by Jake Bible
“Half hour,” Spotz corrected.
“Make that half hour,” Stony said.
“You want me to send Gore out there?” Chomps replied. “Seriously?”
“I need every last tech and mechanic working with me and Spotz to reboot the Jethro,” Stony said. “And I probably won’t have enough hands at that. You think Gore can weld the hull back together? I only need it to last long enough before I can send my people out to do it.”
“Do we have a choice?” Chomps asked.
“Not really,” Stony said.
“Then I’ll get Gore to suit up,” Chomps said.
“He’ll need assistance,” Stony said.
“He’ll have plenty,” Chomps said. “I know two more pilots that will be throwing hissy fits if I don’t let them go with.”
***
“I’m doing what now?”
“Space walk!”
“Hell yeah!”
“Calm down,” Chomps said as she stood in front of Gore, Shock, and Giga. “Focus.”
“I’m going out there, in space, and walking my mech to the ass of the Jethro so I can weld the hull back together before we die?” Gore asked.
“Yeah,” Chomps said.
“Space walk!” Shock yelled again, his arms in the air as he jumped up and down.
“So…no pressure,” Gore said.
“Dude, you’re a mech pilot,” Giga said. “You live for pressure.”
“That’s true,” Gore said. “But this is different.”
“He doesn’t like open space,” Chomps said.
“I’m sorry…what?” Shock said as he stopped jumping. His arms were still raised. “Did you say you don’t like space?”
“How have we not known this about you?” Giga asked. “How many missions have we been on?”
“I don’t like wide-open space,” Gore said. “Being on the Jethro or on SBE is fine. Even drop ships aren’t so bad.”
“What about MPTs?” Shock asked, finally lowering his arms.
“Mech planetary transports are just big boxes that go from the Jethro to the planet and back,” Gore said and shrugged. “I don’t even notice.”
“How’d you even become a pilot?” Giga asked.
“Lay off,” Chomps said. “Gore? You got this. The mech will be mag-tethered and your feet will mag-lock on the hull. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“And you’ll have us with you for moral support,” Shock said.
“And support support if your mag-shit malfunctions,” Giga said.
“Totally,” Shock agreed. “We’ll catch you if you fall, man.”
“We’ll be your anchors,” Giga added.
“Your lifelines.”
“Your connection to all that you love.”
“You can’t fail with us around,” Shock said and slapped Gore on the shoulder.
“Why me again?” Gore asked Chomps as he ignored the other two.
“Steadiest hands we have,” Chomps said.
“Hey now,” Giga said. “You try being a mech sniper. You think it doesn’t take steady hands to keep those metal mitts from shaking?”
“Demolitions here,” Gore said. “Your hands shake and you miss your shot, my hands shake and blow up half a planet.”
“Whoopty woo,” Giga said and twirled her finger in the air.
“La de da,” Shock added.
“Shut it,” Chomps said. “We’re done talking. You now have twenty-one minutes to get this shit done. Get in your mechs and get outside.”
“Twenty-one minutes?” Gore asked.
“Race ya!” Shock said and sprinted across the hangar to his mech, Giga right behind.
“Go,” Chomps said to Gore. “You have maybe ten minutes before Stony reboots the Jethro. You need to be outside by then or you’ll have to manually crank open the hatches.”
“Shit,” Gore said as he took off running.
“Hey!” Chomps yelled and followed him.
Gore stopped and turned. Chomps kissed him then gave him a hard slap on the ass.
“Save the ship, stud,” she said.
“Well, since you said it that way,” Gore replied and smiled.
12.
“Save the ship stud, she says,” Gore muttered to himself as he took careful step after careful step across the very uneven surface of the Jethro’s outer hull. “Twenty-one minutes, she says.”
Gore stared out at the vastness of space. It was his luck that the side that needed patching was away from the planet. Having Hrouska in view would have been slightly more comforting. But, no, he got to stare out at the nothing that was the outer reaches.
“You good, Gore?” Giga asked over the comms.
