The Province

by Skyler Grant

  Right now, the question was who was going to be the commander of our ground forces. I'd assigned Jade to that role after she killed one of the Divine gods of war and absorbed his power crystal, but despite the aptitude she had little interest in commanding an army. It came between the two who did, Hot Stuff and Sylax.

  They'd decided to settle their dispute in a most impractical fashion by having a duel. I objected in principle while in practice hoping that Hot Stuff might manage to win by fatal blow—a powered-up Sylax was a problem challenging enough to deal with the first time around.

  "I realize that logical thinking is foreign to you both, but this would make more sense if you actually were commanders," I said through one of my drones. I'd conferenced them together, each was in a locker room preparing for the battle.

  "You should have burned her the first time around. This is your screw-up that needs fixing, Emma," Hot Stuff said. For this fight she was going old-school. I'd continued to refine fire-retardant armor and now had samples that could survive her heat for several minutes providing it was kept at moderate levels. Hot Stuff's maximum burn was more than anything that I created could handle. If she really wanted to bring her full power to a fight it meant stripping down.

  Sylax was very much taking the opposite approach. Her upgrade powers focused upon imbuing armor with specific properties and she now had a full set that offered her an impressive range of abilities. While she had nothing near the brute strength of the past with an Amplification Core, she was still a force to be reckoned with.

  "The mistake wasn't bringing home trash from the Wastelands, the mistake was in not killing her at the first opportunity and taking her core for yourself. Raw power is no match for skill," Sylax said.

  "You're one to talk," Hot Stuff said.

  Right. They were intent on going through with it. We were holding the fight in Aefwal. Ophelia had built a grand arena for the occasion and drones filled the stands. I'd made better humans than I knew, they were actually looking forward to the slaughter.

  A dozen lesser bouts led up to the big show.

  An announcer's voice boomed, "And now the event you've all been waiting for. We prepare for war and only one is fit to lead our forces into battle. I present first Countess Hot Stuff, long time ally of Emma and champion of countless battles. Shall her flames of justice be enough to win the day?"

  The drones really were into this. They'd filled the air above one part of the arena with flammable gas and when an elevator lifted Hot Stuff to the surface a column of fire erupted into the sky. A massive boom shook the arena and left a blackened ring, in the middle of which Hot Stuff stood. The crowds went wild.

  "Villian or Hero? Once a foe of Emma, she is now a story of redemption. The Headmistress of the Academy of the Dust, Countess Sylax!"

  A second elevator appeared bearing the countess. Beam weapons lashed out from the shadows and she nimbly flipped over them to land in a crouch as they surrounded her in a cascade of light.

  I did admire her sense of theatrics.

  Sylax wasted no time, pulling a beam rifle from her back and firing off several quick shots towards Hot Stuff who rolled out of the way before throwing a fireball back. The arena didn’t offer any sort of cover. Sylax leaped a good thirty feet in the air over the exploding fireball, rifle aimed down as she peppered more shots.

  I'd feared the fight might go this way. Hot Stuff was a formidable force, but with some glaring weaknesses. Her immense temperatures vaporized any kinetic slugs before they could reach her. They didn't offer the same protection against energy weapons. If Sylax could keep her out of melee range and keep shooting, she stood a real chance of winning this fight.

  Hot Stuff's skin rippled with a grayish sheen and the ground beneath Sylax erupted with jagged metal spikes erupting from the earth.

  That was new. Hot Stuff had absorbed a Metal core awhile back. I hadn't seen where she was able to manifest anything except for a vehicle. She'd been working on her powers.

  Sylax curled into a ball and landed on the spikes. Her leap hadn't left her any choices but to come back down. A second fireball was thrown towards her and she leapt to the side just before it exploded. Several of the spikes tips glistened crimson, they'd penetrated even Sylax's enhanced armor.

  "Keeping secret what you can do until it matters? You surprise me," Sylax said, reaching into a pouch and throwing a handful of disks into the air. They began to spin rapidly, circling her, glowing in a variety of colors.

