“Hi,” I say.
They both smile, glancing at each other then me; I can tell they don’t know what to say, neither do I.
“Hi, yourself. You’re Amelia, right?” Dad says.
I shake my head, biting my lips in a supreme effort to hold back tears.
“We’ve heard only a few things about you, Dr. Grace feels it’s important we get to know you, she thinks it will help us re-establish our memories,” Mom says. “Can you tell us about yourself? I know this is hard for you,” she glances at Dad, “Us too. We thought…”
He takes her hand, “We thought we were doing good work for so long and then— well you know,” he says with a shrug. “We want to remember you, we really do. We always wanted a child but we thought we couldn’t have one.” They both glance down when he speaks. As hard as it is for me, it has to be just as hard for them.
I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t formulate any words for a moment. What do I tell them? About the accident? About living with her brother? I decide to go with that.
“Well, after the accident I went to live with your brother, he took care of me. I was only six so I didn’t really understand what was going on. I guess there was something of a ‘reverse’ custody fight.”
Mom’s smile falters and I can tell she doesn’t remember anything. A quick glance at Dad says the same thing. They’re hollow behind their eyes. No memories of me or their life.
I grab my wheels to turn around when a crack of thunder shakes the windows. A dark shadow spreads out over the bay and engulfs the hospital.
“Amelia?” Kate asks from behind me. I push over to the window.
“Some kind of atmospheric disruption?”
The clouds over the bay thin, lighting up as a massive heat source barrels through them. A meteorite splits the sky in a massive fireball before crashing into the bay with a massive explosion. A wall of water a hundred feet high forms in an instant as the shockwave spreads out. Someone screams behind me.
I roll myself backward, “Epic, initiate!” I barely have time to speak before the shockwave is one us. The chair jerks into place, ejecting the wheels and standing me up at the same time. The armor reconfigures, sliding around to engulf me. The helmet flips over in parts before the kinetic emitters lock the whole thing in place. The suit hisses with pressurization when the shockwave hits the windows, blowing them out with a bang. Glass shards explode inward, sending thousands of razor-sharp daggers forth to shred my parents and everyone else in the room.
65
Power surges through the suit, snapping the kinetic shields to life. Epic, thank God, is faster than me and throws them out wide, straining the circuits to protect as many people as he can.
The majority of the glass falls harmlessly to the ground.
Thankfully only a few dozen people are in the dining hall. Kate rapid ports people to the hallway, away from the windows.
“Open faceplate,” I tell Epic. The mirrored section slides up into the helmet. “Mom, Dad, I have to go, you should be safe here,” I look to the Doctor who nods.
“We have bomb shelter for emergencies,” Dr. Grace says.
“I… it was nice to see you,” I say. I can’t seem to bring myself to ‘I love you’. I do, in the way that I love the idea of my parents. But those people, the ones who I spent so long looking for… they might as well be dead.
The faceplate slams shut as I spin, running for the window. I shatter glass as I jump through the already broken window.
“Epic, sitrep?”
A meteorite has hit the Puget Sound.
“You think?”
Comms traffic is going crazy. No one saw it or knew about it as far as I can tell. I am checking Seattle ATC for data—one moment.
Thrusters hum as we pour on the speed and I’m flying over the harbor in seconds from five hundred feet up. The new armor is handling fabulously. I have all my weapons, minus my sword, plus my new main gun, code name: SDF-1.
But something isn’t right. I zoom over to where the meteor hit and take a flyby. The water churns from the displacement and there are waves… they’re just not large waves.
Amelia, Sea-Tac ATC confirms what I thought. They did not see it on their air traffic radar. It came in stealth. I also do not believe it struck the water at terminal velocity. Kate is calling.
“On screen,” I tell him.
“I’ve got your parents to the bomb shelter and the rest of the hospital is evacuating. Where do you want me?”
I’m still processing what Epic told me. If it didn’t come in at terminal velocity it isn’t natural. Can they be here already? It’s only been a few months.
“Kate, get to the waterfront, coordinate with the police. We need it evacuated and I mean ASAP.”
“I don’t see any waves, what’s going on?”
Other than Luke, Kate is the only other person who knows what Ericsson told me.
“They’re here.”
“What do you mean ‘they’? Like alien-they?”
“Get to the waterfront, get it clear.”
“I’m on it.” I hear her swear before she cuts the line, not something she does often. I really needed more time to plan this. I’ve only just finished the MK III armor.
Amelia, I suggest we gain some altitude and orbit the area.
Right. I pull up, switching our ECM to full power. “Fire up Artemis, just in case. I’d hate to shoot an Arrow at a populated city but we might not have a choice.”
Affirmative, Artemis is tracking, orbital thrusters firing, remembering the Alamo.
I open my mouth to speak when the suit jerks hard right, eliciting a grunt from me. The Emdrive punches me in the gut and our airspeed shoots past five hundred miles per hour in three seconds.
Sorry, the alien craft shot out of the water below us.
“What?” I shake my head, trying to clear the fog from the sudden g-forces. I take back control, pulling a long turn and then I see it.
