Enemy Lines Ch. 09

"So who exactly are you working for then? The way you talk about the rebellion makes me think you're not with them, but you're obviously not with the Conglomerate either." Nate questioned.

"Let's just say I'm a free agent. I used to be with the rebels. You could say I was a founding member. Back when it was about liberating the galaxy, and the "High Commander" still put people before ideology. Now it's not about freedom anymore, it's about power and revenge. That's not really my style." Leta sounded bitter.

"The rebels I kno- knew didn't seem like that..." Nate responded.

"That's because your friend Thoros thought he could stay and fix the movement from within. And look what that got him: hidden away on this backwater hellhole where he couldn't cause trouble." Leta snorted. "He was the exception, not the rule. You wanna know what the rebellion has become? Look at the Marshall Sisters. Fanatical psychopaths who would rather punish Humanity than make things better for Xenos."

"Yeah, I ran into one of them. Very intense..." Nate muttered.

"That's one way to put it." He could practically hear her eyes rolling.

"Do you know where Ketri is? Or am I going to be searching the entire base?"

"All prisoners should be chipped to track their movements. Don't worry, I already deactivated yours. However the system is run over the base intranet and isolated from external systems. You'll need to find a security checkpoint and patch me in directly so I can find her."

"Gotcha. How long until I drop?"

"About 30 seconds. Get ready."

The hatch under him hissed and swung open, leaving him hanging in the clamps. He could see the desert hurtling by below, too fast to make out. The shuttle was starting to slow down as it came out of a dive, and Nate could now make out the facility below. He could see the battle raging, walls and buildings blasted apart by artillery fire interspersed with bursts of tracers exchanged between groups of infantry.

There was a grinding noise, and the clamps lowered Nate until he was hanging beneath the belly of the shuttle.

"Alright, dropping in t-minus 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Disengage!"

As Leta finished the countdown, Nate felt the clamps release, and suddenly he was in freefall. He had done this in lighter armor before, and immediately spread his limbs to slow his descent and orientate himself correctly. Once the suit informed him that he had reached PoNR, he deployed the jump "jets" (actually small cannae thrusters) and fired them. Someone on the ground had noticed him, and suddenly the air was alive with tracers. Casting a glance upward, he saw the shuttle take a series of hits and break apart.

Using the jump jets to maneuver, he soared past bursts of tracers and flak, buffeted by the explosions.

"You still there?" Leta's voice piped.

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm highlighting a landing zone on your augreal gear. Should put you fairly close to a security station. Make sure you've slowed down, even all that armor won't save you from gravity."

Nate saw a large target appear in his vision, centered on the roof of one of the blocs. He aimed for it, firing his jets in bursts to slow his descent. He kept an eye on the velocity meter, slowly inching the needle out of the red without slowing down too much and making himself a target.

As his velocity decreased, he found himself with less and less control over his descent. A stray tracer struck him on the right shoulder, not penetrating but sending him spinning off course. Struggling not to panic, he managed to correct his angle of attack, but he had missed the landing zone and it was too late to make it.

"LZ is a no-go!" He shouted into his throat mic "I'm going to have to land in that staging area!"

"Alright, I'll guide you from there. Might want to deploy your mouthguard."

Nate prodded a switch inside the mask with his tongue, and opened his mouth to allow the rubber insert to slide between his teeth. He clamped down on it, and mentally steeled himself for impact.

He struck the ground with incredible force, feeling the pavement fracture beneath him as the suit automatically buckled his knees to absorb the impact. Rising to his full height, he spat out the mouthguard and deployed his weapons. The staging area was largely empty, except for a group of Mercs in light armor crouched behind a parked APC. They raised their weapons, and Nate was momentarily frozen, unsure what to do.

The rebels answered the question for him, a group of them rounding a corner behind him.

"Well, here goes my cover..." He muttered to himself as he leveled the 20mm and opened fire on the Mercs.

A couple managed to get behind the vehicle, but the rest were too late, their armor shattered and punctured by his fire. The rebels joined in, providing suppressing fire to keep the remaining Mercs down while Nate deployed his missile hive and fired two shells in top-attack mode. They soared up, then pivoted and slammed down behind the APC, kicking up a cloud of dust and bits of Merc as they exploded.