  Sylax had some new tricks of her own. My sensors let me study them and grasp their meaning at once. Miniaturized combat platforms, some were fitted with shielding units and others with explosives.

  "You liked that? Try this," Hot Stuff said. An iron lattice materialized in the air above Skylax and her disks. A fireball struck it a moment later. Molten rain poured down. Sylax screamed as one of the droplets found a rent in her armor. Drones swarmed to protect her in a shielded bubble that was soon completely encased in molten metal.

  The other disks were flying at Hot Stuff. Instead of trying to target her directly they crashed into the ground at her feet and detonated. Hot Stuff flew backwards, crashing hard into the earth. More disks followed and she blasted them out of the sky with a stream of fire shot from her hands.

  Explosions shook the air. Hot Stuff wasn't immune to shock waves and the result left her with a trickle of blood from her nose and her body covered in fresh bruises.

  The metal encasing Sylax was glowing. An energy blade erupted from it as she cut herself free. Somewhere along the line she'd lost one of her gauntlets, a bare hand holding the sword as she stepped free.

  "You can give up any time now," Sylax said.

  "I was about to say the same," Hot Stuff said.

  They circled each other, each now far more wary.

  Hot Stuff aimed her hands at the ground and a blast of fire turned the earth to molten slag where Sylax had stood a moment before. Sylax leapt into the air, rolling forward towards Hot Stuff and throwing the energy blade. It slammed forward as Hot Stuff's fiery aura exploded in renewed intensity.

  The audience couldn't see what happened, but I did. The tip of the energy blade drove through Hot Stuff's shoulder ripping apart the flesh before her burst of heat melted the sword hilt destroying the complex circuitry within.

  It was a nasty wound, but I'd given Hot Stuff accelerated healing. It wouldn't be a fatal injury. That probably wasn't of much help for the purposes of this fight.

  The fiery aura had caught Sylax in mid-leap and my sensors picked up grave damage there as well. The armor had fused to her flesh over most of her body. Her own version of accelerated healing was working to keep her on her feet as she staggered backward and fell.

  "No woman should be that hot. I tested this armor in the most extreme temperatures I could find," Sylax panted, as she pushed herself back to her feet.

  "Are we flirting now?" Hot Stuff said. "I mean, you wouldn't be my first choice, but you're really crazy so you're probably amazing in bed."

  "I'm not quite out of ways to try to kill you," Sylax said.

  "Suit yourself. You'd like my way a lot more," Hot Stuff said.

  Sylax pulled what looked like some sort of crossbow from her back. It was half-melted although it quickly began to reform and reshape itself in her hands. A rapid repair system—if only her armor had the same. I detected a lot of power from the crossbow bolts, they were utilizing crystal powder.

  "Maybe," Sylax said, aiming the bow. "We don't have to do this. You know I'm smarter and you know I have the experience. You're a badass, I get it, it doesn't mean you're right for command."

  Hot Stuff gave a pained chuckle. Blood from her shoulder stained half her body crimson although the wound was already beginning to close. She shook her head. "You don't need this. I do. I'm the hot, naked chick or the pull-out-when-you-need-to-murder-a-lot-of-people chick. I know you're smart and I know you have history, but I'm holding my own, damn it."

  Sylax gave her a long consi
dering look. "Fighting to change your circumstances, huh? Fine. I yield."

  It was a good thing she did. I'd been further analyzing that crossbow and I was alarmed by what I saw. It was designed to fire an intensely focused spray in a forward cone. If it struck Hot Stuff it very likely would have been instantly fatal. I also saw why Sylax had saved it for last. The rounds were incredibly unstable when being primed and there was around a thirty percent change they would detonate unexpectedly. The odds still would have been on Sylax's side, but it wasn't a weapon to casually use.

  "So that’s ... it then?" Hot Stuff asked, sounding rather disbelieving.

  Sylax threw away the crossbow. "Yeah, that’s it. Drinking contest next time?"

  "Deal," Hot Stuff said. Pillars of fire were erupting around the arena as the crowds cheered. It was obvious she was the crowd’s favorite, my drones showed good sense upon occasion.

