The Vampire War by Eric S Brown

Author:Eric S Brown [Brown, Eric S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blood Moon Press
Published: 2018-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 22

Hank was exhausted. He’d been working nonstop since the preparations for the North Carolina strike began. His body was running on stims and energy drinks as he approached Donald in the mech hangar. The young precog wore a suit of lightweight, flexible combat armor Hank had designed for him. Donald appeared rundown as well, but more frustrated than anything. Hank knew Donald would be accompanying the other psychics to the lower entrance into the mountain’s system of tunnels. Hank would be the only psi in the company not going with them. Normally, he’d have raised hell over that. If the others would be risking their lives, Hank felt like he should be out there alongside them. Tonight, though, he was too tired to put up a fight. And Donald had already given him a good reason why he wasn’t going with them.

For the duration of the strike in North Carolina, the warehouse base was being evacuated. The dark mages had shown their ability to replicate Eddie’s doorways through magical means. That gave them the power to hit back at the heart of Psi-Mechs, Inc. inside the base if they became pressed enough to try it. All the company’s psychics and Psi-mechs would be in the field for the battle, but the support staff would be vulnerable to such a counterattack, if one came. Donald had decided the best option was merely to abandon the base until things were concluded in North Carolina.

The support staff would be let go on a temporary basis and called back if they were needed. They would be sent home with ample pay, and the means to protect themselves, if the battle was lost, and the vampires came hunting for them later. Not only did this help to protect them, it assured that there would be survivors from the company who could inform the government about what had happened if everyone on the strike teams was taken out. Though Hank didn’t really think the governments of the world and their military forces had a prayer against Mavet if Psi-Mechs, Inc. failed, warning them of what was coming their way at least gave them a chance to put up a fight. Hank wasn’t heading home like the support staff, though. He would be aboard the Cerebus and taking over the monitoring and coordination of the two teams hitting the mountain. Hank was cool with that. In many ways, it actually made him the world’s last line of defense.

The Cerebus was a fast, heavily armed and armored airship decades ahead of anything else out there. Its array of weapon systems ranged from conventional and energy weapons to two homemade mini-nukes Hank had whipped up. In the event the mission failed, Hank could send out a warning to the company’s global contacts in various governments, then nuke the mountain Mavet was holed up in. Hank planned to keep the Cerebus cloaked (another of his inspired inventions) and circling within a three-minute range of the mountain at full combat speed.

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