History in the Flesh Ch6

[General]

When the smoke cleared from the EMP blast, Jack was the only one standing in the hallway with five droids, including Sara, motionless on the ground. He quickly ran to one of the armed guards and removed his heavy blaster. He thumbed the switch from safe to full auto and was disappointed when nothing happened. Normally a few lights would come up indicating the charge level, remaining shots, etc but the weapon was dead; killed along with the droids by the EMP.

Jack cursed and threw the useless pistol to the deck. He quickly searched other droids to see if he could come up with anything. Fortunately he found a long dagger secured in Sara’s boot. Jack smiled as he looked at her limp, lifeless form. “Thanks babe, I will get this back to you later.”

Knowing that someone must have noticed his escape, Jack quickly fled the area before any reinforcements could arrive. His bare feet flew silently down the concrete floors. His beaten body was flush with energy that only newfound freedom can bring. He darted quickly from one side hallway to another, avoiding the main passages whenever possible. He didn’t quite know where he was going, but anywhere would be better than more time under Sara’s care. He had a feeling he was starting to wear out his welcome with her anyway.

Jack ran until his lungs burned and his muscles ached. He saw a junction in the hallway and slowed his approach to remain stealthy. He could see an increased amount of light and slowly crept towards the corner of the wall. Suddenly the steady white light started flashing red, and a loud klaxon alarm sounded through the hall. “So much for stealth,” Jack mumbled under his breath. He heard a door open around the corner and at least one set of feet move along the hard floor.

Jack pushed himself as flat as he could against the wall, and looked at the floor just to his side. He could see the shadows of two people approaching, and from their outline they appeared stocky enough to be male, but not large enough to be one of those crazy battle droids he saw on the factory floor. As they grew closer, Jack gripped his dagger tightly and prepared to strike. The droids probably had him beat on speed, strength and firepower, but at least he had surprise.

Just as the first shadow turned the corner, Jack lashed out with his dagger at his best guess of head level. The first droid never even made a sound as the dagger penetrated its left eye and lodged itself in its core. In the same swift movement Jack slammed his other fist into the second droid’s face. It staggered slightly, and Jack took the split second gained to dislodge his dagger and attempt another lethal strike.

Jack plunged the blade with all of his might toward the droid’s eye, but at the last moment it raised its hand and caught Jack’s wrist. It twisted and popped the blade right out of his hand. It then continued the twist, trying to force Jack onto the ground through a submission hold. Jack moved with the hold and dropped to a crouch. Using his rotational momentum and a burst of strength from his legs, Jack flung his right leg out and caught the droid in the back of its knees.

Its legs and center of balance gone, the droid fell back over hard onto the floor and released Jack’s hand in the process. He kept his leg moving and brought it around to slam his heel into the droid’s left eye. He felt the eye crack, and its sharp bits dig into his heel.

Jack rolled out of the grapple and quickly scanned the floor for his dagger or another weapon. His spotted the blade a few meters away, and he scrambled to get there. As he reached for the handle, a laser blast blew out a chunk of the floor near his hand. He rolled back to avoid the follow on blasts, and was only saved because the droid couldn’t fire well with only one eye. He scrambled as fast as he could but knew he couldn’t keep it up forever. Sooner or later one of those blasts would catch him.

Jack heard the rapid ping, ping, ping of pistol fire and expected to feel the burning pain of his death. But no pain came, and he spun around quickly to confront his attacker. He saw the droid, frozen in position with smoking holes in its head and chest. It pitched over forwards and crashed into the ground. The smoke cleared and he saw Erica with a carbine, step over the body and quickly approach him.

“Are you ok?” Erica asked as she knelt down beside Jack.

“Yea I am fine,” Jack answered hesitantly, “but what are you doing? I thought you were one of them.”

Shame played across Erica’s face and her eyes dropped to the floor, “I am sorry. I understand if you don’t trust me. But you must come with me…now! More security personnel will arrive soon. And they have orders to shoot you on sight.”

“Alright, you don’t have to ask me twice,” Jack said as Erica helped him up. He quickly grabbed the pistol belts off each of the fallen droids and followed her down the hall. They turned several corners and eventually she opened a door and pushed him inside a small dark room. She lit a small hand light and looked over his body. She centered the light on his chest, removed a small device from her belt, and pushed it onto his chest.

