There was movement. Blocks shifted and rocks fell as something moved underneath them. A bruised and bloody Elzer crawled from the wreckage, his uniform torn and ripped.
"Pilot?" his voice was scratchy. Immediately, he began to shift the rest of the rocks off his traveling companion until he'd cleared enough away to be able to gently turn her toward him.
"Pilot?"
She was alive. She was breathing, but she was unconscious. She's taken the entire force of the blocks falling on them. She'd been hit by Blastarr's shots. How was she still alive?
A voice came from her communicator. "Power level at 10% of maximum and dropping. System destruction imminent."
Again, Elzer tried to rouse her. If Blastarr came back and she was unconscious... "Pilot?"
Again the voice spoke. "Warning. Total systems failure."
Sparks suddenly fired from her suit. Elzer backed away as the armor made a sizzling sound and disappeared before his eyes. He checked her pulse... yes, good, strong, still beating. She was breathing, but there was a hitch. Broken bones? No real way to tell, and if that metal monster returned...
Elzer made the only decision he could. As gently as he could, he placed his hands under Pilot's shoulders and pulled her the rest of the way out of the debris.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Scout slapped the side of his communicator. "Nothing, Captain. She's not answering."
Jon was now officially worried. Jennifer should have been the first person back, but now she and Gundar were the only ones not there. When Tank had arrived with Cypher, seeing Cypher happy at the prospect of a united Resistance or saying it was a great day for them hadn't distracted him for a moment.
Tank walked up to Jon. "Anything wrong, Captain?"
"Pilot. She should have been here before you."
"Not to worry, Captain," Christine said as she entered the room, smiling at the group as she was greeted by all of them. "Gundar's people just tripped in. There was a slight delay, but she'll be here soon."
Cypher called from across the room. "We need to wait for Gundar before starting the meeting," he said.
"I agree," Evanier supported him. "Besides, how often is it we get to sit down and talk with each other just for the fun of it? Hey, has anyone heard that there's a restaurant at the Passages now? Five star variety, I hear. They've built a movie theater, picnic area..."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Jennifer woke to a pounding head and a voice calling out, "Pilot? Can you hear me?"
Yes, she could hear him. She opened her eyes and forced herself to sit up... slowly. It felt like someone had kicked her in the ribs. Repeatedly.
"Pilot?"
She waved her hand dismissively at Elzer. "I'm all right," she muttered. Then she noticed her armor was gone. "What happened?"
Elzer helped her stand as he explained. "Blastarr showed up and fired at us. You protected me when the wall fell. Then your armor just disappeared. Does it always do that?"
She smiled wryly. "It'd be inconvenient if it did."
Blastarr. Blastarr had been there... at the rendezvous point Freedom One had given them. But then where were the others? They should have been redirected to that location. "Have any of the others shown up?" she asked, already suspecting the answer but just needing to hear it said out loud.
"No," Elzer explained. "Could Blastarr have already dealt with them?"
Jennifer shook her head. "No, they were never sent here. There's no sign of them. We were though. But why would Freedom One send us here?"
"Could she have been tricked?" Elzer asked. "Or maybe Blastarr overheard the coordinates?"
"Secure line. Even if he tracked the origins of the signal, he wouldn't have heard what was being said," Jennifer countered as she looked around. They were still in the same location, the skybike still sheltered nearby. "Wait, Blastarr fired on us, crashed a wall in on us and then just left? He wouldn't do that." She started to walk toward the skybike when her leg almost went out from under her. Elzer moved quickly, grabbing her arm and keeping her upright.
"Maybe he thought we were dead?" Elzer suggested as they slowly made their way over to the bike.
"His sensors would have indicated otherwise," Jennifer began to think out loud. "He should have made certain we were dead, but why didn't he? And the biomechs should have known if there were any lifesigns... unless there was something interfering with their sensors?"
She immediately stopped walking and removed a small handheld device from her belt.
"What is that?"
"Frequency detector, among other things," she said quickly. "I'm picking up a residual jamming frequency."
"A jammer?" Elzer sounded absolutely incredulous. "But the Resistance is the only one who uses those, and they're not very successful. The biomechs can change the frequencies their systems use if they detect one."
