One Dark Future

by Michael Anderle

  “That’s a rather extreme step up from handing out rotten fruit to bad kids.” Jia chuckled. “But I get what you’re saying.” She magnified her optical feed to check the other side of the sky bridge. “No contacts outside. But you’re the superstitious one, Erik, and I don’t know. I figured that because of stuff like Venus, you’d be making things weirder, not more mundane, trying to invoke better training in odd situations.”

  “Superstitious?” Erik crept forward again, sweeping his rifle back and forth. “I’m not superstitious.”

  “What about the Lady?” Jia matched his pace.

  “That’s not superstition,” he replied, nonplussed.

  “How is believing in some personification of luck not superstition?” Jia asked. “It’s textbook superstition.”

  “It’s not a superstition. It’s an observation.” Erik quickened his advance. “I’ve lived long enough and fought enough battles to know that a man who thinks he’s above fate and luck is going to get cocky and have his ass handed to him. You shouldn’t stick your finger in the Lady’s eye because you’re challenging fate, and she might remind you that you shouldn’t do that.”

  Jia wondered if she should press him, especially because of the faint irritation in Erik’s tone. From what he’d described, it was less that he was superstitious and more using the Lady as a shorthand for preparation, but his behavior suggested something different.

  Initially, she’d thought he was just being playful when he talked about the Lady, but her doubts had grown the longer she knew him.

  Their exoskeletons approached the building, with no response. Small drones circled in the area, but if the terrorists knew the duo was there, they were giving no indication.

  “No contact,” Jia noted.

  “This is the problem with everyone depending on technology,” Erik muttered. “They could just look out a window, but it looks like they’ve blackened them all on both sides in case we pull sensor tricks.”

  Jia chuckled. “I should point out they’re following your programming.”

  “Sure, because this is modeled after a raid I did when I was still in the Army,” Erik answered. “I’ve had Emma adjust the tactics and positions of the terrorists, but in the original raid, the idiots all clustered up in the center of the building, thinking their feeds would protect them. It was a nasty battle overall, but their stupid plan allowed easy entry.”

  “Can we hack our way in?” Jia asked. “If they’re cocky in this situation, they might not be protecting the doors as well as I might think.”

  Erik pointed his weapon at the door. “I’m going to blow it open with a couple of plasma grenades. Huh, should have programmed in some breach disks, but I forgot.”

  “I think you just want to blow something up.” Jia chuckled as she expanded her ballistic shield. “Not that I’m complaining.”

  “Blowing shit up does have a certain entertainment value,” he replied, prepping his grenades. “Prepare for breach.”

  “Ready.” Jia took a deep breath and prepared to launch her own grenades.

  “Knocking on the door,” Erik shouted. “Grenades out!”

  With a deep clunk, his grenade launcher spat two plasma grenades. They hit the door in a blindingly bright blue-white explosion. Fiery debris and smoke shot out. Jia followed up with two quick grenades of her own. Gunfire rang out from inside before her grenades flew through the ragged hole and exploded several meters in.

  The guns fell silent.

  Erik charged forward. Jia followed. They emerged from the thick smoke to the sight of charred corpses and half-melted rifles in the smoldering hallway. Terrorists’ rifles poked around the corner and their storm of bullets filled the hall, bouncing off the expanded shields of the duo’s exoskeletons.

  Jia and Erik returned fire in controlled bursts.

  Their heavy rifles let their rounds pierce the wall and rip through the corner terrorists. The partners advanced slowly, keeping their shields in front and watching their rearview cameras for any surprises. Their deafening gunshots drowned out the terrorists’ gunfire and dying screams.

  Despite the situation, Jia almost laughed. The horrific had become mundane, and the content of a date was, at least for them, dinner, a game, and simulated carnage.

  The terrorists ceased fire, but Erik and Jia remained halfway across the building from the target, making them both wary. They naturally separated to either side of the hallway and advanced quickly, pivoting to opposite sides to look for useful targets.

