There was no telltale boom of the sound-barrier breaking. It had sonic dampeners to prevent that. The global defense system picked it up but the sensors were the only part that were working right now at Section 6.
"There's a fuckin spy!"
Lancieta rushed into the apartment with her Frankenstein's monster combat-suit on.
"Stay here honey."
I was staring at the missile rush across the surface of the ocean unable to believe what I was seeing. Lancieta shot out from the side of the Shinimorte as if she were a missile. The two jet-engine-looking appendages on her back were screaming as she raced forward, water reaching up behind her as she raced across the surface. I wasn't sure how many miles away it was but it was far out enough that one of the ocean giants leaped out of the water thinking the missile was food. It was the shark whose massive maw missed as it clamped shut. The monster crashed back into the ocean, water exploding upward but Lancieta was unshaken by the beast. I could hear the engines on her back scream as she started a maneuver. She made a fairly sharp right, then made a wide left turn, making a question mark in the water and pulled up along side the missile. She reached out with one arm and climbed onto the missile. Her finger wires coiled out as she ripped a panel off the missile with her other hand and dug into the circuitry.
"Is she trying to disable it yet?"
Yora and Caitlin rushed up behind me, Caitlin with her binoculars and Yora, with his engineer-grade eyes, were looking on, as helpless as I was. Caitlin was cursing under her breath.
"How the fuck did they know I scheduled a diagnostic for today?"
"Ambassador Steegle, I've been told to report that multiple missiles have broken into the atmosphere but the defense systems at the other sections performed optimally."
I ignored the computer, as a bright light shot out from where Lancieta opened up the missile.
"Impulse defense system..."
Yora spoke and my heart stopped as I saw her thrown up from the missile like she'd been uppercut and tumble across the surface of the ocean like a rock, parts of her suit breaking off on each bounce. Before I knew what I was doing I noticed I was roaring in defiance of the missile, as if that would do something.
"Don't worry, they've got it."
"Who the fuck was that!?"
Until that moment I thought I was going crazy but now Caitlin finally heard her.
"Who...?"
I asked as I saw someone leap out of the ocean just at the end of the pier. Their hands were clasped together in front of them but at the apex of their jump they raked their hands to their sides, palms outward, and they just hovered there as if they intended to stop the missile with their body. A few uneasy seconds passed. I don't think anyone who was watching breathed as we waited for it to happen. The missile raced closer and just as I thought this person was going to be splattered, the missile collided with an invisible wall, the explosion rippling outward from the point of impact. The shockwave wasn't stopped by the wall however and it crashed into the people and everything else along the pier. The fireball dissipated and the faint shimmer of the wall did as well. The person dropped limply back into the water leaving everyone speechless. Moments later another person walked up onto the beach carrying an unconscious Lancieta. I didn't speak. I raced to the elevator and made my way to her as fast as humanly possible.
By the time I got to the beach the person who rescued mom had already gone back into the ocean. The people along the coastline that were hit by the air blast were still reeling from it's effects. I raced across the sand and saw she was missing a leg and was bleeding from the ears. Most of her combat suit was destroyed but given that she must've been traveling at Mach speeds, the suit did it's job, she was still alive.
*****
Panzer screamed for help as Lancieta laid on the beach unconscious, blood poured from leg. The world slowed around him as he looked helplessly around him to see if anyone was going to come to his mother's aid but everyone else was bewildered and confused. Without thinking he dug his arms under her nearly lifeless body and ran back to Section 6. His hearing was nothing but a pulse in his ears as he looked at her unconscious face. The elevator doors opened, closed and it started moving without Panzer having to say anything. The doors opened and he ran to the medical bay. He looked for the cart that Roisin had been put on weeks ago and he tried to remember the inputs Lancieta had made to get the bleeding to stop. He stabbed at the control panel but kept receiving red blinks in response. The tears welling up in his eyes blurred everything then, hair thin, tentacle like appendages emerged from the cart and inserted themselves into Lancieta's open blood vessels. A red light started flashing but Panzer couldn't read what the words were saying through his tears. Lancieta's body lurched upward then dropped back onto the cart. It lurched again and fell, it seemed to go on forever lurching and going limp, lurching and going limp. Someone pushed him aside and started pulling at things on the cart and running around the room. He felt someone tug at his arm and he let himself be pulled away. The world around him was a blur and before he knew it he was in the elevator when his hearing came back.
