It seemed like a good idea to both of them to keep his existence a secret once they heard mention of 'those damn AIs' that suggested that some of the locals might feel he was some kind of abomination. She could only hope that no one other than the first trader had seen the mech move on its own and that he wouldn’t feel inclined to mention it. Mini had once told her about a time when people thought AIs were a danger to humans as a whole based on stories and films that had been released in that era.
As it turned out, AIs were actually part of the reason why humans had survived the attacks of the Invaders. It was an odd idea that AIs would be the death of humans, given that people were the ones who created them.
"Humans were quite capable of wiping themselves out at a few points in history," Mini had said at the time. "Maybe in creating AIs, they thought their creation was capable of the same thing."
It explained the mistrust that people held for an AI, at least. Either way, it was a quick and easy decision to keep Mini's existence a secret for the time being as they worked through Auburn.
"How much data do you have on the town?" Jessica13 asked as they moved through the streets, supposedly looking for more work as the light started to fade from the sky. It was only a few hours from sunset, but the fact that they were in a valley meant it was getting darker at a faster rate than it would have out in the open.
"I have developed detailed maps of Auburn’s streets, buildings, and underground sewer and water systems," Mini replied and displayed smaller versions of the map on her HUD. "The underground streams are of particular interest, as they appear to lead toward the bunker that was pointed out before as controlling the water. It could be that the bunker itself is storing the water and only supplying it on the instructions of Athena—or Lady Hoot, as she appears to be known as in this town."
"Are we still being watched?" she asked. It was difficult to locate Athena’s agents as she was afraid to constantly look around. Oddly enough, they were easy to identify as they all wore the same boots she had seen Barrios wearing.
Mini ran a quick scan of their surroundings and pinged the area quickly. "You are currently alone. Any who might be watching you would do so from a distance, so if you want to make your escape before nightfall, I would suggest that it might alert them to the fact that you're not who you've said that you are."
"Or I'm more comfortable spending the night outside of town," Jessica13 said. "Either way, can you tell if they'll watch us if we leave?"
"They could be watching us through a telescope," he pointed out. "There would be no way for my scans to pick up on something that low-tech."
"Well, we can't risk staying here for much longer," Jessica13 said. "We need to contact Tinker and Windchime."
"Do you think you could transmit everything to them over the radio waves while still keeping up appearances around here?"
She shook her head. "I doubt it, honestly. The people who were murdered in the church were caught transmitting to us, so I think we can safely assume there is some kind of monitor on all the comm lines. If they pick transmissions up, even if they are encrypted, they'll know there are unauthorized messages being sent out and there would be a very clear culprit."
Mini paused. "Barrios?"
"No, me!" Jessica13 grumbled. "Why would Barrios be a suspect?"
"Because his daughter broke the rules by telling you what happened?" Mini almost sounded offended. "Well, technically, his stepdaughter, I suppose. If he were to protect her from retaliation over talking about private Auburn matters to a stranger, he might look for a way out and thus summon help."
"I suppose it's possible," Jessica13 conceded doubtfully. "But not very likely. These men in the shiny boots appear to be in charge of this town, at least when Lady Hoot isn't here personally, and so I think he would be able to protect his stepdaughter without appealing for help from beyond their borders."
"Would you like me to run the statistical possibilities?" he asked.
She laughed. "No, I don't think that's necessary. I think we need to get out of the town and find Tinker and Windchime. I have no idea what they might be doing or planning, and anything they might be up to would be done better if they know the layout of the town, right?"
Mini paused as if assessing the statistical probabilities anyway.
"Yes, I suppose you are right," he said finally.
"Well then, that's what we'll do.” She nodded. “We’ll head to the edge of the town, hide in a location that makes it difficult for them to see us, and slip away."
"Very well."
She gradually moved to the corner of the town and once there, attempted to stay within the shadows of the buildings. Having to skulk and hide like this felt wrong, somehow, despite the fact that she’d wished she could do so earlier. The Knights had always been about helping people and there wasn't much subtlety to them. It applied especially when their leader piloted a massive mech that wielded a rocket-powered hammer.
"Run one more check for me to be safe," Jessica13 said and halted the Minato in the deepening shadows of one of the buildings at the edge of the town.
"You are still not being followed closely by anyone," Mini said. She knew for a fact that the AI would not show any kind of emotion, but she began to imagine some anyway. Frustration was what she imagined in his voice at that moment.
Once she felt more certain that she was alone, she crossed the final distance to the edge and into the wooded area surrounding the town of Auburn. She moved slowly and as naturally as possible, knowing that if anyone approached her and asked about her movements, she could simply say she intended to spend the night outside the town. It was the kind of oddity some expected from peddlers.
Fortunately, no one approached her. Mini kept the sensors activated to be sure and was able to confirm that she wasn’t followed as she headed deeper into the woods. Once she was under the full cover of the trees, she looked around to get her bearings so she could find Windchime and Tinker.