Turning, he found the rebels cautiously aiming their weapons at him.

"You! Overlord! Who do you fight for?" One of them, a smallish Kodo, barked.

Nate opened his helmet and lowered his cannon slightly.

"I fight for Captain Thoros."

"Captain Thoros is dead." The Kodo said suspiciously.

"I know. I buried him. I'm carrying out his final orders. If you don't get in my way, then I'm with you."

The Kodo nodded slowly.

"Very well. May the High Commander's Will be with you." He pronounced.

Nate nodded, and sealed his helmet.

"Well, now you've blown your cover this is going to get a bit dicey." Leta chirped in his ear. "Follow the route on your augreal. The Conglomerate system doubtless has you tagged as hostile now, so don't hesitate to eliminate any of them that cross your path."

Nate proceeded, deploying his jump jets and leaping to the top of the nearest block. He took off, headed towards the marker Leta had placed on his augreal HUD, leaping from block to block. He soared over a parapet and landed with a heavy thud in the midst of a group of Mercs manning a heavy machinegun. He grabbed one and slammed him into the ground, planting his boot on the man's chest and leveling his cannon at the others. Managing the cannon with one hand, he mowed down four of them, drawing his sword and laying into a fifth.

As the smoke cleared, he saw two other Overlords land on the block roof across from him. Releasing the cannon and letting it collapse to his hip, he lunged forward on his jump jets, slamming his shoulder into the right-hand one to send him stumbling, and laying the other open from sternum to groin with the cutlass. Kicking the wounded man off the edge of the roof, he turned to the one he had shoved only to find his blade blocked by another.

Sparks flew as their flats collided with an unholy, gutwrenching shriek. Their swords glanced off eachother, sending both men stumbling back. The other lunged at Nate, thrusting with his shortsword. Nate was only just able to slap it aside, producing another shower of sparks. Before the other could recover his guard, Nate slashed him across the chest once, and then again. While the other was still staggering, Nate ran him through the solar plexis.

Wrenching the blade free, he kicked the second ruined Overlord over the edge, just in time to avoid the explosion as the ruptured microreactor backfired.

"Nicely done." Leta chuckled. "You're doing pretty damn well for a first time Overlord jock."

"That was sloppy." Nate growled, sheathing his cutlass and deploying the cannon. "I almost died twice there."

"Key word being "almost", now keep moving. That's the admin block up ahead, just bust through the wall over there and find the nearest computer terminal."

Nate hopped off the roof of the block and ran for the admin building, skidding to a halt a comfortable distance from the wall and deploying the micro casaba howitzer. He placed the reticle on the section of wall and armed the first missile.

"Well, bombs away." He muttered to himself, and fired the weapon.

The missile was flung from the tube and ignited, hurtling towards the wall before exploding in a brilliant burst of light about halfway to the target. Erupting from the center of the blast was a massive gleaming lance of fire and charged particles that burned a hole deep into the side of the building.

"Ho-ley shit..." Nate whistled, contemplating the destruction.

"Nuclear shaped charge is a hell of a way to make an entrance." Leta chirped in his ear.

"Maybe I want them to know I'm not fucking around." He growled, stepping through the still-smouldering hole and bringing his cannon to bear.

He picked his way through fires and collapsed walls until he found a relatively undamaged section with a computer terminal.

"There you go."

"On it, give me just a second... shit, it looks like she's right here in this complex. Couple floors up on the other side, but still..."

"Why?" Nate asked, warily.

"Interrogation, maybe?"

"Or a trap."

"No, there's no way. No way they had time to figure out where you were going in time to set you up. Occam's Razor says interrogation or some other routine thing."

"If "interrogation" means what I think it means then I don't have any time to waste. Mark it on my map."

Nate ran towards the blip as soon as it appeared on his HUD. By now the defenders had had time to react to the casaba shot he'd put through the building and were responding. He gunned down three mercs as they rounded a corner, and fired a 40mm frag missile where they'd come from just to be sure.

Jogging down a hallway, he was forced to duck as a hail of heavy gunfire shredded the walls around him. Great, another Overlord. Switching to thermal snoopers, he located the suit along with a small group of infantry in the next corridor over. The driver had spotted him on his own thermals and engaged him through the wall.

