Embers After Flames, Chapter 10.0 (Patreon)

10.0

+++

When I was done teasing Ayre for the day, I went back to work. I had a bunch of shit I suddenly needed to do, and with how rapidly things were accelerating, it was better to stay on top of things.

Dolmayan’s gift was nearly ready. The final stages of assembly had been completed, all checks had passed, and now the only thing that was left was the paintjob. That wouldn’t take very long to finish, and when it was done, I’d start to transport it.

The next thing to do was arrange some transports of my own. Smaller, subtler things, which I would use to send some very high value assets over to the Ice Fields. I didn’t see much of interest happening in Belius in the future, after all.

The garrisons would remain, of course. The RLF’s goal of simply holding out until the assets had grown and everything was in place hadn’t changed, even with the recent complete repelling of the corporations. Still, it wasn’t like they didn’t have other options, and the one problem of defensive measures is that it cedes the initiative to the opposite party. The RLF had to stay alert until everything was done.

After that, I had a conversation with Flatwell, and I told him about the ‘unexpected surprise’ that had occurred. 621’s capacity to make Contact naturally bumped up the interest that was owed, after all, and I promptly requested that this particular matter be left to me.

He wished me luck.

Second last on the list was to double down on the observation of the assets Balam and Arquebus. I wanted to know exactly when they were ready to start making their way towards the Ice Field, and I wanted to know the exact moment that they got there, too. This was old hat by now, of course, so nothing difficult here.

The last thing on the list was another conversation, this time with Walter.

“I’ve gotta say, your merc really made one hell of a lightshow.” I told him the moment he accepted the call. “That Hound just rearranged the geography. How’s it feel?”

“It feels like you were expecting this to happen and were planning for it.” Walter responded, as gruff as ever. “The underground deposit was larger than most would expect. I assume Omicron is in a similar situation?”

“Quite correct, yes.” I answered. “I’ve been watching you do things for most of the past five years. I was expecting you would simply have your Hound blow up the sensor and trigger the Surge. You lived up to my expectation.”

He sighed. “You did this to draw the corporations away from Belius.” He accuses, heatlessly. “After inflicting that loss, they’ll only need a small amount of encouragement to move as much of their operations across as possible so that they can get their objective. They’ll take almost everything they have with them, and the RLF will have almost free reign over the continent without any real enemies.”

“Astute.” I agreed. “What do you think? Was it a good plan?”

“It was efficient.” He says the word with annoyance. “So long as the Corporations do not actually reach the Coral.”

“They won’t.” I told him. “You think that this revelation is going to lead to something quickly, but the truth of the matter is that this is only the second chapter.” Heh. “There’s a long path ahead of them... but enough about that. Is your Hound alright?”

Walter grunted, quiet for a moment. I could hear the confusion in his tone, though. He wondered why I cared... or at least why I bothered to maintain a facade of care, as most would have been more prone to. “621 is fine. Minor headaches from the Surge, nothing more.”

Oh, but you just stepped into my trap, Walter. “Really now?” I asked, lilting the final two syllables. “Did 621 not also hear a rather lovely voice belonging to a brilliant young woman?”

Silence.

“What.” Walter said.

Oh, but his tone... Now it was beyond simple confusion. Concern, well-hidden admittedly, that spike of fear that echoed in the slightest crack of his voice...

Unsurprising. The fact that 621 was hearing voices was not something he’d let out. So how, then, did I know?

“A voice, Walter.” I repeated. “I’ll spare the part about the description of that voice, because you didn’t ask about that.”

“You’ve infiltrated my systems.” He gives an aggravated grunt. “When did you-”

“Believe it or not, that’s not actually how I know about this.” I stated. “I expect you will lean to the latter, of course.”

I hear the clicking of his keyboard. The signal frays for a moment, and I have no doubt that he’d just started up a very, very thorough check on his side of things... Meh.

“I shall give you one piece of information. This knowledge, and its revelation, is a clue to the mystery that I presented to yourself and Carla.” I said. “With that, congratulations must be given. You now know more than most did, and you’re in an even better position to figure it out. By all means, keep proceeding with your goal... but I would advise asking your Hound about her every now and then. You might just learn something.”

I closed the channel.

Alright.

I don’t know how many more ways I can keep hinting at the whole Coral Consciousnesses thing to them. If it keeps on going, I’m going to have to be blunt. Blunter than even just then.

I’d really prefer it if they figured it out on their own, though. It would make things so much easier if they’re the ones who come to the conclusion, rather than being hit by the clue-by-four.

Okay.

Time to hurry up and wait.

+++

There were a few days of blessed silence around Belius. Nobody was causing trouble, everyone too focused on finding their way across the Alean Ocean. Ayre told me that both Balam and Arquebus had left an open offer to 621 to go do an advanced survey of the Ice Field, and while Walter had ordered 621 to rest up while he went to go do things, 621 apparently did not care to do so.

