Steel Sworn

  Steel Sworn

  The Ibarra Crusade Book 2

  by

  Richard Fox

  Copyright © by Richard Fox

  All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.

  ASIN:

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  From the Author

  Free Ember War Short Stories

  Ember War Universe Suggested Reading Order

  Read THE EMBER WAR for Free

  Learn more about what happened in Terra Nova

  Chapter 1

  “We need a miracle.” Marshal Roland leaned his hands against the rail of his holo table and shook his head, the pale light of the projection matrixes casting long shadows across his face.

  The world of Aachen turned slowly over the table, red triangles of the enemy Geist’s capital ships forming a loose wreath in orbit over Memel, the planet’s last free city. More of the enemy were on the dark side of the inner moon, near the Crucible gate.

  Roland stuck his fingertips into the holo and opened his hand, drawing back the view to show the entire star system. The only blue—and friendly—ship icons were a little more than fifteen astronomic units away, somewhere between Saturn’s and Uranus’ orbits from the sun. A jagged, flat-looking star was behind a screen of friendly ships.

  “You’ve had a miracle dropped into your lap.” Fleet Admiral Makarov appeared in the holo. The shiny black of her combat vac suit caught the light of her own holo tank, linked to the same view as Roland’s. “At some point, God will help those that help themselves. Which means action on our part.”

  “I’m not one for signs and portents.” Roland tapped on a screen and swiped toward the tank. The exploded schematic of a ship drive without propellant rockets or fuel lines nudged aside the planets. “I’m no ship driver or engineer, but our problem is self-evident: The blueprints for the faster-than-light drive that Ely Hale brought us? I don’t have a ship to mount them on—not one that’s big enough to evacuate the tens of thousands of civilians in this city. Have you got some idea how we’re supposed to ‘help ourselves’?”

  “This Astranite engine functions like the Alcubierre drive that my capital ships have.” Makarov flicked her fingers up, and her carrier, the Warsaw, appeared in the holo. A rotating gyroscope of cables and conduits attached to the dorsal hull, just behind the command tower, and an oblong volume projected around the ship. “A dip in space-time that—”

  “Go faster than the speed of light—I get it—but this Astranite engine does it at an order of magnitude our ships’ generators can’t handle.” Roland nodded quickly. “I get that much.”

  “The difference between what I have on my ship and this new technology is about as different as a horse-drawn buggy is from the million-mile electric cars that Marc Ibarra invented. Same concept—move on wheels—but not the same in execution. At all. Manufacturing the new engines with foundry technology isn’t difficult. It’s the fuel.”

  Foundries, Xaros alien technology coopted by humans during the Ember War, could transmute matter. A foundry could perfectly recreate any scan in their databanks down to the molecular level. The larger and more complex the output, the more time and energy it would take. A large enough foundry could theoretically produce a new Warsaw, if it could harness the total energy output of a star for several days. Foundries were typically used to recycle damaged material and produce raw components to be manufactured elsewhere. It was a better use of time and resources to produce sheets of metal alloys and the magnetic coils of a gauss rifle and finish the construction with other machinery than it was to use a foundry to produce a battle-ready, loaded weapon.

  Makarov chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, an old tell that her husband recognized as worry.

  Roland held up a too thick dog tag.

  “I had it scanned by our foundry,” he said. “The molecular structure of this ‘star stuff’ that Ely Hale brought us isn’t like anything my techs have seen before. Transmitting the plans to the foundries aboard your ships isn’t viable either.”

  “Signal degradation,” Makarov said, nodding. Her command bridge was connected to Roland’s holo table by a single laser that synched quantum dot encryption banks, allowing them to converse like they were right next to each other, instead of waiting several minutes for the speed of light to carry their messages back and forth across the star system.

  “If we don’t get the perfect scan to replicate Astranite, what I would make wouldn’t be Astranite. It could make the engine explode…or, more likely, it just wouldn’t work at all,” she said.

  “And I don’t have anything that can reach your ships.” Roland shrugged. “Unless I could mount this star stuff on a rail cannon and shoot it at you.”

  Makarov looked at him and sighed.

  “Exactly, that won’t work. So if Ely Hale dropping onto Aachen from out of nowhere is supposed to be the miracle we need, it’s not a very workable miracle,” Roland said. “The best option for the Crusade is to evacuate Hale and the Qa’Resh tech he’s carrying and get it back to the Lady. The Ibarra Nation needs this, Ivana. They need it more than they need me or the soldiers under my command.”

  “I’m not leaving you behind.” Makarov shook her head. “Not when there’s a solution to this that I’m not seeing.”

  “You can’t beat the Geist force in orbit.” Roland swatted the schematics out of the holo. “There’s too many of them. We’re not getting any reinforcements through our Keystone gate, not when the whole sector defense just collapsed. So Ely Hale giving us the fuel for a faster-than-light engine hasn’t changed anything, has it?”

