Transcendent (9781311909442) (16 page)

“Target the second truck and aim for the
engine.”

Lily swung the rifle over and settled it on
the second truck. She had an idea where the engine was, but she
wasn’t exactly certain. A schematic flashed on the screen, showing
her subsystems of the vehicle. The engine section flashed and just
as quickly, a smaller red box appeared on the truck. She positioned
her reticle on the box and smiled as it turned orange.

“Fire.”

Lily tapped the button before the voice
finished the single syllable. The front of the truck was crushed
under the impact of the armor piercing shell. The entire truck
shuddered and the cab was wrenched enough that plumes of atmosphere
escaped from it.

A new control flared on the board right next
to the trigger. “Find the fire selector for the primary weapon.
Next to the firing button. Toggle it to burst fire mode.”

Lily did as asked.

“Now target the second truck’s cargo
compartment and destroy it.”

Lily watched as the subsystem selector
flashed again on the display and then targeted the large cargo
compartment of the truck. She moved the reticle over it and pressed
the button. The three successive blasts of the rifle left her lips
parted in shock and that was only from the sound that thundered in
the booth. The truck itself was torn into pieces of twisted metal
that were scattered across the lunar landscape.

“Target the hardened MT-2 light tank.”

Lily targeted the tank and dropped the
reticle on the broad sloping front of the tracked vehicle. As soon
as the voice told her to fire, she braced herself for the
thundering sound and tapped the button. The tank was rocked as
three slugs hammered into it. The first left a gouge in the front
armor and the second hit just above it, scratching the metal and
bouncing off the side of the heavily armored turret. The third
armor-piercing round hit the turret and left it dented and gouged,
but did not penetrate.

“That’s a light tank?” Lily muttered.

“The tank has not been destroyed. Try
again.”

Lily scowled and repositioned the reticle.
She was about to fire when another thought came to mind. She
glanced down at her board and then put pressure on her right pedal.
After the first step, she matched it with the left pedal and moved
her biomech several meters to the left. She swung back around and
lowered her reticle onto the side of the tank. It was facing her at
an angle but given the thickness of the vehicle, she suspected her
luck would be better.

Three fifty-mm rounds later, the tank’s
track was destroyed and a gaping hole in the side allowed
atmosphere to rush out and freeze in the vacuum. Lily grinned and
pumped her fist in victory.

Lily’s triumph was short-lived. “Use the
optical system to scan the enemy biomech.”

She moved the left arm up and centered it on
the biomech. A subset of screens flashed by too quickly for her to
be sure, but she thought she’d seen something about selecting
scanning options. Half a second later, a report appeared on the
display, listing pertinent details of the biomech, including its
tonnage, model, armament, and subsystems.

“The enemy biomech is live. Engage.”

“Engage?” Lily repeated. Her eyes widened
and she saw the enemy biomech’s arms move. It had the same weapons
she did. She gulped and let her eyes fall on the control panel and
then back up to the display. It was turning to face her.

Lily jammed her foot against the left pedal
and waited for the biomech to turn itself. She put her weight
against the right pedal to send her biomech rushing up the hill at
full speed. She saw a gauge on the panel that listed speed. It
climbed past forty-five kilometers per hour as she neared the crest
of the ridge.

She heard the explosion and resulting plinks
of rocks and dirt raining against her biomech as a round missed
her. Lily yelped in surprise and spun her arms even as the picture
dropped to indicate she’d crested the ridge. She slowed but kept
enough pressure to keep her biomech moving. The enemy target was
swiveling with its feet planted to face her.

An alarm went off and fresh reports popped
up on her screen, alerting her to damage. A cloud of melted armor
passed in front of the display. She’d been hit by the other
biomech’s laser beam, but she hadn’t noticed anything outside of
that. A flaring control on the board showed a flashing outline of
her biomech, so she risked reaching up to tap it. Instantly, a 3D
holographic image popped into existence above it, showing a
rendered image of the small crater on her chest armor where the
energy weapon had struck her.

