"Entering," said Barnum.
"Entering, aye," acknowledged Torque. "Here for your log reviews?"
"You know it," said Barnum tiredly. He headed to the Engineering Officer's station. "Besides, we'll be pulling in towards Abel City soon. Might as well get a jump start on it."
"Hope you have a tall coffee."
Barnum laughed. "You mean you wish you did."
"I wish I could blame not having coffee," Torque replied, his reploid voice tinged with amusement.
Without looking at the power plant operator, Barnum pulled up the logs and data from the last eight hours of operation. Sky Lagoon's propulsion plant was a truly massive operation. It had to be. Sky Lagoon was an airborne industrial park. It moved from place to place, ingesting raw materials directly and delivering finished product.
What they made there, Barnum didn't know or care. All he knew was that the engines and engineering that kept it all airborne were fascinating. Macro-engineering at its most magnificent. He loved it.
It was almost enough to make him forget a career in robotics he now deeply regretted. Almost.
Shaking his head, he started reviewing the numbers. Every one had a range it was supposed to be in. Every one was part of trends. Had to look at the trends, check against operations and conditions from that time period, ensure everything made sense…
He heard Torque speaking about basic plant operations. He tuned it out. They had junior plant personnel around all the time—steady state was the perfect opportunity for them to drop in and pick the brains of their seniors.
"…have enough thrust from four sectors to keep us airborne…"
Things didn't change much, Barnum noted, when everything was normal. When Sky Lagoon was going from one place to another at steady speed, the numbers were almost boring. It would get interesting, soon, when they started the landing cycle. Until then, the most important thing was to identify any outliers that might give early indications of trouble.
"…automatic failover is a design feature, you can see here in the manual…"
Barnum's brow twitched. He slowed down his review so he could pay more attention.
"…yeah, there are overrides for emergency situations, but they can only be activated…"
Something wasn't right. Those weren't normal questions. Barnum looked away from the logs. His eyes widened. Something definitely wasn't right. "Torque," he said, swallowing, "who's that?"
"This is Magma Dragoon, from the Maverick Hunters," Torque replied. "He wanted to know about the plant."
"He's not supposed to be here," Barnum said. His skin was prickling.
Torque frowned, looked to Dragoon as if for guidance. "I thought Hunters could go anywhere."
No reploid wants to stand in the way of the Hunters, Barnum thought with rising horror. "This is critical infrastructure. Even the Hunters can't be here…"
"Unless we have probable cause," interrupted Dragoon. "If there's evidence of Maverick activity, we can go anywhere to investigate it. And I have more than that—I know there's a Maverick onboard Sky Lagoon. Right now, in fact."
The questions he asked were no part of an investigation.
Barnum reached for the emergency phone. Before his fingers closed on it, Dragoon kicked Torque's head right off his shoulders. The head struck Barnum and stunned him. He made a second, concussed lunge for the emergency phone.
The renegade Hunter grabbed his hand before it reached its target. Dragoon tightened his grip until Barnum stopped struggling.
"I have nothing against you, personally," Dragoon told Barnum. "But the Hunters taught me much about 'excessive force' and 'acceptable losses'."
His lip curled in an ironic smile. "Maybe I'll get a medal for this."
Barnum disappeared in a gout of flame.
Colonel lurched to the side. His saber tumbled from his hands as he fell to his knees.
"Sir! Sir!"
"I'm… okay," Colonel grunted through clenched teeth. Repliforce soldiers from around the training area were rushing to his side. He waved them off. "I'm not hurt."
"Here's your saber, sir."
"I… can't hold it, right now. Give me space."
They backed away. That was better. Couldn't think.
Emotions were washing through him. Iris' emotions. No, too many, too loud, too different—a kaleidoscope of strong feelings blasting through his mind, flashing from her to him through their fatal link.
He tried to tone it down as much as his control software would allow. Only when the volume was lower could he understand which emotions he was feeling—when the intensity was high it blurred the distinctions.
Fear. Terror. Despair. Panic.
Lots and lots and lots of it.
"Something terrible is happening," he managed. "Agh!" Too much… he felt his own emotions rising to match hers, theirs. Their emotions were contagious.
He tried to control them with pride, shackle them with honor. He was Colonel—he was more than this! He forced himself upright, although he tossed his head back and strained against the sky in the bargain.
