Star Force: Mastermind (SF32) Page 3

  The reply wasn’t swift in coming, leaving the three lizards floating in place up against the enemy structure as another group swam up behind them, only 20 or so meters further west and diverted to join them. By the time a strategy had been formed their small group had grown to 18 in number, with 4 det packs amongst them.

  Then as one they all received new instructions via their comm units and they began swimming away from the shipyard towards one of the smaller enemy buildings that did not have defensive shields. Apparently only their largest two did, meaning they could access the others and the connecting tunnels beneath and use them to gain access to the primary targets.

  Like a school of slow moving fish the lizard infantry redeployed as more around them were snatched up by the quick moving Human craft. By luck or sheer numbers the group of 18, which had now grown to 22 as it picked up another bunch enroute, made it across the gap to a moderately small building rising up some three stories above the seafloor and stretching out across it for a considerable distance.

  Using a series of chirps the lizards coordinated with each other and the first one swam up and set its det pack at the base, hoping to use the seafloor to concentrate the blast into the structure, though in truth it wasn’t sure how strong it was. It swam off, with the others even further back forming a small semi-circle, and waited for the brief delay to expire.

  The det pack exploded with a muted ‘thump,’ kicking up a cloud of silt in the process. As soon as the ripple reach the lizards the next one began swimming towards the target and placed its det pack in the crater the first explosion had left, which had done as much damage to the rock as it had the wall. The lizard wedged it in the best it could, set the timer, and swam off.

  When it blew a third moved in, and with its detonation contained even further inside the growing crater it succeeded in cracking the outer wall, allowing a bit of water to begin leaking inside.

  The fourth det pack then punched a hole in the side large enough to begin draining in water with considerable suction. The waiting lizards without det packs swam forward, staggered, and let the flow grab them and pull them through the small breach. They landed inside in what looked like white water rapids as the ocean water flowed from one chamber into another before it leveled out enough for the first of them to find their feet and stand up, finally opening the flap over their air breathing lungs and sucking in the Human atmosphere.

  With their plasma rods held at their sides, glowing bright even underneath the Human lights, they began working their way through the flooding areas looking for enemies to kill.

  “Go, go, go!” Uma-19448 shouted at the techs running through the corridors to her position near the entrance to the subterranean tunnels that connected the processing center to the other buildings around Manaan, five of which contained routes straight into the main building of the city. Already there was a couple of inches of water around the Archon’s feet, with the running techs splashing up a storm as another explosion was heard from inside the building.

  Twenty seconds later a surge of water made its way to her position, knocking two techs off their feet and dunking their heads in the white water that was now up to her knees.

  Uma fought her way through it and yanked one of the techs up, pushing him back towards the entrance to the tunnel.

  “How many behind you?” she yelled to be heard over the rushing water that containment fields were fighting to hold back, but the lizards were systematically knocking them out and letting the water precede them further into the building.

  “I don’t…know,” the man said, coughing as the other tech climbed to her feet, her long hair stuck to her uniform soaking wet.

  “Down,” Uma ordered, pushing the man back a couple of meters. “Deep breath,” she warned before pushing him back another as the rushing water was now up to the red armor on her thighs.

  The tech grabbed his nose then fell down as he stepped on a containment shield designed to hold back water and not solid objects. The transition was slow, like he was sinking into sand, but his feet came out into dry air beneath him and quickly found a steep staircase that he stumbled his way down until his head came through and he was able to both breathe and regain his balance.

  He walked down the stairs and around a corner, coming out onto what looked like a highway-sized tunnel that led straight to the left and right, with a junction visible not far to the left that a lot of other techs were running down. Not wanting to get left behind he took off after them, stumbling at first in his wet shoes before adjusting and picking up the pace.

  “Anyone behind you?” Uma asked the female tech when she got to her.

  “At least one,” she said in a controlled panic as the water continued to rise, though it was being stemmed as it drained out into other areas of the building.

  The Archon pointed down and the tech nodded, then dove head first into the water and pushed her way through the containment field as Uma fought her way upstream looking for other personnel that had failed to evacuate in time. This wasn’t the first building the lizards had hit, and the evacuation orders had come out a few minutes prior to the hull breach, but there had been a lot of personnel continuing their work refining the raw materials already collected so other factories within the city perimeter could keep making ammunition to feed to the defense forces.

  The level 79 adept took a knee in the water near the doorway where the current was the strongest and activated one of her leg jets, helping to propel her through into the corridor as she grabbed the doorjamb for additional leverage. She had plenty of air in her armor, and could produce more oxygen from the water itself if needed, but the techs weren’t so equipped and were in danger of drowning if they didn’t get them all out. They also didn’t have comm units or locator beacons, so she and the few other Archons in the building were having to improvise.

  “Anyone out there!” she yelled, using her helmet’s external mic to amplify the sound.

  “In here!” a muted response sounded from her left, prompting her to walk/swim that way painfully slow as she fought the current. “Hurry!”

