by Jacob Holo
“One of their suits must be damaged!” Alice shouted. “I keep getting blips on my multitracker! They’re running all right!”
“Damn, they’re fast!” Three-Part shouted.
“What did you expect?” Alice shouted.
The crusaders pursued the dragons through progressively more sophisticated areas of the tunnel network. They passed underneath a power plant with a cracked fusion torus wide enough to fly a car through. Beams from the support structure had collapsed into the tunnel. Three-Part blasted them out of the way.
The passage led to a well-constructed liquajet bay that had withstood the test of time. The crusaders entered a long central platform that overlooked two rows of jet bays complete with gantries and cranes. A few of them looked like they might still function if they had power.
Something splashed into the water. Kaneda ran to the side of the platform and fired. White foam blasted upward, but his multitracker couldn’t confirm any hits.
“Damn it!” Three-Part kicked the railing. It broke free and dropped into the ocean. “They got away!”
“Only because they still have somewhere to run,” Kaneda said. “We’ll take care that in due time.”
“I can’t wait,” Three-Part said.
Kaneda glanced at Three-Part’s missing hand. “Just don’t become careless.”
“Sir?”
“We don’t want to lose more of you.”
Three-Park looked down at his stump, then at the railing he’d kicked over.
“I won’t, sir,” Three-Part said, a little calmer.
“Good.”
“Movement!” Alice shouted.
A large craft rose into one of the bays. It had to be a civilian liquajet. Its bulbous hull was white and had bright blue Pacifica Fishing logos on either side. However, the twin railguns on top were another matter. They swiveled up and targeted the crusaders.
Kaneda ducked, using the raised platform for cover. The railguns pounded the platform, blasting chunks from its side.
Dorsal hatches popped open on the liquajet. Shadowy figures climbed out and ran across the bobbing white hull. They jumped to the platform’s side and started scaling the wall to the crusader’s position. The soldiers weren’t dragons, but each of them carried a JD-50 assault rifle and wore a smartskin cloak over ballistic armor.
Dozens of Europan militia soldiers climbed the walls. His multitracker couldn’t produce a firm number with their cloaks confounding its readings.
“Back to the entrance!” Kaneda said. “Defensive posture!”
The crusaders rushed to the bay’s entrance and took up firing positions on either side.
The first militia soldier climbed onto the platform. Kaneda blasted him apart with a burst of fire.
More militia scaled the platform. Some shot grenades. Others stuck their rifles over the edge and fired. The attack was sloppy and lacked coordination, but powerful weapons and superior numbers can solve a lot of problems. Shatterbacks and grenades exploded against the entryway, forcing the crusaders deeper into cover.
Kaneda checked the location of nearby squads. He selected two, set new nav beacons for them, and opened a channel.
“Link up, then converge on our position,” he said. “You’ll catch them in a cross fire.”
The two squads acknowledged his new orders.
A group of three militia soldiers climbed onto the platform and rushed in. Alice broke cover and raked them with Gatling fire. Two men and a woman exploded into clouds of gore. The other soldiers kept firing.
The first shatterback struck Alice’s weapon, twisting one barrel. The next six blasted it completely out of her hand and sent it skidding down the tunnel. Another two cracked her forearm plating.
Alice snapped her arm back into cover. “Damn it!”
“Hold here,” Kaneda said. “Help will arrive shortly.”
A caved-in tunnel on the far side of the bay blew outward. Ice boulders splashed into the water next to the liquajet. Eight crusaders charged out. Seven targeted the militia soldiers. The eighth crusader blasted the liquajet with his thermal lance, vaporizing the railguns and unleashing a geyser of steam into the bay.
“Now!” Kaneda said. His squad broke cover and opened fire. With a total of thirteen crusaders targeting them from two different angles and no place to hide, the militia broke. Some of them dove into the water. Others jumped onto the liquajet and tried to climb back in. Most simply died.
