Back at the lab in Room XVI, Arca Drej is busy cutting into his flesh. The android has cut one of his thighs open with a shiv made from one of the supporting legs of his cot. He has peeled the skin back, exposing his thigh muscles. Drej has willed his body not to recognise the wound to keep the bleeding at a minimum. Barely a few trickles have escaped so far.
He strips a couple of long fibres away from his muscles and entwines them. After wrapping them around his hands for grip, he stretches them until they’re barely visible. Keeping the stringline taut he drags it along the bed frame, easily scraping shards of steel off. He puts the stringline down and uses the shiv to dig between his muscles to separate them.
His bare femur is revealed and Drej’s eyes focus intently. He picks up the stringline and runs it against his femur shaving slivers off his bone.
Rennin sits in the toilet cubical in the clock tower. He has his head in his hands, wondering what he’s going to do. The watchman is planning to desert but he has no idea how. He runs the numbers in his head. If more than half of the population is turned by the end of the week, the Horizon Military and Beta HolinMech literally will not have enough bullets to cope.
Carla will get out at least, but Rennin will have to wait for his chance to make a break for it. Desolator satellites might fire on the city once it gets out of control but would that really happen now that someone has uploaded a virus into the Defence Force system?
He lets out a barely audible, anguished curse. Leaving the military is the easy bit, they’re just expendable meat-droids, a dime a dozen. He’s not going to die here and certainly not for, or with, the military. Not after the HMAS Possession.
8.
Reignfall
Eighteen years earlier.
CryoZaiyon War — Year 3, Day 87.
The Crucible, CryoZaiyon medical frigate, had flown into a disastrous ambush while returning from Saturn’s orbit. It was homebound after a rescue operation on Titan. After dropping out of hyper-transit, it was set upon by half the Gorai Aurelian fleet in high orbit over Earth.
A distress call was sent out, but the only ship within reach was the Possession. Its captain responded immediately. By the time the Possession arrived, the Crucible was very nearly a wreck. It had been hit with an EMP pulse strong enough to render it completely disabled, and while vulnerable it had been pummelled by cannon fire from the GA ambush ships and their cruiser’s supercannons.
The Possession had strict orders to save the Crucible at any cost, so it positioned itself between the disabled frigate and the enemy ships, dumping every fighter and gunship it contained into battle. A straight minute of bombardment was all it took to rip through the Possession’s armour, causing the ship to buckle and deform into a death throe. The Crucible managed to make a desperate limping jump to back into hyper-transit. The Possession was left to fend for itself. Expendable.
Rennin, his friend Jolen and four others piled into an escape shuttle as the ship began to break up. The sounds of the superstructure of the HMAS Possession bending made a noise similar to a dying animal as the battered capital ship drifted towards the Earth.
Since the GA had taken to attacking escape pods, it was necessary for the CryoZaiyons to develop lifeboats capable of manoeuvring. Unfortunately, defensive capabilities were deemed unnecessary.
Rennin and Jolen were in the two pilots’ seats at the front of the escape shuttle, Rennin in front and Jolen behind. The other four were in the rear passenger section. The overhead canopy sealed and with flames beginning to spew up around them, the craft lurched forwards to be projected out of the underside of the ship. Rennin looked up in time to see an explosion rip the Possession to pieces.
Dozens of escape ships zipped around the brutal dogfight where the CryoZaiyons were battling at proportions of seven to one, trying to maintain the rear-guard position while the remaining gunships limped away to make the shift to hyper-transit.
With a lack of other targets the GA pilots soon turned their sights on the defenceless pods. The radio chatter became panicked screeches as more and more pods were turned into burning debris. One ship shot at Rennin’s pod, disabling one of the two thrusters before the GA fighter was blown up by a CryoZaiyon.
“Enemy down,” said the deceptively gentle voice of one of the deadliest androids ever made.
“Thanks, Zillah,” sighed Jolen.
“Captain,” she corrected.
Jolen apologised as the pod began entering Earth’s atmosphere at an awkward angle. It was all Rennin could do with only one engine. Jolen wiped his forehead, looking at the flames engulfing the canopy. “It’s getting hot in here!”
“So take off all your clothes!” yelled Rennin in song.
The shuttle clipped a satellite with a loud crash. The crew are jostled in their seats. “What the fuck was that?” cried Jolen.
“Our angle has shifted! We’re coming in too steep!” yelled Rennin, trying to adjust the angle to no avail. The ship was now fully immersed in the atmosphere. Visibility zero. There’s nothing but fire roaring all around them.
“We’re going to burn up!” yelled one of the others.
Cockpit alarms began sounding. Jolen put a hand on Rennin’s shoulder, leaning forward as close as he can. “What can we do, Ren?”
“We have to get the nose down,” said Rennin, reading ‘Hull integrity failing’ on the monitor in front of him.
“Think of something, man,” said another passenger, Ryan, from the back section of the pod.
Rennin knew these lifeboats had been rigged so the rear half could be purged for an emergency situation such as this. Of course, not usually while it still contained people. He put his right hand on the red jettison lever, weighing his options with a detached expression.
Jolen, looking over Rennin’s shoulder, could read his intentions. “Ren, what are you doing?”
“Our arse is too heavy,” he answered softly. If it wasn’t for the headset Jolen would never have heard him over the roar of re-entry. Unfortunately, the four men who would be purged heard as well.
“You better think of something else!” yelled another of them.
Jolen saw Rennin’s grip tighten. “Don’t you do it!”
Rennin read ‘Hull breach imminent’ on the display. The entire interior was lit red from the flames, the roar from outside resonating through the pod, making him feel as if he is in an elevator to Hell. He’d been in this position once before. A dark room full of screams, some his some the roar from outside as his home city died around him.
“Tell them it was my call.”
“We’re almost through, Rennin, don’t!” pleaded Ryan.
Rennin threw the lever. For a moment there was absolute silence despite the raging re-entry. ‘Malfunction’ flashed across the screen. The purge didn’t take place.
“Holy shit, you crazy fuck!” screamed one of the other troopers, thrashing in his seat.
Abruptly the fire surrounding them ceased. They’d made it through the atmosphere and into an all-new set of problems. “The drag fins have melted, I can’t slow us down!” called Rennin.
“How fast are we going?” asked Jolen, snapping his attention away from what almost happened.
“Too fast, and we are really picking up speed.”
“I can’t see shit from back here. What’s our altitude?” asked Jolen.
“Our instruments are gone.”
“Eject, Rennin, eject!”
Rennin reached down for the yellow handle between his legs, and pulled it. The canopy flew off. The sudden impact of being decompressed held them firmly in their seats with a force like a giant hand slapped against them. The eject mechanism has failed, with ‘Malfunction!’ flashing across the screen.