by Chris Wright
Mateo quickly started to type into his laptop, his goal was to see what the state of play was with the other groups. The rest of them quickly finished their breakfasts and ran back to their rooms to get changed, they weren't going to die in their nightwear they decided. What would that look like to a future generation of archaeologists? A few minutes later they were all back and ready to do whatever needed doing. Sheryl and Mateo had a haunted look on their faces. It was impossible for Auton to have a haunted look on his make-shift face, it still had the disturbing wild smile there, so he resorted to telling them all about it.
“Only ten teams are ready” Auton said, “We need another six for the plan to work, so it looks like the only option is plan B”
There was no point hitting only some of the satellites, that wouldn't achieve anything, except be a minor inconvenience. Auton's plan B was the only option, although he hinted there was a plan C, but nobody would like it. Sheryl agreed with him, that was only if absolutely necessary. It was a couple of hours later and they had all been working flat out. They didn't know how long they had to accomplish their mission, it could be hours or days, there was no way to tell yet. The whole of the planet had gone into a frenzy, some factions continuing their assault with bombs in a last-ditch attempt to make up ground. Others were getting closer to their goal of hacking the Elite's subordinates, the ones with the arsenal of weapons.
“How are we doing?” Sheryl asked, anxiously looking at her watch and the cryptic feeds that were coming through the deep web.
“We think we're almost there” Jarrah said, “We just need to place the equipment in and secure it, we've tested it all and they all work fine. We can test a few more times to make sure though”.
Sheryl shook her head to indicate that she didn't want to waste any more time. She had confidence in her team, they never did anything half-assed before so she was pretty sure they wouldn't start now. Jarrah enlisted the help of as many of his friends as he could and they began hauling the machinery into the craft. There was only a small area to crawl through to get inside and fix everything in place, and it took a great effort to lug the machines up the ramp and push them through. Gina was small enough to get inside but lacked the strength to do the final grappling with the equipment to get in place and screw it in safely. That only left Mateo who could squeeze through and do it, the rest of them tried, but got stuck and had to have everyone pull them back out in various embarrassing ways.
Mateo was an IT genius, give him a computer and he'd create whatever you desired, but put him in a nuts and bolts situation, a screwdriver and a few pipes, and he was utterly useless. Jarrah had to talk him through every step, careful to ensure Mateo didn't wire the hard drives into the fuel cells and vice versa. Eventually everything was fixed in place and Mateo climbed out physically exhausted. Sheryl turned the big screen on so everyone could see it and beckoned them over.
“We should probably all have a look at this” She said.
Everyone wandered over to her, glancing at the sixty-inch screen in front of them, a feed from the deep web flickering into life.
“What are we looking at?” James asked, unable to make out much from the shaky picture.
“I think it's a video feed from one of the groups, they've sent out a team to try and assess the situation. The official TV stations aren't reporting anything. It's as if nothing is happening anywhere in the world” She replied.
“So, they need to get out and do some recon themselves?” Mike asked.
“Yep, looks that way” Mateo replied, “Are all the groups doing this?”
Sheryl nodded, her eyes still on the screen. In front of them, phasing in and out was a grainy image, two armed resistance fighters, somewhere in a city, but they couldn't make out which one or what country. They could only see the full figure of one of them as they walked forward, in front of the camera. The camera was strapped to the other fighters' helmet, the only reason you knew he was there was the odd clearing of his phlegmy throat and the occasional glance down as he scratched his itchy groin.
“So, have they asked us to send a team out?” Danny said, hoping for more than just a head nod from Sheryl.
“Sorry” Sheryl replied, “Yes, we've all been asked to assemble two people to go out to each of our nearest areas and feed back what's happening. Without it we're blind, with no idea what is going on out there”.
“We don't have anyone armed left” James replied, “You stood them down from their duties”.
Sheryl stood up and went to grab herself a cup of tea.
