Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle Read Online Free Page A

her now. She was the machine, and the machine was her. She had seen Eric like this when they first met. She had compared him to a mindless sentry gun on auto, but he hadn’t been mindless, and neither was she. She could take control away from TRS at any time, but she didn’t. It could target the enemy faster than she could even in melee mode.
    Factory default for melee mode shunted all resources to combat and left none for defence, but as with most things viper related, parameters were adjustable. Gina had kept back a little something. Not much. Barely anything really, but enough that IMS could work even at its currently starved for resources level. Back in the classroom when the recruits were taught the hows and the whys of viper design, she had decided that leaving melee mode at its default settings would be a bad idea. What point in killing her enemies and then dying from blood loss, she had thought. Not everyone agreed. Eric didn’t, and she knew most of the veterans didn’t. For them all that mattered was the mission, but she was still new enough that her life meant something to her. Besides, it was a waste to die if it could be prevented. If she could survive to fight another mission, surely it was worth holding back a single percentage point? Gina had thought so. Of course, she would look pretty silly if she died because she hadn’t committed that final one percent, but a girl couldn’t have everything.
    More damage reports added themselves to the list. Right shoulder, left hip, left hand, left leg... she spun to the left and fired. Another red icon faded. The fucker had done a number on her left side, but she was still fighting.
    Suddenly TRS went offline and Gina staggered to one knee panting and in pain. TRS had quit on her, was she damaged that badly? Diagnostics said no, she was just out of targets. She remained in melee mode, too scared to lose even a fraction of a second by dropping back to combat mode only to realise she needed the speed boost of melee mode again.
    A sensor sweep showed hostiles near but not near enough for TRS to keep fighting. There was time to reload, exchange power cells too, which she did. She was running low. She ruthlessly searched Cragg’s body and scavenged his ammo and cells, transferring it all to her own webbing. She ripped open her medikit scattering its contents in her haste, her hands a blur. She let the aerosols roll away, and didn’t bother with the sterile self-sealing bandages. She was only interested in the nano injector. As she had with Cragg, she hammered the entire mag into her thigh. Barely running with the resources she had left it, her IMS needed the help.
    Another sensor sweep. Merkiaari were gathering but not closing yet. She made a decision, and slung her rifle on her back. She grabbed Cragg’s body and threw him off the roof. As long as he didn’t land on his head, he would survive. Hell, for all she knew he would survive even that. In hibernation, his resources were being used in the exact opposite manner to hers. Everything he had was dedicated to survival and repair.
    His body thumped onto the ground on its back and bounced a little to settle face down. He had hit the ground, as a corpse would have, all slack-boned and unflinching. The little death was indistinguishable from true death until wake up time.
    Gina checked her sensors again noting positions of the enemy and Hiller’s position, the closest viper. She looked down three stories, and jumped. She crashed down and melee mode did little to help the impact. She didn’t feel the pain though, so maybe melee mode did have other uses than pure combat. Pain response was suppressed, but damage still occurred, and another entry appeared on her list; left hip again.
    She limped up to Cragg and lifted him onto her shoulder. She took a deep breath and ran into the open street. The moment she did, red icons swarmed. She grinned. That had surprised the buggers. They had been setting themselves to assault the