Inescapable Arsenal Read online

  It appears to be using some form of anti-gravity to hover and reaction thrust engines to move. I can detect the thermal output of its engines but not the machine itself. I can only ‘see’ it visually and that tells me very little.

  “Stealth tech. Got it.”

  I finish my turn, making sure to give it wide berth. GPS shows it heading due east at a relative two-hundred feet. The problem is, even though it isn’t attacking anything at the moment, that course takes it right through downtown. I’m pretty sure several of the buildings are taller than two hundred feet.

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say this thing doesn’t care about property damage.”

  It is not likely.

  “Kate, how’s the evacuation going?”

  “Not bloody fast enough. Amelia, can you stop it?”

  “I don’t even know what ‘it’, is.”

  So far it is not firing any weapons or threatening anything. I can detect no active shields. Perhaps a closer look?

  I hate to do it but we’ve got no choice here. I pull us up and over the beast, using the GPS to record accurate dimensions, three hundred feet long, one hundred wide and fifty thick. The back end spews out exhaust in the neighborhood of two thousand degrees. Even if I didn’t care about the buildings it will inevitably collide with, that thrust would vaporize the city behind it. Even two hundred feet up, the water of the Sound boils from the temp.

  It’s so frigging big I just have no idea.

  “Well, when all fails, poke it with something. Full power to the particle beam.”

  My HUD lights up as the ZPFM shunts power to my new and improved particle beams. After our heat issue in space, I decided to wrap the emitters in heat-absorbing carbon cylinders that eject once they’d absorbed their maximum temp. I carry two spares on my hips. However, since I opted for a new weapon on my right arm I am back down to the one beam.

  Full power.

  If I were to design the alien craft the front would be nothing but armor… however, those domes have got to serve a purpose. I line up the crosshairs on one and let it rip. Hyper-accelerated silicate burns through the air leaving a trail of ionized atmosphere. The beam strikes the closest dome and… dissipates against the surface.

  The ship jerks up a hundred feet. Half the domes retract, revealing nine foot long turrets with green lights inside them. As one, the seven nearest me all snap to lock on.

  Evasive!

  He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I punch it. We shoot from three hundred miles an hour to Mach Three in as many seconds. Green beams reach out, tearing through the air I’d occupied seconds before. Several hit the shore; where they strike land. The dirt and concrete erupt in violent explosions where they hit.

  “What the hell is that?”

  I need more data.

  Arm out, I take a few more potshots. The particle beam is either deflected or absorbed. Each time I fire the turrets nearest to me return green beams of death in my direction. If the particle beams do nothing, then the IP Cannons aren’t going to do squat.

  “Epic what about an EMP?”

  It may have an effect, however, if this is indeed alien, it is likely the hull is hardened against radiation due to the rigors of space travel.

  Great, he’s right, of course. “Then we’re just going to have to take out those turrets one at a time.”

  I cut the thrusters and drop like a stone until I’m only a dozen feet above the water. Blasting back full power I head for the underbelly. Whatever it uses to generate lift ‘pushes’ down against the water, I can see the churn underneath it.

  “Epic, can you see the turrets?”

  Only visually. I cannot provide aiming assistance in such a manner. It is too imprecise. The best I can do is project where your weapons will hit based on trajectory.

  “Good enough. Let’s make a note, though. We need a suit built for war. If we survive this, that is.”

  Note made, create a war machine.

  “Okay, here we go!”

  The Emdrive wines, pushing us under the craft. I immediately feel the buffet of its repulser field pushing down on us. Flipping over, I line up the first turret and fire. The beam strikes the weapon. Whatever the green stuff is, explodes on contact. Green fire leaps out of the hull as pieces of the gun fall into the ocean.

  I believe those are chemical lasers with some form of charged particle delivery system.

  “Neat,” I say firing again. Another turret goes down. They return fire with haste. I punch the throttle. A beam misses me by inches and the heat levels skyrocket. Warning lights flash crimson on the HUD.

