Grendel Unit 2: Ignition Sequence by Bernard Schaffer Read Free Book Online Page A

pressed himself as flat as he could in order to raise the rifle and activate the thermal scope. No shots came. He swung the rifle around in a wide circle, just trying to quick scope the surrounding area and check for heat signatures. As he turned over to check to his right, he finally found one, and it was alone.
    Frank clicked off the scope and pressed himself up , keeping to a low crouch as he made his way toward the place he'd seen the flash on his display. He kept the rifle tucked under his arm and his trigger finger flat against the gun's frame, ready to fire.
    There was something several feet ahead of him , lying flat in the swirl of brightly-colored dust and smoke. As Frank inched toward it, he heard its voice softly repeating, "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."
    He hurried forward and threw up his face shield to inspect his patient. It was a HUGO unit, dressed in a Unification soldier's uniform. Frank shook the thing's shoulders and said, "It's going to be all right, I'm here." He did a visual inspection of the injuries and winced. They were horrific. Both of the HUGO's legs had been blown off at the knees and it had suffered two laser shots to the chest.
    Frank ripped open his medical kit and dug through the contents until he found two emergency compression bags. He fit each end of the bags over the unit's leg stumps and they constricted immediately around the wound, forming air tight seals that stopped the flow of blood and prevented any infections. Frank tore open the kit's left flap and ran his finger along the devices and packages there without having to look at them. He'd studied the kit so thoroughly that he knew its contents by touch. He found the jar of wound putty and pulled it free, twisting off the lid and scooping it out with his finger, before packing the putty into both of the HUGO's laser shots.
    "There you go," Frank whispered reassuringly. "Now let's get you out of here."
    He reached down and wrapped both of his hands around the unit's vest to pull him up and hoist him over his shoulder, when he saw them coming through the swirling mist.
    It was a long line of HUGO units carrying rifles, their baggy, worn clothing and strangely-assembled armor rattling in the vortex of light and dust and smoke as they advanced. Frank cursed under his breath and grabbed his injured patient by the back of his collar and started to drag him backwards, trying to vanish into the cover of swirling fog.
    It didn 't work.
    The Sapienist units turned toward him and kept coming. Frank flipped his medic kit back open and stuck his hand down to the very bottom, finding the thick tube secured there. It was his last piece of equipment, only meant to be used after every other option had been exhausted, and he had to wrench it free. "You're going for a ride, buddy," he told the injured HUGO.
    He quickly twisted the lower half of the tube and it snapped open, releasing a length of black cable that was stronger than steel. Frank looped the cable under the front of the figure's Unification vest and hooked it back to the tube. Once it was fastened, he twisted the top and held his breath.
    The end cap shot off and a heavy black balloon hissed and swelled to life, filling until it was larger than a beach ball and immediately began rising into the air. The balloon's material was thick and powerful enough to carry a single person.
    "Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow…" the Unification HUGO unit said as the balloon dragged him up into the air, his ruined legs dangling and twitching over Frank's head for a moment, before it vanished into the strangely-colored mist.
    The Sapienists were now close enough that Frank could see their faces and make out the multiple rifles aimed directly at him. The enemies were all the same. All of them, bearing the same creepy expression that was even more menacing because it revealed no emotion. There were too many to outrun, Frank thought.
    They 'd shoot me down the moment I tried.
    He looked into the air over his shoulder, trying to catch a