He spun, swinging a hard fist and catching a second soldier in the helmet, the force of his blow cracking the faceplate and sending the enemy sprawling. A warning in his HUD gave him a split-second to duck away from an attack from his rear, which ended when Paige caught the attacker in the temple with her blaster. John sprang up toward a visibly frightened Relyeh Inahri, grabbing him by his arm and throwing him back and to the ground.

  The Intellect sprang from nowhere, landing on the downed soldier who struggled to rise. The end of the Intellect’s hand formed into a blade and it stabbed downward through the stricken enemy’s faceplate, stopping his struggle.

  “Watch the flank!” Dante shouted, first to fire back to the left side of the path. Their advance had caused the enemy to be more bold, and they were suddenly under heavier fire.

  “Cover!” John shouted, ducking against the corner of the nearest rise, joined there by Dante a moment later. They both shot back at the encroaching enemy, helping Dojun Squad catch them in a deadly crossfire.

  They were stupid to come out of cover. It was terrible tactics, driven by what? Fear? Desperation?

  John’s HUD flashed, picking up a new target coming at them from their intended entry point. It was bigger than any of the battle-armored soldiers they had faced so far and moving fast.

  “Abomination!” Hori shouted, the fear evident in his voice. “Take cover!”

  It came around a bend in the channel a moment later, splashing through gathered puddles, partially obscured by the intensifying rain. It wasn’t the way Colonel Jax had described it—like an oversized suit of battle armor. Not like that at all. Oversized was an understatement. It was nearly seven meters tall and almost too wide to fit in the space between the city-ship’s sloping towers. It wasn’t shaped like a human at all. Dozens of limbs connected to either side of an oblong center, where the glass of a cockpit was visible in the shape of a sharp slash down the center. Small extrusions like eyes surrounded the cockpit, casting red, green, and white light ahead of it into the street, while the appendages themselves reached out for anything they could grab propelling the machine forward at a ridiculous rate.

  It came forward a few meters, and then a pair of doors swung open on its underside, four barrels dropping out with them. Two of the barrels began to fire projectiles at John and the others.

  Large shells whipped through the rain and began ricocheting off the city-ship’s alloy hull, creating small sparks as they were redirected, flying around the battlefield at odd angles. It made them all the more dangerous.

  “Down!” John shouted diving and rolling behind cover as rounds exploded past his helmet. One of Dojun Squad’s members was too slow.The heavy caliber shells tore right through the Inahri’s battle armor and cut the organic material inside to ribbons. “Hori, how do we fight that thing?”

  “We don’t,” the Inahri soldier replied.

  “That isn’t an option right now,” John snapped back. “I need an answer.”

  “We need to get in close,” Hori replied. “We need to get onto it. There’s usually a weak spot on the back near the power plant. Damage that, and it will blow.”

  All they had to do was get onto it. John ducked his head out, watching its many limbs flail around it as it continued its approach. It was a hundred meters away and closing fast.

  No problem. John quickly brought up the city-ship’s schematic, checking the area around them. “Sergeant,” John said, talking to Dojun Squad’s leader. He didn’t know the man’s name. “Take your squad around the structure to this mark. Earthers, I want you to come around here. Get behind it. I’ll draw its fire and lead it into position.”

  “Sergeant, that’s suicide,” Paige said.

  “Not exactly. Do it. Now!”

  The Abomination was still approaching, though it had lost its targets and stopped shooting. The battle armor’s sensors were reading more soldiers coming up from the rear, reinforcements from inside. They weren’t going to have much time to do this, and if the thing’s controller realized what they were doing…

  The pilot wouldn’t. The Inahri didn’t engage in this type of combat very often, and this was precisely why Colonel Jax had deployed him here.

  “Intellect, with me,” John said, bringing the artificial intelligence to his side. “We’re going out there. I want full shields, as much as you can manage.”

