by Magus Tor
“Not bad,” Jonathon said, nodding. “I see how it could work.”
“Once we control the centre of 01, we simply push outwards. We'll be more in the position of defenders than attackers, though we'll avoid the biggest problem with defending a fortified position, since we can bring more men in whenever we need to.”
“Okay, you've sold me,” said Jonathon. “Pending the map that Jak is making. As long as it looks logistically feasible, then that's our plan.”
“There's one more thing,” Aurelia said.
She got up and drew back the blanket covering Mattias to show Jonathon the uniform he was wearing.
“Gods,” he said. “Children?”
“We haven't confirmed that it's every training academy, but it could be,” said Aurelia.
“We cannot allow children to fight,” Jonathon said. “Absolutely not.”
Nicholas nodded. “I think we don't have to,” he said. “Look, there's a fair amount of Resistance men already in the City. We know that the 01 leader didn't send us everyone he had. Plus, there's the men that we can get up here in the next, say, two days. That should be enough to mount the initial attack on 01. But there's more.”
“You mean...?” asked Jonathon.
“Yes, the Outliers. They've been waiting for this, and they want to help.”
“They consider 01 their City,” said Aurelia. “Though many of them have never even been inside it.”
“The Outliers aren't Military; they're not trained,” Nicholas said. “Which could make them more of a hindrance than a help. Unless we make them into a special task force.”
“What are you thinking?” Jonathon asked.
“I'm thinking that we use Jak's map to get a small band of Outliers close to as many training academies as possible and to seal them shut. That way, the children won't be able to fight. Then, if possible, we channel the children out of 01 until the City is taken.”
“That could be a waste of resources,” Jonathon said, playing devil's advocate.
“No, it's not,” Nicholas said. “We're going to be moving troops back and forth, from where? 02 and 05 probably, right? So there are going to be cargo pods coming into 01 carrying troops then flying back to the other Cities empty. Why not fill them with the children instead?”
“And you couldn't choose a better group of guardians,” Aurelia put in. “The Outliers consider children sacred. They'd be happy to risk their lives to get as many out as possible.”
“Okay, I'm convinced,” said Jonathon. “We'll do it.”
“Actually, there's one more thing,” said Nicholas, shooting a quick look at Aurelia.
“Another one?”
“Yes,” said Nicholas. “You're not going to like to hear this, but this time it makes no sense for you to lead troops into battle.”
Aurelia felt a fluttering in her stomach. She was glad that Nicholas had been the one to mention this, not her. She didn't want to stop Jonathon from doing what he needed to do, but equally she didn't want to watch him risk his life again.
“And why not?” Jonathon asked.
“Because we're going to be fighting multiple small battles,” said Nicholas. “There's no main force, and you can't lead all the groups at the same time if you're in the City. It makes far more sense for you to coordinate from here, and then from the centre of 01 once we've taken it.”
Aurelia watched Jonathon's face. He was torn, she could see. He wanted badly to prove that he wouldn't ask his men to do something he himself wouldn't do, but on the other hand, Nicholas was making a very good point.
“You've already proven yourself, Jonathon,” she said quietly. “These men know you, know what you're capable of. Now is the time to be a leader, and that means using your skills to the advantage of your men.”
He nodded curtly. “Fine.”
Aurelia heaved an internal sigh of relief. At the same time, Mattias gave a snore and rolled over.
“We'd better get to work,” Jonathon said. “And let that kid sleep.”
Whilst Jonathon worked with Lukas to arrange troop transportation, Nicholas worked with Jak and the Outliers. Jak's map had been perfect, exactly what they'd needed, and their plans were coming together, albeit a little slower than they'd planned on. The first of the forces didn't arrive for two days, and it would take a further two days for them to mass enough men to do what they needed to do. In the meantime, Elza finally landed in the outlying areas of 01.
“I'm so glad to see you,” Aurelia said, giving the woman a hug as soon as Nicholas escorted her into what had become their headquarters.
The night before, she and Nicholas had discussed how to introduce Mattias to his sister. Nicholas had been all for a big surprise, but Aurelia counselled him that this was not his best plan.
“Elza needs fair warning for what she's in for,” she'd said. “That way, she can make sure that her first meeting with Mattias leaves a good impression. Remember what happened when you tried to hug him the first time?”
Nicholas rubbed his shin unconsciously, then nodded.
So when Elza came into their small office, Aurelia told her to sit down, then she left Nicholas to it. This was his surprise, after all. She didn't go far and was waiting outside the door when Elza left the room. Ignoring the woman's red eyes, thinking that Elza might not want attention drawn to them, she asked if she was ready to meet her brother.
In the past couple of days, Aurelia had made some headway with Mattias. Partly this was because he was taking an interest in the chess she was trying to teach him, and partly it was because she had more free time than the others to spend with him. Because of this, Nicholas had agreed that she be the one to introduce Elza.
Aurelia quietly knocked on the door, hearing Mattias's voice yell out that it was open.
“Hi, Matt,” she said, opening up.
“Cool, I was just coming to find you. Wanna play a game?” he asked, jumping up.
