The figure halts about twenty metres away.
Rennin shines a torch and can see this man is badly wounded, bleeding heavily from both arms. “Tessol?”
Sindaris tries to answer but sways with weariness, barely managing to nod before croaking, “I can’t move…”
Rennin takes a few cautious steps towards Sindaris and shines the light into his face to get a look at him. He sees binary pupils turn to slits in magenta eyes when the light touches his face. “What the fuck?”
Sindaris’ eyes roll up in his head and he falls over.
Above Raddocks Horizon there’s a shadow in the sky. That shadow is a station in extremely low geosynchronous orbit known as the Skyhook.
Doctor Mepida Rethrin stands at the docking area alone, watching as a small transport lands, the Godyssey emblem proudly emblazoned on the side. A hatch opens, producing Doctor Jellan Roths. Her lab coat is ripped and dirty, leaving exposed lacerations on both her body and face. For a second Rethrin thinks she’s infected, but her eyes are decidedly human and focussed. Roths’ expression looks more lethal than a loaded gun. “We’ve lost the city.”
Rethrin has already thought so but to hear it from one of the most intelligent minds of the modern age adds an entirely new level of discomfort for her. “Your report on the Suvaco units is—”
“Shocking, to say the least,” Roths interrupts. “William refuses to allow us to call in the HolinMech Warrior androids to help. His revolting project, Del, has gone rogue. I’ve been watching what general city surveillance remains on emergency power to find it. I only found it once and recorded what it was doing,” she says holding up a memory stick.
“What’s on it?”
“Not here.”
“What is it?” Rethrin asks.
“It’s too serious to show when someone might be watching us.”
“This whole station is automated, no one’s here but us.”
“No one’s here? Skyhooks are epidemic relief and treatment stations. Why is there no one here? Where are the medical staff?” asks Roths looking around, noticing the oppressive silence.
“I don’t know and I don’t care right now. At least it’s Godyssey, we’re safe here.”
“Look at me!” shouts Roths, holding out her arms to leave the tattered rags of her jacket draping down. “This happened to me in a Godyssey city! William’s pet project is ripping people apart and our company built the blasted thing.”
“The infected?”
“Everyone,” says Roths making her way past Rethrin. “Take me somewhere we can view it.”
Rethrin leads Roths through the empty Skyhook orbital base to a cabin she’s commandeered as her operational base. “Why did you wait so long to come up here?”
“There was work to do and many were wounded when the lab was hit by Prototype.”
Rethrin unlocks the door and they enter her cabin. “Desolator 1 fired without permission, did you hear?”
“I saw it fire. I informed the Defence Force and they’ve frozen all commands to the satellites in-city,” Roths says wiping her filthy brow.
“What did the Defence Force say in terms of relief effort?”
“There won’t be one. I spoke with General Faraday. He’s stationed just outside the city with the evacuated survivors. He said they’ve lost contact with their command.”
“Jesus Christ. How far has this spread?”
“Irrelevant,” says Roths handing her associate the disk. “Play it.”
Rethrin puts the disk into her personal terminal on her desk and the security footage starts playing with Del immediately drawing attention, holding a contaminant face down on the road and literally tearing it apart one chunk at a time. The contaminant is desperately thrashing around but Del’s grip is firm. Del thrusts his free hand down hard to pierce the fragile skin, ripping out the spinal column in one brutal movement, killing the contaminant instantly.
The spine itself wriggles about, a life form in its own right. Rethrin squints trying to get a closer look at the parasitic organism. Del gently places the spine in a sack of some kind and the recording ends. Rethrin looks to her superior immensely confused. “Why is it doing that?”
“I don’t know. It’s been doing that all over the city,” Roths says, removing the surveillance disk and handing Rethrin printouts of other bodies; stills taken from other cameras. All have the same injuries, their backs ripped open and spine torn out.
“Del’s been rogue for two hours now and has cut a swath like that in a straight line leading towards Centre-city District.”
“Why the spines? Why just the spines?”
“I don’t know, but it’s no mere trophy. William didn’t program that in, I’m sure of it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Del is specifically designed to kill androids. He was built to hunt the progenitor-class,” explains Roths.
“What can we do?”
“William is stuck in that city now, and the Horizon Military aren’t equipped to deal with the growing hostile infected and a combat-grade android,” says Roths typing into the console, bringing up an emergency communications channel with the HolinMech android moon base Iyatoya.
Van Gower answers the call, his hair dishevelled. He wipes his eyes. “Doctor Roths? How did you get this code?”
“Chairman Van Gower, we’ve issued an emergency distress call requesting the aid of HolinMech androids, and it has gone practically unanswered.”
“They’re in diagnostics.”
“For an incident that happened months ago! The Defence Force of the United Governments has been informed and tomorrow morning you’ll be demanded to release them. I’m calling to advise you, as my employer, that a receptive attitude to their aggressive request would be the wisest course of action.”
“Thank you for giving me a heads up, Doctor Roths,” he looks at her on his screen and frowns. “You look terrible.”
“I only just made it to the Skyhook, the lab was destroyed, it’s a disaster zone down there. Personally I don’t understand why you’re delaying so long just for diagnostics that should already have been well and truly completed.”
“It’s best to be completely prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” she almost spits.
“Watch your tone, doctor.”
Roths’ eyes blaze. “How dare you? You haven’t the slightest concept of what is happening down here. It must be an amazing comfort looking at all this from a safe distance but when these things, wearing the faces of people you know, are bearing down on you you’ll find that common etiquette for people holding back valuable resources tends to escape you,” she says, her tone utter poison.
For a moment Van Gower is silent. “I’m ordering you to evacuate the Skyhook since no other aerial transports are going to be entering or leaving the city apart from military gunships. The Horizon Military are beginning a full retreat. Whitechapel is being cleared as well by the train system.”
Roths’ forehead furrows. “The trains only hold a few hundred, how many trips are they going to make?”
“One.”
“One? That won’t evacuate everyone.”
“Not a tenth. It’s an executive order that as many immune as we can fit will be given passage on the trains and all others will remain behind, military and civilian alike.”
“Until when?”
“Until the Alpha HolinMech team is deployed and seizes control of the city.”
“When will that be?” demands Roths.
“As soon as possible.”
“They have to hold out indefinitely, is that what you’re saying?”
“The HolinMech Warrior team, led by Magnus Breen, will be en route and that is all you need to know. Until then, all Skyhook personnel—you two—will be moved up here. Tomorrow,” says Van Gower disconnecting.