“I did, and I stand by that decision” She said, “No one else knows we've abandoned plan A, that's all they have, we have more. They don't have Auton, he has predicted that this will escalate quicker than any of us realise, certainly any of them realise”.
The video feed on the screen continued crackling and breaking up before starting to stabilise and they saw that the two resistance fighters were approaching a hill in the middle of the city.
“So, when do we launch?” Samir asked, everyone else joining in with the question.
Sheryl turned to Auton, who had remained strangely silent so far, yesterday they couldn't get them to be quiet.
“I will leave that decision up to you Auton” She said.
Auton still stood there, quiet, no movements. Was it thinking about what to do, or had it fallen asleep?
“Auton” Monique said giving Auton a nudge.
The nudge caught Auton off guard and made them jolt in surprise. No one had ever done that to it before, and they didn't know what it was.
“What was that?” Auton asked confused.
“It's called a nudge, I thought you'd gone to sleep”
“No, nudge.... nudge, okay, no, not at all. I was trying to calculate the optimum launch window. Given the current situation and the likely probability of escalation, we would need to launch within two hours”
They all knew they had to do it soon, but two hours seemed too soon, none of them had imagined it would be that quick. Like everything in the last week and a half, events raced by, spiralling out of control, jumping from one mad scenario to the next.
“Okay” said Emma, “We should definitely do some more quick checks and then we should be good to go. As long you think you're ready Auton, most of this is your show”.
Auton showed Emma a thumbs up that Mateo taught him, so she guessed that was that. She set off to do the last few diagnostics on the craft, calling over Mateo for his assistance with the software. In the background the video feed continued, the two resistance fighters looking across at the city below them, plumes of smoke dotted around.
The Resistance
“Jacob” shouted the fighter with the camera feed, to which his colleague turned around.
“What?”
“What is the mist-like thing over there” he said pointing to a nearby park.
“Could be more Nano-bots” Jacob replied, “Although it's hard to tell from here”
Below them in the park they could see sporadic gunfire bursting out and a hazy blanket of something swooping towards the shots. More shots rang out, along with spine-chilling screams and a blanket of mist cutting straight through the fighters below them, their bodies sprinkled to the floor like ashes.
“Holy shit Haziq” Jacob shouted back to the camera man, “Did you see that?”
He certainly did, and he didn't want to see something like that again. He doubled back a little, Jacob following him.
“Where are you going?” He asked.
“I'm getting to a safer location, we stand out like a beacon up here” Haziq replied.
They descended the hill slightly and settled in a sheltered spot covered discreetly with bushes and blossoming trees. Further down the hill they could still see and hear signs of carnage, indiscriminate cries, aimless bullets being fired, and then moments of silence before it repeated again. There was another bomb blast, much louder than all the others, much closer to where they were. They peered down from where
they were to see that the blast had occurred at the foot of the hill they were on, targeting a building below. The blanket from the park changed its direction and moved towards where the bomb had detonated, too close to them for comfort.
“Shit, we need to move back” Jacob said, turning and darting back in the direction they had originally come from.
Haziq followed, taken by surprise and lagging behind a bit, especially as he was carrying more weapons than Jacob was. They raced around the hill to get to the far side, passing a few people who immediately spun their heads around to process them, giving them an intense emotionless stare that felt like it was searing into their souls. They both knew what this meant, they had been spotted and someone would soon be coming for them. It had changed from a surveillance mission to another getaway mission, so they grabbed their weapons ready for any onslaught. The three staring people began to chase them, like loyal obedient servants, someone else pressing the buttons in what was left of their minds. They lunged forward in a co-ordinated hysteria, turning themselves into human battering rams. Jacob and Haziq were too quick off the mark for them and their weapons let out a rush of ammunition that turned each of them from a human battering ram to a splattering ram, muddled screams penetrating the surrounding space and rolling down the hill.
