by S A Asthana
“Yes. Stay the course. You will make those biological humans capitulate to us.” Brother crackled once more. “Otherwise, there will be consequences.”
They vanished unceremoniously.
Otherwise, there will be consequences – those words Crone had lived and died by now were the framework she’d have to uphold. It hadn’t taken long to go from a warm and fuzzy rapport with these beings to what it should have been all along – one of master and servant.
Alice walked the length of an empty, austere hallway, her footsteps echoing against white walls. The narrow door at the end was guarded by a soldier in red fatigues. The young man saluted. “For the High Council.”
She saluted and passed into a bland room, one with elevator doors lining two of the four walls. A circular dirt patch at the center showcased a lean crepe myrtle firmly rooted in the soil. The canopy nearly touched the ceiling. The familiar sight appeared out of place. She put a palm against the gangly trunk and sighed. Sweet little tree, the only one of its kind on this entire planet – how lonely are you? As much as me?
Alice stepped into the elevator and hit the tenth-floor button. Floors swept past the elevator’s window slowly. As the doors opened onto the Terraforming Floor, she imagined Bastien standing there, just as he had many years earlier. He was tall and handsome. He’d entered the elevator in a blink of an eye.
“So, you aren’t even going to acknowledge me anymore?” he’d said with his back straight and his hands in his pockets. A picture of perfect cheekbones, the yellow-eyed pretty soldier.
“What is there left to say?” she’d responded.
“We’re going to be in elevators together a lot. We’ll pass by in hallways. Hell, we have to work with one another. You are my subordinate, after all. It’ll get awkward.” Those eyes had a way of hypnotizing.
Alice shook her head and the memory vanished. “I hate you,” she whispered, which was only partly true. “Wish I’d had the chance to kill you.”
She missed him terribly somewhere deep inside. Buried under the resentment was an emotion akin to love. Love was tricky – hard to understand its texture. Soft yet jagged. Perhaps infatuation was more apropos. Then again, she understood too little of human emotions. She’d never been on the receiving end of enough of them.
The elevator halted in the military floor and a single-passenger self-driving shuttle pulled up. Alice boarded. “Docking bay,” she commanded.
The shuttle sped down a wide hallway. Military men and women, all dressed in fitted, red coats and pants, stopped in their tracks to salute the superior officer. She saluted back. The opening at the hallway’s end stole her attention. Port Sydney’s docking bay lay beyond. The burnt scent of metal and ion propulsion engines was strong, even from half a mile away, and it overwhelmed the facility’s typical cleaner-fluid stench.
“General,” a voice interrupted in her earpiece.
“Go ahead, Walsh.”
“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news – which one would you prefer first?”
A cacophony of maintenance drills buzzing played loud and grated her ears. “The good first,” she yelled over the noise. She switched the communication line to private mode, something she’d designed and implemented. In this manner, even the High Council wouldn’t be privy to the conversation.
“We made contact with our asset in Nippon One. Terrorist acts will be conducted at any time now.”
“Excellent.” Alice saluted a squadron of men and women from Team Alpha. Each soldier wore the compulsory red camouflage over their black body armor and a cap, along with dark brown boots. High caliber assault rifles hung from their shoulders. They remained at attention with heels together and hands clasped tight behind their backs. Geared for action. “Now, give me the bad news.”
There was a sigh. “Cube was either captured or destroyed by the pirates. Either way, we have lost all communication with it.”
“Shit.” Alice punched her left hand. “Again? Cube just can’t seem to be reliable.”
“There’s more,” Walsh said. “One of the 1.V9s was obliterated in Martian orbit. Its remains circle the planet as we speak. We lost forty good soldiers as a result.”
A headache burst into Alice. It’d been years since her last one. Sweat drenched her forehead, as well – something she wasn’t accustomed to. The news of the losses was worse than she was prepared to hear. The pressures of being General were immense, something she had discounted before. Her shoulders drooped as if the weight of the world rested upon them.
