Raddocks Horizon (Godyssey Legacy Book 1)

by Duran Cross

  “How could a ship that size disappear?”

  “How did you even know it was gone so early?”

  “I don’t remember. I told Valhara as soon as it entered my mind. I’d only just gone for maintenance, and there have been gaps—”

  “What did she say?”

  Caufmann feels Decora shrug. “Cyranda station must have shot it down.”

  Veidan seems to relax a little, “We didn’t want anyone to know until we were in a position to fill the vacuum left by suffering such a loss.”

  He feels his head shake. “I just cannot understand why we ordered the Possession to intercede when the Crucible was under attack. We lost the ship and almost the entire crew and all for nothing. The Crucible escapes, returned to treat the Indigo Reign fallout, then vanished. Where did it go afterwards? It never came out of hyper transit.”

  “Why is Valhara still here? It was a simple retrieval. What is she doing here?”

  “She wants their general.”

  Veidan looks to the blasts in the distance, “There may be nothing left when she’s done.”

  “I’ll let her know you’re here,” Caufmann feels Decora switching channels in his head to talk to the wing commander.

  “Not yet,” the lieutenant orders.

  Something in Veidan’s expression changes but Decora lacks the emotional range to tell what it is, and Caufmann is mentally too far away to gauge it himself. Veidan speaks.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Nex.”

  “It doesn’t matter, we have to make do with what we have.”

  “No,” Veidan shakes his head and puts his hand up, “I mean I don’t know what I can tell you.”

  Caufmann feels Decora’s shoulders tighten. “What?” Veidan never kept secrets. Normally.

  “This isn’t just a war, Nex, everything we do is watched. There’s so much more than a political regime at stake for us. You understand that, don’t you?”

  Caufmann can feel Decora’s hands moving, preparing medical treatment for the wounded CryoZaiyon. “Yes, Saifer.”

  “We have to take care of our own future. I won’t say at any cost because I have my limits, but others do not.”

  “You and Zillah have been on the front line for months. You need to let me bring the pair of you in.”

  Veidan seems to ignore him. “There are steps that will be taken soon, and I cannot return to Iyatoya. Not now, but I will.”

  “Where is this going?”

  Veidan looks at him with an oddly resigned expression as if he’s just come out of maintenance, “The war office is pushing the House of Representatives to award more substantial sums to Godyssey’s budget tomorrow.”

  “What for? Are we being reinforced?”

  “Apparently. There’s a new system design prototype that’s ready for action. It’s called ‘HolinMech.’”

  “That’s the system design that went haywire during the Montrialis test flight.”

  “Yes, and responsible for the entire crew’s death as well as the loss of the ship itself,” says Veidan.

  “There’s a new line then? That’s all?”

  Veidan shakes his head. “We have to stop it before it begins. We smuggled a copy of the specs out and according to our diagnostics they’ll be little more than slaves. With resources at their current level it’ll be enough to produce a thousand per city planet-wide.”

  Caufmann feels Decora frown. “Occupation?”

  “The general consensus among those of us who’ve seen these reports leads that way, yes.”

  “Then this war…” he trails off.

  Veidan nods. “Is paving the way for automatons to keep the peace. Whoever owns the iron hand will own the world. Or in this case it’s the Thermosteel hand.”

  “What are you planning to do about this?”

  “It’s already happening. I’m telling you now because I trust you. I would have told you sooner but I’m not sure what to make of Valhara, yet,” he says, his green eyes blazing against the night sky with the explosions littering the sky behind him. “There will be reports of Thermosteel going missing in the near future. A lot of it.”

  “I know about the missing stocks. Hundreds of metric tonnes are missing.”

  Saifer looks at him curiously, “Valhara told you?”

  “Candidly. She said no Thermosteel means no army.”

  Veidan nods again, “She’s right. The next question is what happens to us.”

  Caufmann feels the sides of his face pull up into a smile. “Maybe we should fight with the GA, after all.”

