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  We Dare

  An Anthology of Augmented Humanity

  Edited by

  Chris Kennedy and Jamie Ibson

  We Dare: An Anthology of Augmented Humanity

  Edited by Chris Kennedy and Jamie Ibson

  Published by Theogony Books

  Virginia Beach, VA, USA

  www.chriskennedypublishing.com

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States’ copyright law.

  The stories in this collection are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used in a fictitious manner. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Editor: Chris Kennedy; Co-Editor: Jamie Ibson

  Cover Design: Elartwyne Estole

  Copyright © 2019 by Chris Kennedy & Jamie Ibson

  All rights reserved.

  The stories and articles contained herein have never been previously published, except for “Angel,” of which a substantially shorter version appeared in the U.S. Army Small Wars Journal as “Where Angels Fear.” The stories are copyrighted as follows:

  KADE by Christopher Woods, Copyright © 2019 by Christopher Woods

  TAMING THE BEAST by Kevin Steverson, Copyright © 2019 by Kevin Steverson

  TANK by J.F. Holmes, Copyright © 2019 by J.F. Holmes

  CRADLE AND ALL by Quincy J. Allen, Copyright © 2019 by Quincy J. Allen

  DO OR DIE by Jamie Ibson, Copyright © 2019 by Jamie Ibson

  YELLOW IN THE NIGHT by Philip Wohlrab, Copyright © 2019 by Philip Wohlrab

  THE CHAOS OF WELL-SEEMING FORMS by Rob Howell, Copyright © 2019 by Rob Howell

  FORTY ACRES AND A MULE by Luke R. J. Maynard, Copyright © 2019 by Luke R. J. Maynard

  IMPERFECT MIND by Jason Cordova, Copyright © 2019 by Jason Cordova

  BAG MAN by Jack Clemons, Copyright © 2019 by Jack Clemons

  COME UP SCREAMING by Kevin Ikenberry, Copyright © 2019 by Kevin Ikenberry

  ANGEL by Robert E. Hampson, Copyright © 2019 by Robert E. Hampson

  TO DUST by Marisa Wolf, Copyright © 2019 by Marisa Wolf

  NOW YOU SEE ME by Kacey Ezell, Copyright © 2019 by Kacey Ezell

  NOW YOU DON’T by Josh Hayes, Copyright © 2019 by Josh Hayes

  * * * * *

  Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Shattered Crucible”

  and discover other Theogony Books titles at:

  http://chriskennedypublishing.com/

  * * * * *

  To my amazingly supportive wife Michelle, and my parents:

  all that red ink back in high school is starting to pay off.

  —Jamie Ibson

  To Sheellah, who is awesome in every way.

  —Chris Kennedy

  * * * * *

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to Tim “Uncle Timmy” Bolgeo,

  whose superhuman efforts brought fans and friends together

  from all corners of the world.

  * * * * *

  Preface by Chris Kennedy

  Welcome to “We Dare!” This book came about when Jamie Ibson asked me one day, “So, when are you going to do something with augmented humanity?” I thought about it a bit and then said, “Right now. How’d you like to be in charge of it?” After picking up his jaw, he accepted the challenge, and he has run with it ever since. While no one knows what people will look like 50-100 years from now, Jamie has put together a great selection of things we may do to ourselves to make us “better.” Just because we can though, doesn’t necessarily mean we should, and there are some cautionary tales for you in here as well. We dared to put this together for you…now will you dare to read it?

  Enjoy!

  Chris Kennedy

  Virginia Beach, VA

  * * * * *

  Contents

  Dedication

  Preface by Chris Kennedy

  Kade by Christopher Woods

  Taming the Beast by Kevin Steverson

  Tank by J.F. Holmes

  Cradle and All by Quincy J. Allen

  Do or Die by Jamie Ibson

  Yellow in the Night by Philip Wohlrab

  The Chaos of Well-Seeming Forms by Rob Howell

  Forty Acres and a Mule by Luke R. J. Maynard

  Imperfect Mind by Jason Cordova

  Bag Man by Jack Clemons

  Come Up Screaming by Kevin Ikenberry

  Angel by Robert E. Hampson

  To Dust by Marisa Wolf

  Now You See Me by Kacey Ezell

  Now You Don’t by Josh Hayes

  About Chris Kennedy

  About Jamie Ibson

  Excerpt from Book One of the Salvage Title Trilogy

  Excerpt from Book One of The Psyche of War

  Excerpt from Book One of the Kin Wars Saga

  Excerpt from Book One of The Fallen World

  * * * * *

  Kade by Christopher Woods

  A Fallen World Universe Short Story

  I awoke with a start.

  “Damn this decrepit old bladder,” I muttered as I dragged myself out of bed.

  “Be a little quieter,” Ringold said from the other bed. “Tryin’ to sleep here.”

  “Shut up you old fart.” I grunted as I pushed the walker toward the bathroom.

  My whole body hurt these days, and I couldn’t seem to nail down which part hurt the most. The burning in my groin was almost unbearable, but I made it to the bathroom in time.

  “Heh, heh,” I laughed. “I beat you this time you bastard.”

