Raiders

by Malone, Stephan

  Kama said, “Colonel, I am so sorry! I never thought there would be so many of them!” She patted her chest and then said, “Remember I used to be one of them. But they are not my people anymore. They never sent us out more than ten at a time! Mostly a team of four or five!”

  The Colonel waved his hands into the air, “Well we certainly can’t say that anymore now can we?” His voiced crashed over them. “Kama, you are never leaving your cell again! I am done, I’m just done!”

  Kama started to cry, “You have to let me go to get them! Let me at least do that!”

  Colonel Eiger shot back, “I don’t have to do ANYTHING that you say! Those poor kids out there are probably dead by now thanks to you! Christ, they probably skinned them alive for all we know.”

  Kama pleaded, “But I know where they are taking them! I know exactly where they are going. Please Colonel Eiger! Let me fix this!”

  The Colonel tapped his forehead and said, “ No, I’m not changing my mind. You’re going back to your cell. You’ve cost the lives of three Polar City citizens you are lucky we don’t put you to death for that.”

  Ryan spoke up. “Sir, we talked her into it. It was our fault!”

  Colonel Eiger looked at Ryan and said, “You are one lucky kid to be alive right now. Do you realize that? Kama came pretty damn close to getting you killed.” He pointed to Kama.

  Ryan did not know what to say.

  The Colonel tapped his armband and said, “I need an escort from Meeting Room Five to Cell Holding for Lieutenant Kama. Make it two. No rush.” His armband beeped twice. He turned to Kama and said, “This is the last time that we will ever speak again. Do you have anything more to say to me?”

  Kama said nothing whatsoever as her lips slightly fluttered against the moment. The door opened and two Military Centre guards entered the room. Kama stood up and slowly shuffled toward them. She turned back to the Colonel who stood motionless and resolute. “I am the only one who can get them back and you know this is true in your heart.” She turned once more to face the door and then with her back to him said, “At least think about that, Colonel. I’m sorry.”

  The door closed. Colonel Eiger turned back to Ryan and said, “Ryan if you need anything at all don’t hesitate to call me. I forwarded my personal contact link to your Assistant if you need me day or night. Got it?”

  “Thank you.” Ryan paused for a moment and stared at the door almost as if he expected Kama to come back into the room. He remained fixated on the closed door’s brushed blue texture and asked, “Will you try to get my girlfriend back? Mirabella?”

  Colonel Eiger smiled and said, “You better believe it son. Absolutely.”

  The Colonel stood up. “Listen I have to get back to the situation room. We’ll talk later. You need anything else?”

  Ryan shook his head. “No, I guess not sir.”

  Colonel Eiger said as he exited the room. “We’ll talk later. My assistant will show you back out to the main entrance.”

  Four days passed. Kama lay on her cell’s couch with a starefaced inertia as she yielded down to the weight of her stolid heart. If anything remained of her spirit or pulse the Military Centre’s guards did not observe it. She did not eat or drink anything. She did not read nor speak aloud much less act out against the terminal nature the situation presented to her. They brought in her food trays and took them away an hour later unstirred, every utensil, dish and cup counted and logged on egress. By the fifth day several guards wondered and discussed the prospect that she may try and hurt herself in some way or maybe even do more than that.

  A guard entered the cell as the automatic lights dimmed themselves a little and then subtly changed her cell’s luminance into a warmer variant of buttermilk white with yellowish-red undertones as Dusk fell across the skies outside the City. “You have to eat something,” Corporal Syd said as he nudged the metal lined lunch tray. “There’s no point in starving you know. Eat something, you’ll feel better.” He lifted the bamboo cover and peered into the oval shaped dish which was made from handmade, tightly woven bamboo strips. “Fried rice and sesame shrimp? You got a better lunch here than I do.”

  Kama did not move nor attempt to even glance at the Corporal but continued to stare at the far wall as if were as transparent as carbon fiber polarglass. “No point. Just leave me alone.” She considered the metallic ring wrapped along the food tray’s outermost edge. Could she pry it off and use it somehow? Not as effective as a diamondwire she thought. But still.

