Raiders (17 page)

Kama walked up to the barricaded cellroom door and smacked her palm three times against it’s blue grey surface. She pounded with all her might but the barrier only returned a muffled and subdued
fmmm fmmm fummm
that sounded distant and almost underwater. “HEY OUT THERE!” She yelled at the strongest voice that she could throw. There were more low pitched sounds preceded by a crackle,
crrr
-
boommmmmm crrr-boommmmmm crrr-boommmmmm
that vaulted into her cell. The lamp fell over against the vibratory sustain and Kama had to shuffle her feet a bit in an attempt maintain a balanced upright stance. The noise was so loud that her ears rang themselves up until she could hear nothing more. She stumbled back to the couch with her palms straggled forward as her balance slowly joggled itself away. She could feel the vibrations from the floor below as they trained to her feet and legs even though she could not hear them anymore.

“Lockdown now in effect. Please remain calm,” the synthetic voice said although Kama could barely hear it over the sonic ring. Two minutes passed and the ringing faded away although it seemed much longer than that. Kama lay on the couch with hands over her ears for the next twenty minutes. She heard nothing but silence for a while but then, voices outside. She couldn’t make out what they were saying through the door and the newly deployed barrier but she felt a strange comfort to hear the voice of another human being.. She scratched at her arms. The prison issue clothing was made from some kind of coarse fiber, not as severe as jute or burlap yet not as comfortable as cotton or leather either. For some reason the cloth never really bothered her until this moment.

The barrier slid away concerted with the observation window barrier above. The cellroom door opened and two guards stepped into the room. Kama could hardly see them in the Neverfail’s dim blue lights. The guard on the left said, “Get up. You need to come with us. General Berg wants to speak to you.”

The guards escorted Kama out of the Military Centre holding cell, her hands secured behind her back with a pair of smart-bands. “Don’t bother trying to break 'em,” one guard said. “The bands will tighten to your wrist more. They’re trackable.” Kama did not respond but silently followed them to a three-wheeled cyclecraft that was parked outside. The car was fitted out with a transport cart large enough for two people. It was clearly designated for official military use for it had the official seal of the Military Centre stenciled onto the cart’s body plates.

One guard stepped onto the pilot seat while the other waved Kama to sit inside of the cart. She did and scooched over to the left as the guard sat next to her.. The guard in front nudged the cycle off of its charge pad and a metallic
klink-klank
emitted from beneath the cyclecraft's floorboards. The tensioned energy cams pushed themselves flush against the charge pad’s surface and they pedaled away.

“Any chance someone could tell me what the hell is going on?” Kama asked as the three traveled down the street. The Polar City avenues were usually well lit but presently the only source of light came from seven hundred thousand emergency Neverfails installed citywide. The City outside appeared as a blue-starred spread-sky constellation thrown out in all directions near and far. The effect was beautiful and simultaneously unsettling. City citizens scurried in and out of the Pods and throughout the streets. A subdued state of alarm charged the cool City air. Kama stared at a woman who carried her son in her arms. The child struggled at first against her tow but a shout from the mother subdued the boy’s rebellious anima.

The cyclecraft’s electric assist kicked itself on and the guard relaxed the pedals. He said, “Don’t know when the power’s coming back on. We got hit by somethin' big though.”

“From what?” Kama shook her head and continued to stare away as they rode.

“General will tell you. We’ll be out in about six minutes, just sit tight.”

“Whatever,” Kama said.

The guard to Kama’s left spoke into his Personal Assistant band on his left arm, a standard Military issue softwrap. “About six minutes sir. Yeah she’s fine sir, no problem.” .

They left the City through Gate Six, the same entrance Kama and her friends used for their fateful joyride on the outside a few weeks prior. Beyond the gate there were Military soldiers scattered up and down the Wall’s outermost border. Infantrymen scanned the City’s edge while others gathered in small groups while they discussed various tactical and logistic concerns. The pilot guard stopped the cyclecraft and asked a sentry, “Where’s the General?” The sentry pointed southwest toward the forestline beyond the Wall. “Thanks.” Their destination was near an ominous plume of black smoke that rose above the treetops roughly four hundred meters away.

