Shield and Crocus (25 page)

Aegis looked at the keys, sorting them as best he could, thankful for COBALT-3’s obsessive organization. “We have to get the prisoners out as quick as possible,” Aegis said as he slipped some keys off the wide ring. “Split up, we each take one section.”

First Sentinel reached out with his mind. [
Ghost Hands, do you hear me? We have the keys. Converge on my position as soon as you can
.]

[
Loud and clear. En route now
.] a few moments later, Blurred Fists appeared and took over half the keys, then vanished out of sight. Sapphire took a handful and Aegis handed First Sentinel an even smaller portion.
Time to prove I can pull my weight on this mission, injured or not.
First Sentinel pushed his gait faster as he walked down the hallway, barely leaning on the cane as adrenaline ran hot.

Aegis heard a soft grunt as his father took a turn just a bit too fast.
He’s not really healed yet. If we get into a protracted fight, he could become a liability. Now it’s my turn to keep him safe.

Just halfway down the hallway of COBALT-3’s prisoners, Ghost Hands, Sapphire, and Sabreslate arrived from around the corner with four guards on their heels. The automata went down fast when the Shields stood their ground, but the guards continued to pour down the hallways, slowing their rescue efforts to a crawl.

Ghost Hands relayed Aegis’ orders as he struggled turn a key in the rusted tumbler before him. [
Regroup at the south entrance for the exit push. Make it fast.
]

As quick as anyone can be trailing a crowd of tortured citizens, half of whom can’t stand on their own.
This had sounded like a much better idea yesterday.

Aegis opened the door to a cell, letting the alarm-red tinted light of the hall seep into the small room.

“Who is it?” asked a small voice. A male ermine-kin Millrej blinked at Aegis through the light passing by his upheld hand.

“It’s Aegis and the Shields of Audec-Hal. We’re here to stop COBALT-3’s experiments and get you out of here.”

The ermine-kin snapped up to his full height, and then almost tipped over. He looked painfully malnourished, ribs prominent through his thin shirt. “City Mother be praised!” he wobbled to the side and Aegis steadied him with a hand. Aegis walked the man out into the hall and the Millrej gained the strength to walk on his own.

“Head down this hall and meet the rest of my team at the double-doors. If you see a patrol, shout for help.”

“Bless you, Aegis.”

Aegis smiled.
This is why we fight.
“You’re welcome. Now go, quickly.” The ermine-kin plodded along the hall, head down, whiskers out.

Opening three more cells only yielded two more prisoners. The other cell held an emaciated Pronai man dead on his bunk. Aegis paused long enough to close the man’s eyes, wishing he had the time to gather the dead, give them a proper burial with the rites of the City Mother.

Aegis exhausted his supply of keys, and then led the prisoners down the hall towards the south entrance. He paused for a moment at the cell where he was kept, looking in to the empty room. He mouthed a few silent curses before moving on.

Never again. No more playthings, COBALT-3.

Aegis and the survivors he’d freed rounded a corner to find a crowd of fifty patients and the other Shields. Sapphire had a tiny Qava on her back, and Sabreslate held a shaped-stone sledge for a man with a broken leg.

“That everyone?” he asked.

“Everyone that’s still living and could be moved,” Sabreslate said.

“Sapphire, let Sabreslate take that woman there. I want you on point. Wedge formation, civilians in back. Sabreslate, you’re on rear guard with the sledge.”

The Jalvai nodded, but she didn’t look happy about it
. We can’t all get the glorious jobs all the time.
She and Ghost Hands could protect a crowd better than anyone, while still attacking their enemies. And they’d have to exploit every Shield’s capabilities if they were going to escape with the prisoners.

Aegis stepped into place just behind Sapphire. He hurried forward to help with the double-doors, but they swung open without being touched. He’d thought Ghost Hands had helped them out. Then he saw three thresher units and COBALT-3 standing between them.

“Greeting: welcome back.”

Crap.

The room was as empty of threads as it was everything else: no adornment, no furniture.

Aegis relayed orders as he stepped forward, walking straight at COBALT-3. [
Sabreslate, keep the civilians on this side of the doors. First Sentinel and Blurred Fists, hook left and right toward COBALT-3 on my mark. Sapphire and Ghost Hands, take the automata.
]

COBALT-3 continued, walking forward into the cold blue light of one of her electric lamps. “Assertion: Your return was expected. Explication: Received alarm and returned for confrontation. Assertion: You will not escape this time; experiments will resume.”

