Read Online the Noise Within (2010) by Ian Whates - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ian Whates
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applied a non-lethal approach. Three stun guns, weapons using electro-muscular disruption, fired simultaneously. The three Holtans collapsed, to be dragged away and quickly bound and gagged.
Black's remaining marine took station by the door, looking alert and ready for anything, while the two techs came into the room, gratefully pulling back the hoods of their shimmer suits. They both sat at one of the terminals, and the older man sighed. "Oh well, I suppose it was too much to hope for."
"What was?" Leyton wanted to know.
"Oh, nothing. We just hoped that by catching them with screens running it might give us an easy way into their systems, but no such luck." He placed the valise, carried with him throughout, on the workstation and popped it open. "Not a problem, it'll just take us a little longer, is all."
Hardly the most welcome news, but it couldn't be helped. "Quick as you can."
"I know, I know. You do your job, we'll do ours."
"An alarm has been sounded," the gun's placid voice informed him.
"How? We didn't give any of them a chance to touch anything."
"More a case of what has not been done rather than what has. The alarm was caused by inactivity at one of the work terminals."
Really? That was interesting, and seemed remarkably sharp of the locals, which came as something of a surprise given what they'd encountered here so far.
None of which altered the situation they found themselves in. "Look lively," he said to everybody; "an alarm's been triggered, so we can expect company sooner rather than later."
He looked across at Black, who nodded his understanding. At the door, the trooper adjusted the grip on his gun and somehow looked even more alert.
A tense moment passed, with the techs working silently and Black fiddling with something on his suit.
Then came the chatter of automatic gunfire from outside. Leyton was a little surprised at the speed of response, but red dots were suddenly blossoming from two directions. So many that the visor apparently gave up trying to represent them as individual dots and settled for expanding red smudges.
"Shit!" Black said from the window. "There's a small army out there,"
Leyton crossed to join him. The sergeant was right. Where the hell had this lot materialised from? Well-disciplined troops advanced towards their position, covering each other in classic style and utilising the available terrain effectively as they converged on the front door. Difficult to judge numbers, even with the visor, but he estimated half a platoon or more in each direction, perhaps as many as fifty in all.
What was it he'd been told to expect? 'A poorly trained and inadequately equipped militia; slow to respond and unlikely to offer significant resistance.' That was one part of the briefing he had listened to.
Where was his fellow eyegee? "Boulton?" He broke radio silence; little point in maintaining it at this stage.
"Not now. I'm busy!"
She had better be. They only had one man guarding each entrance, and neither stood a chance against this many hostiles.
Black seemed to have reached the same conclusion. "Pull back to the first landing," he ordered, presumably speaking to the two soldiers guarding the doors. He then turned to Leyton. "I hope you eyegees are all you're cracked up to be, because at this precise moment we don't have a clear way out of here."
Leyton made no response, but instead looked across to see how the techs were doing. What he saw was far from encouraging. The younger tech had gone white as a sheet; in fact he looked petrified. His colleague just looked resigned. Neither seemed to be doing a great deal except staring at the screen.
"Problems?" He hurried over to them.
The older man nodded, staring at the screen before him as if it had tried to bite him, while his companion looked up to flick a wide-eyed glance towards Leyton. "This has much higher-grade defences than we were told to expect."
The eyegee snorted. He was beginning to sense a pattern here. "Which
Black's remaining marine took station by the door, looking alert and ready for anything, while the two techs came into the room, gratefully pulling back the hoods of their shimmer suits. They both sat at one of the terminals, and the older man sighed. "Oh well, I suppose it was too much to hope for."
"What was?" Leyton wanted to know.
"Oh, nothing. We just hoped that by catching them with screens running it might give us an easy way into their systems, but no such luck." He placed the valise, carried with him throughout, on the workstation and popped it open. "Not a problem, it'll just take us a little longer, is all."
Hardly the most welcome news, but it couldn't be helped. "Quick as you can."
"I know, I know. You do your job, we'll do ours."
"An alarm has been sounded," the gun's placid voice informed him.
"How? We didn't give any of them a chance to touch anything."
"More a case of what has not been done rather than what has. The alarm was caused by inactivity at one of the work terminals."
Really? That was interesting, and seemed remarkably sharp of the locals, which came as something of a surprise given what they'd encountered here so far.
None of which altered the situation they found themselves in. "Look lively," he said to everybody; "an alarm's been triggered, so we can expect company sooner rather than later."
He looked across at Black, who nodded his understanding. At the door, the trooper adjusted the grip on his gun and somehow looked even more alert.
A tense moment passed, with the techs working silently and Black fiddling with something on his suit.
Then came the chatter of automatic gunfire from outside. Leyton was a little surprised at the speed of response, but red dots were suddenly blossoming from two directions. So many that the visor apparently gave up trying to represent them as individual dots and settled for expanding red smudges.
"Shit!" Black said from the window. "There's a small army out there,"
Leyton crossed to join him. The sergeant was right. Where the hell had this lot materialised from? Well-disciplined troops advanced towards their position, covering each other in classic style and utilising the available terrain effectively as they converged on the front door. Difficult to judge numbers, even with the visor, but he estimated half a platoon or more in each direction, perhaps as many as fifty in all.
What was it he'd been told to expect? 'A poorly trained and inadequately equipped militia; slow to respond and unlikely to offer significant resistance.' That was one part of the briefing he had listened to.
Where was his fellow eyegee? "Boulton?" He broke radio silence; little point in maintaining it at this stage.
"Not now. I'm busy!"
She had better be. They only had one man guarding each entrance, and neither stood a chance against this many hostiles.
Black seemed to have reached the same conclusion. "Pull back to the first landing," he ordered, presumably speaking to the two soldiers guarding the doors. He then turned to Leyton. "I hope you eyegees are all you're cracked up to be, because at this precise moment we don't have a clear way out of here."
Leyton made no response, but instead looked across to see how the techs were doing. What he saw was far from encouraging. The younger tech had gone white as a sheet; in fact he looked petrified. His colleague just looked resigned. Neither seemed to be doing a great deal except staring at the screen.
"Problems?" He hurried over to them.
The older man nodded, staring at the screen before him as if it had tried to bite him, while his companion looked up to flick a wide-eyed glance towards Leyton. "This has much higher-grade defences than we were told to expect."
The eyegee snorted. He was beginning to sense a pattern here. "Which
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