The Battle for Taejo

I

A

Choseon

The tunnel dripped. Mi Su's light flickered across the walls, gleaming in the wetness there, yet when her hand touched it didn't feel like water, but rather dry, like shiny glass. The tunnel dripped dust, not liquid. She wondered what it would feel like to touch with her flesh and blood hands rather than carbon and metal.

The passage curved ahead of them, their lights picking out the strange bands of colour that ran up the tube. The motion detector was quite but it was unreliable against the enemy that stalked them. You had to trust your eyes and your instincts, even if your actual eyes had nothing to do with it.

There was a sound up ahead, and Mi Sun's head came up. She raised one of her upper sets of arms to signal the rest and dropped prone, deploying her tower shield and aiming her rail gun down the corridor. She felt a tap as Bae, next in line, knelt down beside her, aiming a heavy missile launcher. Behind him would be Hee-Woo, with a lighter, faster firing rail gun.

The sheen of sprayed dust in her spotlight was Mi Sun's only warning as the first attacker charged around the corner. The drone was a mass of eyes and limbs mounted around a bulbous central body mottled grey and darker grey. Mi Sun's round hit it squarely, sheering off part of the mass and sending it tumbling to the ground in a spray of plasma. More enemies came hurling over it, Mi Sun feeling the heat around her spike as a wave of plasma rolled into them. Bae fired, the rockets drive momentarily shutting down the cameras on that side of Mi Sun's head as the round shot past. There was a bright flash ahead followed by a wave of overpressure.

No more enemies came around the corner. Mi Sun felt a double tap on her shoulder. A moment later a small robot skittered past, moving up to check around the corner. Mi Sun's feed showed the tunnel open out into a large gallery, ceiling filled with dozens of egg shaped sacks filled with gel.

"This is it!" Bae grinned. "We're almost done! There looks like they'll be enough here to completely reclamate the soil and repair the fabers too."

Mi Sun rolled her eyes at Bae's enthusiasm. He could never be serious! "We should be a little cautious and not rush." she admonished, getting up and beginning to slowly move forward, rail gun swinging as she looked around. The rest of the hunters spread out, Bae practically skipping as he headed over towards cluster of three exits at the other side of the room. Mi-Sun stayed with him. "You should be more careful."

"Nothing will happen... Aack!" The ceiling above Bae opened and a mass of gripping limbs shot out, grabbing him. Mi Sun grabbed his legs yanked down, holding him out of the mass of cutting torches that made up the trap door drone's mouth parts.

"Help!" The arms yanked upwards and Mi Sun dug her claws into the floor, holding on grimly as the drone tried to pull Bae up into killing range. His head was beginning to blacken as the plasma came closer, several camera lenses cracking from the heat.

Old Dong Sun ran forward, pushing his gun up past Bae and fired a long burst, the drone disintegrating in a spray of hot sparks. Bae dropped free. "You should be more careful there young fella."

"Sorry uncle, but I want to get home. I promised Soo Jin I'd make her birthday." Bae bounded off again to set the charges that would isolate the room.

Dong Sun sighed, looking over at Mi Sun. "That boy just won't see what's right in front of him."

Mi Sun blushed, glad that she was hidden within the shock suits chest and couldn't be seen, then walked over to aim her gun past Bae, covering him. "All set?" she asked as he stepped back.

"Yeah, all done. Stand clear!"

The hunters pulled back from the entrance as the charges blew, sealing this section of the hive off from the rest.

"Good job everyone." Dong Sun reloaded his weapon. "Let's get this stuff loaded and get back to the crawlers." he chuckled "There's ice-cream waiting when we do."

Somehow that made the drudge work of loading gel-sacs onto the big four legged recovery robots much easier to take.

B

Mi Sun sat on the outside of one of the crawlers, her long hair blowing in the wind and sipped at the chilled fruit juice through a straw. The crawler was a big vehicle, wide and flat on top where the exosuits rested, with gun turrets fore and aft. Another crawler moved along in their wake, while four heavy tanks spread out ahead, their low slung gun mounts tracking back and forth. Sitting in the lee of one of the suits she was shielded from the blowing sand and grit kicked up in the crawlers wake and could enjoy the breeze. As the crawler moved, Bae was working on his suit on the other side, pulling and replacing the eye units. Music piped from a radio nearby.

Bae was struggling a bit, working to pull open an access panel that had become welded shut. Mi Sun watched him for a moment, sighed then came forward beside him. "You'll need to cut the wield first." She dialled a multitool to the correct setting and ran it along the join. "There."

"Oh thank you." Bae looked bashful. "That's the second time you helped me today."

"Well you should learn to stand on your own feet not rely on me!" Mi Sun waved a finger. "Running off like that was stupid. If you're going to become a hunter like me or your uncle then you'd better learn your way around."

Bae blushed. "I'm sorry. . ." then he brightened, "maybe you could teach me though? I mean, my uncle is busy all the time. So if you could show me how that'd be great."

"Well, sure... I can, but don't think I'll go easy on you! You'd better be willing to work hard!"

"Sure. . . I need to become a great hunter so I can be worthy to marry Soo Jin." he looked wistful.

"Get back to work!" Mi Sun pushed him back down into the suit. Fuming she went back and sat down with her drink.

On the radio the record ended and a series of cords played. "On the Hour: This is Table Plains News. The government has rejected yesterday's ultimatum by Earth Officials over the return of the old constitution, and called for more negotiation. A spokesman for the foreign ministry said. . . "

"What do you think of the people from Earth Mi Su?" Bae asked. He seemed serious all of a sudden.

