Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13

by Randolph Lalonde

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13: Warriors

  Randolph Lalonde

  Contents

  Books by Randolph Lalonde

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Epilogue

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14: Rebel Preview

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Afterword

  Books by Randolph Lalonde

  THE CHAOS CORE SERIES

  Trapped

  Cool Pursuit

  Savage Stars

  * * *

  THE SPINWARD FRINGE SERIES

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1 and 2: Resurrection and Awakening

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3: Triton

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 4: Frontline

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments

  The Expendable Few: A Spinward Fringe Novel

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 8: Renegades

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 9: Warpath

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10.5: Carnie's Tale

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11: Revenge

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 12: Invasion

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13: Warriors

  Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14: Rebel

  * * *

  FANTASY

  Highshield

  Brightwill

  * * *

  HORROR

  Dark Arts

  * * *

  www.RandolphLalonde.com

  © Copyright 2019 Randolph Lalonde

  Spinward Fringe is a registered trademark of Randolph Lalonde

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Randolph Lalonde.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  * * *

  Thank you for supporting the author by purchasing this book. Every honest reader counts.

  * * *

  EBook ISBN: 978-1-988175-19-5

  * * *

  Cover found on Selfpubbookcovers, by Visions then titled by Randolph Lalonde

  Created with Vellum

  One

  Down With Heroes

  * * *

  The garden between the Everin and completed Shuttle Port Buildings was like a work of art. High arches were already covered in vines that were in different stages of blooming so there were always flowers dropping the occasional yellow, blue or green petal on the walk beneath. Planters with wide bases provided a near unlimited amount of bench space while the sound of small fountains in their middle watered the flowers, fruit and vegetables with little rivulets that passed over black soil. Freshly planted wild flowers and food producing plant life thrived there, still young, but there were a few flowers and vines that would produce vegetables were starting to show already. Walking through the space for the purpose of the day didn't feel right. This was a place for peaceful times, happy social gatherings and friends. Not what the event ahead offered.

  Even someone who fancied himself as a gearhead like Shamus "Frost" McFadden had to admit that the garden was amazing, detailed and wondrous even though it was also massive. It was the only good thing from the occupation's work program.

  "Don't," Tammy, the young woman who looked exactly like Ashley Lamport said as Nigel reached for a small carrot shoot. "They're monitoring, you'll get fined for picking one."

  Nigel relented. It seemed that Frost's tall nephew was always hungry. "I wonder if the fine is bigger than the price of that thing if I wait and buy one? It's only been eleven days since the Fleet left, nine since the occupation started, and I owe twelve hundred credits for living here. It's ridiculous, more expensive than living in the Core."

  A few of the people gathering in a crowd at the back of the garden clearing overheard, offering their own nods and murmurs of agreement. A small drone, no bigger than Frost's fist whizzed by, its hover motors nearly silent. It was impossible to notice all of them; the Order was watching. It made voicing dissidence risky. He only realized he touched his chin, as if to make sure his second skin mask was on, after he'd done it. The disguise changed his features enough so surface scans wouldn't identify him, but he couldn't feel it after wearing it for a few minutes. He returned his attention to the crowd around him.

  Watching hundreds of people gather around the statue of Ayan that was put up the day after the Fleet left, something that surprised Frost, was like watching the end of a funeral procession. After the night they had, no one wanted to get up early in the morning or to make the walk down from where they were stuffed together in the Everin Building to the garden centre.

  Frost was sure they were coming for him and Nigel, maybe even Tammy, when soldiers barged into the apartment. They waited until the dead of night to shock the seven people in the one-bedroom place awake, and by the time Frost knew what was going on, half the people there were stripping, and the business end of a gun was in his face. The soldier holding it said; "Get your clothes off, get any of your other clothing together along with your digital devices and pile them beside the front door, now."

  Tammy and the original resident of the apartment, Samantha, resisted for a moment and rifles were raised in their direction. Then Nigel started weeping; "I can't get naked in front of all these people, it's too much." He was really warbling, tears flowing like rivers down his cheeks. Frost didn't know where his nephew got it, but he had a gift for acting. He wasn't certain that he was acting, actually.

  The attention was drawn from the ladies, and the guards agreed that if he would be quick about it, Nigel and the ladies could take turns in the bathroom changing out of their Haven Shore clothing - what little of it there was that late at night, even Nigel was only in small bottoms - into the basic clothing that they were to put on instead.

