Except that she was invisible, and its radar was going to be no use in pinpointing the source of a magical attack. The lobby came with various pillars to hide behind too, though the tank had demolished a couple of them getting in. Nava wondered absently whether the thing was dumb enough to drop the building on its own head. People would probably be happier if she killed the thing without so much collateral damage. Might as well get started.
Nava moved out from behind a pillar and launched Magic Burst at the tank. Then she bolted for the cover of another pillar. The tank’s armour was thick and the spell’s penetrator didn’t ignore armour. It had a high penetration factor, but armour could be too thick for it. The spell detonated outside the tank, a bloom of white expanding out from the side of its hull. Nava was out of reach of the quintessence explosion and the tank’s armour was too thick. Except that it was now a little thinner having been corroded at the subatomic level by Nava’s magic.
Another pulse of light lanced out, striking the robot and then exploding into a sphere. The tank picked a response this time and began to fire. Four of its turrets sprayed bullets across virtually the entire area of the lobby behind the metal spider. Behind one of the pillars, Nava kept her head down and waited for it to stop. There was no stopping, but there was a change in sound: the sounds of motors operating and massive feet hitting the floor. It was moving. It had visual sensors where its head would have been, and it was hoping that it could spot where she was with those. Turning would also bring those front-mounted cannons around, allowing the robot to blow her up.
Timing her move for when the robot’s field of fire was off her, Nava moved out of cover, fired, and ran right across the lobby, ahead of the tank’s visual arc as it turned. Another sphere of white blossomed, followed by a far more normal explosion as the tank blasted a hole in part of the building in an attempt to hit something. Shrapnel hit Nava’s armour and she rolled from behind a pillar, firing her Magic Blast one more time.
This time, the light pulse vanished in through the depleted armour and the spell detonated inside the tank. It jerked as though someone had hit it with the biggest rolled-up newspaper ever, staggering back a step and demolishing another of the support pillars in the process. Then its hull hit the floor as its legs gave out, and the massive autonomous killing machine stopped. There were no twitching gun turrets or lights which slowly died before coming back as it jerked into a final attempt to strike its prey. It stopped. And Nava turned for the inner door without saying a word.
Epilogue
Alliance City, Shinden, Clan Worlds Alliance, 235/8/16.
They had had to move the venue – because the existing one was a bit of a mess and still had the corpse of a spider tank in the lobby – but the organisers of the symposium managed to get together a reduced set of panels for the delegates who could still be bothered to go to them. They also arranged for the closing banquet to take place too. A few more people attended that than the panels.
Mitsuko stood at one side of the hall, turning down offers to dance. Nearby, Melissa was doing the same with more embarrassment. That was partially because her boyfriend was standing right beside her, and partially because this was Melissa. Courtney and Kyle were somewhere around, possibly dancing while they could. Darius had already returned to SAS2.
Nava… Nava was not there. She had been taken away in a helicopter by Fawn the previous afternoon. Both of them were going to undergo debriefing, apparently. There had been no word from either of them since. Mitsuko’s attempts to contact them had been blocked and she could get no straight answer about where they were.
‘Do you two want to come back to the mansion with me tomorrow?’ Mitsuko asked, apparently out of nowhere.
‘I d-don’t have any other plans…’ Melissa replied.
‘Same,’ Rochester added.
‘So, if you don’t mind the company, I guess we’ll say yes.’
‘I want the company,’ Mitsuko said.
‘She’ll be back. In fact, I think she’ll turn up wherever you are when she does, so being with you is an even better idea.’
‘You have an amazing ability to maintain a positive attitude, Mel. I envy you that.’
‘No, I have an amazing ability to look like I’m positive. But, this time, I am. She’ll be back.’
Mitsuko flashed a grin and pushed herself away from the wall. ‘I’m heading back to the apartment. I’m really not in the mood for this.’
‘We’ll come with you,’ Rochester said.
‘Yeah,’ Melissa agreed. ‘Neither of us are ever really in the mood for something like this.’
‘Then why did you come?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘Seemed like the right thing to do…’
Trenton Mansion, 235/8/17.
Lunch was happening in a somewhat stiff atmosphere. There was an empty chair beside Mitsuko which just seemed to exude the need for Nava to be in it. Michiko had asked about Nava once, been told that she was helping the ASF, and had then decided that further mentioning the missing girl would be insensitive. Michiko was, as she would tell you, a precocious child.
She did, however, want to hear at least some of what had happened at the symposium. So, she was getting an edited version. Melissa, who was one of the ones telling the story, would have edited it more if it were one of her relatives she was talking to. Michiko seemed able to handle a few truths that Melissa herself would not have at that age.
‘Was it scary when the men
