City Strike

by Viola Grace

  The visit to the city has not gone to plan, and now, the pilots need to find the one thing they can’t do without. Accessories.

  With the transformation from engineers to pilots, the ladies must fight the memories of their ancestors in order to keep their focus on finding the defensive weaponry that goes with their bots. The city holds the key to the weapons, but the bots are on the outside of the gates and the caches are on the inside.

  Each ancient pilot knew where the weapons had been buried, and those memories are now pressed into service as the engineers break through the city gates to get what they need to save their own people.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  City Strike

  Copyright © 2018 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-0802-2

  Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

  Look for us online at:

  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  City Strike

  Innate Wright Book 3

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  The halls were empty. The halls should not have been empty. Lido looked around as she headed back to Cio. There should have been someone watching the door. Back home the alarm would have sounded.

  She opened the com link. “Does anyone else think it is creepily silent?”

  Duel piped up, “Yes, and I just remembered that I left my laundry in the washing station. This isn’t going to end well for my favourite shirt.”

  Lido chuckled. “Thanks. But where do you think they are?”

  Corbyn murmured, “I don’t think they consider us a threat. We are their own kind, more or less.”

  Nyvett’s voice came in. “Don’t get me started on that.”

  Lido was relieved that no one considered the genetic alterations normal.

  Xaia muttered, “Why did the first man we met be him? That mayor has a lot to answer for.”

  They chuckled softly through their links and each made their way to their respective bots.

  When she finished her walk in the dimness, aided by the lens on the headset that she wore, Lido stopped at the door to Cio’s lift and tried to open it.

  It was locked.

  “Hey, they locked us out of the bots.” Hima was laughing.

  Lido sighed in relief. It was good to hear Hima laughing again. Her previous surliness wasn’t normal.

  “I guess we are going to have to give up.” Lido spoke while she opened the electric panel and started to rewire the door.

  The other ladies laughed.

  Lido’s door opened. “I’m in.”

  Nyvett chuckled. “Me too.”

  Xaia snickered. “I am in the lift and nearly to Ai’s command deck.”

  Corbyn muttered, “Of course you are. I am in.”

  Hima sighed. “There. In.”

  Duel grunted, “Last but not least. In.”

  Lido stepped into Cio’s lift. “Permission to come aboard.”

  Cio’s voice came to her. “Granted. I thought you did very well.”

  “Thank you. It appears that the city has forgotten that our mothers and grandfathers designed this facility. We were taught how to take it apart and put it together before we were ten.”

  “It seems they have underestimated you.”

  “They have rotted from the inside. I swear, they have done the enemy’s work for them. By the way, did they come and get the guy from you?”

  “Yes. They took him away, apologizing to him the entire time. I do not believe that they have any interest in the survival of Bot City or the valley.”

  Lido got out on the command deck and checked a few things that her ancestor had shown her. She grinned. “Nice. A full kit of tools and small arms.”

  “How did you know it was there?”

  “I am your pilot now. What he knew, I now know.”

  “Thank you.”

  She closed the panel and reached for another, getting the med kit.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “I am going out on your arm for genetic samples from our prisoner. Even if he is gone, the BO will remain.”

  “That is... practical. Why do you want a sample?”

  “Because we haven’t seen anything like him before, and when we get home, the biologists can examine this in detail.”

  “Why would they want to?”

  “If we can’t finish this quickly, we might need to look into a more long-term weapon.”

  “Ah.”

  He opened the hatch in his chest and brought his palm right up to it.

  “Thank you for the assistance, Cio.” She stepped out, and it didn’t take her long to see the smears of oil from his skin as well as the pools of sweat on the palm. Lido took out the kit and got some swabs in tubes.

  She had four samples and she fastened them together before tucking them safely in the kit.

  “Right. Coming in again. Time to join the others.”

  Lido stepped into the bot and stowed the kit while the other bots began moving.

  She settled in the pilot’s cradle, and she sighed happily as she got control and finally knew how to move him. “Right, we are going to get your weapons.”

  Cio was surprised. “You know where they are?”

  “Oh yes. My ancestor’s memory was most forthcoming.”

  She took a step forward with the muscle memory of a professional pilot.

  “Where are we going?”

  She grinned. “We are breaking in to the city. Everything we need is inside.”

  Cio sounded a little bewildered, “This is not how I imagined the trip to the city going.”

  Lido grinned and joined the others in the walk toward the huge city gates. Breaking in was definitely a change in plan.

  * * * *

  Xaia switched from nervous to outrage in turn. She settled into the pilot’s cradle and disengaged Ai from the dock.