  “Trying,” Uma said to herself as she slogged her way down the hall. “Keep talking!”

  “In here!” the voice repeated, then a hand shot out into view just above the waterline.

  “Got it!” she answered back, dropping down underneath the water and using all four of her jets to plow her way forward, using her toes for additional leverage until she got to the door and ducked into its smaller side current.

  When she came up she saw two female techs perched on top of a table, one of which was bleeding and probably unconscious. A door on the opposite side had water flowing out into another section, creating the cross current.

  “I couldn’t leave her,” the conscious tech said, crying in addition to the water dripping down her face from her braided blonde hair.

  Uma let the current help her along then gripped the side of the table to steady her as she got to the pair…immediately seeing the plasma burn on the prone one’s left leg.

  “Is she alive?” Uma asked, not able to feel for a pulse with her gloves on.

  “She passed out, but she’s still breathing. I couldn’t get her out the door with the current, and there are lizards that way,” she said, pointing to the far door.

  Uma thought that odd, being essentially downstream, but she wasn’t going to argue with the wound on the other woman’s leg.

  “Go,” she ordered, picking up the unconscious one and setting her over the armor on her shoulders to keep her head away from the water as much as possible. “To the right. I’ll be behind you.”

  Without hesitation the tech jumped into the water and swam against the current, pushing with her feet when they touched bottom up until she got to the door, then she grabbed the wall and leveraged herself outside and into the heavier current.

  “Hang to the right and take the next open door,” Uma said, having to fight the water without her jets, but thankful for the extra weight helping to pin
her feet to the floor. When she got to the door she reached her right leg out and latched her ankle around the doorjamb, then pivoted the unconscious tech through as the water was now up to chest level. Down the hall she could see the other tech waiting, hanging onto the open doorway.

  Uma twisted out into the flow and kept at least one foot in front of her at all times, using it to balance herself upright so she didn’t tip the tech over into the water, knowing how quickly someone could drown when they weren’t conscious to close their mouth and hold their breath against even a little water.

  The other tech ducked out of the doorway just before Uma arrived, where the Archon used her left leg jet to nudge herself into the side flow and into a long room that split at the end.

  “Stay with me,” Uma said, letting the current carry her down to the other end of the room as the tech latched onto her arm twice for balance.

  When they got down to where the containment shield was, Uma swung the tech off her shoulders and held her head above water with an arm latched around her shoulders, but with the rest of her body in the water.

  “I need you to close her mouth and hold her nose, we have to go down,” Uma instructed, pointing below them with her free hand. “There’s a shield two steps ahead holding back the water. Keep her lungs clear and I’ll pull you both through, ok?”

  “How long…do I have to hold my breath?”

  “Less than 10 seconds,” Uma said bringing the two techs together, with the conscious one wrapping the other up in a bear hug.

  “Ok,” she said shaking as the water was nearly up to her neckline. The ceiling was high with plenty of air left, but the before long the pressure would start building to painful levels even if they did have air pockets remaining above the doorjambs.

  Uma ducked down underneath the waterline so she could see exactly where the shield was and moved over to it, sticking a foot in while gently dragging the pair of techs her way, with the conscious one walking the other through the still flowing water and keeping her upright. When Uma’s legs were partway through the shield and found a stair beneath she tapped the tech’s leg three times…then twice…then once more before pulling both of them down into the water.

  Using her weight the Archon pulled both of them down through the shield as fast as possible, dropping them into an uncomfortable fall that she only managed to halfway catch.

  Uma immediately got the unconscious one upright and tipped over, then tapped on her back just to make sure she didn’t have any water in her lungs while the other one coughed considerably, probably haven gotten water up her nose or maybe not having understood the tapping countdown.

  For good measure Uma picked up the unconscious one off her feet and inverted her for a moment, using gravity to drain any water out of her lungs but apparently the other one had done a good job of keeping it out of her friend, just not herself.

  “Let’s go,” she urged, picking the tech up over one shoulder and hurrying down the stairs with the other one following in her footsteps. Once out into the underground tunnel the only people visible in the distance were Archons, one to her left and one further down on the right that ducked out of sight at the same time she heard plasma fire…which meant the lizards were close.

  As she jogged with the techs she toggled her battlemap and comm system, identifying who that Archon was.

  “You got lizard trouble?” she asked Jaden-11833, another adept who’d gotten internal security duty while the acolytes were busy fighting the lizards outside.

  “Their…rods can fire like rifles in the air,” he warned, apparently in the middle of a skirmish. “I could use some help, they keep popping the containment fields.”

  “Got some techs to deliver, then I’ll be back.”

  “Use your plasma rifle. They’re not waiting for the chambers to fill up.”

  “Copy that,” Uma said as they made their way down the hall to the other Archon who was guarding a spur tunnel that ran over to another building, one that wasn’t yet flooding. Those areas that were under assault were being tagged on the battlemap so they could tell at a glance where it was safe to move the techs through as all the external buildings were being evacuated, though it seemed like those that used this tunnel were already on the move and long gone.

