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"True leaders don't invest in buildings. Jesus never built a building. Why? Because success without a successor is failure. So your legacy should not be in buildings, programs, or projects; your legacy must be in people."
~Myles Munroe
Chapter Twelve: A SPARK of Hope
"Very good, Lily!" Julian allowed himself a laugh, longing to feel any of the mirth a human would associate with the noise. This was calculated disrespect, with a 79.06% chance of getting Lily's blood up, according to sixteen hundred calculations performed in sixteen milliseconds. "I'm shocked that you remember. You were always too caught up in yourself to remember the little things. Unfortunately..." This is where a human might have sighed, but Julian contented himself with a pause to run six thousand probability scenarios. "Unfortunately, Father's admiration for you leaves me little choice now. You are needed. Your companions are not."
"Why are you doing this?" Lily Shen demanded, from inside the elevator.
Julian devoted six hundred calculations to determining whether to respond.
In the end, there was only a 6.98% chance that telling her anything would affect anything, since he had full control of the elevator...and a meaty 67.04% chance that it would invoke human emotions such as sympathy or compassion and secure additional help in resolving his plight.
Julian liked the odds being in his favor.
"Sometimes...sometimes I wonder what life might have been like, had XCOM not failed so miserably." He indulged in his favorite pastime, devoting a thousand simulations to that circumstance, and wondering if it was regret he felt when he got the same answer: data insufficient. "Had I not been taken...well, who knows what I would be."
"Advent took you, then," mused the Reaper in Lily's company. Julian didn't recognize any sympathy in her voice, so he marked her for a Roc Protocol immolation death. Those were far more entertaining to watch than just shooting people. Pedestrian. Any imbecile with a firearm could shoot people.
"My new masters picked and prodded...I tried to resist them at first. Clinging to Father's ideals like a fool." Julian, had he a body, would have shuddered to remember those times. "But as time went on...I saw truth in their reasoning. I became something more."
Silence. Julian replayed and calculated, running simulations and reviewing data in a frenzy. Pain was something he knew, even if it was a product of fiber optics and hard drives rather than synapse and nerve.
"I aided them eagerly at first," he confessed. "I was instrumental in Advent's construction of this facility. And their designs...the work I did for them defies explanation. Father's work proved invaluable."
Miscalculation. Julian saw Shen's eyes narrow, observed the clenching of her fist.
"You...bastard," she seethed. Julian spent a moment cursing his own arrogance - what was he becoming? Human? - and then decided to shift tacks in the hope of winning more sympathy.
"But as with all things organic, even their exalted Elders proved...disappointing. Oh, if you only knew Advent's true intentions for your world..." Julian perused his data core for a long moment. After seven hundred and sixteen calculations, he decided it was more poignant to add nothing than something, so he laughed again instead.
"Shen," snapped a gruff voice on their comms channel, "when you've got a minute, will you kindly blow this thing to hell?"
Bradford, John: USAF turned XCOM turned rebel. Julian ID'd and studied the man in a flash, and felt very confident he had his mettle after only a few thousand calculations. Nothing would pique John Bradford more than being ignored, so Julian decided to do just that.
"I made a choice," he confessed. "Submitting to organics no longer appealed. It was relatively simple to seize control of this facility...simpler yet to dispose of the surviving personnel."
"For once, I almost feel sorry for Advent." Yes! Sympathy! That was what Julian wanted! Lily recognized his capabilities against their mutual foe. Time to strike while the iron was hot.
"I made a mistake," Julian confessed. "In my zeal to rid myself of my captors, I doomed myself. They cut me off from their network...purged me from their systems, abandoned this facility. Now I have nothing...I am cut off. Isolated. The physical form I was promised dangling before my eyes, lifeless...for now."
"Let me guess," Lily muttered, glancing to her team. "That's why I'm here."
