by Skyler Grant
32
This wasn't our first time going to war, but this was different. In the past there were always factions more powerful than ourselves that we could play against each other, or more powerful allies to be won to assist in the fight.
We’d brought the Scholarium on board, but they weren't saving our lives—we were saving theirs. We were the powerful force saving them from another. While it was better to have the Scholarium on our side, and if we could recruit the Fallen the same would apply, we didn't actually need either one. It was a matter of denying a resource to an enemy.
Unfortunately, there were no surprises to pull out. Fortunately, we knew this was coming—although we hadn't expected it to come quite so soon. My Bio-bombs had bought us some time destroying the initial waves hitting our territory. The Scholarium's plans were also a success. Project Discoball might be energy-inefficient, but it did a fine job of killing mechs. The Scholarium could be counted upon to excel in destruction.
The Fallen weren't doing as well. When they were the Righteous, much of their defense had been from existing in a reality where the rules didn't favor the Powered. When you had the only guns that worked, you won a fight. Their military paradigm just didn't demand heavy defenses and they were already paying for it. Despite their abilities, they were being overwhelmed.
Did I care to help? I had already saved them once and I didn't want that sort of thing becoming a habit. However, I didn't see where I had a choice. Supplies of the metals Vinci sought had been found in their territory and there might be more.
Still, I wasn't going to divert any of the strike teams. And the Juggernauts weren't ready to fly yet.
That left my drones. I couldn't win a war of attrition with Vinci, not long-term. Her ability to create mechs outpaced my ability to create drones in my growth vats. I didn't need to win the war though, just the day. Vinci couldn't keep this surge up. Another hour at most and then she'd have to break off and give her factories time to manufacture the next wave.
Only a portion of my military drones had teleportation powers. They would have to do. I sent one hundred thousand of my heavy Aegis troopers jumping towards Fallen territory and another twenty thousand Gunslingers. None of them had the strength of Anna, they couldn't cross the distance in a single jump, and it would be half-an-hour for them to hit the battle. Too long, given the pathetic fight the Fallen were putting up, but it would have to do. According to my calculations I'd lose almost all of those drones, but it should neutralize that part of the mechaswarm. I issued commands for the growth vats to start on the clones of those soldiers going, there was no point in waiting for them to die.
Anna teleported back from the reactor core and into the Graven, settling in behind the console.
"What is our status?" Anna asked.
"We're holding, no thanks to you playing backup battery. The Fallen are going to lose some people and the various independent factions will lose some territory. The big names are going to survive this first wave intact," I said.
"How long do you think it will be until the next one?"
"Nobody has ever accused Vinci of creativity or innovation. If she wants to hit us with another wave similar to this one, it will be four days or so."
"You underestimate her. Machines versus humans, and she isn't stupid. She'll go with smaller waves, sooner and at irregular intervals. No rest, no safety, she'll be trying to wear us down," Anna said.
It was possible, although if Vinci thought that strategy would work on us she was very much mistaken. I didn't require sleep and with constant tracking I should be able to maintain my drones on their proper shifts. Still, never knowing how long a maintenance window might take would provide problems.
"Most people manage to function on less than eighteen hours sleep a day. I engineered it out of the Gobbles, if only I could engineer it out of you. The issue is Bio-bombs. They require reactor cores and those are slow to grow. It will take me a week to replenish what was used today," I said.
"So at best she is back to full strength three days earlier than we are? That will be a problem. Will the Juggernauts be able to replace the need for Bio-bombs when they are up?"
"No. They'll help, but much like you they simply aren't up to the task at hand."
Anna massaged her eyes and growled, "What is the use of all this damned power if I can't make a difference with it? I transformed this whole planet, can't we do something similar to get rid of the Vinci?"
"While I appreciate your finely developed sense of hubris, changing the physical laws of reality is not the solution to all of our problems. If we still had access to the Agate, making something like the zero bomb might be possible. Your gluttony has made that impossible," I said.
"You do realize I didn't literally eat the damned crystal. Did Veya survive?" Anna asked.
"A bit of frostbite and some asphyxiation mixed with radiation poisoning. I have her and Merana in the Medbay—your clone ate most of a nuclear blast," I said.
Anna winced. "And lived? I am powerful."
“Lived” was true, which was impressive given the damage that she had taken. However all wasn't right with her. Merana wasn’t healing as quickly as she should be with her abilities. Her skeletal structure had been restored but she was still unconscious—probably a good thing as she only had most, but not all, of her organs.
"That was never actually in any doubt. I know you want to help right now but you can't. We could throw in you in the middle of Vinci's territory where it doesn't matter if you explode. It is best we keep you in reserve just in case she has some surprises," I said.
Anna frowned and clenched her fist. "Get Boreas and Astrid and bring them back here, Witchgaze too. When we get back to civilization I want you to throw her in a testing labyrinth."
"While I approve of any chance to do SCIENCE, I feel compelled to remind you that she did swear you loyalty," I said.
"I don't care. With the Scholarium unbalanced her abilities are the biggest threat to us among them and absolutely no use against Vinci. We lock her up and throw away the key until this whole mess is over," Anna said.
