The Mongrel: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Hunter's Moon Book 1) Read online

  A second explosion rent the sky, raining flaming wreckage across the battle space. The SAGA missile savaged carcasses of three crab-walkers tumbled like real world crabs caught in a riptide. On a parallel descent for the broken drop pod, the other vehicle activated its retro-pulse engines to slow its ride to the surface.

  The squad made short work of the remaining drones, knocking them out of the sky with far more ease, now that there weren't dozens of them. The boys quickly descended on Lance Sergeant D'Marco in the litter, cautiously checking him for injuries.

  Alkadi dropped beside Lassiter, who lay still and bleeding into the ever thirsty sand. “Sergeant! He's still alive!”

  Trauma kits and SLAP patches were yanked from spots across their armor. Lassiter's face and eye were ravaged, but his airway seemed to be intact. LaGarron read the bio-scan from the lancer's helmet. The blast from the final Bug had made it inside his helmet, burning his face and eye. The impact from the repeated drone detonations against his armored head seemed to knock the kid out cold.

  “Vitals are strong, Sergeant,” Alkadi called out.

  “Good thing they make those lids strong as Hells,” LaGarron said.

  A blaster bolt sizzled past the Sergeant's leg, hitting something small and mechanical in the dirt. The squad whirled to see D'Marco, holding his smoking pistol. His limbs flopped, exhaustion and meds taking their toll on his ruined frame. “There was one more Bug creeping on you, Sergeant. Head on a swivel till this is over.”

  “Roger that, Lance Sergeant.”

  The fiery projectile ripped through the atmosphere, burning like a hot coal in the front while trailing smoke behind. Like some dragon from the tales of Old Sol, it slithered and roared its way to the ground.

  Hundreds of meters above the landscape, the glowing comet fired retro-thrusters, slowing its descent. The lancers looking up could see a drop pod still moving at an intense pace, about to splash into the sandy terrain, just past the landing pads.

  The pod rammed into the ground. Using directional rockets to control its altitude, it remained upright as it bounced several times. Several small impact craters led to its final resting place, spewing dirt and clumps of grass in all directions. The heat from the pod crystallized some of the dirt into glass, ending the fury of its arrival with a tinkling sound, like wind chimes on a porch.

  Three sections of the pod moved away from the central core, further righting the vehicle. The covers of the outward protrusions slid upward, unsealing the contents of the vehicle. Gasses from the interior vented into the air, reminiscent of more tales from Old Sol. Like a genie from the bottle, the fumes were a portent of something terrible to come.

  An armored leg stepped from the smoke, the vented fluted barrel of a heavy blaster rifle raised to waist height. The weapon dragged wisps of vapor with it as the rest of the CR-335 Vindicator combat robot stalked from its perch within the pod.

  Twenty-Six

  One of the Vindicators fell over smoking. Marshal Brand ripped his plasma sword free from its chest, turning resicarbon and wiring to slag. He had been shot twice by the bot, his armor absorbing the energy, but at the cost of ablating his chest armor down to the padding against his body. One more hit center mass, and the marshal would be in serious trouble.

  Commander Hylaeus was dodging back and forth between the two crab-walkers. The top-mounted heavy blaster turrets were trying to trace a line to trap him in their sights. He would see the pattern of attack in the Way and dodge appropriately. Bolts that missed him had been deflected by the energy shields surrounding both mechs. On two occasions, the bolts found their way into the back of the surviving Vindicator. The heavy-plated back armor did wonders for taking the brunt of the first shot. The second made its way into the back of the right knee, shredding servomotors and blowing out several feed wires. The bot had a severe limp but was still making its way to the front door of the fort.

  The two crab-walkers were trying to pass Hylaeus to get to the door beside the Vindicator. One of them jumped into the air, folding its legs beneath it. Power field generators transferred energy into repulsors under the mech. It hovered for a second before roaring around the commander, coming to rest meters away. It was lined up for a clear shot. Any misses wouldn't hit its partner, but would hit Marshal Brand.

  “Whoa! This battalion has some good gear!” Hylaeus yelled, raising his hand.

