by J. J. Green
Carina stamped her feet. The sentry box on the fortress’ roof provided only a little protection from the falling snow. Her boots had created a puddle of icy slush that had penetrated the leather. Her Sherrerr uniform was warmer than her civvies, but standing still for hours meant a chill had inevitably set in. She guessed she had only ten or fifteen minutes of guard duty remaining, but the seconds were dragging past.
When the comm in her helmet chirped, Carina’s mood brightened, thinking her replacement had arrived. But the message was only to tell her and her fellow sentry to step below for five minutes. A shuttle was coming in.
They waited in the stairwell until the roar and vibration of the shuttle’s landing ceased, then went out onto the roof once more. The air was noticeably warmer from the burst of energy from the shuttle’s engine as it landed. A sleek, expensive vessel had arrived, a domestic, not military, model, bearing the Sherrerr insignia on each side.
The portal slid smartly open and the ramp extended. A tall, handsome, elegant man cloaked in furs and wearing a cravat and a haughty expression appeared, followed by a man and woman who looked more like servants than guards. Without a glance at Carina or the other sentry, the man paused a moment to allow the security scanner to confirm his identity, then he disappeared inside the fortress.
He was probably a high-ranking member of the Sherrerr clan, Carina mused, though not of the military arm. Still, his arrival added weight to her earlier assessment of the situation—the Sherrerrs were planning a big event of some kind. Their extensive extended family was involved.
A few minutes later, Carina received the notification she was waiting for. Her replacement took over and she went down into the stronghold, making her way to the mess room. There, she grabbed a hot drink to help her warm up before setting out to find Bryce. If she could only touch him, it would be enough to anchor the Transport and she could whisk them both far away. Not off the planet, but hopefully somewhere they would be safe from detection.
The garbage processing area was in the basement of the fortress. Free passage through the building, even to such unsavory areas, wasn’t allowed for lowly grunts like her. But though Carina didn’t have the authority to go to Bryce’s work site, she thought she would try. She went down the curving stone stairwell, sipping her drink and appreciating the feeling that was returning to her fingers and toes.
She patted the bottle of elixir at her side to reassure herself she hadn’t forgotten it in her sleep-deprived haze when she suited up that morning. She’d made the liquid in the early hours. If she could only see Bryce for a few moments she could be sure she could Transport him. The Cast might work with only her mental image of the young man, of course, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
The last time she’d used Transport was to rescue the boy the Dirksens had kidnapped. She’d moved enemy soldiers a kilometer away from the scene of engagement. With one of the soldiers in front of her, it had been easy to fix on the others through the common factor of their uniform. Transporting an individual who was out of sight was much more difficult.
Carina turned the final bend in the stairwell. Her heart sank. There was no human guard at the waste processing zone for her to persuade to let her in for five minutes. The door was locked and unmarked except for a window the size of a human face. She looked through it but she could only see darkness. On the wall next to the door was an ID scanner. She guessed it was worth a try.
“Private Lin,” she said into the mic while the device scanned her face and retinas.
A warm female voice said, “Entry denied.”
Carina cursed. She was all ready to get them both out of there. She only needed a couple of minutes. Should she wait around? Maybe someone else would arrive and allow her to sneak inside with them, though she doubted anyone would risk being disciplined for her. She looked through the window again. This time she could see a light. A door was open, illuminating a dark hall. Someone was coming out, and as the figure entered the hall, motion-activated lights flickered on.
A burly soldier was walking toward her. It was one of the men who had beaten her up.
She hesitated. He was one of the last people she wanted to meet, but he was also the only person who could help her right then. The man’s lip curled when he recognized Carina’s face in the window. Pulling open the door he said, “Hello there. I heard you made it through Basic. I was surprised. I should have roughed you up better.”
“You roughed me up well enough, thanks,” Carina said as she tried to side-step the man and slip past him.
“Wait a minute,” the soldier said. He raised his arm, blocking the gap. “Where do you think you’re going? Off to see your boyfriend? You don’t have authority to go there. But I don’t want you to go away unsatisfied. Why don’t we forget what happened and be friends? Maybe I could scratch your itch for you.”
“No thanks,” said Carina. “I’ve experienced your version of foreplay and it doesn’t do a thing for me.”
The soldier laughed. “And here I was thinking you were the type to like it rough. We can try a different style if you like. Come on, you must be desperate to try to sneak in there. The smell’s bad enough to knock you out better than I did. I’m not so off-putting, am I?”
The conversation was taking a turn that Carina had no interest in nor time for. She was about to tell the man where to go and give up on her attempt to see Bryce when another of the doors in the hall opened. Carina glimpsed a familiar face. “Bryce,” she called.
“Carina,” Bryce said, coming through the door with a large sack on his back. “It’s great to see you. Are you okay? I was worried about you.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. She’d finally found him, but she couldn’t Transport them both with the obnoxious bully looking on.
“What a touching reunion,” said the burly soldier, “but if you don’t want me, I’m not going to let you have him.” He pushed her roughly out of the way and slammed the door.