Firing a burst of cannon fire in return, Nate moved to round the corner and close the distance. He skidded around the bend and released a hail of missiles, but the other overlord had had the same idea and the explosion sent Nate staggering through a wall. He had barely regained his senses before a freq blade stabbed at him out of the cloud of dust and rubble, just barely missing his head. Nate managed to beat the blade away with his cannon, and kicked the other overlord in the chest, sending him toppling back into a desk. Nate raised the cannon to let him have it, but his would-be-victim's sword had cut a nasty gash in the side of the gun and it refused to fire.

Cursing, he let go of the cannon and pounced on the other man before he could get up. Like massive hammers, Nate slammed his fists into the prostrated merc's helmet again and again, shattering snooper lenses and cracking ceramic plating until the thing collapsed beneath a massive right hook, blood leaking from the ruptured titanium.

Hauling himself to his feet, Nate reached back and yanked the quick-release handle for his ammunition drum, allowing it to fall off his back and shedding the cannon and its articulating arm. They would only get in the way. He drew his sword instead, stopping to grab a railgun from one of the dead infantry with his other hand.

Wielding the assault rifle like an oversized pistol, he hacked and shot his way deeper into the building. Empting the magazine into an unfortunate merc in light armor, he tossed it aside and walked over to the elevator shaft he had located. With the strength of the suit, he kicked the doors in, then sheathed his sword and began to scale the empty shaft. Using a combination of his jump jets and good timing, he emerged on the floor where Ketri's signal was coming from.

He was frantic now, his mind racing with thoughts of all the horrible things they might have done to his Ketri, repressed for so long during his escape but now overwhelming him as he reached the final stretch. Just one more hallway, then a pair of double doors. Thrusting his left shoulder forward, he hurled himself through them and slid to a halt on the other side, panting.

He was in a large room, two stories high with a balcony and massive bay windows looking out over the desert across from him. It must have been a conference or situation room, but all the tables had been pushed to the sides. There was only a single chair in the middle of the room, with the forlorn, orange-jumpsuited figure of Ketri bound to it.

"Ketri!" He yelled, running towards her only to see terror in her eyes as he approached.

"It's me, it's Nate, see?!" He panted, slapping the side of his helmet to open the visor and faceplate.

But Ketri only appeared more afraid, staring urgently past Nate's shoulder. He pivoted to look, just in time to see a massive figure in black armor leap off the balcony and land on his feet with an earthshaking thud. Rising to his full height, the armor towered over both of them, hissing quietly as the faceplate swiveled down to reveal a familiar, sickly-white face.

"Well, well, well, it's been a long time." The Arbiter chuckled menacingly, crossing his arms across his enormous armored chest.

"Really? I could have sworn it was just a few hours." Nate growled, shielding Ketri with his body and drawing Thoros's cutlass.

"Not you, you irrelevant nincompoop." The cyborg snorted. "Leta, or whatever other assumed name she goes by these days."

"Aw shit." The alien girl muttered, appearing as her augreal avatar between them.

"I can't believe I fell for this." She said on a public channel, glowering at the Arbiter.

"Neither can I, to be honest." The cyborg smirked. "But what can I say, the opportunity just fell into my lap."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway, I'm hiding behind seven location screens so all you can do is insult me to his face." Leta jerked her thumb at Nate.

"Which would indeed be frustrating, but your choice of pawn betrays you. This guy is second-rate Spaceborne Infantry, an expendable grunt, the definition of cannon fodder. No way he knows how to hack a security system, much less fly a shuttle. He barely knows how to move in that stolen armor he's wearing. Which means you needed to be close enough to do all of that in real-time. Q.e.d., you're drifting next to some ansible beacon within a known range. You could spin up your Alcubierre drive and try to escape, but we both know that will just help my men find you faster."

"Damnit." Leta muttered. "I didn't expect a trap, but then I didn't realize you knew I was here."

"An educated guess. I left your old buddy alive on purpose, although barely. Figured the list of people he could still contact had to be pretty short. The fact that our systems were hacked confirmed it was you he called. Now as much as I'd love to chat, we'll be able to do that in person soon enough. Be a doll and sit tight while I tie up a few... loose ends." The Arbiter grinned malevolently at Nate and Ketri.

