Meliora

by Starscribe

Chapter 28: Latidens

Axis Mundi had seen better days.

As Jackie made her way down its densely-packed streets, she found herself wishing she could glance over her shoulder and search for stalking attackers with every moment.

There was debris in almost every street now, bits of paint were peeling, and plenty of the windows were cracked. Jackie stopped to inspect her reflection in what had once been a fancy shop window. She could barely see herself, or what had been dresses inside. But this place had been looted like several of the other shops.

A voice echoed from the speakers overhead, the same voice she’d been hearing since she arrived. “Mundi security forces are here to help. Please remember that obstructing their duties is a crime and carries severe penalties. Refusing to report for work shift is a crime that carries severe penalties. The current district crime numbers for Paris Row are: Burglaries… 17 incidents this quarter. Assaults…”

On and on it went. Jackie pulled her jumpsuit a little tighter—but so far, her disguise was paying off. She’d caused an accident for a member of Athena’s strategic team, after extracting what she could from her mind. Now she would be taking her place.

She reached the transport station a moment later, and climbed into the waiting ground-car. These were still polished and clean, though there was a member of Mundi security standing on either side of the station. They saluted as she climbed inside, apparently recognizing her many medals and patches.

Something stirred in the breast pocket of her jumpsuit, and Misty’s head emerged from inside. She still looked like a seapony, but didn’t bother with many of the more inconvenient aspects. Like breathing water. “Has anypony seen us yet?”

“Lots of ponies have seen us,” Jackie said. “But I don’t need your surprise, no. We want them to see us.”

“Oh.” The pony shrunk back inside, curling up a little. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

“I suppose you weren’t ever very good at the covert,” Jackie muttered. “Or… Alex wasn’t. You could be if you wanted to be. She always gave herself away. She was so confident in her powers she’d just march into the enemy camp and dare them to shoot her. Sometimes they did, and she’d be gone for months afterwards. But the rest of us don’t get that luxury.”

The city sped past outside. They were transferred onto a second set of tracks, then started rising up through the terraced buildings. Jackie got glimpses of work crews stripping down burned buildings, what looked like an exploded vertical farm, and soldiers practicing their physical training.

“You could have,” said the little voice from her pocket. “I hear you’re the only pony ever who gave up becoming an Alicorn. Why?”

She opened her mouth to lie, or to say something snide, then swallowed. The tiny creature was still developing—it needed a better example than that. “Because I didn’t want to live forever if my wife couldn’t see it,” she said. “Sooner or later… maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe a thousand years from now… I’ll run into somepony better than me. They’ll draw faster than I can, they’ll aim straighter than I expect. Or maybe a nuke will land on me and I’ll never see it coming. Either way…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll be ready for it when it comes. I’ve lived long enough.”

They slowed down as they entered the station, and another second later the doors hissed open. No time for Misty to respond before she straightened up and started walking again. Her fake body was an older, elegant unicorn, and so she had to adopt that swagger. Not hard for her, though she wasn’t half as good as Ezri could’ve been. The changeling had been a true expert at the craft. She could learn in a few minutes enough to impersonate someone convincingly to their best friends.

Strategic Headquarters was much as she remembered it, a tower that stretched so high above Mundi it was almost in the clouds. It had many windows, providing them with the views that had once held marauding armies of the unmade. There was only desert out there now, with the occasional spire of ruined stone emerging from the sand. Grim reminders of the last war.

Ponies saluted to her as she walked inside, and she didn’t return the gesture. She had so little time here—no time to second guess who deserved her respect and who did not.

She walked straight to the massive elevator, then scanned her hoof against a reader and stepped back. The sensor hummed for a moment, then Athena’s voice answered from the console. “I did not expect you to return until tomorrow, Evelyn. Did you not enjoy the simulator?”

She shook her head once. “I loved it, but I can’t enjoy it while war looms over Mundi so. I’ll enjoy it twice as long once we triumph.”

“Very well.” The elevator started moving. “To your office then?”

“My office.”

Jackie suppressed all fear—even a slight irregularity in her heartbeat might be enough for this computer to read. If it had the right sensors in here, there was no telling what it might know about her. Jackie had never anticipated fighting the program, so she hadn’t bothered getting deep into the details of how she worked. When Earth was being invaded by monsters, the ones on their side just hadn’t seemed that threatening.

And that’s how she almost took over the planet. She did take it over, for two centuries. But we’ll be taking it back.

The elevator opened onto an ordinary hallway—the one she’d expected, based on Evelyn’s extracted memories. She started walking meaningfully down the hall, exactly as her victim had done. The door buzzed open into the ceiling as she approached, and Jackie was able to walk in without difficulty. Almost got it. Just a little more.

Almost everything in here was automated or connected to Athena in some way. Jackie sat down at the desk as though she knew exactly what she was doing, and she did. She knew how to use the hardware, anyway, and she knew what to expect from a general’s workstation.

There were plenty of messages to answer—reports from those who wanted to coordinate with her. She went through a few of the ones that were most urgent, typing a few lines of what would probably seem like responses. She didn’t actually send any of them, though.

