Boss King and the Blade

Jay’s Mobile Workshop, en-route to Port August

Jason and Jacinta

“We’re losing pressure in the rear legs” Jacinta told her companion. “There must be a leak in the hydraulics somewhere”

“She was never built to go this fast” Jason answered her. “Unless we can boost our speed I don’t think we’ll intercept the drones in time!”

The whole assembled vehicle was swaying and groaning, shaking loose gear from the storage shelves and sending the stink of overheated metal into the interior. Jason shut down their olfactory senses, since they didn’t need to know how bad the cabin smelt right now.

“We have to purge the rear module” he decided. “Jacinta, set the Auto-drive for the bus. Once we drop it, the unit should be able to follow at its own pace”

“You sure, Jason?” she asked. “You love that old bus. That was your first home wasn’t it? If we cut it loose, the whole thing may go end over end”

“It was our first home, Jacinta” he reminded her. “I never expected you to step out in front of it like you did. I always wished I could have stopped in time”

Jacinta sighed mentally in her brain tank, remembering that night so long ago.

“I wanted to die Jason. I told you that. The doctors had confirmed my body was close to shutting down completely, so I decided to end things on my own terms”

Jason laughed in her mind, recalling those strained early days.

“I never thought you were going to forgive me” he told his beloved partner. “I couldn’t save your body, only your brain. It was such a shock to you when you woke up in my lab”

“Yes, it was rather bizarre to discover I was a brain in a jar!” she smiled to herself. “But thank you for saving me, Jason” she added. “I don’t know if I ever told you that”

“You’re welcome” he said quietly. “Thank you for making me remember what it was to be human”

A series of red warning icons flashed into their shared control systems, warning them of imminent failure for the rear unit.

“Fire the explosive bolts, Jacinta!” Jason commanded and she did so. Sharp bangs echoed through the two modules that remained, followed by a violent shudder and sway. Jason cursed and took direct control of the front drive system, holding them on the highway by sheer force of will.

The Workshop surged forwards, the speed climbing rapidly as the rear section dropped away.

“Auto-drive has engaged” Jacinta shouted in glee. “The rear module is slowing down and the hydraulics are holding!”

“Good!” he said tightly. “I’m picking up the drones in the air ahead of us. I think they are forming a barrier to stop us reaching Boss King and Melody. You need to take over the drive systems”

“What are you going to be doing?” Jacinta asked.

“It’s time to get Ol’ Betsy ready for action” he replied.

=====

Jason sent his mind into the middle section of the Workshop, activating the command links to the tank turret that lay at the very top of the combined vehicle. Systems long unused flared into life, confirming targeting arrays online and ammunition feed was ready to go.

Ol’ Betsy had been his first home in the barely remembered days of the First Global War. Artificial Intelligence, even Dumb AI’s like the ones he used now, had been in their infancy in those years.

The generals and warmongers needed a reliable way to operate the latest generation of Cyber Tanks, fast moving and well-armed machines of destruction. If the AIs of the time couldn’t do it, then a human brain was the obvious choice.

Back then, Jason had been a crippled soldier, waiting to be discharged from service on a pitiful pension. Instead he had been offered the chance to be upgraded, to be housed in a cyborg body that was integral to the Tank. He had foolishly agreed and lost nearly everything that made him human.

War was brutal and Jason had fought with Ol’ Betsy as furiously as any killing machine could be asked to. He had destroyed countless enemy vehicles and bunkers, killing hundreds of soldiers and civilians too.

His reward after it all ended was to be condemned to the scrap heap, unwanted and too expensive to keep in service. Jason smiled at the memory of breaking out of the base, him and Ol’ Betsy blasting their way to freedom. That was a long time ago now he reminded himself and half a world away.

“Hey old girl” his mind said to the awakening remains of his war machine. “I know it has been a long time since we fought together, but I kept you serviced and ready for a day like this”

<SYSTEMS FULLY OPERATIONAL> Ol’ Betsy answered. She presented a targeting display to him, highlighting multiple airborne drones that were turning to engage the Workshop. He issued electronic commands to her weapons and got the reply he wanted.

