Elan leaned over to look, and Zachary hovered behind them.
On the next page, Ronin read a passage.
“It is not sufficient to remain calm in the event of catastrophe or emergency. When challenged by adversity, charge onwards with courage and jubilation. This is rising to a higher level.”
Akira nodded.
“This is really amazing,” Ronin said. He handed the book back to Akira. “Thank you for letting me see it.”
They kept walking until Akira halted in front of a row of broken headstones.
“We’re here,” he said.
Lise and Kai arrived a few minutes later, hand in hand.
“Today, I’m going to share something with all of you that only Kai and I know about,” Akira said. “Something we are deeply proud of. Over three hundred and fifty years have passed since forty-seven ronin raided this castle to avenge the death of their Lord Asano. One was an ancestor of the Hayashi family, and he is buried here.”
Kai put a hand on Ronin. “This is where your name comes from.”
“I brought you here today because honor was once the most valuable currency to a warrior,” Akira said. “In the year 1701, Lord Asano came to this place and confronted Lord Kira. In a fit of anger, Lord Asano drew his sword, a grave mistake that resulted in a sentence of death. After Asano killed himself through seppuku, his samurai became ronin, warriors without a master. They swore to avenge him and restore his honor.”
Akira opened the book to a sketch of Edo Castle. A group of ronin were sneaking through the buildings at night.
“After a year of planning and infiltrating the castle, the ronin returned and avenged their Lord Asano, and after a fierce battle they found Lord Kira cowering,” Akira said. “He refused to die as a true samurai, by seppuku, and the ronin were forced to kill him by cutting off his head.” He closed the book.
“How did these ronin die?” Zachary asked, pointing to the graves.
“They all committed seppuku,” Akira replied. “Only one was allowed to live.”
They walked to the rebuilt keep of the castle. At the top of the tower, a Japanese flag hung next to the NA flag. Much had changed over the centuries, but the warrior ethos had not. It lived on in Akira, Kai, and now Ronin and his brothers.
“I love you all,” Akira said, “and I’m proud to be your—”
He was cut off by a rumbling in the distance. The sound rose to a roar, loud enough to tremble the ground. Five triangular Short Sword fighter jets raced across the sky.
“Wait here,” Akira said. He pulled out his Commpad, stepping away. The low whine of an air-raid siren rose in the distance.
Kai motioned for Ronin and his brothers to join him and Lise.
Ronin tried to hear what his uncle was saying into the device. A stern look crossed his stone features, and he put it into his uniform pocket.
“This way,” Akira said to the family. “Hurry.”
An L-20 MOTH descended from the sky, engines roaring. The four wings rose and thrusters kicked on as it lowered over the gardens, whipping the canopy of trees. A troop hold door opened and a ramp extended down. Akira motioned them inside the troop hold.
Ronin followed his parents and brothers into the belly where four Engines already stood. He hadn’t met them formally, but Ronin knew their names: Ghost, Perez, Frost, and Tadhg. Okami, the droid wolfdog that Ronin had heard so much about, was here too. And in the back of the troop hold was Kichiro.
“I had hoped you would all meet under different circumstances but alas, fate seems to have other plans,” Akira said. “The Red Wolves have launched attacks at every megacity, including Tokyo. We’re going to drop you all off at the base, where you’ll be safe.”
“Uncle Akira, where are you going?” Ronin asked. His words were drowned out by the roar of the thrusters, but he still got his answer.
His uncle was going back to war.
Akira stood as elongated plates of armor folded over his body. When the plates were all in place, he leaned his head back into a kabuto with a red oni mask. Then he held the Warrior Codex out to Zachary.
“Safeguard this for me, and read it while I’m gone,” Akira said in a muffled voice. “Someday, it will be yours.”
“Don’t you need it for good luck?” Zachary asked.
“He has Shadow Squad,” Tadhg bellowed, pounding his chest. “That’s all the luck Akira the Brave needs today!”
