by Jessie Wolf
“Good evening Wave Dancer, decide to join us in the fun? Over”
“Short Shot would you care to explain just what the hell you four are doing out here? Over”
“Wave Dancer, I could ask the same question of you. However Jericho sent out an alert that we had unexpected and unwelcome visitors coming in from the practice range. So we decided to give them a little welcoming party. Over”
Ok this changes things and in a good way. I contact Alice and bring her into the loop. “Koneko Mistress we have some help out here time to change our battle plan. Over”
“Who the hell is out here at this time of the night Dancer? And don’t tell the rest of the Chasers followed us. Over”
Dana answers for me. “That would be us Mistress everyone’s favorite bunch of misfits. Maiha’s Outlaws.”
“Damn Short Shot. You got Sticker and Long Shot with you? Over”
“Them and Lancelot, Koneko. If you and Dancer take out the B team we’ll handle the A team shmucks. Over”
I cut in and give the go ahead as it would be easier for me to change position and target. Moving with the grace learned from my mama and sisters, but with a speed born out of necessity I cross over to meet up with Alice. I don’t try and figure out how our friends are going to take on the second team. If anything they will use their advantage in speed, fire power, and knowledge of the land to hit the second team with the thunderbolt. It’s up to me and Alice to take care of our targets. Thirteen deep strike /infiltrators’ belonging to the Black Rose order. Not good odds for most people, but we weren’t most people. Alice may not have all the training of a full Death Dealer, but I have been working with her. Now she is just as good outside of an APS cockpit as in it.
We split them up between us. I tag the ones I am taking with a red targeting triangle. Alice paints hers with yellow squares. Only the one on the far end has both, meaning that whoever gets there first gets the man. I receive a coded message from Dana saying they were ready to strike. I give the go ahead. What happens next surprises me and Alice. The night sky lights up as four heavy barrel pulse lasers strafe across the A team position. This was followed quickly by two medium machineguns. The raw firepower those four poured into the enemy position was awe inspiring.
Needless to say it was just the distraction Alice and I needed. We hit the secondary team before they knew we were even there. I took Alice’s advice and used my swords. I may not be as well trained as mama, but I still know how to knife fight. To me the swords were no more than extra-long knives. We each drop one of our targets before we start taking fire from the others. The impacts form the assault rifle rounds didn’t even register. It takes more than small arms fire to get through our armor. That’s when something clicks in my head. There should be more in coming fire than what we’re receiving.
“Charlie, run a diagnostic on the sensor data, now!”
Doing it now, commander. (Charlie)
Within the blink of an eye over half of our targets disappear. “Shit! Alice we’ve been had! This is a diversionary force. The main attack is back at the Temple!”
“GO! I and the others will handle these shitheads.” She screams out to me as she cuts down another of the enemy with her swords.
I don’t waste time arguing with her and head for the Temple at top speed. As I near it I come under fire from the foot of the steps. My HUD comes on line painting four men armed with assault rifles. I am still outside the Temple so I can use my anti-personnel lasers. My attack catches them off guard cutting them down before they even knew what hit them. I don’t slow down as I hit the steps leading up to the Temple doors. Even from out here I can hear the clash of steel on steel.
I have Charlie give me a readout of how many people are inside with my family. What I see does not make my happy. There are seven Black Rose assholes in there with my family by almost two to one. Time to even out the odes a little. I head straight for the two facing off with Fuyuko on the way past mama I drag my wakizashi through one of her three. I hit my intended target full on. The man doesn’t have chance as my katana cuts him and his armor in half. The man was dead before he even knew what happened.
I let Fuyuko deal with her last opponent and turned to help mama who was still facing off against two Black Rose men. However, I never got the chance as Recco met me half way across the floor in the middle of our new sisters. “Good evening, Prefect. It’s not every day one gets the chance to welcome someone back from the dead.” I take in the way he is armed. Broad headed spear, short sword, and shield. Then I take in his stance. Feet shoulder width apart, shield arm low across the middle, spear held in a ready position. This man knows nothing of Japanese martial arts weapons. All his training has come from a classical European education.
