Rebel Sect

Maria

The message sent amounted to "Situation understood. What would you have us do?" Icey shook his head and sent it off with a muttered "Better the devil you know."

Del snorted. "I still think this is a bad idea. Cybrids can't be trusted."

Altas absorbed this passively, and Razorback glanced at him. "Present company excepted, of course." Altas only inclined his head.

"We're getting a response," Xenogears noted. "Translation amounts to a set of coordinates. It's about three hundred kilometers to the south, at the base of Vostock Rupes."

"They expect us to go there, I'd guess," Icey said.

Del's face darkened. "You ever heard the word 'ambush'?"

Icey nodded. "Then what you do is set up a counter..."

-----

"Approaching the designated coordinates," Xenogears reported. She, Icey, and Jehrico, in their brown-painted vehicles, were the ones who drew the short straws. Icey gazed out the Gorgon's window and searched for any sign of life.

There wasn't any. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Jehrico's Basilisk, or rather Tycho's Basilisk, his own having been blown half-apart on his way to the colony, turned on one leg as he scanned the horizon. Icey could see the EMP cannon and ELFs turning as he tracked the targeting crosshairs around.

Xenogears's Emancipator sat crouched, weapons charged, the leg flexors absorbing more power from the reactor than standard. If needed, the vehicle could release the stored energy and leap ten meters into the air.

"Lock warning," Icey's computer growled. He felt the cold sweat running down his back.

"Incoming dropship," Xenogears said. "Eastward." Icey turned in that direction, and saw the lumpy, crablike hull of a Cybrid dropship cruising low to the ground toward them.

"Be ready," he said. The dropship slowed briefly, spitting vehicles out of its belly, and then climbed at full acceleration.

"I count five Shepards, two Goads, a Seeker, and an Adjudicator," Xenogears said. "Shepards one, two, and three armed with heavy autocannon, four and five EMPs and blasters. Goads blasters. Seeker Shrike and EMP. Adjudicator Shrikes and particle beams."

"Copy," Icey said. "If we fight, I'll take the Adju and the autocannon Sheps, Xeno take the Seeker and other Sheps, Jehrico you take the Goads."

"Understood."

"Got it," Jehrico said. "But let's hope we don't."

"Amen," Icey muttered. "Activating comm system. Attention Cybrid vehicles. Come to a halt and state your intentions."

Amazingly, they did so. Icey's comm whined as the computer processed a rapid burst of information. "We: Rebel Sect require assistance against you/us common enemy: Promethean Sect."

"How would providing you assistance benefit us?" Icey said.

Another burst. The computer did not generate an audio signal, instead, Icey's display lit up. A map appeared, apparently of the Antipode region. Numbers and symbols appeared here and there, with the occasional flashing emphasis icon.

"This is a report on all current Cybrid positions in the Antipode!" Xenogears said. "Shield strengths of their bases, numbers and courses of patrol vehicles, the works!"

"Your data is useful," Icey told the Cybrids, as he typed a few quick commands into his computer. He ordered the data transmitted to the satellite and held there without retransmission until further notice. If the data had any embedded malicious code, he was not about to infect Fantasma's computers with it. "What do you need of us?"

"We: Rebel Sect require diversionary action while we: Rebel Sect attack(destroy,purge) the defensive shield generator protecting SuperNexus 5(Mofolo Nexus)."

"What... sort of diversionary action?"

"The optimum scenario would involve you attacking the facilities around subSuperNexus 5.2(Petrarch Crater). This would result in forces from SuperNexus 5(Mofolo Nexus) being diverted to that location."

"I see..." He changed channels. "Xeno? Jehrico?"

"Logic suggests that if the rebel sect wishes to destroy the Mofolo shield systems, they have weapons powerful enough to destroy the supernexus while the shields are down. As Mofolo is the primary Cybrid facility in the Antipode, it would be in our best interest to see it destroyed."

"But attacking Petrarch?" Jehrico said. "I've seen the maps. There are thousands of Cybrids in there!"

