Free War Machine (The Combat-K Series) by Andy Remic Page A

hand beaten, primitive and yet still... deadly .
    “There’s a machine, in the lake. It wants to kill me. I’m waiting for it to surface.”
    “A machine?”
    “AI, old combat model, part of our little Clan War here on the moon.”
    Keenan stared hard at her. “What the hell’s going on? We’ve come to release you from your prison sentence. We’ve come to free you. We’ve come to take you...”
    “Home?” She laughed. It was a brittle sound. “I have no home. This place is as good as any... for one such as I. One who betrays, and was betrayed.”
    “I did not betray you.” Keenan’s voice was gentle.
    “You broke my heart.”
    “I broke my own heart.”
    “Well we’re fucking even then,” she snapped.
    Deep below the still water there came a savage meshing of gears. Franco took a step back, cocking his weapon, and Pippa’s head smashed round. “No! This is my fight. I am the leader of this Clan, and as such I must answer the Call.” She leapt lightly from the rock and took up the two blades, twirling them slowly through the grey light. “You two back off!” She smiled. “If it kills me, feel free to shoot the hell out of it.”
    Keenan and Franco moved away, leapt up onto the low wall and retreated a short distance up the scree slope. Keenan cocked his weapon, then glanced up behind the two men. “We’re being watched, yeah? I take it our little friends have arrived.”
    Franco nodded. “About two hundred; they came up around the cliffs. Must be her Clan, or the enemy Clan? I’m not quite sure how it works on these prison worlds. Still.” He brightened optimistically. “Pippa’s done well for herself, ain’t she? Well done that girl!”
    Keenan gave his head a little shake, watching Pippa move to stand by the water’s edge, swords poised. The lake was bubbling, frothing and seething. Something gleamed black and silver close beneath the surface.
    “Looks like an old GG model to me,” Keenan muttered. “Now, they are tough motherfuckers.”
    “GGs had human status,” said Franco, “which means if one went mad...”
    “They’d dump it here. Yeah. Great.”
    Pippa was pacing along the shore, which lapped her boots. The GG came frothing from the lake, leaping from the calm in a sudden burst of flying droplets to land in a crouch a few feet from where Pippa stood, swords limp, eyes fixed. The machine was humanoid in shape, but very slim, sculpted even. Its mechanical torso and limbs were dull black, enamelled and containing hydraulic joints. Behind its fists were huge retractable killing knives hot-welded to its chassis. Its head was silver and swept back to a sharp point. Eyes were dulled black and it grinned with over-sized mechanical jaws, containing long incisors that could inject a lethal toxo-poison, so deadly a human would be an internal bubbling mush before he hit the ground.
    The GG unfolded fluidly, knives springing free as it flexed its arms and tilted its head, surveying Pippa. She swung her swords experimentally—loosening her shoulders—then attacked with blistering speed.
    The two clashed, the GG’s long knives hammering left then right as Pippa’s swords smashed up and sparks showered the stone shore. Pippa whirled away, boots splashing the edge of the lake, but the GG attacked even as Pippa moved, bounding to her on all fours, knives striking fire against rock, fangs homing in on her exposed throat.
    She ducked, rolled beneath hissing hydraulic legs, came up behind. One sword slashed across metal with a terrible squealing as the GG swayed, whirled, and a long black knife missed Pippa’s throat by a hair’s breadth.
    Franco’s gun wavered. “Let me take it, Keenan.”
    “No. She was right. This is her fight. We cannot interfere.”
    “She can’t kill that, Keenan, not with a hand-beaten sword! The damned thing can’t even be cut!”
    Keenan gritted his teeth. “I know.”
    Pippa backed away, eyes surveying the GG. It, also, seemed to be watching her, weighing