The Peacemakers

by Jim Roberts

  His right hand moved down to metal switch on the side of his wheelchair Agrippina only noticed now.

  The realization hit the Olympus harlequin like a bullet in the brain.

  "GET OUT!" Agrippina screamed as she charged headlong towards the east window, leaping as quickly as her cyborg body could manage. The Praetorians were several seconds behind their master in figuring out what was about to happen.

  Mobus flipped the switch.

  With enough force to split the heavens, the house exploded into a brilliant fireball that stretched hundreds of feet into the dark sky.

  * * *

  THE CITY of Pripyat came into Whisper's view, just beyond the tree line in front of him. His mad dash down the forested slope from the farmhouse had put the stealth soldier and his sniper companion on the footstep of the city proper. As the first decrepit buildings came into view, he heard the sound of the farmhouse exploding a half mile behind him. He screeched to a halt, powering down the leg servos. Orchid pushed her way out from his grip.

  "Warn me before you do something like that again!" The sniper was obviously not used to being hauled around like a sack of groceries.

  "Sorry. It bought us a little time at least."

  The Praetorians would be undoubtedly following them. Whisper's stunt had only managed to gain them a momentary advantage by reaching the potential cover of the city first. He knew they would have to make a stand here.

  The city itself was surrounded by a large ten-foot high chain link fence. Every forty feet or so was a large yellow sign attached to the chain links reading−in Russian: Contaminated Zone−Keep Out! Whisper scanned the area with the built in Geiger Counter on his Heads-up-Display. Less than 0.03 REMs. Well within safe levels.

  Once considered a major railway and river cargo port−being serviced by the 700 kilometer Pripyat river−the city was now the very embodiment of a nuclear ghost town. Wildly overgrown brush and trees filled the city, ripping through the concrete of the streets as if in open rebellion to the civilization that once dwelled here. The apartment complexes had begun to waste away; their paintjobs scabrous and sallow. The dark skies above shrouded the city in perpetual gloom. Nothing moved in the city; no birds sang. Nothing.

  Pripyat was a memory long forgotten by the world.

  Whisper lead Orchid towards the fence. The sniper covered him, walking backwards while keeping her eye on the tree line to the north. Making certain the fence was not electrified, Whisper gripped the chain-links with his hands and gave a hard yank. The fence broke apart under his powerful grip. He stepped through and entered the city, followed close behind by the rookie, Orchid.

  * * *

  THE SMOKING wreckage of the farmhouse lay spread out around the acreage, with smoldering pieces of debris marking the location of Doctor Mobus's demise. Agrippina coughed out a lungful of dust as she rolled over from her prone position. Her ears were ringing like Notre Dame. She pulled herself onto her feet and looked around the devastated homestead. She was the only survivor she could see. Her other team of twenty Praetorians would be chasing down Callbeck as she stood here. In one single action, Mobus had robbed her of a whole squad of elite soldiers.

  Agrippina swore loudly to herself as she pulled the smoking ruin of her coat off. If she hadn't dived out the window as quickly as she had, the blast would have caught her full on. Instead, she'd been able to shield herself behind the large oak tree in the front yard. The tree had been blasted from its roots, but it had provided enough cover to absorb most of the ferocious shock the C4 explosion had caused.

  Now, Agrippina was left with only her rage as company. Her earpiece communicator squawked with an incoming call.

  "Commander Agrippina, this is Hyperion One, what was that explosion, over?"

  Agrippina placed a finger over her ear as she began checking her suit for damage. "Hyperions' One and Two, get your asses over to the city and begin low level flights along the perimeter! There are two targets on foot being chased by my remaining squad of Praetorians. Do not allow anything to leave the city. Repeat, if it isn't one of my men, kill it!"

  "Copy that Commander!"

  Agrippina's eyes narrowed as she took one last look at the ruined farmhouse behind her. Mobus had caught her off guard, had almost taken her out like a fool Centurion.

  She would not be caught unawares again.

