Chapter Sixty-nine
The Battle
In Douvaine, Mai was watching the holographic screens of the truck that served as Base of Operations and Command Center, accompanied by Carissia and several FRT technicians and military personnel, who at that moment were acting as a communication bridge of the large-scale operation that was taking place a few kilometers away.
Although she was looking at the results that were popping up every second, the truth is that it was in her mind where she was outlining most of the calculations and scenarios with the possible live results of the battlefield.
While it was true that people only used a tiny percentage of the Neurowire's power on a daily basis, at that moment she was using a larger portion to compute scenarios with the help of the neural assistant.
This was a tool that in many fields had changed things in unimaginable ways. If there had been no wars between nations in recent years, it was due not only to the aeon, but also because the Neurowire had changed the way of seeing the world. In the case of strategy, the Neurowire made use of the Many Worlds Interpretation, making use of various algorithms such as Sher's to perform calculations and simulations almost instantaneously.
Mai had made use of her Neurowire to level all the evidence they had gathered so far and try to determine, by probabilistic elimination, what might be occurring underground in the accelerator. Most likely it was an experiment to effectively manipulate time.
Given Jack Piersons and Leteo Waters' warnings, it was likely that something had happened in the past that they were already aware of because they had lived through it. In that case changing the variables could be worse depending on the scenario. If it had already happened, then them being there was part of that past. Perhaps the manipulation was because something had been sent into the past.
In that case, stopping whatever was happening would perhaps cause something worse. But, if it was at that moment that something was actually being sent or manipulated, there was a chance that something like what happened in Tokyo would happen there as well. Nevermore's duty was to prevent such disasters from occurring if Dark Events were involved. All they needed was for the world to wake up the next day to the news that an area of the European Union had been devastated due to an experiment that had gotten out of control.
Scientific support from the island at that time was also sending out analyses and certainly the worst thing that could happen was for just such a scenario to occur. There was the serious problem that, according to the most current theories, which took into account Dark Events and Black Swans, determinism did not exist at the local level, so there was a wide margin of free will. Although in the case of altering a variable that changed the already existing past, there was also the possibility that the chronological protection would attenuate the changes in the past and attenuate the change to reach the future where they were. Or that the past simply unfolded according to the Many Worlds Interpretation and the alteration occurred but the changes would occur in a different universe. Though that was another matter to consider.
Mai knew it all too well. After all a similar scenario in the past had caused her to make the decision to become the Director of Operations. It wasn't prestige she was looking for when she accepted the position, one of the compelling reasons was to take responsibility for something she herself had caused.
As she reviewed the movements of various platoons and squads she sighed to herself. At that moment she could not help remembering what had happened in Kolsay. She had not been surprised that life form was from outer space. In fact it had terrified her, because it reminded her of what she had had to do in the past. She pushed the thought aside almost immediately, she didn't have time to worry about it at that moment, the problem they had at that moment was more pressing.
When the Odin squadron had reached its final point, in several other locations, ten other small squads, of no more than eight or twelve members, had also infiltrated other points of the huge circumference.
Three of those teams had been able to penetrate inside the ring and had not encountered any resistance, as they were emergency areas with no checkpoints, and would have to travel for miles before encountering confrontation. But those teams had sent her reports that the accelerator was indeed in full operation but, even so, they could not shut it down from those points without knowing what would happen with the residual energy from the collision.
A team from Bravo Company had entered through the La Roche-sur-Foron point, using the old sewers that connected the entire old system of the city with the facilities. That team had been the most successful in arriving and after giving the 5-by-5 they only had to wait using camouflage equipment trying to find the energy centers of the place. As they had expected, the whole place was being powered by fractium energy cubes. That was the reason why no alarms had been triggered at the power stations near the checkpoints. The facilities were completely independent. But those cubes had a limit so they must have been brought in beforehand, in order to remove the ones that remained discharged once they had been used.
Another of Charlie's teams had penetrated through Seyssel, but had to stop on the descent and wait because they had detected movement in the part where they were to go down. Delta's Odin Squadron 4, meanwhile, had had no luck at a nearby entrance to the site. The entry point for a subway team was more than five kilometers from the checkpoint in Annecy. Something similar had happened with the other teams that had entered at remote points, but which had not been able to advance any further because the entrances had been blocked by earthworks and they had had to return to the surface to rejoin their respective divisions for deployment on the surface.
