Fire on the Frontline

by Trevor Wyatt

  The vessel slows to a stop and then jerks upwards a little as down drops the Terraformer. I hear a loud noise that causes the ship to vibrate in the air.

  I tap the button of the hatch. The hatch opens to show me the Industrial Estate’s farm of skyscrapers spread out before me. As I look at the scene, I am almost sympathetic to the Sonali homeworld.

  We are hovering at about thirty stories in the air.

  “Set us down near the terraformer,” I say above the rush of wind in my face, “I need to make sure everyone dies.”

  “Complying,” the computer results. And this is one of those days I am happy AIs don’t have morals.

  The vessel descends until it is only hovering at about five yards off the ground.

  “Computer, go somewhere far from here to explode,” I instruct, “but not so far that there isn’t critical damage.”

  “Affirmative,” the computer replies. There’s a pause, and I wonder to myself if it had feelings if it would say, “Good luck.”

  That’s the last thing I think before I leap out of the open hatch onto the ground.

  The Terraformer is about thirty stories high and stands on three massive towers that stretch for more than two third of its height. The rest of the terraformer is a roundish control center, where most of the terraforming action takes place. Underneath this center is a wide, round hole that spews out particle beams into the ground that begins to change its composition.

  On the round control center are six hatches interspaced evenly. These hatches open for tentacle-like structures and latch into the ground.

  All around me, people are beginning to gather, though they keep their distance. They are looking at the terraformer with surprise and amazement. Some are even taking pictures.

  The police haven’t responded yet. But I know it’s only a matter of time before someone realizes what this is.

  I jog over to the closest leg. I’ve already programmed in my desired atmospheric composition of the world. All I have to do is activate it. I run a last-minute integrity check. The result comes back as positive and asks me for permission to proceed. I tap yes, and a countdown from ten begins.

  I turn and make a mad dash across the Layout away from the machine. As soon as I hear the massive, ground shattering thrum of the machine, I attach the breather to my face. Quickly after, I hear screams of all those hapless souls who stand in amazement too close to the machine. Without looking back, I run off into the night.

  No-One

  “Unfreeze transmission,” I say.

  The holographic projection unfreezes. They’ve been on hold for a minute.

  “What’s going on?” Admiral Shane asks. He sees the look of confusion on my face and realizes that something has gone terribly wrong.

  I gaze at his face and everyone in the room with him. All of them who are several hundred light years away on Earth is anxious to know what’s happening.

  Well, I am as well.

  “I just got a report of mass death by asphyxiation all across the Capital Grid,” I say. “It turns out this Temple is not the final play.”

  “Looks like it’s back to work for you, Anika,” Admiral Shane says in his officious voice. Now I know he’s not just my longtime friend, but my boss. I have my orders, and I intend on executing them to the last word.

  “Yes, sir,” I say. “Computer, end transmission.”

  The holographic projection vanishes, plunging the main worship hall into an eerily silent darkness.

  I grab my pistol from where I had kept it by my side and holster it. Then I head over to the High Cleric and take his assault rifle from the ground. I check the charges. It’s still at about seventy percent. I am impressed—I look around at the destruction this piece of weapon had created, and I’m doubly impressed.

  I grip the handle, pulling the butt home to my right shoulder blade and aim. The sights are perfect, and the weight is perfectly distributed. I look again at the weapon, surprised at its impressive architecture and design. I conclude that High Cleric Szaad should have had no reason to fail in killing me.

  This weapon is just too crafted perfectly not to have given Szaad an unfair advantage. But alas, no matter how great the tool is, if the wielder isn’t any good, it doesn’t matter. I am lucky that Szaad was a lousy shot. Otherwise, he would have killed me instantly. In spite of this, there had been some close calls. There’s an old 20th Century Earth saying that I remember from my pre-Third World War cultural training. “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” It was apparently quoted by a noted cultural leader. So few records survive from that time, but this one does.

