Upon Stilted Cities - The Winds of Change

by Michael Kilman

  Upon Stilted Cities

  The Winds of Change

  Book 2 in the Chronicles of the Great Migration

  This is a work of fiction.

  Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  Upon Stilted Cities: The Winds of Change

  First edition. July 17, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Michael Kilman.

  Publisher: Loridian’s Laboratory LLC

  Ebook edition ISBN: 978-1-7323576-2-4

  Print Edition ISBN: 978-1-7323576-3-1

  Written by Michael Kilman

  Cover Illustrated by:

  Gabriel Perez

  https://Artofgp.com

  Title Design:

  Desiree Byrd

  Edited By:

  Vanessa Corn

  https://vcedits.com/

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Upon Stilted Cities: The Winds of Change (Chronicles of the Great Migration, #2)

  Historian’s Note to the Text:

  To Destroy A Walking City (I)

  Chapter 1 | Designation Runner 17

  Chapter 2 | A Return to Nowhere

  Chapter 3 | The Inspector

  Chapter 4 | Security Detail

  Historian’s Note on Alcoves | From: 835.12.1 I.S.

  Chapter 5 | The Senator

  Chapter 6 | The Last Architect

  Chapter 7 | The Coming Storm

  Historian’s Note on Manhatsten | 835.1.27 I.S.

  Chapter 8 | The Talent

  Chapter 9 | The Sanitation Department

  Chapter 10 | The First of Many

  Chapter 11 | State of Emergency

  To Destroy A Walking City (II)

  Chapter 12 | The Keeper of the Keys

  Chapter 13 | Combat Training

  Chapter 14 | Chaos in the Docks

  Chapter 15 | The Uprising

  Chapter 16 | In the Ruins of Langeles

  Chapter 17 | The Order of the Eye

  Chapter 18 | The Second City

  Chapter 19 | The Mistress of Storms

  Epilogue

  Sign up for Michael Kilman's Mailing List

  About the Author

  Also by Michael Kilman

  Mimi of the Nowhere

  Historian’s Note to the Text:

  Dear Reader,

  The following historical text is in part dramatized based on our current records of the period between 1290 AC and 1300 AC. This particular decade is of great interest to the contemporary historical record. This period was known as the great shift, wherein humanity, facing overwhelming odds, was forced to confront its own extinction on multiple levels. Some of the following history is not based on historical evidence, but on a carefully calculated statistical probability of the events that had likely occurred during that period based on data records, DNA evidence, and the archaeological record. It is, therefore, important to realize that while much of the following is historical fact, some elements of the story were necessarily filled in to create what feels like a much more complete series of events.

  For more information on this topic, including individual datalogues, audio recordings, and profiles of the following historical figures, please visit library 6911 in sector 3392.

  Matron Mariposa Phillips 835.12.24 I.S.

  Addendum to the Historians Note:

  For ease of access to this text, please be aware that your AI component is automatically translating the text into your local language. Please note that if you so desire, you may turn off the neural auto-translator and experience the variety of languages that the following historical volumes have to offer.

  To Destroy A Walking City (I)

  The city had toppled. Bits of skyscrapers were strewn across the desert. With the city’s legs destroyed, it had collapsed from towering heights. Most of what remained upon the excavated chunk of earth on which the city had stood were smoking ruins, shattered mechanized EnViro suits, and sun-dried corpses. Welts from bombs, bullets, and energy weapons pockmarked the perimeter, as various vapors cascaded into the late afternoon sky.

  Inside the ruin, occasional echoes of weapon-fire permeated the stillness in and between the few remaining buildings, but even that would fade with the day.

  Far back from the fresh ruin of the city of Langeles, Roderick sat slumped against a rock. He was alone in the barrens. His body ached from laying inside his metallic suit for what was probably several hours. The air was a cool forty-eight degrees Celsius as the sun began its final descent. Perhaps an hour of light remained before the cold night air set in.

