A Subtle War

by Tim Marquitz

  “Lucky him,” Taj said, taking a step out into the arena. Applause rose at her back as the crowd noticed her. “I guess it’s up to us.”

  She really, really wished it wasn’t.

  “You do realize we can flee at any time, right?” Dent said, tapping himself on his chest.

  “Wait! What?” Torbon mumbled coming over to stand in front of Dent accusingly. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

  “I kind of assumed you wanted to stay or you would have left already.” Dent shrugged. “You could jump and climb out whenever you like.”

  “Now you tell me,” Torbon growled. “I nearly soiled myself,” he admitted.

  “Fortunately, the suit would filter it and keep you dry so no one would be the wiser if you actually did.”

  “That’s good to know,” Cabe said and looked down at his crotch. “Handy.”

  “We’re staying,” Taj said, drawing all eyes to her.

  “Uh, and why would we want to do that?” Torbon challenged. “You can see that giant robot-thing over there, right?” He pointed a shaky finger at the automaton.

  Taj nodded. “I also see them and them and them,” she answered, pointing at the small groups of warriors in the arena alongside them.

  “Not our fault they don’t have an awesome AI buddy who can whip them up cool toys to keep themselves alive,” Torbon countered, patting Dent on the shoulder as if looking for backup with his argument.

  “No, but we can’t leave them here to die like this,” Taj told him.

  “Sure we can,” Torbon argued, but Taj could see his will breaking down. He was simply arguing to argue at this point, mostly because he was scared.

  And so was she, but she wouldn’t let that stop her protecting those who needed it the most. There was no way she could look herself in the eye if she ran away and let these people be killed by the cruel, unfeeling creature that continued its advance toward the center of the arena.

  “I forgot my cape,” Torbon tried again, his eyes narrow and desperate.

  “No, you didn’t,” Dent told him, and a long cape appeared out of the back of Torbon’s suit. It fluttered in the soft breeze. “It’s right there.”

  “I’m not liking you much right now, Dent” Torbon told the AI.

  “We need to decide what we’re doing soon,” Cabe announced, gesturing to the automaton. “Big boy there is closing in fast.”

  “Then we take it down.” Taj marched forward, head held high to mask the thrumming of her chest as her heart spasmed to break free and run away.

  She heard the crew mutter various unkind things behind her back, and then they were there, walking alongside as she approached the automaton.

  “Any advice, Dent?” Taj asked, hoping to take advantage of the AI’s resource of knowledge in what she knew would be the toughest opponent she’d ever faced in her short life.

  “Don’t get hit,” he suggested. “Try not to get stepped on either. It’s hell on your posture.”

  Taj groaned and stared up at the automaton as it drew closer and closer, the ground rumbling at its approach.

  She thought back on the crew’s training sessions and how hard they’d prepared to be a part of the Federation and their teams, and here was the chance to show what all of them were made of and save lives in the process.

  Taj sighed.

  “It’s hard being a hero sometimes,” she told her crew. “Let’s do this.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The giant automaton’s fist slammed into the ground right where Taj had stood only seconds before. Sand flew in the air like a tiny eruption, and she darted around the monster’s hand, which was as wide across as she was tall. The mechanoid beast drew his fist back quicker than she could have imagined before she and the crew had engaged the monster.

  Now, it had sadly become what she expected, and she’d learned to time its movements.

  Taj bolted between the automaton’s spread legs and shot out behind it, giving herself a short break to catch her breath as it tried to angle its mass and turn to follow her.

  “This thing is killing us,” Torbon called out. “Literally.”

  “Not yet,” Taj muttered under her breath, but she knew she was being spiteful. They were tiring fast, and Warpath kept coming.

  Cabe unloaded yet another magazine into the automaton, this time at its ankle, trying to bring the giant down. The weapon bursts scorched the metal and bounced away, digging pits in the sand where the ricochets hit.

  Krawg hit it from the other side, stepping between its legs and shooting upwards into what could be considered its crotch.