“Epic, why isn’t it showing up on the HUD?”
I cannot see it. I only knew it was ‘there’ because of the sudden displacement of millions of gallons of water.
It’s frigging huge. If I had to guess, it would be the size of an aircraft carrier and roughly the same shape. A long rectangle with hundreds of bumps on the surface, almost as if it were covered in half domes. The rear of the vessel lights up, sending out waves of heat followed by a roar as its engines kick in.
It appears to be using some form of anti-gravity to hover and reaction thrust engines to move. I can detect the thermal output of its engines but not the machine itself. I can only ‘see’ it visually and that tells me very little.
“Stealth tech. Got it.”
I finish my turn, making sure to give it wide berth. GPS shows it heading due east at a relative two-hundred feet. The problem is, even though it isn’t attacking anything at the moment, that course takes it right through downtown. I’m pretty sure several of the buildings are taller than two hundred feet.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say this thing doesn’t care about property damage.”
It is not likely.
“Kate, how’s the evacuation going?”
“Not bloody fast enough. Amelia, can you stop it?”
“I don’t even know what ‘it’, is.”
So far it is not firing any weapons or threatening anything. I can detect no active shields. Perhaps a closer look?
I hate to do it but we’ve got no choice here. I pull us up and over the beast, using the GPS to record accurate dimensions, three hundred feet long, one hundred wide and fifty thick. The back end spews out exhaust in the neighborhood of two thousand degrees. Even if I didn’t care about the buildings it will inevitably collide with, that thrust would vaporize the city behind it. Even two hundred feet up, the water of the Sound boils from the temp.
It’s so frigging big I just have no idea.
“Well, when all fails, poke it with something. Full power to the particle beam.”
> My HUD lights up as the ZPFM shunts power to my new and improved particle beams. After our heat issue in space, I decided to wrap the emitters in heat-absorbing carbon cylinders that eject once they’d absorbed their maximum temp. I carry two spares on my hips. However, since I opted for a new weapon on my right arm I am back down to the one beam.
Full power.
If I were to design the alien craft the front would be nothing but armor… however, those domes have got to serve a purpose. I line up the crosshairs on one and let it rip. Hyper-accelerated silicate burns through the air leaving a trail of ionized atmosphere. The beam strikes the closest dome and… dissipates against the surface.
The ship jerks up a hundred feet. Half the domes retract, revealing nine foot long turrets with green lights inside them. As one, the seven nearest me all snap to lock on.
Evasive!
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I punch it. We shoot from three hundred miles an hour to Mach Three in as many seconds. Green beams reach out, tearing through the air I’d occupied seconds before. Several hit the shore; where they strike land. The dirt and concrete erupt in violent explosions where they hit.
“What the hell is that?”
I need more data.
Arm out, I take a few more potshots. The particle beam is either deflected or absorbed. Each time I fire the turrets nearest to me return green beams of death in my direction. If the particle beams do nothing, then the IP Cannons aren’t going to do squat.
“Epic what about an EMP?”
It may have an effect, however, if this is indeed alien, it is likely the hull is hardened against radiation due to the rigors of space travel.
Great, he’s right, of course. “Then we’re just going to have to take out those turrets one at a time.”
I cut the thrusters and drop like a stone until I’m only a dozen feet above the water. Blasting back full power I head for the underbelly. Whatever it uses to generate lift ‘pushes’ down against the water, I can see the churn underneath it.
“Epic, can you see the turrets?”
Only visually. I cannot provide aiming assistance in such a manner. It is too imprecise. The best I can do is project where your weapons will hit based on trajectory.
“Good enough. Let’s make a note, though. We need a suit built for war. If we survive this, that is.”
Note made, create a war machine.
“Okay, here we go!”
The Emdrive whines, pushing us under the craft. I immediately feel the buffet of its repulser field pushing down on us. Flipping over, I line up the first turret and fire. The beam strikes the weapon. Whatever the green stuff is, explodes on contact. Green fire leaps out of the hull as pieces of the gun fall into the ocean.
I believe those are chemical lasers with some form of charged particle delivery system.
“Neat,” I say firing again. Another turret goes down. They return fire with haste. I punch the throttle. A beam misses me by inches and the heat levels skyrocket. Warning lights flash crimson on the HUD.
I recommend not letting them hit you.
“Epic, is it still moving to the city?”
Less than thirty seconds until it is over land. Amelia, based on its landfall, maneuvers, and reactions, there is a high probability this is a drone and has no actual aliens on board.
“Well, that makes things easier, I think.”
Full burn to the Emdrive and I shoot out from under. I need a sturdy place to land. Something, not wood or dirt…
The Seattle Ferry Terminal! Seven degrees to your right. The reinforced concrete should prove sufficiently strong.
I see it. The Emdrive gets me there in all of four seconds and I land with a crunch.
“Epic. Prepare the main gun!”
Initiating.
The problem with energy has always been mass and Newton’s laws. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I can only mount a gun as big as the recoil I can absorb. The particle beam literally fires silicate molecules so even at near light speed there isn’t much reaction… but this… I don’t even know if this is going to work.
