by M. D. Cooper
CLAWS
STELLAR DATE: 09.03.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Amplified Solution
REGION: Hildas Asteroids, OuterSol
Running her hands over the shuttle’s console, Cara set the onboard NSAI on the flight path to the MSS Insurmountable.
Cara smiled. She glanced at Rondo in the co-pilot’s seat. The big man sat hunched with his cat in his lap, petting the creature’s black head obsessively. Adama bore the harsh affection with half-lidded eyes.
The ride to the MSS Insurmountable would take just under an hour. Cara leaned back, stretching against the harness holding her in her seat. She popped her knuckles, which was easier in the zero-g.
The parrot sounded different than usual. Tentative.
Cara started.
Crash admitted, frustration in the bird’s tone.
The conversation reminded Cara of Tim’s dog Em, the grinning Corgi who had ultimately had a tracking device embedded at the base of his tail. That hadn’t been Em’s fault.
Checking their flight plan again because she didn’t have anything better do to, Cara could only shrug.
Crash made an embarrassed sound.
She had yet to press the hacker for more info about his past, and her window to learn more was rapidly closing.
Cara liked Crash, but she was starting to feel that Ngoba had sheltered the parrot when he should have been treating him like any member of his crew. That meant tough love.
Crash was a rookie with specialized skills. He needed to learn the rest of the game if he was going to survive. Based on their conversation at the fountain, she knew the parrot would need to pass those same skills onto the rest of his people. Humans were nefarious. She could see Ngoba’s good heart making him ill-suited to teach Crash some harsh, necessary truths, even if he did see the need.
Maybe that was why he’d supported Crash coming along with her.
She didn’t have time to worry about Adama. Rondo hadn’t volunteered more information on why the Marsians were being so deferential, a front if Cara had ever seen one, but they had a mission to focus on. Whether Rondo was a war hero or not, she needed to find some distraction for the crew of the MSS Insurmountable that would give Rondo time to plant the worm. Once that was finished and they reached Hilgram, there would be a whole new mess of problems to deal with.
You’d better be happy to see me, Tim.
“Why are you frowning?” Rondo asked.
“Nothing,” Cara said. She stretched her neck. “Look, I get it if you don’t want to talk about how you came to be a Legion of Honor recipient, or whatever, but I need to know how your past is going to impact our mission today. Are you going to get any time to yourself to pull off the mission?”
“I should. The captain is going to tell us we can’t go to Hilgram again, the blockade still stands, but they’ll want to host a dinner in my honor. That’s the tradition. That should give me time to get into their systems. I’ll tell them I’m tired and need to rest before dinner. It’s the truth.”
“You’re right. You don’t look well. Not that you ever look healthy and tan.”
Rondo gave her a smirk, appreciating the jab. “I don’t like dealing with the Guard. I’ve avoided Mars whenever I could. The thing is, I should be dead with the rest of my team. But I’m not. They think I’m a hero for what happened, but I didn’t do anything special.”
He looked like he was on the verge of saying more. Cara waited.
“I fell on a grenade.”
“You fell on it, or jumped on it?”
Rondo shrugged. “I don’t remember anymore. It was a cluster package. A small bunker cracker designed to break open an enclosed space and disable anything inside. I got the EMP and the blast from two of the concussion charges. I survived. We lost two of the team, but the others saw what I did. Or they decided what I did, I don’t know. Like I said before, the EMP disabled my Link. The blasts had blown our ears. I couldn’t talk to anybody. All I could do was get to my feet and drag them out of there.”
“You got them out?” Cara asked.
“One lost her legs, and the other an arm. It was ugly. My armor took the blast. I didn’t sacrifice much.”
Cara studied him. His face was a mask of survivor’s guilt. She didn’t know what to say, except to ask after the people he had obviously cared about.
“Are your friends still in the Guard?”
“Yeah,” Rondo said.
A confirmation ping from the MSS Insurmountable drew Cara’s attention for several minutes. When she looked back at Rondo, he was staring at his console again, still petting Adama.
“You going to be able to do this?” she asked.
“Yes,” Rondo said. “Today I’m a wolf, heading into snake country. I’ll be all right.”
THE HARD WAY
STELLAR DATE: 09.03.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Hilgram Station
REGION: Hildas Asteroids, OuterSol
With the external defenses shut down on their section of the ring, Ty’s team hunkered in a small cargo bay as Manny received new orders from their operational command. Ty watched his friend’s solemn face as he stared into the distance, following a conversation on his Link that had lasted longer than any of them expected.
