fanfic_mausoleum_n_grill | Bubblegum Crusade (Ch. 13 of 24)

WELCOME TO BUBBLEGUM CRUSADE!

Insert standard disclaimer here. "Knight Sabers, Go!"

Chapter Thirteen

VICTORY

The searchlights play over the cornered angels.
Something is wrong...
Everyone writhes in the grip of nightmares.

I don't want to believe that I was born to fight.
Though it would be so easy to say that it's too late.

Don't hide your eyes
From the bitter facts spreading before you.
Turn them into courage... "Blow Up! Blow Up!"

"Never say give up, never again." Pierce through the storm.
"Never say give up, never again." Start running to tomorrow.

So long as you keep believing in the power of loving,
You will achieve your victory, yours alone.

In the sunlight, children dream so innocently.
What kind of tomorrow will shine on their pure eyes?

I want to keep feelings of love in my heart,
Rather than hatred.
Because the emptiness our hurting one another leaves behind
Is the same for everyone.

Don't close your heart now!
Just holding your knees and
Trembling won't accomplish anything... "Blow Up! Blow Up!"

"Never say give up, never again." Overcome your sadness.
"Never say give up, never again." You will fly once more.

So long as you keep believing in the power of loving,
Your true victory will someday shine.

"Never say GIVE UP! Never say GIVE UP!"
"Never say GIVE UP! Just go, go, go!"

"Never say give up, never again." Overcome your sadness.
"Never say give up, never again." You will fly once more.

"Never say GIVE UP! Never say GIVE UP!"
"Never say GIVE UP! Just go, go, go!"

"Never say give up, never again." Pierce through the storm.
"Never say give up, never again." Start running to tomorrow.

So long as you keep believing in the power of loving,
You will achieve your victory, yours alone.

The power of loving...

Priss and the Replicants -- The bootleg tapes.

Mega-Tokyo, 14, October, 2034

"Knight Sabers, Go."

The Knightwing screamed across Tokyo bay barely five meters

above the top of the waves. Priss felt a cold trickle of

calmness run through her after screaming out their battle cry.

She activated the Knightwing's weapon systems: missiles, 40 mm

shells; the lasers cycled through their pre-fire sequence, and

their particle beam weapon slide out on both wings.

"Linna, one minute to target," came Priss's voice from the

command cock-pit. "We're coming up. Get ready. You'll only

have one shot."

"Do you always start your battles with that cry?" Asked

Crystal.

"Yea. Come on, interface like I showed you."

"Ok." Crystal touched the controls in the Knightwing and

its targeting computer synchronized with its counterpart program

in her hardsuit. She now saw the world through the sensor grid

around the Knightwing. Ahead were the blazing lights of GAI #7.

They reached the zenith of their pull up and started back down

straight at their first target. Crystal took charge of the

missiles, 40mm shells and the secondary systems as she started to

work over a piece of bubblegum. She fed in her targets and the

computer locked on for a missile barrage. A counter appeared in

her vision of the sensor grid and started the countdown to firing

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range. Crystal was using Priss's old hardsuit; it was an easy

fit except for across the breast were it was a bit tight.

"We're green," called Linna. "Sensor contact."

"Watch for incoming," said Priss. "Here we go."

"Priss," cried Linna. "7:00 low, five lockers."

"Crystal."

"Got'em." Crystal hit a control stud and the target scope

for the lasers appeared. She sighted and fired. "Five kills."

"Incoming laser fire," said Linna.

The Knightwing drove through the sparse splatter of blue

beams.

"Primary missile targets in range," said Crystal as her

voice rose in pitch. "Firing." Four missile sped away from the

Knightwing.

"Linna," shouted Priss.

"Systems up, target locked."

"Fire," roared Priss as she straightened out for a second.

For my sisters, thought Crystal.

Twin beams of red colored particle beam energy blasted out

of the Knightwing's gunmounts on the wing tips. The energy

seared straight into the very heart of the operating production

plant on GAI #7.

