TS6 - Chapter 36

“Bored.”  Whippoorwill remarked, throwing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it again.  “Beyond bored.” “Sorry Whip,” Kat replied.  “W

“Bored.”  Whippoorwill remarked, throwing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it again.  “Beyond bored.”

“Sorry Whip,” Kat replied.  “We’re kinda trapped in the facility at the moment.  Almost eighty percent of our security forces are either in South America or en route.  Even if they don’t know that our troops are gone, things are coming to a head.  Mr. Jackson is almost certainly only three or four dungeons from making the jump to level twenty four.  I can basically guarantee that their scouts are keeping an eye on us right now.  The second we show our faces they’re going to try something.”

“I know,” Whippoorwill replied with a bone deep sigh. “I can’t even use any resources outside the laboratory complex without tipping them off so I’m stuck watching recorded episodes of Chrome Cowboys.  I think I’ve gone through the Deadman’s Gulch arc three times in the last week.”

“You could just take sedatives and sleep more?” Kat suggested.  “Dorrik, Kaleek and I have been able to get a dungeon every night with the extra time and last night we managed to finish off two dungeons in the same night.  It’s running us ragged, but the extra sleep really is helping.”

Whippoorwill caught the tennis ball and held onto it before standing up.  She closed her eyes, shaking her head like a dog trying to dry itself after a storm.

“I don’t think more sleep will help me,” Whip replied.  “My party members aren’t stuck like we are so they have normal sleep schedules.  Plus, there’s only so much fighting I can do before I start to lose my edge.  I honestly don’t know how you can keep your pace up.  I would’ve slipped up ages ago.”

“Do we need to buy you some books or something?” Kat asked.  “If you’re out of entertainment vids to watch, we could switch back to analogue.  At least that way you can keep yourself amused while we wait for the 3445 to get into position.  The last thing I want is for you to get bored and start poking things.  Sometimes I swear that you’re as bad as Kaleek.”

“Maybe we could get a hold of Kaleek?” Whip asked, perking up.  “He’s been pretty busy setting up that aquaculture farm of his, but that magic sushi of his is something else.  At the very minimum it’ll keep me from being bored for the next couple of days”

“Drugs?” Kat responded, raising an eyebrow.  “Really?  We’re about to go into a war for our lives and you want to get high now?”

Whippoorwill shrugged, tossing her tennis ball again and then snatching it out of the air before it could reach the apex of its arc.

“Why not?” She muttered.  “The actual fight is a million leagues away.  The only progress we can make from here is in the Tower, and any drugs in our system don’t carry over.  Plus, it’s not like I’m suggesting we get blasted on corpse dust or some of the really awful stuff what was going around the Shell.  Minaaq are a lot classier than that.  Plus, the sushi is tasty and we’ve been having nothing but flatbread and chicken for the last two weeks ever since we finished that big mission in the Tower of Somnus and you put the entire complex on lockdown.”

“I like flatbread and chicken,” Kat said defensively.  “I thought you did too?  You’ve certainly complimented the chef on his cooking a couple of times.”

“Well I do like his flatbreads,” Whippoorwill replied, “but two weeks in a row is-”

She stopped.  In the corner of Kat’s vision, a pinprick of red light began flashing an emergency alert at her through her smartpanel.  She glanced at Whip only to see a look of concern that mirrored her own.  Evidently they had both gotten the warning at the same time.  That meant something big.

Kat flicked her eyes, pulling up the notice.

“Jaalin wants to talk?”  She stated, a frown creasing her forehead.  “We normally do our meeting in person in order to avoid eavesdropping, and those are usually organized through Dorrik.  What do you think is happening, Whip?”

Whippoorwill frowned back, her lips thinning into a tight line.  When she answered, there was none of her former flippant and teasing tone.

“It must be something serious.  Jaalin knows that our communications are compromised and she only uses formal calls to schedule events like the gala.  This sort of thing is out of character for her, and I’ll be honest.  Between Dorrik and her, I don’t know which one of them is more on top of things and in control.  If she’s acting out of character, we should be worried.  There’s no way she would reach out to us like this over nothing.”

