SurfingSpider's Machinations
Legacies
Sylia Stingray stood at the window of her office, a window that was one hundred and four floors up from the unseen ground below, and she looked out at the sprawling metropolis of Osaka-Kobe. The city that was the new home of the Genom Corporation, the building its new headquarters, and her office the one that ran it. What's left of it, Sylia mused, adding up the remaining assets Genom still had after the destruction and quarantine of most of its facilities in central Tokyo; the production lines and warehouses at Kobe's port district, regional facilities and Sales branches in most countries - those that hadn't kicked Genom out after the Galatea Incident - and a few bilateral R&D facilities in ASEAN nations.
Barely a third of what Genom could muster before the destruction of central Tokyo, which was actually very good considering. Most watchers expected the corporation to be completely ruined. And it would have, if I hadn't bought out a controlling share of the worthless stock. So now I, Sylia Stingray, own 51% of Genom and am its CEO, and spend most of my time talking to my legal team to defend what remains from almost a hundred class action lawsuits, instead of trying to rebuild and restock. Instead of designing a rogue-safe boomer to replace the tens of thousands that still exist all over the world because despite the danger, do work too important to be replaced. All that and I haven't even mentioned the competition yet.
Sylia turned away from the window, the view no longer relaxing. She went over to her desk, a massive cedar with an embedded computer and a pitcher of water. She would have preferred stronger drink, but it wouldn't do to be drunk while at the wheel of a company that looked like it could fall at any moment and thus end the only chance to permanently cure the boomer plague.
With a long white finger, sunlight not having been in her diet for some months, she depressed a key, which in turn opened up a channel to her Secretary that was outside. "Call Ms. Yamazaki, please," she said and lifted her finger.
Thousands of boomers were out there. In Osaka-Kobe, in Japan, in Asia. In the World. Nigel and Mackie were working hard to build the prototype replacement, the product that Genom's future depended on - and the worlds, if they had bothered to listen to her. But no, with Galatea's destruction they said the situation was over, idiots, and instead turned their grievances on Genom and her when she took over. At least she had been able to stop Genom's dismemberment by successfully winning the case that the Galatea incident had been caused by Industrial Terrorists and not a new life form. Only a few people, most of them in her employ, fully knew the Truth.
Unfortunately many did not, including dozens of former Genom scientists and engineers who had left the company, headhunted, and found work in competitors. Soon all of those companies would be able to produce Boomers and add more danger to the world. Blind to profits, blind to the pieces that were there to pick up after Genom's fall from grace.
But there was one piece of good news. One that would keep Genom's creditors at bay, pay the bills and the legal fees. One piece of good news that would however send shockwaves through the international community when they heard about it.
Sylia sat back down and collected her thoughts. By the time Ms. Yamazaki arrived she would have her fledging plan and hoped to dear god that the energetic and trustworthy woman would be able to carry it out.
She had too, or the house of cards would fall with the slightest puff of air.
/\/\ss/\/\
Ms. Linna Yamazaki - she was still a Ms. - didn't have time to look out her one hundred and third floor window. She had three plastic paper trays marked IN, OUT and MORE IN. Only a few sheets were laid neatly in the OUT tray, the small jobs that didn't take much time or thought, usually just her signature required. The two IN trays however were stacked well high, easily over a foot each, of papers and folders full of papers all of which required her attention, her limited time. She hated the two IN trays with a passion. But she knew that their contents were important and work she could not delegate to her subordinates of which she had many; they had their own work to do and it was a lot as well. It was the price she had to pay for accepting Sylia's offer to work for her as a Special Personal Assistant in charge of handling the community aspects of rebuilding Genom and the damage Galatea had caused to the city of Tokyo. She liked what she was doing with an equal passion to her hatred of the trays, yet the mountain of work before her made her wonder if she would have taken the offer if she'd known there was so much work to be doen and authority required. She was after all only twenty years old and while Sylia was six years older, she knew that she didn't have Sylia's genius. She still considered herself an ordinary girl, albeit one who had saved the world.
Heroine Only Twenty Saves World! Was the headline Linna had expected when Galatea had defeated, feeling then on top of the world instead of now when she felt the world was crushing down on her. Maybe the headline would come soon in time for her birthday in a week. Twenty-one. Some time to have to relax alone and with her friends. A time to celebrate that she was alive.
Her buzzer rang and she pressed the answer button. "Yes?"
"Ms. Stingray would like to see you in her office immediately, Sir." Her Secretary said through the intercom.
"Fine. I'll be right up," and Linna ended the call. She looked at her trays and sighed. "Too much work and Slyia probably just wants to chat. I guess being the boss means you can delegate all your work and smile for the cameras."
Linna stood and slipped on her aqua jacket over her blouse and left the office to take the stairs to the next floor. She always took the stairs. It was the only time she got to exercise.
/\/\ss/\/\
"I'm going where?" Linna blanched.
Sylia leaned back in her chair and smiled. "And you'll be leaving tomorrow."
Linna put a hand to her drooping head. "But I've got so much work to do and it just keeps piling up Sylia. Councils and Body Corporates and pensioners all wanting us to do this, repair that or threatening to sue us."
"Well you can send the legal threats to the Law Department," the smugness only grew.
"Don't look at me like that." Linna frowned.
"I'm sorry dear."
Sylia gave Linna a moment to regain her composure.
"Why me?" Linna asked.
"Because you're pro-bono and this is the biggest pro-bono case in the world."
"But a whole country? I can't run a country. It is even legal for us to own a country?"
Sylia's smile vanished to be replaced by her all-business look. "I don't know but the Sierra Leone administration gave the country to us. They don't have the money to pay what the owe us and Genom really need the money to stay afloat.
"Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources and has profitable diamond mines. The country could never get itself to work because it was always having a civil war or such over those mines. The former President skipped the country with millions and an unsteady peace is being held by the administration and the rebels. The administration still holds power but that might change if the Military does a coup and then we wont get anything from them. The administration knows their situation and think we can do a better job running their country than they can, and we use their tax and resource sales to clear the bill."
Linna could feel a headache coming on. She imagined her office full of IN trays. A country. Of millions of people. "I don't know anything about running a country-" she started to protest again.
"Neither do most politicians. The Civil Service will keep everything running."
"But wouldn't it be better to send someone with experience? Someone who even knows what a government does."
"A bureaucrat? Then nothing will change. Linna, it has to be you because your not one of those. You'll assess the situation properly: how the people live; do they have enough food and adequate health services or education, who is corrupt or not pulling their weight. I need to know all of this and not just how much money we can milk from them like all their previous rulers. We can't be like them, we've got to be a responsible government and that's why I want you to go. If I send a munber cruncher they'll turn Genom's control into a dictatorship. The world will think we've invaded the place and that will destroy us, and Sierra Leone's chance for a better future."
"I suppose your right, as usual."
"Pick a team from your best staff. You'll have a Corporate jet take you there." Sylia still saw the indecision in Linna's mind, "You just have to assess the situation and report it to me as you see it. It's not like you'll actually be in charge of anything. A twenty year old girl shouldn't have the responsibility."
Linna sighed. She wasn't going to have a relaxing twenty-first birthday at all. Despite what Sylia said, her adulthood birthday would see her in charge of millions of lives. What a way to become an adult. No pressure at all.
"Okay. I guess I better leave and pack then shouldn't I?"
"Yes. Oh, and get Daley to tag along as well."
/\/\ss/\/\
The flight from Osaka to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone was a long one, but at least the jet was comfortable and well stocked. Linna spent most of the time going through the countries strife torn history and its connection with Genom with Daley Wong.
"I can't believe this," Genom's new head of the Investigative Branch said, "Genom supplied both the Government and the Rebels with military boomers and weapons."
Linna was chewing on the end of a pen. "What did you expect from people like Mason, Daley?"
"At least we don't have to try and get payments from the Rebels, they always paid upfront. I wouldn't have liked trying to get money from them now." Daley said. He'd read up on the governments military and it wasn't in good shape. The boomers they had were old models and the rest of their equipment was about as good as what the ADP had before most of it was rehired by Sylia Stingray, him and Leon included, to be Genom's new Security Division. The change of working for the enemy had been a real mindbender but it beat going back to the regular police and directing traffic. It was also a mindbender to be working for the head of the Knight Sabres and to have another one of them setting next to him. The cute one too. The world certainly was full of surprises.
"How do you think we should go about it all?" Linna asked him. She was a young girl but had a lot of spirit, self-confidence and drive. And smart enough to know when she needed advice. Or was that just a woman thing, like asking for directions?
"I'd like to get out to the mines right away. They haven't had much time to prepare for us so it'll be better if we give them enough time to prepare their reports. If we wait around we'll just slow them down and not get anything done ourselves."
"Yeah, they must have an IN tray as big as mine are."
"Pardon me?"
"Oh, nothing. Don't mind me." Linna glanced away from Daley's stare. "So many people to look after."
"But less than Tokyo."
"How do you think they'll all react when they find out that they've been sold to a company?" Linna asked.
"And one that perpetuated their troubles?"
"Yeah."
Daley shrugged and smiled, "We'll find out when we get there."
/\/\ss/\/\
Freetown's airport would be the best maintained facility in the entire country when Linna and Daley saw the rest of it. The landing was smooth and the jet taxied to the reception that awaited them on the tarmac.
"They're either going to welcome us or arrest us," Daley said looking through a window, Linna's check next to his as they inspected the row of camouflaged boomers lined up in a neat row behind a company of soldiers and a clump of civilians.
"At least we get a red carpet." Linna said. She was nervous and it showed on her face. Was she going to walk down the steps and along the red carpet and accept control over a country, or as Daley had suggested as well; become its captive?
A mobile-stair was attached and the door opened. Outside a band struck up the national anthem.
"After you, Ms Yamazaki." Daley said with an exaggerated bow.
"Why me?"
"Because you're in charge. I'm just Security."
Linna frowned then steeled herself. Daley was right, she was in charge and it wouldn't do if she let everyone know just how frightened she was. "OK." She said to herself and then went to the door, Daley falling in behind with an air of indifference and one hand in his pocket.
A breeze ran over Linna as she stepped out into the open and for the first time in many years she smelt the freshness of the air. Everyone at the reception looked at her. She felt Daley nudge her in the back and she started to walk down the stairs.
"I hope I don't fall," she whispered.
