“Damn, that’s a lot of people.” Jax leaned back after looking around the corner of the building they were hiding next to. The Governmental Palace was across an open park from them. Several armed hovercraft were parked in front with several dozen rebels in their olive drab getups, loitering around. All were armed.
Naomi leaned out to look. She made a clicking sound in her throat. “Maybe they’re already dead?”
“Aren’t you cheery?” Jax said, then tapped his earpiece. “Rudy, you copy?”
“I’m here. How’re things going? We’ve had a few visitors, but so far nothing Skip couldn’t take care of.”
“Well, there are a lot of bad guys between us and the front door. You able to get ahold of our target?”
“Yeah, he and the other two are hiding in a broom closet on the main administrative level,” the droid replied.
Jax looked at Naomi. “No such luck. Administrative floor, know it?”
She tapped her chin a few times, then said, “Yeah, I think I know a way in.” She ducked back the way they’d just come, turning down an alleyway. She looked back. “Coming?”
Baxter looked down at Jax, then followed. The alley emptied out closer to the Palace by a little. Across the street was some type of shopping center, most of its windows smashed out. Smoke drifted lazily from many of them.
Naomi pointed at the building, “If we go through the shopping center, we can come out near the back of the Palace. There are a few service doors. I think we can jimmy one.”
“You think?” Jax said, leaning out to look down the street toward the palace and the dozens of armed rebels. None seemed to be paying any special attention to the shopping center. An explosion on the far side of the city from them drew the rebels’ attention. Several jogged off toward the explosion. He shrugged and bolted across the street. He heard Naomi’s hissed expletive as he left her and Baxter in the alley. When they joined him, he tapped Baxter on the chest. “Wait here, and cause a ruckus when I give you the signal.” The droid nodded and took up a position just inside the building, his forearm blasters engaging along with the two shoulder-mounted railguns.
Jax nodded to Naomi. “Lead the way.”
Baxter turned and scanned the area. He crept back towards the far side of the park opposite the Governor’s Palace. He took position behind an overturned refreshment stall. While he waited, he calculated the shots he’d take and in what order.
Baxter was an older model combat droid. His model had seen extensive use during the Unification War, to offset the Independents’ low number of fighters. Some said the Emperor’s hatred of artificial intelligence came from the losses his forces suffered at the hands of combat droids like Baxter. Baxter knew better. The man who had become the Emperor was a religious zealot who had hated and lobbied against non-human intelligence for most of his career.
“Bax, ready when you are,” Jax said over their short-range comms. Baxter didn’t acknowledge verbally. His shoulder mounted railguns opened fire with their telltale zip-crack sound. The hovercraft to the right of the door to the Palace slid backwards from the impacts before it exploded. While those first two rounds were moving at supersonic speed, Baxter turned and loosed two more. Armored rebels exploded in red mist as hovercraft and barricades exploded.
Baxter stepped to his right as several dozen rebels took aim and opened fire on his position. Energy bolts struck him until he moved behind a statue of a man on a horse, a plasma rifle in his raised hand.
As Baxter moved behind the statue, his shoulder mounted railguns let rip a dozen shots, the most he could fire in short succession before his power core needed to recharge the electromagnets in the launchers. He leaned out and raised his right arm, firing energy blasts at the encroaching rebels.
He crouched and leapt into the air, away from the crumbling statue, to land behind a burnt-out bus. As he sailed through the air, he fired both arm cannons. He consulted his railgun ammo counter. “If you could hurry up, that’d be excellent. I’m running low on slugs,” he sent over the comms.
He spun out and away from the bus, his railguns barking their zip-crack staccato as supersonic rounds chewed through men, women, equipment, and the front of the Palace.
“Fall back, Bax. We’ll make our way to the hovercraft,” Jax answered.
Baxter fired his remaining railgun rounds, then sprinted down a street in the opposite direction of the mechanic’s garage. His sensors confirmed that the few remaining were following him.