Requiem (72 page)

'I want you to
try and work your way through it,' Sear said to Therin. He looked
to Seline. 'Seline, you're going to stay here and keep watch over
her while the rest of us split up and do a quick recon of the wall.
He looked over Mercer and Carex. 'We need to look for something
that might indicate what this wall is doing exactly. Look for some
indication that it doesn't continue all the way around, maybe
there's a conduit or an easier way through.'

'For all we
know, even touching this thing might activate some kind of defence
mechanism,' said Carex.

'Bit late for
that,' said Seline.

'Exactly,' said
Sear. 'Sentinels or worse may already be on their way and the way
things have been going in here, I'm sure we're due for some bad
luck. That's what Seline is for.' Sear looked at Seline again. 'If
anything registers on the scanner, you contact us immediately.' He
looked at the others. 'At first confirmation from Seline we all
rendezvous back here, no questions.'

Therin detached
a small box and the handheld plasma cutter from the pack on her
back. She flicked the rod to the side, it extended further, a thumb
trigger on the top side of the rod and a fine, tapered point at its
end. She moved over to the wall , raised her hand to the side of
her helmet and dimmed her night-vision before she began
cutting.

Sear floated
towards Seline. He placed a hand upon her shoulder. 'The motion
sensor has already been calibrated. All you need to do is keep an
eye on the screen to see if anything changes. In this place, it
will probably be more reliable than your eyes.'

Seline nodded.
She pulled the strap around her shoulder and held her rifle in both
hands, the way she'd been taught. Sear looked down at the gun then
back to Seline. His grip tightened on her shoulder.

'What's
Newton's third law?' he asked.

'Yeah, yeah I
know.' She wanted to wipe the sweat from her forehead. 'Equal and
opposite reactions and all the rest of it.'

Sear continued
to look at her.

She sighed.
'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That means don't
fire the gun unless my back is on the wall.'

Sear nodded,
glanced down at Therin then back to Seline.

'Stay safe,' he
said. He released her shoulder and conferred with Mercer and Carex
on the points they would set about scouting. Seline could see
Mercer's face. He was listening intently. The muscles in his jaw
flexed beneath his skin, clenching tighter and tighter then
releasing again.

'Good luck,'
she said, addressing them all but looking directly at Sear.

'If we had luck
then we wouldn't be in this mess,' said Mercer as he passed over
Seline's head to explore the upper reaches of the wall. Carex
departed to the left and Sear moved down.

Seline trained
the rifle on the farthest point of darkness and swept it over the
wall of bramble they had come through, eyeing the patterns on the
lopsided columns through the scope. She imagined that if she could
somehow see the entire wall at once that it would look something
like bone marrow. She wondered if it served a similar purpose.

Minutes passed.
She could see nothing of note through the scope so reluctantly
lowered her gun and swept her gaze over the blanket of columns once
more. Along the wall, she could still see Mercer, Sear, and Carex
moving away in their respective directions. She wanted to ask them
if they had anything to report but refrained. If they did then they
would have said something.

She looked back
through the scope. She was sure she could see shades of movement
from behind the screen of pillars. She ran her tongue over dry lips
and took a sip from the tube that ran into her helmet from the
small water pouch on the back of her suit. The water was stale,
metallic tasting. The movement, she told herself, was just the tiny
maintenance drones. If they were anything bigger then the motion
sensor would pick them up. Surely.

Sear, Mercer,
and Carex were almost out of sight. She turned to Therin. Progress
was slow. She looked down again at the small screen of the motion
sensor. A small light flashed in the corner of the screen. There
was a tingling sensation just under her skin. She blinked to make
sure the light had actually been there but when she opened her eyes
it was gone. She looked through the scope of her rifle but couldn't
make anything out. When she looked back at the motion sensor the
scanner on the screen had turned into a wall of static.

She opened the
comm. 'Something's wrong with the sensor.'

Sear responded
immediately. 'What kind of something?'

'The screens
turned to static, like something's interfering with the
signal.'

'Are you
sure?'