  Well, Szaad, the glove really didn’t fit. And so you acquitted me of my life. Because you had me. And you blew it.

  For a few seconds, I relieve the firefight. I shiver as I realize just how close I had come to death and for what reason? The Sonali?

  I sigh.

  With the assault rifle leading, I began to trace my way out of the main worship hall, through the anteroom and the hallway onto the landing. It’s dark in the Temple. I call up my nanites, which gives me enhanced night vision. I make my way down the stairs to the grand main lobby. I approach the exit cautiously.

  Even though the computer has assured me that there isn't anybody in the Temple or for a radius of one kilometer, I know there’s danger everywhere. Why else would Sonali be dying all across the world?

  I exit into the courtyard. I see afar off; there is a column of smoke rising up into the air and flashes of blue, red and green stroking the horizon. I drop my aim as I begin to suspect what might be going on. There is a slight tremor in the air, and I can feel the change in the atmosphere through the nanites.

  Fear stabs at my heart. I glance at my aircar. It’s totaled at the flight of steps. I look around the courtyard. There are no vehicles.

  The nearest vehicle is a kilometer away. I jog out of the courtyard and head towards the depot. As I pass the outlying buildings, I see dead Sonali bodies littering the ground. I see some with life ebbing out of them, grabbing their throats out of suffocation.

  There are some who are still alive, but who are using breathers, much like the one on my face. It’s understandable why the people living in the outlying Sonali settlements of the Capital Grid—sometimes the desert storm can ravage this place, and they’ll need a breather to live through the sandstorm.

  At the depot, there are no aircars waiting. The depot is a small building with seven bays for air cars to park. I can see through the buildings, and there’s no life form in there. It’s deserted. I can’t see any car as well. I look at the narrow winding road as it cuts through a partially arid land onwards to the Capital Grid.

  I heave a deep sigh and continue my walk. I’m too far from my safehouse where an extra vehicle is waiting for me. I pull out my miniature tablet and look for all residences that are registered in the area as being owned by Terran. Being the Capital Grid, there’s a greater frequency of Terrans in this part of the planet than anywhere.

  I find the closest set of coordinates and minutes later, I happen upon a large mansion right on the side of the road. There’s a green, lush lawn, which is a stark contradiction to the harshness of the environment.

  The house belongs to a Noah Axel. Apparently, he’s a Managing Director at StarTech, leading up the Sonali Prime headquarters. After the war, Terran corporations began to aggressively expand out of the Union, looking for new markets in foreign space.

  I head to the door and knock.

  A screen appears on the exquisitely carve d door, and I see an equally exquisite looking Asiatic human woman, who doubles back when she sees me.

  Yeah, I know. I look like crap. First, I still look Sonali.

  Second, I look like I’ve been dragged through Hell. And those Sonali adjustments are starting to probably wear off.

  Whatever. I don’t care if I look like shit. You would too if you got into a firefight with a mad priest.

  “How can I help you?” she asks as though talking w
ith me exposes her to germs.

  “Can I come in?” I ask.

  “No,” she replies.

  I wait for an explanation, but she doesn’t give me. Though she gives me that I-don’t-have-to-explain-to-a-stranger-why-she-shouldn’t-come-into-my-house look.

  “Ma’am, people are dying out there,” I say. “I need to help them.”

  I realize that I need to make her realize something.

  “I’m Terran too,” I say, taking a small blade and making a small cut on my forearm. Red blood seeps out, and I show her. Sonali bleed blue. The woman gasps. But it doesn’t alter her stance.

  “Sonali people are dying,” she corrects, “and no you don’t need to help them. You’re lucky you have a breather. Find somewhere safe and hide until the Terran Union Ship that’s on its way here arrives.”

  I bang my fist on the door and says, “Lady, if I don’t stop the entire populace from dying they are going to pin this on all Terrans, and no ship is going to be making it alive out of Sonali space.”

  The woman looks shocked. “You mean no rescue?”

