Finding the Mad Man

     Fred was relieved to see that Ann and the Chaplain were safe and sound at the bottom. Though the private did look a little glum that there hadn’t been anything for her to eviscerate. Roger and Kaia, however, descended battered and bloodied.

     “Silent alarm,” Kaia said tersely, her normally chipper mood now foul. “Security drones were hidden outside. Too many to count. Took the lift in between the waves.”

     Roger gave a grim smile. “At least we know what those dirt piles are now.”

     As they stepped off the lift, the platform began making another return trip to the ground floor above.

     “Least you gave them something to think twice about.” Ann grumbled, upset she missed the action.

     Kaia still wasn’t reassured. “They weren’t machine drones,” she protested. “They were Unimus.”

     Her statement stopped them short. “Unimus Drones?” Fred repeated, dumbfounded.

     She nodded, unable to get the words out.

     “This is just karking great.” Henry grumbled.

     “You mean to tell me that this fragging lunatic has been slapping weapons on karking kids?” Ann demanded. Obscenities started pouring out of her mouth as if they were the only way for her to breathe. “What kind of demented dumbass kark-headed heartless son of a bitch would do that!”

     “An Argist.” Fred answered. “No sacrifice is too great for them.”

     The two privates exchanged glances. Neither of them had participated in the TechnoWar, Fred realized. They had been spared the atrocities the Electorate had stooped to. And now they knew.

     Private Ann struggled to find something to say. “I know that drones are…” She blew out an exasperated breath. “They’re mentally stunted. But weaponizing them? How? Why?”

     “Get them into a routine and they’ll be able to do anything.” Kaia said simply. “Even kill.”

     “Shit.” Henry cursed.

     “Can we save them?” Roger asked.

     “We can try, but that’s not the mission.” Fred answered. “Capturing or eliminating Horst is. We take him down, and we’ll save more drones from getting twisted by his experiments.”

     “That’s the spirit.” A familiar voice exclaimed over an intercom.

     “Doctor Rosette.” Henry said without warmth.

     “So you figured it out, I’m impressed.” The woman didn’t even bother denying the assertion. “Figured you would have found me out sooner or later.”

     “What are you doing here?”

     “I’m not here physically,” Doctor Rosette said like it was obvious. “The files Cato stole from me carried a virus as a failsafe. It’s how I was able to triangulate his location, access the bunker’s systems, and communicate with you now.”

     “Right, and you sent us because you don’t want to risk your own neck.” Fred growled.

     “Don’t be so gauche, we’re all taking risks here.” Sylvie replied. “We’re allies of convenience, plain and simple. I don’t expect you to keep my existence a secret if you choose to continue working as the Republic’s attack dogs. And I’ve compromised myself enough just by coercing you into helping. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to disappear and craft a new identity?”

     “If you think we’re going to feel sorry for you, then get ready to be disappointed,” Kaia snapped. “We’re doing this to apprehend a war criminal. Not to do you any favors.”

     “Then by all means, carry on.” a series of lights embedded into the corners of the floor and walls lit up. “Cato is waiting.”

     Sylvie brought the new recruits up to speed on Cato’s other atrocities as they followed the lights down the hallway.

     “He’s a thug, pure and simple.” their temporary ally declared. “Every project he green lit was to maximize the pain and terror he could inflict on the Republic’s forces. He didn’t care about efficiency unless it helped inflict fear on the enemy soldiers. While he isn’t smart, he is clever. The moment he heard about my research, he wouldn’t stop pestering me to transfer over to assist him in his theater of war.”

     “What kind of research did you even do that got this nutjob wanting you on his team?” Henry demanded.

     “I ran experiments at Unit 561,” Sylvie answered as they made a sharp turn left down a corridor. “Lets just say that I was tasked with finding weaknesses in the other races for the Electorate war engine to exploit.”

     “Unit 561, what the heck is that supposed to be?” Ann asked as the Brigade stopped at a T-junction. Fred and Kaia stepped forward, facing the opposite halls, then pivoted 180 degrees with their arm cannons primed. No one was around but their chatty scientist war criminal partner on the intercom.