Priss veered off the second after they fired. The

Knightwing soared above the ensuing series of explosions that

consumed the middle of GAI #7 and spread until the whole

artificial island was engulfed in an inferno. GAI #7 started to

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sink beneath the waves. Priss drove the Knightwing back down to

the wave tops and headed towards Mega-Tokyo.

"We did it," cried Crystal. "Let's see GENOM make any more

boomers without that key component for the CPU."

"Linna, any sign of the military?"

"No, Priss."

"Increasing speed then. Next target in 90 seconds.

Recharge."

"Recharging main weapon. You did great Crystal."

"Thanks."

"Knight Sabers, Go."

Sylia, Mackie, and Nene emerged from the shadows on top of

the closest building to the GENOM Tower for the short flight

across the steel and glass canyon up to the prefab' pinnacle.

Sylia waited for the agreed upon time, 10:07 pm. Priss's run was

scheduled at 10:05 and they were able to see a flash of light and

an orange dullness push back the night over Tokyo bay.

Getting into GENOM Tower from the top wasn't a problem since

the security wasn't as tight as around any research or key

production facility. The Tai-Pan always had security around him,

but his whereabouts were a carefully guarded secret. There was

nothing a terrorist could gain from blowing up the whole

building; there was an established order of command down through

all the GENOM Towers across the world. Even if 10,000 of GENOM's

top management officials were killed, GENOM would survive. An

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illegal systems entry could be tried from anywhere on the planet,

the moon bases, or Earth orbit. GENOM security simply felt that

heavy security around the paper-pushers was unnecessary as long

as the top personnel were protected.

It was in late '33 when Mackie convinced Sylia to make him a

suit and let him join them in a more active role. He'd mainly

driven their semi to engagements, helped with the wounded, and

with cracking into data bases before. Mackie quickly proved

himself in Dr. Yoshida's attempt to destroy AD Police

headquarters. Sylia made his hardsuit bulkier than their own,

more along the lines of a K-12 MBA. His computer was more

powerful than Nene's which he used to help her contain and

destroy the boomer and the boomer's viruses in the AD Police

system during the final moments before the building was set to

self-destruct by electrical overload. His suit was yellow; he

had a palmblaster on the right hand and carried a bazooka gun in

the left. Mackie had never been in any firefights as a Knight

Saber. The AD Police incident was the one and only time he

fought along side his sister.

Mackie took out a camera with a long shot from his

palmblaster. Nene overrid' a doors controlling mechanism and

they were in.

Quickly and quietly they moved through the deserted

corridors on the top level. They blew apart three R-class

cleaning boomers and several cameras before they drew close to

their target. The room ahead was filled with voices.

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"...military aircraft have been scrambled. I will handle

this."

"Make sure that you have a full report readied for the Tai-

Pan. I'm going to inform him at once."

"Yes, do that."

Sylia made a hand motion, a strong pointing motion towards

the door. Mackie aimed and blew it inward with his bazooka.

Sylia charged in first, her blade drawn. Through the smoke

she made out a command center with only five people in it. She

quickly moved to the nearest person and found herself looking

into the shaken eyes of Madigan. Madigan's blood dribbled from

her mouth and nose; she had a concussion and Sylia saw Madigan's

expensive business suit start to grow darker from an internal

injury.

As Mackie and Nene came into the room, Sylia looked at the

operating vid' phone. Bouwer was still on line. He was stunned.

"Knight Sabers..." he managed.

Sylia blasted the screen and went to round up the other four

people with the flat of her blade. Mackie and Nene moved quickly

to the main computer console and plugged in.

"Into that office now," commanded Sylia. The four workers

obeyed and helped each other into the room. The door slid shut

and Sylia blasted the control panel. "Hurry, we don't have much

time."

"I'm in," said Nene. "Mackie, protect me from their

counters."

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"Got it."

"You'll...never get away with this...Stingray," managed

Madigan.

"How we do'en?" Sylia hauled Madigan to her feet and dumped

her in a chair. She gasped and nearly passed out.

"It's coming up now," said Nene. "Shit, zero, all

eliminated."

"Right. Madigan, your personal passwords." Sylia slapped

her across the face and dug the blade into her neck. There was a

spurt of blood.