"Don't worry," Daley looked down at her lower half, "I've got your rear."
Linna's eyes widened just a bit.
The red carpet was thick and soft, and every much as exciting as walking on it should be. Linna, Daley, and their teams walked passed the band who continued to repeat the anthem over, Linna wondering if Genom had an anthem or not. She stopped when two men from the cluster of officials and stiffly uniformed officers broke away and walked up to her in a way that reminded her of a race.
"Director Yamazaki, it is an honour to meet Genom's representative and their willingness to look after our country," the official said. Both he and the officer (who had a very large rimmed hat on) held out their hands at the same time.
Linna's heart jumped. She didn't know which one to take first. The mixed civilian and military ruling council was shaky and her choice could create division by the other side.
Daley was thinking the same and saw that Linna hesitated. He was angry with the Africans for trying the political stunt and stepped out from behind Linna and addressed the two leaders. "It is Japanese custom to bow to your superior."
The Officer's eyes flashed. But he and the official withdrew their hands and instead gave attempted bows. Linna bowed back with the proper respect.
"Thank you for your welcome. I didn't except a band," she said.
The official straightened up, and with a side-ways glance to the officer said "We always welcome our Head of State this way. I am Senator Mbouti Xavier and head of the interim government. This is-"
"I am General Django Sawelei and commander of Sierre Leone's Armed Forces." The General answered for himself.
"Pleased to meet you both. I'm Linna Yamazaki and this is my Security Advisor, Daley Wong."
Daley nodded his head.
"I'm glad you came so quickly," Mbouti said. "The rebels don't yet know that our former President has left or of our request to Genom. In our weakened state the country would fall back into anarchy."
Linna was about to respond when the General cut her off.
"If you had given control to the Military after that elected weakling fled the rebels would not be a problem. Our Army is quite capable of handling them."
And on the General's words the squadron of boomers marched out on either side of the reception and faced towards them. They were all armed.
"What is this?" Mbouti gasped.
Linna's heart began to beat fast, was she going to be a captive after all? Her mission a failure before it had even begun.
"Impressive, General." Daley said. "I hope this is just a demonstration,"
The General had a triumphant look and was about to speak but Daley continued, "because you know that Genom build those boomers of yours. And," his hand pressing buttons inside his pocket, "we make sure our products don't do anything that they shouldn't." and he finished the sequence and the boomers turned back into line and walked back to where they had been originally.
"What? How did you do that?" the General gaped.
Daley smiled at him. "Like I said. The boomers belong to us, just like you."
/\/\ss/\/\
While their teams were shown around the presidential residence, a large and regal fortress, Linna and Daley were able to get some time alone for a meeting.
"Thanks for your help at the reception. I didn't know what to do." Linna said. She was leaning up against the president's table.
"I said I'd watch your back." Daley replied.
"I thought you said you'd watch my rear?" Linna gave a faint smile and raised eyebrow.
"That too, and it's the better part of my duties."
Linna's other eyebrow rose up to level with the first.
Daley took a seat and folded his hands together. "The General is a concern. I think the reception was a coup attempt and he probably has his technicians going over the boomers to find out how we controlled them. Without secure control over them he wont be so dangerous in the short term."
"How did you do that anyway?" Linna asked, curious.
Daley pulled a vcr remote like object from his pocket. "Sylia had these made up as our first assignment. Every Genom boomer can receive its signal and will obey the commands. It was meant to try and confuse or disable rogue boomers but we haven't tried it out on one yet. She's a smart lady that one."
"Sylia? Yeah. So what do you think the General will do instead?"
"Wait and watch. See what we do and probably try to acquire weapons or boomers from other channels. This little toy is all we've got that'll keep him from taking over, if that is his plan."
"So don't loose it, or let anyone know about it. But he's also got normal soldiers, and all the guns."
"He does. But they might not be reliable. A lot of rebels are former military. And some soldiers may prefer the civilian government. Boomers don't think, they just obey orders."
"Unless they go roque." Linna pointed out.
"There is that. Did you bring along your hardsuit for that alternative?"
"No. I don't have one any more. Nigel's make new ones I guess but I doubt I'll be putting one on again. Too much paperwork to do."
"Wouldn't that be a shame. Knight Sabres retired because of administrative duties."
They laughed. It felt good to laugh.
"So what we do now?" Linna brought the conversation back to topic.
"Go out to the mines and asses them. The General is wary so that plays to our advantage too. He'll cooperate while we can control his boomers."
"They're our boomers remember. Genom owns this country now."
"How did if feel to sign the paper and create history?" Daley asked. An hour ago the transfer of power had taken place. Linna, Mbouti and the General each signed a document that handed over control of Sierra Leone to Genom.
"Very profound."
"I bet."
"I'll leave organizing the trip to you, I'm going to see how my team is working out and what the schedule is."
"Good idea. I also have to see what has to be done to make this country safe again."
/\/\ss/\/\
Because the roads were unsafe they took gunships to the diamond mines. A flight of three, fully all of Sierra Leone's operational air force, they flew in line-ahead formation with the Genom passengers in the rear craft. Below they passed over green jungle and the occasional village. The interior of the machines was noisy and Spartan. Strapped into Kevlar lined bucket seats, Linna had to shout at Daley for him to hear. "Pretty isn't it?" she yelled.
"What is?" Daley shouted back. Linna pointed. "Yeah. I hope to get back down to the ground soon."
Linna laughed, the sound ripped from her throat as soon as she opened it. Daley's face was turning as green as the canopy of the trees. While flying in a hardsuit was a lot more comfortable, she never had the time to look at her surroundings. Not that a concrete jungle was anywhere near as nice as a real one.
The gunships landed at a forward base where they would wait and be refueled. A large cleared hill the base was patrolled by boomers. A Major escorted them to the jeeps he had waiting for them for the road trip to the mines. The gunships didn't have adequate space to land in the terrain there. The Major was professional and courteous and during the half hour drive on poor roads explained the situation with the rebels.
"The rebels don't care about the country. They only want the mines and a route to transport what they dig so they can sell it. They have not been active lately. My patrols have been in no combats for weeks. But that will change when they hear that the president has gone and there are also rumours that they have hired mercenaries."
The convoy of two jeeps and three armoured personal carriers (APCs) rumbled into the mine's facility, another military base. It was heavily protected and Linna could see machine guns, rocket launchers and other weapons everywhere. It reminded her of a documentary about the twentieth century war in Vietnam she'd seen during school.
"This base looks like it can protect itself." Daley commented.
"The soldiers here are good. But they are also tired and have been away from their families for a long time. If the rebels attacked it with all their forces I don't think we could hold the mines," the Major said.
They looked around the base and met the Chief Engineer. In one of the jeeps they traveled to the nearest mine which was at work.
"A shipment of diamonds will travel back to the capital with you today. There your company will see how rich these mines are," the Engineer said with some level of anger. That he wasn't happy about his country being sold. It was going to be Linna's job to make people like him realize that Genom's control would be beneficial for Sierra Leone.
"Is this the biggest mine?" Daley asked.
"No." the Engineer replied, "There is another a few kilometers further up."
"I'd like to see that one."
"As you wish, but I have work to do here."
They returned to the jeeps, the Major leading the way, and they delved into the jungle with trees that blocked out the sun. The road was rough, pitching up and down and started to turn as they rounded a hill. That was when the ambush was sprung and the lead jeep exploded as a whooshing rocket slammed into its side and detonated. The jeep flew into the air and rolled over while off the ground and crashed into the trees on the other side of the slope.
"Drive!" Daley shouted. Linna was paralyzed, unable to take her eyes off the destroyed jeep. She couldn't see any bodies.
The jeep raced forward and beyond where the first was struck. Angry bees snapped past them, small bolts of laser like light, or hit the side of the jeep. Daley shouted to get down and Linna curled herself into a ball. The soldier next to her groaned and jerked to the side and she felt hot wetness on her cheek. She screamed.
The driver turned off the road and into the jungle. He weaved the machine between trees and over brush as the gunfire exploded bark and leaves around them. A front tyre was punctured and they veered into a tree and crashed into it. The driver grabbed his gun and jumped out of the ruined vehicle.
"C'mon Linna, lets get out of here." Daley urged.
The trio ran through the jungle and then came out of it suddenly as a creek ran across their path. Water splashing up to their knees they surged through.
"Get down!" Linna warned and pushed Daley in the back as fire caused the water to fountain about them. She saw their driver pitch over backwards. The firing ceased.
"Get up slowly and raise your hands," a voice commanded from the jungle.
Dripping wet, Linna and Daley did so. Men in fatigues stepped out of the jungle with guns pointed at them. Most were black. The one who spoke to them wasn't.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two chinamen, well, one chinaman and one chinashiela. Not too shabby either." The rebel commander said. "A good piece of booty for this raid," and he ordered his men to tie their wrists, which they did eagerly.
/\/\ss/\/\
"What do you mean they've been captured?!" Sylia exploded.
Senator Mbouti on the other end of the videoconference screen blanched. "Th- the rebels must have been waiting for a shipment of diamonds and they ran into them instead. This is terrible, they just arrived. we will do everything we can to recover them."
"Yes you will." Sylia snapped and ended the communication with a stab of a finger. She looked around for something to throw - anything - but there was nothing. Instead she beat her fists on the reverberating table before throwing herself back into her chair. "Dammit Linna! How did you get yourself into trouble this time? And Daley, I thought you had more sense."
She spun around on the chair to face the smog grey sky beyond her window. Outside the air was still and the pollution hung thick over the industrial sprawl.
Counting her options, Sylia found that there weren't many. Negotiations with the rebels would destroy Genom's chance of acquiring the mines smoothly, she'd been informed about the General's action at the reception by one of Daley's team and knew that the General could already be planning a coup while the administration was in turmoil. She doubted that if the Sierra Leoneans could mount a credible rescue operation, it was more than likely that either or both her captured employees and friends would end up killed. And they were both so young. The only other option left to her was.
Sylia made the call.
/\/\ss/\/\
They had been taken to the rebels encampment, a commandeered village next to jungle where they had seen armoured vehicles and alarmingly: boomers. Daley hadn't got a good view to see what type of boomers they were, or how many, before he and Linna were hustled into one of the larger dwellings to face the rebel commander.
"On your knees," a rebel each smacked the butt of their rifles into the Genom employee's backs, driving them down. Linna cried out and Daley grunted.