  Her observation did not go unnoticed by Syd the guard who swooped her tray away and walked toward the cellroom door. “Clear,” he announced. The door unlocked then quietly pushed itself right hand away with a shush.

  “Syd..” Kama sighed and then plopped her head back down on the couch cushion as the door slowly slid back to close. She lay there for forty minutes then finally arose from the couch, She opened the water bottle with a slothen fragility. It was the first time she drank in three days. The water tasted metallic and laced with saline even though it was osmotically pure. She could feel every cell in her body rejoice and resound at the prospect of fresh cool fluid coming in. Microscopic celebrants aside, Kama limply flopped herself back onto the couch with water in hand.

  At once a subdued and low pitched crr-thrrrommmm coated the cell inside. Kama bounced off her little couch in a rush and reflexively looked to the observation window above. She saw not a soul beyond the glass. Another crackled crr-thrrrommmmm resonated within only this time it felt stronger than the first. And then a third. The vibrations were enough to upset the lampshade’s leveled balance to an optically disturbing three degrees off it's horizontal serene. A painting fell from it’s wirehook and onto the floor below with a buh-boomp, then the other. Two more low pitched booms reported in, one straight away followed by another.

  And as quickly as the loud booms reported in, silence. “Hey!” Kama shouted up to the inanimate glass window. “Hey! What the hell is going on up there!” Not a sound returned. She heard no voices, no footsteps or the din of activity outside her door.

  “Stand clear of the door,” a female synthesized voice announced into her cell. A barrier slid across the door, apparently in observance of some kind of shutdown. A ribbed barrier composed of steel and carbon fiber slammed down and obstructed the observation window. The lights ominously flickered twice and failed into nothingness. The Neverfail lights snapped themselves to life from beneath the couch, bed and tabletop. They cast a stark blue-white light as the room diffused into a harsh and dim luminance that poured across the cellroom floor.

  Kama walked up to the barricaded cellroom door and smacked her palm three times against it’s blue grey surface. She pounded with all her might but the barrier only returned a muffled and subdued fmmm fmmm fummm that sounded distant and almost underwater. “HEY OUT THERE!” She yelled at the strongest voice that she could throw. There were more low pitched sounds preceded by a crackle, crrr-boommmmmm crrr-boommmmmm crrr-boommmmmm that vaulted into her cell. The lamp fell over against the vibratory sustain and Kama had to shuffle her feet a bit in an attempt maintain a balanced upright stance. The noise was so loud that her ears rang themselves up until she could hear nothing more. She stumbled back to the couch with her palms straggled forward as her balance slowly joggled itself away. She could feel the vibrations from the floor below as they trained to her feet and legs even though she could not hear them anymore.

  “Lockdown now in effect. Please remain calm,” the synthetic voice said although Kama could barely hear it over the sonic ring. Two minutes passed and the ringing faded away although it seemed much longer than that. Kama lay on the couch with hands over her ears for the next twenty minutes. She heard nothing but silence for a while but then, voices outside. She couldn’t make out what they were saying through the door and the newly deployed barrier but she felt a strange comfort to hear the voice of another human being.. She scratched at her arms. The prison issue clothing was made from some kind of coarse fiber, not as seve
re as jute or burlap yet not as comfortable as cotton or leather either. For some reason the cloth never really bothered her until this moment.

  The barrier slid away concerted with the observation window barrier above. The cellroom door opened and two guards stepped into the room. Kama could hardly see them in the Neverfail’s dim blue lights. The guard on the left said, “Get up. You need to come with us. General Berg wants to speak to you.”

  Twelve

  The guards escorted Kama out of the Military Centre holding cell, her hands secured behind her back with a pair of smart-bands. “Don’t bother trying to break 'em,” one guard said. “The bands will tighten to your wrist more. They’re trackable.” Kama did not respond but silently followed them to a three-wheeled cyclecraft that was parked outside. The car was fitted out with a transport cart large enough for two people. It was clearly designated for official military use for it had the official seal of the Military Centre stenciled onto the cart’s body plates.

