Cyber Shogun Revolution

by Peter Tieryas

  “W-wait,” Yasu said. “There’s—there’s something you need to know.”

  “What?”

  “I—I’m sorry. I—I—I . . . I lied to you.”

  “About?”

  “You—you’re an Ulfhednar . . . D-Dr. Metzger put it in your bo-body when you were un-unconscious.”

  “But you told me—”

  “I—I lied so I could—could research you a-and t-t-track you—your body ch-chemistry.”

  “So my body is a bomb?” Bishop demanded. He remembered that after Metzger had taken him captive, he’d woken up and felt something was wrong with his stomach.

  “It is. Your body is especially s-suited for it.”

  “Why?”

  “During—during Texarkana . . . you were the only survivor of Operation 4891.”

  “How do you know about Texarkana?” Bishop demanded.

  “I—I was—was in-involved. The—the army needed intelligence about N-Nazi movement east of Tex-x-xarkana. But all our s-s-spies were c-caught and killed. We didn’t-didn’t know what was going on in the Nazzzzi underground base a-and we needed to know if—if—if they were p-p-preparing biological and—and—and chemical w-w-weapons.”

  “Isn’t that why you sent Bloody Mary?”

  “She—she was a d-decoy. The a-a-army w-w-worked with us to outfit several hundred of our soldiersss with portical engrams in their b-b-brains.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Y-you got a booster shot up your nose before your mission, r-right?”

  Bishop recalled how painful the vaccination had been. “They told us that was to protect us against Nazi biological weapons.”

  “That was a lie . . . Those w-w-were artificial engrams w-with portical receptors that lodged themselves in your b-b-brain and recorded your s-s-sensations, from s-s-smells to sounds and sights.”

  Their objective clicked for Bishop. “They were sending us in as reconnaissance.”

  “E-e-everything you s-s-saw, heard, smelled, and felt would be recorded. E-e-even if you didn’t survive, the d-d-data in the engramssss w-would.”

  They were dangled out there as fodder to soak in whatever they could. Their combined memories would form an image the Tokko, or Army Intelligence, could use for their battle plans. “So it didn’t matter if we defended Bloody Mary or not?”

  “No. The only—only reason you w-w-were sent w-w-was for intelligence.”

  “Did Akiko-san know this?”

  “No. S-she wasn’t involved at all. S-she wasn’t c-c-cons-sidered re-reliable.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Her p-p-past record . . . She c-c-cared tooooo much a-about protecting people. De-defied orders too many t-t-times.”

  Bishop took a deep breath.

  “How do I trigger the bomb?” he asked. He wanted to know all his options.

  “T-trigger?”

  “Set it off. How do I do it myself?” Bishop demanded. If a battle with Bloody Mary didn’t go the way he wanted, he had to ensure there was a way to stop her.

  Yasu held up his portical.

  “P-p-press that a-a-activation button and it’ll go off.”

  Bishop snatched the portical and headed back for the elevator.

  “Bishop!” Reiko called. “Bishop!”

  “You can’t come with me,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I have to stop Bloody Mary no matter what,” he said. “Get back to the Kamakiri.”

  “You go up there alone, you have no chance.”

  “Even if we go together, we won’t stand a chance.”

  “So you’re going to blow yourself up?” Reiko asked incredulously.

  “If that’s the only way to stop her,” Bishop insisted.

  “That’s not the only way. We can do this if we work together.”

  “I don’t even know whose side you’re on!”

  “I’m on your side.”

  “Stop treating me like an idiot! I know you were part of the group to assassinate Governor Tamura!” Bishop yelled. “It was all over those portical reports Bloody Mary released.”

  Reiko did not waver from meeting his gaze. “I was part of the group in Seattle that tried to assassinate him. And I don’t apologize for it. Tamura was a terrible human being, collaborating with the Nazis, exploiting his position to get wealth for himself and his family at the expense of all the citizens. I’m not the traitor here. It’s all the people who stood by and did nothing as he destroyed everything dear in our country. But we failed because Tamura’s security force already expected us.”

