We were high above the ground, one of the indicators said 1500 meters, and it was strangely quiet except for the moan of whatever powered the Howler.

“This is amazing. The only people that get to go this high up are balloonists.”

“We’ll have to do a daylight flight then. Look at the left MFD,” part of the clear nose on the left side vanished, and a ghostly outline, like the blue of the tactical system in the helmet, appeared, showing land contours in amber lines. “Ground Search Radar; anything solid and fairly massive like heavy wood or stone structures or large amounts of metal should show up.”

“What about trees?”

“The discrimination software is smart enough to ignore trees. Things built in trees it will pick up, though.”

“Software? Like loom codes? That’s what weavers call their card decks.”

“Almost exactly, I think. That radar has a twenty-five-kilometer range for picking up armored vehicles or other really dense materials unless they are hiding behind a ridge line or in a valley. Stone structures like that highway down there…”

There was an Old Road below us; I could see it by the tree growth through LIGHT INTENSIFICATION vision mode.

“…It can pick up buildings with rebar at about twenty if they’re large enough, and heavy large wood structures at eight or nine. Keep an eye on that, and if you spot anything interesting, swing the camera…with that stick on the left that I showed you..toward it. Top button zooms in, bottom button zooms out.”

Moving the stick around, I saw the image in the nose swing from one side to another and look down, then back up. The buttons did enlarge the image and then reduce it, like a telescope.

“What was this used for during the war?”

“The Howler? Its real name is the Oh Vee dash nine three Charlie, Reconnaissance slash Light Attack veetole. What it was used for is what we’re using it for now: scouting mainly. It can do a lot of damage with the right weaponry on the pylons, but right now, they’re empty, and all we have in the cannon.”

“This has a cannon?”

“Tri-barrel 15 millimeter with 700 rounds APHEI. It can make a bunch of holes that explode and catch on fire at a rate of fire of about six hundred per minute. We’re not toothless.”

“The Old World had some incredible weapons.”

“We’d been improving killing each other for millennia, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that we really got the hang of it, and we had 300 years of refinement until we backslid those 300 judging by your rifle and that revolver.”

We flew on. Occasionally, the radar would blink, and I would move the stick and then expand the view so I could check what caused that blink. Sometimes, it was just some tightly packed trees; sometimes, nothing I could spot. Then, there was a blink off to our left and ahead. Using the stick, I zoomed in and went to THERM visual mode. There was a decent amount of red and orange there.

“I have something.”

“Lock the camera on it with that top button…Okay, I have the bearing,” the Howler slowed and stopped in midair, “That’s a lot of heat. Moving in slow.”

The moan changed its pitch as I felt a faint shudder when the vehicle began to move forward again. The image stayed locked even without me moving the stick. I switched to LIGHT INTENSIFICATION and used the top button to go in all the way. It was a town, and as we got closer, I saw several cage carts on the outskirts.

“I see slaver wagons.”

“On which mode? Oh, LI…got it. You’re right. Yeah, this is it.”

“Now what?”

“We’re about three clicks out…I’m going to move us in a little, then you send in a drone, and we can get a headcount and a better idea of how the place is laid out.”

Looking at the board in front of me, I saw a section labeled ‘Drone Control’.

“Set the switch marked MFD 2 to Drone Operations. There’s a rocker switch in the Drone Ops panel that will let you toggle the joystick control from the camera to the drone and back.”

Switching the MFD 2 switch opened up another window like the camera one, with the same kind of information I had had in my visor before.

“Okay, we’re close enough. Press ‘Launch’.”

I did, and suddenly, I had a drone-eye view in that second window. I pushed the stick gently forward, and I was soon flying above the ground, “Am I going to target designate again?”

“Yes, and set lock ID on them with that switch on the right side of the panel. That will let us get a count as the ID numbers increment.”

Over the next hour, I flew the drone overhead, marking individuals; some I keyed in yellow for ‘Unknown’, some in green for the ones in cages, and most in red. By the end, I had flagged forty-three red, including six socs.

