by Will Crudge
“Oh, I had no idea.” Grinder said as he blinked.
“Can’t receive a sword from a grandparent that vaporized his self AND the sword with it, can I?” Jimma added.
“Well, not vaporized, per say. But certainly not in this plane of existence… whether or not it survived Kayne’s destruction.” Kindle clarified.
As the verbal exchange was underway, Jimma had completed the last of her checks, and then took one last glance at her uniform in the mirror. She gave herself a nod of approval, and then took stock the interior of the cabin one last time.
She had always admired Val’s sense of piety and minimalism, but the skillfully crafted interior of his cabin was a stark contrast to his ideals. The bed’s base was smoothly incorporated into the bulkhead wall, which was adorned with white leather padding, and topped by a dark stained crown molding made of arctic birch wood. The berthing area, which was typical of any LRF-90 hull type or variant, had curved walls that gently transitioned to a slightly domed ceiling, thus making the crown molding strictly decorative. The bright white colors blended with the elaborate wooden accents, and made Jimma wonder what Val’s tastes really were.
Val was always known to have few possessions beyond what he wore on his person. He didn’t even consider the Blood-Reaper his own property either. The IDENT codes were vague, and true ownership of the craft was registered in Kindle’s name for legal purposes. But the ancient NAV had been with Val for over a millennia, and he used it as his primary residence more often than not. Jimma knew the ancient monk may be in control of trillions of credits worth of resources, but he accepted no salary for himself.
The wealthiest man in the entire cosmos, and he wears hand woven rags. She thought with a smile.
“What’s with the grin, Jimma?” Grinder asked.
“Can’t you feel my intentions, big guy?” She replied as she pet him on the head, and then stepped out of the hatch. The Zodiac perceived her words to be rhetorical, so he declined to respond.
In accordance to her instincts, Jimma scanned the tattered bay, and took stock in the relics all around her. Skiffs with dusty tarps, partially disassembled private shuttles, and random piles of indescript ship parts littered the deck. Some spacecraft appeared to be flight worthy, but many others appeared to have been abandoned for decades… or perhaps longer, she supposed. Kindle had told her previously, that Darius lived within this same habitat while he was in inactive status. It was all he could afford with his meager UAHC stipend. Now she understood why.
The pair walked casually for several silent minutes, and Jimma would periodically stop to check the beacon signal on her manual interface. The small interface was dual purpose, and also housed her energy shield array. The beacon’s signal was getting stronger as they went along… as well as their sense of impending danger.
They both expected to be walking into a trap. No other explanation made any sense. Perhaps her enemies knew she would be suspicious, and have that play into their own plan, she supposed. Either way, it was a lead she could not ignore. They’d been tracking the beacon ever since the UAHC Beast had dropped out of slip-space, and it led them to Titan. Nothing about this situation sat well with either of them, but it was their only chance at recovering Shade alive.
Then something popped into their collective awareness. They both froze. Jimma’s instincts took over, and she realized her hand was already around her sword’s grip.
The presence was in-line with one of their kind, but still rough around the edges. She was taken back by it. She was expecting to feel the presence of the twins with their genetic gifts in their raw unaltered state… But this was different.
Then movement caught her attention.
A shiny object moved from behind a partially collapse recreational skiff just ahead of them. Then, as if by reflex, Grinder bound forward to flush out the potential threat. Jimma knew it was a cleverly staged distraction, so she feigned interest by keeping her eyes on Grinder. She reached out with her awareness, and focused intently on the present. It would save her life.
Without any conscious thought she drew her sword and blocked a slash from her ambusher. She followed through with a pivoting motion and a follow-up series of slashes of her own. The black-garbed assailant matched her every strike with a parry, slash, and counter slash.
The image of her attacker finally emerged in her field of vision as a woman. Long blonde hair, and roughly her own height and build. She has a War Master’s blade! The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Jimma quickly slid back into a low stance and brought her sword up to a ready position. Her opponent simply froze in place.
Not only does she have a War Master’s blade, but she’s highly skilled with it! Jimma thought to herself. She noticed her attacker was utilizing highly refined fundamental attack forms and stances, but didn’t seem to use anything more advanced. She figured her opponent was either holding back her skills, or perhaps hadn’t been introduced to advanced sword play. She shrugged off her second assertion. Her fundamental form is too precise for someone who hasn’t gone further with their training!
Then Jimma decided to test her theory. Before lunging in for another attack, she reached out to Grinder mentally. He seemed to have something cornered. Satisfied that he didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger, she launched her next series of attacks.
First her slashes were all textbook core maneuvers, and her opponent countered with the same precision as before. This woman is very good indeed. But where did she learn this from?
Jimma paused to lull her attacker into a counter attack, for which Jimma anticipated a specific series of techniques. She was right. Jimma then counter the enemy series of slashes, but was surprised how difficult it was to evade being struck. Either I’m rusty at my own core fundamentals, or this woman is the most advanced sword player I’ve ever faced… Perhaps even more advanced than my father!
