Chapter 203 – Maelstrom’s Edge (Finale)

USD: Approximately three hours since the traversal wormhole for the 6th Fleet was created.

Location: Meltisar System, MNS Thea’s Hackjob, Power Plant Access Corridor E-44

Flares of light filled the wrecked corridor as Elis’ pulse rifle began to spit out rounds towards the Ertan NAI. The energy bolts flared and sparked in the air as they slammed into his nearly transparent green nanite cloud, sending ripples of energy through the air. She focused fire at a single point, each impact drilling a little deeper straight toward his head.

The nanites responded almost instinctively, flowing in thicker strands through the air to place themselves in the path of the digging energy pulses, repairing the fields damage completely.

He turned toward her as the two station heavy combat drones surged forward. They cleared the space in seconds, the first lunging with a precision strike with a bladed arm, clearly intending to remove the NAI’s head.

It didn’t work.

The Ertan NAI side stepped and then punched the drone’s arm, leaving a ruinous dent in the servo. A rapid flurry of punches and kicks ensured, battering the heavy steel combat drone until it toppled over.

The second had wasted no time, positioning itself nearby at a distance it would be impossible to miss as it fired a high-velocity rocket. The Ertan wasn’t caught unprepared; his hand snapped up and a cloud of nanites whipped out like a lash, exploding the rocket just as it left the barrel.

Green motes of metal and light swarmed around him as nanites surged. The combat drone was caught in the middle of them, its joints eroded away in seconds before it began to dissolve as the nano machines began to feast on the material to produce more of themselves.

Elis grunted as she reached her closer position. Pulling a plasma grenade off her armor’s exterior harness, she tossed it straight for the Ertan. Not at a velocity that would disintegrate it in the nanite field, but fast enough that there was a satisfying shock in the man’s eyes as he turned toward her.

Flames erupted in a shaped crescent, filling the air with fire as aerosol spray coated and then ignited the nanite swarm around him. It almost reached him.

But not quite. Anger filled his features, her suit’s view of his face shimmering and twisting in the heat. He raised his arm toward her, and she realized he had shifted his arm into a railgun. She jumped out of the way, just in time, her bulky suit smashing through debris and corpses as she angled to rush him.

Her two rearguard drones stormed into the room, having completed their armament conversion to heavy assault rifle mode. Both unleashed a rapid flurry of heavy projectiles that slammed into the Ertan NAI’s field like a sledgehammer. Bullets dug into the field before losing momentum and stopping like they were digging into a sea of ballistic gel.

He was forced to retreat, and Elis flagged one of the drones with her plan. It adjusted its aim, and the man side-stepped in her direction, momentarily fixated on the two defense drones.

He raised his hands and two nanite clouds formed and launched themselves forward, forming a hard shell that began to deflect the bullets before worming their way to the drones. The bullet material began to dissolve as the nanite consumed it for resources, just as they began to tear apart the two drones that had attacked.

In a few seconds they were reduced to nothing more than inert scrap, leaving Elis solo.

It had been enough time for her, though. She stepped out from behind a column nearly within reach of him.

His reaction was immediate, her suit intruding into his field. He cupped his hands and pointed them toward her, a thick cloud of nanites flowing in a metallic wave toward her. The tiny machines had already landed on her suit and begun to try to tear her to pieces, but the skintight resistance field buzzed them off.

Elis stepped forward and when most of the nanite cloud was in range, she triggered her suit’s anti-NAI EMP pulse. A shower of inert green nanites fell like a sheet of water, and the utter shock and confusion on the Ertan NAI’s face brought a grin to her face.

Her fist rocketed toward him, a metallic blur aimed with lethal intent; his shock morphed into resolve, and he punched back. Their fists collided with the sound of shrieking metal echoing through her suit. Neither yielded an inch; the corridor vibrated with the impact, the dead nanites on the ground shifting like sand.

Elis wasted no time launching a follow-up strike. The NAI’s reaction was fast, his other fist coming up to parry the blow. From his mouth, a torrent of nanites erupted, slamming into her suit’s chest piece. Warnings flared as nanites sizzled against her suit’s anti-NAI integrity field, but others dived into the dead sea of dead nano machines around their feet and began to revive them.