She hit the
side of the sensor and shook it around, searching for a signal but
the lines of snow continued to fall. 'I'm sure,' she said.

'We're coming
back.' Sear ordered the others to return to Therin and Seline's
position.

Seline looked
through the scope but could only see the criss-crossing of the
sheet of marrow.

She turned to
Therin still working steadily with the plasma cutter. Seline
couldn't see her face but she imagined it as calm, probably
indifferent. The image annoyed her. The slow steadiness of her
movements also annoyed her. The fact that something was approaching
from that outer dark like some Boogyman would have annoyed her if
it didn't frighten her so damn much.

'Shit. Can't
that thing go any faster?' she asked.

'Sure. Just
yell at it. I'm sure that'll speed it up.'

Seline turned
back around. She could see a piercing light, flitting in the
distance. Cold fingers were slowly constricting around her
spine.

'I see it,' she
said, silently mouthing the words at first and then repeating them
again, hating the sound of her own voice.

Sear and the
others were still too far away. Seline took one of the retracting
shields from her back and held in front of herself. Translucent
layers of metal spread out beneath one another until it was big
enough to shield her body. She checked behind herself to make sure
the shield was covering Therin. Just. She looked up, down, left and
right. From this position they could be flanked from a hundred
different angles.

Seline glanced
around the edge of the shield. There was a massive flash of light.
She pulled her head behind the shield just in time. The shield's
counter thrusters kicked in early enough to absorb the blast. It
crashed directly into it. Seline was jolted from the force. Sparks
broke, electricity bled only inches from her face.

Seline detached
her second shield and placed it just behind the first. She held her
head out, lined up her scope and clocked a sentinel approaching
through the pillars.

'Sentinel!
Twelve o'clock,' she said into the comm. She pulled back behind the
shield and checked her flanks. Clear. Sear and the others were
almost back. She looked at Therin. Cutting. Slowly. Seline wanted
to ram her fist through the wall and peel it open herself.

'Focus on the
sentinel,' said Therin. 'Your eyes won't make this thing go any
faster.'

Seline turned,
another blast slammed into the first shield, tearing it to pieces,
tossing shards of metal in every direction. Seline propped her
rifle on the top of the second shield. With her free hand she held
onto the back of the shield. She looked through the scope and began
firing. The sentinel still hadn't cleared the pillars but was
definitely moving closer. She continued to fire in short, sharp
bursts. She couldn't even tell if she was hitting it or not. It
showed no signs of stopping.

Sear appeared
at Seline's side. He took one of his shields, held it beside
Seline's and let it expand until their edges met and interlocked
with small, woven brackets. He held himself just behind it with his
rifle over the top.

'There's no
cover here,' said Mercer, slamming on his reverse thrusters as he
approached the group. He unclipped one of his shields, let it
dilate, and interlocked it with the left side of Seline's.

'Even if there
were we haven't got anything to stop those things,' said
Seline.

'It's not about
stopping them. It's about giving Therin the time she needs,' said
Sear.

Carex arrived.
He joined one of his shields to Mercer's so that the four shields
floated in an arc between them and the metal forest.

'I'm already
one shield down,' said Seline. 'Two shots and it was gone.'

'We've got back
ups,' said Sear. 'Therin. How long?'

'Too long,' she
said.

Seline glanced
back at Therin, steadily working her way down the wall with the
plasma cutter. Beads of sweat were itching at her skin, beginning
to saturate her underclothes. She looked back to the approaching
eye before spotting another red glint far to the left of the
other.

'There's
another,' said Mercer.

'And another,'
said Sear.

Seline wanted
to take the cutter and do it herself. She knew she wouldn't be as
fast, she just wanted to have some sense of control. Her eyes kept
flickering from the sentinels to Therin. She could've sworn Therin
was holding the cutter in the same place.

'Speed it up,
Therin,' said Sear.

Just give me
that plasma cutter.

Seline didn't
look at the red lights. The burning sensation running across her
skin told her enough. Sear looked directly at her.

'Seline! Keep
your eyes on the sentinel. Staring at Therin won't help
anyone.'