Bravo, Charlie and Delta would use much the same technique that Alpha would deploy with the Hugin and Munin divisions, a pincer attack. Charlie could even afford the possibility of a three-pronged attack because he had more troops in the ranks for the attack.
When Mai received the communiqué that Odin Squadron had reached its point, the operation began.
The first confusion in the mercenaries in Meyrin had come from the surveillance drones that had been hacked and put some out of perimeter circulation. While that was happening other drones had been sent to disable the vehicles and lock the ships in silent mode.
The first two projectiles in Meyrin were fired by Philip and Zi from over a mile away. Both were in a collapsed building that gave them sufficient field vision of their targets, located on the rooftops of several buildings around the CEEN laboratory complex. The targets were the disruptor systems placed around and the portable communication towers. Shooting with the railgun rifle with built-in hitscan was something Zi was more than used to and the rain at that point didn't bother her at all. The shot had hit the farthest disruptor. Philip a couple of meters away from her had fired at one of the communication towers. The railgun system had five seconds to cool down before being fired again.
Those five seconds were crucial.
When the mercenaries heard the detonation caused by the impact they were immediately alerted but, since Zi and Philip had chosen the farthest targets, it caused the mercenaries to turn their sights the wrong way. The railgun shot with a fractium bullet left no visible trace and given the fragmentation of the targets it was unclear where even the shot had come from. The distraction was just enough to allow time for the rifle to cool down and the divisions to begin their advance. A few seconds later the stormy morning had given way to urban warfare.
Hugin and Munin advanced in the pincer attack as planned. The gunfire and gun flashes were not long in coming and the confrontation had begun.
Philip and Zi for their part had continued with their mission. Following by the disruptors and communications backup towers. A minute later all the disruptors were gone and they both switched the rifles mode to high impact projectiles. They had to offer support to the two teams, but the part they had to do was done. The reason for switching to projectile mode was to destroy the tactical droids. Those droids were an especially tough nut to crack because they were built to withstand the hostility of space. Waiting five seconds for a cooldown could cause enough casualties on the battlefield.
Even though the soldiers were mostly military droids and soldiers with their consciousness in synthetic bodies did not mean they could afford many casualties if they wanted to take control of the place quickly.
The weapons most of the soldiers had been configured for a type of projectile that had several problems of international acceptance, but was the most convenient given the situation. It was called a nanometric cutting projectile, commonly known also as a Blossom.
The enemy's tactical droids had an especially hard shell, which conventional projectiles would not be effective enough to penetrate. The Blossom projectile was a bullet that, before striking the target, unfolded like the petals of a rose. Those petals were an alloy of monofilaments and fractium that were only a few nanometers thick and could cut through anything in their path. When deployed, they penetrated any material and did not stop until they reached a radius of thirty centimeters.
If fired at a person, the projectile was like a meat grinder that upon impact shredded the flesh and the petals would cut the person as if it were a steak forming a sphere of dispersion. An extremely cruel bullet, but effective against these droids.
The first droids to fall demonstrated this by stumbling when hit, but they could still move if the shot did not hit their torso.
The mercenaries on the other hand were another matter. The bodies they had were also synthetic, quite similar to a human body but improved. One of the luxuries that PMCs that offered special services to companies that needed extra security and anti industrial espionage measures could afford. But according to international law if a mercenary was shot the consciousness could be returned to a server part of the company as part of a contract. Such a conscience could return to active duty at some point. It was the system of fallen soldiers of fortune.
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Although casualties were occurring on both sides. The tactical droids also had the ability to move through the air with the jetpacks they had and that gave them an extra advantage in that scenario.
Groups of mercenaries and droids had moved deeper into the building complex, retreating to protect the main entrance leading to the subterranean parts. A group of droids had positioned themselves inside the building, over the large doors that were the entrances to the heavy machinery elevators. If necessary they would have to destroy it.
The order they had been given was to protect the surface for the next few minutes.
