by Skyler Grant
I was getting a transmission from Crystal. I wondered if she was horrified by all this or if she simply took it as perfectly natural after so long an association with Sylax.
Neither, as it turned out, the transmission instead revealed airships rising from moorings and taking to the air.
This was a carefully timed spectacle, Wolf was about to make a move on someone.
If it was me, I was in poor shape. My anti-air defenses were far from being constructed. Still, if it was me I'd not go easily. I issued an order for all clones to prepare for combat and I readied my biobombs.
"He is preparing an attack on somebody. His airships are taking off. It may be us," I said.
Magpie tilted her head. "No. You're not a big enough threat, and he isn't scared of you. Otherwise he wouldn't have tried to take me and mine. To him you're prey, not predator."
Was I? It would be good news if so, for all that my ego didn't like it. I was getting very tired of being weak and surrounded by those who were stronger. I even found myself missing Anna. Whatever else could be said of Anna, she knew when and how to go for the throat. Anna knew how to be stronger than she should have been.
"He'll find he is wrong," I said.
"This is twice now you have saved my people. Twice that we find ourselves in your debt. You will find us good at repaying them," Magpie said.
"I'm sure. You've been splendid at repaying Sylax for all she has done to you," I said.
It was a needless barb, but I couldn't help myself. I could never help myself.
Magpie, instead of being offended, laughed. "The best debts are old ones. If we let yours go so long be assured the payoff will be especially memorable."
Perhaps empty threats to Sylax or empty promises of reward made her feel better. The images on the screen surely weren't doing that. The visuals were getting confusing now. Was I watching a torture session, or lunch, or an orgy, because it seemed to have elements of all three. Some of the remaining villagers were unfortunate enough to find all three happening at once.
"Shall I kill the feed?" I asked.
"Leave it, dearie. I am busy counting debts," Magpie said.
There was something cold in her words, certain.
The ships had begun to move. They were headed towards Crystal.
118
Crystal was aware of the Wolf fleet. After all, she had first alerted me to their presence.
I had to decide what I was going to do about it. I was supposed to ignore the issue—that’s what the video feed was really all about. A warning to all the other districts not to get involved in what was about to come.
It appeared that the Professor's full strike on me was the start of a trend. Up until then I'd mostly seen probing of defenses, partial commitment of forces that didn't expend major resources. Now Wolf was making a serious play to take Crystal out and didn't want any others to interfere.
I'd agreed to follow Crystal's lead so that we could rescue Anna and Sylax. That commitment was only as strong as my willingness to follow through on it.
I didn't think I had a choice. If Crystal fell my best hope for rescuing Anna would go with her.
I opened a line to her and she answered at once.
"You see where they're headed?" Crystal said.
"The Wolf has an appetite for the weak. Is this why you refused my call for support earlier?" I asked.
"You had it handled, Emma, and yes, I had some idea that this was coming. The Wolf isn't going to find me as easy prey as he imagines. I'm actually going to need you to hold back," Crystal said.
That was a surprise. Wolf had the strongest navy after taking the city, and it was always a bit of a puzzle why he hadn't contested Sylax for rule. Crystal certainly had nothing to compare.
"Another plan from the fine mind for consequences that brought us Sylax?" I asked.
"I have it handled, Emma. But I could use explosives, the ones you used to take down airships in the past," Crystal said.
Those had used the spawn of my bioreactors and actually fed on Biomatter to amplify their explosive force. Given airships tended to be filled with living beings they were quite effective.
"I have six ready. I can get you more with a little time," I said.
"Six will do. Send them along power access conduit eighteen, I'll have someone meet your agents," Crystal said.
I dispatched a few drones for the transport and a few more for their defense. I assumed that Crystal picked a route she thought was safe, but it was getting hard to tell what was safe in the city.
"On the way," I said.
"Good. Now, shortly into the battle I am going to start throwing a lot of flak at those airships and he'll call on an alliance. Jade is going to send a lot of her agents, perhaps even come out herself. When she does, I want you to hit her district with everything you've got and capture its core," Crystal said.
Crystal was using herself as bait. Perhaps I had underestimated her. It was a dangerous plan, bold, but with her bearing the brunt of the risks.
"You realize I won't be able to actually claim it," I said.
"Beat Jade's forces in her core and you'll be able to compel her loyalty. It is just like you had a compulsion core. If we can seize her, then we'll have three Districts in our alliance. With a majority we can take the city," Crystal said.
This was all news to me. Crystal knew a lot more of the rules that governed a city than I did. She had been around a lot longer.
The airships were passing into Crystal's airspace and dragons were soaring up to the fight. Fiery breath was meeting energy shielding and energy blasts. The shields should have been more than capable of holding out against an assault like that, but after only a few gouts of flame they were flickering away.
Crystal has modified her dragons. Instead of typical heat she had modified them so that their breath dealt extra damage to energy shielding. Which probably made the dragons absolutely useless against the ship’s armor.
