Omega Games by S. L. Viehl Page B

the drones. I saw armor begin to liquefy around the beams, and remembered that Trellus had once been used to mine arutanium. I flattened myself back against the access way wall. The only thing that could remove and process the mineral was an arutanium particle laser, which would cut through anything it touched— including me.
    Abruptly the powerful mining beams shut off, and all three of the remaining drones went inert and toppled over, spilling pools of steaming fluid from their melted insides. I didn’t wait to see what would come out of the hatch or the air lock, but ran. I was in a section of the access way that offered no exits except to the surface.
    It can’t follow me out there.
    My weighted envirosuit, which had not been designed for speed of movement, dragged at my limbs. I heard a familiar hissing sound behind me and scanned the sides of the access way. I headed for an outer air lock and hurled myself into it, shutting the doors and securing them as the Tingalean had.
    Something threw itself into the panels from the other side, denting the thick plasteel. Then a laser began humming.
    The suit’s gloves made my fingers clumsy, but I enabled my suit’s temperature controls and air supply flow, checked my seals, and opened the doors to the surface. Air rushed around me as the Tingalean used the laser to burn through the air lock’s seal, and I silently prayed that no one else had entered the access way.
    A hiss came over my suit com, making my blood freeze as I slowly turned and saw the reptilian in its own envirosuit, emerging from the surface air lock and moving more rapidly than I had thought possible. Under its arm it carried what had to be the mining laser.
    It had disabled four battle drones. My chances of stopping or eluding it were unlikely. I pressed the com button on my suit control panel, transmitting my audio to any console within range that had an open channel.
    “This is Resa,” I said as I kept moving. “Mercy, if you can hear this, the drones you sent with me are all disabled. I’m out on the surface being pursued by the Tingalean who attacked them. It has a mining laser. I don’t think I’m going to reach Omega Dome in time to escape it.”
    “Dr. Grey Veil?” an unfamiliar Terran male’s voice asked.
    “Yes. Did you hear my last transmission?” I went around the edge of a small crater filled with jagged rock. “My escort was attacked and—”
    “You’re alone out there,” he finished for me. “We picked up your com signal. You have to take cover now. That cluster of basalt pillars fifty yards to your right will do. Stay there until the threat is neutralized. ”
    I didn’t know how he could see me, but I wouldn’t waste time finding out. I made my way to the pillars and carefully squeezed into a gap between two of them. The surface began to tremble under my heavy soles, and I saw a long, wide shadow stretch out toward the Tingalean.
    This drednoc was twice the size of Mercy’s, with a different configuration of extensors and attachments. It looked more like a man—like a mechanical giant of a man—with a larger sensor case, grapplers made to appear like humanoid arms, and two lower appendages that functioned like biped legs. It gave off strange vibrations, and as it passed the pillars, they caused dust from them to slowly rain down on my helmet.
    The Tingalean enabled the laser and aimed it at the pillars, completely ignoring the drednoc. The giant came up and snatched the laser out of the lizard being’s hands just as it fired, shifting the beam up into space. The drednoc backhanded the Tingalean, who sailed over the airless surface and landed near the junction of two access ways. It pulled open a hatch and disappeared into it.
    “It’s gone,” I said, trying not to hyperventilate as the drednoc lumbered over to the mining laser and picked it up. It switched off the power cells and continued on its way to Omega Dome. “Drefan, can you hear me?”
    “Yes,” he said