Date: 2016-06-26 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Military Fiction; Horror
Description: The human race is about to be without a home, Earth having been turned into a toxic wasteland by decades of war and centuries of neglect. Now united and desperate to put down new roots, humanity sets off across the galaxy. But, the galaxy isn't as hospitable as people would like. Humanity needs a miracle to survive against the first alien race they encounter. Good thing they have that miracle in the form of a team of 30-foot human-piloted battle robots known as the Mech Corps!
Publisher: SEVERED Press

MECH CORPS

Jake Bible

Copyright 2017 by Jake Bible

Part One

Jethro

1.

The drop ship fell through the atmosphere at a rate that should have liquefied every brain on board if not for the dampeners in place to prevent just that from happening. Sixty men and women, ten to an infantry squad, sat strapped to the walls of the drop ship, most with their eyes shut tight and jaws clenched, all ready to get to the dirty work of clearing out their drop zone.

“Two minutes to touch down.”

No one flinched even though the announcement was almost ear shatteringly loud in the comms. A little ringing in the ears was the least of the infantry’s worries.

Hrouska was a newly discovered planet, one that showed all signs of being able to support long-term human habitation, but no one had explored it beyond a few square kilometers. Any dangers the planet held would be found out by the men and women that were currently falling at terminal velocity to the planet’s surface.

“One minute to touch down. BFI!”

BFI, or brace for impact, were always the last words heard before the drop ship hit dirt. Sometimes they were the last words heard for infantry squads. Landing in the unknown was not for the faint of heart or weak of spirit. Survival was a concept, not a guarantee.

The drop ship slammed into the planet’s surface and the men and women were up on their feet the second their straps released, the hatch of the ship began to open, and the rear ramp dropped. Coordination was still a theory at that point, so half the bodies ended up colliding with each other before the owners found stability, explosive-round carbines clutched tightly in gloved hands, and raced to the rear of the ship.

“Even squads cover the three! Odds cover the nine! Clear then proceed forward after a five count! Set the circle and protect the DZ!”

“Hooyah!” the squads replied in unison.

Squads moved like well-oiled machines, swerving in and out of each other, taking up defensive positions along the perimeter of the drop ship, carbines trained on the almost pitch black jungle that surrounded the landing zone. After a count of five, half the squads moved forward, pushing into the outer edges of the jungle until they were a good six meters in.

In unison, half of those squads took knees, eyes on the darkness, while the other half kept moving, delving deeper into the alien landscape.

“Talk to me squad leaders!”

“No hostiles on the eight!”

“No hostiles on the two!”

“No hostiles on the six!”

“No hostiles on the–!”

“No hostiles on–!”

“Jesus Christ! What the hell are those?”

The darkness was broken by the muzzle fire of thirty carbines. Strange trees that stood fifteen meters high with willowy branches and strands of hairy moss hanging off came into view in brief, strobe-like glimpses as explosive round after explosive round was fired at whatever the squads had encountered.

“Report, squad leaders! What are you seeing out there?”

“I can’t see shit, LT!”

“No goddamn clue! I’ve lost half my squad and I don’t know how!”

“LT! Call in orbital support!”

“Orbital support is last resort only!”

“What the hell do you think–?”

“Talk to me, squad leaders!”

“We are!”

“Jesus shitting on a stump! What are those things?”

Screams began to overtake the sound of carbine fire. Men and women crying out for help, screeching in agony, terror filling every warble and waver in their voices.

“Fire in the hole!”

Two trees set at the drop ship’s five o’clock position were engulfed in flames as incendiary grenades went off one after the other. The night brightened and the soldiers that hadn’t moved from their positions by the drop ship all gasped in unison.

There were things in the jungle. Alien things that none could quite describe. All they knew were the things moved fast. Real fast.

“Requesting a full retreat, LT!”

“Hold your position, squad leaders! We do not give up just because we are engaged!”

“LT! I can’t see my–!”

“Jesus Christ, LT! I just watched squads eight, three, and one get ripped apart!”

“This ain’t good, LT! We can’t hold this position!”

“LT? Come in, LT!”

“You will hold the goddamn position! This DZ has been designated as vital to our mission! Do not retreat!”

“Shit!”

“Fire in the hole!”

“Fire in the hole!”

“Fire in the–!”

Five more trees blazed, flames racing up their trunks and across the willowy limbs. The fire quickly spread out across the canopy and the entire area was illuminated in oranges and reds. So much red.

***

Lieutenant Henry Nep sat in the cockpit of the drop ship, his eyes flitting from vid screen to vid screen, as he struggled to keep from throwing up. It was far from his first mission. Hell, it was far from his twentieth mission. But, never, not once, had things gone south so fast. He’d dropped into the shit plenty of times, but never once did it get over his head so much that he was going to drown in it.

“What the hell are they fighting?” Nep snarled. “I can’t see a damn thing out there!”

“Not a clue, LT,” the pilot replied, her hands firmly gripped on the flight stick and throttle. “But you say the word and we are out of here.”

“You heard what I said,” Nep responded. “Brass wants this DZ cleared and held. We will clear it and we will hold it.”

“LT…” the co-pilot said. “I don’t know what the men and women are fighting out there, but I do know that whatever they are, they’re winning. Our people are getting slaughtered.”

Three of the twelve vid screens went dark while another was splattered with so much blood that it may as well have.

“Sweet Lord…” Nep whispered. His hand hesitated over the comms, pulled back, then hurried forward and depressed the link to the ship orbiting a thousand plus kilometers above the planet. “Command? This is Nep requesting authorization for immediate evac. We are getting ripped to shreds down here.”

The drop ship shuddered. Hard. Two more vid screens went dark.

“Command? Come in!”

“Shit, LT, comms are out,” the co-pilot said. “Something must have damaged the relay.”

“Then get out there and fix it, goddammit!” Nep shouted.

“You go out there and fix it!” the co-pilot replied.

“Order the evac and let me get us out of here,” the pilot said. “Call an audible, LT. No comms means it’s your play.”

“The brass wants the DZ held,” Nep said more to himself than to pilot or co-pilot.

Both were used to how Nep worked, so they gave him five seconds to figure it out before they sprang into action.

“I’m securing the personnel area,” the co-pilot said as he jumped up out of his seat and yanked open the hatch that separated the drop ship’s two compartments.

“Bringing engines back online,” the pilot said.

“All squads return to the DS now!” Nep shouted into the comms. “This is a full retreat! Get your asses into the personnel hold immediately! We are taking off in thirty seconds!”

“Faster if I can,” the pilot muttered.

The drop ship shuddered again and the co-pilot came racing back into the cockpit, slamming the hatch closed with all his might. He spun the hatch door wheel until it locked in place then mashed his palm against a red button off to the side. The seams around the hatch smoked and sparked as an auto weld began to seal the hatch closed.

“Oh, shit,” the pilot said.

“Is the ramp still down?” Nep asked.

“It’s down,” the co-pilot cried as he fell into his seat and strapped in. “Get us out of here.”

“We have to wait for the squads!” Nep yelled. “We are not leaving them behind!”

“You want to live or die, LT?” the co-pilot roared. “Because those are your choices! The squads are lost, LT!”

Nep turned back to the remaining vid screens and stared at the horror outside the drop ship. Only three screens were active and they showed men and women firing at random, incendiary grenades, concussion grenades, and the newly developed plasma grenades going off left and right. Body parts flew through the air, there was nothing but pure panicked chaos. Then one by one, the vid screens died and the local comms cut off, plunging the cockpit into silence.

Almost silence.

A heavy thudding accompanied each shuddering impact of the drop ship. Then a loud clang echoed from the hatch, causing Nep to jump and pull his sidearm.

“Put that away,” the pilot said as she slowly pushed the throttle forward and pulled back on the flight stick. “You’ll kill us with a ricochet. I’m getting us out of here.”

The hatch bowed inward as something massive slammed into it.

“Faster!” the co-pilot cried, his eyes locked onto the warped metal of the hatch. “Oh, sweet Jesus, go faster!”

Nep locked his eyes on the hatch as it continued to bow in its welded frame. He lifted the pistol and took aim.

“Faster, faster, faster, faster,” the co-pilot muttered over and over as the nose of the drop ship began to angle upward while the pilot pushed the throttle harder.

“Try the emergency comms,” the pilot said to Nep. “We have to connect with command.”

Nep didn’t move. He was frozen in place as one after another, dents began forming in the hatch.

“LT!” the pilot yelled.

“Yeah,” Nep said. He holstered his pistol and popped a panel open in the comms system. He yanked out an ancient-looking handset and depressed the button. “Command? This is Nep! We have lost the squads! I repeat! We have lost the squads! The DZ was under attack the second we touched down!”

“Don’t you dare tell them about–” the co-pilot started.

“Unknown hostile is aboard the DS! We have it locked out, but we will need assistance upon landing!” Nep continued.

“Goddammit, LT!” the co-pilot screeched. “You asshole! You just killed us!”

Nep’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d done. Unknown hostile on board the DS. No way command would allow the orbiting ship to be compromised.

“Maybe it didn’t go through,” Nep said. “Maybe they can’t hear us.”

“Yeah. Maybe,” the pilot said, her eyes forward, watching as the dark clouds of the upper atmosphere began to thin then clear away. “Let’s pray that’s what happened.”

***

The two missiles impacted with the drop ship as soon as it broke through the cloud cover. The vehicle was vaporized instantly, leaving nothing but metallic particulates in its wake.

***

Colonel Las Meera shook her head as she watched the drop ship’s signature go red then clear from the scanner screen.

“How many is that?” she asked.

“All of them, Colonel,” a tech replied. “All four drop ships have been lost. We didn’t secure a single drop zone.”

“Shit,” Meera said. “You have definite confirmation?”

“We don’t even have transponder signals,” a second tech said. “Two had to be cleansed from the air before they could contaminate the Dorso; the rest are just gone, Colonel.”

“Gone,” Meera said. “Gone. How can we lose four drop ships and twenty-four infantry squads within thirty minutes? What in God’s name is down there?”

“Whatever they are, they don’t want us setting foot on their planet,” Chief Science Officer Kev Cheepa said as he walked onto the bridge of the command ship Dorso. “You gonna listen to me now, Colonel?”

“I listened to you before, Kev,” Meera said. “But we all have our orders.”

“Except those orders cost those men and women down there their lives,” Cheepa responded. “I said we needed to do more scans before sending boots on the ground.”

“Yeah, you are so damned smart,” Meera snarled. “Sit your ass down at your station, Cheepa, and shut up.”

“Aye aye,” Cheepa said.

“What’s our turnaround?” Meera asked one of the techs.

“Colonel?” the tech replied.

“Ship to station,” Meera said. “What is the turnaround on the comms to Station Beta Eight?”

“Two weeks, Colonel,” the tech said. “The wormhole is all the way across the system and not the most stable portal. It’ll take a week for the message to reach the relay before it can be sent via trans-space.”

“Shit,” Meera snapped and slammed her fist against the console in front of her. “No way to get it there faster?”

“Speed is what speed is,” the tech said. “Two weeks is the best we can do.”

“Fine,” Meera said. “Open a channel to Station Beta Eight. We’re gonna need backup.”

“Backup?” Cheepa laughed. “Have you lost your mind, Colonel? We don’t need backup, we need to leave. We get back to SBE, show them the data, and regroup from there. This planet is lost to us. We’re one command ship. The Dorso is not equipped to handle whatever is–”

“That’s quite enough, Cheepa!” Meera shouted. “We are not leaving orbit! Whatever killed our people down there is down there! Down! There! Not up here in orbit! I will send a message to SBE and await further instructions! Are we understood?”

“Loud and, sir,” Cheepa replied instantly. “Loud and…”

“Good,” Meera said and closed her eyes. She shook her head. “How much data can you send?”

“Data, sir?” the tech asked.

“What little vid we were able to gather,” Meera said. “Can you send that with the message?”

“I can, sir, but it’ll reach SBE about five days after your message.”

“Do it. I’ll let them know in my message that it is incoming. Is the channel open?”

“Channel is open, sir,” the tech said. “Ready to record on your mark.”

“Record,” Meera said and cleared her throat. “Station Beta Eight, this is Colonel Las Meera of the Orbital Command Ship Dorso…”

2.

“After exploring thirteen exoplanets all within Goldilocks parameters, we have yet to encounter a xeno species more sentient than a house cat, General,” Ambassador Beryl Torn said, a wicked smile on her face. “Why should the United Exploratory Coalition continue to fund what seems to me, an excessive amount of firepower to put down some overgrown vermin?”

“Have you ever pissed off a house cat?”

“You know what I am saying, General.”

General Malique Jennings leaned back against the railing of the catwalk that hung above the main repair hangar where everything from drop ship landing gear to orbital command ship engines to half-assembled battle mechs were all in various states of repair and disrepair. The space was massive, and the noise from below was nearly deafening, but the members of the special tour General Jennings was leading all had protective earpieces which allowed them to communicate with each other while avoiding permanent hearing damage.

Still, the shrieking of metal saws and shrill whines of hydraulic drills was hard to keep out, and Jennings had to suppress a grin as Torn flinched from the sound of a tungsten saw blade shearing in half as it lost its battle against a stubborn coupling that had frozen solid on a battle mech’s leg.

“Did you have your inoculations before taking this trip to the outer reaches, Ambassador?” Jennings asked.

“I fail to see how my personal medical information is relevant, General,” Torn said, her nose ticking up a centimeter into the air in indignation. “Unless you are merely trying to avoid answering my question by picking a fight with me on a personal level. Let me warn you that–”

Jennings held up a hand and shook his head.

“No, Ambassador,” Jennings said. “The last thing I want to do is pick a fight with someone known for her crushing debate skills.”

The rest of the tour group chuckled and even the ambassador had to smile at the compliment.

“Let me answer my own question,” Jennings said. “As the commanding officer of Station Beta Eight, I have access to the files of every single person that steps foot through the airlocks. That includes you, Ambassador. Now, I haven’t looked at yours, or anyone else’s here, but I can say with certainty that you have had your inoculations or you would never have been cleared for travel this far out.”

“You are amusing, General, but you are also trying my patience,” Torn said.

“My apologies,” Jennings said. “What I am getting at is that you had those inoculations in order to minimize the threat of succumbing to any diseases that your body is not used to. I like to think of my Mech Expeditionary Units as the military equivalent of those inoculations.”

“You are reaching with that metaphor, General,” Torn said.

“Could be. You are probably right,” Jennings said and laughed. He pushed away from the railing and stood straight, his eyes narrow and intense as he stared down at the much shorter ambassador. “How safe would you feel if I took a couple steps towards you?” Jennings took two steps closer. “And coughed?”

He coughed and Torn took two involuntary steps back.

“Now, imagine that cough was the first aggressively sentient xeno race humankind encounters,” Jennings continued. “You’ve had your inoculations, so that cough shouldn’t worry you. Just like I have my MEUs, so when we do encounter that aggressively sentient xeno race, I won’t be worried. And, Ambassador, if I’m not worried, then you aren’t worried. My job here is to take the worry out of exploring the stars and finding us all some new homes we can settle while poor Earth quickly collapses under one environmental catastrophe after another.”

“Point taken, General,” Torn said. “Now, let me make mine. When you cough, you should cover your mouth. I oversee the UEC’s expansion budget, which includes all military provisions. Think of me as the crook of the arm that covers the cough of your expenditures.”

“And this is why I won’t ever try to win a debate against you, Ambassador,” Jennings said, chuckling. “Your mastery of my own metaphor is proof of that.”

Jennings looked at the rest of the dignitaries and elites that accompanied Torn on her trip to the outer reaches. Sycophants and toadies of the current political culture every one of them as far as he was concerned. Torn was the only true threat.

“How about we break for lunch?” Jennings asked. “We can discuss the latest discoveries while I show…”

Jennings trailed off as a chime rang in his earpiece. It was a channel the tour could not hear and a tone that told him he was going to be skipping that lunch.

“If you’ll excuse me for a minute,” Jennings said.

He nodded at a corporal that had been standing unobtrusively out of the way. The corporal hurried to take the tour from the general.

“Is everything alright, General?” Torn asked.

“Of course,” Jennings replied. “Corporal Stern will show you to the mess level and make sure to answer as many questions as he can. Corporal?”

“If you will follow me please, ladies and gentlemen,” Corporal Stern said and waved his arm towards the hatch at the end of the catwalk.

Jennings watched them leave then answered the chime. “Jennings. Go.”

“General, we’ve received a message from the Dorso. It’s not good.”

“Explain not good, Major,” Jennings replied.

“I’d rather not do that over comms, sir,” Major Tappa Nomo said.

Jennings’ eyes strayed to the hatch that was just closing as the tour left the catwalk.

“I’ll be right there, Major,” Jennings said. “What precautions have you taken?”

“Command deck is locked down and only need to know personnel are present, sir,” Nomo said.

“Jesus Christ,” Jennings swore and pinched the bridge of his nose. “That bad?”

“That bad, sir.”

“On my way.”

***

“Station Beta Eight, this is Colonel Las Meera of the Orbital Command Ship Dorso. You will be receiving this message two weeks after I have sent it. As of this moment, we have lost all drop ships to an unknown threat on the planet Hrouska. We were forced to take cleansing measures, something I am not proud of. At this moment, we are still analyzing all data, but my Chief Science Officer believes we are dealing with an aggressive sentient race. One that has the capability to defeat our best infantry squads within minutes of landing.”

“Did she say she was forced to take cleansing measures?” Torn asked. “As in killing our own?”

“What the bloody hell?” Jennings shouted as he held up a hand for the transmission to be stopped while he whirled around to face the ambassador. “Torn, you overstep your authority. The command deck has been closed to need to know personnel only. I have to ask you to leave immediately.”

“Now it is you that has overstepped his authority,” Torn said as she walked further into the command deck and presented her wrist. “If you will scan me, please, General, you will see that as of the moment I stepped on board this station, I became the highest-ranking civilian here.”

“Good for you,” Jennings snapped. “But the highest-ranking civilian is still under my command.”

“A quick scan, General?”

Jennings sighed and took the ambassador by the forearm and waved her wrist over a sensor set into the side of his console. There was a quiet beep and a light flashed green then the ambassador’s information appeared on a vid screen.

“Son of a bitch,” Jennings muttered as he stared at the words “Full Access Granted.”

“I believe you have a message to listen to?” Torn said, taking her arm back from the general’s firm grip. “Please proceed.”

The command crew stared at Jennings, their eyes locked onto his face, waiting. He finally nodded and the comms officer continued playing the message.

“Currently, we are maintaining orbit until we hear further. We have two remaining drop ships, but only four squads of infantry left on the Dorso. Despite my soldiers’ insistence that they be allowed to go down and hunt for survivors, I am keeping them aboard ship. There is zero evidence that they will not face the same fate as the squads already lost.”

“I am sorry to interrupt,” Torn said.

“Then don’t!” Jennings snapped.

“But did she say the message was sent two weeks ago?” Torn continued, walking to the comms console. “If that’s the case, then there is either a glitch in the system or this message was delayed.”

“I was going to inform the general of that as soon as he finished listening to the message,” Major Nomo said.

“Shouldn’t he have been informed first?” Torn asked.

“If my XO thinks I should listen to the full message first, then he has a very good reason, Ambassador,” Jennings said. “If you continue to interrupt, then I will remove you from the command deck, authorization to be here or not. Kindly sit down and shut up.”

All eyes went to the ambassador and she nodded then found a seat against the wall.

“We have completed six full scans of the planet and do not detect any signs of survivors. Worse yet, we do not detect any signs of civilization or proof that there is a sentient race on the surface. My Chief Science Officer believes the creatures, whatever they may be, are subterranean. However, I am not convinced. The attacks on our drop ships came too fast and were too coordinated for the creatures to have been waiting underground. They were ready for us. I do not know how. But they were ready for us.”

A loud squeal of static filled the command deck.

“Confirm! … But, how? … Yes, immediately! … Evasive maneuvers! Evasive–!”

Another loud squeal then a neutral voice stated, “End of transmission.”

“That’s all we have, sir,” Nomo said. “It took six weeks for it to arrive, not two, as you can see. I’ve already had the message traced, and it appears it was stuck in a data loop within the wormhole portal comms relay for three weeks.”

“It should only take two weeks for it to reach us,” Jennings said. “How do you account for the lost week?”

“I don’t, sir,” Nomo said. “There is no accounting for the lag other than equipment malfunction on the Dorso or the ship was on the planet’s opposite side and the message was bounced around the system for a week before reaching the wormhole relay.”

“May I ask a question now, General?” Torn asked.

“No,” Jennings said. “Nomo? Talk to me.”

“We can have an MEU there within a week if the ship burns the engines hard and they come through that wormhole hot,” Nomo said.

“General? I believe my question is relevant to the issue at hand,” Torn said.

“Not now, Ambassador!” Jennings shouted. “Nomo, if they burn hard and come in hot, they risk a hull breach upon exit.”

“Yes, they do, sir,” Nomo said.

“We have one MEU Command Ship that can handle that,” Jennings said.

“Yes, we do, sir,” Nomo said.

“Are they close enough to rotation to risk the trip? I do not want burnouts being sent into an unknown like this,” Jennings said.

“They are two rotations out, sir,” Nomo said. “Not ideal, but it is the Jethro. If any MEU can handle the stress, they are the ones.”

“I know, but still…” Jennings rubbed his forehead.

“General?” Torn said. “I am going to insist you listen to my question.”

“Break the news to Colonel Parveet, Major,” Jennings said, ignoring the ambassador. “She’s going to be pissed, but you know that’s only a front. That woman loves this sort of thing.”

“That she does, sir,” Nomo said and smiled. “That she does.”

“I’m just going to ask the damn question then!” Torn snapped. “Listen or don’t! Can anyone tell me what those voices are saying in the static?”

All heads turned to regard the ambassador then turned to regard the general.

“Voices?” Jennings asked then snapped his fingers.

The comms officer isolated the static bursts and played them.

They were faint, and the words were almost impossible to make out, but there was no mistaking the fact that within the static bursts there were voices. Panicked, terrified voices.

“That’s the Dorso, sir,” Nomo said. “What are they saying?”

“Too hard to isolate,” the comms officer replied. “I’ll clean it up as much as I can.”

“Did she say they were landing?” Jennings asked.

No one could answer.

“Good catch, Ambassador,” Jennings said after a few seconds of fruitless listening. “My apologies.”

“I appreciate the apology, General,” Torn said. “Now, if I can be so bold, may I request a private audience with you? Perhaps we can adjourn to my cabin for lunch while we discuss your decision to send a MEU Command Ship against an unknown threat?”

“Ambassador, with all due respect–”

“That wasn’t really a request, General,” Torn said. “I will expect you in my cabin within the half hour. Thank you.”

The ambassador left the command deck. All eyes made a point of not looking at General Jennings that time. Major Nomo cleared his throat.

“Speak,” Jennings said.

“Sir, she holds the purse strings to everything outside the Sol System,” Nomo said. “As you know, my family is well connected and…”

“I said speak, Nomo,” Jennings growled.

“Her family is more connected than mine, sir,” Nomo continued. “Much more. Whether you want to or not, you will have to listen to what she has to say.”

Jennings sighed and rubbed his forehead vigorously before moving towards the command deck doors. He left without saying a word.

3.

Jennings nearly sprayed water across the small table set with food delicacies he hadn’t seen since leaving Earth to command Station Beta Eight a dozen years earlier. Nearly sprayed. Water was precious enough; he didn’t need to waste it and also taint the dishes set out before him.

So he choked and coughed, kept his mouth shut, then finally managed to swallow the sip he’d taken just as Torn said, “I plan on accompanying this MEU to Hrouska.”

Taking a couple deep breaths through his nose, just to make sure he was good, Jennings smiled and cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, Ambassador, but did you say you are requesting that I allow you to accompany the Jethro to a planet where an aggressive sentient race may have wiped out a first wave expeditionary force?” Jennings shook his head. “Because, there is no way I could have heard that. There is also no way I can authorize that to happen.”

“General, we have established that your authorization is not needed when it comes to my actions,” Torn said. “I am cleared to carve my own path in this complex situation.”

“And how is it complex?” Jennings asked. He took a quick, cautious sip, set the water glass down then looked at the savory dishes in front of him. “I am sending an MEU to ascertain the fate of the Dorso. As with all MEUs, I will leave the decision to attempt a planetary landing with the officer in charge. In this case, that would be Colonel Jala Parveet. Having you in her way could inhibit her decision-making abilities. When a commander’s decision-making abilities are inhibited in a complex situation, as you say, like this one, then good people die. Wave your wrist at any scanner you want, but there is no way I will allow you to step foot on the Jethro.”

“Your disapproval will be noted for the record, General,” Torn said. “But it stops nothing. While my colleagues are here on a simple tour which will help them inform their decisions regarding their specific realms of influence at the United Exploratory Coalition, I however, am here to decide whether continued exploration, and expansion into systems, is even necessary.”

“Necessary?” Jennings asked, plucking a pickled something from a plate and popping it into his mouth. He grimaced, but chewed and swallowed. “Ambassador, of the planets we have found that are possible candidates for the human race’s expansion, only two can be considered viable. And of those two, only one has the water resources needed for colonization. Exploration is vital if we are going to survive as a species past the next century. Need I remind you that–”

“No, General, you do not need to remind me of anything,” Torn interrupted. “Earth will be unsustainable by the middle of next century. We have approximately four decades to find an alternative planet or our species will die out. Not to mention the few other species that are left on Earth. We have already lost 99% of the plant and animal life that existed at the beginning of this century.”

Jennings eyed the ambassador for a few seconds then pushed back from the table and crossed his arms.

“You want to keep exploring,” Jennings stated.

“Yes,” Torn said. “I want to keep exploring.”

“But the UEC doesn’t.”

“But the UEC doesn’t.”

“Jesus,” Jennings said. “They’ve already made up their minds, haven’t they?”

“Precisely,” Torn said.

“How many people have you pissed off in making your little trip happen?” Jennings asked.

“None,” Torn said and smiled. “Let’s say my presence here is not widely known among the UEC. My colleagues will report when they return, but by that time your MEU, with me accompanying it, will have surveyed Hrouska’s viability thoroughly.”

Jennings returned Torn’s smile.

“You’re sneaky,” Jennings said.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Torn replied, smiling wider.

“You will do everything and anything that Colonel Parveet tells you to,” Jennings stated. “Non-negotiable.”

“From what I’ve heard, Colonel Parveet is your best officer,” Torn said. “I’d be suicidal if I didn’t listen to her.”

“I don’t know a lot about you, Ambassador, but my XO says your family has wealth that puts you in a very different strata from an old soldier like me,” Jennings said. “Being an old soldier, I know how to take orders. But you being from your background, I believe orders are more concepts to you than hard realities. You will learn some hard realities on this mission. Some of those could be quite painful. And I mean that literally.”

“I will not interfere with any aspect of the mission,” Torn said. “On one condition.”

“You see, we already have a problem,” Jennings said. “A civilian cannot set conditions on a mission like this.”

“It is a condition I think you can agree to,” Torn said.

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t,” Jennings said and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter because once the Jethro leaves Station Beta Eight, it’s up to Parveet what conditions are set. She is not a woman that will hesitate to jettison your privileged ass out an airlock if it means saving one single life from her crew. You sure you want to play in that kind of sandbox?”

“You are all over the place with your metaphors, aren’t you?” Torn chuckled. “May I state my condition?”

Jennings nodded.

“I will hold zero authority on the Jethro–”

“That’s already been established.”

“–but I will insist that I am privy to any and all intel. All Colonel Parveet will need to do is keep me informed. That’s it. The mission is hers, but the data is mine. Do you think she’ll agree to that?”

“No,” Jennings said. He smiled so wide that it looked painful as he leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table. “This is what I am trying to tell you, Ambassador. On the Jethro, Parveet is God. And she is not a merciful god. Not in the slightest.”

Torn slid her chair back and stood up.

“Then perhaps you should introduce me to her,” Torn said. “Where would she be now?”

Jennings watched Torn for a moment then shrugged and activated the comms.

“Nomo?”

“Yes, sir?” Nomo replied.

“Where is Colonel Parveet located currently?”

“Let me see, sir… Ah… Well, sir…”

“Have you broken the news to her that the Jethro is going out?”

“I have, sir.”

“Was she as angry as we expected?”

“More so, sir.”

“So she would be in the cages?”

“She would be in the cages, sir.”

“Thank you, Nomo. I’ll call you if I need you further.”

“Sir?”

“Yes, Nomo?”

“They’re all down there, sir. All of them. They’ve taken it over, sir.”

“Good. I believe this is exactly what the ambassador needs to see.”

“The ambassador, sir? General, please do not–”

Jennings killed the comms.

“What are the cages?” Torn asked.

Jennings smiled and smiled and smiled.

***

Two of Torn’s senses were assaulted as soon as the lift doors opened onto the level of Station Beta Eight that housed the cages: the intense smell of sweat, blood, and piss, and the roaring noise of voices screaming for more sweat, blood, and piss. The sensory assault almost took her down.

“Where have you brought me?” Torn gasped as Jennings placed a careful hand in the small of her back to keep her from tumbling over.

“Reality,” Jennings said and shrugged. “Sort of.”

The ambassador tried to turn around and head back into the lift, but Jennings firmly, yet respectfully, moved his hand from her back and took her by the arm, steering her around the side of the massive room that took up an entire deck of the station.

“You want to go on the Jethro? Then you are going to have to not only see this, but accept it,” Jennings said. “You don’t get a choice anymore. Unless you want to go back to your cabin, wait out the three days remaining on the tour, then go home to your cushy world of diplomacy and debate. Is that what you’d rather do, Ambassador? It’s a decision you’ll need to make now.”

Torn didn’t respond, but she also didn’t try to pull away from Jennings, letting him guide her to a long bar set against the wall. Two soldiers saw the ambassador and general walking towards them and hopped up off their bar stools. They saluted Jennings then disappeared into the roaring crowd that was busy watching the violence that filled four of the cages.

The cages.

They lined the walls of the deck as well as filling three long rows that stretched from end to end. Almost every inch of floor space not occupied by cages was occupied by crew members. Crew members that were screaming and cheering, booing and hissing, holding up hands to get the attention of several overworked bookmakers and holding up hands to get the attention of several even more overworked waitresses.

It made Station Vegas Six look like a Sunday church carnival on valium.

“Beer and whiskey,” Jennings said to the bartender as he sat down on one of the vacated stools and offered the other to the ambassador. “What’ll you have?”

“I thought one of those drinks was mine,” Torn said.

“Nah. You need the whiskey to numb your mouth to the taste of the beer and you need the beer to mask the taste of blood and piss that eventually gets in your mouth if you stay more than five minutes down here,” Jennings said.

“Yes, I can see that,” Torn said, wrinkling her nose. She smiled at the bartender. “Beer and whiskey.”

The bartender started to move off and she grabbed his arm.

“Make it a double.”

“Double whiskey? Or double beers?” the bartender asked.

“Yes,” Torn said.

Jennings laughed then spun about to face the chaos.

The drinks were set on the bar and Torn took her shots of whiskey then picked up a beer, sniffed it and frowned. Jennings looked over at her and smiled.

“Told ya,” he said as he downed his shot of whiskey then began sipping his beer as his attention returned to the violence that filled the deck.

“What am I looking at here?” Torn asked. “Are they actually fighting? How can you sanction this?”

“I don’t sanction it,” Jennings said. “That would be completely against every single regulation in the book.”

“Then why isn’t this being shut down?” Torn asked.

“You see any books?” Jennings asked and chuckled. “Listen, Ambassador, things work differently in the outer reaches. Regulations are good for maintaining order, but they are shit for maintaining life. And that is all we deal with. Life. Or the ending of it.”

“Explain it to me then,” Torn said.

“Okay, sure,” Jennings said and swept his hand out to indicate the entirety of the deck and the scene. “The cages. This deck is on every damn expeditionary station. Wall-to-wall cages meant for the keeping and studying of xeno creatures. There are more problems in that plan than I can begin to explain in my lifetime.”

“Most living creatures do not like to be caged,” Torn said and sipped her beer, coughed hard, then sipped again. “It tastes like… I don’t know what it tastes like.”

“You don’t want to know what it’s made from,” Jennings said and continued. “First problem was cages like this are too utilitarian for study. Short-term containment, sure, but not any kind of meaningful study.”

“Which is why we have Gamma stations,” Torn said.

“Precisely,” Jennings said. “And we figured out early that it’s easier just to ship the creatures to a Gamma instead of housing them here. They die here. Pure and simple. That metaphor can be used for the crew, as well.”

“How so?” Torn asked, sipping again with a slightly less aggravated cough.

“The stations are just giant cages,” Jennings said and held up a hand. “You could argue that the ships are cages as well, but you’d be wrong. Ships are vehicles. They have a destination. If you are on a ship, then you have a defined purpose and that is to get from Point A to Point B. You don’t have that purpose on a station. On a station you are static. You have your duties, you have eating, you have sleeping, you repeat. No different than a creature in a cage.”

“And this violence helps? How can that be?” Torn asked.

“It helps some,” Jennings said. “Not all come down here. In fact, less than one percent of SBE’s crew even thinks about it. The MEUs on the other hand…”

He waited until Torn got the point and began to look around. After a minute of observation, her eyes went wide.

“These are all the same crew?” she asked. “From the Jethro?”

“Tonight, yes,” Jennings said. “This space was probably seventy-five percent MEU to begin with. Once I gave the order to send out the Jethro, though, the others, even from the different MEUs, vacated. They knew better than to stick around.”

“Why?” Torn asked.

“Jethro is its own entity,” Jennings said. “The top predator amongst top predators. The pecking order was established a long time ago.”

“They fight each other?” Torn asked.

“There is a specific personality type that joins a Mech Expeditionary Unit. That type is highly intelligent, highly motivated, highly independent, and highly aggressive. Highly aggressive. They must have an outlet for that aggression at all times or they will tear a station to pieces within weeks.” Jennings shrugged. “Same with a MEU command ship. Get it out on station before any beefs or aggressions can build up on the mission. And Jethro is the most aggressive, by far.”

“Why have I never heard of places like this before?” Torn asked. “I’ve been on other stations and never seen anything resembling these cages.”

“This is not on all stations,” Jennings said. “Each general has their version of what they do to allow their MEUs to keep the pressure from building up, but there’s no reason you’d know anything about those strategies. You wouldn’t know about this one except you’ve extorted a spot on the Jethro from me.”

“Extortion is a rather harsh term,” Torn said.

“What else would you call it?” Jennings asked.

All friendliness was gone as he focused his gaze on the ambassador. She laughed then grew uncomfortable under his gaze. A quick glance around and she nodded.

“I have no friends down here, do I?” she said and laughed again. It was a frightened, cautious laugh, but also filled with understanding. “If something were to happen, you’d have a hundred witnesses to backup any story you made.”

“Not the reason I brought you down here, but yes,” Jennings said. “One part of military life that is spelled out in the regulations, although it transcends beyond what a book can hold, is loyalty. The cages exist because I let them exist. You exist because they know I want you to exist. But…”

He snapped his fingers and despite the cacophony, several heads turned, looked at Jennings, then focused on the ambassador. Jennings smiled, nodded, and waved them off, and all attention left the two of them, returning to the action in the cages.

“Okay, you have my full attention,” Torn said. “Why did you really bring me down here?”

“An introduction,” Jennings said and pointed at the crowd.

“To…?”

“Colonel Jala Parveet,” Jennings said.

“Where is she?” Torn asked. “I don’t see her in the crowd.”

“She’s not in the crowd, Ambassador,” Jennings said. “She’s in a cage. That one. There.”

4.

Wrists wrapped with mechanic’s tape, Colonel Jala Parveet threw a fast jab with her right hand at her opponent then dropped to a knee and threw an even faster left jab at her opponent’s groin. There was a cry of pain then a long list of curse words.

“You think you’re funny, bitch?” the opponent, Sergeant Tag Schroeder, said and laughed. “I ain’t got no balls.”

“Still hurts,” Parveet said as she came up fast with an uppercut that clocked Schroeder just under the chin. “And makes a good distraction.”

Schroeder would have been knocked off her feet if the side of the cage hadn’t kept her from falling on her ass. She shook her head, obviously dazed, and managed to put her arms in front of her face before Parveet came in with wicked fast jabs followed by several right and left hooks.

Of course, arms up to protect one’s face left one’s midsection exposed.

Parveet sent a last right hook at Schroeder’s head then started in on her gut. Fist after fist connected before Schroeder could double over and drop into a protective crouch. A crouch right at knee level.

There was no hesitation in the attack. Parveet switched to kneeing Schroeder over and over and over until the sergeant managed to get a hand free and tap the plasticrete floor of the cage. Parveet’s onslaught stopped instantly and she smiled.

“That’s eight out of ten, Schroeder,” Parveet said. “Six in a row?”

“Five,” Schroeder said as she held out a hand and Parveet helped her to her shaky feet. “Jesus, Colonel. You really clocked me on that last hit.”

Parveet frowned and grabbed Schroeder by the sides of her head, turning it one way then the other.

“Shit, Schroeder, my bad,” she said. “You got a hemorrhage in your left eye. Hit sick bay and get checked out. That’s an order.”

“Did I fall or run into a piece of equipment?” Schroeder asked.

“What did you say last time?” Parveet replied.

“Hell if I know, Boss,” Schroeder said. “You knocked that memory outta my skull.”

“No need for excuses,” Jennings said, his fingers laced through the cage’s metal alloy mesh as he leaned against the side. “Dr. Leung is on shift.”

“Beautiful,” Schroeder said. “He skips the pills and goes straight for the injections. Thanks, General.”

“Just make it back on board the Jethro for your departure and no thanks needed,” Jennings said. He unlatched the cage’s door and swung it inward.

Schroeder nodded to him, paused as she stared at Torn for a second, then was lost in the crowd that had shifted attention to the fight going on two cages down.

“Got a second, Jala?” Jennings asked.

“Sup?” Parveet replied as she stepped past Jennings and Torn and headed straight for a line of chairs set in a gap between two cages against the wall.

She didn’t wait for an answer, just kept walking until she reached one of the chairs, picked up the towel draped across the back, wiped her face, then snagged a water bottle from the ground and drank deep. She didn’t even look behind her at her superior officer.

“You allow her to speak to you that way?”

Parveet stopped drinking and set the water bottle back in its spot. She slowly turned to regard Torn. A look up and down then a snort of derision.

“Torn, yeah?” Parveet asked.

“Yes, Colonel Parveet, that is who I am,” Torn said, her nose wrinkled and turned slightly up.

“She give you this haughty bullshit too?” Parveet asked Jennings.

“Not quite as strong as she is with you,” Jennings replied, looking puzzled.

“Ah, you’re one of those,” Parveet said and sat down on the chair. She yanked her athletic bra up over her head and began wiping the sweat from her breasts. The smile that spread across her face when Torn turned away was one of triumph.

“And what do you mean by that?” Torn asked.

“I mean you’re one of those bitches that can’t handle another woman with bigger gonads than she has,” Parveet said. “You gotta be top twat no matter what room you’re in. Pretty sure the other twats in your life let you have that spot.”

Parveet leaned forward, her forearms on her thighs.

“Do I look like a goddamn twat to you, Ambassador?” Parveet asked. “You can see my titties, but do you see a twat?”

“Knock it off, Jala,” Jennings said, but he was laughing. “Cut the woman some slack.”

“Fine,” Parveet said. “Whatever you say, sir.”

She stood and tossed the towel onto the floor then yanked a bag out from under the chair, pulled a fresh athletic bra from the bag, put it on, then pulled out a T-shirt and put that on. The entire time her eyes were locked on Torn. She sneered, put on a pair of sweatpants over her sweaty shorts, then slung the bag over her shoulder and shoved past the ambassador.

“Drinks. Lots of them. You’re buying, twat,” she said as she pushed people out of the way to get to the bar.

Torn blinked a few times in stunned silence. Jennings kept laughing and pulled her after Parveet.

***

“You tell her your theory about keeping this place from exploding?” Parveet asked then downed three shots of whiskey without pause. She switched her focus from Jennings to Torn. “Did he give you the live life, no regulations, gotta release the pressure somehow bullshit? He loves that speech.”

Parveet raised her eyebrows, but Torn could only stare, slack-jawed. Jennings continued chuckling next to her. Parveet’s eyes narrowed then a look of concern crossed her face. She turned back to Jennings.

“I think I broke her, General,” Parveet said and waved her hand in front of Torn’s face. “Yep. Broke her.”

“Stop that, please,” Torn said and smacked Parveet’s hand away.

“Okay, my bad,” Parveet said. “So, Ambassador Beryl Torn, what did you do to the general here for him to risk everything and bring one of the most influential members of the UEC’s Budget Committee down to the cages?”

“I told him I am coming with you on your mission to Hrouska,” Torn said.

“Did you now?” Parveet replied. She pounded a beer, did two more shots, then held up her hand until the bartender brought her another round of the same. “And if I say no? What will you do to me?”

“Despite all of this,” Torn said, waving at the madness and violence around them. “General Jennings is still the commanding officer of this station and he has the last say.”

“Really?” Parveet said and focused on Jennings. “You do that snap your fingers thing?”

“I did,” Jennings said.

“Was she impressed?” Parveet asked.

“Somewhat,” Jennings replied.

Parveet stood, put her fingers to her mouth, and whistled high and sharp.

The entire deck went dead silent and all eyes turned to Parveet.

“How many did he get to turn around?” Parveet asked.

“Not that many,” Torn said quietly.

“I’d never abuse this power, of course,” Parveet said. “But it’s good to know it’s there.”

She flipped off the crowd and they cheered then got back to the fights.

“You said the general has the last say, but we both know that’s crap. I’m thinking you have the last last say,” Parveet said. “Yet you still haven’t answered my question. What will you do to me if I say no?” Parveet smirked. “And if you manage to get off this deck in one piece.”

“Nothing,” Torn said. “I may have the sway to have your entire MEU reassigned to a different station, though. But I’d leave you here.”

“Hey now,” Jennings growled. “Be very careful with threats like that, Ambassador.”

“No, no, she’s right,” Parveet said. “She has that kind of power. She can call her family and this entire station would be shuffled and reassigned across the galaxy. But she won’t. That’s probably the emptiest threat she has.”

“Is that so?” Torn asked. “You believe I am above using my family’s influence?”

“I believe you’d rather gouge your own eyes out with your thumbs than send them a text message asking for so much as a bowl of cereal,” Parveet replied. “You’d probably rather step into one of those cages with me than give them the satisfaction of knowing you needed their help.”

Torn glared. “I find your observation rather presumptuous. You know nothing about my relationship with my family.”

“I know everything about your relationship with your family, woman,” Parveet said. “Been there, left that.”

Shot, shot, beer, shot.

“Been there, left… What does that mean?” Torn asked.

“Funny,” Parveet said.

“I fail to see what’s funny about it,” Torn replied.

“You think I was born with the name Parveet?” Parveet asked. “Well, yeah, I was, but my father wasn’t. Parveet is my mother’s name. He took hers to get as far away from people like you and your family as possible. Didn’t help. He eventually went crawling back when my mother and siblings died. Don’t blame him. He was one broken son of a bitch after the accident. The shitty part was, instead of sending me away, he took me with. We lived in one of the handyman cottages on the grounds. That was like his bullshit compromise.”

So many emotions flitted across Torn’s face that Parveet reached out and patted her on the shoulder with one hand while holding up the other for the bartender’s attention.

“You are trying to go through the inventory of families that might have wealth and influence on Earth,” Parveet said. “Trying to recall some scandal, some bit of gossip about an accident where an heir loses his entire family except for a daughter. All those years of coming out parties and formal breeding mixers you have fought so hard to suppress are flooding back into that carefully constructed mind of yours. I do not envy you right now, I can say that for sure.”

The bartender set drinks down, Parveet handed the ambassador the drinks, the ambassador drank the drinks.

“Better?” Parveet asked.

“No,” Torn said, coughing.

“You got this?” Jennings asked, looking at Parveet.

“I got this,” Parveet said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.”

“You what…?” Torn stuttered.

“Forty-eight hours tops,” Jennings said and got up to leave. “Not a second more.”

“We’ll be ready in twenty-four,” Parveet said. “Knowing Stony, we’re probably ready now, but I’ll need to get this one here in condition to make the trip.”

“Good,” Jennings said. “Take care of her, Jala.”

“Like she was me and mine,” Parveet responded then gave a salute using only her middle finger.

“I’ll hold you to that statement,” Jennings said and left, weaving his way through the crowd to the lift.

“Figure it out yet?” Parveet asked, returning her attention to Torn.

“No,” Torn said. “Wait, what was that about conditioning me?”

“You picked up on that,” Parveet said. “Good for you.”

A roar went up in the crowd and Parveet rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Ambassador Beryl Torn,” Parveet said and slapped Torn on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here. I need a shit and a shower and you need someplace a little more quiet. Your cabin will do nicely.”

“My cabin? Why my cabin?” Torn asked.

“Because my cabin is on the Jethro,” Parveet said. “And I haven’t given you permission to go aboard yet. We still have way too much talking to do.”

“Don’t you need your uniform to change into?” Torn asked.

Parveet bent down and picked up her bag from the floor. She patted it like it was a well-loved pet.

“Got it right here. I keep everything I need when I’m not on the Jethro with me at all times,” Parveet said. “Same with the rest of my crew. SBE ain’t home. We’re only transients moving through from mission to mission. And that’s how I like it.”

Parveet pointed to the lift.

“After you, Ambassador,” she said and gave Torn a smack on the ass and a shove between the shoulder blades.

5.

“I am rather confused,” Torn said as she poured two mugs of tea and waited for Parveet to get done in the shower. “That woman you were fighting. She is a sergeant under your command?”

“Hold on, lady!” Parveet shouted from the shower. “Let me finish up! Jesus!”

Torn struggled not to bristle at Parveet’s complete and total refusal to follow any type of military protocol. Torn was not military, but as an ambassador of the UEC, she was to be afforded respect equal to the highest ranking of military officers. Parveet seemed entirely unconcerned with that.

The shower water turned off and Parveet came out of the small bathroom dripping wet. She rubbed at her body fast with a towel, tossed it on Torn’s bed, then ransacked her bag until she found her underwear, a T-shirt, and a uniform jumper.

“What?” Parveet asked as Torn stared.

“Those are a lot of scars,” Torn said. “You should have had those conditioned, you know.”

Parveet looked down at her body and shrugged.

“No time to condition when you’re on a mission,” Parveet said. “You’re more concerned with not bleeding out than looking good in a bikini. Not that I give a shit about bikinis.”

Parveet crammed herself into her clothes, stomped over to the table, sat down with a heavy sigh, then glared at the mug.

“What the hell is that?” Parveet asked, leaning forward to smell the steam coming from the mug. “Tea? Who the hell drinks tea?”

“Civilized people do,” Torn said.

“Pretentious twats with no sense of life or adventure, you mean,” Parveet replied. She shrugged, picked up the mug, downed the tea, nodded, set the mug down, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Okay. Talk to me.”

“I honestly can say I do not know where to begin,” Torn said.

“You were jabbering about something while I was in the shower,” Parveet said, hooking a thumb over her shoulder towards the bathroom. “Real water. I can’t believe you get to waste real water while the rest of us get the sweat and shit scraped off our bodies by sonic waves. You ever taken a sonic before? Shit stings. Gets the job done fast, but stings.”

