The Dragons of Jupiter

by Jacob Holo

  Powerful mechanisms down the center of the Needle activated and began oscillating. Sound thundered all around him. Ryu squeezed his eyes tight and tried to ignore the overwhelming sense of wrongness from his inner ear.

  The whole vessel shook violently, rattling in its cradle. Flickers of energy snapped across its surface. The thrumming of the hull reached a crescendo and the Needle vanished from within Heart.

  In an instant the shaking stopped. The sense of wrongness and the dancing patterns of energy disappeared. They were weightless.

  A proximity warning sounded. Ryu checked his overlay.

  “Oh shit!”

  The Errand was a vast black sword directly ahead. It grew from a long vertical beam into a black field that filled their forward vision. The Needle shot in and smashed against its hull.

  If any of them had been normal humans, the impact would have shattered bones and pulverized internal organs. Instead, their diamoplast skeletons, hardened internal organs, and suit support systems absorbed the shock with minimal damage. But it still hurt. Ryu felt his head swim. He instinctively tried to shake it off, but his head was wedged in place.

  “I ...” Cat said. “I think we’re here. Yes, we’re lodged in the Errand’s hull. About a third of its length from the engines.”

  “Ryu, are you okay?” Kaneda asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little shaken.”

  “Then let’s go. We have a job to do.”

  “Right.” Ryu popped the hatch. He grabbed hold of the handle and pulled himself out. The Needle was buried halfway in the Errand’s armor at a slight angle. He was amazed it had survived the crash at all, let alone completely intact. Just what is this thing made of?

  Ryu swung himself around until his feet made contact with the Needle’s hull. He climbed down to the Errand and waited for the others.

  “Fortress crackers armed,” Matriarch said. “I’ll watch for any attempts to disarm them.”

  Jupiter filled the sky, almost from edge to edge. From this angle, the entire planet was illuminated by the sun. Europa sat directly ahead of the Errand as a rust-streaked crescent of ice.

  Kaneda climbed to the Errand’s hull and crawled along on his hands and feet. They had landed on part of the vessel’s “blade”. The hull curved away to either side, but the gentle angle gave some sense of the ship’s massive scale. If the ship were a skytower, it wouldn’t fit in Capitol City. The closet landmark was a minor defensive turret ten stories tall.

  Cat slid out of the Needle and made her way down its fuselage.

  “We need to get inside,” Ryu said.

  “Stand back,” Kaneda said. He planted his feet, stood up, and aimed his thermal lance at the hull.

  The Errand’s main engines fired at full power. Kaneda fell onto his back and slid across the hull. He spun around, crashed chest-first into the Needle and wrapped his arms around the fuselage. Cat held on halfway up the fuselage.

  The Errand’s engines cut off. Retro-thrusters fired in the opposite direction.

  “Caesar’s trying to knock us off!” Ryu shouted, staying prone against the hull.

  The Needle shifted to the side, then slipped partially out before locking in place again. Cat’s feet slipped. She dangled off the Needle with only a hand for contact.

  “It’s coming loose!” Ryu shouted. “Get off!”

  At the base of the Needle, Kaneda grabbed a tear in the Errand’s hull with his gauntlet and clamped down. He reached for Cat with his free hand.

  “Hurry!” he shouted.

  Cat put her knees against the Needle and crawled towards Kaneda.

  The Errand’s maneuvering thrusters fired, spinning the ship on its central axis. The Needle slipped out of the hull puncture. Cat scampered down the fuselage and leaped towards Kaneda.

  Ryu knew it wasn’t enough, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He was too far away with his limbs spread against the hull for extra fiction. Cat was going to miss Kaneda’s hand by a full meter and then float out into space with the Needle.

  Kaneda must have seen it too. He let go, rose out of hull puncture, and grabbed Cat’s hand. Then with only a foot wedged against a small tear in the hull, he pulled both of them back into the puncture.

  Ryu crawled towards the puncture. Above them the Needle floated away, spinning end over end.

  “You okay, Cat?” Ryu asked.

  “That was too close!”

  “Well, we’re here but there go our explosives.”

  “We’ll make do,” Kaneda said. “I’m going to burn through the hull. Move as far from the center as you can.”