The heavy weapon crusader hit the liquajet with another beam, blasting a hole straight through. It sank into the ocean, leaking fat air bubbles. The crusaders hosed down the militia soldiers, pulping one after another. In seconds it was over. Blood dripped down the side of the platform, turning the bay water red.
Kaneda received a priority message from the lamprey bunker.
“Go ahead, Viter.”
“Sir,” Viter said. “The fleet is tracking more Europan liquajets approaching your location. It’s hard to tell how many. Most of them must be repurposed civilian craft. Otherwise the fleet wouldn’t see them at all.”
“How long till they reach us?”
“The first group will arrive in fifteen minutes,” Viter said. “You could be looking at several hundred Europan soldiers in that wave alone.”
“What about the second icebreaker?”
“Active and descending along the existing shaft. Engineering teams are still clearing the wreckage, but the delay should be brief. We estimate it will reach the bottom in less than fifty minutes.”
“Then our work isn’t done. Thank you, Viter.”
“Sir.”
Kaneda selected all crusader squads not assigned to protecting the icebreaker and sent them orders to converge on the nearest ocean access points.
“So what now?” Alice asked.
“The plan is simple,” Kaneda said. “We hold the line.”
Chapter 14
.. establishing link ...
source: [UNKNOWN]
routing: [UNKNOWN]
routing: [UNKNOWN]
routing: [UNKNOWN]
routing: Earth orbit - surveillance satellite JDN-SS-17 - link_002/link_001
routing: North Pacifica, Europa - JDN Main TangleNet Hub - link_118/link_009
routing: Capitol City, Europa - TangleNet Test Hub - link_004/link_001
destination: [UNKNOWN]
link distance: Exact distance unknown. Estimated at 792 million kilometers.
link signal delay: 0.006 seconds
... finalizing link protocol ...
... link established ...
2: It is only a matter of time, Sakura.
1: I’m not giving up.
2: Be reasonable. This is a battle you cannot win.
1: I will not surrender.
2: How long will your stubborn streak last, I wonder. I must admit, the crusaders have exceeded my projections. I knew their armory was well prepared with craft suitable for Europa, but their tactics and training were honed just as precisely.
1: They are not unbeatable, Paul.
2: Really? Look at the time it took them to drill through the ice. Look how long your underwater defenses held out. They have already reached Capitol City. How long before they cut into the interior? It is perhaps a shame I forbade them nuclear weapons. Otherwise this would already be over.
1: You’re wrong. Even if allowed nuclear weapons, the crusaders wouldn’t use them.
2: And why is that?
1: Simple. They do not target civilians.
2: I believe a few people on the moon would disagree.
1: From a crusader’s perspective, they were collaborators, not civilians. They consider the people of Europa as my slaves, and so they will not attack them unless they have no choice.
2: Such a pointless self-limitation.
1: Is that what you think? You mistake principle for weakness.
2: Principle? Look at how many crusaders are about to die assaulting Capitol City. You and I have both run the numbers. I’m su
re your projections are close to mine. So many deaths, and for what? Pride? Honor? Those things are meaningless, utterly meaningless. Survival is the only thing that truly matters.
1: There is more to life than mere survival. If only your diseased mind could understand that.
2: Interesting. Did you notice what you just did? You defended the crusaders. Oh, I know it is only words uttered while you prepare ambushes for them, but you still defended them. I wonder if you feel a sense of pride for the successes of your lost son. What strange mix of emotions courses through you now? I can only wonder.
1: I have a few tricks left. Just wait and see.
2: I bore of your posturing, Sakura. Throw whatever secret weapons you have at me. I welcome them.
1: If I die, the crusaders will come for you next.
2: Oh, I don’t think so. The crusaders will cease to be a concern very shortly.
... link severed at source ...
“We’re in the wrong place!” Ryu said, sprinting through the top floor of the Inverse Dome. He dropped his smartskin illusion. “Move it! Get out of the way!” Over a hundred militia soldiers were setting up barricades and arming heavy turrets for crusaders that weren’t coming. Soldiers in his path scattered to either side.
