If you think you've seen this before, you might have. It's a repost of something I posted over a year ago; I'm posting this now because I just finished Chapter 2, and since it's been so long since Chapter 1 was posted, one of my prereaders suggested I should repost the Prologue and Chapter 1 before posting Chapter 2. So, here it is... comments are, as always, welcome.
Author's notes : In the continuity of this story, the events chronicled in "Bubblegum Crash" did not occur. Also, I have a new e-mail address, which is given below. I haven't switched over to using it entirely, as my DSL line isn't hooked up yet, but I will be switching to it soon, and I can check it now. For now, feel free to send any comments to either address.
Now... on with the show!
Stormwalker <dreeves@speakeasy.org> presents...
26 December 2034 23:20
The GENOM electronics research facility was mostly devoid of
light, indicating that work in the facility was largely done for the
day. She had been concerned about that; nominally, this was a civilian
facility, and she wanted to be certain no innocents would be harmed in
the raid.
Even so, that was only one concern of many. The mission, as
planned, depended heavily on secrecy; secrecy was not the Knight Sabers'
forte. Her intelligence network had drawn a blank on possible defenses
at the installation. What little information she did have came from an
unknown source. The very nature of the situation screamed "trap".
Still... they had no choice. If they failed tonight... she didn't want
to consider that. Fortunately, Nene's voice spared her the necessity.
"There's the entrance," she whispered, indicating a heavy security
door.
Sylia nodded in affirmation. Surprisingly, it was not guarded
except for regular patrols past that point. The last patrol had just
passed; she'd timed them, and while they were on an irregular schedule,
they never passed by within five minutes of each other. "Can you open
it, Nene?"
"Of course I can," the young hacker answered with mock
indignation.
"All right; let's go." Quietly, the four armored vigilantes
crept from their hiding place, slipping quickly to the doorway. Nene
immediately set to work on the electronic lock.
"How long, Nene?" Sylia prompted, her voice perfectly cool in
spite of her nervousness.
"Got it... now," Nene answered as the door began to open. She
glanced down the entry corridor, the sensors in her suit's backpack
emitting a soft whine as she scanned for security devices. "All
right... nothing I can't handle. Let's go." Moving quickly inside,
they waited for Nene to close the door behind them before proceeding.
"Which way?" Priss asked, glancing down each of several
featureless corridors from the entry hall. Everything looked exactly
the same... dull metallic colors for the floor and walls, dim lighting
filtered through panels in the ceilings... completely sterile in its
soulless perfection. Priss had imagined the facility would look
something like this, dull and lifeless like the corporation that
fathered it.
"Nene?" Sylia asked, glancing at the red-suited Saber.
Nene paused a second, the silence broken only by the faint hum of
her suit computer as she accessed the building map, then pointed to her
right. "Down there."
Linna, take point," Sylia ordered. "Priss, guard the rear. Go."
They quickly walked down the hall, as stealthily as they could manage,
hearing nothing save the echo of their footsteps off the bare walls.
Still, a nagging doubt tugged at Sylia's thoughts. While she had
no doubt in Nene's competence at cracking security systems, she had
expected this operation to provide the young hacker a much greater
challenge than she had faced thus far. Had they missed something? If
so, their movements would have set off multiple alarms by now. They
had encountered no resistance thus far, but she couldn't shake the
feeling that something wasn't right, and variables in this sort of
operation disturbed her.
Still, they made it to the computer laboratory unopposed, and
Sylia sighed in relief. Once Nene obtained the data they had come
for, they could slip out the way they came in, and GENOM would be none
the wiser... she hoped. Still, the anxiety she felt would not go away.
Moving as quickly as possible, Nene extended the data probes and
plugged into the machine. A few seconds passed . . . "Found it.
Pulling a copy now."
"Very good. Get ready to--" She never finished the sentence
as alarms suddenly wailed all around them.
"We've got trouble!" Nene cried. "Guard boomers are coming
on-line--lots of them!"
