Cyber Shogun Revolution

by Peter Tieryas

  “They’re older, sold by the military to Umegra ten years ago. But with a couple custom upgrades, they’ll hold up in combat,” Nori said.

  “Is your leg okay?” Reiko asked her.

  “I’ve been injected with painkillers and steroids and spent the last hour and a half in a rejuvenation vat. My mobility is limited, but I’m going to do my best.”

  Takamaki’s mecha was designated the Slave III, while Onishi’s was the Valkyrie.

  Between the four of them, Nori began explaining the plan to defeat the Stryder.

  “It’s a good strategy,” Reiko said. But she had to ask, “Is this fair?”

  “What do you mean?” Nori asked back.

  “I mean the four of us teaming up against her,” Reiko stated.

  “If it were up to me, it’d be ten of us against her.”

  “But—”

  “Captain, I understand your reservations, especially after her generous act to you. But, respectfully speaking, this isn’t a sport. We’re fighting to protect the people of Los Angeles. Being fair is the last thing on my mind. If it’ll allay your concerns, her acceleration module puts her at a massive advantage. There’s a chance even the four of us won’t be enough against her.”

  “I must agree with Major Onishi,” Major Takamaki said. “She has a disproportionate advantage. Teaming up is the wise thing to do.”

  “You have a super magnet gun!” K suddenly exclaimed to Reiko. “So you can swing other mechas around? Now it makes sense why your mecha is bottom heavy and you have all that density in the legs for balance and anchor supports in the heels. Nori! Can I get a magnet gun too?”

  “The Harinezumi II doesn’t have the proper gear to power and energize the Skaria,” Nori replied.

  “I mean afterward. Would love one of those, and I can adjust the mass in the legs to compensate. Be really nifty for me to harvest old mechas with a magnet gun.”

  “Let’s talk after the battle’s over.”

  Nori went over the plan again, tried to think up contingencies in case things didn’t go as designed.

  “You all know what you have to do. Get into positions so we can commence.”

  “Operation have a name?” K asked.

  “Why don’t you do us the honors?” Nori asked.

  “How about Operation Snail’s Ass?” K suggested.

  “Is that an appropriate name?” Major Takamaki asked.

  “Sure, considering we’re trying to slow the Stryder down to a snail’s speed,” K answered.

  “It makes sense,” Bishop said. “It’s the perfect description.”

  “See, dude agrees. I like you.”

  Reiko would normally have been amused, but the situation was too somber for that.

  About fifty meters from them, she saw two Anubis-class mechas being prepared for deployment. They were 40 percent smaller than the regular Anubis mechas. These duplicates didn’t have anywhere near the same armament, since they were stand-ins used for portical films. She saw the crews loading the imposter Anubises with explosives.

  Nori stated, “Let’s commence Operation Snail’s Ass. I’m relaying scan data from another OWL directly to all three of you. It spotted the Stryder four kilometers west of here. When you arrive, engage the Stryder, but remember not to attempt to destroy it, since it’ll most likely be in a populated area and I want to minimize the impact to the civilian populace. There are still many areas that haven’t been fully evacuated, and we need to do our best to protect them from harm if possible. I’m sending you the best path to Kodama Lake in Echo Park on your GLS.” Reiko saw the path charted out on the geographic location services. “Get the Stryder into the lake.”

  Her primary objective was to work with K to engage the Stryder and draw her to Kodama Lake. Retreating without appearing to retreat was easier said than done, as it was hard enough just defending herself normally. How to draw Takemi out? The only way Reiko could think of was to keep her distance.

  “Ground terrain looks good,” Bishop said from the navigation panel. “Aside from all the property damage.”

  Reiko checked the energy distribution. So far, the Melluso augments were working as expected and there wasn’t any excess drain. The roads were uneven and many of the rails were damaged. A navigator would normally plot out the best way to traverse this and save on the BPG, but she knew Bishop was still learning.

  “You ready for this?” Bishop asked her.

