by Adam Moon
I slowed down just a bit. I checked through the little face-sized windows in the doors as I passed. I heard a bang behind me and I hit the deck, turning onto my butt as I did so.
A dirty looking guy with wild eyes was thirty feet behind me, the barrel of his gun smoking.
I didn’t think, I just reacted, and blew his torso away from his legs. I know I sat there, stunned and shocked for too long when another guy bolted down the corridor the same way. He saw his comrade and then he saw me too late.
I knew I’d gotten lucky. You can’t freeze up like that during combat and get away with it more than once or twice.
I got to my feet and moved quickly now, intent on getting as far away from that pile of sizzling gore and bones as possible.
I rounded a corner and tripped over something large and firm. I caught myself with my hands but they slipped out from under me when I tried to get back to my feet. My hands were covered in thick, cold blood. I turned around and saw a face I recognized. It was one of the juniors, a newer arrival. The look on her face made my blood boil. She looked terrified. I wiped my palms on my pants and took off at a sprint, hopeful now to run across one of those fucking Skeptics.
Another blast from behind set my hair on fire.
I didn’t have time to pat it out. I rounded a corner and then stopped. I peeked back out and fired in rapid succession. One of the shots hit home because the woman stopped firing and started to scream. I came at her quickly, dumping a three round burst into her chest.
I knew I must have passed a room or an area just full of Skeptics because they kept coming up behind me.
I decided to backtrack and I was immediately rewarded with a shot right to my left hip. The adrenaline kept me on my feet and I returned fire, hitting the guy between the eyes.
I passed him, feeling kind of faint from blood loss already. I also realized that when my hair had been set aflame, the projectile had also sluiced off a little chunk of my ear.
I saw the dead junior with the terrified death stare and then I saw three of the bastards beyond her, approaching fast. I skidded up to her dead body, falling as I went, and used it for cover. My aim was true enough to take each of them down, one after the other.
A fevered part of my mind wondered if my weapons instructor, Mrs. Salazar would be proud of that. Of course she wouldn’t. These were her friends.
I chanced a quick look at my mangled hip. I could see white showing through the oozing blood and I knew that didn’t bode well for me.
I felt very faint. I made a conscious decision to look away from the wound. It was just helping the shock take hold of me.
I heard heavy footsteps approach from ahead. There were a lot of them too. I felt my mind slide around all willy-nilly. I knew I was about to go blank any second.
I switched the safety off for the Popper.
I laid the gun across the junior’s body and then put my head on her, pretending to be dead.
I left one eye slightly open to see them.
A woman came around the corner, but she was rolling like a log to avoid getting hit. She came to a rest on her belly and put a round into the poor dead junior. I didn’t flinch.
She gave a hand gesture to whoever else was around the corner.
I almost coughed when nearly a dozen men and women came out and joined her, hefting her to her feet.
Before they could take a single step towards me, I let loose with the Popper.
I jammed my eyes shut tight and covered my ears with both hands. The boom still rattled my teeth and interrupted my heart rhythm.
I was lucky the hull was several walls away or else we’d have all got put out into the black.
Surprisingly, a guy was still writhing around among the piles of awful. He was moaning. I knew if I didn’t put him down, those moans would turn to screams.
I aimed center mass and squeezed but my aim was suddenly off and I blew his arm away from its socket. The look on his face will haunt my dreams forever and rightly so. I endeavored at that moment to never miss my mark. I took aim again and when I squeezed, he stopped moving.
I slumped into the junior. Her body was cold and damp and she smelled of excrement. For some reason, that was soothing. I felt myself drift away.
Recovery
I awoke slowly. My eyes hurt and so did my head. I saw a familiar face swim into view. It was Mr. Humboldt and he looked worried.
I tried to sit up but he stopped me. That just made me mad, so I sat up and batted his hand away before he could push me back down again.
He said, “You need to rest son. You lost a lot of blood and you’ve only been out of surgery for five days.”
I tried to say, Five Days? What happened? But instead I said, “Ugh, uggghhh,” and then I coughed.
I took a glass of water he handed to me and drank it back. I said, “What happened?”
“That muscular chick, Dolores found you, nearly dead of blood loss. She chucked you over her shoulder and carried you to the medical bay. She even started a drip and got you bandaged up before a real medic could be brought in. She saved your life.”
“I’d like to thank her.”
“She left last week.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Ten days. A lot has happened since then. The students are all back and I’m hiring new instructors. I was promoted to Rector.”
“Congratulations,” I said, not giving a shit about his career advancement.
“Some of the other camps have already been liberated. We’re gaining ground and rebuilding.”
I asked, “How many Skeptics did you get? Did you get hit too?”
“I didn’t come across any and neither did Dolores. You killed every last one of them. They’re probably going to give you a medal for what you did. You’re a bonafide hero.”
I laughed at that. How preposterous?
I said, “What about Mrs. Salazar?”
She was teleported back into her body this morning. She’ll be taken away and be put on trial. They’ll probably give her the firing squad.”
