by Drew Cordell
“It has to work. We don’t have another option,” Marwin said.
“You’ve got to promise you’ll take my family to safety if the transfer doesn’t go through. We’re not signing on for any suicide missions,” Bernie said.
“You’ve got my word. We’re going to the Slums even if the transfer fails; it’s our only shot of surviving and making a difference. We’ll need to return to the Upper Level eventually, but not until we’ve rallied support from the other Houses and can convince the Supreme Leader to do something.”
“Friend, from what you’ve told me, it doesn’t seem like this Omniscience Engine has an off-switch, at least not in the conventional sense. I don’t see a middle ground between leaving it as is, or living in a world without centralized technological infrastructure.”
“Hopefully the data we recover will help us find a solution. The guild we’re meeting up with has a lot of brilliant minds.”
“I hope you’re right. I’ll run you through how the transponder oscillator works and exactly what I’ll need to do to the dropship we’re going to steal once we’re all geared up and ready to go.”
Mary, Marwin, and I put on our armored suits and emptied a lot of the dead weight from our packs to leave behind in the apartment. We would use less of our suit’s battery reserves if we were carrying less weight. Nick, Emily, and Bernie replaced their hoodies and attached some sort of devices to the front of their clothes before picking up their salvaged energy rifles and loading a few extra gas magazines in their pockets.
“What are those for?” I asked, pointing at the gadgets they put over their clothes.
“It’s an infrared signal array. It will throw a bunch of garbage signals at anything trying to target us. It will, at least, disrupt the sensors on Enforcers and ruin their accuracy so we can get away. We haven’t seen an Enforcer in weeks, but then again, we’re going to an Enforcer station.”
“Oh, okay,” I replied.
“Our armor does the same thing,” Marwin told me, placing a hand on my shoulder and picking up the transponder oscillator Bernie created. “When we get to the station, we’ll have Bernie, Mary, and Jake get the dropship ready, and Nick, Emily, and I will find the datapad and anything else useful we can scavenge. We’ll all meet up at the dropship, then we’ll have Jake and Mary on the ship’s turrets while I fly and everyone else stays buckled in. Jake, I’m going to have you run the data transfer, and I’ll walk you through it while we’re on our way to the station.”
“Do we really need three people getting the datapad?” Nick asked.
“I want each group to have numbers in case we run into trouble. I’ll take point in our group, and Jake, I want you on point for your group. Protect Bernie because he doesn’t have any armor. I’m not expecting to find more armor in the station, but keep an eye out. We can at least find you some new weapons,” Marwin said.
After final preparations, we were out on the desolate streets, heading toward the Enforcer station a few blocks away. Bernie was lugging a heavy backpack loaded with a car battery and a tangled bunch of cables with different couplers he might need for the job. He was carrying his toolbox and declined my offer to help him carry it. Marwin, Mary, and I led the way, shining the lights on our SMGs down the empty streets. We turned onto one of the larger streets, and I was shocked at the difference. Doors were smashed open, cars were burned to a black crisp, and trash and debris littered the street in dense piles.
There was a huge truck flipped on its side in the middle of the street. A thick piece of steel jutted from one of the mangled tires, and there were scorch marks on the sides of the heavy armor. Broken Enforcers leaned against the sides of the truck, shut down permanently from irreversible damage.
“Riots?” Marwin asked.
“Yeah, it was worse over here. People went crazy, and the Enforcers started shooting everyone. People made molotovs and other weapons, and eventually the Enforcers ran out of ammo. It was a bloodbath,” Nick said.
“I’m guessing you’ve already picked this area clean?”
“Yep, there’s nothing left for us here. Let’s keep moving,” Nick replied.
My feet crunched over crumpled plastic and trash as we walked forward. The solitude and emptiness of the Mids was staggering. It was hard to believe millions of people lived here just a few weeks ago. How had things gone so horribly wrong? Questions raced through my mind. If Mindshift had been implemented here around the time of my confrontation with Infinitum, then what were the Champions doing? Did they even know Infinitum already had Mindshift?