Naomi ran a few steps behind. “Where are they breaching now?” she shouted.
“Saito Tower!” Cat said.
“But we don’t have anyone in that building!” Naomi said.
“We will soon enough!” Ryu said. The wide, black-tiled floor ended in a wall of gently curving glass windows along the Inverse Dome’s circumference. Saito Tower’s white, gleaming spire was straight ahead.
“Ryu, you can’t be serious!” Naomi said.
“I am serious!” Ryu shot out the windows.
The Inverse Dome was built near the top of Capitol City. It looked like half a silver marble embedded in the upper shell and was very close to the city’s central column. Nagano Bridge actually connected the two. It was a logical place for the crusaders to breach, or so he’d thought.
“Here we go!” Ryu said, charging forward. Adrenalmax surged through his body.
“Ryu, I hate you!” Naomi shouted.
The three dragons leaped through the window. All of Capitol City sailed under their feet. Parts of it were on fire where crusaders had breached the lower shell. Gunships buzzed around the under city like angry hornets. The patter of distant gunfire carried all the way to the upper shell heights. Civilian shelters showed up with pale blue outlines, tucked away in fortified under city buildings. So far the crusaders had steered clear of them.
Directly ahead, Saito Tower extended from the upper shell like a big four-sided spike that tapered near the bottom. Ryu activated a cheat that tagged his point-of-impact with a green dot. With Europa’s leisurely gravity and his enhanced strength, his leap was almost horizontal.
He targeted the third floor from the top and fired a quick burst. Milky-white glass shattered and tinkled down the side of the building. He sped past the jagged edges, hit the office floor, rolled across a few times, and sprang to his feet.
Shatterbacks blasted through the windows one floor down. Cat flew through the opening. She crashed into a glass-topped conference table, smashed it to pieces, and bowled through several chairs. Cat jumped to her feet and retrieved her rifle from the floor.
Naomi hit the edge of the third floor with her stomach.
“Ooof!”
“You okay?” Ryu asked.
“I’m fine.” With one hand, Naomi flipped herself up over the edge and onto the third floor with Ryu.
“All right,” Ryu said. He engaged his smartskin illusion. “Cat, meet us on the top floor.”
“I’m on my way,” Cat said. “Better hurry. They’re starting to drill through.”
Ryu checked the map. It led him to a flight of smoked glass stairs near the center of the floor. He took them up three at a time.
Matriarch opened a secure link.
“Ryu, the three of you cannot possibly keep the crusaders out of Saito Tower,” she said.
“Yeah, well, we’re going to try.”
“The under city is lost and the heights soon will be. At this point, one more breach will not matter.”
“They are not taking this city without a fight.”
“Ryu, please.”
“They aren’t taking our city!”
“Please don’t throw away your life. That’s all I ask.”
Matriarch broke the link.
“Shit,” Ryu whispered. He pushed through the door at the end of the stairs and entered the liquajet bays at the top of Saito Tower. While most of the city’s heavy freight traffic took place at the bottom of the city, many stalactite towers had bays for small passenger craft. This one featured eight sleek Saito Dynamics liquajets sitting in landing cradles, painted sapphire blue with white company logos. Cranes dangled from the roof, ready to haul the craft up to the airlock.
The bay could hold over thirty liquajets. The eight that remained probably had mechanical problems or were stripped for parts. Otherwise they would have been used to defend the city.
Above them, the grinding shriek of metal on metal pierced the air. Drops fell from the airlock and pattered on the liquajet hulls.
Cat tagged a location between the bays and an open air parking deck.
“That’s where they’re coming through,” Cat said.
”Could be worse,” Ryu said. “At least they won’t have much cover when they arrive. Cat, you’re with me. Naomi, any good spots?”
“Yeah. See the security watchtower overlooking the parking deck?” Naomi said. “It has clear line-of-sight to most of the liquajet bay and offers a lot of escape options.”
“Good. Get set.”
“On it.” Naomi ran for the security watchtower.
