Well, someday calamity really will come. Then I’ll get my money’s worth, damn it. And you lot will be sorry.
He fumbled his keycard out of his pocket, hands trembling slightly—as they always did, ever since the accident with the farm robot a half-dozen years ago—and he made his way around the side of the house to caress the scanner with the card.
It didn’t open. Grumbling, he cursed under his breath about what a cheap product it was as he wiped it off on his shirt and tried again.
This time, it worked, the tiny hatch sliding open and a cheery voice greeting him with a “Hello, Billy,” its voice sounding a little tinny by now, after such repeated use.
“Hello yourself,” Billy said as he lowered himself carefully down the ladder and closed the hatch behind him.
Ah, yes. Security. Solitude. He put on a cup of joe and booted up the vid stream from the street in front of his house.
Quiet, so far. Probably nothing again. It was always nothing. Sometimes, he cursed himself for buying this fool shelter from Darkstream. He never would have admitted that to anyone, but down here in its confines, he did permit himself such thoughts.
Here came Sable Hawthorne, hobbling down the dusty lane, beating at patches of grass with her cane.
Tens of thousands of credits gone, all for the privilege of watching crusty old Sable Hawthorne hobble down the road at two inches an hour.
Billy knew the Amblers malfunctioned sometimes, deviating from their preprogrammed routes, but none had ever come rampaging through here, of course. No, that would have justified Billy’s purchase. Can’t have that.
He sighed, long and ragged, the kind of exhalation that he’d never permit himself around the other inhabitants of River Rock. He settled into the shelter’s single seat with the fresh coffee.
At least I have this, he thought, raising the mug to his lips.
Without warning, a great metal monstrosity came out of nowhere, knocking Sable Hawthorne clean off the screen.
Billy leapt to his feet, coffee spilling all over him, and he danced around the shelter, shouting and waving his arms. “Ah! Ah! Ah!”
At last, he regained the presence of mind to strip off his shirt, though he expected he hadn’t succeeded in sparing himself a bad burn. It had already begun to sting across his stomach and chest.
He returned his attention to the screen, and he grasped the joystick that manipulated the camera affixed to the roof of his house, jerking it to the left. His smarting gut hung out over his belt, and as the camera slowly shifted, he patted the forming welt gingerly.
There. There she was. Sable lay on the ground, her cane nowhere in sight, her face a ruined, bloody mess.
Billy’s eyes went so wide they ached. “Oh my God,” he muttered, his voice getting real high-pitched on the last word.
Somehow, he felt none of the satisfaction he’d always expected to feel in the event of a calamitous event striking River Rock. Not only that, he experienced a sharp pang of guilt over all the nasty things he’d thought about Sable Hawthorne over the years.
Poor old woman. She’s dead.
He took hold of the joystick once again, directing the camera toward the village green. “Come on,” he muttered as the view shifted at a glacial pace. “Come on…”
There.
“Wow,” he whispered.
There the monster was that had taken down Sable, shooting great blasts of energy all over the place, at every building in sight. All around it were armed men and women, gunning down the residents of River Rock like they were cutting the grass, and to top it all off, a troop of six Quatro were rampaging around town, too.
This wasn’t just calamity. This was the apocalypse, as far as Billy was concerned. And even if he made it through—even if his shelter really could withstand those balls of energy, which obliterated entire walls and set structures instantly ablaze—Billy realized he wouldn’t have a soul left to talk to. He’d never much been interested in chitchat, before, but the realization that he might lose the opportunity altogether made him feel sad.
Another metal monstrosity strode onto the village green, then, appearing around a building that the first monster had turned into an inferno. This one had two legs, instead of the four that the first one had.
I doubt that makes a difference. They look mighty similar. Now they’ll just do twice the damage.
It was that thinking that made him so surprised when the second monster squared off with the first, and they seemed to size each other up for a moment before running at one another at top speed.
