The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

No. I’ve lost my mind.

She gathered the vid in stunned disbelief.

*

Michael jumped off his rifter at the coordinates Valentin provided. The city itself appeared quiet from his camouflaged perch on a forested knoll at JaRa’s southeast corner. But Michael was busy, sorting through bisected virtual windows inside his S-1 unit.

He monitored internal comms waiting for Valentin’s go-order; studied biodata of the residents while he tracked movement; and discovered a user interface with settings for personal weapons control and modification. The latter played to the soldier inside him.

“I’ll be damned.”

Michael grabbed both blast rifles simultaneously and watched the weapons UI morph into options for firing patterns, targeting, and manipulation of the explosive web inside flash pegs. Each category represented a significant upgrade from the DR29, but the secret sauce to cutting through Guard armor lay in an equation buried deep under the peg proximity triggers.

“No wonder they smoked those squads,” he said, referring to the excursions on Tamarind and Euphrates. “Snow White and the Seven Fucking Dwarves could take down a Guard unit with a little luck.”

Michael reset his targeting scheme to maximum precision. The strategy: Fire consecutive flash pegs on the identical guide path. The first peg would use its proximity trigger to explode within a millimeter of Guard armor, leaving a pea-sized weakness in the fabric for a fraction of a second, enough time for the second peg to penetrate and explode inside the body.

Would the Guard send troops if they realized the disadvantage? Yep, there’s gonna be a slaughter.

He monitored human movement but was unable to distinguish Sam – he never had much hope to do otherwise. The S-1 failed to penetrate the walls of domes and larger quadrilateral buildings. It was like tracking every other square on a checkerboard. The tech so enraptured Michael, he almost missed a silent stream signal. The sender’s identity sent shock waves.

“Maya? Oh, shit!”

He’d forgotten about her. Amid the intensity of building a new alliance, suiting up to fight with the former enemy, and sending Aldo on his way, Michael lost track of Maya. How could I do that?

He tapped his amp.

    Silent message. Vid only.

Michael needed several seconds to understand what he was viewing. A locator beacon embedded in the stream signal clarified matters. She was half a kilometer from his position. She was …

The Guardsman in the center retracted his helmet and spoke to the soldier on his right. Michael wasn’t sure whether to cheer or curse.

“And the impossible wins again! Fuck me.”

Michael owed Nilsson everything, but he was under no illusion. The Major wasn’t here to find Michael, who didn’t recognize the other officers from Ericsson Station or Praxis. He reached the only logical conclusion: The attack fleet jumped them in to scout the city. They were the enemy.

“Don’t try to be a hero, Maya. Back off.”

She was savage when required, but she couldn’t hope to take on three soldiers at once. How do I play this?

Michael charted a path to her position. He’d reach Sam by rifter in less than a minute. Would anyone scrutinize his physique as out of place if he zipped past at full speed? Yet if he succeeded, what next? Rifle fire would draw attention.

He promised not to expose himself before the go-order. Valentin needed to deploy his people to their defensive positions. Any disruption might prove catastrophic.

“No. Nilsson won’t hurt her. He won’t …”

Unless …

Maya’s stream connection proved Michael’s newest plan might be workable. But was it smart? How would the Major react?

He took a chance. Michael replied first to Maya with a simple stream: “Do nothing.” Then he raced through his protocols.

There it was. Nilsson’s Guard-assigned receptor link.

He hoped the Major wouldn’t lose his composure. If the others found out ...

OK, dumbass. Short and sweet. Clever.

“Maj. Nilsson,” he said, “Don’t say a word. It’s Michael. I see you. Please stand down. You don’t understand what’s about to happen.”

*

Nilsson and his officers struggled to locate the composite energy signature amid their inability to see through these brontinium-walled buildings. But success arrived nonetheless.

They found three clusters.

Col. Marlowe reported four adult signatures in a clearing east.

“Possible children, but difficult to assess,” she said.

Manning processed signatures darting between buildings. Small, inconsistent.

“Children,” he said. “I think.”

Nilsson saw the most promising cluster on the move. Center of the city, eight to ten distinct signatures among a crowd of humans.

“Methodical movement, as if they’re marching. They’re walking along a route that might take them to your targets, Marlowe.”

“Orders, Major?” She said.

“If we’re together, we can do the most damage. But that’s not the mission. We need viable children. Infants, preferably. We scout from behind each cluster. We use the brontinium walls as tracking shields. If you have a fix on a target and reasonable chance of escape, make your move. Minimize collateral.”

“The brontinium,” Manning said, “might be a stroke of luck. If the adults go full-on Berserker, we’ll have a fighting chance.”

“Agreed. Spread out along our line seventy meters in either direction. When you’re in position, we move. We have forty minutes left on the hour Poussard promised. Make the best of it.”

Marlowe and Manning weren’t ten meters out when Nilsson’s amp received a signal he never expected. For an instant, he thought Poussard was breaking silence protocol. Instead, the unlikeliest voice.

“Maj. Nilsson,” he said, “It’s Michael. Don’t say a word. I see you. Please stand down. You don’t understand what’s about to happen.”

The stream was live, sent through a secure military amplink. This was a hell of a trick or …

“Cooper? You survived?”

“More or less. The officers with you – can they hear?”

“No.”

“You have to listen. If you go into the city, you’ll die. This place is not what you