The AI could move the mech on his own and could have already joined the work to help the town to recover from the battle it had faced. He hadn’t protested when she had elected to let the Minato get some rest and maybe see if he couldn't put in a couple of repairs while they waited.
The hatch was already open, ready for her to climb inside, and she slipped into the comfortable and familiar cockpit she had spent more time in than out of.
"Good morning, Jessica13."
She scowled at the HUD, which displayed a smiley face and a flower from the AI. "I guess it is a good morning, isn't it?"
"Surviving an assault from enemies that have tried to kill you for the better part of almost a week does constitute as a beneficial element in the morning, yes. There could be detrimental elements as well."
"Is that your way of asking me how I slept?"
The AI paused for a few seconds. "How did you sleep?"
"Well, it was short and not very restful," she muttered. "I kept having the same fucking nightmare over and over again. I was back on that rooftop and I didn't react quickly enough to let you get us off before the rockets struck."
"I imagine that was a fairly traumatic experience for you but thankfully, we did manage to get clear of the rooftop in time. And you did your best to give the Knights as much time to recover as you could, which is fairly admirable. Humans might even describe it as brave."
"What would AIs describe it as?"
"Ill-advised."
Jessica13 nodded slowly. She could agree with that, at least. It had been a difficult fight, but they had managed to survive and in the end, they were on what looked like a long, long path of rebuilding. Many of the locals had returned to the work of tilling the fields that could still grow food, their focus on the long-term survival of Auburn. Those who had mechs and knew how to use them began to clear the rubble from the streets so they could begin to rebuild the town.
There was also the delicate and depressing task of clearing the dead from the area. Dozens had been buried in the buildings when they'd been bombed, and too many of them were left there because others had to look to their own survival. Who knew how many had not been killed by the initial impact and could have lived had help arrived to pull them out?
"Fuck, that's a depressing train of thought."
Mini appeared to know what she was referring to or at least had the good sense not to ask. "I suppose you might want to get some sleep in here while I get some work done?"
"Would you mind that? I have a little trouble keeping my eyes open."
"My databanks tell me that this is a common effect of physical and psychological exhaustion. You would do well to get what sleep you can and tell me whether you are capable of continuing to work later on in the day. If not, you might want to think about getting some proper rest."
"I can't go to sleep. Too many people are working to rebuild their lives out there for me to simply laze around."
"Assuming that you need the rest and it is required for your health, you might want to think that it is a priority. You will not be able to support or help anyone if you have some kind of infection that keeps you out of action for weeks. You would take up more supplies for less work if you don't take care of yourself."
The AI had a point. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been sick, but the few folks who had been sick at Sanctuary had always received side-glances from everyone else. People needed to cover for someone who didn't work, and that person needed to be cared for and so took up more resources than they did when they were healthy.
If there was something she didn't want to be, it was a burden. She had always prided herself on being able to carry her weight wherever she went, even with the Knights. She was learning from them but she was helping however she could too.
"You might want to hold off on the nap."
"Hmm?" Jessica13 straightened in the cockpit and realized she had already begun to drift off. She took a deep breath and looked at Tinker, who approached with an easy stride.
His head popped out of the mech and peeked at her. "Jessie, are you busy?"
"Not…not at the moment, no."
"Hammerhand wants to see you. Come on."
He dropped into the mech and she followed him through the town to where the newcomers had pitched their tents. They were literal tents made from tarps and sticks, and she wondered briefly if the spikes they had on their mech armor doubled as the poles to keep their shelters up.
Her companion led her onward until they reached the outer rings of the tents and moved toward the largest one, which was as big as one of the houses in Auburn. It was bigger than the Beast, without a doubt.
Tinker climbed out of the mech and indicated for her to do the same, and they entered the canvas dwelling. A dozen or so of the others from the desert were present, dressed in the same flowing robes although less colorful. All wore pale-blue and they carried weapons. They were the guards for the Prophet, the man who had come to their rescue.
She still didn't know how he had known to come or why. There appeared to be nothing to gain, but they had also remained after the battle. Of course, the threat of Athena and her people still hung over the town like a storm cloud, but they couldn't attack. They now lacked the numbers to launch an assault like they had before. Of course, the Knights couldn't either.
They were in the oddest kind of stalemate.
The Prophet was seated on a plush red velvet cushion on the ground, his legs crossed in front of him, and his fingers curled his mustache absently.
Hammerhand sat beside him and looked uncomfortable. He slouched on the cushion instead of sitting cross-legged and didn’t look up as they stepped into the tent. Instead, his gaze was fixed in a glare at the man seated across from both of them, Mayor Jones. He also looked uncomfortable on the cushion, although he had adopted the cross-legged posture of his host. One more person was present who she wasn't familiar with.
