by Isaac Hooke
“Well, if she doesn’t, then we’ll take the city back from her,” Jason said. “And then force her to return us to Earth. Or figure out how to do it ourselves.”
“You always make things sound so easy,” Iris said. “It’ll be more complicated than that.”
“I know,” Jason said. “It always is. But I like to break things down into simpler, easier to understand chunks first. It’s what I’ve always done. Something I learned back in my professional gamer days.”
“You were a professional gamer?” Iris said.
“Uh huh.”
“No shiyat,” Iris said. “So was I. Ever heard of Team Electron?”
“Nope,” Jason said.
“They were my sponsors,” Iris said. “After I signed with them, I moved into a mansion in Houston and gamed full time. They payed me a salary of four thousand creds a month. Meals were included. Every day, breakfast, lunch, and supper were prepared by professional chefs. We had a personal trainer take us into the weight room after breakfast. After workout was personal time, and then lunch. After that, from noon until six we played. Then we had dinner until seven. And played again from seven to one A.M.”
“Wow, sounds like a sweatshop to me,” Jason said.
“Depends on your point of view,” Iris said. “If you’re doing something you love, and getting paid a very decent wage, you can’t call a job a sweatshop.”
“Maybe,” Jason said. “What happened?”
“Well, I’m sure you know, there’s a lot of turnover in the professional gaming industry,” Iris said. “I got kicked off Team Electron after four months, and was between sponsors. That’s when I decided to get a mind scan done, for some extra creds. And here I am.”
“Nice,” Jason said. “I was never invited to join a team. Well I mean, I had sponsors, but they weren’t the all-inclusive sort, like yours. And yeah, I was essentially between sponsors when I got my mind scanned, too.”
“Interesting,” Iris said, taking another scoopful of rice. They ate in silence a moment. “We talked about not being able to trust the alien. But you’re not really sure you can trust all of the other girls either, are you? Given what Aria and Xin did…”
Jason put down his utensils, swallowed, and regarded her uncertainly. “Trying to sow dissent?”
Iris shrugged, smiling innocently. “All I’m saying is: maybe you’d be better off trusting those of us who’ve never betrayed you.”
“Like you?” Jason said.
She merely continued to smile.
“I should remind you, you did attack me, when we first met,” Jason said. “Along with Maeran and Cheyanne.”
“That was a misunderstanding,” Iris said. “We were still enslaved to Bokerov. Besides, I heard we weren’t the first to attack you. Tara did so as well. We have fought well for you, since then, haven’t we? Haven’t I?”
Jason pursed his lips, and nodded ever so slightly. “You have.”
“Good,” Iris said. Her eyes glittered with self-satisfaction, as if she’d made some really important point. Or at least, one that was important to her.
Motion drew Jason’s gaze to the kitchen entryway. He saw blond hair, a freckled face. A long tail curving around the doorframe.
Lori was peaking in.
“How did you get in here?” Jason said. “This is a private partition…”
Lori shrugged. “I have my ways.”
Her nonchalant answer made him wonder how private his past partitioned sessions had been. Had she watched every one of them?
Lori stepped inside completely. “Hi Iris!”
“Oh hi, Lori,” Iris said. Disappointment momentarily flashed across her face, but she masked it quickly. “Would you like to join us?”
“Sure!” Lori said.
Again the disappointment appeared, but this time Iris made no effort to hide it.
Lori grabbed a plate and utensils from the cupboard and sat down beside Jason. She squished her thigh against his as she served herself, and kept it there as she tried the rice.
“Mmm,” Lori said. “I really love the digital flavors! This is amazing.”
Iris smiled in appreciation. “Thank you.”
The smiled dropped when Lori set down her utensils and wrapped her arm around the crook of Jason’s elbow: a sign of ownership. At least, that was how Jason interpreted the gesture. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder and sighed.