Torn blinked. She had nothing to say. Parveet was overloading her brain.

“Hey,” Parveet said, leaning across the table to snap her fingers in Torn’s face. “You okay? I come on strong, I know, but that’s who I am. Once we’re out in the shit, you’ll see why.”

“How have you not been demoted?” Torn asked.

“For what?” Parveet replied, looking honestly confused.

“For everything you say, everything you do,” Torn said. “I can’t begin to count the military regulations that you break with just one single sentence. You should be locked up for your behavior.”

“Locked up? What good does that do anyone?” Parveet asked. “Seriously, Ambassador, you need to get with the program and loosen up here. I’ve got a salty mouth. I beat the shit out of one of my top sergeants. I tell Jennings to go suck it every chance I get. So? In the end, me and mine get the job that needs doing done. And that is a job that no one else can do better than me and mine.”

“I’ve met other MEU commanders. They do not act like you,” Torn said.

“Why would they? The other MEUs are for show. Even the other ones on SBE,” Parveet said and laughed. “They stroll across planets that me and mine have already cleared. They take guard duty. Me and mine? We walk into the unknown and come back out in the know. And whatever was in there, sure as hell knows us after.”

“Knows you,” Torn mused. “Yes, about knowing you. I cannot for the life of me figure out what family you are from. Parveet? Not one of the great names. But you said it was your mother’s? Still, even when one strays outside the formal structure of the lineages, one is always documented.”

“One is always documented,” Parveet parroted. “Listen to yourself. You had promise when you were drinking down in the cages. Now? Your brain has regressed to spoiled little rich bitch. Snap out of it!”

Parveet snapped her fingers in Torn’s face again, making the ambassador jump and nearly drop her mug of tea.

“You’re forty-seven, right?” Parveet asked.

“How do you know that?” Torn asked.

“We’re almost the same age,” Parveet said. “I’m forty-four, for the record. That means we’ve seen a lot of the same shit coming up in this mess called the UEC. You know Roger Fang?”

“Of course I know the Secretary of Exploration,” Torn said.

“No need to get offended, Ambassador,” Parveet said. “I hate to assume.”

“You’ve done nothing but assume since you’ve met me,” Torn said.

“Nope,” Parveet said. “I know you. I’ve read your file. The real one, not the one the public sees. I read every single file of every single one of the dipshits that came here for your stupid budget-cutting tour. It’s called prepping for battle. But that’s not how I know you.”

“What about Roger Fang?” Torn asked, ignoring Parveet’s statement. No need to wonder why or how the colonel was able to get her classified personal file. “How does he play into this?”

Parveet smirked, but didn’t say anything.

“You are not a Fang,” Torn said. “I know the Fang family quite well. Grew up close to their summer home.”

“So did I,” Parveet said.

“What? No,” Torn said. “There were only three families on that island. Mine, the Fangs, and…”

Parveet kicked her feet up onto the small table, jostling the teapot and mugs. Tea spilled onto the surface, but Torn didn’t care. All she could do for several seconds was stare at and study Parveet’s face.

“Jay?” Torn asked in a quiet voice. Her entire demeanor changed in one second.

“Hey, Bee,” Parveet said and smiled. “About time you caught up. I was starting to get bored.”

Torn struggled to keep the tears at bay, but failed completely.

“Ah, shit, Bee,” Parveet said and got up quick. It was her turn for her demeanor to change. She yanked Torn to her feet and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry. I’ve been busting your gonads this whole time thinking you’d get it faster. That was our thing, remember?”

Torn cried into Parveet’s shoulder. Huge, snotty sobs shook her entire body.

“Shit,” Parveet said. “It’s all good. Chill, lady. Take some deep breaths. Goddamn breathe.”

Torn managed to get herself together and pushed back from Parveet.

“You bitch,” she said and sniffed. “You cruel bitch.”

“There’s my Bee,” Parveet said and kissed the ambassador on the forehead. “It’s good to see you.”

Torn sat back down and grabbed a napkin. It was soaked in tea. “Shit.”

“I didn’t mean it to go so far,” Parveet said. “I thought you knew before coming here. Why else would you finally be on the same station as me? I’d made a career of avoiding UEC twats. But when I saw you down in the cages and there wasn’t a spark of recognition in your eyes, well…”

“You couldn’t help yourself,” Torn said and sniffed hard. “Just like always.”

Parveet shrugged as she sat back down. “I run Jethro for a reason, Bee. You think anyone but me could do it?”

“Now that I know it’s you, no,” Torn said then laughed a high, anguished laugh. She looked up at the ceiling. “Why? How? I haven’t seen you in decades.”

“Not since my grandfather killed yours,” Parveet said. “It all came crashing down then, didn’t it?”

“My family snuck away in the night,” Torn said. “Then the authorities were sent in. I heard that…”

“You heard true,” Parveet said. “They razed the summer estate house to the ground. Obliterated it.”

“I thought you’d died with the rest of your family,” Torn said.

“Living in the handyman’s shack for once had its advantages,” Parveet said. “They left the staff and servants alone. The rest of my family was wiped clean.”

“Globally too?” Torn asked.

“That’s the law,” Parveet said. “Hunted to the ends of the Earth. Wipe the lineage clean. I don’t think I have a third cousin still living.”

“Parveet,” Torn said and smiled. “In the end, your father saved your life.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Parveet said. She spread her arms. “Joining all this is really what saved me.”

“And your father? What happened to him?” Torn asked.

“I don’t know,” Parveet said. “He dumped me at a slave house three months later. I was so rage pissed that I terrified anyone that even came close to buying me. The master figured out I had certain skills and put me to work at the house, mainly keeping the other kids in line. Pretty much what I do now, except now I get free meals and medical.”

“Jesus,” Torn said. “So most of this was an act?”

“Some,” Parveet said. “I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t have messed with a real ambassador so much.”

“I am a real ambassador,” Torn said.

“Nah,” Parveet replied, waving her off. “You’re Bee.”

Torn laughed and shouted, “Goddamn! Jay! You’re alive!”

“There’s my Bee,” Parveet said. “Good to hear you getting your voice back. The UEC has you muzzled. No offense. They muzzle everyone. We’re gonna do something about that.”

Torn slapped her palms on the table. “You are going to tell me everything that happened between then and now.”

“Nope,” Parveet said and stood up. She fetched her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “We’re done here. Time to get to the Jethro. I’ve been gone too long.”

“How long have you been off the ship?” Torn asked.

“Twenty hours,” Parveet said. “Way too long. Mine are probably getting antsy.”

“Mine? You keep saying me and mine. What does that mean?” Torn asked.

“Can’t explain,” Parveet said. “I have to show ya. Come on, Bee. Time to see what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“Now?”

“You got something else to do?” Parveet asked as she opened the cabin door.

“I do, actually,” Torn said. “I have four reports to write and send. Then I need to submit my itinerary officially to the UEC scheduling department. After that, I’m required to fill out my budget forms as well as daily expense justification sheets.”

“Yeah, that ain’t happening,” Parveet said.

“What part?” Torn replied.

“All of it,” Parveet said. “You want to understand how it works in the outer reaches? First rule is to hell with filling out forms. We shoot and stomp, not scribble and stamp. Come on. You gotta meet the crew. Then we need to get you conditioned.”

“What does that mean?” Torn said.

“Pain,” Parveet said. “A lot of goddamn pain.”

***

Jennings sat in his office, bottle of whiskey at hand. He poured a fifth shot and sipped it slowly before he opened the message that blinked at him on his vid screen.

“RE: TORN. IMMUNITY REFUSED. UEC PROTECTION REVOKED. CRIMINAL INDICTMENT ISSUED. SECURITY SHIP EN ROUTE. DETAIN FOR TRANSFER.”

Jennings sighed and activated his comms.

“Nomo?”

“Yes, General?”

“How much time before return receipt of the latest coded message is received by closest UEC monitoring office?”

“At current comms level? Three days.”

“And if comms were to suddenly have a severe crash?”

“We can wiggle three days into three weeks,” Nomo said, a wry smile easily heard in his voice.

“Make it happen, Major,” Jennings said and cut the comms. “I want to look into this some more.”

“Are we going to still allow the ambassador to travel with the Jethro?” Nomo asked.

“Might as well,” Jennings said. “Gives me even more time to work this all out.”

“Yes, sir,” Nomo said. “I’ll tweak the comms.”

“Thank you,” Jennings said.

He poured his sixth shot.

6.

Chief Charles “Stony” Locke stared at the mess of parts laid out on the mech hangar deck. He scratched his shorn head with the wrench he kept with him on his belt at all times. The wrench’s name was Tina. Half the crew joked he showered with it, the other half joked he slept with it. His wife joked about both. Stony never argued with any of it.

“You did this why?” Stony asked the young mechanic that stood next to him. “Did I ask you to do this?”

“No, sir,” the young mechanic replied.

“What’s your name again?” Stony asked.

“Mechanic Patricia Bellows, sir,” the young mechanic replied.

“First, you call me sir again and I’ll send Tina spelunking up your ass,” Stony said. “Second, Patricia Bellows is what’s on your birth cert. What the hell is your real name?”

“Chief?” the young mechanic asked. “That is my real name.”

“Points for switching to Chief,” Stony said, patting the mechanic on the shoulder. “Loss of points for not having a proper name. You work for me on the Jethro and you get a proper name. Mine is Stony.”

“Why Stony?” the mechanic asked.

“Long story and I’m too sober to tell it,” Stony replied. “Until you pop your cherry in the shit, you call me Chief, so don’t worry about it. But we’ve got to find you a real name.”

Stony turned to face the buzz of constant motion that filled the mech hangar. Mechanics and techs hurried from one mech bay to the next like a well-oiled machine.

“Hey! Listen up!” Stony roared.

Even over the deafening amount of noise that throbbed through the hangar, every single person heard him and came to an instant stop in their work.

“What’s up, Stony?” a man shouted from his spot in a harness halfway up one of the thirty-foot-tall battle mechs. “You get in a fight with Tina again?”

“Shut it, Pang!” Stony yelled. “This virgin needs a name!”

“Why? She ain’t gonna live past the next mission!” a second mechanic shouted from her perch on the shoulder of one of the other battle mechs. “Don’t she know we sacrifice virgins to the battle gods?”

“I’m not a virgin,” the young mechanic muttered.

“I heard that, sacrifice!” the woman yelled.

“Shut up, Hawker,” Stony said. He nudged the young mechanic. “Whatever you do, do not listen to Mechanic Meegat. Hawker will screw with you until you go insane.”

“What’s her birth cert name?” Pang asked.

“Patricia,” Stony replied.

“Jesus Christ,” Pang said. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Call her Rots!” Hawker shouted.

“Why Rots?” Stony asked.

“Patricia. Patty. Cow patty. Manure. Compost. Rots,” Hawker replied.

“Sounds logical,” Stony said.

“I thought you said not to listen to her,” Rots said.

“I said for you not to listen to her,” Stony said. “I’m married to the woman. I have to listen to her.”

“Married? Married couples aren’t allowed to serve with each other,” Rots replied.

“Hey, Hawker!” Stony yelled.

“What?”

“She says we aren’t allowed to serve with each other!”

“Shut up, Rots!” Hawker shouted.

“Yeah, Rots! Shut up!” half the mechanics shouted.

“This is the Jethro,” Stony explained. “We’re in the outer reaches and we have six of the scariest battle mechs of all the MEUs. In the hands of any of our pilots, one of those mechs could lay waste to a quarter of what’s left of Earth’s population within three days.”

“Except for Gore,” a mechanic said as she walked by. “He’d whine everyone to death in two.”

“No shit,” Stony said and focused back on Rots. “We do what we do here and no one argues.”

“How?” Rots asked.

“Stop asking questions and start answering them,” Stony said.

“Is she called Rots or what?” Pang asked.

“Yeah, she’s called Rots,” Stony replied then turned back to the row of parts on the ground. The hangar went back to its deafening chaos. “Now. This shit. Why?”

Rots stared at the parts then glanced over her shoulder at Hawker. Stony followed her gaze and sighed.

“Now you know what I mean,” Stony said and waved Tina at the parts. “Put them all back. Now. I want this mech’s ankle couplings working better than when you took all this shit out.”

“Better? How will I know it works better?” Rots asked.

“When the pilot whose mech this is, and that’s Chomps, by the way, when she starts this up, takes three steps, and doesn’t call for your execution, then you’ll know,” Stony said.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Rots replied.

“It will when you’re dangling by your tits in a mech’s grip,” Stony said. “Get to work.”

“Yes, Chief,” Rots said and crouched by the parts. Then she frowned and looked up at Stony. “Hey, Chief?”

“What?” Stony replied as he was about to walk away.

“Is Chomps the name of the mech or the pilot?” Rots asked.

“Yes,” Stony said and stomped off to yell at someone else.

***

“Goddamn!” Lieutenant Miguela “Chomps” McHale cried out as her back arched and she pounded her fists on the shoulders of Lieutenant Bastion “Gore” Tasset. “God, I love you!”

“Busy,” Gore mumbled, his mouth otherwise occupied.

The chime at the cabin door sounded and Chomps felt around by the bunk for a boot, found one, and threw it at the door.

“I will kill you if you don’t go away!” she yelled.

The chime sounded again and she grabbed Gore’s head before he could pull away.

“Do not even think of stopping,” Chomps said.

The chime sounded a third time and the door override kicked in. The door slid open and a man bent over, picked up the boot, and walked it over to the bunk, holding it out for Chomps to take.

She sighed, patted Gore on the head, and took the boot.

“What do you want, Wall?” she asked as Gore extracted himself from between her legs, climbed up onto the bunk, and threw a blanket over both of them.

“Hey, Wall,” Gore said.

“Boss is home,” Joshua “Wall” Halstrom said. “She’s got some UEC biggy with her. Needs all pilots on deck.”

“Why didn’t we hear that order in our comms?” Chomps asked.

“Comms silent for now,” Wall said and shrugged. “Don’t ask me why. I don’t know.”

Wall turned and left, the door sliding shut behind him.

“When was the last time he had a brain scan?” Chomps asked Gore as she slid herself under the blanket.

“He’s fine,” Gore said then gasped. “Make it quick. Boss is– DAMN!”

***

“Where we at, Lucky?” Parveet asked as she stepped onto the Jethro’s bridge. “Gimme a countdown.”

“Good to launch now, but it’s up to you,” Major Lucky replied.

“We’ll need to condition Ambassador Torn here first,” Parveet said, nodding at the overwhelmed woman that followed her onto the bridge. “Gotta make it fast. Thoughts?”

“Six-hour puke ride?” Lucky replied.

“Ambassador Torn, this is my XO, Major Lucky,” Parveet said.

“Lucky?” Torn asked.

“Just Lucky,” Lucky replied.

“He’s lived through seventeen near-death experiences,” Parveet said. “We only call him Lucky. You want his whole name, you look it up yourself. But don’t say it on the bridge. Ever.”

“Bad luck,” Lucky said.

“Bad luck,” the rest of the command crew on the bridge echoed.

“Six-hour puke ride?” Parveet asked.

“Fastest way to get her conditioned if we’re going to launch ASAP,” Lucky said. “Nomo says it’s our call. Although…”

Lucky’s eyes went to the ambassador then back to Parveet.

“Spill it,” Parveet said.

“Permission to speak–”

“Spill it!” Parveet snapped.

“Nomo hinted there might be some heat coming down fast from on high,” Lucky said. “Bad heat. Destroy anyone close to the ambassador heat. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that, but…”

Parveet turned to regard Torn. “Talk to me.”

“I don’t know what he’s referring to,” Torn said.

Parveet sighed and turned back to Lucky. “You tell me.”

“I honestly don’t know what Nomo is hinting at,” Lucky said and shrugged. “But it was in that voice he gets. You know the one.”

“The shaky voice or the stuttery voice?”

“The stuttery voice,” Lucky said.

“Shit,” Parveet said, turning back to Torn once again. “You sure you don’t know what’s up? Anything with your family?”

“I don’t know,” Torn said. “I mean, my uncle did have an investigation pending, but that was simply a bookkeeping issue.”

“Nothing is simple on Earth,” Parveet replied. “Could it affect the entire lineage?”

“Bookkeeping? That’s not a wipe-out offense,” Torn said.

“If it’s more than bookkeeping, it is,” Parveet said. “We need to get you introduced and into conditioning. Now.”

“Would you like me to escort her?” Lucky asked.

“No, I’ll do it,” Parveet said. “The ambassador and I have history. I’m going to show her off to the pilots, let her see the mech hangar, then drop her off for her six hours of Hell.”

“What is this six-hour puke ride?” Torn asked.

“Six hours of puking,” Lucky said and shrugged. “Specifics won’t matter after the first hour.”

“He’s right,” Parveet said. “Come on.”

Torn stared at the personnel working on the bridge.

“You don’t want to introduce me to the rest of the command crew?” Torn asked.

“What? No,” Parveet said. “We’ve got a schedule to keep. We’ve got time for introductions later while we head to Hrouska. Trust me. You’ll get to know everyone and wish you didn’t know any of them.”

“We’re a lousy bunch,” Lucky said. “Nice meeting you. Have fun puking.”

Parveet walked to the doors and waited then snapped her fingers as Torn only stood there, face gray and wan, the overconfident diplomat nowhere to be seen.

“Bee! Come on!” Parveet barked.

“Don’t bark,” Torn said as she hustled to Parveet.

“Then pay attention,” Parveet said. “We got shit to do.”

***

“Good! You maggots are here!” Parveet barked as she walked into the mech hangar. She let loose with an earsplitting whistle and all noise stopped instantly. “Line up, bitches!”

“Did she just call us maggots?” Lieutenant Raj “Shock” Nordini asked.

“I think she did,” Lieutenant Minnie “Giga” O’Haloran replied. “She called us bitches, too.”

“We are bitches,” Shock said.

“True,” Giga replied.

“But I’m not cool with the maggots thing,” Shock said.

“Hey, Boss? What’s with the maggots calling?” Giga asked.

“Shut your pie holes,” Lieutenant Esther “Roar” Spiegel said. “If Boss wants to call us maggots, then Boss gets to call us maggots.”

“Personally, I prefer grubs,” Shock said. “Can we replace maggots with grubs?”

“Insectist,” Giga said.

“This is what I deal with every day,” Parveet said to Torn. “Shut it and listen up!”

“Stand at attention!” Wall yelled. “Boss is on deck!”

“You should say commander is on deck,” Gore said. “Or is it colonel on deck? I get confused.”

“Ah, it’s okay, baby,” Chomps replied. “At least you’re cute.”

“Who wants to get shot in the head?” Parveet asked. “Keep chatting and you get shot in the head.”

No one said a word.

“Jesus, Jay, have you actually shot someone in the head before?” Torn asked.

Every pilot raised their hand.

“They were stun pellets,” Parveet said. “But…yeah.”

“Who’s the civilian?” Gore asked as he cracked his knuckles. “She’s got some expensive rings on. You have told her that rings get caught in shit around here and that’s how you lose a finger, right?”

“Pilots, this is Ambassador Beryl Torn,” Parveet said. There were a couple mock impressed whistles. “She is an old friend of mine and quite possibly in hiding for her life, so let’s treat her like family.”

“Real family?” Wall asked. “I killed my father when I was nine.”

Everyone sighed.

“We know, Wall!” Shock said. “God, why do you have to bring that up every time someone says the word family?”

“I don’t,” Wall grunted.

“Treat her like me and mine, are we clear?” Parveet ordered.

“Clear as!” the pilots shouted in unison.

“Good,” Parveet said. “Let me list them off for you, Bee.”

Parveet started down the line, pointing at each pilot.

“Shock. Best hand-to-hand mech combat pilot we have.”

“You bet yer tits,” Shock said.

“Giga, is our sniper.”

“Pew pew,” Giga said.

“How can a mech act as a sniper?” Torn asked.

“I just said,” Giga replied. “Pew. Pew. Jeez.”

“Ignore Giga, Bee,” Parveet said. “Roar is point.”

“I get into the shit before the shit gets into us,” Roar said.

“Wall is brute force.”

“I break things,” Wall said.

“Gore is demolitions.”

“I blow things up,” Gore said.

“Hooyah,” Wall said and the two high-fived.

“Chomps is lead pilot and handles basically everything,” Parveet said.

“Nice to meet ya, Ambassador,” Chomps said and curtsied. “If any of these assholes get out of line, come find me and I’ll knock them back in line. They are terrified of me.”

“We’re sleeping together,” Gore said, pointing at Chomps. “Just wanted that out there.”

“Um…thank you for letting me know,” Torn replied.

“You really didn’t need to tell her,” Chomps said. “Everyone can see you’re my bitch.”

“This is true,” Gore said. “I apologize, Ambassador, for stating the obvious.”

“Shut it,” Parveet said then let out another whistle. The hangar instantly exploded into a hive of activity and noise. “Come on, I’ll show you a mech.”

“You used to be a mech pilot, yes?” Torn asked.

There was some laughter.

“What?” Torn asked.

“She kinda thinks she still is,” Shock said.

“We have to constantly tell her to get out of our mechs,” Giga added.

“They are all my mechs,” Parveet said. “Everything on the Jethro is what, pilots?”

“Me and mine, Boss!” they yelled.

“Hooyah!” most of the mechanics and techs responded with a raucous yell.

“I thought hooyah was only an infantry thing?” Torn asked.

“Hooyah is what you make of it,” Shock said and put his hands together like he was praying. “We are all hooyah.”

“Amen,” Giga said.

“Okay,” Torn said, nodding but looking very confused.

“Quick tour then we get you to conditioning,” Parveet said, leading Torn away from the pilots.

“What is she in for?” Chomps asked as she matched pace and joined the two women.

“Six hours of puking,” Parveet said.

Chomps stopped walking and the pilots still within earshot spun about and everything got very serious, very fast.

“What are we in for at Hrouska?” Chomps asked. “Six hours of puking on a civilian is a little drastic, Boss.”

“We’re in a hurry,” Parveet said.

“Then let me show her my mech,” Chomps said. “This way, Ambassador.”

7.

The mechs each stood thirty feet tall and were a third as wide.

With fully articulated limbs, they were humanoid in shape, including five fingers on each hand. The cockpit was set directly center of the upper chest, but there was a “head.”

“How do you see out of that?” Torn asked.

“What? The head?” Chomps replied as a power lift brought her, Parveet, and Torn up level with the cockpit. “You don’t. Not really. That’s strictly sensors and crap. Those help the pilot see, but there’re no eyes or anything. No, what really matters is right here.”

She patted the edge of the cockpit hatch. Inside was a mass of webbing that looked like it was constantly pulsing with life.

“What we have here is the cradle,” Chomps said. “A pilot hops in there and is instantly enrobed in the mesh. They become one with the mech due to the Gibbons Immersion Structure.”

“It was named after a legendary pilot from ancient Earth history, yes?” Torn said.

“Um…sure,” Chomps said.

“We’re gonna be straight with Ambassador Torn,” Parveet said.

“You sure, Boss?” Chomps asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay then,” Chomps said. “Gibbons wasn’t a pilot, he was an AI. And the GIS wasn’t named after him, it was invented by him.”

“An AI?” Torn asked. “It must have been quite advanced for its day.”

“It was,” Parveet said. “Without the GIS, we’d be clunking along like cargo loaders. The cradle lets pilots be one with the mechs. There is no separation.”

“Which makes things dicey,” Chomps said. “In order for the GIS and the cradle to work properly, there has to be give and take.”

“Give and take?” Torn asked.

“The pilots take damage just like the mechs,” Parveet said. “Although, on a considerably lesser scale.”

“Your scars,” Torn said, eyes wide with surprise.

“Check this out,” Chomps said and unzipped her jumpsuit. She pulled down one shoulder to show a wicked bruise under her tank top’s strap. “This was just from sparring.”

“Jesus Christ,” Torn said. “How do you manage to stay alive?”

“We’re the best of the best of the best,” Chomps said and zipped her jumpsuit back up.

Torn nodded appreciatively. “The Jethro does have a reputation.”

She studied the mech and Chomps. Parveet let her. After a few moments, Torn cocked her head and frowned.

“There are no armaments,” Torn said. “No canons, shoulder rockets, or belt guns. I’ve seen other mechs, not this close mind you, but I have seen them and they all have armaments built into their structure.”

“This makes the Jethro MEU even more singular,” Parveet said. “I had those removed the second I took over command on this ship. They ruin agility and force a pilot to generalize their weapons capabilities instead of specialize. I want specialists. I want experts. I want masters of combat.”

“Come on,” Chomps said to Torn. “Let’s introduce you to the Terrible Two.”

“Terrible Two?” Torn asked.

“She doesn’t have time,” Parveet said. “Six hours of puking.”

“Give her five more minutes before she descends into Hell, Boss,” Chomps said. “We can spare five minutes.”

Parveet waved her hand over her wrist and studied a staticky holo projection that came up. “Five minutes then she begins conditioning. Jennings gave us forty-eight hours. I want to be gone in twelve. Nothing about this mission feels right.”

“Nothing feels right yet you want to rush into it?” Torn asked.

“Yes,” Parveet said.

The lift lowered and clunked to a stop at the hangar floor.

“It makes sense in her head,” Chomps said then pointed at a couple busy arguing over by a mech that was set on its side. “Stony and Hawker. The Terrible Two. Looks like they’re in as good a mood as any.”

Torn watched as the couple began shouting full volume into each other’s faces.

“Nothing is as it seems on this ship, is it?” Torn said.

“Now you’re getting it, Bee,” Parveet laughed and slapped her on the shoulder. “Now you’re getting it.”

***

Tina poked Hawker in the chest.

Hawker slugged Stony across the chin, took Tina from him, then brandished it like she was going to brain the Chief Mechanic with his own wrench.

“Slight disagreement about something?” Parveet asked as she, Chomps, and Torn walked up to the red-faced couple.

“This gorilla here thinks that the left hip coupling needs a total hydraulics overhaul,” Hawker snapped. “Which it does not because I overhauled the hydraulics on this one last week.”

“No, that was Roar that you overhauled,” Stony snarled. He snatched a small tablet off his belt and brought up the display. “See? See! Roar!”

“Yep. You’re right, moron,” Hawker said as she jammed Tina into Stony’s chest and snatched the tablet away from him. She swiped left four times then spun the tablet around. “And  Shock! Do you understand the concept of multiple work orders? Or is your brain so narrow and tiny you can only imagine one job at a time? It’s called multi-tasking!”

“Shut up,” Parveet said. “Both of you.”

“Yes, Boss,” Stony said.

“Sorry, Boss,” Hawker said and eyed Torn. “Who’s the flat?”

“Flat?” Torn asked.

“Duuude,” Chomps said under her breath.

“This is Ambassador Beryl Torn,” Parveet said. “She controls the budget that controls our ass out here. How about addressing her as Ambassador instead of flat?”

“Whatever you want, Boss,” Hawker said and hawked up a huge glob of spit before turning her head to send it flying from her mouth.

“Hey!” someone yelled. “Dammit, Hawker!”

“We’ve been in the outer reaches for a while,” Chomps said.

“I can see that,” Torn replied. “What’s a flat?”

Parveet closed her eyes and sighed.

“I got this, Boss,” Chomps said, wincing. “It’s a derogatory term for anyone that hasn’t been in the shit. Pretty much means you’re no better than someone who thinks the Earth is flat because you can’t even comprehend what it’s like being in the shit.”

“The shit is combat?” Torn asked.

“That and more,” Chomps replied. “The shit is that point where you have no idea if you’re gonna live or die, but goddamn you feel the most alive you’ve ever felt because you’re gonna take some assholes with ya if you go.”

“I can’t quite tell if it’s a bad thing or a good thing to be in the shit,” Torn said.

“You have to be in the shit to know,” Chomps said and shrugged.

“Anyway, this is Chief Mechanic Stony Locke and his wife, Second Chief Mechanic Hawker Meegat,” Parveet said, indicating the lesson was over.

Chomps looked around the hangar. “Where’s Pang? He was scheduled to clear Roar today, yeah?”

“He’s done for the day,” Stony said. “Dropped a span-hammer on his foot and I sent him to sick bay.”

“Anything serious?” Parveet asked.

“It was a span-hammer, Boss,” Hawker said.

“His boot protected him for the most part,” Stony said and shrugged. “But he’ll need foam for at least a week. Hella said anything after that and he’s faking it.”

“Good to know,” Parveet said.

“You need anything special or is this a meet and greet, Boss?” Hawker asked.

“Thought we’d show the ambassador why our mechs don’t have armaments built in,” Parveet said.

“You’re gonna love this,” Chomps said and smiled at Torn. “I love it every time I see it.”

“You sure, Boss?” Stony asked.

“I’m sure,” Parveet said.

“Okay,” Stony replied and took the tablet back from Hawker. “Hold Tina.”

Hawker took the wrench and rolled her eyes as Stony executed a series of code entries then nodded at the center of the hangar. Red lights began to flash and a loud klaxon rang out. All work ceased and the mechanics and techs stood ready off to the sides of the hangar as a series of panels in the center of the floor began to slide apart.

Six huge gun racks lifted from the floor and locked into place, each holding a variety weapons from massive-looking rifles to even more massive rocket launchers.

“Those are…really big,” Torn said.

“KYAG class weaponry is all our mechs use,” Chomps said.

Torn sighed and gave Parveet then Chomps a helpless smile.

“Kiss Your Ass Goodbye,” Chomps said. “Specially built here on the Jethro for our mechs only.”

“You can thank me,” Hawker and Stony said at the same time.

“Don’t start,” Parveet snapped and pointed at each of them in turn. “You both get credit, so do not even begin to argue over who did what and how much.”

“Incredible,” Torn said. “Why isn’t this tech spread to all the MEUs?”

“Budget,” Parveet said, a smirk on her face.

“Oh,” Torn responded. “That pesky budget.”

“That pesky budget,” Parveet said. “And on that note, I think we should get you into conditioning.”

“What’s she in for?” Stony asked.

“Six-hour puke ride,” Chomps said.

Stony and Hawker froze.

“Shit,” Hawker said finally.

“Bloody hell,” Stony muttered then looked at Parveet. “What we flying into, Boss?”

“It ain’t good is about all I can tell you,” Parveet said.

***

Parveet led Torn out of the hangar, leaving Chomps behind with the other pilots. They walked silently down several passageways until they reached the end lift, Parveet nodding to and greeting the few crew members they encountered. When the lift arrived, Parveet ushered Torn onto it and made it clear to the couple of crew members hurrying down the passageway to catch it that they should get the next one.

“How scared should I be?” Torn asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Parveet said.

“This six-hour puke ride is shocking even your people and they don’t strike me as ones that shock easy,” Torn said.

“No, me and mine don’t shock easy,” Parveet said. “And it isn’t so much that they are shocked at the severity of what you’re about to go through as they are worried about the timeframe it implies.”

“Which is?” Torn said.

“We’ll be pushing a two-week trip into one week,” Parveet said. “Me and mine are conditioned well enough that we can handle the strain it will cause on our bodies. Bodies can be repaired and strengthened in sick bay.”

“But you’re worried about your ship,” Torn stated.

“The Jethro is a beast of a ship,” Parveet said. “It can handle the stress. We’ll get to the wormhole and through without a problem. But we’ll be weak when we reach the other system and Hrouska. None of us like to be in a position of weakness when we’re about to get into the shit.”

“But you said the Jethro can handle it,” Torn said.

“It can. It will,” Parveet replied, nodding. “But shit happens, Bee.”

“Why are we pushing it so hard?” Torn asked. “Why not take it slower and get there in the usual two weeks?”

Parveet regarded Torn for a couple of seconds then frowned. “The Dorso is in trouble. That final transmission made that clear. One day could mean the difference between us finding survivors or not. An extra week? We should prepare the body bags now.”

“No, no, I understand that,” Torn said.

“Then why ask?”

“Because you are risking your people’s safety for the unknown,” Torn said. “The Dorso could already be lost. Why weaken your position when you may not be able to rescue anyone?”

“That right there is the difference in who we are,” Parveet said. “You see time as a given whereas I see it as a luxury. The fact that it’ll still take us a week to get there is the weakness, not the possible damages done to the Jethro. Me and mine are the best in the biz, Bee. We can handle some ruptured valves and scorched blast shielding. What we can’t handle is knowing we could have saved even one life, but didn’t because we took our time.”

“I’m sorry,” Torn said. “I’m not trying to sound privileged. This is all new to me.”

“Which is why I haven’t launched you out into space,” Parveet said.

“Funny,” Torn replied and chuckled. Parveet didn’t. “Jay? You are joking, yes?”

***

They reached the hatch to the conditioning bay. Parveet took a deep breath then spun the wheel and shoved the hatch inward.

“Follow me,” she said gravely.

Torn simply nodded and followed.

The conditioning bay was an empty bay about one hundred meters square. In the center was a single seat. A seat with a vast assortment of straps and bindings.

“Sit,” Parveet said.

“This conditioning is for the force my body will endure when the Jethro accelerates?” Torn asked. “Because I have been on hyper-pushed travels before.”

“It is also because the wormhole portal is new and not the most stable in the galaxy,” Parveet said. “Probes have recorded some anomalies that could make normal biological functions…uncomfortable. A six-hour puke ride will minimize the severity of those anomalies. If they occur. We could encounter zero issues and breeze through the portal without a hitch.”

“So putting me through this is just in case,” Torn said.

“Everything we do this far out is just in case, Bee,” Parveet said. “You die unless you eat, drink, and breathe just in case.”

“Understood,” Torn said as she crossed the bay and took her seat.

Parveet began strapping the ambassador in, taking great care to make sure every latch and binding was tight and secure. When she finished, she stood back and looked Torn directly in the eye.

“Do not fight it,” Parveet said. “You go with your gut. Literally. The second you feel nauseous, puke. The second you feel any other bodily urges, let them happen. This bay can be hosed down and so can you. If you fight, it will only get worse as the conditioning progresses. Give in at first and the ride will be a lot less torturous.”

“Torturous,” Torn said. “Delightful.”

“That word doesn’t exist in this space,” Parveet said and pressed her forehead to Torn’s. “But you will get through this. Godspeed.”

Parveet gave Torn one last smile then turned and left. The hatch clanged shut and Torn was all alone, secured to a very uncomfortable chair by close to two dozen rough, scratchy straps.

Only a second went by before a high-pitched whining filled her ears and pain stabbed directly into the center of her forehead. Six more seconds went by before she started to scream.

8.

“Jethro, this is SBE, you are clear to disengage,” a flight controller said. “Clamps are released. Safe journeys.”

“Thank you, flight control,” Lieutenant Dean Axson replied. “I have the stick and am taking the Jethro out in three, two, one.”

There was the slightest of shudders in the floor of the bridge followed by a far-off clanging.

“And we are clear,” Axson said. “See you in a few weeks, SBE.”

“Be safe out there and come back in one piece, Jethro,” the flight controller responded.

“Will do, SBE,” Axson replied. “Jethro gone.”

He keyed in three codes then adjusted the angle of the Jethro’s bow. He slowly engaged the throttle until it was halfway, waited one minute, then engaged it fully. The press of the gravity from the engine thrust weighed on everyone on the bridge. It would be even greater for those in other areas of the ship.

“Give me a full burn once we are fifty kilometers from SBE,” Parveet ordered from her seat on the bridge.

“Yes, Boss,” Axson replied.

The seconds ticked off then Axson pulled back on the throttle and engaged the hyper-travel drives. The bridge crew gasped in unison as the intense pressure made each of them feel like they were being crushed by a hundred tons of water. Then the pressure began to ease until two minutes had passed and the level of discomfort became tolerable.

Parveet cleared her throat, stretched her arms, then looked over at Torn and smiled.

“You good?” Parveet asked.

“Anything is better than what I endured last night,” Torn said.

“You should be in your cabin sleeping the conditioning session off,” Parveet said. “You don’t have anything to prove to me or mine.”

“I plan on being present for everything,” Torn said. “I’ll sleep later.”

“Oh, I know you will,” Parveet said. “We have a pool going.”

“A pool?” Torn asked.

“I have you for two hours in,” Lucky said as he got up and stretched his back. “I have faith you can handle this.”

“You call two hours faith?” Torn asked. “Jay? I mean, Colonel Parveet, what do you have me down for, if I may ask?”

“You can ask, but you ain’t gonna like the answer,” Parveet said. “I have you for forty-five minutes.”

“Fifteen,” Corporal Bali Stegson said from her seat at the weapons console.

“Thirty-two,” Corporal Jai Flay said from his seat at the navigation console.

“Thirty-two?” Corporal Lilly Wan said from comms. “You had to add two minutes on just to be a jerk, didn’t you, Flay?”

“We all get to pick our number, Wan,” Flay replied. “Mine is thirty-two.”

“Thirty,” Wan said to Torn.

“I am not going to pass out in thirty minutes,” Torn said. “Nor am I going to pass out in two hours. I slept for three hours between the conditioning and now. I feel fine.”

“Get back to work, people,” Parveet said. “I want all systems monitored around the clock from here on out.”

“That’s how we do it anyway, Boss,” Stegson said.

“Hey!” Lucky barked. “Cram the backtalk, Corporal!”

“Backtalk you,” Stegson muttered.

“The Jethro is staggeringly different than any ship I’ve been on,” Torn said.

“Told ya,” Parveet replied. “You hungry? I know Hella pumped you with fluids and made you suck down some gel packs, but you’ve got to be starving.”

“Hella?” Torn asked.

“Dr. Meyers,” Parveet said.

“Oh, yes, Dr. Meyers,” Torn said. “Is her first name Hella? I thought it was Helga?”

“It is, but ships and nicknames,” Parveet said. “Hella has been on the Jethro as long as I have.”

Parveet waited then scrunched her shoulders.

“So…food?”

“Oh, yes, I should probably eat,” Torn said. “I doubt I’ll eat much, but I will try. Need to keep my strength up. That’s what Dr. Meyers…That’s what Hella said.”

“Now you’re catching on,” Parveet said. “Let’s get you down to the mess. Lucky?”

“Yes, Boss?” Lucky replied.

“You have the con, XO,” Parveet said. “Anyone want me to bring something back?”

“Cheese snaps,” Wan said.

“Yeah, totally, cheesy snaps,” Flay said.

“Funny,” Parveet said. “Stegson?”

“All good, Boss, thanks,” Stegson said.

“Axson?”

“Just ate, Boss, but I appreciate it,” Axson said, his eyes locked onto the view shield that showed nothing but open space ahead.

“Come on,” Parveet said to Torn. “Grub time.”

***

Parveet set her full tray onto the table, taking a seat on the bench attached. The food was various shapes, but all the same gray color.

Torn stared down at her tray then slowly pushed it away.

“I’m not sure I can handle this right at the moment,” Torn said.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Parveet responded before shoving her mouth full of a triangular slice of gray. “They used to add food coloring to it to make it more appetizing, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t like red tasted anything similar to a food that was red.”

“Myco based?” Torn asked.

“Myco based as well as algae,” Parveet said. “Flavoring is from different yeasts and bacterial cultures. Life on ships is hard on your gut. You have to keep the probiotic biome as healthy as possible down there or your health goes south fast.”

“Yes, that is what I’ve heard,” Torn said. “I’ve never been out long enough for that to be an issue. I guess now I will.”

“No doubt there,” Parveet said, slicing off some rectangle and chewing that before giving Torn a knowing smile.

“What?” Torn asked.

“What are your questions?” Parveet asked. “You’ve seen some of the ship and you’ve seen the mechs, but I know you, Bee. You are dying for more intel.”

“Well, since you brought it up,” Torn said. “I am curious about the MEU structure. I spent time on a general infantry ship, similar to the Dorso I would assume, but the MEUs have always puzzled me.”

“How so?”

“Well, if you have the firepower of the mechs, then why do you need the infantry units that you have?”

“First, they aren’t general infantry,” Parveet said. “In MEUs, and more so here on the Jethro than any other ship, we have Special Combat infantry. Less numbers, but ten times the skill set. I’d trust any one of those soldiers with my life.”

“Yes, but what purpose do they serve?” Torn asked. “Why not partner with general infantry?”

“SpecCom can get into places the mechs can’t,” Parveet said. “They can also get back out. You send in general infantry and you run the risk of escalating something from innocuous to shit show in five seconds. Don’t get me wrong, general infantry have their uses, but I need SpecCom. I need surgical precision coupled with superior firepower. That’s the dance SpecCom and the mechs have. Perfect partners.”

“Interesting,” Torn said. “Will I get to meet any of the SpecCom folks?”

“Of course,” Parveet said. “We have a week of travel before we get to the Dorso and Hrouska. I expect you to meet most of them.”

“Good,” Torn said. “Also, there is something we should discuss.”

“Which is?” Parveet asked, failing at cutting a piece of circle free. She gave up, stabbed the entire piece with her fork, and began to gnaw on it. “Shoot.”

“I would like to contribute to the duties on this ship,” Torn said. “Nothing crucial, but I would like to do something where I don’t feel like a drain on resources.”

“But you are a drain on resources,” Parveet said.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do and my answer is no,” Parveet said. “I appreciate where you’re going with this, Bee, but me and mine are me and mine for a reason. You can’t just slip into that and find a place. Every single person on the Jethro has earned where they are. Even the rookies we picked up after our last mission. I vetted them all and know that when they take a shit, they are contributing.”

“I can contribute my shit,” Torn said and grinned.

“You’re gonna be asleep in minutes,” Parveet said. “Not much you can do while you’re asleep.”

“Jay, I am asking nicely,” Torn said, some steel back in her voice.

“Oh, are you now?” Parveet replied. “What happens when you stop asking nicely?”

“I don’t want to get to that point,” Torn said. “But I still have connections.”

“Okay, you got me there,” Parveet said. “So, I’ll make you a deal.”

“Yes?”

“You learn to breathe in a vacuum and I’ll take your sad little attempt at throwing your weight around seriously,” Parveet said. “Until then, ya got nothing, Bee. Zip. Zilch. Zero.”

“Breathe in a vacuum?”

“Breathe in a vacuum. You know. Space.”

“Did you just threaten to throw me off your ship?”

“Nope. I showed you how little power you have. Talk all you want. Pretend you have the authority of UEC connections, or whoever, behind you. At the end of the day, it’s only me and mine that stands between safety on the Jethro and floating in the cold and dark.”

Torn gulped. “Well, that’s blunt.”

“Huh. I was trying to sound poetic.” Torn didn’t smile. “Sorry. Listen, I appreciate that you want to help, but the best way you can do that is by not helping. Stay out of everyone’s way and let me and mine do our jobs. Got it?”

“You’re the boss,” Torn said and yawned.

“Eat a couple bites,” Parveet said.

“Not going to happen, Jay,” Torn said and yawned again. Her eyes began to close and her head drooped.

Parveet slowly reached out and caught her chin before Torn could fall face first in her tray of gray food.

“Need some help, Boss?” a woman asked as she walked by.

“Sure could, Corporal,” Parveet responded. “Get a couple more SpecComs and help carry her to her cabin.”

“She the six-hour puke ride chick?” the corporal asked.

“Yep,” Parveet replied.

“Who won the pool?”

Parveet looked at her wrist and checked the time display. “I did.”

9.

Giga rubbed at her temples as she stared at the prone form of Roar at her feet.

“You weren’t even trying,” Giga said.

“I told you I wasn’t into sparring today,” Roar said, her voice muffled by the safety mat that stretched from wall to wall of the training room. “Just not feeling it.”

“No!” Chomps yelled from the training room’s door just as Giga reared a foot back for a hard kick to Roar’s ribs.

Roar looked over at Chomps then turned her head to regard Giga. “What were you gonna do?”

“Nothing,” Giga replied.

“She was gonna break one of your ribs,” Chomps said. “Roar, go hit the sonics. I’ll spar with Giga.”

“Good deal,” Roar said and rolled a couple meters away before hopping up onto her feet. “You ladies have fun.”

“What was that about?” Chomps asked as she took her boots off, unzipped her jumpsuit, and threw it all into the corner. Dressed only in athletic shorts and athletic bra, she began to stretch and limber up. “You have some beef with Roar?”

“Beef? Nah,” Giga said. “But she has been talking shit about Shock to some of the SpecCom guys.”

“So what?” Chomps said as she moved closer and put her hands up and nodded. “Go.”

Giga moved fast. She threw a heavy left haymaker then dropped to a knee when Chomps easily dodged the move. Chomps turned to the side as Giga jabbed at her gut. Giga tucked and rolled over her right shoulder as Chomps swiped with her left leg. She came up a couple meters away from Chomps, arms up in a defensive position.

“No need to talk shit about anyone,” Giga said, answering Chomps’ question as the two pilots circled each other. “It’s a dick move.”

“You know Roar,” Chomps said as she threw two right jabs then followed with a left hook. Giga dodged to the side of the jabs then ducked under the hook. “She gets bored and stirs shit up.”

“Yeah, and I’m getting tired of it,” Giga said.

She feinted like she was coming in for a right hook then leapt and spun a roundhouse kick, landing her foot squarely in Chomps chest. Chomps flew back, slammed onto the mat, rolled backwards over her head and shoulders, and came up in a fighting crouch.

“Good one,” Chomps gasped.

Giga shrugged and moved in for another attack. She kicked with her left foot, her right foot, her left again then again, but Chomps batted away each kick with her hands until she grabbed Giga’s left foot in a tight grip and twisted hard. Giga jumped with her right foot, spinning into the twist to avoid her left ankle getting snapped, and came down hard on her back.

She flipped up onto her feet as Champs came up swinging. Giga took a left hook to her cheek, a right jab to her solar plexus, a left hook to her cheek again, then managed to get her arms up to block the next two hooks and swat away the jabs that came in. She missed the knee to her gut, though.

“Dammit,” Giga coughed as she fell to her knees. She held up a hand. “Give me…a second…”

“This is why you can’t let Roar get to you,” Chomps said, her hands on her hips as she rolled her shoulders and took a couple of deep breaths. “Distractions aren’t–”

She didn’t finish as she jumped off both feet, avoiding the leg sweep Giga came at her with. Chomps used her momentum and weight coming down to land a hard punch to Giga’s right cheek.

“You think I didn’t see that coming?” Chomps said as she bounced from foot to foot, moving backwards out of Giga’s reach. “I did and was ready for the counter move. Pull your head out of your ass, Giga.”

Giga nodded and stood up. She was a little shaky, but after bending over, her hands on her knees, and some slow breathing, she shook it off and straightened up.

“We’re done,” Chomps said, waving Giga off as the woman brought her hands up to indicate she was ready to continue. “You’re projecting every move.”

“I got you good a couple times,” Giga said.

“I let you get me good a couple times,” Chomps said. “I saw those coming too and took the hits to confirm your predictability. It also made you overconfident. You got set up, Giga.”

“Shit,” Giga said and lowered her arms. “Dammit. I did let Roar get to me, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Chomps said.

Chomps plopped down on the mat, folded her legs into a lotus position, and patted the space in front of her. Giga joined her, mirroring the position.

“I want your opinion about Boss’s pet,” Chomps said.

“My opinion?” Giga asked. “You and Gore not speaking?”

“What? No, of course we’re speaking,” Chomps said. “But I know his opinion. I want yours.”

“Distractions,” Giga said. “That’s why you’re up my butt.”

“I’m up your butt because it’s my job to be up your butt,” Chomps said. “And your distractions can get you killed. Boss’s distractions can get us all killed.”