  “The closest we’ve had to a mecha revolution like this is the Stanifer Gambit, and even then, that was a military base.”

  “What about the Ceridwen Uprising?”

  “That was bad,” Reiko said. “But that was eighteen of our mechas starting up their own kingdom in South Mexico, not an attack in one of our major cities.”

  “A lot of people died trying to suppress the revolt.”

  “That’s every war.”

  The Stryder was in the business district on Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. There were skyscrapers all along the streets. The Stryder had destroyed the circular Censor Office which oversaw the thought protection of portical traffic in the vicinity.

  They found Daniela Takemi a few kilometers away. Reiko still held up hope there was an alternative to fighting and contacted her. “You’re back,” Daniela noted.

  “We are . . . Is there any way we can avoid this fight?”

  “Surrender and walk away.”

  “That’s impossible,” Reiko replied.

  “Why would you expect otherwise from me?”

  “I wasn’t. At least tell me why you’ve betrayed the Sons of War.”

  “I never swore loyalty to them. My loyalty is to the country,” she snapped with a ferocity that took Reiko aback. “Are you ready?” she asked.

  Reiko, whose mecha was fully charged, raised her sword. “I am. Thank you.”

  “You don’t need to thank me,” Daniela said. “I see you’ve brought a friend with you. It doesn’t matter. I must warn you; time is relative to perception. The Flash Division developed steroids to manipulate the way we comprehend and experience time. Once I understood that a second can seem like an hour and vice versa with the mind, I could control the speed of all engagements.”

  The Stryder moved toward the Harinezumi II, but from Reiko’s vantage point, it seemed to warp from one spot to the next. Suddenly the Stryder was in front of the Kamakiri, getting ready to attack the Harinezumi II with its boomerang. Reiko activated the magnet gun to repel the Stryder, which pushed it back. But then the Stryder vanished again and reappeared at their right flank. Reiko triggered her boosters just in time to avoid the Stryder. It swung, then vanished and appeared at the Harinezumi II’s side, attacking again. It was unnerving how fast it moved.

  Reiko rushed toward the other mecha and struck. The Stryder blocked the series of blade swings, but just as the two prepared to volley again, Daniela ignored K and chased after the Kamakiri. It was safe to assume her priority was to destroy the Skaria, which was the smart thing to do.

  “K, she’s after my Skaria,” Reiko said.

  “Figured that. Lock her in place so I can fight her.”

  Reiko got the Skaria aimed and ready, triggering the magnet when she thought she had the Stryder in view. The Stryder vanished again, reappearing several meters outside of the Skaria’s range. Reiko swung the magnetic gun over and tried to fire again, but the Stryder took cover behind a building so that the magnet tugged on an automobile, pulling it into the air. Reiko released the car, which crashed down onto a bus stand. The Harinezumi II attacked the Stryder, or at least tried to. Daniela evaded and Reiko’s sword struck the side of the Sousuke Saeki Commercial Center, taking out three floors.

  The Stryder was fast, and it was only thanks to Reiko’s magnet shots that it couldn’t maintain a concentrated attack against Reiko.

  “Any ideas where the acce
leration module is located?” Bishop asked.

  “That’s something you should be helping me figure out,” Reiko replied.

  “I’ve tried searching for any unusual readings on the sensors for the Stryder, but I’m not getting anything.”

  “Have you checked for spikes of energy in the armor whenever she uses the accelerator?” Reiko asked.

  “How do I check that?”

  It was not the question she wanted to hear.

  “Toggle the energy sensors with the motion ones. You can have them overlay each other,” Reiko explained.

  “Let me try it now,” Bishop replied.

  The Stryder pounced on them, getting a strike into its arm. It would have lopped it off, but Bishop saw an emergency notification suggesting he activate the directional plasma shield. He did so and it repulsed the boomerang. The Stryder paused, trying to assess the strength and durability of the shield.

  “Nice,” Reiko commented to Bishop.

  “Wait, I actually did something useful?”

