"Sit down, everyone," Jeffreys said as he walked into the meeting.
He took his seat at the head of the boardroom table and looked around at his fellow Technocrats. "Well. It seems the Sons are up to something. Phyllis, will you give us a brief report?"
The woman in the Armani suit nodded and tapped a few buttons that appeared on the table. "I'm uploading the data now." She waited while the two Iteration X members digested the information directed into their implanted chips. The other four people seated at the table got handouts.
"To summarize," Phyllis began. "The Sons of Ether have obtained legal license to an old army base in the southwest. If you will look at diagrams 1a through 3b, a large section is underground as protection against the atomic tests. The tests were halted for bureaucratic reasons, leaving the army with this odd little base in the middle of nowhere. I direct your attention to the copy of a newspaper article on page 6 to view their cover story: that they are refurbishing old A-10s for forest fire work. We also have a recent video... Mr. Randolf? Are you with us?"
A silver haired gentleman opened his eyes. "Sorry, I'm not getting the right images. I'm having a problem with the old chip."
Jeffreys felt sorry for the old man. Tom had been one of the first to receive the neural lace network. Unfortunately, the old ones were difficult to upgrade and often had trouble accepting patches.
Phyllis nodded kindly. "Let's all watch the projector. Run video 6-B if you please?" she called out to room's voice-activated media system.
A middle-aged woman in a flight suit appeared in front of them. "The A-10 can carry more water and deliver it almost any forest fire faster than any helicopter."
The video then switched to the ungainly looking jet plane dumping a load of water on a test fire, dousing it.
"Such is the reason they give to the sleepers," Phyllis continued. "Now, normally, the amateurish tinkerings of the Sons of Ether are of little interest to us - but this time they've stumbled on something of value. I direct you to diagram T-253-F."
The others muttered in surprise.
"If our sensors are correct that base they are now using is an untapped node. More than that, they've been using these modified old aircraft to contact and interact with the rebels."
"Good god," one of the members protested, "Do you really think the Void Engineers would stoop to dealing with those... those madmen?"
"They would and they have," Phyllis replied. "The Void Engineers are very practical and pragmatic. If the Sons can deliver supplies to the rebels they'll accept them. With reservations of course. But the Etherites aren't just building cargo vessels... this group is building attack vessels."
Jeffreys cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen. I really don't need to tell you what kind of mischief the Sons have been doing since the Engineers split off - you each have your own examples. But we have been given a great opportunity here. If we seize the base we snuff out a rebel supply line, obtain a new node and give those idiot tinkerers a good solid kick in the balls."
"It looks like it will have to be a physical attack," Phyllis continued. "My contact at the NWO say their finances are pretty well hidden. It worries him."
"We pay him to be worried," Jeffreys remarked.
A chuckle passed around the table. "Get a force ready," Jeffreys commanded. "We'll need both land and air divisions. Make it quick and make it look like they were doing something nasty - drug smuggling or something. We've taken a few licks from the rebels lately; it's time to return the favor."
Jay woke and stretched. His glance fell on the bedside clock. Only a few years ago he would have despaired at the bright numerals reminding him how little he'd slept. Now they reminded him of how many hours he'd actually rested.
It was very good information.
After a quick hot shower and his usual morning meditations, he dressed and sauntered out of his quarters toward the mess area, hoping for an early breakfast. The place was lit but uninhabited.
"Gee, you'd think the cook would be here by now," he murmured to himself and proceeded into the kitchen.
Formerly an army kitchen, the room had plenty of space to prepare large amounts of food. And fortunately, when the army had left they'd left most of the heavy equipment behind. Jay nodded with approval at the neat rows of knives and utensils.
His investigation into the refrigerators proved fruitful. When Etherites ate they tended to eat well.
Within a few minutes he'd chopped up some leftovers and whipped up some eggs. Humming happily to himself he heated the frying pan to just the right temperature and popped bread in a toaster.
The sizzle of eggs hitting the pan masked the incoming footsteps.
"And what do you think you're doing?"
Jay turned to see the cook standing behind and to one side of him, his arms crossed. He was an older man with short gray hair and muscular arms. He didn't look pleased.
"Oh, sorry," he said apologetically. "It was early and I thought I'd fix myself a quick bite without bothering anyone."
"Well, that omelet looks more than just a little bite. But since you've started it, might as not waste the eggs."
"Of course. I do apologize," Jay continued as he quickly worked on the omelet.
The cook looked over his shoulder. "Humph. At least your technique is good."
"Thanks. The hardest part for me was learning the timing of the toast," he said. "So everything reaches the plate hot."
The older man stepped back and watched Jay maneuver around the kitchen. "With any egg dish timing is everything," he allowed.
Moments later the finished omelet hit the plate with buttered toast on the side.
"Since this is my kitchen I should check that," the cook said.
"Ah... okay," Jay handed him the plate.
He sampled the dish and nodded. "Very good. Very good. The added veggies are the perfect size and the consistency of the eggs is very good."
"I add a tablespoon of cream," Jay admitted as he watched his breakfast disappear. "With the whipping it adds a bit of fluffiness to the dish."
"I use just a dash of ginger ale. You should try it." He stuck out his hand. "Name's Terry."
"Jay."
"Normally, I don't like people poking around in my kitchen. But I like your chops. Want to give me a hand this morning?"
"Why, sure," Jay smiled. "Um, can I have my breakfast back?"
-beep-beep-beep-
Kenny slapped the alarm clock and staggered to the shower. He lathered up while waiting for the water to get warm. He stuck his body under the torrent of hot water and relaxed, enjoying the moment.
Anne poked her head in the shower. "Don't use up all the hot water," she groused.
"I'll remind you," he said opening his eyes, "That I offered you the privilege of showering first every day, but you insisted on being egalitarian and alternating days."
"Don't rub it in," she muttered.
While Anne was showering Kenny fixed the morning coffee. He found she was more tractable after a shower and a cup of coffee. He didn't mind serving her in the morning - it just felt right that he should do something nice for her.
A few nights after Jay's arrival at the base, Anne had turned up at his doorstep with her duffel bag and announced that she was moving in. Getting Jay up to speed with the base along with all of his regular work had drained Kenny of energy and he'd been too tired to debate her.
Now, a week later, he was still adjusting to Anne's presence in the bed.
