Here's chapter 4, and there's a lot wrapped into this one. Enjoy!
Before it even started firing, the panic was underway. A human wave fought to push it's way back away from the battle-rated killing machine in front of them, bowling over and trampling anyone not fast or strong enough to keep up. And when the rounds finally started to fly, it only got worse. Bodies were torn asunder by bullets that were intended to destroy light armored vehicles, and blood and chunks of gore rained down over the crowd.
But even as this occurred, 'Kiko was already moving. She'd been behind most of the crowd, near the bar, and so had to make her way forward. Rather than fight her way through, she leapt from table to table, clearing more than ten meters at a bound. She spared just a quick glance around the room as she moved, trying to see if her friends were safe.
Thankfully, she saw that Hall had thrown Nene over his shoulder, and was quickly pushing his way back toward the stage entrance, Earth Shaker drawn and ready just in case. And, on stage, she saw Priss and her band members dive for the floor, trying to stay as low as possible while crawling for the same exit.
By this time, 'Kiko was almost on top of her opponent, and she wasted no time getting it's attention. "Hey! Hey, you ugly son-of-a-bitch!" She yelled as she made a final leap toward it, both wrist blades extending with a snap. She hoped desperately that it would concentrate on her instead of the crowd, and in this she was spectacularly correct.
As she flew through the air toward it, the battle boomer shifted it's aim and pummeled her with 20mm fire. Normally, she would have done her best to twist out of the way, but she knew that if she did, someone far less resilient than her would be left to suck up those rounds. And so she deliberately took the entire volley herself.
She screamed as the hail of rounds slammed into her, blowing her back like a leaf snatched up by a winter gale and shredding the fragile cotton dress she wore. She went tumbling to the floor and was rolled back further by a stream of bullets like water from a fire hose. But, as painful as the attack was, her internals let her know that little real damage was being done to her. Somewhere inside herself, she was vaguely amazed and just a little bit frightened by how tough her new body really was.
Finally the agonizing rain of lead ceased, and Natomi thought, 'Thank God! Finally out of rounds!' With that, she rolled quickly to her feet, and, squaring off with the hulking cyberdroid, said, "Ok, you big bastard! What've you got now?"
As if in answer, both of the twin lenses on the oblong sections of it's head, which her internals had tentatively identified as auxiliary sensing equipment, swiveled in toward her and abruptly lit up with actinic laser light. She was taken completely by surprise as the multi-megawatt beams converged and criss-crossed over her midriff, slicing cleanly into and through her inhumanly tough flesh.
A wave of agony so intense that it was almost immediately shut off by her internals washed over her, and without even knowing how she got there, she found herself crumpled to the floor. Multiple fault indicators screamed at her, and red lights filled her vision, all but obscuring the message that she'd just very nearly been cut in half. And while a part of her certainly was in shock, the rest of her continued to act with mechanical precision.
Slapping one arm over her abdomen to hold in anything that might otherwise decide to spill out, she rolled to her side, raised her other hand and, without even bothering to sight in, unloaded with her gravimetric blaster. There was a sharp crack as air molecules were violently compressed by the wave of distorted space-time that passed between Natomi and her target. The boomer was struck squarely in the chest by the blast, and there was a loud snap as it's heavy Abotex and composite carapace was cracked. The force of the impact was incredible as well, and even as massive as it was, the hulking cyberdroid was picked up and thrown back four or five meters, slamming into and almost through the wall next to what had been the front door. But the damage it took was relatively minor for a boomer built as tough as it was, and it immediately got back up for more.
Natomi too regained her feet, still clutching her deeply lacerated abdomen with her left arm, blood as red as any other person's leaking out over it. Critical system alerts continued to blare at her, and her head felt almost as if it were floating like a balloon somewhere above her ravaged body. She knew that she was perilously close to an involuntary shut-down, with her redundant systems' waning resources devoted almost entirely to simply keeping her alive. She had very little left to fight with, and thought that she just might have enough in reserve to get off one more gravimetric blast before passing out. That being the case, she knew she'd have to make it count.
Circling warily, she scanned the boomer with every sensing system she had. Much to her dismay, she found no positive matches in her data base, though the BU-12B was the closest. But, from what she could tell, this thing was a lot tougher than a standard 12B. It figured. Sighing mentally, she invoked a rarely used piece of experimental software she'd been fitted with, a program that tore through all the data she was gathering on the boomer, looking for any possible chink or weak spot. It was an expert system, purpose designed to find faults in military-grade hardware, and she was sure it would find something. But the damned thing took time. Time that she most likely didn't have.
