Hell divers x fallout, p.38
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 38
Layla checked Victor’s vitals. His heart rate was faint, and his oxygen level was down. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Hi,” Bray mumbled. He reached out and waved.
Victor cracked open an eyelid. He managed a smile when he saw the child.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you,” Layla said.
Victor tried to sit up but grimaced and reached down to the bandage around his waist.
“Take it easy,” she said with a warm smile.
“Hi,” Bray said again.
Victor reached up to meet Bray’s tiny fingers.
“How are you feeling?” Layla asked.
“I’m okay,” Victor said. “How . . . how is the ship?”
“We’re still figuring that out, but it seems we’re going to have to put down for parts sooner rather than later.”
“I feared this.”
“I know, but don’t worry. Do you need anything?”
Victor shook his head.
“Okay, get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll be back later.”
Victor rested his head back on the pillow and waved at Bray.
She left the sickbay with her son and turned off the lights before heading to her next stop: the farm. The hatch creaked open to the long space. The grow lights blasted the room with a brilliant glow.
“’Nana,” Bray said, pointing over her shoulder at the crops growing across the space.
“No banana, but plenty of other fruit. Like a strawberry?”
Bray chirped—a sound that always made her smile. He was like a little monkey, the way he clung to her and loved fruit.
She walked out for a better view of the crops. It was plenty of food for the small crew, but it wouldn’t survive without water. Neither would they.
Layla went down several levels until she got to an open hatch. Clanking and voices sounded inside. She stepped into the entrance, feeling a draft of heat that made her back up.
“Michael?” she called.
“Yeah, in here,” he replied.
She stayed outside the hatch, looking at the machinery that Michael knew better than anyone. He emerged, covered in grease, from behind a boiler unit. Steve walked out after him, carrying a toolbox.
They followed Layla into the corridor, where both men took off their breathing masks.
“Damn, it’s a furnace in there!” Michael said.
“Sorry to disturb you at work, but Timothy has an update,” she said.
The AI flickered to life in front of them.
“We have to get the water-treatment plant on,” Michael said. “It’s the only way we and our food supply survive.”
“So where do we get the supplies we need?” Steve asked.
“We could go to Rio, but that’s too predictable,” Michael said. “If Pedro is alive and they force him to talk, he’ll likely tell Charmer that’s where we might go.”
“Yeah, but will Charmer send people to find us there? I highly doubt that.”
“We can’t take that risk,” Layla said.
“I quite agree,” Michael said.
“Okay, then, where should we go?” Steve asked.
“If I may, I think the question is, where can we go?” Timothy said. “The current status of our ship makes journeying to most places a difficult and perilous undertaking.”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Michael asked.
Timothy’s hologram paced a few steps in front of them, blinking as he searched some archive or database. Layla could tell, when he stopped and massaged his beard, that even the AI was nervous about their options.
“Outpost Gateway should have everything we need,” Timothy said. “However, the last message received spoke of an attack. I fear that something terrible has happened there.”
THIRTY
King Xavier pulled himself up onto the dock, feeling as if he might cough up a lung. Gunfire ripped over the piers and sparked off decks and rig pillars. He took a moment to catch his breath. He had nearly drowned after their assault raft capsized. Fortunately, most of his team had made it to the docks after the initial attack from the Wave Runners.
He searched for Magnolia and the Hell Divers but didn’t see them anywhere on the piers. A bullet whizzed past his head as he searched the moonlit ocean surface. Idle Jet Skis bobbed in the water, their riders draped over the handlebars or missing altogether.
About fifty feet out, he spotted swimmers. Edgar, Magnolia, Tia, Sofia, and three of the six Cazadores from their raft were floundering to stay afloat. From what he could tell, they had shucked off at least some of their armor—enough for them to thrash their way to the dock.
“We have to get off these piers!” Slayer yelled.
He and Blackburn crouched down with shields to protect X as bullets slammed into the dock.
X turned toward the hostile gunfire. The rest of his teams had taken cover behind boat hulls and stacks of supplies. General Forge and his men were farther up the docks, closer to the entrance to the capitol tower. Some were even inside boats, firing from concealment at the tower’s defenders.
It was clear now that Gran Jefe had failed to get his cousin to stand down. There was a civil war going on between the two different Cazador factions: the insurgents, led by Jamal, and the loyalists, under General Forge.
So far, things weren’t going to plan, but in war things rarely did. For the first time, X feared that they might somehow lose this battle, especially now, having lost the element of surprise. He also feared that if the enemy had Michael captive, they would try to use him as a bartering tool. If Tin was still alive, X had to find him.
First, though, they had to get into the tower. At the other end of the docks, five hundred feet away, he saw the main double doors leading into the rig. Two defenders lay beside the doors, both riddled with arrows from Forge’s soldiers.
Another hundred feet off to the right was a smaller door that led into the enclosed marina, where he had once stored his boat and the Sea Wolf. That door was sealed off now.
