When the Stars Fade (The Gray Wars)

by Korenman, Adam

  “We don’t have to travel far,”Trik said. He rubbed his hand along the wing, scowling when a bolt simply fell to the floor.“We’re not headed toward Nangolani space.”

  Vim frowned.“But the Barrenonwould be at one of the safe zones. Shouldn’t we go to them? To your commanders?”

  “The Barrenonis a warship. Its purpose isn’t rescue. We need to go somewhere with civilians.”

  The engineer scrunched up his face in confusion.“Won’t you be killed by the Magistrate?”

  Trik grinned.“We’re not going to Nangol space, remember?”He let the realization come at its own pace, relishing the shocked expression on his captive’s face.

  “The humans? They’ll be worse. I heard they execute Nangolani on sight.”

  The soldier opened the hatch, recoiling at the stench of adhesives and soldering residue.“They are the closest system to us, and our best chance at survival. If we have to fight our way out once we’ve been collected, so be it.”He gestured for Vim to get inside.“Now are you coming or not?”

  Vim took a step forward, but hesitated at the door.“How do I know you don’t plan on killing me once we make it to safety?”

  Trik took Vim by the shoulders and looked him in the eye.“Vim, you are a prisoner of war. To execute you would violate several codes which I still hold to. I promise, I will not harm you, nor allow harm to come to you.”He pushed the engineer into the ship, stepping inside after.“Besides, if I was planning on killing you anyway, why would I have you install two chairs?”

  They sealed the door as best they could, donning protective suits nonetheless. Taking a seat inside the cramped vessel, Vim began the startup procedures. The computers whistled to life, glowing several different colors and bathing the interior in a rainbow of light. Trik struggled to turn in his bulky suit, flipping on fuel lines and powering up the engines. Several times he hit the wrong button, but Vim was there to correct him. The entire shuttle rocked back and forth from their movements, nearly tipping on its side. Finally Trik took his seat the and the craft settled.

  “Are you ready?”Vim asked.

  Trik took a moment to think about his father. If he were to die, at least he would die with his family in his mind. In Nofan Pas, it was considered the only way to face death. But those ruby fields were only a memory now.“Let’s be on our way.”

  Vim sucked in a breath and held it, squeezing his eyes shut as he pressed the engine engage button. For a moment nothing happened. Then the world exploded in a roar as the rockets caught and fired, sending them straight through the shimmering barrier and out into space. When Vim opened his eyes, he could only see stars reaching out to greet him. He looked over at his companion and cheered, grabbing Trik by the arm and shaking him. After a second the soldier joined in, shouting with joy.

  The first terrible step behind them, the two aliens prepared for a long journey ahead.

  - V -

  Alexander was led into Jonah’s office by a stone-faced soldier with a mean scar running the length of his neck. The High Chancellor remembered all too well the punishment for miners who abandoned their jobs to fight in the war. That this man had survived a hanging only made him more intimidating. They stopped halfway to the desk, waiting for Jonah to acknowledge their presence.

  “Why, Alexander, what a nice surprise.”Jonah stood, holding his arms out as if for an embrace.“You should call before you visit, I would have tidied up a bit.”

  “What do you want, Jonah?”

  The rebel leader’s grin never wavered.“I’ve often thought about my own death,”he said.“I wonder if I would prefer to know that it was coming, or take it unawares.”

  “If you’d like to exercise that option, I’m open to killing you.”

  Jonah laughed.“I know you are, Alexander. It’s what I love about you, your devotion to your friends.”He poured two glasses of scotch from a decanter on his desk, sipping one before handing the other to Alexander.“But seriously, would you want to know?”

  “When I’m going to die?”The politician thought for a moment.“Sure, Jonah. I’d love to know when you plan to kill me.”

  “Me?”Jonah pretended to be hurt.“I’m insulted you could ever think me so callous as to murder my best friend. I’ll let the people decide your fate. Put it to a vote.”

  The High Chancellor wrinkled his brow.“You still think of me as a friend.”

  Jonah shrugged.“Honestly, sometime I think you are my only friend. The only person ever really honest with me. These soldiers are too pliable. I could ask them to march off the roof, and they’d do it because I said so. But you,”he stumbled as he pointed a finger.“You’re the real deal.”

