27
“Wow. This is pretty impressive,” Rev said as they walked into Tensing Station.
“Always did love my engineers,” the master guns added, hands on his hips as he surveyed what they’d done to what was the first refueling/rest stop between Swansea and Anastasia.
The Everest House, a large, garish building with a model of the Earth mountain rising from the roof, was the focus of the station, but combined with about a dozen smaller outbuildings and small homes, it created an active community.
Forty-seven klicks from Swansea, Rev had only been there once back when he’d been eight or nine, and all he could really remember was the “yeti jerky,” apple cider, and a large robotic yeti that welcomed visitors into Everest House.
But he still could see the transformation that had taken over the waystop. The engineers and sappers had been hard at work creating a trap for the Centaurs. The question was if it would work.
Tensing Station was located at the top of the grade. To the southwest, the highway descended through the mountains to Swansea. To the northeast, the highway crossed the high plains until it descended into Anastasia over a hundred klicks away. On either side, several peaks extended out into the plains. There was one way in and one way out.
The engineers were transforming the settlement, erecting walls, digging ditches, and creating obstacles. It looked like at least two homes had been razed. Rev couldn’t quite grasp the pattern yet, but that could be because they weren’t finished.
A shirtless, muscular Marine with a molecular bonder saw them and walked up. “You my Raiders?” he asked before noticing Rev and then McAnt. “Yeah, I guess you are. Lieutenant Suarez, Third Engineer Platoon.”
He held out his hand to Captain Omestori.
“So, what do you have going on here?” the captain asked. “All we really got was to come here and link up with you. I mean, we can see what you’re doing, but what’s the plan, and why us?”
“Why you, I don’t know, sir. I just needed bodies, and you got tasked. What we’re doing is trying to set ourselves a little trap that will allow us to get in close with the tin-asses and get them infected. But we wanted a little more active combat power, and you’re it.”
“You got MG(B)-93’s?” the captain asked.
“Some. The sapper platoon has more that they’re rigging up as boobytraps.”
“Boobytraps? You can do that?” Master Gunnery Sergeant Tuala asked.
“Come on, Master Guns,” the lieutenant said with a laugh. “You’ve been around engineers long enough to know we can do about anything. And sappers are almost engineers.”
“Right. Sorry. So, you’re setting up a kill zone here. What makes you think the tin-asses will come here? There’s an awful lot of nothing between here and Crymych.”
The sign Rev had read coming into the Tensing Station had said it was the last stop for food, power, and fun for eighty-six klicks, so the master guns’ question was valid. Between here and the little town of Crymych was open plains with nothing much to attract the attention of the Centaurs. With so few of them in an invasion, they tended to the more populated centers.
“This place has its own powerplant, of course, and the owners shut it down before evacuating. But one of my sergeants had an idea, and we ran it up the flagpole to get it approved. We think we can disguise the plant as a Class Three facility, then turn it on.”
“Class Three?”
<Typically used for factories.>
“So, you turn it on, and they think this is a factory that needs to be investigated?” the captain asked.
“Well, they probably know there’re no large buildings here, except for the Everest House, so maybe more like a mine.”
<Or a mine.>
“We think they’d got to send something up here to check. And with what we’re doing here, we can canalize them—”
“So, you can hit them with the grenades and booby traps, and if they come in force, you’ve got us in the mix.”
“You got it, sir.”
“So, when you are expecting to turn on the power?”
“Probably tomorrow, so we’ve got a lot to do.”
“And us? What do you want us to do until then?”
“Well, I’m guessing you want to look at the lay of the land to figure out where to deploy your Marines. Let me know where and we’ll dig you some bunkers. But I could also use some warm bodies for grunt work.”
“Thought so.” He turned to the three teams. “Master Guns, you come with me while we figure out just what we’re going to do. Third, you’ve got security.
“Top Thapa and Gunny Okafor, you heard the lieutenant. Take your teams and follow him. Until further notice, you’re day laborers.”
* * *
“Why wouldn’t the tin-asses just fly over all these obstacles?” Radić asked as they waited in the bunker.
“They could, but they like to stay on the ground,” Tomiko answered.
