As we walked toward the stairs, I noticed a message in my HUD. It said, “Connection lost.” Everyone near me still showed as green, but everyone else had gone red including Kayla. That meant that we had no backup or any way to tell anyone we needed help. Plus, everyone back at base was probably freaking out now or would be soon.
“Hey,” I said, “We just lost everybody. I’m going to run back into the room and tell them what’s going on.”
“Hurry,” Daniel said. Continue reading Holes: Part 6
Over the comm I asked, “Do we have time to think about our next move, or are we best off moving forward?”
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment, “We don’t have long, but we’ve got a little while before it becomes too dangerous.”
“Okay. I’m going to send out a roachbot to see what’s ahead. If Blue’s can scan this place without giving them too much of a hint that we’re here, maybe she can too?” Continue reading Holes: Part 5
“Crap,” I muttered.
Since he’d said it over the comm in addition to me, Cassie glanced up at us from the landing, asking, “How bad?”
Daniel shrugged, “There’s still too much flux to be sure. Hey Blue and Accelerando, how does the first floor look?” Continue reading Holes: Part 4
Zooming in on Yoselin, I noticed that she held something in her hand. From this distance, her hand covered most of it, but I could tell that it glowed. In my head, my implant told me, “probable Abominator origin.”
On the one hand, that wasn’t good news, but on the other, it didn’t seem to be harming anyone. The woman laying on the ground in front of her mech pulled herself up and stood as I watched. She walked up to Yoselin and started talking. Continue reading Holes: Part 3
Over to my left, Cassie pulled herself up from where she’d been lying—on a desk in one of the cubicles and partially into one of the walls. Then she jumped over the next cube and into the next. For a moment I wondered where she was going, but then I knew. She was going after her sword.
I’d added tracking devices to it and other pieces of equipment that were likely to get lost. She could see it in her HUD just like I could if I wanted.
The mechs on the left side on the far side of the cubicles next to the windows fired at her, but not soon enough to hit. Pieces of the cubicles exploded outward as the bullets blew through. Continue reading Holes: Part 2
Cables popped out as I pulled the panel away and threw it on the floor. The man inside was screaming and trying to untangle himself from the harness. Meanwhile, the mech’s arms drooped and the mech stopped moving.
It had taken more effort to knock it on its back than I would have expected. On the other hand, as mechs went, it was squat and had wide legs. The center of gravity might be low. I supposed that might be a plus if you were expecting to protect your base with barely trained, mind-controlled civilians.
Seeing as how the mech didn’t appear to be about to explode, I pointed my arm at him and activated the paralysis ray. Continue reading Holes: Part 1
Firing off several goobots, I saw them race around my teammates and explode into a gooey mess that hit the older man with the Swiss Army knife along with two women in suits, a short blond woman in her 20s and a freckled woman in her 40s.
The strands reached into the crowd, hitting a few more people I couldn’t see as well along with the ceiling and the floor. I’d designed the bots to spread out and hit something that wouldn’t move. Continue reading Transitions: Part 10
Jaclyn and Izzy stepped into the warehouse as the red beams of lasers appeared in the smoke. Izzy grabbed a missile out of the air, crushed it, and threw the pieces to the ground before smashing through one of the building’s undamaged bits of wall.
I’d have fired off the anti-personnel lasers to give them cover, but between the explosions, smoke, fire, and moving figures inside, I wouldn’t be doing them any favors. Continue reading Transitions: Part 9
Minutes later, I was running through the plan with Jaclyn and the Probationers. Jaclyn had heard all of what we had in the process of keeping the rest of the team involved, but she was listening in as she ran to Indiana.
Not only couldn’t I see her face, but I only saw one of the Probationers as he sat in the jet they were flying. All I could see of the Atoner was his red and white costume, the metallic gray of his exoskeleton, and the gadgets that hung from it. His helmet covered his face, giving a hint of light brown skin and dark, black hair.
Even though Grandpa had helped train him, all I knew about the man was that he’d killed his team while under mind control and changed his name to the Atoner afterward. Continue reading Transitions: Part 8
“I’m most worried about the mechs,” I said. “If we can do it without killing anyone on the floor, I’d like to start this thing by aiming the main gun at the lower level of the warehouse. Plus, as much as I’d like to investigate the Abominator generator, destroying it might be the better choice. If you think about it, if they’ve got one Abominator artifact, they might have more.”
Raising an eyebrow, Daniel said, “I didn’t even think about that, but you’re right. If they managed to find something like that and get it working, they’ve probably got more working.”
“Yeah,” Cassie nodded, “exactly that. The lab I grabbed the gun from didn’t just have the gun.” Continue reading Transitions: Part 7