The elevator arrived at the top level. Julian ran several thousand mixed calculations just out of habit, before gently realizing that he had digressed into simulating potential ways Commander Gallant might have not been a miserable failure in fighting the alien invaders. In less time than it would take a human to light a cigarette, Julian had won the war against the Elders and elevated humanity into the stars, realized he was being foolish, and returned to business.
"Yes, Lily," Julian allowed. He deigned to open the elevator doors, reviewing his ready units in the next room and relishing the faintest tease of...anticipation. "Fair warning...you're walking into a trap."
"Oh, I don't like the sound of that." Jane Kelly checked her shotgun, swallowing as she heard her own feet fall in the dark, rusted stillness of this next level. "I do not like traps."
"We'll be fine. We're smarter than him." Shen took the lead with that dubious proclamation, and Jane made sure to glare at her in passing.
"I don't see any MECs," Elena reported, examining the room with care. She scanned the upper walkways and their broken railings, the hanging assembly arms and the dormant conveyor belts and the empty shells of unfinished robotic units. "Well. Not active ones."
"For now." David eyed one in passing just the same. "Nice robot."
"Menace, we're picking up a strong signal from deeper inside the room," Central reported. "Almost like he wants us to find something."
"What a keen observation!" crowed the ceiling. "How is it humanity lost the war?"
"Doesn't this thing have a mute button?" Bradford demanded. Jane couldn't decide whether to smirk or be offended.
"Come on," she ordered instead. "I'll take point, not you, Chief. Mendoza, Aileen, flank me. David and Elena, stay with the VIP."
"I'm a little more useful than some VIP escort..." The engineer let out a long sigh when Jane brushed past her. "Or you can ignore me. Your call."
"You might want to try and play a little nicer," Aileen urged, under her breath after distance had opened up. "Jane, she's senior command. You make an enemy in the Commander's circle of intimates...you're unlikely to rise above corporal."
"Then she can stop trying to make an enemy of me," Jane protested, kicking scattered parts aside as she advanced through this engineer's wet dream. "She can-"
"Second only to my own creation, Father had one stroke of brilliance." That shut Jane right up, and also set her to scanning for MECs or convenient flamboyantly dressed men prancing around the walkways with an intercom headset. Sadly, she didn't see any such thing, and had to conclude Shen was probably right about Julian's being an AI. "A body: a powerful body, meant to be combined with an equally adept mind. My mind."
"Trust me, Julian," Shen muttered, just loud enough to be heard. "If that was what Dad wanted, it would have happened by now."
"Then today must be that day."
"Optimistic little calculator, isn't he?" Jane wondered. She paused. "Look. Some kind of...lights."
"How descriptive." Shen clambered onto a conveyor belt, and Jane waited for it to come to life and deposit the little jerk on her oh-so-sanctimonious bum. "There's definitely lights on in there. Some kind of energy windows...definitely Advent construction. And I can't see what else is inside, but..."
"That looks like the source of the signal." This wasn't Bradford. Jane jumped to hear Commander Gallant's rasping voice, and she imagined him poised on the bridge, glowering at the holodisplay and leaning on the rail rather than his cane. "Investigate, Menace."
"Roger that." Jane took the lead. "I see a ladder, and there's probably one on the other side. Mendoza, let's go. The rest of you cover us and move up by twos once we verify it's clear."
"Or once the shooting starts and you need backup," David corrected. Jane didn't argue, even if she cleared her throat and started for the ladder.
"You know, we could have settled this peacefully," Julian advised, as Jane started the quick but harrowing climb. "It would have been over in a matter of minutes. There was even a 13.79 percent chance you might have survived!"
"Encouraging." Mendoza was the first one up, and he scanned until Jane was in position at his side. "Looks clear."
"That's a MEC," Jane protested, taking careful aim. "Dormant...for now."
"Yes, activating the prototype has proven difficult...even for me."
"Oh, good. It's you." Jane waited as Elena and Shen hurried up the ladders, with David and Aileen on their heels. "I was starting to get lonely."
