Chapter 61

There was no way we could stay there and fight it out. Even if we tried, the chances were that somebody would get hurt and probably they would get hurt badly and I didn't want that to happen. As my people drew their weapons and got ready, I started thinking about what to do next. Thankfully I had a minute or two to think before the first couple of security robots showed up. It was enough time to come up with an idea.

"Kola, Caitlin, and Nimue," I snapped authoritatively, "I want you three back into the control room right now. Nimue ... when you get there tell Richards about our problem and tell him that the security robots became his primary problem. I don't care if he teleports them out to sea or just shuts them down but he needs to do something and he needs to do it fast. Your job will be to protect him while he's doing it."

Nimue didn't argue with me, nor did Kola and Caitlin. My tone and manner told them that things were getting serious. Quickly the trio headed back down the corridor to the control room leaving Dork, Goiania, and me to hold the junction. As they left I started positioning my team.

We were in a piss-poor defensive situation and we knew it. The security robots could come at us from three sides at once if they wanted to and if they did, we were screwed. It meant that there really wasn't any place for us to hide so we didn't really try. I put Dork on the left side of me and Goiania on the right. Their jobs were to cover me and to watch either ends of the corridor that we were standing in. If trouble came from one of those ends, they were to holler and hopefully I'd be able to deal with it.

The first pair of security robots showed up about five minutes after the alarm had gone off. They came down the corridor that we had entered by, although not through the stairway that we'd used. They showed up from further down the corridor, arriving from the direction that the service robot had run off towards. As they rounded the far corner and entered the corridor, the pair raised their automatic weapons to their shoulders and they started to fire. Seeing that I was standing in the centre of the corridor with my carbine at the ready, I was their target.

As their rounds hit me, I grunted and returned fire. I put a three round burst into the head of the robot on the left and a three round burst into the head of the robot on the right. As I did, I said a couple of silent prayers to the spirits and to any and all deities that were listening. I first thanked them for the fact that the robots went for the centre of mass when they opened fire which meant that their rounds were hitting my high-tech armour instead of something that wasn't protected. I also thanked whoever for the fact that the robots were using sub-calibre rounds. While the impact of the rounds against my chest was noticeable, it wasn't annoying enough to throw off my aim. It helped that the padding under the armour was absorbing most of the impact. Finally I thanked somebody or other for the fact that the carbine I was using wasn't using sub-calibre ammunition. The rounds I was using were 7.92-mm and they were armour piercing. Those rounds shredded the heads of the two approaching robots and dropped them even before Dork or Goiania could get off their shots.

"Are you okay?" Goiania muttered in a low voice, glancing at me with concern as she spoke.

"I'm fine," I said in response, chuckling lightly as I answered her. "Although to be completely honest with you, I wouldn't want to do that everyday. Now watch our backs before these tin cans figure out how vulnerable we really are."

My warning came just in time. Both Dork and Goiania glanced down the corridor that they were standing in response to my words, doing so just as a security robot walked into the end towards where the control room was. The robot immediately brought up its weapon and opened fire the moment it spotted Dork who was the closest to it. Dork took the burst of rounds in his back and side as that was how he was standing when the robot had started firing. The big guy cursed loudly in response and staggered into the wall as a result of the rounds hitting him. They didn't hurt him but they did piss him off and they did distract him for a moment or two. Thankfully for him, Goiania reacted a second after the robot had started firing.

The combat shotgun in her hands came up like I had shown her to use it and it started to go boom. The weapon was ten-gauge and it was fed by a thirty round box magazine. The cartridges were loaded with a slug that was equivalent to a 0.775 calibre round. It was very deadly. The shotgun spat out three rounds on automatic and Goiania showed that she could hit a target with the weapon. The slugs hit the robot's torso first and then as the weapon climbed during firing, the robot's head. The slugs blew a big hole in the thin armour that encased the robot's central processing unit. It was lying on the floor spewing sparks even before Dork could get himself sorted out to defend himself much to his chagrin.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to congratulate Goiania right then and there. While she was dealing with her threat, a major threat showed up down my corridor to keep me distracted for a few minutes. What showed up was a whole troop of security robots marching around the far corner in formation, three robots across and four robots deep. The front rank brought their weapons up the second they spotted me and they started pouring lead at me at full automatic. Boy did that smart.

