Interzeit: A Space Opera (3 page)

“Wow,”
Nol
groans, “So who is
the new champion going to be?”

“If that interpretation wins out, the Federated Colonies of Mars.”

Nol
sighs, “I somehow doubt the
Kterrans
will be okay with that.”

“The KT capital colony, “
Tetraphaedrome
” is in the inner system for the games. If they’re going to react, they’re well equipped to do so, and quickly.”

“Surely we’ve moved past real hostility, right Clara?”
Nol
asks
, “They won’t do anything rash.”

“No,” she answered, “I don’t think they will, although it can sometimes be hard to predict the actions of nations by the feelings of their people.”

“I’m going to sleep,” she gave him a thin hug, “Try to get some too, you
’
r
e
going to go work with your crew tomorrow right?”

“Yeah,” he rubbed his face, “We’ve increased our install speed by a lot,
should
mean good things for our efficiency rating.”

Clara smiled wistfully, and disappeared back into her
technocave
of a room.

Nol
watched more uselessly speculative broadcasts, falling into an uneasy sleep.

The dreamless night melted into a new day.
Nol’s
alarm sounded and he shook awake. Quickly he changes into fresh clothes and heads out the door.

The air is crisp, wind kicking sharp gusts of cold into his squinting sleepy eyes.
He knew he should be thinking about work, about prepping his mental state to reading the calibration reports of the
smartwire
install systems.
Still t
he night lingered on his mind.

The terrestrial systems had initially been the victors of games for many decades. The reformed Moon Operations
Bureau
, known as the Lunar Protectorate h
ad the furthest edge with the
Skyking
mech
series. They won the first several matches with ease.

The
edge didn’t last
forever though
. A group of colonies at the edge of the inner system called
TianShanTech
won the fourth game.
The Federated
Colonies of Mars
took the title next,
then
the Protectorate
had a slight re
bound
with the
Skyking
III
.

However
the young
Kuipterra
finally entered the seventh game,
making a huge splash with its innovative emitter laser and beam technology. Ever since their entry, they had never lost a single match..
.
until now.

The
Kuipterra
n’s
interest
lay
primarily in space, perhaps to the benefit of Earth, as things
in-between
them and their goals were often “handled” quite precisely.

Coming in over the region’s public network, a notification hit his sleeve

“Seek Shelter, possible terrorist incident occurring.”

Nol’s
stomach dropped, he dipped into a nearby alleyway and tried to find more information. The ground shuddered under him with tremendous force. He leaned into the wall, flecks of aluminum and mortar rained down on him. Distinctive booms caused further quakes. Fire and smoke rose up into the sky, overtaking the high towers and buildings.

The distressing cacophony continued
,
Nol
frantically searched the net huddled in the
back street. Little was known
on the net
, until eventually
someone opened a video cast
.

The neighboring district of
Turiazon
was burning. T
hree
giant grey mechs crashed through the region, knocking buildings down,
and
shredding city blocks to rubble with their machine guns.

Jets screamed in from the nearest reserve airfield. They peppered the mechs with missiles, but were unable to hit them effectively
in
the thick urban environments.

As their strafing
run
came too close, a craft went down, clipped by
the machine guns
, crashing into a puff of fire.

The others broke off, shooting
and scrambling
at
a distance.

The
vidcast
looked upwards, at a large object entering the lower atmosphere.
Shocked,
Nol
dropped what he was doing and ran out of the alley. Squinting through the bright morning sun he saw it.
A burning mass of metal, its signature ring of blast shields enveloped it like a cloak.

The
Skyking
was descending to Earth.

He
pinged
the company, he wasn’t coming in.
Nol
ran home,
when he arrived a new message hits his
ionics
. T
he general evacuation
order
was declared for all nearby regions
.

“Clara! Clara
get
out out here!” He yelled at her door. She cracked it open sleepily,

“What?” she asked with frustration.

“There’s an invasion! We have to leave now!”

Her eyes widen, she grabs her glasses,
bag,
and runs for th
e door
.

They pour through the streets. The pair
sprints
out to a main expressway, when they run separate ways.

“Where are you going?”
Nol
yells, “That’s towards the
attack
.”

She smiled trying no
t
to laugh, laughing like he was the crazy one.

“What?” She looked confused, “Come on, this might be our only chance.”