“Not the one that Corporal Pelletier shot at the meadow.”
“They can fly, but they don’t usually, unless it’s to get away.”
They don’t usually have big drones that attack, either. Until they do.
The fight in Bluebonnet Meadow still weighed heavily on his mind. He knew he had to let it go before the next fight, or it could slow his decision-making, and in his current role as a decoy, that could be fatal.
“Well, I’d just hop over them if I could,” Radić said.
“And I’d stay in this bunker if I could. Fight from here, all nice and cozy.” Porter stretched out her feet and kicked the front wall of the bunker. “These combat engineers sure know how to do their job.”
“Not me,” Tomiko said. “We’re a stationary target.” She looked at Rev, expecting him to chime in.
“Nice now. But maneuverability is what’s going to keep us alive,” he said, to her approval.
They’d been in the bunker for just under an hour, ever since the powerplant had been turned back on. Two by four meters and two meters deep, it was two hundred meters from the first major obstacle. Covered with a beam-scattering overhead, the Marines could see what was happening through three wide-angle optical cables, like overgrown versions of the Raiders’ individual Optisights. The overhead had two settings. Now latched shut, it could open just enough so that weapons could be used, or it could completely open, allowing the Marines to egress and rush into the fight. During a couple of dry runs, the four Marines could open the overhead and be out on the ground in just under two seconds.
Engineers being engineers, they wired every bunker so they’d have comms. Voice-activated, they’d work no matter what the Centaurs might try to do to jam them.
“How long before they get here?” Radić asked.
“Geez, Radić. Don’t you ever get tired of your own voice?” Tomiko asked. “Give it a rest. They’ll get here when they get here, if they come at all.”
“Just trying to prepare myself,” the PFC muttered quietly.
Rev leaned back and brought Pashu across his lap, letting her rest there. She was really dragging down on his shoulder, and he wished he could take her off, even if for only ten minutes. But of course, if the Gods of War saw that, then that’s when they’d bring the Centaurs. It always worked out that way.
He brought his right hand across his chest and under his armor, prodding at the harness underneath his skin and muscles. He could swear it felt bunched up, and no matter how hard he tried to press it down, as soon as he moved, is started bunching up again.
“You still can’t tell if the damn thing is screwed up?” he asked Punch.
<There are no sensors attached to it.>
“Well, I know this isn’t normal. One more thing to tell Doc C.”
With a sigh, he leaned forward again, looking out through the optical cable that covered the area in front of them. He’s already walked the ground, but now he was studying it, gaming out his routes for different possible scenarios. Some of the obstacles and buildings could give him cover. Others could only give him partial cover. But he didn’t want to be standing there under fire with his thumb up his butt while he decided which way to go. He wanted to have the area burned into his mind so he could react instinctively.
He was selecting a way forward if a single paladin was approaching from the highway when the landline buzzed. Tomiko gave him a raised eyebrow as she picked up the receiver.
“Yeah, yeah. Roger that. We’re ready, Master Guns.”
She hung up and turned to the others. “Six coming up the highway. Five paladins and a courser.”
“Five and one again. Not a coincidence, I’m betting,” Rev said. “Must be their new tactics. Did he say how far out?”
“Just passed the top of the grade. We’ve got maybe five minutes.”
“What about those new drones?”
“Didn’t say. Just to stand by. Nothing’s changed yet.”
“Stand by to stand by,” Strap said.
Rev was really beginning to hate the phrase. Everyone said it, and he’d thought it was clever the first time he’d heard it. Now, it just grated on his nerves. That didn’t mean it wasn’t accurate, though. That was exactly what they were doing. Their actions would be totally dependent on what the Centaurs did. It could be that they’d sit this out in their bunker if the Centaurs detonated enough booby traps, or it could be an out-and-out assault.
Rev was betting on the latter.
“Systems check.”
<Power, eighty-one-point-three percent. Full ordnance load. All systems green.>
“I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
He didn’t actually tell Punch to start giving him his warrior juice, but he felt a little stirring within his body. He still wasn’t sure that his battle buddy did that or if it was in his imagination, paranoia gone wild. But he wasn’t fighting it, so if that was what was happening, so be it.