“That they can,” Parveet said as she stepped into the training room.

Chomps and Giga jumped to their feet and nodded at the colonel.

“My distraction is passed out right now and should be for the next several hours,” Parveet said.

“Boss, I didn’t mean anything by–” Chomps started.

“Bullshit,” Parveet said. “You meant exactly what you meant and I appreciate it. It means you are doing your job and making sure I’m doing mine. We ain’t Jethro because the name is stenciled on the side of this bucket. We’re Jethro because no one else in this damn galaxy has the gonads to be Jethro.”

“Thanks, Boss,” Chomps said.

“You here for a reason, Boss?” Giga asked. “You got that look on your face like you’re here for a reason.”

“We got a vid from SBE,” Parveet said.

“You could have called us over the comms,” Giga said.

“Ya think?” Parveet responded.

“It’s not a good vid and you want it on the down low,” Chomps said. “Bridge?”

“Bridge. Be there in five,” Parveet said and left.

They waited a couple of seconds before Chomps turned to Giga.

“I still want your opinion of the ambassador,” Chomps said. “Something about that woman doesn’t add up.”

“I hear that,” Giga said. “We’ll talk after Boss’s chat.”

***

“The quality is crap, but you can see…something come through the hatch,” Lucky said as he waved a hand and the main view shield became a vid screen. “If you watch closely, you should be able to notice–”

“Let them formulate their own opinions,” Parveet said then turned to the crew assembled on the closed bridge.

All mech pilots stood in a line with Stony and Hawker to their right. On the left of the pilots was Sergeant Schroeder along with Sergeants Bosh Halva, Jim Norris, and Omar Gailey of SpecCom. On the right of Hawker stood Master Sergeant Medic W1 Carlos Chimera, Energy Chief Logan McDorn, and drop ship pilots Corporal Kell, Corporal Wex, Corporal Han Lu, and Corporal Bardesh. Other than the SpecCom infantry soldiers and Combat Logistics support personnel, it was the entirety of the crew expected to land on Hrouska.

Lucky studied the faces of those assembled then began the vid.

It was grainy and cut with static, but the image of a drop ship hatch could easily be made out. The fact that something was trying to punch its way through the hatch could also easily be made out. Then the hatch burst open and several long, black limbs came reaching through just before a white light lit up the screen and the vid ended.

“Arachnid?” Gore asked.

“The limbs looked too fluid,” Shock said.

“I wasn’t being literal,” Gore replied. “I know we’re talking xeno here, so it’s obviously not Earth arachnid.”

“Roar?” Parveet asked. “Point opinion?”

“Gut reaction is they are both right,” Roar said. “Multiple limbs, but also with a fluidity that could mean a lack of exo, or even possibly indo, skeleton.”

“The light was the drop ship being taken out by the Dorso, yeah?” Schroeder asked.

“Yes,” Lucky answered.

“Do we know that killed it?” Schroeder asked.

“My thoughts exactly,” Halva said as she pointed at the screen. “Can we see it again?”

“Slow it down,” Giga and Shock said at the same time.

“Run it again,” Parveet ordered.

Lucky ran it again.

“Freeze there,” Gailey said and moved closer to the screen. “Center it and enhance.” The vid was centered and enhanced. Gailey looked over his shoulder at Parveet. “Did SBE send an analysis with the vid?”

“No,” Parveet said. “They relayed it to us as soon as they received it. Their analysis will follow, but I hope to have our own locked down before then.”

“Your hopes are just polite orders,” Chomps said. “What are you seeing, Gailey?”

“That there,” Gailey said and pointed at a white smudge in the middle of the image. “Is that a mouth? Looks like a mouth.”

Everyone squinted.

“You’re going to ruin your eyes,” Wan said. “Let me filter out as much noise as I can.”

The vid wavered then sharpened.

“Yep, that’s a mouth alright. Big one, too,” Wall said. “Good catch, Gailey.”

“Jesus Christ, how many teeth does that thing have?” Chimera asked. “You get pulled into that maw and all the med tape and glue in the galaxy ain’t putting you back together.”

“The Dorso made the right choice in taking out the drop ship,” Parveet said. “Lucky has already done a size analysis on the xeno.”

“Three meters long by two meters wide,” Hawker said.

“Limbs stretch to five meters apiece,” Stony added. All eyes turned to the two mechanics. “Simple math, people.”

“That’s about what I came up with,” Lucky said. “Weight has to be no less than three hundred kilos.”

“Three hundred kilos?” Shock asked. “Big sucker.”

“It punched through a drop ship hatch with squishy legs,” Giga said. “Keep up, buddy.”

“What else we got?” Schroeder asked.

“This is it,” Parveet said. “A three hundred kilo, multi-limbed xeno that can punch through drop ship hatches.”

“What are Hrouska’s stats?” Chomps asked.

“From the intel the Dorso was able to send back, the stats are good,” Lucky said.

“Earth good?” Gailey asked.

“Possibly,” Lucky said.

“Which means we can add able to handle low-to-no oxygen and freezing temps to the xeno’s list of abilities if it can do that to a drop ship in its upper atmosphere,” Parveet said.

“How many are down there?” Gore asked.

“No idea,” Lucky said.

“What ideas do you have?” Schroeder asked.

“You’ve heard it all,” Parveet said. “Now, tell me what you think.”

“SpecCom first,” Chomps said.

“Gee, thanks, Chomps,” Schroeder replied then looked to her fellow team leaders. They nodded. “I am going to assume that the other xenos are similar. Maybe bigger. So, assuming this guy is large for its species won’t do us any good.”

“Assumption noted,” Parveet said.

“We need all four teams,” Schroeder said. “If our weapons can take these things out, then we can do some damage fast. But we don’t know what our weapons can do until we are in the shit and firing. We stagger the landing as Morisaki sets up the LZ.”

“Squishy xenos always present an issue,” Norris said. Everyone waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.

“Moving on,” Parveet said.

“Hold up,” Schroeder said. “The general infantry squads, what ammo were they using?”

“Explosive rounds,” Lucky said.

“Basic carbines?” Gailey asked.

“Yes,” Lucky answered.

“They got taken out fast,” Gailey said.

“Plasma bursts,” Schroeder said.

“Heavy magazines and we burn ammo fast with that strategy,” Halva said.

“Explosive rounds didn’t work,” Norris said.

“Plasma might,” Schroeder said. “We’ll start with plasma rifles.”

“And?” Parveet asked.

“Too little intel,” Gailey said. “We live or we don’t.”

“That’s SpecCom,” Parveet said. “Mechs?”

“I’m not liking what it did to that hatch,” Chomps said. “Pilots?”

“Nope.”

“Not at all.”

“No way.”

“Nu-uh.”

“I peed a little.”

“If it can do that to a drop ship hatch, then it can seriously hurt a mech,” Chomps said. “If we let them.”

“Then don’t let them,” Parveet said. “Assume this is average size. Three hundred kilos still isn’t much of a match for two metric tons of mech muscle.”

“That’s what I’m banking on,” Chomps said. “We use our skills to beat the shit out of these xenos. KYAGs will help, but if they are resistant to weaponry, then we will end up ripping them apart with our bare hands.”

“We’ll go plasma,” Stony said. “Same as SpecCom, but drop racks down so the mechs can switch out. Hawker will have our mechanics ready for repairs or whatever is needed. Maybe the things can spit acid or something. We’ll adapt.”

“Well, shit, Stony,” Shock said. “Acid? You made me pee myself again.”

“McDorn?” Parveet asked. “If the SpecCom teams and mechs are using plasma as their primary weapons, then that means we’ll need you more than ever. Gonna be a lot of energy drained if the shit gets thick.”

“I know,” McDorn replied. “I’ve been calculating. What geothermal are we looking at?”

“No data,” Lucky said. “None reliable.”

“And unreliable?” McDorn asked.

“Like I said, Hrouska’s stats are possibly Earth good,” Lucky said. “The little I’ve been able to glean is that the planet is temperate to extreme tropical, some plains, very little desert. That kind of environment would make you think geothermal is plentiful.”

“Or the temps are maintained atmospherically by gasses and proximity to the system’s star,” McDorn said.

“That too,” Lucky said.

“We sending all of SpecCom down there?” McDorn asked.

“Schroeder?” Parveet asked.

“Sergeants?” Schroeder asked.

“Ship security?” Gailey replied.

“Boss?” Schroeder asked.

“We can handle ourselves,” Parveet said.

“Then, yeah, we’ll send all of SpecCom down,” Schroeder said. “Better to have and not need than need and not have.”

“Be a shame if you all get wiped out, though,” Chomps said.

“You sending all six mechs?” Schroeder asked. Chomps shrugged. “Then don’t bust my gonads.”

“Full SpecCom and all mechs,” Parveet said to McDorn.

McDorn scrunched up his face and ticked off numbers on his fingers. “Four heavy generators, six minis, and six portables. You mechs gonna be able to carry the ports with you? It’ll make logistics easier if I know you have backup energy on you.”

“Pilots?” Chomps asked.

“We can adjust to the weight and balance,” Roar said. “If they’re welded tight.”

“Seamless,” Wall said.

“We’ll help with strengthening their stabilizers,” Hawker said. “We can integrate.”

“Yep,” Stony said.

“Then it sounds like we have a plan,” Parveet said. “I want you all to make preparations before we enter the wormhole. We may need to deploy within the day when we reach the other side.”

“We’ll have at least a day before we get to the Dorso,” Lucky said. “But, Boss is right. We don’t know what we’re going to find on the other side.”

“All agreed?” Parveet asked.

“Hooyah,” everyone responded.

“Then get to it,” Parveet said.

10.

Parveet sat still, her eyes locked onto the bridge’s view shield.

“Two minutes until we come out,” Flay stated.

“Crew ready?” Parveet asked.

“Pilots are secured in their mechs,” Lucky replied. “SpecCom are strapped into drop ships. The rest of the crew are standing by for orders.”

“So am I,” Parveet said. “Open a ship-wide channel.”

“Open, Boss,” Wan said.

“Me and mine, this is Parveet,” Parveet announced over the ship’s general comms. “One minute until we come out of the wormhole portal. This is a combat-ready situation. We could flop into the shit or we could come out skating free. Doesn’t matter which, I know the Jethro can handle it. I expect 100s from all of you. I’m gonna give my best 100 right by your side. Parveet out.”

The swirling mass of lights that was wormhole travel filled the view shield and the bridge crew stared at it until the Jethro lurched, stomachs dropped, a few retched, and the ship was out.

Nothing. Only the far off central star of the system and a glowing blue dot closer in.

“Report,” Parveet ordered.

“No movement,” Lucky stated. “The dot is Hrouska. No sign of the Dorso.”

“No sign?” Parveet asked. “Stegson?”

“I am not picking up any weapons systems, Boss,” Stegson said. “We are at the ready, but nothing has tried to lock onto us and scanners are clear.”

“Wan?” Parveet asked.

“No noise, Boss,” Wan said. “The system is silent.”

“Axson, take us closer to Hrouska,” Parveet ordered.

“Engines engaged thirty percent,” Axson said. “Flay?”

“Best route is sent to you,” Flay said.

“Got it,” Axson said. “We’ll come in close to the planet’s north pole and roll down from there.”

“Still no sign of the Dorso?” Parveet asked.

“No, Boss,” Flay said. “I’ve got all scanners, even Stegson’s, punched into my console. Sky is clear of any and all ships.”

“Then it’s on the other side of the planet,” Parveet said. “Can you punch a scan through?”

“Not this far out, Boss,” Flay said.

“Do it the second we are close enough,” Parveet said.

“Already locked in,” Flay said.

“Lucky?” Parveet asked.

“We find the Dorso first, Boss,” Lucky said. “That’s priority. We assess from there.”

“We are dropping onto the planet,” Parveet said.

“Unless what we find on the Dorso suggests otherwise,” Lucky said.

“Noted,” Parveet replied.

The bridge crew waited in silence as the Jethro drew closer to Hrouska.

***

“I’m bored,” Shock said.

“Me too,” Giga said.

“Want me to come over and punch the shit out of you?” Wall asked. “I like punching the shit out of things.”

“Stay in your cockpits until Parveet says otherwise,” Chomps said.

“I was talking about walking my mech over and punching Shock,” Wall replied.

“No,” Chomps said.

“No fun,” Wall said.

“I could liven things up with some low-voltage current sent directly into your cockpits,” Stony said.

“Stony, get off the comms,” Chomps said. “This is a pilots-only channel.”

“Snob,” Stony said and the distinct chime of his disconnection rang over the channel.

“Anyone have a problem with the plan?” Chomps asked.

“Little late for input, babe,” Gore said.

“Well, maybe, I’m bored too,” Chomps said.

“Ha! See!” Shock cried.

“Keep it down,” Roar said. “You’re giving me a headache.”

“Plasma KYAGs are the best route,” Giga said.

“I agree,” Roar said.

“Okay,” Chomps said. “We go with plasma KYAGS first. But be ready to switch it up.”

“We always are,” Gore said.

“Oh my God,” Shock said. “When is command gonna update us?”

***

Schroeder sat stone-faced in her drop ship seat, heavy straps crisscrossing her battle armor.

“You good, Sarge?” the soldier to her left asked.

“Good,” Schroeder replied.

“You look a little–”

“I’m good, Corporal!” she yelled.

“Hooyah!” the entire drop ship yelled back.

Schroeder cracked a smile, but it only stayed cracked for a split second.

***

“What is that?” Stony snarled as he stood over Rots. “What the bloody hell have you done now?”

“This? It’s something I came up with in the academy,” Rots replied as she stood up from crouching next to a device that looked like it was part scooter, part toolbox, and part octopus. “We used to have timed assembly drills in the quads. The dorm that lost had to buy drinks for the month. My dorm never bought drinks.”

“You giving Rots shit again, Stony?” Hawker asked.

“What do you make of this thing?” Stony asked, pointing Tina at the device.

“Don’t know what to make of it,” Hawker said. “What’s it do?”

“I’ll show you,” Rots said. “Three-point-five wrench.”

One of the many arms dove into the toolbox and came out with a three-point-five wrench almost faster than the eye could track.

“Do it again,” Stony said.

“Chunk blade,” Rots said.

A second arm dove in and came out with a thick, curved blade on a heavy handle.

“Bolt driver,” Stony said to the device. Nothing happened. “Bolt driver.”

Still nothing happened and Stony smirked.

“Has to be perfect to be of use on the Jethro,” Stony said.

“It’s single-voice programmed,” Rots said. “That way it doesn’t get confused when a bunch of mechanics are yelling at once.”

“Good idea,” Hawker said and spat. “Stony does nothing but yell a bunch of confusing crap. He’d break it in a day.”

Hawker walked off, but Stony stayed put.

“How fast can you build more?” Stony asked.

“You serious?” Rots replied.

“Don’t waste my time asking stupid questions,” Stony said.

“Uh, I could have six done by the end of the week,” Rots said.

“I want six done by the time we get to the Dorso, you got me?” Stony asked. “Six. And they better work perfectly.”

“Yeah, sure, I can do that,” Rots said and stood there dumbfounded as Stony sauntered off, already shouting at another mechanic that was busy reassembling a mech backup power drive.

“And name them!” Stony shouted back at her.

“Name them?” Rots asked.

“Not individual names! A device name!”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

Rots stared down at the device.

“Crap,” she said. “I need to take you apart to copy you, but I need you together to get the job done. Crap.”

***

The bridge door slid open and Torn slowly made her way inside.

“You need to be in your cabin,” Parveet said.

“I was going nuts in there,” Torn said.

Parveet swiveled her chair around and locked eyes with the ambassador.

“That wasn’t a suggestion, Ambassador Torn,” Parveet said. “You are a distraction on my bridge.”

“I will stay out of the way in my seat by the wall,” Torn said.

“That is not the issue,” Parveet said. “This is my ship, my command, and every call is my call.”

“Of course,” Torn said. “I wouldn’t think of getting in the way.”

“Until you do think of it,” Parveet said. “You can pull rank over any one of my bridge crew. Not that they’ll listen to you, but if you do voice a disagreement with one of my calls, then that could cause hesitation. Hesitation can then cause death. I will not have a death caused by hesitation when the source of the distraction that caused the hesitation can easily be contained in her cabin.”

Torn waited then raised her eyebrows. “You are serious.”

“I am serious,” Parveet said. “Return to your cabin or I will have someone escort you to your cabin.”

“Jesus, Jay,” Torn said. She waited a couple seconds then nodded. “Fine. I’ll return to my cabin.”

“Good,” Parveet said. “I will have to trust you will do that. I can’t afford the distraction of monitoring your walk back.”

Torn looked about the bridge, but all of the crew were busy with their duties and none even glanced her way.

“Let me know when I can come out,” Torn said.

“I will,” Parveet said.

Torn got up, walked to the bridge door, and exited as soon as she could fit through the gap. It closed behind her with a soft whumpf.

“Kind of harsh,” Luck said.

“I needed to be,” Parveet said. “If it turns out that Hrouska is as viable as the data shows then despite our history, she will use this planet to further whatever agenda she has.”

“You think she has an agenda?” Luck asked.

“Every politician has an agenda,” Parveet said. “She came here without knowing who I really was to her. She came here for a reason, and I have a few suspicions as to what that reason may be. Discovering the one planet that could save the human race, and having it all the way here in the outer reaches, would boost her family’s standing exponentially. As much as she may not like the way the lineage system works, she is a part of it. I’m not.”

“Still,” Lucky said. “Kind of harsh.”

“Shut up, Lucky,” Parveet said.

“Shutting up, Boss,” Lucky said.

11.

Hrouska hung below the Jethro, a blue planet that held who knew what dangers.

The MEU command ship crested the north pole of the planet and began to descend into an orbit that would take it around the other side, hopefully to find the Dorso.

“There we are,” Lucky said, almost too quiet for the rest of the bridge crew to hear. “Look at it. It’s seen some shit, Boss.”

Two days had passed before the Jethro reached Hrouska from the wormhole portal. With immediate threats no longer an issue, the entire crew was ordered to stand down, but stay on alert, until otherwise notified. That meant two pilots rotated in and out of shifts in the mechs while one SpecCom team stayed inside a drop ship, ready for launch.

The bridge crew, however…

“Will someone kick Flay?” Axson asked. “His snoring is going to drive me insane.”

“It’s already driven me insane,” Wan said. “You all look like bunny rabbits in tuxedoes to me.”

“That’s a weird thing for your mind to conjure,” Stegson said. “Why tuxedoes?”

“Because gowns would get tangled around their legs,” Wan said.

“True,” Stegson replied.

“Shut it,” Parveet ordered. “Talk to me, Lucky.”

“Scans show zero power,” Lucky said. “Severe damage throughout the superstructure. There are airlocks open all over the place. The ship is Swiss cheese, Boss.”

“Shit,” Parveet said. “Not what I wanted us to find.”

“No, sir,” Lucky agreed.

“Lock weapons?” Stegson asked.

“Yes,” Parveet said. “Also, I want–”

The rest of her words were drowned out by a blaring klaxon.

“What the hell is that?” she struggled to shout over the noise. “Talk to me, people!”

“We’re losing the engines, Boss!” Axson yelled. “They’re glitching out! I’m killing the main drives and bringing up backups now!”

“Lucky!” Parveet shouted.

“I don’t know, Boss!” Lucky shouted back. “Scanners aren’t picking up any outside threat! Whatever is happening is internal!”

Parveet activated her comms. “Stony! Talk to me!”

“Engine crew is saying that something shorted out!” Stony said.

“Ya think!” Parveet yelled.

“Hold on, Boss!” Stony cried. “Give me a second to… Ah, crap.”

“What is it, Stony?”

“The wormhole portal,” Stony replied. “There must have been a quantum flux within the exit irising. It hit the engines. We’ve tweaked the Jethro so much that if it was any other ship, it would have been dead in the water upon arrival. It took two days to work through our drives.”

“How fast can you fix it?”

“Fast? Not fast at all, Boss. Twenty-four hours to stabilize and another twenty-four to get them back up and running. Then we’ll go from there.”

“You have twenty-four hours to do it all, Stony.”

“I don’t think you heard me, Boss,” Stony insisted. “This isn’t a negotiation. You can’t motivate these engines into becoming operational again. Twenty-four to stabilize, twenty-four to get up and running. Otherwise, we lose the whole Jethro with a very large bang that no one will hear because we are at the farthest point explored in our galaxy. Have I made myself clear, Boss? I really hope to hell I made myself clear.”

“And your better half? What will she tell me?”

“I’m listening,” Hawker said, “and he’s wrong, Boss. I think it’ll take thirty-six hours to stabilize. I’m watching power spikes like I haven’t seen since the academy sims.”

“Goddammit,” Parveet said. “Lucky? Axson? Will we stay in orbit without engines?”

Before they could answer, a huge explosion rocked the ship.

“Stony!” Parveet yelled.

“There went the back-up drives!” Stony shouted. “I gotta go!”

“I’m launching drop ships to lock onto the hull and keep us in orbit,” Lucky said. “That’s about all we can do.”

“Axson?” Parveet snapped.

“It’s the best move, Boss,” Axson replied. “I’m doing everything I can right now with directional thrusters, but we were moving when the engines went. We need the drop ships to keep the planet from grabbing us.”

“And without main engines we can’t land on the surface,” Parveet stated.

“You said it, Boss,” Axson said. “We’d just be creating a massive crater.”

“Get to work, everyone,” Parveet said.

“Already are,” Lucky said.

***

Crew members raced through the passageways, some with firefighting equipment, some with medical equipment, some with dazed looks on their faces and blood dripping from various wounds. But no one hesitated when it came to helping others or securing the ship. They ran, they worked, they comforted, they cried, but it was all done for the Jethro.

“Hella!” Chomps shouted as she caught a crewman just as he passed out.

“Chimera!” Hella yelled from the other end of the passageway.

“I’m on it!” Chimera shouted.

Chimera thrust a pressure patch into a woman’s hand and dodged several weaving crew members before reaching Chomps. The man she held was bleeding profusely from a wound to his neck. Chimera produced another pressure patch and slapped it on the wound then shook his head.

“Here,” he said and handed Chomps his med bag. “I’m grabbing the cart from sick bay. We’ll need bots for all of this.”

“Bots? Jesus, Chimera!” Chomps replied. “Those things tear people apart about as much as they patch people up!”

“I only have two hands, Chomps!” Chimera yelled then sprinted down the passageway.

There was a loud clanging noise then the ship began to list to starboard hard and fast. Chomps activated her comms.

“Bridge? What can you tell me?” Chomps asked.

“We’re deploying drop ships to stabilize the Jethro and give her some maneuverability,” Lucky said. “That’s all I have time to tell you.”

The comms cut off and Chomps stared at the chaos and carnage around her.

Then the lights went out.

***

“Goddammit!” Stony yelled as he cracked glow stick after glow stick and threw them around the engine room. “Spotz! You down here? Spotz!”

“Right here, Stony!” Chief Engineer Lori Spotz yelled from the far side of the room. “And I’m not going anywhere!”

Stony raced over to her as mechanics and techs ran about the engine room to check the various stations and consoles that kept the Jethro going.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?” Stony asked as he reached Spotz.

The woman stood with her back braced against a large slab of metal alloy. Stony glanced around and saw a huge chunk had been cut out from the floor.

“Spotz? What’s happening on the other side of that patch you made?” Stony asked, pointing Tina at the wall behind Spotz. “You cut floor for wall?”

“Breach,” Spotz said.

“Breach? Hull breach?” Stony asked. “We’re fifty meters away from the hull, Spotz.”

“I know the math involved, Stony,” Spotz said. “Oh, I am goddamn aware of the math involved. But I ain’t lying when I say there is a hole that goes from the hull to this room behind this patch.”

“I’ll weld it into place,” Stony said.

“That would be nice,” Spotz replied.

Stony pulled a hand welder off his belt and moved to the panel. He quickly tacked what had been flooring to the wall in several places, taking the burden off of Spotz, then proceeded to run a bead around the entire thing until the red flashing light in the far corner of the engine room turned green and the distinct hiss of air filling the room could be heard.

“Pressure should hold for a while,” Stony said.

“Not for long,” Spotz replied. “We have to seal it from the outside.”

“Shit,” Stony said. “I’ve got all hands on deck trying to put out every damn fire and short that this mess has caused.” He looked around the engine room. “Where’s your crew?”

Spotz hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the panel.

“All of them?” Stony gasped.

“Chez and Jong made it out,” Spotz said. “But everyone else was lost either at first or as we tried to wrestle that panel into place.”

“Shit, Spotz, I’m sorry,” Stony said.

“You’ll have to send some of yours out to fix the hull,” Spotz said.

“I guess so,” Stony said as his comms buzzed to life.

“Hey, Stony?” Chomps said. “We’ve lost power in decks eight through fourteen.”

“Lost power?” Stony said and spun about in a circle until he saw an active console a couple feet away. “Hold on.”

Stony brought up the power grid for the Jethro and blanched.

“Oh, wow,” Spotz said, looking over his shoulder. “That ain’t good.”

“We have to do an entire reboot,” Stony said flatly. “An entire reboot.”

“You said that,” Spotz responded.

“An entire reboot?” Chomps asked. “What does that mean?”

“It means we become a hunk of floating nothing,” Stony said. “The whole grid has to be reset and that takes a dead five.”

“Dead five?” Chomps asked.

“Dead five means the system has to be down for a full five minutes to purge all data,” Stony said. “If I start it up too soon, then the system will just corrupt itself all over again.”

“You may want to get on that,” Chomps said.

“You’ll need every single hand,” Spotz said and glanced over at the patch. It was definitely starting to bow out towards the hull. “But we need someone to fix that.”

“Hey, Chomps?” Stony asked.

“Yeah? What?” Chomps replied. “I ain’t liking that tone, Stony.”

“Which pilot is best with a torch?” Stony asked.

“Probably Gore,” Chomps said. “Why?”

“I need someone on the hull to patch a breach that will probably tear the ass end of the Jethro off within the hour.”

“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.

“Engage boots!” Schroeder yelled from the back of the team. “Untether!”

The first wave of soldiers undid their clamps and landed boots first on the hull of the Dorso, the mag-locks on their boots keeping them from bouncing off. They instantly unslung their rifles from their backs.

“We’re plasma hot here, people!” Schroeder yelled as the last of the soldiers decoupled and landed on the hull. She landed in front of them all. “Watch your goddamn fire! We do not need to cut more holes in this POS than there already are! Hear me?”

“Loud and!” the team responded as one.

“Here we go,” Schroeder said and started walking across the hull towards a very large opening that shouldn’t have been there. “On me. Eyes open. You see anything that is not human and you kill it. This is not a bag and tag, people. This is run and gun, all the way.”

***

Parveet sat in her chair, eyes bloodshot and weary, but she kept her focus locked onto the part of the view shield that had switched to various POVs of the SpecCom team. She rubbed at her temples as the team progressed inside the Dorso.

“Here. Take this.”

Parveet glanced at the steaming mug of stim drink that passed as coffee on the Jethro. Then she followed the arm that was holding it until she was staring into Torn’s eyes.

“You push your luck, Bee,” Parveet said. “You may want to stop throwing the UEC weight around my ship. I’m not happy with your diplomatic overrides on my hatches.”

“Do you want the drink or not?” Torn asked.

Parveet took the mug and grimaced as she sipped. “Too hot.”

“Then let it cool,” Torn said.

None of the bridge crew’s eyes were on the two, but Parveet knew ears were listening and at least one of them was watching the exchange on her or his console via the ship’s vid cams. Parveet set her mug in the depression in her chair’s arm.

“Pull up a chair, Bee,” Parveet said.

“How?” Torn asked. “Aren’t they bolted to the wall?”

“I got it, Boss,” Lucky said as he moved from his post to the wall and unbolted a chair. He walked it over to Torn, set it down, and activated the leg mag-bolts which clamped the chair to the bridge deck.

“There you go,” Lucky said.

“Thank you, Major,” Torn said as she sat down. “I appreciate the hospitality.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t make passive aggressive digs like that right now,” Lucky said, a warning tone very evident in his voice. “We have an active op going and the Boss hates passive aggressive on a good day.”

Lucky returned to his post and refocused on the POVs.

“I’ve never witnessed a mission real time,” Torn said.

“I can tell,” Parveet said. “Know how? Because you’re still talking. Hush or leave.”

Torn began to respond then only nodded.

Parveet leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and stared at the POVs.

***

“Talk to me, Hedder,” Schroeder said as she lead her soldiers down a passageway that looked like fire had raged through it before the atmosphere was sucked from the Dorso out any of the multiple hull breaches. “You seeing what I’m seeing?”

“We are,” Corporal Hedder replied over the comms. “Whatever happened here included some serious cooking. This ship got lit up.”

“Mevins?” Schroeder called.

“Same,” Corporal Mevins replied over the comms. “I’m not seeing any bodies, though. You?”

“No bodies here,” Schroeder said.

“Me neither,” Hedder said.

“Same,” Corporal Stack said. “Why would they purge like this?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Schroeder said. “Keep moving and watch for structural stability. This floor feels loose.”

“The whole ship feels loose,” Hedder said.

“We’re almost to the bridge,” Schroeder said. “Two decks up to go.”

Her squad kept moving until they hit the lift shaft. The shaft was wide open and looked like the lift doors had been torn free of the wall. Schroeder carefully inspected the damage then shuffled closer to the edge. She looked down, illuminating the shaft with her rifle’s halogen, then looked up.

“Shaft is clear,” she said. “Hook us in.”

A soldier hurried forward, locked a multi-tonged hook into a slot on her rifle, then fired up into the shaft, sending the hook and a microfilament flying up into the shadows. There was a clang and the soldier yanked on her rifle.

“Secure,” she said.

“Clamping in,” Schroeder said as she leaned forward and hooked a small clamp around the microfilament.

Then she stepped into the shaft, letting the mag-locks on her boots shift from the floor to the shaft’s wall. Schroeder tested the microfilament, which kept her from floating around the shaft just in case her mag-locks shorted out. Never rely on tech was a SpecCom team motto. Expect the worst was another one.

Schroeder led her squad up the shaft, passing another set of destroyed doors, before stopping two decks up at what was nothing short of a complete mess.

“Is that open space, Sarge?” a soldier asked.

Schroeder stared at the huge rip in the Dorso that exposed the entire bridge to the vacuum of space outside the hull.

“Sarge?” the soldier asked. “We going in?”

“Hold,” Schroeder said, focusing on the rip in what had to be ten meters of metal. “Boss? You seeing this?”

“I’m seeing it,” Parveet replied over the comms. “Can you see a cause?”

“Not from here,” Schroeder said. “Moving closer.”

She stepped from the shaft and onto the bridge, unclamping from the microfilament as she went. Schroeder took a hand off her rifle and fished at her belt, finding a small orb and threw it down onto the bridge’s deck. Another microfilament shot from the orb and stayed affixed to her belt as she moved closer to the rip.

“Deactivating mag-locks,” Schroeder announced. “Squad, stay locked and secure the bridge.”

“Yes, Sarge,” they replied.

Schroeder deactivated her mag-locks and let herself float closer to the bridge’s ceiling and the huge rip in the hull. She held up a hand and stopped herself from colliding with the ceiling, the barrel of her rifle covering the rip.

“Scanning,” she said.

“I’ve got ya,” Wan replied over the comms.

A bright red light lit up the rip then moved systematically back and forth then up until it stretched all the way to the outer hull. Lines of data filled Schroeder’s display screen in her helmet. She studied the data then shook her head.

“Is this right?” Schroeder asked. “You seeing this?”

“Can you confirm with your eyes?” Wan asked.

“I guess,” Schroeder replied. “It looks like the metal is ripped through. I’m not seeing any signs of fire or explosives. Acid, maybe?”

“Maybe,” Wan said. “I don’t see any signs of…”

“Wan? Talk to me,” Schroeder said as she cautiously moved into the rip, one hand guiding her while the other kept a very firm grip on her rifle. “What do you see?”

“Can you get to the outer edge?” Wan asked.

“Yeah, the filament should reach,” Schroeder said. “Why?”

“Not sure yet,” Wan said.

“Well, I’d like a little more intel before I expose myself to open space without my boots engaged,” Schroeder said.

“Which way is the opening going?” Wan asked.

“Which way is it…what? Out. It’s going out,” Schroeder said. The realization of what she said slammed into her brain. “Shit. It was already inside the bridge.”

“Yeah,” Wan said. “Whatever did the damage did it from inside the bridge. It tore its way out, not in.”

“What the shit?” Schroeder mumbled.

She reached the outer edge and slowly peeked outside. Schroeder turned her head one way then the other, letting her vid capture as much image as possible of the outer hull before ducking back in.

“I’m heading back,” Schroeder said. “You get anything?”

“I got a lot,” Wan said.

“Hey…what was that?” Stegson said. “Wan? You see that?”

“What is it?” Schroeder asked as she climbed her way back down out of the rip and into the bridge. “We secure?”

“Secure, Sarge,” one of her soldiers said. “No sign of the bridge crew.”

“Hey, Sarge?” another soldier said over by the command console. “I think I have something. I jumped the console with my suit and found some data.”

“Is that movement?” Stegson asked.

“I can’t tell,” Wan said. “It looks like a shadow to me.”

“Will you two shut up in my ear, please?” Schroeder barked. “It’s distracting as hell. Have your convo off comms.”

“But the light’s wrong for there to be a shadow at that angle,” Stegson said.

Schroeder paused.

“What was that?” she asked. No response. “I’m talking to you, Stegson!”

“The shadow we saw on your vid feed shouldn’t be there,” Stegson said. “Not the way the light is coming from the system’s star.”

“Could it be because of the angle the Dorso is to the planet?” Schroeder asked, turning around and aiming back up at the rip with her rifle. She held up a fist then extended her fingers, waving them twice. Two soldiers came and backed her up while the third stayed at the console. “Stegson?”

“Sarge, I see movement,” one of the soldiers said.

“Copy that,” the other said.

“Stegson!” Schroeder barked.

“Sergeant, I would like you to move towards the shaft now,” Parveet interrupted on the comms. “Do not, I repeat, do not take your eyes off that breach.”

“Not a chance in hell I would think of looking away, Boss,” Schroeder said. “Pasco?”

“Sarge, I’m sending data to the Jethro,” the soldier at the console said.

“Good,” Schroeder said. “Unhook that jump and move on me now, Pasco.”

Schroeder and the two soldiers slowly eased their way back to towards the shaft.

The third soldier unhooked his suit from the console and began to follow.

He didn’t make it.

“WHAT THE SHIT?” Schroeder yelled and opened fire at the breach.

***

“Talk to me, Sergeant!” Parveet yelled, jumping to her feet as the POVs of Schroeder’s squad became nothing but bright flashes of plasma fire. “Schroeder!”

“Jesus Christ, what is that?” Lucky muttered as he leaned towards the view shield and the chaos that had erupted in the POVs.

“That’s what we saw on that vid,” Wan said. “One of the xenos is still on the Dorso!”

“Pull back now, Schroeder!” Parveet yelled. “That is an order! Get off that ship! We’re gonna nuke it from here!”

“We’re too close to nuke it, Boss!” Stegson yelled.

“Axson!” Parveet shouted.

“Boss, I’ll have to cut the tethers!” Axson said. “Schroeder and her team will be stranded!”

“Schroeder! Do you hear me?” Parveet yelled. “We are cutting tethers so we can nuke the Dorso! I need your team to get off that ship ASAP!”

Nothing but shouting in the comms could be heard. None of the shouting was directed at Parveet.

“Boss?” Stegson said.

“We aren’t leaving them,” Parveet said. “Watch scanners. The second you see movement that is not me and mine, you cut tethers and get us away from the Dorso. Understood, Axson?”

“Understood, Boss,” Axson replied.

Parveet stayed standing, her eyes watching only the POVs as the other squads’ were lit up by plasma fire.

2.

“Pasco!” Schroeder yelled as the soldier was snatched up by a half-dozen tentacular limbs and yanked towards the breach in the ceiling. The plasma fire behind Schroeder stopped. “What are you doing, goddammit? Keep firing!”

“Sarge, we’ll hit Pasco!”

“He’s right in the line of–!”

“I said to keep firing!” Schroeder roared. “Pasco is gone!”

It was true. The soldier was being ripped apart limb by limb right before their eyes. His screams were cut off as his head was snapped from his neck and tossed aside. It tumbled, floating, around and around before colliding with the bridge wall and bouncing off towards the rest of the squad. The interior of the bridge became a swirling mass of bloody droplets that spread out in a whirlwind. Then the xeno snagged the head with a tentacle and yanked it up into the breach.

“Piece of shit xeno!” Schroeder yelled as she took a knee and aimed.

She squeezed her trigger again and again, sending several plasma blasts directly into the xeno. The creature let go of Pasco’s dismembered corpse and scurried back through the breach, lost from sight.

“To hell with this,” Schroeder said and pumped the launcher under her rifle’s barrel. She fired a small rocket directly into the breach. “Go!”

The other soldiers didn’t have to be told twice. They raced for the shaft and dove down inside, bouncing off the shaft walls violently as they descended. Schroeder was right behind them and had barely gotten clear of the opening when the rocket exploded. The force of the blast rushed into the shaft and slammed her against the wall.

“Squads!” Schroeder called as she pinballed her way down to the other soldiers that were waiting at the lower shaft opening, arms out to catch her. “Report, goddammit!”

There were only screams in the comms.

Her soldiers caught her and pulled her into the passageway they’d first left.

“Schroeder!” Parveet shouted over the comms.

“Here,” Schroeder said, whipping around to cover the shaft opening, her rifle barrel red hot as she kept the trigger halfway depressed. “We lost Pasco.”

“I know,” Parveet said. “His feed went dead. You’ve got at least two more xenos on the Dorso. Forget them and get to the tethers. Now.”

“I hear that,” Schroeder said. “All squads on me! All squads on me! We are bugging out now!”

Schroeder nodded at the two soldiers and they ran as fast as the mag-locks would allow them to, headed for the tether point.

***

Corporal Stack spun to his left and opened fire on the thing that was half-crawling, half-slithering its way down the passageway at his squad. He took a knee and refused to back up despite his squad’s voice shouting over the comms.

“No way,” he snarled as he rained plasma fire down on the xeno that kept on coming. Hunks of the thing were sheared off, but it refused to stop. “No goddamn way.”

A soldier took a knee next to him then another and another. They opened fire as well.

The xeno kept on.

“Rockets,” Stack ordered.

As one, they loaded and launched four rockets at the creature. That got its attention. As the rockets sped towards the thing, it halted and began to scramble backwards. Its tentacles tucked into it as it used its body for fast locomotion, undulating in thick waves back down the passageway.

Then the rockets hit and the entire passageway became fire.

And black gunk.

Stack and his soldiers were knocked off their knees, their battle suits’ mag-locks disconnecting from the force of the blast. They tumbled head over heels until one by one they collided with the sides of the passageway and slowed enough for the mag-locks to re-engage.

“Report,” Stack said, coughing hard as he struggled to catch his breath.

“Good.”

“Good.”

No third response.

“Hamid? Report?” Stack ordered. He gasped and looked down at his suit. A four-inch hunk of metal was sticking out from his chest armor. “Shit.”

“I’ll get it, Stack,” one of the soldiers said as she shoved off from the wall opposite Stack and landed next to him, already fishing in a compartment on her suit’s thigh. “Gonna hurt.”

“I know,” Stack said.

The soldier pulled the hunk of metal out then slapped a thick wad of gauze into the tear in the suit. Stack screamed in pain as the gauze worked its way into his wound. Then the soldier slapped a patch on the armor and the suit sealed off. Stack gritted his teeth until the painkillers in the gauze kicked in.

“Goddamn,” he mumbled as he pressed his helmet back against the passageway’s wall. “Talk to me.”

“Hamid is gone,” the other soldier said. “Shrapnel ripped him in half.”

“Shit,” Stack said. “What else? Xeno?”

“Xeno is sludge,” the soldier next to him said. She held up her glove and waved it in front of Stack’s helmet. “See?”

The glove was coated with what looked like thick motor oil.

“Boss?” Stack gasped.

“Here, Stack. What have you got?” Parveet asked over the comms.

“Call off the nukes,” Stack said. “We can kill the things with rockets.”

“Stack, I want you to retreat back to the tethers now,” Parveet ordered.

“You heard the Boss, Stack,” Schroeder’s voice interrupted over the comms.

“With all due respect, Sarge, we can take these bastards,” Stack replied.

“Not without a price,” Parveet said. “We have an entire planet to secure. I need you all.”

“Sarge, listen to me,” Stack said. “We’ve got this.”

“Shit,” Schroeder said. “You’ve lost Hamid, I’ve lost Pasco.”

“That’s what we do, Sarge,” Stack said. “We lose good people doing our jobs. Hell, I could die in the next five minutes. But I don’t give a shit. We’re clearing this ship.”

“Sergeant–” Parveet began to say.

“Stack is right,” Schroeder interrupted. “We know we can kill them with rockets. We’re staying.”

“Goddammit, Schroeder,” Parveet snarled. “Are you disobeying a direct order?”

“No, Boss,” Schroeder said. “But we’ve already lost people. It’s no longer a clean op. I’d rather secure the Dorso than retreat at this point.”

“You will lose more people, Sergeant,” Parveet said.

“Stack?” Schroeder asked.

Stack glanced at his remaining squad. They both nodded.

“We’re staying,” Stack said.

“I’m sending reinforcements then,” Parveet said. “Who do you want, Sergeant?”

“Give me Halva’s team,” Schroeder replied.

“Oh, I like the sound of that,” Stack said. “Bring in the big guns!”

“Hooyah!” a voice called over the comms. “Been waiting for the order! My team is on the way!”

***

“Oh, come on,” Roar snapped as she leaned against the wall of the mech hangar. “Send us in there!”

“And do what?” Wall asked. “Mechs can’t fit in the passageways.”

“I know,” Roar said. “That means we rip them wide open. They need rockets? Shit, man, we’ve got the biggest rockets.”

Roar pointed at the weapons racks in the center of the hangar.

“I do like that,” Wall said. “Rip the passageways open. Boom, boom, boom.”

“Someone say boom?” Gore said as he walked into the hangar. “You know I like the sound of boom.”

“Roar thinks we should be in the fight,” Wall said.

“What’s this?” Chomps asked, coming in directly behind Gore. “Parveet hasn’t said a word about deploying mechs in this shit storm.”

“She should,” Roar said.

“Stand down, Roar,” Chomps responded as she rolled her eyes. “We’d shred that ship in seconds.”

“Not necessarily, Chomps,” Giga called from the opposite wall. She was sitting down, a tablet in her hands. She looked up and smiled at everyone. “I’ve got movement on the hull.”

“What movement?” Chomps asked as she yanked her tablet from her belt. Giga swiped at hers and the same image came up on Chomps. “Well, I’ll be.”

Chomps passed the image to everyone else’s tablets. They studied, they stared, they smiled.

“Boss?” Chomps called. “Stop watching the team feeds and take a look at the externals. We have two xenos on the move.”

“Chomps? What the hell are you talking about?” Parveet replied over the comms. “I’m too busy right… Goddammit.”

“They are heading to the tethers, Boss,” Chomps said. “Halva’s team is about to get a nasty surprise.”

“Shit,” Parveet said. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“Permission to engage with mechs, Boss,” Chomps said.

“Permission granted,” Parveet said. “Two mechs only. You pick.”

“Got it,” Chomps said.

She pointed at Roar and Wall.

“Hell yeah,” Roar said and began running towards her mech.

“Boom, boom, boom,” Wall said, heading towards his.

“I’d go, but you know…” Gore said.

“I know,” Chomps replied and smiled.

***

The mech hangar deployment hatch opened and two mechs leapt from the Jethro, both firing tethers at the Dorso’s hull. The tethers raced across the open space and punctured the hull, the hooks engaging and holding the lines fast. The mechs reeled themselves in, racing towards the Dorso at very unsafe speeds.

Just before collision, they disengaged the tethers, spun their legs around and landed feet first on the Dorso’s hull, the mechs’ knees bending and taking the brunt of the landing before straightening.

“We have some hull to cover,” Roar said over the comms. “The team tethers are two hundred meters that way.”

She pointed across the hull at the barely perceptible shapes of Halva’s SpecCom team that had just landed. And the two shadows racing towards them.

“Boom, boom, boom,” Wall said as the two mechs began running as fast as the mag-locks would allow.

***

“Sarge!” a soldier yelled as he spun about and started firing at the two shadows.

“Goddam, they’re fast!” Halva shouted as she whirled her fist in the air then took a knee and started firing too. The entire team ignored the hole in the hull they were about to go through and found positions on the outside, setting up a line to take out the oncoming xenos.

The plasma blasts had zero effect.

“Switch to rockets!” Halva ordered.

“Belay that order!” Roar’s voice came over the comms. “Get your people inside, Sarge! We’ve got this!”

Halva focused her display’s screen on the space behind the oncoming xenos.

“Goddamn,” Halva said and laughed. “Who’d you blow to get permission to launch mechs in open space?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Roar replied. “Get your team inside, Halva. We have your back.”

Halva studied the distance between the xenos and her team, and the distance between the xenos and the mechs that were sprinting across the hull.

“You better,” Halva said. “You’re cutting it close.”

“That’s how mechs roll,” Roar said.

“Team! Inside!” Halva ordered and stood up. She turned and ran to the opening in the hull. “Let’s go rescue some SpecCom!”

“Hooyah!” her team shouted as they started dropping inside the Dorso.

***

“Locked,” Wall said.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Roar replied.

Wall fired a massive rocket from the launcher he held gripped in his fist. The rocket’s engine sputtered for a half second then flared bright blue as it raced at the closest of the two xenos. Wall was breathing heavy as he stared at the blue fire.

Then it impacted with the xeno and the space where the thing had been became a brief explosion then a mist of black that drifted into the wide open.

“Boom!” Wall yelled.

“Nice shot,” Roar said. “Still got one more.”

Roar fired her launcher and the rocket zipped across the space towards the second xeno. That xeno stopped its pursuit of the SpecCom team that was dropping into the Dorso, turned to face the mechs, caught the rocket as it reached it, then hurled the projectile back at Roar.

“Shit!” Roar yelled as she threw her mech down flat against the Dorso’s hull, letting the rocket race over her.

“What the shit?” Wall shouted, dropping into a crouch as he took aim with his launcher. “Did you see that?”

“Yeah, I goddamn saw it!” Roar shouted.

An explosion made the Dorso shudder as the rocket impacted with the hull well behind them.

“Roar!” Parveet’s voice shouted over the comms. “I sent you there to take out the xenos, not add more damage to the Dorso!”

“We got thinkers, Boss!” Roar yelled back. “It caught the rocket and threw it at us!”

“On it!” another voice said as a mech dropped onto the hull between the breach where the SpecCom team had entered and the xeno. “Hey there.”

The xeno twisted about and shot several tentacles out at Giga’s mech.

“Nope,” Giga said and fired both launchers she held. Two rockets raced at the xeno and impacted in a massive fireball. Black mist was all that was left. Giga raised the launchers, resting them across her shoulders. “Sniper’s instinct.”

“What the hell does sniper’s instinct mean?” Wall asked.

“It means she saw something in the way the xenos moved,” Roar said. “She also could have told us over the comms.”