With another flick of her eyes, Kat pulled up the call.  Jaalin appeared in her smartpanel, pacing nervously back and forth, crest as rigid and stiff as a piece of stone.

“Thank the architects,” Jaalin said hurriedly the moment she noticed that Kat had accepted her call.  “As I am sure you are aware, Clan Ahn has been monitoring the situation on Earth.  Part of that monitoring involved us stationing informants at all of the major towers entering the twenty fourth floor.”

She took a deep breath, her discomfort on full display.

“Last night a human and two stallesp ascended to the twenty fourth floor,” Jaalin continued.  “I can’t verify who it was or who was with him, but I think that all of us have a pretty good idea.  That means it will take just under a week of Earth time for the Galactic Consensus to arrange the rite of ascension.”

Kat felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.

“Has anything been publicly announced?” She asked.  “I don’t suppose your observers might have made a mistake.  I know that humans are hard to confuse with other races, but-”

“It’s confirmed,” Jaalin replied grimly.  “He woke up almost right away after climbing to level twenty four but we had someone go and check the nearest adventurer hall on level twenty three.  It was a solitary human and two stallesp, they’d spent almost two weeks there finishing off the nearby dungeons and stocking up on the materials they needed to challenge the floor guardian.  Plenty of people were willing to talk about them.”

A week.  Not even a week.  She was eleven dungeons short.  Theoretically Kat and her team could force a fight against the floor guardian early, but that would mean giving up on eleven silver tier dungeon rewards.  That was more than a dozen attribute points and potentially a new ability or two that would be gone forever.

Forget in five levels, she would feel those missing points now.  It probably wouldn’t be enough to stop her from beating the floor guardian, Dorrik, Kaleek and her were ahead of the curve enough for that at the moment, but it would mean giving up all of their momentum, potentially cursing themselves to be yet another team that would fizzle out at some point when their attributes couldn’t sustain their raiding schedule anymore.

“Crap.”  She practically spat the word out.

“Is there anything Kat can do?”  Whip’s hand snaked out to find Kat’s, squeezing it under the table.  “Is there a way to stall the ascension thing?  Maybe speed up her climb?”

“No,” Jaalin responded heavily.  “Once this Mr. Jackson publicly announces that he has hit level twenty four, the clock will begin ticking.   There is a small amount of time granted to other participants in order to rush their schedules and catch up, but doing so would-”

The female lokkel closed her eyes, sighing for a second before she could force herself to continue.

“Perhaps it would be for the best if your team challenged the floor guardian early.  Clan Ahn would be mortified that Dorrik harmed his future like that, and I must admit that I would not be thrilled either, but I know him.  Dorrik would not be able to live with himself if he put his development ahead of your survival.  For better or worse, you are a good friend of his and he values you more than himself.”

“I can’t let him do that,” Kat responded, half whispering as she wracked her brain looking for another solution.  “There needs to be some other way.  We need to find a way to-”

“I understand,” Jaalin said, cutting her off.  “I have passed on the necessary warning, but I do not want to get involved more than that.”

A ghost of a smile flickered across the lokkel woman’s face despite her rigid crest.

“Plus,” she continued.  “If you were hypothetically to engage in some sort of action that ran contrary to the rules surrounding planetary ascension, I would prefer not to know about it.  I am an active participant and observer in any eventual ascension ritual that might take place, and I do not want to have to ask any pointed question about the tactics taken by the parties.  With that out of the way, I think it is best if I leave you to your planning.”

Her image winked out, leaving Kat’s smartpanel empty except for the constant scroll of e-mails that were slowly filling her inbox.  A couple of flicks of her eyes sent out e-mails to Emma, Heather, Belle and Jasper.  It would take a couple hours for Belle and Jasper to make their arrangements, but Emma and Heather would be in the main stateroom within the next fifteen minutes.

“Heather and Emma will be meeting us,” Kat said, standing up.  “Is there anyone else you think we will need for an emergency planning session?”