"What's happening? What terrible thing is happening?"
"Iris is in danger," was all he knew. All he could say. "Lots of people are in danger. Mortal danger. We have to…"
"To… do what? Where?"
He didn't know, and that ignorance was the opening the panic needed to sweep him up. He doubled over, head against the floor, and groaned aloud from the intensity of the feeling. "I have to… find Iris!"
"But how? Sir, we don't know where she is."
"Aaaaagh!" Colonel cried, his inner anguish spilling out of him. So many voices—he could hardly find himself—Iris had it worse, he was sure…
Where was she?
Was her voice in there, anywhere? Or was it purely everyone else?
He had to find Iris!
Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and dove into the stream. He submerged himself in the clamor in his own mind. He opened himself to the link.
There—small voice, a wail of pain. It was her feeling, unmistakably so. He knew it intimately. She was feeling the terror and the fear and the despair and the panic, but those things were less than the pain, the pain she felt from being so overloaded. Whatever he was feeling, he realized, was less than she was feeling… he was just getting a pass-along, whereas she was taking the full brunt.
So many voices…
He gasped as his eyes opened. "She's in… a heavily-populated area," he said, heaving simulated breaths as his emotion-signifying system labored under so many signals. "Lots of people around."
"It has to be in Abel City, then."
"Where in the city?"
"Who's around her?"
The last question caught his attention. Wrestling control back, he girded himself and let the emotions overwhelm him again.
So much feeling, washing him away, a flood of emotion, every color and taste and smell and none of those things—the feel of it… familiar and exotic both…
"Mixed population," he said, bringing his head back out. He looked up—he saw people around him, but he couldn't recognize them, had no capacity to recognize them. "Humans… and reploids. Both."
"That narrows things down."
"Not really—it's a big city."
"At least it rules some things out."
"That still leaves so much…"
He was the only one who could figure it out, he knew. Tell me, Iris, he thought desperately. Tell me where you are.
It wouldn't work. He knew it wouldn't. The link was one-way. She transmitted, he received. If he was going to find out where she was, he only had one data source.
What she was transmitting.
With a roar he opened the aperture all the way.
Self gone—
-adrift—vanished—
-can't hear Iris—fear—fear—panic—fear—panic—panic—fear—everywhere—everyone—pain—fear—nausea—fear—panic—
-nausea—
He bellowed incoherently as he pushed away from the link again. Every effort went into regaining control of his mind. He had to restrain the flood. Finally, after long seconds of fighting, he was stable, on steady ground. The other emotions were all lapping at his self, but they were so loud and insistent he knew they weren't his, and could keep them from crashing over him.
"They're falling," he said. "People are falling… No, wherever she is, the whole thing is falling."
"A plane?"
"No, not that…"
"A whole building? Or… wait."
"Sky Lagoon."
"Yes!" Colonel said with a spasm. "That has to be it… help me up."
Everywhere arms reached down and helped him regain his feet. He shuffled a little, putting his weight here and there to make sure he had his motor control back. Good. "I need some volunteers," he said.
Every hand went up.
"Alright," he said. "You, get Storm Owl on the line. I need a light flyer. One that can hover! Combat loadout. The rest of you, let's get to the airfield."
"Yes sir!" was the reply.
He tried hard to think as they started to move out. "And get the forces returning from Alexandria. Vector them in, too. We don't know how big of a problem we're dealing with. I need options."
"Yes, sir."
Two soldiers peeled off to head for the phones. "And once we're airborne," he said, thinking aloud, "I'll inform General."
"X!"
X looked over his shoulder to see Zero running after him. He almost smiled. "Good to see you," he shouted over the alarm klaxon. Mercifully, the klaxon went to silent mode right after. "You look awful," he added.
"I didn't sleep well," Zero replied, which made X wonder—but there wasn't time to ask about it. "What's going on?" Zero continued.
"Don't know yet," X replied. "But we will soon…"
The two entered the watch floor side-by-side. Every screen had a picture of Sky Lagoon.
"That can't be good," said Zero.
Commander Grant looked to them—he seemed even more sleep-deprived than Zero, but his voice was sharp. "Get to the hangar, both of you. Alia will have transport waiting for you. There's no time for you to wait for backup and you'll be going in hot."
