Infliction (Mech Wars Book 4) by Scott Bartlett

Author:Scott Bartlett [Bartlett, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Mirth Publishing
Published: 2017-10-28T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

As Anticipated

Rather than a smaller chamber that let onto the station, the space elevator’s airlock enveloped its entire structure. The elevator was designed to ascend directly into the airlock, which sealed underneath it.

This was meant as an extra failsafe, in case the elevator suffered a breach, but it now proved tactically useful to Lisa’s invading army.

Under her orders, Jake and Rug had already positioned themselves directly opposite the entrance, which the operator had sealed shut.

They both directed energy cannons at the unbroken elevator wall, blasting it simultaneously with incredible force.

When the fire and smoke cleared, a yawning aperture had opened, and Jake and Rug were the first through.

Lisa followed directly after, with a pair of Quatro flanking her on both sides. As anticipated, the Darkstream military presence on this side of the elevator was sparse—the enemy had expected them to emerge through the actual doors.

It was a reasonable assumption, but it also happened to be wrong. Lisa raised her SL-17 to sight along its barrel at a baffled-looking soldier, planting a round in his neck and downing him. She tracked the assault rifle’s sights across the vast expanse of Valhalla’s Core, which she’d had Jake brief her on twice.

Another soldier was leaning out from the corner of what looked like a grocery store. Lisa’s next round took her in the face, obliterating it and throwing her backward.

By the time the Darkstream forces in front of the elevator doors caught on to what had happened, Lisa’s combined Quatro and human strike force had cleared out most of the resistance on this side.

Even so, the Darkstream reprisal was much swifter and fiercer than Lisa had expected—and it also involved far more soldiers.

“Take cover!” Lisa yelled as she ran for the spot her second target had been occupying. A bullet zipped in front of her face, but she suppressed the urge to recoil and continued sprinting forward.

Some of her soldiers outside the elevator would be forced to retreat back inside, she knew, creating a bottleneck. But they’d used the element of surprise to deploy as many soldiers as possible into the Core, and most of them had already found cover among the buildings and trees nearby.

Lisa soon had cause to swap out her magazine for a fresh one, and less than a minute later, she did it again. She’d set her assault rifle to fire in short bursts, and she spent each bullet judiciously, taking down five more hostiles.

They kept coming, though, pushing Lisa’s position hard, along with most of her army’s. She needed backup from inside the elevator, but the Darkstream soldiers were taking care to keep them pinned inside it, and Jake and Rug were too far away to blast open another exit.

A grenade skittered across the station’s deck, coming to a stop near Lisa’s feet. She hadn’t seen where it had come from, but that didn’t seem important right now, as she turned and sprinted along the building she’d chosen as her cover.

Diving for the rear corner, she made it around just as the grenade was going off.

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