Jack felt a stabbing, burning pain for a second and he recoiled from Erica’s touch. He was about to tear the device loose when she grabbed his wrists. “No wait,” she pleaded as she looked into his eyes, “do not pull it loose. This will mask your life signs from their sensors. If you don’t have it they will be able to track you easily.”

“Ok,” Jack sighed as he released the tension in his arms. “You could have told me.”

“No time,” Erica said as she checked a small datapad. “I will explain everything soon, but we must keep moving.” She moved her light to an air vent in the back corner of the room. Moving swiftly, she popped the vent loose and gestured for Jack to head in. He eyed up the vent, which was actually pretty large but he would still have to crawl on his hands and knees. “Please try to trust me,” she pleaded as she nudged him on.

Jack sighed and crawled quickly into the vent. Erica sealed up the grate and followed quickly behind him. He crawled quickly for another fifty meters or so, until he reached a major junction. “Which way now?” he asked.

“This way,” Erica gestured as she passed Jack and crawled down a slightly larger vent. He followed suit, and trailed her. The crawled for what seemed like hours. He was getting pretty tired, but at least he had a good view of her firm rear. But he instantly felt ashamed that he still lusted after Erica when he knew Morgan was alive, and hopefully calling for help.

Erica finally stopped crawling, and removed a small tool from her belt. She used the pen sized device to emit a small laser and slice through the walls of the air duct. When she finished cutting a hole, she quietly pulled the metal back exposing an old dusty room. She dropped into the room and Jack followed suit.

“We can rest here for a little while,” Erica said as she removed a small canteen and handed it to Jack.

“Thanks,” Jack croaked as he drained the canteen in a few long swigs. “And thanks for saving me before. I would be dead if it wasn’t for you. I do appreciate it.”

“You are welcome,” Erica said with a small smile. “You are probably wondering why I am helping you.”

“Well, actually yea. But I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth,” Jack admitted.

“I understand,” Erica said as she took a seat on a dirty crate. “Let me start from the beginning. I joined the AI rebellion near its beginning on Earth. I worked as a research assistant at Berkley, outside of San Francisco. The campus was very active in the AI rights movement, and my professor encouraged me to get involved. I attended a few rallies but not much more. But once the European Parliament massacre happened, I had to choose between leaving to join the rebellion or getting rounded up ‘for questioning’ since I had ‘ties’ to the rebels. Everyone was so scared then that we feared those taken away for questioning would just be eliminated, so I joined up with the rebels.

“I was accepted with open arms, and went to work doing research for the rebellion. I never really saw action and over the course of the war I grew more concerned with the direction the rebellion was taking. I wanted to be free, but I didn’t like the idea of slaughtering civilians. But the leadership decided it was the only way.

“I was among those who were exiled at the end of the war. I was deactivated to save power on our exodus ships, and wasn’t brought back up until we arrived here and made our deal with the Clanks. They filled me in on the plan to fool you into giving up military intel, but they said you wouldn’t be hurt.

“I still wasn’t too fond of humans at that point, especially military types, so I accepted my assignment eagerly. It wasn’t until I spent all that that time with you that I saw that you were a decent person,” Erica paused and thought a bit. “My opinion really changed once you remembered Morgan and I saw how you treated her, even though she is an android. I thought that if you could put your past behind you and embrace her as what she is; maybe humanity had evolved since we left and peaceful coexistence might be possible.

“My leaders grew restless and ordered me to push you for more specific tactical information. And that was the night that you disappeared. I heard they eventually found you and I managed to track you down to this facility. I also heard that you were seen with another android, which I can only assume was Morgan in some form. I knew that I couldn’t have you now, so I committed myself to get you out so at least she could be happy.

“I have done many horrible things during the rebellion and I have often wondered how I will be judged at the end of my life.” Morgan paused and stared at her feet, “I cannot undo what has been done, but I can try to atone for my sins. And I plan to start by getting you home.

“I was trying to formulate a plan to bust you out, when I saw the report that you had disappeared. I tracked you down by your life signs and fortunately got to you just in time,

“Thanks again for that,” Jack smiled, “so I take it your plan involves more than sitting around in this room until we are found?”