Jacob and Haziq continued their journey, their legs trembling down the steep slope as they tried to get to cover as quickly as they could. They heard a sound behind them, an electric buzzing sound and glanced back to see the blanket of robots thrusting themselves towards them. They passed more people that were running up the side of the hill towards them. They had to keep running to get to the bottom, to a small entrance that led them to a series of underground tunnels. They could block the entrance by collapsing it with a rocket from the outside. This was the way they had got in, the tunnels leading eventually to their underground base through a selection of switch backs and false doors. It would take all their might to do it, but they knew it was their only chance now they had been spotted.
The 'Mind-controlled' that were running up the steep slope seemed to develop superhuman speed and were almost on top of them within seconds. A quick fire of a few well-placed rounds tore their bottom limbs from them, causing them to drop face down onto the ground, their confused and pain-riddled faces chewing on soggy grass. The buzzing got louder and louder, the tunnel entrance closer and closer. Haziq turned, pulling a new weapon out, launching a missile straight at the blanket in front of them. It tore through the centre, sparks of ex-Nano-bots fizzling to the floor, the rest of them continuing on with their deadly pursuit. It gave them crucial seconds to get a few feet further ahead, the blanket of tiny robots reconfiguring itself into a new fatal flying tapestry. A few unfortunate people who had been thrown into the chase against their will were flipped into human jigsaws as the Nano-bots sliced their death-blanket through the air towards the resistance.
Behind them two more resistance fighters appeared from the tunnels, guns blazing, the rounds streaking past Jacob and Haziq and exploding into the blanket behind them. More fizzles and sparks lit the air, leaving only a few Nano-bots left to try and carve up Jacob and Haziq into bite-size portions. With another roar of fire, the remaining Nano-bots were fused into sizzling metal fragments and they dropped to the ground. The remaining 'Mind-Controlled' that had been forced into a confrontation were there one minute, gone the next, the cavalries high-powered weaponry literally making mince-meat of them.
“Damn, we weren't expecting backup, thanks guys” Haziq shouted jubilantly.
“Orders from base camp, we need to get out now, come on” one of the cavalry shouted motioning them back to the tunnel.
As quick as he did that, they all heard a slight disturbance behind them and looked round to see an object in the air that seemed to twist from one shape to another, before settling on the one it decided was most aerodynamic, a slender rocket looking structure with a wing that circled all around it. They all turned back to run and reach the safety of the tunnel, when all of a sudden, the slender-thing discharged a tiny white beam that struck one of the cavalry straight in the back. The rest of them heard the whoosh and instinctively dived for cover. They crashed to the ground to look back in fright and repulsion to see that the white beam had punched a hole straight through their friend, a hole that seemed to froth and all of a sudden spread outward. Within a few seconds the hole had gurgled and foamed outwards, fizzling away all of his body as if it was being dissolved from the inside out by some kind of chemical reaction. They were lying there for what seemed like forever in complete panic, watching their friend chemically breakdown and vanish.
They had to quickly shake themselves out of the stunned stupor, otherwise they knew they were going to be the next ones melted into the ether. They all started to jump up, just as they heard another whoosh, and just as swiftly threw themselves back down again. The beam missed Haziq's ear by millimetres and it hit the top of the entrance to the tunnels. The tunnel entrance flashed, a hole was cut through the ground above it, a deep gorge that sank itself deep into the hillside. This was followed by the mound around the tunnel entrance fizzling and bubbling, the soil and surroundings melting and dripping down completely sealing off their escape. The three of them looked around, desperate to find where the shape-shifting drone had gone. They saw it swinging round in the distance, taunting them, with its aerial display of apparent superiority. Haziq pulled his missile throwing weapon out deciding enough was enough and stood there defiantly, carefully locking into his target. With a quick pull of the trigger, a missile cut its way through the air, too quick for the drone to react. The shape-shifting drone exploded into a shape it couldn't change back from, the whole craft engulfed in super-hot white flames, setting the grass around it alight. They turned back to the entrance. It was completely sealed, they tried removing the soil but had to pull their hands away, as some of it was still bubbling with some unknown chemical reaction.
