Ash also left, strolling aimlessly throughout the village as she attempted to raise Bronson using her implant.
Before long, the captain walked alongside her in the dream, looking minuscule beside her mech, though carrying himself no less confidently for that.
“What can I do for you, Seaman Apprentice Sweeney?”
She glanced down at him. “Isn’t it about time I got promoted to Seaman, sir?”
Staring up at her, the corner of Bronson’s mouth quirked. “Processing promotions have gotten pushed to the back burner for now, I’m afraid. We’ve been unusually busy, lately.”
“Fair enough,” she said, nodding, although the fact that she’d commanded Oneiri Team in Roach’s place seemed a little incongruous with her low rank. “I’m contacting you to report a strange incident with one of the Gatherers, here in Cordage. In short, it appeared to divert itself from the collection facility in order to randomly attack a resident.”
“I see. Cordage doesn’t have a Darkstream contract. Did you know that?”
“I…I’m afraid I don’t see how that’s relevant, sir.”
“Well, I just think it would be useful for you to mention to them that if they had one, they wouldn’t have to worry about attacks, from Gatherers or from anyone else. They could rest easy, even after Oneiri Team leaves.”
Ash paused. “Is that an order, sir?”
“Sure. It’s an order.”
“All right, then.” She resisted the urge to clear her throat, concerned it would serve as a vehicle for her true feelings about Bronson’s words. “How is Jake, sir?”
“Price went rogue. I left him behind in the Belt.”
She stopped walking. “You left him behind? How will he survive out there? Did you leave him with a shuttle and supplies? Does Darkstream have a jail out there, or something? What do you mean by ‘left behind,’ exactly?”
Peering up at her, Bronson said, “What do you mean, sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m afraid the details of Price’s defection are classified.”
The dream pulsed to reflect Ash’s accelerating heartbeat. “Sir…Jake Price is my teammate and my friend. I’d like to—”
“He’s also the least of your concerns, Sweeney. You’re in the middle of a war. Time to get it together.”
To that, she had no reply.
“A report just came in that Peppertree is under attack by Quatro. That’s near you, meaning it’s almost certainly the group you recently encountered. Peppertree also doesn’t have a contract with Darkstream. In fact, they switched to one with Red Company—an arrangement that’s in the process of failing them. Your orders are to swoop in, save the day, and persuade the council there that renewing their contract with us is in their best interests. It’s a double win: we reclaim our contract and we send a message to other villages about who really has their backs.”
Ash shook her head. “Sir…with everything that’s going on, is customer acquisition really our main concern, here?”
“Our main concern, Sweeney, is a strong Darkstream, and this helps us reinforce that. A strong Darkstream means a stable system and a safe people. Have you forgotten that?”
“No, sir,” Ash muttered.
“Good. Now get going.”
Chapter 26
Peppertree
Gabe had run out of time for Darkstream executives and officers, especially Captain Bob Bronson.
Nevertheless, their interests coincided with his for now, and there was no use denying that. For differing reasons, they both wanted Quatro dead, and Gabe was happy to make that happen.
So he didn’t argue when Sweeney came to him with the proposed mission.
“Let’s go,” he said simply. “I want to leave now.”
“Now” ended up meaning twenty minutes later, after Sweeney had gathered the rest of Oneiri from whatever parts of the village they’d wandered off to. They had to check over their mechs’ critical systems, as well.
Gabe regarded them as they did so, remaining perfectly still, even though he felt excruciatingly restless.
He did end up developing a reservation about the mission, though, and it came in the form of Jess, appearing to him for the first time since he’d fused with the alien mech.
“Don’t go to that village,” Jess said, peering up at him, her face solemn.
He didn’t react—he’d mastered his emotions better than that a long time ago, and he only ever reacted to stimulus he knew posed an immediate danger. No, he stayed just as steady and still as he had before.
