by Terry Mixon
The examination of her weapons successfully distracted her, so it only felt like a couple of minutes before the man in charge made a series of hand gestures, and everyone crouched lower, plugging their ears with their fingers.
Kelsey did the same, even though she knew that her auditory augmentation would protect her. Sometimes it was best to look like everyone else and not raise questions.
Once everyone was prepared, the man held up a hand with five fingers showing. Then he pulled his thumb in, showing only four. Three… two… one…
Kelsey squeezed her eyes tightly shut and hunched as low as she could right before a massive explosion shook the ground she lay upon. It felt like she was tossed up into the air, but when her eyes snapped open, it was only the ground having jumped, bouncing her a bit.
A second blast went off, and dust flew through the perforations in the dirt embankment. That would be the wall of the building being blown clear so that they could fire. Now sunlight was filtering through the airborne debris, and the people around her were scrambling up the incline with their weapons leading the way.
Kelsey did the same, settling in with her submachine gun. The street outside filled with horde soldiers. A lot of them were down, either wounded or dead. The ground had smoking craters where the bombs had gone off underneath their feet.
That didn’t seem to deter the survivors, who were already turning their weapons toward the wall to face Kelsey and her companions. Many of them were armed with bows, and they began firing at once.
Thankfully, the blasts had affected their equilibrium, and their aim was crap.
Even as the enemy was acting, everyone around Kelsey opened fire. The din of the primitive weapons was almost as bad as the charges had been. Kelsey was glad that her hearing was adequately protected. She could only imagine what this must’ve been like for people without augmentation.
The weapon’s stock slammed against her shoulder, and fire shot from the muzzle of her submachine gun. With so many soldiers in front of her, she could hardly miss as she swung her weapon back and forth, spraying the enemy with bullets.
In what felt like just a few seconds, the large magazine was empty. She hastily removed it and fumbled a replacement into place. When she squeezed the trigger again, nothing happened, and she realized she had to release the bolt to chamber the first round. She found the catch, and the weapon clattered a bit as the slide locked into place, and it was ready to fire again.
The death and destruction caused by these weapons, particularly at short range, were merely horrific. Again, it wasn’t the same as using flechette weapons, but for something put together by a relatively primitive people, it was outright deadly.
Kelsey resumed firing even as the enemy charged her position. She immediately realized that there wasn’t going to be enough time for the people around her to retreat in an orderly fashion. There were far too many enemies about to overrun them.
Somewhere behind them, the man ordered a retreat, but Kelsey already knew that they were going to end up fighting the horde inside the building. She fired for as long as she could and then slid back down the embankment only when she was forced to.
She was on steady footing when the first of the enemy warriors came through the opening above her. Apparently, the embankment wasn’t as hard to climb as the defenders had hoped. Now the building was going to become an abattoir filled with blood and death.
Kelsey allowed her submachine gun to drop, held only by a strap around her neck, and drew her swords. In close quarters like these, they’d make far better weapons than her pistol. As soon as the first enemy slid down the slope in front of her, she leapt forward and struck.
Her hull metal blades easily cut through the warrior’s sword and his body. With her enhanced strength driving the blow, it barely even slowed her momentum, and she was already striking at the next person coming down the embankment even as the first one fell.
With her strength restored and her preferred weapons in her hands, she was a whirling dervish of mayhem. The problem was that there were dozens of new fighters climbing over the embankment to face her every single second.
They were going to be overrun no matter what she did. They had to retreat as quickly as possible so that the man could arm the traps under the floors.
“Retreat!” Kelsey shouted. “Run while I cover you!”
The enemy was pressing the people around her heavily, and the line couldn’t retreat, but those to the rear of the room were able to dash for safety. Those that were heavily engaged would have to back up step by step while holding the horde away from their retreating friends.
Kelsey never doubted that this was what she had to do. The only question now was whether she’d survive defending these people and escape herself.
14
Once he’d gathered more air bottles, Jared found himself at a little bit of a loss as to what he should do next. Everyone else was assisting an exhausted Lily in setting up a makeshift triage station so that she could use her advanced equipment and have semiknowledgeable hands to help her when the inevitable stream of wounded began coming in.
He’d decided to assist in that, but when he arrived, the guards redirected him to the upper-level tunnels. It only took him a couple of minutes to realize that his ever-present minders were taking him to the same building where they’d last met Leader Mordechai.
His legs were aching by the time he was halfway up, and he was out of breath. He made a mental note to exercise more and maybe even start working out with the marines once he got off this damned planet. Being a Fleet officer was just a little too sedentary.
Once he’d reached the very top of the building, he found Leader Mordechai standing fairly close to the makeshift rail, arms casually arrayed behind his back as he stared out over the city he ruled.
Jared could faintly hear the sounds of battle below. The pops of gunshots—he could thank Kelsey and her preflight Terra entertainment vid fetish for knowing what those were—that echoed between the buildings and through the cavernous canyons that made up the city. He was sure there was a lot of shouting and swordplay as well, but they were too high for that to be audible.