  The Olympus executioner ran to the edge of the acreage and entered the forest. Her legs pumped faster and faster as her harlequin suit charged her adrenal glands with adrenaline. She charged down the hill towards the ghost city, murder in her heart.

  Callbeck would die. If it was the last thing she did.

  * * *

  THE STREET Whisper and Orchid were moving through was as desolate as the moon. Large strands of wild grass had broken through the concrete of the roads, springing up here and there like whiskers on a pockmarked face. The encroaching decay seemed to be consuming the city; eating it from the ground up.

  Whisper called up a map of the area on his HUD. The image showed a fairly detailed satellite image uploaded to the CIA database two months ago. They needed somewhere to defend against the Olympus forces following them.

  The two had been running for the past five minutes through the deserted city. Whisper had pulled his Compound Bow from his back and extended it. He knocked a titanium-edged arrow against the string, readying it to fire. It was time for a field test.

  Suddenly, the crack of gunfire resounded through the dead city like a thunderclap. Whisper turned and saw a cluster of twenty Praetorian troopers rushing after them, full tilt. Several troopers were in weapons range and were firing their TDI Vector Submachine guns for all they were worth. Whisper and Orchid cut and weaved through the decrepit buildings, trying not to provide their enemies with adequate targets.

  Danny placed himself behind Orchid, knowing his suit could take a bullet hit far better than the rookie sniper could. They turned down an eastbound boulevard that seemed to head straight towards the outer edge of Pripyat. According to the GPS in Whisper's helmet, the area in front of them was the Pripyat amusement park−built for the famous May Day celebration that was interrupted by the evacuation of the city. As they ran, Whisper could see the ten-story Ferris wheel peeking over the several dozen apartments lining the boulevard.

  "Whisper, they're getting closer!" Orchid was breathing hard, loaded down by the heavy sniper rifle.

  Danny was loathe to admit it, but no matter how hard she tried, Orchid was slowing him down.

  "We need to split up!"

  Orchid nodded, understanding why. She pointed at the closest apartment building. The twenty story high-rise was heavily degraded, but would make an outstanding vantage point for sniping. "I'll get up there and provide cover fire!"

  "That's crazy! They'll box you in!"

  Orchid hefted the large sniper rifle. "I'll be fine. What are you going to do?"

  Whisper gripped the bow tightly. "I'll lead them towards the amusement park up ahead. I need space to fight this many troops!"

  "What about Yune and Packrat? We can−"

  "I've been hailing them for the past few minutes. There's no response. We're on our own for now."

  Orchid was about to interject, but seemed to think better of it.

  "Alright Corporal, don't die on me." Orchid broke away from her teammate and charged towards the high-rise as fast as she could.

  Inside the suit, Whisper smiled, "You either, soldier."

  He could hear the clatter of automatic weapons fire filling the boulevard. The Praetorians were closing in. Separated from his companion, Whisper was now free to go all out. He rerouted power into the jump servos of the legs of the Whisper armor and charged forward through the boulevard. When the servos had charged significantly, he leapt off the ground. He soared twenty feet into the air before landing hard against an one of the condos opposite Orchid's location.

  He gripped the decrepit exterior of the building and hauled himself up towards the roof. Reaching the top,
he spun around and readied the bow, pulling a graphite arrow taught in the bowstring.

  The HUD zoomed in on the approaching shock troops. He targeted the nearest unlucky shmuck and, not missing a beat, loosed his arrow. The shaft rocketed towards its target with unerring accuracy. The titanium arrowhead burrowed into the braincase of the Praetorian and out the other side. Fragments of bone and brain matter exploded out in a shower of red as the body of the trooper crashed into the pavement.

  Elated at the lucky kill, Whisper immediately knocked a fresh shaft and fired again. Another trooper clutched his neck as the foot-and-a-half graphite shaft severed his arteries. Whisper was about to knock a third arrow when the unmistakable sound of a Hyperion caught his ears. Twisting around, he saw the obsidian aircraft, swooping in from the south.

  It was coming directly towards him.

