Warhound was up ahead—clearly marked on my scope, a glowing point of light: B6. There was no doubt about it. One had been right all along—it was Warhound!
'Six, One. Report.' Silence, only the hissing of the tacnet in our ears.
'Six, One. Report.' Silence. Silence, silence. Warhound was moving.
'Six approaching,' Sweety informed me.
'Warhound, it's Snow Leopard. Report! Have you got us on scope?' Snow Leopard was moving forward, toward Warhound. I followed, threading my way past massive, downed instruments, in and out of cubicles. This was not good. I did not like this at all.
'Warhound, we're approaching you. Is your commo out?'
Silence. Only silence, from Beta Six. Snow Leopard was almost on him.
'Six on xmax, safety off!' A warning, from Sweety.
'Six, it's One. Don't…'
A shattering explosion, brilliant white-hot shrapnel ricocheting everywhere, burning white tracks on my darksight. Again, again! Warhound was firing auto xmax at Snow Leopard!
'Cease fire! Cease fire! It's One!' I shouted.
'Warhound, it's Snow Leopard! Cease fire!' One ordered. I charged forward, dodging around massive chunks of metal, in and out of cubicles, snatching glances at Warhound and Snow Leopard on the tacmap. Warhound was only a few cubicles away now.
'Warhound, it's Thinker! Cease fire!' The wall exploded, glowing with laser tracks.
'Six firing at you with laser!' Sweety informed me briskly.
'Psycho, Warhound is firing at us!'
'Scut!'
'Beta, retreat! Six is firing at us!' Xmax auto, ripping away, a long, wild burst, flashes of lightning dancing on my faceplate. A tremendous explosion split the darkness. My tacmap flickered and faded. A deceptor was banging away, scrambling everything.
'I've fired deceptor,' I heard Psycho in a wave of crackling static. 'Get out…'
'Six advancing on you!' Sweety was still with me!
'Don't shoot him, Thinker!' Snow Leopard ordered—I could barely hear him. I was scrambling to get away, darting in and out of cubicles at random, heading away from Warhound, a glowing dot on my tacmap.
'Six pursuing!' Xmax, supersonic slivers of steel whistling all around me, my suit suddenly ringing with hits, rocking me off my feet.
'Multiple hits!' I landed up against one of the metal mushrooms, my ears ringing, my faceplate a flashing mass of red lights, alarms ringing in my ears. Warhound stepped into the cubicle.
Warhound, armored and armed, black armor smoking, red faceplate dark and dead, raising his E calmly, the stock sliding easily into his shoulder, the barrel pointed right at me, brilliant laser sight flooding my faceplate, as cold as death. I snapped my E to V-max auto and fired. The world exploded in my face. I winked out in a flash of atoms.
Chapter 7:
Death's Cold Road
Get up! Get up! Get up! Deadman, get up, Three!'
Urgent commands in my ears. It was One, it was Sweety, it was Five. I was burning—burning to ashes. My blood was on fire, my bones all shattered, my muscles shredded, my brain split wide open.
'Get up, Thinker! Alert! Alert! Situation Violet! Enemy approaching! Alert! Alert!' Shot in the heart, I came back to life, crawling up out of the dark. It was pitch black—I could see nothing! No, a glimmer of light—a lolite! My helmet was off, someone leaning over me. It was Snow Leopard, a quick glance at me, his E flashing past my face.
'Three's back. Get up, Thinker, they're coming.' Snow Leopard was maddeningly calm. The lolite was suddenly gone and darkness rushed over me. I tried to get up. Pain shot through my body. My helmet was slammed into place and locked on—darksight, green phospho magic with me, Sweety in my ears, chill futures, the tacmap flashing to life.
'Prep for tacstar, Five.'
'It's a ten, One. They're dead—the walking dead.' Psycho was cold as ice.
'Unidentified life form approaching! Probable Omni! Life form masked by mag field!'
Adrenalin shot through my system. I struggled to my feet, raising my E. Unidentified life form—Deadman, save us! It was the O, coming right at us.
'Unidentified energy probe—high mags—off the scale.'
Sweety's words were like daggers. Warhound was lying on the deck in a pile of smashed-up O equipment, his helmet off, his armored wrists tied together in front of him. He was staring sightlessly into the dark, sweat beading his forehead.
'Deadman! What happened?' I blurted out, setting my E to xmax.
'Warhound tried to kill us,' Snow Leopard responded quietly. 'Don't know why. Psycho got you both with a stunstar.'
'God! Is Warhound all right?'
'Beta…Beta!' Warhound gasped, words from a dark pit of terror. 'Fight them! Fight them! Fight them!'
'Unidentified life form on screen! Single target now in range. Probable O—recommend multiple tacstars.' A phospho red dot pulsed on my faceplate, readouts flashing over the screen.
'Blast 'em, Five!'
Five leaped forward to Snow Leopard's command, an obscene black metal spider, faceplate glowing red, Manlink up to his shoulder. The universe split wide open in a lightning flash, ripping audibly like a hot knife in rotten silk, screeching like wounded metal, rising in intensity, freezing my flesh. Tacstars, flashing straight to the target; multiple cenite walls disintegrating like jelly, again, again, again, lighting us up, bursting, a nuclear flash; my faceplate dead black; sudden brilliant holy white glare; glittering flowers of death. The shock wave hit us, knocking me flat. Psycho fired full auto tacstar, micronukes bursting to life, poison toadstools of power, Legion stars, rocking the entire base. I scrambled to my feet and rushed forward screaming hoarsely, firing full auto xmax. Snow Leopard rose up, his E flashing—full auto x. I held my finger down on the trigger. The noise was shattering; I could hear only a single, high screeching note, overriding everything else. The xmax burst everywhere and hits from our own shrapnel riddled my armor. My faceplate suddenly glowed faintly with a wild white webbing of tracks and I could feel the hits pinging onto my A-suit. I continued firing. Tacstars flashed wildly over my head and micronukes detonated to life again, again, again, burning white-hot in my eyes. The walls disintegrated, riddled, melted, ripped and torn and shot full of holes, supersonic slivers of death—my finger was frozen on the trigger. Xmax, xmax, xmax, ripping forth from my E, my holy E, death to all our foes. We stood in a wilderness of smoking metal, a shredded, twisted ceiling overhead, a junkyard of glowing metal all around us.
'Unidentified life form approaching!'
'Ahhh, scut!'
'Five, tacstars! Three, lasers!' Snow Leopard was on it.
I switched to lasers. More tacstars flashed overhead with that horrible ripping as micronukes exploded right on top of the O, brilliant flashes, shock waves rocking us back on our boot-heels. I could see the O on my tacmap— still there!
What the hell! One and I fired lasers simultaneously. Energy from the face of a star at the speed of light, flashing, dancing, lancing through alien metal like an axe through paper, relentless, merciless. We speared the O
