Different Paths (34 page)

“Nice to see you up and about Master Chief,” Iaido
said.

Jay nodded. “I couldn’t let you two face all those
odds while I just sat around. Now, I won’t be much help in close quarter combat
but I can still shoot with the best of them.”

Iaido smiled. “Your assistance is greatly
appreciated.”

DJ smacked the Master Chief on the shoulder with a
resounding clunk. “Welcome Squid.”

Jay returned the thump. “Devil dog.”

“Talking about close quarter combat, I have
something for you DJ.” Iaido reached into a foot locker at his side and pulled
out the twin powered gladii he taken from the Praetorians. “If we survive this,
I’ll teach you how to use them properly. For now, I would suggest you think of
them as really big knives.”

“Thanks. I will. You know all Marines are skilled
in knife combat.”

“Just try not to get in a fencing match with the
Praetorians, they are trained with these….you aren’t.” Seeing his friend nod,
he continued. “Okay, in five minutes Pax will have us over the drop zone. I’ll
lead, then the Marine and the Master Chief will cover the rear. Once we begin
the assault, we don’t stop for anything. You fall behind, you get left behind.
Just remember that ninety percent of the people we are about to confront are
just civilians doing their jobs and not truly enemies.”

Talia touched Iaido’s arm. “What do you want me to
do?”

Iaido turned and gazed into her emerald eyes. “You
have the hardest job of them all.”

“What’s that?”

“Staying behind and waiting.” Seeing that she was
about to object, he held up his armored hand to forestall her. “I cannot
concentrate on the mission at hand if I’m worried about protecting you.”

Talia reluctantly nodded, although Xerxes cocked
his head to the side while one of his mandibles toyed with the leather pouch at
his neck.

Athena snapped to attention. “What are my orders
Captain?”

“You and Xerxes are to take the Nemesis into an
over watch pattern. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the Major’s GOTH plan
called for some sort of airstrike. I know mine would.”

With a rigid salute she said, “Aye..aye Captain.”

*   *   *   *   *

By the time the Nemesis settled in over the roof of
the Hall of Justice, Special Agent Johnson had called to tell them that they
had found and neutralized five of the bombs but no sign of Eve.

Iaido just vaguely acknowledged receipt of the
message as he watched the countdown timer on his HUD. One minute until they
deployed. Old skills and mindsets automatically slipped into place. As soon as
the Nemesis decloaked and became visible, four anti-aircraft guns deployed on
each of the corners of the building and began tracking the warship. Pax had
been expecting this and made short work of the batteries with the multiple turbolasers
at her disposal.

Seeing the threat neutralized, Iaido opened the
cargo hatch. “Let’s Roll.”

Putting actions to words, the bounty hunter
stepped out into empty air and fell the fifty feet to the roof. Landing
heavily, Iaido moved forward to the entry point without looking back. It was
simple, they were following him or they weren’t. This type of mission was time
critical. He couldn’t stop for anything.

DJ and Jay followed twenty seconds apart, as
planned. It had been over a decade since either of them had been in true combat
but certain skills, once learned are never truly forgotten. They immediately
took up flanking positions and constantly scanned the area, both visually and
electronically.

Iaido moved to the exact spot with the help of his
HUD and set the crater charge for a three second delay. Stepping back, he spoke
over their secure tac-net.

“Fire in the hole.”

BOOM…and the friends began their entry.

*   *   *   *   *

Talia couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread as
she watched Iaido and her new friends disappear in the hole in the roof. For
some reason, she glanced over at Xerxes. The large black Mantis shook the
leather pouch around his neck and pointed at her, himself and then at the roof.
Talia realized that he felt it also and thought that they needed to follow
Iaido. Somehow, he knew that their ancient enemy lay below them.

This was their moment of choice, confront it or
wait it out.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. Xerxes
immediately grabbed her around the waist and jumped. Talia couldn’t hold back
the scream that escaped her lips. The large mantis landed on the roof and
gently set her down.

