Chapter 12
Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Fourth Month, Fifteenth Day, Celestial Calendar
As a chitin-armored hoof swept through the space her head had occupied moments before, IJ grunted and twirled, catching her opponent across the head with one wing and buying herself breathing room, "Why *are* you here? Is Celestia watching me that closely still?" The milky white Pegasus grunted, and slammed her back hooves into Four as he strayed too close.
Varan parried a swift and terrible assault from Two as he answered. The fact that he was utterly unfazed by the peril of the situation reflected in his placid tone, "We came to ask your assistance in translating something written in Changeling. We arrived just in time to discover that you were under attack."
Kephic screeched, and embedded his sword into One as Fyrenn distracted the drone with a lightning quick parry. One hissed in pain, but pulled away and seemed to be mostly unharmed. His skin boiled temporarily like a pot of stew, before resettling sans wound.
The Speckled Gryphon glowered, "Would you rather we'd let you handle them by yourself?!"
IJ huffed, "I had it sorted. I wasn't spawned yesterday!" She grit her teeth, adding emphasis to the last word as she ducked under a renewed assault from Two, who had temporarily eluded Varan.
From experience IJ knew that their enemies were dangerous. She had been a Changeling once herself; Her name, short for 'Inside Joke,' had been her final cover assignment. She had spent weeks travelling with Fyrenn, Kephic, Varan, Neyla, and Carradan on a mission. Her objective had been to collect Gryphon life-code samples, and report on their actions to the Queen.
When she had been discovered by Neyla, Fyrenn and the others had, to varying degrees, interceded on her behalf, thanks in no small part to the fact that she had passed up an opportunity to betray them and escape cleanly.
Celestia had taken that into consideration and, as punishment, consigned her to live permanently in her Pegasus morph.
She had forced her to fully shift.
Changeling morphing required a Drone to keep a hold of several percent of their own base life-code. They could shift entirely to a form, but doing so was an irrevocable choice. For some forms, the required percentage of 'anchor' was higher than others. For Ponies it was quite low, for Gryphons quite high.
In the end, the latter had never much mattered. No Changeling had ever escaped a mission to acquire Gryphon life code. One of the greatest shames of the Hive, and greatest tactical disadvantages.
Celestia's act was not entirely one of punishment. Changeling Drones' life spans were short, on the order of twenty years, and Ponies' were quite long, often numbering well over a century. With IJ's new life came the promise of a new future. Try as she might, however, she had never quite been able to adjust to life in Cloudsdale. She would never admit it, but it had its moments and pleasures.
Nonetheless, it wasn't her home.
She hadn't seen her spawn place since the attempted Changeling assault on Canterlot years prior. During the route and retreat she had been given instructions through the Hive Mind to embed herself in the Royal Guard. Apparently the Queen herself had maintained, temporarily, close access to the Captain of the Guard himself, allowing her to lay backstops for the infiltration.
IJ's appearance still reflected the events. Her coat was white and adorned with a divided drama mask cutie mark. Her mane was bright blue and short cropped. Like a Royal Guard. Unlike the guards, it was not dye in her case; It had been simpler to just morph the colors completely.
So she was stuck with them.
She rammed her front hooves into Four, taking advantage of a moment of distraction.
The last time she had seen Drones fighting, they had been in an incredibly weakened state. The product of mass famine. They had relied, foolishly, on pure swarming numbers and 'Pony passivity' to win them the day. But Celestia's hoof-picked proteges had put a stop to the invasion in short order. IJ had personally witnessed dozens if not hundreds of Drones defeated by six Ponies alone.
The Drones she and her rescuers were facing, however, were a smaller and much more lethal force. A fully rested and prepared Changeling, while not quite as fast as a Gryphon, came very very close. A combat ready Hive Drone was one of the most dangerous warriors in Equestria, something the Gryphons would even admit aloud if asked, whcih said something in and of itself.
The remainder of the speed and agility gap between Changelings, and species like the Gryphons, was more than compensated for by the ability to use morphing to move and duplicate internal organs, repair wounds, and shut down pain receptors.
It was energy intensive in the extreme, making it useless for large scale battles in the modern era of low emotional resources, but the Drones they were facing had clearly been infused with love from Chrysalis herself. Ample to their task, with surplus left over.
