ShipCore

USD: A moment later

Location: Meltisar, Groundside, Rogue Ertan NAI Target’s Mining Tunnels

Around the very next corner, Elis caught a glimpse of another vehicle taking a turn ahead of them. “There he is!”

“We’re gaining.” Thea answered back. The sighting encouraged a bit more speed. The NAI took the curve sharply, banking as they went around it.

Elis clamped her gauntlets around the grab bar hard enough that the metal might have threatened to yield. Before she could consider another grip, her suit’s diagnostic system restored her magnetic limb units in her arms and undamaged leg. A sudden clunk sounded over the whirr of the hover tank’s engine as she suddenly stuck to the vehicle tightly.

It was just in time, because a mining drone burst out of a blind intersection and slammed into the tank’s side. The miner was twice the size of the tank, and its tracks ground into the rock as it surged forward, shoveling their tank into the wall before pinning it.

An uttered curse from Thea exploded over the comms as she tried to wiggle out of the other vehicle’s maws. Two heavy drill bits on lever arms began to extend toward them.

Releasing her recently engaged magnetics, Elis tossed herself up onto the back of the tank. Her HUD highlighted weak points on the mining unit. Her first instinct was to blast it with a rocket, but it was much too close, and the explosion likely would have damaged her and their own tank. Raising an arm, she began to blast away at the heavy metal chassis with her energy shotgun and assault rifle configured for maximum penetration.

Most of the bolts ricocheted or deflected anyway, causing no effective damage. The tank’s turret suddenly began to turn and Elis staggered as she almost lost her balance. “Watch it!”

The barrel of the energy cannon knocked into the mining vehicle, but failed to dislodge it. For a brief moment, Elis felt a bit of panic when she thought Thea might fire it anyway; the blast would definitely have done indirect damage. But it was close enough to qualify for Danger Close for them as well.

Instead of firing, Thea popped out of the top of the turret and leveled her morphed arm at the vehicle.

“What—” Elis’s words cut off as her suit’s audio and optical cut out for a second as the mini-railgun lanced the vehicle. It cut through the heavy metal like a spear, punching all the way through and into the wall behind it. A second and third shot killed the miner’s engine and power and the spinning drill heads clanked to a stop.

“Not bad,” Elis said, a bit impressed.

Thea grunted, then pulled herself the rest of the way out of the hatch. “Hold on to something.”

Elis wasn’t sure what there was to hold on to, but she activated her one good magnetic foot clamp before the tank began to waddle back and forth. The attempt to dislodge itself took on a more frantic turn as the engine revved louder. Steel shrieked suddenly, and they lurched forward; Thea almost lost her balance and Elis reached out to grab her shoulder and help her stay upright.

“Don’t fall off.” Elis said.

“I’m making more magnets.” Thea answered.

Elis wanted to laugh at the idea of magnets on demand, but her eyes slid over to the next corner in the tunnel. “If we keep getting stopped like this, we aren’t going to catch him.”

Thea nodded. “I have drones shadowing the side tunnels and keeping pace, but we need to bring him to bay before he finds a way to slip the net and out of detection range.”

The tank continued to pick up speed, and both she and Thea knelt to put a hand down on the chassis to maintain their balance. The next intersection led into another open area.

“He stopped.” Thea warned.

Elis’ suit highlighted the vehicle on the other end of the chamber at the top of a slight slope. As soon as they came into view, it punched it and disappeared down another tunnel. The reason for the pause soon became apparent as shrieking incoming munition alarms erupted.

A trio of anti-tank missiles flashed towards them. Elis’ laser cut one down immediately, but the angle was wrong for the other two. Thea reached out and a spike of nanites impaled the second one, detonating it several dozen meters away.

Elis only had a half second to realize that the third one wasn’t being stopped. Thea’s nanite cloud curved inward after it, but it had already gotten inside the cloud’s turn radius. Elis wrapped an arm around the NAI and jumped off the vehicle.

Thea held onto her as their ride suddenly detonated. The munition had been an anti-tank missile designed to take down much heavier armored vehicles. The relatively light armor of the hover tank might as well have been paper, because it caved inwards before the explosive payload detonated and set off several secondary explosions throughout the vehicle.

The entire turret popped off and slammed into the cavern chamber’s high ceiling. The rest of the vehicle bulged outward like an over-inflated balloon, sending shrapnel and parts flying in every direction. Metal pelted Elis’ suit harmlessly and the two of them landed nearby.

“My fucking tank! The permit for that cost twenty million credits!” Thea shouted, her fists clenched at her sides.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’ll be able to put that back together without building a new one. At least you were smart enough to take cover in my arms.” Elis said.

“I was the one making sure you were safe.” Thea shot back.

