Persephone Station

by Stina Leicht

  Expecting Beak to climb back down, Angel held her fire. Beak didn’t. She began to claw and rip at the mech with her bare hands instead. Prying free the remains of the broken gun, she threw it. Her wild fury reminded Angel of the bears. If she were up against anything but a mech, it would’ve been impressive. As a fighting tactic versus a mech, however, it was ill-advised.

  Is she okay? Angel thought.

  The mech teetered. The device was burning a hole into the faceplate. Beak doubled up her fists. She smashed them down on top of the device. The faceplate cracked. The mech began to fall. Beak leapt off before it hit the ground. The uninjured bear ripped into the mech’s armor.

  “Beak? Are you okay? Beak!” Paulie sprinted up the path.

  “I told you to wait for me.” Sukyi jogged in an awkward off-kilter gate.

  Paulie laid a hand on Beak’s arm. Beak yanked herself from Paulie’s grip. Paulie made another attempt. Again, Beak shook her off. The last surviving bear slowly dropped to a sitting position with a grunt. Beak went to the animal’s side. She was crying.

  “Oh no,” Paulie said.

  The animal let out mournful cry and then lay down. With the amount of blood staining its maw and paws, Angel wasn’t sure which was the bear’s and which was the former mech pilot. The bear nosed its closest dead companion and snorted. Angel could hear its labored breathing. Another blend of scents floated on the air—for an instant they were strong enough to mask the stench of violence.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Angel asked.

  Paulie shook her head.

  “What happened?” Enid asked Sukyi.

  “We met them two miles from here,” Sukyi said between choking breaths. She was stooped over, hands on knees. She coughed. “Was all we could do to slow them down.”

  Angel nodded. “And then?”

  “Beak was hit. Those creatures showed up,” Sukyi said. “There were four of them.”

  And now there’s only one, Angel thought.

  Sukyi straightened and combed the fingers of one hand through her now sticky hair. “Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere else?”

  “I’ve been trying to reach you for thirty minutes,” Angel said. “You scared the shit out of me. What happened?”

  Sukyi brushed at her environment suit with one hand. It only smeared the drying blood. “One of those bastards managed to get in a lucky shot. The hit shorted out my com. I didn’t notice until I was halfway here.”

  “Ah,” Angel said.

  “Makes one wish for a secondary form of communication,” Sukyi said.

  “How about this?” Enid made an obscene gesture with her middle finger.

  “Why, Enid Crowe, I didn’t know you cared,” Sukyi said with a grin.

  Paulie joined Beak at the dying bear’s side. It breathed in rapid gasps until it simply stopped. Beak laid her head on the creature and placed her right hand on its blood-matted flank.

  Angel turned away, giving Beak a little privacy. “Paulie, is there something we should do for Beak’s friends before we go?”

  Beak glanced up and shook her head once. The sour odor of citrus combined with a sharp scent that reminded Angel of bleach.

  Paulie wiped tears from her eyes. “Beak says that their brothers and sisters will come for them.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Angel said.

  “Beak tried to talk them out of the attack, but they wouldn’t listen,” Paulie said. “They took it personally when Beak was hurt.”

  “We—we need to go,” Angel said, swallowing. “The others—”

  “Need us,” Paulie said. “I know.” She glanced at Beak and the dead animals. “Just… Let me talk to her.”

  Paulie went to Beak and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. While Paulie spoke to Beak, Angel checked in with Kurosawa.

  “Lou? How’s it going?” Angel asked on her suit com.

  A few seconds passed before Lou answered. Muffled explosions sounded in the background. “Kind of busy right now, Captain.” A particularly close hit broke up her reply. “Fuck you! You fucking fucker!”

  “Lou, when do you think you might be able to come get us?” Angel asked.

  “On my way,” Lou said. “But I’ve got to ditch the shithead first.”

  “Weren’t they hot an hour ago?” Enid asked. “What changed?”

  “Familiarity breeds contempt,” Lou said. “Or something.”

  Enid said, “My, you’re fickle.”

  “Sure,” Lou said. “But only when they try to kill me and mine.”

