"That does seem reasonable," she acquiesced after a moment’s thought.
Mini appeared to agree and immediately supplied the man with the locations of the other checkpoints. With the information he needed at hand, he turned to leave. She gave him his sword, and she and Tinker remained and waited while the night passed and the sun slowly began to rise before their teammate returned with a group of captives in tow.
There were fewer of them than she thought that there would be, and she could see sprays of blood on the man's hybridized mech.
"I take it many of them weren't overly cooperative?" Tinker asked and raised a hand to shield his eyes against the rising sun.
"Those who weren't changed their minds fairly quickly after their friends were cut in half," Windchime replied. He sounded less than enthused about the fact as she hastily secured their new prisoners.
A part of her suggested that she should be celebrating. They had won a major victory and on their own, no less. The other Knights would arrive in the next few days, which gave them time to consolidate their position in the location and set up defenses for the folks of Auburn.
But all she felt was sick to her stomach. Memories of killing the men in the checkpoint building herself, then seeing what they had done while acting under Athena's command had left her feeling shaken.
It wasn't like she hadn't killed before but this was different, somehow. She wasn't sure how, but it had certainly impacted her in a way the other deaths hadn't.
As the dawn brightened, the people in the town of Auburn began to stir and begin their day. It wasn't long before they realized the change that had come over their town and the sense of excitement was tangible. A few of Athena’s agents hadn't been found by Windchime and once they registered the changed atmosphere, they quickly tried to establish some semblance of control over the populace.
It was immediately apparent that it wouldn't go well for them. The Auburn townsfolk had been strained and apathetic, apparently shocked into submission when their people were burned alive and simply resigned to their circumstances. Now, however, when they saw the Cinders no longer supported the enemy agents among them, they reacted with the decisiveness borne out of anger and suffering.
Those who had weapons were tackled and disarmed by several men and women, and the others surrendered when they realized they could expect no additional support.
After a fairly short discussion which included numerous gestures and nods toward the bunker, the residents dragged their prisoners away from the town to where Jessica13, Windchime, and Tinker waited for them.
Messengers were sent by the townsfolk to notify those who hadn’t witnessed or been part of the early-morning rebellion. Despite the fact that they scurried from street to street and house to house, it was almost mid-morning by the time most of the inhabitants had assembled outside the bunker.
By then, the earlier sense of celebration had faded somewhat and no one appeared to know what should happen next. Athena's men looked fearful and clearly anticipated that the mob would lynch them at the slightest provocation, and the townsfolk looked restless. The mood seemed to ebb and surge as if they weren’t sure whether to be angry, excited, or simply confused.
Tinker was the first to act, stepped out of his mech, and pushed himself onto the table the Cinder pilots had been seated around earlier.
"I am Tinker!" he called and projected his voice to carry and silence the crowd around him. "This is Windchime, and you may have met Jessie yesterday. We are members of the Knights Mechanica and were summoned to aid you in your time of need."
The people settled almost immediately and stared intently at the man with the scraggly beard and bushy eyebrows.
"Those who called us have paid the price for it, but know that their deaths were not in vain," he continued, and Jessica13 realized how similar his speech pattern was to Hammerhand's. "We don't want to take this town away from you, however."
Glances were exchanged and it seemed the townsfolk were unsure of what to make of that.
"The Knights Mechanica are here to help you but not to take over," Tinker continued and fixed a firm gaze on the group. "As for these sorry wretches, I suppose you get to choose what you want to do with them yourselves. Then, you can take control of your water supply from within this bunker."
He dropped from the table as the people began to discuss what they wanted to do with the men. The Cinders would be left for their use in defense, and she wondered if she could get her hands on a couple of those that were used in the fields and help them to build others.
It would take training before the people of Auburn were able to use the mechs without injuring themselves, but it wouldn’t be an insurmountable challenge. Mini had a handful of subroutines that would help with that.
"What do you think they'll do?" Windchime asked.
"I'm sure they will simply rebuild once they know how to use all the mechanisms in the bunker," Jessica13 replied.
"No, I mean about the prisoners."
"They're running a vote now," Tinker said. "I think their choice will be to strip them and send them out into the wild."
"Which is a death sentence," the other man stated grimly. "Why not simply kill them outright?"
"Probably because no one wants to get their hands dirty," his teammate replied. "Or maybe they don't want to spare the bullets."
"They could always use the corpses for fertilizer," she pointed out and grimaced internally at the almost callous way she’d said that. It wasn’t at all like her, and she assumed that all that had happened and her part in it had somehow derailed her a little.
"They already have a few bodies with the ones Jessie and I killed," Windchime added.
The group around them finally came to the conclusion that Tinker had assumed they would. The men were stripped of all their possessions, even their clothes and boots, and driven out of town.
