Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1)

  Running down the steps into the courtyard Whizzbang heard, “Commander! Commander Whizzbang!”

  Whizzbang knew that voice and smiled as he slowed and walked up to a familiar Eagle-claw battleframe, “Group Leader Selfia.”

  “Commander, you’re really here now aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I’m actual, Self.”

  Before she could stop herself from the impulsive action Selfia bent down and picked Whizzbang up in as light a hug as she could manage in her battleframe. “I knew you’d make the decision to come here!”

  “Hey Self! Careful of the bones, they’re brittle you know,” Whizzbang said as she released her hug. “It’s good to see you again as well. I feel like it’s been an age since I was last here, not just a little over a day. By the way I never got a chance to congratulate you and Acheron.”

  “What for?”

  “You just got married, right?”

  “Oh that! We’ve been so busy rescuing you I completely forgot!”

  Whizzbang chuckled. “And thank you for all those times. At the end of this you two are going to have to take a honeymoon.”

  Selfia slowly closed her eyes in a blissful thought before opening them again. “Now you’re talking Commander.”

  “Self, you know I’m not a Commander.”

  Selfia laughed, “You are if I say you are.”

  Whizzbang let the comment slide and asked, “So where’s Acheron?”

  “I sent him out patrolling the north to ensure that Gardner’s Digging crews aren’t harassed while they mine resources.”

  “Good decision to get the crews back out. By the way, you and Acheron aren’t from London are you?”

  Selfia stared at the ground in embarrassment. “I’m really sorry Whizz. It was supposed to be our cover story. When you first materialised, on the evening of the attack, Concord Central tasked both Acheron and I to have your back. They had their eye on you from the moment you started playing the Scourge Wars simulation game about six months ago.”

  Whizzbang held up his hand to stop Selfia’s explanations, “Self, you don’t have to explain yourself any further. You were just following orders.”

  “But I need to explain…”

  “No you don’t.” While they had been speaking, Bosk and the rest of the squad from Earth arrived in the courtyard and came over to where Whizzbang was talking with Selfia.

  “Hey Self, it’s great to see you again!” Bosk exclaimed.

  “You too Bosk,” Selfia said in a subdued tone.

  Whizzbang turned to the Earthmen and with mock seriousness said, “I have something important to tell you all. Selfia has just informed me that she and Acheron aren’t from London and that she’s actually from the Concord. Selfia’s a little embarrassed because she had orders to tell us a lie.”

  Pyro started laughing and this spread amongst the others until everyone was gasping to get oxygen into their lungs. “Dad, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Pyro said what everyone else was laughing about, “Self, do you honestly believe you have an English accent? We knew that you were from the Concord the minute you opened your mouth.”

  Bosk looked Selfia in the eye and said, “Selfia, all I know is that you saved my rear end twice now and for that, I’m eternally grateful. Each one of us owes you a debt and we will be there for you.”

  Between smiles and another bout of laughter, the Earthmen lifted Selfia in her frame and all upon their shoulders and marched around the Freedom Torch singing her praises. Not surprisingly, most of the songs sounded strangely like they should be sung back home in a pub with a beer or two. Whizzbang looked on at the procession and clapped his hands to the beat in the joy of meeting old friends once again. It was not long before several hundred technicians, mechanics and even a few battleframe pilots that were not on duty joined the Earthmen. Selfia was a hero and if the Concord was to survive, they needed more heroes like her.

  The squad finally put Selfia down and she quickly wiped her cheeks clear of a few tears. Embarrassed by her emotional display she walked over to Whizzbang and said, “I was so worried I wasn’t doing a good job Whizz, and that lie just built up in my mind into a huge issue.”

  “Selfia, I said don’t worry. You’re a hero”

  Then in a loud voice so that everyone in the plaza could hear Whizzbang yelled, “It’s time for me to repay a promise I made before the recent battle to save Freehold. Spread the word, tonight we party at Folly’s and the drinks are on me!”

  A loud cheer greeted his announcement of a party at Folly’s, and below it all, Tiny’s rumbling voice could be heard saying, “Now this is what I’m talking about! Time for a new cigar!” At which point he deftly tossed his old stub into a garbage receptacle. Within half a second, a fresh, lit cigar seemed to materialise between his crooked teeth.

  Kheldar turned to Pyro, “It’s amazing! I think my head has just cleared up with the simple mention of a party!”

  With a whoop, Pyro yelled back over the cheers, “Time for us to show them all how Earthmen can dance!”

  While those assembled headed towards Folly’s, Whizzbang leaned across to Selfia and said, “Let it go Self. It’s time to relax before the next big push. We didn’t come here to mess around. We came to order a main course of major payback.”

  Selfia smiled and replied, “I knew you’d really come here Commander.”

  Whizzbang rolled his eyes at her use of the rank and then laughed as Pyro grabbed his arm to drag him up the steps leading to Folly’s. They all headed to the bar for the celebration and left their battleframes for the following day. Now was the time to be grateful with friends and for those that were still standing by your side.