<ANTI-AIR MODE READY. PLEASE SELECT TARGETS>

“Good girl!” he praised her and triggered the first shot.

=====

The Workshop bucked and skidded, Jacinta swearing in a variety of languages as she tried to keep them alive. Bullets thudded into the solar arrays on the roof, shattering the glass panels and skipping from the armour layers beneath. Rockets blasted shrapnel into the tires and tracks, sending alerts from the driving system into her mental displays.

“Shoot them quicker, Jason!” she commanded. “We are taking a lot of damage down here, dear heart!”

“Sorry love, Ol’ Betsy was never as good against flying targets” Jason apologised, then added a whoop of joy when another gun-drone exploded in the air. “That makes seven!” he exulted.

Another missile raced across the night sky, the rocket motor leaving a glowing trail as it looped around to their rear, aiming for the vulnerable backside of the Workshop. Jason spun the secondary turret, letting loose a stream of five millimetre bullets from the rotary mini-gun. The missile body exploded only twenty meters from the vehicle, leaving the warhead to hit the tarmac between the whirring tank tracks.

Metal screamed and the big vehicle jumped like a startled cat, the turret and camper van section lifting off the road then slamming down hard. More alerts filled Jacinta’s display and she knew time was running out.

“Jason, we have to jettison Ol’ Betsy” she told him urgently. “The tracks are overheating and it’s going to seize up any second. If it does, the whole lot will probably flip over”

“I know, beloved” he admitted. “We’re out of ammunition anyway”

He couldn’t stroke her guns or caress the main turret, since the body he shared with Jacinta was seated in the forward module. In his heart he knew she was just an inanimate machine, but he owed her a lot.

“Thanks for everything, old girl” he said and triggered the last set of explosive bolts. In the external cameras he watched as the central module disconnected, then shuddered and flipped high into the air. Ol’ Betsy trailed smoke and fire as she tumbled, landing on the edge of the highway in a spectacular spray of dirt and rocks, then came to a final rest.

Jacinta felt the front module surge with renewed speed, the wheels of the old Guard Carrier beneath them eating up the distance to the remaining drones.

“There are three left” she told her partner. “Looks like one is holding back to stop us, the other two are going after the kids. What are we going to do?”

Jason and Jacinta lived closer than any other couple in history, the tanks containing their brains one in front of the other in the elongated head of the cyborg body. They could think and feel quite separately when they wanted to, yet they nearly always were of one mind and one heart.

“There’s that Mini-Railgun we acquired last year” Jason suggested. “We’ll have to go outside to fire it, but you could keep remote control of the drive systems going”

“That sounds utterly crazy, twin of my soul” Jacinta said. “You get the gun and I’ll set up the remote control”

=====

The wind blasted into their metal face, not felt but recorded by the external sensors of their shared body. Jason had taken control of their arms, bracing the Mini-Railgun against the open hatch of the Guard Carrier. Jacinta’s mind was focussed on the drive controls, keeping steady watch on their declining fuel reserves and overheated engines.

“We won’t have a second chance, Jason” she informed her partner. “The whole system is ready to shut down, so we need to make these shots count”

“Don’t sweat it, sweet girl” he replied. “There are three drones and I have three rounds in my gun. It couldn’t be easier!”

At that moment one of their two primary engines flashed red emergency alerts and shut itself down. Immediately their vehicle began to slow, letting the Hive van and their drones increase their lead. Far ahead they could detect the bright glow thrown into the sky by the lights of Port August.

The highway was beginning its descent to the coast, pockets of marshland and swampy lakes filled with snakes and crocodiles framing the road edges. It had been a miracle that there had been no other travellers on the highway this night, yet soon enough they would be in suburban streets, surrounded by innocent drivers and homes.

“I need to take out the leading drones first” Jason told Jacinta. “Before they are out of sight”

Unspoken between them was the knowledge that as soon as they fired, the third drone would attack in response.

“Just don’t miss” Jacinta snapped, yet there was a playful tone in her mental signals.

