Day 435. 07:33 hours.
Mindanao.
The facility.
The composite deployment wing.
The crater where the wing had been.
Eight twenty-five-foot knights descended through the charcoal snow into the smoke, the PROMETHEUS cores blazing eight colors against the white, the frozen canopy cracking under the thruster wash, the perimeter garrison looking up at twenty thousand soldiers and five thousand seven hundred Enhanced and anti-air tracking.
"Phase three. Breach." Jae-min commanded, his dark eyes on the HUD, the void humming in his chest.
The eight frames split.
The SAMURAI landed first.
Mark Jordan walked the frame across the south perimeter wall, with the Black Hell Flame erupting from the vents and the saturation nozzle wide, the broadsword igniting along the right arm.
The first battalion burned to ash in three seconds.
The soldiers ran, and the SAMURAI burned them anyway, not because Mark Jordan was cruel but because the soldiers had been guarding a facility that ate children, and the flame was the verdict and the ash was the receipt.
The REAPER landed second.
Gabby's hands on the grips, the gravity field pulsing outward from the REAPER's palms, Gabby's own gravity, the power that had been bestowed on her months ago now amplified through Ji-yoo's frame.
The Copy of Soulcleaver on the back, thirty-foot shaft and fifteen-foot blade.
Five hundred Enhanced rushing the perimeter, and the gravity pressed them flat to the frozen mud in four seconds, pinned; the reserve neutralized.
"My gravity through Ji-yoo's frame. The REAPER amplifying what I already have. The proxy working because I have the power, not just because someone had to sit in the seat." Gabby held, gravity channeling through her body and through the frame's systems, the apprentice's power meeting the frame's amplification and the combination holding the Enhanced flat on the ground.
Gabby's hands shook on the grips, the gravity held, the field steady, the Enhanced pinned, the line held.
The ASSASSIN landed third.
Yue drew the jian, and the frame vanished left, then right, then through the east wall of the children's wing, the titanium splitting, the guards inside not reaching their weapons.
The swordswoman moved through the corridor, appearing and striking and vanishing, the guards falling, the marble eyes on the doors, the doors to the cells, the doors to the children.
"Not relevant. The nausea is nothing. The children are behind these doors." Yue swallowed the mild sickness in the back of her throat, cut the last guard, sheathed the jian, and opened the first door.
The SONIC landed fourth.
Gabriel circled the perimeter at speed, the wind cage stripping the anti-air batteries off their mounts and throwing them into the jungle.
The anti-air went silent in six seconds.
"Not now. The children below. The wind cage humming. The nausea is later." Gabriel swallowed, the gold eyes bright, the flyer circling back.
The DARKNESS landed fifth.
Min-joo's shadow specters poured out, fifty shades circling the garrison barracks. The soldiers inside did not come out. The shadow specters went in and left silence. Min-joo walked out. The DARKNESS followed.
The REVOLUTION landed sixth.
Yi Chen's golden portal opened, and the Weapons Gate spilled arms into the hands of the coalition forces landing behind the frames: rifles and grenades and body armor for the coalition that had volunteered to walk into a facility that ate children.
The SPECTER landed seventh.
The woman in white drew the dual katanas and walked the perimeter wall, cutting down the runners, the regeneration humming.
"He is walking into the crater. The crater where the things that ate children were. The wall holds." The woman in white catalogued, her hands steady on the katanas, the green eyes tracking the GENESIS ahead.
The GENESIS landed last.
Jae-min dismounted into the crater where the composite deployment wing had been, the frame's feet on the crater floor, the smoke and the ash and the particular smell of fused flesh that had been held together by stolen gamma and was now falling apart.
The seventeen V2 composites were in the crater.
What was left of them. The 1.2 terawatts had vaporized the alloy walls. The kill frequency had collapsed the gamma.
The permanent bodies had discovered that permanence was a lie.
One hundred Enhanced fused into seventeen composites were now seventeen piles of organic matter in a titanium crater.
Jae-min's void swept the crater. Seventeen signatures. Fading. Gone.
"V2 status." Jae-min pressed, his voice low.
[Mei]: "All seventeen composites showing zero gamma." Mei confirmed from the Command Deck. "The fusion has collapsed. The V2 is gone. Repeat. The V2 is gone."
"Two hundred and four children. Consumed. Their gamma pulled. Their bodies used as fuel. Twelve weeks of existence before a void from Olympus collapsed them in thirty seconds." Jae-min filed, the regressor stirring beneath the captain, the teeth holding.
"The extraction wing." Jae-min commanded. "Now."
The ASSASSIN was already there. Yue's frame breached the west wall, the jian cutting the door open.
Three children on the tables. Three small signatures. Three sets of tubes. Three machines whining down, the gamma collapsed, the extraction stopped.