"Mannie!"
"MOM!"
"She'll be fine. Roisin and Yora are taking care of her. We got another serious fucking problem. A few minutes before the missile came out of warped-space my guys found evidence of a burst transmission. That's how Lancieta was barely ready to intercept it. Someone's been talking with the Halgred from Earth. The other Ambassadors are already on call."
"You mean... one of us tried to sell us out?"
"In short yes. But I wanna talk about it in detail with the others."
They walked into the conference room and Jaina was the first to speak.
"How's your mother Panzer?"
"I... I don't know she's on the thing and..."
Panzer pointed behind him his eyes not focusing on anything or anyone in particular as he spoke.
"Focus!"
Catty punched him in the shoulder which hurt her hand like hell but it snapped him out of it.
"How about you guys? Did any missiles land?"
Kyung spoke in an exasperated tone. "No, but dammit! It's like they came from no where!"
Ade looked worried as he spoke. "How did they do what they did?"
The usually quiet Navigator Altruis walked forward from behind Jinrai. She gave him a short glance to which he nodded, she had the answer. "Illegal technology employed by the Halgred. The only way a weapon or weapons system is legally allowed to enter warped-space is while attached to a ship. Under no circumstances can a ship launch an attack upon an enemy combatant while in warped-space. This is due to a few reasons which I'll only highlight as we need to know. The first being that without a warp field generator a missile or other munition can wrap around the ship it is fired from and destroy it's occupants whilst In warped-space. Secondly, it seems as if all of Warped-space is deeply connected on an infinitesimal level, which means that if a weapon is fired in warp space and does not exit or destroy the ship it is on, it will stay in warped space and more than likely destroy the next vessel to open up a warp, no matter where they are in the known or unknown universe."
Mouths were agape and many were confused.
"Wait what do you mean 'it seems as if Warped-Space is connected infinitely?" Ioana asked almost immediately.
"Even after having the technology for thousands of years, the nature of Warped-space is still partially a mystery."
Catty waved her hands in confusion. "Ok so wait, you're saying the Halgred can just throw shit into a hole and have it land here at ANY time?!"
"Well yes and no. When we found out the Halgred were using warp-based-munitions, a network of intelligence was created to monitor Halgred warp activity."
"There are spies in Halgred space?" Kyung asked partially surprised.
"Yes. More often than not we're able to send a dummy target into warped-space and that usually intercepts the munitions. However as you've just learned it doesn't always work."
"Which is where my guys come in." Catty said, noticing Altruis was going to continue she held up a hand just to say what she'd found out.
"They received a message from the Political Stadium in conjunction with the Military Consortium that this was just a test for the Halgred's new warp-based-weapons technology."
Ioana sighed obnoxiously. "Oh jesus I feel like we're going hear some more high science bullshit."
Altruis nodded her head then paused in thought for a moment. "Well I'll save you the science and math behind it but it's being called Paradox Subversion. Which allows them to send multiple weapons into warped-space at the same time without them colliding. They probably sent a barrage of a few million missiles at once. The ones that made it through were aimed at the Political Stadium, The Military Consortium's Headquarters, a few other key locations and then a bunch of civilian locations, one of which was Earth. The major draw back with the technology is akin to the difference between a sniper rifle and a machine gun."
Ade's ears pricked up at the comparison. "So your saying the Paradox isn't accurate?"
Altruis nodded enthusiastically. "Correct! Otherwise they could have just sent the missiles through warped-space and had them arrive an inch from their targets thus making it a perfect weapon. The problem is you can only fit so much information into a single space. In this case, missiles and their targeting data."
"I'm not sure I understand but Warped-space has limitations?" Enakai was having trouble keeping up.
