The Suns of Liberty (Book 1): Legion

by Michael Ivan Lowell

“Krill,” Von Cyprus said, giving the command phrase that told Crustac’s remotely controlled mind that an order was forthcoming. “Step forward.”

  Crustac, in the machine, stepped out of the case and onto the laboratory floor. Von Cyprus leaped with joy and clapped his hands. “Weapons check, please,” he said, and the Krill’s right-side helmet laser glowed doubly bright, showing it was ready for use. The talons on the end of the Krill’s armored gloves also glowed.

  The machine checked out, all systems operable.

  A flash of light to his left caught Von Cyprus by surprise. In his excitement, he’d almost let himself forget what was coming next. When he uncovered his eyes, Fiona Fletcher was once again standing in the center of the chamber.

  “I thought you might not come this time,” Von Cyprus said.

  “It’s a jungle out there,” she quipped. Inside joke, but she thought it was pretty good.

  Von Cyprus wasted no more time. “Krill, kill her.” He had the element of surprise and he could not afford to waste it, or allow her to figure out what she was up against.

  The machine blasted her with the helmet laser, and she was flung across the compound.

  But she regained her control and stopped, midair.

  The Krill fired again.

  This time she teleported out of the way and flashed right in front of Crustac. She plunged her hands into the armor—and realized she was dealing with more than just a man in armor. This was a man in a machine.

  Her hesitation was all he needed. Crustac energized the talons and ripped them across her face. She could feel them tear into her. He stabbed them into her chest, and she screamed out in pain. Luminescent blood ran into her eyes. She shook it away with a toss of her head and let the machine’s talons sink deeper into her chest.

  She simply relaxed, closed her eyes. She’d learned how to deal with machines. Logic dictated that the path of least resistance was simply to absorb it. The pain would be intense, but it would fade. As always.

  Fiona opened her eyes. Something was wrong. The Krill was not struggling. It wasn’t perplexed like the Man-O-War had been. It seemed to be...waiting.

  So she fired a massive beam of energy from her eyes directly into the large visors of the machine. She retained her hold, so the push and pull of both her grip and the beam was enough that the Krill should just rip in two, or overheat trying to resist. Either way, this thing was toast.

  The Krill shook violently, but instead of ripping apart, it just stood there, withstanding the massive assault.

  Nor did it try to resist.

  Von Cyprus chuckled gleefully. “You can’t overheat it like Man-O-War! It has a luminescent engine right at the heart of it, so blast away all you want, it will just regenerate.”

  “Then I’ll rip out his heart!” And with that, she plunged her hand into Crustac’s chest, just before the commander could activate the full-body luminescence to protect himself. Every cell became saturated with the energy, and for the first time since he regained consciousness he felt pain.

  Inside the Krill armor he screamed.

  Fiona smiled.

  As she reached for the engine, the energy hit her full force. Light against light. It was clearly supposed to act as a barrier, a force field.

  But Fiona was much more powerful. Her energy was pure, and she pushed through the Krill’s resistance.

  She found the engine.

  But as she grabbed it, something odd happened. A peculiar sensation she couldn’t place. Her vision probed though the Krill’s armor to see what it was. Black spots were forming all around the engine. Some kind of protective barrier.

  They formed over her hand.

  Fiona felt something she had never felt before, like a black void of nothingness. Nausea swept through her.

  “I call those the Black Shards, my dear. They feel unholy, don’t they? They can kill even you.”

  Fiona pulled her hand away. It writhed in pain. Across it were two large black holes. As if a vampire had sunk enormous teeth into her glowing flesh. She grasped her wrist in shock. Nothing had ever affected her this way.

  “It’s a most lethal cocktail of dark energy and antimatter,” Von Cyprus cackled, like he was showing off his comic collection. Then without pause, he pressed a button on the console and the wall mirrors adjusted their aim directly on Fiona. Her power was absorbed in their reflection and blasted back out at her in a millisecond.

  She screamed.

  “Krill. Finish her.”

