Mech by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07RKLSSMH
Published: 2019-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

19

Rade waited for the Anarchist to respond through Cynthia’s speaker system, but instead was met only by more silence.

“We know you’ve hacked our Implants,” Rade continued. “That you’ve been altering what we’ve been seeing and hearing. Making us kill members of our own security forces.”

Finally, a deep, rumbling laugh came over the comm.

“Yes,” the Anarchist said. “I was wondering how long the ruse would last. For a while there, I almost believed that you would hack this ship for me, and then the ships of your entire fleet. Either that, or help me destroy them. But alas, it was not meant to be.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Rade said.

“There is no disappointment,” the Anarchist said. “But only continued amusement. This battle is not done yet.”

“You have nowhere to go,” Rade said. “If you try to leap out the hangar bay, you’ll be shot down. If you stay where you are, eventually security forces will bring you down. You have no choice but to surrender.”

“Wasn’t it one of your men who said that ‘surrender’ wasn’t in your vocabulary?” the Anarchist asked. “Skullcracker spoke those words, I believe.”

Rade remembered that moment well. Skullcracker had transmitted the words over the platoon-only comm channel, but since the Anarchist had hacked their Implants, the entity had access to all of their private conversations.

“You hacked the AI cores of our mechs, too,” Rade said. “That’s the one way you could have obtained access to our Implants in the first place. Once the mechs were yours, you had them inject us with sleep agents, via our jumpsuits.” That was one of the reasons Rade hadn’t reconnected with the Brigand mechs after switching to his helmet’s comm node. While it was still on his mind, he promptly removed the authorizations Taya had to engage the different sonic injectors in the suit. Just to be on the safe side.

“That was why our oxygen levels seemed to drop so suddenly,” Rade continued. “We were out for two and a half days. Not sure what you did while we were asleep, but I can guess.”

“Do you remember the spherical scouts that lined the horizon from north to south?” the Anarchist asked. “Your mechs joined in the attacks against the United Systems, fighting side by side with those scouts, as did your Artificial, Praxter. In the first day, the United Systems lost many mechs due to my hacking, but by the second, they managed to deploy antiviral code, and beat back my teams, destroying most of the mechs I had converted. I managed to withdraw Alpha platoon, as well as my personal retinue of Hoplites and Titans, using Draactals to cover my retreat. So that, by the time I awakened you, you were none the wiser. I also wiped the Artificial’s memory of the past two and a half days, along with the memories of your mechs, as a precaution. Just in case you tried to review the logs.”

“Ah,” Rade said. “I understand now. You are the Nemesis.”

“No,” the Anarchist said. “But they fight for me.

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