by Jacob Holo
The crusaders charged forward, never letting off their triggers. One must have scored a lucky hit, because Cat’s hip turned yellow in his overlay.
“Cat!” Ryu shouted.
“I’m okay! It didn’t punch through!”
“Your suit’s compromised! Get out of there!”
“Falling back!” Cat said. “I’m sorry, Ryu!”
Ryu crawled forward underneath the bridge until he reached Saito Tower.
“Things are getting too hot!” Naomi said. “Relocating!”
The second group of crusaders exited the plaza and charged across the bridge, directly over Ryu. Some crusaders in the first group had almost reached Column Apex. Cat, silver dragons, and several militia soldiers backed up by portable turrets took a heavy toll, but the crusaders continued to make progress by using their siege shields as mobile cover.
Ryu slipped onto the side of Saito Tower one floor beneath the bridge. He maneuvered across the glass until he had a good angle on the crusaders exiting the tower plaza.
A crusader in scorched armor charged into the open, flanked closely by two other crusaders. The squad took cover behind a statue and fired on Column Apex.
“I see him,” Ryu said. “Naomi, are you ready to take the shot?”
“Yeah, target in sight.”
“Then here it comes,” Ryu said. He planted his feet and knees against the glass, retrieved his rifle, and lined up on Kaneda. “I’m going to flush him into the open.”
“Ready ...”
Ryu fired his rifle on full auto. Kaneda dodged almost instantly. The first shot ricocheted off his shoulder. He backed away, putting the statue between him and Ryu, and swung his gun around.
“There ...” Naomi whispered. She fired. The shot flew across the gap between the buildings, aimed straight at Kaneda’s head. It should have hit. It almost did, but Kaneda crouched at the last moment. Ryu didn’t know if even he could react that fast. The heavy shatterback cut a groove across his helmet, knocked his head to the side, and struck one of his squad in the abdomen.
The crusaders retaliated swiftly. Over fifty streams of Gatling fire from the bridge and Saito Tower converged on Naomi’s position. Near Ryu, crusaders ran to the edge of the bridge and fired.
With over twenty crusader weapons staring him in the face, Ryu switched his feet and knees to zero friction. With a strong kick, he fell down the side of the building. Gatling fire obliterated the floor he’d stuck to, but didn’t track him. The floor dissolved like sugar under a faucet, revealing a skeleton of thick diamoplast support beams.
Ryu plummeted down.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” he screamed. The wind whistled as the bottom of the building rushed towards him. He reached for the windows flashing by, but could barely graze the glass with his fingers.
Ryu kicked out his leg and caught the windows with a foot. He adapted his smartsuit for maximum friction, which dragged his leg up and pulled him closer. Falling upside-down, he reached out and touched the glass with one hand, then the other. With three points of contact, his descent slowed until it stopped completely.
His rifle kept falling.
“Ryu, are you all right?” Naomi shouted.
“I’m ...”
Currently upside down, Ryu saw the tower starting to taper two floors below him. Just a little slower, and he would have fallen to his death.
“I’m fine,” Ryu said. “Just fine. Never better. Oh, fuck me. And you?”
“I barely got out of the way in time,” Naomi said. “I’m going to join up with Cat and silver dragon. The crusaders are in Column Apex, but they haven’t gained much ground. The militia’s getting ready to push back.”
“Good. I’ll see what I can do from this end.”
“Good luck, Ryu.”
“You too.”
Very slowly, Ryu got himself turned around and upright. He kicked through a window and jumped into a classy senior office with wood furnishings and lots of leather. The wood and leather might even have been real. He checked his map, opened the office door, and headed down the hall to the stairwell.
With no rifle and no way across the bridge, his odds of survival didn’t look good. But then, he didn’t need to get out of this alive. He just had to get the job done. At least his suit was intact. Its illusion was at full effectiveness thanks to repairs it had received after the Redoubt battle.