Dirt and rocks exploded from the ridge and
showered her biomech. Another round had barely missed. She needed
to fight back but she was afraid if she did, she’d expose herself.
Then again, she was in a biomech. A machine made for war. It had
armor better than a tank’s and she’d seen how hard it was to punch
through the armor of the MT-2. She’d had to find a weak spot.

Lily backed away from the ridge a few steps
and twisted, reversing her course so her right side faced the
ridge. She sped up, moving at just over twenty kilometers per hour,
and studied the board, looking for the controls to pull up the
subsystems. She cried out as the screen jerked; a loud clap of
metal striking metal sounded around her, and her chair shuddered
beneath her.

“Did I just get shot?” she wondered aloud.
Her eyes flew to the holographic image and she saw the damage to
the armor on her biomech’s back, near its left shoulder. She
glanced up and saw herself climbing the ridge; the shot had twisted
her robot’s path. She clamped her teeth together and worked the
pedals to get the biomech back down behind the ridge.

She kept moving once she’d reduced her
visibility and sped up a little. “I wish I knew how to fly this
thing,” she muttered. She’d jump over it and land behind her
opponent. Then she’d see how he liked being shot in the back. More
dirt peppered her, reminding her that she’d probably found the
worst possible time and place to daydream.

“All right,” she growled before she let off
the right pedal and jammed her left pedal down. The biomech twisted
towards the ridge and climbed up the incline. She pushed both
pedals to maximum speed and brought her arms up. She had her auto
rifle ready and fired as soon as it cleared the ridge. The rounds
thundered out, the first clipping the ridge and deflecting off into
the distance. The second round went high, a failure of Lily’s to
take her own upward movement into consideration, but it glanced off
the enemy biomech’s head. The third missed.

The biomech she faced took a step back to
recover its balance from her glancing blow. Lily found herself
moving up and forward longer than she expected and realized the
strange sensation she felt came from the lack of hearing her feet
vibrating as they struck the ground. She landed a moment later and
tipped forward, off balance. The biomech’s balance system tried to
compensate but she was moving over a hundred kilometers an hour.
She slammed into the ground and grunted as she saw the dirt close
enough she could reach out and touch it.

Lily shook her head, feeling like she should
be falling out of her chair. The sounds and display were so real,
not to mention the vibrations and rumbling she felt in her chair.
She worked the pedals, uncertain if it would help, and then used
her hands on the control pads to try to do something that would
make her biomech climb back up.

Another crash sounded in her ears before it
was abruptly shut off. Alarms sounded in the booth and the damage
display flashed until the right leg went completely black. A
warning appeared on the display, indicating an environmental
breach. It took Lily a moment to remember the muscles in the
biomechs were real organic tissue. Exposure to a vacuum was lethal.
The biomech’s systems were smart enough to seal off the breached
area, but in this case she’d lost an entire leg.

The good news was her floundering had picked
her up enough she saw the enemy biomech at the top of her display.
She centered the yellow reticle on its chest and then realized she
probably couldn’t punch through the armor there. She lowered it and
fired, sending a burst that ripped into the biomech’s knee joint
and lower thigh. It teetered for a moment and collapsed, venting a
puff of atmosphere just as she was sure hers had a few moments
ago.

Lily switched to single-fire mode and began
rhythmically sending massive bullet after bullet into the fallen
biomech. It twisted and tried to roll but a second breach sealed
its doom. It lay on the lunar ground, one arm as lifeless as its
leg. The working parts flailed but her armor-piercing rounds chewed
into the armor on its back and climbed up to hammer against its
head. The second round cracked it so that air began to leak out,
but the third crushed the battered armor and caused the display to
go blank.

Lily gasped and leaned back. The lights in
the booth powered up and the pedals and control board slid away
from her. She gasped and felt her heart hammering in her chest.
She’d won! She’d destroyed the enemy biomech! She grinned and
hissed, “Yes!” Lily reached up to rub her forehead and realized she
was slick with sweat.