  The monsters fired at the commander. Red energy bolts slammed in at a rate of five per second. The high cycle churned up the sand and caused earth to blow upwards as the shots traced up and down the commander's position. After several seconds of fire, the smoke and dust cleared, with the commander standing in a small crater, safe in a cocoon of the Crucible's making.

  He placed the heavy blaster pistol back onto his hip. Coming away with a sword handle, he swung it into a forward guard position. A snap blade shot out from the handle, locking its segmented body into place before turning black. Surrounded by a corona of golden energy, the blade hummed its way through the air. The commander raised the sword above him in a high guard.

  Both mechs had been so intent on killing this combatant using their own gunfire against them, they had ignored the other still left on the field. Marshal Brand used the power of the Way to propel himself at a speed far faster than a normal sprint. He jack-rabbited toward the standing mech before tucking his knees under him. Sliding beneath the bot, he came to rest just below its underside. His blade roared to life, the halo of gold flecked blue swallowed the blackened blade as he thrust up, into the armored plating.

  The mech fired its repulsor, jetting up and away from the marshal. It folded its legs, enacting the same configuration that its partner had.

  Brand rolled to his knees and swiped at the escaping mech. Now outside of its energy shield, the swing was repelled with a loud metallic chirp as the two opposing energies bounced off of each other. He stepped forward before circling back, coming up behind the commander. Back to back, both men assessed the battle.

  “Are we in trouble?” Brand asked his senior.

  “Little bit,” Hylaeus responded.

  The two took a breather, the mech closer to the fort began to back up, moving to catch and cover its Vindicator. The crab-walker began a series of erratic movements, clearly meant to put both men on guard.

  “Bad news from the fort,” Hylaeus started. “One of Tom's techs was the traitor. She set all this in motion. Worse still, she just called for a heavy drop.”

  “No breaks for us today,” Brand panted. The digital crackle in his voice made his weariness sound even more palpable. “More crabs?”

  “More Vinnies from the looks of it. As for breaks, I have one ace left. Just notified him about our friend in the fort.”

  “Great.” Brand seemed less than thrilled at the prospect of being shot in the chest again. His lack of excitement might have also come from hearing that Lasher was just notified of their situation. It would be unbearable to have him swoop in to bail them out.

  The trailing crab-walker dialed up the power to its repulsors and flew at the marshals. It pushed toward the two men, firing its heavy blaster turret in an attempt to get them to move. At the same time, the Vindicator and remaining crab loosed a volley at them.

  Hylaeus drew power from the Crucible, focusing it through the Way. The shots went wide, some even guiding around them to shoot the oncoming mech. The energy shield started to waver, as the bot in hover mode had to split its power draw.

  Brand threw his power sword at the failing shield. The blade bit through the sensor suite in the front, burying itself into the command matrix. The blade stayed ignited, turning everything inside the bot to molten ruin.

  It sputtered, diving into the dirt and coming to rest with its back end up out of the sand. Its legs quivered as the backup systems tried to reroute executive functions. The burning blade continued to rend the internals of the mech, bringing its drive time to a rapid halt.

  The two mechs at the entrance of the fort stopped firing. The
crab-walker went into a blocking stance. Bringing its two front legs together to form a shield wall, it sealed the entrance while protecting anything that might come through. The Vindicator went down to a knee and deployed its mortar system, ready and waiting to deploy high-angle death at a moment's notice.

  Hylaeus felt Brand sliding against his back. He turned in time to catch his comrade before he collapsed in the dirt. He had taken a burst to the chest. His upper armor had absorbed the first two shots, but the last had blown through the stripped abdominal plate, burning a hole in his intestines.

  Brand struggled to breathe, even though the respirator forced him to.

  Hylaeus set his sword down before he spoke. “Nice bit of work with that sword throw. Good teamwork. Now as a reward, I'm putting you on light duty. Your only mission for the rest of the day is not to die.”

  Brand nodded and coughed. “Might not be up to us.”