  “You’re thinking like a knuckle dragger, like always,” Makarov said, crossing her arms. “This will come down to a void fight, and there’s plenty of space between the Keystone and Aachen. Lucky for us, the Geist’s speed is about the same as ours…but a bit slower.”

  A course plotted from Makarov’s fleet to Aachen. It would take roughly thirty hours for her to arrive at best speed.

  “So we have a window.” Makarov wagged a finger. “We pull the Geist out of position and we can make this work. All we have to do is make a mistake.”

  Roland’s brow furrowed and he glanced from side to side, then tapped the holo controls. “Make a mistake? Am I connected to the right woman?”

  The holo focused in on the Keystone gate, the mobile Crucible that was one of the few advantages the Crusade had over the Geist.

  “No. No no no,” Roland mumbled.

  “Yes. What I have in mind is just foolish enough to work. But I need you to build some components. Then we’ll assemble it in orbit…while we’re underway and fighting the Geist,” Makarov said quietly.

  “I can’t stop you from trying, can I?” Roland asked.

  “No, my dear, you’re not the only one out here who’s willing to die fighting. Remember that time I pulled your ass out of the fire on Mars? Just like that…but completely different. In parts.” Makarov brushed strands of gray and black hair from her forehead.

  Chapter 2

  Ely Hale rolled throu
gh a narrow tunnel, the legs of his Armor folded flat and the treads gripping the single lane through the tunnel. Overhead lighting was inconsistent, with dark patches from broken lights every so often. There was only one way forward, though, and he barely registered the flickering.

  Within the armored pod, he brought a hand to his face, feeling the thick amniosis surrounding him in the slosh against his fingers. The Armor’s arm moved to mime the gesture.

  +Problem?+ Aignar asked within Ely’s machine.

  “I just volunteered to fight in the Crusade and I don’t know what I’m doing, or what it means to be a Crusader. Mom and Dad both served, and they warned me about ever volunteering for anything in the military. Look what I’ve gone and done,” Ely said.

  +You did pretty good back there. The Geist broke through the walls and you were there to stop them. You didn’t panic. You had aggression. We can train that into soldiers. It isn’t always innate like it is with you.+

  “I was terrified!” Ely’s arms shot up and the fingers bounced off the tunnel ceiling. “Oops.”

  +Battle’s scary. Surprise, surprise. If you’re not scared, you’re not taking it seriously…or you just don’t care anymore. Neither option’s good.+

  “Were you scared when that giant worm…thing…came at us? Or when we were fighting Nakir?”

  Aignar was silent and they passed through a long, dark stretch. The lights switched back on and Ely flinched at the sudden brightness.

  +I’m not fighting. It’s you.+

  “But what happens to you if the suit’s badly damaged?”

  +I’m not in the suit. I’m part of the pod you’re plugged—no, you’re not plugged, are you? If this pod gets scratched, the chance of you surviving that is pretty poor. So if I go down, you and I will cross the veil together, won’t we?+

  The Armor’s helm shook side to side. “That makes me responsible for you too. I’m glad I passed on the Astranite to Marshal Shaw, one less weight on my shoulders. Hey, how do you know him? He picked up on you being in here with me pretty quick.”

  +Small world.+

  Warning signs appeared on the tunnel walls, alerting him to a transfer station coming up in a couple hundred yards.

  Ely tried to slow down, but the speed of one tread didn’t keep with the other and the suit rumbled violently against the path cut into the bottom of the tunnel.

  “Crap crap crap!” Ely pitched forward, his treads snapping out into legs as he went helm-first into the concrete floor. He slid forward, the metal of his suit squealing as friction slowed him to a stop.

  He lay there, the servos in his legs clinking back and forth, as his suit tried to finalize the transformation into his walker setting.

  +I won’t tell anyone about this.+

  “What a pal you are.” Ely stood up and promptly whacked the back of his helm against the ceiling. He sank back down and took short steps forward. “How about you tell me how this thing is supposed to work so I stop spazzing out?”

  +Armor is designed so that you can use it without additional conscious effort. Want to walk? Walk. It’s not like a plane or a car that has an interface where you control the vehicle through a wheel or a throttle. That’s the beauty of it. You are Armor. When you’re using systems that your body doesn’t have—the rail gun anchor or the treads—you have to will it into use. It takes months to be proficient, and the better your synch rating, the better the integration between you and the Armor. I’m here to bridge the gap because you pussied out and didn’t get plugs.+

  “Hey, no one exactly offered me a skull plug. It was ‘get-in-the-Armor-before-you-die’ and then it was you and me in La La Land. I’ve got enough extra crap in my skull at the moment; doubt plugs would make it any better.” Ely came around a slight curve and straightened up as he left the tunnel.

  He was several levels up in a massive cylinder that stretched so high, the top was lost in a flood of lights blazing beneath metal tracks, running up and down the walls on dual slots. The tracks carried cargo pallets, shuffling them between tunnel levels in an intricate dance that no human controller could have managed. The clack of tracks locking and unlocking, along with the hydraulic whine, made Ely feel like he was in an old factory while the manufacturing lines ran at full tilt.

