by Scott Baron
“Working on something else, Daisy?” he asked.
“Yep. For the trip back through Billings. After all we went through getting out, I’m sure we’ll get a lot of use out of them. Should take down pretty much anything in our path. Even the cannons.”
“Ah, are those EM grenades?”
“Good eye, George. Yeah, they’re a modification of an earlier design of mine. Of course, that means you and your men will need to take a rear position to avoid a hard reboot.”
“Daisy, that’s not a concern. We’re all shielded against electromagnetic pulses,” he replied.
“Oh?” she said with a knowing smile. “You think so, eh?”
Daisy tossed one of the devices across the room. Sergeant Franklin deftly grabbed it out of the air and looked more closely at its design. It took a moment for the potential pulse output of the device to register, but when it did, he ever so subtly held the EM grenade a little farther from his body.
“Um…” he stammered. “I, uh, see your point, Daisy,” he said, carefully handing the deadly device back to her. “Once we hit Billings, my men and I will guard the rear.”
“Damn, Daze. You spooked a seasoned soldier.”
Cool, right?
“Yeah. Or you built something so dangerous, even he knows better than to play with it.”
Daisy allowed herself a little smile as she finished her repair work.
“Good as new,” the metal man said soon thereafter as they walked to the control room to join the others. “It feels like it was never even damaged.”
“Well, it’ll hold up for a while, but you should still have Joshua give it a proper repair job once we get back to Colorado Springs.”
“Of course. Thank you, Daisy.”
“My pleasure,” she replied. “George, were we able to tap into the comms links and get the portable encryption unit plugged in?”
“Affirmative. The device seems to be in working order, but we wanted to wait for you to double-check it before we reached out to Joshua for further instructions.”
“You guys know the system as well as I do by now, I reckon, but thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Daisy looked over the patched-in comms unit. The device was functioning perfectly, a faint signal reading showing the activity of the connection. More importantly, the filter and deadman switch were both fully operational. Daisy powered up the device, sending their contact signal out to Joshua through the facility’s transmission array. Ever so briefly, the lights flickered.
“What was that, Daze?”
No idea, Daisy replied. Probably just a temporary power surge as we re-routed to the comms system. Deep in her gut, however, she felt uneasy. She knew no one was watching her, but the feeling made the hair on the back of her neck tingle just the same.
“George, you’re one hundred percent sure there’s no AI within the silo, correct?”
“Correct. That was one of the core protocols. Separation of AI and human operators. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“Excellent work, team,” Joshua’s voice said through the silo’s speakers. “You have the keys. Do you see the two red panels, one on each side of the room’s main console?”
“Yeah, got ‘em,” Daisy replied.
“Take the two keys and insert them into the matched slots. Inform me when you have done so.”
“Tamara, you want the right one?”
“Sure.”
They each inserted their key into the waiting slots.
“Okay, Joshua. We’re ready.”
“I will count to three. On three, turn the keys two clicks to the right. That’s clockwise.”
“Ready,” Tamara said.
“So is it one, two, three, turn? Or is it one, two, turn on three?” Daisy asked.
“I’m sorry for being unclear. It’s one, two, three, then turn.”
“Got it.”
“Good,” he replied, then let out a soft chuckle. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
A grin flashed across Daisy’s lips.
“Joshua? Did you just make a funny?”
“Whatever do you mean?” he answered, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Now, let’s proceed. On my count. One. Two. Three.”
The women turned the keys two clicks to the right. The control panel’s myriad lights and readouts flashed to life as the entire system powered up.
“Um, Joshua? We’re not actually launching the missile now, are we?”
“No, Daisy. This is merely the system bringing its targeting array online. Now I will be able to access accurate target maps and aim accordingly. There is just one more thing I need in order to have total control over the needed processes.”
“I thought this was our mission. Get the keys and get you access and control.”
“Yes. You got the keys and activated the system. Now you need to bring the master code keycard back to NORAD to give me control of the launch codes to utilize the new target settings.”
“Can’t we do that from here?” Daisy asked. “We have a secure line back to you.”
“Unfortunately, the keycard is heavily encrypted, and requires a specialized hardware unit to read it. A unit such as the one in my main strategy center.”
“Sounds like there’s more to this mission than we expected.”
Seems that way.
“You feel like maybe that would have been good to tell us before now?”
Yup. But you know what? At this point, I just want to get back to Colorado Springs. If this gets us there faster, so be it.
“So, Joshua. Where is this keycard? I didn’t come across one when I found one of the keys. Tamara, did you?”
“Nope. Just a pile of dust and a key on a chain.”
“It is locked in the silo’s Top-Secret SCI safe.”
“Hang on. You want us to crack a missile silo’s hardened safe?” Daisy said with a frustrated sigh.
“Long and short of it, yes.”
“This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”
“Honestly? Likely not. But I have the utmost confidence in you, Daisy. I will transmit the most recent five thousand SCI passcodes used by our silos in the final days before communications were terminated. Unless the human operators triggered a manual reset, the passcode is likely one of these, though––and I apologize for this––I cannot discern which one.”