“Report to Colonel Rand, Miss Strain,” the
voice said as the door behind her popped open with a hiss.

Lily climbed out of her chair and found her
body was tight and confused at the same time. She’d been clenching
muscles and now she was sore. She kept expecting Palla to greet her
but only the lit corridor awaited. She stepped out and turned when
she heard her name squealed.

Palla slammed into her and hugged her,
nearly sending them both crashing to the ground. “You did it!”
Palla shrieked in her ear.

Lily grinned in spite of the awkward
situation. She managed to extricate herself and nodded. “It was—I
don’t even know! Amazing!”

“Come on, the colonel wants to talk to
you.”

“That’s what the computer system said,” Lily
said. “At least I think it was a computer. It didn’t respond to
anything I said or did.”

Palla shrugged. “Does it matter? You’re on
your way now, miss! You’re really doing it. Keep this up and your
future’s set.”

“Our future,” Lily reminded her and then
laughed. “I think you’re really stuck with me now.”

“Wow, you’re right,” Palla admitted. “You
know what? I never thought I’d say it, but I can’t think of anyone
I’d rather be stuck with!”

Lily felt her face flush and turned to see
the colonel and someone else waiting for her down the hallway. She
clamped her lips shut and nodded. “Let’s go,” she said. “Our future
awaits!”

“Are you sure you’re the only one?”

Krys looked up from his plate as the
lieutenant entered the small house he’d been assigned. “Only one
what?”

“Only person hiding in the woods.”

“Um, I’m not hiding in the woods,” he said.
“I’m sitting right here.”

“When we found you. Don’t play games with
me, Krys. This is important.”

Krys sighed. Shelby deserved the truth, or
as much of it as he could give her. She’d treated him better than
he deserved without asking for much of anything in return. Sure,
there was the constant threat of being sent away for reeducation,
but as soon as she’d mention it, she’d twist the conversation to
something else. “You only found me because I was the only one to be
found. Yes, I ran into other people earlier on, but we split
apart.”

She stared at him and nodded before moving
and sitting down. She turned to the display that was showing the
broadcast from the exhibition matches of the biomech season. “I
thought you didn’t like the biomechs?”

Krys shrugged. Up close, they were
terrifying. From a distance, in controlled matches, they were kind
of cool. “Nothing else on. Why’d you want to know about before? I
thought we were past that.”

She sat down at the other chair of his small
table before saying, “Our supply convoy was attacked on their way
back.”

Krys set his fork down and stared at her.
“You’re kidding me!”

She shook her head. “All hands and supplies
lost, including Lesk.”

The news about the technician being killed
stole wind from him. The smile that was on its way to his face
faded away. “Everyone?”

She nodded. “Innocent people are dying,
Krys. You don’t know anything about this, do you?”

Krys felt a flash of heat in his face. His
thoughts about owing her were lost in the fire that spread down
into his chest and belly. “How would I know anything about innocent
people dying? I’ve been fixing the things your people keep breaking
because they don’t know how to use them!”

“I thought you were teaching them?”

Krys scowled. “You can’t teach a rock to
fly.”

Shelby’s brows knitted together. “What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“They don’t care!” he seethed. “None of
these people want to be here. They’re just doing jobs that they’re
forced to do. They don’t care about Venus, the animals, the crops,
or the people. None of you give a damn!”

Shelby jerked her face back as though he’d
struck her. Krys glared and wanted to jump on her and put action to
his words. He wanted to make her understand how it felt to lose
everyone who mattered. Friends, family, everyone!

“That’s not fair, I—”

“Yes it is!” He shouted back. “It’s as fair
as you coming here and killing everyone who mattered. You took away
everything. Your people. Your friends. You want to talk about
innocent people dying? We weren’t hurting anyone—we were just
farmers. We would have provided to anyone who needed it. We weren’t
greedy. We didn’t care who needed help; we gave it because that’s
what we did. Nobody needed to die. Nobody.”