The Uprising

by L. J. Suarez

  Kora wasted no time in putting on her helmet, climbing onto her egg-shaped vehicle, and riding down to the lower levels.

  A crowd of citizens had gathered in the middle of the street, blocking Kora’s path when she reached the lower level. They were all either fixated on the images from the master feed displayed on the surrounding buildings or on their personal holo screens. She slowed the cycle to a halt and spoke to a nearby woman from the crowd who was also engrossed in her screen. “Do you know what is happening outside the wall?”

  The woman shrugged. “The reports have been vague thus far.”

  Kora brought the image back on her sleeve and zoomed in on the figures advancing toward the city. The crowd grew silent, followed by a collective gasp that Kora shared with them. The realization hit her as to who the assailants riding the creatures were, but before she could say anything, a man from the crowd blurted, “They’re humans.” Kora was taken aback by their rugged assortment of clothing and the bizarre weapons they seemed to be carrying.

  An alarm blared through the air, snapping Kora to attention. A new voice emanated through the master feed. “Attention citizens. Please return to your homes immediately. Do not panic. Empyreum security has everything under control.”

  The voice repeated the message again, but only a few citizens were moving. Kora whipped her head up in time to see three Empyreum security airships rocketing in the direction of the south wall, accompanied by several dozen security guards on jet boots flying at a lower altitude.

  More citizens heeded the voice’s warning and dispersed, but Kora and many others remained. Looks of confusion and fear spread across their faces. She once again stared at the master feed of the growing number of humans marching toward the wall. Despite the authorities’ assurances about the situation, Kora knew that they were preparing to do battle with the humans. But why? Kora had so many questions. After all these years, why would humans and Monads suddenly go to war with one another? The authorities haven’t been forthright about what was really happening. Kora’s thoughts then turned to Mace, and wondered if he was among the mass outside the wall. She accelerated farther down the street on her hydro-cycle and sped toward the south wall. As the city was preparing itself for a possible war, she had no intention of returning home and hiding. She needed answers. An unexpected smile formed underneath Kora’s helmet as she picked up velocity on the cycle. The humans’ bad influence had once again taken hold of her.

  * * *

  Empyreum’s outer wall rose high above the approaching New Lazarus army.

  Riding in the front row of the human troops, Ava’s mouth dropped open as she gazed up at the sheer immense size of the reinforced glass structure encompassing the Capital city. She felt the weight of the M16 pressing against her back, while her staff was holstered to the side of her saddle.

  Ava and Bishop led the pack onward, with Sue and Alex not far behind him. He raised a fist as he came to stop on his leeback, with Ava and the thousands of other troops doing the same. She followed his stare, and her eyes unwillingly drew wide at what stood in their way. Dozens of sentry drones were lined up along the wall’s perimeter. There was no doubt now that the Monads knew they were coming. “This isn’t gonna be easy,” Ava murmured.

  Bishop brought his com wrist band to his face and pressed the side button. “Mace, do you read me?”

  Mace’s face appeared over the com device. “Loud and clear.”

  “We’ve reached the south wall.”

  “Good work.”

  “Just one problem. There’s an ass load of sentry drones in our way. The bastards sent their robotic servants to do their own dirty work.”

  “Keep ‘em busy as long as you can. We’re almost there. And be careful.”

  Bishop smirked. “No problem.”

  Ava gulped as she watched a single drone separate from its companions and head for their position.

  “Get ready,” Bishop whispered over his shoulder to Ava.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” She warned. “See what they want.”

  “I know what they want. Us.” Bishop jumped off his leeback and walked over to the advancing drone while Ava stood by on pins and needles. Bishop and the drone stopped inches away from each other.

  The drone’s synthesized voice came through its forward panel. “You have violated the Gray Zone treaty and are trespassing in a restricted area.”

  Bishop gave it a mocking, shocked look. “Restricted? Oh my, that sounds pretty serious. I didn’t have the slightest idea.”

