Mech 2 by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

16

Rade glanced at his overhead map as he waded through the foliage toward the entrance to the cavern. So far, none of the HS3s watching the different intersections had picked up any enemies. But that didn’t really mean anything, because those HS3s didn’t have echolocation—they couldn’t spot SKs equipped with LIDAR blurring, thermal masking and visual blending.

“What if Bravo and the reinforcements fail to hold the breach point?” Fret said. “What if they weren’t even able to reach it… and we emerge to find ourselves surrounded by alien energy turrets?”

“They’ll hold it,” Rade said.

Snakeoil must have been studying the map, because he said, presently: “Actually… there’s no reason why we have to emerge right there, either. If you follow along on the map, past the breach, it continues parallel to the surface for the next five hundred meters. We could always drill our way out here.” He marked a spot on the map that appeared on everyone’s HUD. “Before the tunnel loops inward again. The drill only has to deal with an extra half meter of rock.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” Rade said. “If Bravo is successfully holding the breach, there’s a good chance we’ll emerge directly in the heart of enemy units if we diverge even just a short distance. Plus, we’d be in the line of fire of any weapon turrets embedded in the cliff face itself in that area.”

“The safest option is to assume that Bravo has our backs,” Tahoe agreed. “I know if I was out there, I wouldn’t let Bravo down.”

“Let’s just hope they’re not overwhelmed,” Fret said. “Those Nemesis things… there sure were a lot of them.”

“They’ll hold the breach,” Rade insisted.

They reached the smaller tunnel, and formed up three abreast once more. The foliage continued to yield easily beneath them, no longer fighting them every step of the way.

“By the way, how long will you be able to change the nuke’s countdown?” Pyro asked.

“Not long,” Rade replied. “I’m almost out of range with the remote interface even now.”

“We could stream out the HS3s behind us as we retrieve them,” TJ said. “If you really wanted to increase the range.”

“I think it’s better if we just do our best to get out of here, and let the bomb detonate,” Rade said.

They encountered no resistance to the first intersection. The HS3s remained in place, guarding either side.

Bender, Praxter and Manic had taken the lead, as the ballistic shields of the former point men were too shot up. The three proceeded to dart into the intersection. TJ joined them, following Bender on the left, so that there were two mechs per side, going high and low. They kept their shields held in front of them, with their weapon muzzles shoved into the notch on top. As usual, those who went low angled their shields so as not to interfere with the aim of the mechs that remained high.

“Clear on the left!” Bender announced.

“Clear on the right, too,” Manic said.

TJ sent one of the

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