Revenant Read online

  “I think I’ll pass on that.” He looked at the tracker signal. “It’s stopped moving again. Do you think it’s busted or something?”

  “I saw an old Havok Mk. II in the room full of bits downstairs,” Chief stated. “These Azure Halo guys obviously had some firepower, even if that’s not their usual deal. It’s possible they were able to damage it somewhat. But it’s still functional, so my guess is that it can take a beating.”

  “Then I’ll be the one to finish— It’s moving again and has turned down the street.” He crouched down and looked down the street to the corner of a building. “It’s four blocks away now. Assuming it doesn’t start charging through the buildings, it’ll come up the street soon.”

  “Your rifle is midrange, so even at full charge it won’t travel fast enough to hit from here. I doubt it’s braindead enough to simply stand there and take a glowing energy blast from a few hundred yards away.”

  “I’m simply observing,” Kaiden explained. “I’ll take the shot when it’s closer. At full charge, Sire can break shielding, disrupt barriers, and melt through heavy armor. I may not eliminate it in one shot, but I should do some damage and we can go from there.”

  “And what’s the plan if it turns out we can’t hurt it?” Chief asked.

  He remained silent for a moment until he tensed up and whispered, “It’s here.”

  The droid turned slowly into the street. It stood a little over normal human height, perhaps seven to seven and a half feet tall. Contrary to all the different visages Kaiden had imagined it having, it was rather plain. A pure silver body with chunks missing either from not being complete or lost in combat revealed black and grey wires within. Long, cylindrical gauntlets encased its forearms and five slender fingers opened and closed rhythmically on each hand. Its head looked slowly from side to side, its face featureless with the exception of one wide, rounded compartment in the middle—seemingly an eye or emblem of some kind.

  “You know, it kind of looks like how I would imagine you would look if you were a droid,” he remarked.

  Chief’s eye narrowed and his body flared to an annoyed red. “I don’t appreciate the comparison.”

  The mechanical took a few more steps. Kaiden noted it’s tripod-like feet with two long talons in front and one at the back, which indicated that it could probably climb the sides of buildings with no issue. He primed his gun when the droid took several rapid steps which might indicate that it had detected him. However, it stopped again and resumed what seemed to be a scan of the area.

  “Somethings up. It’s closing in but still can’t seem to find us.” Kaiden frowned and shook his head. “Its long-range detection might be crap but it’s visuals seem to be fine, considering that it stands still and bobs its head up and down like a muskrat. He squinted and focused hard. “I don’t see anything that could be a sign of shielding or a barrier.”

  “There is something, though,” Chief informed him.

  “What have you seen?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Chief said in a puzzled tone. “I’m using the scanner. The normal readings show nothing, but that upgrade Chiyo got us added a few new options and readouts and it’s picked up a trace amount of some sort of energy—or it would be more accurate to say minuscule amounts of several types of energies.”

  “Meaning what, exactly?” Kaiden asked and raised Sire again as the droid began to patrol the street ponderously. “My guess would be that it’s reading the power source and maybe traces of residual from weapons fire.”

  “I already calculated that. Besides, if this thing hasn’t attacked anything in almost a day, that would have dissipated by now.” Chief’s eye pulsed in thought. “It’s like something is powered on but not in active use, the readings…whatever it is, it has a similar structure to a shield and a barrier.” His eye stopped glowing as the rest of his body dimmed. “Kaiden, I have a suggestion.”

  “What are you thinking?” The droid was now within firing range, but he held off from pulling the trigger. “Make it quick, Chief.”

  “If you fire a fully charged shot, you’ll have to vent immediately, right? Even with whatever upgrades you and Wolfson slapped onto that thing, it’s at least eight seconds for a full cycle.”

  “Yeah?” he answered and wondered what the EI had in mind.

  “Fire at half—no, a third of a charge,” Chief ordered. “Even a quick burst is enough to compromise medium armor, and a slightly charged shot should be sufficient to hit it quickly from this distance. Aim for a weak spot—one of the areas that are vulnerable to internal damage. That way, we’ll see if it’s hiding any sort of defenses and we won’t be completely caught off-guard when it comes our way.”