Ayre told 621 about the offers. Ayre also told 621 about a way to cross the Alean Ocean.

So it was that 621 went to Grid 086, where one of the few still-active intercontinental cargo launchers remained in good shape.

There, they met with Carla, who was rather surprised to see 621 show up out of nowhere, but at least in this timeline, actually knew who 621 was right off the bat.

Because of this, Carla avoided having all of her hardware smashed. However, she made a quick request to 621 in exchange for help; a former member of RaD, an AC Pilot by the name of ‘Honest’ Brute who had joined up after she’d established herself, had fled from RaD whilst stealing some of their equipment. Brute, a pathological liar and mentally unstable psychopath, had skipped around Belius for several months, but had recently shown up again in the same Grid Cluster that RaD was housed in.

Ballsiness? Stupidity? Who knows.

Either way, Carla wanted 621 to kill Brute. Brute was dead within the hour.

621 promptly went back to 086, and Carla fulfilled her side of the promise- but not before unexpected company showed up.

G5 Iguazu showed up to investigate the area, operating on his lonesome. He promptly attacked 621 when he stumbled over 621, and equally promptly ate shit for the attempt. He survived again, against all odds, successfully ejecting.

Once the saltiest motherfucker on the planet was gone again, there was nothing stopping Carla from helping 621. She promptly sent them up to the top of the Grid.

The PCA was sitting there, of course. Nothing but automated units, though, and 621 had already demonstrated the results of that particular matchup.

Then they reached the cargo launcher, and were promptly stopped by something a little bigger than the basic bitch units.

It was not a C-Weapon, for once. Apparently the PCA only needed to learn that lesson once in order to pivot to other things, because what actually ended up standing in 621’s way was one of their newer machines, the CENTURION.

The CENTURION, In truth, wasn’t actually a new machine. It was in fact a further developed and mass-produced form of the AAP03 ENFORCER, still intended for defensive operations inside of relatively enclosed areas, but upgraded further. Where BALTEUS had the capacity for flight and overwhelming bombardment, the CENTURION made do with a relatively small array of multi-mode weaponry. An oversized Laser Cannon that doubled as a Laser Blade and Laser Lance, a missile launcher equipped with area denial Plasma Warheads, a Pulse Generator that functioned as both a gun and shield, and finally a Plasma weapon that could handle both extreme precision and wide area attacks.

It was an impressively dangerous machine, even more mobile and agile than its predecessor had been. The transformation mechanism also functioned perfectly fine, allowing reconfiguration for both close-ranged and long-ranged combat.

It... did not help against 621. When had anything, really?

The PCA’s fancy semi-new thing did not stand a chance. 621 took it apart with the characteristic efficiency that defined everything 621 did.

621 left the pile of scrap behind, where Carla would no doubt get her greedy little mittens on it, and then the both of them used the intercontinental cargo launcher to make their way towards the Central Ice Field.

It was... certainly a plan. Literally just loading yourself into a cargo container and getting shot to another continent. Genuinely hilarious to consider, and even more funny because it meant that 621 had become the first person to set foot on the Ice Field in decades.

One particular benefit of this plan, however, was that the cargo had been launched during the Firestorm, and the container had reached far enough up to pass into the storm of swirling, semi-active Coral. That meant that Ayre was afforded the chance to hear the voices of all the potential siblings that laid within clearly, a memory she didn’t hesitate to share with the rest of us.

It pleased me to see that I’d been entirely accurate on my original speculation regarding them. They were all potential minds, with not even a single actual one. For a life to appear within those burning skies would have been... complicated. Or, rather, it would have complicated things much more than it needed to be.

Anyway, once 621 had shown a path there, Balam and Arquebus shortly followed, just on an even more absurdly large scale. It took both of them several days of constant operation from the other cargo launchers they commandeered to send so much of their forces across the Alean Ocean, but it was done in fairly short order. Balam landed near the 01-05 Grid Cluster, square in the Contaminated Zone, while Arquebus landed in the 15-19 Cluster, also quite deep in the Contaminated Zone. None of the Grids in either cluster were at all operational, but they were... relatively intact, so it wasn’t that difficult for them to set up recycling operations, which they immediately started doing.

If they’d had a few extra weeks, it would have been perfectly fine for them. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that they were on borrowed time, and they were also once again racing each other for the Coral.

They had both started sending out survey drones the instant that they’d arrived. The survey drones had been among the very first things that they’d moved from Belius, even.

Since 621 had finally taken a mission from them, it was Balam who was on the ball enough to offer the next one quickly enough.

They wanted 621 to conduct a smash and grab. 621 was to smash the Arquebus survey base that they’d set up, and grab the data they’d gathered by now. It was a simple, straightforward, and perfectly corporate mission.

It started great. 621 showed up. 621 smashed the base. 621 retrieved the data.

And then the PCA showed up.