"Do you know where they are?" Jessica13 asked, unable to see much in the gathering darkness.
"The motion sensors don’t detect any nearby mechs," he said as they continued to move. "They will no doubt have remained where they had a good view of the town as you originally planned. I will indicate the last point where you saw them for reference."
Progress was slower in the fading light but eventually, she reached the position from which they had overlooked the town.
There was no sign of them, however, and she stopped abruptly.
"Where could they be?"
"Behind us," he said.
"What?"
"They are behind us and have leveled their weapons."
She began to turn cautiously when the two mechs stepped toward her. Windchime had drawn all four of his weapons and had them leveled at her.
"Is that you, lassie?" Tinker asked as he approached and circled warily.
His caution seemed unnecessary, although it was possible that the townsfolk had somehow found a way to pull her out of her mech and sent someone else in her stead. Common sense said it was unlikely as Mini would have stepped in to prevent that happening, and ordinary folks weren’t capable of standing up to him. Jessica13 was sure the AI would have disabled the Minato before he allowed someone else to take control of it.
With that said, they wouldn't know Mini well so wouldn't know how he would react. And, of course, they were entitled to make sure it really was her rather than simply accept things at face value.
"It's me," Jessica13 said and stood quietly with the Minato's hands up to make sure they posed no threat. "Do you want me to come out so you can see me?"
The two looked at each other for a moment.
"Why don't you go ahead and do that?" Windchime said but sounded a little embarrassed by his paranoia.
She pushed the hatch out and stepped into view with her hands up, anxious that neither of them would accidentally shoot her while she tried to calm them. Thankfully, their weapons lowered when they saw her and she climbe
d into Mini once again.
"So, what did you find out?" Windchime asked once she was situated once more. "You took most of the damn day to get here, so it had better be good."
"Well, most of my time was spent establishing my cover as a peddler," she explained. "They needed a ton of work done all around the town and while I worked, I was able to find out what's been happening there. Mini also made an illustration of Auburn's inner workings, so we won't be lost."
It took only a short-burst transmission to send the map to the other two mechs, which meant it was unlikely that anyone would even realize something had happened.
"What about Athena?" Tinker asked. "Did you find out what she was doing in the area?"
"As it turned out, yes." Jessica13 paused to make sure no one had picked up on the transmission before she continued. "She goes by Lady Hoot among the folks of Auburn, and she rules over them with an iron fist that has become disturbingly more aggressive."
"Is she there now?" Windchime asked.
"From what I learned, she comes and goes and takes a tax on their supplies and food whenever she visits. That tax grew a little too overbearing, and that is why they wanted help and called us."
"I'll assume the folks who called us are the ones who ended up burned in that building?" the younger Knight asked.
"You are very astute. They called the building a church but I'm not sure what that means. Maybe where Athena or Lady Hoot passed judgment?"
"A church is a place to worship invisible deities," Mini said and displayed pictures of other churches on the HUD. Most of them had the same sign that had been on top of the burned building.
"It sounds like the kind of thing Athena would do," Tinker said. "So, she rules over these people? Why don't they simply arm themselves? They could get weapons for those mechs in the fields and fight back. I know Athena's Excalibur is no small enemy, but even then—"
"She has left agents behind," Jessica13 interrupted. "A group of them man checkpoints all around the town to make sure those mechs that come in and out of the farms and into the town itself are no threat. They keep the people in line too. I was also able to see that the three Cinders we saw before were left behind when Lady Hoot went about her business. They were beyond the checkpoints so I wasn't able to get a good look at them, but from what I saw, they were well-built. You'd have to be crazy to run a badly built Cinder but then again, crazy is not really out of the question for these people."
"Athena has good mechanics—or at least she did when we knew her. I think she'll be able to keep her mechs in good order," Tinker said. "What do you think, then? Should we be able to knock them out of position and take control of the place?"
"I don't know." Windchime sounded worried. "With only three of us and if we had the element of surprise, we could possibly gain the upper hand. But if they had sufficient warning and managed to get a message to Athena before we could consolidate our position, we wouldn't be able to hold the town even if we managed to take control, which isn't a foregone conclusion. She would be able to come back and knock us out before Hammerhand gets here. On the other hand, if we don't give them some kind of landing ground, the Knights Mechanica won’t be able to push into the town without alerting them. There are too many of them to remain unnoticed and if she only left three Mechs to hold it, she obviously believes it’s easy to defend."
"There's something else too," she said. "The folks I spoke to talked about how Lady Hoot was able to control the water they use to grow their crops and even to drink. They get most of it from underground using wells and the like that run dry when she tells them to—when they haven't paid the tax, obviously—but they said she could control the rain too. I can see how she would be able to control underwater streams from that bunker over there, but how would she control the weather?"