“Hmm? Are you sure? You were holding on pretty tight.” Elis said, a sly smile forming on her face.

Thea put her hand on Elis’ chest plate and pushed. Both of them slid slightly away from each other, the gravel rock grinding under their feet. It was obvious that Thea had expected a bit more as she tsked and turned to stomp in the direction of their escaping target.

The launcher that had fired at them beeped an angry red light at them from the distance, but all its ammo had been used. Thea raised her arm and blasted it as she continued. Elis followed behind her.

“What now?” Elis asked.

“More wheels are on the way, but we’re losing all the ground we gained,” Thea said flatly. “I don’t think they can get away; wherever they come out, the navy has thousands of eyes and GAIs combing the area. But this is scuffed.”

“You can’t build us something to ride on with your nanites?” Elis asked.

Thea gave Elis a skeptical look before her expression softened, and she shook her head. “There’s a big difference between making a kinetic cloud and creating something more long-term. The latter only really works in close proximity.”

Elis nodded in understanding and then came to a sudden stop. Thea paused as well, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

Dropping to one knee, Elis patted her shoulder. “Hop on for a piggyback ride. We’ll chase after them that way.”

Thea eyed her doubtfully but replied, “If we’re running, I can run faster than you.”

Elis shook her helmet. “I doubt it. Just trust me.”

Thea blew a lock of hair out of her face, then nodded without any further questions. The NAI’s arms wrapped around the suit’s neck while feet came up to clamp down magnetically onto the torso’s sides.

“Okay,” Elis instructed as she activated her suit’s cruise mode. “Keep holding on like that.”

Her initial steps were slow—even slower than their earlier walking pace—prompting Thea to cough. “This is slower than before…”

As the power-up process in her lower chassis completed, Elis’ suit began sprinting, rapidly gaining speed. She couldn’t help but laugh as she felt Thea tighten her grip around the suit’s neck to hold on securely.

“Having fun back there?” Elis teased playfully, relishing in their newfound velocity.

Guided by Thea’s directions, they navigated through the winding tunnels with their drones catching up after defeating enemy counterparts. As they followed the trail of tracks and recent movement, evidence of their quarry gradually became more apparent.

“Our drones have visual contact,” Thea informed her. A picture-in-picture display appeared before Elis’ eyes, revealing the enemy vehicle. It was a truck pulling a large trailer. Suddenly, its rear doors swung open to reveal a turret that promptly shot down one of their pursuing drones.

Elis picked up even more speed.

“The Navy are right above, but if they fire, it’ll risk collapsing the tunnels.”

“No shit,” snapped Elis sarcastically, “please tell them not to drop a bunker buster on us.”

Thea’s attention snapped to the sharp intersection ahead of them. “You’re not going to be able to turn at this speed!”

“You’re right!” Elis shouted back. “Slap one of your nanite things on the wall and help a little!”

Elis’ suit haptic sensor fired a jab into her rib, but it elicited a laugh at Thea kicking her lightly. Right before they reached the intersection, Thea waved an arm at the wall and a tendril of nanites gripped it hard. The line stretched as Elis took the corner sharply, but the tension helped them shoot around without having to brake.

The truck—and its turret—were just ahead, blazing a path down a long straight stretch.

“I’ll handle the turret; you focus on going faster!” Thea ordered.

Elis examined her suit’s diagnostics. The cruise speed was already topping out, but a few optimizations allowed her to eek out a few more meters per second into the sprint.

The turret opened fire, and a hail of medium caliber projectiles flashed toward them. Thea stood up taller, letting go of Elis’ neck so she could direct a cloud of nanites in front of them. The cloud ate away at the incoming projectiles effectively.

The clouds formed two angry tendrils that snaked forward into the stream of projectiles, leaping destructively between each one as they passed each other through the air. But long before the attacking snakes reached the truck, they drooped and fell to the tunnel floor, leaving new ones to streak out and devour the bullets.

“Fuck! It’s too far. Get us closer; I can’t reach it!” Thea ordered.

Elis grunted; they were already going as fast as she could make them go. The truck began to speed up faster, and the distance began to increase. The turret switched targets as well, suddenly angling upwards before unleashing a barrage into the tunnel ceiling.

Thea’s efforts to shield them from the stream of bullets took a different turn. They were moving so fast there was no way Elis could maneuver around the rocks without losing balance or breaking, so the spears of nanites began to stab and dissolve the falling rock in front of them.

One boulder was too large to break apart easily, and the tendril from Thea’s left hand took on the shape of a giant hand, holding it from collapsing in their way. The NAI grunted with the apparent effort of controlling the nanites, but the hand’s fingers pressed into the ceiling and formed a net.

