Before too long, they wandered into the upper level of the Grans’ docking bay. Sighing, Jav stopped and leaned on the rail overlooking the three behemoths. Ren joined him a little further down the rail.
The irregular scaffolding surrounding Gran Kohm and Gran Zaim made them look as if they were overgrown with or hiding inside giant brambles. Repair workers moved about the latticework like ants while Gran Kwes, still whole and gleaming blackly, stood guard. Jav wondered if the Prisma Shield generator had been installed yet. He wondered a bit more apprehensively if they would need it in the very near future.
No one had considered the possibility that the Gun Golems would survive. If not physically destroyed by the exploding sun, then they would be rendered inert by the loss of the will fueling their existence. But what if they were independent of that will, of the people who created them? What if they persisted with or without their “god”? And did their god cease to exist simply by having its physical form destroyed? The Gun Golems were driven to destroy anything unclean, compelled to by its very presence. What if that was the source of their power? What if they were made active by the thing they were designed to destroy? Jav thought it made a kind of sense. But it was almost too simple—and too terrible if true. He tried to put all thoughts of the Gun Golems out if his mind. They were gone. They had to be.
12. UNDENIABLE LEGACY
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Not much had changed since the new Shades began training in the general athletic facility. They were still segregated into two camps, but as practice for the day was winding down, Vays broke the silence between them.
“Hey, Holson, how about sparring with me a little?” Vays said.
Jav stopped what he was doing and looked at Vays appraisingly for a brief moment. “All right,” he said.
“I want you to know, though—all of you—that this has nothing to do with the other night.”
“Relax, Vays.” Jav breathed out a light chuckle. “No one’s accusing you of anything. I told you that we all need to get along and I meant it.”
“With some I’m interested in getting along only so far as my job is concerned, but I respect you, Holson. I told you that before.”
Jav nodded. “Maybe you should stop trying to explain yourself. Come on, let’s go.”
And as the two squared off, with Jav’s clawed hands poised, ready to meet Vays’s shining blade, Ren and Froster watched.
Froster had heard time and again from his teacher that Jav had been unable to master the Copy Twin technique—Cov Merasec’s contempt for Jav was plain to him. But Jav was the Block 2 champion. Practicing with him over the last few days and seeing him now against Vays, Froster absolutely could not share his teacher’s opinion. Jav was fast and precise, and his economy of motion was at least on par with Vays’s. Froster couldn’t imagine facing the Single Element Ghost Sword empty-handed.
For some time the two were evenly matched, but gradually Jav pressed and gained the advantage until he dominated. Vays smiled the whole time.
“Besides the Gun Golems, I’ve never fought an opponent that required more than skill alone to beat,” Vays said between breaths. “Be proud, Holson. You’re the first to force my transformation.”
“Transformation?”
“I don’t mean the Titan Star. This is all me.” Vays’s eyes shone like twin stars and all his muscles tensed, standing out like carved stone. He was somehow bigger now.
Jav could sense the new power coursing through his opponent’s body and was reminded of the times Vays had powered-up suddenly when fighting the Gun Golems.
Vays was stronger, faster, better than before, and Jav fought a losing battle to keep up with him. Jav narrowly escaped the blade several times until finally he could not avoid using the Ghost Kaiser technique.
Vays stopped, truly impressed with this final display; it was the first time he had seen the technique first hand. All his muscles relaxed and his eyes resumed their normal luster. He lowered his sword and approached Jav who was bent over, hands on knees, panting. He was just about to praise Jav for his performance when the very Root Palace boomed and shook all around them.
“What was that?” Froster blurted.
Alarms began sounding throughout the palace, but Jav and Ren shared a look and knew without having to be told that the Gun Golems had survived and were here now.
Another jolt set the walls to trembling.
“What about the shield?” Ren’s eyes were intense.
Froster looked at Ren. “The shield? But that’s for—”
Another quake.
Jav looked up, realization dawning upon him. “The Vine. . .”