"This is a new one," she explained. "I'll get it to Scout. Right now, we've got to find the others."
"Contact them?" Elzer suggested.
"Not with the biomechs around. They'll track us even if we scramble the transmission..." What was she going to do? Her head felt like someone playing the 1812 Overture between her ears. Had the blast from Blastarr been that powerful? She needed to think straight. How could she find the others without contacting them?
Then she saw the skybike...
Skybikes had a unique internal computer system. Given their particular design, they ran on programs that were independent of the jumpship and even Mentor himself. Maybe, just maybe, if any of the other skybikes were in operation, she could somehow home in on it with her skybike? Maybe she could get her skybike to 'talk' to one of the other skybikes?
Accepting Elzer's help, she limped over to the skybike and climbed on.
"What are you going to do?"
"Find my team," she said quickly.
She started a computer search for similar subroutines found only in another skybike...
"Found them!" she almost shouted. "They're less than a klik away. Blastarr could be there by now."
Elzer climbed on the seat behind her. "Can you fly this thing?"
"My team's in trouble. I'd crawl there if I had to."
Elzer checked his blaster. She heard a new clip being loaded. "Let's get going then."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Slow moving moments kept creeping by for Christine. Where was Blastarr? It shouldn't take the biodread that long to get to the facility... then she thought about the location where she had set the ambush for Pilot. The paths leading from that site to the facility were fraught with wreckage and destroyed buildings, the remains of the Old World. It would take Blastarr twice as long to navigate those paths than it would had he come directly like in the original plan. Still, he should be there at any moment. She needed to make a quick retreat.
Power was talking with the other leaders about... something called Rambo? Christine had never heard of that. Whatever it was, it had them making movements, as if portraying someone else's actions using a bow and arrow. She had no idea what they were talking about, but it seemed like an apt time to leave.
She walked over to Power and said in a low voice, "Captain, they should be here any moment, and we don't have time to waste. Why don't you get the meeting started, and I'll watch out for Pilot?"
Without waiting for an answer, she walked out of the room toward the entrance of the facility.
Once she was alone, she pulled the transmitter out of her pocket and again pressed the button. It indicated that Blastarr was very close. Success was -
Someone grabbed her hand and jerked her around. There was Captain Power, holding the transmitter and looking at her with an anger she'd never seen before.
He held up the device. He knew exactly what it was! He'd seen one before. She hadn't taken that into consideration. "You want to explain this?" he glared at her.
"Certainly, Captain," she said cooly, "but I'm afraid I haven't got the time." She pulled her blaster out of her pocket with an angry, "And yours has just run out!"
A blaster shot kicked the weapon from her hand. Jon immediately pulled his weapon on Christine and took a cautious glance in the direction the blast came from. It took every bit of self-restraint for Jon to not go to Jennifer when he saw her being held up by an individual he'd never seen before, but who he knew didn't fit Gundar's description. They were both hurt, their uniforms torn and dirty. They were bruised, and Jennifer was having some trouble standing on her own.
"Corporal Chase reporting, sir," she said through clenched teeth.
She was hurting.
She was alive. Hurt, but alive.
Jennifer then purposely removed her arm from around Elzer's shoulders and limped in under her own power. She kept her gaze directly on Freedom One. "Dread soldier?"
"Dread soldier," Jon answered.
"I should have known," Jennifer said to herself.
"Wait, I know her," Elzer told them as he moved directly in front of Christine. "She's an overunit. She led my interrogation when I was captured some years ago."
"An overunit doing this kind of undercover work?" Jennifer said aloud. "Dread must have something special in mind for you."
Christine refused to answer. Elzer pulled his gun and pushed Christine back toward the door leading into the facility. That gave Jon a moment to check on Jennifer himself.
"Are you all right?" he whispered.
She nodded, but he could see she was anything but all right. "Blastarr got the drop on us. He's heading this way. We need to get everyone out of here."
Her voice was rough. More proof she was hurting. Still, she was thinking of the mission first, herself second. That was Jennifer.
"Can you make it?"
She gave him that grin that he loved to see. "Just watch me." Then, "I'm bruised, not beaten."