Unfortunately, his stillness did not reflect an inner calm. What was left of his human body—its circulatory system and its nervous system—pulsed with tension, and a chorus of whispers rose up, uttering a multitude of contradictory statements, trying to jerk him every which way and yet in no direction at all.
“Well?” Jess asked. “Are you going to answer me? It’s impolite to ignore someone after they’ve given you a warning.”
It occurred to Gabe, suddenly, that this mech he’d joined with might have been made by allies of the Quatro. What if it was designed to corrupt him—to lead him astray with hallucinations like this one, which resembled his lost love exactly?
“You’re not there,” he ground out at last. “And you’re not Jess. You’re something that’s trying to stop me from getting my revenge.”
With that, Jess vanished, and Gabe looked beyond the spot where she’d been standing, to the rest of Oneiri.
They’d stopped whatever they’d been doing to stare at him. Sweeney’s and Beth’s heads were both cocked to the side.
“Sir…?” Henrietta Jin said. “You all right?”
“I’m fine,” Gabe growled. “Are you ready or not?”
“Ready, sir,” Richaud Lafontaine said, and the rest echoed the sentiment.
“Then let’s go.”
He took off into the woods, and his augmented hearing told him that behind him, the others followed, their footfalls displacing undergrowth and splintering roots.
At a full-on run, it took them fewer than thirty minutes to reach the village whose council had elected to switch their defense contract from Darkstream over to Red Company.
It wasn’t hard to discern how that was working out for them. Quatro surrounded the small glade where the village had been built, firing on the structures where Red Company fighters were huddled, doing their best to return fire in the face of the brutal onslaught.
Oneiri Team got to work.
Gabe had no qualms about attacking the Quatro before they knew of his presence, and he knew the MIMAS pilots wouldn’t, either. If a soldier didn’t capitalize on every last advantage that presented itself, he wouldn’t be doing his job.
His entire frame became a spinning blade of razor sharpness, cutting through three Quatro who’d arranged themselves conveniently in a row. His edge laid them open, causing scarlet viscera to plop out onto the ground, and Gabe assumed a humanoid shape once again as he completed the attack.
Too easy. Where are those quads?
He cast about for them, wading through the ranks of Quatro, dispatching the unclad Quatro almost as an afterthought.
If the Quatro had fled once again the moment they’d detected Oneiri’s presence, that wouldn’t have surprised him. But they didn’t, and that did surprise him.
Instead of retreating, they redoubled their efforts, tightening the noose around Peppertree, charging between the buildings to savage the Red Company fighters with massive fangs and claws.
That only fed into Oneiri’s efforts, and they tightened a noose of their own, closing in on the Quatro ranks to continue eviscerating them.
Still no quads to be found. Were they on the opposite side of the village? Why would they let their naked brethren fall in droves like this?
He turned to give Lafontaine the order to loop around the village in an attempt to track down the quads.
As he did, something shifted.
Richaud Lafontaine became a Quatr
o, slavering with bloodlust.
Suddenly, Gabe was back in Northshire.
This time, he hadn’t arrived after the Quatro had finished with their slaughter.
No, this time, he was here as they were carrying it out.
Another key difference: Gabe wasn’t in his old body, as he had been at that time. For this do-over, he instead had access to the sheer might of the alien mech.
Gabe’s arms became massive energy cannons, and he aimed them at the Quatro that Lafontaine had become.
No. Stop this. This isn’t real.
But it really did seem he was back on Northshire’s village green, just in front of the mayor’s residence. Jess Sweeney walked out of the front door, resplendent in her white summer dress.
As Gabe tried to call to her, his voice catching in his throat, Jess descended the stairs from the porch and began to cross the village green.
“Jess, no!” Gabe managed to cry, just as her eyes fell on the massive Quatro that awaited her.
The beast charged, and Gabe opened fire with his energy cannons. Massive beams impacted with the Quatro’s flank, creating charred, gaping holes.
