Jake dashed forward to help with the effort to stem the metal tide, and so did Henrietta, Beth, Marco, and Rug. Alien, quad, and MIMAS mech alike hit the enemy with everything, and the adrenaline surging through Jake’s veins was unlike anything he’d experienced in a long time. Thrills shot through him as they worked together to take down Ambler after Ambler using heavy gunfire, rockets, lasers, and energy blasts.
Except for Henrietta—instead, she laid about the enemy with her single remaining blade, demonstrating once more why her teammates had christened her “Razor.”
Ravager after Ravager exploded into showers of metal fragments as she cut through them in midair. Henrietta had also retracted her hand to reveal the autocannon beneath, and she managed to incorporate it into her swordplay to maximize the damage she was dealing to the enemy.
Jake tried not to let her dazzling display distract him from his own efforts to hold back the enemy, but he couldn’t help marveling as Henrietta rocketed into the air, coming down on top of an Ambler and driving her bayonet into its dome while sending high-velocity rounds burrowing deep inside its brain. The Ambler crumpled to the ground, and she turned to confront the next.
It hit her with a pair of rockets at point-blank range, sending her hurtling backward onto the ground.
As she struggled to rise to her feet, the Ambler stepped forward, firing two more rockets, heedless of the damage it was itself taking by deploying the explosives at such proximity.
Battered and smoking, Henrietta manage to raise her rotary autocannon to fire on her adversary. But even as she fired, Ravagers took advantage of her supine position, crawling all over her mech to rip it apart.
Jake knew from experience how quickly you needed to deal with Ravagers to prevent them from compromising your mech. He also knew, as he barreled across the battlefield to help his former teammate, that he was far too late.
A Ravager disappeared inside the MIMAS’ torso, followed by a spray of blood. Henrietta’s blood.
Jake yelled, his blood pounding in his ears, both arms becoming energy cannons to melt the Ambler who’d downed Razor and to disintegrate the Ravagers who’d killed her.
But nothing could bring her back—and, he realized, nothing could bring Oneiri back.
Chapter 20
Commit More Horrors
Well, that’s interesting, Ash thought as she reviewed an encrypted message from a friend she’d sometimes gotten coffee with during the scant free time Roach’s training had afforded her.
As creepy and invasive as Darkstream was, the technology they used to spy on people went both ways. The very employees they tasked with learning the secrets of others also had the ability and resources to access the company’s own secrets, and it only took one person to leak those secrets, so that everyone knew them.
That was why, despite Darkstream’s best efforts, rumors spread so quickly across Valhalla. And across the Steele System as a whole.
Not that there’s much left of the system for them to spread across, Ash reflected, her lips pursed.
The rumor her old coffee buddy had shared with her had to do with the remains of Gabriel Roach, which Darkstream had plucked off the killing field outside Vanguard and transported back up to the station for study.
Or at least, they were supposed to be Roach’s remains. According to the rumor, Roach was exhibiting signs of not actually being dead. Energy signatures, brain waves, screamed threats of torture and death—the rumor wasn’t clear on what those signs actually were, but it did seem pretty confident that Darkstream had discovered a way to keep Roach contained.
That made sense, of course. If he was alive and they hadn’t been able to contain him, Ash felt pretty confident the rumor would have quickly become solid fact, in the form of Roach rampaging through the station, killing everything in sight.
She decided to try investigating the matter herself. That night, she took an REM sleep-inducing sedative and soon found herself in the lucid lobby she’d configured a long time ago. That done, she began running through a series of transmission codes she had for Roach, starting with the most public and ending with a code that had been distributed only to members of Oneiri.
The final code worked. She established a connection over lucid, and within minutes she found herself on a barren, gray planetoid—inside of her MIMAS. Even in lucid, her instinct was to come as prepared as possible to deal with her old commander.
The decision turned out to be a lucky one, since this place had no breathable atmosphere. The dream would have rendered the experience of suffocating with the same authenticity it did everything else, and while it couldn’t actually hurt her, it would have been extremely unpleasant.
Ahead of her walked the alien mech that was now Roach, his back turned to her. She sensed that he was aware of her presence, though.
“Where is this place?” she called.
“It’s Earth’s moon,” he answered, and the mech dream conveyed his words to her. Otherwise, the lack of atmosphere would have rendered communication impossible. “Being here makes me feel exactly as alone as I want to be.”
“Good for you,” she said.
“Why have you come here?”
Ash shook her head. “What incentive do I have to tell you anything?”
That made Roach stop walking and turn to face her. “Good point.” His face was as impassive as only an alien mech’s could be. That was one of the challenges of interacting while inside mechs—other than body language, everyone was essentially unreadable.
“I owe you an apology,” he said.
“You owe me a lot more than that.”
“I know. You have no reason to trust me, and certainly no reason to respect me. I betrayed you in the deepest, most unforgivable way. And so I have to ask again: why are you here?”
“Curiosity, mostly. I heard you might still be alive.”
Roach nodded. “Turns out I am. Unfortunately.”