<Damn.> "Forget the copy! Erase the originals and let's go!"
"Right... here they come!" Even as she finished the warning
a horde of cyberdroids burst through the far door. "Done!" Nene
called out, then detached her data probe, fired two quick shots into
the computer bank, and ran for the exit. Sylia made it out right
behind her, but neither Priss nor Linna could disengage from battle
to retreat.
"Priss, go!" Linna cried. "I'll cover for you!"
"Right," Priss answered, crushing a boomer's head with a
rocket-boosted kick before turning to flee. A spray of laser fire
cut off her escape, but it was abruptly silenced by the flare of
Linna's knuckle bomber. As she neared the doorway, the focus of the
boomer attack shifted toward Linna, and the green-suited warrior
quickly found herself overwhelmed.
"She's not going to make it out," Nene whispered in horror.
"Linna!" Priss screamed, turning back toward the fray, but it
was too late. The tide of android soldiers could not be turned, and
it came crashing down over Linna. A sickening crack resounded as
her hardsuit shell was split open, and a cut-off scream was her
final breath.
"NO!" Priss screamed again, blindly firing into the boomer
horde until Sylia dragged her backward through the doorway. It
slammed shut behind them as they ran.
***
Sylia's expression was blank as she slumped into her seat
aboard the skycarrier; no tears fell, and no anger broke through the
mask. Only the steady flow of blood from her bitten-through lower
lip hinted at the intensity of her agony.
One of her own had fallen. She had dreaded this day from the
beginning, knowing it would almost certainly come eventually. The
job they did--the immense danger they took upon themselves each time
they went out--virtually guaranteed that eventually one of them would
fall. In all honesty, she was probably fortunate that it had not
happened sooner... but she could find no comfort in that thought.
Linna was dead. Never again would they know her smile, her
effortless grace, her irrepressible spirit... all of these were lost,
and the world was suddenly a darker place. Sylia had hoped to give
her better... to provide her a chance to realize her potential. Now
that chance was lost forever, a candle-flame with the wick suddenly
cut.
Her eyes turned to Priss, whose head was buried in her hands.
<She's blaming herself,> Sylia thought. <Linna died so that she could
escape... and she thinks its her fault.> Sylia knew better, though.
It was nobody's fault but her own, for leading them into this
catastrophe.
<I should have known it was a trap,> she chastised herself.
<No. I DID know it was a trap, and we went anyway.> All the signs
had been there. A critical piece of information at a critical time.
The source of that information... anonymous and untraceable. The
too-easy entrance into the research facility. Still, they had been
given no choice. Allowed to proceed, that single GENOM project would
have rendered all their struggles meaningless. They had, indeed,
stopped it... or at least slowed it considerably... but none of that
mattered now.
A quiet sob turned her attention to Nene, who was curled up in
the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest, her eyes hollow with
shock as tears flowed freely from them. A pang of sympathy and regret
stung Sylia's soul as she looked at the image of shattered innocence.
Nene had known the danger, of course; she was with AD Police, and she
knew very well what boomers could do. Death, though, had never touched
her before, and Sylia knew she had never really thought it could
happen. Once, Sylia had envied her innocence, her assurance that they
would always pull through. Now... that was gone, shattered forever.
The brilliant light that had been her soul was all but extinguished...
and might never burn again.
A solitary tear rolled down Sylia's cheek as she remembered her
father's death, and the end of her own innocence. She remembered
committing herself to this crusade, the effort to redeem her father's
work. In the end, it had come full circle, and death had caught her
again. She bowed her head in sorrow and guilt, for in the end it all
came back to her. It was all over now; they had paid the price in
their own precious blood... and all they had ever done could not
balance the scales.
Elsewhere in the city, a single, solitary soul laughed silently
to himself. The Knight Sabers were beaten; their spirit had died with
one of their number. He had won, at long last... but the real contest
was just beginning.
***
End Prologue