“I never miss” he said and fired the first Depleted Uranium Round. It left the Railgun at hypersonic velocity, the recoil rocking even a powerful cyborg like Jay against the edge of the open hatch. His sensors barely had to make any effort at all to detect the brilliant explosion of the leading drone.

The rearmost drone arced to their left at once, its laser targeter locking onto the Carrier as it turned. Threat warnings sounded in the vehicle as it prepared to fire a missile at them, the warbling tones merging into one long squeal of danger.

Jason ignored the approaching drone, switching the aim of his Railgun to the second drone. It was nearly out of sight over the close horizon, rushing forwards to attack Boss King and Melody.

“Missile launched!” Jacinta yelled in his mind as Jason fired. They jerked back once more, nearly missing the wonderful sight of the second drone erupting in a fireball and plummeting to the earth. Jason hurriedly cycled the remaining round into the firing chamber of his weapon while Jacinta tried to evade the incoming missile.

He steadied their body in the hatch and let loose his last shot. The drone died at the same moment the missile it sent impacted with the middle of the Carrier’s hull.

At the instant the warhead touched the armoured plating of the hull, it compressed and exploded with an intense white light of pure destruction. Super heated plasma, as hot as the surface of the sun, pierced the dense armour like a red hot iron plunged through a sheet of ice. Fire streamed through the middle of the vehicle, vapourising everything it touched as it lanced from one side to the other.

A storage locker turned to fiery red molten steel as the spear of plasma passed through, sending it into the midst of their Hydrox powerplant. There was little of the Liquid Hydrogen fuel remaining in the tanks, but it was enough. The fuel detonated, rupturing the inner bulkheads and blowing vibrant blue flames out of every hatch and window.

The Carrier was hurled from the highway, trailing flames and pieces of wreckage as it careened into a swampy pond, sending water in titanic waves over the surrounding trees and ferns. Bubbles swarmed from where the vehicle sank into the dark water, steam rising as the fires were only partially quenched.

In moments the violent noise of its destruction passed, only the sounds of gurgling water and hissing steam remaining.

=====

Hive Van One, approaching Port August

Harmony Three

“We got them, Agent Harmony!” shouted their Drone Jockey, a young Agent barely old enough to fill out his armour suit.

“Well done, Bran-Four” she commended him. “Were you able to save any of the drones?”

Within his open helmet, she could his perfect face fall at her words.

“Forgive me, Harmony-Three” he admitted guiltily. “I lost them all”

“No matter, the Hive Father will be pleased by your efforts” Harmony praised him. “We have eliminated the best that our enemies could send against us. All that remains is to catch up to that single van and complete our mission!”

“Praise be to the Hive Father!” shouted Vivian-Five, the youngest of all the Agents on the mission. Harmony turned in her seat, looking at the eager face of the young woman. She had barely left her Nest three months ago, completing her transition from Blade to Agent under Harmony’s watchful eye.

In fact all of her remaining team were young, only Simon and herself from the “Threes”. The Agents were Fours and Fives, with little enough experience in actual combat missions. All of them were exceptionally well trained, as the Blades of all Nests were, but today had shown Harmony the difference between training and experience.

“Do you think we’ll get any replacements after this mission is done?” Simon asked her quietly, his voice aimed at her alone. “There have not been many new Blades making the transition to Agent in the last year”

“The Hive Father will ensure we are many Blades and Agents strong, just have faith in him” Harmony said in reply, her words ringing hollow to her own ears. “Our cause is just and the Shadows will be strong in all of us. Do not have doubts, Simon, but believe in Alex-Four”

Simon looked at her, his handsome face haggard with fatigue and something deeper. She wanted to reach out and touch his cheek, to assure him all would be well. Her hand lifted and almost reached him when she caught herself. Physical contact of an emotional kind was forbidden between Agents.

“Forgive me, brother” she said instead and drew her hand away. She cast her eyes to the road ahead, seeing the fleeing van with their target so achingly close. “It will be over soon and then we can rest”