The Link

by Isaac Hooke

  “We haven’t heard a peep from the Link in over a hundred years,” Bambi said. “Obviously, the coming walloping wasn’t high on their priority list.”

  “They’ve been occupied, no doubt,” Eric said.

  “And I hope they stay occupied,” Crusher said. “Though a part of me can’t help but wonder what kind of an enemy could keep the Link Empire at bay for a hundred years.”

  “I’m sure we’re all wondering that,” Eric said. “But I don’t think I’d ever want to meet them.”

  “No,” Crusher agreed. “So, I was thinking of personally guiding some of the tourists today, if you were okay with that.”

  Tourists from Earth regularly visited—Mind Refurbs and humans alike, though the latter required special body suits. They came through the gravitational rift generator Eric had left on Earth for that purpose. Well, it was also there so humanity could call for help should the situation warrant it.

  Eric could create rifts to Earth at leisure, of course. It had taken a few years to repair the damage his team had caused during the coup, but once the rift rings were all online, he had been regularly sending androids to Earth to check on things. After learning humanity had been attacked by another Link member species known as the Mimics, it was then he decided to give Earth a rift generator. He would have sent in the Banthar fleet to help humanity if he’d known about the attack earlier, but the Earth and its Mind Refurb space navy had managed to fend off the attacks.

  That space navy existed only because of Eric. He’d shared the specifications of the Banthar mothership with humanity, and they’d used the blueprints to rapidly build up their own fleet. He was a little worried that humanity would turn on him at some point, and attack the Banthar homeworld, which was why he worked hard to maintain friendly relations with his homeworld. Hence, the whole tourist thing.

  “I don’t have a problem with you leading a few tours,” Eric said. “Though the guide robots will want to follow you around. I—”

  An alert appeared on the heads-up-display that overlaid his vision, and he frowned.

  “What is it?” Bambi asked.

  “The Gatekeeper is calling,” Eric said. That was the robot responsible for monitoring the Earth rift. He accepted the connection, and activated holographic mode, sharing the AR projection with Bambi and Crusher so they would see it too.

  The boxy form of the robotic Gatekeeper appeared. “Sorry to bother you, Essential. But an emissary from Earth has arrived.”

  “What does he want?” Eric said.

  “The Link Empire has attacked,” the Gatekeeper said. “Earth is requesting assistance.”

  Eric glanced at Crusher and Bambi. “We always knew this day would come. Dee, convene the Ruling Council of the Banthar immediately. It looks like it’s time to fight.”

  2

  Jason fired his energy cannon into the lead mech, a Rampart unit. Behind it, the plains were blackened by the metal bodies of more hunter killers. They launched a relentless stream of missiles from their shoulders. Meanwhile, gunships clouded the sky, raining death from above.

  Flashes outlined the hidden dome of energy that enclosed the area. That force field allowed Jason and his team to fire through it, while absorbing energy attacks from without. It was a technology he’d borrowed from the Tyrnari, whose queen he knew on an intimate basis.

  Rows of defense turrets fired at the incoming enemy on either side of him. Some of those turrets launched energy bolts like his own weapon, others fired lasers that were invisible on the visual band. Still others unleashed missiles.

  “The base shield is going to fail!” Tara warned. The chiseled face of her avatar flashed in the lower right of his HUD when she spoke, long dark hair falling past her shoulders. Physically, she was beside him, and fired her laser rapidly at the incoming enemies.

  “How much time do we have?” Jason asked.

  “About two minutes,” Aria replied. Her avatar looked positively vampirish with that overly bleached skin, red lips, and eyes like blue sapphires.

  “Retreat to inner shield two!” Jason stood, and raced his Vulture mech toward the designated muster point. The other War Forgers joined him and took cover behind the series of defense turrets there.

  “Inner shield two is now active,” Aria said.

  “Send in the tanks from the southern flank!” Jason ordered.

  The outer shield continued to flash as it took a battering from the enemy. And then it ceased flashing; the rows of defense turrets, now exposed, began to take damage. Laser muzzles melted, missile launchers exploded.