The new mech brought both its hands together, and they melded together to form a giant drill-shape. It rammed that straight into the four-legged monster’s chest, sending it crashing backward into one of the buildings it had already set alight.
That done, the new monster turned on the armed humans, making short work of them in a fireworks display of explosive rounds and energy blasts.
The ranks of humans ravaged in a matter of seconds, the newcomer turned on the Quatro, blasting one of them to pieces before turning twin cannons on another.
Then, the four-legged metal monster recovered, bounding right out of its fiery handiwork to charge at the two-legged monster once more.
But the two-legged one was having none of it. Its right arm seemed to gather together into an over-sized fist, the mass of its bicep and forearm transitioning right to the front of its arm. Then it socked the four-legged machine right in the kisser, pow, and the thing went flying again.
It had had enough, this time. The thing bellowed, scampering out of town, and the Quatro left alive by the two-legged monster followed, along with three of the human attackers who could still run, though the victorious mech picked those three off before they left the green.
Billy turned to run through his shelter, key open the hatch, and dash through the village, toward the site of the battle.
“Hey, thanks!” he bawled, but by then the two-legged monster was just a speck on the horizon, running like lightning in the direction of Ingress.
Chapter 38
Slave State
Every building in Habitat 2 was outfitted with a temporary airlock that extended from the entrance to form an enclosure just inside. When Lisa reached the Dusty Bucket, Phineas Gage opened the regular door for her to reveal the baggy, plastic compartment that would prevent all of the oxygen from rushing out into the streets, which were quickly emptying of air, thanks to the giant hole blown in the side of the habitat by Daybreak.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Phineas Gage asked her as she emerged from the plastic cocoon.
“Very funny.” The others had dragged a bunch of tables together to form a long shape that roughly resembled a rectangle. It was odd, seeing Phineas on this side of the bar, especially wearing a pressure suit indoors, as they all were, though no one had their helmets on. Quickly surveying those gathered, Lisa said, “looks like everyone’s here?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Bob O’Toole said, hiccuping.
Lisa glanced sharply at Phineas. “You didn’t let him get into the booze, did you?”
“He certainly didn’t,” O’Toole said, actually sounding affronted. “That was an innocent hiccup.”
“That would be a first.” Gunfire sounded outside, fairly close by, but it didn’t sound like enough. She would have expected a battle for the control of an entire habitat to be a little livelier than this. Turning to Andy, Lisa said, “Have you been able to access the security feeds?”
Andy shook his head. “Looks like they have the clearance required jacked up too high. They let you keep your M-level clearance, right?”
“They did.” Darkstream certainly hadn’t rewarded her for retaking Habitat 2 from Daybreak, but it would’ve been pretty lousy for them to downgrade her security clearance for her efforts. “I’ll access the feeds and patch it through to your implants and v-lenses so we can all see what’s going on out there.”
Lisa did as she said she would, and what they ended up witnessi
ng struck her as pretty sad.
Outside, in the streets of Habitat 2, the pressure suit-clad Darkstream soldiers appeared to be engaging their ‘enemy’ halfheartedly, firing spastically at the Daybreak fighters that poured into the city. The Darkstream soldiers weren’t shy about falling back, retreating at the slightest opposition, ceding ground willingly.
Maybe all of the Darkstream combat operatives are in on Laudano’s plan. Either that, or Laudano had explicitly told them that their own lives were far more important than preserving those of Habitat 2’s residents, and that they should give up on everything except the perfect engagement.
“This is nothing but a performance for our benefit,” Tessa said. “To buy time.”
“Time for what?” Phineas Gage said.
“Time for smoothly transitioning control of Habitat 2 to Quentin Cooper. Time to reestablish their slave state with as little fuss as possible.”
“No way,” Phineas said. “I’m a free man. I can come and go as I please from my own bar.”
“If that’s the case,” Tessa said, “why don’t you go inside the temporary airlock, seal it up behind you, and try opening that outer door? If I’m right, Darkstream will have put the entire city on emergency lockdown by now, preventing anyone from leaving their homes to interfere with their plan.”