  Ryu and Cat backed away to the outer lip of the puncture. Kaneda crawled down to where the tip of the Needle had pierced deepest. He retrieved the thermal lance dangling from its cable and aimed it into the puncture. Whatever advanced materials made up the Errand’s hull, they still couldn’t withstand lance weaponry. Black metal bubbled, liquefied, and floated into space.

  Kaneda used his shield to divert the flow of superheated alloys away from his armor, but some slipped past. The surface of his shield and spots on his armor blistered from the heat. He kept boring through the hull, meter after meter. The heat sinks on his power pack began to glow. Gas vented from his suit to carry away excess energy.

  “How thick is this?” Ryu asked.

  “My tracker reads twenty meters,” Kaneda said. “I have another ten to go.”

  The Errand fired its engines in various combinations, trying to throw them off, but all three held on. Kaneda melted through the hull, descending step by step. Molten armor sluiced around his ankles and bubbled into space.

  “The tracker shows a large atmospheric buildup inside,” Kaneda said.

  “What for?” Cat asked.

  “To blow us into space,” Kaneda said. “Hold on. I’m cutting through the last meter.”

  Air blasted out through the puncture, picking up droplets of metal and blackened chunks of slag. Cat and Ryu held tight near the top. The blasting column of air didn’t slow down. If anything, it grew worse.

  Kaneda dropped into the interior. “I’m in. No targets in sight.”

  Air roared past Ryu’s head. “All right! We’re coming in!”

  He and Cat crawled through the puncture. Fierce wind whipped over their bodies. They maintained strong friction contact all the way down the hole and dropped into the Errand’s interior.

  Ryu retrieved his rifle and crouched. They were in a long corridor with no well-defined up or down. The “floor” and “ceiling” were made up of massive bundles of power and data cables. Some of the cables were so thick Ryu didn’t think he could wrap his arms around them. Wind whistled past the three soldiers and spun up through the puncture.

  The engines fired again, throwing Ryu off balance. He grabbed the grating for support.

  “The whole ship is a weapon against us,” Kaneda said. “Is there any way we can disable the engines remotely?”

  “I think so,” Cat said. “Controls like that should be hardwired, so if we find a networking hub I may be able to access them. Let’s follow this group of data cables towards the ship’s bow. There was a turret not far ahead. It probably has its own hub.”

  “Sounds good,” Kaneda said. “I’ll take point.”

  The ship fought them every step of the way. Power distribution panels overloaded and blew out. The ship’s atmospheric regulators withdrew air from some sections and overfilled others. Pressure doors slammed shut at random intervals with enough force to scissor a dragon in half. After the first close call, Kaneda melted down every one of them.

  “We should have encountered something by now,” Ryu said. “Maybe there aren’t any?”

  “Wishful thinking,” Kaneda said. “Caesar would not have left the ship unguarded. He’s holding them back for a reason.”

  “There’s the hub,” Cat said, tagging a networking panel four doors wide. It protruded from what Ryu considered the ceiling.

  “Careful. Let me open it.” Kaneda g
rabbed a corner of the first panel door and ripped it off. He peeled off the other three and tossed them aside. It didn’t explode, catch fire, or try to suck them into space. That was a start.

  Cat climbed into the panel and placed her hacking glove against a blocky node with hundreds of cables sticking out of its sides.

  “I’m in,” Cat said. “The network is full of attack viruses, but they’re the same ones we encountered in North Pacifica. I’ll hit them with Matriarch’s vaccine ... Ha! Yeah! Look at them run! Now let’s see what I can do.”

  Pressure doors in the tunnel ahead and in two side passages slammed shut. The Errand fired its engines at full power. Ryu lowered his stance. Kaneda sidestepped and steadied himself against the wall.

  “I think you’ve hit a nerve,” Matriarch said. “The forces in the Capitol City tunnel are turning around. They’re heading for the surface.”

  “All of them?” Ryu asked.

  “Yes,” Matriarch said. “They’re ascending the tunnel at reckless speeds. I’m sure they’ll head for the Errand because the ship is flying into a lower orbit.”

  “Crap,” Ryu said.

  “Caesar didn’t think we could break into his network,” Kaneda said.

