by Jacob Holo
“We’ll know soon enough,” Kaneda said.
“Movement,” Naomi said. “The tank-spider is backing up slowly. Looks like it might retreat.”
“Don’t open fire unless we’re close enough to support you,” Kaneda said.
“Right.”
The tank-spider backed away from the fork with slow, plodding steps. With a sudden burst of speed, it spun to face the two dragons, raised its railguns, and fired. Heavy bullets punched through the shipping container’s metal skin. One zipped by Ryu’s head.
Adrenalmax surged through his body. He raced to the far end of the shipping container. The tank-spider tracked him and adjusted its aim.
Naomi held her ground and returned fire. The turbo-devastator blasted out of her rifle and struck the tank-spider dead center. Flames spurted out the other side. Its illusion crashed completely, and it staggered onto its belly, legs splayed around it.
“Move in!” Three-Part shouted.
The tank-spider rose to its feet with smoke pouring out of its abdomen. It reset its illusion and fired. The tank-spider’s guns shredded the shipping container. Chunks of fish and packing material blasted out the other side. The support near Ryu snapped loose, causing the container to teeter. The front end support groaned and twisted from the added weight.
Ryu leaped off the container and touched the ceiling with his hand. The smartskin on his palm adapted for extra friction. He pulled himself up so his knees and feet made contact with the ceiling.
Naomi grabbed the remaining support just before the container dropped away. It hit the ground and cracked open, spilling out raw fish and torn packaging.
Kaneda sprinted around the fork faster than any other crusader and hosed the tank-spider down. The hits from his Gatling gun stripped the smartskin off the tank-spider’s front and set it ablaze. It stepped backwards, keeping up a steady stream of fire.
Ryu launched three anti-tank grenades. They engaged their solid propellant and rocketed towards the tank-spider. It shot two down, but the third hit a damaged joint in its arm and blew the limb off.
More crusaders rounded the bend and targeted the tank-spider. Incinerator gel engulfed it in flames. Kinetic and explosive vari-shells blasted deep craters in its thick armor. The tank-spider spun around and retreated down the tunnel.
Naomi fired a heavy shatterback into the hole her turbo-devastator had blown in its abdomen. The tank-spider rocked to one side, righted itself, and ran out of sight. It left an oily trail of smoke in its wake.
“Hold position,” Kaneda said. “Do not pursue.”
“You think it’s trying to bait us?” Ryu asked. He loaded grenades into his launcher.
“Maybe,” Kaneda said. “It doesn’t really matter. We need to press on and find out the extent of the damage, but that doesn’t mean we rush in foolishly. Continue scouting ahead.”
“On it,” Ryu said. He stowed his rifle and watched smoke from the tank-spider settle against the ceiling. He and Naomi crawled halfway down the walls before advancing.
Ryu followed the tunnel to a shipping dock for the packing plant. Four other tunnels met at the dock.
Kaneda tagged the rightmost tunnel. “We’ll move into the residential zone. Another platoon will handle the packing plant.”
“Moving out,” Ryu said. “Looks like the tank-spider headed this way. It’s leaking badly.”
The tunnel opened into a parking deck full of trucks and then into a park beyond. Ryu dropped to the ground and slid between two empty flatbeds. He crouched near the end of a truck and took in his surroundings.
A three-story circular wall ran around the park with apartments and storefronts jutting out in a haphazard manner. It disappeared around either side of a pine forest that reached towards a domed false ceiling. Some trees almost touched the dome and its hologram of a noonday sun. A bubbling stream snaked around the edge of the forest.
“The trail leads into the woods,” Naomi said.
“Check the perimeter,” Kaneda said. “We’ll go up the center."
“I’ll take right,” Ryu said. “You take left. We’ll make a circuit of the forest.”
“Sounds good,” Naomi said.
The two dragons scaled the wall and crawled off in either direction while staying above the apartments and shops. Every building was empty, some with smashed windows and toppled furniture but nothing like the carnage near the dock. Kaneda’s crusaders exited the tunnel and moved into the forest. Their white armor stood out against lush pine trees and the dry beds of fallen needles. Cat brought up the rear.