“Why, thank you, Lady Maiha, or should I say Lord Owens?” the man’s sneer was enough to turn my stomach. “I must admit that I wasn’t too sure the reboot would work. Then again I never thought I would need it to cover up my death. So tell me Lord Owens, what it like is to be a psychopath. Have you turned on any of your old friends yet?”
“You know, there is a reason why the Death Dealers only pick the best of the best. The first requirement is to be willing to stand up to bullies. So tell me how is it the Black Rose is able to field a bunch of shitheads like yourself?”
“Did you fools really think that the Temples couldn’t get our hands on the Death Dealer tech? Do you know how many Dealers leave the service to join us after their time in service? It took us some time to reverse engineer the process, but then we had plenty of volunteers to help out. It’s a shame we never got our hands on someone like you though, or any officer class AI. However all that’s about to change. I would have preferred to do this back at the school, but here is just as good. This way I have all the reason to destroy this blasphemous Temple that has been a thorn in our side for so long. Just as we had your son and daughter killed. I will now complete our work.”
I smile at the fool and step back. I bow to him, and then take my stance. “Hello, my name is James J. Owens. You killed my family, prepare to die.” With that I let all the long pent up rage over the deaths of my children comes raging forward. I leave nothing behind as I attack this man who I would have called friend. Decades of pain at having to bury my children before their time. The pain it caused my beloved Matsu at not being able to protect them from the corruption within the Temples. I let him have it all.
He stabs at me with his stolen spear. My wakizashislashes out pushing it to the side. I bring my katana down on his shield to slice it in half taking part of his arm with it. Still he doesn’t surrender, but strikes out at me again with his spear. Again my wakizashi lashes out, but this time it knocks his spear from his hand. The bastard jumped back over one of the cocoons before I can cut him. That’s when I get my first good look at his left arm. There is no blood, only wires and metal rods were there should be bone and muscle. He pulls his short sword and strikes in my distraction. The force of his blow as he clears the cocoon plus his own strength is staggering. If I had not caught the blow on my wakizashi I might have actually been hurt. That is when I get a real surprise. Charlie paints a schematic over the High Prefect Recco. I push off and jump back to gain some room.
My sudden move gets the man laughing. “So the great and powerful Death can be made to feel fear.”
“I fear no man or cyborg. You are not the real Johnathan Recco. Just who the hell are you?” I now understood what the son-of-bitch meant by reboot.
“Why James, I would have thought that was obvious by now? I have given you more than enough clues. Surely you are not so old and feeble that you have forgotten your oldest ‘friend’ are you?” the more he talked the more time I had to put the pieces together. His fighting style, the old friend comments, his knowing me for a long time that’s when I remember a comment he made in the Headmasters office. I flash back to that day as if it was just yesterday. There was only one man from that class who ever served on my command staff, and it was not John Recco
. Only one man who could have become a ‘friend’.
“It would appear, Maxwell, that I am not the only one to have a change in appearance.”
“Ah, finally the light dawns, thank you so much for remembering me, James. Then again I should not be too harsh with you. After all the last time you saw me I was burned over ninety percent of my body! You left me to die on that God forsaken Hellhole! Just like I left your daughter to die at Havens Mist. That’s right James I was the one who gave the clearance for those drop ship’s lift off. I was also the one who worked the orders that got your son killed all those years ago on El Diablo. Now I finally get to kill you. How you escaped your death in the last war I do not know, or how you even came to be here is beyond me. However, all that is in the past and your luck has finally run out. You may be a secondary reconfiguration Death Dealer old ‘friend’, but I was reborn to put down those like you.”