X looked up for the elevator cage. It was halfway up the tower and carrying the last of the dock’s defenders, who had abandoned the area. The rest lay bleeding on the dock or had already sunk beneath the waves.
The biggest rooftop defenses seemed to be idle now, thanks to the Frog’s naval artillery. But X had already told Captain Two Skulls to forbid them from shooting into windows or balconies. They could take out snipers there, but only if they could keep their projectiles outside the dwellings. It was too dangerous with civilians inside.
Due to their low numbers, X and his forces had to move across the piers and inside without much covering fire. The Hell Divers and surviving Cazadores from their raft joined him on the dock.
“Lay down covering fire from this position,” X said. “Barracudas, on me!”
Slayer and Blackburn ran with X, holding their shields out front. Gran Jefe moved up with them, jerking slightly when an arrow hit his shoulder plate. He used his axe to break the shaft off. He laughed but did drop down into a crouch-run as he advanced, still the biggest target in this battle.
Muzzle flashes came from multiple windows and balconies on the rig above them—shadowy figures taking potshots. One took return fire and fell over the rail, plummeting twenty floors before splattering into nothing more than viscera and gore on a dock piling.
As X advanced, more of his forces moved out from cover to join him, forming an armored phalanx moving up the center pier.
An arrow struck the deck in front of X; then a second streaked between his legs.
“Sir, get to cover!” Forge shouted from behind a stack of crates up ahead, waving.
X glared up at the cascading balconies on the rig.
“Can you hear me, Rolo?” X shouted. “I’m coming for your scalp, you conniving old fuck!”
X kept moving, searching for a way into the tower. The soldier to his right fell with a sniper bullet through his head.
“Take that shooter out!” X yelled.
Several Cazadores stopped and fired as X pushed ahead with the Barracudas and General Forge. Bullets pounded the side of the building, the balcony, and, finally, the sniper, whose lifeless body slumped down against the metal railing.
Gunfire exploded from several windows about ten floors up.
More allied warriors fell around X as they bolted for cover. He slid down behind the crates with Forge about two hundred feet from the main doors.
Glancing over his shoulder, X saw Magnolia and the other divers behind him, working their way up the dock. None of them had a chest rig on.
“Stay back!” X yelled.
Forge pulled on him to get down. “Sir, we have to take out those other snipers,” he said.
X sneaked a glance at the tenth floor. A shot immediately forced him back down. They were pinned here.
“Two Skulls,” he said into his comm. “Lob one to the tenth floor—we got snipers. But make sure that shell is accurate, got it? We can’t afford a short round.”
“Copy,” came the reply.
X kept down, breathing heavily, hoping this wasn’t a mistake. He had little time to question his decision.
The gun muzzle on the Frog’s foredeck flashed, a shell screamed overhead, and the tenth and eleventh floors of the tower vanished in a massive explosion. Fire belched out the side of the impact area.
X stood up and watched the billowing smoke. No enemy fired at him. His ears were still ringing when an idea seeded in his mind.
“Two Skulls,” X said over the command channel, “I need you to blow the doors at the bottom of the tower. Use the same gunner. He’s good.”
“Stand by.”
“Everyone, down!” X shouted. The soldiers and Hell Divers took cover wherever they could find it on the open terrain of the dock.
While waiting, he bumped on a different channel to the Osprey. He reached Ensign Tiger, handpicked by Captain Two Skulls to command the vessel.
“What’s your status?” X asked.
“Light resistance,” Tiger replied. “Our soldiers have boarded the rig and are securing the decks. We captured a militia soldier who says Rolo and Charmer are at the capitol tower, over.”
A flash came from one of the cannons on the deck of the Frog.
“Incoming!” Forge yelled.
The projectile screamed over the docks. The blast came behind X before he could turn.
When he did, both doors were gone, blasted inward, the two defenders outside blown to nothing.
“On me!” X shouted. He wasn’t sure how loud he was due to the worsening ringing in his ears, but apparently, he was loud enough. Forge, Slayer, Blackburn, Gran Jefe, and a squad of Cazador soldiers ran up with him toward the cloud of smoke.
X walked right in. If anyone had been behind the doors, they were no longer a threat. The door to the interior stairwell was open, and X cleared the first flight and landing. It had been abandoned, but they would meet defenders as they advanced.
Alarmed shouts came from the dock below.
X moved back down through the still-dissipating smoke and looked out the blasted doors. Half his forces were running back down the dock and firing at incoming targets.
“Son of a bitch,” X whispered when he heard the whine of the approaching Jet Skis. Either Jamal was still alive, or he still had more troops.
Three war boats raced toward the Frog, firing mounted machine guns at the small warship. A shoulder-fired rocket streaked away from one of the war boats and slammed into the hull of the ship in a brilliant blast. The armor could withstand plenty of machine-gun fire, but those rockets could do real damage to the superstructure.
Gran Jefe emerged from the smoky stairwell, sword and axe in hand. It seemed that since he couldn’t recruit his cousin, he would deal with him in a different way.