  Veidan glares at Decora. “Have no illusions, there are no sides among humans for us.”

  “I agree. We can’t trust our own side, we certainly can’t defect to a side that wants us all dead, so where does that leave us?”

  “On our own, where we always have been. Our barracks are a prison, our state of being is conscripted, and we get lobotomised if we misbehave. We fight for Godyssey but they are not ‘on our side’ by any stretch of the imagination. Remember that.”

  Caufmann can remember that he didn’t fully understand what Veidan really meant, but there is a lot he didn’t understand about the lieutenant. “Are you sure about all of this?”

  “We’ve lost hundreds of androids, have you ever seen a funeral? A send off?”

  “Of course not.”

  Veidan’s clenched fist appears. “That’s what I mean. That’s binary coding telling you how to respond slightly behind your conscious will. We are thinking entities that are fighting a war that’s apparently for a free way of life. New medicine, cures for the maimed and crippled, replacement limbs for amputees and even new brain material for people who are too damaged to function. But we’re going to lose everything for this to come true.”

  Caufmann feels Decora’s head shake. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “And you don’t have to. Though one day, you will understand why,” he says taking a step forward, “I killed everyone in Iyatoya base.”

  ◆◆◆

  Caufmann is suddenly back in reality. The memory is sealed in his mind where it is once again fully accessible. He looks at the time display in his glasses to see that only two seconds have passed since he’s downloaded the file. He notices his gauntlet is flashing and he opens it to receive a frantic message from a bloodied Jellan Roths at the lab. The blood doesn’t appear to be hers. She’s calling his name desperately.

  He manages to calm her down enough to get out a clear and terrible sentence. “They’re out, William! They smashed the lab to pieces!” When Caufmann asks whom she answers: “The Suvaco units. They’re out!”

  13.

  The Cold Heart

  In the hours that follow Doctor Roths’ desperate call to Caufmann, the Suvaco units move through the city in an ever expanding spiral from the lab, killing only Horizon Military. Thus far they seem content to remain around the laboratory; a fact Caufmann finds most alarming.

  Doctor Roths survived the initial emergence of the Suvacoes, and their mission to lay utter waste to the remaining security staff following Isfeohrad’s attack. Del has already flooded Caufmann’s gauntlet with text expressing a predatory eagerness to attack the nearest Suvaco, leading to Caufmann gaining Commander Croft’s consent to send Raston Squad to intercept one.

  Some footage of Suvaco movement has been captured and filtered through to Raston Squad, who watch it avidly on the Horizon Stadium big screen. They do indeed operate as a hive unit, communicating telepathically to effectively coordinate their offensive but due to Caufmann’s sabotage while in stasis, they are clearly having some problems synchronising. As if to demonstrate, one of them simply lost balance and fell over. However, size and the weaponry taken from Del’s cell makes fighting them very difficult. Del is upset at having his weapons ‘stolen’, as he terms it. This affront has him increasingly seething.

  Rennin is lying on his back in the centre of the field, while the remaining troops load armaments and themselves into Gunship Dead Star.
The night sky is overcast but quite pleasant, aside from the looming claws of a Desolator satellite poking through the cloud line like a great taloned hand reaching down for him.

  He holds his left hand up and looks at the wedding band glowing in the dark. Rennin is soon knocked out of his thoughts by a sharp kick to the leg. He looks across to see Drake and Mia standing to his left. Upon a quick inspection over them he notices their dishevelled clothes, messy hair and clasped hands.

  Rennin smirks and looks at Mia. “Wipe your face, some of Drake’s lipstick rubbed off.”

  “Get up, we’re leaving,” she says.

  Rennin lifts his head off the ground. “You’re glowing.”

  “Are you going to get up?” asks Drake quickly.

  Rennin rolls his head to face Drake and shakes it. “Next time take her some place decent.”

  “I’m scared to ask what you’d suggest.”

  Rennin looks at Mia and shrugs, “Bus shelter?” receiving a harder kick to his leg as a reward.