  “Then how did they—”

  “Bloody Mary got him.”

  “Bloody Mary?”

  “She killed the governor. Then a few months later, she started killing the Sons of War,” Reiko explained. “Don’t blow yourself up.”

  “I don’t want to, but I might have no choice,” Bishop said.

  “What about your niece?”

  “This is for my niece. I have to stop Bloody Mary from putting anyone in harm’s way ever again.”

  “I understand. But I’m not letting you go up alone.”

  “You realize if I blow up—”

  “I’m not afraid of dying,” Reiko said. “If she’s still up there, let’s stop her together.”

  Bishop did not want to put Reiko’s life in danger. But he could tell she would not budge on her stance. Time was too precious to fight with her down here. And maybe she was right. Maybe together, they had a chance.

  “This is really risky,” Bishop told her.

  “I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  They got aboard the elevator to the helipad.

  Bishop checked his pistol again. Reiko readied her missile knives.

  “I grew up without a father and hated it,” Bishop said. “I’ve wondered what would have happened if my dad had swallowed his honor and chosen his life instead. Lena had a hard time after her dad died, and I tried to fill the gap a little. I don’t want to leave her now.”

  “We’re going to get through this alive, okay?”

  He looked pensively toward the door.

  “There’s so much I wish I could tell her. I wonder if my dad thought the same thing before his end,” Bishop said, and thought again about the night his father had called to tell them he was going to be executed.

  “Shut up about the end,” Reiko ordered.

  They arrived at the top floor.

  Outside on the roof, they spotted Bloody Mary by herself, dressed in the modern samurai armor they’d seen in her message. She was watching the mechas battle. K’s Harinezumi II had already defeated Onitsuka and his fellow Diadochi, both their mechas lying in smoky heaps.

  Nori’s Valkyrie was battling the Sygma. Both of them had been severely damaged. Both of them were missing parts from their armor, and the Sygma’s trunk had been chopped off. They were preparing for a final sortie and stood motionless. The Valkyrie wielded its katana to its right. The Sygma’s chainsaw was held up in front of Watanabe. Bloody Mary, and pretty much anyone within view, was watching. Their communications were on public channels, so anything they said could be listened to. Neither of them was speaking.

  The buzz of the Sygma’s chainsaw signaled the final attack. It sprinted forward and attacked with a swing to the left. It actually hit the Valkyrie and it looked as though Nori was defeated. But the move had been a ploy by Nori to get in closer as the chainsaw got stuck on its belly plate (the sturdiest part of the mecha, since it shielded the BPG). Given a few more seconds, the Sygma would have destroyed the Valkyrie. But for Nori, it gave her the chance to strike with her sword and stab the Sygma through its neck. The impalement was swift and deadly.

  “Your revolution is over,” Nori said.

  She removed the blade. All the conn
ections to the bridge were severed, so control was lost. The chainsaw dropped. The Sygma’s arms went limp.

  But Bloody Mary didn’t seem at all unnerved or alarmed. She calmly turned toward Bishop and Reiko.

  Was this to be the final stand with Bloody Mary? Bishop tightly gripped his Nambu heat pistol. To his side, Reiko had her missile knives hovering next to her.

  “What can I do for you two?” she asked.

  “You won’t kill any more people,” Bishop said.

  “The wages of war are death, and my gift to the people is eternal knowledge of the bloody cost of civilized murder.”

  “No one asked for this kind of gift!”

  “But I give it freely, since I want you all to feel my passion,” Bloody Mary stated.

  “I’ve seen your passion for killing before.”

  “‘Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.’”

  Bishop raised his gun. “I’m willing to give whatever is required to stop you, including my life.”

  “I didn’t ask for your life, or I would have already taken it,” Bloody Mary said. “But if it’s a fight you want . . .” She prepared her sword.