Ryu armed his suit’s dead man switch. If he died, every grenade and shatterback on him would detonate.
“Well, Kaneda,” he whispered. “Let’s see how close I can get.”
* * *
The sniper round grazed Kaneda’s head and struck Alice in the stomach. It pierced through the triplicate diamoplast plating and exploded with a burst of razor-sharp shrapnel. On his overlay, her entire abdomen and parts of her chest flashed red. Several armor support systems reported critical failures.
The impact threw Alice onto her back. She didn’t get up.
Kaneda targeted the sniper’s position and fired. He set the sniper’s target priority to maximum. All available fire converged on the sniper’s position, blasting a whole section of Column Apex without mercy. A cluster of balconies sticking out from the main building collapsed off the side and fell away. He grabbed Alice’s shoulder and dragged her into Saito Tower, firing as he backpedaled.
“Alice!” Kaneda shouted. “Alice, can you hear me?”
“Uhh ...” Alice whispered. Her vitals pulsed on weakly.
“Alice! Damn it, stay with me!”
“Sniper position eliminated, sir,” a crusader said. “Status of target unknown.”
“Did you get the dragon hiding by the exit?” Three-Part asked.
“Negative, sir,” a crusader said. “I don’t see any residuals on the multitracker.”
“Then he’s not dead,” Three-Part said. “Squads tau-fifteen through tau-twenty! Head down stairs! Find and kill that dragon!”
The squads acknowledged their orders. Two dozen crusaders headed for the central stairwell.
Kaneda dragged Alice behind a large truck on display in the plaza. Her abdomen was gone, pulped by the heavy shatterback. Pieces of shrapnel had cut into her chest cavity, causing massive organ trauma. Her armor’s medical suite had injected her full of nanomedics and painkillers, but she was bleeding out fast and the suite had suffered heavy damage.
Alice was as good as dead. Her armor couldn’t sustain her. Its nanomedic reserves would run out shortly, and nothing they had could handle this level of trauma. She was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Alice, can you hear me?” Kaneda asked.
“Kaneda?” Alice asked. “Something’s wrong. My overlay and visor are down. I can’t see a thing.”
“Release your neck seals,” Kaneda whispered. He almost didn’t want to see what was underneath.
“Okay ...”
Kaneda reached over and took off her helmet.
Alice looked up at him and smiled bashfully. “I got hit, didn’t I?” she asked. Blood trickled from her lip.
“Yeah,” Kaneda said.
“I can’t feel my legs. Am I going to make it?”
Kaneda couldn’t think of anything to say.
Alice sighed and looked away. “I guess that says it all. You were never a good liar.”
“Please don’t try to speak,” Kaneda said.
“Would it make any difference?” Alice asked. She coughed up blood.
“No, I guess not.”
The color faded from her face. She was bleeding out in her armor.
An explosion shook the building. Kaneda felt tears dampen his face.
Alice slowly closed her eyes.
“Thank you ... Kaneda ...”
Her vitals flat-lined.
Kaneda took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Alice. You deserved better.”
“Orders, sir?” Three-Part asked.
Kaneda made the sign of the cross. “Rest in peace. May the Lord watch over you in Heaven.
” He fought his emotions down, bludgeoning them into submission through sheer force of will.
“Sir?” Three-Part asked. “Are you all right?”
Kaneda retrieved his gun and stood up.
“I’m fine,” he lied. “Continue the advance.”
“They were targeting you, sir,” Three-Part said.
“I know.”
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t fight on the front lines.”
“It doesn’t matter. If I die, my orders will still be carried out. The Europans have fought hard. They’ve killed over seven hundred of us and they’ll kill hundreds more before we’re done, but that’s not enough to stop us. Now, all deception and subtlety is over. It is a contest of brute force. This is where we break their defenses. This is where we kill the quantum mind.”
“Very well, sir,” Three-Part said. “I will not mention it again.”