She walked out of the shower, saluted him with the coffee mug and drank. She gave him a piercing look. "What's the matter?"
"In truth, I still have reservations about you moving in with me."
She put down the mug. "That's one of the reasons I like you. Anyone else would be hopping at the chance to have a live-in lover."
"That still bothers me," Kenny said sipping his coffee. "I still think we should have postponed intimacy until we were lawfully married."
"I believe in trying out the goods before I buy them," she smiled.
"You can be so romantic," he muttered.
"I love you too," she said still grinning.
"Ack. How did you get under my skin?" he asked returning the grin.
"You have good taste."
Dressed in their flight fatigues, they sauntered into the mess hall. Anne sniffed the air. "Hey, now that's different."
"Yeah, that smells like one of Jay's omelets," Kenny said. He looked over towards the serving window. Along with an unusual line of people he caught sight of his friend - behind the serving table. "It *is* Jay's omelets! Hey! What are you doing back there?"
"No cuts," one of the Etherites said with a snarl.
"Oh, chill, Hiram!"
Jay looked up from behind the counter and smiled at Kenny. "I'm just helping out."
"I drafted him," Terry shouted from deeper in the kitchen. "Now get in line before I draft you too!"
Anne pulled Kenny into line. "Come on," she laughed. "I've got dibs on you. So don't get into trouble."
"Anne," he looked at her with mock seriousness. "We're Etherites. We *always* get into trouble."
After a wait they sat at a table to enjoy their custom omelets.
Anne looked over at Kenny. "When Jay lived with you did he do the cooking?"
"Most of it," Kenny replied between bites.
"Hmmm. Maybe I'm going to marry the wrong man," she teased. "I like a man who can cook."
"Jay imparted much of his culinary wisdom to me," Kenny replied, shaking his fork at her. "I just haven't had a chance to show you."
Debra sauntered in and sat at the table with them. Anne stiffened but Debra smiled sweetly.
"So Anne, tell me what it's like to fuck Frodo."
Kenny choked on his orange juice.
Anne pounded Kenny's back. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She grinned back, showing her teeth.
"Oh, back off," Debra laughed. "I am so over it. I've got new prey to stalk." Her look was mischievous. "And he's a good cook too."
"You leave Jay alone," Kenny coughed.
"Oh come on, Kenny!" Debra giggled. "He's a technoshaman! I'm a Glass Walker Theurge! We'll get along like hot cakes and sausages. Speaking of which, I think I'll go back for seconds."
"Seconds?" Anne questioned. "You just got here!"
Debra tapped her nose. "We smelled something really good early this morning and were here *first*." She stood up and went to stand in line.
"Worried about Jay?" asked Anne.
"Actually, no." He pitched his voice low. "He gets along quite well with animals."
Anne snorted out a laugh. "Good. But we've got to get moving, Frodo. We need to move Number Three and our spare aircraft."
"And the mattress," Kenny added.
Anne nodded. "And the mattress."
Charlene Abrams clenched her teeth. It was happening again.
The lab was too big, her team too small. Her team's voices echoed eerily in the cavernous room. The rebellion had drained her lab of needed personnel and she was forced to make do with what she had to meet schedules. Once again the safeties had failed, once again the armored suit had lurched forward and once again it had toppled over crushing Thad.
-beep-beep-beep-
The emergency sirens had sounded as she hit the cut-off switch. She had rushed to slowly thrashing machine. She knew Thad was dead but Tien was still inside the malfunctioning suit. She had pounded on the jammed superplex bubble helmet unable to open it. She could only watch as smoke filled up the helmet.
-beep-beep-beep-
She awoke from her recurring nightmare and stopped the alarm clock. She didn't hit the snooze button like she used to but got up immediately to escape the dream-memories of what had happened months before. Seeing Thad - her long time colleague and good friend - crushed underneath the experimental battlesuit had been bad; watching poor Tien failing his struggle to get out of the suit before the internal fire roasted him alive was horribly worse.
Knowing she'd been responsible for powering the suit up without enough technicians... that was the worst of all.
She managed to get dressed and drive to work.
Stevens International was a plain, boxy building in an anonymous industrial area. Her key card gave her entrance to the generic lobby that any mundane would see in any manufacturing, computer, or shipping firm. A facial scan and palm print gave her entrance to the rest of the facility. She walked immediately to the director's office.
The director's secretary waved her in. Doctor Wellness greeted her warmly. The soft lights, potted plants and deep plush chairs set her at ease as they usually did. A desktop fountain recently added trickled soothingly.
"I have your request," Dr. Wellness said as he pulled out a folder and put a pair of reading glasses on.
A paper folder; how quaint. More and more she thought of her director as a wise and loving grandfather. Someone she could really trust.
"I do have some reservations," he said gently. "According to your last psychological profile you're still feeling the guilt of that last accident." His glasses flashed hypnotically. "You should blame the rebels for betraying us, not yourself."
"Oh, I do," she said. Then added reluctantly, "Well... not entirely. I still have recurring nightmares."
She leaned in towards him. "But I really want to get back into the game. I'm still qualified for battlesuit use. And as the designer, I'd really like to take my latest model out into the field. In actual combat."
"You're not looking for revenge, are you?"
"No. It's not like that." She wet her lips. "The rebels did so much damage deserting us. Not just to me personally, but to the Cause. They've betrayed the Ascension, even Mankind itself, by their selfish actions. I'm tired of sitting around in my lab counting pulses... I want to get in on the action. Get physical. Maybe then the dreams will fade and I can continue with my life."
"Well, I cannot recommend you for any combat directly against the rebels," the doctor replied. "However, there is something in the works that calls for a few battlesuits."
She was on the edge of her chair. "Can you tell me more about it?"
The director looked thoughtful. "It's against the Sons. That's all I know."
"Oh... I've always wanted to pit REAL science against those Deviants," she said with a hopeful grin.
"I'll see what I can do."
"Let's review our troops," Jeffreys said as he sipped his coffee.
Phyllis tapped on some buttons on the conference room table and a display came up. "We've got fifty leathernecks and four battlesuits."
He looked over the display hanging in three-dimension over the table. "Charlene Abrams? Ah yes, I remember." He shook his head. "Terrible accident. How is her reconditioning going?"
"Quite well. The idea that it was all the rebels' fault for abandoning her is firmly entrenched in her mind."