  Kaiden tapped his finger against the trigger as he considered the instructions. “If it doesn’t have any sort of defenses outside of the armor, a fully-charged shot may not destroy it, but it wouldn’t be in any condition to fight.”

  “If it does have defenses, you will have to wait to recharge and it will know where you are and be as pissed as an unfeeling automaton can be,” Chief countered.

  With an understanding nod and a heavy sigh, Kaiden balanced his rifle on the edge of the wall in front of him and aimed at the bot, now immediately across the street and looking into the opposite building. He chose a weak section on the back of the droid where he saw a small patchwork composed of small sections of metal spliced together to cover the area rather than to act as armor. Exhaling a slow breath, he pressed his finger on the trigger for two seconds and watched as the circular light in the scope filled up to the marked point to indicate a third of a charge before he fired at the droid.

  The charge rocketed forward for only a second and almost connected with the target. But as it drew near, a flash of blue light erupted from the mechanical body and the blast erupted before it struck its mark.

  “What the hell was that, Chief?” he gasped.

  “That was a shield,” the EI stated. “As I deduced, it’s not always active. It seems to respond and flare up when the droid is in danger. From what I can see, it acts like a pulse. That must be a way for the droid to remain undetected and conserve power when in the field.”

  “I saw it break.” Kaiden took aim again and charged another shot. “It won’t have time to recharge. I’ll take it out.” He fired another shot, this one slightly stronger. The droid turned toward him and its eye narrowed as the blast hurtled toward it. Instead of moving out of the way, it simply walked forward. When the shot came close, there was another flash and the blast erupted to create a cloud of debris around it, but it was unharmed.

  “It doesn’t create a constant shield, Kaiden, only one that’s strong enough to block your attacks,” Chief told him. “I don’t think that you’ll be able to get through with those shots.”

  Kaiden retrieved a thermal from his belt, activated it, and threw it at the droid as it bent in preparation to leap up at him. It saw the thermal and grabbed it. The blue light of the shield enveloped the droid’s hand as the explosive went off with a muffled blast and a stream of smoke puffed from the clenched appendage. Once again, it remained undamaged.

  “Oh, this is turning out poorly,” he muttered, vented his gun, and backed away. He took a shock grenade from the other container.

  “Quick! Before it gets up here, we need to—” Chief was interrupted by a rush of air as the droid sailed overhead for a moment before it crashed onto the rooftop. It remained there for a moment, unmoving, before its arms stretched out to its sides and it looked up into the air, then down at him.

  “Is it…posing?” Kaiden wondered and eyed Chief in his visor. “You can’t tell me that that’s something you wouldn’t do.”

  “Really? You’re being snarky at a time like this?”

  “Keeping the spirits up and all that,” he retorted, activated the shock grenade, and threw it at the feet the mechanical. It didn’t even acknowledge it as it went off. Streaks of electricity consumed its body, but before Kaiden’s confidence could swell,
his mouth dropped open as he his adversary whirred alarmingly. The electricity began to dissipate and the light in its eye grew brighter.

  “What in the—”

  “It has some sort of generator that absorbs the electricity and converts it into power for the droid,” Chief stated. “You gave it the equivalent of a hot meal.”

  “It has something like that? My ass it was unfinished!” Kaiden snapped as he shut the vent on his gun.

  “It is lacking a paint job,” Chief pointed out. “You’ll note it hasn’t tried to tear your arms off yet. Maybe it— Oh, I think I jinxed us.”

  The droid extended one of its arms and the fingers folded back against the gauntlet as a bright white light issued from the appendage. Kaiden held the trigger of his rifle, but instead of firing at the droid, he jumped up and fired at the ground a few feet in front of him. The blast knocked him back as his attacker fired a stream of energy at him. It missed as he tumbled along the rooftop and the wall, instead of stopping him, hurdled him over it. He snatched hold of it quickly it before he fell and instinctively began to pull himself up. At the unmistakable sound of the droid’s approach, he hesitated and looked down to see which was the better option.