"That's what covert operations are for," Icey said. "Maria alone used to sneak around destroying Cybrid bases. I'm sure we could do the same."

"I guess..."

"Provide us with precise information," Icey told the Cybrids. "If we show up, you'll know we have a deal."

The Cybrids didn't respond for a long time, and then the comm system lit up. Icey looked through it. The information was there.

"They're desperate," Xenogears said.

Icey nodded. "Good."

-----

The Cybrids left, the vehicles trotting off in a triangle formation to the east. Only when they were out of range of Xeno's enhanced sensors did Icey order the retreat back to the crater where Del, Ko'ah, and Razorback waited in their heavy vehicles. "The Cybrids gave us a large amount of useful tactical data," Icey said. "They want us to go on a haunt in Petrarch, blow things up, and get all the glitches chasing us so they can blow Mofolo's shields."

Del was the first to respond. "Think we should do it?"

"I think so. Seems there is indeed a war going on and the rebels are losing. Before they get obliterated, it would be best for us if they did as much damage to the Prometheans as possible."

"We should make sure the rebels survive. Let them take some load off us," Ko'ah said.

"Actually," Icey said, "Their maps have a sphere around Fantasma of about two hundred kilometers labeled as Threat:Unknown >> Avoidance >> Priority. We've been kicking them so hard they're scared to come near the colony!"

"Well how about that," Razor said.

"They do know where the AMG bases are, though. And they're massing a force to the west of the colony to wipe them out. I think they actually believe the AMG are responsible for all the Cybrid... disappearances."

"Well damn," Del said. "I'd rather they be scared of us."

"We cannot allow them to slaughter the AMG, though," Razorback said. "If Mofolo gets blown, that force will head down there at all speed and leave the miners alone."

"They're better off dead anyway," Del growled.

"So, are we gonna do this?" Jehrico asked.

There was a pause. Del spoke first. "Yes, I guess we are."

-----

Del took her Minotaur, ripped out the shield modulator, and dropped one of the Cybrid cloaking devices in. Ko'ah took Maria's Predator, which he had refitted with particle beams. Altas took his own Predator, whose heavy blasters were nearly as damaging as the heavier particle beam cannons, but were more destructive to stationary targets.

Rounding out the force was Razorback in his Banshee, waiting for the order to launch from the scarp's precipice eight hundred meters again. He would provide air cover should the ground force come under attack. Hopefully, with the cloaks and the speed of the vehicles, that would not happen, but battles didn't work by "hopefully".

"Let's go," Del said, and pressed the control to open the vehicle bay's door.

"I'll follow at one kilometer," Tycho said. His Basilisk was already waiting outside, its transparent form visible only as a shimmering distortion of the horizon. The missiles loaded on his vehicle had a range of twelve hundred meters, and combined with his slightly overpowered EMPs, he would be able to provide significant rearguard protection. He had orders to abandon his vehicle and go to ground if he came under fire: the slower Basilisk would never outrun even an Executioner fast enough to get to safety.

The three light vehicles moved out, and cloaked. Del watched Ko'ah's Predator change from a dusty gold tank to a black hole in the landscape, to a pretty good rendition of the horizon behind him. It was still visible if one knew where to look, but otherwise one would never see it coming.

They steered southwest, spreading out into a diamond formation with the Basilisk in the back. Each vehicle was five hundred meters from the center of the formation and no more than eight hundred meters from any of the others.

Ten minutes later, they had covered fifteen kilometers, and crossed a small slope that cut the scarp off from view behind. Del saw an Executioner ahead, and disobeyed her own order to approach it. "Continue on course," she ordered the others, as she brought the Minotaur behind the massive vehicle. With one motion she switched off the cloak and fired all her weapons, striking sparks off the vehicle's shields. She sidestepped as the vehicle tried to spin toward her, and kept hammering the vehicle's center. The shields fell, finally, and she shot the leg out from under it. It fell with a thunderous crash, and she spit blaster and ELF bolts into its exposed belly. The vehicle exploded.

