Hell Follows by Andrew Vaillencourt

Author:Andrew Vaillencourt [Vaillencourt, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction
Publisher: Andrew Vaillencourt
Published: 2017-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Mack pursued Roper into the sprawling complex of storage containers that filled the cargo hold they had fallen into. With far less cover than up on the mess deck, the two cyborgs found their fight to be much less a game of hide and seek and more of a running gun battle.

In order to pump out enough energy to burn Mack’s armor, Roper had to be cycling his plasma caster at or near its highest setting. That meant fewer shots on each cell and a very slow rate of fire. Mack was starting to conserve flechette ammo as well, so the fury of their previous exchanges had settled to a more sustainable level.

But Mack’s woes were compounded by the arrival of the dagger-wielding assassin ‘droids. They were clearly not designed for heavy combat roles, and The Twins did not struggle in bringing them down. But the ‘droids had to be kept well away or Mack risked a fatal stab wound.

Every round that went into a ‘droid did not go into Roper, and every second spent shooting robots was another second for Roper’s weapon to recycle. Mack had no neurological upgrades, but he did have an excellent combat AI to run the chassis. His coded attack macros kept Modi shooting ‘droids and Magni peppering Roper, all while Mack ran the sensors and kept the chassis moving.

A few direct hits had creased Roper’s external armor, leaving visible trails in the grey paint. It was going to take more than a few glancing hits to chew up his enemy, but The Twins had brought down bigger game than Roper before. Mack focussed on the task at hand with only a cursory thought to complex strategy. The former miner was pissed off, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get munitions into Roper, and all other considerations could be damned.

The plasma caster’s firing cycle was impossible to shield from EM scans, so Mack’s HUD would warn him of another imminent plasma blast. The alarm pinged direction and distance as it detected the focusing arrays charging, and Mack dived for cover behind a large shipping container. The green beam sliced though the container above his head and began to scorch downward toward the prostrate mercenary. But the small ‘caster was only good for about a half second of burn time, so the beam fizzled out before touching Mack.

Mack leapt out from behind the container to send a burst of his own back to his opponent, but his fire was blocked by two ‘droids and Modi cut them down instead. Magni roared and spun tracers through the place Roper had been, but the enemy had already moved on, and his shots went wide. Mack pursued with reckless abandon.

His two primary ammo drums were near-empty and he dropped them on the run. Throwing his arms back over his shoulders he connected The Twins to his reload canisters and released them from the hardpoints. The two big drums snapped into the mag wells and Mack rotated the weapons back into place under his arms.

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