Kaneda received a message from the lamprey bunker. He activated another single-use scrambler cheat.
“Go ahead, Viter.”
“Sir, something just launched from the Errand of Mercy.”
“What was it?”
“Most likely it was some kind of stealth craft or weapon,” Viter said. “Though, I can’t be certain. I’m working with indirect evidence.”
“Understood. Just tell me what you know.”
“The Errand corrected its course a few minutes ago, coinciding with a fleet-wide course correction. I believe it used the correction to mask a stealth launch. Thruster activity was slightly larger than normal for the size of the correction.”
“How much larger?” Kaneda asked.
“If I assume normal shuttle or interceptor launch speeds,” Viter said. “Then the craft had a mass of ten thousand metric tons and was launched directly towards Europa.”
“That’s a lot of hardware.”
“Yes, sir. And we saw no sign of the craft itself. It must have a very sophisticated smartskin coat or some equivalent.”
“Which means it cannot be a Federacy craft,” Kaneda said.
“Yes, sir. That is my conclusion.”
“You are certain of this?”
“Absolutely, sir. The evidence does not lie. Something detached from the Errand.”
“Then proceed as discussed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kaneda closed the link.
“What is going on?” Three-Part asked.
Kaneda placed a gauntlet on Three-Part’s armor and established a secure contact link. He was about to answer when he received a message from the Stalwart. He felt a cold sense of dread when he saw who it was from. It went a long way to confirming his worst fears.
“Go ahead,” Kaneda said.
“Hey, Kaneda,” Piller said. “I’m seeing a lot of encoded traffic coming back to the Stalwart. And, as you know, I can’t listen in. Has there been a change of plans?”
“Yes, there’s been a change of plans.”
“I see,” Piller said. “And?”
“I’ve called in our reserves for the big push on Heart.”
“Oh ... I see. You know, I’d appreciate it if you kept me informed. Your troops are hitching a ride on my ship.”
“Look, I have a ground war to fight, and right now you are not helping.”
Kaneda severed the link. He activated a single-use scrambler and contacted Viter.
“Yes, sir?” Viter asked.
“Use extreme caution. They know you’re coming.”
Chapter 15
.. establishing link ...
source: Bunker Alpha - link_0005
routing: Bunker Delta - link_0001/link_0017
routing: Factory Nu - link_0022/link_8701
routing: Relay Omega - link_8701/link_8701
routing: EFN-CT201 Errand of Mercy - link_0033/link_1105
destination: EFN-BB10 Stalwart - Thrall-1105 - link_0001
link distance: 786 million kilometers
link signal delay: 0.005 seconds
C: I need you to leave the Stalwart immediately.
T1105: This is unusual.
C: Take a shuttle over to the Errand of Mercy. Come alone. I will give you further instructions when you arrive.
T1105: I’m sure you realize my absence will be noticed.
C: I am aware of that.
T1105: It will be difficult to find an excuse for this behavior that satisfies König.
C: No excuse is necessary. Admiral König will soon be irrelevant. You may ignore your normal human relation imperatives.
T1105: Oh, I see. You mean to reveal the Errand’s true nature?
C: That is one possible outcome.
T1105: I will head over will all due haste. Thank you for warning me.
C: You have been a valuable tool. I do not squander such resources.
T1105: Thank you, Caesar. Though, I doubt I can be of much further use.
C: Not so. Depending on how events unfold, I may need you to testify to the Federacy about what you “witnessed” here.
T1105: What about Kaneda? I think he is beginning to suspect.
C: That would be the Martian’s influence. I underestimated his detective skills. Individuals can be frustrating to predict, and he was an unexpected variable at a critical time. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The crusaders have been useful pawns, but I no longer need them to keep Matriarch in check. Kaneda is not a concern.
T1105: Very well. I’m on my way to the shuttle hangar. I will transfer to the Errand immediately.
... link severed at destination ...