  Despite the party going on into the early hours of the morning, Whizzbang found himself sitting on the top step of the stairs leading down to the Freedom Torch. He watched as the first rays of sunrise sparkled off both the Barrier and sea creating a magnificent blue shimmering effect all along the horizon. Holding his hand up to shade his eyes, he made out a lone sea gull gliding down on the air currents to the beach far below. Just before landing, it squawked a welcome to its friends at the edge of the water. Whizzbang took a few deep breaths to help clear out the morning cobwebs. He absently noted that the few percent extra oxygen in the atmosphere made it feel fresher and purer than on Earth.

  It was a stunning view that reminded him of watching Balinese sunsets with Esther during a recent vacation. Bali was now light years away and he was missing her already. She was his rock, his closest friend and his lover. He knew he was here for the greater good but he longed to hold her in his arms. Why did the greater good have to include greater sacrifice?

  Bosk, looking a little worse for the night’s festivities, sidled up and sat down on the step next to his friend. They were both silent for a time as they enjoyed each other’s company and gazed at the sun as it pushed its way above the horizon. “It’s beautiful,” he said softly.

  Still staring at the view Whizzbang said, “It’s a prison. You know we have to do something about the Barrier.”

  “I know. Any ideas?”

  “Not at the moment. Interested in walking the perimeter?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Both men stretched aching muscles as the stood and headed down the steps to their battleframes. Each of the Earthmen’s frames had been carefully lined up next to each other along the wall in the main courtyard in anticipation of their return to Alpha Three. Selfia had refused to convert them back into tellurite at the battleframe console, as she steadfastly believed you were going to return. She needed a symbol of her faith and the battleframes fulfilled that role.

  Whizzbang inspected the fist-sized tech that allowed his consciousness to be in control of the frame. “Bosk, not much to it is there?”

  “I can’t believe that this little thing transported our consciousness all the way here.”

  Whizzbang carefully unplugged the device and said, “I think that there is more to it than just this.” He th
en placed it on the ground next to his Raven. “We’re not going to need it again.”

  “I suppose your right,” Bosk replied as he hefted the device in his hand.

  Whizzbang turned his back to the battleframe and stepped backwards into his open Raven harness. Like a living creature, the grey suit instantly reacted to his feet in the boots and automatically enclosed itself around his body. Holding out his arms the suit’s gloves moved and slid over his hands as the nanites latched the flexible armour onto his wrists. The frame then automatically tightened some areas and loosened others to ensure that it was like an extension of his body and ready to provide instant power and flexibility at a moment’s notice. Actually wearing his battleframe for the first time felt so real, so beautiful and so deadly.

  He barely felt the pinprick of the frame’s nanomed needle as it breached his skin and tapped a vein in his inner thigh. A sudden gush of Nanomeds flooded across the gap from his battleframe and into his body so that they would be ready to heal any wound he received in combat.

  Like a key sliding into a lock, the faultlessly engineered nanomeds blended with his fifty thousand years of genetic breeding. They reacted like the perfectly orchestrated machines that Altavia had designed them to be. Rather than slowing down their rush into his body Whizzbang’s genetic make-up demanded more and then even more! Like an onrushing train, nanomeds flooded across the link between the battleframe and his body. The reaction was so swift and so sudden that a wave of blackness engulfed him and not knowing what else to do Whizzbang passed out.

  Looking down into the courtyard from next to the Freehold scanning tower, three unlikely technicians stared with brilliant blue eyes at Whizzbang and Bosk as they stepped into their battleframe harnesses.

  “And so it begins,” Intellect said as he casually thumbed through a book on the inner workings of a tellurite reactor. “Should we do anything to assist them?”

  Creativity bent down and pulled her violin out of its case before saying, “We’ve done everything that we can to prepare them. The only reason why they survived the TransWarp was due to our genetic engineering. As Wisdom said, if we do anything now we could disrupt their development and render them incapable of fulfilling their destiny.”

  Intellect looked up again from his book at his two companions. “We’ve given them the labour of our entire race in the gift of the nanomeds and nanites. Combined with their genetic predisposition the perfect blending of man and technology has just taken place.”

  As was his habit, Wisdom thoughtfully stroked his neatly cropped beard with his left hand and said, “It will be difficult for them, but I have faith that they will survive and even one day surpass us. It’s not just the genetics or the technology Intellect, but who they are that allows the blending to take place. Without the essence of their character, either man or machine would devour the other.

  Intellect nodded in agreement at Wisdom’s words.

  Looking towards both his companions Wisdom continued, “It’s what they do with this gift that will set them apart from others.”

  Plucking her violin strings to see if they were still in tune Creativity said, “Wisdom, I have faith in them.”

  Smiling in his grandfatherly manner Wisdom replied, “So do I. So do I.”

  Intellect paused from reading his book and looked up. “Have we had any word that the enemy knows of our plans?”

  “We have heard nothing but in times like this silence is often good news,” Wisdom replied.

  “So I will ask the question that Creativity has asked in the past. When should we reveal ourselves?” asked Intellect.

  Wisdom gave a little laugh, “I can’t believe that I’m saying this but it appears that you’re both getting a little impatient.” He materialised his favourite walking stick in his hand and leaned heavily upon it. The posture emphasised his thousands of years of age. “I think we can delay a little longer. There is still a little time.”

