Part 13
"I'll get the tram moving first. Hopefully, they see it coming and send out the drones. That should give you a few minutes to see what you're up against before they spot you and attack. You'll have to use thermal imaging to see through the dust, the terrain is pretty flat so you should be able to see the compound through the scanner."
"Why did Sandra offer you time on the homeworld?" Fox asked.
"It's a long story." Jack replied. "I will tell you just a day on the homeworld would cost more credits than most people earn in a lifetime. That was quite a bribe she offered me."
"Your homeworld must be some place." Falco said.
"I'll tell you more when we get back, let's do what we came down here to do. Remember, hold position until you see the drones, understand?"
"Yes, we'll circle here until we see the drones, then charge in." Fox said. Jack started the tram and began his decent into the canyon that snaked it's way across the planet's surface and toward the compound. At the canyon floor the wind and dust that covered the surface was minimal and visibility was quite clear. The tram moved slowly along the track, within minutes of his departure a swarm of box-shaped mining drones took flight and charged toward the tram. The drones were larger than what Fox had expected, at almost three meters across and more than twice that in length, they were nothing like the tiny service drones on the Prospect. Fox and the others began targeting the drones, he decided to test the new weapon Sandra Dinan had given him before the drones could close in. He slowed his ship and fired. Fox watched as the missile separated as it neared the drones, each smaller missile hitting and destroying a drone almost instantly. Fara and Falco charged forward and prepared to launch their own Javelins.
"Fox, what was that?" Jack's voice broke over the com.
"A weapon that Dinan lady said would help with the mass of drones." Fox said.
"What's it called?"
"Javelin Shield Penetrator." Fox told him. "They work well." Jack watched from the moving tram as another of the Airwings fired a Javelin. It separated almost immediately into six smaller missiles.
"Fox! Turn and run, now!" Jack yelled.
"What?" Fox said. "We're almost there."
"The missiles can track you too, turn and run!" Jack yelled again. Fox watched as three of the smaller missiles banked away from the cluster and started turning toward them. He quickly looked around for a way to evade the rogue weapons.
"Fara, Falco, follow me into the canyon below, we need to lose those missiles." He told the others. The trio turned and dropped into the canyon as the missiles roared overhead, one crashing into the ground as it tried to follow. The explosion showered debris onto the tracks running along the canyon floor just ahead of Jack, forcing him to slow the tram. The two remaining missiles tracked Fox and the others through the canyon.
"Which missile was destroyed?" Fara asked.
"I don't know, I didn't see who it was tracking." Falco said.
"It was Fara's." Fox told them. "She was right along the top of the canyon when the missile turned and crashed."
"You sure?" Falco said.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Fara, I need you to pull out of the canyon, try to get behind the missiles, and shoot them down. Falco and I can't outrun them for much longer, we're running out of canyon."
"I'm on it." Fara said as she pulled up and out of the canyon, the two missiles stayed on their targets. She looped around and dropped in behind the missiles firing her lasers wildly hoping the tiny targets would cross into her line of fire. Her laser struck one of the missiles near the edge of the canyon, she couldn't avoid the explosion as her ship was pelted with debris as the shock wave tossed it into the canyon wall. She spiraled toward the floor of the canyon, trying to bring the ship's nose up to avoid plunging directly into the ground. Her ship smashed into the canyon floor, bouncing several times and tossing twisted pieces in all directions before sliding to a halt in a crumpled heap. Bits of rock from the canyon wall rained down around the wreck.
"Fara! Fara!" Fox yelled. "Say something!" There was no response.
"Fox there's still one more missile." Falco said. The two remaining Airwings pulled out of the canyon and flew along the ground in opposite directions. The pursuing missile followed Falco and Fox moved in behind to shoot it down. As he approached they began taking fire from the compound's defense towers. The laser blasts hit the ground all around them, flashing and kicking up dust with each impact. Fox managed to destroy the missile chasing Falco and immediately turned toward the compound, he fired his remaining Javelin and banked away as the missile separated. The smaller missiles picked out several of the turrets on the compound and destroyed them, making it easy for Falco to hit the sensor array.
