Descent into Mayhem by Bruno Goncalves
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lograin Air Base, Nature’s Day, 26th of June, 2771
It was the roar that woke him, not the howling wind. The howl was something one got used to after a lifetime in a bipolar world, but the roar was something else entirely.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Toni wondered at what time it was, a sudden growling in his belly making it clear to him that he had missed a meal. He wondered whether the base’s dinner-horn had sounded yet.
Then he realized that there was no way he could hope to hear the horn above the gale, finally understanding that he must have overslept. Hurriedly he exited the shed, only to be forced to take sudden hold of the doorway to keep from being swept off his feet. Finding his windlegs, he peered at his surrounding and gaped in wonder at what he saw.
A Quasar heavy carrier presided over what Toni had believed to be a deactivated runway, its reactors nearing full throttle barely a hundred meters from where the building stood. It had only just begun to move, but already its vulture wings shuddered from the gale-force winds, gigantic tires rolling over asphalt that appeared to have been sprouting weeds for years.
It didn’t make any sense; any fool could see that those were no conditions for an aircraft to takeoff.
Unless an even greater threat is on its way here, the stranger opined, apparently rested enough to have reacquired an opinion.
Toni reckoned he had more than one clock ticking against him. It was not just a matter of when the MPs would catch up to him, or whether Ian had already evacuated Lograin or not. If Lograin was evacuating all its personnel and he failed to find his way onto a transport, he would soon be braving the Bakemono and the Great Rains with nothing more substantial than a light infantry rifle. The wind had gained a characteristic iciness to it and the sky had become overcast, and both reminded him that the rains were less than a day away.
Dark rainclouds raced over his head, making him wonder whether it was already too late.
As the giant aircraft’s reactors peaked and it began to pick up speed, he cupped his hands protectively around his ears and peered at his surroundings. What he saw confirmed his suspicions. The base was crawling with activity, and already he could see five more Quasars on their runways or taxiing towards their positions.
He also spied what he had been hoping to find. Near the deactivated runway’s end and where it intersected one of the base’s two main runways, was the colossal building that had been built to house MEWAC’s armored Suits.
By the time the enormous transport was rumbling its way into the gloomy sky, Toni had gathered his rucksack and abandoned the decrepit building. He set off at a brisk pace towards the structure, dismally aware that the wind was against him and the ground terribly uneven. To walk on the runway’s level asphalt would be foolish, he decided, since it would probably earn him far more attention than he was willing to accept at the moment. The runway’s flank, however, was overgrown enough to provide cover and also act as a natural windbreak, and so he picked his way among the bushes and trees, estimating that the journey would take at least an hour to accomplish.
The estimate proved to be optimistic.
The detail he hadn’t considered was the weight of his rucksack, and it was his mounting exhaustion that finally forced him to question the need to carry the cumbersome weapon. It would hardly be discreet or easy to deploy, and if he kept porting it with him, by the time he finally reached the stalls he’d be too exhausted to fight.
Finally deciding he would have to make do with the pistol, he abandoned the rucksack in a flooded ditch and continued to cross the uneven ground, his mind persistently returning to the men he had killed.
He wondered why Ray hadn’t made any noise as he died, and had a newfound respect for Kaiser, for having been able to pull off the kill without waking his victim’s comrades. It had been more than cold. It had been professional. And he was dead certain that he wasn’t nearly as professional as Kaiser was.
The runway’s outskirts were riddled with potholes and half-buried rocks, testament to the shoddy method of construction that had birthed the base, their existence made more menacing by the overgrown vegetation that hid them from his eyes. Twice he almost twisted an ankle, the first time as he hurried to hide from another Quasar as it taxied along the runway to its starting point, the second as it came thundering along in the opposite direction.
Although he couldn’t be entirely certain, more than two hours had elapsed before he began to approach the better maintained outskirts of Lograin’s MEWAC accommodations.
Lograin’s on-base facilities usually followed one of two architectural philosophies; while most opted for a very solid construction, others favored a cheaper aerodynamic approach to deal with the winds. MEWAC’s accommodations, however, possessed both characteristics. Shaped like a particularly squat dumpling, it was nevertheless a very solid construction, favoring a reinforced concrete inner shell covered by a spaced steel outer casing. No attempt had been made at camouflage, and its gigantic grey form dominated its immediate surroundings, making even the Quasars look like over-grown toys as they taxied nearby. Besides the grand entrance, where the Suits gained entry to the main hanger’s interior, the installations could be accessed through the three personnel entrances at its remaining three sides. The north-east entrance awaited Toni’s arrival, its gate entirely devoid of security.
Curious but cautious, Toni peered at his surroundings, his paranoia heckling him despite the stable’s abandoned look. His hearing’s sorry state, the winds and the roaring Quasars all conspired to make him effectively deaf to his immediate surroundings, and that fuelled his mistrust more than anything else. Approaching a small prefabricated cement cube that functioned as a heavy machinegun bunker, he poked his head in and found no one. The primary weapon and its tripod were absent, and there wasn’t an ammunition box within sight. The fact that the armored door had been left open, exposing its interior to the brutal elements, underlined the obvious; its complement had left in a hurry and without any prospect of return.
Making a decision, he began to approach the main installation’s entrance. Its doors were ajar and he entered cautiously, taking care to check his corners before stepping through. He found the administrative section beyond devoid of light or people, and with its office doors locked. One could apparently rely on bureaucrats to lock their offices even when evacuating.
He wandered through the dark maze of corridors, remembering nothing from the last time he’d been there; all he had seen five weeks before had been the hanger area, where the stalls and servicing equipment could be found. Finally he came upon a shadowy tunnel that he felt pointed in the right direction, and decided to follow it. Before long he bumped against an unlocked door. He opened it to find that his sense of direction was not entirely absent.
The hanger looked like an oversized cave, the overcast sky and complete absence of overhead lighting lending the place a forlorn look. The wind made music off the entrance, and Toni’s ears were filled with howling and roaring. Realizing that he was wasting precious time there, Toni began to hurry towards the grand entrance when a shout caught his attention.
Standing beside a heavy-duty forklift stood a tall, slim man. Despite the darkness, what little light there was still shone off the stars on his shoulders. Approaching carefully, Toni called out.
“Something wrong, sir?”
The officer walked towards him and cracked a wide grin.
“It’s been barely two weeks and you’ve already forgotten the sound of your owner’s voice, haven’t you?”
Toni’s eyes widened as he looked the officer up and down, and realized he was staring at Lieutenant Templeton. The lieutenant’s grin widened even more, relieved at having finally located his subordinate.
“Sir! My apologies, sir,” he finally answered, saluting him before he could stop himself.
The lieutenant could have said something about Toni saluting him in civilian clothing, but instead he approached and warmly shook his hand.
> “You were my only missing chick, you know it? Everyone else is either dead or accounted for. Are you alright? I was told you saw action after the mines.”
“I am fine, sir, though I’m still recovering. You said everyone’s accounted for. Are Ian and Hannah too?”
The lieutenant’s face turned ugly for a moment, and then he sighed.
“Both are accounted for, and in good health.”
“Sir, I –”
“There’s no need to say anything. Hannah said it all when she returned, and Ian’s been remanded into the custody of the Military Police. He will face court-martial and so will you, probably. And you’ll both almost certainly get slaps on your wrists because you’re both cadets, and were committed to combat before you’d taken the oath. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is that we’ve been ordered to evacuate, and there are people missing all over the place. First you, then a medical patient and now a couple of MPs.”
Toni felt a chill travel up his spine; he knew full well that none of them were missing. Feeling terrible, he tried to speak.
