by M. D. Cooper
A maglev train slid into the station and Kylie pulled Nadine toward it.
“Let’s just get back to the Dauntless and we can worry about all of this once we’re aboard.”
* * * * *
“Status on the station?” General Samuel asked Major Larson
“Assault ships have landed. We have ten thousand troops sweeping the station. GAS troops are putting up a fight, but we’re working our way down the spire. So far there’s no sign of the Dauntless, or her crew. There has been no further communication from the president either.”
“Keep at it,” Samuel replied.
In space, things had gotten a lot trickier. Minutes after the first SSF soldiers had landed on the station, civilian ships had begun spilling out of it like rain from a thunderhead.
He had several scan officers and AI dedicated to searching for the Dauntless, but that wasn’t the biggest concern. The GFF’s fleet was putting up more of a fight than he’d expected. Though he had velocity and surprise on his side, they had a wealth of defensive emplacements.
Already forty SSF ships were disabled, though twice that number of GFF ships now drifted through the void.
The real problem was the civilian vessels. Over five thousand of them had already departed the station. Many did their best to avoid the fighting, but some fired on the SSF ships as they went.
Most were only annoyances, but some of the ships were clearly pirate hunter vessels. Already, two SSF cruisers had been taken out by what appeared to be passing freighters.
If Samuel hadn’t been trying to find his daughter, he would have fallen back to nuclear ordnance by now.
A hundred ships fired on the designated freighter, and it exploded with far more energy than it should have.
“That ship had nukes!” one of the officers exclaimed.
“They’re pirate scum,” Samuel replied. “Expect them to fight dirty. It’s all they know.”
“Sir!” one of the Scan officers called out. The Satisfaction is pulling away from the station. That’s the president’s ship.
LEAVING LANA
STELLAR DATE: 09.24.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Emperor’s Tears, Bay 1295C, Ring 15, The Futz, Freemont
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Grayson had finally located the secondary comm array, and planted his hack. It had taken half the day to sneak down there. Now he could send his message—though he would do it from the relative safety of the engineering bay.
He was surprised Captain Gabriel hadn’t taken off yet. From what he could tell, half the ships on The Futz had already flown the coop.
Now that the SSF—commanded by General Samuel, no doubt—had attacked, he wasn’t sure how urgent his intel was anymore, but he would still send it.
“Hey, Grayson,” a voice called out from behind him.
He turned to see Tayna standing with her hands on her hips. “What’s up?” he asked, praying she wasn’t about to tear into him for being on the cargo deck.
“Got a last-minute shipment. Micha is busy doing mass balancing. Be a dear and go fetch it, will you?”
“Where is it?” Grayson asked, wondering what else this ship could be taking on at the last minute.
“Outside the port airlock. A dozen cases. Pile them in hold 19.”
Grayson nodded and turned down a side passage toward the port airlock.
The lock was wide open, and he stepped out of the ship to see the crates stacked a dozen meters away.
Once off the ship, he automatically reconnected to the station’s general net and quickly blocked off all the feeds. Things were nuts, and people were panicking.
Rogers sighed across the Link.
Rogers didn’t respond for a long moment, then finally said,
Grayson lifted a crate and walked back to the ship.
Tayna leaned against the wall half way down the passage. Hurry it up, muscles. I wanna enjoy the view.”
“Was just checking the crates for damage,” Grayson said.
“Why?” Tayna asked. “Who we going to complain to? This place is going to be crawling with Silstrand people in no time.”
Grayson shrugged. “Force of habit.”
He set the crate in hold 19 and ignored Tayna’s looks as he walked off the ship to get the next crate.
Grayson replied.
Rogers chuckled.
Grayson looked down at the crate he held.
He carried the next crate into the hold, braving Tayna’s stare, and giving her a bit of a show to keep her occupied.
Grayson sent Rogers a final thanks and signed off. He finished loading the crates, and sealed the port airlock.
