Savage went from shocked to furious to a cold rage in a few seconds. "If the colonists knew about this, they'd drag the Councillors out of their beds and lynch them on the spot. But there's no way these people could have set this up themselves, sir Random. Someone much higher up has to be covering for them. Someone on Golgotha."
"Damn," said Random. "Maybe I am fighting on the wrong side. If Tallon and Jacks knew about this… Look, is there any way we can contact the rebel forces? Secretly? If we could persuade them to settle their grievances through the system, with my support…"
"You don't understand," said Savage, shutting down his terminal and turning to face Random. "You haven't seen what they've been doing. The rebels fight alongside the Ghost Warriors. They've been wiping out the outer settlements—whole towns and villages, murdered down to the last man, woman, and child. Afterward, the rebels help the Ghost Warriors collect the more intact adult bodies so they can be made over into Ghost Warriors. The other bodies… it's not just Shub that commits atrocities. Let me call up some vid footage we have from their last attack."
He activated a viewscreen, and Random and Ruby watched Shub and rebel forces destroy a town with fire and steel and horror. Savage watched their faces more than the screen. He'd already seen the vid footage, and knew he'd never be able to forget it.
Ghost Warriors went stalking through the street, killing everything that moved that wasn't them. Corpses, with gray and blue skin, metal eyes, and grinning teeth revealed by cracked and rotting lips. Some so badly damaged that bones showed through tears in exposed meat, or loops of tattered intestine hung from slashed-open bellies. Computer implants moved servomechanisms in dead limbs, and men and women who had fallen nobly in battle were raised again against their wishes to fight in the name of Shub. Terror weapons, horror troops, they could not be hurt, argued with, or stopped. As long as the armored computer implant remained intact, whatever remained of the body would keep going, obeying its merciless orders.
They stalked their human prey with inhuman patience. Buildings blazed around them, the leaping flames fanned by the endless winds. The living went blade to blade with the dead, to defend their homes or perhaps only to buy time for their loved ones to escape, but they all died in the end. The Ghost Warriors would not stop till all that lived lay still before them, dead as they were. That was how they had been programmed. They dragged the last few women and children from their hiding places and put on a show for the camera, tearing their victims apart with inhuman strength. Afterward, the Ghost Warriors built strange constructions from human pieces, dozens of feet high, with human bones as support and eyeless children's faces as ornaments.
The scene faded away, and the viewscreen shut itself down. Random let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He'd seen his share of death and slaughter and atrocity down the years, but this implacable, mechanical murder chilled his soul. He looked across at Savage.
"I saw people in there. Humans, not Ghost Warriors. They were killing too, and looting. Rebels?"
"That's right," said Savage. "They're a part of everything that happens. That village was called Trawl. Population maybe five hundred. I had family there. They're all dead now. Trawl didn't even have any strategic value, but the rebels destroyed it anyway. Just because it was there. And they killed everyone to send us a message: that there was nothing they wouldn't do, and that there was nothing we could do to stop them. I lost all that remained of my family in Trawl. There's nobody else. I am the last of my line, and my name dies with me."
"Yeah," said Ruby. "There's a lot of that about these days. I can't believe humans would fight alongside Ghost Warriors of their own free will."
Savage shrugged. "They're desperate. A lot of them have old scores to settle. And maybe… they've developed a taste for killing. I don't know. Sometimes I think the whole Empire's gone crazy. The old order was bad, but what we've got now is worse."
"It's just a transition," said Random. "There were always bound to be… difficulties in replacing one system with another. Things will get better in time."
"I'm sure that's a comfort to all those who die during your transition," said Savage. "Or to those who have to watch them die. What happened, sir Random? I always believed in you. Watched your battle against Lionstone on black-market vids. Prayed that someday, somehow, you'd succeed. Now I don't know what to believe anymore."
"Have faith," said Random. "Not in me, but in the people. They'll put the Empire back together again and make it stronger than it was. All this will pass."