"Fuck this!" Nate yelled, straightening up and activating the freq blade. "I am so fucking sick of things just happening to me! Fuck your stupid plots, fuck your damn vendetta or whatever it is, I don't care! You killed my friends, you kidnapped me AND my girlfriend, this is between you and me now!"

"AH HAH HAH HAH HAH!" The Arbiter laughed out loud, planting his hands on his hips. "As heroic speeches go... I've heard better. You know I can kill you very easily, right? But, might as well give the good people what they want."

He reached behind his back with one hand, and drew a short freq blade, cracking his neck as he spun it up. Nate roared and charged at him, throwing caution to the wind as he unleashed a flurry of blows. The Arbiter parryed them with ease, sending Nate's blade glancing off in a shower of sparks with each strike. Nate was seeing red, he could hear Leta yelling something in his ear, but he ignored it, growling like a wild animal and hitting at the Arbiter again and again.

The massive Human seemed amused, causually darting his blade in between them to flick Nate's blows away, then suddenly stepping forward into an attack. Now Nate was on the back foot, struggling desperately to fend off blows that seemed almost lazy on the part of his opponent. He swung too wide in a parry, exposing himself, but rather than running him through, the Arbiter picked him up with one hand and hurled him across the room, coming to a sudden stop about halfway through a wall.

Choking and gasping, drenched with sweat inside the suit, Nate struggled to right himself as the cyborg slowly walked towards him. Ketri was struggling in the chair, trying to get loose, but it was all Nate could do to stagger to his feet.

"Sure you wouldn't like to just give up? I'm toying with you at this point. I'll even make it quick." The Arbiter smirked, twirling his blade nonchalantly.

Nate spat inside his helmet, the coppery taste of blood on his lips, and did his best to square up. He took a swipe at the Arbiter, but the large cyborg simply grabbed his arm and swung him over his head, slamming him into the ground. Nate saw stars but before he could react, he was lifted up and slammed against the floor on his other side, then tossed back into the center of the room, sliding forlornly across the tiles before coming to a rest about a meter from Ketri, smoke leaking from the joints of his battered armor. His eyes rolled back, starting at Ketri as the ominous crunching of the Arbiter's boots drew closer. Even tied up and frightened out of her wits, she was still beautiful, framed against the blue of the desert sky through the bay windows.

Bay windows with black figures sliding down past them on rappeling lines.

The glass shattered as about half a dozen slender forms in black armor came crashing through it, landing with catlike grace on the ground around them. They were Sha'dee, with black face tattoos, their hair shaved and braided, wielding large freq sabres. Four of them rushed forward to form a line between the Arbiter and Nate and Ketri, while one began cutting the latter of out her chair.

"Can you move?" The final alien asked, bending over Nate.

He groaned in response and crawled to his feet, watching warily as the others circled the Arbiter, who was chuckling and drawing his second blade.

"Come on, take her and get to the window." The newcommer ordered, as her comrades engaged the Arbiter.

Their blades danced like wildfire, moving with such speed and grace that Nate could barely comprehend it. The Arbiter was a whirlwind of sparks and whizzing blades, fighting all four of them at once. Nate's heart sank as he realized there was no way he was going to be able to keep up with that.

He turned to find Ketri free and surging into his arms. Cradling her gently, wary of the suit's immense strength, he slowly backed up towards the window while the other two Sha'dee charged in to join their comrades in battling the Arbiter. This was a real freq sword fight, not like his clumsy brawling with the other Overlords earlier. They all moved with the confidence of skilled fencers, centuries of experience and superhuman ability pitted against multiple opponents who themselves far exceeded any Human in speed and reaction time.

The deadly dance claimed its first victim as one Sha'dee dodged just a second too late and was sliced completely in half diagonally. The Arbiter wasn't playing anymore, and the Sha'dee fell back as he pushed his advantage. Nate backed up behind them, until he was almost at the window. Glancing back and forth between the fight and a multi-story drop, he suddenly had a moment of clarity.

"Scatter!" He yelled at the Sha'dee fighters.

They heard him, and darted back, giving him a clear view of the Arbiter.

"Laugh at this, you son-of-a-bitch!" Nate snarled, and fired the casaba howitzer.