been about eight, but I'm still adjusting. What I mean to say is; I think not knowing what happened to him was what hurt the most. Now I know, and I miss him, but it's better. I feel lighter.”
“You know about Jake?”
“I heard. I want to meet him but I'm not getting my hopes up. I've seen some of the holos. He'll be different, I'll be different, maybe less so but,” she shrugged in conclusion.
“You're probably two of the most similar people in the galaxy, you know,” Oz whispered to her. “Laura says he remembers who he is and aside from being a little cuter, you act and appear pretty much the same. I've never met anyone whose had a body transplant and if things go well I might actually meet two soon enough.”
“Is he coming here?” Ayan asked, her eyes widening. She had told herself over and over again not to get her hopes up, to stay cool, collected, but the tightening knot in her stomach and light headedness told her that being rational where Jake was concerned was pretty far out of the question.
“We're hoping. If we can get a transmission out to the Triton and her cloaking systems are still up, it could change the odds just enough.”
“Do you think he'd actually come if we called him?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he was already on his way. We sent him a message while we were on our way here. If he has scout ships on his outer perimeter he might get it soon.”
Ayan chuckled nervously and blew a breath of air out with widened eyes. “Nothing is ever simple when we all get together, is it? Thank God Laura's aboard the Triton.”
“Oh, now that's going to be interesting. She doesn't know anything about you or Minh.”
“I think it would be good for someone to give her at least a few seconds warning. Give her a chance to visit with Jason first. I can't wait to see her face, but still, I'd rather not give her a coronary.”
“Well, it's a long way between here and there even if the Triton is already on its way. We have jamming signals to bust through. Speaking of which, they want us at the strategic board.”
“Lead the way,” Ayan invited.
Oz walked through the doors as they opened, Ayan followed close behind. Jason, Minh, Alaka and Sergeant Roman were gathered around a large display table with a fully detailed hologram of the island. There were three red marked buildings and a pointer indicating that there was another point of immediate interest off the eastern side of the map. “Thank you for joining us Ayan.” Alaka said graciously. “I have been looking forward to meeting you ever since Oz told me a few stories about your shared experiences. My name is Alaka.”
“Thank you Alaka, I didn't know Oz had so many interesting stories about me. It's good to meet you too.”
“Alaka was about to give us his report,” Roman looked haggard, worn. Under the weight of coordinating a full on rebellion from within the mountain he looked past his forty years. He was a man shrouded in seriousness, and his success demanded the respect of the mountain rebels.
“Yes. The artificials are organizing in units with the few West Keepers that have landed. I expect they're the spearhead of a larger force.”
“I've been hearing that name a lot. Who are the West Keepers exactly?” Minh asked.
“Humans who paid for immunity from destruction before the artificials began attacking their masters. Many of them take care of human hostages, while anyone who is useful in a firefight have been sent to the front. They were patrons of an Eden Cult or Order of Eden as they call it. They believe that service in this world will get them closer to their promised land in this life or in the afterlife. A few we captured went on and on about it.”
“It must not have made it to Freeground or been taken seriously by Intelligence, I didn't see any record,” Jason commented.
“That doesn't help us. Anyone inside the mountain could be an Eden Cultist, or a West Keeper, whatever they're called.” Sergeant Roman said, shaking his head. “We have enough problems with the fall of two military bases just south of the island.”
“What kind of firepower can they bring to bear?” Oz asked.
“Enough to kill our shield in a month.”
“There are reinforcements arriving every couple of hours at the military port.” Alaka said. “Oz and I saw the ships descending. Soon there will be boats, we'll have to start firing on them.”
“Why wouldn't they use shuttles? They'd be able to land anywhere on the island.” Asked Ayan.
“Because our anti-air batteries are still operational. They won't risk that again. I think you and Minh arrived just in time. He says you can form a good team with Oz and Jason, what do you think your chances are of getting behind enemy lines and causing real damage are?” Asked Roman.
Ayan looked to Oz, Jason and Minh, who was the only one not looking back at her. Minh's attention was fully focused on the red marked post on the southern most point of the island. “We've trained extensively together and shared some very tense situations,” she replied confidently. Slipping back into a military stance was so easy, like an old, comfortable suit.
“I'm told you hold the highest rank here.” Roman said, making no efforts to disguise his appraising gaze.
“I was a Major in the Freeground Fleet and started as a cadet when I was a teenager. I'm also a fully qualified stationary and battleship engineer, pilot, boarding captain and infantrywoman.”
“That's my girl,” Oz said under his breath. All eyes shifted to him and he shrugged. “I met her while we were still in the academy, served as First Officer while she was the Chief Engineer on the same carrier.”
“I served as the Wing Commander on that ship,” Minh added. “Oh, and I served a tour in the All-Con conflict, planetside combat and demolitions.”
“And I was the Intelligence Officer before joining Fleet Intelligence and supervising several active operations.”
Alaka looked to Roman and chuckled. “We're both outranked.”
“Makes me wish the military wasn't the first thing to get knocked out on this rock. We have a couple of junior officers, some infantry that made it across the island before the fighting got serious, but everyone else is either police or a volunteer. Mostly volunteer.” Roman explained.
“So you're not military?” Asked Minh.
“No, I'm a police Sergeant. Served twelve years in the mobile infantry before joining the force.”
“Looks like you've kept this mountain together just fine, Sergeant. What are you planning from here?”
“I was hoping you people could come up with one. We don't have real specialists, and from the looks of it you're all exactly that, specialists.”
“Oz busts bots like they're firecrackers,” Alaka nodded. “No need to guess at what his speciality is.”
“Well, we need to take control of this main broadcast station,” Sergeant Roman said, pointing at the holographic map. “It's one of the stations being used to jam all communications on this side of the planet and they're directing system wide communications from the control bunker. There's a backup broadcast system in the nearby spaceport, but I'm hoping whoever takes control of the bunker can interrupt the jamming signals and send for help before the automations manage to override from the secondary control point. We could have a transmission to our nearest sister solar system in an hour using a micro wormhole.”
The six of them stared at the map silently for several seconds before Minh pointed at a spot just past the spaceport. “If we could somehow drop here, in this field we can get to the bunker no problem. We'll need everything we brought with us on the Warpig.”
“Is this the most powerful station on the planet?” Ayan asked, looking at the cluster of white dishes and thin transmission towers.
“It is, while that station is jamming everything in the air no one can use wireless. All the main hard lines pass through that station and the spaceport as well, so it's safe to say that's how they're stopping us from communicating outside of the mountain.” Alaka answered, bringing up a secondary map of the bundled cables deep underground leading off in every direction from the communications bunker. “There are many secondary stations on this side of the planet, like the one in this mountain, but they're easier to work around.”
“What kind of resistance can we expect?” Oz asked.
“It's hard to say, our scans can't be trusted that far past the shield because of the jamming signals, but there will be a fair number of Andies walking around.” Roman answered.
“Andies?” Ayan asked.
He brought up a hologram of an android. The weapons inventory displayed a low penetration pulse sidearm and a high powered particle rifle. If it weren't for a serial number that was written in a black strip that started in the