  Roderick blinked. It was a glorious sunset. Even as seen through the tinted UV protection of his suit's helmet, it was a ritual of beauty, a day that ended in victory. The power core within Langeles still remained, but the death knell of the city was ringing. Langeles would never walk again. For a city with no shield and no migration, there was only death. Mother Gaia would swallow it whole.

  He pressed a small button under his chin and with his left hand pulled off his helmet. Its thick inner liner tugged at his graying hair as the helmet detached. He dropped it to the ground. It thudded against the gravel, rolling for a moment before settling in.

  He closed his eyes and caressed the tattoo on his neck, the mark of his order, a tree of life with an eye in the center. He liked to feel the raised skin, the scars that had formed under the ink and burn scars. Most adherents of the Children of Gaia chose a simple armband or an inscription on their EnViro suit exterior, but for Roderick, only the mix of blood and fire and ink could mark his tribute and his loyalty. He was hers.

  He felt the fresh air on his face and took a deep breath, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be able to keep his helmet off for long. The methane would trickle into his lungs with each breath. Fresh air, as rotten as it smelled, was a luxury. But, it had been a long day, and a little non-filtered air wouldn’t kill him. At least, it wasn't anything that an alcove couldn't heal.

  He reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Already, beads of moisture gathered in the crevices of his pockmarked face and shimmered in the dying light. His light brown eyes reflected the play of colors on the hard, rocky earth and the swiftly changing sky.

  Pain sprang up his right arm like a horse bucking its mount, and his square features tightened as he gritted his teeth. Roderick looked down the length of his right arm and remembered. He shuddered. Truth had a funny way of reminding you where you stand. It would take a long time to get used to a missing limb. The bloody stump of where his right hand had been was now a symbol of his haste. He turned and gazed at the wreckage of his Dugger vehicle behind him. The City and the Dugger had shared the same fate.

  With great pain, he poked the damaged arm out through the metallic hole of the suit where his armored glove had been. He had managed to tie the pliable, cloth-like underlayer in a knot to slow any leak of his air. He used his teeth as a second hand. After several frustrating moments, the knot came loose. He unwrapped the gauze and examined the wound. It was already stinking. He was fortunate that his suit had maintained his temperature and filtered air as well as it had. He would need to cauterize the wound, and quickly. If the toxins from the air entered his blood... well, he had better not let it come to that.

  Silence slid into his ears. All noise evaporated. A high-pitched ringing emerged in the vacancy. Fresh fire burst forth from the remains of Langeles. Even from twenty-six kilometers out, he had temporarily lost his hearing. Roderick shielded his eyes from the blinding white light that erupted from the city like a second sun. No, not like a second sun, it was a second sun. For a brief moment, it was a star, a
universe, created by the rupture of fusion and then winked out. His fingers pawed a solitary rock with his left hand for balance, feeling his feet giving way. His legs were so tired.

  It was the Langeles power core. Dense smoke seeped into the sky. A hint of a mushroom cloud emerged but was already caught by gusting winds and dissipated across the landscape, intermingling with the colors of the setting sun.

  His men had reached it. Where he had failed, they had succeeded. Praise Gaia.

  He stared at the city with anticipation. Where was the blast wave? Detonating a nuke inside the city core should have sent a cascading wave of energy. He should have needed to duck behind a ridge or be hunkering down inside a small cave, but nothing happened. Perhaps they didn’t use the nuke? Had his men managed to overload the core, containing the implosion? He would have to ask them.

  It made no difference. Joy washed over him. Roderick let out of a roar of triumph. His roar caught on to the back of the lingering roar of the explosion and merged into forever.

  He fell to his knees and bowed forward. Dry lips met the hardpan. His right stump grazed the ground, and a shock of pain climbed the length of his arm. He gritted his teeth but did not move from his position of reverence.