Without windows, the wind blew into the building, gusty and strong. It also howled as it went through various openings in the buildings around them, creating a kind of subliminal growl.
He stepped over to stand beside the old man. Two guards stood nearby, undoubtedly making sure that he didn’t do anything untoward with their leader. The two guards that had accompanied Jared for the last few hours quickly joined them.
After Mordechai failed to say anything, Jared felt the need to fill the silence.
“I can hear that the fighting has started.”
Mordechai nodded without looking over at him. “Indeed, it has. This is a day that I’d hoped would not come during my lifetime, but now that it has, we shall crush our enemies. Or, I suppose, die trying.”
Having said that, he turned to face Jared. “Some of your people are involved in the fighting. Are you concerned about them?”
“Of course,” Jared promptly responded. “Even one bit of bad luck might see them injured or killed. That’s the risk that even the very best of them take, even with all of their advantages. Every time I lose someone like that, it hurts. I want to see them all come back safely.”
Mordechai nodded and smiled grimly. “Your feelings do you credit. That’s how a leader thinks. You’ve obviously commanded people for some time to have developed those instincts.”
“It’s not really a matter of how long I’ve been in command of others,” Jared said with a grimace. “I’ve seen people with similar authority view them as game pieces to be expended where needed to gain some tactical advantage.
“My views on the subject are a lot more complicated. My people’s lives are something to be hoarded and treasured. I hate having to send them into fights where I know that some of them will die, but circumstances force my hand on occasion. It hurts each and every time.”
> He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How’s the fighting going? Have you got any word on how we’re doing?”
The older man nodded. “It seems the enemy is more resistant to ambush than we’d hoped. I’d forgotten how deeply ingrained their ferocity was. The majority of the people that we’re facing are young and have been trained since birth to fight for the horde. It’s almost as if they don’t care whether they live or die, so long as their teeth are in the throats of their enemies.
“One of our ambushes has already gone bad. I don’t have many details at this point, but our people are withdrawing from the areas as quickly as they can while a rearguard holds the horde back. I’m afraid that’s the group where your sister Kelsey is.”
Jared could feel the other man eyeing him to see how he responded to that. All he could do was shake his head slightly. Of course Kelsey was involved with something like that. How could she not be?
“I’m not surprised. If there’s a desperate fight to be had, she’s going to be in the middle of it. The only thing that’s going to work to her advantage is that, with her Marine Raider augmentation, she’s more than a match for any group of people that wants to kill her. Give her half a chance, and she’ll get out of there in one piece, even if she can’t win the fight.”
Mordechai seemed to consider that for a moment and then nodded. “That matches well with the stories that I’ve heard about the Marine Raiders as I grew up. They were gone long before the computers crushed Terra, but the stories of their exploits were passed down through my family.
“Raiders were based here in Frankfort, though I’m certain they weren’t the only group. They lived deep down underneath the city in places that none of the enemy collaborators would’ve been able to find them. My ancestors kept their secrets and hid them until the time came for them to take the fight to the enemy.”
The older man wrapped his fingers around the railing and stared out over the city. “Those men and women fought against the invaders for decades. From what I understand, those were strange days.
“The troops that the rebels sent down at first seemed insane. They’d scream and shout, begging for death even as they carried out the will of their masters. Very few people saw how crazed they were because simply seeing them meant that you were either taken into their number or killed. They left very few alive and free in their wake.
“There were other collaborators who seemed completely normal. They came down and took over for the leaders that the Emperor and his people had put into place. That was later, though.
“My ancestors vanished into the population then, hidden by the very citizens of the city, much like the Marine Raiders. I suppose if the enemy had been quick enough—or Frankfort important enough—they would’ve been taken to join whatever madness was taking place elsewhere. A number of the citizens were taken away to fight for the enemy and never returned.”
The older man rubbed his face tiredly and looked over at Jared. “The Marine Raiders fought, and—even though their abilities were legendary—they weren’t sufficient to win the day. Within two decades after the fighting had started, they were gone. They went out on a mission and never returned.
“Our ancestors waited for them, hoping that at least some of them would make their way back, but they were never seen again. I’d imagine that they ran into a force they couldn’t defeat and were trapped. They likely died in a final desperate fight for survival. One they lost.”
The two of them stood in silence for several minutes, listening to the faint sounds of fighting below. Eventually, the older man looked over at Jared.
“I understand that happened all too often in the Empire after the rebels won. I’ve heard many stories about ships that fought similar battles. You indicated that your rank is admiral, so you’ve commanded ships. Perhaps a large number of them. Yet you come to the city with a dozen people and no fleet. How is that?”
Jared sighed. “It’s a complicated story. The truth is that I’m new to flag rank. Only a few years ago, I was in command of just about the smallest kind of warship that could travel through the flip points.
