And Off To It

A hastily erected platform and scaffolding stood on the roof of Ardiseg Hall, supporting four large spotlights at each end. They required most of the space, leaving the servicemen waiting in the center with mild claustrophobia.

It wasn't too bad, since they had open air above them, but being relegated to waiting and doing nothing until duty called upon them was a bitter experience. Two more servicemen waited beneath the platform on the roof itself, monitoring incoming data feeds on a portable console. Behind them, an officer strode back and forth.

One perked up as a new communication opened in the corner of one of the screens. "Sir, it's time."

"I shouldn't be grateful for something to do," the officer pondered. If all was quiet on their end, it meant there were no further difficulties straining the shoulders of their comrades guarding the walls. "But thanks to that all the same." He turned and shouted up at the idle servicemen. "Send out a start-up signal! We're needed!"

The servicemen blinked at one another, then dived around each other in a bid to get to their stations as fast as circumstances would allow. At the base of each spotlight was a projected screen, and they went about manipulating the settings with skill and inputting the first message of many. The shutters covering the spotlights tilted themselves at an angle to allow light to shine through, then returned to their original positions and veiled the light.

.- -.-. - .. ...- .- - . / .- -. -.. / .--. .-. . .--. .- .-. . / ..-. --- .-. / - .-- --- -....- .-- .- -.-- / -.-. --- -- -- ..- -. .. -.-. .- - .. --- -. .-.-.-

Their activity was not the sole disruption on the roof. Separated by the entire breadth of a city block, three other platforms with their own spotlights and operating crews became host to motion. Though each had spotlights facing every which way, they were also positioned in the cardinal directions for optimal coverage.

A cacophony of flickering lights originated from the roof at the center of the city. A block down, an identical crew positioned on the roof of a more unremarkable ceilingscraper grew alert as they saw the lights.

They didn't try to interpret the fast flashes; they were occurring at a rate impossible to determine individual breaks between the light coming into and out of view. But they didn't have to.

The Second Headman had proposed the spotlight network as an inferior replacement for the preferred method of instantaneous data transfer, should the communication dead zone descend as most predicted it would. But regardless of if messages transmitted between nodes in the network with morse or binary, to read with human eyes would require far too slow of a transmission rate.

So while autonomous intelligences, surveillance programs, and other products of digital engineering could no longer connect to the larger network spanning the city or access the Ninth's archives to reference information or data, their functionality itself remained as sharp as ever.

So, when plugged into surveillance modules, they could perform the counting and timing of the flashes moving at insane speeds. On one of the consoles belonging to this crew, they received the first message sent out.

On the other ends of their platforms, the spotlights came to life and blinked out the same message to nodes further away. This repeated, again and again, until each node within the spotlight network had warmed its lights and forwarded the command.

Established on the balcony platforms of the walls' inner faces, the nodes there were the last to enter into the loop. The communication dead zone was effective at severing long-range data streams, but it seemed the Aud still had work to do because both Ardiseg Hall and the walls' defensive crews could still communicate within their own spheres.

Once the highest-ranking leadership on the walls learned of the re-establishment of the chain of command, the first thing they did was to send reports containing the orders they'd issued during the disconnect.

.- -.-. - .. ...- .- - . / - .... . / . -- .--. .-.. .- -.-. . -- . -. - ... / --- -. / - .... . / --- ..- - . .-. / ..-. .- -.-. . ... .-.-.-

-.. . .--. .-.. --- -.-- / - .... . / ..-. .. .-. ... - / .-.. .. -. . / --- ..-. / .-.. .. --. .... - ... / .- -. -.. / -.. . ..-. .- ..- .-.. - ... .-.-.-

-... .-. .. -. --. / - .... . / -. . - - .. -. --. / -.-. .- -. -. --- -. ... / - --- / -... . .- .-. .-.-.-

Along the outer face of the walls, crews of engineers had previously affixed interspaced lines of emplacements. All had their barrels pointed toward the base of the walls; now, they pointed toward the first of the climbing Aud. This was the first line of defense the Fifth and Eighth had planned for when the Aud crossed the killing field.

As a yellow-fur raced upward, stabbing its claws and barbs into the walls to heave itself higher in spite of gravity, a sonic munition smacked between its eyes, and a falling cylinder exploded on its left flank. The combination of an impact to the head and a blast attacking its side served to disorient and imbalance.

It attempted to stubbornly hang on, though a trio of electric beams burning against its fur moments later compelled it to release its hold and fall. The rest of the Aud took no notice of it, and it disappeared into the rising tide.

The rest of the wall-affixed emplacements fired their salvos, bruising and burning, charring and snaring. For every meter the Aud traversed along the vertical face, the first ring's forces bled deep. But like how the killing field had failed to halt their progress, they were not deterred by the affixed turrets either.

They continued their rabid climb, sometimes using their claws on each other to lever themselves up further. It didn't take long for them to reach the lowest-positioned emplacements, and they delivered a harsh recompense for their fallen.

The walls' leadership waited until the Aud had traversed half the height of the walls and exhausted more of their number to chew and claw their way through the first layers of the affixed emplacements--the destruction of which received inclusion in one of the reports--before sending out the first lines of light and default WAVs.

The pilots, who'd been waiting in orderly rows by the outer edge from the moment the first ring began its approach, moved for the first time. They disengaged the locking mechanisms of their servos as if they held no fear, even as their first steps brought them past the outer edge.

The defaults had been in front and fell first. From the far rear, Pa-5 watched them vanish over the edge with a muted sense of accomplishment. She had helped prepare those armored suits for the new combat they dived toward now. Attached to the posterior shoulders, the small of the spines, and the posterior thighs and calves of every WAV were thick, braided scutumsteel cables.

They stretched back behind the initial rows of pilots remaining on the walls and disappeared into slots between the floor paneling, the spools for which stayed from view.