Phineas met her gaze for a long moment, and then, grim-faced, he donned his pressure suit’s helmet and headed for the airlock.
He sealed it behind him, and evacuated the oxygen from it before trying the door.
“You’re right,” he said over their militia-wide channel. “It’s locked.”
Tessa’s gaze now rested on Lisa’s face, and Lisa knew the meaning of it. This was confirmation of everything the older woman had always said about Darkstream. Their final betrayal was happening before their eyes, and all the citizen militia could do was hope that their preparations would be enough.
Chapter 39
Play with Explosives
Phineas Gage slowly unzipped the temporary airlock and stepped out, looking downtrodden. His eyes found Lisa’s.
“Could you…could you try using your clearance to open the door?”
Lisa nodded, donning her helmet. They traded places, with Lisa inside the temporary airlock, zipping it up and waiting for the oxygen to get pumped back into the Dusty Bucket.
Lisa thought she knew why Phineas was having trouble accepting that he’d lost control over the door to his own establishment. It didn’t just mean losing the illusion of control—it also meant that he likely wouldn’t be able to go on doing business. Not in Habitat 2, anyway.
It meant that Darkstream, the company everyone depended on for pretty much everything, wasn’t trustworthy. Even though the militia had been preparing for exactly this situation, it was still difficult to accept. Lisa was certainly still having trouble accepting it. She felt like everything she’d come to count on and cherish had fallen apart.
When she tried opening the door of the Dusty Bucket, it wouldn’t, and she received an alert on her HUD that said: “ACCESSING THAT COMMAND REQUIRES A U-LEVEL CLEARANCE OR HIGHER.” Commander Laudano was almost certainly the only person in all of Habitat 2 with clearance that high.
So Tessa was definitely right. Time to accept it—truly accept it. Darkstream was helping Daybreak to set up the slave colony they’d failed to maintain before.
Unzipping the temporary airlock, Lisa rejoined the others inside.
“How will Darkstream try to spin this, to the rest of the system?” she asked Tessa.
The older woman’s lips formed a thin line. “My guess? They’ll leave Habitat 2 altogether, and put it out that they were ‘defeated’ by Daybreak. The inhabitants will have their system net access cut again, anyway, so no one will be able to contradict their narrative.”
Lisa carefully lowered herself into a seat once again, staring at the bar’s floor, which, true to its namesake, was in need of sweeping. “I still can’t understand how they’re able to justify this.”
“It’s not about justifying it,” Tessa said. “It’s inevitable. Darkstream is by far the most powerful entity in the Steele System, so it’s inevitable that they would continue to expand, and that, increasingly, they would have to do awful things to achieve that continued expansion.”
“But why do they need to keep expanding? Why can’t they just be happy with the money they’re making?”
Tessa adjusted her white hair so that it hung forward over her left shoulder. “Growth and expansion is the whole reason corporations exist. Back in the Milky Way, when we were still subject to laws, being a corporation meant being legally obligated to place short-term shareholder profit growth above every other concern. And even though Darkstream is no longer legally obligated to try to continually increase profits, they aren’t built to do anything else, either. It’s in their DNA to subordinate everything to growth. And one of the best and quickest way to grow is to steal from another group of people. That’s what’s happening here on Alex. Habitat 2 is just a test case. The other habitats will be next.”
Every word Tessa spoke made Lisa angrier, and at last, she’d heard enough. “Well, that’s why we have a contingency plan,” she said, harsher than she’d meant to. “Vickers, set the charge.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Rodney Vickers said.
He’s finally getting his chance to play with explosives. “Andy, contact Rug to make sure she and the other Quatro are in position.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Once the charge was set, Lisa ordered everyone in her militia into the basement of the Dusty Bucket.