  “So, I am guessing that the imprinting of the pilot’s information went well?”

  “Yeah, I got what I needed, but I am not sure that it is what I had wished for.”

  “Are you accepting of it?”

  “I am. It is rather nice to know how you move and how much my body can be linked to yours.”

  “It was difficult to explain.”

  She sighed. “I know. I would never have believed how swiftly you could move if I hadn’t seen in through his eyes.”

  Ai was smug. “I have my memories.”

  “And yet, the physical memories weren’t there. It is one thing to know how you can move, another to know what it felt like for your pilot.”

  “Now you know?”

  She went into a crouch and stood again, twisting from side to side. “I have
a much better idea.”

  She straightened and walked ahead of the others toward the gate. The others would follow them shortly.

  Xaia looked the gate over. It had been partially grown over with climbing vines and stood slightly taller than Ai.

  “This is going to take some doing?”

  Ai’s response was direct. “Don’t you know how to open the mechanism?”

  “I think so. There are options.”

  “Do you think you can make a decision in the next two minutes?”

  “Probably.”

  “Good. The others are right behind us, and I am eager to be whole again.”

  “Whole?”

  “The weapons I have access to are only a minute fraction of what I am used to wielding.”

  “That sounds like fancy talk for you want to play with a cannon.” Xaia used her sensors on the gate and found a weak point. Waiting sucked, she wanted to see the technical marvels of the colony city and take some ideas home to the valley.

  * * * *

  Hima was surprised by the willingness to join the fight that was surging through her. It wasn’t her emotions, it was those of Len’s last pilot and her own ancestor, Dbor. The urge to battle was extreme.

  “Hima, you are quiet.”

  She smiled slightly as she got into her cradle. “I am fighting memories. The horrors of war are different when they are implanted in your mind.”

  “Relax into them; take them in as you can. It is a hard thing that you have done.”

  “Getting the memories was easy. I was just unprepared for the content.” With the connections holding her in place, she got Len out of his dock and moving toward the city gate. Her knowledge of its location was part and parcel of the memory dump that was still swirling in her mind.

  “Ah, yes. Dbor was a wild fighter. No one got past him in one piece.”

  “No one got past both of you.”

  “It was your ancestor’s reflexes that enabled my housing to be intact and stored in the valley.”

  “Yes, I am seeing those reflexes in my mind. It is amazing that it is so fresh. I am not sure that I can do what he did, though.”

  “Don’t worry. You will do what you can when the time is right.”

  She looked around and saw that while they had been speaking, she had joined the first two. She had walked Len over by reflex. “Whoa.”

  “I am already standing still.”

  Hima didn’t understand the reference, but he was right. He was already waiting, and she hadn’t consciously walked anywhere. Keeping a grip on herself at this point might be a good idea as she didn’t want to find herself on an ancient battlefield picking a fight with a tree. She didn’t have much dignity, but she wanted to be remembered for the fight and not going crazy during it.

  There were some things that a woman didn’t like to do in public.

  Chapter Two

  Nyvett released Iff from the dock, and she walked him across the field and toward the others who were gathering outside the gate.

  Iff was nearly pulling her along with him, he was so eager to punch through the wall.

  Nyvett linked to Kab, and she asked Duel a favour.

  “Duel?”

  “Yes, Nyvett?”

  “Can Kab take over the communications array and send a message to the valley that we know they are under attack and we are coming.”

  Duel’s voice was serious. “He is working on getting in. The moment I have sent the signal, I will let you know.”

  “Thank you. I am standing by.” She cut the communication but left the receiver open.

  “Why are you so eager to send that message?”

  Nyvett blinked rapidly as she settled Iff into position. “They need to know that we are coming. They need that hope so they don’t think they are all alone.”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Someone with hope fights harder. They fight until there is no hope left.”

  She paused with that in the air between them. When Duel sent the confirmation that the valley knew they were coming, Nyvett prepared her mind for battle.

  * * * *

  Duel sat in Kab, and she pondered the call from Nyvett. “Is she trying to warn them?”

  Kab’s systems were still picking through the city’s communication array. “She is trying to tell them that we will return and that we know they are in danger. They don’t know why they are targets, simply that they are.”

  Duel nodded. “Right, so by telling them that we are aware of it, we are pointing the finger at the city.”

  “We are. I have the link. Connecting.”

  Duel waited until the link was confirmed and solid. “This is Duel, pilot of Kab, and I have the following message from Nyvett, pilot of Iff.”

