Chapter 6

Inside the base, I fell to my knees on the transerver platform, finally feeling the burns from the explosion. My face stung, and I imagined that my cheeks were criss-crossed with scratches from shrapnel.

"What happened?!" Leviathan shrieked. "Sage, are you all right? What happened out there?!" She and Fefnir pulled me to my feet. I looked at my arms and saw that there were char marks on the armor.

"The Resistance force," I coughed, "Must've been setting explosives during that battle." I felt blood dripping down my face and swiped at it with the back of my hand. My fist came away smeared red.

"Can you stand okay?" Fefnir asked me.

"Yeah..." I tested my weight on relatively shaky legs. "I'm fine. But the rest of the men..." Fefnir, Leviathan, and I may have teleported to safety in time, but the transerver only worked on one person at a time. The rest of the army was expected to come back in the old-fashioned way- through the door. I shot a glance at Mayu, who was, indeed, standing where I had left her.

"Don't look at me like that; I didn't know about this." She walked over. "Do you need medical attention?"

I shook my head. "I said I'm fine." I brushed Fefnir and Leviathan's supporting hands away. "Tell me; what's the point of sending you in as a spy when you don't come back with any useful information?"

She took a step back. "You have to believe that I didn't know. I only just found out about the attack-"

"There's no room for mistakes here," I interrupted. "Your incompetence just cost a lot of good soldiers their lives."

"But I didn't-"

"Shut up," I growled. Turning to Fefnir, I gestured to the transerver with a nod of my head. "We need a cleanup crew out there. Now." I didn't wait for a response. Instead, I hopped onto the transerver and teleported into the inferno's aftermath.

Ruin spread before me in the form of vehicles, weapons, buildings, and bodies all strewn about like a child's toys. The devastation for a half-mile radius was total. Beyond that half mile, it was just plain ugly. It would take some time to pick through the rubble and salvage anything.

Leviathan had successfully organized a medical crew and was helping them find a comfortingly large number of survivors in the mess. Already, the med-center was overly full, and those with wounds that weren't mortal were being utterly but forgivably neglected.

I was no medic, but I sported a bulky medkit that had been unceremoniously shoved into my empty arms by a hurried member of the medical unit as he yelled to me to "do something useful." People have no respect for their leaders these days, I groaned inwardly to myself. I idly wondered what sort of treatment Fefnir was getting.

"Uh... sir, could I- I use that medkit... please?" I glanced down to my right at the owner of the shaky voice. His arm hung on by mere threads of circuitry, and probably would have fallen off completely if he had not been holding it there, his left hand gripping his right shoulder tightly. Dark, almost black blood coursed from the gaping hole, but not in the quantity that one would have expected from such a wound. One of the hardier, less human-like models. Judging by the look on his face, I'd guess he doesn't even feel much pain. I set the medkit on the ground and opened it, hoping that the reploid before me knew what he was looking for because I certainly did not.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I'm not really much of a medic."

"That's fine." The reploid tried to shrug, but his right shoulder barely gave a small twitch. "Sorry, I know my wound's not mortal, but if you can give my arm a superficial repair job, I think I can be of some help here."

I glanced at his burn-covered face. "I'm afraid I don't really know how to treat a wound like that."

"Don't worry, I'll direct you. I used to work in the med-center, so it shouldn't be too hard." He fished out a pair of rubber coated, needle-nosed pliers and prodded them deeply into the wound His brow furrowed in mild pain, and he turned his head awkwardly, attempting to see into the bloody mess of wires. He sighed and dragged a small melting iron used for repairing severed circuitry from the box and handed it and the pliers to me.

"Okay, these two wires right here..." I spent a good fifteen minutes connecting circuits, clipping and replacing supporting wires, and untangling the bloody mess. To his credit, the reploid- Arcan, he said his name was- never complained about my non-too-gentle, clumsy hands that yanked continuously at the inner workings of his arm. I knew that I myself would have probably shut my systems down by now and told my tormentor to wake me when the minor surgery was over.

Arcan's directions were clear and concise, and by the time I was done, I felt like an old pro at repairing nearly-severed right arms. Unfortunately, Arcan was also quite a chatterbox, and I received a substantial education on everything that an ex-medic rookie foot soldier could possibly know- and a few random facts that he did not, but apparently liked to think he did anyway.

As I finished the inner workings, he swiveled his arm experimentally and nodded in approval. "It'll do. Quite nicely, in fact." He pulled one more tool from the medkit, a hand-sized laser that could be set to either neatly slice or to seer metal or synthetic flesh together. "Just close up the gap, and it should be fine."

"This'll leave a pretty noticeable scar," I commented, getting to work. "It might limit your movement as well."