"That's right, which is why they don't just warp half of their population to a system to conquer it. Also if they condensed their forces like that we could intercept their coordinates and send a few ships to deal a heavy blow."
Jinrai groaned his displeasure with the assertion.
"It would be a suicide mission but it could be done." She offered as a justification.
Panzer felt a rage erupt from deep inside. He wasn't sure exactly where it all came from but he knew some of it was for his mom.
"I don't care if everyone else on this planet votes against us joining the war. You're gonna have to find a new Ambassador cuz I'm gonna join and I'm gonna find the fucker who did this."
Star looked flustered. "So what? You're the only one they've affected?"
"NO! It's... at least you all have your memories." More than a few faces fell at him mentioning his amnesia. "You can at least think about the names of the people you loved! You still have those happy times in your souls, even if remembering them hurts! I may have friends the other me used to know but I have NOTHING to remind me of the past inside this empty fuckin head!" He said pounding at his head, the sound of his armour embellishing the action. "I have NOTHING to look back on and just fucking feel some kind of emotion about! The only family I have are the people I have around me now! And I'll DIE before I lose my family AGAIN!"
He slammed my fist into the table in front of him and its feet gave way as it cracked in half, all 15 feet of hard wood dropped to the ground and everyone was speechless as the rage didn't seem to dissipate into the broken table.
Jaina spoke after a few seconds.
"Chein should be here tomorrow so we'll be able to talk with the Military Consortium soon after."
Panzer's brow stayed furrowed.
"Well you know my decision. I'm still going to Outwhere."
Kyung motioned to Catty before speaking. "Did your team find anything else out?"
She shook her head no. "Not on this continent. I haven't spoken with any of the others yet."
"Ok that's what I what I'm going to bring up. The defense post here at Section 10 found a recorded message, I can have them play it now if we're all 'ready'."
Nods came from everyone in attendance. Kyung signaled to someone off screen and the recording started.
"We no longer deserve to live! Our time as a species has come to an end! The gods have sent their demons unto us in order to cleanse us from existence for our sins against their will! We must submit to their ruling and at least die with dignity!"
"Fuck me, we still have to deal with this shit?!" Star said as the insane zealotry came to an abrupt stop.
"Civilization had an Armageddon, humanity it seems, is stronger than that." Ade sighed in dismay.
"Not sure I'm comfortable with calling crazy people a part of humanity." Star interjected again.
"They were before and they still are. To them, we're the crazy ones." Kyung reasoned.
"I'll call it bullshit no matter which way you decide to slice it." Catty said, taking Star's side.
"Still, you'd think surviving the end of the world would have changed that." One of the other council members looked like they had as much patience as Star.
Kyung was looking at Caitlyn expectantly. "How do we deal with this?"
She stayed quiet as the wheels turned in her head for a moment.
"Given how the politics work I think we should follow a similar style with this."
"What does that mean exactly?" One of the council members asked.
"We tell everyone. We call community meetings and talk about the threat these crazy shitheads are posing to us."
Ioana scoffed. "And what? Have roaming gangs of thugs hunting and killing on site?"
"Fucking of course not! But shit's different now. Most of us who survived the mutation have been given youthful, healthy bodies. Jaina is a prime example!"
"Ambassador Cerqueira." One of the council members tried to correct Catty.
"What the fuck ever. What I'm sayin is, based on the info I've gathered I know people are afraid, they want to do something but they also want to know what's going on. No doubt thousands of people already know about the missile strikes, so instead of 'protectin' them from the truth' which to be honest they already fuckin know, we tell them exactly what the hell is happening. Then we work together to find and jail these psycho-zealot motherfuckers."
"We can always count on you for colourful speech Caitlyn."
"Whatever Ade, I'm hear to protect us. If someone is gonna make my job harder I'm not gonna be all pc and shit when explaining things."
Jaina tapped at her table in thought before speaking.
"We should speak with the councils about setting up these community meetings then. There are traitors we have to find and put in jail."
