Into the Void

Chapter 25

Nate gunned the engine, fleeing from the dropsite. He brought the feed from the rover’s rear camera onto the small display screen on the dash, watching as bright green tracer rounds pinged off the hull, leaving dents and scars but doing no serious damage. Whatever was shooting at them couldn’t be overly advanced if they were still using chemically propelled bullets. As they weaved through the trees, the clouds above opened up, sending small flakes of snow and freezing rain blowing through the forest. He angled the rover deeper into the woods, pulling their attackers away from the main camp. Glancing down at the little display screen, he saw a pair of long sinewy legs leaping through the trees behind them, easily keeping pace with the rover. The rover swerved through the forest, tires skidding on the slick new fallen snow and ice. He grit his teeth and sped up, tires slipping dangerously, trying to dodge the incoming fire as best as he could.

The rover broke through a final stand of trees and into a field. He shifted into high gear and sped over the open ground, putting distance between the rover and their mysterious assailant. Looking down at the rear camera, he saw a flickering red light, a missile was flying towards them on a corkscrewing path, trailing a streak of smoke and flame. Nate swerved, the missile struck the ground behind them, sending a huge fireball into the air and lifting the rear of the rover. The rover swerved wildly as he struggled to maintain control. The rover swerved and dipped into a boggy low patch of the field. Unable to stop or turn in time, it plunged into the muck, sinking deep into the mire. The wheels spun fruitlessly, sending long streams of muck into the air and digging the rover deeper.

“We’re stuck!” growled Nate. “We need to bail out.”

He jumped out of the cab, sinking into the soft, freezing muck. Scrambling away from the rover, he crawled up out of the mud and crouched in the dry grass, shouldering his repeater. Their attacker, still in hot pursuit, leapt out of the trees. His helmet automatically switched to low light vision, rendering the field before him in hues of pale green. Their attacker cruised across the field on long reverse jointed legs that carried a wide domed torso over the open terrain. Nate fired, sending a six beam bursts streaming towards the drone.

The drone bobbed and weaved, deftly leaping aside from the lasers. Nate dove back down into the mud as the drone returned fire, sending a river of hot slugs streaming over the mud hole and kicking up puffs of dust as rounds slapped into the dirt. Nate peeked up over the edge of the mud hole in time to see Onyx crouch and bring a massive shoulder fired weapon to bear. The massive cannon spat a small sun across the field, a white hot ball of burning plasma streamed towards the drone, briefly turning night into day. The ball of plasma struck the drone in the midsection where its legs joined the torso, splashing over the armoured dome and melting through its internal structure. A spray of molten metal flew across the dry grass and it collapsed, slamming face first into the dirt and tumbling head over heels before landing in a steaming heap.

The storm picked up, icy winds howling across the field and pelting Nate with snow and freezing rain. The temperature controls on his exo-suit automatically increased the internal temperature. He opened the forearm control panel and checked the external temperature. The temperature outside was plummeting, soon it would be so cold that the exo-suit would expend its power supply trying to keep him warm. He checked the projected battery life, if the temperature continued to drop the suits battery would be dead before morning.

A laser bolt pierced through the falling snow with a harsh crack, slicing across his forearm and melting the suits control panel. He stumbled backwards falling down into the mud as more searing beams flew over the top of the hole. He winced as the molten circuitry burnt through the inner layers of the suit, searing his skin. Hastily snatching the knife off his belt he struggled to saw through the reinforced fibers of his sleeve. With a final grunt of effort he cut through the last scrap of fabric sending the smoking ruin of the control panel falling to the mud. An alarm inside his helmet wailed, complaining about a breach in the suit. He silenced the alarm with a sigh of frustration and peeked up over the lip of the mud hole to see a squad of small insectile drones led by a two-legged machine rushing across the field. The squad stopped at regular intervals to pour fire towards Nate, Damon and Onyx, filling the air with red hot laser fire. He squeezed off another short burst from the laser repeater. The drones stopped and prepared to fire again. Nate rose to a crouch and fired another long burst, laser beams splitting the air with a crack and leaving trails of water vapor as they burned through the falling snow. He watched in satisfaction as a drone folded under the hail of fire. The plasma weapon fired again, sending a miniature sun roiling over the drones. They melted under the fury of the heavy weapon, sending rivers of molten metal running away from the blast. When the smoke cleared the entire squad of drones had been reduced to a twisted pile of slag, like some macabre modern art sculpture.

Nate stood and jogged over to Damon and Onyx. “We need to find some shelter,” he said. “The exo-suits won’t last long enough in this cold.”

Damon let out a frustrated snort. “I’m writing an angry letter to the company. ‘Lasts in any environment for days’ my ass!” he said.

Nate crawled back into the cab of the rover and activated the magnetic sensor. Hoping that It would find another hidden structure. He breathed a sigh of relief as the sensor reported several metal objects underground. He crawled out of the cab and headed off towards one of the magnetic areas.

“Rover sensor shows some metal underground. Maybe we can find a tunnel to hide from the drones until the storm passes.” said Nate.

They came to the base of a small hill and found a small pile of moss covered stones at its base. Shivering the team worked quickly to shift the pile of ancient rubble, revealing the lip of a rusted metal plate. Nate ran back to the rover and returned with a small shovel. After digging for nearly an hour in the freezing cold they revealed a large, rusted square metal plate with a round hatch in the center. A laser hissed into the dirt at Nate’s feet. Onyx turned to provide covering fire while Nate and Damon opened the hatch. The hatch lifted open with a squeal and made a faint click as it opened fully. A fireball smashed into the two men knocking them off their feet with a deafening boom and sending them sprawling backwards.