  Alexander sniffed the air.“How drunk are you right now?”

  “Between dead sober and just plain dead,”Jonah said, smiling with glassy eyes.“I’m going to have you die at the end of May. That should give you enough time to think about a good last speech, make any preparations for your estate. I feel it’s only fair to warn you.”

  The High Chancellor set his jaw, but inside he had turned to jello. He could visualize a ticking clock floating in the air, a countdown to his last breath. He changed his mind. He’d rather have not known.

  Jonah took his seat, swinging his black boots on top of the desk.“Now, I need to ask you a favor.”He gestured Alexander toward a waiting chair. When the politician didn’t move, a goon stepped in and put him in place.“Better. I need the codes to the Node relay center.”

  “What for?”Alexander asked.

  The rebel raised his eyebrows.“Isn’t that obvious?”He leaned to the side, looking out the wall of windows that faced the city. Up in the sky, barely visible, Point du Hockept a watchful eye on the planet. Even from the ground, the supercruiser’s presence was undeniable.“I can’t have the Fleet moments away from flattening my armies when we finally move. We can handle the fight here, and in a very limited capacity up there. But you and I are students of history. Mars lost because we didn’t prepare our navy for the long haul. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  “But control of the Node won’t help you. Terra has no weapons aside from anti-asteroid cannons, and those have little effect on a warship.”

  “It’s not about the weapons,”Jonah said.“It’s about the relays.”That struck a chord.“Now you see. If we can’t control the skies, we’ll just have to limit the competition.”

  Alexander leaned forward, eyes burning.“The Ronin Protocol? You can’t shut down the relays. Earth will be cut off. We won’t survive.”

  “No, we will survive. Earth is the only self-sufficient planet in Sol. We can make it as long as we have to. The military, however, will lose hope without their air support.”

  The High Chancellor sneered.“Admiral Knight will obliterate the station before he’d allow you to board.”

  “That’s why I need the codes. Then I can do all the heavy lifting from here.”He downed the rest of his drink, slamming the glass on the table.“The rest of the Sol Fleet will be stranded in their docks around the system. They can try to make it here on standard drives, but that will take years. Or they can risk it and Stride, but without the relays they’re more likely to wind up inside the planet than next to it.”

  Alexander couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Voluntary segregation? And to abandon the other colonies? New Eden was in bad shape, Colorum was under some sort of attack by the Nangolani. His thought process froze. The Nangolani! No one else knew about the Imperion, about the sneak attack. They’d blame the Boxti, not that the aliens needed a reason to be hated. His people would be working with those treacherous gray bastards, forming a plan to take revenge for the suicide attack. And there was nothing he could do, not from here.

  “I’m never giving you those codes,”Alexander said.

  Jonah rolled his eyes.“We’ll see. The day is just starting. I’m sure by tonight you’ll have a different tune to sing.”

  - VI -

  Dax awoke buried under the weight of his fellow soldiers. Val
kyries were tough, made to handle the worst kinds of landings. Even riding the blast wave from a thermobaric device, the shuttle had managed a survivable crash. The heavy gunner pushed Pierre off his chest, crawling from the wreckage to see where they had ended up. Their“landing”had cleared a path through thick trees, leaving a massive arrow in the landscape that pointed right at them. It wouldn’t be long before the Boxti showed up to finish the job.

  Cho groaned from the cockpit. The pilot was gone, ejected through the windshield during the crash.“We hit something.”

  “Yeah,”Dax said.“The ground.”

  Liane was the next out, favoring her left leg as she hobbled over to her team leader.“Where are we?”

  “Outside of Fort Metts. Or what used to be the base.”

  There wasn’t much left. The human presence had been wiped clean, fire bombed into blackened skeletons and ash-covered streets. Tanks and trucks littered the field of battle, engines still burning what fuel remained inside into pillars of smoke hundreds of feet high. Armored personnel carriers lay on their sides, treads fallen to the ground. Every few hundred feet or so a downed aircraft lay in scattered ruins amidst a small crater.

