The District

by Skyler Grant

  22

  Wolf's tactics seemed flawed to me. Instead of splitting up attacks like this he should have focused on Crystal. Still with the Professor already fallen perhaps there was something to this, create such displays of force throughout the other districts that if foes did not fall directly they'd be too intimidated to assist.

  That was going to fail, but the question now became what could be done. Multiple Airships were ringing the district and were already dropping shuttles full of Werewolves. I'd given Crystal all of my bombs, and my troops could only teleport within my district.

  With my clones I probably fielded the largest contingent of ground forces of anyone present but I had no way to get them to Ophelia's defense.

  "I'm launching a full out systems attack on his ships. Their sensors are going to be spotty and they may lost critical systems," Crash said.

  Well, he was good for something.

  "See. How. Deal." Flicker's Orb said.

  That was one of them.

  "I only have two dragons still flying. They're modified to bring down shields," Crystal said.

  "I have some heavy soldiers on the way but they are half an hour out," I said.

  The Werewolves were off the fiery variety. As they stepped out of the shuttles the flaming auras around them sprang up. Crystal's citizens were opening fire but most of their guns were of an ordinary variety. The bullets already partly evaporated by the time they hit Werewolf flesh and then the accelerated healing took over.

  Ophelia's people healed nearly as well as she did and better than the Wolves but the wolves are packing far more offensive power. Ophelia and her people were hard to exterminate but they weren't difficult to defeat. But then, Wolf didn't need to exterminate her because if he defeated her in her core then she would have to answer to his commands.

  I sent a message to Jade instructing her to get her people here and provided her instructions on how to deal with them. With their telekinetic powers they would be able to force the air away from the wolves extinguishing their flames and ultimately knocking them unconscious. That was a bit speculative, but it was a tactic that had worked on Hot Stuff in the past and her aura was stronger than theirs.

  Ophelia was staring at a point off in the distance, "We don't have the time. Our defenses are entirety based around attrition and keeping an enemy neutralized for a long period of time. They are moving too quickly."

  I agreed with her.

  "Do you have any people that will swear to us?" Crystal asked.

  Ophelia studied the woman made of snow for a long moment before giving a tiny nod. Picking up the telephone she spoke a few words. A minute later there were three men and a woman wearing office worker attire in the room.

  "Split yourselves into twos and then one group swear yourself to Crystal's service and the other to Emma's. It is ok, you won't get sick again," Ophelia said.

  Is that how she was recruiting? Offering people a cure to the diseases that plagued them?

  I knew now what Crystal was thinking, I wish I'd thought of it myself. If they were our agents we could adapt them, modify them.

  The man and woman swore themselves to me and I opened up their menus. She was Evelyn, until recently she'd suffered from the late stages of cancer. He was Flynn and he'd been paralyzed. They were about to become stronger than they'd ever imagined.

  To fully boost the two of them would eat a lot of research points, but my days of having to save to upgrade a single stat point were well behind me.

  I slid their physical sliders to the human maximum and they screamed out. Clothing ripped and shredded as muscles bulged, before they'd both looked rather frail and now they were specimens of human perfection. I wasn't done.

  I gave each telekineses, electrokinesis, resistance to extreme temperatures, pack affinity, and the ability to teleport short distances. I had to give them accelerated healing again as well, when they left Ophelia's service they lost the effects of her crystal in their blood.

  This had them screaming again. They weren't alone. Crystal's two were being transformed as well. One now had majestic butterfly wings while the other seemed to have the legs of a goat. What was it with her and the animal hybrids.

  When I'd finished the upgrades I gave them the order to go defend this place. Now as my agents I saw through their eyes as they ran towards the door. Crystal's creations were quickly following on their heels.

  "Do you think that enough?" Crystal asked?

  I didn't. Mine were strong, so very strong compared to the human average and I suspected more than a match for any individual one of those Werewolves out there. They were also two facing far greater numbers.

  "We're sending them to die gloriously, not to win," Crystal said confirming she had the same thought as me. "But we needed you to put up enough of a fight to make Wolf inclined to accept your surrender when you offer it instead of pressing the attack all the way."

  "You wish us to surrender," Crystal said and she didn't sound all that impressed. Neither was I.

  "We can't win this fight and if you agree to work with him willingly you won't be under his compulsion," Crystal said.

  "Unless your brain has melted you'll realize that gives him four," I said.

  "And with Crash and Flicker we'll have five," Crystal said.

  "Uninterested," said the black orb before vanishing from existence.

  "Bitch," Ophelia said. That didn't sound like thenew her, and there was a reason for that. When my drones cameras looked back on her I saw her offering over a small shimmering blue sphere.

  "My Source Orb. It can't fall under Wolf's compulsion and he is bastard enough he might push on. You're kind of mean and kind of crazy but I trust you to be a pain in his ass. Keep it safe," Ophelia said.

  I took the orb in my drone's appendages. They had no temperature sensors built in it and it felt cold. Not just cold, freezing.

