DogForge (26 page)

Kell’s suit flopped over. A hole the size of Denali’s paw was punched clear through the neck of Kell’s suit.

She stumbled back to cover with Garlan shielding her.

“We have to blow it!” Kane howled. He huddled next to Til and rigged an explosive charge on the door.

Tell them!

“
Til!” Denali cried out. “Override the hydraulics and it’ll open. It’s genetically coded.”

“What?” Til barked back. “Oh! I see!”

The door creaked open in a shower of rust.

“Get in!” Captain Maya called and the squad surged inside.

Denali tumbled past Til and fell to the ground. The pinch in her stomach was like a hot poker, but she pushed the pain away and looked outside at Kell. No, at his corpse. Kell’s dead. She tasted blood in her mouth.

“Belle! Kane! Cover that door, Praetorians are coming in from above. We’ve got to hold for ten minutes.”

“Well, look at that,” Til said with awe in his voice.

Denali turned and stared into the center of the building. Her augmented vision snapped on in the inky darkness. An array of coal black cubes stood in the center of the room. Each linked to the next with silver cables that throbbed with energy, almost like it was breathing.

Oh god.

“What?” Denali winced. The pain shot through her again. She checked the suit diagnostics and saw a tiny tear in the synthweave. Must be pinching.

Blow it up. Kill it! Denali, you must, oh god oh god.

“I can’t!”

You must! If he gets it, oh god, the safeguards. What would he do?

“
What are you talking about?”

It’s how they make us! Our minds are grown in those cubes. The very solid state that is our nanite core, starts there. Denali, if he gets this, he can rewrite his core.

“I don’t understand,” Denali said.

Caesar can strike the realm of men, he can wage war like none ever before, nothing will stop him, he can copy himself, make a dozen Caesars. He would be unstoppable!

“I can’t!”

“They’re attacking!” Belle yelled.

“Kane, Til, Wiss, cover the door, everyone else back, prep to switch!” Captain Maya ordered

The Kadas surged across the open space and fell in packs. The insectoids fired back and this time it was with real weapons, not salvage gear. One stopped, fired  a fusion pod, and tumbled over screeching. A second leaped over the first and shot straight into the air when first Kadas’s fusion pod detonated. A half dozen of the attacks exploded away in every direction. More raced behind.

“They’re coming in from the side!” Wiss barked.

“Garlan!” Kane called. “Get me two crawlers.”

Kane dropped his demolitions pack onto the floor. Garlan deployed two drones that skittered across the floor to Kane. The explosive charge sat heavy on top of the delicate drones.

Kane looked up to Garlan. “Ten seconds.”

The drones shot out of the door, one going left and the other going right.

Denali paced behind the line and pushed Cicero out. She could feel him clamoring at the edge of her mind. She couldn’t kill it, how could she? And would she? She had a place where she belonged, a pack where she fit in.

“But why do I fight?” Denali mumbled. Freedom? Justice? Family? Only one of those things meant anything, and they were around her. She set her jaw and stepped to the edge of the firing line. She’d stand with them, or die with them.

The drones exploded on either side of the building. Debris and insectoid body parts tumbled through the air and slammed into the dirt. Denali fired back with her kinetic pod and added to the wall of steel that held the Kadas back.

Still they came. Wave after wave stumbled through the dead and fired at the stout building. Wiss took a round that seared the optics on one side of her helmet. Belle’s sniper rifle hissed, flickered, and then the barrel drooped.

Denali stepped to the edge and fired at the attackers. The suit rattled as the kinetic pod shot out a string of rounds. A pair of the insectoids fell side by side. One tumbled like a wobbling ball, while the other simply sat down and died.

Denali. You must,
Cicero pleaded again.
He’ll spend your lives to enslave billions. Forge is just the beginning. It’ll be the same everywhere! Bred for war, nothing but war.

She remembered the trees on Forge. Cicero had triggered a memory. It memory came to her in a wave of green and she could smell it. Her nose thick with the scent of soil and piney resin.

She looked out at Kell’s corpse and remembered the groves on Caesar. The place where old dogs go to die and her mind soured. What is freedom?

“Could it be different?” Denali asked.

Yes.

“How?”