  A second later, the drone said, “State your intentions.”

  “We simply want passage into Empyreum for a cup of tea. It’s been a long time since we’ve had good tea. If you would be so kind as to step aside, we’ll be on our merry way.”

  “That will not be possible,” the drone replied in the same emotionless inflection. “You will all return to the Gray Zone at once.”

  “Or what?” Bishop fired back. “You’ll kill us?” There was a pause, and Bishop salivated at the opportunity as he stared down at the drone’s red glowing eye fixed on him. “You want to, don’t ya? But that wouldn’t very civilized for such an enlightened race.”

  There was another pause. “You are all outnumbered and outmatched.”

  “Not from where I’m standing tin head.”

  “Stand down immediately. This is your final warning.”

  Bishop said in a softer tone, “Tell your masters that they shouldn’t underestimate us so quickly. You see, we have a few new tricks up our sleeve.” Bishop spoke into his wrist. “Light it up!”

  With a shrieking sound that nearly left her deaf, a rocket hurtled above Ava’s head and straight for the drone. Bishop ran back to his leeback just as the rocket made contact with the drone and exploded into several pieces. The rest of the drones converged into a tight formation and charged at their human targets like a swarm of bees.

  Bishop, you damned fool! Ava thought. The first shot of war had officially been declared. With a loud war cry, the thousand-strong New Lazarus faction charged at the drones, intersecting toward the center of the field. The drones fired off a widespread beam of blue light toward the front line of the New Lazarus forces, knocking dozens of its members off their leebacks. The others on the front opened fire on the drones, spraying metallic projectiles at their attackers. The ones without rifles fired a mix of arrows and spears at the drones, which only bounced off their outer shells. The M16s seemed to be causing the most damage compared to their makeshift weapons, but did little to slow them down.

  Ava pulled out her M16 rifle and steadied it as best as she could on the drone closest to her, while at the same time keeping her leeback from running off from the battle. The blue glow from the drone’s main weapons array was heating up and readying to fire at her direction. She aimed dead center at the drone’s weak spot—its front panel—and fired off a volley of bullets. The recoil nearly knocked her off the saddle. Most of the shots safely bounced off the silver shell, except for one, which struck the edge of the panel. The lead projectile seemed to cause the drone to lose momentum, and it managed to fire off only a single beam into the air. The drone grazed Ava by mere inches, forcing her to finally collapse onto the ground.

  She crawled through the dirt, extending her hand toward her fallen rifle inches from her. More bodies fell, while only a few drones were destroyed. Explosions and incessant firing from the M16s rang throughout the field; making hearing anything else including rational thought impossible. Some of the settlers were throwing hand-sized objects called ‘grenades’ in the air, which landed near a group of sentry drones. Two of the drones pulled away from the explosive devices before they went off, except for one that didn’t have enough time to clear the blast and was dissolved by the explosion.

  Recovering the M16, Ava rose to her feet and aimed once again at the damaged drone that was coming back around for another attack run. Its weapons array appeared disabled, and instead it simply charge at her. She squeezed on the trig
ger and didn’t let go. Ava emptied an entire magazine at the approaching drone before it exploded in a brilliant flash of light, followed by a sudden rush of heat. Ava shielded her face from flying debris and breathed a sigh of relief, seeing a pile of scraps on the ground that was left of the drone.

  After Bishop took out a drone with his M16, he yelled into his wrist band, “Emerson, take out that big-ass drone!”

  Ava turned to a group of settlers providing covering fire from the drones that were shooting their stun beams around them as Emerson aimed his rocket launcher toward a larger drone blocking the entrance to the drain outlet. The drone seemed to have double the reinforced armor than its counterparts along with several weapons array mounted on either side of its outer shell. Even while stationary, the drone made contact with every settler it targeted with its stun beams. Once Emerson had a clear shot, the rocket projectile fired from the launcher’s barrel, zipped across the field, and impacted the drone. A giant fireball blanketed the drain outlet. Just as Ava feared, not a single dent was made to the bulkier drone. It continued hovering in front of the outlet as if nothing happened, firing off more blue beams

  However, the uneventful fireworks display didn’t deter Bishop, who wasted no time ordering another strike. As he talked into his wrist band, a sentry drone headed straight for him.

