CHAPTER NINETEEN—AFTERMATH III

Akamine watched the screen as the newscaster reported resistance uprisings and attacks in every province.

She smiled.

Good.

Her aide approached.

“Just in time, Yoko.”

“Majesty?”

“I want you to contact the governors. Tell them to do whatever it takes to quell these uprisings—and finish them once and for all.”

“Yes, Madam. But…”

She turned her head slightly. “What is it?”

“Governess Baila Madison is reported to have been killed.”

Mamiko Akamine couldn’t help but gasp with surprise. She turned further to lock eyes with her aide. “Why am I only hearing of this now?”

“I came to tell you. Reports are being drawn up so you can understand the full situation as soon as possible.”

Mamiko nodded. “Good. I’m proud of them.”

Yoko’s eyes widened with shock and confusion. “Majesty?”

She had meant she was proud of the resistance for pulling off the attack and killing one of her more vicious governors. Perhaps they would soon take control of Shimajima.

Only time would tell.

And only time would tell whether these uprisings throughout Paradaisu would amount to anything.

She got up off her throne and walked across the hall and out onto the balcony.

“Lady Empress,” one of her bodyguards who had followed her out to the terrace said, “Is this wise?”

“Is the barrier not up?”

“Of course,” he said. “But the resistance does have Power wielders in their ranks. They could circumvent the barrier to get to you.”

“Hmm,” she noised with a smile. “Let them try.”

The word was going around. Governor Madison was dead—killed by an assassin who flew in a stolen mech over the islands of Shimajima and crashed directly into her palace.

Details about her death were still unclear, but in the chaos and the news, resistance pockets had risen up all throughout the country and to attack soft targets on their own initiative, their bravery and their confidence bolstered by the death of Madison.

“Why the downcast face?” Gray asked.

“It was Ichiro.”

“What, that fellow you told me about? The one who helped you bring the dispatches?”

Trucks drove by as resistance fighters followed on foot. They were gearing up for an attack on the palace—had been planning it for months, and now that Ichiro had attacked, their plan was—in part—ruined, because the palace defenses would now be alerted to their approach.

But with Madison dead, the state armies’ morale was now very low. It was time to strike! Or so Commander October had said.

Feeling an inner sadness at the possible loss of his new friend, John Dawson nodded. “Yes. He’s the one.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know him well,” John said. “But I think we were friends.”

“You think?”

No, he thought. We were definitely friends.

He nodded with pride. “We were friends.”

Empress Akamine looked out at the horizon. It circled the Sky Tower Palace because of where the structure was situated.

The edges of the volcano were jagged and presented an ominous front, but in reality, they wouldn’t stand up to artillery strikes if attacked.

Inside the bowl, the volcano was full of warm water, a vast glassy lake of reflective mineral water. It often kept the Sky Tower shrouded in clouds, and with the cool winds from the oceans, it often rained and stormed, causing bolts of lightning to hit the pylons. That energy was directed into a spiral vortex where it was collected within the tower, giving off the impression of powerful magic—and indeed, magic was part of the collection process, but not one done by a coven of sorcerers.

For this reason the Sky Tower Palace was often called the Storm Palace or the Tower of Sorcery.

Glancing up as helicopters flew past, patrolling and moving military supplies in preparation for the inevitable assault by the resistance, Mamiko looked at the black clouds above the tower.

“I’m going up,” she said.

“Now?” her guard asked. “But a storm is brewing.”

“And so it shall,” she said. “And so I shall go to the roof to watch the approaching storm.”

There was more in those words, though. She didn’t bother to explain herself.

John followed his squad and jumped into the back of the transport truck. Its engine growled and the vehicle shivered to life.

In the distance, the resistance mechs were still crouched onto the ground, providing easy access to their drivers. One of the mechs stood up, its servos and pneumatics hissing as the cockpit swiveled atop the chassis. John looked over at Gray who held his rifle over his thighs. “You think we can do this?”