“Everyone, nose filters. Strap, and Radic, check your loads again,” Tomiko said.
There were two clicks of the launchers, and both said, “Shotgun.”
“And Porter and I’ve got the gat.”
After Bluebonnet Meadow, more of the Marines were loading with the shotgun shells first for the drones. With the boobytraps, sappers, and combat engineers, there should be enough virus loads so that the Raiders could focus on defense.
“And I’ve got Pashu,” Rev said, slapping her barrel. “I’ve got a hankering for a courser.”
Tomiko shot him a look. “Nothing stupid, Rev. We still have to let them escape.”
“I know, I know. Just joking.”
But was I? I really don’t know.
“Not the time for jokes,” she said, almost sounding mollified.
Maybe you know me better than I do myself.
“Hey, there they are,” Radić said, pointing at the south-facing optical feed.
“Let me see,” Rev said, almost pushing the PFC out of the way.
A paladin was coming up the highway into the station. Another three hundred meters, and it would hit the detour the combat engineers devised. They’d built a small building right across the highway, then laid almost five hundred meters of fake highway that wound through a warren of barriers, kill zones, and boobytraps.
“Now let me see,” Tomiko said, tapping him on the shoulder. He surrendered the view piece. “And here comes the second.”
Rev went back to the front and looked out the front-facing feed. Soon enough, they’d come into its view. The first major question was if they’d follow the fake roadway. To Rev, it looked pretty realistic, but who knew what the Centaurs had at their disposal. And even if they knew it wasn’t the original road, would they care? Their arrogance in facing humans often surfaced in their seeming lack of adjusting to human presence.
“This is it. Remember, hold fast until I give the order,” Tomiko said.
Rev listened with only half an ear. He wanted to see that courser. And if it came to that, it would be his target. If he was going to distract them, why not go for the most powerful of the six?
“Any updates on courser vulnerabilities?”
<No updates. Weakest points are at the base of the pedestal and right rear quadrant. But weakest is relative.>
“Think Pashu can take one out?”
<Sieben thinks so.>
“What do you think.”
<It is possible.>
Which is better than impossible.
The first paladin strode into his feed’s field of view. It was only thirty meters from where First Element was hunkered in their bunker, but it didn’t pause. A moment later, the second one entered, following in trace of the first as they walked down the highway.
By the time the third one strode into view, the first was at the barrier. It didn’t hesitate but followed the fake road.
“We’ve got a nibble,” Rev said.
“Strap, anything?”
Strap’s area of observation was to the rear. The Centaurs rarely surprised humans with their tactics, but now wouldn’t be the time to have some Centaurs paralleling the visible column, ready to pounce if they had to exit the bunker.
“No flanking column. No drones, either.”
The second paladin turned at the detour as the third paladin appeared into view, and Rev watched for the next one to appear. As expected, the courser lumbered ahead, and Rev’s heartbeat raced ahead. He’d managed to dump one in the Muddy River on Tenerife, but the one four days ago had gotten away unscathed—as planned, but it still gnawed at him.
Another barrier, this time a wall, blocked the road. A path had been cleared to the side, with obvious tire tracks in the dirt. Rev barely noticed, as focused as he was on the courser.
“And, the dumb shit didn’t even hesitate. Look at that,” Tomiko said.
Either it’s stupid or doesn’t fear what we can do to it.
That self-confidence angered Rev even more. The helplessness he felt at the Meadows came rushing back as a wave of fury, their arrogance bringing it to new levels, and at that second, he knew he was going to kill that courser.
The first paladin passed behind one of the residences, and when it emerged on the other side, Tomiko said, “Get ready. It’ll hit the first booby trap in another twenty meters.”
Rev tore his gaze off the courser for a moment. The first paladin kept advancing, and as as soon as it reached a light pole, its front legs hit an almost invisible monomolecular line, tripping the two grenades—one a virus grenade, the other a normal one, attached to give the appearance of a bigger bang.
