The view from the high side of Mount Elbrus was expansive. The many long avenues carved into the side of the mountainside stone extended downward like hundreds of stairs, to look at it in the darkness of night you couldn't tell there was a thing amiss. Beyond the darkness of the mountainside fierce urban combat continued in the sprawling city beyond the shield. Ayan stood wrapped in her long poncho as she watched tracers arc over the shorter structures, heard the pops and roars of explosions punctuating the screaming light.
They had pushed the enemy out of the mountain. A great victory for all the flesh and blood defenders. Squadrons of Regent Galactic soldiers and West Keepers waited for them in the city streets, however. Their prowess at urban combat and superior numbers halted the mountain rebels, so they fell back to the main tunnel entrances and held, fortifying their hard won territory. The tunnels were safe for the night. How long it would remain that way no one could say for certain.
Volunteers snuck into the city beyond the foot of the mountain regardless of the dangers to distract the West Keepers and their mechanized allies. Using strike and fade tactics they inflicted as much harm to the enemy as they could manage before retreating, running and getting set to do it all over again. Some of the teams went out and hadn't returned. One had managed to send a message along an intact wired network. The message was simple; Enemy military hardware and personnel has begun to land on nearby islands. Going deeper into hiding and will contact when we have more intelligence. Things were getting worse but morale in the mountain was high. It felt like an island of safety in a sea of war.
A pressing, urgent need to destroy any weapon capable of doing major damage to the energy shield motivated some of the soldiers in the vast city below and the further one made their way from the edge of the shield the higher the mortality rate was. Jason, Oz, Minh and herself would be going further out than any team had since the whole conflict began.
She flinched as a group of red and blue streaks lit up the sky and struck the shield at her right side. It was her first real exposure to an all out ground war. Ayan had gone on a planetside mission involving repairs on a power plant after a major conflict, she'd run with various people in countless simulations, and she'd had extensive cadet, navy and officer ground training not to mention the rank of Major. Looking at her old file anyone would conclude that she was fully qualified to not only participate in a ground war, but to direct a platoon.
The real thing was different. She hadn't seen it in daylight yet, but she wasn't looking forward to it. She pulled the poncho tighter around herself. There was no need for additional warmth, the vacsuit took care of that from her toes all the way up to the black choker around her neck but she wanted to feel wrapped, covered up, protected.
The transparent door behind her slid open and a big hand came to rest gently on her shoulder. “Quite a view,” Oz said quietly.
“Has it stopped since you got here?”
“The fighting? It's gotten worse. Feels like I've been fighting in tunnels for months even though I can still count the days since I volunteered on my hands. This could go on for years or end tomorrow.”
“I saw a Thurge cruiser in a vertical bay down there. Is it broken down?”
“No, it works fine. It would carry everyone inside this mountain out of the solar system. Should take more than enough punishment to make it too.”
“Then why aren't they running?” Ayan asked in a whisper.
“They're protecting something. Jason and I can't find out what, but from what the Sergeant tells us there's too much to transport and giving the artificials a chance at access would cause so much trouble they won't even talk about it.”
“I don't suppose they're willing to destroy their precious cargo.”
“They say it can't be destroyed. Not well enough to be sure.”
Ayan shook her head. “You can destroy anything with a big enough fusion bomb.”
“Spoken like a true combat engineer.”
“So Minh's plan is the best plan.”
“Looks like.”
The pair looked out over the night shrouded city. One of the upper sections of a tall, sixty storey building was burning out of control, it looked like a massive torch. There were secondary explosions and flashes of light on the floors below and both of them hoped that they were the result of some accelerant left behind, not evidence of a desperate firefight.
“We thought we lost you,” Oz said, breaking a long silence.
Ayan didn't know what to say, how to respond for a quiet span that weighed on them both. She smiled finally and said; “I'm eighteen days old.”
He couldn't help but give her the most surprised, quizzical look, then burst out laughing. “I hadn't thought of it that way. Makes as much sense as anything else though. Minh told me everything, I think he likes being the lesser of two unusuals.”
Ayan laughed and turned to look at him. “That's what you're calling us?”
Oz shrugged. “May as well, you're both miracles when you look at it. The odds of him surviving out there for as long as he did were about as low as the odds of the Doc actually managing to bring you back,” his big hands took hold of her shoulders and he smiled warmly at her. “And we couldn't be happier that you both made it through, however you did.”
Ayan smiled back at him. “Regardless of the conditions, I'd be hard pressed to find better company.”
“I'm sorry Jonas couldn't be here, despite the conditions.”
She nodded; “So am I, but in my mind it's been over two years since he disappeared. I know, it's actually been about eight, but I'm still adjusting. What I mean to say is; I think not knowing what happened to him was what hurt the most. Now I know, and I miss him, but it's better. I feel lighter.”