I didn't have the facilities on the Graven. I had the remaining Anna bring Witchgaze back into one of the quarters and sealed the door, flooding the chamber with tranquilizing gas.
Witchgaze's only abilities were focused on controlling others. With no other defensive powers she quickly succumbed into unconsciousness.
I was getting a comm connection from outside the ship and opened it.
"This is Forge. You're about to head off?" Forge asked.
"We are. You've temporary command of the Scholarium, do well and you just might keep it. Upgrade what you can and see that you keep your lands and people safe against Vinci," Anna said.
"You should know that she tried to recruit me. Wanted my help strengthening some sort of battlefield repair super-bot. I refused, but I did have a look. I have the location of the factory," Forge said.
We were interrupted by the remaining Anna bringing Boreas and Astrid back aboard.
"Do we hunt? Please tell me that we hunt," Astrid said.
"You ate the heart of Carnage. Do you have some aspect of his powers now?" I asked.
Astrid bent her head towards one of the passenger chairs and narrowed her eyes. There was a crack as one of the restraining bolts failed and the chair buckled.
"Not as strong as he did, of course, but I suspect you know how that goes," Astrid said.
I did, it was still useful.
"Sounds like a good opportunity for a detour. Send over the location," Anna said Forge.
I received the data transmission.
"It is about an hour outside our way. By the time we cross the border the main assault should be done. A good thing, because being unimpressive and plain doesn't actually make any of you invisible," I said.
"Do you know the best thing about you becoming organic, Emma? Somewhere out there, you have something that passes for a heart," Astrid said.
Thousands rea
lly. Bio-matter pumps served a similar purpose.
"Time enough to snap at each other later, ladies. Let’s find us something to kill," Boreas said.
33
As the Graven crossed into Vinci's lands the scattered ruins of mechs filled the ground below. Only a few still crawled, missing limbs and cracked frames. There were no defenses when we passed the border and it made sense in a way. With Vinci's production capability most facilities lost could be quickly replaced. Why waste precious energy powering border cannons when it could be used to build more offensive mechs?
Further in, mechs moved freely. We saw wide-bed trucks and spindly armed scavengers picking up the destroyed mechs from the battlefield.
"We must be able to do something about this," Anna said.
I agreed. Vinci didn't really need these resources, except it would be quicker to scavenge parts from the recently destroyed than to build new bots from scratch. I'd be against sending our forces into a needless battle of attrition. Fighting these weakly defended scavenger bots was something else.
I dispatched Gunslingers to the borders. They'd be able to snipe from afar with little risk and it would force Vinci to expend resources on either more durable scavengers or on some sort of proper border defense.
For the time being I kept our distance, high enough in the atmosphere to avoid their short range sensors. When the factory that Forge told us about drew close we got our first visual. A massive oval-shaped building, and in the center was construction scaffolding that surrounded a truly massive mech.
While no Juggernaut, it was the size of a city block and several stories in height. An ovoid machine equipped with many engines around its edge and designed to hover.
Drones were scrambling and taking to the air. We were out of range of the ground-based guns so Vinci intended to come to us.
The new Graven was a small ship. Against the heavy emplacements below I didn't like its odds. We had more than enough firepower to take them out, but not before we took enough hits that it would remove ourselves from the fight.
"Heavy defenses below. Anna may need to drop in alone," I said.
"I can get us down and back up safely," Veya said. The time in the air had been enough for the Medbay to get Veya back on her feet.
"Can you hold off whatever they are going to throw at you from the air?" Anna asked me.
"If I can keep Pollyana to operate the power project cannon," I said.
Anna nodded, "Done. Let’s go ruin someone’s day."
This mission was good for diplomacy at least. The Scholarium appreciated bold action and moving on straight from killing one of their leaders, to saving the Helix, to destroying an enemy factory—would do a lot to help keep our newfound subjects in line.
I lowered the ramp of the Graven and Anna, Astrid, Boreas, and Veya leaped out. As soon as they were clear my sensors detected a repulsive gravity bubble forming around them, shimmering gray as they plunged down.
Streams of bullets were easily battled away. When a beam cannon opened up it required Anna to redirect the energy, curving the beam to blast a section of the factory as they touched down lightly in the courtyard.
I had problems of my own. My intellect and evasive capabilities were far greater than any of Vinci's drones, but there were dozens already in range and over a thousand on the way. Point defense cannons opened up blasting at any which got near as Pollyana settled in, the projector cannon humming to life.
None of the Annas were identical in personality or powers. They all had some aspects of the original’s strengths, but given just how diverse Anna's powers were now that left a lot of variety. Pollyana was particularly adept at teleportation. It was the reason I'd used her to ferry the royals to safety.
While not normally an offensive power set, I could make teleportation work. I blasted a swarm of approaching drones with the projector cannon, randomly scrambling them in a short distance teleport. With parts missing there were showers of sparks and tumbling bits of metal as over a dozen droids fell out of the sky.