  It looks like it can only make one shot at a time,” Chief informed him as readings began to flash rapidly along the HUD. “But considering the energy you gifted him, it’ll be able to fire in only a few seconds.” More loud thuds confirmed the droid’s continued approach. “But from what we’ve seen so far, that doesn’t seem to be this guy’s style anyway.”

  Kaiden looked down again and thought frantically. He was at the top of a seven-story building. His armor did have some force dampeners that would enable him to survive the fall, but it wasn't built for that purpose and it would still hurt like a bastard.

  He looked up as one of the droid’s tri-clawed legs clunked atop the wall. The sight aided the decision to take the fall option. He shoved his rifle quickly onto his back and let go as the mechanical arms swung over to grab him. Kaiden flailed in an effort to correct and brace himself as the ground approached rapidly. He landed and rolled and ignored a burst of pain along his legs and hips as he pushed to his feet to sprint along the street and put distance between himself and his attacker. It didn’t appear to be able to move that quickly.

  Another rush of air caught his attention and he grimaced as he glanced over his shoulder. The mechanical had leapt off the building and now soared effortlessly over him. Oh, right, it could do that.

  It brought its cannon to bear again and took aim. Kaiden drew Debonair and turned to fire in the hope that he could sink a shot into the cannon. He managed a couple of shots and while it didn’t cause the weapon to backfire as he had hoped, it did do something. The blast wasn’t as powerful as before and it only fired a short burst that knocked the droid back to land some yards away.

  Kaiden turned a corner into an alley. He leaned against the wall and took a moment to catch his breath and think about how to approach this.

  “I think it’s obvious I won’t outrun this thing,” he muttered. “When it prepares to fire seems to be the only time I can get a clean shot, but with a beam like that, it can trace me if I try to run or roll out of the way.”

  “I was able to get more info,” Chief interjected. “As we thought, it doesn’t have a proper power source to run everything at full power, but it micromanages the hell out of the power it has. Things like the pulse shielding and the concentrated bursts of fire show quick spikes in energy, and it jumps to cover distances instead of running because it uses less power. If we can somehow overwhelm it, you can finish it off.”

  “That’s something, at least.” Kaiden acknowledged. “But right now, I’m too vulnerable and we don’t know the extent of what it has available. If we could get it into an enclosed space or distract it somehow, I could—” A group of something rushed by outside the alley. He squinted at the drones that had materialized in the air. “Are those his buddies?”

  As if in answer, they began to fire—but not at him. Instead, they fired down the street and at the droid. Voices yelled and shouted commands before and volleys of lasers came from behind the drones. He looked at the mechanicals again and zoomed in on them with his visor.

  They were tagged with a symbol of a blue halo composed of ones and zeros, the symbol of the Azure Halo gang.

  Chapter Ten

  “They’re still alive?” Chief asked, seemingly as shocked as Kaiden was despite his usual air of aplomb.

  “I guess so,” the ace mumbled and inched closer to the wall of the opposite building. He peered out, careful to remain out of sight of the drones. A group of about fifteen men and women dressed in various distressed outfits with at least one article in the dark-blue hue of their organization’s main color were focused on his erstwhile enemy. “Did they come back from somewhere? I know I was a little busy, but I didn’t see any ships in the sky.”

  “No, I didn’t pick anything up either. In fact, I don’t pick anything up on the scanner at all.”

  “They’re right there.”

  Chief’s eye narrowed in annoyance. “I can see that, idiot. My guess is that they’re using some sort of device to mask their readings. They’ve probably been laying low this whole time.”

  “I guess all the ruckus brought them out,” he reasoned as various colored beams and orbs hurtled passed him at the killer droid. “They are really laying into it.”

  “It looks like we have the distraction we needed,” Chief observed. “So did you actually have a plan or were you simply talking nonsense?”