“You know about Jake?”
“I heard. I want to meet him but I'm not getting my hopes up. I've seen some of the holos. He'll be different, I'll be different, maybe less so but,” she shrugged in conclusion.
“You're probably two of the most similar people in the galaxy, you know,” Oz whispered to her. “Laura says he remembers who he is and aside from being a little cuter, you act and appear pretty much the same. I've never met anyone whose had a body transplant and if things go well I might actually meet two soon enough.”
“Is he coming here?” Ayan asked, her eyes widening. She had told herself over and over again not to get her hopes up, to stay cool, collected, but the tightening knot in her stomach and light headedness told her that being rational where Jake was concerned was pretty far out of the question.
“We're hoping. If we can get a transmission out to the Triton and her cloaking systems are still up, it could change the odds just enough.”
“Do you think he'd actually come if we called him?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he was already on his way. We sent him a message while we were on our way here. If he has scout ships on his outer perimeter he might get it soon.”
Ayan chuckled nervously and blew a breath of air out with widened eyes. “Nothing is ever simple when we all get together, is it? Thank God Laura's aboard the Triton.”
“Oh, now that's going to be interesting. She doesn't know anything about you or Minh.”
“I think it would be good for someone to give her at least a few seconds warning. Give her a chance to visit with Jason first. I can't wait to see her face, but still, I'd rather not give her a coronary.”
“Well, it's a long way between here and there even if the Triton is already on its way. We have jamming signals to bust through. Speaking of which, they want us at the strategic board.”
“Lead the way,” Ayan invited.
Oz walked through the doors as they opened, Ayan followed close behind. Jason, Minh, Alaka and Sergeant Roman were gathered around a large display table with a fully detailed hologram of the island. There were three red marked buildings and a pointer indicating that there was another point of immediate interest off the eastern side of the map. “Thank you for joining us Ayan.” Alaka said graciously. “I have been looking forward to meeting you ever since Oz told me a few stories about your shared experiences. My name is Alaka.”
“Thank you Alaka, I didn't know Oz had so many interesting stories about me. It's good to meet you too.”
“Alaka was about to give us his report,” Roman looked haggard, worn. Under the weight of coordinating a full on rebellion from within the mountain he looked past his forty years. He was a man shrouded in seriousness, and his success demanded the respect of the mountain rebels.
“Yes. The artificials are organizing in units with the few West Keepers that have landed. I expect they're the spearhead of a larger force.”
“I've been hearing that name a lot. Who are the West Keepers exactly?” Minh asked.
“Humans who paid for immunity from destruction before the artificials began attacking their masters. Many of them take care of human hostages, while anyone who is useful in a firefight have been sent to the front. They were patrons of an Eden Cult or Order of Eden as they call it. They believe that service in this world will get them closer to their promised land in this life or in the afterlife. A few we captured went on and on about it.”
“It must not have made it to Freeground or been taken seriously by Intelligence, I didn't see any record,” Jason commented.
“That doesn't help us. Anyone inside the mountain could be an Eden Cultist, or a West Keeper, whatever they're called.” Sergeant Roman said, shaking his head. “We have enough problems with the fall of two military bases just south of the island.”
“What kind of firepower can they bring to bear?” Oz asked.
“Enough to kill our shield in a month.”
“There are reinforcements arriving every couple of hours at the military port.” Alaka said. “Oz and I saw the ships descending. Soon there will be boats, we'll have to start firing on them.”
“Why wouldn't they use shuttles? They'd be able to land anywhere on the island.” Asked Ayan.
“Because our anti-air batteries are still operational. They won't risk that again. I think you and Minh arrived just in time. He says you can form a good team with Oz and Jason, what do you think your chances are of getting behind enemy lines and causing real damage are?” Asked Roman.
Ayan looked to Oz, Jason and Minh, who was the only one not looking back at her. Minh's attention was fully focused on the red marked post on the southern most point of the island. “We've trained extensively together and shared some very tense situations,” she replied confidently. Slipping back into a military stance was so easy, like an old, comfortable suit.
“I'm told you hold the highest rank here.” Roman said, making no efforts to disguise his appraising gaze.
“I was a Major in the Freeground Fleet and started as a cadet when I was a teenager. I'm also a fully qualified stationary and battleship engineer, pilot, boarding captain and infantrywoman.”
“That's my girl,” Oz said under his breath. All eyes shifted to him and he shrugged. “I met her while we were still in the academy, served as First Officer while she was the Chief Engineer on the same carrier.”
“I served as the Wing Commander on that ship,” Minh added. “Oh, and I served a tour in the All-Con conflict, planetside combat and demolitions.”