“Hatching another plan to avenge my sister, maybe? Going to refashion yourself as the wronged man, crusading for justice and vengeance? You seemed to enjoy playing that role before.”
The alien mech shook its head. “No. I’m not even worthy to speak your sister’s name, let alone pretend that I’m suited to bring about some kind of justice. I was messed up long before Jess died, Ash. I’ve committed a lot of crimes in Darkstream’s employ—perpetrated a lot of atrocities. I didn’t know it had affected me so much, but I’ve had a lot of time to think. I’ve started to realize that I was using vengeance as a vehicle for the rage I’ve built up over the course of decades. Rage at myself, mostly.”
Ash nodded. “How nice for you, that you’ve had this epiphany. No doubt it’s positioned you to convincingly atone for everything you’ve done. I’m sure everyone will jump right on board as you humbly work to redeem yourself. I just can’t wait to watch you come back to us, Roach.” Ash wasn’t used to being this bitter, and she was surprised by how easily it came to her.
Roach shook his head. “You don’t understand. I have no illusions about redemption. Actually, I wish Jake truly had killed me back at Vanguard. I don’t trust myself to be alive. I’m frightened I’ll commit more horrors—actually, I’m sure of it. Except, Darkstream seems to have found a way to restrain me. I haven’t figured out how to break the bonds they’ve put on me, and I don’t want to figure it out.”
“Well, too bad,” Ash spat. “Freeing you suits my purposes, so I do plan to find a way.”
For a moment, Roach froze in spot. Then, he raised his hands toward her. “No, Ash. Please. I don’t want my freedom back. This thing has corrupted me. I can’t control myself anymore.”
“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.” With that, Ash departed lucid.
Chapter 21
The Brightening Sky
Lisa swapped out her SL-17’s empty magazine for a full one and continued firing on the endless metal legion pouring over the staggered mound of rubble that once had been the city’s walls.
The combi
ned resistance and Darkstream armies were fighting in the streets of Ingress now, using the buildings themselves for cover. Of course, that only worked for so long—the Amblers had no qualms about blasting homes and businesses to pieces.
It quickly became clear that no effort had been made to evacuate the civilian population in advance of the resistance’s attack, and now, it was far too late. Citizens fled from the buildings the robots hit, stumbling from shock, faces white with terror. Lisa didn’t like to think about the ones who hadn’t had the chance to make it out at all.
An Ambler’s guns blazed, hitting the building directly behind her, two meters overhead. She glanced back to spot a piece of its wall tumbling down at her, and she sprinted forward—away from the immediate danger but toward the metal attackers.
With no one to cover her but herself, she unloaded into a pair of nearby Ravagers, who’d seemed to lock onto her right away, charging toward her. Two full rounds saw to the first one, but the steel claws of the second came within inches of her face before she managed to fell it.
Dawn was starting to break across the city, which at least made the robotic attackers a little easier to pick out. Lisa wasn’t convinced it was a positive, overall, though—it only gave a clearer picture of the city’s doom, which wouldn’t do much for morale.
Morale is barely a factor, anymore. We’re done here.
Every so often, Lisa had been checking over her shoulder to ensure the space elevator wasn’t leaving. Its schedule involved workers loading it up with cargo overnight for a morning departure, and while Lisa felt certain the night’s events would disrupt that schedule, she wasn’t confident it would disrupt it in the resistance’s favor.
Indeed, when she looked over her shoulder again, she saw that the elevator had begun its climb toward Valhalla.
Damn it. I need to deal with that.
She focused on safely extracting herself from the fighting while she sent a transmission request to Arkady Black. To her surprise, he answered.
“Black. Did you order that elevator to ascend without us?”
“I did not,” he said. “But you can hardly expect Darkstream to order its operators to keep it on the ground so that you can stroll onto it.”
Black’s sarcasm-laced calm was starting to get to her, but she had to admit she was impressed by his ability to maintain it in the face of overwhelming odds. She shook her head a little, to clear it. “We’re leaving,” she said. “Will you try to impede us?”
“No,” Black said. “But I would remind you that if you do succeed in leaving, you’ll be abandoning my soldiers and I to our deaths, along with the people of Ingress.”
“Don’t try to put that on me,” Lisa snapped. “They should have been evacuated the moment you were notified of our attack.”
“Well, they were not, and it wasn’t my call to make. Leaving us here, on the other hand, is wholly your responsibility. And I don’t think it will allow you to rest easy, for many years to come.”
Lisa gripped her assault rifle harder. Black was right, but it didn’t change their situation. Ingress was lost, and it was looking increasingly likely that the entire planet was also lost.
“Good luck, Black,” she said at last. “Thank you for your assistance until now.”
“And thank you for your empty words.” Black terminated the transmission.
Drawing a deep breath, Lisa reached out to Jake over a one-to-one encrypted channel. “Jake. Did you notice our ride leaving?”
“I did,” he said over the sound of his energy cannons firing.
“I need you to rocket up there and bring it back to us. In the meantime, I’m hauling our troops back to the elevator’s base and holding that area for as long as I need to.”
“Understood,” Jake said.
