Stollar's Gambit

by Jason Borondy

  Then Sanderson closed his faceplate, turned and proceeded to walk back to the vehicle. The servos of the exoskeleton whined as he walked.

  “You know I could have taken care of him myself,” she said.

  The sergeant turned to face her and said, “I know. That’s what I was afraid of. Haven’t you been in enough trouble lately? Are you trying to get kicked out? Oh, yeah, why are you not in your Centurion?”

  Haley looked at the sergeant. She could make out his three stripes on his breastplate and noticed the last name Rook stenciled in on his armor. She rolled her eyes and replied, “To answer your first question, no, I am not looking to get into anymore trouble. Next, I am on my last few months of enlistment anyways--not like I am going to stay in this madhouse any longer than I need to.”

  She began to walk backwards with her arms out to the side and continued, “Finally, why do I need to sit and roast inside of my Mech? Our shift for QRF will be over in a couple hours, and as always, nothing will happen. Plus, the Centurion is on standby mode. I could be in it and be ready to go before you can get all of your little turtles in those Armadillos,” she stated pointing to the groups of armored troops meandering about the area.

  “Just get over by it so at least my people won’t get anymore ideas to be stupid. Thanks,” he ordered.

  “Will do, Sergeant,” she replied.

  Haley turned back and walked to her Mech. It was beginning to become dusk out side. Colors around her were starting to fade. She stood in front of her Centurion. It was painted in a desert brown and beige tiger stripe camouflage pattern. She was always impressed with how menacing they looked with the micro rail gun for one arm and the 30-caliber Gatling gun in the other. Mounted on each shoulder were the round-shaped missile launchers, with the coned shape fronts of the missiles pointing out of their positions. Sometimes she would wonder why they still needed ground troops at all anymore. They could just field a whole platoon of Mechs, and they could pacify a whole city. But she knew that Centurions were basically overkill in that situation. People were still needed for more down-and-dirty operations.

  Haley walked to the right side of her Mech, rocks under her feet made crunching sound as she stepped. Looking up at the right exterior part of the shoulder she looked over the piece of artwork that stood her Mech out from others. In the center of the armor plating was a black circle, and in the middle of that circle was painted a red skull. She liked skulls ever since she was a kid. There was always something decorated with skulls in her room. Other people would have their own symbols painted on, and some were elaborate. She felt the simple skull design fit her fine, though.

  At the rear of the Mech, a metal wire ladder dangled down from just below the cockpit opening. Haley reached up and grabbed the ladder to steady it and then proceeded to start climbing up. The ladder swung a bit at the beginning but steadied the closer she approached the top. She got to the small ledge at the opening and pulled herself up.

  She stood on the ledge at the opening of the cockpit and took a moment to look around. At this height, about twenty feet up, she could make out the details of the landscape. In its own way, the area was beautiful, especially now a dusk. The constant brown color that overwhelmed her during the day now gave way to violet and orange. The dark outlines of the giant rock pillars reached upwards, like the fingers of the planet trying to touch the sky. She panned her head to the left to look in that general direction and she could make out the light from the base off in the distance illuminating the horizon.

  “Don’t fall! I would hate to see you get hurt!” a voice shouted from below.

  Haley looked over in the direction of the voice. She noticed that Sanderson was staring in her direction. She politely reached out to wave but instead threw him the finger. She could tell he didn’t like that, as he began to march angrily towards her Mech. Then another soldier, who she assumed was Sergeant Rook, stepped in front of him and began to usher him away. As Rook escorted the soldier back, he peaked back at Haley and shook his head. She just smiled.

  Haley grabbed the handle to steady herself and took a gaze up at the stars. She caught a glimpse of what looked like a bright star slowly moving across the sky. She knew that it was the ship that brought the general to the planet. He was with the other leaders out inspecting the find.

