by M. D. Cooper
The scratch in his mind had shaken loose too many other bits of debris. The memory wipe seemed suddenly fragile, as if his past had only been hidden behind tissue, not erased. He felt on the verge of everything in his mind falling apart. It was terrifying.
He shook his head as he stared at Manny.
Looking at the corridor, Manny shook his head.
Ty nodded.
Manny slapped him on the shoulder and moved him to the front.
Ty adjusted his grip on his rifle and increased his pace. He reached the end of the corridor, calculated where they were in relation to the cargo bay, and made a right turn. He followed a path that would lead them back to the edge of the complex.
They left the maintenance section and reentered the regular crew quarters. Ty’s thoughts settled into place as he completed various focus exercises in addition to the numbers game. By the time they reached the cargo bay, he felt like himself again. He could almost ignore the concussions vibrating through the deck from the bombing outside.
It only made sense that a hacker like Fugia Wong would steal a pirate shuttle to help them. No one would know it was gone and the pirates wouldn’t admit their presence.
The only problem that still persisted once they got off the surface was how they would convince the battle group not to blow them out of the sky.
Working together, Ty and Manny cycled the main airlock, and stood with their magboots locked to the deck as the atmosphere rushed out into the dark landscape of Vesta. The wide cargo doors opened on a grey expanse, with the crater spreading outside, and the ridge in the distance was now obscured by roiling dust. Thunder from the bombardment rolled through just as the doors opened, and Ty felt the vibration in his bones. Psion was close.
Moving in the silence of the crater, with only sounds from his suit in his ears, Ty led the way. Bits of light wheeled and turned on the black over their heads. There was no sound, and no explosions, only a sense of moving objects roiling in the sky above.
A blue icon appeared in Ty’s HUD. He shared the info with Manny and they watched the incoming shuttle separate itself from the other points of light in the black sky.
At first there was little sense of motion, and then the icon grew rapidly. The distance indicator counted down from hundreds of thousands of kilometers to tens and then a thousand kilometers as the shuttle approached. Ty’s HUD showed the mass profile on the small ship as it came within his EV suit’s limited scanning range.
The shuttle had just engaged its thrusters to begin its final breaking burn when a line of light connected it with the dark ridge in the distance.
Ty couldn’t tell how much damage the laser did to the shuttle but there was enough energy to knock it off its landing course, sending it careening toward the dark edge of the crater.
Then Emerson groaned.
Manny turned to look at Ty, the light above them reflecting in his faceshield.
Ty didn’t have to hear him say it: they had a serious problem. They were going to have to follow the shuttle into the crevasse.
MEMORY GAME
STELLAR DATE: 03.28.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Divalia Foss Trough
REGION: Vesta, InnerSol
A line of attack ships became visible over the edge of the crater. Ty’s HUD lit up with danger icons as his suit recognized targeting scanning from the incoming vessels.
The other soldier grunted in response and was already turning to start pounding across the surface of the crater, Amstrad’s helmet bouncing against his back.
Immediately, his HUD lit with a series of hop locations and the thrusters on his EVA suit lit beneath him. Ty sailed through the low atmosphere and came down with a bounce, twenty meters from where he had first seen the incoming ships.
As Ty glanced at the crater’s edge, his HUD picked up a line of silent, panther-shaped mechs running at full speed in their direction.
Ty hopped again. This time he came down on the roof of the communications station between two ventilation units. In another hop, he was airborne.
His path highlighted in front of him, showing a series of landing points that would carry him to the edge of the low, flat building. As he approached the edge of the building, it became apparent that Emerson Sharp Station was sitting directly on the rim of the Divalia Fossa trough.
Ty immediately thought back to the mission briefing and wondered why he hadn’t paid attention to the fact that the station was so close to such a deep terrain feature. His path, he realized, would carry him directly into the crevasse.
In the back of his mind, he knew Divalia Fossa was fifty times the size of the Grand Canyon on Earth—though just a patch on the Valles Marineris on Mars. He understood that it made no difference whether he was moving through microgravity on the surface or floating down the center of the crevasse, but his mind still taunted him. His heart hammered as he bounded toward the edge.
In two more hops, they sailed over the edge of the crevasse.
The sky swam overhead, shot with streaking points of light, and then Ty pitched forward to face the dark mouth of Divalia Fossa. Deeply scarred spines of rock slid past as he adjusted his descent, slowing as his HUD made sense of the rapidly tightening terrain.
Caprise outlined a path between the craggy walls, and aimed his thrusters to take him deeper toward where the shuttle continued to fall, slowly picking up speed—though nothing to worry about.
Manny followed, hooting with joy while he kept his grip on Amstrad’s limp body.
&nbs
p;
He was right. Reaching the floor of the trough would take nearly an hour at their current rate of descent. The rough walls on either side closed as they angled downward toward the floor. In his HUD, Ty watched the shuttle falling further ahead, still moving too fast.
They were at ten kilometers now and closing. The walls of the trough blurred on either side as the thrusters picked up speed.
Ty vaguely monitored the status of Manny’s suit as he focused on the nearing shuttle. The only difference between this mission and a spacewalk was the proximity of the walls, and how much of a splatter he would make if he even scraped the rock…but otherwise it was a matter of matching velocity and checking the HUD, and asking Caprise for continuous updates.
When the walls widened, Ty’s feeling of motion died away, and he was suspended in the dark, only the movement on his HUD showing progress. Then the walls would tighten abruptly, making him feel like he was going to slam into an escarpment, until the outcropping disappeared and he briefly entered the wide dark again.