“To die maybe!”
He yells angrily

She cock
s
her head, “To see
them
, to seem them up close.”

Her smile burned in, that stupid grin one makes before acting stupid.

“Don’t you flip out on me
right
now!
”
Nol
shouted.

She sprinted her own way,
“Sorry!”

Nol
grit his teeth
,
furious. He walked away, chang
es
his mind
,
and
t
hen
changes
it back. After more frustrated indecision,
h
e finally
runs after her
,
swearing
to murder her himself among other
things
.

Nol’s
composure weakens quickly. His lungs fill with sharp needles. He can’t catch her
,
i
ts several minutes before he even sees her again. Halfway across the bridge to
Turiazon
,
Nol
finds her leaning against a rail.

The concussions of the carnage swing the bridge, Clara laughs in nervous fear.

“What are you doing?”
Nol
pants angrily.

“Waiting?” she points to the sky. As she does
Skyking
reveals itself. The pod like array of re-entry shield
s
flick
s
open into a chaotic formation of wings. They
pull
on the wind creating drag, and its front rockets engage.

The powerful thrust stabilizes the fall, and the giant crashes into the city.

“That’s…not what I meant.” Not protested against her in awe.

Skyking
’
s
armor
white,
and shining in the sun was awe-in
spiring. It grabbed one of the
grey mechs and
rip
it off the ground like a bird of prey.
Skyking
tosses the machine high. Floating under it
, they
pull out
a
large
rifle, firing
a powerful
purple ray. The
mech
detonates. The explosion is
small, then something sets off,
the
next blast dwarfs it by a magnitude of ten.

The blast wave slams
Skyking
to the ground, buildings crumble, and the bridge bends and twists in unnatural terrifying ways.

“Come on!” Clara grabs his hand, and drags him towards the havoc.
Nol
resists, but several cables snap behind them, and convince him otherwi
se. They make it no worse for w
e
a
r
across the bridge,
while it violently
shakes
itself
apart
. The world around them i
s
crumbling, on fire, o
r exploding. They look around frantically, frozen in panic.

“There!” Clara points to a three story building by the water.

They run along the shoreline, she stops them before they go inside. Clara fiddles with her bag, pulling out a ball drone. She gets a running start and hurls it into the air. It falls then click
s
on
,
buzzing up over the building.

She pilots it remotely with her wrist, “Here!” She throws the
vid
screen
up and expands it.

Over the buildings Skyking is chasing the other two mechs through the city. Back in the air, it tries to swoop in. The mechs fire back, but their weak guns can’t deter the Skyking.

Despite their apparent ineffectiveness,
they are tearing deeper and deeper into the city. A large super urban area, the city core, would be nearly impossible to evacuate.
A fountain overflowing with life, crashing glass, and fire reign down on it.

Skyking snatches up a second mech, carrying it off, but the
remainder
is left free.

The airforce cannot impede
its deathly
march,
it blasts its
gun
into the city core.

Horrified,
Nol feels his stomach turn, he looks at
Clara,
her faces reads with a strange emotion, almost blank, but focused.
Blank for a reason, an escape, or a purpose.

“Clara we have to go, its too dangerous!”

“Don’t be such a coward! We have to find a way to fight back.”

“There’s no way we can do that now.” Nol is exasperate, his nerves completely fried, “Y-you’re going to get us both killed out here.”

The grey mech continues its slog through the core of Turiazon, razing everything in its path.

“Do you know where it
’
s headed?” She asked.

“Its just killing people, its not headed anywhere.”

“You’re
wrong,” The sky trembles with the second mech detonating high in the atmosphere.

Clara waves her hand
,
the
screen morph
s and an overlay of buildings and blueprints falls over the video feed. Several wireline structures stand free of
their
destroyed
real
world
counterparts
. It
i
s an abstract,
a what
was, what could be, but not what is.

Several buildings stand in its way. The wireline diagrams fade away one by one, revealing one wireframe behind them all.
A dome, partly underground, gigantic in stature.

“A fusion reactor…” Nol muttered,

“So you see,” Clara says, “Its already too late for us to run anywhere.”

In
th
e sky more burning objects come
ripping through the atmosphere, the large cruisers of
T
he
P
rotectorate. They were thick heavy things, how they stayed in the air
at all
was a mystery. Tall and thin, jets shot from all direction to keep the Titans from tilting or falling over.