From their positions on the floor behind her, the Wardenites opened fire, firing at the rearmost troops.
Rhea leaped forward, toward her enemies, and bashed her shield into any that stood in her path. The energy tore through them, dissolving the metal, and leaving behind dismembered body parts whose edges glowed a bright orange.
She transformed the weapon into a sword, and sliced across, defeating the remaining foes. A quick glance farther down the tunnel told her that more robots were coming.
She returned the Ban’Shar to a shield and deflected their attacks.
“Concentrate on the tunnel!” she told her companions as she retreated from the opening, and back into the hangar.
She swerved out of the line of fire of the tunnel, and raced into the hangar, toward the remaining robots from the transport. They had taken cover behind the same vessel.
Some of the Wardenites continued to pin down the robots there, covering her. A few bolts still targeted her, but she deflected them with her Ban’Shar.
Around her, some of the unarmed drones littered the floor, while the remainder buzzed about overhead, trying to dodge the Wardenite fire.
She took a running leap and jumped, easily reaching the top of the transport in the lower gravity. She vaulted to the other side and leaped down.
She transformed the Ban’Shar into twin blades as she fell toward her enemies.
The surprised robots tried to turn their aim upward but she plunged the weapons into the two closest, and swiped sideways, passing the blades through their bodies and into the robots immediately beside them.
She transformed the blades into disks to deflect the attacks of the remaining four robots, sending the bolts flying into two of them. She finished the remaining pair in two quick rushes.
Then she hurried out from behind the transport and toward the maintenance tunnel. The wreckages of the remaining drones lay scattered across the floor, courtesy of her Wardenites. Most of the men had gathered around the tunnel opening and were firing their plasma pistols liberally inside.
Rhea rushed right past them without pausing, trusting entirely that they’d cease firing. She held both Ban’Shars in front of her.
She deflected the bolts of the four robots that were still standing deeper in the tunnel.
“Hey!” Will shouted.
A bolt skimmed past her right shoulder from behind, narrowly missing her.
“Sorry,” she heard a distant voice say. Miles. “Got distracted.”
“You could have killed her!” Will was saying.
She tuned them out and thought no more on the matter. Accidents happened in the heat of combat.
She managed to deflect two bolts into the torsos of a pair of combat robots, and when she reached them, she mowed down the final two, so that they joined the wreckage of the others.
Her comrades were fast coming up behind her, so she continued forward.
“Dude!” Will called.
She glanced behind her, and he tossed her the CommNixer pistol that she’d abandoned at the entrance. He’d topped up the ammo.
She switched off her right Ban’Shar to catch it, and then swung her arm forward. She targeted the next camera ahead and took it out.
A bigger robot stepped into view from a side passage ahead. Two-legged, lacking arms. With forbidding-looking plasma turrets protruding from either side of its head, and RPG launchers mounted to the top of each leg.
“Stay back!” Rhea called over her shoulder.
The big robot unleashed its RPGs. Rhea ran forward, wanting to put as much distance between herself and her companions as possible. She sheathed the pistol and reactivated her remaining Ban’Shar, so that she had two shields to protect her.
The grenades struck her shields and detonated. She was shoved backward by the released energy, and the lower hem of her cloak and underlying outfit burned away. She hardly noticed and kept moving forward. If this had been Earth, she would have been pushed back a lot farther. But it was Mars.
She felt almost invincible here. It was similar to how she’d felt on Ganymede.
Have to be careful, not let myself grow overconfident.
She reached the robot and ran between its big metal legs. She slid her Ban’Shar disks outward as she passed, slicing through each limb entirely, and the robot collapsed behind her. She spun around and flung the disks down into its torso, cutting it in half.
The other Wardenites joined her and leaped over the wreckage.
She continued forward, pausing next to the side corridor from where the bigger robot had emerged. She peered past, holding her disks in front of her.
More combat robots were lying in wait, and opened fire.
She deflected the bolts, taking down three of them, and rushed the remainder. The Wardenites terminated another two with their plasma pistols before she reached them, so she only had four to skewer when she arrived.
When that was done, she surveyed the passageway, confirming that no more robots awaited, then turned around, a grim smile plastered across her lips.
“Try not to look like you’re enjoying yourself so much,” Will commented.
She took the lead once more, switching one hand back to the CommNixer pistol.
“They were waiting for us!” Brinks said from behind her. “In the hanger!”
“It seems obvious Targon betrayed us,” Miles commented.
“Wonder how much they paid the bastard,” Brinks said.
“Won’t be enough, for when I get my hands on him!” Rhea exclaimed.
From ahead, she could hear a muted alarm of some kind sounding in the terminal.
Pulling her hood low, she shot out another camera, and then rotated the Ban’Shar back into her hand before kicking open the door to the main terminal. Unsurprisingly, a ring of combat robots awaited. They all opened fire.
Moving in a blur, she deflected those bolts and executed a gymnastic routine from her muscle memory, which allowed her to flip behind her attackers. She beheaded two of the robots in midair with the edges of the disks, and when she landed, she continued swerving between them, employing the weapons to deadly effect. She transformed the Ban’Shar back and