Talia looked around.

The Nemesis was vectoring to intercept several
skimmers that were en route to their location. Pulling out her pistol, she powered
it up and moved to follow Xerxes who had just vanished into the opening.
Stopping at the gap, she looked down to find the large mantis waiting for her
among the rubble.

Chewing her lip slightly, Talia took a deep breath
and jumped.

*   *   *   *   *

Iaido couldn’t help but feel slightly excited at
the dynamic entry they were performing. It’s an odd sensation knowing that at
any second a tango, military slang for target, could pop out and engage them.
They had already blown through four floors and hadn’t encountered a single
tango but then, that was the plan. They had picked these corridors and rooms
due to their lack of use but sooner or later, Iaido knew they would meet some
sort of resistance. It was inevitable.

Iaido glanced at his HUD. The Marine was one floor
up and about fifteen paces back with the Squid about the same behind DJ. It was
almost the perfect spacing. If anyone of the three got bogged down in a fire
fight, the other two were within easy reach for assistance.

A red X popped up on his HUD ten feet in front of
him which marked another spot for a crater charge. Planting the explosive,
Iaido stepped back, paused for two seconds and began moving forward. It was
perfect timing learned from thousands of entries over his time with Omega. He hit
the hole milliseconds after the explosion and followed the rubble into the
breach.

The proximity alarms built into his ARC suit went
off as his HUD filled with a dozen white and yellow circles. Every
military-issued powered armor had its own version of an AI, nowhere near as
advanced as Pax or Athena, but capable of locating and identifying threats. His
suit quickly scanned the two dozen humans in the room and categorized them into
one of three types; non-combatants, possible-combatants and confirmed-combatants.
Unfortunately, the suit AIs couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, that job was
left to the warrior wearing the suit. There were sixteen white circles
(non-combatants) and eight yellow circles (possible-combatants) in the room.
According to the agenda that Pax had downloaded on approach, this courtroom was
supposed to be empty but obviously something had happened and this trial had to
be shuffled to another courtroom.

Landing almost in the exact center of the room,
Iaido snapped his THAB-Mk9 into position as the built-in targeting reticules of
his suit locked onto all possible combatants. Seven of the yellow circles
shifted to red as the six police officers assigned to the courtroom pulled
their service pistols. Data concerning each tango popped up next to the
reticules; including names, statistics, links to their service records and
information concerning their weapons. None of their guns were strong enough to
penetrate his armor, so at this current time he intended on ignoring them. 

The seventh red circle was the defendant.

Iaido’s data indicated that the defendant was a
career criminal who was on trial for murdering a family of three. He was
claiming self-defense and PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Of course,
according to Iaido’s corresponding data, he had never served one day in the
service. Since he had pulled a knife from under the table and was threatening
to kill his attorney, the bounty hunter acted. Engaging his external loud
speakers, Iaido pushed the volume to maximum so his voice boomed. 

“Guilty!”

Firing two shots from his THAB, the first one took
the defendant’s hand off at the wrist sending the knife flipping through the
air. His second shot took the accused murderer in the left temple and knocked
him over the table. He was dead before his body hit the floor.

Knowing that confusion was his ally, Iaido dropped
his THAB to hang by its sling, reached into his belt pouch and pulled out three
small metallic canisters. Removing the safety pins, he tossed them into
different sections of the room. Even before they landed, the grenades began
spewing a thick grey smoke.

As the civilians and police alike got a whiff of
the gas, they began coughing uncontrollably. Coughing gas was basically
harmless but a very effective way of incapacitating humans without a
self-contained breathing apparatus.

All of this took less than fifteen seconds.
However, it was still long enough for someone to set off the alarms throughout
the building. Knowing that DJ and Jay would be walking into chaos, Iaido activated
his own version of the GOTH plan.

Transmitting on their local tac-net Iaido said,
“Alarms raised, activate plan Charlie…proceed to objective as fast as
possible.”