  I recommend not letting them hit you.

  “Epic, is it still moving to the city?”

  Less than thirty seconds until it is over land. Amelia, based on its landfall, maneuvers, and reactions, there is a high probability this is a drone and has no actual aliens on board.

  “Well, that makes things easier, I think.”

  Full burn to the Emdrive and I shoot out from under. I need a sturdy place to land. Something, not wood or dirt…

  The Seattle Ferry Terminal! Seven degrees to your right. The reinforced concrete should prove sufficiently strong.

  I see it. The Emdrive gets me there in all of four seconds and I land with a crunch.

  “Epic. Prepare the main gun!”

  Initiating.

  The problem with energy has always been mass and Newton’s laws. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I can only mount a gun as big as the recoil I can absorb. The particle beam literally fires silicate molecules so even at near light speed there isn’t much reaction… but this… I don’t even know if this is going to work.

  “Kate I need you, now!”

  Epic takes over the suit. The legs shift into a sort of running stance like I am taking a strong step forward. My left arm locks down in line with my body and the shoulders go rigid. Plates start sliding to reconfigure to support the armor and provide a conduit for the coming energy blast.

  Kate pops in beside me; a sheen of sweat coats her forehead and she’s breathing hard.

  “What?”

  “In about fifteen seconds everything within three hundred feet of me is going to vanish, I need you to port the people away.”

  She glances around, “Where are they?”

  “Epic is sending you the location of the four people in the blast zone.”

  “Blast zone? Amelia, what are you doing?”

  I glance up at the HUD, the drone is only seconds from overland. “Hurry!”

  She vanishes.

  Locking down the gun.

  My right arm comes up straight, fingers out. The side panels from my wrist to my shoulder open and the barrel slides out and locks together.

  Ready to fire SDF-1 on your command.

  Sweat trickles down my brow. There’s a tightness in my chest. I haven’t had the chance to test the mass driver yet. If I’ve miscalculated, or if the energy is too much… the suit could end up as ionized plasma along with the tungsten marbles we fire.

  We are out of time, Amelia.

  I close my eyes. “Fire.”

  With a thunk, a twenty-three-ounce tungsten ball bearing slides into place. The ZPFM wines as more power is tasked from the generator, more than what ran the MKII at break orbit speeds.

  The tungsten ball slides into the pipe and then it fires. Forty-nine more tungsten balls lock into place and shunt to the barrel as the magnetic rails accelerate them to fifty miles per second. Fire rips through the air with a boom that shatters glass for miles. The concrete around my feet cracks and I can hear the buildings nearby crumble. The fire reaches out all the way to the drone. Air ignites around the point of impact as the ship jerks sharply up on its tail. Epic adjusts the aim firing the next volley to split the underside. The air burns as the metal balls are converted to plasma, exploding with the fury of a small sun on impact.

  Holes the size of basketballs perforate the ship, the engines give out and for a second it ho
lds ground then it slides backward to crash into the bay. The last of the ball bearings blast through it, ending the rampage. The air around the suit is hot enough to boil water. Half the ship explodes as green fire shoots up into the sky while the other half crashes into the ocean. A wall of water a hundred feet high crashes into me.

  We may have miscalculated the side effects of dumping that much power into a mass driver. The suit will need extensive repairs.

  I can’t move my head, but I can see the massive damage I caused around me.

  “I concur.”

  The damage to the city looked far worse than it was. Thanks to our warning, most of the dock area evacuated in time and with Kate doing her thing and the steep nature of the waterfront, no one even got their shoes wet. Except me. When the water hit, the force knocked me into the pier and I ended up stuck in the muck for a bit. Turns out my super powerful LED lights are all but frigging useless under water. Something Epic and I are going to have to address at some point.

  I take one last pass around the area, scanning for anyone in trouble or any major blockages we can help out with. Epic keeps me informed of Kate’s progress as she ports around the area, guiding rescue workers and making sure people stay calm. She’s really good at crowd control. Hell, she’s good at everything.

