The hivemind is conquering for me? - Chapter 128

Chapter 128: Shots Fired, Shots Fired
I did not have to wait long for the clean up crew that was headed by non other than Caleb. “Shit, they really are just kids… Fucking Morons.” Caleb whispered, spiting the serpent swords. “Hey kid, you good?” He asked looking at my armoured form.

“Yea, I’m fine.” I replied now that a moment had passed and I had time to think. The kids were most likely to die in the decimation when the Spartari got here anyway. The idiots from Mindy’s group just sped up their end, while also jeopardising our mission at the same time.

“Ah, I feel sorry for you kid, No one in the universe should have to feel fine looking at a pile of young dead lads. Yet that is the galaxy we live in. You head back, me and the boys will deal with this” Caleb said tapping my pauldron.

The clean up crew did their job perfectly, No one in the base suspected anything about the shots and just waved it off as target practice and outside, Not a trace of blood was left for DNA tracing. In the eyes of local law enforcement, the boys probably just went clubbing for a few days as It was Alexandria’s weekend.

The next day, The mercenaries had once again managed to dig through the ground. However, This time something unexpected happened. “Shots fired, Shots fired!” Kathrine and I were in the middle of some midday fun when we heard the shout from outside the tent. As we looked at each other, I removed my member from her mouth and got dressed fast.

I left Kathrine behind as I donned my armour and rushed to the excavation entrance. At a glance, the mercenaries were surrounding the perimeter of the dig site, firing down into the ramp that lead to the main coordinate location.

As I reached a nearby Barricade, I peered over to observe what was shooting back at the mercenaries. Down below, what appeared to be 20 Automatons or some type of robots. They were mostly made up of a black metal and glowed red in certain areas that channelled power through the body. They appeared to be designed after Humans as their heads looked like helmets and they had two arms and two legs.

What was giving the Mercenaries a hard time was that their metallic shells seemed to simply absorb any laser fire while they simply took shelter from ballistics as they dinted the shells slightly. They too had laser weaponry, only instead of bursts, they had a prolonged laser beam that ripped through cover only after a few seconds.

From the initial surprise attack, It looked like 7 Mercenaries were dead below and quite a few injured. Heavy weaponry and gear were being unpacked from the ships while more men came to support against the robots below.

Seeing as I was the only mercenary in heavy combat gear at the moment, I decided to leap over my Cover and provide a distraction. As soon as I did, An Automaton swivelled its torso 180 degrees and fired its weapon at me.

I dodged to my left and the beam grazed me, causing my armour to heat up significantly in that area. I could not stop lest it concentrated fire upon me. I ran closer, zig zagging, until I could sufficient aim my minigun and fired. It took three seconds of concentrated Plasma rounds hitting its outer shell before they broke through and ripped the Robot in half.

In my excitement, I applied Psionic power to my voice and shouted. “Fetch plasma weaponry! It can destroy them!” The power in my voice was loud enough to part through all the gunfire and was heard all the way around the camp, causing a slight pause in surprise before the mercenaries got to work seeing to that order.

Sensing the threat that I was, 5 more Automaton/ robot things turned their attention to me and began firing their beams at me. “Oh shit.” I exclaimed as I started running from cover to cover getting closer to them each time while giving myself suppressing fire.

Fortunately for me, The mercenaries were rather well equipped for combat and now the pressure had been lifted from the initial surprise and the robots below were not surrounded. Hailstorms of munitions were being rained upon them. As an anti air Plasma based weapon was rolled up to begin firing, Two of the automatons turned to engage the threat giving me much needed respite and an opening I can exploit.

I leapt over the now molten digger I was using as cover and beelined for the closest automaton only a few meters away. Its combat AI or algorithms were extremely well made, as It turned in a millisecond and struck its laser dead centre on my chest plate.

Unfortunately for it, The purple orbs in the centre of my chest devour any matter that gets close to it and the beam simply failed to cause any damage. It was too late for the automaton to Change its strategy at that point as I Swung Zircon with extreme downwards force, cleaving the Automaton in two.

With Zircons insane sharpness doing incredible work, Two automatons were exposed now as they were pinned from all the gunfire. I raised my minigun and let rip destroying the pair of them. It was then, the area around me became a sea of pink.

My distraction had allowed the mercenaries to prepare under less fire and now all the plasma weaponry they had was tearing through the robots in moments. Don’t bring death lasers to mounted ship destroying anti air gun fight was the last lesson that went through their circuits before they were turned to scrap metal.

After the order for cease fire was given, The mercenaries were silent for a moment as the dust settled. Upon noticing the robots were dead and I was standing there, in my now extremely dented and patchy armour, A wave of cheers exploded in the crowd at having such an amazing fight. The tension from long days of mining was washed away as these ‘pay for warriors’ got their thirst for blood, or in this case oil and lubricants.

I called down for medics as I went to check on the bodies of the mercenaries who fell in the initial attack. None of the seven were alive and on top of the 32 others that were killed in the firefight among 77 extra that were wounded. The Automatons definitely had the upper hand in most in everything but numbers. And like my dearest hive, numbers do usually win.

Walking over to the Robot/ Automaton thing that I bisected With Zircon, I hunched over it and tore off the things arm and had My suit devour it. While my suit did begin to heal, I was disappointed that it did not look like It could absorb the laser refraction. ‘I’ll have Jewel look at the structure when I see her next and she may be able to do something with it.’

Turning my attention to the Automatons other arm, I ripped the weapon it was wielding out of its hand and inspected it all over. The weapon was a rifle that seemed extremely futuristic in my tastes, but to Spartari humans the design was practically ancient. It had a sleek black body, similar to a KSG, and an open vent on the side that you can see the laser when It is firing. The gun had a short sight and an under barrel which the robots had not used during the firefight for some reason.

I decided to claim this weapon as my spoils of war, which I doubt many will protest to as I did kill a four out of the twenty things myself. Suddenly I felt a hand on my pauldron I turned around in surprise as I did not hear anyone approach in my inspection.

“What the, oh Mindy hi.” “Oh thank goodness you are alright.” She said, placing a hand against her chest. “When the AA’s started firing profusely I was so worried for you I-” “Apollo!” Kathrine screamed as she ran over with Caleb. “By the stars you are ok! When my men said you jumped over the barricades to fight whatever you were fighting I was so worried.”

Kathrine proceeded to hug my kneeling form in front of a large crowd of onlooking mercenaries. I don’t get embarrassed easily, but this was pretty close to causing it. “You hired me to protect your people, I did what I was supposed to do.” I said as I patted her back as she almost began denting my armour with the amount of force in her hug. ‘That family Psionic technique is no joke’ I thought in the moment.

All the mercenaries in the area knew better than to make a commotion towards Kathrine as they may have done to anyone else and decided to just get back to work. After a moment, Kathrine realised how open she was being with her emotions in public and pulled back. ‘What was that?’ She thought about her strange behaviour before pulling away.

“That I did handsome, that I did. Now lets have a look at what we were fighting against.”

Kathrine had been so preoccupied with arming the men, she had not witnessed the battle herself, so as She turned her head to her right to look at the body next to me, her face grew white.

“No… it, it cant be… Is that a…”