  I shake my head. “Not if I don’t get what I want.”

  “Look, even if I wanted to, this house is hermetically sealed,” she says. “I can’t break the seal without risking the lives of my family.”

  “I just need a car,” I reply. “That’s all. Just a means of conveyance.”

  “You can take our car,” she replies.

  I hear a sound behind me. I turn to see a secret door in the lawn open up and a beautiful red aircar float into the air, stopping about one yard in the air. The doors open.

  “Keep her safe,” the woman says.

  I don’t even look at her again. I jump into the aircar and stop short on the passenger’s seat. The seat is obscenely comfortable, with fluffy wool lining the edge. The dashboard and the entire trim has a touch of pink.

  I shut the door. I yank the control stick forward, taking the air car up to the air-lane in seconds. I make a direct beeline for the Capital Grid and suddenly come upon a city unto imminent destruction. All across the landscape, there are great fires and explosions. Once I come lower, I can see people losing control because of asphyxiation and driving into other cars. I see buildings sinking into the ground as the soil texture changes. I see bodies littering the entire landscape.

  I traverse across the different Estates, and as I edge towards the Industrial Estate, the death and massacre and destruction intensifies.

  I hear the familiar hum first, and this is what sucks me into one of the darkest memories of my life.

  I was ten years old when it happened. Terran separatists were launching another set of attacks on the Terran Union border worlds in a bid to secede and join the Outer Colonies. Everyone knew they were being funded by the Outer Colonies, but the government didn’t care about stemming the violence. The Terran Union had a policy of jealously guarding even most remote and lowest of value worlds. After a while, separatists began to try and destroy them rather than trying to claim them and secede. Their choice of weapon was the terraformer.

  I was in my room, sleeping, when the alarms went off. My parents rushed into my room and prepared me for evacuation as per planetary instructions. We weren’t very much, just a couple thousand on a far-flung virgin world in the Terran Union—suffice to say, we weren’t exactly a high priority.

  The nearest starship was another hour away, but the death and destruction had already started. Several Terraformers programmed to create an atmosphere and soil composition hostile to human life had been dropped from space into the ground, and the composition of our fragile terraformed atmosphere began to crumble.

  Amidst the heavy hums and the pulsating flash of light and the rhythmic way the ground vibrated I ran for the nearest shuttle—the last shuttle, my parents at my heels. Or at least, that’s what I thought. It wasn’t until I was safe aboard the shuttle that I realized my parents had been caught in the gravitational messiness that followed terraforming and had died instantly.

  Their dead bodies churning amidst the pile of rubble was the last thing I saw before we shot off the planet and into space. The world as it turned dark red was the last thing I saw before we slipped into FTL and to safety. We were later picked up by the TUS; an Armada Intelligence Vessel captained by Shane Pierce who helped me channel my anger and pain and hurt and fashion me into the killing machine that I am today.

  I pull myself out of that emotional reverie with tears in my eyes and a lump in my chest. I see the globular head first, the whirling and lashing tentacles around the terraformer’s head, then the three massive towers in the ground.

  It’s a Terraformer.

  Hello, old friend.

  No-One

  I make a single pass around the Terraformer, wondering with terrifying amazement how the fuck the Sonali got a hold of a Terran Terraformer. These things are closely guarded by Armada Command—even their technology is a secret. Yes, other species have terraforming technology to a certain degree. But the technology level differs. In this area, unlike others, the Terran Union is light years ahead of any other race. Most races didn’t even begin organized terraforming until they got the idea from Terrans—I don’t know why. But the concept of changing the planet to suit your needs never occurred to most of the major powers of the galaxy.

  And yet, they didn’t steal the Terraformer to re-engineer it. They stole it to use it. On their own people.

  They’d probably have been blown to bits if they tried to hit any major colony world, but to use it on Sonali Prime and then point the finger?

  There’s a special type of evil for that.

