Dot gave Ray Tracer a list of strategically important servers to scout and determine how great the Guardian presence is there. When he gets back, he's going to tell her that the answer is "too ruddy great by half."
If he gets back.
She also wanted to know how well armed they were. This is a subject that's preying on Ray's mind as well, right now.
The last few went smoothly enough. Systems Ada, Bartik and Athena were all pretty quiet: college towns full of nice old houses and conchy students off to class. Not occupied yet, thank code. System Andrew was the same when he arrived.
Then, between one process and the next, Guardian shock troops had landed, fighting their way through the system's CPUs to the 'Net port control tower, and putting the system online. Then they'd blown the tower, locking the door open. It was a big shock when it happened, of course, but it's also a good thing to know, because it confirms what Mouse suspected about how the Guardians are operating.
Mouse. She told Ray that if he didn't get back safely, she'd have his ASCII. He joked that he wasn't sure how that'd work, but now it looks as though these Guardians might give him a ripper chance to find out. They're chasing him on motorbikes, each with a driver and a gunman.
He ducks under an archway connecting two dormitories and streaks past a cluster of gawping young sprites. "This system's really going off today, innit?" he hollers cheerily as he soars away and up a level. The students shift their gazes from him to his pursuers, bewildered.
Ray swings right, dodges his way across a busy thoroughfare (cars screech to an indignant, hovering halt), and dives between two buildings. He passes another, which looks like a trailer but appears to be a permanent fixture, and turns right. Hopefully he can give the Guardians the flick as he zigs and zags between a cluster of smaller structures. Sure enough, the sound of the motors fades away... but when he looks for a safe way out, there's a bike stationed at the end of each alley, hovering around the second storey. Not too far to dive in case he's looking to exit under one, and if he tries to escape over them he'll be skeet.
Piece of cake.
He peers around a corner at one of the guarded exits, has a good squizz at the position of the Guardians and the buildings on either side, takes careful aim. Then, before he has time to think any further about what he's doing, he drops his bitmap.
He's flying blind now; bodiless, his only senses are touch and relatively weak hearing/sonar. Without hesitation, he turns sideways and darts in the direction he's pointed. His underside scrapes against the wall; it smarts, but he stays flat against the side of the building. He hears gunfire and weaves wildly from side to side (which is actually up and down). He can't see to dodge properly, but they can't block his exit without crashing into the wall.
It's not even a very long alley; after about thirty-two pixels, his sonar and the change in the air currents tell him he's out. He rights himself and reforms his bitmap lying prone on the baud, then pops and takes his stance. He's come out into an open quad - no cover at all, but plenty of manoeuvring room. He heads across it, grabbing altitude, hoping to clear the building opposite before the Guardians emerge from the maze.
He reevaluates this strategem when he comes face-to-turret with a tank. "G'day! Didn't expect to see you here," Ray calls, and chucks a yewie. More tanks, as well as lighter craft, are appearing, cutting off every promising avenue of escape. He might be able to reach a building, but that would be putting the kids at risk.
He weaves his wild way across the quad, thinking of nothing more than dodging the blasts from the tanks. He needs an out, and now. But there isn't one. The exhilaration is now wearing a bit thin.
At least bystanders won't be hurt; the students have all backspaced for shelter and the quad is empty except for a litter of ReadMe files and a singularly hideous piece of installation art. With a grin, Ray heads for the sculpture and circles it - although the way he's going up and down and around, he's really sphering it.
The Guardians fire furiously. Bizarrely, they're not showing any more restraint than before now that they've got him surrounded; he sees one ship fall, its wing shot right off by a tank blast, and the rest of them simply don't react. Demented, but he doesn't have time to wait for them to delete themselves. He stops his looping and hovers directly atop the sculpture.
Something like six simultaneous blasts come at him from all directions. Out he shoots between two, singeing his rail as he passes too close, but that doesn't matter because the sculpture has gone up in a crackling ball of energy. A cheer rises from the students peeping from the doorways.
Ray smiles. Now he has an out.
"Thanks, mates!" he taunts the tanks. Even as he speaks, he's doubling back, hands outstretched. No time to direct the portal. Anywhere's better than this, and even if he can't find another Tear later to take him home, Bob can send a portal once Mouse gets a fix on that synchronizer she attached to the bottom of his surfbaud.
The bottom of his surfbaud...
"Oh spa - "
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