“All right.” She took a deep breath. “Are the pirates a threat still?”
“No. They’ve departed.”
“Why didn’t they attack the colony?”
Walsh answered, “Perhaps they exacted their revenge.”
“Perhaps.” Alice scowled. She’d lost her top robot and a prized spacecraft. It was a terrible hit to Port Sydney. The High Council could not find out. If they learned of it, their faith in her abilities would erode, just as it had with Frank. That wouldn’t lead to anywhere good. No, they cannot find out. It was as if the ten stars crossing her bosom had brought with them the fears and paranoia of their previous owner.
“What should we do next, General?”
“Get to the docking bay as soon as possible. We launch an attack on Nippon One shortly.” Success was the only option, otherwise, there would be personal consequences for her. She’d pored over the strategy with Walsh several times and had worked through possible scenarios. But despite the due diligence, there were doubts about the coming invasion. As ready as she seemed, she’d never helmed an attack on another colony. This would be her first time. And it was going to be a tougher raid than the one on New Paris. She understood the tactics required inside and out. But one thing was always true about conflict, as true as the sun that warmed the solar system: there were always unexpected events. They were manageable most of the time. But sometimes such events could derail the entire battle. She knew that was exactly what happened for the Sydneysiders when invading the Parisians.
CHAPTER 11: REO
Reo pushed open the dilapidated door and a dark, musty apartment greeted him. Dim lighting illuminated wooden furniture against grey, drab walls. It was a cluttered space that reeked of poverty. Reo held his breath as the stench of dead rats assailed his nostrils. This couldn’t possibly be the right place. He checked the address scribbled across the note in his hand. The apartment was the right one. Reo sighed.
The neighborhood of Kabukicho, what was left of it after the gang wars, at least, was worse off than it had ever been before. Streets and alleys snaked quietly in between dark buildings and unlit neon signs. It was a ghost of its former, lively self. Burnt and decrepit. No one frequented it unless they absolutely had to – precisely why Gensui-Rikugun-Taishō had advised to meet here.
“Come on back here, Reo,” a familiar voice broke the silence. It came from the depths of a narrow hallway. A door remained ajar at the end, offering a line of sight into a brighter room. Taking a deep breath, Reo walked towards it.
The Marshal sat in what appeared to have been a study once – there was a metal desk in the middle of the tight room. An empty bookshelf flanked it. His brooding face, those deep-set eyes and crooked wrinkles, stared back. Reo immediately bowed. “Thank you for meeting me, Gensui-Riku—”
“Just call me Akio.”
Reo straightened. He nodded, a bit unsure.
“These aren’t times for formalities,” Akio said, his voice thick, his words slow. “Or for past grudges.” He stood, his tall frame covered in brown, military dress. “Nippon One is in grave danger.”
“Yes, it is,” Reo concurred. “And I hope you know that I wasn’t behind its current state.”
Akio nodded, his eyes studying Reo’s boyish face. “I know. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to meet you.” He smiled some. “No one will suspect our meeting here. We are safe, little samurai. For the time being.”
Gensui-Rikugun-Taishō had been one o
f his most ardent critics, but now he was risking his position to meet. The situation must have been as dire under Yukito as suspected. “I didn’t kill my family,” Reo said, “Yukito and Marie did.”
Akio locked eyes with him. It was a dagger of a stare, one sharpened by decades of military service. “I assumed as much.” His admission seemed more to himself than Reo. “True colors have been shown in just the past day. Those two have habits… incompatible with the positions they hold.” He face scrunched into a scowl. “The way they conduct themselves is dishonorable. Your father would have been revolted by the events.” He turned away as if to hide tears.
Reo’s stare dropped to the floor, his own eyes wet.
“We were… we were all in shock when the news broke,” Akio continued with hands in his pockets. “To have lost the emperor and the heir in one day was a hit unlike any this city has ever faced before. We needed answers.”
“And Yukito had them,” Reo said.