"Goddamn bastard!" Daley growled to be rewarded with another blow across his face. He spat blood out onto the dirt ground where it congealed.
"Daley!" Linna gasped. She wanted to reach out to see how he was but the menacing black rebels stayed her place. When he tried to wink at her that he was okay, her heart almost stopped. She hoped he wouldn't try anything 'heroic' or mucho again, and wished she was in her hardsuit.
Sturdy combat boots walked between them, crisp fatigues tucked in tight. The captives looked up to see the rebel commander turn and inspect them.
"No more hitting, or they won't be able to talk," he said and the rebels laughed.
The commander's face was in shadow caused by his own mane of bushy brown hair. He stood with legs apart and arms crossed and regarded his prisoners intently. He was white beneath the sun's tanning light. He looked from Daley to Linna, then back to Daley.
"Names?" he said with a thick accent neither of them could recognize.
Daley stared back defiantly and an angry rebel raised up high his gun to ready it for the strike down.
"No!" Linna yelled, trying to get up.
"Linna stop!" Daley tried to warn before the hard metal stock of the rifle crashed into the back of his skull and showering his vision with sparks.
Linna too was hit again, the blow more powerful to her mind than any wound she had suffered at the hands of a boomer. The pain too was intense, the gun crunching down onto her left collarbone and she fell into a heap along side Daley. As well as they could they cradled each other.
"Linna then for the woman. What is yours foolish man? I won't ask again, and if you don't you'll see and hear a lot worse happen to your slant eyed friend." The commander gave his cruel command.
"His name is Daley. Daley Wong, and I'm Linna Yamazaki. We're both employees of the Genom Corporation and -," Linna coughed, "you should release us immediately."
"Genom do you say?" the commander looked surprised. It was hard for Linna to tell because she saw that he had only one eye, the other covered by a black patch. "That is interesting. Tell me why two Genom employees would be here in this backwater country?"
"The government owes us money." Linna gave only enough of the truth as was required.
"And that would explain your trip to the mines." The commander smiled. His smile was full of even, pearly teeth. "We steal from the minds to fund our war, while you want to steal it go pay your luxurious wages. How much the same you and I are then."
"What should we do with them, Sir?" the rebel who had captured them said.
"Lock them up where they can't cause trouble. Their company will find out what has happened to them and they will want them back. After a little negotiation I'm sure we can acquire some new assault boomers, don't you think?"
The subordinate grinned, "That would be just fine by me, Sir. Okay lads, take 'em away."
And rough hands lifted them from the ground, Linna gasping with the pain to her shoulder, and they were taken to their makeshift cell.
/\/\ss/\/\
The cargo planned landed at Freetown's military runway, which was also located at the cities airport. There was no visible reception and the plane taxied to a maintenance hanger where the doors closed noisily behind it. Outside the hanger were many trucks and soldiers, despite orders on the contrary from on-high. The few staff that worked at the civilian airport (it didn't see much traffic) gave cursory glances to the closed hanger but really didn't give it much thought.
/\/\ss/\/\
Level B-10 was where the Cyber-espionage Division of Genom resided. Made up of a few ex-ADP staffers and Genom sysops, the floor was in a constant state of dullness, the need for secrecy of each of the skilled computer users going right down to how much light there was in a room or corridor. Not even the fellow in the next office (everyone had an enclosed office) should be able to see another's monitor.
Sylia, who always felt the approach of a migraine by being at the underground floor, stood and watched over the shoulder of the diminutive blonde Nene Romanova as she, in he own words, 'worked her magic'. Like the incessant rain, the former-APD dispatcher's cum Knight Sabre cum Genom CyberOperative #001 fingers covered the 256 key keyboard faster than the eye could follow.
"I'm adjusting the satellite's camera right now, Sylia," Nene said, face backlite by the glow of her terminal and the streams of alphanumeric characters that rolled down and across it.
Standing over the other shoulder, Chief Roland, the overall Head of Security, blinked his eyes so they wouldn't start tearing. While the aged and gruff former policeman had a real title, everyone still called him Chief (of his ADP days), or Roland if they were on closer terms. While Sylia found it quite amusing to be standing along side a former enemy, Chief Roland was of a more practical nature: he had a job, and a darn good one. His new boss had let him bring along all of his best men and women, even considering Nene until he had found out, shockingly, who she really was. There wouldn't be any more dispatching for that little lady, at all.
"How long will you have before they realize the satellite's been put off course?" Sylia asked.
"We should have a few minutes, I hope," Nene answered. "I've covered my trail pretty well so no one will suspect us."
A few months back, Roland would have said something about that, but no longer. Nene was a ghost and had helped foil an attempt by the Japanese Army no-doubt, to steal an idle batch of military grade boomers while Sylia was still struggling to take full control over the company.
While Nene worked at the controls, Sylia asked: "Is everything else ready?"
Roland nodded. "Got word before I came down. As soon as the satellite images are transmitted the ball will start rolling."
"The ball was thrown well before us knowing," Sylia said flatly. How dare anyone take anything from her!
"Got it!" Nene proclaimed triumphantly and the plasma wall screen opposite them flickered to life. On it was part of Western Africa at night. Along the coast were pinpricks of civilized light, the rest a blackness. "I'm zooming in on their trackers." And the image changed, rushing inwards. Nene toyed with the controls and settings until she settled over the target spot and cleaned up the image and switched over to infra-red.
There was a village of about a dozen mud and thatch buildings near the edge of a clearing. The clearing was full of parallel lines of farmland. A few jeeps and trucks were about and the motion of sentries as they walked. Some held cigarettes. "It'll be cold at night," Sylia said. Nene moved the image around.
"Which one are they in?" Roland asked.
Simultaneously, Sylia and Linna pointed to a small round hut. "That one."
Roland pushed down on the secure communications link he had to Sierra Leone. "You getting this?" he asked to the person on the other end, thousands of kilometers away.
"Yep," came back the weighty reply. "Nene, can you check the forest. They might have hidden weapons there or more men."
"Okay." Nene chimed, humming, and the image shifted. The speakers concerns were founded.
"They look like boomers, don't they?" Sylia said.
"Six, no, eight." Nene counted. "Those two have low batteries."
"Got it." Said from another country.
The image started to go grainy.
"Damn, they've found out, Sylia. What should I do?"
"You can close the channel. We got what we needed."
"I hope it was enough, there could be an awful lot of trouble in those trees and huts. Pictures don't tell a man's fighting spirit." Roland warned.
"You worry too much old man. Sylia, we'll have them out by morning."
"Good luck." Sylia said.
"Yeah Leon-poo, you bring them back or you'll answer to me!" Nene shouted.
Sylia cut the link before the angry response came back.
"Now what?" Nene slumped back into her chair.
"We wait."
/\/\ss/\/\
A small candle provided their only means of illumination but it was enough to make out the dark blue and purple bruises that they each wore.
"I think the bone might be broken," Linna lightly prodded her collar. She winced and was glad she couldn't see just how bad if felt. She'd received her fare share of bruises from being bashed around by rouge boomers, but then she could have gone to her home, had a hot shower and retired to her soft bed. There were sacks of UN AID grain in their circular cell, but the nest of weevils kept her away. Her hair was a mess enough already, she had tried to joke to Daley.
For his part Daley had a stiff neck and one side of his face had swelled where the butt of a rifle had struck him. Checking his teeth, he found them all still firmly in place, and while his face was fortunately numb, speaking was difficult. So he stayed quiet, moping. His first time out and he'd blown it. Got himself and his young charge captured by a force who would barter then back to Genom, or when they found out that Genom was in charge of the country now, probably hold them hostage or worse execute them. Thus ended would be his career, and back to his father's farm it would be. If he survived. The worst of it was Linna and the pain she was enduring and what his might conjured up of her having to endure in the future. It was a mistake to bring her along. Stupid. They should have waited until the security was better.
Linna's own spirits were diminished because of Daley's withdrawal. They'd spoken only a few words, to make sure the other was all right. That had been it. Through the candles flickering flame she watched him sit hunched over, arms around knees, facing away from her. So she wouldn't see the terrible bruise that marred his face. She wanted to talk, to say something, anything, to pass the time and stop the depression rising. Each moment without words spoken meant a moment thinking about what could happen to them next.
She rubbed her face with her good arm and it came away dirty. She imagined herself with a layer of dirt and grime. What would elegant Sylia say to that? Could she loose her job over looking so bad? She had to laugh, and it felt good.
"What are you laughing about?" Daley asked through lips that barely moved.
"How my face looks, it must be so-," she stopped. Her face was only dirty. "I'm sorry."
"Nothing a month of surgery wont fix, if we survive." Daley said with melancholy.
"Sylia'll get us out. She wont leave us here." Linna responded with conviction.
Daley shrugged and turned away again.
"And until the, you've got to watch my rear, right?"
"Pardon?"
"My rear. Y'know?"
"It is a nice rear," Daley said with a trace of lightness.
"On a scale of one to ten?" Linna asked.
"Oh, maybe a nine." Daley let himself go.
"Only a nine?" Linna tried to sound chiding.
"Can't give you a ten sorry, Sylia would fire me."
Linna had to agree. "She's got a nice rear too."
"I wouldn't have thought you'd notice,"
Linna blushed furiously. "Uh, well, she does like to dress flashy and show off," she stammered.
"You should too."
"I.?"
Daley held up a finger to his lips for quiet and Linna obeyed. They heard footfalls on dried grass coming towards them.
The lock was stripped away from the hut's door and it opened. Through stood two men, behind them the twilight of the sky. One pointed a gun towards them and the other placed two bowels on the ground. "Eat." And the door was shut and locked again.
/\/\ss/\/\
For the brief fleeting moment that Linna saw the Sea of Stars, Leon had been staring at them for an hour from the troop compartment of the same gunship that had taken his two friends to their fate. Out there, somewhere under the night sky was the longing his heart.
"Coming up to the drop zone in five," Lieutenant Hagura said over the intercom. He was in the lead gunship a hundred metres in front.
Snapped out his reverie, Leon pushed down the faceplate over his eyes. "Get ready people. It's only three klicks from the drop point to the target site. Check your systems and power up your Grasshoppers," he said, looking around at the four other RRT members that were with him in the gunship, knowing that another five each were in the other two airborne machines. Each of them fully enclosed in an armoured body-double exoskeleton. How armoured he and his men would find out soon enough. The Grasshoppers his men had christened the suits, after the jump packs built into the suits backs. The two women on his team preferred to call theirs Praying Mantis'. A name deserved.
