by Jacob Holo
“I’m sorry, Toshi,” Ryu said.
“Don’t be. We need to do this.”
“Which path do you want to take?”
“I’ll go through the tunnel we collapsed,” Toshi said. “I can loop back through the residential blocks further down.”
“Then we’ll hold this spot and make the noise,” Ryu said. He opened the command channel. “Get ready to take some heat off us if you can. We’re going after the tunneling ring.”
“Confirmed, Ryu,” blue dragon’s squad leader said.
“Just give the word,” gold dragon’s squad leader said.
Ryu took a deep breath. He crouched over to the junction and checked the corner with a tubule. The four crusaders might as well have been statues. He tagged each one and divided the targets amongst his squad.
“Let’s take care of this group first,” Ryu said.
“My pleasure,” Toshi said. He and Cat edged up to the-junction. Naomi stepped closer on her side and raised her rifle.
Ryu triggered the second grenade in the collapsed tunnel. The icy blockage exploded towards the crusaders in a shower of white boulders. Their response was swift and predictable.
The crusaders poured over a thousand bullets into the tunnel in three short seconds. Explosive rounds blasted ice everywhere, widening the tunnel while incinerator rounds set the walls on fire and turned the floor into a flowing stream of slush and burning gel. Greenish light flickered down the dark tunnels.
The crusaders ceased fire and let their guns spin down.
“SolarNet traffic,” Cat whispered. “They must be calling in a report.”
“Now!” Ryu shouted.
All four dragons sprang from cover. Naomi fired first, decapitating the crusader with the thermal lance. The other three dragons shot a split second later. Ryu hit his target’s Gatling gun first, knocking it aside. He corrected his aim, trigger still squeezed. Shatterbacks blasted dents in the crusaders armor until three hits in a row blew through his visor. Toshi and Cat dispatched their targets with equal efficiency.
Toshi picked up Cat’s bandolier and locked it around his waist. The two smartskin illusions faltered for a moment before the microminds meshed their networks. He walked over and retrieved Naomi’s and Ryu’s bandoliers.
“Good luck,” Naomi said.
“Thanks, umm ...” Toshi said. He strapped the other bandoliers on and looked over at Cat. She was leaning against the ice, staring at her feet. “Hey, Cat?”
She looked up.
“Umm ...” Toshi detached a small box from his belt. He tossed it over.
Cat snatched it out of the air.
“That’s for you,” Toshi said.
“What is it?”
“Get set, dragons!” Ryu shouted. “Crusaders incoming! Toshi, you need to go now!”
“Heading out, boss.”
“Naomi, left tunnel! Cat, take the right! I’ll hold the center!”
Ryu ran up the slope to the downed crusaders. He dragged the bodies into a small pile for some cover. That tough armor of theirs had to be good for something, right? SolarNet traffic pinged back and forth all around them. The crunch of ice and the rattle of metal grates carried through the floor.
“All dragons!” Ryu said over the command channel. “Engage at will!”
“Commencing attack,” gold dragon squad leader said.
Ryu ran up the slope, slowing at a point where it curved right. A series of SolarNet transmissions occurred around the curve. He stuck a tubule around the bend and spotted a group of four crusaders moving in.
“Crusaders in sight!” Naomi said, tagging a squad coming down her tunnel. “Engaging!”
Ryu ejected a needle grenade from his rifle’s launcher, caught the tiny cylinder, and buried it in the ice wall. He stuck his rifle around the corner and sprayed the crusaders with a quick burst. Shatterbacks struck their heavy armor, throwing out sparks in the darkness. The attack dented chests and shoulder plates, but did little real damage. The crusaders hosed down his position, but he was already running back to the stacked bodies.
Ryu vaulted over the crusader bodies and took cover behind them. He slapped in a full clip.
“Crusaders in my tunnel!” Cat shouted. “Engaging!”
Ryu loaded a routine into his hacking glove, picked up the dead crusader’s M7 thermal lance and shook out the power cable. Tiny filaments snaked into the weapon, physically bypassing its user recognition and friendly fire protocols. Five seconds later, he had control of the weapon.
