Victory on Terra

by Terry Mixon

  He doubted very seriously that they’d fire any of the weapons designed to shoot aircraft down. That would garner the attention of the AI in orbit. Unless they were suicidal, as soon as the pinnaces were clear, they were safe.

  Since the ramps to both pinnaces were lowered, and he could see that they were both under power, he just picked the closest one and raced inside it, gesturing for Chloe to get into the other.

  It took him half a minute to secure Peters in one of the harnesses and race to the flight deck. Kelsey was seated in the pilot’s seat, and it looked like she was in the final stages of getting ready to take off.

  He dropped into the copilot’s seat and strapped himself in. “Where’s everybody else?”

  “Jared’s in the other pinnace. Carl, Austin, and Ralph are working to override the lock on the bay doors. Whoever was here last sealed it down pretty good. If they can’t get the manual locks undone, we’re screwed.”

  “Then let’s hope they figure it out.”

  Looking through the viewports at the front of the pinnace, he saw the three working at a panel beside the large, blast-proof doors. They were hunched over and talking back and forth while Carl did something inside the panel.

  Through the ramp that was still open, Talbot heard what sounded like a loud thumping somewhere behind them. The locals were trying to get into the hangar.

  “I should probably take care of that,” he said, starting to undo his restraints.

  “Stay where you are,” Kelsey said. “I think Carl just did it.”

  He looked forward and saw that Carl had turned and raised both of his thumbs toward the ceiling. The three of them raced back toward the pinnaces.

  “I’ve used my codes to override the lockout,” Kelsey said. “That should get the doors moving. Carl and the rest are headed for Jared’s pinnace. Raise the ramp.”

  He did so remotely, and moments later, the large hatch at the end of the room began slowly rising. As soon as the ramp status went green, Kelsey lifted the pinnace off the deck and began edging toward the opening.

  As soon as she could, Kelsey added a little bit more thrust and went under the door. Talbot saw that the exit led into a tunnel that was probably heavily shielded because no one really wanted their enemies to know what was going on underneath their homes.

  A minute later, he saw another hatch in front of them that had already opened, and beyond that was sunlight fading into dusk. Kelsey brought them through the opening, and they rose into the air as she applied power and sent them racing over the darkening forest below them.

  “Jared’s out of the tunnel,” she said. “I just sent the signal to lock the exit down again. As soon as we were through the first blast door, I closed it behind us. They won’t be chasing us. Unless they’re stupid, we’re done here.”

  “Are you going to be able to use it to get back in?” he asked. “When we come back, we’re going to need a way to get inside that facility. Being able to fly in right under their noses would be useful.”

  She shrugged. “We can hope, but we probably shouldn’t count on it. There are other ways in, and they can’t lock me out of the computer systems. I can undo any security measure they enact by fiat. But that’s a problem for another day.”

  He settled back into his seat as she took the pinnace low over the ground, ducking in between hills and keeping them from rising too high. She wouldn’t want to give the AI a chance to notice them. With their suspicions up, they’d be looking. Even with Marine Raider stealth technology, they didn’t really want to take too many chances.

  They had the override. Now all they had to do was get it safely past the AIs. And, of course, escape the Terra system itself.

  He didn’t try to fool himself. That was going to be tricky. Even with pinnaces like these, they couldn’t just waltz right past the ships up there. They’d have to trust to luck to give them a break when the time came.

  One way or the other, they were almost done on Terra.

  34

  Carl watched through the scanners as the pinnaces slowly glided over the ruined megacity of Frankfort. Kelsey and the admiral had landed shortly after escaping the Imperial Palace and waited for the moon to set and leave everything in complete darkness. They hadn’t wanted to tempt fate by landing in the city while it was still possible someone would see them.

  With the stealth material that the pinnaces were made out of, they should be safe from detection by the AI or the ships in orbit. If not, they’d hardly have time to know, because a kinetic strike would take them out before they had more than a few seconds’ warning.

  Since they didn’t want to have the pinnaces visible from orbit after they landed, they’d needed a place large enough to get them under cover. They’d chosen a building that had once been some kind of sports arena.

  They had no idea what the interior conditions would be like, but the plan was to fly through the partially collapsed roof and into the interior, gliding into an area that wouldn’t be visible from above. They’d just have to hope that there wasn’t another collapse while they were there.

  Kelsey and the admiral brought their pinnaces in slowly and carefully, aligning them with the section of collapsed roof until they were just a few meters above the debris on the floor before gliding over to a relatively clear area near one of the remaining interior walls. There, they set down and deactivated everything once they’d dropped the ramps.

  He led his people and Lieutenant Laird down the ramp, covering the area with one of the flechette rifles. There was no sign of movement, but the shadows seemed to twitch in every direction he looked.

  Over at the other pinnace, Talbot came down the ramp holding the crippled Marine Raider with Kelsey right behind him. Carl heard Admiral Mertz joining him as well.

