"Easier said than done. The problem with these minor incidents is that they're sucking in our personnel. We need people on the ground to deal with them."
"Well, you best get them put to bed. I want all resources focused on that rebel warehouse."
Orban pursed his lips as he studied the 3D map. "I get the feeling that the rebels might be behind some of these skirmishes—as a way of keeping us busy."
"Don't be stupid. They're rabble, they don't possess that level of sophistication."
"Maybe so." The avatar turned to face Baptiste. "There is another option, if we want more resources."
Baptiste raised a hand. "Don't say MLOD. I don't want to hear it."
"Why not?"
"Because you know as well as I do that we're under contract to deal with all this shit. If we have to go ask for their help, then there will be no end of bureaucratic hoops to jump through."
But Orban was being insistent. "The fact remains that if we want to go in hard and heavy, then we're going to need more resources. That means taking them from elsewhere. I estimate we could bring in twenty or so, but for any more, we need to start getting the MLOD to do some of the riot control."
"Riot?" Baptiste stiffened. "You didn't mention a riot going on."
"Here, in this sector." A new marker blinked on the 3D map. "It's not a riot yet, but it has the potential."
Baptiste glanced at the 3D map, then to one of the video feeds. A large crowd of around fifty or so were milling around waving placards, ranting about air quality.
Baptiste sighed. "I think you might be right, Orban. This smacks of distraction." He knew then that he had no other option. He needed to give Chief Becker a call.
"No way. I'm already taking a lot of heat by letting you start a small war in the maintenance sector." Joshua T. Becker was almost shouting over the comms link. "And Tarkin over in Jezero is not happy about their agent being stuck in the middle of it all. It seems they've had a change of heart. Now they want her out."
"What the..." Baptiste's frustration was rising. "She had her chance. What's more, you and I can't afford to have her walking around alive."
"Listen, Tarkin has taken an ear-bashing from the council in Jezero on this. Apparently she's some sort of national hero, so they don't want her dead."
"Well, it's too late for that now."
"Also, we have another potential problem."
"Oh, for fuck’s sake, what?"
"The MLOD in Jezero have decided that the situation here is becoming too volatile. I think they're afraid of contagion. So they’ve taken the unprecedented step of loading up a shuttle with security personnel and are sending them here."
"Ha, ha... They're risking a shuttle flight for this? They must be pissed."
"This is no laughing matter, Vance. This is a serious escalation. You need to get your Montecristo people on the council in Jezero to get this stopped now, before they take off."
"Hmm... Well, having extra officers here could work to our advantage." Baptiste paused for a beat while he considered this development, then returned to the comms link. "Becker, here's what you do. Let them take up crowd suppression. That lets you off the hook and allows us more resources to deal with Lloyd and that Sorelli bitch. You'll just have to swallow your pride. In fact, I suggest you invite them in, say they are needed urgently."
"I don't like it. These Jezero types are not like us, all full of their own self-importance. They could do more harm than good."
"When could they get here?" Baptiste was not interested in listening to Chief Becker's protests.
"I don't believe this. You're not actually serious."
"Becker." Baptiste's voice was sharp. "You need to realize that it's not your call. When you took the opportunity for the high-life that we here at Montecristo offered, it came with a price, and that price is full, one-hundred-percent compliance. So you do as I say, or we'll find someone else in the MLOD who will."
There was a momentary silence as Chief Joshua T. Becker took this in.
"Look, Joshua." Baptiste's voice was more conciliatory now. "We have an opportunity here to get everything we want. So let's just get it done. By tomorrow morning, you and me will be having a celebratory drink and laughing about it."
There was a long intake of breath from Becker. "Okay, but just get it done fast. I don't know how long I can keep control of my end."
"How long does it take to get from Jezero by shuttle?"
"An hour and twenty minutes, normally. In this dust storm, who knows. Nobody flies anymore unless it's critical."
