by Jacob Holo
Behind him, the Feddies dropped to the ground, most of them missing heads or parts of their torsos.
“Emergency!” Naomi shouted. “I need assistance now!”
“That’s not going to be easy!” Ryu brought up a map of the House of Parliament and had his wetware cheats set nav points for the quickest route to Naomi.
“You okay, Ryu?” Cat asked.
“I’m fine! You and Toshi get to Naomi!”
“Right!”
Ryu raced through the House of Parliament. He pulled grenades out of his bandolier, armed their microminds with simple friend-or-foe instructions and tossed them in his wake. No one followed, and he met no further resistance before regrouping with Toshi and Cat.
“We trapped our exit routes!” Cat said, running into view. “The crusaders are going around!”
“Finally, some good news!” Ryu said.
They met at a security checkpoint in the rear of the building, the same one the ministers and Europan ambassador had taken perhaps a minute earlier. Ryu pressed his hacking glove against the door panel and sent the appropriate codes. The door snapped upward, and the three dragons moved out into an open field behind the House of Parliament.
Ryu spotted Naomi two hundred meters up the slope near a power station, exchanging fire with three crusaders behind the blasted wreckage of a Federacy gunship. A fourth crusader was on his back with a missing head.
The ambassador, ministers and civilians cowered on the opposite side of the power station. They couldn’t get into the utility maze while the crusaders held the slope.
Another Federacy gunship flew over the House of Parliament. Four crusaders rode along, two hanging on each side. Ryu snapped his rifle up, cycled his grenades to an anti-tank variant and fired. The grenade ignited its solid propellant and rocketed towards the gunship. The pilot didn’t have time to dodge.
The grenade punched through the gunship’s underbelly and exploded. Cockpit glass blasted out. Side paneling bulged unnaturally. The twin air turbines locked on their last flight command and kept spinning. The gunship tilted to the side, accelerating until it struck Bigger Ben’s clock face in a greasy fireball.
One of the crusaders exchanging fire with Naomi turned and shot at Ryu’s position. Ryu, Cat and Toshi ducked back into the House of Parliament. Explosive rounds pulverized the stone exterior.
“Make some noise, Naomi!” Ryu said. “We need to take these crusaders down!”
“Got it!”
Naomi fired four shots from her sniper rifle. One penetrated through the gunship wreckage and struck a crusader in his gun arm, blasting the limb off and knocking him out of cover.
Ryu and the others showered the crusaders with shatterbacks. One of the crusaders staggered back from the repeated detonations. Naomi shot him through the head. Ryu caught another one with a grenade to the chest, which collapsed the armor, crushed his chest and sent him flying. The last crusader, missing an arm, went prone against the gray slopes and fired grenades from his wrist launcher. Ryu shot down his grenades in midflight while Cat and Toshi pummeled him with shatterbacks until dead.
“Naomi, get those people moving!” Ryu shouted.
“Right away!”
Naomi switched her sonic cancellers off and started shouting orders. The ambassador and ministers rounded the power station into the open and ran for a steep staircase leading to a utility maze entrance.
Two Federacy gunships crested over the House of Parliament, each carrying four crusaders.
“Shoot them down!” Ryu said, raising his rifle. He and Toshi fired their grenades first.
The crusaders leaped off the gunships and opened fire. Hundreds of explosive rounds showered the slope, blasting up clouds of gray dirt and pulverizing any human they struck. The ambassador’s vitals flat lined a moment before her locator beacon vanished. The ministers and their families died almost instantly, reduced to fragments that weren’t even recognizably human.
A crimson ribbon splashed against Naomi’s suit before she leaped into the tunnel. Her smartskin illusion scrambled into swirling patterns of red. It adapted and reconstituted in the span of a second.
Ryu and Toshi’s grenades struck the gunships, but Ryu didn’t wait to see the result. Eight crusaders crashed into the slope. Several turned their Gatling guns towards Ryu’s squad.
“Back inside!” Ryu shouted before a hail of gunfire forced the point. He sealed the door.
“They just gunned them down!” Cat said.