Vays had been watching Jav and Ren carefully, and though his face was fixed, untroubled, he understood the import of their exchange. Froster still looked confused, but it was perfectly clear that something required their immediate attention.
“Let’s go!” Ren shouted, and they all bolted, heading for the nearest exit.
Outside the Palace, the sky was filling with blackened figures that descended like marionettes dropped down onto a stage. The discharging pistols spat ear-splitting thunder, but the slugs went no further than the Prisma Shield, which was steady and unfazed.
Further up the Vine, though, where the dying sun’s pale light didn’t have even the thinnest remnant of atmosphere to grip, there was no shield, at least not yet. Along its dark, fibrous length, in the starry black above Planet 1398, grotesque eyes opened everywhere upon the Vine. Nothing could escape the gaze of those eyes, not even the char-black forms that were otherwise invisible against the equally black emptiness of space.
Besides that slated for Gran Kwes, two Prisma Shield generators had been commissioned: one to replace the Palace test system and one to provide a mobile defense anywhere along the Vine. This latter device had been prepared first and was already operational. The Emperor himself had control and wherever he “saw” Gun Golems gathered, he brought the shield to bear, but not before the Vine received uncounted pistol shots and several blasts from the females’ Cleansing Guns.
With the Emperor’s preternatural speed and skill at directing the shield, the sharp, explosive sounds of impact and the accompanying quakes subsided to muffled, bass drum thumps that seemed far away and harmless, like someone else’s tragedy. But the tragedy was closer than anyone yet realized.
With their firepower stopping short of legitimate targets and with the main share of the Emperor’s power focused in the Vine’s terminus, the Gun Golems drifted downward. Jav and the others exited the Root Palace and were stunned. Amidst the smoke and intermittent Cleansing Gun flares, they saw at least twenty Gun Golems crowding the courtyard sky. This was the shield’s first test against the females’ energy weapons and it appeared to be holding.
“An accurate count would be useful,” Froster said. “I’m going to go see how many there are.” The color drained from his body as he dispersed into a white mist, rising up swiftly into the air.
“Be careful!” Ren shouted.
“Don’t stay out past the shield too long!” Jav cried after him.
“Right!” came a confident reply.
Jav was sure that Froster was grinning.
Other Shades, including those retired, had emerged from various locations all over the Palace. At first, Sana Bale moved slowly towards her previous station as monitor and support for the shield, but prudence and naked fear hastened her final approach. She frowned, not for any lack of confidence in her system, but because of the sheer numbers it faced. How many were there anyway? Had all eighty-eight survived the blast? Was that possible?
It was in fact not possible. A total of sixty-three had survived, but not all had arrived yet.
From a vantage point above the group of attacking Gun Golems the Scavenger Cloud hovered and observed. Froster counted forty-seven Gun Golems and transmitted the information to his fellow Shades, but just as he finished, more began to descend from above. Bullets poured down through him and just as he was about to
congratulate himself on his invulnerability, all of the sky went white and he felt a searing pain down along his left leg. The Scavenger Cloud turned to bright red and dissipated, or, rather, condensed, in an instant. Froster clutched with metallic blue fingers at the bloody pulp of his ruined left hip. Stabbing, needling, fiery pain shot up and down a leg that was not there. He cried out in excruciating agony.
“Froster!” Jav shouted through his Artifact. Both Dark now, he and Ren stared upwards, but the sky was too choked with smoke, flashes of light, and the churning swarm of Gun Golems to see any trace of their friend.
“Froster, get back here!” Ren cried.
But it was too late. The Gun Golems were coming. Pistol shots whizzed by, digging bloody ruts in blue steel, and Froster, overwhelmed by what he beheld, could neither feel nor express a single thing. Three Gun Golems passed close by with their face guns flashing and Gast Froster was dead.
Moments later, Jav and Ren were transfixed by the sight of a torn and ragged mass chased by a wet red spray, a comet of gore that hit the ground not far from them. Shaking, Jav took a half step towards what was left of Gast Froster.