He waited out the remaining time in silence, thinking of her no more.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Sir," a Caucasian rebel, mercenary, entered his commander's hut and saluted.
"What is it Jones?" the commander asked.
"We've picked up three helicopters on radar."
"Heading?"
"Not towards us Sir, but they aren't far away."
"Worried, Jones?"
"Only if they know where here, Sir. Or about the hostages."
The commander nodded and stood. He reached to get his pistol belt and put it on. "Keep watching them and alert the sentries. The copters wont attack us alone, no ground troops could get here so quickly. They're probably reconnoitering."
"Yes Sir." Jones saluted and left.
The commander sat back down again, one hand resting on his pistol, reassuringly.
/\/\ss/\/\
Dawho Impi pulled back a long satisfying draught on his unfiltered cigarette. The hot smoke traveled down his lungs, filling them, until he breathed out a ghostly mist in exhalation and smiled.
He didn't get to breath again, at all, as a rubber coated gauntlet wrapped around his face and over his mouth and nose, another pressure against the back of his neck and then with a little snap his neck was broken and his assailant laid him gently down to the uncultivated ground.
Lieutenant Hagura signaled back the all-clear and a skirmish line of bulky black humanoid shapes revealed themselves from the jungle. Five hundred meters away was the village, and on the other side a platoon of boomers and rebels.
Quickly his team marched towards the village.
/\/\ss/\/\
Leon watched Hagura's approach from afar. With normal vision he wouldn't be able to see the suits at all. They were also heat- and magnetic-shielded further degrading other optics. He watched on a specific channel designed to let each wearer know where the other was, a tactical map on his HUD also displayed the other fourteen dots of the RRT. Shortly Hagura's men would reach their line and then Samuels' team would launch the ruckus. The rebel's wouldn't know what hit them.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jessica Lweollen was twenty-three years old and felt invincible. In her Praying Mantis suit - let the boys call them 'girly' names like Grasshopper - she crept through the jungle undergrowth, amazed at how stealthy she could be in what was a tin can. A tin can she was mightily proud of however. Beside her in open line were the rest of the team she belonged to; Samuels her Sergeant, Konrad, Ishikawa and Asahi. All of them had been ADP frontliners and had operated a CaseSuit during their time. Like the other's she'd followed Chief Roland to work for the Enemy: Genom who produced the boomers they were sworn to destroy (or die trying as the case usually turned out to be) who was now run by another arch-foe: The Knight Sabres. Most of the others didn't believe her, that Miss Sylia Stingray, was a Knight Sabre but she did. How else did Genom suddenly produce the Praying Mantis suit she wore now? A CaseSuit was nothing compared to it and it wasn't like a bulky boomer either. It just had to be a different kind of suit like the Knight Sabres wore. And having seen how combat effective they were, this mission was going to be a thrill.
Two suits down, Jessica's Sergeant got ready. Twenty metres now to the idle line of boomer. Everything was going as planned.
Therefore when the rebel stepped out from behind a tree directly in his path, hitching up his pants as he did so, gun over a shoulder, Samuels got the surprise of his life.
The rebel for his part stared in complete shock at the blocky humanoid that was only a meter away. He said; "What are you doing here, boomer?" in his native tongue, and with heart starting to slow down, turned away but saw another boomer a few meters from the other. He started to look back.
Samuels rushed in and punched the rebel in the face, heard a crack. "Let's go!" he ordered his team and they sprinted forwards.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jones shrugged as he watched the radar points that were the government helicopters flying away. They had stopped for a few minutes, enough time to drop off a recon party that might look for their base during the day. He decided to go and tell the commander what had happened and then call it a night.
He stepped out from the radar and communications hut - it had a small satellite dish poking through the roof - when he heard a whoosh and then felt a hot pressure wave hit him in the back and lift him off the ground. Tumbling in mid-air he saw the hut explode in a splinter of thatch. It actually looked very pretty.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander was on his feet as soon as he heard the explosion. Had the copters attacked? Why, and how did they get so close without a warning? From his hut he rushed out into the brightening night.
/\/\ss/\/\
"What was that?" Linna shouted above the dying roar.
"Something blew up," Daley tried to yell back. He scuttled over to the wall where there were cracks. "They're running around." Linna pressed up against his back, trying to look over his shoulder.
Then the firing started.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jessica dropped down onto one knee and raised her right arm. Mounted along the forearm above the wrist was a HVAP machine gun. The ammunition feed ran along her arm to her side and she could actually feel the bullets run down the length to be ejected on hot gas as she mentally gave the command to fire.
Bark and leaves and twigs filled the air as her weapon whirred and spat out a stream of chaos. Three rebels flew back with spread arms and sparks erupted all over the chassis of a combat boomer. Ricochets flew off into the sky, falling stars in reverse.
The boomer then blew apart in a ball of flame and smoke, metal arcing through the air, as a well aimed anti-tank missile from Asahi's shoulder launcher struck true.
Through the gap Jessica leapt and she sought out more targets and poured fire into them.
/\/\ss/\/\
Leon watched from the background as the assault took place. After the initial shock the rebels reacted well and regrouped near the wood line. They had five remaining boomers and it was the first time he saw them in action. Sprouting weapons and heavy armour the turned on his first assault team and started to force them back. The rebels used the boomers as protection and fired from around their legs. He heard Samuel's give the order and his team pulled back in a leap-frog tactic. They kept up fire to make sure the rebels didn't come too close or too fast. But they followed and in after a few minutes Leon could see them passing across his front and into his ambush.
"Just like hunting rogue boomers," he said to no one in particular, and then "Fire!"
Two of the boomers exploded with terrific displays of pyrotechnics right after.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Okay, that's our signal, lets move in." Hagura ordered and his team flashed into the village with their jump packs. "Section 1, secure the hostages. 2, covering fire."
His quintet quickly split and went to work. The target hut known, Section 1 rushed towards it while Section 2 shot down or drove back any rebels that remained in the village.
/\/\ss/\/\
The Grasshoppers didn't come through the door, they ripped a section of the wall right out with clawed hands. Linna and Daley stared at them in shock.
"We've come to rescue you,"
"The Grasshoppers." Daley said in awe.
Hands were held out and taken.
/\/\ss/\/\
Riddled with bullets the rebel flopped onto the earth and rapidly stained it with his blood.
The commander cursed. He was pinned down by two small boomers that were firing accurately and he only had a handful of men. The rest were in the jungle behind him where he could hear a very intense battle being waged. But that battle was an illusion. Here, now, was the real fight. The attackers were after his hostages and they would get away unless he did something about it.
"Fire at them fools!" he snarled to the huddling rebels. Looking around he saw a hut that hadn't been destroyed and safe from fire. In it he knew were weapons. Heavy ones. He sprinted over.
/\/\ss/\/\
"This way, this way!" Hagura motioned and shielded by his men, Linna and Daley sprinted towards him.
Time then slowed down when Hagura saw a man thirty meters away step around a corner from outside a hut and kneel down, a long tube held level over his shoulder. Hagura knew that he couldn't fire in time or that his men would get to cover before the rocket would strike. Leaning forward he fires his jump pack at the horizontal and shot forward, screaming.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander depressed the RPG's trigger and rocked back as the long dart like missile popped out, seemed to hang before his eyes, then race towards the enemy on a jet of gas.
/\/\ss/\/\
Hagura aimed right at the approaching missile twisted around killing his pack. Visored faces looked at him in wonder and then there was a tremendous roar and he felt himself flying again, this time up and back the way he came, flame all about him.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander kneeled, stunned at the suicidal bravery of the boomer. Then the other boomers, how advanced they must be to move so fluidly and quickly, turned on him and started to fire. Retreat the better part of valour, the commander retired from the lost battle and slipping into a jeep, drove away into the dawning horizon.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Code Green, Code Green." Leon heard over his com. He let out a sigh of relief, the hostages had been freed and were on their way to the Rally Point where the helicopters would be waiting for them.
"All units disengage and head for the RP."
He fired a last burst just to keep the enemies heads down before turning and joining the other trails of light.
/\/\ss/\/\
Sylia slumped back in her one-hundred-and-forth-level office chair. She was relieved that the operation had succeeded and Linna and Daley rescued with minimal loss. She was satisfied with the performance of her generic hardsuits, but she was not satisfied with herself. Opening and closing drawers she searched for the glass bottle that was not there, the brown fluid within it. Frustrated, growling she slammed a drawer shut and scrapped her hands through her silver tresses.
"Dammit Father! You're dead and yet your legacy remains. How many people will die because of what you created? How much suffering do we have to endure?" And she buried her face in her hands, hid her head behind her hair and tried to cry, but no tears would come.
Legacies: The End
/\/\ss/\/\
Notes: This story, and the Machinations 2041 world as a whole will be very different to what BGC fans are used to. This is for a simple reason: It's time for a change. BGC, Crash and 2040 all operated in the same manner, centering on the Knight Sabres, their suits, and the battle against Genom.
After 2040, Genom would be effectively finished as a company. Look at what happened to Enron. Genom is much bigger but it also has allowed a worldwide catastrophe to take place and Japan and other world governments want someone to blame and litigate. Also, who would want to buy Genom's products any more? The stock price tanked in short order (I've witnessed the dotcom bubble burst first hand, twice) allowing Sylia to snatch the stock up and buy a controlling portion of the ruined company - because that's what analysts and employees would have thought. Stock holders handed their shares over to Sylia, glad to be rid of them. Engineers and Scientists were headhunted by other companies and put to work building boomers of their own, allowing for a rapid proliferation of boomer constructing companies and an effective enlarging of the unsolved rogue problem. The problem that Sylia wants to stop, and she believes that by running Genom she has the best chance to do it. The Knight Sabres can't fight a global campaign, but she enlisted them and the remnants of the ADP to her cause. It's an audacious plan and right with peril, many forces wanting her to fail. Through the minefield of world politics, business and terrorism, Sylia and Co must make a teetering Genom as successful as it once was; a monopoly boomer producer. It the only way she can control the dangerous future.
So has begun SurfingSpider's Machinations, a series of expanded out scenarios much like Tom Clancy's Op-Centre and Powerplays novels.
