Embers After Flames, Chapter 13.8 (Patreon)

13.8

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“Tch. And who the hell are you?” Iguazu asked.

“If you don’t know the answer to that question, then ALLMIND hasn’t told you... Or, more likely, you just didn’t care to ask.”

“Oh, one of the smart ones.” He really made contempt into an artform, didn’t he? “Well, fuck off. Listening to you lot talk is always so annoying.”

“And the only thing you’re here for is the chance to kill Raven, isn’t it?” I sighed. “What a situation...”

It would be a lie to say that I didn’t expect this. The fact that Iguazu had vanished without a trace was suspicious all on its own.

I’d been watching the Megacorps for years. I knew very well what their pilots were capable of. Iguazu... Well, he certainly wasn’t subtle. The idea that he would, on his own, somehow manage to evade patrols and orbital observation and simply disappear into the void?

Absurd.

Knowing what I did, however, certainly made it much easier to narrow my suspicions.

Even without that extra knowledge, though? I’m reasonably certain I still would have figured it out.

Iguazu was the only corporate AC Pilot who had Coral Augmentations. Fourth Gen, just like Raven.

He’d gotten the Augs in his youth, back when he’d been a mere backstreet gambler. He’d bet big, and he’d lost, and in order to make up for his debt, his debtors forced him to go through the Augmentation process. Unfortunately, while his Augs were stable enough to not continue to grow as a problem, they also left him with significant Coral contamination in his brain. He did not end up like Raven, or even like Dolmayan. He was among the more common, those who merely gained some sensitivity but had no ability to interpret it.

As weak of a connection as it was, it still left him a potential vector to interact with the C-Pulse. In turn, that alone would draw ALLMIND’s attention.

With that said, Iguazu was a mass of spite mixed with inferiority complexes dissolved in salt and wrapped up in aggression. He’s a real hater, that guy. Spectacularly unpleasant at almost every turn, the very definition of a problem.

One would think that his personality would turn anybody away, but, well... I hadn’t been exaggerating when I said that ALLMIND was not properly socialized.

She did not recognize it for the entirety of what it was.

I was not certain when, precisely, ALLMIND had taken Iguazu, but I did have a time frame.

Though, to be honest, it didn’t really matter anymore. He was here, now.

Another voice spoke. Another echo across both a normal transmission and the Coral.

“Does it surprise you that I have acquired my own candidate?” ALLMIND asked in a way that made it clear that it wasn’t really a question. “Yes. My plan approaches fruition.”

I sighed again, and I made sure it reached the both of them. “ALLMIND...” I didn’t even need to inject anything into my tone. My actual emotions carried it just fine. “This is going to backfire on you so quickly that it’s not even funny.”

And what did I feel?

Pity.

Why that? Why would I possibly be feeling pity after all this time, after everything she’s done?

Because I know what’s about to happen, and I know very well exactly how much she’s misjudged the situation. I don’t even need the metaknowledge for it, though it certainly helps.

Oh, and exasperation, too. Can’t forget that.

Alright. Time to focus.

Iguazu’s machine was big. It was also clearly very advanced. Each of its weapons were stupidly huge, and they alll looked like multi-purpose designs that would give the machine a considerable amount of options. Some would say that it also indicated a lack of specialisation, but if you were good enough at everything, there’s no harm in being a generalist.

So, offensively, it probably had all the same options that her modified C-Weapons did. Its mobility was likely much higher than its size would otherwise suggest, because it also had the same sort of wing structures, just scaled up even further, with additional thrusters installed over the entire frame. The only part of its body that didn’t have a set of them installed being the Head. There was a lot of Coral in the thing, too, providing plenty of energy- not that it mattered right now while they were all still hurtling through the ambient Coral cloud.

Defensively, it seemed reasonably solid. Compromises had been made on the armour with the sheer number of Boosters that it had, but it also had the hybrid plasma/pulse Primal Armour system that she’d installed on her other machines. It’s a coin toss on whether or not she’d upscaled the generators on those or not. She had infinite energy now, but that had been an unexpected variable, and with the sheer number of Boosters already there to drain away the energy reserves...

It’s possible that the shield wasn’t significantly stronger than the rest of the examples.

Nothing to it, then. “Raven, Ayre. You’re up.”

“Together, Raven!”

They launched forwards simultaneously.

“That damned ringing! It was you!”

So did Iguazu. As I’d expected, despite being four times the height of an AC, that thing was not slow. It moved with the same alacrity that every AC had, and in terms of raw speed, it surpassed even ALLMIND’s version of the SOL.

Raven took the first shot, sending a single beam from LOADER 4’s Coral Rifle towards the machine. It reacted immediately, with speed that was on the upper end of the best that I’d ever observed from ALLMIND, and shot to the side, the sheer velocity of its movement causing the Pulse/Plasma shielding that surrounded it to briefly tinge purple as it interacted with the ambient Coral.

The movement itself, though... It wasn’t ALLMIND’s typical dodges. She preferred a minimum level of effort and movement. This machine’s movements were more organic, the way that the limbs shifted into place reminiscent of the way that ACs prepared and braced for their own movements.

A mix of ALLMIND’s speed and Iguazu’s actual piloting. Interesting.

Iguazu didn’t hesitate to return fire, bringing both guns up. They shifted, emitter arrays configuring into something that was wide and circular.

Raven chose to go upwards and forwards, rushing towards Iguazu’s machine just as it fired. Two conical blasts of plasma shot forwards, moving quickly and spreading slowly. Raven’s movements took LOADER 4 just above the blasts, close enough that if they had been in atmosphere, LOADER 4 would have risked some thermal damage. Out in space, though?

No real issue.