Mara talked me into how to recover the drone, and then she turned the Howler, and we flew back to the bunker.

“That was a lot of guys,” she said after a while.

“Yes,” I had to agree.

“Any ideas?”

“I’m not a soldier.”

“I could blow that place off the map with the Howler and a pair of rocket pods. But they had about forty captives and twenty you marked unknown. You mentioned the New World has steam electric cars. Do you know how to drive one?”

“I do…why?”

“I think I’m going to do what I’m trained for.”

_____________________________________________________

When we got back, she hopped out as soon as the cover lifted and went straight to the cart that had all the looted items. Rummaging through it, she found a dress and a coat.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“What are you planning?”

She grinned, “To let them capture me.”

“What!?”

“Remember? I told you this body was designed for infiltration. It’s what I was trained for, too.”

“That’s stupid; they’ll kill you and eat you!”

“They’ll try…and not right away; I’m sure they’ll want to have some fun with me first.”

“That’s even worse!”

“You’ve known me less than a week, and already you care,” she smiled. “Relax. I did almost as dangerous things when I still had a meat body, and with this body…they’re the ones in trouble.”

With that, she headed for the elevator, and I followed her.

She had to have some help getting ready, and while she was getting dressed in one of the barracks rooms, I could hear Fran and Millie telling her how foolish she was and Mara just laughing.

“Is she crazy?” Peter asked.

“No, I don’t think she is,” I replied. “You didn’t see her go after a soc. She went after him like she knew she could kill him…and she did,” I didn’t mention I had helped.

Before we left, she went into the armory and handed me one of the rifles that I had used before and then another much larger and heavier one.

“What’s this?”

“An anti-material rifle, it should demolish a soc. It uses the same ammunition the cannon on the Howler does. The aiming system integrates with your helmet in the exact same way. Let’s go outside, and you should take a few practice shots.”

It was loud and powerful and completely destroyed large rocks when it hit them. Mara seemed pleased with how well I was using the technology of her time and then shrugged. “You know, a lot of times, things are improved, but at the core of it, they don’t change that much. A doorknob is a doorknob. It may look different, but it does the same thing.”

I finished out the box of ammunition and stood up from the prone firing position I had been using, “I remember seeing a hill to the west that could look down into the camp, but that’s a long way out.”

“With that rifle and sight, a skilled marksman of my time could get consistent hits four clicks away. You’ll be, at most, only one. You can make the hits. Those last rocks you were shooting were at one point five, after all.”

“Okay,” I sighed. “How are we getting there? The Howler?”

“I can’t teach you to fly it this quickly…later, sure, but for now, we’ll use a Gut. Let’s go.”

“We’re doing this now?”

“Why not?”

She headed into the SURFACE and loosened the straps on the cover of one of three identical shapes. Inside was a six-wheeled vehicle, two in the front, four in the rear. That looked like some kind of bulky truck. Stepping over to the pedestal, she commanded an overhead crane to pick up a large metal box and set it down on the frame rails of this truck, making it like an enclosed van.

“What’s that?”

“Armored cargo compartment. We may be shot at if things go wrong. Left side, you drive.”

I walked over as the vehicle’s cradle moved it to the departure position and lowered and climbed into the cab. There was a steering wheel and two pedals on the floor.”

She climbed into the passenger seat and arranged her torn and dirty dress. “Right’s accelerator, left’s brake, Transmission lever is here, push forward to go into reverse, pull back to go forward…yes, I know that sounds stupid…middle position is park. Lock all axles with this to give six-wheel drive. Turn it on with this switch; don’t worry about any of the other stuff. Let’s go!”

I held my foot on the brake, like I was engaging the motor of a steam car, and carefully pulled the transmission engagement lever back. Slowly releasing the brake, I pressed lightly on the accelerator, and the vehicle began rolling forward. I had only driven a steam-hybrid once before, but the steering and brakes seemed so much more responsive than that one as it rolled out, the only sound being the crunch of scrap branches under the wheels.