  Amelia, what about the drone? We should try to salvage some of it to return to the lab. At the very least we might be able to devise some way of penetrating the hull. The collateral damage of the mass driver may keep us from using the weapon if there is a next time.

  He’s right. I knew the retort would wreck things but I had no idea it would be so devastating. I could never fire it if people were around. It’s a miracle no one was killed as it was. The sound alone shattered wood and glass. Before I can risk using it again, I’ll have to tone down the power.

  Banking hard to the harbor, I drop down to skim over the wreckage. Half the ship is scattered over a quarter mile of ocean, but the back half, with the engines, is wedged hard into the bottom of the bay with the broken front sticking just above the water. The sea fills it every time there’s a wave but I can still see plenty of open spaces.

  “Epic, you think their computer systems remain operative?”

  It is impossible to know. They have interstellar travel. Everything they have should be an order of magnitude more advanced than us.

  “True.”

  The place where it broke in half is all jagged edges and blackened metal. I can see what might be wires and circuitry, or it could be anything really. Epic still can’t ‘see’ the metal with radar or any of our other sensors, just visual.

  “I’m gonna risk a landing.”

  A makeshift ledge where the alien metal bent as the hull tore apart sticks out near the water level and looks sturdy enough. Just in case, I keep the Emdrive on minimum as I land. I don’t want to end up in the drink, again.

  The metal feels hard under my feet. Hard, but somehow flexible. Inside the drone there are tubes spilling out white goo, others have green lights flickering on them.

  “Full lights.”

  The LEDs light up and even in the afternoon sun, I can see further into the ship. Tentatively I take a step closer in.

  “Epic… there’s something written on the wall here, do you see it?” I point to a script of some kind, barely visible and only when I shine light directly on it. I can’t tell if they’re words or…

  Let me try something.

  Hundreds of LED’s built into the external housing of the suit flash through the visible light spectrum, illuminating the wall as I move closer. All at once the flashing stops and Epic ends the spectrum on black light. An entire block of text appears, glowing slightly. Parts of the words still fade in and out, almost as if they were meant to be read under a different light.

  The text is not only photoluminescence but it is meant to be read by biological creatures with heat sensitive vision. I am sorry I cannot mimic the infrared spectrum. However, I can see most of it. Uploading to our central database for translation. Without a key, though, it seems unlikely we will have any success.

  “An honest to god Alien language… so cool.”

  There are no active electromagnetic signals that I can tap into.

  “I figured.” The ship shuddered, sending me sidestepping to keep my balance. “Okay, enough sightseeing. I can only imagine the government will be pulling this thing out of the harbor, maybe we can find out more from them. Let’s get us some metal and get out of here.”

  We searched for the ideal piece. My particle beam had little effect on the hull, but from the inside, it might have more luck.

  To your right, there is a jagged piece of metal half torn. Aim at the section where the metal stressed.

  I see it. Grabbing the torn edge in one hand, I bring the beam to bear on the seam. Blue light strobes the room as the super accelerated particles flash in three-second intervals to keep the emitters from overheating. After nine seconds the silicate bursts through. The metal pulls away with a bright glow of melting alloy as I tear it like a sheet of paper.

  “Will this be enough?” Turning the piece over in my hand, I notice two things. How light it is and the fact that even the edge I’d just cut through is cool to the touch.

  More than enough.

  My hip whirs as the small storage compartment opens. I stuff the metal in and Epic locks it down. The ship shudders again, nearly toppling me.

  “Okay, time to leave. Punch it.” The Emdrive blows me out of the hull and immediately pulls straight up. ATC diverted all air traffic so I had no worries about colliding with any planes. The only things flying are the Navy and Coast Guard choppers performing search and rescue.

  I watch as the sea surges and the remainder of the drone sinks beneath the waves. After a few minutes, only churning water remained.

  “Wow.”

  This will certainly be a day to remember. Kate is calling you.

  “Go for Arsenal.”