Luckily my reflexes were almost as fast as those of the mechanical men who were attacking us. Seeing what we were about to face made my decision easy. I quickly moved my finger from the trigger on the carbine and brought it to the trigger of the under-barrel grenade launcher. By the time I did, the troop of robots was seventy-five feet away and the lead row was changing out their magazines. I squeezed the trigger of the grenade launcher and swore loudly as the weapon kicked in my hands. The grenade was a 40-mm High Explosive Armour Piercing round and the thing zipped down the corridor in a second flat. The round hit the centre robot in the front rank and actually ploughed through its torso before detonating. The strike staggered the advancing robot and the blast when it occurred threw it forward down the corridor towards us. The robot went sprawling to the floor at my feet.

The blast destroyed the robot standing right behind the first one and it incapacitated much of the first and second rank. Shrapnel tore through their light armour casing and the flying fragments damaged their circuitry. The concussion knocked the first rank to either side of the corridor and the second rank back into the third which in turned staggered backwards into the fourth rank. All in all, it gave Dork, Goiania, and me an opportunity and we took it. Before anyone both human and other could react, I had my finger back on the trigger of the carbine and I was picking and dropping targets of opportunity. Dork joined me a second latter as did Goiania.

Our fire dropped the first two ranks without any return fire and dropped two of the third rank before the robots got themselves sorted out. After that the robots counterattacked. Fortunately for us, their first response was to walk over their fallen metal brothers while firing at us, aiming once more at our centre of mass. It stung and the ricochets were annoying but it didn't drop us, which meant we got to retaliate. Our shots proved more effective.

That wasn't the end of it. By the time the last robot dropped, Dork and Goiania were squawking that we had company coming from the far end of the corridor. Biting my lip in response, I turned and looked. What I saw caused me to pause and curse out loud. A group of robots were advancing down the corridor and they were almost upon us. The robots had not bothered trying to shoot us this time. Obviously their AI had put two and two together and while it didn't come out to four, as in shoot for exposed areas like the face and lower limbs, it did add up to the fact we were armoured and that their bullets weren't doing anything to us besides causing bruises. In response the robots had discarded their weapons and they were running down the corridor intent on dealing with us in a more physical manner. I was able to get off one burst of ammunition before they were upon us and all that did was to knock down the lead robot that was closing on Dork.

The blasted robots went for our throats first. The robot next in line jumped in the air in an effort to reach Dork. Goiania dropped it with a blast from her shotgun. The slug slammed into the robot and threw its trajectory off. It ended up smashing into the wall next to Dork. Of course Dork was already moving at that time. He'd ditched his shotgun in favour of his warhammer. The next robot to jump at him got a smart whack in the head. It went down just as quickly as the first two had. After that I lost track of what everyone else was doing. The robots that hadn't gone for Dork were now attacking me.

I used my carbine as a club on the first robot that got to me, crushing in its mechanical head with the butt of my weapon. I tried to do the same to the second robot, but another robot reached in and pulled it from my grip as I was swinging back from striking the first robot. That made an opening for the second robot attacking me and like I said the mechanical man went for my throat. Thank the spirits and everyone else that I'd added a gorget to my armour. His metal fingers wrapped around the gorget and immediately he started to squeeze. He instantly realized that it was to no avail. Unfortunately, by that time his momentum had carried us backwards and I had instinctively rolled with it. I ended up on my back a few feet past where Goiania was standing, fighting it out with a robot by herself. I rolled and flipped as I hit the tile and the robot went over me. When I found myself kneeling over the robot, I grabbed my dirk from my boot top and I drove it with all my strength through the side of the robot's head. The robot had still been clutching at my throat and kept at it until I scrambled its processing unit.

I didn't even get a chance to get up off of the robot that I'd just destroyed. The next thing I knew was that two more were ploughing into me and that was it. While the robots were lighter in weight than I was, they still weighed around the weight of an average man and two of them were enough to knock me backwards and to send me sprawling again. I'd lost my dirk in the impact so I was unarmed for the moment except for what I was born with. Instinctively I swung with my right fist in an attempt to punch it out with the robot that was on top of me. That hurt like crazy and it left my hand feeling numb and while I was certain that my hand was broken, it still caved in the head of one of the robots that had piled onto me. Again I silently thanked Victoria and Daphne and her team of technicians that had given me super strength. Then I groaned as two more robots jumped on me, knocking the wind out of me.

By that point the situation was getting grim. The robot I had smashed with my fist was sprawled out over me and two others were grappling my arms and trying to pin them down, while a fourth was sitting on top of his fallen mechanical brother and it was getting ready to punch me in the face with its metal fist. Luckily I still had my wonderful high-tech, classical Greek helmet on my head. I saw the robot haul back to punch me and I turned my head. Its fist smashed into the side of my helmet. It hurt like crazy and it left me dazed but I was still breathing and that was all that mattered. Still I couldn't struggle free and the robot didn't hesitate to haul back and try to hit me again. Cursing aloud I turned my head in the opposite direction and took another hit in the helmet. By then I was hearing things and my vision was fading. Staggered, I waited for the next blow to happen knowing that I wasn't going to be able to do much about it. It never came.