Marwin pulled me out of my thoughts, giving me instructions on how to run the data transfer once we had the datapad. He touched my wrist with his, transferring the encryption and decryption codes to my suit so I’d be able to initiate the data transfer when we were in the air.
Marwin started a private comm link with me, silencing our external speakers so no one else could hear us. “I need you to stay focused. I don’t know what’s waiting for us in here, and we need to be cautious. No matter what happens, we’ll make it to the ship. The data transfer, then Mary and me are your priority. We’ll do whatever we can to get these people out with us, but we can’t hesitate to make tough calls to complete our mission.”
“We won’t have to leave anyone,” I said, keeping my gaze forward to avoid suspicion from the others. I didn’t like the way he was talking.
“Just in case, Jake. This isn’t easy, but getting this data to the Champions may be humanity’s only shot at a future. We don’t know Infinitum’s agenda, but we need to learn more about what’s going on and hopefully figure out how to stop everything that’s happening. I don’t know how up to date the files we’re trying to get are, but I’m sure they’ll help.”
“What can we do with the files?” I asked.
Marwin raised his hand, and everyone lowered themselves. A single Enforcer was roaming the streets in front of us, trudging forward in slow, clunky movements. Sparks jolted from a crack in its chassis and it continued forward, not seeming to notice us. The Enforcer was clearly damaged, and maybe it was working its way to the nearest station for repairs, relying on some emergency code to guide its actions.
“Still no signal. There’s no way that thing is on the grid, and a single Enforcer doesn’t have a strong enough transponder to ping the Upper Level,” Bernie said, checking a reading on his datapad that was hooked up to some other tech.
“That thing is messed up. Looks like it’s in emergency mode, just trying to get itself to the nearest station for repair,” Marwin said to Mary and me. “I’ll take it out.”
Marwin dropped his SMG and let it hang from the sling across his body. He drew his handgun and opened the targeting sights. Taking a moment to aim, Marwin squeezed the trigger, and a bolt of green energy sailed across the asphalt, slicing through the wandering Enforcer’s head and popping it open an explosion of sparks and shrapnel. The robot fell over, motionless.
We continued forward, navigating through the trashed street toward the large building that loomed in front of us. The Enforcer station was a bleak, blocky-looking building that had no aesthetic features. The massive steel door was sealed, and the light fixtures that hung on the outside were dead like everything else on the level. We approached cautiously, with our weapons raised. There were no windows, and according to Marwin, the other doors on the building could only be opened from the inside.
Marwin tried the electronic console, pressing his wrist on the scanner to try to get a reading. The doors were supposed to have backup power capabilities in the case of an outage, but Marwin couldn’t get the console to power on.
Bernie waved us out of the way and set his toolbox on the ground, taking out some tools and starting to go through the maintenance procedures needed to work on the inside of the console. After removing the bolts, Bernie cracked open the plate over the console to examine the circuit boards underneath. The boards looked intact, and Bernie removed one of the DDR8 cards from the slot, replacing it with one
of his own that was hooked up to his datapad with soldered cables. Bernie worked open another panel below the console and unplugged a thick-looking connecter from the jumbled tangle of colored wires that were anchored to plastic loops attached to the interior wall.
“Just have to hook this baby up to my battery and we should be good. Keep an eye on the streets for me, would ya’?” he said, reaching into his pack and looking for the correct power coupler.
“Just tell us when you think it’s ready so we can stand point to clear the facility,” Marwin said.
Bernie finished his connections and typed something on his datapad. A few moments later, he called for us to take point, and pressed his finger on the screen. The effect wasn’t immediate, but the door groaned to life and started to slide back slowly, creaking in protest as the motors operated on the weak power source.
