by Jacob Holo
1: You’re lying.
2: And you are welcome to your opinion. I have no desire to listen to your accusation. Now, are we done here?
1: I implore you to reconsider.
2: Look, the war on Luna will continue with or without my intervention. The Earth Federacy wants to expand its sphere of influence, and occupying Luna is the next logical step. They don’t even call it Luna in the Federacy. They just call it the moon, as if it’s the only one in the whole solar system that matters. They treat it like a rogue state that needs reuniting with the homeland. It’s a cultural thing. Luna belongs to them. Always has. Always will.
1: The Lunarians would disagree.
2: I imagine a few kinetic torpedoes from the Federacy fleet can change their minds. Either that or their opinions will stop mattering altogether.
1: And what of the crusaders?
2: What of them, Sakura?
1: You have deployed the crusaders to Luna.
2: Don’t be stupid. The crusaders are an independent militia completely separate from the Federacy command structure. I have no direct control over their operations. How could I, given their eccentric doctrines? They decided to deploy to Luna of their own accord. Perhaps you should ask their august leader why he deployed his troops, or would you rather not open that old wound?
1: They have no business on Luna.
2: Is that so? And what of your dragons? Do they have any business being on Luna?
1: You know very well why the dragons are on Luna. They were deployed because the Lunar State asked for assistance. It is that and nothing more. They operate there with the full blessing of the legitimate government.
2: How very noble of them.
1: Luna is neutral ground.
2: Not for much longer.
... link severed at destination ...
Ryu Kusanagi stepped into the ancient machinery room, rifle raised. He scanned his rifle across the room in a slow, deliberate sweep. Rusted, hulking mechanisms sat on either side of a narrow aisle, leading to a closed door on the opposite side of the room. Flickering light strips on the ceiling illuminated a soup of floating dust motes.
“Cat?” Ryu asked.
“No tech activity,” she said. “The room’s clean.”
“All right. Get in and seal the entrance.”
Cat and Naomi filed into the machinery room, smartskin suits turning them into ghosts even with the heavy dust. Only small wisps of unnatural movement betrayed their entry. Ryu would have struggled to spot them had it not been for the vivid green silhouettes overlaying his field of vision. Tactical data constantly exchanged between the four dragons over secure TangleNet links.
Toshi brought up the rear. He took a grenade from his bandolier, stuck it to the door’s exterior, swung the door shut, and spun the locking wheel. Rust particles swirled around the ancient hinges.
Ryu checked his mission clock. Two hours and twelve minutes. Plenty of time. The air wasn’t even that toxic.
“Huh. Look at this place,” Toshi said, taking in the room. “This must date back to the First Space Age. Maybe even early Corporate Exodus construction. You take us to the nicest places, boss. You know that?”
“We’ll hole up here until we need to push on,” Ryu said. He released the seals on his neck, pulled off his helmet, and took a deep breath. The air tasted of iron and a hint of something acidic. Two data lines in his visual overlay denoted recommended exposure limits. A healthy adult could handle fifteen minutes with no serious consequences. Dragons could breathe this crap indefinitely.
Ryu pulled his hood back and ran fingers through sweaty black hair. His head floated in the air. Cat, Naomi and Toshi began breaking their neck seals. Ryu picked a knee-high pipe running along the closest machine and sat down.
Naomi slumped onto a pipe opposite him and pulled her helmet off, revealing an oval face with soft cheeks and pale skin. She pushed back the hood holding her black hair in place and breathed in.
“Well, at least the air has character,” Naomi said. “Right, Toshi?”
Toshi set his large frame down next to Naomi. He pulled his helmet off and stiffed the air.
“What stinks?” He scrunched his weathered face into a grimace.
“Besides you?” Naomi asked.
“Yeah, besides that?” Toshi looked around. He spotted a small, tarnished nameplate halfway across the room and read the small print. “Hey, this is part of those first ice mines from Luna’s original colony.”
“So what?” Naomi asked. She opened an invisible pouch at her waist and retrieved a rectangular, bright red wrapper.
