Darryn swore and unholstered his guns as the world turned red and a mechanized turret slid down from the ceiling in front of him. He dove towards a doorway on the right, slamming his palm into the scanner and hoping to all that was holy the door would open.
The blue light scanned his palm and flashed red.
Darryn swore again and sprinted back towards the last intersection. The hallway exploded in sparks as the turret began firing, lasers hitting the ground a millisecond after he moved. He ran down the hall, coat flapping behind him. The air turned hot as lasers flashed past, leaving scorch marks on the pristine walls and floor.
Darryn dove into the intersection, placing his back to the wall as the lasers continued to fly past. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any turrets in the other corridor.
He unholstered his guns and readied himself, studying the lasers until he was fairly certain of the pattern. He leaned around the corner, aimed, and pulled the trigger, watching his smaller lasers zip through the air and splash off the turret’s armor. He grimaced and pulled back just as several more lasers came flying his direction.
Darryn leaned against the wall, watching the sparks fly and weighing his options. He couldn’t just leave half of his crew behind, but there was no way to get past that turret. He started reworking the map in his head to find another route.
There was a clanging from down the other hall, and he looked left just in time to see several whirling masses of metal and wires roll into view. He couldn’t see from this distance, but he knew from experience that they were covered in sharp blades. Razers!
He sprinted down the hall, away from the robotic whirlwinds of death. They accelerated, attracted by his movement, and sped after him, sparks flying as the blades screeched across the walls and floors.
Darryn didn’t check his internal map. He didn’t have time. He couldn’t even hit the darn things as they were equipped with laser shielding. All he could do was hope he could lose them in the maze.
Jaxon had barely begun moving when a panel on the wall slid open revealing the ball of death hidden inside. He sprang forward before it could finish powering up and ripped a handful of wires out as he ran by.
One down….A hundred more to go.
He knew from experience where there was one Razer there would be more. And he didn’t want to tangle with them if he could help it.
There was a screeching, whirring noise filling the hall behind him, and he could hear shouts echoing from somewhere in front of him. What had caused the alarm? Whatever it was, it probably involved that Fed! He had to get back to Mik.
Jax raced down the hallway, bloody knife clenched in his fist. He caught a glimpse of a turret down one hall as it swiveled to fire at him. He was already gone before the first lasers flew.
That whirring, fingernails on blackboard, screech was getting closer. Jaxon was fast, but these things were built to fight far faster creatures than him. They were going to catch up.
Jax glanced back, gauging the distance. There were three of them, and they were right on his heels. He made a sharp turn, kicking off the wall and pushing himself up and backwards.
The Razers flashed beneath him, leaving a trail of grooves in the floor. He landed lightly on his feet, behind them now.
He drew his other knife, slashing at the closest robot in one swift, smooth movement. Sparks flew as the blades collided. The Razer reversed and Jax had to leap back to avoid being sliced into pieces.
I hate robots. Give me a score of human guards any day!
Jaxan kept moving backwards, barely managing to avoid the swirling blades. He hated being on the defensive, but he didn’t have much say in the matter. The Razer just kept coming, patiently waiting for him to finally stumble.
The other two zipped around the side, attempting to get behind him. Jax parried the blades with his own knives, fending them off for now. Sparks filled the air, surrounding him, landing on his skin. He barely felt the heat.
Jaxan stumbled as he crossed one of the grooves in the formerly pristine floor. The Razers swooped in, blades grinding hungrily. He threw himself sideways as they converged on his position. Two of them collided, entangling with each other, whirring angrily as they worked to extricate themselves, shredding each other in the process. The third sliced up the bottom of his boots, missing his skin by a centimeter.
Far too close. Jax regained his footing and kept his blades up, fending off the deadly sphere. His chest heaved and dripping sweat stung his eyes. He knew he couldn’t keep this up much longer.
“What did you do?” Eralis demanded, gun still pointed at Mik.
“Nothing! Nothing, I swear!” Mik’s heart was pounding like a drum, his hands held high in the air. “The data must have been protected! It set an alarm off when I tried to download it.”
“Shut it off, now!” Eralis’ hand shook, panicked eyes shooting between Mik and the door.
“I can’t!”
The gun came up again and the kid’s desperate explanation spilled out of him. “It’s a built-in failsafe, a security measure. I’d have to have access to the main security grid. There’s no way I can shut it off from here!”
Eralis didn’t relax, but he did at least lower his weapon. “How long until the data’s finished downloading?”
Mik checked his gauntlet. “Another minute, at least.”