"Ok, ok. This is Madigan, 3457; good morning Jean-Luc

Picard."

Mackie stifled a laugh as he worked to keep the terminal

open.

"Cute Madigan, real cute. You know, if your ICE wasn't so

thick, we wouldn't have to do it this way. I expect company, so

you'll have to..." Madigan's scream was cut off as Sylia hit her

over the head. She headed for the door and blasted a C-class

boomer in the face as it ran around the corner. The second one

came around the corner in a crouch, fired; Sylia dodged and

nailed it in the shoulder. It fired again and again; Sylia took

a hit to the side, activated her thrusters and slammed into the

boomer. She nailed it in the face.

Sylia trotted back to the others. "Hurry up. They'll be

swarming in a second."

"I can't hold them forever Nene," cried Mackie as he worked

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to protect Nene from their attempts to block their data search.

"Ok," snapped Nene. "Where in the fuck are they?" Seconds

passed. "I got'em, I got..." The computer terminal where Mackie

and Nene worked blew up, sending crackling bolts of electricity

arcing into them as they were thrown back.

"Nene, Mackie."

Two panels on their hardsuits opened to vent a systems

overload; The GENOM system and all power on that floor went

dead.

"Are you ok?" Sylia moved to Mackie and blasted another

boomer as it rushed into the control room. Sylia fired steadily

at the entrance from behind a computer work station.

"I'm ok," responded Mackie. He crawled over to Nene.

"Nene?"

"Yea, yea. I got it. Let's go."

Sylia blasted another boomer, two more took its place and

obliterated the counter Sylia was behind. The boomers were

joined by three more and they moved into the command center.

Mackie leveled his gun at them and obliterated all five. They

could hear the pounding of metal against metal as more boomers

approached. Mackie turned and fired at the top of the elevator.

The explosion ripped the doors off and collapsed the roof inward.

Mackie headed in; he activated his booster packs and barreled up

the shaft. Nene finished stenciling their name into the flooring

and followed.

Sylia launched herself at the first boomer in the door,

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driving her blade straight through its chest. She retreated and

the boomer was blasted apart by laser fire. She scrambled and

launched herself behind a computer console. The blue beams

sizzled by her and slammed into what was left of the elevator

car. The car plunged down the shaft as Sylia flew for the

opening; the console was torn apart. The blue beams flared and

missed their target as she shot upwards. Sylia went up two

stories and out the hole Mackie made at the top of the shaft.

She trotted down a deserted corridor and soared for the next hole

as the pursuing boomers arrived at that level. Sylia plunged out

into the void and shot upwards as the blue beams streaked by her.

Sylia hovered for a full second as she regained her

bearings. She glanced down. The ground was lost in the shadows

around the GENOM Tower a 1000 meters below her.

Sylia was engulfed in a spot light from an AD Police

chopper. She saw the gun mounts move in her direction. The

second chopper, coming up behind the first, exploded. Sylia

dodged to the side. Nene soared up from the top level just above

Sylia; twin beams shot out over Nene's shoulders and pierced the

chopper just under the blade housing.

The chopper wobbled and crashed into the side of the Tower

as the pursuing boomers emerged from Mackie's hole.

The Knight Sabers soared away from the explosion that lit up

the night sky for a brief few seconds.

The Man hovered in mid-air 100 meters from the burning GENOM

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Tower and watched the Knight Sabers rush pass below him. Sylia

passed through a finger of the green/black firestorm swirling

around him; she shivered. The Man smiled. He turned his full

attention across Mega-Tokyo to the Knightwing.

The Knightwing was on fire as it plunged towards the

Kawasaki Industrial Complex. Priss was fighting to straighten it

out for one more shot.

"Last missiles away," said Crystal calmly. "Secondary

system locking on target. Locked."

"Priss," cried Linna. "Military lock on, they've fired."

"Fire," roared Priss. "Escape."

Red energy sizzled out of the Knightwing and straight into

the heart of their third target. They ejected and the missiles

slammed into the Knightwing. A hail storm of metallic debris

showered onto an untouched outer edge of the plant complex; a

short rain of fire followed.

