Embers After Flames, Chapter 12.3 (Patreon)

12.3

+++

“Well, I’ve got to say, you were right.” Carla whistled. “I do like what you’ve done with the place.”

Carla was currently flying over the city, alongside the rest of the RAD crew. Since most of them were former RRI, the sight of the city, even in its new form, had been... a rather big surprise for them.

“Lovin’ the verticality.” She added, after a moment. “It gives a real ‘city on the cliffs’ vibe to the whole place. It works really nicely, honestly.”

“Thank you.” I made my tone carry the smile as clearly as I could. “It took a while to put it all back together again, but some changes had to be made in the process.”

“The damage of the Fires of Ibis, right?” She asked. “Hell, it’s impressive anything survived enough to rebuild from.”

“The Vascular plant served as a rather strange shield.” I explained. “Even so... Well, you know better than most how dangerous the Fires were.”

“Indeed.” She gives a short ‘hah’. Some might mistake it for a laugh, but not me.

Her transport set down, the bays handling them just as they’d handled Walter’s. Of course, Carla’s group had been larger than Walter’s single transport and extra AC, so there had been a bit of messing around when they’d actually got here.

They’d brought along some heavier transports, for one. Those, however, hadn’t been able to fit inside of the Watchpoint’s tunnel system, and so they’d had to leave them at the bottom of the entrance while they shifted everyone around into smaller transports. The trams had been able to get those through just fine, and now Chatty was unloading most of the cargo.

My own drones would be up there shortly, and they would take the cargo down. As for the transports themselves... Eh. I didn’t expect many guests at the moment, so they’re not a problem if they just sit there for a bit.

The transport’s doors opened, and Carla walked down the ramp the moment it stopped. If not for the changed city, it would have been like a window to fifty years ago. Red hair in a bundle, white coat on her shoulders, turtleneck sweater and pants.

“So.” She begins, and in person I can’t detect even the slightest hint that her voice had changed at all. “Where’s Walter?”

I told her. She laughed.

+++

“I really should have expected that you would be here.” Carla announces as the door opens. “‘The third floor of the observatory, at the window’. It should have been obvious, yet I still asked the question.”

Walter sat in the chair, his arms crossed against his chest. He had been staring at the city for several hours by this point, which was perhaps a little too dramatic, but I was hardly in a position to comment about being dramatic.

Well, not unless someone was asking for advice.

“Hello, Carla.” He greeted, not turning away from the window.

Behind him, Carla rolled her eyes. She stepped forwards, grabbing a chair from another table before pulling it over. When she sat down, she kicked her legs up onto the table., leaving her ankles crossed. “How are things, Walter?”

Despite the irreverence of her actions, her voice did convey her concern.

Walter breathed in, and then finally uncrossed his arms, turning his head to glance at Carla. “Not well.” He admitted. “And you?”

“Could be better.” Carla shrugged. She shifted her coat, reaching into an inside pocket before pulling out a thermos. She flicked it open with a single finger before raising it to her lips and taking a sip.

“Processing things?” He asked.

Carla’s grin turned sardonic. “You know exactly how it is.”

Both of them leaned back. A few minutes passed in silence.

Eventually, Walter sighed. “I never did ask...” He began, slowly. “Did you ever have a plan for... after?”

Carla’s head tilted to the side. “You know that I was never the sort of person who’d think ahead like that.” She said, smiling.

His head turned, and he looked at her directly.

A moment passed. Carla’s smile faded. “No.” She admitted. “Never.”

“What stopped you?” He asked.

“Well, if we’re being completely honest...” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure I never thought I’d leave this place again. Rubicon was where it started. It seemed fitting that this would also be where it all ended.”

He turned away, nodding.

“Don’t get me wrong.” She continued, after a beat to make sure he wasn’t going to say something of his own. “It’s not like I wanted to die or anything, but... I didn’t really fear it. For the last fifty years, I haven’t really been doing much other than just... wait.”

He breathed in, and then out. “Yes.” He said. “That’s exactly it.”

Carla sighed. “We really messed things up for you, Walter.” She spoke. “This whole thing never should have been something to put on your shoulders... You were just a kid.”

“I was young.” He said. “And determined. It was my choice not to explore anything else.”

“We should have tried a bit harder to encourage you.” Carla told him. “Or, hell, forced it on you. We should have done something other than just stand there and accept it. You deserved a life too.”

Another silence came between them. Walter closed his eyes. “We can’t change the past.” He said, after a short while. “Only how we act in the future.”

“And we’ve already made our choice there, haven’t we?” Carla chuckled. She shifted, moving her feet off the table as she got up out of the chair. “Alright, come on. I’m hungry, and I’m pretty sure you could use some food too.”

He let out a breath, and then took his cane before rising himself. “Did you know there’s steak, here?”

Carla’s eyebrow raised. “What, real steak?”

