from several angles, including Magnus’s
soldiers, Shiny’s attendants and walkers, and the team members themselves.
Telisa could see their approach path in her tactical.

Whump. Whump. Whooosh.

All around, the Vovokan walkers
started shooting.

“What are they shooting at?”
asked Siobhan, alarmed by the noise.

“They’re launching seeker
missiles that patrol the area,” Cilreth said. “They don’t need a target yet.
It’s just part of how Vovokans control the battlefield.”

“Wow. I guess I’m glad he’s on
our side,” Siobhan said.

“And that’s not their
specialty,” Telisa said. “I believe Vovokans are much better at subterranean
warfare.”

Siobhan nodded. “In their case,
I guess subvovokan would be a better word,” she said.

Magnus signaled everyone, so
they jumped off on the approach path. Here and there, each of them took nudges
from attendants nearby as they flew toward the next building. Everyone had a
set of cylinder fans, but they had planned to save the fan energy for
emergencies.

“They must know we’re coming,”
Arakaki transmitted. “I believe Cilreth and Shiny said they would cover our
approach as best they could, but the task would be difficult. Once it’s clear
that the attack has been seen, they’ll forget about masking the robotic forces
and concentrate on keeping this team off the Blackvine sensors.”

They may have other ways of
seeing us coming,
Telisa thought.
Especially if the Trilisk is
actively helping.

They hopped past the first
building and onto the next. Everyone was already vigilant, since most weapons
used on both sides could theoretically strike from kilometers away.

“Any resistance?” Maxsym asked.

“Nothing,” Magnus said.
“Cilreth?”

“It’s all clear so far.
Nothing,” Cilreth transmitted from the
Clacker
.

They arrived at the building
from which they planned to cover the assault. The target building was just
beyond. Everyone landed on the far side, then trekked up toward the edge.
There, they hunkered down and watched their feeds.

Some of Shiny’s assault walkers
dared to show themselves on the faces of surrounding buildings facing the
target. Though the machines could carry a Vovokan like Shiny in the cockpit,
they operated well on their own, too. They were smarter and more powerful than
the PIT machines in every way, though less numerous.

Zip. Zing.

Magnus’s attendants intercepted
an incoming projectile. Then another.

“We’ve been spotted. Probably
Caden2 sniping from a window on the right side,” Magnus transmitted. “Caden,
Arakaki, double-team him.”

The two coordinated between
themselves for a moment, then they ran toward opposite faces of the building’s
right wing.

“Do you think Magnus2 is near
Caden2?” asked Telisa.

“No. I think Magnus2 is on the
left,” he said.

“I’m surprised that Caden2 is
the only one shooting so far. I guess I thought they would have another army of
Blackvine machines to use.”

“I guess we killed most of
those off already. Or maybe the Trilisk just left these two to behind to fight
on their own.”

“Shiny and I think the Trilisk
is in there with them,” Cilreth said.

“Yes, but the Trilisk is so
smart I think it’s a trick,” Magnus sent to Telisa privately.

“This is Arakaki. Caden2 moved
into the building. Without attendants, he just can’t sit there and let us take
shots at him.”

“Good to know he’s not all-powerful,”
Siobhan said. Her voice held a bit of sarcasm, probably a poke at Caden.

A Vovokan walker moved sideways
to cover the area where the PIT team suspected Caden2 had been shooting from.

Kabooom.

The next second, the walker
exploded.

Kabooom.

Another Vovokan walker exploded
on the opposite side.

“Dammit! What’s hitting them?”
Magnus demanded.

“I have no idea,” Cilreth
reported. “We did not spot any objects in flight.”

“Perhaps a beam weapon?” asked
Arakaki. “Or maybe these buildings have been mined.”

Telisa watched the tactical. A
massive wave of Terran and Vovokan machines launched toward the building in
response. At first there was no counter fire to the assault. The machines were
shooting at the building as they flew in. The windows were destroyed quickly,
then more ordnance poured into the holes.

“Enemies from above. The polar
axis,” Cilreth said.

Telisa took a moment to orient
herself on the tactical. They lay on the far side of a building toward the
outside of the habitat, so she looked into the sky in the proper direction.

“The turtle machines! More than…
more than eight of them!”

“Twelve,” Cilreth said. “And we
have more of the other robots, too. But Shiny’s walkers will handle them.”

Booom. Booom. Krump.

The bright sky around them
started to rumble with the sounds of war. Telisa saw a few pockets of black
smoke erupt where some machine or other met its end.

“We’re vulnerable out here.
Into this building,” Magnus said. “Toward the side facing the target building,”
Magnus said. “Stay alert. These adjacent buildings may have been trapped. They
could even be loaded with explosives.”

“Wonderful,” Telisa muttered.
She had been thinking of the Trilisk as the only wild card. But even with
Shiny’s forces around them, they could still be blown up.

