Mecha Rogue (28 page)

Two more Lokis got shredded. Matt jagged to avoid the debris. What the hell was happening? Where was the attacker?

But there were no gun emplacements, nothing that could possibly be a weapon. The closest thing to the destroyed Lokis was a delivery truck, abandoned in the middle of the road.

No. Wait. Behind the truck, black metallic tendrils shot from the ground. Some of them wrapped around something that looked a little like a Sidewinder missile. Some of them wrapped around the truck. As Matt watched, the truck shuddered and crumpled in on itself as the tendrils seemingly sucked the life out of it.

The Sidewinder missile fired, tearing through the tendrils and annihilating more Lokis. Another began growing as the van shivered down to nothingness.

Oh, shit.

All around Matt, metallic tendrils continued to shoot from from the ground, wrapping cars and trucks in their embrace. Where they touched, metal shriveled. Where they grew, weapons blossomed. Matt saw Sidewinders, glowing fusion ports, even something that looked suspiciously like a Zap Gun. One growing mass even seemed to be forming itself into a crouching figure, a proto-Mecha. Where Lokis passed, the tendrils tracked. Weapons flashed. Segments of Lokis cartwheeled through the air as explosions echoed hollowly through the city.

Matt fired Fireflies, but they exploded harmlessly against the tendrils. He tried Sidewinders. Bright white blossoms bloomed around him. But there were just too many. All around him, metal reshaped into biometal. Missiles launched. Fusion guns spat. And Lokis erupted in fire.

Matt's mouth went dry. This was another trap. And they were so deep in there was little chance of getting out. His only chance was to charge through to a final assault on Arcadia, deep in the Capitol Complex.

But even in that vast park, other things were happening. The tendrils wrapped war memorials and crawled over the ground and through the decorative lake. A giant mass of them convulsed, extruded insectoid limbs, and scuttled toward Matt and his Lokis.

This was Newhome's final barrier. Matt had come in expecting to sweep through the city with a hundred thousand Lokis. Now the city was transforming itself into its own implacable force, all around him. Lokis fell by the thousands as Newhome fought back.

But he knew how to deal with this. It was the same as on Jotunheim. Biometal called to metal. All he had to do was Merge with the city and take out all the opposing Mecha at one go.

Matt arrowed his Demon at a building at the edge of the Capitol Plaza, and embraced it.

Merge!
Matt thought.

Strands of biometal fused deep with its steel structure, searching for the invisible control lines that ran through all of Newhome. Data surged through Matt's mind, infinite gabble on the point of insanity. All he had to do was give the command.

No,
an irresistible voice spoke in Matt's mind, over the feel of static and the smell of dust.
You will not contravene here.

An immense force struck Matt like a sledgehammer, driving him right out of the system.

His biometallic tendrils shattered to dust, and he fell helpless off the side of the building. He landed on his back on the hard concrete, whooping with the force feedback from the impact. Around him, Lokis were being sliced to bits by the newly transformed Mecha. In moments, they'd be on him.

Merge had failed.

20

ARCADIA

For what seemed like an infinite time, Matt couldn't move. With his Perfect Record accelerating, calculating every possible action he could take and instantly weighing the outcome, he searched for a path that led to success.

He could simply try to escape. Fire his thrusters and blaze for orbit. But he'd seen the plot of orbital countermeasures around Eridani. Any path he could take led to the fireball of his Demon exploding in an impenetrable maze of antimatter fire. No amount of crazy maneuvering would change that. And even if he somehow avoided being annihilated, there was no
El Dorado
waiting for him. No Free Stars ship at all. The Union would chase him down to a cold death in empty space.

Or he could try again to drive deeper into the Capitol Complex. But there, the tendrils were busy converting every piece of metal and glass into Mecha and weapons. Hundreds of them. Soon to he thousands. All well armed and aimed exclusively at him. Every course of action led to the same result: Matt's Demon impaled under the city Mecha while the segments of the shredded Lokis twitched impotently on the carefully maintained Earth grass.

