E-Day

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Jason felt a weight slide off his shoulders. The man who had tried to kill his family, and destroy humanity, was finally dead. And he wasn’t coming back.

  “Destroy the MOTH at a safe distance from Nova One, General,” he commanded.

  “Apeiron, connect me with War Commander Contos,” Chase said.

  “One moment.” She projected his hologram.

  “War Commander,” Chase said. “Doctor Cross is dead, and his crew has been eliminated. Doctor Crichton believes they planned to take over the cannons.”

  Jason stepped up to the hologram. “War Commander, I’ve been informed that you’re holding off deploying the Canebrakes on the surface.”

  “That’s correct, Doctor,” Contos replied.

  “I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, War Commander, but I believe it is important for the world to have a fresh start tomorrow. Once Hros-1 is destroyed, we don’t need to deal with terrorists on Earth.”

  “I agree now that Doctor Cross is dead,” Contos said. “I will deliver the same fate to his followers. Good luck with Hros-1.”

  “To you as well, War Commander,” Jason said.

  Jason moved to the viewport, standing next to Darnel.

  “All that’s left is that rock,” Darnel said.

  Jason stared at the approaching asteroid.

  “We’ve almost done it, my friend,” he said.

  “Yeah, and I’ve been meaning to tell you… I need some time off after this.”

  Jason smiled. “You and me both.”

  He patted Darnel on the arm and crossed the space. “I’m going to talk with my family again,” he said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Jason exited the command center, nodding at General Chase.

  “Apeiron, let me know if anything happens in the next ten minutes,” he said. The hatch opened and he ran down the passage, anxious to see his wife and daughters. He was feeling confident again, prompting the rush of adrenaline.

  The warm wave suddenly seemed to center on his implanted L-S88 chip.

  The heat grew stronger.

  He staggered slightly.

  Something was wrong.

  He turned back to the hatch, seeing Apeiron in the opening.

  “Jason, are you okay?” she asked.

  “I’m…”

  Darnel emerged. “Jason, what’s wrong?” he called out.

  He clanked over in his exoskeleton, reaching out just as Jason’s legs buckled. Apeiron joined them, her antennae clicking rapidly—a sound she only made when she gave the Canebrakes orders.

  The lights in the command room suddenly flashed.

  “Jason,” Darnel said. “Jason, stay with me.”

  Jason fought to keep his eyes open as he was carried back into the room that whirled around him.

  “What the hell is going on?” General Chase said.

  It was the last thing Jason heard before his vision went dark and a familiar pair of red eyes emerged in his mind. The glow spread, growing brighter, illuminating Dr. Cross’s silver jaw as it extended into a foreboding grin.

  “Killing me was not the end, Doctor Crichton,” he said. “Killing me was the beginning of the reset.”

  Images of Canebrakes flashed through his mind, similar to the images he had dreamt during his surgery for the L-S88 chip. The machines hunted people through destroyed cities, and Praying Mantis fighters hovered overhead, searching for human survivors.

  Next he saw the cannons firing, but they vanished as a hand shook Jason awake.

  Blurred figures hovered over him back in the command center of Nova One Station.

  “Jason, can you hear me?” Petra asked.

  He blinked to see it wasn’t his sister, but Apeiron crouched next to him.

  “Hang on,” Darnel said. “You’re going to be okay.”

  Jason tried to sit up, stuttering with realization about the image he had just seen. Everything came crashing over him.

  You fool, you should have known he wouldn’t give up that easily!

  Dr. Cross hadn’t come here to take over the station or surrender. He had come to upload something to the Canebrakes. Jason wasn’t sure how, but whatever program or virus he had transmitted didn’t seem to just affect the machines. It had been uploaded to Jason’s L-S88 chip, the moment he left the command center to call his family.

  A burning sensation rushed down his entire body.

  But this wasn’t from an injury.

  This was the chill of fear.

  “Shut INN down,” Jason mumbled. “Shut it down before it’s too—”

  — 29 —

  Akira awoke to high-pitched chirping. Numbers and data flashed across his HUD. He blinked, trying to focus on his surroundings in a dark room furnished with two broken chairs and the frame of a ragged couch.