"She'll brief us by radio?" X asked.
"Yes. Now move."
The androids broke into a run as they headed for the hangar. They cut through the growing swarms of people and reploids emerging and heading to their stations. A new all-call announcement came over.
"All squads, arm and report to staging areas. Squad Leaders will make readiness reports in ten minutes or when staged."
"This feels bad," said X.
"Familiar," Zero said.
"We have had lots of experience with bad," X allowed.
"There've been false alarms," Zero said.
"X, Zero," came Alia's voice, "Sky Lagoon is falling."
"This isn't one," X mouthed to Zero.
"All stations, report status of security lockdown."
"First report came in ten minutes ago. Sky Lagoon was supposed to swing around Abel City to the west, but it hasn't changed course and it's losing altitude. Two minutes ago we got a single radio burst saying control surfaces were locked out, and that mechaniloids were attacking the engines."
"Not without direction," X said over his own radio. Although mechaniloids were technically autonomous, they were built with very limited imaginations, following in the patterns of a century's worth of robots. Accordingly, they were always supervised, usually by reploids, again in the pattern of old-style robot masters. Mechaniloids doing anything extravagant or unusual was always evidence of foul play.
The Hunters themselves had an inventory of support mechaniloids. To arm them would have been a breach of policy. For mechaniloids to be on the attack meant there was probably double foul play.
"Where there's smoke, there's fire," Alia agreed. "I've arranged a bee blader to make a pass over Sky Lagoon. You'll drop in."
"No time for anything bigger?" Zero said as he and X went for the not-actually-a-transport craft.
"No. Time is critical."
The two Hunters clambered into the bee blader's cargo space in its abdomen. Two members of the support staff were just finishing with tools, cables, and tubes; the last of them were pulled away just as X and Zero came aboard. It was a tight squeeze—bee bladers weren't made to carry personnel—but it would keep them out of the wind. The rotor began to spin.
"Mass casualty response teams, prepare to deploy."
"We'll put you down close to the engines. Clear the mechaniloids away first. After that, X will head to engineering, while Zero will head for the bridge."
"We don't know where those things are," X pointed out.
"I'm pulling Sky Lagoon's specs now. I'll guide you in."
"Where's Iris?" Zero asked. "She's been my Operator."
"…stand by."
The bee blader lifted off from the ground. Hunter personnel scurried out of the way, clearing a path for takeoff.
"I've just gotten the damage projections. The best case—well, the best case is that there's little damage to the engines and the crew can avoid a crash completely."
"It's already losing altitude," X pointed out.
"Agreed… so the real best case is that they can do a controlled crash landing, and only kill a few hundred people that they land directly on."
"A few hundred is the best case?" X said, appalled.
"The worst case is an uncontrolled crash that kills everyone onboard and makes a crater out of a whole district."
The bee blader surged into the air.
"Fly faster," X whispered, though the words were lost to the wind.
"Where's Iris?" Zero insisted again.
"Stand by."
"Stand by? What does that mean?" Zero demanded.
"It means she hasn't reported in and I can't raise her, so stop asking, it doesn't help."
"Are you worried she's caught up in this?" X asked, privately.
One of Zero's hands swapped to buster mode. "I can't raise her, either."
X saw. "You had a private comms path to her, like the one you have with me, and she's not answering. You're thinking she must be in trouble."
Zero's eyes flashed at X. "I promised Colonel I'd take care of her," he said in strained tones.
It's not just a promise that's making you feel like this, X knew. "We'll do our best to find her."
Zero's expression tightened. He began to charge a shot. After a few seconds he realized it was premature and let the energy bleed back into his systems. X noticed all of this.
He was noticing everything. Combat mode was engaged. Any stimulus that might have bearing on the tactical situation was vacuumed up by his senses. Algorithms both subtle and gross sliced up those stimuli and threw the most important information to the front of X's consciousness.
He felt bad that everything about Zero fell under the category of "has bearing on the tactical situation". He felt doubly bad that everything about Zero was in the "important information" category. It made him distrust his threat assessments.
Ignoring his threat assessments kept getting him ambushed.