Jimma then decided she would force her opponent’s hand. She knew all War Masters learned the same core curriculum as far as swordsmanship fundamentals, but each training temple lineage had their own slight variations of more advanced techniques. By choosing a more advance form, she would force her opponent to reveal the source of her skillset. She lunged into a more advanced series of strikes from the Musashi lineage, and became confounded with the result.
Her opponent had no response for the advanced technique at all. She only tried using more core fundamentals, but failed to block the final strike. Jimma’s blade batted away her opponent’s sword with ease, and now the cutting edge of her blade rested motionless within a few millimeters of her attacker’s nose.
The woman stood motionless, and her bright blue eyes were flared in surprise. Jimma tilted her head out of curiosity at this point. She saw no fear in the woman. She was noticeably startled, but not fearful. Then her attacker finally spoke.
“I surrender.” The woman’s soft, but confident voice broke the silence.
“Who are you?” Jimma asked sternly.
“My name is Katherine.” She replied. “Can you please call off your Zodiac? I’d prefer my friend remain in one piece, if it’s all the same to you?”
Jimma slowly pulled her sword back. “Grinder!” She called out.
“Already doing it.” The large K-9 replied. “We’re coming to you.”
Jimma didn’t take her eyes off the woman for a second. Instead, she studied the woman’s appearance for a moment. The woman, known as Katherine, wore a black leather suit. It was skin tight, and covered her entirely from her wrists and down to her boots. She had a belt with additional energy packs for her sword, and a holster with a discontinued UAHC pulse pistol. She had straight blonde hair, but very thick, and bright blue eyes that seemed to peer back into her own soul.
“Where did you get that sword?” Jimma demanded.
“I’ve had it for decades.” Katherine replied.
Decades? Even with advance med tech, she barely looks my age… But then again, I look seven decades younger than I should. Jimma
thought to herself.
“Where did you learn how to use it?” Jimma pressed.
“I was training to be a War Master before my temple was wiped out.” Katherine stated as a matter of fact. Jimma wasn’t prepared for that. The last temple that had been attacked was more than thirty years prior, or so she had been told.
Jimma couldn’t sense any deception in Katherine’s mind. In fact, she was beginning to connect deeply with her. She is one of us!
“I’m sorry I attacked you. I had to be sure you were legit, and not one of them.” Katherine said empathetically.
Jimma finally decided to sheath her sword once more, as she noticed Grinder was coming right up behind her. She wheeled around to see who else was there, and did a double take in the process.
Standing beside Grinder was a shiny humanoid infantry battle drone. Crimson drone. It had no markings, no paint, and appeared to be highly polished. It had a coppery pewter color, and had some sort of rifle strapped over its shoulder.
“Hello.” The drone spoke with a human like voice. Jimma had no idea drones could even speak. “Call me Marbles!”
Jimma studied the mechanical creature for a moment, and then it did something she wasn’t expecting. It extended its shiny hand. She hesitated for a moment, and then reached her own hand out to shake it. “You’re a Crimson battle drone, aren’t you?”
“I was, yes.” Marbles replied. “But it’s amazing what sentience can do to change your outlook on life.” Marbles blinked one of his eyes off, and then the amber led illuminated a second later. Jimma figured it was some sort of wink.
“Sentience?” Grinder asked.
Marbles looked down at Grinder to reply. “Indeed! It’s a long story, and I’d love to share, but we have some – business – to attend to.”
Jimma wheeled back around to look at Katherine. “What kind of business would drive you to ambush one of your own?” She asked scornfully.
“I’m very sorry about that.” Katherine frowned. “It would seem our enemy shares our blood, and we had to be certain you weren’t allied with him.”
This is getting interesting. Katherine thought to herself. “Well, none of us are dead. That means we’d all better come clean, don’t you think?”
Katherine hesitated for a moment, and Jimma could feel a sense of apprehension within the woman. It was an alien concept for a member of their gene pool to conceal anything. She supposed Katherine must have spent decades isolated from the Guild, and since she apparently had not completed her training, she must have been relying heavily on herself. But there was no time to deconstruct this woman’s story. They had their own mission, and she had to be sure the presence of this – anomaly – wouldn’t be a hindrance.
“Marbles and I were marooned on an uninhabited, yet terraformed moon, for around thirty years. After my temple was attacked, the UAHC rescue ship I was on was isolated from the rest of the rescue vessels, and we crashed.” Katherine began to explain.
“We as in, you and Marbles?” Jimma sounded confused. “What was a Crimson battle drone doing on a UAHC ship?”
“The UAHC Soldiers recovered several drones that had been damaged during the attack. I can only assume they intended to do some forensics for intelligence purposes, but we do know for sure.” Marbles chimed in.
“Yes. And when the ship crashed, I was the only living survivor. The ship’s AI remained intact, as well. After several weeks, I decided that I needed someone to help keep me sane. The AI’s name was Trixie, and she did all she could to help in that regard. But the best way to keep my mind focused was to master what combat skills I had already learned. I also needed a helping hand to make whatever repairs to the ship’s systems I could, as well. That’s how I was able to eat, and what kept Trixie’s core energized.”
Jimma pointed at Marbles. “So, you decided to reanimate one of the battle drones?”
