Bulletfoot One

by Marshall Rust

  "Oh, I only wanted to ask for your signature," Jessica13 said and slid the form she had filled out in front of him.

  "Authorization for a stress-test outside the bunker?" he asked and finally glanced at her.

  "I managed to install a new AI in my Minato mech and I need to stress-test it before he's cleared for active duty," she explained.

  The CO made a face and scowled at the paper in front of him. "I'm sorry, but no. After the whole mess today, we shouldn't have anyone outside the bunker aside from those necessary for the defense of Sanctuary. I think you would be able to clear the Minato for active duty with an indoor stress-test, right?"

  "It's not the best," she said with a shrug. She couldn’t do or say anything to raise his suspicions

  "Well, it's the best that I can do for now," Armstrong7 said firmly and gave her the form. "If you want to try again tomorrow, I think things will have calmed by then. Until then…here…"

  He reached into the steel cabinet to his left and barely avoiding upending a stack of papers with his elbow.

  "This is an indoor stress-test authorization," he said, filled it in quickly, and handed it to her. "That should keep people from asking you too many questions."

  She smiled. "Thanks, A7. I really appreciate it."

  "Hey, good work with getting the AI to work." He shook his head in bemusement. "I don't know how you did it. That mech has been in storage for almost a hundred years and no one's figured it out. I guess that's why it pays to have our Athena folks with us, right?"

  "Right," she said with a chuckle. "Thanks again!"

  He nodded and turned away when the comm buzzed, which required him to get back to his work. She resisted a sigh as she left the office. While she didn’t have the signature she wanted, she had a signature. That was a start, right?

  She headed to the bathrooms that were mostly abandoned at this time of day. The window of privacy wasn't likely to last, so she needed to work fast. She placed both forms on top of each other with the indoor stress-test on top of the outdoor form. With a few drops of water carefully applied, the ink began to soak into the second form.

  It was a delicate process but one she had learned over the years. Not that she'd ever needed to forge signatures before—which this process was, even though it was through a slightly different method than was normally used—but it had helped her to replicate forms so she didn’t have to complete them over and over again.

  The final signature was a little smudged but it would pass a cursory inspection. With everyone in as much of a rush as they were, that was probably all she would get—hopefully. One call to Armstong7 would land her in trouble.

  Her breathing became short and rapid as she hurried down the narrow halls and she fought to keep herself calm while the seconds ticked by. Every person she passed looked at her like they knew exactly what she was doing and were on their way to report her to the Sanctuary leadership. To her overactive mind, every eye looked accusatory and each glance made her feel like they could see right into her.

  She was being paranoid, of course. Jessica13 knew it but the truth didn't make her feel any better. What if one of them actually had divined what she was up to? Was security already dispatched to have her sent to the recyc level where she would work the furnaces in the sweltering heat and fumes until her lungs gave out and she was put into the furnaces herself?

  No. There was no way that would happen. She would get out of this place and when she did, she would head out and make her own discoveries, exactly like the Great Prophet said she needed to do.

  At the entrance to the hangar, she paused and took a deep breath. Something seemed to burn a hole in the pit of her stomach but not in a painful way. It was more of a tickle. Her hands trembled again but there wasn't much she could do to stop them. Deep breaths were supposed to help, but they didn’t. She remembered feeling like this when the bunker was under attack but she had been drilled for that. In that situation, she knew what she was doing because she’d done it countless times.

  Jessica13 had never done anything like this before and very few people had. Sure, there were rumors of those who had Fallen. Either they had tried to escape and been remanded to the lower levels or they had managed to leave. Tales were told of how they had died in the open with no shelter and no Sanctuary. The stories were always the same—the poison filled their lungs and left them screaming through a painful death that took days before they finally succumbed.

  Some told of how they had taken mechs with AIs in them and once they died, the mechs kept going until something damaged the power reactor or pirates captured them. Apparently, they had been seen walking for days on end until they were cracked open and the remains of the unfortunate pilot who had taken them were found.

  Now, with everything Mini had told her, Jessica13 wondered if any of these were true. They were handed down to her by her superiors who told her they were stories from peddlers and the like. What if they were lying?

  It seemed that everything else they had told her was a lie. That made her whole life little more than a pathetic joke. She imagined the likes of John5 and the other admins laughing behind her back over what a gullible fool she'd been. And it was true. She’d never questioned anything and always simply bowed her head and obeyed their words.

  Why would they lie like that? What could they possibly have to gain from the subterfuge? Her frustration was tinged with offense, which in turn strengthened her resolve.

  She didn't understand any of it but damned if she wouldn’t find out.

  The tickle had gone and the shaking with it. She was no longer afraid. Thinking of the admins laughing at her for being so stupid made her angry. Her face heated and she suspected it would turn red before too long.

  "Anger's better than fear," she said to herself and hefted her pack on her shoulder from where it had begun to sag as she stepped into the hangar.

  A hint of niggling doubt remained in the back of her mind, but she did her best to ignore it. It was easy to do when she reminded herself she was moving away from it and walking away from her doubts.

