by Jacob Holo
“Just kill me and get it over with,” Naomi said. Blood trickled from her lip and clotted almost instantly.
“Stand up, damn it!” Ryu shouted. He grabbed her sniper rifle and shoved it into her arms.
“What are you doing?” Naomi said, looking down at her rifle.
“Damn it, Naomi, I need you right now. I need you at my side. I need you watching my back. We’re in deep trouble right now. If we don’t stick together, we’re dead.”
“You don’t need me.”
“Look, this is nothing, all right? It’s nothing. Everyone has doubts. Everyone freaks out. We all slip up and make mistakes. Shit happens.”
“Ryu ...”
“But I’m going to help you pull through. You got that? For now, I need your help, but I promise you I’ll get you home and we’ll get all those implants out. You’ll get the best treatment Europa can offer. I give you my word. Better than anything Earth has. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Why would you bother?”
“Because I love you, you stupid, stupid idiot!” Ryu said. He took his helmet off and put his hands on either side of her face. “Look at me, damn it! Look at my eyes! Am I lying? Am I trying to trick you?”
“Ryu ...”
“Look at me! Am I lying?”
“I ... no ...”
“No, I’m not lying! I need you, and you need me! How stupid and blind can you be? Why do you think I keep coming back after the fights and the broken promises and the dumb mistakes? It’s because I love you, and I know you love me!”
Another tear fell from Naomi’s eyes. She sniffed.
“We’re both idiots. We both make mistakes. But right now, I need you more than ever.”
“I ... Ryu ...”
“Now seal up! We’ve got a job to do!”
He could see it in Naomi’s eyes. Something snapped into place. He saw steel in those eyes again. They had purpose. A decision had been made. His words had punched through whatever fog clouded her mind.
Naomi wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Right ...” The word choked in her throat. She grabbed her helmet, sealed up, and held her rifle at the ready. It trembled in her hands.
“I ... I’m sorry about—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Ryu shouted. “Right now we have a job to do. Are you ready?”
Naomi nodded.
“Now, we need to get to the closest air recycler. You can do this. Are you with me?”
“Yeah ... I’m ... I’m with you.”
“All right. Let’s go!”
Man, I hope this isn’t the last mistake I ever make. She’d better not shoot me in the back.
Ryu led the way to a ladder hanging from a service shaft. They climbed three levels and came into a lightless corridor. His Geiger counter showed the radiation level decreasing.
“If the map is correct, we can take this corridor downspin out of the condemned block,” Ryu said. “With any luck, they’ve already opened the barricades to let patrols in.”
“A-are we going to sneak by?”
“Hell no.”
Ryu pulled a grenade out and stuck it to the wall. “Three’s a good number, right?” He set its proximity detector to explode after three people passed by. The grenade’s smartskin engaged and blended it with the wall.
“Pick a number,” Ryu said, marching down the corridor with his rifle raised.
“What?”
“Pick a number. Any number.”
“Ahh ... a hundred.”
“Too high.”
“Okay ... s-seven?”
“Good enough,” Ryu said. He stuck another grenade to the wall. They stepped through the darkness. Doors lined the corridor on either side, crisscrossed with warning tape.
“Pick another number.”
“Umm, two?”
“Sure. Why not.” Ryu stuck another grenade to the wall.
“SolarNet contact,” Naomi said. “Straight ahead.”
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because we need to draw the Feddies away from Cat and Toshi.”
“Target in sight.”
The corridor bent slightly upward with the curvature of the station. Four sets of boots came into view. Ryu crouched to get a good look at the four Feddies in pressure armor with multitrackers and carbines. They had optical visors pulled in front of their helmets.
“Here they come. Take the first shot when you’re ready.”
“Shouldn’t Cat set up dummy nodes first?”
“Not this time,” Ryu said.
Naomi raised her rifle.
A small vibration ran through the deck. Feddies behind the dragons had met one of Ryu’s grenades. The patrol in front stopped, one of them pointing down the corridor. All four broke into a run.
“Naomi?”
“I ... I’ve got it.”
She fired. The high-caliber shatterback struck the lead Feddie in the chest and exploded, blowing him limb from limb. Ryu fired three shots, one into each Feddie’s head. The entire patrol went down.
“Your hands are shaking,” Ryu said, standing.
“I can’t help it,” Naomi said. “These damn implants are freaking out.”
“It’s okay. We’ll make do. Let’s hurry out of the corridor.”
“R-right.”
Ryu and Naomi sprinted to end of the corridor. Sonic cancelers neutralized their heavy footfalls. They reached the barricade leading out of the condemned block. The thick, lead-lined double door had been slid aside to allow the Feddie patrol in single file. Light spilt in through the opening.
Ryu ran up to the exit and extended a dot-cam tubule from his glove. The corridor continued straight and branched right on the other side of the barricade. He didn’t see any hostiles.
“Clear,” Ryu said.
He and Naomi stepped through the barricade.
“F-Feddies approaching from the right,” Naomi said. “Engage?”
“No.” Ryu crouched next to Naomi. “Hold still.”
