by Isaac Hooke
“I don’t believe this is the same city you were in underneath their homeworld,” Surus said. “But rather a duplicate. And the bioengineered creatures you encountered at the time would not survive in this atmosphere, which has been created to accommodate your clones, no doubt in preparation for the invasion.”
Fret’s mech was staring at the globe of light suspended on the high ceiling.
“So how do you explain all this light, and the glowing buildings, smarty-pants?” Fret said.
“No idea,” Lui said.
“Notice how Lui automatically assumed you were talking about him?” TJ said.
“Maybe they just want to test that the eyes of their clones are actually working,” Tahoe said.
“Remember, the Mahsattva consider themselves at least half human,” Rade said. “Or they used to, after the last alien war, when so many humans were assimilated into their Sentience. So this light might be a way of appeasing the human side of them. No human being wants to remain in darkness for long, after all.”
“So many humans were assimilated...” Manic said. “We were like a virus to them. Our thoughts intruding upon their alien ways, civilizing them.”
“Well, it appears they’ve regressed,” Lui said. “What with their invasion of Earth...”
“Maybe they haven’t regressed at all,” Tahoe said. “Maybe they think they’re coming home.”
Rade led the intrepid band of mechs into the city.
“I’ve marked the location of the Sentience on your maps,” Surus said.
Rade accepted the marker data request, and on the overhead map a conical building became highlighted. It was located near the far side of the city.
“I bet it smells like Manic’s pussy in here,” Bender said.
“How would you even know what Manic’s pussy smells like?” TJ said.
“What do you think?” Bender said. “He never wears tampons.”
“Dude, I don’t have a pussy,” Manic said.
Rade steered the Argonauts through the city toward the target structure. He felt dwarfed by those towering crystal buildings, even in his ATLAS.
“I still can’t believe we’ve made it this far,” Manic said. “Sneaking inside an alien ship to the very control center. And none of them have noticed! Stupid bastards.”
A scorpion unit stepped away from its guard position in front of one of the buildings to approach Rade, who froze.
“Guess I spoke too soon,” Manic said.
twenty-nine
The scorpion walked right up to Rade’s mech and moved its head up and down, as if examining the ATLAS.
“What do I do?” Rade asked Surus.
“Remain calm,” Surus said. “Don’t do anything to provoke it.”
The scorpion placed its head right up to Rade’s cockpit, almost touching it, and then stepped away. It proceeded down the line to examine each of the mechs in turn.
After finishing its study of the mech on drag, piloted by Harlequin, the scorpion stepped backward. It seemed to cock its head for a moment, and then blasted a series of incomprehensible tones into the air, its eyes cycling through many different colors.
“What’s it doing?” Lui said.
“Attempting to communicate manually,” Surus said. “Since we’re not properly answering its EM queries.”
“Can you answer it?” Rade asked.
“Unfortunately ATLAS speaker systems can’t mimic the range of frequencies employed by the Mahasattva data language,” Surus replied. “Also, we have no way to display the colors.”
The scorpion abruptly ceased emitting sound and its eyes reverted to normal. It clanged its metal claws together loudly.
“That can’t be good,” Fret said.
More scorpions rapidly emerged from the nearby building, which was apparently a barracks of some kind. They formed an offensive half circle in front of the structure.
“Not good at all,” Fret said.
Rade counted twelve in total in that half circle so far, but more were continuing to emerge. Those at the forefront reared their tails, and the turrets at their tips targeted different mechs.
“Shields in place!” Rade said.
“Wait!” Surus said.
But it was too late; Rade had already swung his shield to the right to protect his body, as had the others.
Surus did so as well, saying: “I believe they were bluffing!”
“Not going to risk the safety of my team on a belief!” Rade said.
Impact indicators flashed on his HUD, indicating where lasers struck his ballistic shield. The scorpions were opening fire.
“Well they ain’t bluffing anymore,” Bender said.
“Return fire!” Rade said.
So far the shield was holding; Rade flung his cobra into the nick at the top of the shield, and switched his viewpoint to the scope. He targeted one of the scorpions between the eyes and squeezed the trigger. The robot collapsed.
“Die robot bugs!” Bender said as two more scorpions fell in rapid succession.
The team kept bringing down the units, but more robots simply appeared from within the building.
“Our shields can’t take this heat forever,” Tahoe said.
“Retreat toward the side street behind us!” Rade said.
He stepped his ATLAS backward, moving west quickly, as did the other Argonauts.
“We got tangos to the north and south flanks,” Harlequin said.
On the overhead map several red dots had appeared to the north and south, on either side of the Argonauts.
Rade felt a vibration on his left side. Glancing at his leg, he saw a small crystal form upon the hull; white threads spiraled outward from it before crumbling away. He saw similar crystals appear upon the exposed flanks of nearby ATLAS units: clone troops were unleashing their particle beams from the north and south quarters, but instead of black veins spidering outward upon impact and converting the mechs over to the enemy cause, the nano-machines deposited by the beams were deactivating.
“The tech Surus came up with is actually working,” Fret said.
“I never doubted her,” Bender said.
