Bubblegum Crash : Knights' End
A Knight Sabers' fanfic in nine parts
by Mark Latus
Note- Dialogue enclosed in <" "> is in English. All other dialogue is in
Japanese.
Part 5 : Scorched Earth
8:55 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - USSD Headquarters, Satellite
Control Section. MegaTokyo
Things were quiet enough in the Orbital Weapons Division. In contrast
to the chaos in the Air Defence Wing where officers screamed at the government
for giving GENOM the power to deploy a private air force.
Lieutenant Yohko Kikuchi was sipping her coffee when the satellite she
was monitoring registered a power flux. Nothing too unusual about that. The
Laser Defence Satellites were a lot more sensitive than the general public
knew. Like the nuclear weapons that preceded them there were lots of minor
incidents that would have alarmed the ignorant. She transmitted the standard
compensation program and waited for satellite 102 to return to standby mode.
It didn't. Power buildup continued. Frowning she began typing in
commands. She didn't panic, after all this was why human operators were
present. She'd been trained for this eventuality.
Except the training didn't seem to be sufficient. The satellite was
refusing to acknowledge abort orders. Shit it was going to fire!
"Captain, 102's gone live and is going to fire. Strikepoint will be ...
in Sector 8, MegaTokyo!"
Captain Miura was looking over her shoulder. A swift glance at the
command monitor showed his subordinate had tried every control sequence. It
also showed none of them had worked and 102 was entering ignition mode.
Pulling the keycard from the chain around his neck he slotted it into the
console. As he typed in the command sequence he spoke for the record.
"Captain Joe Miura USSD 1459875. On my authorization we are initiating self
destruct of Defensive Laser Satellite 102. Executed at 8:58:15 pm."
Thank god he'd taken that speed typing course. That sequence was far too
long for this close to the wire.
"Captain!" Kikuchi sounded scared. "It's armed the self destruct but
there's some sort of delay. Detonation is set for 90 seconds. It'll fire in
60 seconds!" Self destruct should take a maximum of 25 seconds.
This couldn't be happening. "Try moving it again. Shift it to aim at
the ocean!"
Kikuchi pounded in the keyboard in frustration. "No good. It's locked
into attack mode and is refusing to shift targets. Thirty seconds."
"Hunter Satellites! What do we have close enough to intercept 102?"
Lieutenant Goto had already been checking that. "Nothing within 45
seconds of a strike."
Shit! There had to be something.
"Ignition!"
The room went silent.
Miura snapped back into control and began transmitting a new command.
"Aborting destruct. We need to take that bastard apart molecule by molecule."
To find what had gone so disastrously wrong. No good. It was too late to
shut down. A new star flared briefly over MegaTokyo.
There was the howl of a phone. Miura picked it up and listened briefly.
Putting it down he said, "Orbital observations confirm laser pulse strike on
MegaTokyo. Casualties in sector 8 are unknown but are estimated in the
hundreds.
There was nothing else to say. This was worse than the night two years
earlier when a terrorist had seized control of the satellites. Then they
could blame an external force. Now? Hundreds were dead and it all seemed the
fault of design failure.
9:00 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - Sector 8, MegaTokyo.
Most of the victims died instantly, vaporized by the energy that
ripped down from the sky. The Silky Doll Fashion Emporium was not at the
direct centre of the blast. But it was close enough for the building to cease
to exist. In an instant the building and the concealed base beneath it was
gone, replaced by a massive crater. Swept away with no trace they had ever
been there.
2456 people also vanished without a trace. Many would never be
confirmed as being there and would be listed as missing. On the fringes of
the blast hundreds more suffered fatal heat shock or were fatally injured by
debris. Among those far enough away to survive the heat and be missed by the
shrapnel but close enough to see the beam clearly there was mass blindness.
Emergency services were diverted from the battleridden Sector Five. This was
the worst night since the great quake of 2025.
9:00 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - GENOM Tower
As he entered the late Chairman Quincy's office Daniel Dumas kept
himself from thinking about civilian casualties. He'd known he'd be killing
a lot of people tonight. Blocking all feelings of remorse and empathy from
his mind he activated the Chairman's systems and tapped into the Neural
Linkage Room. Time to find out how things had been running without him.
The Knight Wing was going down, Linna Yamazaki was dead. Good. He brought
up his Meganet watch program. His taps into ADPolice communications had
registered the information he'd been seeking. Confirmation on three. The
last Knight Saber was aboard the crashing plane.
The urge to shut down the operation ripped through him. It was still
possible to spare her. He couldn't, not now. She'd never forgive, never
forget. No one could ignore a betrayal this huge. Sylia had to join the
others.
Daniel reached into his mind and flipped a mental switch. His
emotions receded to a tiny corner of his consciousness. There, now he could
evaluate things clearly. The operation was proceeding precisely as planned.
There was one last thing to be done. A final gesture he'd promised himself.
As he began evaluating the demands for information from the outside world he
tapped into the audio portion of the human-boomer neural links. When he
wanted to he could temporarily censor what they heard.
8:57 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - Sector 3 airspace.