"All in all, it’s not the worst mission I've been a part of." Tinker rolled his shoulders and climbed into his mech. "I'll contact Hammerhand and ask him what we should do next."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jessica13 folded her arms and scowled. She wasn't sure why she no longer liked being underground but for some reason, it really irritated her. Maybe she had become too used to the benefits of being above ground to enjoy the safety of a bunker again.
"Jessica13," Mini said softly. "We have a problem."
"Of course we do," Windchime grumbled and looked as happy with their current circumstances as she was.
"I have been able to connect to the bunker's software and it would appear that it is part of a network," the AI continued and displayed the system on the screen. "There appear to be five more—four satellite bunkers and one central bunker."
"It sounds like the kind of place Athena would set herself up in," Tinker said over the comms.
"Agreed," the other man replied. "She would be holed up in the location whenever she isn't in her Excalibur."
"The news only grows worse," Mini said. "The smaller systems of the local bunkers are accessible to me but the major functions to control the weather and water functions are isolated to the main bunker, which is about sixty clicks north of this position."
"Shouldn't we be able to access the functions from here?" she asked. "Maybe pick up the actual physical wiring?"
"It would be possible," he confirmed. "But the wiring is isolated behind fifty meters of steel-reinforced concrete. It would take months to reach with the current equipment we have, even in the Beast. With that in mind, we would be able to manage the balloons that maintain the local weather but the underground water supplies are controlled from the central bunker and are therefore beyond our control."
"It sounds like we need to take control of the central bunker," Tinker said.
"And that sounds far easier said than done," Windchime said. "We need to make contact with Hammerhand and see if it’s even possible."
"For the moment, though," Jessica13 said and looked at her teammates. "Athena took
a large amount of food from these people—supplies. They would be left almost destitute without it, especially if the underground water is cut off. Mechs wouldn't be able to carry it alone, which means Athena would have a supply train."
"And you think we should take the train?" the younger Knight asked. "How would we know where it's going?"
She shrugged. "Well, it should be obvious enough. There aren't any roads between the main bunker and this one, so if they are going there, it will be directly toward the bunker, which gives us a clear path toward them. If they're anything like Tinker's Beast, it should make a little under fifty klicks a day on an actual road. By my estimation, they're less than twenty ahead of us if they are moving across the open ground. We can overtake them fairly quickly. And even if they aren’t going to the bunker, if it’s anything like the Beast, we should be able to find the tracks and follow them easily."
"It would make for a problem if that supply train is escorted in the same way ours is," Tinker said. "But I suppose it can't hurt to have a quick look to see if there’s anything we can do to give them trouble, right?"
"Agreed." She nodded emphatically, even though he couldn’t see her.
All she really wanted was to escape the bunker but delivering a little justice to the folks who had controlled and abused the locals on Athena’s orders would certainly not hurt.
She and Windchime returned to the surface, where Tinker waited for them.
The reaction from the town once they fully comprehended their freedom from under Athena's heel was rewarding. A handful was celebrating while another group sifted through what had been taken from those they had banished and distributed them among the rest of the populace. Some set up streamers and prepared a larger celebration for later in the day. With supplies as limited as they were, it could hardly be considered a feast, but it was encouraging to see how they made do with what they had. What they lacked in food and drink they made up with enthusiasm and determination.
It would be difficult for all of them to gather until the evening since a large number of them needed to head out to the fields to work. Jessica13 wondered how they would be able to continue with their efforts to cultivate what they needed if they didn't resolve the water situation. There was only so much that could be done with rainwater, especially with this many people.
"Are you ready?" Windchime asked.
She looked at him, a little surprised. "Now?"
"Do you think we should wait until our quarry is inside the bunker and beyond our reach?" he asked, clearly sarcastic.
"No, but—"
"But nothing. If we want to take this supply chain, we need to do it now."
"I could stay here and help the folks to get their mechs running and maybe work out alternative water sources," Tinker said. "The two of you should be able to find the train without too much trouble."
Jessica13 nodded and interrupted Mini, who continued to work on the bunker’s software.
"Are you ready to go hunting?" she asked.
"Always," he replied. "I think we are getting the hang of hunting people."
"That's…great," she muttered as they set off using the shortest route out of town. A few of the locals asked where they were going and why, but they directed them to Tinker. He would have to explain it rather than them being held up in what might become a lengthy discussion when folks found out they intended to track the supply train.
Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to find a trail. The convoy used literal tracks to move over the soft earth and there would be no shortage of very obvious impressions for them to follow. Mist droplets had already collected in shallow puddles in the indentations, which suggested that their quarry had passed through the area in the morning.
"These are recent," Windchime said and confirmed her assumption. "Do you think they were around to see what happened to their comrades?"
"If they did and somehow managed to get a transmission out, Athena already knows what we've done," Jessica13 said. "Which could be a problem. But I don't think so. For one thing, they’d have to find really high ground and I don’t see anything anywhere close to as high as the tower was. Also, Mini would have picked it up, I’m sure. She would have already sent people to retake Auburn if she knew. Either way, I guess Tinker will find out.” They traveled for a short while in silence until she said. "I could rush on ahead and make contact with you if I find anything."