  He closed the schematic and leaned out from cover. The thing was almost on top of him, even more imposing from close in. Would the Intellect be able to prevent him from getting blasted to nothing?

  He was about to find out.

  He stepped out into its path.

  Chapter 38

  The Abomination seemed to hesitate a moment, as if John’s sudden presence was a projection cast by the Intellect standing between him and the giant machine.

  The hesitation didn’t last.

  The machine started shooting again. Bullets whipped toward John, but rained down, captured by the Intellect’s flare of shield energy.. It only took seconds for nearly a hundred rounds to fire, all of them captured by the shields.

  John’s heart started to race. Was that fear? He looked at his HUD, surprised to find his squad wasn’t even close to being in position. “Earthers, what’s the holdup?” he asked.

  The Abomination continued its advance, closing within twenty meters. It sent another volley John’s way, the Intellect capturing the assault. The Axon AI was able to stop the bullets, but it couldn’t help him against the dozen flexible arms, each one easily large and powerful enough to crush him, battle armor or not.

  “Sarge, we’re in trouble,” Dante reported. “We’re pinned down and taking heavy fire.”

  “Roger. Dojun, it’s on you.” There was no reply. “Dojun?” John checked his HUD. The entire squad was missing. Shit.

  “Intellect, cut left toward the tower.”

  The Intellect obeyed him immediately, breaking to the left with him, protecting him from the Abomination’s assault.

  “Earthers, one of you needs to get behind this thing,” John said, ducking behind the tower. The gunfire stopped right away, though he could hear the machine still coming for him. “I don’t care who. I don’t care how. Just do it, or I’m going to die.”

  He had always assumed he would be okay with that outcome. Marla was waiting for him, and he had fought the good fight. Now that the possibility seemed so present, he realized he wasn’t quite ready to go. Not yet. Not while the people of Metro needed the Guardians. Not while so many lives were at stake.

  His plan might have failed.

  That didn’t mean he would.

  It didn’t mean he would have time to plan, either. A long, octopus-like arm shot past the corner, the clawed end grappling with him. Another appeared a moment later, and then a third came over the short tower, grabbing the wall a few meters above John’s head.

  John fired his rifle into one of the arms, testing it. The force of the blast put a dent in the alloy. It was something, but not nearly enough. He turned to run again, finding more cover twenty meters away.

  Only the cover wasn’t vacant. Red bolts started lashing out from the position. John ducked and rolled, two of the bolts hitting his battle armor without punching through it. He came up facing the enemy soldiers, aimed and fired, hitting one of them and knocking him down. Beside him, the Intellect joined the fight, extending its right hand and firing. The invisible projectile slammed the second soldier, clearing a path for him.

  But it was too late.

  The Abomination’s bulbous body came around the side of the tower, gun barrels swinging into position. John managed to get himself behind the Intellect as the machine began firing again, sending a spray of shells into the AI. Its shields failed, bullets ripping into it and leaving John within a centimeter of his life.

  “Hold on, Sarge,” Kiaan said.

  John glanced to his right in time to see the blue bolts of the Mengin’s cannons whip across the sky and into the side of the Abomination. Two of its limbs tore off, throwing it off-balance enough for its attack to suddenly go wide, its shells ricocheting off the side of the tower and past John.

  The Mengin whined past, a second Relyeh yun behind it, giving chase. There still wasn’t much time.

  “Intellect, set your self-destruct. Twenty seconds.”

  He didn’t even know if the AI had a self-destruct until the control ring vibrated, acknowledging the request. He bent over and picked up the battered humanoid, slinging it effortlessly over his shoulder as he charged the Abomination, ticking the seconds away in the back of his mind.

  Could he get it in position and get away in time?

  The Abomination was recovering, and an arm shot out to grab him. John rolled beneath it, almost losing the Intellect on the way, springing back to his feet. He made it to the bottom of the machine’s massive body, still a few meters off the ground.