  Bishop pulled the trigger on his gun at the same time as Reiko attacked, but it was in vain. All the bullets were absorbed by a directional plasma shield Bloody Mary wielded. She moved toward them. Bishop and Reiko raced to meet her, hoping if they could get close enough, the effectiveness of the shield could be minimized. But she was too quick and dealt with Bishop first, swinging in one stroke as she passed him by. At first, Bishop thought Bloody Mary had missed. Then he heard a clunk, looked over, and saw his arm and Nambu pistol lying on the mecha armor. Bloody Mary had sliced his arm clean off from the shoulder.

  Reiko attacked with her missile knives, but Bloody Mary blocked using her arm, which was artificial. She was quick with her sword and sliced through one of the missile knives. Two struck from opposite sides, and Reiko charged at her with her laser gun. Bloody Mary’s plasma shield still blocked Reiko’s laser fire from the front, but its width didn’t extend all the way around to her flank. One of the knives landed a blow on her shoulder, while the second lunged itself into the side of her torso. Reiko saw an opportunity and slammed straight into Bloody Mary. She took out the knife in Bloody Mary’s side and tried to stab directly into her face. Bloody Mary blocked with her arm and then pushed her away.

  “You’ve been practicing with your missile knives,” Bloody Mary noted.

  “Every day since we last met.”

  Reiko directed the two remaining knives straight at Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary propelled herself up, and her shield protected her from the knife missiles. Reiko had them attack again. Unfortunately, the plasma shield absorbed most of the kinetic energy of the knives and slowed them down to the point where they hit Bloody Mary and bounced right off—like throwing paper clips at an armored suit. Bloody Mary shot the knives out of the air. Reiko fired her laser gun rapidly and got a shot into her arm. Bloody Mary removed her burned gloves, peeled away the damaged skin, and revealed a gun arm that was actually more of a cannon.

  “I’ve been preparing for this revolution my whole life,” Bloody Mary stated.

  She fired four times straight at Reiko, and the explosion was large enough to hurtle Reiko backward. She hit her head against the ground and fell unconscious.

  Bloody Mary walked over to Bishop and put a sword to his neck, which caused his flesh to burn. It was electrically charged to give it a heat pulse and make it easier to cut metal. She kicked his knee, forcing him to the ground. Bishop’s remaining hand was in his pocket, finger on the trigger to activate the bomb.

  “Before you kill me,” he said, “tell me what your real name is.”

  “Real name?”

  “You weren’t born as Bloody Mary,” Bishop stated, refusing to let the sword at his neck get to his nerves. “And the records say you’ve been doing this for over forty years. I want to know the name of the person who’s killing me.”

  “There have been many Bloody Marys in our history. The Bloody Mary that saved you in Texarkana is different from the multiple Bloody Marys that assassinated the Nazis in the past. Anytime one was killed in action, another took her place.”

  “What about you?”

  She removed her mask.

  Bishop could not believe the face underneath. But deep down, it all made sense.

  “Akiko-san? W-what’s going on?”

  “I didn’t want to kill you for your father’s sake,” she said. “But you’re leaving me little choice.”

  “Can you tell me why you’re doing all of this?” he asked, though the dots were connecting. A Tokko agent like his boss knew the real politics of the empire, not the fake propaganda that was perpetuated as truth. She could effectively use psychological warfare against the masses in ways most others couldn’t and move furtively to gather her forces without triggering Tokko alerts. His finger was still ready to activate the bomb.

  Akiko looked at Bishop. “I tried for years and toiled from my position to help bring change to the Empire,” she replied. “But it was impossible with all the establishment figures wanting to maintain the status quo and their own power. You saw what happened to your father. I saw so many of my fellow agents arrested, or executed, simply because they stood up for what was right. The only way to bring about real change was with a revolution that would permanently wipe away the old in a baptism of violence.”

  From above, a tiltrotor aircraft landed at the helipad.

  “I can’t deny what you’re saying,” Bishop said. “But why kill so many civilians?”

