“What the hell are they doing? It looks like they’re setting up firing lines, but there’s nothing there!” I hissed as the Kodiak shook slightly, taking off towards the Council tank column.

  We had to split into two groups, since Bob and Sharron’s tentacles would have taken up a Kodiak between the two of them. So Hel, my bears, and I took one, and Nora, Sharron, and Angeline took a second. I also rounded up half a dozen other Kodiaks full of bears for intimidation purposes.

  Hel shook her head. “My AI Gyrm can’t penetrate the council’s computer systems. It looks like they’ve invested heavily in samurai-grade security. It’s at least class I, maybe even class II. I’d need better catalogs to break in.”

  “Fuck. I only have a Class I Network Intrusion Catalog, so Nyx probably won’t be able to help either. Should we call Zetta?”

  Hel bit her lip for a moment, then nodded. Her eyes unfocused as she made the call. She’d only been on the call for about thirty seconds when her face went white, and she whispered, “They wouldn’t…”

  “What’s going on?” I asked, raising my voice to get her attention, even though she was still on the call.

  “The council has triggered descension protocols,” Hel reported. “He’s trying to stop them, but most of that system is hardwired and isolated from the outside networks. We have to stop them! I’ll call the others and let them know.”

  I watched her blink, eyes focusing for just a moment before defocusing again as she made another call.

  “Nyx…” I stage whispered towards Dusty. “Is this one of those things that is common knowledge to most people, but I have no idea about?”

  “It’s not,” my AI replied. “At least, not all of it.”

  “Good, I thought I was missing something for a minute… So what is it? Why is this so bad?”

  “It’s complex, but… you know how the upper city sits on a several meter thick metal and concrete plate?” Nyx started.

  “You mean the roof I’ve had over my head most of my life? Why yes, I’m aware there’s a ceiling on this place,” I grumbled. “What about it?”

  “What you may not know is that it's not a single structure. It’s made up of thousands of interlocking hexagonal plates, each around two hundred meters across.”

  “Okay… I don’t know why that matters,” I admitted.

  “Because the system was originally designed to allow each of those plates to be separated and dropped into the area below,” Nyx explained.

  “What? That’s insane! Why?” I shouted, earning me a quick glance from Hel before she returned to her conversation.

  “Protection, in case the area got overrun. People quickly realized it was a stupid idea, but by the time they did, the system had already been implemented as the basis of most megacities. You could count the number of times the system has been used around the world on one hand,” my AI explained. “Unfortunately, it’s built into the very foundation of the city and almost impossible to completely disable.”

  “And the council wants to trigger it? Why?” I paused for a second as my brain processed, then narrowed my eyes. “They’re using it as a weapon,” I hissed, answering my own question. “They’re so hard up they’re planning to lure Denver’s forces to a single location, then drop them into the undercity, sacrificing almost everyone both above and below the plate. Fuck!”

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  I turned towards Nyx’s avatar. “How do we stop it?”

  “From what I’ve been able to find, each plate is locked to all its neighbors by titanic pins. The descension protocols cause those pins to retract, but that’s not enough to drop the plate. They also need to destroy the supporting pillars. Originally they were wired to blow, but over the years most of these explosives were discovered and… reappropriated.”

  I snorted. “You can just say they were stolen. I guess we can thank my sticky-fingered undercity brethren for giving us time to stop this madness.”

  I quickly pulled up the live feed and directed the squirrel towards the nearest support pillar. Sure enough, now that I knew what I was looking for, I found a group of military engineers setting up demolition charges. The massive pillar was over twenty meters in diameter, so it was going to take them time to set up enough explosives to actually bring it down.

  Disconnecting from the feed, I turned back towards Hel and waited for her to finish her conversation. “They’re still mining the support pillar,” I told her.

  “Good, that means we still have time to prevent…”

  The Kodiak rocked so violently that I would have been thrown into the wall if Bob hadn’t reached out and grabbed me. Sparks erupted from the electronics, and I could hear the engines struggling.