“If your friend really killed her, then I know we can do this.”

John smiled.

“Move it, Ashbluff!”

He put his helmet on and looked around for his commander. There he was. “I’m on it, boss.”

“You better not screw this up, Captain!”

Still chewing the gum in his mouth, Ashbluff smiled. “’Course I won’t.”

“No loose cannon stuff—you hear me?”

We’ll see.

“You got it,” he said. “I know the importance of this mission. The governor, dead. I can’t believe it.”

“It’s none of our concern,” the commander said as the other mech drivers walked up. “We do what we’re told. If the governor is dead, than that just makes our job easier.”

“Easier?” Maru asked. “We’re outnumbered five to one, I don’t think ‘easy’ comes into it.”

“Enough of that.”

“Hey,” Declan said. “If they’re scattered and confused, we’ll mop ‘em up. We just have to be mavericks out there.”

“I said none of that, Ashbluff!”

“What about those ground to air missiles?” Sakeo said as she stepped up to the group. “They’re going to rip us out of the sky.”

“That’s taken care off,” the commander said. “We have tanks and soldiers going to their Command Center as we speak. But the plan is two-pronged. We attack from the air while our ground forces sweep in and destroy the missile outpost. Got it? Weren’t any of you listening during the briefing?!”

“Sorry,” Sakeo said as she put up her hands. She smiled at Ashbluff.

“Now get moving!” the commander barked. “Mission parameters and coordinates will be uploaded to your individual HUDs in just a moment.

“Yeah, boss, you got it.”

“Roll out!”

Nori Fujita drove his tank across the bridge. He was at the front of the column with two more tanks behind him and ten transport trucks.

On his radar he could see unites Four and Five positioned on either side of the chasm. Below was the ocean, a narrow pass where ships and supplies were moved by the enemy.

“Target locked,” Jack, the gunner, said.

“Wolf One, fire!” Nori said as their tank shook and rolled across the bridge.

“Firing!” Jack bellowed.

A thunderclap and a shake preceded an explosion in the distance. His computer systems showed a direct hit and kill.

“Wolf One—confirm kill,” Nori said.

“Wolf Four taking fire.”

Nori looked at his systems. There were enemy vehicles and infantry across the chasm on the right side, but his telemetry was incomplete.

“Vulture Squad,” he said over the coms. “We need some help with our telemetry. They’re hiding in the forest.”

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“You got it, Wolf One. Captain Ashbluff out.”

The sky roared with overhead jets and the radar showed a green mech preceding ten others cross the bridge in a long formation.

“Scanning terrain. Sending telemetry to you now.”

“Oh shit,” Wolf Two said over the coms. “Wolf Four is hit. Confirmed. Wolf Four is down!”

“Shit,” Nori muttered. “Jack! Targets!”

“Telemetry’s coming in, Commander.”

The radar blinked and new targets were revealed.

“Yeah,” Ashbluff said over the coms. “Sorry about your guy. We’ll help out. But not for long. We’ve got incoming mechs.”

“Thanks, Vulture One.”

“Target acquired!” Jack screamed.

“Fire!”

“Firing!”

The tank shook and an explosion rocked the sky as a plume of fire and smoke erupted upward on the monitor.

“Direct hit!” Jack yelled.

“Woohoo!” Ocha screamed.

“Take us forward!” Nori commanded.

Ocha glanced at him and smiled. “Yes, Sir!” He punched the accelerators and the tank ambled forward.

“Wolf One, moving in,” Nori said over the coms to the rest of his tank squad. “Wolf Three, provide fire support in Wolf Four’s place.”

“You got it, Commander.”

Then the mechs swooped in and fired their lasers and missiles at various targets on the ground. Explosions erupted all over the horizon, sending bright flashes across the horizon. Nori’s viewport was auto dampened so his eyes wouldn’t be damaged.