  “Your niece is safe, correct?”

  “Yes. And I’m genuinely grateful to you. But many other people lost their family members, and I want to know why.”

  “Do you remember your first kill?” Akiko asked instead of answering his question.

  “You already asked me that.”

  “I mean the real first. Mine was a young woman who believed she was fighting for the good of the Empire until she was ordered to attack a camp in the Quiet Border suspected of harboring Nazis. There were no Nazis there. Just refugees. But her officers lied to her, so she killed eight of them. In the morning, she found out that the people she’d killed weren’t Nazis at all. She learned she hadn’t been a warrior for a just cause, but a murderer, fighting for stupid old men high up in their castles who just wanted power for themselves. She vowed to kill them no matter what the cost. But she had to kill herself first. The person Bloody Mary was born as died long ago at my hands. She no longer has an identity. I throttled it out of her with my bare hands.”

  Bishop, who had lost a lot of blood from his arm, felt dizzy and blinked several times, fighting against unconsciousness and the idea of a young Akiko killing her old self. Pain hit him, but fatigue was trying to dispel the suffering. He removed his finger from the portical, and even if it was stupid, he accepted his fate. “I’m ready,” he told her.

  She raised her sword and was going to slice down. But instead of bringing it down, she sheathed her sword. “This is the third time I’ve spared you.”

  “Why?”

  “Your family has lost too much. Go to your niece, Bishop Wakana. Leave the revolution to me.”

  Akiko put her helmet back on, walked toward the aircraft, and got on board.

  Bishop crawled to Reiko, checked that she was okay. She opened her eyes and asked, “Bloody Mary?”

  Bishop pointed at Bloody Mary climbing aboard the aircraft.

  “I can get the Kamakiri, use the magnet gun, and—”

  “Hold her in place while I run aboard and set off the Ulfhednar,” Bishop concluded for her.

  “I was more thinking we could shoot her from the ground.”

  “I had the chance to kill her,” Bishop told Reiko.

  “Why didn’t you?” Reiko asked. But un
like a few days ago, her question wasn’t from animosity or befuddlement.

  “Because I finally found out Bloody Mary’s real name.”

  The aircraft took off, taking Bloody Mary away. Bishop’s world turned black.

  II.

  He woke to the sound of soft breathing and pressure on his stomach. He was in a hospital bed. His niece, Lena, was sleeping on the chair, her arm and head using his belly as a pillow. There was violin music playing from the hospital lobby. He checked his right arm. Something was attached to his shoulder, but it wasn’t his natural arm. He tried to move it. His augmented piece rotated up.

  Lena got up, saw he was awake, and hugged him. He pushed a strand of hair hanging loose on her forehead out of the way. “You’re finally awake!” she yelled.

  Behind her, Reiko was on a chair. “You’re lucky to be alive,” she said.

  “How am I alive?” Bishop asked.

  “Because I drove you to Mitsuyasu Sakai Hospital and destroyed a lot of property on the way. Got you here just before you would have died from all the blood you lost.”

  Bishop smiled gratefully. “I guess I owe you one.”

  “You guess?”

  “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

  “I expect a lot of unique sushi rolls,” Reiko replied.

  “Definitely. What—what about the Ulfhednar?”

  “Your friend Yasu helped the doctors remove it.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Five days.”

  “Five days?” Bishop asked, surprised. “What have I missed?”

  “Too much for me to tell you all right now,” she replied.

  “Can you sum it up for me?”

  “We’re under siege from all corners. Bloody Mary has declared the USJ dead.”

  “What happened to Bloody Mary?” Bishop asked.

  “She’s gone missing since that day,” Reiko replied.

  Bishop wondered if he’d ever see Akiko-san again.

  “And the Empire?” he asked, but coughed from the strain.

  “There’s a lot to cover,” Reiko said. “But they’re sending attack mechas our way.”

  “How can I help?” Bishop asked.