Legacies
Sylia Stingray stood at the window of her office, a window that was one hundred and four floors up from the unseen ground below, and she looked out at the sprawling metropolis of Osaka-Kobe. The city that was the new home of the Genom Corporation, the building its new headquarters, and her office the one that ran it. What's left of it, Sylia mused, adding up the remaining assets Genom still had after the destruction and quarantine of most of its facilities in central Tokyo; the production lines and warehouses at Kobe's port district, regional facilities and Sales branches in most countries - those that hadn't kicked Genom out after the Galatea Incident - and a few bilateral R&D facilities in ASEAN nations.
Barely a third of what Genom could muster before the destruction of central Tokyo, which was actually very good considering. Most watchers expected the corporation to be completely ruined. And it would have, if I hadn't bought out a controlling share of the worthless stock. So now I, Sylia Stingray, own 51% of Genom and am its CEO, and spend most of my time talking to my legal team to defend what remains from almost a hundred class action lawsuits, instead of trying to rebuild and restock. Instead of designing a rogue-safe boomer to replace the tens of thousands that still exist all over the world because despite the danger, do work too important to be replaced. All that and I haven't even mentioned the competition yet.
Sylia turned away from the window, the view no longer relaxing. She went over to her desk, a massive cedar with an embedded computer and a pitcher of water. She would have preferred stronger drink, but it wouldn't do to be drunk while at the wheel of a company that looked like it could fall at any moment and thus end the only chance to permanently cure the boomer plague.
With a long white finger, sunlight not having been in her diet for some months, she depressed a key, which in turn opened up a channel to her Secretary that was outside. "Call Ms. Yamazaki, please," she said and lifted her finger.
Thousands of boomers were out there. In Osaka-Kobe, in Japan, in Asia. In the World. Nigel and Mackie were working hard to build the prototype replacement, the product that Genom's future depended on - and the worlds, if they had bothered to listen to her. But no, with Galatea's destruction they said the situation was over, idiots, and instead turned their grievances on Genom and her when she took over. At least she had been able to stop Genom's dismemberment by successfully winning the case that the Galatea incident had been caused by Industrial Terrorists and not a new life form. Only a few people, most of them in her employ, fully knew the Truth.
Unfortunately many did not, including dozens of former Genom scientists and engineers who had left the company, headhunted, and found work in competitors. Soon all of those companies would be able to produce Boomers and add more danger to the world. Blind to profits, blind to the pieces that were there to pick up after Genom's fall from grace.
But there was one piece of good news. One that would keep Genom's creditors at bay, pay the bills and the legal fees. One piece of good news that would however send shockwaves through the international community when they heard about it.
Sylia sat back down and collected her thoughts. By the time Ms. Yamazaki arrived she would have her fledging plan and hoped to dear god that the energetic and trustworthy woman would be able to carry it out.
She had too, or the house of cards would fall with the slightest puff of air.
/\/\ss/\/\
Ms. Linna Yamazaki - she was still a Ms. - didn't have time to look out her one hundred and third floor window. She had three plastic paper trays marked IN, OUT and MORE IN. Only a few sheets were laid neatly in the OUT tray, the small jobs that didn't take much time or thought, usually just her signature required. The two IN trays however were stacked well high, easily over a foot each, of papers and folders full of papers all of which required her attention, her limited time. She hated the two IN trays with a passion. But she knew that their contents were important and work she could not delegate to her subordinates of which she had many; they had their own work to do and it was a lot as well. It was the price she had to pay for accepting Sylia's offer to work for her as a Special Personal Assistant in charge of handling the community aspects of rebuilding Genom and the damage Galatea had caused to the city of Tokyo. She liked what she was doing with an equal passion to her hatred of the trays, yet the mountain of work before her made her wonder if she would have taken the offer if she'd known there was so much work to be doen and authority required. She was after all only twenty years old and while Sylia was six years older, she knew that she didn't have Sylia's genius. She still considered herself an ordinary girl, albeit one who had saved the world.
Heroine Only Twenty Saves World! Was the headline Linna had expected when Galatea had defeated, feeling then on top of the world instead of now when she felt the world was crushing down on her. Maybe the headline would come soon in time for her birthday in a week. Twenty-one. Some time to have to relax alone and with her friends. A time to celebrate that she was alive.
Her buzzer rang and she pressed the answer button. "Yes?"
"Ms. Stingray would like to see you in her office immediately, Sir." Her Secretary said through the intercom.
"Fine. I'll be right up," and Linna ended the call. She looked at her trays and sighed. "Too much work and Slyia probably just wants to chat. I guess being the boss means you can delegate all your work and smile for the cameras."
Linna stood and slipped on her aqua jacket over her blouse and left the office to take the stairs to the next floor. She always took the stairs. It was the only time she got to exercise.
/\/\ss/\/\
"I'm going where?" Linna blanched.
Sylia leaned back in her chair and smiled. "And you'll be leaving tomorrow."
Linna put a hand to her drooping head. "But I've got so much work to do and it just keeps piling up Sylia. Councils and Body Corporates and pensioners all wanting us to do this, repair that or threatening to sue us."
"Well you can send the legal threats to the Law Department," the smugness only grew.
"Don't look at me like that." Linna frowned.
"I'm sorry dear."
Sylia gave Linna a moment to regain her composure.
"Why me?" Linna asked.
"Because you're pro-bono and this is the biggest pro-bono case in the world."
"But a whole country? I can't run a country. It is even legal for us to own a country?"
Sylia's smile vanished to be replaced by her all-business look. "I don't know but the Sierra Leone administration gave the country to us. They don't have the money to pay what the owe us and Genom really need the money to stay afloat.
"Sierra Leone is rich in natural resources and has profitable diamond mines. The country could never get itself to work because it was always having a civil war or such over those mines. The former President skipped the country with millions and an unsteady peace is being held by the administration and the rebels. The administration still holds power but that might change if the Military does a coup and then we wont get anything from them. The administration knows their situation and think we can do a better job running their country than they can, and we use their tax and resource sales to clear the bill."
Linna could feel a headache coming on. She imagined her office full of IN trays. A country. Of millions of people. "I don't know anything about running a country-" she started to protest again.
"Neither do most politicians. The Civil Service will keep everything running."
"But wouldn't it be better to send someone with experience? Someone who even knows what a government does."
"A bureaucrat? Then nothing will change. Linna, it has to be you because your not one of those. You'll assess the situation properly: how the people live; do they have enough food and adequate health services or education, who is corrupt or not pulling their weight. I need to know all of this and not just how much money we can milk from them like all their previous rulers. We can't be like them, we've got to be a responsible government and that's why I want you to go. If I send a munber cruncher they'll turn Genom's control into a dictatorship. The world will think we've invaded the place and that will destroy us, and Sierra Leone's chance for a better future."
"I suppose your right, as usual."
"Pick a team from your best staff. You'll have a Corporate jet take you there." Sylia still saw the indecision in Linna's mind, "You just have to assess the situation and report it to me as you see it. It's not like you'll actually be in charge of anything. A twenty year old girl shouldn't have the responsibility."
Linna sighed. She wasn't going to have a relaxing twenty-first birthday at all. Despite what Sylia said, her adulthood birthday would see her in charge of millions of lives. What a way to become an adult. No pressure at all.
"Okay. I guess I better leave and pack then shouldn't I?"
"Yes. Oh, and get Daley to tag along as well."
/\/\ss/\/\
The flight from Osaka to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone was a long one, but at least the jet was comfortable and well stocked. Linna spent most of the time going through the countries strife torn history and its connection with Genom with Daley Wong.
"I can't believe this," Genom's new head of the Investigative Branch said, "Genom supplied both the Government and the Rebels with military boomers and weapons."
Linna was chewing on the end of a pen. "What did you expect from people like Mason, Daley?"
"At least we don't have to try and get payments from the Rebels, they always paid upfront. I wouldn't have liked trying to get money from them now." Daley said. He'd read up on the governments military and it wasn't in good shape. The boomers they had were old models and the rest of their equipment was about as good as what the ADP had before most of it was rehired by Sylia Stingray, him and Leon included, to be Genom's new Security Division. The change of working for the enemy had been a real mindbender but it beat going back to the regular police and directing traffic. It was also a mindbender to be working for the head of the Knight Sabres and to have another one of them setting next to him. The cute one too. The world certainly was full of surprises.
"How do you think we should go about it all?" Linna asked him. She was a young girl but had a lot of spirit, self-confidence and drive. And smart enough to know when she needed advice. Or was that just a woman thing, like asking for directions?
"I'd like to get out to the mines right away. They haven't had much time to prepare for us so it'll be better if we give them enough time to prepare their reports. If we wait around we'll just slow them down and not get anything done ourselves."
"Yeah, they must have an IN tray as big as mine are."
"Pardon me?"
"Oh, nothing. Don't mind me." Linna glanced away from Daley's stare. "So many people to look after."
"But less than Tokyo."
"How do you think they'll all react when they find out that they've been sold to a company?" Linna asked.
"And one that perpetuated their troubles?"
"Yeah."
Daley shrugged and smiled, "We'll find out when we get there."
/\/\ss/\/\
Freetown's airport would be the best maintained facility in the entire country when Linna and Daley saw the rest of it. The landing was smooth and the jet taxied to the reception that awaited them on the tarmac.
"They're either going to welcome us or arrest us," Daley said looking through a window, Linna's check next to his as they inspected the row of camouflaged boomers lined up in a neat row behind a company of soldiers and a clump of civilians.
"At least we get a red carpet." Linna said. She was nervous and it showed on her face. Was she going to walk down the steps and along the red carpet and accept control over a country, or as Daley had suggested as well; become its captive?
A mobile-stair was attached and the door opened. Outside a band struck up the national anthem.
"After you, Ms Yamazaki." Daley said with an exaggerated bow.
"Why me?"
"Because you're in charge. I'm just Security."
Linna frowned then steeled herself. Daley was right, she was in charge and it wouldn't do if she let everyone know just how frightened she was. "OK." She said to herself and then went to the door, Daley falling in behind with an air of indifference and one hand in his pocket.
A breeze ran over Linna as she stepped out into the open and for the first time in many years she smelt the freshness of the air. Everyone at the reception looked at her. She felt Daley nudge her in the back and she started to walk down the stairs.
"I hope I don't fall," she whispered.
"Don't worry," Daley looked down at her lower half, "I've got your rear."