As he flew his Knight Shadow suit towards Sector 5 Mackie was listening
to the ADPolice communications. He didn't like what he was hearing. He
mentally sifted the various fragments trying to put together a cohesive
picture. Nothing on the Knight Sabers channel. Sis's last transmission had
been just before she engaged a squadron of Boomers. Since then, nothing. He
had a lock on the coded transponder Knight Wing carried. The signal had been
bouncing around wildly indicating serious evasive action but was slowing
down and losing altitude. His Boomer disguise should get him past the
attackers. The only problem was that increased the likelihood of his sister
shooting him down. Could one suit really make a difference anyhow? In the
background ADP audio clips bounced around his helmet.
"Two boomers wiped corner of Fifth and Twentieth. Reports are right
they're a lot slow than usual.
"This is squad three. We have two fatalities, one serious injury.
Pinned down at Burger n' Borst 1156 Seventh St. Requesting air support."
"No air support available at this time in Sector five. Not while GENOM's
threatening to shoot anything in the air. Squad six is heading in to assist
you. Hold on.
"This is Endo, squad two. Officers down. We have an unmarked ADP
vehicle transmitting distress call. Appears to have been crashed. One
nonfunctional Boomer on site, two bodies in car. Moving in. Driver is
deceased, probably died on impact ... it's Detective Wong. Second victim
received fatal head wound ..."
"Shit man, her head's fucking gone!"
"Shut up Vasquez. She's wearing a dispatcher's uniform. Looks like she
was the one to drop the Boomer. Found her ID ... oh fuck, it's Romanova ...
shit I liked her."
"Nene ... oh my God ... It can't be." The transmission broke up into
weeping.
"Naoko, hold yourself together ... oh hell someone kill her mike."
"Endo this is MacNichol. You're sure it's Daley and Nene?"
"Daley is definite. Nene ... well the face is unidentifiable but she's
carrying Romanova's ID. Positive identification will have to wait for the
autopsy."
"Understood. MacNichol out."
"Attention all units this is Lieutenant Jacobs, tech division. We've
done an onsite autopsy on a few of the Boomers. We're confirming these are
BU-12A's but they've been altered. There's an implant hardwired into the
brains. It bypasses the hardwired programming to spare noncombatants. It
makes them regard every human as a viable target. However the bypass screws
up combat efficiency. The good news is they're operating at about 50% of
capacity.
"The bad news is there's a lot of them."
"Right, well they're GENOM manufacture so we're sending their serial
numbers to the tower. Maybe we can get some answers."
"Jesus, the sky's on fire!"
"Ignore it we've got enough problems here."
"Jacobs, you're saying somebody redesigned these Boomers to kill
civilians?"
"That's it. This whole thing's some kind of terrorist act."
"Reports of massive explosion in Sector Eight."
"This is Copter two-five. GENOM's Boomers are moving away in pursuit of the
Knight Sabers. We're moving in to assist squad three.
"This is Copter one-three. We've had a sighting of a Knight Saber going
down. Heading in to investigate."
"Copter one-three forget it, all ADP Copters are to assist efforts to
retake sector five."
"This is one-three, you're breaking up control. I didn't get that last
transmission."
"Don't pull this crap Okada. Do you really want to get busted again?"
"Unconfirmed reports of laser satellite strike in Sector Eight."
"My wife's in Sector Eight!"
This is one-three we're on the ground. I spotted the impact point and
... yeah, I've found a helmet labelled Knight Saber ... SHIT! Her head's
still in it!"
"Okada this is MacNichol. Who is she?"
"How they fuck should I know? Nobody knows who these bitches are ...
were."
"WHAT COLOUR'S THE HELMET YOU FUCKING MORON!"
"Green. What the hell's the big deal about a dead vigilante?"
"Okada forget souvenir hunting and get your ass back in the air. We've
still got a lot of cleanup work to do.
"This is Jacobs. GENOM's shipping division just identified the serial
numbers from the Boomers we examined. They're part of a group of sixty
BU-12As sold to Canada in early '34. The shipment vanished en route and was
never recovered. GENOM had to send replacements."
"We have confirmation of 49 Boomers destroyed."
"The copter jocks just accounted for another 3."
"So 52 down, hopefully just eight more left."
"This is Abramson, Squad seven. We have Boomer signals coming from the
Hot Legs nightclub. Moving in." Enclosed quarters, good for an ambush. No
human heat signatures so the place was either deserted or everyone in it was
dead. From what he'd seen tonight it was probably the latter. Irreverently
he remembered MacNichol dragging him down here one night. Leon was hung up
on that singer, what was her name? Frankly he hadn't liked the music that
much and the club's atmosphere made him feel old. He'd never been back.
Until tonight.
The Squad entered cautiously, the Boomer signal was indistinct. As he'd
feared the club was filled with bodies. No one was sick, they'd seen plenty
of massacres tonight. Abramson pushed aside the thoughts of what he'd do to
the bastards responsible. Concentrate on the here and now, you'll live
longer. There were two Boomers sprawled among the dead. Neither moved or
registered as alive.
He signalled Ito. Ito moved forward cautiously to the Boomers side. He
raised a hand, the signal these were dead. The Boomer trace was coming from
back stage. Ito looked at him and Abramson nodded. Ito, Smith and Chen
headed cautiously onto the stage. Abramson and the rest of the squad covered
them. The three vanished behind a curtain.
There was a brief burst of fire from back stage. Abramson knocked Goto's
gun down. "Don't fire until we see who comes out."
Ito's voice crackled over the squad link. "Everything's cool. There was
a dead boomer and a crippled one back here. The live one looked paralysed but
I decided not to take the chance. No more signals"
"Understood. Come on back. That makes another four down."