“And miss all the fun?” Giga replied, laughing. “Come on. Let’s see if we can get inside. Drop ship hangars should be big enough for us.”

***

The xeno dropped from the hangar’s ceiling and came at the SpecCom squad so fast that the first two soldiers didn’t even flinch before being grabbed up in tentacles. They managed a scream each before they were ripped into shreds.

“No!” Corporal Mevins said as he opened fire. “Shit! No plasma! No plasma!”

He switched to rockets as the last of his squad was snagged by a tentacle and thrown against the hangar wall. The soldier cried out on impact then went limp, her body bouncing off and floating down to the floor where it bounced again and began floating back at the xeno.

“No,” Mevins snarled and fired his rocket.

The xeno moved too fast and the rocket missed, exploding against the opposite wall.

Mevins backed up, pulling another rocket from his pack and loading the launcher on the move. The xeno came at him so fast that he barely saw it move.

“DOWN!” a voice roared in the comms.

Mevins got down and the xeno flew over him, followed closely by three rockets.

Mevins rolled onto his back and watched the rockets collide with the xeno, his helmet’s display dimming automatically to filter out the explosions. The xeno was vaporized. Only a few particles of black mist floated in the hangar before dissipating into nothing.

“Thanks,” Mevins said to the SpecCom soldiers behind him.

The drop ship hangar doors began to slowly open and every soldier spun around, took a knee, and raised their rocket launchers. Then mech hands slid through the gap in the hangar doors and the soldiers relaxed.

“Goddammit, Roar,” Stack said, sitting down and laying back. “Warn us.”

“Did we miss the fun?” Roar said as the hangar doors were shoved apart and three mechs came stomping inside. “No more xenos?”

“Not in here,” Mevins said and took a deep breath. He turned in a circle then looked up and saw the remaining soldier of his squad floating against the ceiling. “Shit.”

“Got her,” Wall said and jumped, holding up one massive mech hand to catch the soldier and the other to stop himself from slamming into the ceiling. “She’s alive. I can see her eyes twitching.”

“Good,” Mevins said.

“Sarge?” Stack called.

“I think we’re clear,” Schroeder replied over the comms. “Scans aren’t showing any movement.”

“Keep eyes and ears open,” Parveet ordered over the comms.

“Always,” Schroeder replied.

“Um, guys?” Roar said and pointed her finger at the center of the hangar. “I thought all the Dorso’s drop ships were lost on the planet?”

Everyone turned and stared at the drop ship that sat there. Where a hatch should have been was only a hole and the ship was missing its view shield.

“Hey, Boss,” Giga said. “The xenos aren’t just thinkers. They’re sentient.”

“Sentient? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?” Parveet replied.

“Well, I think they flew a drop ship up here on their own,” Giga said. “Yeah, I’m pretty damn sure that’s what they did. We might be in trouble, Boss.”

3.

Parveet, Chomps, Lucky, Stony and McDorn stood around the command table, each watching the feeds from the SpecCom soldiers and the mechs.

“They attack like wild animals,” Lucky said. “But if Giga’s hunch is right, then we do have a serious problem. We may want to cut our losses and get out of here.”

“Leave?” Parveet asked. “The Jethro doesn’t leave.”

“I agree, Boss,” Chomps said. “But, Lucky has a point. This may be more than the Jethro can handle.”

“I don’t know what those words mean,” Parveet said and smirked.

“Doesn’t matter much either way,” Stony said. “Engines are trashed.”

“Trashed?” Parveet replied.

“Trashed,” Stony repeated. “Some parts are salvageable, but parts do not help us much. We’re going to need to strip the Dorso and see if we can cobble together some engines before we even think of leaving this system.”

“Boss?” Wan said, coming into the side room just off the bridge that Parveet used for command meetings. “I got something to show you. A couple of somethings.”

She swiped at her tablet and the image transferred to the table.

“What am I looking at?” Parveet asked.

“Two things,” Wan said. “First is a log of one of the Dorso’s escape pods leaving the ship.”

A grainy image from an external vid camera showed the pod launching and rocketing down towards Hrouska.

“There might be survivors?” Parveet asked.

“Might be,” Wan said. “I’ve been hunting for the transponder signal, but I’m picking up zip.”

“Keep looking,” Parveet ordered.

“I am,” Wan said. “The other thing is the data sent to us from the Dorso. It’s data of Hrouska.”

The image of the escape pod was replaced with a read-out of data parameters of Hrouska itself.

“Sweet Jesus,” Chomps said. “Is this right?”

“We suspected, but now we have proof,” Wan said. “Atmosphere is almost exact, water-to-land ratio is almost exact, even fresh-to-salt water ratio is almost exact.”

“Temperature and climate zones are perfect,” McDorn said. “A bit on the tropical side on most of the planet, but pretty much an exact match.”

“You’re looking at what Earth was like maybe a million years ago,” Wan said. “Boss, we found our planet.”

“All the more reason to leave and come back with an armada,” Lucky said.

“Hold up,” Chomps said. She was watching a vid in the bottom corner of the table of the first fight between the xeno and SpecCom soldiers. “Take a look at this.”

She swiped the vid over to the table, the data reduced to a square in the corner.

“Watch,” Chomps said and let the vid play slowly. As Pasco was ripped apart, she paused it.

“Jesus, Chomps,” Parveet said. “Show some respect.”

“Look,” Chomps said and moved the vid forward a few frames. “It ate Pasco’s head.”

“Don’t you ever say that to Schroeder,” Parveet said.

“Now look at this one,” Chomps said, showing the other xeno tearing a soldier apart. “This one shredded the body, but ate the head. The xenos eat heads. Do you get what I’m showing you?”

“They like sweetbreads?” Stony asked.

“No,” Chomps said. “I think they absorb knowledge.”

All eyes fell on Chomps then narrowed then looked away, pair by pair.

“I’m not kidding,” Chomps said. “How can you explain the fact that they piloted a drop ship from the planet up to the Dorso? I’m a mech pilot, and I’d have a bit of a learning curve just hopping into a drop ship and taking off. These things are xenos and they suddenly can not only pilot, but land a drop ship?”

“Without getting blown out of the sky by the Dorso’s defenses,” Lucky said. “Damn…”

Parveet held up a finger before anyone could speak. They waited.

“We have to find that escape pod,” she said finally.

“A rescue mission is a nice idea, Boss, but with what Chomps said, this is way more than we bargained for,” Lucky said.

“If we don’t find that escape pod, and the xenos get to it first, what do you think is going to happen when they eat the crew on board that pod?” Parveet said.

“If that’s what’s happening here,” Stony said. “It’s a little far-fetched.”

“Can we take the chance I’m wrong?” Chomps said.

“No,” Parveet said. “Wan? Who was on that escape pod? Command?”

“No, Boss,” Wan said, tapping at her tablet. A list of six passengers came up on the command table’s screen. “Engineering.”

“Well, that ain’t good,” Stony said. “I’m not saying I believe in the snack-and-think theory, but if they eat those crew members, then they’ll know how the Dorso’s engines work. If they know that then–”

“Then they can use the ship to leave the system,” Parveet said. “They’ve shown they can handle being exposed to space. The Dorso would probably tear apart if it went through the wormhole portal, but…”

“But we can’t take the risk,” Chomps said.

“Can I bring something up?” McDorn said.

“Shoot,” Parveet replied.

“I’m watching these vids and what I see backs up Chomps’ theory,” McDorn said. “These xenos absorb. They can handle the energy produced by explosive rounds; they even tolerate plasma blasts.”

“Don’t like rockets,” Chomps said.

“No, that much power is too much all at once,” McDorn said. “The thing is, if they were to get through the wormhole portal, then that kind of quantum energy might actually feed them even more. They could end up evolving as they travel.”

“Well, that ain’t good either,” Stony said.

“No, it’s not,” McDorn said. “However, I might have a solution to our weapons issue beyond just rockets.”

“What is the solution?” Parveet asked.

“Lasers,” McDorn said. “Good, old-fashioned lasers. There is no way they could absorb that kind of light otherwise they’d be absorbing energy all day long on their planet just from their star.”

“I see where he’s going with this,” Stony said. “I can make this happen.”

“Lasers?” Chomps said. “Like 23rd-century weaponry? Are we in the Wild West here?”

“I can switch out the power supplies in the KYAG plasma rifles as well as the SpecCom rifles,” Stony said. “It would be easy, actually.”

“And we’d have more than ten times the amount of power per weapon,” McDorn said. “That would solve some of the ammo issues.”

“I haven’t decided if we’re going down or not,” Parveet said.

“Are we voting? Because I vote no,” Lucky said. “My gut is telling me this planet is bad mojo, Boss. We need to leave and get back to SBE. Let the UEC send in a hundred warships and wipe the planet clean.”

“Which they’ll do,” Wan said. “Making the planet no longer clean. They’ll nuke it all to Hell and we lose the greatest find in MEU history.”

“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Parveet said, rubbing her temples.

“Schroeder will fight,” Chomps said. “My mechs will fight.”

“I know you will,” Parveet said. “But is it enough?”

“Give us until the engines have been repaired,” Chomps said. “We go down while Stony stays up here with Spotz and gets the Jethro up and running again. If we aren’t making progress by the time the ship is able to limp us out of here, then we retreat and call SBE. Let Jennings make the decision on whether to bring in UEC or not from there.”

“We don’t know if the Dorso has what we need to fix the Jethro, do we?” Parveet said.

“Not yet,” Stony said. “I have the SpecCom squads doing inventory for me, but that’ll take a while. I really should look for myself.”

“We need to tether the ships closer,” Lucky said. “Connect them then seal off bulkheads in the Dorso so we have room to work.”

“Should I tell Axson to pilot us over?” Wan asked.

“Yes,” Parveet said. “We get the Jethro and Dorso connected, see what the status of salvageable parts is, then work on a plan of attack, or no attack, from there. Everyone clear?”

“Yes, Boss,” they replied.

“Then get to work,” Parveet ordered. “You know what you need to do, so do it.”

***

“May I have a minute, Jay?” Torn asked as Parveet was about to sit down in her chair on the bridge. “Privately?”

Parveet sighed then patted her growling belly. “Sure, Bee. We can grab some grub and go to my cabin. I should catch a couple winks before I start getting inundated with data. Axson?”

“Yeah, Boss?”

“You good with getting the Jethro to the Dorso without me?” Parveet asked.

“You’ll only get in the way, Boss,” Axson said.

“I’ll take that how you meant it,” Parveet said and laughed.

“I appreciate that,” Axson said. “Now, stop bugging me.”

“Come on,” Parveet said to Torn. “Grub then gab.”

They left the bridge and made their way to the mess hall in silence. Parveet kept glancing at Torn, but the ambassador only gave her a vague smile.

When they had trays of food, and were almost to Parveet’s cabin, the colonel stopped and faced the ambassador.

“This talk is going to be a two-way thing, Bee,” Parveet stated. “I’ll listen to what you have to say and you’ll listen to what I have to say. Maybe we’ll meet in the middle.”

“You’ve been very adversarial, Jay,” Torn said.

“Welcome to the real Jala Parveet, Bee,” Parveet said. “In my job, being adversarial is what keeps me and mine alive.”

“Yes, but I believe–”

“Don’t care,” Parveet said. “I really don’t. You’re here for a reason and it has nothing to do with the UEC budget or whatever official crap you want to spout. You’re on the run. I know it, you know it, hell, Jennings knew it. Do you know why the Jethro is the way it is, Bee?”

Torn was about to reply, but Parveet shook her head as they reached her cabin. The door slid open and they stepped inside.

“Take a rhetorical hint,” Parveet continued when the door was closed. They walked to the small table and sat down. “We break more rules and regulations than any other entity in the UEC military division. Me and mine hold to a code of honor and ethics that has zero place in social morality and absolutely no place in the military hierarchy. We live by our rules because the work we do demands that we break rules or die. We live for the work, Bee. And we are the goddamn best at it. The progress made in the outer reaches is because of us and politicians may debate that back on Earth, but out here, there is no question.”

Parveet took a bite of food and nodded.

“Now. Your turn,” she said around a mouthful of rectangle gray.

“The Torns have received a lineage death sentence,” Torn said.

“I guessed that,” Parveet said. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Okay. Fine,” Torn said. “I knew it was you. I came to the outer reaches to find you. If anyone could understand what I’m going through, it’s you, Jay.”

“All those tears in your cabin were what? Bullshit?” Parveet asked, taking another bite of rectangle.

“No, those were real,” Torn said. “Until last month, I thought you were dead. Then the trial began at the same time your dossier fell across my desk. I’d heard of you, of course, but had never paid attention to any intel that came into my office until I realized I was going to have to flee to the outer reaches or possibly face execution. So, I opened your file and saw your picture. Truly saw it and it was like the air had been sucked out of my lungs. It was you. It was Jay.”

“You came here for my protection?” Parveet asked. “I don’t have that kind of power.”

“Except you do,” Torn said. “You so do. The UEC is terrified of you, Jay. To the extent that they have a contingency plan in place if you were to ever go rogue.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Parveet said. “I have a contingency plan?”

“Not just you, but for the Jethro,” Torn said. “They’d rain down every command ship they have on you and yours.”

“Great,” Parveet said. “So you come here, draw attention to me and mine even more, and now I get to sit and wait for the attack?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Torn said. “I spent every chit of political capital I had. I called in every favor. I emptied my entire bank account and physically bribed anyone I could to get here under the pretense of a budget committee audit. There are layers upon layers of protections in place. If I go down, then twenty percent of the UEC bureaucracy goes down with me. I’m persona non grata, but I’m free.”

Torn looked about the cabin.

“Well, sort of.”

“You don’t plan on leaving,” Parveet stated.

“I would prefer not to,” Torn said. “But I understand if you want me gone because of my deception. SBE should be safe enough. At least for a while.”

“Okay, okay,” Parveet said. “I’ll think about it.”

“You will?” Torn asked.

“I will,” Parveet said. “No harm in entertaining the idea. I can guarantee that Jennings is already running the cost/benefit ratio for SBE keeping you on board. Whatever he comes up with will be useable for the Jethro as well. So, until we return to SBE, you are safe on the Jethro.”

Parveet laughed as she took a third bite.

“What’s so funny?” Torn asked.

“We could easily die against this xeno threat,” Parveet said. “I’ve never seen an alien adversary like this. This ain’t no xeno safari hunt. We’re gonna get in the shit for real this time.”

“Oh,” Torn said and pushed her tray away.

Parveet pushed it back.

“Nope,” Parveet said. “No baby crap here. You eat when you can, you sleep when you can, and you contribute to the overall good of me and mine when you can. Those are my terms. Nonnegotiable.”

“Okay. I can live with those terms,” Torn said and picked at her food with her fork. “Do I really have to eat this?”

“Yes,” Parveet said. “Take a look around. You’re in my cabin now, but later when you’re in the mess, they’ll all be watching you.”

Torn looked doubtful.

“Trust me,” Parveet said. “They’ll be watching your every move. They already are.”

“Okay, fine,” Torn said.

“Oh, and Bee?”

“Yes?”

“When you’re ready to cut the shit and give me the full truth, you let me know.”

Torn paused mid-bite.

“You’ve been ladling out truth when you feel like it,” Parveet continued. “I get that. The tear show in my cabin on SBE was real, but it was also just that, a tear show. This admission now is real, but it’s only part of why you’re here. Not pushing, since you have zero leverage while on the Jethro, but I’d appreciate the full story sooner rather than later.”

“I…uh…”

“Eat. Think. Be ready.”

4.

“We need those drop ships, Stony!” Schroeder shouted over the comms. “I can’t get my people down to the planet without all of them!”

“Yeah, I know!” Stony shouted back as he stood in Dorso’s engine room, fully suited since there was no atmosphere, and stared at the chaos before him. “But I need at least one ship to ferry parts from here to the Jethro. You’ll have to make do with what’s left.”

“That means SpecCom will be down two,” Schroeder said. “You know how mad I get when I’m down two drop ships, Stony.”

“Two?” Stony asked.

“Axson wants one on the Jethro’s hull at all times so he can have some maneuverability himself,” Schroeder said. “Just in case.”

“I get that,” Stony said. “If those xenos are half as bad as we think they are, then planning for just in case is a good idea.”

“Not arguing with the idea,” Schroeder said. “I’m arguing with the fact that the Jethro is connected to the Dorso now, so you and your techanics–”

“Techanics. I like that,” Stony said.

“Whatever. You and your techanics can use cargo loaders, hover lifts, and rollers to get parts from one ship to the other,” Schroeder said. “My SpecCom soldiers can’t ride a hover lift down to Hrouska.”

“You could, but it’d be a short ride,” Stony said and laughed.

“STONY!”

“I need the drop ship because it’s ten times faster to go from engine room to engine room,” Stony said. “I load parts out this huge hole I made in the Dorso’s hull to the drop ship. The drop ship takes off, flies fifty meters, hooks up with the Jethro, dumps the parts, then comes back for more.”

“Float them,” Schroeder snapped. “Float the parts. Hook lines to each and shove them out your hole. Reel them in like goddamn fish.”

“Shit,” Stony said. “That ain’t a bad idea right there.”

“Then use it!”

“I just might.”

“Hey, Stony?” Chomps said over the comms. “Sorry to interrupt you two, but you can have the MPT when we’re done with it.”

“What good is a mech planetary transport to me?” Stony said. “Those awkward things have almost zero maneuverability.”

“Come on. It has some. The thrusters aren’t that bad,” Chomps said. “But, what I’m saying is load up the MPT and float that between ships. Use it like a giant cargo container. It’s bigger than any drop ship. Way bigger. And you can float it and reel it in like Schroeder suggests.”

“There!” Schroeder shouted. “Done and decided!”

“Let me run it past–”

“STONY!” Schroeder roared.

“You’re gonna have to compromise on this one, Stony,” Chomps said.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Stony said. “But, hey, Chomps?”

“Yes?”

“If you send the MPT back up here after landing, then all the mechs will be stranded down there on the planet,” Stony said.

“We’ll call it back if we need it,” Chomps said. “We’re mechs. You know, the first word in Mech Expeditionary Unit? We’re kinda the big guns, so I think we’ll be good.”

“You hope you’ll be good, you mean,” Stony said.

“Ain’t no hope in Hell, Stony,” Chomps replied. “And we bring the Hell.”

“Are we done here?” Schroeder barked. “Can I get all my drop ships back now?”

***

“You are set and ready, pilots,” Hawker said, giving each mech a thumbs up sign as she walked down the middle of the mech hold in the MPT. “If anyone needs to go pee, it’s too damn late.”

“Son of a butch,” Shock said.

“Shut up,” Gore responded.

“Thanks, Hawker,” Chomps said. “Mechs are ready for transport.”

“Then off you go,” Hawker said as she walked down the loading ramp, pulled her tablet from her belt, and swiped at the screen. “Bon voyage!”

The loading ramp raised and locked into place, plunging the mech hold into complete darkness.

“You sure a central LZ is a good idea, Chomps?” Roar asked. “They hit us all at once and we may not be able to handle it.”

“If we can’t handle an attack with all six mechs in the same LZ, then that means nothing the Jethro has can handle this planet,” Chomps said. “We drop into one LZ, take whatever the xenos throw at us, kick the ever-loving shit out of those xenos, then secure the LZ for SpecCom and Morisaki’s crew.”

“Still feels backwards to me,” Roar said.

“That’s why Chomps is in charge,” Giga said. “You getting cold mech feet, Roar? No good if our point mech is getting shaky.”

“Hell no, I’m not getting shaky,” Roar said. “Just thinking it all through. I’ll be good to go when we hit dirt. Don’t you worry, Giga, this bitch will destroy the point.”

“Is that a thing?” Shock asked. “Destroy the point?”

“It is now,” Roar said. “Hooyah.”

“Hooyah!” the other pilots responded.

“Pilots, prepare for deployment,” Hawker’s voice rang out over the comms. “In three, two, one! Godspeed!”

The MPT was ejected from the Jethro and aimed at an angled trajectory for atmospheric entry, the autopilot making minute adjustments here and there. The vehicle hit the planet’s atmosphere and instantly became a ball of fire as it plummeted towards the surface.

“Chomps!” Wall yelled.

“What?” Chomps replied.

“After we secure the LZ then what?” Wall asked. “We heading out to find the Dorso’s pod or what?”

“That’s a good question,” Shock said. “How long do we have to babysit the SpecCom folks before we get to start hunting?”

“You think it’s all going to go so smooth that we’ll hit the surface, secure the LZ, then just get to go for a hike?” Chomps laughed. “I like the optimism, but be serious. We hit that surface and all hell is gonna break loose.”

“I’m with Chomps on that,” Giga said. “I saw that thing move. It was primal.”

“How does primal pilot a drop ship up to the Dorso then?” Shock asked.

“You manage to wipe your ass,” Giga said.

“Nah, I just spray deodorant on my shit-slicked civvies each morning,” Shock said.

“That explains a lot,” Giga said.

“I saw the xeno too,” Wall said. “Primal don’t mean shit. We’ve stomped primal all over the place before. We’ll stomp it again.”

“Gonna go with Giga on this,” Roar said. “One was a bitch enough. We’re talking a whole planet of them down there.”

“Now I wish I was wrong,” Giga said.

“You are,” Shock said.

“Cram it, little dick,” Giga said.

“No peeking,” Shock replied.

The MPT shuddered and Chomps brought her display online. “Quiet. Get your game faces on. We’ve hit the lower atmosphere and we’ll be slamming down in a few seconds.”

She switched the vid feeds continuously until a loud klaxon rang out then she locked on the feed showing the surface racing up to the bottom of the MPT. Fire exploded from the landing thrusters and steam, smoke, and a massive cloud of dirt occluded the view right before the vid went dark. The MPT shook so hard that the pilots felt it inside their cradles.

“Roar!” Chomps yelled.

The loading ramp dropped to the ground and Roar was already grabbing her KYAG and running towards the bright sunlight that lit up the landscape outside. She skidded to a stop at the bottom of the ramp, her feet sliding in the thick greenery that carpeted the jungle clearing they’d landed in. She turned left, turned right, took a knee, and waved for the others.

“Clear!” she cried.

Giga, Wall, and Shock were next, each with their own KYAG at the ready. No need to have the weapons up at their shoulders since sighting was done by the combat tech built into their mechs’ systems. They swung the KYAGs from the hip and covered the entire area.

Wall took the nine o’clock position while Shock took the three. Giga smacked Roar on the shoulder then took her spot as Roar stood and hurried forward towards the edge of the jungle.

Chomps and Gore came out of the MPT with Gore taking Wall’s spot while Chomps took Shock’s.

“A lot of green,” Gore said. “My display is hot with life.”

“Watch for movement,” Chomps said.

Shock took off at the three while Wall took off at the nine, spreading their coverage of the clearing. They each stopped as they reached the edge of the jungle. The entire clearing was fairly circular and approximately one hundred meters in diameter, giving the mechs plenty of room to move without tripping over each other. It also meant a lot of area to watch, but they’d worked with worse.

“Set,” Roar stated.

“Set,” Wall stated.

“Set,” Shock stated.

“We got this, Giga,” Chomps said.

Giga got up and sprinted around the MPT to cover the six.

“Clear and set,” Giga called after a couple of seconds. “Gore wasn’t kidding. This place is hot. Nothing but life everywhere.”

“What’d the planetary scans show?” Gore said. “It’s not all jungle, right?”

“Not all of it,” Roar said. “Some temperate forests, grasslands, and a few deserts closer to the poles. But this ain’t the planet that’s gonna bring outdoor skiing back.”

“Man, I don’t understand those old vids,” Wall said. “Falling down a freezing mountain. That’s stupid.”

“Looks better than the indoor clubs,” Shock said. “At least you’re outside.”

“Like you’ve ever been inside a ski club,” Giga said. “Your entire family’s income for a decade isn’t enough to afford a hot chocolate in one of those places.”

“Hot chocolate doesn’t cost that much,” Shock said.

“They have real chocolate there, dumbass,” Giga said. “Not the synth stuff they feed us. Real. Worth more than gold per gram.”

“Worth more than platinum per gram,” Roar said.

“Cut the chatter,” Chomps ordered. “I’m seeing movement on our eight.”

“On it,” Wall said.

He twisted and covered the eight o’clock position, his scanners running through the spectrums to get the best image of whatever was coming to say hello.

“Tiny,” Wall said.

A small snout that was covered in wriggling tentacles pushed two fern-like plants aside. Huge, wide set eyes regarded the clearing. The creature let out a startled squeak and was gone.

“Pursue?” wall asked.

“No, stay put,” Chomps said. “We’re gonna hang for fifteen then send the MPT back up to Stony.”

“I’m not sold on that plan,” Gore said. “Seriously, Chomps. The idea of being stranded down here makes my insides get all squishy.”

“That’s just your shit for brains,” Giga said.

“Nice one,” Shock said.

“Funny,” Gore responded. “No, I mean it.”

“Noted,” Chomps said. “We all saw what the xenos can do to a drop ship. I don’t think having the MPT will make much difference. It will make a difference to Stony so he can haul parts to the Jethro. I’d rather he hurried that along so the whole crew can ditch this system if we need to rather than keeping the MPT down here in case one of you gets spooked.”

“Don’t bring us into this,” Wall said. “Gore’s the one whining.”

“Gore’s always the one whining,” Shock said.

“Son of a butch,” Giga said.

“What the hell, people?” Gore responded. “What’s with the ganging up on Gore shtick?”

“Movement on me,” Roar said. “Big.”

“How big?” Chomps asked.

“Big,” Roar said.

“I’m coming to you,” Chomps said and moved quickly up behind Roar. She swung her rifle in a left-right sweep then took a knee next to Roar. “I see it. It is big.”

“You all feeling that?” Shock asked.

“I do,” Wall said. “Big enough to shake the ground.”

“It’s moving fast,” Roar said. She did bring her rifle up to her shoulder, but that was her style. “Gonna hit us in twenty seconds. Chomps?”

“Hold,” Chomps said. “We aren’t gonna start killing the local fauna just because. We need a reason.”

“Self-preservation?” Roar said.

“We can handle whatever it is,” Chomps said.

“Xeno?” Giga asked.

“Doesn’t match,” Roar said. “Something else. Putting off a huge amount of heat. I mean huge. Take a look.”

The scan was sent instantly to the other mechs.

“It could be angry,” Wall said.

“Or scared,” Shock said.

“I don’t like either of those options,” Roar said.

“Hold,” Chomps ordered.

“I am, don’t you worry,” Roar said.

The thing burst from the tree line and headed straight for Roar and Chomps. It skidded then reared up, a dozen multi-jointed limbs whipping about in the air as its chitinous body clicked and clacked, segments of insectoid armor flexing in on each other. While a dozen limbs were whipping about, another dozen were firmly planted in the dirt and greenery, giving the thing a distinct millipede look. Except for the massive sets of double pinchers that extended from what could only be assumed, because of position, was its head.

“Hold,” Chomps said

“I’m holding,” Roar replied, her voice calm as steel.

The thing twisted, each segment moving with a fluidity that contradicted the creature’s size. Then all legs fell to the ground and it ran to the left, destroying the foliage in its way as it disappeared back into the jungle.

“Chomps,” Roar said.

“I see it,” Chomps replied.

The xeno came from the same direction as the massive insectoid. It was easily four times the size of the ones that had been on the Dorso. Easily.

Roar and Chomps opened fire, the KYAG lasers slicing and dicing the xeno into smaller chunks. The two mechs kept firing until those smaller chunks became even smaller and stopped wiggling about. They stopped firing at the same time and watched as some of the smaller chunks turned to gunk then dissolved into the ground while others dissipated into the air, there then gone.

“Talk to me!” Chomps called.

“Clear!” Wall said.

“Clear!” Shock said.

“Clear!” Giga said.

“I’m not seeing anything, Chomps,” Gore said. “I’m sending deep scans into the jungle and there is no more motion and nothing hotter than a banana tree.”

“They have bananas here?” Shock asked.

“No, Shock, they do not have bananas here,” Gore said. “I was using that for a size comparison.”

“I wouldn’t use a banana when comparing size,” Giga said. “You’ll lose, Gore.”

“I hate both of you,” Gore said.

“It had that bug scared,” Roar said.

“I know,” Chomps said.

“That was a big bug,” Roar said.

“I know,” Chomps said.

The pilots were quiet for a while as they waited and watched.

“Alright,” Chomps said. “Sending the MPT back.”

She activated the autopilot and the vehicle began its liftoff procedure. The mechs didn’t move from their positions. They simply hunkered down as the MPT’s engines sent flames shooting out from underneath then shot up into the sky in one fast launch.

“What’s the call, Chomps?” Gore asked. “We bringing SpecCom down yet?”

“Not yet,” Chomps said. “Let’s get through a night first.”

“Recon?” Roar asked.

“We keep our position,” Chomps said. “Stick to the LZ. If we can hold our position through the night, then we’ll call down SpecCom and start recon.”

“Copy that,” Roar said.

5.

Night came and went, hurried away by a dawn that was glaringly bright. Hrouska’s night sky was not filled with an abundance of stars nor any moons, so when its sun rose in the morning, it was a bit of an ocular affront.

“I’d hate to have a hangover on this planet,” Roar said and yawned as she dimmed her display.

“Burn your eyes right out of their sockets,” Giga said.

“Great,” Gore said. “Right when I’m off watch and can grab some shut eye.”

“You grabbed shut eye earlier in the night,” Chomps said. “Suck it up, buttercup.”

“Is that one of your pet names for him?” Giga asked.

“I’d think it would be butterfly,” Shock said. “Because he’s so fragile.”

“Buttercups are flowers,” Giga said. “Those are fragile too.”

“And both are extinct, so who cares?” Gore replied.

“Extinct? Well, I’ll be a son of a butch,” Giga said. “I didn’t know that. Did you, Shock?”

“Plants and animals extinct? On Earth? What a tragedy!” Shock said. “Someone should do something about it. Like a few hundred years ago.”

“Permission to piss in the wild,” Roar said.

“You sure?” Chomps replied.

“If you all cover me,” Roar said. “I don’t want to piss in the cradle. Mine isn’t filtering the smell out like it used to. It keeps my jumpsuit clean, but the smell won’t go away.”

“Have Hawker take a look when you’re back up on the Jethro,” Chomps said. “Probably a simple air filter switch out.”

“She says she has better things to do than worry about my delicate sniffer,” Roar replied. “Her words.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Chomps said. “And permission granted. You want to hop out and pop a squat, be my guest.”

“Excellent,” Roar said.

She crouched her mech low and the cockpit hatch raised up with a hiss of hydraulics. Roar carefully climbed out of the cradle, stretched, then swung her legs over the edge of the cockpit and climbed onto a bent leg then clambered down into the dirt. She pulled her sidearm and studied the jungle for a minute before she holstered the pistol and unzipped her jumpsuit. She stepped out and squatted, sighing with relief as she pissed.

“That looks like it feels good,” Shock said. “Chomps?”

“One at a time, people,” Chomps said.

It took them a good half hour before everyone got some relief and they were back in their mechs.

“Good morning, Jethro,” Chomps called to the bridge. “How you doing up there?”

“We are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Chomps,” Wan replied over the comms. “Good to hear your voice. What’s the sitrep?”

“We held the LZ through the night,” Chomps said. “All mechs accounted for. Only that one xeno so far.”

“I’ll inform the Boss,” Wan said. “Are you giving the all clear for SpecCom deployment?”

“I’d say send one drop ship down first,” Chomps said. “Let’s see what that does. I don’t trust these xenos. They could be waiting for soldiers in armor to munch on. The mechs may be too much trouble.”

“I will let Schroeder know,” Wan said. “I’m sure she’ll volunteer her team for first landing.”

“I’m sure she will,” Chomps said. “We’ll be waiting.”

Chomps cut the comms and slowly turned her mech in a circle, scanning the jungle around the LZ.

“I don’t feel lucky,” Chomps stated.

“Agreed,” Roar said. “Only one of those things comes at us? Smells fishy.”

“Especially when they tore the Dorso’s infantry to shreds within seconds,” Gore said.

“You think they know what our mechs are?” Giga asked.

“Not specifically, no,” Chomps answered. “But I’m guessing they know heavy firepower when they see it. We aren’t soldiers in battle armor. We’re a lot bigger.”

“Should we go for a hunt?” Shock asked.

“Recon?” Roar asked.

“You people just can’t wait to get into another fight,” Chomps said and laughed. “Yeah, let’s do some recon.”

She brought up her display and studied the map of Hrouska that hovered in the vid. Four points of interest flashed red.

“The closest drop zone that was taken out is about thirty kilometers to the north,” Chomps said. “Roar, you and Shock can go have your look. I want regular check-ins over comms.”

“Every five?” Roar asked.

“Every ten is fine,” Chomps said. “Then report when you hit the drop zone. I want vid feed and personal impressions. Don’t leave anything out, no matter how small you think it is. We are down here to be thorough so our little SpecCom friends don’t bite it.”

“If we’re engaged?” Roar asked.

“Then we kick some xeno ass,” Shock said.

“Hooyah,” Giga said.

“Hooyah,” Shock replied.

“Defend, but do not pursue,” Chomps said. “I want that clear. These things are smart. If they come at you, then do a fast retreat; it’s most likely a trap.”

“Copy that,” Roar said. “Shock?”

“Set and ready,” Shock said. “Lead the way.”

The two mechs lifted their KYAGs up and proceeded to shove into the jungle’s ample foliage. It was a good few minutes before the noise they made was lost to the others.

“You want us to go take a look at one of the other drop zones or the escape pod, Chomps?” Gore asked.

“No,” Chomps said. “One at a time. We spread ourselves thin and those things will hit us. It’s what I’d do.”

“Roger,” Gore said. “Can I set some defensive mines while we wait?”

“Good call,” Chomps said. “Give us a one-hundred-meter depth. That’s enough room for SpecCom to maneuver when they get here and take over the LZ.”

“How many of us are going to scout the drop zones and how many are going to stay with Schroeder?” Giga asked.

“We have the LZ and four drop zones to cover,” Chomps said. “That’s too thin for my liking. We’ll base here and run recon in two mech teams.”

“That’s gonna take a lot of time,” Giga said, “sending us out and back, out and back.”

“No choice,” Chomp said. “We string out and we’ll get cut up fast. Strength in numbers is how I see it.”

“You’re in charge,” Giga said and shrugged. She actually shrugged her mech’s shoulders which was not easy to do.

“Yes, I am,” Chomps said. “Wall?”

“Yeah?” Wall replied.

“See if you can clear us some more space,” Chomps said. “Add another fifty meters to the LZ’s radius, will ya?”

“Gladly,” Wall said. “I could use some rip-and-break time.”

As Wall stomped off to prune the jungle back, Gore’s mech crouched low and the cockpit opened. Gore hopped out and walked around to the back of his mech and pulled his tablet from his belt. He tapped in a couple of codes and a hatch opened on the lower back of his mech, revealing a stack of small crates.

Gore hummed to himself as he pulled out one of the crates and set it down. He opened it and grabbed out eight small orbs, each of which he pressed to his belt where they secured themselves instantly. Gore’s head bobbed up and down as he then pulled a matte-black rectangle from the hatch and let it fall to the ground. But instead of hitting the trampled grass and dirt, it stopped itself and floated about a half meter off the ground.

Gore picked up the crate and set it on there then gave it a gentle kick. The rectangle began to move and Gore followed it, tapping at his tablet as he went.

“Gore,” Chomps said. “Gore!”

“Huh? Hold on,” Gore said and tapped at his tablet again. “Sorry. Had tunes playing. What’s up?”

“Concentrate the blasts,” Chomps said. “I want this LZ as defended as it can be without risk of human error.”

Gore nodded then turned to look down at the crate. He cocked his head one way then cocked his head the other way.

“This should be enough,” he said.

“You sure you don’t want to take another crate with you?” Chomps asked.

“Nah,” Gore replied. “Eight on my belt and sixteen still in the crate. With a two-hundred-meter diameter that’s about a six-hundred and thirty-meter circumference. Divide that by thirty-four and you have, what? Eighteen or nineteen meters between charges? Each charge has a blast radius of ten meters. There’ll be overlap. I go too much closer together and we run the risk of a chain reaction. We don’t want that. We want single trigger detonation or this LZ turns into a SpecCom barbecue fast.”

“How is it that you can’t say son of a bitch correctly but you can run numbers in your head like a goddamn savant?” Giga asked.

“He’s not a savant,” Wall interrupted. “That’s sixth-level math. Anyone can do that.”

“Yeah, but it’s Gore,” Giga said.

“One day I’m going to get you back for riding my ass so hard, Giga,” Gore said, but with a chuckle. “I just have to figure out the perfect revenge.”

“If it involves math, then I may be in trouble,” Giga said. “Not that I’m a math slouch myself. You don’t get to be the best sniper in the galaxy without crunching the digits.”

“You let the targeting computer do the heavy lifting,” Wall said.

“Hey, Wall?”

“Yeah, Giga?”

“Go play groundskeeper and stay out of this, will ya?”

“Whatever,” Wall replied and got back to his brush-clearing duties.

“Chatter off,” Chomps said. “Giga, eyes on the perimeter. Let’s run circles, counter paths.”

“Sounds good,” Giga said and started walking her mech towards the edge of the jungle.

***

“Nope, still clear,” Roar said. “I’ll report in in ten.”

“Good,” Chomps replied over the comms. “Talk to you in ten.”

“Hey, Roar, you listening?” Shock asked over the comms.

“Yes, Shock, I’m listening,” Roar replied. “Why wouldn’t I be listening?”

“I didn’t know if you switched back to mech-to-mech comms or not.”

“We’re on mech-to-mech comms.”

“Cool,” Shock said. “So, what’s your take on these xenos?”

“My take? What do you mean? They’re xenos.”

“Come on. They’re more than xenos.”

“No, they’re exactly just xenos.”

“You know what I mean. Why are you breaking my gonads?”

“Shock, I’m not a xenobiologist. I don’t have a take on these things. I don’t care what they’re made of, how they breathe, eat, shit, or what. I don’t care if they have genders or reproduce asexually.”

“You think they do that? Like bud off and shit?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I do not know. Most of all, I do not care.”

“Huh,” Shock responded. “Okay.”

The two mechs continued through the jungle, the huge machines shoving thick tree trunks aside or snapping them if the trees don’t budge enough to make room. Roar shouldered through an especially thick set of what looked like massive palms, but had thick bark like fir trees with sap that weeped from tiny holes all up and down. She stopped on the other side and held up a mech fist.

Shock was instantly at the ready. He spun about to cover their six, his rifle up and scanners at full.

“What ya got?” he asked over the comms.

“Not sure,” Roar replied. She studied the lack of readings on her scanners. “Absolutely nothing.”

“That’s not good,” Shock said. “We had been picking up a lot of critters fleeing ahead of us. Now there’s nothing?”

“Nothing,” Roar said. “The second I got past those drippy trees the scanners went blank.”

“Hold on,” Shock said and spun about. He was still on the opposite side of the set of alien palms. “No, no, I have some movement. Small things. Lots of them. Look down.”

“I have scanners covering toe to tip, Shock,” Roar said. “Nothing.”

“Use your eyes,” Shock said. “Check the ground. There’re like hundreds of things moving.”

Roar angled her mech and stared out of the cockpit. Shock was right. Hundreds of creatures were scurrying about on the jungle floor. About the size of rats, they were armored like the bizarre millipede thing had been, but each only had six limbs. Each having at least four joints, the limbs moved independently of each other, making Roar almost nauseous watching them as they scurried about.

“This planet is messed up,” Roar said. “Ugly ass xenos everywhere.”

“Not as ugly as that one planet?” Shock said. “What was it called?”

“Choofas?” Roar asked, taking a step. The creatures adjusted and stayed out of her way. “Or Balnep?”

“Who names those places?” Shock said. “And, yeah, Balnep. Remember those snakes that laid the pyramid eggs?”

“Oh, those were gross,” Roar said, taking another step. The creatures adjusted again, still moving constantly, but easily avoiding the massive mech foot. “They’d rot and the young would come up out of that rot.”

“Yeah! Then they’d eat their own tails off, bleeding that yellow pus everywhere before slithering off to complete their circle of life,” Shock said. “I mean, what kind of deity invents–?”

Roar took a third step and the creatures stopped moving.

“Roar. Get back here,” Shock said.

“I see it,” Roar said, angling her rifle down at the creatures, moving slowly so as not to spook them. “Sending you my vid feed so you can share in the creepy.”

“You aren’t kidding,” Shock said. “What’s the call?”

“I’m calculating mass,” Roar said.

“Doing the same,” Shock replied.

“There’re enough of these things to swarm me, but not enough to take me down,” Roar said. “I’m gonna move.”

“I’ve got your back,” Shock said, turning to push past the palms. He paused. “Hold up. I see something.”

“What?” Roar asked, about to take a step, her mech foot paused about a meter off the ground. “What, Shock?”

“We missed it,” Shock said. “But I dialed up every sensor when yours stopped picking up those things.”

“Enlighten me, please,” Roar said.

“Pheromones,” Shock said. “These palm trees have sap that is stinky with pheromones.”

“So?”

“Now you’re stinky with pheromones,” Shock said.

“Okay, what does that mean?” Roar asked.

“Not a clue,” Shock said. “But I think the pheromones help mask the creatures somehow.”

“Why?” Roar asked.

“Again, I don’t–”

“Holy shit!” Roar cried as the creatures leapt as one and began covering her mech. “They’re on me!”

“I’m coming!” Shock shouted and crashed through the palms.

“Get them off! Get them off!” Roar yelled, swatting at the things.

“Uh, Roar? Stop it. You’re hurting them,” Shock said.

“I don’t care! They’re all over me!”

“But they aren’t hurting you,” Shock said and started laughing. “They aren’t even hurting each other. Look closely.”

Roar looked out of her cockpit and gasped.

“Are they…?”

“Yeah, they are,” Shock said. “You have little xenos trying to make more little xenos all over your mech.”

“This is so gross,” Roar said. “I’m getting out of here.”

“Careful, don’t squish them,” Shock said, still laughing. “They’re kind of adorable when they copulate.”

“You suck,” Roar said as she started walking while trying to wipe the creatures off her mech as gently as possible.

She only managed to get a quarter of them off by the time she reached a different set of palms. The second she pushed through those palms, the creatures dropped off on their own and scurried back to where they had been.

“Dammit!” Shock snapped. “Now they’re on me!”

“They’re territorial,” Roar said. “Keep moving and they go away. I guess that spot is their love spot.”

“Crazy ass xenos, man,” Shock said as he got past the second set of palms. “I guess we all got our kinks, though.”

“I guess so,” Roar said and kept walking.

She made it only about ten more meters before she stopped dead in her tracks.

“We’re here,” she said, staring out at the carnage of the drop zone. “Sweet Jesus…”

“No shit,” Shock said, coming up next to her.

Broken and twisted battle armor lay everywhere. Warped carbines littered the ground. In the middle of the drop zone stood an obliterated drop ship. It looked like something had cracked it open like a nut.

“What’s that?” Shock asked, pointing at a pile of white that flashed in the sun.

“I’ll check,” Roar said and moved out into the drop zone, her rifle at the ready.

She turned in a slow circle as she made her way around the cracked open drop ship then froze when she saw what the white was.

“Bones,” Roar said. “It’s a pile of bones. Jesus, Shock, it looks like every single soldier is piled here.”

“Let’s call it in to Chomps,” Shock said then cried out.

Roar spun about and Shock was gone. She double checked her scanners and there was no sign of the mech. Absolutely no sign of a thirty-foot-tall battle mech that weighed tons. She opened the comms, but before she could call the rest of the team, everything in front of her went dark.

6.

Shock grunted as his mech hit hard. He had no idea how far he fell, but it was far enough that the cradle gave his body a good thump. His spine protested at the jolt, but he recovered quickly and sprang to his feet.

The top of his mech cleared the ceiling of the tunnel he found himself in, but not by much. He looked up and could just barely make out an opening far, far above.

“Shit,” he mumbled to himself. “That’s one hell of a fall.”

He turned his scanners up to full, but all he got was static and feedback so he dialed them down until they stopped glitching. The lower levels didn’t give him any useful readings, but they did keep him from developing a migraine.

“Alright, alright, how do I get out of this?”

He tried the comms, but as he suspected, the signal was worse than his scanners.

“Gonna have to use eyes and ears.”

Shock switched on his halogens and the tunnel in front of him was illuminated with enough wattage that it could have been day down in the subterranean wherever he found himself in. The feed from a dozen external microphones crackled in his ears and he stayed put, listening hard for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

“Right,” he muttered. “Climb up or go forward?”

He looked up again and visually studied the earth that surrounded the chute he’d fallen down. He wasn’t a geologist, but he knew mech physics. There was no way the earth would hold if he grabbed it. So, he tried anyway.

“Yep,” he said after a few fistfuls of earth collapsed on top of his mech.

He lowered his arms and turned in a circle. The tunnel extended for as far as he could see in either direction. The halogens lit up a path for a good two hundred meters, all Shock had to do was decide which way he wanted to go.

“If the drop zone is above,” he said, “then that means we came from that way.”

He pointed in the direction he thought would lead back towards the LZ.

“But, what good does that do me? I can walk as far as I want and I’ll probably pass right under the LZ. Might as well go exploring.”

He turned and walked his mech in the opposite direction of the LZ.

“Probably a bad idea,” he said to himself. “Gonna get lost without…”

He stopped, popped open a hatch on the thigh of his right leg, plucked out a pole about half a meter long, and jammed it into the floor of the tunnel. A beeping noise filled his comms and he smiled. Then he frowned.

“That’s going to get annoying,” he said.

He started walking again. And walking. And walking.

***

“Goddammit!” Roar yelled as she threw punch after the punch.

The massive xeno dodged each punch she threw, answering the attacks with whipcrack shots from its tentacles, knocking Roar off balance again and again.

“Chomps! Anyone! Can you read me?” Roar yelled into the comms. “Come in, goddammit!”

“Roar? Your signal is weak. What’s going on?” Chomps replied.

“In the shit!” Roar shouted. “In the shit!”

She cried out as pain shot from her left wrist up her arm. She looked down to see five tentacles wrapped about her mech’s wrist, all squeezing and twisting with enough force that the metal alloy was showing signs it was about to buckle.

“No you don’t!” Roar shouted and slammed her other fist into what she thought might be the xeno’s face. It was very hard to tell.

The xeno let go of the mech’s wrist and hopped back out of reach, its body shaking and shuddering in what Roar hoped was pain. She took a precious second to look around for her KYAG, but it was nowhere to be seen.

“Gonna need some help here!” Roar shouted as the xeno came at her once again.

She dove, tucked her shoulder, and rolled clear of the attack, letting the xeno fly over her with barely ten centimeters between them. Roar came up on a knee and smacked at a panel on her left hip. A one-meter-long wand popped out and she grabbed it, snapped her wrist, and smiled as the wand crackled with electric energy.

“You can handle explosive rounds, but not rockets,” Roar said as she slowly got to her feet and took a few steps back, her eyes locked on the xeno that was turning to face her. “Plasma hurts you, but doesn’t stop you. Lasers slice and dice you without a problem.”

She held the crackling wand out.

“How do you feel about some good old-fashioned voltage?”

The xeno started to move in for another attack then stopped as Roar dialed up the energy.

“Good,” Roar said. “You’re thinking twice.”

“Roar? We’ve got you pinged!” Chomps shouted. “I’m sending Wall and Giga your way!”

