Ally or Alien: A Sci-Fi Novel (23 page)

"I know, I know. But look."

He pointed toward every single screen on the inner-dome. Forty plus counting, gleaming in fifty shades of red. The dome transformed into a neon crimson sign.

Bellrock eased his voice.

"You have to realize this station is lost, but we aren't. I know your kind cares about sustainability, but a humanoid's life is more important than any object ever will be."

eLoom winced.

Looked down at the space between her feet which were connected to the anchor point. 

The merge between human and machine...

...was about to get disrupted.

eLoom's eyes changed color. 

Her pose shifted.

Like a girl waking up from a dream that went on for aeons.

"I really thought I could make a difference."

"But you did. Rao, eKazumi and Vaxxy reached the hangar where they took a hoverglider back to the space elevator. All thanks to your defensive measures."

She nodded with a nano-shut of her eyes.

"That is true. They are already 165.3 kilometer out of harm's reach."

"See? Let's go."

This time for good.

It was one of those moments that needed emotional finesse. He had never swayed a female Newtype before, so he pretended to speak to a human woman, which he was just as inexperienced in. 

"eLoom..."

"I know..."

The circuit patterns around her body silenced the glow. The blue lines disappeared from her surrounding till the last screen and display switched off. She finally disconnected herself from the facility.

eLoom/off.

All went to: black.

Good night, CoreCommand. 

Bellrock thanked her in silence.

"Can you walk?"

"Of course."

They left the dome and aimed for the newly-opened wall. Bellrock ran for the capsule entrance of the wall's hyperloop when eLoom grabbed the armored left arm of his exoframe.

"Wait, the tube is interrupted."

"What?"

"The tubes inside the central hub are disconnected—something has damaged them. We can not take them to the hangar. We have to walk manually via the emergency stairs."

Bellrock cooked from the inside.

The situation moved from terrible to outright devastating. Running through an alien-infested station?

Suicide to the E, but what were the alternatives? 

Vaporized at this point.

eLoom approached him and touched his chest.

"Is that a problem?"

"One of many, but it doesn't matter."

Bellrock posed like a heavy assault unit after a successful sector sweep. He raised his smart beam rifle and said,

"Whatever the sucker is throwing at us, I'm ready for it. And unlike you, I'm not going to hesitate."

eLoom grinned, which warmed his heart, hidden under four inch layers of exoframe armor. 

Eyes connected, sparks flew high.

This moment carried magic inside, interrupted only by the sentry guns' fire floors below. Muffled ratatatatatata sounds blared through the white hulls.

"Oh no," eLoom said.

The war had reached the center...

55

The three auto-sentry guns Bellrock had placed on the corridors of the central hub fired volleys of rounds into the approaching biomorph creepers. The suppressive fire mowed down the first wave of walkers. They resembled the various droids the creature had assimilated during its invasion. The auto-turrets could keep the alien spawn at bay, but the battle zone was way too close for Bellrock. He hoped eLoom realized that, too.

"See? The station's overrun. There's nothing you could have done."

eLoom nodded.

"You were right."

The ran together and followed the path leading to the hangar, which was opposite to the corridors where the biomorph units attacked from. No wonder the two couldn't use the hyperloop—the tube transportation system was torn-apart at the central area of the station. Probably the alien's fault, but that must have meant it was not only sentient but also smart. 

That smart?

Bellrock looked back at the incoming droid creepers trying to circumnavigate the turrets like a pack of predators. One unit carried significant armor and drew the sentry's attention at the east section. While this tank unit absorbed the concentration of incoming fire, the other units followed the leader in formation before spreading around the turret. The sentry desperately unleashed its last rounds before the units mounted it from behind and took it apart.

Goodbye turret, Bellrock thought.

It was now part of the biomorph. 

"Take cover."

Bellrock locked-on and tapped the trigger to charge up the smartLZR. The target pointers of the rifle's digiscope jumped from enemy to enemy until seven units were selected. The affirmative beep sounded from the firearm and showed a 98.5% accuracy rate. The laser beam concentrated on the core body before it switched from target to target and melted through the enemy armor. 