As the fault-finding software ran, she kept a wary eye on the twin laser lenses on either side of the boomer's armored head. One more hit from one of those would finish her, she knew, and her mobility, usually her greatest advantage, had been severely compromised.
For it's part, the boomer seemed to be studying her as well. It wasn't sentient, she knew, as the BU-55's and some of the other covert combat models were. But that didn't mean that it wasn't intelligent in it's own way, cunning in the manner of a top-of-the-food-chain predator. She supposed that it was re-evaluating her in light of her survival of it's earlier attacks, and the damaging counter-attack she'd inflicted upon it, looking for a more optimal method of engagement. And then, suddenly, it simply lunged at her, slamming it's armored fist into her injured solar plexus before her dulled reflexes and sluggish systems could react.
There was no pain this time as her internals had already cut sensation from her abdominal region. Instead, it was almost as if a flash bulb had gone off right in her face; the disruption to her systems was that intense. In fact, the blow must have rendered her insensible for a split second, she realized, as she suddenly found herself airborne with no recollection of ever leaving the floor.
Curled around her savaged midsection, she flew the entire length of the bar, propelled by the battle boomer's immense strength. Normally, she'd have twisted in mid-air like a cat to land in as favorable a posture as possible. But, more than half dead as she was, she just sailed limply through the air, crashing through the drum set and sound equipment on the stage and rolling to a stop against the back wall with a resounding thud.
She just lay there for a moment, utterly stunned, seeing nothing but red shot through with tiny black motes. She had no breath left in her body, and couldn't seem to draw any either. Fleetingly, she tried to make sense of her body's condition through her internals, but there was such a clutter of back-logged error and critical failure messages that this proved futile. Finally, with a gasp and a moan, she was able to force her unresponsive body over and up onto her knees, just in time to see death coming for her.
The battle boomer had engaged it's flight system, wreaking havoc with everything near it in the bar's enclosed space, and was rapidly skimming toward her, laser lenses glowing in a pre-firing warm-up. On stage, 'Kiko gritted her teeth defiantly, a trickle of artificial blood making it's way down her chin, and tried desperately to raise her shaking arm up into a firing position. She could see that she wasn't going to make it.
But then, just before it reached the stage, there was a flicker of movement from behind the bar. A small, feminine hand, sporting twenty centimeter claws, popped up, a familiar face framed in flaming red hair behind it. As 'Kiko watched in amazement, Jillian fired off a salvo of five hypervelocity nails, catching the battle-rated model all up and down it's back and legs.
While this had little effect, barely even scratching the armored killing-machine's thick metallic hide, it most certainly served to draw it's attention away from 'Kiko, at least momentarily. It swiveled around in mid-air, breaking it's headlong rush toward the stage, and unloaded with it's twin lasers on the bar.
'Kiko noted distantly that this boomer must have one hell of a power plant on board, because instead of capacitor-pumped pulsed laser fire, it was pumping out a continuous beam of deadly coherent light. It played this lethal wand of incandescence up and down the length of the bar, cutting it and, most likely, anything behind it to shreds.
Taking advantage of the distraction, 'Kiko re-invoked her fault-finding software, which picked up where it'd left off. Luckily for her, it quickly came up with a result.
In her field of vision, a small section at the base of the boomer's spine was suddenly highlighted, and a targeting reticule flared to life over it. She smiled a predatory smile, and with a yell she sent the firing impulse down her arm. Once again, space was violently bent by the esoteric hardware inside her, and a collimated shockwave made it's way from her hand to strike the boomer full force in the vunerable area she'd targeted.
The boomer's armor plate, in this one area slightly weaker than in any other, shattered upon impact, exposing delicate components and tissues beneath. Unfortunately, as she pitched over onto her side, totally spent, 'Kiko was able to see that, in her weakened state, she just hadn't been able to hit quite hard enough. The boomer was still functional.
With a screech of inhuman pain, it whirled around to face her again and immediately jetted in her direction. In her mind, as it came for her, she thought, 'So close. Damn it, it was so close.' But no matter how she struggled, her body refused to respond. She could only lay, eyes open and staring, as it drew nearer and finally set foot next to her. She screamed mutely in frustration as it lifted up an oversized metallic foot, intending to crush and grind her into oblivion. But before it could, there was yet another interruption.
