by M. D. Cooper
“So I’ve heard.”
General Mill folded his hands on the table. “Let me cut to the chase, Admiral Richards—or perhaps, allow you to. Captain Ayer informed me that you are not here to help us in any way, but instead you are hunting someone who was a part of the creation of the mech program in Genevia.”
“That is correct,” Tanis replied. “Specifically, responsible for the system I understand was referred to as ‘Discipline’.”
“And why should I take time out of my day to chat with you about Genevia’s past sins?”
Tanis drew in a long breath, eyeing the general. Yet another man in Septhia who seemed more antagonistic than was warranted. Perhaps it was some symptom of what they’d been through, fighting the Niets for so many years.
“Well, there’s the cruisers I gifted to the SAF. I imagine they’ll be mutually beneficial. It’s caused the Septhian High Command to become quite grateful to me.”
“It may help, it may not,” General Mill shrugged. “I’ve survived this long by looking out for my people first and foremost. I’ll gladly accept help, but I’m not going to bank on it.”
“I studied some of the accounts of the Genevian war with Nietzschea,” Tanis replied, nodding slowly. “I can see why you feel that way. Your leadership made some rather unfortunate blunders. I’m somewhat surprised you lost the war, to be honest.”
“Well, hindsight, and all that,” General Mill muttered. “I’m sure you think you would have done better.”
Tanis shrugged. “I wouldn’t have fled the Parsons System, that’s for sure. That was a critical system for Genevia. Yet they held onto others that had almost no strategic value, shifting resources from Parsons to those.”
General Mill coughed and shook his head. “You’ve a keen eye, Admiral Richards. I share your sentiment, if it helps. Perhaps I’m just so…jaded about the whole thing that I can’t fathom what a path to victory would have looked like.”
“Let’s not dwell on that, then,” Tanis suggested. “What I want to know is who came up with the idea to make mechs from convicts, and how Genevia got their discipline tech. May I access the table’s holo?”
“By all means,” General Mill gestured and swept away his holos.
Tanis put up two images. The first was of General Garza of the Orion Guard, and the second was of the Caretaker, as Nance remembered seeing her.
“What is that?” Captain Ayer asked.
“You didn’t study the briefing packet I sent ahead?” Tanis asked.
The general and captain shook their heads. “We didn’t receive it. Undersecretary Oris didn’t have any specifics in her original missive.”
“For fucks sakes.” Brandt smacked her palm against her forehead. “This explanation takes forever.”
Tanis nodded in agreement. “OK, I’m going to give you the quick version and provide the details for you to study later. First off, there’s a big bad empire known as the Orion Freedom Alliance. They operate out of a system called New Sol, about a thousand light years or so past the Orion Nebula. The man you see, General Garza, is from there. He’s been flitting about in the Inner Stars for the last…well…I have no idea how long, making a general mess of things.”
“Pardon? The Inner Stars?” General Mill asked.
Tanis added a display of the Orion Arm of the galaxy. “Everything along the arm for about three thousand light years from Sol are the Inner Stars. They represent about a tenth of human space.”
“Well, shit,” Ayer muttered. “That’s an eye opener.”
“It gets better,” Brandt chuckled.
“Right.” Tanis nodded, carrying on as quickly as she could. “So, Garza wants to make a mess. He’s backing the Trisilieds, and the Hegemony—and maybe the Niets. I’ve allied with a group called the Transcend, and we’re backing Scipio and a few others on the far side of Sol.
“Garza is doing his damnedest to seed dissent and ruin shit everywhere so that when everyone is worn out, the Orion Guard can just sweep in and take over. He may or may not also be working against his own leadership. Jury is still out on that.”
“OK, and the glowing thing?” Mill asked.
“That’s the Caretaker. It’s an ascended AI—possibly from as far back as the Sentience Wars in Sol. It’s been responsible for half of the major wars in the last five thousand years, maybe more. Its goal is to get the Transcend and Orion Guard to fight on the battlefield of the Inner Stars and trash the place.”
Captain Ayer had paled considerably. “Why in the stars does it want to do that?”
Brandt snorted. “Because it and the other ascended AIs are butt-hurt that the unification group kicked their asses back in Sol.”
Tanis laughed. “You have a way with words, Brandt. These AIs also seem to think that they should keep humans in some sort of median state for eternity or something. Honestly, their motives are just supposition at present. That’s why I’m trying to track the Caretaker down.”
“And you think this…glowing AI person was responsible for what happened in Genevia?”
Tanis shrugged. “The mind control tech that was used in Genevia bears a striking resemblance to what we’ve seen elsewhere, and that was connected to the Caretaker. Or one of his ilk, at least.”
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing for sure,” General Mill said with a soft laugh as he gestured at the image of the Caretaker. “If I saw anything like that, I think I’d remember. I can’t imagine it staying hushed if anyone else had, either.”
“Understandable.” Tanis removed the image of the Caretaker. “And General Garza? He doesn’t stand out as much, but he’s been active in the Hegemony, Trisilieds, Scipio, and Silstrand.”
“He gets around.” Mill sat back and stroked his jaw. “That’s a lot of travel for one man.”
