Pax Machina (Mechhaven Book 1)

by Greg Sorber

  Angel’s power levels stabilized and his overall outlook improved, but he still couldn’t run a proper weapon or defensive systems tests in such a crowded area. Once they knew where the Planet Cleanser touched down, Angel would travel with Artie, Larry, and Volley part of the way. Then he’d meet up with Sly and continue on for the infiltration part of the mission. He’d have to wait until then to run his tests. That would leave little time to fix anything if he ran into any problems.

  When the storm finally passed, Misty ordered all mechs to assemble at their designated positions along the defensive line. Before the storm, they dug trenches and filled them with spikes and fuel. Other mechs welded metal beams together to make barriers. No one was sure if such rudimentary defenses would help them against the screevers, but making the preparations had given them something to do while they had waited for the storm to arrive.

  Therapy and Misty rushed to the Command Center and rebooted all the systems. They needed to get intelligence on the Planet Cleanser as quickly as possible. The Legion should already be on its way from the mines. She hoped there was enough time.

  “All the systems are powered up, Therapy,” Misty said. “Give me good news or give me bad news, but just give me something.”

  “Misty, it will take a few minutes. The electromagnetic storm played havoc on the systems. I’ll need to recalibrate them before we can get any useful readings,” Therapy said.

  Connie entered the Command Center. For the foreseeable future, the golden converter would act as a messenger, conveying orders and information between Misty and Lancer, both before and during the battle. “All mechs are assembled and awaiting orders, Misty.”

  “Where are the bad guys, Therapy?” Misty asked. “Please tell me you can see them?”

  “I can see them,” Therapy said.

  “And?”

  “The Planet Cleanser has already landed.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Archivist Nicobulus Licinius on the death of Archivist Horatio Academica

  It is with great sadness that I must announce my predecessor, Horatio Academica, recently recalled by the emperor, has passed from this world and begun his journey to the underworld. May he be judged and sent to the appropriate resting place and let me be worthy of his Imperial Majesty’s trust to assume Archivist Academica’s august position. I humbly request an adjournment of the Conclave, so I may bring myself up to speed on all relevant testimony.

  Archivist Nicobulus Licinius

  The Imperium

  As designated in Mechhaven’s defense plan, Angel’s first assignment was escorting the advance team consisting of Artie, Volley, and Larry to their assigned positions. From there Larry would sneak as close as possible to the Planet Cleanser to observe the situation and relay fresh intel back to Misty and Gladius. Sly and Angel were then tasked with infiltrating the Planet Cleanser and destroying it. Since most Imperium ships used similar power cores, between Sly’s experience and Angel’s operational intelligence, the two of them should be able to overload the core and destroy the entire vessel.

  If the Planet Cleanser deployed the screevers before Angel and Sly destroyed it, Larry would abandon his position and rejoin Artie and Volley. Once the two Artillery mechs unleashed their payloads, destroying as many screevers as possible, the three of them would rendezvous with the other defenders. That was the plan. Angel hoped it worked, though his tactical subroutines calculated the probability of success at—well, no time to worry the odds.

  With the power siphons removed and his systems stabilized, Angel felt better than he had since arriving on Mechhaven. His memory matrix was still a mess and contained more missing and damaged memories than he was comfortable. It was possible that many of them were important. Now that he was back at full power and given enough time, his self-repair systems would fix his memory matrix. Whether that would restore the missing memories, he couldn’t predict.

  Angel performed a diagnostics test and cycled his arms through their various weapons forms. Melee weapons worked fine. Plasma cannons shifted into the correct form, but he received warning signals when he tried to test fire, so he abandoned that idea. He’d never considered how similar his shifting technology was to Connie’s converting technology. It was a toss-up as to which technology was superior. His shifting tech was quicker and enabled him to channel more power, but unlike Connie, he couldn’t change his entire body. He had to admit that would be a useful feature, but in either case, since speaking with Connie, he’d gained a greater appreciation of how the technologies had evolved.

  Traveling along the rocky gray landscape with Artie, Larry and Volley, he felt more like himself. His speed was back to normal. He felt nimbler than since he’d crashed. It was time to show the others his true capabilities. So far, he’d been the damaged mech, the weakened mech, the mech of all promise but no substance. He’d brought trouble into the midst of this peaceful sanctuary. It was up to him to make things right.

  Everyone had heard the stories of Archangel class mechs turning the tide of battles and inspiring others to fight against impossible odds. Some mechs he’d spoken with had seen them in action. That was his mission now. To end the battle before it even started. To make it happen, he would have to work hand in hand with someone who, only a short time ago, he’d considered an enemy. From what he’d seen so far, Sly didn’t have any lingering loyalties to the Imperium, but he needed to watch her. Although she’d volunteered to help, Angel sensed she had her own agenda.

  Angel received the pre-arranged signal from Sly with the coordinates of their rendezvous location. He bid Artie, Volley, and Larry farewell.

  “Are you mechs ready?” he asked.

  “Ready!” Artie said as he planted himself in to a secure position. Additional stabilizers dropped from his calves and dug into the ground.

  “Let’s rock!” Volley performed the same action about two dozen meters away to give their weapons systems a greater area of coverage.