Under most circumstances, any enemy would have fled from three Gryphons, let alone ones backed by Ponies; But the Drones, while they had no hope of defeating the avians out and out, did still have a chance to subdue IJ and make off with her.
If they could render her unconscious, they would likely be able to hold off the others long enough to morph Pegasi, and carry her away. With their access to innate weather magic and multi-Mach speeds, they would be able to loose her rescuers in the storm, and make good on their escape.
IJ groaned. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she realized she did need a rescue.
There was only one logical course. Using a brief moment of free movement, IJ launched herself between Four and Two, landing beside Fyrenn and Kephic, and placing her firmly out of reach of the attacking Drones. The sense of relief was immediate, and she found its depth surprising.
Fyrenn grinned at One, "Come on then! Is this suddenly starting to look a little less like the one-sided fight you had your shriveled little chitinous hearts set on?"
Carradan winced, and glared, ears pinned flat, "Ahhhh... Do we really have to antagonize them?"
The Gryphons tensed, spreading out into a semi-circle with weapons raised in defensive positions that covered all possible angles of attack. Skye slowly crabbed to the side to make it easier to provide defensive magic for Carradan if necessary. The move brought her slightly closer to IJ, who glowered, "Stay out of my way horn-head."
Skye snorted, "Relax miss priss. There is *no* danger of you being close enough to my league for me to get in your way."
Any further chance of argument was precluded by the Drones. Two bowed his head, eyes glittering with calculating malice, and stepped backwards, taking up a seated position on the floor. As One and Four spread out, crouching into ready positions, Two's twisted horn began to glow softly; Wings rustling absently and muzzle moving swiftly as he quietly uttered enchantments, or mnemonics to help him remember the components of a complex spell.
IJ's brow knit reflexively. Their enemies were too far from the Hive to leverage the perfect and infinite memory that it provided. Whatever Two intended to do, it was likely unpleasant. She had never seen Unicorns use mnemonics to remember spell components in her time at Canterlot, save for the mages and captains in the Royal Guard's inner circle. Their spells were stunningly powerful, and far beyond the ken of an average mage.
She glanced up at Fyrenn, "You can't let him finish that spell."
Kephic adjusted the grip on his sword, never breaking eye contact with Four, "Why?"
IJ sighed, "Well I don't know! I suppose it *could* be the fact that any spell requiring a mnemonic to remember its components, being cast by a sworn enemy of yours, sent here to drug me and carry me away into the night, should be *concerning* to you. But I suppose that's just a theory."
Kephic shot a sideways glance at Fyrenn, sighing, "I suppose its too late to just hand her over to them and pretend this never happened?"
Varan twirled his mace lazily in a wide arc, shaking his head briefly, "Many years too late. In some small way perhaps, we still owe her. To say nothing of what honor requires of us."
The speckled Gryphon sighed again, deeply, "Are you *ever* going to understand sarcasm?"
Fyrenn shrugged, "Maybe IJ can give him pointers when we're done here."
One rolled his eyes slowly, "*Enough.* Does your kind always waste this much time with words?"
The red Gryphon smiled, beak glinting as a bolt of lightning temporarily drove the illumination in the ruined attic to blinding levels, "Who said it was a waste?"
As he spoke, he lunged forward, bringing his sword down in a tight arc that ended with the tip buried in One's left eye. The stroke would have entirely decapitated One if he hadn't jumped backwards instinctively.
The Drones had been ever-so-briefly blinded by the lightning. Their eyes were primarily adapted to night vision, thus possessing very little default protection against brightness or rapid changes in light level.
The Gryphons, on the other claw, had eyes suited to any conceivable light level, and were able to adapt to instantaneous and vast changes in illumination with almost zero lag time to full image resolution.
One hissed in anger, his right eye gaining enough focus for him to lunge upwards and sideways, in the counter-diagonal direction of Fyrenn's stroke. The move was well planned. It allowed him to avoid being caught by the sword's return arc.
As Kephic engaged Four, Varan sidestepped to a position from which he could strike at any of the Drones if they attempted to approach the three Ponies.
One attempted to sink his long fangs into Fyrenn's back as he passed over, but the Gryphon gracefully sidestepped, and batted the Drone away with one of his wings. The joint-protecting armor plate produced a satisfying 'CLANG' as it impacted One's skull.