  “Victory!” Ringold yelled from the room.

  I pushed the walker back out of the bathroom. “Damn straight.”

  “Celebrate the victories, Kade.” He chuckled. “They’re a lot scarcer as you go. Maybe you’ll get lucky and kick the bucket before you have to call a nurse every time you need to go.”

  “Nope.” I shook my head. “They’ll have to wipe my ass and sponge bathe me for decades before I get to die.”

  “That’s no way to think, Kade.”

  “Probably won’t even send in that pretty redhead. It’ll be Carl.”

  Carl was the size of a Packer’s linebacker and wore the face of a serial killer. He was one of my orderlies.

  “Damn, Kade.”

  “Expect the worst, and you’ll never be disappointed,” I said, then winced as my hip felt like a knife had been jammed into it.

  “Damn Dellik Unified and their damn booby traps,” I said.

  “Hip gettin’ you again, old man?”

  He’d pried that from me one day while we waited for the nurses to come change the beds, and we got to sit outside for a couple of hours. We were just running a normal patrol in Atlanta when one of their IEDs had gotten my squad. I had been lucky enough to be on the other side of Corporal Jayden. He took the brunt of the shrapnel, but I still got a chunk right through my hip. More frag took me in the knee, effectively removing one Mathew Kade from service. I got shipped back up north to the Reach, part of Virginia.

  I remembered when we had been a country of states. Many people still called it such but those of us who served knew better. A lot had changed in my ninety years. Now we were a land of Corporate Territories. Oh, the States were still there, but the dividing lines within this country had become more fluid with the nature of the Corporations, and the Corporations never had enough. They were always participating in a hostile takeover somewhere. Obsidian had become a juggernaut among the Corporate World, and when they settled into any semblance of peace, an
other would make a play for Obsidian Territory. Then the war would begin again. Dellik Unified had been a rough one, better than six years long.

  I had been taken out of that conflict by that IED in the second year. Now Dellik was just a memory, a bad memory for many vets, but a memory, nonetheless. Years ago, I had seen the news vids about JalCom making advances from the Midwest Territories into Obsidian. I had known it wouldn’t take long before another made a play for the East.

  That conflict still hadn’t reached a conclusion yet, but I figured Obsidian had a few tricks left.

  “Hey, Ring?”

  “What?”

  “Look out that window.”

  “Oh, that’s a thing of beauty.”

  We were looking at a pretty yellow convertible Corvette. Looked like it was from the twentieth.

  “Let’s go steal it,” I said.

  “Alright.”

  He climbed up from the bed, and we pushed our walkers out the door and down the hallway to the side exit. I ran a card across the scanner.

  “Whose card did you swipe?”

  “Carl’s.”

  “You lifted that big bastard’s card?”

  “What’s he gonna do? Beat up a ninety-year-old geezer?”

  “He might,” Ringold chuckled.

  “He’ll have to catch me first.”

  “Damnit, Kade,” he grumbled. “I’m outrunning you. It’s not going to be a hard job for Carl to catch you.”

  “Yeah, but when you passed me I slipped the card in your pocket,” I laughed. “Run you old fart!”

  “Damnit!”

  We rounded the corner beside the Corvette only to see a pretty blonde slip into the driver’s seat. The car started, and she pulled away from the curb in our direction. She smiled widely and waved as she passed.

  “I reckon that smile was worth the walk out here,” he said.

  “I’m gonna agree with you, there, Ring.”

  “Just what are you two doing out here?” A voice said from behind us.

  We both turned to find Savannah Garvey standing behind us with her hands on her pretty hips.

  “You were going to steal that car, weren’t you?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “What sort of fella do you take me for?”

  “We all remember the incident last May, Mister Kade.”

  “What?” I asked. “What happened in May?”

  “You can’t tell me you forgot what you two old reprobates did.”

  “I do well to remember my name if it ain’t used pretty regular,” I said.

  “Who are you?” Ringold asked.

  She laughed. “They said that if you stole another car, they’d put you in jail.”

  “Somehow I don’t think they’ll jail a ninety-year-old man,” I said. “We were gonna bring it back. I just wanted to feel the wind in my hair.”

  “What hair?” Ringold asked.

  “I have a couple left.”

  “Maybe in your ears,” he said.

  “Wind still blows through them.”

  “You only made it ten miles,” Savannah said.

  “But it was a fast ten miles,” I said with a grin.

  “We would have gotten further but he had to stop and pee.” Ringold laughed.

  She smiled and shook her head. “Now, are you going to give me any trouble going back inside?”

  “No, Ma’am,” Ringold said. “But only if you’ll walk in front of us. I’ll follow you anywhere you want to go.”

  She looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “Hmm.”

  She turned and walked toward the door we had exited. I swear she put a little more sway to the hips just for Ring.

  “I’d like to bite that butt, develop lock jaw, and be dragged to death,” he said.

  “Die happy, I reckon.”

  “Yes Sir. Very happy.”

  She turned to us as we neared the door and stretched out her hand.

  “The card?”

  “I don’t have a card,” I said. “Door was open.”