“I’m fine,” Gore responded. “How far off are we?”
“About one hundred meters,” Shock replied. “You can kind of see atmosphere leaking over there if you squint.”
“You can definitely see it if you activate scanners, moron,” Giga said. “Beep boop beep boop.”
“You make funny noises,” Shock said.
“Can we cut the chatter just a hair, guys?” Gore asked. “It’s distracting.”
“Oh, right, sorry,” Shock said. “We’d hate to bother you while you try to accomplish the amazing feat of walking.”
“One step, two steps, three steps, I’m a god!” Giga shouted. “FEAR ME!”
“Funny,” Gore replied.
“Chill out, Gore,” Shock said. “You are doing fine. Everything is in the green and no worries on the horizon.”
“You read that off a cereal box back home, didn’t you?” Giga asked.
“Probably,” Shock said.
“I doubt it,” Gore said. “Shock can’t read.”
“Bam! There he is! Good one!” Shock cried.
“The thing I like best about you, Shock, is that you appreciate a good burn even when it’s on you,” Giga said.
“It’s my superpower,” Shock said.
A green arrow lit up in Gore’s vision, pointing at the damaged hull. Not that he needed an arrow to show him where the issue was. The three-meter-long hunk of metal sticking straight up was indicator enough.
“I think we found the problem,” Gore said. “Someone has been throwing trash out the airlock again.”
“That’s probably part of the Dorso,” Giga said. “Chomps said to watch for debris.”
“She did? I didn’t hear that part,” Gore said.
“You were busy praying,” Shock said.
“What do you think happened to that ship?” Giga asked. “What could have ripped it apart like that?”
“Same thing that ripped apart those infantry squads,” Shock said. “The very reason we’re here.”
“We’re here because Hrouska could be the exoplanet we’ve been looking for,” Gore said. “Hey, who has the patch?”
“It’s on me,” Giga said.
Gore turned slowly and looked back at the other two mechs that were following close behind. A massive hunk of metal was strapped to Giga’s back. She flipped him off.
“Stare harder why don’t ya,” Giga said.
“Come up here,” Gore said, ignoring the joke. “Time to get to work. I’m going to cut off some of the jagged edges and create a more manageable surface to work with. I’ll prep the tack points then you smack the panel down on them, holding it in place while I weld the edges.”
“You know we were listening inside when we discussed this plan, right?” Shock said.
“We have very good ears,” Giga said.
“Very good,” Shock agreed.
“Hey, Tweedle Dip and Tweedle Shit? Shut it,” Gore said. “I don’t want to be out here any longer than I have to be, so I am going to boss your asses around as long as it takes to get this crap done.”
“Okay, tough guy,” Giga said.
“Meteor!” Shock shouted.
“What? Why would you shout that?” Gore asked.
“I thought it would freak you out,” Shock said. “Did it?”
“No. I’m not afraid of meteors,” Gore said. “I’m not afraid of anything. I just don’t like open space.”
“Man, you picked a weird profession,” Giga said.
***
“How ya doing out there, Gore?” Stony called. “I really need that patch in place. Like now, Gore. Now.”
“I get it!” Gore snapped over the comms. “Jesus, Stony! We’re working as fast as we can!”
“Work faster!” Stony yelled. “If I don’t reboot the Jethro in the next two minutes, then the whole ass is going to shear off, with me in it, and then we’ll have no chance of getting the engines back online!”
“We aren’t getting the engines back online,” Spotz said as she leaned against a scorched and smoking drive shaft. “This is shot.”
“Then what the hell am I doing out here?” Gore yelled.
“You said that over the comms?” Stony snapped.
“He needs to know why he’s out there,” Spotz said and shrugged. “The ass end of the Jethro is going to come off without that patch.”
“I’m still rebooting the Jethro, either way,” Stony said. “It’ll regulate the power flow and get the rest of the systems back online.”
“Well, yeah,” Spotz said.
“Hey!” Gore shouted. “Shut up or get off the comms!”
