by Isaac Hooke
“You can join us,” Jason said.
Sophie’s face lit up. Then she clapped her hands. The VR background turned completely white, and all the simulated characters vanished.
“Thank you,” Sophie said.
Jason was relieved when his VR HUD appeared. He logged out as fast as he could, before she could change her mind.
He appeared in the real world once more, where he was still bound on the rooftop by micro machines in the dark of night. The city seemed quiet around them. The Rex Wolves lowed miserably beside him now and then.
The micro machines abruptly released him and the others, swarming back to the Highlander mech, wrapping around its torso and rear carapace, forming a rippling sphere.
He glanced at Tara, and she was free, too. As usual, he was amazed at how different they all looked as compared to their avatars. It was a bit jarring. But that’s what happened when you put human minds into deadly killing machines, he supposed.
The Rex Wolves had also been released, and the four of them tensed, unsure what was going to happen.
Jason patted Shaggy on the head. “It’s okay, boy. She’s with us, now.”
Tara similarly calmed Bruiser and Lackey.
“By the way, there’s something I’ve been wondering…” Jason told Sophie. “Why didn’t you use your energy shield earlier than you did?”
“I did use it, but the mutants wore it down,” Sophie said. “When the shield recharged, I used it again.”
“Your battery levels must be just as low as our own by now,” Jason said.
“Not as low, I think,” Sophie said. “I don’t have laser or energy weapons to worry about.” She indicated her micro machines.
“Good point.” Jason wondered where those machines got their power in turn, but that was a question for another time.
The building shook slightly.
“Okay, we can’t stay here,” Jason said. “Not after the other building kind of smashed into this one.” He glanced at the Highlander. “You’ve been here a bit longer than we have. You have a base of some kind in the city, I assume?”
“No,” Sophie said. “I only just arrived in the area. I don’t usually travel at night—too many roving bands of mutant bioweapons—but the city was close, so I thought I’d make a run for it. That was a mistake, as you saw. Then again, it was also good, because I met you.”
“And me,” Tara said.
“That was implied,” Sophie said.
“So no base,” Jason said. “Well, we have a warehouse we found, but I’d rather not hit the street at the moment. Both of you have hinted that the mutants prefer hunting at this hour, and I’ve had my fill of fighting. I need to recharge my batteries. Literally.”
The rooftop shook again slightly.
Jason glanced at his overhead map, and his Explorer confirmed that there were no more tangos in the immediate area, at least none that were out in the open. He picked out a building, and ran a quick calculation using the trigonometric functions built into his AI core.
“There’s a building just to the north,” Jason said. “Four stories tall. It’s an apartment building of some kind. I’m highlighting it on the map, if you feel so inclined to accept my shared data.” He flicked the “share map data” icon toward their names on his HUD, and they promptly accepted. “Should be out of the path of these two buildings when they fall. It can easily hold all of us. Tara, can you teleport us down there one by one?”
“Battery’s too low at the moment,” Tara said.
“Sophie, do you have enough fuel to carry us down individually?” Jason said.
“No,” Sophie said. “Only enough for myself.”
“All right, we’ll meet you there,” Jason said. “Guess we’ll have to hit the street after all, but only for a few moments.” He glanced at Runt and Shaggy. “Come on, dogs, this way.” Jason leaped off the eastern side of the rooftop, and fell the few stories to the building that had collapsed onto it. He was a little worried that the exterior would break away, or that the building would shift, but it held him. The slope was thirty-five degrees, allowing him to easily hurry down near the edge. He had to take care not to step into any of the window frames.
He glanced in his rear view display and confirmed that Tara and the dogs were racing along behind him, similarly balanced close to the edge and avoiding the open windows. Those dogs sure had great night vision.
Meanwhile, the characteristic glow of Sophie’s jumpjets filled the air as she arced down toward the target building.
Jason reached the streets and leaped off the sloped building, landing with a loud thud. He hurried to the north, and another thud followed by four soft padding sounds told him that Tara and the Rex Wolves had landed.
He thought the collapse of those two towers was imminent, because of the shaking he’d felt, but the two buildings remained standing while he hurried across the street.
He reached the apartment building, and waited for Tara and the Rex Wolves. He was still covered in Octoraffe blood, so he walked over to Runt. “Hey boy.” The animal panted happily in his direction.
Jason began smearing his body against the animal’s fur.
“What are you doing?” Tara asked.
“Wiping off the blood,” Jason said.
“On his fur?” Tara said. “Stop that!”
Jason ignored her. “I need to clear up my solar panels.”
“Yeah, but what about his fur!” Tara said. “It has chlorophyll! The blood will block it!”
Jason stepped back. Runt was already licking the spots where Jason had rubbed him. “He’s licking it off.”
Tara dragged Runt away, so Jason went to Bruiser next and hoisted the animal up to give a big hug. He moved the big Wolf in a rubbing motion, and the animal growled at him.
He set Bruiser down and then rubbed his back against the animal, but it backed away indignantly.
“Jason!” Tara said, moving in front of Bruiser protectively.
“All right all right, I’m done,” Jason said.