Other than the fact that it was owned by Phineas, the Bucket’s basement was one of the main reasons they’d chosen this place as a launching pad to effect their plan. That, and its relative proximity to two different beetle bays—they hadn’t been sure which they would need to access when the time came, as it depended on Daybreak’s angle of attack.
Soon, everyone was crowded in the basement, wearing their full pressure suits.
“Blow it, O’Toole,” Lisa said.
The roar of an explosion sounded above them, causing the whole structure to shake.
Chapter 40
More Hectic than Expected
Jake paced the Javelin’s shuttle bay in his MIMAS, metal feet clanking across the deck. He’d requested that Bronson patch the visual sensor feed through to his HUD for him to access at will, and now he monitored a zoomed-in view of the comet as they approached.
The alien mech had already freed itself from the ice, and now it strode back and forth across the surface, as though waiting for Jake’s arrival.
He knew his father’s ship was still in the neighborhood, and he worried about whether the alien mech had the means to leave the comet, if it wanted to. Probably, it did. On the way here, Bronson had briefed him on the smaller robot his father had uncovered, which had launched itself deeper into the Belt under its own power, before Peter Price could do anything to stop it. The Whale’s sensors had captured the thing’s likeness—its thin, diminutive frame and its dark gray, shield-like limbs.
The mech he was about to fight could likely do the same thing, if it wished. Either way, it remained on the ice, for now.
You know I’m coming for you, don’t you?
A vid call pinged his HUD, and when he saw the name, Jake’s breath caught in his throat, which he wouldn’t have expected.
Peter Price appeared before him, seeming to stand on the Javelin’s deck. “Jake,” he said.
“Dad,” Jake said, looking down at him, fighting to keep his voice level. His HUD told him his father’s comet hopper was at least keeping its distance from the comet, in case the alien mech decided to attack.
“You’ve grown, son. I can see it in your eyes, and I can hear it in your voice.”
“Thank you,” Jake said, pausing, suddenly unsure what to say to his father. So much had happened since they’d last spoken, and Peter was right—he had changed. “Have you heard from mom?” he said
at last. “I haven’t gotten any updates from Hub in a while.”
“Sue Anne is stable…for now,” Peter said, his voice trailing off on the last words.
Jake nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
Peter sighed. “What has Darkstream had you do for them, Jake? How many have they had you kill?”
The question caught Jake off guard, and he shook his head slowly. “I’ve been fighting the Quatro, Dad. Protecting the people of Eresos.”
“We never should have had to fight the Quatro. Things might have been different. We might have had peace.”
“How?”
Peter hesitated. “Never mind. You don’t need to hear this, right now. You’re about to go up against that…thing. It’s just that I feel badly about ever agreeing to let Bronson talk to you, after we found the first mech.”
“It was my choice to accept his offer, Dad. You couldn’t keep it from me forever.”
“I know. I just felt like I was…” Peter shook his head. “Never mind. Fight well, son. And come back in one piece.”
“I will. I promise. Bye, Dad.” Jake willed the conversation away, and his father vanished from the destroyer. Jake was glad for it to be over. It was good to speak with his father again, but he hadn’t expected it to be so intense, and he needed to prepare mentally for the coming fight.
Bronson contacted him next, looking surprisingly calm. I guess he’s been in plenty of battles. Plus, he wasn’t the one who had to leave the destroyer to go face that thing.
“This should be fairly straightforward,” Bronson said.
Easy for you to say. But Jake didn’t comment.
“Just land and set off the EMP—don’t wait for that thing to try anything. Remember, the EMP only has one charge, so don’t screw it up. It’ll shut down your mech, too, so once you activate it, just wait for us to come get you. The EMP’s strong enough to shut down systems critical to functioning in both mechs, but not strong enough to damage every system, so both should be fairly straightforward to repair afterward, including the alien mech, if we want to repair that. We’ve already tested this on the mech Gabe made off with, so we know it works. Once you execute, we’ll take both mechs aboard and call it a day.”
Mech Wars: The Complete Series Page 34