The team moved through the
building toward the side that faced their targets. Here and there, a soldier or
a scout machine crawled among the array of junk, searching for enemies. No one
spotted any Blackvines. She was getting good at flicking through the visual
feeds of team members and attendants as she moved. It was automatic now. She
missed a lot, but by continuously cycling through the feeds, she could keep
track of the big picture.

Telisa checked the tactical
again. Their machines had started to land on the target building. Once the
machines touched down, they ripped their way into doors and windows. The
assault was fully under way.

Booom. Booom.

In a few minutes, we’ll know
what the Trilisk has planned, if anything.

She felt nervous. Would the PIT
team turn on one another again, even though they weren’t supersedure copies?

Should we have split up even
more?

Telisa watched the count of
machines lost in the other building rise dramatically. Ten, twenty, fifty, just
in a few seconds.

“They’re killing the machines.
So many, so fast,” Magnus said.

“How?”

“I don’t know. I think maybe… the
Trilisk has gotten more of its fabled powers back? They have some of the
Blackvine machines, but it seems worse this time. The assault is not going to
work. Though we seem to be winning
outside
that building. The Vovokan
machines are more than a match for the turtles we saw.”

“Ideas?”

“I’ll flush him out. Siobhan,
get the special weapon ready,” Magnus said.

“Okay. Where at?”

Magnus indicated where he
wanted it on their shared tactical. Then he moved toward a trapdoor that opened
out toward the target building. The structure ahead started to resemble an
architect’s version of Swiss cheese as more and more weapons penetrated it.

“Where are you going?” demanded
Telisa. “Over there? Take a look at it.”

Magnus held up his hand. “I
know what I’m doing. Trust me,” he said, then he sprang into the air. A couple
of his attendants accelerated him toward the house they believed still
sheltered Magnus2 and the Trilisk.

***

Magnus landed on the far side
amid a rain of fire. He trusted most of their own machines not to shoot him,
though in all this confusion, anything could happen. He hopped into one of the
gaping holes in the side of the building, but no artificial gravity took hold.
He had an attendant give him a slight boost until he oriented himself inside.

“Good,” said Magnus2. “Now lose
your attendant spheres.”

“No. Come and get them. I have
six. I may be slower, but they’ll tank enough damage to let me kill you.”

Magnus2 had been speaking with
Magnus since they approached the target building. The rest of the PIT team was
unaware of the conversation. He had been threatening to kill Telisa and leave
Magnus alive. Magnus knew it was just a tactic to mess with his mind, since
Magnus2 knew his feelings for her.

But Magnus had surprised
Magnus2 by listening. He proposed the two versions of himself meet for a
one-on-one. After some hesitation, Magnus2 had accepted.

After all, killing me by myself
is easier than coming out there and facing all those weapons. But he suspects I
have an ace up my sleeve. Which will make it easier to drive him out.

Magnus found a spot that held
him to a flat surface. He flipped so that it functioned as a floor, then
quickly squatted and swung around his pack. He opened it. Six grenades rolled
out onto the surface and awaited a target signature.

Magnus looked down at them.

Arakaki tried this with the
grenade around her neck. After she lost someone, she felt she had nothing left
to live for. For me, this is unthinkable… because I have Telisa.

“I have some special grenades
here. If I die, they launch with my target signature,” Magnus said, starting to
lope forward. “So go ahead and shoot me at any time. They have special Vovokan
warheads. You would be impressed. You
will
be when they go off.”

That last part was a lie. Only
one of the grenades had a powerful Vovokan warhead. But Magnus had lost track
of which one. But the warhead was probably not enough to kill Magnus2 unless it
got pretty close. If it had been that strong, he would have just sent the
grenade in alone.

“Then why are you here?”
Magnus2 answered. “If this entire place is about to blow up, you wouldn’t be
here.”

“You threatened to shoot Telisa
if I didn’t come.”

“You know I’ll shoot her
anyway.”

Make him feel trapped.

“Only if you survive our
confrontation. Take a look around. Shiny’s machines are everywhere.”

Magnus2 sighed. “Screw this
chat. It feels like self-analysis.”

Which means, time to die.

Magnus scanned the cratered
corridor. His weapon was ready to fire.

“Where’s your new master?”
Magnus asked.

His only answer was a blur of
movement dead ahead.

***

Kabooom!

Half of the building blossomed
into flame from the inside. Siobhan fired the chain lightning gun hidden in her
soldier robot at the same time.

Foooom.

Telisa caught sight of a human
figure flying out of the house just ahead of the burst from the alien weapon.
Then more white-hot explosions ripped the air all around the building.

Boom, boom, brrrroom.

It was too much damage. The
entire building drifted apart in pieces. Black smoke billowed out, flowing in
odd patterns around the fragments that still had artificial gravity and flying
outward in areas that did not.

“It may try to run now,”
Siobhan said. She launched herself to one side. The soldier containing the
special weapon jumped after her, no doubt still in her control.

“Magnus!” Telisa said over her
link. There was no answer.

“Magnus!”

She checked for Magnus’s link,
but there was nothing.

He might have turned it off.
It’s just a ruse. But why didn’t he tell me?