The Way of Death
Page 39
The old man said nothing, simply bowing his head in acknowledgment. The shadow of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. A moment later and he was gone.
Reiji turned back into the training hall to find it had changed yet again. A huge rectangular table now dominated the room. Dark wood and carved by hand from a single giant tree. Reiji didn’t know how he could tell that just by looking at it. Some artifact of the interface program, he thought as he approached.
Down the length of the table on either side sat the entirety of the ancestors who dwelled here. His father among them, seated nearest to the close end. All seats were occupied save for one at the head, held for the new lord of this place.
Along the walls, hulking suits of armor stood. Their faces twisted, glaring, and angry. Like Onryo’s, but each a unique visage of fury. Security, he thought as he looked at them. Purely a formality, as he was the absolute lord of this place. No real threat could present itself here. But it did add a nice touch to the atmosphere of the training hall.
As Reiji approached the empty seat at the head of the table, the assembly stood in unison and waited in silence. He looked them over for a few moments, nodding with satisfaction. Taking his seat at the head of the enormous table he motioned with a hand for the others to sit. As one they did as they were bid and turned their attention toward him.
“Lord Reiji of the Ikeda,” a grandfather spoke as he stood and bowed. “Let us discuss what resources are available to you and how best to deploy them.”
Reiji leaned back in his seat, pressing his fingertips into one another before his chest. He nodded and the discussion began.
“WHAT is it?” Tod’s voice echoed throughout the chamber. Reiji normally found some small sense of superiority in knowing something that others did not. This time it was absent. If Onryo hadn’t told Reiji what it was, he’d have never guessed. At least for half of it, he thought. The other half was unmistakable to any kid who had ever watched a war movie on a planet that was currently under, or previously under, the Coalition Colonies Government.
“It’s a warship, Tod.”
There was silence in the great chamber as the boy gawked up at the vehicle hovering a few meters above the central platform.
“What’s a warship?” Tod finally asked, turning back to Reiji.
Reiji laughed and the sound echoed throughout the chamber, now fully lit.
“It’s a spaceship, for fighting,” Reiji answered. Tod’s face didn’t change and Reiji laughed again. “Didn’t you ever watch any of the recruitment movies?”
“Movies?” Tod clearly struggled as he combed through his memories. “Oh, those,” he said and his face lit up. “My dad didn’t let us watch many of them. He said they rotted your brain.”
“Well,” Reiji began his attempt to explain. “That, up there,” he motioned to the warship. “That, is like the APC we came here in. Only a lot bigger. And it flies.”
“Oh, okay.” Realization spread across Tod’s face. Maybe he actually does understand, Reiji thought.
“What’s special about this one,” Reiji continued. “Is that, as far as we know, and as far as Price can tell, it the only functioning warship left on all of Lexington. And its atmospheric systems run on anti-grav generators. Meaning that Overlord isn’t going to blow it out of the sky when we take it for a spin.”
Tod smiled and nodded his head slowly. “So we’re going to put it to use.” A statement, not a question.
“So,” he continued. “This is what Gavin wanted.”
Reiji nodded. “It’s half of what he came here for.”
“And what’s the rest of it?” Tod asked. “What else did he need to try to kill you and almost everyone else he hired? What was he afraid of losing if you weren’t dead?”
“The platform,” Reiji answered and gestured to the monolith in the center of the chamber. “It’s not just a landing pad for the warship. It’s a nanoforge. A very unique one as far as scale goes.”
Tod said nothing.
“All of the others on Lexington are pretty small scale. They can only produce something like a sword or individual pieces of something larger. This one,” Reiji spread his arms as he spoke. “Can create just about anything in one go. As long as we keep feeding raw materials into it, the nanoforge can produce literally anything we want it to. The warship here was an experiment in the nanforge’s capabilities.”
“That’s why they put it here, isn’t it?” Tod asked. “Because the desert is full of the kinds of stuff you need to make spaceships and weapons and tanks.” Tod answered his own question.
Reiji simply nodded. The boy’s mind was getting sharper by the day.
“And what are going to do with it?” Tod asked.
“We can’t go back, Tod. We’ve crossed the Rubicon.”
“They’ll kill us if we try.” There was grim certainty on the boy’s face.
“Yes they will. And so they’ve left us no choice. We’re going to use this nanoforge to produce weapons. Armor. Vehicles. Whatever we need. And we’re going to overthrow Central Command.”
The boy began to smile as Reiji looked at him. A devilish grin that showed just a little too much of his teeth. Something about them had the appearance of a great predator. They were sharper than was normal for a man. As if the wolf was peering out from behind the sheep’s clothing.
“Count me in.”
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