The doors parted and Corona drew her gun. She still didn't like the damn things, but she'd already found herself in too many situations she wouldn't have survived without one.

The corridor ahead was empty long enough for her to take three steps out of the elevator. Then something at the far end moved.

Two robots stepped out from the side corridor, followed by two more. All were humanoid but were over seven feet tall and carried a huge pistol in each hand.

All four mechs snapped their weapons up.

Oh, shit, here we go! Corona revved her body into its combat state and everything appeared to go into slow motion. She planted herself in front of Jack and Taura and spread her wings to hide them from the mechs.

Jack ducked under her right wing and tried to step in front of her, aiming his twelve-millimeter Glock at the mech on the right while whipping his other gun out of its holster. Corona pushed past him and fired a shot at the nearest robot's head.

Her bullet hit its left shoulder. It lurched back a half step but righted itself instantly.

Damn it! Built for combat and I can't hit the wide side of a fuckin' barn!

Taura squeezed past her and flicked her hands out. Two round devices resembling miniature hockey pucks zipped through the air and stuck to two of the robots' chests. The mechs had just enough time to look down at the discs before Taura jabbed one of the icons in her holofield.

The pucks detonated, blasting the mechs into shrapnel and knocking the others off their feet.

Corona flinched and spun away from the shower of sharp metal and plastic debris. She turned back to find the two remaining mechs picking themselves up.

Jack pumped a quick burst of three armor-piercing rounds into each robot's head. They toppled over and lay twitching on the floor, and he rushed over to them and wrenched the guns out of their hands. He double-tapped them and gave Taura a quick look before moving on.

"Think you can …"

"Hack the rest of the bots? I'm working on it." She continued entering commands into her holo-display as she followed Jack to the door leading to the stairwell. "If I can get into the server that gives them their orders, I can shut them down."

He smiled, nodded, and continued silently up the stairs, letting her work.

Corona hurried past her and paused beside Jack long enough to nudge his shoulder. "You know," she said softly, "my body is quite a bit larger than yours. You can't shield me from bullets."

"I can shield some of the most important parts." He winked at her, but sobered when he saw the no-nonsense look on her face.

"I think the armor I'm wearing will do a good enough job -- just like yours and Taura's, actually. It'll take a lot more to put us down than these things are packing." Corona patted his shoulder. "I don't want you taking a bullet for me."

He reached up and held her hand. "It was just a reflex."

"Well, I appreciate the thought, but Taura and I are big girls. We can handle ourselves."

"But it's so much more fun when I'm handling you."

"Definitely," Taura said, "but there's a time and a place."

"Alright, I'll try not to be so overprotective." Jack grinned, but couldn't hide his concern entirely.

"I'll take point." Corona gave Jack's ass a squeeze as she stepped forward. "Taura, any progress yet?"

"Eh, not really. I've got passcracks in place, but this ICE is thicker than I expected. I'm keeping an eye on the security cams, too, and we've got mechs converging on our position. I'm trying to block them from using the cameras."

"How close are they?"

Taura glanced at one of the windows in her holofield. "We've got a dozen coming down the stairs currently passing the seventh floor, four entering the stairwell at the fifth floor, and six others on the fourth floor heading for the stairs."

"Jesus Christ." Jack shook his head. "I know we've only been on this job for a few weeks, but is it too early to request some vacation time?"

"I'm going on that assumption, yeah. Besides, this job is the only thing standing between us and prison. Or worse." Corona reached the third floor and paused. "Taura?"

"The mechs on the fifth floor have taken the elevator instead. I'm betting they're going to enter the stairwell below us and trap us between them and the ones coming from above."

"Then this is where we get off." Corona pulled the door open, gave the hallway a quick sweep, and stepped through. "We'll find another stairway."

"And hope there aren't already mechs covering those," Jack grumbled.

"Always finding the rays of sunshine, babe." Corona led them down the hall, moving slowly, keeping her gun aimed ahead, flicking her eyes from one door to the next, waiting for one of them to burst open and unleash a squad of bots that Taura might've missed. "Taura, got that floorplan handy?"

"Right here. End of the hall, turn left, stairwell's at the far end."

"Thanks. One of you keep an eye out behind us."

"On it," Jack said.

Corona continued forward, wincing as her claws clicked on the off-white tiles covering the floor. At least Taura had boots designed specifically for her hooves that muffled the sound of each step, but Corona's footwear left her claws sticking out. Handy if she needed them in a fight, but the noise would be picked up by every mic in the corridor, including any nearby robots.

Of course, the entire security system can already see us. "Taura, any luck with the cameras?"

Taura released a frustrated growl. "No. I can disable the cameras, but that would prevent us from using them."

"We'll get by without 'em. It's better than letting the mechs see every move we make."

"True." Taura tapped a few more icons, clenched her thumb and two big fingers around one of the windows, and crushed it.

The camera at the far end of the hall stopped its slow back-and-forth motion.

"Done." Taura smirked. "They'll have to do a major system overhaul to get those things running again."

Jack grinned. "Nice work, babe."

She gave him a quick, theatrical bow.

Corona smiled at her before turning her attention back to the path ahead. Good to see her on the road to recovery. The depression and quick temper brought on by her estrus cycle were understandable, but it'd been painful to watch. Damn good thing Jack came to his senses when he did, or she might not have been able to hold herself together.

She stopped at the corner, peeked around, and continued on to the end of the hall. She looked around the corner and nodded. "Clear."

Jack chuckled. "Now all we have to do is wait for the next thing that goes horribly wrong."