It was also supposed to only show him people who still lived.
But Jess did not live. He’d seen her body with his own eyes, after the Quatro attacked Northshire, which he’d been assigned to protect.
She was the reason he’d embarked on this war in the first place. It wasn’t just Darkstream’s war of expansion; it was also his own war of personal vengeance, and for Gabe, the second came before the first.
And now here Jess was, to…what? Cheer him on?
He didn’t think so. He didn’t think she was here to do anything.
She hadn’t been there at all, of course—not really. It was just the mech dream conspiring with his increasingly unstable subconscious to unsettle him.
It was also a reminder, an affirmation, that he really would stop at nothing to secure his vengeance. He wouldn’t even be stopped by the dead girl he was striving to avenge.
Gabe resumed his headlong dash through the forest, determined not to rest until he caught up to the quad. No matter what happened next.
Chapter 14
Extermination Is Also Acceptable
The Quatro had proved themselves formidable warriors during the Battle for Habitat 2, and they were willing to help again in its defense.
But according to Fiore’s boasting, Lisa would need more than just the Quatro to defend her home.
And so, she put out the call to all residents of Habitat 2 interested in fighting Daybreak—anyone who wanted to prevent their home from being taken once again by ruthless criminals were told to meet her in the central plaza at six AM.
She got five people.
Tessa Notaras, Andy Miller, Bob O’Toole, Phineas Gage, and a red-haired man named Rodney Vickers, who Lisa was pretty sure just wanted an excuse to play with explosives.
“Um, do you think it’s the early hour?” Andy asked, scratching his head through his brown hair.
Lisa frowned. “For the opportunity to defend your home, the time of day shouldn’t matter.”
Presumably, no one wanted to become slaves to Daybreak again. But apparently, they assumed that period of oppression had been just a momentary blip, an anomaly, which couldn’t possibly happen again now that a Darkstream military operative had taken care of the situation and more operatives were on the way.
The residents of Habitat 2 clearly felt that someone else would handle things, and that they could simply return to their normal lives.
“Well,” Lisa said, “I guess we’ll make do with what we have, for now. Who knows, if we all work hard, maybe we’ll inspire others to join us.” She cleared her throat. “Okay. First things first. I thought we’d start by putting on pressure suits and going out on Alex for some real-life shooting. I know you’ve all probably fired a gun before, in lucid, and maybe even during your waking life, but we’ll mostly be training in the latter. There’s nothing like firing a real gun. Someone I have a lot of respect for once told me that.” Exchanging smiles with Tessa, Lisa said, “All right. Everyone make for the western airlock.”
As they reentered Habitat 2’s narrow streets, Lisa drew up beside Tessa and said, “You’re not really going to let me train you, are you? You know way more than me. Plus, you have way more actual battle experience.”
“Consider me here in an observation capacity,” Tessa said. “I trained you how to fight, and how to endure the rigors of combat. I didn’t teach you how to train others. So I’m interested to see how you make out.” Tessa shrugged. “Besides, it never hurts to brush up on fundamentals.”
“Fair enough.” Lisa chuckled. “I guess I can get you to take over, too, in case I need to use the washroom.”
She’d just started to put on her pressure suit when her HUD notified her that she had an urgent message.
It was from Commander Laudano. “Seaman Sato. A subordinate has forwarded me a link to a system net news site, and I found what I saw there deeply disturbing. Unless these photos are doctored, it would seem you have Quatro freely roaming the streets of Habitat 2. I find it curious that you failed to include their presence in any of your reports. Worse, according to this news site, you arrived with these creatures. Now, I have no idea how the Quatro are even on Alex, but what I do know is that the species is responsible for thousands of deaths on Eresos, and counting. Clearly, they’re far more advanced than we’ve dared to consider. How they traveled from Eresos to Alex is beyond me, especially considering no unidentified traffic has been detected between the two planets. Maybe they’ve discovered a way to open up some sort of quantum tunnel between their caves on Eresos and on Alex. Either way, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that these beasts have tricked you somehow. But that benefit only extends so far. If you’d like to continue availing of it, I highly recommend you apprehend every Quatro currently inside Habitat 2. Exterminating them will also be acceptable. Laudano out.”
“I have to go,” Lisa said, dropping the pieces of her pressure suit. “Tessa, if you could take over for me?”
Her friend nodded, and Lisa ran back into Habitat 2. By the time she found Rug, she was completely out of breath. The alien was doing what she always did: pacing the streets of the city, completely ignoring its inhabitants.
“Rug,” Lisa managed through her panting. “You have to leave. It isn’t safe for you here anymore.”
Rug regarded her with large midnight eyes. Those eyes always seemed so calm, and they still did now, reflecting none of the anxiety Lisa was experiencing. “Why do you say so, human?”
“I just heard from one of my Darkstream bosses. He ordered me to either arrest you, or…or exterminate you. I have to assume the Darkstream soldiers in transit to here will know I’ve been given those orders, but either way, I doubt they’ll react to your presence positively. I have no idea when they’re going to get here. They could arrive within the hour. I’m not about to let any harm come to you or your people, Rug. I refuse to. Especially after everything you’ve done to help us.”