Sparks flew high.

Seven were down.

Bellrock smiled, but the joy was short-lived.

In the right corner of his eyes, he saw the second sentry-gun on the ceiling of the northern corridor, firing at full force. The volleys pierced through four to five units, before they, too, were 'eaten' by the next wave of droids that managed to surround the sentry through sheer numbers. They devoured the turret like cybernetic blood leaches. 

Only one turret in the west corridor was left. 

"They breached the center," eLoom said. 

"Yeah. Keep moving."

"No. We are in this together. Two shooters are better than one."

Math you couldn't argue with. 

eLoom snatched a Melta disk grenade and a close-range scattergun from his exoframe. Retreated to the corridor leading to the hangar bay which closed five meters in front of them. Another mechanism double-sealed the corridor with two extra-fortified hulls.

Bellrock raged.

"What the hell is going on?"

eLoom sniveled, at least that's what it looked like.

"The Exec is back in control of the facility. And they are putting our section on quarantine to contain the aggressors."

Goddamn, not again, Bellrock thought.

He approached the double-hulled gate and hammered his exo-powered gloves against its surface.

"Open this fucking gate."

Bellrock looked up again, 

"Can these Exec hear me?"

"Indirectly. They are part of every connected Newtype, which means they hear you through my ear channels."

Weird, but then again, everything was at this stage.

"Open this goddamn door. We need to escape."

"Protocol is protocol," eLoom said, channeling the Exec. 

"You will have to find another way or accept imminent body loss."

Bellrock frowned and bit his lips. 

"Imminent body loss? This isn't a video game, I just have this one life." 

Like they cared. 

Bellrock squeezed in the artificial air that reeked of burned metal and overheated barrels. He saw how his third and last sentry-gun was swallowed by the never ending onslaught of biomorph droids. The alien flooded every adjacent corridor and assimilated every technical device on its path.

Bellrock's assessment of the situation: fucked with capital F.

This station’s going down without me.

Trusted smart rifle, you'll be our ticket out of here.

He pulled up the laser-cutter shtick for a second time while eLoom tiptoed closer to the intersection and shoved 90 degree bursts into the approaching biomorph droids. The airspace around her angle shifted as the metallic creatures blew away.

As if an invisible grenade detonated in front of their dented rears. 

"I will cover you while you burn through the hull."

She launched two, three, four loads and shattered the incoming droid abominations. 

Still didn't deter them from attacking.

With the last turret taken down, the droids 'flooded' the central area of Farsight. In-between the door laser-cutting, Bellrock threw a glance at the hub while eLoom fired on auto-pilot. The droids on the table converged and transformed into something that resembled a turret.

No way. 

His ex-defense turrets already morphed into the alien's arsenal.

Bite me twice.

Bellrock's thoughts right there, as he pushed his servo-mechanics. 

The corrupted turret, a mix between a stationary and a hovertank, fired shots from its twin-barrels. Bellrock stopped 'cutting' through the gate's hull and activated his shield. The mechanical wisps fanned out their webs and covered his front in a 180 degree angle. He hunkered down in front of eLoom to protect her rear. The turret's shots zapped through the air and battered his shield with enough force to push him backwards two meters. But thanks to the exoframe's strength, he could take the pounding.

For now.

Meanwhile, the mini-droid units projecting his shield extrapolated the impact energy from the projectiles and used it to quench its energy demand. Under the bombardment, Bellrock told eLoom to take over the smart beam rifle to continue the door melting. She nodded and concluded his work while he guarded her back from the incoming volleys. 

Hammering his shields, causing semi-transparent ripple effects. 

Gotta bless this technology. 

But the damn biomorph wasn't dumb. While the corrupted sentry on the center table pinned Bellrock down with suppressive fire, the droid abominations spread out and neared his direction. They crawled on the ground, the walls and even the corridor's ceiling. Worse, some of them possessed cannons stolen from their earlier assimilations. Two droids fired the guns from the aerial units and blasted Bellrock's front shield. Its inner HUD projected a message with the data of the incoming fire.