  Terrorist squads waited on either side, but their volleys did little to the exoskeletons’ shields. Quick bursts of return fire shredded the unarmored enemy.

  Jia continued forward. The nav marker in her visor display indicated the primary target was in her direction. She didn’t bother to say anything to Erik. At this point, they both knew what they needed to do, and it was his scenario.

  He moved a moment later after ensuring there would be no surprises to their rear. An exoskeleton shield could take a plasma grenade from the front, but an explosion in the rear risked disabling the suit or pilot injury.

  They entered a new hallway, but there was no new group of terrorists waiting to greet them with a burst of bullets. The near-constant thud of exoskeleton feet slamming the hard tile echoed through the corridor as they closed on the security room and their ultimate target. Training and experience had made the scenario trivial.

  When Jia first met Erik, a swarm of low-end security bots had proved a challenge. Now, if she didn’t see an exoskeleton or at least some heavy weapons, it was hard for her to work up any concern.

  She didn’t know if that was confidence or arrogance.

  Jia expected more enemy forces or at least some bots before they arrived at the target room, but tens of meters became single digits, and soon they were in front of it. The hardened doors and armored walls would prevent the same kind of easy breach that had gotten them into the building.

  “It’s just a matter of getting in there,” she commented with a frown.

  “That’s the hard part,” Erik replied. “We’ll have to hold off reinforcements while the door is hacked. They’ll pull every bastard in the building and throw them at us. In this case, we can assume Emma will be able to do it.”

  “For purposes of this simulation, it’ll take me five minutes,” Emma explained. “I could supply a scenario-appropriate explanation, but it’s not as if I provide you detailed breakdowns of what I’m doing most of the time. All you need to know is your target fleshbag is behind the door, ready to be added to the list of dead fleshbags.”

  “I just thought of something.” Jia backed away from the door. “Earlier, Erik, were you suggesting that you, on some level, buy into the idea that our simulations might somehow predict the future?”

  “I don’t believe that.” Erik backed up a couple of meters. “I think we go through a lot of odd stuff, and because we’re taking on this messed-up conspiracy, we’ve run into similar messed-up stuff. It’s just a matter of time and numbers.”

  “Then it doesn’t matter if we do a ridiculous scenario. It’s not predictive. It’s not taunting fate.”

  There was some small comfort in only having to watch for the unusual, not the impossible. Emma and Erik didn’t cheat. The latter valued the training value of the exercises, and the former was too egotistical to win with simple manipulation.

  Jia shifted her exoskeleton farther away from Erik’s to assure a different angle of fire. They might not have eyes on the enemy, but she doubted the opposite was true, given that Erik’s briefing had mentioned external cameras. The lack of door control also proved they didn’t control the system.

  “Why does it not matter if we do a ridiculous scenario?” Erik asked.

  “I’m saying we can test how much we can mess with fate. We should do a training scenario that is completely and utterly ridiculous.”

  Jia was more interested in entertainment value than testing fate, but tweaking Erik brought its own pleasures. Som
etimes she wanted to remind him that he wasn’t the only one who understood the psychological foibles of their partner.

  Erik chuckled. “More ridiculous than a Leem showing up in training and then having to deal with someone with Leem DNA?”

  “Sure.” Jia licked her lips. “We need to do something that’s objectively impossible. Leems and crazy genetic engineering are real. What we need to do is fight something that doesn’t exist. Something that doesn’t make any sense. Something that simple time and numbers won’t and can’t produce.”

  “Like what, specifically?” Erik asked.

  Jia thought over the possibilities. “I’d suggest a horde of jiangshi.”

  Erik grunted. “The occasional joke scenario is one thing, but too many fake scenarios make for bad training. That’s part of the reason I’ve asked Emma to help recalibrate our scope.”

  Jia rolled her eyes. “The enemy might be impossible, but it’s not like it’d be bad training. Just a reminder, we have been attacked by hordes of zombie-like enemies.”

  “So, now you’re saying this is less about testing my superstition than getting tactically ready?” Erik sounded amused. “I didn’t expect you to go that far.”