“They’re going to switch to lasers soon!” Rade said. “Get to the cover of the buildings!”
He reached the side street and continued his backward retreat.
Several scorpions abruptly dashed forward, forming a wedge between the mechs, and essentially cutting the party in two.
Rade arrived at an “alleyway” formed by two of the crystalline structures, and ducked inside, along with half the team. The other half squeezed their mechs into a similar gap across the street. They took down the scorpions that had sallied between them, and concentrated their fire on the units that continued to emerge from the building.
“Well we’ve gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle,” Manic said over the comm.
“I eat pickles for breakfast!” Bender said, leaning out from the opposite alley to take down three scorpions in rapid succession.
The barracks continued to empty out. The street was swarming with at least a hundred of the enemy units by then. The clones were joining them on either side; most still appeared to harbor the particle beam weapons, though a few had given up the useless rifles for laser weapons.
So far, the main street to the west remained empty. Rade considered leaving the alleyway and retreating that way, but with so many scorpions on the street out there, he knew the team would be far too exposed. Their shields wouldn’t last more than a few seconds against so many enemy lasers. Definitely not enough time to get away.
“Damn it, I could use a couple of shoulder-mounted rockets right about now,” Lui said. “Or at least a few grenades.”
“You and me both,” Manic said. “This is what we get for taking a knife to a gunfight.”
“Bitch, this ain’t no knife!” Bender once more took out three scorpions in rapid succession as they rushed the gap.
“We got tangos behind us,” Tahoe said from beside Rade. “At the en
d of the alleyway.”
“So do we,” Fret said from across the street.
“Surus, Lui, Bender,” Rade said. “We’re going to use our jumpjets to scale these buildings. The rest of you, stay behind and dig in. Keep these assholes occupied. Cover us.”
Rade stepped away from the entrance so that he was beside Surus’ mech, and Tahoe assumed his former defensive position near the front of the alley.
“You ready?” he asked her.
“No, but let’s go,” she said.
Rade bent his legs and leaped upward, activating his jumpjets at the same time. He flew through the air, keeping his shield positioned toward the tangos that were appearing at the rear of the alleyway. Surus followed his lead beside him.
After ascending ten meters, Rade momentarily latched onto the round crystal surface of the building, hoping to throw off the aim of any scorpions that had been targeting him. Then he shoved upward again, releasing another extended burst of thrust, this time traveling even higher, and adding in a zigzag motion via lateral thrusters.
In that manner he and Surus bounded up the crystal tower. Lui and Bender likewise scaled the tower across the street. Meanwhile the Argonauts in the alleyways provided covering fire, mostly against the tangos at the rear of those alleys, as the building shielded the climbers from the view of the main horde.
The top of the structure ended in a narrow spire—there was no rooftop per se. When Rade reached it, he wrapped his metal fingers around the rapidly tapering cone and held on until Surus had clasped it just underneath him. They were at least thirty stories up.
He glanced at Lui and Bender, whose mechs had reached the apex of the tower across the street.
“Lui, Bender,” Rade said, “leap from tower to tower, and make your way to the south. Draw off as many of them as you can.”
“Roger that,” Lui said.
Lui and Bender jetted away south toward the next building. In midair, Bender spun his cobra down toward the street and unleashed several volleys. He had activated his external speakers and cranked the volume up, so that Rade could hear his howls of delight echoing throughout the cavernous chamber.
“Come on you sons of bitches!” Bender said. “You bugs like laser fried rice? Come get some!”
“Laser fried rice,” Manic commented. “Breakfast of champions.”
Rade peered past the edge of the spiral, and saw that roughly half of the horde on the street below was breaking off to pursue Lui and Bender.
He ducked out of view. “It’s working.” He glanced at Surus’ mech underneath him. “We proceed north, toward the target. Tahoe, we’re going.”
“We got your back,” Tahoe said. “At least while you’re in range. Stay safe.”
“You too,” Rade said.
Rade shoved off and fired his jumpjets, flying northward. He kept his shield directed toward the street, in the direction of the majority of tangos.
He landed near the tip of the adjacent spire, swung around it, and shoved off once more. Surus followed just behind him.
Most of the buildings in that neighborhood tapered off into spires, so the pair continued in that way, leaping from spire to spire, putting as much distance between themselves and the enemy units on the streets below as possible. In moments the horde was no longer visible behind them, blocked completely by the intervening crystal structures.
But more units appeared on the streets ahead, likely from additional barracks, forcing Rade to take alternate routes.
The pair slowly made their way toward the conical target on the far side of the cavern. Rade kept an eye on his jumpjet fuel, which was quickly dropping.
He landed on a dodecahedral-shaped building close to the destination and gazed down to assess the street level resistance in front of the target.
Unsurprisingly, the entrance swarmed with guards. To Rade’s delight, they were all clones—no scorpion units. He zoomed in. Very few of those clones had laser rifles, judging from the profusion of flared muzzles he saw on their weapons.
“Let’s go!” Rade said.
He shoved off from the dodecahedron and jetted forward as he fell. He held his shield in front of him, and white crystals appeared along the rim as particle beams struck, the nano-machines disabled by his emitter.