  “You did.”

  Bishop did a fist pump, which made Reiko laugh.

  Reiko attacked from the rear, forcing the Stryder to spin to deflect.

  This seemed as natural a chance as she’d get to retreat toward Echo Park. She used her skates and the boosters on her chest plate to push her backward. K fired both his cannons, but the Stryder evaded. The resulting property damage was bad.

  “Oops,” she heard K mutter.

  The Harinezumi II took steps to retreat as well, and they pushed their speed.

  Bishop said to Reiko, “I still don’t see any energy levels on the Stryder that stand out as abnormal.”

  “Keep on checking.”

  The Stryder caught up to them and attacked the Harinezumi II first. K did his best to deflect her strikes, but the Stryder was too agile and the Harinezumi II took a couple blows to her armor. Fortunately, the armor held, but K was flung back into a five-story market structure that collapsed under his weight. While K tried to get to his feet, the Stryder turned its attention in Reiko’s direction. Reiko hit the boosters to try to speed up, but was no match in speed for the Stryder. The Kamakiri couldn’t maneuver out of the way and was too close to the Stryder to activate the Skaria. The captain expected to be cut up like all of Daniela’s previous prey.

  To her surprise, the Stryder hesitated, holding the boomerangs up, but not striking.

  “What’s going on?” Bishop asked.

  “I don’t know,” Reiko replied.

  “I did notice an unusual energy spike when she was moving.”

  “Where?”

  Before Bishop could answer, Daniela asked over the communicators, “I was like you at first, willing to do everything for the Sons of War. But I learned my lesson.”

  Reiko triggered the boosters on her legs that gave them enough space for her to fire the Skaria and repel the Stryder. The Stryder was going to come straight back at them when the two fake Anubis mechas moved to confront the Stryder. Even if they had been real ones, they stood little chance against her speed. Being props, they had none. The Stryder’s sword slashes were so fast, the cut marks on the Anubises were glowing from the heat.

  “I’m seeing the spikes again,” Bishop said. “They’re coming from right above the belly whenever she uses the accelerators.”

  “Good catch. You get all of that?” Reiko asked Nori.

  “I just did. Please disengage and move to the lake,” Major Onishi reminded her.

  Reiko gave a thumbs-up to Bishop, who in turn beamed with pride.

  She sped toward the lake. As she did, she saw both Anubises get sliced up in a boomerang tornado. She saw ejection pods fire at the last minute, the crew safely getting away. Reiko knew Takemi well enough to know she wouldn’t attack the pods. That was when both of the Anubises used the self-destruct mechanism and exploded. The Stryder’s arm was incinerated, and its body armor took heavy damage.

  The Kamakiri reached Kodama Lake. Reiko looked over at Bishop, who confirmed that the ground under the lake could support their weight. They moved toward its center, which was not very deep, only reaching the level of the Kamakiri’s ankle. Reiko understood what Nori was planning. Water would affect speed and also leave a wake wherever the Stryder moved, allowing them to potentially see her movements. But would the Stryder step into the trap?

  All they could do was wait and see.

  “I heard this lake is haunted,” Bishop said. “Lot of suicides and accidents here.”

  “This is a terrible time to tell me this.”

  “Just saying, if something happens to us, at least we’ll have company.”

  There were lotuses all over the lake, and a massive bird sanctuary. Many of the birds took flight as Reiko approached.

  At the edge of the lake, Stryder was facing them. The burned carcasses of the two Anubises lay underneath her. Takemi wasn’t moving forward; she was scanning the surroundings, suspicious that it was a trap.

  “If you have something specific in mind, this would be a good time to let us know,” Reiko said to Major Onishi.

  “Just wait,” Onishi replied.

  A minute later, heavy gunfire started pounding the Stryder. It was the two mechas piloted by Onishi and Takamaki, Valkyrie and Slave III, attacking from the other side. Their firing pattern was in a wide net that made it impossible to avoid, with their dual gunshots distributed in a tightly choreographed bullet ballet. The Stryder was able to avoid and deflect some of the gunfire, but Daniela’s mecha would be destroyed if it remained where it was. The Stryder was forced into the lake.