"And her incompetent manager?" Jeffreys scowled darkly.
"He now considers his reassignment to lab tech an actual improvement in his career."
"Oh, good," Jeffreys smirked. "Lucky for him we're so low on personnel. Otherwise he'd be a lab subject and not a lab tech. How're my airborne forces?"
"Your request for five remotes was denied. You'll get two drones with type 15 AI and three remotes. But I think you'll like what who we've found for you," she said flashing a small smile.
The images of two people floated over the table. "All right!" He grinned broadly and rubbed his hands together. "This will be like old times! When can everything be ready?"
"Sooner than you'd think," Phyllis' smile grew larger.
Kenny pointed an angry finger at Edmund. "One more crack about my 'magic sword'..."
"And you'll what, Frodo?" Edmund laughed. "I heard about your last duel. I'm still waiting for your article defending Dranbellago's theory. All I want to know is if something lights up in the presence of orcs."
"If it did my pants would be glowing right now, Edmund," Kenny growled. "Besides, I'd refuse any challenge from you. I don't fight with children and people whose IQ is less than my shoe size."
The other Etherites within the shop howled with laughter. Edmund reddened and balled his fists.
Kenny smiled. "Tut-tut old boy. Better watch your temper."
"I'll get you for that, Frodo," Edmund steamed.
"Just forget it, Edmund!" Anne said as she put away her vibra wrench. "Let's call it quits for the day."
The others in the shop packed away their tools. Anne grabbed Kenny by the arm. "Hey, you. Shouldn't you be used to being called Frodo by now?"
"I don't mind my friends calling me that, but Edmund just digs away at it. It's really annoying."
"Thought of growing a beard?"
Kenny stopped and looked at her in the eye. "You've seen my medicine cabinet. Seen a shaving kit?"
"Er... no."
"Seen *any* shaving supplies?"
"I was going to ask you about that," Anne said quietly. "I take it that you don't need to shave."
"There's nothing to shave. Soon after I was Awakened I discovered that shaving was wasting a valuable percentage of my precious morning." He shook his head. "I measured the unwanted hairs precisely and figured the proper frequency that would retard their growth. I modified my electric razor and applied the amplifying gel. That should have kept my beard hairs inert for a month."
"It worked too well?" Anne ventured.
Kenny sighed. "It worked too well. My parents found me unconscious in the bathroom. They figured I'd take a nasty electrical shock from my shaver..."
Anne hugged him. "Poor boy. Baby-faced forever."
"Well, it could have been worse," Kenny reflected. "I could've taken half my face off."
"Let's go to the mess and have a beer to celebrate the survival of your pretty face."
"Ply me with alcohol, will you?" he smiled as he put his arm around her waist. "My morals! Oh my morals! You have corrupted me!" and they walked away together.
In the pre-dawn desert a group of anonymous tractor trailers and three tourist buses gathered along the edge of an the highway. Jeffreys climbed out of the cab of one big rigs.
"Okay, people; let's go!"
Out of the buses poured people in fatigues and body armor. From the back of one tractor trailer stepped four battlesuited warriors, freshly painted with desert camouflage. The sides and roofs of five of the trailers folded away to reveal futuristic helicopters.
"Jeff! Over here!"
A man and a woman came running over to him. "Art! Thalia!" Jeffreys exclaimed.
The hugged and high five each other. "The three musketeers are back!" Jeffreys exclaimed.
"We'll show those madman!" Thalia said.
"Just like the old days!" Art responded.
"Then plug into your systems and get those machines up in the air. We've got a node to retrieve."
They climbed back up into their respective cabs. Jeffreys went to the back of his cab where rows of monitors and joysticks awaited him. He put on his earset, microphone and placed the headband containing the computer interface on his head. The click of small magnets and the buzz of the interface handshaking with the remote told him that he was connected to his aircraft.
"Okay people," he said into his microphone. "You know the drill. Ground troops to their assigned positions. Once we've established aerial superiority and punched out their tower, the 'suits move in ahead of the grunts. If they come quietly, capture them. If they resist, use lethal force."
He sat back in his chair and checked the time. The troops should be in position shortly. Then, with the rising sun at their backs, his aerial remotes would attack.
He nodded in satisfaction. Time to give the Sons a wakeup call they wouldn't forget.
-HONK-HONK-HONK-
Kenny and Anne woke with a start in the darkness.
-HONK-HONK- "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK THIS IS NOT A DRILL" -HONK-HONK-
Kenny reached for his bed table as Anne quickly rolled over and wrapped her arms around him.
Kenny snatched his PDD and held it to his lips. "ESCAPE ONE - NOW!"
-be-deep-
They both let out groans as the Personal Displacement Device transported them. They landed with an 'oohf' and a cloud of desert dust. Stars winked above them.
"I hate going through the Gauntlet," Anne muttered. She reached into a pocket stitched into the mattress and pulled out a pair of headsets.
"You'd have hated it worse if we hadn't put that mattress here," Kenny replied as he put his headset on. "And I'm very glad I added voice commands to my PDD."
"Farrow! Davidson!" A voice crackled through the earphone. "Where the hell are you?"
"Where we should be, tower," Anne replied as she and Kenny sprinted to a large lump a few yards away and began removing the camouflage tarps. "What's the situation?"
"Technocracy attack. Both ground and air forces. Battlesuits and helicopters."
"We're on our way," Anne radioed.
"Great. Just great," Kenny muttered as the tarps fell free to reveal two Etherically modified A-10s and a small case of supplies. He snapped the case open and tossed Anne her flight suit before pulling on his own. He clipped the PDD to his waist and connected a small microphone to it.
Kenny sighed. "It seems my paranoia was well justified."
"I'll kiss you later. You take Number Three. I'll take the 'spare'."
"You just want the one with the coffee maker," Kenny joked as he climbed into the familiar craft.
Her voice crackled in his headsets. "Get up high before crossing back over. Remember, these are close support aircraft. They're not designed for air to air combat. Whatever the Technos have up, there *don't* try to dogfight with them. Go for the suits."
"I've tried some simulations..." Kenny began as he fired his engines up.
"Then you should know better."
He rolled down a smoothed section of desert. "Yes, ma'am." He glanced behind him and didn't see the flare from her engines. "Is something wrong?"