“Caesar couldn’t have gotten the whole city by now,” Ryu said. “Could he?”
“I’m starting to wonder,” Kaneda said.
“More bad news,” Cat said. “Matriarch just lost the link to New Edo.”
“Damn,” Ryu said. “Did they get a message off?”
“No. They went dark the same as North Pacifica.”
“What about the tunnel over the capitol?”
“Quiet for now,” Cat said. “The robots stopped drilling half a kilometer above the ocean.”
“Why would they do that?” Naomi asked.
“Caesar is forcing us to guard the capitol while he infiltrates the outlying cities,” Kaneda said. “It knows we cannot leave the capitol undefended but it also doesn’t want to hit us piecemeal. Our enemy does nothing by chance. It exposed a lone tank-spider to us because it chose to. The tank-spider fled to this zone for a reason. Be on guard.”
Ryu stopped halfway around his side of the forest. The trees were so thick he couldn’t see the crusaders, even with their garish armor. They moved across his vision as green outlines. The far side of the park wall was equally obscured.
“They could be anywhere in this mess,” Ryu said. He dropped to the balcony of a third story apartment, crouched next to the railing, and scanned the tree line. Something boomed in the distance. The balcony rumbled under his feet.
“Triangulating,” Naomi said. “Explosive detonation three hundred meters ahead. That puts it fifty meters past the tree line on the far side. Sonic profile matches one of our anti-tank grenades.”
“Move in,” Kaneda said. “Find out what’s going on.”
Ryu dropped off the balcony to the street below. He followed the street around the forest. A burst of gunfire echoed in the distance.
“Those are JD-50s!” Ryu said. He broke into a sprint.
“Survivors could be holed up in the section ahead,” Kaneda said. “The map shows a vehicle tunnel that leads to a baseball diamond and recreation area. We need to check it out.”
Ryu ran until he caught sight of the tunnel. The two-lane street around the forest merged into four lanes and disappeared through an archway. A thick pressure door cut off the exit. Someone had rammed a flatbed truck into the door, but had only crumpled the vehicle’s cab. The door was intact.
Ryu stopped next to the pressure door and put his hand against it. Another explosion vibrated against his fingers. He ran a cheat to analyze the other sounds.
“There’s plenty of movement on the other side,” Ryu said. “Could be a lot of people hiding here.”
“Or a lot of thralls,” Kaneda said.
Naomi crouched by the pressure door opposite Ryu. The crusaders took up firing positions along the tree line.
“Lots of combat noises,” Naomi said. “Gunfire, grenades, shouting and ... I think those were the railguns on a tank-spider.”
“It matches the sonic profile,” Ryu said. “Cat, can you see inside?”
“I’ll try,” Cat said. “Matriarch still hasn’t finished the vaccine, but I’ll see if I can get access to the local systems. The jamming can’t cut me off at this range.”
“That could take too long,” Kaneda said. “Ryu, get the door open. We’ll cover you from here.”
Ryu placed his hacking glove over the pressure door controls. Tendrils extended from his palm and bit through the control panel’s skin.
“Whoa whoa whoa!” Cat shoute
d. “Hold it!”
Ryu jerked his hand off the door. “What wrong?”
“I got through,” Cat said. “I have access to a security camera in the baseball field.”
“What do you see?” Kaneda asked.
“A large crowd of civilians. Most of them are unarmed, but some have weapons and are firing over a barricade set up by one of the exit.”
“Then they need our help!” Ryu said.
“No, you don’t understand,” Cat said. “I shouldn’t have broken through when I did. It felt wrong. It looked like the attack viruses were distracted, like there was another threat, but it didn’t feel right.”
“You think Caesar let you through?” Kaneda asked.
“Maybe,” Cat said. “If so, it was subtle. It was really, really subtle, but that’s what I think it was. I can’t be certain though. I may have gotten in legitimately.”
“Ryu, you know your subordinate best,” Kaneda said. “How strongly do you value her analysis?”
“Very highly.”
“If she’s wrong, then these people will die when we could have saved them.”
“I know that, damn it,” Ryu said.