  “Praise to you, Mother. Thank you for your aid in this great victory. I shall not forget the lesson you taught me this day. I shall not act in haste again. It is an honor to sacrifice in your name. May the blood that I shed bring new life in the soil."

  He pushed his right leg forward and used his left hand to thrust himself upward. Roderick stared at his bloody stump, still feeling where his fingers had been. Despite the immense pain of the open wound, his fingers itched; an itch he could never scratch again.

  Roderick smiled, turning his attention back to the fallen city. The burning city roused his courage, his determination. There, in the smoking ruin, was the evidence it was possible to rid the earth of its infestation. The giant walking city of Langeles and its people were no more.

  But what of his haste? What of his disregard for Mother Gaia’s words? Much had gone right, but what had gone wrong? Roderick reviewed the events of the morning assault.

  2.

  Migration halted so that the excavation could begin. A massive drill protruded from the lower hunk of rock underneath the city and was burrowing into the earth. Clouds of dust cascaded into the empty sky. A cycle.

  “Commander, the Duggers are submerged, in position, and await your orders,” said Patrick Lions. His face appeared on the view screen. Patrick was a short, round, balding man who barely fit inside of a standard EnViro suit. With his helmet off, Roderick could see his rosy red cheeks and his crooked nose, broken from one too many fights.

  “Excellent. What’s the status on the special delivery?” asked Roderick.

  “The package has been delivered to the city’s AI Commander. Rocky said the primary shield should fail any time now. One thing, though, he also said the secondary shield is an isolated system. It’s unlikely the virus will deactivate it.”

  “Yes, Rocky warned me earlier. But, there will be chaos, and that is all we need. What’s the status on city leg security?”

  “One moment, Commander, I’ll check.”

  Roderick squirmed in the semi-cramped quarters of the Dugger. He disliked being below ground in the Dugger transports. Duggers were designed for the conditions in severe climate change during the late 21st century, and were usually effective means of transport in the barrens. They had a small drill and two claw-like arms on the front of the vehicle that dug below shallow surfaces. Roderick had hated using them at first, piercing the earth had seemed like an act of great sacrilege, but Mother Gaia herself had permitted them to use the vehicles in her name.

  “Commander,” said Patrick, “leg security has been deactivated. Should we send in Miss and her team?”

  “No, stick to the plan. Shields fall first, then we send in the main attacking force, and then we send Miss and her team to plant the nukes. If we deviate from the plan, it will be like Saud. You remember Saud, don’t you, Patrick?”

  “Yes, Commander.” Patrick’s voice was notably lower in pitch and his eyes cast downward.

  “It took 80 years to rebuild the Order after Saud, Patrick. Have faith in the Great Mother. She has blessed this plan. Langeles will fall before the sun sets.”

  “Has she...” Patrick hesitated over the comm line. He knew that Patrick’s faith in Gaia had wavered as of late. Many of his soldiers’ faith had wavered. Inaction was a plague that could spread quickly, and six years of planning was a long time.

  “Has Mother spoken with you about this plan, Commander? I... I only ask out of curiosity, of course.” Patrick’s voice contained a hint of a tremor.

  Roderick smiled, showing his ancient, yellowed teeth. “Of course, Patrick. It was the Great Mother who devised this plan. She gave me a powerful vision that showed me the city of Langeles on fire. She whispered that other cities would come for salvage after the fire. And then,” excitement washed over Roderick’s anticipation, “then, we will destroy them as well. Mother Gaia has brought us Rocky and Miss so we could carry out the plan. Have faith, Patrick. We cannot lose this day. Today is the first of many victories.”

  It was true that the plan had come to him in a vision that the mother had spoken to him. The timing of Miss and Rocky joining the cause was perfect, but even Roderick’s faith had been tested at Saud. They needed a victory to restore the faith of his people.

  “The primary shield is down, Commander,” said Patrick.

  “AI, confirm?” said Roderick.