  Then suddenly the spot in the sky stopped and seemed to hang there. She thought that was weird for it to suddenly stop. Normally they just continued to orbit the planet until it was time to leave. Then something caught her eye: four large fiery streaks raced out from the point of light. She let her eyes track the directions they were heading. Two broke to her left in the direction of the base and two broke to her right towards the find. Then the sonic booms hit causing her to flinch.

  “Hey look!” She yelled while pointing in the air. “I don’t think that is supposed to happen.” A series of sonic booms from up above punctuated her statement.

  Haley noticed the group of soldiers look up and then begin to turn and run towards the Armadillos. That was her cue. She looked down into the cockpit and hopped down landing both of her feet on the seat. She then quickly slid down into the seat, grabbed her headset off the dash of the Mech’s cockpit and placed it on her head. Next, Haley reached down and grabbed the bottom part of the five-point harness, brought it up and connected it with the arm straps securing her in the seat. Finally, on the control panel, she keyed in the command to bring the giant machine off standby mode.

  The Centurion roared to life. The three monitor screens on front of her blinked on revealing the view in front of her. It was getting darker and it was harder for the cameras to make out terrain. She could make out the green lettering and the targeting reticle from the HUD, but that was it. She keyed in two more commands, one to close the hatch, the other initiated the Centurion’s night vision. She heard the mechanical noise of the armored door above her close and a hiss as it sealed. She felt a cool breeze on her face and the smell of musky recycled air fill the cockpit, as the Mechs switched to internal climate control. The three screens in front of her went from displaying very little detail to green in color and she could make most objects in front of her. The targeting reticle and lettering on the HUD changed colors from green to red so she could make them out.

  “QRF 1, this is Centurion 07, reporting ready to roll,” Haley called into her headset.

  “Give me a moment, Centurion 07--getting the last stragglers in,” a voice replied to her.

  “Damn it,” she thought to herself. “We are wasting precious time. I told Sergeant Rook I would beat them. This is unacceptable.” Just then she caught a flash out of the corner of Mech’s left screen. Twisting on the Mech’s control stick to twist its torso to the source of the flash. The Centurion made a mechanical whine as the top half of its body turned towards the left. It seemed to come from Camp Chapman. Then there was another flash on the horizon.

  “This is QRF 1 to Centurion 07, we are ready to go.” This time it was Sergeant Rook’s voice that came through the headset.

  “About time, Sergeant. Looks like something is happening at the Camp,” she said, frustrated.

  “Keep it respectful, Specialist. I can see that. Get prepared to--” Rook started before begin cut off.

  A crackled voice came over the comms and Haley could hear weapons firing in the background. “This is Tiger 1, we are under attack by an unknown enemy we need assistance. Where is the QRF? Damn it!”

  Haley knew that Tiger 1 was the general’s call sign. This was bad, she thought, we are getting hit from both sides. She keyed into the radio to Sergeant Rook. “Okay, QRF 1 what do we do? Help support the camp’s defense or aid Tiger 1?” she said. She knew the answer, but she needed authorization to move.

  “Hold on, Centurion 07,” Rook’s voice replied.

  “Hold on?!” She said in confused anger. “They can’t wait for you to make up your mind.”

  Silence.

  “Well, I am going to make the decision for you then,” she state
d as she snapped the Centurion’s torso back to center and pushed forward on the throttle. The Mech lurched forward in response. She knew this act of defiance was probably a career ender, but somebody had to make a decision.

  14

  EDS Little Rock

  Interstellar Jump Point 25

  Jessica enjoyed her time on the bridge. A lot of her duties were held in the Ready Room. One thing she missed from being an XO was that she was on the bridge a lot interacting with the crew. Now that she was commanding her own ship, she felt a little disconnected from her crew.

  “Displacement rive capacitors ready for next jump, Captain,” Ensign Hunter said.

  Jessica looked at the display at her command station. On the screen was the progress of their jump sequences to M051. They were taking their time. They were 25 jumps into a 34-jump flight plan, and she was not going to push their new Displacement drive too hard out of the gate. With the current speed, they were still going to get to their destination in time.