  “So, Shrike is still up and running?” Angel asked.

  “Afraid so,” Lou said. “But it’s nothing I can’t handle.” Her voice changed pitch as she turned away from her mic. “You hear that, asshole? You’re nothing!”

  “Don’t crash the ship,” Angel said. “I haven’t finished paying for the last overhaul and refitting.”

  “That wasn’t my fault,” Lou said. “Specs on that hangar said that it was wide enough. The owner customized it and—”

  “I know. I know,” Angel said. “See you at the LZ.”

  Paulie left Beak’s side and came over. “We’ll take the tunnels back to Ogenth. Beak’s going to fall over if I don’t get her some medical attention.”

  “All right,” Angel said. “Sukyi, you’re with us. We’ll need you where we’re headed.”

  The meadow looked like such a peaceful place. The tall razor grass didn’t show any signs of having been disturbed—even though this was where Kurosawa had dropped them off.

  Enid knelt at the edge of the tree line with her pulse rifle, vigilant for signs of trouble. Sukyi positioned herself at Enid’s side. Angel joined them. Nine minutes passed before the woods, undergrowth, and grass swayed in Kurosawa’s wake. The sound of the engines was deafening in the former quiet of the forest.

  “Hurry up,” Lou said over the audio com. “Shrike is a persistent bastard. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to find this place.”

  Everyone sprinted for the ramp. Last in line, Angel searched the trees one more time and then followed the others. The ship was back in the sky before Angel had managed to sit down, let alone buckle herself in.

  “I’ve got some good news and some bad news, Captain,” Lou said.

  “Bad news first,” Angel said, knowing where the conversation was headed.

  “Mercs are through the first three sets of traps,” Lou said.

  “That leaves two more,” Angel said. “Take us home.”

  “Don’t you want to ask about the good news?” Lou asked.

  “There is no good news,” Angel said. “There never is when you say that.”

  Lou said, “It’s no fun when you already know the punchline.”

  “Maybe you should get a newer joke?” Enid asked.

  “Says the woman who doesn’t know any,” Lou said.

  “How would you know?” Enid asked.

  “Because you had your sense of humor removed to make room for more surliness,” Lou said. “Angel told me.”

  Enid grunted.

  “See?” Lou asked. “Shit. Shrike is back. Fucking stalker.”

  “We are at war,” Enid said. “It is appropriate.”

  “On my way to the guns,” Angel said. “Try not to flip us before I get strapped in.”

  “All right, Kurosawa,” Lou said. “Let’s show that asshole how to fly.”

  “It is quite apparent that they already know,” Kurosawa said.

  Lou said, “You know what I mean.”

  The ship executed several sharp turns. Angel treaded carefully and didn’t deactivate her boots until she reached the gunner’s chair.

  Kurosawa hugged the mountainside as they raced south. A deep shadow inched back into the valley as the sun eased over the eastern horizon. Not far behind Kurosawa, Shrike followed.

  The enemy ship seemed to be taking a rather relaxed attitude toward its pursuit.

  “That’s right,” Lou said. “You keep your fucking distance. You know what
I’ll do to you if you get too friendly. Don’t you?”

  “Our Lou is less hospitable during combat runs,” Sukyi said.

  Enid said, “Can’t think of a better time.”

  “I suppose not,” Sukyi said.

  Angel got the sense that Sukyi and Enid were feeling a little helpless. Were it not for being focused on the guns, Angel would’ve felt the same. She had flown with Lou for close to a decade. The knot of icy terror in Angel’s belly wasn’t related to Lou. Angel simply hated dogfights. During flight, soldiers were cargo. There was nothing to do but sit and pray you weren’t hit. For people trained via muscle memory to act during emergency situations, doing nothing while someone tried to kill you was a nightmare.

  Settling into the gunner’s seat, Angel flipped the switches that returned the rapid-fire guns to manual mode. Per usual, she left the pulse cannon alone. Every ship had its quirks. Automatic mode was more accurate and reliable, but Kurosawa was an older ship, and the targeting computer on the rapid-fire guns tended to glitch if left to its own devices for extended periods.