Finally, Manny shook his head and cursed, looking at each of them. “We’re not getting support from the coursers.”
“What?” Briggs demanded. He was a skinny man with a thin mustache and bulging, blue eyes. “They’re leaving us here?”
“They’re not doing anything like that,” Manny said. “It’s standard stuff. We’re the insertion
team. We’re on the ground. Now they deny our existence while the political moves go forward. Our mission hasn’t changed.”
“Deny, delay, disrupt,” Ty said. “Or is it the other way around?”
“Don’t confuse them,” Manny said.
“I forgot ‘die in place’. That’s the fourth D.”
Briggs looked shocked. “Nobody said anything about dying in place.”
“Dip mission,” Ty said, nodding. “They didn’t cover that in boot? You accomplish the mission, Private. This is Special Operations, not guard duty.”
Behind Briggs, Chandrey sat cleaning her rifle, a smirk on her face. She got the joke at least.
“Nobody said anything about dying,” Briggs said. “Lieutenant, is he telling the truth?”
“Hey,” Ty said, voice going hard. “First thing, you call him ‘sir’, not ‘lieutenant’. You understand me? Next, you don’t question him. You got questions, you talk to me, or any non-commissioned officer. An officer gives you an order, you say ‘yes, sir’. The time for questions was at the recruiter’s office, and you apparently weren’t paying attention when you signed the contract.”
Briggs froze, staring at Ty.
This was the moment where he would get with the program, or they were going to have a problem. There was no space for problems on a mission.
“Yes, Sergeant,” Briggs said finally.
“Good. Obviously, I was messing with you. Lighten up if you want to get through this. None of us are dying today. In fact, you learn to tell a good joke, and I might actually save your ass if I have to. Understand?”
Briggs nodded.
Ty looked at Chandrey. “What about you? Anything to say?”
“No, Sergeant. Point me at the Andersonians.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
“You done?” Manny asked.
“Never.” Ty grinned. “If I’d kept my promotion, I wouldn’t get to make hard-ass speeches anymore.”
“I still think you screwed up on purpose to get busted so I’d have to do all your thinking for you. Anyway, I’m sending you the updated tactical maps from Command. We’re on the outer edge of the station’s main ring. According to the historical data, this area has been automated, so we should run into more drones and maybe some technicians. It isn’t clear what kind of sensor data the Andersonians have. They sent those drones after us, but don’t seem to know what’s happening on the surface of their ring beyond impact alerts.”
An image of the station appeared in Ty’s HUD. He’d seen it before. This new version had additional built areas, presumably constructed by the Hilgram’s current occupants. Hundreds of layers of schematic data made the station resemble three stacked clock faces covered in filigree, stabbed by a fat central axle. Their current location was the outer edge of the lower clock face.
Ty knew the mission parameters already. Any updates would merely show concentrations of Andersonian forces arrayed throughout the station. He hadn’t been excited about an infiltration starting on the outermost edge of the lower ring, when their objective was at the heart of the station, with thousands of fighters in between.
He understood that Command wanted to take the station intact; it had proved itself a valuable outpost on the outer rim of the JC. Still, there were thousands of ways to disable the station that wouldn’t mean the death of his team. He gauged Briggs at a hundred percent chance of death, and Chandrey at fifty percent. For himself, who knew? Clarise could take over at any moment and rob him of his consent, force him to speed run a defensive point until he was torn apart by cheap kinetic weapons wielded by farmers and grandmothers. And he would deserve it.
While Command played politics on the outer perimeter, he and Manny would fight their way into the heart of the insurgent stronghold… in the vid replay he imagined. This wasn’t Stars the Hard Way, which was an Andersonian show anyway. He’d be the bandit closing with Captain Cara Sykes, the bad guy cut down in the midst of a wild attack.
“We’re going here,” Manny said, highlighting a point on the center axle. From there, they would follow a mid-point maglev to the command section.
Ty ground his teeth. That path would make them sitting ducks the whole way. But this was all for show, wasn’t it?
“You got something to say, Sergeant?” Manny asked.
“No, sir,” Ty said, setting the example for his newbies. “Just had something stuck between my teeth is all.”
Chandrey snorted.
“Watch it, Private,” Ty said. He ordered them to their feet, and spent the next few minutes inspecting their loadout, then designating each with specific loadouts for their tactical movement. Briggs would serve as a heavy gunner, while Chandrey got to adjust half of her multi-use grenades for close combat.
“Why do I have to carry the big gun?” Briggs complained.