Linna's eyes widened just a bit.
The red carpet was thick and soft, and every much as exciting as walking on it should be. Linna, Daley, and their teams walked passed the band who continued to repeat the anthem over, Linna wondering if Genom had an anthem or not. She stopped when two men from the cluster of officials and stiffly uniformed officers broke away and walked up to her in a way that reminded her of a race.
"Director Yamazaki, it is an honour to meet Genom's representative and their willingness to look after our country," the official said. Both he and the officer (who had a very large rimmed hat on) held out their hands at the same time.
Linna's heart jumped. She didn't know which one to take first. The mixed civilian and military ruling council was shaky and her choice could create division by the other side.
Daley was thinking the same and saw that Linna hesitated. He was angry with the Africans for trying the political stunt and stepped out from behind Linna and addressed the two leaders. "It is Japanese custom to bow to your superior."
The Officer's eyes flashed. But he and the official withdrew their hands and instead gave attempted bows. Linna bowed back with the proper respect.
"Thank you for your welcome. I didn't except a band," she said.
The official straightened up, and with a side-ways glance to the officer said "We always welcome our Head of State this way. I am Senator Mbouti Xavier and head of the interim government. This is-"
"I am General Django Sawelei and commander of Sierre Leone's Armed Forces." The General answered for himself.
"Pleased to meet you both. I'm Linna Yamazaki and this is my Security Advisor, Daley Wong."
Daley nodded his head.
"I'm glad you came so quickly," Mbouti said. "The rebels don't yet know that our former President has left or of our request to Genom. In our weakened state the country would fall back into anarchy."
Linna was about to respond when the General cut her off.
"If you had given control to the Military after that elected weakling fled the rebels would not be a problem. Our Army is quite capable of handling them."
And on the General's words the squadron of boomers marched out on either side of the reception and faced towards them. They were all armed.
"What is this?" Mbouti gasped.
Linna's heart began to beat fast, was she going to be a captive after all? Her mission a failure before it had even begun.
"Impressive, General." Daley said. "I hope this is just a demonstration,"
The General had a triumphant look and was about to speak but Daley continued, "because you know that Genom build those boomers of yours. And," his hand pressing buttons inside his pocket, "we make sure our products don't do anything that they shouldn't." and he finished the sequence and the boomers turned back into line and walked back to where they had been originally.
"What? How did you do that?" the General gaped.
Daley smiled at him. "Like I said. The boomers belong to us, just like you."
/\/\ss/\/\
While their teams were shown around the presidential residence, a large and regal fortress, Linna and Daley were able to get some time alone for a meeting.
"Thanks for your help at the reception. I didn't know what to do." Linna said. She was leaning up against the president's table.
"I said I'd watch your back." Daley replied.
"I thought you said you'd watch my rear?" Linna gave a faint smile and raised eyebrow.
"That too, and it's the better part of my duties."
Linna's other eyebrow rose up to level with the first.
Daley took a seat and folded his hands together. "The General is a concern. I think the reception was a coup attempt and he probably has his technicians going over the boomers to find out how we controlled them. Without secure control over them he wont be so dangerous in the short term."
"How did you do that anyway?" Linna asked, curious.
Daley pulled a vcr remote like object from his pocket. "Sylia had these made up as our first assignment. Every Genom boomer can receive its signal and will obey the commands. It was meant to try and confuse or disable rogue boomers but we haven't tried it out on one yet. She's a smart lady that one."
"Sylia? Yeah. So what do you think the General will do instead?"
"Wait and watch. See what we do and probably try to acquire weapons or boomers from other channels. This little toy is all we've got that'll keep him from taking over, if that is his plan."
"So don't loose it, or let anyone know about it. But he's also got normal soldiers, and all the guns."
"He does. But they might not be reliable. A lot of rebels are former military. And some soldiers may prefer the civilian government. Boomers don't think, they just obey orders."
"Unless they go roque." Linna pointed out.
"There is that. Did you bring along your hardsuit for that alternative?"
"No. I don't have one any more. Nigel's make new ones I guess but I doubt I'll be putting one on again. Too much paperwork to do."
"Wouldn't that be a shame. Knight Sabres retired because of administrative duties."
They laughed. It felt good to laugh.
"So what we do now?" Linna brought the conversation back to topic.
"Go out to the mines and asses them. The General is wary so that plays to our advantage too. He'll cooperate while we can control his boomers."
"They're our boomers remember. Genom owns this country now."
"How did if feel to sign the paper and create history?" Daley asked. An hour ago the transfer of power had taken place. Linna, Mbouti and the General each signed a document that handed over control of Sierra Leone to Genom.
"Very profound."
"I bet."
"I'll leave organizing the trip to you, I'm going to see how my team is working out and what the schedule is."
"Good idea. I also have to see what has to be done to make this country safe again."
/\/\ss/\/\
Because the roads were unsafe they took gunships to the diamond mines. A flight of three, fully all of Sierra Leone's operational air force, they flew in line-ahead formation with the Genom passengers in the rear craft. Below they passed over green jungle and the occasional village. The interior of the machines was noisy and Spartan. Strapped into Kevlar lined bucket seats, Linna had to shout at Daley for him to hear. "Pretty isn't it?" she yelled.
"What is?" Daley shouted back. Linna pointed. "Yeah. I hope to get back down to the ground soon."
Linna laughed, the sound ripped from her throat as soon as she opened it. Daley's face was turning as green as the canopy of the trees. While flying in a hardsuit was a lot more comfortable, she never had the time to look at her surroundings. Not that a concrete jungle was anywhere near as nice as a real one.
The gunships landed at a forward base where they would wait and be refueled. A large cleared hill the base was patrolled by boomers. A Major escorted them to the jeeps he had waiting for them for the road trip to the mines. The gunships didn't have adequate space to land in the terrain there. The Major was professional and courteous and during the half hour drive on poor roads explained the situation with the rebels.
"The rebels don't care about the country. They only want the mines and a route to transport what they dig so they can sell it. They have not been active lately. My patrols have been in no combats for weeks. But that will change when they hear that the president has gone and there are also rumours that they have hired mercenaries."
The convoy of two jeeps and three armoured personal carriers (APCs) rumbled into the mine's facility, another military base. It was heavily protected and Linna could see machine guns, rocket launchers and other weapons everywhere. It reminded her of a documentary about the twentieth century war in Vietnam she'd seen during school.
"This base looks like it can protect itself." Daley commented.
"The soldiers here are good. But they are also tired and have been away from their families for a long time. If the rebels attacked it with all their forces I don't think we could hold the mines," the Major said.
They looked around the base and met the Chief Engineer. In one of the jeeps they traveled to the nearest mine which was at work.
"A shipment of diamonds will travel back to the capital with you today. There your company will see how rich these mines are," the Engineer said with some level of anger. That he wasn't happy about his country being sold. It was going to be Linna's job to make people like him realize that Genom's control would be beneficial for Sierra Leone.
"Is this the biggest mine?" Daley asked.
"No." the Engineer replied, "There is another a few kilometers further up."
"I'd like to see that one."
"As you wish, but I have work to do here."
They returned to the jeeps, the Major leading the way, and they delved into the jungle with trees that blocked out the sun. The road was rough, pitching up and down and started to turn as they rounded a hill. That was when the ambush was sprung and the lead jeep exploded as a whooshing rocket slammed into its side and detonated. The jeep flew into the air and rolled over while off the ground and crashed into the trees on the other side of the slope.
"Drive!" Daley shouted. Linna was paralyzed, unable to take her eyes off the destroyed jeep. She couldn't see any bodies.
The jeep raced forward and beyond where the first was struck. Angry bees snapped past them, small bolts of laser like light, or hit the side of the jeep. Daley shouted to get down and Linna curled herself into a ball. The soldier next to her groaned and jerked to the side and she felt hot wetness on her cheek. She screamed.
The driver turned off the road and into the jungle. He weaved the machine between trees and over brush as the gunfire exploded bark and leaves around them. A front tyre was punctured and they veered into a tree and crashed into it. The driver grabbed his gun and jumped out of the ruined vehicle.
"C'mon Linna, lets get out of here." Daley urged.
The trio ran through the jungle and then came out of it suddenly as a creek ran across their path. Water splashing up to their knees they surged through.
"Get down!" Linna warned and pushed Daley in the back as fire caused the water to fountain about them. She saw their driver pitch over backwards. The firing ceased.
"Get up slowly and raise your hands," a voice commanded from the jungle.
Dripping wet, Linna and Daley did so. Men in fatigues stepped out of the jungle with guns pointed at them. Most were black. The one who spoke to them wasn't.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two chinamen, well, one chinaman and one chinashiela. Not too shabby either." The rebel commander said. "A good piece of booty for this raid," and he ordered his men to tie their wrists, which they did eagerly.
/\/\ss/\/\
"What do you mean they've been captured?!" Sylia exploded.
Senator Mbouti on the other end of the videoconference screen blanched. "Th- the rebels must have been waiting for a shipment of diamonds and they ran into them instead. This is terrible, they just arrived. we will do everything we can to recover them."
"Yes you will." Sylia snapped and ended the communication with a stab of a finger. She looked around for something to throw - anything - but there was nothing. Instead she beat her fists on the reverberating table before throwing herself back into her chair. "Dammit Linna! How did you get yourself into trouble this time? And Daley, I thought you had more sense."
She spun around on the chair to face the smog grey sky beyond her window. Outside the air was still and the pollution hung thick over the industrial sprawl.
Counting her options, Sylia found that there weren't many. Negotiations with the rebels would destroy Genom's chance of acquiring the mines smoothly, she'd been informed about the General's action at the reception by one of Daley's team and knew that the General could already be planning a coup while the administration was in turmoil. She doubted that if the Sierra Leoneans could mount a credible rescue operation, it was more than likely that either or both her captured employees and friends would end up killed. And they were both so young. The only other option left to her was.
Sylia made the call.
/\/\ss/\/\
They had been taken to the rebels encampment, a commandeered village next to jungle where they had seen armoured vehicles and alarmingly: boomers. Daley hadn't got a good view to see what type of boomers they were, or how many, before he and Linna were hustled into one of the larger dwellings to face the rebel commander.
"On your knees," a rebel each smacked the butt of their rifles into the Genom employee's backs, driving them down. Linna cried out and Daley grunted.