Ryu retrieved two phantoms from the canister on Naomi’s back. The devices were the size of flattened baseballs with a small fan running through the middle. Ryu activated their microminds, set their routes, and let them fly out of his hand.
The two phantoms engaged their smartskin, hovered at the intersection, then ducked into the condemned block.
Six Feddies stopped at the intersection. Four wore blue-and-gray digital camo pressure armor. The other two wore vests and helmets, looking like they’d just woken up.
“The multitracker’s got something!” the lead Feddie said. The bars on his pressure armor indicated he was a private. “Heading into the condemned block away from us.”
“Who’s got the cling gas?” the sergeant asked.
“Here, sergeant!”
“Toss it in!”
One of the privates took a cylindrical grenade off his belt and threw it into the condemned block. The grenade spewed thick, green gas out the bottom.
“Hold here! Defensive positions!”
The Feddies arrayed themselves on either side of the barricade opening, some crouched, others stood. The Feddies in pressure armor lowered their optical visors. The other two switched on flashlights slung under their carbines.
“Control!” the sergeant said. “Possible dragon sighting on habitat ring, level four, degree fifty-five heading into the condemned block at radiation barricade ...” He looked around for a label. “At barricade seventy-four. Awaiting further orders.”
Ryu took out a grenade and placed it on the wall just behind the sergeant. He set the timer for five minutes.
“The air recycler is this way,” Ryu said. He stood a meter behind the Feddie sergeant and walked down the corridor the patrol had arrived from. The two dragons slipped past more barricades to the condemned block, let another Feddie patrol run by, and eventually entered a mess hall. Half eaten meals covered the tables. Tipped over chairs cluttered the floor.
“The air recycl
er is through the maintenance door on the far wall,” Ryu said.
Naomi stuck a grenade to the doorway.
“Seventeen,” she said.
“That seems a bit high,” Ryu said.
The grenade Ryu had set five minutes ago detonated. He felt the explosion through his feet.
“W-well, it’ll trigger later. Could help draw attention away from us.”
“I see,” Ryu said. “Sneaky. I like it.”
“Th-thanks ...”
“Watch the entrances for me.”
Naomi raised her rifle and crouched by the maintenance door.
Ryu placed his hacking glove on the door, bypassed the lock, and pushed the door open. He took the phantom canister from Naomi’s back and stepped into the air recycler room. Clean, metallic machinery took up most of the space, humming loudly with flowing air and spinning fan blades. Thick ducts branched off it, disappearing into the walls, floor, and ceiling. The machinery extended at least five stories above him.
Ryu ripped a panel off the nearest duct and dumped the entire canister of phantoms into the station’s air supply. The phantoms activated one after another, engaged their decoy programs, and spread out through different ducts.
“There,” Ryu said, dropping the canister. “Go chase those for a while.” He joined Naomi in the mess hall and closed the door.
A group of eight Feddies in armored vests entered the mess hall and began a sweep.
“Cat, status report,” Ryu said, circling around the mess hall opposite the patrol.
“We’re making progress,” Cat said. “I think I know where the test ship is stored. Right now, everyone’s scrambling for the habitat ring. I don’t think they know we’re in the main part of the station, but they’re still conducting searches.”
“Good. Try to keep it that way. Miyuki, how about you?”
“Two crusader transports just launched from Penance. Looks like more are powering up.”
“Just great. That’s a problem we don’t need.”
“The two transports are heading for the habitat ring,” Miyuki said. “You could have company soon.”
“All right, thanks for the heads up. We’ll deal with it.”
Two more Feddie patrols entered the mess hall, bringing the total number of Feddie regulars to eighteen. Ryu and Naomi snuck past them and headed deeper into the station.
“What now?” Naomi asked.
“There’s a utility shaft ahead,” Ryu said. “According to the map, it supplies power and data to a missile battery on the ring’s outer surface. We’re using it to get outside.”
“What f-for?”
“You in the mood for some sniping?”
“M-my hands are still shaking, Ryu.”
Ahead, a patrol of four regulars dropped a cling gas grenade. Ryu and Naomi hugged the wall and sidestepped through the cloud slowly. The patrol rushed by without seeing them. Gunfire echoed from the cafeteria.
“Ha!” Ryu said. “Looks like the phantoms are doing their job.”
Ryu stuck a grenade to the wall and exited the cling gas cloud. He crouched near a circular hatch in the floor, waited for another patrol to pass, then hacked the hatch and jumped in. Naomi stuck a grenade on the top of the hatch, jumped down and closed it.
Ryu climbed down the dark shaft. Thick power lines and colorful data cables coated the walls. He followed the shaft down to a slender, vertical airlock, hacked it with his glove, and cycled through it. The hatch beneath their feet opened to space.
Ryu climbed onto the surface of Apocalypse and crawled out of Naomi’s way on hands and knees. He brought Miyuki’s nav beacons onto his vision. The location of the Raspberry glowed green. The two crusader transports showed up red.
“There,” Ryu said. “Two assault transports heading straight for us. Looks like that Feddie battleship is escorting them in.”
“I see them,” Naomi said. She put her back to the station and raised her rifle. “The extreme range and the habitat’s rotation are going to make this tricky.”