The man was short and lean, although Jessica13 had never seen the likes of him before. He wore a uniform suit, although not a flight suit, and it was divided clearly into a jacket and pants of unmistakable quality. Beneath it, he wore a gray vest, and under that was a white shirt, which in turn had a small tie that tucked into the vest.
She recalled a few pictures of men and women dressed in similar fashion in the info archives at Sanctuary but thought the style had long since died out.
"Mr. Stone," the Prophet said and obviously continued a previous line of thought, “you have to understand that security must be established in this area. That is our only priority."
"Please, call me Levi," he replied with a polite smile as the Prophet sipped from a tiny silver cup. "As Expedition Master for the New York Western Railway Company, I can't make that kind of a promise. You know that for security to be established in this area, the Citadel bunker must be defeated once and for all."
Jessica13 narrowed her eyes.
Tinker leaned closer to her. "The Citadel bunker is where those fuckers who attacked us came from."
"It's not actually a bunker, not in the way you think." The Prophet appeared to have heard what they had talked about and wanted to make sure everyone in the room was on the same page. "It is called FEMA City by those who reside within and it is a city, not a bunker. The population is larger than most, and that allows them to field more mechs in battle, as we are well aware."
"I thought all the cities were lost."
"This one was underground." The man seemed to enjoy having a captive audience and spoke with deep inflections that made it sound like he told a story. "It was founded by a long-lost civilization with the intention of being a fortress against the Invaders, one that would be able to field their culture once everything calmed, you understand? They invented the balloons that were used to attack you. They called them Zeppelins—those that can control the weather—and all the other technology to recreate the world from what it had become into something that allowed us to live on the surface again. This leads people to come and s
ettle, like the founders of this town of Auburn."
She leaned forward and listened. The Prophet appeared to know a great deal about the world they lived in and seemed more than willing to share his knowledge with those who wanted to listen. "Is that why we need to defeat them once and for all?"
The man turned to look at her and smiled broadly. "Yes, child, and for many other reasons. They have technology from the Cities-That-Were gathered in their vaults. And they have gene vaults too, that maintain what was lost in the world—seeds from plants, trees, and crops that could be brought out into the world to feed everyone. Of course, they will not share this with the rest of us without a price. They are remnants of an extinct culture—one that is extinct for a reason. They would not tolerate the lives of those who live beyond. Those they accept must conform to the ways of their fossil society."
"Then why allow them to continue and remain so powerful?" Tinker asked and folded his arms in front of his chest. "These folks are right fucking pricks. Why haven't they been dealt with already?"
The Prophet stiffened a little, and Jessica13 could tell he wasn't used to being spoken to like that. Fortunately, he seemed willing to move past it. "You must understand, of course, that such a thing has been attempted—and failed miserably, as well. While none would say the lives of those who tried were lost in vain, they were unable to breach even the first line of defense of the city, and thus made it difficult to know what lies within."
"What kind of defenses are we looking at?" This time, it was Hammerhand who interjected.
"The kind that even I, with my eight companies of mechs and vehicles, wouldn’t pose much of a threat to. You saw how they were able to assail the city with artillery. For the primary defense, they use the height advantage of the spire you can see from here. The aeries provide defense for sixteen heavy artillery mechs—heavier than anything I have ever seen in my years on this Earth. They can deliver enough power to obliterate any attacking army that advances. I have seen the effects of those mechs firing. If you approach the bunker yourself, the craters in the earth will be evidence enough for you as well."
The Knights’ leader sighed and shook his head. "We do appear to be at an impasse, then. We cannot leave Auburn to the mercy of those who would attack once more, and we cannot take the offensive to them either."
"There is something to be noted here." Levi paused to accept one of the same small silver cups the Prophet was drinking from. "Auburn is important to them. It is why they have committed so many troops to attack it and why they chose not to raze the town to the ground as they have in the past. Perhaps its food is the reason for that. I cannot imagine that an underground city would be able to feed itself properly, and they must therefore exploit those around it to survive."
Hammerhand's eyebrow raised as he accepted one of the tiny silver cups. "Well, that's something at least. If nothing else, we could starve them out."
Chapter Forty-Four
Jessica13 looked at each of the men in the room and tried to determine if they were serious or not. They talked about killing and attacking a large city that possessed the kinds of defenses she had only read about in the instructional texts on how land-based defenses were designed to ward off attacks from space.
Hell, the Katyushas the Prophet had made mention of had been designed to hit targets over the horizon. Of course, those mechs were made to be piloted by five or six people and could very well tear craters in the ground below.
And they talked about attacking it. The impossibility of surviving the assault on Auburn came to mind but comparing the two was like comparing apples to oranges that could destroy five or six mechs in a single shot.
She studied the group quietly and it seemed like they all came to the same realization as her. The sheer concept of trying to attack the Citadel bunker—or FEMA City, as he called it—was daunting. Even thinking about it sent a small chill into the pit of her stomach.