"It would be best to take weapons," her teammate said and handed her one of the assault rifles. "It should be a little easier to handle than the sword, and maybe your AI will be able to help you with aiming."
"Oh…all right, then." She took the weapon up and settled it on her back. It was a sensible precaution, although she questioned the wisdom of having to learn how to use a weapon like that in the heat of the moment. Maybe she needed to talk to Tinker about lessons and possibly a weapon of her own. Still, she’d wished she’d had one a few times in the past so wouldn’t refuse it.
Windchime nodded encouragement and Mini quickly engaged their Bulletfoot mode. Once they’d settled onto all fours, they increased speed and followed the tracks.
The vehicle appeared to be heavily laden, which left a definitive trail that was easy to follow, even at a fast pace. To alleviate the monotony and distract herself from the anxiety that had crept in, she tried to estimate how large whatever she was tracking could be and how much she could actually do on her own to stop it.
Mini used Bulletfoot mode to reach impressive speed and it wasn't long before they moved out of the tougher terrain around them and into open grasslands again. A small and somewhat hazy blemish in the sky ahead drew her attention. She squinted to try to make it out and as they drew closer, it settled into something that resembled small puffs or trails of dark black smoke. There wasn’t enough of it to indicate a fire, but it hung in the air for a long time, constantly replenished from an as yet invisible source in an almost rhythmic sequence that suggested a mechanical cause.
Finally, she could actually identify a solid shape that emitted the steady trail. From a distance, it appeared to be a very long, snake-like vehicle that pushed slowly yet steadily through the soft soil despite its weight. As she approached, however, she could see it was actually a convoy linked together and dragged forward by a lead vehicle, which was the one that produced the smoke.
It proceeded in a winding pattern, which allowed it to move quickly across the soft soil. Jessica13 knew it had to consume a great deal of some kind of fuel to do the work required to tow four tracked vehicles both with apparent ease and at an impressive speed.
Mini didn’t need to be told to crouch as low as possible while they pushed forward. A handful of mechs stood on the train cars and kept a watchful eye on their surroundings with their weapons aimed into the open grasslands around them.
None of them had seen her yet which wasn’t surprising, given that she was mostly concealed by the tall grass, but it wouldn’t last for much longer. It was hard to miss a mech out in the open, even one as small and lithe as a Minato with improved leg functions.
"What do you think?" Jessica13 asked once she’d made contact with Windchime and let him have a good view of what she was looking at. "I think I can engage them to perhaps distract them and slow them down until you get here. From what I can see, it should be fairly easy pickings. The mechs on top of the train are mostly support mechs like Tinker's or mine and shouldn't put up that much of a fight."
"You don't think actual combat mechs might be hidden in there too?" he asked. "No, do not engage them. Keep an eye on them, and I'll be there in…ten minutes or so."
"Understood." She cut the commlink.
"Will we stand aside and let Windchime do all the work?" Mini asked after a brief moment.
"Hell no," she replied with a small smirk. Now that their quarry was in sight, her previous hesitation over having to actually use the weapon seemed to have vanished. "We have a gun so we might as well make good use of it. Windchime said you might be able to help me with aiming
it. Maybe we should check that."
"I have a handful of subroutines that would be able to support you in aiming and shooting from a distance," he said, called the programs up, and showed them to her. They included a targeting reticle that followed the position of the assault rifle and provided her with an idea of where it would shoot.
"Huh. This is interesting," Jessica13 said. "It can also keep track of their movement over the longer distances too."
"It was software originally developed for the Sherlock class for long-distance shooting with its hellebore rifle, but it should adapt fairly simply to an assault rifle," he assured her.
They accelerated so they were able to overtake the train, but she still kept her distance. It moved faster than she’d expected, given what it was, but not dramatically so, and maintained its serpentine pattern. The mechs appeared to be held magnetically on top of the convoy, and from the way they moved, she could almost believe they were simply there as scarecrows intended to scare away any potential attackers without actually being operative.
She couldn't take that chance, however.
"We should set up on the bluff over there," Mini said and highlighted a slightly elevated location thirty meters ahead of them.
They climbed to the top and adjusted smoothly out of the Bulletfoot mode. She took the rifle from where it had been clamped onto her back and aimed it at the moving train.
"All right," Jessica13 said and took a deep breath. "I can't say how long before those mechs see us, so we might want to start whatever it is we intend to do here."
"Do you want to take a few practice shots at the mechs on top?" Mini asked and zoomed her vision to focus on the closest mech.
"Sure, what’s the harm?" she asked and ignored the fact that she was supposed to wait for Windchime as she drew another couple of deep breaths to calm herself. Her heart ticked loudly in her ears, somehow, or maybe it was her pulse. Whatever it was, the sound was a little distracting and she fought to focus past it to the task she’d set herself.
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