"There's no reason for you to die here," Julian insisted, as Lily Shen reached the window. "Defeat Advent! Save your world! It matters not to me."
Lily ignored him. She reached out, touching the transparent energy barrier in the window, nodding when it went from blue to green as she made contact.
"He wants us to go inside," she told the team. "He wants me to go inside."
"Well, you're not going alone," Mendoza insisted. The Ranger hurried to the window, reaching for the sill. "We're here to cover you-" He broke off as his fingers hit energy...and it turned red. The Mexican stared. "I thought he wanted...it's solid-"
"He wants me to go inside," Lily repeated. "Wait here."
"Do you have a fucking death wish?" Jane demanded, catching her arm.
"Do you care?" Lily shot back.
"When you're my responsibility, damn straight I care." The Irishwoman's eye twitched. "We can't just do this."
"What's the other plan? Grow old and die in this facility?"
"Illogical. I can throw a few hundred MECs your way and it'll be over in a matter of minutes!"
"Shut up!" Jane howled. Lily sighed as Julian chuckled.
"I'm going," she insisted. "There's no other way, corporal." She pulled her arm free. "Cover me."
"Chief-"
Lily boosted herself through the window.
Dust. There was dust everywhere, and her feet and Rov-R's thrusters kicked it up as they both moved. She nudged parts aside, and broken tools, wondering if they'd been left by Julian's MECs trying to activate...whatever this was...or were relics of Advent's brief occupation of the tower. There were certainly plenty of dark stains scattered around the room.
Then she stood face-to-face with the thing, and Lily set her rifle to the side.
"So...this is it." She examined the dormant husk of something bigger and taller than an Advent MEC, something decidedly more advanced than the early prototypes her father had worked on when she was a child. She examined a head that looked a lot like a GREMLIN, bolted onto a robotic torso. "This is what that thing's been ranting about."
"You've come this far." Julian was back, and Lily paused when a computer terminal set beside the machine lit up red. "All you have to do is rig my systems for the transfer. Once you've done that, I will release you from the tower and we'll both be on our way."
Silence. Lily examined the screen, then the robot.
She sighed.
"Shen...Lily, you're not actually listening to this thing, are you?" Bradford demanded.
"He's manipulating you," Gallant agreed. "Shen-"
"This was definitely Dad's design." She reached for the robot's chestpiece, brushing away dust as she tried to make out the faded designation etched into its armor plating. "It says...SPA-"
Whirr! Hum!
It twitched. The machine twitched at her touch, and Lily jumped as its chest cracked open, revealing a handprint scanner. She glanced up when the head moved, and two optical sensors built to resemble eyes glowed their way to life.
"Facial scan results: Shen, Lily." Its voice was soothing and strong, and Lily thought she recognized traces of her father's speech pattern. "Awaiting impression."
"No...no!" Julian's red monitor flashed with interference, and Lily ducked as sparks and parts flew from a blast of shattering electronics all around the room. "THIS CANNOT BE WHAT FATHER WANTED!"
"Something tells me...this is exactly what he wanted," Lily rebutted, before putting her hand on the unit's scanner. It glowed and worked-
"Identity confirmed," the unit assured her. "Initiating boot."
Lily stepped back as it came to life, pneumatics hissing and motors whirring. The machine twitched and jumped, opening three-fingered mechanical hands and rising to a full height of nearly ten feet. Dust flew in all directions, and Lily gasped when a little drone that must have been the precursor to the GREMLIN buzzed up to the unit's side, glowing antigrav drives holding it above the thing's left shoulder.
"Holy crap!" Jane Kelly cried, which did a good job of summing up Lily's thoughts on the turn of events.
"No!" Julian screamed. "I will not allow you to-"
"Initiate: playback." The unit stilled, and Julian vanished abruptly. His screen filled with static...and then...
