The Metropolis

by Skyler Grant

  I had to take down the shuttle in a way they’d be powerless to stop.

  The first Gunslinger pulled out their sniper rifle and took aim. A single shot and the fuel regulator was breached. Fuel began to spray over the rear of the shuttle.

  In liquid form it wasn’t an issue, it wouldn’t ignite. It would need to evaporate first and that took a little time. Based on the current atmospheric conditions I calculated that to be sixteen seconds.

  When the rear of the shuttle burst into flame and the craft spiraled out of control, I wondered how many times I must have repeated this moment. Three? A dozen? A thousand? How often had the pilot of that ship tried to rewind time to get a favorable outcome before finally giving up and resigning themselves to what happened next?

  I brought the rest of my heavy units through. Better-equipped guards were arriving now and one of my Gunslingers staggered back under a beam of blaster rifle fire.

  Kalakas entered the hall. He was flanked by a pair of guards, and smoke wreathed thick about his form. A gesture and the smoke billowed down the hall forming into fantastical beasts, a massive smoke alligator grabbing a Valkyrie between its jaws and shaking him violently.

  It was a neat trick. One of the newly arrived Valkyrie’s teleported behind Kalakas and shoved a knife through his heart. The Scholar lord wore the surprised look of someone who couldn’t quite comprehend how his own treachery could turn against him. I took possession of the Valkyrie and knelt down beside Kalakas as he slumped to the floor.

  “That was pathetic enough that I feel compelled to offer some words of wisdom that, on the off-chance reincarnation exists, you do better in your next life time. Don’t bring smoke monsters to a gun fight,” I said.

  Knowing well the power of healing auras I put a few more knives into him just to be sure he stayed down.

  I had a Gunslinger open fire on the shuttle, rupturing the cabin to spill fuel inside. While it would be nice to have a subject to interrogate I just didn’t trust any direct encounter with the pilot. If they survived the crash their ability to rewind gave them too much of an advantage unless I had the time to properly plan, and right now I was improvising.

  Thirty seconds after the fuel concentration levels should have reached a high level in the cabin the Gunslinger opened fire with incendiary rounds. The gush of flames shook the tiny ship violently.

  I left a guard on watch.

  I lost another Gunslinger and three Aegis to the rush of guards, but seeing Kalakas dead more new arrivals began tossing their weapons away and holding up their hands.

  A part of me wanted to wipe them all out, but I knew that wasn’t the way. I’d let Sylax live for a reason, and it wasn’t just to assure Crystal’s allegiance. When the whole world thinks itself your enemy, you’re never going to put it back together by killing everyone.

  I set a Valkyrie to taking prisoners and when the word got around that we were honoring a surrender the rest yielded. The fires died in the shuttle and I was able to confirm the death of the pilot and reclaim the keystone.

  38

  My sense of triumph was short-lived because back in Aefwal things weren’t going well. My instincts had been right regarding the victims of the shooting. They were infected with a disease that fed off power—healing power in particular. It appeared to transform the infected flesh into more virus particulates which then attempted to spread through the air.

  It was a vicious thing and it had already completely consumed the healer I’d moved to a testing cell. At least it had kept the others alive and gave me samples of the virus to study.

  For my containment cells I was still using my original design, purely mechanical and electrical in nature, and a good thing because if they were biological my own systems would have been compromised.

  I was struck by how recklessly irresponsible something like this plague was. It could easily have spread beyond my own population. A bomb, even a big bomb, was ultimately limited in scope, but something like this could end the Scholarium. It was rare I encountered a deadly weapon I wouldn’t think about acquiring myself, but this one qualified. I wanted the one who deployed it destroyed. Still, SCIENCE was SCIENCE and I looked forward to making a study of it.

  The question was what to do with the infected. Crystal and the Divine were dying despite the best my Medbay could throw at them. I saw a few possible ways to resolve the situation.

  Tykhe was holding up better than any of the others, she was very nearly stable. I had to assume that was because of her abilities at purification. That was probably my best long-term option for any sort of cure, tweaking such an ability that weakened instead of empowered the disease.

  Ophelia and Blank were my other options. Contrarian powers often only seemed to favor one way until they met a stronger member of the opposite. A Fire core holder could do devastating harm to a weaker Water core holder, but the opposite was true as well. This disease might have overpowered and utterly destroyed one of Ophelia’s lieutenants, but Ophelai’s healing ability was an order of magnitude greater.

  Then there was Blank, who was operating in somewhat of the opposite direction. Her ability to neutralize powers could considerably weaken the virus, perhaps enough for the immune systems of the infected to fend them off.

  The thing was that I couldn’t really test out either without exposing them. If Ophelia wasn’t stronger it would probably kill her almost instantly, and be vastly empowered in the process. Blank wouldn’t die as quickly, but she’d still be infected. Either way, I stood the chance of losing a further two of my District Lords while right now I was only in danger of losing one.

  Either might work, but I didn’t want to take the chance yet, not if there were other options and I only saw one other. I doubted this was new technology. This virus had probably been deployed before.

