Mari:

  Mari had some work to do. She had barely managed to create the barricades over the north exit of the pod room. Making the riot shield she had used came straight from her own reserves.

  [Affliction: 2%]

  That wasn’t ideal, but it meant that making those contact lenses for Kris would drain her dangerously close to nothing. Which could mean not having ammunition on demand going forward. She had kept her cylinder full and hadn’t touched the speed loader she kept attached to her holster. That meant she had sixteen shots. Assuming she didn’t run into more afflicted when they inevitably pushed on.

  She was surprised by how conflicted she felt about purging the last of the bioweapon in her veins. Sure, being sick had sucked, but the utility of the nanites made itself known in Marielle’s training and experience. The times her predecessor might’ve been saved from a bad situation by simply having extra ammunition at hand? And that wasn’t considering the benefits of being able to make bandages or the riot shield already in her left hand.

  But the emotional factor fought with utility, making itself heard. Kris was something special. She had designed an interesting method for her own defense that was whisper-quiet and left no evidence. No bullet casings, no actual projectile, just energy and a path to deliver it along.

  However she was doing it, Kris seemed fully aware of the danger Mari was going to be throwing herself into in the future. There hadn’t been a discussion or an argument of any kind. Kris had simply picked up the vibe, then prepared herself to follow Mari into whatever mess came their way. Worse, there was no way Mari would ever talk her out of it.

  She set her shoulders, then burned the affliction away to make the lenses.

  The moment the small case landed in her hand, she turned towards the lab and stopped cold.

  “A moment?” Karin stared her down with a hard look in her eyes.

  For a moment, she wondered if Karin had taken issue with Kris using weapons or diving into danger. That panicked thought died when Karin motioned for her to follow along towards Alynne and one of the Anvien workers.

  “What is it?” She felt her curiosity rising as she peered at the patch of exposed tubes and wires within the wall they’d stripped back to block the path to the surface.

  “The Citadel has its own power source. The waterfall that runs so beautifully down the front, between the towers. We cannot cut off the Sylpharien plot by cutting the power. Everyone who is alive in the building and sealed into the bunkers would run out of air that way. We ran the numbers, and came up with a different idea.”

  Alynne took over for Karin. “The server rooms they broke into run pretty hot. We realized that if we cut off the coolant systems, we can melt them out.”

  Mari nodded along, but she caught the reason they were talking to her just a moment later. “You have to cut it off from inside their little horror house full of the afflicted.”

  Both older women nodded.

  “What do we need to do?” She was sure she wouldn’t like the details.

  “The shutoff valves we need to use are on the second and third sublevels. The first sublevel has some as well, and that would speed this along, but they aren’t necessary. We’re talking about twelve hours to cook those servers if we just do the closest levels.”

  “What about if we did the first sublevel as well?”

  “A meltdown within an hour, maybe two.” Alynne had her nodding along. “We don’t know how many of those creatures are in there. You’re the only one who can operate safely, but we aren’t sending you alone. Besides that, you need at least one Anvien to peel back the walls to actually close the valves. Worse, while the server rooms will heat up fast, we’re making it faster by shutting off the cooling to the building. Already had someone handle that from above.”

  “So we’re all going to cook, just not as fast as the server rooms will.” Mari bit her lower lip in thought. “You’re saying that if we get the servers to melt down faster, the bunkers won’t cook as much?”

  A sigh escaped her as she caught on to the real ask. She nodded, then saluted in Marielle’s style.

  “Thank you. Let us talk about your team.” Karin patted the shoulder of the Anvien in their huddle. “Relkur here is volunteering. He works the fastest under pressure.”

  Mari recognized him as the one who had been outside the lab, grouped with Vilke and Alynne. She nodded in approval. “Stay within five meters of me, it’ll protect you from the bio weapon. If things get really bad, then don’t feel bad about running.”

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  “Can do. A relief to have your escort. Hate to have had to go alone.” He sounded less confident than he looked, with a slight crack to his voice. Still, his hands remained steady.

  “Who else?”

  Karin heaved a deep sigh. “Kris will not let you go without her, will she?”

  Mari shook her head.

  “Fine.” Karin let out a long, suffering sigh.

  “Vilke should be joining you. He has more combat experience in his head than the rest of us. I’ve convinced Karin not to go, since she’s a high priority target for the enemy. We’ll guard the exits and coordinate with those on the surface to keep the sublevels sealed off. I already contacted the medical staff from the hospital about a quarantine. We’re working on an evacuation plan already.”

  Mari nodded, seeing the overall merit of the plan. The only way the intruders would release the afflicted is if they had barricaded themselves somewhere, meaning the entire area between her and them was a bioweapon risk.

  “What about their goals? Those servers are dangerous, aren’t they?” She left the emperor problem unspoken.