A mech pilot from Vulture Squad popped up onto the coms. “Multiple hits, Vulture One.”

“Good job,” Nori said.

It was their leader who spoke again. “Fox One, you’re clear to move forward.”

“Thank you, Vulture One.”

“Now we gotta go—those mechs are on us!”

Nori smiled. “See you on the other side.”

“Yeah right…” another Vulture Squad mech pilot said. It was a woman with a sext voice.

“Heard that, Sakeo.”

She giggled and the coms from Vulture Squad cut off.

“Commander?” Ocha asked.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

“Why can’t our squad be cool like the mech guys?”

“Shut up.”

John glancing out the back of the truck, his heart racing inside his chest. Normally he was a dispatcher, a soldier who had to move through enemy territory to convey messages that were too sensitive to be sent over coms.

Now he was a foot soldier.

Ever many was needed for this operation.

As the tanks fired ahead, sending waves of percussive sounds into the trucks, explosions rocked the hills and trees farther up the road.

The mechs roared overhead, leaving multiple exhaust trails in the sky. The transport truck started speeding up as small arms fire started cracking.

“Our job!” the sergeant said, “is to get past their foot soldiers and into that missile operations center.”

“We shutting it down or destroying it, Sarge? Gray asked.

“Yet to be determined, Corporal.” He looked down at his screen. “Looks like First Platoon is already in combat on their right flank. Second and Third Platoons will hit their center. We—Fourth Platoon in case you numbskulls don’t know—will circle around on their left flank where they’re weakest and sneak into the coms center. You got it?!”

“Yessir, Sargent Sir!” John screamed with the others.

“That’s what I like to hear!”

The men in the truck whooped and screamed.

“If we take this comms center, we may very well have air superiority, boys! If that happens, the palace is ours, almost guaranteed.”

Gray frowned with a smile. “Thought you didn’t make predictions, Sarge?”

“Shut the fuck up, Private.”

The truck halted as a missile flew up into the sky from behind the trees. It screamed, turned and exploded as it hit something in the sky.

That was one of our guys.

“Out!” the sergeant called. “Movemovemovemove!”

John jumped out and ran.

“In the car!” the commander of the missile output bellowed. His aides jumped in the back as his driver got in.

“Sir!” the outpost lieutenant said. “Sir, where are you going?! We’re under attack.”

“Urgent military business, Leitenant. You’re in command. Defend this base at all costs.”

“Y—yes, sir!”

Shaking his head, he got into the car.

Idiots.

“Drive!”

“Yessir!”

The car pulled out and screeched around the corner to the guarded gate. The soldiers there glanced into the window, saw that it was their commander and waved them through.

“Step on it, Corporal.”

“Yessir!”

The car sped up as rockets, high shallow explosions preceding launch, went up into the air at the mechs overhead.

As the Madison mechs flew into them, he wondered if he was making a mistake by abandoning his post.

But how did it come to this? First that one mech and the death the governor. Now this shit!

“Ashbluff! What the fuck are you doing?!”

“Wooohoo!”

He dodged the ground to air missile, then swerved right, his chassis landing bumpily onto the ground atop a hill.

A fancy black armored car was driving down the street.

That looks important.

As the radar blinked and flashed, indicating the various units of the battle, his coms unit cracked as chatter from his squad went back and forth.

“Vulture Six down! I repeat, I’m crash—“

There was an explosion that Ashbluff actually saw as he flipped his missile safety off and locked onto the car.

Then, like a pirate he smiled while chewing his gum. He pushed the release and the missile screamed off of his chassis toward the car. It hit and exploded, but failed to make a direct impact. The car flipped over the railing on the bridge and tumbled out of sight toward what Ashbluff’s map indicated was water.

“Hells yeah!”

“Ashbluff!”

If was Maru.

“We need your help out here! Where are you?!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way.”

Turning his machine around, he locked onto several mech targets dogfighting Vulture Squad in the air and fired.