  A hulking figure approached, crouching in front of Akira.

  “Damn, bosu, you’re one lucky SOB,” Tadhg said.

  Another blurred shape emerged, this one small and on all fours.

  “Okami,” Akira whispered. The droid wolfdog nudged up against him, whining.

  Tadhg grabbed Akira under an arm.

  “Easy, bosu,” he said.

  “Where are we?” Akira asked.

  “Ten miles from the western walls of Megacity Tokyo,” Tadhg said. “Pilots managed to fly through that shitstorm, and we lasted another hour on the ride back here, until the final engine failed upon landing.”

  Akira strained to remember. He brought up his video history. In thirty seconds, he had digested everything, from entering Sector 199 and losing Perez, to the space elevator coming down and the rough reentry. The replay brought back the crushing loss. He suppressed the dread to focus on saving those still alive.

  “Where’s our evac?” he asked.

  “There wasn’t one,” Tadhg explained. “We received orders right before INN went down, to sit tight and wait until the Stone Mountain Battalion of the 10th Expeditionary Assault Force shows up to deal with the Red Wolves.”

  “Apeiron, I want a SITREP on all hostile positions,” Akira said.

  Silence.

  He tried again.

  “She hasn’t been responding,” Tadhg said. “Must have to do with INN being down, we only got short-range comms, but Ghost is working on it.”

  Akira tried to process what Tadhg had reported, but nothing seemed to make sense. “How could INN be down?”

  “Space elevator maybe? I don’t know, but…”

  “Where’s Frost and Ghost?”

  “Watching our backs across the street,” Tadhg said. “So what’s our play?”

  Akira picked up the remnants of Perez’s shield.

  He secured it away in his gear and stepped up to a window, reeling over the loss of Perez and deeply worried about his family and Kichiro.

  With INN down, Shadow Squad was completely in the dark, cut-off from Apeiron and the 1st Division.

  “Ghost, any theory on what happened to the network?” Akira asked.

  “A few,” Ghost said. “And while this is highly improbable, what if it’s not just INN? What if they got control of the cannons?”

  “No way,” Tadhg said. “That’s impossible…”

  “Not necessarily,” Akira said.

  “I got movement on Blue Jay,” Frost said over the short-range comms.

  Akira crouched at the balcony, watching the small drone’s feed on his HUD. The feed revealed Hammerhead APCs rolling down the streets toward Shadow Squad.

  “Those are ours, Captain,” Frost said.

  “They’re using the APCs to link back to Gold Base,” Ghost said. “I’ve confirmed our location. They know where we are.”

  Akira tried the command channel. “Silver Crane, this is SS1, do you copy?”

  Static broke over the line.

  “Silver Crane,” Akira said again. “Silver Crane, do you copy?”

  Through the static came the b
ellowing voice of the War Commander.

  “Copy SS1, this is Silver 1, damn good to hear from you,” Contos said. “Hold tight where you are, Captain.”

  Akira wanted to ask about his family but trusted Contos to know he wouldn’t break his promise to look after them.

  An upload emerged on his HUD, and Akira watched the APC hatches open. Canebrakes burst out, scattering down the streets to hunt down the remaining Red Wolves.

  “Pistons and Juggernauts are on their way in MOTHs,” Ghost confirmed.

  Akira stood and stepped to the balcony’s edge for a better view.

  Minutes later, the first brilliant blast illuminated the distance. Another explosion volcanoed into the sky, forming a small mushroom cloud where a team of Canebrakes had taken out a fuel source. The grid clicked off underground, block by block, leaving the enemy, and the civilians sheltering out here, in the dark.

  Akira backed away from the railing just as a flash of light emerged in his peripheral vision. There was no time to move. The projectile hit the balcony, blasting into his body with enough force that he ended up in the living room.

  Ringing drowned out most of Okami’s howl and the shouts over the comms, but Akira heard enough to know this wasn’t a single sniper.