  “Is there someplace on this thing we haven’t tried to shoot yet?” Cabe asked, circling the automaton to stay out of its line of sight as he reloaded, watching Krawg’s shots reflect uselessly.

  “Not that I can tell,” Dent reported.

  “Did we shoot it in its mouth yet?” Torbon asked, running over to them as Warpath spied one of the other warriors squirming injured in the dirt and went after him.

  “Be right back,” Taj announced and ran off, using the suit to push her as fast as she could go.

  “Just that one time I hit it there by accident,” Krawg answered. “Like everything else, it did nothing.”

  Warpath grabbed for the wounded man while the crew discussed the automaton, but Taj got there first, snatching him up and running off while the automaton got a handful of dirt for its effort. It roared its frustration at its lack of success. She dropped the warrior off a distance from the rest of the crew to try and keep him safe then returned to her people, panting.

  “At least we’re pissing it off,” Lina said, clapping her hands. “That’s something, right?”

  “Oh, it’s something, all right,” Torbon replied, groaning as Warpath turned and headed in their direction again.

  “We’ve got to figure something out, Taj,” Cabe warned her. “Our guns can’t stop it, our blades can’t cut it, and we sure as gack can’t punch the thing.” He held up his broken hand as an example, the bones shattered and his fingers sitting crookedly as he tried to close it. “That didn’t work out very well,” he admitted.

  “Who the gack tries to punch a metal giant?” Torbon wondered.

  Lina subtly pointed a finger at Cabe, blocking it from his view with her other hand.

  “Oh yeah,” Torbon chuckled. “Cabe.”

  Warpath swung a backhand at the gathered mass of Furlorians, and they scattered ahead of it, each running a different direction to confuse the monster.

  Of course, that really didn’t do much seeing how it didn’t have a real mind behind its actions. It was driven by pure instinct, a sub-level AI that would have struggled to run a hovercraft let alone anything more complex.

  Still, it was completely relentless and never tired, and the Furlorians were the exact opposite.

  They’d managed to keep most of the other warriors from dying so far, with one exception: a crazy fighter with a mohawk named Pao, who clearly had suicidal tendencies. Every time the crew dodged the automaton’s left fist, they got to see Pao’s last moments splattered across Warpath’s massive knuckles.

  “Poor Pao,” Lina commented as she danced away. “He’s starting to peel off now, at least.”

  The engineer had stopped even trying to shoot Warpath when it came at her, focusing all her remaining energy on avoiding his blows and finding someplace she could wait where she gained the most time in between attacks.

  The crowd’s excitement had waned since the match started. Where they’d been cheering and roaring at everything Warpath did, they’d long since grown tired of watching the Furlorians avoid the monstrosity and play babysitter to the other warriors.

  Only Pao’s passing had inspired a spurt of shouts and cries. After that, the crew had been met with a spattering of boos that reverberated throughout the arena on a regular basis. Taj knew those in charge of the fights would soon need to do something to end the bout before their monstrosity lost face with the crowd.

&
nbsp; And just as she thought that, there was a surge of energy through the sand, and Warpath stiffened, stopping mid-step. Its armored skin gleamed and seemed to almost glow, energy flowing through it.

  “Uh, what are they doing to it?” Taj asked Dent, wondering what the gack was going on.

  Dent, for what was probably the tenth time, scanned the automaton. Whereas before, he stood stoic and announced he once again hadn’t seen any appreciable weaknesses, this time his eyes went wide, eyebrows rising.

  “That can’t be good,” Lina said, noticing Dent’s reaction.

  “I’m afraid it’s not,” he replied. “They’re powering the automaton up.”

  “Which means what exactly?” Taj asked.

  Dent stared at Warpath as its foot settled back on the sand and a tremble ran through it. “They just made it faster and stronger and likely more aggressive.”

  Torbon groaned. “Yeah, because it needed a boost in aggression. The thing’s been trying to rip our heads off for twenty minutes now.”