  Whisper's perfect shooting blind had just become a perfect target for the concussive thermal cannons of the VTOL. He jerked his head to the left, up the boulevard. There were several more apartment buildings dotting the street towards the amusement park, but they were spaced too far apart. He'd never be able to jump to them.

  Whisper needed to act quick. The Hyperion was almost in range.

  Danny made up his mind.

  Just as the VTOL opened fire on the building, Whisper dove off the side. The rooftop was razed completely by the thermal fire of the VTOL. The building, already creaky from years of neglect, shook on its foundations. The VTOL continued firing, blasting the building with round after round of blazing cannonade. With a deafening groan, the building collapsed inward on itself; tumbling down in a massive implosion. A giant dust cloud burst into the street where the complex had once stood.

  * * *

  ORCHID HAD reached the ramshackle twenty-story apartment and was already up the flight of stairs to the tenth floor when she heard the sound of the Hyperion. The residence was open air, with all of the condos connected by a walkway surrounded by guardrails. Orchid rushed to the Southside of the apartment and saw the ruin of the building Whisper had been firing from. A massive dust cloud burst upwards from the demolished building.

  Orchid's stomach twisted as she searched the area. Corporal Callbeck was nowhere in sight.

  The Praetorians, however, were.

  Orchid knew her chances without the armored warrior were next to nil. She readied her PSG-1 against the guardrail and aimed. The first Praetorian that entered her sights had a 7.62mm iron-bore slug tear through his brain. The elite troops stopped, then moved towards the safety of cover−firing their weapons wildly.

  They were out of range for the moment.

  With practised ease, Orchid traced the crosshairs of the powerful rifle through the dust of the building, using the break in the action to look for Whisper.

  She found him.

  The armored Canadian was limping up the boulevard. Orchid could see he was hurt. A small trail of blood leaked out from a wound on his side.

  Orchid's attention was pulled from the stealth soldier and back towards the high pitched sound of the Hyperion. The VTOL had marked her location and was hovering towards her.

  Oh my god.

  Orchid didn't think twice. She dropped the rifle and rushed back the way she came. She was a fraction of a second ahead of a brilliant burst of cannon fire, spitting from the Hyperion's turret hardpoints. The explosive rounds ripped the section of walkway she had been standing on to pieces of fiery debris.

  Orchid ran like greased lightning through the building causeway, her lithe form nimbly dodging the falling debris. She realised what the Hyperion was trying to do. He was attempting to burn out the top floors and bring the building down on top of her. She was almost through to the other side and was about to make a near-suicidal dive over to the fire escape, when a large chunk of cement smashed down behind her. Orchid was knocked from her feet, her body sent sprawling towards the north-facing guardrail. She slammed into it hard. Orchid's vision blurred and she rapidly began to lose consciousness.

  The last thing she saw before blacking out was the encroaching flames of the fire rapidly consuming the building around her.

  * * *

  THE SKY had darkened considerably as Whisper limped down the boulevard. Drops of water spat down on the earth, and soon a heavy rain began to fall. As he limped towards the west side of the city, Danny clutched a hand around the wound in his side. The leap from the building had almost certainly saved his life, for the time being, but he'd landed badly on a piece of a metal fence surrounding the demolished apartment. The suit began allocating resources to closing the wound; fusing it shut with a medical sealant and administering topical painkillers to the area. After a moment, he was able to jog, rushing as fast as he could to the amusement park coming up closer and closer in his Heads-up-Display.

  He heard the Hyperion firing behind him. He half turned to see the VTOL firing on the apartment he'd ordered the Japanese Sniper to guard. Whisper watched as the top several floors collapsed downwards, falling in a rain of fire and ash.

  God no!

  Danny activated the comm in his helmet as he ran, "Orchid come in! Orchid!"

  Nothing.

  Danny prayed to the spirits she was alive. He jogged onward, feeling impacts of submachine gun fire hitting the area around him. The Praetorians were still on him, trying to go in for a kill shot. His wound had stopped hurting long enough for Whisper to pull extra strength from the Accretion device and charge forward towards the end of the boulevard.

