Berserker (Messenger Book 2) Read online

  After a moment's searching, Pierson found another set of tracks on the opposite end of the valley. He followed them a few meters and discovered a mud puddle with a pair of bootprints heading into the glen.

  “I've got some more tracks over here, but they're going the wrong way,” he called. ”We'll try your trail.”

  Pierson ran to join Larc, directing the Black Fly to follow on his heels. He would have preferred to send it out in front, but then it might have destroyed the targets' tracks. At least the large trees were spaced far enough apart that the drone could accompany them through the brush, although it sometimes had to push some foliage out of its way.

  Their prey had moved in haste, making no effort to conceal their trail. Tracking them, then, wasn't the problem. Pierson was more concerned that their marks would escape the area, but there was enough open ground in the local terrain that the drones in the air ought to spot them if they wandered too far afield. They were effectively trapped within the woods they had fled into.

  After several minutes, the trail started leading uphill. Pierson kept himself in excellent shape, but the slope was steep enough that he could feel his breath quickening from the ascent. Perhaps their prey had taken refuge at the top of the hill to give themselves the advantage of high ground?

  Suddenly, Pierson became aware of acute danger. He never saw anything that consciously tipped him off to an ambush, but his instincts told him to duck and he did so without a second thought, taking cover behind a thick trunk. In the same instant, several shots rang out. Larc grunted and staggered, then flung himself behind another tree.

  “Larc,” Pierson exclaimed, “are you hit?”

  “I'm all right,” Larc grunted. “Took a couple of hits to the vest, but they didn't penetrate.”

  Another couple of shots cracked through the foliage. They sounded to Pierson like shots from a light battle rifle. Not powerful enough to penetrate their armor singly, but a few hits placed in about the same area would break through. Not worth the danger to peek out from behind his cover.

  Instead, he raised his remote control and directed the Black Fly forward, watching the video feed through its main camera. He couldn't make out anything through the bushes, so he switched to heat tracking and saw two humanoid blobs hiding in the brush. As soon as they noticed the drone, the shooters broke off and retreated farther up the hill.

  Pierson was hesitant to fire without being able to I.D. his targets. It would be a disaster if he killed the Unknown by mistake. First, he needed to cut off their escape. The transmitter on his remote was too weak to penetrate the silence particles that separated him from the drones in the sky, so he routed his commands through the Black Fly's more powerful transmitter and directed two of the airborne drones to land on opposite sides of the hill. Their prey would have a tough time escaping through that.

  Pierson gestured to Larc to cover his flank, then emerged from behind the tree and advanced cautiously up the hill, this time making the Black Fly go first and watching through its robotic eyes. Now that they had their prey boxed in, there was no need to worry about the drone destroying their tracks.

  Farther up the hill, the drone spotted four more shapes, two coming straight down the path and two to the right. They were attempting a flanking maneuver. Pierson directed the drone to defend its current position and a deafening staccato filled the air as the Black Fly fired its machine gun at the enemies coming down the center, forcing them to scatter for cover. Pierson then signaled to Larc to join him in cutting off the enemies breaking to the right. He drew his sidearm and took cover behind a fallen log while Larc hid behind a tree several meters away.

  Seconds later, the familiar midnight dark features of Tinubu appeared some distance away, holding a pistol. Pierson took aim with his handgun and tightened his finger over the trigger, but the sight of his former comrade made him lock up.

  Something about the situation didn't seem right. Pierson knew this man. Not long ago, he had once called him a friend. Yet, until this instant, that had done nothing to blunt his resolve to capture the Unknown, killing all of his former comrades in the process if necessary. Before, nothing about that had seemed in the least bit strange or wrong; but now, at the moment of truth, something deep within his heart made him hesitate.

  The moment of uncertainty passed as a calming sensation welled up within Pierson, burying his dilemma beneath a facade of artificial serenity. He squeezed the trigger and sent a round whistling at the oncoming soldier while at the same time Larc opened fire from his position, but Pierson's instant of hesitation had given Tinubu enough time to notice him and duck out of the way of the crossfire.