  “And—” Jessica started.

  “Captain, emergency buoy beacon coming in over the Network!” the communications tech yelled out behind her.

  Jessica turned in her chair to face the technician, who was frantically looking over his display.

  “Who is it?” She asked.

  “It’s the Moscow, ma’am!” he replied.

  Her heart sank. That was the ship that was supposed to investigate the Carson’s loss of communications. “Can you get a fix on the location?” she asked.

  “Just a second, Captain. The signal strength is weak.” He started frantically keying in commands to his terminal. “It is approximately 75 light years away, at the edge of the Canary System.”

  “Thank you,” she replied as she turned back to facing forward. “Helm, what is the current Displacement drive capacitor level could we make that jump now?”

  “Not yet, ma’am, we need about two more minutes of recharge time to make it in one jump,” Hunter replied.

  “Do it,” Jessica ordered.

  “That will make us late, Captain,” her XO protested as he reentered the bridge walking to his station next to her. “Can’t someone else take care of it? Like the Canary observation station.”

  “You are correct, XO,” Jessica started and then turned back to the communications tech and asked, “Comms, please send a message to check in with the Observation Station?”

  “Yes, Captain,” he said as he looked down and typed in some commands.

  Standing at his station next to Jessica, Sinclair leaned over raising a brow and asked, “Do you think it is weird that we are getting the signal and the station hasn’t responded to it? I mean they are in the same system.”

  “You’re right, but we could be getting a residual echo across the network. Hopefully, that is it.”

  The Comm Tech looked up from his station, “No response from Canary station Ma’am.”

  “Is the signal getting through?” she asked.

  He sat back and pointed at his station. “The system is telling me that they have received the message, but no one is responding.”

  “That is strange, let me see where the closest ship is.” She looked at her terminal and keyed in a command. It gave her access to current fleet locations. She poured over the data and looked up at Sinclair and stated, “Looks, like we’re it. The closest ship, besides us, is the Trident, and it is about 125 light years away from the Canary system.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sinclair said as he sat back in his chair.

  Jessica turned back to the Comm Tech. “Send a message to command that we are diverting to respond to an emergency in the Canary system. After that contact the Trident and let them know we might need assistance with a possible situation.”

  The Comm Tech nodded his head in acknowledgment and began to type commands into his terminal.

  Jessica turned forward and asked, “Ensign Hunter, where do we stand on the drive?”

  “Almost ready, ma’am. The coordinates for the jump are locked in, just waiting on the drive’s capacitor to charge.” She held a hand up as to tell her to hold for a second. ”Which is—now.”

  “Thank you, Ensign. Prepare to jump,” she ordered. She heard Sinclair echo her command over the ship’s intercom.

  “Jump,” she commanded. Jessica looked at the main screen the black star field vanished and replaced with a bright star and off to the right a giant black round silhouette of a planet hung in space. The camera filter adjusted to the light dimming the star, which gave the planet a little more color. You could see why this system was called the Canary system as the gas giant planet’s yellow color came into view.

  “We secured from jump, ma’am,” Hunter said.

  “Thanks, Ensign,” Jessica turned to tactical station. “Lieutenant Wei, any ships in the area?”

  “None, Captain. Only the beacon about five kilometers to our port side,” he replied.

  “Any debris?”

  He turned his head confused and replied, “None.”

  Sinclair sat forward, pointed to the main screen, and said, “That is odd. If the Moscow had a catastrophic event we would be seeing life pods, debris, or both somewhere out there.”

  “That is true.” She then asked Lieutenant Wei another question. “What about the station?”

  “I am reading it. Currently it is still in orbit around the planet. It is on the far side right now.”

  She scratched her head. “Comms, open a channel to the station.”