— 26 —
“Watch your back,” Kai said. “The snake lives without its head.”
Akira knew the analogy from the Warrior Codex. In this case, the Red Wolves were the snake, and their head was Dr. Cross.
“Be careful, Uncle Akira!” Ronin shouted.
Akira raised a hand to his family as they were escorted away by a pair of Pistons. They had spent one day together in six months, and now Hros-1 loomed over them, their fate in the hands of a machine.
Perhaps a life of peace was never in the cards for Akira.
“I’ll keep your book safe!” Zachary yelled, gripping the Warrior Codex tightly against his chest.
“We better go, Captain,” said Frost.
Akira tried to put his family out of his mind. They would be okay in the shelter deep under the reinforced base. It was almost as safe as one of the Life Arks.
Okami wagged his tail and barked after Kichiro as Akira took the reins. Shadow Squad joined part of the 10th Expeditionary Assault Force assembled in an underground hangar.
The three hundred Pistons of Stone Mountain Battalion waited in organized lines next to four Hammerhead APCs. Eight Juggernaut Mech pilots stood outside the diamond-shaped cockpits, running diagnostics.
Akira dismounted outside the command center. Inside, War Commander Contos watched mounted holo-screens that reflected off his golden armor.
“Captain, we don’t have much time to bring you up to speed,” he said.
General Thacker, second in command, stepped forward.
“Get the Canebrakes ready for deployment, but keep them on standby,” Contos ordered.
Thacker hesitated. It was not the first time Akira had seen him delay in following orders from their War Commander.
“Why not send in the Canebrakes now?” Thacker asked.
“The Red Wolves took one of our forward operating bases and three of our Pistons hostage,” Contos replied. “This is no doubt an attempt to lure us out, and I’m not taking the bait.”
Contos gestured for Shadow Squad to follow him into a hangar. Inside, technicians in twelve-foot blue mech suits used robotic arms to move armored crates into the hangar, where support staff used plasma sticks to guide them into position.
Akira could see the infrared tags inside the armored black crates. Each held six Canebrakes, curled up in fetal positions.
Okami sniffed at the crate they walked past.
Contos stopped them just shy of the ramp. “I’ll take care of our borders tonight,” he said. “I have another mission for Shadow Squad. Apeiron, upload the latest footage.”
“Standby,” she replied over their chips.
“Approximately thirty minutes ago, we lost contact with Sector 199 at the space elevator,” Contos said. “Doctor Cross escaped, with the aid of some kind of implant.”
The head of the snake, Akira thought. Connecting to INN, he played the security footage.
In the video feed, Dr. Cross stood in a shower, his back to the security camera. The water cascading down his legs suddenly turned red. He raised his head and turned slightly.
Akira paused the feed and zoomed in. Dr. Cross’s metal jaw appeared intact, but his teeth were gone, apparently removed after his capture.
When the feed resumed, Dr. Cross pulled something out of his nostril. The image zoomed in to reveal it was a tiny needle and syringe he’d hidden there. He pulled a second one out of the other nostril and then jammed them both into his INVS eyes.
Another figure entered the feed, this one dresse
d in combat armor. The guard looked for Dr. Cross, but the crazed man had snuck around him. He snapped the guard’s neck with a quick twist of his helmet.
In a matter of seconds, Dr. Cross cut out one of the guard’s eyes, held it up to the retinal scanner, and then palmed something against the security pad.
“That is where I lost contact with the sector,” Apeiron said.
“What did he jab into his eyes?” Perez asked.
“I am still not sure, but they were surgically implanted into his nose before his capture, and undetectable by our scans, which could indicate self-assembling nanoparticle-based constructs. Particles of that size would be nearly impossible to identify until they solidified.”
“This is all connected to what’s happening on the surface,” Contos said. “A distraction, meant to goad us to leave the walls of the city and into an ambush.”
“No doubt,” Tadhg grumbled.
“For all we know, the Coalition prisoners have complete control of Sector 199,” Contos said. “Fortunately, they have nowhere to go.”