“I like the sound of that!” Roar replied. “Thanks, Chomps!”

“Where’s Shock?” Chomps asked. “Can you give me a status update on Shock? We can’t ping his mech. He’s off the grid.”

“Shock’s location is unknown at the moment,” Roar said, taking a few steps to the side as she tried to circle the xeno.

It wasn’t having that. It didn’t attack, but it also wasn’t going to be flanked, and matched her move for move, keeping the two huge forms equidistant from each other.

Roar gave the wand a wave and the xeno twitched, but didn’t retreat further.

“Did you see what happened to Shock?” Chomps asked.

“Busy at the moment, Chomps,” Roar said. “Let me handle the super xeno in front of me then I can worry about Shock.”

“Super xeno?”

“Sending vid,” Roar said.

“Shit. Another big one.”

“Exactly. This one makes the ones up on the Dorso look like kittens.”

“That a shock wand in your hand?”

“Nope, just happy to see you,” Roar replied.

“Glad you can keep your sense of humor,” Chomps said. “Wall and Giga should be to you in less than five.”

“Tell them to watch out for the humping critters,” Roar said.

“I don’t know how to respond to that,” Chomps said.

“Sending video.”

“Damn… That’s wrong.”

“Yeah. Now leave me alone.”

The xeno leapt and Roar swiped with the wand, catching the alien across three tentacles as she dove to the side to avoid the eight that were whipping towards her legs.

She twisted as she tucked her knees to her chest and tumbled head over heels, shooting her legs out at the last second to stop her fall. Pistons clunked as she pushed her mech to its limits, forcing the hydraulics to increase pressure before her feet even touched the ground. In one movement, she stopped her fall while also jumping back at the xeno.

The thing opened its maw and clamped down around Roar’s free hand. But Roar was ready and let her momentum take them both to the ground in a pile of black flesh and dirt-coated metal. Then she jammed the wand as hard as she could into the xeno and turned it up to full. Even with the mech’s grounding protecting her, she still felt a tingle in the cradle.

Roar dialed up the voltage until a loud, sharp beep told her the wand was dead, its energy cells completely spent. She was fine with that. The smoking hunk of alien flesh that had her pinned to the ground was dead too, its body a smoldering mass of quickly dissolving goo.

“I got this one,” Roar said as she was able to slip out from under the melting muck of xeno. “Hunting for my rifle now.”

“Wall and Giga are still on their way,” Chomps said. “They’ll help you find Shock while Gore and I keep the LZ secure for Schroeder.”

“I don’t know, Chomps,” Roar said as she ran through a quick diagnostics on her systems. “You may want Schroeder to hold off before bringing her SpecCom team down. If there are more of these huge ones, then we may have a problem.”

“Too late,” Chomps said. “I already relayed your vid up to the Jethro. Schroeder is hot to kill some behemoths. The drop ship is on its way.”

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Roar said as she pushed a large bush out of the way to find her KYAG lying underneath. “There it is.”

Movement caught her eye and she looked up as she reached for her weapon.

Four xenos, equally as large as the last one, were coming at her fast.

“Dammit,” she said and dropped to her knee, her finger already on the KYAG’s trigger and firing before she even had time to aim.

Trees and bushes were sliced apart by the lasers, sending greenery falling and flying everywhere. Then Roar had the KYAG locked on target. She grinned wide even as the four xenos kept on coming.

“Pew pew pew, bitches,” she said.

***

“Twenty meters!” Giga yelled. “We’re almost to you, Roar!”

There was no answer from the comms.

“Roar!”

“Not getting a signal,” Wall said. “Her comms went dead.”

“Shit,” Giga replied as she pushed her mech to the limits of its agility.

She dodged trees, leapt over bushes, shoved away vines, all in a mad dash to get to the ping in her display that showed her where Roar was.

Wall was less subtle. He didn’t so much dodge trees as barrel through them. Bushes weren’t leapt over, they were trampled. Vines were torn apart and obliterated in his wake. A rather large tree that put the oaks of ancient Earth to shame was sent falling to the wayside as he lowered his shoulder and took out most of its trunk.

“Leave some planet for the colonizers!” Giga yelled.

“They can grow more,” Wall replied. “Shit grows on this planet.”

A screeching noise could be heard ahead and Giga pumped her legs, doubling her speed despite the system protests she received from her mech’s display.

“Giga, careful,” Chomps warned over the comms. “Your mech is sending me distress calls.”

“I’m good, Chomps,” Giga said. “I’ll back off as soon as I get to Roar.”

“She’s lying,” Wall said. “She won’t back off until she finds Shock.”

“Snitch,” Giga said as she cleared the last clump of trees then threw her mech into the air, tackling a xeno about its midsection, or what she assumed was its midsection, as it fell through the air at an already engaged Roar.

“Nice!” Wall yelled, following right behind.

He used his momentum to send a haymaker of a right punch into another xeno. His was missing most of its tentacles, their smoking nubs wriggling impotently at his mech’s armor.

Giga came down hard on top her xeno at the same time Wall came down hard on top of his.

Both xenos screeched so loud it almost shorted the external mics then burst open like water balloons filled with black bile.

Giga and Wall were up on their feet and yanking the xeno off of Roar at the same time, neither bothering to even check to see if their own mechs had been damaged in the ultrafast scuffle.

“I’ll hold!” Giga shouted.

“Good,” Wall replied as he let go of the xeno, Giga held it up as high as she could, and Wall hauled off and punched it dead center on the things’ body mass with everything his mech had.

It exploded all over Giga’s mech and she whooped and laughed as she activated a wave of static electricity to clear the gunk from her cockpit.

“I love this job so much,” Giga said.

“Sitrep!” Chomps called.

“Roar?” Giga asked.

Roar stood and picked up her KYAG. It was a bent and warped mess.

Giga waved her huge arms back and forth and Roar turned to her.

“Can you hear me?” Giga asked, her mech tapping at where an ear would be if the mech had ears.

Roar copied the movement and waved her hand at Giga to indicate she couldn’t hear a damn thing.

It was obvious why. Wrapped about Roar’s sensor array on top of her mech was a tangle of severed tentacles that were slowly turning into dripping sludge. Some of that sludge was seeping into cracks in the metal and seams in the sensor array.

“We need to get her out of there,” Giga said.

Wall pulled his rifle from clamps on his back where he’d stashed it for the sprint through the jungle and took up a firing position. “I’ve got us covered.”

Giga motioned for Roar to pop open her cockpit then held out both mech hands. Roar didn’t hesitate. She opened her cockpit and scrambled out, jumping into the waiting mech hands. Giga brought her close then opened her own cockpit.

“Hey,” Giga said. “Your personal comms out too?”

“Whole system shorted when the first xeno collided with my sensor array,” Roar replied, climbing up to sit on the edge of Giga’s cockpit. “I thought I was gonna bleed from my ears at the noise that shit made.”

“They grow them big planet side,” Giga said.

“No shit,” Roar replied. “Prayers to every god that they don’t get much bigger.”

“Where’s Shock? You see him at all before you got nailed?” Giga asked.

“I turned and he was gone then I didn’t have much chance to think about it after that,” Roar said. “I’ll show you where we were though. You’ll want to see this.”

“What about your mech?” Giga asked.

“Leave it here,” Roar said, regarding the sensor array that had whiffs of smoke coming off of it. “Let that xeno gunk run its course. We’ll come back for it.”

“Hopefully, it’ll still be functional,” Giga said.

“I’ll ride on your shoulder if it isn’t,” Roar said.

“I don’t think you want to be that exposed,” Giga said.

“I know I don’t want to be that exposed, but not much choice right now,” Roar said and pointed. “Come on. Head that way. The drop zone is just through those trees. Or what used to be trees.”

“Yeah, I can see it through the hole you punched in the jungle,” Giga said and laughed. She switched to comms. “Wall?”

“Yeah?”

“Follow us. Turn your external mics and loudspeaker on so you can talk to Roar.”

“Got it.” There was a loud squelch of noise then Wall’s voice boomed, “Hey, Roar.”

“Turn it down, dude,” Giga said.

“Sorry,” Wall replied. “How’s that?”

“Better.”

“Hey, Wall,” Roar said. “Nice moves.”

“Thanks,” Wall said. “It’s nice to have something big enough that it actually puts up a fight when I grapple with it.”

“I think you’re the only one happy about that, Wall,” Roar said.

“Probably,” Wall said as he followed behind Giga and into the drop zone.

7.

The drop ship hit the ground in a mass of flame and dust. Before it had even fully settled the rear ramp was down and Schroeder was barking orders, pointing this way and that with one hand while she held her rifle to her hip in the other.

“We will secure this LZ!” Schroeder barked. “I want it tight as a Martian Baptist’s sphincter! Am I understood?”

“Yes, Sarge!” the SpecCom team shouted as they raced from the drop ship, half of them with rifles up and sprinting towards the perimeter of the clearing while the other half started unloading gear on hover lifts and rollers.

“Good to see you rip roaring ready to go, Schroeder,” Chomps said as she walked her mech back to the center of the LZ and the drop ship that was still cycling its thrusters. “You planning on going somewhere right away?”

“I am planning on taking this bird back up with my squad and doing some flyovers at the drop zone where you lost a mech,” Schroeder said.

“I’ve already got three mechs in that area,” Chomps said. “They just tangled with a few xenos and kicked some alien ass. I think they’ve got the drop zone under control.”

“One of those mechs is compromised while the other two are too close to the ground to get any perspective on the area,” Schroeder said. “I’ve been on plenty a jungle planet like this one. The density of the flora is gonna mean your sensors aren’t worth shit. I want eyes on the area and some data from broad scans.”

“Not gonna argue with you if you’re all gung-ho about it,” Chomps said. “I appreciate the assist.”

“That’s my job,” Schroeder said. “Got a second drop ship coming down with Norris’ team. He’ll add to the numbers and make sure nothing sneaks up on us while his drop ship heads back up and brings the rest of the Combat Logistics crew down. We are setting up and I will be damned to Hell and back if I let these xenos scare us off this LZ. You see the stats on this planet?”

“Um, yeah, I saw them,” Chomps replied. “We all saw them.”

“No, you did not,” Schroeder said. “You saw what the Dorso saw and you saw what the Jethro saw. I saw what my drop ship saw in real time during the drop.”

“You were reading atmospheric stats while dropping?” Chomps asked. “That makes me queasy just thinking about it.”

“Atmospheric, geologic, oceanographic,” Schroeder replied. “I was streaming it all on my helmet display. Needed to know what my people were really in for. Orbital scans are one thing, but it gets real on the ground. I only deal with real.”

“I know you do,” Chomps said. “So, what’d you find?”

“Goddamn paradise,” Schroeder said. “Eden exists and it’s called Hrouska, Chomps. If I wasn’t a religious person, I’d say that God started life out here first then kicked us off this planet when we got naughty. I doubt that Earth was ever this great.”

“That’s some motivation to get the planet under control and have the Jethro call back to SBE for reinforcements,” Chomps said.

“Oh, I’ll have this planet under control, don’t you worry,” Schroeder said.

“I’m not,” Chomps replied before a chime went off in her comms. “Hold on. Giga is calling in.” Chomps switched channels. “Giga? What’s the sitrep?”

“We’ve been all over this drop zone,” Giga said. “The xenos are for sure sentient. They stripped the drop ship here of all of its essential gear. No reason to do that unless they are gonna try to figure out how it works. But the fact they are smart enough to tell the difference between useful components and hunks of metal tells me we are not going to like what they may be bringing if they attack en masse again like they did against the Dorso’s teams.”

“Any sign of the escape pod?”

“No.”

“And Shock?”

“No sign of him topside, Chomps.”

“Topside? What does that mean?” Chomps asked. She looked down and saw Schroeder smiling and frowned. “Giga? What does topside mean?”

“It means we found a hole,” Giga said. “A deep hole. Really deep hole. Too deep to scan properly, but it’s big enough for a mech to fall down through. I’m gonna take a look.”

“No, you are not,” Chomps ordered. “You are going to wait for that drop zone to be secured first. You hear me? The last thing I need is to lose another mech.”

“Two mechs,” Giga said. “Roar’s is out of commission at the moment.”

“Even more reason to stay put until we have things in hand,” Chomps said.

“Dammit, Chomps,” Giga said. “It’s Shock down there.”

“Sounds like what you need are tunnel rats,” Schroeder interrupted.

“Is that Schroeder? You down here already?” Giga asked.

“We are,” Schroeder replied.

“Then, yeah, that’s exactly what we need,” Giga said. “Tunnel rats.”

“Sit tight,” Schroeder said. “I got the people for you. On our way.”

The comms cut off and Schroeder smiled up at Chomps.

“Looks like I get to scan over the ground and under the ground today,” Schroeder said. She let out a loud whistle. “Coda! Lopp! Gershon! On me!”

Two men and a woman came running to the drop ship.

“You all want to get dirty?” Schroeder asked.

“Yes, Sarge!” the three soldiers replied.

***

The tunnel split into three possible directions and Shock sighed.

“Son of a butch…”

He tried to scan the different directions but nothing other than empty readings came back to him before the static started again.

“Well, yeah, sure, stands to reason there’d be more than only one way,” Shock mumbled. “Because that would be too goddamn easy.”

He’d been walking for he didn’t know how long and he was pretty much ready to plop down on his metal ass and call it quits like a petulant toddler. But he wasn’t a petulant toddler, he was a mech pilot. Although some of the Jethro’s crew might have argued they were one and the same at times. Especially when it came to Gore. Shock chuckled.

He kept walking, taking the center tunnel for ease of navigation and retreat. Shock wasn’t stupid. He knew he was more than likely walking into the heart of enemy territory. Retreat was a very real possibility. Where exactly he’d retreat to was a whole other thing. But, he’d figure that out if he needed to.

The tunnel grew smaller, narrowing slightly at the sides as he continued. There were no more branches, only the single tunnel, for what had to be close to a couple of kilometers. Shock’s halogens cast long, dark shadows from the imperfections in the tunnel’s walls. Rocks that stuck out became slithering snakes of huge proportions, divots in the dirt became endless maws that were there to swallow him whole. Although, he knew that was ridiculous.

“Hold on,” he mumbled as his vision swam. “There’s something going on.”

He checked his cockpit’s readings and realized that the oxygen levels were rising considerably. The processors in his mech should have filtered and mixed the air properly, but they weren’t. Shock kept moving, feeling the over-oxygenation of his body start to take hold. Oxygen toxicity was not a pleasant way to go and that thought was punctuated by a slow throb in his head that grew to a stabbing pain.

“Shit,” he mumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”

He stopped his mech and disengaged the cradle so he could move easier. It was a struggle, but he managed to shift about the cockpit enough until he found the issue.

The hatch was damaged. There was a good twelve-centimeter gash in what should have been a nearly unbreakable seal. If he didn’t patch that, then his mech wouldn’t be able to filter out the excess oxygen and he’d die. He had maybe an hour, most likely a lot less.

“How? How, how, how?” he said then giggled then moaned as the giggle sent shockwaves of pain through his skull followed by a wave of nausea so intense he thought he was going to spew right that second.

But he held it.

“Okay, fix this,” he grunted and grabbed a hunk of the cradle.

Shock tried to rip it off, but it wouldn’t tear. So he used what he had at hand, or mouth, and began to gnaw at the tendril until he was able to get a good chunk off. It tasted like sweaty gym socks and stinky cheese coated in grease. Shock had no idea what the cradle was made of and he made a mental note not to ever ask. He jammed the piece of cradle into the crack.

Exhausted from his ordeal, he rested back against the rest of the cradle until his vision began to clear. His lungs hurt, his belly was still upset, and his head throbbed, but the air he took in felt better and better with each breath.

When he thought he had the strength to continue, he crawled back into the cradle and let it envelop him. The damaged tendril, while shorter than before, repaired itself as he knew it would. He’d been in enough fights on too many planets, not mention a couple falls off of cliffs that he shouldn’t have survived, that he knew what the cradle was capable of.

“Alright,” he said and smiled. “Time to keep on keeping on.”

He started the mech forward then stopped.

He wasn’t alone.

“Shit,” he said as two xenos faced him.

They were big suckers, almost as big as the mech. And they were armed.

Each of the xenos held a general infantry carbine, probably armed with explosive rounds. Mechs didn’t like explosive rounds. They tended to explode parts of the machine that were needed.

“Howdy,” Shock said as he dove at the xenos, tucking and rolling over his right shoulder so he could use his momentum to plant his left elbow into the maw of the xeno on the right.

Carbine fire lit up the tunnel then the explosive rounds began tearing chunks out of the wall and ceiling as the xenos struggled to figure out how to control the weapons. Shock didn’t give them much of an opportunity to experiment.

He came up out of his roll, having smashed his elbow into one xeno, and leapt at the other xeno, twisting its carbine-wielding tentacle in the direction of the xeno he’d just attacked. Explosive rounds tore into the xeno, ripping bits and pieces apart here and there. But Shock knew that wasn’t going to take the thing down; he only used it as a distraction.

Shock smacked his right hip and pulled out a massive shock wand, activated it then, using his other hand to shove the xeno’s mouth wide open, he jammed the wand down the alien’s gullet. Before he yanked his arm free, he made a series of twists on the shock wand’s main body.

Shock shoved the xeno away from him and into the other one then twisted his mech around and dove to the ground as the shock wand overloaded. The xeno lit up from the inside like a Chinese lantern, something Shock had always liked playing with on New Years as a kid. Except instead of sending a beautifully painted paper frame up into the sky, the wand vaporized the xeno’s insides, sending a mass of black gunk spraying across the walls, the ceiling, and the other xeno.

“Too bad I don’t have another one,” Shock said as he got to his feet and leapt at the next best thing.

He snagged the dropped carbine, a tiny thing in the mech’s massive hands, and pinched the magazine just enough to crack a couple of the rounds inside. Then he threw it at the other xeno, turned, and ran his ass off the way he came. The carbine exploded, the xeno screeched, Shock kept running.

Then the air around him erupted into chaos as explosive rounds started going off everywhere. Shock took a brief second to check his rear vids and wanted to piss his jumpsuit.

Eight armed xenos were on his tail and he wasn’t running fast enough to lose them.

“SON OF A BUTCH!” he shouted as he poured every ounce of energy he could into the mech’s legs.

8.

“Deep hole,” Schroeder said as she stood at the lip and looked down. “Loose dirt. Soft. Yeah, no way a mech is climbing back up that.”

“That’s why we haven’t gone down yet,” Giga said.

“I could lower you down with the drop ship,” Schroeder said and smiled. “Use a winch and cable system. But, where would the fun be in that? None for me, I can say that for sure, right squad?”

“Hooyah!” the three SpecCom soldiers cried out as they secured cables to their battle armor and switched on the mini-halogens on their helmets.

“Plus, Chomps doesn’t want to lose you down there,” Schroeder said. “You could get stuck or lost or have a claustrophobia attack and curl up into a tiny mech ball while you cry and wait to be rescued.”

“Having fun?” Giga asked.

“Lots,” Schroeder said. “Just pissed I don’t get to go down myself. Gotta boss these chickenshits around so they don’t start slacking.”

Schroeder received more than a few middle fingers from the soldiers that were busy setting up a defensive perimeter around the destroyed drop zone. Some soldiers pounded large poles into the ground then activated them, creating a fence of pure energy that encircled everything. Other soldiers were bolting and welding scaffolding that could be used as watchtowers. Even more soldiers were digging trenches and securing artillery bases.

“Who has the LZ?” Giga asked.

“Norris and Gailey’s teams,” Schroeder said. “Halva will be down soon with Morisaki any minute now.”

“Morisaki will whip that LZ into shape,” Giga said. “I’ve never met a LZ CO that can do what he can do.”

“He is the best,” Schroeder said. “Never play him in poker.”

“He’s that good?” Giga asked. “I’d heard the opposite.”

“No, he is awful,” Schroeder said. “Makes the game boring as shit.”

“Ha! I’ll remember that,” Giga said. “What about Hawker?”

“Hawker is a great poker player,” Schroeder said.

“No. When is Hawker coming here?”

“Oh, right. She’ll be on her way as soon as another drop ship is unloaded and can go back for her,” Schroeder said, pointing at the vehicle that was emitting steam from its exhaust vents while soldiers unloaded crate after crate down the rear ramp. “Hey! You sad sacks about done?”

More middle fingers then a, “Done, Sarge!”

“Han Lu?” Schroeder asked as she activated her comms.

“What?” Drop Ship Pilot Corporal Han Lu replied over the comms.

“Get back to the LZ ASAP and bring me Hawker,” Schroeder ordered. “We have a mech down and I want it up and ready so we can go secure one of the other drop zones. Got it?”

“Waiting for everyone to get out of the way,” Han Lu replied.

“Screw that,” Schroeder said. “Take off and they’ll get the hint.”

The only response was a high-pitched whine from the drop ship and the scrambling of SpecCom soldiers as they hurried to get away from the spray of fire and dirt that was about to be unleashed on them.

“It’s your subtlety that amazes me,” Giga said and laughed.

“I know, right?” Schroeder replied then snapped her fingers and pointed at the hole. “Coda! Lopp! Gershon! Get your asses in that hole!”

“Yes, Sarge!” they replied.

They jumped over the edge and were instantly lost from sight.

“Good soldiers, those three,” Schroeder said to Giga. “Best tunnel rats I’ve ever had. If they can’t find our missing mech, then that mech can’t be found.”

“I hope you’re right,” Giga said as she crouched as close as she dared to the hole’s opening. Bits of dirt and rocks fell inside and she took a quick scoot back. “Is there going to be an issue with comms?”

“No,” Schroeder stated. “They’ll plant relays as they go.”

She pulled a tablet from her belt and swiped at the screen, bringing up an almost blank slate that had three green blips flashing on it.

“The relays will also map every square meter down there as they move,” Schroeder said. “This isn’t our first subterranean rodeo, Giga.”

“I know,” Giga said. “But it’s been a while since we’ve lost a mech.”

“It’s been a while since you’ve had a challenge,” Schroeder said. “It’s good for ya.”

“That’s what Wall thinks,” Giga said.

“What was that?” Wall asked over the comms.

“You eavesdropping?” Giga asked.

“I’m bored,” Wall said. “I’m standing guard while Roar works on her mech. She’s not a very good mechanic.”

A tiny voice could be heard yelling, “Hey!”

“Wall? Did you leave your loudspeaker on when you said that?” Giga asked.

“Yep,” Wall replied. “Roar is throwing shit at me. Hey! Knock it off, Roar! You might need those parts!”

“Tell her to chill out,” Giga said. “Hawker is on the way.”

“Chill out! Hawker is on the way!”

“Bite me!” the tiny voice replied.

“As soon as Hawker gets that mech up and running, we can go have a look at the other drop zones,” Schroeder said, a malevolent gleam in her eye. “Betcha ten to one that there’re holes like this at each of them.”

“Not gonna take that bet because I think you’re right,” Giga said.

“I know I’m right,” Schroeder replied. “Here. Patch it in to your display.”

Schroeder swiped at the tablet, sending a link to Giga’s mech.

“Thanks,” Giga said. “Damn. Those three move fast.”

“You ever know a rat to move slow?” Schroeder replied.

“Only when it’s been poisoned,” Giga said.

“Shut your mouth and curse your mother!” Schroeder snapped. “Don’t you jinx my people!”

“I wasn’t jinxing any–”

“Just shut up and try not to bring the wrath of God down on anyone else, will ya?” Schroeder said. “You’re a pilot. You should know better. You lot are the most superstitious of anyone.”

“I think you’re mixing up control freak with superstitious,” Giga said.

“Same thing,” Schroeder said. “Hey now…take a look at that will ya?”

***

Corporal Coda, rifle firmly planted against his shoulder, took point, leading the other two SpecCom soldiers through the tunnel. Although, calling it a tunnel was a stretch. It was way bigger than any of them had had to scout in a long time. Mostly, they worked tunnels that forced them to crouch walk for kilometers on end.

“Nice to stretch our legs for once,” Coda said.

“So damn true,” Corporal Lopp replied.

“Yuh,” Corporal Gershon grunted.

They kept moving, stabbing small spikes into the ground every few meters.

“You catching these, Sarge?” Lopp asked.

“Yep,” Schroeder replied over the comms. “Making a nice picture on my tablet and I can hear you sorry rats loud and.”

“Proceeding,” Coda stated. “No movement on my display.”

“This place is huge, Sarge,” Lopp reported. “I don’t know what uses this tunnel, but it’s big.”

“Any sign of Shock?” Giga asked.

“Giga, kindly stay off my rats’ channel,” Schroeder said. “Go find something useful to do until I need you. If I need you.”

Giga grumbled and swore then a chime indicated she’d left the channel.

“Hold,” Coda said. “You hearing that?”

“Yuh,” Gershon replied. “Explosive rounds?”

“That’s what it sounds like,” Coda said. “And…yelling?”

“Sarge?” Lopp called over the comms. “Not picking up movement, but there is certainly some shit heading our way. You want us to meet it in the middle?”

“I sure as hell do,” Schroeder said. “Keep dropping those relays. I need as much mapping done as possible. But the second you think you’re in over your heads, you bust ass back to the cables.”

“We’re in a tunnel, Sarge,” Coda replied. “We’re already in over our heads.”

“Louder,” Gershon said.

“You’re right,” Lopp said. “It’s getting considerably louder.”

Far down the tunnel, the briefest of flashes could be seen followed by the distinct sounds of explosive rounds. The three soldiers took knees and took aim.

“What is that?” Lopp asked.

“Display says it’s a mech,” Coda replied. “Messed up, but still a mech.”

“I see that, but what’s behind it?” Lopp asked.

“Xenos? Hard to get good readings from this distance,” Coda said.

“Yuh,” Gershon agreed.

“You taking a tea break?” Schroeder asked. “Keep moving. I want relays, people!”

“Gonna ignore what you want for the moment, Sarge,” Lopp said. “We’ve got a damaged mech and what looks like a group of xenos heading right for us.”

“Taking aim,” Coda said. “Permission to fire?”

“If you need to fire, then you damn well best be firing,” Schroeder said. “Try not to hit the mech.”

“I’ve got it filtered from targeting,” Coda said. “Rifle is locked onto hostiles only.”

“Six?” Lopp asked. “Eight? These things are playing havoc with my display.”

“Lock manually,” Coda said. “I’ve tagged them one by one as I see them.”

“Yuh,” Gershon said.

“Steady,” Lopp said. “Let them get within range.”

The three SpecCom soldiers waited patiently as the damaged mech raced towards them with eight xenos right behind. The walls and the ground around the mech were being torn apart by explosive rounds, but the mech was managing to stay fairly nimble-footed and avoid any direct hits.

Then that nimble-footing failed and it took several shots to the back of its left leg. The mech staggered then fell in a heap, sparks coming off of it like it was an Independence Day fireworks show.

“Fire!” Lopp ordered as the three finally got clear shots once the mech was down.

Lasers lit up the tunnel and sliced into the xenos. Two dropped, screeching so loud that it almost shorted the soldiers’ helmet audio. The other six kept charging, heading straight for the soldiers. They scrambled over the downed mech, ignoring it completely, their attention solely on the people firing lasers at them.

Two more dropped, their bodies bursting open as Coda sent laser bolt after laser bolt directly into their wide open maws. But the success only lasted so long. In seconds, the soldiers were in range of the explosive rounds.

“Get back!” Coda yelled as he shot anther xeno, taking off four tentacles with one laser bolt. “We can’t hold this position!”

“Talk to me, rats!” Schroeder said.

“We have four xenos coming at us with infantry carbines!” Lopp yelled. “They know how to use them, Sarge!”

“Jesus Christ,” Schroeder said. “Fall back. Get to the cables now. I’m pulling you out of there.”

“What about the mech, Sarge?” Coda asked. “He’s down.”

“Can you get to the pilot?” Schroeder asked.

“No, Sarge,” Coda replied.

“Then there is nothing you can do,” Schroeder said. “Get your ass back to this hole! I want you topside pronto!”

“Schroeder! You can’t leave Shock down there!” Giga yelled.

“Pilot, I already told you to get off this channel!” Schroeder barked.

“I’m a lieutenant and you are a sergeant, Schroeder!” Giga barked back.

The three soldiers stood and ran as fast as they could back to the cables hanging down the hole as Schroeder and Giga shouted back and forth, the insults getting harsher, the threats getting more real.

“Goddamnit!” Schroeder roared. “That is enough, Giga! You outrank me, but this is my damn op! You got a problem with me running things the way they should be, then you call the Boss and complain! Otherwise, shut the hell up!”

Coda reached a cable and snapped it into place. As soon as Lopp got to him, he snapped one into place on the man’s armor then held out a cable to Gershon as she reached them too. All three soldiers were connected and barely had time to give the thumbs up before their cables were pulled taught and they were yanked back up the hole.

When they reached the top of the hole, they immediately uncoupled from the cables, turned, and began firing down into the hole. Xenos could be seen below, but they ducked back as laser after laser rained down on them.

“Close this bitch!” Schroeder yelled. “Close it now!”

Giga stomped over to the sergeant, the mech towering over the yelling woman.

“You blow that hole and Shock is trapped down there!” Giga shouted.

“Shock fell,” Coda said, looking up at the mech. “We saw him fall. He wasn’t getting back up.”

Two soldiers ran up to Schroeder, a black box held between them.

“Arm and deploy,” Schroeder ordered then turned and looked up at Giga. “You going to be a problem, pilot?”

“I should go down there,” Giga said.

Her words were followed by several explosive rounds making it up out of the hole and detonating around the drop zone.

“No, you shouldn’t,” Schroeder said and snapped her fingers.

The soldier twisted dials on the box then hurled it into the hole. Everyone ran, even Giga in her mech. Two seconds ticked off then the world became fire and smoke followed by a sucking sound so loud that it overtook everything.

Then silence.

Dust filled the air as Schroeder went back to what had been a hole. In its place was a mound of thick plasticrete that was singed and scorched along the edges.

“Nothing’s getting through that,” Schroeder said, rapping her knuckles on the mound. “Not for a while anyway.”

She let out a whistle and twirled her hand in the air. Soldiers hurried over to the mound and began setting sensors all around it.

Giga could only watch.

“Dammit, Shock,” she muttered. “Don’t you dare die on me down there.”

9.

It was pitch black and Shock could tell that the mech’s cockpit was compromised again. No surprise there. The real surprise was that he was able to wake up alive. Not that waking up dead was an option.

He lay in a pile of cradle. That was the only way to explain it. It rested underneath him like wet blankets, heavy and damp with his sweat and the mech’s many hydraulic and engineering fluids.

Shock blinked a few times. He couldn’t see jack, not even a spark. Not a single one of the systems still had even a trace of energy coursing through it. The mech was dead, dead, dead.

That meant it was time to get suited up and abandon ship. He didn’t need light to navigate the small cockpit. He knew the space like he knew his own body. Shock rolled off the pile of cradle and pressed a hand against a panel. No power meant it didn’t open at his touch, but a little wiggling and some good old-fashioned force popped the panel open just enough so he could wriggle his fingers in the gap and pull.

It came free with a loud clang. The loud clang was answered by a loud wail. A wail that came from outside the mech. Shock froze.

He couldn’t see it, but he could hear it. Something large sliding across the tunnel floor, a slithering sound like undulating plastic.

A xeno was out there, and it was big.

With all the mastery of his physical form that he’d learned through the years, Shock carefully, cautiously, slowly pulled out the helmeted battle armor that had been tucked behind the panel. He slid in one leg then the other. A lift of his butt then a slip of his right arm followed by his left arm. He patted the patch on his right breast and the armor stiffened where it needed to then flexed where it had to in order for Shock to move.

He was just putting the helmet on, ready to activate the seal, when the entire mech rocked at a forty-five-degree angle, sending him slamming into the side of the cockpit. The armor protected him from getting hurt, but it didn’t do a thing for his stability. The mech rocked the other direction and he was tossed clear across the cockpit, hitting helmet first into the environmental processors.

A hiss of air and a blast of steam shot from the processors. Shock hurried towards the damaged hatch, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

The hatch was torn free and lost in the pitch darkness. Shock dove out of the mech, slammed into something very squishy yet solid, slid down the squishy, solid thing, hit the ground, scrambled to his feet, and took off running. He had no idea where he was going, but his helmet’s display had come alive and he was at least able to use night vision to make sure he didn’t slam into a wall.

Which was a good thing since a wall was exactly what he was running towards. A wall that had xeno’s trapped in it, their bodies frozen and stuck within a mass of plasticrete.

No worries. Standard protocol. Seal off the hole to prevent any other threats from using it. It was textbook, and Shock was more than sure it meant Schroeder was somewhere up top. An up top he wasn’t going to get to through the hole he had fallen down.

He was suddenly lifted up, tentacles grabbing his legs and flipping him upside down. Then he was flying. Open air was all he knew and he was moving so fast with such force that his helmet couldn’t process the data fast enough to give him an image to work with.

Shock hit the tunnel floor, cried out as the battle armor absorbed some, but not all of the impact, again scrambled to his feet, and was off and running once more. He doubted he could outrun the behemoth behind him, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to stand around and wait to be thrashed like a rag doll.

Five minutes passed before he slowed down then stopped running altogether. He turned and began going through the various scan spectrums his helmet was capable of until he was able to see a little of what was happening way behind him.

“Well… That’s not good.”

***

“Roar!” Giga yelled. “Is your damn mech fixed yet or what?”

“I don’t know!” Roar yelled back over the comms. “Ask Hawker!”

“Don’t even start with me,” Hawker replied over the comms. “I will have it fixed when I have it fixed!”

“Can that be today at least?” Giga shouted. “I need Roar to cover this drop zone so I can go to the next one with the drop ship!”

“Yes, I understand how a leap frog operation works, Giga,” Hawker snapped. “Give me five seconds!”

“Five minutes?” Giga asked.

“Did I say five minutes? No. I said five seconds!” Hawker shouted. “Or five hours if you keep bugging me!”

Giga waited. Not patiently. She nearly crushed a man as she paced, her mech’s foot coming close to stomping him into the ground.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. Not that he could hear her since she didn’t have her loudspeakers on.

“I’m up!” Roar shouted. “Get going!”

“Schroeder!” Giga yelled into the comms.

“Goddamn, Giga! You trying to blow my eardrums or what?” Schroeder replied over the comms. “Turn that shit down!”

“Roar is operational again,” Giga said. “She’s got this drop zone covered. Let’s get the show on the road!”

“What show?” Schroeder said. “I do not consider this site to be secured yet!”

“Schroeder, do not mess with me,” Giga said. “We need to get to the other drop zone and see if there is a way down into those tunnels from there.”

“I can pretty much guarantee that there is,” Schroeder said. “But we aren’t leaving until I have–”

“Schroeder!” Giga roared. “I swear to every god ever invented that I will pick you up and squish you between my fists if you do not authorize the drop ship to head to the next drop zone right now!”

Giga waited then saw an extremely pissed-off Schroeder shove past the chaos of the SpecCom soldiers to stand directly in front of the mech.

“Try it,” Schroeder said, her hands planted on her hips. “Come on, big mech pilot. I dare you. Pick me up in those oversized grabbers of yours and squish me into pulp. Do it. Come on.”

“Don’t test me,” Giga said.

“Oh, I am goddamn testing you!” Schroeder said. “That’s exactly what I am doing!”

Someone shouted at Schroeder and she nodded without taking her eyes of Giga’s cockpit.

“Load up!” Schroeder ordered. “Norris will be here in two minutes! I want ground recon locked and loaded! I want perimeter crew set and ready! I want this damn drop ship filled to the ass with SpecCom badasses before I turn around!”

She shouted all of that without taking her eyes off Giga for even a second.

“Are we good, pilot?” Schroeder asked.

“Yeah, Schroeder, we’re good,” Giga said.

“Then march your metal butt over to that drop ship and hop on before I leave without you,” Schroeder said. She turned from Giga and stomped towards the drop ship. “I will leave without you, pilot.”

A drop ship came flying over the tops of the trees, circled the drop zone, then hovered about a quarter kilometer off.

“That would be Norris! He needs a spot clear so he can land! We are in the spot he needs! Why are we still in the spot he needs?” Schroeder shouted.

Soldiers raced inside the drop ship followed directly by Schroeder.

Giga hurried over to the drop ship and climbed on top. She hooked the toes of her mech’s feet into recessed holds made specifically for that purpose while she grabbed onto metal rungs set towards the cockpit of the ship.

Technically, the drop ship could carry a full cargo load and two mechs on top, but that was pushing it. The engine drives whined as the drop ship took off, angled up over the trees, then sped away from the drop zone.

Giga kept an eye on the scanners the entire time.

***

“Hey, Boss?” Chomps called over the comms.

Parveet was sitting straight up in her chair, eyes flicking from one screen to another as she took in all the data coming from the planet. Yes, she had a bridge crew to do the analysis for her, but she hadn’t become commander of the Jethro by sitting back and letting others do the work.

“Go ahead, Chomps,” Parveet said, snapping her fingers at Wan as she thought she saw a strange blip on one of the scanners. Wan nodded and began scrolling back through the data. “What have you got for me?”

“Shock is still lost,” Chomps said. “Roar has her mech back up and running and she’s locking down that drop zone with Wall. Giga, of course, is on the drop ship with Schroeder and heading for the next drop zone to secure that and maybe find a way down into those tunnels.”

“What’s your take on all this, Chomps?” Parveet asked.

“Easy to see how regular infantry was taken out,” Chomps said. “These xenos are subterranean, obviously.”

“Not obviously,” Parveet replied. “Remember your Earth military history, Chomps. Plenty of wars have been fought by digging tunnel networks. Doesn’t mean humans are subterranean. If these things are smart enough to fly a damn drop ship up to the Dorso, then they can dig some goddamn holes to play war in.”

“Yes, Boss, sorry,” Chomps said. “I’m not losing sight of their capabilities, just that we haven’t seen any signs of a civilization yet. No buildings, no infrastructure, no tech of any kind. What are the Jethro’s eyes picking up?”

“She’s right, Boss,” Wan said. “You could walk the planet and not know there’s a sentient race living on it.”

“That’s why I think they’re subterranean in nature,” Chomps said.

“Schroeder already employed her tunnel rats?” Parveet asked.

“Yeah,” Chomps replied. “They did run into Shock, but he waved them off. And, this is where it gets worse.”

“Didn’t think your call was to wish me happy birthday,” Parveet said.

“Is it your birthday?” Chomps asked.

“No, pilot, it is not,” Parveet said. “Get on with it.”

“The xenos can use carbines,” Chomps said.

While the bridge didn’t go silent, since the noise the equipment made was impossible to completely shut up, a stillness fell over the crew instantly.

“Repeat that,” Parveet said.

“The xenos can use our carbines,” Chomps said. “They were armed and pursuing the tunnel rats. Schroeder sealed off the hole with plasticrete to keep the xenos down there, but that doesn’t make me feel much better.”

“Four infantry squads’ worth of armaments are on that planet,” Parveet said.

“Has anyone done a weapons inventory on the Dorso yet, Boss?” Chomps asked, echoing a thought most on the bridge were thinking. “Because–”

“Yeah, I understand the implications,” Parveet said. “Those xenos we encountered may not have been the first of their kind to be on the Dorso. They could have already made a few trips down to the planet.”

Parveet snapped her fingers and Wan began sending orders for soldiers to check the Dorso while Stegson started deep scans of the planet, hunting for Earth tech hidden below the planet’s surface.

“We’ll let you know what we find, Chomps,” Parveet said. “Next move?”

“Morisaki has the LZ locked down,” Chomps said. “I’ve relinquished command of the area and will be heading to the third drop zone.”

“You sure you don’t want to send Gore and stay at the LZ?” Parveet asked.

“Too many cooks in the kitchen, Boss,” Chomps said and laughed. “You know how Morisaki is about his LZs. I twitch too much and he thinks I’m trying to supersede his command of the area. I’ll leave Gore here since no one thinks he’s in charge.”

“Did he hear you say that?” Parveet asked and chuckled.

“Probably, but he’ll live,” Chomps said.

“You want to keep Wall with Roar?” Parveet asked. “He could head to the last drop zone.”

“Roar’s mech took a beating,” Chomps said. “Hawker got her fixed up, but I’d rather have Wall there as backup. Plus, that drop zone was first encounter. I think it’s still hot. If I were the xenos, I’d wait for everyone to get comfy then strike hard and fast.”

“That would be my play too,” Parveet said.

“So, you cool with my call?”

“Of course. I trust your judgment,” Parveet said. “Get to it and keep me posted.”

“Will do, Boss,” Chomps said and the comms went quiet.

“That blip I saw, what was it?” Parveet asked Wan.

“Not sure, Boss,” Wan said. “Analyzing now. Definitely an energy surge of some kind.”

“Under the surface?” Parveet asked.

“I think so, yes,” Wan said. “Not gonna give you an answer until I have facts.”

“You done with the Dorso?” Parveet asked.

“Yes,” Stegson said and the look on her face wasn’t reassuring. “They cleaned it out.”

“You have eyes confirming that?”

“Yes.”

“Torpedoes?” Parveet asked. “Please tell me that the Dorso’s torpedoes are still in their bays.”

“I’d be lying if I did tell you that,” Stegson said. “Sorry, Boss, but we way underestimated these xenos.”

“No shit, Corporal,” Parveet snapped then waved her hand. “Sorry. Not your fault. I didn’t catch it either. We should have, but we didn’t.”

She sighed and rubbed the tops of her legs over and over.

“Call Chomps and Morisaki,” Parveet said. “Have them spread the word to the rest of the landing forces. I want every single person on that planet aware that the xenos are armed to the teeth with our own goddamn weapons, got it?”

“Yes, Boss,” Stegson said and began making the call immediately.

“Wan? I want to know what that blip was,” Parveet ordered. “The game has changed and any blip we see could mean annihilation of our people down there. I really don’t want that to happen.”

“Understood, Boss,” Wan said. “I’m working it hard.”

“Good,” Parveet said then began scrolling through data on her tablet. “I’ll do the same. Get me answers, people!”

“Yes, Boss!”

10.

There was a small alcove off to the left and Shock ducked into it the second he saw it. He basically collapsed against the rock of the tunnel’s surface and slid to the ground, grateful for a brief rest. He’d been running non-stop for more than thirty minutes and his legs were toast even with the power boost the battle armor gave him. He could never admit being exhausted after thirty minutes or Giga would give him hell for relying on his mech too much.

He would gladly take that hell if it meant getting back to the surface and seeing the rest of the pilots, though.

“One hole means more holes, right?” he mumbled to himself. “Has to be more.”

His display came alive as his armor’s sensors picked up movement. It was too close for Shock to try to make a break for it. Slowly, he pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to be one with the rock. The armor had some stealth tech in it, but Shock had no idea what kind of senses the xenos possessed. As far as he knew, they could see straight through the very rock he was leaning against.

So, he waited, his eyes locked onto the six blips that grew larger in his display.

It took about five minutes for the xenos to arrive. Each held two infantry carbines, and by the way they were wielding them, it looked like they’d been practicing. The creatures still did that slither/undulate way of moving, but their tentacles were pressed in tight to their bodies except for the ones holding the carbines.

If Shock didn’t know better, he would have sworn that the xenos were moving in a classic team formation. And, once they had passed by him without even glancing towards the alcove, he was more than sure that that was exactly what they had been doing. It was uncanny.

That meant he needed to wait until they were clear from his sensors otherwise the xeno bringing up the six would spot him the second he left the alcove.

Shock smiled.

It was absolutely terrifying that the xenos were adapting to the warfare style of humans, but at the same time, it was comforting. An alien race with alien tactics was something he didn’t know how to fight. But an alien race co-opting human tactics? Shit. They just handed him the advantage. He knew everything about human tactics.

Once the blips were off his display, Shock stretched out, made sure his legs hadn’t fallen asleep, then stood and slowly left the alcove. He stared down the tunnel the way the xeno team had gone then turned the opposite direction and continued on. They came from somewhere and he intended on finding out where.

***

The drop ship hit the ground hard, and Giga was already letting go and jumping from the ship before the dust had even thought about settling. She tucked her mech into a roll, came up on one knee, and swung her KYAG back and forth, ready for the attack.

None came.

“Stay in the drop ship and let me clear the area,” Giga said.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Schroeder replied over the comms. “But don’t take too long. We got a lot of work to do.”

“Schroeder?”

“Yes, Giga?”

“Cram it up your twat.”

“Right back at ya, pilot,” Schroeder said and laughed. “Give us the signal when you got the place cleared.”

“Will do,” Giga said as she stood and began walking the area.

The drop zone was just as destroyed as the last one, but the difference was there was a distinct lack of obliterated drop ship. Giga shivered at the thought of an alien race that was able to study and operate human tech so fast. Drop ships, carbines, who knew what else they could handle.

Giga scanned for infantry bodies, but they were missing as well. Plenty of signs of battle, but no signs of the combatants that fought it. It was like seeing the after-image of conflict. Giga walked carefully, her attention as much on the ground as on the surrounding area.

“Giga? Check your two,” Schroeder said. “Scanners are showing a dark spot. Can’t quite see what it is.”

“I see it,” Giga replied, swinging her KYAG toward an occluded area on her scanners.

Despite the mech’s size, it moved with surprising grace; a product of its pilot’s years of training. Giga made sure she knew exactly where her feet were at all times as she moved closer to the dark spot on the scanner. Last thing she needed was to go toppling over because of a misstep just as an attack was launched.

“What is it? Another hole?” Schroeder asked once Giga had reached the area.

“That’s exactly what it is,” Giga said, stopping a couple meters from the edge.

The hole was about twice as large as the one at the previous drop zone. That wasn’t the only difference. As she leaned forward for a better scan, she could easily tell that it wasn’t even close to as deep as the last one. In fact, it seemed to be on a slight decline. It was still a sharp drop, but there was definitely an angle to the way the hole was cut.

“You catching this, Schroeder?” Giga asked.

“Yeah,” Schroeder replied. “Your vid is coming through clear as a goddamn bell.”

“Why would a bell be damned by God?” Giga asked, chuckling. “Strange way to use that word.”

“I use it for spice,” Schroeder said. “Peppers things up a bit. Words get boring.”

“I hear that,” Giga said. “Hold tight. I’m going to flank the hole, see if that angle is better.”

She sidestepped her way around the hole, but the angle was all wrong and her previous position allowed her a much better view. Giga was about to return to that position when she distinctly felt the ground under her vibrate. She stopped moving and stayed where she was.

“Schroeder? You feeling that?” she asked.

“Feeling what?” Schroeder replied.

“Dial up your sensors,” Giga said. “I’m picking up a vibration.”

“Hold on,” Schroeder said then, “Yeah. It’s subtle but getting stronger. Ideas?”

“Other than take aim with the drop ship’s canons? Nope. No ideas,” Giga said.

Giga backed up about five meters, took a knee, and aimed the KYAG at the hole. Down closer to the ground, she could feel the vibrations even more.

They reminded her of a stampede she and Shock had found themselves in on some idiotic world where every animal was an herbivore and dumb as paint. They didn’t need predators on that planet because the fauna wiped themselves out by running off cliffs, running into cliffs, or just running until they collapsed and died. The bodies would rot, the nutrients returned to the soil to grow more plants to feed more stupid herbivores that would start the cycle of moronic death all over again.