The darkness from the inside of the building told us the station was as lifeless as the rest of the Mids. The door led us into the main waiting room, which was lined with uncomfortable-looking plastic chairs like the ones we had in the Slums. Signs and posters lined the scuffed metal walls, and Mary, Marwin, and I moved in slowly, keeping our line of sight clear and scanning for Enforcers. After determining the waiting room was clear, we guarded Bernie while he opened the next door in the facility. After getting past the lobby, we didn’t expect to find any locked doors.
“Okay, just like we talked about. Nick and Emily, come with me and we’ll get the datapad. Jake, Mary, and Bernie, get the dropship in working order and we’ll come to you,” Marwin said.
“Be careful, Dad,” Emily said, looking at Bernie.
“You know I will, sweetheart. We’ll be on a ship out of here in no time.”
I led Mary and Bernie to the right, watching the map display in my helmet’s HUD to make sure I was going the right way. The halls were featureless, just panes of steel welded together.
As we rounded the corner, we entered a large room. Enforcers were standing with their heads drooped, tiny LED lights on their heads flashing red. They were anchored to power cables that sprawled from the walls, but they weren’t moving.
Bernie cursed when he saw them, almost firing his weapon into the mass of robots.
“I don’t think they’re functional,” I said, checking my helmet’s HUD. “I’m not picking up a signal from them.”
“I’m not either, but they give me the creeps,” Bernie said. “They’re low on power, but if they detect something or the signal comes back on, they’ll activate and might have enough juice to kill us.”
“The flashlight isn’t enough?” Mary asked.
“They’re low enough on power that it isn’t, apparently,” he answered.
With my weapon raised, I walked forward through the standing Enforcers that surrounded us. I kept my finger rested on the frame of my weapon, keeping it off the trigger as Marwin had taught me. Taking caution not to bump any of the Enforcers, we cleared the mass of robots and approached a large door off to the right—the hangar. We opened the door and entered. The central hatch on the ceiling was closed and almost thirty feet above the floor.
“Damn it,” Bernie said, shining his light up on the hatch. The two semicircle doors were shut, and must have weighed several tons.
“I’m guessing your car battery can’t open those?” I asked.
“Nope. We’re going to need to get to the generator. Jake, you and I will go. Mary, get started on taking off the maintenance plate from the dropship. I’ll show you where it is. All you need to do is take off some bolts,” he said, motioning for Mary to follow him to the dropship. He showed her where the plate was and handed her the tools she’d need to remove it from his pack.
“Mary, keep your weapon ready just in case. We’ll be right back,” I said.
“Marwin. The overhead hatch in the hangar is closed; Bernie and I are going to need to fire up the generator to get it open so we can get the ship out. Any luck on the datapad?” I asked, switching the comms channel on my suit.
“We’re still looking, going to the offices now. There should be one for Inquisitors in every station. If we’re lucky, we’ll hit up the weapons depot too and score some more gear.”
“Copy,” I said.
Bernie trailed behind me as I moved through the station. I double-checked my path against the map Marwin had created and led us down a long flight of stairs into darkness. At the bottom of the stairs, we passed through narrowing tunnels lined with cabling and pipes that hung overhead. At the end, we entered a large room with heavy machinery in the center.
“What are we looking for?” I asked.
“Barrels or power cells. Look for them; they’d keep emergency fuel down here for an extended outage. If they shut everything down intentionally, which it’s looking like that’s the case, then they probably didn’t tap into the reserves. We can get the backup generator running and send enough juice up to get those doors open. I can tap into the main controls from down here as well,” he said as he walked over to the console, preparing to jump start it with his car battery.
“Jake, we have the datapad and we’re raiding the weapon lockers. I’m going to bring a few bags of weapons we can bring down to the Slums for the Guild,” Marwin said. “Any luck with the generator?”
“We just got here. Bernie is firing up the console, and I’m looking for some fuel to start the auxiliary generator and open those doors.”
“Hurry. I don’t want to stay here long. Shut the generator off right when you get the get those doors open; it’s going to light up our position,” Marwin said over the comm channel.
