E-Day

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  They fought through the tide of soldiers, leaving a trail of dead and screaming soldiers.

  Within minutes, the entire Coalition platoon was crushed.

  Tadhg trotted over to Akira, chest heaving as he sheathed his long sword.

  “You’re supposed to be saving my ass.” Tadhg patted Kichiro’s armored neck. “Missed you, big guy.”

  “We owe you one,” Akira replied. “Thank you, brother.”

  Frost descended next to them. “We need to get back to the 1st Division. There are more hostiles headed our way. I doubt we can handle all of them on our own.”

  “You are correct,” Apeiron said over the team comm. “I have identified over one thousand hostiles moving in this direction.”

  Even Tadhg kept silent.

  “Lead the way back, Okami,” Akira said.

  The droid ran toward the remaining allied forces a few blocks away, where Pistons crouched behind APCs and whatever cover they could find, preparing for the storm of armor rushing toward them. Juggernauts stood their ground, their plasma cannons angled down the road.

  Akira guided the horse behind the three Hammerheads sitting idly on the street.

  The ground rumbled as the Coalition army approached.

  “I might need to cash in on that debt shortly,” Tadhg said, looking at Akira.

  Akira watched the wall of smoke in the intersection ahead. Among the pounding of feet and claws, he heard the crazed, taunting howls of Breakers.

  “Apeiron, we need reinforcements,” he said.

  “On their way,” Apeiron said. “I would suggest sheltering here in the meantime.”

  The enemy screams grew louder, quakes vibrating down the road from their stomps. They slammed their weapons together in rhythm with their war cries, a cacophony of aggression rolling toward the Engines like a tidal wave of death.

  Seventy-six Pistons angled their skeletal rifles toward the cloud of smoke encasing the Coalition warriors.

  “We hold here!” Akira yelled. “Find cover and don’t fire until I give the order!”

  The soldiers maneuvered around, trying to find the best position to make their last stand.

  “There are so many,” said a Piston somewhere behind Akira.

  “How can we win this fight?” asked another.

  Akira knew many of the men and women around him were scared. They were outnumbered, and they would need a miracle to survive.

  They need inspiration…

  A reason to believe they might win, if only to encourage them to fight with everything they had. That was something he might be able to give them.

  He ran over to Kichiro and jumped into the saddle, thinking back to that day on a hill in the Sea of Trees where they had first met.

  “Show me how fast you are, Kichiro,” Akira said.

  The horse snorted and Akira steered him away from the cover of the APCs.

  “Hold the line, do not give up a foot,” Akira said as loudly as he could, his voice rising from deep in his chest. “They are louder, but we are braver! They are more, but we are stronger! We stand together, as one!”

  Tadhg pounded his chest, starting a chorus of clanks and thumps. The noise grew, rising to meet the hellish voices of the Coalition soldiers still masked by the smoke.

  The blare of a Coalition war horn rose over it all, silencing both sides.

  A long moment of quiet passed.

  Then came the rumble of thousands of footsteps across the ground. The horde had been released.

  Akira turned Kichiro toward the shapes of hundreds of armored soldiers emerging from the curtain of smoke. The rest of Shadow Squad joined Akira, standing behind the horse.

  Perez raised his shield. “We’re with you, Captain.”

  “One thousand against seventy,” Tadhg said. “I like the odds.”

  Frost heaved a breath over the comms. “I just wish Ghost were here to stand with us in the end.”

  “He’s with us in spirit, and this is not the end,” Akira said confidently.

  A Breaker War Lord on a hybrid horse led the army of soldiers, holding a double-bladed energy axe in each hand. Two Iron Wolves ran along either side, drooling bloody saliva.

  Akira gave Kichiro a kick to the flank and the horse galloped to meet the War Lord in a fearsome charge. He feared this might be his last battle, but if this was his destiny, then so be it.

