ABC - Penance

Labour Camp One

There were four of them in the middle of the access road, kitted out in full riot gear with tactical shields held ready. A trio of armed Sentinels bulked out their numbers, with a blue painted Police van parked to block the road center. All of them were faced towards the Camp gates, only turning to observe us as Bobbi rolled to a stop.

“Sergeant Lincoln!” I called out, stepping down from the truck and striding forwards. “Are you here to take control of the Camp?”

“Good morning, Inspector” the Police Auxiliary replied, regarding me with alert eyes from behind his armoured visor. “I thought I heard you had left Unity?”

“Nope” I said easily, joining him to look over the distant buildings and towers, Smoke was rising from somewhere in the Camp, thick and black as it rose in a twisting pillar. “I have some business to conclude in there before I go. Will you be joining us?”

He frowned and looked at the ground, giving me his answer before he spoke.

“I have no jurisdiction beyond this point, Alvarez. If my officers take one step past those gates, we are no longer considered Police Auxiliary members. Any actions we take could be held against us individually and I won’t do that for the sake of any inmates inside the Camp”

“I see” I said quietly. “So why are you and your Officers out here?”

He turned and gestured at the main street behind us, the road and sidewalks empty as the town’s inhabitants stayed behind their doors.

“To keep my town safe” he declared. “If the prisoners try and make a break for it, my people will stop them at this line”

“Okay, I get that” I said acceptingly and went to walk away.

“Hey, Inspector!” he called to me, so I stopped and regarded him. “You are out of uniform. Simmonds, give her your cap” He said this to a female officer who reluctantly took her cap from where it was tucked into a shoulder strap of her armour vest.

“Don’t lose that, Inspector” Officer Simmonds told me, handing over the blue cap. “The Sergeant will make me pay for a replacement if I don’t get it back”

I adjusted the strap at the back and put it onto my head, feeling weirdly complete now my head was covered. It was only lightweight armour weave and cloth, yet I felt like I was armoured in a Power Suit.

“Thanks, Officer Simmonds. I’ll make sure I keep it safe”

Once I was back in the truck, Bobbi nosed the vehicle past the line of officers. I could see Sergeant Lincoln eyeing off Ghost and Unit Three in the rear tray, but all he did was nod and wave us on. In the rear view mirror I saw the Sentinel raise a hand to the small group clad in blue, getting a return gesture from Officer Milovich.

“Good luck!” the young officer called out, maybe to the mechanical, maybe to all of us.

=====

The first set of gates were closed, with the sentry posts abandoned and locked up tight. Beyond them we could see the inner gates on the entry side were also closed, yet the exit side was open, held by a Warden van that had been flipped onto its side.

“I can see two bodies near the van, looks like prisoners” Bobbi announced, her Enhanced eye scanning the scene. “There are more bodies on the ground, just this side of the sensor poles. They are wearing prison uniforms too”

“The PCDs must still be active, at least if they try and cross the perimeter” I offered, my own eyes barely able to see the distant shapes on the ground. “How are we going to get past this outer gate? It looks pretty solid, too big for me to punch through”

Catherine leaned forward from her back seat, chewing some gum as she surveyed the sturdy metal framed barrier. She popped a bubble alarmingly close to my ear and grinned like a maniac.

“This is why you have me on the team” she declared.

The Pyrokinetic got out of the truck and strode towards the gates, fire already forming on her upraised palms. My attention was torn between the young woman and the two closest towers that flanked the entrance. The domes that contained the heavy weapons were closed for now, hopefully out of commission since the Warden abandoned the Camp.

Catherine gathered more power into her Ability, the heat from her hands starting to blister the paintwork on the gates and bubble the asphalt at her feet. Miraculously the inferno she was summoning had no visible effect on her own body or clothing, her Ability shielding her even as she reached industrial furnace temperatures at arm’s length from her slender form.

I couldn’t look at the glare from Catherine any longer, turning my eyes away and blinking at the afterimages that danced there. Bobbi had closed her meat eye, watching with eager cries as her Pyromancer stepped forwards, thrusting her hands against the gate.

It turned to smoke and slag, the toughened steel alloy burned away by the fury of Catherine’s power. She walked along the length of the gate, melting a truck sized hole in the mesh barrier.