  Once Hot Stuff was out of sight I teleported her to an infirmary. My auto-surgeons couldn't touch her, but each had one of Ophelia's subordinates on call these days. With their healing aura even grievous wounds were quickly repaired.

  "You believe that?" Hot Stuff said, with a grimace as her shoulder muscles began to reconnect.

  "She has something of a history of being underestimated and trying to improve her own lot. I think that is what murdering Crystal was all about. Needing to be free from her past, although I am sure done with her usual sociopathic glee," I said.

  Hot Stuff chuckled darkly. "Even villains have depth. Who knew? I guess I should have."

  Hot Stuff had begun to feel increasingly guilty for her many murders over the years. I wasn't good at being a comfort. So far as I understood morality, guilt was exactly what she should feel for the things she had done.

  I brought up tactical information on one of the infirmary screens. "Well, now that you've won, you have to actually do the job. Productivity should be a novel experience for you. Scouting reports show a Righteous ground installation of impressive size. They are primarily focused on anticipating an aerial attack and have over two hundred anti-air cannons."

  "Boreas is providing us ships?"

  "He is and he'll be along on the attack personally. Recent wars have taken a toll on his air force however and he has only a few vessels to spare. Largely, he is along to get our troops close enough to deploy by shuttle."

  "Do we have estimates of their ground forces?".

  I brought up schematics. "Fortifications, ground turrets, tanks and aircraft are all formidable in their own rights. Based on barrack sizes and observed movements from a reconnaissance drone I believe they are fielding over twenty thousand soldiers. Don't you wish you'd lost now?"

  "We can match those numbers, but we'll be going up against hardened positions. How much will Boreas be able to support us with his powers?" Hot Stuff asked.

  "With that many Righteous in one place compounding their nullification abilities, not much. He is too strong to totally neutralize, but he'll be limited. We could get multiple rewinds or a single instance of frozen time equal to about twenty seconds," I said.

  "You can do a lot in twenty seconds."

  I could do a lot in milliseconds. Twenty seconds was practically an eternity.

  "I have ten Bio-bombs. They'll be dampened, but should do some damage. Where do you want them placed?" I asked.

  "Neutralize their air power first. I don't want our people watching the skies. I'm assuming you want Boreas to get his nose bloodied?" Hot Stuff said.

  Perhaps she had a future in politics.

  "Anna and I would appreciate it if he lost a few ships, yes."

  "Then we leave those anti-air defenses intact and let him dodge fire, and hope one gets lucky when his powers are exhausted. In that case, neutralize the enemy armor next," Hot Stuff decided.

  I could manage that.

  I said, "You're sure you don't want me to neutralize any of their troops? You'll have a tough fight and we've just seen how well you do at those. I doubt the Righteous are going to surrender because you're feeling sad and pathetic."

  "Do you have any videos of testing your Righteous killing technology?" Hot Stuff asked.

  By that she meant the gear that let me rob them of their resurrection ability and stay dead.

  "I do," I said.

  "Prepare something short, presentable. I want to bombard their communications with it. I want them afraid. There’s going to be one army that doesn't stay dead on that field and it isn't going to be theirs," Hot Stuff said.

  She definitely had a future in politics.

  "I'll put something together and start bombarding them," I said.

  "Do you object to me making Sylax my second?"

  "Just because someone doesn't kill you, it doesn't make them your friend. One day you'll have a real friend and understand that. Wait, I haven't run those probabilities—never mind, you'll never know," I said.

  "Then I'll do what I want," Hot Stuff said.

  I expected nothing else.

  7

  King Boreas jumped his ships above the enemy base. Anti-air turrets instantly began to track and fire high velocity shrugs that paused in mid-air as Boreas froze time. The clock was ticking.

  It was easier to have our troops survive a crash than build a large fleet or shuttles that would operate in a Reality Zero environment. So the ovoid objects dropping from Boreas ships were powered. The sky was filled with tumbling eggs. When time unfroze, it would be too late for those guns to do anything about them.

