According to the tactical map, they would be leaving the external section of the ring soon to follow a main corridor to the station’s central axle. His HUD had been picking up a series of strong scanning pulses, so he was sure someone was tracking their movements, and expected they would meet heavy resistance in the larger corridor. There was no point in the Andersonians fighting them in these labyrinthine maintenance tunnels, especially when they might risk damaging their precious systems.
As Ty expected, they entered a long thoroughfare filled with parked transport vehicles, and immediately came under fire from a series of gun nests occupied by what appeared to be three-person teams.
They were forced to take cover behind the oversized wheels of a transport, chunks of plas flying all around them as the Andersonians concentrated fire.
<Chandrey,> Ty said. <Give me some indirect fire.>
The soldier moved to a throwing position and lobbed three grenades at the nearest Andersonian position. Ty crawled under the transport to fire on the nest with his projectile rifle, forcing the enemy into a slowed response to the grenades.
Concussions followed, flinging people and equipment, and Manny led the charge into the smoke to take the closest position, only to immediately take fire from another gun nest.
Peering into the smoke, Ty updated his HUD with the new fighting positions, then tossed a small surveillance drone toward the upper deck of the corridor. The robot counted five positions waiting for them down the corridor before it was destroyed.
<Shit,> he said over the tacnet. <I’m not going to hope for anything, because what’s that?>
<Stupid,> Chandrey answered immediately.
<Exactly. Hope is stupid. Soldiers plan. So we’re going to work our way down this little hell gauntlet they’ve set up for us until we reach our objective. Briggs, I haven’t heard your pretty voice since we started taking fire. You still alive?>
<I’m alive, Sergeant. Should I dump this thing and start using my rifle?>
<Oh no. You’re going to find a nice place to set up and start sending the kind of fire downrange that makes them shit their pants, you understand me? They don’t have anything matching that hog you’re carrying, and we’re fighting farmers and clerks, here. We scare them good enough, they’re going to run away.>
<That sounds like hope,> Briggs said.
<If they don’t run, we’ll kill them,> Ty said coldly. <There’s no reason we can’t make that clear. Any questions?>
Chandrey and Briggs each responded with a <No, Sergeant,> and picked up their gear to move forward.
<What do you think about this?> Ty asked Manny on their private channel. <Any way around, or do we have to go right up the damn throat?>
<Not without going EV,> Manny said. <We go outside, they’re going to send more drones at us. I hate to say it, but I think this is the safest way forward.>
<Once we get to the central section, we’ll have a better idea of what they can bring against us,> Ty said. <These gun nests are nothing. I haven’t seen any evidence of mechs or other heavy weapons.>
<Don’t tell the recruits.>
Ty snorted. He nearly asked Manny if he was having any glitches with his Clarise unit, then thought better of it. Manny had been at Vesta as well. Any supposed upgrade that Ty might have received on the hospital ship where they recovered after the battle might have also been visited on his friend—despite what his Clarise said. Manny had never mentioned problems with his NSAI, but then neither had Ty. Telling anyone that he could barely trust his own mind, especially in the midst of a combat operation, with new soldiers depending on his leadership, didn’t seem like a good idea.
<Don’t worry, Soldier,> Clarise said. <I’m looking out for you. And I can tell that you’re thinking about Lieutenant Hesteros. He didn’t get the same special treatment as you. Nope, I’m all yours, and you’re all mine.>
Ty closed his eyes for a second, relishing the half-dark, then opened them on his flashing HUD and the corridor full of flickering tracer rounds.
Crawling out from under the transport where he’d taken cover, he rose to his feet in a sprint toward the next gun nest, where two Andersonian soldiers were struggling to reload their weapon.
Ty leapt over the drone they’d laid on its side as an obstacle, and came down in the middle of the position, firing short bursts with his rifle, wasting no rounds, leaving no prisoners.
<Let’s go!> he shouted at Briggs and Chandrey. <Briggs, where’s my machine gun? I want this place raining metal. Let’s go, Soldier!>
<Ooh,> Clarise purred. <That’s my War God.>
Ty couldn’t deny the shiver of pleasure her voice sent down his spine, spurring him on to the next enemy position before Briggs had even got to his feet.
RADIATION WHALE
STELLAR DATE: 09.03.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Hilgram Station
REGION: Hildas Asteroids, OuterSol
Hilgram’s central section housed most of its ice processing factories, now repurposed as cargo storage and small manufacturing centers where drones had built the orbital farms, shuttles, and items of daily living the Andersonians had used to build themselves a new home so far from any other support.
It made sense that Mars would want to secure a well-functioning station like this for ongoing operations. The Andersonians had built a solid foundation, but with the addition of Marsian security and resources, Hilgram could become the next major outpost between the red planet and the JC.
Ty laughed at himself. He was writing ad copy for colonists as he pulled himself through low-g passages. This was drone territory, and the Andersonians had been sending waves of re-purposed maintenance drones at them for the past hour, using the same plasma attacks followed by suicide runs, and then a wave of radiation emitters, that had forced the team into a defensive position for nearly twenty minutes.