Magnolia and the Hell Divers piled into the stairwell.
Someone pulled X back into the fire-gutted interior. He looked around him at the chaos of confused soldiers. General Forge was directing some of them down a corridor. Tia and Sofia joined Magnolia and Edgar at an open door on the next landing up.
“We have to split up,” X said to the remaining Barracudas huddled around him. “Forge, take four men up the stairwell at the other end of this passage. Hell Divers and the rest of the Barracudas, with me.”
Forge nodded, but as he moved away, X said, “Rolo and Charmer are mine. You find them, I want them alive.”
“Understood, sir.”
“And look for Michael and his family. No indiscriminate firing.”
“Yes, sir.”
Slayer raised his shield and started up the stairs, toward sounds of distant shouting and panicked voices.
“Expect an ambush,” X said.
He remained right behind Slayer, with Magnolia trying to push up between them, but the narrow stairway really allowed only one fighter up at a time.
“Mags, keep back,” X said.
She flattened herself against the wall to let Blackburn up with his shield.
They reached the next landing to find the door locked. Slayer kept going, up the next flight, while a team moved in to clear the floor below.
He checked his HUD—only fifteen minutes had passed since the battle started. Still, it was time enough for Rolo to escape.
But there was nowhere the bastard could run that X wouldn’t find him.
At the third landing, Slayer raised his shield to deflect a hurled spear.
“Kill ’em all!” someone shouted.
Gunfire rose over the voice.
Slayer fell back, knocking X into the person behind him. He tried to get free, but his rifle was pinned between his chest and Slayer.
Letting go of the stock, X pulled his blaster from its thigh holster. He raised it up over Slayer at a militia guard who was leveling a machine gun at them. There was no time to hesitate. X didn’t.
A dozen buckshot pellets slammed into the man’s chest, and he slumped over on the stairs. Another militia soldier jumped down onto the landing, firing as Slayer raised his shield into the blast.
X fired the second buckshot round into the soldier’s knee. He screamed in agony, reaching up as Slayer thrust his spear. The blade pinned the outstretched hand to the soldier’s chest as it impaled him. Bracing a boot against the dead man’s ribs, Slayer jerked the shaft free, then continued up the stairs holding the bullet-riddled shield.
As he pushed up the stairs, X looked down at the two dead men. He hadn’t asked for this and didn’t want it, but these people had made their decision.
X strained to hear past the ringing in his ears. The gunfire faded away, and Slayer called “Clear!” around the next corner.
They kept going, tracking bloody prints and drips up to the fourth floor, then the fifth. The door to a corridor was open. Frightened civilians looked out their doors, some ducking away when Slayer shouted, “Where is Rolo?”
“Gone!” someone yelled back.
“Keep climbing,” X said.
The team advanced up the stairs to the sixth floor, to the sound of more voices, all in English.
X moved around the corner with Slayer and Blackburn, both with shields up. No arrows, spears, or bullets came at them.
Through a gap in the shields, X saw more civilians: women, a few children, and two unarmed male sky people of advanced years.
“Where is Rolo?” X shouted.
A familiar voice came from the landing above. X whirled to find Imulah standing on the stairs, gripping his stomach.
“King Xavier . . .” he rasped.
X caught the old scribe as he fell. “Get me a medic!” he yelled over his shoulder.
He gently put the man down on the deck while soldiers rushed up to establish security. He examined Imulah to find blood welling out from between his fingers.
“Who did this?” X asked.
“Charm . . . Charmer did.”
“Where’s Michael?”
“He . . .”
Magnolia squatted down beside them and put a hand on Imulah’s shoulder. His eyes flitted up toward her.
“Stay with me,” X said. “Where is Michael?”
“Gone.”
X felt his heart shatter in his chest.
“What . . . what happened?” he stammered.
“He escaped with his family in the airship,” Imulah rasped.
X’s broken heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he couldn’t believe what he had heard. Time seemed to stand still around him. He opened his mouth like a fish out of water, trying to get air. Then he looked at Magnolia. She nodded at him, as if to confirm what they had heard was real.
“Michael and his family are alive?” X asked just to be sure.
“Yes. But how are you . . . alive?” Imulah whispered.
“Call it shithouse luck,” X said. “Where’s Rolo?”
“Rooftop . . . with guards.”
“You’re going to be okay,” Magnolia said. “Just keep pressure on your wound.”
“Imulah,” Sofia said. She pushed closer as the knot of warriors moved up the stairs. “Where is my son?”
“Jamal took him, but he is here,” Imulah said. “In the tower.”
“Where?”
“I don’t . . . I don’t know.”
“We’ll find him,” X said.
He tried to rise, but Imulah grabbed his wrist. “You are the Immortal,” said the scribe. “Kill Rolo. Save the islands.”
“I have to find my son,” Sofia said.
Magnolia said, “I’ll go with you.”
“Edgar, Tia, go with them,” X said. “And take two of Forge’s men.”