  One guard stepped onto the pilot seat while the other waved Kama to sit inside of the cart. She did and scooched over to the left as the guard sat next to her.. The guard in front nudged the cycle off of its charge pad and a metallic klink-klank emitted from beneath the cyclecraft's floorboards. The tensioned energy cams pushed themselves flush against the charge pad’s surface and they pedaled away.

  “Any chance someone could tell me what the hell is going on?” Kama asked as the three traveled down the street. The Polar City avenues were usually well lit but presently the only source of light came from seven hundred thousand emergency Neverfails installed citywide. The City outside appeared as a blue-starred spread-sky constellation thrown out in all directions near and far. The effect was beautiful and simultaneously unsettling. City citizens scurried in and out of the Pods and throughout the streets. A subdued state of alarm charged the cool City air. Kama stared at a woman who carried her son in her arms. The child struggled at first against her tow but a shout from the mother subdued the boy’s rebellious anima.

  The cyclecraft’s electric assist kicked itself on and the guard relaxed the pedals. He said, “Don’t know when the power’s coming back on. We got hit by somethin' big though.”

  “From what?” Kama shook her head and continued to stare away as they rode.

  “General will tell you. We’ll be out in about six minutes, just sit tight.”

  “Whatever,” Kama said.

  The guard to Kama’s left spoke into his Personal Assistant band on his left arm, a standard Military issue softwrap. “About six minutes sir. Yeah she’s fine sir, no problem.” .

  They left the City through Gate Six, the same entrance Kama and her friends used for their fateful joyride on the outside a few weeks prior. Beyond the gate there were Military soldiers scattered up and down the Wall’s outermost border. Infantrymen scanned the City’s edge while others gathered in small groups while they discussed various tactical and logistic concerns. The pilot guard stopped the cyclecraft and asked a sentry, “Where’s the General?” The sentry pointed southwest toward the forestline beyond the Wall. “Thanks.” Their destination was near an ominous plume of black smoke that rose above the treetops roughly four hundred meters away.

  The guard who escorted Kama in the cart said, “Looks like they took out two of the 105's. Check that out Chale! They freaking shot right through the armor belts! That even possible? Damn.” The guard in front only shrugged and shook his head.

  “They shot them with linear rail rifles,” Kama offered as she shifted in her seat. The smartbands around her wrists started to irritate her more and more.

  “What?” The front guard asked.

  “Coilguns. They used coilguns,” Kama said.

  “Oohh,” both guards nodded even though they didn’t really believe what she said by either explanation. They heard about the Coilguns but never guessed that they could be used as combat ready ordnance much less a take down a one hundred and five millimeter armored auto turret. Kama realized that the sounds she heard in her cell were from these autoguns. The 105's were bolted into the rock strata and thus conducted the concussive booms far into the underground Polar City below.

  They arrived at the source of the smoke and stopped. Three armorcar transports lay twisted and derelict. The General overlooked the scene surrounded by four men and one woman all of whom appeared to be highbrass Military.

  The guards exited the cyclecraft and Kama followed as she struggled against her bonds. “Sir, reporting in with prisoner as ordered,” Chale announced. He quickly saluted the General who turned round to face them. General Otto Berg was two meters tall who appeared astoundingly fit for a man in his early sixties. His browline crested slightly forward from his eyes by three millimeters. He had large hands for a man of his stature with slightly rounded cheeks and a rolled down chin line. His silvershine hair that appeared once blonde was cut into a old-world Military brush-cut. Despite the firm and distinct lines his face suggested a friendly, melancholic spirit in some undefined and abstract way.