“And I was the Intelligence Officer before joining Fleet Intelligence and supervising several active operations.”
Alaka looked to Roman and chuckled. “We're both outranked.”
“Makes me wish the military wasn't the first thing to get knocked out on this rock. We have a couple of junior officers, some infantry that made it across the island before the fighting got serious, but everyone else is either police or a volunteer. Mostly volunteer.” Roman explained.
“So you're not military?” Asked Minh.
“No, I'm a police Sergeant. Served twelve years in the mobile infantry before joining the force.”
“Looks like you've kept this mountain together just fine, Sergeant. What are you planning from here?”
“I was hoping you people could come up with one. We don't have real specialists, and from the looks of it you're all exactly that, specialists.”
“Oz busts bots like they're firecrackers,” Alaka nodded. “No need to guess at what his speciality is.”
“Well, we need to take control of this main broadcast station,” Sergeant Roman said, pointing at the holographic map. “It's one of the stations being used to jam all communications on this side of the planet and they're directing system wide communications from the control bunker. There's a backup broadcast system in the nearby spaceport, but I'm hoping whoever takes control of the bunker can interrupt the jamming signals and send for help before the automations manage to override from the secondary control point. We could have a transmission to our nearest sister solar system in an hour using a micro wormhole.”
The six of them stared at the map silently for several seconds before Minh pointed at a spot just past the spaceport. “If we could somehow drop here, in this field we can get to the bunker no problem. We'll need everything we brought with us on the Warpig.”
“Is this the most powerful station on the planet?” Ayan asked, looking at the cluster of white dishes and thin transmission towers.
“It is, while that station is jamming everything in the air no one can use wireless. All the main hard lines pass through that station and the spaceport as well, so it's safe to say that's how they're stopping us from communicating outside of the mountain.” Alaka answered, bringing up a secondary map of the bundled cables deep underground leading off in every direction from the communications bunker. “There are many secondary stations on this side of the planet, like the one in this mountain, but they're easier to work around.”
“What kind of resistance can we expect?” Oz asked.
“It's hard to say, our scans can't be trusted that far past the shield because of the jamming signals, but there will be a fair number of Andies walking around.” Roman answered.
“Andies?” Ayan asked.
He brought up a hologram of an android. The weapons inventory displayed a low penetration pulse sidearm and a high powered particle rifle. If it weren't for a serial number that was written in a black strip that started in the middle of its forehead and ran over the top of its head to the back of its neck it would have been indistinguishable from a human. “This is a law enforcement android with an advanced AI that allows them to deal with any situation. More than nine out of ten of our officers were Andies. When the virus managed to change their programming everyone inside my precinct was killed. I was off duty at the time and when I got there they had stripped the armoury clean and started killing everyone in the mountain. If you're wondering why there are so few people alive on the mountainside, there's your answer.”
“I'm sorry Sargent,” Ayan sympathized.
“I'm getting used to telling the story, it's all right.”
“So you managed to kill them all?”
“No, most of them escaped into the city below. The first thing the Andies here did was organize themselves into well armed squads.”
“I've seen that. My platoon was pushed back for about five hours in the city by one group.” Oz said. “They're smart, heavily armoured.”
“How many are in their squads?” Minh asked.
“Eight. My platoon started with ninety one, we had taken forty seven casualties by the time we managed to take them out and collapse the buildings holding parts of the shield open.”
“You did better than most, Oz. Most of your casualties were wounded and had a chance at recovery,” Alaka said, putting one big paw on the humans shoulder.
“They waited until we were just about to set charges in the first building before jumping us. One of them was posing as a corpse in a pile of bodies. Stood up right behind me and nearly took my head off.”
“So they're smart, heavily armoured and most likely in force at the bunker.” Ayan concluded. “We're not going to be able to hold it once we've taken it, so we'll send a message through that wormhole generator in orbit and kill the systems inside with a zero rad micro-nuke.”
“I'll leave you four to plan it then,” Roman said with raised eyebrows.
The tone in the room had changed. Any joviality had gone, replaced with a heavy, deadly seriousness. Ayan caught the Sargent's arm as he turned from the table and looked him in the eye coldly. “Once we finish hitting this bunker and securing some method of viable longer term communications we probably won't be back. We'll have to take cover somewhere else or find our way off the planet from the spaceport to go in search of help. Returning to the mountain between strikes is a pointless risk.”
Roman's eyes went wide as he glanced at the map then back to the much smaller woman, who suddenly had the bearing of an eight foot tall battle commander. “What do you need?” he asked quietly.
“We'll have a list for you by morning,” she replied as she turned back to the table.
Roman and Alaka left the room so the old friends could plan a desperate mission to save the mountain rebels and everyone else fighting for survival on Pandem.