In the corner of her eye Elis spotted a weapon. She grasped the leg of a destroyed defense drone and swung it like a club. The makeshift weapon connected with a resounding crash, sending the NAI hurtling into the wall. The impact cratered the metal and sent a wave of shrapnel flying outward in a ring.

The NAI wasn’t fazed; with a fluid motion, he slid off the wall and raised his hands and yanked on the wall, his nanites rapidly transmuting the material into a massive, lethal spike. With a heavy motion, he launched it at Elis like a missile.

Her reflexes kicked in, and she swung the heavy drone with precise timing, smashing it into the projectile. Both were obliterated upon impact, shrapnel peppering her suit and the corridor behind her in a metallic hail.

The NAI raised an arm, his arm shifting a second time as the familiar transformation into a railgun took place. The telltale glow of charged particles illuminated his palm, but Elis was faster; her suit’s forearm shotgun erupted with a volley of red metal, the blast catching the enemy square in the chest.

The force of the hit knocked him back, his footing lost as he toppled over.

She advanced, unstoppable. Debris that littered her path was cast aside with sheer brute force, every step bringing her closer to the reeling NAI. He scampered backwards, retreating now, his movements betraying a hint of desperation.

She fired a second shot as he braced himself to take aim at her. She pressed forward to strike.

Her suit blared a shrill tone of imminent danger just before she reached him.

The incoming munition alarm cut through her ears as it reached a crescendo. Her shoulder mounted countermeasure device sprang to life on its own, popping out and exploding itself towards the threat. The incoming anti-armor rocket exploded a few meters away before it had a chance to end her advance.

The corridor closest to the moonlet’s outer edge had come alive with a surge of Ertan marines, dozens of them rushing forward from cover to cover. They began to open fire on her with their assault rifles. A few projectiles struck her armor, plating ineffectually. She raised her shotgun arm and began pumping slugs down the corridor.

That slowed their advance and sent them into cover, but the weapon’s accuracy wasn’t really meant for fighting down a long narrow zone. She turned to face the NAI, who had retreated to the corner of the cubby-hole they had been fighting in. His posture screamed fear.

She advanced.

His terror turned into a grin, and he reached above his head. The ceiling crashed downward, a circular plate of metal cut out by his nanites and attached to the ground with threads that suddenly contracted.

The sound of her power armor groaning around her was alarming as servos and hydraulics struggled to maximum output, but suddenly the nanite strands snapped and she shoved the debris aside. Her systems whined in protest, but she shoved her suit into overdrive, cleaving away the last few steps to the NAI.

His arm morphed into a vibro blade, but her fist swept under his slash and captured his forearm. She lifted him up into the air and then slammed him into the ground like a rag-doll. The impact buckled the deck plating, then she slammed him against the wall, and then the floor again for good measure.

He was limp. That was a good sign.

Elis panted and leaned back, allowing her weight to rest against the suit. She realized her medi-doc had pumped her well beyond the normal safe limit of the suit’s combat drug cocktail and she’d had a heart attack at some point.

It simply had compensated with more drugs before she’d noticed.

Assault rounds flew down the corridor as the lead edge of the Ertan marines pressed forward. She pumped a blast at them, sending them scattering, but several from further back opened fire on her. The rifle rounds bounced off her armor, and she reached to pull out her more accurate assault rifle.

Pain erupted in her knee—a white-hot lance of agony. She looked down to see the NAI, his vibro blade jammed into the joint of her leg armor.

Her reaction was instinctual and immediate; she brought her other foot down with all the force her hydraulics could muster, crushing down on the NAI’s head. It exploded like an overripe fruit.

She reached down and pulled the stuck blade out forcefully, then threw the limp body at the attacking marines, the pain disappearing as her suit’s medi-doc applied local anesthetic and numbed it completely. Her munition warner went off again as a rocket flashed down the corridor, the smart projectile homing in on her.

Her second countermeasure device on her other shoulder deployed, the explosion lighting up the corridor as it intercepted the homing rocket. Elis raised her rifle and opened fire on the marines. They returned fire with equal fury, but her rounds punched through whatever cover they had hidden behind.