“No,” Whip replied, jogging a couple steps to catch up to Kat as the two of them hurried out of the room.  “Sorry by the way.”

“Sorry?”  Kat cocked her head to the side, trying and failing to figure out what Whippoorwill could be apologizing for.

“I’m pretty sure this is all my fault,” Whip said with a wry grin.  “I was complaining about how boring everything was and then bam, here we are.  Crisis that could result in everyone’s death and dismemberment.  I jinxed everything and forgot to knock on wood.”

Kat reached out grabbing hold of Whippoorwill’s hand and squeezing it, a smile blossoming on her face.

“Look,” she said quietly.  “I know that things are tough right now, but we’re going to get through this.  You’re a fighter, and you know that I’m a fighter too.  Between the two of us, we’ll find a way to beat Mr. Jackson to the ascension and make everything work out.  We just have to keep our chins up and keep the faith.”

Whip smiled back.  She didn’t say anything because she didn’t need to.  The warmth of her palm against Kat’s hand as she squeezed back was all that Kat needed.  They were in this together and neither of them was ready to throw in the towel.

The two of them arrived at the stateroom just at the same time as Emma.  The other woman flashed the two of them a grim smile, at odds with the towel wrapped around her hair and the hastily thrown on t-shirt and shorts.

They stepped into the room together and Heather was already there, standing in a corner and staring off into space, her metal arms crossed behind her back as she sorted through data on her smart panel.

“What do we have?”  Kat asked without any ceremony.  “Jaalin gave us a warning, but she didn’t give us any specifics.  Give me options here.”

Emma flopped down in a seat, pulling the towel off her head to reveal wet hair and drying off her face before sliding a smartglass over her left eye.  Almost immediately her pupils dilated slightly and her eyes began twitching rapidly as she began manipulating data from the compound’s secure server.

They all sat in silence waiting for Emma to finish her work.  After about fifteen seconds without speaking, she broke the stillness.

“Enough of the 3445 is in position for us to make an attempt on the Amazon base.  We have no idea if Mr. Jackson is there, and to be honest I’d be surprised if he hadn’t gone into hiding the second he made it to the twenty fourth floor, but we might be able to seize documents showing where he is even if he isn’t there.”

“Heather?” Kat questioned, deferring to her security chief.  Reluctantly, the older woman nodded as she replied.

“I agree, but I’m not happy about moving now.  If there’s a mid-sized mercenary group with slightly above modern technology, our troops are more than enough to overwhelm them.  If the numbers or technology are off, I can’t promise anything.  Even twenty high caliber magnetically accelerated weapons and suddenly the hover tanks are at risk, let alone APEX suits.  I still think we’ll win, but attacking now drastically increases the risk of casualties and someone potentially escaping.”

“Still,” Heather continued.  “If it’s now or never, I think we can handle attacking ‘now.’ Operations like this almost never go according to plan, but I hate having my hand rushed like this.  Almost three quarters of the 3445 is still in the jungle filtering its way down toward the target.  Even if we tell them to abandon all stealth, the fight will still be over long before they arrive.”

“If we wait a couple of days will the situation improve?”  Kat questioned.  “The ascension trial can’t take place immediately, there’s still a little time to try and eliminate him before it starts.”

“Another forty infantry with APEX suits and a hover tank,” Emma replied instantly.  “A fairly significant force, but not enough to fully change the calculus.  More than that, if you wait a couple of days he’s going to disappear.  I still don’t think that Mr. Jackson is there right now, but there is a chance that we can recover information on his location and arrange a follow up strike.  That won’t happen if we wait until things are down to the wire.  What do we do if he’s in the Himalayas?  Right now we don’t have any forces in position and his electronic intel team will pick up on any orders to carry a strike team across the Pacific in seconds.”

Kat pursed her lips, mentally thumbing her way through the options.

“What about a missile strike?”  She asked.  “I’m pretty sure the lab has been begging for more funding on their missile project for months, but they put together a prototype intercontinental hypersonic missile using stallesp tech.  The thing is supposed to be used in space between star cruisers, but it should be able to turn the Amazon base into a glowing crater within about twenty to forty minutes of being launched.”