As One spun away, managing to right himself and land on all four hooves, Fyrenn noted that his enemy's left eye had already healed.
Kephic was having similar troubles with Four. While a direct blow from any of the Gryphons would doubtless sever one of the Changeling's heads, and render their incredible healing useless, they seemed more than agile enough to avoid falling prey to such a stroke.
Their chitinous natural armor, distributed redundant organs, and regeneration powers, allowed them to shrug off 'glancing' blows that would have permanently maimed, or outright killed any other similarly sized creature.
Fyrenn had studied much of what Gryphons knew about potential enemy races in Equestria; He knew the Drones' combat effectiveness was directly proportionate to their energy reserves, and that their energy was dependent on sapping emotions from Ponies.
That meant that One, Two, and Four could only keep pace with the Gryphons for a limited amount of time. Kephic, Varan, and Fyrenn had all eaten recently. They were potentially able to fight for hours or even days at a steady defensive pace, without stopping. Longer still assuming they could break briefly to imbibe more water and limited additional nutrition.
Fyrenn glanced over his shoulder at IJ, as he circled One slowly, "How long can they keep this up?"
IJ shook her head, "No way to know for sure. But I'd guess no more than a few minutes. They don't have the support of the Hive at this range."
Kephic offered Varan a nod. The gesture passed so quickly, that all three Ponies completely missed it. The latter Gryphon lunged from his guard position, mace raised, making a beeline for Two.
At the same instant, Kephic and Fyrenn renewed their attacks with added intensity, ensuring that One and Four would be unable to interfere with Varan, or take advantage of the fact that the three Ponies were suddenly relatively unprotected.
As the glow around Two's horn slowly began to build, Varan brought the mace down towards the Drone's head at full speed, providing it with more than enough momentum to ensure it would shatter the carapace, brain, horn, and parts of the spine.
Two's eyes were shut tight, and his concentration was fixed rigidly on his burgeoning spell.
Yet, incredibly, Varan's strike missed, grazing his foe's side and crushing several of the chitin plates protecting the area where the ribs would be in a Pony.
The Drone had, somehow, managed to perceive the attack and skitter to the side just in time to avoid a grisly and instantaneous death. Varan gazed on with a mixture of confusion, and well-controlled anger. His attack had, at least, caused Two to loose some of his concentration, setting him back and buying the Gryphons time.
IJ shouted above the howl of the wind, "They're sharing information and perceptions simultaneously! They're probably linked in a miniature semi-hive cluster!"
Kephic growled as he achieved a hit on Four's back right hoof, "I don't suppose it occurred to you to tell us this *sooner?!*"
Skye sat down hard with a thump, and shut her eyes tightly. Carradan's wings flared slightly in concern, "Aaahhh... If you don't mind my asking... What're you doing?"
Skye grinned slightly, "Information theory is my skill. They're passing information between each other. You ever see what happens if you put a DaTab inside a microwave?"
Stan's ears flattened nervously, "Yyyyesss... Why?"
The Unicorn's horn began to glow, softly at first, but with steadily rising intensity, "Because that's what I'm going to do to their brains if they don't drop their telepathic link."
IJ huffed, "Amateur. Its not true telepathy in the sense of the main Hive. They probably can't share every thought or word, only critic..."
Skye cut her off abruptly, without turning or opening her eyes, "You want to help end this battle? Then do *everyone* a *huge* tremendous favor. Shut the buck up."
As the Unicorn's spell began to coalesce, the Gryphons' battles intensified. The Drones knew their window of opportunity was within inches of slamming shut, and the imperative of urgency lent them bursts of speed and fury.
Fyrenn suddenly found himself facing a new threat; One grinned wickedly, the first sign of emotion that had crossed his muzzle, and flexed his hooves. The chitin around what would have been the fetlocks lengthened and sharpened, resulting in a set of serrated obsidian colored biological blades. The holes that seemed so endemic to Changeling anatomy swiftly vanished under layers of added chitin armor.
By the time the process had finished, One looked more like a nightmarish cybernetic weapons platform than a living creature.
He began to circle once more, insectoid wings twitching, eyes locked with Fyrenn's, "I have fought your kind before. In defense of my home. Many were weak, but I was strong. I survived."
Fyrenn twitched his sword left, then right, watching the Changeling's reactions right down to millimeter changes in his pupil dilation, "Sure. But your home didn't fare too well as I understand it. I'll admit, your armor is a nice trick..."