It was hard to hasten; she locked the joint for stability and hobbled down the corridor toward the Ertan positions, blasting squads away with accurate, suit stabilized sprays of rifle rounds. There was no attempt to retreat. Her enemies’ faces were masks of fanatical resolve that asked for and offered no quarter.

Movement finally stopped except for the smoking end of Elis’s pulse rifle.

Vaguely realizing the lull, she tapped her helmet comm and found that the channel was dead. She’d been fighting in isolation the entire time.

Movement at the far end of the corridor caught her attention, and pain flared in her wounded knee as she pressed towards cover. The painkillers had already worn off, and the medi-doc had decided it was dangerous to deliver more, mainly because there was potential to degrade her combat performance further.

Nothing cleared the mind like the sharp bite of pain—at least until it became so overwhelming that it blocked everything else out. The medi-doc tracked her biometrics and forced her to ride that line.

A heavy vibration ran through the floor, her suit rendering the vibrations as a heavy grinding coming down the debris-filled corridor. Her HUD lit up and displayed its source in a wireframe view through the wall—an armored infiltration tank.

It wasn’t as heavy as a groundside main battle tank and was designed for breaching orbital installations or ships in heavy boarding actions. It still had a heavy caliber cannon on a turret, though, and was fully capable of maneuvering through the magnetic corridor or even in zero-g.

Elis started hobbling to a better position when the turret turned and tracked her through the wall. She hurled herself out of the way just in time as the railgun round slashed through the solid bulkhead and partly through the asteroid material to flash through the space she’d just been.

Hurrying, she grabbed the leg of a downed defense drone and dragged it behind her. The turret slowly tracked her movement, making the slow walk to the corner of the cubby hole tense. She reached it and threw her inert ally directly at the barrel. It knocked the next shot wildly astray and bought her several more precious seconds.

In the air, green motes began to form, and her suit blared yet another warning—hostile NAI detected—its urgency underscored by the sudden jarring power failure in the bottom of her damaged leg. She glanced back at the fallen NAI, his body still, but there was the telltale churn of nanites glowing around her damaged knee joint where the vibro blade had penetrated. She fired an EMP pulse from her suit, the burst of energy fizzling out the tiny army of swarming nanites, but the damage to the lower portion of the leg was complete.

The tank hatch opened, and another NAI emerged, leaping with lethal agility from the armored sanctuary. She raised her arm and opened fire with her suit’s built-in shotgun. It sent him dodging before he could gain his feet, giving her time to gain more ground on the tank. It seemed like it was a two-person unit, but the turret wasn’t tracking her anymore.

The NAI unleashed his own brand of chaos—nanite swarms erupting in an orb to wash against the ceiling, walls, and floor. The green melted into the floor and began to reshape it into miniature spikes that suddenly shot towards her.

They were small. Elis ignored them. They clinked against her armor and sizzled in the anti-NAI field, failing to grasp or cling to the armor. Behind the NAI and tank, more Ertan marines flooded into the corridor, their numbers seemingly endless.

Halfway to the tank, Elis spotted a downed drone with its middle exposed. A pulsing blue orb hinted that its power core was intact, and she leaned over to rip it out of its housing. Squeezing it enough to crack the shell, she heaved it toward the enemy vehicle.

The explosion was energetic, a blinding flash followed by a pulse of energy that registered as an EMP on her suit armor. If the section had been pressurized, it would have carried a considerable shockwave. Instead, her armor was partially singed.

The NAI had fared far worse, his cloud destabilized.

Pulling out her assault rifle, she opened fire on the marines coming town the corridor as she continued to advance. As each target went down, she felt the gravity of her situation. She really had her back against the wall this time, and retreat wasn’t really an option.

She reached for the tank, slung her rifle back into her chest holster, and then seized the open hatch. Servos groaned as she flipped it onto its side and then braced her damaged leg against the chassis. With the additional leverage, she set her suit hydraulics into overdrive, wrenching the turret free in a shower of sparks and twisted metal.

It was just in time to slam the metal lump into the approaching Ertan NAI’s face. That sent him spinning away.