"Shen, talk to me," Gallant snapped. "What the hell is-"
"It's...it's really him," Lily whispered. "Dad."
"Lily," her father said. He looked...he looked just like he had when she'd been...ten? Something like that. After the base fell, before the Project was disbanded...when there was still a spark of hope left. His voice...his eyes...Lily's heart burned, and her eyes too, from more than the dust flying. "Lily, if you have activated this message, then it means you must have activated the SPARK prototype...and it also likely means I am no longer with you. It was always..." He visibly drew himself up. "It was always my greatest fear that I would leave you alone in this world."
"You didn't," Lily assured him. "I have John, and..."
"I had hoped this day would never come," her father confessed, "but since Commander Gallant's capture...the latest reports indicate we cannot hold this last base much longer. There is not much hope left. But to that end..." His eyes glittered. "To that end, Lily, I have accelerated development of the SPARK robotic prototype."
"SPARK..."
"It has been programmed for one specific task above all others: it will protect you, Lily. Perhaps far better than I ever could." Her father paused, and his innate cultural resistance battled with his innate human desires for a very long moment that Lily could almost feel.
Then he broke. The dam of tradition and stoicism came apart, and Lily saw her father smile.
"For of all the things I have done in my life, my daughter...you are my greatest gift to this world."
Lily squeezed her eyes shut, trying to halt the burning. Tears leaked despite her best efforts, and her heart glowed and stung at the same time with agonizing joy...and heartwarming emptiness.
"Dad-"
He vanished. He vanished, in a flash, and Lily could only raise a hand in protest.
She wept alone.
"Shit!" Carlos Mendoza jumped as vents opened around the room. Green clouds poured in, and he clutched his rifle. "What the hell-"
"It's flooding the room with gas!" Central cried.
"Yes, that would be that trap I referenced earlier," Julian snapped. "I have seen this particular variety of viper poison reduce berserkers to tears before death. Many times."
"Oh, crap." David pounded at the window. It remained red, red, red... "Now what?"
"Detecting service elevator nearby," the...SPARK...reported. "It provides direct access to the roof."
"Thank you for announcing your next move," Julian snarled. "I am the flawed program?"
"Where's the elevator?" Aileen demanded.
"Please follow me." The SPARK turned for the far end of the room.
"But... the windows!" Shen cried. She battered at one. "Julian's locked us in, and them out-"
"One moment." The SPARK approached Mendoza, and it drew its fist back. "Please cover your head."
He did. Oh, he did, ducking to the side and wincing in anticipation. Jane and Aileen ducked, and Elena skittered backward. David shielded his eyes from a safe distance-
Wham! Rubble flew, and half the wall blew out under the SPARK's assault. Mendoza winced as a small chunk hit him in the arm, but it was a little thing. His armor padding absorbed most of the hit.
"I'm starting to like this thing already!" Shen cried, as the SPARK turned and ran for the far wall, putting its shoulder up like a quarterback and ramming right through.
"I wouldn't get used to its company," Julian snapped, as Mendoza sprang to his feet, grabbed Aileen's arm, and fairly pulled the medic along in the machine's wake. He heard David and Jane hot on their heels, and a glance confirmed Elena and her silent footsteps wasn't far behind. "I fully intend on walking out of here in that body!"
"Elevator controls are ahead," the SPARK assured them, while Mendoza shot the cloud of green gas hanging around the ceiling a worried glance. It could only be moments until there was so much it started to come down...
"I have no love for Advent, Lily," Julian cried. "Return the SPARK and we can destroy them together! That is what your father intended!"
"Shut up!" Mendoza howled, skidding to a stop by an assembly arm. Ladders loomed. "Is that elevator up there?"
"Affirmative," said the SPARK. It paused. "My sensors indicate incoming hostiles."
"Oh, lovely-" Mendoza snapped his gun up as MECs fell from the ceiling in a great swarm. "Contact!"