"All right, but when we get back to base -"
"I know. Infirmary," she said resigned.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"I don't like this," Hawk muttered low to Tank and Scout. "Jennifer should be here by now. What kind of delay could Gundar's people have had?"
Tank placed a placating hand on Hawk's shoulder. "Perhaps he's trying to recruit her?" he asked. "After all, he only goes after the best."
Hawk chuckled. "Let's hope not. After all the time and effort we've put into getting her and Jon together, I wouldn't want to see anything separating them. Besides, Gundar doesn't have any aircraft, does he?"
Scout chuckled. "Luckily for us, no."
The door leading into the room opened, a stranger and Freedom One in the lead, Jennifer and Jon behind... and Jennifer was limping.
But it was the sight of the stranger holding a gun on Freedom One that got everyone's attention. Cypher was the first to ask, "What's going on, Captain?"
"It's an ambush. It's a setup. The whole thing." He looked at Freedom One with contempt. "She's a Dread overunit."
"Overunit?" Cypher almost spat out the word. "I lost one of my people rescuing her -"
"From a fake fight she set up, no doubt." Jon concluded. "She was using this." He tossed a small device to Scout.
Scout knew exactly what the small machine was. "It's a short range transmitter. Probably to pick up local transmissions from troops which means we're in trouble."
Without hesitation, everyone drew their weapons. These were soldiers who did know how to defend themselves.
"Then they'll know they've been in a fight," Cypher declared. He pointed his weapon toward Freedom One. "She can be the first to go.
"No," Jon decided quickly. "We can't afford a battle on their terms. We've got to get these people out of here." He glanced back at Jennifer. She was still leaning slightly, still favoring her side, and her suit had no power. Jon was not going to see her put in a situation where she could be hurt further. "Pilot can you manage?" he asked low.
She glanced around before nodding her head. Jon knew that look. Even injured, she would fight. Even without armor, she'd stand her ground. Yet with all those leaders in their charge, whatever she wanted to do would take a backseat to what she had to do.
"Take them out the back way," Jon ordered. "I'll keep the Dreadies busy and make it out on foot later."
Stay behind? Against who knows how many?
"Blastarr will be with them," Jennifer said.
"I know."
Without another word, Jennifer and the rest of the team began to usher the other leaders toward the back. Hawk rushed over to Jon. "We'll never get back to you in time."
"Then I'll have the element of surprise on my side," Jon said. He didn't let Hawk argue further. "Now move it."
Hawk took a deep breath. There was no other choice, not with the leaders there. They had to be taken to safety. "Now you heard the man!" Hawk shouted to everyone. "Let's move it."
Cypher came back with an encouraging, "See you soon, Jon. Give 'em hell."
Scout took custody of Freedom One from Elzer. "Can't believe I actually wanted to meet you. You better come with me. What about her, Captain?"
What to do with her indeed. This was Freedom One. A national celebrity. "We'll get her to the Passages. Their psych people might be able to get some information out of her."
Scout pulled Freedom One out of the room, but she yelled as she left, "It is useless to fight. We will win! The will of the Machine cannot be denied!"
Hawk picked up Freedom One's transmitter and said to Elzer as they walked out the door, "She's heading for the Passages so she won't be needing this."
Alone, Jon drew his gun. Everything they hoped could happen, again, didn't happen. Just like all the times before. "So much for innocence," he said as he rushed out the opposite door to face whatever Dread forces were out there.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Clickers, Blastarr, an overunit, a trap... their luck was taking a nosedive.
They'd almost lost the major leaders in the Resistance.
Jennifer was so angry for not seeing through Freedom One's charade, that her radio show was all part of the trap. She flew her skybike to a pre-arranged emergency Resistance rendezvous point, the others struggling to follow her defensive maneuvers. All she could think of was to do as Jon asked her - get the Resistance leaders to safety, and then she was going back to get him. He was alone, fighting clickers and Blastarr. Those odds were bad even for someone with a powersuit.
She looked down and saw Sands' emergency personnel transport they were giving aerial support for rolling along below them at full speed with Evanier and Blaze on board. Just ahead of them was a wide, flat area that would be a perfect landing field. She motioned for everyone behind her to follow her down. Then, they could regroup, reform and go back for Jon.