  Crystal gave it a frown, "Everyone retreat then. Pull back and prepare to hit the Professor."

  That was a lie for Crystal's benefit. No more were we out of the room than I was getting a message on a secure line that was a single word. "Flicker."

  23

  An attack on Flicker was risky in more ways than one. Of all the districts, hers was the one that had been completely untouched so far. This was in no small part due to the fact that nobody could really get to it. Flicker existed only partially in this dimension and the same was true for her district, while occasionally a flickering outline of it could be glimpsed attacking it was another matter alltogether.

  While my drone conveyed the source orb along a maintenance corridor back to my district I opened a line to Crystal, "I hope you have a plan."

  "I have a brilliant researcher as an ally. Figure it out and do it quick," Crystal said.

  Well, at least she had an eye for talent.

  The dimensional drive allowed for transit between dimensions by a ship having one. It seemed that one in theory could be modified to get to Flicker's dimension.

  "I need something then. Ophelia has a ship in her district, the Graven. Steal it," I said.

  "You couldn't decide on this before an army invaded. I'll get it for you but it will probably be damaged," Crystal said.

  That was fine, so long as it flew and the dimensional drive worked.

  There was still the matter of how to get it to go where I needed. I thought this was a problem already solved though, although in reverse. Flicker had interfaced with city systems and still did and her orb allowed her to speak here. I didn't have access to her orb but through Mechos I did have some access to the city systems.

  I'd wound up putting all my minimally useful things together. Magpie and her people, Mechos, and the Gobbles were now housed in one complex.

  Mechos had rebuilt his workshop, entered into a polyamourous relationship with two women and adopted a Gobble since his rescue. His life was dynamic, at least.

  I opened a comm line and filled him in on what I needed.

  "A set of dimensional coo
rdinates deciphered from quantum resonance on the cities systems. You do come to me with fun projects," Mechos said. He had already constructed a console to interact with the city systems, the circuitry lines on his flesh glowing a dull red as he placed his palm on the interface.

  "Do you even know their names?" I asked.

  "Sparrow and Lark? You're not jealous are you?" Mechos asked.

  Either he did or he was simply throwing out random bird names. It seemed to be the theme of this village of peasants. Anna had once been interested in him, I'd always thought him a poor choice. He only seemed to be proving it.

  "Jealous? Of what? Ideas both disgusting and unfeasible," I said.

  "You're biomechanical, I'm biomechanical. We could make it work," Mechos said.

  I wondered if keeping him around was really worth it.

  "Oh this is weird," Mechos said.

  "How so?" I asked.

  "Any set of drive coordinates I've ever known are four figures, a set of ranges outside of which the drive simply won't lock on a destination. Well, you know all that. The Omega variable is both way off and also shifts over time. Have a look," Mechos said.

  It was. This set of coordinates is one I'd never even try and the drift was something that simply shouldn't be happening.

  Mechos sent me the historical data as well and that confirmed it was. It was also enough data for me to pinpoint the current values. I had what I needed.

  "Do you want me to come along?" Mechos asked.

  The man did have his uses, but being good in a fight wasn't one of them.

  "Stay with your songbird collection. Let me know if you discover anything else of use," I said and killed the connection.

  Just in time as the Graven was coming in hot. It looked as if Crystal had managed to steal it although had one of Wolf's airships in pursuit. Dragons circled the craft.

  I hadn't been idle otherwise while talking to Mechos. I had a group of heavy troopers assembled at a landing field. I'd armed them with a mix of energy, kinetic, and acid weapons. I didn't know what might await us in Flicker's district but it was best to be prepared.

  Amid enemy fire the Graven landed and the hatch opened. I rushed my people aboard and they were joined by Crystal. No snow golem this time, she'd come in person.

  "You sure about this?" I asked through one of my drones.

  "One of us should be there in person and you can't. I hope you got what you needed," Crystal said.

  I did. I already had one of my drones on the way to the bridge and another to engineering to setup the drive.

  It was just in time. The Graven was never made to take a lot of hits, the ship was quick and nimble and heavily armed designed to take big bites out of an enemy rather than slug it out. The shields were already weakened and armor plating depleted by the time I finally managed to make the changes needed.

  Colors rippled around the Graven and then were bleached away.

  The Graven was in a new stretch of sky, over Flicker's district but instead of a hazy outline below us the district stretched physical and solid.

  Trapezoids and oblongs met at odd angles, it was as if someone had scattered a set of child's blocks across the ground and decided to call it a part of a city.

  "You did it," Crystal said.

  I had, but I wasn't sure that was a good thing. The ship's sensors were having a hard time here but the view-screens were adequate for visuals and shaps were rapidly approaching the ship. Tangles of white that almost seemed to be string or spaghetti, weird assemblages converging in our direction.

  "Can you find her district core?" Crystal asked.

  In that mess below? I couldn't find see any pattern to it but I was picking up a distress signal. A Righteous frequency from a building shaped like a pyramid.

