Cyber Shogun Revolution

by Peter Tieryas

  “What should we do now?”

  “Let’s head east,” Nori said. “I’m spotting several mechas dueling eighteen kilometers from here.”

  Bishop inspected the navigation panels as they warned him of obstacles, specifically civilian cars, two of which Reiko stepped on despite the big red X’s and alert beeps noting that they should be avoided.

  Nori sent out several more OWL drones, which was a convenient way for officers in command to keep an eye on the field, as they had extremely sophisticated reconnaissance equipment. She had their visual feeds tied directly to her panel at munitions.

  Bishop hoped he wouldn’t screw up at navigation and tried to learn what each menu item did.

  Reiko attached the Kamakiri to the rails on both sides of the road and moved ahead at full speed.

  II.

  “How much do we know about their side?” Bishop asked.

  “Based on information I received before kikkai connections were disrupted, they have three mechas: the Sygma, Stryder, and Syren,” Nori explained. “They struck multiple mecha stations and wiped them out. Reinforcements are being sent from outside of Los Angeles, but I’m not aware of their status. Since most of our airfields were badly damaged, rapid aerial deployment will be difficult. I’ve sent an emergency signal to a pilot in Catalina who’s especially suited for these kinds of operations. But I don’t know if he’ll respond. Until we hear otherwise, we’re on our own.”

  “That doesn’t sound too promising.”

  “We don’t have many other options. We need to act quickly to minimize civilian damage before it gets worse.”

  “What do you mean, ‘civilian damage’?” Bishop asked.

  Nori pointed ahead of them to three apartment buildings that were on fire.

  “Their mechas are attacking civilian targets,” Nori said.

  Bishop was stunned. Los Angeles looked like a war zone. Big chunks of the city had been destroyed, and burning skyscrapers were all over the place. The thermal scans on the navigation panel indicated that the casualties numbered in the thousands.

  Bishop spotted a man jumping out of a building from fifty floors up, dropping to his death in order to avoid being burned alive. He focused his scans on the building and detected four people on the thirty-second floor, unable to escape. He relayed the information to Reiko. Before he’d even explained anything, Reiko moved toward the survivors, who were stranded helplessly on their balcony, a fire about to swallow them. Reiko stretched out the Kamakiri’s hands. It was a couple with two kids. They moved onto the mecha’s hands. They waved joyfully toward the mecha, especially their young daughter. Reiko carefully placed them on the ground. The parents and son ran toward safety. The young girl looked up at them and kept on waving.

  Bishop tried not to think about his niece.

  “This should be the jurisdiction of the 120th and 367th,” Reiko said, aghast.

  “It should be,” Nori replied. “But I’m not getting any of their signals. Do you see anything, Agent Wakana?”

  “No, ma’am. And you can just call me Bishop. I do see a mecha coming our way. Nav says it’s a Perseus class,” Bishop said, reading off the nav panel.

  “Why’s it heading our way?” Reiko asked. “Is it hostile?”

  “I don’t think so. None of its weapons are armed.”

  “That’s the Albatross Goney,” Nori said, recognizing the mecha. “I have friends on board.”

  “Send them a message,” Reiko said to Bishop, who opened up the mecha-to-mecha communications. “Albatross Goney, this is Captain Reiko Morikawa. Have you engaged the Sygma or seen it?”

  Bishop sent the message, but there was no response.

  The Albatross Goney appeared as though its armor had been breached. Its arms were destroyed, and its helmet was bashed in. There were life signs within, and it was clear it had power, but they refused to reply. All that came back was static as it walked past them.

  “Their communications are busted, or they just don’t wanna talk to us,” Bishop concluded.

  “According to my OWL, there’s activity within, and readings indicate crew members are active inside,” Nori told them.