"Goddamn bastard!" Daley growled to be rewarded with another blow across his face. He spat blood out onto the dirt ground where it congealed.
"Daley!" Linna gasped. She wanted to reach out to see how he was but the menacing black rebels stayed her place. When he tried to wink at her that he was okay, her heart almost stopped. She hoped he wouldn't try anything 'heroic' or mucho again, and wished she was in her hardsuit.
Sturdy combat boots walked between them, crisp fatigues tucked in tight. The captives looked up to see the rebel commander turn and inspect them.
"No more hitting, or they won't be able to talk," he said and the rebels laughed.
The commander's face was in shadow caused by his own mane of bushy brown hair. He stood with legs apart and arms crossed and regarded his prisoners intently. He was white beneath the sun's tanning light. He looked from Daley to Linna, then back to Daley.
"Names?" he said with a thick accent neither of them could recognize.
Daley stared back defiantly and an angry rebel raised up high his gun to ready it for the strike down.
"No!" Linna yelled, trying to get up.
"Linna stop!" Daley tried to warn before the hard metal stock of the rifle crashed into the back of his skull and showering his vision with sparks.
Linna too was hit again, the blow more powerful to her mind than any wound she had suffered at the hands of a boomer. The pain too was intense, the gun crunching down onto her left collarbone and she fell into a heap along side Daley. As well as they could they cradled each other.
"Linna then for the woman. What is yours foolish man? I won't ask again, and if you don't you'll see and hear a lot worse happen to your slant eyed friend." The commander gave his cruel command.
"His name is Daley. Daley Wong, and I'm Linna Yamazaki. We're both employees of the Genom Corporation and -," Linna coughed, "you should release us immediately."
"Genom do you say?" the commander looked surprised. It was hard for Linna to tell because she saw that he had only one eye, the other covered by a black patch. "That is interesting. Tell me why two Genom employees would be here in this backwater country?"
"The government owes us money." Linna gave only enough of the truth as was required.
"And that would explain your trip to the mines." The commander smiled. His smile was full of even, pearly teeth. "We steal from the minds to fund our war, while you want to steal it go pay your luxurious wages. How much the same you and I are then."
"What should we do with them, Sir?" the rebel who had captured them said.
"Lock them up where they can't cause trouble. Their company will find out what has happened to them and they will want them back. After a little negotiation I'm sure we can acquire some new assault boomers, don't you think?"
The subordinate grinned, "That would be just fine by me, Sir. Okay lads, take 'em away."
And rough hands lifted them from the ground, Linna gasping with the pain to her shoulder, and they were taken to their makeshift cell.
/\/\ss/\/\
The cargo planned landed at Freetown's military runway, which was also located at the cities airport. There was no visible reception and the plane taxied to a maintenance hanger where the doors closed noisily behind it. Outside the hanger were many trucks and soldiers, despite orders on the contrary from on-high. The few staff that worked at the civilian airport (it didn't see much traffic) gave cursory glances to the closed hanger but really didn't give it much thought.
/\/\ss/\/\
Level B-10 was where the Cyber-espionage Division of Genom resided. Made up of a few ex-ADP staffers and Genom sysops, the floor was in a constant state of dullness, the need for secrecy of each of the skilled computer users going right down to how much light there was in a room or corridor. Not even the fellow in the next office (everyone had an enclosed office) should be able to see another's monitor.
Sylia, who always felt the approach of a migraine by being at the underground floor, stood and watched over the shoulder of the diminutive blonde Nene Romanova as she, in he own words, 'worked her magic'. Like the incessant rain, the former-APD dispatcher's cum Knight Sabre cum Genom CyberOperative #001 fingers covered the 256 key keyboard faster than the eye could follow.
"I'm adjusting the satellite's camera right now, Sylia," Nene said, face backlite by the glow of her terminal and the streams of alphanumeric characters that rolled down and across it.
Standing over the other shoulder, Chief Roland, the overall Head of Security, blinked his eyes so they wouldn't start tearing. While the aged and gruff former policeman had a real title, everyone still called him Chief (of his ADP days), or Roland if they were on closer terms. While Sylia found it quite amusing to be standing along side a former enemy, Chief Roland was of a more practical nature: he had a job, and a darn good one. His new boss had let him bring along all of his best men and women, even considering Nene until he had found out, shockingly, who she really was. There wouldn't be any more dispatching for that little lady, at all.
"How long will you have before they realize the satellite's been put off course?" Sylia asked.
"We should have a few minutes, I hope," Nene answered. "I've covered my trail pretty well so no one will suspect us."
A few months back, Roland would have said something about that, but no longer. Nene was a ghost and had helped foil an attempt by the Japanese Army no-doubt, to steal an idle batch of military grade boomers while Sylia was still struggling to take full control over the company.
While Nene worked at the controls, Sylia asked: "Is everything else ready?"
Roland nodded. "Got word before I came down. As soon as the satellite images are transmitted the ball will start rolling."
"The ball was thrown well before us knowing," Sylia said flatly. How dare anyone take anything from her!
"Got it!" Nene proclaimed triumphantly and the plasma wall screen opposite them flickered to life. On it was part of Western Africa at night. Along the coast were pinpricks of civilized light, the rest a blackness. "I'm zooming in on their trackers." And the image changed, rushing inwards. Nene toyed with the controls and settings until she settled over the target spot and cleaned up the image and switched over to infra-red.
There was a village of about a dozen mud and thatch buildings near the edge of a clearing. The clearing was full of parallel lines of farmland. A few jeeps and trucks were about and the motion of sentries as they walked. Some held cigarettes. "It'll be cold at night," Sylia said. Nene moved the image around.
"Which one are they in?" Roland asked.
Simultaneously, Sylia and Linna pointed to a small round hut. "That one."
Roland pushed down on the secure communications link he had to Sierra Leone. "You getting this?" he asked to the person on the other end, thousands of kilometers away.
"Yep," came back the weighty reply. "Nene, can you check the forest. They might have hidden weapons there or more men."
"Okay." Nene chimed, humming, and the image shifted. The speakers concerns were founded.
"They look like boomers, don't they?" Sylia said.
"Six, no, eight." Nene counted. "Those two have low batteries."
"Got it." Said from another country.
The image started to go grainy.
"Damn, they've found out, Sylia. What should I do?"
"You can close the channel. We got what we needed."
"I hope it was enough, there could be an awful lot of trouble in those trees and huts. Pictures don't tell a man's fighting spirit." Roland warned.
"You worry too much old man. Sylia, we'll have them out by morning."
"Good luck." Sylia said.
"Yeah Leon-poo, you bring them back or you'll answer to me!" Nene shouted.
Sylia cut the link before the angry response came back.
"Now what?" Nene slumped back into her chair.
"We wait."
/\/\ss/\/\
A small candle provided their only means of illumination but it was enough to make out the dark blue and purple bruises that they each wore.
"I think the bone might be broken," Linna lightly prodded her collar. She winced and was glad she couldn't see just how bad if felt. She'd received her fare share of bruises from being bashed around by rouge boomers, but then she could have gone to her home, had a hot shower and retired to her soft bed. There were sacks of UN AID grain in their circular cell, but the nest of weevils kept her away. Her hair was a mess enough already, she had tried to joke to Daley.
For his part Daley had a stiff neck and one side of his face had swelled where the butt of a rifle had struck him. Checking his teeth, he found them all still firmly in place, and while his face was fortunately numb, speaking was difficult. So he stayed quiet, moping. His first time out and he'd blown it. Got himself and his young charge captured by a force who would barter then back to Genom, or when they found out that Genom was in charge of the country now, probably hold them hostage or worse execute them. Thus ended would be his career, and back to his father's farm it would be. If he survived. The worst of it was Linna and the pain she was enduring and what his might conjured up of her having to endure in the future. It was a mistake to bring her along. Stupid. They should have waited until the security was better.
Linna's own spirits were diminished because of Daley's withdrawal. They'd spoken only a few words, to make sure the other was all right. That had been it. Through the candles flickering flame she watched him sit hunched over, arms around knees, facing away from her. So she wouldn't see the terrible bruise that marred his face. She wanted to talk, to say something, anything, to pass the time and stop the depression rising. Each moment without words spoken meant a moment thinking about what could happen to them next.
She rubbed her face with her good arm and it came away dirty. She imagined herself with a layer of dirt and grime. What would elegant Sylia say to that? Could she loose her job over looking so bad? She had to laugh, and it felt good.
"What are you laughing about?" Daley asked through lips that barely moved.
"How my face looks, it must be so-," she stopped. Her face was only dirty. "I'm sorry."
"Nothing a month of surgery wont fix, if we survive." Daley said with melancholy.
"Sylia'll get us out. She wont leave us here." Linna responded with conviction.
Daley shrugged and turned away again.
"And until the, you've got to watch my rear, right?"
"Pardon?"
"My rear. Y'know?"
"It is a nice rear," Daley said with a trace of lightness.
"On a scale of one to ten?" Linna asked.
"Oh, maybe a nine." Daley let himself go.
"Only a nine?" Linna tried to sound chiding.
"Can't give you a ten sorry, Sylia would fire me."
Linna had to agree. "She's got a nice rear too."
"I wouldn't have thought you'd notice,"
Linna blushed furiously. "Uh, well, she does like to dress flashy and show off," she stammered.
"You should too."
"I.?"
Daley held up a finger to his lips for quiet and Linna obeyed. They heard footfalls on dried grass coming towards them.
The lock was stripped away from the hut's door and it opened. Through stood two men, behind them the twilight of the sky. One pointed a gun towards them and the other placed two bowels on the ground. "Eat." And the door was shut and locked again.
/\/\ss/\/\
For the brief fleeting moment that Linna saw the Sea of Stars, Leon had been staring at them for an hour from the troop compartment of the same gunship that had taken his two friends to their fate. Out there, somewhere under the night sky was the longing his heart.
"Coming up to the drop zone in five," Lieutenant Hagura said over the intercom. He was in the lead gunship a hundred metres in front.
Snapped out his reverie, Leon pushed down the faceplate over his eyes. "Get ready people. It's only three klicks from the drop point to the target site. Check your systems and power up your Grasshoppers," he said, looking around at the four other RRT members that were with him in the gunship, knowing that another five each were in the other two airborne machines. Each of them fully enclosed in an armoured body-double exoskeleton. How armoured he and his men would find out soon enough. The Grasshoppers his men had christened the suits, after the jump packs built into the suits backs. The two women on his team preferred to call theirs Praying Mantis'. A name deserved.