When my eyes were focussing again properly, I saw Catherine swagger back to the truck with a big grin creasing her features. Behind her, the metal was already cooling and the stink of burned iron was filling our nostrils.

“Good girl!” Bobbi praised her when she clambered back into her seat.

“Thanks Boss” she responded happily. “Better give it five to cool down though”

“Copy that” Bobbi agreed.

I put my estimation of Catherine’s Ability into a new level, glad that I had been able to catch her by surprise last time. If she had been channelling that much power when I had charged her, she would have literally incinerated me before I got into punching range.

Once she thought her tyres wouldn’t be melted by the cooling slag, Bobbi moved her truck carefully through the gap the Pyrokinetic had made. Ghost and Unit Three were keeping a watch on the weapons towers as we rolled into the middle area, fingers poised on matching Assault rifles.

Nothing fired at us and we soon reached the inner gates. Bobbi slowed when we passed the second gates, all of us craning our necks at the attempted escapees. All of them wore the white collars of PCDs around their necks, including the driver still slumped across the wheel of the toppled vehicle.

“Wonder how long it took the poor bastards to die?” Nigel asked from the back seat.

“Depends on the power setting in the Jangler” I commented. “They aren’t meant to be lethal, but if they got hit with a Level Ten dose right off the bat, it could stop their hearts”

Bobbi didn’t say anything, just kept us moving into the empty parking lot for Visitor vehicles. We were right near the edge of the secure zone, the striped poles that delineated the space barely five meters from us. There were about a dozen bodies, some women, mostly men, staggered in ones and twos on our side of this line.

“Fuck me, they must have set all of the PCDs to trigger with the highest power setting” I breathed out loud. “Poor bastards probably couldn’t even make it back to the safe zone before they died”

“Some might have made it back” Bobbi added. “You can bet the rest of the inmates stopped trying once they saw what happened”

We got out of the truck, weapons drawn and scanning the buildings around us. This close, we could hear distant shouts and the muted pop of small arms fire. Someone was still fighting, possibly Wardens or other Camp staff trapped here when Acres pulled out.

“Do we go and investigate?” Bobbi asked me.

“No” I decided. “Our mission is to get Charlie reinstated over the Camp. Once he has control of the network, we can call for help. He can also target any of the prisoners that we need to and activate their Janglers remotely. Sub-lethally of course” I added.

Ghost and Bobbi took the lead, with Nigel and I in the centre in a loose diamond formation. Catherine was in the rear, keeping pace with the towering form of Charlie. All of us had weapons drawn, scanning the buildings as we moved.

When we came around the side of the Administration building there was evidence of fighting. The Warden’s Headquarters had bodies slumped among the low planter boxes and ornamental trees that fronted the entrance. Some were in prisoner coveralls and others in Warden grey. Whatever weapons the Wardens may have carried were long gone, looted by the survivors.

The entrance doors were closed, bullet marks and shallow gouges evident in the Bonded Ceramiglass. Lights showed from within but there was no sign of movement that I could see.

“So not all of the Wardens left with Acres” I said, crouching to examine one of the bodies. It was a young female Warden, barely in her twenties. Her helmet was gone, her broad face showing the trauma from multiple blows, eyes half open in an unseeing gaze. I closed her eyes and took an abandoned jacket to lay over her head, feeling the anger towards the ones who caused all this bubbling up to the surface.

A shout from further in the Camp drew our attention. I could see a lone inmate, wearing a stolen armour vest over his coveralls and carrying a looted rifle. He gestured in our direction, yelling to unseen comrades.

“We need to get inside, now!” Bobbi declared. “Nigel, you’re up. Cathy, Ghost, you’re with me in giving covering fire”

“What am I doing?” I asked the Freelancer.

“Anyone gets too close, punch the shit out of them!”

“Copy that!” I replied and stood beside the Drone Jockey as he examined the door’s security lock. The inmate was soon joined by others, pointing at our crew and having angry discussions. It looked like a consensus was reached and a good twenty men and women headed our way, brandishing guns, Shock Rods and improvised weapons.

“Aimed fire, take down the guns first” Bobbi drawled, raising her long barrelled rifle to her shoulder.