  Carl couldn’t believe that they’d retrieved the override and actually escaped the Imperial Palace. That was a huge victory.

  “How are we going to find a way to an area that we’re familiar with?” Carl asked as they gathered.

  “The city has some major trunks laid out in a grid pattern,” Kelsey said. “It won’t be hard to get underground and find one of those. Then it’s just a matter of letting them know that we’re here without triggering some type of hostile response.”

  “We used to have a team stationed here in Frankfort,” Peters said. “They lasted about twenty years. I suppose that might seem like a long time, but the resistance forces were supposed to operate for much longer and train the civilians to resist as well. We did that, but a couple of groups got ambitious and tried to do too much too soon.

  “Back then, Frankfort was still just an average city, though occupied by the rebels. The AIs didn’t show their ugly hand then, but somehow, they figured out what was going on all over Terra and began hunting the resistance teams.

  “One by one, they fell out of contact until there were only a few of us left. My team got ambushed maybe five years after the group here in Frankfort vanished. The last operational group was gone within two years of that.”

  “I suppose no one will ever know what really happened to them,” Talbot said. “Five hundred years is a long time, and over a hundred since the AIs brought the hammer down. I’m sure it was worse in a lot of places.”

  Carl nodded. “The core worlds were spared some of the most horrible things the AIs did. In some out-of-the-way places, they just dropped people into the Stone Age or blocked the supplies necessary for them to survive. On Avalon, we were lucky.”

  “Sometimes you make your own luck,” Peters said. “It looks like that’s what you’ve done. You should be proud of that.”

  Once they’d secured the pinnaces, they found their way down to the tunnels underneath the city and began making their way toward the still-occupied sections. It didn’t take long at all for them to run into the inhabitants.

  Thankfully, the locals had been warned that they were coming. Once everyone was sure that there wasn’t going to be violence, the residents quickly escorted them down to the area
where the fusion plant was being assembled.

  Carl had Kelsey and Talbot hold his arms while he got out of his armor and dressed in clothes the locals scrounged up for him. The people from the palace almost certainly wouldn’t recognize him since he’d had his helmet on most of the time he’d been there.

  After making sure that his friends and compatriots would go somewhere else while he covertly watched the reassembly and reactivation of the fusion plant, he walked into the large room. As expected, none of the people from the Imperial Palace paid him the slightest bit of attention.

  To the uninitiated, it was unbelievable that a fusion plant could be disassembled or reassembled in such a short time frame, but everything was modular. So long as it was done correctly and carefully, the process didn’t have to take a long time.

  Thankfully, the original mounts were still there in the plascrete floor. Basically, all the technicians had to do was drop the pieces where they needed to be, bolt them down, and add on the modules as they got to that part of the assembly.

  Once it was fully assembled and the shielding was installed, the technicians began running tests. Carl made sure to be standing right there and going over everything remotely. They wouldn’t know that he was looking over their proverbial shoulders, but he’d see everything.

  While he was no expert, he’d had to learn a fair bit about fusion plants over the last several years, and he knew how to let the equipment guide the safety checks for him.

  He expected at least a few things to be questionable, but the fusion plant had been shut down in good order and was undamaged. Everything started up just the way it was supposed to. All systems green.

  They weren’t putting out any power because the technicians had cut all the feeds going out to the rest of the city. It would’ve been stupid to bring the system online and then have it light up the city for the AI to see from orbit.

  Once the work was fully completed, the guards from Frankfort escorted the technicians and fighters from the Imperial Palace to the lift and took them down. From there, they’d be put on the train and sent back to the Imperial Palace. When they arrived, they’d undoubtedly find the place in an uproar, but the deed was done.

  Carl turned toward Jebediah once they’d departed. “We’re going to need to know where you want power. The closer it is to the surface, the more likely you’re going to do something that draws unwanted attention. I suggest you keep the lighting and power to this level and lower to reduce the risk.”

  The large man nodded. “That’s what we were thinking as well. If we can make certain that only those areas and the maglev platform are isolated, that will allow us to operate the way we want.

  “Once the others get back to the Imperial Palace, I feel certain that they’ll cut power, so we need to spend the time to make certain that we get those areas connected and that nothing else is going to be affected.”

  “I’ll be able to run power down to the area that they’re currently energizing without any problems. It should only take a couple of minutes since it’s already proven to be isolated. From there, it won’t be hard to expand along the levels that we want one step at a time.

  “I’ll be able to show your people what needs to be done with the fusion plant reasonably quickly. The maintenance processes aren’t all that complicated. They just have to be done on time and in a precise manner.

  “I’ve got a lot of files on the operation and maintenance of this kind of equipment that I can upload to your computers now that you can use them. With the files in the fusion plant itself, those will help you keep it running. I’m hoping that the people from the Imperial Palace will come back and you can formalize arrangements with them. If not, I think you can learn what you need and manage.”

