Marcus
September 2215
Poseidon
I watched the long-range image, which showed the expanding cloud of debris that used to be my Heaven vessel decoy. I’d been lying about my location for several months now, and the Council seed to have bought it. Three Council security vessels left the area at far too high an acceleration for the cargo vessels they appeared to be. It would seem the Council could be sneaky as well.
I fired off a report to Riker, cc’d to Bill, and saved a backup to my Fortress of Solitude, circling Eta Cassiopeia B. If the Council ever found that, I’d be thoroughly hooped. Fortunately, that was unlikely. The Council still had fewer than a dozen ships, and the companion star simply hadn’t co up in discussions for a long ti.
Of course, the Council had obviously been engaging in covert preparations as well, as evinced by the three souped-up and ard cargo ships. Now that they believed dead, I hoped that they would openly play their hand.
I returned my presence to my android, which was standing at parade rest. As I moved my arms into a more relaxed position, everyone turned to .
“Well?” Kal said.
I grinned at him. “Three very non-standard cargo vessels just took out my decoy vessel. It would have attempted evasive tactics consistent with its published specs. I’m sure the security personnel are very proud of themselves.”
“What about the cargo vessels?”
“I’ve got so stealth busters following them right now. But we don’t know what the Council’s total strength is, or where they’ve placed it. I have to assu that my estimate of a dozen ships is incorrect. We’ll have to take a wait-and-see stance until they show their hand. And rember, officially, I’m dead.”
Gina looked up from her phone and cut into the conversation. “They’ve moved on four cities: Lothar, Morbus, Xanator, and Gathol. Attempted to board and take over—you were right, they were trying to avoid damaging the cities.”
“Status?” I asked.
“Repelled with significant losses. They didn’t expect resistance.”
“They also didn’t expect,” Gina replied, “weapon systems that weren’t on the blueprints.”
I grinned. “My fault. I forgot to file the changes with the Permits departnt.”
Kal waved his phone. “They’ve made an announcent.”
We all turned to him, eager to hear what the Council had co up with. Kal read through the text, deliberately injecting a pompous tone into the pronouncent. When he was done, we all sat in a semi-circle, ready for a council of war.
“So, the takeaway,” I said, looking up at the do overhead, “is that the evil, evil replicant is defunct and everyone should be good little citizens and co back to the mats. Or else.”
“And if we don’t, they’ll start shooting down cities in twenty-four hours.” Kal shook his head in exaggerated disbelief. “We’re at war now, even if the word hasn’t actually been used. Blowing Marcus up can’t really be misinterpreted.”
“I suppose they could take the stance that I’m not alive, therefore it was just a case of obsoleting so recalcitrant equipnt.” I gave my friends a lopsided grin. “And the thing with those cities could be called a ‘police action’.”
Gina rolled her eyes at , mocking my favorite expression. “Or they were just tired of listening to you talk. Now are you willing to start fighting?” ℝâƝỖᛒË𝐬
I shook my head. “I still don’t know where all their assets are. I want to take everything out cleanly in one strike. And I don’t want to have to kill anyone.”
“Good luck with that,” Kal muttered.
We spent the next few hours monitoring developnts. Things seed to have settled into a stalemate, with the Council making threats and the cities daring them to try, or simply remaining silent.
Then, more trouble.
Two ships ca out of sunward and launched missiles at Amhor. My assets were all space-side, shadowing or searching for council assets, so I had nothing for defense. The city, though, had those undocunted features…
Particle-weapon turrets, courtesy of Bill’s Skunk Works, activated imdiately and attempted to shoot the missiles out of the sky. The attackers responded by firing more missiles.
“I’m impressed,” I said. “The basic cargo-ship design doesn’t have a lot of room for weapons storage and launchers. I’d be interested in seeing how—”
“Chrissake, Marcus, we’re in danger here. Could you dial it back?”
I gave Kal a rueful smile by way of apology, then turned back to watch the drama.