  “Unsuccessfully,” Lina corrected. “So far.”

  “If it makes you feel better, it’s going to do it much quicker now,” Dent told him. “The ripping our heads off bit, that is. And pretty much everything else it does, too.”

  “Can’t wait.” Torbon glared at the monstrosity.

  Warpath seemed to respond to him, raising its fists to the sky and howling. It sounded like a rocket launching. When it was done, it looked down and stormed toward the Furlorians again.

  This time, it was much, much faster.

  “Gack!” Taj mouthed as she leapt aside, barely avoiding the giant’s blow this time around.

  The rest of her crew had fared as well, but in her hurry, she hadn’t noticed the warrior she’d saved earlier was still nearby.

  Warpath snatched him up in a rush. The warrior screamed as the automaton lifted him into the air, massive fingers holding the man in place as if he were imprisoned.

  Taj rolled out of her dive and willed her weapon out, but it was too late. Warpath squeezed.

  There was a loud, wet crunch, and what was left of the warrior oozed out from between the automaton’s gooey fingers.

  Taj looked away, her stomach churning. She didn’t even bother to shoot the thing. “That’s gonna give me nightmares,” she mumbled to herself.

  “Heads up!” Lina shouted as Warpath charged at Taj again.

  Taj faked left, then ran right, causing the automaton to stumble and nearly topple over as it missed its swipe at her.

  “You see that?” Cabe called out.

  “Super-charging the big guy makes him a bit clumsier, it looks like,” Torbon said.

  “Maybe we can take advantage of that,” Taj told them. She glanced about and waved the Ursite over. “Krawg, with me.”

  Krawg growled. “I’m kind of wishing I’d got off the ship after I carried Dent in there,” he spat out.

  “And miss all this fun?” Torbon asked him.

  “Our definitions of fun are radically different,” he replied.

  “Come on,” Taj told him and ran off.

  Krawg grunted and followed, despite all his complaining. “I hope you have a good plan,” he said in between heavy huffs of breath.

  “It’s a plan,” she replied, “but good is subjective.”

  “I’ll save that phrase for use on your gravestone,” Krawg said as they ran across the sand, circling behind Warpath.

  Once they were there, Taj raised her gun and shot the automaton in the back of its head as it stomped after the other Furlorians.

  It grumbled and spun, kicking up sand in its wake and barreling toward the pair.

  “Was that the plan?” Krawg asked.

  “The easy part,” she replied, motioning for Krawg to stay right beside her. “The next bit is a little tricky.”

  “Let me guess,” he said as the automation stormed toward them, “that’s my part of the plan?”

  “You catch on fast.” Taj chuckled and angled herself just to the right of Warpath’s foot as it came stomping down toward her.

  As soon as it hit, Taj leapt backward over Krawg’s head, screaming, “Stay put! Don’t move!” She fired dozens of rounds into the automaton’s eyes as she did, blinding it for an instant.

  “Sacrificing the Ursite is definitely not a good plan,” he whined as Warpath raised its foot and launched forward to chase after Taj.

  His giant sole loomed over Krawg’s head, sand raining down on top of him.

  “Trip him!” Taj shouted, hitting the ground and darting off once more to avoid Warpath’s follow-up attack.

  “For the record,” Krawg stated as he reached out and latched onto Warpath’s heel as it started to come down, “Dent specifically mentioned not to be stepped on, remember?”

  The Ursite howled as he dug his fingers in as hard as he could and pulled with everything he had, leaning his full weight back as he did. Warpath dragged him along for about a meter before the automaton’s forward momentum got the best of it. It grunted and reached out for Taj, who stayed within its reach, teasing it on.

  “Come and get me!” she shouted, only darting off at the last minute as its fingers stretched out to grab her.

  “Timber!” Torbon shouted from behind Krawg as he ran up and grabbed the Ursite by the belt, tugging him back as Krawg let go of the automaton’s heel.