The rad bombs had made Ty and Manny pause. So far, the Andersonians hadn’t seemed willing to sacrifice sections of the station to stop their advance. Now they were running a scorched-earth attack that would leave any place the emitters had passed too hot to inhabit until it had been scrubbed. That could take years.
In the middle of a battle with a relentless rad emitter that floated through the middle of the factory space like a death whale, Manny sent Ty a private message.
<I just lost contact with the Firebrand.>
<The radiation’s messing with the comms link. I haven’t had a good location ping in ten minutes.>
<No, they’re gone.>
Ty couldn’t take his focus off the slow-moving drone. If it came too close, they were dead. The body of the Andersonian who had physically activated the whale hung from its side in a tangle of network filament.
<Where they got so much rad material is what I want to know,> Ty said. <They have to be cracking open every power bottle on the station.>
<Ty, I think we’re cut off.>
<They aren’t going to cut us off. They’re still negotiating.>
<The Insurmountable isn’t talking. The Firebrand isn’t returning any of my update requests. I know I was supposed to maintain comms silence with the Kaijin, but I pinged them as well. No response. They’re gone, bro.>
Ty targeted an escort drone for the whale and sent it spinning into the bigger attacker. The drone exploded, but didn’t damage the larger craft.
<We need to worry about the problem in front of us. We’re going to end up cooked if we don’t stop this thing. My suit’s reaching maximum absorption. Do you have status on Briggs and Chandrey?>
<We’re all the same,> Manny said. <We can pull back, but there’s no other way around. We fry here.>
Ty shook his head. He was sweating inside his armor, a sign something was failing. He didn’t have time to check diagnostics.
<Holy shit,> Manny cursed. <The Firebrand is gone. It’s gone. We’re under attack from outside. The Kaijin is moving to respond.>
Ty couldn’t worry about that. He considered ordering Chandrey to load her gre
nade launcher and lay fire along the top of the whale drone’s nose. He debated their attack plan. The beast might be nothing more than a fuel tank loaded with rad waste, which meant blowing it up would fill their immediate area with radioactive debris.
<Wait,> Ty said. He sent Chandrey a new fire command for the station wall. <Lock down,> he shouted. <We’re about to lose atmosphere. Lock down to whatever deck you can find. I’m not coming after you if you go flying away like some drunk-ass bird.>
They’d been ordered to minimize damage to the station, but this drone was a threat to the mission.
Chandrey acknowledged the new target. Ty’s HUD lit with targeting points along the exterior wall, and Chandrey fired. Her aim was perfect, as usual.
Internal pressure in this part of the station was low, but there was still enough atmosphere to blow the wall out above the attacking drone. A rush of pressure threw the whale against the fissure. It caught for a second, and Ty worried it might crack apart, still spreading its deadly payload before being thrown out into space.
Ty grinned excitement, then immediately started picking up targets in the area beyond where the drone had been. A nearby object caught his attention, and he drew down, wondering how the Andersonians had managed to sneak up on them.
It was Chandrey. She must not have locked her magboots before she fired. He watched her slam into the station wall, bouncing once, before being thrown into open space.
<Call command!> he shouted. <We’ve lost Chandrey. They can pick her up with a shuttle.>
<I don’t have them,> Manny said. <I’ll try, Ty. I will. But I think we’re alone now.>
Ty wanted to punch a wall.
<Where’s Chandrey, Sergeant?> Briggs asked. <I don’t have her on my HUD.>
<Chandrey’s gone,> Ty said gruffly. <I’m sending you new targets. Get ready to move.>
Briggs didn’t answer for a second, then said, <Yes, Sergeant.>
Ty checked his weapon, turning the rifle in his armored hands. Chandrey had been carrying the grenade launcher, which meant any indirect fire was going to be hand-thrown from now on. She’d also had half the ammo for Briggs’ heavy gun.
Ty’s suit flashed warnings about the pressure and atmosphere changes. He silenced the alert and kicked off the deck, using small steam jets to maneuver toward the new targets at the far end of their current area.
For farmers and clerks, the Andersonians were proving to be formidable enemies. He had heard they had hidden armies, and kept waiting for those people to show themselves.
<You’ve been fighting them this whole time, Soldier,> Clarise said. <This was one of their major outposts on the edge of the JC. You don’t need me to tell you that. You just wish there was a better enemy than there is. Chandrey is going to die because you didn’t remind her to check her magboots.>
<I did,> Ty said.
<Did you? Are you sure? The Andersonians didn’t kill your soldier. You did. You were negligent. You’ve never been a leader. You shouldn’t pretend you are. You don’t really care about other people.>
<Shut up!> Ty roared.
<What?> Manny asked. <No one’s talking, bro. We’re following you. You already marked the targets. Are you changing the plan?>
Ty got his breathing under control, blinking sweat out of his eyes. His suit was definitely malfunctioning.