"Yeah, but who got the other three?"
"I think I know. I found a lady with an Earthshaker not far from the
stage." Abramson studied the body, she'd been nearly cut in half by heavy
gunfire. The shells had chewed a jagged line across her torso. She could be
undercover ADP, that would explain the gun. Or maybe just off duty and looking
to party. She'd been dressed for it. There was something familiar about
her face. Then memory clicked and he knew who she was. "Shit, Leon's not
going to like this", he whispered.
Better call this in. "This is Abramson, Squad Seven. We're in the Hot
Legs Club. We've got four dead Boomers and a massacre. Estimate about one
hundred dead."
"Abramson this is MacNichol ..."
"Leon, I'm sorry. She's dead." Silence from the other end. "She took
out three boomers and crippled a fourth. She must have been one hell of a
lady."
Enclosed in his Knight Shadow armour Mackie blocked himself from feeling
anything. The dead are gone, you can't help them. It might not be to late to
help his sister.
He had a signal lock. The transponder was coming from ground level.
The Knight Wing was down. Then the signal cut off. Mackie continued towards
its last location at maximum speed. He extended his sensor web, best to find
out what he'd be facing on arrival.
9:10 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - An unreclaimed region on the border
between sectors Five and Six.
Sylia's brief bout of unconsciousness ended. The front section of the
Knight Wing was lying on an incline of approximately 45 degree angle. Also
her left knee hurt like hell. She blocked the pain and looked down. The
impact of the crash landing had driven an old concrete reinforcing rod through
the hull. From there it had slammed into her suit's knee joint, cracking it.
It didn't seem to have penetrated her skin. However the force had been
sufficient to damage her knee. Possibly break the kneecap. In any event it
was pinning her in place. She extended her arm blade and slashed downward.
The rod fell away from her knee. Free. She tried straightening the knee.
Nothing happened. She could block the pain but that didn't repair the damage.
First thing to do was assess her situation. No signs of life. Good,
the last thing she needed was to have to worry about bystanders. Various
suit malfunctions were displaying, the most serious being the damage to her
jumpjets. Knight Wing obviously wasn't going anywhere but there were still
operational systems. One of them, the collision alarm, began screaming.
Missiles were homing in fast! Heavy ones not the AP bomblets they'd used on
Linna. Sylia slammed the havoc button. Knight Wing launched all its own
missiles and began firing the remaining gun randomly. She hit the eject
button and was thrown clear of the aircraft. The explosion caught her in
midair and slammed her into the ground. Knight Wing ceased to exist as
anything other than shrapnel.
At GENOM Madigan cursed as the Knight Saber's counter barrage of missiles
locked onto the circling Boomers. The mercenaries were most effective at
evading and/or destroying the counterstrikes. Still they lost another two
bringing their numbers down to 19. The autonomous Boomer units were down to
seven, one of them critically damaged.
Still 26 Boomers against one damaged Knight Saber shouldn't be a problem.
She was about to give the fire order when Dumas's voice cut in to the both
the main speakers and the mercenaries helmet receivers. "This is Dumas.
Hold all action except that necessary to defend yourselves. I've issued new
instructions to the self directing Boomers. They will be landing. Your
audio links are going temporarily offline. When they are restored you can
finish the Knight Saber."
Madigan heard the mercenaries grumble. "What the hell is the bastard
playing at?"
"We just hover here like sitting ducks?"
"Audio's gone"
"He's writing the checks. Besides it's not as if it's really us out
there."
"Good point. Still I don't get it."
Shimizu looked at Madigan. She shrugged. Inwardly she was sure she knew
what was happening. Quincy undoubtably programmed a final gloating message
into the self directed Boomers. He'd have wanted the Knight Sabers to know
who had killed them. Dumas didn't want the mercenaries hearing the message
and repeating it later. After all GENOM was supposed to be the good guy in
this situation. Tracking down the murderers of its president. She checked
in the transmission feed coming back from the autonomous Boomers. As she'd
expected there was no audio component. Daniel would undoubtably purge the
brains of those Boomers once they returned.
Sylia got painfully to her feet. Her left leg wouldn't straighten so
all her weight was on her right. Her particle cannon generator was
malfunctioning, there was enough charge left for three shots. 26 Boomers
hovered above. Well unless, after she shot 3, the other 23 lined up for her
to stab them she was out of luck. The problem with being enhanced is knowing
when things are hopeless. She was too smart to see any was to get out of
this situation. Jumpjets were out of action (but she'd never of outflown
them anyway), she couldn't run and she wasn't packing enough firepower.
She was surprised when seven Boomers began dropping down to surround her.
She'd expected them to just start pouring AP bomblets down on her. The way
they'd killed Linna.
Linna gone. She'd been suppressing that thought. She was about to die.
The only thing she could hope was Priss and Nene had got themselves out of
whatever had happened. Which was probably getting caught in the Sector Five
Boomer rampage.
The Boomers landed. Though they landed combat ready none attacked her.
Overhead the other nineteen waited. One of the Boomers took a step forward,
Sylia aimed at it but didn't fire. It could be a distraction for an attack
from behind. None of the Boomers behind her were moving. Boomer SK-3 no. 14
was one of several programmed with the statement. As the higher units in the
hierarchy were gone it was its function to deliver it.