The Quatro hit the dirt, unmoving, but another Quatro was running at Jess—this one with bright blue eyes. Gabe shifted his autocannons toward it.
Wait. Quatro don’t have blue eyes.
Everything flashed, the Northshire village green vanishing for a moment to reveal the battle around Peppertree.
The Quatro he’d trained his autocannons on became Ash Sweeney—but only briefly.
Northshire replaced the scene once more, and Sweeney became the Quatro that was advancing on Jess.
Do I fire?
The world flashed again, becoming Peppertree. Then it reverted to Northshire, and the process repeated several times more.
For a period of several long seconds, Peppertree reappeared, and Gabe saw Lafontaine’s mech lying on the ground, blackened and smoking.
The mech dream pulsed with Gabe’s horror as he checked Lafontaine’s vitals.
He was dead.
With that, Gabe turned away from Peppertree and fled into the woods.
Chapter 27
Lockdown Mode
After they got the typical mother-seeing-her-son-for-the-first-time-in-years stuff out of the way—complete with comments on how much he’d changed, and facial expressions that mixed wonderment and anxiety in equal measure—Jake wanted to see his sister. Before he saw to anything else, he wanted that.
“Of course,” his mother said, tears still clinging to her eyes. “Come with me.”
He followed her through a sterile, metal corridor, from which you could access everything inside the emergency shelter. At least, if his memories of the frequent drills of his youth were any indication.
Along the way, he received greetings from neighbors he barely remembered, as well as from a man and a woman he recognized as Council members. They’d barely spared a moment’s thought for him, back when he’d been growing up here, but now their breathless words were delivered in tones of reverence.
Jake didn’t care. He only wanted to see Sue Anne.
Space inside the emergency shelter was fairly limited, but because of her condition, Sue Anne had gotten her own room.
Brianne entered first, leaving the door slightly ajar while Jake waited in the hallway.
“Sue…you have a visitor. Sue?”
Muffled whispering from the sickroom, accompanied by the soft beeping of a heart monitor.
Footsteps recrossed the room, nearing the door, and Brianne appeared once more, wearing a smile that looked in danger of getting blown away by the slightest breeze.
“Okay. I’ll leave you two to catch up.”
“Thanks, Mom.” He hugged her again, for the eleventh time since he’d arrived, and then he went in to see his sister.
He stopped just two feet into the room.
It had been months since Sue Anne had been well enough to record video messages to accompany the ones his mother frequently sent him. During that time, she’d ceased to be his sister and had become a pasty, thin creature without any hair.
The creature’s mouth broadened in a smile that looked truly pleased, but the eyes…the eyes were so, so tired.
“S-Sue Anne?” he croaked, and knew right away that the uncertainty in his voice was exactly the wrong reaction.
“Yes,” she said, her voice a barely audible rasp. “Of course it’s me. Come closer.”
He did, and each step felt heavy, as though he were marching toward his own funeral.
“How…?” Jake cleared his throat. “How do you feel?”
It was perhaps the dumbest question he could have asked. Possibly, it was the dumbest question anyone had ever asked.
Obviously she feels awful.
“Today isn’t the worst day,” she said, maintaining her smile.
“That’s good,” he said, trying for a natural-looking smile himself, but he knew he was failing miserably. It felt like a pasted-on grin.
Worse, he couldn’t think of a single thing to talk about. What could he possibly ask his sister that would be relevant, or even kind?
Every question that popped into his head struck him as callous, frivolous.
What have you been up to?
What do you do for kicks?
See any good movies lately?
Have you been following the war on Eresos? A lot of people are dying, hey?
“It’s okay, Jake,” she said, and her smile had taken on a note of true sympathy—as if he were the one deserving of pity in this situation.
Incredible!
“You don’t have to say anything. Just sit, why don’t you? It’s good to see you.”
But instead, he took a step backward, toward the door. He cleared his throat again.
