ABC - Penance

Service Tunnels, North Bank District

“Luisa, stop!” Georgia screamed and snatched at my arm. I was jerked backwards, the movement saving my life. The silver mechanical was not so lucky, taking the full force of the Plasma Gun as the Society machines ambushed us.

I huddled beside the woman as her loyal machine was turned to white hot slag by the torrent of plasma energy. Water on the ground and condensation from the curved walls evaporated, filling the cramped tunnel junction with billowing steam.

“There are two mechanicals, the second armed with a rifle” Georgia hurriedly whispered. She gave me their approximate locations, searching the nearest possible futures to see where they were and how I could defeat them. I didn’t ask her about the futures where I was ripped apart by Armour Piercing bullets or melted by a Plasma burst.

I rolled low into the junction, tracking the first target based on Georgia’s guidance. It got a solid burst of AP rounds into the chest and head, dropping like a puppet whose strings were cut. The second machine dropped the Plasma Gun it had been trying to reload, snatching a long serrated knife from its waist and rushing at me.

With desperate strength I caught the strike on my Ceramite vambrace, then channelled power into my other hand and smashed the head clean off its body. It dropped beside the other unit, the neck joint still sparking faintly as the legs and arms awaited orders from a head that was no longer attached.

“That was way too close” I breathed out, spitting to get the stink of busted electronics and dank steam out of my mouth.

“I’m sorry, Luisa” Georgia told me. She leaned against the curved wall, resting her back beside the power and water pipes. “I am running out of power”

She didn’t mean the battery pack that was operating her motorised legs. It was the power she needed to draw into herself to use her Pre-Cog Ability. Like all the Awakened, our special talent required cosmic energy to be drawn into the body then channelled into the Ability. In theory no mere human could ever exhaust the essentially unlimited energy that coursed through the universe around us.

But a human mind gets tired. At some point a kind of mental fatigue sets in and the Awakened can’t draw any more power until they have rested. The fatigue point varied from person to person, their Ability and Grade a factor in how long they could keep going.

Georgia had been using her Ability non-stop for over an hour, guiding us away from one group of searchers and another, trying to find a way out of the net that had been cast around us. The further into the possible future she looked, the greater the drain upon her frail body.

She was hiding it well, yet it was obvious to me she was nearly spent. By our best estimates we were close to the canal that separated South Bank from North, about one klick from her apartment building but many, many kilometres of tunnel that we had traversed.

’You are doing well, Georgia” I consoled her. “I didn’t expect you to handle being outside so well after all those years living inside”

She gave me a surprised look and waved her right arm to encompass the tunnel we were currently in.

“Once we actually get in the open, tell me then how well I am doing”.

“Sure” I grinned back.

I looted the fallen mechanicals for spare ammunition, then at a tired gesture from Georgia set off down the new tunnel. Behind us we left her last silver woman, still smoking where it lay.

=====

Taking out the grey mechanicals had been neccessary, however their demise had pinpointed our current location for our pursuers. Georgia was flagging, mentally and physically from the continuous running and evading. She needed to rest, but I had no idea how to reach a safe haven, or even if such a place now existed.

“We have to go up” I gasped to my companion. “Down here they can keep chasing us without interference. At least on the streets I can try and get us some Police Auxiliary support”

“Won’t we be more vulnerable?” Georgia responded, her voice trembling with fatigue. I nodded a vague agreement, trying to conserve my breath.

“If we get to open ground, I can try and call my boss” I wheezed. “He will send us help if I can’t get Police backup”

Georgia nodded tiredly and tapped at her wrist unit, sending tunnel maps to her own Smart Glass monocle perched over her right eye. It was the latest model of course and allowed her to operate as a mobile Net Diver, albeit at a much reduced capacity compared to the set-up she had back at the apartment.

All of which was probably trashed by now, rendered into junk by the Society’s mechanicals. Her involvement with me and my investigations had lost her everything she had worked so hard to achieve, as well as putting her life in jeopardy.

“I’m sorry, Georgia” I said to her. She looked away from her Smart Glass monocle, focussing on me instead.

“I know you are” she said and gave me a tired smile. “And I would lose it all again, if it meant I could help you” She pushed herself away from the tunnel wall and pointed towards a distant junction, dimly lit by a single light fixture.

“That’s our best way out. It will put us near the canal with plenty of room for a VTOL to land”

“Okay” I agreed. “Let’s hustle”.

I took the lead, scanning the tunnel ahead of me with my Smart Goggles, finger held close to the trigger.

=====

Canal walkway, North Bank

“We have two minutes before a drone spots us” Georgia declared softly. “It will approach from downstream, following the canal”

“Copy that” I acknowledged and hunkered at her side, using the low concrete wall that ran alongside the canal for cover. I had my phone out, turning the device on and seeing I had numerous missed calls and messages waiting. Those I left for now and dialled my partner Ghost, deciding he should be warned of my predicament first.

I felt horribly exposed, feeling like everyone was watching the strange pair lurking around the canal pathway. A few other walkers, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, passed us by with curious looks. My over-riding hope was that the Society would not risk sending combat drones into such a public space.

It was one thing to storm a building or chase us through service tunnels. Out here, where security cameras and curious public were prevalent, it hopefully gave us time to be extracted.

“Alvarez!” Ghost answered me after a single ring. “What are you doing? Where are you?”

“I’m with Georgia next to the Canal” I told him and gave him a shorthand version of events. “I need a reliable team to get us somewhere safe”

“I’ll be there in five minutes” he replied. “There are Guards and Sentinels everywhere around Georgia’s building, so you may see some of them heading your way”

“Okay” I said. “I’m going to call the boss now. Get here as quick as you can”

“Copy that” he acknowledged then ended the call. Next I called my rarely used hotline to God, or as he was usually known Jericho-Three.

