shake even the suit as new red warnings flared up in her HUD, warning her of enemy fire nearby. She felt her head spin as new downloaded memories bubbled to the surface, pushing her to crawl away from the firing as fast as she could, leaving the Footsoldiers to defend themselves without having to worry about her. She still wanted to know what was going on and to see the Killer machines directly, but her suit remained in firm control, keeping her out of the firing line. They weren’t going to risk her life any further.
Part of Paula’s mind insisted that that was silly; she was in the heart of an alien starship, one commanded by a race that had thought nothing of frying all seven billion humans on Earth when they’d stumbled across the Solar System. The remainder of her mind was grateful; it took years to learn how to handle a suit properly and the brief lessons she’d had – and the downloaded memories – weren’t enough to make her an armoured combatant. It was more likely that she’d accidentally shoot her own side from the rear.
“Show me the feed from their suits,” she ordered, as the suit kept crawling away. “Show me what they’re seeing.”
The image appeared in front of her and she winced. Humanity had given its androids and other repair systems a vaguely humanoid form, but the Killers hadn’t bothered – or perhaps they did look like giant Octopuses. The machines seemed to have little sense of tactics – they marched relentlessly into the teeth of the Footsoldiers and their weapons – but they just kept coming. It was hard to tell if they had any vital components to hit at all; judging from the way they kept moving, Paula wouldn’t have bet against them having to be reduced completely to junk before they would stop moving. They didn’t seem to carry any projectile weapons of their own, but she saw one of them catch a Footsoldier in his suit and start tearing the suit apart as if it were made of paper. A suit that would allow its wearer to survive a near-miss from an atomic weapon or a hour’s bombardment with a laser cannon was just torn apart.
She felt her heart racing frantically as the suit kept moving, following orders from its own AI or from the Captain. Chris Kelsey hadn’t been happy to see her at all and had loudly protested her inclusion on the mission, but Paula hadn’t understood, not until she’d realised how far removed an Armoured Combat Suit was from a General Protection Suit. She’d used the latter constantly at Intelligence and had been used to using it, but the former was something entirely different. She was hardly qualified to take part in the mission and, as shots ricocheted over her head, wished that she was back on Intelligence, watching through the MassMind. Her students and fellow researchers would be watching her cowering from the fighting.
“We’re going to have to head onwards,” Chris said, through the suit’s communications system. “Get over to the far exit and prepare to run when I give the command.”
Paula allowed the suit to take control, concentrating instead on pulling up what the intruding teams had discovered about the Killer starship and studying it, trying to see the pattern she knew had to be there. The Killers could do a lot of things that humanity couldn’t do, but they weren't gods, or super-beings. Their tech had to be based on the same laws as humanity’s tech, which meant that if she could unlock the puzzle, she might figure out how the starship actually worked. She studied – again – the way the power relays seemed to work. If she was reading it correctly, there was a major source of transmissions coming from an area just short of the power core – a bridge? A command nexus of some kind?
Three Footsoldiers ran past her, their weapons raised, ready to take on anything they encountered, and then her suit came to life and hurled her after them. She felt the
Part of Paula’s mind insisted that that was silly; she was in the heart of an alien starship, one commanded by a race that had thought nothing of frying all seven billion humans on Earth when they’d stumbled across the Solar System. The remainder of her mind was grateful; it took years to learn how to handle a suit properly and the brief lessons she’d had – and the downloaded memories – weren’t enough to make her an armoured combatant. It was more likely that she’d accidentally shoot her own side from the rear.
“Show me the feed from their suits,” she ordered, as the suit kept crawling away. “Show me what they’re seeing.”
The image appeared in front of her and she winced. Humanity had given its androids and other repair systems a vaguely humanoid form, but the Killers hadn’t bothered – or perhaps they did look like giant Octopuses. The machines seemed to have little sense of tactics – they marched relentlessly into the teeth of the Footsoldiers and their weapons – but they just kept coming. It was hard to tell if they had any vital components to hit at all; judging from the way they kept moving, Paula wouldn’t have bet against them having to be reduced completely to junk before they would stop moving. They didn’t seem to carry any projectile weapons of their own, but she saw one of them catch a Footsoldier in his suit and start tearing the suit apart as if it were made of paper. A suit that would allow its wearer to survive a near-miss from an atomic weapon or a hour’s bombardment with a laser cannon was just torn apart.
She felt her heart racing frantically as the suit kept moving, following orders from its own AI or from the Captain. Chris Kelsey hadn’t been happy to see her at all and had loudly protested her inclusion on the mission, but Paula hadn’t understood, not until she’d realised how far removed an Armoured Combat Suit was from a General Protection Suit. She’d used the latter constantly at Intelligence and had been used to using it, but the former was something entirely different. She was hardly qualified to take part in the mission and, as shots ricocheted over her head, wished that she was back on Intelligence, watching through the MassMind. Her students and fellow researchers would be watching her cowering from the fighting.
“We’re going to have to head onwards,” Chris said, through the suit’s communications system. “Get over to the far exit and prepare to run when I give the command.”
Paula allowed the suit to take control, concentrating instead on pulling up what the intruding teams had discovered about the Killer starship and studying it, trying to see the pattern she knew had to be there. The Killers could do a lot of things that humanity couldn’t do, but they weren't gods, or super-beings. Their tech had to be based on the same laws as humanity’s tech, which meant that if she could unlock the puzzle, she might figure out how the starship actually worked. She studied – again – the way the power relays seemed to work. If she was reading it correctly, there was a major source of transmissions coming from an area just short of the power core – a bridge? A command nexus of some kind?
Three Footsoldiers ran past her, their weapons raised, ready to take on anything they encountered, and then her suit came to life and hurled her after them. She felt the
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