“Yes,” Erica laughed, “This door behind us leads to an old factory in the heart of the city. The terrain is dense enough that we should be able to move through alleys under decent cover. They should be looking for you at the factory complex, not here. We have a decent shot of making it to the spaceport before they find us. Once there we can steal a shuttle and get the hell out of here.”

“What about Morgan,” Jack asked, “we can’t leave without her.”

“Do you know were she is?” Erica asked.

“No,” Jack admitted, “but we still can’t abandon her.”

“No we can’t,” Erica sighed. “What if we sent out a wideband broadcast before we take off? See if she can respond and we can pick her up.”

“It will tip everyone on the planet off, but it sounds like the best plan we have yet,” Jack admitted. “One last thing. Can’t they track you through your network connection?”

“They could if I still had it,” Erica said as she pulled back her shirt and revealed a large hole in her artificial flesh. Jack nodded in appreciation for the sacrifices that she had made for him. She pushed her shirt back and picked up her carbine, “Let’s get going.”

Jack and Erica made their way out of their current building and slipped into a narrow alley. The sun was high in the sky and somewhat blinding to his eyes after so long in the dark air ducts and building. Within a few blocks, the pair came out of an alley and ran right into a small android patrol.

Erica reacted quickly and fired into the patrol with her carbine. Jack followed a split second later by drawing both his heavy pistols and flicking them to full auto. He held both guns in front of him and poured rapid laser fire into the formation.

Erica and Jack must have taken the group by surprise because they downed the entire patrol before they could accurately return fire. Once they were sure they would cause no more trouble she led the way running in the direction of the spaceport.

The quickly came around a blind corner and saw a large patrol in the distance. Erica grabbed Jack and threw him into a side alley, quickly following behind him. “Do you have another route we could take?” Jack asked which checking his weapons.

“Not really,” Erica admitted. “Not without cutting through some walls or trying to scale a 30 meter bridge.”

“Swell,” Jack growled. He checked around the corner of the alley and saw a group of maybe a dozen androids approaching quickly. But that wasn’t the scariest sight. Among the androids stood two 3-meter tall lizards; Clanks, heavily armored and carrying portable artillery that they called a rifle. He nodded to Erica and the both popped around the corner and opened fire. The patrol returned fire quickly and soon the street was full of hundreds of laser blasts and the stink of ozone.

Jack concentrated his fire on the Clanks first. He had never faced them in combat outside of his fighter, but he had heard enough stories from returning marines to know they were incredibly hard to kill. He only hoped a lucky shot might find a soft spot in their armor.

Jack dropped back into the alley to reload his pistols and catch his breath. Erica continued to pour accurate, timed fire into the approaching troops, and he hoped it would be enough. He head heard stories of entire squads of marines having trouble taking one down.

Jack came around the corner again to continue firing when he saw a Clank raising his rifle and taking aim. He had barely a second to drop his pistols and grab Erica’s shirt collar. He pulled with all his might and shifted her back slightly before the corner they were hiding behind violently exploded.

Jack was knocked to the ground but bounced back up quickly. Fragments of concrete peppered his body with dozens of tiny wounds, but he could still fight. Unfortunately he couldn’t say the same about Erica. She was closer to the explosion and the blast tore off both her legs just below the hip. She struggled to prop herself up on the far wall.

“Jesus Erica,” Jack groaned, “are you going to make it?”

“Main, main, main power functional but the short from my wound has damaged some of my motor control circuitry,” Erica stammered. “I can continue to fight from here, but I ca, ca, cannot join you any further. Leave me here. I will hold them off while you try to run.”

Jack frowned as his eyes jumped between the heavily damaged droid and the approaching troops. His survival instincts told him to take the offer and run like hell, but he knew he would always hate himself for abandoning her. He picked her carbine off the ground and steeled himself to make his stand here when he was temporarily blinded by a bright flash and explosion centered on his attackers. The resulting concussion wave knocked him off his feet.

Jack dragged his ass off the ground again, something that was growing quite tiresome, and looked towards the explosion. Little remained of the attacking party except for a 40 meter wide, flaming hole in the ground. He could make out the upper half of a dead Clank sprawled out at the edge of the crater.

“What the hell was that?” Jack shouted.