I didn’t mention that that kind of bummed me out. I had grown quite fond of her in the hour before she turned out to be a blood thirsty terrorist.
“What about the alien ship?”
“They’ve cracked a bit of the code thanks to that box you identified as a recent add-on. The funny thing is that it looks like the aliens only tried to erase their destination from the banks. They left their departure point, so we know where the alien planet is, more or less.”
“Are you kidding? What’s the brass going to do about that?”
He looked at my side and said, “Your stitches are seeping, you idiot. That’s enough questions. You need to lie down and rest.”
I tried to fight him off but he was stronger than me at that moment.
I watched him leave the room and as a nurse tended to my stitches; I allowed my mind to ponder the possibilities. If we took the fight to the Bleeders, they’d be surprised. They thought we were a backwoods people incapable of such things as interstellar flight. They thought we’d just stay put until they returned to exterminate us. They would all die for underestimating the human race.
Perspective
When I was strong enough to hold up my own weight, I was given free reign of the camp. It’s funny, but I’ve lived here for my entire life, and only now do I see it in a different light. Maybe it’s because all the cadets either look up to me or else avoid me like I might detonate. Maybe it’s because there aren’t any teachers or classes going on. Maybe it’s because I’ve changed in fundamental ways.
Stacy Jones was trying to make eye contact with me at lunch time but I ignored her. She’s a sadistic bitch so she probably loves me now that I have blood on my hands. I sat next to Becky Morrison because she’s a nice weirdo. Those people generally repel people like Stacy.
Danny Jackson, the fake badass of my class, turned away every time I came near him. I think I intimidate him now. I think I always did, but now there
’s proof that I’m a tough son of a bitch.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to go and look in on Mrs. Salazar. I wanted to know her mindset now that she knew the truth: the Enemy was never a hoax. She’d been duped by the Skeptics.
There was a guard standing outside her door. It was the detention room we get locked in when an instructor had enough of our crap.
I sheepishly asked if I could have a word alone with her.
“Sure kid. Without you, this entire facility would be scorched pieces of metal strewn across the surface of Mars. I hear they might give you the Platinum Shield for that.”
He unlocked the door and said, “I’m gonna take a shit. I’ll be back in half an hour.”
It was only then that I realized he thought I wanted to have sex with Mrs. Salazar. I was about to correct him but he was already leaving.
I went inside, a little on edge that the door was unlocked and the guard was gone.
Samantha Salazar smiled and stood up when I came through the door. “I’ve been asking that dumbass guard to go and get you all day and he refused. I guess he changed his mind.”
“No. I came here on my own.” But now I know why the guard thought we were an item.
She sat back on the mattress and motioned for me to take a seat beside her. I refused and defiantly stood two feet in front of her.
“Would you have killed me if I’d gotten in your way?” I said this with tension in my voice.
“You did get in the way and I spared you. I like you Jack. I’ve always liked you.”
“What were you going to do with that ship anyway?”
She sighed, clearly displeased being off topic. “We were going to use it to destroy as many other ships as possible. It was a suicide mission, really.”
“How do you feel now that you know you killed for a stupid, false ideal?”
“I feel terrible for everything I did. I was misled and coerced by the Skeptics. I’m young and impressionable.”
“I’m not a judge. Save your nonsense for him.”
“I can’t go to court Jack. They’re going to shoot me. And I know you don’t want to be here either.” She paused to see if I had anything to say and then she continued, “We could just leave all of this mess behind, you and I.”
Then she stood up and bent forward. Before I had a chance to move away, she was kissing me greedily. I hate to admit that I kissed her back. I also hate to admit that it led to more serious kissing and then we both fell into bed together.
We were just barely done when the guard returned and tapped on the door to let me know my time was up.
She kissed me again, fat tears welling in her eyes. I got dressed and headed for the door.
She said in an exasperated tone, “Have you thought about what I said?”
I turned on her. “Not for a second lady. You blew the captains brains out all over my visor. You killed the teleportation tech for no reason. You killed that poor guy in charge of the all-stop. You would have used the Conquistador to massacre as many people as possible. You’re a scumbag. I would never run away with someone like you.”
She shrieked, “Then why did you have sex with me?”
“I didn’t. You had sex with me because you thought you could manipulate me. I’m a lot smarter than you think I am.”
“You’re not the same sweet boy I remember from class,” she said sadly, still trying in vain to trick me.
“No I am not,” I agreed, with the knowledge that that was an understatement.
Then she tried a different tactic. “I’ll tell you who is in charge of the Skeptics if you let me go.”
“We’re killing them all as we speak. We’ll get to him eventually.” To soften the blow, I added, “Tell someone important that you will speak with a judge immediately regarding leniency. Let that information dangle in front of them like a carrot on a stick.”
She yelled, “I don’t want leniency, you little punk. I want to be free.”