  Tinubu fired several shots into the log Pierson was using for cover just as Cena came into view, likewise armed with a pistol. Pierson ducked and fired a few shots blindly over the top of the log to give his enemies some motivation to put their heads down, then he scrambled out from behind the log and took cover behind a large rock that gave him a better field of fire.

  Realizing that he was exposed, Tinubu started running for a better position, firing several shots while he ran. One of the rounds ricocheted off the rock and missed Pierson by a few centimeters, while Larc simultaneously opened fire and hit Tinubu in the arm. Tinubu stumbled and fell with a cry of pain.

  A second later, something impacted on Pierson's chest, then a second blow struck his helmet with great force, causing him to stagger and bounce off a tree. He looked up and saw Cena advancing on him from his left, firing at him. Even as he recovered from the bell ringing that the round to the helmet had given him, another bullet embedded itself in his vest and then one grazed him in the leg.

  Pierson threw himself to the ground, rolled behind a mound of dirt, and took aim at Cena, who likewise dropped to the ground. They exchanged several shots, with Cena's rounds kicking up plumes of dirt in Pierson's face. At the same time, the sound of an explosion from the direction of the Black Fly suggested that the drone had encountered stiffer resistance than expected.

  Pierson's gun clicked and the slide locked in the open position. He groped at his belt for an extra magazine when Tinubu exploded out of the brush and tackled him. The sudden impact knocked Pierson's helmet off his head and caused him to drop his gun. Pierson deflected a thrust from Tinubu's knife, then kicked him off. The two combatants scrambled to their feet, facing off with each other.

  “Major Cutter?” Tinubu exclaimed, staring in bewilderment at his old friend.

  Pierson lunged. Caught off guard, Tinubu reacted too slowly to prevent Pierson from grabbing his wrist and forcing him to drop the knife with a vicious twist. Pierson then delivered a punch to Tinubu's injured arm and got behind him while he was stunned, wrapping his arms around his opponent's neck to apply a rear choke hold. He dragged Tinubu back and down, jamming his knee into the small of his opponent's back while flexing his arm over Tinubu's throat and pushing his head forward. With the blood flow through Tinubu's carotid arteries cut off by the crook of Pierson's arm, he blacked out in seconds. Pierson released his limp body and let it crumple at his feet.

  No sooner had Pierson felled his opponent than a pair of flailing bodies crashed out of the bushes behind him. He spun around to behold Larc struggling under a knife-wielding Cena. As Cena raised her blade to deliver a lethal blow, Pierson ran forward and kicked her in the ribs, sending her flying off his subordinate.

  Cena and Larc scrambled to their feet. At the sight of Pierson, Cena's face twisted with the pain of betrayal.

  “What are you doing here, Major?” she demanded. “We risked everything to get you back from the Xenolists! Why are you attacking us?”

  In answer, Pierson lashed out with a swift roundhouse kick that connected with Cena's hand, sending her knife flying. He lunged and aimed a punch at her face; she sidestepped the blow and caught his arm, then dropped him with a strike to the side of his face and a simultaneous sweep to his leg. She followed him down and the two of them rolled around on the ground, attempting to restrain one another in
a frenzied grappling match. Even with Cena's incessant workouts, Pierson was the considerably stronger of the two; yet her technique was such that she nearly got him in a crippling submission hold.

  Just as she was about to break Pierson's arm, she was forced to release him and roll away by a timely heel stomp from Larc. Larc fell upon her with a punch as she regained her feet, but she easily deflected his strike and countered with a spinning wheel kick to the side of his face. He turned just enough to avoid an instant knockout, but the kick knocked him to the ground and sent a bloody tooth flying out of his mouth.

  Cena then spun around and extended her leg to block a low kick from Pierson. Now standing toe to toe, the two fighters engaged each other with a flurry of punches. Cena broke Pierson's guard first, connecting a right hook to his face, but he took advantage of the momentary opening to ram his fist into her gut. As she doubled over, he pushed her into a tree, then grabbed her hair and slammed her head into the trunk before connecting with his own hook that sent her sprawling. She coughed and spat out a gob of blood, her limbs pushing futilely against the ground, too weakened to stand up.