“Boss” I said as soon as he answered. “I need some help”

“Of course you do, Alvarez” he said calmly. “I’ve been expecting your call”

“Can you send us a Carrier or an armed VTOL?” I spoke quickly, knowing time was running out.

“I have my personal machine in the air, heading to North Bank already” he replied. “It’s not armed but it has the best pilot in the Zone onboard. He’ll be there soon”

“Okay, thanks” I replied. I disconnected and gave an encouraging thumbs up to Georgia. “We’ll have backup here really soon”

Her face was grey, eyes closed to shut out the surroundings. I put an arm around her, realising she was trembling with fear or fatigue, maybe both.

“It’s all black, Luisa” she whispered. “I can’t see far enough. We’re going to die here”

I swallowed and glanced around, wondering how far away our enemies and allies were. The few pedestrians seemed to have departed, perhaps sensing the coming storm and instinctively seeking shelter.

“I’ll go down fighting, Georgia” I said evenly. “I won’t give up”

She opened her beautiful dark eyes, so close to me and I could see her reach a decision in her head.

“Neither will I”

Her hand went to a small pouch at her waist, strapped to the walking frame that supported her frail body. A slim, metal tube was extracted and I recognised it as a hypo-injector. With sure hands she lifted it to her neck and triggered the device, her mouth forming a brief circle of pain.

“What is that stuff?” I demanded but she was already shaking, her pupils flaring wide as the drug hit her bloodstream. It could have been so many things, yet I knew with a grim certainty what she had injected. I had experienced it myself and could recognise the effects.

Georgia had supercharged her failing power with a dose of HEx.

“Here they come, Luisa” she whispered and low over the water I could see a trio of drones, all combat models with armoured shells and slung weapon pods. The Pre-Cog stood, dragging me upright and pushing me into motion.

“Do exactly as I say” she said.

======

Georgia Roche was magnificent. She stood behind me, her soft words and gentle hands guiding me like a master musician with her instrument. In her hands I was indeed an instrument of destruction, her Ability showing her the right instant for me to shift my aim, to pull the trigger of my gun.

She drew me to the side, or made me take a step forwards or backwards, the deadly stings of the drones missing us by the barest of centimeters. My own bullets found their marks with unearthly accuracy, Georgia predicting exactly where the most vulnerable point of the machines would be exposed.

It was a symphony of destruction and she played me like we were fused in body and mind. Georgia anticipated every conjoined moment, clearing the first wave of drones from the sky and then spinning us to engage a new wave.

Every move was perfect, until the last one when my gun clicked empty. This she had seen as well and made the movement she had intended all along. The final spray of bullets threw tufts of grass and splinters of concrete paving into the air, a long line of devastation aimed right at me.

Then Georgia played the last note, turning my body aside and laying her own into the path of a single, final bullet. She shuddered as it struck, punching deep into her left side. All of the strength left her and she collapsed against me, sending me to my knees as I cradled her.

The last drone zoomed closer, intent on finishing us both, when it exploded into a fireball. Pieces of casing and rotors flew onwards, landing in a clatter of plastic and metal around the pair of us. Beyond the fading flames I saw a tall figure on a bike, a long Railgun still resting on his black armoured shoulder.

“Exactly as I hoped” Georgia said, blood bubbling from her lips.

“You stupid woman! I’m wearing fucking Ceramite!” I sobbed. “You should have let me take that damn bullet”

“I couldn’t allow that” she told me, her eyes searching my face. “In every future I saw, that one bullet found the gap in your armour. I saw you die a thousand times and I couldn’t accept that future. So I chose a different path”

Her eyes closed and I screamed in anguish, filling the world with my hate and despair.

Ghost ran to me, carrying a medipack he had taken from his bike. He pushed my useless, crying self to the side and injected a can of Foam into the pulsing wound.

“Shut the fuck up and help her, Alvarez!” he snarled, snapping me out of the blackness that had engulfed me. “The VTOL is coming in now!”

I looked over the canal, seeing a dirty white VTOL blasting towards us. It spun on its engines and came to a perfect hover less than five meters from our position. In the cockpit I could see the ex-Guard Boner, throwing anxious glances at the three of us.

“Let’s go, Luisa” my partner told me, easily heard despite the roaring engines holding the aircraft aloft. He stood up, holding Georgia like she weighed nothing at all.

“Okay” I snivelled and together we climbed the lowered ramp at the VTOL rear, settling our precious cargo on the padded couches within. The ramp closed and then we lifted away, Boner moving the squat machine like it was an elegant bird.

Inside the passenger compartment, a Jill in a plain grey flightsuit made sure Georgia was securely strapped down, then began emergency medical treatment. Ghost ushered me to a seat that faced her, clicking my safety harness in place before doing his own.

“Will she make it?” I asked the Jill, a Twenty series I guessed with long dark hair pulled into a plait and two brown eyes that spared me a momentary glance.

“The bullet has lodged in her left lung” she told me. “It’s bad, but the Foam should stop her bleeding out until we get to our base”

She bent back to her work and I let her do it, watching with an anxious heart all the way to wherever it was Jericho-Three had ordered us to be delivered. Of its own volition my hand crept onto Ghost’s lap, clutching at the armoured tassets of his thigh.

As soon as I realised what I had done, I went to pull my hand away. Instead my partner gripped my hand with his, holding it tight for the entire flight.

“Thanks, Ghost” I mouthed to myself, certain he could not hear me over the thundering engines.

“It’s what a big brother does” he replied.