  “Intellect, when I throw you, grab on,” he said.

  The control ring buzzed again. John smiled. He dropped the ion rifle, getting a two-handed grip on the AI. The Abomination was trying to back up to reach him, its weakness exposed. Another of its arms swept across its body, and John jumped, planting his feet on it for a little extra height. He bounded from it, using all the strength in his legs to gain another two meters. It put him close enough to the Abomination’s body that he didn’t even need to throw the Intellect. The AI grabbed the bottom of the Abomination’s arms, fingers already morphed into claws to dig in and hold on.

  John’s internal count hit twenty as he fell away. The heat of the Intellect’s detonation swept over him as he tumbled, hitting the ground hard and rolling away. Debris and flames licked at his armored body. The smaller explosion was followed an instant later by a larger one, the power plant breached and stability lost. Burning fluid splashed down on and around John as he got to his feet, putting his heavily-armored hand over his less armored faceplate and running blindly away.

  “Whooooohoooooo!” Kiaan shouted into the comm. “I can see that fireball from up here, Sarge.”

  “Earthers, status,” John said, still stumbling away from the remains of the Abomination.

  “Still pinned, Sarge,” Dante replied. “Gorush is down.”

  “Roger.” John could see the HUD behind his hand. He found his squad a hundred meters north, still short of his mark, which had a group of Relyeh soldiers covering it. If the Dojun squad hadn’t folded, those troops wouldn’t be there.

  He eyed the tactical, finding another route. The enemy would see him coming on their sensors, but it wouldn’t matter if he went in hard.

  He reached for his rifle, left hand grasping air before he remembered dropping the weapon. He rested his right hand on his sidearm. It wasn’t powerful enough to break through the battle armor.

  He shifted his left hand again, to the pair of xix on his back.

  “Earthers, get ready. Paige, keep doing what you do so well. I’m going in hot.”

  Chapter 39

  John didn’t know how fast he could run in the Inahri battle armor. Not until he actually attempted it. He had always been quick on his feet despite his size. It had served him well during his college football days, and it served him well now.

  He charged along the surface of the Seeker, in a narrow channel between two of the short towers which he assumed where embedded weapons positions like the one he had entered with Caleb. His feet skipped lightly across the ground despite the weight of the armor, the speed of his motion keeping him in the air for the majority of the time. His velocity was measured in the top right corner of the HUD, but it was printed in Inahrai symbols. He watched them go by to make sure he didn’t see the same one flash twice, meaning he was slowing down. As long as his momentum increased, as long as he moved fast, he would have a chance.

  Judging by the way the ground blurred beneath him, John guessed he was moving close to thirty klicks per hour, an impossible foot speed without an exosuit to keep him upright and in motion. He glanced at the tactical, noting the marks coming into better focus ahead and watching as half of them began to spin to cover the rear.

  John held an xix in each hand.He tapped them together activating the energy flow. He remembered his nanna’s knitting tips as he moved them across one another, quickly creating a web of energy.

  Bolts began whizzing toward him. He raised the xix in front of him, catching a few of them with the weapon, which captured the energy and stored it.

  “Earthers, five seconds,” he said, closing on the edge of the line. When the first volley didn’t drop him, two more of the Relyeh Inahri turned to join the attack. “Three seconds.”

  He brought the xix together and thrust each of them forward. Two bolts of lightning stretched out from the weapons, striking two of the enemy soldiers. Arcs of energy ran along their battle armor, which shut down momentarily in response.

  “Now!”

  John dove forward, sliding on the chest of the armor as the Earthers ahead of him came up from their cover and opened fire, multiple bolts pounded the two frozen Relyeh, piercing their protection and knocking them down. The other Inahri realized what was happening and began to turn again. At the same time, John rolled up among them, xix swinging and smashing into them. Electricity took their battle suits offline, and then Paige, Dante, and Hori finished the job.