  “I’m just saying it might be interesting,” Jia replied. “I get what you’re saying about training, but sometimes we can have fun while we are at it. It’s strange that I have to be the one to mention that part.”

  “Wait a minute. I’m not anti-fun.”

  The tower vanished, replaced by a courtyard illuminated by a full moon high in the night sky.

  Stones from the wall and the half-collapsed towers were strewn around the area. Skeletons littered the ground, their clothing long since rotted away, along with tiles from the roof. Cracked stone stairs led up to the main palace building, a set of massive bronze double doors blocking passage. The stairs were half-painted with dark and dried bloodstains.

  “What the hell is this?” Erik asked as he looked around.

  “We might as well test the theory,” Emma replied. “And I’m not anti-fun.”

  Erik frowned. “If we do end up getting attacked by jiangshi, I’m throwing you both into a black hole.”

  Jia laughed. “Yes, you’re totally not superstitious.” She walked toward the stairs, the heavy steps of her exoskeleton echoing in the eerily quiet courtyard. “Let’s see what modern equipment can do against a jiangshi.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jia’s exoskeleton crested the stairs. No terrorists or undead emerged from the palace to attack her. She sighed. “Ok, I take it back. We are all kinds of ridiculous. We’re about to face jiangshi.”

  “You’re the one who wanted to test fate,” Erik grumbled. Maybe he was a little superstitious, but he didn’t care to admit it after everything they’d just discussed.

  “No, that’s not it.” Jia pointed her rifle toward the massive bronze door, her gaze skimming the worn characters and the dragon carved into the door. “We have all this advanced VR and AR, and what do we do with it? Practice how to kill people and blow up stuff. We could go on a virtual vacation anywhere, but it’s nothing but training. Our fun is us blowing up an unusual type of enemy.”

  “What’s the point of a fake vacation?” Erik narrowed his eyes. “On some level, you know it’s a lie. Lots of guys in my unit liked VR trips, but I never did. I’d rather just take some time off and sleep and play cards.”

  “That’s easy for you to say since you’ve traveled all over the UTC.” Jia frowned. “I’m assuming, Emma, that other than hopping zombies somewhere in here, that everything else reflects…let’s see…Qing Dynasty China?”

  “That’s accurate,” Emma replied, appearing in an elaborate green floral Qing gown, complete with a dragon-covered dark green headdress with silk tassels. Green and blue stones were enmeshed in the tassels.

  “Then this should be easy,” Jia declared, angling the shoulder of her exoskeleton toward the door. “I doubt the typical Qing door can take an exoskeleton slamming into it. If there’s no fake magic involved, we don’t need to blow open the door with plasma grenades. It wasn’t like they were designing doors to stand up to that kind of punishment back then.”

  “And they shouldn’t be packing laser rifles.” Erik chuckled. “Imagine if those bastards in the prison’d had firepower in addition to everything else.”

  “I’m sure the conspiracy will get there eventually,” Jia replied. “They’ve already thrown zombies at us, so why not zombies with embedded guns? That’s not that different from the Ascended Brotherhood in principle.”

  “Don’t give them any ideas.” Erik frowned at his empty camera views. “What’s the scenario here, Emma? We’re way away from what I had planned for tonight.”

  “An evil sorcerer has killed the emperor and taken over the palace,” Emma replied. “You kill him, and his horde threatening the countryside will fall. Peace will reign again over the land.”

  Erik snickered. “And we just happened to have twenty-third-century exoskeletons?”

  “You know how magic is. One day you’re summoning monsters, the next, you accidentally open a portal to the future so glorious heroes can appear and smite evil hordes of the undead.”

  “With our luck, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened,” Jia commented.

  “I’d prefer falling into a nice bar between worlds instead,” Erik replied.

  “For now, it’s a good enough background for a simulation,” Jia answered.

  “Any intel on his location?” Erik glanced at his HUD. “From the emperor’s scouts or whoever the hell passes for the ID in this time period?”