“Yes. A most convincing story.” Akio hung his head letting his neatly kept white hair fall out of place. He dried his eyes with the back of his hands. “But that snake fooled us all. Hypnotized this city.”
“And now we wage war with the only other civilization around.”
Akio crossed his arms and shrunk into himself. “How could I have been so foolish?”
Reo walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. “We were all fooled by Yukito. I lived with him and still failed to see his plan. My father and brother too.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, “But now isn’t the time to beat ourselves up. Now is the time to take back control.”
Akio nodded. He shoulders drooped and the bags under his eyes sagged. “Yes. We have already lost many good men in the last attack on Port Sydney. I fear more losses if this war continues.”
“Then we stop Yukito and Marie.” Reo shook a fist. “We get them out of their positions, at once.”
“The army is behind you, Reo. My soldiers are loyal to me more so than anyone else. They will do what is needed. Yukito and Marie are drugged up most of the time – the two won’t see it coming.”
Reo smiled thinly. “Thank you.”
“Then we can then have the rightful member of the family on the throne,” Akio said and patted Reo on the back. “The little samurai would be emperor.”
The rightful member – the words echoed despite the cramped space. “The rightful member should have been my mother,” Reo said. He blinked away tears. “I want to know more about her.”
Akio dropped his stare to the floor. It was as if he didn’t know what to say. His lips moved to form words but nothing came out.
“I know she’s alive on Titan,” Reo pressed. “I know everything. Father told me all before he died. He told me you were managing the communication with her.” There was a pause, as if to let Akio comprehend the disclosure. “He wanted me to take charge of the communications once everything had settled.”
“Yes, he did,” Akio agreed. “He cherished you so much.”
“But my mother didn’t.” Reo turned away. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t have left.”
“Look.” Akio took a deep breath and his eyes searched the walls for the right words. “I cannot speak on her behalf, but I know she wants to talk to you.”
Reo turned back. “She does?”
Akio nodded. “Yes. She does. She told me she does.”
“Is she well? How are the rest who travelled with her?” There were so many questions. Reo’s mind moved at the speed of light. He’d wondered about the Titan mission for so long.
“She’s well. And the rest are as well, at least the ones who are still alive. They’ve managed to establish a fledgling colony, it seems. Maybe a total of fifty citizens.” He shrugged and said, “Their tenacity is commendable. Almost two decades on and they survive out there in that alien world.”
“I want to talk to her,” Reo said. He was a boy again. Would she tell him she loved him? Would she want to hold him again?
“We will make that possible,” Akio comforted. “Let’s let this storm pass first. Then we can sit in my military command office and contact her together. I will pass the responsibility to you. And tell her all that has happened these past few weeks.”
“She doesn’t know about Father?” A lump lodged Reo’s throat.
“No, not yet.” Akio walked over to the window. The world outside was dark. Tall black buildings hid the night sun. “My communication with her has been focused on her survival. The channel isn’t too strong – we have focused on basic thi—”
A loud explosion rocked the room and shattered its window. Shards of glass assaulted the marshal, throwing him back into the desk. Reo lost his footing and fell as a lone ball of flame burst in from the window. The walls shook and cracked, and the floor gave away. Reo scrambled into the hallway on his back, wide-eyed.
A plume of smoke ballooned like a phantasm. The marshal’s bloodied body slipped into the chasm along with fractured concrete. Reo choked and his eyes teared up as it disappeared. He sprinted to the exit, running into furniture along the way in his state of delirium. Had the Martians attacked?
Gensui-Rikugun-Taishō was dead. He could not have survived that fall. The realization tightened around his throat worse than the smoke suffocating it. Reo darted down stairs along with the building’s patrons – families, orphans. He tumbled onto the street with the other gaijins. They would see the royal snob was now one with the city’s most marginalized subjects. The situation became clear – a loud explosion had brought down an adjacent building. There were screams and cries of “Mommy!” and “Help!”
Reo’s head burned. What would Bastien do in a situation like this? He’d lead, surely. But how?