Tayna was gone, but he suspected the crew would be assembled on the bridge, and climbed the ladder to the command deck.
Tayna was in the pilot’s seat, and flashed Grayson a winning smile.
“All secured below,” Grayson said.
“Good,” Gabriel nodded. “Micha has reported the same. As you can imagine—with all the shit going on—we’re not cleared for takeoff. This might get a bit tricky.”
Grayson nodded. “Then maybe I’d best head to engineering, Captain. I’ll make sure everything’s humming. Keep us flying safely, Tayna.”
Gabriel nodded acknowledgeme
nt. “She always does. Now get to work, Rudy. We get out of here without a scrape and you’ll earn your first bonus.”
“That’s not all he’ll earn,” Tayna said with a chuckle. Grayson admired how calm she was under extreme pressure. They were about to fly out into a pitched battle between thousands of ships, and try to make a run with incredibly valuable stolen tech aboard—secreted away in the body of a woman.
Not that they knew he knew they had said woman.
The ship was still lifting off its cradle as Grayson raced down the ladders to the engineering bay. He reached the console he had rigged to control the auxiliary comm array and pulled up Scan on another.
The moment they left the bay, he sent the message.
If the Emperor’s Tears got blown out of the black before he contacted anyone, it would end the rescue before it even started.
FINAL RUN
STELLAR DATE: 09.24.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Futz, Ring 2, Freemont
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Kylie and Nadine crawled from the wreckage of the derailed maglev train, Nadine pausing to help a man get free.
“C’mon!” Kylie shouted over the chaos. “We have to get to the ship!”
Nadine got the man free from the seat that had him pinned and rushed to Kylie’s side.
“We can still help people, you know.”
Kylie shook her head. Who was this woman beside her?
They raced down the maglev tunnel, and Kylie looked out through the clear plas at the scene outside The Futz. It was chaotic, beautiful, and terrifying at the same time.
Her augmented vision allowed her to see the thousands of ships in startlingly clear detail.
The GFF ships were arrayed in two formations. The larger group was in a polar orbit around Freemont, cycling their ships in and out of the battlespace, giving them a chance to recover between each bout.
The smaller group, comprised of most of the GFF’s cruisers, moved around The Futz in a loose cloud, jinking and making hard targets, while still remaining close enough to concentrate fire on any SSF ships that drew near.
The SSF ships were in four formations, in high parabolic orbits around Freemont. They must have been swooping in over and over, punching through the GFF ships time and time again, wearing them down.
Across The Futz, hundreds of ships were pulling out of docking bays and boosting toward Freemont’s south pole, where the fighting between the two space forces was the least intense.
Some were staying on that trajectory, while others were boosting toward Freemont’s moons, looking for safe harbor there.
Kylie saw a dozen freighters make a run at an SSF cruiser, firing beams and rails. They took out its forward shields, and an explosion erupted from the warship’s bow.
But not before beams from the cruiser cut through three of the attacking ships. A moment later two other SSF cruisers fired on the civilians, particle weapons overwhelming the smaller ships’ shields.
Seconds later, all that remained of the twelve freighters was debris, and hot dust dispersing in the battlefield.
Kylie felt a pang of grief for all those lost souls, but it was brief as she saw a gout of flame shoot into space from Ring 2 before a shockwave rippled through the deck plate beneath them.
“Are they trying to destroy this thing?” Kylie asked as they ran.
“Just the parts that shoot at them,” Nadine replied as she leapt over a fallen beam and wove through the crowds.
Seeing Nadine like this amazed Kylie. She looked so sure of herself, so certain. Why was it that Nadine had created this lost soul persona? She would have been just as desirable if she had been strong and sure.
A minute later, they clambered up onto the platform where the train should have stopped, and ran across it toward the main sweep.
Weapons fire erupted from somewhere to their right, electron beams drawing straight blue lines ahead.