“One and a half minutes, Gore,” Stony said. “No longer.”
He killed the comms and looked at Spotz.
“Where are we with the drop ships?” he asked.
“How should I know?” Spotz replied. “I’ve been elbows deep in hot grease. Call your damn wife.”
***
“Not now, Stony,” Hawker said as she sat in a drop ship’s co-pilot’s seat. “We’re locking the ships into place and I need to concentrate.”
“Locking? They aren’t locked yet?” Stony cried. “I’m rebooting in less than a minute!”
“So what?” Hawker snapped. “Reboot all you want. The drop ships are independent. I already had them disconnect from the Jethro’s main systems. We’re tethered as a unit, that’s all.”
“Oh…okay…well, that was smart,” Stony said.
“And?” Hawker asked.
“And…sorry for yelling,” Stony said.
“Good,” Hawker replied. “Now, shut up, reboot the Jethro, and let me do my job!”
She killed the comms and looked over at the Wex.
“You say one word to anyone about him apologizing to me and I’ll open your ass with a spanner,” Hawker said. “A mech spanner. You ever see one of those?”
“Jesus, Hawker,” Wex said. “I wasn’t going to say a word. Last thing anyone needs is you and Stony on their ass. Let alone with a spanner in hand. Shit…”
“Good,” Hawker said and pointed out the view shield. “There. Lock us in there.”
“On it,” Wex replied as he steered the drop ship to a semi-open space on the Jethro’s hull. “And…down. Mag-clamps in place. Drop ship secure.”
“Boss?” Hawker called.
“Yeah? What ya got for me, Hawker?” Parveet replied over the comms.
“Drop ships are in place,” Hawker said. “Ready when the Jethro is back up.”
There was no response except a very quiet hiss of static.
***
“Comms are offline,” Gore said. “They must have rebooted.”
“Don’t worry, that’ll hold,” Shock said, pointing a beefy mech fist at the welded panel. “Stony’s people can finish it off later.”
“Come on, Gore,” Giga said. “Time to get back inside.”
“Thank Jesus,” Gore said. “Last time I’m in open space again.”
“You keep telling yourself that, man,” Giga said.
“What? What do you mean by that?” Gore asked.
“Dude, you just showed you can emergency weld in open space with your mech,” Shock said.
“With some help,” Giga added.
“Yeah, with some help, but still,” Shock said. “Who do you think will get the assignment next time something like this needs to be done?”
Gore was silent for a couple of seconds then, “Son of a bitch.”
“Yep,” Giga said. “You totally screwed yourself by having skills.”
“Can we not talk about it?” Gore asked. “Just walk back to the loading hatch in silence please?”
The mechs stomped their way back across the hull to the loading hatch they had come out of earlier. Gore activated the hatch protocol. Nothing happened.
“Uh, hey now,” Gore said. “This isn’t cool.”
“Let me try,” Shock said and moved his mech past Gore’s to the manual override wheel next to the huge hatch. He grabbed it with massive mech hands and gave the wheel a hard twist.
Nothing.
“I thought the point of a manual override was so you could open things manually,” Giga said.
“The reboot must freeze everything in place,” Shock said. “That way if there’re malfunctions internally, we can’t open a hatch and jettison half the crew into space.”
“Are we stuck out here until the reboot is over?” Gore asked.
“If I say yes, are you going to panic?” Giga asked.
“I’m a goddamn mech pilot, Giga,” Gore said. “I don’t panic. I’ve been out here forever and haven’t panicked yet, have I?”
“It’s been twenty minutes, dude,” Shock said. “That’s hardly forever.”
“Not the point!” Gore yelled. He took a few deep breaths. “No, I am not going to panic.”
“Then, yeah, we’re stuck out here until the reboot happens,” Giga said.
“Son of a butch,” Gore swore.
“Did you just say son of a butch?” Shock asked.
“You do not want to get on my case right now, Shock,” Gore said.
“Yeah, he said son of a butch,” Giga responded.