"I don't know really. I like their technology I guess."

"I don't think they're really Korean." Bae frowned. "They keep coming here and trying to tell us what to do. Soo Jin said they've been corrupted by Yankee materialism." He sounded fierce. Mi Su had never heard Bae be fierce before.

"I wish they'd stop trying to tell us what to do." Mi Su took another drink of her juice. "This is our home. We know how to survive here, not them."

"Yeah." Bae nodded. "Soo Jin says. . ."

There was a very loud sound high above. An aircraft, or several aircraft passing high overhead. Mi Su blinked, grabbing the goggles from her utility vest and peered upwards. After a while she caught sight of the aircraft. Long sleek deltas, each marked with the taegeuk symbol of Korea on Earth. At maximum magnification she could see long red ribbons unfolding across the sky, moving in the same direction as the deltas "They look like re-entry trails. . . there's so many."

"They must be from the PACT fleet!" Bae looked upwards, shading his eyes. "Where are they headed?"

Mi Su lowered the goggles, hand shaking. "I think some of them are heading for Taejo. . ." she put her hand down on the robot to steady it. "I think they're going towards home."

II

A

The water station was a series of fortified blockhouses, ringed by a low berm. The convoy pulled inside it, vehicles pulling into one of the blockhouses. The parking structure was full of tanks and armoured vehicles.

"I've never seen this many people here before." Mi Su looked around.

"I guess everyone cut their sorties short." Dong Sun scratched his beard. "That and other guests too." he cocked a thumb towards twelve bulky Pegasus main battle tanks standing to one side, painted with regular army markings. "Mi Su, come with me, everyone else stick with the vehicles. Get the water tanks filled up but that's all. I want to see if air defence is organized."

Mi Su slithered down the crawlers side and fell in beside Dong Sun as he headed out of the hanger's personnel entrance. "We can forget seeing the foreman. With this many people we'll never get an appointment." Dong Sun looked over at her. "When you take over this hunt party, you need to remember this. It's not just what you know, it's who you know."

Mi Su nodded. When I take over? Surely someone was better qualified than her.

Her thoughts must have shown because Dong Sun laughed. "I think I have a few more years on me yet girl. Come on, we're going to see an old friend of mine. She'll know what's going on."

The pair headed across the dusty ground between block houses to a smaller outbuilding raised out of the dust. One end of it was all but buried under a huge drift of sand. The place looked ancient. "It's one of the original station buildings." Dong Sun pushed the door open. "Mother? Are you here?"

The old woman inside had no hair. Instead a long series of cybernetics ran down her back, plugging into the desktop before her. "Ah, Dong Sun. It's been too long." she smiled, displaying well cared for white teeth. "What brings you here? I thought you'd be in the command post shouting away with all the others."

Dong Sun took a deep breath. "I was wondering if I should even stay. Do we have air defence up? Aren't the yankees going to hit places like this?"

The old woman laughed. "Oh Dong Sun. You were always the thoughtful one. Always looking out for your people. That's why you have to stay. Someone has to get these people organized. They hit us by surprise you know. Most of the ministries and government buildings are in a million pieces. Commando raids on the depots. A lot of the army got caught with them. Nobody knows who's in charge right now. The young man from the regular army is just overwhelmed. He was only their second in command, the leader was in the city when the attack started. Everyone respects you, you need to go and organize them."

"So. . . we don't have air defence, but you're telling me to go organize some?" Dong Sun sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"That's right. Now hop too it before the bombs fall. Come on, if you can't take responsibility you should never have taken me up on my offer." the old woman looked over at Mi Su. "Take good care of him dear. One day he'll give you good advice."

"I already give her good advice."

"but it hasn't aged sufficiently for anyone to appreciate it... now be off with you." She made a shooing gesture.

"I do appreciate your advice Uncle." Mi Su said after they left.

"I know but you're still young. Come on." Dong Sun headed for the central blockhouse.

B

It took twenty long minutes for them to get air defence organized, mostly rousting out various junior people from their own and other clearance teams and setting them to watch. Mi Su stayed in the background as it happened, letting Dong Sun do the talking. Finally the pair headed into the central mess, where the meeting was taking place and showed no sign of breaking up.

"...and we're not even military! Our job is to fight alien machines, not humans!" The room was packed full, Mi Su and Dong Sun having difficult fitting in. On the stage a heated argument was going on between the a man in military uniform and a clearance boss in heavy desert overalls.

"And I'm telling you that under the emergency powers act you are obliged to assist regular units in any possible manner! The law says. . ."

The clearance boss glared "The law's dead! Didn't you hear? They took the capital, most of the big cities too. They control the maglev lines, the ice stations, everything. It's over! We lost!"

"Hey." Dong Sun pushed forward, putting one foot up on a bench to raise over the crowd. "I hate to mess up the party you guys are having but don't we have bigger things to worry about?" The room's attention was turning to him now. "Like the fact that there's a dozen clearance teams and an armoured company here? The PACT guys in orbit don't seem to care to ask for surrenders so maybe we should think about what they'll do when they decide there's enough people here."

There was a pause at that. In the silence Mi Su heard the sound of an energy weapon discharging. Without thinking she threw herself at Dong Sun, tackling him down to the floor under the table. There was a bright flash and a massive cloud of dust, then the ceiling fell in.