  “Computer, patch me through to the Armada Intelligence at the Terran Embassy,” I say, “I want to speak to the station chief ASAP. This is an emergency.”

  “Complying…”

  Soon enough, I hear a tense voice in my ears.

  “No One, are you seeing this?” he says the moment he has a direct channel to me. “The goddamn planet is slowly suffocating.”

  “I’m currently flying above the Terraformer,” I reply. “It’s Terran.”

  “Oh my god,” the station chief replies. “I got intel that Master Merchant Byuren was given permission to land his storage vessel—those massive mother fuckers—on Sonali Prime to pick up a refined ore shipment for the Tyreesians. Guess who helped him secure the permission?”

  I swallow hard. I remember the information my nanites hacked out of the Temple’s computer systems. High Cleric Szaad had been meeting with the Master Merchant. Maybe this was what they were discussing…The destruction of the Sonali people.

  “High Cleric Szaad?”

  “Yes,” he replies. “He dropped the Terraformer in the Industrial Layout, crashed his ship in the thick of the Industrial Estate and then ran away.”

  “Can you send someone to go track him down?” I ask.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t,” he replies. “My duty is to Terrans living in peril in Sonali Prime right now. The planet is slowly suffocating. People at Ground Zero of the Terraformer were the first affected, but if that thing is Terran, then that beast isn’t going to stop till it fucks over the entire planet. I don’t know what that Terraformer is turning this world into, but I sure as hell know if the entire population dies then we’re back at fucking war.”

  I stop. There are chills going through my body.

  I’ve killed people before. It comes with the job. But this is too much.

  “That’s 12 billion Sonali, Eric,” I say, breaking cover. I know it’s unprofessional. But I can’t fathom...

  “I fucking know, Anika,” he says back to me, and there’s a pause. “I’ve arranged for a ship to take us off out of the planet,” he says, “do whatever you have to do, but we’re leaving this place soon, and we’re not waiting for no one.”

  I can’t believe my ears. “So you’re just expecting me to leave?”

  There is a brief silence.

  “Oh, you misunderstand me, No One,” he replies. “It is n
ot your duty to leave. It’s your mission to stop this because if you don’t, the Terran Union will be drawn into another war with the Sonali. And this time? With the destruction of Sonali Prime? You can bet your fucking ass that they won’t stop till they’ve glassed fucking Earth. So, do whatever you can to stop this. But if you can’t, know that we’re leaving with or without you.”

  I want to be angry right now because of the way this desk pusher is talking to me. Nevertheless, I am too much in awe of the terrible sight before me that I don’t respond harshly.

  “Okay, but do one thing for me,” I say.

  “What?”

  “Track down that fucker Byuren,” I say. “He will answer for all this.”

  “Roger that, No One,” he replies. “I’ll contact you as soon as I have a location on him.”

  “Computer, end transmission,” I say, and the line goes dead.

  I swoop down to street level and head on to Gresh’s lab. Along the road, I can see people scurrying to safety. I see many holding their necks as their difficulty to breathe increases. I begin to realize that the Terraformer affects different areas at different rates.

  I get to the lab and park right on the street. I enter the lab, which is still open.

  “You’re alive!” I say with relief the moment I walk into the first floor and see Gresh standing over the dazed assassin.

  He says, “This part of the lab is hermetically sealed to preserve the atmospheric composition, especially moisture, to prevent the artifacts from decaying at a much faster rate, so yes, I’m alive.”

  I feel an urge to hug the Sonali, but I refrain. I’m really glad he’s alive.

  “What’s causing all of this?” he asks.

  “Master Merchant Byuren somehow managed to get his hands on a Terraformer,” I say.

  Terror flicks through Gresh’s face. “Terraformer?” he whispers, breathless. “That changes planets?”

  “Dude dropped it in the center of the Layout and turned it on,” I say. Then I march over to the assassin and smack her right in the face. She jolts to consciousness with a furious look, which immediately melts when I ask her if she knew about the Terraformer.