Chapter Eleven - Paint It Black

  "There is power in music."

  --Slogan for Music-generating AI server, MusicalAi3, 2039

  ***

  Quebec came ahead after a solid couple of hours. The first I saw of it were the walls.

  They weren't that impressive, but maybe that was my New Montreal pride (such as it was) talking. The walls rose up some twenty or thirty metres or so on some parts, and others rose up higher than that. Since we were coming in from above, it wasn't hard to make out the city's main sprawl behind those walls.

  Quebec City was spacious. The few larger mega buildings they had were spread out, and it looked like there was still some greenery in there, lots of sections with actual single-family homes, with other areas dedicated to apartments and some to corporate compounds.

  It was nice enough, I supposed. The Saint Laurent ran right up against the side of the city, looking nice and clear from up above and far away.

  The city looked almost peaceful at first. At least, until we got close enough that the Bastion's sensors started to flag things. Things like missile and rocket trails, and airborne artillery strikes. We were still a dozen kilometres away, but that was still concerning to see pop up on my hud.

  "Everyone, get ready," I called out. "Might have trouble up ahead."

  "Fantastic," Hedgehog said. "Just what we want."

  I switched channels. The army had their own com channels to keep the convoy going. The two mobile bases were working to keep an eye on the entire convoy and give orders as needed. So far it was mostly directions and a few questions, but nothing too urgent.

  I hesitated before speaking. What was the name of the entire group again? Juno's Battalion was... Puck's, right? But then what would the entire group be called? I shrugged. "Convoy, this is Bastion. Come in?"

  Almost immediately, someone came on the air to reply. "Copy, Bastion, this is Convoy lead. We hear you."

  I licked my lips. "Alright convoy. We see some fireworks up ahead. Looks like there's some action on the... north-west end of the city." We were coming in from more or less the south-west ish. "We're going to detach and fly ahead to see if they need any help from up high."

  There was a pause before I got a reply. "Understood, Bastion. Lieutenant Colonel Juno says 'good hunting.'"

  I laughed. "We'll bag a few aliens for him. Maybe he can hang their heads off his wall."

  "We'll let him know, ma'am."

  I disconnected from that channel and shifted over to the one I shared with Gomorrah. "Gom, trouble ahead. We're gonna go poke it."

  "I see. I'll stay here unless it looks like you're having too much fun," Gomorrah said.

  "Got it! Toodles!"

  "Toodles?"

  I disconnected from that channel next, then leaned back into my seat before I reached down and pushed the throttle up just a smidge. The Bastion kicked forwards, engines rumbling as I fed them more fuel. "Let's see what we're dealing with, then we can see what kind of fun we're in for, yeah?" I asked.

  I sensed someone behind me, and a glance over my shoulder revealed Shy darkening the entrance to the cockpit. I nodded to her, then refocused.

  The Bastion had an alright suit of sensors. Some of them were tuned for aliens, but when I started to look into the options I was overwhelmed just about right away. "Myalis, what the fuck is all this?" I asked.

  Let me. It'll save us both a headache.

  "Can you even get a headache?"

  I've discovered that I can, thanks to you.

  "Harr-harr," I muttered. Still, she did something with the sensors. We were still accelerating, so the picture of Quebec was only growing clearer with every minute, but Myalis painted the location of all the Antithesis, even zooming in on some spots. Each zoomed-in image showed the state of things.

  The bombed-out forested spaces to the north of the city were crawling with aliens. Worse, it seemed like they were actively attacking.

  The Antithesis were moving out in waves so big that they blotted out the ground beneath them, all I could see in some spots was a sea of moving carapaces.

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  "Damn," Hedgehog said.

  One of the zoomed-in images was temporarily replaced by an explosion as a shell landed in the midst of some aliens.

  "Okay, that looks bad," I muttered.

  "Um," Shy said. I turned towards her. She didn't look like she was gonna go on, but I nodded to her and she did after hesitating for a moment more. "It might not be all bad? It's outside the city."

  Right, that was a fair point. There were some bigger aliens that looked concerning, but the city's defences were at work, so order hadn't fallen apart, and the city itself was fine. I didn't see smoke inside the walls.

  "Anyone caught outside?" I asked.

  The sensor suite helpfully showed me that there were some. Along the outer wall was a second line of defences. Smaller walls, not much taller than I was, with trenches behind. And in those, people. They were scurrying in the way that only those on the verge of panic could.

  There was a lot of machine-gun fire coming from a few nests just a hundred or so metres from the wall, white tracer fire lancing out towards the oncoming horde.

  The Antithesis fired back.

  I felt my lips thinning as I saw someone who'd stuck his head out over the wall got down bleeding, foot-long needles jammed into his head.

  "Alright, we're going to do us a little intervention," I said. I reached up and started to flick on the ship's weapon systems.

  "Does this thing have an audio system?" Hedgehog asked.

  "You mean speakers?" I asked. "Yeah. Inside and out."

  "Mind if I borrow it?"

  I glanced at him, then shrugged. "Go ahead? Your AI ought to be able to link in."

  "Mhm," he said before turning towards Shy. "Wagner or Tchaikovsky for the good part?"

  I had no idea what they were talking about. So instead I focused on making sure everything was in shape. Then I jumped as unfamiliar noise filled the cockpit and probably the rest of the Bastion. It was loud, and I paused mid-work. "I see a red door and I want it painted black..."

  "What's that?" I asked.

  "Music. Paint It Black, Rolling Stones, 1966," Hedgehog said. "It's important. There's some traditions that shouldn't be ignored."

  "Okay?" Not my jam, but whatever. If he needed it to get hyped up, the more power to him. I still found my foot tapping to the sound of some long-dead guy humming.

  The Bastion was armed. Like, a lot armed. It wasn't a gunship, exactly, but it had a few things to help make a landing easier. Mostly guns. All six twin-barreled machine guns read green. They had belt-fed magazines that I was going to be really annoyed to replace later on. That was 3,200 rounds of AP, enough for continuous fire for two entire minutes.

  The 105mm gun on top wouldn't be good on the approach unless I tipped us, but once we were landed, it could lend some assistance.

  I flicked a switch and two hatches on the bottom sides opened up and a pair of tubes slid out of them. Sixteen rockets apiece. Guided on launch but otherwise dumb. Still... fun!

  The song was coming to an end just as we were about to reach the edge of the wall.

  I flicked on the coms to 'all military channels' "Hello Quebec City! This is the Bastion from New Montreal. We're here to lend some help. Clear an LZ. Don't want to squish anyone but bugs on the way down."

  I shut that off.

  Then the music changed, and I paused. "Classical?"

  "Ride of the Valkyries. Wagner. Have you never watched a movie?" Hedgehog asked. Even Shy looked disappointed.

  I shook my head. "Gonna do a big loop, unload... everything, then land us. Two minutes until touch-down. Get ready, alright?"

  Hedgehog's only reply was a sharp nod before he turned up the volume. It was deafeningly loud.

  And then the guns started roaring, the automatic target-acquisition software deciding that the Antithesis were close enough for a warm hello.

  I started to cackle at about the same time as the first rocket hissed accompanied by a half-dozen little rocket siblings and ripped off the top of a hillside, then the next, then the next.

  "Let me put Fortunate Son on autoplay, then I'll be in the back. First out is always the most fun," Hedgehog said.

  Maybe the guy was onto something?

  ***

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