“Kate I need you, now!”
Epic takes over the suit. The legs shift into a sort of running stance like I am taking a strong step forward. My left arm locks down in line with my body and the shoulders go rigid. Plates start sliding to reconfigure to support the armor and provide a conduit for the coming energy blast.
Kate pops in beside me; a sheen of sweat coats her forehead and she’s breathing hard.
“What?”
“In about fifteen seconds everything within three hundred feet of me is going to vanish, I need you to port the people away.”
She glances around, “Where are they?”
“Epic is sending you the location of the four people in the blast zone.”
“Blast zone? Amelia, what are you doing?”
I glance up at the HUD, the drone is only seconds from overland. “Hurry!”
She vanishes.
Locking down the gun.
My right arm comes up straight, fingers out. The side panels from my wrist to my shoulder open and the barrel slides out and locks together.
Ready to fire SDF-1 on your command.
Sweat trickles down my brow. There’s a tightness in my chest. I haven’t had the chance to test the mass driver yet. If I’ve miscalculated, or if the energy is too much… the suit could end up as ionized plasma along with the tungsten marbles we fire.
We are out of time, Amelia.
I close my eyes. “Fire.”
With a thunk, a twenty-three-ounce tungsten ball bearing slides into place. The ZPFM whines as more power is tasked from the generator, more than what ran the MKII at break orbit speeds.
The tungsten ball slides into the pipe and then it fires. Forty-nine more tungsten balls lock into place and shunt to the barrel as the magnetic rails accelerate them to fifty miles per second. Fire rips through the air with a boom that shatters glass for miles. The concrete around my feet cracks and I can hear the buildings nearby crumble. The fire reaches out all the way to the drone. Air ignites around the point of impact as the ship jerks sharply up on its tail. Epic adjusts the aim firing the next volley to split the underside. The air burns as the metal balls are converted to plasma, exploding with the fury of a small sun on impact.
Holes the size of basketballs perforate the ship, the engines give out and for a second it holds ground then it slides backward to crash into the bay. The last of the ball bearings blast through it, ending the rampage. The air around the suit is hot enough to boil water. Half the ship explodes as green fire shoots up into the sky while the other half crashes into the ocean. A wall of water a hundred feet high crashes into me.
We may have miscalculated the side effects of dumping that much power into a mass driver. The suit will need extensive repairs.
I can’t move my head, but I can see the massive damage I caused around me.
“I concur.”
66
The damage to the city looked far worse than it was. Thanks to our warning, most of the dock area evacuated in time and with Kate doing her thing and the steep nature of the waterfront, no one even got their shoes wet. Except me. When the water hit, the force knocked me into the pier and I ended up stuck in the muck for a bit. Turns out my super powerful LED lights are all but frigging useless under water. Something Epic and I are going to have to address at some point.
I take one last pass around the area, scanning for anyone in trouble or any major blockages we can help out with. Epic keeps me informed of Kate’s progress as she ports around the area, guiding rescue workers and making sure people stay calm. She’s really good at crowd control. Hell, she’s good at everything.
Amelia, what about the drone? We should try to salvage some of it to return to the lab. At the very least we might be able to devise some way of penetrating the hull. The collateral damage of the mass driver may keep us from using the weapon if there is a next time.
He’s right. I knew the retort would wreck things but I had no idea it would be so devastating. I could never fire it if people were around. It’s a miracle no one was killed as it was. The sound alone shattered wood and glass. Before I can risk using it again, I’ll have to tone down the power.
Banking hard to the harbor, I drop down to skim over the wreckage. Half the ship is scattered over a quarter mile of ocean, but the back half, with the engines, is wedged hard into the bottom of the bay with the broken front sticking just above the water. The sea fills it every time there’s a wave but I can still see plenty of open spaces.
“Epic, you think their computer systems remain operative?”
It is impossible to know. They have interstellar travel. Everything they have should be an order of magnitude more advanced than us.
“True.”
The place where it broke in half is all jagged edges and blackened metal. I can see what might be wires and circuitry, or it could be anything really. Epic still can’t ‘see’ the metal with radar or any of our other sensors, just visual.
“I’m gonna risk a landing.”
A makeshift ledge where the alien metal bent as the hull tore apart sticks out near the water level and looks sturdy enough. Just in case, I keep the Emdrive on minimum as I land. I don’t want to end up in the drink, again.
The metal feels hard under my feet. Hard, but somehow flexible. Inside the drone there are tubes spilling out white goo, others have green lights flickering on them.
“Full lights.”
The LEDs light up and even in the afternoon sun, I can see further into the ship. Tentatively I take a step closer in.
“Epic… there’s something written on the wall here, do you see it?” I point to a script of some kind, barely visible and only when I shine light directly on it. I can’t tell if they’re words or…
Let me try something.
Hundreds of LED’s built into the external housing of the suit flash through the visible light spectrum, illuminating the wall as I move closer. All at once the flashing stops and Epic ends the spectrum on black light. An entire block of text appears, glowing slightly. Parts of the words still fade in and out, almost as if they were meant to be read under a different light.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 36