"Sylia ... " The voice boomed out of the biomech's speakers. Daniel's
voice. "If you are hearing this recording then there are no witnesses and
you are about to die." What the hell was this? "Circumstances made it
necessary for me to destroy the Knight Sabers. I ... wanted to spare you but
it was impossible to do that. You could never let the other Knight Sabers
die unavenged. I intend to spare Mackie, I believe I can convince him how
much he has to lose by fighting GENOM." Sylia felt the world spin around her.
It wasn't possible, this had to be some sort of hallucination. Even as she
told herself that she knew it wasn't true. This was real.
After a brief pause Daniel continued, "I realize you're very unlikely to
believe this but you are the only woman I've ever loved. But there are things
that must be done, sacrifices that have to be made. How can I ask that of
others if I'm unwilling to do it myself." The tone of self justification
vanished from his voice, "Or perhaps I just love my vision more than I love
anything, anyone else. I really don't know." A brief pause. "I just had to
say, I'm sorry and I will mourn sincerely. But this is necessary. Somebody
has to save the world."
The recording ended. Sylia pushed her emotions out of her mind and
prepared to die fighting. Overhead another Boomer arrived. Then everything
got crazy.
As he approached Mackie's sensors brought the situation to him. Sylia
was on the ground, hardsuit damaged and surrounded by Boomers. Many more
hovered overhead. The flying ones were under external control, some sort of
very complicated signal net. The grounded boomers were just transmitting a
standard videofeed home. That he could jam easily enough. The other signal?
Perhaps not but he thought he could generate feedback in it. Hopefully that
would suffice. Targeting his missiles at the grounded Boomers and thankful
that he'd tried to give this suit more capabilities than necessary Mackie
arrived. NOW!
At GENOM the videofeed from the Boomers broke into static at the same
time the mercenaries started screaming and fighting against the restraints.
One of Shimizu's assistants was shouting something but Madigan couldn't hear
him over the cacophony. She grabbed him and shouted "WHAT'S HAPPENING?"
"FEEDBACK IN THE NEURAL LINK. IT'S FRYING THEIR BRAINS!"
"THEN PULL THE GODDAMNED PLUG!" Why the hell did she have to tell them
something that obvious? The tech did something and the screaming faded to
gurgling moans. The room stank, it seemed neural shock made the bowels and
bladders let go. Despite the ringing in her ears Madigan remembered something
she'd learned on a previous visit. Addressing Shimizu she asked,"I seem to
recall you telling Dumas that it would be impossible for someone to break
into the link during combat."
"A slight exaggeration. Highly unlikely as you'd need both a powerful
transmitter/receiver array along with an AI capable of deciphering the link.
Who'd be carrying that into combat?"
"That damn Knight Saber for one." Shit now it was down to the seven
self directed units.
"Sir!" The tech was trying to get Shimizu's attention.
"Not now!", he snapped.
The tech didn't down. "Yes now Sir." Shimizu turned to glare at him
and the tech shouted, "The link units are now down in a combat situation,
fully functional and capable of enemy retrieval."
Shizumu went pale. "Oh shit, we didn't disarm the destruct sequence ..."
Madigan didn't like being out of the loop. "What does that mean?"
Shimizu looked at her, "The SK-3 link capable units are our latest
design. To prevent them being recovered intact enough to be copied they have
an onboard self destruct capability. If the monitor AI reads the suit as
out of action in a combat zone it triggers the destruct."
"So what's the big deal. Those Boomers are useless to use without
pilots."
"The self destruct is nuclear." Shimizu's voice was flat.
"What!"
"The explosions will be on the order of about 1 kiloton. Minor by
nuclear standards but nineteen of them will ensure nothing remains in the
combat zone."
The tech turning back from his monitor. "No signals coming in,
they're all gone."
"Shit." This is just what we need Madigan thought. "We just nuked
Tokyo, that's going to do wonders for our corporate image." At least the
Knight Saber got vaporized as well. Assuming the grounded Boomers didn't take
her out first.
Her pager beeped. She activated a comm screen and looked into Daniel's
face. "We've got a problem ...", she began.
"I know, I've been monitoring." He sighed. "OK, slight rewrite of the
facts. We forced the Knight Wing down. We had them trapped. It was obvious
to the Sabers that there was no escape. We detected a weapon buildup and then
lost touch with our combat units. Dispatch a follow-up unit. They can find
that the remaining Knight Sabers chose suicide over surrender." He paused
for a moment, "How are our pilots?"
Kate glanced around the room. "Six survivors. The ones who got shot
down earlier. The other nineteen look brain dead."
"Make sure the six left remember things our way. Dumas out."
At least that would be easy. She was good at intimidation.
Ten minutes earlier:
Sylia was about to start a hopeless fight when the new Boomer arrived.
Suddenly the hovering Boomers were falling out of the sky and missiles were
launching from the new Boomer at those surrounding her. The Boomers locked
missiles on the newcomer, prioritising it as the greatest danger. A mistake.
Spinning around and ignoring what she was doing to her knee Sylia fired off
her remaining shots. Three Boomers exploded from particle beam bursts. As
the survivors turned to terminate her the incoming missiles arrived. The
remaining four exploded around her. The newcomer came in fast, its shape
flickering from Boomer blue to Black. Knight Shadow.