“Sir –”
“We’ve been ordered to evacuate. Our Quasar was already supposed to have lifted off, but I’ve been pulling in some favors to get them to wait. Our platoon and the squad of MPs guarding Ian in there are going hungry, all because you were still unaccounted for. Now there’s no longer any reason to wait. Within the hour we need to be on it, ‘cause we’re expecting the base to get hit after that.”
“Is it the Bakemono, sir?”
“The ... what?”
“The enemy Suit we fought at Base Fido, sir.”
“No, no, some puke from EWAC took care of that one. Damaged it badly enough so that it pulled out of combat, to MEWAC’s everlasting shame. But Hannah at least managed to find two of its extremities and its helm, and we’ve got those in the Quasar for future research.”
“Sir –”
“Less talkie, more walkie, cadet. I –”
A radio squawked and the lieutenant snatched it irritably from his belt, and Toni’s trigger finger slipped inside the trigger-guard of the pistol in his pocket, almost causing the weapon to fire. He scolded himself silently as the lieutenant communicated with a very angry tower-man, realizing that the last thing he wanted was the Ell-tee’s blood on his hands. Hannah was alive, Ian was in custody and the Bakemono had been defeated. The fact that the soldier credited with the accomplishment happened to have been in an induced coma at the time was of little interest. He wondered about the dead MPs and tried once more to smother his shame.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” the lieutenant asked with a look of alarm.
“I’m fine, sir,” he answered as a cold sweat began to bead his forehead, “though I’m just not feeling too good.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, because that’s what you’re going to do. Our Quasar has the number Thirty-Seven on its tail. You’re going to find it and present yourself to its boarding sergeant. I have another matter to deal with.”
“Can I help, sir?”
“Can you? I think not. We’ll just be looking for some stragglers, and I don’t intend to lose you again. You’ll go straight to your transport, and that’s an order. Clear?”
Toni nodded and apologized, and went on his way.
I’ll tell you where you can find those stragglers, if you’d like, the stranger sniggered, and Toni began to weep.
Realizing that the pistol in his pocket was the last obvious evidence of his crime, he ditched the weapon in a deep crevice beside the runway and approached the three aircraft awaiting permission for departure.
He remembered Gordie and was suddenly anxious to see him again, and he prayed that his friend had managed to survive that day at the mines. He also remembered Hannah and reminded himself to thank her for all she had done. He tried not to think about Sueli.
The birds were parked side-by-side along the apron that flanked a taxiway, and were indistinguishable except for the silver double-digit numbers painted on their vertical stabilizers. Soldiers braved the winds and loitered near their tails, talking into each other’s ears as they peered nervously at the thunderous sky. Quasar Thirty-Seven’s rear cargo hatch was lowered and an ancient sergeant waited on it, howling inaudible curses at the wind, and at the wrench-jockey who was approaching him.
“What? What?” he ordered, the words curses unto themselves.
“Sergeant-cadet Toni Miura reporting for evacuation, sir,” Toni answered at attention.
The sergeant looked him up and down, and then barked the inevitable question.
“Where’s your fucking uniform?”
“My uniform’s ruined and there was no one at deposit to hand me another, sir,” he lied.
“Hah. Would have preferred to show up naked than like that, but to each his fucking own, right?” he answered with a smirk.
The sergeant took out a piece of paper to consult, but the wind suddenly snatched the document and sent it flying over the taxiway. Keeping a stiff upper lip, the sergeant irritably waved him into the aircraft.
Passing the thick rubber curtain that shielded those inside from the foul weather, Toni came upon an interior altogether different from the one that had ferried LOGIS to Lograin. It was different enough, in fact, to make him wonder whether it was the same aircraft at all. Uncomfortable-looking seats flanked both sides of the aircraft’s aft interior, the central corridor having been left bare to allow myriad equipment and supplies to be strapped down. More rubber curtains hid the aircraft’s central cabin from view.
On their journey to Lograin there had been no seats or divided cabins, only a very sturdy floor over which the Suits could safely pad before shutting down to be secured to the structure. Then he remembered that most of the Mocas hadn’t survived the plantation engagement, the crews probably having been forced to modify the aircraft to better suit the task of evacuation. Finding no one he knew among those seated, and feeling a little uneasy with such a large number of them being MPs, he passed through the second curtain and into the compartment beyond.
Toni’s puzzlement began to give way to alarm. He found not a single tied-down armored Suit, but instead a continuation of the carefully secured and spaced payload along with many more seats, their occupants mainly base personnel and another handful of MPs. Wondering whether they could smell their comrades’ blood on his hands, Toni froze where he was, and as the group turned their gaze towards him his heart skipped a beat. They soon returned to their heated conversation, however, and he pushed the thought out of his mind.
Feeling the aircraft begin to move, he took a seat beside a window as far as possible from the evacuees, trying not to look at the blue-berets as they talked excitedly amongst themselves. Having apparently discovered that there was far more room in the center cabin than in the rear, a group of runway jockeys passed through the dividing curtain and began to choose their seats. One of them, apparently thinking that Toni was also base personnel, raised a hand in cheers and took a seat two places beside his. Toni knew what came next, and a few moments later the young soldier spoke to him.
“Excuse me?”
“I said, looks like we got the final call,” the young soldier repeated.
“Why do you say that?”
“All the Quasars. They’re taxiing all at once.”
Toni peered outside the window and confirmed that they were, and he wondered whether Lieutenant Templeton had managed to make it aboard. Standing again, he exited the central compartment and approached the boarding sergeant as he hollered at the soldiery to take their seats.
“Sir, has Lieutenant Templeton arrived yet?”
The sergeant gave him a murderous look.
“And now the fucking cadet! I just confirmed to the Lieutenant on comms that you’re aboard, I’m not about ask him where the fuck he is! And rest assured that Lograin Tower would rather abandon an entire company to die here than sacrifice a single Templeton!”
/> “Does that mean the other Temple–”
“Fuckoff! Back! To! Your! Fucking! Seat! FUCK!” he howled, and the base personnel laughed and hooted as the old sergeant bulldozed Toni back to his seat.
The sergeant then returned to his own seat beside the cargo-door, hollering curses at all present as he passed them by, and even the MPs had the good grace to lower their heads at his irate passage, some going so far as to applaud his labors.
So Toni was on the right carrier, on the principle that the lieutenant hadn’t sounded blindly to all aircraft to confirm whether he was on board. But if so, then where was his platoon? Where was Ian, along with the compliment of MPs guarding him? And where were the Suit parts that Hannah had managed to apprehend?
Ignoring the base-puke’s newest attempt to strike up a conversation, Toni stood again and, ignoring the reproving glare of the nearby MPs, began to make his way to the forward cabin. Passing through the heavy curtain, he found the compartment full of low-density, high-volume loads secured with netting. It included mostly an abundant stock of fuel and paper documents, and he realized that if they were to crash the fireball would be spectacular.
As he returned to his seat in deep thought, he barely noticed how the personnel had congregated around the circular windows, the soldiers practically silent except for some quiet observation from one or another. There was no more care for remaining seated, the sergeant’s absence from that cabin effectively leaving them to do as they pleased.
... and we’ve got those in the Quasar for future research. Toni was almost certain that was what the lieutenant had said.
But which Quasar? Toni had presumed that he had been referring to their Quasar, but it could just as easily have been another. And where was the remainder of his platoon?
As he took his seat, he began to wonder whether the lieutenant had deceived him, but quickly he banished the thought from his mind. The lieutenant had never shown any fondness for his nephew, the relationship between them appearing much closer to indifference than love. And there was the matter of the very genuine warmth and relief he had displayed only minutes ago.
Banishing the thought to the back of his mind, Toni tapped the chatty base-puke on the shoulder and asked what all the fuss was about.
“Really?! Fourteen Quasars are about to try and takeoff at the same time from three different runways! That’s more than eight thousand tons on the move at the same time without anyone in the tower to coordinate, since they’ve boarded a carrier themselves. The chances of there being a mid-air collision are beyond bad, they’re terrifying. How can you be so calm?”
