CHAPTER SEVEN
ROSLYN RESEARCH FACILITY: Family
“That’s the last of it, Colonel.” The sergeant set the case of ammunition down on the floor beside him.
Dmitry looked down at the 5.56 ammunition.
“That’s not going to last us more than the night, is it, sir?” the sergeant asked in a low voice.
“No, it’s not.” Dmitry pulled his hat off and wiped the sweat and dirt from his brow. Pass it out, Sergeant. Let everyone know we need to make it count. He turned and leaned over toward General Daniels.
“General, I want you to know that it’s been an honor.” He held out his service revolver, handle first. “I need you to go back into the cafeteria with the civilians, sir.”
“Like hell, Dmitry. I’m not leaving you out here to die while I hide.”
“I think you misunderstand, General.” He pulled his hat back on, just as an explosion shook the floor under their feet. The last of the marines came sprinting back down the corridor and dove over the barrier.
One of the Marines hit the ground hard, throwing his back up against the barrier. “That was the last of the C4, sir, but we took out a couple of the walkers,” he said, still trying to catch his breath.
Dmitry looked back to General Daniels. “You and Henry now have the last sidearms with ammunition. Everything else we have is sitting behind ‘this’,” he said, kicking the makeshift barrier. “I implore you, General, go back into that cafeteria and protect those people.”
“I don’t think it’s going to matter much anyway,” the sergeant said quietly. “Not if those things keep coming like they have been. But if they get past us…”
“The honor was mine, Dmitry… The honor was mine.” Daniels pulled the slide back on the pistol and moved toward the cafeteria doors without another word.
The Colonel turned and faced the line.
“Sergeant.” His voice carried down the corridor. “It is my understanding that at the end of this hall we have an overwhelming hostile force. We’re outnumbered three to one, low on ammo, with no relief coming.”
The sergeant looked up at him and slowly broke into a wide grin.
“Sir, I think you heard wrong!” he barked back.
“Then enlighten me!”
“What I see is a target-rich environment, with excellent potential for close-quarters combat. Hell, there’s no place I’d rather be, sir!”
“Oorah!” the Marines roared.
“Sergeant,” Dmitry said, sliding the blade onto the front of his rifle, “fix bayonets.”
The corridor went quiet.
The only light came from the iridescent glow of the dead constructs and the strange chemical they had been spraying across the walls and floor. It was viscous, and it stained everything it touched. It was on the barrier and on the marines themselves.
A spider-like machine dropped from what was left of the stairwell above. It slipped in a glowing puddle, found its footing, straightened itself, and began moving toward the barrier. Its six legs made a scraping sound on the concrete, purposely scraping some of its bladed limbs on the floor to taunt the defenders.
“Hold your fire. We let them get closer first”
A second construct dropped from the breach. Then a third. A fourth.
The end of the corridor began to flood with the constructs, and they picked up speed as they poured in, swarming across the walls and floors.
The first one that dropped, reared back, and launched itself at the barrier.
Every rifle on the line opened up, barking with rapid fire. It was deafening. The concussion was overwhelming, as the air filled with the smell of cordite and shell casings rained across the floor. The marines worked their shots, knocking constructs off the walls and pinning them to the ground, bullets tearing into them. Glowing gore sprayed off the ones that went down and lit up the machines still moving in from behind them.
The rifles started to dry-fire one by one.
A construct came over the top of the barrier and got two limbs around a marine’s neck and drove the others into his chest, tearing and stabbing. Another marine moved in from the side, driving his bayonet up under it and lifting it clear off the man. He pulled the trigger and blew through it in a spray of gore.
Slowly, the sound of gunfire was exchanged with hand to hand fighting.
They fought with knives and bayonets. The constructs that made it over the barrier were taken apart piece by piece on the other side. Four marines vaulted the barrier and charged the last of them. They stopped and stabbed with blades until the machines lay twitching and destroyed.
They stood there, breathing hard in the sudden quiet.
Then the ceiling at the far end of the corridor split open.
The first bipedal construct dropped through and hit the ground hard. The second came through right behind it. The four marines turned and threw themselves back over the barrier as the machines rose to their full height and began moving down the corridor.
Black-clad soldiers filed in behind them on both sides. They fired submachine guns, spraying short bursts across the end of the corridor as they advanced. They stopped about fifty feet short of the barrier, as one of them raised a hand to his ear.
“Sir, we have breached the lower level and have found what’s left of the facility’s staff and security.” The man paused for a moment, listening to something in his ear. “Very well, sir.”
He lowered his hand and looked up at the nearest construct.
“Kill them all.”
Before any of the black-clad men could raise their weapons, the sound of voices and spears slamming into the ground filled the corridor. The voices rang across the concrete walls in great numbers.
“Aye, yay, Aye, yay!” slam, slam. “Ah rooh!, Ah rooh!” the voices roared.
Eight small devices flew out of the dark, stopping short of the barrier as a blue field of energy formed across the front of Roslyn’s last defenders.
As one of the constructs raised its arm to fire its beam weapon, Tim charged out of the back of the corridor. With one step off the wall, he kicked himself sideways through the air. His kopesh glowing as he brought it down across the construct’s arm, severing it as it clattered to the ground.