She turned around and brought the Minotaur up to speed, resuming her place at the point of the formation.

-----

An hour later, they struck the first base. It was a small power station on the central peak of a medium-sized crater. When they crossed over the crater rim, they hit the acceleration and quickly crossed the crater floor.

Only three vehicles, all Seekers, guarded the small facility. Altas and Ko'ah arced off to each side, came alongside the skinny little vehicles, and arced inward in a pincer attack. They didn't fire, though: instead, they each rammed directly through the enemy vehicles, tearing them to pieces, continuing through the rubble to take the other vehicle in a fatal sandwich. The tough Predators took the impact with barely a dent, while the other Seeker was smashed between them.

Del began firing, cutting apart first the control nexus in the center of the base, and then the arrays of solar panels spread petal like from the crater peak.

In less than a minute, nothing remained of the small station but sparking ruins.

They continued on, two hours later coming to an ammo storage station at the eastern rim of Petrarch Crater. This one was more heavily defended: a trio of particle beam turrets stood on towers around the base, and several Shepards circled the base like sharks.

"Ko'ah, Altas, turret north, south," Del said, even as she turned to bring her weapons to bear on the central turret. "Fire on my mark. Tycho, hold. Razorback, pick off Shepards when shields drop. DNA."

"Do not acknowledge" was not really an order any of the Ghosts needed.

"Fire!"

All three vehicles appeared out of thin air, weapons blazing at the turrets. The two Predators took out their turrets with quick, precise shots to the weapons mounts themselves, while Del settled for destroying their towers.

The Shepards turned to engage them, and the battle was joined.

Del's Mino sprinted forward, rammed one of the Shepards repeatedly, and fired. The Shepard's shields overloaded quickly, and a trail of blue fire fell from the sky. The Shepard fell to pieces in front of her as the missiles exploded.

"Ko'ah join on me," Del said, and turned to engage another Shepard. Their combined fire ate through the shields quickly, even as the autocannon bursts from the enemy vehicle made loud dinging noises against Del's armor. She fired the shield capacitor off to bring her shields back to full power, but it blew, draining all her shield power remaining.

The Shepard fell to Ko'ah's weapons, but three more were on them and she could not engage them fast enough. Ko'ah rammed one out of the way, blasting at it with blue beams of accelerated particles, but the other two closed around Del like a vise.

A brown blur fell from the sky: Razorback's Banshee, tipped on its side. It did a very good impression of a battle-axe as the wedge-shaped nose ripped through one of the Shepards like tissue paper. The flyer arced back into the sky.

Altas was duking it out with one of the Shepards, and took the shields down with a few quick bursts to the shield generator itself. Streaking orange flame shot through the black sky, to blast the Shepard apart. Tycho's missiles then targeted Del's enemy as she took the shields down, and reduced that vehicle to scrap metal as well.

It took only moments to destroy the ammo dump, and a fireball five hundred meters wide and a kilometer tall flashed sparks off Del's shields. The Predators, their armor singed and scarred, but whole, cloaked and arced off to the west.

-----

The first thing they encountered when they entered Petrarch Crater was a patrol of three Executioners. They came to a stop while Del described their attack plan.

"Ready," she said, and uncloaked her vehicle, waiting for the weapons to charge fully. The Executioners detected her immediately, began to decelerate and turn as she fired. "Ready..." she repeated, running straight to the nearest of the bug-shaped vehicles and blasting away, using her ELF and blaster to tear into the vehicle's shields. "Now!"

Ko'ah decloaked and shot at the vehicle's legs, while Del spun to attack the leftmost Executioner. Immediately after the first fell to Ko'ah's attack, Del had the shields down on the next target. A pair of blue streaks and a pair of orange globs of fire shot out from the north, striking the shieldless vehicle and blowing all its weapons off. Ko'ah, Del, and Altas then surrounded and destroyed the other Executioner. One more shot from Tycho's Basilisk cut the legs of the damaged Executioner, toppling it.
"The last Executioner got a message off," Altas noted. "They know we're here now."

