TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 35 - Devastation

“I can’t fucking believe this…” I muttered, as I watched the developing battle through one of my squirrels. The situation had degraded from a cautious stand-off into a full blown brawl in the streets. As soon as I released the delegates from the back of my Kodiaks, they’d scattered, and within minutes their forces were clashing.

As soon as I found out the fighting restarted I headed to my new Marsupial, and was using its command center to monitor the situation. 

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do here. Part of me just wanted to just leave them to their devices, but now it seemed like neither side cared about causing collateral damage, just dealing with their foes. 

That wouldn’t have been so bad if they’d kept their fighting to the areas that had been previously evacuated, but both sides had also sent recon squads to find out who had fired upon the meeting. 

Apparently neither side had dealt with Helmar, believing they’d been crippled when I removed much of their PMC support. Unfortunately the corp still had all their in-house security, the majority of their arsenal, and a really intense grudge. Apparently they thought that keeping the conflict going was in their best interest, so they fired upon the peace conference and ambushed the teams sent to investigate.

Now there were minor skirmishes happening all over the city. 

I was watching an Applied Systems superheavy, a twelve-wheeled monster with a naval gun in the turret, put rounds through the opposing tanks when I received a call. Rather than take it through my augs, I redirected it to a nearby monitor. Apparently it was a conference call, because almost a dozen samurai IDs popped up on the screen.

“Teddy… I assume the peace talks did not go as planned,” Hel started.

“No, it went fine. Both sides just thought they had too much military hardware and wanted to get rid of some,” I replied sarcastically. “Of course they didn’t go as planned! The council apparently used me to threaten Applied Systems and their allies, without my knowledge, then Helmar decided that the best way they could contribute to the process was to fire missiles at the venue. It’s a complete cluster fuck!”

“Calm down, Teddy, we’re not blaming you,” Zettabyte cut in, “We just want to know what’s going on.”

“It’s chaos, that’s what it is,” I said. “The fuckers are ripping each other apart, and dont’ care who gets caught in the middle.” As if to emphasize my statement, something massive exploded several blocks away. Based upon the size of the fireball, it must have been a refueling station. Hopefully one that was next to a building, instead of on top of one.

“I’m putting together a picture of the situation, would you mind sharing your surveillance footage?” Zetta asked. He was usually so laid back when I talked to him, it was strange to hear the tension in his voice. “Between you, Bright-Eyes, and the local systems we should be able to keep track of everything.”

“Sure, I can do that, for whatever it’s worth,” I replied helplessly. “Fuck… if I knew things would spiral this quickly I would have kept everyone locked up in my Kodiaks until they worked things out.”

“I doubt it would have helped,” Hoppy said, “Even if they managed to come to an agreement, things would have broken down eventually. Based upon how fast they moved, I’d guess that both sides were preparing to attack before the peace conference started.”

“Wonderful,” I said glumly. “What happens now?”

“Apparently Mirage, and his allies, have decided to remain out of the main conflict, and have instead started targeting Helmar’s forces. While Applied Systems and the Council are at least focused on fighting each other, Helmar is acting like a cornered dog and attacking whatever they can, regardless of the casualties,” Hel reported. “Although the situation has deteriorated, The Family’s position is still one of neutrality. We won’t get involved. If any of you want to take action, that’s entirely on you.”

“Do we have any idea how long this could last? They’re going at it pretty hard right now,” Humboldt asked.

“Although both sides are heavily engaged, they can only bring a small portion of their forces to bear at once. I estimate that’ll take days of heavy fighting for things to calm down, at least a week or more before one side can gain any sort of serious advantage over the other,” Zettabyte reported. “It won’t be a swift war.”

“Fucking great,” I muttered. “I told everyone I wasn’t going to get involved, but if they’re going to keep this up for a week, maybe I should threaten to intervene.”

“And if you do, that’s entirely on you,” Hel immediately let me know.

“Yeah, I know,” I grumbled. “Anything else we need to discuss?” 

“We have a couple people evacuating civilians on the outskirts of the conflict. Both sides have expanded their front lines in an attempt to bring more firepower to bear, and we may need some help to get everyone out in time. Can you help?” Hel asked.

“Sure,” I said, turning to look at my team. “Send me the information and I’ll have Spooky coordinate, he’s better at that stuff than I am.”

“Thank you,” Hel said quietly. “Anyone else have something to share?” 

“The Denver samurai contingent seems to be staying out of the conflict for the time being,” a male voice reported. I didn’t recognize either the voice or the name, Dusty Iron. I really needed to make an effort to meet the rest of the samurai in the town in the future.

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Hel replied. “The last thing we need right now is for two samurai to clash, and injure each other, or worse…”

“Missile launch!” Zetta interrupted. “From the south side, unable to determine the target!”

I ran to the side of the bridge, just in time to catch the sight of a set of familiar looking missiles clearing the top of the surrounding buildings. The surrounding anti-air emplacements opened up, but it was once again obvious they weren’t going to take down all the missiles.

I squinted at the distant munitions as they tilted towards their target.

“Nyx are they?” I started

Targeting you? No, they’re targeting the nearby superheavy combat, unfortunately the Marsupial is hovering far too close to the combat. I cannot be sure that the ship won’t be hit by the blowback.

“And the PAWS aren’t strong enough to shoot them down,” I finished. I turned back towards the bridge crew and yelled. “Evasive action!”

That won't be enough. The marsupial is not the swiftest vehicle, and the missiles will be here in seconds.

“Then we throw everything we can at them,” I growled, sending out a quick command. Every Kodiak that had been at the Stampede grounds, along with the marsupial swung their turrets towards the south and opened fire. The marsupial shook from the aftershock of all those coil gun projectiles breaking the sound barrier, two missiles were intercepted, but one remained.

“Teddy? What’s going on up there?” I heard Humboldt ask. 

Shit, I’d forgotten to close the call. “Talk later! Busy!” I yelled.

“Is something…” I cut the connection before Hoppy could finish her question. I appreciated their concern, but I really didn’t have the time to deal with them right now. 

The marsupial tilted slightly as it desperately tried to clear the blast zone. I watched the missile grow larger and larger in the window as it rapidly grew closer and closer. Then the Kodiaks fired again. 

I honestly thought I’d died for a moment as the flash half blinded me, and the blastwave slammed into the marsupial, throwing me into a nearby console. It took me several seconds to regain my senses and realize that I was in one piece. Unfortunately I couldn’t say the same for the marsupial. 

I tried to ignore the blaring alarm, and flashing lights as I staggered over to the window. Or what was left of it. The entire viewport had been completely blown away by the explosion, leaving the bridge open to the outside. The hull armor, strong enough to repel Model Elevens, barely survived the explosion. If that missile had been any closer it might have damaged something essential, like one of the engines.

My augs informed me of a couple incoming calls, but I ignored them, my eyes were locked on the south side. 

“That’s it,” I hissed, “Intervention time.”