He could head back into the city itself. But there, madness reigned as well. His enhanced sensors showed every building coated in thick ropes of biometallic muscle. Some skyscrapers shuddered, as if they were coming alive. Others swiveled new-made gun turrets at him. There was only one conclusion: his Loki outgunned, his Demon overcome by Newhome itself.

Every path led to his death.

Was that what Roth wanted? To see him twisted and broken in the middle of the Union's most powerful city? Had he set this trap for him?

No. That made no sense. Roth might have a hidden agenda, but he wasn't a Union stooge. And these tendrils, this defensive system, was acting different than anything Roth had shown Matt. And if it was Roth's, why would he need Matt to get past it? This was something bigger than Roth, something to protect a great secret.

How close you are,
the static-dusty voice grated, close in Matt's ear. It seemed amused by him.
In so many ways.

The voice of the thing in the Mecha was louder and closer than he'd ever heard it. Matt bit back his response.

Because it didn't matter if the ghost in the machine was a reflection of his own mind, or some artificially intelligent thing in the Mecha. Not now. Not when he was so close to uncovering the truth behind the Union. Even if there was no way out, he'd at least finally know the truth. And maybe everyone else would too.

Outside Newhome's madness, the Union revolution continued to reel off in Matt's inset video. Government-toppling protests were flaring now on every major world.

That was what Roth really wanted, Matt analyzed. To claw his way to the top of a crippled Union. That was the perch Roth was after.

Concrete shattered around Matt, breaking his chain of thought. Matt scrambled to his feet and triggered his thrusters, quickly climbing away from the carnage on the street.

Below him, the city came to life. Shining biometallic tendrils joined together to form thick ropes, wrapping around abandoned cars and trucks, snaking up buildings and plunging deep into their steel cores, covering advertising billboards and holosign projectors. Where they touched metal and power, the biometallic ropes coiled and throbbed with life, swelling into a thousand different forms. Some changed into Mecha with spiderlike legs and sharp, origami-like edges. Some transformed the sides of buildings into flocks of dartlike kites.

Skyscrapers sprouted bulbous black gun emplacements, and Fireflies and Sidewinders began a continuous hail of brilliant destruction on Matt's carpet of silver Mecha.

Shattered segments and torn biometallic muscles fountained into the air as Lokis fell by the thousands. Matt's Demon rang with the impact of depleted-uranium slugs and the explosions of Firefly missiles.

Matt balled his fists in frustration. The coordinates of the Arcadia entrance were so damn close. If he could just get across the Capitol Plaza, no matter what he lost in the process . . . but there was no way to make it. No other Mecha to Merge with, no—

Merge with the Lokis!
It was the only probability with any chance to make it to Arcadia.

He didn't hesitate. He slammed his thrusters full reverse and headed for the most concentrated mass of Lokis. Landing hard, he grabbed the closest pincers and thought,
Merge!

Matt felt the Lokis' rudimentary computing cortexes like a chorus of simpleminded voices, chanting in unison. At first, they struggled against the Merge.
Not programmed! No rider! Unsupported configuration!

Matt used his Perfect Record to show the Lokis their probable outcomes. Their simple machine minds ran the numbers and, as one, made their decision.

We accept,
they told him. The Lokis shimmered and melted like lead, joining with the main mass of Matt's Demon. The giant red Mecha bulked up with silver veins and bulging biometallic muscle.

Let us help,
the Lokis' machine brains said.
We are faster than you
.

Matt suppressed a smile.
Let's see what you can do,
he told the Lokis.

The Merged Demon's arms suddenly swept into life, triggering rapid-repeating Fusion Handshakes as they moved. The shock waves expanded out from Matt's Demon, reducing the origami city Mecha to smoking hulks and melting still-transforming biometallic tendrils into slag.