“That’s going to totally be my new saying from here on out,” Shock said
“I hate both of you,” Gore said. “How long do we have until the reboot is finished and we can get back inside?”
“Stony said a dead five for downtime,” Giga replied.
“Giga? I hear a lie in your voice,” Gore replied.
“That means a lot to me, Gore,” Giga said. “You know me well enough you can tell when I’m not actually lying, but totally lying.”
“Giga,” Gore snarled.
“Dead five to purge the system of all data traces,” Giga said. “Then thirty minutes for the reboot to finish.”
“Great,” Gore said.
“Hey, you guys feel that?” Shock asked. “The Jethro is moving.”
“Hawker must have gotten the drop ships in place,” Giga said.
“Moving isn’t good,” Shock said. “We’ve only got mag-tethers and our mag-locks keeping us attached to the hull. Too much motion and we could get knocked off here.”
“Do what?” Gore cried. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“He’s not, Gore,” Giga said. “Sorry.”
“We should probably grab onto something,” Shock said.
“Anything,” Giga added.
“Goddammit!” Gore yelled.
“Son of a butch!” Shock responded.
Part Two
Hrouska
1.
“This baby is holding together, Boss,” Axson said. “Drop ships are working great.”
“Nice to have the Jethro back online,” Parveet said. “Didn’t like that naked feeling.”
“You aren’t alone there, Boss,” Lucky said.
“Boss, we’re coming around now,” Flay said. “Dorso should be in view in three, two, one.”
The view shield showed empty space.
“Flay?” Parveet asked.
“Hold on,” Flay said and tapped at his console. “Sorry, sorry. There’s some weird energy readings coming off the planet. I can’t lock it down.”
“I’ve been seeing that,” Stegson said. “Shit’s messing with the scanners big time.”
/> “And three, two, one,” Flay said.
The severely damaged Dorso came into view. It was not pretty.
“Jesus,” Parveet whispered. “She took a beating.”
“No power readings at all,” Stegson said.
“Nothing online,” Wan said. “I’m not catching even a hint of electrical current in the wires.”
“Survivors?” Parveet said.
“No, Boss,” Stegson and Wan said together.
“Shit,” Parveet said. “Axson, bring us in slow. Maintain three hundred meters distance.”
“That’s a little tighter than I’d like, Boss,” Axson said. “The drop ships are working, but they aren’t perfect.”
“Bring us in as close as you can then,” Parveet said. “I want drop ships on the hull and the rest at the ready. Schroeder will have to take her team over by tether. I want us close enough to minimize shit going wrong.”
“Hear ya loud and, Boss,” Axson said. “Moving us closer. Four hundred meters is what I am comfortable with.”
“I agree,” Flay said. “This planet is messed up. Scanners are glitchy. Any closer and we have no margin of error.”
“Could be the reboot,” Lucky said.
“Don’t let Stony hear you say that,” Stegson said and laughed.
“Then don’t repeat it,” Lucky said.
“Eight hundred, seven hundred, firing reverse thrusters,” Axson called out. “Coasting. And full press. Here we are, Boss.”
“Stegson?” Parveet said.
“Firing tethers now, Boss,” Stegson said.
They watched in the view shield as five thin lines of metal alloy launched from the Jethro and attached to the damaged hull of the Dorso.
“Axson?” Parveet said.
“I can keep us here as long as the Dorso doesn’t do anything weird,” Axson said. “Tell Schroeder she is good to go.”
***
“You heard the Boss!” Schroeder shouted at the twenty soldiers in front of her. “Pop that hatch and let’s do our jobs!”
The closest soldier spun the wheel and pulled the hatch inward. As soon as there was space, the SpecCom soldiers jumped out into open space, clicking their tether clamps into place on the lines of metal alloy that stretched from the Jethro to the Dorso. One miss and a soldier would be tumbling out into space. None of them missed. Every clamp found its mark and the soldiers began to slowly slide/float towards the broken orbital command ship below them.