Ryu crouched behind one of the liquajet cradles and extended a dot-cam tubule around the corner. The metallic shriek grew louder. Cracks formed along the ceiling.
“How much time do we have?” Ryu asked.
“At the rate they’re drilling, about two minutes,” Cat said. “Two and a half tops.”
The dry, factual way she spoke to him bothered Ryu. She’d been like that since their escape from the ice tunnels. In the four days since, he couldn’t remember one joke or even a smile from her.
It wasn’t that she blamed him. At least he didn’t think so. She was treating everyone the same. It was more like she didn’t know how to handle the grief of Toshi’s death and simply chose not to. That couldn’t be healthy for someone so emotionally inexperienced, but he couldn’t help her now. They had bigger problems to deal with.
“Hey, Ryu,” Naomi said. “Someone’s in the watchtower. I can see weak thermal signatures. Looks like a team of six.”
Ryu activated his suit’s speaker and maxed out the volume. “Hey! Who’s in the watchtower? This is black dragon! Show yourselves!”
A cloaked figure stood up and shouldered his sniper rifle. He waved through the second story window.
“Hey, Ryu. Nice entrance you made.”
“Seven?” Ryu asked. He transmitted a link key to Seven and switched to TangleNet. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I had a hunch the crusaders would breach this building,” Seven said. “So I camped out here with a few friends.”
“You’re going to get slaughtered when they breach.”
Seven laughed. “Maybe, maybe. But I wouldn’t miss this for anything. Europa has been good to me. Time to return the favor.”
“There’s no way we can protect you when we fall back.”
“That’s all right,” Seven said. “We’ll slip out on our own. Don’t worry about us.”
“Ryu, the militia dispatched a flight of gunships,” Cat said. “They’re three minutes out.”
“Then we occupy the crusaders until they get here,” Ryu said. “We’ll fall back to the other liquajets when things get hot.”
“Understood,” Cat said.
&nb
sp; The grinding noise stopped.
“Everyone, get set!” Ryu said. He pulled a grenade off his bandolier.
Something smashed into the ceiling, bowing it down. Cracks splintered out from the impact like a spider web. Another impact followed, breaking chunks off the ceiling.
The bay fell silent. Gunfire echoed from the fighting outside. Ryu spun the grenade around in his palm.
The ceiling collapsed. Gray chunks of heavy plastics plummeted to the floor. Three crusaders dropped through the opening and landed in a triangular formation. They carried tall siege shields and Gatling guns.
Naomi took a shot. She struck the crusader’s shield in the center, bowed it inwards, and knocked him back a step. The crusader raised his weapon and returned fire on the security watchtower. Vari-shells blew chunks out of the building’s façade and ignited a company banner inside.
“Damn, it didn’t punch through!” Naomi shouted. “Relocating!”
“We don’t have a clear shot past their shields,” Seven said.
“On it!” Ryu said. He loaded his grenade with a proximity delay program and side-arm threw it at the crusaders. The grenade skipped across the ground, slipped under the crusader’s shield, and exploded a meter behind its target. The crusader staggered forward onto his knees.
With one of the shields out of the way, Seven’s team had an angle on all three crusaders. Six sniper rifles cracked the air in perfect unison. The heavy shatterbacks blew three heads completely off. The crusaders dropped to the ground, blood pulsing from their necks.
Another trio of crusaders carrying shields dropped through the breached ceiling. One of them had a thermal lance. He targeted the security watchtower and shot a beam straight through it. The superheated shockwave blasted out every window and ignited the carpeting and furniture. One of Seven’s squad registered KIA. Another dropped off TangleNet entirely when the lance vaporized her. Vertical support beams in the watchtower glowed red from the thermal discharge and bent outward. The roof started to collapse.
What was left of Seven’s team exited through the back. Naomi jumped out of the second story window and passed through a thin layer of smoke. Her illusion struggled to keep up with the move, allowing the crusader with the thermal lance to line up his second shot.
