It was slow moving once they were in the thick of the pedestrian crowds, so they took the time to survey their situation. Tera made eye contact with one of the Council officers tasked with policing Slumside, like she had once been. It gave her a quick wink, and any fear of being discovered that may have filled her dissipated.
“I think most of the cops down here are Nayla’s people,” Tera whispered to her partner as they shuffled through the muddy street.
“I think you’re right,” Gauge replied, nodding subtly at another white bodyshell, which also appeared to be occupied by one of Nayla’s Ghosts. “I gotta say, I’m impressed.”
“I’m sure it was no walk in the park.”
“No, but it makes our part easier,” Gauge commented. “We should make our move soon.”
“Once we get to a clearing,” Tera said.
“Who’s doing the talking?” Gauge asked.
They walked with the crowd in silence for a moment before turning to each other and playing a round of rock, paper, scissors. Gauge smashed Tera’s scissors with a rock and she let out a groan.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” she said.
They only walked for another ten minutes before the foot traffic led them into the largest clearing in Slumside. Tera recognized it right away as the “town square”, where she once found a flyer advertising Nidus’s Shedder cult. Where she had patrolled with Abenayo.
She walked within arm’s reach of a human liaison officer who looked a little like her former tutor. The Council bodyshell reached out and stopped her.
“We’re in position,” the cop said. “It’s time to crack open the shell.”
Tera nodded at the code phrase, then took in a deep breath. She closed her eyes and let the artificial exhale escape her bodyshell.
“Let’s get this started,” she told the Ghost cop.
Just after she said that, there was a scream in the crowd from behind her. The sound of people running and others struggling reached Tera’s ears as she pushed her way to the center of the clearing. A short burst of gunfire split the air as a few bodyshells hit the ground. She noticed some of the white bodyshells pointing their weapons at others, opening fire or simply disarming their targets. In the corner of her vision, Tera saw one police bodyshell convulsing on the ground as its current occupant fought against a Ghost I.I. who was trying to seize control of the mechanical body. She heard a couple battle cries as a few humans rushed up and incapacitated a handful of Council cops. She instantly recognized two of them from her short visit among Truck’s Raiders. Truck himself was likely in the crowd, having insisted on joining his marauders the night before.
“Your attention!” Tera shouted as she heaved a large man aside and walked up to the small stage structure in the middle of the clearing. She struggled to climb atop it as the panic and chaos grew around her. “Your attention, please!”
No one paid her any mind. The cries and shouts and small pockets of brawling rippled through the crowd. None of the slum dwellers knew what was going on; for all they could tell, they were being rounded up by the cops for a random execution.
“Please! Listen to me!” Tera shouted again. Her words fell on deaf ears.
A gunshot overpowered the sounds of panic and fear and a wave of quiet washed over the slum dwellers. Tera rubbed her artificial ears as she cast Gauge an annoyed look. The Union rebel put his gun back into its holster and patiently gestured at her to continue. She thanked him before turning back to the captivated crowd.
“It’s time for a revolution,” she started. Her voice was amplified as it boomed out over the heads of the slum dwellers. Some of the Council cops who had surrendered their weapons to the Raiders and the Ghosts scowled at her as she spoke. “The Council doesn’t want the best for you. They never have. You know this. If you want to build a better Shell City — a better world — then we need you to fight. If you don’t want to put your life at risk to bring the Council down, go home now; no one will fault you for that. If you want change, however — real change — then join us as we march on the Pavilion. We’ll give those bastards something to fear for once!”
There was a moment of silence as her words were absorbed by the audience. A few people started making their way away from Tera and the others. They looked over their shoulders with frightened eyes, terrified that Tera was a liar and the revolutionaries would converge on them. Almost everyone remained, however.
Then, as if an applause sign lit up over a stage, the crowd exploded with cheers. There was an almost cathartic roar that rushed out of everyone, as if this was the moment they were waiting for their whole lives. With a bit of pushing and excited jostling, people started making their way in the direction of the Pavilion.
They don’t need to be told twice, Tera thought as she watched the slum dwellers continue to rile themselves up.
A flicker of motion caught her attention from the corner of her eyes. Looking up, she saw a flock of a half dozen gunships circling around and descending in the direction the mob was moving. She watched as they started landing out of sight, presumably onto the Pavilion itself.
“That’s the signal!” Major Danib shouted as he watched the gunships through a magnified scope. Lowering the device, he turned to the nearest Battalion soldier, who stood at attention for this moment. “Fire!”
“Fire!” the soldier shouted, passing the order on through his radio.
“Alright boys, this is it!” Farmer Ben yelled from his mechsuit.
“Excuse me?” one of the Gearheads, a woman, cried back to him.
Farmer Ben rolled his eyes. “I meant, ‘folks, this is it!’ ” he corrected himself. “Let ‘em have it!”
The air along the blockade was filled with deep concussions as the