“I wish this were real,” Lori said. “All of this. You, me, Iris. Alone in a house beside a mountain lake. That there was no alternate reality we could step into, a reality where we were trapped on an alien homeworld, potentially marching to our deaths to help some alien princess we know nothing about.”
“She met Jason,” Iris said. “In VR.”
Lori pulled away from him to look into his eyes. “Really? What did she say?”
Jason shook his head. “Nothing special. She told me a sob story of her youth, how she listened to the screams of her family dying. How she wants vengeance.”
“Oh,” Lori said. She tried some more of the rice. “This is really good.” Then she added, casually: “Did you fuck her?”
Jason froze. “Who?”
“Risilan,” Lori said.
“No,” Jason said quickly. “Of course not.”
“Then why do you sound so guilty?” Lori said. “Like I caught you with your hand in the cookie jar?”
“Because your question took me by surprise, especially that you’d ask it in front of Iris,” Jason said. Though the truth was, it was more guilt over the fact that he wanted to have sex with Risilan’s avatar, more than anything else. But he wasn’t about to tell Lori that.
Z appeared, dressed in her white wetsuit. “He’s just embarrassed because he wanted to have sex with Risilan.”
“Z!” Jason said. “Damn it. Stop reading my mind!” He deactivated the Accomp, and she vanished entirely.
“Oh, that’s all it was?” Lori smiled. “Okay then.” She wrapped her arm around his elbow again, and snuggled against his side. “I don’t mind you having sexual transactions with the other Mind Refurbs. But an alien? That’s where I draw the line.”
“Are you sure it’s not just because she’s a princess?” Iris said.
Lori shifted against Jason, but didn’t answer.
“Why would she care if Risilan was a princess?” Jason said.
“The same reason I do,” Iris said. “She’s the only one who could tempt you away from us.”
“That would never happen,” Jason said.
“Are you sure?” Iris said. “What if she offered to allow you to rule at her side? Giving you control of her planet? Her space navy?”
Jason felt his brows draw together. “Never happen. First of all, she’d never make the offer. Second of all, I wouldn’t accept. I have my own homeworld already. My own girls.”
Iris shrugged. “So you say now.”
“Stay away from the princess,” Lori said softly. “Can you do that for me?”
Jason looked at her, and saw those innocent eyes looking imploringly into his. “As long as you promise not to invade my private VR partitions anymore.”
Her eyes twinkled slightly. “Done! Thank you.” Lori gave him a kiss on the lips, and then vanished.
“Well, that was… rude,” Iris said.
“You did invite her,” Jason said.
“Yes, but the polite thing to do was decline,” Iris said. “This is our dinner date, after all. And this was a private VR partition, right?”
“That’s right,” Jason said.
“There you go,” Iris said. “She was doubly rude for intruding on that. You should punish her.”
“I’m not like Bokerov,” Jason said.
“I’m not saying do anything major,” Iris said. “Her punishment can be as simple as denying her sex.”
Jason frowned. “That sounds like more of a punishment for me than anything else.”
“Well you get where I’m going with this though, right?” Iris
said. “You take away privileges she’s earned, until she learns to obey. You have to keep your people in line…”
“If she does it again, I’ll do something,” Jason said. “Until then, I’m going to trust that she’ll keep her word.”
Iris shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”
They didn’t talk about much else during the date. Jason finished his plate, and he was trying to decide whether he should switch seats so he could kiss Iris goodbye, when she stood.
“Well, I thank you for the date,” Iris said. “Maybe we can do this again sometime.”
“Wait.” Jason pointed at his cheek. “Kiss goodbye.”
She hesitated, then leaned forward to press her lips against his cheek. At the last moment, he turned his head so that she pecked his mouth instead. Her eyes widened, and she pulled back.
“Nice trick,” Iris said.
“Wasn’t a trick,” Jason said.
“Shut up.” She leaned forward again and kissed him even more passionately.
Jason really got into it, matching his mouth movements to hers, and he also reached up to squeeze her breast behind her dress.