Tinker studied the bunker in question and pointed a finger at the balloons tethered to the top that drifted lazily in the clouds. "Electrical impulses are sent to those balloons, I think. It was tech they researched in Cities-That-Were when they had problems with waters rising to swamp the cities. It meant they were able to control the rainfall and bring it to the locations that needed it and avoid flooding in some areas while watering the crops in others. It is a little beyond my expertise, but they did manage to do it. Maybe this bunker is one of those that was set up to bring about change in the world after the war to generate rain and water so folks could start to grow crops and live outside again."
"And Athena took control of it and is using it to leverage a position of power with the locals and set herself up as a ruler over her little domain." Windchime shook his head in disgust. "I wish I could say I was surprised, but it actually does seem precisely like the kind of thing she would do."
"So," the other man said. "How do you think we should do this?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say her agents would be able to contact her if anything happened," Jessica13 said. "The men—who all wear shiny boots for some weird reason—would be able to alert her that we were taking over and so give her time to come back. The folks in the town seem afraid of her. There are some who believe she's actually some kind of leader who will take them into a brave new world, and that is the image her agents—for want of a better word—try to pass on. They talk like she's some kind of prophet or something, but I think most only pay lip-service because they don't want to end up in the next building that's set alight. That said, I think they’re afraid enough of her to contact her right away rather than wait to see if we gain the upper hand."
Tinker sighed and nodded. "Well, if there are those who would alert Athena about what we’re doing, it would be best if we take them out quickly and quietly first before we confront the Cinders."
"They wouldn't be able to connect with her directly, I don't think," Windchime pointed out. "There’s too much interference from the trees and the hills. They would need a higher point to be able to send transmissions out."
"He’s right," she agreed. "The folks who contacted us needed the top of that church to send the transmission we picked up. The chances are they have something at the top of the bunker to help with that. If we were able to cut their comms, we would cut their line with Athena off entirely."
"That…does sound like the beginning of a plan," Tinker said tentatively and looked Windchime, who nodded in agreement. "Do you think you could destroy it?"
It took a moment for her to realize they were talking to her. "Wait, why me?"
"Because you're the one with the grappler," Windchime said but didn’t sound very happy about it. "We'll still need to be as quiet as possible when we get to the bunker to make sure no alarms are raised before we can do it."
The other man nodded. "Are we ready to act on it now?"
"You might want to familiarize yourself with the maps first," Jessica13 said. "But yes."
A plan of action was quickly developed. Mini mapped the route that would leave them exposed the least on their way to the bunker. The worst part was around the checkpoint that led to it.
"It's mostly open terrain," Windchime said. "Even if we move across it quickly, there won't be any cover to keep us hidden. They will see us moving and it will all be over."
"I can get across," Jessica13 said. "There's tall grass that would hide Mini and I if we're in Bulletfoot mode, but we would still be visible to the men manning the checkpoint."
"We'll have to handle them,” he replied
She wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. Handling sounded fairly deadly, especially to men who weren't in mechs themselves. It made things a little less fair than they generally were but given that she piloted a smaller support mech, most of her time spent toe to toe with other mechs generally tended to be unfair toward her. Aside from which, she reminded herself, these were men who followed Athena and had stood back while their fellow townsfolk were burned alive.
Night had fully fallen by the time they had their plan finalized, but they needed to make sure they were out of sight of the locals as well as anyone who might be
able to report them. There was no way to tell who would simply assume their arrival was an invasion and sound some kind of alarm. They didn't need to deal with Athena's guards as well as the local folks from Auburn.
The best place that could be found was the divot—almost a small river—that had been dug to allow water to flow into the fields. It was mostly dry for the moment and was probably only filled when needed. Unless they stood at the very edge, it should keep them out of sight of the locals.
They did need to keep themselves low, however, which meant dropping down and moving on all fours.
It was no problem for Jessica13 and Mini, as all they had to do was move into Bulletfoot mode. The earth around the dried riverbed was mostly soft, so they didn't have to worry much about making noise.
Windchime had an easier time of it than she had expected. She didn’t know whether it was the work of his AI or if he was merely more skilled with his combat mech than she thought he was, but the second pair of arms suddenly came active and enabled him to scuttle across the surface of the riverbed with ease like an insect. It was interesting to watch.
Tinker had a little more difficulty, however, as his mech lacked the kind of improvements that would have allowed him to move on all fours.
She took her position at the front and used Mini to scan their surroundings periodically to make sure there was nothing and no one moving around their route. On the few occasions when the motion sensors did pick something up, the three mechs froze in place and waited for the movement to pass before they continued.
It was even more harrowing than being among the people and acting like a peddler. At least she knew what she was doing when playing that role. She had no experience with the kind of situation she was in now.
But Tinker and Windchime both expected her to be able to do this and keep them alive besides. She felt out of her depth but hopefully, Mini would be able to help her settle into her role.
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