Tempest

18 - The Last Array

"Not for a lack of trying," he replied, "but I'm here now."

Tyra turned towards Gates. "Ma'am, we're here as you requested."

The Captain then looked at Tobias. "You say you need to find this last array. Well, they're gonna help you get there. All you need to do is find it. Any idea of how to do that?"

He furrowed his brow. He couldn't do a structural scan here, there were too many buildings that would cause interference. And he couldn't just pull up the information mentally; the Inferno was a record of all the Architects history, not their future. And Al'cor had turned him into it before the arrays had even been built.

He realized with a start that he had no idea how to find it. Maybe he could have asked Al'cor, but she was out of commission for the time being. He had to make do without her. Everyone was relying on him here, and he was blanking-

Something flashed in his mind, and he looked at the group around him.

"The arrays create some sort of stasis field when they're inactive," he explained. "They create gravitational anomalies, make loose objects hover, stuff like that. I don't know how far the range on it can go, but it might be at the epicenter of an event like that, if you know of any."

He looked around, disappointed that all of them seemed to be at a loss for how to reply. None of them were natives to Harmony, so they wouldn't-

"Maybe the Floating Gardens?"

His head snapped towards Cooper. "What?"

"The Floating Gardens," Cooper repeated. "They're somewhat of an attraction here on Harmony. Lastimosa told me about them while he privately trained me. Said that it was a place of beauty, plains of grass where rocks and water defy nature. They hover above the ground, and no one on Harmony knows why. It was one of his favorite places."

He looked seriously at Tobias. "From what he told me, this city of Chorus was actually built nearby it because the early settlers liked the site so much."

Tobias snapped his fingers. "That's gotta be it! Anyone got a map?"

...

He jabbed a finger at one section of the chart that one of Blisk's men had found. "Alright, this is Chorus. Here's the command center. And the Floating Gardens ..." He moved his finger in a line towards a large circle of wildlife outside the city boundaries. "... are here. Looks like it's got a pretty big radius, nearly two and a half miles in diameter, give-or-take. The good news is that there's a road that leads directly to it from the city. Must be popular with the people who live here."

"So what's the bad news?" Tyra asked. He sighed.

"Bad news is that we're gonna have to make it out of the city on foot, or at least on Titan. From what I gather, we can't spare any dropships since any that aren't coming in are being immediately sent to orbit to form a defensive line. And we don't have any ground vehicles."

Blisk nodded. "Sounds like you three better get walking then. I'll have IMC forces begin spreading throughout the city, make sure that all of our bases are covered."

Gates reciprocated his nod. "The 6-4, Cooper, and I will set up defenses here. Any MCOR Pilots and riflemen we can spare will be directed here to the command center. The WOH will help out in the skies above."

Blisk looked towards Tobias. "I know we have our differences, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you. There was a reason I offered you a place at my side." He whistled somberly. "This here is a task for the dragonhearted, Four. And I don't doubt that you've got it in you."