[We're in the garage,] Hoshi said over the comlinks. [We'll take cover and make our stand here so no bystanders will be hit. You come in behind the hostiles and we'll catch them between us. Once we've dealt with them, we'll escort Winslow to a safe place before they send another wave after us.]

"Got it," Jack said, keeping his voice low as they crept down the stairs from the ground floor.

Corona checked the camera feeds in her HUD. The men in black jumpsuits had reached the small parking garage under the building and fanned out to cover more ground.

"What about Lefty and Mickey?" she whispered. "And the bots?"

[The enemy hasn't hit Lefty's workshop. They're all coming to back us up. So is Boiler.]

"Good. We're almost there." She glanced at the video feeds again and counted ten hostiles. "Well, on the bright side, once we get rid of these guys, that's ten fewer we'll have to face when we hit ADS later."

"Great,” Jack grumbled. “Take whatever we can get, I guess."

The sound of gunfire made Corona jump slightly. It was muffled but loud enough to be heard from the garage two levels below the ground floor.

"Better hurry," Taura whispered, and all three of them increased their pace.

[The hostiles aren't wearing armor, but they're still functioning after we've pumped multiple bullets into them. They're either cyborgs or the zombie troops Winslow told us about. Be sure to use armor-piercing or incendiary rounds.]

"Got it."

The gunfire grew increasingly louder until they reached the garage level. Taura dug her handheld computer out of her pocket, tapped one side of it, and a hard-light interface appeared in front of her. She pocketed the device and the display remained in front of her as she took a position beside the door. Corona and Jack took the opposite side of the door.

Corona reached out and grasped the handle. She pulled the huge mech rifle from her back and looked at the camera feed again to locate the hostiles.

"Ready?" she whispered.

Jack and Taura nodded.

Corona pulled the door open, charged through, and took cover behind Rocky's truck. Jack and Taura crouched behind her and all of them winced at each deafening, echoing gunshot.

"Scanning them." Taura touched a button in her holofield and watched lines of info appear in a new window.

Corona leaned around the front of the truck for a peek at the action. Ten hostiles stood out in the open, hosing down the team's position behind Machiko's car and a pair of vans. Their bullets tore into the vehicles, shattering headlights and windows and blasting chunks of metal across the ground.

Suddenly, five of them stopped. Moving in unison, they turned and stared directly at Corona.

She ducked behind the truck just as they opened fire, pulled her wings in tight and covered her head with her arms. The driver's-side front tire exploded and her heart pounded so hard it shook her whole body.

"They detected my scan." Taura gaped at her holofield, pulled herself together, and tapped another button. "Let's see if I can jam their targeting systems."

Corona waited for the shooting to stop, peeked around the front of the truck, and found the cyber-zombies standing still, glancing around and shifting their aim hesitantly. She grinned and aimed at the nearest one. A target reticle appeared in her HUD, tracking along with the enormous rifle’s movements. She moved the crosshairs onto the dude's head and fired a single shot.

The bullet blew most of his head off. Metal and plastic shrapnel sprayed through the air along with chunks of skull and brain. He staggered, but remained on his feet.

What? Corona ducked back under cover and flinched as more bullets ripped into the truck. What the fuck?

"The cyberization process must be more thorough than we thought." Taura frowned at her display. "I'm picking up multiple redundancies as well as a secondary control unit in the abdominal area, behind extra armor plating. Bloody hell, what they did to those poor people …"

An enemy round punched through the truck and drilled into her left side. She let out a brief shriek, then sighed with relief when she realized it hadn't penetrated.

"Taura!" Jack reached out to her, but she waved him off.

"I'm okay, my armor stopped it." She took another slow breath and Corona growled.

"That's it. Let's take 'em out!"

Jack scooted over to the truck's rear, lunged out, popped off several shots, and ducked back.

The zombies blasted away, spraying the wall in front of the truck, but none of their shots hit less than a yard away from him. Whatever Taura had done, it hadn't worn off yet.

Corona took a slow breath, released it, and poked her head up over the truck's hood. As she took aim at the damaged zombie, Machiko appeared from behind one of the vans and drilled another zombie with her plasma rifle. She blazed a steady stream into its back and burned through its spine before it could turn and acquire a target. It took a few stumbling steps and collapsed but continued moving its legs as if trying to walk.

Jack shuddered. "Oh, that shit ain't right." He blasted half of his magazine into the zombie's head and finally it stopped moving.

The rest opened fire on Corona again, but none of their shots came close.

Then, suddenly, their aim steadied and a hail of bullets peppered her chest plate. She squeaked and dived behind the truck. A damage report appeared in her HUD and she sighed.

"I'm okay."

"They cut off wireless access," Taura muttered. "I can't hack their systems now."

"Guess we'll just have to use brute force, then." Corona rolled out into the open, staying prone to make herself a smaller target, and emptied her rifle into the nearest zombies. Each shot punched through their bodies and blasted huge pieces out of them. The one in the middle was nearly cut in half by one shot and toppled over. The torso propped itself up on one arm and continued firing.

Corona's last bullet took another's head off, bursting it like a rotten watermelon. Corona scooted back behind the truck and holstered the empty rifle.

A quick burst from Hoshi's gun drew the remaining zombies' attention back to her, but did little actual damage.

Jack shoved a fresh magazine into his gun and stood long enough to fire several rounds into the nearest zombie's back. It faced him and aimed its rifle. Jack dropped back under cover, glanced at Corona and Taura, and shook his head.

"We're gonna need bigger guns."