Gunwitch: Rebirth

by Niall Teasdale

  Mariel scanned over the list of files. ‘Jackpot,’ she muttered. There were reports, audio files, videos… One of the videos caught her attention and she selected it, running it on-screen and putting the audio through headphones. She frowned as the images appeared, her eyes widening as they played on. ‘Oh… Oh damn…’ The video stopped and she quickly moved to an audio file, then a report. ‘Oh, Annette.’

  Turning, Mariel activated another program and waited. While she waited, she dumped the new files out onto a memory stick and then ran a cryptographic deletion routine on her local storage. A ping brought her attention back to her screen.

  FallenAngel: You have something?

  Mariel would have grinned if her heart was not hammering. Everything you wanted, maybe more.

  FallenAngel: I need that data.

  Of course, but I can’t send it. I’ve dumped it to a stick, but there’s something else. I think they might have detected something. The action report I got back suggests they’re hunting.

  There was a short pause and then, FallenAngel: I’ll have an extraction team there in fifteen minutes. Be ready. The connection cut off and Mariel turned away from the screen.

  Extraction… Leaving everything behind, leaving the city. Well, if it had to be done, it had to be done. Mariel turned to her computers and activated a command script she had hoped she would never have to use.

  28/11/83.

  Annette walked up to the apartment building in Kirkland with a frown on her face. It was after one in the afternoon and Mariel was still not online. Annette had never been sure when her friend slept, but Mariel was always online. Usually.

  Hitting the button for Mariel’s apartment yielded nothing. No response at all, not even an automated one. Mariel lived alone, but if she was, by some chance, asleep or out, she generally had one of her computers respond to the door. Well, okay, Annette had one thing going for her most visitors did not.

  She hit the building security intercom button. ‘Annette Louise Barrington, UDF ID nine four six two six nine beta. I need access to Mariel Edmonton’s apartment.’ There was a buzz and the door clicked open. The UDF could override any private security system in the city. Annette opened the door, headed inside, and took the elevator up to Mariel’s floor.

  The apartment door was already open and waiting for her. The apartment was, however, very quiet. It was not the largest place in the city, but Mariel had always loved it, ever since moving out of her parents’ place. She had set it up to make life easy for her. Mariel needed her chair to get around, but preferred fending for herself to having a servitor do it. So, the kitchen had lowered work surfaces, and the lounge had a sofa for guests and an open space for her chair when she was entertaining. There was ample space in her bedroom for her chair to manoeuvre around the bed and her clothes were all in drawers where she could access them easily. When Annette found no one in the bedroom, she checked and could not really see much in the way of missing clothes.

  The computer room, the converted second bedroom, was Mariel’s pride and joy, but there was no sign of Mariel there. What Annette did find was something far more unexpected. All the computers were on, all the screens were lit up, and all the screens were displaying the same message, blinking on and off in a manner Annette found almost plaintive.

  NO BOOT DISK DETECTED: PLEASE INSERT VALID BOOT DISK.

  There was only one conclusion Annette could come to: Mariel was gone and someone, possibly Mariel herself, had erased her computers. Annette was considering whether to call Mariel’s parents or the UDF when her computer signalled a call coming in from Cranfield.

  ‘Hey, Cran, what’s up?’ Annette said once the connection was made.

  ‘We’ve got an urgent one,’ Cranfield replied. ‘The UDF needs an SAU assault team to go into a Cabal safe house they think they’ve located out Redmond way.’