"Jack, Fara is down in the canyon somewhere." Fox said.
"I saw one of the Airwings go down." He responded. "I should be at the crash in a moment. Did you hit the compound?"
"Yes." Fox said. "I wanted to make sure Fara is alright before we hit it again."
"Don't wait, hit them now before they get more drones in the air." Jack told him. "Whatever happened to Fara isn't going to change if you attack that compound. I'll let you know her status as soon as I get there." Fox didn't respond as he and Falco charged toward the compound, hitting the remaining turrets and power generating structures. The exterior lighting flickered off as they circled the structure, Jack spoke over the com.
"Fox, good news, Fara is alive." He said. "She's out cold and has a few cuts on her head from bouncing around in the cockpit. The hull of the ship buckled on impact and it's got her pinned inside the wreck, I need some time to get her out. She's breathing and I've got her hooked up to an oxygen mask, her helmet was damaged and can't keep the dust out. Thankfully, the dust isn't as bad down here in the canyon, I doubt her time spent without a mask did any damage to her lungs. I don't see any obvious injuries but I'll check her out as soon as I get her into the tram."
"Thank you Jack." Fox said. "I'll be down there as soon as we down the last of these drones, they just keep coming."
"The power is offline at the compound right?" Jack asked.
"Yes. I can't see any lights on and the turrets stopped firing." Fox told him.
"The drones should have gone offline as soon as the power went out."
"So the controller isn't in the compound?"
"Looks that way, you said they keep coming. Where are they coming from?"
"Somewhere north of the compound, they come at us in small groups of ten or so."
"Something's wrong, that compound is the only structure on this side of the planet. I need to get in there and find out what's going on. Once I get Fara out of the wreck she needs to stay in the tram until we get to the compound, it's sealed against the dust and we can lift her out with one of the shuttles once we're inside. I don't want you to try and land down here with all those drones still flying around, the last thing we need is a group of them coming down here. We should be at the compound in a few minutes, you won't have to cover us much longer."
"We're doing just fine." Falco interrupted. "It's not like these things are a challenge. I'm getting bored."
"But there are alot of them." Fox said. "They are coming in from different directions now and in larger groups."
"Do what you need to. I'll have Fara out in a minute and we'll be on our way." Jack said. Fox and Falco continued to fight the waves of drones as Jack continued cutting away at the Airwing with a torch he had found in the tram's tool crate. Once Fara was free, he put her on a collapsible backboard and carried her over to the tram. Jack laid the backboard with Fara strapped to it across one of the bench seats, restarted the tram, then began looking for the tram's emergency medkit. Once he found the kit he began to examine Fara for any serious injuries.
Fara woke up in a haze, her head throbbing and the gentle thump of the tram going over the gaps in the track rumbled like thunder in her head. As her vision started to clear she could see Jack standing over her, holding some kind of small silver box that flickered with an alternating green and red laser, he was looking at something on the box and hadn't seen she was awake. Jack had put one hand on Fara's chest and was scanning her lower torso with the device in his other hand, Fara had seen enough.
"What do you think you're doing?" Fara yelled at Jack as she smacked the device out of his hand, it fell off to the side and slid across the floor of the tram. She curled up her leg and kicked Jack in the chest as hard as she could, knocking him off balance and onto the floor. Fara tried to get to her feet as the backboard she was laying on slipped off the bench and fell to the floor taking her with it. She landed sitting upright and facing Jack, who had gotten to his feet and was walking toward her. Fara looked around for some kind of weapon, when she couldn't find one she looked back toward Jack who held out his hand.
"Good to see you're awake, we're almost there." He said.
"What were you doing to me?" Fara asked as she pushed Jack's hand away.
"Scanning for internal injuries. You took quite a dive there. I wanted to make sure you were alright before we got to the compound and into a possible combat situation."