  They would follow close behind but as long as she continued to move forward, they wouldn’t be able to catch up.

  It looked like most of the bulletfoots had already dispersed and gone to other areas to work on projects there. The only people who were present in the hangar bay were a group of security officers she hadn't anticipated and a few pilots who worked on their mechs once the day's responsibilities were over.

  Security posed a possible problem. The men and women who worked there were among the few allowed to carry weapons in Sanctuary. These were small portable weapons they could carry without a mech. Most of them were electrically powered, the kind that could incapacitate someone when needed. She'd never seen anyone use them before but she'd heard stories of when they had.

  They also had access to what she thought of as real weapons—the kind that could kill—for use when things were desperate. Jessica13 had assumed it would only be when someone actually managed to break into Sanctuary and they needed to fight invaders.

  Now, she wasn't so sure.

  They looked relaxed and leaned against one of the tables the bulletfoots had worked at while they chatted and laughed. None of them suspected someone would try to escape Sanctuary today. In all probability, none of them imagined anyone would want to.

  She wondered if they were in the know. Were they aware of the lies that had been told or were they exactly like her and had simply been deceived for their entire lives? Did they believe that they protected the safety of the bunker when in fact, they merely perpetrated the same falsehoods they had been fed since they were children?

  All she needed to do was walk past them. She only had to look like she had permission to be there to work on one of the mechs. They had no reason to question her and even if they did, she had signed paperwork from Armstrong7 that said she could take one of the mechs out for a stress-test.

  "Hey, bulletfoot," one of the security men said as Jessi
ca13 tried to walk past them. "The hangar is off-limits for the day, which is why most of the other mechanics were sent elsewhere to work. Sorry, admin orders. They don't want anything or anyone to disturb the peaceful lives of the drones below."

  "Drones?" she asked, her head tilted in confusion.

  "Oh… That's what we call the folks who work on the lower levels—farming and power source, stuff like that," the guard said and shook his head a little sheepishly. "It’s not the nicest name, I know, but you should hear the names they have for us. Anyway, don't think we think you guys are drones, though. You're the first line of defense against the Outside. We're the last."

  Jessica13 nodded. "Well, I need to work on one of the mechs."

  "Sorry, admin orders," he said again firmly and an apologetic look crossed his face. "No one's in the hangar. Maybe tomorrow?"

  She bit the inside of her mouth while her mind raced. On the one hand, she could come back tomorrow and maybe Armstrong7 would actually sign the paperwork to allow her to do the stress-testing. Or they would do more drills and escape would be impossible. She couldn't predict what would happen tomorrow.

  Her attempt had to be made today. She needed to take the risk.

  "Look," she said and eased her pack onto the floor at her feet since she could feel it beginning to make her shoulder ache. “Armstrong7 told me I need to stress-test one of the support mechs. A couple of upgrades were installed after the attack to make it more effective, and if you don't get the processing units and the power cores working perfectly in tandem, you'll have everything shorting all over the place. Then, you have the coolant systems going right to shit—"

  The security guard raised his hand. "Okay, I think I understood about half of that. If you have Armstrong's signature to clear you for indoor stress-testing, go ahead."

  "I’m actually cleared for outdoor testing," Jessica said and placed the form on the table for the man to look at.

  "Outdoor?" he asked and glanced quickly at the paperwork. "Really?"

  "You can't stress-test a mech's OS indoors," she said.

  "OS?"

  Another guard leaned in closer and whispered something in his teammate’s ear.

  "Anyway, if you have the signature, everything's clear for you to keep going. Have a nice time Topside, although you shouldn't be out there for too long."

  "Mech stress-tests don't take longer than ten minutes, provided everything goes well," Jessica13 replied and tried not to reveal the relief that washed over her in any way in her expression.

  Was she supposed to look anxious about heading Topside? Maybe a little excited? Or maybe a little bored, like this was something that she did every day?

  It didn't appear to matter. The moment they had checked the form she had left on the table, they resumed the conversation about what they had discussed before she arrived.

  Something would go wrong, her inner voice warned. No, it wouldn't, her determination asserted. She would get out of there. No one would stop her and she would get herself out of the damn place. She would not be stuck there for the rest of her life. Nothing would stop her.

  Her mouth was dry but she didn't hesitate. She didn't dare think about the fact that the only water she had was what was stocked inside Mini for an emergency. It was something to worry about later. No matter what, she would make it.

  "Hey, bulletfoot!" one of the security guards called.

  Her heart plummeted. She wouldn’t make it and would die in the recyc level, breathing smoke for the rest of her life. Jessica13 couldn't move. Her feet felt like they had been magnetically locked to the causeway and there was no to make herself move again.

  No, it wouldn’t end like this.

  She was fucked. So fucked.

  Chapter Nine

  So very, very, very fucked.

  "Shit," Jessica13 whispered and dragged in a deep breath.

