“I am Wound. What is Darkstream?”
“They’re the ones responsible for all your hardship. I’m a lieutenant in Red Company—we’re the good guys. Let me ask you a question. How is it you’re able to talk to us right now?”
Wound regarded the man Saul carefully. “It is not I who speaks. It is the suit that I wear. Whoever designed it included the capacity to translate speech from my language to yours. Which I take to mean the designers wished for you and I to converse.”
“That thing looks something like the Gatherers and the Amblers. Strange, that they’d leave these machines lying around that end up helping both our species. How did you end up on this planet, anyway, Quatro? I’ve been hearing word that your species is on Alex, as well.”
Wound tilted his head. “Alex?”
That brought a nod from Saul. “It’s just what we call the other planet in this system that humanity has business on.”
A thrill of excitement ran through Wound’s body. “Other Quatro survive in the system? Have they been cast as low as my drift, with all their tools stripped away from them?”
“Well, I don’t know what you consider tools, but one of the images I saw showed one of your kind wearing an advanced-looking pressure suit that had two honking big energy weapons attached to it. Back to my question, though, Wound. How’d you end up here?”
“We fled. Back in the Quatro Home System, all are expected to carry out the will of the Assembly of Elders. The Assembly provides all Quatro with the necessities of life, ensuring that all have proper food, shelter, comfort-enabling technologies, as well as machines that safeguard our health. In return, the Assembly expects its beneficiaries to behave exactly as the Assembly wants. The drift that fled to this system, to which I belong—we did not agree that we should be ruled by the dictates of the Assembly just because they provided the basics of life. We viewed those basics as our natural due, and we think that in a just society, the only expected recompense would be to contribute our views toward the governing of that society, while retaining a vast measure of freedom.”
As Wound spoke, Saul had nodded along. “It sounds like you Quatro have reasons a lot like ours for coming to this system. It’s strange we don’t get along better. Hell, from the sounds of it, we should. Why don’t we start today? You obviously came to us for a reason. What are you here to propose?”
“The humans have seven more suits just like the one I’m wearing. I do not believe they built them. They had no reason to. I believe they found them, and I believe the discovery has worried them greatly. With the suits in our possession, our chances of defeating this Darkstream will be multiplied by orders of magnitude.”
“And you want us to help you secure the suits,” Saul said, pointing all five fingers of his left hand at Wound. “Am I right in thinking that?”
“Yes.”
“What’s in it for us?”
“Once we kill the murderers of Darkstream, you may have the suits they wield.”
Saul was nodding again. “Boy, do I love the sound of that.”
Something whispered to Wound from within the suit, then, and he snapped his head sideways, which made some of the mercenaries jump.
That was the loudest one yet.
But he still hadn’t been able to make out the words.
Chapter 21
Infiltration
Lisa paused before crossing the corridor, inching her assault rifle around the corner and sticking her head out momentarily to check for enemies.
Clear.
She dashed on, alert for the sound of gunfire, ready to execute a tactical roll at a moment’s notice if the need for evasive maneuvers arose.
“Seaman Apprentice Miller, what’s your status?” she asked over the squad-wide channel.
“Some Daybreak goons have us pinned down in one of their laboratories, but they seem hesitant to cause too much damage to it. We’re using that to our advantage.”
“Good work,” Lisa said, just as she heard something skittering across the floor of the facility. Looking down, she saw it was a flashbang.
Kicking it away as fast as she could, she leapt toward a nearby hatch, with the intention of opening it and seeking cover there. But when she slapped the control panel, it refused to open.
The flashbang went off, but Lisa had closed her eyes, mitigating the effects somewhat, though it did cause her ears to ring shrilly.
She dove again, just as a burst of rifle fire scored the closed hatch. Rolling onto her back, Lisa spotted her adversary and leveled her SL-17 at her. She fired.
The white-haired woman also jumped out of the way in time, taking refuge behind the corner Lisa had just turned. It seemed Tessa Notaras was just as fast as the stories about her claimed, it seemed. She was arguably Quentin Cooper’s best operative, and she was known for her ruthlessness.
Regaining her feet as quietly as she could, Lisa crept down the corridor toward Tessa’s cover, doing everything she could to make no sound. She doubted her adversary would expect the move, and when she popped out to fire again, Lisa hoped to take her unawares.
But instead of Tessa’s face or torso, a grenade came around the corner. Lisa turned to flee, but it was too late. The grenade exploded directly underneath her, blowing her apart.
The simulation deposited her back into the high-lucidity lobby, where most of the participants were already waiting, including Andy.
“Things didn’t go so well in the labs?” Lisa asked.
“Nah,” Andy said, shaking his head. “I guess they cared less about the equipment than I thought. Looks like Daybreak wins this one, judging by who’s here already.” Phineas Gage, Bob O’Toole, and several others from the team tasked with infiltrating the Daybreak hillside facility were also in the lobby, meaning they’d died in the sim. “What got you?” Andy asked.
“Tessa. It was close, though. Sort of.”