  “What about the forces from North Pacifica and New Edo?” Ryu asked.

  “Our defenses are holding for now,” Matriarch said. “So far we’ve kept them away from the civilian shelters, but that won’t last long.”

  “Something’s coming,” Kaneda said. “I think Caesar’s done being subtle.”

  “Yeah, I can hear them stomping towards us,” Ryu said. “Cat?”

  “I need more time!”

  “Keep working. We’ll cover you.” Ryu dashed forward and threw grenades onto the three closed pressure doors. They stuck in place and armed for active detonation. He ran back to Kaneda and tossed grenades down the corridor behind them. Power distribution panels and the networking panel provided limited cover, but so did Kaneda’s shield.

  “Something behind us is cutting the cables to the engines,” Cat said. “And he’s trying to shut down other hubs remotely. Smart. Very smart. But not fast enough. I’ve managed to secure a line to the engines. Now I just need to bust in.”

  “Here they come!” Ryu shouted.

  The Errand fired its maneuvering thrusters, spinning the ship. Ryu braced himself with a boot against the wall. The two side pressure doors snapped open. Dot-cams on Ryu’s grenades caught dozens of gun-spiders crawling along the walls and ceiling. The robots poked their weapons into the main corridor and spewed automatic fire directly at the networking hub.

  Kaneda slammed his shield down between the gun-spiders and the hub. Explosive shells blew miniature craters in his shield.

  Ryu went prone behind a panel on the opposite side. He tagged both groups of gun-spiders and triggered his grenades. The tiny cylinders leaped off the two side pressure doors, swiveled to face their targets, and unloaded concentrated blasts of diamond needles. Three gun-spiders went down, with another two heavily damaged. More gun-spiders rushed in, taking their place.

  Kaneda fired his thermal lance down one side passage and raked it across to the other. The beam cut through three gun-spiders, an ultrahigh voltage line, and a pressurized coolant line. Electricity arced into severed gun-spider pieces while black fluid spewed onto the walls.

  New gun-spiders took the place of fallen units. Return fire forced Kaneda behind his shield. The arcing voltage switched off, and the coolant burst reduced to a slow dribble.

  Ryu snapped out of cover, fired four shots from his sniper rifle, and ducked back down. Gunfire sailed over his head and ricocheted off the panel’s skin. He loaded a full clip into his rifle and crawled around the panel for a different angle.

  The main engines fired. Kaneda staggered back before planting his feet. He managed to keep his shield in front of the networking hub, but left part of his body exposed. The gun-spiders targeted him. Ryu sprang from cover and shot first, gutting two gun-spiders before the rest opened fire. Explosive shells blew chunks off Kaneda’s shin and thigh armor. He pulled his legs back behind his shield, fired a lance down the corridor, and hunkered down.

  “I’m taking too much damage,” Kaneda said. “My shield won’t last much longer.”

  Ryu tossed a grenade down the corridor. A gun-spider peeked around the corner only to be pinned to the floor by needles. The remaining gun-spiders ceased fire and ducked into the side passages.

  “Cat!” Ryu said. “We could use some good news!”

  “I’m close! I have access to the engine control micromind, but I need more time!”

  “Well, hurry it up!”

  “I’m picking up fast motion and a lot of noise on the tracker,” Kaneda said. “They’re moving around us, beneath us. Watch our rear.”

  “Cat, we can only guard one side of the hub!” Ryu said. “You’re out of time!”

  “I need more!”

  “Damn it!” Ryu said. “Kaneda, you take this side! Keep those gun-spiders at bay! I’ll backtrack and hold off whatever is circling around!”

  “Understood.”

  Ryu stood up and ran down the corridor away from Kaneda and the gun-spiders. He checked the data coming in from all three of their trackers. His smartsuit’s micromind collated the data, building a picture of anticipated enemy locations. Having access to Kaneda’s tracker and its active detection protocols gave him a better picture than if the dragons were working alone, but it was still sketchy.

  A group of enemies moved through a parallel passage underneath them. Ryu headed for the first junction they could use to cut into his corridor. He crouched out of sight and checked around the edge with a dot-cam tubule. The tunnel looked empty for now.

