was the loudest background noise.
“Get down!” Stephanie shouted.
There was an explosion three seconds later, then the sounds of them running, a metal gate or plate metal crashing, more running.
“There's another one. I never realized how dangerous maintenance bots were!” Alice shouted as she fired off several rounds.
“We're gettin' closer ta port, there'll be more,” Frost said hurriedly, fighting for breath as they hustled through the urban terrain.
“Dammit! Anything!” Captain Valance shouted, bringing his fist down on his arm rest.
Ashley turned her seat around. “This ship can go atmospheric. I don't think there's room to land, but we can meet them half way.”
“Chief Grady, do we have enough power to enter the atmosphere and hover?”
“I have five reactors online, if we have enough working repulsor field generators, we can do it.”
“How long will it take to test them?”
“Properly? Four or five hours.”
“There won't be anything left to rescue in four hours, Chief.”
“Give us a minute.”
“All right.”
“Why aren't they under attack?” Alice was heard asking through the communicator.
“I have no idea, but they should be shredded by now,” Frost replied.
The group of a hundred or so mixed armed citizens, most of them well moneyed from the look, stood in a line across the main gate leading to the Port Authority Inspection Point. There were several androids and various robots leisurely cleaning the street within several meters. They dragged corpses into gutters, pushed vending machines upright, and repaired fine electronics like door controls and communication hubs.
“I don't get it. Are those bots just unaffected by the virus?” Stephanie asked no one in particular in a low whisper. They were hiding inside a thick white brick building, looking through a thick transparesteel window. It was open just a crack, admitting a warm breeze.
“If Lewis couldn't resist the virus, I doubt a maintenance bot could.”
A woman and three men crept down the alley ahead and looked onto the same scene. After a moment's consideration one of them stepped out. “We have wounded, can you help us?” he called out to the line of people in front of the broad arched gate.
A sandy haired boy in blue and green robes emerged from the crowd and opened his arms invitingly. “If you are judged favourably by Eve's children the West Keepers will help you.” Spoke one of the guardians. The machines in the street all stopped what they were doing and looked at the solitary man.
He took a staggering step back. “Do you have a medic kit or is there a paramedic that could help?”
“Oh no,” whispered Alice sadly as she looked away.
The androids and robots all rushed the fellow, within seconds he was torn to pieces. Maintenance bots turned towards the alley and began firing high intensity cutting lasers, killing his fleeing companions. When the newcomers were all dead they set back to work cleaning up.
“There has to be another way,” Stephanie whispered.
“We could pretend to join these people, they're all wearing green and blue arm bands, that's got to help us somehow. Maybe we can beg or buy a few from them.”
“Or make like we forgot ours somewhere?” Frost added with a shrug.
“I'm a very bad actor,” Alice whispered.
Stephanie looked at the crowd of people quietly for several moments. “I don't know if we could pull it off.”
“We have a solution,” Came Captain Valance's voice through Stephanie and Frost's communicators. “We're going to go atmospheric and lay down cover fire for you. We're sending a heavy escape shuttle down. Does it look like that group is going to be a problem?”
“You could probably scare them back into the main port if you hit the street in front of the entrance,” Stephanie replied.
“What's going on?” Alice asked, unable to hear the Captain's side of the conversation.
“Captain's looking to make some craters and get us some help,” Frost said a little eagerly.
“He's taking Triton atmospheric?” she asked, her eyes wide.
A rumbling in the distance was her answer, and all three of them looked up. The Triton's broad hull was like a looming, growing stingray shaped shadow against the light blue sky. The five active pulse turrets on the bottom of the hull fired at smaller vessels that darted around it, making weak attacks. It was like watching a behemoth swat away flies.
One of the paired pulse cannons swivelled towards the street in front of the main port entrance and fired. The crowd turned and ran through the port gates. The air pressure shifted, they could all feel it on their faces, as three of the main engines rotated and fired in repulsor mode, glowing bright white. The ship stopped and hovered less than three hundred meters up as the pulse turret reduced two meter circles of sand to slag and glass.
The maintenance bots fired their cutting lasers to no effect as everyone and everything else ran for cover. A blocky emergency shuttle launched from one of the port airlocks and hastily descended. It landed hard in the street beside the building they hid in, kicking up dirt and dust for a city block in every direction. The weight of it crushed stone walkways and a fast food materializer station to rubble under its armoured landing skids.
The trio pushed the window of their hiding spot open and climbed through it as quickly as possible. A cutting laser swept across them to no effect, their vacsuits easily absorbed and dissipated the energy. Then they were inside the shuttle. Alice sat in the copilot's seat and to her surprise Ashley was at the controls. She gave her a brief, excited embrace and checked the copilot's station. “Who's flying the Triton?”
“Captain. I had no idea he knew how, but he did train me, after all.”
“The controls aren't much different from the style used by some very old Freeground ships. I'm not surprised. Still, some good piloting there.”
Several rounds struck the shuttle's hull, barely scorching the armour. They made a quick ascent and landed in a small space that had been cleared in the Triton's center hangar. Most of the space was filled with old salvage, damaged fighters and other unidentifiable heavy objects. The hangar door closed behind them. “Bridge, we're in,” Ashley reported.
Frost turned a small golden chip end over end in his hand. “I nicked it out of the holoprojector on my way out. Likely has more than the information we were looking for on it, I'd wager.”
Stephanie watched him from where she was strapped into her seat, across from him in the rear compartment of the escape shuttle. “Did you see anything before his Andi went homicidal?”
“Aye, directory trees with a few hundred entries.”
“Did you know him well?”
“Freeman? Never been one of my close mates. He kept closer to a more dangerous sort. Bein' a provider of information it helped his trade to know them better than people like me.” Frost looked across the dim cabin and smiled uneasily. “I'd have been done for good if it weren't for you back there.”
She smiled back at him, he didn't thank people often, not that she'd seen. “Nothing some quick thinking and a couple of grenades couldn't fix.”
“Where'd you learn ta move like that anyhow?”
“I was in gymnastics when I was growing up on the colony and I kept it up. It was hard on the Samson, but I can still do a backflip and walk on my hands in full gravity.”
“I'll have ta see that some time. I'm thinkin' you'll find somewhere on the Triton ta practice. ”
“I hadn't thought of that. There's just been too much going on I guess.”
“Aye, that there has. With tumblin' skills like yours, you should try one of the armoured excursion suits. I bet you could do cartwheels.”
The shuttle powered down and the hatch at the rear popped open and they both unstrapped. “The ones used for loading the rail cannons?”
“Aye, they're armoured space combat getups, made for a lot more n' loadin' guns. Ever try one?”
“I never had the chance to certify for vacuum combat in the army. Only special forces got to use that kind of