“Everyone remain calm,” Reo shouted over the commotion trying his best to imitate the Parisian. But no one listened. It was utter pandemonium. “Panicking will only make things wor—”
Another explosion, this one distant, echoed within the domed city. And then another. And another. Now, it was obvious – Nippon One was in the midst of a terrorist attack
CHAPTER 12: MARIE
An attack from the front would never work – too messy, too many dead on the wrong side. The Rogu Collective would put up a fight if their headquarters were breached through the entrance. They’d see an assault coming on account of them having hacked any and every CCTV camera in the alley leading up to the datacenter, and even surrounding blocks. They were hackers, after all – controlling CCTV was child’s play. They had territorial advantage as well. With a single entry point, Marie and her squadron of ten police officers would be asking to get shot one by one as they filed in. So, no, an attack from the front would never work.
An attack from the top was a different story, though.
Marie took a deep breath and her speeding heart slowed some as the Toyota police craft hovered over the three-storied building that housed the targeted datacenter in its basement. The vehicle was silent. Nipponese ion propulsion engines were much quieter than their Martian counterparts.
Marie questioned the men buckled into seats flanking her. “Ready?”
They nodded in unison. Glances were exchanged. Were they really prepared to take out the man that had led them until recently? Were they truly loyal to her?
Marie pressed, “No faltering now, boys. Reo is a traitor – never forget that.”
More nodding.
Doubts gnawed Marie’s brain. Did they truly believe Reo to be a traitor still? There were rumors of some in the police force questioning the official account. After all, no footage from the crime scene existed. Yukito had made sure of that. All combat was started as a result of his eyewitness account. Questions were being whispered. Could their former Chief of Police, a seeming patriot and a good son, really be a traitor and the killer?
“I want all in that datacenter killed on sight, including Reo. Is that clear?”
Another round of head nods. Can they not speak? What the fuck? “Is that clear, boys?” she shouted, her eyes lar
ge and red from a euphoria binge.
“Hai!” the officers exclaimed in unison.
Perhaps they weren’t used to being led by a woman, the empress no less. Or perhaps they didn’t like taking orders from a gaijin. An outsider. Most likely, though, they didn’t know what to make of her state of undress. Marie stood nude – no armor, no nothing. There wasn’t a need for such accessories. Divinity was beyond that. Plus, she’d always preferred battling sans clothing. It allowed for better movement.
Black stripes crisscrossed her milky torso and limbs just as they’d done during the Parisian battle against the Martians. She was a white tigress. The yearning for battle had never really abated. It had always been there, under the surface, even when she’d been weakened by narcotic withdrawal. Now it was ready to burst through her flesh like water breaching a dam. And so was the desire for flesh. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d tasted human meat. Would Bastien’s rugged physique make for a nice gourmet meal? Marie imagined sitting over his corpse and chewing on a limp bicep. Her mouth watered at the thought.
“And remember Bastien is mine,” she bellowed. “I and only I will kill him.”
One of the officers mumbled to his neighbor in Japanese. Marie yelled, “English! No speaking in that tongue of yours.” Scowls seared her, but she didn’t care for their gaijin-deriding stares. Bastards. “When I’m around, it’s either English or French. Now, focus on the mission.” She was nervous. She’d been relegated to Hafiz’s role. An empress only in name. Perhaps this had been Yukito’s idea all along. Seduce her to reap the rewards of her beauty, and when the lust was taken care of, demote her to a lower station.
“Fuck,” she cursed under her breath.
At least, the plan was straightforward – the team would descend the building’s staircase by way of the roof’s entrance. Then, once down on the first floor, a detonation would be executed, blowing apart the floor and offering passage into the basement. The exact location of the explosion had been determined so as to allow entry right into the middle of the Rogu’s datacenter, setting off confusion, an attacker’s best friend. The ten officers would end the hackers, including Reo, and she would go after the ex-Lieutenant General. Simple. Facile, as the French would say.