"I'll kill them all," Zero murmured, not over any radio. X could read lips. He wasn't sure if Zero knew that. He did know that Zero was at his worst at this moment. He was willingly getting closer to the Red Demon—to that being that lived to kill, that gloried in murder.
The self-control that Zero so prized was sloughing off.
"One minute to drop. Stand by."
X grimaced and looked away from Zero. The mission had to come first. And Zero's peak lethality was needed for a mission with these stakes. "Ready," X reported.
Zero began to charge his busters again. This time, X did the same.
"There it is."
Colonel wrenched himself up in his seat to look. Sure enough, up ahead was the great mass of Sky Lagoon. Smoke was billowing from it; outlined by the city's lights, the scene looked almost dream-like, unreal. Lagoon's attitude was off-kilter—no way its engines were working as they should.
It was also low—much lower than could be safe. It was passing above the buildings in the outskirts of Abel City, but that wouldn't maintain long, it would get lower and they would get taller…
Iris was there, he knew. Knew beyond doubt.
"I see weapons fire," said another one of the Repliforce soldiers.
Colonel squinted, and he could, too. Occasional explosions flared up, some from Sky Lagoon, some clearly in mid-air. "Take us in closer," he commanded.
"I'll try, sir, but the angle on Sky Lagoon will make it hard to come alongside and harder to debark."
"I understand. Do your best."
"Yes, sir."
Zero sneered in triumph as another blast loosed from his buster. The ball of plasma slammed into the last mechaniloid, turning the converted worker-bot into a rapidly expanding cloud of scrap. It wasn't as satisfying as swinging his saber, maybe, but it did the job against flying enemies just fine.
It'd be more fun if it weren't so easy and he still couldn't raise Iris.
New motion caught his eye, right at the limit of buster range. "New target, definitely not a mechaniloid," he reported. He raised his buster all the same. It was angling in ahead of the engine; another few seconds and…
Sky Lagoon shook, tilted under his feet. Before he lost his balance completely he stabbed down with his saber, making the surface of Sky Lagoon his anchor. When he looked up, the new flyer was banking away. This raised its wing enough that Zero got a glimpse of unit insignia.
An explosion illuminated it for a moment.
"I have visual on a Repliforce flyer," Zero reported.
"Repliforce? Is it part of the attack?"
"Can't tell," Zero said. "It's near the engine, but the engine's already shot up pretty badly."
"But it's still working?"
"It probably shouldn't be making those noises."
"Ensure the new contact doesn't join the attack. That's still your first concern."
X's voice crackled over the circuit. "Engine two clear of hostiles. The engine is still turning but it won't last long. Five minutes tops."
"Understood. Head for engineering. I'll guide you."
Zero heard this but never let his attention stray. He charged a shot. "Give me a reason," he said to the flyer as he took aim.
"It's too steep," the pilot said. "I can't bring us level to Sky Lagoon. Even if I could, we couldn't get anyone back off."
Colonel growled—anger, he was discovering, was the only way to channel the fear and panic. Honor and pride weren't strong enough, weren't immediate enough. "Project their crash location. We'll skip ahead and be ready to board once they come down. We'll exterminate any Mavericks who survive the crash and rescue any survivors."
"That might be a big job," the pilot suggested even as he complied.
"Where is the Alexandria detachment?" Colonel demanded.
"Coming," said another voice. "They've changed course and are coming in. Traffic is slowing them down."
"Traffic? A time like this and they're letting themselves be slowed by traffic?" Colonel had enough self-awareness to realize he'd nearly snarled. He gathered himself—he might need his anger, but his comrades didn't deserve it. "I understand. Tell them to hurry. We need them at the crash site as soon as possible."
"It hasn't crashed yet."
Colonel huffed, pointed. "Yet."
"Repliforce?" said Commander Grant with dangerous iciness. "Is that right?"
"That's what Zero reported," said Alia, keeping her voice carefully neutral.
"I'm calling the Minister," said Grant.
"Sir, shouldn't we…" Alia began, but X called for guidance, and she had her mission. Politics weren't her place.
She regretted the choice never, and also forever.
Burned bodies lined the corridor. "Now what, Alia?"
"Second left, then straight."
"Roger." The stench was strong, but also mixed—burnt flesh and scorched metal both. There was no way to tell the provenance of any individual body. X picked his way over them, buster whining with the sound of a held charge.