“Shit!” Kylie swore and dove behind a pillar that arched up to the roof. “That’s some serious firepower!”
As the EM interference from the beam fire dissipated and they reconnected to the ring’s net, Rogers’ voice came into their mind.
Kylie gritted her teeth and glanced at Nadine. They were going to have to make a run across the sweep’s main boulevard, and then across another hundred meters of open space to reach Bay 12A.
“I can do it, Kylie. I’m a big girl.”
“I’m coming to see that.”
Nadine and Kylie sprinted toward the next column, when a voice called out from behind an overturned cargo hauler.
“Kylie! Kylie!”
Kylie’s head whipped around. It was her brother, David.
She grabbed Nadine’s wrist and pulled her after, rushing to where her brother was hunkered down amongst fallen cargo pods.
As she reached him, she saw that he had a burn mark on his leg from beam fire.
“David!” Kylie said. “Are you OK?”
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” David winced as he half rose. “A flesh wound, right?”
“It looks bad to me,” Kylie said. “What happened?”
“I was looking for you, baby sis. I couldn’t leave here knowing you might be trapped, but it seems I underestimated you. Again.”
Kylie slung his arm around her shoulders and wrapped hers around his torso. “I have a ship and can get you off before the SSF blows this place to kingdom come. C’mon.”
David shook his head. “I have a ship and I’m not worried about getting through that mess out there, but I’m not going alone. I promised Father I’d bring you home and that’s exactly what I’ve come to do.”
Nadine crouched down beside David’s leg, looking at the wound. “He’s right, it looks worse than it actually is. He should be fine, Kylie. There’s still time to get him to his ship so he can get away.”
Kylie heard her, but was still hung up on what David had said. “I can’t go home, David. Look at what’s going on. Silstrand and the GFF! All because of a girl I know, and now she’s missing! I can’t just fly home right now and visit.”
“You don’t know what’s been going on!” David insisted as more electron beams cut through the air around their cover. “Scipio has been amassing fleets, and Silstrand has pulled back all their protection from systems in the fringe. While those two fight it out, the systems they pass by will be ripe for the taking now. Ripe for conversion and Dad needs all of us—”
Kylie shook her head with disgust. “Listen to yourself. People are dying here and all you care about is your spiritual journey. AI are not the enemy, David.”
to Kylie.
“Kylie! That’s sacrilege,” David whispered and his eyes widened. “See what being in this den of iniquity has done to you? It’s perverted you and you don’t even know it, Sis!”
“I have an AI within me, now, David! I have one, and I know she’s not the evil being you make her out to be.”
“An AI?” David’s eyes widened and his mouth twitched with rage. He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around. “Why the hell would you do that?”
Marge commented.
“Because I had to, all right? I had to!”
“You’re coming home with me right now!”
“I’m not! I have things that need to be done, David!” Kylie gasped as something pierced her skin on the back of her neck. She reached back to feel the tingle of a large dose of nano flowing through her skin. Spinning, she saw Nadine pulling her hand back, a sad look on her face.
“Nadine, what the—”
“Sorry, Kylie,” Nadine said, but she didn’t sound as sorry as she should. Worst of all, Kylie couldn’t do anything about it as she felt Marge shut down, and then her body go limp.
The last thing she remembered was staring up into her brother’s smiling face.
“I’ll get you home, safe and sound. Don’t worry, Sis.”
SINKING SHIP
STELLAR DATE: 09.24.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Spire Dock 3P, The Futz Spire, Freemont
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Maverick strode toward the dock where the Satisfaction rested. Powered up and waiting for its final passenger.
Seven of his girls flanked him, down from the sixteen he had started the day with, but still enough to make this final leg of the journey.
Around him, a few final senators were fleeing The Futz as well, rushing toward their ships and shuttles. A few he had granted passage to were entering the Satisfaction’s airlock—but just as many were turned away.
He remembered who had backed him, and who had supported Vaax.
