“Break it down,” Taylor said. “We don’t have time for this.”
“What if it’s alarmed?” House asked.
“Then we’ll have to hurry even more than we already are.”
The Georgia trooper took a step back, then kicked the door. All he succeeded in doing was pushing himself away from it.
“Ah, come on,” House muttered. He stepped back for another attempt.
“Allow me.” Haju stepped forward, turned his back to the door, braced, and kicked backward. The door exploded off its mounting to clatter to the floor. “Like my father always said, ‘Don’t force it, use a bigger hammer.’”
“A quieter one would’ve been nice,” one of the Hawks grumbled.
“Hey, don’t knock it. We’re in.” Taylor paused to examine the doorway. “Don’t take this personal, big guy, but I don’t think you’re fittin’ through there.”
Haju shook his massive head. “No, I’m not. Go in and see what there is. I’ll keep watch out here.”
House led the group into the warehouse. There was enough light from the refinery coming through the high windows that they could see the contents well enough.
“Vehicles over here,” one of the Hawks said.
Taylor went right to the sound of the voice and saw one corner of the building was a parking lot for a fleet of vehicles. A cross between what looked like an aircraft tow tractor and a dune buggy, each had a large, stout-looking engine section, but the passenger compartment looked more like an Earth-based dune buggy. The open-air cockpit had seating for three plus the driver. They appeared to have seen a lot of work in the mines; scratches and dings covered their exteriors.
“Probably started with these until they could build the bigger trucks,” Jack said. “These are probably waitin’ here to feed the manufactory when needed.”
“But they run?” Taylor asked.
“No way to tell without firin’ a few up,” Jack said. “Looks like they’re not in too bad a shape, though.”
“Before we do that, let’s see what else we can use in here,” Taylor said.
The conversation paused when Frank burst from the stacks of equipment.
“Come quick, boss,” the Buma said. “You’re gonna wanna see this.”
Taylor followed his nav officer to the opposite corner of the building. Two squads of—what the hell?—stood motionless along the wall. “Are those…CASPers?” Taylor asked. The machines before him approximated the Humans’ giant mechs, although they were shorter and oddly shaped. The weapons mounted on them made their natures obvious; they were weapons of war.
“Sorta, yeah,” Torrio said. “Those are the KzSha’s idea of mechs, kinda like our CASPers. We faced them on Emza.”
“How capable are they in a fight?” Jack asked.
“Capable enough,” Torrio said. “They’re a step or two down from a Mk 7, but not too far. There’s just one problem. They’re the wrong fit for us.” He pointed to the suit’s mid-section between what would’ve been the thorax and abdomen of an Earth wasp. “Not even the pinup girls on the calendar in my office have waists that small.”
“They still kinda frighten me, though,” Taylor said. “If the KzSha have these things here, what’s to say we won’t face them at the gate when we try to bust out of here? I mean, hell.” He pointed to the far-left mech. “That one there looks like it’s got a MAC on the right arm.”
Torrio shrugged. “These look brand new. Maybe the wasps haven’t deployed them here yet. I certainly haven’t seen any in operation. Not around here, anyway.”
“Me, either,” Jack said. “I still don’t wanna roll the dice on havin’ to face a bunch of these with two laser rifles, though.”
“Just like our CASPers,” Torrio added, “lasers will penetrate ‘em if you hit them right…but I agree. We need more weapons.”
A River Hawk corporal raced up. “Excuse me, sirs. The elephant at the door says there are two KzSha headed this way.”
Taylor nodded. “Jack, House. Handle it.”
“You got it,” the latter said before both troopers darted out of sight.
“Even if they’re successful, someone’s gonna notice if two more KzSha aren’t reporting.” Taylor glanced at Torrio. “I need four of your guys to get those dune buggies started. They’re not really what I wanted, but they’re what we’ve got. Everybody else, keep scourin’ the area for weapons. Lasers, MACs. Hell, I’ll take slingshots at this point if you can find some. Whatever the case, we need tools to defend ourselves. Quickly!”
Jack hurried back into the room with House. “Bad news. There was a third KzSha we didn’t see. He’s dead, but he probably got the word out. I’m pretty sure we can expect a response soon.”
Taylor muttered a curse. Had to happen sometime. He pointed to the main door by the vehicles. “Get that door open and keep ‘em off us while we load up.”
“What about the elephant?” Torrio asked.
Taylor abhorred the idea of leaving Haju behind after everything they’d been through. However, to say they were slim on options by that point was a massive understatement. “If he can’t find a way to squeeze his ass into one of those buggies, he’ll just have to stay back and hide until we can rally some more forces and come back for him.”
“I ain’t arguin’, but are you sure?” Torrio asked.
“It is what it is.” Taylor nodded.
One of the other Hawks raced into the room. “We’ve got weapons.”
“Tell him. He’s in charge.” Torrio cocked his head at Taylor.
A little surprised, the trooper turned to the Eagles’ CO. “We found a crate of laser rifles and a crate of MACs. They’re both meant to go on those CASPer suits, so the MACs have drum ammo containers.”
“That ain’t gonna work,” Taylor said. “As much as I’d like to have ‘em, we can’t operate them.”
“I can,” Haju said as he came through the end door.
“Fine,” Taylor said. “Bring one of the MACs and an ammo drum,