He rounded the corner and smacked right into Magma Dragoon. "Dragoon," he said, surprised.
Disbelief was on Dragoon's face, but it turned quickly into a grimace. "The Mavericks have already been here," he said. "They've locked up the engineering plant and killed everyone around. I fought some off, but it's too late."
"I'll decide when it's too late," X said. "Are there any Mavericks left?"
"I don't think so."
"Go make sure," X said. "I'm going to engineering."
He passed by Dragoon. Dragoon called over to him, "It's too late! If we don't get out of here now, we'll die!"
X didn't reply. He was into the engineering room.
X had a technical background. He was a journeyman roboticist before the wars had started, and though his certs were expired he had still done more than his share of research.
This helped him only a very small amount as he looked at the control room. Even as he reabsorbed his charge, his face swept around, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
The background of the propulsion control panel looked like an outline of Sky Lagoon itself. The main engines had buttons on them, buttons colored with their status—two were green, two were red, two were amber. X could intuit what that meant. He couldn't do anything with the red, not enough time, but if two of the engines had been put down to standby, well, that extra thrust might be enough. If only he knew how to…
His eyes fell upon an open manual. He smiled in relief. The Mavericks hadn't known how to shut the engines down, either. The same manual that had the shutdown procedures would have the startup…
The Master Pilot of Sky Lagoon winced as another building passed close by. "Can we maneuver yet?"
"No, sir, I can't raise engineering at all. Whatever's going on down there knocked out maneuvering along with the two engines…"
"Bridge, engineering. Engine four coming up."
"Engine four, full power!" screamed the frantic Master. "Engineering, can you get me engine three?"
"Trying…"
"Out of time!"
The whole back of Sky Lagoon, with its rear engines having been hit by the mechaniloids, was dragging the sky-town down.
Sky Lagoon had been designed with redundancy in mind. Engines needed maintenance, sometimes, and failures happened. Per design, Sky Lagoon could fly with five out of six engines operational, hover with four out of six, and make a controlled descent with three out of six.
The Mavericks had shut down two. The attack had damaged two. The two undamaged engines couldn't hope to keep Sky Lagoon airborne on their own. Bringing up a third gave just enough extra thrust—
-to keep Sky Lagoon from shattering when it plowed into the first row of buildings.
For everyone on board and underneath Sky Lagoon, the world exploded. Deafening noise and bone-rattling shock sent everyone senseless. It was jarring to the people on Sky Lagoon, but most of them survived. They were lucky. As Sky Lagoon obliterated the buildings it hit, most of the people inside were crushed or liquefied instantly.
Dust and smoke blasted down the streets along Sky Lagoon's path, turning the whole world dark. It was not as bad as it could have been, but it was still a disaster of the first order—and then the fires started.
A scar was torn in Abel City, shaped like a smoking tear. It was filled with rubble and death, and it ended in the sundered remains of Sky Lagoon slammed against some skyscrapers.
Dozens of armed reploids were headed that way.
"Iris! Iris!"
"…I'm here, Zero."
"Where? I'll come get you. Stay there."
"Zero, this is X, I need you topside. We need to establish a perimeter so we can begin evacuating people..."
"You can do that, X. I'm getting Iris."
"Zero!"
Maverick Hunter operations had a three-step cadence.
Step one: contain the Mavericks.
Step two: evacuate humans, then non-combatant reploids.
Step three: search for and destroy the Mavericks.
Following this pattern, Maverick Hunter units responding to the crash were leading and directing the medical and disaster response teams. They set up rally points and staging areas, so that those teams could respond as soon as it was safe. And they stretched as far as they could to try and isolate the hit area of the city—though the scar was long enough that it stretched them thin.
There was a gap in their coverage that would take time to close. Through this gap, a column of trucks and transports rumbled towards the crash.
X leapt, leapt again, pushing off the side of Sky Lagoon's smashed superstructure, grasping for height. Height meant visibility. In a world of smoke and rubble, he had to be able to see.
There—he crested the highest point of Sky Lagoon and set his feet atop it, though part of it shifted and crumbled beneath his weight. Nothing here could be called stable. He settled into a safe posture and started scanning around.
Against his will, his mind started tallying probable casualties. He tried to suppress that subroutine. There would be time for that later.