This was the umpteenth time Lisa had gotten her militia to run this scenario, and she would likely get them to do it umpteen times more. For one thing, it helped them to better grasp the principles of a good defense, when they were on the side of the Daybreak defenders. For another, it gave them practice performing a strike with the aim of disabling a facility, which was exactly what Lisa planned to do to Daybreak in real life, after successfully defending Habitat 2 from them.
As an added bonus, the exercise would hopefully get them inside the heads of Daybreak’s operatives a little more.
The objective of the scenario was for the invaders to reach the facility’s life support system and blow it up. That had happened in roughly three-fifths of the simulations, which Lisa viewed as a promising sign. That said, there was a very strong correlation between the winning team and whatever side Tessa Notaras happened to be on.
Soon, the simulation ended, with Daybreak having successfully defended their illegal settlement. Now, everyone waited in the high-lucidity lobby while Lisa set up the next scenario.
“We’re running the same one again,” Lisa said. “This time, we’re switching sides.”
Without any more warning than that, she loaded them all into the simulation again.
Lisa’s team fared a little better in this one, despite Tessa still being on the opposing side. The older woman had been teaching Lisa about commanding a unit—tactics, formations, prioritizing objectives, and so on. Unfortunately, that made it fairly easy for Tessa to recognize whatever approach her pupil was trying.
Even so, Lisa felt proud when they succeeded in holding out against Tessa’s onslaught for the longest period yet. Tessa herself even went down, to a lucky shot from Andy. But in the end, the opposing team pressed on toward the life support infrastructure, and victory.
Lisa managed to survive for the entire simulation, this time, which she decided to view as a minor victory, as well.
In the seconds before the simulation ended, it always gave her a few moments of increased lucidity, during which she became aware again that she was not in fact a member of Daybreak trying to
protect their secret facility.
This time, during those brief moments before getting sent back to the lobby, she strolled around a bit, wondering how accurately their implants had depicted the hillside facility. They knew it existed, based on the intel she’d extracted from Leonardo Fiore, but they knew nothing about its layout.
A figure appeared at the end of the corridor she walked along. Lisa didn’t recognize him as a member of her militia, and his behavior wasn’t typical of the simulation’s AI.
When he saw her, he turned to run.
Lisa brought her assault rifle up, spraying the corridor with bullets in a line, meaning to cut across the man’s legs. She was trying to disable him, so she could catch up and identify him before the simulation ended.
But then it did end, and she was back in the lobby with the others. The man she’d seen was not among them.
“You look spooked, Lisa,” Andy said. “Did you see something?”
“I saw someone who shouldn’t be there.”
“Who?”
“Not sure. I’m guessing it was either a Darkstream employee or a Daybreak operative…unless it was someone else altogether. Either way, none of those options seem great.”
Chapter 22
Imminent Danger
Jake and Ash walked the perimeter of the camp, outside of their mechs, assault rifles held at the ready, pistols in holsters, and a healthy helping of grenades distributed among their persons. Plus, a couple of combat knives each.
They were trying to follow Roach’s command to spend as much time as possible out of their mechs—during the night watches, in the evenings before sleep, and in the mornings before they started out for the day.
“Still can’t believe the chief put you in charge and not me,” Ash said, her short, light-blond hair waving as she walked. “I’m clearly smarter and more resourceful than you.”
Jake laughed. “I’m not about to disagree with that, Steam. But the smartest people don’t always make the best leaders. I think Chief Roach recognizes that.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Of course they make the best leaders. They’re smart.”
“I don’t mean your ability to lead is less because you’re smarter. You’d probably make a better leader than me, in a lot of ways. But that doesn’t mean much if your subordinates won’t follow orders as readily as they follow mine.”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“Because I’m dumber than you. And people trust dumb people way more than they trust smart ones.”
Ash paused, seeming to contemplate the idea. “You know, that does ring kind of true.”
They walked on. Somewhere on the other side of the camp, Beth and Richaud would be doing the same thing. The night remained quiet, just as every night had since the attack when the Quatro had liberated one of the quads. Oneiri Team took turns with the Force Multipliers and the soldiers from the Plenitos garrison in patrolling the camp at night, though Oneiri took a disproportionate number of shifts.
Jake had requested that, to build time outside the mechs into their journey. For their part, the soldiers from the other divisions didn’t seem to have much problem with taking fewer watches.
No one’s about to turn down extra sleep.
“Do you think the chief will make it back?” Ash said as they rounded one of the armored personnel carriers.
“Well, he’s made it through a lot.”
“He has, but I’m worried about his mental state, lately.”
“You too, eh?”
“We all are,” Ash said.
“Really? I was making a point not to bring it up to the team. I didn’t want to bring morale down any lower than it is.”
“Well, we’re not stupid. Anyone can see Chief Roach is falling apart. Part of me wants to say you should have tried to prevent him from chasing the quad. But I doubt I would’ve had the guts to do anything different, in your position.”
Jake decided to change the subject. “Have you heard from your mother, lately?”
Ash nodded. “Yeah. She’s settling into Valhalla.”
“Wow. Valhalla, eh?”