Naomi took a turbo-devastator round out of her breast pouch and loaded it into the rifle. She unfolded the weapon, locked it into sniper-mode, and sighted down the barrel.
The end of the rifle wavered.
“I ...”
“You can do it,” Ryu said.
Naomi took a deep breath and held it. The rifle continued to quaver in her hands.
“Ryu, I can’t ... I ... I’m too wound up right now. My implants haven’t calmed down from ... from earlier ...”
“It’s all right. Here. Give me the rifle. I’ll take the shot.”
Naomi handed over her rifle.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryu said. “I’ve got this.” He sighted down the rifle and let his eyes adjust to the distance. The crusader transports were two white specks next to the vast sword-like hull of the battleship.
“You take one shot, and then we move,” Naomi said. “It won’t take long for that battleship to trace the shot back to us.”
“One shot,” Ryu said. “Better make it count.”
He tried slipping his finger into the trigger guard only to find the rifle had no trigger guard and no trigger.
“Uhh ...”
“I had it removed,” Naomi said. “Pulling a trigger reduces accuracy. Link your fire control directly.”
“Right,” Ryu said, linking with the rifle’s micromind.
“Your best bet is to go for the power generator,” Naomi said. “Try to rupture the fusion torus.”
“Generator. Got it.”
“The cockpit should also work. Lots of vital systems in there.”
“Generator or cockpit. Got it.”
I can’t see either. It’s just a white dot.
The nav beacons from Miyuki’s ship indicated one of the transports was slightly closer. Ryu lined up on that one, took a deep breath, and held it. His cheats projected a targeting line from the barrel that wobbled on and off his target.
Ryu slowed his heart rate and locked the muscles in his body. The targeting line settled further, but not enough. He willed his heart to slow further and further to the point where it almost stopped. The targeting line intersected the lead transport and held.
Ryu fired.
The turbo-devastator blasted out of the sniper rifle.
Ryu exhaled and let his heart ramp up to a few hundred beats per minute.
“Direct hit on the cockpit,” Naomi said. “She’s listing. The other transport is pulling away ... they’ve collided.”
“Let’s move!” Ryu said. He pulled the utility airlock open and slipped in. Naomi squeezed inside and closed the hatch.
“That was an excellent shot,” Naomi said.
Ryu dropped the rifle to her and began climbing. “To be honest, I was lucky to even hit the thing.”
“Ryu, this is Miyuki.”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m out of range of Apocalypse but I’m still monitoring things through one of our spy satellites. There’s a flight of three transports heading for the station.”
“More crusaders?”
“No, that’s the thing,” Miyuki said. “They’re not crusaders, and they’re not Federacy. I don’t know who they are.”
Chapter 8
... accessing SolarNet message archive ...
... opening folder [Personal - 6 Years Old] ...
... searching for [Crusader |and| Insane] ...
... 1 match found ...
... retrieving ...
source: Ryu Kusanagi
destination: Kaneda Kusanagi
message delay: 38 minutes
title: Are you insane?
-I just don’t get you anymore. What’s going on here?
-These “crusaders” of yours are all over the news. What are you thinking? Do you realize where this is going to go? Matriarch has put up with that trash you keep posting on the SolarNet, but this is t
otally different. Don’t think we’re going to stand by and let you have your way.
-And don’t think we’re helpless either. There are a lot more dragons now than when you were one. Consider that before you do something you’ll regret.
... retrieving next message in conversation ...
source: Kaneda Kusanagi
destination: Ryu Kusanagi
message delay: 38 minutes
title: RE>Are you insane?
Dear Ryu,
Once again, you display your ignorance. The crusaders are the victims of Caesar, healed of their wounds and now full of purpose. It is a noble thing to behold. Every one of them was a captive in Bunker Zero. They know well the dangers of quantum minds, and they will not forget. These brave volunteers will form the core of a fighting force dedicated to the destruction of Europa’s quantum mind and any who assist it.
We have already learned much by examining my body, and this knowledge will make the crusaders more than a match for anything your master throws at us. The implants will not be as good as the original, but they don’t have to be. The dragons are too few and too expensive to pose any real threat. Yours is a small commando elite. The crusaders will be an army worthy of the challenge we face.
You will fear us and hate us. In battle, you will kill some of us, but you will not stop all of us.
Tell your master we are coming. In time we will kill that abomination and free you from the chains you don’t even know are there.
Kaneda
... retrieving next message in conversation ...
source: Ryu Kusanagi
destination: Kaneda Kusanagi
message delay: 38 minutes
title: RE>Are you insane?
-fuck you
... conversation ends ...
Kaneda took a deep breath of dry, filtered air. His armor pressed in around him. Its sophisticated wetware interface converted thought into instant motion. He stepped forward and put a heavy gauntlet on the pilot’s shoulder. Artificial muscles closed the enlarged fingers with precision.
“Sir, the Invincible has again ordered us to come about,” the pilot said. He wore a checkered pressure suit with a gold bubble helmet. His slender build contrasted the four bear-sized crusaders behind him.