  “Here it is, Darlin.’”

  I shook my head as Ring held out the card I had slipped into his pocket to the nurse.

  “Brave man,” she said, looking at the name on the card.

  “Wasn’t me,” he said. “It was that idiot.”

  “Not all that surprising.” She grinned. “I’ll try to slip it back to Carl without him knowing.”

  “He better not mess with Kade,” Ringold said. “War hero, and all that. Liable to get kicked in the shins.”

  “I’m done with all that since I took the arrow to the knee.”

  “An arrow, Mister Kade?”

  “Well, an arrowhead. Those DU bastards put the damnedest things in their explosive devices. This one had an arrowhead in it with all the other crap. Hit me right in the knee.”

  * * *

  “You have a visitor, Mister Kade,” Carl’s deep voice came from behind me. “Don’t you step too close to me, either, you thieving old fart. I’d like to keep my access card today.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Who is the visitor? I ain’t had a visitor since Elena passed. Her family finally decide I was someone again? If it’s that cousin of hers, Tom, I don’t want to see him. He tried to say I’m unfit and take all the money I have left.”

  “None of her folks, Mister Kade.”

  “Well, now I’m curious.”

  “Some fella from corporate.”

  “They’re pissed about the car?”

  “No, I mean corporate with all caps, Obsidian Corporation.”

  “Curiouser and curiouser.”

  “Do I send him in?”

  “I reckon so, since they’re the ones paying for my stay.”

  “He’ll meet you in Meeting Room Three, Mister Kade.”

  “That’s the one across the building?”

  “Yep.”

  “Asshole,” I said.

  “Don’t be pickin’ my pockets, Mister Kade.”

  I chuckled. “Guess I had that coming.”

  “You need the exercise, anyway, old man,” Ringold said from the other side of the room. “You’re gettin’ flabby.”

  “Look who’s talking, you fat bastard.”

  He laughed as I pushed my walker out into the hall behind Carl.

  It took some time, and I scowled at the big man’s back. But I probably deserved it. After crossing the whole facility, Carl opened the door to Meeting Room Three.

  I slapped his shoulder as I went by and said, “Sorry about the card.”

  He chuckled and walked away as I stepped into the room.

  A man stood across the room staring out of the window. Glancing past the guy, my eyes opened in surprise. The car parked outside was spectacular. It was an old Camaro from way back in the sixties. The nineteen sixties. I hadn’t seen one of those aside from pictures. It was a deep candy apple red.

  I pushed my walker up to stand beside the man and stare out at the car.

  “That’s a piece of art,” I said.

  “That it is,” he answered and turned to me. “I’m Nathaniel Bern, OAS.” His hand stretched out, and I grasped it. It was soft and his grip seemed weak. But it could just be he was being careful of an old geezer.

  “OAS, huh?” I commented. “You’re not a grunt. I’d have to say a spook or an egg head.”

  He laughed. “I’m more of the latter, Mister Kade. Although I’d have to claim both.”

  “Well,” I said. “I have to wonder what a spooky egg head wants with me. Been out for decades. And I’d make it good if I were you. It’s almost lunch time, and they have pudding. Obsidian Armed Services doesn’t make a habit of calling on old men.”

  “Not much for small talk, Mister Kade?”

  “Too old for it. Comes a time when you’re old enough that every minute is important. There’s not as many of them left. So, Bern, let’s just get right to it. Today is banana, and I love banana pudding.”

  “Then I’ll get right to it then
,” he said and motioned to a seat at the table.

  I sat down with a sigh. My hip was throbbing.

  “You were a damn fine NCO sometime back, and I understand you pulled twenty years in the Service before injuries retired you.”

  “Yeah, that about sums it up.”

  “In all that time, I’m sure you heard of the Agent program.”

  “Yeah I did. Crazy bastards. All sorts of mods to the body. I thought about going that route but they told me I wasn’t quite the right sort of person they were looking for. I guess they wanted a bit more moral ambiguity.”

  “That is one of the prerequisites for the program.”

  “Sociopaths.”

  “It is true.”

  “I’m pretty sure you don’t want a ninety-year-old Agent, so I have to wonder what it is.”

  “You’re right and wrong, Mister Kade. We do want a ninety year old to join the program, mostly.”

  “Mostly? If you’re going to take parts, try this blasted hip and knee.”

  He smiled. “Let me tell you a story.”

  I sighed and settled back into the chair. I had to admit, my curiosity was piqued.

  “Ten years ago, a project began to build what we call an Imprinter. We can, literally, imprint memories into a living mind. Tests began with mice. We ran ten mice through a maze and used the Imprinter to download the memories of all of the mice. Then we imprinted these memories into an eleventh mouse who went straight through the maze without a single mistaken turn. The early tests were such a success that we have now successfully imprinted people. We’ve given people complete memories from one person to another. We’ve even begun to build skill packages. They aren’t quite as successful. It seems skill packages don’t take if the person has no skill at all in the area. We can’t give a fisherman unparalleled skill in martial arts. But we can take that fisherman and give him a Marine Biology imprint and he retains the majority of it.”