"She's not starting smoothly. Go ahead, I'll catch up. Remember, even unmodified we can outrun most Techno helicopters. *Don't* fuck with them."
"I'll be careful," Kenny promised as he rose off the ground.
Jeffreys vroomed past the smoke. "Take that, Deviants!" he chortled gleefully.
His monitors showed several hangers exploding into flame. As he'd expected, they'd caught them with their pants down.
But the main building and control tower was surrounded by a shimmering bubble of blue energy. He nodded. "Nice try, Deviants. But my Science is better than your Science."
His fellow remote pilots pounded the force shield with rockets. It blinked rapidly but held.
An input caught his attention. It appeared that there were some minor disturbances in the Gauntlet. "Someone's got an escape plan," he surmised. He'd wanted to thicken the Gauntlet against just such events, but couldn't justify the expense.
Primium bullets were in the budget; just not a lot of them. The fewer he used the better.
"Art, Thalia, let the AIs keep hitting the shield. Get back to covering the troops. We may have their main complex bottled up but they'll have a few tricks up their sleeve."
Jay had just turned the lights on in the kitchen when the alarms went off.
"Oh hell!"
He ran to a communications locker.
"Jay Harriman," he informed the microphone.
"ID CORRECT," a machine voice said. "YOU HAVE CONNECTIONS."
"Harriman!" the headphones sang out.
"In the kitchen."
"Get your ass up to the tower NOW! We need some input."
Within a few moments he had sprinted up the tower stairs. He looked out the windows of the control tower to see a coruscating blue field crackle outside the building. Elaine was shouting out commands over her headset. Mary stood at a group of long control levers that sprouted out of the floor. A sound like thunder rattled the glass. The shield flickered and the woman threw back one of the switches. The shield swirled purple briefly and returned to blue.
"Mary!" Jay shouted over the noise, "What's the situation?"
The woman at the switches looked up at him and pointed to a video monitor. "Technocracy attack. Got the field up just in time... but we lost hangers B and C. Take a look - I've got an outside feed. Can you ID them?"
In the monitor Jay could see a view of the outside. A blue semi-sphere covered the main base. Silhouetted against the energy glow flew three helicopters. "Yes, that's Technocracy weaponry."
"We knew that! Got any ideas how to knock them out?"
Jay keyed a memory. Years ago at a Technocracy conference. He was there because his division had worked on some of the sensors in his former convention's aircraft. At one of the social gatherings one of the other designers struck up a conversation with him. As the designer slowly got inebriated he rattled off all the problems his bosses were ignoring. Jay had listened and nodded, embarrassed by the man's behavior but unable to politely extract himself from the conversation...
"I have some ideas ..."
"Talk to Elaine!" she shouted. "I've got to get the outer perimeter defenses up." She grinned maniacally. "My latest is courtesy of Wallace and Gromet."
Charlene was quite excited as she strode across the desert plain toward the Etherite stronghold. She'd found the maintenance crew under-trained but eager and they'd brought the four 'suits up to acceptable parameters. As she marched onward she was keeping a running a track of all the tweaks and adjustments that needed to be made. But it didn't distract her from the battle she knew was waiting for them.
Holding the right flank in front of the grunts she was extremely confident. Who wouldn't be in a three meter tall suit of plasti-steel?
"S3 to S4," her headset spoke, "I've got some unusual readings over by that pile of junk to my right."
She glanced at the telemetry then over to the rusting metal barrels just ahead and to her left. It rose suddenly out of the sand. The Etheric machine looked very much like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. It even wielded an axe.
But it stood ten meters tall. Its stride looked very purposeful.
She gulped and let loose her shoulder fired missiles. The 'suit to her left added his own barrage. "Take that, you clank!" she screamed as explosions lit up the desert morning.
It was smoking but still moving. It had chosen to attack the center of the column and closed inexorably with the other battlesuit. The axe swung down and knocked battlesuit S3 a good fifteen meters into the air.
"Command to S4, do not engage. Air support is on the way."
She sighed, relieved that she didn't have to face the giant. At a distance she could safely watch as one of the helicopters swung down and fired its cannon into the robot. The tin man went down with a hail of sparks and steam.
But as the copter flew past a hemisphere of glass popped out of the sand. The dome parted and a small device appeared. It looked oddly familiar... like something out of "A Close Shave" with the claymation figures Wallace and Grommet. However, this one came with what looked like... plastic ears. The device tracked the sound of the copter and began to fire rapidly.
She sighted with her rifle and let loose at the machine. It exploded with a bang and spewed some kind of brownish liquid. A small amount splashed on her rifle. External sensors gave negative readings against all manner of toxins and acids but detected some kind of resin.
She discovered that her rifle was now stuck to her hands.
Art always went into battle with some kind of music playing.
"All your base, your base, your base," he sang along as he sighted in on the Tin Man. He didn't waste the Primium but shot it with the cannon. The depleted uranium ripped into the giant robot.
"All your base... are belong to us!"
But sensors told him that something was hitting his craft. His left side and rear video links went dead.
"What the hell?" he muttered as his some of his control surfaces refused to respond to his commands. The copter began to lean to one side and circle downward.
"For a great justice..." the song continued without him, "Take off every zig."
The copter plowed into the ground and he lost contact. "Damn!"
Elaine blinked. "And they need to be tuneable to certain frequencies?"
"Yes," Jay said confidently. "At the right intensity and certain frequencies the sensors will overload and the copters will..."
A thunderous crash interrupted them. The shield blinked off for a moment.
"We're losing power!" Mary shouted. "I don't think I can hold it together much longer!" Sparks jumped from the base of the control switches. "Something's wrong with the generator!"
Elaine cursed. "And not a Garou in the building! Why did we trust their weird Glass Walker technology?!"
Several bullets dug small craters in the hardened glass of the control tower.
"Spirit enchanted?" Jay shouted over the explosions bouncing off the shield.
"Yes," Elaine shouted. She looked at him and her panic turned to hope. "Go, man, go!"
"And relay those frequencies to me!" she shouted as he skidded down the stairs.
Jeffreys watched with astonishment as Art's copter went out of control and slammed into the ground.
The explosion fogged his communications with his right flank briefly.
"Units S3 and S4, report!" he barked as soon as it returned.
"S3 reporting - my suit's at 75 percent."
"S4 reporting. Reporting 100 percent."