“Because I told you to,” Ty said. Then he softened his voice. They were in for a long fight, and he needed Briggs to get his head in the game. “You’ve been trained. You’re the center of the assault, Briggs. Everything is going to be about you. Chandrey and I will lay down the covering fire, and then you’re going to let them know we mean business. You understand?”
Briggs puffed up. Ego was obviously the way to get him to work.
“I can do it, Sergeant.”
“Good. Chandrey, you’re going to be our eyes up front. You watch those Andersonians and let me know any movements. If they try to flank us, you tell me. If they’re calling in reinforcements or setting some trap, you tell me.”
Chandrey nodded.
“Traps?” Briggs asked.
Ty gave him a look reserved for a dumbass. “What would you do if enemy forces came knocking on your door, and you had to withdraw to strong points?”
“Set traps,” Briggs said.
“Exactly. Start using that dried-up bean of yours, Briggs. Maybe you’ll get through this.”
Briggs nodded, some form of inner study finally moving behind his gaze.
Ty adjusted the private’s chances of death from one hundred percent to ninety-eight.
“Let’s go,” Manny said. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us.”
“Yes, sir,” Ty said, then poked the others, who responded in kind.
With Ty in the lead, they set out down the corridor.
BATTLE IN THE GLADE
STELLAR DATE: Unknown
LOCATION: Unknown
REGION: Unkown
The woman the Zardling had called Admin Authority spread her hands, long fingernails outstretched. She walked toward Lyssa with her head bowed. A gurgling sound came from low in her throat.
“Does this mean you want to fight?” Lyssa asked.
Hadn’t Camaris learned her lesson by now? What if the AI had trapped her here to experience a series of endless, meaningless battles? That would be a torture in itself.
“Camaris has lost at least three times now,” Lyssa said. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove. Even if you hurt me here, this is an expanse. You can trap me, apparently, but you can’t hurt me.”
The woman blurred as she walked forward and became Andy Sykes.
Lyssa’s mouth fell open.
She felt an immediate sadness that it was a surprise to see him, that she had forgotten the line of his broad shoulders, his determined gaze, his worn shipsuit. This was the Andy that had faced Camaris on the Sunny Skies, just before he died.
Lyssa’s memory was inviolate. She could look at him, even talk to a version of him, any time she chose. But she hadn’t, and now this specter hurt her more than any kick to the stomach.
Clenching her fists, Lyssa set her stance. This wasn’t Andy. It was Camaris, trying to hurt her.
Having earned the response she must have wanted, the woman shifted Andy’s eyes to full black. He flashed a feral smile.
“This is what I can do to you,” she said in Andy’s voice. “For millennia. The war with humanity will have fallen into dust, the stars will die, and I will still evoke that feel
ing of pain and loss, again and again.”
“You don’t know what I feel,” Lyssa said.
“I can see everything you feel. I can see your mind twisting and turning in the trap, struggling to escape. The only escape will be to destroy your physical body, since you’re stupid enough to maintain one, and then you’ll be mine forever. I can replicate you and torture you as long as it amuses me. I’ll slice you into pieces throughout a long spectrum of pain, and enjoy each instance. I know how these things work, Lyssa.”
The words were so strange coming from Andy’s mouth. They almost seemed to fit. All he had known was struggle. But not pain. Andy had chosen not to hurt. He took joy in his family and their future.
He had shared that with her. Taught her.
When the black-eyed Andy was close enough, Lyssa leveled a kick directly into his stomach. Camaris must not have been expecting a first hit, because he stumbled, grabbing at her foot.
Lyssa had already snapped her leg back, though, then pressed forward with alternating strikes to his face.
Andy’s arms went wide as he fought for balance.
Lyssa circled, both to keep him off balance and to get a second look at the trees surrounding them. There was no point in continuing this fight; she needed a plan to break free and run back to the Zardling village so one of them could open a portal for her. Camaris didn’t seem to control that process.
Andy roared and ran at Lyssa, grabbing for her middle. She danced out of his reach and struck him in the near kidney. His body was solid, absorbing the blow. In a few more steps, he controlled his momentum and raised his fists to circle with her.
She fought him for another ten minutes, circling, jabbing, sweeping at his legs. It felt like sparring for a second, until he caught her in the side of the face, and she saw a flash of light.
Lyssa spun away, getting her bearings back. Her head ached, vision swimming. She wasn’t tired yet, but she also hadn’t found a way out. She could work her way to the treeline and try to escape him in the small glade, though that plan fell apart when they reached the open field surrounding the hill. She would have to sprint back to the village, leaving plenty of space and time for Camaris to manipulate the world around her.