"Ah, well," Arcan said nonchalantly, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he should have been in tremendous pain. "If it's really that crippling, I'll just have to go back to work with the medical center. Eventually, I'll just get it repaired. Maybe they'll give me a new arm.

I hid a grimace. I could not imagine potentially losing a limb and having such a laid-back attitude about it. Bad puns aside, I was rather attached to my own body-parts.

"Do you have any idea what happened out here?" I asked Arcan, who was twisting his right shoulder around and pressing at it with his left hand. "I'm assuming that the Resistance planted explosives, but do you know what exactly they were targeting?"

He shrugged, his shoulder responding stiffly. "It's kinda hard to tell with all the wreckage. Heck, it looks like everything exploded to me." He grinned, but it quickly faded to a frown. "If I had to guess by the direction and by common sense, I'd say it was the weapons bunker and maybe the hanger. They're pretty strategic targets, I guess."

I sighed in defeat. "That's what I was afraid of, but I figured I'd ask, anyway."

Arcan gave me a wry half-smile. "Don't let it get ya down, General. We know and they know those human-killing scum can't win this war. Sooner or later, we'll grind 'em into the ground. They'll face justice at the end of our blaster rifles."

Justice. Is that justice? None of this seems just to me. I nodded to the newly-repaired soldier, gave him the medkit which he could make better use of, and went off in search of Fefnir. This is a war. There is rarely anything "just" about a war.

I found Fefnir hard at work helping a cleaning crew clear debris from one of the two bunkers housing weapons. He heaved a heavy slab from the pile up over his head and threw it off away from the building.

Hey, watch it!" Someone yelled. "You tryin' to kill me?" Fefnir turned and glared. "Never mind!" the other reploid called. "...I'll move next time!" Fefnir snorted. I noticed three reploids off to the left struggling to lift a piece of debris the size of the one Fefnir had tossed with relative ease. I forgot how physically strong he is.

"So, the med crew didn't draft you, huh?" I commented wryly.

Fefnir snorted again. "I tear people's limbs off; I don't put 'em back together."

"That- that's just great, Fefnir," I said with a hint of dry humor in my voice.

Kicking idly at some broken structuring, he crossed his arms. "Somehow, I doubt that you came all the way out here for a friendly chat. What's up?"

I nodded. "Perceptive of you. Actually, I wanted a bit of a damage assessment. Anything salvageable?"

Fefnir's impassive face faded to a somewhat darker expression. "They were thorough. Way too thorough for my taste. Oh, we still got stuff left- just precious little. The X-drones are gone, at least two-thirds of our weaponry was demolished, we lost ride armor and land chasers, not to mention a nice chunk of soldiers-"

I groaned out loud. "If I didn't know any better, I'd guess they were trying to tick us off."

A feral grin spread across Fefnir's face. "Does this mean I get to-"

"No, Fefnir. We're not dismembering those mavericks just yet."

Disappointment flickered in his eyes. "Why not?" He grunted.

"What if they want us to attack?" Images of mine-fields and other such traps awaiting our armies glinted through my mind and I frowned. "I'm at least sending Mayu back in first."

Fefnir balked at that, twisting his features into a look of distaste. "You're still trusting her? After this disaster? I was going to suggest dumping her in the middle of the desert..."

I sighed. "Harsh, but point taken. That didn't go over well. Problem is, we don't have anyone else that we can send out- or afford to lose, especially. Everyone here is up to their necks in every kind of work possible.

"Well heck, I'll do it," Fefnir growled.

And image of Fefnir trying nonchalantly to gather information from the Resistance entered my mind. None of the results were pretty. "Uh... no."

"Didn't think so," he grumbled. "But after the reception you gave Mayu, I have my doubts that she'll be wantin' to do you any favors."

"Than I'll order her to do it. And if she refuses, I just may dump her in the middle of the desert." A wry smile crept to my face. "I have a feeling she'd find a way out, anyway."

"Hey," a familiar voice broke in. "You can't just stand there talking." Leviathan strode into our conversation, a disturbingly stern expression on her face. "The medical crew is short-handed..."

I chuckled. "Goodbye, Fefnir." My booster activated and I shot into the air, leaving Fefnir to glare icily at my retreating form.

Mayu had disappeared. Why is she always doing that? I jogged through the base, questioning anyone I saw as to the whereabouts of the reploid girl, but I never received any answer more specific than a general direction. Eventually, I noted that I was headed for the remaining vehicle hanger, and I doubled my speed.

When I arrived, it was to the familiar whine of a land chaser being started up. Kicking in my boosters, I did a quick hop over to the bike that Mayu was on and shut off the engine.

"General, I don't need to hear anymore. Let me go." She would not look at me.

