The sky had lightened a lot since I'd entered the Spike. It must be fully morning out there now, as bright purple sky was visible above us through the openings onto the top of the Spike.
"We don't have time to search any longer, Jake. Look," Regar said, pointing downward.
I spotted them immediately, a tidal wave of Nagite Soldiers slithering up the support structure. Hundreds of them. They were still far below, but they'd be on us soon enough.
"To the top then, we can place the device there," I said.
I flew through the opening above, setting down and looking around. The shaft of the Spike was nearby, a yawning black chasm. The purple sky was full of moving shapes, mostly below us. Several schools of the flying squids swum through the air sedately, as yet unaware I was there.
Purple light flashed as the mobile defense turrets ringing the shaft opened fire.
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Countermeasures: Laser—active.
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It was like a shooting gallery. The drones and I had a clear field of fire, and the little bastards couldn't hurt me. I raked the beam across them, popping two and three at a time. The Gazer drank deeply from the Krigar Assault Armor's enhanced power supply, recharging as I fired. The drones did great work as well, firing in more conservative bursts but destroying the turrets in droves as they darted around in the sky.
Regar pulled himself out of the opening below me, keeping low as he hurried to the edge of the shaft. He pulled a small metal box the size of a deck of cards from his belt and stuck it to the inside of the shaft.
He turned back to me, pulling the Tempest free. "Jake, use this to cover me. This is going to take a while. I've got to give it eight hundred Nanite Clusters. Once we start I think we're going to get a lot of attention. Those Nagites will be here soon, too."
I took the Tempest with my right hand, transferring the Gazer to my left. The Tempest was heavy, but I was in powered armor and really strong. I might be less accurate, but I could handle both of these weapons at the same time.
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TDR-501 "Tempest" Dimensional Rift weapon
58% Charge
Control(s) Available: None
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As I watched it, the charge ticked up a percent. With a thought, I throttled the maximum amount of power the weapon could draw, leaving some for my Gazer.
"Safety's off. Keep the trigger held down as long as you need the rift. Maximum range is two hundred meters. You ready?" Regar asked.
"Do it."
He triggered something, and a thick rope of Nanite Clusters pulsed out of him, pouring into the tiny metal box. A column of metal, the very material the Spike was made of, began to extrude from the side of the shaft, stretching across. We were spiking the Spike.
The schools of squids reacted nearly immediately. All three of them that I could see ceased their aimless swimming through the air and drove for us. Each school had at least five and up to twelve of the flying squid monsters in it. Combined with the horde of Nagites below, jumping off the tower and flying away as fast as possible was looking more and more like the best course.
My drones took up station over two different openings and began firing down into the Spike. I'd tasked them with slowing the horde as much as they could. It was like shooting snakes in a barrel. With luck they'd make a dent, but I knew they would both run out of ammunition and energy before the Spike ran out of snakes.
The first school was here, pyramidal mouths gaping slightly open as they charged in formation. I pointed the Tempest and squeezed the trigger.
The distortion in space appeared dead center in the group of squids. In the middle of the formation, one instantly popped, the others swirling into the spatial grinder. I tried to wave the Tempest to move the effect, but it was stuck fast in the air like it was nailed to the very walls of spacetime.
I cursed, aiming awkwardly with the Gazer and waving its deadly beam over the second closest school. The lethal particles cut deep, dropping the lead members of the school, but the rest pressed on. I released the trigger on the Tempest, watching the broken pieces of flying squid fall. I could move it once again, but those few seconds of use had taken eighteen percent of the weapon's charge.
"This is going to get ugly, Regar."
The drones were firing nonstop, conserving their power and ammo as best as they could, but I had no doubt the wave of Nagite Soldiers was close. The column of metal was about one-third of the way across the shaft now, and was branching out, thin limbs questing for all sides of the shaft.
"Hold, Jake."
The next school of squids crested the lip of the Spike. It was a few members short since I'd culled it with the Gazer, but there were still far too many hungry Ferals there. I fired the Tempest into their midst again. The distortion appeared in the air, anchoring my right hand in place. It chewed the school to pieces, tentacles and broken bits of tetrahedral heads feeding into the spatial shredder. I released the trigger earlier than I had the last time, trying to save power. The distorted, destroyed forms of the squids fell out of sight. They hadn't been liquified, but they were dead enough.
I belatedly noticed that the drones had both run out of resources a few seconds ago and were hovering in place. With a small effort I brought up the beam drone's gunsight camera in my HUD. A wall of hostile, champing teeth and squirming coils. The Nagites were here.
I stuck the Gazer to my left thigh and pulled a grenade free, tossing it down the nearby opening onto the squirming mass of