Iris abruptly pulled away.
“Something to hold you until next time,” Iris said.
“I want you now,” Jason said.
“But you don’t have sex on the first date, remember?” she said sweetly.
And with that, she vanished.
Damn it.
He hadn’t turned the tables on her after all. She’d gotten the upper hand.
It was just as well: he’d completely forgotten about the coming battle with that kiss, but it all came flooding back.
Time to get to work.
13
Jason stood with his army on the outskirts of the Imperial-owned city. They hadn’t yet emerged from the forest, whose eaves ended about one kilometer away from the base of the dome, but they were already taking fire from the city. In between the eaves of the forest and the city wall was a no man’s land full of fallen Imperial troops—the fleeing scouts and patrols that Jason’s army and the Modlenth battalion with him had harried all the way here. Jason had tried to avoid those patrols for as long as he could, but eventually it became impossible, given the size of his army, and thus ensued the long chase to his current position.
The Imperial city was bigger than the Modlenth one. A lot bigger, at least judging from the ring-like wall that encircled the place and generated the energy dome, as well as the size of that dome itself, which literally reached to the heavens. That dome, in addition to keeping out the atmosphere, was also seemingly impervious to every type of weapon: sometimes a shot from the Modlenth went astray, striking the dome, but it simply absorbed the impact. Jhagan had told him that hitting the dome with weaponry only made it stronger.
Jason and his army had resided on the west side of the city, as per Risilan’s plan. Jhagan was with him, along with a hundred other Modlenth mechs, two hundred elliptical aircraft, and ten airships. Jhagan had agreed to share positional data with him, so Jason could see all the members of the Modlenth battalion on his overhead map, regardless of whether they were in view of any of Jason’s units or not. He could also see any enemy targets that weren’t visible to his own units, targets that showed up as a plethora of red dots along the western side of the city.
The airships were at the front, just inside the ring of trees, and were taking the brunt of the attacks from the many turrets that lined the city wall. Elliptical Imperial craft also fired plasma and energy bolts from where they had deployed along the outside of the dome.
The combined armies returned fire, targeting those turrets. At least those that had a view of the targets. The Modlenth mechs, as well as the War Forgers and their clones, had spread out along the eaves of the forest, and employed the trees as shields while they aimed past the thick trunks. The elliptical aircraft were also spaced between the upper branches of the trees, using them for cover as they fired.
Meanwhile, Bokerov’s tanks fired shells that arced skyward and plunged toward the city walls, using visual data fed to them by the War Forgers. The shell attack wouldn’t last for very long, however, as the tanks were low on ammunition. They’d have to switch to their renewable plasma bolt attacks soon, but that could only happen when they moved forward and obtained a direct line of sight upon their targets.
The Cataphracts at the rear remained hidden beneath the treetops, waiting their turn to strike.
Shaggy was just beside Jason, behind the tree, with a leash around his neck that was pegged to the ground. The Rex Wolf fought frantically against the restraint, wanting nothing more than to break free and join the battle. Bruiser and Lackey were similarly restrained behind a trunk near Tara, while Runt was with Lori.
“Easy, boy,” Jason said. “You’ll get your chance, soon.”
Operating in Bullet Time, Jason switched to the scope of his laser and aimed at one of the turrets that protruded from the distant wall. He fired. The glow of an energy shield lit up around the target, fading a moment later. He kept firing, keeping his main vision active in a corner of his display for peripheral awareness.
After the fifth strike, the energy shield no longer activated. But before he could deliver the death blow, his attention was drawn to his main visual feed, where an energy bolt was homing in on him. He pulled back behind the tree as a portion of the trunk dissolved beside him.
Close one.
What would I do without Bullet Time?
With Z’s help he calculated the source of that bolt. It was one of the Imperial craft in the sky next to the dome. He leaned out, and targeted that craft next. It, too, was shielded, and he had to pull back as it fired another energy bolt at him.