  The Rampart mechs reached the perimeter and began bashing their way through the remaining turrets.

  Jason and the others opened fire in concentrated bursts, targeting the closer units.

  A blur of motion drew his gaze skyward, where Cheyanne weaved between helicopters using her dragonfly-like wings and cut through the enemy fuselages with her swords like paper.

  Sophie joined her and used her jumpjets to leap underneath the spinning blades of the helicopters. She latched onto the fuselages with her spider legs, and formed her swarm of micro machines into deadly weapons that cut the helicopters in half or stripped them of their blades in seconds. She had a personal energy shield that absorbed the random blows that struck her.

  Two bombers roared passed overhead, dropping cluster bombs. The secondary shield flashed as it absorbed the impacts.

  “We’re going to lose the second shield in another minute,” Aria said.

  “Already?” Jason said.

  Aria’s avatar shrugged. “Carpet bombs.”

  “It’s too bad you let Bokerov go all those years ago,” Tara said.

  “For all we know, this is Bokerov,” Jason said.

  Bokerov was a rogue Mind Refurb Jason had subdued years ago in the uninhabited zone with a special virus, giving Jason full control of the Russian. That control was justified in Jason’s mind, because Bokerov had been trying to kill them all.

  “But those mechs are all American makes and models,” Xin said.

  The Japanese Mind Refurb had a point. If these were Bokerov’s, they should have been Russian.

  It had been over twenty years since the last attack from humanity. The War Forgers had dealt them a devastating blow, and when Jason had threatened to take the fight to North America, the humans had finally agreed to leave him alone. This small part of the uninhabited zone was supposed to be his.

  But apparently, humanity had changed its mind, and wanted to get rid of this thorn in their side once and for all.

  Well, they were in for a little surprise. Jason had been preparing for this day all his life. Fortifying and refortifying his mountain base. They weren’t going down without a fight. If they went down at all.

  The tanks from the south rolled past, just beyond the perimeter of the energy dome. They unleashed shells at the incoming Ramparts in rapid volleys.

  “Z, send in our own bombers for another round!” Jason said. “Soften them up!”

  “Will do,” his Accomp said in her sensual voice.

  A moment later more bombers roared passed, these ones coming from the mountain behind him. They dropped their own cluster bombs on the enemy ranks, cutting huge blast holes into the ranks, though Shielder units protected the more valuable units among them.

  “I really wish humanity had never gotten their hands on shield technology,” Aria said.

  “So do I,” Jason said. “John, Jones, come in from the west. Jerry, Julian, I want your Cataphracts to attack from the east.”

  Two fully assembled mega-mechs, known as Cataphracts, waded into the enemy army from the western flank. Those massive entities of metal were formed by the War Forger clones under the command of John and Jones. The constituent mechs that made up their Cataphracts were operated by mind copies of Jason, Tara, Sophie, Xin, Aria, and Lori. John was essentially Jason 2, while Jones was Jason 3. There was no Jason 4—that designation had belonged to Jake, but he and most of his clones had died fighting Boker
ov. Jerry was Jason 5, and Julian Jason 6.

  While those two mega-mechs crushed their opponents, the Cataphracts of Jerry and Julian came in from the east. They wielded huge swords and shields, fired energy bursts from their shoulders, lightning bolts from their shield arms, superheated plasma beams from their hips, plasma bolts from their tails. They could teleport, turn invisible, or fire jumpjets for partial flight. The Cataphract: deadliest, most badass war machine around. They cut through the helicopters, downing large numbers of them, and sending the damaged metal frames raining down into the enemy below.

  The second shield went down then, and the turrets on either side of Eric began to take fire.

  The enemy Ramparts reached the War Forger’s hiding place.

  Jason fired his energy weapon into the closest enemy mech at point blank range, and cut through it, striking the mech beyond it.

  He clambered to his feet, and fired the rocket launcher and railgun in his left hand.