“Shouldn’t we ask them to surrender first?” Catherine queried, balancing two mini-fireballs on her palms. A shot rang out and she flung one hand forwards, erecting an instant wall of flame. The bullet was slagged as soon as it hit the intense heat, then the flames dissipated.

“Nope” Bobbi said evenly and squeezed the trigger of her rifle. The shooter’s head exploded in a shower of brains and bone, checking the rest of them for a few precious seconds. Then one of the men yelled a challenge and the mob surged forwards, screaming and bellowing their anger at us.

Our front line commenced firing in earnest, Bobbi taking methodical shots to bring down anyone she saw with a firearm. Ghost and Charlie laid down a steady barrage of Suppression rounds from their Assault Rifles, knocking the leading runners off their feet or hurling them sideways into their comrades.

Bullets zipped in our direction too, Catherine sending out pulses of fire to intercept what she could. A couple of shots found their marks, giving Ghost a flesh wound and another slamming hard into Bobbi’s vest.

“How are we going with that bloody door?” Bobbi yelled over her shoulder, putting a heavy calibre round into the guy who had shot her, then changing out the magazine. “I’m running low on ammo here”

“Bastard isn’t responding to me” Nigel griped. “I’m going to try a different bypass”

The prisoners had reached the cover of some concrete planter boxers, roughly twenty meters from where we huddled in the lee of the entrance portico. That was damned close range for rifle fire and I saw Bobbi sling her big gun over her back, drawing a Ten millimeter pistol from her waist.

Incoming fire was pinging off the columns and low walls that fronted the entrance as the inmates kept us pinned. I heard Nigel swearing at the door controls, his RUK accent getting broader and the expletives more colourful as it frustrated his latest attempt.

“We could really use that door open sometime today” I cajoled him, unable to resist the dig. I still remembered how he taunted me with his drones at the old Camp.

“I fly drones, Alvarez” he said through gritted teeth. “This is a job for a locksmith”

He cursed again as a stray bullet pinged off the doors above our crouching heads, dropping the spent round onto his head. A new sound joined the noise of combat, a roar of voices and stamping of feet. I risked a glance over the low barrier that shielded us and added a curse of my own.

“Bobbi, we’ve got more coming on the flanks” I shouted and she nodded her understanding. She issued crisp orders, moving Ghost and Catherine to try and stem another mob of angry prisoners who rushed us from around the side of the Administration building.

“Stand aside, Nigel, this is a job for a woman” I told the Freelancer. He grabbed his gear and moved out of my way, taking cover in the corner. I put my Machine Pistol on my back and stood in front of the recalcitrant doors, flexing my knuckles.

“We tried to be nice” I warned the inanimate barrier. “Now look at what you are making me do!”

Power flowed into my fists and I punched the central join of the doors with all of my might, a one-two combo with alternating blows. The first punch buckled the frames, the second shattered the locking bars. The doors still stood, held together by steel beams around the armoured glass cores.

I drew more power into myself, filling my body with the energy, then delivered one driving blow with my right fist. All of my body mass was focussed through my shoulders, down my arm and into my clenched knuckles. Metal screamed, Ceramiglass cracked and the doors flew open.

“We’re in!” I shouted and stepped inside, pulling my gun around into my hands once more.

=====

The reception desk was empty, as was the entire lobby. I scanned it over the sights of my Machine Pistol, finger lightly on the trigger, until I was certain it was unoccupied.

“Clear!” I shouted and the rest of the crew shouldered in through the broken doors, fanning out to cover the exits and our rear.

“It would have been nice to keep the doors intact, Alvarez” Ghost told me with a hint of chastisement. “We’ll have to leave someone here to guard our backs”

“It was a rush job” I answered. “Sue me if you don’t like the quality of my work”

Further comments ended when we saw what was littering the floor. Unlocked Janglers, maybe twenty or thirty of them, lying inert like unwanted trash on the tiled floor. Bobbi knelt to examine one, picking up the device and turning it over in her hands.

“They were unlocked, not broken open” she announced. “Guess the Warden let his favourites loose”

“Do you think there are some inmates still inside this building?” I asked her. She stood up and shrugged, tossing the collar onto the floor again.