Anna and the others were under attack and with their combined gifts were holding their own well. There was no ambush that could catch Boreas unaware, energy rifle blasts catching foes the instant they appeared.
Astrid, still flush with the newly eaten heart of Carnage, simply had no shots that were ineffective. Every hit found a critical juncture with shattered heads and severed limbs left in her wake.
Veya would implode one mech, crushing it with intense waves of gravity into a superdense pebble, then she used that pebble to destroy a dozen more.
Anna was being more reserved, lashing out with occasional bolts of lightning but largely holding back. That was good, if she lost control everyone would likely perish.
Anna opened up a comm line. "Do you have any sensors you can point at this thing? It’s powering up. I'd like an idea of its capabilities."
I was rather busy in a fight for my life, but—SCIENCE. I could afford to take a few hits to get a read on what Vinci had been working on.
Polyanna blasted another swarm of drones out of the sky as I lost enough altitude to get a good scan. Energy gunfire hit our shields. They were down by fifteen percent before I could pull back up.
Vinci was getting help from someone smarter than her—this couldn't be her design. A high-density armored shell surrounded a core built around matter-to-energy conversion.
It was both genius and shoddy workmanship. The core idea was clever, but it wasn't well executed. On a battlefield this thing would have energy to burn by converting the fallen or enemies into power, but it burned a lot of power. The hover engines would consume way too much power. It had a shield generator that, while incredibly robust, again could have accomplished almost as much with a far smaller draw.
I didn't think it was intended to operate alone. I didn't detect any sort of energy-to-matter converter. If this thing was a scavenger, that would be the ideal design. Instantly consume lost units and create new ones.
Perhaps whomever Vinci had doing her SCIENCE hadn't figured that part out yet, or perhaps the unit hadn't been installed.
"Main weapon is going to be something that converts mass to energy. With as much as you've gobbled up, I'd avoid getting hit. If any of the others are struck, it will probably mean instant death, so make sure Boreas keeps his rewinds ready," I said.
"Understood," Boreas said.
The aerial defenses were trying out a new tactic. Miniscule drones, a hover projector, and shield-sapper charges making suicide runs at the Graven. They were coming from all angles. As good as my point defenses cannons were I was taking hits and the shields were already down another twelve percent.
Below, Boreas dove and knocked Veya out of the way just before a blast of white light absorbed the patch of floor where she had just been standing.
The massive mech was operational, and what just happened inspired a name for it—an Absorber.
Veya asked loudly, picking herself up, "Really? I've been aligned with you people for less than six hours and this is the second time I nearly died."
Anna replied, "Third, really. I almost killed you after Carnage, but thought that keeping you alive might get Emma to stop talking trash about my outfits."
"One of you wants to make a spectacle of an accountant’s office, the display a boring and uninteresting one nobody but the most hopeless will ever find of interest. The other is like a scientist showing off a lab equipped with only two sad little microscopes," I said.
"I kind of hate her," Veya said, the shields around the Absorber pulsing as she tried to crush it with waves of gravity. A second blast almost got her until Boreas pulled her from the path again.
"While I am sure your lack of attire is all very fascinating and something I'd be interested in exploring another time, could you please learn to dodge," Boreas said.
They weren't having any luck taking the Absorber down. I didn't think that they would without Anna opening up at full power, which was something I still didn't want her
to do.
I had an idea. It meant getting lower even though flying through a swarm of shield-sappers took the Graven's shield down to critical levels.
"Don't listen, Veya. Do stand still and try to hit it again," I said.
I give Veya this, she listened. When I detected the buildup of energy I lashed out with the projector cannon. The space around the conversion beam warped and twisted with teleporting energies, moving everything including the energy in the air to the other side of the Absorber.
Hit from the back with its own weapon the Absorber glowed an unhealthy color, suddenly feasting upon itself.
"Time to leave," I said.
"We should search the place," Anna said.
"If you do, you'll be walking back. I can't keep the Graven flying much longer," I said.
"Then bring us back up," Anna said.
Veya didn't just get them aboard. With her gravity powers she kept us clear of more sappers as I got us away.
34
It was another meeting of Anna's council, including Sylax, Hot Stuff, Caya, and Forge who was on a comm from the Helix.
"We are not just going to play defense and let ourselves be overrun by stages. I want real, actionable plans for how we can hurt her," Anna said.
Caya said, "This isn't what you are going to want to hear, but I suggest diplomacy. The Fallen and some of the more powerful Divine still aren't on board, and while their territory is weak that just provides more opportunity for Vinci. They'll be her first conquests and they'll fuel her push for us."
Caya was right—Anna didn't want to hear that.. "Taken under advisement. No promises, but I'll reach out and invite them to Aefwal. We aren't going to get jumped in unfriendly territory again."
"I can have Juggernauts airborne before Vinci's next wave. Their whole purpose is to project force. I can't guarantee that we'll hit targets especially vital to her, but we can hit some she is not expecting to be attacked and believes are safe," I said.
"If she thinks them safe we might get lucky and hit something important just by chance. I hate having a war without intelligence," Sylax said.