  “Good Luck,” Larry said, saluting as he continued onward towards the Planet Cleanser.

  Angel veered off in another direction to meet up with Sly. The two planned to take a more secretive approach and infiltrate from another direction. The three mechs he left behind would face the initial onslaught of screevers without him or any backup. If they were lucky, they could get off a good first strike, but if not? They were all veterans with combat experience, so they knew the risk.

  At the mouth of a narrow canyon near the Planet Cleanser’s crash site, Sly materialized a few yards in front of Angel. He stopped short. Sly’s appearance shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. He shifted both of his forearms into plasma cannons as a defensive reaction, but didn’t fire. It was a good thing he hadn’t fired; he was still receiving warnings when he tried to activate that system. Sly didn’t respond to Angel’s reaction, but remained in place, her inky-black surface swirling, waiting to be engaged once again to disguise her presence.

  “You have a stealth mode, correct?” Sly asked. Her eerie, velvety voice slid like silk out of her vocal processor.

  “Yes,” Angel said. He checked his internal systems and confirmed it was functional.

  “Activate it now and follow me,” Sly said. She activated her own camouflage system, deployed her micro-filament cloak, and vanished.

  “How am I supposed to follow you while you’re invisible?” Angel asked.

  “You’re a clever mech, use your sensors,” Sly said. “I will leave traces only you can detect.”

  Angel activated his stealth mode, but Sly’s version was more advanced. The Archangel stealth mode, designed primarily for space combat, worked in other situations, though it wasn’t as effective on a planet as it was in the darkness of space. The Imperium had done a superior job when designing their infiltrators, but it was a lot easier to cloak a smaller mech such as Sly.

  It took several moments to reconfigure his sensors. Angel concentrated, selecting a wide range of wavelengths to monitor, and finally detected a faint signal
on an odd frequency that could only have been Sly. The signal skipped to different frequencies at random intervals, so he had to keep his sensors processing to maintain a fix on her location. Once he’d locked on, he followed Sly through the narrow, winding canyon. If they had to retreat in a hurry through the canyon, he’d have difficulty maneuvering.

  Neither mech spoke as they traveled. Angel focused on using all of his active sensors to detect Sly’s signals while keeping pace with her. He tasked his passive sensors with collecting as much information about Sly as he could. His tactical subroutines suggested he should develop methods to detect the infiltrator mech at any time, even when she wasn’t leaving traces for him to follow. She may be his ally at the moment, but he’d rather be safe than sorry, just in case any future dealings weren’t as cordial.

  The Planet Cleanser created an enormous impact crater where it crash landed. Near the mountains, the location was rich in metals and other materials that it could harvest to manufacture more screevers. The sounds of motors grinding and mining lasers firing filled the canyon. Small bots flittered about the crash site, collecting and extracting useful materials. With their stealth modes active, Angel and Sly avoided detection from the bots’ rudimentary sensors. He wasn’t sure how long before the Planet Cleanser would deploy its screevers, but they didn’t have long. The sooner they snuck aboard the ship and overloaded its power core, the better.

  Angel detected Sly had stopped moving, so he stopped, too. He detected a group of bots gliding by the mouth of the canyon. He froze in place and increased his stealth mode to its maximum level. After the bots passed, he followed Sly to the edge of the crater that cradled the modified heavy transport. This would be the hardest place to disguise their presence. Sliding dirt and rocks made it difficult to sneak down into the crater. No stealth mode could disguise that.

  A short distance away, an explosion detonated. All the bots stopped, then sped off towards the sound.

  “Your work?” Angel asked.

  “I left a surprise or two earlier from when I first observed the area,” Sly said. “It’s always good to have a distraction ready.”

  Angel followed Sly, and the two mechs slid down into the crater. Sly made only a modicum of noise. Her smaller size and nimbler frame were better suited to the task. Angel was grateful for the distraction Sly’s explosion provided. There was no mistaking his passage down the slope. As they approached the outer hull of the Planet Cleanser, Angel looked for any openings they could use to gain entry. He didn’t see any on this side and wondered how they would get inside. Sly became visible and pointed a finger towards the hull. From her fingertip, a cutting torch blazed to life, and she began cutting an opening big enough for her to slip through.

  “What about me?” Angel asked.

  “Meet me on the other side. There’s a cargo bay door big enough for you there. I can disable any alarms if I open it from the inside,” Sly said.

  Angel listened to her instructions, but was getting an uneasy feeling. He’d seen this ship before. Flashes of memories were coming back to him. It was before coming to Mechhaven, but he couldn’t remember all the details. He checked for schematics in his memory matrix, but none were present. Perhaps that information was stored in the damaged portions of his memory matrix.

  He waited for what he thought would be long enough for Sly to make her way through the ship and to the cargo bay door on the other side. As he rounded the corner, he heard the door opening. Once the opening was large enough, he stepped inside the Planet Cleanser.

  “We must hurry,” Sly said. “The first wave of screevers will be released soon.”