“Not right now. I've got someone who would like to meet you.”
She opened the door further, allowing him to see Elza behind her, then stepped aside. Elza made a move as if to go to him but then restrained herself. Instead, she held out her hand and approached him.
“Hello, Mattias, I'm Elza,” she said in a soft voice.
He took her hand by habit and surveyed her critically. “You're supposed to be my sister?”
“That I am,” said Elza, with a smile.
“You're older than I thought.”
She nodded. “That I may be.”
“I'm not sticking around, you know,” he said airily. “I'm a Prisoner of War, so I'm just here until everything's over. Then I can go back to my regular life.”
“If that's what you want,” Elza said.
“I'm just telling you so, you know, you don't get too attached or anything. I'm an Empire man, myself.”
Aurelia had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling. She knew this was serious, but the boy was so young, hearing those words come out of his mouth was a little funny.
“Fair enough,” said Elza. “But there's no harm in getting to know each other a bit while you're here, is there?”
“I guess not,” he said, shrugging.
“Aurelia tells me you've been learning to play chess. Nicholas has also been teaching me. Would you care to have a game?”
Mattias looked at Aurelia as though asking permission. “I've got stuff to do right now,” she said. “Play with Elza for a while.”
She left the two of them to it, impressed that Elza had been able to control her emotions so well. She couldn't imagine finding a sibling and then not wanting to throw her arms around him or her. Elza, however, had handled the situation incredibly well. Aurelia was glad they'd decided to warn her about Mattias first, rather than to just throw her into the deep end of the pool.
More and more men streamed into the outlying areas. Nicholas had said that there was no point being secretive. Let the Elite Army see what they had. The more men they brought in, the more c
onvinced the Elite would be that they were planning on surrounding the City, rather than attacking from the inside. Any kind of habitable ruin was put to use to house the men, but even then, there were a fair few of the portable domes in sight. Plus, all these men needed to be fed and watered, so there was a constant flow of cargo ships in and out of the area, bringing crates of ration packs and water canisters.
What was kept secret, though, was the various construction projects going on around the City. Once Nicholas and Jak had worked together to figure out which tunnels they needed and which exits, they needed to construct larger entrances to these tunnels in order to feed as many men as possible down at the same time.
Everywhere she looked, Aurelia could see preparations. She wondered if her mother had looked on these preparations with as much awe as she did. She'd managed to talk to her mother, who was now safe in 05, and congratulate her on her victory.
“It wasn't me,” her mum had replied. “It was the men. And your father. He prepared them for this; I just gave them the final push.”
Maybe she was right, but Aurelia had a feeling that her mother had her own set of skills. Especially since Jonathon had decided to put her mother in charge of capturing 04 once 01 was in safe hands. Her mother was delighted to be given the chance to free her birth City, and she was hard at work plotting exactly how it was to be done.
Finally, they were ready. The men knew exactly what had to be done and where they were to go. Nicholas had worked long and hard with the Outliers and now had an effective system to both prevent the academy students from leaving their buildings until the area was taken, and then for getting them out of 01. Elza had set up field hospital stations at each of the tunnel entrances, meaning that casualties could be dealt with quickly. Jonathon had established a command post on top of a building, giving him a clear com signal. All they needed now was the signal.
“Six,” said Jonathon.
Nicholas shook his head. “Four.”
“Six or four what?” asked Aurelia, coming into the office.
“The time we attack,” explained Jonathon.
Aurelia thought for a second. “Four seems most sensible. I mean, plenty of people will still be asleep then, including the children. You could get a head start.”
“I'm uncomfortable with the men fighting in the dark,” Jonathon said.
“They don't have huge areas to control. They'll be fine,” said Nicholas.
After a bit more discussion, they agreed on four. At a little after midnight, Aurelia watched as men began to form into orderly lines and then to slowly disappear into buildings that looked like ruins but, she knew, covered the various Subway tunnel entrances. By three o'clock on her time reader, more than half the men had gone. The others were reserve forces.
She went up to the top of the building, where she knew she'd find Jonathon. She took him a ration box that he thanked her for but didn't open. Then he sat watching through field glasses.
“Here,” he said, noticing her interest and passing her the glasses.
Holding them up to her eyes, she could clearly see the buildings of City 01 in the distance. Quite what Jonathon was hoping to see, she didn't know; but to her, the City looked beautiful.
At fifteen minutes before four, Nicholas appeared on the roof. He nodded at Jonathon.
“All ready—as ready as we'll ever be,” he said.
Then there was silence. The clock was ticking down, each minute seeming impossibly long and impossibly short. None of them spoke. What was there to talk about? They'd done all they could, and now it was time to see if it worked or not. Jonathon paced the roof top, checking his time reader every few seconds. The only sign of anxiety in Nicholas was a twitching cheek muscle. And still the minutes counted down.
Jonathon checked his time reader one more time.
“It's four,” he said quietly.
In one movement, all three of them went to the parapet facing the City. For long minutes, nothing happened. There was no visible sign of the chaos that was erupting. Then two things happened: a wisp of smoke rose up into the lightening sky, and Jonathon's com crackled.
