Berserker (Messenger Book 2) Read online

  “Left leg thruster is damaged,” he grunted. “But we're still operational. What's wrong, Astral? Why didn't you see that one coming?”

  He raised his suit's particle rifle, got the Asura in his crosshairs, and fired. Before he had even finished squeezing the trigger, the Asura darted out of the way. He corrected his aim and fired a second shot, with the same result. Then the enemy unleashed another unexpected plasma burst, which Vic only narrowly avoided with a crushing banking maneuver.

  “It can't be,” Astral gasped. “Vic, be careful. The pilot of that suit is a Syneger.”

  “What!”

  The exosuits continued their aerial dance, trading shots that were near misses for both sides. Vic was having a hard time of it. The Asura's wide range burst attacks forced him into constant high speed evasive maneuvers, making it difficult to put up an effective offense.

  “I can't see into his mind,” Astral said. “But now that I know what he's doing, I should be able to stop him from seeing into yours. The two of us cancel each other out.”

  “So it comes down to pure skill,” Vic said. “Sure wish I could have gotten more practice with this suit.”

  While Vic engaged Wizard, Omega and Valentin also made an attempt to breach the enemy formation. As Omega dove into the swarm of enemies, Valentin deployed the Blossom's DOTS, which buzzed around Omega in a standard swarming pattern, providing him with a ring of covering fire. It was adequate support, but nothing compared to what Alpha could have provided. Not for the first time, Omega felt a pang of regret for his fallen partner.

  Omega punched his way through the enemy squadron through brute force when his computer warned him of a lock from behind, followed by a swarm of guided plasma rounds. He fired a decoy flare before cutting his engines, causing the plasma rounds to veer off course. He restarted his engine and regained control of his falling suit before it hit the ground, but as he pulled up another burst of plasma rounds rained down on him, damaging one of his airfoils as well as his left arm.

  “Fast,” he muttered, gunning his jets and spinning to get a bead on the Asura that had ambushed him from behind.

  He squeezed off a shot from his particle cannon, missing as the enemy rolled around the beam. It dodged right into a swarm of DOTS as Valentin commanded them to direct all their fire at the new target. The DOTS filled the sky with a fusillade of criss-crossing beams all directed at the Asura. Seconds later, the Asura emerged from the far side of the deadly trap, and two of the DOTS were falling in flaming wrecks.

  Omega's eyes widened in surprise. Did the Xenolists have an augment in their ranks?

  He got the oncoming Asura in his crosshairs and fired another particle beam, then another. The target evaded them both by the barest fraction of a second, then drew a crimson energy lance as it closed to collision distance.

  Normally, Omega would have responded by drawing his energy sword with his free hand and attacking with both weapons. With his left arm damaged, though, he couldn't rely on it against such a deadly opponent. Instead, he stowed his particle rifle, drew his sword in his right hand, and blazed forth to meet the enemy.

  The opponents deflected each other's blades and overshot each other, then spun around and exchanged another inconclusive strike. This time they remained within striking distance as they turned to reengage. The Asura grasped its energy lance like a spear and aimed a series of rapid thrusts all across the Tsubasa's hull. Omega parried each strike with flawless precision, but he had no time to attempt a counterattack.

  Finally, Omega parried a thrust with such force that the Asura was momentarily repulsed. He used the reprieve to transform into fighter mode and gunned his jets at full throttle, speeding away from the melee. The enemy took the bait and fell in behind him, trying to acquire another lock. Omega immediately transformed back into exosuit mode and fired his thrusters in full reverse. His gravity gauge briefly spiked at 30 gs, hurling him behind the Asura. He brought his particle rifle to bear and pulled off a shot, obliterating one of the enemy's airfoils. Unable to maintain its altitude, the flaming Asura initiated a controlled crash.

  Omega's jets sputtered and his instrument panel trilled a warning of engine damage. Alpha's admonition from the initial drop came back to him.

  “You should be more careful, Lieutenant. Maneuvers like that will tear your suit to pieces, not to mention your body.”