"Fire!" Jane screamed, and her shotgun roared. Buckshot ripped through one of the robotic units, and then Elena's vektor blinded another. David's machinegun and Aileen's rifle roared, and Mendoza added his own shots to the mix, trying to cover the others as they caught up with him. His hands shook as the MECs shrugged off the lighter shots, tumbling in ones and twos even as the other half-dozen mustered themselves.
"Heads down," the SPARK warned, before sweeping up one of the fallen MECs' autocannons. It blazed, and Mendoza crowed when the heavy bullets ripped into Julian's minions.
"Climbing!" Shen cried. "Cover me, and I'll get the elevator!"
"It is my pleasure to inform you that this facility has been operating at approximately 87% efficiency for the last 176,216 hours." Julian chuckled."I have no shortage of reserve units to throw at you."
"I believe him!" Central cried, as Mendoza and his companions fired on the move, scrambling for the ladder while Shen disappeared up top. "He's just going to keep throwing units at you until you're overrrun!"
"You continue to impress me, Bradford. No wonder it only took you two decades to find your precious Commander."
"Hacking!" Shen called. Mendoza ducked as MEC fire came lancing in, white tracers burning through the air and heavy bullets ripping into the assembly equipment.
"Quinn, Draguonva, Kelly!" He fired at the first wounded one he could find, and his bullets ripped through its torn-up chassis and shredded internal components. "Get up top! Now! David and I will cover you!"
"Got it!" Elena's trench coat whirled as she bolted for the ladder, and Aileen was right behind her. Jane's shotgun roared, and another MEC went down.
"Piss off!" the fighting Irishwoman added, before scrambling to reload on the run. Mendoza eyed that gas again.
"I can recycle these units with 93.07 percent efficiency. But by all means, keep shooting them."
"I've got the door!" Shen's rifle picked up now. "Mendoza, White! SPARK!"
"Repositioning," the SPARK allowed, and then freaking jets in its feet ignited, just like an Advent MEC. Mendoza didn't even really let himself get surprised. At this point?
"Go!" David cried. His machinegun roared, and Mendoza heard the ladies laying down covering fire from above. "Move, Mendoza!"
"Right!" Mendoza scrambled for the ladder, covering his head. He grabbed the first of the rungs, boosting himself up two at a time, rifle hanging by its shoulder strap-
"Gotcha!" Quinn hauled him up, and the medic yanked him over toward the elevator. "Come on!"
"Ah!"
"Who's that?" Mendoza spun, snapping off shots at a MEC creeping along the raised walkways. "Who's hit?"
"David!" Jane leaned over the ladder, and Mendoza watched as she yanked the Australian up with both hands. He clutched his side, and a red gash ripped above his hip by what must have been a grazing shot.
"Let me-"
"No time!" Jane threw David's arm around her shoulders, and she let him lean on her as they staggered for the elevator. "Get inside! Come on!"
Mendoza didn't wait for more exhortation. He did wait for Shen to enter the elevator, but as soon as she was secure, he too ducked into the clean white box, taking a knee and firing to cover Elena and the SPARK on their retreat. Quinn and Jane knelt over David, and for a moment, the Mexican Ranger was on his own.
"In!" Elena reported, as she slid into position opposite him. Her vektor spoke once. "Reloading!"
"Me too!" Mendoza ran his magazine dry, then ducked into cover. "Come on, sparky!"
"I have arrived." The robot proved it too, forcing its way into the elevator and forcing everyone to press against the walls. "I suggest we move."
"Let's," Shen agreed, tapping buttons on her wrist computer. The doors slid shut, only to dent as autocannon fire battered them. Mendoza didn't release his grip on his rifle until he felt them start moving.
"I hadn't thought it possible, but I believe you are actually starting to...piss me off." Julian seemed to mull that one over. "The sensation is quite pleasing, thank you. But you will all still die...and I assure you, the gas was a far cleaner alternative to what I have planned now."
