By David C. Daoust
The Commandant rose from obscurity, a small army at his back. It was an unaligned force, a weapon without a target. It could be argued that the Labor Unions changed that, gave them a target, an enemy; though it could just as easily be argued that it was the Commandant that stole the Labor Union’s voice.
The Commandant was the Fist of the Red Faction, the militant force behind the dream. He led the Elite Soldiers that enforced the Red’s claim to power. He organized them. He put them on a strategic path.
The Commissar was the Heart of the Red Faction. It was his words that galvanized the people-His plans, which so many worked to put into effect, to make into a reality. One massive rolling entity of equality, to tear down the establishment, to remove control from those the Red Faction deemed unworthy; to put all the reigns, throughout the Onion, in their hands.
If the Commandant was the Fist, and the Commissar was the Heart, then Natalya Rose was the Shadow.
A shadow cast over the entirety of the Solar System, She had eyes in every darkened corner, and ears in every hushed room. From the shadows her tendrils stretched, searching out what information she could, what information went unprotected.
In truth, she was a remnant of the original Assault Bot Initiative. She was one of Beverly Zhou’s Peaches. She was trained by Seaguard, the central intelligence agency of the Trade Consortium. She was trained well. Unfortunately for them, she cared not for their business practices.
She went by many names. A rose, a shadow, a peach, and a traitor… you would not believe how much of a traitor, to so many, all in the name of the Red Faction. Her Data-sphere sat within a Monolith, while her many forms infiltrated every other government that opposed the Red Faction.
This was her life, day in and day out, until the recent crisis on Twin Crown. The Red Faction came to an impasse, they’d come into conflict, and as far as she could tell, they’d lost.
So many scattered, and so much corrupted information was the result.
The fact that the Monoliths were so reliant on the solar gates, to achieve the Red Factions aims, was never before an issue.
Now it had proven to be their downfall.
First when the gate slammed shut, cutting off the majority of the Red Faction Elite soldiers, leaving Ivan all but defenseless. This cut the Red Faction’s Fist, from the Heart… and left the Shadow in complete darkness. Second, when the Barracks Ship vanished completely, taking with it the Commissar’s own Monolith, along with what data-spheres were assigned therein.Ripping their heart from the very chest.
The small window, between the solar-gate opening back up, and the vanishing of the Red Faction’s Barracks ship, had given her a faint glimmer at what had transpired during the black out. It would seem Ivan did not falter- he led what bots he could in a retaliation against their hated rivals.
Natalya studied what information on the raid was present. Ivan had successfully infiltrated a Trade Consortium Cruiser, using her own design, one of her own bot forms. She was impressed. Ivan had stepped up to play the spy, when she was unable to.
The Red Faction Bots were now like ghosts in the Neo Vir’ees system. Those that hadn’t vanished fully with the barracks ship, had lost their ‘bot-bodies’ stationed therein, along with all their weapons for war. The Red Faction’s presence in the Neo Vir’ees system was weakened and disarmed in one foul swoop.
The Red Faction soldiers, on the ground, were rounded up easily enough by the moons population, which was not terribly surprising when the majority of the Red Faction were bots; thus among the evacuees of the moon. The fact that the Ion Wave had separated them so effectively before the event- was immensely rotten luck.
The Bots of the Red Faction were now forced to communicate as holograms or simply as talking heads within the remaining humans’ visors. It was from within such a visor, that Natalya now tried to collect information about what had happened on the ground.
Once she appeared before his eyes, the human, who sat within a small transport ship, surrounded by other soldiers, suddenly stood from his seat and headed below. He climbed down to a small cargo area, under the main compartment, where they could speak in private.
“Report, Cadet,” Natalya requested in her quiet, almost whisper like tone. He was one of hers. She handpicked one human from every brigade, to be trained as part of her Network. Unlike many of the other officers, she preferred not to appear as a hologram, though only within such a visor, and only before those eyes that were part of her shadow network.
“Currently, we are headed for Farhull,” the man informed, “As commanded by the Commandant.”
Once the population rose against the Red Faction, the Red Soldiers were expelled from the moon, and sent to a nearby embassy station in orbit. The Commandant had since ordered them to fall back to Farhull, an industrial hub within the Neo Vir’ees system. Here they still had some holdings, and more importantly, had bot-forms stationed there, though very few.
“Yes, I am aware,” Natalya whispered patiently, “I wish to know what transpired on the ground.”
“The Commissar had ordered us to salvage the Battle Drones,” the soldier explained, “For the glory of the Red Faction.”
“The Commissar clearly recognized the machines as an asset.” Natalya thought aloud, “One that would be well worth the trouble… if all had gone according to plan.”
The Cadet fidgeted, and coughed into his hand.
“All did not, go according to plan?” Natalya asked, already knowing the answer.
“The Ion Wave proved ineffective against the Battle Drones,” the man informed, then hurriedly explained in detail, “Initially it shut them down, but they powered back up moments later, and charged, in full retreat, for the desert…”
Natalya had already received reports of this, though wanted it confirmed from eyes on the ground, especially eyes she trusted.
“And when the darkness fell?” she pressed.
“The drones were deactivated again, though we were only able to pull a few of the Drones CPU’s,” the man said apologetically, “and only from those that were too damaged to get far… After that, we searched through the darkness- all to no avail.”
“Well, they did not just vanish,” Natalya snapped, finding herself equally as frustrated with the lack of answers as she was when she got to this point in the written reports, “Surely someone must have seen something?”
He paused for a moment. Natalya could tell he wanted to speak, though hesitated. It must be very thin information, she thought.
“Some of the population, which had fled the town walls during the Drone raid,” her cadet premised, though hesitated again before giving in, “I heard it rumored, the drones burrowed into the sands moments before the black out.”
Now this was interesting. “Yet, this had not shown up in any reports?”
“Just a rumor…” the man hurriedly explained, “No confirmed reports among any of the men.”
“Of the CPUs salvaged?”
“I managed to smuggle one from the moon.” At this the man seemed pleased with himself, “I think you’ll find what’s within…pleasing.”
Later, once Natalya was satisfied that she had gleaned all information that she could from all her cadets, she immersed herself within the illegal Battle Drones CPU. Within, proved to be a complete log, audio and visual recordings, of the Battle Drones raid- Natalya was pleased.
She could only hope that this would be enough. Enough to shake what little bit of cooperation had formed among the moons population, to halt their plans to secede from the rest of the Onion, Thereby stealing the Commissar’s prized moon out from under the Red Faction.
Now it was her turn. Her turn to step up and play political officer, in the Commissar’s absence.
It was Natalya that leaked the information, the tell-tale video of the boy, proclaiming who was to blame for the Drone Raid to begin with. Natalya that got the video played for all of Grady to see.
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