IMC Chapter 11

I pushed her up against the wall with more force than I intended. My teeth ground each other to dust. That dust dried my throat to where my words were dark and husky.

"You joined them? You left me for the Militia?"

Alice shook her head, "No, I did not defect. After Haven, after that promise we made to each other—that we would leave after the last combat mission. But we left Haven and we saw what happened to Demeter. I saw the anger reignite in you against the Militia and I knew I could never drag you from this war. So I lied. I had left the nuclear blast radius and then I destroyed the comm on my ear and ripped off my vital readout. I am so sorry my darling but I had to save myself if you wouldn't come with me."

I grabbed her brown and green vest and wrapped the skull patch in my fist, "then what is this? You lied once; you could be lying to me now."

"I killed a grunt and fell in with their reinforcements. I have a ship waiting for us Kax, but we don't have a lot of time. We must leave now."

"How did you know I would be here? How did you know where to find me?"

The tears were back on Alice's face. She touched my cheek. "I installed a tracking device into your dataknife. From my computer I saw you fight on Unon II and then saw your travel line to here. Please, we have to leave now."

"Why should I trust you? You could just be luring me into a trap."

"Because I love you more than the universe Kax Autto. And because I know that you love me."

My pressure eased away from Alice's shoulders and her feet regained access to the floor. I stepped away and ran my fingers through my hair. Inside my skull was a hurricane of desire and disgust. It was passion and apathy, and it was winter and summer.

"I will leave with you. But I am going to save Jennina and my squad."

"Who's Jennina? Is she IMC? They have won the day. I have seen the Militia forces here and they don't have the strength you think they do. Leave them to their first victory in months." Her face turned into a hard smirk. I loved that she was still a pilot, only accepting of the best.

"No Alice, there is something much bigger going on here, something with the Spectres. Look," I held up my wrist map. "Meet me at these coordinates here; is that close to your ship?"

"Close enough. If you aren't there in twenty minutes I am leaving you for good."

We kissed. "I love you" I said, but for the first time there was a hitch in my heart when I said it and Alice replied it back to me. Jennina's Dragon wrapped around my brain and I pushed it out.

I left the storeroom and did not dare look back as I strapped my helmet back on. Sid informed me that I had another titan on standby. I caught up to where Jennina was waiting for me. She was candidly upset with me.

"Where the hell have you been? I was almost to the tunnel entrances when I looked back and you were gone. Did you have to take a piss break or something?"

"Have you run into Spectres, Jennina?"

"No, not a one."

"I'm telling you. No Spectre is on our side anymore. I don't have time to explain but we have to destroy them."

"The Spectres make up most of our army Kax, unless we all want to become Militia prisoners or worse, we can't shoot our own troops."

"Jennina, please trust me. You know something is wrong here. Let's go get Reynoso."

"'bout time you started talking sense, Krout."

We used our jumpkits to boost along the walls until we descended into the tunnels. This was tight close quarters. Dead grunts, Spectres, and empty bullet casings littered the floor and blood stains were vivid in the fluorescent lighting. We pushed ourselves to run harder.

A Spectre turned the corner and fired its sub-machine gun at us. We ducked behind cover in time behind ventilation shafts and we blind fired our weapons until we no longer heard a metallic clicking. Jennina leaned her head around. "That's an IMC Spectre; it must have been hacked by a Militia pilot. We need to keep our eyes peeled."

"Jennina, I doubt there are any enemy pilots down here. Come on."

I led the way until we found Sergeant Reynoso.

She was buried under smoking Spectres. I pulled the heavy machines off of her and was repulsed by what I saw. Her left leg was twice its normal length with a long string of muscles and tendons where her knee used to be. Her right eye socket was punched in and was nothing but a bloody bowl of bile. I thought she was dead but then she coughed up spittle and blood. Nina Reynoso's remaining eye shifted all around the room trying to focus. I called her name and then she finally found me as more blood poured across the bridge of nose. She had to close her eye and her words were slow and painful.

"Krout? What took you so long? Blackbeard needs evac. I need an evac."

Jennina had gone ahead to find our other squad mates. She had just returned and her mouth was hard as she shook her head.

"Stay with me Sergeant, we are going to get all of us out of here. Jennina, come here and help me get her on my shoulders."

Without fear, we sunk our hands in blood and gore and got the wounded IMC pilot onto my back in a fireman's carry. As I started to run out of the tunnel I heard Sergeant Reynoso aimlessly mumble, "Who the hell is Jennina?"