The paladin didn’t pause, but its pedestal started to traverse. And from two sides, engineers and sappers rose from bunkers and spider holes to launch a volley of both types of grenades. Rev got his feet under him as the grenades arced to the column of Centaurs.
Three of the Centaurs detonated their self-defense strips, exploding most of the grenades in midair, little white puffs of virus blown about in little whirlwinds. A few hit on or near the armored beasts.
The paladins moved off the road, trying to target the Marines, who had ducked back into their holes. The courser kept moving forward as if unfazed by the fire.
“Are we going?” Radić asked.
“Steady,” Tomiko replied.
The second paladin hit another tripwire, setting off a boobytrap. It fired off a burst from its cannon, but it didn’t look like it was aimed at anything specific.
The line buzzed. Tomiko picked it up, then set it back down.
“They’re going to do a second volley. We’re up. Wait for the signal.”
Rev felt a rush of excitement. He’d known it would come to this, but now it was a reality.
“Range to the courser?”
<Two hundred, thirty-one meters and closing.>
Too far. But it’s getting closer.
The paladins seemed to be seeking targets, firing indiscriminately into the buildings. If the engineers and sappers popped up now from their positions, they’d be mowed down.
Two white flares shot into the air. One of the paladins reacted, blasting one with its cannon, but its purpose was accomplished. With a shout, three Raider teams emerged from their bunkers, darting to pre-selected positions where they had some cover. Rev fired one of his Morays at the courser as he ran to the low wall to his right and got below it.
And the paladins reacted. Now that they had targets, their cannons aimed in. Rev prayed that the engineers were right in that the various pieces of cover, which looked like random hunks of cerrocrete or infrastructure, would stand up to the paladin’s cannons.
And, as luck would have it, his was tested right away. Five seconds after he hit the deck, he could feel the cannon fire flow around and over the wall, his skin tingling. As the beam passed, he risked a look. The courser was still moving forward, but closer to him, a paladin leveled one of the outbuildings not sixty meters away as it swept its pedestal to its left.
“I’m going,” he yelled, firing another Moray as he bounded over the wall and sprinted forward. He had the thing’s attention. The pedestal started traversing back as Rev made it to his next position. He fired once, still too far for Pashu to be effective, but close enough to catch the thing’s attention before he ducked behind what looked like a normal boulder.
He couldn’t see them, but McAnt and Pierson should be doing the same thing. If they were the target, then the engineers wouldn’t be.
Rev heard a grenade launcher fire, and for a moment, he thought the sappers and engineers had fired their second volley, but then he heard, “Drones!”
He looked to his right where Strap was reloading and firing at something overhead.
Crap. That’s all we need.
At that moment, the engineers and sappers rose up again, firing another volley. Grenades arced up again with more making it through. The paladin in front of Rev got hit three times, white puffs almost enveloping it.
With that volley, the engineers were out of virus grenades. The mission was essentially over. All that they were waiting for was the recall, but that couldn’t happen until the Centaurs were lured or chased away.
Raiders up! Now we earn our keep.
“Get ready!” Tomiko shouted as she rose to her knees and added her virus grenade to the cause.
A drone flew into Rev’s line of sight but out of his range, and he considered taking a shot at it with his 20mm gun when it stopped dead in the air. It lowered a few meters then blasted away at the ground beneath it.
Rev frowned in puzzlement when the top of a spider hole right next to where it fired popped open, a Marine with an M-49 rising up to take a shot at it. But the drone fired first, dropping the Marine.
And in a flash, Rev realized what had happened. If the killer-drones had the same wide-angle scanning capabilities as human drones did, then by firing that second volley, the engineers had revealed their positions.
The drone crabbed to the left and fired again, and what looked like a spiderhole cover blew open and fell shut.
“We can’t go!” he shouted as he jumped out from behind his cover and started sprinting. He knew the closest paladin could acquire him, but he had to trust his speed. His legs churned as he closed the distance.
“Give me the drone specs,” he shouted.
There was no hesitation this time.
<Done,> Punch said, putting in the same power and spread as in Bluebonnet Meadow.