Yue dismounted and crossed the floor and pulled the tubes. The first child, a girl maybe six, screamed.
Yue's hand on the girl's head, Yue's voice low. "You're safe. You're safe now." The voice that was not the swordswoman's but the voice of a woman who had been a child once and had not been saved.
The second child, a boy maybe eight, did not scream.
The boy's eyes were flat, the particular flat of a child who had been on the table long enough to stop being afraid.
Yue pulled the tubes and the boy did not move; Yue's jaw tightened, and Yue picked the boy up.
The third child, a girl maybe four, the youngest, the tubes in her arms and neck and spine. Yue pulled the tubes; the girl convulsed, Yue's hand was steady, and the girl stilled and breathed, shallow but present.
Yue carried the girl out of the extraction wing, the marble eyes on the corridor, the jian on her hip, the nausea in the back of her throat filed under not relevant and the swordswoman walking.
The coalition medical teams landed behind the frames and filed into the children's wing. The doors were open. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-six children came out.
Small. Cold. Hungry. Many did not walk. Many were carried. Many had not seen daylight in months. The children came out into the frozen jungle, into the snow, into the smoke, into the daylight.
The first child out was a boy maybe ten, squinting against the light, his ribs visible, his legs shaking. The boy walked three steps and fell.
The coalition medic caught him.
"Water." the boy whispered, and the medic gave him water.
The children came out one by one, in pairs, in groups, some walking, some carried, some dragging themselves, some silent, some crying, some laughing with the particular laughter of a child who had been in a cage and was suddenly in the snow and did not know the snow was cold because the cage was colder.
Jae-min stood at the children's wing door as the children came out, the captain and the regressor in the same body.
A boy, maybe eight, stopped in front of Jae-min. The boy's hand reached for the captain's leg. The boy touched the captain's leg. The boy looked up.
Jae-min put his hand on the boy's head.
"You're safe." Jae-min murmured, his voice low. "You're safe now."
The boy's eyes were wet. A girl, maybe nine, stopped behind the boy.
"Did you save us?" the girl whispered.
"Yes." Jae-min replied, his voice low. "Yes. I did."
"Thank you." the girl whispered.
"Thank you." the boy echoed.
"Thank you. The words of children who had been eaten alive, in the smoke of the facility that had eaten them, to the man who had been eaten alive and come back." Jae-min filed, the regressor pressing against the teeth, the captain kneeling in the snow, the captain's eyes level with the children's eyes.
"You're safe now." Jae-min repeated, his voice low. "You will eat. You will sleep. You will be warm. No one will hurt you again."
The girl's hand found the captain's hand. The boy's hand found the captain's other hand.
The two children held the captain's hands in the snow. The weapon's hands in the children's hands. The eaten kneeling for the eaten.
[Mei]: "Captain." Mei's voice came through the comms, careful. "Coalition reports the children's wing is clear. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-six children extracted. Plus three from the extraction wing. Total: two thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine children recovered alive. Repeat. All children recovered alive."
"Copy." Jae-min confirmed, the captain's hand still on the boy's head. "Phase three complete. The facility is secure. The V2 is dead. The children are out."
The coalition medic led the children to the staging ground. The children looked back at the captain. The captain watched them go.
"Team. Return to Olympus." Jae-min commanded. "Coalition holds the facility. Olympus holds the children. Move."
Eight frames lifted through the charcoal smoke. The coalition stayed. The children stayed. The frames went north.
The war had been won.
— • • • —
Day 435. 11:00 hours.
Olympus.
The Command Deck.
The eight frames had returned.
The pilots had showered and eaten and gathered on the Command Deck for the debrief.
Jae-min at the head of the table.
Alessia beside him with Jennifer beside Alessia and Hua beside Jennifer.
Elaine by the long window.
Mei at her station with Chocho in her lap.
Mark Jordan across from Jae-min.
Gabby beside Mark Jordan.
Yue by the door.
Gabriel beside Yue.
Min-joo in the corner.
Yi Chen by the window.
The woman in white stood in the back, the balaclava down, the green eyes on the floor.
"Captain." Mei's voice was careful, the analyst's voice that did not speculate. "Before we debrief Mindanao. ARTEMIS has been running wide-spectrum thermal imaging since 06:00. Not just Mindanao. The whole archipelago."
Mei pulled up the main screen.
The map.
The Philippines frozen archipelago lit up with thermal signatures that were not the cold blue of frozen ground or the white of snow but the orange and red of fire, and explosions and war.
"ARTEMIS detected seven hundred and twelve active thermal signatures consistent with heavy ordnance across the Philippine archipelago in the last four hours." Mei catalogued, her fingers on the keyboard, the map rotating. "Seven hundred and twelve separate engagements."