Aegis laughed. “Request: Shut the hell up and fight.” [
Mark!
]

He launched forward and threw a left hook with the shield. This needed to end quickly, before his father got tired, before they were surrounded, before the civilians could panic or collapse.

So, fast.

The room exploded into action. Variables and possibilities danced in Aegis’ mind as he dodged COBALT3’s punch. The automata creaked and groaned; sounds mixing with the screams of the tyrant’s former subjects; sparks flew and mixed with the plumes of magic from First Sentinel’s wands.

Aegis jumped back away from a kick and risked a quick look over his shoulder to check on the civilians. A thick, mesh wall of stone had formed over the door, Sabreslate’s work.

He looked back to find a metallic fist colliding with his face. Aegis rolled with the impact as his blood splattered on the tile. Hurtling back, his eyes tore and his vision blurred. He brought the Aegis up to cover his face as his back cracked against a wall. Pain danced up his spine as he pulled himself up to a shaky fighting stance.

Standing, he saw First Sentinel fighting COBALT-3, a whirlwind of knives and articulated limbs. But his father was still weak, slow. He took a roundhouse kick on the side, up and under his protective longcoat. His father doubled over, and COBALT-3 raised a foot to stomp down on the fallen hero.

Oh no you don’t.

Aegis tackled the mechanical tyrant, knocking her several steps back and away from First Sentinel. Aegis took an elbow to the collarbone and hoped he was just imagining the cracking sound. He recovered, raising the Aegis to block the line to his collar. With those serpentine limbs, COBALT-3 could attack on any line from any position. But she was still a machine, she had patterns, and they could be exploited.

“Eagle’s wing on three!” Aegis called, watching red streaks pound into COBALT-3’s carapace armor.

“One!”

Still huffing, First Sentinel broke left, taking Aegis’ position, while Blurred Fists kept COBALT-3 occupied by filling her vision with harmless but distracting strikes. The machine tyrant struck back with powerful swipes, but Blurred Fists was never there.

“Two!”

Aegis wheeled around, feeling out the proper hinge point as he considered the civilians. Another wave of guards would be arriving any moment, and Sabreslate couldn’t hold them off forever. Not while keeping the group calm.

“Three!”

Blurred Fists feinted to the side and turned up the speed of attacks, drawing COBALT-3’s attention away from First Sentinel. First Sentinel braced, and Aegis planted his feet on his father’s shoulders. He sprung up, flipped twice in the air, and brought the Aegis down directly on the back of COBALT-3’s head. Aegis didn’t feel the metal give beneath the shield, and saw that his blow had barely scratched as he landed from the strike.

“Datum: Recent upgrades to my armor’s tensile strength exceed your maximum force-generation capacity.”

Thank the City Mother for blunt machines.
“Thank you. Sapphire, in here, now!”

She dodged under a lumbering metallic limb and stood with a leap, throwing an uppercut at COBALT-3. The machine ruler blocked with crossed arms. But not without cost. The Shields saw her armor give, and rallied. “Press!” Aegis called, and threw a heavy blow to COBALT-3’s midsection, not intending to do any damage; just trying to unbalance her while Sapphire continued to attack.

The Shields surrounded COBALT-3, overloaded the inputs, and split her attention so that the Freithin could break her down.

First Sentinel reached into a back pocket to make sure that the scrambler was still there, while Blurred Fists continued to press the tyrant, this time at her flank. The scrambler should deactivate COBALT-3, but only if he could attach it directly to her power source.
And you’re not exactly on your form tonight, old man.

“Condescension: Previous evidence displays your team unable to overcome a standstill. Assertion: Surrender is appropriate at this juncture.”

First Sentinel laughed, and then tried to draw her attention as he closed. “Haven’t you heard? We’re crazed insurrectionists. Sense went out the window when your predecessor and your peers took this city away from the people and started playing god.”

COBALT-3 deflected Sapphire’s jabbing knee, knocking her away with a blow to the Freithin’s hip.