He knew that on each of their HUDs a new path was
immediately highlighted showing the most direct route to their target. Of
course, this would take them through some of the heavier trafficked areas but
that couldn’t be helped. Iaido saw the green lights in the far left corner of
his HUD illuminate that signified that his friends had received and acknowledge
the change of plans. Everyone knew that they needed to get to the Rotunda
before the Galactic Marshals could enact their plot.

There is an old saying; the shortest distance
between any two points is a straight line.

Iaido took that adage to heart, brought his THAB
back to his shoulder and headed due north right toward the nearest wall. If
there was a door in his path, he used it; if there wasn’t, he created one with
the 20mm cannon mounted to the under-barrel of his rifle.

This method had several advantages. First, it was
hard for any sort of resistance to form up since he wasn’t taking any known
pathways. Secondly, the explosions, while not overly large when compared to
some of the other ordinance that he carried, were still large enough to
disorient and knock over anyone nearby. And lastly, Iaido hated to admit it to
himself, but it was damn fun.

When he reached his entry point, Iaido checked his
HUD for the location of his friends. They were closing in on their spots and
would be on site in a matter of seconds. The plan now was to make a heavy
dynamic entry, blowing through as many floors as necessary to get them into the
room as quickly as possible but the timing was going to be crucial.  DJ was one
floor up and to the southwest, while Jay was two floors up and slightly west.
DJ’s entry would place him at the main entry of the Rotunda which was actually
on the second floor. Preliminary scans show that this would be the primary
entrance for any possible reinforcements. Jay’s entry should put him on the
highest corner of the room, dropping him onto the balcony which ran the entire
perimeter of the Rotunda. This would put him in a perfect position to act as a
sniper.

Iaido reached his entry point, although he still had
five floors to go through, he signaled that he was ready to breech. Squatting
down behind a large filing cabinet, he set his first charge and preloaded the
next four. When the time came, he calculated that it would only take him about
twelve seconds to blow through the five floors. Now came the hard part, the
waiting. Logically, he knew that his friends would be in place in a matter of
moments but even his long years of military service couldn’t override the
apprehension and excitement that would creep over him in the next few minutes.

 
*   *   *   *   *

DJ couldn’t contain his grin.

Of course, since it was hidden behind the opaque
dome of his helmet and no one could see it but it was there. There was probably
some sort of psychological diagnosis for someone who considered breaching a
building with an unknown number of combatants with the odds completely stacked
against them as fun. The non-technical term of crazy came to mind, but then… he
was a Marine and that term has been used to describe them for centuries.

But it was true; he was having more fun than any
one moment over the last decade. Ever since the day he shot his company
commander. For a fleeting second, DJ felt a sense of remorse for killing his
lieutenant back in his service days. He knew that the LT wasn’t really a bad
person, just a scared kid. But his unit had been pinned down by the
Confederates and they were slowly being picked off by snipers. The LT had lost
his courage and fled. Unfortunately, he was the only one with a working sat-com
and DJ had been forced to kill him to keep the satellite communications gear
intact and with the unit.

DJ had contemplated that single moment which
changed his life so many times over the last decade but he couldn’t figure
anyway else it could’ve turned out different. Unconsciously, the shoulder flaps
on his HAVOC-V suit popped open and closed as he shrugged.

An old Strike acronym came to mind… FIDO; Fuck It
Drive On. The simple mentality that when all else fails, keep driving forward
until something stops you or you have a reason to change directions.

Arriving at his breaching point, DJ signaled he
was ready and set his charges. He knew that he had five floors to blow through
and he would probably land in the middle of the proverbial hornet’s nest. One
way or another, this was going to be the time of his life; either the last few
minutes of it or the most exciting moments of it.

Either way, he was ready.

*   *   *   *   *

Jay was different than his friends.

This was neither fun nor exciting but fearful. He
didn’t regret offering his help. As a friend and a former solider, it was a
duty. But fighting was no longer his calling, perhaps it never was. He had
always preferred tinkering to fighting.