  It would have been easy to finish them off, but some part of Pierson's past self flickered deep within him again, and he left his opponents alone where they lay. He wiped some of the blood off his face, then helped Sir Larc to his feet.

  “What happened to your sidearm?” he asked.

  “Dropped it when that hellcat got the drop on me,” Larc replied.

  “Go find it.”

  While Larc ran to retrieve his weapon, Pierson did the same. He found his gun and helmet at the point where Tinubu had tackled him. He donned his helmet, did a quick check on his gun for any obvious damage, then reloaded it. While he waited for Larc to return, he pulled out his remote control and checked the status of the Black Fly. There were no more foes within detection range and it was no longer in combat, but it reported that its front plate armor was damaged and its right arm had been blown off.

  That was an unwelcome surprise. He hadn't expected them to be armed with high explosives. At least the Black Fly was still functional.

  While Pierson contemplated his next move, the roar of an aerospace engine filled the air. He looked up and, through gaps in the leaves, saw one of the aerial drones dive and unleash a bomb. A mighty explosion rattled the ground and shook some leaves from the trees, then a plume of smoke wafted into the sky about 200 meters distant.

  “Looks like the drones just took something out,” Larc remarked, reappearing at Pierson's side with his pistol. “Maybe the rebels had a little base on top of this hill.”

  “Dammit, Nhean needs to keep those things reined in,” Pierson snarled. “This will all be for nothing if we accidentally kill the Unknown.”

  Pierson and Larc ran to rejoin the Black Fly, then followed about twenty meters behind it while Pierson directed it farther up the hill. As they neared the crest, Pierson saw the smoldering remains of a small base camp through the heat vision. He swept the camera back and forth and saw three more humanoid blobs running away from the destruction. The only visible weapon was a handgun being held by the one in the lead.

  “Three more marks,” he said. “Watch our backs. I'm sending the drone to investigate.”

  Pierson gunned the drone's jets so that it hovered about a meter above the ground and sent it blazing forward. As it drew near the targets, Pierson switched from heat vision back to visible light, and the gunman's indistinct silhouette materialized into the figure of Vic Shown. Vic fired a couple of shots at the drone from his pistol, then dove out of the way to avoid being splattered by its charge.

  Pierson spotted the other two targets a short distance behind Vic. It was a pair of young women, one of whom sported the telltale blonde coiffure of the Unknown. Pierson lashed out with the drone's remaining hand and swept her off the ground. He quickly opened the drone's cockpit and forced the girl inside, then closed the canopy. The internal controls were disabled, so there was no worry that she would hijack the drone. She was trapped inside, with no way out until Pierson opened the canopy again.

  “I've got the Unknown,” he called to Larc. “Let's get the hell out of here.”

  Just as Pierson prepared to pull back, directing the Black Fly to follow his withdrawal, he spotted Vic moving in on his right. Vic got a clear view of Pierson and raised his gun to take the shot. Before he could fire, the Black Fly barreled out of the brush behind him and swept him aside with a wave of its arm, sending him tumbling end over end. Pierson and Larc pulled back and the two of them began running down the slope back toward the glen.

  “Excellent work, Captain,” Larc panted. “I'm sure the Regents will be—”

  He never got to finish his sentence. With a roar of fury, a one-eyed giant exploded out from behind a tree and tackled the knight. In a panic, Larc tried to raise his gun and shoot his foe at point blank range. The giant deflected his gun, causing the round to whistle by Pierson's ear. The giant pulled Larc to the ground on top of him, trapped the knight's left leg in his own, then twisted his neck with such force that it snapped, the leg lock preventing his body from turning with his head.

  The deadly scuffle was over so fast that Larc was out of action before Pierson could react. The giant wrested the pistol from his immobile foe's hand and took aim at Pierson. Recovering from his surprise, Pierson interposed the Black Fly to block the shots. As the giant's pistol ran dry, Pierson took aim with the drone's machine gun and opened fire.