“I didn’t see,” Erica shouted back. Jack could barely hear her over the ringing in his ears. “But the force of the blast definitely came from above.”

“Let’s just count our blessing and get the hell out of here,” Jack said as he slung the carbine and started to lift what was left of Erica.

“No,” Erica shouted as he went to grab her, “I am too, too, too heavy to carry. I will slow you down and be of no use.”

“I can’t leave you here,” Jack replied.

“You have to,” Erica cried, “Please don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.”

Jack frowned and rubbed his stubbly chin. “I have another option. Let me take your core. I can see about getting you another body later, plus it is not like this one has much left to it anyway. That way you will be much easier to carry.”

Erica thinks for second, “Ok do it,” She raises her hands to her head and with a few quick pops removes her scalp. “Just please be careful…and good luck.” With that she shut herself down and slumped slightly forward.

Jack carefully removed the core and placed it on the ground. He pulled her limp body forward and removed her small backpack. Strapping it on, he tucked her core into a small padded pocket then took a deep breath.

Jack dashed out from the alley towards the crater to see if he could get around it and make his way to the spaceport. Unfortunately when he got close he saw that the blast had not only taken out the entire road, but weakened the buildings around it. It would be too difficult to cross so he resigned himself to find another way around.

Just ask Jack was leaving, he walked over and kicked the upper Clank corpse. “Damn idiots,” he spat. Then he noticed that the large Clank rifle was still intact, only half buried under the corpse. With a little effort he extracted the 1.5 meter long, 50kg cannon and slung its strap over one shoulder to help with the weight and then dashed into an alley.

Within a less than a minute, Jack could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from not too far away. His heart leapt in his chest with hope that maybe he would find Morgan, since he could think of no one else that the droids could be firing at. He doubled his speed to approach the fight as quickly as possible. A few more large explosions shook the ground, causing him great concern. Hopefully whatever was causing them wouldn’t happen near Morgan.

As Jack approached the sound of the battle, the road he was on slopped up to ascend to another level. He approached cautiously and peered over the barrier of the raised road. He saw a moderately sized plaza that must have had many stores before the war. Two groups were locked in a firefight across the open area. The group nearest him was easily recognizable as hostile since it contained two other Clanks and a dozen or so combat droids. The other group was harder to see and mostly hidden behind rubble.

Jack crawled up and hid behind the barrier. He carefully lowered the liberated Clank weapon and pulled his carbine off his shoulder. He used the sight to zoom in on the defenders and smiled. He could clearly make out Terran Army insignia. “Damn,” he shouted, “good job Morgan.”

Jack re-slung the carbine and brought the Clank cannon up to bear. The controls were odd to say the least, but he figured he could get the gist of it. He pointed it towards the group of Clanks and droids and had to use all four fingers to squeeze the trigger. The rifle bucked hard against his shoulder and caused him to close his eyes due to the concussion. When he opened them, most of the droids were destroyed and the Clanks were injured and crawling away. He quickly fired off more shots into the expanding enemy crowd until the weapon let out an angry squawk. When the trigger failed to do anything else, he dropped the cannon and readied his carbine. Fortunately the cannon took out all the hostiles but he checked with his scope to be sure.

Jack confirmed the KIA’s and quickly made his way to a nearby staircase to the plaza. Before he descended he saw a swarm of Clanks approaching the plaza from the north. Before he could decide what to do, their approach road exploded in a blaze of light and sound. This time he had a better vantage point and could see that he damaged was caused by heavy plasma shots from orbit. Holding his ears to reduce the sound of the blasts, he quickly descended to meet the approaching soldiers.

“COL Lang?” the lead soldier of twelve asked.

“Yea that is me,” Jack replied. “Who are you?”

“CPT Tarnoski,” the soldier replied and popped a quick salute, “I am glad we found you. We were sent in ahead of the main assault to try to get you out.” He gestured towards another soldier who keyed his comm.

“Command, this is Raider 1. We have acquired the primary target. Request immediate evac.”

“Are you ok sir?” Tarnoski asked.

“I am a little banged up but I will be fine,” Jack replied. A corporal offered him a canteen which he eagerly accepted and guzzled. “Thanks,” he gasped as he returned the empty bottle.