He landed close to the entrance, crushing several of the clones underfoot. He began bashing his way forward. It was an odd feeling, wading through a sea of humanoids fashioned after himself, and he felt a vague sense of guilt. Surus had told him the clones believed they were him. That they had his memories, and his experiences.
He reminded himself that they also had alien thoughts and directives. That underneath the flesh they were all machine. They weren’t him. They never would be.
He focused on the task at hand. Bashing, grinding, stomping. He swung his shield outward and sent several of the clones flying backward. He fired his cobra at point blank range.
White crystals appeared and broke away constantly from his hull. Those few clones equipped with laser rifles unleashed them, and Rade managed to swing his shield into place to protect himself from most of them. A couple of times lasers grazed his shoulder and thigh, carving small holes into the hull armor.
And then he and Surus were at the entrance—a rather small gap in the building surface. Though the exterior of the crystal pulsed between red and purple, no glow came from within, only darkness.
Rade shoved his mech into the opening—the ATLAS barely fit. He squeezed forward, facing no resistance. Surus brought up the rear, firing at the clones behind them.
He switched to LIDAR, but a LIDAR absorbing material must have coated the inside, because he got nothing. He tried his headlamps, and that worked, providing a small cone of light that illuminated the pentagonal-tiled passageway. Surus continued to hold up the rear, firing into the clones that were attempting to rush inside to stop them.
The passage widened into a chamber. The light didn’t penetrate to the enclosing walls; he saw only the circular shape of the deck underneath him, a small island in a sea of darkness. LIDAR continued to be useless.
Surus ejected from her mech, emerging in her jumpsuit. Meanwhile her ATLAS unit spun around to block the passageway and the onboard AI continued engaging the incoming clones.
Surus jetted into Rade’s passenger seat. “I must leave my mech here to hold them off. We must hurry, before more laser wielders reach the entrance!”
Rade dashed forward into the darkness. “Will you be protected up there if a particle beam strikes?”
“No,” Surus said. “Not if it hits me directly.” She was quiet for a time as he continued to race into the darkness. Then: “Jet directly upward. Now!”
Rade obeyed.
Below him, the deck fell away. The headlamp illuminated a liquid of some kind flooding the chamber below.
“What is that?” Rade said.
“Nano-machines,” Surus said. “In the quintillions. Part of the Sentient’s defenses.”
Rade glanced upward but his headlamps illuminated nothing in the thick dark.
“Continue ascending,” Surus said. “You will see an entrance shortly. Steer toward it and land inside.”
A concave ceiling appeared. He spotted a small square-shaped opening and adjusted his thrust vector to pass through. Then he jetted forward slightly and cut thrust to land on the deck within.
He stood in another vast chamber. Or at least he assumed it was vast, because his headlamp penetrated as little into the darkness of this room as the previous. LIDAR was still useless.
“I’m marking a target in the darkness,” Surus said. “Fire your cobra into it at your earliest convenience.”
He accepted the data marker request on his HUD and a small blue diamond appeared on his vision. Though Rade could see nothing there, he fired.
“What did I just take out?” Rade asked.
“That was a directed-energy EMP,” Surus said.
“Ah,” Rade said. “Thank you.” The last thing he needed at the mom
ent was for a powerful EMP to go off, disabling his mech and jumpsuit.
The light levels brightened, so much so that the photochromatic filters in his camera lens had to activate in order to reduce the glare. But the brightness didn’t help him see better—in fact, it made things worse, because even the floor was lost in that incredible radiance. He quickly marked off the location of the opening in the deck so that he wouldn’t accidentally step onto it and fall through into the seething pool of nano-machines waiting below.
“Which way now?” Rade said.
“There is no need to advance further,” Surus said. “The Sentience is coming.”
Rade heard footsteps. The distant clangs of steel on steel. A dark smudge intruded upon the whiteness in the distance, growing larger.
Rade started to lift his cobra, but Surus spoke.
“Don’t make any aggressive movements,” she said.
The clangs became all out booms as a figure three times as tall as his mech approached. Its hull was composed of a gray alloy. Glowing red eyes resided on either side of its head, atop a toothy, segmented maw. The head gave way to a long neck, connected to a bulky four-legged body that reminded him of a brontosaur. Every joint had spikes protruding. In place of feet, the legs were terminated by four-way pincers that spread apart when they touched the deck, and drooped between steps. A long tail at the rear of the giant robot provided counterbalance. That tail was tipped with a turret containing several wicked looking lasers, though currently none of them pointed at Rade.
It was essentially a big metal dinosaur.
The robot approached until it towered above him, and then that head lowered, turning to stare at him with its rightmost eye, which glowed a bright, malevolent red.
“RADE GALAAL,” a voice boomed from nowhere and everywhere.
thirty
Rade smiled grimly inside his mech. He activated his external speakers and spoke: “We meet again, Sentience.”
“Not again,” the Sentience said. “But anew.” Its disembodied voice no longer boomed, but seemed mellifluous, hypnotic. “I am not the same Sentience you encountered before, my old friend.”
“We all change,” Rade said. “As time goes on.”