distinct shapes for them in the darkness of night. The metal double doors were only slightly smaller than the front entrance, and these had a short set of stairs going down to them. The outline showing where Minh, still invisible to the naked eye, signalled for Ayan to stop. His head was turned towards the entrance, so Ayan carefully looked everywhere else. “What is it?” she asked quietly even though their vacsuits stopped all sound from escaping.
“Two andies down those stairs. They're exactly the same temperature as their surroundings so thermal missed them completely.”
“Nice trick. My motion sensors didn't pick them up either, they must be on standby.”
“Think they'd see through our cloaksuits?” Minh asked quietly.
“No way, you'd need some kind of field or pressure sensors and that's pretty much impossible to tune properly in this atmosphere.”
“That's reassuring.”
Ayan's vacsuit highlighted Oz and Jason coming around from the other side of the landing area a hundred meters away, they were moving very slowly. Her visor display indicated that they were in proper line of sight and she could communicate with them again using the laser link. “Do you two see the androids down there?”
“Yup, just spotted them. I'm thinking I'll launch a shaped charge at the door while everyone else opens fire on the andies. We're going to have to dump half a clip into those two to take them out.”
“Are they seriously that well armoured?” Ayan asked.
“Someone didn't do their homework,” Minh teased.
“I was busy designing the Needle, remember?”
“She's not the only one, I was working on the broadcast system the whole time,” Jason interjected. “I could use a quick brief on 'em.”
“Right,” Oz started, taking command of the conversation. “They're an android with sixteen processing centers, so even though they look like humans there's actually no central brain. You can knock their head off they'll still see perfectly fine thanks to secondary and tertiary sensors.”
“Wow, sounds expensive,” Minh commented.
“Effective, more like. We seriously have to slag these buggers to do any good.”
“All right, we'll go as soon as we see you launch your shaped charge,” Ayan responded.
They watched as Oz marked the targets; Ayan and Minh would fire at the one on the left while Jason would fire on the one to the right. If they didn't come running out they would launch explosive charges from their rifles after the shaped charge went off. Their visors marked a projectile for a split second as it sped through the air to the double doors half under the cover of the stairs. It was marked red and blinking with a counter overhead as it attached itself to the doors.
Ayan and Minh opened fire, sending sub-sonic explosive rounds across the distance, peppering their android target and filling the air with a tattoo of small explosions. Jason's rounds hit home as well, and as Oz joined in their target sprinted at an incredible speed, firing its rifle back in a sweeping arc of pulse rounds.
One of the shots struck Oz, interrupting his cloaking systems and the android slung his rifle as he leapt through the air, striking him in the shoulder as he tried to dodge out of the way. In the next instant the android stood and swung his arms outstretched, feeling for his invisible prey. His hand landed on Oz's arm. With one jerk Oz was pulled towards the machine, who, with deadly force and precision began hammering his fist into his target.
Oz tried to aim his rifle at his assailant, but being pulled off balance he couldn't get a shot so he let the weapon fall as he tried to pull free from the machine's iron grip.
Jason took careful aim at the android but he spun around, dragging Oz into his line of fire. “I can't get a shot!”
“He's going to bust through my armour if this keeps up!” Oz said as he drew his nanoblade. “Get clear, going melee!” The first swing of his meter long blade half severed the android's neck and thousands of nanobots from the black sword remained behind to work at the softer systems inside the machine.
With a final great effort, Oz was hauled completely off his feet and thrown down onto the gravel so hard that he heard the hardened layers of his vacsuit crack. He rolled onto his back and swung at the android's midsection, cutting into the armoured stomach just enough to leave nanobots behind. The stress of striking the android's hardened surfaces was enough to almost completely deplete the blade and he deactivated it as he drew his sidearm, set it to full automatic and opened fire peppering the android with explosive thermite rounds.
Jason, having a clear shot at long last, followed suit and opened fire with his assault rifle and between the pair and the work of the nanobots, the android fell face first into the gravel.
Ayan and Minh, who had an easier time with their target, ran to join Oz and Jason.
“My cloaksuit's done for now. It'll take half an hour to regenerate,” Oz reported as he got to his feet.
“Any injuries?” Minh asked.
“Shoulder, hairline fracture on a couple of ribs and upper arm but the suit hit me with a dose of active biogel that'll take care of it in a minute.”
“Gotta love that stuff, anaesthetic and concentrated healing accelerators all in one, wish we had that on the First Light.” Minh commented as he double checked Oz's status on his command unit. The tall Officer was known for exaggerating his wellness.
“I don't think anyone has that stuff, it was in one of the Special Projects crates Doc Anderson dropped off,” Ayan said as she started moving towards the bunker. “We have to move.”
Oz picked up his rifle and checked its condition as he took his position behind Minh and ahead of Jason. “Well, looks like I'm just one big distraction. I was wondering who would get the honour.”
“Better you than me,” Minh sang quietly.
“I see thermals from five inside. What's the plan?” Ayan asked.
“I'll move in slowly, as though I'm alone while you three move in well ahead, take them by surprise,” Oz said.
“Good plan, head in quick,” Ayan confirmed as she started running.
Oz stood up straight and took several pot shots around the entrance, over Ayan, Minh's and Jason's heads as they quickly closed the distance between them and the bunker. His sensor suite confirmed that they were taking cover inside the bunker, getting ready for him to try and enter on his own. He kept a steady, confident stride while looking down the sight of his rifle and taking the occasional shot at the nearest defender. He had no hope of hitting the man, but gave him good reason to remain behind his crate.
The outlines of Ayan, Jason and Minh were inside a moment later, running between the five people inside and positioning themselves with nano blades at the ready. “In position,” Ayan announced as her outline poised with her cloaked blade at the neck of an unarmoured recruit.
“Surrender or die!” Oz called out using his voice amplifier. He knew they could hear him.
“This is an Eden World now! The West Watch will never surrender!” replied one with fervor.
“Double check your seals,” Ayan ordered.
“Sealed,” Minh replied.
“All buttoned up here,” Jason reported.
Ayan reached into her poncho and produced a heavy stun grenade, it had enough range to cover four times the size of the room they were standing in. She detonated it in her hand. All five of the conscripts fell to the floor.
“Oh, they're gonna feel that in the morning,” Minh chuckled as he dropped a self sealing vacuum containment sac over the nearest conscript. The protective mini-prison took on a life of its own as it stretched around him and sealed. “And that's going to be a rude way to wake up.”
“All clear Oz, get in here, we have alarms going off,” Ayan ordered as she did the same, making sure the bag activated before moving on.
“I hear most people think they've been buried alive when they first wake up in one of those. They'll thank us for it if we have to fire bomb the place though, they'll come out without a scratch,” Jason added.
When Oz arrived inside Ayan and Jason were quickly working at the main consoles and Minh had gone downstairs. “No one's down here as far as my scanner's concerned. It's mostly servers and reserve power,” he called up audibly.
“Good, plant the charges, we're going to plan B,” Jason shouted back.
“So they had time to lock down all the systems?”