He pulled himself onto a single story building beside it, then hauled himself onto the apartment building proper—it required jumping up and grabbing onto the rooftop edge, and then hauling himself over.
Sophie was waiting for him. Jason turned around, and gave Tara a hand, then similarly helped the dogs up—they leaped into his arms one by one; even Runt was able to reach him. When that was done, he recalled the Explorer, because the scout’s power cells would deplete soon, and needed to be charged in daylight. He set it down on the edge of the rooftop.
With Tara’s help, he coaxed the different wolves to assume guard positions on each of the four corners, and he did the same along with the other two mechs. The party would have formed quite a sight to any onlookers, he was sure.
Down the street, still the two buildings remained standing.
“You two might as well sleep,” Jason said. “I’ll keep watch tonight.”
“Wake me for second watch,” Tara said.
“No,” Jason said. “I’ll watch all night.”
“You’re not going to sleep?” Tara asked.
“Nope,” Jason said. “I’m a machine. I don’t have to sleep.”
“In the manual, it says—”
“I know what it says,” Jason said. “I’ll forgo sleep tonight.”
“You’ll drain your batteries…” Sophie said.
“I have just enough to last until morning if I keep very still,” Jason said. “Now sleep, both of you.”
The two of them deployed their repair swarms, and then remained motionless as the small drones worked.
He glanced at his HUD, and saw their indicators turn yellow, indicating that their consciousness subroutines were idling.
He gazed out into the dark. He wasn’t sure how much use he would be if an attack came, given his current energy levels. He probably didn’t need to keep watch either, given the scout, and the monitoring subroutines he had set up that would alert him to any motion in the stree
ts.
But he wanted to exist fully in the moment tonight. He felt a weariness that sleep wouldn’t eliminate. Besides, he wanted to think.
He deployed his repair drones, and the units repaired the damage to his hull that had occurred during the last fight. They finished up with plenty of energy to spare; when they returned to the storage compartment and connected to the charge ports, he tapped into their batteries to replenish his own. His power level went up by five percent. It wasn’t much, but it would help if there was an attack of any kind. In the morning, while he recharged, the drones would, too.
So he sat there for the rest of that night, pondering the predicament he was in, and wondering what he was going to do about it. He decided that they’d have to shore up the warehouse, and make it more defensible. Or they could set up shop in the city’s subway system maybe, and convert that into an underground base. Yes, that seemed the better strategy, given their current situation. He could pulverize the concrete walls from nearby buildings, print up Jersey barriers and other fortifications, and place them strategically underground. There might even be iron ore underneath those subway tunnels.
He planned out everything, and made detailed notes to share with the girls in the morning.
During that time, he occasionally paused to gaze out at the city using his night vision. He often focused on the “n” shape formed by the skyscraper and the tower that had smashed into it, and wondered when the pair would fall. Near morning, both buildings finally collapsed.
When the sun finally rose, he had a good idea of what he and the girls needed to do in the short term.
Girls. He had to laugh at that. He glanced at their outlines in the dark, and could see the silhouettes of their wicked weapons. These “girls” could give a small army a run for the money.
By then, most of the blood that had remained on his hull after rubbing himself against the dogs had dried and peeled off. So as the rays of sunlight hit his hull, his power levels began to increase.
All is good again in the world.
11
When the girls awakened, Jason told them his plans.
“We’re going to stay in this city,” Jason said. “And hole up in the subway system, at least until a retrieval team comes for us.”
“What then?” Sophie said. It was still hard to get used to hearing that sensual voice coming from the spider mech. No different than Tara’s voice from the other war machine, he supposed. “Are we to give up our freedom, and let the military take us back?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Jason said. “If anything, once we build a secure Base of Operations, at least we give ourselves the option of successfully fighting back.”
“Unless they decide to nuke us,” Tara said.
“That’s why we’re going to turn the subway system into an impenetrable bunker,” Jason said.
“First of all, our mechs are too big to fit in the subway system,” Sophie said. “Second of all, ever heard of bunker busters?”
“We’re obviously going to have to 3D print a few drills,” Jason said. “To enlarge the subway. And second of all, we’ll have to reinforce it against bunker buster attacks.”
“It’s not going to be easy,” Sophie said.
“No,” Jason said. “I did some quick sketches. Here, take a look.”
He hit the transmit button on his HUD.
“These are pretty basic,” Sophie said. “I guess I was expecting architectural diagrams.”
“We’ve got a whole database of human knowledge in our AI cores,” Jason said. “I read through a basic course in architecture last night, which helped me make that sketch. Once I get charged up, I plan to switch to Bullet Time and do some extensive reading. Feel free to help me out.”
“I think our first order of business should be to look for an Internet connection,” Tara said. “So we can find out what’s going on.”
“Sure,” Jason said. “But we’re going to need a base of some kind if we plan to stay here. That warehouse we stayed in last night has too many vulnerabilities. And staying on top of this apartment won’t cut it either. You saw how easily those mutants were able to scale the walls of a tower ten times as tall. We need something with a choke point. The subway system will give it to us. I thought, given your military background, you’d understand that.”