“The outer doors were locked, so Acres was still protecting something in here” she offered. “Stay sharp everyone, there are bound to be hostiles in here somewhere”

Nigel and Ghost got to work on the elevator security panel, trying to fool the system into thinking they had legitimate access to the basement. Cathy and Bobbi moved the receptionist’s desk across the busted doors, then crouched there watching the prisoners outside. So far they had held back, firing the odd desultory shot at the entrance.

I prowled the lobby, checking for anyone hidden in a back room. A lot of the doors I encountered were locked, with the internal security system showing active. My wandering feet brought me to the side of Nigel and Ghost as they battled the security network.

“Everything else we’ve seen in the Camp seems to be running without any network in charge, except this building” I asked the pair of them. “Is the Camp AI still functioning?”

Technically the original version of Charlie was still operating the low level functions of the Camp, even with the Hoffman Bridge trying to lobotomise his mind.

“I don’t think this is the AI” Nigel replied. “There must be a Dumb AI installed somewhere, keeping the Headquarters building functioning”

“Agreed” Ghost said without moving his lips. He had a magnetic induction cable running from his right temple to Nigel’s card-cracker. “It’s a simple machine but it has some high-grade security protocols”

“That’s what I thought” Nigel muttered. “The outer door was way harder to crack than it should have been”

“Or maybe you boys aren’t as clever as you think” I offered sagely. I left them to it and duck-walked to where Bobbi and Catherine watched the outside, looking over the edge of the upended desk. It had only been a few minutes yet the crowd of inmates skulking out there had grown significantly.

“This is more than just sheer bloody-mindedness” I commented. “They want us for something”

“Yeah, a good hard shag” Bobbi suggested with an evil grin directed at me.

“Knock it off, pervert” I told her. “They must think we can unlock their Janglers, or disable the perimeter sensors”

Bobbi regarded me with her mis-matched eyes, running them over my uniform.

“You would be their target, Luisa” she responded. “Wearing that uniform, they’ll expect you to have the release codes for their PCDs”

“It doesn’t work that way, Bobbi” I countered.

“Yeah, but they don’t know that”

“Fuck!” I said in frustration.

“Maybe later, babe” she replied. “I’m kind of busy right now”

I gave her a two-fingered wave, she blew me a kiss, and I kept low as I moved to where Charlie stood sentry in the middle of the room. Using his armoured body as a shield, I stood fully upright in his shadow.

“You holding up Okay, Charlie?” I asked the mechanical. “We’ll be joining you with your clone really soon”

The machine gave me a curt nod, then resumed his scanning of the outside. He stiffened in alarm, an almost human response, then I heard what his superior senses had detected. A roar of anger from the prisoners then a wave of human hostility surged towards our makeshift barricade. They had finally mustered up the courage to storm our position and dozens of blue-clad inmates ran across the open ground, trampling the flower beds and kicking over the planter boxes.

Bobbi took methodical shots with her pistol and Catherine sent out balls of fire, both causing casualties yet the men and women behind kept on coming. I ran to join them, firing a long burst over the women’s heads into the throng. Charlie stood at my side, sending controlled bursts into the leading targets.

It wasn’t enough and the first inmates leaped the desk, crash-tackling me backwards to the floor. I could see a couple of others jump over the heads of Bobbi and Catherine, pushing the solid shape of Charlie back with sheer momentum.

I rammed my fist into the first of my grapplers, a weathered looking guy with grey hair and missing teeth. He lost the rest of his eating ware when my enhanced punch sent him flying across the floor, slamming hard into the lobby wall.

The second prisoner was a woman, dark haired and tattooed face contorted with rage. She hit me with an elbow into my stomach, the blow driving the wind from me and leaving me retching. I felt her hands rip the Machine Pistol from my unresisting hands and turn on my companions.

“Mother-fuckers!” she screamed and pulled the trigger, the barrel of my gun aimed right at Bobbi’s head. The weapon clicked empty and the Freelancer had turned to regard the prisoner with alarm when I surged back to my feet.

“Bitch!” I gasped and tackled her to the tiled floor. I was still wheezing from her elbow strike so I couldn’t focus any power into my fists. I hit her anyway, bruising my knuckles the old fashioned way as I pummelled her into submission.

I climbed off the bleeding woman, ready to hit some assholes hard, when Catherine lit up the world and knocked us all flat onto our butts.