Panzer stayed quiet during the exchange and was going over his outburst, in his head. It felt weird -- uncharacteristic. He wasn't all too sure that he hated action though. Then something came to mind.
"Wouldn't they need mental help rather than a jail cell?"
Ioana scoffed. "They woke up from their Feral State just like everyone else did. They're of sound mind."
"But we still don't know if waking up from the feral mind means you're psychologically sound. I have amnesia, that's a mental disorder."
"That's different Panzer."
Panzer sighed in concession. He didn't want to debate the finer points of mental health-care in the new world, he wanted to get back to his mother's side. "I'm assuming psychologists and therapists have been busy as well. You think we should start having psychiatric wards or like official therapists or something at least? Where there's one, there are others."
Star groaned in protest. "Have I said how I hate being in this position?"
Ade, Ioana, Enakai and Kyung answered in unison.
"Many times." "Multiple times." "Yeah." "More than enough times."
Star blushed at the immediate responses.
Jaina clapped her hands together to refocus everyone. "I think that's something the councils will have to have meetings about. It sounds more like a public health concern more than they are global security."
Star brightened up, happy she wouldn't have to set up a psychiatric system.
"One in the same if you ask me." Catty said under her breath which made Star's ears droop.
Jaina paid Catty no mind as she continued. "Speaking of health, we have a need for doctors."
Star groaned again. "Now we have to think about the education system!"
Jinrai sighed. "You should know that education is being facilitated as you've been taking a few courses yourself."
If she could blush Star would be a red dwarf right now. Jaina motioned to Catty.
"Is there anymore information the Defense Bureau has for us Caitlyn?"
"Nothing concrete, no. Just speculation and feelings. Neither of which is helpful right now."
"In that case we have to get these meetings underway and if anymore information comes to light we'll contact one another immediately."
"Agreed." "Definitely." "Right away." "Sure." "Sounds good." "Of course." "Mhmm."
The seven signed off and immediately got to talking with their council heads. Caitlyn hoped the situation wouldn't devolve into a manhunt. She'd seen how something like that can spiral out of control and how the wrong person can die because of it. Panzer spoke with Mei-lin and the Council of Section 6 for a few hours, then he and Catty made their way to the elevator. When Panzer motioned to go back to the medical wing Caitlyn grabbed his hand. The rage simmered a bit before he calmed himself down.
"Your mom is going to be fine. They've got lots of parts and even if she's worse off than we think, Chein's Doctor will set her straight tomorrow."
"That's not that comforting Catty."
"Nah, it ain't, but you've got shit to do. Ya can't hide in a corner till your ready."
Panzer sighed and when the elevator got down to the lobby Catty climbed on a motorcycle Yora designed and built for her. The roads were being rebuilt since the first aid ship arrived and when she asked Yora about transportation to her office he offered to build her something and she opted for a motorcycle.
The wheels split in half vertically while it was parked, making it look like an odd quad. When she fired up the motor the four wheels fused into two and she quickly made her way back to the Defense Post. Panzer jogged to his workshop. When he got to the door his translator started beeping, an upgrade Yora had recently made to all of the translator for long distance communication. It was Mei-lin, asking if he knew of any buildings that were ready nearby for use regarding the meeting they'd just had. He walked back from his workshop and commissioned a small group to start scouting for buildings.
*****
Panzer was asleep in a chair next to Lancieta's bed when she shuffled about for the first time in hours. He didn't notice, his head was tilted back and his mouth was wide open with his arms hanging off the sides of the chair. Lancieta noticed the grey blur to her left and smiled. One of her eyes wasn't working right and the picture she got from the other one wasn't much better. She went to push herself up into a seated position and noticed her right arm didn't respond. She looked down to her feet and only noticed one of them moved.
"Shit."
She struggled against her body and eventually sat up, Now that she was more awake all sorts of aches and pains were creeping up. The doors slid open and Roisin walked in. She looked over to the still unconscious Panzer and giggled.
"It's good to see you awake captain."
"How many days have I been out for?"
"Only 3."
"The missile?"