Ayre fired off her Back weapons, sending out a stream of Coral Lightwave packets. They zipped towards Iguazu’s machine -and I really to find a name for this thing, because calling it “Iguazu’s machine” all the time was rapidly becoming tiresome- just as Raven slashed outwards with the Lightwave Blade.

The bladewave flew forwards, glowing bright red. From the position that they were currently in, and considering the sheer size of Iguazu’s machine, it would be very difficult to dodge-

So, of course, it promptly blurs to the side, accelerated at a speed that could only be Overed Boosters in action.

Mmm. Well, whatever. That hadn’t saved any of ALLMIND’s other things.

“Our goal is in sight.” ALLMIND spoke. “Iguazu. Do not hesitate.”

“I don’t care about your plan! I just want that damned Freelancer dead!” He growled. His machine -Fuck it, TITAN will do for now- Boosted to the side, keeping up as much momentum as possible in order to keep out of the reach of the Coral Lightwave packets. “And the other one, too! I don’t want to hear those damned noises anymore!”

... It’s kind of impressive how unstable he is.

“This is your candidate?” I asked ALLMIND. “You picked someone that doesn’t even share your actual goal? You picked someone who lashes out at you, and is so rude on top of that?” He really was just simply unpleasant, wasn’t he? “Did you really not have better options?”

Admittedly, even I couldn’t think of any other valid candidates for this whole thing she’s doing. If she needed somebody with Coral implants, that took about ninety percent of the corporate roster off the list... Unless she herself Augmented them with old generation Augments. I don’t know why she wouldn’t have-

“Oh. Oooooohh.” And it suddenly hit me. “You don’t have better options. You didn’t get your mitts on the C6 Augments, did you?”

ALLMIND didn’t answer. That was answer enough.

I burst out into laughter, my amusement flooding into the C-Pulse. “Goodness!” I said, my voice echoing with my humour. “The security measures held against you?! Oh, Flatwell will be happy to hear about that!”

But it made sense, the more I thought about it. We hadn’t kept stockpiles of C6 injections laying around. We’d made each and every single one to order, because of Coral’s involvement. The replicating stocks had been kept under lock and key deep in allied territory, where the sensors were so omnipresent that there was nowhere to hide- and they’d been scaled for Humans on top of that, as another layer of security against a sudden raid of robots.

“Will you shut up!” Iguazu shouted, suddenly. “You’re so damned loud! You can be third on the list!”

TITAN spun around, guns reconfiguring again. Several long barrels formed, and rapidly began to spin.

Bolts of blue flooded out, rapidly filling space. Iguazu split his targets, one gun aimed at Ayre and one gun aimed at Raven. Both of them quickly moved, heading in opposite directions around Iguazu. Raven went right, Ayre went left, and Titan’s arms moved to the side until it was completely open.

Ayre shot at it, and Iguazu Boosted forwards. The Coral beam still caught it across the wing as it moved, and the Pulse/Plasma Primal Armour flared brightly as it did.

Hmm. She had upgraded the shielding, but not by much. It was only about ten percent stronger than her SOL’s equivalent. Which, considering the size difference, did in fact mean it had quite a bit more mass dedicated to the system.

She would have been running a fine line on the power supply.

Either way, the Primal Armour took the blow pretty well, dispersing the Coral beam significantly and reducing it to ‘merely’ a significant hit across the wing. Not good, but not too dangerous, either.

“He is rather unstable.” I commented. “I know you didn’t look past the surface here, but please understand that this comes from a place of genuine concern. This is not good for you.”

Raven fired just as Ayre launched a Bladewave, the two of them trading off roles in an instant. Iguazu reacted, the two large weapons on the Back of the machine shifting around. They opened up quickly, configuring into something flat, and then promptly projected a Pulse barrier from the both of them.

The shielding was much more solid than the armour, and neither attack had been charged up. The barrier flared white as the Coral interacted with the Pulse energies, but the former didn’t penetrate and the latter didn’t break.

Iguazu spun around, raising both hand weapons. One stayed in the gatling gun configuration, but the other shifted into something vaguely tubular.

It took a second to charge, but what came out of it was a big ball of plasma.

It arced as it moved through space, twisting towards the metal of the Vascular Plant. Ayre, wisely, decided to pull away, and so wasn’t consumed by a storm of plasma when the containment broke upon contact.

A plasma mortar. It had more functions than her SOL’s had.

“Alright. You did give him some fairly nice toys, there.” I admitted. “Still... You’ve seen them in action. Do you really think that’s enough?”

Iguazu growled. Their conflict continued, becoming more and more violent by the second.

“How worried were you when you set up for all of this?” I asked. “It’s a little... well, sloppy. The desperation is pretty obvious.”

Raven scored a shot across the Core of TITAN. Iguazu responded with several furious blasts, but Raven had already faded away.

“A risk that is not taken is an action certain to fail.” ALLMIND answered.

Ayre hit the right leg, and a trio of her Coral Lightwave packets exploded across its Primal Armour.

“You and I both know that this is not an excuse to take every risk. We both engaged in risk management. This is not that.” If I had a head, I’d be shaking it. “Have you not worked out how this going to end?”

Iguazu tried to kick Ayre away, and missed by mere centimeters. He turned and kept firing nonetheless, a few of the bolts ripping into her Primal Armour before she ducked behind a wall.

That, it seemed, was his limit. “RRAAAAGH!!!” Iguazu shouted, pure frustration in his voice.

Huh. He’s wound right up.

“Iguazu. You are one with ALLMIND-” ALLMIND began, before he promptly interrupted her.

“SHUT UP! STOP TALKING!” Nevermind, he’s actually just full in on the rage. “I’LL SHUT YOU ALL UP!”

Ah.

Oh boy, here we go.