“Yep. My father left a fair number of credits behind when he died, and she’s too scared to stay on Eresos, considering the Quatro managed to get inside Plenitos and the same thing nearly happened to Ingress.”
“I can hardly blame her. I’d get out of here in her position, too, if I had the credits. Or if I didn’t have access to a giant robot to protect me.”
A chuckle from Ash. “How about you? Have you been getting any messages from your family?”
“Yeah,” Jake said with a long sigh. “I have. Sue Anne took a turn for the worse, last week. The doctors aren’t giving her very much longer.”
“Oh, wow. I’m so sorry to hear that, Jake.”
“Thanks. It’s weird, you know. Sue Anne’s been such a large part of my life, for so many years, and yet I barely feel like I know her. I mean, sure, we lived together for the first five years of her life, but then she got sick, and soon after that me and dad started up the comet development business to try to raise enough money for her treatment.” Jake shook his head. “Sue Anne’s why I’m on Oneiri Team at all. I mean, yes, it’s my dream, but thinking of how much the pay would do for her got me through training, and it keeps me acting like an okay soldier and not questioning orders too much. It gives me my drive in battle. If she goes…”
“You’re going to be okay, Jake. No matter what happens, you’re going to be okay. You have us. You have your team. And we have you. We need you, as a matter of fact.”
“Thanks, Ash.”
Beth’s voice came over the team-wide channel. “Clutch. Steam. We have something over here.”
“What is it?” Jake said.
“Richaud thinks he just saw a man running through the trees. Looks like he might have been spying on the camp. You think it was someone from Red Company?”
“Possibly.” At least it wasn’t a Quatro. Red Company, they could deal with fairly easily, or so Jake figured. He pondered whether he should wake the rest of Oneiri Team and order them into their mechs, until they were certain no danger was imminent. “If you see anything else, anything at all that seems out of place or unusual, let me know straight away.”
“Will do.”
“Jake!”
He turned, and immediately, he saw what had put so much fear into Ash’s voice.
It was the stolen quad, barreling toward them at full gallop.
Chapter 23
Back in Business
Both Jake and Ash turned as one, barreling back through the camp. As they did, Force Multiplier and Plenitos soldiers closed around them, doing whatever they could to try to slow the charging quad.
And just as fast as they lined up to oppose it, they died.
Ash reached her mech first, and Jake saw her pop a sedative into her mouth before slapping the machine’s calf and climbing up the ramp that lowered.
He breathed a sigh of relief that she’d made it to safety. But he didn’t dare stop to celebrate.
Instead, he asked everything of his body that it had to give as he strove toward his own mech, which was several meters away.
Fumbling with the belt pouch that held his fast-acting sedatives, he finally got one out and into his mouth. Rounding his MIMAS’ leg, Jake slammed his palm into the biometric sensor on the back of it. The ramp lowered promptly, and he clambered inside his mech, already beginning to feel better—safer.
He started to slip into lucid, but before the ramp had time to close, the quad crashed into the front of the MIMAS, knocking it backward so that it slammed against the ground.
Jake was half-asleep, his body partially drooping out of his mech. With a great effort, he pulled himself back into the cockpit, grunting, pain making his body spasm.
At last, he managed it, and the back of the MIMAS sealed up.
Back in business, he thought from within lucid, ignoring the med-alerts telling him he’d pulled at least two muscles
while straining against gravity.
Turning on the spot, he scanned his surroundings for the quad, but it had moved on to another foe—or, more accurately, foes. The thing rampaged through the camp, cutting through the ranks of humans like a scythe through wheat.
Jake would have pursued, but he had his own foes to deal with. The camp wasn’t just under attack by the quad—there were also Quatro all around them, fighting to access the personnel carriers, and humans as well.
Red Company. That seemed certain, now.
Jake fired up his flamethrowers, using the streams of flame to sweep several targets at once.
A Red Company fighter ran toward him, grenades clutched in both hands, and Jake simply raised his foot, stomping the human so that he slammed backward onto the hard ground.
Stepping forward, Jake’s left foot found the man’s head, causing it to pop like an overripe melon. He didn’t even turn when the twin explosions ripped through the night.
Stowing the flamethrowers for now, he forewent his rotary autocannons as well, wary of hitting friendlies with their powerful yet somewhat less controlled spray of armor-piercing rounds.
Instead, he detached the heavy machine gun from his back and chose his targets carefully.
A Quatro went down to a prolonged burst. Then he lined up the machine gun with a row of three humans, who were creeping toward a personnel carrier, clearly trying to be stealthy. Jake put bullets in their backs, and they all went down, never to rise again.
When he realized that everyone surrounding him were enemies, he switched to his autocannons after all, mowing down as many foes as he could.
It wasn’t enough. The combined numbers of Quatro and Red Company were overwhelming the remnants of the Force Multipliers, and the Plenitos garrison soldiers weren’t used to this sort of pitched combat.
Backed up by the evident power of the quad, the enemy seemed unstoppable. The Darkstream battalion was crumpling, and not even the combined might of Oneiri Team could stop it.
Mech Wars: The Complete Series Page 29
