by Skyler Grant
If we were going to be invading Zora's district this was a chance to try. Zora's district was one of gleaming steel and glass, well-dressed figures in suits and shades walking along perfectly ordered boulevards.
We were going to do the hit from the Graven. Without teleportation between the districts the dimensional drive remained my best option to strike fast. We were going full strength for this, Anna was in armor, along with a collection of heavy combat drones equipped with a variety of powers. Hot Stuff was providing further offensive support and I had brought Mechos along for his technical expertise.
I'd pinpointed Ratticus' presence by a disruption of the local electrical grid. It seemed that Zora hadn’t managed to extract or duplicate his powers.
With a short range dimensional jump I brought the Graven in over the top the building where he was imprisoned. We came in low, the dimensional wash sending a shimmer of color through the streets.
Hot Stuff was the first out, igniting halfway to the roof. When she landed her temperatures were already so extreme she melted clear through the structure. Anna and the assault team followed her in.
We were already taking fire. Gauss Cannons that magnetically propelled rounds at high velocities. I had a few telekinetics aboard, although if I'd known this would be the defenses I'd have brought Jade.
My people were able to stop the rounds, but it was quickly consuming their power. They wouldn't be able to keep the ship safe for long and once our shields were gone those rounds would chew through the Graven's light armor.
I took two cannon emplacements out with the Graven's main guns.
It made sense that Zora had wanted Ratticus. If this was her preferred method of weaponry and she could manage to duplicate his power, he would do a lot to enhance the destructive potential of cannons like these.
Hot Stuff was being swarmed by heavily armored guards. Their armor must have been heat resistant. They were standing their ground long enough to fire their guns and when she drew close, one even managed to land a punch on her jaw, for all that his arm melted off afterward.
Hot Stuff spat out blood. "My desire to burn this whole place to the ground just went up."
"You always want to burn everything to the ground," Anna said, as she sprayed a guard's helmet with a blast of acid, ducked beneath his swing at her and shoved the butt of her weapon into his visor. Weakened by the acid it exploded inward and he staggered back.
"Usually," Hot Stuff agreed, and threw a fireball down the hall to scatter a crew of scientists working to assemble some sort of turret.
"Focus," I said through the comms. "Three doors down. Do try not to burn him alive."
"Some guys like that kind of thing," Hot Stuff said, as she made her way to the door and put a blazing fist into a security panel, then burned her way through.
The door had a thick layer of mesh built into it. I didn't have a science drone along, but I'd have to guess that it was highly conductive. They were holding Ratticus in a Faraday cage to help neutralize his abilities.
It was smart of Zora, smarter than I liked.
Hot Stuff finished melting through the door and stepped back.
Ratticus was inside and floating in a tube of bubbling fluid, a number of tubes extending into his flesh.
"Are we all right to break him out of this?" Anna asked.
I was detecting Wolf airships closing on the Graven’s position and several flying platforms holding Gauss cannons approaching too. Our welcome was quickly being worn out.
"Given your lack of any skill other than mindless destruction, I don't think we have a choice," I said.
Anna shrugged and gave the glass a blast of her acid gun. The material sizzled and bubbled before the tank exploded, with Ratticus rolling out amid of a spray of glass shards.
With her boosted strength Anna had no problem flinging him over one shoulder, gripping the gun in her other hand.
"We going for her core or getting out of here?" Anna asked.
That was a good question. If her core was close it could still be worth the risk of going for it. But where was it?
Given how built up and staffed Zora's district was it made the task easier. We'd already set off a lot of alarms and they were mostly transmitting in one direction, towards a communications hub in a tower on the perimeter of the district’s central plaza.
"Pull back," I said. A small force like this wasn't going to get there on foot.
Hot Stuff moved to lead the way out and was blocked by a defense robot. Giant tanks adorned its back, frost coating them. The air around it was massively colder than the room.
Hot Stuff threw a blast of fire and the robot raised a gauntleted fist to spray a stream of super-cooled gases that neutralized it.
"About damn time," Hot Stuff said, rolling her shoulders. "I've been looking for a good fight."
Hot Stuff was stronger, I could tell that. It would waste time, her going toe-to-toe with it—time that we didn't have.
One of the team’s telekinetics used their ability to wrench the hoses out of the tanks as one of the electrokinetics blasted the robot’s electrical system.
It staggered backwards twitching madly and collapsed to the ground.
"Okay, maybe you haven't figured this out yet, but I'm a girl that really likes her climaxes and that was anti-climatic as fuck," Hot Stuff said.
"Save it for the Wolf," Anna said.
Hot Stuff seemed mollified for the moment, reducing the robot to a pool of molten metal as she stepped through its remains.
128
The team managed to get back to the Graven before any attack overwhelmed us and I jumped the ship back to safety. As triumphs went, it barely qualified.
It was also a mixed success, because even as we were accomplishing the mission Tara vanished. I had the logs clearly documenting what happened. At one moment she was secure in her quarters and the next she was gone with no traces of teleportation or invisibility.
