“If you run out of cells, then you run out of cells. Go outside and use your splinter cannons and bots. There’s still plenty you can do to help the rest down here! Don’t save your cells, this is more important than anything you’ll contribute to the battle!”
The words may have seemed harsh, especially for those self-important Technomancer ears, but they needed to be said. I put my mind back to work, and for a couple of minutes, I actually managed to shut out everything around me, and so did the others apparently because the numbers came pouring in.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 31%
I looked at the clock. We did 31% in fifteen minutes, we still had to do 69% in the next fifteen. I went into a sequence of code deleting procedures and opened a couple of seconds of my free time to call Layla.
“Layla, status report.”
“Boss, I just dinged twenty-one!”
“Well, that’s great, but how’s the battle going?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m with Ginsk and the other Warwalkers and Brawlers. We’re down here at the entrance fighting this huge spider-like thing. It looks like a Ravager but building-sized. He keeps sending in Zealot swarms at us and we already lost several people to them.”
“Be careful, Layla. You shouldn’t engage Zealots in melee.”
“Yeh, well, there’s no other way right now. The Tetrarch has so much long-range support that our Commandos are getting plastered. They can’t do shit to support us! And this sound that the Tetrarch makes, it’s worse than anything I ever heard. Sir, are you done soon?”
“You need to hold out for fifteen more minutes, all right? Keep it up and keep yourself alive, you hear me?”
“Oh, you know me, Boss. I can handle myself.”
I finished the conversation just as another blast struck our building. Sand, dust, and chips of paint fell from the ceiling. The Technomancers looked up with unease and then buried their heads in the code again.
HACKING ATTEMPT 1: 42%
I felt a tear forming at the corner of my eye. What was that? Was I so afraid my plan would go wrong that I had started to cry? No, I knew those feelings were within me, but I highly doubted they would reach the surface, especially at a time like this. Then I realized that the tear wasn’t for me, it was meant for Layla. I was afraid for Layla—and even that asshat Leo.
This was the first time when I knew they had to fight against a terrifying enemy, and I wasn’t there to help. Even worse, I was there but I couldn’t help. Damn it! I had to know what was going on outside. I left Beast with Leo to help him and Bucky with Layla, both the bots were on autopilot, so their use was severely limited. I left Buzzard on the roof just in case, but I didn’t think I’d use him.
I sped ahead of the other techies and created several precious seconds where I used Buzzard. The connection came alive and the first thing that happened was that Buzzard activated his scanners, then sent the results to my INAS.
First, I saw the roof. Four Farseers looked out into the distance as they controlled their swarms of drones. There were six Gearlords, two of them were just firing their consequencer cannons. A ball of nanites erupted from the cannon on their back and catapulted itself off the roof and into whatever was unlucky enough to eat it. One of the Gearlords noticed Buzzard rising into the air and waved before returning to bombard the Aloi.
When I got to the right altitude, I finally had a picture of what was going on. There was a horde of Aloi in front of the building. Several hundred Raintroopers and dozens of Ravagers milled around, trying to get to my people. Five Templars stood in the center of large Zealot formations—no, they were swarms.
Among the masses, one particular fellow stood out. The Tetrarch eclipsed even the Templars in size and power. A continuous flow of Zealots streamed from the Tetrarch’s bio-globes. The eight-legged super-heavy assault unit wasn’t just a carrier for Zealots; it was literally birthing the tiny suicide bombers and instantly sending them into battle. Those weren’t some mindless beasts, those very conscious beings, our scientists said. The Tetrarch is not much smarter than the Zealot, only older and more experienced. This was infanticide at its worst, or maybe even best, depending on how you looked at it.
Next, I noticed a defensive line established by Warwalkers, Brawlers, and Medics who tried to keep the Aloi away from the building, but it didn’t look like it would hold for too long. Didn’t matter, I didn’t need too long, I just needed fifteen minutes.
“Stavos! For fuck’s sake!” Birch screamed into my ear and immediately made me snap out of the battle. “We need you to move the code forward as the firewalls are already down! What the hell are you doing? Are you controlling your bots?”
“No, I was… forget it.”
I focused back on the hacking attempt and realized they’d been waiting for me. I lost several precious seconds only to indulge my curiosity. Only showed how little trust I had in my people.
I rushed into moving through the pathways the other Technomancers opened and the percentage bar took a big leap.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 66%
I looked at the clock: eight minutes remaining. We could do this in eight minutes, I was sure of it! If we pressed hard enough, we could do this. Just as I said those words, Private Ishi dropped on the floor from exhaustion.
“I’ll call the Medic. Keep working, she’ll be fine.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen a Technomancer lose their consciousness from overworking themselves in a hacking attempt. I had gone dark several times back in the day as well.