  The loading ramp dropped, exposing the cargo bay to the thunder of wind and turbines. Lasher stepped to the edge of the deck plate, staring down at the landscape of rolling grasslands passing by. Doom-Snuggle stood beside him. His paws were enacting magnetic grappling systems to keep him locked to the plate. It made the mech very useful in zero gravity when assaulting the skin of a capital ship.

  Lasher looked over and smiled. “Kel says two minutes before we pass over the fort. Last chance to bail, my friend.”

  The panther-mech looked up. “If you are asking me if I would rather not fight with you today, then my answer is that I go where you go.”

  Lasher continued to yell over the wind. “We chose this life. You didn't. You don't have to do this.”

  “You called me friend when you freed me. I called you ally when you gave me a choice. We are called family after risking our function for each other. I go where you go, if that is your choice, of course.”

  Lasher smiled. When his mentor died, he was full of rage at how alone he felt. He never would have imagined that the Crucible would have formed a family from a murder-borg, a criminal, and a doom-snuggle.

  “Absolutely.” Lasher nodded.

  “Now, enough mush. More mayhem!” The bot’s voice came out like gravel over a smooth floor. It spoke of terrible tidings for whichever ear it whispered into.

  Lasher leaned out the open ramp, surveying the battlefield. “Kel. Execute a high orbit around the fight. Have Kat use the guns for a strafing run. Let's give the lancers some breathing room.”

  “Won't that mean that if they aren't breathing heavy, fighting whatever is going on down there, they'll be breathing down our necks?” Kel asked over the comm.

  “You let me worry about that. After the sweep, run right over the top of the fort with the throttle up,” Lasher said.

  Kel groaned. “I remember the last time we did that. Glad I get to fly the ship, this time.”

  “Me too. I need someone who knows how to fly, staying out of range of those SAGA missiles. Once we drop in, hit the horizon but stay on station.” Lasher tapped the mech on the shoulder, pointing out something on the ground. “We're going to need a fast pick-up.”

  “I still don't understand why we need to do this.” Kel asked.

  “There are answers down there that I need.” Lasher replied. “I'm not leaving until I get them or everyone dies screaming.”

  Doom-Snuggle stretched like a predatory animal ready to pounce. “I am onboard with this plan!”

  Hylaeus held Brand like a father cradling a newborn.

  “Run...” Brand managed to stammer.

  “Not a chance.” The force commander whispered to his friend.

  There were two mechs at the entrance of the fort: one of the crab-walkers and a Vindicator. Hylaeus had dragged Brand behind the corpse of the downed crab-walker to protect them against direct fire from the two. The Vindicator had its indirect fire pods open and waiting. The commander thought it strange it wasn’t using them to finish them off.

  As Brand struggled to breathe and remain conscious, his eyes took on a strange look. He appeared to be watching something in the sky. Something that only he could see.

  “What is it?”

  “I sense...”

  It started as a rumble. The rumble became a drumbeat, like the sound of the apocalypse roaring toward an unsuspecting populace, too ignorant or indifferent to get out of its way.

  The bots up ahead began active scanning. Even though the crab-walker seemed duty bound to protect the door, it moved slightly forward to extend its shields about the Vindicator. The Vinny brought up its rifle and scanned the terrain, looking for a threat it could only detect indirectly.

  Brand's voice crackled through the external speaker. “I sense...”

  “Doom-Snuggle!” A section of sand detonated from beside the downed crab-walker. Several hundred kilograms of murder-thirsty panther-mech roared out of the ground, spraying Brand and Hylaeus in displaced sand. While airborne, it shot several mini-missiles from its dorsal launchers. They impacted against the crab-mech's shields, while some of the heat plume from the explosions ripped into the facade of the fort.

  The panther rolled away, sinking its rocket pods in favor of its remaining dorsal blaster. It moved like a cat chasing a ball of yarn across the grassy carpeted landscape. Every shot from the enemy bots missed the enemy death kitty as it rampantly charged in odd and erratic patterns.

  The sound of an engine rocketed overhead, causing the commander to search the sky. That was when he saw what Brand had seen. In the Crucible, most people appeared as an ember, each unique and identifiable if you knew what to look for. Whatever the passing ship had dropped was a streak of fire, like a meteor burning into the atmosphere.