  After a grueling two minute chase where he felt the impacts of two bullets on the back plating of his armor, Whisper arrived at the Pripyat Amusement Park.

  Or what was left of it.

  The area was wide open, with only an abandoned rec center to the south. Several attractions were strewn about the area: a bumper car pavilion, a swingboat ride and a completely rundown paratrooper carrousel. Everything in the area was covered with vines and overgrown with crabgrass.

  He would make his last stand here.

  The bow had been jostled from his hands after his fall. He was down to his Mantis Staff.

  What a way to end a little European vacation, he thought to himself, bemusedly.

  He pulled the staff from its sheath on his thigh and ignited it. Two and a half additional feet sprang forward from both ends of the grip, culminating in a six foot staff. He flourished the weapon, fully ready to take on the charging Praetorians.

  The shock troopers, seeing their enemy was more or less unarmed, holstered their weapons. They slowed and began to form a semi-circle, while drawing their katanas from the sheaths on their backs.

  Whisper, encased in his suit of metal armor, offered a prayer to his forefathers.

  My spirit is ready. If I am to die this day, let me take these enemies of mine with me to the other side!

  Whisper was about to charge when a voice broke through the standoff.

  "STOP! He's mine!"

  The Praetorians, silent as always, heeded the command and lowered their katanas. Walking down the boulevard behind them was the woman Danny Callbeck had dreamed of every night for the past eight months. The rain poured over her perfect alabaster skin and down the obsidian black and red harlequin body armor.

  That unmistakable smile.

  Agrippina.

  Alive.

  Chapter 20

  Titans of War

  Pripyat, Ukraine

  A vague thought swam through Whisper's mind. He was no longer the hunter. He was the prey. The predator had caught him: hurt and on unfamiliar ground. He flashed back to that moment in Canada, staring at the caribou. He had been correct all along. The feeling that had crept up in his mind for the last several days was real, more real then he cared to think. Here, by god, was the woman who had seduced his thoughts even when Danny had believed her dead. His heart soared in both joy and fear.

  "It's been awhile, hasn't it, Callbeck?"" Agrippina purred, walking with her typical grace towards her quarry.

  Whisper lowered the staf
f, the sight of the staggeringly beautiful woman searing him to the bone. "You are alive." Whisper breathed, as if trying to still convince himself of the fact. He noticed the brilliant red eye she now sported. It lent her a twisted, demonic look.

  "Yes, for better or worse." She tapped her bionic right leg. "It took a lot to get me back on my feet, so to speak, no thanks to you and your unit of heroes."

  "I wanted to save you." Whisper said, his raspy voice cracking with emotion, "I never wanted to hurt you."

  "Lies!" She spat.

  "You and I...we share something. I know you feel it!" Whisper's voice was almost pleading. He had to make her understand.

  "You are a fool like the rest of your Peacemakers. You know nothing about what is to come!"

  "Our spirits are one. You know it, don't you?"

  An incredulous smile spread across the harpy's face.

  A bolt of thunder split the sky.

  "You can't seem to get the message−we are the future, Callbeck. You and your kind will be swept aside."

  Whisper said nothing. Agrippina tossed her hair; sloshing drops of rain from her tresses. She turned towards the Praetorians surrounding her and barked, "Get back to that building and find the woman. Kill her and bring me her head!"

  "No!" Whisper shouted as loud as his voice could manage.

  "Wait!" Agrippina shouted to the Praetorians before they could leave.

  "Don't. She's not who you want. I hurt you. Punish me, not her." He dropped the Mantis Staff on the ground and raised his hands in surrender.

  Agrippina smiled her sardonic smile, "I respect your heart Danny Callbeck." She walked slowly towards him, stopping only when she was a mere three feet from Whisper. "I've never met another like you. Your courage and strength are unmatched. Why not come with me?"

  Whisper was not prepared for the question. "What?"

  "Join me. Join Olympus. Think of what we could do together, Danny! Us against the world! Our hearts, our passion! United, nothing could stop us, not even the Imperator! We could have everything!"