Priss didn't slow her descent until she was 10 meters from

the water. She hit the bay, plunged down, and slowly surfaced

after a full minute. The limited flare of her booster packs was

covered by the waves she made. She watched the ensuing series of

explosions ripple through the plant around their target before

heading towards land. She could feel water start to collect in

her hardsuit. Halfway to shore Priss came across Linna as the

military jets thundered overhead.

"Crystal, Crystal," called Priss over her comn' system as

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they scrambled to shore. "Nothing, shit."

A crowd gathered to watch the fire. Priss and Linna were

running for the shadows of the nearest warehouse when someone

shouted, "The Knight Sabers." The crowd turned and started to

point and shout. An AD Police chopper moved to intercept as they

made the roof.

"Were could she be?" Linna stopped and crouched in the

shadow of some solar paneling to pant. "She was on the side

towards the city too."

"Crystal, Crystal," called Priss. "Nothing, shit," she

spat. Sirens were coming from all directions as Priss looked

about. The AD Police chopper was hovering over the bay with its

searchlight panning back and forth slowly. Priss turned and

looked at the other seven choppers starting to close in.

"They have us," muttered Linna. "Infra-red."

One of the seven choppers closing the circle fired and was

blown out of the sky.

"Go, go," urged Priss.

They thrusted into the searchlights of the closing choppers.

Priss's spike cannon came up and drilled two into the chopper

closest to them but it only did superficial damage. The choppers

keep their distance as they closed, using sporadic bursts from

their miniguns to keep them going towards each other at the

center.

Linna met another blue Knight Saber in mid-air and they

landed together on the top of a warehouse. Priss joined them a

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second latter.

"Almost gave up on ya."

"We have to escape," cried Linna.

"To late," whispered Crystal.

They turned back to back in the glaring crosshairs of light

as the three lead choppers zeroed in as their miniguns came to

bear. The ammo' they carried was powerful enough to penetrate

the hardsuits.

"Knight Sabers," thundered a voice from a chopper.

"Surrender. You are surrounded." There was a hint of malice to

his voice. "If you do not comply immediately, we will destroy

you. Surrender. You are out gunned. Get down on your knees

with your arms in the air."

"Never surrender," said Crystal softly with a small plain

voice over their static filled comm' system. "I can't

surrender."

"I always knew I'd buy it this way." Sylia, thought Priss.

Forgive me.

"Yes," whispered Linna. "We have to fight for what we

believe in." Linna felt a tear role down her cheek as she pushed

her knuckleblaster into red overload.

"Do it now," screamed the AD Police officer.

"Knight Sabers," roared Priss over the beat of the hovering

choppers. "Go."

Three AD Police choppers raked the Knight Sabers with

simultaneous fire as they were hit with direct shots. The Knight

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Sabers were lost in the swirling dust clouds and the roof gave

way. The three hit choppers backed off and managed to land on

adjoining buildings as three more surged in and began to sweep

the debris clouds and the collapsed sections with continues fire.

The AD Police officer in charge let his people strafe the

rubble for five minutes before letting up on the murderous Knight

Sabers. When they landed, he smiled. "I'll get a promotion for

killing those bastards," he told the pilot. The pilot just

laughed in agreement.

"COME ON."

A hand grabbed Priss by the forearm and pulled her down.

There was the grating sound of heavy steel against concrete and

she saw the searchlights filter through a grated opening. She

backed away from the stray shots that found their way down into

the sewer system; she looked over at Linna and Crystal crouched

there beside her and at the faint green/black flame a meter down

the system which illuminated the tunnel. Priss put her hand to

her chest and fully realized there wasn't a sizable hole there

when there should have been. "You..."

"COME ON." He motioned for them to follow, leaving them in

the dark after he turned the first corner.

Crystal stood and grabbed both Linna and Priss to pull them

along. They followed the faint trace of green light for half a

km. before the man slowed and started to hover in mid-air. When

they caught up, he shot ahead, leaving a faint trail of

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green/black fire for them to follow. They took to the air and

followed the trail through the complex maze of sewers systems for

eight kms before it ended at a metal grating set halfway into the

gently lapping waters of Tokyo bay.