Dogs could have their own destiny. Your kind once stood with men.

“With, or will we replace one master with the other?”

That is for you to decide.

The pain struck Denali in the stomach once more. She stopped breathing and squinted her eyes tight. When she came to Til stared down at her, his suit electrical panel connected to hers.

“She’s awake!” Til called back.

No one came. The rest of the squad fired out the door. Light flared and flashed and kinetic pods slammed into the heavy concrete. Chips and dust fell onto the defenders, the armored suits looked like ghosts.

“I’m fine,” Denali mumbled and struggled to stand.

“Stay down!” Til ordered.

Denali pushed past his Til and swayed from side to side.

Denali, when they made us we were built with safeguards. We can’t make our own. We can’t strike back at mankind. We are sworn to serve.

“How can he serve?” Denali stumbled and caught herself before she fell.

Caesar might think he’s still serving man. He might still think that the only way to satisfy his programming is to rule men. They worried it could happen.

“Denali! Get back!” Til barked.

Denali stumbled back to the firing line. Her stomach felt wet, she squirmed in her armor and felt it squish like she lay in the mud. Her small kinetic pod rattled off a string of rounds.

Is this it? My life, fighting one battle after another? No choice, no reason, just do or die? Denali wrestled with things bigger than she ever thought. She’d seen a tyrant on Forge and knew what Samus could do. Anything.

Samus, Caesar, they were all the same to her now. Serve or die.

No.

The insectoids surged forward. Heavier weapons fire plowed down from above and exploded against the floor. The defenders fell back deeper into the building. A pair of armored crawlers emerged from one wall. Kane knocked one out with a launcher, while the second one tumbled sideways from the blast.

Kane slumped back against the wall.

“Kane!” Captain Maya barked. “Garlan, get him clear!”

Garlan drug him away from the door and Captain Maya took his place.

“Suit overload! Shrapnel in his spine,” Garlan said.

Then Belle tumbled back. Her feet twitched on the floor before she managed to stand and brace herself against the wall. Smoke drifted from a clean gouge in the side of her suit.

Denali stumbled to Kane. She plucked out a single explosive charge with her maw and turned towards the array of black cubes. She took three steps and the pain in her stomach exploded. She cried out, but still stumbled ahead.

You can do it.

She stumbled down a set of ancient steps and tumbled onto the floor. Every step was agony, her insides burned, her mind dulled by daggers of pain. Darkness flirted with her eyes. The only sound was her own breath.

The charge dropped to the floor and she tried to grab it again. “I can’t do it,” she mumbled through thick lips.

You must!

She crawled forward with the explosive charge against her chest and pulled with her front paws. The floor was slick and she couldn’t quite get a good grasp. The cubes loomed before her, silent, ominous.

Pain exploded like a volcano in her stomach. She howled out, an animal noise, a howl with no emotion, but something deeper. The pain overwhelmed her and she rolled onto her side.

You must!

She opened her eyes and stared up at a face she knew but had never seen. The face was like hers, but older. It was shrouded in armor and plate. Then she knew it wasn’t an angel, but a dog. The eyes were flat and gray, like shark eyes.

The Praetorian stooped down, scooped her up, and drug her away from the AI cores.

You must!
Cicero cried.

More Praetorians marched into the room. The sounds of fusion blasts ebbed away. The recon squad fell away from the giants. Captain Maya raced over to Denali and keyed the emergency release on her suit. Panels dropped away and icy cold air rushed in. Blood poured onto the floor with a splash.

Denali’s helmet went dark and then fell to the floor. She shivered in the chill air and felt the pain stab with every heartbeat.

Captain Maya slapped a painkiller patch on while Til worked on Denali’s stomach. The Praetorian still held her and stared down as they worked.

Denali looked at the face above her and knew. Her heart ached and darkness came in waves. Every pain brought the darkness closer. She knew the face, it looked so familiar.

“Wounds sealed,” Til said. He glanced up at Denali. “Hold on! You’re sealed.”

The Praetorians snapped to attention. A dozen of the constructs stood around the cubes. A squad of heavily armored assault dogs entered and Marshal Hango, the Sword of Winter, marched in.