The transport quickly rolled into the zone, and the skybikes landed one by one, most of the riders dismounting.
"Damn," Scout muttered. "I didn't know these bikes could fly like that. Even Hawk had trouble keeping up with those maneuvers."
Elzer quickly dismounted from behind Hawk and hoisted the radio on his shoulder. "Now what?"
"Now, we move even faster," Tank answered quickly.
"Get all of you out of here and get back to Jon," Jennifer said angrily, her gaze at Christine Larabee almost murderous.
Cypher was angry. The look in his eyes was pure rage. "How is it we didn't know about her?" He pointed his thumb at Larabee. "How is it we weren't warned about this being a trap? Where were our people on this one?"
Scout walked up next to Freedom One and looked her up and down. "You know, I was actually wanting to know who was behind the voice. Now, I can see you're not too much to look at."
Jennifer reached over to check her bike's fuel and felt a sharp pain in her side. She placed her arm against her ribs, trying to quell the pain. It didn't go unnoticed by others.
Hawk immediately walked up to her. "You're hurt, kiddo," Hawk whispered to her.
"A couple of ribs, that's all, I think," Jennifer shook her head. "I'll be okay. We've got to go back for Jon."
Hawk placed his hand alongside her face and tilted it toward him. He looked at her eyes, noticing something. "I think you've got a concussion," he said. "What happened?"
Jennifer shook her head, but Elzer said, "We ran into Blastarr. She took a few direct hits from him and protected us both when a wall fell on us. Then her suit disappeared."
Hawk glanced at Elzer and then gave Jennifer a stern look. "And you didn't tell us this? I'll go back for Jon. Your suit's out of power, and you're not at 100%."
Sands stood at the top of her transport. "It'd be a better idea if we scatter. We could contact the UTO. They could transport us back to our regions in their transports."
Looking around, Cypher pulled his gun from his holster and kept it at the ready as if he were expecting Blastarr to come around a corner. "I know some safe paths that can cut the distance even shorter. And there are some friends along the way that'll be able to help us get back. What about Freedom One? If you want us to, we can get her to the Passages."
Tank stood beside the angry looking overunit. "Alive?"
Cypher nodded. "She cost me one of my team, but I'll get her there alive." He walked up to her. "You'll rot in jail for what you've done."
"Not for long," Larabee argued. "You will lose. The Machine Empire will prevail. We will -"
"Cleanse the non-believers," Jennifer interrupted, her back to the group. "Lord Dread will lead us through the Transition. A new world will rise from the ashes of the old. The Machine, given unto man, will relieve us of our physical burdens... keep repeating the litanies," she said as she slowly turned toward Christine. "Keep saying them," Jennifer challenged her. "Say them enough times, you'll believe them. You might get others to believe them. But guess what? It doesn't make them true."
"You betrayed Lord Dread," Larabee hissed. "You turned your back on the Will of the Machine. A traitor. Joined with the Resistance. You are a mere speck against the greatness of the Machine, and you dare lecture me?"
Jennifer slowly walked over, forcing herself to not limp or hold her side. Damn, but she was hurting worse and worse by the minute. She might have tripped and fallen if Elzer hadn't immediately moved next to her to put a steadying hand under her arm.
"I have every right to lecture you," Jennifer hissed. "I used to be you. Then I saw the Dread Youth for what it was. What it is. The truth. I saw through the lies. I spend every single day of my life fighting Dread. I would gladly fight the machines until my last breath because I know the truth. And you? Believe me, I won't waste one breath trying to convince someone as narrow-minded, short-sighted and as stupid as you that Dread has lied to us from the very beginning. You're just not worth the effort."
"I am a loyal soldier of the Machine," Larabee almost yelled. "Those who are loyal will be eternal minds in undying metalloid bodies -"
"How?" Jennifer's tone was flat and accusatory.
Christine stopped - squinted her eyes and stared at her. "What?"