Katherine gave a half nod. “More like, piece one together from all of the damaged ones. Trixie helped me disable his prime directives, so he wouldn’t try to kill me, and the rest is history.”
“But how does a battle drone end up being sentient?” Grinder asked.
“Because I was too robotic and predictable.” Marbles answered. “I may have been able to be a challenge against a normal human combatant, but not for a War Master… Even one with only partial training. Plus, Katherine had to teach me how to fight with a sword… A normal dumb-old drone lacks the processing power to challenge her skills.”
“He’s right.” Katherine asserted. “Trixie guided me through adding additional processing power to his core. The superior UAHC components allowed him to have the potential for sentience. It took several years for him to achieve it, but now we’re inseparable.”
“Ok, got it.” Jimma nodded. “Now what are you here for?”
Katherine let out a deep sigh. “Twenty years into our isolation, a Crimson vessel arrived. Trixie recognized that they were Crimson Agents, and had me and Marbles hide in the hillside. While we were up there, I kept getting spooked by some kind of eerie presence. Kind of like a War Master’s energy, but much more raw. Long story short, the leader of the Crimson troops must have had strong genetic ties to the Guild, and I thought I could reason with him.”
“But you couldn’t.” Jimma stated it as fact.
“Exactly.” Katherine frowned. “I was captured, as was Trixie’s core.”
“So, where did they take you?” Jimma asked.
“Nowhere. I – I kinda blacked out.” Katherine said with an awkward tone. “I can’t quite explain what happened next, but when I woke up, I was in Marbles’ arms, and my clothing had burned completely off.”
“I begged her not to go, but she ordered me to stay put until the enemy left. I waited for their ship to dust off, and then I went searching for her. She was near death.” Marbles said while shaking his head.
Jimma couldn’t help but wonder if Katherine had experienced Primal Rage. All War Masters were trained to control it, but some bloodlines were more prone to manifest its destructive power than others. Jimma was among them.
“I don’t know why they left me, but they took Trixie. We’ve been hunting the leader since we managed to get off that rock a decade later.” Katherine frowned. “Trixie is why I’m still alive. She’s Marbles’ mother, in a sense. If there’s a chance I could free her, or at least find out what happened to her, then perhaps I could find peace.”
“Why not reach out to the Guild?” Jimma asked.
“We were on our way to do just that until we were drawn here.” Marbles answered.
“Why were you drawn here, of all places?” Jimma asked.
“The last thing I remembered doing before I blacked out was attaching an old UAHC tracking beacon on the leader’s armor. It was one of those tiny devices that could draw from nearby energy sources, but avoid scan detection. It’s how the UAHC makes sure their ammunition doesn’t get into the wrong hands.” Katherine explained.
“Neither of us expected the beacon to still be working after ten years, but it came to life when we got within fifteen light minutes of Jupiter. We tracked it here.” Marbles explained.
Jimma tapped a key on her manual interface, and talked into it. “Kindle, are you getting any of this?”
“Are you kidding?” She replied sarcastically. “I’ve had the weapons bays open, and was about to take out half the dock!”
“I take it that’s a yes?”
“Yes, dear!” Kindle replied. I’m scanning all known beacon frequencies, and even cross-leveling them with archived encryption keys from the time period. The only thing I’m getting is Sheba’s voice module.”
When Kindle completed the sentence, Jimma noticed Katherine cover her eyes with one hand. The former apprentice’s posture changed to that of a woman defeated, as she slumped down on the deck. She had her face buried in her hands as Marbles walked over to place his hand on top of her head. She then leaned into his cylindrical legs, and hugged them as if she were desperate to be comfo
rted.
“What’s wrong, Katherine?” Jimma asked, but the woman seemed too distraught to respond.
Marbles had been leaning over Katherine, but lifted his head to face Jimma. “I was afraid of this.” Marbles said as he shook his head.
“I don’t understand.” Jimma said softly.
“The UAHC beacon tech is derived from the same tech the Guild uses for Zodiac voice module distress beacons. Trixie had warned us about that, but we had no reason to believe that there would be any Zodiacs in Sol.” Marbles continued.
“Why would you think that?” Grinder shook his head. “We are at war, after all!”
Katherine stiffened straight up, and cleared her throat. Both of them stared directly at Grinder as if he’d said something shocking. Jimma said privately to Grinder.
Kindle chimed in now. “You must have just recently escaped from isolation haven’t you?”
“Yes, nice lady… voice… thing.” Marbles said as he was looking around for the source of the sound. “Sorry, my audio sensors need some serious upgrading. Battle drones aren’t designed to be great listeners, when we have more reliable onboard sensors, and all.”
“My name is Kindle, and I’m a NAV system on an LRF-90 super fighter. Nice to formally meet you.” She responded.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me!” Marbles exclaimed. He may have looked like an infantry drone with no capability to make facial expressions, but his body language more than made up for it. He covered his small slit of a mouth with one hand, and seemed to saunter around in a circle as if he were a surprised winning contestant on a game show. “I’ve only read about those! I hope…”
Katherine cut him off with a single hand gesture and a stern look. Marbles responded immediately, and put both palms up and towards her as he stepped back into a more compliant posture.