The words
didn't reach her. They swirled and danced around her ear but
ventured no further.

'Seline!' he
said.

She was
transfixed by the labouring plasma cutter. Sear reached out to grab
her arm but she pushed him away and floated across to Therin. She
shoved her aside. The plasma cutter shut off. Seline pulled her
right arm back. Her fist was shaking. She was struggling to make
sense of what she was doing.

'Seline!'

She wasn't sure
who was yelling her name. She knew it didn't matter.

The metal was
still glowing white from where Therin had been working at it.
Seline aimed directly for it.

The moment of
airless resistance. The pistons locked in terminal pressure. A
million electrical signals surging through her body, slamming head
first into cold knuckles and then the hot, melted sheet of metal on
the other side.

Her fist sunk
into the molten metal then pierced through the harder, colder layer
beneath. The jagged edge cut through the fabric of her suit. The
section seals around her shoulder instantly shut the vacuum out.
Her arm was buried through the wall almost up to her shoulder. Her
hand moved freely on the other side. She'd punctured all the way
through.

Sear had
stopped yelling her name. She placed her left palm on the wall for
stability and jerked her right arm back until she could feel the
other side of the wall through the hole. The shell was thick, at
least forty centimetres. She held her fingers against the inside
edge of the hole and pulled. The panel was lifting. She pulled her
legs up and placed her knees either side of the hole. She could see
the light of firing guns behind her. Therin had swung the gun from
her back and moved away from the wall.

Seline pulled.
Rivets shivered. It was giving way, peeling back. A rivet bent,
broke, shot into the darkness. A metal insect came scurrying
towards her. The moment Seline noticed it, it disappeared, engulfed
in a burst of light. From the corner of her eye she caught Therin
directing her rifle at the hole.

'What the fuck
are you waiting for?! Concentrate on the wall. I'll keep them off
you.'

Seline turned
back to the wall, re-established her footing, started pulling
again. She couldn't tell if it was moving or not. Her grip was
slipping. She forced more pressure into her fingers. The firing
continued behind her. She kept herself from looking back. She was
sure the wall was moving, straining against her palm.

The sentinels
fired upon the shields. After three direct hits one of the shields
was on the verge of failure. Carex had moved in behind it in order
to replace it with the one remaining shield he had but before he
could get it into place the sentinel's beam crashed directly into
it, sending Carex flying back into the wall next to Seline, the
shield was destroyed, its burnt remains scattered in every
direction. Before the next charge could arrive Sear scrambled to
the damaged section and filled the space with his remaining shield.
Carex recovered his rifle and began firing again.

Sear had
stopped firing at the sentinels altogether, acutely aware that the
bullets were all but wasted. He focused his efforts on maintaining
the integrity of the shields while the others continued firing.

With every
blast from the oncoming sentinels the shields buckled. One was a
direct hit away from failing. Only two shields remained to be used.
Before he could check on Seline's progress the damaged shield was
splintered into pieces. He plugged the gap with another shield.

Another rivet
shot out from the wall as Seline peeled it back. Her grip loosened.
She looked at the hole she'd created. It would just be big enough
to squeeze through. She turned to the others. Sear was already
looking at the hole and motioning for Carex to get through. He
immediately dashed for the hole and into the darkness. One of the
shields was ripped from the others and flung past Seline. It
collided with the wall and careened off in the opposite direction.
Sear took Therin's only shield and ordered her to get through the
wall. She approached the hole and slipped through.

Seline was
about to follow her when a red glint of light flashed in the corner
of her eye. She looked up, across the length of the surface of the
shell's exterior wall. There was a brighter flash of light. Almost
instantly, Mercer had placed himself between her and the incoming
blast. He held up one of the shields to take the impact. He
recoiled from the hit, splints of metal broke from the shield and
spun away in all directions. The small thrusters spat out the last
of their fuel and died. Mercer looked to his side. Two shields
remained. Two shots from the incoming sentinels collided into them.
They wouldn't take another hit. He screamed at Sear to get through
the wall. There was a flash of hesitation.