Leaping free from their attackers, the other Lokis streamed toward Matt now. They grabbed on to Matt's Demon and became one with it, growing his size twofold, threefold. Matt's Demon took on a paler red tone, with shining silver segments outlining every part of his body. The screaming in his mind became a chorus of machine voices, calculating and scheming.

Like you,
that static-dusty voice boomed over the cacaphony. Something like stale laughter echoed through Matt's mind. The voice was almost irresistibly strong now.

Matt clamped his mouth shut and refused to answer. But was the ghost in the machine a little bit right? His super–Perfect Record was like an ultimate computing machine, assimilating and assessing probabilities at unreal speed.

Matt's Demon was now as tall as some of the buildings in Newhome. He looked down on the Capitol Complex, now shrunk to the size of a model.

Newhome's origami Mecha swarmed toward him. Pinpoints of pain flared all over Matt's body as they skittered up his legs and reached his chest. Fusion weapons flashed, puncturing his hide. A dozen drilled through his biometallic skin and used their Handshakes to blow away biometallic muscle and tendon. Sharp pain tore into his gut.

More Mecha came. Like a wave, they flowed out of the city.

No choice. Matt crouched down, instantly transforming from his humanoid Mecha form into something sleek, low, and streamlined, like a racing ground car on grand scale. Jets lit on his back, shooting white-hot flames two hundred meters behind him into the city's broadest avenues. Building facades melted and windows blew out in the heat. Origami Mecha flicked out of existence with little sparkling pops.

Matt barreled forward toward the Capitol Complex, as surviving building guns pelted him with depleted-uranium and fusion explosions. More Lokis flowed in to fill the raw gashes on his back, but the pain was red-hot, like being sprayed with acid.

Matt shot out onto the ring road and into the capitol itself, right over a sentry gate entwined with transforming biometallic ropes.

Matt followed the road deeper into the complex, dodging swarms of transformed Mecha, using his Fusion Handshake to sweep them away. The vector leading to Arcadia shot straight ahead and then slammed down into the ground—right at the location of Landing Pad 100.

Matt's Perfect Record yanked him back to the day he'd first seen Landing Pad 100. Standing there with Michelle. Wanting to feel what she felt. The place where humankind first landed on Eridani. The place where the Expansion really started.

What bullshit.

Matt realized he'd never really believed all these stories about the glories of humanity and the Expansion. At least in part, he'd always been searching for what was really going on in the Union and beyond, and here he was, on the verge of finding out.

This was what he was supposed to do. He was a mongrel, and mongrels never stop fighting.

Just beyond Pad 100 was the Expansion Monument, a five-hundred-meter-tall spire celebrating the beginning of humanity's reign over other planets. The vector leading toward Arcadia pointed straight at the monument, then dove beneath the ground.

The lab of labs, the ultimate stronghold—existed under a monument in the capitol? Why would they put something like that here?

This is much more than a lab,
the scratchy voice taunted.
This is a place no one is worthy to enter.

A shadow fell across his visor. Strong hands seized Matt's Demon and plucked it from the ground. He yelled and transformed back into his humanoid shape, thrashing against his attacker. But the thing held him in a viselike grip and shook him with a fury. It took several seconds for his visor to clear enough so Matt could see what was happening.

The Expansion Monument, the five-hundred-meter-tall black spire that marked the beginning of humanity's reign on other planets, had been transformed into a giant Mecha.

And it had him.

* * *

At the spire of the Expansion Monument, a flaming orange gash opened. The sharp-edged hands of the transformed Monument-Mecha brought Matt's Demon inexorably upward toward its fiery mouth. Shining black orbs split through the surface of the Expansion Monument, rotating quickly to fix him with pinpoint pupils.

Matt grabbed the monument's arm and triggered his Fusion Handshake. Power thundered down his Demon's arm and reverberated from the Monument-Mecha. Pieces exploded outward in all directions, showering the fresh green grass of the Capitol Plaza with obsidian-colored rubble.