  Ava aimed her rifle and squeezed the trigger.

  Click. Nothing happened.

  Realizing she was empty, she frantically patted her hand around her belt, attempting to retrieve another magazine. There wasn’t any time left, so Ava yelled out, “Bishop! Behind you!”

  On cue, Bishop turned and rolled to the side just as the blue beam struck the ground where he’d stood seconds earlier. He fired his M16 at the drone until he exhausted the magazine, but the metal beast kept coming. Bishop switched to his ‘grenade launcher’ located under the barrel of the rifle and fired off a single, explosive round toward the fast-approaching drone. The sentry drone erupted into tiny sparks of light. He gave Ava a quick salute for the heads-up.

  As Ava reloaded her M16, another rocket projectile sped to the larger drone, causing another fireball. Once the flames settled, Ava noticed a crack running vertically down the drone’s outer shell. It wasn’t much, but it was a sign that they had found a chink in its armor.

  Amongst the chaos surrounding him, Bishop’s eyes brightened when he saw the drone exhibiting damage. “Hit it again! One more oughta do it.”

  With newfound adrenaline flowing through her veins, Ava rushed to Bishop. With their backs lined up against one another, they opened fire at the drones dashing overhead. The rest of the cavalry stood their grounds as they continued to fight off the mechanical menaces swarming around them. Alex fired off a single arrow from his bow and hit dead center at a drone’s red eye, forcing it to the ground. Sue then leaped and finished off the grounded drone with a blow of her sword. Ava was impressed. Despite their advanced age, Alex and Sue hadn’t lost their fighting edge. One at a time, Ava and Bishop were taking down the surrounding drones. The odds were starting to be in their favor, until Ava spotted more drones racing down from the top of the wall. Ava didn’t know how much longer they could hold off the relentless onslaught of drones. They needed to get inside the outlet fast or this battle will be over soon.

  Emerson finished loading another rocket and took aim at the now fragile drone. The rocket exploded from the launcher with the same piercing shriek. But instead of hitting the drone blocking the outlet, the rocket ricocheted off a smaller sentry drone that crossed its path.

  Ava watched with dread as the drone zig-zagged in the air. Bishop cursed under his breath after realizing the rocket hadn’t hit the main drone. After flying out of control a few seconds longer, the damaged drone bounced off the glass wall and then made its way down toward its larger brother until it collided against it, creating another blazing fire. Ava’s shock turned to amazement as she peered through the cloud of dark smoke that was once the threatening drone. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The smaller drone that was struck by the rocket had actually unintentionally finished off the bigger one and cleared a path for the New Lazarus forces to enter the outlet.

  Bishop once again talked into his wrist band. “We’re clear. Everybody follow me!”

  Ava climbed onto her leeback and followed the thousands of human fighters ridding along the shallow end of the river bank toward the outlet. Gun and plasma fire still echoed in the air, as many settlers and guards were still engaged with the drones to buy their comrades time to make their escape. Ava fired several more shots at two sentry drones closing in on her from behind. The ground forces crowded through the tight drain entrance and into a dimly-lit tunnel. The underground service tunnels would take them all the way to the Central Plaza district. The Monads had clearly underestimated them and were ill-prepared for the sheer mass of human settlers storming into the city, and the weaponry they possessed.

  Ava hoped this little diversion of theirs would end soon before this war went on any longer. Everything depended on it.

  Chapter 34

  The last thing Bishop reported to Mace over the com link was that the ground forces had reached the drain outlet at the south wall and were about to engage sentry drones.