-----

Icey paced around Ops as Xenogears linked up with the satellite. They had connected the FANT/COMM communications server with FANT/OPS1, then severed all connections between the two systems and the main network. Since Xenogears, Altas, and Delithita all kept backups of OPS1's files on their own servers in their quarters, the Cybrid data could turn OPS1 to slag and it would not really matter.

The comm system would be difficult to repair, though, and Icey hoped that the tactical data was only that, and not some kind of Trojan Horse.

"Translation buffer standing by," Xeno said. "Ready for dump."

"Go for it."

"SAT2 remote link online. Transmission commencing. Fifteen megabaud and holding. Time to download completion sixteen minutes. Buffer is preparing translation database."

Icey fidgeted with his console for a few minutes, wishing his personal interface was stored on OPS1 rather than his own server gICE in his quarters. He could only access the system via Del's interface, which was so loaded with shorthand codes he could barely make it out. Her interface also refused connection to anything but her personal links library without her authorization codes.

"Download complete," Xeno said a short time later. "Ordering full diagnostic of SAT2. Diagnostic complete; no problems detected. Closing SAT2 to COMM link. Ordering diagnostic of COMM. Complete. No problems detected. Closing COMM to OPS1 link. Saving file in OPS1/RTAC directory and locking directory to translation buffer. Scanning OPS1 and purging all other connections. Packet is secure. Translation buffer routing to output system."

Icey's console lit up with the designation FANT/OPS1/RTAC/INTRFACE.ACCS. "Well, nothing embedded in the code?"

"Doesn't seem to be. The translation buffer has processed the data and output it to directory ZTAC. Purging directory RTAC now. Purge complete. Running full diagnostic on OPS1." A pause. "Complete. No problems detected. Rebooting OPS1." The console went black and then the [GHOSTS LOGIN] and [RESIDENT LOGIN] buttons appeared.

Xenogears worked through the system, checking various components and confirming there were no problems. "Writing ZTAC to hard copy," she said, and her console spat a data cube at her. "Purging OPS1."

The consoles went black again and did not return. "I'll have to reinstall everything from my server," Xeno said, getting up and heading for the door.

"Yeah, access my server and put a copy of my interface up on OPS1, would you?"

"Will do," Xeno said, without any comments about the inefficiency of it not being there in the first place.

-----

Ko'ah, two leftmost, Altas, join on me!" Del shouted as she brought the Minotaur around in a tight turn, to face four of the six Adjudicators their force was currently engaged in. "Tycho crouch, power down, now!"

The power drain would quickly shut his cloak down, but he was far enough away the Cybrids could not effectively attack him. They had no problem attacking her though, as the loud slams of railguns on her hull proved.

Altas got behind the slower but more heavily armed vehicles and began firing at the center of the closest one, the one Del was also exchanging fire with. The other three were coming around to bring a deadly triangle formation on her Minotaur, a formation she had no desire to see completed. She and Altas finally got the shields down on the central Adjudicator, and a cluster of missiles from above blew it apart.

That left three, though, and neither of them was in a very good position to attack. Del backpedaled but crashed into the vehicle that had got past her.

The triangle was complete. There was no way out.

She blasted all she had at the Adjudicator directly in front of her, while continuing to ram backwards into the one behind her. Perhaps she could knock the shields down and do enough damage to incapacitate it.

And perhaps pigs could fly.

Altas drove his Predator forward as the Adjudicator in front of him lifted its foot. The impact tripped the vehicle, and another volley of missiles from above ripped into its exposed belly. He lost one of his blasters in the crash though, reducing his vehicle from a fighting machine to sixty tonnes of mobile scrap. A single heavy blaster could barely scratch the paint of one of the Cybrid vehicles, if they had used paint to begin with.

"Tycho. Incoming."