Beyond the grating Priss could make out the skeletal remains

of Aqua-city with her night vision. As she and Linna collapsed,

the grating dissolved in a burst of green/black fire. They

turned as he slowly appeared behind them. He was nothing but a

faint outline of a person, surrounded by fire that dimly

illuminated the end of the tunnel. He made a move to speak but

Crystal rushed to embrace him.

"Thank you," whispered Crystal. "We owe you our lives,

everything." She took off her helmet and moved to kiss him, but

he gently pushed her away.

"Who are you?" Linna took her helmet off and struggled off

of her knees.

"Well," demanded Priss.

"AN INTERFERER, A HELPER. YOU HAVE TO LIVE AND DIE YOUR OWN

LIFE. MY POWER HERE IS WANING."

"I thought you told her you were a god," shot back Priss.

"Some god."

"Geez, Priss," said Linna. "Sir, you said you were a

helper. Can you help us, more than you already have?"

Crystal noticed his left hand clench and relax.

"MASTER FORBIDS THE CONTINUED INTERFERENCE IN YOUR THREE

LIVES. IF YOU FACE THE FIRING SQUAD, YOU WILL DO SO ALONE, I

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CANNOT INTERFERE. MY MISSION HERE IS NEARLY FINISHED."

"We're a mission to you?" Asked Linna.

"Shit," muttered Priss. For an instant she remember the

touch and kiss she'd shared with Sylvie. "You have power," she

cried. "Use it. We fight the greatest evil on the planet. Help

us."

"WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO, SEAR ALL THE GENOM TOWERS FROM

THE EARTH WITH HEAVENLY FIRE? SHALL I THEN GIVE YOU WISHES LIKE

SOME GENIE? TO RECAPTURE YOUR LOST LOVE, OF COURSE. YOU ARE

TRANSPARENT TO ME, PRISS. WHAT WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO PAY ME FOR

HELPING YOU? IF YOU GIVE ME AN ETERNITY OF LOYAL SERVITUDE, YOU

ARE AN EVEN BIGGER FOOL THAN I WAS, LONG, LONG, AGO."

"Your master prevents you from helping us more," said

Crystal. "You can never be free, can you? We fight for freedom.

I pity you, because we can't help you in any way. With all your

power, you don't have anyone do you? It must be lonely."

They all saw the faint trace of a smile. "DREAM, CRYSTAL,

DREAM, AND YOUR RIGHTS AS A SENTIENT BEING MIGHT BE WITHIN YOUR

GRASP, IF YOU SURVIVE THE FIGHT. PRISS, THE GREATEST EVIL YOU

WILL EVER FACE STILL AWAITS. HIS PLOTS ARE TICKING WITH DIGITAL

PRECISION EVEN AS WE SPEAK. LINNA, BE PROUD IN WHAT YOU BELIEVE

IN. THERE, THERE IS AQUA-CITY. GO TO YOUR FUTURE." He faded

silently away.

A gust of wind blew in off the bay, scattering the faint

remnants of the green/black fire until it was gone.

"Come on," said Priss softly after a couple of minutes in

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the dark tunnel. She moved into the water and headed for the

skeletal remains of a refuge. Linna followed as Crystal lingered

for a moment. She listened to the wind, the faint lap of the

waves, and the dripping of water. She stood and tried to imagine

what it would be like to easily rule a world and yet not have

anyone. A tear roled down her cheek; she brushing it aside.

When the tear hit the cement floor, it vanished in a puff of

green/black flame.

"GO," moaned the wind softly.

Crystal lingered a moment longer before following her

friends.

* * *

The Tai-Pan stood before his window, looking out across the

dazzling apron of thriving humanity. The only light came in from

off the city surrounding his steel mountain. He chuckled to

himself. Sylia, he thought. You are more worthy than I ever

dared dream. You haunt my city like some ghost in a machine and

my pet wolves have no idea where you are. They will hunt you now

until you are dead. My dear Sylia, your only salvation now lies

with me.

The Tai-Pan was chuckling softly as his door opened and two

people approached his desk. He turned and sat down, keying off

his monitor displaying the private file on Sylia Stingray, opened

to the first picture.