  “Sorry, Tsubasa,” he muttered as his suit began dropping. “Guess that was a little too much even for you, huh?” Then he opened a transmission to the squadron and announced, “This is Lightning One. My suit has suffered mechanical failure and cannot maintain altitude. I'm going to try to put down on the processor and head inside to prevent the launch of the bioweapon. Over.”

  He took firm hold of the controls and applied countless minute corrections to his suit's sputtering engines, slowing its descent and guiding it toward the giant spire in the middle of the processor. He touched down on a large platform on the side of the spire, too hard for a good landing. His suit toppled over and slid almost off the platform, hanging halfway over the edge, leaving smoking debris strewn over the platform. Unfazed, Omega drew his sidearm, opened the canopy, and jumped out of his suit. He spotted a door on the side of the spire and ran inside.

  In the sky, his descent and point of entry were observed by Hector One-Eye.

  *

  The helmsman managed to guide the damaged Skyfish safely into one of the lakes near the atmospheric processor. The vessel threw up enormous waves as it crashed into the water and glided to a halt, floating a short distance away from the shore.

  Almost immediately, a line of Xenolist soldiers and battle drones appeared out of the trees and fired on the Skyfish from the beach. The vessel returned fire with a deck mounted turret, then the Union's airborne carriers flew over the beach with a roar and dropped their drones into the middle of the Xenolist forces. Rather than endure so much firepower, the Xenolists faded back into the trees.

  With the beach secure, the Skyfish dispatched its exosuits and A.P.C.s. The amphibious vehicles floated through the water and deployed onto the beach, where the A.P.C.s disgorged their infantry. Then there was a distant pop, just audible through the noise of the aerial battle occurring overhead, followed by a sharp whistle. Three shells fell into the lake just beyond the Skyfish, erupting in mountainous geysers. Several seconds later, having calculated the approximate position of the artillery, the Skyfish returned fire with several rockets. They arced high over the forest and started descending, only to be shot down by a fusillade of lasers from the ground.

  “I'll bet those are the same guns that shot us down.” Tinubu opened a channel to all troops and said, “Our first priority is to silence that artillery before a lucky hit blows us all to bits. We've got a fix on its approximate location. Let's move out.”

  The coalition force fanned out and headed into the woods, except for the A.P.C.s, which could not enter the thick foliage, so they remained on the beach to guard the Skyfish. They passed by a handful of wrecked drones, exosuits, and corpses, evidence of the earlier battle for control of the processor. With every step they took, snipers fired on them from the cover of brush or wrecked vehicles, but their vanguard of battle drones and Rusalkas repelled the guerrilla attacks with minimal damage.

  Then came another pop, a little louder than before. There was almost no warning this time. The whistle of incoming shells shrieked for only a fraction of a second, just long enough for the veterans in the group to calculate that they were going to land very close. Then came the thump of impact with the ground, followed immediately by a sudden outward movement of air and a loud wham, distinct from the sharper crack of more distant explosions. The strange noises of shrapnel tumbling through the air came from above along with an expanding wall of dust, smoke, and dislodged branches and leaves. Those soldiers not lucky enough to be in exosuits were thrown to the ground by the shock wave, temporarily deafened by the explosion. Those who were even closer to the point of impact had their eardrums
blown out; and those who were closer still were obliterated.

  “Status report,” Tinubu demanded as billowing smoke obscured his viewscreen.

  “Grazed our line, Captain,” came the report. “I've got two men dead and four wounded. It'll be a lot worse if the next one lands any closer.”

  Tinubu ordered the formation to spread out even more and resume its advance. Snipers continued harassing them at a distance, but that was nothing. What he dreaded was the next round of artillery fire and whether it would land right on his head.

  The next sound to come from overhead was not the whistle of artillery shells, but the howl of a falling aircraft. Tinubu looked up and saw an Asura sail overhead, belching smoke and flames. The ground rumbled as the exosuit crashed a short distance ahead of their position.

  He took Cena ahead and ordered a squad of infantry to accompany them. They followed a trench of destroyed trees to the shattered form of the crashed Asura. The canopy came open and the pilot tumbled out. As the pilot regained his feet and wrestled his helmet off, Tinubu and Cena leveled their exosuit rifles at him while the infantry squad fanned out and raised their weapons. The pilot raised his hands over his head.

