by Jacob Holo
“Now, Cat!” Ryu said. He and Cat sprang from cover and unloaded on the crusader targeting Naomi. Twin streams of shatterbacks pulverized the crusader’s gun arm, blasted it off at the elbow, and collapsed a whole side of his armor. A few shatterbacks broke through his diamoplast plating and exploded inside. He hit the ground, collapsed face-first, and didn’t get up.
The other two crusaders landed. Ryu and Cat dashed behind the liquajet cradle, even as chunks of it exploded into the air. Three more crusaders dropped from the ceiling and landed heavily on the bay floor. Even before they landed, another group jumped down.
Seven’s team ran across the parking deck. They dashed from car to car, smartskin cloaks billowing behind them. The first three snipers leaped off the edge. The last one, Seven, paused near a blue company Saito, swung his sniper rifle around, and took a parting shot. He hit one of the falling crusaders. This one didn’t have a shield, and the shot punched straight into his chest. The crusader fell onto his side, adding to the growing pile of dead.
Seven crusaders were in the liquajet bay now with another three ready to drop down. They organized into a ring formation and cut loose in every direction, firing blindly when no target presented itself. It didn’t really matter. Eight hundred forty vari-shells a second was hard to ignore.
Shots pounded the car next to Seven, blasted the top off and set the engine on fire. He turned and ran for the edge, but a depleted uranium vari-shell punched through his cloak and caught the back of his knee. It should have blown his leg off, but it only staggered him. He limped forward and fell off the edge. His green nav beacon plummeted past the Saito Tower’s bottom floor. He deployed a smartskin paraglider and leveled out.
“I wish we could have been more help, Ryu,” Seven said.
“Yeah! Me too!” Ryu shouted back.
More crusaders dropped through the hole. Sixteen of them expanded out into the bay. Eight crusaders headed for Ryu and Cat, circling around either side of the cradle.
“Gunships coming in!” Cat shouted.
“About time!” Ryu shouted. He linked with the gunships on approach and tagged the eight closest crusaders as priority targets. “Take them out!”
“Roger that,” the gunship pilot said. “Engaging targets now.”
Two troop-transport gunships flew up the tower, powered by four air turbines each. They stabilized their flight outside the parking deck. The side doors on their hulls slid open. Ryu’s overlay showed a dozen militia soldiers in each craft. Gunship nose turrets swiveled up and targeted the crusaders.
The first heavy shell blasted into the four crusaders closing on Ryu. Only their enhance reflexes saved them, because their armor wouldn’t. They scattered in every direction, ducking behind cars or going prone on the ground. One of them dashed behind the liquajet cradle. He must have thought two gunships were worse than two dragons. Ryu greeted him with a grenade to the face.
“Cat, we’re too exposed here!” Ryu shouted. He tagged the stairwell the dragons had entered through. It took them away from the crusaders and the gunships. “Fall back to the stairs! Naomi, status?”
“Already there,” Naomi said. “I’ll cover you.”
“Go! Go! Go!” Ryu shouted. He and Cat ran across the liquajet bay.
Shells from the two gunships pounded the crusaders, even as more dropped in through the ceiling. But the crusaders didn’t take the attack idly. They spread out, moving faster than the turrets could track, and returned fire. Vari-shells riddled the gunships, blasting off diamoplast plates and setting one of the air turbines on fire.
The gunships advanced into the parking deck. Militia soldiers dropped from the sides. Crusaders caught some of them in the open, but most reached cover amongst the cars. They added their own weapons and grenades to the chaos.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ryu shouted at the gunship pilot. “You can’t drop them here!”
Ryu’s link to the pilot went dead. The front end of one of the gunships burst into flames. It dipped to the side, clipped a support column, and spun out of the parking deck. The second gunship backed up, still firing its nose cannon. Its front armor had been brutalized. Fuel leaked from its belly and two of its turbines were burning. The gunship dropped out of sight and fled back to base.
