House of Reeds

Parus District of the Ever-Turning Wheel

Itzpalicue stared at her comm with a sensation of icy dismay welling in her stomach.

"Lachlan?" She could barely whisper.

Gingerly, she turned the hand-comm over, then rotated the thumb control. Nothing happened. The usual whispering thread of voices from her earbug had fallen silent. She raised her eyes to the elderly technician and found him staring at her with equal horror.

"Mine is dead too," Nacace said in a frightened voice. "My earbug is dead. Everything just…stopped working."

"What about your other equipment?" The old NГЎhuatl woman tapped experimentally at the sounders clinging to her throat. They made a dull drumming sound. "Are any of your comps working?"

Nacace shook his head after a moment. He was sweating profusely – the environmental control in his suit had failed.

Our control network is dead, Itzpalicue repeated to herself, trying to grasp the enormity of the disaster which had overtaken her entire plan. Without comp on-line, there's no way to communicate with anyone. The Army will be blinded, unable even to fire most of their weapons. O merciful mother of Tepeyac, guide our spears true to the heart of the enemy, for we have nothing else with which to fight…

Her earbug suddenly squawked to life. Itzpalicue jerked as if she'd been shot.

"Lachlan! Are you there?"

Static and a confused babble of voices answered her.

The v-pane on her hand-comp flickered as the comm software reset – the Mirror-built system cycled through seventy or eighty thousand channels and popped back into synch with operations. Lachlan reappeared, but now he was standing and shouting orders at a chaotic room. His technicians were yelling in panic and the old woman could see dozens of monitoring screens showing nothing but static. Restart, Lachlan shouted again, we've lost the primary network. Shunt to secondary, then restart the primary. Go to battlefield beta cycling and rekey all encrypt sequences!

Itzpalicue waited, weak with relief. Sotto voce, she said: "Nacace, primary comm has suffered severe damage. We'll move to the secondary operations center immediately."

Then she made a sharp hooting sound, summoning the pair of Arachosians she'd chosen for bodyguard detail. By the time they arrived, Lachlan was staring out at her, still frightened.

"What happened?"

I don't know what that was! The Iirishman was sweating, jaw clenched. Everything just turned off. Everything had power – but nothing was working. Then the whole system just restarted itself.

"Do we have primary comm back?"

Lachlan managed a feeble grin and shook his head. Another new wave of jamming has hit the modern comm networks groundside – ours, the Flower Priests', and the Army's – this is modern, Imperial-style battletech too. Absolutely nothing we imported. Analysis says the xochiyaotinime didn't bring it in either. We're running the emission signatures now…

"Our network is back up?" Itzpalicue was walking quickly through the factory sheds, heading for an armored truck parked in a nearby garage. The elderly technician was jogging ahead, checking each doorway with a drawn automatic. The two Arachosians flanked her, kalang knives drawn and the grips of their pistols turned forward for swift access. "Do we have full coverage back? Spyeyes still in the air?"

No. Lachlan's voice was filled with despair. Whatever knocked out our comps killed their hover controls. One of our men on the roof is picking up the pieces of several right now.

"I see." Itzpalicue tried not to clench her jaw. "Shift as much traffic to ground-line or line-of-sight laser as possible. Do we have replacements to launch?"

Some, the Йirishman said, looking haggard. We're running a broadband restart command to try and wake up any of them that survived dropping out of the sky. They're pretty tough, so we'll get a few back. I'll have any reserve hives launched as soon as we have comm back.

"Other alternatives?"

Commercial comm is completely dead, the Йirishman said sadly. Every single relay node probably shorted out with this level of feedback. The xochiyaotinime are chasing their tails – they suffered three primary node failures and have lost nearly a quarter of their coverage. He grinned ghoulishly. The Mirror network had lost its eyes, but the backbone was still up. The Army is bouncing back – I think they'll have a full recovery in about six minutes – but the colonel is going to blister some hides for this… Their net is supposed to be hardened against exactly this kind of jamming.

The old woman slowed to a halt, waiting until the technician had climbed into the cabin of the truck, fired up the engine and put the transmission into gear. One of the Arachosians loped over to unbar the garage doors. "Will there be more outages?"

I don't…wait a moment. He looked off-screen, listening to one of the Analysis section technicians. Then he nodded, turning back to Itzpalicue. We've an ident on the attacking system, mi'lady. Albanian work – the latest version of their Seitaj IV battlefield countermeasures system – usually sold to mercenary brigades working the Rim. Good – very good, really, for a backwater like this – but we'll be able to keep comm up for the duration.

"Unless whatever neutralized our comps happens again." Itzpalicue swung up into the back of the truck. One Arachosian was in front, a brace of pistols and his Macana on the seat beside him, while the other rode with her in tepid darkness. The surprised chill of losing all contact was fading, but a tickling, unpleasant feeling of things being badly out of joint replaced her initial alarm. "A battlefield ECM system like that would only be useful against a modern opponent. Against the Empire."

True enough, Lachlan replied. But whoever brought in the Seitaj knew they'd be fighting some kind of Imperial troops. Only surprising they managed to get it on-planet without anyone noticing. They must have some mercs running the gear – quick-trained natives wouldn't be able to mount an attack like this.

"Pertinent," the old woman nodded sharply. The truck shuddered into motion under her and rolled out onto the street. "Dispatch a report to the Mirror. Whoever provided this equipment needs to be dealt with. As for the Seitaj itself, my Arachosians will find and destroy it soon enough…"

Lachlan signed off and she leaned back against the jostling side of the truck, frowning in thought. Something is out of place. They launch an escalated attack…three surprises now…near-modern arms, this comp neutralizer and modern countermeasures to try and level the field of combat. Do they have more in hand? She laughed softly to herself. We didn't need to meddle at all! Yacatolli and Hadeishi will have quite a time putting these lizards back into their bucket! Now wait… Something about the presence of the Seitaj nagged at her. A system like that is useless against troops fighting with sword, shield and lance. Did someone know an Arrow Knight regiment was coming here or did they expect us to equip the native princes with modern weapons?

The old woman scowled, fingertips tapping on her cane as the truck shook and jostled around her, engine rumbling, speeding through the streets of Parus. Rain-heavy clouds began to blot out the sun as the afternoon advanced.