“Jump gates and clones,” Brandt replied.
“Jump what?” General Mill asked, at the same time Ayer shook her head and said, “I hate clones.”
“Jump gates allow for near-instantaneous travel on a galactic scale,” Tanis replied. “They’re on the downlow right now.”
General Mill shook his head as he stared at Garza. “Well, I don’t remember him, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t around. I do, however, recall a consultant that was present at the beginning of the mech program. She was a strange old lady.”
“Lady?” Tanis asked. “Do you have any records?”
Mill frowned and nodded. “Think so, checking. Aha! Here we are. She was at the first demonstrations.”
An image of a woman appeared above the table, floating serenely next to Garza’s.
“Fuck,” Brandt whispered. “That’s…”
“Katrina,” Tanis said, swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat before turning to General Mill. “What are you playing at, General?”
Mill looked genuinely surprised at the vehemence in Tanis’s voice. “I’m not playing at anything. She was there. I heard talk that it was her tech that was instrumental in making the Discipline system work without causing irreparable damage to the mechs.”
“Are you certain? Really certain? That’s Katrina, governor of the Victoria colony at Kapteyn’s Star. From five thousand years ago.”
Captain Ayer whistled. “She looks good for five-thousand. I mean, not great, but—”
Mill shot Ayer a stern look, and the captain pursed her lips and shook her head.
“Sorry, all this has me a bit out of sorts. Is it classified?”
“No,” Tanis sighed as she stared at Katrina’s face. “Truth is one of our best allies at this point.”
“That’s an encouraging—and unorthodox—viewpoint,” Mill said.
Tanis opened her mouth to reply when Captain Sheeran called in from the Aegeus.
The Link connection to the ship went dead and an audible alarm began to sound.
“We’re under attack!” General Mill shouted as he rose from the table.
“Two cruisers,” Ayer said as she leapt over the table. “Firing on the station!”
Brandt was already at the door, where Corporal Johnny stood staring down the hall. He glanced into the room.
“I assume we’re leaving, ma’ams?” he asked.
Tanis nodded, and Brandt shook her head. “Bright lad.”
They moved out into the hall, and Tanis wished she had access to tactical feeds from station scan. A moment later, she had them filling her mind.
Just as Captain Ayer had said, two cruisers were attacking Appalachia Station, while another three were firing on other nearby ships.
“Those are SAF vessels,” Tanis said as they moved down the hall to the concourse outside the Marauder recruitment center.
“Former Theban,” Mill replied as he drew a sidearm and looked out into the concourse where people were running past.
One of the ISF Marines passed a pulse pistol to Tanis, and she checked its charge before peering past the general.
“Fuckers are firing at their own damn station,” General Mill swore. “Admiral, you won’t make it back to your pinnace in time. Tell it to get back to your cruiser. I have a shuttle in a bay close by.”
Tanis nodded to Brandt. “Tell Mick to get his ass back to the Aegeus.”
“Already on it. Let’s not wait around on my account. Where’s your shuttle, General?”
Mill passed them a location on the map and directed his soldiers out onto the concourse. Captain Ayer gestured for three of the office workers who were still present to join them.
“You want to live? Come with us.”
“But my family!” a man called out.
“Tell them to get to an evac ship or escape pod. This station isn’t going to last,” Mill hollered as he gestured for everyone to get out of the offices.
As if to emphasize his statement, the deck beneath their feet shuddered, and a load groan echoed down the concourse.
“Go! Go!” Mill yelled, and the group took off, pushing through the crowds that were running the opposite direction until they came to a side passage. The Marauder soldiers stayed in the lead, and the ISF Marines brought up the rear as they raced down the narrow corridor.
Tanis considered sending out nano, but with the station’s atmosphere starting to whip past them, she knew there was no way the probes could provide any meaningful information.
Ahead, the Marauder soldiers stopped at a wide staircase leading down through the decks and waited for the group to catch up. Mill nodded to the pair, and they rushed down the stairs, checked the broad landing, and proceeded to the next level.
They passed through a dozen decks that way, once again finding themselves amongst thickening crowds. One of the Marauder recruiters rushed off at one point, and Mill swore about idiots getting themselves killed. He seemed to consider going after the man for a moment, but then thought better of it.
As the group progressed, the station began to shake more and more around them. At one point the a-grav cut out entirely, and a young man ahead got pushed over the edge of a staircase, only to fall three decks when the gravity came back on.
Tanis swore and checked the map. Just one more deck to go, and they’d be at the private dock where Mill’s shuttle waited. A minute later, they reached the desired level, and the Marauder soldiers turned down another side passage.
Mill was about to follow, when weapons fire streaked down the passage; a rail shot that tore clear through one of the lightly armored Marauders and a recruiter behind him, spraying blood and bone across the bulkheads.
The other soldier fell back and took cover around the corner, returning fire.
“The fuck!” Mill shouted. “The alternative route will cost us five minutes.”
The air was relatively still. Either there were no holes down here, or a-grav shields had finally been deployed to hold in atmosphere. Tanis decided to send out a few probes to scout down the passageway. At the end, she saw a pair of women with railguns laughing as they fired at passersby in the far corridor.