  She used the targeting-computer’s screen. Three shots hit home before Shrike swung away with a graceful precision that Angel couldn’t help but admire.

  “Holy shit,” Angel said. She continued firing in short bursts. “He’s good.”

  Lou said, “I’m not so sure he is a he.”

  Angel tried again and missed.

  “What makes you say that?” Enid asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lou said. “I’ve just never met a man that dances like that. I’m not sure what’s hotter, thinking they’re female, nonbinary, or male.”

  Shaking her head, Angel often wondered how Lou could chatter so much while executing complicated flying maneuvers, but she’d come to recognize that it was one of the signs that everything was under control.

  “I wish they were on our side,” Lou said.

  Enid said, “Should Erik be jealous?”

  “Nah,” Lou said. “Erik knows I’d never leave him for anyone or anything except chocolate.”

  “Has anyone bothered to tell him that chocolate is readily available?” Sukyi asked.

  Shrike’s pilot turned the ship so that they only presented a profile—making it a more difficult target. And then it was gone. Angel got eight good shots in as they flew past.

  “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Lou asked.

  “I thought you didn’t want their attention,” Enid said.

  A cold knot formed in Angel’s gut as realization set in. “They know where we’re headed.” Of course, they do. It’s not like it’s a big secret now. “They’re going for the big push. They’re getting between us and Ogenth.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Lou said. “Why do they have to be smart and a good pilot?”

  “Maybe it isn’t them but their commander?” Sukyi asked.

  Enid said, “Not helping.”

  “All right,” Lou said. “That means I keep us between them and Ogenth.”

  Kurosawa’s engines revved. Angel felt herself sink deeper into the chair. Everything was fine until a bad vibration came from deep in the ship.

  “Lou? What the fuck are you doing?” Angel asked.

  “Busy now, Captain,” Lou said.

  “I don’t like that,” Enid said. “Whatever it is.”

  Several alarms went off at once.

  “We’re painted,” Angel said.

  “Hit back,” Enid said. “You know how this goes.”

  Angel’s shots scored across Shrike’s hull and damaged a wingtip. Shrike appeared as a red silhouette on the gunner’s screen. The ship fired four missiles. Angel let fly a few more rounds. Kurosawa’s pulse cannon added to the battle.

  “Enid,” Angel said. “I’m running low. I need a fresh reload.”

  “On it,” Enid said.

  “Be careful,” Angel said. “We’ve got bogeys coming in.”

  The missiles were getting close. Angel tensed up. The ship executed a series of evasive maneuvers. Two of the missiles went wide, missing Kurosawa entirely. The third passed close enough to set off proximity alarms, but thanks to one of Lou’s sudden turns, it slammed into the mountainside instead.

  Angel winced, thinking of the people inside the mountain.

  The final missile hit Kurosawa.

  The ship jolted in midair. Kurosawa’s interior lights flickered off and then back on. Sizzles and crackling filled the air. The distinct smell of an electrical fire accompanied thin smoke drifting into the gunner’s cockpit.

  “Son of a bitch!” Enid shouted.

  The flow of Lou’s never-ending curses was cut short. The sensation of falling caused Angel’s ears to pop. She saw their rapid descent on the gunner’s computer screen. Below, the others went to work on the new fire. Blasts from flame-suppressing gear punched the air. Someone was coughing.

  Angel shouted. “Lou? Are you okay? Lou!”

  “Still here, Captain,” Lou said between hacking coughs. “Prepare for a rough landing.”

  Grabbing a helmet, Angel stuffed it on her head. It was too late to leave the gunner’s cockpit. She’d have to do the best she could where she was.

  The impact consumed her senses. Her teeth snapped together. The belts of her safety harness bruised her shoulders and hips. She didn’t understand that she’d lost consciousness until her eyes fluttered open. Her mouth was full of blood. She spat. She’d bitten her tongue when her teeth clamped together and hadn’t noticed. Pain filled her awareness.

  “Sukyi? Lou? Enid? Beak? Paulie?” Angel asked around a swollen tongue. “Check in!”

  No one answered.