“Boss, some of those crusaders are heading after Naomi,” Toshi said.
“Naomi, what’s your status?” Ryu asked. He waited a few seconds. “Naomi, respond!”
“I— I’m okay,” Naomi said, her voice quavering. “A squad of crusaders is heading into the tunnel. I’ll ... I’ll lose them in the maze.”
“You all right?”
“I’m fine! W-worry about yourself, damn it!”
“Crusaders outside and inside,” Toshi said. “Where do we punch through?”
Ryu brought up the map on his overlay. He remembered how that tall crusader had guessed his hiding place.
“They’ll be watching the obvious routes,” Ryu said. “If we get bogged down in a gunfight, they’ll just swarm us with numbers. We need to sneak out.” He placed a nav beacon on a nearby staircase. “This way.”
“Doesn’t this take us further away from the tunnels?” Toshi asked.
“I know,” Ryu said. “The map shows a second decommissioned power station near the east wing. We’ll enter the tunnel maze through there.”
“But this place is swarming with troops by now.”
“Right, which is why we’re heading for the roof,” Ryu said.
On the way to the fifth floor, Ryu only had to stop once to let a squad of Feddies walk by. One passed within two meters of him, waving his multi-tracker back and forth with zeal.
“Those things could barely spot our suits two versions ago,” Cat said.
“I’d prefer they never find that out,” Ryu said. He watched the Feddies move out of sight. “Come on.”
Occasionally, one of their grenades would take out a Feddie patrol. All the grenades had dot-cams, allowing Ryu and the others to tap into their visual feeds.
“No sign of that crusader squad led by the traitor,” Cat said. “Four crusaders outside on the slopes and four in the tunnels pursuing Naomi. Probably more nearby.”
Ryu passed through a security checkpoint and scaled a cramped steel staircase before reaching the door to the roof. He placed a finger beneath the door and let his glove extrude a dot-cam tubule. He checked their surroundings through a fishbowl visual feed.
“Looks clear. No gunships close by either,” Ryu said. He retracted the tubule and cracked the door open.
Ryu and the others slipped through. Toshi planted a grenade on the door and closed it. The roof was a flat expanse of stone tiles masking milky diamoplast armor. Crouching low, Ryu made his way along the northern parapet. Ahead, Bigger Ben still stood tall, minus one clock face. Oily smoke rose from gunship wreckage on the roof. The four crusaders that crashed with it were nowhere to be found.
Another explosion reverberated through the House of Parliament.
“Got five with that one,” Toshi said.
Ryu stopped at the end of the east wing as close to the second power station as possible. The station was a white block rising out of the crater slope.
“Now what?” Toshi asked. “Scale down the exterior?”
“No, we’re jumping to the power station.”
“Great.”
“I’ll go first,” Ryu said. “Cat?”
“It’s as clear as it’s going to be.”
“Good enough.” Ryu sprinted across the roof and leaped from the parapet. He sailed through the air, illusion shimmering and updating around him, almost travelling horizontally. Ryu landed on the power station’s flat roof, rolled across it and sprang up into a crouch.
“Nothing to it,” Ryu said, raising his
rifle and covering the others.
“Cat, go next,” Toshi said.
“All right. Here goes!”
Cat leaped across the two buildings, a barely present blur in the air. She rolled when she hit and deftly rose to her feet.
The grenade Toshi planted at the door exploded, blowing apart the small shack at the top of the stairs. A crusader charged through, his white armor covered in scorch marks. He swung his Gatling gun around, quickly scanning the roof through a cracked visor. The tall traitor crusader followed him.
“Not good!” Toshi shouted.
“Toshi, jump!” Ryu shouted.
“Damn it!”
Toshi leaped into the air.
The two crusaders brought their Gatling guns to bear on Toshi’s general direction and fired. Vari-shells shot between the two buildings, some flying over Ryu’s head.
Ryu and Cat returned fire, forcing the crusaders to go prone.
A vari-shell struck Toshi in the arm and exploded, shredding his smartskin exterior and warping the underlying ballistic mesh. In Ryu’s overlay, Toshi’s medical status turned yellow in his right arm. He spun in the air, crashed into the power station headfirst, rolled across the roof, and stopped on his back.