He noted that Charlene had tapped into the other suit's data stream. He punched up her internal camera. She seemed calm and collected, busy with monitoring her companions readouts.
He was pleased that she was working out so well.
"Reduce your speed by one half and continue the advance. S4? Nice work taking out that gun emplacement."
"Sorry I couldn't have gotten it sooner, sir."
He glanced at the data screens. "That came up damn fast and must have been shielded. Any ideas what it was shooting?"
"I'm not sure. It sprayed some stuff about. Data indicates a lot of resins and it shot something sticky."
"How sticky?"
"I can't let go of my weapon. And sand is clinging everywhere." Charlene's voice had a nervous tremor to it. "Downgrade my functionality to 90 percent. I've lost some mobility."
Great, Jeffreys thought. The Sons are using glue guns. What next, water pistols?
"Just don't step in any of it."
"CLEAR ETHER!"
"Ommph!" Kenny crossed the Gauntlet. His heads- up display showed a modified ground view taken from Etheric readings, radar and satellite scanning. Flickering ghostly blips indicated shielded Technocracy fliers. He frowned. He can barely detect them.
But he could clearly see four battlesuits slowly making their way across the desert.
Even from this altitude he could see two explosions on the far side of the battlefield. "I hope that's one of them and not us," he muttered and decided to go for the closer suits.
He kicked the jet into a dive and opened up with the nose cannons on the first battlesuit. With all the sand and dirt he kicked up Kenny was unsure if he was actually hitting anything. He pulled out of the dive and rolled just in time to see several rockets pass by him. Bullets clattered against the collapsed steel airframe and he hoped they weren't using Primium. But his indicators were all green.
He circled low and sighted some of the ground troops who were wisely seeking cover. He put a few shots into the ground ahead of them. He didn't want to shoot the soldiers, it just wasn't sporting. His shots did discourage further movement forward and he peeled away.
Alarms went off, warning him of an incoming energy source. He glanced around to see a black helicopter zooming his way. He hit the throttle and released chaff behind him. The sky behind him brightened as the copter's missiles hit the heated metal strips. His speed meter rose to near critical before he slowed and climbed higher into the sky.
Jay tore through the complex and down to the lowest level where the force shield generator was housed. It was a mixture of the finest Etheric Science and Glass Walker spirit work.
The technological side of him looked at it with repressed horror. It was a godawful mess.
Two Etherites were desperately changing patch cords on one of the main panels. In the room next to them a motor throbbed unevenly. A cover fell off a nearby rack and sparks flew from out from the open panel.
Hadn't these people ever heard of fuses?
Resolutely he pushed that aside and laid his hands on the main console. "It's okay," he muttered gently. "Come on, we'll get you fixed up."
The painful scream from the spirits in the machinery nearly made him jerk his hands away. "Don't change any more patches!" he yelled to the startled Scientists.
He ran his hands gently across the console. A cacophony of impressions flooded into him from the strange system. Taking a deep breath he concentrated, focusing on sorting out the odd technomagical mixture...
"It's hungry!"
He turned to the puzzled mages and waved vaguely toward a rack of equipment. "Over there..."
One of the men slapped his head. "The Xeno supply!" He ran over to the rack and popped open a cover. "Both power supplies are failing!"
He reached inside and gritted his teeth. "Hang on."
The motor noise got worse.
"Hang in there, baby," Jay chanted soothingly.
The other Etherite pulled out another piece of equipment and handed it to his fellow. Something snapped and popped as he put it into place. "Got it!"
The noise eased to a dull whine.
"We patched in a fresh power supply," one of the Scientists said to Jay, "But we need to rebalance the unit. Normally Henry keeps the spirits happy while we adjust it. Think you can do that?"
Beads of sweat trickled down his face. He licked his lips. "I think so..."
Kenny bit his lip as he thought. The copters could possibly shoot him clean out of the sky, especially if they were using Primium. He guessed they were saving the rare metal for when the fighting got rough. He reviewed his weapons: his laser wouldn't be any good against the agile aircraft, he couldn't get close enough with the cannons without risking his own skin and the Luftgaia missiles were designed to kill Wyrm things.
"Let's see how intelligent you guys are," he murmured as he banked the craft around. "Staffleleader?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The missile responded.
"You can smell out Wyrm creatures..."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Can you track Weaver devices?"
The shield dimmed to almost nothing. Mary felt her heart stop.
It flickered back on just in time to absorb the helicopter's attack.
The levers moved more smoothly now.
"Jay," Mary breathed, "I want to have your babies."
Jay wearily dragged himself up the stairs. The spirits - initially recalcitrant, had became remarkably compliant once they realized who was attacking them, but keeping everything both physical and spiritual properly aligned while the technicians did their work had still been an exhausting business.
When he reached the ground floor, Edmund nearly ran into him.
"Oh, it's our liaison. Why don't you stay out of the way?" he said sourly.
Hiram gave Edmund a withering look. "Ed, would you shut up!"
He turned to Jay. "Think you can help us knock out those copters? It'd help if you could double-check our settings and make sure we've got everything right. We're only going to get one chance at surprising those bastards."
Jay pushed back his fatigue and nodded. "Of course. Whatever I can do."
Hiram lifted his lightning gun. "The Technos check in, but they don't check out. ... Er, nothing personal."
Jay chuckled. "No offense taken."
An explosion rocked them.
"Hey, guys," Elaine's voice came to their headsets. "We lost the outside feed. We're basically blind at the moment.
"Just great," Edmund groused as he shouldered his plasma rifle. "Let just do this."
The first response to Kenny's question was a bit of garbled English mixed with modem noises. Not good.
"I don't know, sir," came through on the second try.
"Listen, you guys," Kenny said in a low, intense tone. "We're under attack. The node... the caern is under attack from Weaver things. We need to kill those Weaver things."
"Sir... I don't know..."
"For Gaia!" Kenny shouted as he flew towards one of the black helicopters.
"FOR GAIA!" came the massed response.
He fumbled the release mechanism and accidently loosed all of his missiles. Four Luftgaia missiles screamed towards the Technocracy craft. Kenny waited for the boom.
It didn't come.
"Oh hell," he muttered. "It was worth a try."
Jay led the way to the outside door. He spoke into the mike. "Rad? Did you get the frequencies? Read 'em back to me?"