“It’s your call,” Kaneda said. “These are your people. Do we go in?”
“I ...” Ryu accessed the video feed Cat hacked into. Hundreds of people crowded the baseball diamond. He zoomed in on the barricade on the far side of the field. The pressure door had been bent back with several vehicles smashed into the fissure.
Dozens of people fought unseen enemies. Ryu focused on one. A woman in swirling white and orange body paint sprayed a JD-50 into a hole in the barricade. Return fire blew her head off. She flopped to the ground, blood pulsing from her neck. A man in blue body paint next to her picked up the rifle.
If Cat’s wrong, then all these people are going to die. If she’s right, then they’re already dead.
Ryu took a deep breath and went with his gut.
“Cat knows her stuff,” he said. “I trust her on this one.”
“Then we treat this as a trap.” Kaneda opened the command channel. “Liquajets Nu Four and Nu Five, stand by for supporting fire. Target the dome forward of our position. Sending coordinates.”
“Yes, sir. Moving into position now. Give us ninety seconds to get a clear firing lane. There are a lot of support struts in the way.”
The timer ticked down on Ryu’s overlay.
Kaneda opened a private channel. “I hope you’re right.”
“Me too,” Ryu said.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’d make the same call.”
“You’d side with Cat? I find that a little surprising.”
“You keep her in your squad,” Kaneda said. “That tells me a lot about her. More than you might realize.”
“Huh.”
“This is liquajet Nu Four. Target in sight. Stand by for ... what was that? I think something just hit us. Oh, shit! There’s something on the hull!”
Nu Four’s liquajet disconnected from the network. Its pilot transmitted his KIA code.
“Nu Five,” Kaneda said. “Can you see what happened to Nu Four?”
“Nu Five here. Something hit Nu Four but we didn’t see anything on the trackers. She’s listing now. Hold on, her drives are restarting. She’s coming around. Where is she going? Wait. Incoming fire! We’re taking fire! Nu Four has opened fire on us!”
“Return fire,” Kaneda said. “Destroy Nu Four. Tau One through Six, move in and support. All liquajets, keep your distance from the city.”
“Yes, sir. This is Tau One. Now engaging Nu Four.”
The shooting on the other side of the pressure door stopped. Hundreds of footsteps pounded towards them. Ryu and Naomi backed away.
“Caesar knows we’re not taking the bait,” Kaneda said. “Get away from the door!”
“Defensive positions!” Three-Part shouted.
Ryu ran through the tree line, crouched, and spun around.
The pressure door rose. The people on the other side didn’t match the video feed at all. Most of them lacked some part of their body, be it an arm, a chunk of their torso, or even their head. Almost all of them were armed with a mix of Europan weapons, but a few had guns Ryu’s cheats couldn’t identify. Some of the more complete thralls had been gifted cloaks of smartskin.
The mob of dead citizens rushed forward.
“Fire!” Three-Part shouted.
The crusaders unleashed a raw torrent of vari-shells, pulping one thrall after another. The street up to the tree line turned red with gore. Incinerator gel transformed large swathes into blazing infernos. The thralls rushed through without pain or fear. Some opened their mouths in silent screams, but that was the only sign these things remained human.
An adolescent girl in purple body paint sprinkled with gold stars dashed to the side and dove through a bar window. She peeked over the window sill and aimed an older JD-38 sniper rifle at the crusaders.
Ryu hit her with a single shatterback to the chest and splattered her over the wooden floor and bar stools.
The thralls sprayed the tree line with weapons fire, lobbed grenades, or simply charged forward. The crusaders held their ground and slaughtered everything in front of them. The few hits that reached their lines blew the pine trees to splinters and brought them crashing down.
“Behind us!” Cat shouted. “Incoming robots!”
“On my way!” Ryu shouted. He dashed deeper into the woods and raced through the tightly packed trees. “Naomi!”
“Moving!”
“Squads Alpha-Five through Alpha-Eight,” Kaneda said. “Assist the dragon squad. Three-Part, take command of this position.”
“Yes, sir!”