  “Alright, alright! I’m up,” as he clambers to his feet.

  Mia dusts the grass off his shoulder. “You’re a Sergeant, try to look like one. At least, until you get killed.”

  “If anyone has the balls to fill my pants, it’s you,” he says, a mock sneer spreading across his face.

  “Just get yourself ready, sir, so we can make your pickup. Where are we going, again?” she says, trying to hide a smirk, despite being fairly unsettled at the proximity of the man who nearly slit her throat.

  “We’re going to 83 League Street, Currajong District.”

  “That’s a residential address.”

  “I know it.”

  “Why?” she asks.

  “We’re picking someone up.”

  “Who? Are they essential to the mission?”

  “No. He’s my co-worker at the lab,” says Rennin.

  “You’re making a friendly pickup in a military gunship?”

  “If you need everything spelt out you don’t need to be converted into an android.”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Mia says.

  Rennin glances up at the sky again. “I gave him my word. It was just a verbal offer but, if he’s alive, I’m getting him out.”

  “Must be a close friend.”

  Rennin laughs, “No. Not exactly. Decent enough, but would never call me a friend.”

  “Do you even know if he’s alive?”

  “No.”

  “You didn’t call him?”

  “We’re on a citywide blackout and the little emergency power we have is reserved for the military. My skull isn’t of such a colossal density that picking up the phone escaped me.”

  Mia’s expression is of disbelief, “You’re not seriously referring to a hand held? Do they still make those?”

  Rennin closes his eyes, “Oh, Christ, don’t start.”

  “A fucking hand held?”

  “If you think I’m going to let someone install a goddamn phone into my skull you’re off your nut. Nothing’s getting put in my head.”

  Mia laughs loudly, pointing to his artificial eye, “Clearly!”

  “Like I had a choice for that one! You don’t know what the war was like, everything digital or electric was compromised. Everything recorded was doctored, we couldn’t rely on anything. We were back to handwritten fucking orders, running across trenches, half the time were targeting our own forces.”

  “Did you send a carrier pigeon to your mate?”

  Rennin is about to keep going when he manages to rein in his rapidly faltering temper. “One good thing about this fake eye is I see what you’re doing. Well played.”

  “You really need to talk to a therapist.”

  Rennin’s eyes widen, “Wait a second, if you’ve got a phone implant you can call him.”

  Mia shakes her head, “All civvie communication is jammed. The servers are corrupted.”

  “But military isn’t affected?”

  “Not connected to the city grid, Rennin.”

  “Then this entire conversation has been pointless. We need to get moving.”

  “You’re fucked up,” Drake states, breaking his silence. His face folds as if to think through a difficult puzzle. Deciding, he winces. “You killed three soldiers, shot anyone Caufmann told you to, nearly cut Mia’s throat for recognising the gun you took…” he shakes his head. “Then you save her by tying off her leg when she nearly bled out, saved a stranded trooper who was moments from death, and now you’re going to rescue someone, who is probably dead already, just because you ‘told him you would?’”

  Rennin’s mouth smiles but the rest of his face remains passive. “I never killed any children. Those people I shot at the lab? That was my job. I saved that soldier because I can’t sit by and listen to someone fighting for their life when I was within reach. I’m going to try and save my co-worker, because people should keep their word.

  “Lastly, out of all the people I’ve killed, the only one I would have regretted is Saker here. She at least can keep her shit together. If I’d killed her, I doubt your tiny mind would be able to handle it and you’d spend the rest of your life playing with crayons and eating Lego in a padded cell.” He pinches Drake’s cheek lightly, following it with a fond pat. “And I wouldn’t care.”

  Drake’s face betrays his inner conflict. “I didn’t want to do it!”

  “But you did. So don’t get on some moral high horse. Mia was on those kill squads, you don’t hear her whining.”

