~
Ursula ran across the battlefield alongside Kethlan, bounding over the churned up earth to catch up with the other troopers that were chasing down the walkers. She passed the bodies of the fallen as she went, saw the smashed wreckage of vehicles that had been trodden on or blasted by the giant machines. Ursula looked up at the overcast sky. The enemy had deployed nothing more than these walkers so far, but the planet was apparently surrounded by all manner of warships. She wondered what other terrible things lurked within those massive battlecruisers.
Attempting to catch the walkers on foot was near-impossible, Ursula soon realised. The things’ enormous strides were able to carry them much further and faster than a human could possibly run. Only a hover tank could catch them, and many of those had been shot to pieces.
Kethlan looked over his shoulder to her, checking she was still following. His gaze then shifted to something behind her, and Ursula turned to see an open-topped hover speeding its way towards them. It slowed as it drew up close to them.
“Get in,” Kethlan instructed the woman.
Ursula did so without question, the WEAPCO commander jumping up alongside her and slipping into the adjacent seat. The hover sped off as soon as the two were seated, hurtling over the ground towards the nearest walker. Ursula saw that the hover was actually being piloted by the drone in the front seat, and not the man next to it. At some point, the human driver had been shot through the head, and so the machine had taken charge.
“What do the Oyniconi want?” Ursula asked Kethlan.
“We don’t know,” the commander said, holding on tight to the hover’s rollcage. “They are plundering all the major towns and cities, killing any who stand in their way, and ‘kidnapping’ everyone else. Anyone they grab is taken up into those walkers and transported back to the warships.” He nodded skyward.
“What happens after that?” Ursula asked.
“No one’s quite sure,” Kethlan said. “All we know is that they are taking human beings and animals. At first, we thought they were taking all organic life, but they have left the trees and plants alone. We think it might have something to do with blood or cell types. To tell you the truth, we don’t even know what our uninvited guests look like.”
One of the walkers was now starting to tramp its way down the city streets, casually brushing against buildings as it did so. So big and powerful was the machine that it was toppling most of the buildings it came into contact with. The metal tentacles were deploying, sprouting from various parts of its sphere-like body. Their numbers and lengths appeared almost infinite. Ursula had her first glimpse of people being dragged up by them, stuck to the tentacles like flies on flypaper. She felt suddenly anxious that her sister might be somewhere in that city; that she might soon be snatched up and taken for whatever purpose the alien invaders had for the humans and animals they were abducting.
Ursula looked again to the sky as the hover sped along. This was Allez, in the Eyananth system, for sure. It was hard to ignore the gas giant the planet lay so close to. This was the last place she had seen her sister. She might still be here and, if so, she had to help her.
Confirmed. Phoebe Lexx believed to be in the Eyananth system, on the planet Allez. Precise position according to subject is the city of Elfon.
Huh? What was that? The thought had entered her head for but a fraction of a second and was gone. It had hung around long enough for her to acknowledge its existence, though.
“Approaching enemy unit,” the drone driving the hover said, in its flat robotic tone. “Please advise on strategy.”
Their target was the walker that had almost crushed Ursula earlier. It was taking long strides towards the city, only the hover’s speed allowing her and the WEAPCO commander to catch it up.
“We need to see if we can locate a weak spot,” Kethlan said, looking over his rifle and checking the ammunition remaining in the clip. “There must be a way to take these things down. What do you think, Lexx?”
“I don’t know,” Ursula admitted. “Maybe we should look for a command module or something? There must be a way for whoever is driving that thing to get inside in the first place. Maybe a hatch or something?”
“A hatch, yes, that would make sense. Where?”
“Beneath the main body, where it would be better protected.”
“Precisely what I was thinking,” the WEAPCO commander said. “Take us under it,” he instructed the drone.
“Acknowledged,” the drone replied, making minute course adjustments to the hover, to bring it beneath the walker.
Ursula felt a spike of terror. They would be putting themselves in a very dangerous place, right beneath the machine; exposing themselves to its artillery and devastating pulse ray, as well as the chances of being crushed underfoot. Even if they got to the underside of the body, climbing the legs would be an impossible feat. They needed something easier to hang onto, something that would lead all the way to the base of the unit. Then Ursula saw it – one of the tentacle-like appendages dangling down, quite flaccid and unmoving, except for the sway caused by the machine’s own motion. It appeared damaged. Ursula wondered if the sticky grip responsible for plucking the victims from the city streets and buildings was dependent on the tentacle functioning correctly, or whether it was tied to some physical attribute of the material the appendage was constructed from. She could see no spikes or hooks anywhere about the tentacle’s extremities. She wished that the walker would stop moving. Otherwise, any attempt to scale the tentacle would prove far too tricky.
The walker took a few more paces forward, then it actually came to a halt. Lucky.
“I’m going to climb the tentacle,” Ursula declared.
“Lexx—” Kethlan seemed about to protest.
“Don’t worry, Commander, I’ve got this,” she cut him off. “Just draw their fire long enough for me to get up there.”