Ryu reached the stairwell ahead of Cat. He crouched next to the door, spun around, and checked the enemy count on his overlay. Twenty militia soldiers versus eighteen crusaders. Now twenty-one crusaders. Twenty-four. Twenty-seven. The crusaders just kept on coming. They formed a rough line and advanced on the militia.
“The crusaders are going to head this way very soon,” Naomi said.
“We can’t help them,” Cat whispered. “Can we?”
“No,” Ryu said.
A tall crusader dropped from the ceiling. His scorched, bullet-scarred armor looked like it had been field repaired. He hit the militia soldiers with a trio of wrist-launched grenades before he touched down. Six of them went KIA.
The militia fought bravely. They were men and women ready to die to protect their home. And that is exactly what they did. At least they took a few crusaders with them.
Ryu found it painful to watch. The militia had guns, gear, and wetware far superior to anything the Federacy used. In theory, that meant they could hold their own through weight of numbers. But they weren’t an army. They didn’t know how to fight, and crusaders were not an opponent to learn against.
“Another flight of gunships is coming in,” Cat said. “They’re a minute and a half out.”
“Tell them to veer off,” Ryu said. “Tag Saito Tower as contested by the enemy.”
“Done,” Cat said.
“Let’s go,” Ryu said. The three dragons slipped into the stairwell. Naomi slapped a grenade on the door before taking up the rear. She planted a grenade every other floor as they raced down. Thirty floors and two hallways into their descent, the grenade at the top detonated.
“They’re coming after us,” Naomi said. “The dot-cam showed a squad with siege shields and thermal lances before it tripped.”
“I’ve been listening to the militia command channel,” Cat said. “They want to retake the building before the crusaders dig in, but it sounds like they might be too late. The crusaders are deploying missile batteries on the top floor.”
Ryu stuck his arm out in front of his comrades. Naomi and Cat bunched up behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Naomi asked.
“This isn’t working,” Ryu said.
“Well, obviously.”
“We can’t let the crusaders get any further than this tower.”
“What choice do we have?” Naomi asked. “There’s just the three of us. And at this point, what’s one more breach?”
“You don’t understand,” Ryu said. “This is where the big push is going to happen. This is where they’re going to hit us the hardest.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Naomi said. “They’ve breached the under city too.”
“No, it’s going to be here,” Ryu said. “Cat, what’s the fastest route from here to Heart?”
“Saito Bridge,” Cat said. “It’s another forty floors down and runs straight across to Column Apex.”
“And from Column Apex all the way down to Heart,” Ryu said. “That’s the route they’ll take. They’re going to cross using Saito Bridge.”
“There’s no way you can be sure they’ll hit hardest here,” Naomi said.
“Yes, there is,” Ryu said. “Kaneda is with them.”
“He ... he’s what?” Naomi asked.
“He’s here.” Ryu sent them a picture of the crusader in scorched armor. “This one.”
“What?” Naomi asked. “But how could you possibly know?”
“The height is correct,” Cat said. “Besides that, I can’t tell.”
“It’s him,” Ryu said. “I know it’s him. Matriarch?”
“I am here, Ryu, but my focus is heavily divided. Following every battle is proving difficult.”
&nb
sp; “Send all available forces to converge on Saito Bridge,” Ryu said. “We’re about to get hit hard, and we need to keep them off the column. This takes priority over all other engagements.”
“Very well, I’ll trust your judgment in this matter,” Matriarch said. “I have redirected two militia platoons and silver dragon. They’ll reach the bridge in less than five minutes.”
“That’s not nearly enough,” Ryu said.
“I am also rerouting gunship squadrons to begin shifting our forces. I will do what I can.”
“Do it fast,” Ryu said. “I don’t know how much time we have.”
“Can we sever the bridge instead?” Cat asked.
“Cutting its supports will take considerable time,” Matriarch said. “It was designed to withstand high speed impacts from fuel trucks, among other potential accidents. It will not fall easily. The same is true for all stalactite buildings.”
“Guess not,” Cat said.
“I’ll divert all the forces I can,” Matriarch said. She cut the link.
“You’re putting a lot of faith in a hunch,” Naomi said.
“I know,” Ryu said.