  Bishop saw it too on his thermal scans. It was eerie that this mecha, which looked like it was in working condition, was walking quietly without saying anything back. What had spooked it so badly? According to nav history, it’d been built at the Dallas Mecha Yards six years ago, received an upgrade at Bakersfield recently as part of the corps modernization effort. Only four Perseuses had been constructed with their experimental Andromeda Engine and Joppa Launcher, which attempted to harness sound and water as a weapon.

  “Another mecha is coming up. Signs indicate that’s the Machi,” Bishop said. “But they’re moving away from the battlefield too.”

  “Any ideas why?” Reiko asked.

  “They took heavy damage,” Bishop said. “It could be they’re withdrawing for repairs. I’ve contacted them five times, but they’re not answering.”

  “Are their communicators broken?”

  “I don’t think so. But the signals are all mixed up.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  Bishop checked again. “They have more damage internally than on their external armor. Maybe they had mechanical failure? But I’m not seeing anything wrong with the BPG, and the armor hasn’t been breached anywhere. There’s definitely issues originating on the bridge, including damage that seems to have originated from gunfire . . . There’s a chance it might have been caused by the crew members.” Bishop, who was always thinking about the angles, followed his own conjecture to its logical conclusion based on some of the public crew personnel records he’d accessed. “I think there was a mutiny on board.”

  “Mutiny aboard one of our mechas?” Reiko looked disturbed. “That’s hard to believe.”

  “I believe it,” Nori said. “Battle changes people. Be on guard.”

  Reiko kept her weapons locked on the Machi. The Machi, which should have detected the weapons lock, ignored them and continued walking in the opposite direction like a ghost mecha, adrift without any concerns.

  “You ever seen anything like this before?” Bishop asked Reiko as the Machi moved farther away.

  “Not like this,” Reiko replied.

  Only a few hundred meters forward, they came across a new mecha.

  “That’s the Jeroboam,” Bishop said.

  The Guardian-class mecha had seen better days. Its arms were torn off and its torso had smoke fuming from it. The buildings around them were burning.

  “They must have fought one of the mechas,” Reiko assumed. “Ask them if they know which direction it was heading.”

  “I’m contacting them now,” Bishop replied. A minute passed, then another. “Their communicator doesn’t seem to be working. I’m receiving text communications from a Major Miura.”

  “What does the major say?”

  “He says the mecha’s porticals have been infected by a viral attack from the Syren and they’ve lost control of the Jeroboam. They don’t want to call us directly in case our porticals get infected too.”

  “Do they know where the Syren currently is?”

  Bishop asked them but there was no response. “I think they’re still trying to get their bearings. Only eight of their crew survived.”

  Bishop could see from his nav readout that the Jeroboam had started with a crew of twenty-two. It’d been stationed at Texarkana, but suffered from major malfunctions in its inner circuitry that limited its tour of duty. After being retrofitted, it was stationed in Los Angeles. There was one official complaint filed about one of its officers, though his identity was sealed. It accused him of fervid religious proclivities and a deranged belief that he could predict the future since he could communicate with celestial kamis.

  “Major Miura refuses to tell us where the Syren wen
t,” Bishop finally said.

  “Why not?” Reiko demanded.

  “He’s warning us to stay away from the Syren. He says they’re too powerful and can’t be beaten.”

  “Can’t be beaten?”

  “He believes . . . he believes they’re evil spirits, and humans have no chance of stopping them.”

  “Bishop,” Nori called. “Can you ask them more about the virus? Is the Syren using kikkai attacks to disrupt mecha controls?”

  He sent the question. “No response. But that’s a safe bet.”

  Nori stated, “We need to prepare for a kikkai virus.”

  “How do we do that?” Reiko asked.

  “I’m going to come up with some options. But if our pilots are losing control of their own mechas, it’s no wonder they’re so spooked.”