With a primal yell, Hall came running from the stage door, Earth Shaker still in hand, and before the unprepared cyberdroid could react, he sprang upon it. Having never anticipated such a tactic from an unarmored and un-augmented human being, the boomer was momentarily at a loss. It shook it's massive head back and forth, trying to dislodge the mite on it's back, but Hall managed to hang on through sheer meanness.
Taking a firm hold with one arm, he forced his gun hand up, ramming the Earth Shaker into the gaping hole left by 'Kiko's grav-blaster. Gritting his teeth, he jerked the trigger spasmodically, unloading all three of the sixty-five caliber armor piercers into the boomer's unprotected innards. With a shrill, animal shriek and a gout of orange pseudo-blood, the boomer arched backwards and collapsed, thrashing wildly before finally becoming still.
Hall managed to leap and then roll clear, narrowly avoiding both the boomer's falling bulk and it's death throes. As he came up to a knee, he almost instinctively cracked the Earth Shaker open, slapped three more rounds from his pocket into the cylinder, and, snapping it closed again, leveled it at the now weakly twitching battle boomer. After a few seconds, satisfied that the armored giant really was down for the count, he jumped up and sprinted the few meters to his fallen partner.
"'Kiko?" He said in a concerned voice as he knelt down beside her. "'Kiko, can you hear me? It's me, Hall."
When there was no immediate response, Hall feared the worst, and justifiably so. Just a cursory glance revealed the massive scope of her injuries; the deep bruises all over her body, the bloody slash across her stomach that looked as though it had cut almost to her spine, and the unidentifiable but all too human-looking viscera now protruding from that wound, not to mention the synthetic blood that stained her lips and chin. These, combined with Akiko's staring eyes and blank expression all but convinced Hall that he'd managed to loose a partner on their first night together. 'Christ,' was his only bitter thought.
But then, with a whimper, 'Kiko stirred just slightly, eyelids fluttering, and said in a bare whisper, "S' Ok. We… did it… Hall."
"Yeah, we did," he agreed softly, and then said, "But right now, you should probably just rest while I get some help in here. And don't you damn drift away on me either, Natomi. That's an order, in case you're wondering."
She just smiled softly, and said, "Don't worry about me, partner. They built me tough. What's the old saying? 'Take a lickin' and keep on tick-?' Ah!"
She winced suddenly as some miscellaneous pain lanced through her, and Hall said, "Yeah, I can see that, but don't push it, 'Kiko. Just be still." With that, he reached into his jacket and withdrew a compact cell phone. He hit a particular number on the speed dial, and waited for the automated response. "Emergency services; police, fire, medical, or Advanced Police?"
Hall cut in immediately with, "Police emergency, ID Hall, Ryan Patrick, ADP 114. Connect me to ADP dispatch now."
After a brief pause, the voice on the other end said, "ID accepted. Connecting you now, Officer Hall." There was a click, and a single ring, and then another voice, familiar to Hall, came on the line. "ADP emergency, this is-"
"Naoko!" Hall interrupted sharply, "Don't talk, just listen. In case you hadn't figured it out, this is Hall, and I got a situation here at a club called 'Hot Legs'. Yeah, it's the place Leon and Nene like so much. Don't worry about that shit now! I got an officer down here, for Christ's sake! It's 'Kiko! Yeah, SGT Natomi! What put her down! How about a full battle-rated goddamn boomer! Yeah, she's tore up pretty bad. No, I don't give a shit what you tell the chief, just roll the Cytech contact team and a clean-up crew NOW! And get a regular medical unit over here too; we got a bunch of civilians down on top of everything else. Got it? Good!"
As Hall hit the end key, he heard the stage door open behind him, and, turning, he saw both Priss and Nene come rushing through. He noted absently that Priss had a hand pressed to her left shoulder, and blood was seeping between her fingers, making it's way down her arm in thin rivulets. 'Shit,' Hall thought, 'Bastard must've winged her. Couldn't have been more than a graze, though. Her arm's still attached.'
Seeing the tableau on stage, both women's eyes widened, and Nene said, "Oh, my-! Is she-?"
Hall shook his head slowly, and said, "Naw, she's still with us. She's just like me; too damn mean to die." And then, frowning, he said, "Can't say the same for some of the other folks in here though. Speaking of which, Corporal Romanova, you and I need to start checking around the room for survivors. EMT's are on the way, but if we can find anybody who needs it, we need to start first aid. Might make the difference between some poor bastard making it and not."
"What about her?" Priss said, pointing toward 'Kiko with her injured arm. "You're not just gonna leave her laying there by herself, are you?"