  +Three-dimensional city living,+ Aignar said. +Keeps the surface roads clear. Also pretty useful when you have to move supplies around a city under siege.+

  “Real neat. But how are we supposed to get to the…” Ely pulled down a notepad on his UI. “Burdin Kuartela: ozoa burdea. Whatever that’s supposed to be. Marshal said report there and take the tunnel we just came out of. Maybe I should’ve asked for some more directions, but he was all excited about getting the Astranite and—whoa!”

  The platform under Ely jerked aside and locked into tracks. He looked over the edge at the bottom of the transfer station a few dozen yards below. He rose up, ducking beneath another platform that swung across where his head would’ve been.

  “Are you doing this?” Ely asked.

  +Nope. I’m just along for the ride.+

  The platform rose higher, flowing around carts laden with munitions and power packs. Ely went to one knee, not wanting to test if his Armor would survive an impact or the fall to the bottom.

  His ride locked into the end of another white tunnel, identical to the rest leading into and out of the station. Ely felt the platform vibrate as it de-coupled and he stepped into the tunnel.

  “Look at me, I’m luggage again. Just getting shuttled from place to place.” He looked down at his legs. They angled from his hip servos, and armor plates flipped up to reveal his treads that hit the bottom with a whack. He started forward.

  +Careful. You throw track and your life will be miserable trying to get it all linked back together. Don’t run over barbed wire if you can help it either. I learned that lesson the hard way…Earth…what did you see there?+

  “Not sure I’m the best person to ask…” Ely told him of Phoenix, transformed into an open-air prison, the people of Earth fitted with a harness on the back of their neck that allegedly captured their souls at the moment of death, and the giant Geist pyramid ships looming over cities, the apex pointed at the ground like an arrowhead about to strike.

  +How many people were left?+

  “Hoffman said that the Geist were moving people from the colony worlds back to Earth. I didn’t get a number. Sorry.”

  +If only we’d held at the Line…+

  A rumble grew in the tunnel as Ely rolled up a ramp. He came over the top and almost collided with a cart with two people sitting in the front. Their eyes went wide with shock and the driver threw his cart in reverse, pulling them back as Ely screeched to a halt.

  The driver threw his hands up as he panted, his face going flush with fear and the shock of an almost head-on collision with a suit of Armor.

  “Idiot!” the passenger slapped the driver on the back of the head and began a slew of expletives, which Ely actually understood, though he wasn’t about to repeat any of them in polite company.

  “Hi, either of you know where to find a burdin kuartela: ozoa burdea?” Ely asked through his speakers.

  “Forgive me, sir,” the driver said, putting a hand over his heart. “Green sector needs battery packs and we broke the control protocols to get ahead of the queue.”

  “Now we’re stuck. Told you we should’ve just waited for the override. Back. Back!” The passenger pulled a lever on the controls and the cart accelerated away slowly. “There’s an Armor barracks in the football stadium in our sector, sir. Can’t miss it.”

  “They in the wrong spot or am I?” Ely asked Aignar.

  +If they’d hit you, they’d be going home in a bucket, so it was on them to be more careful. And they know where that place is.+

  Ely kept pace with the cart. Both occupants looked over the load at the tunnel, but they took turns glancing at Ely.

  “Why do you guys speak English?” Ely asked.

  “Union citizens in service
of the Crusade,” the passenger said. “We got away from the colony on Sagittarius IX before the lockdown…why are you even asking that? Didn’t you deploy with the Crusade for the evac?”

  “Shut up, Teddy, he’s Armor.” The driver smacked the back of his hand against Terry’s chest.

  “Well, he don’t look like the rest of the Armor. That’s one of the older models if I remember right.” The passenger smiled at Ely, then turned his attention to the tunnel as he and the driver argued in whispers.

  The cart drove out of the tunnel and into a parking lot with spaces angled toward the entrance/exit.

  “Now we just have to wait.” The driver pointed at a screen hanging to one side of his space. “Our original transit request is still in the system and—” The screen blinked green and a ten-second countdown began.

  The passenger slapped the driver on the back of the head.

  “Straight that way.” The passenger pointed to open garage doors at the back of the parking lot.

  Ely nodded and rolled out to an open-air warehouse. Piles of munitions, parts, and food were in neat rows. Robot carts meandered from pallet to pallet, where mechanical arms picked out boxes and crates to add to future shipments.

  Ely transformed back into his walker configuration and looked up. A hazy column of light rose from a tower to the sky, where the column blossomed out into a dome made up of hexagon tiles run through with a dark metal lattice.

  +That’s new.+

  “Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that either,” said Ely, watching as ripples expanded from the shield layer and a low rumble like thunder carried down to them. “Let’s find this burdin whatever. Maybe they’ve got something useful for me to do.”

  +You’ve never heard of ‘hurry up and wait,’ have you?+

  “No, but I’ve got a feeling I’ll learn all about it.” Ely looked around, but there was no sign of any football stadium, just rows and rows of supplies. “Assuming I ever find the damn place.”

  Chapter 3