I applied the upgrade.
"I've already used the tranquilizer gas," I said.
"You can't make more?"
I could recycle a bit. It wouldn't be the quantities it had been before.
"I can slow her down, but you might have to finish the job," I said.
"I'll figure it out," Mechos said
"Her location is going to be at the very edge of her range."
"I know it. I'll stop by the surface first and broadcast a visual for you," Mechos said, flickering out of existence.
A moment later he did as promised. I didn't get much video, just a few seconds, but it was enough to give me some idea what I was dealing with.
There were three airships in the sky, each in shades of black and red, and they were smaller than the Righteous vessel—which was nowhere in sight. The weaponry looked to be different as well, some sort of energy cannons instead of the kinetic bolts the Righteous fired.
I sent the images to a monitor in the Infirmary and hit Anna with enough stimulants to wake her.
"Stop lazing about and tell me if you recognize these ships," I said.
Anna turned her head and her eyes widened in alarm. "Scholars. Get me mobile."
"You have multiple broken bones."
"Fix me later. I need to be up and conscious," Anna said.
I had the autodoc begin applying splints to her limbs.
Mechos rematerialized. Like Anna when she returned, he was moving at high speed and the crunch against the wall was familiar. An instant later he flickered away into the hall outside.
But Mechos hadn't come alone. The woman that materialized too had dark hair and was incredibly thin and long-limbed.
My cameras only fixed on her for a moment before she became a blur. I didn't know what she intended, but I wasn't inclined to let her finish and find out. I triggered the release of the gas.
Runner hit the high-friction flooring and screamed as she tumbled and crashed against a wall. Her body was vibrating at an intensely high rate of speed and, somehow, she phased right through the floor to drop into the level below.
Runner had escaped my trap, but not unscathed. She was coughing violently and thick, black veins were pulsing along her flesh. The power-neutralizing gas had gotten into her system. Like Hot Stuff, her power was trying to resist it and would probably win.
Runner's body gave another of those blurring shimmers and she fell through two floors this time. Her body was starting to convulse. The gas was at least making her powers unpredictable.
I teleported my warrior mole to her and it sprang onto her body. This wasn't an attack, it was just establishing physical contact. Once the mole was touching her I teleported both into an open containment cell and triggered the field.
The moment they arrived the mole seemed to explode, it was as if were shaken so hard and so quickly that its body tore apart. Blood and fragments of bone sprayed in all directions, and Runner went all but invisible from the rate of her movement as she tested the walls of her cell.
When the others had called her dangerous I'd thought they must be exaggerating. They weren't. I had Mechos moved to the Infirmary, his limp body shifted onto a bed even as Anna was getting off hers.
Anna was pumped so full of pain killers she wasn't feeling a thing. That was fortunate. With the damage she'd suffered, I doubted she'd be able to move at all otherwise.
"What happened to him?" Anna asked.
"He finished the work you failed at. Runner is in captivity. Tell me about the people shooting at us," I said.
"Open me a channel. Frequency should be 460.25," Anna said.
Did she not remember which one of us was in charge?
Still, if it might stop people from shooting at me...
I opened the channel.
"This is Scholarium Adelites Annabella Besari. Cease your attack on this facility at once," Anna said.
The mountain stopped trembling.
I muted the connection and asked, "So, not quite the power-hungry madwoman and thief you made yourself out to be?"
"I'm every bit those things. I'm hoping they don't realize it yet," Anna said. She gestured for me to open the channel again.
A clipped, female voice was saying, "You're confirmed. We're detecting power levels over five from the mountain and received double distress beacons."
Anna motioned for me to mute the signal again.
"Fuck. Two beacons? Do you know what happened?" Anna asked.
"The two people the Commander left behind detonated themselves near my reactor and Core Room. Could that be what they are referring to?" I asked.
"Damn it. We should have scanned them. Put me back on," Anna said.
She called back, "I don't know their identities. I was attaining a Command core and they were enthralled."
"You neutralized them?" the voice asked.
"Yes," Anna said.
"That will require review. I'll contact the Legasa on your behalf. Do you require assistance?"
"Negative. Thank you and good hunting," Anna said.
"Good hunting."
39
I killed the channel. Anna had some questions to answer.
"They won't be back immediately, but they will be back. We need to build you some shielding panels. We can make it look like I moved on," Anna said.
"They were picking up whatever readings they were getting through a mountain," I said.
"It's your Power cores. You're registering as a major prize," Anna said.
"You're registering as a major inconvenience. Who are they and who are you?"
"I'm Anna, like I said. I want to rule the world—like I said. Scholars collect and horde cores for the Lords and Ladies of the Rim. I got kind of sick of fetching and carrying for someone else."
That all made some sort of sense.
"And we aren't stealing from these Lords and Ladies directly for what reason?" I asked.
"Because you aren't ready for that fight yet. Oh, we're going to. We're going to burn their palaces to the ground and make them kneel to me, but we aren't ready yet," Anna said, with grim determination.
"I need more than that."
"I'm high as a kite and more than a little delirious. That's all you're getting for now. They don't come this way often. They'll probably hunt a few cores and be on their way," Anna said.
"What is their relationship to the Righteous?"
"They don't like each other. It isn't going to make much sense to you, but after the Cataclysm think of the Earth like the solar system. At the centre the rules of the old world still mostly hold. And there is the Rim, where they break down the most," Anna said.
"I can accept that. You said the Lords and Ladies are allied with the Rim?" I asked.
"Yeah. Where Power cores are at their strongest and nothing is quite like it ever has been. They live in extravagant luxury while surrounded by unspeakable horrors," Anna said.
"Those two wouldn't seem to go together."
"It's a weird place. The Righteous, though, are all about the world that was. They try to get Power cores and strip them of their power, bring things back a little bit more. You might say they're on a mission to put the old world together piece by piece."
"It sounds more like they are mortal enemies than they just don't like each other," I said.
Anna tried to shrug and winced "My painkillers are wearing off. A war is coming, everyone knows it's coming, but it isn't here yet."
If a war was coming, then it begged the question of whose side we were on? Did we have one, or were we our own?
The Rim seemed interested in stealing my cores—they hadn't come to talk, but came with guns blazing. The Righteous at least wanted to talk, eventually, but Anna said they weren't to be trusted. I also knew now that Anna came into this with her own prejudices.
First, I had to make sure I was capable of fighting anyone right now. Mechos, Anna, Abigail, and one of the Mechanites were all in the Infirmary. I'd lost my warrior mole and would have to replace it. The tunnels into the base were even more caved in after the shelling we'd just taken, and a good fifty percent of my systems were functioning irregularly after the power surges of earlier.