  With proper sensor readings coming in I had enough information to teleport my people and the Bio-bombs. There were seven small hangers used for aerial drone storage. Each got a bomb. Fuel storage facilities in armor depots got the remaining three.

  King Boreas and his people knew how to get the most out of a time freeze. Without the need to worry about defense they could focus on firing shot after shot towards those anti-air defenses. The time freeze ended and the enemy was mobile again.

  Massive explosions from the Bio-bombs tore through their facilities, but they'd spread themselves out enough that the damage wasn’t absolute.

  They had reason for their caution. I knew where we were, a military base of the old world. I'd bombed this place once before. Then it was held by a so-called God of War. I'd never followed up after that attack but the Righteous must have, and obviously they'd found something. They'd also learned not to cluster their forces.

  The eggs hit the ground. Each was a chitinous shell of Bio-armor filled with kinetic dampening goop surrounding the armored soldiers inside. On impact, recessed seams cracked and the soldiers pushed aside the top to crawl free.

  I'd gone back to the drawing board for fighting the Righteous and reworked my ground units so that they could function in a Reality Zero environment. The versatility I'd built into them wasn't nearly as useful there, so I'd had to modify them all.

  Aegis Zero

  Armored Exoskeleton

  Weapons: Two-handed shock hammer

  Defenses: Heavy Armor with servomotors

  Role: Heavy forward line troop capable of dealing massively devastating strikes to foes with their shock hammers. With a miniature Bio-reactor in the head a hammer blow can neutralize electronic systems and stun organic enemies. To compensate for strength enhancements not working in a Reality Zero environment the suit has been fitted with servomotors and an enhanced exoskeleton so even mundane troopers can operate it.

  Gunslinger Zero

  Armored Exoskeleton

  Weapons: Gauss Rifle

  Defenses: Light armor

  Role: Wields a gauss rifle that fires bolts along an electromagnetic channel. Exoskeleton enhancement to the arms allows for steadier aim and to contribute to the strength required to wield such a massive weapon.

  The Righteous loved to fight in heavy battle armor and smaller weapons stood little chance of even penetrating, so I'd gone big. Shock hammers could shatter bones through armor plating and overload electronic systems. The gauss rifle was capable o
f firing a round to penetrate thick plating.

  The goal had been for Boreas to dump the bulk of our forces behind the enemy fortifications, a goal which had only been partially successful. Around six in ten had gotten where they needed to be and the rest were out of position. It was probably intentional—just as we wouldn't mind if Boreas lost some ships, he wouldn't be terribly upset if we lost ground forces.

  I'd expected Boreas to jump out as soon as the time freeze was over, but it wasn't happening. Ah, my sensors were picking up some dimensional attenuation, the Righteous were blocking jump transit. They must have engaged the block as soon as the ships appeared. It was smart of them, over half of the anti-air cannons were still functional. Even with rewind abilities it was a lot of fire to dodge. That wasn't my problem.

  Even the fight wasn't strictly speaking my problem, although of course I was providing targeting assistance and combat analysis to all my drones. Hot Stuff had landed with them and was currently on a killing spree while Sylax tried to put together a command structure out of the mess made of the landing.

  I had my attention on an underground bunker. I hadn't detected it when I bombed this place. It was likely to have been here since before the Cataclysm. It went at least twenty stories into the earth and there was a trace of familiar energy present.

  Their version of the Agate had been here. Perhaps something similar still was—given how my sensors were barely able to penetrate.

  I could have simply taken control of my drones, but I supposed I should make an effort to go through proper channels. I opened a comm line to Sylax.

  "Hey second best, I need three platoons," I said.

  "I need to get these troops organized. You're the creepy, stalker supercomputer in charge of their lives. Wouldn't this be easy for you?" Sylax asked.

  "I'm in charge of your life too. You're a tremendous disappointment," I said. The logistical issues she'd been having were easy enough for me to resolve, of course. I knew exactly where my every soldier was and how best to organize them. I set up a new command structure, placing three platoons under my own command, and sent it to Sylax's comm.