"We got 'em," Rad Erasmus replied. He reeled off the numbers. "Tom's here too. We'll meet you at the main door."
The shield came down a few meters beyond the door to the main complex. Jay met the other men and they formed a huddle. He felt out of place; the other men were bristling with weaponry yet he was without even a pistol.
"Okay, try to coordinate your attacks. You've got to hit both AI copters at the same time. They learn fast and their targeting is better than the remote copters so if we don't take them both down at the same time we're as good as dead."
"Who's this 'we' stuff, Jay?" Rad said with a smile. "You're *not* going out there. You're our liaison. It'd look really bad if you got killed just a few weeks after you got here. Besides, I don't think you'll be much good without a weapon, even if you had a set of armor. Which you don't."
Jay blew out his breath. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Rad put a hand on his shoulder. "Let us handle it from here." He turned to the others. "Tom and I will go behind what's left of hanger 3."
"Hiram and I will take the vacant shed," Edmund replied. "We'll go by twos."
"Don't power up until you have to," Jay reminded them.
"We're ready here, Tower."
"Remember," Elaine's voice said in there headsets, "I can only raise the shield up off the ground about a meter. Watch your heads."
As she spoke the blue electric field rose slightly off the ground.
Rad and Tom ducked and ran blindly into the dark morning.
Edmund poked his head out more cautiously. "Looks clear." He took off on long legs.
Hiram went out a second after. Too late he heard the sound of the copter coming around.
Jay could only watch as bullets ripped into Hiram. His armor wasn't enough.
"Damn! Tower, send a medical team up here, now!"
It was only a matter of time.
Armand stood in the clinic waiting for more of the wounded to arrive. Already he had two Etherites waylaid by Paradox, but that was nothing. Soon the real wounded would arrive, bloody and bleeding.
His radio sang with Jay's intense request for help. "O Great One," he breathed. "Let me survive to help."
He picked up his medical kit and ran.
Jay squatted low, looking out at Hiram's body. So close but so far away.
He knew the copter would hover briefly and then return to its programing. Jay waited until the sound of the copter blades died away before he rolled under the shield and raced out to the body. He grabbed the man's legs and dragged what was left of him back under the shield. He doubted even the Sons' regen tank could save him now, but he had to try.
He spied Hiram's weapon. It looked intact.
Without another moment's thought he dashed outside again and snatched up the weapon. "I'll be damned if I can't figure out a bloody lightning rifle!" he muttered as he ran towards the shelter of the shed.
Anne cursed the engines, the desert and anything in sight. The turbines weren't spinning up to speed.
"Damn it, I built you - now work!" she snarled.
She looked around the cockpit for the thirtieth time. It had a lot fewer gauges than a normal A-10 and she was frustrated by the lack of data. Then her eyes fell upon a knob she'd disregarded before.
"Oh hell, I was in such a hurry I forgot to choke the engines."
Moments later she was airborne.
"Coming back for more? Are we now?" Thalia whispered as the modified A-10 came back into view.
Alarms warned her of incoming missiles. She dodged them with ease.
"You're fast, but I'm more agile." She trained her guns on the incoming ship. "And better armed."
It vanished before her eyes.
"Coward!" she howled. "Fly Girl to Command. Enemy craft crossed the Gauntlet."
"Keep an eye out," Jeffreys warned. "He may try to pop out again."
"Right." Another alarm went off and she looked at the radar. "What the..."
It was a combination of enchanted spirit and modern circuitry. Its goal was to find the enemy and destroy it.
The Luftgaia missiles weren't programmed to think or to ponder. Staffleleader knew its duty. Fight the Wyrm. Defend Gaia. But its microprocessor wasn't making the leap from Wyrm threat to Weaver threat.
Its spirit was strong but its circuitry was weak.
Its senses were limited but it could sort out certain things. The thing it had passed in the sky... it wasn't Wyrm, but it didn't have that a sense of the Wyld that its comrades and allies had.
A logic circuit made the switch.
"Follow me!" it cried out on the radio band to the other missiles.
Thalia watched in disbelief as the four missiles turned back her way. She dropped her chaff and veered away from them. They came through the chaff unscathed and closed in on her.
"FOR GAIA!" Staffleleader cried out.
"FOR GAIA!" The other missiles chorused.
Her displays went white as the missiles exploded.
"DAMN IT ALL!" Thalia cursed as she saw her ship's telemetry go dead.
"Mary! Get that shield down!" Elaine shouted.
Mary threw forward two switches. "It's down!"
"How're the outer defenses doing?"
"Not good," Mary said. "From the seismographs I think we brought down two copters but the suits are still advancing."
"Forget the suits, the copters are a bigger problem right now!" Elaine stamped her foot in frustration. "I knew we should have built a few P-51 Mustangs!"
"So where's our air force?"
"Kenny, is that you?" Anne said over the radio.
"No, it's Alexander's Ragtime Band," he shot back. "Where've you been?"
"I just got up. Engine problems."
"Yeah, I'll bet that coffee maker drained your batteries," he said in a lighter tone of voice.
She smiled at the humor. "What's the situation?"
Kenny relayed his progress.
"Incited the Luftgaia missiles to attack? Nice idea."
"Well, the tower said the targeted copter went down shortly after I left, but I'm not claiming it."
Anne looked up the data from the satellite. "Hey, Kenny, have you taken a gander outside the battlefield?"
"I've been too busy being shot at. Why?"
"I'm seeing a bunch of tractor-trailers on the old highway. Looks rather suspicious to me." Anne programmed the data into her heads up display. "I'll bet that's their mobile headquarters."
"Which means they'll be heavily defended," Kenny replied. By this time he had maneuvered along side her. "I've taken a few hits already. I'd be real nervous getting close whatever they have guarding the place."
She looked at his aircraft. "You've got a few punctures here and there. Didn't the Elektro-Shield work?"
"I didn't use it. It radiates too broad a radio signature. Might as well dress me in white and drape me in a sign that says 'Oh shoot me now'."
"The shield might have helped," she lectured.
"Against Primium?"
She sighed. "I don't know. They haven't used it yet, have they?"
"Not to my knowledge," Kenny shrugged.
"Kenny! Anne!" Elaine's voice crackled at them. "Get your asses back here and deal with these copters."
"What about the suits?" Anne asked.
