Swan Song (Book Three of the Icarus Trilogy) (42 page)

Some guard on one of the balconies was able to spot the commotion and fired on the revolutionaries as they neared the lobby doors.  Jenkins was only just able to narrowly avoid a stream of bullets, diving and rolling out of the way of the deadly shells, which were splitting apart and breaking up the pavement around him.  He almost thought he was going to die there, but luckily the turret gunner was taken out by a sniper round. 

Jenkins didn't need to look for the shooter.  He knew that the jester had his back just like old times.

The three Crows, Kaspar and two of the Sparrows rushed towards the doors nearest them and within a few moments were in relative safety.  The other teams would have to catch up, but it was time for them to move.  With Jasper's finger on the button, they couldn't waste any time.  After a few motions of his hand to signify tactics, Jenkins kicked open the doors to find five soldiers had set up a barricade.

And while the other four could be easily dispatched, Ryan's heart sank when he saw Gerrig standing in the middle, his mini-gun already spinning.

"Out!" Ryan shouted as he stepped back and dove for the wall to his left, his companions also retreating to cover.  One of the Sparrows was caught in the confusion and the slave soldiers watched as the man's body was riddled with bullets, the glass doors shattering and pummeling the poor soldier's standing corpse.  After a few seconds the bullets stopped flying and the man's body fell to the ground, bloody chunks scattered along the ground behind him.

"Goddamnit," Ryan cursed, realizing that it was his fault that they walked into a situation like that. 

"C'mon out, Jenkins.  We can end this now," Gerrig said lazily from beyond the shattered doors.  Ryan was about to curse the Mastodon but held his tongue, not wanting to spare an extra second for the man who had betrayed all of them.  He armed a frag grenade, cooked it for a couple seconds and then threw it towards the barricade, where it exploded almost immediately.

"Really, Jenkins?" Gerrig taunted from the barricade, seemingly unaffected.  Ryan was about to give into his rage when he noticed Templeton following up with two grenades of his own before diving back to cover.  He was followed by a number of deadly bullets, but the grenades exploded soon afterwards.

"This extra armor is really handy, gentlemen," Gerrig said from his place beyond their sight.  "It's what you get when you're not scrounging around for second-hand parts.  C'mon, it's not too late to join.  You can surrender and we can all live under the safety of the Trade Union."

"Go to Hell, you fucking traitor!" Carver shouted, surprising the other soldiers present.  They had never seen Carver get so angry, but they all shared the sentiment.  The Mastodon had given up three of their friends just so that he could be on the other side of the war.

"Guys," Ryan said over the private line, "I'm not sure what to do here."

"I do."

-

Norris jumped down from the second story of the building on Sunflower Street and tucked into a forward roll.  The fortified armor would be able to protect him from extra damage, but it couldn't do much if he was going to be an idiot.  Edward gathered his wits after landing and looked at the imposing tower in front of him.  He wished he could just send a bullet to the top floor, but he knew that wasn't his role in this fight.  Norris had to support his fellow revolutionaries.

From his vantage point on the roof he had been able to take out a few of the turret gunners, his fellow snipers had done the rest, but once he saw the Sparrow die next to the Crows, Norris knew he had to change position.  The Englishman broke into an assisted sprint and then lined himself up with the front doors of the tower.  Even here it was somewhat hazardous if Gerrig sent a few shells his way, but it was a risk Edward was willing to take.

The red-headed killer crouched down to one knee and looked through his scope.  He could see his friends on either side of the doorway and knew they were in a tough position.  Gerrig was a monster in that fortified armor, looking like a bastardized version of his former self.  Norris wondered how the brute could live with himself; how he didn't just lay down his arms right there and then.  Edward looked at the other guards and saw another man wearing a Mastodon on his shoulder, but Norris didn’t see the woman who had manipulated him so well.  He almost felt relieved he wouldn’t have to kill Cassandra.

"Guys, I'm not sure what to do here," Ryan said over the private line, but Norris had to smile at that.  The messiah figure had forgotten who was fighting with him in this little war.

"I do," Norris said as he grinned, adjusting for wind and distance, taking aim at the giant Mastodon's neck.  The smile disappeared after a moment, and the jester breathed in deeply before looking at his enemy. 

"This is for Goldstein," Norris said with grim resolve.  When he breathed out, he pulled the trigger and felt the mule kick of recoil.

"What the-?" Templeton said over Comms, but that just caused Norris to break out into that twisted smile again.  Edward saw the arterial spray from the Mastodon's neck and knew that it was a dead man standing there.

That didn't stop Gerrig from pulling the trigger as he fell.

Norris almost dropped his rifle as the deadly bullets flew around him.  He quickly dove to the right and jumped into the air as far as he could, about three meters, hoping that his acrobatics would be enough to avoid the ammunition coming from Gerrig's mini-gun.  As he was about to touch the ground again, Edward felt a bullet lance through his calf muscle, obliterating most of that leg.

"FUCK!" he shouted as he rolled onto the ground and behind a broken-down bus.  He looked down his body to see the remnants of his lower leg lying a meter away from a bleeding stump.

"Norris, you ok?" Ryan shouted over Comms, but the sniper almost didn't hear him.

"Ye....yeah, I'm fine.  My .... my," he said as he looked down at his ruined leg and felt the polymers of the suit trying to stem the flow of blood out of his body.  "My rifle jammed, is all.  Got rid of Gerrig for you, though, so you....," he said as he grimaced in pain, "you guys just take care of the riff-raff, alright?"

"Alright, fine, but you get that fixed and back us up from the air, ok?" Ryan commanded before talking to the teammates around him.