Fyrenn paused, and smiled as he felt a tell-tale tingling in the feathers at the base of his skull, he casually sheathed his sword, much to One's confusion, as he spoke, "Sooo... How are you going to account for the next lightning strike?"
The blazing, forking, blinding streak of illumination split the sky the instant the words left Fyrenn's beak. As the thunder roared with the force of an angry Dragon, he lunged forward and began to grapple with One claw-to-hoof.
The Changeling was nearly as fast as he was, but far weaker in terms of actual muscular power. Fyrenn slammed his gauntlets, and fisted claws into One's hooves repeatedly, allowing the impacts to weaken the muscles even further.
As they flew through the air on the momentum of Fyrenn's lunge, One attempted to rake the Gryphon's chest-plate with small blades on his back hooves. Fyrenn blocked with his back claws, and responded by clubbing One's head and back repeatedly with the armored plating attached to his wing joints, swiftly shattering the carapace of the Drone's back and neck in a series of brutal and well-aimed strokes.
The pair hit the cloud of the floor hard enough to deform it. One tried to roll away, but Fyrenn curled his wings into a preventative barrier, placing extra pressure on One's chest with his forelegs and front claws.
As One continued to lash out frantically with all four legs, Fyrenn grunted, "You know something else?" He flicked his wrists. Blades snapped out from their hidden compartments in his foreleg gauntlets.
One's eyes fixed instantly on the sharp edges. He ceased his struggles momentarily, and began to concentrate. Judging by the roiling bulges beneath his plating, Fyrenn guessed he was morphing extra muscles. The measure was too-little, too-late. The Gryphon smiled, and pressed the blades towards One's glittering eyes.
"I have hidden blades too."
One managed to throw Fyrenn off, but not before the Gryphon completely punctured both of his eyes. The injury didn't seem to cause the Drone any pain, but it did send him staggering backwards into a corner as he tried feverishly to regenerate his optic nerves and corneal structures.
Kephic had managed to corral Four into a corner, and seemed to be content to keep the Drone confined until he wore himself out and provided the Gryphon an opening for a killing strike.
Varan had squared off once more with Two, but the Drone had continued to avoid all his strikes, using One and Four's perceptions to feel out the battlefield from multiple angles, while still amazingly maintaining some sort of concentration on his spell. The sickly green glow around his horn had grown to a bright halo, a fact which Fyrenn noted with deep concern.
He chanced a cursory look over his shoulder, and noted that Skye seemed to have made great progress with her own spell.
The purple tinged bluish aura around her horn had reaching blinding levels.
Just as One managed to finish regenerating his eyes, complete with a set of secondary internal lenses for faster light adaptation, Skye let loose.
A series of hazy blue waves began to pulse from her horn, filling the room with a soft suffused light. As the waves struck the Changeling's horns, they produced sparks. The Drones winced, as one. As the waves continued, their horns began to glow. Rather than a magical luminescence, however, the effect was more akin to a hot coal in a fire pit.
All at once, the sparks and heating effect ceased as a brief green crackle shot from each Drone's horn. They had dropped their pseudo-hive connection in the interest of saving their own brains from being fried by whatever insidious feedback-loop Skye had generated.
Unfortunately, Two made good use of the confusion, and let his spell fly indiscriminately.
The magic took the form of a strong green blast wave that erupted outwards towards the three Ponies in the center of the room.
Skye acted quickly, throwing herself in front of Carradan and erecting a small magical barrier that took the form of a blue translucent quarter-dome. Two's spell broke on the defensive structure like water on a rock, causing Skye to wince slightly at the drain, but doing no other damage.
The wave passed over Kephic and Varan as well, but their Gryphic magical immunity meant that, irrespective of its purpose, it was of no concern to them.
IJ was not as fortunate.
The wave created a cascade of greenish-blue light around her head, reminiscent of an aurora. She cried out in pain, and the sound galvanized the Gryphons into action.
Fyrenn lashed out once more, fully severing One's front right hoof from his body as the chaos of the moment distracted the Drone.
Kephic was able to force Four to the ground, and with a ferocious victory cry, dropped his sword and ripped the Changelings leathery translucent wings directly from their sockets.