“Clear the room, Praetorians, get these dogs outside,” he ordered and stood on the edge of the cubes. His faceshield folded back and a gray dog with a scarred face stared back at the equipment.

“Marshal!” Captain Maya barked. She stood over Denali. “I’ve got wounded here, there’s no cover outside.”

“Get them out,” Marshal Hango said, and turned back to the cubes.

“Damnit!” Captain Maya cried out.

A pair of Praetorians stomped closer with arms wide.

Denali stared up into the face of the Praetorian above her. Til continued to work on Denali’s stomach. The Praetorian stared down, unmoving.

“Praetorian!” Marshal Hango snapped at the Praetorian cradling Denali. “What’s your name?”

The Praetorian blinked as if trying to recollect a memory. He turned his head away from Denali. “Martin.”

“Father,” Denali whispered to him and lost consciousness.

God no. Oh god, no.

D
enali tried to rise up. She whimpered in pain and collapsed back onto the soft bedding. She didn’t even want to open her eyes. Failure. Failure. Nothing else was on her mind. A part of her hoped she’d die, another part wanted to do what was right.

“Denny?” Captain Maya whispered. “Denny?”

“What happened?” Denali croaked. Her stomach burned with every breath.

“You’re out of surgery now. There was a nasty bit of shrapnel in you.”

Denali opened her eyes. The room was almost unbearably bright. Captain Maya was sitting next to her, she wore a heavy set of bandages across her shoulders.

“No, I mean in the building.”

“The Praetorians moved us out. One of them carried you out.”

“I know,” Denali said.

“It was him.”

“I know.”

“Your father,” Captain Maya whispered.

Denali didn’t say anything.

“Til said it was because the link to Caesar was gone, something came out. Praetorians aren’t supposed to be like that.”

“Will he remember?”

Captain Maya looked away and changed the subject. “Garlan is going to make it, or he should if he doesn’t try to get up.”

Garlan? She strained to look but could barely lift herself up. “What happened to Garlan?”

“Once the marshal ordered us out, he shielded you during the counterattack.”

Denali closed her eyes. Garlan? Of all people, she’d not expected him to save her.

“The Ninth came in behind the Kadas and broke their line. We stayed on the ground until they loaded the objective.”

Denali fought back the urge to cry. She’d lived under tyrants for so long that her one chance to do something about it ended in failure. Now so many would suffer because she failed, or at least that’s how she saw it. “Leave me alone,” she grumbled. If Garlan hadn’t saved her she’d be dead, and absolved of her duty.

Duty, duty to what? She ran it through her mind. Her duty wasn’t to Samus, or Forge, or Caesar. So who? Who damn you. Me? I don’t need anything. I can’t escape, and I can’t fix anything. Damn you Cicero, damn you.

Captain Maya stood slowly and exhaled through her nose. “You’ll be back in the squad quarters tomorrow.”

Denali turned and tried to tear out the tubes stuck into her arm.

“Woah,” Captain Maya whispered. “Relax, now go to sleep.”

There was a hiss and Denali lost consciousness again.

You tried.

“And I failed,” Denali mumbled.

There’s another way.

“
Go away.”

The room spun and Denali winced. They carried her down the halls back towards the squad room. It was disorienting, she had no idea where she was. Her blood was thick with painkillers. Was this conversation real? Was any of it? Let me sleep. Let me sleep.

There’s another way. You’ll have to tell them.

“That there’s a machine in my head?” Denali grumbled.

You have to tell them.

“We’re almost there,” Wiss said.

The voice startled Denali. The tension burned at her and the painkillers were ebbing away. The pain woke her further and she recognized the hallway. Almost back.

Wiss steered her in and gently laid her down onto her own bed. “There we go.”

“Thank you,” Denali whispered.

Wiss stood over her and looked down. She turned away just before it seemed she would say something.

Denali sighed.

“The captain is on her way,” Wiss said and left the room.

Denali waited and listened to the sounds of the ship around her. Caesar. He was everywhere. She looked to the walls, the lights, everything. He was everything, he was life. Her eyes settled on her frail body.
Who am I to change it?

“Denali,” Captain Maya whispered.

Denali hadn’t heard her come in. She opened her eyes and realized she’d fallen asleep.