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Fazul and Bouwer stood before him.

"You have failed me Fazul." She turned her head to the side

and looked at the floor. "Bouwer, take her as your example. She

failed because she could not control her anger towards the Knight

Sabers. This anger, which steams from the death of Mason and her

own loyalty to GENOM, is her undoing. Mark well how her attempts

at revenge have failed. She could not grasp the understanding

that sometimes you have to sacrifice pawns or even queens for

your long term goals. The Knight Sabers have never been a threat

to GENOM."

"Yes Tai-Pan," said Bouwer.

"Bouwer, have you ascertained what they were after from our

own computer banks?"

"The files Nene went after were the data on our 33-S

sexaroids. They got the standing info' about them being

destroyed, and then went deeper into the system, into the highest

security files with Madigan's voice access passcode. I

personally didn't know that any of those sexaroids still existed,

but they knew, and they knew the only place to find them was

here."

"Their attack on the plants were a simple diversionary

strategy. Smoke for the media to focus on, a cover to their true

intentions, perhaps even some retaliation for their harassment."

Quincy glanced over at Fazul who stood silently before his desk.

"The damage?"

"Sir," started Bouwer. "GAI #7 is a total loss. Heavy

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damage was sustained to both plants in the Kawasaki Industrial

Zone. They knew right where to hit us for the heaviest damage to

our boomer production. Our stockpile of boomer CPUs constructed

by those plants is relatively nil because of as needed

construction. We will have to bring in CPUs from our overseas

plants to have any boomer production in Mega-Tokyo."

"I would expect nothing less from Sylia Stingray." Quincy

laughed. "We know that she spoke to the Fuago double about doing

something she should of done a year ago but didn't. Over a year

ago, they shot a 33-S who escaped from Genaros and controlled the

D.D. airborne battlemover. That was what she was referring to

and not the Chang Conglomerate's feeble attempt on my life."

"There were three Knight Sabers here and three that engaged

the AD Police." The Tai-Pan just looked at Fazul. "Sylia,

Mackie, and Nene were here and from the Ad Police vid' tape,

Priss, Linna and someone wearing Priss's older hardsuit were at

the waterfront. Since the suits are designed for a female, I

believe the other Knight Saber was the 35-S Sylia stole from us

and got to Mega-Tokyo. The attempt to capture it did fail. This

just leaves us with two questions. What are they doing with

sexaroids and why?"

"Sylia breaks in here and uses Madigan's passcode to find

out the truth about whether or not there are any 33-Ss in

operation today. Coupled with the facts that she stole a 35-S,

the Knight Sabers kept the Haynes prototype AI, and she is Dr.

Stingray's daughter, leads to only one conclusion." Magnificent,

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Sylia.

"They know," whispered Bouwer. "God damn, they know."

"Know what?" Asked Fazul.

"It seems that Sylia has decided that Largo was right," said

Quincy after a moment of silence.

"Largo?"

"Largo spoke to me about the cyberdroids having the

potential to become a new species, greater than the one which

created them. It seems the Knight Sabers saw a glimmer of the

truth when they destroyed the 33-S. Sylia then tests this by

working with a 35-S. They want to know if there are any 33-Ss

left; the public data banks all say no, so they raid GENOM to

find the truth."

"They have to be destroyed immediately," exclaimed Bouwer.

"This threat to our security is unprecedented."

"She's no better than Largo," whispered Fazul.

"Shut up Fazul." Quincy's voice was soft; Fazul gulped and

turned pale. "You will not destroy them, Bouwer."

"But Tai-Pan..."

"Bouwer."

"Yes, Tai-Pan." Bouwer bowed. "What are your orders Tai-

Pan?"

"The Knight Sabers have cast themselves into the role of the

crusader who seeks to liberate the 33-S from our control, but

they don't see they're trying to unleash a powerful enemy of all

humanity. Of all the people in the world under my control, no

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one has impressed me more than Sylia Stingray. That is her

value. Bouwer, you will pull all information on the 33-S and 35-

S, you will then move all working models to here in the Tower."

"Yes, Tai-Pan."

