VIPER One: Countervalue

‘Chief, we’ve got a problem,’ Sev said over the comlink.

  Vasco ran through the empty corridors of the second floor, up the south stairwell, and all the way to the roof. On defrac it was impossible to avoid being seen, given that the lip of masonry lining the roof edge was only a metre high, and a great wave of jeers went up from the huge crowd lining Independence Boulevard. His warm-body scanner now put the tally at over ten thousand people, though what had once been a large, angry mass with a single purpose had given way to lots of different groups, so that looking out across the city it was more like an impromptu festival than a demonstration. Perhaps only a fifth of the total number was actually paying active attention to the UN compound, though in the heat of the afternoon their torpor seemed to be getting the better of them. Still, it hadn’t stopped every building within a few kilometres being comprehensively looted or destroyed.

  Vasco tried to ignore the crowd as he ran over to where Sev lay behind cover.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, squatting.

  ‘Look,’ Sev said, rising to a crouch. He pointed out across the city, to the south, where rocky badlands took over from the southern boundary of Theseus. After a few seconds, Vasco saw a flash. A few seconds after that, a pair of violet laser beams scythed through the atmosphere.

  ‘Heavy assault laser,’ he murmured.

  ‘Yeah,’ Sev replied.

  ‘UNAF?’

  Sev grunted. ‘UNAF Theseus. Didn’t want to risk my drone against military grade EWPs, but I’ve been using the Governorate VI’s local access feeds. Closest I can get is a klick away, thanks to the exclusion zone—you’d never get that shit on Veigis—but it’s clear enough. They’re fighting each other.’

  Vasco accepted the feed sent by Sev’s Mantix. He watched on his HUD as, a kilometre away, a typical UNAF installation was enveloped in high-energy fire. Thick black smoke obscured most of the VL feeds, but infrared and other penetrative scans revealed a destructive civil war raging across the base.

  ‘Shit,’ he said.

  ‘It could be good for us. Let them thin out their own ranks. Assuming there’s a pro-UN faction, they might even win. If there isn’t, or they lose, at least it means fewer people to assault this compound.’

  They both retreated back under the stone lip of the wall. ‘How long have they been fighting?’

  ‘Only noticed it a few minutes ago,’ Sev replied.

  ‘Word doesn’t appear to have travelled.’

  Sev shook his head. ‘Local news broadcasts have stopped. No off-world broadcasts either.’

  Vasco interfaced with the local networks. Sure enough, the world had gone dark. Ariadne was shutting down, bit by bit, cementing its place as one of the Ascendancy War’s horror stories. He could hardly blame them. Who would bother with work if they knew they were going to die?

  He rested his head against the stone and looked up at the bronzing afternoon sky. A dull pulse of adrenaline coursed through his guts. ‘So this is what it’s like.’

  ‘What what’s like?’

  ‘The end of the world.’

  There was a brief silence.

  ‘Yeah,’ Sev muttered eventually.

  ‘By the time the cobs turn up, this place will have already torn itself apart. There’ll be nothing left to nuke.’

  The comlink activated. It was Kgosi.

  ‘What’s the latest?’ he asked. He was on the floor below them, surveying the crowd from behind his RRG.

  ‘Our esteemed colleagues at UNAF Theseus are busy killing each other.’ Vasco said.

  ‘Any word from Bravo?’

  ‘Nothing yet.’

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Vasco replied, examining the milk-pale crescents of one of Ariadne’s moons above them. To the west, a large bank of cloud was rolling in. His meteorological scans pulsed softly with thunderstorm alerts.

  A few seconds later, his Mantix scanner picked up a message on the global IHD band. He opened it, bemused. Seconds later, Kgosi’s voice suddenly exploded over the squad band. ‘UN forces in Government House… evacuating wealthy UN patrons… call to arms?’ he quoted. ‘What the hell is this fresh motherfuckery?’

  Vasco couldn’t believe his eyes. The message had come from the UN Minos Consulate. It was signed “Ariadne First”, but the sender was a Mister “Hector Toshe”. His IHD provided him with a profile of the man.

  ‘Oh, Goddamn it,’ he murmured. A UN employee, but clearly a member of the Ariadnian underground network.

  ‘Chief, he’s fucked us,’ Sev said.

  ‘There must be a leak,’ Kgosi said.

  ‘How can there be, that OBS is sealed!’ Vasco said, incredulous that someone would do this. The message was urging all and sundry to attack the compound and kill the VIPER team inside. It was madness, pure madness, but already the crowd along the boulevard was getting louder, as though someone was slowly turning up the volume. They were like one enormous, mindless organism, powered purely by collective anger.

  ‘K, get ready on that RRG,’ Vasco said. ‘They’re going to hit this place like a fucking tsunami.’

  ‘What about UNAF Theseus?’ Kgosi asked.

  ‘Well, thanks to our good friend Mr Toshe, I suspect they’ll be coming for us pretty ricky fucking tick,’ Vasco practically spat, hefting his railgun butt into his shoulder and training it on the crowd outside.

  ‘They can’t get over that wall, Chief,’ Sev said from behind him. ‘Not with the anti-trespass countermeasures.’

  He was right. For all their righteous fury, the masses still couldn’t surmount a five metre-high concrete wall with active countermeasures in place. After a good twenty minutes of impotent baying, even the hardcore protesters were forced to give up.

  Vasco collapsed back down again, his back to the lip. He tried to raise Bravo, but got only static.

  ‘Come on, Jarle,’ he breathed, as the sky above them darkened.