“You brought some with you?” Ryu asked.
Naomi daintily peeled the wrapper, revealing a bar of dark chocolate divided into small cube segments.
“You know I hate the intravenous slop we get from our suits,” she said. “Sure it keeps us going, but my stomach still knows it’s empty.”
“No, I mean did you bring enough for all of us?”
“Nope,” Naomi said. She took a bite and leaned her head back, chocolate melting in her mouth. “Oh, that’s good.”
“You do know I’m in charge. I could order you to give me that.”
“Touch my chocolate, and I’ll shoot out your knee caps.” She took another bite.
Ryu sighed. “It’s so hard to find good help these days.”
Naomi grinned as she chewed.
“Boss, why are we stopping?” Toshi asked.
“The green dragons need time to get into position,” Ryu said. “We still need someone to make noise and clear the path between us and the House of Parliament. They’re going to make sure the crusaders are hunting for us in the wrong places.”
“It’s not like Sakaki to let her squad get behind schedule,” Toshi said.
Naomi swallowed. “It can’t be helped. The navy dropped us in the middle of nowhere.”
“Better that than getting shot down by the blockade,” Ryu said.
“They could have dropped us closer to the city,” Naomi said, taking another bite.
The chocolate’s strong aroma began making Ryu’s mouth water. His stomach growled, but sonic cancellers in his smartsuit killed the noise.
“Hey, boss?” Toshi asked.
“Hmm?”
Toshi jerked his head to the side twice. Ryu glanced over.
Cat hadn’t said a word since they’d sealed the room. She sat on a pipe, hunched over her knees, rifle upright between her legs. With one finger on the barrel, she tilted the rifle back and forth like a metronome.
“Cat?” Ryu asked.
“What?” Cat looked up, a worried expression in her blue eyes. Short golden hair framed a slender face that stood out amongst the other three. She could pass for a Feddie with looks like that. She was shorter and less elfin than the others, as if Earth’s gravity had held her back. Ryu knew that wasn’t true.
“What’s on your mind” Ryu asked.
Cat shook her head and looked down at her rifle. “It’s nothing.”
“No, seriously. What’s getting to you?”
“I don’t know,” Cat said, shrugging her shoulders. “I guess I thought all of this would be easier.”
Ryu stood up and walked over. He sat down next to Cat.
“Come on,” Ryu said. “You’re doing great. Do you want to turn back?”
Cat let out a short laugh. “No, nothing like that.”
“Scared then?”
“No,” Cat said. “Well, yes, but that’s not it.”
“Being scared is perfectly normal.”
“Then I think I’m very very very normal right now,” Cat said. “It’s just ...”
“Go on. What’s bothering you?”
“Ryu, that was the first time I’ve ever killed someone.”
“Ah.”
“I thought it would be easier, or at least the upgrades would take the edge off these feelings. Was it easy for you?”
“Sadly, no. I know all too well what you’re going through.”
<
br /> “How did you deal with it?”
“Really, it’s a personal thing. Hey, Naomi? How do you deal with the killing?”
“I’ll let you know when I find a good method.”
“All right. Toshi?”
“What’s there to deal with?”
“Uh huh,” Ryu said. “Well, I can see you two are absolutely no help.”
Naomi looked up. “You mean you don’t feel anything when you kill a Feddie?”
“Is this a trick question?” Toshi said.
“You don’t feel anything at all?” Naomi asked. “Is there a hole where your heart should be?”
“What weapon am I using?”
“Huh?”
“It’s important. What weapon am I using?”
“I don’t know. That rifle of yours.”
“A little kick in the shoulder.”
“You’re sick, you know that,” Naomi said.
“Why should I feel anything when killing Feddies?” Toshi asked.
“Because they’re people, you idiot!”
“People who are perfectly happy flying to Europa and nuking our cities. So again, why should I feel anything when I kill them?”
“You are totally missing the point!”
“And you have no point.”
Ryu sighed. He patted Cat on the shoulder. “Did any of that help at all?”