The crusaders rounded the corner. The needle grenade exploded at them sideways, turning two of them into half-bald porcupines.
Ryu rose from cover and activated the thermal lance. The white beam lit the tunnel, struck the lead crusader in the chest, and bore a fist-sized hole straight through. The beam kept going, vaporizing the ice behind him. Steam flashed out into the tunnel, obscuring the crusaders in a thick haze. It didn’t matter. His overlay was already set up for zero visibility, identifying the crusaders with bright red outlines.
Ryu’s attack had taken out one crusader, but it also revealed his position. He was holding a weapon without the benefit of a smartskin illusion. Three Gatling barrels lined up on him. The crusaders fired, but diamond needles jammed two of their weapons. The third spewed out a continuous stream of vari-shells.
Ryu threw the thermal lance aside and dropped down behind the armored bodies. The crusader tracked the weapon’s path. Dozens of impacts reduced it to red-hot scrap that sunk into the ice where they fell.
SolarNet pings showed a second group of crusaders coming in to reinforce the first.
“Ryu, it’s getting hot over here!” Naomi shouted.
“I know!” Ryu said. “Fall back!”
Ryu fired his last two needle grenades over the pile of bodies, waited for them to disorient the crusaders, then ran back to the junction. Naomi and Cat had both retreated to the tunnel they’d temporarily collapsed. Gatling fire zigzagged through the junction from either side.
“Shit!” Ryu shouted, running blind through the fire and diving for cover. A vari-shell struck the side of his chest. It collapsed the ballistic underlay and sent him spinning to the ground. Slush splashed out around him. Cat grabbed his arm and dragged him all the way into the tunnel.
“You’re hit!” Cat said, reaching for the meditracker on her belt.
“Leave it!” Ryu said. “It’s not bad!”
The impact had stripped the smartskin off his side. Pale, icy patterns danced over his body until the illusion reformed, minus one section. Organs below his ribcage glowed yellow on his overlay. The flexible ballistic armor had fused solid in response to the otherwise fatal impact and now bit into his side. Each breath burned with pain. Patches of his smartsuit glowed red, indicating micro-tears and a pressure leak.
Ryu struggled to his feet and ran down the ice tunnel with the other dragons. He triggered a dose of painkillers from his implants. Mellow numbness spread across his side.
“Toshi, status!”
“I have good news and bad news, boss,” Toshi said.
“Just give it to me! We’re a little busy!”
“I’m inside their perimeter,” Toshi said. “The crusaders never saw me. I’m in a corridor the ring will pass through.”
“Good job!”
“The bad news is you’re retreating straight into more crusaders.” Toshi tagged three squads on the map. “They’re boxing you in.”
“Fuck!”
The tunnel widened into a hall with a plastic floor and mesh over the ceiling. This part of the tunnel system had once been pressurized, so there was no airlock. Broken tables, toppled chairs, and frozen corpses filled what might have been a space for community gatherings. A layer of frost covered everything. The hall branched off to either side into dozens of small rooms. An opening ahead led to more tunnels.
“SolarNet contacts in the tunnel ahead!” Cat said. “And behind us! They’re closing in!”
“Find us an exi
t, Cat!” Ryu said.
Naomi turned around and aimed her rifle down the tunnel they’d just exited. “They’re almost here, Ryu!”
“There!” Cat pointed to one of the side rooms. “We can punch through the back wall to a shaft in another tunnel system.”
“Do it!” Ryu said.
Cat stowed her rifle and ran to the door. She pried it open with her fingers, tore it off its hinges, and moved inside the cramped hollow.
“Naomi, watch our backs!” Ryu said. “I’ll check ahead!”
“Stay out of sight!” Naomi said. “They can see you now!”
Ryu ran to the hall’s exit. He fought for each breath and hunched over. The wound on his side turned red in his overlay. Dull pain pulsed in his lung and abdomen. He ordered up another dose of painkillers.
Past the hall, Ryu ran to a bend in the tunnel. He checked around the bend with a tubule. Eight crusaders marched towards his position.
“Toshi, I’m sorry, but we’re getting out of here,” Ryu said. “You’re on your own.”