Varan, for his part, moved towards Two, who had expended all his energy on the spell. The golden Gryphon wasted no time.
Despite the Drone's whimpering cries for mercy, he swiftly embedded his mace in its skull.
The impact was strong enough to completely dissociate Two's head from the top of his spinal column, sending the entire assembly flying through the hole in the roof and out of sight. The body, now free both of life, and thus of whatever internal morph had given it cloudwalking magic, fell through the floor and vanished.
Fyrenn crabbed backwards, and shouted to IJ above the din of the storm, "Are you alright?! TALK to me!"
IJ shook herself, wincing, and staggered to her feet, hooves shaking under her weight, "I... I'm fine. I'm fine."
Fyrenn drew his bow, snapping the legs into place, and knocked an arrow. He sighted directly at One's left eye and glowered, "You want to follow your comrade? It's three of us and two of you now. And you've made us all *very* angry."
As if to lend emphasis to his brother's words, Varan quietly moved to stand beside Fyrenn, thumping the green viscera covered end of his mace into one open claw rhythmically.
As Four tried to scramble out of his corner, the stubs of his wings slowly beginning to regrow, Kephic hissed, giving the Drone pause.
Fyrenn continued, his tone dangerously low and calm, "Now. Either stay, and lose your heads like your unfortunate friend. Or listen to me, and take me on this offer, because I'm only going to give it once; Get. Out. Now."
One hissed, baring his fangs. Kephic finally allowed Four to hobble over and join the other Drone. One wrapped his good hoof around his compatriot, beating his own wings and doubtless morphing an internal structure to provide access to Pegasus lifting magic.
"This is not over."
Varan tapped the end of his mace against the floor, "No indeed. I suspect it will not be over until you are dead, and picked apart by carrion."
Kephic grinned wickedly, "Assuming, of course, you make it through the storm alive. If you had enough energy left to morph new Pegasus bodies, you'd have done it by now."
Fyrenn waved with one claw, his voice dripping with malicious sarcasm, "Have a nice flight."
One glared in a rare display of fury, but hobbled dutifully in a one-hundred-eighty degree circle, and leapt through the rend in the ceiling, dragging Four with him. The pair swiftly vanished into the rumbling black thunderheads above.
Kephic knit his brow, "Think they'll make it?"
IJ limped over, her legs slowly beginning to steady. She clapped a hoof to her head, "Mmmph. Unfortunately? Yes. The storm is starting to abate."
Fyrenn sheathed his sword, and turned to her in concern, dropping to all-fours to bring his head closer to her level, "Are you sure you're alright? What did they try to do to you?"
The Pegasus shook her head, "I think they were trying to forcibly link me to them so they could overpower me."
Carradan cocked his head, eyes widening in fear, "Did it work?"
Skye and IJ spoke virtually in unison, "Does it look like it?"
The Ponies glared at each other. Kephic had to resist the urge to chuckle. Fyrenn sighed, "Well. Once the storm abates entirely, I feel like we all deserve a rest. And we need to see about translating those sheafs."
Varan nodded, "To say nothing of reporting what has transpired to the city watch." He paused and raised an eyebrow, "We will be reporting this, yes?"
Kephic chuckled, "Are you kidding?"
Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
March 14th, Gregorian Calendar
"We are quite sure? We achieved the desired result?" Veritas stared directly through the holotank projection. Her cerulean eyes seemed to pierce the floating translucent image with the intensity of white-hot steel.
The woman on the opposite side of the room nodded, working up the composure to maintain a professional stance and nonplussed expression despite the purple Unicorn's disconcerting gaze, "At least one third of the Genesist Party governing board were in the room at the time of the detonation. Several of the highest value targets escaped, but the mission did accomplish base stated minimum objectives."
Near-silence hung over the room for several moments. The only sound in the circular, dim chamber, was the hum of the air circulation system, and the accompanying trill of holographic readouts.
Most of the room was taken up with the central holotank. There were no furnishings; Simply a series of holographic control readouts projected over the gray paneling of the walls, and a single sliding opaque double door for entry and exit.
The woman shuffled, her nervousness beginning to breach the seals of her external comport. Known only by the enigmatic name 'Veritas', the amethyst toned, navy maned Unicorn had firmly cemented her position as sole leader of the PER in the years since Robert Gilchrist's death.