He didn't see any weapons fire. Good. No sign or sound of combat—still clatter, but that was the collapse of already-compromised structures, not new impulses.
Nothing fleeing—good. Mavericks ran, sometimes, and the contradictory impulses of Save Humans and Kill Mavericks got many a Hunter in trouble. But no, nothing fleeing.
But approaching…
Lots of heavy things.
Mavericks trying to consolidate their attack? Finish the job? Have to check.
Down he went, using the boosters in his legs and friction from the superstructure to get down safely. As soon as he was down he bent into a sprint. "Zero. I need you, Zero," he radioed.
No reply.
A flyer came swooping in from overhead. X juked, sought cover, began charging a shot—but it went over him, towards the other newcomers. X watched it, assessed it. Friendly? Maybe. No weapons fire. Insignia? Can't see.
X began to move again, skirting from cover to cover. The flyer was landing near where the side of Sky Lagoon was buried in the pavement, the most accessible point from the ground. The heavy vehicles were driving for the flyer—or maybe the flyer was landing in front of the vehicles.
X approached to medium range and paused again, once more in cover. His eyes scanned about. The heavies had stopped, and bodies were debarking. The flyer, too, was letting out its crew, and—
Oh, that was Colonel.
Colonel?
"Base," X radioed, "is Repliforce authorized to be here?"
"Repliforce? Where?"
Scrap. He didn't have an answer to any of the questions he might be asked… "Base, radio damaged in crash. Disconnecting to repair." With that he deactivated his perfectly-functioning radio.
The Repliforce soldiers were fanning out. Deploying. They were armed, X could tell. If they meant to attack…
That didn't make sense. He couldn't assume, he had to know—and the only way to know for sure was to give them a chance to…
Threat assessment was trilling at him again.
He ignored it, hating himself the whole time.
He emerged from his cover and approached, though he stayed on the high ground of Sky Lagoon's fractured hull. "What are you doing here, Colonel?" he called.
That got their attention. Hands tightened on weapons, but none were raised. Colonel stalked towards X—but, warily, stopped well short. X could see Colonel's agitation. "I'm here to save Iris," he declared.
And not anyone else? X thought. "How did you know to be here?"
Colonel stamped. "I'm here with a large force that can help you and you're questioning my intentions?"
You're not supposed to be here. X wanted to say it, couldn't say it. He wanted Colonel's help. He couldn't accept Colonel's help.
What kind of help could someone offer when they were vibrating with anger like Colonel was now…
"Stand aside and let me rescue Iris," Colonel shouted. "Help me or get out of the way."
"Zero's getting her," X said. "She's safe."
"Good," Colonel said, but he did not relax.
He won't be at rest unless he sees… Taking a risk, X quickly activated his radio, sent a burst to Zero, and deactivated it again.
"How did you know where to find her?" X asked.
"Get out of my way, X!" demanded Colonel.
"I'm trying to help you, Colonel. Talk to me."
"I read her through my link," Colonel barked. "I figured it out."
X wanted to believe it was true. He wanted so much. He knew others wouldn't be so charitable.
"Now get out of my way," Colonel continued. "Or I'll…"
Thankfully, he never finished the sentence. His gaze shifted. X didn't have to look to know who had emerged. Zero, and Iris.
He also didn't have to look to know when Zero started charging his weapons. X tried to wave him down without turning. It didn't work.
"Iris!" shouted Colonel.
"Brother!" Iris called back. "I'm okay."
Finally, part of the edge seemed to come off Colonel. X, in his hyper-aware combat state, swallowed up every detail. He doesn't mean to attack. He's under enormous stress—the link, surely. I believe him that the link was his warning.
But other people won't.
"Did you get permission to operate in Abel City?" X asked. Please say yes please say yes please say yes…
Colonel's anger flared right back up. Iris shifted back; Zero's stance tensed. "There was no time for that nonsense."
Oh no.
"You didn't ask," X said, dismay growing. "And you didn't contact Gerry at all, did you?"
"Of course I didn't ask! The politics of fighting Mavericks… bah! That's for the humans to worry about."
"You know that isn't true, you…" He stopped. Colonel had to know that wasn't true. Had to. He wasn't ignorant, he was contemptuous.