There had been a dimensional shift. Given she had been stuck in black and white I'd been monitoring her condition extra-closely. I didn't have much doubt that Flicker had gotten a hold of her again.
Tara knew that we'd rescued Sylax, something that still wasn't public knowledge. If Wolf learned of it, I didn't doubt he'd throw everything he had to take me down. I'd become his first priority. Which meant getting Tara back was mine.
Going after Flicker again wouldn't just be a rescue mission. Crystal remained comatose and Sylax too. It had only happened after Flicker's assault on her district and I had to think it was related.
Last time the Graven had appeared in Flicker's skies she'd been prepared for an aerial assault and forced our withdrawal. Now she'd had even more time to prepare. We needed a surprise. I thought I had one.
The teleportation that rimmed the city was largely used to transport troops away or bodies back from the battlefield. Technically they were under the control of the city head, but with Mechos' ability to interface with the city’s technology he could seize control and we might use a portal to get into the very heart of Flicker's district.
I'd called together Mechos, Anna, Hot Stuff, and Jade to discuss the plan.
I'd decided that Hot Stuff and Jade should use the portal with a number of fire drones and several of Jade's lieutenants. I didn't know if either of them could capture her core—that would be a great advantage—but I was more aiming to use our strongest hitters. Put together, they could inflict massive damage in a short period of time.
"I like it," Jade said.
"Burning stuff is fun," Hot Stuff agreed.
That was two who agreed, at least.
"Are you sure you'll be able to get them out?" Anna asked.
"Once connected, the portal will hold steady for two-way transit. They can walk back through," Mechos said.
That was a bit of a concern. If they could come back, then Flicker could also return through it. I was already building a number of fixed gun emplacements focused on the portal and setting up a drone perimete
r.
"Are you certain you'll be able to fix what is wrong with Tara, if we do manage to rescue her?" Mechos asked.
That was a whole other question. I'd loaded Crystal and Sylax onto the Graven and stocked the vessel with a dozen of my science probes. Once the ground team had created a distraction we could jump the Graven in. Anna could rescue Tara and I could hopefully figure out what was wrong with her and Crystal, before we had to jump out.
"There are no guarantees in SCIENCE, only the boundless challenge of the unknown. Still, I am a genius," I said.
Looks were exchanged, but nobody had poor judgment enough to challenge me.
With the plan worked out it was time to execute.
Mechos reached out to rest a hand on one of the teleportation portals. They had been dead since Sylax's capture. Veins of red circuitry extended outward from his touch through polished grey metal and with a flare the portal came to life.
Hot Stuff and my fire drones led the way followed by Jade and her lieutenants.
It was a bit like a bomb going off. Jade roared as green energy pulsed around her and an entire block of buildings rose into the sky before crashing to earth and shattering into rubble—flaming rubble, as Hot Stuff was not to be outdone.
The sky was filled with blobs of tangled wire that left their defensive positions to streak towards the invaders.
As distractions went they were all I could have hoped for and more. Seizing the core would be ideal, but it wasn't actually the plan for the day.
I engaged the dimensional drive and brought the Graven in. Using my awareness from my drones on the ground I was able to pick an empty part of the sky where the defenses were weak. As soon as we materialized I unleashed the science drones to fill the air around us.
Now that I had so many drones here I was getting a read on Tara's location. I pinged it on a map for Anna, who nodded curtly and blinked out of existence.
Anna's ability to teleport short distances was pricey to use, but for something like a rescue operation it could so much more powerful compared to just shooting our way in.
We had to spend minutes in the sky. We were largely unmolested. While the occasional defensive blob of string drifted into range of my lasers, for the most part they were furiously trying to kill the ground forces.
It was enough. Anna materialized with the still monochrome Tara.
What had happened to her and Crystal were variations of the same thing. They'd both been rendered out of phase with our own reality—not as much as Flicker herself—and each in a way that obviously affected them differently.
A variation in the dimensional drive bubble could resynchronize each individually, but the computations were frightfully complex. We had to hang around for an additional thirty-six seconds.
I signaled the ground forces to withdraw and engaged the jump engines.
Reality warped and twisted around us once, twice, thrice in waves of rainbow power. The first time returned color to Tara's flesh. The second caused both Crystal and Sylax to awaken with a gasp.
The third took us home.
129
It was an odd celebration that took place after the rescue mission. All of my old crew were there, and Crystal and Sylax as well. Plus we had the other refugees of various sorts, Magpie and her people, and the Gobbles who somehow had grown to over three dozen in number and perched themselves on top of every surface to swat at anyone who passed. They and Sylax might have shared a personality.
Moods seemed more elevated than I might have expected and there was genuine good will in the air. Sylax wasn't always awful. Although the woman enjoyed the suffering of others, it seemed she also enjoyed a good glass of synthesized wine and dancing with Mechos.