  “Understood. Go ahead, pilot.”

  “We know you are under attack, and we are coming. I repeat, we are coming.”

  There was a pause. “Thank you, pilot. As you were. Don’t dawdle.”

  “Hold on for a few hours and we will be there. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Understood, Duel. Good luck.”

  When the com went silent, Duel whispered, “Can you get the signal back when we are on our return?”

  “I can try. Some of my equipment would help with it.”

  “Well then, let’s line up with the others and get into the city so you can have it.”

  She finished their walk to the gate, and she waited for the signal.

  * * * *

  Corbyn was dealing with the effects of Leving’s memories, but she managed to get Myx into position with the others.

  As they settled, Corbyn found herself projected into a conversation once again.

  Xaia stood to one side, and she stated, “I have found the weak point. We need to hit it hard, but the door should pop right open.”

  Nyvett smiled. “Iff can do it.”

  “Iff could, but Myx is better suited to it. His fists are weighted for this sort of thing.”

  Corbyn blinked. “He is?”

  “He is. Myx was the battering ram that opened ships, crushed bots, and took point. Iff flew protection, and he fired from the sky.”

  The ladies all closed their eyes and learned for a moment about their specialities. Corbyn learned that Myx had weighted fists that slammed a hefty force into anything he aimed at.

  When she opened her eyes, it was with the knowledge that not only did the bots have their own techniques, but they also had complementary weaponry that matched their physical capabilities. They were each designed to fight in a specific way, and when all the bots combined, that way was deadly for the enemy.

  Xaia smiled. “Ai will paint the spot, you hit it, and from there, we are depending on the memory of the pilots for the locations. Get your equipment, get it settled and get back to Bot City as fast as you can. We will reconvene when we have a moment to breathe.”

  Nyvett piped up. “The valley knows that we are coming. Let’s not disappoint them.”

  Corbyn nodded. “Right. Xaia, paint it. If they haven’t changed the interior of the city, I have my target.”

  Ai’s arm extended, and a hot red dot appeared on the gate, precisely at some structure that only Xaia could see.

  Corbyn targeted the spot, and Myx made a fist. She stepped forward and plowed her bot’s fist into the small, red dot.

  Truly making direct contact was very different from firing at a target. The impact was translated into the harness holding her in, and she felt her skin hum slightly. She struck a second time, and the gate opened.

  Duel spoke up, “Call if you need anything, but if not, see you back home.”

  The ladies murmured their assent, and Corbyn walked Myx through the gateway, not knowing what to expect.

  The city that her ancestor remembered was a thing of the past. It was lying in ruins and covered with grass, weeds and moss. The only part of the city that was recognizable was walled in on the north
east corner of the huge, encircled space. The city had shrunk to twenty percent of its original size.

  Myx murmured, “Do you know where we are going?”

  “Yes, I do. We are heading northwest.” Corbyn began striding toward the position in her memories, and the ruined roads under Myx’s feet bore their prints as they walked along.

  “What happened here? I remember it as more vibrant.”

  “The population degraded, and instead of expanding and having larger families, they pulled in. It is the exact opposite of the original intent for our settlement.”

  “So, the original intent was to have families?”

  Corbyn grimaced. “The original intent was to have a new world. This has all gone terribly sideways.”

  “Tell me about the colonists.”

  She continued their rapid strides, and she circled around the hive of crimson bees that had taken up habitation.

  “The colonists were living on the fine edge of survival. They were given the chance to choose life on an unknown world with unknown dangers, and they jumped at it. They piled into the ships and headed through the tear in space. Once they got here, the city went up and life was good until the Tokkel attacked. The first attacks took the population down considerably, and in the scramble to make the bots, sects were divided along trade lines. Those divides only got wider.”

  She continued north of the hive and a little to the east. There. That was the spot where the weapons had been buried.

  The scanners that she was using showed her a deeply buried cache of metal, and she walked slowly to the position, unsure of how to get to the weaponry below.

  “The holes were dug for us when we got here, but if we kneel, you can use our hands to get to the weapons.”

  “I have done worse.”

  She knelt in the center of the target area and shoved Myx’s hands beneath the turf. A chunk of soil and green grass went flying as she dug down until she struck metal. Once she had the contact point, she had Myx kneel to the side of the hole. She shoveled with the metal hands together and scraped away all of the dirt and debris until the wrapping around the weapons was exposed. There were chains in place, and she leaned Myx forward until he was nearly falling into the hole, and then, she pulled his weight back, and his grip on the chains hauled the weapons up and out of their grave.