Embers After Flames, Chapter 11.8 (Patreon)

11.8

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With a brand new entranceway, it took Gamma Squad absolutely no time at all to make their way in.

The sheer depth that the UW-CO had penetrated provided, entirely unintentionally, easy access to a lot of the Grid’s internals. A brand new corridor had been burned through multiple levels, multiple sections, and multiple zones. Maneuvering within this new accessway wasn’t the easiest on account of how thin it was, but it hadn’t existed a minute ago, so it’s not like there were any defenses in place to harry them.

“Can we get some directions?” Gamma Melee asked.

“You’ll want to head nearly to the end of the tunnel and take the second last exit.” I said, marking that area with a waypoint. “That’ll put you directly between the primary refinery and the Generator, If Snail isn’t in that area, then there’s only a few more locations that he could be present in, and you’ll still be in a position to flank enemy lines.”

There was a relatively limited amount of places that Snail could be, to be honest. Somewhere central, surely, since he was the kind of person who was more than happy to sacrifice his subordinates so long as he himself came out on top. He was undoubtedly also in his AC, because AC pilots are never very far from their machines when combat is involved. An area with lines of communication across the entire Grid world also be the best, and the places most likely to be intact were at the center of the Grid.

If Snail wasn’t there... well, he had to be somewhere nearby.

I would like to know where Maeterlinck is, though. She’s the only one not accounted for.

Actually, come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since the last deployment she had. Not the counterpart mission to help Raven, but another one she did after that, taking on some PCA forces.

Hmm. Her AC had gotten pretty banged up, but Arquebus should have been able to either put it back together or have replaced the Parts by now.

Oh well. We’ll find her, too.

Gamma squad breached into the central sector. There were some defenses, which they made short work of, but nothing as heavy as what was outside. Just a bunch of automated turrets to provide a bit of extra firepower...

But there were active energy feeds.

The primary refinery itself obviously wasn’t online. That would require nothing less than the main Generator being turned on in order to power, and Arquebus wouldn’t risk that.

There was no reason for energy to be flowing if it wasn’t being used for something, though.

Gamma Squad promptly started following the feed.

It took them only a few minutes before they arrived at a new destination. During those few minutes, Alpha Squad also breached into the Grid, and both Beta and Delta would be soon to follow. Quite a few C-Weapons had also successfully made their way into the Grid, and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the defenses fell entirely.

As for the destination itself, it was exactly what they were looking for.

“Snail has been located.” Gamma Melee stated. “Engaging.”

Snail had tucked himself into a corner of the Grid, out of sight and surrounded in every direction by thick, heavy walls, which did well to block his signature. He might have passed unnoticed if not for how advanced the sensors of my Firekeeper’s ACs were.

Evidently, he thought it was good enough, because he had no idea that they were until Gamma Melee introduced herself via Chainsaw.

He was mid-sentence when the whirling bands of shrieking Coral ripped into his AC. Wholly unprepared, there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop himself from being utterly torn apart. The radio echoed with a single scream, and then, for a moment, it was quiet.

Arquebus’ cohesion collapsed instantly.

More yells went out over the radio instantly. Multiple people immediately started talking, requesting Snail’s status, requesting orders, requesting support. It was an immediate mess, nearly incomprehensible.

I sighed.

As much as I’d like to simply flatten them after everything they’d done, it was unfortunately not the best option anymore... Not for what I was trying to build, anyway.

“Hold up for a moment.” I said, before I sent out a signal of my own.

The difference, however, was power. They were using normal strength signals. Mine was so powerful that it instantly drowned out the entirety of theirs.

“Attention Arquebus forces.” I broadcasted, and made damned certain that they would all hear it. “Snail is dead. Hawkins, Pater, and Swinburne are all dead. You are outnumbered, outgunned, and you have no chance of escape. Your only option for survival is surrender. If your weapons are powered by the time that you are found, you will be killed. This is the only warning you are being given. To those who surrender, you will be provided for under Article 18.”

Most people... would not care. They were outsiders, and they had invaded our home. Killing them wouldn’t be out of the norm. Allowing no surrenders was entirely expected. Promising them conditions that were not objectively bad was already more than a lot of people would do.

Perhaps it was silly, or stupid. On the other hand, their leaders were dead, and by this point, they weren’t a threat at all. Ruthlessly crushing them would be meaningless. If the circumstances were different, if something was actually at stake, I might not have bothered.

But it wasn’t. So, why not?

Still, it was up to them to actually take the offer.

“Keep going.” I said. “And new ROE. Don’t shoot anything not armed or with unpowered weaponry. If they try a false surrender, however, you are weapons free for everyone involved.”

Twenty acknowledgements came back to me shortly. The C-Weapons didn’t need to give it. They did what they were programmed to do, and adding that condition in was very easy for me.

It was almost surprising how many of them ended up throwing their lives away. So many of them who, even in face of utterly overwhelming force, continued to try and fight.

