The rarest configuration was the Sniper. It cost a little more than the Regular but less than a Heavy. I’d seen only a single stream featuring one of these things. It was the smallest of the units, and despite being labeled as a mech, it looked more like a hopper on four legs. It was faster than the Regulars and the Heavies and steadier on its feet than the Recon units, but it couldn’t use jump jets. In a war scenario against a real army that had its own mechs, it was clear a handful of these things would be invaluable. Against us, it had limited utility and thus wasn’t purchased by many of the players.
The Sniper’s main features were its stealth field and its two long-range weapons. The stealth field was more of a protection against enemy sensors and radars and other types of sensors than againstvisual detection, though there was an option to add visual camouflage, which only worked well from a distance.
The guns had EMPs that disabled most types of machinery and a long, long barrel that fired five-pound explosive shells at a distance of several kilometers. They had slightly longer range but were much less powerful than the Battering Ram of the Heavy. The problem was, the mechs could only store so many of the shells, and one had to pay to upgrade the reloading speed of the Sniper, which was painfully slow.
The mech had an optional swivel turret on its underbelly as well. But most people seemed to call this mech “boring” and “useless,” and they complained about the accuracy of the long-range scope, especially with the latency issues. As a result, hardly anybody used them.
I worried what would happen if the EMP weapon fired on the honeybees, but Roger believed the current version of the weapon would be ineffective due to the way the robots were built. As he put it, the more modern electronic systems of the enemy mechs were in more danger from the weapon than the honeybees, which were designed for long-term use in hostile environments.
The long-range barrel was a much bigger threat, almost as dangerous as the Battering Ram, the main gun on the Heavies.
Much of the fighting was between players and the planted Rhythm Mafia bots, which were pretending to be human “insurgents.” On the net, there was a lot of grumbling from people who believed these insurgents to be exactly what they really were—seeded bots. But even more people seemed to believe that the entire game was a scam, that they really weren’t on a real planet at all, and that none of this was real, citing the lack of children and the fact that almost everybody on the videos had guns. Even though the game didn’t have the required disclaimers stating that the enemies were either bots or CGI, people were skeptical.
They were almost there. Almost.
—
Just as the sun seton the second day, I was attempting to get to sleep. We were supposed to be sleeping in the new bunkers, and my house was filled with people coming and going, so I’d moved to the mattress in the storage room above the classroom. I’d tried closing my eyes, but nothing worked. So instead, I was flipping through the notebookThe Colonist’s Guide to Settlement Defense, reading an outdated chapter on EMP warfare, but I kept flipping back to the cover with my grandfather’s writing.Remember rule number ten.And after that, I would move to the back of the book, to the pages and pages of handwritten text. These were diary entries from my grandfather. They started right when they moved to this farm, and they ended when I was about ten years old. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to yet read the entries.
Neither Lulu nor I knew what rule number ten was. Whenever we’d asked, he’d always smiled and said something stupidly cryptic like “You don’t need to worry about that one because you’ve never broken it.”
He promised we’d know what it meant in the end, but he’d never been clear what “in the end” was. He’d died before he could explain it.
If either of us asked Roger, he’d beep and say something equally enigmatic or weird. The last time, he’d said, “I am honored that you would even ask.”
Was the answer in here in my grandfather’s thoughts? It almost seemed wrong to look.
I sighed, putting the book down. I really needed to try to sleep. I stared at the close ceiling of the attic space. I’d discovered this place the day my mom had died. I was five years old. I’d run away when my grandparents had sat me down to tell me the news. I’d known it was coming of course. The Sickness took them all slowly and painfully,and to this day, I could still smell it: the scent all of our parents left as they rotted from the inside out.
I’d spent the day in here, in this dark, ominous attic, curled up on the floor, crying at the unfairness of the universe. I remembered how I thought because I’d wanted something so bad, it would become true. I’d wanted my mom to be okay. I’d wanted her to live even though all the others had not. I’d cried and cried.
I remembered how I thought I’d truly been hiding, but now I knew better. Roger always knew where I was as long as I had my bracelet on, which meant my grandfather also knew where I was. But back then, this dusty storage room had become the place I’d always retreat to when I needed to feel alone.
I’d first brought Rosita to this small attic after we’d been dating for a while. I’d never explained to her how or why this little space was so special to me.
As if I’d summoned her, my thoughts were interrupted by Rosita popping her head up through the trapdoor.
“I figured I’d find you here,” she said, pulling herself into the space. She moved easily, her long limbs giving her an almost feline grace. In an instant, the musty old smell of the low-ceilinged room was replaced with her scent. She motioned for me to scoot over on the mattress, and I did without a word. She lay down in front of me, backing into me. She grabbed my arm and pulled it over herself. I felt her warmth against me, and it felt like home.
After a moment, without another word, she began to silently sob.
We lay like that in silence for a good half hour, with her shuddering against me as I held on to her.
“I think I know why they’re here. Why they’re really here,” Rosita finally said.
“What do you mean?”
“My grandmother and Sam’s grandmother both believed something like this would eventually happen. They used to talk aboutEarth invading all the time. They believed they deliberately did something to cause the Sickness to kill us all off so they could have New Sonora. But since we didn’t die like they wanted, they’re coming now. They’re coming now because we’re all about to start having babies, and if they wait any longer, it’ll be too late.”
“Sam’s grandmother was insane. She never met a conspiracy theory she didn’t believe. It’s why Sam is crazy. I still don’t know why they’d want to come at all.”
“It doesn’t mean they were wrong. Sam was right about the timing. And theyarehere, regardless of what you think makes sense.”
“The Sickness was something to do with the planet, though. There’s no way Earth could have predicted that. We had no idea until people started getting sick.”
“It’s still weird that it waseverybody. Most genetic diseases like that only affect a percentage of people. That’s what my grandmother used to say.”
Rosita’s grandmother had been trained as a biologist before she’d married and moved to the area to farm. But she also used to wear a hat shaped like a chicken. Grandpa Lewis thought the whole lot of them were morons.
