War Horses Book 4: Dog Soldier by Scott Warren

Author:Scott Warren [Warren, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scott Warren
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17 - Tactical Upright Armor

Of course, I didn’t die. No matter how real the Au’Duran sim felt, it wasn’t real. And despite what cheesy cyber-noir holos might have told you, your mind doesn’t shatter and your organs don’t spontaneously rupture if you die in a virtual world.

You might end up with a heart attack, though. I’m sure I almost did. Sure, I’ve made controlled drops in an upright, but never tumbling end over end, watching my reflection flash across dozens of floors’ worth of windows.

Before I could hit the deck, the city winked out of existence around me for half an instant. When it winked back, I hovered about five feet off the skybridge. Instead of falling fifty stories, I dropped about two meters and dented the top of the skybridge roof with my keister. It took a little longer for me to get to my feet without Yusef’s help, but I managed it.

“Duri, I’m starting to agree with Yusef on these things,” I muttered.

“Would you like me to put you back in the air?”

“No,” I said, admonished. “Just be ready to catch me again.”

Before I could talk myself out of it, I took a running jump and twisted off the side of the skybridge again. With the walls of the skyscraper and the bustling streets below twisting in my vision, I tried to treat it like one of Cat’s grappling sessions. Instead of waiting for my hook to catch, I slammed it down, piercing into the skin of the skybridge and swinging me underneath. The polycarb window shattered when struck, and I tumbled through.

I took a moment to dust myself off before looking for Yusef. “Hey, where’s he gone?”

“Did you expect him to wait for you? He’s your target. And he’s somewhere up ahead.”

A pair of extra icons popped up on my HUD: ammo indicators for the right and left guns mounted high on the chassis. I found I had full control over them, and despite forward targeting radar present in the systems list, Duri had even taken the time to program welded sights directly to the receivers of the guns themselves. I smiled. They were the same pattern as the ones on Ardennes’ old Bulldogs. Duri had designed these with radio-denied environments in mind.

“Find him and kill him, dog soldier. If you can.”

I grinned and barreled through the double doors at the end of the skybridge. The metal slabs spun off their hinges, and the environment changed completely. Ahead, grey pillars ringed an atrium where a half-dozen marines angled automatic weapons down at me and fired. They hit nothing but marble floor as I dashed to the side and trained my guns up. My guns belched forth a hail of tracers, tearing the meager fortifications to shreds and reducing the marines to raw voxels.

With a quick scan around the room for additional threats, I left the atrium and plowed right through the wall to the adjoining space, catching another simulated squad off guard. As they turned their

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