A minute later two more Technomancers dropped out. I was trying to calm everyone down, but their panic was justified. Another minute passed and we were down to eleven working Technomancers, all of us strained to our very limit.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 76%
I managed to finally breach the mainframe and established visual contact with the Pavlov Guns. We had five minutes left and only eight Technomancers with whom to finish the job. Seven soon enough because Corporal Phon puked the rest of his red out on the floor and then fell face down in it, losing consciousness.
I took another peek through the camera and I had plenty to see. I think I lost a couple of seconds just in awe of the scenery that stretched before me. I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of Aloi I could see below the guns, but our little battle around the security hub seemed like a drop in the ocean of war and blood that was going on between the Eres and the Aloi.
I stared out at the battlefield, making out the position of Qualt’s Second Army in the distance, just outside the range of the Pavlov Guns. It was a sea of gold, the Eres Army, a true light in the darkness. I could barely make out the front lines, but I was sure they consisted of Eres Ba’kri elite soldiers clad in golden power armor. The beautifully crafted Eres mech legions towered over most of the buildings in front of the Sardok Mine. Every single one of them waited for my signal, my word, and an Eres Army would go for the kill. Not even an Imminy had that kind of direct power.
“Sarge, we need you out here! We need you now!” Leo screamed into my INAS. “They’re breaking into the building!”
21
When the fighting started inside the building, I felt like I was drowning. I gave my full attention to the hacking process, trying to ignore the possibility that any second a swarm of Zealots could breach the basement and kill us all.
“Sarge, we got minutes if not seconds here. They’re flooding the hallways with Zealots and trying to blow their way through! We’re barely keeping shit together here!” Leo almost cried with a panicked voice. I turned to Birch whose forehead sported a branch-sized vein about to pop from the strain on her mind.
“Technomancers,” I said, “We need to use another round of nanites. Pour everything you have left into the attempt.”
They all agreed with a deep sigh and a worried face, knowing very well that none of us would remain standing on our feet for much longer. It wasn’t just that we’d end up defenseless with our O-Nan cell count drained, it was the fact tha
t every time you’d add more nanites to the hacking attempt you’d have to control more nanites within the security system. At this point, they were over 65% of all our cells in, and for most Technomancers at our level, that was an incredible strain on the mind. No wonder people were dropping out. To have that many nanites active and working at the same time for almost half an hour took inhuman strength.
My calculations told me we’d have enough time, but with each explosion, with each scream that resounded from inside the walls of the shaky building, my algorithms added several seconds to the process. Worst of all? There was nothing we could do against it as the myriad of simultaneous operations our nanites performed pushed us beyond our breaking points. This was all about us, about how concentrated we could be while the world around us was falling apart.
“Stavos, we can’t hold out any longer! What’s the situation? Can you help us out?” Ginsk nagged over the INAS. I had to be concise and cold despite not wanting to.
“Sergeant, defend us with everything you have. I can’t talk to you for the next few minutes. You’ll have to think of something yourself.”
I cut the transmission so I could give it one last push, but just as I turned my head, another Technomancer dropped to the floor.
“There’s only six of us, Stavos,” Birch hissed as sweat poured down her face.
“We got this, all right? Trust me, we got this!” I said, trying to sound calm, but we all knew I was far from being calm.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 85%
We had three more minutes before the damn guns should start firing. My heart raced like never before and I was completely covered in sweat despite the thermal regulators within my Fyre Armor. Then my INAS rang up and just as I was about to decline the incoming message, I realized it was General Qualt.
“Yes, General?”
“Sergeant Stavos of the human forces. My Army is in position. If we make another step forward, the Pavlov Guns will decimate us. The second Aloi army has climbed the walls and is now in attack range of our backlines. You have three minutes; will you use all three of them?”
I admired the conciseness of his words, but they still slowed me down. What did he want? A promise that I didn’t know if I could even keep? I told him what he wanted to hear so I could cut the transmission.
“General, I’ll be honest. They’ve broken into the building and will be upon me any moment now. If my people hold out for three more minutes, I’ll take control of the Pavlov Guns.”
“Sergeant Stavos of the human forces, I have trusted you with this strategy because it sounded intelligent and reasonable. Countless lives of Eres soldiers are in your hands, so know that it isn’t just you, but your whole race that will answer for each dead Eres if this fails.”
“Three minutes, General. Three minutes,” I said, swallowing a big lump that almost choked me.
“Sergeant Stavos of the human forces, very well.”
That title alone cost me ten seconds of precious time. I turned to the other six who were left, and my calculations told me we needed another four minutes and thirty seconds to break all security protocols. There was no choice.
“Take this,” I snapped and threw several spare cells I had stored inside my backpack. Everyone got five, but they didn’t look happy at all.
“What? Nobody can handle that many!” Birch protested as dust from the ceiling showered the top of her head and shoulders, and several gunshots rang out from outside the hallway.