  Annette frowned. She really wanted to chase up the Mariel problem, but… ‘I’m already in Kirkland. Send me the details and I’ll meet you there.’

  ~~~

  ‘Word is that this lot stole several cases of medical supplies from the local clinic two days ago,’ Cranfield explained. ‘A citizen called in a report of seeing boxes being carried in here in the dead of night, thought it looked suspicious. Regular UDF have been keeping an eye on the place since and they’re convinced.’ The others had arrived first in an unmarked UDF van, which Annette had joined them in. Well, joined the boys there.

  ‘But they want us to go in and kick butt,’ Baltry added. ‘Kenya’s taking a closer look at the surroundings and the building entry points.’

  ‘Carefully, I hope,’ Annette commented and requested a radio connection to her friend. ‘Kenya? I’ve arrived. How’s it looking?’

  ‘No problems,’ Kenya’s voice came back. ‘There are people inside. I can’t give numbers because the blinds are down, but I can see heat shadows moving. It’s not going to be too easy. It’s a small industrial building. There’s one access door and one fire door. Two storeys. Number of occupants unknown. Defensive capabilities unknown.’

  ‘Just another day in Utopia City. At least it’s not Below.’

  ‘Small mercies. I’m coming back.’

  ‘She’s coming back in,’ Annette said aloud and then turned to the UDF officer in the van with them. ‘We’re going to need stun grenades launched through all the ground-floor windows when we make our run. Your people can capture anyone who tries to run out. We’ll go in and mop up the ones inside. And we’re going to need a breaching charge.’ She turned back to Cranfield and Baltry. ‘Kenya can set that on the door and we can blow it by remote on the way in. How about Cran in the lead with Baltry and me providing the firepower?’

  ‘Sounds good,’ Cranfield agreed.

  The back door of the van opened and Kenya stepped inside, still wearing urban camouflage colours largely to spare Cranfield’s blushes. ‘Someone hand me my suit.’

  ‘Not yet,’ Annette replied, grinning. ‘You’re going to go deliver a present, and when that’s ready, we can knock.’

  ‘Knock really hard,’ Baltry said with a grin.

  ~~~

  Glass shattered as the stun grenades detonated in every room of the ground floor with a window and then the breaching charge detonated, reducing the front door of the building to splinters. And Cranfield charged in, decking a man with a submachine gun who was standing in the lobby blinking and trying to stop his ears from ringing. Someone emerged from a side room and Baltry, right at Cranfield’s back, dropped him with a caged lightning bolt. They were in.

  They moved from room to room, Cranfield acting as a shield as they moved, Baltry and Annette either stunning or freezing anyone who seemed capable of firing back. The criminals were well armed, but they were using low-calibre assault carbines, useful in a tight environment, but without sufficient power to penetrate Cranfield’s dermal armour. The big man was going to come away with a few bruises, but that was about all.

  Meanwhile, Kenya was scouting, her skin assuming the colour scheme of the wall paint as she moved through the corridors. She paused when she located a flight of stairs. ‘I’ve found the upstairs access,’ she called out over her radio. ‘Holding here until you’re finished. No sign of anyone coming down.’

  ‘We’ll be clear in a minute,’ Annette replied. ‘Have you seen any sign of these drugs they took?’

  ‘No, but I haven’t exactly been looking for them.’

  A couple of minutes later, the team regrouped at the stairs. ‘No sign of opposition?’ Cranfield asked.

  ‘No sign of anyone,’ Kenya replied.

  ‘Okay then, I’ll go see if anyone’s home.’ Cranfield started up the steps and got to a small landing without trouble. It was when he turned the corner and started up the next flight that he was hit by a burst of fire from above which had him staggering back and throwing himself out of the line of fire. ‘Shit! Pardon my language, but that stung. They’ve got an automated minigun turret on the top landing.’

  ‘
Are you okay?’ Annette asked.

  ‘I’ve felt a lot better.’

  ‘Huh.’ Annette took one of her nanite grenades from behind her back. ‘If I use this on all of us, we’ll all heal fast, but it could tire us a little.’

  ‘Do it,’ Baltry replied. ‘These guys are a lot better equipped than the briefings made out. Anyone got an explosive grenade?’

  Annette set her medical grenade down. ‘No…’ She reached back and collected her pistol from her pod just as the cloud of green robots began to settle on them. ‘However, I might have something that’ll work.’ Moving up to the top of the stairs, she ducked her head quickly around the corner and back, pulling up an image of the gun from what she had captured. ‘Doesn’t look like it’s exactly armoured. This should work.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Cranfield asked.