Seconds later, Lisa spotted him against the brightening sky, gouts of flame streaming from his arms and legs.
Chapter 22
Surrender, Then
The space elevator had already been dwindling to a speck when Jake began rocketing toward it. That changed as the alien mech’s rockets hurled him into the sky, and the great disk of the elevator’s underside blossomed in his sights.
The adrenaline surging through his body made him want to blast the elevator to pieces with massive bolts of energy, and the whispers had already risen in unison to encourage that sentiment.
I think it could prove contrary to our objectives, Jake thought wryly, and his mirth silenced the whispers. Humor often proved an effective antidote to them—as though they were offended by the fact that their efforts to corrupt amused him.
But they did. The idea that he would go against his dead sister’s wishes by embracing their invitation to merge into a single being with the mech…it really was laughable. The whispers claimed his powers would be augmented by doing so, and Jake believed that. He did find the promise of more power seductive, because that would make him more effective against Darkstream, as well as the robots that were wreaking such destruction on humanity.
But he knew that if he accepted the offer, in time he would prove the most destructive to those he loved. That was something he simply couldn’t allow.
Your confidence is what will cause you to succumb, one of the whispers hissed threateningly. None of the whispers had adopted quite that tone with him before, and it was unusual for just one of them to speak alone like that.
It took him aback, which was unfortunate, given the timing—just as he reached the elevator doors, which were sealed shut against him.
He shook himself to clear his head, and as he did, he flashed back to his escape from the Javelin, when his hands had become wedges to wrench the airlock doors apart. Now, he did the same, sliding the ultra-thin tips between the sealed doors.
Pulling his arms apart, he felt something inside the door break. Damn it. His aim hadn’t been to disable the locking mechanism, but he feared that was exactly what he’d done.
Nothing for it. If the resistance army couldn’t use the space elevator to ascend, they would be overrun, so Jake had to behave as though it was still a possibility. It wasn’t constructive to do anything else.
Inside the elevator, he found two squads’ worth of Darkstream soldiers from one of the reserve battalions that had been deployed to defend Ingress.
That cast a red filter over everything Jake could see. The fact that these cowards had left the city while the civilians they’d failed to evacuate died by the hundreds—that really didn’t sit well with him, whether they were ordered to abandon Ingress or not.
He rose his arms, and they became twin energy guns. As he did, one of the soldiers, a decorated officer, rushed out and spread both hands, holding up his palms toward Jake’s mech.
“Wait. Wait!” he yelled, his voice squeaking a little. “We can’t have any fighting in here! The elevator’s walls are only rated to take so much abuse. We can’t fight you here.”
“Surrender, then,” Jake said. “Or I swear to God I’ll blow you all apart, elevator be damned.”
He was bluffing. At least, he was pretty sure he was bluffing. Either way, the soldiers threw their guns onto the floor and raised their hands in the air.
“Now bring this elevator back down to the planet,” Jake commanded.
“What?” the officer said. “Are you crazy?”
“That’s a separate issue. Our entire mission was to secure the elevator, and that’s what’s going to happen.”
Another man stepped to the fore, alongside the officer. “Hi,” he said, with a sarcastic little wave. “I’m this elevator’s operator.” The man pointed a thin finger at the doors where Jake had entered, where a fair amount of wind was whooshing through. “You just broke those. You do realize this is a space elevator, right? The doors failing to close properly might become a problem once we reach, you know, space.”
“That’s why it just became your job to fix it,” Jake ground out. “Better get to work. You don’t have a lot of time.”
Looking around, he realized th
e elevator didn’t have enough room to accommodate all of the resistance army.
Making a snap decision, he contacted Councilman Pichenko to ask him to quickly find volunteers among the shuttle pilots willing to fly down to the planet’s surface and pick up any Quatro in danger of being left behind.
Chapter 23
A Risky Play
Of the eight trainees Ash had been tasked with turning into MIMAS pilots, she’d identified three who seemed likely to stick with her once everything started falling apart aboard Valhalla. Of the other five, there was no one she felt sure enough about.
I’m not even completely sure about the three I’ve chosen. But the time for certainty was long past, and she needed to try to add as many assets as she could to the resistance’s efforts.
That took her aback, for a moment—that she’d just thought of herself as a member of the resistance, rather than someone who was merely concerned for Jake and Marco.
I guess that is what actively working to undermine Darkstream makes me. Lying in her bed, waiting for the sedative she’d just popped to take effect, she shrugged. Might as well embrace it.
She’d instructed the three pilots she’d selected to meet her in a simulated version of Valhalla’s Core.
As she walked across the airy, gleaming plaza that catered to the Steele System’s richest people, she couldn’t help thinking of the final test that Roach had subjected them to during training. It had involved Valhalla getting attacked by the Quatro, and it had been the job of the recruits who hadn’t washed out yet to defend the station.
After they’d woken from the sim, it had occurred to Ash how outlandish the scenario had seemed. The idea of the Quatro somehow taking the space elevator to invade the station had seemed preposterous. And yet here they were, preparing for exactly that possibility.
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