Far Horizon (Juggernaut #4)

Forty Six

Heart racing, he landed behind a support pillar and tucked his legs close to avoid being seen.

"Mal?" Nina called out.

Malachi swallowed. "Yeah?"

"Are you still thinking?"

"Little bit."

They heard another chain link shatter, and the two halves of the chain wiped out the remaining phase inverters.

"Mal, I can grab the data pad."

"No! It's too dangerous."

"It might be the only chance we have of shutting it down."

The drone strained against its last few bonds. One chain and two straps remained. The drone turned again. This time it's thruster burned through the last two straps. The final chain lay across the top of the drone. Had it the intelligence to go lower, it could have slipped free, but instead it continued to pull up in straight line.

"Now or never, Mal," said Nina.

"Nina, no!"

Nina bounced on her heels, chose her moment and launched herself from cover, pulling herself forward with one hand on the shuttle.

The last chain snapped. It whipped up and over and crashed down onto the shuttle and the space Nina had just been hiding.

Now free from the chain's control, the drone was catapulted higher into the cargo bay. Now it could see over any cover.

Below it, Nina dived for the datapad. The drone lowered its weapon and advanced.

"Open fire!"

Malachi risked a look out of cover. On a walkway hugging the upper deck were five security officers. Four of them held standard issue laser carbines. The fifth hefted a shoulder mounted weapon into position.

The security team opened fire first. All of their shots hit the target, spoiling its aim. The drone swayed under the incoming blasts as it, almost simultaneously, fired on Nina's position.

The five blasts went wide and tracked a line of destruction across the deck. Nina shrieked as yellow fireballs burst around her, and she dived away from the blasts and the datapad.

She felt a strong arm pull her into cover.

"I told you not to go," Malachi said.

"That chain would have hit me if I stayed."

"Well....okay then! But it's still too dangerous out there."

Nina peered over his shoulder.

"You're not wrong, Mal," she said.

Behind them, the security team poured laser fire into the drone. Although they were scoring hits, most of them bounced off the armour of the black machine. They were using hand weapons against something designed for ship to ship combat. The fifth member of the team edged sideways along the walkway, trying for a better angle. He balanced a weapon on his shoulder and sighted through a flip out screen on the side of the twin barrel.

"They need to shoot through the hole in the armour," Malachi said. "Its vulnerable there."

Nina nodded, then stopped.

"No, they can't. If they destroy the core systems we won't be able to learn anything about it."

"We have the datapad copy."

"But not the datapad. That's still out there."

The fifth member of the security team found his angle, and fired. A small rocket streaked across the cargo bay on a line of white smoke trail and hit the rear side of the drone above the thruster. The drone dipped under the impact, but came back at once, turned, and opened fire.