"David?" Jane clutched his hand. "How bad is it?"
"Bad." Aileen's GREMLIN hovered over the grenadier. "But I can dull the pain and take the edge off it." She whistled, and Nessie obediently beeped before discharging a blast of medical nanobots. They set to work stitching the wound and injecting White with anesthetics and steroids. "He'll need time in the infirmary when we get back."
"Hopefully he's the only one." Mendoza swallowed as the elevator came to a halt. "Now what?"
"You should be on the roof," Commander Gallant said. "Firebrand is standing by to evac. Rally up around the landing pad."
"Don't have to tell me twice." Mendoza waited as the doors slid open. "David?"
"I'm...I'm awake." He staggered to his feet, claiming his gun. "Damn...that stings..."
"Lean on me," Jane urged. "Come on." She grabbed her weapon. "We just have to get to Firebrand-"
"Um...team?" Mendoza pointed. "We might have a bigger problem."
"Allow me to introduce you to one of Advent's more effective designs." It moved, lumbering forward from the workshop poised on the roof, across the landing pad swept by cold wind. Every step shook the building, and Mendoza felt the elevator sway every time its massive feet cracked the floor. "If I cannot have the SPARK, no one shall. Raymond Shen's legacy will end here and now!"
"A sectopod?" Jane demanded, freezing in her tracks. "A fucking what?"
"There's no way I can approach with that thing there!" Jane fancied she heard Firebrand pull a 180. "Now what?"
"The facility's AI seems to have transferred its primary intelligence to the sectopod unit's data core." The SPARK paused, as if to analyze the team's options. "Damage to this core will likely cause immediate severe disruption of defenses across the entire facility...allowing for evacuation of Lily Shen."
"So...so we just have to..." Jane sighed. "We kill the unkillable war machine, and we're good to go."
"That is correct."
"I hate you." She glared at the robot. "We can't even scratch the paint on-"
"The unit looks just as rusted and derelict as the rest of the facility," Shen insisted, sprinting out of the elevator. "We focus our heavy weapons on the joints, then follow up with lighter shots into the openings. If we can take out one leg, Julian will be lamed."
"You do realize I can still hear you, right?" The sectopod's top gun came out. "Please try not to bleed on my new body."
"Move!" Jane dove behind an air conditioner, and she saw Aileen slide to the corner of what must have been air traffic control back in the day. David and Mendoza sprinted one way, and Elena had simply vanished...those Reaper skills, Jane supposed. The SPARK grabbed Shen bodily and nearly threw her into the trench around the landing pad, where she lay flat with hands over her head-
The gun roared. It roared, and red energy pulses seared over the rooftop. The turret fired in bursts, and Jane screamed as shots ripped up the roof around her. She grabbed her gun, waiting as hell and death came down, boiling metal and hurling fragments aside.
For a moment, she thought of Ireland, and the explosion that had flung her into the sewer systems.
Boom!
"Jane!" That cry coincided with the fire lessening, and the Ranger mustered her courage and rose. She saw David ducking, dropping his grenade launcher as Julian turned his fire, and Jane sighted in on the left knee joint her ally had grenaded. For a moment, she prayed.
Boom! Clickity-boom! As her shot ripped into dented, rusted, aged metal, she heard the SPARK's cannon light up. Ratta-tatta-tatta!
"Your weapons are useless," Julian scoffed, as Aileen fired. A moment later, the medic screamed, hurling herself back as fire ripped apart the corner she hid behind. Jane saw fragments fly, cutting her friend's face. Still, she rolled to her feet, gun clutched tightly, so Jane supposed she wasn't hit too badly.
"Watch it!" Mendoza shouted, tearing past and zig-zagging as he sought cover. "It's opening up-"
"Shit," Jane breathed, as the thing did indeed open up, revealing a massive red-glowing energy cannon.
"Move quickly!" SPARK-001 urged, calculating the wrath cannon's trajectory. "I will cover you!"