  The communications speaker crackled as the channel opened. Jessica pressed a button at her station activating her mic. “Canary Station, this is the EDS Little Rock, come in.”

  Silence.

  Frustrated she repeated herself, “Canary Station, this is the EDS Little Rock, please come in.”

  Still more silence.

  She looked at the comm tech to ask if the line was open. He gave her a thumbs-up as he shook his head. She depressed the mic button and gave a signal to the comm tech to turn off the link. He turned back to his station, and the speaker beeped to indicate it was off.

  Sinclair stood up and put his hands on the railing that ran in between his station and the captain’s. “Now what?” he asked.

  Jessica looked at him and took a second to think. “This might be more serious than we first anticipated. An emergency buoy and an unresponsive station. Something big happened here, but what?” she thought to herself.

  “Well?” Sinclair said his eyes scowled looking slightly impatient.

  “Okay, first let’s get an EVA pod out to retrieve the buoy. Once we have it on board, then we can proceed to the station to investigate,” she replied.

  “Very good,” he said. He turned back to his terminal and opened a line to the shuttle bay.

  “Hold on, sir. I will go and get it.” A voice came from behind Jessica. She turned and saw it was the senior chief. She was silent this whole time. Which from what Jessica had come to know of her was very unusual. McKnight had a serious look on her face. Also, her cheeks were almost the same color as her fiery red hair.

  “What? Are you sure?” Jessica asked.

  “Positive, ma’am. I came up as a pod jockey. Plus, I had a friend on the Moscow. I am just as curious to know what happened myself,” she said solemnly.

  “We have plenty of capable pilots that can do it?”

  “I want to do it.”

  Jessica could sense that this friend meant a lot to her, but why?

  She put a hand on McKnight’s shoulder and said, “Okay, but you and I are going to have a little meeting when you get back. Understand?”

  She nodded and replied, “Yes, Captain, I understand.”

  “Now get out there.”

  McKnight stepped down from her station and marched out of the bridge. Jessica looked back at her XO and he put his hands up and gave her a look as if to say, “Where did that come from?” She just shrugged her shoulders and sat back down in her chair.

  Jessica looked down to Ensign Hunter and
said, “Okay, Ensign, bring us to 500 meters of the buoy. I want this to be quick.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  On the main screen, Jessica could see the planet slide to the right as the ship turned towards the buoy. It only took a few minutes to close the gap from five kilometers to 500 meters. The buoy was tiny and the only visible indication it was there was white blinking strobe light attached to it. The ship came to a stop and Ensign Hunter turned back to Jessica and said, “500 meters, Captain.”

  “Thanks, Ensign,” she said as she pressed the button at her terminal to activate the comm panel there. “Okay, Pod 1, you are cleared for retrieval.”

  “Copy, leaving the ship now.” McKnight’s voice came over the speaker.

  Jessica looked at her terminal screen to see the indication of the pod leaving the shuttle bay at the rear of the Little Rock. The little dot on the display navigated around the ship and darted straight ahead towards the buoy. Jessica looked back up to the main screen and saw the spherical-shaped vehicle that had a small cluster of engines attached to the back fly towards the buoy. The data on the screen said that she was about 200 meters away.

  “CONTACT!” Lieutenant Wei shouted out.

  Confused, Jessica stood up and responded, “What? Where?”

  “Three contacts, ma’am. Looks like they originated from near Canary.”

  “Friendly?” She asked.

  “Unknown. They are not squawking any familiar codes.”

  A chill ran down Jessica’s spine. Was this a trap? She thought. She couldn’t take any chances. “Battle stations. Lieutenant Wei, stand by on PDS’s and Rail turrets,” she ordered.

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied.

  Next to her, Sinclair was echoing the order of “Battle Stations” over the ship-wide intercom. She could hear the door to the bridge close and lock with a clunk. She leaned over the comm and opened a link to the pod. “Pod One, this is the captain. You need to hurry up, Senior Chief, we got incoming.”

  15