“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’ll be them who’s sorry,” Ethan said, raising his angry eyes to meet hers. “If they even exist, that is.”
“We’ll bring them down, Ethan,” the I.I. said. “Don’t worry. This time tomorrow, Shell City will be free.”
“I hope so,” the human replied. “I hope I get to see the look on Harring and Nidus’s faces when we bring the fight to them. We’ll make them pay — for both of us.”
He took another pull on the bottle, and Tera mimicked the action for appearances. They stared at the floor for a quiet handful of minutes.
“You know, I think I would have been a beautiful woman,” Tera said once the silence threatened to go on all night. “As a human, I mean.”
The anger and sadness drained away from Ethan’s face, replaced with concern as he looked at the bodyshell.
“I always wonder what I would have looked like,” she continued. “Who I would have been.”
“I think you’re beautiful no matter what body you’re in,” Ethan said, cutting off the end of her sentence.
Tera’s face lightened up with surprise and she smiled. “Really?” she asked.
“It’s your soul,” Ethan said. “That’s what makes you beautiful. What you do — who you are. They took your organic body away from you, and it was a goddamn crime. What I remember, though, is everything they took from us led us to this moment. To each other.”
Tera couldn’t hide the admiration in her expression as she offered the bottle once more.
Revolution
On the morning of the attack on Shell City, King Hum and Adviser Orram strode across the barren earth to Major Danib’s tent. When they approached the canopy, they could see the Battalion officer finishing up a quiet conversation with one of his own advisers. He turned around when he heard the sounds of guests, the desert horizon reflecting in his dark shades. His mustache bent as he smiled at the Opesians.
“Greetings, your grace,” Danib said. “The weather seems in our favor today, so long as we keep away from the sun.”
“Indeed,” King Hum said. “It seems that God wants our approach to be as clear as possible. They are likely already assembling a response within the city.”
“Which, if Nayla and her people did their jobs right, should be a bit tricky for them.” Major Danib chuckled.
Neither Orram or the king returned the laugh. In fact, neither felt like laughter was possible until they knew the Council lay in ruins.
“I cannot thank you enough for your aid, major,” the I.I. king said. “If anything turns the tides today, it will be our unity.”
“Agreed, your grace,” the Battalion leader said. “I don’t think we’d be here if we were the only ones to join you. Come, let’s look over our people’s work.”
The three of them left the operations tent, squinting as the bright sun hit them in the eyes. King Hum raised a mechanical hand to shield his face from the blinding rays.
A thin cloud of dust hung in the air as people and machines moved back and forth, establishing the blockade around Shell City. While roadblocks of debris, gun nests, and artillery lines were being put together, another group of soldiers worked to construct a refugee center behind the defensive lines. Troops from each army dug foundations and raised tents while the Orange-hired medics went around setting up beds and operating tents.
“Do you think these centers will be adequate?” King Hum asked as they walked past a nurse with a clipboard shouting out orders to four young soldiers. “Once the attack begins, I mean.”
“Depends on a whole lot of factors, my good sir,” Major Danib replied. “We honestly haven’t a clue how many refugees to expect. President Euring sent an awful lot of medical supplies and staff to help us, but I can’t help but feel like we’re going to be short no matter what we do. War tends to make fools of anyone trying to predict what will happen, you know.”
“Then let us pray we don’t have many people to treat,” King Hum said. Orram nodded at his king’s side.
The ground around them started to shake a little, growing in intensity with each quake. The trio looked up to see Farmer Ben approaching them in one of his enormous harvest mechs. The farming equipment that had once adorned the mech were replaced by weapons of war, fitted for the coming battle. A tank-like cannon and an ammunition feeder were installed on its back where its gargantuan grain storage tank was normally mounted. Belts of finger-sized bullets dangled from either of the mech’s arms, which had Gatling guns attached to them instead of the typical claw and sickle.
Farmer Ben shouted something, but none of the men on the ground could hear him over the last footfall, which kicked up a plume of dirt with a boom. Major Danib cupped his ear to indicate that he hadn’t heard what the Gearhead said.
“My guys are all in place!” Farmer Ben shouted again once his mech came to a full stop. “We’re ready to unleash hell on the city walls — on your signal, of course.”
“Excellent!” King Hum yelled back up at the Gearhead farmer. “Now we just need to wait for the battle to begin.”
He turned to gaze at the walls of Shell City, which flickered in the hot vapors of the desert. They were only a mile from the city, but the blue in the atmosphere still tried to obscure the walls.
“Are we ready, your grace?” Adviser Orram asked.
King Hum nodded. “Let’s just hope Ethan, Tera, and Gauge are ready, too.”
Tera and Gauge blended in perfectly with the other slum dwellers. Both were nervous that someone might recognize them and cause a scene, but they managed to sneak into Shell City without so much as a glance in their direction. The disguised bodyshells they occupied, designed to look broken and cheap, seemed to do the trick. They wore rags over their heads like many slum-bound I.I.s did, which concealed