"Well, what's critical is that you start getting your people on the streets so we can do what we have to do. You'll just have to hold the line until backup from Jezero arrives."
There was another long sigh from Becker. "Okay, but they're not going to like it down in HQ."
"They don't have to like it, they just have to do it."
By the time Vance Baptiste had finished his conversation with the chief and returned to the operations room, there had been some new developments, some of which made no sense to either him or Orban. Apparently, the besieged rebels had just broken out and moved their barricade farther up the street, taking some losses in the process. The reason for this bizarre act was so that they could drag the carcass of a dead droid back into the warehouse.
"When did this happen?" Baptiste's eyes were fixed on the video feed of the street.
"Just now. They've only been back inside a few minutes."
Baptiste pursed his lips. "Why would they do that? It doesn't make sense."
"It must make sense to them."
"Are they trying to fix it, get it working?"
"Unlikely. It would be extremely difficult to do that, and it would take a considerable amount of time. Time they don't have."
"So what, then?"
"Maybe they think they can salvage its weapons systems?"
"Maybe. But whatever it is they're up to, they must think it’s worth taking some losses for."
A tech call came over from a console in the operations room. "Sir, I have just received confirmation that the MLOD are deploying resources to all the trouble spots."
"About time. As soon as they’re in position, I want all our people and resources moved to the maintenance sector. That includes you and me, Orban. We're going manage these operations directly on the ground."
"You're coming down to the surface?" Orban's avatar flickered momentarily.
"Damn right I am. This is too important an operation. That, and I would like to be there when we finally crush them."
"I'll make the necessary preparations."
"Meet me at the old shuttle port. I'll land there; it should be safe enough away from the city. And have the mobile operations unit up and running. We're gonna need it."
"Very well. Let's hope we have enough spare resources to quell this uprising," said Orban.
"We will. And remember, we always have the ultimate weapon if they prove to be too well dug-in."
Orban's face morphed into a genuine look of shock. "You're not seriously considering using that?"
"If I have to, I will. These people need to crushed, not just in body, but in spirit, too."
17
Propaganda
It was evident to Mia that Lloyd was a brilliant engineer, but as a revolutionary leader, he was struggling. His modus operandi had always been defense. Protection of his personal space, along with that of the wider maintenance sector community. All this stemmed from the loss of his robotics business to the corporate forces of Montecristo. So fundamentally, he was not some visionary radical—far from it. He was pragmatic and practical. His support came from former workers and their extended networks that had an enormous amount of respect for him. That, and the fact that he had the residual wealth and expertise to acquire and maintain considerable resources.
But everything they had done so far was as a reaction to Montecristo and their ever-expanding power base. They had done nothing more than give the corporation
an excuse to enter the maintenance sector and wipe out all opposition. Defense, in this instance, would not win the war. It was a fight to the death, and there would only be one winner. Therefore, if they were to prevail, then they would need to expose Montecristo.
Lloyd, of course, knew this, but his failing was that he had not planned for it. Clever strategies for evasion, the provision of safe houses, and the ability to organize protests to divert resources were all defensive, not offensive. In the Revolutionary 101 guidebook, taking control of state media was at the top of the list. The ability to supplant the propaganda of the current power with that of your own was the key to turning the tide.
Lloyd's plan only went as far as digging up some dirt on Montecristo, something that he could use against them. But Mia realized that the only way out of this current situation was to take them down completely, and the best way to do that was to expose them. But the evidence would need to be absolutely irrefutable, as the propaganda machine of Montecristo Industries would seek to undermine its validity. Simply broadcasting the data that Gizmo had stored may not be enough, but it would be a good start, and would certainly buy them more time, maybe even force a stalemate.
Mia reacted suddenly to a ruckus emanating from the warehouse entrance. She looked over to see Marcus and three others dragging in the immobile riot droid. It was much bigger than she had envisioned from the video feeds. The scars of battle were evident all across its tough outer casing; deep gouges and burns seemed to cover every part of its humanoid form.