  Now that she was satisfied that the violin was in tune, Creativity playfully plucked at the strings with the notes from a recent orchestration. “They will need that time to discover their new abilities. I would make a guess that this will prove interesting…,” she trailed off thoughtfully.

  Her two companions nodded their heads solemnly in agreement.

  “The plans of eons are now set fully in motion,” Wisdom murmured.

  Chapter 7

  Transformation

  Charged particles coursed through Russell’s body leaving him in a catatonic state staring wide eyed at the heavens above. Trillions of infinitely complex sub-atomic machines latched onto the comparable number of neurons in his brain and flayed them wide open. Burning agony seared its way into every corner of his mind as the miniature machines went about their purpose and locked onto the double helix of his DNA. Once in place they stretched, strengthened and augmented the nucleic bonds and cleared the parallel pathways within the mind so that thought would flow more freely.

  The agony felt like fire incinerating his very being from the inside out as it threatened to consume him. Doggedly, Russell held onto the true essence of his unique humanity. An intense pain enveloped his entire being. The nanomeds assaulted every muscle, bone and sinew as they went about their work of blending man and machine. Images of events in his life flashed by, faster and faster, one after another. With increasing regularity, the image of Esther appeared and he hung onto her with all that he could. Her concerned loving eyes seemed to help brace him for the multiple waves of agony that were transforming him into something more than human.

  He did not know it at the time but no weapon formed or even power of mind could break his indomitable will and leave him alive. His was an incorruptible mind that would not then or ever be able to be broken. Russell was truly reborn as Whizzbang.

  Beside him, his lifelong friend Mihaly lay in a comparable state of disrepair as he too experienced what it was like to have his mind wrenched away from him and then handed back in an almost unrecognisable form. Stars seemed to explode in front of his eyes, one after another, and then slowly gaining in speed, the flashing stars reached a cacophony of visual noise that was almost unbearable. He cried out in pain but no noise issued from his lips as he hung onto the essence of what made Mihaly, Mihaly. A fervent desire to see wrongs made right, compassion for those in need and a strength of will to see things done. Like Russell, at the core of Mihaly was a strength of character that was stronger than the toughest steel. He would die before any torture or inducement could break him. That was when was Mihaly was truly reborn as Bosk.

  Slowly but surely both Whizzbang and Bosk struggled through the torment as their minds instantly accelerated through thousands of years of development and expanded to encompass their true genetically pure humanity. As suddenly as it began the pain ceased and they both discovered they were lying on their backs gasping for breath. What had seemed like years were actually only moments, with the sun only a fingers breadth above the horizon.

  “Oh frap! What was that?” Bosk asked his friend as he struggled to sit up.

  “How in the frap should I know?” Whizzbang answered as he groggily sat up. “I feel like I’ve been through a meat grinder and then pieced back together by being dragged through a pasta machine!”

  “My head is killing me, but heh…..what the?” Bosk tilted his head on the side as he really began to think.

  Whizzbang was a millisecond ahead of him and thought, “Bosk I feel like my mind has just had an overhaul and it’s a million times bigger.”

  “Me too!”

  Whizzbang continued, “Every memory, every experience and every idea is instantly at my beck and call. Can you remember that time we got into trouble with the teacher in grade eight?”

  “You mean the teacher with the big black beard and glasses?”

  “Yes, now ask yourself how many whiskers he had?” Whizzbang said excitedly.

  “Oh frap, oh frap, oh frap! Eleven thousand, two hundred and twenty eight.”

  “I can ins
tantly recall, replay and inspect every aspect of anything that I’ve ever done!”

  Whizzbang looked back at Bosk with a startled expression on his face and said, “Bosk, how can I hear you when your lips aren’t moving?”

  “What do you mean? I am talking and I can hear you plain as day.”

  Just then, Bosk realised what Whizzbang was referring to. They both were not moving their lips! “Whizz is this telepathy? Somehow, we just got telepathy! What just happened?”

  “I have no idea but let’s test this out.” Whizzbang carefully stood to his feet, turned his back on his friend and then sent a thought in Bosk’s direction, “What colour am I thinking?”

  “Ouch! Go easy Whizz! That really hurt! It’s blue by the way.”

  This time it was Whizzbang’s turn to give a little yelp. Then tempering his thought down he conversationally said, “Where are we?”

  “Alpha Three.”

  Whizzbang turned back to look at his friend and thought, “Bosk, we just became telepathic.”

  “Whizz, how did that happen? What happened? What’s going on?”

  “Think about it Bosk. This is the first time that we’ve actually put on our battleframes for real. In the past, it’s been in the game or according to Blue Sky we’ve had our consciousness translated here. We’ve never actually stepped into a physical battleframe until now.”

  “When I first put on my frame I thought I was being torn open Whiz. Did you go through the same thing?”

  “Sure did. I could almost feel the nanomeds bonding with me. I wonder if all battleframe pilots are telepathic?”

  “They can’t be, otherwise they wouldn’t need the local and extended comnet.”

  This time it was Bosk’s turn to shake his head from side to side to test that everything was working just fine. “That’s true but why us?”