  That was nearly thirty minutes ago, and Mace could no longer get a hold of Bishop on the wrist band. He had hoped that they were successful in breaching the wall through the underground tunnels and hadn’t been caught by the drones, or worse. Regardless of his people’s fate, it was up to Mace now to get the bomb into the city without being stopped by Monad authorities. Hopefully security was too preoccupied by the invaders at the south wall, allowing Mace and party to slip right into the Capital with no one so much as batting an eye.

  At the back compartment of Ionne’s airship, Reed was comforting an unconscious Aaron, who laid in a stretcher. At the center of the compartment was the encased B83 that Mace hoped would give the Monads a moment of pause. He found himself holding his breath as Ionne’s airship passed over the edge of Empyreum’s glass wall perimeter and into the Capital’s fly zone.

  The point of no return.

  Through the cockpit window, he stared at all the other airships zooming all around him; he had nearly forgotten how wondrous Empyreum could be. Mace allowed himself a moment of indulgence to take in the beautiful and yet bizarre scenery outside before turning his attention to Ionne seated at the controls. “How long ‘til we reach the power grid?”

  “Ten minutes,” Ionne said without taking her eyes off the controls.

  Mace nodded and adjusted in his seat as Empyreum’s behemoth buildings zoomed past the forward cockpit window. He heard Ionne blurt out, “Do you remember the time I taught you astronomy?”

  The question caught Mace off guard. “What?”

  A smile formed on Ionne’s face for the first time. “You were about ten. I recall you and your friends from school would sneak into the astrometric lab at the Institute to use our equipment.” She let out a faint chuckle. “When you were caught by my staff, your friends denied taking part in the action and blamed it all on you. You were so curious about the stars; wanting to know about every celestial body there was. You told me once that one day you would visit them all. I have never met a more curious child in my entire life.” She paused before she said, “Until I had a child of my own. My daughter, Tamira. You two are so much alike.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Mace said, growing impatient with Ionne’s attempts of distraction.

  She turned to Mace. “Because I see a lot of my daughter in you. And I know that you could never go along with destroying an entire city. You are better than that. There is still time for you to make the right choice.”

  For the briefest of moments, Mace considered Ionne’s proposition. The images of his dead mother, and the Monads’ past actions against his people, quickly reminded him of what needed to be done. This was obviously Ionne’s pathetic attempt to lower his defenses by sharing some childhood tale.

&n
bsp; “Nice try there, doc. I’ll give ya that. Now keep your eyes on your controls. We got a job to do and need to stay focused.”

  Ionne lowered her head in defeat.

  Several minutes went by, and they were coming up on a monumental structure. It was made up of two large buildings with inclined outer walls that curved upward. Each building looked to be several hundred stories tall and four city blocks deep.

  “There it is,” Ionne announced.

  A male voice suddenly came through the ship’s com channel. “Attention, incoming airship. Please identify yourself.”

  “This is Dr. Ionne, requesting permission to land.”

  The voice returned. “Dr. Ionne, you are not scheduled to visit our facility. Please state your business.”

  Ionne maintained her composure as she spoke again. “I apologize for the negligence, as I forgot to request clearance to visit the power grid ahead of time. However, I have several colleagues of mine from the Orion colony who would like a tour of the facility.”

  “Empyreum is in a state of emergency, Doctor. Visitors are not allowed until the threat level has been neutralized.”

  “I understand. However, my colleagues are only here for a few short hours before they have to return to Orion. I have full authorization from the Inner Council. It would not take long, and will not interfere with any of your staff’s work. You have my word.”

  A long pause came. Both Mace and Ionne exchanged worried expressions for what seemed like an eternity. Mace felt Reed hovering beside him as he joined them inside the cockpit. The voice finally returned. “Proceed to landing platform four. We look forward to your visit, Dr. Ionne.”

  Mace and Ionne sighed collectively.

  “Thank you.” Ionne piloted the ship downward through a large opening between the two massive structures and toward a landing pad that lay ahead.