“You know something, Maxwell. You always did think too highly of yourself. That and you talk too much. Now shut up and fight.” I put actions to words. This time he didn’t try to back away. But came right at me. The cyborg piece of shit was stronger than me. I was faster than he was. His metallic body was as tough as my armored hide. In short we were evenly matched, and unless I can get him outside where I can use my more powerful weapons I’m screwed. Sooner or later I’ll get tired and make a mistake, I need to get real lucky here, and end this now. He may only have the one sword but he has one arm to use as a shield. No matter what I do he manages to block every attack.
“Maiha, control your anger, and find your center. Remember what you have been taught. You are a Nakatoma Lady, now act like it.” Mama must have been listening to what was going on behind her. However that didn’t matter, what did was what she said. The katana and wakizashi were weapons of skill and grace, not brute strength. I change my style from relying on strength to one of precision strikes. My sudden change in tactics is all I need to throw Maxwell off. My first cut removes what’s left of his ruined left arm. My next two remove his right arm and both legs at the knees. I spin up out of the crouch I had gone into while removing his legs. I take a quick look around see that the only Black Rose knight still alive is Maxwell. It seems that my family got a little pissed off at someone daring to threaten someone under the protection of our family Temple.
Mama walks over to where I am standing over Maxwell. “Maiha, who or what is this?” using her toe she nudges Maxwell’s shoulder.
“Mama, allow me to introduce the biggest piece of human filth I ever had the misfortune to know or what’s left of him, Maxwell Reginald Slade. The traitor of Klendathu, the bastard who ordered Jimmy’s team on a one way mission to El Diablo, and gave the orders to Stonewall to abandon the third Calvary on Havens Mist leading to Ohmie’s death. A man I once called friend. However that is no longer the case. Tell me Max, if I chop off your head will that even kill you?”
“Go to hell, you cybernetic slut. Why should I tell you anything? You and your ‘family’ are no better than me. How much of your bodies are still organic?” he may be down but he’s not out.
“We may be more cybernetic than we care to admit, Mr. Slade, but we still have our honor, and our souls. We did not sell that which is most dear to us.” Mama may appear to be this serene and peaceful person, but I can tell you right here and now the woman is pissed. “I do not know what made you hate a man that treated you as a friend so much as to turn traitor, and seek revenge upon him by destroying all he held dear. Nor do I care why you hate my family so much, but you and your fellow traitors to the Empire will be stopped.” I step in before she cuts the man’s head off.
With my hand holding back her arm I look down at Maxwell. “As much as I hate to say this mama, we still need him. If for only a little while longer, he has answers to some of our questions.”
“I’ll tell you nothing. You took everything from me and so many others. You have gladly left the remains of hundreds of Death Dealers on battlefields across the Empire. All to feed your ego and that of a man who has no right to rule.” The more Maxwell ran his mouth the madder I became. “You left me your friend to die in a burning Armed Personnel Carrier, to save that worthless fool.”
I grab him by the neck and lift him off the floor so I can look him in the eye. “You gave your oath to protect that ‘fool’ with your life! He is our Emperor! Every Death Dealer knows that his life comes before their own. You forget that! Then again you always did think too highly of yourself. I remember your ranting about how only Death Dealers should rule, as we were the only ones to know what sacrifice really was. That we should lead a revolt, and overthrow the Government. Place ourselves in charge, so that the blood of our friends would not have been ‘wasted’. You never understood what it truly meant to be a citizen of the Empire. All of the girls here in these cocoons know more about that than you ever did.”
“It won’t matter what these freaks think. When the Temples hear of what you’ve done here they will demand your deaths and all those who have helped you. You have violated every ruling they have ever passed down on this type of order. Only the Black Rose and Crimson Shield are allowed to carry weapons. We are the true Guardians of the Temples. All others are heretics and pretenders. We are the ones blessed by the Gods, not you and this family Temple. By the time we get done with you all family Temples shall be outlawed as they should be. You have no understanding of the will of the Gods.”
“How soon?” it was all I asked.
“They will be here when the Gods decide.”
“So in other words we have time. Even if your men or you got a signal out in the last few hours we still have ten to twelve weeks before they can even dispatch a force strong enough to pose a threat to our new orders and Temple annex.”