The guard who escorted Kama in the cart said, “Looks like they took out two of the 105's. Check that out Chale! They freaking shot right through the armor belts! That even possible? Damn.” The guard in front only shrugged and shook his head.

“They shot them with linear rail rifles,” Kama offered as she shifted in her seat. The smartbands around her wrists started to irritate her more and more.

“What?” The front guard asked.

“Coilguns. They used coilguns,” Kama said.

“Oohh,” both guards nodded even though they didn’t really believe what she said by either explanation. They heard about the Coilguns but never guessed that they could be used as combat ready ordnance much less a take down a one hundred and five millimeter armored auto turret. Kama realized that the sounds she heard in her cell were from these autoguns. The 105's were bolted into the rock strata and thus conducted the concussive booms far into the underground Polar City below.

They arrived at the source of the smoke and stopped. Three armorcar transports lay twisted and derelict. The General overlooked the scene surrounded by four men and one woman all of whom appeared to be highbrass Military.

The guards exited the cyclecraft and Kama followed as she struggled against her bonds. “Sir, reporting in with prisoner as ordered,” Chale announced. He quickly saluted the General who turned round to face them. General Otto Berg was two meters tall who appeared astoundingly fit for a man in his early sixties. His browline crested slightly forward from his eyes by three millimeters. He had large hands for a man of his stature with slightly rounded cheeks and a rolled down chin line. His silvershine hair that appeared once blonde was cut into a old-world Military brush-cut. Despite the firm and distinct lines his face suggested a friendly, melancholic spirit in some undefined and abstract way.

“Very good Sergeant. Thanks.” The General looked at Kama and said, “So. You're the famous Raider girl I’ve heard so much about.” He produced a small smoking pipe from his left pocket and with a practiced efficiency held it by the shank and then packed and lit up the bowl. Soft netted clouds of cherry and walnut and ash floated across the early day slowsong wind, a ghost. “Hello Kama, I am General Berg chief commander of the Military-At-War.” He studied her Sun and moon tattoos which gently peeked themselves out above her prison shirt’s collar line, bounded by tattooed wings across her chest.

Kama shook her arms still bound behind her back. “Sorry I can’t salute you,” she said.

General Berg raised his palms and eyebrows and then let out a short laugh, humored. “No need Kama, you are no longer actively serving. You have a good point though. Sergeant, release her restraints if you would, please.”

“Sir,” Chale saluted and said into his Personal Assistant band on his arm, “Five two five eight zero whiskey. Release.” The smartbands immediately fell away from Kama’s wrists. She rubbed them with a sighed relief while Sergeant Chale retrieved the fallen bands.

The General continued. “Interesting body art you got there. Do you know what your tattoos symbolize or did you pick them out simply for their visual appeal?”

“I didn’t pick them. They were chosen for me,” Kama responded.

“Oh really!” The General exclaimed. “So who picked them out for you?”

“The Elders.”

“The elders, yes.” General Berg said. “So, were you an elder too?”

“No, I was a one of the Chosen, women who are picked to accompany the Elders,” Kama said.

“How many?” Berg asked.

“Thirty-six,” Kama replied.

“Ah. And how many Elders?” Berg said.

“Twelve.”

“Really now? Heh. Three of you to only one Elder. How nice. A charmed life you had, no doubt. As intriguing as that is, tell me Kama, did they teach you, that is did they impart any wisdom to the Chosen women the symbolic significance behind your tattoos?” General Berg asked as he raised his eyebrows.

“Yes.”

The General responded, “I see. Even the ones on your arms.”

“Yes,” Kama affirmed.

General Berg gently patted his pipe with his left hand and squinted toward the Sun which was about one quarter distance from its noontime azimuth. “Nothing like the real thing though.”

“No, no there isn’t.” Kama looked down at her feet for a moment as she spoke. “Where is Colonel Eiger?”

The General pointed his pipe toward the middle wrecked pile of a former armorcar transport. “See that mess there? The Colonel was in that one. Always was a do-it-yourself kind of a leader, he was. These three Transports, what's left of them anyways were deployed to retrieve your friends from the Raider city. They only got this far out. Then they were ambushed.”