<It’s nothing,> he said. <I’m good. Those are still valid targets. Briggs, you better check your damn boots when you hit the deck. Then I want you to send me your suit’s sitrep. I’m not getting an auto update from you. Ammo levels, too. You understand me?>
<Yes, Sergeant. I’m right behind you.>
<That’s right, dammit. You follow me.>
CORONA
STELLAR DATE: 09.03.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Sun Runner, Inner Orbit of Mercury Debris Field
REGION: Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
The TSS Sun Runner matched velocity with a large chunk of discarded mining equipment on the outer perimeter of the Mercury object. In the command deck, Petral leaned into the nav console, checking their mass signature against the giant hunk of metal they were hiding behind.
“I think we’re good. That asteroid grinder is hiding all kinds of trash out here with its mass. There must still be a bunch of iron inside it.”
“You already pump up the shields?” Fugia asked.
The micro-meteor activity kept most ships out of the area. Anyone without robust shields would find themselves continuously peppered by tailings from the mining operations. In another thousand years, they might sort themselves into a ring around the sun.
Or get cooked, Fugia thought.
That seemed the most likely outcome.
In her Link, she checked the Sun Runner’s environmental controls and radiation levels. The extra shielding was doing a passable job of limiting their exposure, but they could spend more than forty-eight hours here.
From the comms console, Fugia pulled up active scan and started the directed search. If Camaris realized she was being scanned, it would at least take her a while to identify the source.
Fugia had been sweating bullets during the whole ride in, worried their approach would be recognized, and they would arrive to find a fleet of attack drones. She had almost been disappointed to find only the mysterious object Folsom and the Marsians had already been tracking for months.
Sol made the scans tough. She had to separate the returns from the star roaring in the background. The good news was that she had a millennium of data on Sol’s emanations that she could use to separate them from the anomalies in the junk heap.
<Card,> Fugia called over the Link. <I’ve got activity in the junk heap. That’s your first target.>
The Weapon Born responded with a grin in her voice. <Is that what we’re calling it now? I like that better than ‘Mystery Object’.>
Card was one of Lyssa’s original wing leaders in the first battle against Camaris. She had jumped at the possibility of fighting her again.
<That mystery object had a number,> Fugia said. <Don’t forget. These operations always need a random number assigned to their objectives.>
<What’s the number again?> Card asked.
<I don’t remember.>
<The Marsians call it I-8088,> Petral said. <Weren’t either of you listening during the mission briefing?>
Fugia shrugged. This might have been the one time she should have listened to the Marsian officers droning on about their intel. The Mesh had come up empty on this particular location, which was surprising, since it had been sitting in plain sight.
I need to run an analysis on these forgotten locations. Who knows what’s hiding all over Sol?
Since the battle for Vesta had kicked up thousands of dark sites belonging to almost every member of SolGov, Fugia had stopped being surprised when they continued to find hidden stations. However, the increasing number of these sites could be yet another indicator of the rising instability of SolGov.
Rather than working together, governments were hiding everything. Corporate interests were conducting research in secret. Without ongoing espionage, the Data Mesh ran the risk of losing the pulse of information in Sol. Fugia couldn’t let that happen.
She would put Rondo on the task. It might seem insurmountable on the surface, but he was uniquely suited to understanding and rooting out hidden information. She figured the skill was a gift of his Marsian military background. She considered them the sneakiest among all Sol’s armed forces.
<I’m going in,> Card announced. <Taking a wing of six with me. Running active scan.>
Fugia passed Card feed to the holotank. An image of local space flickered into view, and she adjusted the fiery wall of Sol out of the image. Object I-8088 steadied in the center of the display, and then Card and her Weapon Born appeared as bright g
reen icons, swooping in from the upper edge.
<I’ve got visual on exterior drone activity,> Card reported. <Look like maintenance frames. Are you picking up all the EM coming off this place, Fugia? It’s flaming up close.>
<I see it. There’s more than just the beam back to Earth. This thing is shooting to locations all over Sol. I’ll get you the beam declinations on another pass. I’m trying to get good views on any defensive systems now.>
Fugia waited. She didn’t need to ask Card what she saw: the model in the holotank updated as she swept over the haphazard surface of the object. While multi-legged drones could move easily over I-8088, it truly resembled a pile of junk, like some massive creature had swept its hands through the surrounding space and mashed everything it caught into a ball.
<We’re looking pretty clear here,> Card reported. <This isn’t making a lot of sense, to be honest. If this is Camaris’s new hideout, why doesn’t she have layers upon layers of defenses?>
<Be careful,> Fugia told her. <Keep your eyes open.>
<I always stay frosty, head on a swivel. You know that, Fugia.>
<Prove it, then. Besides, all you have to do is recon and then we’re blowing this place to cut the data link.>
<I’ve got an entry point,> Card announced. <We’re going in.>
The blinking icons in the holotank formed a line and entered the hulking ball of the object, making it resemble a monster gobbling pellets.
The holotank shifted, following Card’s sensors as she dove into the station. A claustrophobic tunnel lined with jutting structures, cages, antenna arrays and pieces of space craft closed in, jumping up and down as the Weapon Born navigated the entry.
<Watch yourself,> Fugia warned. <I’m not coming in there after you.>
The Weapon Born laughed. <This is fun, don’t worry.>
Card shot past hundreds of drones carrying material into the station.
<Wait,> Petral said from her station. <Are those drones carrying something out? Card, can you get a better scan on them?>