“What about the Canebrakes there?” Perez asked.
“I have lost their signals,” Apeiron replied.
“You mean, you lost control?” Contos asked. “This was exactly what I feared.”
“No, War Commander. Not exactly, they appear to be offline.”
“There’s no way Doctor Cross could have taken out the droids,” Frost said. “Right?”
“Unless those needles had something to do with it,” Akira said. “Maybe he was able to take control of the machines.”
“No,” Apeiron quickly said. “That is not possible.”
“You better be right, but I’m not going to take any chances,” Contos said. “Shadow Squad, your objective is to take back that sector, secure the doctor, and figure out what happened to the Canebrakes.”
“With pleasure, War Commander,” Ghost said. “Do I have permission to kill him this time?”
Contos nodded. “Do it slowly, if possible.”
“Now we’re talking,” Tadhg said with a grunt.
“Tonight, the future of humanity is at risk, and we can’t let Doctor Cross and his small group of terrorists distract us from our main objective of destroying Hros-1.” Contos looked at them in turn. “That is the only thing that matters right now. We can deal with the other terrorists after it’s eliminated.”
He stepped back from the ramp and pounded his chest armor.
“Good luck, Shadow Squad. I’m counting on you. We’re all counting on you.”
“Death from the shadows,” Akira said. He paused before entering the MOTH. “War Commander, please watch over my family and Kichiro.”
Contos dipped his head.
Okami ran up the ramp of the MOTH, and the Engines racked inside. Overhead, a hangar door opened, and the pilots ascended to a view of the golden city.
Akira thought of his family. They will be safe.
Pre-combat noise filled the troop hold; Frost tapped a magazine against her helmet, Tadhg rocked a leg up and down, and Perez secured his shield over his back.
By the time they reached orbit, they were ready to fight.
“Docking in t-minus five minutes,” Apeiron said.
The MOTH switched to vertical thrusters on approach. The doors to the spaceport opened, revealing a dark hangar filled with hundreds of stacked crates.
“Enter through the access hatch and follow the route on your HUDs,” Apeiron said.
“Copy that,” Akira replied.
She uploaded an interior file for the prison, overlaid with blue lines to their target. The port doors shut, sealing them inside.
“Perez, you stay here and watch the MOTH,” Akira said. He flashed a hand signal, and Tadhg took point. Ghost and Frost moved out in combat intervals among the stacks, ten high, their weapons roving the darkness. A row of red emergency lights glowed overhead leading to the two hatches.
“You will have to manually unlock those access doors,” Apeiron said.
Tadhg collapsed his pulse cannon and drew his energy sword. Gripping the hilt, he activated the blade, and the teeth grumbled like a chain saw. The squad aimed their weapons as Tadhg carved a new doorway with the heated blade. The cutaway fell, echoing with a loud clank.
Okami was the first one through. Akira followed. Streaks of blood slashed the deck, hulls, and ceiling. Akira whistled for Okami to get back, then he slowly proceeded inside with his rifle up.
Two naked guards lay on the deck, guts hanging out of their stomachs.
Another flash of his hands, and Akira split the team up. Tadhg went left with Akira and Okami. Frost and Ghost went right. The next hallway was another scene of death. Okami sniffed for explosives and then approached three mutilated guards.
“Be advised,” Akira said, “Hostiles will have vacuum-rated armor and energy blades.”
“Copy that,” Ghost replied.
“Where are the Canebrakes?” Tadhg asked quietly.
“Apeiron, you got a location on any of those Canebrake units?” Akira asked.
“Negative, Captain. The entire sector is a dark zone. Proceed with caution…”
“Okami, find me those Canebrakes,” Akira said.
The wolfdog wagged his tail and trotted onward. Soon they arrived at the hatch outside the prison wing. The silo-shaped space was wide open, exposing a grid of rectangular cells inside.
“Captain, we found one of the Canebrake units,” Frost said.