“Can’t risk it,” Heather replied instantly.  “The second that thing leaves its silo it will be running on satellite telemetry and we need to assume that our satellites are completely compromised.  Millennium could hijack it and blow it up over Chiwaukee without breaking a sweat.”

“Plus we wouldn’t be able to confirm the kill,” Emma chimed in.  “The missile would blow up the base and the surrounding jungle and that means that we wouldn’t have any way to know if Mr. Jackson was dead, and even if he did die, there wouldn’t be any way for us to collect intelligence on his possible location.”

“No,” she continued, her lips tightening into an unhappy line.  “I think our only option is to launch a ground invasion before we’re ready.  I think that Mr. Jackson knows that we won’t have any choice but to go after him with everything we’ve got now that he’s on the twenty fourth floor.  He’ll be slipperier than a fish soaked in vaseline.  Any plan from here on out is likely to cost the lives of good people, but I don’t think there’s any other option.  Either we kill him now, or Mr. Jackson hands the entire planet to the stallesp and everything we know is dismantled in front of our eyes.”

“Kat,” Emma said, her voice dropping into a whisper.  “I hadn’t realized how bad some of the corporate excesses were until I started working for you, but we can’t go back to that.  I know that things won’t be perfect with you in charge because we’ll have to slowly build things up, but I’ve read about what the stallesp have done on other worlds.  Hundreds of thousands of people are going to be exiled to high radiation low gravity industrial sites in the deep parts of the solar system.  People are going to be born in suffering and die in suffering if we let him have his way.  We have to do this.”

Kat closed her eyes.

People were going to die.  Her security forces and the 3445, people she knew trusted and trained with.  All Kat needed to do was say ‘yes’ and they were going to be sent into the line of fire, fighting unknown numbers of enemies with unknown technology.  That lack of information was going to claim lives.

Modern technology could regrow or replace lost limbs and keep people with grievous wounds alive, but they wouldn’t have access to a field hospital kit.  The entire operation was being kept under wraps and radio silent, forcing the field teams to move in small groups disguised as industrial contractors and tourists.  

Millennium would’ve noticed if they moved one of the portable medical centers, so it had to stay home.  Everything else could get written off as training exercises or sending units out on assignment, but the 3445 only had two field hospitals, and there was no way one would move unless there was an active campaign.

That brought her back to deaths.  The fastest medevac would be almost an hour from the proposed combat site.  Her people were going to have first aid and nothing else.  Severe burns and bleeding were going to cause unnecessary casualties, and there was nothing she could do about it but-

Kat opened her eyes, the sour taste of bile stinging the back of her throat.

She could always push her floor guardian fight.  That was a risk, but one that she was pretty sure she could win.  The downside was what it meant for the future.  She would be asking Kaleek and Dorrik to sacrifice so much.  The difficulty ramp from floor to floor was huge and the only way that they could assure making it to the truly high levels was to challenge every one of the strongest dungeons they could find on each floor.

Dorrik was the future of Clan Ahn.  He had a sire and a reputation to live up to.  Him skipping ten or so dungeons here wouldn’t be the end of him, but it would put everything at risk and everyone in his clan would know.  More than that, Kat would know.

Kaleek and Dorrik were friends.  She was glad for their help, but the idea of making them sacrifice just so she could benefit was beyond alien to her.  That isn’t what friends did.  That’s what takers did.

Plus, a treacherous voice in the back of her voice whispered to her.  Even if she managed to ascend in time, that just meant that both her and Mr. Jackson would be able to do the ascension trial together.  She might be able to beat him, but there was no promise.  It’s not like he had been avoiding tough dungeons either.  The only way to ensure that she won the trial was to ensure that she was the only one taking it.

Kat took a deep breath, setting her shoulders as she steeled herself.

“Give the order,” she said solemnly.  “Start the attack as soon as possible, we’ll fill Jasper and Belle in when they arrive and plan our next steps from there.”

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