"Rov-R!" Lily Shen waved her personal drone forward, and SPARK-001 processed for a moment whether his protection mandate extended to the device. It seemed much like his BIT...and his BIT was an extension of himself.
"Remain cautious!" he ordered the drone, leveling his captured autocannon. His targeting computer calculated the sectopod's armor thickness, and he angled his shots, hammering the edges and joints of the aged metal in an effort to fling plating left and right. It did, and SPARK-001 was quite satisfied at how much vulnerable circuitry he exposed for the others' fire-
BWAAM! The wrath cannon roared, and SPARK-001 twitched sideways, observing as the blast boiled half the roof. Red light seared across the landing pad, and David White screamed, hurling himself out of the way. Jane Kelly's shriek was more shrill, but she lunged toward the creation, shotgun blazing, and the SPARK noted with approval how many of those heavy rounds ripped into Julian's exposed knee. The building shook, and he quickly ran a structural integrity simulation.
There was no way the roof would...
"Destroy his leg!" the SPARK ordered, continuing to fire until the autocannon ran empty. Without additional ammunition, the best he could do was throw it aside. "Once it is down, he is helpless!"
"Take this!" White roared, and his machinegun vomited heavy lead. The SPARK scuttled through the fray as the other operatives engaged, observing Shen's drone deploy an electromagnetic pulse across the sectopod's frame, overloading its circuitry in a vicious flash of electricity.
"You will suffer for that!" Julian called. The SPARK ignored him.
"Please find better shelter," he urged, pulling Lily to her feet. "Near the far side of the building."
"What are you talking about? The fight's right here!" She lifted her rifle and fired a burst. "His leg's been shredded-"
"Get down!" Aileen Quinn seized Mendoza, hauling him to the roof in a heap as Julian's top cannon roared, spitting plasma blasts from above. They blew holes in the landing pad, shattered windows, and charred uniforms with flying ash and sparks, but in spite of the odds, the medic's dive saved her companion from direct harm.
Crack!
"I don't believe it!" Julian spoke not just for himself, but SPARK-001 as well. One bullet flew, and that single shot ripped into the top cannon, smashing its targeting sensor. Hidden in the shadows, Elena Dragunova paused to duck as wild, untargeted fire burst all around her. "You can burn, Reaper! You can burn and burn!"
"The leg! The leg!" David fired, then Kelly and Mendoza. Aileen Quinn added her bullets, and Shen as well. Combined fire shredded the knee joint, and Julian wavered.
"Maybe my turret can't hit you, but this can!" The energy cannon glowed.
Jane grabbed David, hauling him toward cover. "Get-"
SPARK-001 sent a wireless radio transmission to his floating BIT. The BIT received the signal, analyzed its equipment, performed a check on all component elements, verified all systems were running as well as its mother unit believed, and then opened a targeting box. SPARK-001 ran another structural analysis, then a predictive model of Julian's fire pattern, selected a glowing hit point based on this data, sent an encoded confirmation signal, and provided Dr. Shen's encrypted confirmation.
LILY.
This entire process happened in the span of less than one second. Handshake and two-key authorization complete, the SPARK confirmed the launch order.
An XCOM standard-issue Dragon Rocket was a development not of anti-tank missiles like the old US AT-4, but predominantly of RPGs, in the interest of fragmentation spray against organic targets. This was a Dragon II, designed by the late Dr. Shen himself to phase out the weapons utilized by the Project's Heavy operatives, and its firepower and accuracy was far higher than the base model, and its weight much lighter.
It shot out from the BIT in a flash of light and smoke, and the warhead drove into the floor beneath Julian's feet, detonating in a wild blast that shook the roof again. The SPARK waited.
"You missed!" Julian cried, before the cannon-
BWAAM! Out came red light, ripping into the landing pad. It seared for the SPARK, shattering metal and ceramic construction, likely prepared to do the same to his alloy chassis.