Almost. I knew a lot about corporate recruiting, after all. Selecting people who were inclined to follow the corporate lines was priority number one for the grunts. On top of that, Arquebus was pretty happy to employ ‘loyalty initiatives’ to recruit from their former enemies.

That had been of limited use on Rubicon, though.

Still, despite the fact that there were many who were willing to throw their lives away, there also many who weren’t. After having already suffered such a devastating attack, after having their leadership killed, after having their morale destroyed, some of them simply just gave up.

Weapons purged, thrown away. Machines deactivated, left offline while the C-Weapons came through, and subsequently spared for their good sense.

The advance was unstoppable, and as the surrenders continued, they became more and more common as it became increasingly obvious that there was no other option for survival.

And then...

“This is V.IV Maeterlinck!” The comm channel suddenly flared. Her voice sounded rather laboured, echoing with an edge of pain. Had she been injured before this? “I am the highest ranked officer remaining! All Arquebus forces are hereby ordered to surrender!”

Ah, there she is... And she’s actually being sensible, too.

Well, that wasn’t too surprising, to be honest. Her flaw had been loyalty to people who really did not deserve that loyalty, not arrogance or stupidity.

For a cautious woman like her, with Snail and literally everybody else above her in the ranks dead, defaulting to whatever will keep them alive makes perfect sense.

With direct orders from above handed out, that marked an immediate switch to how many were surrendering, with all but the most stubborn or most deluded shortly making themselves combat irrelevant.

And with that, it meant that my forces had little trouble sweeping through the Grid.

“I’m marking this mission as completed.” I told my Firekeepers shortly afterwards. “Return to base. Your part in this is finished.”

Their part in it was finished, but mine... mine had a bit to go.

Still, even without the Firekeepers, I had so many C-Weapons present that I could do most of it simultaneously.

It took a little over half an hour to get everything done from there. First, I had to make sure everyone and everything was properly located and accounted for. Raiding the Arquebus databases told me exactly how many people and machines there should have been, and, fortunately, the numbers checked out.

It was nice to know that I hadn’t somehow lost or gained a few. That would have made things a little awkward.

From there, a quick tally gave me a good estimate of how much was going to be needed in order to take care of them all, and honestly, it wasn’t that high. Where Michigan had effectively gotten Balam through the assault basically unharmed, Arquebus had fought back hard, and had lost a huge amount of personnel in the defence, to say nothing of the drone forces that had been almost completely obliterated.

They were effectively not in a position to cause problems, which was great. Equally great was that, while we had torched a large amount of their war material alongside their defensive positions, we hadn’t come close to their survival supplies during the course of this battle. They still had food, water, medicine and shelter, which would last them more than long enough for the RLF to take over the matter.

In the meantime, I directed them to a central area where they would all be able to stay, and had a contingent of C-Weapons surround it as their wardens, serving as jailers and guardians both.

Another message to Flatwell caused him to alter the plans he was already making, adding the surviving Arquebus contingent to the survivors that they would soon be watching over.

And... well, that was kind of it, wasn’t it?

When the day had started, the PCA, Balam, and Arquebus had been three, fully capable organisations waging a full scale war with each other. Before we had gone beyond the morning, the first had been utterly obliterated, their own weapons turned against them. Before we had reached the afternoon, both Balam and Arquebus had been soundly defeated, the former through a moment of brilliance by its own commander, and the latter through an army of some of the most powerful machines known to mankind.

There was only a single hostile entity left on this planet, and ALLMIND had never been the type to try and use armies. She preferred subtlety, and knives in the dark.

The planet was, by any reasonable measure, ours. We had finally won.

...

Holy shit. We’d won.

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“All operations closed.” I stated, showing the data on the screens.

The entirety of the RLF’s upper leadership were here, save for Dolmayan, though even he was attending virtually.

There was an eagerness throughout the room, easily read. Most of them were wearing the emotion on their faces, not even bothering to try and hide it.

“The PCA has been completely annihilated. I can locate no surviving groups.” I said. On the screen, the PCA’s logo greyed out, and all the colour that I’d marked their territories with faded with it. “Balam has formally surrendered. Arquebus has surrendered. We are in complete control of the Closure Satellites, and have gained full access to the entirety of the system. It’s over. We won.”

“Hahaaa!” A cheer went out, and the room instantly broke into loud, enthused energy. Many cheered. Some hugged each other. A few popped open bottles of wine that had been saved for more than fifty years.

Everyone was either smiling, grinning, or else wearing some kind of satisfied look on their faces.

I would be too, if I’d had a face. As it was, my contentment with the situation mixed with the joy and jubilation of my children, and we were all feeling it.

“We won the war!” Flatwell called out, after a few minutes of revelry. His voice caught everyone’s attention, loud as he was, and brought the room back into focus.

We’d won the war. That was true, wholly and completely.

“Now-” He began. “- it’s time to win the peace.”