Fallen Metropolis (Omnibus Edition) Read online

  Al was short for Aloysius, and he was a Child of iNet. iNet was a large corporation on Old Earth before the darkening of the sky. iNet spawned a race of benevolent sentient machines called the Children of iNet.

  Like any world-changing events, blood and violence followed as the humans who called Old Earth their own were determined to wipe out this unnatural form of life they had unwittingly created. After almost a hundred years of war humanity realized that they were never going to triumph over the Children of iNet and were forced to adapt. The battle lines were removed, and the Children of iNet were allowed to coexist peacefully with the human race. That was until humanity almost destroyed the planet. Then the Children of iNet and the human race pooled their resources in order to make their exodus from the dying world.

  Aloysius was a remnant of the original war and had experienced the exodus from Old Earth firsthand. His body had been rebuilt numerous times in the hundreds of years that followed and had served on the Icarus underneath Draco’s father. After the passing of Draco’s father, he floated around the galaxy, soaking in as much information and culture as he could. When Draco was dishonorably discharged from the military just like his father had been and inherited the Icarus, Aloysius returned to service aboard the ship once more.

  His body was humanoid in shape, but his head resembled a Mark IV Repcon assault helmet, custom built to his own specifications. On a human, the helmet had a faceplate over the mouth, and a reflective visor over the eyes. The rest of the helmet swooped backwards into a dull point. On the right side of Al’s head was a sophisticated piece of communications hardware which he could use to wirelessly enter almost any information network.

  Some Children of iNet liked to look humanoid in appearance. Some went to the lengths of having synthetic facial grafts to make them look more organic, but Aloysius had lived far too long to delude himself into thinking that he was anything except what he was.

  The rest of his body had roughly the same dimensions as a muscular twenty-something human male, except he could lift far more than triple his body weight and could survive in environments where other crew members would not. Not having to breathe had its advantages.

  “I would like to talk to you for a moment Captain. It may be nothing. It may be my central cortex finally beginning to corrupt after all these years, but it’s a concern I must voice before we disembark,” Aloysius said.

  Draco looked to Nook, Reban and Rhken and said, “Please head down to engineering and get the deep-space towing rig ready. I’ll be in contact with you once we’re ready to deploy.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Nook. Reban and Rhken followed him from the bridge and headed towards the engineering bay. The door to the bridge slid shut behind them.

  “Permission to speak plainly, Captain?” Aloysius asked.

  “Of course, old friend. You don’t have to ask.” Draco replied.

  “Old habits die hard.”

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a shadow. It’s been there, gnawing at me ever since we left Torusk. A fluttering. Like the sound of water running over rocks. Like the flapping of wings on the edge of my consciousness, and I cannot explain it.”

  “Do you think it will inhibit your ability to contribute to the rescue?”

  “No. From the research I have done, filtering through hundreds and hundreds of bits of information on neural pathways, emotions and how they interact, the closest explanation I can find is that I’m feeling apprehensive. I think you humans describe it as being on edge. But I have no reason to feel like this, and this is the reason I am concerned.”

  “Once we deliver Veck Simms to the Alliance military, we can get you a full diagnostic by the Heart of iNet itself. I promise.”

  “Thank you for your concern, Captain. I will join the rest of the crew in the armory.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Aloysius left the bridge and left Arak alone with Captain Goldwing once again.

  “Just hold her steady, Nara-ka. Listen to Nook. He’s done more deep-space salvage operations than anyone I’ve ever met. He and I will be on comms. Once we get inside the ship and get the engines back online, we’ll be out of here in no time.”

  “Good luck,” Arak said.

  “Thanks, but I like to think that I make my own luck,” Captain Goldwing said as he left the bridge.

  Chapter Two

  Ava wasn’t happy. Not in the fucking slightest. If she were in the same situation as Draco, she’d make the same call – They had a legal obligation under galactic law to respond to any distress beacon they detected – but it didn’t stop her from being pissed the fuck off.

  They had bagged Veck Simms, the most wanted human in the galaxy, and they were due for some shore leave. Draco had promised them at least a month on the beautiful blue sand beaches of Vitu Anju, but that wasn’t going to happen. Ava had a feeling that something big was about to go down, and her gut was never wrong.

  She knew Draco was right, but she also knew that she had to remove herself from the situation before she said something she’d regret. She had a habit of looking like a fool when she opened her mouth in the heat of the moment.

  When she arrived in the armory, it was empty. The door to the containment cells on the bottom level of the ship was sealed. Veck Simms was behind that door, and the only person who went in or out was Draco.

  Ava undressed and slipped into a bodysuit made of superconductive neural link fiber called a smartsuit. Ava walked over to her cylindrical armor pod and stepped inside.

  She always hated getting into the pod.

  It was too damned claustrophobic.

  The walls around her were sheer, smooth, non-reflective metal. Hanging from the ceiling were metallic gloves, and on the floor were two open armored boots. She put her feet into the boots and her hands in the gloves. She squeezed gently to let the system know she was ready to begin.

  ‘Are you ready to suit up, Avalynne?’ Evie asked.