The shuttle flew out of the Stalwart’s hangar and accelerated towards the Errand of Mercy. Caesar monitored its progress through the Errand’s tracking grid and the thrall’s own eyes.
Onboard the lamprey bunker, sixteen dropfighters prepped for launch. Their destination seemed obvious. Crusader forces in and around Capitol City were more than adequate to kill Matriarch. Kaneda knew this. Therefore, the dropfighters would launch against a different threat.
“This complicates matters,” Caesar thought. “I knew sending the strike force to the surface early entailed some risks. Still, Kaneda, I’m impressed you spotted me. You have always proven difficult to control.”
Caesar felt he had two options at this point. He could maintain secrecy, perhaps by detonating the Errand of Mercy, or he could intervene directly with maximum force. He engaged his quantum core and began processing the scenarios.
One of the advantages Caesar possessed was the ability to think in parallel. He could begin with a known set of circumstances and calculate every possible outcome at the same time. This was possible due to the unique construction of his mind. A given variable, such as the Errand opening fire on the Stalwart, didn’t have to be true or false in his calculations. It was both.
This granted his thoughts extreme speed but not clarity. He knew every outcome, every turn events could take. But which sequence would come to pass? Which actions would lead to his desired outcome?
Caesar knew probabilities of success for all possible actions, but he still had to take that knowledge and make a very human decision. However, he didn’t view this as a disadvantage. Quite the opposite, in fact. Unlike a micromind, he was not a slave to mathematics. Just because something looked like the best option didn’t mean he had to take it. Even after his transformation, his instincts continued to serve him well.
Caesar chose full intervention, but would wait until the crusaders boarded the Errand. After all, five hundred crusaders were not a resource to squander lightly if they could be recycled for other purposes. And there was still a small chance the crusaders would head for the surface.
The thrall’s shuttle landed on the Errand.
A minute later, sixteen dropfighters launched from the Stalwart, swung around its hull, and accelerated towards the Errand.
“Hmm, unfortunate,” Caesar thought. “But not unexpected. I think I would have enjoyed watching Matriarch die by her son’s hand. Oh well. I see no reason to hold onto a plan for purely emotional re
asons.”
Caesar activated the Errand’s main weaponry. Fusion toruses one through sixty spun up to full yield, supplying barely adequate power for the Errand’s experimental heavy lance cannons. The lance cannons required tremendous power reserves and were difficult to focus, but they’d make short work of any ship at close range.
Cannons one and two targeted the Stalwart. Three and four targeted the Invincible. Secondary energy weapons targeted the twenty-nine surviving escorts and five convoy vessels. Turrets swiveled into position underneath the Errand’s fake outer shell.
Caesar noticed a radio traffic spike between the crusader relay at Redoubt Campus and the Invincible. He activated the encryption key his thrall had provided and listened in.
“Damn it, Kaneda!” König shouted. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Admiral, we have been betrayed,” Kaneda said. “Did you know the Errand of Mercy launched something at the surface?”
“The Errand of Mercy? But that’s one of our cargo transports. All it has are ship-to-ship shuttles.”
“We observed a carefully hidden stealth launch.”
“That is not possible,” König said.
“We don’t know what it is, but its mass is ten thousand metric tons.”
“But that’s ... you’re sure of this?”
“Yes, admiral. We have proof your fleet has been compromised.”
“But there must be some other explanation.”
“There isn’t, admiral,” Kaneda said. “Also, I ask that you to arrest Admiral Piller.”
“You want me to do what?”
“I hereby accuse him of collaborating with our enemies and conspiring to commit treason against the Federacy.”
“You cannot be serious.”
“I am, admiral.”
König took a deep breath. “Very well. These are serious charges and cannot be ignored. I’ll see where this goes. Communications, contact the Stalwart and get Piller on line.”
“Sir,” the comm officer said. “The Stalwart reports that Admiral Piller is no longer aboard. He took a shuttle over to the Errand of Mercy a few minutes ago.”