Meanwhile, on the offensive side, a message arrived from Mai, warning of reinforcements for the extra problem [Angels falling].
The communiqué resounded in the minds of the division leaders and they sent the warning message to the soldiers.
At various points along the one hundred and eighteen kilometers there was a flash in the air of something descending to the ground.
It was Nevermore's mechas. The orbital knights had arrived to join the fray.
The main reason for taking out the communication towers and disruptors was to ensure that the giant robots could pass through the dome that acted as an energy shield at each of the points.
In each of the areas two landed, except for Meyrin where three landed. The three mechs were of a dark gray color, but had some color variations that differentiated them, not counting the shapes that were slightly different. One of them carried a spear, while two others were equipped with firearms.
Carissia watched the situation unfold and wondered if hers would be finished by now. Although she was a pilot, she did not regret not being on the battlefield at that moment. She had a duty to protect Mai in case of an emergency, a duty she had performed countless times in the past. Of all the Orbital Knights she was one of the most veteran pilots. Yet she had never faced the model that was there.
The enemy mechas were quite agile and humanoid in design from the factory, but devoid of wings or jetpacks. They had a much more organic look. Carissia wasn't sure why the humanoid design. In general, many mechas shared the humanoid form, but with differences according to functionality or design. Those were the same as each other, but more stylized. The penetration radars had not offered much information but they were surely in automatic mode in case of a threat.
The three enemy mechas had begun to move when the first shot had sounded and in the first seconds they had just fired, two with incendiary plasma weapons with automatic firing mode, while the other carried a machine gun and rocket launcher with multiple warhead launchers.
Plasma gunfire had creamed a small group of soldiers free of charge, while another had been pulverized under high caliber machine gun fire.
A sledge hammer to crack a nut, Carissia thought as she watched the scene.
But as Nevermore's mechas came down, the battlefield was balanced again, in a way.
The city that had once been one of the world's leading centers of particle science had been transformed into a battlefield where no one was giving any quarter.
Philip and Zi, from their positions, tried to give the best support with their rifles while shooting down some droids.
Several groups that had shortened the confrontation were engaged in a fight with tactical swords due to the energy shields carried by both sides. A weapon outdated in another century had re-emerged since the advent of the fractus and the Great War. The fractus had disappeared, but the blades had come back to stay as part of the tactical equipment for close-range fights. Vibration blades could penetrate shields and were much safer than firing a projectile at close range that could cause an accident that would blow them all away in the case of critical temperature projectiles or the normal projectiles that shields could stop by absorbing the kinetic energy. Still it was a miracle that only a few were using them and that the enemy droids in their case were not equipped with them.
The same situation was occurring in various parts of France, where the situation was not much better. The FRT teams and several Nevermore special agents were also in the middle of the battle where they were exchanging projectiles, grenades or tactical magic in the case of some special groups that had joined.
The tactical mages and special agents each had their own systems that characterized them. Some made use of magic shields to repel mercenary artillery, but it was not very effective against droids that could fly in. Others used specialized magic such as compression or corrosion to destroy the droids. One FRT team in Seyssel had among its members three who could use water magic. Given the violence of the storm it was a good thing because they could use the raw material rain to sweep through the enemies as if they had a giant water snake slithering among them.
Mai was still watching the situation unfold when a message came in from LHC8. Odin Squadron was under attack. They had begun to come under attack at about the same time the attack on the surface had begun.
What happened? Mai wondered. Had they been surprised? According to the reports that had been coming in minutes before, everything was going according to plan.
Don't worry, Asuza muttered, sending images to her mind.
I know, thank you.
They couldn't do an EXFIL at that point. Everyone was already inside and they had to continue.
Mai watched as the enemy mecha in Seyssel was finally shot down by one of the Orbital Knights and thought it was ironic that she was there at all. She would never have imagined that her almost peaceful life in the twenty-first century would end with her there.
***
In Annecy, the situation was similar to the other points.
Jansen who was in charge of the surface team was calm as he sent and received reports both from below, telling him to hold out for a few more minutes, as well as reports from the different mercenary groups that were under fire from the French army and Nevermore personnel.