Reaching into the tank, she grabbed one of the tank’s unspent shells. Her gauntlet closed around the cold metal. She readied her rifle again and then heaved the shell down the corridor. Just as it approached the exit, she fired a single calculated shot.

It exploded with enough force to purge the marines that had been building their courage to jump into the death zone she’d turned the corridor into. That was great. She reached into the tank again, only to find a soldier looking at her with a terrified expression behind his vacuum mask. He raised his pistol to her helmet and fired.

The small caliber round plinked off her steel faceplate harmlessly. She started to reach in to crush his head when agony lanced through her back and out the front of her chest—a green vibro blade had found its mark.

Her suit immediately detonated an EMP pulse, a defensive reflex to stave off any chance of nanite infiltration. It also shut the blade down. Her suit medi-doc systems blared urgent warnings, struggling to cope. She couldn’t pay it any attention.

Elis’ counterattack was a wide, arcing swing, but the NAI was ready, catching her backswing and applying a twisting force to her elbow joint. The metal tore as the servo bent out of its socket. At least it had dislodged the man’s blade from her chest. She swung her good arm to deliver a blow, but he caught her wrist in a vice-like grip, his own nanites swarming forward to dig at her and attempt to breach her armor.

She tried to use her bulk as leverage to move him, but her suit reported failing integrity. One too many pieces had been abused one too many times. Things weren’t working properly, and she’d pushed the heavy armor suit too far.

This was it.

She tugged her good arm. It was still locked in the Ertan NAI’s vice-like grip near his face. She opened her hand, revealing a high-energy, high-explosive grenade nestled in her palm. His expression flashed into shock, then fear.

Then everything exploded in a miniature sun.

The concussive force hurled Elis backward, her world becoming a blur as her anti-impact gel solidified and locked her into position as she crashed into the tank, bounced off, and then slammed into a bulkhead wall with bone-jarring force.

Somehow, she slid down and landed in a sitting position as she coughed, the taste of blood metallic in her mouth. Pain was absent; the medi-doc had decided to numb everything. That seemed like a good idea, even if it left her feeling oddly detached. More detached than she had been during the entire engagement.

The report indicated her lung had collapsed; the puncture had barely missed her heart. Her suit foam had plugged the punctures and gaps in her armor. Her left arm was bent backward, servo and her elbow joint critically damaged.

The pretty lights on her HUD reminded her of a holiday tree.

Wasn’t there something she was supposed to be doing? She looked up. There was no sign of the Ertan NAI. Smoke dispersed into the corridor, thinning rapidly in the vacuum. At the far end of the corridor, shapes moved—more Ertan marines, peering into the smoke-filled tomb.

Elis’ hand patted the ground, searching for her assault rifle, a weapon, anything. Her fingers brushed against and then encircled something unexpected—an ankle. She looked up.

A pair of blue eyes pulsed with barely restrained energy. “You look like shit,” Thea remarked dryly.

Elis gurgled at her.

Thea tapped her ear comm, “Package recovered. Commence fire-support operation.”

Rifle fire splashed into the blue shimmer in the air, but the Ertan Marine charge was cut short by a railgun round obliterating the outer end of the passage. Shrapnel and debris hurtled toward them but was caught by the sudden appearance of a blue net.

Captain Mackey’s voice suddenly crackled over comms. “Alacrity systems fully operational. Departing the hangar and engaging Ertan strike teams.”

Thea knelt down and began to pry off the damaged suit armor. “You’re not allowed to die yet,” Thea asserted. “Why do you always do this? The wormhole is closed, by the way.”

Through the haze of pain and encroaching darkness, Elis wondered the same thing. She unlocked her suit and the cool embrace of Thea’s nanites flooded over and into her skin.

It felt like a defeat. Again.

But she didn’t hate it.

Something about the contact felt comforting.

The comm crackled, and in the fuzzy part of her mind, she registered an update from Captain Mackey while Thea continued to stabilize her condition. The 6th fleet had regrouped and was taking the fight to the Ertan fleet while reclaiming the space around the moonlet.

Thea caught Elis as she finally slumped, unconsciousness claiming her.