  Crustac, inside the Krill exoskeleton, felt the command as much as he heard it. The servos deep in his central nervous system responded, and he struck the girl with an almighty blow. The uppercut lifted her from her feet, and she slammed against the floor, shattering the concrete.

  Von Cyprus ducked as chunks pulverized the glassed-in enclosure of the chamber and flew past him. None hit the console. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Time to take this thing remote,” he said into his com.

  “Yes sir,” came back the reply. “Going remote...now.”

  With that, the control of the Krill was digitally transferred to a bunker deep inside Freedom Rise. The same room the Man-O-War had been controlled from three months earlier. It didn’t matter how much damage they caused now, it wouldn’t harm their ability to steer the Krill.

  He could still command Crustac verbally, though, and he took full advantage. “Krill, blast her!” he yelled.

  The Krill responded by firing the helmet beam into her splayed-out form. From New York, someone rotated the mirrors so they again focused on Fiona. Both sets of energies reflected in the mirrors and slammed back into her. She writhed in pain and spasms consumed her body. The force was overwhelming, even to her.

  Von Cyprus took this as his cue. He stepped out from behind the console, rolling up his white shirtsleeves to reveal their metallic replacements. With a thought-command, he activated the metal sleeves.

  And opened fire. The black lightning streaked out and crawled, with an ebony static straight from hell itself, all over the stricken girl.

  The combination was too much. Fiona’s arms fell to her sides, and though her body continued to spasm, she fought no more.

  Von Cyprus did not call off the dogs, nor did he cease firing. Instead, he aimed the energy from his right arm at an odd needle-like device to his right. The needle-like device was called an anti-laser and ended in a large black tank that took up most of the wall. It was the most powerful, unique anti-laser on the planet. Five clear glass bubbles were lined up across the crown of the tank. That they were clear meant the tank was empty. For now.

  His left hand stayed aimed on Fiona, bathing her in the unholy lightning. Weakening her by the second.

  The black bolts from his right arm struck the needle of the anti-laser, and it sprang to life with a glowing ebony energy of its own. A beam of eerie darkness fired from the needle and sought out its own energy across the room, finding the bolts of electricity that were still cracking and popping over Fiona.

  “Painful, isn’t it, Ms. Fletcher?” Von Cyprus couldn’t tell if she could hear him, but he didn’t care. His plan was working. He was defeating the Fire Fly.

  “It’s called a Coherent Perfect Absorber. Except none of them have really been perfect until this one!” He giggled at his power. She was truly helpless. “It absorbs light. Even your light!”

  One of the remote controllers in New York signaled the Krill to cease its attack, and Crustac complied. With now only the black energy crawling over Fiona, her glow began to fade.

  Fiona’s power and the black lighting were sucked into the needle with a loud FRUP!

  Then silence.

  The naked human form of Fiona Fletcher lay unmoving in the dirt and rubble.

  Across the room, to his right, Von Cyprus saw the large black tank that attached to the large needle-like anti-laser. The series of bubbles across the top of the tank were glowing with the power of the Fire Fly.

  “Look, Pinocchio, you’re just a regular boy again!�
� he cackled with delight. “Cinderella has left the ball!” A team of his assistants slowly peered into the room from the long hallway. “Yes, it’s safe. Come get her. Take her to her room and strap her down. Make sure she stays out. I want her under general anesthesia twenty-four-seven. Understood?”

  They did. They knew the drill. He’d made sure.

  He just liked barking orders.

  The team came and hauled the unconscious, barely breathing teenager away.

  Crustac, inside the Krill exoskeleton, turned to the scientist. He had to fight to speak on his own. “W-what is she...now?” he grunted, barely able to form the words.

  “Why, she’s just a regular teenage girl, my boy. The fly without the fire. That’s why we make sure she stays out. If she were to wake up, she might be able to reconnect with the fire. As it is, it’s locked in a permanent darkness.”

  Crustac said nothing. He just stared at Von Cyprus like he wanted to speak, but nothing came out.