  ‘This,’ Annette replied, and she ducked around the wall, exposing as little of herself as possible as she aimed vaguely at the turret and fired off three rounds. There were three loud bangs and a horrible whining noise from the gun, and burning fragments of metal embedded themselves in the walls, floor, and ceiling where they continued to smoke. Annette paused, waiting for the minigun to do anything, but all it did was begin to smoke.

  ‘What,’ Cranfield said, ‘was that?’

  ‘Incendiary rounds. Be careful of those fragments – they’ll be hot for a while. There’s no carpet to catch fire, thankfully. The warheads have a fairly small explosive charge to propel the fragments, but it looks like it was enough to cripple the gun.’

  ‘What would they do to a human?’

  Annette handed her pistol back to her pod to have the magazine swapped out. ‘Nothing good. To be honest, I don’t really want to find out. Shall we finish this?’

  ‘Sure. I’m sweating like a pig, but the bruising’s almost gone. Those nano-things really work.’

  Annette flashed him a grin. ‘Hey, when I make something to do a job, it does the job.’

  2/12/83.

  Of course, Annette using her UDF authority to access Mariel’s apartment had been on record so she had to report the fact that her friend was missing. The UDF had investigated and found no evidence of a struggle. A missing person bulletin had been issued, but Annette got the distinct impression that the investigating officer suspected that they were looking for an insurgent.

  Annette had been unable to relax and her teammates had noticed. She was twitchy on the three search missions they had run, even though there had been no sign of anyone they were looking for. Annette had explained about her missing friend. Help had been offered, but Annette had no idea what help they could give.

  Then a message had arrived. Another anonymous one, received while she was asleep. Annette frowned at the display even though, technically, the window was not actually in front of her to frown at.

  Tacoma. Nutopium Plant 1. Today @ 20:00. You might do well to be there and bring friends.

  Great, just what she needed. What the Hell was her mysterious correspondent doing? Or was it the same person sending all the messages? Maybe this was from someone else. Maybe…

  ~~~

  ‘I’ve no proof, but I think this may have come from Mariel,’ Annette said.

  ‘Your missing friend?’ Baltry asked.

  ‘Yeah. I think she’s got her hands on some information, somehow, and she’s hiding, maybe from the Insurgency, but she got this to me.’

  Baltry looked down from the gantry they were standing on toward the Nutopium plant in Tacoma mentioned in the message. ‘You know the UDF thinks she is an insurgent, right?’

  ‘I suspected they did.’ Annette checked the time. ‘I guess we’ll know in a few minutes. Are the UDF in place?’

  ‘They’re reporting ready,’ Kenya replied.

  ‘Then we just wait and keep our eyes open.’

  ‘Yes. I’m going down with Cran. I’ll camouflage myself and take up a position inside the plant.’

  ‘Okay. Keep in touch.’

  ~~~

  Fifteen minutes passed without any sign of anyone showing up. Annette listened to the chatter from the UDF units situated around the plant. There were four snipers armed with laser rifles and four vans of men in power armour waiting to take on whatever happened. But they were starting to think that nothing was going to happen.

  Then Kenya’s voice came in over the radio. ‘I think I’ve got something. I’m not sure. I think someone’s in here.’

  The UDF commander on site answered. ‘Inside the plant? There’s no way they could get inside without us spotting them.’ They had assigned a lieutenant to the role, which showed how much they thought of Annette’s tip.

  ‘It may be nothing. Moving in to check.’

  And that was when something blew up in the yard outside the loading docks. Annette’s head turned and her eyes were zooming in a second later. ‘One of the main power transformers just blew out. Something is happening.’

  ‘All units,’ the commander said, ‘prepare to move in.’

  ‘There!’ Baltry said, pointing, and Annette shifted her gaze. Men and women in leather and scruffy denim were charging out of what looked a lot like a Below access point.

  ‘Never mind preparing, Lieutenant,’ Annette said across the radio links, ‘you’ve got upwards of twenty Zeroes coming up on the north-east side of the compound.’

  ‘All units deploy!’ the lieutenant yelped. Probably his first major operation and he was about to have a horde of Zeroes trash an important industrial facility.

  ‘We need to get down there,’ Baltry said.