Now all of the remaining Gun Golems were together and attempting to pummel the Root Palace with their weapons. Sana Bale watched her instruments carefully as sweat beaded on her brow. With so many attackers could the shield really hold? So far it was holding, even against the Cleansing Guns. But, as the downpour of ammunition and sporadic flashes of metal-studded light continued, she bit at her lower lip, panic beginning to rise in her.
Mefis Abanastar and Aila Schosser had found each other and resumed their previous strategy against the Gun Golems, using stacks of lenses to augment the Cat’s-eye Cannon. Shimmering green spheres appeared high overhead out of nowhere and tore through the throng of attackers. Steel shrapnel rained down, pelting the umbrella shield and bouncing harmlessly away.
Defying the pull of gravity, Barson rose up through the shield and began engaging the Gun Golems. Jav watched Laedra Hol follow after him, striding invisible stairs ever higher until reaching the enemy herself.
Seeing his teacher spring into action freed Jav from the shock brought on by what happened to Froster. He fixed his attention on a single Gun Golem, and using it as a reference point, employed AI to close the space between them and launched skywards towards it. Once he met the enemy, he was like a machine, balancing with delicate precision the various sets of calculations required to both fight and keep aloft.
Perhaps due to the lessons learned on Bahahmei, the Gun Golems did not shoot at Shades when there was a high probability of hitting another Gun Golem, and instead, concentrated their attentions on the Root Palace whose shield remained impregnable to them. As a result, Jav, Hol, and Barson made slow but steady progress, almost unchecked, through the invaders that crowded the sky.
At some point Ren and Elza had joined the fray high overhead. Though he sorely wished he could do more, Ren soon knew for sure what he had strongly suspected in his first encounter with the Gun Golems: that he simply wasn’t strong enough to harm them. The Riot Driver struck and struck again, but only his own blades were being damaged, and those would fall freely through the shield imperiling those below. His doubt caught up with him and began to affect his performance so that more and more he was put on the defensive. Worse, he could plainly see that Froster’s count had been unfinished—the Gun Golems were everywhere. Doubt began to creep dangerously close to fear verging on panic, and he struggled to master himself.
Elza was having better luck. Knowing the Gun Golems’ limits now, she could better apply and manage her power. Focusing on any one would require too great an expenditure, but she could use her size to easily disrupt their efforts and she did so. The forty-meter giant of sun-bright, yellow energy scattered like toys all those within reach with a mere sweep of the hand. Wading through them, she cast the lot of them into turmoil and gave Ren the chance he needed to make a necessary retreat.
Like the rest, the female Gun Golems fired down upon the Root Palace at will, each time their Cleansing Guns bathing the protective shell in bright, liquid light. As more and more Cleansing Gun shots came up against the shield, Sana Bale flinched with each successive impact. The shield still held, but there was a danger. The females’ firing pattern was uncoordinated, and until now, no more than two shots had ever coincided. This last time, though, their timing had been spaced so that for a fraction of a second three shots had overlapped, and in that instant the shield wavered. The next Cleansing Gun shot opened a hole in the shield and a portion of the blinding energy touched down upon the courtyard wall, reducing its height there by half.
Bale jammed her hands into the sockets that put her in synch with the shield system and she shimmered brightly as she transformed into crystalline light.
“There appear to be at least six, possibly seven females remaining,” Bale shouted through her Artifact. “If the Empire is to survive, it is imperative that they be destroyed with all possible haste!”
Pistol shots zipped through the hole and left fresh, sizzling pockmarks upon the Root Palace walls. Another Cleansing Gun shot opened a second hole in the shield and sprayed the Root Palace with scattered flecks of scalding light and poisonous metal. More slugs poured through, and Bale shivered with dread. For a full minute she put everything she had into the shield and the breeches began to seal. She grew light-headed and nauseated with the effort, but the shield was whole again.