Several of the clones decided to attend the celebration and Annas were everywhere. It wasn't hard to pick the real one, the clones were dressed in form-fitting armor plating in red and black. Anna had me replicate one of her gowns.
It was a bit of a game to see just how Sylax would respond. It didn't take long for her to saunter over and look Anna up and down.
"You're overdressed, pet. I'll allow it," Sylax said.
"I think we're past doing that. You do too or you'd have torn this party apart," Anna said.
Sylax smiled at that. "True. Although I haven't quite figured out if I truly think saving me balances the scales for our past."
I took over one of the Anna clones so that I could join the conversation myself. "You were trying to kill us at the time."
"Did you have to make them look like me?" Anna said.
"Few things are as intimidating in battle as a horde of grotesque monstrosities rushing towards you," I said.
Sylax laughed. "Perhaps it is more fun to have you two together, and there are no shortages of others we must harm."
Sylax made a gesture and Crystal approached from the crowd as if summoned, which she probably was.
"Nice party," Crystal said.
"Compliment their hospitality later. Emma was loyal to you? Loyal to the cause of rescuing me?" Sylax asked.
"Risked everything for it, although I think she was more interested in rescuing Anna than you," Crystal said.
"Understandable," Sylax said, and sipped at her wine before setting the glass aside. "Fine. We work with this group going forward. I always knew the Wolf was just waiting for his moment. Still, I had not expected him to be so bold or effective."
"My district is really in ruins?" Crystal asked.
I brought up a display for her and she looked over the screen.
"You can rebuild," Anna said.
"Of course I can. But my final defenses were strong," Crystal said.
"Mine were even stronger," Sylax said. "The Wolf has gained a lot of power quickly. It is important to figure out how."
"He unlocked his old form," Crystal said.
"He has also spread the pyrokinetic upgrade to his forces without going through the typical means," I said.
"You can do something like that," Sylax said, with a pointed look towards the clone.
"And obviously I didn't," I said.
"He somehow acquired his own upgrade core. He must have," Crystal said.
"One that would allow this degree of power so quickly? Unlikely. You know how long it took you," Sylax said.
"He might have a core that allows him to mirror powers," Anna said.
"Perhaps. If my power were mirrored, it might have allowed him to unlock his old potential. Then he could have mirrored someone like Emma's to acquire new powers," Crystal said, thoughtfully.
It was a disturbing idea. I hadn't encountered anything like the mirroring cores that they described. It seemed the sort of power that could be relatively useless in many situations, but carefully applied could be powerful indeed. Crystal's abilities with her upgrade core were far different than mine and both of ours different from Mechos. Mine focused upon research, testing, and then genetic sequencing. Crystal's seemed to focus on transformation of her subjects, and especially some degree of animal hybridization. Mechos on the other hand, before he'd lost his core, was all about imbuing abilities in people by way of specialized implants.
Individually our techniques all had their strengths and their weaknesses, but if one were able to pick and choose between them at will, it might be possible to make creations more powerful than any of us individually.
"If he is, is there anything we can do to fight him?" I asked.
"Kill him quickly. If he is using a power like that intelligently, then he is only going to keep getting stronger," Sylax said.
"Your solution is always to kill things quickly," Anna said.
"Actually I usually prefer to let them suffer," Sylax said.
"That much is true," Crystal said.
As if we needed reminding, there were few secrets about who and what Sylax was.
Crystal tilted her head. "Before we do that, we need to retake my district. I've been trying to reestablish the connection. Your visual helped. I appear to have a timer runni
ng for having abandoned my district. I have six hours to reestablish dominance of my core or I yield to Flicker."
That was interesting. You would think that running away from a district would be an automatic default, but instead it created a timer. Crystal's withdrawal had actually saved her from compulsion.
It was a useful tidbit to remember. Trying to take someone down, I needed to make sure I could defeat them, not allow them to flee.
"That won't be a problem. Now that I'm awake I'm looking to stretch my muscles," Sylax said.
"We just can't have a proper party," Anna said.
"Oh pet. It's not a proper party unless somebody gets skinned. Just be delighted it won't be you, this time," Sylax said.
"You really do have the worst taste in party games," Anna said.
"You have no idea," Crystal said.
130
Clearing Crystal's timer was simplicity itself. Several golems—strangely twisted masses of copper wire—had been left to guard the core. I jumped the Graven into the skies above and dropped off Sylax and Crystal.
Sylax didn't even need a weapon. She tore the golems apart with her bare hands and with a look of glee on her face.
I picked up incoming dimensional drive signatures. There was no way those were friendly. I didn't even have time to issue a warning to those below before I was jumping the Graven out. They would figure things out. The Graven wasn't prepared to go head-to-head with a fleet.
Wolf airships—my long range sensors picked them up. They couldn't plan a jump that close on the fly like I could, but give them time and they could manage the same trick. They'd known exactly where Crystal's core was and were waiting for their moment.
Energy weapons lanced out and turned the ground molten. Sylax could survive that sort of fire, I'd done worse to her, but I wasn't certain about Crystal.