Warning. 

Warning.

Warning.

"I'm through," eLoom said with the smartLZR rifle on stand-by. 

She had finished burning a boulder-sized hole through both of the shutter doors. Parts of the white material rivered down like liquid vanilla ice-cream. 

"Let us leave," eLoom said with a pressing voice.

"Amen, sister."

Bellrock ordered the mini-droids to shield his back. He followed eLoom through the new hole and pushed the servo-mechanics of his HULC exoframe while the biomorph shots bruised his rear shield. Twenty meters up ahead, the next set of doors threatened to close down. Worse, the shield fizzled out with a crackling noise. A volley of shots hit Bellrock and blew off his left arm. 

No blood splattered out, but sparks spat... 

56

eLoom, who ran in front of him, gasped as she saw his cybernetic stump remaining.

Bellrock stomped onwards and bit his lips.

"Long story. I tell you later."

He focused on the path before them. Bellrock didn't need another PhD to realize they didn't have time for another laser-cutting session. With the biomorph swarming the central section, their escape route was only seconds away from getting infested. 

Ten meters up ahead, the corridor’s gate closed.

Bellrock dropped his weapons to reduce weight, pushed his exo-powered legs to the max and charged forward like a cybernetic rhino. He caught up with eLoom, picked her up on the run and carried her on his enhanced shoulders. Drifted through the door crack the second before it shut down.

"Hero of the day," eLoom said.

"It pays to be pals with me."

"No doubt about that."

He blitzed across the hallway that led to the hangar. 

"Can you remote-start the ship? We don't have the time to do it manually."

"There is no ship left. Only a hovercycle."

Bellrock grumbled.

"What's that?"

"Basically a two-unit anti-grav bike."

"But it can't fly."

“Define flying. It can't do a suborbital flight, but it can take us to the astroport where the space elevator is located. It is our nearest chance of escaping Mars."

Good enough.

Heck, Bellrock would have pedaled a freaking tri-bike to get out of his infestation. With eLoom still on his shoulder, he reached the forsaken hangar where only the hovercycle remained, surrounded by crates. Everyone, including the serfs, had left Farsight.

"I told everyone to grab as much tech as they could. It is best to leave nothing behind for the biomorph."

The perks of being mind-connected to every cybernetic organism within the facility. Next to the crate stood his EVA suit, hopefully with the oxygen supply fully recharged.

Bellrock whistled.

"You thought of everything."

Bellrock deactivated his HULC and unwrapped the armor and its modules from his uniform. The hovercycle was too small for his heavy build, which meant he had to rid himself of excess equipment.

What a shame. 

The HULC had cost the AC many millions but his life mattered more than the material. He tossed his exoframe armor to the ground and put on the EVA suit with eLoom's help. She aided him in checking the oxyginator pack on his back. 

99.5% filled.

Enough for the trip back to the ringstation.

"Let's go."

eLoom wo-manned the front position and activated the machine. The hovercycle looked like a mix between a wheelless sport bike and a bi-copter, with two propellers using control vanes. Bellrock climbed on the back and hit the rear which signaled eLoom to hover. The machine floated an arm-length over the ground and rotated toward the hangar gates. They opened up on the other side of the ramp when Bellrock heard far away clonk-clonk sounds bursting from the adjacent corridor.

Knock, knock, who’s there?

The biomorph nightmare.

"Hurry," Bellrock said through his helmet as he held onto eLoom with his leftover arm. She accelerated and blasted toward the opening. The light of the Martian atmosphere flashed their bodies in fox-red. 

eLoom said,

"Fastest route to the port calculated. ETA: 56 minutes and 32 seconds with a maximum speed of 645 km/h."

Like J-pop music to Bellrock's ears. 

They hovered out the hangar perimeter and left the lost Farsight station behind. The captain from Earth craned his neck one last time and saw the majestic tech cathedral shrinking on the crimson horizon.