Page 41 of Operation Iron Heart

“What can I do?” cried Marci in despair.

“Here, take this,” said Jack, placing a hard object that looked like a miniature baseball in her hand.

“What’s this?”

“An ultrasonic grenade. When I say so, throw it between the tanks, understood?”

“Yes,” gasped Marci, nodding apprehensively. What on earth was he planning?

She watched anxiously as he strode over to a holographic computer platform and quickly launched some graphics before swiping expertly from left to right to amend the program currently running. Marci didn’t understand any of it but she suddenly saw the men in the tanks open their eyes and then stare at them, panicking and starting to suffocate in the nutrient solution.

“Now!” thundered Jack from the platform. Frozen with shock and fear, she dropped the grenade before she could throw it and it rolled away from her.

“Take cover!” yelled Jack. Thinking quickly, Marci threw herself behind a metal wall. The pressure of the sonic grenade slammed her against the cold metal as hundreds of tanks shattered, spilling well-muscled, naked men onto the spotlessly clean floor. A wave of liquid from the tanks swept over to where Marci was pinned against the wall, soaking through her white trouser suit.

In a flash, Jack was beside her, pulling her onto her feet as he shouted out to the dazed soldiers, telling them who he was and what his mission was. They were still coming round from their sleep, but most of them seemed to recall immediately what had been done to them and why they were here. Their expressions said they were ready for a fight. Jack was used to issuing commands and told two of them to head for the two exits. He pushed Marci into a recess and ordered her to stay there until he gave a signal that she should come out. He gave her laser rifle to a huge red-haired giant, who – completely naked – purposefully took up an ambush position with the weapon poised to fire.

The first combat robots under MacIntyre’s command burst through the doors and were met by Jack and his new allies. Any weapons they acquired were immediately passed over to the hybrid soldiers, quickly creating an armed opposing force. They may not have been wearing uniforms, but their horrific experiences in this place made them ready for anything. It wasn’t an easy fight, though. Marci had to watch as some of the men, barely out of the tanks, became victims of their new and old opponents. At least ten men died before they and Jack managed to shoot their way free.

Jack grabbed Marci as he ran past her, pulling her into a mass of several hundred naked fighting men, all utterly focused on escape and revenge. A seething mix of irrepressible will to survive and the raw violence that came with it, they raged towards the exit like a herd of wild bulls, knocking over everything that got in their way.

Marci’s confusion increased as, halfway to the exit, Jack pulled her out of the protective shield of hybrid soldiers and ducked into an empty side corridor. “What are you doing?” she whispered breathlessly.

“I want to get to the combat robots’ hangar,” he replied tersely before unceremoniously picking her up and throwing her over his massive shoulders. Running at incredible speed, he headed from one corridor to the next until they finally reached a sliding door that they’d previously gone through with MacIntyre, except now it was hermetically sealed. Jack set Marci down on the ground and used his laser rifle to rapidly destroy the lock mechanism. He shoved the door violently aside, creating access to the robots’ construction hangar. He ordered Marci to stay near him and set to work on the programming for those robots that didn’t yet have any human parts. For some reason, their production had come to a halt and around fifty robots were waiting for their final inspection.

Marci watched as Jack connected up his own consciousness with the system by touching a finger to the scanner before entering some data that woke up the finished robots.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” warned Marci. “What if they obey MacIntyre instead of you?”

“I deleted their fighting impulse and turned them into fluffy lambs,” he assured her with a grin.

Marci was still fearful as the finished robots stood up and started to move as one, particularly as they all stared in their direction. Unlike the hybrid soldiers, they already wore full combat kit and had integrated weapons systems. For a moment, it looked like they might use their abilities against Marci and Jack, but then – looking slightly baffled – they ignored their rescuers, broke through the security barriers and simply marched off.

“Come,” said Jack, grabbing Marci by the hand. “We need to make the most of the chaos and get out of here.”

Marci was only too pleased to follow Jack as he led her down another confusing set of corridors, the sounds of fighting echoing all around them. If Jack’s mental map were correct, they should soon reach the hangar where MacIntyre’s service fleet was stored and they could hijack one of the gliders to make their escape.

It didn’t turn out to be quite that easy, however. Only a few hundred metres away from the hangar, they were attacked by MacIntyre’s guards and Jack couldn’t eliminate all the soldiers who stood in their way. Keeping her head down, Marci grabbed a weapon from the ground next to a fallen combat robot and followed him.

From the blue markings on the ground, they could tell they’d nearly reached their goal when they suddenly ran up against a wall of ferocious robot soldiers standing in their path, who opened fire on them. Jack threw himself in front of Marci to shield her and was hit by one of the lasers. Horrified, Marci saw that the laser had burned into his shoulder and his leg, causing him to stumble. Without thinking, she came out from behind him and opened fire, decapitating four robot soldiers in one go. She hit the fifth one in his command centre that in a normal robot was not in the head, but rather just under the heart. Once she was certain that the robots were no longer moving, she turned to look after Jack, who lay on the ground breathing rapidly.

“Can you walk?” she asked, even though it was obvious that he couldn’t, otherwise he would have been on his feet by now.

“Run to the hangar,” he gasped. “I’ll cover you.”

“And what am I supposed to do when I get there?” asked Marci in confusion. “Without you?”

“Silver’s on his way.” He groaned, his wounds bleeding profusely. She could see that his strength was fading rapidly.

“I’m not leaving you behind,” she said, her mouth set in an obstinate line as she flicked her sweaty hair away from her face. “Come on, I’ll help you up. Lean on me.”

“I’m four times your weight,” he said, shaking his head. “It won’t work.”

“But I can’t leave here without you,” she wailed in despair.

“You won’t have to,” said a sneering voice. She looked up, straight into MacIntyre’s cold robot eyes. He had his laser pistol pointed at her and was flanked by a troop of soldiers who were all armed. “You two will die. Here. Today.” His voice was ice-cold. “And no god in the world is going to reunite you in some shitty paradise.”

Marci felt wild panic tear through her as MacIntyre instructed his men to grab them both and take them away.