It twitched.
"Stand back," someone shouted. "It's still alive."
Everyone jumped back, weapons aimed and ready. There was a tense moment as they waited for some other action from it. But nothing more happened.
"Has it done that before?" Lloyd directed his question to Marcus.
"Twice before, while we were dragging it in here. Scared the shit out of us the first time."
"Good, good." Lloyd stroked his chin.
"I hope to hell this is worth it. We had three people go down getting this...thing."
Lloyd’s face morphed into one of deep concern. "How bad?"
"Bad enough. One's critical." Marcus gave the engineer a hard look. "Just make it worth it, okay?"
Lloyd nodded and got to work.
Techs dragged over diagnostic equipment as Lloyd clambered atop the dead machine and started delving into its innards. Several others stood by, weapons ready, just in case. Mia made her way to the rover and, with the help of a few others, they dragged the disemboweled Gizmo over to where Lloyd and the techs were working.
Perhaps she was being overly optimistic. After all, there was no guarantee this was going to work. But she had to believe it was possible. Part of her didn't care about the data so much—it was more to see Gizmo back in action. In truth, she missed the droid. It was the one entity that she could trust. She could always rely on it to cover her back, and it was her friend.
The riot droid twitched again, sending the group into high alert. Lloyd was now sitting at a terminal screen, intently studying a stream of scrolling code. The droid twitched even more, then its arm started to move.
"Lloyd, are you doing that?" Mia, along with several others, took a few steps back and aimed their plasma weapons at the machine as it began to reanimate.
"It's moving, Lloyd." Mia's voice held a note of concern. "What do we do?"
"Gimme a second." Lloyd waved a hand in the air while continuing to look at the monitor.
The droid began to move its head, then its other arm. It was trying to stand up.
"Lloyd!" One of the others was getting panicked. "Either you kill this thing or we do."
"Just wait, wait. I'm trying to override it."
They all took another step back as the machine rose up to full height and its sensor array began to scan the group who now circled it, weapons at the ready. A section of its right shoulder cracked open, and the muzzle of a plasma cannon appeared.
"Lloyd, you've got one second to get control or we take it down," Mia shouted out.
With that, the droid collapsed in a heap on the floor of the warehouse.
"Got it," Lloyd shouted over from the terminal.
"Are you sure?" Mia was taking no chances, dancing around the inert heap, weapon in hand, ready to fire.
"Yes, yes, it's not getting up again." Lloyd stood up from the terminal and came over. "Sorry, I didn't realize it had a secondary backup system. Once I rerouted the power supply it came back online. But it's okay now, it's totally offline. And the good news is that the power cell is still operational."
Mia relaxed and lowered her weapon. "So, you'll be able to get Gizmo working again?"
Lloyd stroked his lower lip with the back of his thumb. "We'll see. No guarantees, though."
But before Mia could reply, a tech shouted over from the holo-table, "You'd better take a look at this." He was studying a hologram of the city that radiated out across the surface of the holo-table.
"What is it?" said Lloyd as he, Mia, and a few others stood around the map.
"We have reports of MLOD activity. Looks like they're moving into sectors where there's trouble. They're relieving Montecristo’s security. See here."
Several video feeds materialized above the 3D map. Mia could see uniformed MLOD officers milling around several other sectors of the city.
"We don't have much time," said Mia. "Montecristo are preparing for another assault. You need to get Gizmo working as soon as humanly possible."
The tech cupped a hand over his ear, then looked over at Mia. "I'm getting a report that a shuttle from Jezero City just landed, with thirty or more MLOD officers on board."
"What, here in Syrtis?" said Mia.
"Yes, that's what I'm hearing."
Mia stood silent for a moment, thinking. "Actually...this could be good," she finally said. "Shuttle flights are rare these days, so if they are sending that many, they must think the situation on the ground here is critical."
