A glimpse at the readout on his faceplate was all the confirmation he needed. Someone detonated a low radiation fusion bomb inside the mountain, he realized with a sinking heart. Jake fell to his knees, thoughts dwelling on Oz and Jason as he ran his palms back and forth across the grit covered floor. The sheer loss of it all came into sharp focus as their faces came to mind.
Grief didn't know the difference between his own memories and those that had been inherited. He would have to tell Laura her husband was dead, he'd have to Captain Triton alone. Jake had secretly hoped he could count on Oz's help, looking forward to meeting the tall former first officer and that was gone. All the outrage he felt at the thought of being recaptured, and the anger at what he had seen drained away. There's nothing left for me here. No one could survive that kind of destruction, even if they were fighting on the mountainside, in the tunnels below the city, the chances that they survived are next to none. I'm at least fifteen kilometres away and if I didn't have good cover I would have probably been killed. There's nothing left for me.
The West Keeper and Regent Galactic command frequencies reopened with a painful squawk and he fell back behind another support so he could listen to their reaction. “We've checked with command, we are to proceed into the mountain. The secure tunnels are marked on your displays with your orders,” a firm authoritative voice ordered.
“That wasn't supposed to happen for several hours! I'm down two platoons and all our mechanized units are slag!” Dissented one enraged voice.
“You're right, that came early but that doesn't change our mission here. All Regent Galactic forces are to proceed to their objectives.”
“What about the West Keepers? I had four platoons in my command chain and they've just been reassigned! What's going on?”
“Don't worry about the Order of Eden, their handlers have landed and they're taking the city. We're only after the objective inside the mountain now that the shield is down. Those are your orders, roll on them.”
Jake shook his head and scanned the hundreds of available command channels, finally finding what he was looking for. “six five by nine oh three!” The alarmed voice crackled, there was intense gunfire in the background. “I say again, they've broken through into the basement of the old securities and trades building. Must have escaped the mountain using the subway before it blew and they're-” the channel went dead and Jake turned towards the coordinates as they appeared on the tactical map broadcast through the command chip. The visual representation on his visor showed a glowing red spot, like an ember in a sea of brick, mortar and steel ashes it showed him exactly where his friends may have survived.
“I'm coming,” he said as he anchored a line to the floor and ran through the open air where there was once a thick reinforced wall. The hair thin line ran off the small spool anchored under the shoulder of his trench coat. It was the same one he had used to tether himself to Stephanie not two months before, and for a mid-air moment he found himself wondering what Oz would think of her, if they'd get along. The street rushed up as he turned and saw his opportunity.
“Who was that! Your designation on this channel marks you as a Regent Galactic Lieutenant, you have no authorization, stop listening in before I report you to your Sergeant,” berated one irate voice on the channel.
He hit the brakes on the spool and stopped suddenly, still in mid air. A second later he was swinging back towards the building. The dawn light bathed the street and ruined building side in a ruddy red as it faded, increasingly blocked by the ash and fine material that filled the air. A false night was falling as his momentum carried him towards the ground at such an angle that he could let his feet touch the ground and roll without full on colliding with the concrete.
The release trigger retracted the spike from it's position several storeys above and the small tool was drawn back as the line spooled up. “Sorry, wrong channel,” Jake replied to the scolding voice on the other end as he switched his command and control unit to only receive information. The electromagnetic charge from the fusion bomb must have reset it to two way communication, but that simple error hadn't betrayed his intentions or identity. Jake didn't give himself a chance to catch his breath but started running as quickly as he could along side the tall, crumbling buildings lining the streets.
“Damn right wrong channel,” a harsh female voice commented before going on. “All right, we have to make sure these people don't make it to the starport. It looks like they're fighting to maintain their position in the subway station in the lobby of the commodities building. Our priority here is to cut them off and force them into surrendering. Squads Charlie Twelve through Delta Four; form a containment perimeter. I'll take my people underground and see what we can do to block off the tunnel.”
Jake listened to numerous commanders acknowledge her orders as he looked out for any Regent Galactic soldiers who may be on the look out for him or in his way. The tactical map showed that he was over two hundred kilometres away from the Commodities building and with signal jamming in place there was no way he could tell them that he was coming. He searched for viable ground transportation, something that wasn't at all uncommon from what he'd seen, just expensive.
Just as he took a quick left turn down an alleyway then into an open doorway to avoid several heavy soldier transports that gently glided down the street carrying hundreds of soldiers within their three decked green and grey hulls he spotted something. As he let the transport pass he caught his breath and rewound his view on a small sub-display in his visor and spotted it again.
It was a magcycle, hanging half way out of a building to building transit tube only four floors up. The transparesteel tube it was hanging out of was broken wide open, but the bike looked like it was in perfect shape. He double checked his thermal and sound suppression systems then ran up the darkened metal and tile staircase. His mental, near instinctive connection with his equipment ran through its condition like an inventory list. The rifle he had stolen had plenty of ammunition, including two dozen variable release micro-grenade rounds. His wrist unit had enough reserve energy to fire and the armoured layers of his vacsuit had finally repaired itself.
Jake moved inside the building and up the eight flights of stairs as fast as he could. He rushed down the hallway to the apartment closest to the magbike and through the open door and around the corner. The floor ended just a few centimetres in front of the door and he had to scrabble at the jamb to balance himself and not needlessly fall through the large gap and two storeys down.
He jumped to the left, an easier leap than trying to cross the whole gap lengthwise, then walked through the ruined apartment to the window he expected he'd find the magbike dangling near. The interior of the abode looked like it had suffered through a moderately high quake. Broken dishes, upturned chairs and other awkwardly placed furniture littered the place. If the place was in any kind of order before the explosion, that order had been utterly undone, much like the rest of the city.
The thin transparesteel bay window came into view then, it had been warped by the pressure exerted on it by the wall. Beyond the bent window was the magbike, the cover for its round rear emitter nodes had been ripped off to reveal hundreds of tiny spikes pointing in all directions to propel and stabilize the vehicle. That was the only sign of damage.
The seat, big generator underneath, controls, forward emitter system and the small windscreen were intact. Looks like whoever rode this thing never took it out of a transit tube. I don't think this thing's ever seen dirt. Jake thought to himself as he looked to the street below to ensure that he wouldn't be seen cutting the transparesteel window away. Once he was certain the military transports were gone he started cutting through the thin metal using the emergency torch built into his command and control unit, one of the things he'd added as a customization years before along with the built in stunner and small energy weapon. The problem that came with using those additions, however, was that he would be visible to thermal imaging equipment for long minutes after the systems were deactivated. They emitted too much heat in too small a space for them to be obfuscated by any kind of vacsuit shielding.