Astral Fall

by Jessica Mae Stover

  Tomtom uncrossed his arms and came closer, listening. Pilo diverted his attention from the arc wall to Thwip.

  “Although I don’t have the available data, I assume that if submerged, eventually the suit will seize and stiffen, rendering it inoperable. Then the weight will sink it, stranding the user. Next, the water would increasingly degrade the external tech, causing micro-seams to form, which water can infiltrate. In a matter of minutes the suit goes from having a supreme mix of flexibility and ultrashielding to a rock that sinks and cracks. But it would probably take a while for the user to drown. In the context of tonight’s mission, once the rink flooded, the elites would have been sitting targets, pinned to the rink floor inside their trepids with no control of their mechs. The pirates wouldn’t have trouble with water in their lower-caliber suits. The one in the azure suit—Chief—might have walked up to the elite unit underwater and shot them point-blank repeatedly. Or left them to eventually drown, along with the civilians.”

  He went on, realizing more as he went. “Inferior suits—like, say standard issue—are inferior in every way, except that they retain limited mobility underwater. That’s the tradeoff elites make when they wear trepid. Ultimate security, but no availability for water ops. Given trepid’s range of capabilities, the tradeoff is worthwhile.

  “When the elite went through the healiglass with Chief, someone shot out the glass ahead of him with extreme precision, both in timing and targeting. He couldn’t have crashed through it alone. They’d have to shoot multiple points in the exact same spot at the same time to weaken it that way. The elite unit shot through the healiglass fast enough to allow one of them to crash through with Chief, isolating Chief from the hostages and the other targets.

  “After the targets were neutralized, the unit must have manually patched the healiglass at the breach point. The rink’s glass couldn’t heal that size of breach on its own without intervention. But why should they bother to do it themselves? The unit covertly patched it before extraction, hiding any evidence that might lead someone to make assumptions about the science behind healiglass, trepid gear and water, as I have.”

  “Bloody vega,” Tomtom swore, shaking his head, but he sounded more impressed than angry.

  “I wonder how much time exactly trepid has underwater before the user drowns. Given what I know, I’d estimate that—”

  “Good. That’s enough for now.” Sentinel’s gold eyes had been on him through the IF connection, and now they creased with a hint of a secret smile.

  Tomtom grunted. “We’ve just had a hell of a time explaining to Command why a damn recruit knows about need-to-know-only trepid limitations.”

  Sentinel used the tether to make Thwip and Disar’s masks transparent, along with her own, and looked them in the eyes. “You can see why that information is deeply classified as NTKO. It’s potentially a vulnerability to Nova units and RL recruits, as well as to some unique structures in both the defense and private sectors. Remember your oaths.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  She unclasped her hands. “Thoughts, RL Disar? Knowing this, what would your assessment have been?”

  “Since I don’t have access to the full intel the SJ unit had, it’s not possible to answer. Request the mission debrief to use as an exercise in risk assessment.”

  “Negative—this mission’s history is NTKO. Generally you should note that every mission is different. Knowing that this particular trepid weakness exists, your future risk assessments will be fluid against the situation and your unit’s experience, as were the unit’s assessments made tonight.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Sentinel released their tethers, removed her hardhood, and held it in her right hand. Each side bore a lidless eye insignia. Her hair was short and white-blond; it gave her a neat, sharp look. Thwip and Disar followed suit, setting their rosed and laureled hoods on the flat arc. Thwip felt the cool air of the module on the back of his neck. Without her hood, Disar’s dark hair flopped in her eyes.

  “Rest.”

  They both relaxed their posture.

  “Additional questions?”

  “Did the mission targets know about the trepid submersion limitation?” Disar asked.

  “Unknown, but unlikely.”

  “Would it have been prudent to take Chief alive to find out?”

  Sentinel paused before responding. “The targets were covert thieves, not terrorists. At least, not until they got caught and began a desperate siege, taking hostages in attempt to negotiate their escape. Regardless,” Sentinel continued, “even if they had the trepid intel, it wouldn’t have saved them. Note how clean the isolation of the key target was, preventing loss of life and minimizing infrastructure damage. There’s hardly a Nova unit in operation that I didn’t train. The SJ unit may be the best to ever serve in the history of the program. What do you think, Pilo?”

  He didn’t deviate from his work on the flat arc. “They’re at minimum one of the best in modern history.”

  Sentinel nodded. “SJ unit deployed half an hour after we did, yet achieved a more challenging goal position before you two made your observational position. You’ve had more than enough roselaurel terrestrial experience. Spacewalk stealth was new for you. Now you know how to create a workaround without intel or crew support, and when unit visual communications go black mid-op. Furthermore, you’ve witnessed a top performance level. That was our intention, and you succeeded.”

  “And it was only one unit that accomplished the mission?” Thwip asked.

  “Correct. As for their superior timing: when you shed your roselaurels and achieve assignment, you’ll have workup time in trepid, and you’ll sharpen up task time within your specific unit before you are categorized as deployable. That’s all I have time for.”