"Those politics will get you killed," X warned.
"Are you threatening me?" said Colonel, bridling.
"No! I'm the one trying to help you!"
"So you say."
"He's telling the truth, you idiot," called Zero from behind X. It was all X could do not to whirl and try to get Zero to quiet down.
"He's a Hunter. He's part of their politics," Colonel charged.
"Like me?" Zero challenged.
That seemed to give Colonel some pause. X seized the chance. "I believe you. I believe you weren't behind this… atrocity. But others will be harder to convince. They'll need a good-faith gesture from you."
Colonel threw his hands into the air. "And why is our loyalty suspect?" he demanded.
"Look around you!" X said. "This is the worst disaster since the First War! Someone has to pay for it, and if there's even a chance it was you, someone will accuse you of being Mavericks!"
"The Hunters hate us already," said Colonel, eyes narrowing. "But we knew this. We're to be the scapegoats, are we?"
"Your being here…" X looked up. This was going all wrong. The memo that he'd written—this was scenario three. Repliforce implicated in false-flag disaster. He'd written the memo so that the Hunters and Repliforce could figure out how to communicate, how to trust each other, how to avoid confrontation.
Instead, his personal worst-case scenario was playing out right in front of him, he was a party to it and he couldn't stop it.
He was divided—he felt like he was in the past and future at the same time. They were going to be Mavericks, and he was going to kill them, just like all of those Mavericks before, except they didn't need to be Mavericks and this was all so stupid.
"There's only one thing I can think of," X said; even with a combat-addled brain he could remember what he'd written. "One way out. Disarm. Come with me back to Hunter Base. It'll prove your goodwill and…"
"Never," vowed Colonel.
"…give the investigation time to clear your name," X continued, as if to paper over Colonel's words.
"Clear our names?! My soldiers have died for the humans and that's not good enough?" X saw the positive feedback loop in action. Colonel was angry. Iris felt his anger. Colonel felt Iris feeling his anger. Spun up and spun up, with no way out, and removing Iris from the scene would drive Colonel to instant violence...
X felt like he was trying to hold back the tide. "I know, Colonel, I know, but it's the only way to show them…"
"No!" said Colonel, not allowing X to keep going. "If we disarm, all we do is allow the humans to kill us without a fight. We must be ready to fight for our lives."
X had heard that line a dozen times before. Maverick rhetoric.
He was too late.
"If you don't…" he sim-swallowed, unable to complete the sentence in one go. "If you don't, they'll declare you Maverick."
"If that's how it's going to be," Colonel said, voice low and deadly, "then maybe we should actually be Mavericks."
Zero started to move, but Iris restrained him.
"I'll do everything in my power to protect you," X promised, pleadingly, "but you have to trust me. You have to help me first. Disarm, and come with me."
Colonel tossed his head arrogantly. "Death before dishonor," he replied.
An entire organization built on sinful pride, X thought with horror. What was meant to inoculate them against Sigma is turning them into Sigma.
"Repliforce!" Colonel bellowed. "We came to help. But our help isn't wanted." He paused to sneer at X. "Return to base. Let the Hunters figure out the next move."
Efficiently, the Repliforce soldiers began to withdraw, to re-embark on to their transports and trucks. Colonel himself got back into his flier, and it didn't take off until the trucks had started to turn around.
X just watched, feeling sicker with every moment. He knew, right then, that even Sky Lagoon's fall wasn't going to be the worst part of his day.
He had to get ahead of it, had to—
He snapped into activity. Step one was to get on the radio, formulate his report in such a way as to reduce tensions, maybe he could still get ahead of this…
"Fifth Squad, Base. Repeat for confirmation."
"Base, Fifth Squad. X ordered Repliforce to disarm and stand down. They disobeyed and are withdrawing."
"Fifth Squad, Grant. Confirm that you are within Abel City."
"Confirmed."
"Confirm Repliforce being armed."
"Heavily armed."
"Very well."
"Commander, your orders? Should we engage?"
"No. I don't have the authority to declare Repliforce Maverick. But I know who does. Monitor Repliforce's withdrawal, continue disaster relief operations, and stand by."
"Base, Fifth Squad, roger."
There, standing in the midst of smoke and flame and death and sorrow, X let loose a wail of pain.
Next time: Breach