  "Hey, bulletfoot!" the security guard called again and this time, he caught the attention of the pilots who still worked in the hangar. "What the hell—are you deaf?"

  She had to make a split-second decision but had no idea what the right one might be. If she turned and engaged him and he knew what she was trying to do, she would be dragged away. If they had no idea about what she was doing and she sprinted away from him, he would know she was up to something and he and his team would try to stop her.

  "Can she hear me?" the man asked. "Are the Athena freaks deaf? No…shit, come on, I know you heard me. You stopped when I called you."

  Well, damned if she did and damned if she didn't.

  Jessica13 turned but spun on her heel while she kept the weight of her body on her back foot in case she needed to sprint to where Mini was still harnessed.

  The man didn't look aggressive at all. Maybe a little annoyed, but that could be chalked down to having to repeat himself.

  Her heart still hammered painfully her in her chest and escalated its pace when she noticed her bag in his hand. She’d forgotten that she had dropped it because it had begun to make her shoulder hurt. The weight was considerable and it looked like he had some difficulty holding it out to her with only one hand. That alone was likely to generate some degree of suspicion.

  He merely laughed and shook his head. The concern she knew was probably evident in her face seemed to go unnoticed, however. Security tended to get that kind of reaction from people in Sanctuary and generally tried to appear as understanding as possible unless the situation called for a harsher response.

  It was like he said—the people in the hangar were the first line of defense against intruders to the bunker. There was really no point in antagonizing them.

  "You forgot your bag, kid," the guard said and chuckled again as Jessica13 moved casually to take the bag in question from his hands. "What the hell do you have in here, anyway? Steel chunks?"

  "Parts I might need," she said. "And the tools I'll need to install them with. I'd go over the details with you but you didn't like it when I did it the last time."

  "Oh….right." He tilted his head, his expression a little dubious, and glanced dismissively at the bag.

  It seemed he wouldn’t question what she was doing. People in a position of power didn't want to look stupid in front of the people they had power over, she supposed. It seemed a fairly logical assumption given his lack of real curiosity.

  Jessica13 hefted it carefully with both hands and gave him a sheepish grin. "Thanks. I don't think I would have been able to do much without my tools."

  "How do you work on the suit when you're up top?" he asked.

  She shrugged, a little more comfortable now as she was close enough to freedom that she could almost taste it. "It's mostly software and processors that I'll stress-test and I can access those from inside the cockpit, but I need to be able to peel the inner skin off. I have to have my tools to do it, though."

  He nodded, quickly lost interest in the conversation, and inched away from her as she continued to talk until it was clear the conversation was over. She turned away, still clutching her bag with both hands as she headed toward the Minato.

  There wasn’t far to go. She only needed to keep her cool and reach the elevator. Once she was there, nothing would be able to stop her.

  A clatter ended the positive thoughts abruptly. She spun, horrified to see that the over-filled pack had split a little. While she had attempted to make the packing too tight for much to fall out, one of her actualizers now lay on the ground, as well as a can of pea stew and a couple of protein patties that had been protected in a vacuum-sealed bag.

  The guards wouldn't know that she needed an actualizer to help maintain her suit for longer travel time, but the food would be quickly identified as suspicious. Stealing food already came with a massive penalty, but her heading toward a mech with the intention to head Topside as well would trigger additional alarms in their heads.

  It wouldn't take much for them to put it together. Jessica13 ducked quickly and picked the food up, but she hadn't been fast enough. They'd seen it and
now moved toward her.

  She'd wasted too much time and delayed her escape. If she wanted to make it, she needed to get moving.

  With everything retrieved, Jessica13 began to run.

  "Hey, hold up!" the guard behind her called.

  There was absolutely no way she could comply with the order. By this point, if he was suspicious, there wasn't much she could do. No sweet-talking, quick-talking, or sneaky maneuvering would keep him from searching her bag, which would reveal that she was trying to make a break for it.

  "I said hold up, damn it!"

  She ran faster, her focus on Mini. A couple of the pilots in the area heard the commotion and stepped down from where they worked on their mechs. They seemed unsure as to what they were supposed to do. Something was happening and they knew they should intercede, but they didn't know on whose behalf. While most knew they were supposed to comply with security commands, it looked like they were interfering with the business of one of their own.

  Her silent pleas for them to not get involved went unheeded as three pilots abandoned their work to come over and see what was happening. One of them was Becker3, who placed his hand on her shoulder and brought her to a sudden halt. The other two moved between her and the guards to try to determine why one of their mechanics was being harassed.

  "What's the problem here?" one of the pilots asked.

  Jessica13’s heart plunged into her stomach and panic began to take hold as she looked around to try to find a way out of this mess. All she needed was some kind of believable explanation that would enable her to continue.

  "We'll need to search her bag," the guard said and attempted to skirt the two pilots in their path.

  "Why?" the pilot asked and made no effort to move.

  "We saw something spill out," the man replied, clearly frustrated. "It looked like food. As you all know, stealing food comes with a three-month stay in the Hole. We'll need to search her bag."