She had once stood by his side as he headed the organization, and in the chaos of the enormous 2114 defeat at the hands of the JRSF in New York, her credentials had been more than enough to convince most people to follow her.
Those who had not been convinced by her credentials had vanished so swiftly and utterly from the face of the Earth, that any remaining doubts were forcibly purged by their owners in the firm and undying interest of self preservation.
Finally, the woman could take the silence no longer, "Orders ma'am?"
Veritas glanced up; Her gaze was inscrutable, and her calm tone revealed nothing of her internal mood, "In the end... I think we can consider this a fairly major success. The long-term benefits of this action will far outweigh any small publicity losses we incurred by failing to convert the highest level targets."
The woman was so relieved, at first, that she could not muster the faculties to move, or speak. Merely to regain control of her breathing.
Veritas turned back to the holotank, using a burst of her magic to spin the complex projection of pipes and wires, "That will be all."
The words were delivered in such a calm and distracted monotone that it took the woman several seconds to process them, nod stiffly, and finally make good on her escape from the room, walking as swiftly as she dared.
Much about Veritas remained an enigma, but one thing everyone in the PER knew for sure from the unexplained disappearances, and tortured shrieks heard through sub-basement walls; To cross her, or to fail her, was tantamount to signing a confession of treason.
And a death warrant.
Hutch found Klarien and Taranis both practicing in the shooting range. The cavernous space, which had been carved from the very soil beneath Fort Hamilton, provided miles of shooting distance at the longest segment of its range, and acres of training space that allowed for everything from small-scale live fire exercises to inter-squad football and cricket games.
Both dragons were standing on a grassy knoll, claws depressing into the synthetic green turf so far that they were leaving permanent gouges down to the cement substrata. Each was sighting along their right foreleg, and periodically discharging live rounds from their gauntlet guns.
The General watched for several moments in silence, mentally keeping tabs on the two reptilians' scores. Their accuracy put their Human counterparts to shame, even the ones who had the benefit of the latest digital imaging scopes and corrective barrel systems. Nonetheless, their display of marksmanship was trite, at best, to Hutch.
He had worked with enough Gryphons to have become severely jaded to feats of accuracy from any other species. Dragons, Ponies, and Diamond Dogs had their own special and dazzling unique advantages, and they all had a leg up over Humans in every single conceivable physical contest. But none could approach the visual capacity, and thus gunplay excellence, of a Gryphon.
The General found the sheer destructive capacity of their weapons more interesting by far. While strong by Human measures a Gryphon, or even a much heftier Diamond Dog, could not hope to carry a portable weapon of the sheer scope that Dragons considered to be a personal sidearm.
A Dragon could make a weapon 'man portable' that would have once been consigned to medium APCs and light battle tanks.
Given the thickness of their scales, sensitivity of their Jacobson's organs and heat sensing pits, speed of thought, and the flexibility afforded to them by simply being a living creature, mounting an otherwise unmodified vehicle weapon to a Dragon had the potential to generate a jaw dropping increase in its battlefield effectiveness.
One light tank canon could easily do, in their claws, what a dozen heavy tanks would struggle to accomplish.
Hutch coughed politely, "Ahem. I think practice time is over gents."
Klarien latched the safety of his railgun firmly into place, and turned to the General, "You have the fragment analysis? Is it a definitive lead?"
Taranis squeezed off a final shot, blowing the head off a test dummy nearly a mile downrange without a scope, or spotter. He spoke without turning, "He would not be here if it was entirely useless information."
Hutch nodded slowly, tapping his DaTab against one hand slowly, "The metallurgical analysis was fairly conclusive. The bomb's casing and the shrapnel were fairly generic stuff; whoever built the device was careful to ensure there was no way to tie it back to them by conventional routes. But thanks to a few of the more talented Unicorns in our midst, we've been able to separate the chemicals of the device's structure from the pavement, and the victims."
The General paused, and glanced between the Dragons. Taranis turned and finally offered up his full attention. Hutch raised an eyebrow, "All the chemicals. Right down to the tiniest traces of minerals in the circuit board of the detonation driver. Normally this kind of work is impossible, but magic can discriminate between atoms in ways that even the most precise electromagnets can't. And that leads us to this."
Hutch raised the DaTab. Displayed spinning on its surface was a circuit diagram. Klarien cocked his head, "A computer chip?"