  “Taking fire,” Frost said.

  Akira tried to focus his vision. Green dots of friendly forces inched across the battle map on his HUD. The squad of Canebrakes had veered off to find whoever was hunting the Engines.

  Tadhg helped Akira up, and Okami followed them out of the room. They moved out into the hallway and Tadhg took them to the roof for a better vantage. At the top landing, he flung the door open and turned to the east, where the first of the MOTH transports flew high in the cloud cover, their bellies full of Pistons.

  The Stone Mountains were about to fly into a zone that was supposed to be clear.

  Akira hurried to the railing and propped his rifle up, scanning the shacks and abandoned structures. Ghost and Frost remained low as they crawled to new locations on their roof tops.

  “Frost, give me something to shoot,” Tadhg said. He looked over the side of the rooftop, his pulse cannon angled over the side.

  A rattling ricocheted across the streets, the clicking call of the Canebrakes requesting reinforcements. The noise sent a chill up Akira’s spine. They wouldn’t call for help because of a few Red Wolves. There had to be more hiding in the slums.

  Another plasma bolt hit the side of the roof next to Tadhg, knocking him off his feet in the blast. Akira dove for cover as a railing and part of a retaining wall exploded from a second bolt.

  Tadhg got right back up and hefted his cannon over the mangled railing. Akira scrambled over, only to be forced down from another explosion to his right. Shrapnel peppered his armor, and the ringing returned in his ears.

  Okami rolled on the ground, the hair on his back burning.

  Akira went to grab the wolfdog when a jolt of pain ripped through his guts. A warning sensor flashed on his HUD, and he looked down at a piece of rebar sticking out of his side. Blood streaked down the armor despite his suit combating the wound.

  Akira fought through the pain and directed the barrel of his rifle at movement across the rooftop. A pair of curved handrails suddenly moved. It took him a moment to notice the handrails were actually two segmented arms pulling a Canebrake up to the edge of the roof, where it perched.

  But the eyes on the fanned head weren’t a cool blue. These eyes were dark black, soulless, as if something had hijacked the droid.

  Okami ran at the Canebrake, snarling.

  Akira tried to whistle as the war machine rose to its maximum height and rotated both shoulder-mounted cannons toward him as he staggered forward. It was then Akira finally realized it wasn’t the Red Wolves hunting Shadow Squad—the Canebrakes were.

  He dove and grabbed Okami as the cannons burst to life. The bolts lanced past Akira as he tucked Okami against his chest and slid behind an air handler unit.

  “Bosu!” Tadhg screamed from across the roof. He dropped his cannon as a thick metal rope wrapped around his neck. He yanked at it with both hands.

  Telescoping limbs whipped over the unit Akira hid behind. He waited until they retracted before darting for new cover. Pain raced up his side with each step.

  Near the rooftop edge, Tadhg had managed to grab onto the mechanical arm strangling him. He swung it over his shoulder, pulling the attached Canebrake up to the roof and smashing it down. The Canebrake struggled to right itself, arms rearing back to strike again, and cannons turning toward Tadhg.

  Akira dropped Okami, and the wolfdog took off. He switched to his swords as segmented arms flung toward him. He ducked and dodged, cutting through two of them to get close to the downed droid.

  The metal beast tried to push itself up, but Akira brought the swords down into the fanned head with all of his strength. Pain ripped up his stomach from the downward strokes.

  The droid jerked, sparks shooting out of the destroyed head, and limbs flopping on the roof until the entire unit went limp.

  They can die… he thought.

  Akira backed away, sucking in air as he searched for the original Canebrake that had attacked him and Okami.

  The war droid rushed across the ledge on all four legs. The shoulder cannons targeted Tadhg, hitting his armor with a flurry of bolts that sizzled into the plates. He crashed to his back and rolled away from another fusillade.

  Akira turned on his jetpack, the thrusters firing in the crutch of his back and arms, launching him into the air as the Canebrake turned one of the cannons at his helmet. Plasma bolts streaked by, and one snagged his shoulder, spinning him mid-air. He crashed to the roof, five feet from the Canebrake.