"So you're a doctor too?" Fara asked sarcastically.
"No." Jack responded. "But knowing how your species is put together makes it easier to take you apart when necessary. For instance, Cornerians lack a rib cage, in it's place are a set of overlapping bone plates held together with tissue. It does the job of protecting the lungs and heart from punctures but it shatters under blunt force and the lose bone slivers can cause all sorts of problems internally. That was my concern with you, I was checking for internal injuries."
"Oh." Fara said as she pulled down her shirt. "You could have told me that."
"You foot wasn't listening."
"I'm not hurt." Fara said. She stumbled backward and sat down on the bench. "My leg, I can barely walk."
"It was pinned in the wreck of your ship. I had to cut away part of the console to get you out. I don't doubt you've got a bone bruised or cracked." Jack walked over and picked up the metal box Fara had knocked out of his hand. He looked at the screen and began punching buttons.
"Well, which is it?"
"I didn't get that far, these low power portable scanners can't get a decent reading through clothing. Good news is what I did scan is ok, you don't have any internal injuries that I could see."
"You've seen all you're going to. So you should find some better equipment."
"It's not something I enjoy." Jack said with a smile. "Your species isn't what I would consider aesthetically pleasing."
"Same goes for you." Fara said. She looked down at her leg and tried to stand again, she winced and sat back down.
"We're here." Jack said, looking at Fara's leg. "I need you to stay low and wait until I get back. Once I see what's going on here, we can leave."
"I'm not staying here by myself unarmed." Fara said. "Give me a weapon or something I can use for self defense."
"No." Jack said as he looked forward. The tram was approaching an energy barrier that kept the dust out of the compound. The warehouse on the other side was dark and seemingly empty.
"Why not? That's ridiculous." Fara said defiantly.
"You don't like me and don't trust me. Giving you a weapon is asking to get shot in the back. I need you to trust me enough to do what I tell you when I tell you and not argue about it. Something I don't think you're able to do."
"I want to get out of here. I don't trust you but I don't dislike you and I will do what you ask. But I won't do something I morally disagree with. Besides, do you really want to tell Fox something happened to me and you didn't leave me a way to defend myself?." Jack thought a moment as Fara spoke, he reached behind his back and pulled out a small pistol.
"This is a Mark VII coil pistol, it carries 750 rounds in the grip here and can be set to fire at different velocities using the dial in front of the trigger guard, a faster moving projectile will penetrate armor and shields but can go through unarmored targets. It's set in the middle for now, if you need to shoot and it's not getting through, just turn the dial to the right. These lights at the back of the gun will go from green to red when you fire shots in rapid succession. If they all go red the gun overheats, these buttons on either side pop out, and the power cell under the barrel moves forward and disconnects from the weapon, disabling it. You have to wait until the lights go back to green, then push in the buttons and slide the power cell back into place. The higher you set the projectile velocity, the faster the weapon overheats. Make sure you know what you're shooting at, this weapon is lethal up to 2500 meters and can penetrate all but the best personal shields and armor."
"That's more like it." Fara said looking at the weapon.
"Fox, we're almost in the compound. No sign of hostiles. How are things up there?" Jack waited for a response, Fox didn't answer. He tried again before trying to raise Falco and again received no response. The tram had passed into the warehouse under the compound and stopped just short of the end of the track. The instant it stopped the tram was rocked by a explosion that shattered the windows and tossed Jack and Fara to the floor. Jack got to his knees and peered over the shattered window frame into the warehouse. Half a dozen green lights were bobbing in the darkness. He crouched down and crawled over to Fara, who was clutching her leg and covered in broken glass..
"There's a bunch of walker drones to our right, one of them must have fired a rocket. Are you alright?"
"I landed on my leg when I fell, it hurts worse now." Fara told him.
"Can you get up?"
"I can't even move it."
"Hold still." Jack went over to the med kit and pulled out a syringe. He went back to Fara and before she could stop him he plunged the needle into her leg. She loosened her grip as the pain slowly faded.