"If you start talking about birth pains again, I may puke," said Ruby.
"Nothing of worth is ever achieved without pain and sacrifice," said Random, concentrating on Savage. "We owe it to those who have died to keep on fighting, to keep struggling, for what they and we believe in."
"I want to believe," said Savage. "I want all this death and suffering to have been for something. But what have we achieved if people like de Lisle can come back to power again?"
"Trust me," said Random. "I'll take care of him once I get back to Golgotha."
"Can you stop the rebels?" said Savage. "Can you stop the Ghost Warriors?"
"Of course we can," said Ruby. "We're the good guys. Right, Random?"
"Well, I am," said Random. "I'm not too sure about you." He looked straight at Savage. "We'll do everything we can to save this world from its enemies. I swear it, upon my blood and my honor. Now, I need you to work out a map for me, showing how much territory the rebels control and what direction they're moving in. I want some idea of what they're going to hit next."
Savage nodded and got to work at his terminal again. Random gestured unobstrusively to Ruby, and they moved off a ways to talk in private.
"Originally, I thought we'd been sent here to distract us from our investigations into Shub's connection on Golgotha," said Random. "But this is clearly more important. Shub has to be stopped here, and stopped hard, or they'll move from planet to planet, repeating these tactics."
"But what can we do against an army of Ghost Warriors?" said Ruby. "You made a real nice speech to that boy, but I don't see how we're going to back it up. Even trained soldiers have a hard time against Ghost Warriors, and this city's army is strictly amateur hour. Shub will chew them up and spit them out."
"I do have some experience plotting strategies against superior odds," said Random. "I did win my fair share of campaigns, you know."
"You lost just as many."
"That was then, this is now. If Savage's map shows what I think it's going to, I have an idea that may win us this war in one blow."
"A desperate last gamble, against overpowering odds, with everything depending on us. That sort of thing?"
"Yes," said Random. "That sort of thing."
"Ah," said Ruby, shaking her head, "business as usual. Look, just once, why not do the sensible thing; call in half a dozen starcruisers and have them blast the rebel positions from orbit?"
"One, there aren't half a dozen starcruisers available. Two, their sensors wouldn't work accurately through the endless storms. Three, if we escalate matters, so will Shub. We have to beat them with what we have here, so they'll think twice about trying this anywhere else."
"I hate it when you go all logical on me," said Ruby. "All right, here we go again. Time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, one more time."
Savage called politely for their attention, and they crowded around his monitor to study the map.
"So far the rebel forces have been concentrating on hit-and-run attacks," said Savage. "They attack during lulls in the weather, destroy the target, and then disappear before we can retaliate. Travel has to be on foot, for us and them. Aircraft won't work on Loki; the storms are too much for them. In a sense, that's been our salvation. It limits the damage Shub's been able to do."
"What about force shields?" said Ruby. "A good Screen could handle any weather this world could throw at it."
"Loki's electromagnetic fields are very unusual. You w
ouldn't believe how much power it takes to maintain Vidar's Screen. Nothing short of a starcruiser could generate enough power to maintain a traveling shield on Loki for any length of time."
"This was all covered in the briefings before we left, Ruby," said Random. "I do wish you'd learn to pay attention."
"You're the brains in this outfit, Random. But even I can see what's happening on this map. The rebels have been surrounding Vidar, cutting the city off from outside help. This is their next target, has to be. Vidar itself."
"Right," said Random. "They're finally ready for the killing stroke."
"Then we have to do something," said Savage, turning to glare at Random and Ruby. "You've got to do something! You're the great heroes!"
"Easy, boy," said Ruby. "We can't just rush out and attack the rebel forces on our own. Even I'm not that crazy."
"So what do we do? Sit and wait for them to come to us?"