The Prophet continued after he’d given all present enough time to digest his words. "It is said that FEMA City was built with making starships in mind—the kind that rose into the skies to combat the Invaders. A dry dock, one might say, but with the sea above instead of below."
Everyone else in the room nodded, understanding the metaphor. She had no idea what a dry dock was, but she nodded as well because she didn’t want to seem ignorant to the people present.
"That makes sense," Tinker added. "They wouldn't have put those Katyushas simply anywhere but would have positioned them mostly in strategic locations, places that would need to be maintained in case of a battle. The sheer amount of energy needed to launch their projectiles… I can't even calculate how much power could go into that."
"One megajoule per every kilogram being launched," Jessica13 interjected when she recalled the texts she had been able to read. "The Katyushas were designed with a complex magnetic system to launch their projectiles, which usually weighed around five kilograms each. They heated them in the barrel without compromising the barrel itself, which allowed them to fire faster than if they were fired through explosives or fuel. The single downside was that the rounds needed to be loaded and locked into place by hand, with the calculations run by the main control of the mech. A skilled crew could load maybe five rounds a minute. Each Katyusha has two barrels to fire from, with three separate crews of two—two crews reload the barrels and one makes the calculations that would allow it to fire accurately."
She looked up and realized that the entire group had gone quiet and most eyes were on her. All but Levi, who looked away and took a sip from his tiny silver cup.
The Prophet grinned openly and nodded. "Yes, yes. Very good, child. How did you come by this knowledge?"
She looked at Tinker, who shrugged.
"They had them in instructional texts in the bunker where I grew up."
"They didn't teach me any of that stuff," the mechanic muttered.
"No one taught it to me either. I was digging around to find schematics on the Minato and they had the texts mixed in at Sanctuary's hard drives."
The Prophet still looked rather pleased that she had gotten the right idea from what had been shared. "Excellent. Excellent. The knowledge of the weapons is very good, indeed. Anyway, as we now know the power in the weapons that we would face, you should know what those defend. And of course, what they do not."
He dragged a handful of larger maps across the floor between them and a couple of his attendants helped to spread one out. It was large enough that they could all see it.
She recognized the area around Auburn immediately and noted the town itself, surrounded by greenery as it had once been. Much of the vegetation had been burned in the attack but there was some left, at least.
Her gaze moved to a town farther to the north, the one Athena had burned and tried to attack the Knights from. It wasn't as long a distance between the two towns as it had felt and yet somehow, the spire looked much farther away from Auburn than it seemed. It had since stopped sparking with electricity, and she assumed it was because it took too much energy to run it constantly. Even so, it appeared to be about a two- or three-days’ march to reach the location that had been cleared by the Katyusha cannons.
And from there, it was almost a full day’s march to the final destination. It was like they said—no army would be able to march through a full day of being bombarded like that.
The Prophet, however, directed their attention to a section that was a little to the east and well-removed from the range of the cannons.
"If you will turn your eyes to this mesa here, you will note that the city extends underground a great many kilometers. Whether this was intentional or not, this section is beyond where the Katyushas can fire. This, it has been observed, is where the balloons are launched. I believe you interacted with them, and they are a part of the system to remake the world. As I think you are aware, they have found out how to weaponize these effectively."
Jessica13 scowled at the map and tried to understand the logistics of it. Th
ere was a small legend on the side, but it would require more study before she understood it all. For the moment, it was best to let the others continue their planning.
Hammerhand leaned closer. "I assume you don't mean that we should simply take the area for their balloons. As effective as they may be, they are also easy pickings for the cannons should they approach."
"True enough, my brave friend, and it is for this reason that I guide your attention toward this area—a lake made by a crater. It is assumed that they store their gene bank under the crater lake, as my spies have noted large heat exchanger towers rising during the drier months of the year."
The landmark was about a hundred kilometers from the spire and an equal distance from the mesa, much like the numbers on a clock face. She couldn't see how they could be connected to the Spire or FEMA City or whatever it was called unless it spanned hundreds of kilometers from the center all around. It would certainly make it bigger than Sanctuary.
"Both would have settlements underground," the Prophet continued. "They would also be connected to the larger structure of FEMA City, possibly through tunnels branching from the main cavern under the spire."
Hammerhand nodded when he saw where the man was going and the point he tried to make. "You think that if we threaten their food supply here in Auburn, take their balloons, and seize their gene bank, we would be able to sue for peace?"
"A just peace would be found, yes, and it would prevent imbalance from occurring in the future as it has up until this point."
"And our only other option would be to simply wait them out and hope we can last longer than they can," Tinker observed grimly.
"That is correct as well."
Levi finished his drink and let one of the nearby attendants take it. "If the Knights and the Prophet's troops were able to coordinate this kind of peace, the New York Western Railroad Company would be in place to make sure that it is maintained. We could enforce it, if you will, with the troops we would be able to provide."
Bulletfoot One Page 54