“Just ignorant, I guess ...” Toni replied.
The soldier looked at him for a moment and then turned towards the window again, shaking his head and muttering.
Toni wondered whether he and the soldier belonged to the same species.
There was a sudden blinding flash of light, quickly followed by two more, and all personnel who had been looking out the window suddenly yelled in pain, clapping hands to their faces as if they had just been burned there.
“Those are nukes detonating, guys,” Toni heard himself saying. “Get away from the windows and don’t look out again. Strap yourselves in ‘cause the shockwaves are on their way.”
Knocking into each other in their haste and blindness, the center-cabin passengers began to sit into the seats nearest to them and fasten their seatbelts. Every second that passed by made Toni more certain that the detonations had taken place a fair distance away, since the six roaring engines had only choked for a brief moment following the flashes.
Then the shockwaves arrived, and they struck the aircraft’s fuselage hard enough to momentarily rock it on its landing gear. There were a few screams and squeals, and Toni was once again reminded of the two men he had murdered.
As the Quasar began to turn in to its starting point on Lograin’s runway number one, Toni found the window beside him facing roughly south-east, where he observed five mushroom clouds ascending the skies perhaps ten kilometers off. That surprised him, since he didn’t know of any permanent construction to be found there. Reminding himself to follow his own rules, he turned away from the window and found himself looking at the young soldier.
“Am I gonna go blind, man?” he asked as he blinked his eyes furiously.
“Have no idea, mate. If you can see anything at all then it’s probably not that bad, I think. Don’t worry about it, we’ve got bigger –”
There were several more flashes of light, and the engines choked again before resuming their approach to their full power. Toni counted the seconds away and, once he reached fifteen, the thunderclaps finally reached them, making the fuselage creak and groan and shudder in a way that did not sound healthy at all.
Turning to his side, Toni observed six more mushroom clouds rising in the foreground to their predecessors, about six kilometers off.
“Our base defenses aren’t even firing, man. They’ve abandoned their posts, the fucking cowards!” the soldier cried, only to be stiffly corrected by another.
“That’s bullshit! The system’s automated, the GMN’s taking care of the defense.”
“They’re leapfrogging ...” Toni muttered.
“What?!”
“I said that they’re leapfrogging,” Toni said more loudly. “They’re firing those nukes outside the base’s area of intervention. When the mushroom clouds rise high enough to block all radar and infrared, they fire a second volley through them and detonate those nukes closer to the base than they could otherwise have gone. If they keep doing that –”
“Game over ...” the first soldier breathed.
“Right. Let’s just hope we’re out of here by then,” Toni finished as he watched the clouds rise, almost hypnotized by their beauty.
He hurriedly diverted his eyes once more, focusing instead on trying to calculate how long it would take for the nukes to strike the base proper. He got as far as figuring out that, as the base anti-missile system’s delay in detection and response decreased the nearer the enemy missiles came, the leapfrogs would need to be shorter to prevent interception. The exercise left him clueless as to how long they had before the missiles came within killing range.
“Not again ...” another soldier moaned as several more blinding flashes strobed Toni’s field of vision.
He felt the heat on his face and turned to see seven luminous golden spheres ascend the skies, their distance perhaps four kilometers away. The Quasar was already accelerating along the runway, gaining the much-needed speed for safe takeoff, and Toni’s stomach lurched as the reactors began to struggle unexpectedly. They were supposed to be EMP resistant, but it was quickly becoming clear that they were not immune. There were cries of panic as the engines continued to hesitate, but then they resurged and all backs were suddenly pressed against their seats.
The shockwaves struck the aircraft’s fuselage in a flurry, and the left wing began to tip up alarmingly. A loud grinding noise became clearly audible to all, although it ceased abruptly as the carrier righted itself.
“Wing just scraped against the tarmac, guys. God!” a civvie seated near a window on the right side informed them, and Toni began to wonder whether he should perhaps be a little more concerned.
Then an unexpected shockwave struck them, weaker in intensity but with much more push. As the aircraft’s fuselage began to tip upwards and the tires separated from the ground, the windows from both sides abruptly darkened as the screaming reactors changed their tune. Barely a second passed and then the aircraft was out of the smoke cloud and airborne, leaving everyone in the cabin acutely aware of the fact that the preceding aircraft had crashed.
The runway jockeys wept as several more intense flashes blinded the passengers.
“Gods,” Toni muttered in irritation as the reactors began to lose power, feeling his innards rise as the aircraft’s ascent faltered.
But they resurged once again and the Quasar began to put distance between itself and the air base. B
anking sharply as it ascended, the pilots pointed the aircraft’s tail towards the imminent shockwaves. When they arrived, the impacts were weaker than those preceding them, letting the passengers in on the fact that they had seen the worst of it.
Toni closed his eyes, wondering whether he deserved the reprieve. Finding no ready answer, he remained seated, quietly observing the surrounding soldiers. Some behaved like frightened animals, twisting around skittishly in their seats like cats in a shaken travel cage. Others, particularly the older personnel, he envied for their calm. The most senior of the MPs, an old lieutenant who had probably begun his career from base rank, appeared unfazed by the events, and he eyed Toni coldly as if he suspected something. Toni couldn’t blame him. He closed his eyes again.
The aircraft continued its unsteady ascent, the strong winds buffeting its fuselage as it passed through turbulent airstreams. Every once in a while, several flashes illuminated the cabin’s interior and Toni’s darkened world would momentarily strobe black and red. The shockwaves gradually lost their snap and the carrier began to turn again, and he opened his eyes to peer out his window.
He found a slowly turning world beyond, low and remote and wild. More than a minute passed by until he was awarded with a sight of what had once been Lograin air base. It had become a mushroom farm, and indeed as he watched he could see them rising, ebony pillars with a marked inclination towards the north-east, the once-spherical clouds atop them no longer fully able to withstand the furious winds. Several more bright flashes momentarily blinded him and he was forced to turn away, the searing pain in his eyes greater than he would have expected. Closing them, he saw the ghosts of the detonations like static in his field of view. He counted them, realizing that four missiles had detonated before he’d been able to turn away.
He finally grasped the fact that his crime scene had been sanitized in a way he could never have accomplished by himself. The realization depressed him terribly. The truth would remain for him alone, making him feel like he had somehow claimed undue ownership over their souls. He remembered their names once more, and promised himself that he would find out whether they had children and, if so, whether they wanted for anything. He owed his victims that, at the very least.
He opened his eyes to find the old MP lieutenant sitting quietly beside him. A feeling of unreality began to creep over him as the officer turned his eyes towards the recruit.
“Looks like they’ve got us in a holding pattern, don’t you think?” he opined by way of conversation.
“Appears so, sir,” Toni answered quietly.
“They’ve really hammered Lograin, haven’t they? It breaks my heart, seeing the world coming to an end like this. It’s in times like these that we must be particularly vigilant. And self-disciplined. Isn’t that so, Sergeant-cadet Miura?” he casually inquired.
Toni turned towards the man beside him.
“I was told that when I arrived at this carrier, I would find what remained of LOGIS, as well as a cadet in the custody of the military police. That cadet’s name is Ian Templeton.”
The lieutenant sighed.
“LOGIS was evacced from Lograin three days ago, including the Templeton boy. The carrier was then refitted for general evac and returned there. Your lieutenant came with us. We were told he was looking for a certain rotten egg who shot his nephew and got another cadet killed. The Templeton boy isn’t under arrest, nor was he ever. He was sequestered for more than three days under threat of a firearm. You have a lot to answer for, boy.”
“More than you can imagine,” Toni muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Never mind, sir. Is it true that certain parts of an enemy Suit were found and secured?”