"Almost," said Random. "Rather, we make them come to us, in a setting we choose. We can't risk letting them lay siege to Vidar. This city wasn't built to stand off attacks by Ghost Warriors. We need to face them in the field. According to the briefing we were given, your computers can predict lulls in the weather, moments of calm in the storms. Is that right?"
"Well, yes. We're managing about eighty percent accuracy. But lulls never last for long."
"This one won't have to. We find our calm spot, occupy it to our best advantage, and then wait for the rebel forces to come to us. And then we kick their ass. The rebels may have Ghost Warriors, but you've got us. And we've never lost a battle yet."
"Come bloody close sometimes," muttered Ruby.
"Shut up, Ruby. We can do this, Peter. It'll mean leaving Vidar practically defenseless, but it's a necessary risk. Our powers will make the difference. One last battle to end it all."
"Hold everything," said Ruby. "This all depends on the rebels and Shub sending their whole force against us, to fight on ground they must know we've chosen and prepared. Why should they do that?"
"They'll come to us because we'll have something they want. Something they want very badly."
"Like what?" said Ruby.
"Us," said Random. "You and me. The secrets and powers of the Madness Maze. Shub will risk everything for a chance at us, and you can bet rebel spies in the city will have got the word out by now."
"Oh, great," said Ruby. "Just wonderful. We're going to be the bait in a trap, in a weather lull that may or may not last till the battle's over, with a whole army of Ghost Warriors intent on getting to us at all costs. Have I missed anything?"
"Actually, no," said Random. "How about it, Savage, what do your computers have to say about upcoming lulls in the weather?"
"Way ahead of you," said Savage, bent over his terminal. "And it looks like our luck's in for once. There's a major lull due in the next few days. It should last for several hours, and it'll cover half a square mile around a valley not too far from Vidar. This particular lull turns up on a regular cycle, so it's fairly dependable. Just what the doctor ordered."
"About time something went our way," said Ruby.
"Then let's go talk to the people who think they're in charge here," said Random. "We've got an army to put together, and not a lot of time to do it in."
In a steel and stone bunker deep beneath the surface of Loki, the rebel forces planned their next objectives. Or at least, the human element did. Young Jack Random and his Ghost Warriors took their orders from the rogue AIs back on Shub, and mostly they chose not to share their objectives with the human rebels, who were told what they needed to know and nothing else. The leaders of the human rebels, ex-Planetary Controller Matthew Tallon and ex-Mayor of Vidar Terrence Jacks, sat facing each other across a simple metal table in a cramped room with bare walls and a low ceiling that served many functions, as necessary. Tallon and Jacks got the room to themselves for the moment, because they were the leaders. They picked bitterly at the main meal of the day: protein cubes and distilled water, produced by Shub machines. All the elements necessary to sustain life, but nothing else.
"God, I hate this stuff," said Jacks, pushing the small chunks of protein about his plate. "It tastes of nothing, takes ages to chew, and it doesn't even come in any interesting colors."
"I know," said Tallon. "I'd kill for a thick steak and a decent wine to wash it down with."
"We've killed for less than that," said Jacks, and their eyes met across the table.
"There's been looting again, hasn't there?" said Tallon. "Even though I forbade it."
"You can't blame the men. I mean, the dead don't need their food anymore, do they?"
"But there's never enough to go around. Only enough for a taste, for a lucky few. Enough to remind a man how foul this stuff really is. So the men fight each other over the spoils when they should be conserving their strength for the struggle to come. We can't afford to lose any more people, dammit! I know our life is hard, but we chose it. We chose to be rebels rather than bow down to tyranny."
"And a hell of a lot it's got us," said Jacks. "Allied with the Enemies of Humanity."
"We had no choice! The Empire wouldn't protect us, and the power base they inflicted on us was hopelessly corrupt. Our only chance for a decent life lay with calling in Shub's help."
"You call this a decent life? Hiding in a hole in the ground, only coming out to kill our own kind?"