  There was wisdom in the Order of Eden taking their vacsuits, other clothing and data devices away. There were hidden channels, secret data dumps that would be more difficult to hide without intelligent clothing. Any vacsuit could be modified to have an anonymous communicator hidden inside like
the one Frost, Nigel, Tammy, Stephanie, Samantha and the rest of their budding resistance group had. Stephanie set those lines of communication up, he hoped she wouldn't react too badly when she saw them go dark. Foreseeing the day when the Order would try to strip them of every means of communication was easy for her, and Frost knew that all evidence of secret communication would be gone by nights' end. Stephanie already planned for it. Even though he didn't think they'd go as far as taking every vacsuit and communication device, he was glad she knew better.

  "New clothes, new man!" Nigel said as he emerged from the bathroom wearing the standard pastel green shorts that matched the loose fitting pants and shirt that everyone was given to replace whatever they were wearing when they were shocked awake by the soldiers. Aside from Nigel's flamboyant theatrics, Frost clearly recalled how hard it was to avoid looking any of the soldiers in the eye through their dark green visors. When he added to the pile of vacsuits, night clothes and communicators in the corner and returned to his cot, where a soldier was scanning the few belongings he had there, he imagined himself wrapping his arms around the bastard's neck and breaking it before anyone could do a thing about to stop him. The damage he could do with that soldiers' rifle was enticing too, but he knew better. One violent man couldn't do much against the Order of Eden presence on Tamber, let alone the forces in the Haven Solar System. His retaliation would reveal him for who he really was, a former crewmember on Jacob Valent's ship, and a dangerous rebel.

  The memory of watching that soldier calmly scan his things, dump his small box of personal articles onto his bunk, made Frost ball his fists and grind his teeth as he stood in the Queen's Square. "What do you think we're here for, Shamus?" asked Malen, a stocky fellow who was in the apartment next door to Samantha's, where he, Nigel and Tammy took refuge. Stephanie changed his ident so he was Shamus Odenthall, brother to Samantha, who was new to Haven Shore.

  "I don't know," Frost replied in his best standard accent, stripped of his lilt, he felt like a pretender, but everyone told him it was convincing. "Maybe they have jobs for us."

  "That would be something," Malen said with a sigh. "I mean, I don't want to do anything rough, but I'm drowning in debt without a way to pay it back. They're not even giving us credit for turning all our stuff over or sharing our places. I've got twelve bunking with me, there's barely room to breathe."

  "That's what happens when you cram everyone from every Haven settlement into Haven Shore. I hear the military quarter is worse," Samantha said, placing a comforting hand on Nigel's shoulder as she stepped between him and Frost. "But with people like these running the show, we'll probably see things get worse if they hear too much complaining. I've seen it happen."

  "You've been on an Order world?"

  Samantha glanced around before she nodded. Shamus guessed she was just as conscious of the little ears buzzing above the crowd as he was, just as aware that her words were overheard, recorded, presented to Officers if they became flagged. "I worked my way through Dastiva as a materials specialist for manufacturing plants. I started when I was fourteen as a runner."

  "In the big industrial part printing centres?" Malen asked, looking her up and down in a glance. She probably looked too clean, too attractive to have a history working in factories, it was a mistake a lot of people made with her, and she knew it. The Order already knew where she came from, though, and Frost wondered when they'd come knocking. "I hear life is rough in those plants."

  Samantha nodded and replied quietly. "Everyone makes the best of it, but the quotas are high and the stress is brutal. Still, it was worth the pay eventually."

  "You were probably paid an eighth of what you were worth, being a materials specialist," said someone Frost had never met in the crowd in front of them. Their furrowed brow, angry eyes told Frost that it was one of the people they shouldn't speak openly to, someone who was too loud for his own good. "The Order doesn't pay for experts the way everyone else does, doesn't treat them fairly anyway. The Haven Government had me in forensics, analysing crash sites, had decades of work ahead of me here, enough to keep me busy and happy for a long time. Now the Order of Eden has me picking fruit, out there with those animals without a vacsuit for protection. One of the pickers was eaten yesterday by something that looked like a long-bodied cat after it batted him around for a few minutes. Eaten! We're disposable to them."