"Will do, mate," Norris said as he felt far too much pain from his bleeding limb.  He didn't know how long the suit would be able to contain the blood flow, they had been upgraded since the slave soldiers had come to Earth, but he knew it couldn't be that long.

"This is Norris," the sniper said over the broadband, hoping that his friends were too distracted to hear him.  He didn't want Ryan or any of the others to worry about him or his missing leg, but he needed help.  "I need a pick-up at my coordinates, at the end of Sunflower.  Need air transport and...." he looked down at his right leg, "and a medic."

-

Jenkins brought his rifle to bear and squared up against the double doors.  He took aim as Gerrig’s fellow Mastodon popped out of cover and immediately sent a bullet through the man's helmet.  He retreated once the other three started to fire on his position and tried to gather his thoughts now that the traitors were dead.  The messiah figure looked to his companions and breathed in deeply.

"Alright, there's one on the left, two on the right.  They are all trigger happy," Jenkins said, wondering if his fellow soldiers would have any suggestions.

"Where is Norris now?  We could use that fucker," Templeton said with disdain, but Jenkins tried not to think about it.  Ryan had heard the Englishman use that tone of voice before; Norris was doing his best to hide a great deal of pain.  They couldn't depend on the sniper anymore.

"Best to just move on.  Any thoughts?"

"Umm, I might," Kaspar said from the other side of the doorway.  All four of the soldiers looked at him expectantly, which caused James to gulp in air, but almost immediately he remembered his place.  These men might be leaders of the resistance, but he had more experience on Eris than most of them.

"You know the Tojo maneuver?" James asked, hoping that he would have another man to help him.

"I'm too old for that nonsense," Carver said immediately, but the Sparrow next to Jenkins nodded nervously.

"I... I think I can do that," he said.  James tried to remember the smaller man's name, but couldn't find it.  After a moment the Sparrow was able to see Kaspar's frustration and helped him out.  "It's Mauser."

"Mauser, right.  Sorry," James said in his embarrassment.  "You sure you can do it?"

"I think so, we'll know pretty quickly," the smaller man said nervously.

"Are you sure, Kaspar?" Jenkins asked from the other side of the doorway.  "We can figure something else out."

"Well, Mauser and I, we're the expendable ones.  You three have to make it, so... well, if we don't.... at least you have a good distraction," Kaspar said as he mustered his nerve.  It was a risky move, and if he was a betting man he would not have given himself good odds.

"Thank you," Ryan Jenkins said before backing away from the door, allowing Mauser to get closer to the edge.

"We'll back you up as best we can," Carver said as he let Kaspar get to his position.

"I throw the grenade and then on three we move, alright?" Kaspar said to his partner.  Mauser nodded nervously and James could tell that he was preparing to die.

"Well, here's to hoping," Kaspar said as he threw a concussion grenade down the hallway.  It was greeted with a scattering of machine gun rounds, but after a few clinks of the grenade the gunfire stopped and the three soldiers retreated behind cover.  The two revolutionaries broke cover as the grenade exploded, running through the blast radius and leaping over the barricades set up by Montgomery's Private Security.

Tojo had pioneered the move a few decades ago, using explosives or other distractions to occupy his enemies while he jumped over them and attacked from behind.  When James landed, he found that the two Private Security guards were only slightly stunned by the tactic.  They brought up their weapons almost immediately, but Kaspar had already sunk his knife into the neck of the soldier to his right.  As he pulled out the blade from the woman's throat, he turned and aimed his rifle into the helmet of the other security guard before pulling the trigger. 

Kaspar only had a moment of respite before he saw Mauser stagger from gunshot wounds to the torso.  He brought his rifle to bear, but as he did, he saw the two men falling to the ground.  James rushed over to his compatriot's side to see that the Sparrow had taken out his enemy at the expense of his own life.

"Mauser..."

"Don't worry about it," the soldier said weakly, blood already pooling around his small frame.  He was unable to lift his head from his position.  "Eris was a death sentence.  I had three months of freedom.  More.... more than enough," the small man said before he breathed his last.  Kaspar stood over the man for a moment, wondering why he was so willing to die, but he was interrupted from his thoughts as the three Crows joined him.

"We'll grieve later, Kaspar," Templeton said as he hurdled over the barrier.  "We have to get to the top floor before Montgomery goes even more insane."

"But," Kaspar started, but Jenkins walked up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"He's right, James," Ryan said, shocking the last remaining Lion by knowing his first name.  "I know it's a terrible burden, but we all have to keep going.  You ok?" he asked, to which the older man nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine.  Just... it was my suggestion," Kaspar said before shaking his head and clearing his mind.

"That's.... well, I can sympathize with that.  Henry," he said while motioning to Mauser, "was a good guy.  But we will have to remember him later," Jenkins concluded before releasing the man and joining his comrades by the elevator.  "We're not suicidal enough to take the elevator, are we?"

"Hell no," Carver responded before motioning towards the stairwell with his rifle.  Kaspar watched the three revolutionaries and wondered what was going through their minds.  He shrugged as he walked over and joined them.

"Stairs it is," Templeton said before sighing.

"How many stories is it, you think?" Jenkins asked as they walked over to the doorway.

"Too many," Carver responded as he followed.

No wonder the Crows were always one of the top-ranking teams.  They're crazy
, James thought as he entered the stairwell and sprinted after his fellow revolutionaries.

-

As they made their way up the first stairwell, the four revolutionaries encountered a fair amount of resistance, but the revolutionaries took care of them handedly.  Templeton took point most of the time, but they would rotate their lineup as each soldier needed to reload.  Kaspar was surprised at how efficient these warriors could be.