  It was over in seconds, leaving six Relyeh Inahri dead at John’s feet. “Clear!”

  The other Earthers came out of hiding, rushing toward his position. John bent over one of the dead soldiers and took their rifle, his eyes landing on the face A woman. Young. Eyes open in surprise. Mouth twisted in pain. A wave of nausea washed over him, and he turned his head away.

  “Damn,” he said out loud, trying to breathe away the upset. He had no problem killing trife. This was something else. He never thought he could be military before the trife. He could never picture himself hurting another human being.

  “Sarge, are you okay?” Paige asked, reaching him.

  “Give me a minute.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I never killed another person before.”

  “You didn’t kill her. I did.”

  “With my help. I don’t want to be angsty about it. But it’s a new experience. It’s not me, you know?”

  “You’re a good man, Wash,” Dante said. “Kind and generous, and above all loyal. This is the first time for all of us. I don’t like it, but it has to be done. We didn’t come across the universe to die like this, and it’s either us or them.”

  John nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Sheriff.” He smiled. “I’m okay.” He glanced at the HUD, bringing up the schematic. “It looks like we cleared a path. Let’s not linger here.”

  He glanced at Paige, who was looking down at the dead Inahri woman. He caught a hint of sadness in her expression, but it vanished as she turned back to the squad.

  “Let’s move,” she said.

  “Form up, I’ve got point,” John said. He looked at Hori, remembering the loss of the Intellect. The Inahri had no idea what he was saying. He switched to the hand signals they had practiced, getting the remaining Inahri soldier to the rear of their wedge formation.

  They moved briskly across the city-ship, headed for the entry point still a hundred meters distant. The Relyeh had burned all of their assets trying to hold them further back, leaving the entry point undefended in the process. There was no way the enemy commander ever expected they would overcome the landing, an Abomination and a dozen soldiers with only two squads.

  “Kiaan, how are you doing up there?” John asked, finding the Inahri’s network had much, much better range than Space Force comms.

  “Holding steady at the edge of the cloud cover,” Kiaan replied.

  “Za Wash,” Colonel Jax said, overriding the comm. He started speaking in Inahri. Without the Intellect, John had no idea what he was saying.

  “Sir, I don’t understand,” John said, bringing the squad to a halt.

  He looked at Hori, who started speaking back to Jax in Inahrai , hopefully explaining that they had lost the Intellect.

  “Chi Cox,” Hori said. “Chi Cox. Chi Cox.” He turned to John, pointing to their route and then to him. Then he pointed to where the bulk of the transports had landed and shook his head.

  John wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it seemed like the soldier was trying to tell him the fight wasn’t going well.

  “Retreat?” he asked, pointing the way they had come.

  Hori shook his head.

  “Still going in,” John said. “Got it.”

  “Sarge,” Kiaan said. “I think he’s trying to tell you the battle isn’t going well. I can see from here, we’ve taken heavy losses already. The assault is pulling back about three hundred meters west of you, and the enemy looks like they’re reinforcing their positions there.”

  “Buying us time,” John said. “Primary objective is a no go. Secondary is still in play.” He looked at Paige and Dante. “It’s up to us to make sure this isn’t a total failure.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Paige said.

  “Already am.” John moved forward again, more determined than ever.

  Chapter 40

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Caleb hissed, glaring angrily at Riley.

  “He was about to tell the Inahri where Joe is hiding,” Riley replied, equally angered. “It isn’t my fault their soldier saw me at the last second and pushed him out of the way.”

  “It’s your fault they know we’re here now. We could have gotten to Joe first. We could have gotten him out of there before the Inahri got to him. Tsi and I were on our way here when you screwed it all up.”

  They were in the split across from Law, having hurried to the area after Kizi reported the sighting of the Relyeh Inahri soldier in an Intellect Skin. After Riley had already taken the shot at the Governor, and two Free Inahri had been forced to engage before Riley had compounded her bad decision by pulling them away.