  Von Cyprus got bored. A human inside his perfect creation was unnecessary. That had been Tarleton’s idea. Crustac was nothing but a liability. Rolling his eyes, he turned and headed for the Com Room, all the while admiring his metal sleeves. It was time to announce his victory. Eat your heart out, Tarleton!

  NEW YORK CITY

  FREEDOM RISE

  Scarlett entered the room and saw Kendrick Ray working furiously on his RDSD.

  The room was small and circular. To her left was a large sliding glass door that opened up to a small outer observatory. They were near the top of Freedom Rise, and the view of the city was spectacular. Clay Arbor stood outside, gazing across it.

  Ray peered up and nodded to her. “We’re leaving soon,” he said. “How’s the bodyguard?”

  “He’s still healing, but nearly back to normal.”

  Ray nodded again.

  Scarlett moved toward the big glass door, but noting the contented-looking Arbor, thought better of it. She took a seat across from Ray and began fiddling with her phone.

  Ray watched her. She seemed lost in her own world. After a moment, with no one else around, his curiosity got the best of him. Ray asked the question he’d wanted to ask her since they’d first recruited her. “I know you’re probably not going to answer this, but...”

  Scarlett peered at him over her phone. “If you’re brave enough to ask, I might be brave enough to answer,” she smirked at him.

  Ray took the chance. “How exactly did you reprogram the Spectral? I mean, do you know how exasperated DARPA, the Pentagon, the Council, pretty much everyone was that their pet ultimate weapon just walked off and decided to move to suburbia?”

  Scarlett snorted a laugh. “Well, it is a secret. I tell you, I’d have to kill you.” Scarlett smirked again, and seeing the rise of tension in the little man, let him off the hook. “And...someone might figure it out. You can probably imagine that that might not be so good for me.”

  Ray took a breath. She’d only been kidding about the killing part. Probably.

  “Yeah, but...” Ray grinned and shook his head. “I get that you disabled him at some point, right? But the Aztech altered his hardware and made him so smart, right? So, you had to have figured out the basic programming in there. And we know it mimics the human brain, I mean, I’ve read about that. So, what’s at the heart of it? Perceptrons? Hierarchical control? Hierarchical control of a neocortex? Adaptive, stochastic, behavioral, reactive, hierarchical, or what?”

  Ray knew a good deal about artificial intelligence, but he figured Scarlett had to know a great deal more.

  Scarlett’s eyes blinked and her face blushed just a bit as her eyes waivered.

  Deer in the headlights, Ray thought. It’s like she has no idea what the hell I’m talking about!

  She looked away from him. “Yes, um...a little of all of that. I’d rather not discuss it.” She stood and walked toward the glass door.

  Ray made a face. None of that made any sense. “Yeah, okay. But give me something. Hierarchical control is involved, right?”

  Scarlett sighed and blushed some more. “Yes, Mr. Ray, it is,” she said sharply. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to Colonel Arbor.” She opened the door and stepped out into the brisk New York wind.

  Behind her, Ray nodded his head like he’d figured something out.

  Arbor pulled out a smoke and lit it up. He peered out at the New York skyline. He was thinking back to his time in Africa. About battle strategy.

  He heard the door open behind him.

  “You mind?” Scarlett asked him as she reached for a cigarette.

  Arbor shook his head and flicked his lighter, shielding it from the wind for her. She drew it in with a long drag and closed her eyes. She exhaled the long strand of smoke, her fingers trembling, the cigarette shaking in her hand as she lowered it.

  “I didn’t know you smoked.”

  “I don’t,” she said, taking another long drag with trembling fingers.

  “How’s Spectral? Is it...he...going to be ready?”

  “He’ll be fine. He bounces back pretty easily.”

  Arbor nodded, and they stood there for several minutes, smoking. Gazing out at the city. Its problems seemed so far away up here. So removed.

  Arbor glanced her way and watched as she took another long drag with her quivering fingers. “You’re pretty tightly wound, aren’t you?”

  Scarlett blinked. Huffed and tossed the cigarette under her boot. “Nothing I can’t handle,” she said as she turned and marched for the door.

