"Oh shit, they’ve got it working!" Gary slammed on the brakes and the jeep skidded to a halt in the north tunnel. "Hope it hasn't eaten those two idiots in the process otherwise we’re next on the menu," Cray swore and got the carbine out of the locker, thumbed an antivehicle grenade into the launcher underneath the stubby weapon. ‘Buzz’ as he was now nicknamed asked for confirmation back to the control deck where Marr and Rachael where hiding in the APC, Rachael’s finger hovered over the authorise key and hit the negative instead while Marr kept on finger on the self destruct unit. Her fingers flashed across the keyboard signaling for the manchine to return to its designated area and power down, Cray watched the 12 foot tall, 2 ton machine lumber effortlessly over the one metre deep rail lines and hunch over near the APC.
"Welcome to Delta base gents," Gary looked over to the pair of new additions in the back seat and wheeled the jeep up the ramp and into the base. Lance corporal Yevgeny Bobrov and private Sian T’ling got out of the vehicle and followed Cray and Gary over to the APC nervously fingering their SHEER assault rifles while Sgt Marr and Rachael emerged from their hiding spot.
"I thought you where supposed to have private Milan as well?" Bobrov looked over to T’ling who seemed somewhat saddened by their companions’ name being mentioned. "He died yesterday," the corporal volunteered eventually, "he had gangrene in his leg from a wound and we didn't have any drugs to treat it. You are Agent Chicane young lady?"
"Yes, glad to finally meet you Bobrov and T’ling. Even if it is under these unfortunate circumstances and Im sorry to hear about Lancer team." The heavily built corporal shrugged under his Oneway armour and his slightly built companion looked on the verge of crying but held it back. "Ah, it is the fortunes of war madam officer, thankyou for remembering us to get us out, it has not been easy for all of us."
Compared to their own life on the run for the last 10 days the two troopers found the relative squalor of the camp somewhat luxurious compared to some places they had been. Here they could rest easier, eat and get out of the filthy rain, which had been increasing in intensity over the last week. Cray left Rachael to do their complete debriefing while he and Gary had other things to do this morning, one of which was question Marr about the mechanical monstrosity he’d cobbled together.
"Terragin Systems Mark 23 Urban pacification systems model 033239. Well, the HERF burst whited out most of its programming, reset the ECU’s and directives, our little miss has had the time to overwrite them while it was offline. It seems fairly safe for us but Ive hooked up an independent self destruct and shutdown system as well if Buzz gets cranky."
Cray didn't seem so convinced but continued listening anyway, worried at what he was hearing and the obvious modifications to their newest team member.
"Ive patched in better target acquisition and tactical support with a burned version of our V76.6 CCPU software so Buzz has a better idea of what he’s shooting at and where it will run, what it will do. Then theres the hardware..."
"I can see what it’s got Sergeant! I was going to trade those power reapers on the open market today as a way of getting us off this shit hole planet."
Marr looked a little forlorn and rubbed a dirty hand through his thinning black hair, "Ive still got the 17mm rifle we got off that dead operative you can have, an 808 reaper and 30 or so of those GAG rifles."
"Yeah, alright Sgt Marr I guess they will do for now. Please continue."
"8000 round gauss bins feed up to the 4 reapers on the shoulders you see there and Ive improved the strength of the conduits driving the limbs articulation. They where in surprisingly good condition considering how long its been running around, bit of a respray on the chassis with some ECM paint so he’s harder to see on sensors. Oh, Buzz now has stronger blades and claws, I nanosharpened and hardened them so that he can chew through vehicles with them..."
"Ok Sergeant, that’s enough I get the idea. Just one thing though."
"What else would you like sir?"
"Spray the 7th’s logo on him and the shark so they know who sent him."
Marr smiled and reached for the aerosol cans.
"My good friend Sgt Davidson, you look surprisingly well for a dead man today." Mary-Lee stepped out of her battered Augustus car wearing her crackshot armour and walked over to them with two of her huge Johanna bodyguards in tow.
"Im not dead lady, unless you and your pals are up to no good." Cray snapped back angrily and hefted the browbeater in their general direction.
"No, you misunderstand me Mr X. I did some checking around and found out that you’re supposed to be MIA. You also have a funny accent and Im wondering just who you are Mr X, so who are you exactly?"
Cray lowered his gauss rifle and motioned for Gary to do the same.
"I can’t tell you that, dont ask it again. Now let’s get to business."