Hall sighed, and, looking at 'Kiko and then back to Priss said, "How bad's your shoulder?"
Priss frowned, and said, "I've had worse. Why?"
"Because you're right," Hall said slowly. "Somebody needs to stay here and make sure she hangs on. There's not a damn thing to be done medical-wise, not until the Cytech team gets here. But a friendly face and voice sure as hell can't hurt anything. And as much as I'd rather it be me, Romanova and I have other shit to keep us busy. So, in short, can you help out?"
"Shit, of course." Priss said, climbing onto the wrecked stage. And then, in a tone of frustrated anger, she added, "It's not like there's anything else I can do right now. Son of a bitch, this place is a mess!" Finally, kicking the downed boomer spitefully as she passed, Priss muttered, "Stupid bastard. I only wish somebody could kick your ass again. Once just wasn't enough for all of this."
Hall grunted in agreement, and, once Priss had taken his place, jumped down to join Nene, who'd already started the search for survivors.
"Hey," Priss said softly, taking one of 'Kiko's limp hands in hers.
Smiling weakly, Natomi opened her eyes slowly, and said, "Hey, yourself." And then, her smile turning mischievous, she whispered, "If you still feel like kicking my ass, now's probably the time. Playing field's pretty level right now, I'd say."
Priss just shook her head, and around a tightness in her throat said, "I'll wait until you're better. It'll make things a lot more interesting."
"It is kind of funny though," 'Kiko said slowly. "Just an hour or so ago, we were ready to throw down. Now you're here holding my hand. Who'd have thought, huh?"
"We got to know each other a little, that's all." Priss said quietly. "And I'd like the chance to get to know you better. So do me a favor, huh? Don't die on me. Too many of my friends have done that already. And if nothing else, hold on for your little girl. You don't want to leave Maiume hanging, do you?"
'Kiko frowned at this, and said, "I'll make it, Priss. Don't worry about that. You remember that line from 'Robocop'? Right toward the end, when Lewis is all shot up and she tells Murphy that she's a mess?"
Priss smiled, and said, "Yeah, I remember that one. He told her, 'Don't worry, they'll fix you. They fix everything.'"
'Kiko nodded weakly, and said, "Same applies to me, I'm sure." And then, grinning again, she whispered, "Hell, who knows? Maybe they'll even throw in some upgrades."
Out on the floor, Hall and Nene slowly made their way around the room, searching the ruined club for survivors. Nene felt her gorge slowly rising as she made her way from one shattered body to another, trying desperately not to think about some of the things she felt squishing wetly underfoot. It appeared the boomer had done it's work well, and that the club's patrons had been neatly divided into two groups; those who'd escaped, and those who'd died.
As she worked her way toward the remains of the bar, she heard from behind her, "Huh! Got a live one here, Romanova, so don't give up. There might be more."
She nodded absently, mostly in shock by now. She still couldn't believe how quickly disaster had struck, turning what was supposed to be just a fun night out after work into a scene from a horror movie. Even after everything she'd seen as a Knight Saber, and after some of the odd adventures she'd had of late, nothing had prepared her for this. She only thanked God that, as an ADP operator, she wasn't normally the one who had to deal with this kind of thing. She had no idea how the line troopers coped with scenes like this one day in and day out without slowly losing their minds. And the fact that the slaughterhouse she was walking through had been, up until a few minutes ago, a familiar and safe place, filled with happy memories of time spent with her friends, only made matters worse.
Nene's disturbing line of thought was interrupted then by a small sound from behind the demolished bar. Snapped back to reality, Nene hurried over, and, looking behind the wreckage, found a single prone female form. The red-headed woman lay on her side, clutching her badly lacerated and burned right thigh, and as Nene approached, she looked up. There seemed to be something familiar about her, Nene thought, and then the woman spoke, confirming her feeling. "Officer Romanova," she said in a voice that Nene recognized. "I certainly hadn't expected to meet you here. But then, all sorts of unexpected things seem to be happening tonight, don't they?"
Eyes widening, Nene said, "Jillian! What are you-?" And then, as all of the implications of Jillian's presence hit her, Nene whispered, "Oh, crap!"
Jillian nodded slowly, and said, "I think that sums up the situation very eloquently, all things considered."
From where he sat, having finally stopped the bleeding from the stump of a hapless victim's severed arm with a tourniquet, Hall saw that something wasn't quite right with Nene. She'd gone behind what was left of the bar, presumably having found a survivor, but now she was just standing there, looking shocked.