"Yeah, but whose side are they on? That’s what I'd like to know," said one of the fighters who had returned to the warehouse after the battle for the street.
"Eh, I don't think it’s ours." Anka pointed at the broadcast feed.
Images of MLOD officers moving out across the walkways and plazas of Syrtis flickered on the screen. They were taking up positions in all the trouble spots. A running commentary ran along the bottom of the feed, outlining the fact that forces from Jezero were being deployed as a back-up for the local officers. Together they were confident about quelling the insurgence currently active in the maintenance sector.
"We’ve got to counter all this...propaganda they're spewing out." Mia was getting increasingly frustrated at not being able to do anything about it.
But before anyone could answer, the tech brought up a new feed, this time from within the sector. "We may have a problem."
The view was down along the main thoroughfare, directly outside the warehouse building. In the foreground, the wreckage of the barricades could be clearly seen; along with the detritus of the last battle, crumpled machines and debris were strewn everywhere. The tech adjusted the camera and zoomed in to focus far off at the very end of the thoroughfare. There, shrouded in a hazy mist, a formidable machine advanced. It moved on eight legs in a slow, graceful ballet, its head a turret from which a long, pointed snout emerged. Mia, along with the others in the group, watched in silence as the machine advanced, skewering parked ground cars and storage containers along either side of the thoroughfare with each downward thrust of its many appendages.
"Holy crap, what the hell is that thing?" said Mia.
"Spider tank," said Lloyd a little casually, as if he had seen it all before. And perhaps he had. "But it's not a tank in the military sense. They just call them that. They're used for asteroid mining. See the way it's engineered, like a spider? That makes it good for traversing very rough terrain."
"Does it have weapons?" said Mia.
"Not officially. Ho
wever, it has a ballistic cannon used to blast craters on the asteroid’s surface so that it can sniff the resultant dust cloud for trace elements using an onboard spectrometer."
"Sound like a goddamn tank to me," said another of the fighters. "I assume that pointy bit on the turret is the cannon?"
"Correct." Lloyd seemed fascinated with the machine.
"Holy shit, ballistic weapons?" Marcus began to stomp around. "That thing could blow a hole in the sector dome. That would be catastrophic. We're talking mass extinction of the population."
The rest of them watched as the machine advanced, a line of black-clad security personnel moving in behind it. Mia stopped counting at thirty, and there were many more than that.
"We need to get up high to have a chance at taking that thing down. If we're on street level it will blow us to pieces." Marcus had stopped his pacing and began to focus on the problem. "We take positions up along the rooftops. They won't risk firing that thing at us in case they hit the dome."
"Let's hope you're right," said Lloyd.
Marcus moved to the comms desk and started barking orders to the units out on the street, then gathered up his crew and headed out to battle.
After some argument, Mia reluctantly agreed to remain behind with Lloyd and one other tech. He reasoned that if they could get Gizmo active again and get the data, then Mia needed to be the one making the broadcast, not him, since he had been labeled a reactionary and a radical. His name was toxic.
It had to be Mia.
But she was damned if she was just going to sit around like a spare part. So, she took over monitoring comms, freeing the tech to help Lloyd disassemble the riot droid.
She paced up and down, watching the spider tank advance as the rebels took up positions along the rooftop. And all the while, in the background, the broadcast media pumped out rolling coverage of the MLOD deployment in the city.
It had all finally come down to this. What should have been a battle to get the truth out, to reveal the perfidy of Montecristo, had now become simply a battle for survival. And what of Jezero? she thought. What was their role in all of this? Mia pondered these questions as the moment of confrontation drew ever closer. She had known from day one that the MLOD here in Syrtis were not on her side. But Jezero? These were her people, her tribe. She could not believe that they would desert her now, in her hour of need. That was why it had to be her face on the broadcast; she could appeal directly to them to do the right thing. She had to believe that they would see through the propaganda and subterfuge.
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