Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,116

so, you respond by trying to destroy me. When I offer salvation, you respond with violence. You leave me no choice.”

The sensor network into which Shay had tapped blanked out, the heat map going gray on our HUDs.

“Doors!” Korben shouted, but Shay and I were already moving. I sprinted to the hatch through which we’d entered. We’d left it open, in case we needed to beat feet out in a hurry. I regretted that decision as the first of the infected darkened the threshold. Three quick shots put it down, but there was another behind that. And another behind that.

I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, only to see that the Genetechnic people had already been engaged, more infected stepping from the shadows of the machinery. Bliss had clearly had its way with the sensor system we’d been using. No help would be coming from that direction. “Can you shut the door?” I asked Shay as I continued to service targets.

“Remote systems are locked out,” she said. I was aware, vaguely, of her firing her Gauss pistol toward the hatch, lending the weight of her fire to the fray. Even with her lack of experience and the adrenaline and terror of combat, with Bit’s help she was managing a surprising degree of accuracy. “I have to get to the hardware.”

“Great,” I said, though I didn’t broadcast it. I mentally switched the selector on the submachine gun from semi-auto to useless-most-of-the-time. There was precisely one scenario where automatic fire from a man-portable, unfixed weapon made any kind of sense at all. The rest of the time, it was just a way to waste a whole lot of rounds in a hurry. But the one time where it could be helpful happened to be when you wanted to lay down suppression fire to deny the enemy movement through a particular area. That fit the definition of what I needed fairly well, so I snugged the butt of the weapon tighter to my shoulder and took a much lower point of aim as the next cyber-zombie stepped to the doorway.

I depressed the trigger, riding the recoil, thankful for the artificial gravity as the contained explosions forced the muzzle up and away. The rounds punched into the infected, driving it momentarily back, slowing the progress of those behind it. I kept up the fire, not in one continuous stream, but in shorter, more controlled bursts, walking forward as I did so. This wasn’t combat. Once more, the analogy of fighting a fire sprang into my mind as I used the weight of metal to hold back the rushing tide of flesh.

Shay had kept firing, past and around me, picking her targets more carefully as we advanced. Soon, the door was clogged with coils, the ones in the rear having to climb the dead to get to us. I was vaguely aware of flashes of light behind us as the Genetechnic personnel and Korben fought against the infected in the room. How many? How many of them were already waiting, hidden in the cavernous life-support section? Well, if we couldn’t get the door closed, it wouldn’t matter. I dropped a magazine and slammed a fresh one home, the operation taking no more than a second. The barrel of the subgun was starting to glow, the barest hint of orange just visible in the dim lighting. If I kept up the rate of fire, I’d slag the barrel. If I stopped, the infected would surge into the room.

“Keep them back,” Shay ordered, breaking from her position behind me. I realized we had reached the door—I was practically contact-shooting the front rank of infected as they continued to push toward us.

I didn’t waste time on acknowledging—I just kept servicing the trigger. Shay had posted up by the door, Gauss pistol lying on the floor beside her, working furiously to get an access panel from the bulkhead next to the hatch. Then she was ripping into the wires, doing something with her tablet. Something—a fire axe?—swept out of the press of bodies, catching the barrel of my subgun, tearing it from my grasp and nearly breaking my finger. The tac-strap caught, pulling me forward. Pulling me toward the waiting hands.

I didn’t fight it. I transitioned as smoothly as I could to my Gauss gun and began firing. Bodies started falling away. Something bit hard into my hip and I nearly blacked out from the pain, staggering backward from the force and sudden loss of balance. I fell