"Let’s talk then shall we Mr X" and Mary-lee motioned over to the car, "out of the rain."
"Need to get off planet in 9 days from now, just into orbit. My friends will handle it from there." Cray felt nervous in the back of the car, which had seen better days and made them a big fat target.
"Getting a bit warm down here for you Mr X? So why do you and your people operate so well down here, your more like a military unit rather than freebooters or pirates?"
"It doesn't matter, can you get a shuttle for us to take a half dozen people and about 2 tons of equipment into orbit? Or give me pointers where I might acquire such a vessel nearby?"
The woman’s questioning was beginning to irritate him and she reminded him of a larger, stronger and uglier version of Rachael, she would have been stunning if it wasnt for the facial scarring. He made a point of not staring at it and keeping his mind on the job of avoiding her more pertinent questions.
"I dont like your chances of getting ahold of a Stingray but I do know a few smugglers that might be able to help you out. If you can make it worth my while."
Cray gave her a downpayment of the weapons to find a smuggler willing to take them into orbit and Mary-Lee gave him a phone number to call her on in a 3 days time. He felt that he was getting ripped off but there wasnt any alternative and the fixer was going to make a very tidy profit in all this if she just shut up and held down her end of the bargain. "We got robbed I reckon sir," Gary snarled at the departing Augustus plowing its way through the swampy alleyway. "Yeah, we did. But Im not hanging around here any longer than we need to so lets get outa here."
His little soldiers had been busy since Cray and Gary got back from their meeting that night with the Darknight fixer. Buzz had it’s first combat trial run against a group of SHIVER’s, captured their APC in the process and on the way back annihilated a squad of operatives before bounding back off into the underground tunnel systems. "Oh, he’s a bad motherfucker lieutenant!" Marr was delighted to report.
"See that he stays a bad motherfucker on our side sergeant, you've checked the new vehicle for bugs?" Cray suspected that both Marr and Rachael had done the unauthorised field-testing and wasnt at all glad for it being done without his consent.
"All cleared, its a different model to the Battle taxi, they call it a Hammer or something. Not a bad unit at all and she’s outfitted a lot better. Should give us a bit more comfort and room to spread the gear around too," Marr answered noticing his officer’s agitation. "Sergeant, leave Buzz for now and make sure that our new additions are properly equipped and their gear is up to spec. That is you primary responsibility for now. Good news is that we’ve maybe found a way off this rock, can you go tell Agent Chicane to come talk to me now please."
He weeded his way through the piles of equipment that now filled the Battle taxi from floor to the roof and found Rachael up the front in the drivers seat, which she seemed to have marked as her own little spot of privacy. Cray was annoyed that she hadn't come out to speak to him but she was concentrating on something on the little computer screen while sitting in the thermal sleepingbag like a black haired silver worm. "How did the meeting go?" She asked furiously punching buttons while the screen flashed with lines of code, at first he though she was playing a computer game but it was not one he was familiar with. "Oh as well as could be expected, we got gouged a bit with the price and its not a sure bet just yet. Should have a definite yes or no within the next 3 days."
"With the Darknight fixer you know? Dont mind me Im just letting Buzz loose in a SHIVER station 20 km away from here, ‘Shiver squish 901’ we’ll call it," Rachael smiled with a worn look on her face and punched in the order for ‘weapons free’. "You shouldn't trust her one bit, you’d only worry if she didn't sell us out on the day and wonder if it was part of a deeper plot."
He grunted and half agreed with her, "Im going to move you into the new Hammer APC with all the LAD gear, its better set up for what you want. Better armour, faster, better comms gear and we’ll take that one with us when we leave. The rest of us are going to turn the battle taxi into a proper troop carrier and move the beds out of this one." She shivered and wrapped herself in the sleepingbag a little deeper, "you are cold? I could get the corporal and Sgt Marr to go find you some warm clothes."
"Yes, Im cold. But I worry more about where those two would get them and how many holes are in them after. I guess moving me into the other APC will also make it easier for you to hide explosives in there again without any danger to yourself?"
Cray hung his head slightly and scratched his chin, "Im sorry, we just couldn't trust you for awhile until you checked out ok. Then the explosives would have been removed from your armour. I’ll see if I can make it up to you one day Rachael but for now just trust me to get us out of here."
"Not a chance of trust happening. Tell me when you want to move the equipment and Im bringing Buzz back here anyway. Do you think they will be able to fit him in?"
"No, I dont think we can take Buzz with us. We will have to see if he will fit first in whatever contraption they can find."