Rev raised Pashu and fired once, dropping the drone as it started to crab over again. Feeling the paladin behind him, Rev dove to the right and scrabbled for cover. But no shot came. Rev turned to his side, and the paladin was moving to Rev’s left, toward Second Team’s area. A Moray flew out, glancing off the top of the hulk, and the paladin continued, its scorpion legs covering the ground at a good clip.
Rev raised his body up, and three hundred meters away, five or six drones were methodically making their way over the ground, firing straight down. Rev couldn’t see their targets, but that was about where the sapper platoon had been dug in.
“Cover me, Miko!”
He bolted forward, trying to close the distance.
<Charged.>
Another figure ran toward the drones, and for a moment, he thought it must be McAnt, but this was no IBHU Marine. It was Private Harisa, charging recklessly across the ground and vaulting a low wall. She stopped about twenty meters away from the single-minded drones, raised her M-49, and fired her attached grenade launcher with the shotgun round. Parts of one of the drones exploded in the air, the main chunk turning over as it fell to the ground.
Standing tall like someone out of a classic western holovid, she chambered a new shell, aimed, and fired again. Another drone down.
Rev wondered how they could be so focused as to not see her, but all the better. She fired twice more, killing both times.
Movement caught Rev’s eye as he ran, and he turned his head to see the paladin closing, but not with him. It was closing with Harisa, the big cannon coming around to bear on her.
Rev instinctively fired at it, but with the drone settings, he didn’t faze it.
“Lieutenant, get down!” he shouted as he switched to his Moray. He fired, and he hit it flush, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.
His shout got through, however, and Harisa turned around. He could see her spot the paladin, her eyes getting larger, but with a tightened mouth, she turned back and calmly dropped the last two drones. Only then did she try to move, but it was too late. The paladin fired its cannon, and she disappeared into a pink mist.
“Give me the damn regular specs.”
This time, Punch didn’t argue. <Done.>
Rev raised Pashu, but he didn’t have to ask the range. The paladin was too far and heading away, its cannon firing. Another Moray hit it and, once again, there was no effect.
What the hell is going on? Three hits at least, and nothing? Did the tin-asses upgrade their armor?
If they had, this was not going to be good.
A huge explosion rocked the station, the shock wave hitting Rev hard. He spun around. Everest House was a smoking ruin. The courser fired again, and what was left went up in flames and smoke.
Whatever the courser had fired, it wasn’t an energy weapon, and it was powerful. But why had it fired on the—”
Well, no shit.
The power station wasn’t really in a mine. It was in the Everest House. And the Centaurs wanted to make sure it wasn’t operable.
Rev was angry, but not the hot anger of crazytown. It was the cold, icy anger of revenge. Ignoring the fighting going on around him, ignoring the drones that somehow didn’t target him, he started running toward the courser. It was going to die, and he was going to kill it.
He angled off to the right, hoping to cut it off. After darting between two buildings, he put his back to the wall of one and peeked around. The courser was returning, smashing through one of the walls the engineers put up.
“Range?”
<One hundred and forty-two meters.>
He pulled up his overlay. With the courser coming back, he saw a route, making use of the buildings for cover, to get within forty meters by the time it reached that first barrier.
You’re mine, asshole.
Rev darted ahead, across the side street, when a blast sounded behind him. He glanced back just before he reached cover on the other side and slid to a halt, his feet gouging the dirt.
In the open area before the first row of buildings, Strap was down and motionless. Doc Paul was kneeling over him, M-49 aimed high as he fired shotgun round after round. A drone exploded and showered the two with debris.
Courser forgotten, Rev shouted at Punch to change back to the drone specs as he broke into a sprint. Doc Paul twisted his head, then hopped over Strap to put his body between the Marine and an oncoming drone. He waited too long, Rev thought, until he fired. At almost the same instant, he jerked, then fell forward, dropping his weapon and catching himself with one arm.
And then Rev was in range. With a sweep, he blew the last two drones he could see, quickly closing in the two Raiders.
“You got anything?”
<No drones in the immediate vicinity.>
Rev slid to a stop next to Doc and Strap.
“You OK, Doc?”
“I don’t know. I took something there,” Doc gasped.