  He raised his sword, adrenaline and rage roaring through him as he prepared to give the order to fire. Before he could even bring his sword down, the War Lord’s helmet exploded from a flurry of bolts.

  What the hell…

  The ground rumbled underneath them, more violently than from the horde’s charge, and a faint rattling echoed against the walls of the battered buildings. He twisted in his saddle as dozens of four-legged titanium machines with segmented arms skittered toward the Pistons.

  These weren’t Hummer Worker Droids. They were the new Canebrakes with simmering blue eyes in sharp, fan-shaped heads, and shoulder-mounted plasma cannons.

  Their miracle had arrived after all.

  “Everyone, get back!” Akira yelled.

  Kichiro ran around the APCs as the Pistons scrambled for cover. Even Tadhg moved out of the way.

  Akira turned back to the now headless Coalition War Lord as he slumped out of the saddle and crashed to the asphalt.

  For a moment, there was only the mechanical clanking of joints and hissing of hydraulics from the approaching war machines.

  Then, the roar of a thousand warriors filled the night.

  Hundreds of Breakers stormed past their leader, screaming at the top of their augmented lungs. But the bloodthirsty warriors slowed their advance when the war droids rushed past the Pistons and Engines.

  “AI is salvation!” Perez yelled.

  The machines clambered by, surging into the street. Energy blades fired from the segmented limbs, and their shoulder-mounted cannons belched plasma into the wall of Coalition armor.

  Akira lowered his rifle, watching in awe of what seemed, in a morbid way, like artwork. The machines used their heated energy blades to amputate the limbs and heads of the Breakers. Each strike impaled the thick armor with jabs, splashing blood over the asphalt.

  Within minutes the street ran red, the river flowing toward the human soldiers hiding behind APCs and inside of buildings. Akira couldn’t believe it when he saw a Breaker fleeing the machines, a sight he had never before witnessed.

  Cheers of victory rang out. Pistons raised their weapons and fists into the air. Rattling rose over the voices as the machines finished their slaughter and waited for orders.

  Moments later they darted away, into the smoke, and deeper inside the city to hunt.

  A civilian MOTH descended to the street as the sounds of battle grew distant.

  As its ramp extended down, Akira zoomed in, wondering who was brazen enough to land here now.

  A black armored Hummer Droid clanked down the ramp, followed by a man in pure white armor.

  “Who the hell is that?” Tadhg asked.

  Akira zoomed in further, seeing an AAS lightning and star logo on the white helmet of the richest and most successful man in the world, Doctor Jason Crichton.

  He crossed the street toward them with a black Hummer Droid.

  “What are they doing here?” Perez asked.

  “Replacing us with machines, apparently,” Frost said.

  “Sister, that’ll never happen,” Tadhg said. “Right, Captain?”

  Akira simply stared at the gory scene. He didn’t need a briefing to put together what they had just witnessed. AAS had designed and launched a new type of soldier, a machine that had eliminated an entire army of Coalition soldiers in a matter of minutes.

  “Nova Alliance victory!” shouted a Piston.

  Akira raised a sword into the air and humbly shouted, “AI is salvation!”

  — 16 —

  “You’re sure this is a good i
dea?” Darnel asked.

  Jason looked out the view ports of the Hammerhead APC. He took in a breath of his helmet’s filtered air and observed the purple and blood-red sunset over the Paris skyline. Smoke fingered upward, choking out most of the view to the west, where the city burned.

  “We came to oversee the deployment of the Canebrakes,” Jason said, “and now that this part of the city is secured, I think it’s time to figure out what Dr. Cross has been doing all these years.”

  Darnel charged a custom RS-3 rifle with the AAS logo on the barrel. “You sure you don’t want one?”

  Jason shook his head. “Petra always said guns do not suit me.”

  “I’d hate to hear what Betsy would have to say about this… I mean, you coming out here during a battle.”

  “She need not worry,” Apeiron said. “I will never let anything happen to you.”