At the same time, Carina’s comm chirped. “Private Lin, report to the shuttle pad in fifteen minutes with full equipment, ready to ship out.”
She looked through the window at Bryce. It was hopeless. She couldn’t Cast in front of the Sherrerr soldier. She had no choice but to leave, not knowing when or if she would return to rescue her friend.
Chapter Eighteen
When Carina arrived at the shuttle pad, the domestic vessel that had arrived earlier had left and in its place was a craft that occupied the entire rooftop. Along with the other soldiers who had been ordered to board it, Carina went up the ramp and inside the vessel. She stowed her equipment and took a seat. The craft was military style and reminded her of her merc band’s shuttle—bare bones inside but solid and tough.
As she fastened her harness, the soldier in the seat next to her held out his hand. “Mandeville.”
Carina shook it. “Lin.”
“I haven’t seen you around. You new?”
“That’s right. I started a few days ago. You?”
“Six months in. First time I’ve gone into space, though. What’s up with your face? Did you fall down the mountain on your way over?”
“Ha, no. I accidentally walked into some fists. Do you know what this mission’s about?”
“I haven’t heard anything. I’m guessing they’ll tell us when we’re aboard ship.”
The shuttle was quickly filling up, and the vibration through the floor signaled that the pilot was warming the engines. A female soldier took the seat on the other side of Carina. She was a muscly woman who reminded her of a former fellow merc and bunk mate, Atoi.
Raynott, the officer who had ordered Carina’s beating, entered the cabin. “Helmets sealed everyone,” she said. “Taking off in two minutes.”
Carina put on her helmet and sealed it. Now anything she said would broadcast to everyone, so she stayed quiet for the trip up to the Sherrerr ship. When they arrived and the soldiers filed out of the shuttle bay, Raynott ordered them into formation.
S
he addressed the group. “At ease. In four days we’ll arrive at our engagement site. Until then, you’ll do exercises aboard ship. You’ll also be issued with new firearms and receive training on them so you know which is the mean end. Wait here until a crew member arrives to assign quarters.”
As Raynott left, the soldiers broke ranks and removed their helmets. Carina guessed there were around a hundred and fifty of them, but as she looked around, the Sherrerr ship seemed large for such a number. The shuttle bay they had just left had been massive. Going by its size, she guessed the ship had a capacity of two thousand or more. She hadn’t known the Sherrerrs possessed such large warships.
Over the next couple of days, Carina slotted easily into the ship’s routine. Even more so than at the fortress on Ithiya, the lifestyle took her back to her merc days. She knew the ropes, but she wasn’t happy about re-familiarizing herself with them. Though she didn’t have a problem with fighting if she had to, she didn’t feel like a soldier anymore. Her short time working for the Sherrerrs had really brought home to her the fact that she’d moved on.
Yet even as she was adjusting to her new view on life, she had an idea that would involve behaving like a good soldier for just a little longer. If she could distinguish herself in whatever conflict they had coming up, perhaps she could exploit the favor she might receive from Sherrer higher-ups for special permission to visit Bryce.
When the troops performed military exercises in the emptied shuttle bay aboard ship, Carina kept her head down and worked hard. Experience had taught her that among the average group of soldiers, even such simple behavior helped you stand out. Or at least it helped you avoid the ire of the commanding officer, which was just as beneficial.
On the day they were to go into battle, Raynott assembled the soldiers in a briefing room. She brought up a holo of a moonscape. It was an ice moon with a thin, unbreathable atmosphere. The holo zoomed in, and an installation became visible. The place had looked like it was just another part of the rocky, icy surface until the camera got in close.
“It’s called Banner’s Moon,” said Raynott. “We stumbled across this during part of a general surveillance exercise in Dirksen territory. The building you see is invisible to scanners and only visible to the naked eye at close range. The Dirksens clearly have something to hide here, though what exactly, we aren’t sure yet. Not that that’s going to stop us from storming the place and fucking their shit up.” She smirked.
“Seriously,” Raynott continued, “we’re guessing that they might be developing a new weapon or something similar. Whatever it is, we want it. So don’t go blowing up anything unless it’s absolutely necessary. Feel free to kill as many of the enemy as you like.”
Raynott went on to explain what their company’s role would be in the assault. They were to attack the facility from the spinward side. Theirs would be the first assault wave—in some ways the most dangerous, but they also had the element of surprise on their side.
When she’d finished laying out the finer details of the assault, she said, “Questions?”
Mandeville raised his hand. Raynott nodded at him.
“Do we have any clues about what we might be looking for?” he asked.
“If it is a weapon, even if it’s only at the prototype stage,” Raynott replied, “you can bet that they’ll be using it on you. That’s probably the biggest flag you’ll see. Other than that, follow the path of most resistance. Whatever they seem keenest to protect, whatever area has the strongest defense, go for that.”
A small amount of chatter started up, which Raynott silenced with, “There’s something I forgot to mention. We’re blowing the place from orbit forty-five minutes after the first assault. We think we have about that long before the nearest Dirksen ship arrives. You’ll see the countdown on your visor overlays. Get in, get what you can, and get out. You better be back here on time or you’re not going home.”