“That’s okay, boss. I knew what I volunteered for.”
Ryu stuck his rifle around the corner and fired a quick burst. The crusaders returned fire. Their bullets ate through the ice walls, widening the tunnel and dissolving the corner he’d used for cover.
Ryu ducked. Ice cascaded off his helmet and shoulders. He ran back to the hall. “Cat, we don’t have much time!”
“Get over here!” Cat shouted. She slipped out of the side room, hugged the wall, and detonated her grenade. Ice blasted through the door.
Naomi fired two shots down her tunnel then fell back to the side room.
“You first, Ryu!” Naomi shouted. “In you go!”
Ryu ran to the side room, charged through the chunks of ice on the floor, and leaped down a black, five story shaft. He struck a diamoplast mesh on the bottom, lost his footing, and fell on his side.
Cat and Naomi jumped down and stuck their landings. The bottom of the shaft branched in three directions.
“This way!” Cat said, pointing down a passage.
Naomi helped Ryu to his feet. They ran deeper into the tunnel network for several minutes, taking turns at Cat’s direction. Pitch black passages snaked up or down from the main tunnels, disappearing into long forgotten parts of Europa’s history.
“I don’t think anyone’s following us this far,” Naomi said, slowing to a walk. “I’m not picking up any SolarNet echoes.”
“Same here,” Cat said. “They could be running silent, but that’s not their style. Now let’s take a look at you.”
Ryu leaned against the wall, holding his side. “Sure. Let’s.”
Cat retrieved her meditracker and passed it over the wound. “Ryu! You’re suit is breached and you have shrapnel cutting up your insides!”
“It’s a small leak.” Ryu slumped to his knees. “The shrapnel though ... that’s another story.”
“You should have said something!” Cat dropped to his side. She pulled a nanomedic booster off her belt and stuck it in his side.
“What was I supposed to do?” Ryu asked, breathing in quick pants. “Lie down and let you patch me up?”
Cat applied three more boosters. She dropped the empty vials to the floor and let them roll away.
“The shrapnel stays where it is,” Cat said. “I’ve programmed half the nanomedics to isolate the pieces and start breaking them down. Now let’s take a look at your suit.”
“Here,” Naomi said, handing over a repair kit. Cat took out smartskin strips and applied them over the damaged sections. The microminds networked and his illusion reformed almost as good as new. His smartsuit confirmed the pressure leak was also fixed.
“Part of the ballistic layer solidified,” Cat said. “I’ve rebooted that section. You should have almost normal mobility.”
“Thanks, Cat.”
“And one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
Cat raised her fist and swung at him. Ryu let the punch jar his head. To her credit, she didn’t put all her enhanced strength behind it, even though part of him wanted her to. He’d just sent a friend to his death. Maybe this would help the nauseous feeling of guilt go away.
“You shouldn’t have let Toshi go alone!” Cat cried. “Why did you let him go?”
“It had to be done,” Naomi said. “If he hadn’t, one of us would have done it.”
“Shut up!” Cat pointed a finger at her. “Don’t pretend that you’d have gone!”
Naomi shook her head. “Fine. Whatever.” She walked away.
Cat sat on her legs and wept. Ryu couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Hey, boss?” Toshi called in.
Ryu swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. “Yeah?”
“I have a visual on the tunneling ring.”
* * *
Kaneda paced across the icebreaker’s roof walkway. He treaded through shallow puddles and watched the twirling web of lasers below as they ate through meter after meter of Europa’s ice. Steam rose from within the icebreaker’s ring, condensing on his armor and weapons, coating him in a glistening sheen.
The icebreaker vibrated heavily under his boots, and the steam rising to the surface carried the thunderous noise to his ears. Puddles on the walkway percolated like brewing coffee. The shaft above was nearly two hundred meters deep now.
“We have two confirmed dragon kills from the last attack,” Alice said, pacing with him and Three-Part.
“There can’t be many of them,” Kaneda said. “Otherwise they’d hit us harder. The dragons are trying to scare us into caution.”
Kaneda plucked the last needle off his chest. Welcome home, he thought before flicking it away. His armor status showed superficial damage, mostly scrapes and dents. The attack on the surface had wounded his pride more than anything else.