The other construct raised its weapon. A wall of stone shot up from the floor, blocking the blast as necrotic darts slammed into the second construct from behind.
“Turn around and shoot them!” the leader screamed.
The men turned and opened fire on the advancing wall of shields and spears. The bronze and composite shields absorbed the impact as splinters and ricochets tore through the corridor.
The projection of a twelve-year-old girl in a tattered black cloak and leather appeared behind the barrier and the Marines.
Without a word, she walked forward.
Through the Colonel and right through the energy barrier.
One of the constructs turned its beam weapon on her, the energy lance passing through her projection and striking the blue energy shield.
Roslyn raised her arms.
Then brought them together in a quick and jerky motion.
The walls of the corridor collapsed inward.
Stone and debris crushed the black-clad men where they stood, bringing the submachine gun fire to a sudden halt. Roslyn moved her arms back apart, and the walls snapped back up against the sides of the corridor, leaving the floor covered in gore and broken bodies.
The leader stumbled back, slipping in blood and viscous fluid as Roslyn slowly approached.
He fumbled for his sidearm before finding it and fired twice into Roslyn’s face.
The rounds passed right through her.
She stared at the man with a look of ill content.
Behind the man, he heard the shield wall split, and he spun around as he watched them make room for ARi to step through.
She moved forward despite the protests of the others behind her, her head tilting slightly as she approached. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t directed at the man. It was intended for whatever was watching through his now slackened eyes.
“You said you were going to reap my soul.”
The man started to raise his pistol. Before he could, spears drove into him from both sides, forcing him to his knees as the sidearm clattered to the floor.
“Next time,” ARi said, her voice cold, “come down here and do it yourself.”
“You’re nothing but a sniveling child!” The unnatural voice roared from the man.
ARi tilted her head again, studying the eyes.
“We will burn this world to the—”
“You’re weak, and you’ll do nothing!” ARi snapped. She moved aside as one of the kobolds stepped forward—bronze blades in both hands, armor gleaming, and a bright purple plume cresting his helm. In a single, clean motion, the Praetorian swung his blades and removed the man’s head.
It fell with a plop at Desmond’s feet.
ARi raised her hand toward the body a moment later and phased it off of the floor.
Charlie and Red, also clad in similar armor with different plumes on their helmets, stood on either side of him. Charlie put his hand on Desmond’s shoulder. “Well, that was dramatic.”
“I didn’t like the way he was looking at her.”
ARi leaned down and kissed Desmond on the side of the head. “Thank you.”
Desmond replied by tapping his chest twice and lowering his head.
They followed ARi as she approached the Colonel.
The energy barrier in front of the Marines suddenly cut off. As the eight drones returned to Yumi, Earth’s champions moved down the corridor, flanked on either side by over sixty kobold cohorts.
The Colonel watched as a familiar-looking girl walked in front of the group. She was closely guarded by the purple and bronze-clad creatures. He looked down to see the projection of Rosalind standing at his side. “Hello, Colonel,” Rosalind said with a coy smile. “Please instruct your Marines not to shoot any of our new friends.”
“ARi?” the colonel was barely able to get it out, still in shock.
“Yeah we’re going to talk about that with everybody, okay? Why don’t you come back with me into the cafeteria and we can make sure that General Daniels and Henry don’t start shooting at the first kobold they see.”
Dimitri nodded and followed Rosalind back to the doors of the cafeteria. “General, Henry, it’s over,” he announced to the room. “It’s okay.”
He slowly opened the cafeteria doors and stepped inside. The cafeteria tables had been stacked up in a makeshift wall across the back wall. The sounds and whimpers of children and the civilians who were hiding behind the tables could be heard throughout the quiet room.
General Daniels stood slowly, pistol raised. “Dimitri, what do you mean it’s over?”
Dimitri stopped for a moment, glaring at the general, head slightly cocked in confusion. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t surrender if that’s what you’re thinking. You’re going to need to put that down now, sir.”
The General’s hand steadied on the shaking pistol before it suddenly dropped, clattering down to the floor. “Gavin?” He stumbled, falling forward, trying to push his way out from behind the tables. He limped to the middle of the room where he met his son, pulling him into a fierce hug. A few moments later, Gavin heard his mother screaming his name as she too ran to the middle of the room and damn near knocked them both to the floor.
Behind the makeshift barrier of cafeteria tables, Henry struggled to pull himself up against the back of the wall. He was holding his side, as blood soaked through his shirt. Rosalind’s projection suddenly appeared next to him, again wearing the white dress with the big white bow in her hair. “Hello, Henry.” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft not to startle the man. “ARi? Is that you?”
ARi stepped past the barrier. She knelt in front of Henry, reaching out and slowly touching his face with a soft smile. Henry looked at ARi and down at her hand and then looked back over to Roslyn. “Your.. You’re real. Your–”
“Surprise,” ARi said in almost a whisper.
Henry didn’t hesitate. He reached up and grabbed her arm and pulled ARi down into an embrace.
He flinched in pain. And ARi pulled back for a moment. “Ros, get Tanya.”