Some of the soldiers shifted uncomfortably. Even Carina with her experience of the callous attitude of her merc band’s owner was a little shocked. The Sherrerrs weren’t messing around. They would try to take whatever the Dirksens had on their moon, but if they couldn’t have it, they were going to make sure the Dirksens wouldn’t either. For many of the soldiers, it was their first live engagement. She hoped that it wouldn’t also be their last.
The briefing was over. The soldiers were told to go to the shuttle bay and into a waiting shuttle. Carina strapped herself in, secured her helmet, and checked her weapon. The firearm she’d been given was a new type of pulse rifle. It produced concentrated fire designed to penetrate the latest designs of armor, though they’d been warned it would only penetrate in one shot at close range.
Always the technology race continued. Armor was developed to resist the current level of firepower, so more effective guns were designed, resulting in better-designed armor, and so on. Carina wondered whether the Dirksens were developing a weapon that pierced the armor she was wearing.
The shuttle lifted and carried them out of the Sherrerr ship. Mandeville gave her a thumbs up and she nodded. They’d become better acquainted over the previous days of training. He was a nice guy. In fact, most of the soldiers were just regular people. None were seasoned veterans like the mercs she’d previously worked with. She wasn’t used to her fellow troops being normal. Some of them looked scared, reminding her of herself at her first engagement when she was sixteen. Her mentor and commanding officer, Captain Speidel, had gotten her through it safe and sound. She no longer needed the poor, dead captain, but that didn’t stop her from missing him.
Suddenly, they were dropping out of the sky so fast the shuttle’s artificial gravity drive couldn’t compensate, and Carina found herself lifting out of her seat. From somewhere to the right came the whine of a soldier’s armor sucking up vomit that had erupted into his helmet. She wasn’t so far from upchucking herself. She’d spent so long planetside, she’d lost her space legs.
Only moments later the shuttle hit the ground. The doors opened. Carina unsnapped her harness and ran out with the rest of the company into a barren, icy moonscape. They were a minute’s run from a low mountain—no, that was the Dirksens’ facility, and those dark spaces that looked like cave entrances were windows.
Carina was running. Get in, get what she could, get out. Weapon fire burst from the installation. The defenders had realized they were under attack. She zigzagged in a random pattern as she ran. Soldiers began to fall. One hit the ground right in front of Carina. She jumped over the squirming figure. Was it Mandeville? With tinted visors obscuring their faces, it was hard to tell. She hoped it wasn’t Mandeville.
She was at the window. Others who had reached there before her had broken through and the site was depressurizing fast. She jumped inside, vaulting with one hand on the window frame, her hybrid silicon armor impervious to jagged shards at the edge. She was inside. The Dirksens had killed the lights, but her helmet beamed out its own. Sweeping it around she saw hand-to-hand fighting, a jumble of bodies. Her visor overlay tagged the figures as friends and foe.
Someone lunged at her. She swept her rifle around and cracked the butt against her attacker’s helmet. As he fell, she fired point blank into his chest, breaking the atmosphere seal. Gas poured out, condensing in the frigid air. Blood also sprayed from the opening and instantly froze.
A pulse round hit Carina from behind. Her suit’s sensors flared, the repair mechanism triggered as she spun around, firing. The shot had come from a now-empty doorway. Carina ran through it, showering the hallway with fire. She hit two enemy soldiers but didn’t cause them much damage. They fired back. More of her company poured through the opening. The two Dirksen soldiers turned to run but were quickly mown down.
The corridor was clear, and Carina ran down it with other soldiers from her company. Her helmet was scanning and mapping the place, sending a real time positioning readout to her as she ran. The installation was vast. Much bigger than it had looked from the outside. Carina guessed that it
had to go underground too. They were heading into the heart of the building, but it was so far from the entrance, Carina doubted they could make it out in time before the Sherrerrs blew the place.
Then things went crazy. Everyone around her dropped to the ground. Screaming from her helmet comm was piercing her ears. It was the screaming of her fellow soldiers. Yet when she looked around, none of them seemed hurt. Their suits were intact and their bodies seemed undamaged, even if they were writhing around.
Carina turned down her helmet comm to its lowest setting so that she could only just hear her fellows soldiers’ shrieks. There was nothing for it but to continue the mission as planned alone.
Chapter Nineteen
Carina jogged along the corridors, following the route the enemy soldiers had attempted to escape along. It led to a large space that looked like some kind of production facility. She figured this was her best bet for finding the reason for the installation.
Enemy units were ahead, according to her visor overlay. She stopped dead. Approaching the next corner slowly, she peeked around it. Three enemy soldiers were in the corridor, but they were squirming on the ground as her own company’s troops had. Their hands were over their heads as if something unbearable were happening to them.
Carina imagined that if she could hear them, she would hear their screams. They were clearly too incapacitated to cause her any harm. She ran around the corner and right past the prone figures. After several similar encounters, Carina arrived at a grim sight. Scientists who hadn’t been able to reach environment suits in time when site depressurized had died. Their bodies, pop-eyed and frozen, were lying near a rectangular object the size of a large piece of luggage.