Mackie landed by Sylia. First eliminate the Boomers he was jamming,
then get Sis out of here. His sensors began screaming alarms. He didn't
take a second to question them, just grabbed his sister and triggered the
afterburners. Knight Shadow and its passenger burned into the sky. If they
could just get enough altitude ... He hoped the G-force wouldn't mangle his
sister.
Below them night turned to day. Mackie's visor polarized to save his
vision. The shockwave buffeted them but didn't knock them out of the air.
Radiation was within tolerable limits for brief exposure. Lucky he'd hardened
the suit systems against EMP bursts.
Time to get out of here before something else showed up. Mackie
reactivated his Boomer camoflague. Time to try something new. From slits on
side Knight Shadow extruded holofabric. It was made up of flexible hologram
cells and could project an image when connected to a hologram generator. It
burned out quickly but should last long enough to get back to the warehouse.
While a flying Boomer would be nothing extraordinary tonight, one carrying a
Knight Saber would draw attention. As he wrapped the still figure Mackie's
mind switched from the tactical to the personal. "Sis?" No response on the
Saber channel. Of course her receiver could be down. But she also wasn't
moving. "Hold on, I'll get you somewhere safe." If there was any such place.
The wrap was complete and visually (from a distance) he should appear to be
carrying absolutely nothing. The stealth broadcast should shield Sylia from
detection by sensor scan.
"No!" Sylia's voice echoed through his helmet."
"Sis!"
"Always thought your suit ... ridiculously overpowered ... looks like I
was wrong ... Drop me off somewhere, help the others." Her voice was ragged.
"Sis you need help."
"Forget me!" A pause then she said, "Linna's dead ..."
"I know." Mackie headed back towards the warehouse, plotting a course
to avoid Sector Five. There would be a lot of boomerphobic heavily armed
ADP down there.
"Listen to me Mackie, Priss and Nene ..."
Mackie broke in on her, "Sis I'm sorry but ... it's too late to help
them." A small gasp but no other indication of how she felt. He continued,
"I was listening to the ADP bands en route ... they found them both ... I'm
sorry."
"I see." Sylia's voice cracked. She had to hold herself together,
Mackie had to know. "It was Daniel ... he was behind it all. I don't
understand ... why? ..." Her voice trailed off and she stopped transmitting.
Mackie flew through the night keeping his emotions locked down. Mourn later,
for now put the pieces together. He looked down at his sister's suit and
wondered if he should tell her about the laser satellite strike. From the
sound of it Knight Sabers' HQ had been just about ground zero. Along with her
home.
9:30 pm. Tuesday October 30th 2035 - Phoenix Warehouse, Sector Three.
Sonya sat watching the video as the media tried to make sense of the
chaos throughout the city. Frank and Ilsa sometimes stopped to watch, most
of the time they paced around the building. Their suit amplified footsteps
echoing loudly. Several time Sonya had thought Ilsa was going to tell her
not to worry. Each time she'd stopped herself. Probably Sonya thought,
because there's no way she can honestly say that.
Ilsa stopped pacing. <"Mackie's back.">
<"Really?">
Sonya saw the helmet nod. <"He just sent a message, 'It's me, don't
shoot. Have a medkit ready.'">
<"Skylights open. Here he comes!"> Frank stood by the controls looking
upward. As the Boomer shape entered he closed it again.
The Boomer seemed to be carrying a fuzzy piece of ... sky? The image
vanished and she was looking at Knight Shadow 1 carrying something wrapped
in holo fabric. The suited Mackie laid down his burden and slashed through
the wrapping. As he pulled it away a very battered Knight Saber was revealed.
Gently he reached down and removed the helmet. Sonya wasn't too surprised at
the person unmasked.
<"Sylia?"> Frank sounded very surprised.
<"Well that explains a lot."> Ilsa popped her suit top and levered
herself out. She took the medikit from Sonya, <"I can probably use this
better than you can."> With surprising grace Mackie's suited hands opened his
sister's suit. Sylia had been apparently in a trance during this. Now she
hauled herself out of her suit.
<"I figured she was just supplying them with the technology. I didn't
think she was crazy enough to ..."> Frank broke off. <"Isn't it normal to
wear an undersuit for these things?">
Sylia's skin looked rubbed raw though compared to her knee that must have
been a minor irritation. <"I'm blocking the pain. Do what you have to.">
Sylia fell silent again and focused on something no one else could see.
<"Frank stop gawking and check the sub's ready to go.">
<"I wasn't gawking"> Frank moved to check the sub. He hadn't been
gawking, right now Sylia was a far from attractive sight. Except perhaps to
a sadist. <"Hey what about the other Knight Sabers?">
<"They're dead."> Mackie's voice was flat, devoid of emotion. <"Nene,
Priss, Linna ... all gone."> Ilsa cursed softly then returned to working on
Sylia.
<"Mackie ..."> Sonya held out her arms to him.
He turned away, <"I'm fine. Help Ilsa with Sylia.">
Rather than get in Ilsa's way Mackie drifted over to the video. He still
didn't understand. Why had Dumas suddenly attacked the Knight Sabers? Why
commit such slaughter in violation of his own beliefs? What pieces was he
missing? An English translation scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
A solemn looking anchorman was going over the minuscule information and tons
of rumours the media had to work with. "ADPolice and GENOM have confirmed
that the Boomers that rampaged through MegaTokyo's Sector Five were part of
a stolen shipment purchased by the Canadian government in February of last
year. The units were destined for deployment along the Quebec/Newfoundland
border following reports of repeated Quebecois incursions into Canadian
territory. Who stole the units and modified them to perform tonight's
massacre remains unknown. However there have been reports linking this and
the attack on GENOM headquarters by the mercenary group known as the Knight
Sabers. Acting CEO of GENOM Daniel Dumas tonight promised that GENOM would
spare no expense in ensuring that those responsible for both the Sector Five
massacre and the assassination of CEO Quincy are brought to justice. The
latest update on the Sector Eight tragedy ..."