“And I refuse to abandon you to Daybreak, Lisa. I know that the others of my drift will feel the same.”
“You don’t understand, Rug. You must leave.”
“No, Lisa. You misunderstand me. We will leave Habitat 2. But we will not go far. My drift will remain nearby, and when Quentin Cooper returns to try to take from you what is rightfully yours, we will strike him with the full extent of our fury. That is not open to negotiation.”
Lisa felt a smile break over her face, and she surprised them both by reaching up to wrap her arms around the large alien. Rug seemed to take it in stride.
“Thank you, Rug.”
Chapter 15
Operational Details
The Darkstream soldiers finally arrived, and they didn’t bother to notify Lisa until their shuttles were landing on the roof of Habitat 2.
She quickly assembled a welcoming party, consisting of her, most of the new council, and some of the habitat’s prominent business leaders, including her friend Phineas Gage.
She even included Candace Peele, owner of the Swinging Eel, whose clientele had once consisted mostly of Daybreak and Three Points members. Peele herself had never been found guilty of anything, and the Swinging Eel had fallen on hard times since Quentin Cooper’s defeat.
Peele was currently in the midst of a halfhearted rebranding, but sometimes Lisa suspected she was quietly rooting for Cooper to return and take over Habitat 2 once more.
The freight elevator from Habitat 2’s roof opened, and a squad’s worth of soldiers poured out. Lisa was surprised to see that Mario Laudano was one of them.
She marched forward, drawing to a halt in front of him and stomping her right foot perfectly in line with her left, coming to attention. Her right hand snapped up to her temple in a crisp salute. “Welcome to Habitat 2, sir. I was not aware that you planned to personally lead the battalion.”
Laudano returned her salute, his much sloppier than hers, as though he found the exercise tiresome. “Ranking Darkstream security personnel don’t typically make a ha
bit of keeping seamen appraised of every little operational detail.”
Well, this seaman happens to have saved this city. She didn’t say that, though. “Yes, sir. Where are the rest of your soldiers?”
Laudano’s mouth twisted slightly. “They’ll be down shortly.”
And so they were. Ten shuttles had made their way from Valhalla, carrying a sizable force.
Things changed rapidly, after their arrival.
For one, Laudano’s people were even more standoffish than the Quatro had been toward humans who weren’t Lisa, Tessa, or Andy.
The Darkstream operatives marched the streets stiffly, in full uniform and carrying heavy artillery everywhere they went. Like the Quatro, they did not stop or make way for anyone else, instead claiming the right-of-way everywhere they went.
Lisa’s workload diminished drastically, which was a welcome change. However, the work she did find herself doing was much less interesting than investigating and prosecuting Daybreak, or helping the new council get accustomed to their administrative duties.
On his third day in Habitat 2, Laudano offered to renew Darkstream’s old contract with the council at a cut-rate price. It was an offer too good to refuse.
Not long after, Laudano approached Lisa in a jet-black pressure suit as she was training her militia out on Alex, in the evening hours after she got off work.
The militia had more than tripled in size since she’d started it. That only amounted to sixteen members total, but they’d come a long way, and she was proud of them.
That ended today, apparently.
“What is this?” Laudano barked over a wide channel, so that all of Lisa’s militia men and women could hear.
Hesitating, Lisa indicated her soldiers with a spread hand. “These people want to help defend their homes when Quentin Cooper comes for it.”
“I just brought an entire Darkstream reserve battalion for that purpose.”
“I realize that, sir…but the more fighters we have, the greater our chance of victory will be.”
Laudano shook his head back and forth vigorously. “Our chance of victory already rests at one hundred percent. As you well know, Darkstream soldiers are highly trained, and mine are some of the most battle-hardened in the entire company.”
I’m not sure Tessa would agree with that assessment. Indeed, the ex-soldier stood stiffly nearby, glaring at Laudano through her faceplate.
The commander didn’t seem to notice. “Speaking of which, Darkstream did not invest tens of thousands of credits in training you, Seaman Sato, so that you could give away that training for free. You are to desist immediately. That’s an order.”
“But, sir—”
“One more word, and I’ll mark you for disciplinary action. I’m not one who stands for having his orders questioned. Not in the slightest.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, Laudano spun neatly on his heel and marched back toward Habitat 2.
“I don’t trust that at all,” Tessa said, and Lisa’s HUD told her she spoke over a two-way channel.
“Neither do I.” She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but the fact that Laudano would want to stop her from increasing residents’ ability to defend themselves seemed very odd. It reminded her of the way the commander had insisted on the arrest of the Quatro, even though the aliens had helped retake Habitat 2, which should have been obvious to anyone with a system net connection.
Laudano still hadn’t asked what had become of the Quatro, and Lisa wondered whether he would. Maybe he had chosen to assume she had actually killed them, but wasn’t interested in dealing with the paperwork that would result from discovering that she had.
She opened up a wide channel with the members of her militia—one that excluded Laudano, who still hadn’t reached Habitat 2 yet.