"Tycho, stay back!" Del ordered, as she turned to face the Adjudicator she had been ramming. Tycho ignored her order, and she could see the small brown shape on the horizon approaching, weapons blazing.

Her shields were completely collapsed by now, and she felt the vehicle lurch as railgun slugs slammed into the cockpit in front of her. Only the heavy armor protected her from instant death: a spider web of cracks on the windshield informed her that the next shot, one point two seconds hence, would be her death.

Ko'ah's Predator slammed into the Adjudicator from behind, destabilizing it and knocking the shields down. A precise shot from the particle beams severed the vehicle's leg and it collapsed. "Tycho, shields down on Adjus. Take 'em."

"You bet." Orange fireballs streaked out from the boxy launchers on the Basilisk's sides, slamming straight into the head of one of the Adjudicators Ko'ah had been dogfighting. He did not wait to see the effects of his shot as he targeted the other one and fired, not waiting for a lock. "Bless you Maria!" he said, as the missiles, traveling in straight lines, neatly clipped both the vehicle's legs. The vehicle's body hovered in midair for a fraction of a second, then fell, crashing to the ground and spitting small explosions from a dozen points.

"Nice shot!" Del said emphatically. "Maria couldn't have done better."

All four Ghosts fell on the last remaining Adjudicator, which did not stay remaining for long. The pieces blown off it scattered over a thousand square meters.

"Blast that nexus," Del said, and Ko'ah and Altas fell to the pyramid-shaped structure. Shields flashed over the surface, but quickly fell as Del added her own fire to the assault. The shields collapsed, and the nexus soon exploded.

"Damage report," Del said. "My cockpit armor is damaged. Lost the shield cap. Cloak erratic."

"Lost a blaster and my turbine boost," Altas said. "Cockpit breached, but who cares?" The Cybrid would be able to survive for a time without air, using his internal power sources.

"No damage," Tycho said, in an embarrassed tone. When in his fire-support vehicle, rarely did anyone get the chance to shoot at him.

"Left particle cannon in the red, and my computer is down," Ko'ah said. "And I hope no one shoots me from behind because I have a nice, fat hole in my armor."

"You up to an assault on that big nexus, you think?"

"Not sure," Ko'ah admitted. "As a matter of fact, I doubt it. Unless I could do a hit-and-run I'd never make it."

Altas spoke up. "I have an idea."

-----

The Ghosts took shelter in a nearby crater and set to work. Working together, the four of them, with the help of the Banshee, managed to lift one of Tycho's missile launchers into place on Altas's Predator. Using pieces of the Basilisk's engine, Ko'ah fixed up the turbine boost as well, and Altas's vehicle was repaired. The Basilisk would have to limp home at half-speed, practically unarmed. Delithita, her vehicle not fast enough for the attack, would have to follow. So she had her ELF placed on Ko'ah's Predator, with the damaged particle cannon on the Basilisk in case it would do any good if they had to fight.

"We're ready," Altas reported, back in his vehicle. Ko'ah signaled ready as well, and Del sighed.

"Then go to it. And be damned sure you come back."

Del turned her Minotaur to follow the Basilisk back toward the colony, wondering if she would ever see Ko'ah or Altas again.

-----

A wrong turn around a small crater left Del and Tycho face-to-face with a pack of Goads, three of them packing blink guns, vicious little disc-shaped things that did no damage but fried internal components. Tycho got lucky and clipped the shoulder of one of the vehicles, which resulted in the vehicle disintegrating itself against the rocks, but the other two backed away and started weaving an unpredictable zigzag. Del could only fire her blaster and EMP, the autocannon being out of her range, and the slow recharge time of the particle cannon-- and the misalignment of its targeting system from the damage the weapon had suffered-- made aiming difficult.

There were no convenient obstructions around, either, only an open plain.

The situation went from difficult to deadly as a trio of Executioners, all packing quad railguns, arrived on the scene.