Mackie flicked off the set. It was too sick ... but it was the only
thing that made sense. "That's it ... it has to be that sonofa ..." He
couldn't think of any obscenity that would express his rage.
Sonya stared at his anger contorted expression, <"Mackie! What's
wrong?">
"You know." Sylia looked at her brother. "It's all come together."
"Yes." He couldn't lie to her. He looked to Ilsa. <"How's Sylia?">
<"She's lost a lot of skin, painful but survivable. The kneecap's
broken. It'll need surgery to repair but doesn't seem to be bleeding
internally. She has two broken fingers on her right hand, I've splinted them.
Various bruises but nothing that seems life threatening.">
"Forget that Mackie. Tell me what you know."
<"All right."> He answered in English. Might as well let the others
follow this. <"Destroying the Knight Sabers wasn't the point of tonight's
exercise. That was more of a side effect than the goal."> He paused then
continued, <"For Daniel the real point of tonight was killing Quincy and
taking over GENOM."> Everyone except Sylia just stared at him.
<"Go on.">
<"The official story will emerge as follows. The mercenaries known as
the Knight Sabers accepted a contract to kill Quincy. Using Boomers they
had stolen earlier they started a massacre in Sector Five to draw ADPolice
and GENOM's attention. Luckily they weren't experts on rewiring Boomers
because their hardwiring slowed the biomechs down. Using the massacre as a
cover they disrupted GENOM's sensor net and got close enough to kill Quincy.
With ADPolice throwing everything they had into Sector Five the Sabers
expected to get clean away. They didn't count on GENOM having its own
air force and were intercepted and destroyed. Dumas barely escaped the attack
alive so he's above suspicion. Quincy's gone, GENOM is Daniel's and his
hands are clean.">
<"If that's the official story, what's the real story?">
<"Dumas decided it was time to take over GENOM. What the real trigger
was I don't know. Maybe they recreated the Gilgamesh project. Daniel would
not have wanted Quincy to be immortal. Though I'm sure he wouldn't object to
using it himself. Anyway Quincy's always hated the Knight Sabers. It must
really have galled him when they were celebrated as heroines for saving the
city from fusion explosion. So he ordered Dumas to eliminate them. While he
was setting that up Dumas made his own arrangements for getting rid of Quincy.
The Sector Five massacre was designed to eliminate two Knight Sabers in their
civilian guises as well as draw out the other two. Once the Knight Wing
launched Dumas's duplicate of it attacked GENOM carrying Knight Saber
lookalike Boomers. They killed Quincy, if any Gilgamesh records of him
existed they also got destroyed. While the network was down the lookalikes
landed somewhere. The network came back on and picked up the real Knight
Wing. The interceptors were launched. Linna was killed ... and so was Sylia!
There's no reason for Daniel to suspect she wasn't vaporized. Nobody outside
this room knows the Knight Shadow suits are in MegaTokyo.">
Sylia's eyes were cold. She nodded. It all made sense. Sonya stared
in shock, Ilsa cursed softly. Frank asked, <"But what about the laser
satellite strike? Where does that fit in?">
Mackie sighed. <"That wiped out the Knight Sabers base under Sylia's
building. So there's no evidence that CEO Dumas's old friend Sylia Stingray
was involved with the Knight Sabers."> He looked at his sister. "He must
have been planning to destroy your body. Perhaps he'd have caused that self
destruct effect if I hadn't done it first."
"I think you're right Mackie." Sylia nodded. "It would have been very
difficult to explain sleeping with the leader of the Knight Sabers when
they'd murdered his boss." She said this with no sign of emotion.
Mackie forced away his own reaction. After a moment Ilsa asked, <"But
Quincy's death doesn't secure him the CEOship. Deputy or not.">
Frank added, <"And that laser satellite strike? No way anyone's going to
believe that was a coincidence.">
Mackie answered Ilsa first. <"Dumas has undoubtably been building
alliances to keep himself on the board. Bottom line is as Quincy's right
hand man he made GENOM richer and more powerful than ever. There won't be
many who'll want to lose him.">
Turning to Frank he nodded, <"You're right Frank no one will believe it
was an accident."> He sighed, <"Very soon there will be a leak at the USSD.
It will come out that in the summer of '32 Commander Swarz, the director of
USSD at the time, hired the Knight Sabers."> Sylia's breath hissed loudly.
<"The Sabers were hired to retrieve a device capable of controlling laser
satellites. The vigilantes reported back to USSD that it had been destroyed.
Specialists from the USSD recovered the remains of the black box based on the
vigilantes' information. Of course now it'll be obvious the Sabers copied
the device before wrecking it."> A scenario played through his mind.