  “I was dreaming something up,” he admitted and ran down the alley to the other side. “Right now, we need to see what’s happening. It might be too preoccupied by having to deal with them. If I can sneak around and get behind it, I might be able to take a clean shot at its back and do some damage.”

  “It wasn’t ready for you the first time you fired on it,” Chief reminded him. “Your plan is to beat it through bug bites?”

  Kaiden turned into the empty street and immediately, another large building, this one in much worse shape than any he had seen thus far, caught his attention. He stopped running for a moment and observed it as a new thought popped into his head. “I think I’ll make that my plan B,” he said, hurried over to the building, and retrieved his container of thermals.

  “What are you thinking?”

  Kaiden put Debonair away and gathered his remaining grenades. “That I’ll take this thing out with a bang.”

  “Keep firing. Kit, are you able to crack it?” Janis, the current leader of the remaining Halos, yelled—or what amounted to a leader due to natural succession after a pile of bodies had amassed.

  “Nothing doing, Jan!” Kit answered. “It’s completely blocked any sort of remote port. I’ll have to get—shit, look out!”

  Janis saw the droid move forward, leap upward, and snatch two of the seven drones out of the air. The others banked out of the way, but once it landed, it spun its body around and flung the captured fliers at two others. They collided with each other and spiraled into a broken heap. The remaining drones regrouped to fly front of the droid. Their light lasers rearmed and fired, and a small blue shimmer showed that they struck nothing but a small amount of shielding.

  “Keep on it!” Janis instructed as he raised his own Tempest machine gun and fired at the mechanical. “Needle it down. What were you saying. Kit?”

  “That I can’t do a damn thing unless I have direct access.” She deactivated her holoscreen, drew an Acolyte pistol, and charged a shot. “After what it did to the others it got close to, I ain’t volunteering for that!”

  Janis’ Tempest overheated and he sighed and motioned for Fitz and Shala to move up as he vented his gun. “I guess we’ll have to go with the heavy option. Where the hell are Zeek and Dobi? We need those cannons if we’re gonna punch through.”

  “They sent a message a few minutes ago. They are on the way,” Rani informed him as he vented his rifle. “I’m
not sure how fast they can move in that heavy armor.”

  “Get the rest of the drones in on the attack,” he ordered. “Keep it distracted so that when they do come it won’t—everyone, get down!”

  The droid stood tall, both its arms outstretched and formed into cannons. The Halo members scattered quickly or dropped to the ground as the weapons primed and fired to destroy the remaining drones in a swath of bright light. The beams hurtled over Janis’ head and he flattened himself instinctively to avoid them.

  “I guess it can still see us,” Fitz groaned.

  “Smart deduction, idiot,” Janis barked and knelt to activate a holoscreen and summon the last of the drones. “The covert drives only mask our vitals. Even if it was visually impaired, we’re still shooting at it.”

  “Jan, it’s getting closer,” Kit warned. He could hear it stomp towards them and the hum of its cannons as they charged.

  “It’s about to fire again,” Rani called. “I thought there was a twelve-second cool down period before it could fire again.”

  “The energy reading is stronger than it was an hour ago,” Kit stated, her hand against her helmet as she studied her HUD. “How did it get juiced?”

  “Here come the drones!” Janis yelled. A dozen flew in and a mixture of light lasers and kinetic rounds hailed down on the droid. It looked up and aimed at the invaders. The hacker leader took manual control of ten of them and used each finger to control them on his holoscreen. He moved them around to try to avoid the blasts.

  “Rani, give me an update on Zeek and Dobi. The rest of you keep firing,” he ordered.

  The remaining members of the Azure Halos took their positions or pivoted around the walls and barricades they used for cover and fired at the droid. It released intermittent waves of shielding to block the fire, but a few shots got through. Slowly, they were wearing it down.

  “They are two hundred and thirteen meters away,” Rani shouted. “They’ll be here soon using the jump jets.”