Carefully rolling through the new gate on the palisade, I steered the Gut down the old road; it handled the bumps, rocks, and debris perfectly. And it turned so sharply that I was easily able to handle the switchbacks.

When we reached the base of the ridge, I turned onto the trail the carts had been on. Mara tapped something on a panel, and a map appeared ghostlike on the glass of the windscreen. Another few taps, and I heard a whine behind me.

“What’s that?” I asked, tilting my head toward the noise.

“Launching a drone. I’ll run it this time.”

A screen in the front panel lit up, and there was the image from the drone. Glancing at Mara, I saw that she wasn’t using a helmet, glasses, or the controller board but just leaning back in the padded seat.

“How are you controlling it?”

“The same way I can talk to you through the radio link,” her voice was in my head. “This body is a machine; I have a full control suite built in, but there’s a limit on how much I can multitask. Even just walking and using a drone at the same time is very hard.”

“What exactly are drones?”

“Oh! You haven’t seen it?”

A moment later, a light blue object was now floating in front of the Gut and keeping pace. It was about three foot in diameter and six inches thick. Suddenly, it turned almost black and took off straight up.

“Photochromatic plastic, so it has some camouflage.”

“I vaguely seem to remember reading something about drones. Were they common?”

“They were very common, in all shapes and sizes. That was a recon drone; back at the bunker, we have some combat drones, too. They’re about the same size as the Howler and can mount the same weapons.”

“You could take on the Empire with these weapons.”

She laughed, “Not with just the two of us. I have these weapons, sure, but I don’t have the people to use them…and I also have no desire to take on the Empire at the moment. Why would I? We have about forty kilometers; let’s go!”

_____________________________________________________

It took a while, but I finally pulled up on the far side of the hill. I had dropped Mara off about a mile and a half south of the Dark Warrior compound. Climbing to the top of the hill, I set the anti-material rifle down and, with winks, took control of the drone. Lying prone, I began marking the targets to make them easier to identify. Then extended the legs of the bipod and called Mara, “I’m on the hill and marking the targets.”

“I see, excellent. Pan the drone south; you should see me limping my way in.”

There she was, stumbling and looking terrible. When she had climbed out of the Gut, she had rolled in a mud puddle to make herself look even worse.

Swinging the drone around, I looked down at the closest of the raiders to Mara. There were a few keeping watch on the south road, and it was clear when they spotted her. One of them rushed up to her, and just as he was about to reach her, she collapsed in a heap on the road.

“I’ve made a new friend,” she commented. “Can you start taking out the guards in the towers once they drag me inside? After they’re down, take out socs. I can probably handle the rest.”

“I’m ready.”

There were six watchtowers, and from my position, I could clearly see through the incredible sight on the rifle, each one of the guards with a red dot indicating where my bullet would hit. I had ten rounds in each magazine for the anti-material rifle and six magazines. That should be enough to cause some damage.

There they were, dragging her apparently unconscious body into the compound. Shouldering the rifle, I took careful aim at the farthest target before carefully squeezing the trigger. There was the thud as the heavy bullet left the barrel, and the guard’s head completely vanished in a cloud of smoke and flame. Swinging the rifle left, I acquired the next target, and as soon as the visor displayed that red dot, I squeezed the trigger again. I had all six down in less than a minute, with the dull booms of the rifle being soaked up by the forest, so the only sounds detectable in the camp were the cracks of high-speed bullets and the small explosions when the bullets hit. Unless, of course, you were a soc.

I saw the first one heading my way and called Mara, “There’s a soc heading straight for me, a couple of regular raiders too.”

“I’m in the middle of something myself; take them down.”

Aiming, I shot the soc twice in the center of his chest and saw his torso shatter from the explosions. The two raiders following him froze, which meant I could shoot them, too. As I was reloading, I noticed that three more targets were coming my way and moving very quickly. Releasing the bolt, I sighted in and saw three more socs running toward me; they had spread out and were moving very fast. This was going to be very bad.