<"Undoubtedly the Sabers planned to use it cover their escape. Having
confirmed Quincy dead they were probably planning to destroy the GENOM tower
to cover their escape. Fortunately, or unfortunately their control wasn't as
good as they thought and they struck the wrong area of MegaTokyo. Probably
because USSD upgraded security after the Largo incident. In fact before long
everyone will realize that Largo must have bought his satellite control
system from the Knight Sabers.">
It was all so hellishly perfect. <"So that and the massacre using stolen
Boomers will prove that the Knight Sabers were the terrorists GENOM always
claimed they were. Vigilantism in this city is dead! Anyone who tries to
replace the Knight Sabers will be targeted by GENOM, ADP, the public,
everyone. As for the Knight Sabers' reputation ..."> He didn't want to
think what Linna's funeral would be like.
Frank pounded a hand on his thigh. <"OK, we break out the suits, find
the fake Knight Wing ...">
<"Its been destroyed by now. Probably as soon as it served its
purpose.">
<"How can you be sure?">
<"Because that's what I'd do.">
<"Mackie's right. The question is what to do now."> Sylia seemed to
have recovered somewhat. Or at least was managing to block the pain more
effectively.
<"For now you stay dead."> Mackie could only see one course that made
sense. <"Dumas knows I'm in town but has no reason to think I brought the
Knight Shadow suits along. Frank we'll reload the sub with the suits. You
and Sylia will board it and head for the rendezvous point. The cargo lifter
will get you back to Germany. From there you can get the suits back to
Phoenix and Sylia to a doctor.">
<"You mean just run away?"> Frank looked amazed. Ilsa put a hand on his
arm but he shook it off. <"Let Dumas win? I spent all that time crammed in
the sub and you're saying go back without firing a single shot?">
Mackie's face went very cold, almost inhuman. His voice was ice, <"Yes
Frank, that is exactly what I'm saying.>" Frank felt a touch of fear, the
younger man suddenly seemed incredibly dangerous. Mackie continued, <"Do you
really think I want it this way? Three very good friends were murdered
tonight along with hundreds of innocent bystanders. All because one man
thinks he's indispensable to the fate of the world. I want nothing more than
to drive Knight Shadow right into the tower, wrap the suit gauntlets around
his neck and squeeze until his head comes off!"> Sylia wore an expression
scarier than her brother's. Mackie took a deep breath and his face and voice
returned to normal. <"But right now I can't touch him. And since he likes
to consider himself a civilized man he avoids unnecessary destruction. So
I think he won't try to kill me unless I try to act against him. I'll have
to convince him I'm more scared of his reprisals than I'd enjoy killing him.
If he was planning to kill me this place wouldn't still be standing.">
Sylia nodded. <"His message said he'd try to spare you. He had no
reason to lie to me before I died. He didn't try to hide anything else. I
would say Daniel feels that while you might risk your own life you won't risk
the lives of others."> She looked at Frank and Ilsa, <"At least not the lives
of anyone who doesn't voluntarily risk their lives. All he has to do is
threaten to repeat this in Berlin and ask if you'll risk a whole city for
revenge."> Mackie nodded and she thought, "And is he right brother? Will
you forsake our vengeance out of fear for others?" She felt the fury burning
inside. Daniel had to pay for Linna, Priss, Nene and all his other victims.
For that and his betrayal of her. Yes he would pay! But not now. Not until
there was a chance of success. With great control she kept all trace of her
feelings from her face. She could feel an idea of how to gain their revenge.
An eventuality she'd discussed with Mackie months ago.
<"Uh Sylia."> Sonya broke in on her thoughts. The girl was holding out
a green and purple thermal jacket. <"I was wondering if you'd like my jacket?
It's kind of cold and I thought it'd be better than nothing.">
For the first time Sylia became aware that her clothing consisted of
shredded underwear and bandages. It was chilly now that she took the time to
think about it. <"Thank you."> She looked over to the sub where Mackie, Ilsa
and Frank were stowing the Knight Shadow 3 suit. <"Could you send Mackie
over. There's a few thing we need to discuss privately.">
Sonya headed over to the sub and shortly Mackie joined her. They moved
out of earshot of the others. Not that it made much difference, from the
little Ilsa overheard they'd switched back to Japanese. It seemed an animated
discussion. By the time it was finished the three Shadow suits were stowed.
The Stingrays walked over (Sylia leaning heavily on Mackie) and Frank pointed
out a problem. <"Mackie, we're not going to have room for both me, Sylia and
her hardsuit.">
<"Good point. Ok we can't leave it here so ... we'll attach it to the
external waldos. However there's no point in carrying dead weight all the
way to the pickup. I'd say you can dump it two hours out."> He looked at
his sister.
Sylia nodded, <"It's a write off. We might as well dump it at sea.">
<"Right. Well soon as you're gone I'd better join the crowds on the edge
of Sector Eight trying to find out if their friends and relatives in there are
still alive.">
Sonya looked at him, <"Mackie, Dumas will know that you know that Sylia
wasn't home when the beam hit.">
<"True but he'll be expecting me to act like I think she was there. I'd
better not disappoint him."> He paused for thought. <"Just in case I'm wrong
I want you on the next plane back to Germany.">
<"Like hell. He might take that as a clue you're going to attack. I'm
not going anywhere. Besides I should be present for Sylia's funeral.">
<"Good point."> He looked at his sister, "Any special requests."
"Keep it secular. I've always been an atheist." A thought struck her.
"See to it that the others get decent sendoffs."