  “It's Pierson,” Cena exclaimed.

  Tinubu zoomed in on the main view.

  “You're right.” He announced over his Rusalka's loudspeaker, “Take that man prisoner. Treat him with caution; he's extremely dangerous.”

  While the infantry squad moved to comply, Tinubu and Cena rejoined the main group and continued their advance. There was another pop, but the long whistle of this one told Tinubu that the shells would land behind him. A second later, there was a sharp crack and a pillar of smoke writhed into the air from the direction of the rear guard. A report of several more casualties came in.

  Not good, but once again, it could have been much worse. They had been lucky so far. Tinubu hoped that luck would last long enough for them to close the distance.

  *

  Overhead, the duel between Vic and Wizard was evenly matched, with neither combatant able to gain a decisive advantage, until Wizard took control of three nearby drones and used them to launch a coordinated assault. Vic found himself forced into extreme evasive maneuvers with no opportunity to counterattack; and Celeste had disappeared, leaving him without support. It took his full concentration just to avoid being overwhelmed by the attacks coming in from all sides.

  “Looks like you could use a hand, Slicky,” Valentin's voice sounded in Vic's speakers.

  The Blossom's DOTS zoomed around Vic and fell upon Wizard's drones, their energy cannons flashing. One of the drones was shot down and the other two were forced to scatter. Vic moved in to finish off the remaining drones while Valentin closed to engage Wizard. Wizard had to employ all of his concentration on predicting the attacks of the swarming DOTS, dropping the Revenants back into autonomous mode. This restored Astral's ability to predict their actions, which gave Vic all the opportunity he needed to outmaneuver the first drone and drop it with a blast from his particle cannon, then intercept the second and sever one of its primary airfoils with his energy sword.

  Vic then turned his attention back to Wizard, who was still engaged with Valentin. Wizard's predictive ability enabled him to weave a course through the swarming DOTS, executing seemingly impossible dodges. Vic got behind him and closed in, rendered invisible to Wizard's precognition by Astral's cancellation.

  Having penetrated the DOTS' defensive screen, Wizard flew straight at the Blossom with his energy lance drawn. Both he and Astral detected the ensuing shot from the Blossom's particle cannon in time for the Asura and Sylphid to dodge out of the way, then Wizard thrust his lance through the Blossom's cockpit, killing Valentin and causing the exosuit and its DOTS to fall.

  “Behold the power of a true Messenger,” he crowed.

  Vic's energy sword sliced through Wizard's cockpit from behind, vaporizing him. The Asura's cloven halves fell through the air, spewing flames, then the fuel packs ignited and the upper half exploded in midair, spewing debris everywhere. Astral watched the fiery wreckage fall through sad eyes.

  He was a Synthetic Messenger, she thought. He was like me. I wonder, did his power corrupt him, or is it because he was corrupt that he obtained his power? Either way, it destroyed him in the end.

  Vic's thoughts were for Valentin. We were on opposing sides not that long ago, he thought. But he gave his life to save ours like it was a matter of course. Only war could breed such absurdity.

  Astral tore her gaze away from the falling Asura and looked at her instruments to evaluate the situation. “Neither side has much left in the air,” she reported. “But what's left of our drones outnumbers theirs. I think we'll have control of this airspace shortly.”

  “Then I'll leave the air support to them.” Vic started descending and circled the processor's main spire.

  “You're going inside?” Astral asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “There's no time. The two of us will have to try to stop the launch on our own. If we get exposed to the Messenger spores, you can protect us from the effects.”

  He set the Sylphid down on a platform opposite from the side where Omega had made his crash landing. He and Astral drew their sidearms, disembarked, and entered the processor.

  *

  As the Coalition's ground forces neared the Yotun, the remaining Xenolists massed for a last ditch defense. The forest roared with the exchange of rockets, grenades, large caliber machine guns, and small arms fire. When the skirmish was over, the coalition forces had lost another exosuit, a dozen drones, and ten more men, and the Xenolist unit lay broken.

