Cara raised an eyebrow.
There was no answer from Felix as the shuttle jerked into max burn and launched her away from the prison.
They were a minute into the flight, with Cara grimacing against the g-forces, when Felix spoke next.
Cara’s stomach flipped as the shuttle abruptly dove.
RADIATION FOREST
STELLAR DATE: 3.13.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Summerville Regional Justice Center, Jerhattan
REGION: Earth, Terran Hegemony InnerSol
The fallout cloud’s remnants drifted across the night sky, covering the greater Charleston area as it floated to sea.
Alarms blared throughout the overcrowded sprawl. A no-fly zone of a hundred kilometers had been established as scrubber drones swarmed over the city, turning what was typically a crowded sky into a silent dead space. Emergency ground teams had closed all major roads and maglev lines, while residents took shelter in sealed buildings.
The blast had destroyed most of a manufacturing facility in the hills above Summerville, a sunken suburb of Charleston. A terrorist attack on a random building didn’t serve much purpose, unless the intent had been to occupy all civilian and military response forces.
Lyssa knew the bombing was far from random.
Wearing a human form frame, the sentient AI piloted a small close-combat fighter with ten of her Weapon Born attack drones in formation behind her. They had dropped from High Terra an hour before, flying on an intercept course for the building she had identified as the Summerville Avonlea, a facility that had once been called the Summerville Justice Center before it underwent significant construction and was reborn as a spa and resort. When Lyssa had read the intelligence report, she had thought the whole situation ludicrous: essentially slave labor manufacturing high fashion items for guests at the resort. But she’d experienced far worse in her life. She and the other Weapon Born were sentient AIs resulting from human-AI experiments that imaged seeds AI from children.
Summerville Avonlea lacked imagination when it came to human cruelty.
she asked her lead Weapon Born, a combat-experienced leader named Emerson. The drones had better scanning capability than Lyssa’s fighter.
he reported.
Lyssa said.
Lyssa appreciated the attempt at consolation, but she had been berating herself for not coming sooner for days. Since she’d first received the intel that Cara Sykes was a prisoner at Summerville, she’d told herself not to wait. She had wanted to lead this mission personally, but doing so meant that the eyes of SolGov would be on her, and she couldn’t just attack Terran soil without proper coordination.
The very minute she’d received clearance from the TSF, her team had dropped from Raleigh on High Terra, and that’s when word of the bombing had hit the newsfeeds. It seemed almost ironic that she could come this close to finding Cara after all this time, only to lose her.
Lyssa didn’t believe in coincidence.
She was already scouring available networks for the source of the attack. Nothing had returned yet, but finding the responsible party was only a matter of time.
As they approached Summerville from the north, Lyssa enjoyed the view of the dark hills beneath them. Their flight path took them over two local lakes identified as Marion and Moultrie.
This was where Andy Sykes had grown up. She had been embedded in his mind and experienced many of his memories of this place. He had hated and loved it. He’d joined the TSF to get away from home, and then fought to rebuild a different kind of home for his family on the freighter TSS Sunny Skies.
Andy had given his life to help smuggle Lyssa out of InnerSol, and Cara Sykes was his daughter. Lyssa wasn’t going to let her rot in any prison. As far as Lyssa was concerned, she had a debt to pay.
Emerson announced.
Immediately, Lyssa’s mind filled with information from Avonlea. The grounds were mostly rolling pine forest, ending on a collection of ornate buildings at the head of a valley. What had been many square kilometers of gardens and spa facilities had been reduced to a wasteland of rubble and burning stumps. The front section of the facility was gone, leaving a series of square buildings that appeared to extend into the hill behind the resort.
Lyssa pulled up historical schematics and matched them against the incoming scans.
There you are.
The underground prison took shape under the progressive scans. Twenty levels of cell-lined corridors filled the earth beneath the buildings. Internal returns showed high radiation levels in addition to several fires and areas where carbon monoxide levels meant no survivors. The prisoners appeared to have been released, and electromagnetic activity flashing throughout the area meant pulse blasts and other weapons-fire.
Emerson said.
Lyssa said.
Lyssa said.
Emerson chuckled.
she said.
A hot spot blew out on the largest building as something exploded inside. Lyssa sent hold commands to the drones, and they pulled back, spreading out in a defensive perimeter as she circled.
She focused on the new hole in the building’s wall as someone surprised her by jumping through it. They came down on a vehicle parked next to the building and crushed it like tinfoil.
she told Emerson.
Lyssa nearly turned her attention away, until she realized that people inside the building were firing on the person who jumped.
she said.
Emerson said.
Lyssa sent two Weapon Born closer to verify the scans. As she came back around, the person on the ground returned fire on the building, then tossed a grenade and sprinted back toward the building, clearing the wall to reach the roof.
Emerson said.
Lyssa caught herself, controlling her excitement.
The two Weapon Born closed on the roof, but the guard climbed inside a small shuttle before they could complete verification.
Five drones swept the remaining buildings, sending back more bio signs, evidence of fighting and radiation, but nothing that might have been Cara. They should have been able to pick up her personal security token on the local Link—unless she was still under some kind of suppression. Lyssa checked all the returns, noting that even the prisoners were on the Link, connections reaching outside the prison.
The guard in the shuttle showed no outside Link activity. Although, there was a high level of EM spectrum activity coming off somethin
g in the shuttle, as if the vehicle was sitting on top of a high-powered antennae.
she told Emerson.
Lyssa was torn. Cara had been hiding for nearly ten years, avoiding all contact with friends or family. All Lyssa knew was that Cara had been out in the Scattered Disc for a few years before coming into Jovian space, and then she had completely disappeared.
Has she been here the whole time?
Something told Lyssa to wait; if she contacted Cara now, she might lose her again.
Or Lyssa was simply afraid.
As she wavered, the shuttle’s engines roared to life and launched the craft in a hard burn off the roof.
Lyssa commanded her units.
‹ Prev Next ›