“You heard the commander. I’m going to have to stop using Darkstream resources in order to train you.” That hadn’t been exactly what Laudano said, but the interpretation suited her purposes. “So I guess we’re just going to have to continue our training in lucid, aren’t we? I’m sending you the code for a meeting lobby now. In the meantime, I suggest you all go perform some ‘non-training related PT’ with Tessa, so that she can ensure your implants are calibrated to accurately reflect your physical abilities. Just as a favor to you, of course—nothing to do with our militia.” Lisa smiled at them. “I’ll see you all tonight.”
Chapter 16
Eyes Aglow
Gabe took pride in the fact that, the next time Jess appeared to him, he managed to keep his composure.
This time, she wasn’t standing directly in his path. Instead, he spotted her on a low hill to the right of the swath left behind by the quad. He almost missed her, in fact. That notion struck him as incredibly bizarre.
Imagine missing your own hallucination.
Would it still be hallucinating if you didn’t even notice your delusions?
It was a question for another time. For now, he stopped amidst the downed and splintered trees, staring at her and keeping his mech’s hands by its sides.
“Why are you running?” Jess said, in the same matter-of-fact fashion she’d always said…well, pretty much everything.
Gabe didn’t answer.
She looks just as beautiful as the day we…
No. More beautiful. Her beauty was increased by the fact he missed her so much.
“Are you running toward something? Or from something?”
“Toward,” Gabe said.
“I say from. And I think I’m right. So now that we’ve determined that, the only thing that’s left is to find out what it is you’re running from. Could it be the Quatro whose air you turned to fire under the orders of your employer?”
“Jess. Please.”
“You didn’t even give them the chance to fight, did you? You incinerated them in their homes. Is that how a soldier behaves?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I’m wrong about what you’re running from. What do I know? I do like guessing, though. Let me guess again. Maybe you’re still running from the Bastion Sector, back in the Milky Way. I was born in the Milky Way, just like you. But I only spent a couple of years there. I didn’t get the chance to see the things you saw. To do the things you did.”
Gabe didn’t speak, having already gained the sense that doing so would only make things worse. That had often been the way, with Jess.
“Are you running from the boy you found, after UHF bombs destroyed the radicals’ base on Thessaly? He begged you to kill him, didn’t he? He was gone below the waist, completely gone, and he was bleeding out, but it was taking a long time. There was no saving him. Probably. Either way, he begged you to kill him, and you did. Didn’t you?”
Everything in the world had turned various shades of blue. A MIMAS mech could not weep, but the dream did turn everything blue.
“Have you forgotten about the boy, Gabe? Have other horrors replaced his memory?”
A strong wind picked up, causing the sapphire trees to sway.
“I’m glad to have reminded you about him,” Jess said. “He seemed like he was probably a nice boy, all things considered. And he was even younger than I was when I died.”
Jess vanished, and at the same time, the woods regained their normal colors. Gabe was alone again.
He resumed running.
It was beginning to get dark. But something made him feel like he was getting close. The woods were thickening, and judging by the slightly reduced length of the quad’s strides, as indicated by its tracks, it had been slowed by it. Not by much, but some.
Gabe was not slowed. His path had been cleared by the quad’s labor, and soon he would catch up.
Then, I’ll kill it. For Jess.
The woods ended with an abruptness that clearly wasn’t natural. Someone had cleared a wide space, for defensive purposes.
Indeed, a tiny cluster of structures lay in the middle of the cleared area. When Gabe consulted his map, this wasn’t on it. That meant
mercenaries.
The thought didn’t stop him. Nothing but death would, now – he’d resolved that long ago.
Instead of stopping, he charged faster, intending to take anyone who remained in that ramshackle settlement by surprise.
But it was he who was taken by surprise.
The buildings were arranged in a rough circle, and in their center stood the quad, its eyes aglow in the waning light.
MIMAS mechs were much taller than Quatro, but inside its own mech, the alien came almost to the shoulders of Gabe’s.
It made no move toward him, and Gabe did what he could to arrest his own momentum, catching himself on the side of a shed, which caused the wood to splinter, buckle inward, and crack.
Twin cannons formed to flank the quad’s head, pointing straight at Gabe.
He leapt to his left.
Chapter 17
Feedback Mechanism
Gabe tucked into a roll as a blast of energy made a crater where he’d been standing. The quad turned to fire on him again, but he was still moving, speeding up, and the shot only succeeded in setting another wooden structure ablaze.
Ducking behind a third structure, he paused for a second to gather his wits and attempt to formulate some kind of plan. But the Quatro piloting the quad clearly had no intention of giving him any time for that. It fired again, this time with what seemed like armor-piercing rounds, against which the building Gabe hid behind offered basically no protection.
A round caught his arm, denting it and flinging it backward. Another hit his shoulder, causing him to spin. He turned into the revolution and fled once more, retracting his hands against his wrists and spinning up both autocannons to fire on his enemy as he did.
The Quatro was completely undeterred. It ran straight into the hail of bullets, the ordnance making pinging sounds as it glanced off the quad’s armor.
Steeling himself, Gabe squared up to meet the charge, bracing himself by shifting his right foot back and bringing both hands up before him, metal fingers spread to catch the beast.
Mech Wars: The Complete Series Page 27