She continued to zigzag in that manner, using the lower gravity to assist her, bouncing from floor to wall to floor again, leaving the wreckages of falling drones in her wake.
When she’d reached the last of them, she turned around and hurried back to the concourse. She raced inside.
It was a food court, with fast-food outlets lining the walls. She noticed that CommNixers resided next to all the cameras she spotted, courtesy of her companions. Speaking of the latter, her Wardenites had taken cover behind tables, chairs, pillars and garbage receptacles at random positions in front of her.
Across from them, combat robots were similarly entrenched. Both sides were pinned and exchanging fire.
Plasma bolts came in at her from the enemy side but bounced harmlessly away from her energy shields.
Without hesitation she jumped onto a chair and then leaped from table to table, holding the Ban’Shar in front of her as she headed directly toward the enemy positions.
A combat robot tossed an energy grenade at her, but she batted it away with her Ban’Shar and it exploded harmlessly a few meters beside her. More grenades came in, but this time she deflected the bombs at those who had thrown them. She steered away from the resultant explosions and rushed the remaining robots. She converted her right Ban’Shar into a sword, and kept the left in shield form as she proceeded to weave among the enemy, blocking with her shield, and impaling with her sword, killing with such ease that it almost seemed too easy. She considered trying to convert some of these robots to her side, but decided against it, since the returns would only be diminishing—for every one she converted, ten more would arrive.
“Let’s go!” Rhea shouted at her companions when the last of the targets had gone down.
But then from ahead, on the eastern side of the food court, twenty more combat robots piled inside.
The clatter of heavy feet came from behind, along with the humming of angry bees: on the western side of the food court another twenty shock troops appeared, with a similar number of armed, airborne drones accompanying them.
Too many.
“This way!” She dashed toward one of the food outlets and took up a position in front of it, deflecting the attacks from the robots and drones to the west. Meanwhile, the Wardenites sprinted toward her, firing as they ran, targeting the robots on the eastern side, forcing the enemy there to take cover behind tables and pillars.
The Wardenites vaulted over the counter of the fast-food outlet in turn, and ducked underneath. When the last of them was over, Rhea leaped across the counter as well and joined them.
Will led the way, crawling into the back area where automated cooks prepared the food, and then crouching as he headed toward the back door. He opened it a crack, and then peered through.
“Clear!” He shoved past and entered the employees-only hallway.
“Go!” Rhea said.
The others followed Will into the tight hallway, and Rhea brought up the rear behind Renaldo.
The hallway could fit two of them abreast, but they ran in single file.
Rhea deactivated her right Ban’Shar and unholstered her plasma pistol instead. She kept glancing over her shoulder as she ran.
It didn’t take long before the airborne drones swooped into the hallway behind. She shot them down in turn and deflected a few bolts that came in with her Ban’Shar.
The passage took a hard left, and soon the drones were out of view.
“Drop!” Will shouted.
The men dropped, but Rhea remained standing; she tilted her Ban’Shar to the front in time to deflect against the plasma attack launched by a walker robot that blocked the way forward.
The men opened fire from their positions on the floor, and Rhea leaped over them, carefully placing her feet until she was past Will and heading for the walker. She kept the Ban’Shar in front of her to deflect its attacks and fired over the top with her pistol; by the time she reached the robot, it was completely disabled, and toppled to lean against the wall on one side.
Rhea squeezed past it. “Come on! We have to get to the palace!”
The men got up and forced their way past the wreckage of the large robot.
She rounded a ninety-degree bend, only to find herself facing down another two-legged walker, twenty meters ahead; between its iron legs she could see more walkers, all lined up in a row. Had to be at least twenty of them, if not more, blocking the corridor all the way down.
She quickly crouched behind her Ban’Shar as the lead walker opened fire, and backed away until she stood at the intersection of the two corridors, while she decided what to do. From the passage beside her came the buzzing of drones. The men dropped again.
She redirected one of her Ban’Shar that way to protect herself from the drone attacks; she kept the shield angled upward to avoid killing her men with an accidental deflection. It was a relief that the drones targeted her only, even though the men were firing back at the airborne machines.
“Warden,” came a voice from beside her.
Keeping her Ban’Shar in place, she glanced that way.
A door had opened in the wall. A man stood there. A black robe clung to his thin frame; the hood was raised, its low hanging hem hiding his face.
“Come with me, Warden,” the man pressed urgently. He glanced both ways.
Rhea continued to take fire, but her Ban’Shar held. “Who are you?”
“A friend!” the man said. “Now come!”
His voice was strangely familiar…
“I have to get to the palace!” she told the man. “Can you take me?”
“No!” he said. “You can’t enter the palace. If you do, you will die.”
“I won’t die,” Rhea said, deflecting more bolts. “I can take on an entire army!”
“You said that the last time,” the man said. “You don’t know what technology Khrusos possesses. Technology he has hoarded, stolen from Ganymede. Trust