The General nodded. The green Dragon raised an eyebrow scale, "Aaaand?"
Taranis rumbled deep in his chest, "A military grade computer chip."
The General nodded again, more slowly, plying the cobalt reptile with a curious glance, "Very astute. Yes. It is, in fact, a model of chip that was being produced by an electronics company for Earthgov munitions detonators. They were outbid by another corporation and as per nondisclosure laws, were ordered to scrap the designs, cease production of all prototypes, and destroy their binned samples."
Klarien gazed down at the computer screen clutched in Hutch's hands, "And yet here one is. In the possession of the HLF."
Hutch flipped the DaTab over and shoved it under one arm, beginning to pace slowly, "We've known for some time, based on their patterns of attack, that the HLF and PER are periodically gaining access to high level corporations to fund their work and provide a chain of logistics for their operations. The very fact that the HLF has consistent access to military level hardware for major missions is proof enough in their case, and I don't have to remind either of you about the Gavin/Schummel mess and the PER."
The General swiveled abruptly to face the Dragons once more, "These chips? They're a dangerous indicator that the HLF has penetrated a defense contractor. Your next task is to get geared up and be ready for briefing in an hour. We're going to squeeze these corporate weasels, and hard, until we find out for damn sure whether they have an unwitting leak, or are working off-books with the Front. Follow the chips. From the source, down to the bombmaker, then follow his contacts out to the whole web inside the HOB."
Klarien smacked one enormous claw into the other with a resounding 'CLACK' of scales, "And then we tear it down."
Hutch nodded once abruptly, "Exactly. I'll see you both in one hour." He turned to exit the firing range, then stopped, making an about face momentarily, "And... Gentlemen? I'd much appreciate it if you didn't kill anyone on the *first* day. 'Autonomy' doesn't mean the JRSF is entirely above political blowback, something I'd like to minimize for our sake. And for the Bureaus'."
When Hutch reached his office, he found the impulse to flop into his desk chair completely irresistible. His sleep schedule had finally become so fragmented that his circadian rhythms were fully desynchronized from any semblance of health or normalcy.
Ironically, the effect could not have come at a more inconvenient time. The proximity of the bubble, and fair Equestrian weather, meant that the sun had amplified his body's otherwise suppressed desire to keep to a traditional eating and sleeping cycle. Apparently such things were built into the very basis of Human genetics, and had not entirely evolved out in the post-Winnowing generations.
He glanced out the window at the oncoming bubble with his usual paradoxical mixture of fondness, and hatred, and rubbed his eyes. As he laid back in his chair and tried to resist the temptation to close his eyes, he noticed a blinking 'message waiting' indicator on his desk's holo-interface.
He sighed, paused to work up energy, then reached forward and pressed the ethereal words hovering an inch above the surface of the desk. A projected screen sprang into existence above the desk, automatically adjusting for the angle of his head.
After several moments of a generic 'Please wait. Establishing live link...' message, the space was filled with the unexpected visage of Councilor Martins. Her face was contorted in exhaustion and concern, and her hair was utterly disheveled. In the background behind her, the General could just barely make out the lights of emergency vehicles.
He sat bolt upright, "Councilor! What the---"
She held up a hand, "Is this connection fully secured?"
Hutch squinted in bleary confusion, "I'm sorry what? Its a military encrypted..."
Martins shook her head adamantly, "*Fully* secured. I don't want this transmission on the record."
The General paused, staring and trying to process her words. Finally he sighed, and tapped several controls on his desk. The connection image pixelated briefly, and 'hiccupped,' before returning to normal.
"Secured Janet."
The Councilor glanced over her shoulder, then leaned into her DaTab, "We were attacked."
Hutch's eyes bugged out, and he mimicked Martin's gesture, leaning in towards his screen, "What?"
Martins nodded, "A Potion bomb. Planted inside our conference room within the secure London Earthgov complex."
The General stared, his expression continuing to spiral further into blatant indications of shock and worry, "That shouldn't be possible..."
The Councilor nodded, "It gets worse, if you can believe it." She paused, as if evaluating whether to speak at all, before finally continuing, "The room's countermeasures were disabled. From the inside."
Hutch sat back and began to rub his temple, "Shiiiiit."