  The other Archangels emerged, shaking off wounds or checking their weapons to make sure they would function. Alexa remained by the downed shuttle, cradling Josh’s head in her lap. They hadn’t removed his armor. It didn’t seemed right to take it off, not on this world. Dax looked back at her, at his friends. He couldn’t even remember what had gotten him here, to this moment. The rage he had felt before was still fresh. Nothing had changed, except for possibly another broken rib. He had to be careful, only a few of those left.

  Cho walked over, limping all the way from the shuttle.“Think we can get this thing back off the ground?”

  Dax shook his head.“We’d better. There aren’t many humans left.”

  “Cho nodded, turning to stare out at the pillar of white smoke that rose over the destroyed Hive.“You think any of the Scourge leaked out?”

  “No point in worrying about that now,”Pierre said, striding over.“We need to get back to Omega.”He looked down at his rifle, admiring the ninety degree turn his barrel had taken during impact. Cursing, he threw it aside.“For starters, I need a new weapon.”

  “In any case, we won’t be taking off in the middle of the forest.”Fares sighed, pulling his helmet off and sucking in a breath of fresh air.“We need to make an LZ.”He set his cover aside and began clearing debris from the crash. Despite hitting the ground like a brick, the Valkyrie could still fly. It just needed an adept pilot.

  Dax let the other soldiers clear out a landing area. He sat down next to Alexa, putting an arm around her shoulder. She had taken her helmet off and he could see how red her eyes had become. Reaching up, he activated the switch at the back of his head and felt the armor unweave itself. The jaw dropped out and he was able to swing the rest of the gear off his head. A cool breeze was blowing and it felt amazing against his skin.

  “He can’t be gone,”Alexa said, her voice numb.“It just isn’t fair.”

  Dax nodded.“I know.”He held her close, squeezing his eyes and hoping the tears ran together with the sweat on his face. He looked up at the sound of gunfire.

  A few hundred yards ahead, weaving through the thick wood, two pilots exchanged shots with a pursuing alien force. One of the humans looked wounded, but both defended ferociously. Still, Dax could see no less than ten heavily armed Boxti closing in. He snapped on his helmet and turned to Alexa.

  “Keep Josh safe. I’m going to take care of this.”He reached back, drawing his katana, and jogged out to meet the enemy.

  * * * * *

  Kaileen shielded her eyes as another blast sent splinters flying off a nearby tree trunk. The Boxti were throwing a relentless wave of fire at her, seemingly fearless in their pursuit. She’d been attacked almost immediately after exiting the Seed. The aliens had arrived in single-wheeled Pills, firing their rifles as they leapt from the vehicles. She had barely made the edge of the forest in time.

  Not that it seemed to matter. Once lost inside the woods, Kaileen’s friends in the sky had been all but useless. Cameron couldn’t fire indiscriminately lest he kill her too. Armed only with her repeater, Kaileen and her wounded copilot fought their way toward the wreckage of the Valkyrie. The aliens were close behind, shouting and howling in their bizarre language as they bore down on the humans.

  She swore as another blast grazed her shoulder. The aliens’weapons were mostly heat-based, and each bolt left a stink like burning metal in the air. Kaileen gripped her arm where the shot had narrowly missed, wincing at the hot pain. Her young partner lay against a nearby rock, blood oozing from a hole in her stomach. She’d taken a hit meant for Kaileen as they’d cleared a path through the trees. Without immediate help, she didn’t have a chance.

  Another blast, this one close than ever. Kaileen raised her repeater and squeezed the trigger. Bullets spat from the automatic weapon, hitting a lizard-faced soldier in the neck. It gurgled, yellow liquid spurting from the wound as it collapsed to the dirt. Another took its place, firing a bulbous rifle. Kaileen tried to fire again but she was out of ammunition. Frustrated, she threw the gun aside. She crawled to her copilot, hearing the hiss of enemy rounds flying overhead. Her hands searched the unresponsive pilot’s body, coming away with a weak-looking pistol. Kaileen had just turned when she saw the black creature appear.