“Almost done with this dropship panel,” Mary said through my helmet.
Bernie’s voice crackled over the comm channel. “Almost done, Jake. Find that fuel or battery cell and put it in the auxiliary generator. You should see a hose or battery slot on the right side.”
I walked over to the corner of the room, spotting what I was looking for. Several fifty-five gallon drums were positioned in the corner neatly. Powering on my suit’s membrane, I grabbed one of the barrels and lifted. The barrel inched off the ground, but a warning flickered in my visor, telling me my action was draining a lot of power from the suit. If the barrel was full, which it felt like it was, then it must have weighed almost five hundred pounds. I set the barrel back down and rolled it on its edge, spinning it as I moved it toward the generator to preserve my armor’s power. When it was in place, I grabbed the hose coiled on the side of the generator and twisted it into place on the barrel’s steel frame.
“Good work. I’ll fire this up,” Bernie said. “You should see a valve by the hose you just connected on the generator. Give that a few turns and it will suck the oil into the generator.”
I found the valve and turned it. As I did, a light on the side glowed yellow then green, indicating the fuel siphon was successful. “Good to go, Bernie. Go for it.”
The generator rumbled to life, shaking and settling into a loud growl.
“Opening the hangar hatch!” Bernie yelled over the machine. “Mary, did it work?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s open,” Mary called. “I have the maintenance plate off. Can I do anything else?” she asked.
“No, we’ll be back in a second,” he responded. “Jake, let’s get back up there. I’m about to shut down the generator.”
“Shit, we’re under attack!” Marwin screamed through comms.
11 TRIGGER
“By what?” I asked. Mary was asking questions too, frantically trying to decipher what was happening.
“HK models. I don’t know how many; I just destroyed one, but they never come alone. Mary get inside the ship and keep your weapon ready. Jake, Bernie, move to the hangar as fast as possible; use your training and don’t get sloppy. Stay on point and don’t get hit. Hunter-Killers use disruptor rifles. Your suit can absorb a hit or two from them, but after that you’re dead. Cut the chatter, and call out any enemies you spot,” Marwin said.
“Come on, Bernie. Leave the gea
r, just bring your weapon and stay behind me,” I said. My heart was throbbing in my chest and my suit’s HUD displayed a warning. My hands were starting to shake, and I pressed my chin down on the interior pad, feeling a cold sting as the suit injected me with a dose of stims to calm my nerves. My hands steadied, and I started through the tunnels, keeping my weapon trained ahead.
“I didn’t turn off the generator,” Bernie said.
“It’s too late. They already know we’re here. Just keep moving. Are you picking up any signals?” I asked.
Bernie pulled up his datapad and shook his head. “Nothing. The Mids are still offline.”
I continued forward, clearing the corners before we moved through. The lights in the hallway gave some comfort, but it was short lived. As I cleared a corner, I spotted a tall robot coated in mottled black and gray paint. It was skinnier than the standard Enforcer, but looked nimble. The thing twisted its head toward me and raised its weapon, a short, blocky gun with visible heatsinks jutting from the walls of the weapon. A burst of blurred energy whizzed through the air, distorting my vision and slamming into the steel wall behind me and piercing through it with a deafening crack. I fired a few shots that collided with the robot, causing it to stagger back before finishing my maneuver and pressing my back against the wall, safely behind cover. It must have shielding, because my shots didn’t appear to heavily damage it.
I placed my weapon along the edge of the wall, loading the weapon’s camera view into my helmet’s HUD. The robot was gone. For now.
“It’s gone. Stay behind me; we need to keep moving,” I said to Bernie who was holding his weapon close to his chest. He was panting, and sweat dripped from his hair, soaking into his unruly beard.
“Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here,” he said.
I moved quickly but cautiously, keeping my finger on the trigger of my SMG and making sure I was ready to shoot first. My suit’s sensors couldn’t pick up any signals; these HKs had signal masking and maybe some other stealth tech.