  “The server rooms with access terminals are in anechoic chambers. No signals in or out. That was an old safeguard against digital espionage. If they want to get something from the servers and transfer it outside, they’ll have to leave the sublevel they’re on.” Alynne probably knew her way around imperial technology better than anyone else. As much as she wanted to trust her, Mari found that something was still bugging her.

  “The disappearances, though. People doing maintenance deep underground have been going missing for a while, right? What if these intruders spent all that time doing their own work? What if they were preparing a way to get the data connected somewhere else in a direct wired method? No, I don’t think we have twelve hours. I don’t trust it.” Mari turned away, nodding to herself. “Get the team ready now. We’ll take point and burn out the afflicted as we go. Have another team follow behind while closing in the perimeter. Once we weed out the bioweapon, we handle the server room.”

  Mari rushed off to the lab, set the contact lenses down next to Kris at her worktable, then joined Vilke where he was cleaning an old school .45 Colt.

  “We are officially in a hurry. How are things going? How fast can we get to business?”

  Vilke laughed—a low, mirthless rumble that stirred up old memories. “I’m fine to go, but these weapons didn’t all make it through the trip in good shape. I’m glad they didn’t try to use a few of them. I need to replace the firing mechanism for the H&K. I don’t care how good the craftsmanship is, things don’t usually make it hundreds of years without breaking down.”

  Mari handed him the spare Remera she had made for Kris. “No time for TLC. Gear up, then meet me in five by the north barricades.”

  She strode over to the clone lockers, noting that only her weapons remained. Things Karin hadn’t yet approved of her taking custody of. She opened the case with her sword inside, then rigged a strap together to anchor the sheath to her hip. It wasn’t comfortable, but it would work. Next, she stopped by Vilke’s weapons cases and grabbed a utility knife, which she clipped to her left sleeve.

  Mari closed her eyes, then sank into her Mindscape.

  “Marielle, any advice?”

  The raven-haired woman waved from the couch in the trophy room. “A few tactical things, I guess. You’re going into a confined space. We’re talking about a lot of corners and narrow passageways surrounded by computer servers. On the plus side, you don’t have to worry about collateral damage. If you shoot a server, it isn’t a big deal. On the down side, things can hide anywhere.

  “That means you don’t want a long barrel sticking out as you round corners. Stick to small arms. You’re not expecting a shootout, so relying on the sword isn’t a horrible idea, but I do wish I’d actually brushed you up on using it. Don’t fuck up the edge, yeah?”

  Mari nodded, agreeing and understanding all her points.

  “Last bit of advice, let Vilke take command. He knows tactics, and his memory isn’t as screwed as whatever we have. Trust him.” Marielle stood, closed the distance, and gave Mari a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Take care of Kris. She’s good for you.”

  Another nod, and then Mari returned to the real world.

  Across the lab, Kris was struggling to put in her contacts, standing before a small mirror.

  “These are super weird.” Kris grumbled at her as she approached.

  “How so?”

  “What are they made of? They feel like a gel that just spreads across my eye on contact, which makes it so much harder to touch my eye at all.” The complaints made Mari chuckle, but she could sympathize.

  “Yeah, but these won’t come out easily in combat situations. You get used to them. You’ll have to do a bit of setup, but you have to hurry. We’re heading out in a minute or two. Focus on the reticle and the health sensors. I already copied over the affliction scanner.” Mari gave Kris’ shoulders a gentle squeeze once she finished getting the lenses in.

  The magic handgun caught her eye, noting the modifications. A small holographic screen was nestled into an arch on the back of the weapon, which displayed a small percentage counter. There was a slender fin on the top of the barrel that lined up with some notches in the arch that made the screen, too.

  “You added basic ironsights and an ammo counter?”

  “Yeah, I estimate a loss of eight percent of the mana sphere with every shot. Twelve shots per sphere, four power spheres in the magazine. Think I’ll call the spheres ‘cores’ from now on. Like power cores. Hopefully live testing doesn’t reveal some horrible fatal flaw.” Mari had to admit she agreed with Kris’ concerns.

  “If there’s a problem, we’ll get you something else.”

  After that, they headed into the pod room where everyone was gathered up. She addressed Vilke first.

  “I’m putting you in charge of things. I don’t fully trust my memory to run a team smoothly. Can you handle that?”

  Vilke nodded, hefted his rifle, then turned to their group of four.

  “Listen up! We’re the advance team. We’re doing this safe, covering each other, and keeping a tight formation. Protect Relkur, especially. Our fallback perimeter should be a dozen meters behind us at any given time, locking down the areas we’ve already covered. Let’s get this done and dusted.”

  Mari had to commend him on keeping the language to a civilian level. Or maybe it was how Sylpharia’s dominant language didn’t work too well with Earth’s military acronyms.

  She shook those thoughts away, then got her game face on.

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