  It was huge—easily the size of a car, and moving faster than anything she had ever seen. The new figure hit the Boxti squad like a bolt of lightning, tossing them around like toys. One lizard-man lost his head to a sudden swipe from a sword. Another was smashed into a tree, pulverizing its skull. Limbs separated from their owners, spiraling in the air with trails of ichor following. The ground quickly turned to mud as it soaked in gallons of gore. Then, as quickly as it started, the fight was done.

  Kaileen couldn’t move as the creature turned to face her. It stalked forward, sword dripping thick dollops of multicolored fluid with each step. In a panic she raised her pistol and fired. Bullets pinged off the armor, falling harmlessly aside. The figure snatched the weapon from her hand, flipping it away. As the pilot tried in vain to scurry further back, the hulking warrior knelt down to eye level. It reached a hand up to its jaw and pulled an unseen handle. Its mouth yawned open impossibly wide, and Kaileen shut her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see.

  “Kail? Is that you?”

  She knew that voice. Looking up at the wide smiling face, tears began to fall down her cheeks.“Dax?”

  He pulled her to her feet, wrapping his big arms around her frail form.“It’s good to see you, too.”Pushing her back, Dax looked her over for any injuries.“We’re getting the Valkyrie fixed up, but we can’t stay here long. There are going to be more of those things coming soon.”

  She nodded.“Lead the way.”She lingered back a moment as Dax charged off, staring at the lifeless body of her copilot. With unsteady hands, she pulled the young woman’s dog tags loose, stuffing them into a pocket. She couldn’t think of anything to say; her brain refused to comply. Whispering a few words of comfort, Kaileen took off after the soldier.

  - VII -

  Fighting had resumed in the skies over New Eden, though the tempo was decidedly more cautious. Terran ships gave the newcomer as wide a berth as physically possible, not wanting to cross some unspoken line and start a shooting war with the largest warship ever seen by human eyes. The Boxti, for their part, had pulled into a defensive position around the juggernaut. Standing on the command deck, Raymond struggled to make his mind comprehend the surreal sight. He almost forgot what brought him there in the first place. Every time he turned a corner and saw it floating out the window, he went through the same motions again.

  “Are you sure about this?”Admiral Walker asked.

  Ray turned, startled. He looked at the tablet in the officer’s hands, at the message he’d read and reread a hundred times before bringing over.“It’s her, I�
�m sure of it.”More than anything, he wished he were back home in Kentucky working some menial job. He felt his current post was punishment for the discovery about Luna, for threatening the tenuous peace with the alien allies. If that were true, he’d be facing execution for this.

  The deception at Sol had been for the greater good, and his report had shown that. Only a few people had ever had a chance to read the full document, to learn about the Nangolani’s ruse with robotic Boxti craft. How word had begun to spread was outside of his area of expertise, but secrets that big didn’t stay hidden for long. And now, with the idea that Emperor Anduin had staged the attack on the High Chancellor and the majority of the Council, there was no other recourse than to seek revenge on the only friends the humans had against the Boxti threat. At least if Mara were to be believed, it had been a minority decision. The Nagnolani fleet had disappeared without words a week before, maybe to start their civil war. Could it all be true?

  “What do you suggest?”

  Ray didn’t answer at first, mostly because he was hoping the question wasn’t directed at him. He felt a familiar sinking in his stomach, the usual knot that came with this level of awful responsibility. He should have headed back to Earth with Agent Blake.“If there is a civil war going on between different factions of the Nangolani, then we have a pretty hard decision to make, sir.”

  “I don’t see why,”Captain Donovan said.“The bastards killed most of our government. We still don’t know where Burton or any of his staff ended up, if they’re still alive. We’re taking orders from governors on matters of galactic importance because the Grays thought we needed more motivation in this war.”

  That brought a round of shouting and cursing from the room. Most of the brass from the station were in attendance, along with several of the generals running the ground game. A single voice cut through them all, and at barely over a whisper.

  “We signed a treaty,”Hiro said. The commodore glared at each officer until they quieted down, though he was still aboard his ship and only present via a small vid screen.“High Chancellor Burton put his name down on the accord that granted Anduin and the Nangolani Empire allied status. We can’t simply wash that away.”