“I guess so,” Cat said.
“Regret coming along?”
“Absolutely not.”
Ryu smiled. “Just checking.” He put his arm over Cat’s shoulders and gave her a warm squeeze.
“You know better than to ask,” Cat said.
“Yeah, I suppose I do.”
“Hey, Ryu!” Naomi shouted. “Get your hands off the new girl and help your comrades decide who’s right!”
“What are you talking about? Cat is my—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Naomi said.
“Fine,” Ryu said. “Naomi, you’re right this time.”
“But you haven’t heard my argument,” Toshi said.
“Don’t need to,” Ryu said. “I’m just that good of a leader.”
Naomi and Toshi looked at each other.
“So how does victory taste?” Toshi asked.
“Bitter sweet,” Naomi said. She took a loud bite out of her chocolate bar. “So Cat, are you sure this room is secure?”
“Very sure,” Cat said. She tapped her temple. “I’m still watching the dot-cam feeds we placed along the way. The nearest Feddie patrol passed half a kilometer southeast of us. Plus there’s no active infostructure anywhere nearby, SolarNet or otherwise.”
“There could be a hard line somewhere,” Naomi said.
“We would have seen the cable,” Cat said. “It’s tough to hide something new in all this decay.”
“See? Sneaky like a cat,” Toshi said. “I think of all of us, Cat, you have the best call sign.”
“Really? I didn’t know you had call signs.”
“We don’t use them anymore,” Naomi said.
“Mine was Knuckles,” Toshi said. “As in knuckle dragger. But no one calls me that anymore.”
“To your face,” Ryu said.
“What?”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“Naomi, how about you?” Cat asked.
“Oh, let’s see here,” Naomi said, staring up at the ceiling. “There was Bitch and Useless and a bunch of others, but my personal favorite was Whore.”
“Ouch,” Cat said.
“Come on,” Ryu said. “There were some good ones.”
“Oh yeah? Name one.”
“Well ... let me think.”
“Yeah?”
“Didn’t they call you Fu— Oh, wait. That one’s no good either.”
“I’m waiting.”
Ryu threw up his arms. “Sorry. I guess I don’t remember any.”
“This isn’t funny, Ryu. Don’t you remember what I had to go through to prove myself? Remember that big idiot? The bald guy with that ridiculous droopy mustache. What was his name?”
“You mean Kentaro?”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” Naomi said. “You remember what I had to do to get him to respect me?”
“Not specifically,” Ryu said. “I remember they had to graft his arm back on when you were done, though.”
Cat giggled.
Naomi glared at her.
“Sorry, sorry,” Cat said, waving her apologies. “But that was funny.”
Ryu received a message through his TangleNet link. He opened it on his visual overlay and read the update.
“What is it, boss?” Toshi asked.
“Suit up,” Ryu said. He pulled his hood over his hair, tightened the elastic band around his face, put his helmet on, and sealed the neck. The two smartskin segments merged their microminds and completed the invisibility illusion. He sucked in a breath of dry, filtered air.
The others sprang into action. Naomi closed the wrapper around her chocolate bar and set it on a pipe. Without warning, Toshi snatched it up and shoved the remaining half in his mouth.
“Why, sure,” Naomi said, adjusting her hood. “Help yourself, moron.”
Toshi mumbled his thanks through a mouth full of chocolate. He slapped his helmet into place.
Cat sealed up and hefted her rifle. “Why the change in orders?”
“New directive from the ambassador,” Ryu said. “We need to extract her from the House of Parliament.”
“The ambassador doesn’t have any upgrades, does she?” Naomi asked.
“Just the basics,” Ryu said.
“They have got to be kidding,” Naomi said. “How are we supposed to sneak a civilian out of that mess? The crusaders will shoot her to pieces as soon as she leaves the building.”
“Probably,” Ryu said.
“What’s our extraction?” Cat asked.
“The ambassador’s shuttle is berthed in a landing crater north of the city. It’s a modified tiger shark, so we should be able to run the blockade in it.”