Giga wasn’t kidding herself that the vibrations she felt were from a stampede of stupid animals. From everything she’d witnessed, the xenos on Hrouska were so far from stupid that if it was a stampede of them, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those kind of numbers made her bladder clench.

Then the vibrations stopped.

“Giga,” Schroeder said.

“I know,” Giga replied. “Not cool.”

“You can walk your mech ass back here and we can take off,” Schroeder said. “Assess from above. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

“Let’s play this out a little longer,” Giga said. “I don’t want to run quite yet.”

“Not talking about running,” Schroeder said. “I’m talking about regrouping. Taking our engagement from a different approach.”

“Could have been geological,” Giga said.

“That feel geological to you?”

“No. Felt xeno.”

“Exactly. So, how about you stand up slowly and make your way to the drop ship? Or we can come pick you up.”

“Don’t do that,” Giga said. “You’d have to fly over the hole and that would expose the drop ship.”

“I know, so…”

“I’m on my way,” Giga said and stood.

The ground shook with such violence that Giga thought she was gonna fall on her mech ass.

“Lift off!” Giga yelled. “Now!”

“Ain’t leaving you!” Schroeder shouted.

“That’s an order! I’m pulling rank, Schroeder! Something is coming fast and hard!”

“Goddammit!” Schroeder snapped then began barking orders to the drop ship’s pilot.

Flame and smoke shot from under the ship just as a massive cloud of dust exploded from the hole and shape after shape after shape came with it. Giga wanted to fire, but the dust blocked her view and she was afraid she’d hit the drop ship.

“Are you clear?” Giga yelled. “Dammit, Schroeder! Are you clear?”

“Fifteen meters up!” Schroeder yelled back. “Open fire!”

Giga did.

She brightened the display and relied on her scanners to tell her where the shapes were. Her eyes were useless with all the dust and smoke that filled the drop zone. Giga locked onto the closest shape and fired twice, sending bright red laser bolts into the dust cloud. There was a loud screech and the shape moved to the right. But it didn’t fall.

“What the hell?” Giga muttered as she started to move to her right, her KYAG aimed into the center of the drop zone.

More shapes came flying out of the hole, close to a dozen of them, and Giga fired at each one, hoping to drop something before it could engage. All she heard were more screeches, but not one of the shapes stopped moving until they were in a huge mass in the center of the drop zone.

“Gonna clear the air!” Schroeder announced as the drop ship did a quick low flyby.

A good amount of the dust and smoke dissipated and Giga gasped.

“Holy shit,” she said.

“Understatement of the century,” Schroeder said. “Fire!”

The drop ship’s canons opened fire on the grouped xenos. Giga did the same, her eyes barely believing what she was seeing.

Instead of black flesh, the xenos were covered in armor. Battle armor. Battle armor that was taken directly from ground infantry. The creatures had figured out how to mold and meld the battle armor with their own bodies, adding a layer of protection that was admittedly impressive and terrifying in equal parts.

“Gonna need backup!” Giga yelled into the open comms.

***

“You heard the call!” Captain Q Morisaki shouted. “I want teams ready to deploy now!”

“I’ll go with,” Gore said, walking his mech over to the closest drop ship. “It sounds like Giga could use my firepower.”

“That leaves the LZ without a mech, Gore,” Morisaki snarled. “How do you think I feel about my LZ not having a mech?”

“You hate me, Captain,” Gore said. “I’d think you’d like to be rid of me.”

“I’d like to trade you out, yes, but not lose a mech,” Morisaki said. “Park it, Gore. You are part of my defensive plan, and until another one of your cowboy friends comes to relieve you, you stay a part of my defensive plan.”

“If you say so,” Gore said.

“I say so,” Morisaki replied then pointed at a team of SpecCom soldiers. “Is there a reason you are trotting and not all out sprinting those privileged SpecCom asses into that drop ship? Is there a reason I am having to yell at you to double time your overconfident butts up into that ship so that your brothers and sisters in arms do not get their own overconfident butts ripped to shreds? Move!”

“You do know how to command a LZ, Q,” Gore said.

“Gore, the next time you call me by my first name will be the last time you call anyone by any name,” Morisaki said.

“But Q is a great name,” Gore said. “I wish my first name was Q. My parents named me Bastion.”

“And that explains everything about you, Gore,” Morisaki said. “Now shut the hell up so I can do my job. Where is a mechanic? I want a mechanic on that drop ship?”

“Here, sir!” Rots said as she ran up to the captain and gave him a crisp salute.

“Do you know how much I hate you right now?” Morisaki barked. “Do not waste my time with a salute! Get your rookie ass into that drop ship!”

“Yes, sir!” Rots said and turned to run off.

“Mechanic!” Morisaki shouted.

“Sir?” Rots asked, skidding in the dirt and almost falling over as she stopped.

“Do you have your tools?”

“Oh, right. Sorry, sir,” Rots said and let out a loud whistle.

“Is she calling a dog?” Morisaki snarled. “Gore? Is this mechanic calling a goddamn dog?”

Four of her inventions came scurrying towards her.

“You two stay here,” she ordered then hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “One is on mech duty. Three is on general duty.”

“What are those?” Morisaki asked, red in the face. “Why did you bring those down to my LZ without my authorization?”

“They’re mechtopuses,” Rots said. “Or mechtopi, I guess.”

“No!” Morisaki yelled. “I will not have something named that in my presence! You see that huge machine behind me? That’s a mech. If you call those things mechtopuses, then people will think there are eight-legged mechs running about. There are not! I refuse to have that kind of confusion!”

“Mechtopi,” Rots said.

“Kid, don’t make it worse,” Gore warned. “Seriously.”

“Listen to the guy I do not like, mechanic,” Morisaki said. “He would know how to make it worse.”

“It’s true,” Gore agreed.

“They are crawlers. That’s what they do. They crawl. You will call them crawlers from now on, understood?” Morisaki said.

“Yes, sir,” Rots replied and faced the crawlers. “Mechtopi, you are now called crawlers. Please reprogram.”

The crawlers issued a series of beeps then stood still before issuing another series of beeps.

“Confirmed?” Rots asked.

They beeped their confirmation.

“One and Three have your assignments, Two and Four are with me,” Rots said then took off running towards the drop ship.

Two of the crawlers followed on her heels while two remained where they were.

The second the drop ship was full, it took off, not even bothering to wait for the rear ramp to be locked in place. It flew over the trees and was lost from sight in seconds.

“Are those things creeping you out as much as they are creeping me out?” Gore asked Morisaki.

“Says the man that basically lives inside a mech,” Morisaki replied as he walked off.

Gore stared down at the two crawlers. He kicked out softly with a foot.

“Shoo,” he said. “Go away.”

One of the crawlers scurried off, the other stayed right where it was.

“I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?” he asked.

The crawler beeped.

“Fine. Whatever,” Gore said and started walking away. “Come on. We have to make a sweep of the LZ. Don’t want to get caught with our metal pants around our metal ankles, do we? I’m sure you get where I’m coming from.”

The crawler beeped and followed.

“What number are you again?”

The crawler beeped once.

“One?”

The crawler beeped again.

“Okay, One, do me a favor,” Gore said. “I’m gonna go high while you go low. Can you scan?”

Beep.

“Okay. You scan for movement at ground level and I’ll concentrate on the trees. If you detect anything that is not from our people, you beep like hell and let me know. Got it?”

Beep.

“Cool. This could be fun.”

“Gore! Do not make friends with that machine!” Morisaki shouted over the comms.

“Jesus Christ,” Gore mumbled. “The guy has eyes everywhere. Ignore him, One. He’s a bummer.”

Beep.

11.

The xeno hit Giga in the midsection and she doubled over, wrapping the mech around the battle armor-clad creature, her fists pounding at it as she fell onto her back. Tentacles shot out from gaps in the armor and tried to work their way through the cockpit hatch, but Giga wasn’t falling for that one. Many a thing had tried to crack a mech cockpit before and there were countermeasures for that.

Blades shot up then back down in the blink of an eye and the tips of the tentacles were sheared off. The xeno screeched and tried to roll off Giga, but she grabbed it in her arms, rolled over so the xeno was between her and the ground, and stood up.

Before the xeno could launch itself again, Giga jammed the tips of her fingers into one of the tentacle gaps then spread her hand wide, cracking the battle armor around the gap into shards that went flying every which way. Then she used her other fist and punched down into the new opening over and over and over until nothing but black pulp came oozing from the rest of the gaps in the armor.

One last screech and the xeno deflated before her eyes, a puddle of gunk and broken armor.

It would have been a victory if there had been only one xeno.

Giga was hit from behind and fell cockpit first into the puddle of gunk and armor. She tried to twist around, but there were three xenos on top of her and she couldn’t get the leverage. Tentacles whipped and slammed into the back of her mech then started working at her arm joints, their tips hunting for a way to pop the couplings loose.

“Schroeder!” Giga shouted.

“This might hurt!” Schroeder replied as several blasts from the drop ship hit the xenos.

The blasts didn’t get to the creatures themselves, the battle armor doing its job and protecting the flesh underneath, but the force was enough to knock two loose so that Giga could bunch her legs up under her and launch her mech to its feet.

The remaining xeno twined its tentacles all about the mech, hanging on for dear life. Giga had to ignore that one so she could spin her mech around and give one of the others a swift, hard kick, punting it like a football. It flew back several meters as the other launched itself at the mech.

Giga tried to punch the thing, but tentacles had her right arm nearly pinned to her side. She spun to her right and shot her left arm out, stiff-arming the flying xeno hard enough to buckle a good amount of armor. Black fluid squirted from between two of the gaps and the xeno dropped hard. Giga didn’t waste time and gave the xeno a solid sidekick with her left leg, crushing even more armor.

A weak screech came from inside the armor and the xeno went still.

The one attached to Giga’s mech tightened its tentacles and alarms sounded inside the cockpit.

“You got four incoming!” Schroeder shouted.

“Any chance for some help?” Giga called.

“Give us a few seconds,” Schroeder said. “If you can hold out for that long, then I think we have a solution to this problem.”

“I may only have a few seconds,” Giga said.

She sent electric shocks surging across her mech’s armor, but the xeno didn’t let go. Instead, it tightened its tentacles more.

“Son of a butch,” Giga said. “Goddamn power-eating freaks.”

The xeno she’d punted was coming at her again along with half a dozen others that realized they couldn’t get to the constantly circling drop ship so a stranded mech would have to do.

“I’ve had enough of this,” Giga said as she leapt as high into the air as her legs could.

Then she arched her back, tucked her legs up into a classic cannonball position, and let her entire weight fall. The xeno on her back popped inside that armor like a melon. The tentacles loosened as they turned to sludge and Giga rolled twenty meters to her right before coming up in a crouch.

Instinctively, Giga reached back for her KYAG, but it wasn’t in its clamps. It was halfway across the drop zone, having been knocked from her hands as the fight started. So, she improvised.

Giga stood and sprinted to the tree line, the xenos rolling after her like psychotic armadillos on her heels. When she reached the trees, she grabbed the closest one that her right hand could wrap around and yanked it right out of the ground. She knew she didn’t have time to attack so she jumped as the first xeno nailed her square in the back, letting the momentum throw her into the trees.

Her left arm hooked around the largest of the trees she impacted with and she swung herself about the trunk, her legs slamming into the other trees to stop her momentum. Giga stuck the uprooted tree out and used it like a lance, deflecting one xeno and actually spearing another. It screeched and popped at the same time.

Giga bunched her legs up then kicked as hard as she could against a tree behind her, bending it towards the ground as a third xeno threw itself at her. Then she twisted to the side, let her legs go, and watched as the tree snapped back into place, the flying xeno wrapping itself around the trunk like a drunk crashing a land roller.

That was about all she could manage as the remaining xenos closed on her. Between the standing trees, the fallen trees, the piles of armor, and the warped xeno that was struggling to get free from the tree behind her, Giga was pinned down.

Then the drop ship landed and Schroeder’s SpecCom squad unloaded. Most of them had rifles up and firing, but a few in front had spreaders instead. Spreaders were used specifically to extract soldiers from their battle armor when they were too wounded to get it off themselves.

“Get their attention, people!” Schroeder roared. “I want them to engage us, not the downed mech!”

“Hooyah!” the SpecCom soldiers shouted as they charged the xenos.

Laser fire was flying this way and that as the battle armor deflected most of the blasts. Some got through and a couple of the xenos fell, the soldiers with spreaders leaping onto them so they could rip that armor wide open and toss a couple of concussion grenades down inside. The soldiers jumped off, rolled away, and covered their heads as xeno exploded everywhere, along with some seriously dangerous shrapnel from the battle armor.

“Are we good?” Schroeder shouted.

“Good, Sarge!” the soldiers replied, the ones with the spreaders getting back to their feet to concentrate on the next xeno.

Giga pulled herself from the tree line and grabbed a xeno by the tentacles just as it was going to whip them down on four soldiers firing on a different xeno. The thing twisted around and two more tentacles shot out, slamming against the view shield of Giga’s cockpit.

“Nice try,” Giga said and spread her arms wide, pulling the tentacles until they snapped off.

The xeno screeched and went limp. Before it could go full gunk, Giga threw it into another xeno, knocking that one off its attack as it raced towards Schroeder who was laying down cover fire for the spreader soldiers. Schroeder glanced back over her shoulder and gave Giga a nod. Giga replied with a giant thumbs up.

Then her right hip servo shorted out and she toppled over onto her side.

“Shit!” she cried as her entire right leg seized up just as a xeno was coming at her.

She reached out and snagged a fallen tree then swung it as hard as she could, nailing the xeno dead on. It went rolling back right into the drop ship, hitting it so hard that it rocked the ship almost up onto its side.

But that didn’t stop the xeno. It regrouped and came rolling at Giga once more.

Giga held her makeshift bat and counted off in her head, ready to time the strike perfectly.

Then the hole in the ground burst apart as two dozen more armored xenos came rushing up from below.

“No way,” Giga gasped. “Schroeder!”

“I see them!” Schroeder cried. “Full retreat! Everyone back on the drop ship!”

The xeno reached Giga and easily dodged the distracted swing of the tree she sent at it. Then it was all over her, tentacles pounding and searching, simultaneously trying to break her and breach her.

The drop zone erupted into a mass of explosions and the new attackers rolled to a stop as the ground in front of them became an inferno.

“We’ll cover you!” a voice called over the comms.

Giga couldn’t tell which drop ship pilot it was, but she didn’t really care either. She had a xeno to deal with.

“Giga!” Schroeder shouted.

“Get those soldiers out of here!” Giga yelled. “I got this!”

She didn’t have it as one of the tentacles managed to work its way between some of her armor plating and started to twist and warp the panel away from the mech’s main structure. This was why she and Shock made such a good team. She was the sniper, and he was the hand-to-hand guy. She absolutely hated grappling like the way she was.

“So, let’s not grapple,” Giga said as she popped her hatch open, let her cradle come loose, grabbed the human-sized rifle from inside her cockpit, jammed the barrel between a gap in the xeno’s armor, and fired until the rifle warned it was going to overheat.

It was overkill, literally as the xeno’s gunk began to spew inside the cockpit, but it made Giga feel better, at least.

“We’re coming down for you!” Schroeder yelled as the drop ship appeared above her.

Giga dropped the rifle, closed the hatch, and re-engaged with the cradle. It was a bit of a shock to her system, but she gritted through the discomfort as she was immersed back into the mech and reached up with her right hand. The drop ship was right above her and she clamped her fingers around the hold bar on the belly of the ship, letting it lift her up off the ground just as half the new xenos came rolling at her position.

The second drop ship laid down some more explosives then banked and was gone.

“I’m not going to be able to hold on long,” Giga admitted as the drop ship she was gripping got them out of that nightmare drop zone.

“No worries,” Schroeder said. “The cavalry has a mechanic on board. As soon as we can find a safe place to land, she’ll fix you up.”

“She? Hawker came with?” Giga asked.

“No, some rookie named Rots,” Schroeder said.

“Rookie? Son of a butch.”

***

There was more than one reason battle armor could filter bodily waste. It wasn’t simply because soldiers couldn’t be bothered with stopping to pee on the battlefield. It was also because sometimes, more times than most admitted to anyone, the pee was scared right out of them.

That was the case when Shock slowly came around a bend in the tunnel and suddenly faced something he had a very hard time comprehending.

“City? City. City?” he mumbled. “Oh…shit. City.”

There it was. The civilization that the Jethro couldn’t find on the surface. For as far as Shock could see, and it stretched for kilometers, there was a massive underground city that teemed with xeno life.

Seeing an alien city was not the hard part for Shock’s brain. A city was to be expected. Nor was the vastness of the city what seemed so overwhelming. It was the fact that the city was built everywhere. Ground, ceiling, sides. It encompassed every square meter of space that was available in the massive cavern.

Shock’s guess? Six to eight Jethro’s could fit within the space and maybe still have room for the Dorso or even two Dorsos. The immensity of it all was mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling.

Then reality slowly crept into Shock’s consciousness and the mech pilot in him started crunching the numbers.

The xeno city didn’t mean a damn thing. It was the amount of xenos that occupied the city. There had to be millions. At least.

And that may not have been the only city.

But, that wasn’t the bad part. His helmet locked onto a signal and he zoomed in the display.

The escape pod. It sat down in the city, xenos swarming over it.

At that second, Shock realized that he was no longer trying to get to the surface simply for his survival, but for the survival of every single human that had landed on Hrouska. Even if the Jethro landed, which technically it could do once it was repaired, it wouldn’t matter. The xenos had numbers that eclipsed a quarter of the UEC’s fleet.

Shock slowly, very slowly, backed away and retreated into the tunnel once more. There had been branches. He had to take one of those and pray he found a way up top.

Otherwise, he and everyone that had landed from the Jethro would be dead.

12.

The drop ship circled the third drop zone several times, taking as many readings as possible, before Chomps gave the order to land, jumping from the ship as it was still several meters above the ground. Chomps landed in a crouch then slowly stood as she pulled her KYAG from the clamps on her back.

She turned in a slow circle, assessing the area and the situation. The third drop zone was considerably more sparse than the last two. There were plenty of trees, but they stood in clusters, small groves here and there that dotted a wide grassland.

“No jungle,” Chomps said.

“The planet isn’t a total mono-biome,” Norris replied over the comms, his SpecCom soldiers filling the drop ship that was slowly landing a few meters from where Chomps stood. “There’s desert too.”

“Reminds me of the plains in Africa,” Chomps said.

“Jeez, Chomps,” Norris said, laughing nervously. “No need to bring that mess up. Let’s not spook the troops, okay?”

“Sorry,” Chomps said. “My grandfather showed me pictures of what it used to be like a couple centuries ago. Total quagmire now, of course. This area just reminded me of those pictures.”

“You seeing anything we aren’t?” Norris asked as the drop ship touched down. The rear ramp opened and soldiers began rushing out to get set into their ordered positions. “Scanners are clear on my end.”

Norris walked down the ramp, his rifle in one hand and up to his shoulder, a tablet in his other hand.

“I’m doubling up on scans,” Norris said, turning in a slow circle. “No way I’m going to trust my suit’s scanners alone.”

“Good call,” Chomps said and began to walk about the destroyed drop zone. No drop ship anywhere in sight. Plenty of human-shaped scorch marks. “No bodies. Nothing. Not even scraps of weapons or armor.”

“I’m seeing that,” Norris said then tucked his tablet to his belt and pointed at the closest cluster of trees. “Skell! Take your squad and clear that grove. Too many shadows in those trees for my taste.”

“Yes, Sarge!” a soldier replied and took off at a fast jog, three soldiers following close on his heels.

“Barker? You hit that grove and Vasquez, you hit that one. Stay on comms and report in the second you reach the trees. I do not want any surprises.”

“Yes, Sarge!”

“I think this whole planet is one big surprise,” Chomps said. “Bad feeling creeping in my gut.”

“You got that too?” Norris asked. “Great. I thought it was the circles I ate this morning.”

“Probably is,” Chomps said. “Those were nasty circles.”

The distant sound of thunder rumbled across the landscape.

“Any intel on the weather in this region?” Chomps asked.

“Not that I can bring up,” Norris replied. “The Dorso didn’t have much of a chance to get into long-term climate research. Stands to reason there’d be thunderstorms, though.”

“Yeah…”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

The thunder rumbled again, but closer that time.

“Where’s the lightning?” Chomps asked. “I didn’t see a flash. I’m not picking up any static electricity in the air. There are clouds, but long-range scans aren’t showing a cold front and warm front colliding, let alone any thunderheads.”

“Okay, now that feeling in my gut is getting worse,” Norris said. “Yours?”

“Like first-day cramps,” Chomps said.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Norris replied and laughed. The laugh died away as another rumble rolled their way. “Uh…did you feel that?”

“Chomps…me…can you…xenos…”

“What was that?” Chomps replied to the garbled comms message. “Giga? Come in. I didn’t catch that.”

“Problem with the comms,” Norris said, tapping the side of his helmet. “I can’t reach anyone. Not the LZ, not the Jethro.”

“Gut feeling is now third-day cramps after eating triangle nachos for a week,” Chomps said. “Call your people back, Norris. We need to get out of here.”

“Retreat? Not sure that’s warranted yet,” Norris said. One more rumble and the ground visibly shook. “I take that back. All squads on me! We are bugging out before shit hits fan!”

The drop ship had never powered down and the engines began to glow hot as the pilot prepped for liftoff. Chomps hurried over to the ship and climbed up on top, turning in a tight circle to cover the entire area. She stopped when she was facing the northeast, an area that had the widest expanse of grass with barely any clusters of trees.

“Norris. Move faster,” Chomps said as she kicked her mech’s feet into recessed holds on the drop ship. “We have incoming.”

“Talk to me, Chomps,” Norris said, moving around the drop ship so he could get a better view.

“I don’t think I need to,” Chomps said as the grasslands ahead of them began to churn and roll like waves made of earth. “You ever see anything like that before?”

“Only in my nightmares,” Norris replied. “We are lifting off in ten seconds, people!”

Various replies came over the comms, the local connection working just fine. Until it wasn’t. A high-pitched whine sent everyone scrambling to shut off their comms before going deaf.

Norris climbed up next to Chomps and opened his helmet.

“You hear me?” he shouted.

“I hear you,” Chomps replied over her loudspeaker. “They are jamming us. That message we couldn’t hear from Giga was a warning. I have a feeling that all the drop zones are under attack right now.”

“We are good to go!” a soldier shouted from the rear of the drop ship. “Sarge!”

“You staying up here?” Norris asked Chomps.

“Yeah,” Chomps said. “My feet are locked in. Tell the pilot that not even barrel rolls will shake me off, so don’t hesitate to get weird once we’re in the air.”

“You’ll do shit for the aerodynamics,” Norris said as he scrambled back down off the drop ship and ran to the rear ramp.

“True,” Chomps said as she crouched as low as she could while also keeping her feet clamped in the holds.

The drop ship lifted off and the ground around it exploded into a geyser of dirt and grass. Chomps leaned over the side of the ship and opened fire on the hundreds of xenos that came pouring up out of the earth.

They fired back.

“Shit!” Chomps cried. “Drop ordinance! Drop whatever we have! The sons of bitches are firing carbines at us!”

No one responded. The comms were dead. Chomps swore and swore as she continued to fire.

The drop ship shuddered under the impacts of the hundreds of explosive rounds that peppered its belly. Chomps took out three, four, a dozen xenos, but that was only a drop in the alien bucket. There were too many for her to do much good.

She flattened herself out on top of the drop ship and smacked the hull three times. The pilot got the message and accelerated, sending the ship roaring up into the air and out across the grasslands, leaving the waves of xenos far behind.

Until they hit the next wave that was coming at them on the horizon.

The sky was filled with not only explosive rounds, but streams of plasma fire.

“Are you kidding me?” Chomps gasped. “They adapted the carbines and activated the plasma charges? How the hell can they do that?”

The air around the drop ship was nothing but a thousand explosions and streams of plasma energy. The ship shook and shuddered under the onslaught, but it was designed to take a hell of a beating and refused to fall.

Chomps unloaded everything she had, sending laser blasts down at the waves of xenos that rolled and slithered and rushed about a couple hundred meters below. Her KYAG powered down about the same time as a loud crunch then clanging noise came from the drop ship’s engines.

“Dammit,” Chomps said as she undid her feet clamps, held tight with one fist on a handhold, and turned her mech slowly around so she could crawl to the rear of the ship and see what had happened.

She wasn’t even to the edge when three xenos crawled up over the rear of the ship and came at her.

The first one caught a mech fist straight down its throat, and Chomps did not hesitate to mangle the xeno’s insides, turning it to a flopping shell of gunk in half a second. She shoved the deflated xeno at the others, but they dodged it and came on strong.

The second xeno managed to wrap its tentacles around her cockpit, but that was a mistake. Chomps grabbed two handholds and scrunched her legs under her then pushed up, flipping her head over heels and onto her back. The xeno was crushed and pulp spewed everywhere.

The third xeno wasn’t so easy. It held a carbine, which looked like a tiny toy clutched in its huge tentacle, and jammed the weapon against Chomp’s cockpit. It opened fire, cracking the hatch in several places as the explosive rounds detonated at close range.

Chomps roared as she watched the cockpit hatch turn into a mangled mess of shattered plastiglass and warped metal.

“That’s how it’s gonna be?” Chomps yelled as she let go of the handholds and wrapped her arms around the xeno. “How’s this for ya, asshole?”

She squeezed and squeezed, tightening her arms, driving all of her mech’s power into the servos and couplings that controlled the joints. With each squeeze, she locked down the arms’ positions, ratcheting them into place so they couldn’t be undone.

The xeno exploded everywhere, including inside the cockpit. Chomps watched the gunk coat the cradle and sneered.

“Screw you, bitch,” she snarled.

Then the drop ship took a few more hits, and she suddenly found herself tumbling off the top and falling to an area where the grasslands ended and a thick forest began. It was a long fall, but it was over fast. The mech landed cockpit side down and everything went dark.

***

“Boss?” Stegson said. “We’ve got activity on the surface like nothing I’ve seen before.”

“None of us have seen this shit, Stegson,” Parveet replied.

“Multiple locations are showing hundreds of xenos coming up from out of the ground,” Stegson said.

“She’s right,” Wan said. “Not just the drop zones, but everywhere across the planet. They were waiting, Boss.”

“I’m guessing that,” Parveet said. “What are the reports?”

No one replied.

“Wan? What are you hearing from SpecCom? You can’t tell me Schroeder doesn’t have a very vocal and profane opinion on this,” Parveet said.

“I can’t reach Sergeant Schroeder, Boss,” Wan said. “I can’t reach any of them.”

“The mechs? Chomps should have called in,” Parveet said.

“The comms are down,” Wan said. “They appear to be jammed, Boss.”

“Jammed? The xenos have tech that can jam us?”

“Apparently so,” Wan said. “I’m trying to reroute the channels and cut through the signal, but it’s a wide spectrum assault. Either the xenos’ tech is so basic that it can only jam everything, or they know our system and have targeted our comms specifically.”

“The latter,” Parveet said.

“Boss?”

“The damned things found the escape pod,” Parveet said. “They ate the engineers. They know how to jam our comms.”

She stood up and rubbed her hands together.

“Okay, folks, we have finally met a sentient race that is going to give us a run for our money,” she announced. “I want any and all solutions to this problem.” She held up a finger before Stegson could respond. “That doesn’t include nuking the planet. Hrouska is too valuable. We nuke it and it’s off the board of habitable possibilities. I need solutions where we take this rock the old-fashioned way, by kicking ass one meter at a time.”

“That’s a lot of meters, Boss,” Stegson said.

“We kick a lot of ass,” Parveet said. “Time for Jethro to get to work. Real work.”

Part Three

Mech Corps

1.

“We do not give ground!” Morisaki screamed as he emptied a rifle into an attacking xeno, obliterating it before tossing the rifle aside and picking up a fresh one. “This is our LZ!”

Row upon row of soldiers stood, took knees, lay on the ground, all encircling the LZ, keeping the oncoming xenos at bay. Or as close to at bay as any massive throng of attackers the size and scope of the xenos could be held to.

Support crew ran in all directions, dropping ammo crates, setting up power cables, keeping generators from overheating and shutting down which would kill power to the energy fences that were the main reason the LZ hadn’t been completely overrun.

“Watch our eight! Stubbins! Clear the four! THE FOUR! Halbert! Push forward and close that gap! You got this! We will not yield our LZ! This is the Jethro’s LZ!”

A cry came up as a section of the energy fence began to spark and flicker. Xenos moved through, albeit not without serious injury to themselves.

“They are going to overload that fence!” Morisaki shouted. “I need a tech on that!”

“I…uh…I got it, sir,” Rots yelled as she whistled to a couple of crawlers and ran towards the sparking section of energy fence.

Soldiers were dropping xenos fast, but the area would be overrun in less than a minute if the fence didn’t go back up.

“I got ya,” Gore said as he picked Rots up off the ground, leapt over three squads of soldiers, and landed directly in the path of the oncoming xenos.

He set Rots down next to the fence pole that was causing all the trouble then sent fists flying into the xenos, pulverizing half a dozen before Rots even had a single tool off her belt. A xeno leapt at the mechanic, but Gore plucked the alien right out of the air and smashed it into the dirt. Black gunk sprayed everywhere, and Rots had to wipe it from her eyes with the back of her hand in order to get to work.

“How much time do you need?” Gore asked without slowing his attack. He punched, he kicked, he stomped, sending xeno after xeno after xeno to their deaths. “I mean, I can do this all day, but there’re other parts of the LZ that need my help.”

“Give me two minutes,” Rots shouted. “That’s all I need.”

“Two minutes it is,” Gore replied.

Four xenos sprang up at his cockpit. If they’d been the really big ones they would have taken the mech down, but they were small enough that Gore was able to pluck two off, slam them together into xeno paste then grab a third and throw it at least a kilometer up and over the jungle. The fourth hung on with all its strength.

“That how it’s gonna be?” Gore said and punched himself, crushing the xeno against the cockpit.

He shook his mech, sending even more gunk to splatter the area then brought up his fists as a dozen more xenos began to charge the breach in the energy fence.

They were fried on contact as the fence came back to life in that section, their alien bodies turning to charcoal and ash to be blown away on the wind.

Wind caused by an incoming drop ship.

“We are twelve kinds of screwed, Gore!” Giga yelled as she fell from the sky, landing next to him as the drop ship landed by the others and soldiers began to pour from the hold to join in the fight. “I just circled the area and this LZ is surrounded in a sea of xenos, man!”

“Are they touching?” Rots asked.

The two mechs tilted and looked down at the little mechanic.

“I’m sorry, what?” Giga asked.

“This is Rots,” Gore said. “She made those.”

He pointed at the crawlers that were scurrying around, offering the mechanic tools she did not need at that moment.

“I know who she is,” Giga said. “She fixed my mech out there before we got back here. What did you mean by touching, Rots?”

“Hold on,” Rots said, “I have an idea.”

“Does this idea kill lots of goddamn xenos?” Giga asked. She flipped off the aliens with her mech’s middle fingers as about eight sprang at the energy fence and were turned to briquettes. “Because right now, unless the next words out of your mouth contribute to killing lots of xenos, I don’t want to hear it.”

Screams came from the opposite end of the LZ.

“Another breach!” Morisaki roared. “Mechanic!”

“Idea later,” Gore said and picked Rots back up. “Fix fence first.”

Another set of screams from a different area went up and several lines of soldiers were thrown into the air like bowling pins.

“I have that side,” Giga said. “Magazines?”

“There,” Rots said and pointed to a row of crates.

Giga yanked her KYAG from her back. “Thanks.”

Gore took off running towards the other breach while Giga grabbed one of the crates and dragged it towards the fallen, and still falling, lines of soldiers.

She took up a position behind them and opened fire, laying down laser blast after laser blast into the oncoming hordes of xenos. The aliens were shredded, torn into a hundred pieces by the deadly light beams, but they kept on coming.

“Gore!” Giga yelled. “Talk to me!”

“The rookie is fixing the fence here, but she better hurry!” Gore replied. “How are you?”

“We won’t be able to keep them out for long!” Giga shouted.

“Glad to know the comms aren’t jammed at the LZ!” a voice shouted.

Giga didn’t need to glance up to know that Roar had arrived.

“Tell me you have Wall with you!” Giga said.

“Here,” Wall replied. “Hawker too.”

“I cannot believe you have a rookie fixing the fence!” Hawker barked. “What the bloody hell was Morisaki thinking?”

The drop ship circled and landed with the others. Halva’s team exited and immediately ran to the fence to back up the other soldiers while the two mechs disengaged from on top and ran towards Giga.

“Go help Gore, Wall,” Giga said. “Roar can help me.”

“Copy that,” Wall said and pulled his KYAG from his back. He was firing before he took more than a couple of steps.

“How’s this part look?” Hawker asked as she sprinted over to Giga and Roar and the lines of soldiers desperately keeping the xenos from taking the LZ. “Dammit. It’s weak as shit. Cover me.”

“Cover you?” Roar said.

“I got it,” Giga said and picked up Hawker with one hand while still firing her KYAG with the other.

She walked the mechanic over to the fence, set her down, and strafed the area with enough laser blasts to set the sun on fire.

“Stupid set up,” Hawker said and began to tinker with one of the poles. “Directional couplers aren’t lined up at all. Gonna have to have some words with McDorn about who he assigned to power this damn fence.”

“I assigned them,” Morisaki said over the comms. “Welcome back, Hawker.”

“Assign better,” Hawker said as she stood up and kicked the pole.

It lit up and the energy fence doubled in strength immediately. The xenos in the process of trying to make it collapse became nothing but crispy critters. Waves of xenos pressed in to take their place and were doomed to the same fate. Hawker stood with her hands on her hips, only a meter inside the fence, and didn’t flinch as the xenos kept coming until there was a pile of ash and charcoal that stood two meters high ringing the entire LZ.

Then the xenos began to back off. The ones with carbines kept firing, but the fence took the force of the explosive rounds without issue.

“Alright, where’s Rots?” Hawker asked and walked away from the fence.

“She makes it look so easy,” Roar said. “Any word on Chomps?”

“No,” Giga said. “We thought maybe we got through to her at one point, but then the comms went out.”

“How did you get the local ones to work?” Roar asked. “We were completely jammed out there.”

“No clue,” Giga said. “I think it was the rookie.”

“Busy rookie,” Roar said.

“No shit,” Giga replied then glanced towards the top of the tree line. “Incoming!”

She brought up her KYAG and so did Roar, but they lowered them both fast as the last drop ship came in wobbling and barely landed without taking out a couple of the others. The rear ramp fell to the ground with a thud and Norris came dragging out with his team.

“Chomps?” Giga asked, clomping over to the sergeant.

“I don’t know,” he said. “She was holding on for a while then fell off as we flew over a forest.”

He looked up at Giga then glanced at Roar.

“Where’s Morisaki?”

“By the command module, I think,” Giga said. “We just got the LZ locked down.”

“Good,” Norris said. “We’re going to need every hand on deck to make sure it stays locked down. You have no idea what’s coming this way.”

He walked off, leaving Giga and Roar to stand there and watch the rest of his team stagger their way to the medical tents and supply huts.

“Jesus,” Roar said. “If it’s worse than this, I’m not sure I want to know.”

***

Shock felt like vomiting. Not a good idea when one’s helmet was sealed, but the feeling refused to go away as he ran through what seemed like an endless network of tunnels.

He’d taken branch after branch, hoping the compass in his display was correct and not being effected by something within the ground. If it was correct, then he should have been heading towards the LZ. If it wasn’t correct, then he could have been running for nothing which only made him want to vomit more.

After another ten minutes, he stumbled and fell to his knees.

“Okay, okay, stop it,” he muttered. “You’ll kill yourself.”

A vibration in the floor told him he had to get up and find cover fast. It was an effort borne of pure willpower to get to his feet, stagger a few meters until he reached a crack in the tunnel wall big enough for him to fit in, then duck inside that crack just as a wave of xenos streamed through the tunnel, carbine-armed tentacles waving in the air.

Not the first time he’d had to do the duck-and-hide routine. Since fleeing the underground city, he’d dodged being detected by more waves of xenos than he could count. Thousands upon thousands were heading in every direction. It didn’t matter what branch he took, eventually he was jamming himself into a crack to keep from being found.

Just one more factor added to the long list of reasons to puke.

He counted to thirty and crept slowly from the crack, kneeling so he could feel the ground. No vibrations. The wave was far enough ahead, and no new one was coming, that Shock felt safe to proceed. Or as safe as he could feel under the circumstances.

After what had to be another kilometer of hiking, Shock came to yet one more branch. Except one of the branches had a slight incline to it. He almost rejected that branch since his first thought was that was exactly the way the wave of xenos went, but as he inspected the dirt, he could easily see they proceeded to the right. The ground to the left wasn’t disturbed at all.

Shock debated for about three seconds then took the branch and started to climb.

After ten meters the tunnel narrowed and it was obvious it was not a route used often. Roots hung down from the ceiling and bulged from the walls. A trickle of water cut a line down the center of the tunnel and the muck around it showed zero signs of having been disturbed. Shock doubted that even a single xeno had come that way in years, maybe even longer.

He kept moving, the tunnel narrowing further until he was almost beginning to hunch over. With his head ducked low, Shock found himself faced with a curtain of heavy vines. Very heavy vines.

He tried pushing them to the side to get through, but they were tangled and woven together so much that he could barely manage to get a gloved hand through a gap. Shock pulled a utility knife from his belt and began to hack away at the vines.

Fifteen minutes later and he had made some progress, but not much. He plopped down on his ass to rest, feeling no reason not to. He was boxed in. If xenos showed up, it didn’t matter if he was standing or sitting; there was nowhere for him to go. And it wasn’t like he could do much with a utility knife.

His head snapped forward and he gasped as he scrambled to his feet. He’d fallen asleep. A quick check of his helmet display said he was only out for about ten minutes.

“Jesus Christ,” he snapped. “Idiot. You can’t waste time like that.”

His self-admonishment made him think of Giga giving him shit and he smiled.

“Okay, no more breaks,” he said and began hacking at the vines once more.

Another fifteen minutes later and he was squeezing through a gap that threatened to shear off his battle armor. But he made it through and fell to his hands and knees on the other side. No time to congratulate himself. The only reward he got was to open his helmet and breathe some fresh air for a few seconds before sealing the faceplate again. Better safe than sorry. Shock got to his feet and held out the utility knife as he turned in a circle.

Vine-covered tunnel opening behind him, fairly dense forest everywhere else.

Different than the jungle they’d landed in. The trees were much taller and looked coniferous with long, skinny needles that fluttered in the slight breeze that drifted through the trees.

Shock consulted his helmet. Off to the right was the direction for the LZ except he had no idea how far away it was. The fact he was in an obviously different biome was not giving him much confidence he was going to see his people anytime soon. But it was a strange planet, so maybe he was only a hike across some foothills away.

That’s what he told himself as he started walking once again.

2.

Servos protested, but Chomps managed to get her arms under her and push up to a kneeling position. Her cockpit hatch was more a suggestion than a reality, and she stared out through the mangled frame at the grasslands beyond. No signs of the waves of xenos. They either didn’t see where she fell or didn’t care.

Chomps would have placed a bet on the latter.

With the dense forest behind her, she doubted the xenos were going to try pushing through the woods when they could make better time by going around. Or they went back underground and travelled via whatever subterranean highways they had down there.

Part of her actually considered finding an opening and taking a look. Not like it was any more dangerous than where she was at that moment. It had quickly become evident that the entire planet was a deathtrap. Yes, the Dorso should not have been sent to Hrouska first, but it wasn’t like the Jethro was fairing much better.

Chomps came to her senses, and instead of looking for a tunnel entrance, she got to her feet and turned to face the forest. Tall trees, heavy with long needles that tinkled in the breeze coming off the grasslands. They actually tinkled like tiny ornaments on a holiday spruce or fir back on Earth.

Before taking the plunge into the gloom of the forest, Chomps ran diagnostics on her mech. Her arm joints were damaged, but still useable. Legs were fine and the rest of her structure seemed sound. Except for the cockpit hatch, of course.

She redirected power to her arms and stretched them out again and again, assessing what damage was where. Left elbow was stiff and showed signs of freezing up if put under too much pressure. Right shoulder was at ninety-percent range of motion while left shoulder was at one hundred percent. Left wrist was good, right wrist was good, but the right arm’s upper main pistons kept sticking and Chomps knew that wasn’t going to get better.

She checked power levels and was pleasantly surprised to see her cells were at seventy-five percent. She brought up her display, which she rerouted and projected against the part of the cradle next to her head instead of the cockpit hatch. All she had to do was glance left and she could see all the readings she needed.

Her location showed her as over one hundred kilometers from the LZ. Comms were still shot. And she had zero armaments. No KYAG anywhere. She opened the panel on her thigh and pulled out a shock wand, but it wasn’t much good to her if she faced even a fraction of the numbers of xenos she’d just witnessed. She put the wand back.

“Time to walk,” she said and found a gap between the trees large enough for her to get the mech through.

That was the trick. Getting her huge machine between the trees. It was a dense forest. Not as dense as the jungle by the LZ, but the trees were much thicker and much stronger. The jungle had trees she could shove to the side. The trees she now navigated around weren’t so giving.

Chomps felt like she spent half her time backtracking to find different routes when faced with a wall of trees that no matter how much she pushed against them absolutely refused to bend or break. But, she persevered and didn’t stop trying. Her patience was rewarded after about ten more kilometers of hiking. The density began to lessen and openings within the stands of trees grew wider and wider.

The clearings were still well within the forest. Not meadows, but simply areas where the ground was coated in a thick carpet of needles and the trees surrounding towered overhead, blocking a good amount of light from even reaching the forest floor.

Chomps was not thrilled that she was only reaching that part of the forest after checking her display to see she’d been hiking for a good thirty kilometers. If the forest was anything even approximating an Earth forest, that meant it was massive. She guessed she had at least another thirty kilometers to go, if not more. With the slow progress she was making, it would be nightfall before she got even close to the far side.

But, she had no choice except to keep going. Getting back to the LZ was the priority.

***

“Can we give them orbital cover?” Parveet asked. “Talk to me, Stegson.”

“I’ve been calculating, but I’m not sure, Boss,” Stegson replied. “I’d like to think we could, but if we hit the surface too close to the LZ, we’ll generate a micro-EMP and fry their energy defenses. With comms still down, I can’t coordinate with Morisaki on the ground.”

“I’m still working on comms, Boss,” Wan said.

“I know you are,” Parveet said.

“I have Stony and his crew on it,” Wan said. “He’s tasking techs with retrofitting probes to become relays for a new set of channels.”

“How will our people down there know what channels to use?” Parveet asked.

“We’ll have to drop a probe right on them,” Wan said. “That’s the main flaw in the plan. Probes don’t have landing thrusters or gear. It’ll create a bit of a crater when it hits.”

“That’s quite a flaw,” Parveet said. “Overcome it.”

“Already trying,” Wan said.

“Axson? Lucky? Flay? What do you have for me?” Parveet asked.

“We’re debating taking the Jethro down there,” Lucky said.

“No, you are not,” Parveet said. “I don’t want to land this ship on Hrouska, even if Stony gets the engines fixed.”

“No, not land,” Axson said. “Just put it through the atmosphere so we can drop the Dorso on that army of xenos.”

Parveet paused. “Okay, you have my interest. Talk.”

“We aren’t sure it can be done,” Lucky said, holding up a cautious hand. “But the idea is we stay tethered to the Dorso, use it as a heat shield under us as we drop through the atmosphere.”

“It’ll heat the Dorso up like a meteor,” Axson said. “The ship is not designed for planetary landings, and with the state it’s in, it’ll become a red hot bomb of pure metal alloy.”

“Which you want the Jethro to be connected to?” Parveet asked.

“Not for long,” Lucky said. “Flay?”

Flay sighed. “I’ve been running the calculations, and I think I can put us into the right trajectory that will allow the Jethro to detach before we penetrate the stratosphere. Even with compromised engines, we would have enough power to get back up into orbit with minimal damage to the Jethro.”

“Minimal damage? Define,” Parveet said.

“We’d lose engine function again, but it would be repairable,” Flay said. “As long as Axson can keep the Jethro steady and not deviate from the calculations.”

“I can do that,” Axson responded without hesitation. “Not a problem.”

“I know you have the confidence, but what over-under are we looking at?” Parveet asked.

“None,” Flay said. “That’s our main flaw. In order not to drop with the Dorso, or get torn apart as we curve back into orbit, Axson cannot deviate. We’re talking a tenth of a degree. Any more and we might as well set the Jethro down and take off from the surface.”

“Which brings us back to the no part of my end,” Parveet said. “Keep working. I want an over-under. A tenth of a degree is not acceptable.”

“Boss, I’m running the numbers and I can’t find an over-under,” Flay said.

“Then we shelf that plan as a last resort,” Parveet said. “What else do you have for me?”

No one responded.

“Jay?”

Parveet looked over her shoulder at Torn.

“Not now,” Parveet barked.

“You may want to make it now,” Torn said. “A second, please?”

“Not now,” Parveet barked.

“Now,” Torn insisted, refusing to back down.

“Bee, I will have you removed from my bridge and your diplomatic privileges purged from the Jethro’s system,” Parveet warned. “I’d rather my people work on the crisis at hand, but I’ll take the time to kick your ass back to your cabin if I have to.”

“Jay, I can help,” Torn said. “I can bring in reinforcements.”

“You can…what?” Parveet asked, fully turning to face the ambassador. “What the hell are you talking about? Reinforcements? From where? It’d take a week minimum for ships to get to us from SBE.”

“I’m not talking about SBE,” Torn said and stood her ground.

Parveet waited, but Torn didn’t offer any more information.

“Jesus,” Parveet growled. “Lucky? You have the con while I go waste time that I cannot afford to waste talking to the spoiled brat.”

“On it, Boss,” Lucky said.

Parveet got up, stormed past Torn, and out of the bridge. Torn followed close behind.

The passageway outside the bridge had personnel running about so Parveet grabbed Torn by the arm and shoved her into a side room. Techs were going over tablets at a small conference table, but they instantly stood up and vacated the space when they saw the look on Parveet’s face.

Once the room was empty, Parveet faced Torn, a look of pure rage barely contained on her face.

“Talk,” Parveet snarled.

“I need your head to be clear,” Torn said. “I need you to listen with an open mind and truly understand what I am about to tell you.”

“Bee, if you’d like to live through the next few moments, then I advise you cut the shit and get to explaining,” Parveet responded. “Otherwise, you are going to get shot out an airlock.”

“I can get you four warships within two days,” Torn said. “As well as two resupply ships.”

Parveet stared for a long few seconds then shook her head.

“And the shoe drops,” she said then walked to a chair and sat down. She smacked a palm on the table and glared at Torn. “Sit your ass down and tell me everything.”

“You’ve suspected I may be here for more reasons than simple self-preservation,” Torn said as she sat. “I know you have, you said as much. While self-preservation has been my number one priority, it is because of a wider, overall plan that has me hiding here on the Jethro.”

“Yes, I am guessing that,” Parveet said. “No one has access to four warships and two resupply ships without there being a wider, overall plan in place.”

“Quite a few of the families are tired of the lineage laws on Earth,” Torn said. “They have been working behind the scenes to muster resources in order to create their own alliance.”

“Hence the ships,” Parveet said. “Go on.”