“True. Although whatever that has to do with you is beyond me.”
“It has nothing to do with me,” Toni answered quietly as tears rolled down his cheeks.
Lieutenant Templeton’s treachery shocked him beyond words, mostly because it had been so flawlessly executed. He had been smart, feeding the cadet tidbits of valid information and hiding the bait in between. And the blue-berets had accosted him only as soon as the Quasar had become airborne.
He supposed he was just an amateur who had just been outmaneuvered and cornered by professionals. Varano and Nievers had just been unfortunate. The system had won. Turning to look over his shoulder, he found a stony-faced sergeant pointing a Miroku pistol at the base of his skull. The remainder of the passengers watched on silently, enraptured by the possibility of bloodshed.
Sighing, Toni stared out the window and found that the aircraft’s holding pattern had brought Lograin back into his field of view. The attack appeared to have ended and the base burned fiercely, thick black smoke streaking away to the far-off sea, towards the dark, dead side of his beloved world.
He wondered once more what true night must be like.
“Whatever possessed you to pick a fight with the Templetons?” the officer asked quietly.
“I never did, sir. They’ve been picking one with me.”
“You were a fool to put up a fight.”
“I have my pride, sir.”
The officer slapped his hands on his lap and stood, beckoning him to do the same. Calmly Toni rose and, not needing to be told, he turned his back to the man and offered his wrists. The officer removed an old pair of handcuffs from his belt and began to bind him, speaking casually as he did so.
“Let us see what your pride has cost you, boy. Sergeant-cadet Toni Miura, you are hereby arrested on grounds of incompetence, insubordination, grievous assault, false-imprisonment and sequester, and you will remain in our custody until you have been duly court-martialed.”
As he felt the cool steel sliding into place, listening to the officer’s damning words as the storm clouds outside mercifully blocked his vision of hell, Toni remembered Cosus, the war god, and the peace he had felt when he had prayed to him.
You’re gonna be praying a lot more, mate, the stranger sneered, enchanted by the developments, better decide if it will be to the god of sheep or the god of war.
Toni began to laugh as he realized to which one it would inevitably be.
EPILOGUE
Leiben, 10H50, 21st of June, 2771
Criminal court judge Ken Hirano was nearing the end of his rope.
Two weeks ago, a law had been hastily passed, granting criminal court judges the power to sentence convicted felons to compulsory service in the armed forces. Such a decision had seemed a little extreme even in the midst of the recent crisis, but after news had begun to surface of more than a hundred combat casualties in the mining quadrant, Ken had realized that such a decision was tantamount to a death sentence.
Almost every judge of the criminal court circuit had flatly refused to pass such sentences, hoping that, as had happened so many times before, the council would understand that they had been hasty in passing the law, and allow it to be in effect tacitly revoked through sheer disregard for its tenets.
Instead the Council had decided to enact Article Thirteen of the offending law. In an ultimate insult to any self-respecting judge, the article called for attachés from the Military Justice Department to be appointed to assist at criminal trials, and to advise their civilian counterparts on the best way to go about fulfilling the Council’s wishes.
Lieutenant-colonel Germano Gutierrez smiled at him as the moment for sentencing arrived, making plain his intention that the four youths accused of engaging in a street fight be inducted into the forces.
Sighing heavily, Ken shook his head at the officer, and he thought hard on a justifiable reason to spare the boys as he watched Germano’s smile grow daggers. Finally clearing his throat, Ken passed his ruling.
“It is the decision of this court that, on the day of the facts previously described, the four defendants engaged in the crime of public disorder. The fact that the defendants have accused each other of provoking the altercation is insignificant, since provocation as a justification does not legitimize the crimina
l act. In light of the proven facts, it is the decision of this court –”
He hesitated, aware that the colonel possessed the authority to usurp sentencing from his hands and make his own ruling, and finally decided upon a concession.
“... that Donovan Lieberman and Rikku Thomasson, each being the elder of the opposing pair, be sentenced to no less than eight months of compulsory military service, with the possibility of said period being extended at the pleasure of his Excellency the Commander of the CDF.”
The decision carried through the courthouse like a sonic boom, and the looks of terror on the elder boys’ faces tore at his heart. Both families lost their composure, and it took the intervention of several members of the court Police to stop them from forcefully approaching his bench. The younger two, who had only recently finished high school and had good perspectives for higher studies, both collapsed into their seats as if by common agreement.
Whatever their objections, Ken had no doubt that it had been the two older boys who had begun the fight. Wishing them well, he sentenced the remaining pair to eighty hours of community service each.
The lieutenant-colonel gave him a sly look and then followed with a discreet nod, and the beginnings of an understanding began to form between the two judges.
“Next case!” Ken ordered.
The bailiff squared her slim shoulders and leaned up to whisper to him.
“You honor, this next case is that queer one we were discussing yesterday ...”
“The ... oh hell ...” he remarked, remembering. “Call the boys in.”
At the bailiff’s soft beckoning, a rugged crew of eight young men trudged into the courtroom, followed by a squad of metropolitan policemen. The detainees sneered at the court officials as they entered and then gazed indolently at their surroundings. The last to enter was the smallest among their number, clothed in a trench coat a size too large for him. Lieutenant-colonel Gutierrez watched the group like a hawk as they formed a line before the dock.
“Very well,” Ken began, “the case before us regards the group of young men known among police officers as the Pirates of the Periphery. I have come to know of this misfit group over the last few months due to their ... uh, activities. We will begin with a confirmation of your identities.”
The old judge read each youth’s name in turn, taking care to confirm home address and date of birth. He wasn’t surprised to discover that the boy in the trench coat was the youngest of the group, at nineteen. The remainder ranged from twenty to twenty four years old, and all without exception hailed from the research stations.
That was one of the unusual aspects of the group. Every gang he knew of was local, those hailing from the hubs usually arriving in town only for birth, study or employment. He turned to the man studying documents to his right.
“Prosecutor, please present your case.”
“Thank you, your honor,” the prosecutor said. “On the eighteenth of June of the present year, a purported separatist movement known as Core Hack simultaneously hacked into the Leiben Metropolitan and Underground Transit Systems. The computing power for this act originated from the twelve computers of Leiben Varsity’s Central Library, but by the time the Campus Policing Authority had made its appearance there, no one was to be found. Not even the librarian, it seems.
“However, the hack was ultimately successful only because two groups of varsity students infiltrated city administrative facilities and connected to terminals there, shutting down the systems and creating the wireless connections necessary for the hack to proceed. These groups, consisting of four students each, were subsequently arrested and stand before Your Honor today.”
“And how was the arrest achieved?” Ken inquired.
“The shutting down of the transit systems did not deactivate the installations’ security cameras. Metro and UTS security officials detected the intrusions and informed the LPD. Officers converged on both locations, Metro Administrative headquarters and UTS Services. Due to the UTS being of great proximity to LPD personnel’s sleeping lodges, an abundant number of off-duty police officers made the arrest on location. The only problem was deciding who would get recognition for the arrests .The final tally of arresting officers was twenty-six.”
Ken whistled at the number.
“Was there resistance? Who are the detainees from the UTS?”
“Darryl Hikari, Fumio Fukitsu, Peter Kojima and Timothy Bowker. All four resisted vigorously, they’re members of Leiben Varsity’s Kendo club, but apparently they dab in other arts as well. Seven injuries among the officers,” the prosecutor finished with distaste.
“And what of the Metro group?”
“They –” the prosecutor suddenly stopped, and Ken was alarmed at the expression he saw there.
“Well?”
“Perhaps it would be best if the senior arresting officer speaks about that,” the prosecutor proposed carefully.
“Is there any particular reason why you shouldn’t be able to explain that yourself?” the judge asked, mystified.