"Things will get better. You'll see. This is just a time of transition."
"What have we come to, Matt?" said Jacks. "Living like rats in our holes, standing by as the Ghost Warriors kill women and children. Some of our men have even started joining in. Taking out their anger and frustration on the defenseless. Are we any closer to winning this bloody war, because I can't see it. All I can see is us becoming as inhuman as the allies we chose."
"We do what's necessary." Tallon held Jacks's gaze unwaveringly. "We swore an oath during the rebellion against Lionstone, remember? Swore it on our blood and our honor, Whatever It Takes. That hasn't changed. We're still fighting the same enemy."
"Are we? Jack Random and Ruby Journey have come here to fight us! Two of the greatest heroes of the rebellion, the people who inspired us to fight, have come here specifically to fight us! How the hell did we end up on opposite sides from them! We can't fight them!"
"Yes, we can. There's just the two of them. What difference can they make against an army of Ghost Warriors?"
"Are you kidding? They overthrew Golgotha, toppled Lionstone from the Iron Throne, and remade the Empire! They're legends!"
"They're monsters. The Madness Maze turned them into something other than human."
"And what are we?" asked Jacks, and Tallon had no reply.
"My, my," said Young Jack Random from the doorway. "Do I detect despondency? You don't want to worry about Random and Journey. They may be legends, or monsters, but then, so am I."
The two humans looked around sharply, glaring at the machine standing at ease in the doorway. He was tall and handsome, clad in silver armor, every inch a hero. A killing machine with a hero's face, without mercy or compassion or honor. He smiled charmingly at Tallon and Jacks.
"Sorry to interrupt your meal, gentlemen, but I thought you should know there's been a change in plans, and we'll be moving out soon. Better get your people together and properly motivated. No more sneak attacks—we're going one on one with the colonists. Our army versus theirs, winner takes all."
"What brought this on all of a sudden?" said Tallon, rising to his feet. "We've nothing to gain from such open tactics, and everything to lose. What's changed?"
"Jack Random and Ruby Journey will be leading the city forces. And Shub wants them very much, dead or alive."
Jacks stood up too. "You want them so badly you're willing to risk all our lives, and our cause, just for a chance at getting your hands on them?"
"Got it in one," said Young Jack Random.
"No," said Tallon. "I can't accept this. My people are still exhausted from their last raid
. You can't ask them to go out again."
"I'm not asking," said Young Jack Random, smiling. "Anyone who doesn't march with us dies here."
"You need us!" said Jacks.
"Now, where did you ever get that idea?" said the Fury. "You are useful, nothing more. Pray you don't outlast that usefulness."
"We can't fight Random and Journey!" said Tallon. "Not them. They're monsters. They can do things no one should be able to do."
"Not to worry," said Young Jack Random, still smiling. "We always thought some of the Maze survivors might turn up here. So we brought along a special little something just for them. Something that will make them merely human again. And then you'll have no trouble taking them, will you, gentlemen?"
"No," said Tallon. "We won't. They perverted and corrupted our cause. They made a deal with the Families instead of wiping them out. The same bastards are still running things, same as they always did. To hell with Jack Random and that psycho bitch Journey."
"We were betrayed," said Jacks. "After everything we'd done for Loki, after all our blood and suffering, and the good men we lost—in the end it was all for nothing."
The two humans looked at each other, seeing again old hurts from the past. Only by continually rehearsing their old wrongs and grievances could they keep their rage fresh, and excuse the terrible things they had seen and done in their alliance with Shub. They needed to believe they were still the heroes of their rebellion.
"When I took over as Planetary Controller, I thought the war was over," said Tallon. "I thought I could finally start making changes, real changes. But it was all a sham. My position meant nothing, my ideas were ignored. The people who actually ran things, who controlled the money and the bureaucracy, found more and more ways to obstruct and sideline me. I was helpless, little more than a figurehead, there to fool the people into thinking something had changed."