Elis considering attempting to lance a tire with her PD laser, when their prey reached the end of the long straight. It took the turn—much too quickly. It disappeared from sight, but her acoustics picked up a shrieking crash of rock and metal and dust erupted outward.

“He’s stopped! We got the bastard!” Thea shouted at her excitedly. Elis nodded, focusing on their speed and maintaining the loping gait until she needed to slow to avoid a similar fate.

As they turned the corner, a silver-green hued cloud of nanites speared for them, but a counter tendril from Thea impacted it several meters away and quickly began to drill down its length. A second one snaked in, but Elis raised her shotgun arm. The weapon reconfigured its discharge into a directional nanite-stunning EMP pulse that obliterated all the nanites in front of them.

Thea’s free hand clamped down on Elis’ helmet as she almost lost her balance. “Watch it! That’s friendly fire!”

They pushed forward toward the wreckage that was becoming visible as the dust cloud slowly cleared. An auditory alarm flared as Elis’ suit picked up the whine of a charging railgun. She allowed the suit to swerve evasively as it directed, just as the loud crack of a miniature railgun erupted. The lance of light punched through the trailer body and struck her thigh.

Pain blossomed before disappearing completely as her suit’s medical suite clamped down on the pain. Her leg servo was mangled, though, and Elis fell to one knee. Thea hopped off immediately as Elis raised her assault rifle. She aimed for the trailer and returned fire, penetrating energy bolts working their way from the rear to front of the tipped over vehicle.

Another whine filled her acoustic sensors, but this time from much closer. A focused look filled Thea’s face as she aimed carefully at the truck's engine block. Sure enough, Elis’ HUD highlighted a silhouette of the target just before the railgun sent a deadly bolt forward. The entire front end of the vehicle detonated, but the man didn’t seem to be hit as he began to strafe sideways, still behind cover.

A munitions warning sounded, and her suit highlighted a dozen small balls flying through the air toward them. A label instantly appeared with the EMP designation.

There was only one second to think. They were much too small for her suit to aim at; Thea’s nanite cloud was already streaking at them, but EMP was bad for them. Elis reached out and grabbed Thea by the front of her uniform and pulled her into a bear hug before turning her back on the explosives.

They detonated midair a moment later, the discharge of energy sending electric sizzles down Elis’ suit, but the close in energy field mitigated most of the damage.

Thea hissed at her. “Thank you, but I can handle myself.”

“What do you suggest, then?” Elis asked pointedly.

Thea huffed, clearly irritated, “Throw me over there, it’ll be the fastest.”

“What?”

“Throw me over!”

Elis blinked, but the simple command was… clear.This is hidden text, if you are reading this text, and the story is not on https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36308/ it is a stolen work and not authorized by the author. Please support the work by reading on RoyalRoad!

She grabbed Thea with both hands around the woman’s torso, then threw her like a javelin. A very heavy NAI javelin. Thea arced over the vehicle wreckage and disappeared into the gloom. Almost immediately, the sound of fighting erupted. Elis’ HUD propagated an exact location for the target, relaying from Thea’s connection.

Elis looked down at her mangled suit leg. She tried to stand and move, but the joint was busted completely and dead. There was only one thing to do; she punched it. Repeatedly. Metal bent until it was completely seized up, and Elis managed to stand. She hobbled as fast as she could toward the NAI scuffle.

It wasn’t very fast. By the time she rounded the front end of the truck, both NAI had out vibro blades and were locked in an acrobatic display of sparking metal while silver-green and blue clouds sparked and mixed in a violent wind around them.

Ignoring that, Elis limped toward the target. Thea glanced at her, but her focus remained on her opponent. Her attacks and counters were redirected, however, and she began to push the other NAI toward Elis. Despite the loud clunky gait, nearly made it to arm’s reach before he noticed her.

Shock appeared on the man’s face, and he jumped away, but Thea’s free hand snatched his wrist and arrested his escape. A snarl and slash was the rapid response and his short blade skewered Thea’s arm.

But the delay was all Elis needed. She reached out with a metal gauntlet; green nanites sizzled and died as they came into contact with her suit’s energy field. Her metal fingers clamped down on the side of his head.

Then she power slammed him into the ground hard enough that the rest of his body bounced. She lifted him back up into the air; he frantically stabbed her forearm, but she slammed him into the rock again.

And again.

His arm went limp, and his weapon disintegrated at some point. She only stopped when his head had cracked and embedded itself in the rock.

“That was a bit dramatic.” Thea said from nearby.

Elis froze, realizing the violence of her attack and let go. She felt like she was a poor animal caught in the headlights of a vehicle as the sudden anger evaporated.

“The core is in the truck?” asked Elis, quietly trying to change the subject.

Thea nodded quietly, but the look she was receiving didn’t make Elis feel any better.