“The rebels missed the planet we came from during the fighting. Rather, I should say that they never invaded. They used EMP weapons five hundred years ago, just like they did against Terra. They also destroyed our capital and spaceport with kinetic strikes like the one you saw here.
“It took us a long time to get back into space. Even once we did so, our ships were nothing compared to what the Old Empire had. The only thing we had going for us was that we were independent.
“I suppose that we were also blessed by the fact that Emperor Marcus sent his son Lucian to our world. The warships that came with him defeated the force that was sent to occupy us. They all died except for Lucian and some civilians that they rescued along the way. With the emperor’s line unbroken, Lucian led us, driving us to get back what we’d lost.”
“After that, we began exploring to see what had happened to the Old Empire. After all the stories passed down throughout the years, we were certain that it was dead. It turned out that we were wrong.”
He stared out over the city for a minute, letting his mind roam back over all that had happened in the last few years. When he finally spoke again, his voice was firm.
“My expedition found a derelict ship, the battlecruiser Courageous. The crew was long dead, but the computers on board that ship gave us the true history of what had happened at the end of the Old Empire.
“Once we knew the stakes, we set out to finish what our ancestors had started. The true story of the AIs was lost to us because it had been kept secret by the emperors and only passed down to the heirs when they were old enough to understand. That proved to be a mistake.
“Boiled down, the last few years have had a lot of fighting and more than our share of adventures, but we’ve found a lot of ships that could be repaired. Those now form the nucleus of the fleet that protects what we call the New Terran Empire.”
The older man nodded slightly. “I’m sure there’s a lot more to that story, but I really don’t have time to hear it. So, now you had a fleet whereas before you just commanded a small ship?”
“That’s right,” Jared agreed. “Promotions came rapidly after that. I suppose that’s not so surprising since our original fleet was tiny. With so many more ships being brought into service, rapid promotions were unavoidable. My original crew and I had a lot more experience using this new technology than anyone else, so we got promoted faster and sooner than many of the others.
“Personally, I’m not certain that I was ready. It wouldn’t have been something that I’d have chosen to do on my own, but needs must when the devil drives.”
Mordechai gave him a curious look. “And why would you say that you weren’t ready?”
“I suppose that would require me explaining a few other things. The emperor is my father, but I’m a bastard child. Everyone in Fleet has always either gone out of their way not to show any favoritism toward me at all or been actively hostile. It’s been… challenging.
“Kelsey and Julia are his legitimate daughters. Needless to say, they weren’t huge fans of mine to begin with, and in the case of Julia, I still have some more work to do to convince her that I really don’t want to steal the Imperial Throne.
“Their older brother saw me as a threat, and that made my life very hard. Getting promoted to command a destroyer was hard enough. Imagining more for myself? I hadn’t bothered. Basically, I thought that was as high as I’d ever go.”
The older man gave him a tired smile. “I think you’ll find the circumstances of your birth don’t dictate how well you do in life, which I believe you already know. So, where is your fleet, Admiral?”
“I went on a short mission into enemy space to gather information and deliver a report. We reprogrammed a computer-controlled destroyer for the ruse. The goal in that was to keep them from looking in the area of space where we were operating.
“The fleet that I nominal
ly command was following at a safe distance. Our intention was to come to Terra afterward as a group. Only once we arrived to deliver the report, the Rebel Empire commandeered the destroyer and sent it off to Terra via a different route.
“My fleet was unable to follow. Honestly, I’m not sure that they’re going to be able to even get here. They might have been forced to turn back.
“We hid aboard the destroyer and overpowered the people they’d put aboard. Their original goal was to pick up a lethal virus to deploy here at Terra and kill everyone on the planet. We disposed of that, and it will hopefully take them quite some time to figure out what happened.”
Mordechai’s face paled. “If they tried such once, they’ll try again. The next time, they might succeed. How can my people fight against something like that?”
“You can’t,” Jared said bluntly. “We’ve got to stop the AIs before they can make another attempt. The design for the virus was supposedly destroyed, so they’re not going to just be able to cook up another batch. If my people and I can get what we need at the Imperial Palace and get back to the ship that brought Kelsey here, we’ll have a decent chance of ending this war. That’s why we need your help in getting out of here.”
Mordechai didn’t say anything for a long while. He gripped the railing with his hands tight enough to turn his knuckles white as he stared out over the city and listened to the faint sounds of fighting below. At long last, he turned and faced Jared.
“Trust doesn’t come easy to my people, Admiral Mertz. We’ve been under the heel of the computer for a very long time. Yet your story is so implausible that I have to give it credit. Honestly, I believe that you’re telling me the truth. What are you hoping to find at the Imperial Palace, and how can it help you win this war?”
Jared considered whether or not he should tell the truth. They were only going to have one shot of getting the override. If he screwed this up, they might never get out of Frankfort. In the end, he decided that the truth would serve him best.