“You were in the military?” Sophie asked Tara. Her voice sounded mocking.
“Yeah,” Tara said. “What’s it to you.”
“Oh, nothing,” Sophie said. “You got to play with boys and their toys. I’m almost a bit jealous.”
“You might want to adjust your sarcasm settings,” Tara said. “You got them dialed way up.”
“That was intentional, Missy,” Sophie said.
“Don’t call me Missy, fucker,” Tara said.
“Touchy,” Sophie said.
Tara started to turn away, but then Sophie had to go and say it again: “Missy.”
And then, just like that, Tara hurled herself on Sophie. She kept her weapons retracted, but pounded away at her carapace with her fists.
The Rex Wolves surrounded the pair, barking in encouragement. Jason kept expecting the rooftop to collapse from all that weight being thrown around, but so far it held. The wideness of the building gave them a lot of room to fight.
Sophie formed a hand with her micro machines and casually plucked Tara off her back.
The dogs were barking wildly and growling angrily now, and Jason was worried they were going to get involved. He tried to put himself in front of them, and he grabbed Bruiser by the neck to physically restrain the big animal when he thought it was going to jump them.
Sophie glanced at the dogs, and then back to Tara. “Is that all you got?”
The micro machines had left her arms free—Jason thought that was purposeful on Sophie’s part. She was testing the woman.
Tara rotated her laser turret into her right hand and aimed it at Sophie’s AI core. She also engaged her sword in the other arm, and electricity hummed up and down its length. She pointed it at the AI core as well, with her arm held back at a ninety-degree strike angle.
“Stand down!” Jason said. He released Bruiser and stepped forward.
Tara didn’t move.
Jason stepped in front of the turret and sword, shielding Sophie with his own body. “I said, stand down!”
“Tell her to let go of me with her little insects first,” Tara said.
Jason glanced over his shoulder at Sophie’s spider mech.
“Insects?” Sophie said. “How dare you call my advanced micro machines insects.”
Jason sighed and threw up his arms. “Actually, you know what? Go ahead. Have at it.”
He turned his back and walked away from them. Even the dogs seemed confused, because they stopped barking.
He walked toward the building edge and leaped off. He landed the four stories to the ground with a loud thud, but he surreptitiously activated the Explorer and rotated it so that he had Tara and Sophie in view.
They were still on the comm line, so he could hear them.
“I think you pissed off your boyfriend,” Sophie said.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Tara said.
“Oh he’s not?” Sophie said. She sounded pleased. “Goodie.”
“Actually I take that back, he is,” Tara said quickly.
“I’m not,” Jason said over the line.
“Damn it,” Tara said.
On the Explorer’s camera feed, he watched as Tara lowered her arms and retracted her weapons.
“That’s a good little bitch,” Sophie said.
“Enough with the name calling!” Tara said.
For a moment Jason thought she was going to activate her weapons again, but she kept her arms down.
Sophie cocked her head slightly. “You know, I liked you better in VR. Are you sure you don’t want to give me full access again?”
“When hell freezes over,” Tara said.
Sophie shrugged her metal shoulders and
then recalled the micro machines. They swathed her midsection, and the carapace.
Now free once again, Tara began stalking away. She called the dogs, which had begun growling at Sophie’s mech once more.
“Wretched things,” Sophie commented.
Tara deployed the laser into her right hand and held her arm behind her back, firing off a shot anyway.
It struck Sophie’s energy shield, and was absorbed harmlessly.
Sophie giggled. “She’s so cute when she’s angry.”
“Shut it, Princess,” Tara said. She leaped down, landing beside Jason, along with the dogs.
“Did you enjoy the show?” Tara asked him. “I know you were watching on that little drone of yours.”
“Very much so,” Jason said, voice oozing sarcasm. “You two are extremely entertaining. All I need is some popcorn, and I’d be set. Bitchathons are always high on my must watch list. Especially when the bitches in question inhabit state of the art war machines.”
“Thought so,” Tara said.
Sophie landed a moment later, on his right side. The Rex Wolves growled at her and barked, with Bruiser in the lead. Sophie released her micro machines toward Bruiser, forming a big serpent head that appeared ready to chomp down on the poor dog, and Bruiser dashed behind Lackey, whining. Sophie withdrew the micro machines a moment later. “Get your dogs under control before I’m forced to do it for you.”
“Calm down, little ones,” Tara told the dogs. And she rubbed Bruiser consolingly. The other Rex Wolves continued to growl at Sophie.
Jason shook his head and started toward the subway station he’d marked on the map.
The girls joined him, and eventually the dogs quieted down.
He glanced at Sophie beside him. He supposed he’d eventually get used to those creepy, spiderish movements, and the cacophony of hums produced by her mech’s servomotors, which were the loudest among the group.
“You know, between you and me,” Tara told Sophie. “You got the short end of the stick.”
“What do you mean?” Sophie asked.
“I’m glad as hell I didn’t get stuck with your mech,” Tara said.
“Your Shadow Hawk model isn’t that much prettier,” Sophie said. “You look like Lego Batman’s sidekick.”