I was hovering in place, racking my brain. Then I had a thought.
I ordered my scout drone back, getting it to hover directly in front of me. It was a tiny, flattened lozenge barely as wide as my armored palm. It was dense, crammed full of sensors, power, and propulsion. That and its stealth were all it needed. It had gecko pads on the bottom for safely attaching itself to surfaces when it wasn't in use, or for when it needed to dock on me.
This one was my design, improved greatly from the stock Union Common Knowledge Set design, and I'd pushed the limits hard. Everything was only as powerful as it needed to be, in order to make room for other things. I pulled free the Holemaker V2 on my left thigh and held it in my hand. By itself it was quite a lot bigger than the scout drone. It wasn't light, either, being mostly energy storage, which was dense and heavy. My plan wasn't feeling that great.
With a thought I ordered the scout drone to alight on the curved portion of the Holemaker. It moved and landed lightly, nestling in the curve meant for my thick, armored thigh.
I then ordered it to engage its gecko pad and try to lift the Holemaker out of my hand.
It floated up, slowly, and I laughed. "Yeah! We're in business."
"What's that?" Marty asked.
"Nothing, I've got a plan to get past this turret. It's stupid, but it just might work."
"Your best plans always are," Marty replied.
I was pretty certain that I couldn't just let the drone carry the Holemaker over to the turret. Without the stealth field intact, the turret would immediately target and erase it. I didn't know what that weapon was, but it would be certainly enough to deal with my little drone. Instead, it was time to improvise.
I ordered the drone to detach and took the Holemaker back, holding it in my left hand. I was on the right side of the chasm, and if I went forward, my left side would be exposed to enemy fire. That wasn't ideal since I was right-handed. I'd have to make it work. Somewhere in the Union database, or in the third-party market, there must be a skill implant for ambidexterity. I wanted it then.
I quickly gave the scout drone the plan and ordered it to go. It was in position seventy-five meters under the turret less than a second later.
Hefting the Holemaker in my left hand, I tried to get a feel for the weight of it. I knew my new body and strength pretty well, but with the powered armor assist, it was always possible that I could overcompensate. I spent a lot of time in the armor, but I was nervous.
With a thought, I floated out to the left, exposing my left side just enough to throw the Holemaker as hard as I could toward the turret.
The stubby barrel immediately swiveled as a sensor locked onto me. It turned out it definitely had enough depression to aim at me down near the bottom.
It ignored the flying Holemaker and was on me in less than a quarter of a second. I reversed course as fast as I could. Propulsion units in my hands flared and slammed me into the side of the chasm.
A bright blue bolt of superheated plasma the size of a fifty-five-gallon drum incinerated a large chunk of my cover and the very edge clipped my left arm. The arm turned bright orange in the HUD and I hissed in pain as the flesh of my left arm cooked.
I flew backward as fast as I could and another bolt appeared slightly to the right of the first one, boring through the rock effortlessly and missing again. If I'd stayed still, that would've been it for me.
I flipped over and went to full power as I dodged down the shaft in the other direction. Another two bolts flew overhead, as the turret aggressively shot at me. I ducked behind a huge, thick wall of black rock and that slowed the next bolt. It bored through the stone and narrowly missed me again but was no longer the bright, blazing blue of the previous shots.
I soared upward while hidden behind the rock, hoping to confuse its target prediction. It worked, as the next bolt was far below me. I switched to my scout drone's sensors. It labored under the weight of the Holemaker, pushing upward as fast as it could. With a final combined effort on propulsion unit and grav plate, it clicked the plasma charge into place on the grey stone just underneath the turret. The turret wasn't able to shoot at it, but that wouldn't matter in a moment. Not waiting for the scout to dislodge, I swiped the charge to maximum and remotely triggered the Holemaker.
The remaining rock underneath the turret evaporated as the directed wave of plasma eliminated it from existence. A volume of stone the size of a rich man's house disappeared, turning to vapor. The plasma savaged the tier 3 armored shell of the turret but failed to destroy it. The turret fell into the chasm as all of its remaining structure disappeared. I ordered the scout to eject the spent shell of the Holemaker and evade as best as it could. I was relieved when it was fast enough to scoot out from beneath the falling, glowing mass of the turret as it plummeted down into the rift.
Not being able to resist, I eased out of cover to watch the turret's doom directly.
The barrel of the turret swung wildly as it caromed off the rock walls, the immense mass of the defensive emplacement breaking large chunks of rock free on impact. They fell with it toward the lava below, and the rock and the turret landed together, coating the black, rocky walls