  Nigel and Samantha glanced at Frost, and Tammy, the former Duchess, was already moving through the crowd slowly, getting a little closer to the three storey statue. Frost, his nephew, and Samantha followed her lead. "I guess I should be happy to be in debt, then," she offered in a whisper as a response. That did nothing to soften the angry eyes of the fellow from the crowd, but he moved on to gab at someone to his right instead.

  "People of Haven Shore," Lucius Wheeler's voice boomed over the audience. He moved into view in front of the statue, standing with several Order Knights in dark red and green on a hovering platform. "I hope you didn't have much trouble getting back to sleep after we rounded up your communication systems." He was in a sealed vacsuit of his own, the headpiece was completely transparent, and he wore a dark long coat overtop.

  "They took all our clothes!" someone from the crowd cried, a wave of dissenting voices following.

  "I know, I know," Wheeler said, his hands placating, face smiling. "I wish it wasn't necessary, but there's a group, a very small group keeping secrets, planning to disrupt your peaceful lives here. They were using the communication systems in your clothes to organize, and when we saw that they might be planning a bombing, well, we had to do something drastic. We had to stop the few from putting the majority at risk, and changing how you access communications and your entertainment was the bloodless way, the torture-free way. The other option would have us breaking through your doors, taking people instead of technology for interrogations, imprisonment, and we all know that can get out of hand."

  Four shuttles descended at the far end of the garden, landing in spaces reserved by several guards in dark green armour. The crew ramps lowered and over twenty people emerged from each in Haven Shore vacsuits of various colours. Their clothing was shaped casually, in dresses, loose trousers, like outfits that people wore on their days off to relax. Some of the soldiers gave them strong lengths of rope as they passed, and Frost knew what they were about to do only a few seconds before most of the crowd did. "They're fake Haven Shore citizens. This is a bloody propaganda movie in the making," he muttered. "Do whatever anyone else does, follow along with the majority."

  Tammy was horrified the instant the first pair of fake Haven Shore citizens started climbing the statue of the Queen. There were grins on their faces as bundles of rope were tossed up to them. It was wrapped around Ayan's shoulders, her neck, the lines dangling down so long that the eighty or more pretenders could all get a grip. "There's a new way of life here, one with limitless opportunity, a way for you to earn your way up to become the warrior, or the leader you want to be in the Order of Eden and beyond," Wheeler said, the amplification of his voice the only thing that could overcome outraged shouts, boos, and jeers.

  "She'll be back!" Nigel shouted as Wheeler took a breath, his voice cutting through much of the noise. "The Fleet will be back!"

  "Okay, don't say that," Frost growled with a nudge, knowing that Nigel wasn't the first to make those comments. He joined in on the booing instead of making his own inflammatory jeer. His little band of rebels joined in, Tammy shuddered as the first of her tears fell. The days of the occupation were hard for her, especially since everyone she met missed something about the days when the Haven Government was in control. Everywhere she turned someone had something good to say about life in Haven Shore, or how things were improving on Tamber before the occupation, and she never had a chance to see it for herself but desperately wanted to. It was a terrible, brand new experience for her, being treated like everyone else when people were of little value to their new leaders. Frost knew that there was more than a little hero worship growing
in the former Duchess for Ayan, too, so watching the statue get tied up, a group of people preparing to pull it down, was enough to wrench her heart.

  At least, that's what Frost assumed as he watched a squad of soldiers raise their rifles to point at the base of the statue, because he felt a hurtful pang in his chest as the sounds of their energy rifles blasting chunks of the base away silenced the crowd. His outrage threatened to rise to the surface and show through the thin second skin on his face as well, and he struggled to keep it down so hard he felt as though he was about to vomit.

  The soldiers blasted the base until it was almost completely broken. Whatever the statue was made of kept it standing even though there was less than a quarter of its support left, and then the fake Haven Shore citizens began to pull on the ropes tied around Ayan's statue. Nothing happened at first. Three soldiers stepped forward and blasted a little more of the support away then retreated when the statue started to wobble. The fake citizens and crowd in the square, now silent at the sight and sound of weaponry, would fill any holographic recording that Wheeler decided to send out into the universe. The soldiers would probably be edited out. A few tugs later, the men and women on the ropes had their rhythm, and the statue began to lean. Frost silently wished the thing would topple suddenly, crushing several of the citizens pulling on the lines, he was sure most of them were Order soldiers.