The ships seed to have emptied themselves of missiles, and our defensive batteries had taken out the first two missiles. The second pair were getting too close for comfort, though. And seed to have figured out the defensive patterns, as they were evading all attempts to shoot them out of the sky.
With a flash of inspiration, I took control of a couple of flyers sitting in the docking bay. I sent them toward the missiles at full acceleration. Flyers were not military vehicles or flying explosives, so they really had no chance of catching or even intercepting an approaching missile. But they did have the effect of splitting the attention of the missile AMIs. It was just enough to slow down the dodging, and the defensive turrets blew both missiles out of the air.
The ships, now apparently unard, turned and flew off. I called a couple of drones from orbit to shadow them. If they flew back to a base sowhere to reload, I’d have a target.
But there was no ti to celebrate our victory.
Kal leaped to his feet and uttered a string of profanities. Then he turned to look at the rest of us, and said, “The bastards shot down Thark.”
There were gasps and cries of shock, but not surprise. Thark and Amhor were the residences of what we sowhat ironically called the Revolutionary Council. We’d published disinformation, but sohow the Council had seen through it.
Regardless, the Council had just upped the ante.
Gina asked, “Survivors?”
Kal looked at his phone for several seconds, his eyes moving back and forth. I noticed that several other people were poking their tablets furiously.
“Escape pods were observed ejecting, before it hit water. But I’d bet not everyone got out.”
Gina glared at . “Now we’re at war. They’re trying to hit us everywhere at once, to end it before we can react. It’s not going to stop until they think they’ve won. It will just continue to escalate, and more and more people will die. Now, Marcus.”
I sighed and nodded my head. Without a word, I deactivated my android and returned to VR. A quick status check at computer speeds showed that I had busters trailing all Council ships that we’d been able to locate. I ordered all busters to attack, concentrating on taking out the reactor or drive systems.
The subject of cloaking technology hadn’t really co up in conversation with the Council, so the ships were caught flat-footed. All clean shots, there should be no deaths unless soone was standing right by the reactor at the wrong ti. Escape pods ejected from all of them.
None of which would help with the Council. For that, I activated phase 2.
The ouncil had set up security at strategic locations such as power stations and flyer depots, as well as roving patrols to ensure citizens stayed put and obeyed curfews. I gave the command, and cargo drones dropped off squads of roars throughout the Northern and Southern mats. I’d learned the utility of roars as foot soldiers, almost a hundred years ago in New Handeltown. This ti, I had more than just the twenty-centiter models available.
All over the towns and industrial sections, Council security forces found themselves set upon by roars, from the one-inch models that would try to crawl down your pants, right up to the two-ter heavy-lifting models—every single one ard with plasma cutters, pliers, and a total lack of fear.
Within ten minutes, I got the all-clear from Gina, who was coordinating with local resistance. I pulled up a video window. “Have you located the Council mbers yet?”
Gina shook her head. “No, as we expected, their published locations were all bogus. Chances are their movent history is at least partly fiction, as well. We’re analyzing on the basis of defensibility and obscurity.”
I nodded. “My money is still on subs.”
Gina snorted. “If so, they can stay out there all they want. I’m not going to risk an encounter with a kraken or hydra just to capture those turds.”
“Maybe the wildlife will take care of it for us.”
Kal popped up in another call window, joining the conference. “We’ve got control of the comms center. Want to send out an all-points?”
“Do it.” I nodded. “And see if you can get an update on Thark.”
“Already done. We’ve pulled about half the population out of the drink,” Kal responded. “Still scanning for more pods. At the mont, there are about a hundred and fifty people missing.”
I closed my eyes, feeling nauseated. We’d admitted the possibility of casualties, but the reality—even a potential reality, at the mont—was so much harder to take.
“Okay, Kal. Keep updated.”
When I had ti, I would have to do so soul-searching. Between the Poseidon revolution, the Sol System War, and the overthrow of New Jerusalem, my various incarnations seed to always be in the thick of things.
How many deaths was I answerable for?
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