“This isn’t going to go well if you’re wrong,” Naomi said.
“Fuck, don’t you think I know that?” Ryu snapped. “So they overrun us somewhere else? So fucking what? We’re already losing! We need to turn the tide now before they kill Matriarch!”
“Ryu, I ...” Naomi took a step back. “I’m sorry ... I didn’t mean ...”
“I’m not giving up, all right?” Ryu shouted. “I’m not quitting just because the odds are long! If I see a way we can win this, then I’m going for it!”
“Ryu, I’m ... I’m ...”
“Hey, Ryu?” Cat asked quietly.
“WHAT?”
Cat flinched back.
Ryu shook his head. “I’m sorry. What is it?”
“We’re ... we’re with you on this,” Cat said. She seemed to struggle with the words, as if it took supreme effort to force her way out of her shell. “Both of us. Right, Naomi?”
“Of course we are,” Naomi said. “I’m just ... pointing out potential problems. That’s all. We’ve got your back, Ryu. You know we do.”
Ryu took a few deep breaths. He couldn’t believe how emotional he was, but then, he knew the order he was about to give.
“Kaneda is up there,” Ryu said quietly. “He’s coming down, and the full weight of the crusaders is coming with him. But when he does, we are going to be ready. We’ll know which one he is.”
Naomi nodded.
“Yeah,” Cat said. “It’s about time.”
“When Kaneda reaches the bridge,” he said. “We kill him.”
Ryu knew he should have done this a long time ago. He’d had other opportunities, like on Ceres or Luna or Apocalypse or as recently as the ice tunnels. But he always hesitated. Sure, he and Kaneda had traded shots many times, but they were the only ones who knew. To his squad, Kaneda was always just another crusader. If he died, then it was just a tragedy of war. It wasn’t Ryu’s fault. It wasn’t murdering his brother.
No more. He couldn’t run from this anymore. Their private war was about to end.
How many of us are dead because I hesitated? Ryu wondered. Toshi, buddy, would you be alive if I’d had the guts to kill him earlier? He tried not to think about it.
“Let’s take that bastard out,” Cat said.
“Just get me a clear shot,” Naomi said.
“Right,” Ryu said. “Well then, come on! Let’s get to the bridge!”
The three dragons hurried down another forty stories to a plaza where pedestrian traffic entered Saito Tower. The plaza was three stories of tiered shops and restaurants overlooking a vast showroom for Saito products, mostly cars and trucks ready to be flown home.
The dragons ran across the plaza, planted a few grenades, and exited through a tall archway. Saito Bridge may have been for pedestrians, but it was wide enough for three lanes of traffic. A crystal clear walkway ran between white waist-high walls. Statues of inventors and decorative fountains rose from the walls at twenty meter intervals. Ten on each side marked the walk from Saito Tower to Column Apex.
Ryu looked at Column Apex. He ran his gaze down the central city column all the way to Heart, visible through the bridge’s transparent floor. It was so close. Matriarch was so close.
“Naomi,” Ryu said. “Hurry over to Column Apex and pick a spot.”
“On it!” Naomi said. She hit herself with a dose of adrenalmax and sprinted across the bridge.
“Cat, you and I are going to take positions on the bridge. Maybe about a third of the way from Apex. There, behind those statues. We’ll try to help increase the odds of a successful snipe.”
“These statues aren’t going to provide a lot of cover,” Cat said.
“We can go underneath the bridge if it gets too hot,” Ryu said. “It’s solid diamoplast. They’ll need lance weapons to punch through.”
“In case you forgot, they have those.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it was perfect.”
They ran across the bridge. Ryu crouched behind the statue of Katashi Kinjo, who was an engine designer of some renown according to his plaque. Cat took cover on the opposite side.
Ryu opened the command channel and set the filter for area-specific chatter.
“This is militia platoon one-one-five. We’re in Column Apex. Now moving to firing positions targeting Saito Bridge.”
“Platoon one-seven-oh, taking positions in Apex.”
“Silver dragon, arriving at Apex.”
“Silver, you have any snipers?” Ryu asked.
“That’s a negative, black.”