Then he lifted off to rejoin them above the ground battle.

The Sargent put his back to the wall as Fifth Platoon swarmed the parking lot. The gate guards got surrounded immediately and were being contained as John and Gray moved with the rest of the men.

The door was blown off its hinges with sticky explosives and they poured into the complex.

“EVERYONE FREEZE! HANDS UP!”

Weapons fire erupted and John turned, fired his weapon at the two guards coming into the reception hall as other men from his platoon took the guards out who came at them from the main coms room.

They poured in and found the operators with their mics still on their heads, their eyes wide and their hands up.

“Good!” the sergeant called.

“Now we can start targeting the Madison mechs.”

“Take us prisoner!” the man with the lieutenant badge said, “But we won’t be turning on our own.”

The sergeant hit him across the face with his gun.

Sakeo glanced out of her cockpit window at Declan’s mech. She could just barely see him inside the cockpit.

“Hey,” Maru said over the coms. “Where are you guys going?!”

Vulture Squad had shot down the five mech squad that flew into them and Sakeo was shaking uncontrollably. She almost couldn’t believe it. She had been trained for this, had enlisted in the Madison Mech Corps Third Division, but after what Empress Akamine had done, she had deserted the military and took her mech with her—the very same mech she was now shooting down what were once her own comrades!

After the skirmish Declan had told Sakeo to follow him on a private coms channel.

“Guys?” Maru asked. He was third in command in Vulture Squad.

Sakeo glanced out her cockpit again toward Declan.

“Why aren’t you anwswering—“

“Did you just cut off the rest of Vulture Squad?”

“Sure did,” Ashbluff said.

There was a moment of silence between them. “This is stupid.”

“Like what that other mech fighter did?” Ashbluff asked. “Come on, Sak—it’s time we grew a pair.”

“I think you have a pair too many, Declan.”

He chuckled.

Looking at her radar, she could see the presidential palace nearing their nadir. “ETA, one minute.”

“You picking up anything on radar?” Ashbluff asked.

“No,” she said, her heart lurching inside her chest at the very thought of being swarmed by enemy mechs.

“With their missiles on our side now, we control this air space,” Ashbluff said. “They’re hightailing it, giving us the perfect opportunity to fly in unseen.”

“What are you smacking on?”

“It’s gum.”

“That’s against regs.”

“Fuck the regs.”

Sakeo smiled privately to herself, but then was distracted suddenly when her coms unit private channel beeped, revealing who was intending to make contact with her. Her expression promptly changed.

“Dec?”

“Yeah?”

“The commander is trying to get me on coms.”

“Don’t answer it.”

“But… there’s going to be the hells to pay.”

“So what?”

She swallowed. “I don’t like this.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Declan said, probably rolling his eyes, if judging by his tone—which Sakeo was well accustomed to—was any indication.

She swooped her mech down, her radar scans not picking up much. “Looks abandoned.”

“You can say that again. Wow, look at that damage on the roof.”

“I heard that guy’s name was Ichiro Kasai—the guy who blew a hole in palace and killed the governor,” Sakeo said. “In fact—they’re saying he wasn’t even a mech driver, just a resistance fighter who stole an enemy mech.”

“Could be why he made it all the way here without getting shot down.”

“Doubt it.”

“Why?”

“Because he crashed the damn thing into the roof. Whoever he was, he was one hell of a pilot.”

“You say that like he’s dead.”

“He is.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Look, Dec,” she said. “Nobody survives a kamikaze run like this.”

“Let’s land and check the place out.”

“Dec!”

“Come on.”

“Shit,” she hissed quietly.

His mech sped up and he landed on the roof before her.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath again. “We’re going to get court-martialed for this!”

“Yeah right,” Declan said. “The resistance needs every mech pilot it can get its hands on. We’re invincible.”

That actually made her laugh. “I guess you have a point, but the commander is still gonna have our balls for this.”