Above them, bombardment continued. Shattered rock fragments from the chasing explosions rained down from the lip of the crevasse, sparkling like glitter when they were caught by scan.
With what felt like an abrupt arrival, they reached the shuttle. The egg-shaped craft appeared ahead of them and Ty’s suit executed a braking burn. The sudden g-forces squeezed his breath from his lungs.
The shuttle went from a blurred grey shape to clarity right below them. Ty spread his arms as his suit’s thrusters made small micro adjustments. Each burst of thrust felt like a hammer on a different part of his body. His thighs and arms ached from the pressure.
The shuttle was a standard commercial design, with a hatch on the side suitable for moving small cargo crates or personnel. They would need to grab onto the side of the craft with their mag boots, and then open the airlock from the outside.
Conceivably, they needed to do this before the shuttle hit the bottom of the trough, which was approaching faster than Ty had expected.
With Manny moving beside him, they both approached the falling shuttle. Luckily its thrusters had controlled spin and yaw, and they were able to fall onto the airlock side with minimal additional braking.
Ty hit the side of the shuttle with an impact like hitting plascrete. Support bands throughout his suit tightened and pulsed to hold his arms and legs on his trunk, while maintaining blood flow. He was going to have some nasty bruises.
Manny answered that he had a good connection, and they both held on for several seconds just breathing.
Manny slid sideways, moving to the airlock’s security mechanism. Once in position, he fumbled with his plasma cutter.
Ty moved to the other side of the door, finding the access points. Just as Manny got the locked door open, the airlock cycled unexpectedly, and blew a blast of atmosphere directly into Ty.
With the force of a wrecking ball, Ty was thrown off the side of the shuttle. He had a last glance of the open airlock before tumbling backward into the open space of the crevasse.
The image of the open airlock spinning away burned itself in Ty’s memory and broke loose another flood of images. He had seen this before. He had been here before. The ship fell away from him, and the darkness closed. He was tumbling through space, unable to control himself, struggling to hold his breath.
Convinced he was choking, Ty fumbled with the ring lock on his helmet. It was intact.
The world smeared and spun, all grey and black, but he was still enclosed in his suit. His mind raced, heart hammering.
He couldn’t breathe. He was choking.
He’d be left behind.
He heard her, but the words meant nothing. He was choking. The vacuum sucked out his breath. He was going to die.
Ty shouted.
Ty’s voice had gone up a register, cracking, sounding like a little boy. The world flashed between an unfamiliar starscape and the rock walls of Divalia Fossa, scarred and broken.
Ty shouted.
An impact like a giant hand slammed Ty’s body. He rolled to the side, rotating against the force, as the suit righted his tumbling motion. He was jerked like a ragdoll, and the side of the crevasse shocked into stillness in front of his helmet, then receded as he was thrown away from the rock.
In the HUD, the shuttle took shape above him in the form of a green icon. His suit thrusters sent him upward. Again, he experienced an unknown memory overlapping reality, as the airlock yawned in front of him. He shot through space toward the open mouth of a cargo hold.
He had been here before.
Ty watched, mouth agape, as Caprise carried him to the shuttle. He hit the inner door, and Manny shouted at him to hold on.
The outer door cycle closed and the airlock pressurized.
Ty felt hands on his harness, pulling him close. He was shaking, tears streaming down his face. The anguish he felt was overwhelming. He didn’t know why. He felt helpless, betrayed, lost.
FINAL RUN
STELLAR DATE: 03.28.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: High Orbit, TSS Charging Rhino
REGION: Vesta, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
The Sol Alliance commander gave the execution order, and all human forces disengaged from their Psion opponents. There was a moment of what seemed like stunned silence from Psion, then they responded rapidly and moved to cut off the humans from their new objective.
Lyssa had no doubt that Camaris had recognized their goal. The Psion forces were now pouring into Divalia Fossa as the shuttle shot southward, dodging fire from their attackers.
Lyssa laughed.
In her mind’s eye, she zoomed in and out from the surface of Vesta to the space outside. Psion’s forces were swarms of red ants moving along the surface and flying just above their counterparts. They were now following her We
apon Born, and the earliest forces from Mars and the TSF that had moved on the trough. Sections were breaking off into individual fighting, helping to divide the Psion forces.
There was still a strong contingent chasing the shuttle, and the only thing stopping them from catching up was attacking fire from a Marsian squadron that kept pushing the Psion drones against the sides of the crevasse.
Lyssa had passed Emerson her air picture so he could track his options between the crevasse walls and the space above. He had only another fifty kilometers before he was forced out into open space and direct attack by Psion. The only upside was that Psion had not managed to flank him…yet.
Emerson said.
Lyssa stopped talking and focused on the pincer movement. The Weapon Born came around, swept over the top of Emerson’s shuttle and flew directly into the oncoming Psion fist.
The flight of Weapon Born craft tore through the Psion ranks, somehow avoiding serious damage as they bought enough space for Kylan to aim the shuttle spaceward and light its torch.
The shuttle accelerated at fifteen g and shot away from Vesta where it was quickly enveloped by a cloud of Sol spacecraft.
Psion continued to fight, enveloping Sol ships wherever possible and melting them with directed laser fire or rail guns. As the enemy became desperate to obtain their goal, the fight devolved into slaughter on all sides.
“General Yarnes,” Lyssa called. “The shuttle is free. Psion isn’t following but everything else has gone to hell. Are you able to see?”
There was a lag as the general assessed the situation. The next communication was an all-channel alert to disengage. They would fall back and establish defensive lines around the asteroid.
That’s it. Are we really done?