  Drake shakes his head. “I…”

  Mia takes a step forward, with a decidedly threatening demeanour for someone of such meagre frame compared to the former watchman. “Rennin, lay off.”

  Rennin ignores her and locks his blazing eyes on the broken Beta HolinMech. “Listen, Drake, we’ve all done terrible things. That kid you killed may have been to put her out of her misery but you’ll never know if she was curable or not. Thinking about it will only drive you insane. The best you can do is pray that you shot straight and she didn’t feel anything.

  “As for those three pieces of shit I took out, they were going to kill my Carla. If you have the right to kill people in their own home, then you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences of one of those people trying to defend their home by cutting the throat of the cunt trying to take away the person they love.

  “You do what you feel you need to. If you can’t handle it, kill yourself, but this barely passable female still seems to like you,” he says breaking into a grin and slapping Drake on the shoulder.

  Mia’s disapproval is palpable. “You need a serious lesson in cheering people up,”

  “I don’t have a marine marshland of my own to envelop the firmness of his affection, I’m afraid, so I’ll have to make do,” Rennin quips, eliciting at least a huff out of Drake. “Hang on to those tattered remnants of self respect, tightly. All that has really happened to you is that the coddling you received as a child, that created your naïve concept of reality, has been stripped away. Whatever is left is yours, because you earned it.”

  Drake swallows and nods. “I think I’m starting to really understand you.”

  Rennin arches an eyebrow, “You mean there’s more to me than meets the eye?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up, Optimus,” says Mia before striking Rennin hard across the face, making him reel back in surprise.

  “I thought we were past that,” he says, attempting to dislodge the stars from his vision.

  “You may have Thermosteel bones, but your brain shakes in that skull just fine,” she smirks, shaking her hand to soothe the ache. “You killed three of my friends. While I may sympathise with your reasons, you don’t get to call them pieces of shit in my presence.”

  “Noted.”

  Dead Star is fully loaded and refuelled by the time Rennin, Mia and Drake climb aboard. Del is busying himself preparing his Sunbreaker. Rennin swears that Del is taking the Suvaco emergence as a personal insult. Caufmann admitted to him earlier that
Del was specifically designed to battle androids. Rennin believes that he’s going to get his chance to try.

  He sits down in the pilot’s chair, with Caufmann for co-pilot. Stealing a sideward glance, he realises that the Doctor is wearing his black lab gear but his coat looks heavier somehow.

  “What the hell is that made of? The latest in frontline scientific spandex?” Rennin asks, initiating lift off.

  Caufmann is typing on his gauntlet but answers just the same. “This clothing is armour-weave mark twenty-one. Your oversized, inefficient, military armour plating is mark five. This lab coat can stop a tank shell. I don’t want to take any chances since the fight with Isfeohrad nearly left me immolated.”

  “Designed yourself?”

  “Of course,” says the doctor.

  “Got a spare for me?”

  “You’re not strong enough to wear my clothes.”

  Rennin banks Dead Star left. “Alright, setting in for Currajong District.”

  “Negative. That will have to wait. We have an immediate Suvaco engagement,” says Caufmann.

  “Yes, sir. Understood.”

  “The Suvaco unit is attacking Corporal Verge’s position near to the strike zone bordering on Simulacrum, Brighthelm and Blackhaven Districts,” says Caufmann.

  “Corporal Verge? Not a captain or commander? Or even a lieutenant?”

  “Corporal Verge is the highest ranked survivor.”

  “How hard did that Suvaco hit them?”

  “There is an immense amount of contaminant activity in that area yet there’s a central point in Blackhaven where there is no activity at all. This is not a coincidence, Rennin. Something important is happening in Blackhaven. It should be swarming with contaminants, but it isn’t. Horizon Military have Desolator 1 almost in position but a blockbuster strike isn’t going to cut it.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s nothing on the surface. It would appear they’re coordinating. Though the intelligence level is dropping sharply, just like I predicted.”

  Rennin isn’t sure where Caufmann’s going with this. “What are you thinking?”