“What are you going to do?” Holland asked me.
“Jade and I will sneak onto Eclipse’s ship and disarm the incoming fleet of robots from the source.” I patted my pocket. “And I may have another surprise for her.”
____________
The doors opened to the exterior of the Board’s HQ center, and Jade and I cautiously stepped out. The sounds of the arriving robot army could be heard the moment we were outside. The ground vibrated with their steps.
“Varn, what’s the word?” I asked into my helmet’s earpiece.
“Source of the shields located. We’ve had some trouble with Liberty but managed to destroy two opponents. Heading to the power grid now. If the lights go off, don’t blame me,” he said with a laugh.
“Good work, Wallish. And Jinx, was the request for assistance sent?”
“Jinx has sent the all call, and we’ve received confirmation from twenty locations. A fleet is on their way, Hawk,” Varn told us.
Jade smirked at me. “We might actually win.”
“Then we’d better keep moving. Varn, we have an army of robots directing to our position. Jade and I plan to disarm them. When the shields are down, you’ll have a massive fleet of Liberty ships on your tail. Get out of here if necessary.”
“I won’t leave you, Hawk. Don’t worry about us. Aster is quite the sharpshooter.”
The parking pad at the ground level only had a few idle craft. The Primary vessels were shiny and ornate. Eclipse’s personal ship was unique. It was pieced together from three haulers like Capricious.
It loomed three times as high as the CEO transports, making it an obvious target. Octavia expected Eclipse to be with the CEOs, but that was a long shot. I assumed the Liberty leader was on board that ship right now. From there, she could control the robots, as well the means to escape. She wasn’t the type to die for her cause. I could tell from our brief interactions. Now that I thought about it, she wasn’t doing this for the people. She was power-hungry, jealous of the life her sister had built for herself as the top of the Board.
The first part of her dream had been fulfilled when Octavia disbanded the Primaries for the war effort, but that wasn’t enough. Elise aspired to rule. She wanted the people to dub her their savior, liberating the masses from their corporation ties. But I doubted she knew what the other side of that looked like.
“Halt!” someone shouted. It was a young man wearing a brown leather vest, holding an old-world rifle.
“Stop where you are.” My gun was gripped tight, and I scanned the area for signs of more Liberty soldiers. None were in sight.
“Eclipse sent us!” Jade said. “She’s got an issue with her computer, and I’m the specialist.”
The guy relaxed. “Okay. Sorry about that. I’m just a bit nervous.” He sauntered closer, glancing at the sky as a Liberty vessel roared overhead. I took my chance, lunging at his weapon. I knocked it loose and punched him square in the jaw. It did the trick, and he crumpled to the ground.
“That was one heck of a shot,” Jade said. “His intuition was right.”
I’d never been much of a fighter, but I had a lot of pent-up energy. I just shrugged and dragged him off. I tore the man’s vest in half and used it to secure his hands behind him. By the time he came to, I hoped to be long gone.
We hurried across the parking lot. Eclipse’s ship’s ramp was open, and another soldier guarded it.
“I have an idea,” Jade said, indicating the ship beside Eclipse’s. We ran over to it, and Jade called out. “Help me!” Terror rang from her lips, and even I wanted to assist the damsel in distress.
When the guy rounded the corner in search of some violent assault, Jade clubbed the back of his head with the butt of her gun. He remained upright, and she kicked his legs out. His skull bounced off the hard parking lot, and his eyes rolled as he lost consciousness.
“Nicely done, Serrano,” I whispered. Being around her didn’t help my frustration either.
Capricious held the primary computer system near the bridge, in a self-contained room that linked the network to each screen throughout the hauler. On a modified vessel like this one, there was no clear indication where to turn. We moved as fast as we could, keeping to the edges of the cargo hold as we entered.
Voices carried from down the hall, and from the sounds of things, it was crowded. The moment we began to exit the hold, the ramp raised, and I felt the familiar hum of the ship’s engines as they fired to life. Damn it. They were moving.
The robots were only ten minutes from arriving, and I suspected they’d penetrate the bunker where the CEOs hid. I didn’t have a lot of love for them, but there was a chance that Bryson Kelley was with them. But the more I thought of it, the more I doubted that. He was probably already in search of his wife on the alien world of Dutis.
Time was running out. We hadn’t risen off the ground yet, but would soon. Eclipse probably didn’t want to be around when the massacre began.
We crossed the hall, moving for the central hauler’s bridge. My gut told me that was where we’d find our answers.
“Hands up!” a woman shouted. More footsteps echoed nearby, and I sighed when I saw we were surrounded. “If it isn’t our first-place champions, coming to infiltrate us.” She laughed, and the rest of her Liberty friends joined in.
I counted twenty of them, most unarmed in the safety of their own vessel. Jade was close, our shoulders bumping into one another. We had two guns. Two against twenty wasn’t the best odds, but I couldn’t give up.
“I said hands up. Are you deaf?” The woman was tall, and her face held a permanent smirk.
“We want to speak