  They wound their way through the ship and halted at the first staging area they came to. The first wave of thousands of screevers were lined up and ready to deploy. Angel recognized all the types he’d reported on, but there were several others that were new. He raised his hands and shifted them to plasma cannons, ready to fire. Sly placed a hand on his arm.

  “Don’t be hasty,” she said. “If you fire now, you will destroy some, but you will also alert the rest to our presence, and they will attack us. Our job is to disable the ship, not fight the battle. Follow me.”

  “Our job is to destroy this ship,” Angel said. “Let’s get to the power core.”

  Sly nodded and motioned for Angel to follow. Angel wasn’t sure why, but his unease grew with every step he took.

  Lancer directed mechs to their designated positions along the defensive lines. Their experience dictated their positions. He partnered veterans with the most combat experience with the least experienced. Every mech had the same basic combat subroutines, but some had more experience while others had more advanced combat subroutines, depending on their specialties. There hadn’t been time to upload new subroutines to all the mechs. Misty was pretty sure that would be another violation of the Accords, as if that mattered now.

  Connie relayed messages between Lancer and Therapy. Therapy stayed near Misty. The attaché mech armed himself with a quad-barrel shotgun he’d borrowed from Chuck. He accessorized the shotgun with a bandolier of extra ammunition. They needed everyone in this battle. No one would come away unscathed, but Therapy made it a point to inform Misty that he would use his guardian subroutine to make sure no harm came to her.

  They awaited the Legion’s arrival and the additional weapons they had promised. The Legion was to be the wall the screevers crashed upon. Amid all the preparations along the defensive lines, Misty pulled Dennis and Ajax aside.

  “Are you two ready for this?” she asked.

  “I never thought I’d be fighting in a battle, here on Mechhaven of all places,” Ajax said.

  “Neither did I,” Misty said. “The signatories founded Mechhaven to be a place for mechs to retire from war. And now I’m asking them to fight for the decisions I made.”

  Dennis nodded. “You’re right, but as you said before, they’re fighting for their own homes and their own lives now, not at the orders of faceless politicians dozens of light years away. That’s an important distinction.”

  “I know,” Misty said. “But it doesn’t make it any easier. Have you applied the protective coating to all the mechs?”

  “Except for the Legion and Bastion. He won’t let me apply it to him until I finish with everyone else.”

  “Did you protect the special projects?”

  “Yes, I used those to test the bonding,” Dennis said. He paused for a moment. “Both of you, listen up. Neither of you have been in a battle like this before. Keep in mind, mechs were built for this. We weren’t. Anything that damages them will be deadly to us.”

  Misty didn’t like to admit it, but Dennis was right. “We all need to stay as safe as we can, all right?”

  “We will, Misty,” Ajax and Dennis said.

  “Ajax, you and Doc will work as combat medics. Your actions will save lives today.”

  “Dennis, you’ll let us know when we need to step in and help fight. I’ll follow your lead. Chuck and his folks are well-armed too, but they’ll be looking after The Drifter and will help protect the triage area if it comes down to that.”

  “You all know I’m not a hugger, but I think this occasion warrants it.” Misty wrapped her arms around both of them and squeezed tight.

  The Legion marched down the road that led from the Foundry to the Landing Pad in a formation of four columns and twenty-five ranks. The rhythmic sound of their unified cadence echoed for all to hear and feel, even at a significant distance. As they grew closer, Misty felt the vibrations of one-hundred mechs moving in unison. A few days earlier, when they’d arrived for the Imperium inspection, they were impressive, but now, they wore custom-forged crimson and gold armor to replace the armor that Ajax had stripped from them when they had declared Pax Machina, and they looked magnificent. They carried heavy shields and the short swords she’d named their leader after. Most also carried spears they could use in a phalanx formation. Behind the Legion followed four hover carts laden with extra weapons for everyone else
.

  On Gladius’s command, the formation split in two. Each half went to a different section of the defensive line. They halted at their designated positions, and then, when given the command, stood at ease. Dennis and Ajax rushed over to spray the Legion, their shields and weapons with the protective coating.

  Gladius, followed by Brutus, approached Misty, then stopped. Gladius waved his hand over the carts. “These are the weapons we have for the Villagers. I hope they have the proper subroutines loaded to make use of them.”

  Misty bowed and said, “Thank you for your help, Gladius. Please distribute them as you see fit. We’ve already equipped some with weapons from Chuck, but many are still unarmed, so they take precedent.”

  Gladius strode up and down the defensive line, speaking with each of the mechs, then selected a weapon from one of the hover carts and placed it in their hands. When satisfied the mech could use the weapon without being a danger to themselves or others, he moved on to the next. Some received a short sword, others a spear, war hammer, mace, or even a battle axe. Each mech, once given a weapon, accessed their combat subroutines and tested their new weapon for weight and balance. They didn’t have time to get to know the weapon as well as they should, but it would have to do.

  When Gladius reached Bastion, he looked up at the gigantic mech and said, “I’m sorry, Bastion, we didn’t have time to craft anything suitable for your size.”

  Bastion reached down and picked up a huge metal beam that Misty had thought was part of the fortifications. He gripped it at one end and slapped the other end in his hand a few times. “This will do.” His deep voice rang out. The other mechs cheered.