The Mission

Part 1

I've been on dozens of missions behind enemy lines and this was the first one which made me nervous before I even got close.

I checked the guard posts seven times. Two Shieldmaiden-level sentries. Not even the Valkyrie-level ones in the briefing papers. And certainly not the Durga some feared might be waiting. If I'd gotten eyes on one of those then that would be the end of me. But Shieldmaidens were great. Perfectly great.

I kept scanning. Standard watch pattern. They looked a little tired. Going over the same paces hour after hour. They were due for a shift change. Just as the briefing had planned. And that's why I was scared.

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No one remembers how it began. Some say it was a mad scientist, a box of nanites, and a normal, bad day. I don't care. All I know is the world I live in.

It's a place where there are no more regular days, where identity and appearance can be instantly rewritten. Where the long-ago children's games of boys versus girls are games no more.

We stand against the Embracing Sisterhood, the name they give themselves. Consuming. Absorbing. All better words to use. They would have the entire world like them without a second thought. Whether they feel that way because of little machines in their heads or something else doesn't matter to me.

In the early days, there were actual wars but the weaponry was all about bending the minds and hearts of advancing forces. Bombings converted whole cities to Sisterhood settlements. We got crushed in every conflict till we learned to fight dirty. But even that ran into a stalemate of soldiers whose minds were so blurred by deleted and altered loyalties and identities that they were left as simple children who would play games when they should've been battling.

Now, it is an era of truce in all but actions. The large-scale conflict has given way to small tactics. The slow change of a man in power. The tampering of a key water supply. And things we can't even comprehend.

And there's where I come in.

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I scanned the whole area with my flip-down binoculars. Nothing amiss. According to the briefing notes, the site used to be an army base. It sat in a small, dusty desert valley, clinging to the harsh, jutting hills. The foothills had big enough scrub oaks to hide under. The rest of the way was covered in dense juniper and chaparral.

It was dusk with the last light of day caught by the mountain fringes. The Shieldmaidens continued their patrols.

I crept closer with soft footfalls and clung to the side of a large bush. I breathed slowly into my mask and put away the binoculars. I slid down my goggles. I wasn't used to this new gear. It wicked the sweat away, but it still felt like I was dripping inside. I had a tube with two minutes of purified air built into the mask. I had every tool I could ask for in my deep pockets, along with the most advanced nano-optic illusion system in the world. I was told if I was captured to hit the little switch hidden in my right glove. It would destroy the optics and fry all the electronics. Better to lose one man than the best illusion tech out there. Real comforting.

I slid my hand to the other switch. I didn't flip it yet. The illusion tech would make me appear as a Valkyrie guard. But if it worked that well in practice then I could just strut in and out the front door. It was blurry up close and had input lag. Walk by someone and they say "Hi" and you respond to them when they're a step past. Only for those people and cameras far enough away to be fooled.

Then, there was the measure of last resort. I didn't even bend a finger in its direction. Nothing to think about until it was absolutely necessary.

I snuck over to a nearby bush. One of the Shieldmaidens stretched her arms out. Definitely tired. The shift change would be soon. I had to move.

I ignored the clammy fear and swept my legs silently across the desert floor. I gave an extra sway to my hips.

The entry point was the most beat-up end of the fence. The flood lights were just a trickle on that edge. I kept eyes on the guards. The shrubs were cleared about thirty yards from the fence. Just bare stone and dirt.

I leaned around the closest-reaching juniper and scanned the front once more. Both guards were far away. I reached into my hip pocket and pulled out a small, modified flare gun. Intended to be quiet, but I knew it would still sound like a whip crack going off to anyone around. Fortunately, I knew from a training run that the small valley would cause echoes. The round was set to ignite on impact.

I'd trained for this again and again. Still, I couldn't stop myself from imagining the Shieldmaidens would immediately turn my way and start hitting my position. I took a long breath, checked where they were situated, and waited for the right moment.

The shift change began with a radio call. The far guard was looking away and the near guard was looking down. Without thinking, I stepped a pace out from behind the juniper and fired a high shot into the air.

I vanished behind the bush again. Not enough echoes. It sounded like I'd just told them where I was. I used the binoculars again, peering through the branches. They'd been spooked but they were looking in all directions, save mine.

Two more seconds and the round landed with a sudden fireball which licked up a tall sage bush.   

The Shieldmaidens scrambled back and forth from their station. Their replacements were just behind the front fence. They were on their radios too. Four guards in place. More coming to fight the fire, which towered against the darkening sky. No more waiting.

I shifted into position and started cutting at the fence. No rushing. No stopping to check. Cut cut cut. I cut at the edge so the opening could be easily hidden. It would be a close squeeze, even for me. I held my breath. No lights on me and no guard positions nearby. I made sure I left no traces from my entry.