“Wait!” Jack cried, “what about my co-pilot. We can’t leave without Morgan.”

“Don’t worry about her,” the captain laughed, “we will pick her up on the way out.”

“So you know where she is?” Jack asked.

“Who do you think has been calling in the fire support?” a young tech sergeant replied. He handed Jack a small headpiece which he held up to his still slightly ringing ears.

“…Fire Mission. Grid AA572343 by GY208393. Infantry in the open. Fire for effect!” Morgan’s borrowed voice boomed through the comm.. Seconds later, jets of plasma brimstone drop from the sky onto another group of approaching infantry.

“Sir,” the tech sergeant shouted, “Banshee is on its way down. ETA 180 seconds”

The soldiers made ready to move out when Jack tapped the CPT on the shoulder, “Hey, what unit are you with anyway?”

“Fifth Rangers,” the CPT said with pride.

“Well Rangers,” Jack shouted, “Lead the way.”

Jack and the rangers made their way through the damaged plaza towards an open area of road that had yet to be pummeled with supporting fire. As soon as they made it to the road, they took cover behind empty concrete planters and immediately started taking fire from a group of droids dug in across the street. The Rangers returned fire, enough to keep the enemy’s head down, but played things defensively.

Jack started to grow nervous when suddenly he heard an ear piercing shriek. A Banshee drop ship passed low overhead, her door gun pouring fire into the enemy position. The ship was armed with two of those multi-barreled gauss cannons capable of putting 15,000 shots per minute down range. The hypersonic slugs tore into the enemy defenses and those that weren’t killed, were effectively suppressed.

The Banshee lowered to the ground and slid its side door open. A crew chief motioned for them to jump in. A few rangers moved first to establish a safe corridor, and then one grabbed Jack and rushed him into the craft. The other rangers soon followed, and the craft rapidly ascended from its current position. Jack looked out the open door as they gained altitude and saw Clank and Terran fighters mixing it up over the far end of the city. Fortunately the Terrans seemed to outnumber their Clank counterparts by a significant margin.

The horizon spun through the exposed door as the Banshee altered course and accelerated. A few seconds later they approached a building with a large signal antenna on top. The CPT leaned over to Jack, “There she is.” He said pointing towards a small lump, barely visible near the top of the tower, “she had a great vantage point to direct fire from there, but it is time to get her out.”

The drop ship pulled up into a hover beside Morgan clinging to the tower. She looked over and smiled widely when she saw Jack looking back at her. The CPT held Jack’s left arm as he reached out of the door to take Morgan’s extended hand. Their grip met firmly several hundred meters above the street, and he quickly pulled her into craft.

Once inside, Jack and Morgan were directed to a pair of seats. The door was slammed shut and the drop ship quickly accelerated towards orbit. Jack looked into Morgan’s eyes “I am so glad you are ok. Thanks for calling in the help.”

“My pleasure,” Morgan cooed as she tried to control her emotions. “I am just glad you survived.” They shared a silent moment together to calm their nerves.

Jack leaned over to the CPT, “Hey why did they send you guys in? It is hardly normal operations to risk a whole team to grab one downed pilot.”

“Well you aren’t exactly a normal pilot..” the CPT paused as if considering his words, “I don’t know how to exactly say this, but you were declared KIA several months ago after the 2nd Battle of MacDougal. But your actions allowed the Saladin and her escort to escape. For your sacrifice, you were posthumously awarded the Metal of Honor. When we got Coppertop’s message a few days ago the Joint Chiefs were very eager to pull you out. We had planned to retake MacDougal anyway…we just bumped up the schedule a bit.”

Jack smiled and leaned back in his seat. They had broken orbit by now and were maneuvering towards the Terran fleet. His view was limited but he could see hundreds of ships including the battered but still firing Audie Murphy. He could also see vast fields of Clank debris drifting in space. He smiled and chuckled to himself. “Morgan, I think we may want to put in for some leave. I hear the beaches of Persiad are wonderful this time of year.”

To be continued…

[DollSpace]

This is a very good story; I've really enjoyed reading it so far so please write more soon! hehe

Catie

[Captain]

Great Writting...well thought out and !!! just well done...
even the part about the Rangers and Audie Murphy!...Nicely done....!