I did not dare use my jumpkit with such valuable cargo on my back. I checked my watch. I had five minutes to meet Alice at the coordinates. I was going to barely make it in time. The lights were flickering in the halls and the rumbles of battle continued to shake the building. I could hear the titans fight like gods outside. They made the earth and sky tremble with their power and ferocity. But were the gods machines now? Could IMC pilots in titans now be under fire from Militia titans and IMC titans controlled by the Andromeda Relay?

Jennina yelled behind me, "Where are you going? This isn't the way to the LZ."

Between breaths of carrying a person on my back I replied, "We aren't going to an IMC evac ship. We are taking a different route."

She grabbed my back and pulled me to a stop and then stepped in front of me. "What other route are you talking about? This is damn siege we are in Krout!"

"Trust me Jennina, I know this might sound crazy but there might not be an IMC much longer."

A sudden realization flashed in her eyes and she shouldered her Hemlock with the barrel inches from my heart. Her voice was even and hostile.

"You traitorous bastard. You are taking us to the Militia aren't you?"

I stepped forward and Jennina's Hemlock gouged into my chest plate. "The universe isn't just IMC versus Militia. There's something else out there. You can go back. I won't stop you. But I am leaving this planet and I am leaving this war behind for the better. We have a new war to fight now, Jennina. This one is going to be against the machines now."

The lights flickered in the hall as a particularly proximal explosion rattled the dust from the ceilings. I knew her finger was squeezing around the trigger.

"A winter soldier never abandons his post. He is not a sunshine patriot, but a soldier in the darkest nights." Jennina said, and then she lifted her Hemlock and stepped out of my way. I ran by with Reynoso on my back and did not glance back.

I kicked open the door and a stray rocket landed in front of me and coated us with sand. A hand grabbed my arm and Alice tugged me along the wall of the building. We were near the perimeter and running away from the fighting. The refinery was on fire in multiple places and flashes continued to light up around the siege walls. It seemed like we ran for miles. The sounds of battle drowning in its avarice for itself.

We finally came upon Alice's ship. I was surprised to see it was a large, civilian freighter. She had hidden it among the rocks of a mountain with the landing skill of an expert. We were pilots, after all. The bay door opened and we scrambled up the ramp.

Alice told me to lay Sergeant Reynoso on one of the tables. I did so and her head fell limp to the side.

"My God," Alice said. "That's Commander Reynoso."

"Sergeant Nina Reynoso," a voice said behind me. I turned around and no idea that Jennina Kerrigan had followed us. Jennina took off her helmet and brushed her sweaty hair from her face. "She was demoted after criticizing Vice Admiral Spyglass's decisions at Demeter and Corporate." Jennina bowed her head and whispered with reverence "videmus mortuis, we see the dead."

"We name the dead." I said.

"Captain Hanzo 'Samurai' Hibiki. Major Chandler 'Blackbeard' Nelson."

We stood for a moment in silence. Jennina offered her hand to Alice, "I'm Captain Jennina Kerrigan. I was called Dragon in the Crows."

Alice shook her hand and then saluted with a pound on the chest in IMC customs while she was still in her Militia uniform. "2nd Lieutenant Alice Reins of the 40th IMC Pilot Squadron."

Jennina shot me a look. "I thought you said she was killed in action at Corporate?"

"I thought she was dead until an hour ago, ma'am." I had to remember to call her that now that I knew she outranked me.

Jennina studied her for a moment. I was afraid of what she might say. Half a grin crept onto Dragon's face and she said, "You were right, Krout. She is very pretty."

A few days later we landed in Smuggler's Cove. It was a place full of unsavory, corrupted people, but very unlikely to have a high machine population. In route we picked up broadcasts from disorganized news networks about the turn of the machines. In the matter of forty-eight hours, the IMC was obliterated from the Frontier. The armed forces of the corporation relied so heavily on machines that they were easily outnumbered and outgunned. I had a feeling thought that the remainder of IMC pilots made it out though, we were survivors.