"Seven hundred and twelve." Jae-min repeated, his dark eyes on the map.
"The largest concentrations." Mei highlighted the regions. "Metro Manila. Forty-one. Visayas. Twenty-eight. Mindanao, excluding our facility. Thirty-three. Northern Luzon. Twenty-four. Bicol. Nineteen. CALABARZON. Thirty-seven."
Mei paused.
"And the largest concentration is here." Mei zoomed into Central Luzon, the corridor between Subic Bay and Pampanga, the thermal signatures so dense the screen was almost solid red. "Subic versus Pampanga. Two hundred and seventeen engagements in a fifty-kilometer corridor."
"Explain." Jae-min pressed, his dark eyes sharpening.
"Subic has the port, the warehouses, the fuel depots." Mei catalogued, her voice steady. "Subic's faction holds the sea access and the supply chain. Pampanga has the rice, the granaries, the pre-freeze stockpile. Pampanga's faction holds the food."
"Both want what the other has." Mark Jordan observed, his amber eyes on the map.
"Subic cannot eat fuel. Pampanga cannot ship rice without trucks." Mei confirmed. "Both have what the other needs. Neither will trade. Both have decided to take."
"The SCTEX is the front line." Mei declared, zooming closer. "Fifty kilometers from Subic to Clark. Clark is the midpoint. Clark is contested. A third faction holds Clark, approximately one thousand five hundred armed, ex-AFP Air Force. They are surrounded."
"Three factions. Three fronts. In a fifty-kilometer corridor." Elaine observed from the long window.
"And eighty thousand civilians trapped in the corridor." Mei added, her voice dropping. "Mabalacat. Angeles. Porac. The civilians who did not evacuate."
"Estimated casualties in the last four hours." Mei paused. "Twelve thousand. Mostly civilians. Mostly women and children."
Jennifer's hand found Alessia's hand under the table, the telepath's hand on the fundamental's hand, the pregnant woman holding the pregnant woman. Jennifer's other hand on her belly.
"The pattern is accelerating." Mei continued. "The engagements are doubling every ninety minutes. The factions are consolidating. The pattern is moving toward total war."
"Timeline." Jae-min pressed.
"At the current rate, the regional wars will merge into a single nationwide conflict within seventy-two hours." Mei declared. "Within seven days, the casualty count will exceed the first six months of the freeze. Within fourteen days, the Philippine population will be reduced by an estimated thirty percent."
"Food." Jae-min stated, his voice low. "The war is food."
"The war is food." Mei confirmed. "The freeze killed the supply. The supply collapse created the starvation. The starvation created the factions. The factions created the war."
"Every region." Jae-min pressed. "Who is fighting who."
Mei zoomed out. "Metro Manila. Multiple factions. Forty-one engagements. Fighting for the port food stores and the Quezon City government warehouses." Mei catalogued. "Visayas. Cebu versus Iloilo. Cebu holds the port. Iloilo holds the Panay rice. Twenty-eight engagements."
"Mindanao. Three factions." Mei continued. "Davao holds the fruit. Cagayan de Oro holds the port. Zamboanga holds the rubber. Thirty-three engagements."
"Northern Luzon. Ilocos versus Cagayan Valley." Mei reported. "Ilocos holds tobacco and corn. Cagayan holds rice. Twenty-four engagements."
"Bicol. Legazpi versus Naga." Mei added. "Legazpi holds the port. Naga holds the rice. Nineteen engagements."
"CALABARZON. Multiple factions." Mei concluded. "Thirty-seven engagements. Fighting for the industrial zone food stores and the port of Batangas."
"Every region has a port faction and a rice faction." Jae-min declared, his dark eyes on the map. "Every region has a war."
"Leadership." Jae-min pressed.
"Subic faction led by Captain Ricardo Navarro. Former Philippine Navy. Retired three years before the freeze." Mei catalogued. "Commands approximately twelve thousand armed."
"Pampanga faction led by Mayor Antonio Gutierrez." Mei continued. "Former municipal mayor. Commands approximately nine thousand armed."
"A Navy captain with a port versus a mayor with rice." Mark Jordan observed.
"Both have military-grade weapons from raided AFP armories." Elaine added, her flat eyes on the map. "Both have encrypted comms and command structures. Organized military forces."
"Elaine." Jae-min addressed the spy. "Faction profiles on Navarro and Gutierrez. Background, associations, weaknesses, supply lines, communications patterns. Everything. By 23:00."
Elaine nodded, the spy's nod that said I will have it.
"ARTEMIS goes wide." Jae-min commanded, turning to Mei. "Full archipelago. Full spectrum. Every engagement, every faction, every food store. Focus on Subic and Pampanga. Complete picture in twelve hours. Report at 23:00."