  Back at Kaneda’s position, the gun-spiders renewed their attack. Ryu darted into the side tunnel so that a stray bullet wouldn’t hit him.

  And then he saw it. At first, the shape ahead of him looked like a haze of hot air. But it soon resolved into the outline of a massive charging robot.

  “Tank-spider!” Ryu shouted.

  “I can’t help you!” Kaneda said. “The gun-spiders have me pinned!”

  “Cat!”

  “I’m not there yet!”

  “Shit!”

  Ryu loaded a turbo-devastator into his rifle.

  The tank-spider fired its twin heavy railguns. Ryu dodged into the main corridor before he could shoot. The explosive shells blew craters in the wall behind him.

  “Cat!” Ryu shouted. “Out of the panel now!”

  “I’m almost—”

  “Fucking now!”

  The tank-spider ran into the main corridor and swung its guns around to target the networking hub. Cat climbed out of the panel and jumped clear. The tank-spider fired, shredding the panel. Explosive shells blew out cable bundles and chunks of micromind hardware. Shrapnel slammed into Cat’s back and threw her into the wall. She bounced off and floated into the open, but her illusion held. Some of her biometrics flashed yellow from blunt trauma along her back, but she managed to grab her rifle.

  Ryu fired the turbo-devastator into the tank-spider from less than three meters away. The shot rang in his skull, struck the robot’s belly, and blasted straight through. Thick smoke billowed out of the machine.

  The tank-spider braced itself with an arm against the wall and kept firing, now tracking its aim towards Kaneda. Its illusion crashed, but other than that it seemed unaffected by the attack. One of its shots hit Kaneda in the back, throwing him forward and cracking his armor. Kaneda swung his shield around to protect his rear, even as the gun-spiders continued rushing him. He and Cat fired on the gun-spiders. Grenade explosions and lance blasts sent pieces of robots flying through the corridor.

  Ryu loaded his second turbo-devastator.

  The tank-spider opened a claw and reached for him. Ryu ducked underneath the tank-spider and fired up. This shot dislodged its head and guns from the main body and smashed the tank-spider against the ceiling.

  Ryu a
rmed a grenade and tossed it through the hole in its abdomen. The grenade exploded into an armor-melting tongue of flame.

  The tank-spider’s limbs shuddered then locked. The main body and its severed head floated inertly in the corridor.

  Ryu backed away from the robot. An errant shot from a gun-spider whizzed by his shoulder. He crouched, spun, loaded a clip, and fired down the corridor. With all three of them combining their attacks, the gun-spiders pulled back into the tunnels. Pressure doors further away from the junction slammed shut once the last gun-spider had retreated. Hot chunks of metal legs, pieces of their flattened bodies, and twisted wreckage from their weapons clogged a corridor slick with spilt coolant.

  “You two okay?” Ryu asked.

  The tank-spider’s limbs shuddered.

  “Behind you!” Kaneda shouted.

  The headless tank-spider lunged at Ryu. He kicked off the corridor wall a moment before its claw scraped across.

  Kaneda hit the arm with a lance at its first joint, severing it completely. He tracked his fire across the tank-spider, keeping the beam on. One by one, the beam ate through its limbs. Severed legs and droplets of molten armor floated away. Even if the tank-spider still had functioning internal systems, it had no way to move.

  “Fucking tank-spiders,” Ryu breathed. A robotic leg floated to him. He shoved it away.

  “At least the engines haven’t engaged in a while,” Kaneda said.

  “Your doing, Cat?” Ryu asked.

  “Yeah, and that’s not all I stopped,” Cat said. “When I tried to shut the engines down, I stumbled upon the ship’s micromind update protocols. I was able to send my own update. That’s what took so long. Right now, half the systems on this ship are dead.”

  “Nice,” Ryu said.

  “Unfortunately, I couldn’t send updates for the weapons. I ran out of time.”

  “So we still can’t call in the fleet for help,” Ryu said. “Still, it’s better than nothing.”

  “What if Caesar overwrites your changes?” Kaneda asked.

  “That’s going to be difficult.” Cat said. “Because the update I sent deleted all their communication software. Caesar can’t talk to them, period. He’s going to have to get his robots to each micromind and individually load new software.”