  Beyond the next ridge, a vast field opened up before them. The Yotun sat in the center of the field, several hundred meters distant, its forelegs elongated into spindly claws that were sunk deep into the earth to stabilize it while it fired the massive railguns on its back.

  “What a monster,” Tinubu gasped.

  Cena saw a smaller cannon mounted underneath the Yotun's fore section rotating toward them and exclaimed, “Take cover!”

  The front line dropped back behind the ridge at the edge of the field just as the Yotun's secondary cannon fired, blasting a crater in the side of the hill. Clouds of dirt rained down on the soldiers and exosuits hiding on the other side.

  “Great,” Tinubu said. “I wasn't expecting a mobile fortress. How the hell are we going to get rid of that thing?”

  “We could surround it and attack from all sides,” Cena suggested.

  “That might work,” Tinubu said. “But it would chew what's left of our unit to bits. That thing is bristling with weapons.”

  At that moment, they heard the howl of another aerospace engine, and Celeste's Sylphid flew over the clearing, firing its particle cannon. The azure beams struck the Yotun's thick armor without any apparent effect except to scorch the hull. Celeste executed a barrel roll to evade a retaliatory barrage of lasers, then pulled up hard and turned around to fire a guided bomb at the giant exosuit. Another laser lanced out and sliced through the bomb, detonating it in midair.

  “Viper One, this is Phoenix,” she transmitted to Tinubu. “You guys keep it busy. We're going to try to coordinate an artillery strike with the Skyfish.”

  “We already tried that,” Tinubu replied. “It just shot the rockets out of the sky.”

  “Maybe that will be a little harder when it's got us to worry about.”

  Tinubu sighed. “Well, looks like we'll try your idea after all,” he transmitted to Cena. Then he broadcast, “Viper One to all units. Spread out, and let's hit this bastard with everything we've got!”

  Celeste flew higher and transmitted an optical message to the Skyfish. At the same time, the ground forces fanned out, peered over the ridge, and opened fire on the Yotun, raking it with heavy machine gun rounds, lasers from the drones, and explosives. Even this outpouring of combined firepower did little except to scuff the Yotun's hull. It returned fire with a barrage of lasers and rotary gun rounds, tearing through t
heir ranks. Then it fired its secondary cannon again, and the shell blew Tinubu's exosuit in half. The severed torso fell to the ground and the canopy flew open. Tinubu leapt out of the smoking cockpit, coughing and sputtering.

  “Captain,” Cena exclaimed, “are you all right?”

  “Somehow,” Tinubu coughed. “You know,” he chuckled with relief, “I'm glad I don't have to pay for all the exosuits that get shot out from under me. The family would be paying off that debt all the way down to my great grandchildren.”

  Celeste made another strafing run on the Yotun. This time, Hector aimed the shots more carefully, destroying a couple of the giant exosuit's defensive lasers. As they came around for another pass, one of the remaining lasers seared the Sylphid's right leg off, sending it careening off course.

  Then came the roar of incoming projectiles, and a volley of rockets appeared overhead. The Yotun's lasers flared, shooting several of the rockets out of the sky, but Celeste's strafing run had done its job. With its defenses impaired, the Yotun failed to shoot down the last rocket before it fell upon the giant exosuit with a huge explosion that tore the right foreleg off and severely damaged its starboard side. The Yotun ripped its other foreleg free of the earth with a geyser of dirt and reared up onto its hind legs with a shriek of metal.

  “That's our chance,” Cena exclaimed. “Let's finish it off!”

  The remnants of the ground forces poured over the ridge and rushed across the field, firing their weapons. The Yotun returned fire with its defensive armaments, but this time the combined barrage punched through several areas of its weakened armor. The Yotun soon slumped to the ground with a metallic screech and lay still, pouring smoke from countless holes.

  A hatch opened on top of the disabled exosuit and a diminutive woman climbed out. The pilot dropped to the ground and pulled off her helmet, revealing a cascade of auburn hair, then raised her hands over her head. Her sour face was set in a sulking expression.