"Copy." Mei confirmed, her fingers already on the keyboard.
"Alessia." Jae-min addressed the doctor. "Olympus food supply. Current stock. Duration at current consumption. Duration with the children added. Numbers by 23:00."
Alessia nodded, the doctor's nod.
"The frames stay warm." Jae-min commanded, his dark eyes sweeping the table. "The pilots stay ready. The Satellite Link stays charged. If the war reaches Olympus, we respond."
"Copy." Eight voices confirmed.
"How much food does Olympus have." Jae-min questioned, his voice low.
Alessia's blue-black eyes met Jae-min's.
"The physical stockpile was sized for one hundred fifty people for one year." Alessia catalogued, her voice clinical. "Current population: three thousand eighty-six. The physical stockpile alone would last six weeks at full rations."
Alessia paused. "But the physical stockpile is not the full picture. The captain's Spatial Storage."
The Command Deck shifted. The Spatial Storage. The void-linked storage that Jae-min carried inside himself, where time did not exist, where nothing spoiled or expired or degraded.
"The Spatial Storage contains enough food to feed a small city for a century." Alessia declared, her voice clinical. "Rice, corn, wheat, canned goods, dried fish, preserved meat, cooking oil, salt, sugar. Everything the captain has collected since Day One. The food will never spoil."
"How much is a small city." Mark Jordan pressed.
"Approximately fifty thousand people. At full rations. For one hundred years." Alessia confirmed. "Or three thousand eighty-six people for approximately one thousand six hundred years. The food is not the constraint."
"The food is not the constraint." Jae-min repeated, his dark eyes on Alessia.
"Then Olympus is not just the only place with food." Elaine observed, her flat eyes sharp. "Olympus is the only place with unlimited food. Every faction in the archipelago will want it. Not for weeks of food. For a century."
"A century of food." Jae-min murmured, his voice low.
"The moment the factions learn that Olympus has a century of food, every faction will march on Olympus." Elaine declared. "The Subic faction has twelve thousand armed. The Pampanga faction has nine thousand. Every faction is fighting over weeks of food. And Olympus has a century."
"The greenhouse." Jae-min pressed. "Can it be expanded."
"The greenhouse can be expanded." Paolo confirmed from his station. "PROMETHEUS can power a greenhouse ten times the current size. If we convert the attic, the rooftop, and the south wing, we can increase production by a factor of eight. Six weeks to convert. Eight weeks to first harvest."
Jae-min looked at the map for a long time. The orange and the red. The seven hundred and twelve. The twelve thousand. The seventy-two hours.
"The war was the V2." Jae-min declared, his voice low. "The war is now the regions. The war is now food. The war is now everyone against everyone."
"Olympus is the target." Elaine observed. "Not a target. The target."
"We do not engage in the regional war." Jae-min commanded. "But we prepare. The frames stay warm. The Satellite Link stays charged. The coalition secures the south. The void secures the north. Olympus becomes the place that the factions cannot take."
"The children." Alessia pressed. "The two thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine. They cannot stay at Olympus indefinitely. Three thousand eighty-six people in one location is a defense nightmare."
"They go to the coalition." Jae-min decided. "The coalition holds Mindanao. The children go to Mindanao once the facility is secured as a shelter. Three days to convert. Three days to move. Three days to reduce Olympus population back to one hundred eighty-seven."
"Three days." Mei confirmed. "ARTEMIS tracks the factions during the transfer. If any faction approaches the corridor, ARTEMIS alerts. The frames escort."
"The frames escort." Jae-min confirmed. "The children move. The coalition shelters. Olympus restores. The factions are mapped. The war is watched. And Olympus stays the only place that has unlimited food."
"And after." Alessia pressed. "After Olympus is back to one hundred eighty-seven. The Spatial Storage feeds Olympus for a century. The nation does not. The nation will come."
"The nation will come." Jae-min confirmed. "And the nation will meet the void. And the void will explain that Olympus is not a granary. Olympus is a fortress. And the fortress has eight knights and a Satellite Link and a captain who was eaten alive by this country and came back to protect what is his."
The Command Deck went very quiet.
"Twelve hours." Jae-min declared, his voice low. "ARTEMIS wide. Elaine on the factions. Alessia on the food. Paolo on the greenhouse. The frames on standby. The Satellite Link charged. Report at 23:00. Dismissed."
"Copy." The table confirmed.
Jae-min looked at the map one last time. The orange and the red. The seven hundred and twelve. The twelve thousand. The seventy-two hours. The frozen archipelago burning.
And Olympus, in the center of the map, the only blue dot. The only cold dot. The only dot that had unlimited food and power and eight twenty-five-foot knights and a Satellite Link and a void that could kill anything.
The only dot that everyone else would want.
The war had begun.