“Indeed I read the documents pertaining to the arrests, and it was all so convoluted I have a few questions myself,” the prosecutor answered in embarrassment.
“Very well, then, prosecutor. Please have the holographics of the security cameras set up. While this is done I will hear your officer.”
Lograin Air Base, Nature’s Day, 26th of June, 2771
It was the roar that woke him, not the howling wind. The howl was something one got used to after a lifetime in a bipolar world, but the roar was something else entirely.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Toni wondered at what time it was, a sudden growling in his belly making it clear to him that he had missed a meal. He wondered whether the base’s dinner-horn had sounded yet.
Then he realized that there was no way he could hope to hear the horn above the gale, finally understanding that he must have overslept. Hurriedly he exited the shed, only to be forced to take sudden hold of the doorway to keep from being swept off his feet. Finding his windlegs, he peered at his surrounding and gaped in wonder at what he saw.
A Quasar heavy carrier presided over what Toni had believed to be a deactivated runway, its reactors nearing full throttle barely a hundred meters from where the building stood. It had only just begun to move, but already its vulture wings shuddered from the gale-force winds, gigantic tires rolling over asphalt that appeared to have been sprouting weeds for years.
It didn’t make any sense; any fool could see that those were no conditions for an aircraft to takeoff.
Unless an even greater threat is on its way here, the stranger opined, apparently rested enough to have reacquired an opinion.
Toni reckoned he had more than one clock ticking against him. It was not just a matter of when the MPs would catch up to him, or whether Ian had already evacuated Lograin or not. If Lograin was evacuating all its personnel and he failed to find his way onto a transport, he would soon be braving the Bakemono and the Great Rains with nothing more substantial than a light infantry rifle. The wind had gained a characteristic iciness to it and the sky had become overcast, and both reminded him that the rains were less than a day away.
Dark rainclouds raced over his head, making him wonder whether it was already too late.
As the giant aircraft’s reactors peaked and it began to pick up speed, he cupped his hands protectively around his ears and peered at his surroundings. What he saw confirmed his suspicions. The base was crawling with activity, and already he could see five more Quasars on their runways or taxiing towards their positions.
He also spied what he had been hoping to find. Near the deactivated runway’s end and where it intersected one of the base’s two main runways, was the colossal building that had been built to house MEWAC’s armored Suits.
By the time the enormous transport was rumbling its way into the gloomy sky, Toni had gathered his rucksack and abandoned the decrepit building. He set off at a brisk pace towards the structure, dismally aware that the wind was against him and the ground terribly uneven. To walk on the runway’s level asphalt would be foolish, he decided, since it would probably earn him far more attention than he was willing to accept at the moment. The runway’s flank, however, was overgrown enough to provide cover and also act as a natural windbreak, and so he picked his way among the bushes and trees, estimating that the journey would take at least an hour to accomplish.
The estimate proved to be optimistic.
The detail he hadn’t considered was the weight of his rucksack, and it was his mounting exhaustion that finally forced him to question the need to carry the cumbersome weapon. It would hardly be discreet or easy to deploy, and if he kept porting it with him, by the time he finally reached the stalls he’d be too exhausted to fight.
Finally deciding he would have to make do with the pistol, he abandoned the rucksack in a flooded ditch and continued to cross the uneven ground, his mind persistently returning to the men he had killed.
He wondered why Ray hadn’t made any noise as he died, and had a newfound respect for Kaiser, for having been able to pull off the kill without waking his victim’s comrades. It had been more than cold. It had been professional. And he was dead certain that he wasn’t nearly as professional as Kaiser was.
The runway’s outskirts were riddled with potholes and half-buried rocks, testament to the shoddy method of construction that had birthed the base, their existence made more menacing by the overgrown vegetation that hid them from his eyes. Twice he almost twisted an ankle, the first time as he hurried to hide from another Quasar as it taxied along the runway to its starting point, the second as it came thundering along in the opposite direction.
Although he couldn’t be entirely certain, more than two hours had elapsed before he began to approach the better maintained outskirts of Lograin’s MEWAC accommodations.
Lograin’s on-base facilities usually followed one of two architectural philosophies; while most opted for a very solid construction, others favored a cheaper aerodynamic approach to deal with the winds. MEWAC’s accommodations, however, possessed both characteristics. Shaped like a particularly squat dumpling, it was nevertheless a very solid construction, favoring a reinforced concrete inner shell covered by a spaced steel outer casing. No attempt had been made at camouflage, and its gigantic grey form dominated its immediate surroundings, making even the Quasars look like over-grown toys as they taxied nearby. Besides the grand entrance, where the Suits gained entry to the main hanger’s interior, the installations could be accessed through the three personnel entrances at its remaining three sides. The north-east entrance awaited Toni’s arrival, its gate entirely devoid of security.
Curious but cautious, Toni peered at his surroundings, his paranoia heckling him despite the stable’s abandoned look. His hearing’s sorry state, the winds and the roaring Quasars all conspired to make him effectively deaf to his immediate surroundings, and that fuelled his mistrust more than anything else. Approaching a small prefabricated cement cube that functioned as a heavy machinegun bunker, he poked his head in and found no one. The primary weapon and its tripod were absent, and there wasn’t an ammunition box within sight. The fact that the armored door had been left open, exposing its interior to the brutal elements, underlined the obvious; its complement had left in a hurry and without any prospect of return.
Making a decision, he began to approach the main installation’s entrance. Its doors were ajar and he entered cautiously, taking care to check his corners before stepping through. He found the administrative section beyond devoid of light or people, and with its office doors locked. One could apparently rely on bureaucrats to lock their offices even when evacuating.
He wandered through the dark maze of corridors, remembering nothing from the last time he’d been there; all he had seen five weeks before had been the hanger area, where the stalls and servicing equipment could be found. Finally he came upon a shadowy tunnel that he felt pointed in the right direction, and decided to follow it. Before long he bumped against an unlocked door. He opened it to find that his sense of direction was not entirely absent.
The hanger looked like an oversized cave, the overcast sky and complete absence of overhead lighting lending the place a forlorn look. The wind made music off the entrance, and Toni’s ears were filled with howling and roaring. Realizing that he was wasting precious time there, Toni began to hurry towards the grand entrance when a shout caught his attention.
Standing beside a heavy-duty forklift stood a tall, slim man. Despite the darkness, what little light there was still shone off the stars on his shoulders. Approaching carefully, Toni called out.
“Something wrong, sir?”
The officer walked towards him and cracked a wide grin.
“It’s been barely two weeks and you’ve already forgotten the sound of your owner’s voice, haven’t you?”
Toni’s eyes widened as he looked the officer up and down, and realized he was staring at Lieutenant Templeton. The lieutenant’s grin widened even more, relieved at having finally located his subordinate.
“Sir! My apologies, sir,” he finally answered, saluting him before he could stop himself.
The lieutenant could have said something about Toni saluting him in civilian clothing, but instead he approached and warmly shook his hand.
“I am fine, sir, though I’m still recovering. You said everyone’s accounted for. Are Ian and Hannah too?”
The lieutenant’s face turned ugly for a moment, and then he sighed.
“Both are accounted for, and in good health.”
“Sir, I –”
“There’s no need to say anything. Hannah said it all when she returned, and Ian’s been remanded into the custody of the Military Police. He will face court-martial and so will you, probably. And you’ll both almost certainly get slaps on your wrists because you’re both cadets, and were committed to combat before you’d taken the oath. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is that we’ve been ordered to evacuate, and there are people missing all over the place. First you, then a medical patient and now a couple of MPs.”
Toni felt a chill travel up his spine; he knew full well that none of them were missing. Feeling terrible, he tried to speak.