"I'm certain that the AD Police hunt for them will be

unsuccessful, so I'm counting on you to capture them alive when

they try to seize this bait. Make the necessary arrangements."

"It will be done as you order Tai-Pan."

"Good." Quincy nodded slowly. "Once we have them, Sylia's

options are reduced to two. Join us or be thrown to the wolves.

About your business Bouwer."

Bouwer bowed, turned, and quickly walked to the heavy double

doors at the other end of the room. They swung silently open

then resounded as they closed on the Tai-Pan and Fazul.

* * *

The interface cables shot out of Nene's right forearm onto

Crystals hardsuit. The connection was made in less than a second

and Crystal watched the stream of data about the 33-S scroll pass

in her helmet. Production reports, initial testing, distribution

to the Yakuza, the first reports of unusual activity in the 33-S,

the orders for their elimination to appease the other

MegaCorporations, the shut down and dismantling of the

deprogramming center, and finally, the reports on the 33-S who

slipped through the sweeps due to bureaucratic error or

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falsification of records by upper level GENOM employees. The

last report Crystal read, said that since there were so few left,

they were to be ignored. Any problems with them could be handled

on a local inhouse level. Crystal memorized every kanji as it

scrolled pass, reviewing the data twice before slowly sinking to

her knees. She took off her helmet.

"Crystal?"

"Mother, I have 142 sisters." Crystal leapt to her feet and

grabbed Sylia in a hug; she picked Sylia up, in her hardsuit, and

swung her around. "142, 142, 142." She set Sylia down. "142 of

my sisters are still in slavery. Mother, we have to do

something."

"I thought that list only had 123 on it," said Mackie to

Nene.

"It does. The other 19 are the new 35-S prototypes."

"Oh."

"Yes, yes," Sylia was saying to Crystal. "Of course we'll

help them now that we know they still exist. But we can't do

anything for them right now. We're tired and hurting Crystal; we

need sleep and a chance to plan our moves for the next few days.

This is a dangerous time and we can't move prematurely or

irrationally. We have to be extremely careful about what we do."

"Yea," said Priss. She was sitting on a military food

ration crate in her softsuit. She stifled a yawn. "If he hadn't

interfered, they'd still be scraping us off the waterfront. They

had us nailed to the fuck'en wall. He sure pulled something to

HOUGH/CRUSADE-379

get us out of it." Linna sat down by Priss. Nene finished

getting out of her hardsuit and sat down by Taki.

"If what he said is true," said Sylia as she sat down

heavily on an unopened crate next to Priss. "Then if Largo has

reentered the picture, we're..."

"Fucked," supplied Linna. She took a drink from a bottle of

water. "It's bad enough that we're fighting with GENOM, but

Largo too?" She shuddered. "We barely beat him the last time."

"Who's this Largo?" asked Taki.

"Advanced prototype superboomer who's a megalomanic. He

hates the Knight Sabers and humanity in general." Nene sighed

softly. "It's even worse since he knows everything about us."

"Are you sure you don't want to take a nice vacation in

Frisco for awhile?"

"That's no way to talk," interjected Priss. "We've defeated

Largo twice; we can do it again."

"But this time, all of GENOM and Mega-Tokyo is poised

against us." Linna took another sip. "You heard him, he can't

interfere with us any more. We're dead."

"Linna."

"Linna, Priss stop it," said Sylia. "We're tired and we

can't think clearly. We can think this through in the morning."

Sylia yawned. "Linna, why don't you take first watch, rotate..."

"Mother," interjected Crystal. "I'll take the watch

tonight."

"Crystal?"

HOUGH/CRUSADE-380

"I don't need sleep. It's only logical that I take the

watch. All of you need rest. My basic psychology programming

tells me that the more stress you're under, the more sleep you

need if you want to prevent a breakdown. Go, sleep. I'll be

your guardian; I'll protect you, with my own life if necessary."

"Hopefully it won't come to that," said Priss.

"Yes," said Sylia after hesitating for a moment. "Yes; I'm

not thinking very clearly about somethings at the moment either."

"Goodnight Mother," said Crystal, hugging her.