under their jaws moving, but thanks to their thick helmets he couldn't hear what they were saying.
Finally, they noticed the smoke rising from below and rushed to see what had happened. Jake took his opportunity and pulled himself up as quickly as he could. Before they had time to notice he was on the rooftop, running crouched, putting his sidearm away as he drew his nanoblade and activated it. The nearly invisible blade was back down to half its normal length and he had used his last cartridge.
The sound dampening systems worked perfectly, they didn't notice him until he decapitated the first from behind. The second soldier started to run without so much as a glance backwards and Jake's next swing struck in the soft spot of his Regent Galactic standard issue armour just under the helmet. The guards were dead with a minimum of sound but the head of the second guard was rolling forward through the air, over the side of the rooftop's edge. Jake made a desperate, quick grab for it and grazed it with the tips of his fingers but it was too late. The disembodied head rolled down into the gap between the buildings.
It would land right in the middle of the crowd of panicked West Keepers who were still in chaos thanks to the exploding grenades and he hoped that it would go unnoticed, just part of the carnage as he dropped down beside the half meter barrier along the edge of the building top.
He heard some screaming, an increasing surge in the hysteria of a few and then someone yelled; “It came from up there!”
Oh crap! This is going to be a busy night. He thought wearily. There was a little time and he had to use it wisely. He took the small decryption and command chip out of his pocket and flipped part of his command and control unit open. The encryption chip that had come built into the unit was a little larger, but he hoped he could get the two lined up enough for the system to adjust and incorporate the Regent Galactic technology.
He carefully placed the new chip atop the old and closed the unit, being sensitive to any abnormal resistance. While his command and control unit started an attempt to implement the new technology he rolled over to one of the soldier's bodies and unclipped his rifle.
Jake's arm unit blinked and the two dimensional display brought up a list of over a hundred open channels. He selected local command and muted his end so he wouldn't be heard by mistake.
“-cornered on top of the secondary barracks building, check one four seven on grid Charlie and you'll see it.”
“I've got it, sending three squads and raising the alarm. He'll have more trouble than he can handle,” replied another voice.
If this works the way I think it does it'll be a long night for everyone. Jake thought to himself with a grin as he pulled a belt of variable release grenades from the nearest soldier's body.
He pressed his thumb over the safety of his stolen rifle and it chirped negatively, indicating that the weapon's safety wasn't encoded for him. “Override using command codes,” he said aloud as he pointed his arm unit at the weapon. It chirped positively and the weapon's safety was released.
The next few seconds were a blur as he collected all the ammunition he could find for the weapon, increased its intensity to full and ran to the opposite edge of the building and loading the grenade launcher in his new assault rifle with one of the variable release grenades. He could hear alarms just starting up, loud, horn like bleats that pierced the air loud enough for his sound dampening system to kick in.
The building overshadowing the makeshift barracks was a dark monolith under the scant starlight. He looked up twenty or so storeys and caught sight of the dissipating heat, the structure had been on fire for days and he'd be navigating it while it was still unstable, unusable and unsafe for the Regent Galactic military. They'd start sending bots after him again, and he shuddered at the thought. That's unless I can get into that mountain somehow. Hopefully being able to hear Regent's radio chatter will help somehow.
He backed up, took a running start and leapt through the air, aiming for a large gap in the larger building's wall made by an explosion or bombardment shell. Jake commanded his vacsuit to harden itself as much as possible while giving him just enough flexibility to roll with the fall as he fell through the air over the street. The landing was three storeys down and he rolled with it perfectly. Half of his vacsuit flashed red, indicating that it was under extreme pressure.
His momentum carried him straight into a desk, and it was sent spinning across the half wrecked corner office. Coming up on his feet he gave himself a moment to catch his breath before taking aim at a hastily panelled up window in the barracks across the street. It was the dead of night, lights were coming on, sirens were blaring and if he was lucky the soldiers would still be rushing to get out of bed and into their armour. He squeezed the trigger on his particle rifle, sending a long burst of white hot rounds against the thin metal sheeting they'd used to repair a broken transparesteel window and he watched the material burst apart. He set the variable release grenades loaded into the assault rifle to riot mode and fired two across the street and into the window. They exploded on impact, sending a burst of sound, energy and air in all directions. “Good morning soldiers!” he couldn't help chuckle, wishing he could see what was going on in the barracks.
The floor shook violently and he ducked down low. Just as Jake's vision began to clear he heard the overwhelming whistling roar of the wind. All he could do was scurry further into the office, find a main brace and despite the desperate need to remain focused, he took a look over his shoulder.
The great mountain was tearing itself apart, fading light shone through every door, window, cavernous opening and debris of every kind was coming towards him in a violent, churning wall of heated air.
Finding one of the main building supports, he dove for it, struck it with his shoulder and rolled behind it just in time. The whole structure groaned against his back, the very metal he used for protection rocked violently and the sound of the rushing air and colliding furniture, building materials, metal, stone, and every other kind of wreckage imaginable overcame the sound suppressors in his vacsuit.
As quickly as the storm had come it ended, and when he looked around the bare steel pillar he had used for cover it was impossible to miss the front half of an air car crushed into the floor just above, and how most of the corner of the floor he was on was gone, carried away by some massive colliding object, he imagined. What wasn't ruined in the city between the mountain and himself before the explosion was an utter waste afterwards. The weaker buildings had been reduced to rubble, the narrow streets were filled with the ruined product of a once thriving society and the chaos he'd caused to distract his enemies long enough for him to escape was forgotten as he looked to the mountainside only to see dust rising from a slide of buildings, stone, and walkway paving. Where there was once colour, living texture or any sign that people had lived in the spaces all around him there was only parched, ground down remains. He wouldn't have been able to see anything without the assistance of his visor and control unit. It visually sifted through the milling cloud of dust and debris, presenting an enhanced image to Jake.
A glimpse at the readout on his faceplate was all the confirmation he needed. Someone detonated a low radiation fusion bomb inside the mountain, he realized with a sinking heart. Jake fell to his knees, thoughts dwelling on Oz and Jason as he ran his palms back and forth across the grit covered floor. The sheer loss of it all came into sharp focus as their faces came to mind.
Grief didn't know the difference between his own memories and those that had been inherited. He would have to tell Laura her husband was dead, he'd have to Captain Triton alone. Jake had secretly hoped he could count on Oz's help, looking forward to meeting the tall former first officer and that was gone. All the outrage he felt at the thought of being recaptured, and the anger at what he had seen drained away. There's nothing left for me here. No one could survive that kind of destruction, even if they were fighting on the mountainside, in the tunnels below the city, the chances that they survived are next to none. I'm at least fifteen kilometres away and if I didn't have good cover I would have probably been killed. There's nothing left for me.
The West Keeper and Regent Galactic command frequencies reopened with a painful squawk and he fell back behind another support so he could listen to their reaction. “We've checked with command, we are to proceed into the mountain. The secure tunnels are marked on your displays with your orders,” a firm authoritative voice ordered.
“That wasn't supposed to happen for several hours! I'm down two platoons and all our mechanized units are slag!” Dissented one enraged voice.
“You're right, that came early but that doesn't change our mission here. All Regent Galactic forces are to proceed to their objectives.”
“What about the West Keepers? I had four platoons in my command chain and they've just been reassigned! What's going on?”
“Don't worry about the Order of Eden, their handlers have landed and they're taking the city. We're only after