"It was stopped by a human no one's ever seen before. You were brought inland by another. They look like they went through the same exact mutations. No one's seen them since though."
The muscles Lancieta had access to relaxed. Roisin noticed her captains discomfort.
"About that. The Doctor Liaison Chein brought over said you'd have to uh... do a live reconnection. He did say that you'd be ready for the trip a day afterwards though."
Roisin added on that last sentence to reduce the blow of having to perform a live reconnection.
"Shit."
Lancieta dropped her head back and it hit the wall harder than she expected, waking Panzer up.
"Mom! How are you? The doctor spent all of his time doing repairs. He said the worst of your damage was to muscle subsystems and joint connections."
"Yeah Roisin was just telling me I'd have to do a live reconnection."
The words made no sense to Panzer.
"How can I describe it... I have to actively, basically manually, take control of the new muscles/other parts I have and it hurts, almost like surgery without anesthesia."
"It seems like the only thing I gave you guys by keeping you alive was a living hell, I'm..."
Panzer looked to Roisin then back at Lancieta with his apology written all over his face before Lancieta cut him off.
"I told you before, this is war on a different level. This is what we deserve not only for using a genetic weapon but destroying your world."
Panzer wasn't sure how to respond to that. "So how does it work then? Do you have to be awake for a certain amount of time? Would you prefer to be alone?"
"I... It's not a pleasant experience honey."
"All the more reason to have someone there with you mom."
"Well, let's get it over with. We have a flight to prepare for."
Roisin took the blanket from the bed and positioned the bed into more of an upright position. Panzer Helped Lancieta reposition herself and straps wrapped around her torso limbs and head. A look of concern crossed Panzer's face.
"I said it wasn't pleasant."
Roisin set some fluids onto hovering I.V. stands and connected them to Lancieta.
"Hex, call the doctor and tell him we're ready for reconnection."
"Right away Roisin."
*****
Chein was smiling in the doorway as the Section 6 council sat down in the communications room. A new table had been brought in, made of marble. It was a collection of previously broken counter-tops pieced together which didn't look half bad. The screens for the other council members and Ambassadors popped up and the meeting got underway. Catty's Second began speaking.
"The Defense Network has already found 4 of the people who were trying to help the Halgred. I'm relieved to report that yes, despite one of them being punched in the face while he was being arrested no serious physical harm came to them."
Jinrai quickly spoke up. "Which is very important as when they are transferred to the War Council, they'll see that Earth is willing to play by the rules. Further dissuading them from thinking of you all as future Halgred."
Some people growled at the mention. If we learned one thing by interacting with people who came to Earth for aid, it was that a good amount of them thought we'd look to the Halgred as our creators or some such nonsense. Flawed logic but apparently similar things had happened before.
"Also, tangent to that point..." One of the council members from Section 2, Australia, stood up. A bat with a tinge of purple in his fur and bright blue eyes. His screen moved to the top of all the others on the holographic display. "There is an increasing amount of talk about joining the war."
"One thing at a time." Star said lazily.
He nodded and sat back down as Catty took center stage.
"As far as Halgred sympathizers, we haven't found any more. Neither did we find the two people who came out of the ocean. I'd like to ask each of you to ask around and see if we can find people who can create barriers. I feel we're gonna need their help in the future. I'd love it if they joined the Defense Network but at least I'd like to ask them to live at the city borders as last lines of defense."
Heads nodded in agreement and looks of approval.
Mei-lin spoke next. "The training programs seem to be going well. Accidents from use of powers have gone down by 12 percent."
"We had a pretty big earthquake here in Africa recently. I'm not blaming anyone but I don't think it was tectonic." One of the council members from Africa added as fast as they could before sitting back down.
Jaina spoke up as the resident 'Earth Quake Machine'. "Being able to control power over the earth is pretty tough. I still shake the favelas every now and again."
Panzer exhaled and looked at the bat from Australia. "I guess that brings us to the war. Over the next few weeks starting in a few days, the same technology that we were given for the elections will be turned on again. This time we'll have control over it. I assume the Councils have appointees?"