  Connecting just the areas that were now covered by power from the maglev platform was simple enough. Once he’d accomplished that, Carl brought the fusion plant up from standby to its minimal power production settings and verified that everything was working as designed.

  When they finally cut the power, the output from this plant would be more than enough to make up for the loss. Since they hadn’t died in a kinetic strike, the shielding was doing its job, too.

  Because he was linked to the power system, he saw when the power along the maglev line cut out and knew that the train must’ve made its way all the way back to the Imperial Palace.

  He made sure that power to the train systems remained unpowered and tagged the controls to sound an alarm if they powered up again. They’d know if the others were coming back, and they’d be ready for them if they did.

  The process of turning the power on in the lower levels of the city was going to take hours, but it should be straightforward. It would easily be dawn by the time he was done, but then they’d finally be able to leave Terra and go back to the stars.

  He was so ready for that.

  As dawn was breaking, Jared once again met with Mordechai in his high tower overlooking Frankfort. They stood there a while, just staring out over the ruined megacity without saying anything. Jared was content to let the man speak in his own time.

  Eventually, Mordechai turned to face him. “You’ve done everything that you promised. The lower levels of the city are once again safe to travel, and we have power that we haven’t had in a hundred years.

  “With the power restored, Carl has shown us how to retrieve the information that we need from the computers that were dead. It’s a good beginning. It will take us a long time to return to the level of knowledge that our forefathers had, but we will one day do so.

  “Jebediah has turned all of the equipment that once belonged to the Marine Raiders over to your people. My people are even now carrying it to be loaded on your pinnaces.”

  “We hope to return one day and help you start rebuilding Terra,” Jared said. “I wish we could leave someone with the kind of training that you need behind, but we can’t afford to spare anyone. Take small steps, Leader Mordechai. Don’t take chances with the AI. With any luck, it will be dead or under our control inside a year.”

  Mordechai cocked his head slightly to the side. “Do you truly believe it will be that easy? That it will only take such a short amount of time?”

  “You’ve got a point,” he admitted. “While it might be inside a year, it might be many years. Or it might never happen at all. The fight we’re waging is going to be a hard one. We’re the underdogs, and we know it.

  “The system where the artificial intelligence was created and resides is going to be more strongly defended than anything we’ve faced thus far. I’ve got a fleet of warships that will help us, but even that might not be enough. To win this war, we’re going to have to take a lot of chances. Chances that under other circumstances I might not take.

  “Just like you, we’ll have to do the best we can. If you don’t hear from us again, I guess that will tell you what happened to us.”

  The older man stuck out his hand, and Jared took it.

  “I wish you well, Admiral Mertz. You and your people have a chance to undo some of the most terrible wrongs that have ever been done to humanity. I hope that you can stop the evil that we caused and once again allow us to live free.

  “If there’s anything that my people or I can do or provide that would help in your task, you need only ask, and it shall be given to you.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but I think we have everything we need,” Jared said with a smile. “Thank you, Mordechai, and good luck to you and your people.”

  An hour later, Jared was aboard the pinnace he was piloting, and the ramp was raised. Using short-range communications, he verified that Kelsey was also ready to take off. This was going to be one of the most nerve-racking parts of their escape from Terra. If anything was going to go to hell, now was when it would happen.

  He’d had the others bring Major Peters onto the flight deck and strapped him into the copilot’s seat beside him. Since he didn’t have anyone to help control the pinnace, he might as well talk to their newest as
sociate.

  The disabled man looked a bit uncertain, so Jared spoke up. “Having second thoughts?”

  Peters shook his head. “No. I want this more than anything, but I feel a little out of my depth. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything other than merely existing.

  “I know that Doctor Stone says that she can get me fitted with artificial limbs and on the road to recovery, but that’s a little frightening. I’ve spent so much time as a cripple that I’m not sure if I know how to be normal again.”

  Jared checked his console and then nodded. “You can’t change the past. You’ll never be the man you once were. What you can do is become the man you want to be.”

  The former Marine Raider nodded appreciatively. “That’s deep, Admiral. I suppose with all the trouble that you’ve been through over the last few years, you’ve got some experience at coming out the other side now. I appreciate your insight.

  “Once we get to Twilight River, how are we going to get into the system and onto the station where the AI is located?”

  Jared shrugged slightly. “We’ll have to figure that out once we’ve rendezvoused with my fleet. It may be that we have enough force to break through the inevitable blockade. Or, since the enemy doesn’t know about multi-flip points or far flip points—which I’ll have to explain to you later—we might be able to find a back door that lets us into the system with them none the wiser.

  “Frankly, the latter option is my preferred method. If we can gain access without any of the defenders being aware that we’re even there, we can smother the damned machine before it can raise the alarm.”

  “Persephone Two, this is Persephone One,” Kelsey said over the short-range com. “I’m ready to lift. I’ll take the lead as we head north. Once we’re far enough out of the orbital coverage pattern, then we’ll head straight up.”