“I’m here because we have a connection,” Torn said. “I’m here because in order to do what these families want to do, we need the Jethro. No other ship has the reputation that yours does. With the Jethro behind us, we can take on the UEC.”

“Take on? Take on how? War?” Parveet asked. “That would be stupid, Bee. The UEC has way more firepower and resources than four warships with a resupply backup.”

“I didn’t say the families only have four warships,” Torn said. “I said I could get you four warships to come help you.”

Parveet leaned forward. “Bee? I will only ask this once. You get straight with me or this conversation is over and will never be revisited. What are the resources these families have at their disposal?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you everything,” Torn said. “But, I know you will smell bullshit a kilometer away, so here it is.”

Torn took a deep breath.

“Twenty-six warships, eighteen orbital ships, sixteen resupply ships, and at least fifty smaller vessels,” Torn said. “Not to mention flotillas of barges that are simply holding raw materials for manufacturing.”

“Holy shit,” Parveet said, looking stunned. “Those are some numbers, Bee. How have they kept those hidden?”

“They haven’t,” Torn said. “They are UEC ships where the commanders and crews have been slowly co-opted over the years.”

“You’re talking a coup,” Parveet said.

“No, not at all,” Torn said. “We are talking secession. A complete split from the UEC to create a new political entity.”

“Damn,” Parveet said. “What makes you think that I will join this? I’m not a fan of the UEC; they get in my shit too much, but I’m also not looking to completely destroy everything I’ve built.”

“You, more than anyone I know, should be for this split,” Torn said. “Why do you think your family was wiped out?”

“I know why my…” Parveet paused. “This has been in the works for that long?”

“Longer,” Torn said.

Parveet growled low in her throat and shook her head back and forth.

“You are tearing my mind apart right when I need to be as solid as I can be,” Parveet said. “This isn’t fair, Bee.”

“I know, I know,” Torn said.

“If I agree to go along, which I’m not saying I am yet, what do the families want?” Parveet asked.

“I’m sorry?” Torn replied. “I told you. They want the Jethro. Your reputation alone will scare the rest of the MEUs into either joining us or backing off.”

“I get that,” Parveet said. “I figured that out on my own. With twenty-six warships, I know the firepower of the Jethro isn’t needed. Influence with the other MEU commanders is my cash. But what I’m asking is what do the families want? End game want?”

“Oh, that,” Torn said. “Isn’t it obvious? Why else would four warships be within only a couple of days travel?”

Parveet glared then sighed. Then she laughed.

“Hrouska,” Parveet said.

“Hrouska,” Torn echoed and nodded.

“The first truly viable planet and they want to take it for themselves,” Parveet said.

“No, not for themselves, for everyone,” Torn said. “The family hierarchy will be done away with. We are talking about a true, free system, not a feudal-class system.”

“In theory,” Parveet said and smirked.

“Aren’t all politics only theory?” Torn asked.

“Pretty much,” Parveet said.

“Boss! We could use you back in here!” Wan called over the comms.

“I have to go,” Parveet said and stood up.

“Well?”

Parveet paused then nodded. “Tell those ships to truck ass this way. They prove themselves and don’t show any signs of turning on the Jethro, and I’ll go along with this insanity. Provided everything is above board. No hidden agendas. I smell a rat and my MEU becomes this new faction’s worst nightmare. You can tell them that.”

“I think they already know,” Torn said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be worth what you are.”

Parveet nodded again and left.

3.

The energy fence lit up the area like a strobe light as xeno after xeno launched themselves in a suicidal kamikaze attack to find a weakness in the defenses.

“It’ll hold,” McDorn said, looking like he was one breath away from falling over. “We’ve got every generator running at full and enough energy supply to keep the fences strong for a week.”

“With this kind of attack?” Morisaki asked. “They are relentless.”

“I’ve adjusted for that,” McDorn said. “I’m actually using their kinetic energy against them. It’s like a feedback loop. They attack and what’s repelling them more than the fence is their own force.”

“I’ll have to trust you on that,” Morisaki said. He clapped McDorn on the shoulder. “Get some sleep, Chief. We can’t afford for you to die of exhaustion.”

“Not sure if I can sleep,” McDorn replied.

“That wasn’t a suggestion,” Morisaki said. “That was an order. Get. Some. Sleep.”

“Yeah, okay,” McDorn said.

“Oh, and Chief? If you see Hawker, tell her to do the same,” Morisaki said. “I know that woman is hiding from me so she can keep working.”

“Gonna take care of myself first,” McDorn said and waved the captain off.

Morisaki rolled his eyes and returned to watching the xenos kill themselves against the fence.

“Captain,” Gore said as he walked out of the shadows, two steaming mugs in his hand. “Take one. Tastes horrible, but it’ll keep you awake.”

“Thanks,” Morisaki said and took one of the mugs. “Who’s still in mech?”

“Wall and Giga,” Gore said. “Roar is grabbing some shut eye and will relieve Wall in thirty. I’m gonna order Giga to get some sleep about the same time.”

“How about you?” Morisaki asked, sipping from the mug, grimacing at the taste, then sipping some more. “You need sleep too.”

“I overheard you telling McDorn to go crash,” Gore said and chuckled. “Regular mother hen, aren’t you?”

“I can’t keep my LZ safe if half the personnel are passing out on me,” Morisaki said.

“It’s always about the LZ with you, ain’t it?” Gore replied. “Not judging, just that you are one single-minded SOB.”

“Son of a butch?” Morisaki said, smiling.

“Not you too,” Gore said. “Does everyone know about that?”

“Pretty much, yes,” Morisaki said. “It’s made the rounds.”

“Great,” Gore said and downed half his mug. He nodded at the light show at the fence. “Kind of pretty.”

“You’re a messed-up man, Gore,” Morisaki said, “if you think that’s pretty.”

“Take my pleasures where I can,” Gore said.

They stood in silence for a minute then Morisaki cleared his throat.

“She’ll make it back,” he said.

“I know she will,” Gore replied. “If anyone can, it’s Chomps. She’s not the one I’m worried about.”

“Shock?”

“Yeah,” Gore said. “They left him down there. With all of those xenos. I know he’s a wily SOB–”

“Son of a butch.”

“Ha ha. I know he’s wily, but we’ve all seen the numbers,” Gore continued. “If there are this many up here, who knows how many are below.”

Morisaki couldn’t help himself and looked down at the ground.

“You don’t think?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Gore said. “None of us do. There could be bedrock a dozen meters below or a tunnel large enough for half a million of the bastards, all waiting to come bursting up topside to rip us apart.”

“Helpful,” Morisaki said. “Like I don’t have enough crap to worry about.”

“You asked,” Gore said and downed the rest of his drink. He held out his hand. “I’m going for another. You want one more?”

“No, I’m going to take my own advice and sleep for an hour, if I can,” Morisaki said. “This crap will keep me awake.”

“Which is why I’m drinking it,” Gore said.

“Then you sleep,” Morisaki said. “Shorten the watches if you have to. The xenos act diurnal, so I have a feeling dawn is going to get interesting.”

“By interesting, you mean brutal,” Gore said.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Morisaki said.

“We’ll be ready,” Gore said and walked off into the darkness that was constantly broken by the kamikaze xenos.

***

Shock rested a palm against a tree as his legs threatened to give out on him. Not a new feeling; in fact, he was getting quite used to it, but no matter how much he tried to use willpower over his body, it just wasn’t working. He was about ten steps from total collapse.

At least until he felt the ground shake under him.

“Shit,” he muttered and searched the dark forest for someplace to hide.

There was nowhere to go.

He’d stumbled into a clearing and there were at least four meters between trees. They were huge trees and he could probably hide behind a trunk, but that was hardly a way to hide. And he had no idea where the threat was coming from.

He took several deep breaths, felt like crying at the prospect of what he was about to do, then took off running. He made it ten meters before he skidded to a halt and stopped directly in front of the source of the shaking ground.

“Chomps?” he whispered, looking up at the mangled mech.

“Shock?” Chomps whispered back. “I saw a life sign reading and headed towards it. Man, I am so glad you’re alive.”

“I’m so glad you’re here in a mech,” Shock exclaimed. “You have no idea. I was about to cry run my way through this forest to get away from you. Or whatever I thought you might be.”

“Cry run?” Chomps laughed. “That’s a new one. Come on. Get up here.”

She lowered a hand and Shock basically fell into the open palm. Chomps brought him up to the cockpit and shifted the cradle to the side. Technically, there wasn’t room for two in a mech cockpit, but pilots had learned to make do over the years. Wasn’t the first time a pilot had to be rescued after their mech went down.

Shock wedged himself between the wall of the cockpit and the cradle and sighed with immense relief.

“I wouldn’t be happier if this was a down mattress,” Shock said. “Well, yeah, I’d be happier, but not by much.”

He popped open his faceplate, breathed deeply, and was close to drifting off.

“Shock, hold on,” Chomps said. “Don’t leave me yet. I need to know if I’m going in the right direction.”

“I don’t know,” Shock said.

“You don’t know? How can you not know? Which way were you coming from when you got into this forest?”

“I was coming from below,” Shock replied. That made him wake up. A lot. “Shit. Chomps. There’s a city of xenos down there!”

“A city of xenos?” Chomps replied. “What does that mean?”

“I mean a city,” Shock said. “Buildings, well sort of, and structures and city stuff. And the escape pod.”

“The escaped pod? Shit.”

“Yeah. But the scary part is the numbers. We’re talking thousands and thousands of xenos living underground.”

“That would make sense,” Chomps said.

“How so?”

“We were at the third drop zone when the ground opened up,” Chomps said. “Wave after wave of xenos came at us. We barely got out of there. Or at least I hope Norris and the drop ship got out of there. You can see I didn’t quite make it.”

“Thousands and thousands? They came up out of the ground?” Shock asked, his voice low and wary.

“Yeah. That matches what you said,” Chomps replied.

“No, it doesn’t,” Shock said. “When I mean a city of thousands of xenos, I mean a city. Not an army. The xenos I saw weren’t leaving. I hid from a ton that were leaving, but not the numbers you say came at you.”

“I don’t get it,” Chomps said.

“There’s more than one city,” Shock said. “Just like Earth. I mean, of course there are. Why wouldn’t there be? I was an idiot to think I saw the only goddamn xeno city on the planet. Or under the planet. Whatever.”

“Shit,” Chomps said. “We can’t hold Hrouska. Not against that.”

“Hold it?” Shock said. “Chomps, there is a civilization here. It may be something we don’t understand, but it is a full-on civilization. We were never going to hold this planet.”

“We were sure as hell going to try,” Chomps said.

“No, I mean, and listen, I had a lot of time to think about this down there,” Shock continued. “Way more time than I’d like. We aren’t here to hold a planet. We’re here to take it. From its rightful owners.”

“Shock, that’s always been our mission,” Chomps said. “It sucks for the xenos, but what did you think humanity was doing out in the galaxy? Looking for a planet with a vacancy sign hanging from its moon?”

“Uh…I guess I never thought about it before,” Shock said.

“Welcome to the conquering mentality,” Chomps said. “You’re late to the party, but you made it eventually.”

“And you’re good with this?” Shock asked.

“Good with it? Not really,” Chomps said. “But we don’t have a choice. Earth is a rotating cesspool and humanity can’t live on it much longer. If we want to survive as a species, then we have to make hard choices, do hard jobs, and take what we can or we go extinct.”

“Hard choices like wiping out an entire civilization,” Shock said and sighed.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Chomps said. “From what you are saying, we might be the ones wiped out if we don’t make it back to the LZ to warn everyone and retreat to the Jethro.”

“Then what?” Shock said. “Nuke the planet?”

“No. That’d waste a good planet,” Chomps said. “We report to SBE, they report to the UEC, and we let the politicians decide how to handle it.”

“If we’re talking numbers like I think we are, then it doesn’t matter, Chomps,” Shock said. “We don’t have the troops needed to take this planet without ripping it apart. Then it’s no better than Earth.”

“That’s not our call, Shock,” Chomps said.

“Fine. Whatever,” Shock said. “I’m getting some sleep. Wake me when you need me to take over. I can work your mech as well as I can work mine.”

“Sounds good,” Chomps said. “Rest. We’ll figure out a plan in the morning.”

“A plan other than keep walking and walking and walking until we run into a horde of xenos or the LZ?” Shock asked and yawned. “Can’t wait to see what we come up with.”

***

“So, we have finally figured out what that blip was and what those anomalous readings were when we reached Hrouska,” Lucky said.

“Lucky, I’m exhausted, so tell me straight,” Parveet said.

“Okay. They’re centers of activity,” Lucky said. “Possibly cities.”

“Possibly cities?” Parveet asked. ‘What does that mean? How are they possibly cities? Either they are or they aren’t.”

“They’re underground, Boss,” Wan said. “It’s why we couldn’t get consistent readings. There’s a density of life every couple hundred kilometers.”

“Every couple hundred kilometers? You mean across the planet?” Parveet asked, her exhaustion ebbing at the revelation. “What kind of density of life? Can you give me numbers?”

“Not conclusive numbers, no,” Lucky said. “But, based on scan readings of the xenos on the surface compared to the density we’re reading in the centers of activity…”

“Estimated total of thirty to forty million,” Stegson said. “You guys gotta learn to spit it out.”

“That sounds right,” Wan said.

“Not exactly numbers we want to hear,” Lucky said.

“Thirty to forty million,” Parveet mused. “And we have how many soldiers down there?”

“Currently we have close to two hundred, Boss,” Lucky said. “And six mechs.”

“Six mechs,” Parveet echoed and laughed.

“They’re good mechs,” Lucky said.

The bridge went quiet then everyone burst out laughing. It was that raucous, punch drunk laughter that only the truly fatigued can manage.

“Okay, okay, shut the hell up,” Parveet said, wiping at her eyes. “This is not even close to funny.”

She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair as the bridge crew got themselves under control.

“Ambassador Torn?” Parveet called. She waited then called again. “Ambassador Torn!”

“Huh? Wha?” Torn’s sleepy voice replied over the comms. “Jay? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“Calm down, Ambassador,” Parveet said. “I haven’t informed my bridge crew yet that we have reinforcements on the way. I wanted to think the situation through first. But, circumstances have pressed my hand here. How many soldiers are onboard each warship?”

“How many soldiers?”

“That was the question,” Parveet said. “How many can we expect to join us here at good ol’ Hrouska?”

“I, uh, let me think,” Torn said.

“No time to think,” Parveet said. “Give me a number now.”

“I believe, if what I’ve been told is true, that each warship carries thirty thousand soldiers,” Torn said.

That made Parveet sit up straight. The conversation was only privy to her, but the bridge crew heard her side and saw her reaction.

“Boss?” Lucky asked. Parveet held up a hand. “Right.”

“Thirty thousand soldiers per warship? And we have four warships coming?” Parveet asked, locking eyes with Lucky. “Heavy armor? Artillery?”

“I’ll have to consult my files,” Torn said.

“Do that,” Parveet snapped.

“Hey,” Torn replied. “I’m just waking up. Give me a minute… Yes. Thirty thousand soldiers. Ten thousand with heavy armor. A single artillery battalion per warship.”

“I do not want to know how the hell the families managed to work all that, but I’m glad they did,” Parveet said. “Can you get them a message?”

“I’m due to report in the morning,” Torn said.

“Bee, you aren’t going back to sleep,” Parveet said. “We have close to thirty to forty million xenos down there on Hrouska. I think you will want to report now so that message reaches them by the morning.”

“How many?” Torn asked, her voice small.

“You heard me,” Parveet said. “The numbers being sent our way aren’t enough to handle the numbers down on Hrouska. But they sure as shit are pretty goddam impressive. I’m going to figure out what we can do with one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers plus four artillery battalions. I can work with that.”

“Jay, once they arrive, you won’t be in charge,” Torn said. “I assumed you knew that.”

“Yeah. We’ll see,” Parveet said and killed the comms. She met the gaze of every single person that was busy staring at her, and they were all staring at her. “Alright. Here’s what’s happening and how it affects me and mine.”

4.

“We have it figured out, Boss,” Lucky said.

Parveet jolted awake and stared at the plans that were up on the view shield display.

“Talk to me,” she said, instantly alert.

“We can get a single probe to the LZ without hurting anyone or the tech,” Lucky said. “Stony says he has some weird new tech that one of the rookie mechanics made that can act as landing gear and also fire thrusters to minimize impact.”

“We’re trusting a rookie mechanic?” Parveet asked.

“Not sure what choice we have, Boss,” Lucky said.

“Okay. We drop a probe. Then what?” Parveet asked.

“Then we tell the LZ personnel to hunker down and put their heads between their legs,” Axson said.

“Not helpful,” Lucky said and sighed. “It’s going to be close, but we can use the Dorso like we want and cut that army into a tenth of what it is.”

“That’s still a lot of xenos,” Parveet said.

“Boss, we’re looking at hundreds of thousands right now,” Wan said. “We can get that number down to tens instead.”

“Which buys the LZ some time to get the hell out of there,” Lucky said. “And that’s what we want at this point.”

“Hrouska’s lost, Boss,” Stegson said. “There isn’t a scenario where we come out on top.”

“Until the warships get here,” Parveet said.

“Not factoring that in at the moment, Boss,” Stegson said. “You can guess why.”

“Because it ain’t real until it’s real,” Parveet replied and nodded. “And the other probes?”

“Other probes, Boss?” Lucky asked.

“We only need the one,” Wan said. “No real point in covering the planet if we’re bugging out.”

“But we’ll need the comms up and running planet-wide if our reinforcements get here,” Parveet said. She leaned forward and pursed her lips. “I don’t like this much, either, but we have to show what we’re worth to these people. If all they are doing is coming here to clean up our mess and wipe our butts, then we are useless to them. It sucks, huge hairy gonads sucks, but it is what it is.”

“What about the rest of the crew, Boss?” Lucky asked. “We have to tell them. We have to tell everyone on the LZ.”

“Don’t worry, Lucky,” Parveet said. “I understand what we have to do and who we have to tell. This isn’t something I can order me and mine to blindly follow. But we’ll get to that when it is time to get to that. Tell Stony I want relay probes dropped as well so we can communicate across Hrouska. Other than that, I trust all of you to orchestrate this plan to the best of your abilities. Hooyah.”

“Hooyah,” they replied and got to work.

***

“Bloody hell! Do you understand the concept of math?” Stony shouted at a group of techs. “Do you? I don’t even mean do you understand the math itself! I am talking about the very basic concept of using numbers in conjunction with other numbers to solve problems! Do you understand what words are coming from my lips?”

There was some shuffling of feet, but no one answered.

Stony turned to the vid display and tapped the curved lines that encircled the image of Hrouska.

“The Jethro will come in at this angle,” he stated. “The Dorso will be attached here and here. We must release the Dorso at precisely this point.”

His finger pressed so hard against the vid display that it left a black mark in the image.

“If we do not release the Dorso at precisely this point, then the Jethro will go down with that hunk of shit,” Stony snapped. “I ain’t too keen on that happening. Boss really ain’t too keen on that happening. Got it?”

There were several nods. A hand was raised. Some of the techs scooted away from the fool.

“Oh, yes please, ask a question,” Stony said.

“The probes?” the tech asked. “How do we keep them from burning up with the Dorso?”

“That is actually a good question,” Stony said. “They’ll be shielded by battle armor, all except for the one heading to the LZ. We drop that. But the ones attached to the Dorso will be timed to release at specific points so that the momentum from the wreckage projects them through the atmosphere and across the planet. It won’t be perfect, but they’ll land in locations that should give us a good comms spread.”

Stony grinned wide and the techs scooted further away from the fool.

“Which is what I explained at the beginning of this little talk,” Stony snarled. “Were you asleep?”

“No, Chief, I was calculating–”

“This is listening time,” Stony snapped. “Calculating time was before, and will be after, this little talk. Right now. You listen. Can you listen?”

“Yes, Chief.”

“Good. Then do that.”

Stony sighed.

“Let’s go over it again because now I can’t trust a single one of you idiots.”

***

“Anyone care to tell me what that is?” Morisaki asked as he nodded his chin at a bright light that was growing larger by the second. “I am seeing that, correct? This isn’t some hallucination due to sleep dep?”

“No, you’re seeing it,” Hawker said as she yawned, drank from a mug, spat the liquid out at her feet then drank again, swallowing that last sip. “Looks like a meteor.”

“Anyone care to do the math on that thing?” Morisaki said.

Schroeder came walking up, scratching her ass as she rested her rifle over one shoulder.

“We got incoming,” Schroeder said and pointed her rifle up at the meteor. “Anyone worried? No one seems to be worried.”

“We’re past worried,” Giga said as she sat on the edge of her cockpit, her mech settled a couple meters away from the dawn conversation. “Xenos are getting restless again. I think they’re going to make a huge press at the fence.”

“Okay. Hawker? You keep your eye on the meteor that is probably going to kill us all,” Morisaki said.

“Gotcha,” Hawker said and sipped. “I always knew I’d see my death coming.”

“The rest of you get on the lines,” Morisaki said. “We hold the fences or we don’t. Giga is right. This is probably the last chance we’ll get.”

“The xenos better be ghost hunters,” Schroeder said as she powered up her rifle. “Because I’m coming back to tear them some new ones the second I’m dead. Jethro for life seems too short. I’m going for Jethro for death, too.”

“Hooyah to that,” Giga said and slipped inside her cockpit.

***

“We are entering Hrouska’s atmosphere now, Boss,” Axson said.

The Jethro began to shudder.

“Noted,” Parveet said. “Bridge crew is silent from here on in except for needed communications. I want Axson focused. No goddamn chatter or you meet me in the cages when this is all done.”

“If this is all done,” Stegson said.

“Goddammit, Stegson,” Parveet snarled.

“Apologies, Boss,” Stegson said. “I’ll see you in the cages.”

Parveet smirked. “Damn right you will.”

All eyes focused on the view shield and the growing planet that was filling the display. An orange glow began to fill the bottom of the image then streaks of yellow and red. In seconds, it was nearly impossible to see anything other than flames.

***

“Here they come!” Gore yelled as he started firing. “You empty your damn rifles then you empty another one! We do not stop firing until we are dead!”

“Nice rally cry!” Roar shouted over the comms.

“I spent all night writing it!” Gore shouted back.

The rows of soldiers in front of his mech were giving the xenos at the fence everything they had. When rifles powered down, new ones were handed to them by support crew. And even that support crew was joining the fight, lobbing concussion and plasma grenades as far and fast as they could.

Xenos were dropping, but more replaced those that went down. The numbers seemed exponential and the fence was showing weakness fast. A cry went up for a mechanic then cries went up for medics. Chaos was close to taking over the LZ.

“Hey, uh, I think we need to get down,” Hawker announced over the general comms.

“Not the time, Hawker!” Morisaki yelled back over the comms.

“No, this is exactly the time,” Hawker said, her voice surprisingly calm considering the xenos were seconds from breaching everything and wiping out the LZ. “Yeah. This is the time. That meteor is aimed right at us and I don’t think it’s a hunk of space rock.”

“Excuse me?” Morisaki snapped.

“I’m scanning the shit out of the thing and it’s tech,” Hawker said. “In fact, it’s our tech. That’s a goddamn probe! Get down! Now!”

***

“Probe impact in three, two one!” Wan called then activated comms. “LZ! This is the Jethro! Can you read me?”

No answer, only an incredible amount of static.

“LZ! This the Jethro! Can you read me?”

“What the holy shit was that, Wan?” Morisaki’s faint voice replied. “You trying to get us all killed? That goddamned probe nearly took out two medical tents! If it wasn’t for a mech catching the damned thing, we would have had one serious crater–!”

“Captain, this is Parveet!” Parveet yelled. “Shut up and listen! We are dropping the Dorso into that xeno army! You have less than three minutes before impact! I want you and yours to hunker down wherever the hell you can right this goddamn second! Dig in! Do whatever you have to do because there will be a mess!”

No reply.

“Captain?” Parveet snapped.

“I heard you,” Morisaki replied. “No time to chat now, Boss. Gotta bend over and kiss my ass goodbye. We’ll talk to you on the other side.”

Stegson chuckled. “Told ya.”

“Dorso away!” Axson said as his hands began flying over the controls to initiate the Jethro’s full engine capacity so they didn’t follow the wrecked ship to the surface. “Hang the hell on!”

5.

Gore checked his systems before unwrapping himself from the circle of mechs.

“I’d rather not do that again,” he said as he shut down several alarms that were barking warnings at him as he straightened up and turned around to survey the area.

“I don’t know,” Wall said. “That was a goddamn rush, if you ask me.”

“No one asked you, Wall,” Roar said.

“You folks good?” Giga asked the huddled mass of soldiers and support personnel that were crammed into the center of the protective mech circle.

Several men and women glanced up at the mech with dazed looks. The majority, though, simply flipped Giga off and started to stumble and stagger away to get back to work.

“Morisaki?” Gore called over the comms. “You still breathing?”

“I’m still breathing,” Morisaki replied.

The rear ramp of one of the drop ships lowered and Morisaki came stumbling out. He put a hand on the hull, steadied himself, then turned to look out at the landscape.

“Hot damn,” he said. “That sure made a mess.”

All eyes turned to look in the direction he was staring, a direction Gore was already facing.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Gore said.

“Son of a butch,” Giga muttered.

“Goddammit, Giga,” Gore said as he walked his mech towards the fence line.

A fence line that was severely damaged.

More drop ships opened behind him, but Gore ignored the multitude of voices calling back and forth on the general comms channel and studied what had been a xeno army.

For as far as he could see, there were bodies. A carpet of bodies. A carpet of bodies with a massive swath of destruction down the middle. The remains of the Dorso stuck up and out of the ground like a toppled monument. Flames and sparks lit up the structure, illuminating the wreckage in the early morning light as if it was some art installation.

In fact, Gore couldn’t help but smile at the beauty of the immensity of what had happened. He crossed his heart and kissed the tips of his fingers, something he hadn’t done since he was a little kid at his grandmother’s house.

“We should be dead,” he whispered.

“LZ? LZ, come in!” Wan’s staticky voice crackled over the comms. “Come on, people! Tell us you all are still alive!”

Gore smiled and turned back to face the LZ. They were still alive. There were a lot of wounded to deal with, the LZ did not survive the plan without problems, but overall, Gore thought it looked a hell of a lot better than if the xenos had been able to overwhelm them.

“Jethro, we are still alive,” Morisaki’s voice replied over the comms. “Give us a few and I’ll have a full sitrep. I think your plan worked.”

“Not so sure,” Giga said as she walked her mech up to Gore’s. “Turn around, man.”

Gore didn’t want to, but he knew he didn’t have a choice. He turned his mech back to face the landscape and saw what worried Giga.

“Hawker? You good?” Gore called.

“Define good,” Hawker growled.

“Can you get a team together to start repairing the fence ASAP?” Gore asked. “That is the definition of good I’m talking about.”

“Son of a butch,” she replied.

Gore rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.

“I can get a team together,” Hawker said. “How much time do we have?”

“None,” Giga answered for Gore.

Out in the destruction, thousands of xeno bodies were shaking and twitching. Hundreds were getting up, their tentacles searching the ground, checking their brethren, finding weapons.

“Mechs,” Gore called. “On me. Now. We’re going in.”

“Whoa! What?” Giga asked. “Gore, you can’t be serious.”

“I am,” Gore said. “We give Hawker time to repair the fence so Morisaki has time to collapse this LZ and pull everyone out. The Jethro can’t drop the MPT until all personnel are gone anyway. Might as well make the best use of our time.”

He pulled his KYAG from his back and checked the power readings.

“Mine’s working,” he said. “Pilots?”

“Working,” Wall replied.

“Working,” Roar replied.

“Working,” Giga said, stepping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gore. “Your call.”

“Mechs? Let’s clean up this mess!” Gore shouted.

“Jesus Christ, Gore! That was awful!” Giga said as the mechs ran out of the LZ and into the shit.

***

“What the shit was that?” Shock asked as a huge cloud of dirt and dust exploded across the horizon. “Did you see that?”

“I’m in the same mech as you, Shock,” Chomps said. “Yes, I saw it.”

“I didn’t know if you were awake or not,” Shock replied.

“I’m driving, dumbass,” Chomps snapped.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Shock said. “I’m so damned tired.”

“Me too,” Chomps said.

They were both quiet for a minute as the mech walked across the wide open meadow that bordered the huge forest. They’d left the trees behind thirty minutes earlier and neither of them were too happy about how exposed they were.

“We going to go take a look?” Shock asked.

“Why would we do that?”

“It’s in the direction we’re going anyway. Might as well.”

“Fine, we’ll take a look,” Chomps said. “Only because we already are.”

“I’m so tired,” Shock said.

“Please stop saying that,” Chomps grumbled. “Every time you say how tired you are, it reminds me of how tired I am. Not productive, Shock.”

“Sorry.”

They kept walking, the dust cloud rising higher in the air, a slight breeze pushing it across the horizon.

***

“Those three there!” Gore yelled as he pointed with one hand at a group of xenos moving quickly towards Wall. “Watch them!”

“On it!” Wall yelled and turned to face the oncoming attack.

Gore fired point blank into the maw of a huge xeno, popping it like a tar-filled zit, then swung his KYAG around and used the butt to bludgeon another even larger xeno to death before swinging the KYAG back to point and fire at two smaller xenos that were leaping through the air right for him.

He hit one xeno, but the other got past his weapons fire and collided with his cockpit. Not a problem. The mechs had figured out to how to deal with that. Gore brought his KYAG around the back of the xeno and gripped hit with both hands then pulled it towards him, slamming it against the xeno, crushing the alien into the cockpit’s hatch. He shook like a dog to clear the black gunk from the hatch then dropped to a knee to provide covering fire for Giga as she sprinted to engage a cluster of small xenos that were trying to get their carbines up and firing.

Giga dove, firing as she flew through the air, and sliced two of the xenos in half before tucking her shoulder and rolling up into a crouch. Two of the xenos opened fire on her, the explosive rounds from the carbines shaking her mech, but she didn’t give ground. Her KYAG obliterated one of the xenos and wounded the other, knocking the carbine from its grip.

She came up out of the crouch as three xenos leapt for her, swinging her KYAG like a bat. She caught all three xenos across their bodies, sending them flying back into the cluster and knocking more to the ground. But her KYAG came loose from her grip as a massive amount of thick, xeno gunk coated her hands and arms.

“Got ya!” Roar yelled as she systematically put direct hits into each and every one of the xenos that were about to regroup and take on Giga. “Get your gun and keep going!”

“Thanks!” Giga shouted as she slammed a fist down into a wriggling xeno, crushing it into the ground.

She grabbed her gunk-coated KYAG and double checked it before bringing it up to blast four xenos rushing at her. They were torn apart in less than a second. Giga stomped over their bodies and took aim at a new cluster that was hunting through the muck and dirt for usable weapons.

Two xenos went flying over her and she ducked low, checking her rear vid display to see Wall picking up two more and throwing those before sprinting to her location, his KYAG firing the entire time, ripping the cluster of xenos to pieces before Giga’s eyes.

“Just gotta steal all the fun, huh?” Giga laughed.

“You weren’t sharing,” Wall said.

“Hawker?” Gore called, joining Wall and Giga. “Where are you with the fence?”

“Getting close,” Hawker said.

“Good,” Gore said, his KYAG targeted on a small wave of xenos that were slowly picking themselves up and coming straight for the mechs. “Any chance that close could be now?”

“Any chance you can shut your mech mouth and let us work?” Hawker snapped. “You want a fence up and working or do you want a fence up and working that will stay working?”

“Yes,” Gore replied.

“Bite me, Gore,” Hawker replied and the comms went dead.

“She so hung up on you,” Giga said.

“I’m used to it,” Gore replied.

The mechs formed a line, took aim, and fired continuously at the wave of xenos.

***

“Rots! Tell me you have those poles strung together by now!” Hawker shouted over the comms.

Rots finished twisting two fiberoptic cables together, something that every student mechanic was taught never to do, but students weren’t ever facing obliteration by an alien race. She shoved the cables into a pole and slammed the panel shut, activating the device as soon as she had it steady in the ground. It whirred to life and a long stretch of fence became active once more.

“Got it!” Rots announced, pumping a fist into the air.

She sprinted down the line to a couple of mechanics that were struggling with a generator connection. Rots whistled and two crawlers scurried over to her.

“Hold that steady so they can complete the connection,” Rots ordered then faced the mechanics. “Tell them to help with whatever you need. They’ll back you up.”

Rots sprinted down the fence line to the next group of mechanics that were hurriedly working on a pole that wouldn’t stop spitting sparks. The mechanics watched her go then looked at the crawlers.

“Who the hell put that rookie in charge?” one asked.

“Who cares,” the other replied, nodding at the crawlers that were keeping the generator steady. “She built those things, so I ain’t complaining.”

6.

The two mech pilots stared down at the smoking probe, their shared machine looming tall behind them, providing shade from the rapidly rising sun.

“That’s from the Jethro, right?” Shock asked.

“Has to be,” Chomps replied.

“And…why?”

“No clue,” Chomps said. “This is a nebula probe. No reason it should be on the planet.”

“You don’t think the Jethro was destroyed, do you?” Shock asked. “Is this debris?”

Chomps squinted up at the sky then looked around the landscape. She shook her head and planted her hands on her hips.

“No. We would be seeing a lot more debris than this,” Chomps replied. “A lot more.”

“So…what the hell is it?” Shock asked.

“Let’s see,” Chomps said.

She knelt next to the probe and shoved her hands underneath it. It was about a meter and a half in diameter, which wasn’t huge, but it was heavy.

“A little help,” Chomps grunted.

Shock got down with her and they managed to roll the probe up and out of the huge divot it rested in. One of the panels on its side came loose and a couple of cables began to spark. Shock moved in for a closer look.

“Careful,” Chomps said.

“No, it’s cool,” Shock replied. “Look at this. That’s not supposed to be there.”

“How do you know?” Chomps asked, bending over to get a better view.

“See that?” Shock said, pointing to a set of cables that weren’t sparking. “The junction point has been welded in.”

“Okay…?”

“There shouldn’t be welds inside a probe,” Shock said. He looked up at Chomps and she had both eyebrows raised. “What? Sometimes I listen when Stony talks. Not often, but a guy gets bored and you can only watch the same old vids so many times.”

“Then you think Stony made that weld?” Chomps asked. “Why?”

“Maybe not Stony personally, but someone on the Jethro did,” Shock said and reached inside the panel. “Only one way to find out.”

He grabbed two of the loose cables and plugged them into their junction points. They sparked then calmed down and the probe came to life as a large antenna shot straight up out of the side, nearly taking Shock’s left eye with it.

“Son of a butch!” he cried as he fell back on his ass, his hand going to a deep gouge in his forehead. “That really isn’t supposed to be there!”

A burst of static erupted from the cockpit of the mech and Chomps spun on her heels. She quickly climbed up the leg and grabbed onto the edge of the cockpit hatch, flipping herself up inside as the static got louder.

“Holy shit!” she yelled with excitement. “I think we have comms!”

Shock looked about for his battle armor helmet, but realized it was up in the cockpit.

“Toss me my helmet!” he yelled as he stood up and turned to face the mech. The helmet came down at him fast, but he easily caught it. “Thanks.”

He put it on and winced as a squelch of static thundered through the comms.

“Hello?” Chomps called. “Jethro? This is Chomps, can you read me?”

“Chomps?” Morisaki answered. “Well, I’ll be dipped in every type of shit known to man! Good to know you’re alive!”

“Morisaki? Good to hear your voice!” Chomps cried. “What’s the status of the LZ?”

“About the same as my asshole after an all-night binge on cheap beer,” Morisaki said.

“Well, that ain’t good,” Shock said.

“Who’s that? Shock?” Morisaki asked.

“That’d be me,” Shock replied. “What are you looking at there?”

“A shit ton of xenos,” Morisaki said. “Which is why I’m gonna hand you off to one of yours. I need to focus on getting this LZ prepped for evac pronto!”

The static returned then, “What the hell? Why am I being patched into this convo? Morisaki! Deal with this your–!”

“Gore! Shut up!” Chomps yelled. “It’s me!”

“Chomps? Holy shit! You’re alive!” Gore responded.

“No shit! Can you lock onto my coordinates and come get us?” Chomps asked.

“Us? What us?” Gore said.

“Shock is with me, but he lost his mech,” Chomps said. “It’s down in the tunnels. Hey, listen, Gore, you have to tell the Jethro that there are millions more xenos down there! Let Parveet know that Shock thinks they’re coming up to wipe out the LZ!”

“Oh, we know, babe,” Gore said. “Trust me. That’s why we’re evacuating the LZ right now. If we can keep the xenos back long enough first. It’s not looking good. The Jethro did what it could, but the bastards are regrouping fast.”

“Yeah, they do that,” Shock said.

“Hey, Shock,” Gore said. “Ping me and I’ll send your coordinates to Schroeder. If anyone can wrestle a drop ship from Morisaki, it’s Schroeder. Sit tight and we’ll see what we can do.”

“See what you can do?” Chomps snapped. “Gore, you better not leave us down here!”

“Leave you? Not a goddamn chance in hell, babe!” Gore replied. “You in immediate danger?”

“Not at the moment, but we’re exposed as shit,” Chomps said.

“Okay, okay. Hunker down and wait for our call,” Gore said. “We’ll figure something out.”

The comms went silent and Chomps leaned over the edge of cockpit. Shock gave her a thumbs up.

“Don’t get too happy,” Chomps said. “They aren’t on the way yet.”

“You just gotta kill the mood,” Shock said and plopped down into grass, taking his helmet off so he could wipe blood from his brow.

***

“Fence is a go!” Hawker yelled.

“You heard her!” Gore shouted over the comms. “Get back inside the perimeter now!”

The mechs each turned and ran their metal asses off towards the LZ and the glowing energy fence. As soon as they reached the defenses, a portion of the fence was dropped and they hurried inside before the energy was restored again.

Just in time as two dozen xenos slammed themselves into the fence, burning up instantly.

“Schroeder!” Gore shouted as he carefully maneuvered through the ordered chaos of Morisaki’s evacuation. “Schroeder!”

“What?” Schroeder barked as she came out of one of the drop ships, a bench seat in her hands. She threw it aside and walked over to Gore. “Why are you yelling at me? I’m trying to clear space to fit as many people inside as possible!”

“We need a drop ship,” Gore said. “Chomps and Shock are stranded out there and we have to go get them.”

A bleep sounded in his cockpit and he grinned.

“Sending you their coordinates now,” Gore said.

Schroeder pulled her tablet from her belt and frowned down at the info.

“That’s thirty-five kilometers away, Gore,” Schroeder said. “That’s a lot of space to cover when we need to use the drop ships to get people back to the Jethro.”

“Schroeder,” Gore growled.

“I ain’t saying I won’t do it,” Schroeder replied. “Just telling it like it is.”

“Then we’re going?” Gore asked.

“Of course we are,” Schroeder said then looked over her shoulder at where Morisaki was barking orders to six different people at once. “But, how about we don’t tell the captain about it. It’ll only waste time.”

“I like your thinking,” Gore said. “I’m coming with.”

“Expected you might,” Schroeder said.

“Me too,” Giga said as she clomped up next to Gore.

“Now, hold on,” Schroeder said.

“It’s Shock!” Giga shouted.

“And two mechs on one drop ship is a lot of weight,” Schroeder said. “Plus we have to bring another mech back with us.”

“We leave the mech and only bring back the pilots,” Giga said. “Mechs can be built, pilots can’t.”

Schroeder held up her hands. “I’ll leave that logic between you and Stony when you see him next.”

She looked at Morisaki again then nodded at the drop ship.

“Get on,” she said. “I’ll tell Bardesh what’s up. He loves playing the rebel drop ship pilot.”

“Don’t need to hear your weird role-playing games,” Gore said.

“What? Oh cram it up your ass, Gore,” Schroeder said. “Get on the damn drop ship!”

***

Shock couldn’t stop fidgeting as the mech hiked across the landscape to the rendezvous point Gore had sent them.

“Gotta get off this damn planet,” Shock said. “Not a fan of Hrouska, let me tell you.”

“Me neither, but I’m not acting like a tweaked-out stim junkie,” Chomps snapped. “Stop twitching!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Shock said. “I’m exhausted and amped at the same time and it’s making me wonky.”

“I know,” Chomps said. “I’m feeling the same way. But I have to pilot a mech and your twitching is not helping things.”

“I know, I know,” Shock said. “It’s been a long day.”

“Days,” Chomps said. “We’ve been down here for three days.”

“Oh,” Shock replied. “That explains a lot.”

Chomps couldn’t help but laugh. The mirth was cut short as a strange reading came up on her scanners.

“What the hell…?”

“What is it?” Shock asked.

“I’m picking up a mech,” Chomps said. “Hold on. No, yeah, that’s a mech. It’s one of ours.”

“Well, crap,” Shock said. “Chomps? Run.”

“From a mech? It’s one of ours,” Chomps said. “Maybe they found a tunnel and–”

The earth about a quarter kilometer ahead of them exploded and the mech Chomps detected came bursting up out of the ground.

“That’s not one of ours,” Shock said. “It’s my mech, but that isn’t one of our pilots.”

The mech raced at Chomps and Shock. It was obvious the machine had been heavily modified. Thick strands of metal came off it from each side and waved about in the air as the mech charged them.

“Are those goddamn tentacles?” Chomps asked. “Those are goddamn tentacles!”

“Yep,” Shock said. “Run!”

“Run?” Chomps snarled. “Hell no. I’m not running from a mech. I don’t care what’s piloting it. This goddamn planet and its xenos can take our carbines, can fly our drop ships, but it cannot take our mechs. You know why?”

Shock sighed and found emergency straps. He secured himself to the wall of the cockpit. “No, Chomps, why?”

“Because not even humans get to just be mech pilots because they goddamn want to!” Chomps said and started to run. But not away from the oncoming mech, towards it. “Because you have to earn the right to sit in one of these cockpits and that goddamn xeno did not earn that right!”

“This is gonna hurt,” Shock said and slipped his helmet back on, slapping the faceplate back into place. “Isn’t it?”

“Oh, it’s gonna hurt a lot!” Chomps shouted as she closed the distance between the mechs. “A LOT!”

The xeno mech was twenty meters, ten, then right on Chomps. Without slowing, she went low and ducked under the swipe of two metal tentacles, coming back up and twisting around as she came up off her feet. One of those feet she planted in the ass of the xeno mech, knocking it down onto its knees.

Chomps flattened out and let her mech fall onto its back. Alarms blared in the cockpit until she cut them short.

“I know, I know, everything is broken,” Chomps said. “So goddamn what? I’ve been broken before and I’ll be broken again.”

Shock didn’t say a word about the fact he didn’t want to be broken. Chomps was in the fight zone and it was best to stay quiet.

Chomps flipped her legs up and out, popping the mech upright onto its feet. A klaxon blared and she killed the entire warning system, taking it completely offline.

“No more distractions,” she said.

She tested what worked and what didn’t, then adapted.

The mech’s left arm was basically useless as an appendage, dead weight. But dead weight could be wielded as a cudgel and that was exactly what she did as the xeno mech got up and turned to attack. Chomps sent her useless left arm in a wide arc, cracking the xeno mech across the cockpit and knocking it back to the ground.

Two tentacles shot out and grabbed Chomps by the ankles. They pulled hard and her legs went out from under her, but not before she managed to push down with her feet and arch her back. The tentacles tore free from the momentum and Chomps flipped over backwards.

It was not a graceful flip. She landed face first into the ground. Dirt and grass filled the cockpit. She didn’t hesitate and pushed up with her right arm, rolling herself to her side as two more tentacles attacked, slamming into the ground right where she’d been.

Chomps whirled her legs out and spun herself about until she was back on her feet and throwing a hard right into the left hip of the xeno mech. The hip coupling shattered, sending a shower of sparks falling to the ground. Chomps kicked straight out with her left leg, planting her foot dead center on the xeno mech’s cockpit, sending it flying a dozen meters backwards.

The xeno mech landed hard, tumbled end over end, then came to rest in a pile of dirt and grass, half the machine buried in earth.

“That all you got?” Chomps shouted.

“Oh, come on. Don’t taunt the thing,” Shock said.

Chomps started for the xeno mech, but Shock reached up and shoved his arm through the cradle, grabbing her by the elbow.

“Stop,” he hissed. “We have to get to the drop ship so the LZ can finish its evac. Fighting that thing is not the priority.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Chomps said after a couple of seconds.

She turned the mech around and started running to the rendezvous point. Or hobbling as fast as she could. It was good thing she’d turned off the alarms because her mech was falling apart fast.

7.

“There!” Gore yelled.

“Yes, Gore, we see the huge mech standing by those trees,” Schroeder said. “Kind of hard to miss.”

Standing was an overstatement. The mech was leaning back against a cluster of trees, using the trunks to keep it upright.

The drop ship landed and Gore and Giga hopped off, KYAGs up and covering the area as Chomps and Shock slowly climbed their way out of the cockpit.

“Gonna leave this here,” Chomps shouted. “Both knees froze up a kilometer back and we’ve been stiff-legging it the whole way.”

Gore gave her a thumbs up and smiled down at her as she and Shock made their way up the rear ramp and into the drop ship.

“They are secure,” Schroeder said. “Get back on, you giant morons.”

“No need to get personal,” Giga said.

“You’re the one that got personal about this back at the LZ,” Schroeder replied. “So feel free to cram it sideways with walnuts, Giga.”

“Cram it sideways with walnuts? That’s almost as good as son of a butch,” Shock said, hopping onto the comms. He laughed then stopped. “What’s a walnut?”

“Shock!” Giga cried. “Good to have you back, you stupid asshole!”

“Good to be back, you dumb twat!” Shock replied.

“True friendship,” Gore said. “Chomps? You good, babe?”

“I’ll let you know once we’re back on the Jethro,” Chomps said.

“You hurt? Are you wounded?” Gore asked, alarmed.

“No, I’m not hurt,” Chomps said. “Just ready to be done with this planet.”

“We all are,” Schroeder said as the drop ship lifted off and raced back to the LZ. “Let’s hope Wall and Roar were able to keep things under control while we were gone.”

“You don’t think your SpecCom people can handle the situation?” Gore asked.

“What? I told them to get on a drop ship as soon as support personnel were loaded and lifted,” Schroeder said. “If they listened to me, then my SpecCom soldiers are on their way up to the Jethro.”

“Leaving the mechs to clean up what’s left,” Giga said. “Ain’t that always how it is.”

“Yep,” Schroeder said and laughed. “You poor babies!”

***

“Get in the drop ship, Morisaki!” Roar shouted down at the captain who was busy reloading a rifle with a new power magazine. “Have you lost your mind?”

“I am not leaving my LZ until I know it is clear!” Morisaki shouted back, powering up the rifle and taking aim at the fence line. “You are still here so the LZ is not clear! I stay!”

“You are certifiable!” Roar said and fired her KYAG at the thick waves of xenos that were about to take the energy fence down. “The MPT can’t be sent down until all other personnel are gone! That ship is going to pulverize this LZ and anyone, that means you, that is stupid enough to be standing out in the open!”

“What she said!” Wall yelled. ‘“Get in the drop ship!

“Wex? This is Morisaki! I order you to take off now!” Morisaki shouted over the comms. “Get those people off this planet!”

“You fool!” Roar yelled.