  Warpath’s center of gravity too far forward now, its arms extended and its torso jutting out, it toppled face-first into the sand, slamming into the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

  A collective gasp rose from the crowd as Warpath hit.

  The automaton thrashed and clawed, working to get its hand underneath itself.

  “Have they done it?” the bearded announcer asked, his platform flying overhead. “Have these unknown warriors defeated the great and powerful Warpath?” he screamed.

  “Have we?” Torbon asked, crossing his fingers that they had.

  The crowd started to chant once more, “Warpath! Warpath! Warpath!”

  “Ah, come on, people,” Taj complained. “You can’t cheer for the underdog for once?”

  Warpath got his arms under him right then and pushed himself up to his knees and clearly looked around to find who’d tripped him. His steely gaze landed directly on Taj.

  The crowd exploded.

  “Guess not,” Taj answered herself, seeing no one else was going to.

  “He’s…uh, getting back up,” Krawg said, pointing to the automaton.

  “You noticed that, huh?” Taj sniped, though her anger was at her leading them into the situation, not with the Ursite or his comment.

  She turned to look at her crew and raised her hands questioningly. She was running out of ideas, not that she’d had a whole bunch of them to begin with. Taj was starting to think she might well need to abandon the rest of the warriors to their fate, as horrible as that would be.

  She was already sick watching Pao and the other guy, whose name she never caught, get squished in front of her.

  That’s one gack of a eulogy, she thought. Sorry, buddy.

  She glanced around the arena then, letting her eyes scan the lights and the view screens as she looked for something she could use against the slowly rising automaton.

  Her eyepiece zoomed in, Taj froze as she spotted someone in the crowd she recognized.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” she snarled.

  “What?” Cabe asked, coming to stand alongside her, his broken hand dangling at his side.

  “Is that who I think it is?” she asked, sending her eyepiece’s signal to the others so they could see what see saw.

  “Bloody Rowl!” Lina cursed, confirming that it was who Taj thought it was before anything else was even said.

  “Our attacker from the caravan,” Dent answered. “The one who tossed the grenade at the end.”

  Taj growled, zeroing in on the man she’d spied in the stands. He moved through the crowd slowly, glancing around in a manner that would have been suspicious
had anyone been watching anything besides the giant monstrosity and its victims on the arena floor.

  She spotted the scar that ran down his face and over his wayward eye as he moved along, and Taj seethed at seeing him. But as incensed as she was at seeing her attacker, alive and well and strolling along as if he hadn’t a care in the world, what truly infuriated her was who she saw him walk right up to.

  She ground her teeth together, her sharpened eyeteeth nicking her lower lip and drawing blood.

  “That gackspittle worm!” she said with a growl.

  Right there, in the stands in front of thousands of people, the man who’d attacked the crew’s caravan walked directly up to the woman who’d abandoned them at that very same caravan: Commander Rolkar.

  The scarred man stopped and leaned against the very railing she stared out from, less than a meter apart, and looked out over the spectacle.

  Taj snarled at seeing them so close, doing their best to appear as if they had no clue the other stood right there while it was gacking obvious to Taj that the arrangement had been intentional. And though she couldn’t see them communicating, she wondered if they had some form of internal communications like she and the crew did.

  “What the gack are they doing here together?” she asked, making sure her eyepiece recorded everything.

  “Might want to pay more attention to Warpath and less about Rolkar and her friend right now,” Cabe warned as the automaton got to its feet and let loose a massive roar, swinging itself around so it could come after Taj and Krawg.

  Taj was half-tempted to let the automaton smash her into dust while she took aim at the two backstabbers and blasted them where they sat conspiring.

  It would be worth it.

  Cabe apparently didn’t think so.

  He grabbed her and yanked her out of the way of Warpath’s vengeful swipe for her head. The two rolled through the sand, kicking up golden dust in their wake. Taj stood up, her stare never once leaving the pair in the stands, acting as if each other were invisible.

  A moment later, they both moved off, going their separate ways as if they’d never noticed one another.