  Ahead of them was the tourist site called the Destiny Tower, based off Paris’s Eiffel Tower but twice as tall. Close to it was the Jungfrau, another mecha attempting to incorporate the German biomech’s armor-regenerating technology. Bishop saw on the nav profile that it was a Hercules class, designed for combat and built at Long Beach. Eight of these were built and deployed in the California Province in the past year, though their inefficient use of their BPGs put seven of them out of commission. The Jungfrau was the only Hercules class left, but its crew had seen a fair share of personnel turmoil over the past few years, command changing multiple times due to political issues that remained classified to him. It appeared to be an emaciated version of a standard mecha, its vents and open tubes widespread, like oversized skin pores.

  “Are they damaged?” Reiko asked.

  Nori shook her head. “I think they’re having mechanical issues.”

  Bishop wondered if they’d act similar to the other mechas and avoid them.

  “They’re sending us an urgent message,” Bishop said, dispelling his earlier notion.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “We’re short on Bradlium particles. We ran out of energy for the regenerative skin on the way. Can you spare a core or two?” their captain asked.

  Reiko was about to reply in the affirmative, but Nori stopped her.

  “What are you doing?” Nori asked.

  “We can send them one of our spares.”

  “We need every core we have,” she stated firmly.

  “But they need our help,” Reiko said.

  “I know it’s harsh, but even with another core, they won’t be able to fight. That extra core could mean life and death for us.”

  Bishop agreed with Nori. Reiko deliberated for a minute, before nodding her consent to Bishop. He messaged them, “We don’t have any cores to spare.”

  “Please, give us just a little siphon,” they replied.

  Bishop ended the communication.

  The Jungfrau began moving west.

  “Where they going?” Reiko inquired.

  “I don’t know.” As the Jungfrau faded from view, Bishop asked Reiko, “What is going on with these mechas? They’re not acting like the crews I’ve fought with.”

  “It’s because the best of the corps is stationed along the Quiet Border,” Reiko answered. “The ones here have never dealt with anything like Bloody Mary.”

  “Crews are being called in,” Nori said. “But it takes time, since we can’t leave the border vulnerable to attack.”

  “You mean just in time for Bloody Mary to completely destroy Los Angeles?” Bishop asked.

  Reiko was upset. “We still haven’t learned since the Kansas Massacre,” she said. “We have to be ready for anything.”

  “I thought there were three mechas on Bloody Mary’s side,” Bishop said.

  “That’s right,” Nori said.

  “Why am I spotting eight mechas attacking a government building?”

  Nori stood up and limped over to Bishop’s navigation readings. “Those should be ours,” she said.

  “That’s what I thought too.”

  On the visual feed, they could see eight Anubis-class mechas attacking.

  “Either they defected, or those mechas were stolen. That’s the 367th, half of the Downtown Los Angeles Defense,” Nori said. “Without them, downtown is vulnerable.”

  Bishop didn’t need the portical scan to recognize the building. It was a Tokko base, outwardly known as the Office of Moral Thought Protection, that housed government censors. There were five other censor centers spread throughout Los Angeles, each focusing on a different medium. But this one’s role was to watch the way people played games and extrapolate moral irregularities based on their decisions. Much of the information was studied by the Tokko, who in turn would follow up with gamers displaying suspicious tendencies. The Anubises had destroyed half of this building.

  Three of the Anubis-class mechas noticed the Kamakiri and turned toward them.

  “What should I do?” Reiko asked.

  “Fight them,” Nori replied.

  They engaged the three Anubises. Reiko raised her fusion sword, which was gleaming purple. The Anubises approached with their combined twelve arms. Nori waited for them to get close and stood motionless.

  “Should we put up our defenses?” Bishop asked.

  “Not yet,” Reiko replied as she waited for them to strike.

  Just as they did, Reiko did a swirling attack that caught the forward Anubis off guard. Her swing slashed off two of its hands and left behind a wiry end that was full of sparks. She was amazed at how easily the sword cut through the Anubis. Reiko grabbed the electrically pulsating limb of the Anubis, then directed it back at itself, causing it to get inundated by its own volts. She then used the shocked Anubis as a shield against the other two, swiping at them with her sword whenever they tried to get around. She parried the two other mechas with her sword, then lopped off the arms of both.