     “Well, the name was meant to be in reference to the inhabitants of Axis.” Sylvie answered jovially. “According to the history books, when the Divinity first came to our world, they created the five races. Humans, Cait Sith, both Silvan and Dokkan Elves, and the Unimus. But in reality, there was a sixth race. The original inhabitants, the Remis. And well, the one world government was the goal of the TechnoKing, so that’s what we named it after. Five races that were actually six, all led by the one.”

     “I regret asking,” Ann murmured.

     “It was all very romantic,” Sylvie continued on. “I didn’t particularly care though. I had my research, I had my daughter, and I was happy.” Her mood shifted, becoming sullen. “But then I created the weapon that got us all into this mess. Ruined my life looking back.”

     Fred just started to ignore the intercom as he tried to focus on the mission at hand. Harlan, bless his departed core, had sliced into the Electorate’s databases prior to their defection, in the hopes that whatever intel they found would persuade the Republic to not just execute them when they surrendered. Among the terabytes of data Harlan had nabbed, there had been a dossier on Unit 561. Trying to recollect, Frederick was fairly certain that Unit 561 was among the worst offenders in the Electorate, not counting the brass up top that led the war effort.

     Unit 561 practiced vivisection, mutilation, psychological torture, biological exploitation and encouraged friendly fire among the prisoners just to name a few of the atrocities that were recorded. During the war’s duration, the prison had housed almost three hundred POWs, and only a handful had survived. And according to the grapevine, those survivors had suffered the most adjusting to peace. A fate Fred wouldn’t wish on his own enemies. Well, except maybe Tafton.

     Tafton probably would have gotten along real well with Cato Horst. Maybe even Sylvie Rosette. He had objected to their defection, executing Buster Harlan the moment he recognized that the rest of the Brigade were leaving. It didn’t matter that he had been outnumbered. Tafton knew he wasn’t going to get out alive, and hurt the team by killing Fred’s friend.

     Most every other Unimus he had been forced to kill, it had been with indifference. But Tafton had been different.

     Killing Tafton had been wrong. But so right at the same time.

     “What was it that Cato even stole from you?” Kaia asked, returning Fred back to the present.

     “An experimental bioweapon.” Sylvie answered. Her friendly demeanor shifted, becoming bored. “I made a breakthrough in viral warfare after figuring out not only how to induce a zoonotic shift in Sickle Slime Necrosis during my time at Unit 561, allowing the other races to be infected with the disease, but also re-engineered an airborne strain of the virus.”

     Her words stopped the Brigade in their tracks, causing Henry to advance before realizing he was alone.

     “You did what?!” Roger exclaimed.

      “Karking hell!” Ann cursed.

     “If you were here, I’d blast you now!” Kaia roared.

     “Then I’m glad I’m not.” Sylvie reported. “I understand that some of my actions were inexcusable. But you can understand why I had to reach out for your help in preventing a pandemic of heretofore unseen proportions. The death toll would be catastrophic.”

     Fred slammed his fist against the wall. “You aren’t doing this out of the kindness of your heart,” he seethed. “You’re just trying to save your own neck.”

     “I’m saving my daughter!” Sylvie bellowed, silencing them all. The intercom crackled at her intensity, making the Brigade wince. When no one responded, she continued, her voice becoming shaky. “When it became obvious that the Electorate was losing, I sent my daughter away. She was barely six years old then. My baby girl, she’s out there in the Republic, somewhere, and I’ve been trying to find her ever since. But if you don’t help me, I’ll lose her forever.”

     Her voice cracked as she then added, “Please…”

     Fred and Kaia exchanged glances as Ann rolled her eyes.

     “We’ll take care of it,” He replied. “But as soon as we’re done, don’t you dare poke your head out of whatever foxhole you dig yourself. If we hear even the tiniest rumor that you’re back, we'll be coming for you. Got it?”

     “If you can find me.” Sylvie countered. The fun was back in her voice. “If. You. Can. Find. Me.”

     The Brigade continued on.

     The bunker, or foxhole, or hideout, if it could be called any of those things, was a sterile white on gray collection of tunnels and rooms. The size of it all began to dawn on Fred as the team continued following the lights Sylvie generated remotely for ten minutes and still there was no sight of anyone.