Strap was on his back, eyes closed, one hand clenched into the claw, a sign of serious nerve damage.
“What about Strap?”
“Alive. That’s all I had time for.”
“Let’s get him out of here.”
Doc tried to help, but Rev grabbed Strap and flung him over his shoulder. He pulled Doc to his feet, then started sprinting back to the nearest buildings. A paladin strode by not even a hundred meters away, but its attention was toward the center of the station as it passed out of sight.
They reached the same building behind which Rev had just taken cover a minute or two ago. Rev laid Strap down as Doc collapsed heavily beside him. His right arm hung limp, but he took out his bioscan and started running it over Strap.
“He’s alive. Not in good shape, but he can make it if we get him treated,” Doc told Rev.
“Stay with him,” Rev said. “I’ve got to get going.”
He stood when the top half of the building exploded. Rev was picked off the ground and flung twenty meters backward. He instinctively reached out with his arms as he crashed into the ground. Pashu’s muzzle hit first, digging into the dirt, and his body was flung over that point to smash into the ground.
Rev was dazed, and he fought to keep consciousness. He twisted his head around to his fellow Raiders. Doc was sprawled out, but he was already struggling to get back up. Whatever had hit the building had hit high, and enough of the lower meter or so had survived to protect Strap and the Doc. Rev wanted to call out, but he couldn’t get his mouth to engage.
Another blast leveled the next building, the shock wave washing over him. Energy weapons shouldn’t react like that against inanimate objects, but his brain couldn’t put together the dots. And then the courser appeared in the wreckage, like a rampaging elephant. Rev had assumed it was going to head back down the road. It, evidently, had other ideas.
Rev tried to sit up, pulling Pashu’s muzzle out of the dirt. He managed to pull her across his lap, then struggled to draw a bead on the courser, which fired its cannon again, hitting something out of Rev’s sight.
<The IBHU’s circuit is down.>
“What do you mean? What circuit?”
It was only then that he noticed the red flashing light on his display.
<Your connection with the IBHU is down.>
Rev ignored Punch, aimed the best he could, and fired. Or, at least he gave the order to fire. Pashu didn’t respond.
“Fix her!”
<I’m trying to run back-up routing, but it isn’t working.>
“Shit,” he said, his mind numb.
He tried to fire another Moray, and to his surprise, the missile took off. To his even bigger surprise, it locked onto the courser and hit it solidly. It might as well have been the bite of a gnat, though. The courser didn’t seem to notice.
“Die, you sucker,” Rev tried to yell, but it came out with a series of coughs.
The courser, now fifty meters away, seemed to take up Rev’s entire field of vision. He could feel the vibration of the ground each time one of those twenty-four legs hit. Another paladin appeared beyond it, but Rev barely noticed.
The courser veered to its right, knocking over what was left of one of the residences. A Raider jumped up and bolted away, trying to get some distance in order to use their Moray. It looked like Gizzy to Rev’s dazed mind, but he couldn’t be sure. He wanted to cheer her on, but that wouldn’t help her. He fired his fourth Moray just as Gizzy stopped to wheel around, adding her missile to his when there was a flash from the side of the Centaur. Gizzy was already moving, but not quickly enough. As the Morays exploded uselessly against the Courser, Gizzy was hit high, her lower torso flung backward onto the ground.
The Moray’s weren’t having any effect, and Rev tried to will his cannon into working. But it remained a quiet hunk of machinery.
Where the hell is McAnt?
Maybe he could stop the beast.
The courser turned toward Rev, Doc, and Strap. It fired its cannon twice more, but Rev couldn’t tell if that was random or targeted. Rev was more worried that it was going to trample the two Raiders.
“Doc! It’s coming. Get Strap out of there!” he managed to croak loud enough for Doc to hear.
Doc didn’t argue or ask questions. He grabbed Strap by the harness and started to drag him deeper into the station. Rev got to his hands and knees and began to crawl, not really knowing what he was going to do. He had two more Morays and his 20mm, but he didn’t think that twenty could fire without external power.
He was going to find out.