No longer pressed from all sides, her serpentine hands reached back and over herself to grab Blurred Fists’ hands. The tyrant pulled him up over his head as he squirmed faster than First Sentinel’s eyes could follow. A bright yellow band of fear sprouted from the Pronai’s chest, twisting like another flailing limb.

First Sentinel was frozen in place, trying to get his body to move. Pain from his leg smothered his orders, leaving him prisoner to his own vision.

Sapphire leapt at the tyrant again, but COBALT-3 caught her with another brutal kick, sending Sapphire to the ground.

Within an instant, First Sentinel saw the fight slip away from them. The action slowed to accentuate his paralysis. Fear, doubt, and pain locked him in place, helpless.

Move, dammit
! With a scream, he shook off the fear and advanced. With his original cane lost on the other side of the room, First Sentinel leaned on a fighting stick, hobbling his way toward the fight.

Aegis swiped at COBALT-3 and Blurred Fists, desperately trying to help as COBALT-3 pulled at both ends of the Pronai like a doll.

An acrid spray of blood filled the air as the Pronai’s hip tore, fabric and flesh ripping as Wenlizerachi’s right leg went one way and the rest of him the other. Blood flowed up his torso and dripped from the Pronai’s face. Blurred Fists screamed paragraphs of pain in agonized Pronai.

“Get him free, now!” Aegis yelled, his voice breaking as he climbed up COBALT-3 and pulled at her grip. COBALT-3 clubbed Aegis with Blurred Fists’ leg, splattering his mask with blood. First Sentinel dragged one foot in front of another, finally in range to throw a gauntleted roundhouse at COBALT-3. She slapped it away, but rage at his friend’s injury had flushed the pain away. One hand went to his belt and found the scrambler.

This ends now. We have to get him a doctor immediately.
The scrambler was grey and black; the reduced vicite core attached to a charged battery and set to neutralize the robot tyrant. The device was built with a stolen power core from COBALT-2, so First Sentinel hadn’t been sure it would even work, or how well, until COBALT-3 had confirmed that her core used the same multi-band vicite design when they’d rescued Aegis. COBALT-3 constantly modified herself, improving on her creator’s design. But he hoped the cores were close enough that his alchemical process would let the scrambler’s core cancel out the power from the other.

The Shields massed on COBALT-3 while Blurred Fists cried one long drawn-out meaningless word. First Sentinel’s thumb found the blue button on the scrambler.

City Mother, guide my hand.

COBALT-3 tossed Blurred Fists at Sapphire. In the same moment, First Sentinel dropped under the swinging arm to plant the scrambler on the underside of the tyrant’s power unit. The scrambler whirred to life, and flashed bright blue. A sucking sound reverberated off the walls and COBALT-3 froze in place, head quirked to the side in surprise.

Aegis called the retreat, his voice pained. “Sabreslate, get them out of here, now. Sapphire, Ghost Hands, keep the big ones away from the civilians. First Sentinel, escort on the civilians. I’ll get Blurred Fists.”

First Sentinel crossed the room, watching over his shoulder. COBALT-3 could snap back to life at any moment. The Shields could get the subjects out, their objective achieved, but it might cost them one of their lives.

Aegis draped Blurred Fists over his shoulders and made for the door. First Sentinel picked up the errant leg and carried it out. His own leg screamed in solidarity with Blurred Fists, fear overriding the adrenaline and inviting the pain back in. As they reach the door, COBALT-3 started to twitch back to life.

Sapphire held the rear, occupying another giant automata, and First Sentinel ducked around the corner to another hallway. The Shields rushed down the hall, pushing the civilians through the rest of the building. Even while holding Blurred Fists, Aegis annihilated the errant guards they met along the way. A black thread of guilt was wrapped tight around his heart, extending to the fading Pronai. The thread matched First Sentinel’s own, just as strong.

A minute later, the Shields broke the threshold of the building and reached the street.

Aegis huffed as he gave orders. “Ghost Hands, Sabreslate, and First Sentinel, take the civilians to a safe distance. Sapphire and I will get Blurred Fists to a doctor. Scatter, now!”

First Sentinel squeezed Sapphire’s arm, furious he wasn’t in any condition to go with them. “City Mother be with you.”

Sapphire nodded, and then started into a flat run.

I won’t sleep, not tonight. I’m not sure any of us will. Except for the one of us who might never wake up.