"Prepare to go to ground," Del said, knowing it was useless. There was no way the Cybrids would miss their ejections at this range, and digging into the regolith would not do much good if the Cybrids knew where they were. "Take as many of them down as you can."

Tycho struck one of the Goads dead center, his weapons ripping the shields apart like so much butter. His next shot, though, missed, and the Goad quickly dodged out of range.

Del was starting to feel the impact of the blink guns on her systems. Steering became balky and she had to switch to manual. The computer and the sensors both suffered damage, and her radar screen became as a snow globe.

The Executioners entered range and began firing. Streaking slugs shot past her and slammed into the rock. She knew the next shot would be accurate, and dodged as best she could.

The control yoke stuck.

The lead Executioner fired.

The world exploded around her, and a terrible force blasted her into darkness.

-----

Tycho saw Del's Minotaur fall, with a breached cockpit. He saw the slugs embedded in the windshield frame, and snarled an oath.

He was alone against two vicious little wasps and two pissed-off elephants.

Logic suggested he go after the elephants. Spite suggested he smash the wasps before he was killed.

He did both. With a quick shot to the damaged Goad, he blew the wasp into smithereens. The other wasp backed away a bit further, just out of its range, and well out of his.

He charged the elephants, fully aware his lifespan was measured in seconds. His EMPs and particle beam bounced off the shields of the lead vehicle, taking perhaps twenty percent off the protective energy field.

His computer made a noise he recognized as "You are being targeted."

"Ah, you got me this time," he snarled, and charged. The impact might take down the shields, and he might get off the two shots necessary to cut the vehicle's leg. The other two would drop him though.

He fired.

Without warning, his console suddenly shrieked, and a terrible pain ripped through his body. He convulsed, and lost consciousness.

-----

The next thing he was aware of was Razorback standing over him, applying something into his suit's medical kit. "What?" he muttered. His muscles were twitching uncontrollably.

"You were hit by an electromagnetic pulse wave," Razor informed him. "As was Del. You will be alright though."

"The Executioners--" He looked up, squinting as the blinding sun shined into his helmet. Sure enough, two of the massive vehicles were intact, towering over him. They were not moving though.

"Dead as doornails. The rebel sect succeeded at Mofolo, it seems."

"Oh?"

"Yes. They got the shields down, and then blew about twenty Zeta reactors, tuned to constructively interfere with each other. The pulse blew Mofolo apart, and probably killed every glitch all the way to Petrarch. Knocked our satellite out of the sky though."

"Ko'ah and Altas?"

"They succeeded. And lived to tell about it."

The plan had worked after all. The two Predators were to hit the perimeter of the main Petrarch nexus, fire all they had into it, and run two circles around the base at maximum speed, doing as much damage as possible, while popping in and out of cloak while repeatedly changing course. Razor in his Banshee would strafe the facility with missiles, cruising at ground-scraping level, similarly changing course repeatedly.

The Cybrids had gone nuts. The attack, coming from an unknown number of sources from well within their patrol perimeter, had confused them. With the Banshee's communications jamming, the Cybrids had thought the entire Petrarch patrol group had been destroyed and called for reinforcements. Cybrids from hundreds of kilometers around had piled up around Petrarch, after the Ghosts had already left, leaving a few missiles behind as remote-detonated parting gifts.

"Del is damned lucky," Razorback said. "The windshield stopped the railgun shots just barely. She was struck by a force equivalent to being kicked by a Goad. A fraction of a meter to any side, and the railguns would have bounced off the windshield frame and ripped right through the cockpit.

"Lucky the EMPs didn't fry every system we had and trigger reactor meltdown."

"Thank jerry-rigged circuitry and a lot of extra circuit breakers," Razor said. "We have very thick and resistant wiring. It cut down the induced current so it didn't blast anything but the computers. The vehicles can be repaired and be fit for combat another day."

Tycho considered combat another day, and considered how lucky he had been to survive it this day.

He did the only thing his brain could handle at that moment. He passed out.

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