“This is white dragon! We’re still climbing the Column! Ten minutes out!”
“Platoon two-oh-two here. Now lifting off from Heart, en route to Apex.”
“Platoon six-two here. We’ve disengaged from fighting on Recycler Tower One. Now en route to Apex.”
Ryu lowered the command channel’s volume until it whispered in the background.
“There’s a lot of liquajet movement outside the capitol,” Cat said. “The crusaders are shifting some of their forces to the heights. Looks like you might be right, Ryu.”
“Good to know,” Ryu said. “Naomi, what do you see?”
“There must be a few hundred crusaders in Saito Tower,” Naomi said. “They’re splitting up. Some are getting ready to storm the bridge. Another group is taking position several stories up.”
“Why would they do that?” Ryu asked.
“It gives them a good angle on the bridge,” Naomi said. “They might have seen the militia moving into Apex.”
“Right. Got it.”
“It’s hard to tell how many are in each group. The crusaders are staying clear of the outer walls.”
“No surprise there with snipers like you around,” Ryu said.
“Yeah, guess not.”
Matriarch opened a private link. “Ryu, we need to talk.”
“Now is not the time.”
“Unfortunately it cannot wait. I am having difficulties with the star drive. It may be another week before the calculation is ready. Even—”
“A week! But I thought you were close!”
“Please let me finish,” Matriarch said. “Even if I could teleport the city, the crusaders will still be here. I am ... contemplating surrender.”
“What?” Ryu shouted. “No! We are not giving up!”
“I ran the projections. At best, you will stall the crusaders for another three days. At worst, they will reach heart in half a day.”
“No! I refuse to listen to this!”
“I appreciate your desire to fight, but you are becoming emotional.”
“I am not emotional!”
“Try to be objective,” Matriarch said. “If I surrender now, I may be able to negotiate for you and Cat to be spared. If we cannot win, then perhaps it is best to—”
Ryu cut the link.
&nb
sp; “Fuck! I don’t need to hear this!”
Surrender. The word echoed in Ryu’s mind. How can she even consider it? Is our fight really that lost?
“I’m picking up movement in the floors above the bridge,” Naomi said. “They’re moving furniture around and knocking down walls.”
“Why?” Cat asked.
“They could be setting up cover,” Naomi said. She sighed. “I don’t know.”
We need to kick the crusaders out of Capitol City, Ryu thought. And we start that by killing Kaneda. With grim finality, another thought crossed his mind. We have to kill him ... even if I die taking him out.
“Cat, stay here,” Ryu said. “I’m going in for a closer look.”
“You’re what?” Cat asked.
“Don’t worry.” Ryu stuck his rifle to his back. “I know what I’m doing.”
Ryu climbed over the wall next to the statue and snuck over the edge. He crawled down the wall to the bridge’s underside and began making his way to Saito Tower. He looked “up” at Heart and the under city. It was a long, fatal drop.
“Ryu,” Naomi said. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m going to make sure you get your distraction,” Ryu said. Even crawling, he made quick progress across the bridge’s underside. “Just make sure you hit your mark.”
“I will.”
Ryu reached a statue two thirds of the way to Saito Tower.
“Movement!” Naomi shouted. “Lots of movement!”
Several stories above the bridge, three whole floors of windows exploded outward. Glittering glass rained down on the bridge. With the way cleared, over a hundred crusaders raced forward and fired on Column Apex wildly. The militia returned fire. Explosions blossomed across either building, raining more glass and debris onto the bridge and the under city below.
“No, damn it!” Ryu said.
A hundred crusaders reached the floor’s edge and leaped. They soared through the air, unloading Gatling guns and thermal lances with abandon. Thousands of vari-shells pummeled Column Apex. The noise thundered in his ears. Militia KIA signals scrolled down his vision.
Torrents of militia fire poured out of Column Apex in response. A single shatterback may not have been much threat to crusader armor, but the militia had volume on their side. Whole crusaders withered under the explosive fire. Other lost limbs and weapons or got knocked off course and fell to their deaths. But most of them survived to land halfway across the bridge.
