The Lazarus War: Legion Read Online Free PDF Page A

asset from Maru. Professor Saul, with his experience in such a specialised field, and his research: those were definitely worth risking a five billion-credit simulant team for. It was the sort of conceit I’d not only come to accept, but learnt to expect.
    SIXTEEN MINUTES UNTIL TERMINAL DECLINE, my HUD insisted.
    “We need to move,” I ordered. “Get your shit together, Professor. Stay with us as we move through the station.”
    “Yes, yes.”
    I thought-activated the drone swarm: sending them off across the station to monitor our path. At that moment, something deep within the station’s structure exploded, giving a reverberant metallic boom.
    “And suit up, if you want to breathe.”
    The professor scrabbled around beneath his workbench, producing a battered plastic safety helmet. He clasped it into place, looking uneasy inside the spacesuit. Then he strapped a solid-shot pistol to his leg.
    I linked to Jenkins, moving as I talked.
    “What’s your status, Jenkins?”
    “Clearing the main mess hall now.”
    The mess hall wasn’t far from Communications – the group hadn’t made much progress. Damned civvies.
    “Not helped by the gravity and atmosphere leakage. Decks three through eleven are venting.”
    “Just keep moving. You got a bead on Kaminski?”
    “His signal is intermittent. I can’t get through to him.”
    “Keep trying.”
    “My scanner is malfunctioning as well. I can’t even pick you up on it.”
    “Use your good old-fashioned mark one eyeballs.”
    “Mark twos, actually.
    “Stay frosty. Harris out.”
    “Jenkins out.”
    We moved through the damaged lab doorway and out into the corridor. The overhead lights gave up – casting an impenetrable gloom over the section. I used my helmet sensor array, a combination of infrared and night-vision, to manoeuvre onwards. I triggered my mag-locks to keep moving. Behind me, I saw that Saul had a similar system incorporated into his suit. He wasn’t used to walking with locks though, and stumbled like he was wading through drying concrete. Mason hustled him along, her rifle panning the dark. A shrill keening filled the air.
    “That will be the primary drive malfunctioning,” Saul proclaimed. “The station was originally tethered into a geosynchronous orbit by the drivers in the lower decks. With those gone, we will reach terminal decline faster than anticipated.”
    My AI updated almost immediately: TWELVE MINUTES UNTIL TERMINAL DECLINE.
    “Damn. We’re losing time.”
    I was using the updated intel from the Communications Centre. The path to the shuttle bay was now mapped by my HUD and the continuous visuals from the drone swarm. Roughly half of those had now gone off-line; either no longer broadcasting, or perhaps destroyed by the chaos erupting across the facility.
    “What would cause such an occurrence?” Mason said, still moving on. “Didn’t your station AI predict that you had several minutes before safety parameters were breached?”
    Saul gave a soft shrug. Through the plasglass helmet, his thin face was sweating profusely. A disabling layer of condensation had formed on the interior of his face-plate.
    “Maybe the AI got it wrong. I’ve never really trusted her. Nothing that intelligent should be fully trusted. Or maybe some external force—”
    Before he could finish the sentence, the bio-scanner illuminated with a wave of soft targets – potential organic life-forms in our vicinity.
    There was no time to shout a warning.
    In front of me, a six-inch-thick metal bulkhead suddenly exploded. Debris showered us – boomer-fire pouring through the destroyed door. Bright as plasma, just as deadly: multi-coloured laser lances, scorching the floor and ceiling.
    “Brace!” I ordered, rolling aside as Krell flooded the corridor. “Shields up.”
    Another piece of new kit: the personal null-shield generator – one of Research & Development’s more useful innovations. I locked my left arm in front of my face, plasma rifle aimed with