“At least there’s that,” Naomi said.
Toshi gurgled something before swallowing the rest of the chocolate.
“No, Toshi,” Ryu said. “I don’t think they’d appreciate only getting her head back. Besides, we don’t have a cryo-guillotine with us.”
“And the green dragons?”
“Won’t be joining us,” Ryu said. “We ready?”
Toshi eased open the door they’d entered through and retrieved his trap grenade. He closed the door again.
“Ready, boss.”
“All right. Let’s move!”
Ryu led the way across the room to the northern door. He spun the ancient locking wheel and opened it, exposing a dark corridor that gently swung to the right. Plastic webbing and steel beams held back the gray lunar rock on either side. Large, colorful words had been painted on the walls, perhaps ancient graffiti in languages Ryu didn’t recognize. They filed out.
Ryu followed the tunnel until it straightened and came to a T-shaped junction. He checked left while Cat checked right.
“Clear,” Cat said.
“Clear,” Ryu said. The dragons followed him down the left tunnel. Heavy doors with locking wheels lined the tunnel on either side. Rusted labels hung over each door. A few light strips provided sporadic pockets of illumination.
Halfway through, the tunnel changed from rectangular rock walls to a wider cylindrical tunnel of white plastics. They hurried across a raised black plastic walkway.
The dragons reached the airlock at the far end. Ryu pulled the door open, and they all stepped in. He sealed the door, making the room pitch black. Ryu used a grid of faint green lines on his overlay to find the opposite door. His fellow dragons were bright outlines next to him.
“Hard vacuum on the other side,” Cat said.
“Everyone check your seals even if they read green,” Ryu said. “And that means you too, Toshi.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Cat, th
e door?”
“Got it.” Cat stepped over to the exit and glanced at the controls. “I can manually equalize pressure with what I think are the emergency controls. No power required.”
“Do it.”
Cat grabbed a sturdy handle next to the door, turned it ninety degrees, pulled and turned it another ninety degrees. Air bled out of the airlock. In a few seconds, they were in vacuum.
Cat slid the locks out of place one by one and opened the door. Ryu peeked his rifle through the opening.
“Clear,” Ryu said. He led the way into a circular tunnel with heavy steel ribs and gray plastic paneling, another disparate section within the Lunar utility maze. The tunnel opened into an atrium ahead. Ryu and Cat crouched at the entrance, checking for enemies or traps.
The roof was gone, exposing the two-story atrium to space. Earth’s blue crescent smiled down at them, floating in a sea of stars. Some of those stars moved irregularly, probably warships or interceptors in orbit.
Bodies littered the floor and two spiral staircases leading up to the second story, either crushed by falling debris or perforated by gunfire. Heavy bullet patterns decorated the walls and floor. All of the bodies wore at least armored vests and helmets. Some wore full armored suits in white-and-gray Lunar State surface camouflage.
“Looks like the Feddies blew open the roof and rained hell on these people,” Toshi said. “I doubt they had any warning.”
“Keep moving,” Ryu said.
They crossed the atrium, passed through another dead airlock back into a pressurized environment, and made their way through tunnels of newer construction. Vast machinery hummed underneath their feet, their microminds chattering to each other in quick bursts of radio traffic. Glowing light strips illuminated pastel blue walls and clusters of thick color-coded pipes underneath clean steel grating.
“SolarNet contact,” Cat said. “Two hundred meters ahead. Feddie patrol. No visual yet.”
“Hold here,” Ryu said.
“They’re moving towards us,” Cat said. “Maybe two or three regulars. They’ll be coming to the next junction from the right.” She linked the estimated locations to the other dragons.
“Get in position,” Ryu said. He crouched against the wall and aimed his rifle. The other dragons formed a firing line. The pulsing red dots moved across his visual overlay towards the junction.
Two Feddies in gray-and-blue urban-patterned armor stepped into view, M20 carbines slung from their shoulders. They were talking to each other, barely paying attention to their surroundings. One of them grabbed a cylindrical grenade from his belt and tossed it towards the dragons.