A puff of flame hit a ship’s hull and left it unmarked. Theory confirmed.
Turrets rose from her district and began to spill shell casings as rounds fired towards the ship.
These were not helpless against the armor. The ships began to absorb kinetic damage far sooner than they could have anticipated, which was exactly what Crystal had planned.
I focused my sensors upon Jade's district. If there was an alliance, Jade would be getting her marching orders right now.
And there they were, a party of green nimbused figures rising from the district to streak off towards the battle.
Perhaps the bombs I was providing for them were to finish the ships off in case Jade stopped the guns? Regardless, I had my own battle to worry about now.
Crystal's plan was solid and I was going to follow through with it. Since I'd last met Jade in battle I'd done a lot of planning.
With my new growth vats I was able to replicate the Professor's energy weapons he'd designed for Sylax's clone army. I even had a few troopers that I'd upgraded with the telekinetic ability. I could set them to provide defense for my forces.
Combine that with proper battle armor and they'd be an unexpected and unpleasant surprise for Jade.
I only wished I could take the giant beam cannon with me. It was still out of commission after the big fight, otherwise I might have tried mounting it on a vehicle. I took along a supply of sonic grenades and sent my forces on the way.
It felt good to be going on the offense.
119
With the damage I'd already inflicted on Jade's forces and the fact her remaining heavy hitters were heading off to support Wolf, I hoped that this would be an easy fight. I certainly wouldn't get a better opportunity.
My weapons were good, but I wished I had some of my old allies. Hot Stuff would have been ideal in a situation like this. She was still a prisoner of Wolf.
Jade's district looked like a quadrant of the city had already been bombed into oblivion. All blasted walls and collapsed roofs, with a few leather-clad individ
uals clustered around bonfires.
Just because it was the apocalypse didn't mean that one couldn't have standards.
In the center of it all was a floating slab of rock with a massive arena built on top. Perhaps she viewed herself as some sort of gladiator. Given the recent video feed, she wasn't alone in her liking of this particularly horrid bit of architecture.
Fortunately, her very disorganization and the ruins of her district made stealth easy. That, and the fact everyone was looking at the battle lighting up the sky.
Careless didn't mean completely inept. My teams managed to infiltrate the district up to the arena. There, they found the guards alert.
If I was going to capture this district I needed to make it as quick as possible and do little damage—not that I could do any worse than the local residents already had.
I had my agents take up positions where they could get a shot. In an instant four beams lanced out to take guards in the head.
The attack did not go unnoticed. My drones were picked up by an invisible power and dragged through the corridor to crash onto the floor.
"About damned time," Jade said, levitating in mid-air in a nimbus of green power. "I knew that spider was up to something. What I didn't know is that she had you as her little lapdog. You're weak and you're a coward, but I guess I can't expect too much more from a machine."
"You're the one coming when the Wolf whistles. Decided to trade one sadist for another?" I asked.
While she was busy making insulting banter I was observing the surroundings. The floor of the arena was covered with weapons, layers upon layers of swords, knives, axes, and clubs. They were all weapons that would be useless against Jade, but which with her abilities she could fling at will.
I had an idea forming, but it was risky. It would be better to solve this with the weapons I'd brought with me.
My host Candice snapped off a shot from a beam pistol. A sword flew up to intercept the round, then dropped to earth with the steel glowing.
"He's the best hope of seeing that the bitch stays down. Don't get in the way of that and maybe you'll get to survive," Jade said.
"So your ally is under fire and you've just been sitting around waiting for someone to show up? Any flashbacks to your birthday parties?" I asked.
Jade frowned and a dagger rose into the air to plunge into Candice's shoulder, driving her backward.
"Why are you on the wrong side here? Is it to get your little pet back? Don't tell me it is actually the human pulling your strings," Jade said, as a host of weapons levitated in the air and began to swirl around my assault party.
It was going to have to be the backup plan. It all hinged on the fact that I'd observed even corpses tended to maintain some degree of the powers they were imbued with. I'd have to time this carefully.
"So, you think it is failure chasing after you, and not you chasing after failure?" I asked. "I'm still laughing, Jade. In all creation I only get one joke and it is you. You're still the saddest and funniest little thing I've ever seen."
"You think so? Let's cut your puppet's strings," Jade said.
It was time.
Abigail was one of my other drones present. I quickly accessed Abigail's stats and upgraded her with energy manipulation. Ratticus had used his ability before to neutralize electricity. Right now it was magnetism I was interested in.
Blades under telekinetic control plunged towards us and I put everything I had into Abigail's new power, channeling it into magnetic attraction.
The angle of the blades altered ever so slightly and instead of converging on every member they aimed for her. Abigail didn't even get out a cry before she was minced into a fine slurry.
I didn't waste any time, activating a teleport and upending what was left of her directly over Jade.
"What the fuck," Jade said, as blood and viscera rained down coating her body. On the ground, the weapons trembled, drawn by the powerful magnetic field covering her.
Jade raised a hand and green energy cascaded out.