“Gah!” Toshi gasped. Camouflage patterns danced over his smartsuit at random.
“Get over the side!” Ryu said, emptying a clip.
Toshi struggled to his feet.
“They can see you!” Ryu shouted. He grabbed Toshi’s shoulder and jumped off the power station’s roof, dragging his stunned comrade with him. Cat emptied her clip, fired a grenade, and jumped after them.
Toshi hit the ground and collapsed to his knees. His smartskin fought to sustain any sort of effective illusion.
“Damn it, that hurts!”
“Into the tunnel!” Ryu shouted. “Now!”
Toshi staggered down the stairs. Cat hurried after him.
Ryu pulled out two grenades and planted them at the tunnel entrance. He rushed down the stairs to join the others. After descending ten stories of stairs, he detonated the grenades and collapsed the tunnel entrance. Not the best of blockages given Luna’s gravity, but it would have to do.
Ryu joined Cat and Toshi on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. They were in a recently constructed section with steel floors and pastel blue walls.
“Cat, patch up Toshi’s suit.”
“On it,” Cat said, pulling a smartskin repair kit out of her back pouch.
“Naomi, we’re inside the tunnel maze,” Ryu said. “Toshi’s hurt but not bad. What’s your status?”
“I ... I gave those crusaders the slip,” Naomi said. “Moving to your position now. I’ll be there shortly.”
“It was that traitor, wasn’t it?” Toshi said, holding still as Cat applied fresh strips of smartskin to his scarred suit. The strip’s microminds interfaced with the existing network, restoring Toshi’s invisibility illusion piece by piece.
“Yeah, same guy,” Ryu said. “His instincts are good.”
“That’s because he knows our tricks from experience. Damn it, why this arm? What do people have against my right arm?”
“At least it’s still attached this time,” Ryu said.
“The ballistic mesh is damaged,” Cat said. “Part of it can’t de-solidify. It’ll probably dig in if you move too much.”
Toshi tried raising his arm.
“Aaahh, yeah! You’re right! It’s definitely digging in!”
Toshi let his arm hang limply. He picked up his rifle left-handed.
“Are we still heading for the ambassador’s shuttle?” Toshi asked.
“Yeah,” Ryu said.
Naomi rounded a corner and stepped onto the landing.
“Good to see you,” Ryu said.
“We’ve got to move,” Naomi said. “I don’t think they spotted me, but those crusaders are sweeping this way.”
“No point staying now,” Ryu said. “Let’s go.”
Ryu led his squad into the relative safety of the tunnel maze. They traveled from newer construction close to the city to older, abandoned sections underneath ancient settlements in the plains around the crater.
Half an hour later, Ryu received a message over his TangleNet link. His breath caught in his throat when he saw who it was.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Ryu, I’m glad you’re alive,” Matriarch said.
Ryu smiled. “That makes two of us. It’s good to hear your voice, Matriarch.”
“Likewise. I’ve been monitoring the situation on Luna. Unfortunately, it’s spiraling out of control. Large segments of the Lunar military are surrendering whole cities. Those still fighting in New London have been cut into two groups by the crusader push on the House of Parliament. Both camps will likely surrender within a few hours.”
“Which leaves us very much in hostile territory,” Ryu said.
“Precisely,” Matriarch said. “Ryu, you need to get your dragons off Luna. I’m recalling the other squads as well. Two of our frigates are moving into position to punch a hole in the blockade.”
“Good. We’re on our way to a shuttle now.”
“I know, but I fear your pursuers are not ready to give up the chase.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I have the feeling one in particular isn’t going to give up.”
“Be safe,” Matriarch said. “I look forward to seeing you again.”
“Don’t worry. You will,” Ryu said. He switched the link off.
“Somehow,” Toshi said. “Her not mentioning our screw up makes it even worse.”
“She cares about us more than the mission,” Ryu said. “It’s that simple.”
“What do you think she’ll do about the crusader lies?” Cat asked.