“Sir –”
“We’ve been ordered to evacuate. Our Quasar was already supposed to have lifted off, but I’ve been pulling in some favors to get them to wait. Our platoon and the squad of MPs guarding Ian in there are going hungry, all because you were still unaccounted for. Now there’s no longer any reason to wait. Within the hour we need to be on it, ‘cause we’re expecting the base to get hit after that.”
“Is it the Bakemono, sir?”
“The ... what?”
“The enemy Suit we fought at Base Fido, sir.”
“No, no, some puke from EWAC took care of that one. Damaged it badly enough so that it pulled out of combat, to MEWAC’s everlasting shame. But Hannah at least managed to find two of its extremities and its helm, and we’ve got those in the Quasar for future research.”
“Sir –”
“Less talkie, more walkie, cadet. I –”
A radio squawked and the lieutenant snatched it irritably from his belt, and Toni’s trigger finger slipped inside the trigger-guard of the pistol in his pocket, almost causing the weapon to fire. He scolded himself silently as the lieutenant communicated with a very angry tower-man, realizing that the last thing he wanted was the Ell-tee’s blood on his hands. Hannah was alive, Ian was in custody and the Bakemono had been defeated. The fact that the soldier credited with the accomplishment happened to have been in an induced coma at the time was of little interest. He wondered about the dead MPs and tried once more to smother his shame.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” the lieutenant asked with a look of alarm.
“I’m fine, sir,” he answered as a cold sweat began to bead his forehead, “though I’m just not feeling too good.”
“Can you walk?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, because that’s what you’re going to do. Our Quasar has the number Thirty-Seven on its tail. You’re going to find it and present yourself to its boarding sergeant. I have another matter to deal with.”
“Can I help, sir?”
“Can you? I think not. We’ll just be looking for some stragglers, and I don’t intend to lose you again. You’ll go straight to your transport, and that’s an order. Clear?”
Toni nodded and apologized, and went on his way.
I’ll tell you where you can find those stragglers, if you’d like, the stranger sniggered, and Toni began to weep.
Realizing that the pistol in his pocket was the last obvious evidence of his crime, he ditched the weapon in a deep crevice beside the runway and approached the three aircraft awaiting permission for departure.
He remembered Gordie and was suddenly anxious to see him again, and he prayed that his friend had managed to survive that day at the mines. He also remembered Hannah and reminded himself to thank her for all she had done. He tried not to think about Sueli.
The birds were parked side-by-side along the apron that flanked a taxiway, and were indistinguishable except for the silver double-digit numbers painted on their vertical stabilizers. Soldiers braved the winds and loitered near their tails, talking into each other’s ears as they peered nervously at the thunderous sky. Quasar Thirty-Seven’s rear cargo hatch was lowered and an ancient sergeant waited on it, howling inaudible curses at the wind, and at the wrench-jockey who was approaching him.
“What? What?” he ordered, the words curses unto themselves.
“Sergeant-cadet Toni Miura reporting for evacuation, sir,” Toni answered at attention.
The sergeant looked him up and down, and then barked the inevitable question.
“Where’s your fucking uniform?”
“My uniform’s ruined and there was no one at deposit to hand me another, sir,” he lied.
“Hah. Would have preferred to show up naked than like that, but to each his fucking own, right?” he answered with a smirk.
The sergeant took out a piece of paper to consult, but the wind suddenly snatched the document and sent it flying over the taxiway. Keeping a stiff upper lip, the sergeant irritably waved him into the aircraft.
Passing the thick rubber curtain that shielded those inside from the foul weather, Toni came upon an interior altogether different from the one that had ferried LOGIS to Lograin. It was different enough, in fact, to make him wonder whether it was the same aircraft at all. Uncomfortable-looking seats flanked both sides of the aircraft’s aft interior, the central corridor having been left bare to allow myriad equipment and supplies to be strapped down. More rubber curtains hid the aircraft’s central cabin from view.
On their journey to Lograin there had been no seats or divided cabins, only a very sturdy floor over which the Suits could safely pad before shutting down to be secured to the structure. Then he remembered that most of the Mocas hadn’t survived the plantation engagement, the crews probably having been forced to modify the aircraft to better suit the task of evacuation. Finding no one he knew among those seated, and feeling a little uneasy with such a large number of them being MPs, he passed through the second curtain and into the compartment beyond.
Toni’s puzzlement began to give way to alarm. He found not a single tied-down armored Suit, but instead a continuation of the carefully secured and spaced payload along with many more seats, their occupants mainly base personnel and another handful of MPs. Wondering whether they could smell their comrades’ blood on his hands, Toni froze where he was, and as the group turned their gaze towards him his heart skipped a beat. They soon returned to their heated conversation, however, and he pushed the thought out of his mind.
Feeling the aircraft begin to move, he took a seat beside a window as far as possible from the evacuees, trying not to look at the blue-berets as they talked excitedly amongst themselves. Having apparently discovered that there was far more room in the center cabin than in the rear, a group of runway jockeys passed through the dividing curtain and began to choose their seats. One of them, apparently thinking that Toni was also base personnel, raised a hand in cheers and took a seat two places beside his. Toni knew what came next, and a few moments later the young soldier spoke to him.
“Excuse me?”
“I said, looks like we got the final call,” the young soldier repeated.
“Why do you say that?”
“All the Quasars. They’re taxiing all at once.”
Toni peered outside the window and confirmed that they were, and he wondered whether Lieutenant Templeton had managed to make it aboard. Standing again, he exited the central compartment and approached the boarding sergeant as he hollered at the soldiery to take their seats.
“Sir, has Lieutenant Templeton arrived yet?”
The sergeant gave him a murderous look.
“And now the fucking cadet! I just confirmed to the Lieutenant on comms that you’re aboard, I’m not about ask him where the fuck he is! And rest assured that Lograin Tower would rather abandon an entire company to die here than sacrifice a single Templeton!”
“Fuckoff! Back! To! Your! Fucking! Seat! FUCK!” he howled, and the base personnel laughed and hooted as the old sergeant bulldozed Toni back to his seat.
The sergeant then returned to his own seat beside the cargo-door, hollering curses at all present as he passed them by, and even the MPs had the good grace to lower their heads at his irate passage, some going so far as to applaud his labors.
So Toni was on the right carrier, on the principle that the lieutenant hadn’t sounded blindly to all aircraft to confirm whether he was on board. But if so, then where was his platoon? Where was Ian, along with the compliment of MPs guarding him? And where were the Suit parts that Hannah had managed to apprehend?
Ignoring the base-puke’s newest attempt to strike up a conversation, Toni stood again and, ignoring the reproving glare of the nearby MPs, began to make his way to the forward cabin. Passing through the heavy curtain, he found the compartment full of low-density, high-volume loads secured with netting. It included mostly an abundant stock of fuel and paper documents, and he realized that if they were to crash the fireball would be spectacular.
As he returned to his seat in deep thought, he barely noticed how the personnel had congregated around the circular windows, the soldiers practically silent except for some quiet observation from one or another. There was no more care for remaining seated, the sergeant’s absence from that cabin effectively leaving them to do as they pleased.
... and we’ve got those in the Quasar for future research. Toni was almost certain that was what the lieutenant had said.
But which Quasar? Toni had presumed that he had been referring to their Quasar, but it could just as easily have been another. And where was the remainder of his platoon?
As he took his seat, he began to wonder whether the lieutenant had deceived him, but quickly he banished the thought from his mind. The lieutenant had never shown any fondness for his nephew, the relationship between them appearing much closer to indifference than love. And there was the matter of the very genuine warmth and relief he had displayed only minutes ago.
Banishing the thought to the back of his mind, Toni tapped the chatty base-puke on the shoulder and asked what all the fuss was about.