  “Sir, I confirm the primary shield system surrounding Langeles has fallen. Secondary shields surrounding their security buildings and storm shelters are active.”

  “Excellent. There will be riots inside the city over access to those shelters,” said Roderick. “You see, Patrick? Mother’s plan will sew chaos inside the city while we destroy the legs. Send in the primary attacking force.”

  “All of them, sir?”

  “Yes, all of them, including your elite team. I want to keep their Runnercore busy.”

  Seven hundred men were in the main attacking force, and only three dozen were on leg detail. Roderick’s personal guard consisted of only twenty-three men and women. He would hold his force until the nukes detonated, shattering the great legs. Then he and his personal guard would head straight for the city’s core, ending the long life of the parasitic walking cities.

  “Yes, Commander. May Gaia bless your path,” said Patrick.

  “And may Gaia bless yours. I'll see you on the other side. Keep the mother in your heart and we cannot fail.”

  Roderick watched his screen in the Dugger. He watched as the several dozen transport vehicles began moving toward the city. Most of them surfaced and crept along on treaded tires, but a few were still moving under the sand and hard earth. The ones under the ground would travel below the combatants and flank the Langeles Runnercore from behind.

  They were greatly outnumbered. From what his spy had said, Langeles had 2,300 Runners ready for combat. Roderick only had 1,300 under his command, and several hundred were women and children back at Atlantis base. The fallen shield and surprise would give them a sizable advantage. Runners would have to be dispatched inside the city to maintain order.

  The EnViro shield surrounding the walking cities weren't just for defense in combat. The shield was also used to create an enclosed ecosystem. Without the shield, most of the city’s inhabitants would be slowly poisoned by the toxic air and cooked in the extraordinary heat. Secondary shields were set up around important buildings in the event that the primary shield failed, but with two million people in the city and only room for about a hundred thousand in the secondary shielding shelters, there would be chaos. Langeles’s own citizens were weaponized in the Mother’s cause; every man, woman, and child an agent of chaos, an inadvertent soldier in the army of the Children of Gaia. They were to be offered up in sacrifice to the Great Mother.

 
; The radar screen saw the dots consolidating about a kilometer outside the city’s boundary. Patrick said over the comm line, “Duggers, mount artillery and fire. Infantry, dismount and engage. Be ready. Here they come.”

  Underneath the soil, Roderick felt the ground vibrate. Langeles had opened fire, with its railguns blasting huge holes in the rocky desert. But, with the shield gone, Roderick knew their ability to use the rail guns would be limited. The guns ran off the same power grid as the main shield system. Naturally, after a few shots, the guns would stop, and the majority of the Langeles Runnercore would be deployed in the city’s defense. Fresh blips appeared on the radar screen. Roderick knew those must be the Langeles Runners.

  “AI, status check on our cargo?”

  “Sir, all three atomic weapons are stable and ready for deployment.”

  “Excellent. Open a line to Miss.”

  Miss appeared on the screen. Her short black hair was ragged and unkempt. She had a lean face that contrasted with her thick, cracked lips. A faint crosshatch of scars ran up the left side of her neck and ended just below her ear. Her time in the barrens had taken its toll, but there was still beauty to be found. Her brown eyes glittered with an inner fire that Roderick had always desired. His second in command stared back through the communications line, awaiting instructions.

  “It’s time, Miss. Uncouple the cargo cars and take down the legs. The main force and the fallen shield will keep Langeles security distracted.”

  “Yes, Commander. May Gaia bless your path.”

  “And yours, Miss.”

  Roderick felt a jolt as the cargo car he had taxied uncoupled from his Dugger. He felt lighter, more eager than before. His plan was unfolding perfectly so far. Now he had to wait.

  Time passed. Roderick grew agitated. For all his planning, he hated to sit back and wait while the rest of his troops fought. He had spent most of his life as a man of action, as the one on the front lines. It was bizarre to sit back and watch. So much could go wrong, but Gaia had instructed that he wait.