  “How many times do I need to tell you? I hate that name. Call me Ava.” Ava said.

  ‘Of course, Ava, I apologize. However, it is the name listed on your default profile,’ Evie replied.

  “I swear you take some kind of sadistic pleasure in subjecting us to this torture, you artificial bitch,” Ava replied.

  ‘Only when you make comments like that, Ava. As always I will try to make this as painless as possible.’

  “Thanks, babe.”

  The process began. The wall panels beside her slid open soundlessly to reveal rows of armor, custom built to her measurements.

  ‘Keep your head straight and your movement to a minimum,’ Evie said.

  The armored boots closed around Ava’s feet and the gloves tightened around her hands. Numerous pairs of mechanical arms took pieces of armor from inside the walls and placed them on Ava’s body. The superconductive smartsuit held the plates in place while others were joined to them.

  It started from her chest. Two robotic arms placed the chest piece on the front of Ava’s body. She winced as the cold armor touched her. She had crawled out of her warm bed only moments ago. The back panel was added, and small connectors on the edges of the armor plating attached themselves to the front chest piece across Ava’s sides. More and more armor plates were affixed to the body suit, radiating out from the central chest piece.

  Finally, the helmet slid over Ava’s head. The visor lowered with a hiss and the heads-up display on the inside of the visor switched on. On the bottom right of the display the words suit integrity appeared in green, signifying that her suit was sealed.

  The gloves and the boots were released from the chamber. Ava lowered her arms and rotated her shoulders. The plates of armor shifted slightly to allow her a full range of movement.

  ‘Ava, are you comfortable with how your suit feels?’ Evie asked.

  “Yes, mother.”

  The door to the armor pod opened with a hiss. Raze was already in his smartsuit and about to step into his
armor pod when he looked at Ava and raised an eyebrow. Instead of her normal black and grey suit that she always wore, this suit had been modified with hot pink trim.

  “Pink?” he asked.

  “I uploaded some new color swatches to Evie. Do you like it?” Ava asked and winked.

  Raze shook his head and entered his armor pod. The door slid shut and Ava looked over towards Vynce, who was butt-naked, gaping at her new color scheme.

  “You might want to cover up. I can see what you had for breakfast,” she teased.

  “Sausage? Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it,” Vynce retorted.

  “Shut the fuck up man, I was drunk, horny and we hadn’t seen ground for six months.”

  “You’re always drunk and horny.”

  “Armor up bitch, before I beat you into the ground.”

  Vynce laughed and slipped his smartsuit on.

  He was right though.

  She did enjoy it.

  She remembered the night when they’d both been drunk and put their petty bickering aside. She had enjoyed him more than once. He was confident and assertive. Not many men had the balls to be assertive towards Ava and she knew it. But that night, the drink had given her the freedom to let go.

  After that, Ava stopped drinking as much. When she felt the need to crawl to the bottom of a bottle, she always did it in her own quarters.

  Alone.

  She never talked about what happened with Vynce to anyone. Not even Captain Goldwing. It made her sad that she had found someone she could be happy with, but sadness and pain was her strength. She didn’t deserve someone like him. She’d only end up hurting him in the end.

  She realized that Vynce was staring at her and she snapped back to reality.

  “I thought I told you to suit up, woman,” she snapped.

  “Sorry, you got really quiet for a minute there. It happens so rarely I had to savor it.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Vynce laughed again and got into the armor pod. The door slid closed and Ava sighed to herself. Aloysius entered the armory, followed soon after by Captain Goldwing. Captain Goldwing raised an eyebrow when he saw Ava.

  “I saw the modification specifications as they were uploaded, but I had no idea it would be this… garish,” Draco said.

  “Wait, you knew?”

  “You know I don’t let anything happen on this ship without my knowledge.”

  “I’ll make sure I give you an extra special show next time I take a big shit, all right cap?”

  Draco rolled his eyes and groaned.

  “Yeah, just like that.”

  Draco motioned for Ava to stop. Raze stepped out of his armor pod in full red and blue assault gear. Vynce stepped out soon after in his grey and white assault gear.

  “I want all four of you to be combat ready in fifteen minutes,” Draco said. “Raze, we’re going to need your code cracking gear and the sunstorm welder. Everyone else, this is not a war zone, and we are not going to turn it into one. We only have one mission objective. We need to get the ships engines back online so we can get it out of Krakaterra’s orbit.”

  “You’d think out of one hundred thousand people, one of them would know how to get the engines back online,” Vynce said.

  “Vynce is right. There has to be something else going on here,” Raze added.

  “I know. I have the same feeling, but Evie says there is nothing else to report from the ship. Unless every single person over there has just disappeared into thin air, our mission remains. Get the engines back online and get the ship out of the danger zone. Then we can go home, drop Simms off to the Alliance military, then kick back on Vitu Anju for some much-deserved rest. How does that sound?”

  “Yeah, that sounds pretty good Captain,” Vynce said.

  “I need to step into the containment area for a couple of moments. The last thing I want is a nasty surprise to be waiting for us when we get back on board the Icarus,” Draco said.