“Another round, now! I alone am carrying enough for four men and women!” I yelled and the five of them bowed their heads and sent in the last few cells as well. Within seconds, the percentage bar started to move again.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 89%
Massive explosions rang out above us, but they weren’t hitting the building. Instead, the ground trembled with rage. Deep in my gut, I knew what just happened and I wouldn’t even care about any kind of reprimand or punishment. The general had ordered his mech’s to help us if possible, and they were doing so while decimating the assault force trying to push into the building.
Just as I thought we had it in the bag, two more Technomancers dropped to the ground, one of them shaking in agony. This was too much; I was forcing them into an impossible situation. I looked at Birch and saw that her eyes were only half open. She looked drunk and barely conscious.
Another one dropped, Private Osman. He was still lucid but curled up in a fetal position on the floor, crying. What the hell had I done to them? There was a very good chance they’d have permanent damage from this undertaking, but that didn’t matter now! It wasn’t just them, millions of lives were on the line!
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 91%
There were now just the three of us left. Corporal Birch, Private Neumann, and myself. The three of us were the last hope and I knew Neumann was just about done for. By the time we hit 92%, he screamed and dropped to the floor shaking. It seemed like he had a seizure, but I had no time to act. I had to ignore the young Technomancer and hoped for the best. Our Medic had left us earlier because there were serious wounds with the other specialists on the frontline. There was nothing I could do but try to finish the hacking process as soon as possible.
“Birch, are you still with me?”
“Y-Yeah,” she muttered with a barely audible voice.
“I have bad news.”
“I still had several... cells and I’ll... right now.”
She knew what I wanted her to do but she also knew I couldn’t give the order. There was a very good chance she wouldn’t survive it. We had ninety seconds left and it was our only option.
I used up whatever I had and dropped to zero spare cells. I could feel the nanites enter the system, but it took an Imminy’s mind to control them. I felt my heart pump even harder and faster as everything ached. If I didn’t know better, I thought every single cell within me was about to explode. Just then my INAS flared up.
INTERNAL DAMAGE DETECTED
I ignored it completely like I assumed the other Technomancers did. It took longer for me to start losing physical health over this than the others, but I knew it had been coming and now that it started, my health was dropping rapidly. My entire body was deteriorating from this.
I noticed Birch slowly swaying to one side and the other. She was drained, she was done, and with every second that she attempted to control her cells, she would shorten her life by a year.
We go on until the end.
I had to forget Birch was a person, as I had to forget I was a person as well. We were just gears in the machine that would save millions of lives, and if we failed, our death would spell the death of millions, even billions. And I’m not talking about military lives, about Eres lives, no—if the Eres found out humanity was to blame for the destruction of the Second Army, no human world would ever be safe. The Federation would never protect humanity against the Eres, their race was far more valuable than we were.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 94%
The timer showed we had forty-five seconds left and I was now certain we would make it. With the combined force of our nanites, we would push through the last 6% of the process no matter what!
“Birch, you beautiful woman, we got this!” I spurted out in excitement, but Birch didn’t answer. I looked at her from the corner of my eye and saw she was slowly leaning to her right, her hair was loose, her eyes barely open. Then she dropped and I couldn’t even spare the time to check the INAS for her vital signs. I just returned to my interface as tears welled up in my eyes.
Please stay alive. At least you!
I checked my O-Nan status and knew I wasn’t able to add anything more. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt blood trickle down the corners of my eyes, my lips, and from my ears. All of the nanites that still lingered in the system aligned perfectly, all waiting for me to take control of them. My heart thumped in my chest and I knew that I’d never see them again, at least not unless they recycled and revived me again. Knowing Winters, there was no chance in hell he would want a
rebel under his command again.
I let out a sigh and snatched the remaining nanites and bashed them at the last few firewalls. The metallic taste of blood in my mouth was now heavy.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 96%
My left hand was turning numb. I knew what that meant: I was about to get a heart attack on top of everything. I pushed the thought away—thirty seconds. I felt a warm, wet sensation coming down my lips and chin. I was bleeding from my nose. There were too many nanites to control, and my mind was spread out too thin.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 97%
I was so damn close. Only twenty seconds remaining. The war around raged on and I could hear the sounds my enemy made outside the room. I didn’t even notice that a part of the ceiling collapsed and that brick, metal, and dust had rained in on the far end of the basement. I never noticed Raintroopers sticking their head through the hole in the floor and checking me out. My HP was still dropping rapidly, if any of those Raintroopers so much as pricked me with their spear I’d have a very bad time.
HACKING PAVLOV GUNS: 99%
I was almost done, and I was barely conscious. I suddenly felt a rush of pain surging through my body as an alarm rang out in my mind and the INAS flared up.
CRITICAL FAILURE IMMINENT!
SEEK IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE!
For a moment, I thought that was it. For a second, I hoped another wild flood of power would somehow save me as it did with the Templar. Then I remembered the feeling of that day. How I used my H-Nan cells in the last second. I thought I could do it again. I never understood how I did it the first time but somehow, I knew I could do it now.
Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1) Page 27