Rev moved to a sitting position, Pashu ready for when the courser emerged from behind the last remaining standing building. Seiben thought that the 20mm could pierce a riever. Rev was going to find out what it could do to a courser.
The huge Centaur appeared, just forty meters away. Rev tried to fire.
Nothing.
It was what he expected, but still, it hurt.
He reached into his holster and pulled out one of his Phoenixes. He’d killed a paladin with one, but in the shape he was in, he didn’t give himself much of a chance. Hell, the thing had to see him, and it could take him out before it got close enough for Rev to try a toss.
The ground vibrated with each step, the vibration traveling up his spin, jolting his head.
“You still there, Punch?”
<Still here.>
“Any brilliant ideas?”
<I’m afraid not.>
“Well, then, here goes nothing.”
Rev cocked his right arm, ready to throw the incendiary grenade. Just ten more meters . . .
But the courser was suddenly surrounded by distorted air. Rev thought his bruised brain was playing tricks on him, but the courser reacted violently. It jerked to the side with the reflexes of a cat, quicker than any paladin had shown. Its pedestal started to swing around to its rear, and beyond it, running through the rubble, Rev caught the unmistakable outline of an IBHU.
“McAnt!” Rev screamed aloud in joy. “Kill that fucker!”
But as the Marine got closer, something was wrong. McAnt wasn’t that big. He was much . . . Pierson?
Not believing his eyes, that was Pierson—big, soft Pierson—charging forward, screaming like a berserker.
Rev dropped his Phoenix and fired another Moray, hoping to distract the courser, but the thing never flinched. It was focused on Pierson, finally bringing its cannon all the way around.
“Juke!” Rev shouted, but Pierson realized the danger, too. Still screaming, he dodged to the right and almost immediately back to the left. The cannon belched, but unbelievably, whatever kind of kinetic round it fired, missed. Pierson kept coming.
Now, less than eighty meters away, Pierson juked again, this time dodging behind what was left of one of the buildings. The courser followed with its pedestal, ready to blast the Raider as he emerged on the other side. Rev managed to stand as he craned his neck to watch, hoping against hope that Pierson would outrun the pedestal.
But Pierson had other ideas. As the pedestal traversed, he reappeared—but not on the far side of the building. He’d doubled back and come out right where he’d disappeared. And now, seventy to eighty meters away, he was only spitting distance from being within range.
The courser realized its mistake, and it started to swing back, but with two strides, Pierson raised his IBHU and fired. From Rev’s angle, he could see the air around the courser distort, and the Centaur seemed to shudder. Its right legs collapsed, canting the thing, and the pedestal stopped moving. But it wasn’t dead. The right legs kept trying to move it, and there was a flash from the left side, the side facing Pierson, and the same kind of flash that had killed Gizzy.
But the ground well short of Pierson exploded upward. Evidently, the cant was too much for it to compensate.
Pierson slowed to a walk, but he kept advancing, IBHU aimed in at the thing. Rev yelled at him to get back, but the private ignored him.
Shouting and the sound of a Moray exploding from Rev’s left dragged his attention away from the courser. A paladin was at top speed, breaking through buildings and obstacles as it came to the courser’s rescue, its cannon shimmering as it fired.
Rev felt helpless. The Morays weren’t having an effect, but they were his only option. He hefted Pashu around and fired his last missile, just as the paladin, 145 meters away, was climbing over one of the combat engineers’ obstacles. The missile ran true, hitting the exposed underside. This time, the Moray pierced the armor, the pedestal on top blowing off in a gout of flame. A moment later, the paladin self-detonated with a huge fireball, the blast demolishing the half-ruined cafe beside it.
“Self-detonation!” he yelled at Pierson as he turned back to the Raider.
Pierson had stopped thirty meters away from the courser, his IBHU trained on it. He’d stopped screaming, and the IBHU’s muzzle was wavering just a bit.
“It’s going to self-destruct,” Rev yelled again.
This time Pierson seemed to hear. He looked over at Rev, and their eyes met. He gave his usual goofy smile, shrugged, and fired his cannon.
Rev hit the deck and hugged the dirt as the courser went up in a hellstorm. His face was slammed into the ground, and all went dark.