  The one-eyed giant dropped back and sprinted through the trees laterally with the drone's arc of fire, forcing Pierson to constantly correct his aim. After a few seconds, he heard a grunt and saw a blood splatter appear on a nearby fern.

  Everything went quiet. Pierson's ears rang from the deafening roar of the Black Fly's machine gun fired at close proximity, but otherwise he could hear nothing except the breeze rustling through the trees.

  Another howl of rage pierced the silence as the giant materialized out of the foliage, leapt up, and grabbed the Black Fly's chest plating. He hauled himself on top of the drone, then rammed his fist through its face plate and pulled out several lenses and a wad of wiring. Pierson's video feed went dead, then flickered back to life with a fuzzier image as the backup camera came online.

  Pierson shook the drone's torso back and forth in an attempt to dislodge the deranged assailant, but the giant held on tight. Finally, Pierson managed to grasp the giant with the drone's remaining hand and flung him against the trunk of a tree. The giant bounced off and fell to the ground, stunned. Before he could recover, Pierson had the drone deliver a kick that sent the giant flying into the bushes, and concluded by spraying another volley from the machine gun into the foliage after his foe.

  “Saris' Eyes,” Pierson gasped. No one had told him that one of the escaped prisoners was a decommissioned Tau strain.

  Pierson ran to check on his fallen comrade. Larc was dead. Normally a broken neck was not immediately fatal, but the one-eyed giant's neck crank had been applied with such strength that it had caused spinal shock, killing Larc instantly.

  “You fought bravely, friend,” Pierson whispered. “The Ascension is close at hand. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

  He directed the Black Fly to pick up Larc's body, then resumed his withdrawal back to the glen. It wasn't much farther now. Soon his team could pull out and deliver the prize to their masters.

  Seventeenth Escalation

  but I can't see

  Omega and Alpha were flying their search routes over the southwestern region of Artair County along with a transport helo and four Shinigami-class aerial drones. They hadn't turned up anything yet, and Omega secretly agreed with Major Higgs that the mission was probably a wild goose chase. The odds that a handful of missing SLIC personnel had survived the recent chaos, with no contact and no support, seemed slim at best. But orders were orders, and at least it was a break from the constant skirmishes with Concord saboteurs.

  “Omega,” Alpha's refined, slightly
accented voice chirped in his speakers. “I've got a visual on several unidentified aircraft about 80 klicks to the north.”

  Omega magnified the image on his port viewscreen and saw a cluster of black specks buzzing around a few hundred meters above the ground.

  “Confirmed,” he replied. “Let's move to intercept.”

  The squadron altered course to intercept the bogeys. As they closed the distance, Omega was able to get a better visual and identified the targets as a pair of Asura class exosuits and three Revenant class unmanned drones. All were painted black and sported markings that Omega did not recall from the briefings detailing the various factions active on Chalice.

  He frowned in puzzlement. With everything else that had gone wrong on this operation, the last thing Spacy needed was an unknown faction running loose with advanced military equipment.

  Even as these thoughts ran through his mind, two more Revenants took off from behind a hill to join the others, then the unidentified squadron ceased its circling and began a steep ascent. As they drew level with the search squadron, they spread out into a defensive formation and assumed an intercept course. Omega's sense of alarm ticked up a few notches. Within a minute, he had drawn close enough to ping the bogeys with I.F.F. The answer that came back was exactly as he had expected.

  “Invalid response from the I.F.F.,” he transmitted to Alpha. “Be prepared to take offensive action.”

  He opened a transmission to the bogeys and said, “Attention unidentified aircraft. This is Lieutenant Omega of the T.U. Spacy Marines 19 Exosuit Squadron. You are not authorized to fly in this airspace. Disarm your weapons and put down for immediate inspection. I repeat, disarm your weapons and put down for immediate inspection. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force. This is your only warning.”

  *

  “This is your only warning,” the cold voice crackled in Dame Aksinya's speakers before terminating its transmission.