“Really?! Fourteen Quasars are about to try and takeoff at the same time from three different runways! That’s more than eight thousand tons on the move at the same time without anyone in the tower to coordinate, since they’ve boarded a carrier themselves. The chances of there being a mid-air collision are beyond bad, they’re terrifying. How can you be so calm?”
“Just ignorant, I guess ...” Toni replied.
The soldier looked at him for a moment and then turned towards the window again, shaking his head and muttering.
Toni wondered whether he and the soldier belonged to the same species.
There was a sudden blinding flash of light, quickly followed by two more, and all personnel who had been looking out the window suddenly yelled in pain, clapping hands to their faces as if they had just been burned there.
“Those are nukes detonating, guys,” Toni heard himself saying. “Get away from the windows and don’t look out again. Strap yourselves in ‘cause the shockwaves are on their way.”
Knocking into each other in their haste and blindness, the center-cabin passengers began to sit into the seats nearest to them and fasten their seatbelts. Every second that passed by made Toni more certain that the detonations had taken place a fair distance away, since the six roaring engines had only choked for a brief moment following the flashes.
Then the shockwaves arrived, and they struck the aircraft’s fuselage hard enough to momentarily rock it on its landing gear. There were a few screams and squeals, and Toni was once again reminded of the two men he had murdered.
As the Quasar began to turn in to its starting point on Lograin’s runway number one, Toni found the window beside him facing roughly south-east, where he observed five mushroom clouds ascending the skies perhaps ten kilometers off. That surprised him, since he didn’t know of any permanent construction to be found there. Reminding himself to follow his own rules, he turned away from the window and found himself looking at the young soldier.
“Am I gonna go blind, man?” he asked as he blinked his eyes furiously.
“Have no idea, mate. If you can see anything at all then it’s probably not that bad, I think. Don’t worry about it, we’ve got bigger –”
There were several more flashes of light, and the engines choked again before resuming their approach to their full power. Toni counted the seconds away and, once he reached fifteen, the thunderclaps finally reached them, making the fuselage creak and groan and shudder in a way that did not sound healthy at all.
Turning to his side, Toni observed six more mushroom clouds rising in the foreground to their predecessors, about six kilometers off.
“Our base defenses aren’t even firing, man. They’ve abandoned their posts, the fucking cowards!” the soldier cried, only to be stiffly corrected by another.
“That’s bullshit! The system’s automated, the GMN’s taking care of the defense.”
“They’re leapfrogging ...” Toni muttered.
“What?!”
“I said that they’re leapfrogging,” Toni said more loudly. “They’re firing those nukes outside the base’s area of intervention. When the mushroom clouds rise high enough to block all radar and infrared, they fire a second volley through them and detonate those nukes closer to the base than they could otherwise have gone. If they keep doing that –”
“Game over ...” the first soldier breathed.
“Right. Let’s just hope we’re out of here by then,” Toni finished as he watched the clouds rise, almost hypnotized by their beauty.
He hurriedly diverted his eyes once more, focusing instead on trying to calculate how long it would take for the nukes to strike the base proper. He got as far as figuring out that, as the base anti-missile system’s delay in detection and response decreased the nearer the enemy missiles came, the leapfrogs would need to be shorter to prevent interception. The exercise left him clueless as to how long they had before the missiles came within killing range.
“Not again ...” another soldier moaned as several more blinding flashes strobed Toni’s field of vision.
He felt the heat on his face and turned to see seven luminous golden spheres ascend the skies, their distance perhaps four kilometers away. The Quasar was already accelerating along the runway, gaining the much-needed speed for safe takeoff, and Toni’s stomach lurched as the reactors began to struggle unexpectedly. They were supposed to be EMP resistant, but it was quickly becoming clear that they were not immune. There were cries of panic as the engines continued to hesitate, but then they resurged and all backs were suddenly pressed against their seats.
The shockwaves struck the aircraft’s fuselage in a flurry, and the left wing began to tip up alarmingly. A loud grinding noise became clearly audible to all, although it ceased abruptly as the carrier righted itself.
“Wing just scraped against the tarmac, guys. God!” a civvie seated near a window on the right side informed them, and Toni began to wonder whether he should perhaps be a little more concerned.
Then an unexpected shockwave struck them, weaker in intensity but with much more push. As the aircraft’s fuselage began to tip upwards and the tires separated from the ground, the windows from both sides abruptly darkened as the screaming reactors changed their tune. Barely a second passed and then the aircraft was out of the smoke cloud and airborne, leaving everyone in the cabin acutely aware of the fact that the preceding aircraft had crashed.
The runway jockeys wept as several more intense flashes blinded the passengers.
“Gods,” Toni muttered in irritation as the reactors began to lose power, feeling his innards rise as the aircraft’s ascent faltered.
But they resurged once again and the Quasar began to put distance between itself and the air base. B
Toni closed his eyes, wondering whether he deserved the reprieve. Finding no ready answer, he remained seated, quietly observing the surrounding soldiers. Some behaved like frightened animals, twisting around skittishly in their seats like cats in a shaken travel cage. Others, particularly the older personnel, he envied for their calm. The most senior of the MPs, an old lieutenant who had probably begun his career from base rank, appeared unfazed by the events, and he eyed Toni coldly as if he suspected something. Toni couldn’t blame him. He closed his eyes again.
The aircraft continued its unsteady ascent, the strong winds buffeting its fuselage as it passed through turbulent airstreams. Every once in a while, several flashes illuminated the cabin’s interior and Toni’s darkened world would momentarily strobe black and red. The shockwaves gradually lost their snap and the carrier began to turn again, and he opened his eyes to peer out his window.
He found a slowly turning world beyond, low and remote and wild. More than a minute passed by until he was awarded with a sight of what had once been Lograin air base. It had become a mushroom farm, and indeed as he watched he could see them rising, ebony pillars with a marked inclination towards the north-east, the once-spherical clouds atop them no longer fully able to withstand the furious winds. Several more bright flashes momentarily blinded him and he was forced to turn away, the searing pain in his eyes greater than he would have expected. Closing them, he saw the ghosts of the detonations like static in his field of view. He counted them, realizing that four missiles had detonated before he’d been able to turn away.
He finally grasped the fact that his crime scene had been sanitized in a way he could never have accomplished by himself. The realization depressed him terribly. The truth would remain for him alone, making him feel like he had somehow claimed undue ownership over their souls. He remembered their names once more, and promised himself that he would find out whether they had children and, if so, whether they wanted for anything. He owed his victims that, at the very least.
He opened his eyes to find the old MP lieutenant sitting quietly beside him. A feeling of unreality began to creep over him as the officer turned his eyes towards the recruit.
“Looks like they’ve got us in a holding pattern, don’t you think?” he opined by way of conversation.
“Appears so, sir,” Toni answered quietly.
“They’ve really hammered Lograin, haven’t they? It breaks my heart, seeing the world coming to an end like this. It’s in times like these that we must be particularly vigilant. And self-disciplined. Isn’t that so, Sergeant-cadet Miura?” he casually inquired.
Toni turned towards the man beside him.
“I was told that when I arrived at this carrier, I would find what remained of LOGIS, as well as a cadet in the custody of the military police. That cadet’s name is Ian Templeton.”
The lieutenant sighed.
“LOGIS was evacced from Lograin three days ago, including the Templeton boy. The carrier was then refitted for general evac and returned there. Your lieutenant came with us. We were told he was looking for a certain rotten egg who shot his nephew and got another cadet killed. The Templeton boy isn’t under arrest, nor was he ever. He was sequestered for more than three days under threat of a firearm. You have a lot to answer for, boy.”
“More than you can imagine,” Toni muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Never mind, sir. Is it true that certain parts of an enemy Suit were found and secured?”
“True. Although whatever that has to do with you is beyond me.”
“It has nothing to do with me,” Toni answered quietly as tears rolled down his cheeks.