  Lasher crashed down on top of the crab-walker. Enhanced by the Way, his drop and descent had turned the former gladiator into an inertia-fired projectile. Servomotors and struts strained under the impact of the enraged apprentice. Duradium plating cracked and bent as Lasher ended his plummet in a crouch. Jumping from the ruined mech, passing through its flickering shield, he landed facing them both with his sword and his Plasmaxe active. There was murder in his eyes and he aimed to see that desire through.

  Lasher rolled across the ground, evading another stomp of the crab-walker's piston-like leg. It hopped back, trying to get a shot off with its heavy blaster turret.

  He jumped backwards, ducking at the last minute as the Vindicator used its ruined rifle like a club. The mongrel had melted the barrel in the first seconds of the fight. Lasher rolled, swinging his energized sword at its left leg. A thrumming whoosh sounded out as the blade’s arc sliced above previous cuts. The leg was damaged before and now Lasher was going to make certain it came off. “Fluff!”

  “Talk to me!”

  “Going to chop up some crab. When I back it up, I can guarantee that Vinny is going to try and rain down on you.” Lasher yelled over the sounds of the fight.

  “I'm not worried. I am sitting with one of your fellow space wizards. We should be fine.”

  Lasher smiled despite the seriousness of the situation. Space wizards.

  He hurled himself forward, propelled by the Way. The energy shield sputtered and died under the dual onslaught of the sword and Plasmaxe. He drove the blade into what would be its face.

  As Lasher anticipated, the Vindicator launched a series of mortars the second it was clear of the mongrel. Its intent was to take out the Doom Cat causing it so much trouble.

  Five projectiles launched from its back at a high angle, easily aimed to come down around the downed crab-walker, killing the trio using it for cover. The auto-blaster cannon on Doom-Snuggle's back opened up, guided by its combat resolution matrix. It snubbed all five shells in the air and then had enough time to fire a burst at the mech. The robot crab backed up to the wall of the fort, rounding the corner because it was too big to fit in the door.

  “Good for nothing space wizards...” Doom-Snuggle huffed.

  Lasher pounded his Plasmaxe into the back of his sword. Repeated hammer strikes with the axe cau
sed the sword to act like a splitter for cutting firewood. The mech's face ruptured, sparking its sensor suite and filling the air with the smell of burnt plastic. Lasher continued to hammer, driving the energized blade deeper into its structure.

  The crab-walker panicked, trying to launch into repulsor mode to shake off the dangerous parasite. Lasher growled. Tapping into the Crucible, he pushed waves of force through the Way to keep the legs from folding in to crush him. The mech stumbled one way, before a short repulsor flight to another, all while Lasher hammered away.

  When he cut to the back, he roared. The Way was clear through the Crucible. Power flowed through him allowing his rage to take shape. The mech sparked and splattered as Lasher stretched out his arms freeing the weapons from the monster bot. The action of his body seemed to signal to the Way to rip the mech in half. Its parts flew in opposite directions, catching fire before its power core ruptured.

  Doom-Snuggle poured on the blaster fire, loping toward the remaining Vindicator. It zigged and zagged on approach, using complex combat algorithms to off-balance his opponent. The Vindicator opened its palm, firing a dazzling bolt from it. It struck the Doom Cat right in the shoulder, blasting it into a forward roll. Even though it changed direction from the force of the blast, the cat kept on moving toward its opponent.

  Cutting a diagonal swath across the Vinny, the panther jumped. Vibro-coring technology, which had turned asteroids into profitable mining opportunities for the Frontier, had been used as the basis for many of its close combat weapons. Its body energized, sending the Doom Cat on a collision course with its prey. It hit the sand, disappearing like a great white shark after a breach.

  The wall the Vindicator was leaning against led to the sheer cliff that the fort sat upon. It was scanning back and forth, looking for any sign of the cat. It thought it caught sight of shifting sand and raised its palm blaster to deal with the threat. The bot began to pick up a sound, like waves rushing to the shore. It scanned frantically, trying to gauge the source of the new input.