"What's with this 'General' thing? I thought we were on a first name basis." I kept my hand on the ignition in case she got it in her head to start it up again before our conversation was over.

"I didn't know you had a preference," she muttered. "Can you please let go? I'd like to go now."

"Where do you think you're going?" I questioned sardonically.

She still would not look at me. "Back to the Resistance base," she said. "To go back and do it right."

"Uhm... asking before you take off with one of our land chasers would have generally been a good idea." I sighed. "Just get off the bike and talk to me. You can't go without at least letting me explain what you're trying to find."

She hopped off the side of the bike opposite from me and sat down in the streaked sunlight near the entrance to the hanger. I moved to sit next to her.

"They're not exactly forthcoming with information there," she said moodily in a soft voice. "I came back when I did to try to warn you of the attack, but I- I was too late. And I had no idea that they were going to..." She shook her head. "I don't think Ciel even knew. I think she would have disapproved."

"You have to find these things out before it's too late." I glared. "Look, I don't know what went on while you were there, but you can't afford to screw around."

"I screwed up." She turned her face away. "Their deaths... It's my fault. Maybe I don't deserve a second chance-"

I caught her shoulder and turned her roughly toward me. "Whether you deserve it or not, we don't- are you crying?" Indeed, wet trails were making their way down her face. I wasn't even sure if Reploids could cry. She turned away again. I sighed. "Knock it off. I think I prefer your look of death to this." I tried to stifle any amount of sympathy I felt. Now was no time to be sentimental.

"...Sorry." She wiped her eyes. "...My look of death is that intimidating?"

I chuckled. "Well, let's just say that seeing it while you were holding a sword to my throat wasn't precisely the highlight of my day. But, I guess you always look like that, so I suppose I shouldn't take it personally."

She snorted a short laugh. "You're one to talk."

I shrugged. "I guess I've forgotten how not to look angry."

She nodded. "There's not much to smile about." Shaking her head, she stood suddenly, looking back down at me. "Well, you were going to tell me exactly what I'm supposed to spy on. We should probably hurry up so I can get back there before sunset."

It was an abrupt subject change, but I was used to it coming from her by now. "You mentioned Ciel. were you in direct contact with her?"

"For the most part," she said somewhat casually. "Why?"

"I heard that she was working on an alternate power source," I elaborated. "Is there any word on the stage or success of the project?"

Mayu smiled a bit. "She's making good progress on it. If people just give her a chance, I really think she could do it within the next two years." Her smile faded. "Of course, contrary to her fanciful beliefs, I have my doubts that that will stop the war. People don't forget so fast..."

I nodded in agreement to her sentiments. "You're right, of course. It won't bring peace. But I believe it could be a key to ending this, among other things." I got to my feet. "It would certainly help with the power shortage, anyway."

Mayu leaned against the wall, looking out at the cloudless sky. "So... what am I supposed to be listening for?"

"Pretty much anything military, such as what their weapon and troop situation is, when and where they plan to stage an attack, and most importantly, sabotage operations like today."

Mayu looked sheepish. "They didn't mention anything about that. Honestly, I don't think Elpizo wanted Ciel to know exactly what was up."

"Then you'll just have to make Elpizo trust you over Ciel," I shrugged."

"Oh, now that sounds easy," She said dryly. "I guess this means hiding my initial and immediate dislike of our gender-challenged friend."

I stifled a laugh. "So, you noticed too."

"Any male who has luxuriantly long curly locks, wears pink, and laughs in a sultry alto is a fag in my book, reploid or no."

This time, I laughed out loud. "Anyone who can say something that funny can't be as cold and humorless as you seem to think you are."

She smiled and finally laughed. "Friends is it, then?"

"After that comment about Elpizo? Of course." I walked with her back to the land chaser. "If you're gonna take one, take a good one." I pointed out a newer, sleeker model in the far corner. Unlike the other bikes, it was not painted to blend in with the sand but gleamed a much more noticeable indigo. I didn't bother to mention that it was actually mine, although I did not use it. Flying was faster. "This one will get you there faster, and it's been maintenanced recently, so it won't die on you in the middle of the desert."

She eyed the chaser. "Not bad." Hopping on, she studied the controls. "A retinal scan?"

I shrugged. "It's not hooked up yet."

"You didn't want anyone running off with your bike," She commented knowingly.

"At one point, I cared. I don't use it anymore." I gave her a mocking glare. "But it better come back in one piece."

"Keep your helmet on. I'm not hard on equipment." She started the engine and revved it a couple of times. "Later." She gunned it and quickly faded into the distance.

I found myself chewing my lower lip and wondered what I was more worried about; Mayu or the Bike.