Xander sat in the driver’s seat. “Buckle in,” he said over his shoulder. “I may have to do some radical maneuvers before this is all over.”
With a flick of a switch, the quad rotors began to spin, producing a low-pitched hum much quieter than even the tiny drones that had attacked the base. Dust and loose papers swirled in the vault, causing both driver and passenger to cough and cover their eyes. But then the strange craft lifted off the floor. “There are pitch and yaw controls, but it’s mainly steered by shifting your weight,” Xander called out over the sound of the wind from the propellers. “It’s just like on a motorcycle— lean into the turns and we’ll do fine.”
Xander felt Tiffany’s arms wrap around his midsection. “Just give me a little warning before you do any really fancy moves.”
“I’ll try. Now hold on, we’re heading out.”
Xander leaned to his right and the craft spun around, aiming at the door to the vault. The movement of the hoverbike was smooth, with only minimal bounce. He remembered the first time he’d tried one of these contraptions — a more primitive version than this one — and how the ride was like running the rapids on the Colorado River. Since then the technology had been refined to the point where you could thread a needle while riding on one.
With the tail rotors providing the forward thrust, the hoverbike proceeded out of the vault and down the long chamber toward the exterior doors set in a false façade of what appeared to be long-closed down mining operation a mile through the mountain.
Since the RDC was an arm of the U.S. military, the Mallory Hoverbike wasn’t built simply for transportation. It hosted a full arsenal of both offensive and defensive weapons, including dual .60’s submachine guns mounted to either side of the lower battery box. The standard load would be two hundred rounds for each. These were real killer rounds, much heavier than could carried aboard a standard combat drone.
He also had at his disposal six miniature Talon missiles, which could be set either for heat-seeking or line-of-sight targeting. Since most attack drones operated on battery power, heat-seeking wasn’t that effective against them. If need be, he would use the joystick at the center of his steering column to find and capture an enemy target on the tiny monitor set just forward of the joystick. Once locked in, the missile was effective for up to twenty miles and at a speed of six hundred miles per hour.
The arsenal at his disposal should make him nearly invincible against the smaller quads and octs roaming the Center. At least that was the theory. In reality, this was only the third time he’d ever been on this particular model of hoverbike, and never had he been allowed to play with the weaponry aboard. He had no illusions that the desert outside the base would be clear of hostiles. In fact, as he neared the hidden entrance doors to the testing chambers, he found them to be open to the outside world, allowing free access to the base.
Xander squinted against the bright desert sunlight pouring through the gaping entrance, yet his eyes grew wide when he spotted four large Maverick quadcopters resting on the floor near the doorway. These were RPAs, connected to the outside world and their pilots by portable relay stations, often dropped by other drones or helicopters within an operational area. To Xander’s relief, their propellers were still, so he hoped the pilots were off doing something other than guarding the entrance. With the main battle for the RDC winding down, he wouldn’t be surprised if a number of other RPAs were now entering the base, allowing live operators to assess the damage and engage in specific mop-up duties, including gaining access to the vault with all the top-secret prototypes.
He slowed the hovercar while simultaneously flicking open the end cap on the center joystick. He toggled the switch inside until the monitor located between the handlebars came to life. There was a circle at the center of the screen, and Xander manipulated the toggle until the circle was positioned on the first quadcopter.
“What are you doing?” Tiffany asked. “They’re asleep. Maybe we should leave them alone.”
“They won’t be quiet all the time. Their pilots could come back and then use them to kill more of my friends. Besides, I need the practice.”
He pressed the center button under his thumb and a short burst of .60 caliber slugs rang out. The first drone shattered into a thousand pieces, even as the burst raked the second drone behind it. Xander then moved the circle over to the drones on the other side of the runway — just as they both came to life and shot into the air.
The two menacing drones climbed to the ceiling of the chamber and spun around until their weapons aimed at the hovercar.
“Hold on!”
Xander leaned to his left and gunned the rotors, causing their ride to turn at an almost ninety degree angle to the floor. A series of bullets ricocheted off the metal deck directly along the path that the hovercraft had just traveled. Now the left side of the chamber was zooming up in front of them, and it took another radical lean to the right to change course enough to avoid a head-on collision. The hovercar turned nearly on its side, appearing to ride along the side wall until it swung back to the horizontal.
The two enemy drones dove for the deck, coming up behind the hoverbike. Xander began to rock the vehicle back and forth as another series of bullets sped past. And then suddenly they burst out into the bright desert sunlight.
Outside, Xander had maneuvering room, except for one issue: the car was not designed to fly, and now it was shooting out the entrance at over sixty miles per hour, and the short level ground outside the false mine entrance was only about a hundred yards wide, a distance they traversed in a matter of seconds. Beyond that was a nearly vertical drop off to the base of a canyon a thousand feet below. Without any solid surface to push against, the force of the propellers wasn’t strong enough to keep the hoverbike aloft.
And so they dropped — maybe not like a rock, but like a very heavy feather.
With the air being pulled from their lungs by the sudden freefall, Xander managed to point the craft nose-down to follow the natural contour of the hillside, a maneuver that caused them to pick up even more speed. The ground rushed up below them, until he leveled off and gunned the motors. A blinding cloud of sand and dust was thrown up around them as the wind from the props finally found something to push against. Yet still the hovercraft bounced, causing Tiffany to slip to the left and nearly out of her seat. Only the safety belt kept her on the craft. She clawed at Xander’s left arm, trying to regain her balance.
Xander wasn’t expecting this, and his arm gripping the steering column was pulled to the left, sending the craft into a violent and rapid spin. It twisted into three full circles, stirring up a mushrooming cloud of sand before Xander could right the craft.
“Dammit, Tiffany, you almost killed us!”
“Me? You’re the one who flew us off the edge of a cliff.”
Once the dust had settled, Xander aimed the hoverbike down the remaining slope at a more reasonable angle, looking to the monitor screen for any signs of the two remaining enemy drones. They were still following, even though they could only go about forty-five miles per hour. The hoverbike was just outside their firing range, but that wouldn’t keep the drones from reporting their position and calling for backup.
“Hold on, we’re turning around.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Just do it!”
Xander leaned hard to his right and the hoverbike performed a tilting turn and lined up on a course aimed directly at the pursuing drones. He fingered the toggle for missiles. Two foot-long projectiles dropped from the base of the hovercraft before lighting off, then they streaked away leaving a trail of puffy white smoke behind.
Xander had line-of-sight control of the missiles, and he manipulated his thumb on the top toggle switch on the joystick with minute movements. The enemy drones were pilot-guided and they darted off to each side to avoid the incoming missiles. Xander sent the left missile into a sharp turn that cut off the angle of the nearest Maverick drone. A split second later a relatively small explosion off in the distance signified a kill.