In response to Bale’s plea, the Shades high above made their way through the morass of enemies with varying degrees of success. Basically only vulnerable to the Cleansing Guns, Barson had little to worry about so he moved with ease and speed. Hol moved at a slower pace, but her methodical skill and unstoppable claws opened the way for her. Jav had immersed himself in a sea of enemies and was lucky to keep his position and not be struck down. He wasn’t thinking. If he stopped to think he would most likely die. His reflexes and the Ghost Kaiser were barely keeping him one step ahead of the numerous Gun Golems, and at this rate it would just be a matter of which ran out first: his luck or his endurance.
Elza had separated from her fellow Shades, finding that her actions were nearly as disruptive to them as they were to the Gun Golems. She had also changed her tactics and caused several male Gun Golems to fire their pistols at each other, but on hearing Bale’s words, she realized how much more beneficial it would be to direct the Cleansing Guns instead. Knocking her way through the enemy, she sought out a likely candidate.
Intermittent shots from Cleansing Guns fell upon the shield and when they were close together, Bale nearly blacked out. Finally, the law of probability won out and not just three but five Cleansing Guns hit the shield at once, blowing out the network of machines throughout the Palace walls, including Bale’s monitoring station.
Struck momentarily unconscious, Sana Bale lay several meters from the smoldering ruin of the Shield terminal. She pinched her closed eyes tighter, fighting the pounding ache in her head, but still, she rose, first to her hands and knees, then to her feet where she swayed unsteadily. She was dazed and staggered back towards the terminal with one hand pressed to her forehead. A peculiar sound caught her attention. The noise of the pistols from above had been a constant which she had tuned out, and the sound she now heard was coming from all around her: high pitched whistles that she could not, in her present state, begin to fathom.
A fist-sized hole opened up in the balcony floor to her left with a small explosion of dust and her mind suddenly came clear. She dropped her raised hand and stared open-mouthed at the hole as one of similar proportions opened upon the top of her head spilling out a torrent of dark matter through her neck.
As the shield winked out, Elza reached a female Gun Golem who appeared to be ready to fire its Cleansing Gun. “Everyone in the air!” she cried. “Stay clear!”
They had just enough time to see what she was doing and obey her command. Elza took the Gun Golem in her giant hands and held it like a gun, painting a broad st
roke through the air, obliterating seven other Gun Golems.
Cranden addressed everyone in a desperate tone, “The shield is down! I repeat! The shield is down!”
Besides the one in Elza’s hands, two female Gun Golems remained. One fired after the other and the whole front of the Root Palace was set ablaze.
Down in the courtyard, so far unable to participate in the fighting, Vays turned sharply towards the damaged Palace. “No. . . No!” he cried. “Father!”
Through the oily, black smoke, a fiery pink figure emerged, but everyone else who had been in the hospital was dead, if not vaporized instantly then fused to the sticky, still-burning pitch oozing from the scorched Palace walls.
Vays whipped back around locating one of the two Gun Golems responsible. He stood up straight and the plates of his armor shifted and spit jets of steam from the exposed vents. Ignoring a pistol shot that pinged heavily off his shoulder, he drew the Titan Saber from his helmet, and with immeasurable force and perfect form, he traced the pattern of a five-pointed star over the distant female Gun Golem. Hundreds of meters away, lines of red neon described by the tip of his blade, appeared etched in the air and fixed the Gun Golem to the sky. A completed circle around the star released a secret catch within the Titan Saber. With cool efficiency, Vays flipped his blade around, popped the hilt, releasing the hammer and trigger, and shot six times in rapid succession. This time, what fell from the Grudge Star was a gnarled mass of smoldering slag.
Elza knew that the female in her hands would not fire again in its current predicament so she pulled the energy collecting wings off, one at a time, as a child might those of a fly. She then twisted each arm off so that all the Gun Golem could do was fire its face gun.
The Gun Golems as a group, though, were moving closer to the Palace. Without the shield stopping their weapons, they could crack through the outer shell and get to the source of the unclean within.
The Gun Golems (Approaching Infinity Book 2) Page 11