"I will." Although it'll be difficult for Linna. She'll be identified
as the only known Knight Saber. And Knight Saber is about to become an
obscene word in this town.
9:30 am. Wednesday October 30th 2035 - GENOM Tower, Office of the
Chairman.
It had been a sleepless night for Daniel Dumas. However he wasn't
letting that slow him down. Everything was under control. At least in his
own mind. Outside in MegaTokyo things were still chaotic. The death toll in
Sector Five was up to 1100. It was 746 in Sector Eight but that was just the
victims they'd found reasonably intact. Most of the beam victims had been
totally vaporized. Leaks were emerging from USSD about Knight Saber
involvement and the media was eating it up. People needed a villain to
blame for these tragedies and the Knight Sabers were perfect. There were
a few loose ends to be tied up. Cynthia was bringing one of them to his
office. The other ...
Sylia had surprised him by managing to jam his Boomers. At least the
linked ones, cutting of the transmissions of the autonomous units wasn't
very spectacular. There was no reason to believe she'd got clear before the
blasts vaporized everything at ground zero. Still he'd have preferred to
trigger the detonations at his leisure.
Unfortunately there were no spy satellite shots of the incident. When
the laser satellite blew it destroyed or damaged several observation
satellites in geosynchronous orbit above MegaTokyo. At the least the blast
wave knocked the spy sats. out of position so they had to manoeuvre to regain
their places.
There were several messages from Mackie Stingray on his answering
service. He hadn't acknowledged any of them yet. With Sylia gone he and
Mackie were the last remaining enhanced. It would be a shame to waste a
resource like Mackie. Daniel was reasonably sure he could convince Mackie
to not interfere. In one night he'd shown he was tougher, smarter and more
ruthless than Mason had been his whole career. Besides he harboured a some
affection for his one time "younger brother." That memory brought Sylia to
mind. He blocked it.
Cynthia buzzed for admittance, he unsealed the door. Accompanied by
Cynthia2 Kate Madigan entered the office.
Madigan was trying to mask the fear she felt. The more she'd thought
about it the more convinced she was that Dumas had hired the Knight Sabers to
kill Quincy. It made sense. Looking over Dumas's original plan she'd
realized what Quincy hadn't. It just wasn't clever enough to be Daniel's
work, unless it was never intended to succeed. The Boomer massacre draws the
Knight Sabers then the SK-3's wipe them out. The justification afterwards
for deploying the ariel combat Boomers was insufficient. To Quincy it was a
show of GENOM's power to do anything it liked in "his" city. Daniel hadn't
come up with a convincing reason for the deployment. That didn't ring true
with her.
The way she saw it Daniel hired the Sabers to kill Quincy. He arranges
the security holes that get them close enough to strike. Then he uses the
force he set up as part of the plan Quincy saw to take out the Knight Sabers.
End result? Quincy is dead, the Knight Sabers are dead, the secret of who
hired them has followed them to their graves and Daniel controls GENOM.
Which meant she knew far too much for him to let her live. By the time she'd
realized all this it was too late to flee. Now his pet Boomer had brought
her here. If she was going to die she hoped it'd be quick.
Daniel slid a small box across Quincy's ... his desk. "Please, open it."
She picked it up, hand shaking slightly. The ring was exquisite and the
diamond the largest real one she'd ever seen. What was this? Some sort of
bribe for silence? She looked at him.
He said simply, "Will you marry me?"
"WHAT?"
"Will you do me the honour of accepting my hand in marriage?"
"What?"
"I would like the two of us to join in matrimony."
"What?"
Dumas looked faintly puzzled. "I'm not sure how else to express it.
How about ... will you marry me?"
"Marry you?"
"By George I think she's got it."
This had to be the last thing she'd expected. "Daniel we don't even
like each other that much."
"What's that got to do with it?"
What the hell was he playing at? "Well it's not the best place to start
a marriage."
"Ah I see. Perhaps you should think of this more as a business
proposition."
"Go on."
"You are well known to have been trusted by Quincy. There's still a lot
of his loyalists holding high positions. Our wedding would confirm me as
Quincy's heir apparent in their minds."
"So you can't control the company without me?" If she could find a good
bargaining position.
"Oh I can control GENOM, it'll just make things easier."
"And I become a good corporate wife? Stay home and watch the kiddies
while you run GENOM."
A dark shadow crossed his face. "I'll never father children. While I
was very young I was exposed to materials that damaged me genetically. Any
children I fathered would be mutations, in the unlikely event they survived
to full term. So I had myself sterilized some time back." After a moment
he continued, "There's no reason you have to give up your job as Security
Chief. If you prefer I could advance you to my old position."
Thoughts whirled through her mind. Everyone will say you've only hung
onto power because your husband's the boss. Screw 'em. What's the
alternative? Fall back to the bottom of the heap? Besides you know too damn
much. Refuse and do you really expect to walk out of here alive? But you'll
spend the rest of your life wondering when you've become expendable. As
opposed to dying here and now? I don't want to die. Maybe I can find a way
out. Even as she thought this she knew that she would never outsmart Daniel.
"I accept." I'm not going to pretend to be the happiest woman in the
world you bastard!
"That's wonderful." Daniel smiled and took her hand. Kate smiled back
and tried not think how much she wanted to scream.
End of part 5
Next : Aftermath in MegaTokyo
Part 6 : Four funerals and a wedding
Read part 6
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