He waited out the remaining time in silence, thinking of her no more.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Sir," a Caucasian rebel, mercenary, entered his commander's hut and saluted.
"What is it Jones?" the commander asked.
"We've picked up three helicopters on radar."
"Heading?"
"Not towards us Sir, but they aren't far away."
"Worried, Jones?"
"Only if they know where here, Sir. Or about the hostages."
The commander nodded and stood. He reached to get his pistol belt and put it on. "Keep watching them and alert the sentries. The copters wont attack us alone, no ground troops could get here so quickly. They're probably reconnoitering."
"Yes Sir." Jones saluted and left.
The commander sat back down again, one hand resting on his pistol, reassuringly.
/\/\ss/\/\
Dawho Impi pulled back a long satisfying draught on his unfiltered cigarette. The hot smoke traveled down his lungs, filling them, until he breathed out a ghostly mist in exhalation and smiled.
He didn't get to breath again, at all, as a rubber coated gauntlet wrapped around his face and over his mouth and nose, another pressure against the back of his neck and then with a little snap his neck was broken and his assailant laid him gently down to the uncultivated ground.
Lieutenant Hagura signaled back the all-clear and a skirmish line of bulky black humanoid shapes revealed themselves from the jungle. Five hundred meters away was the village, and on the other side a platoon of boomers and rebels.
Quickly his team marched towards the village.
/\/\ss/\/\
Leon watched Hagura's approach from afar. With normal vision he wouldn't be able to see the suits at all. They were also heat- and magnetic-shielded further degrading other optics. He watched on a specific channel designed to let each wearer know where the other was, a tactical map on his HUD also displayed the other fourteen dots of the RRT. Shortly Hagura's men would reach their line and then Samuels' team would launch the ruckus. The rebel's wouldn't know what hit them.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jessica Lweollen was twenty-three years old and felt invincible. In her Praying Mantis suit - let the boys call them 'girly' names like Grasshopper - she crept through the jungle undergrowth, amazed at how stealthy she could be in what was a tin can. A tin can she was mightily proud of however. Beside her in open line were the rest of the team she belonged to; Samuels her Sergeant, Konrad, Ishikawa and Asahi. All of them had been ADP frontliners and had operated a CaseSuit during their time. Like the other's she'd followed Chief Roland to work for the Enemy: Genom who produced the boomers they were sworn to destroy (or die trying as the case usually turned out to be) who was now run by another arch-foe: The Knight Sabres. Most of the others didn't believe her, that Miss Sylia Stingray, was a Knight Sabre but she did. How else did Genom suddenly produce the Praying Mantis suit she wore now? A CaseSuit was nothing compared to it and it wasn't like a bulky boomer either. It just had to be a different kind of suit like the Knight Sabres wore. And having seen how combat effective they were, this mission was going to be a thrill.
Two suits down, Jessica's Sergeant got ready. Twenty metres now to the idle line of boomer. Everything was going as planned.
Therefore when the rebel stepped out from behind a tree directly in his path, hitching up his pants as he did so, gun over a shoulder, Samuels got the surprise of his life.
The rebel for his part stared in complete shock at the blocky humanoid that was only a meter away. He said; "What are you doing here, boomer?" in his native tongue, and with heart starting to slow down, turned away but saw another boomer a few meters from the other. He started to look back.
Samuels rushed in and punched the rebel in the face, heard a crack. "Let's go!" he ordered his team and they sprinted forwards.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jones shrugged as he watched the radar points that were the government helicopters flying away. They had stopped for a few minutes, enough time to drop off a recon party that might look for their base during the day. He decided to go and tell the commander what had happened and then call it a night.
He stepped out from the radar and communications hut - it had a small satellite dish poking through the roof - when he heard a whoosh and then felt a hot pressure wave hit him in the back and lift him off the ground. Tumbling in mid-air he saw the hut explode in a splinter of thatch. It actually looked very pretty.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander was on his feet as soon as he heard the explosion. Had the copters attacked? Why, and how did they get so close without a warning? From his hut he rushed out into the brightening night.
/\/\ss/\/\
"What was that?" Linna shouted above the dying roar.
"Something blew up," Daley tried to yell back. He scuttled over to the wall where there were cracks. "They're running around." Linna pressed up against his back, trying to look over his shoulder.
Then the firing started.
/\/\ss/\/\
Jessica dropped down onto one knee and raised her right arm. Mounted along the forearm above the wrist was a HVAP machine gun. The ammunition feed ran along her arm to her side and she could actually feel the bullets run down the length to be ejected on hot gas as she mentally gave the command to fire.
Bark and leaves and twigs filled the air as her weapon whirred and spat out a stream of chaos. Three rebels flew back with spread arms and sparks erupted all over the chassis of a combat boomer. Ricochets flew off into the sky, falling stars in reverse.
The boomer then blew apart in a ball of flame and smoke, metal arcing through the air, as a well aimed anti-tank missile from Asahi's shoulder launcher struck true.
Through the gap Jessica leapt and she sought out more targets and poured fire into them.
/\/\ss/\/\
Leon watched from the background as the assault took place. After the initial shock the rebels reacted well and regrouped near the wood line. They had five remaining boomers and it was the first time he saw them in action. Sprouting weapons and heavy armour the turned on his first assault team and started to force them back. The rebels used the boomers as protection and fired from around their legs. He heard Samuel's give the order and his team pulled back in a leap-frog tactic. They kept up fire to make sure the rebels didn't come too close or too fast. But they followed and in after a few minutes Leon could see them passing across his front and into his ambush.
"Just like hunting rogue boomers," he said to no one in particular, and then "Fire!"
Two of the boomers exploded with terrific displays of pyrotechnics right after.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Okay, that's our signal, lets move in." Hagura ordered and his team flashed into the village with their jump packs. "Section 1, secure the hostages. 2, covering fire."
His quintet quickly split and went to work. The target hut known, Section 1 rushed towards it while Section 2 shot down or drove back any rebels that remained in the village.
/\/\ss/\/\
The Grasshoppers didn't come through the door, they ripped a section of the wall right out with clawed hands. Linna and Daley stared at them in shock.
"We've come to rescue you,"
"The Grasshoppers." Daley said in awe.
Hands were held out and taken.
/\/\ss/\/\
Riddled with bullets the rebel flopped onto the earth and rapidly stained it with his blood.
The commander cursed. He was pinned down by two small boomers that were firing accurately and he only had a handful of men. The rest were in the jungle behind him where he could hear a very intense battle being waged. But that battle was an illusion. Here, now, was the real fight. The attackers were after his hostages and they would get away unless he did something about it.
"Fire at them fools!" he snarled to the huddling rebels. Looking around he saw a hut that hadn't been destroyed and safe from fire. In it he knew were weapons. Heavy ones. He sprinted over.
/\/\ss/\/\
"This way, this way!" Hagura motioned and shielded by his men, Linna and Daley sprinted towards him.
Time then slowed down when Hagura saw a man thirty meters away step around a corner from outside a hut and kneel down, a long tube held level over his shoulder. Hagura knew that he couldn't fire in time or that his men would get to cover before the rocket would strike. Leaning forward he fires his jump pack at the horizontal and shot forward, screaming.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander depressed the RPG's trigger and rocked back as the long dart like missile popped out, seemed to hang before his eyes, then race towards the enemy on a jet of gas.
/\/\ss/\/\
Hagura aimed right at the approaching missile twisted around killing his pack. Visored faces looked at him in wonder and then there was a tremendous roar and he felt himself flying again, this time up and back the way he came, flame all about him.
/\/\ss/\/\
The commander kneeled, stunned at the suicidal bravery of the boomer. Then the other boomers, how advanced they must be to move so fluidly and quickly, turned on him and started to fire. Retreat the better part of valour, the commander retired from the lost battle and slipping into a jeep, drove away into the dawning horizon.
/\/\ss/\/\
"Code Green, Code Green." Leon heard over his com. He let out a sigh of relief, the hostages had been freed and were on their way to the Rally Point where the helicopters would be waiting for them.
"All units disengage and head for the RP."
He fired a last burst just to keep the enemies heads down before turning and joining the other trails of light.
/\/\ss/\/\
Sylia slumped back in her one-hundred-and-forth-level office chair. She was relieved that the operation had succeeded and Linna and Daley rescued with minimal loss. She was satisfied with the performance of her generic hardsuits, but she was not satisfied with herself. Opening and closing drawers she searched for the glass bottle that was not there, the brown fluid within it. Frustrated, growling she slammed a drawer shut and scrapped her hands through her silver tresses.
"Dammit Father! You're dead and yet your legacy remains. How many people will die because of what you created? How much suffering do we have to endure?" And she buried her face in her hands, hid her head behind her hair and tried to cry, but no tears would come.
Legacies: The End
/\/\ss/\/\
Notes: This story, and the Machinations 2041 world as a whole will be very different to what BGC fans are used to. This is for a simple reason: It's time for a change. BGC, Crash and 2040 all operated in the same manner, centering on the Knight Sabres, their suits, and the battle against Genom.
After 2040, Genom would be effectively finished as a company. Look at what happened to Enron. Genom is much bigger but it also has allowed a worldwide catastrophe to take place and Japan and other world governments want someone to blame and litigate. Also, who would want to buy Genom's products any more? The stock price tanked in short order (I've witnessed the dotcom bubble burst first hand, twice) allowing Sylia to snatch the stock up and buy a controlling portion of the ruined company - because that's what analysts and employees would have thought. Stock holders handed their shares over to Sylia, glad to be rid of them. Engineers and Scientists were headhunted by other companies and put to work building boomers of their own, allowing for a rapid proliferation of boomer constructing companies and an effective enlarging of the unsolved rogue problem. The problem that Sylia wants to stop, and she believes that by running Genom she has the best chance to do it. The Knight Sabres can't fight a global campaign, but she enlisted them and the remnants of the ADP to her cause. It's an audacious plan and right with peril, many forces wanting her to fail. Through the minefield of world politics, business and terrorism, Sylia and Co must make a teetering Genom as successful as it once was; a monopoly boomer producer. It the only way she can control the dangerous future.
So has begun SurfingSpider's Machinations, a series of expanded out scenarios much like Tom Clancy's Op-Centre and Powerplays novels.