“Hold this.” She tossed her gun to Brandt, and quickly stripped off her clothing.
“Uh…what?” Mill asked as Tanis revealed the matte black flow armor she wore beneath her uniform.
“Getting to be another habit,” Brandt shook her head. “We have Johnny and Anne here for that.”
“Their armor takes longer to get off,” Tanis said as the flow armor crept up over her face. “See you in a minute.”
She activated the stealth system and leapt up onto the exposed conduit run at the top of the passageway. There wasn’t enough room for Tanis to rise to her hands and knees, but with all the noise and chaos, she wasn’t worried about making sound as she scampered along the pipes.
It was only thirty meters to the end of the corridor, and when she arrived, the two women were still laughing hysterically as they fired their railguns at everyone in sight.
Tanis drew the two blades out of her forearms and slid off the conduits, holding both blades vertically as she dropped.
One blade struck true, sliding between the collarbone and neck of the woman on the right. Tanis’s other target had moved at the last moment to shoot at a small child that ran by.
Tanis kicked at the shooter’s knee before she could fire, and twisted the blade inside the other woman.
The rail shot went wide, and the child made it safely past. Tanis wasted no time pulling the blade out of the first woman and slicing the head off the other.
Johnny and Anne were the first ones down the narrow passage, moving to cover Tanis as the others approached.
Brandt tossed Tanis’s gun back to her. “You forgot this.”
“What about my clothes?”
“I’m not your maid.” Brandt grinned as the group began to move down the next corridor.
“Just ahead,” Mill called back. “Nice moves, by the way, Admiral.”
“Tanis,” she replied while sidestepping a man who was trying to gather up all the donuts he could from a toppled cart.
“Station’s going to go down,” Ayer shouted at him as they ran past. “Idiot.”
Angela advised, more than a little concern in her voice.
“Mill, when we get aboard your shuttle, we have to get to our ship. Your shields can’t handle that firepower!” Tanis called out over the din surrounding them. Mill nodded, but she couldn’t tell if it was to her, or the remaining Marauder soldier as they turned into a docking bay.
Inside lay four ships, all mobbed with people. A ship on the right bore the Marauder crest, and Mill shouldered the crowds aside as he moved toward the shuttle. The craft’s door was still closed, and Tanis could see a woman waving through the cockpit window as they approached.
The two ISF Marines fired low intensity pulse shots into the mob to disperse them, but the shots barely made a dent. They upped the power, and the crowds started to fall back. Ten seconds later, the group reached the shuttle’s door, and the Marines and remaining Marauder soldier took up positions as the door slid open.
Ayer stepped in first, followed by the remaining recruiter from the office. The Marauder captain turned and gestured for Tanis and Brandt to follow as the crowds surged in close. General Mill stepped up next and turned to cover the troops.
“Get in! Fast!” the pilot yelled, then screamed as weapons fire tore through the crowds from across the bay, cutting the civilians down in droves. The M
arines piled in, hauling the Marauder after them, and Brandt pulled the door shut.
“Go! Go! Go!” Brandt shouted, and the pilot wasted no time lifting off the cradle and boosting out of the station.
Tanis clenched her teeth, filled with sorrow and rage as she watched a group of soldiers wearing SAF uniforms work their way across the bay, killing everyone in their path. Stray shots pinged off the shuttle’s hull, but no warnings sounded, and Tanis pulled her gaze from the window to see Captain Ayer standing over General Mill, tears streaming down her face.
The old soldier lay on the shuttle’s deck, a small hole in his forehead. From Tanis’s position, it looked like that was the extent of the wound.
The brains and blood sprayed across the bulkhead next to Ayer told a different story.
Tanis turned away and moved into the cockpit, where the ashen pilot sat, threading the dozens of ships and pods pouring out of Appalachia Station.
“Get to my ship,” Tanis directed, but the pilot shook her head.
“I have to get back to the Foehammer!”
“The Foehammer’s shields can’t hold up against a thousand Nietzschean cruisers!” Tanis shouted at the woman. “Get to the Aegeus!”
The woman shook her head, and Tanis slid into the seat beside her. She touched the console and deposited a passel of nano.
“What the hell?” the woman yelled, looking over to see Tanis initialize holo controls and direct the ship around the station toward the Aegeus.
The pilot reached for Tanis, but a fist shot out from Tanis’s periphery, hitting the pilot in the head.
“Thanks, Brandt,” Tanis grunted.
“Any time.”
There was a scuffle in the back, and Tanis heard Brandt say, “Easy, now,” and then a pulse pistol fired.
She assumed all was well and poured on as much speed as the shuttle had, arcing around the station to see the Aegeus, engines glowing brightly and stasis shields flaring as fire rained down on it from the five Theban cruisers.
The Aegeus returned fire on one of the ships, its atom beams cutting through the enemy vessel, tearing it apart.
Tanis felt a grim smile form on her lips as she continued her approach. Then her board lit up with a message from one of the Theban cruisers, and Tanis toggled it.