Jennifer raised her head slightly, giving the impression that she was looking down her nose at Christine. "Think about it. How is your mind going to be placed in a metalloid body? It's impossible to move someone's brain physically. It's too interconnected with the nervous system and every other system in our bodies. Our minds? How do you separate our minds from our bodies? Is it our consciousness? How can you separate that from the mind? I've seen what the transfer technicians do. What gets transferred isn't the person. Have you ever asked yourself how it all works? And what's so undying but a metalloid body? They're metal. They break down. They have to be repaired. They rust. We blast them apart in every battle." Jennifer moved right in front of her, almost nose to nose. "Think about it."
Christine growled. "You speak treason."
"Fluently," Jennifer agreed readily.
Christine, a few inches taller than Jennifer, used her height to its full advantage. She stood up straight, like she was trying to tower over Jennifer, using her height to intimidate. "Lord Dread will end you," Christine warned.
Jennifer smirked. "You think he hasn't tried time and again? Why do you think he hates us so much? We keep beating him. We keep embarrassing him," Jennifer's voice had taken on a taunting tone. "An overunit that turned against him? Notice how that's not common knowledge among the Dread Youth ranks? And look at you. You had to be a teenager when Dread started destroying the world. You knew what it was like before. You weren't stolen as a child and brainwashed into believing Dread's lies. You've got no excuse for what you've done."
"And what have I done?"
"You've willingly helped Dread destroy the world, and you did it with your eyes open."
"Eyes open? I saw more than you think," Christine taunted her. "Didn't like I was going to kill that captain of yours, did you?"
Jennifer didn't smile. She didn't grin. She didn't flinch or twitch. She said in a very low, serious voice, "Didn't like it when I shot the gun out of your hand?"
"So you stopped me from killing him," Christine pointed out. "What of it?"
"I'm an excellent shot," Jennifer's voice came very low and very menacing. "I hit what I aim at."
"You're one of Power's soldiers, and Power doesn't believe in killing other people," Christine declared.
Then, in a rough, determined voice, Jennifer said, "I'm not Power."
There was a malevolent pause before Christine grew two shades paler, perhaps at the thought that a mere traitor to the Machine could have killed her if she wanted to.
~O~O~O~
Hawk glanced at Scout and Tank. All slightly shook their heads and shrugged. This was not the usual behavior from their pilot when talking to Dread soldiers. Normally, she would try to get them to see the truth, but this time? That was anger, resentment and, if no one was being polite, pure disgust and hate.
Any other time, they'd have enjoyed watching Jennifer verbally vivisect a Dread soldier, but they just didn't have the time, and it was clear that Jennifer wasn't interested. Jon was in trouble and Jennifer was wounded. Hawk clapped his hands together. "Okay. Changing the plan a little bit. We've got to move, we've got wounded and a prisoner and a soldier in trouble. I'll go back to get Jon. Tank, go with Cypher and get Larabee to the transports. They'll take her to the Passages. Elzer -"
"We'll take care of ourselves. I'll tag along with Sands and Cypher," Elzer volunteered. "I think we're all going in the same direction. And," he pointed toward the transmitter, "I think there's a new Freedom Two in town."
"Blaze? Evanier?"
The two leaders shook their head. "We've got contacts in the area that can get us to the UTO transports. They're not far."
Jennifer tried to turn and walk back to her skybike and a sharp pain in her side stopped her. Elzer held her up. "She's hurt," Elzer told Hawk. "Bad."
Hawk took hold of Tank's arm and jerked his head toward Jennifer. Tank nodded. "Another change of plans. Blaze, Evanier, one of you needs to fly the other skybike while Tank runs guard. Scout needs to get Jennifer to an infirmary. What's closest?"
"There's a hospital, east of here. Used to be Boston Public Library," Blaze answered quickly. "We'll get a transport back home from there."
"Okay, we have a plan."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Jennifer didn't say anything, but she watched Hawk give his final orders. He needed to get back to the facility. He had to reach Jon in time.
The throbbing pain in her head was ramping up. She didn't think she'd been hurt that badly. Suddenly, Scout was there, holding her steady but she felt like passing out. It had to be a delayed reaction, an adrenaline rush wearing off. She heard the others mention something about contacts being at Arch City, something about unifying their resources still being a good idea and then it all went dark.