  24

  My connection to my agents was odd in this dimension, strained. It was not quite so bad as the interaction of light or sound with this place but it was a struggle. That I was having any success at all was likely because my ability to communicate with my agents was a result of my power crystal, just as this dimensional interference must be a part of Flickers powers from hers.

  This mattered because I knew the source of that distress call, it was Tara Riel. Tara had sworn herself to Anna's service and thus in a way to mine. Up until now I hadn't really been able to get any read on her, but now I was. Perhaps it was because I had so many agents now in this space, a cumulative effect that boosted the signal getting out.

  I didn't know if she was hidden at the core, I didn't keep my prisoners locked in the room with me but in this place I didn't have anything else to go on and weird string blobs cosing in. I set a course for the pyramid.

  Tara wasn't under threat, rather the opposite. Corpses surrounded her.

  I answered the distress hail.

  "You look terrible. I suppose that is to be expected, you weren't kidnapped for the purposes of a makeover," I said.

  "Emma? What are you doing here. No, never mind. You have my coordinates?" Tara asked.

  "On the way now. I don't suppose in between bouts of indulging your murderous urges you found the district core?" I asked.

  The blobs were faster than the graven, faster and more maneuverable. One approached the ship and extended a tendril that sliced through the metal plating as if it were a thin layer of fabric.

  "I'll meet you on the apex but then we have to get out of here. This is a trap. This whole place is a trap," Tara said.

  If it was a trap I should probably get out of here now. Still, I didn't like leaving people behind if I didn't have to it and Tara had proved herself to be useful. Now that I had the source orb in my possession she was also the expert on them, the Righteous were fascinated with the things.

  I opened fire with the beam cannons. A blob dispersed into ash but others were closing to take its place.

  At least they were fragile. With their speed a strictly human gunner would have had a lot of trouble landing hits on them and even the targeting systems of the Graven were struggling. I had more computing power than either could dream of.

  With a series of quick bursts I incinerated another four blobs and pulled the graven into p lace over the pyramid and opened the ramp. Tara was already waiting and she flung herself up towards the ramp.

  Then my world dissolved into static.

  I couldn't see anything. I was quickly losing access to my systems. It wasn't the first time I'd experienced something like this. Mechos had once hit me with an attack that was very similar the first time we'd met and it had required a full reboot of my systems to regain operation.

  While I still had control of my systems at all I sent a data burst to the panel in his room with what was happening. Then I lost consciousness.

  I was being kicked. Literally I was being kicked, the extremely sensitive bits of my bioprocessor were being repeatedly prodded by a leather boot. I regained sensor feeds. It was Mechos doing the kicking, my core had been sliced open and there was rather a lot of conduit fluid staining the floor.

  I had blood. I had a lot of blood. I also had armor plating and knew that must have taken Mechos awhile to accomplish.

  "I'm up," I said through speakers in the room as more of my systems came online. There were fires in most of the buildings of my district. There were no Wolves in the streets but I'd suffered an aerial bombardment.

  There were not currently any ships in the sky. It was something.

  "Did you have to go organic. If you were electrical I'd have had you up in minutes," Mechos said.

  The damage to my bioprocessor was already starting to heal over.

  "Situation?" I asked.

  "Crash hit our systems and Wolf attacked. Flicker hit Crystal hard and what was left of her district is in ruins. They were both working for Wolf. We managed to convince them you were still online. You had defenders still up and with them Magpie and Lark gave them hell. Jade told us to go screw ourselves," Mechos said.

  "I suppose allowing eighty percent of the district to
go up in flames is some definition of hell," I said.

  Crash had never been on our side and had been working with Wolf the whole time. Crystal's district was in ruins, even if she hadn't been compelled Wolf still had his five. He'd won.

  Without me they hadn't been able to compel Jade's support. I could remedy that now.

  I sent a message to her to have her send forces to aid in my districts defense.

  That was a short term measure that might keep me from falling under the sway of compulsion but it was too little too late.

  If Wolf wasn't busy subduing me what was he doing? I activated my sensors for the rest of the city. The central district, of course. They were trying to take her castle and they were having issues.

  Sylax must have had some automated defenses in place and they were formidable ones. Blasts of technomagical energy were being fired upwards towards the few airships Wolf had remaining and they were being forced to keep their distance.

  "Did the Graven return?" I asked.

  "If so they didn't come here," Mechos said.

  Crystal would have taken the controls after I'd lost my connection. If so she probably would have returned to her district but since there was no sign of her something else had happened.

  That castle wouldn't hold out forever. Whatever I was going to do, if there was anything I could do I had to do it fast.

  25

  I didn't see a lot of options for how to proceed. The plan had always been to seize the city with Crystal and then to use its resources to rescue Sylax and Anna. That plan had failed. Either Wolf was going to win the day at this point, the only hedge against them would be Sylax herself. If I wanted Anna back I'd have to go and get her. I didn't have to rescue Sylax too, but at this point the differences between her and Wolf had faded into irrelevance with the primary difference being one of them might actually be grateful to me.