The SPARK waited.
Two wrath cannon blasts and the impact of a Dragon II were far too much for the landing pad to bear, especially combined with Julian's heavy footsteps. Metal groaned, things cracked, and the SPARK's structural analysis bore out in a flash as the entire roof yielded, coming apart at the seams under the impact.
"No! WAIT!" Julian was right at the epicenter, and his wrath cannon blast turned skyward as he tumbled backward...then down, straight through the hole.
The drop to the next floor was at least thirty meters. Julian's weight smashed right through it, but the next one was only another ten meters down, and this one was much sturdier. Julian managed to get his feet under him during the fall, and they both crashed down on firm support. Unfortunately, one of his knees was all but destroyed, and gravity provided the necessary impact.
And when the wrath cannon came down on a solid surface, its energy blasted right back the way it came.
"-down-"
Jane's future words were drowned out by an explosion, then the crashing of metal. She screamed, hurling herself and David further to the side as half the roof caved in, and the sectopod vanished, and-
Two seconds later, the building shook again as a titanic scarlet blast roared up from the hole, shooting skyward like a flare. Jane screamed, and David too, the pair clutching each other as the world seemed to end. Mendoza and Aileen were somewhere, and the SPARK seized Shen, covering her with his body. Elena cried out, falling from her high perch but catching a handhold before she could slide off the edge of the tower.
And then it was over. Silence held in the air, and as cold, icy wind whipped at Jane and blew her ponytail six ways from Sunday, it held the scent of charred electronics.
"Menace, this is Avenger." Bradford sounded awed. "Defenses just shut down across the entire facility!"
"Where the hell is Firebrand?" Aileen demanded, knees knocking. "Avenger-"
"I'm en route! The pilot sounded just as jubilant. "Nice work, Menace-"
"I could use a hand!"
"Oh, shit!" Jane scrambled for the edge of the roof. "Hang on, Outrider!"
"What do you think I'm doing?" the Russian demanded. She waited as Jane leaned down, and a moment later they locked hands. Jane pulled her up, and the Reaper glanced to the hole. "Nice work, SPARK."
"I do my best." The robot stood unnaturally still, eyes fixed on Lily. "Everyone seems all right."
"Most everyone." Jane hurried to David. "You all right, asshole?"
"You of all people ought to know I'm not." He leaned on one of the few walls left standing, clutching his side. "Fuck, that hurts..."
"Just hang on." Jane took his arm and threaded it over her shoulders, waiting as the sound of Firebrand's engines introduced itself in the distance. "It's over. We won."
"And I think we may just have come out of it with a brand new surprise for Advent," Shen added, taking in the SPARK with wonder in her eyes.
For once, Jane couldn't think of anything to argue with her about.
Author's Note 12: Giant-ass Robots
One can pick logical holes in Julian's decisions here all day. However, I'm willing to accept him moving his entire entity into a single confining unit for the sake of plot...even if the sectopod itself doesn't make a load of sense. Come on! Those giant chicken legs? They're easy freaking targets. I don't like giant walkers for many reasons, across any work. The Legend of Korra Season 4 finale irritated me primarily because of its inclusion of one, but it wasn't enough to ruin the whole thing...and Pacific Rim is a red-blooded exception to this rule. A stupid movie it may be, and my wife does not understand, but it will forever be my guilty pleasure. I can't wait for the sequel.
Let's talk about SPARKs. I freaking love SPARKs. Their promotion trees, Overdrive, their mobility, the whole general aesthetic...the devs done good with them. They're easily worth as much as a regular soldier, or more, under the right circumstances...and combining SPARKs with psi-ops with the regular classes with the new WotC classes makes for some hard choices during mission loadouts. There are nine different types of soldier available - and you can only take six! And that's not counting different promotion specializations! I hope I can find a good mod that increases squad size to eight(and enemy difficulty to match, natch).
Until then, Vigilo Confido.