The walker’s guns began to fire, targeting the hover that was speeding towards it. Ursula rose from her seat, slinging her rifle over her back and taking a grip on the rollcage to steady herself as the drone swerved this way and that to avoid the incoming fire. The flaccid, dangling tentacle loomed closer and closer until the hover was almost right next to it.
“I will be unable to halt the vehicle, Ms Lexx,” the drone informed her.
Ursula said nothing, and now, with the tentacle right where she wanted it, she leapt from the hover. She expected one of several things to happen as she did so – that the tentacle would actually be electrified, frying her as she gripped it; that the tentacle would abruptly come back to life, lash out aggressively and strike the hover, killing them all; or that the dangling appendage would sprout a number of spikes on which she would impale herself.
On the contrary, Ursula found that she was able to grab hold of the tentacle unhindered, the thing’s inherent stickiness helping her to maintain her grip. It wasn’t as adhesive as it probably should have been, possibly due to the damage it had already suffered. As the hover sped away, Ursula was already climbing.
It was an incredible distance to climb to reach the top, but she had to attempt it. Unless she could find some weak spot in the walker, the city of Elfon would be completely destroyed. The other walkers were continuing to trash the city and abduct the helpless, fleeing citizens. At least for the moment, this walker was occupied with other matters.
Ursula climbed as fast as she could, trying not to exhaust herself. The tentacle appeared to be a kind of cybernetic organism, a fusion of biological and mechanical constructs. She wondered what she would find when she finally made it to the top.
“I’m nearly at the hatch,” she reported to Kethlan through her headset as she approached the root of the tentacle.
“Can you see a way to get it open?” he replied immediately.
Ursula checked, finding what she was after in moments. “I can see a handle. It could end up being as simple as that.”
What manner of entity might inhabit a machine such as this? Ursula w
ondered. If there were living beings in it at all. The walker could well be being controlled remotely. No, there would be an operator within, of that Ursula was certain. That would eliminate the threat of electrical disruption to remote control systems. The aliens were stealing people and animals. As Kethlan had said, one of the major things humans and animals had in common was blood. Exactly what kind of creature would be needing to get blood? Vampires?
A tug on the handle was all that was required to open the hatch, and Ursula immediately came face to face with the pilot of the walker, who was staring down at her, surprised to see her there. The thing was human in appearance, male, if a comparison was to be made. His skin was pale white, and, as his jaw flapped open, two fangs did protrude from his mouth.
“No. Freaking. Way,” Ursula gasped.
The thing lunged for her, and, thinking quickly, Ursula grabbed hold of its outstretched arm and pulled it out through the hatch, using its weight and momentum against it. The thing screamed as it hurtled towards the ground. Igniting a quarter of the way down, the body was consumed by flames and exploded into a cloud of ash well before landing.
“Vampires?” Ursula said, incredulously. “Space vampires?” What the hell? This was making no sense. The thing had been just as she had imagined.
Exactly as she had imagined.
She formed a hunch, climbed up into the main body of the walker and found the self-destruct button where she knew it would be. She activated it, and then jumped out through the open hatch, taking with her the parachute she had retrieved from behind the pilot’s chair.
She landed on the ground, directly beneath the walker, standing motionless as it exploded above her, knowing that not a single piece of the wreckage or debris would strike her, not one tiny little screw. This wasn’t real. None of it was. It was more like a lucid dream where she was in control of much of the happenings. After all, that was how she had found the parachute.
She looked at the walkers still tramping around the city. A single thought was all it took, the sphere-shaped bodies of each exploded at once, popping like balloons, pieces of the shell and the insides spraying out from the erupting fireball, raining down about where they stood. None of the walkers remained upright for much longer, their legs giving way and collapsing. She watched them for a while, seeing the troopers nearby all looking on, quite bemused by events. They turned to her, asking her questions that she didn’t hear. Something more important was on her mind.
“William Benedict,” Ursula said. Why had that name suddenly crept into her head? Who was William Benedict? The man seemed important for some reason. Was there a connection to herself? Did she know him?
The sound of someone clapping their hands drew her attention. A man had materialised not far from her, and was approaching, smiling.
“That was very impressive, Ms Lexx,” he said. His face was round, his scalp bald as after a tonsure.
“Erik Overlook,” Ursula said.
“Ah, so I don’t even need to be introduced anymore,” Overlook said. “Fascinating. What else do you remember about me?”
“You’re one of the vice presidents of WEAPCO,” Ursula said. She looked about briefly as she thought, delving deep to recall further details. Nothing. She turned back to the man. Overlook was gone, and in his place stood a man in a hood, dressed in flowing purple and white robes. He radiated power, ambition, malice. Deceit. The phantom was gone in a blink of an eye. Again, a letter drifted into Ursula’s head. M? Yes, M. Just like that last time. That reminded her.
“No, wait,” Ursula said. “There was a ball. I danced with you. No, not you. Skillman. Lance Skillman, the CEO. You were there, too, Commander.” She turned to Kline Kethlan, who had also appeared by her side. No, not appeared – been summoned. The man seemed at first a little disorientated.