  “How did Chief come into possession of an azure suit, and what were the targets stealing?” Disar asked quickly.

  “Classified. I will say that that group of thieves skimmed freight unnoticed for years. I don’t know how madly stupid or intelligent stealing so close to P2 was. Maybe it was brilliant; difficult to see underneath one’s own nose. Carry on.”

  Sentinel left the lab with her hardhood underarm, leaving the entry unsealed behind her. Pilo went after. Tomtom hung back long enough to warn them that their performance might suffer if they didn’t get enough sleep by tomorrow’s block ones.

  As Tomtom exited, drawing Disar’s attention, on the flat arc Thwip surreptitiously checked the training stats from when they were away. Shit. Magi failed a chessie sim.

  “The elite who pushed through the healiglass, she or he wasn’t armed,” Disar said quietly, shoving her hair away from her eyes.

  Thwip shrugged. “Probably to avoid the azure’s weapon scans. The rest of the unit was armed at a near distance.” In addition to Horns ghosting Chief and all of the other maneuvers they must have executed, the other members of the unit ghosted targets two through ten, cleaned the scene, and secured the humm freighter, all in a matter of seconds. Just one unit. Five elites did all of that.

  “That’s insane. Strategic decision. It worked. But it was insane. How many shots to make the healiglass weak enough in that section to shatter? Six?”

  “At least two rapid-fire higher-caliber talon shots in the exact same four locations, spaced maybe a meter apart. So the rest of the unit must have all fired in unison. Or they have a couple of extremely skilled snipers.”

  “To prevent targets two through ten from shooting the hostages, the unit would have had to immediately eliminate them after they shot the glass. There must be other details—that timing and precision seems impossible for one unit. How did you know some of the tech specs for trepid?”

  “I went through the manuals on the roselaurel suits when we were first assigned. From there it’s a matter of system and materials logic. Tonight I wanted to know why Sentinel was holding us back, and I was looking for the answer. I didn’t know anyone was in there until they said friendlies were in place.”

  “T
hen you considered who they would send in over us, and the only unit better than the Roselaurel elite recruit unit is an actual elite unit. So you advised pulling them out if they were in trepid due to the water submersion vulnerability, which you guessed—”

  “Theorized, really—”

  “—based on obscure tech specs you happened to read in a roselaurel personal tech manual, which you applied to the context of the aquarium’s water and what’s publicly known about healiglass to anyone who cares to look into it, such as you happened to do.”

  “Yes.”

  She shook her head in amused disbelief. “If any mission was your mission, it was this one.”

  “It wasn’t even our mission.”

  “Still. Sentinel’s responsible for recruit advancement, and she didn’t hide the intel about trepid from us.”

  “And you think that’s because we’ll be out of roselaurels soon and will be cleared on trepid intel?”

  “Yes.”

  Disar exited her data on his arc for the night and put it behind her personal swipe protection. She frowned. “Ah, shit, Thwip, look at this…” She gestured and moved aside so that Thwip could see she was reviewing the recruit group’s shared framework, just as he had minutes ago. “While we were AFB, Magi burned herself alive in a chessie battle sim.” She highlighted the previous evening’s training simulation scoring.

  “Wasn’t she ranked second in chessie?” Since he didn’t have his hardhood on, he skimmed a gloved finger across the arc so that Disar’s information overtook his side as well, as though he were seeing the scores for the first time.

  “Yes. It’s inconsistent with her performance record. She would have moved up to roselaurels if not for this. I expect they’ve only been holding her advancement until one of the ten of us already in our roselaurels graduates. Look how far behind she is in sim stats now. What if they wash her out? That would be a hell of a loss to the program.” Disar pulsed through more sim data while Thwip watched. “The performance note says ‘inappropriate commands and lack of strategy.’ This is an academy-level failure. I don’t know how she managed it. I don’t think I could fail that way if I tried.”

  You could if you were sabotaged. Thwip held back from speaking his thoughts.

  “She’ll probably join our PT session tomorrow evening. She’s too good to wash out, and she’ll need any advantage.” Disar looked sideways at him.

  “You don’t have to ask. Bring all your fellow PT rubes anytime. I’m always here, but no one stops at my station to ask for expertise.” He elbowed her. “How many times have I stopped in along with everyone else on your training sessions to hear your specialty expertise on stratosphere jumps or team command strategy?”

  “Ten,” Disar said in an abashed tone, but looked him in the eye. “I should have been more aggressive about learning combat PT up front instead of learning it alongside other skills during training sims. It’s a foundational skill. We might have missed the entire op tonight if you weren’t so quick on a suit system and—” His grin stopped her. “What?”

  “I beat your team a few times in simulations by knowing how to push my suit mechs. It’s also how I survived that first brutal week of boot. Had my suit doing the work before they taught us the task mechs that conserve body energy.”

  “I knew it! I knew you looked too comfortable those first days. You were joking and laughing. I couldn’t figure it out. I thought you hid stress with humor or somehow possessed an intense mental focus superior to mine.”