But its grip didn't loosen. Beneath the stonelike exterior, massive coiled ropes of biometallic muscle gleamed, mercury-bright in the late afternoon sun.

Matt screamed, triggering Handshake after Handshake. But the giant didn't falter. Matt tried to draw his Zap Gun, but the Monument-Mecha tightened its irresistible grip.

In seconds, the damn thing would throw him down its burning maw. Every thread led to that outcome. There was no escape, none at all. A momentary shock of pure hopelessness overcame Matt.

What to do? He dared not Merge with the thing. It was part of the city. It would just overpower him, as Newhome had done.

But there was nothing to Merge with. He'd already absorbed all the surviving Lokis. But even if there were ten thousand more, he'd never match the mass of this gigantic spire.

He was at the thing's mouth. Deep inside it, a crystalline orb pulsed with pure power, ready to sear him to oblivion.

Matt stretched his Demon's hands out in front of him and triggered one last Handshake. The monument rocked back briefly. A new arm shot out of the side of the monument and grabbed Matt's arm, crushing his Fusion Handshake in a crescendo of pain. It twisted the crushed arm out of its socket, shearing cords of biometallic muscle with deep, thrumming bass twangs. Matt screamed as icons flared in his viewmask:

ARM REGENERATION: INDETERMINATE

CQFA REGENERATION: INDETERMINATE

One arm down, the rest of me to go,
Matt thought hysterically. It really was over.

Boom
. Blue-white brilliance flared in front of Matt, and a shock wave rattled his broken Mecha. The Monument-Mecha's mouth blew open, bricks expanding outward in a cloud. The thing screamed, an unearthly alien ululation.

Tags in Matt's viewmask told the tale: another Demon had arrived, delivering a Zap Gun blast right into the mouth of Matt's giant enemy.

Another Demon? That meant . . .

“And the teacher again saves the protégé,” a voice said, across the comms. Its identifying icon flared
DR. SALVATORE ROTH.

In a flash, the Monument-Mecha shot out another arm and grabbed Dr. Roth's Demon in its implacable talons. Roth's Zap Gun exploded in a flare of antimatter fire. Roth yelled over the comms and triggered Fusion Handshakes. The Monument-Mecha's talons glowed red with the fusion fire, but held fast. The backfire energy concussed Roth's Mecha with punishing heat waves.

Now the Monument-Mecha held both of them fast. Its hands rose toward its mouth, toward destruction.

“Thanks, Doc,” Matt said, dripping sarcasm.

“I could not possibly estimate the power of this—of this technology—”

Matt cut him off. “I figured it wasn't yours.”

Roth fumed silently, his comms icon still lit. The Monument-Mecha's mouth was very close now. Beyond it, the city of Newhome boiled under coils of biometallic muscle. The transformation continued.

It was over. Completely over. Matt would never know how or why Roth had shown up to help, or what Eridani's underground biomechanical secret was. All probabilities pointed to a single end point, in the gut of the towering Mecha.

Roth's Demon was now close. Close enough to see all the damage. The thing was a quarter gone, blown away in the Zap Gun explosion. Not that it mattered. Even whole, he was no match for the Monument-Mecha.

“Merged Demons increase power exponentially.”
Dr. Roth's instruction came back to Matt.

“Merge,” Matt said.

Roth croaked something unintelligible. It could have been a compliment or a condemnation.

Matt reached with an arm, willing it to elongate and touch Dr. Roth's Demon. Immediately power shot across the connection to Matt. Power, and Roth's dark thoughts.

Dark not for evil, but for their obscurity. Roth was actually trying to shield his thoughts from Matt. Matt was incredulous. He didn't know you could do that. He believed that sharing minds in Merge was absolute.

Still, pieces bled through. Roth was as surprised as Matt by the biometallic ropes that had shot up out of the ground of Newhome. He'd really thought Arcadia was just a grand lab, maybe more than that, perhaps even the enigmatic Source, the one he'd found, the one the Union had found, the one he suspected Rayder of using . . .