“They're in,” he said.
By lunchtime, the Resistance Army controlled the ten blocks that made up the heart of City 01. By evening, they'd expanded that to a full fifty blocks. Already, children dressed in Elite Army uniforms were being led out of the Subway tunnels and funnelled into cargo pods waiting to carry them off to safer Cities. Men were appearing in the field hospital stations, burned, maimed, or dead. But far fewer of them than anyone had expected.
“There was practically no one to fight,” said one commander, reporting in to Jonathon after securing his block. “No one expected us. We fired a total of three shots. It was over that fast.”
Nicholas was grinning as he heard that. His plan had worked flawlessly. But the masses of the Elite Army were gathering in the outlying areas on the far side of the City.
“It's not over yet,” he cautioned Jonathon. “And don't expect tomorrow to be as easy as today. We've lost the element of surprise, for one thing. And now that we hold the heart of the City, the Elite are going to push even harder to try and get it back.”
But their troops were battle-hardened now. Nearly all of them had fought for City 02 and knew exactly what to expect. They worked like a well-oiled machine, continually moving forward, taking more and more of the City as they went.
Aurelia wasn't there when the com call came in. All she heard was the rapid running of feet, whispers in the corridor, men going back and forth speaking of the news.
“What is it? What's happened?” she asked, sticking her head out into the hallway.
A young Outlier turned and saw her. “They've invaded Lunar City,” he said breathlessly before hurrying on to impart the news to someone else.
Aurelia stood in the doorway, confused. That couldn't be right. Lunar City was already theirs, was already secure. There was no way that it could be attacked. Where had the attackers come from, for a start?
Running up the stairs two at a time, she found chaos on the rooftop. A half dozen people were trying to talk to Jonathon all at the same time. But he wasn't speaking. He was standing, pale, motionless, taking in the news that Aurelia suddenly realised had to be true. Silently she walked over to him and took his arm. Ignoring the questioners, she escorted him down the stairs, running into Nicholas as they reached the office.
“It's true,” he said. Not a question, a statement.
Aurelia and Jonathon both nodded.
“What do we do?” Jonathon asked.
His voice sounded despairing. He'd never contemplated the possibility of losing Lunar City.
To both of their astonishment, Nicholas laughed. “We get it back!”
That was all it took to pull Jonathon back out of his shock, and soon the wheels were turning again. First they needed information.
It appeared the attack had come from outside the City itself, which meant that the Elite Army had been outside the Dome.
“How is that possible?” asked Jonathon, not in disbelief but wanting to know theories.
“As far as I can tell,” said Lukas, who had joined them as soon as he'd heard what happened, “the Elite have been making use of the shuttle bay in 04. They've moved troops up and kept them outside of the Dome. It's just a guess, mind, but I've a feeling that they've somehow found a way to land shuttles outside of the Lunar shuttle bay. I'm not sure how.”
Nicholas grimaced. “It wouldn't be hard. A lot of synth fuel is made outside the Dome anyway. Making it inside is considered too polluting. So all they really need is a place flat enough to land a shuttle and a way of getting the fuel to the ship so that it can go back down. I'm presuming we're not talking about full-passenger shuttles, so there's no need for the stabilising machinery they use. It could be done easily, I think.”
Lukas nodded. “If this is so, then it gives us an advantage.”
“Which is?” asked Jonathon.
“Which is tha
t we can transport men up to Lunar an awful lot faster than they can, since we still hold the shuttle bay in Lunar and can therefore land full-passenger shuttles. Plus, the Lunar route from City 01 is shorter than that from 04, meaning we have faster turnaround times.”
Nicholas grunted his agreement at this. “And we can use the same evacuation techniques as we used here in 01,” he said. “We ship men up and then use the empty shuttles to ship Workers and those not fighting for the City back down here to 01. That will give us more room to fight and less to worry about.”
“How much of Lunar has been taken?” said Jonathon.
“All our intel says that currently it's only the main City centre, including the parliament buildings. It seems that they were waiting for us to make a run on 01, thinking that it would occupy the majority of our forces, leaving them free to take Lunar. As it turns out, we took 01 faster than they expected, and they're probably rushing their plans a little and have taken less of Lunar than they meant to.”
Jonathon nodded. “And what do you suggest we do, Nicholas?” He was relying on the Clone more and more for his military strategy, and with good reason.
“I suggest we start with the shuttle bay,” Nicholas said. “We use the Lunar bay as our base. There's plenty of room to station troops there, and given that it's so close to the edge of the Dome, there's nothing to worry about behind us, so we can fight forwards. Then…” He shrugged. “Then it's old-fashioned combat, I'm afraid, and may the best man win.”
“No tricks up your sleeve?” Jonathon asked, almost hopefully.
“None,” said Nicholas. “We're going to have to fight for Lunar City every step of the way.”
Aurelia was prepared to go. Jonathon had insisted on being one of the first back up on Lunar, and she had broached no argument when it came to going with him. Nicholas was obviously going too, as was Elza, to command her hospital teams. Which left the problem of Mattias.
“He comes,” was all Elza said.
