By Strength and Guile: The Complete Box Set by Paul Teague & Jon Evans

Author:Paul Teague & Jon Evans [Teague, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Imaginary Brother Publishing
Published: 2021-03-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

“What the fuck just happened?” said Ten. The Sphere seemed to have finished shifting its parts around, and the structure was now still and silent, but they’d all felt it hum as power had shunted through the systems.

“Everyone okay?” asked Conway. The team all showed green in her HUD, and they called in one by one to confirm. “So what happened?”

Todo: check what this weapon was called in Incursion.

“The beam weapon fired,” said Davies hoarsely. “Which is bad, ‘cos there shouldn’t have been anything to shoot at.”

“Was it Orion?” asked Ten, fearing the worst.

“I don’t know,” said Davies, a wail of despair in his voice. “I can’t see what’s going on, the screens here are all off and the doors are locked. I can’t get out!”

“Steady, Davies,” said Conway in a low, slow voice, “steady. We’ll get out of this, and we’ll get our answers, okay?”

There was a pause, then Davies said in a calmer voice, “Okay.”

“Good, so tell me what we need to do. Take it slow, and break it down into nice, easy steps,” said Conway. “Start with the facts and work out from there.”

“Okay,” repeated Davies. “The beam weapon fired but we disabled the system on the original Sphere.”

Conway nodded inside her helmet. The first Sphere’s beam weapon, or at least all the components they’d been able to identify, had been comprehensively shredded by railgun fire.

“And your conclusion?”

“Each sphere has a beam weapon,” said Davies. “That suggests they’re built to the same design, so they probably carry Mechs.”

“I knew we hadn’t seen the end of these bastards,” muttered Jackson.

“What’s the next step, Double-D?” said Conway calmly, ignoring Jackson.

“Access. We need to get back into their systems and shut them out.”

“Good, Davies, that’s good,” said Conway. “How do we do that?”

“I don’t know!” said Davies, voice rising again. “I lost my kit when we left that last room. I’ve got nothing left, it’s all out there, somewhere!”

“I know,” said Conway soothingly, “but the box is wireless, right? Can you connect remotely?”

There was a moment’s silence, then Davies said, “Hah, yes! I’m in! The signal’s weak – must be all the steel – but I’m in.”

“That’s good, Davies, so–”

“Shit,” he interrupted, “I left an open link to Vengeance while the sphere was transforming.”

“So?”

“If they disabled my firewalls, they could have accessed our systems,” said Davies.

“And did they?” said Conway.

“I don’t think so,” said Davies uncertainly. “Can’t tell for sure.”

“Then forget about it,” said Conway calmly. “Talk me through it, Davies. What’s the next task?”

“Hack the system, take control,” said Davies.

“Good man,” said Conway. “Nothing we can do about what’s happened. Our job is to stop it happening again. You can do that, right, Double-D?”

“Sure,” said Davies, sounding back to his old, confident self, “I can do that.”

“We’re working on your position,” said Conway. “We’re close, it’s just a matter of reaching you. Keep at it, and we’ll be with you soon.”

“Got it,” said Davies. “Out.”

Conway opened a channel to Gray, Jackson and Ten. “We need to find Davies and cover his back while he sorts this out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.