“Okay Ed, now what do we do?” Jacob said turning to the other resistance fighter.
Ed picked up his encrypted phone and sent a quick message back to their base. A couple of seconds later a reply buzzed through.
“There's a rebel camp on the outskirts we need to get to, someone will pick us up there and get us back to safety” He told them, pointing in the direction the camp was.
“How far?” Haziq asked him.
“It's a couple of miles, we'll try and get some transport” Ed replied typing a new message back to base.
They set off on foot, carefully trying to avoid any people, irregular gun shots ringing in the air every so often. It was going to be a difficult few miles trying to avoid anyone, they had to try and find another way of getting there. They darted from one corner, crossing the road and hiding behind another corner, a handful of cars passing by, as if there was no fighting going on at all. People were just going about their business as if they weren't walking or driving through a war zone. Up ahead they saw an automated taxi and Ed typed something into his phone, a couple of seconds a reply pinging back again.
“Alright, they're going to hack into the automated taxi over there and get it to take us straight to the camp, come on” Ed said, starting to make a run for the vehicle ahead of them.
They reached the taxi and the door slid open to allow them inside, when Jacob shouted in pain. He looked down to see a dagger had been thrown and had sliced through his left arm, piercing through his tricep and protruding out the other side. They looked behind them to see a gang of youths, all with the same emotionless stare, and more daggers being flung towards them. Haziq and Ed jumped into the taxi avoiding the knives. The rest of them soared towards Jacob who jumped to the floor, another dagger slicing into his calf.
“Ahhh, damn it” He screamed, blood spurting from each wound as the taxi sped away, leaving him stranded.
He turned to face them, releasing the contents of his weapon in their direction, bullets chopping their way through flesh and bone. They cried in agony, squirming o
n the floor, trying to pull themselves back up, but collapsing at each attempt. Jacob managed to drag himself up and limp towards a motorcycle parked a few feet away. He pressed a few buttons, trying to get it started. He was a little rusty on how to get these working manually, a far cry from his youth where he could steal a motorcycle in seconds. He continued pressing a few buttons, pulled out some wires and fused them together. The motorcycle sprung to life with a clean hum, making Jacob smile through his wincing pain. These newly designed bikes were just as easy to steal as any older ones, the security systems were as flawed as ever. The makers spent all their energy on making them look great, but had spent little on replacing the outdated security measures. Jacob jumped on as quickly as he could, the pain from the daggers now excruciating, and followed the taxi. Inside the taxi, Ed was in contact with the base and whoever was operating their getaway vehicle to swing back and pick Jacob up.
“It's okay Ed, I can see him behind” Haziq said, the silhouette of Jacob approaching them.
Behind Jacob they could see another drone, then another, followed by yet another. He had a whole troop gaining down on him. Jacob noticed them too and pushed the motorcycle faster and faster to try and outrun them, a near-impossible task. One of the drones fired a piercing beam of light that just missed Jacob, who managed to swerve away to his right to avoid it. A second beam was shot out, followed by a third, Jacob still narrowly missing them with his twists and turns. A fourth beam clipped the back of the motorcycle, that then let out a hissing sound and began crumpling beneath him, as it dissolved into an oozing metallic blob. Jacob was thrown to the ground just as the motorcycle melted itself away and disappeared.
“Shit, we got to go back and get him” Ed screamed to whoever was controlling their taxi, to which it did a swift U-turn and raced towards him, “Let the windows down, we need to get a clear shot”.
The windows duly obeyed and they both leaned out, their arsenals slung over their shoulders. With a swift pull of their triggers they launched their assault skyward, Haziq's precision taking down one of the drones effortlessly. The two drones left swung straight towards them, their beams poised and ready to take aim. The taxi screeched to a halt and the door swung open, a few metres away Jacob hobbling along. Ed took some pot shots at the aerodynamic scourge to distract them, Jacob inching closer to the car.