I’ll admit that I got a bit of a high from it all. I had just banged the hottest teacher in camp and my self righteous side got a nice workout afterwards, but as I left and I heard genuine sobs come from the room, my heart broke for her despite the fact that she was a conniving murderer. I shouldn’t have let her seduce me but I’m young and impressionable.
Call to Arms
Mr. Humboldt called for me when I was fully healed. He said, “Jack, your presence is requested aboard the Conquistador.”
“Why?”
“Haven’t you heard? We’re going to war and almost everyone who has combat experience with an A.C.E skin died fighting the Skeptics.”
“But I’m not old enough to serve yet.”
“In your case, they’ve made an exception. Make those Bleeders bleed son.”
I think he thought that made me a lucky boy, but I didn’t feel lucky. I felt like I was being ordered to my death.
ACE 3 copyright Adam Moon 2013
All rights reserved
Jack Peterson
First contact with an alien race didn’t go the way people had hoped. It sucked, really. I wasn’t even born yet when they arrived in earths orbit. Neither were my grandparents.
At first, they did nothing. They just circled and watched.
Then, just as our ancestors started to get really frightened, they opened up dialogue with some world leader. What they had to say was even scarier than when they just observed us silently. They told humanity that it would be evaluated over the course of the next several hundred years. They said that if we weren’t up to their standards, whatever they were, that we would be wiped out. Then somewhere between one and three million people simply vanished from the face of the earth and the alien spaceship disappeared. We’re pretty sure now that those people were abducted. We think the aliens took them to experiment on them but there’s no way to be sure.
That was over two hundred years ago.
Guess what humanity has done in that time: We prepared for their return. We militarized our space program and trained for war.
My name is Jack Peterson. I’m a cadet aboard Deep Camp Eighty Seven that orbits Mars.
A lot has happened to me in the past few weeks.
A terrorist group called Skeptics who don’t believe that aliens visited the earth; that the entire story is a hoax to keep people down, have destroyed most military compounds. They even took over my camp until I liberated it with the help of my rector, Mr. Humboldt.
They tried to take over the warship, the Conquistador, that my class was visiting on a field trip but my hero, Rick Pringle teleported over and kicked the crap out of them.
Skeptics may need to rethink their stance now that we found a real alien spaceship. If that’s not proof of their existence, I don’t know what is. But the truth hasn’t slowed those bastards down one bit. They are still being subdued. They are still taking us apart where we least expect it.
So we have a war at home with the terrorists and we have a flight path to the alien planet we were able to glean from the alien ship’s computer; which means we have a real, interstellar war in our immediate future.
It’s a bad time to be a cadet.
New Mission
I had just fully recovered from a gunshot wound to the hip when my new rector, Mr. Humboldt called for me.
He said, “Jack, your presence is requested aboard the Conquistador.”
“Why?”
“Haven’t you heard? We’re going to war and almost everyone who has combat experience with a mech died fighting the Skeptics.”
“But I’m not old enough to serve yet.”
“In your case, they’ve made an exception. Make those Bleeders bleed son.” That was what the aliens called themselves.
I think he thought that made me a lucky boy, but I didn’t feel lucky. I felt like I was being ordered to my death.
He added, “Pick two cadets to join you. Don’t choose based on anything but combat skills. And don’t just choose fellow students you dislike because you want them
to die either.”
That was uncalled for. I had seen some combat in recent weeks and even killed, but I was no monster.
Instead of correcting him, I just nodded and asked, “When do I teleport to the warship
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Ok,” I said.
As I was leaving his office he called after me. “They’re probably going to award you the Platinum Shield for your bravery. They speak your name in the same breath they speak Rick Pringle’s. Make our camp proud Jack.”
I smiled the best I could. Platinum Shields don’t mean squat if you’re dead. The same people back on earth who were talking about me like I was some kind of hero didn’t care that I existed before a few weeks ago.
I was an orphan, cast out like a piece of trash; plugged into a military machine without my consent, from birth.
I sighed and shoved my misgivings aside. No one cares.
I felt like a chump for feeling so bad for myself. Most of camp Eighty Seven had been murdered by Skeptics and I had gotten lucky.
Comrades
I already knew I wanted to bring Stacy Jones with me. I don’t like her, but she’s a sadistic bitch who would love the chance to kill Bleeders. Plus she’s cute, so that helps. I just didn’t know who else to bring. Danny Jackson is one of those phony badasses so he’d probably tell me no, in private of course. But he was the obvious choice so I marched into the mess hall and stood up on a vacant table.
To my utter embarrassment, no one saw me there except Becky Morrison, the class weirdo. She put her chin on the table and waited for me to say something. If she hadn’t seen me, I might have just got down and walked away.
After a few seconds ticked by, enough people had turned my way that a general hush came over the crowd.
I said, “I have been chosen to go back to the Conquistador to fight the Bleeders.” We were all calling them that now. “I can select two people to come with me. “Who wants to join me?”
A couple of hands went up. I was surprised that one of them belonged to Danny Jackson. I pointed at him. “Danny, you’re with me. We leave in the morning.”