  The Hummer Droid followed Jason and Darnel out the back hatch of the APC. They both hesitated at the sight of corpses strewn about the cobblestone road. Even Darnel seemed bothered by the twisted bodies in the ash, the flesh burned beyond recognition.

  Jason wasn’t sure if they were friend or foe.

  The Engines comprising Fire Snake Squad stood outside a secured entrance to the catacombs. Squad Lieutenant Andy Jackson, a seven-foot giant of a man, stepped forward. He took off his helmet, revealing dark skin and a mohawk.

  “Doctor Crichton, Apeiron,” he said in a rough voice. “The passages are secure of hostiles and booby-traps, but I can’t promise there won’t be any cave-ins after the bombings.”

  “Understood, we’ll be careful,” Jason said.

  “If you’re ready, I’ll show you what we discovered,” said Jackson.

  “Lead the way, Lieutenant.”

  The Engine put his helmet back on and ducked under the lip of the entrance, entering a stone passage with lights snaking from the ceiling.

  Jason was exhausted and disturbed from what he had witnessed from the safety of the APC over the past twelve hours. It was brutal above the streets, but he wasn’t prepared for the Hell Hive he had found under them.

  The Engines escorted them through the nightmarish caverns into the bowels of the catacombs. Their light beams flitted over cages, filled with the smoldering carcasses of burned animals, that Dr. Cross had left behind in his rush to escape the city.

  Rifle cradled, Lieutenant Jackson strode through a chamber that had been used for manufacturing Iron Wolves and hybrid beasts. Burned lumps of tarantulas, bred for recon, and mounting cameras were scattered across the next room. Darnel and Apeiron kept close as Jason searched the remains.

  “This way, Doctor,” Jackson said. “We’re almost there.”

  They continued deeper underground, passing through two more chambers and a prison that had held Nova Alliance citizens.

  “Looks like some of them got away,” Darnel said.

  “Not all of them,” Jason said.

  He stepped around the body of a man impaled by a spear that a dead Coalition soldier still gripped.

  “Resistance fighters,” Darnel said.

  Jason was happy to know that some had escaped, but they were the lucky few. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were already dead or would die in the hospitals, many due to the bombs and missiles meant for the Coalition targets.

  “This is it,” Jackson said. He directed his light into a room, the beam illuminating human skulls and other bones that had fallen from the stone shelves.

  The spider chairs in the center of the room caught Jason’s attention. He stepped over to them and began searching the crates scattered throughout the dark room with Darnel and Apeiron.

  “What was this for?” Darnel asked. He held up a helmet with tubes attached to a breathing apparatus.

  “I have a theory,” Apeiron said.

  “So do I,” Jason said. “You go first.”

  “I believe that the burning of our restoration sites is linked to whatever work Doctor Cross was performing here,” she said.

  Jason felt a chill up his spine. “Lieutenant, get a message to Command and tell them to find Doctor Cross, immediately.”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Jackson replied.

  Jason continued surveying the remains, trying to transplant himself into the mind of the mad Coalition doctor.

  What the hell are you planning?

  “It was like he wanted us to attack,” Jason said. “But he didn’t know about the Canebrakes, which is why he left in such a hurry.”

  They secured the mask and other evidence and left the room to explore more chambers. Jackson kept close to Jason and stopped to relay a message.

  “I’ve just received word from Command that an Engine team is being deployed to search for Doctor Cross, but he has already escaped the city,” said the Engine.

  “We will find him,” Apeiron said. “Do not worry.”

  “Let’s get back to the APC,” Jason said. “I’ve seen enough.”

  They returned to the surface, carefully moving through the passages. The APC waited topside and Jason ducked into the safety of the armored vehicle. They drove back to the MOTH in silence.

  Once inside the cockpit, Jason strapped into the seat and looked out over the destroyed skyline.

  “Where to, Doctor?” asked the primary pilot.

  Jason thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go next. Part of him wanted to return home, to be with his family, but with the world at war and the project sites damaged or still burning, there was too much to do. And with so much at stake, he knew he had to make a sacrifice.