  “No,” Emma replied. “A group of warriors attempted to assault the palace, but they were killed beyond the outer gate by a mass of jiangshi, their flesh and souls consumed.”

  “Cheery.” Jia blew out a breath.

  “Do it, Jia,” Erik suggested. “If he’s relying on numbers, there’s no reason not to bust on in there.”

  “It shouldn’t be too elaborate.” Jia took a deep breath and backed up. After a moment of hesitation, she collapsed her shield and reached forward. “No reason for shock and awe against monsters that don’t know fear. Might as well just open it.”

  Erik stepped to the side and pointed his weapon. “Yeah, I guess you could open it the boring way.”

  Jia pushed the center of the double doors. They groaned and separated as they swiveled inside, revealing a massive antechamber leading into an even more gargantuan throne room dimly lit by flickering torches lining the walls.

  The first person they saw was a nearly skeletal man in ornate robes and a hat so broad it might be mistaken for a landing pad. His head lolled forward on his chest. Robed bodies covered the ground, face-down in large heaps.

  “This is dark, Emma,” Jia murmured as she took it in. “And I’m not talking about the lighting.”

  “I was trying for an appropriately horrific atmosphere,” Emma responded. “Besides, the horrors you’ve faced are worse when you think about it.”

  “That’s even darker.” Jia looked back and forth. “Are you the sorcerer?” she called to the throne.

  “If you wish to face me,” came a voice from all around, “you must first defeat my servants.”

  “Bring it on.” Erik wished he could cock a rifle for the sound. “A heavy rifle on an exo is a lot more impressive than a sword or spear.”

  The bodies on the ground stirred and slowly rose almost as one to reveal rigid corpses with cracked, thin skin taut over their faces. Paper talismans dangled from their foreheads.

  “Aren’t they supposed to have hats?” Erik asked.

  Jia glanced at him. “Are you questioning the accuracy of this simulation of nonexistent undead monsters and evil sorcerers?”

  “No.” He did a credible job of shrugging his shoulders in the mech. “Just saying I expected them to have hats.”

  The jiangshi horde finished their rejuvenation. Hundreds of the creatures now filled the rooms, their stiff arms outstretched
. There was no sound other than the soft scratching of their shoes on the wooden floor.

  The line between fiction and reality remained blurred.

  Purist dogma and basic morality had kept most of humanity from creating monsters, but the last couple of years had exposed just how depraved some people could become when seeking proper servants.

  Hopping zombies weren’t real, but given the Ascended Brotherhood and the mutants they’d fought in the Scar, Erik wasn’t sure that conspiracy couldn’t be considered close to evil sorcerers who took the flesh and souls of humans to twist them into monsters.

  Science had caught up with the darkest nightmares of myth.

  Magic was fiction, but advanced technology, human and alien, trod the line, just as Arthur C. Clark had said centuries earlier.

  Erik suspected nanozombies and Leem hybrids were only the beginning of the horrors they’d encounter by the time his vengeance quest was over.

  He didn’t know that he minded as long as they died when you shot them enough. Erik would let other people worry about the philosophical implications. He would continue to handle problems in a direct way.

  A jiangshi hopped toward Jia, its arms outstretched. Despite the ridiculous method of locomotion, the creature was surprisingly fast, finishing three quick bounds before she fired a burst into its head that blew it apart.

  Erik fired at another one, blowing a chunk out of its chest, but the wound sealed in less than a second, both the flesh and the clothes mending themselves.

  A follow-up shot through the forehead finished it off.

  “So that’s how it’s going to be,” Erik muttered. “Annoying.”

  “It could be worse. Some of the methods to beat these things in folklore are both ridiculous and complicated.” Jia took a deep breath and lined up her next shot.

  She put down another jiangshi.

  The horde moved as a group, like some strange writhing mass of bugs emerging from the ground at night to feed. They displayed no fear as Erik and Jia put them down, but the specificity of the shots slowed the destruction of the horde. One burst blew off half the lower jaw of a jiangshi, only for it to regenerate within seconds.