"Screw the suits. They'll be dealt with shortly."
"Okay, I've got a plan," Anne replied. "But it's dangerous and will take coordination..."
Jay sprinted to the shed across the runway.
Edmund scowled at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Hiram's down, maybe dead," Jay panted, glancing around the shed.
"Well, you can't use that," Edmund pointed to the rifle in Jay's hands. "So you're just as useless here as behind the shield."
"Maybe not," Jay said softly and held the weapon close to his chest. "Gimme a minute."
"What are -"
"Quiet. Please." He centered himself, quieted his mind, and gently stroked the rifle. "It's okay," he murmured as he sought the spirit within the weapon. "Just talk to me..."
"You're strange," Edmund muttered. "You know what Freud would say..."
Jay's eyes focused on Edmund again. His voice was distant. "I can do this..."
The rifle's indicators lit up. The sound of the copters coming around caught both men's ears.
"Here they come!" Tom called over the headsets.
Both men swung their weapons towards the helicopters making their return circuit.
"NOW!"
Holding carefully to his communion with the weapon's spirit, Jay raised his sights. Targeting data flickered through his mind. Bracing carefully against recoil, he pulled the trigger. A long lightning bolt thundered out from the barrel. On the other side of the shed Edmund's hot red plasma beam pulsed out.
Both bolts struck the first copter as it rounded the Etherite's power shield. The copter sputtered and flew away erratically.
Rad and Tom's weapons hit the second copter squarely. It attempted to do a loop - an impossible stunt for a helicopter - and fell out of the sky.
Charlene witnessed several bright beams close to the blue bubble protecting the Deviant base. "I got a bad feeling about that," she murmured.
An indicator flickered showing an energy burst very close to her. Before she could react something struck her from behind with enough force to make her stagger forward. Even through the helmet she could hear an animal-like roar.
She turned to face the threat. It was nearly equal to her height but instead of armor and steel there was fur and claws. She swung her rifle to fire but the werewolf's claws sliced through it like butter. Indicators flickered as the monster tore into her armor. She tried to fight back but her weapon was still stuck to her gloves.
"S4 to Command! We got... AWHHHH!"
Something cut into her arms and chest. Servos screamed as they died. The battlesuit's legs locked and she fell onto her back. She gasped in pain and could smell smoke and blood.
The monster tapped its claws on her plasti-steel helmet. Charlene could swear that the beast waved at her as the darkness enveloped her.
Jeffreys rocked backwards as the monitors from the two AI copters went dead. "This is so not good."
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen," he broadcast to his troops. "Load up the Primium. Repeat, load up the Primium."
To hell with the budget. Time to take the gloves off. He steered his 'copter away from the battlesuits and headed towards the Etherites' shield. "Let's see how you deal with Real Science."
Energy indicators blinked. The monitors from S4 went dead. He ignored it; Charlene could take care of herself. But a brief glimpse from an external monitor from S2 startled him. All he could see was a mass of hair and giant jaws. There were incoherent screams from the other battlesuits before they too went dark.
"Shapechangers! Damn it!" He swung his copter back towards the suits. "I will NOT leave my men to those savages!"
"Clear Ether!"
"Umpfh!" Kenny groaned as he returned to Prime. Almost immediately bullets played like a rock drummer across his craft. He hoped the Elektra-Shield would protect him. He shot over the tractor trailers in a blink of an eye a mere 4 meters off the ground, drawing the fire of the Technocracy's weapons. It made an awful racket against the collapsed steel of his airframe. Hopefully, it would make Anne's diagonal run effective.
More energy indicators at Jeffrey's console flashed and proximity alarms went off. Above and around him he could hear the protective weaponry start firing. Some of his other remote sensors died as several explosions rocked his command post.
"Hell!" He kept control of his remote copter. Two enemy aircraft were now streaking away from his base. "You're not getting away this time," he muttered, preparing to maneuver around the missiles that had been launched his way.
His eyes widened as the missiles remained locked on.
Kenny saw explosions light up the sky behind him. He hoped it was the Technocrats and not Anne.
Indicators flickered, telling him the craft was badly damaged. He hoped he could keep it in the air until he was away from the fighting.
Then his engines exploded.
Hurriedly he activated the landing gear. A frowning "smiley face" informed him that they were inactive. He grabbed the lever below his seat and prepared to eject.
He hesitated. He was too low. He knew it. But the nose began to pitch down as the machine began to tumble. He had to chance it.
The canopy blew away and he rocketed upward. He felt the release of the gee forces as he came near the ejector's apogee. His jet exploded behind him.
"PDD! ONE HUNDRED FIFTY METERS UP! NOW!" he shouted.
-be-deep-
His PDD teleported him higher into the air.
"PDD! FOURTEEN KILOMETERS WEST! NOW!"
-be-deep-
His parachute opened with room to spare. His feet hit the ground and he collapsed, too dizzy to stand.
Anne managed to land her crippled craft near the crumpled Kenny. She withdrew a container from the craft and ran over to him. "Kenny! Kenny! You damned idiot."
She pulled him out of the parachute harness. "Don't ever scare me like that; ejecting too low."
"Ugh."
She inspected him but found no wounds. Kenny's eyes flickered opened and she sighed with relief. He was just Paradox-wracked. She uncapped the container and held it to his lips.
He drank and sat up. "Needs cream and sugar," he said weakly.
"Picky, picky."
"Not bad shooting for Techno-scum," Edmund said to Jay.
"I'll take that as a compliment," Jay said. He shook his head a little. His ears still rang from the noise of the weapons discharge.
Edmund disappeared into the shed while Rad and Tom ran up to him. "Good shooting," Tom said and slapped him on his back.
"Thanks. Ah... Tom? Is your last name really Swift?"
Tom grinned. "Yep."
A rumble came from the shed and a vehicle looking like something out of 'The Road Warrior' came rolling out.
"Climb aboard folks," Edmund waved at them.
"I should get back inside," Jay said.
Rad extended a hand. "No. They're in full retreat. Come with us. We'll check on the wounded."
"Come along," Edmund said. "You're one of us now."
Jay looked at them. A great big happy family. And mad as bed bugs.
He smiled and took Rad's hand.
Three days after the failed assault Jeffreys stood outside the Boardroom. He nervously adjusted his collar. He kept remembering a saying of an old friend of his: One oh- shit erases a million at-a-boys.