"What did you do?" Fara asked.
"It's a numbing agent." Jack said, feeling the bones on her leg. "I don't think it's broken. You can walk on it, at least until the chemical wears off, just be careful. When it does wear off your leg will really hurt, you've got about half an hour."
"So what now?"
"Open the door on the left side, we go out that way and you cross the tracks behind the tram. Then we take them out, just aim for the green lights and turn the dial on the gun all the way to the right. Ready?"
"I'm going first?"
"Yes, the drones are programmed to fire at human forms. You're not human, so they won't see you as a threat until you attack. They communicate with eachother, once you hit one, the rest will turn on you. I need you to find the one with the rocket launcher and take it out first, once it's down we can pick off the others."
"I don't even know what I'm looking for." Fara yelled at Jack.
"Here, put this over one eye and look toward the drones." Fara did as Jack asked and looked into the darkness. As her eye adjusted she could see the bobbing green lights and the outlines of what looked like walking robots, the room was full of them, one was carrying a large object..
"There's one carrying something, it looks like a big tube."
"That's the one. Are there anymore like that?"
"Not that I can see."
"Ok, I'm going on you. Get into position and take the shot when you're ready. When they turn to fire on you, I'll take out as many as I can. Just stay down until the shooting stops." Fara moved into position, the numbing agent Jack had given her didn't completely dampen the pain and she moved slowly with a limp. She reached the crate and leaned over the top to take the shot. She heard a metallic whirring just off to her side, one of the drones was right there. The machine raised it's weapon and started to turn just as it's head exploded.
"Fara! Rocket!" Jack yelled as the drones turned and began firing on the tram car. Fara found the drone, took aim, and fired hitting it squarely in the head. The drone fired at the tram as it's head exploded in a shower of metal and sparks. The rocket hit the tram interior and exploded scattering bits of metal and plastic in every direction. The drones had turned their attention to Fara and began walking toward her, there were more in the room than she had though. She frantically tried to destroy as many as she could as they crept closer, their laser fire never letting up. Fara could see flashes off to her left, it was Jack trying to draw the drones toward him. Fara took the opportunity to take out the last of the distracted drones, she then crossed the room to see if Jack was ok.
"I didn't see you after the rocket hit the tram." She said walking over to the battered container where Jack was sitting, picking bits of metal and glass out of his leg.
"I managed to get out before it hit." Jack said, getting to his feet. "The explosion knocked this container against the wall and tossed me over in the corner, sorry I couldn't get up fast enough to cover you. Seems like you handled yourself well. You're a pretty good shot with that pistol."
"Thank you." Fara said with a smile. "What's next?"
"We get out of here, this whole operation was a trap. There aren't any miners, so we're done." Jack told her. "There should be an emergency shuttle around here somewhere, it's probably on one of the upper levels."
"What about Fox and Falco?"
"I can't reach the Prospect either, my guess is this structure is shielded and our signal can't get out, or the communications relay on the Prospect is offline. We can try again once we get outside." Jack and Fara made their way to the compound's upper levels and found the escape shuttle, a small craft similar to the one Fox had seen in the Prospect's hangar. Jack prepped the ship for takeoff but with the power out all over the compound the hangar doors would not open, he stepped out of the shuttle and over to a dimly lit panel on the back wall. After a moment the lights in the hangar flickered on and the doors slowly opened. Jack climbed back into the shuttle and sat down in the pilot's seat next to Fara.
"What did you do?" Fara asked as the doors stopped about halfway open.
"Rerouted emergency power from the energy shields that keep the dust out to this room. Let's get out of here."
"I think that shot you gave me is starting to wear off. You were right, it's really starting to hurt."
"When we get back to the Prospect I'll show you how to use the medical equipment to check yourself out. Since you won't let me do it." Jack said with a slight smile.
"You're right, I won't." Fara said defiantly, as she spoke a group of mining drones flew past the partially open hangar doors.
"That isn't good." Jack said.