The icebreaker shuddered and slowed. The vibration intensified.
“What’s going on?” Three-part asked.
“It’s cutting through a structure,” Alice said. “Nothing to worry about.”
A new alarm flashed yellow on Kaneda’s overlay, indicating a hatch wasn’t firmly closed. The hatch was located on the icebreaker’s underbelly almost directly beneath them.
“That’s odd,” Alice said.
“Do you think something knocked it loose?” Three-Part asked.
“Switch the icebreaker off,” Kaneda said. “We need to check it out.”
Alice sent the deactivation signal. The lasers switched off and the mirror assemblies spun down.
Kaneda mounted the small parapet along the walkway and aimed at the ice and slush below. He called up graphical outlines of the closest tunnels. The largest passed directly beneath his position and intersected the partially open hatch. That was too much of a coincidence. He tagged the hatch with a nav beacon and distributed the location to two nearby squads. Both abandoned their defensive positions and advanced on the beacon from opposite directions.
The squads were close but a dragon could do a lot of damage quickly. Kaneda adjusted his aim and fired at the tunnel. Ice and plastic sheeting crumpled under the onslaught. The tunnel’s ceiling sagged inward.
“Assume the worst,” Kaneda said. “Let’s go.” He jumped off the icebreaker and crashed through the weakened ceiling. Alice and Three-Part landed on either side of him.
Kaneda spun around and faced the open hatch. It was obscured by a small bend in the tunnel. Part of the icebreaker poked through the ceiling. It looked like row after row of heavy chainsaw teeth. Each tooth was bigger than a human head.
Kaneda ran forward, aimed his Gatling gun around the bend and fired.
A ghostly shape dove out of the way, firing. Shatterbacks exploded against Kaneda’s armor, knocking him back. He tracked his aim across the tunnel, struggling to draw a line on the dragon. His Gatling gun blew holes in the walls and sent chunks of ice and foam insulation flying.
The dragon landed on the ground and vanished completely from Kaneda’s tracker. Alice a
nd Three-Part rounded the bend. Together, they hosed the tunnel down, tearing it to pieces, and setting most of it on fire.
Kaneda let his Gatling gun spin down. The tips glowed cherry red.
“I don’t see a body,” Alice said.
“Then he’s not dead yet. After him!” Kaneda sprinted down the tunnel and took another bend after a short distance. Ahead, the tunnel intersected with the icebreaker at a second spot. That had to be the dragon’s target. He tagged the location and ordered the other two squads to converge.
Kaneda ran around another bend. His multitracker picked out a grenade flying towards him. He shot it down without breaking his stride. A second grenade hit the ceiling further ahead. Heavy support beams and ice boulders plummeted to the ground.
Kaneda fired a grenade from his wrist launcher. It struck the ice pile and blew it into glittering pieces. One of the fallen beams sat at a diagonal and blocked their path. He charged forward and bashed it aside.
Beyond the next bend, a hatch alarm blinked next to his nav beacon. The dragon had blown the hatch open with a grenade.
“Damn, he’s a fast one!” Alice said.
Kaneda turned the corner, aimed for a spot beneath the hatch, and sprayed. Something moved across his field of vision, but a lucky vari-shell struck the dragon in the elbow. The explosive variant blew half his arm off. The dragon staggered back. Crimson patterns danced over his body. For a brief moment, Kaneda saw the four bandoliers in the dragon’s other hand. They were loaded with grenades.
The dragon tossed the bandoliers through the hatch.
“Get down!” Kaneda shouted. He turned around and dove to the floor.
The one hundred forty-nine grenades triggered in a flash of light. The shockwave incinerated the dragon and roared down the tunnel. Kaneda grabbed hold of the grates in the floor, but the shockwave ripped him and the floor panel free, bowled him across the tunnel, and smashed him against the wall.
Alarms lit up his overlay. A graphic of the icebreaker showed a red blob spreading along the ring in either direction. Laser emitters, mesh deployers, and power generators lit up with critical failures. The damage spread until over half the icebreaker blinked red or yellow.