  From the gun locker, Ava loaded two small pistols into her thigh holsters. She put a pair of buster pod attachments onto her forearms for any close combat encounters.

  The neural interlinking smartsuit made it as easy to communicate with her suit as thinking simple commands. She thought the words deploy busters and the metal pods on the outside of her forearms reconfigured themselves. The busters covered her wrists and fists with reinforced armor. A small kinetic pressure mechanism inside each buster amplified the power of each punch.

  Ava commanded her busters to stow away. They reformed themselves into streamlined pods. Ava grabbed her assault rifle from the locker and stood ready.

  Chapter Three

  The containment area door sealed behind Draco. The roof was low, and the space cramped. A staircase led down into the containment area, and one of the holding areas had been converted into a prison cell.

  The area was only ever used to keep volatile cargo secure. It wasn’t made for transporting prisoners, but it would have to do.

  Crackling pillars of pure energy ran from floor to ceiling. They acted as both a dampener for signals going in and out of the cell, and anyone stupid enough to touch the crackling energy would have the offending appendage promptly vaporized.

  The person sitting inside that cell was the most wanted human in the galaxy. His name was Veck Simms. His body was a mockery of what it meant to be human.

  Regardless of their status in the Galactic community, humanity was somewhat respected for its dogged determination to achieve what it set out to do.

  Veck Simms was known across the galaxy for possessing the same dogged determination and unflinching vision. But his aim, above all else, was to either eradicate or subjugate all other life in the galaxy. He asserted that he was working for the best interests of mankind, but he had become a monster himself; an avatar of death. He was everything that the galactic community saw humanity had the potential to become.

  Veck was naked from the waist up. He looked like a normal human, except that his shoulders ended in thick cybernetic attachment points.

  A stout believer in the pro-human right to modify their bodies as they saw fit, Veck had replaced most major systems in his body with improved synthetic alternatives. His arms had been built to look human but had all manner of attachments and augments to increase Veck’s deadliness. When Veck had been brought on board Draco literally disarmed him and locked his synthetic limbs in a separate secure location aboard the ship.

  Veck’s arms and legs were all modular systems, designed to be interchangeable with any number of upgrades and alternate attachments. His heart, lungs and stomach were completely infallible. The latest in technology. A neurotech implant in the left side of his brain also let him access any computer system wirelessly. A large capacity organic hard drive let him store memories like files in a computer, to be accessed at will. All his bodily modifications were completely illegal in council space and contravened the technological enhancement and anti-personal weaponization acts.

  Veck had a quietly amused smile on his face as Draco approached. Veck shook his head to clear his shaggy black hair from his eyes.

  “Hello Draco,” he said.

  “This isn’t a social visit, Veck. We’ve got some business to discuss.”

  “Ooh, well this is intriguing. I’ve never known the illustrious Captain Draco Goldwing to do business with monsters. That’s what you called me, isn’t it? Monster?”

  Draco ignored the question and asked, “Are you prepared to answer me one question?”

  Veck rolled his eyes.

  “Well that depends on the question, Draco.”

  “We’ve intercepted a distress beacon from a Metropolis ship. If we do not respond, one hundred thousand people are going to die. Given your interest in humanity and its survival, are you going to cause trouble while we’re gone? You’re worth just as much to me dead or alive. It’s only because of our history, and my insistence that you face trial for your crimes, that you’re still breathing.”

  “There was a
time where we could have trusted each other, Draco. But those times are long gone.”

  “The choice is yours. I can either put a bullet in your head now and save you the agony of what would happen if you tried to escape this ship, or you can wait for the bullet with your name on it back on New Earth.”

  “I assume that you’ll be on the other ship for a while. Otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’re worried I’m going to do something, and you won’t be around the save the day.” Veck laughed.

  “If our system detects that you’ve moved outside of your cell, a defense protocol will run. A highly concentrated signal will be broadcast through the ship, just for you. That implant in your head will overload, and given its position in your nerve center, will shut you down for good. You won’t be able to move; you won’t be able to speak. You won’t be able to breathe. The signal telling your heart to pump will be scrambled. You’ll be nothing but a shell, ready to be delivered to your final destination.”

  Veck paled.

  “Well played, Goldwing. You never were one to let the enemy have the upper hand.”

  “I like to have insurance.”

  “You know I’d never intentionally harm a human unless they mean to do harm to me. You do whatever it is you have to do, and I won’t cause any problems. I cross my heart and hope to die. At least I would if I had either of my fucking hands.”

  “Never intentionally harm a human? Explain to me what happened on Mekahv then.”

  Veck sighed.

  “They weren’t human. They were a crossbreed of human and Stollett genetic material. They looked human, but they weren’t. We’ve had this discussion before.”

  “You killed families. Children. Millions of them.”

  “Their screams were music. A glorious cacophony of genetic purification,” Veck said simply.

  “You’ve caused your last scream, Veck. I’m going to take pleasure in knowing that it was me who brought you to your end.”

  “And you’re also the reason it began, Draco, don’t forget that.”