The various council members responded.
"Cool so um, while us Ambassadors are off world talking with the Military... group? Republic?"
Lancieta spoke in a hushed voice. "Consortium."
"While the others are at the Consortium I'll stay here - working on my prototype and then I'll fly out to meet you all. That'll be the last test to pass so we can fully start working on our space dock. I'd just like to remind everyone, just because we're receiving aid from those who essentially did this to us, we can't trust them 100%. If they hid something as illegal as a genetic weapon we don't know how much we can trust them. That's why we Ambassadors, from here on out, are going to be away for long periods of time, so we can gather more info about how this really happened to us."
Again, everyone in attendance showed their agreement in one way or another. Chein clapped a little too loudly and went red from embarrassment. The meeting went on for another hour or so.
*****
The next day Chein was waiting at his craft for the Ambassadors to arrive. Panzer had made sure Chein saw him go into the hangar to "work" on his prototype. In actuality; a little earlier, Lancieta, Roisin and Yora had snuk inside closely followed by Nik, Catty, Emmeth and Frantz. Panzer made sure to make some noise and some false engine starts to legitimize his "progress" but in reality he'd finalized his work days ago.
"So mom, have you thought of a name for your ship yet?"
"My ship?" Lancieta's confusion caused Catty and Emmeth to break out in laughter.
"HAH! She thinks your work is trash!" Catty said holding her sides from laughter.
"OH no! No, no, no I didn't mean it that way honey! I love it but I thought this was yours?"
"Well it was, but now that it's finished I'm giving it to you. You're a Captain again!"
Lancieta was struck silent. Tears of happiness welled up in her eyes as she looked at the smiles everyone else had on their faces telling her they knew it was going to be hers the whole time. She hugged Panzer so hard she lifted him off the ground. Her hands were shaking and she had the biggest smile on her face that Panzer had ever seen her make. Hex's voice came from the sound system in the small bridge.
"Liaison Chein is approaching."
"Quick everyone hide! Hex, initiate false start Omega 2!"
Everyone ran into the hallway behind the bridge and into various nooks and crannies Panzer had them open up in the morning to expose wires and circuitry. The ship shuddered a few times and then a disharmonious hum reverberated throughout the ship before it shuddered into silence. Two minutes later Chein arrived on the bridge and whistled.
"It's a pretty big ship Ambassador. I applaud your skill."
"Well the designs were made by my old team. I'm trying to build this for them."
Panzer was underneath the grating that was the floor with cables and parts scattered around him.
"Well you're doing a great job. I just came by to say the other Ambassadors are ready to go and I can't wait for you to join us."
"I can't wait to bring this baby into deep space Chein! You have no idea!"
Chein stood there awkwardly, wearing his signature Cheshire grin and watching Panzer tinker away with the assorted parts and his interface.
"Well I'm off! Maybe next time I come to Earth we can get your friend Frantz a new eye yeah?"
"He'd love that!"
Chein's footsteps dropped in volume and when he couldn't hear them anymore Panzer watched the monitor showing the hangar entrance. A minute later Chein walked through the hangar doors and Panzer exhaled a sigh of relief. He put his hand to his translator and spoke.
"Ok he's gone everyone. Hex initiate false start Omega 2 again."
The ship did it's song and dance and as it finished, everyone was back on the bridge. Nik seemed worried.
"You think he knows?"
"Don't think so."
"Hey! Did he read your mind?"
"No, it's fine Nik."
"You sure? That guys knows more than he's letting on."
"I've been training with the triplets, and Enakai's been giving me pointers as well. The five of us have pretty much perfected hiding our thoughts."
"But you guys are new at it! He may have like some tricks up his... brain or something."
Emmeth glared at Catty. "Do you even know what you're talking about?"
"Man, shut up!"
Panzer chuckled at their exchange as he finished reconnecting the things he'd pulled apart. He pulled himself out of the floor and looked at Lancieta with a big smile on his face.
"So mom, you know what you're going to call it?"
She blushed as she looked around for inspiration.