Ben Chaney - Son of Sedonia

Jogun stepped back out in the street, light-headed. He searched the storefront and nearby alleys. Nothing. The girl and the T99 were gone. Sweat poured down his face as gasped for air in his scorched throat. He clenched his eyes shut and raised his face to the sun. Panic gripped his chest. What the fuck are we doing here?!

“Healer,” said a nervous voice. Jogun’s eyes flashed open. The young T99 instantly looked away despite his obvious size and strength. Under the soot and drying blood, Jogun put the squashed face to a name.

“Oki,” said Jogun, “You’re Oki, right?” That seemed to hook the kid up to a wall socket. Jogun sighed, remembering the younger, pinker version of this soldier that last day on the rooftops. A long time ago.

“Yeah…yeah, that’s me. Doc Utu’s lookin’ for you. Said he got somethin’ you need to see…” Oki said. Jogun looked once more at the shattered storefront, shoved the memory somewhere deep, and nodded to the boy.

“Lead the way,” Jogun said, nodding. Oki made glancing eye contact. Grinned.

More joined them on the way, following behind Jogun with hard looks on young faces. The growing posse bristled with weapons as they marched over the enemy corpses littering the streets. Again, the awareness of his bizarre, growing legend tugged at him. They’ll remember this forever. If we survive.

Finally, Oki stopped and pointed to a small cluster of soldiers grouped in a bombed out parking deck. They quickly noticed the Healer’s presence, and made a space. Utu sat among them on an upturned bucket, leaning forward on his palm. Talking. A skinny, rat-like kid sat across from him. The boy wore the same kind of jumpsuit a few of the strange soldiers had worn, unzipped to the waist with a dingy undershirt plastered to his pale skin. A smearing of dark blood gathered underneath his nose. Utu turned on the bucket.

“My boy,” Utu beamed as he stood up. He looked so different without his airy temple robes, clothed instead in a flak vest, canvas pants, heavy boots, and two ammo bandoliers. Somehow smaller. The doctor crossed to Jogun and wrapped his arms around him. “Come! Come! I’ve met someone rather interesting. Um, Illk? Illyk? I’m saying the name right, aren’t I?”

Only the Doc could make friends in a war zone . The boy on the bucket nodded, careful not to move too much with so many gun barrels trained on him.

“Yes, sir, that’s right.”

“Very good. Illyk, I’d like you to meet Jogun. Would you be so kind as to tell him what you just told me?” Utu asked. Illyk rubbed his palms on his pant legs and cleared his throat.

“We can help you,” Illyk said, “Our group.”

“Help us?” Jogun asked, “A lot of your people just died tryin’ to kill us.”

“Y-your attack caught us completely by surprise,” said Illyk, “We live here. We work here. After the bombs went off, we were just trying to defend ourselves, but now… Now we realize what you’re trying to do.”

“And what’re we tryin’ to do?” Jogun really wanted to hear the answer to this question. Any answer. Every spare moment to think had been consumed by it. Illyk blinked and shook his head.

“Well…Revolution…right?” Illyk said, “That’s what we want, too.”

Jogun squinted. Illyk had to be lying to save his skin. No one on this side of the Border could possibly want that. They lived in Utopia. The promised land. They built the Border to keep us out. Why help tear it down?

“Listen, the entire City runs twenty-four hours a day on the power that we kill ourselves to pump out. You’d think they’d be more grateful, but we’re practically slaves, barely able to feed ourselves or our families. Tried petitioning in the beginning, but we were ignored. Tried striking, then Sato dissolved the unions. Now we Hack. Dig up every dirty secret we can get our hands on and rip it out for all to see. It helped us organize and pool our resources, but it’s pretty much stopped there. No one wants to hear that their government’s corrupt or that they’re enslaved, and even fewer want to do something about it. Now we all have to.”

This kid was hopped up on something, that was for sure. Jogun kept staring, waiting for the punchline. Illyk deflated a little.

“You need us. Cut off the City’s power supply, network connections, satellite connectivity, and imports, and they’re at your mercy. Then you’ll need information. City layout, target selection… places to raid, buildings to hit… EXO stations… EXO Headquarters! ”

A ripple of excitement swept through the Soldiers. A few whispered to each other. Laughed. Jogun rubbed the stubble on his chin, considering.

“And you speak for your people?”

“I do.”

“We take your help, we get theirs?”

“You will.”

Jogun stepped toward Illyk. The sound of the EXO servos made the kid flinch. Jogun extended his Augged hand. Cautiously, Illyk stood and accepted it.

“Put the word out,” Jogun projected his voice to the Soldiers, “The workers are with us. Any of ’em try to attack, tell ’em Illyk sent you. Take care of their wounded like you’d take care of ours.”

The soldiers muttered in agreement, then dispersed, running out in every direction across the debris field.

“One more thing,” Illyk said after they’d gone. For some reason that Jogun didn’t know, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. “This is gonna take more than brute force. Forty million people live in Sedonia City, and right now most of ’em aren’t exactly happy to see you guys. You go in guns blazing, trying to occupy every apartment and skyscraper you come across, then you’re gonna lose. Without the people, this is pointless. We need to convince ’em we’re on their side.”

Jogun felt a cold finger of panic. The scope of the whole thing had just jumped by forty million. He buried the terror. Listened.

“I recently came across this story, and man, I guarantee you it’s the perfect knife to shove between the administration’s ribs: first-hand mem data of an assassination carried out by the state, and proof that a fleet of ships is being built for the rich and powerful to ditch Earth! Grab the best talent, suck up all the resources they can, then leave the rest of us behind to just die out!”

Jogun furrowed his brow. This guy was sounding more and more Swayed by the second. “You gonna have to forgive me if I think you’re full of shit.” The soldiers around him chambered rounds in their guns and pressed closer.

“C’mon, man, it’s the truth! The government hacked this whistleblower guy Rindal’s transport while he was trying to escape with his wife and kid! Crashed him in the Slums, and covered the whole thing up, but the kid survived! Recorded the whole thing on his implant! He showed up out of the blue this morning, and asked me to dig it up, but—”

“Where is he?! Is he alright?!” Jogun realized he had two clenched fistfuls of Illyk’s undershirt. The kid went ghost white.

“Uh! Y-yeah man, yeah he’s alright! He’s not here though…ran off with the mem-stick right after you guys hit.”

Jogun pulled Illyk closer with a buzzing jerk of servos.

“D-don’t worry!” Illyk continued, “I’m in contact with a guy who’s with him! Says we should have the kid and the data in an hour or so.”

LIANI STRUGGLED TO get a grip. She had jumped in feet first and couldn’t remember why… especially now that everything was on fire. Something to do with owing it to him? To everyone? All Corey’s bullshit about being a conscientious objector must have gotten under her skin pretty deep. She thought she’d successfully ignored him this whole time. Her shot at making a difference had come and gone once, and she had hated herself for it ever since.