  Four huge dinosaur-like creatures dashed out from behind him: Bruiser, Lackey, Shaggy, and Runt. The Rex Wolves tore into the incoming mechs, cutting a wide swath through the enemy.

  Tara followed them out, and cut through the enemy with her sword.

  Lori momentarily materialized, firing a plasma bolt from her tail like a stinger, only to vanish once more.

  Aria fired her lightning weapon and it arced between multiple Ramparts, taking them out.

  Xin leaped forward, firing superheated plasma from her eye area in rapid bursts.

  Enemy bombers roared forward, but were shot down before they reached the team, and plowed through the Rampart ranks darkening the plains. “Good job, whoever did that.”

  “Wasn’t me,” John said.

  “Nor me,” Jerry added.

  “Z, let’s get our own bombers out there to deliver some air strikes,” Jason said. “Let’s hit ‘em where it hurts.”

  His bombers approached, but before they reached the battle, they vanished from his overhead map.

  Damn it. Shot down already.

  Suddenly the enemy lines began buckling. The Ramparts were turning around, retreating.

  Jason and the War Forgers advanced, easily driving a wedge into their fleeing numbers.

  That was when he noticed it:

  In the distance, behind the enemies, near the far horizon, explosions flashed and fresh plumes of smoke appeared.

  “Z, who do we have out there?” Jason asked. He glanced at his map and answered his own question.

  “No one,” Z replied.

  “What’s happening?” Jason said. “Cheyanne, you’re the highest of us… can you get a visual? John, Jerry?”

  “Something is attacking them from behind,” Sophie said. The kohl-painted eyes of her avatar squinted as if she was trying to zoom in with her vision.

  “Well I know that…” Jason said. “But I’d like to know what.”

  “Hm, this looks interesting,” Cheyanne said. His gaze was drawn to the East Indian’s avatar: the gold chain connecting her nose to the bejeweled hood on her head swung about distractedly as she maneuvered her Dragonfly higher into the sky.

  “What do you see?” he asked.

  “Here, pipe in my vision,” she replied.

  He connected to the Dragonfly mech’s video cameras, and tapped into the feed. He saw large, cylindrical-shaped units hovering a few meters above the ground. Hundreds of them, spread out in a long row across the plain behind the attackers. They fired small, visible plasma bursts that ate into the surrounding Ramparts.

  “Aliens,” Jason said.

  “Who wants to bet that they’re not here to help us?” Jerry asked as he harried the retreating Ramparts well ahead of Jason and the War Forgers with him.

  A moment later a powerful bolt fired from the alien ranks near the horizon, striking Jerry’s Cataphract. He staggered backward.

  “Told you,” Jerry said as sparks of electricity expanded outward across the exterior of his Cataphract.

  He abruptly collapsed, and his status indicator vanished from Jason’s HUD.

  “Jerry!” Jason said.

  His clone didn’t respond.

  “I got him.” Julian dashed toward Jerry, scooped up both of his legs, and dragged him toward the perimeter line where Jason was dug in with the others.

  On the western flank, Jones took a similar hit as lightning flashed across the field. He collapsed, his body covered in electrical sparks.

  “John, grab Jones and get back here!” Jason said.

  John grabbed Jones by the legs and hauled his Cataphract toward the perimeter.

  Jason glanced at the other War Forgers, most of whom had stopped their advance when the aliens attacked. All save Tara, who continued to eagerly plow into the retreating enemies with her sword swinging. “Retreat to the mountain base, everyone. That includes you, Tara. Get the dogs on your way back.”

  Tara chopped down the last two nearby Ramparts with her blurring blade, and then a shrill whistle sounded from her external speakers.

  The Rex Wolves, stomping and chewing their way through the running robot army, perked up their heads at the sound, and promptly abandoned what they were doing to turn back.