  “Captain Morikawa. Please magnetize the Stryder,” Major Onishi ordered. “K. Please destroy the acceleration module, which is located on the right chest. Bishop can send you the exact spot.”

  Since they were in the park, there weren’t many other targets for Reiko aside from the Stryder. The Stryder approached warily, but had no choice except to move forward since Nori and Takamaki were still firing on her.

  Reiko triggered her Skaria just as the Stryder was within distance. The electromagnet locked on and prevented the Stryder from freely withdrawing. K sprinted toward her and attacked. Reiko made careful modifications to the aim to make sure it didn’t affect the Harinezumi II. It was tricky and she knew an automated target would make mistakes, conflating the two, so she kept the lock on manual mode.

  “I’m going to pull her toward the middle of the lake,” Reiko said.

  Every time the Stryder tried to utilize its acceleration module, there was a slight blur caused by the magnetic forces that prevented her from fully engaging it. Since its left arm was damaged, it couldn’t block with it either. K stabbed the exact location of the acceleration module, destroying it. The Stryder was at normal speed again.

  “Please withdraw now!” Nori ordered both of them.

  K pulled away, but Reiko didn’t move. “Hold on, Major,” she said, despite knowing that the plan was for the four of them to surround the Stryder and fire on her.

  “Captain, please follow orders,” Nori said.

  “You can court-martial me later if you want, but let me talk to her.”

  “Captain,” Nori called again.

  Bishop cut out her voice. “Do what you got to,” he said to Reiko.

  Daniela appeared on the display screen. Her bridge had lost main power and her mecha was on auxiliary lights.

  “That was a well-executed maneuver. I applaud whoever designed it,” Daniela said over a public channel so that anyone could listen.

  But Reiko wasn’t in the mood to talk tactics. “Why did you join Bloody Mary?” she instead wanted to know. “She stands against everything the Sons of War were about.”

  “The Sons of War tortured me and were going to execute me,” Daniela replied.

  Reiko flinched. “Th-that’s impossible.”

&n
bsp; “After Bloody Mary attacked them, they said I betrayed them to her. They tortured me for a month to try to extract a confession.”

  Reiko remembered the governor’s ambiguous answer when she’d asked about Daniela.

  “General Watanabe rescued me from my isolation chamber,” Daniela said. “That was the second time she’d saved me.”

  “When was the first?”

  “When I was a teenager living near the Quiet Border.”

  “You never told me that.”

  “The Nazis carried out a sneak attack and razed our whole city. We asked for support, but everyone turned us down except for one person.”

  “Who?”

  “Pris Watanabe in a mecha sent by an official with the name of Daigo Tamura,” Daniela said.

  “As in the late governor, Daigo Tamura?”

  “The same. He was in charge of a garrison in the Quiet Border because it was a key point of trade. He was the only one who came to our rescue. All it took was Watanabe-san’s one mecha to scare off the Nazis. I know that Tamura’s main intent was to protect the trade routes. But all I cared about was that he’d sent the mecha that had saved our lives when no one else did. My parents were killed in the attack, so Watanabe-san took me on as her ward and taught me everything about piloting. Her father was so kind to me and treated me like his granddaughter.”

  Reiko remembered the night they saw him get beaten, and she felt ashamed for stopping Daniela from trying to protect him. “I never knew.”

  “I have no delusions about Tamura. He’s the reason Kansas happened, and that’s why I didn’t hesitate to join the Sons of War. But after Bloody Mary turned on them, Governor Yamaoka assumed I was the one who’d betrayed them because of my connection to Governor Tamura.”

  “Was it the governor himself, or one of his underlings?”

  “Of course it was the governor. Nothing happens without his personal approval.”

  “Then what he said about General Watanabe’s father—”