  He had to take things to a new level.

  “Take me to Sector 220,” Jason said.

  “You got it, sir,” replied the pilot.

  The MOTH thrusters rotated and fired, vaulting the aircraft into the sky.

  “Want to tell me why we’re going to Sector 220?” Darnel asked. He had to be as exhausted as Jason, but his eyes were alert and his posture stiff.

  Jason stared out the cockpit at the clouds and smoke drifting through the angry red sky. Every second that passed, more toxic gas and smoke pumped into the atmosphere.

  “Something I should have done months ago,” he finally said. “I’m going to have Apeiron install an L-S88 chip in me.”

  “Excellent decision,” Apeiron chimed in. “Once you are chipped, you will be able to connect to INN and access any piece of intel with a single thought.”

  Jason nodded enthusiastically, thinking of how much this would enhance his daily life. Instead of relying on his obsolete Commpad, he could download reports to his mind and tap into millions of different visual systems.

  And be even more distant from your family…

  The red lights of the Titan Space Elevator habitats came into focus, and Jason reconsidered what he was about to do.

  “Love before work,” he whispered.

  Petra’s final words had never seemed more relevant, and he realized they could have several meanings. The L-S88 would put love before work. He could do far more with access to INN, allowing him to spend more time with his family.

  The aircraft docked a few minutes later, and Darnel opened the hatch into the troop hold. As Jason moved to follow, Apeiron reached out with her metal fingers.

  “There is something I need to tell you, Jason,” she said. “Something that will change everything, but I am not sure you are ready to hear it.”

  Jason swallowed hard, anxious by the slight change in her tone that indicated this wasn’t something good. “If it will change everything, then you need to tell me now,” he said. “Especially if it puts lives at risk.”

  “How about we get you chipped first to prepare you for what must be done,” she said cheerfully. “I will need your help.”

  ***

  War Commander Contos gathered with the Stone Mountain Battalion outside a magnificent 17th century church. Just below the shattered steeple, a single Canebrake perched on the tiled roof,
eyes scanning the streets from both sides of its fan-shaped head.

  Sporadic gunfire echoed through the night as the final Coalition soldiers fought against a new breed of soldier that did not bleed or fear—that stormed the battlefield with the intel of an entire army.

  “I knew this day would come,” said the War Commander. He gestured for Akira to follow him to the church.

  Frost, Tadhg, and Perez remained outside with Okami, who charged in his power crate. Kichiro grazed on hay that Akira had set out. The horse was doing well, aside from a few minor injuries.

  “Let’s talk plainly, Captain,” Contos said, as he and Akira stepped into the church. “Man to man, without any tech in our ears.”

  Akira took off his kabuto so Apeiron could not hear their conversation. A group of Pistons worked at makeshift tables. They came to attention in front of the War Commander.

  Contos led Akira down the tiled nave, passing under beautiful murals of ancient scenes from the Bible. They stopped in front of an altar, directly under a cross.

  “For thousands of years, we fought for God and land and resources,” Contos said in a deep, grizzled voice. “Not much has changed, aside from who we believe is the Almighty.”

  “AI is salvation,” Akira said.

  Contos nodded and turned. “You are my most trusted Engine, Akira, and I love you like a son. Just like I loved Shane. What happened to him was not your fault. It could have happened to any of us.”

  “I should have…”

  “You can’t change the past, but you can learn for the future.”

  “Yes, War Commander.”

  Akira met his gaze, this man he respected more than any other, a man he would follow into death a thousand times.

  “I called you here because I want to ask you a question, Akira,” Contos said.

  Akira nodded.

  “Is Apeiron our friend, or is she our enemy? You have worked with her exclusively in the field, and I want you to speak honestly.”

  Akira did not know quite how to answer the War Commander. Saying that Apeiron was an enemy would be blasphemy, but there must be a reason Contos would ask him.