The explosion ripped over the small group in an instant. The rocks around them helped to shield them, but it would have never been enough. Within the rocky hiding spot the group huddled, all except for Terintal. He still stood, his back to the explosion. A shimmering field of blue energy poured from his outstretched hands, covering them all like a bubble. He screamed, the pain of the explosion and the burn of wielding so much power overwhelming his normally composed form.
Kaliana just stared up at him, silhouetted as he was. If he didn’t hold out long enough, it would be for nothing. Somehow she knew though that he would. She swallowed the lump in her throat and as quickly as it started the explosion ended.
Terintal’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed in a heap, half on top of Kaliana. She quickly shoved him off and rolled him over to his back. Blood trickled from the corner of his eyes and mouth.
Stan stood and looked around at the charred and blasted wreckage and terrain. “One percent,” he muttered. He looked down at his smashed comm uplink. There would be no call for extraction from that unit.
“Get over here Stan, he’s dieing.” Kaliana pulled up Terintal’s bloodied shirt and started ripping at the bandage that was oozing with his blood.
“He is supposed to die, Corporal Hicks.” Stan was only reminding her, not countering her order. Already he was pulling a paz dispenser from one of his side pouches. He bent down and applied the patch to the wound, then reached into another pouch to fish out a stim shot.
Kaliana stopped him, “No stim, not yet. Let him rest.” Stan cocked his head to one side and stared at her a moment then put the shot back in the pouch. He turned to the down necrosi.
Drigzin was on his hands and knees, blinking to clear his sight. Finally when he looked up, he saw that the AI had leveled a rather large pistol at him. “Whoa. How about putting that thing away?”
Kaliana strode over and kicked the necrosi’s machine pistols a bit away then frowned at him, “Who are you? And how do you know him?” She nodded down at Terintal’s unconscious form.
“I don’t.” Drigzin shrugged, deciding that the truth was about all he had to offer.
“Then why did you come to save him?” Kaliana was already working maintenance on her F3000, making sure it was still in working order while Stan kept the necrosi covered.
“No one deserves to be turned into dog food, or worse.” Kaliana paled at that. She too had heard of remnants that had resorted to cannibalism. She glanced back at Stan.
“How long till the first drone comes to find out what happened to us?” She stood and looked out at the wreckage of their vehicles, and at the bodies of their comrades.
Stan kept his eyes and pistol on the necrosi but answered, “They will launch immediately from the bit of radio traffic I heard. Flight time is negligible, maybe ten minutes.” The necrosi sat back and lifted up to on top of a rock.
Kaliana nodded, “Get my comm patched through so I can talk to them the moment their drone is in range. I want out of here as soon as possible.” Stan nodded and though outwardly he did nothing, Kaliana knew he was preparing subroutines that would patch her comm unit into the drone’s and back to the arcology and their employer. She walked over to Terintal, who was still out cold, and ziptied his hands together. She knew if he woke with enough energy to wield, they would not do too much, but figured any bit would help.
The necrosi spoke, “You really think that after what happened here, they are just going to bring him in? Much less you two as well?”
Kaliana snapped her gaze over to him and growled, “The Company will pick us up. And we have their target in hand.”
The necrosi smirked, “If you say so.”
Kaliana had several minutes to think it over, just before the drone arrived she rolled Terintal onto his side, hiding the his bound hands from easy view.
Before any of them heard or saw the drone, Stan glanced to the east. “It is in range.”
“Patch me through,” muttered the bio-engineered soldier.
“Already done,” answered the AI.
“Valux Arcology, please acknowledge.” Kaliana waited, her breath held a moment or two. The voice that came through from the other end sounded annoyed.
“This is Valux Arcology. You are on a private comm channel, please remove yourself from this channel immediately.”
“Neg, Valux Arcology. This is Corporal Kalian Hicks of Knight’s Company. Our bird is down and we are in need of extraction.” Kaliana saw the drone fly in from the distance. Its small light was barely visible but since she knew what she was looking for she was able to spot it. It stopped, hovering several hundred yards away. She knew its camera was recording everything.
There was a long pause, “This is a corporate comm channel, soldier, you should be going through your chain of command for such a request.”
“What chain of command?! We are stuck in the Freezone, with no transportation and hostiles nearby. Our satcomm uplink is smashed. Get a bird over here and extract us.”
Another long pause, “Understood Corporal.” Another long pause a different voice entered the comm channel.
“Do you have the package?” Kaliana looked down at Terintal’s still form. She swallowed and then looked over to Stan. He watched her, blinking unnecessarily a few times to attempt to seem more human. He shrugged. It was her call.
“Yes. We do.” She frowned. He had saved her life, but it was the job.
“Is he alive?” the new voice asked.
“Why does that matter? You wanted him dead or alive.” She did not like where this was going.
“Is he alive?” the new voice repeated.
“Yes.” Kaliana’s shoulders slumped. She had a feeling if she answered no, then there would be no extraction. Just after her answer the drone started to drift forward again.
Stan frowned. His eyes narrowed, and he looked to Kaliana. Drigzin eased off the rock he was on and started to slip back out of the rock formation. Kaliana frowned, turned off her comm and muttered, “Shut that damn drone down Stan.”
Stan nodded, and was already half through the fire wall that protected the drones control mechanisms.
Kaliana flipped the comm back on. The voice from the arcology was furious and already talking. “… your AI out of our drone!”
Kaliana raised her assualt rifle and sighted in on the drone, “Then back the drone off. We are working for you.” The comm link went dead. The drone started to race forward toward them. Kaliana pulled the trigger again and again, bullets bouncing off the drone’s armored shell. “Stan!”
His voice was as closed to human stressed as he could fake, “I’m working on it!” He was through the firewall, and ripping his way through control subroutines. He found the self destruct process already running, the drone’s engine containment was mere moments from breach. He tried shutting it down, but he did not have override authority for that process. Instead, he shut down the process that was making the drone weave and duck as it sped towards them.
It was enough to give Kaliana a better shot, and she put them to good use. The drone’s camera was destroyed, but she did not know if she was going to be able to do enough damage in time. The drone got closer and dived in toward them. Kaliana yelled, “Cover!” She threw herself behind the rocks, hoping it would be enough.
Stan just stood there. He knew that if he was not able to shut the destruct process down no amount of cover would save them. To himself he muttered, “One percent.” He glanced back at where his prisoner had been. The necrosi was gone.
Terintal woke up for a moment, he was facing toward the woman that he had saved. She was huddled behind a large rock. She glanced over at him and was screaming something. She ducked her head, bringing her arm up to shield herself from the imminent blast of the drone.