“It will not matter we will descend upon you like the avenging angels we are. You have no idea of how strong our two orders really are.”
“That is where you are wrong, Prefect Slade.” Mama was for some reason smiling the cat that eat the canary smile. “I know exactly how many members there are in both orders. You see you may have your spies, but so do the rest of us.” When Maxwell became confused at this mama just giggled. “Did you really believe that other orders do not talk with each other? We all know exactly how many men and women the Black Rose and Crimson Shield keep under arms within each Temple. Not only within our own, but also those your orders claim as your own.”
“You lie just like in everything else. There is no way the other orders would dare spy upon their most holy Guardians.” Maxwell was practically spitting he was so mad. The thought that those who have been oppressed by him and his fellows was so foreign to him it was inconceivable. “The other orders know that the true way into Paradise is through our teachings. They would never betray His Holiness Cardinal Richelieu. He is the real power behind the throne. It is only a matter of time before He and the Temples take our rightful place as the rulers of this Empire and lead the masses out of the darkness.”
Something was wrong here I could detect his AI, but everything he was saying went against Death Dealer training and beliefs. It was as if his AI has been corrupt and it was twisting his personality. I have only ever seen this with Death Dealer recruits that have gone through a ‘split’. He had his far too long for that to occur, unless.
“Dee De, uplink and scan his AI. Charlie back her.”
You suspect something, don’t you, Maiha. (Dee De)
Seconds later a full readout of what was going on with his AI said everything. Almost every file or line of code within the operating system is corrupted.
“Dee De can you give any idea for when all this happened?”
Commander the damage occurred over forty years ago. It seems that at one time his AI tried to activate the secondary configuration, and failed. (Charlie)
“Shit, no wonder he is crazy.”
Looking Maxwell in the eyes. “Your AI is faulty and you’re insane. You’re suffering from some kind of ‘split’ Maxwell. You have been for some ti
me now. I can also tell that the only thing left of your original body is your brain and AI. You sir are nothing more than a machine housing the brain of a Death Dealer with a screwed up AI.”
Everyone was shocked at hearing this, even mama. Maxwell just laughed at me. As if it he just didn’t care, like it was some great big joke he’s played on the universe. “My AI has been nothing more than a retarded child for so long it is pathetic. As for my ‘body’ well it was by Cardinal Richelieu’s orders I was given this second chance. You would have let me die so yes I swore my allegiance to him. He gave me everything I needed to get my revenge on you and through you on this Temple of depravity.”
“That sir, is where you made your mistake. You sold your soul for something that you could never have. You blamed my brother-in-law and my family for your own bad luck.” I could tell mama was in full Reverend Mother Mode now. “You gave up your humanity for revenge on the one person who would have helped you. You are truly pathetic. There is no salvation for one such as you. What I cannot fathom is why you would target such an honorable man as James J. Owens?” I watched as mama tried to grasp Maxwell’s twisted need for revenge on me.
“I will still have my revenge for all the wrongs your family has heaped upon the Temples by distorting the true teachings of the Gods. You may kill me but my brothers shall rain down my vengeance upon you all. Your little rebellion will die before it can even begin. Soon you will see the full might of our orders.” Oh boy Maxwell really has gone round the bend and there is no coming back from there.
“That is where you’re wrong Maxie, not only will we survive, but we will obliterate your corrupted orders. Then we shall haul Cardinal Richelieu before the High Court Justices to face charges of sedition. The time of retribution is at hand and your order is first in line. Starting with you.” I was done talking to this fool. I remove his head from the rest of him with a single stroke of my katana. I drop his head and turn to the rest of my family. “This is what we are facing little sisters. Two to three religious orders filled with fanatics. The last war was fought between professional soldiers, men and women who knew where to draw the line. This time there will be no separation of civilian and military. All those we shall face will be filled with righteous fury at us daring to defy what they believe to be the only way to find Paradise. To this end they will be willing to be dead so long as they take you with them.”