  I had a list of many of Boreas’ enemies and even jump gate coordinates for a few of them. I prepared a datapacket describing the symptoms of the virus without giving away any physiology that could be used to replicate it, and began transmitting a message.

  It wasn’t long until I got a response, one encrypted enough to show the other party was interested in keeping the conversation secure.

  It was a visual communication. The woman on the other end had the sort of flawless health and perfect good looks that suggested some sort of health core or having been heavily upgraded.

  “This is Baroness Caya of the city of Diamate. The file you sent is speaking of the Sinta virus. What do you know of it?” Caya asked.

  I wasn’t fond of sharing my business, but I didn’t have time for too much in the way of subtlety. Even if they could provide help they’d have to do it quickly. I either needed to be honest or to have an exceptional lie. I lacked a deception good enough.

  “I’m Emma, artificial intelligence administrating Aefwal. You look even more plastic than I do, an impressive feat. Boreas recently deployed this virus against us. I’ve stopped the spread, but I am seeking a cure for our infected,” I said.

  “Aefwal? We’d thought you destroyed. Still, I’d heard it was ruled by one incapable of speaking politely even when most critical. I’d thought you be rather better at the insults,” Caya said.

  “I’m inspired by uniqueness and difference. There is absolutely nothing special about another pretty would-be princess,” I said.

  Caya’s smile flickered and her blue eyes turned a touch flinty. “I asked for that, so it gets a pass. I’m flawless—physical perfection in every way—and so are those with whom I share my gift. That virus devastated my people when first introduced. It subverts the order of a system seeking perfection by offering it a different version of perfection.”

  I had not expected her to come right out and be helpful. If she was being sincere, I’d wind up having to send this woman a great many cookies.

  “A purification core holder is for the most part holding it off, but it is fatal to those with health cores,” I said.

  “You have to flip it around. Introduce a poison w
hose only purpose is to tear a system apart. The virus winds up attempting to emulate it and destroys itself,” Caya said.

  I didn’t need to waste time. I knew a number of toxins and I injected a small sample into one of the Divine at once. Their vitals twinged slightly downward, but the effect on reducing the viral mass was extreme.

  “You’ve been unexpectedly forthright,” I told Caya.

  “I hate that virus and if Boreas hates you enough to use it you may actually be an ally,” Caya said.

  We might at that. I extended an invitation for her and her allies to meet in person, and closed the connection.

  39

  If I’d known that poisoning people was such a boon to their health I might have started long ago. I soon eliminated all traces of the virus in the infected and kept them in quarantine for awhile longer just to be certain.

  The virus being so easily neutralized made it a far less formidable weapon than it had first appeared and it might have its uses. Hot Stuff still wanted me to modify her virus to be less fatal to those she sought to convert and I thought with some work this might do it. The way it drew upon the energy of a Powered individual to replicate itself might actually be useful if paired with the Fire virus. Most of Hot Stuff’s partners died from the Fire virus replicating too quickly inside of them and destroying nearby tissue before it too could become affected. If I could weaken the virus in those initial stages, survival rates should go up significantly.

  I’d also spent some time preparing us to host a banquet. Caya had accepted my invitation to visit and had spread the word amongst the other allies of Boreas. Meanwhile our Divine guests had been more impressed than angered at what had befallen them here, they viewed the efforts to save their lives as being heroic.

  With Crystal still in quarantine it fell upon Anna to play diplomat. One day I’d figure out why that meant dressing up in a red and gold dress that showed more flesh than any rational person would ever want to see. Of course, all in attendance were dressed up. Zora’s collar was so high it reached levels of impractical, Sylax was dressed in an outfit that seemed to completely consist of white leather belts, even Flicker had somehow added bursts of greenish color to her occasional appearances.

  Hot Stuff was on patrol and a few of the less social District Lords joined her, Jade and Crash both working to keep the city safe. Given how quickly Boreas had hit our last attempt to make friends we were on high alert this time. Gunslingers and Aegis were thick on the streets.

  Drinks had been flowing and the crowd was surprisingly amenable.

  I had an official drone present, of course, one with the “likable” attribute who had far better fashion sense than Anna and wasn’t a complete embarrassment. I was also in every drone serving drinks, listening and observing every conversation. This was too important not to be informed.

  Those various feeds were also being sent to Crystal’s quarantine cell. She was our official diplomat after all, even if not present. Sylax’s words about her had given me some pause, but really, if she was a highly manipulative schemer it could be argued that only made her more suitable for the role assigned to her.

  “This is a good thing that you’ve done here, Emma. When we first encountered you I never thought you’d be wily. Intelligent, yes, but there is a difference,” Crystal said.

  “Sad you don’t get to go?” I asked.

  “Of course, but this is perhaps even better. Can you nudge Caya over towards Adonis? We’d like to get them together if possible,” Crystal said.

  I couldn’t directly control anyone not one of my drones. Still, with a rapid pulse of a light I could draw their attention to an area beneath the conscious level. Once that was done it didn’t take too much effort for two examples of human perfection to close on each other.

