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Chapter 15

Deep Below, Level Six

I ran towards the main gate of Deep Below as fast as I could, my heavy feet pounding the tunnel floors so rapidly the sound was like an autogun at maximum rate of fire.

"Asimov!" I called in via my comms link. "I'm fifty meters out and closing fast. Is the gate still holding?"

"Negative, negative!" he replied urgently. "They've breached the gate and are pushing into the main hall!"

"Copy that" I answered and flicked the shock rod in my left hand into life. I wasn't carrying one of our precious rifles with me this time, since the defenders of Deep Below needed all the firearms we had. I was dangerous enough without a gun and I was going to show the Redbacks why.

The main gate into town was five meters wide and three high, intended to allow vehicle access into what had once been a maintenance hall. It had a pair of thick metal doors that could be powered across to bar the opening and should have made the gate impregnable.

Outside the gate way we had built a barricade from wall panels to give cover for our sentries, with firing ports for their pulse guns and rifles. It was as protected as we could make it, however we knew that in a serious battle anyone caught outside the gate was not likely to survive for long.

As I arrived I could see a cargo truck, a six wheeled model that one of the independent traders used, had been driven into the open gate way. The door had tried to close and crushed the truck nearly in half but it left a big gap over the top, meaning the attackers could swarm through the opening.

For some reason the truck was facing me, as if it had been driven out from the town and was caught fast when the doors were triggered to close. I had no more time to wonder why when a pair of gangers came at me from the cover of the blood spattered barricades.

I could see the bodies of at least two of the town defenders sprawled inelegantly across the panels, their weapons dropped where they had died. One of them I could see had been shot in the back.

My intention had never been to kill a human being deliberately. It was something I held fast to, no matter how much I wanted to annihilate the pair who came at me that instant.

The leading ganger, a bald headed woman with a machine pistol, let loose a burst of small bullets that tore tiny chunks of Ceramite from my outer plating but thankfully missed anything vital. The gun was loaded with armour piercing rounds, not Ceramite tipped but more than capable of causing me significant damage if she got lucky.

Her partner was a wild-eyed young man with a vibrant red Mohawk and stripes painted across his face. He leaped at me with a short metal axe fashioned like a Tomahawk, screaming a battle-cry as he slashed the weapon downwards.

I blocked the strike with my industrial right arm, deflecting the power of his blow aside rather than trying to absorb it with the heavy metal plating. He must have been one of the Awakened, a Kinetic Enhancer to be precise, as that simple melee weapon sheared into the arm and nearly ripped it loose from the shoulder mount.

Red alerts flashed across my awareness, the hydraulic lines and artificial muscles of the arm showing major damage. I spun my torso quickly, bringing the left arm around in a bone crushing sweep that caught him across the ribs, the impact hurling him off his feet and slamming him into the tunnel wall.

I don't think his overloaded nervous system had time to register the discharge of the shock rod before he fell into battered unconsciousness. One opponent was down and the other took the chance her partner had given them.

I took a full burst of AP rounds across my back and shoulders, the tiny bullets worming their way into the inevitable gaps in my Ceramite plating. More alerts sprang into existence and I pushed them aside, knowing I had no time to deal with their warnings.