  Then it rocked again, and again. Something in the driver’s cabin exploded.

  “What the fuck is happening?” I screamed as the Kodiak started going down.

  “The superheavy has opened fire upon the formation. Since you’re in the lead vehicle, you took the brunt of the damage, but it’s still firing!” Nyx reported calmly as Dusty flew around the cabin.

  I reflexively sent a command to the other vehicles, began evasive maneuvers, and get out of the line of fire. While I was doing that, I also trudged over to the nearest seat and strapped myself in.

  Across from me, Hel gritted her teeth. She already had her belts done up, and her hands clamped around the nearest supports. “How does this thing handle crashing?” she yelled over the whining engines and rushing wind.

  “No idea. This is the first time one of them has been shot down,” I yelled back.

  Hel grimaced and gripped the supports tighter.

  “Impact in three… two… one…” Nyx calmly counted down.

  I closed my eyes and tensed, waiting for the sudden, violent landing. It never came. Instead I felt a slight bump, followed by a little bit of rocking. I cracked one eye and glanced around the cabin. The bears were picking themselves up, retrieving their weapons, but other than that, nothing. “What the hell happened?” I asked hoasely. “I’m pretty sure the Kodiak was falling from the sky a few seconds ago. Why didn’t we crash?”

  “You did crash,” Nyx explained. “But thanks to your eccentric friend Magpie, the cabin has inertial and impact dampeners. As long as the hull remains intact, the passengers and crew have an excellent chance of surviving a crash.”

  “Thank you, Maggie!” I whispered quietly before ripping off my belt and rushing to the exit. It didn’t budge, so I silently signalled Bob to open it.

  “You didn’t know this thing had inertial dampers?” Hel asked quietly as she rose from her seat, a little shaky but otherwise fine.

  “I had complete access to all of Magpie’s catalogs when creating the blueprints. Would you want to go through the millions of options she opened up?” I snapped as Bob casually pushed the door open. “I admit, I should have reviewed a complete list of features earlier, but it didn’t seem that important until now.”

  Hel huffed but didn’t argue. While she checked over her gear, I stuck my head out the back and looked around. We’d crashed on a side street, well out of line of sight of both the superheavy and its escorts, so I popped out to check the damage.

  Even though we didn’t feel much inside, the crash had been quite violent. The Kodiak was a write-off; parts had been ripped off after smashing into the ground and sliding for several dozen feet. The cabin was in one piece, but the engines were a complete mess, and both the front armor and the turret were severely damaged.

  The armor had mostly held, but each had taken dozens of explosive hits. The armor was pitted, but not penetrated, as far as I could tell. It probably would have still been operational if the engines hadn’t been hit.

  “The council shot at us,” Hel hissed as she finally stepped out of the back of the vehicle.

  “I am aware,” I muttered.

  “They knowingly shot at samurai in order to buy time to kill thousands of civilians in a desperate last-ditch attempt to hold onto their power,” Hel growled. I blinked, then slowly turned back towards her. I knew she was mad, but until I saw the vein popping out of her forehead and the murder in her eyes, I didn’t know how furious she was.

  “So, what are you going to do about it?” I asked carefully.

  “First, I’m going to have Zetta announce the council’s intentions to the city, let them know exactly what the city’s leaders are capable of. Then I’m going to slowly, and painfully, disassemble their entire force down here,” Hel announced.

  “You’re not going to ask the Family to take action?” I asked, slightly surprised.

  “The Family, as an organization, is a neutral party. It doesn’t support any political or corporate entity. That’s why the higher-ups were upset at Mirage for using the Family’s resources to try and discover who was behind the attacks earlier on,” Hel ranted, before calming down slightly before shooting me a slightly sinister smile. “Our members, however, are free to support or oppose whatever organization they want, and I personally plan to start ripping the council apart.”

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