  “Very good Sergeant. Thanks.” The General looked at Kama and said, “So. You're the famous Raider girl I’ve heard so much about.” He produced a small smoking pipe from his left pocket and with a practiced efficiency held it by the shank and then packed and lit up the bowl. Soft netted clouds of cherry and walnut and ash floated across the early day slowsong wind, a ghost. “Hello Kama, I am General Berg chief commander of the Military-At-War.” He studied her Sun and moon tattoos which gently peeked themselves out above her prison shirt’s collar line, bounded by tattooed wings across her chest.

  Kama shook her arms still bound behind her back. “Sorry I can’t salute you,” she said.

  General Berg raised his palms and eyebrows and then let out a short laugh, humored. “No need Kama, you are no longer actively serving. You have a good point though. Sergeant, release her restraints if you would, please.”

  “Sir,” Chale saluted and said into his Personal Assistant band on his arm, “Five two five eight zero whiskey. Release.” The smartbands immediately fell away from Kama’s wrists. She rubbed them with a sighed relief while Sergeant Chale retrieved the fallen bands.

  The General continued. “Interesting body art you got there. Do you know what your tattoos symbolize or did you pick them out simply for their visual appeal?”

  “I didn’t pick them. They were chosen for me,” Kama responded.

  “Oh really!” The General exclaimed. “So who picked them out for you?”

  “The Elders.”

  “The elders, yes.” General Berg said. “So, were you an elder too?”

  “No, I was a one of the Chosen, women who are picked to accompany the Elders,” Kama said.

  “How many?” Berg asked.

  “Thirty-six,” Kama replied.

  “Ah. And how many Elders?” Berg said.

  “Twelve.”

  “Really now? Heh. Three of you to only one Elder. How nice. A charmed life you had, no doubt. As intriguing as that is, tell me Kama, did they teach you, that is did they impart any wisdom to the Chosen women the symbolic significance behind your tattoos?” General Berg asked as he raised his eyebrows.

  “Yes.”

  The General responded, “I see. Even the ones on your arms.”

  “Yes,” Kama affirmed.

  General Berg gently patted his pipe with his left hand and squinted toward the Sun which was about one quarter distance from its noontime azimuth. “Nothing like the real thing though.”

  “No, no there isn’t.” Kama looked down at her feet for a moment as she spoke. “Where is Colonel Eiger?”

  The General pointed his pipe toward the middle wrecked pile of a former armorcar transport. “See that mess there? The Colonel was in that one. Always was a do-it-yourself kind of a leader, he was. These three Transports, what's left of them anyways were deployed to retrieve your friends from the Raider city. They only got this far out. Then they were ambushed.”

  Kama froze in a state of evident shock.
She stared at the molten wreckage with no outward emotional display. She thought she could see a spinal segment and possibly half of a skull twisted among the smoke-laced, blackened metal parts. Is that a lower leg? She thought. Kama couldn’t be sure though. The scene was heavily obstructed with grey and black fumes that crawled and lingered across the forest floor.

  The Colonel really was dead! Killed. Right there, only meters away from where she stood, an hour ago maybe. Kama felt her eyes moisten up a little. What the hell is wrong with me? She thought. Colonel Eiger was the one and the same who condemned her to life imprisonment. Her sadness and sense of loss within made no logical sense, but there it was nevertheless. She pinched her eyes once over. “Smoke’s irritating,” she offered.

  “Yes, well,” General Berg said, “We managed to take down all of the attackers. At least our recon hasn’t reported back with any signs of survivors. Thirty-five of them dead, all Raiders. Had that homespun leather battlegear you guys love so much.”

  “Why do you keep talking like I am still with them?” Kama said.

  General Berg raised his hands to chest level, pipe in his right hand. “You’ll have to excuse me Kama. At the moment I’m trying to digest the loss of my best Colonel.” He looked over to the wrecked and ruined vehicles and then turned back to Kama once more. “Here’s where we are right now. This expedition is what is left of our alpha plan. That lasted five hundred meters out the door and failed. You,” he pointed his pipe bowl side out to Kama, “You are our beta plan.”

  “I’m your beta.” Kama repeated the General's words.

  “Yes. We’re going to send you there. Only this time with Solarbikes.”