Martins exhaled slowly, "I'm not sure who to trust at this point. To smuggle such a device into this complex undetected, and disable countermeasures built into the very structure of the building... That requires military clearance."
The General's head snapped up sharply, "Cripes Martins, don't you think I realize that? I'm just not sure I can even begin to guess how they flipped someone at that level, and kept us from knowing about it, or found some other vulnerability"
The Councilor glared, "Regardless of how, why, or 'if,' the fact remains that this raises serious concerns for myself, my party, and our endeavor." She paused and drummed her fingers on the hood of the vehicle she was seated on. Judging by its white paint, it was likely an ambulance. She continued, slowly, as if evaluating each word, "I think it is time to move up schedule. Arrange those favors we discussed. I can no longer, in good conscience, trust the government's military Police... But the JRSF have always been straight shots."
When Hutch did not speak, she continued, speaking more quickly, "The endorsement of the JRSF would be good for our publicity, *and* yours. We'd be guaranteed proper security and an impartial, untainted investigation. This is exactly the type of situation your organization was formed to respond to."
Hutch raised a hand, "Save it Janet. I don't need a lecture from you on my objective statement. And I don't need convincing either. I personally fail to see the point of it, but your project is something that a dedicated fraction of Humanity wants to sign onto. The fact that someone is trying to infringe on that freedom is good enough reason for me to get involved, if nothing else. And I do owe you."
Martins allowed the tiniest hint of a grin to pull at her lips. Somehow, despite the hell she had been through, the subtle gloss on them had not deteriorated, or even smudged, "Yes. You do owe me."
The General waggled a finger, "After this? We are, as they used to say, 'square.' "
The Councilor sighed, "Agreed. I know this is asking to add another huge stressor to your overloaded plate..."
Hutch snorted, "What else is new? Stress is practically my job description. I'm used to it." He sat back once more, and stared out the window, his brow wrinkling as his gaze became pensive, "Still... I'm worried that you've gotten me in over my head this time."
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Yes, in-case the thought occurred to anyone;
There will be a major Conversion of a main character in this story. It does not occur until some time later, but it will occur and be exceedingly important.
It will also provide many many new perspectives both descriptive, scientific, magical, and ethical on the issue/topic/technology of Conversion.
Until then? Expect some interesting old-school Cop movie rookie/veteran action with Taranis and Klarien, a headlong dive into mysteries of the Hive for Fyrenn & Co, and the occasional check-in with Neyla to watch things develop in Vancouver. After that? some converging plot arcs, a car chase, and 286 million broken windows.
All interspersed with nefarious and mind-bending clues littered throughout PER and HLF scenes, of course.
As if that wasn't enough, some more Luna scenes very soon too.
Also; going back and OST-ing the last two chapters now, for the interested (if any; comment please: how many of you actually listen to the music?)
I'd just like to say, the use of asterisks in place of italics, bolds and underlines is not nice when you have huge clusters of words that need them bunched up. The fight scene between the griffons/ponies and the changelings was a little bit annoying to read because of that.
2710956
I don't tend to listen to music when reading - I guess I get so into the story itself that I just don't hear anything anyway. I don't begrudge them being there, but I am glad they're not in the text as that (for me) breaks immersion.
I like the dragons
Agreed with the overuse of asterisks.
Also, I like buddy-cop movies.
i turst all earth gov buildings well be equipped with gryphon or dragon based AI's now to prevent this sort of thing from happening?
2715542
They are already AI and countermeasure equipped in most cases. The scary part is imagining the clearance required to sabotage such systems...
2715689 i can understand human AI being out done but from your description of the one gryphon AI it's hard to imagine anyone has that kinda hacking power and considering dragons well defend there hoards flawlessly for decades a dragon AI could potentialy be the perfect failsafe.
2717595
Sure; the AI is essentially unhackable...
But the AI is only useful if the physical systems its connected to remain online. Potion countermeasures rely on some pretty sophisticated magi-tech... A mid-level engineer, bribed properly, could likely simply put the device into diagnostic mode. The failing here is sapient; someone somewhere in the chain of Earthgov or Genesist command is in the PER's pocket, someone who could keep the AI looking the other way until an appropriately bribed tech could shut off the sensors and countermeasures to the conference room.
Gadgets and Tech and Magic are all well and good... but sometimes (as the PER and HLF are unfortunately learning) the old ways are the best ways.