"You think it is that easy? I control them," Jade said.
It was true, she was more powerful than the magnetism, but it was also drawing her full attention. I still had multiple human drones on their feet armed with beam weapons. They leveled those guns at her.
"You're suddenly attractive. A new sensation, I'm sure. Yield or burn," I said.
"You wouldn't dare," Jade said.
"Must we go over this again? You're funny, Jade. I want to keep you alive for the sheer comic relief of your existence. Give me a reason though and I'll laugh at your death instead," I said.
Jade frowned and after a moment nodded. "Yield. Get this stuff off of me."
Jade truly wasn't the smartest in the bunch.
"You're a telekinetic, get it off yourself and pull your people back. Let the Wolf deal with his own fire," I said.
Jade was engulfed in a green glow and the slurry peeled off to drip onto the ground.
I'd have to regrow Abigail later.
You have forced a District Lord to yield
They will now behave as if under compulsion in regards to your orders. Furthermore, you have gained access to reports and surveillance from their District.
Jade was under my command. Excellent.
"I think you'll find it a bit late for that," Jade said, smirking as she looked towards Crystal's district.
I checked the camera feeds. Half the Wolf fleet was still in the air and the district below was in flames.
120
I opened a line to Crystal. Unlike last time, this time it took a bit for her to answer.
"I hope you have good news," Crystal said. I heard the sound of fire crackling in the background.
"We have a new member. Things don't seem to be going your way," I said.
"Sending you a visual," Crystal said, and I got an incoming video feed.
Werewolves were walking through the streets of her district. These were different than the others I'd seen. They were on fire and didn't seem fazed by it. They'd succeeded in acquiring Hot Stuff's ability somehow.
"You didn't see that coming," I said.
"Obviously. They've gained the ability of your former crewmate. Do you think she is cooperating with them willingly?" Crystal asked.
"They shouted to the world they have no issues with being cannibal rapists, it obviously isn't beyond them to gain access to her virus by forcing themselves on her. She is also so strong I'm not sure any of them would survive the attempt," I said.
Hot Stuff tended to burn even hotter when she got angry. I wasn't entirely certain anything in this world could get that close to her, if she didn't decide to allow it.
"Well, they found some way to get access to her powers. They unlocked their old form as well," Crystal said.
"The hybrid shape was your creation?" I asked.
"Of course, but Sylax had me remove it a long time ago. They were too powerful. I'm not sure how Wolf unlocked it again without my consent."
That was two power sets that Wolf may have gained some access to without the owners granting him the authority.
"We have to put him down," I said.
"I agree. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one he hit," Crystal said.
I was provided with another video feed. I recognized the manicured lawns and ancient stone buildings as being the Professor's district. There as in Crystal's district fiery Werewolves roamed free as the buildings burned.
Roots sprang up from the ground, blue and covered in frost, and bound themselves around the Wolves running free in Crystal's home. Thorns pierced flesh, a ripple of dark energy pulsed and the flesh died. Fire or not, the Werewolves were now being butchered.
This persisted for a few minutes before the airships overhead began to pull and back away.
I doubted they would be gone for long. Crystal was weaker now with most of her district destroyed, far weaker than she had been.
"I've called a meeting with the others. Zora, Crash, Flicker, and Ophelia. We m
eet in Ophelia's district in one hour," Crystal said.
I wished that she had picked a better meeting spot. Still, one had to make do with what they could.
No one except for Ophelia attended the meeting in person.
Crystal was represented by a perfect likeness, except one that seemed to be entirely made of some sort of living snow. Even her garments were made of tiny snow crystals which held up even under my best magnification settings. I was impressed.
I attended as a mechanical drone. Zora had a drone of her own, although hers presented a full-sized hologram of her in flickering green. Crash had a video feed of the heavy-set man lounging back in some massive throne surrounded by screens, while Flicker was a tiny floating sphere of pitch blackness.
"Thank you all for attending," Crystal said. "It is no mystery why I am calling this meeting. With Sylax missing, a majority of us are required to appoint a replacement city head. Wolf is aggressively pressing his case for the position. I don't think any of us want that to happen."
Zora's hologram gave a lazy smile as she looked over those gathered, "That is where you're wrong. I've already signed on with Wolf and that means in addition to the Professor he has three. You all know Crystal won't last, and if she did she'd bring back Sylax."
Ophelia drew a pistol and fired. Zora's drone exploded in a cascade of sparks. "We came here to hear your pitch, not his. Pitch."
"Emma and Jade are with me. Together we simply need a majority. An alliance of five out of nine and possession of the Central District is enough to claim control," Crystal said.
"For those of you who are poorly programmed copies and thus incapable of simple arithmetic, that means we need two more," I said.
"Don't help, Emma," Crystal said, with a strained smile.
The hovering black sphere pulsed a moment and a modulated female tone said, "Do you intend to rescue Sylax?"
"Bit curious on that one myself," Crash said. "Lady is a whole lot of crazy and we're better off without her in charge."