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Analyzing facility schematics. Cross-referencing with current position.
“What’s going on?” Ryke murmured. When she’d stopped, the men had fanned out, taking covering positions facing down the corridors so no one could sneak up on them.
“This isn’t on the plans,” she explained, weaponry held lightly in her hands. She couldn’t see any movement in any of the corridors branching off the junction. She still couldn’t work out what the disturbance was, just that she could feel it against her skin. Dammit… why couldn’t she have been a Cancer class? If she was, she’d have been able to dive into the outpost systems and rip them apart with a thought to find out what she wanted.
New route identified, her onboard announced.Left passageway. It will add approximately 7.3 minutes to our journey but avoids further areas of electronic disturbance that could be surveillance.
She nodded.Keep monitoring for any other discrepancies. I don’t like surprises.
Acknowledged. Continuous scan initiated.
With a gesture to her companions, she headed down the left corridor, her senses hyperaware of every shadow, every potential threat as she followed the route her onboard pointed out to her.
Finally, they reached their destination—a nondescript door at the end of yet another featureless corridor.
“Is this it?” Covak asked, automatically covering her back as she stepped forward to the access panel. It was the work of moments to hack the simple encryption, even for a Taurus class. The door slid open with a soft hiss, revealing… nothing.
“What the…” she breathed, holding an arm out to stop Covak from stepping in front of her as she swept her gaze around the room.
It was empty, completely and utterly empty apart from a single console in the middle of the floor, its screen dark and lifeless.
“I don’t understand,” Davis muttered. “He should be here. The intel was solid.”
The skin between her shoulder blades crawled, every cell in her body screaming that they’d walked into a trap.
“We need to leave,” she snapped, stepping back. “Now.”
But it was too late. The air around them shimmered, like heat waves rising from sunbaked hull plates. Between one heartbeat and the next, the lights snapped on, and the empty room transformed into a nightmare.
Towering armored forms materialized out of thin air and in the corridors behind them, surrounding the Reapers in a suffocating circle of steel and weaponry. The massive robots loomed over them. Each was easily twice the height of a man, bristling with an arsenal of advanced weaponry that glinted in the harsh light.
“Ambush!” Ryke roared, his voice drowned out by the sudden din of weapons fire, plasma bolts and laser beams lighting up the air.
The Reapers dove for cover. Bodies hit the ground, rolling and diving behind whatever meager protection they could find as the heated smell of ozone and burning metal filled their nostrils.
“Scorperio suits!” Davis bellowed from where he’d taken cover behind a support strut. “Aim for the joint servos and sensor arrays! The neck and lower back are vulnerable! Watch for the shoulder-mounted launchers. They’re slow to reload!”
Jesh crouched behind the central console, ducking in as far as she could as energy bolts sizzled through the air, leaving scorch marks on the pristine walls. She risked a quick glance over the console, her enhanced vision zooming in on the advancing Scorperio suits. They moved with terrifying efficiency, servos whirring as they adjusted their aim. A barrage of laser beams sliced through the air, forcing her to duck back down as the heat seared past her face.
“They’ve got us pinned!” Covak bellowed from somewhere to her left. “We need a plan, now!”
“How the draanth did they even know we were coming?” Ryke shouted, his voice barely audible over the deafening roar of weapons fire.
Through the din of battle, Anson’s voice cut through the comm channel. “It’s her! She sent an encrypted message off-ship before we left!”
Her blood ran cold as she realized how her off-ship message could look. “It was to Zero!” she shouted back. “I was just updating him on?—”
Her explanation was cut short as an explosion rocked the room, showering her with debris. As the dust settled, she caught Covak’s eyes. The hurt and betrayal in his gaze pierced her heart more deeply than any weapon could.
“Covak, I swear, I didn’t—” she began, but he had already turned away, focusing on the fight at hand.
The Scorperio suits moved with a fluid grace that was terrible and fascinating all at the same time. She bit off a curse. The Reapers were being outmaneuvered, the Scorperios’ advanced technology giving them a devastating edge.
As one of them bore down on her position, she reached out with her cybernetic senses, trying to hack the Scorperios’ control systems.
For a moment, it seemed to work. The Scorperio faltered, its movements jerky and uncoordinated. A spark of hope ignited in her chest, only to be snuffed out as it straightened up again, its smooth movements and forward momentum back as it headed for her.
Worse… Searing pain lanced through her skull. The result of her hacking attempt. She stumbled backward, her vision blurring as the backlash overwhelmed her systems.