There was a burst of gunfire and the robot's head shredded. Instantly the other robot let go of me, responding to what it perceived as being the greater threat. Their letting go of me didn't help much. I still had two robots sprawled out on top of me and my head was still all messed up. All I could do was groan aloud and flail about until I was able to knock the stricken robots off of me. By then there were a couple of more blasts of gunfire and then there was silence. When I finally got to my knees I saw that reinforcements had arrived. Felicity was standing in the corridor with her carbine at the ready. Be side her stood Kola, Caitlin, and Nimue.

"Fuck," I swore through a swollen, bloody lip, "that was a total bitch!"

Nobody responded to that statement and I didn't expect it. As I struggled to my feet, Kola and Caitlin came rushing forward to help me get up.

"Are you okay, my mate?" Kola asked me, her voice filled with concern.

"I will be," I said in a tired voice, "once I've had a nice bath and a strong drink to ease my pains. Until then I'm going to be grouchy."

I had meant my words to reassure people that I was alright. If they did, I didn't sense it. Instead I sensed concern and fear and a hell of a lot of tension. I blinked my eyes in an attempt to focus my vision and then I took a good look around.

The first thing I noticed was that Felicity had ditched her carbine and she was kneeling beside Goiania and she was shaking her head. I also noticed that Nimue was kneeling beside Dork. Both of my companions were down and from the look of the blood splattered about, one or both of them were seriously injured. From the concern on Felicity's face I knew it was Goiania. I cursed that aloud and then shook my anger off. My mind was beginning to clear and I knew I needed to focus. The first thing I did was to ask for my carbine. When Caitlin handed it to me, I changed out my magazine and chambered a round. Only then did I ask how my two friends were doing.

"Goiania needs to get to a hospital," Felicity told me sharply without even looking up from what she is doing. "She's taken several blows to her head and I think that she might have internal bleeding. It could be worse. Dork is in a bad way as well, although I think he is more like you than Goiania. He's still conscious and functioning even though the robots put a pounding on him. As for you, you shouldn't be up and about, but you are. You can thank that Daphne chick that you're always talking about for that."

"Did Richards get rid of all the robots?" I asked, pushing what she had just told me to one side while I got the information that I needed to make my next move.

"Yes and no," Felicity said with a heavy sigh. "Once he was able to identify and lock onto the various robots in this place he was able to grab most of them and teleport those out to sea like you asked. However he wasn't able to grab the ones down here. We found out quickly that jammers interfered with the teleportation beams when we tried to beam the security robots off of you and the others. That's why we're out of the control room and here."

"What about Mai Woo?" I asked anxiously. "Is Richards covering her?"

"Yes," Kola said picking up the conversation, "although I don't think she will be much of a problem. The woman is too stunned with all that has been going on to interfere."

"I still don't want to take a chance with her," I muttered in reply. "Caitlin ... I want you to go back and give Richards a hand. Tell him to get my troops here as quickly as possible. He is also to find the medical clinic in this place. Given the status of the people who come here, my guess would be that there has to be a full medical team on duty here just in case of an emergency. If he can find them first, have him teleport them and a gurney down here right away for Goiania."

Caitlin hurried off and did as I had told her while I stayed behind and checked on Dork. The big guy was lying against the corridor wall with his helmet off and his gorget removed. His face was bloody and when he looked up at me and gave me a reassuring grin, I could see that a couple of his teeth were missing. As I knelt down beside him, Nimue stood and moved away so that I could have some privacy with the man and she could keep an eye out for any more danger.

"How are you doing?" I asked him in a low voice.

"I'll live," Dork grunted, "and I'll fight again so you needn't worry. What about Goiania? Tell me about her."

His voice had turned serious at the end and I could guess why. Dork and Goiania had known each other for years now. They had suffered together and they had fought together and perhaps they had done even more. That I didn't know for certain. I did know that I needed to be honest with the man.

"It's serious," I said in a hushed voice. "I've ordered Richards to find a medical facility in this complex. By all reasoning there should be one nearby. Once he's found it, I'll be getting her to it as quickly and safely as possible. Then it will be up to Felicity and whatever gods Goiania prays to."

Dork grunted at that and then spat off to one side some blood that had welled up in his mouth. Then he glanced over at where Goiania lay and where Felicity knelt beside her.

"Give me a hand," Dork told me when he looked back at me, "and help me to my feet. You're going to need help and I can't sit about here while there is work to be done."