He was doing his job and nothing else, which was to protect the place for the next few minutes. Despite his detachment from everything, Jansen could not deny that at that moment he was excited. He had been made for war, but he had been born in a time of peace. The only wars that were being fought were the espionage whoreships between governments or companies trying to nip at each other's heels.
Because of this he had sought a life where he had some time where he could really feel alive. That was in situations of danger where he really felt alive.
Although that had changed when he had died. No matter how much he had been told he was alive. The truth was that after his first death that had changed. Maybe it was because he had killed two innocent people back then? No, he had shot before and had caused innocent deaths in some confrontations before that. Collateral damage. However, something had changed.
When he returned to his body he felt as if he had really died.
Revenge. Yes. That had been the cause of his first death. At that time he was offering his services to private clients and there had been a mistake. Because of that a British soldier, seeking revenge for the death of his wife and daughter, had tracked down both his employer and those who had caused the deaths and had taken matters into his own hands.
One shot blew half of his face off. He had been dead for three hours only to come back to life.
Then came his second death. That had been different. A separate job, a dirty government business.
His job had been to give a warning to a certain man to stop sticking his nose where it didn't belong. What had happened was that the warning was to give him a scare by eliminating someone in his close circle. His wife to be more precise. A stupid meeting cancellation resulted in the man in question being in the house that day. A shot to the forehead ended the woman's life. And then a struggle and he had to shoot the man as well.
That did not turn out as it should have. As a result later Jansen had been shot as payment and left for dead once again.
He wandered around for a few years as a CoW, trying to stay under the radar, until he decided to try a new identity and offer his services to Thunderbolt.
The two deaths had not chastened him and he continued to pursue his life based on violence in a world that seemed so gray and nondescript that it was a miracle he hadn't killed himself.
He felt nothing. No hatred, no loneliness, just emptiness.
He had really been born in the wrong era. Too peaceful compared to the savage centuries before the Age of Singularity.
Well, this isn't bad either, he thought as a bullet grazed his cheek. A bit of fun.
At that moment an incendiary plasma munition fell near him and he and two other mercenaries were burned alive.
The consciences of the two mercenaries next to him immediately went to ThunderBolt's central server.
The same did not happen with Jansen.
Finally, after so many years of avoiding suicide and ending it all, he had succeeded.
A battlefield had finished him off.
Was it really like that? It was only for a second but, before falling into a black abyss, he could have sworn that he had not felt the burning of the fire turning his body into an unrecognizable mass that was consumed in nothingness.
Some meters away, Annecy's surveillance mecha fell before Nevermore's insectoid yellow mecha, which looked like a metal wasp with two large weapons in each hand. Nevermore's mecha had blown off its arm as it was firing and the enemy mecha's arm traced a circle of plasma shots before the several tons crashed to the ground. One of those plasma shots was the one that had hit Jansen and the other two.
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"Eh? That was it? That's what they made me come down for?" As the fight continued in several focuses, a female and somewhat sardonic voice was heard coming from the mecha. "What a piece of shit, I was studying."
That was Pristine, a fey wasp, and pilot of the Orbital Knight that had defeated the enemy mecha, complaining that the engagement had been too short.
Neither Pristine nor Jansen knew each other. They had never met.
What Pristine didn't know was that the man with whom her mother had had an affair several decades ago had just died.
She had unknowingly caused her father's death.
Jansen, on the other hand, had never known that he had had a daughter.
An absurd tragedy that none of them knew about.
But there was someone, or rather something, who had seen that situation in the midst of the battle.
The one who had seen that tragedy was more than five kilometers away from the place, hidden among the trees of a nearby forest. It had wings of seven meters in length that were folded. He had seen it with those two red eyes that seemed to see everything.
He stood still for a few seconds until he finally bowed his head, almost in a sign of sadness. He blinked once and raised his gaze to the stormy sky.
It spread its great black wings and then shook off the water that soaked its body.
The huge creature finally leapt from the thick branch where it had perched and soared above the treetops. Then flapping its wings it took a northwesterly course.
It had been his duty to see that.
But now he had a new mission.
His flight merged with the dark clouds and he flew away from the place, leaving behind the sound of a battle that seemed to be subsiding little by little.