  Jason and the others activated their speed servos, and proceeded at a run toward the shoulder of the mountain behind them, where their base, and the network of tunnels they’d built over the years, awaited. The mining units had created the latter while harvesting raw minerals from beneath the mountains for use by the industrial grade 3D printers. The different ores needed to construct the base and its defenses were spread out in separate mines beneath the mountain, hence the profusion of tunnels that were needed to get to them.

  The Cataphracts of John and Julian passed Jason and his War Forgers, and they broke down into their constituent mechs as they neared the large metal doors of the base. The individual mechs continued to drag the bigger Cataphracts of Jerry and Jones that were still down.

  The Rex Wolves soon passed Jason as well so that when he and the other War Forgers reached the doors, everyone else was already inside.

  He waited for Tara, Cheyanne, and Sophie to arrive, and when they entered, he shut the doors behind them.

  Before the large metal barriers shut, he saw the alien cylinders emerge from the remnants of the robot army the humans had sent to attack them. Several lightning bolts launched from them a split second before the gates shut.

  Dark spots appeared on the inside of the doors where the lightning bolts must have struck, and sparks of electricity traveled up and down the interior surface.

  “Get back!” Jason said.

  He led them deeper into the concourse, behind another set of double doors, which he also sealed.

  “Why are they hunting us?” Sophie said.

  “Dunno,” Jason said. “They could be part of another invasion force. Lori, see if you can tap into the internet satellites and figure out what’s going on.”

  “You got it, babe,” Lori told him.

  They made their way through the hallways, toward the regenerative chamber, where the War Forger clones with John and Julian had already taken the downed Cataphracts. At least according to their dots on the overhead map.

  “Okay, I have multiple sightings across the world,” Lori said. “This isn’t the only spot where these cylinders have appeared. We’ve got some in all the major cities of North America. There are probably more of them on our continent, too, but that’ll stay unreported… you know, uninhabited zone and all. So far, it’s all chaos and confusion out there, and no one seems to know what’s going on, but I’m trying to tap into the military chatter to get a better idea of what’s going on.”

  “Keep me posted,” Jason told her.

  When he arrived at the regenerative chamber where the Cataphracts resided, John glanced at him. “Looks like the impact burned out their power cells. Should be a simple matter of replacing the cells.”

  “How long?” Jason asked.

  John glanced at the giant work tables
. “Almost done.”

  Robot arms moved rapidly between the six different mechs composing each Cataphract, and opened up the different hulls to replace the batteries. One by one, the units came online, and disconnected from the Cataphract, transforming back into their ordinary mechs along the way.

  “What happened?” Sophie 3 asked when she woke up.

  “Aliens,” Sophie told her clone.

  “I hate aliens,” Lori 5, also newly awakened, said.

  “You and me both!” Lori commented.

  The ground shook violently.

  “We just lost the first external doors,” Z announced. “Second set of doors is under attack.”

  “How long until it fails?” Jason asked.

  “Unknown,” Z said. “Ten seconds, if we’re lucky.”

  “Shit,” Jason said. “We’re going to have to take one of the escape tunnels.”

  “Why don’t we fight them?” Jerry asked.

  “We can’t fight them,” Maeran said. Three small drones orbited the Ethiopian’s Grazer mech. Those drones could create an energy shield between them that offered protection, or inflicted damage. “Not if they can kill us in one hit.”

  “She’s right,” Iris said. The Middle Eastern Mind Refurb stood beside her in a Locust mech that was similar to Sophie’s in appearance. “They took down our Cataphracts with a single shot. Burned out the batteries of all the mechs involved.”

  Jerry’s avatar shrugged on the HUD. “A burned out power cell isn’t the same as a kill. We just carry a bunch of spare batteries with us.”

  “No, this isn’t going to work. Batteries aren’t going to help us if we’re all offline, and there’s no one to install a fresh pack.” Jason accessed the internal cameras of the entrance concourse, and watched the alien cylinders unleash their lightning weapons at the second set of doors. He counted more than a hundred of the alien units. The camera went dark a moment later, no doubt struck by one of the same weapons. “I’m going to go with the retreat option. Into the tunnels, people. We’ll return to fight another day.”