     This wasn’t some grand conspiracy.

     This was a dying gasp of a mad man lashing out against the world.

     And the Brigade would be shielding the world from that man.

     “Just how big is this place?” Henry complained. “Do you even know where Cato is?”

“Cato has had over a decade to construct this bunker,” Sylvie argued back. “It's going to be bigger than that barracks you live in.” Her tone changed abruptly. “There, on your left. That’s the server room. The schematics to my bio weapon should be in there. If you could retrieve it for me, we can then deal with Cato–”

     “Roger!” Fred shouted, pointing at the doors. “The objective is behind those doors.”

     Their explosive ordnance operator wasted no time. “Affirmative, Removing objective!” Priming his arm cannon, Roger began firing indiscriminately, barely controlling the recoil to send barrage after barrage of plasma at the target. Dimly, Fred recognized Sylvie crying out in anguish over the intercom, but he paid her no mind. The symphony of explosive ordnance continued, the door, and then the contents behind the door, atomizing to the music of Roger’s conducting, then all fell still.

     “My research!” Sylvie cried out.

     “Is taken care of,” Fred replied. “Did Cato have any weapons created from it yet?”

      She didn’t answer right away.

     “Doctor Rosette,” He repeated. “Did Cato–”

     “No.” the doctor spat out. ”According to the server logs, he was maybe a week away from putting it in rockets.

     “And consider my offer of asylum rescinded as of this moment.” she continued icily. “You’re on your own, soldiers. Rot in hell.”

     The intercom clicked off. The silence would have been a relief if not for the fact that almost immediately afterward, the alarms began blaring. Red lights strobed as the Brigade covered their ears.

     “Someone’s a sore loser.” Roger grumbled.

     “We can deal with Doctor Rosette later,” Henry barked. “We have a war criminal to take down first.”

     “Intruder alert. Intruder alert!”

     Drones began converging on their location from both ends of the halls. The voices of children intermixed with adults, repeating words they could never understand mingled with one another into an emotionless cacophony. Any greenhorn squad would have hesitated in the face of the horror. Veterans of the Technowar, be it human or Unimus, would never. The Brigade raised their weapons, biomechanical and magyk, and fired.

     Wave after wave of drones began to pour in from one direction. Fred and the others cut them down, shearing a pathway through the halls. Unimus Drones had to be shown what to do with every change of routine, which meant that someone, perhaps even Cato himself, was giving them directives. And judging from the lack of personnel throughout the bunker, Fred was willing to bet it was their target himself issuing new orders.

     His new team took care of the onslaught with the professionalism of his old one. He couldn’t be more proud. They still took some hits, but that was to be expected. Ann got zinged in her shoulder. Roger in his thigh. Kaia took a shot to her stomach that would have killed her had she not been Unimus. But the drones were still being pushed back more than the Brigade received damage.

     And finally, Fred saw the open door the drones were flooding out from.

     “Chaplain!” He shouted above the chaos.

     “Over and out!” the chaplain chained bolts of lightning through the wall of bodies, arcing through the sea towards the source. One, two, ten, more and more bodies froze up among the opposition as the Brigade rallied behind Henry. The hail of blasterfire tapered off, finally becoming still.

     “No… No!” A voice wailed from inside the room.

     The Faz Brigade entered, and beheld their target, Cato Horst.

     The war criminal was hunched over a control terminal, fried by Henry’s lightning. His saggy skin barely clinging to his frame, and his wizened mustache dangling over the keyboard. Portions of skin were missing, exposing the metal underneath. Giving up on the terminal, Cato turned toward the Brigade, revealing his metallic jaw and left eye.

     “Damn you,” he spat. His voice was still strong, if hoarse from screaming. “Damn you filthy mongrels all to hell!”

     The Brigade primed their weapons at him. Chaplain Henry stepped forward. “General Cato Horst,” he announced formally. “You have an appointment with the military tribunal of the Republic of Oros, and no doubt, a meeting with the gallows afterwards. I strongly suggest you comply.”