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An access road ahead of me was lined with low, old buildings with tiny, high windows. The briefing said that most of the complex was unused, except for the newer structures towards the center. But the briefing had already been wrong about the posted guards, so I made sure to use a fiber optic camera to peer through the windows. I stayed away from a long shadow till I was sure it was just from the flood lights. No movement and the building had been stripped.

I took out my tranquilizer gun. There were sure to be people this far inside the base. About an hour unconscious for each shot, if I was lucky. Either way, they would be out long enough for me to finish my job.

I peered around the corner. Most of the activity was away from me and on the fire I'd started. Ahead was a large open area leading to a ditch and the nearest road. Then, what used to be one of the barracks. Easier to cut through, since it was probably not in use either.

I swayed forward and crouched in the ditch. Some of the guards were coming back this way. Far away from me, but they might catch my movement. I stayed down. They were heading back. I ran the rest of the way to the road and over to the barracks.

The door was just a few paces away. I stopped. Voices from inside the building. Couldn't be sure enough to use the fiber optic. I avoided the windows and tried to keep out of sight.

I weighed the options: Creep through the building and avoid, hopefully, a few inside. Creep between the buildings with the nano-optics on. Find a different route. I didn't need to ponder further. The choice was clear. Bad line of sight on me and distance from any hostiles.

I flipped the switch. My ears buzzed a bit, like usual. No other side effects. I glanced down and undid the bun holding my long hair up so it would match the long style of the Valkyrie I was impersonating.

I took a breath and walked forward between the two buildings. I couldn't hear anything towards the front of the base, just the sounds from the barracks. I wasn't too close to any of the doors. I kept the same, practiced sway of my hips and soft sweep of my legs.

Laughter. It had to be a large group. In my head, I imagined a whole battalion of Valkyries just beyond the wall. But I kept my focus ahead, eyes pinned to the end of the barracks building.

I kept my ears trained on every hint of sound. From whether I could hear another pair of boots brushing against the dusty ground to the shifts of floorboards and creaks of metal. There were plenty of noises at the edges of my perception, but they all crashed together like distant static.

Edge of the barracks. I leaned forward…then heaved myself back.

One of them. Three meters away. Resting against the side of the building with her arms folded over her chest. Low light by now, but I could tell that she wasn't dressed as any ranked member of the Embracing Sisterhood. Just a regular sister. Perhaps not even armed. I held several breaths before letting them ease out through my nostrils.

I waited for new sounds. I expected the sister noticed me and would mistake me for one of her kin. I prepped my tranquillizer. A nano-based injection would work no matter if it caught flesh or clothing. Still, I wanted to keep my options open. I could walk past her with my head turned away. Based on all we knew, a regular sister would probably ignore a patrolling Valkyrie. I pulled my mask down to expose my mouth, just in case I needed to speak.

I'd been offered a conversion weapon for one mission. I declined. As satisfying as it might be for part of me to see an ES helping me out, believing we were on the same side, the rest of me was sickened by the idea. There'd been enough of that kind of manipulation to last lifetimes. I put the tranquillizer away and stepped out into exposed territory.

One pace. Two. Three. Four…

"Hey, there." I could hear the sister's words clearly in my right ear. They weren't tersely spoken. They weren't yelled as an accusation. They weren't even that loud. They were words of pleasant greeting lacking the certainty of a question.

I moved quickly because I knew there would be a delay in the image. I halted my pace and turned halfway to regard the sister. The glance of a prideful superior.

I could've left it at that, but I'd had enough vocal preparation to feel confident enough to state, "Inside, sister. There's been an incident at the gate."

I patterned my tone after some recordings we had from eavesdropping. I gave a slight twang to my voice which was still common in the area. I also took the exact wording from a Valkyrie's recorded conversation

The sister watched me. I tensed. I still had the gun, but I didn't want to start hiding bodies and watching the clock yet if I could avoid it. It couldn't be the image delay. I'd practiced syncing my voice with the image to the point that I often left my mouth open for an extra, awkward moment in normal conversations.

Still, the sister looked. I turned away from her and prepared to take my next step.

"What happened?" She asked her question softly. Turned away, I could answer her without concern about my lip motion matching.

"Please hurry inside and be safe, my sister. I will take care of everything." Another copied set of phrases. Valkyries, bastions of calm and protection.

I continued walking. I made sure my footfalls were light so she wouldn't hear anything amiss either. I felt so exposed. I could feel her eyes at my back. I wanted to turn. Then, I heard her footsteps.

Good, I thought at first. But the footsteps were approaching me.