“She’ll think of something,” Ryu said. “She always does.”
They proceeded deeper into the tunnels, now in areas with bare rock walls and ancient mining equipment that descended deep into Luna’s subterranean ice deposits.
Cat placed another dot-cam on wall.
“The crusaders are following us,” she said. “But something is strange about their behavior.”
“What is it?” Ryu asked.
“I’m not sure. They’re searching for us but I get the impression they’re not trying too hard. I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Maybe I do,” Ryu said. “They might be herding us forward.”
“In which case, there’s an ambush ahead,” Naomi said.
“You think so?” Cat asked.
“It’s what I would do,” Ryu said. He found his mind wandering back to the tall crusader.
Matriarch opened a link. “Ryu, a group of Lunar soldiers just tried to commandeer the ambassador’s shuttle.”
“Don’t tell me they took it.”
“No, the forced entry countermeasures stopped them. Hull cameras show three Lunarians leaving the site. One of them is injured with a breeched suit. She might not survive.”
“So much for our would-be allies,” Toshi said.
“The chain of command has broken down completely,” Matriarch said. “Lunar soldiers are taking advantage of the chaos. Be careful.”
“We will.” Ryu closed the link.
“I don’t blame them.” Cat said. “They just want out.”
“True, but that’s our ride they tried to steal,” Ryu said.
“You know what this means, though,” Toshi said. “No one’s left to guard the shuttle. If the crusaders find it first, we’re dead.”
“Keep moving,” Ryu said. “We’ll deal with it when we get there.”
Half an hour later, they reached the shuttle without incident. Ryu used the ambassador’s code to open the security airlock. He and the others entered a thin corridor with the shuttle visible ahead in a sealed launch crater.
The modified tiger shark wasn’t so much a shuttle as it was a cockpit and cargo hold strapped to a pair of massive engines. The thing stood two stories high and six times as long. All black ar
mor and sleek angles, the tiger shark could cut through even Earth’s thick atmosphere with ease.
Ryu stepped to the edge of the corridor, which flared out into a wide crater large enough to house the tiger shark, a refueling station, maintenance shed and weapon stores.
“Crusader squad approaching from the rear,” Cat said. “They’re in a hurry now. About three minutes away.”
“They know we passed through the security door,” Ryu said. “We need to move.”
“Well, there’s the shuttle,” Toshi said.
“I know,” Ryu said. He backed away from the launch crater. “Naomi, if you were going to set up an ambush, where would it be?”
“The shuttle’s cameras have a few blind spots,” Naomi said. “I’d set up in one of those. I could probably get to a nice spot through the northwest entrance, concealed behind the reloading armatures. Hold on. Let me check.”
Naomi crept along the corridor wall, placed her hand near the corner and extruded a dot-cam tubule.
“Hmm ... don’t see anything ... wait.” Naomi raised her hand and extended the tubule half a meter over her arm. She snapped the tubule back. “Crap. There’s a squad out there. Three or four of them in hard cover behind all that reloading machinery. And Ryu?”
“Yeah?”
“I think our tall friend from before is with them.”
“Persistent bastard,” Toshi said. “Do we try getting to the shuttle with max stealth?”
“No,” Ryu said. “They know exactly where we’re coming from and our suits have taken too much damage.”
“That second squad is getting close,” Cat said. “A minute and a half.”
“Toshi, make a break for the shuttle when I give the word and activate its weapons,” Ryu said. “We’ll suppress the crusaders.”
“All right,” Toshi sighed. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Grenades on my command. Now!”
Ryu and Cat popped out of cover and fired six grenades at the crusaders, who returned fire almost instantly. Explosive rounds blasted huge chunks out of the pale stone walls. Ryu had to duck back into cover, but his grenades were in flight. He grabbed another grenade from his bandolier and chucked it towards the crusaders for good measure.
Bright flashes cast the launch crater into stark contrast. A blinding white beam stabbed against their cover, cutting through moon rock like butter. The crusader’s thermal lance scythed over Ryu’s head, almost decapitating him. He fell prone to the ground and reloaded his grenades.