  “I’ll take her,” the other Archon offered, freeing up Uma so she could head back the other way.

  “Thanks,” she said, all but tossing the unconscious tech into the other’s hands before sprinting back down the tunnel. The aquatic armor she wore wasn’t exactly graceful, given its bulkier nature, but it was still Archon armor and therefore had to be at least partially agile, allowing her to run at a decent gait all the way down to where Jaden’s tag had ducked down a side entrance.

  She found another stairwell up and took it, unslinging her plasma rifle from the rack underneath the flap on her back, next to which she carried a needler, both of which were standard issue for internal deployments, given that one never knew when they’d need to step outdoors for a swim or when the water would come pouring in as it was now. The plasma rifle was configured to be water safe, though firing it submerged was next to pointless unless you just wanted to make steam bubbles.

  Uma charged up the staircase and through another containment shield, coming up through only a few inches of water, meaning this section of the building must have only recently been breached, given the cellular nature of the design and the hundreds of individual containment fields set up throughout the structure.

  “Bringing them to you,” Jaden’s voice said, with Uma seeing his approach on the battlemap. “Ambush please.”

  “Gladly,” she said, ducking back into the room away from the doorway so they couldn’t see her. A moment later Jaden’s red armor splashed into view then out the opposite doorway…then a trio of lizards came through after him, with Uma lighting up the second in line first with a shot to the midsection. As it fell she targeted the first before it could snap its unwieldy plasma rod around, downing it with a pair of shots before turning back to hit the third as more lizards were pushing through after it.

  Jaden came back into the room and between the two of them mowed down the wet lizards with plasma, leaving a foggy haze in the room from all the vaporized water.

  “Thanks,” he said, ducking out of the room and heading back towards the tunnel.

  “Any more?” she asked, following him.

  “Not here…not that I saw, but I want to stay ahead of the water as long as they’re doing the same.”

  “Lead on,” she said, checking her battlemap as she followed him back to the containment field and the now half foot of water covering it.

  4

  A mongoose zipped down the main tunnel from Manaan and turned hard, tipping up on its left-side tires slightly as its shocks banked it through the inertial-laden curve, but it managed to stay upright thanks to the squat wheeled design and leveled out in one of several spur lines that ran through the bedrock and out to the adjacent buildings under lizard incursion.

  As soon as he made the turn Kyler could see flashes of weaponsfire in the distance, so he didn’t spare any speed and ramped the mongoose up into its top gears as he held to the right side of the tunnel, passing by a few straggling techs running away from the fighting and towards a trio of parked mongooses taking on passengers. They were the larger versions, used to haul personnel out and back through these tunnels regularly, but Kyler’s was the individual variety and it most definitely wasn’t stopping to pick up and evacuate people…he was heading straight for the fighting.

  Most of the arrowheads were still in the water, taking down what infantry they could, but that front was already a lost battle with hundreds of lizards now down inside the network of tunnels and more swimming in to join them. Knowing that, Kyler had come back to Manaan and hit the armory, grabbing as much combat gear as he could carry on one mongoose and heading out to the ground fighting as quickly as he could.

  He had to zigzag a bit to avoid other pedestrians, most of who
m were Archons redeploying from other assignments to reinforce their subsurface lines. Kyler sent out a telepathic warning ahead of him and most of them moved to the sides, though they had little forewarning given the speed the mongoose was moving.

  Even as he watched the road ahead he was monitoring the battlemap inside his helmet and was well aware of what was happening up ahead. The lizards were breaking through shield after shield in the tunnel, allowing it to flood and fighting out of it to the next section, figuring that they stood a much better chance against the Archons in the water than they did in the air. They may have been right about that, but that didn’t mean the Archons couldn’t defeat them submerged, it was just that at the moment there were too few to counter the incursion, which was why the lizards were gaining ground.

  That and the problem of weapons. Plasma couldn’t fire into the water at the lizards…and needlers couldn’t fire through the air to get into the water, making the transitional areas that were partly flooded up for grabs and the lizards were pushing these zones forward all the way down into the tunnels, having essentially water-grabbed several buildings above that they were no doubt setting up shop in as far as their incoming reinforcements were concerned.

  That was about to change as soon as Kyler got up to them. This wasn’t the only tunnel under assault, but it was the one that had seen the lizards get closest to Manaan and the trailblazer was going to put a stop to any more forward progress here while other acolyte Archon teams were moving out to the other tunnels to reinforce the adepts that had been on station at the time of the first incursions.

  The lone ranger on the planet, Kyler continued to speed down the tunnel in his green aquatics armor that looked odd on the back of a mongoose, but none the less it was getting him up to the fighting quicker than any other transport along with a stash of weapons for the other Archons tied down to the back of the vehicle.