Daisy’s shoulders slumped slightly.
“Awesome. At the ambitious rate of two passcodes per minute, this could take us, what?”
“Forty-one point six hours, continuous,” Franklin said.
“Forty-one point six hours.” Daisy groaned. “Well, let’s get started. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll hit it in the first twenty-four hours.”
“This is going to suck.”
Like a vampire in a sorority slumber party.
“Well, we had best get to it, then.”
“Okay, George. Point me to the safe, and let’s begin.”
They got lucky. It only required sixteen hours of constant work, each team member taking a half-hour shift, before the safe swung open and gave up its well-protected secrets. The one bright side of the delay was that those not working on the safe were able to get some rest prior to the return trip.
As it turned out, they would need every bit of it as they made the arduous trek back to Colorado Springs.
Chapter Eight
“We’re being stalked, Daze.”
Daisy didn’t turn her head, but her ears were picking up the slightest ruffle of leaves, and the occasional crackling of twigs.
I know, she replied, silently. Any idea what, or whom it might be?
“Not entirely sure. It started after we got off the monorail and hit the surface outside of Billings. Wasn’t tracking us in Bozeman or Conrad.”
So not a Ra’az ship tracking us.
“Highly doubtful. I think this is something far less sinister.”
And feline, I’m willing to bet, Daisy added. Same one that scented us on the
way out of town, probably.
“My money is on that being the case,” Sarah confirmed.
Daisy swiveled her head around and surveyed the team.
Not too spread out. No one in a position to be easily snatched, she noted.
More importantly, the trio of sturdy cyborgs were taking up the rear, and if it was indeed the same mountain lion that had attacked them on the way out of town, it likely remembered how difficult a meal the metal men could be.
That, and they had no scent.
“Okay, everyone. Listen up,” Daisy said in a calm voice. “We have something following us. Don’t look around and act jumpy. We want it to think everything is fine and keep its distance. What we need to do is make as direct a line for our entry point back into the city as possible.”
“Should we confront it?” Tamara asked. “I mean, we’ve kicked its ass once already.”
“No, there’s no point. We’re going to have to hustle once we start using the EM grenades, anyway, and I’d rather not risk drawing attention to ourselves any sooner than necessary,” Daisy replied.
She rummaged in her pack and pulled out a pair of shiny metal orbs and handed them to Tamara.
“Three-second delay. Just push the button and throw.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it, Swarthmore.”
“Just triple-checking. We’ve only got eleven, so try to save them for the most dangerous threats. Every time we use one, we’re running the risk of drawing Ra’az attention, no matter how far they normally stay from this city.”
Tamara took the EM grenades and tucked them into her pack. Daisy dug out two more for her.
“Hell, take four. Not like we won’t need ‘em.”
Tamara flashed an amused grin.
“Thanks. So, you ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
The team pulled close in a single-file line, Daisy and Tamara on point, human support in the middle, and cyborg soldiers taking up the rear.
“It’s still back there, Daze.”
Not our problem now. If it’s foolish enough to follow us into this blender, it gets whatever is coming to it.
It wasn’t a full-run, per se, but the need for speed was abundantly clear when Tamara tossed her first EM grenade at a pair of heavy earth movers barreling toward them, bent on destruction.
The electromagnetic pulse shut the machines down, along with everything electronic within twenty meters.
Daisy turned and checked on the cyborgs trailing behind. They were still standing, but seemed dazed, despite the distance and their EM-hardened endoskeletons. She quickly jogged back to them.
“Tamara, keep moving forward. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Copy that. Let’s go,” she called to her support team, then took off at a jog down the path of deactivated machinery.
“Sarge, are you okay?” Daisy asked the cyborgs’ leader.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
He fixed his robotic gaze on her and cracked his best grin.
“Damn, Daisy. If I’d known you were trying to take down the entire city with those things, I’d have had my men stay twice as far back. We’ll be fine, don’t you worry about us. We’ve had a few hundred years of boredom kicking around inside a mountain. Trust me, we’ve zapped ourselves with plenty of things just to change things up.”
“You’re one weird cyborg, you know that?”
“Hey, we can’t get drunk. This is the next best thing,” he joked.
A flash of what could best be described as pain flashed across his face. Forcing himself to ignore it, George Franklin stood tall and adjusted his pack.
“Okay, you clowns, nap time is over. Move out, and this time, let’s keep an additional ten meters back.”
Daisy and Tamara leapfrogged taking point as they quickly plowed through the city’s defenses. Vehicles and cyborgs alike were left twitching in their EM aftermath, the brutal blast of the grenades shutting down and forcing a hard reset of the units that were far enough from the pulse center to not be destroyed entirely.
Franklin and his men, wisely, stayed well clear.
The only system they had trouble with, however, were the automated defense cannons. They simply couldn’t get close enough for a direct blast to fully take them out. All they managed was to cause a soft reboot.
The first attempt, they didn’t move fast enough, and the system regained functionality before they even stepped out from cover.
