Free Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) by Alice Sabo

Nick thought about calling Wisp back. Refusing to arm him. Something told him that Wisp would acquiesce. But that would leave Nick walking blind into a dangerous situation, without adequate backup. They needed to be prepared for the worst. That meant arming the biobot, but Nick didn’t feel happy about it.
    He wanted more information. Trouble at the settlement didn’t automatically mean that the mercenaries were involved. They could be having some sort of internal struggle. He didn't want to get caught up in a settler's coup d’état. Part of him knew he was spinning tales because his nerves were on edge. The quicker he got into it, the better he’d feel. Lights in the distance showed him that the settlement was right on the road. The bloody bodies in the road showed him that Wisp was absolutely right. He stopped the van and turned the headlights full on the two men bleeding in the dirt. Multiple gunshot wounds on each of them and no weapons in their hands.
    “They are dead,” Wisp said
    “You're sure?”
    “I cannot feel anything from them. But I can feel great pain from the settlement. Someone is being tortured.”
    “Can you tell how many mercenaries are here?”
    “No. There is too much emotion. It blurs the...” Wisp grunted, his shoulders hunching. “Someone has died. Go up the driveway.”
    Nick drove off the road, carefully avoiding the bodies. Once past them, he pulled into the narrow strip of asphalt that led back to a manufacturing plant that looked to be ten to fifteen years old. The profile was lower. No storm baffles, but there was a protected solar array in use. That explained why the place was lit up like a train station. They passed another unarmed body in the weeds by the side of the road, and Nick lost all compunction about arming Wisp. He gritted his teeth against the angry words rising in him. When he pulled in front of the building, he saw an identical black van and two more dead on the front steps. One was a woman. Nick could feel his neck muscles knot as his anger increased. There was no possible reason for the deaths of all these unarmed civilians.
    “I would not kill indiscriminately,” Wisp said, as if in answer to Nick's emotion. “That vehicle is empty,” he added, answering Nick’s next question. Wisp opened the roof hatch and flipped a lever that raised a step beneath it. He was holding a long gun. Some kind of rifle.
    Nick turned back to watch the building. “You got a plan?”
    “Is it the bad men?” Lily asked, her voice thin and fearful.
    “Stay with your brother,” Wisp said calmly. “Nick and I will take care of this.”
    Nick looked back in time to see Lily’s face as she nodded to the biobot. There was so much trust there, it tightened his throat. She believed that they would keep her safe. He had to make sure not to fail.
    “Someone approaches,” Wisp warned.
    Nick shifted his attention to the building. The door opened and a man in body armor, with an automatic weapon hanging from his shoulder, came out. Nick reached for the gun Wisp had given him. He checked the ammunition, his hands moving over the weapon automatically. Some habits became ingrained.
    The man frowned at the van. “What're you doing...” He raised the weapon as he squinted into the headlights.
    Nick flinched at the report above his head. The mercenary was down with a bullet hole in his forehead. A calm part of his mind noted that Wisp was an excellent shot. A less calm part was screaming that a biobot with weapons training was taking headshots at humans. It was like a headline from the supermarket scandal sheets in the years after biobots hit the market. They were More Than Human and Taking Over the World .
    The building’s front exploded out, as two men shot their way out of the building. Glass flew from doors and windows. The violent roar of automatic weapons tore through the night. Bullets pinged off the windshield, even as Nick ducked. Bullet proof, apparently.
    One man went down. The