Is Athena watching me? Probably. The key with Athena was avoiding her concentrated attention. She was far more intelligent than any individual, and her attention could be spread much thinner than with a pony or even a changeling queen. But she still had her limits. Most of her was still focused out in space, at things that even Jackie didn’t understand. What little scraps of herself she used to watch Earth were probably occupied with all sorts of things. So long as Jackie didn’t do anything to draw her mind down on her, she could probably keep reading safely.

She skimmed through lots of documents, but never long enough to read them. Her own memory could be probed when she left, but too much time reading things she already knew would certainly be suspicious.

From the bits and pieces that made it to the level of the conscious, she saw more evidence of what she’d seen on her way in. Mundi was a city on the edge of revolt. The larger military served a dual purpose—removing plenty of unemployed ponies from the streets and training them to keep the peace.

A few glances at the internal news sources provided her with a bleak picture indeed—losing such a significant portion of the labor force all at once had struck a powerful blow against Athena. Many factories had closed, and the city was now struggling to keep up with demand for many goods. And where there was rationing, there was discontent.

She saw no sign that Evelyn had understood Athena’s true purpose. The machine didn’t really care about Mundi—probably, its fall was planned here. The ponies had become too soft, too dependent. Maybe she planned on perfecting some competent servants during the war, then using them to found a new state.

Maybe a lot of things, but none of them mattered to Jackie. You won’t be planning anything on Earth when I’m through with you, program. Your days are almost over.

She was nearly looking through the documents she’d come to see when the door chimed loudly, then slid open into the ceiling.

A single pony floated on the other side, its body wrapped all in thin metallic armor and its eyes dark red spots under its goggles. Jackie could feel the powerful magic emanating from it, pushing back the carpet underneath, making the lights flicker.

Its proportions were… wrong. Its joints seemed swollen, while other parts of its body seemed a little shriveled and small. Beneath the armor and jumpsuit, Jackie could see that its fur was coming in ragged patches. When it spoke, it was not aloud, but thoughts that she could hear. Thoughts projected directly into her mind.

“General Evelyn,” said the voice. “You are required.”

What the fuck are you? Jackie rose to her hooves, turning away from the computer. “Of course. Lead the way.”

Jackie could feel something twitch briefly in her pocket, then vanish. Misty had fled to the dream world. She could still watch her, and come over almost instantly if Jackie needed her. Probably just as well you be out of reach. This much magic… might sense you eventually. Could this thing read her thoughts?

No, she realized. There was nothing trying to penetrate her mind. That was a sensation she remembered well from the days of ancient war. She would not be so easily penetrated if that was what this creature was for.

“My vacation was not supposed to end until tomorrow,” Jackie said, her voice matter-of-fact. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to talk to these creatures at all, but she couldn’t rightly take her words back now. “What is so urgent that it consumes the time I reserved for catching up?”

“There has been a change of assignment,” said the thing. “The War Department has determined that the rebels possess no ship sufficient to repel even a single battlecruiser. There is no commander more qualified.”

“Well then.” She didn’t have to force her smile. “How wise of the War Department. I will use this honor well.”

She followed the creature down another set of hallways, and into an enclosed tram system with seats for a dozen ponies. The creature never sat down, not at any point, and rarely took its eyes from her.

But whatever it was looking for, it never found. Because another few moments later they reached the drydock, and she saw the only ship obviously ready to deploy.

The battlecruiser was easily the size of a pre-Event skyscraper, except with more elegant curves. It had no wings as such, only a few slim protrusions that wouldn’t interfere too much with its path through the air. An entire section of the ship seemed mounted on independent rotators, and would no doubt house the crew if this ship was sent off planet.

There were several umbilicals connected right then—cargo connectors, fuel lines that hissed and smoked, and flickering data cables. But from the speed of movement she saw, it looked like they wouldn’t be attached for very long.

She went straight to the crew elevator, which she didn’t need a freakish escort to find. And she wasn’t the only one to feel intimidated—many of the military ponies backed up and out of their way, suddenly finding other activities to occupy their time rather than riding up with the two of them. They were alone as the doors shut, and they began rising up into the sky. “When do we leave?” Jackie asked, watching through the clear front window as they rose higher and higher into the dock. It must have been almost a mile up before they reached the battlecruiser.

“Two hours,” her escort said, its voice echoing strangely in the elevator. A little like a changeling, without any of the endearing humility. “Athena wishes the rebel city reduced to ash. We will burden ourselves with no prisoners.”

Comments

[Condray]

Seems like Athena just handed them a battle-ready BC. Whoopsie

[Bast]

9276580
Or she knows and wishers Mundi to fall xD? This is to convenient/ to good to be true.

[KMCA]

Did Athena repurpose a changeling queen to produce her battlebugs? Hmm... no it had fur.

Athena... what fucked up games are you playing? She obviously knows that it's Jackie, the coinsidence is too big... Is she handing over a battlecruiser for them to fight with?
Or perhaps using it to drum up outrage saying that they attacked it? But Athena could 1984 that shit.

I'll just have to wait.

[Lightwavers]

When dealing with SAI, assume every outcome is the one it wants.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Mutant psychic ponies? Did someone feed Warhammer 40k to Athena way back in the day?

In any case, wonderful tension. I truly have no idea whether Jackie's infiltration has been compromised or not. Looking forward to more.

[Yami Vizzini]

Well, what are the odds....