Lieutenant Templeton’s treachery shocked him beyond words, mostly because it had been so flawlessly executed. He had been smart, feeding the cadet tidbits of valid information and hiding the bait in between. And the blue-berets had accosted him only as soon as the Quasar had become airborne.
He supposed he was just an amateur who had just been outmaneuvered and cornered by professionals. Varano and Nievers had just been unfortunate. The system had won. Turning to look over his shoulder, he found a stony-faced sergeant pointing a Miroku pistol at the base of his skull. The remainder of the passengers watched on silently, enraptured by the possibility of bloodshed.
Sighing, Toni stared out the window and found that the aircraft’s holding pattern had brought Lograin back into his field of view. The attack appeared to have ended and the base burned fiercely, thick black smoke streaking away to the far-off sea, towards the dark, dead side of his beloved world.
He wondered once more what true night must be like.
“Whatever possessed you to pick a fight with the Templetons?” the officer asked quietly.
“I never did, sir. They’ve been picking one with me.”
“You were a fool to put up a fight.”
“I have my pride, sir.”
The officer slapped his hands on his lap and stood, beckoning him to do the same. Calmly Toni rose and, not needing to be told, he turned his back to the man and offered his wrists. The officer removed an old pair of handcuffs from his belt and began to bind him, speaking casually as he did so.
“Let us see what your pride has cost you, boy. Sergeant-cadet Toni Miura, you are hereby arrested on grounds of incompetence, insubordination, grievous assault, false-imprisonment and sequester, and you will remain in our custody until you have been duly court-martialed.”
As he felt the cool steel sliding into place, listening to the officer’s damning words as the storm clouds outside mercifully blocked his vision of hell, Toni remembered Cosus, the war god, and the peace he had felt when he had prayed to him.
You’re gonna be praying a lot more, mate, the stranger sneered, enchanted by the developments, better decide if it will be to the god of sheep or the god of war.
Toni began to laugh as he realized to which one it would inevitably be.
EPILOGUE
Leiben, 10H50, 21st of June, 2771
Criminal court judge Ken Hirano was nearing the end of his rope.
Two weeks ago, a law had been hastily passed, granting criminal court judges the power to sentence convicted felons to compulsory service in the armed forces. Such a decision had seemed a little extreme even in the midst of the recent crisis, but after news had begun to surface of more than a hundred combat casualties in the mining quadrant, Ken had realized that such a decision was tantamount to a death sentence.
Almost every judge of the criminal court circuit had flatly refused to pass such sentences, hoping that, as had happened so many times before, the council would understand that they had been hasty in passing the law, and allow it to be in effect tacitly revoked through sheer disregard for its tenets.
Instead the Council had decided to enact Article Thirteen of the offending law. In an ultimate insult to any self-respecting judge, the article called for attachés from the Military Justice Department to be appointed to assist at criminal trials, and to advise their civilian counterparts on the best way to go about fulfilling the Council’s wishes.
Lieutenant-colonel Germano Gutierrez smiled at him as the moment for sentencing arrived, making plain his intention that the four youths accused of engaging in a street fight be inducted into the forces.
Sighing heavily, Ken shook his head at the officer, and he thought hard on a justifiable reason to spare the boys as he watched Germano’s smile grow daggers. Finally clearing his throat, Ken passed his ruling.
“It is the decision of this court that, on the day of the facts previously described, the four defendants engaged in the crime of public disorder. The fact that the defendants have accused each other of provoking the altercation is insignificant, since provocation as a justification does not legitimize the crimina
He hesitated, aware that the colonel possessed the authority to usurp sentencing from his hands and make his own ruling, and finally decided upon a concession.
“... that Donovan Lieberman and Rikku Thomasson, each being the elder of the opposing pair, be sentenced to no less than eight months of compulsory military service, with the possibility of said period being extended at the pleasure of his Excellency the Commander of the CDF.”
The decision carried through the courthouse like a sonic boom, and the looks of terror on the elder boys’ faces tore at his heart. Both families lost their composure, and it took the intervention of several members of the court Police to stop them from forcefully approaching his bench. The younger two, who had only recently finished high school and had good perspectives for higher studies, both collapsed into their seats as if by common agreement.
Whatever their objections, Ken had no doubt that it had been the two older boys who had begun the fight. Wishing them well, he sentenced the remaining pair to eighty hours of community service each.
The lieutenant-colonel gave him a sly look and then followed with a discreet nod, and the beginnings of an understanding began to form between the two judges.
“Next case!” Ken ordered.
The bailiff squared her slim shoulders and leaned up to whisper to him.
“You honor, this next case is that queer one we were discussing yesterday ...”
“The ... oh hell ...” he remarked, remembering. “Call the boys in.”
At the bailiff’s soft beckoning, a rugged crew of eight young men trudged into the courtroom, followed by a squad of metropolitan policemen. The detainees sneered at the court officials as they entered and then gazed indolently at their surroundings. The last to enter was the smallest among their number, clothed in a trench coat a size too large for him. Lieutenant-colonel Gutierrez watched the group like a hawk as they formed a line before the dock.
“Very well,” Ken began, “the case before us regards the group of young men known among police officers as the Pirates of the Periphery. I have come to know of this misfit group over the last few months due to their ... uh, activities. We will begin with a confirmation of your identities.”
The old judge read each youth’s name in turn, taking care to confirm home address and date of birth. He wasn’t surprised to discover that the boy in the trench coat was the youngest of the group, at nineteen. The remainder ranged from twenty to twenty four years old, and all without exception hailed from the research stations.
That was one of the unusual aspects of the group. Every gang he knew of was local, those hailing from the hubs usually arriving in town only for birth, study or employment. He turned to the man studying documents to his right.
“Prosecutor, please present your case.”
“Thank you, your honor,” the prosecutor said. “On the eighteenth of June of the present year, a purported separatist movement known as Core Hack simultaneously hacked into the Leiben Metropolitan and Underground Transit Systems. The computing power for this act originated from the twelve computers of Leiben Varsity’s Central Library, but by the time the Campus Policing Authority had made its appearance there, no one was to be found. Not even the librarian, it seems.
“However, the hack was ultimately successful only because two groups of varsity students infiltrated city administrative facilities and connected to terminals there, shutting down the systems and creating the wireless connections necessary for the hack to proceed. These groups, consisting of four students each, were subsequently arrested and stand before Your Honor today.”
“And how was the arrest achieved?” Ken inquired.
“The shutting down of the transit systems did not deactivate the installations’ security cameras. Metro and UTS security officials detected the intrusions and informed the LPD. Officers converged on both locations, Metro Administrative headquarters and UTS Services. Due to the UTS being of great proximity to LPD personnel’s sleeping lodges, an abundant number of off-duty police officers made the arrest on location. The only problem was deciding who would get recognition for the arrests .The final tally of arresting officers was twenty-six.”
Ken whistled at the number.
“Was there resistance? Who are the detainees from the UTS?”
“Darryl Hikari, Fumio Fukitsu, Peter Kojima and Timothy Bowker. All four resisted vigorously, they’re members of Leiben Varsity’s Kendo club, but apparently they dab in other arts as well. Seven injuries among the officers,” the prosecutor finished with distaste.
“And what of the Metro group?”
“They –” the prosecutor suddenly stopped, and Ken was alarmed at the expression he saw there.
“Well?”
“Perhaps it would be best if the senior arresting officer speaks about that,” the prosecutor proposed carefully.
“Is there any particular reason why you shouldn’t be able to explain that yourself?” the judge asked, mystified.
“Indeed I read the documents pertaining to the arrests, and it was all so convoluted I have a few questions myself,” the prosecutor answered in embarrassment.
“Very well, then, prosecutor. Please have the holographics of the security cameras set up. While this is done I will hear your officer.”