  “No. I was comfortable and bored.”

  “There were times that week when I thought I was going to die from exhaustion.”

  “One time I even had the suit run laps and took a nap.”

  “You did not.”

  “You might remember me running laps without a suit the next day. Tomtom caught me out.”

  “Ah, well, still, fuck you.” She smiled through her eyes. “Didn’t help you with your initial shooting or chessie scores though, did it? Ahh!”

  She jumped as he twitched his right index finger and used an administrative suit tether to static-shock her right elbow at the funny bone. “How did you—Sentinel released us—are our suits still tethered?”

  “Find out tomorrow—that and more—at Thwip’s secret laboratory! Which actually isn’t his laboratory because he’s only a recruit! But the personal techs let him use it because they have to, due to his specialty, so they go about giving him annoyed looks anytime he leaves his cramped little corner!”

  She rubbed her elbow, as though it could be massaged through her suit, then realized the absurdity of that idea and laughed. “Lesson one, never fuck with a personal tech.”

  “Hooah. If you leave me that hood, I’ll recalibrate it and turn it in,” he offered. As soon as we’re done here, I can look into this Magi business.

  She handed him the laureled hood, trusting him to check it back into the gear module for her. “I appreciate that. I still have a few tasks left tonight. Some planning for tomorrow’s block ones. A flight-sim plan. We should consider letting the group know we’d like to be in unit together so that when the time comes, no one interferes with what we want.”

  “Did you just try to recruit me?”

  “ ‘Unit recruitment is a mutual choice,’ ” she said, quoting the elite program culture guide.

  “Yes, but what command strategy was that? Downplay and conquer?”

  “Personalized soft approach. The Thwip cocktail: equal parts unexpected and goofy.”

  He set the flat arc to separate and reloop their temporary hardhoods, taking his time so that he could think. Enough of us are nearing the end of the elite training cycle. Other recruits will start making alliances and plans. I never thought about where I might fit on a team. He looked at Disar. She was first to rise into roselaurels. Our specialties are different; good for unit diversity.

  “Just because I’ve put my life in your hands a few dozen times, you think you get me.” Thwip drummed his fingers across the RL hardhood schematic on his flat arc. “You want to hunt Yasslozah terrorists in home space. I want to get out into far space and into more experimental and developmental territory.”

  I trust her enough—only her—to think that if someone is sabotaging our group, she doesn’t know about it. Without evidence, I can’t rule anyone out, but it’s not her. I should wait until I know for sure. She’s decisive. And proud. If I ask for time to consider, she won’t wait. She’ll approach someone else.

  Disar took a step forward and put her hands on his flat arc table, leaning forward so that he was compelled to raise his eyes to her. “Where do you think Yasslozah gets its ideas? The war. And the war is the farthest human infrastructure extends, practically right up against morthean space. Dev missions usually cost more, with even more risk attached, so a unit has to prove competency first. Eliminating dangerous targets in the Nativity is one way to prove competency and move an elite unit into dev missions outside the Nativity. What we desire for our careers is linked. We work well together. I want the best unit possible. We’ve both seen what’s required. I trust you perfectly. I can’t say that for everyone here.”

  “And you aren’t concerned that I’m going to succeed well enough to also draw as a unit commander?”

  “I would be, but it’s clear to me that that’s not what you want,” she said. “Otherwise you would have chosen a more command-driven specialty instead of PT.”

  True. “Hmm,” he said, exaggerating as though she were wrong about his intentions. She caught his tone and leaned back off the flat arc.

  “This is serious.”

  He grinned and looked up, laughing, but her frustration made him straighten. Her eyes narrowed on him like she was aiming.

  “If I draw as commander, it will be as first round,” she said. “No one will beat me out this late in training. So with first-draft pick, maybe I’ll choose you even if you don’t agree.”

  “You would force someone into your unit?”

  “If they resiste
d, and I required them. Yes.”

  Cosmos. “That’s a violation of—”

  She pressed her lips together, but a faint smile broke the line, and she laughed. “Joking. Of course I would never. Some in our group might think I’m a little uptight and, uh, intense. I just want this. I want it in the most effective way. Always have.”

  “Well, no one thinks I take things too lightly, fortunately.”

  “They haven’t worked with you on a live mission. Your performance shows otherwise. True, you are more laid-back than most of us, but it’s not a bad attribute to have—”

  “And ‘goofy.’ ”

  “During downtime.”

  “That all?”

  “If you’re talking to someone else already—”

  “Disar, I’m just fucking with you, playing hard to get. We belong on the same team. Hell, we already are on the same team. Let’s make it formal. It will be my honor.”

  Over the flat arc they gripped one another at the forearm, the elite version of a handshake. “Eventually there are strict oaths to all of this,” Disar said as they released.

  “Yes, I solemnly swear to help you make your ancestors proud so that you don’t get excommunicated from your military dynasty.”

  “Good.” This time he couldn’t tell if she was joking along with him. “Think about who else would be ideal to form up with us. I already have some ideas. We can compare notes and decide who to approach.”