  Annette nodded and headed for the stairs down the side of one of the buildings. ‘Just be careful. You’re not going to like getting hit with a club.’

  ‘Neither will you.’

  ‘At least I have body armour. When we get out of here, I’ll see about getting some fabricated for you.’

  They were halfway down, and already hearing the sounds of people attacking machinery with makeshift weapons, when Annette heard Kenya’s voice over the radio. ‘There’s definitely someone here, but he’s good. All I’m getting is flashes of heat signature. I need your help here, Annette.’

  There was a door into the structure right beside them and Annette put her hand on the handle. ‘Kenya needs me inside. You go down and help the regulars.’

  ‘Right,’ Baltry replied. ‘If you see Cran, send him out.’

  ‘Will do.’ Annette opened the door as quietly as she could and engaged her transmitter. ‘I’m coming in, Kenya. Second floor. I’ll see what I can see.’

  The door opened onto a gantry above the main factory floor. Below her, Annette could see a lot of heavy machinery: thick pipes connecting tanks and machines which presumably had something to do with making Utopia City’s favourite drink. She also spotted the bulky form of Cranfield crouching behind a stack of crates near one of the doors. Waving at him drew his attention and she signalled to him what she hoped he would interpret as ‘go outside now.’ The sound of conflict was starting to come through the walls and, apparently, Cranfield understood. Standing, he slipped out through the door.

  Kenya was on an upper walkway. Some of the machines were very tall. Annette guessed at some form of fractionating apparatus, but whatever, there was a need for high walkways to get to part of them. Kenya was using that as a vantage point.

  ‘I see you,’ Annette subvocalised. ‘I’m not seeing anyone else yet. I’ve sent Cran out to help Baltry.’

  ‘Okay,’ Kenya replied. ‘I think he’s down below. I’m sure I spotted something moving.’

  Annette widened her spectrum reception to include ultraviolet light. The overheads were probably putting enough out to be useful. Edges leaped into sharp contrast and a couple of the pipes, transparent ones, began to glow a dull blue which was a little alarming. Then she saw it: a figure darted out from between two machines, vanishing into cover again before she could take aim. It was enough, however.

  ‘Kenya, I spotted him. You’re right, he’s on
the ground, but there’s something else. He’s got the same sort of camouflage as you. Identical. I think he’s ex-SAU. That means he has your vision. He can see you as well as you can see him.’

  ‘Cat-and-mouse game then,’ Kenya replied. ‘I’ll move down and start from this side.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll come from this side, but be careful. He was carrying something, a bag. Given something blew up outside, he’s almost certainly planting bombs, but he may have other weaponry.’

  ‘Yes, Mom.’ Annette thought that might have been the first joke she had ever heard Kenya make. ‘I’ll meet you when we corner him.’

  ~~~

  Outside, things were not going entirely the UDF’s way. They had brought heavy-duty powered armour carrying high-powered laser weaponry, but the Zeroes seemed to have expected that. The courtyard was now filled with smoke which seemed to glisten before your eyes and did a good job of making laser weaponry less effective, and the Zeroes were using limpet mines and at least one rocket launcher.

  Cranfield found Baltry outside the building, looking frustrated. ‘This is turning into a real mess,’ Cranfield commented.

  ‘Tell me about it. I can’t see a damn thing and my weaponry is next to useless. I think we’ve lost at least one suit.’

  The sound of a fairly large missile tore through the air and Cranfield turned his head toward the sound. ‘We need–’ He stopped as the projectile found a target and exploded, drowning out everything else. ‘We need to find that launcher.’

  Baltry nodded. ‘It sounds like it’s over at the entrance they used to come up from Below. We should probably avoid the middle of this. We might get shot by our own side.’

  ‘Lead the way,’ Cranfield suggested.

  ~~~

  Annette moved smoothly into position at the end of one row of machinery and glanced down the row. She picked out the male form, highlighted in infrared and ultraviolet, ten metres away and very busy attaching something to a control panel.

  ‘I see him,’ she said over the airwaves. ‘I’m going for the shot.’