Kaneda and fourteen other crusaders turned and ran into the forest. They dodged around the older trees and crashed through thinner ones. Ryu and Naomi easily outpaced everyone except Kaneda, who kept up stride for stride.
“Ryu! Help!” Cat shouted.
A tank-spider and at least twenty gun-spiders charged into the forest near Cat’s position. His cheats couldn’t generate an accurate number. The tank-spider must have been the unit from the freight tunnel. Its smartskin illusion generated enough flaws to mark it as a field repair job.
Cat unloaded a full clip into the tank-spider. Her attack stripped off patches of its smartskin, but the loss of its illusion didn’t matter at this range. At full combat speed, Caesar’s smartskin couldn’t hide something that big. But it had served to get the robot behind them. If not for Cat, it may have taken the crusaders by surprise.
The robot charged forward, smashing aside trees as if they were made of foam. It lunged for Cat with an open claw, but she rolled out of the way.
“Cat, get over here!” Ryu fired two grenades then dove behind a tree.
The tank-spider shot one of the grenades down, but the second struck. With a flash it pushed the tank-spider back and warped one of its railgun barrels. The tank-spider fired on Ryu’s position, pulverizing the tree he’d taken for cover. Splinters rained onto his smartsuit. They slipped off the near frictionless surface.
Kaneda, Naomi, and Seven’s squad focused their fire on the tank-spider. Heavy shatterbacks and vari-shells savaged its armor. The robot tracked the sniper fire to its source, sprayed them with its railguns, and backed away. Two heavy caliber bullets punched through a pine tree and pierced one of Seven’s snipers in her chest. The rounds exploded inside her body, sending pieces of her flying into the air. A crimson KIA code scrolled down Ryu’s overlay.
Several gun-spiders joined the fray. A lance shot from a gun-spider vaporized a groove through the dirt next to Ryu. His suit registered several thermal warnings. Black hexagons danced up and down his side as the smartskin crashed from heat overload. He dashed to another tree and went prone behind it, giving his illusion time to reboot.
Naomi fired four quick shots from her sniper rifle. Four gun-spiders went down.
Kaneda switched his Gatling gun’s ammo type over to pure incinera
tor shells and shot up a wide arc of turf ahead of their position. He turned the edge of the forest into a raging wall of flame. Every gun-spider that ran through caught fire and had its illusion crash. Kaneda switched back to his standard mix and gunned down a group of six with ease.
Cat ran towards Ryu and shot the gun-spiders with precise bursts, taking out two of them. Behind a tree, she went prone on her back for cover, ejected her spent clip, and slapped in another.
Ryu’s smartskin finished rebooting. He peeked around the tree trunk and fired. The crusaders following Kaneda arrived and added their firepower to the melee. Lance shots and heavy vari-shells flew back and forth between the robots and the crusaders, sometimes hitting trees or blasting beds of needles into the air, sometimes smashing apart robots or people. Two more KIA codes scrolled onto his overlay.
“There are more gun-spiders on the way!” Cat shouted.
“Yeah, I see that!” Ryu said.
“Something else too!” Cat said. “Not spiders! I don’t know what they are!”
“Fucking fantastic!” Ryu said. He stuck a grenade to the tree and armed it for proximity detonation. “We’re too far ahead! Follow me!”
Ryu and Cat stood up and ran to the crusaders, who formed a rough line with Cat and Ryu on one side and Naomi on the other. Seven and his two remaining snipers were near the center of the crusader formation.
A gun-spider found the two dragons and took aim with its thermal lance. The grenade on the tree broke off, spun in the air to face the robot, and detonated a shaped charge directly at its body. Metal legs and armored body plates blew out to the side and rolled into a nearby stream.
Ryu and Cat ran behind a squad of four crusaders and crouched on the other side of a fake plastic boulder.
“Tank-spider down! Tank-spider down!”
“Good shot, Seven,” Naomi said. “Relocating!”
“There!” Cat said, tagging a location on the road that circled the forest. “They’re moving around us, trying to flank us!”
“Unidentified humanoid targets!” Ryu said. “Naomi, check your side too!”
“I see them,” Naomi said. “Looks like four or five moving along our side. Targeting ...”