“Very, very impressive,” Overlook said. “You have proven that you are able to influence an artificial world. In the original scenario, the Oynicon were a jellyfish-like race, inhabiting a liquid environment within their walkers. Opening one of those command spheres would at one time have resulted in you being battered by a flood of seawater. Quite amusing that you changed them into vampires.”
Ursula said nothing, but glared at the man. “What’s this all about, Overlook?”
“Tell me, is this a gift that you share with your sister?” Overlook asked, ignoring her question.
“Gift?” Ursula asked.
“Yes,” Overlook said smoothly, waving a hand towards the remnants of the walkers. “Your gift. Does your sister share it?”
“First of all, I have no idea what you’re talking about, and second, why the hell are you so interested in my sister?” Ursula screamed at him.
“Hmm, not to worry,” Overlook said, beginning to pace about. “We will soon have Phoebe Lexx and be able to prove it for ourselves.”
No. Ursula looked about the battlefield, trying to make it change in the same way she had influenced the walkers. Many of the soldiers, vehicles, bots, and drones vanished, but the city and the endless grasslands they had fought the battle on remained. Overlook and Kethlan nodded their satisfaction to one another. Ursula tried once more to remove the city and the surrounding environment, but failed. Something was blocking her.
“Where am I?” she demanded.
“The Zetaman Human Interface Research Facility, at Murdar,” Overlook said.
“Murdar? I’m a prisoner?”
“In a way.” Overlook shrugged.
Ursula looked down at herself, to the combat gear she wore here, and wondered how she really appeared in real life. Hooked up to machines, suspended in some fluid tank? Maybe not even that. Maybe she was little more than a brain, being kept warm and alive somehow. It mattered not. She and Phoebe were apparently of great interest to WEAPCO. Most likely a threat somehow. In what way, she didn’t know. What was important was that Phoebe was still free. For now. Unfortunately, Ursula had told WEAPCO where to find her. There would be no more of that. They wouldn’t be getting any more information out of her.
She raised a summoned pistol to her temple, half-expecting Kethlan and Overlook to attempt to stop her. They did nothing, however, their expressions remaining impassive as she pulled the trigger.
William Benedict, she thought, as her life ended. I have to find William Benedict.
Chapter 7
“Who was William Benedict?” Chris asked Sid.
“As far as I know, he is the only person in history to have been able to take on WEAPCO, single-handedly,” Sid said, making more adjustments to the drone he had spent the past few weeks working at.
The task was taking a long time. The mercenaries that formed the Heads of the Family would not tolerate waiting for much longer. Chris had heard not-so-subtle mutterings from Eve, Dar, and even Clayton – Clayton, being mostly a mute, but speaking in a strange robotic voice whenever he opened his mouth – that those in charge of the conglomerate of freelancers were running low on patience with the young hacker, and believed him to be simply stalling until he could plot a way to escape.
Chris had done his best in the meanwhile to help see off the increased interest in the mercenaries’ home base from Mal’s Immortal League, though he had never quite been able to bring himself to down any of the opposing fighter craft that invaded the Alpaca Group. Not that any of those he flew alongside seemed to have noticed, or even seemed to care. So long as Mal’s lot were chased away, they appeared happy. All good training, as far as Chris was concerned.
Sid continued, “William Benedict amassed an army of drones, bots, and starfighters to turn on the Corporation and attack it. No one quite knows how he did it.”
“How successful was he?” Chris asked. Benedict had obviously failed in the end, but Chris was curious to know exactly how much damage he had been able to inflict, and how many problems he’d caused for WEAPCO.
“He almost managed to cripple the Zetaman Human Interface Research Facility in Murdar,” Sid said, turning to one of the many computers and cons
oles he had set up in the workshop. “Before that, he caused some significant damage to their shipyards and mining facilities in the Eyananth system. He could have done more, but moved on to attacking the H.I.R.F. all of a sudden. In the end, WEAPCO came at him with their most powerful warships and he was overwhelmed.”
“Hmm,” Chris said. “What prompted him to go straight for the H.I.R.F., do you think?”
“Pass,” Sid shrugged. “Maybe he identified a weak spot and decided to exploit it as soon as possible, to give himself an edge. Or maybe the name ‘Human Interface’ made him feel uncomfortable, and he felt he had to do something about it.
“Right, let’s see if this works ...”
Sid plugged something into the drone’s body via an interface he had uncovered from deep within. He then turned to one of the consoles and began typing in a handful of commands. A holographic display sprang up on the drone.
“Looks promising,” Sid said, brightly. “That was a lot less stable the last time.”
A piece of text appeared:
‘Decrypting ...’
A hollow rectangular bar beneath began to fill from left to right, the speed shifting at intervals.
“Almost. Come on, come on,” Sid urged.
The projection changed abruptly, displaying what Chris could only describe as garbage. Sid swore. He had clearly been unsuccessful.
“This is one hard machine to crack,” Sid said, ripping the cable out of the drone in frustration. “The war bot was simple by comparison, but had nothing in it except a load of combat tactics and data on weaponry. Obviously WEAPCO only equip the bots with what they need to do their job.”
“But you’ve cracked drones in the past, haven’t you?” Chris asked.
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