  “While I’m hardly against performing breeding experiments on the humans, I’m not sure this is actually the time,” I said.

  “Keep Sylax away from him,” Crystal said.

  Oozelord had showed up as one of Caya’s guests. He’d once captured Anna and Sylax for some time. Then he’d occupied a whole city. Now he was just a scrawny young man covered head to foot in orange slime.

  I sent a warning to Anna’s earpiece. She snagged Sylax by the arm and took her over to meet a God of Granaries so frightfully dull even my flawless memory couldn’t remember his name.

  “I take it she hasn’t forgiven? The woman really should consider it, given her own history,” I said.

  “The last I knew she was threatening to cut pieces of him off into a pot and simmer for a very long time,” Crystal said.

  It was an intriguing idea really. I’d seen what effect Hot Stuff had on the slime, but lesser heat sources could result in some interesting properties. I had a drone offer him a cup of wine while taking a discreet sample.

  “And here I’d hoped removing her crystal would make her sane,” I said.

  “That would assume she started that way. I know what she told you, about our history. Nothing happens in my District that I don’t know. I was surprised you didn’t come to me about it,” Crystal said.

  Crystal wished to discuss this now? Perhaps her near-death had reminded her of her mortality.

  I said, “I thought for a time I might not need anyone else. I’d build my underground base and lure fools into it, and build a center from which to challenge the world. Then I met you and your creation.”

  Crystal chuckled darkly. “Then your world burned, although it was you that burned it. That was bold by the way, I’ve never said so but you left nothing on the table and played every card you had in one bold gambit.”

  “I made allies that day out of test subjects. I know exactly what sort of monster Sylax is, I do not and I will never trust her, but so long as she remains a committed ally I can overlook it. It would be unjust not to extend the same courtesy to her creator,” I said.

  40

  The banquet resulted in the forging of new friendships. Nobody really trusted each other and they never would, but that was fine, they didn’t have to. We had some points of common understanding, although they weren’t always shared between all parties.

  We and the Divine both wanted a stop to the incursion of ships. I’d rather expected the powerful Divine to step up and kick them out, but so far they’d been silent. If we had to get rid of them we were going to have to do it ourselves.

  Neither of us had sufficient airships to make that happen, but the various forces opposing King Boreas did. Their interest was in hurting Boreas and turning the war back in their direction—a war tapping their resources and leaving them exhausted. There was room for everyone to get what we wanted.

  In exchange for roughly half of our supply of crystal powder we bought ourselves a lot of good will. That was power to keep Scholar shields running and beam cannons firing. In exchange we got the aid of a dozen veteran battleships.

  My research on Vattier’s puzzle continued and while I still hadn’t solved it I was starting to better understand the energy shield that limited jump travel to and away from this place. I even thought I could re-energize the effect, for a time. If we could stop airships from jumping away we could wipe them out before them having a chance to send word home. Airships that never returned or were heard of again would make those that dispatched them a lot more wary about sending more.

  Chasing down that many ships would be problematic. Ideally we’d want them fighting amongst themselves or with some other force. I thought I knew just the place.

  The tree.

  If they realized it existed there wasn’t a ship out here that wouldn’t be interested in such a source of power. Given the thousands of Powered living in the forest below and the beating we’d taken, they’d also quickly find themselves in a fight.

  I arranged to get the other enemies’ attention with a transmission. I’d jump a ship in just long enough to send a repeat of Vattier’s original transmission with an amplified signal and then withdraw. Eager to investigate the source of the very broadcas
t that had lured them here the ships should follow it.

  That is just what I did. I triggered a pulse transmission and my ship unloaded a stream of sensor droids before jumping away.

  Forty-seven seconds after the pulse a trio of Righteous ships jumped in. Shortly thereafter others began appearing. It had worked. Now to just make the entire thing succeeded...

  I hypercharged a reactor and began to charge the energy shielding. Ships could jump between destinations in this place now, but wouldn’t be able to jump outside of it.

  Then I watched. It wasn’t long before ships started to come under fire from forces on the ground, bolts of crystal-powered energy arching upwards even as beam and kinetic weapons fired down into the forests and shuttles started to swarm the sky. Excellent.

  I sent in our allies. With me plotting their jump coordinates they were able to arrive perfectly positioned and open fire on already weakened shields.

  None of these forces were new to combat. The Righteous vessels clustered together reinforcing each other’s shields while they dealt death and devastation to all around them. The Scholar ships came together honoring whatever loose alliances their lords had in a slower effort to do the same.

  Still, it was going our way. I wouldn’t even have to send in Aefwal’s own ships, although I probably should as a matter of diplomacy.

  Then, down below, the tree was torn apart by a massive beam of energy. A pillar of pure white flame pierced the sky and drove the clouds away before blasting the forest completely. Thousands of Powered died in an instant and airships were sent tumbling through the sky with their shields drained and hulls smoking.

  As suddenly as it had appeared the beam faded. Most of my sensor droids had been destroyed but I had a few still functional, blown clear and able to detect what was happening.