“The meat is cultured.” He admitted, head briefly tilting to the side. “But the marinade- that is completely grown. There’s a garden, or several, where it’s harvested and prepared.”

“As it happens, I also have quite the array of drinks.” I chimed in. “There were some cellars that were built like fortresses, and they managed to survive surprisingly intact. Some of those bottles are older than you, Carla.”

Carla sucked in air through her teeth. “And is that an option?” She asked.

I chuckled, and then sent her the access code for the local city-net. “Take a look at the menu.” I said, amused. “And yes, I do both catering and deliveries.”

“How civilized!” Carla said, grinning. “Alright. I’ll get back to you with that.”

+++

It had taken a little over two days for Flatwell’s transports to arrive in the Ice Field. About fifty hours, to be exact.

That might seem like a rather long time, but in all honesty? Considering the distance, the circumstances, and sheer numbers, it’s better than what a lot of others would have been able to manage.

Moving what was effectively the entire personnel list of a megacorp and the survivors of a second megacorp wasn’t an easy feat by any means. That was a lot of people and supplies, after all.

I had left an array of C-Weapons behind in order to guard them all. Balam had not done anything stupid, and there was barely enough of Arquebus left to be stupid, so there had been no incidents.

Everything was absolutely fine... with a single exception.

When Nile had provided access to Balam’s systems, I had taken a peak throughout the personnel list. On that list had been one particular name that had been given one particular status.

G5 Iguazu: MIA

I had asked Nile about it, of course. Iguazu had gone missing after a mission he’d been deployed for before this whole siege thing had happened. The mission had been recorded as completed, but Iguazu had failed to return to their base. Since Iguazu did occasionally take on other missions in what would otherwise be his free time, this had only been remarked on insofar as it had annoyed Balam’s Command with Iguazu’s regular shit. So long as he showed up when he was meant to, though, it was considered a small problem.

He hadn’t shown up when he’d been meant to. Iguazu had vanished from the area entirely, and nobody had seen him since.

Balam’s Command had still been debating whether he’d died or gone rogue when the PCA had been annihilated, and it had suddenly become a matter of little concern.

ALLMIND was right at the top of my suspect list for what had happened to him, but that was entirely from metaknowledge. As it happened, it was also knowledge that wasn’t immediately useful, because knowing it did not actually change the actions that I was taking.

I had already deployed forces en masse in order to hunt down ALLMIND’s base. I did not have the ability to escalate further than that, and there was no point in trying to do so even if I did.

If Iguazu had been taken by ALLMIND, then it didn’t matter because I was going to be handling that particular matter soon enough anyway. If he hadn’t been, then I would locate him or his remains eventually.

To Balam, I sent a message to Nile. To Arquebus, I sent a message to Maeterlinck. It was the same message in both cases.

“The transports are ready to receive your people.” I informed them. “Please be advised that we have available medical personnel on hand. They will be able to handle all the necessary matters.”

Both groups could use a bit of help, but while Balam held the larger number of cases, it was Arquebus who had the more severe ones. Both megacorps hadn’t had as much on hand as they probably should have had, but considering the sheer lethality of modern combat, it was exactly the kind of corporate cost-cutting that one would expect.

If people usually died, then that meant you didn’t need to care for them, right?

Ugh.

Ah well.

The transports that Flatwell had arranged were reasonable ones, all considered. Twenty-first century airliners would pack people together like sardines, but somehow, several hundred years into the future, that idea of putting so many people into a small, unpleasant space had come to be seen as an indication of a lack of wealth rather than an attempt at profitable ‘efficiency’. When aircraft were as cheap and reliable as ground vehicles on a per-mass basis rather than products of specialist knowledge, things had to change, apparently.

The transports the people were going in were fully furnished, though not to an extent that could be considered lavish. Still, they were reasonably large, and the conditions were more than acceptable for surrendering soldiers who, in most other circumstances, would have been lucky to not be tied together in rows. For their equipment, the RLF had brought over dedicated cargo transports- the big ones, too, the kind that would normally haul a small army on their own.

The transportation occurred in waves. It took a decent amount of time for all those people to be boarded, all that cargo to be loaded. Arquebus was almost finished first based just on the lower numbers, but a few of their members had to remain behind in order to complete surgeries before they were flown out, and so we managed to evacuate Balam entirely beforehand.

I gave the flights escorts, but that was about the extent of my involvement in the matter. Once they were on Belius, they were to be handled by Flatwell’s people completely.

He had some sections set aside for them, a place to house them that was reasonably comfortable while further arrangements were made. Depending on how things went, they could be here for a while.

Still, I had nothing to do with it from there. That was a good thing, because barely twenty minutes had passed after the last of the flights landed that the many SEA SPIDERs I had deployed finally managed to locate something that was out of place.

As it turns out, my hunch had been right. ALLMIND had not put her base on Belius.

She’d hid it in the ocean, instead.