Life on the ship had been just as intense. Jennina had founded feelings for me against her better judgment and a day later my dead girlfriend comes back to rescue us. Alice suspected something was between the Captain and me. I confessed what had happened and left it up to Alice's discretion of if she would stay with me. Alice was instantly upset and argued that she had been "dead" for only a month and I was already hopping the sack with a superior officer. We did not talk for a day. While I crushed my soul in regret, Alice finally called me back to her quarters and asked if I had an emotional attachment to Jennina. I told her that she was my comrade in arms but my love belonged to Alice only. A pilot's life is fleeting and wild on the Frontier. She nodded her head silently and dismissed me. Two days later, I was invited away from my solitary quarters and back to Alice's room for a more conjugal stay.

As we walked off the freighter's ramp, I noticed Jennina had everything packed in a bag. She turned and faced Alice and me. "I'm going to head out on my own. Lieutenant Autto and Reins, I probably owe the two of you my life."

"I understand why you want to go. But where will you go?"

"I'm probably going to get really drunk first. From there, I don't know. Like you said, the war is finally over. I'll find a purpose somewhere in this town of opportunity."

"Smuggler's Cove?" I asked with incredulity.

"That's right," she smiled. "IMC Pilots are going to be the hottest commodity around since there are few of us left. I've never been above working for an honest paycheck." That meant still killing people or machines. I had to laugh.

"I wonder what happened to Commander Blisk." I said over an empty plate at lunch. Alice just finished drinking a beer with a smile on her face.

"Oh, you are still worried about your boy crush, Kax?" She laughed aloud.

"Yeah, whatever. He was on the IMS Colossus during the Sandtrap Siege. He was just talking to all of us before you pulled me into the storeroom."

"It's hard to say. I know that he wasn't a big fan of Spyglass. From what you told me about your Crows, Blisk didn't trust his Vice Admiral one bit."

"This machine war has to be orchestrated by Spyglass. Blisk and us were this close—" I held up an inch with my fingers, "—this close to snatching Marcus Graves. But that is when Spyglass recalled IMC forces to give support in Sandtrap. I think Spyglass didn't want Blisk to know what Graves knew."

Alice contemplatively scratched the table. And then she said, "What happens now? Machines disobeying their human creators isn't something to take lightly."

A disturbance echoed in the bar and drew both of our attentions. We were both dressed in civilian clothes and for the most part had nothing to worry about. People at the bar were cussing the bartender who couldn't figure out how to turn up the volume on the telescreen. Finally someone reached over the bar and the volume went up to fill the entire room. The smoke lingered but silence swallowed everyone as Marcus Graves's face filled the screen in the upper corner. I felt my hand unconsciously reach out and take Alice's hand. She squeezed back tightly.

"People of the Frontier, I am the former Vice Admiral of the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation, now Commander of Militia Forces, Marcus Graves. These reports of a mechanical uprising are true. We have experienced them first hand and witnessed the final destruction of the IMC in the Frontier. This revolt by Spectres and automated titans was not authored by the Militia. Instead, the machines now have their own agenda. The Vice Admiral of the IMC, the Central Artificial Intelligence, designation: Spyglass—has disbanded the IMC forces and declared war on the human race. The IMC operators and owners were all killed when their residences were razed on Haven by an orbital bombardment."

"We have also received reports that human reinforcements will not be coming from the Core Systems. Communication takes a long time to get from the Frontier to the Core Systems, and we do not yet know the fate of our home world, Earth. I know that this is distressing but we do not yet have enough information to provide solace for those of us with relatives back home."

Marcus Graves scowled on the telescreen. "But this I do know. Too many good men and women have died in the last Titan War. Our petty squabbles mean nothing in the face of extinction, is what the machines aim to place on us. We will correct that. Today, our Militia needs you. The machines are attacking colonists all across the Frontier and we need resources and hands to fight this terrible menace. To any surviving IMC members, I offer peace. Though I cannot offer it now, we of the Militia must now begin our fight against the machines. You are experienced fighters. You are savvy mechanics. You are the best of the best, I know this. I ask you join us in a common cause for humanity. Together we will finally accomplish what we have always wanted. . ."

I closed my eyes and worded Grave's words as he said them from the telescreen.

"To establish peace on the Frontier."

The bar was extremely quiet long after the face of Marcus Graves had left the screen. Some had rushed out the door to contact friends or relatives. Others were numb and still.

I looked at Alice, the love of my life. What was I willing to risk to remain at my post?

"Kax, we can't live the life we want if the machines want to take that away from us. We didn't fight so hard for each other to give up now. I love you and that is why I am going to enlist in the Militia to provide that life we dreamed about."

"I am enlisting next to you Alice. We will never be apart again. I love you."

THE END