The Astral Hacker (Cryptopunk Revolution Book 1) by Brian Terenna (best ebook reader .txt) 📗

I dash over to a supply crate that’s beyond our shields, bullets slicing by me. My fingers fumble at the clips, and then I have it open. I grab the rocket launcher and sprint back to our shield.

“Gabriel, take this,” I shout. “Fire at the troops.” I toss him the rocket launcher as my brain spins through options to deal with the drones.

Gabriel catches the weapon with a grunt, then fires several rockets into groups of agents. The munitions explode, throwing mangled people and body parts in all directions. The smell of blood and smoke fills the air.

My racing mind lands on Gabriel’s Xyphotech rescue, giving me an idea. A battery-draining grenade could wipe out the entire drone swarm, but how do we get it up there? I glance at Nav’s arm. As strong as she is, it’s still too far.

Oh! “Brandon, zip a battery-drainer up with your drone. We can disable the swarm.”

Brandon tugs a grenade off his belt and attaches it to his wrist drone. “These noobs are finished.”

His small drone zooms toward the swarm, then cloaks. The drones detect it at the last second and surge away from it. The grenade explodes before they escape. The drones pause in the air and then drop from the sky all around us.

Way to redeem yourself, Brandon! “Excellent work, TigerShadow.”

He beams as Nav pats his back.

The smoke clears to reveal a bloody field of devastation. Every attacker is down, but a few injured ones still groan with life. Disabled and burning drones litter the area.

The female Knight who was shot several times lies pale and lifeless. A burly Knight kneels at her side, praying, his eyes wet with tears.

Another Knight pulls himself from underneath a drone, gripping his leg. Several more Knights are bloodied and injured, agony showing on their faces. Brandon and Nav are fine, so I look to Sunny.

“I’m undamaged,” he says.

“Miriam,” says Gabriel to a thin woman with pale skin. “Take the first division and finish off these abominations.”

Miriam motions to five other Knights. They dash around, executing any agent who moves.

“Joshua,” says Gabriel. “Take the medics and treat our people.”

I lift my q-link. “Chim, disengage the infantry elevators.” We don’t need any more surprises.

“They’ve disrupted my cloak. I’m engaging,” says Alexander through my q-link. “There’s a huge mass of troops between me and the director’s office. Looks like they have rockets.”

Hell. “I’m activating the turrets. They’ll fire at anyone who isn’t you or the director. Get him as fast as you can. I won’t have long before they fight me for control of the system.”

“It’s game time,” says Alexander, gunfire and screams echoing behind him.

“Everyone, reverse your bullet shields and ready your weapons,” I shout.

“Move, Knights,” says Gabriel. “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

“The turrets have taken down most attackers,” says Alexander,” but there are several agents hiding in protected alcoves. I’m going in.” His cannons fire in the background. “They’re nothing compared to me. I’m almost there.”

I check my hold on their system just as fifty cybersecurity personnel locate my interference and combine their power into four attacking programs. Each one is super complex and easily more powerful than anything I’ve faced.

A sense of dread rushes through me. If I lose control, Alexander will be killed.

“I have Tempton,” says Alexander. “I’m ready to extract.”

I planned on opening the lower door, but there’s no time. “Go out the roof hatch and hurry. I’m about to lose control of their system.”

Their four-pronged assault is relentless. I switch my focus from one of them to the next, bolstering code anytime they start to breach my program’s walls. Every time I switch, it takes a moment to get up to speed again. I can’t keep it up.

“Nav, help me defend my system,” I say.

She joins the fight, filling in where I fail. She patches code after code, but it’s like trying to hold up a crumbling bridge.

Alexander appears on the roof in his twelve-foot suit, holding a white-haired man. He leaps.

My stomach twists as he falls the forty or fifty feet to the ground. I know the suit can take it, but what about the old man in its arms?

Alexander lands, absorbing much of the impact in the suit’s legs. The man jerks in his arms, but not as bad as I worried.

“Run,” I shout. “You’re still in the missile blast radius.”

My third firewall collapses, and they’re attacking my last one at an insane pace. It would have taken me an hour to break through, but it’s taking them seconds. I can’t switch my focus between the attackers quickly enough.

I try splitting my thoughts to plan a defense for two groups at a time. I can almost see how to do it, but it’s like trying to focus on the present through the smoking ruins of my past. Every horrific death that I experienced crawls into my mind, like mutated zombies looking for blood. I can’t let Alexander be one of them…but if I don’t fire soon, I’ll lose control, and we’ll all die.

I increase my hacking speed, but my tortured mind disrupts my focus. I touch the Evo around my neck.

I can’t.

Alexander sprints forward with giant strides, but he needs to go faster. My jaw clenches, and panic surges inside me. It’s happening again.

“Fire the missiles,” shouts Gabriel.

Alexander is still too close, but if I don’t fire now, they’ll take over. One missile strike will blow us to pieces and end our rebellion. My gut wrenches with the decision.

I can’t have Alexander end up like Barbra, Astrid, Yumi, and Americus. My hacking slows as my mind clouds even more. And then, in a flash of insight, I realize