A screeching whine could be heard in the distance, muffled by the walls, but clearly growing closer.
Eralis swore.
Darryn raced through the halls, turning corners at random. Sometimes he encountered a turret, sometimes he was shot at by guards. He no longer knew where he was, only that the Razers were still behind him. He needed a new plan.
He slammed his hand into the scanner as he ran past several doors, hoping one of them would eventually open. The Razers were growing closer by the minute.
He rounded a corner and found himself facing a troop of guards, all pointing rifles at his head. He skidded to a stop and held his hands up, breathing hard.
“Put down your weapons!” one of the guards ordered. “Or we’ll be forced to open fire!”
Darryn slowly bent down, keeping his movements slow and his eyes on the guards. He could hear the deadly whirs approaching behind him. He froze as his eyes lit on a blinking green light on a strap around the guard’s wrist.
It marked him as having the proper security clearance to be in this area. Razer immunity.
“Call off the Razers first,” he said, pausing just before letting go of his guns.
“Put them down.” The guard kept his rifle trained on Darryn. “Then we’ll talk.”
He could hear the Razers getting closer. He could see the truth in the guard’s eyes. He wouldn’t call them off.
Darryn placed his guns on the ground and stood up, keeping his hands in the air. He saw the guards relax, their guns lowering slightly.
He leapt forward, grabbing the barrel of the lead guard’s rifle and shoving it upward. The guard yelled, and the rifle discharged, scorching the roof. Darryn pulled the strap off the guard’s wrist, shoved him backwards and charged through the hallway. The other guards panicked and took several shots, most of them hitting the wall, or each other.
Darryn grunted as he felt one laser burn through his shoulder, but he kept running. The Razers’ whirring grew louder and the guards' shouts turned into screams behind him. The robots tore indiscriminately through the group, in search of the guard without security clearance. The distraction gave Darryn enough cover to charge down another hallway and flatten himself against the wall.
He shoved the security band onto his own wrist, breathing a sigh of relief. The lead guard’s screams died away and the Razers’ shrieks began to grow louder as they approached. He held still as they zipped past the hallway he had hidden himself in. The remaining guards followed, shouting directions into communicators that he guessed were about as useful as his earpiece right now.
He held his breath, listening as the Razers’ whir disappeared down the hallway he had left, followed by the booted footsteps of the guards who were left. He let out a sigh of relief and looked around, eyes lighting on a sign over a door. Medical Research.
He searched his internal map. The docking bay was close, and he knew where the computer core was.
He had no idea what kind of trouble Jaxon and Mik were in. The Razers were heading towards Rocky.
He had to make another choice.
Jaxon finally fell, tripping over the body of the guard he had killed. The Razer rushed in as he hit the ground, taking advantage of the opening. Blood spattered the hallway as the whirling blades sliced into his side.
He screamed and struck out with his knives. He ignored the white hot pain as it shredded his arm, jamming the blade into the center of the construct. Sparks flew from its core and it pulled back slightly, yanking the knife out of his grip.
Jaxon coughed up blood as he snatched at the guard’s body, yanking it in between the Razer and his own skin. The guard provided a bit of cover as the whirling dervish of death came in for another blow, but it wouldn’t last long. The knives were already tearing at his flesh again.
As the Razer plowed through the flesh of the dead guard, Jaxon made a grab for the knife. Barely managing to get through its defenses, he twisted and stabbed again and again in a desperate attempt to stop its advance.
The Razer sputtered and whined, moving parts twisting this way and that, until eventually it shuddered, grinding to a halt.
Jaxan lay still for a moment, fighting to stay conscious through the waves of pain. He carefully pushed the Razer off himself, vision going black for a second as the blades extricated themselves from his gut.
Coughing up blood, he managed to raise his head and get a look at the damage. It was bad. He was missing a large chunk out of his side, and was already lying in a rapidly growing pool of blood. It wasn’t humanly possible to get back up after something like this.
It was a good thing he was no longer human.
Jaxon grunted, forcing himself to roll over. He pressed his shredded palms into the floor and pushed himself to his knees, arms trembling. Jax looked around for the Razer’s remains and retrieved his knife, yanking it out of the now exposed core. Using the wall as a ladder, he stumbled to his feet.
Jax leaned against the wall for a second, catching his breath. The world was still red, the alarm was still blaring, but there was currently no sound of pursuit.
Holding his notched knife in one hand and trying to hold his side together with the other, he took one faltering step forward, then another, willing himself to make it back to the computer room.
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