An image of a downed droid came onto their HUDs. The top of the fanned skull was cracked open like a metal egg with veiny wires poking out.
“Looks like Doctor Cross and his men found a way to destroy the machines,” she said.
“Remember what you said about being obsolete?” Tadhg chuckled.
“Quiet,” Akira said. He stepped out onto a bridge. Its center platform, used to access the cells above and below, was far above, at the top of the silo.
“Apeiron, what’s up there?” he asked.
“Air vents.”
“Where do they lead?”
“Back to the spaceport, Captain.”
“Son of a bitch…” Akira bolted off the bridge, giving orders as he ran. “Get back to the spaceport! Perez, watch your six!”
An emergency alarm wailed as they ran. Okami growled at a hatch that began to shut.
“Faster!” Akira shouted.
Okami burst through with Akira and Tadhg close behind. But the next hatch was already almost sealed. Tadhg got there just before it closed and pried it open.
Akira hopped through and held it for Tadhg.
By the time they turned, a third hatch had sealed, right in front of Okami.
Ghost and Frost were cut off even further back by four more hatches.
“Shit,” Akira said.
His ears picked up what sounded a lot like distant gunfire. A message from Perez crackled over the team comm a moment later.
“Contacts!” Perez said. “Engaging!”
The feed from the spaceport showed ten Coalition prisoners in armored suits charging at Perez with energy blades. Akira slotted his rifle and pulled out his swords. He hacked into the hatch, desperate to tear it down.
“We have to break through these!” he yelled.
Tadhg joined in and together, they cut a doorway. Akira kicked the simmering piece down. Only two more separated them from Perez, but they were running out of time to help.
Okami paced behind them at the next one, howling.
Back in the spaceport, Perez was engaging a team of six unyielding Coalition prisoners, using his shield to block their blows.
“Hang on, Perez, we’re coming to you!” Akira said into his headset.
The two Engines battered the hatch until it came down. The wolfdog bolted through to the final sealed-off door. Akira went straight to the small viewport as Tadhg swung his blade deep into the metal.
Five dead prisoners lay in mangled
heaps inside the spaceport, directly in front of the MOTH. The other five surrounded Perez, each armed with energy blades.
One of the men lunged, and Perez smashed his shield into the prisoner’s helmet. He cut down another Coalition soldier with a slash across the stomach, opening the vacuum-rated suit, guts spilling out. A prisoner behind Perez struck him in his side with a heated blade, and a second prisoner kicked him in the back of his knee, bringing Perez down to his other knee.
“Watch out!” Akira shouted.
Perez brought up his shield to deflect more blows from energy swords, but a side stroke severed his hand from his wrist, the shield clanking to the deck.
“Perez!” Akira yelled.
He hacked at the door with Tadhg, desperate to get through.
Perez crawled away from the men looming above him, leaving a trail of blood from his gushing wrist. He used his sword to block their blades as they struck again and again.
“Hold on, Perez!” Tadhg shouted.
Perez pushed himself back to his feet, staggering in front of the prisoners. One charged, and he lopped off their head with a clean strike.
Perez stood tall, unwavering, and for a moment, Akira thought he could win this fight. That thought passed when a prisoner with familiar red INVS eyes glowing behind a dark visor thrust a sword into Perez’s leg.
Perez screamed out in pain and collapsed to his back in front of Dr. Cross.
Akira cut into the hatch as the two remaining prisoners hovered over Perez with the Doctor. Cross picked up Perez’s rifle and aimed it at his visor.
Perez tried to drag himself away, his visor angled at the deck, blood pouring out of his wrist.
“NO!” Akira screamed.
Dr. Cross fired a burst into Perez’s helmet. Perez dropped to the deck, his body completely still except for the blood pouring around his head. Then Cross aimed the rifle at the hatch.
Tadhg heaved Akira away, as the bolts punched through the glass viewport. The rumble of the MOTH’s engines sounded as Tadhg held Akira down, more bolts searing above their heads.
E-Day Page 35