“You have balls?”

“Shut up.”

She landed her mech and opened the hatch. When she jumped out, she found Declan attaching a line to his belt. “Gonna repel down. “Cover me.”

“Sure thing,” she said, reaching back into her cockpit for her compact sub-machine gun. She ran to the edge of the broken roof and aimed down her weapon’s sites.

The laser dot moved about as bits of dusty debris fell into the building from the jacked rents that were the floors.

Declan repelled down, the line hissing as it unreeled from his mech’s arm. Sakeo watched him point his SMG with one hand, the light flashing about.

“See anything?” she called.

“Nothing,” he said. “This place looks abandoned.”

“Coming down after you then.”

“Sure.”

Declan made it down to the ground floor, hit is repeller lock and unclicked the cable. He searched about, found military supplies, a lot of tipped over items. “Looks like they left in a hurry,” he said over the coms.

“Evacuation,” Sakeo said back, the sound of her line zipping out hissing over their radio communications.

Declan scouted the floor, found nothing and made his way down. When he reached the ground floor two more floors down, clearing carefully but quickly as he went, his eyes found something on the floor—a trail of blood leading across the tiles. He followed it. “I’m on the ground floor.”

“Hells! How did you get down there so fast?”

“Our guy was here.”

“How do you know?”

“Blood.”

“You know it’s his?”

“Gotta be.”

He came into a narrow corridor filled with expensive leather and animal furs. Before him was a metal door, open, the stairs beyond lit with bright light.

“Found something!”

“I’m on my way.”

Aiming his SMG forward, he stepped gingerly forward, a rank smell wafting up toward him. As he came into the first chamber, he saw the blood.

A lot of it.

Sakeo’s boots sounded on the steps behind him.

“Is that blood?”

He nodded.

“There’s something strange down here.”

She came up beside him and gasped as she put her hand over her mouth. “What… are those things?”

I don’t rightly know.

Shaking his head, he said, “Not sure, but they’re some kind of unholy monstrosity.”

“Why didn’t Madison’s people destroy them on their way out?”

“They must have been in a panic.”

“Where’s our guy?”

“I don’t know,” Declan said. “But if he was down here, he’s not anymore.”

“Why would they take his corpse and not the evidence of this maligned science?”

“More like sorcery if you ask me.” He looked at her and she seemed to take the hint.

Our guy isn’t dead.

“Ugh!” Sakeo gagged. “They did leave in a hurry, and now I wanna leave in a hurry.”

“All right,” he said. “But we make sure the palace is secure. We should wait until the resistance can get here. There’s a lot to see.”

“Those monsters alone is going to whip the fence sitters into a frenzy. This is evil!”

“Yeah.”

Empress Akamine came out onto the highest terrace of the Sky Tower. She had walked the whole way. With over four hundred floors, it was quite the exercise, but doing this twice weekly kept her in excellent shape and gave her time to think.

The clouds overhead swirled, a dark mass of cold and loneliness and of a foreboding future to come.

I am a monster, she thought. I have cut my people off from the world. I have taken their food, their livelihoods. I have persecuted them for crimes against my inhumane edicts—I have persecuted them for the crime of even possibly collaborating against me without evidence.

But it wasn’t all for naught.

She could not tell the people of Paradaisu why. Not yet. Not ever. They will learn of it themselves—and at that time—they will be strong.

All was quiet in the world as she glanced off into the distance, the rim of Mount Goku barely visible from this height. The mountains bellow and the cities were completely obscured by gray mist.

Despite the cold wind and the even colder storm rains, the air was warm because of the volcano that heated the water into a heavy evaporation.

The wind was picking up and Mamiko’s hair fluttered past her cheek. She pushed in back over her ear, the rim of her military barrette getting in the way.

Once they take the capital and kill me—they will be ready to fight what is to come.

She activated her coms unit. “General, bring the prisoner to me.”

“Yes, Lady Empress!”