Kama froze in a state of evident shock. She stared at the molten wreckage with no outward emotional display. She thought she could see a spinal segment and possibly half of a skull twisted among the smoke-laced, blackened metal parts.
Is that a lower leg?
She thought. Kama couldn’t be sure though. The scene was heavily obstructed with grey and black fumes that crawled and lingered across the forest floor.

The Colonel really was dead! Killed. Right there, only meters away from where she stood, an hour ago maybe. Kama felt her eyes moisten up a little.
What the hell is wrong with me?
She thought. Colonel Eiger was the one and the same who condemned her to life imprisonment. Her sadness and sense of loss within made no logical sense, but there it was nevertheless. She pinched her eyes once over. “Smoke’s irritating,” she offered.

“Yes, well,” General Berg said, “We managed to take down all of the attackers. At least our recon hasn’t reported back with any signs of survivors. Thirty-five of them dead, all Raiders. Had that homespun leather battlegear you guys love so much.”

“Why do you keep talking like I am still with them?” Kama said.

General Berg raised his hands to chest level, pipe in his right hand. “You’ll have to excuse me Kama. At the moment I’m trying to digest the loss of my best Colonel.” He looked over to the wrecked and ruined vehicles and then turned back to Kama once more. “Here’s where we are right now. This expedition is what is left of our alpha plan. That lasted five hundred meters out the door and failed. You,” he pointed his pipe bowl side out to Kama, “You are our beta plan.”

“I’m your beta.” Kama repeated the General's words.

“Yes. We’re going to send you there. Only this time with Solarbikes.”

“Great. And what makes you think I am going to do this?” Kama asked.

“Because,” Colonel Berg returned and pulled his service pistol from its holster with his left hand and pointed straight at Kama’s forehead, “Because I said so, that’s why! You are going to get those kids back safely or I will end you myself! Personally. Alone.”

Everyone in attendance froze in place, stunned at the General’s unpredicted cholericity. Sergeant Chale spat out, “Sir!”

The General replaced his pistol. “Relax Sergeant. I’m not serious. Just a little tweaked right now.” He puffed at his pipe and exhaled a cone of smoke to his left side. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Back to the cell or back to your home city to rescue those kids, Kama. It’s one or the other, you decide.”

Kama paused for a moment and said, “Fine. What’s your beta plan?” She rejoiced in her heart at the prospect of redemption, secretly.

“You will be part of an intercept team who will travel to Reso by Solarbike. When you reach the outer fringes you will stow the bikes and gear and walk the remaining distance into the enemy city. You will then lead an infiltration group who will sneak into the Reso underground and extract our kids then get them back safely home.”

Kama said, “That won’t work.”

“It’s going to have to work, we don’t have another plan!” Berg said.

“How about this,” Kama offered. “I go in with someone posing as a prisoner. I can walk right in and pretend I was separated from my original group and returned with a capture. Then we rescue from within.”

“Why is that a better plan than ours?” The General asked.

Kama said, “Because, General, half the Tia Jing are tripped up on synthmeth and the other half on other things that you don’t even want to know about. If you attempted any attack them by force, the entire city of Reso would rush the group and there would be no chance of escape much less a rescue.”

“I thought you said that they have no active defense at their entrances.”

“They don’t. They don’t because there’s no need. The Jia Ting are in and of themselves
their own defense.
There is no organized force out there strong enough to make a dent in Reso. Not even you. Not even if you sent every single one of your soldiers there.”

“Really?”

Kama nodded, “Yes really. I know my own people General. Don’t you think that I know? Whoever you send down there would be captured, killed or maybe worse. Including me.”

General Berg considered her offer. “Okay.”

“Your only option is if I go in there as I described.” Kama said.

“Fine. Give us a moment.” Berg and his six officers discussed Kama’s suggestion in huddled whispers. After three minutes the General announced, “Sergeant Chale. Give Kama a bunk in the Centre. Inform holding. We will draw up the details of the beta plan and debrief all actives.”

“Sir.” Sergeant Chale said to Kama, “Get in.” Kama sat back down inside the cyclecraft’s cart once more.