And this was one big oh-shit.
He received his summons and entered the room. Three men sat in sleek chrome chairs. They weren't young and they weren't old, but they all radiated Power. Jeffreys felt his knees weaken.
The middle one made a gesture and videos of the failed attack leaped on to screens behind them.
"Two AI helicopters lost. Three remote copters lost. Four battlesuits with experienced operators lost. Three transports wreaked. Explain yourself."
"I lacked proper intelligence to make a successful battle plan," Jeffreys began. "Had I known the extent of the Deviants' mechanisms and their alliance with the werewolves I would have said to hell with the budget and used my limited Primium ordinance immediately."
There was no immediate reply.
He continued, "So I lost equipment. Equipment can be replaced. I know I lost good people. Good people get lost in war. But I retreated with almost no fatalities to my ground forces or my support staff."
He'd sweated out the retreat. The Sons seemed willing to let them leave but the Garou kept popping out from across the Gauntlet to harry them. They only killed a few, but they played hob with the Technocracy's HyperTech. They seemed to delight in gumming up the most advanced equipment he'd had.
"So, in trying to save money you lost the battle," the middle director replied.
"You are the ones setting the budget, not me. Sirs," Jeffreys said defensively. "I did my best with the knowledge, equipment, and money available to me."
The man to his left spoke. "We will give you credit for saving most of your manpower."
"But you still failed," the one on his right said. "Failure shows imperfection, and we all strive for perfection."
He leaned forward. "You do strive for perfection, don't you, young man?"
"Yes, sir," Jeffreys said weakly.
"We will find someone who has more striving than you to fill your place," the middle man said. "After all, good managers are a dime a dozen. Prepare to become socially mobile... downward."
"Yes, sir."
"We'll discuss your punishment later. You may go."
Jeffreys walked out on legs of jelly.
Jay walked out of the service with Anne and Kenny at his side. He still felt a little embarrassed about the medal on his chest. "We were lucky."
"We were damn lucky," Anne said. "If we hadn't gotten that shield up we'd have been toast."
"And if we didn't have you," Kenny nodded to Jay, "Those helicopters would have eaten us for lunch, even with the shield."
"I was just doing my part." Jay fingered the elaborate medallion. "What anyone would have done."
"What anyone should have done," Kenny corrected him. "Stop being so self-effacing. You acted with true grit and courage."
Jay shook his head. "I couldn't save Hiram."
"No one could have saved him," Anne whispered.
Jay said nothing. He'd never forget the sight and, far worse, the smell as he'd dragged Hiram's body under the shield.
"I think both sides got off easy," Kenny said trying to sound cheerful. "We lost a few, mostly from extreme Paradox, and they lost a few. Most of the people walked away."
"Leaving us with several piles of wrecked Primium," Kenny remarked with a small smile.
Edmund came up behind them and slapped Jay in the back. "Nice going chip-head. No wonder old Frodo likes you so much."
"Edmund." Jay turned to the man with a scowl. "When are you going to stop with all this childish name calling?"
"You mean when am I going to stop being an asshole?" Edmund grinned and circled an upright finger. "Neh-vah!" He walked away.
"Some day," Kenny fumed, "I *am* going to kick his ass."
"Get in line," Anne said.
"I've got an appointment to keep," Jay said.
Debra stepped up to him as he walked away. "I heard you did some nice shooting."
"Uh, thanks," Jay colored in embarrassment.
"We should do lunch some time." She smiled in a hopefully winning manner.
"Of course," Jay said with a nod. "Ah... sometime. I've got to go now."
"Sure." Debra walked slowly away. Her hips had an extra sway to them.
When she was out of view Jay rubbed his temples. "Garou! When they're not trying to kill you they're trying to boff you."
Weeks had passed since the attack.
Charlene stared at the ceiling of her cell. After the battle the Sons had pulled her out of the suit before she'd bled to death. They'd stuck her in a regen tank and healed the worst of her wounds, then stuck her in this cell to finish recouperating.
She was still unsure whether they'd done her a favor or not.
If they let her leave - a big if - and she returned to the Technocracy she'd be considered tainted. Since the revolt a certain paranoia had infected those who remained. She'd heard stories about people suspected of harboring sympathies for the rebels and the 'loyalty checks' the NWO put them through. They weren't pleasant.
But while convalescing from her wounds something had happened to her convictions. She'd had plenty of time to think and reflect on what had happened, not only recently but over the past few years. She wasn't so sure now that the lab disaster that had killed two of her colleagues was completely the rebels' fault. Perhaps the manager who had demanded that the work continue, even to signing off on procedures that were clearly dangerous, was also to blame. Doubts haunted her; had she been blind to the faults of her own people?
A knock came to her door. She had to grin. Only two people knocked to enter her locked cell.
"Hey Charlene, would you like some company today?"
"Sure, come in."
The door clicked open with a rattle and Jay stepped in. He was one of the rebels, one of the traitors who had murdered her friends, she thought reflexively. But at the same time she knew that wasn't true. Jay hadn't been in her division, had never worked with her. He wasn't to blame. Besides, she liked Jay. He'd visited her every day, even when she'd been floating in the tank.
She sat up in her bunk and smiled at him. It was hard not to; he was just a nice guy. "Have you got a new book for me?"
"Yes, although I'm afraid your little secret is out."
He handed her a Harlequin romance novel. "I see you haven't gotten far into the other book."
She glanced at the paperback version of the Kitab al Alacir on her nightstand. "It's interesting in parts but it's... well..."
"Wacked?" He grinned.
"Oh, yeah." She chuckled.
"Who brought the flowers?"
"Would you believe Joshua?" She shook her head. "I think... no, I know he was the werewolf who attacked me. What do you make of that?"
"He's a Ragabash; a trickster, a joker in their culture. He's... uhm... talked about you." Jay glanced at her sidelong. "He said, 'When I saw her there, encased in electronics and machinery, I knew she was the one for me'. He's hard to make out sometimes."
She licked her lips. "I should be terrified but... and I hate to admit it... I enjoy his visits. He makes me laugh."
"That's part of his job," Jay nodded. "Can I get you anything?"
"How about some different food? I heard they've got a cook here who makes heavenly omelets."
Jay smiled, his eyes twinkling. "I think I can arrange that."