  “Arsenal, I’ve done what I can do here and I don’t think I’ve got another port in me. Come pick me up and let’s head home.”

  “Roger, I’m on my way. Your eagerness to leave wouldn’t have anything to do with Triple Threat being on the PNW team, would it?”

  “Is the disgust in my voice that obvious?”

  “Is he there now?”

  “Yes…”

  “Hang tight.”

  I dial up the speed to break the sound barrier, blasting over Seattle high enough to avoid breaking windows, banking hard to come back and zero in on Kate’s location. The city’s emergency management teams had set up a base at Pikes Place Market. Kate’s transponder tells me exactly where she is. Epic zooms in so I can see her; sitting on a folding chair cradling a cup of Starbucks while all three of Triple dork clones stand around her. This is going to be good.

  I pull up right above her, at five hundred feet, and cut the drive. “Kinetic shields to max.”

  Roger.

  The MK III weighs almost five hundred pounds. Far heavier than my other two suits. It also adds another full inch to me and about four inches in width. In other words, I slam into the ground with an impact that shatters concrete and sends the three stooges leaping out of their pants like frightened little kids.

  The speedster vanishes in a blur, trips, and rolls to a stop a hundred feet away. The other two don’t fare any better.

  “Well if it isn’t the three stooges? I see you got a promotion. Too bad,” I say over the PA.

  They glare back at me. The air around them shimmers and they go from three identical clones to one. My understanding is he only has superpowers when he’s split into three selves.

  Kate stands up, handing her coffee to a very startled aid worker, along with the blanket she’d wrapped around her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here, ‘kay?”

  “As you wish.”

  Triple Threat’s delayed response is lost in the wine of my Emdrive as we blast off and head south. I keep the speed down to fifty so Kate doesn’t f
reeze to death. I know her suit is more than just leather, but she still has to bury her face in my shoulder.

  I can tell she’s surprised when I slow down even more, dropping to under a hundred feet. We skim the treetops north of the airport before the roar of jets and the smell of fuel fills the air.

  “Amelia, I can’t fly commercial,” she gestures to the guns on her hips.

  “We’re not,” I say with a smile.

  Epic takes care of the clearance and all the minutia. He’s so far beyond what I programmed him for I’d really classify him as a legitimate AI. I never envisioned him learning how to do… well, everything.

  We bank around the southern terminal where the private jets park.

  Hanger 34b is where the Emjet is parked.

  I bring us to a soft landing outside the marked hanger. The doors shuffle open, revealing the sleek black nose of my new jet.

  “Amelia… what is this?”

  “The Emjet. She’s the first Emdrive powered jet in the world.” I take Kate’s hand and pull her excitedly into the hanger. The jet is sixty feet long and twenty wide. Her wings are swept back at the moment, but they are variable for maximum lift and thrust. The tail is the masterpiece if I do say so myself. I got the idea from watching a John McClain movie. The single Emdrive engine sits in a housing designed to look like a normal turbine engine. The engine itself connects to two pylons that form the split tail which allows the engine to rotate in any direction… including reverse. I explain this all to Kate as we circle the jet. Her mouth never closes.

  “Amelia… how?”

  “This is the best part, watch.” I run my hands along the hull until I find the designated spot about two-thirds of the way back. Previously invisible seems split open, revealing a specially designed lift mechanism that drops down and connects to the armor, pulling me up. “I’ll see you inside.”

  I know from experience the passenger doors are already opening and dropping stairs for her. The lift pulls the suit up and disassembles at the same time. The whole process takes sixty seconds. The small cabin it deposits me into has enough room for a quick change and when I come out to the main room, I’m wearing jeans and a Han Shot First shirt. The inside of the jet is as nice as we could afford. Rotating leather recliners for every seat. Folding tables, beverage and food dispensers (in other words a Coke fountain and Doritos). The aircraft had a small kitchenette where the cockpit would normally be but I could burn water so I don’t know how much use it will get. Luke though, that man is an artist with pancakes.