“We’re going to have maybe five seconds before it tracks us again. Sarge, can you get clear in time from all the way back there?”
“Give a countdown and we’ll be moving at full speed when it detonates. If we time it right, we’ll not only avoid the pulse, but will probably even make it across the boulevard before you do.”
“Confident. I like it,” Sarah said, appreciatively.
Can-do seems to be our buddy George’s middle name, Daisy agreed. Whatever. As long as he remains intact, it works for me.
Indeed, the metal men timed it correctly on the next attempt. Daisy and Tamara both threw their grenades as hard and as far as possible. Fortune smiled upon them, and the electromagnetic pulses knocked the cannons out of commission for nearly eight seconds.
And every other electronic device in the area.
“You know that’s gonna draw some attention, right?”
Yeah, but what else can we do? Expediting our return––and not getting shot to pieces in the process––outweighs the possibility of the Ra’az noticing something unusual.
“So long as they don’t get here before we’re long gone.”
Exactly.
It was only twenty minutes later that a Ra’az heavy cruiser made a high-altitude pass over the area.
“Everyone, get under cover, now!” Sergeant Franklin yelled to the team.
With great haste, they all scrambled under whatever they could, hoping to avoid scrutiny from above.
“You think they saw us?” Tamara asked.
“We’ll know real soon if they did,” Daisy replied. “Fortunately, the city’s cannons have already come back online. If they drop back in for a low fly-by, they’ll be in for a rude welcome.”
“Guess we actually got lucky the EM grenades didn’t take them out entirely.”
“At long last, something goes our way,” Daisy agreed.
The Ra’az ship circled several times while the team hid out under cover. The cannons did engage them a few times when they circled too close, but the ship quickly darted clear of the weapons fire. Eventually, it dropped low over the areas rendered silent by the EM grenades.
“Looks like they’re dropping ground units,” Franklin noted.
“But look where,” Daisy replied. “I think they’re sending out scrapper teams to the areas we left undefended.”
“I am no fan of stark raving mad AIs, but I do feel somewhat bad about leaving parts of its city undefended against the invaders.”
“Nothing we can do now but get to the transit system ASAP. They’ve landed a little ways away, but that could change any moment, and I’d rather not be blocked in this homicidal city by equally homicidal aliens.”
“We’re roughly one and a half miles from the loop tube terminus entrance,” Franklin said. “If we move quickly and efficiently, we should be able to make it undetected. We will not, however, be able to use any more of your EM grenades, lest we draw further attention to ourselves.”
Sergeant Franklin was right. They’d have to make a run for it without the benefit of her new toys. Fortunately, she was pretty sure the city would be quite occupied with its newest uninvited guests.
Pulse rifle fire peppered the wall to Daisy’s left, sending razor-sharp bits of stone shrapnel flying every which way.
“Ow! Sonofa––” Tamara cursed as another new gash opened in her cheek. Soon she’d have yet another scar to add to her collection. That is, if they stayed alive long enough for her to grow it.
How many did you
count, Sarah? Daisy asked her mental sidekick.
“I saw five of them spaced between two and four o’clock. Only three had pulse rifles, though. The other two are trying to flank you on the left. I lost track of them after nine o’clock, but I think only one of them is armed.”
“Tamara, two are trying to get around our left flank. Cover our six.”
“You sure? How’d you manage to catch that?”
“Just trust me. I’m sure.”
The fight raged on, and their team was ultimately victorious, but the sounds of other carnage drew nearer as the city engaged the invading force as best it could in its damaged state.
“Okay, decoys, listen up. You two need to run fast, and do not engage. Just leave enough of a trace to draw them off, then get down into the tube network, understood? You ready?” Daisy asked the pair of volunteers from the young support team as they shed their heavy packs.
“Ready,” they replied, bouncing on their toes, their adrenaline surging in anticipation.
“Okay, then. Good luck, and get moving. We’ll see you in Colorado Springs.”
The duo took off at a run. Their path was laid out to avoid the most active areas of the city’s mad machinery, while also getting them close to loop tube access.
Fifteen minutes later, a Chithiid ship could be heard approaching at low altitude. They quickly surveyed the carnage below, then spun and took off after the dusty trail of the team racing on foot for the subterranean access shaft.
The area clear, Daisy and the remaining team crawled from cover.
“Looks like they’re following the bait,” Tamara noted.
“I hope those kids are okay,” Daisy worried.
“They had a big head start. I think the two of them will be just fine,” Tamara replied. “We should get moving, just in case they catch on and circle back.”
“Agreed. Let’s move while they’re otherwise occupied,” Daisy said. “It looks like this crazy AI is now the least of our concerns.”
The team quickly got underway, moving fast and quietly.
The Ra’az, while glad for an opportunity to deploy their Chithiid workers to gain a foothold in what had been such a troublesome city, nevertheless sensed something was wrong. So many machines that had formerly stymied their many attempts now lay dormant, the traces of some unknown conflict the only hint of what might have occurred.