  All four arms rose up and tightened to strike. A ball of charred hair leapt over Akira’s faceplate and clamped around the neck of the machine before it had a chance.

  “Okami!” Akira screamed.

  The droid wolfdog went over the edge with the Canebrake.

  By the time Akira looked down, they had smacked on the street with a loud crack.

  “Okami!” he yelled again.

  A low growl answered, and Akira whistled for the droid to get back into the building. He raised his rifle and aimed it at the Canebrake on the concrete below. All four legs were snapped, but it used its segmented arms to rise up, the antennae rattling.

  As Okami ran away, Akira fired a flurry of bolts into the fanned face of the war machine. The rattling ceased, and the arms went dormant.

  Gripping the rebar protruding from his stomach, Akira staggered over to Tadhg, who was up on one knee, breathing heavily.

  “Silver Crane, this is SS1, do you copy?” Akira said on the command channel. Static hissed in his helmet. They were being jammed now.

  Distinct rattling echoed across the slums, a noise that had once guaranteed victory, but tonight seemed to foreshadow death.

  “Come on, we have to get off this roof,” Akira said.

  He helped Tadhg up to his feet. They started back toward the door, but they halted as exploding MOTHs bloomed across the skyline. Some of the Pistons managed to bail, and one of the MOTHs banked away, right into enemy fire.

  Akira climbed to the ledge, staring in horror as the Stone Mountain Battalion was slaughtered. He heard the other Engines yelling on the comms that they needed to move, but he couldn’t force his gaze away from the mid-air explosions. A Piston sailed past their building, the lower half of his body gone, entrails hanging out.

  Okami returned to the roof, tail wagging.

  Akira leaned down to check him, pain lancing up his waist from his injury. The wolfdog had taken damage to both front legs and had lost most of his hair. But he appeared functional.

  Ghost and Frost flew over, landing with thumps.

  Akira studied an aerial view from Blue Jay. Outside of the tower, a dozen Canebrakes prowled, forming a perimeter.

  “We can’t win this fight,” Akira s
aid. “We have to use our packs to get to shelter.”

  “We won’t make it,” Frost said.

  “We have to try,” Ghost said. “Hros-1 is coming in just over twelve hours.”

  “Fuck the asteroid, man. It doesn’t matter if we’re droid meat,” she said.

  The rattle of the Canebrakes came again, closer this time.

  “We take our chances in the air,” Akira said. “Tadhg, toss the decoy holos. They’ll buy us a few seconds.”

  Tadhg pulled the bullet-sized devices out of his pack and chambered them into a pistol.

  “Get ready,” Akira said.

  The team crouched as Tadhg fired the shells. The holo-heat trails would look just like an Engine to a normal enemy, but Akira wasn’t sure if the Canebrakes would take the bait. Only one way to find out.

  “Go, now!” Akira said.

  He picked up Okami and blasted off the roof after the other Engines. Plasma bolts lanced the sky behind them. On his HUD, he watched the green blots of Pistons on his tactical display, winking to yellow, and black. Within minutes, all but twenty of the soldiers from the Stone Mountain Battalion were dead.

  Akira clenched his jaw, feeling the sting of each death. He glanced over his shoulder. The distraction had worked, and the Canebrakes were firing at the holo-trails.

  “Launch,” Akira ordered.

  The Engines blasted into the sky. As they got closer to the walls, the command channel came back online.

  “All units fall back to HQ! We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack!”

  Akira almost didn’t recognize the panicked voice of War Commander Contos.

  A clicking rose over his voice, then gunfire, and screams of agony.

  Shadow Squad blasted across the cloud cover toward the glow of fires in the distance.

  “Incoming!” Frost yelled.

  Plasma bolts streaked toward the Engines.

  “Down, down, down!” Akira shouted. He forced his body into an arrow, angled at the outside of the megacity wall. It seemed so close, but so far away at the same time.

  One thing was certain, they weren’t going to make it in the air.