  “Thought you said your mecha-to-mecha combat was minimal,” Nori said.

  “It was. But that sword,” Reiko said excitedly. Since that battle against the Anubis last year, she’d been practicing against them in simulations. She was relieved to see the training had paid off.

  “It’s the new Raiden Fusion sword model with the plasma cutter and hafnium to ionize gas and make mecha parts easier to slice up.”

  “I thought it was still in the prototype phase,” Reiko said.

  “It is,” Nori replied. “We’ve been testing it for Mechtown.”

  “In live combat?”

  “Yep.”

  Reiko kicked the third Anubis into the ruins of Tokko base. It fell back, flattening the lobby and adjacent offices.

  The five Anubises began firing shells at the Kamakiri. Reiko took out a mecha-sized rifle, the Suigetsu GRL-40, and charged at them. Rapid fire ensued, Reiko shooting each as fast as she could. The Kamakiri used boosters in her legs to move even faster, deflecting the enemy shells with her sword. The plasma field acted as a shield against projectiles, and Reiko timed her rifle shots to match the strikes from the Anubises’ multiple limbs. Any time an arm flung itself at them, a bullet would knock it back. Bishop felt like he blinked and two of the enemy mechas were cut in half. The remaining three stepped backward, cautious that this lone mecha had already destroyed five of them.

  “Send the octopus mechas a message, will ya?” Reiko requested, feeling confident. Her body was pumping with adrenaline, a kind she’d never felt in the simulations. “Power down and surrender.”

  Bishop relayed the message. Only one of the mechas lowered its arms, shutting down the entire unit. The two others tried to attack. Reiko stepped forward, swinging at one’s chest in a swift arc. This sliced up its chest plate and exposed its BPG, which was humming in a steady throb. Reiko spun around and used the back of her fist to crush the generator, bringing the mecha to its knees. The second Anubis tried to punch her. Reiko used rear thrusters to move swiftly out of the way, causing the Anubis’s a
rms to go through its companion rather than the metal mantis. Reiko took the opportunity to lop off all its outstretched arms, then fired her rifle straight at its head. Both Anubises were out of commission.

  “Nicely done,” Nori said.

  Reiko nodded nonchalantly, even though inwardly, she was jubilant.

  “Call the one who surrendered and ask them if they know which way the three mechas headed,” Reiko ordered.

  Bishop did and said, “Forwarding the reply.”

  On the display portical, a young man appeared. “Thank the Emperor you came. The other Anubis pilots forced me to go along with them and threatened to kill me if I didn’t. I had no choice. Forgive me.”

  “You have information about where I can find the other mechas?” Reiko asked.

  “They’re specifically targeting the censor stations and anything that might block a communication their leader wants to send.”

  “What kind of communication?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Which way did the mechas head?” Reiko asked.

  “Toward downtown.”

  “You better come with us,” Reiko ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The Niwatori flanked their side. It was only a short trek before they came across the mecha called the Endersby. Its pilot was a Major Samuel Saito, who had only limited military action, since he’d served mostly in urban settings.

  He was fighting another mecha which Bishop recognized, the Syren. It was under the command of Lina Niijima—Bloody Mary’s cohort from earlier and the pilot of the mecha Bishop had ridden at the time of his capture by the Nazis.

  Bishop recalled that Niijima had been decorated with numerous medals for her piloting. She’d graduated from Kyoto University, second in her class, and had served as a pilot throughout Asia. She had only one official reprimand. In her time in Moscow, a Nazi officer made racially offensive comments about her (something along the lines that all “Asians” are more or less “Oriental idiots” and “brute degenerates”). She single-handedly beat him and his gang of bodyguards. Her mecha was painted a dark red, with heavy armoring that made her wider than the Kamakiri. It was slower than Reiko’s mecha but also bulkier, meaning it had more force.