  Arbor watched her stride through the room. She said nothing to Ray, who also never took his eyes off her. When she was gone, Ray rose and stepped out onto the observatory with Arbor.

  “Women,” Arbor grunted with a grin.

  “She’s not exactly the life of the party, huh?”

  “That woman’s all kinds of screwed up. Just do yourself a favor and don’t piss her off.”

  “Yeah. You know, I just asked her about Spectral’s AI. She had no idea what the hell I was talking about. I could see it in her eyes. So how the hell did she reprogram Spectral?” Ray asked.

  Arbor just shrugged, took a drag on his cigarette.

  Ray saw the twinkle in Arbor’s eyes. “You think she got help?” Ray asked.

  “Had to. You just proved it, didn’t ya?”

  “Somebody on the inside?”

  Arbor shrugged. “Hey, you think they tell us everything?”

  Ray’s face fell. He looked like Arbor had just killed his puppy.

  “Even you can’t know everything, X-Ray” Arbor snorted.

  Ray nodded. “Exasperating.”

  Ray’s RDSD beeped. He glanced down and smiled. “Here’s something I know. Check it out.” He showed the big man the device. “Von Cyprus has got the Krill ready. They’re gonna shit when they see us coming.”

  “They won’t have time to shit,” Arbor said and tossed the cigarette.

  CHAPTER 36

  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

  BOSTON CITY HALL

  Revolution laid his hand on Ward’s shoulder. “Thanks for doing this, Paul. They trust you more than any of us. You being here will go a long way.”

  They entered a room full of Boston’s finest. Four hundred some officers rose as the commissioner and the mayor strode into the large briefing room just in front of the Revolution, Ward, and Lantern. The mayor introduced them, the commissioner said a few words supporting them, and then Ward approached the microphone.

  “Thank you, Mr. Commissioner, Mr. Mayor.” He gazed out at the assembled officers. “You and I have come a long way together. I have always felt I could trust the BPD, and I hope you’ve always felt you could trust me.”

  Polite applause. There were a few grumbles from the group. Ward could make out one in particular that he assumed spoke for the general discontent. Something about, “Not after you joined that murderer.”

  Ward smiled knowingly. “I’ve never wanted anything other than to protect this city. I know some
of you didn’t understand when I joined the Suns of Liberty, and I respect your views on my decision. But just as sometimes you all have to take actions, or not take actions because the law says so, I was forced to take certain actions to protect my home. Our home. And as a result, Boston is now free.”

  This line got more polite applause despite some headshaking among the crowd.

  “It is time to put the past behind us and move ahead to ensure that Boston remains safe and free.”

  More applause.

  Revolution replaced Ward and the crowd of cops fell deadly silent.

  “I know many of you do not want to be here today,” Revolution said.

  A few amens rose up from the group.

  “But despite your misgivings, you and your commissioner have chosen to side with us for the good of the city. We pledge our support to you as well. You will now have our protection...”

  “We don’t need your protection,” someone grumbled.

  “...as well as our assistance,” Revolution continued, ignoring the heckler. As the commissioner and mayor applauded the line, slowly the group of officers joined in. “Today, we are here to inform you of a new threat. I want to introduce to you our intelligence officer. His name is Lantern.”

  Lantern waved to the group but kept in the background. “Lantern has sophisticated monitoring that we will share with your precincts, under the cooperation of the mayor’s office and in full consultation with your commissioner. This tool will help you immensely in guarding against crime and keeping yourselves safe on the job. We can improve the lives of Bostonians, starting with those who put their lives on the line to protect us.”

  Applause.

  Ward figured more than one cop out there had to be thinking how ironic that was, given the Revolution himself had put more than a few of Boston’s finest in the hospital and at least a couple in the morgue.

  “Lantern has identified a credible threat. The Council is readying a strike force against our compound in an effort to retake control of Boston-proper. We will not allow this to happen.”

  Surprisingly, a loud and enthusiastic round of applause broke out without the mayor or commish having to instigate it.