"What the hell've you got there, Romanova?" He called out. "Live one or just a helluva mess?"
Oddly, Nene licked her lips nervously, and said, "Umm, it's complicated. I- It's- That is- Well, like I said, it's complicated."
Frowning, Hall stood and headed over, wondering what the hell the ditzy red-head was talking about. Coming around the end of the bar, he saw the woman 'Kiko had fingered right before all hell broke loose, and, with a surprised, "Shit!" whipped out and leveled his Earth Shaker.
"Get the hell back, Romanova!" He yelled. "She's a boomer!"
"I know that, SGT Hall," Nene said quietly.
"You do?" He said in a bewildered tone.
From the floor, Jillian said, "Officer Romanova and I have met before. She and Officer McNichol helped me and a friend of mine out of a… rather difficult situation once."
Even more puzzled now, Hall said, "Ok, I guess I missed a turn somewhere on the way down here and ended up in the friggin' Twilight Zone without realizing it. At any rate, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm looking at a BU-33C here who's out for a little night on the town all by herself. And last time I checked, boomers weren't allowed to just run around loose. That about sum things up here?"
Sighing, Jillian said, "Unfortunately, I think it does, officer. Your partner and I already had this discussion, by the way."
"Huh!" Hall said, a little surprised. "If that's the case, then why the hell didn't you bolt when all hell broke loose? That would've been your best bet."
"Two reasons, officer," Jillian said. "One, it would've been difficult, to say the least, to get past that battle boomer. You see how well some of the other customers fared. And two, I thought that, just maybe, I'd be able to help in some way. I'm not foolish enough to think that I could've taken on that battle-rated monster, but I thought I might be able to do something."
Hall frowned, and said, "Let me get this straight. You were willing to hang here on the off chance that you'd be able to help out? Why the hell would you care? I've never run into a 33C that gave much of a shit about anybody but it's principle and just maybe itself. What makes you different?"
Nene sighed, and said, "If you want the whole story, read the case file on the Asakawa murder from last November. It pretty much says everything."
Hall suddenly snapped his fingers, and said, "The Asakawa case! Shit! I don't need to read it, I was there. My squad was first on the ground, and 'Kiko was with us! Yeah, I get it now. McNichol told me how things turned out." And then, frowning again, he added, "But he said the boomer never made it out of the sewers. Said she stayed down there with a couple of the Knight Sabers to fight off some combat boomers that'd been sent after them, and didn't make it. Huh! Guess the Sabers didn't tell McNichol the straight shit after all."
"I guess not," Nene said nervously, desperately not wanting Hall to find out the real story. If it got out that Leon had knowingly let Priss and Linna remove the non-functional boomer's body from the scene, and that Nene had kept her mouth shut about it, there could be hell to pay. At least she was sure that Jillian wouldn't say anything to give them away.
Hall exhaled loudly, and then said, "Well, this sure opens up a can of worms." Addressing Jillian, he said, "So. You know where things have to go now, right?"
"As I said, officer, I already had this conversation with your partner. You plan on impounding me now, after which I'll be deactivated and dismantled. Does that about sum it up?"
Hall nodded slowly, and said, "Yeah, that's about it. Guess you should've made a break for it when you could."
Then, from the stage, 'Kiko's voice came to them weakly. "Hall," she said, straining to make herself heard.
"What is it, 'Kiko?" He called over his shoulder.
"She saved my life, Hall. When the battle boomer punched me in the gut, it would've finished me if she hadn't distracted it. That's how I was able to get off that last shot. When it turned to nail her, I nailed it instead. We never would've put it down if she hadn't helped, and if it'd skragged me, hell only knows how much damage it would've done before somebody finally managed to stop it."
"Ah, Christ," Hall said tiredly. "Shit can't ever just be simple, can it? So what the hell do you want me to do? Just turn my back and let her walk?"
"No," 'Kiko said in a bare whisper, "Can't do that. Wouldn't work anyway; hear the sirens? Backup's just about to roll up out front."
"So what do you want me to do, 'Kiko?" he said quietly.
"Just- Just make sure they don't take her apart first thing. There has to be some other way, something else that can be done. Just make sure that there's time to find out what."
Hall sighed loudly, and said, "Ok, I think I can make that happen. But I'll be damned if I know where this is gonna end up."
What no one saw, up on the stage, was the odd expression on Priss's face as she listened to them discussing Jillian's fate and wondered if what she and Linna had done was about to end up counting for nothing at all.
That's it for chapter 4. Please review and let me know what you think.