Beside him, the airships with his army fired lightning, energy, and plasma bolts as their ramps opened, and the specially designed bioweapons deployed. The creatures dashed forward, exultant at their newfound freedom, and drawn by the bright flashy lights coming from then wall.
They were essentially elephants minus the trunks, with big bony plates covering their heads and upper flanks. Those plates weren’t entirely natural—they’d been augmented with Modlenth tech. The beasts also carried autonomous lasers on their backs, as well as energy shield generators, and explosives.
“Pack Mules!” Lori said.
“Your alien names are the worst,” Sophie said.
Most of the defensive turrets redirected their fire toward the incoming bioweapons, which were obviously deemed the greater threat at the moment, so that the airships were no longer under such heavy bombardment. Even so, one of the more damaged airships went down as Jason watched, crashing into the no man’s land next to the forest.
While that was taking place, Jason saw four new targets appear on his overhead map. His eyes were drawn to them, because they were moving fast. Too fast for ground units.
He glanced skyward, and spotted four dots he guessed were bombers. He zoomed in. These aircraft had the same elliptical shape as the others, except they possessed large rectangular sections underneath. Definitely bombers of some kind.
And they were on a bombing run.
Several of the Modlenth craft swooped skyward to intercept it.
Jason returned his attention to the battle at hand. He had to trust that those intercepting craft would be able to deal with the bombers.
When the first group of Pack Mules reached the wall, proximity sensors triggered the explosives they carried, carving huge blast craters in the surface when they exploded. More and more creatures were drawn to the same portion of damaged wall—likely steered by the chemical signature of the dying bioweapons, just as bees were drawn to the death of drones when the hive was under attack.
Several fireworks ignited in the sky above as the bombers were taken out by the craft he had seen take to the skies moments before.
“How long do we have until the Imperials move their space navy into firing range?” Jason asked.
When that happened, the battle would definitel
y be over. For the Modlenth.
“Risilan tells me we have half an hour,” Jhagan said.
“Half an hour?” Jason said. “We were supposed to have a two hour window!”
“Yes,” Jhagan said. “But apparently the warships were a lot closer than we thought, with several already in orbit. Be glad it’s not a two minute window!”
“They’ve breached the wall!” Tara shouted over the comm.
Jason glanced at the wall at the base of the dome. The Pack Mules had indeed breached the wall, and were pouring into the gaping hole the exploding bodies of their companions had drilled. The bioweapons were dropping like flies on the other side, however, as they were killed by whatever was waiting within—their shields had obviously been drained by the enemy turrets on the way to the opening, and hadn’t been able to take much more.
Directly above the breach, a large sliver had been cut out of the energy dome, representing that portion of the protective shield the lost wall section had generated. Yellow mist flooded inside. Jason wasn’t too worried about what would happen to the alien residents: Risilan had assured him that by now any civilians would have evacuated to specially designed structures meant to be used during a shield failure, where they would be protected when the toxic atmosphere flooded in.
“I hope all the innocents made it safely inside their shelters!” Lori said.
“I don’t!” Bokerov cackled.
“Forward,” Jhagan ordered.
There were a hell of a lot of turrets still active on those walls. Not to mention enemy flyers… the Imperials would have a field day shooting them down. Then again, if they delayed to take down more of those turrets, the enemy might seal the breach, allowing the space navy to arrive. In fact, he could already see what could only be repair drones lining the ragged upper edges of the gap. They moved fast, replenishing the damaged materials, smoothing out the inner surfaces.
Through his scope, Jason aimed at one of those drones with his energy weapon, and fired. He watched with some satisfaction as it dropped.
“Forward, War Forgers!” Jason said. “Bokerov, fill in the gaps along the tree line with your tanks. Try to give us as much cover as you can. Send the Cataphracts forward as well. Stick to the tree line when all your troops are in place, and wait for my order to come inside.”