  She was hanging sideways in her seat. She struggled to unbuckle herself. Her shoulders ached. Blood flooded her mouth again. She turned her head and spat three more times. “Check in, damn you!” Her words were slurred.

  “I-I’m here.” It was Enid. “Sukyi is in one piece, I think.” There was a short pause. “She’s got a pulse. She’s breathing.”

  The buckle finally gave away. Angel suddenly dropped onto the console’s edge. “Ouch. Oh fuck!”

  “You okay, boss?” Enid asked.

  “I’m good,” Angel said. “Check on Lou.”

  “I’m trying,” Enid said. “The ship is a real mess.”

  “Fuck,” Angel said.

  A moan came from below.

  Enid said, “Sukyi Edozie, welcome back to the land of the living.”

  “I don’t remember buying a return ticket,” Sukyi muttered.

  “Don’t be such a babyhead,” Enid said.

  Angel heard another groan.

  Sukyi said, “Someone kill the mech that punched me in the head.”

  Angel wriggled her way through broken electrical equipment to the ladder. “Less chat. More grabbing gear and getting the fuck out. Shrike will return to finish us off.” She hollered into her suit mic. “Lou? You asleep up there?”

  “Cockpit door is stuck,” Enid said.

  Sukyi said, “Here. Let me see that.”

  There was a gunshot. It was earsplitting in the confined space.

  Enid cursed. “Watch what the fuck you’re doing!”

  The wrenching squeal of reluctant steel made Angel flinch. She dropped down from the gun turret ladder and staggered. The floor tilted at an ungainly forty-five-degree angle. At the end of the passage, she could see that Enid and Sukyi had finally pried open the cockpit door but only partially. Enid squeezed through the narrow opening.

  “Lou?” she asked. “Never thought I’d say this, but you’re too quiet. I need you to talk to me.”

  Angel stumbled to the buckled cockpit door. Sukyi’s face was streaked with blood. She was moving slowly, and she looked terrible, but she was on her feet.

  “You okay?” Angel asked.

  Sukyi nodded and stopped herself with a wince. “I’m still here. Not sure I want to be. You?”

  “I’m good,” Angel said.

  “I’ll leave you to this, then,” Sukyi said. “L
ike you said, someone needs to get our gear.”

  Angel peered into the cockpit. “Lou? You still alive?”

  “Lou took a hit on the head. Helmet took the brunt of it,” Enid said. “Won’t know how bad it is until we get her out. But she’s pinned.”

  “I’m on the way,” Angel said. Sharp metal raked against her clothes as she passed through the broken door, ripping her flight suit and clawing her skin. When she saw the cockpit, she didn’t take the time to check her cut.

  Everything was chaos. Sparking wires hung from the ceiling. The acrid smell of burning electronics was thick. It would’ve been worse but for the breeze blowing in through the half-empty pilot’s screen. Lou lay unconscious in the chair. A large support had fallen across Lou’s body. Enid was shoving at the chunk of bent and broken steel, but it wasn’t moving. Worse, there wasn’t much space within the cockpit for leverage.

  Eventually, it took all three of them to move the broken support off of Lou’s shoulder and legs.

  Lou came awake screaming. “That fucker! Kurosawa? Answer me!”

  “That’s a good sign,” Enid said. “I think.”

  “Lou, honey,” Angel said. “We have to get you out of here. Do you think you can move?”

  They didn’t have a medic. That’s not exactly true. But medical help was inside Ogenth. It went against Angel’s NCO training to move a trauma victim. On the other hand, leaving Lou where she was wasn’t an option. Unfortunately, Kurosawa’s computer systems were down. Angel couldn’t get any help from that quarter.

  “My legs hurt like hell,” Lou said. Her words were slurred.

  “How’s your neck?” Angel asked. “Don’t move. Just tell me.”

  “I think it’s okay,” Lou said. “Oh, god. My head is killing me.”

  Angel nodded. “That’s going to happen when you headbutt a planet.”

  Lou smiled. “I did, didn’t I?” She sounded woozy.

  “And your back?” Angel asked. “Let me see your eyes.” One eye was dilated. Shit What do I do now?

  “You’re going down the checklist,” Lou said.