“I should really—um, the Council will want to see me. They’ll need the airlock fixed, so that it goes into Lockdown Mode, and they can start reclaiming the surface…”
“Of course,” Sue Anne said, nodding. “Go do that. That needs to take priority—people getting back to normal life. We’ll talk when you’ve taken care of it. Love you, Jake.”
“Love you, Sue Anne.” And with that, he fled the sickroom.
His stomach roiled, and heat prickled all along his spine. The back of his throat burned, too.
What was that?
His mother was waiting with Councilman Ryan Pichenko.
“Jake!” Pichenko said, extending his hand. “What’s it like to be home?”
He stared at the hand for a moment, then shook it.
“Are you all right, Jake?” his mother asked.
“Yes,” he said, trying to force his mind back to normal functioning, recoiling from his own guilt over the way he’d behaved toward his sister. “I’m fine. How…how did you survive the attack?”
Pichenko answered. “Comet Seven was attacked first, on the opposite side of Hub. Ours was hit not long after, but we got lucky—at least, luckier than some of the other comets. We had just enough warning to get almost half of the residents inside the shelter.”
“Only half?” Jake asked in disbelief.
Pichenko lowered his head, with what appeared to be authentic sadness tugging at the corners of his mouth. After working for Darkstream for so long, Jake found it odd to see actual emotion on the face of someone in a position of power.
“I’m afraid so, Jake. The other council members and I, we tried our best given the warning we had, but…it wasn’t good enough.”
Jake laid a hand on his shoulder. “You did what you could, Councilman. You’re to be commended.”
Pichenko met his eyes, and he actually seemed to appreciate the comment. “Thank you.”
Why was that so easy, when talking to Sue Anne was so hard?
“It’s possible other residents still survive, inside personal shelters,” Jake said. “A few people had those, if I remember correctly, and they may have invited in neighbors.”
Nodding, Pichenko said, �
��That’s a good point. We should look into that immediately.”
“First things first, though—I’ll need to see what’s gone wrong with the airlock’s Lockdown Mode.”
“Does that mean you’ll have to get back inside that thing?” his mother asked, and when Jake looked at her, he got the sense that she’d blurted it out without thinking.
“Yes, Mom. I’m afraid it does.”
Chapter 28
Defeatist
Lisa had taken the lead through the dark tunnels as a show of strength, but she didn’t have the courage to back it up.
“You need to move faster,” Tessa told her, thankfully subvocalizing so the others couldn’t hear. “You’re walking through these caves like you’re blind. If we don’t speed up, another group of Gatherers will catch up to us.”
It was certainly dark enough that Lisa would have been blind, had it not been for her implant’s night vision capabilities. “Tessa,” she subvocalized back, “I—I think I’ve lost my nerve.” It was hard to confess that, and she wouldn’t—couldn’t—say it to the rest of the militia, for fear it would obliterate morale. “The Gatherers behaving so violently…it’s totally unprecedented. Do you think we should start preparing for the possibility that we won’t even make it back to oppose Darkstream?”
That brought a sharp look from the white-haired woman. “How in Sol do we prepare for that? Are you suggesting we prepare for our own deaths? That’s defeatist, Lisa, and it’s not how I trained you to behave. I trained you to act like a soldier.”
Lisa glared back at the white-haired woman. “If the Gatherers are attacking us now, I don’t see what hope there is for anyone on Eresos. And if the Amblers mount an organized assault—”
“You’re letting your imagination run wild.”
“Are you saying it’s not possible?”
“Of course it’s possible. But if you spend your energy on obsessing over a scenario that has shown no sign of actually coming true, then you’ll have none left over to deal with the scenario actually facing us.”
Lips tightening, Lisa tried to ignore Tessa and refocus on the mission. Though the woman was grating on her, their conversation had had the benefit of making Lisa feel more angry than scared. She studied the route her implant had traced through the tunnels, so that they could find their way back.
Meltdown (Mech Wars Book 3) Page 10