The drop ship took off without a word just as the energy fence began to flicker. But another drop ship quickly appeared over the trees and landed in the same spot. Gore and Giga jumped off as the rear ramp opened.

“Morisaki, you crazy bastard, get your ass in here!” Schroeder yelled from the ramp. “What in blue blazes were you even thinking?”

“My LZ, my choice!” Morisaki yelled back as he stomped his way to the ramp and up past Schroeder.

“That man needs his head checked,” Schroeder said as she leaned out of the drop ship and looked up at the mechs. “You got this?”

“We can hold until the MPT arrives,” Gore said. “Go. Get Chomps and Shock up there and checked out by Hella. Neither of them looked so good.”

“I can hear you, Gore,” Chomps said.

“Good,” Gore replied. “Then you know I’m serious. No fighting Hella. You let her check you over, babe.”

“I’ll make sure she does,” Shock said. “Fight hard, mechs.”

“We plan on it,” Gore said and smacked the top of the drop ship. “Go!”

He stepped away as the drop ship powered back up and took off.

“Jethro! This is Gore! Send that MPT down as soon as Schroeder’s drop ship is clear!” Gore called.

“Gore, this is Jethro and we read you,” Wan replied. “MPT is already deployed. You’ll want to step to the side. It’ll be there in less than two.”

“Jesus,” Giga said. “They are cutting it close. What if we hadn’t gotten back in time?”

“Then things would go squish,” Wall said. “Squish, squish, squish!”

“Speaking of,” Roar said. “The fence is coming down now!”

The energy flickered, flickered, failed.

Wave after wave of xeno came pouring into the LZ, straight at the mechs.

“Fire!” Gore yelled.

The four mechs unloaded with their KYAGs, dropping the front row of the waves. They dropped the second row then the third. The dead xenos clogged up the attack, but didn’t come close to stopping it. The waves behind quickly flowed up and over their fallen comrades and were almost on the mechs when the MPT came screaming down out of the sky.

“Flatten! Now!” Gore ordered.

Each mech tossed their KYAG aside and hit the deck. They flattened out, arms and legs spread, as the MPT slammed into the ground only a few meters away. It hit so hard that it rippled the ground and the waves of xenos were tossed back out of the LZ. The mechs rode the rippling earth then shot up onto their feet as soon as the ground was even close to stable.

The MPT opened wide and each mech sprinted to a lockdown spot, pressing themselves to the walls to be clamped in. The MPT closed and took back off. The pilots gritted their teeth and groaned as ten Gs pressed down on them. It was more force than was safe for any human, but there was no choice. The waves of xenos weren’t going to stay down for long.

***

Parveet walked into the hangar and nodded at Schroeder.

“Good job,” she said as the sergeant approached her.

“Are you joking?” Schroeder snapped. “We lost over two dozen men and women down there, two mechs, and more equipment than I can even inventory.”

“Don’t worry,” Parveet said. “Morisaki will give me a list. He’s already working on it.”

“I’m not kidding, Boss,” Schroeder said.

“I’m not either,” Parveet said.

“This isn’t done,” Schroeder said.

“I know,” Parveet replied. “I want you and the other squad leaders to join the pilots and command crew in conference room Delta as soon as you get cleared by medical and grab a bite to eat.”

“Boss?” Chomps asked, looking extremely confused as she came out of the drop ship.

“I’ll explain when we’re all gathered,” Parveet said. “Things have taken a very strange turn. Get checked, get clean, eat. We’ll talk soon.”

Parveet marched out of the hangar and down the passageway, ignoring the many salutes and greetings she received. None looked offended. They were used to Parveet when she was on a mission. She reached the lift, stepped on it, stood stock still for the whole ride down, then exited with the same determination as she showed three decks above.

She received more salutes as she walked into the mech hangar. The MPT had just arrived and the air was freezing as the system worked hard to pump warmth back into the massive space. The MPT opened and four mechs slowly made their way out and over to their mech bays.

“I already told Schroeder and Chomps, but I’m telling you,” Parveet said. “Meet in conference room Delta as soon as you are cleared by medical, get cleaned up, and eat. We have an important decision to make.”

The pilots only stared, mouths agape as they climbed down their mechs and reached the hangar deck, legs shaking and unsteady.

Parveet regarded them and frowned.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you’ve all been through Hell, but this can’t wait. Try not to take too long getting cleared and cleaned. Bring food with you, if you have to.”

Then she left the mech hangar, proceeded to the lift, rode up several decks, exited, and walked down the passageway to Torn’s cabin. She didn’t bother knocking and barged right in.

“Jay?” Torn asked, a mug of tea halfway to her lips. “What’s wrong?”

“I lost people, good people,” Parveet snapped. “I lost two mechs. Mechs can be rebuilt, but people can’t. I need to know right this second what side you are on.”

“I’m sorry? What side?” Torn asked, setting the mug down. She started to stand, but Parveet motioned for her to stay seated. “Jay, I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I need to know what side you are on,” Parveet repeated. “Are you on their side or my side?”

“Jay, I don’t think you understand,” Torn said. “We’re going to all work together to break from the UEC. We’re on the same side.”

“No, we’re not,” Parveet said. “I’m Jethro. This is me and mine. And until I join me and mine with the breakaway faction, then there are most certainly sides. I need to know this very second if you are on their side or if you are me and mine. Answer now.”

Torn opened her mouth, closed it, opened her mouth, closed it then nodded.

“I’m Jethro,” she said. “I’m you and yours.”

“Good,” Parveet said. “Meet in conference room Delta as soon as you finish your…what is that?”

“Tea and a gray triangle,” Torn said and sighed.

“The tea doesn’t help, does it?” Parveet asked with a smirk.

“Not at all,” Torn said. “I’ll be there, Jay.”

“Good.”

Parveet left, marched down the passageway and into the lift. She rode it all the way up to the bridge, stepped out, walked past the conference rooms and onto the bridge proper.

“Sitrep,” she said as she took her seat.

“Warships incoming,” Stegson said. “I’m powering down weapons, diverting energy to shields, but I can have torpedoes online and firing within three seconds if this is a trap.”

“I like your thinking,” Parveet said. “What else?”

“They’ll arrive in about eight hours, Boss,” Flay said. “Where should we go? Stay on this side of Hrouska or put the planet between us and give us more time to have the engines up and running at full?”

“Yes,” Parveet said. “Do that. How much extra time will that give us?”

“About three hours,” Flay said.

“Good,” Parveet said. “Lock it in. Axson? Get us there then I want everyone here to get some sleep. As much as possible before what happens happens.”

“Yes, Boss!”

8.

The only non-stunned faces staring back at Parveet were Lucky’s and Torn’s. The rest looked like they’d been slapped by something very dead and very smelly. Gore raised his hand.

“No,” Parveet said.

Chomps raised her hand.

“Yes,” Parveet said.

“What if this is a trick?” Chomps asked.

“It’s not,” Torn replied.

“What if it is?” Chomps insisted. “Boss?”

“It could be,” Parveet said. “The UEC has never been happy with how I run the Jethro. It could be a way to purge a few of us and clean house.”

“That’s not what’s happening,” Torn said. “These families are serious. They want secession. They want a new way of living away from the lineage rules of the UEC.”

“We’ll see,” Parveet said. “I told you before, Bee, that these ships will have to prove it to me. They even squeak out a fart of an engine leak and I will send everything I have at them. Including my mechs.”

“Boss, even if this is on the up and up, what’s in it for us?” Schroeder asked. “We split with the UEC and we’ll have the other MEUs gunning for us.”

“That’s the rub, Schroeder,” Parveet said. “We’re the draw. The other MEUs see we’ve made a split and they may think about splitting too. At least the ones on SBE.”

“You’re going to need Jennings on board with that first,” Lucky said and shrugged. “Only stating the obvious.”

“I believe General Jennings will come around,” Torn said. “We have been eyeing him for recruitment for a long while now and he shows sympathies that align with our own.”

“Whose own?” Parveet asked. “You’re Jethro now, right?”

All eyes locked onto Torn. She gave a sad smile.

“Yes, Jay, I am Jethro now,” Torn said. “But you know what I mean. Give me a break with the semantic wordplay.”

“Semantic wordplay,” Gore said. “I like that phrase.”

“Better than son of a butch?” Shock asked.

“I hate you so much,” Gore growled.

“Shut it,” Parveet ordered.

“Are we going to put it to a vote?” Chomps asked.

“That would be a good idea,” Lucky said.

“Then what happens to those that dissent?” Schroeder asked.

“I need to know if there is any dissent within this room first,” Parveet said. She studied the pilots, the sergeants, her command crew, then Torn. “The Jethro only works if you are me and mine. If we are one. We understood?”

“Yes, Boss,” they replied.

“Yes…Boss,” Torn said slowly.

The room paused then burst into laughter.

“Oh, I am going to remember that for a long time!” Schroeder cackled.

“Vote,” Parveet said. “All in favor?”

Every hand went up.

“That was easy,” Parveet said. “As it should be.”

“Boss? We are being hailed,” Wan called over the general comms. “Colonel Chavez of the UEC Warship Legion.”

“Holy shit,” Gore said.

“That’s some muscle,” Schroeder said.

“We had better go respond, Jay,” Torn said.

“I’ll assemble the crew as soon as I know this is happening for real,” Parveet said. “Dismissed.”

She waited for everyone to get up and leave. Torn stayed.

“Put it through, Wan,” Parveet said.

A vid display at the end of the room came to life and a tall, gaunt man stared back at Parveet with hard eyes.

“Parveet,” he stated.

“Chavez,” Parveet replied. “Looks like we need to talk. Your ship or mine?”

“Yours,” Chavez said. “I’ve never been on the legendary Jethro before.”

“Send your shuttle over,” Parveet said. “I’ll have the pilot notified of which hangar to land in. I look forward to seeing you.”

“I hope you do or this will be a very short meeting, Parveet,” Chavez said and the vid went blank.

“Oh dear,” Torn said. “Jay, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect him to be so cold.”

“Cold?” Parveet laughed. “Do you know Chavez?”

“Never met the man,” Torn said.

“That wasn’t cold, Bee. That was warm. If you ever see him cold, then you are already dead.”

***

Six guards flanked Colonel Chavez as he descended down the shuttle’s side ramp. The man was very tall, close to seven feet, and looked like a strong wind would not only blow him over, but send him tumbling for eternity.

“Parveet,” Chavez said when he reached the deck. He extended his hand. “Good to see you again.”

“Chavez. Always a pleasure,” Parveet said, taking his hand and shaking it. She let go then pointed at a long table set up off to the side of the hangar. Torn was sitting at the head of the table, waiting. “Let’s have a seat.”

“In here?” Chavez asked. “That’s the hospitality you’re showing me?”

“Technically, from what Ambassador Torn has said, you are a traitor to the UEC and Earth,” Parveet said. “I should shoot you dead right now.”

The guards tensed, but Chavez waved them off.

“I’d rather you not, Parveet,” Chavez said and walked to the table.

Parveet turned on her heels and followed. They took seats opposite of each other, Chavez to the left of Torn and Parveet to the right.

“Talk,” Parveet said.

“Have you informed her?” Chavez asked Torn. “Does she know the scope?”

“She does,” Torn said.

“Then there isn’t much else to say,” Chavez said. “You either agree to join us and have a chance at freedom or you refuse and I return to the Legion to get what happens next started.”

“My most trusted crew members have agreed to become a part of this faction of yours,” Parveet said. “But that is because I am ready for it. I am going to ask for a general vote from the entire crew. Tell me why I should ask them to risk their lives and the lives of their families for what can only be called a pipe dream, Chavez.”

“Their families will be safe,” Chavez stated. “I have a roster of the entire crew of the Jethro and we are already moving to get them to safety.”

“Are you now?” Parveet said and looked at Torn. “That took some preplanning.”

“Better safe than dead, right?” Chavez said, drawing Parveet’s attention back to him. “They are not compromised, but only safe. If your crew decides against joining the secession, then the families will be allowed to go wherever they please without repercussions. We are not the UEC; we do not retaliate.”

“And if some of my crew doesn’t want to be a part of this? I will insist they are allowed safe passage back to Earth,” Parveet said.

“Of course,” Chavez replied and nodded. “We do not want anyone here that does not want to be here.”

“Good,” Parveet said.

“Is there anything else?” Chavez asked.

“Yes,” Parveet said. “The Jethro remains autonomous.”

“Excuse me?” Chavez replied. “Parveet, please, there has to be a chain of command for the military branch of this endeavor to operate properly.”

“Yes, I know,” Parveet said. “And I want the MEU branch to be autonomous. In exchange, I will guarantee that the other SBE MEUs come onboard. But I will be in command of all of it and only report to the very highest of whatever council or congress or legislative body is set up with this new faction. I don’t report to you, I don’t report to any general, not even Jennings.”

“And what assurance would we have this new centralized MEU power wouldn’t be used against us?” Chavez asked.

“None,” Parveet said. “That’s the point. You trust me with command over all mechs and I know I can trust you. That’s the deal or there is no deal.”

Chavez glanced at Torn and the woman shrugged.

“You have always played your own game, Parveet,” Chavez said. “I would be a fool to think you would stop now.”

“Yes, you would be,” Parveet said.

“Fine,” Chavez said suddenly. “You get autonomy.”

“Great,” Parveet said. “Glad you agree.”

“I agree because there is something more important than the mechs and your ego at stake, Parveet,” Chavez said and leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled together. “Now we talk about Hrouska.”

***

“That is what is being offered,” Parveet said to the assembled crew that filled the entire hangar. It was shoulder to shoulder, ass to front. “I’ll give you a moment for it all to sink in before you–”

Hands shot up. All of them.

Parveet knew the Jethro was a complete unit, but even that show of solidarity nearly knocked her off her feet.

“I think we’re good, Boss,” Lucky said as he stood at her side. “Should I call the Legion’s XO and tell her?”

“Yes,” Parveet said. “Then let’s start brainstorming on how the hell we take Hrouska from those damn xenos.”

9.

“All I’m saying is it’s not a matter of if we can, but more a matter of if we should,” Shock said as he stuffed a hunk of square into his mouth. Bits of gray flew from between his lips as he chewed and talked. “I’ve been down there. I’ve seen one of their cities. They have a civilization and we are talking about wiping that out.”

“Where else are we going to go?” Wall asked.

“Hell if I know,” Shock replied. “But this is genocide, people.”

“We’re already at war with them,” Giga said.

“Et tu, Giga?” Shock asked.

“Shut up,” Giga said.

“Nah, Shock is right,” Gore said as he twirled a fork with a full triangle stuck on the end.

“Don’t play with your food,” Chomps said.

“They started it,” Roar said. “They attacked us.”

“Because we landed on their planet with guns out and ready to fight,” Shock said. “I’m not saying that I won’t go down there and kick some xeno ass, I’m only saying that the morality of all of this is grayer than this piece of shit I’m eating.”

“What was it like down there?” Hawker asked as she and Rots sat down next to the group of mech pilots. “What did you see?”

“It was massive,” Shock said and described the city.

“Jesus,” Hawker said. “That does make things tricky.”

“I know, right?’ Shock said. “It’ll be hard to say if we’re the good guys or the bad guys in all of this.”

“We’re the good guys,” Schroeder said, joining them. “We’re always the good guys.”

“Not that simple,” Gore said.

“It’s not,” Shock said.

“At first, maybe,” Schroeder said and shrugged. She took a huge bite, chewed, swallowed, then continued. “But once we started fighting, and they started killing us and ours, then it got very simple, very fast. Your gray morality is bullshit, Shock. We’re already at war. Whether we started it or not is something future generations can argue. But for now, we have no choice but to go down there and finish it. Otherwise, every single person that died down on that planet or up here, Jethro and Dorso, died for nothing. Absolutely zip.”

The table went quiet.

Chomps nodded. “That’s a good point.”

“Yeah,” Gore agreed. “We pissed in the pool. Nothing we can do about it now. Might as well keep pissing.”

Everyone looked at Gore.

“What the hell are you mumbling about?” Hawker asked.

“He’s an idiot,” Schroeder said and shrugged again. “Not that it matters. Even with all the troops those warships brought, we don’t have the numbers to take the planet. We’ve seen how they fight. We could bring every MEU to Hrouska and they’d still kick our ass. This whole debate is useless bullshit because we can’t win anyway.”

“You giving up, Schroeder?” Wall asked.

“Hell, no! I ain’t giving up,” Schroeder replied. “I’m just saying we can’t do shit until we know we can win. And right now, we cannot win.”

“What about the oxygen?” Rots asked.

She shrank back as the attention focused on her. It wasn’t exactly kind attention.

“She’s a rookie,” Hawker said. “Be nice, people.”

“What oxygen?” Chomps asked.

“Shock and the tunnel rats said the network of subterranean caverns is filled with almost pure oxygen,” Rots explained. “The xenos can live on the surface, but down in their element, they thrive on oxygen. We could use that against them.”

Schroeder set her fork down and leaned forward. “Keep talking, rookie.”

Rots did.

***

“You’re proposing we go back down there with the mechs and drop those what into where?” Parveet asked.

Chomps stood on the bridge with Rots and Schroeder by her side.

“Crawlers?” Chomps asked, looking at Rots.

“Crawlers,” Rots said. “We can deploy them into the tunnels and detonate explosives which would trigger the oxygen to ignite.”

“Weren’t the xenos already using carbines down there?” Parveet asked. “The oxygen didn’t ignite then.”

“They were close to those holes,” Schroeder said. “It was vented area. We’re talking about sending the crawler thingies deep into the cavern system and detonating there.”

“The concentration of oxygen will be considerably higher,” Rots said.

“And the explosive ordinance will be much more powerful than carbine explosive rounds,” Schroeder said.

“Chomps?” Parveet asked.

“We go down on drop ships,” Chomps said. “Deploy one to a different part of the planet, find an opening, and get the little buggers down inside. Rots can remotely operate the crawlers.”

“You want to take mechs down on drop ships?” Parveet asked.

“In the drop ships,” Chomps said. “In the cargo holds. The armor can’t handle entry through the atmosphere.”

“Plus, Gore would crap himself if he was outside a ship,” Schroeder said and cackled.

“That’s true,” Chomps admitted. “He’s a big wuss in open space.”

“You won’t get them all,” Parveet said. “No way that’ll happen.”

“But we will seriously cull their numbers,” Chomps said.

“We’ll put a hurt on them without nuking the planet then let the warships and their troops clean up the rest,” Schroeder said.

“Which gives the Jethro time to return to SBE without Chavez and his people breathing down our necks,” Parveet said.

“Didn’t really think of that, Boss,” Chomps said.

“No reason you should have,” Parveet said. “That’s my area.” She looked at the three crew members before her and sighed. “I’ll trust you to handle this op. If you think you can make this work, then it’s a go.”

“We can make it work,” Chomps said.

“Get to it,” Parveet said. “I’ll alert Chavez and get his people working on an after plan. I like that they get to do clean up. Dismissed.”

“Yes, Boss.”

The three left the bridge and made their way to the lift. Once on the lift, Chomps and Schroeder both turned and looked at Rots.

“You can make those crawlers do what you say they can do, right?” Chomps said.

“Hard to get a signal down there,” Schroeder said. “No point in risking lives if we can’t talk to the little buggers.”

“Oh, yes, I can make it work,” Rots said. “I’ve developed a quantum RF signal that can penetrate the surface of the planet. I’ll be able to talk to the crawlers without a problem.”

“Quantum RF?” Schroeder asked. “Do I need to know what the hell that is?”

“I don’t know,” Rots said. “Do you want to know what it is?”

“Nope,” Schroeder said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Chomps said. “As long as they detonate.”

“They’ll detonate,” Rots said. “I promise.”

***

“Gore? You in position?” Chomps called over the comms.

“In position,” Gore replied as he stood over a huge hole and stared down in it, six crawlers strapped to his back, each with enough explosives to turn him into micro-particles if anything went wrong. “About to drop in.”

“Good,” Chomps said. “Wait for my mark. We go as one or risk alerting them to our plan.”

“You do know they probably saw our drop ships come done, right?” Gore asked.

“Yes, Gore, I know,” Chomps replied. “The drop ships are currently bait to misdirect the xenos. We went over this.”

“I know, I know,” Gore said. “It’s just that going down in this hole is kind of like going outside the Jethro.”

“Oh, my God, you big twat!” Giga yelled over the comms. “Grow some gonads and shut the hell up!”

“Gonna agree with Giga,” Chomps said. “You cool, Gore?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m cool,” Gore said. “Just not happy.”

“We ain’t here to be happy, you idiot!” Schroeder interrupted. “Just do your damn job, you oversized tunnel rat!”

“I know, I know,” Gore said again and waited for the signal.

***

“Giga?” Chomps asked.

“In place,” Giga said. “But scanners are telling me I won’t be alone for long.”

“We’re close to ready,” Chomps replied. “Rots is coordinating the quantum RF so the crawlers work together as a cohesive unit once they are active. They’ll talk to each other and learn.”

“Learn? Why learn?” Giga asked.

“In case they run into trouble,” Chomps said. “If one gets taken out by a xeno, the rest won’t make the same mistake and can avoid that attack.”

“Okay, great,” Giga said.

She balanced on the edge of her hole and stared into the darkness. It was a very long way down. Giga checked her rear vid display and made sure the winch cable was secured to the drop ship that was about twenty meters back. She returned her attention to her scanners.

“Still showing a lot of activity down there,” Giga said. “We need to move now.”

***

“Wall? Where are you?” Chomps asked.

“In position,” Wall replied after climbing down into a canyon to face a massive cave entrance. He began unloading his crawlers. “Machines are set.”

“Do not activate until I say so,” Chomps said.

“Copy,” Wall replied.

Something moved in the darkness of the cave.

“Hold on,” Wall said as he dialed up his scanners. “I have movement too.”

“Shit,” Chomps replied. “Roar?”

No answer.

“Roar?”

“Where is she?” Wall asked. “We need to do this now.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Giga exclaimed.

***

Roar didn’t dare move. She had her entire mech powered down as she jammed it between two boulders set into the cliffside where she was perched. Just below her, slithering across the wide path she had just come up, were at least a hundred xenos.

She knew she was cutting it close. Chomps had to be calling her, had to be wondering why she wasn’t responding. All she could do was hope the others trusted her to get the job done when it needed to be done. She’d set a timer and was ready to power back up the second the attack was supposed to launch.

Which she planned on doing whether the xenos were gone or not. She really hoped they’d be gone.

***

“We can’t wait,” Chomps said from the cockpit of one of the drop ships.

“Roar hasn’t replied yet,” Gore replied over the comms.

“We either do this now or call it quits,” Giga said. “I am not liking these readings.”

“Me neither,” Wall said. “Time is up.”

Chomps watched the countdown on her tablet and nodded. She looked over at Rots who was busy working on her own tablet.

“You done?” Chomps asked.

“I’m done,” Rots said. “Send them in.”

“We are a go,” Chomp said. “Good luck.”

***

Gore dropped down the hole and started pulling the crawlers from his back. He set them down, turned, and began climbing back up the way he’d come. The surface of the hole was rough and sturdy. He was up and out within seconds.

“Done,” Gore said. “No problem here.”

***

Giga leapt and landed hard. She tucked and rolled, careful of her cargo, and came up with scanners set to full. Xenos were rushing towards her.

“Shit!” Giga yelled. “I’ve got company!”

She pulled one crawler off her back and threw it at the closest xeno then pulled another loose and threw that. The crawlers came to life and clamped onto the xenos.

With two gone, it gave Giga room to pull her KYAG free and open fire. She unleashed everything she had on the xenos, shredding them, turning them into black ribbons of dripping goo.

When the weapon powered down, she freed the rest of the crawlers from her back and called, “Get me out of here!”

The cable pulled taught and the mech was yanked up into the air. Giga held her arms out to keep from bouncing off the sides of the hole then she was free and flying up into the air.

She twisted and tucked her legs as she landed so she could reach back and undo the cable. Giga was sprinting at the drop ship, and almost there, when xenos erupted from out of the hole behind her.

“Just go!” Giga yelled as she jumped at the drop ship. “Take off now!”

The drop ship immediately lifted off the ground just as she landed on top of the hull. Three xenos reached her and grabbed onto one of her legs, but she pulverized them by transferring the energy from the pinned leg to the free one, kicking the xenos into pulp.

Then the drop ship was up and racing away, headed straight back to the Jethro. All Giga had to do was get her mech ass inside the cargo hold before they left the atmosphere.

***

Wall watched the crawlers head inside the cavern entrance, but his gut said they weren’t going to last long.

“Damn,” he mumbled as he pulled his KYAG and followed after them.

He was firing before he hit the darkness and the KYAG’s laser lit up the cave like a halogen spotlight. A dozen massive xenos were coming straight for him. Wall didn’t care. He had a job to do and he kept firing, clearing a path for the crawlers to get past the xenos and deep inside the cavern.

But, by doing that, he left himself exposed and the xenos came at him fast.

“Reach behind you!” Schroeder’s voice yelled over the comms.

Wall glanced at his rear vid display and saw the drop ship coming into the cavern fast. He took a step back and reached his arm out. The xenos leapt, but Wall was gone as he clamped down on the drop ship just as it passed by.

The coupling in his mech’s shoulder nearly came apart at the force, but it held long enough for him to turn and grab on with his other hand. Then he was climbing on top for the ride up out of the canyon.

***

Gore’s drop ship, the one with Chomps and Rots inside, was on the other side of a forest. There had been no clear place for it to land without being completely exposed.

He came out the other side to a wall of xenos.

“Well, shit,” he said as he pulled his KYAG and started firing.

He could see there were way too many for him to take on.

“Gore,” Chomps called. “Get back into the forest. There are two huge trees about a quarter of a kilometer in. Climb them and we’ll get you from there.”

“Climb the trees?” Gore replied. “In this mech? They won’t hold.”

“They’ll hold,” Chomps said. “Trust me. You’ll see when you get to them.”

Gore fired a few more blasts then clamped his KYAG to his back, turned, and ran back into the forest.

He went a quarter of a kilometer and skidded to a halt when he saw the trees.

“She wasn’t kidding,” he said to himself as he began to climb.

***

Roar sent the crawlers into the hole then began scaling the cliff until she was on a huge ledge that could have held ten mechs. Problem was she had about a hundred xenos scaling the cliff up after her.

“Please tell me you can hear me now,” Roar said.

“We hear you,” Corporal Kell said. “I’m bringing the drop ship to you. Do not move.”

“I may have to move,” Roar said.

“Do not do that,” Kell replied. “This is going to take timing and if you move, you’ll ruin that timing.”

“Yeah, but I got some heat heading my way,” Roar said.

“Do not move!” Kell shouted.

Roar watched the xenos get closer and closer.

“Can I pull my KYAG?” Roar asked.

“No!” Kell shouted. “That would be moving! And you will need both hands free!”

“Free? Why?” Roar asked. “What are you planning on doing?”

Her answer was in the form of a drop ship lowering directly in front of her, but about forty meters away. It started to back towards her as the rear ramp lowered.

“You get it now?” Kell asked.

Roar said a prayer and jumped.

10.

“Now!” Chomps said to Rots.

The rookie initiated the sequence of detonations and they waited.

“Anything?” Gore asked, sitting in a jump seat at the back of the drop ship cockpit. It was cramped, but he’d insisted. “How do we know if it worked?”

“Hey everyone,” Wan said over the comms. “You just lit that planet up! Sensors are whiting out from the heat signatures coming from those caverns. Even with the planet’s surface in the way, we can see the fire that’s spreading. Great job.”

“Good one, Rots,” Chomps said. “You came through.”

“Thanks,” Rots said.

“Everyone make it?” Chomps asked.

“Good,” Roar reported.

“Good,” Wall reported.

“Good,” Giga said.

“I see three drop ships approaching the Jethro,” Wan said. “Chomps, you’ve pulled the trigger. Come on home.”

“On our way.” Chomps looked at Corporal Han Lu. “Get us back to the Jethro.”

“Doing that right now,” Han Lu replied. “Jethro is dead ahead.”

They burst out of the final layers of the planet’s atmosphere and into the blue-black of space.

Then a warning klaxon started blaring and Han Lu frowned.

“We have extra weight,” he said. “Containment sensors came online as soon as we broke free of the planet.”

“We have a xeno on us?” Chomps asked.

“If it’s one of those things, then it’s huge,” Han LU said. “Checking vids now.”

Several vid views came up on the front display and everyone’s jaws dropped.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Gore said.

“I thought we got it,” Chomps said. “I swear, I thought we got it.”

“Is that a xeno in a mech?” Rots asked.

“Yes,” Chomps said and undid her seat straps. “I’ll take care of it.”

“How?” Gore asked.

“By getting in your mech, going outside, and punching it until it lets go,” Chomps said. “You got a better idea?”

“Yeah,” Gore said and sighed. “I’ll do it.”

“You? You hate open space!” Chomps exclaimed.

“It’s my mech, babe,” Gore stated.

“That xeno mech is my mess that I did not clean up,” Chomps countered.

“My mech,” Gore said.

“How is that an argument?” Chomps asked.

“It’s not,” Gore said. “It’s the truth. It’s my mech in the hold, and I’m the one that’s gonna go punch this piece of shit until it lets go.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

“Want to make a decision?” Han Lu asked. “We can’t land on the Jethro until that thing is off us.”

“I got it,” Gore said. “You’ll see.”

“Be careful,” Chomps said.

“Oh, that is the plan, trust me,” Gore said and opened the hatch to the hold. “Back in a sec.”

He left the cockpit and closed the hatch behind him, leaving Chomps to stare at the jump seat where he had been sitting.

***

Gore powered up his mech then called, “Pop this can, Han Lu!”

“Just say open the ramp,” Han Lu replied as the rear ramp began to open.

Gore was prepared. He had his mech tethered to the drop ship’s winch so that when the cargo hold depressurized, he was sent flying out rocket fast, but stopped instantly when the cable went taught. Gore used that momentum to swing his mech down under the drop ship, right at the xeno mech.

“Hey there!” Gore shouted even though there was no way the xeno mech could hear him. It shifted positions to face him “Well, shit.”

Gore couldn’t use his KYAG or he’d risk blasting the drop ship, so he let the cable swing him towards the xeno mech, both fists clenched and ready.

What he wasn’t ready for was the xeno mech launching itself at him.

The two mechs collided in open space which sent them tumbling about until the cable went taught again and snapped them back towards the drop ship. Gore didn’t waste a second and started pummeling the xeno mech. Unfortunately, the xeno mech had the exact same idea and stared pummeling Gore. The two machines were a flurry of pounding fists.

An alarm sounded in Gore’s cockpit indicating the seal on his hatch was compromised.

“Son of a butch!” he yelled. “I mean son of a bitch! Goddammit!”

The xeno mech was relentless. It didn’t stop pounding at Gore’s cockpit hatch. It knew the weak spot on the mech and was exploiting that weakness.

“Screw this,” Gore said and reached back for his KYAG with one hand as he tried to ward off the blows with the other.

“Gore? What are you doing?” chomps asked.

“Trust me,” Gore said. “I have an idea.”

“You two are spinning too much,” Chomps said. “If you fire that and are facing us, you’ll tear a hole right through the drop ship!”

“Not gonna fire it,” Gore said.

He slammed the butt of the KYAG into the xeno mech’s hatch, jamming it there. Then he twisted the KYAG, bending the weapon further until it was fully lodged in the mech’s frame.

“Hey, babe? What’s my specialty?” Gore asked as he undid the clasp of the winch cable, gripping the end as tight as he possibly could.

“Demolitions,” Chomps said in a quiet voice.

“Bingo,” Gore said and let go of the cable.

The two mechs went tumbling away from the drop ship.

“Gore! No!” Chomps screamed.

With both hands free, Gore turned his mech and grabbed onto the xeno mech’s frame. The thing’s tentacles whipped at him, but Gore could see the thing inside was panicked. Gore did something that was the complete opposite of self-preservation and he had the xeno rattled.

Gore bunched his legs up and pressed his feet against the xeno mech’s midsection. Then he let go with one hand and crushed the magazine of the KYAG.

“See ya,” Gore said as he let go with the other hand and kicked off with every ounce of power he could redirect to his legs.

The xeno mech went one way, Gore went the other way then the space between was filled with a blinding light and Gore was spinning so fast he thought he was going to puke.

“Hey, babe?” he called through gritted teeth. “Am I going the right direction?”

Every alarm in his mech began going off at the same time.

“Huh. Maybe I’m not,” Gore said. “I thought I’d timed that right.”

His sensors were shot and he couldn’t orient by sight since he was spinning so fast. It was a coin toss. He was either heading towards the planet or away from it. And with the speed he was moving, he’d find out shortly.

Then his mech slammed to a stop and he was cockpit to hull with the drop ship.

“Grab on!” Chomps yelled.

“Yeah, that’s a nice theory,” Gore said. “But grabbing isn’t working so well.”

“I got an idea,” Rots said. “Stay where you are.”

“That’s a nice theory too,” Gore said. “That requires grabbing, and we’ve established that my mech is pretty much not doing anything other than giving me a headache with all these alarms.”

Gore heard something scraping across the mech then there were blue sparks.

“And what exactly is happening?” he asked.

“Rots just had a crawler weld you to the drop ship,” Chomps said. “Han Lu is pissed because now landing on the Jethro is going to be a bit of a bitch. You’re welded to the bottom.”

“Tell Han Lu I’ll buy him all the beers when we get back to SBE,” Gore said. “Or as many as I can pay for. Whichever comes first.”

“I’ll tell him,” Chomps said. “And, Gore?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“Don’t do that again. Ever,” Chomps said. “And please stop calling me babe.”

“Can’t promise either of those things,” Gore said and laughed.

11.

“Chavez has deployed his troops,” Parveet said. “The warships are in orbit and Hrouska is now part of the Freedom Faction.”

“No,” Schroeder said and stood up from the conference table. “If it’s called that, then I’m out.”

“Sit your butt down, Sergeant,” Lucky said.

Schroeder sat, but growled and grumbled, making quite a production of the effort.

“I’m not a fan of that name either,” Parveet said. “I highly doubt many are. It’ll change at some point, but for now, there needed to be a name to identify with.”

“So, we’re done?” Chomps asked.

She was the only representative of the mech pilots present. In addition to her, Lucky, Parveet, and Schroeder, there was Stony, McDorn, Morisaki, and Spotz.

“Each one of you is essential to the operation of the Jethro,” Parveet said. “I need you to be my eyes and ears from here on out.”

“We always have been, Boss,” Stony said.

“I need it now more than ever,” Parveet said. “People are going to get scared as this split progresses. People are going to worry about their place in the galaxy and worry about their family’s place. Worry and fear will create dissension. I just need a heads up if you get a whiff of that.”

She held up her hand before anyone could protest.

“I am not asking you to spy,” Parveet said. “I am also not asking you to report every complaint or grumble. Just keep your ear to the ground and if something bothers you, and you don’t think you can deal with it, then tell me. We’ll figure it out. I am not foolish enough to believe all those hands that went up at the vote were one hundred percent confident.”

“Will do, Boss,” Schroeder said.

“Spotz? Stony? Where are we with the engines?” Parveet asked.

“We’re good,” Spotz said.

“Running a couple more tests, but we should be able to handle the wormhole portal as soon as the tests are done,” Stony said. “The Legion’s engineers really helped us get the engines whipped into shape. We’ll want to look into upgrading to their tech when we get back to SBE. Those warships are lightyears ahead of us.”

“I don’t know about that,” Spotz mumbled.

“First things first,” Parveet said. “I have to make sure Jennings is on board with all of this. I know him well, and I believe he will be of a like mind, but until I do know for sure, I want you to spread the word that we keep things quiet when we return to SBE. Understood?”

“That sounds like a very good idea,” Lucky said.

“Alright,” Parveet said. “That’s about all for today. Stony, Spotz, let me know as soon as those tests come in. I want us out of this system ASAP.”

“You got it, Boss,” Stony said.

“Great,” Parveet said. “Dismissed.”

***

Parveet had just drifted off to sleep when her door chimed.

“What?” she called out.

“It’s Bee,” Torn said.

“Come in,” Parveet replied and unlocked the door from the tablet by her bed.

Torn came in and took a seat as Parveet slipped on some sweats and a long-sleeved tee.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Parveet asked.

“Not really,” Torn said.

“What’s on your mind?” Parveet asked.

“Something Chavez said,” Torn replied.

“Oh?”

“When he agreed to give you autonomy, he said it was because something more important was at stake than your mechs.”

“He also said my ego, but we can forget about that,” Parveet said.

“Yes, of course,” Torn said. “It’s the mech part that bugs me. I was sent to you because of the mechs. Hrouska hadn’t been known yet. As far as I was concerned, your mechs were of the utmost importance.”

“Yes, but he was referring to the big picture,” Parveet said and smirked.

Torn frowned at her. “What? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing at all,” Parveet replied and stretched. “Far from it. I’m just surprised you picked up on it, is all.”

“What? Picked up on what?”

Parveet leaned forward and sighed. “Bee, did you really think the families creating this new faction would just give up their status and pretend that people like me and mine can be equals? That isn’t going to happen. Chavez and the others will get what they want from me and mine then they will show their true faces and the actual power structure of this Freedom Faction, God help me with that name, will be revealed.”

“That’s what I am afraid of,” Torn said. “My family is gone, Jay. Your family is gone. If the other families do take over this new faction once they have their power base secured, then there is nothing we can do about it.”

“Nothing we can do…? Bee, do you really think that?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You are so far from correct, it’s kind of cute,” Parveet said. “In all this time you’ve been with me on the Jethro and witnessed what I am capable of, what me and mine are capable of, do you think the word nothing is in our vocabulary?”

“You are all very good at your jobs,” Torn said. “But you can’t take on the new faction by yourself. You can’t take on the UEC by yourself.”

“No, I cannot,” Parveet said. “But I’m not by myself. And as soon as we get to SBE, I am going to make sure I am even less by myself. I will have total autonomy over the MEUs. There is a lot I can do with that.”

“There will be spies in the ranks,” Torn said.

“Spies are nothing,” Parveet said. “You think I haven’t had spies on the Jethro before? I eat spies for breakfast. And unlike the breakfast served on this ship, I like the taste of spies. The UEC hates me, has always hated me, and they’ve sent more spies to take me down than you can count. How do you think I got Lucky?”

“You got lucky?”

“My XO,” Parveet said.

“He was a spy?”

“He’d never admit it, but yes, he was a spy,” Parveet said. “So was Spotz, my Chief Engineer. Bee, I have been playing this game the entire time I’ve been in it. I’m not some clueless colonel looking out for my career. I’ve been expecting a split like this for a long time. Trust me, I’m ready for it.”

“Boss?” Stony called over the comms. “Engines are ready. You want us to wait for morning shift or get under way now?”

“Get under way now, Stony,” Parveet replied. “Have Lucky make a general announcement so all stations are ready.”

“You got it, Boss.”

Parveet waited a second then nodded at Torn and crawled back into bed.

“Go get some sleep, Bee,” Parveet said. “We’ve got a long life ahead of us.”

“You’re pretty damn confident about this,” Torn said.

“You heard what Chavez said about my ego,” Parveet replied as she closed her eyes. “I have total autonomy over that too.”

12.

Jennings sat stock still at his desk, his eyes boring into Parveet. She looked relaxed and nonchalant.

After several minutes, Jennings stirred like he’d been in a daze.

“Work out all the angles?” Parveet asked.

“I think so,” Jennings aid. “I appreciate you not disturbing me while I considered every option available to me.”

“Which one did you decide on?” Parveet asked. “You gonna report me? Report this new faction and turn us all in to the UEC? Did I misjudge you?”

“I doubt you misjudge much,” Jennings said. He reached behind him and placed his palm against the wall. A panel opened and a shelf slid out with a large bottle and several glasses set on it. “Whiskey?”

“I’ve known you how long and you have never used that once when I was in your office,” Parveet said.

“We all have our secrets,” Jennings said. “Some more than others.”

“Yes,” Parveet said. “I’d love some whiskey.”

Jennings poured and handed Parveet a glass then poured himself some. He rolled the liquid around in his glass, studying it, before taking a sip and easing into his chair.

“How will you get the other MEUs to come on board?” he asked.

“Not one hundred percent sure yet,” Parveet said, taking a sip and smiling. “Nice.”

“I wouldn’t hide the crap whiskey,” Jennings said.

“It’ll take some doing, but I have a distinct feeling the vast majority of the MEU personnel is as dissatisfied as Jethro,” Parveet said. “The UEC has been sending us to our deaths for decades. Time we controlled our futures for something other than the wealth and glory of a few families.”

“Aren’t we trading one set of families for another?” Jennings asked. “That’s the part that my mind can’t shake.”

“Because it’s true,” Parveet said and sipped again. She smiled, but it obviously wasn’t because of the whiskey.

“You have something in mind?” Jennings asked.

“I believe once the MEUs are in line, we may have more leverage than this new faction imagines we can muster,” Parveet said. “Even Chavez, whose family is old military, doesn’t quite understand the mechs. He thinks in pieces on a board, he thinks in moves and countermoves. That’s not how mechs and their pilots work. MEUs are raw emotion. They are bonds forged in fire and they are powered by spirits that refuse to be contained unless it’s inside a cockpit.”

“Don’t underestimate Chavez,” Jennings said. “He gets more than you think he does.”

“I would never underestimate him,” Parveet said. “But knowing who he is and underestimating him are two different things. He’s dangerous as all hell. I know that. And he is not my ally. I know that too. But what else I know is no matter what I do, he will always, and I do mean always, underestimate me and mine.”

Parveet downed her whiskey, set the glass on the desk, and stood up.

“I plan on expanding me and mine so his underestimation spreads and is his downfall,” Parveet said. “If his downfall is warranted. Maybe he’ll surprise me. Maybe they all will.”

“And Torn?” Jennings asked, staying seated. “Where does she fit into all this? The UEC wants her head. A security ship arrives any day now. That part of her story was real. Her lineage has been purged. She can’t leave this station without being clapped in irons and sent back to Earth for execution.”

“Then she doesn’t leave,” Parveet said. “Unless she’s with me. Torn and I go way, way back. I don’t totally trust her, but I don’t mistrust her. It’s complicated.”

“Then I’ll deal with the security ship and I’ll leave her to you,” Jennings said. “She’s your burden. Just don’t let her take you down. If you go down, then I go down.”

“Understood,” Parveet said. “Thanks for the whiskey.”

“Thanks for the blown mind,” Jennings said. “Not gonna sleep for a month now.”

“That’s what the whiskey is for,” Parveet said and left.

***

“You each have contacts and connections within the other MEUs on SBE,” Parveet said as she addressed the mech pilots in the secure conference room Jethro used when on SBE. “I want you to reach out and test those connections. See what the mindset of the other MEUs are. See if their loyalties are to the UEC or to their MEU. I think we know the answer, but I want solid facts before I proceed.”

“I can speak with Stapleton,” Chomps said. “He’s an old academy buddy. He’d shoot me straight.”

“He’d shoot me straight,” Gore mocked.

“I am guessing you have history with Stapleton beyond just the academy,” Parveet said. “Grow the hell up, Gore.”

“They were engaged,” Gore said.

“That was a long, long time ago,” Chomps said.

“Yeah, grow up, Gore,” Giga said.

“Dude, grow some gonads while you’re at it,” Shock said.

“You got plenty of space down there,” Roar said.

“Bam!” Shock and Giga said and held up their hands. Roar gave them each a high five.

“I’m serious,” Parveet said. “You are my front lines on this part of the switch. I need solid intel on who is thinking what. No adolescent bullshit.”

“You should fire Gore right now then,” Giga said.

“Chuck him out an airlock,” Shock said.

“I’ll be cool,” Gore said. “I know some folks on the Chapel. I’ll do my part.”

“I know you will or I’ll see you in the cages,” Parveet said.

“Ooh, the cages!” Giga said. “Schroeder said her squad will put two to one on us if we go down there and fight them tonight. You’d think after Hrouska she’d want to chill.”

“I’m game,” Shock said. “Three days on SBE and I am stir crazy as all hell.”

“We need a name,” Wall said. All eyes turned to him. “What?”

“Explain,” Parveet said.

“MEU is old,” Wall said. “We need a new name. I don’t want to be part of an MEU. I want to be part of something bigger. Something that scares everyone else in the galaxy.”

“Jethro scares everyone in the galaxy,” Giga said.

“But we won’t be just Jethro,” Shock said.

“Good point,” Giga replied.

“What kind of name?” Parveet asked. “I like what you’re saying, so go on. What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know,” Wall said and shrugged.

“No one believes that,” Parveet said. “You don’t put that many words together unless you have something to say. What do you have in mind, Wall?”

“Uh, well… Maybe we call ourselves Mech Corps?” Wall said. “No more separate MEUs. When new ones come on board, they join the Mech Corps.”

“Mech Corps?” Parveet mused. “I like it. Good job, Wall.”

“Mech Corps rocks!” Shock said. “I say we get matching tattoos!”

“Let’s not,” Giga said.

“Bummer,” Shock replied and frowned.

“Mech Corps it is,” Parveet said. “Keep it under the radar for now, but feel free to use that name to recruit. It’ll take at least two months before the UEC gets wind of what is happening at Hrouska. We have until then to shore up our forces. I want weekly reports on your progress. Understood?”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Good. Then get the hell out of here and go have fun.”

The pilots jumped to their feet and took off before Parveet could sit down. She smiled as they went then relaxed into her chair.

“Mech Corps,” she said out loud. “Mech Corps. Yeah. That’ll do nicely.”

The End

Read on for a free sample of Kaijunaut

Chapter One: Crashing into the Cosmos

1

“This is totally ridiculous. I’m gonna die.”

Cole followed his wife, Emily, and C.C. into the DSMU dock. He hoped he wouldn’t die. He didn’t want to die. He had so much to live for: a beautiful and highly intelligent wife, his family, his xenolinguistic studies, and a vintage collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs books. Maybe it wasn’t a life for everyone, but it was one he enjoyed, and he didn’t like the idea of how dying would negatively impact his ability to enjoy that life.

The rest of the crew, Mathieu and Anna, were already in the dock and suited up in their Advanced eXploration Environmental Survival (AXES) suits. The closed-in room was full of large, floor-to-ceiling, white-and-black domed structures set into concave platforms. Cole thought they looked like giant dinosaur eggs set into satellite dishes.

The airlock shut and sealed behind them. From this point forward, there was only one way out of this room: exploding out of the spacecraft.

Cole took a deep breath. He pulled on his AXES suit. The AXES suits were full-body suits with protective padding for the joints. They also came with a full-filtration helmet and a small distiller tank. Each suit was highlighted in bright blue markings.

Emily said, “Take it easy, baby. This will be just like the simulators.”

“I failed the simulators.”

“How do you fail the simulator?” C.C. asked. “Isn’t it autonomous? You press a button and then you sit back.”

Anna said, “Cole pressed the wrong button and ejected himself from the EDLS before we left the ship.”

“Oh, that’s right…”

“Ignore them,” Emily said. “You’ll be fine.”

“Right. Except for the part where I’m about to be jettisoned out of a ship that is itself orbiting an alien planet at about, what—six and a half kilometers per second? That’s three hundred ninety kilometers per minute, which is roughly twenty three thousand kilometers an hour.”

“Twenty three thousand forty, to be exact,” Mathieu added.

“Twenty three thousand four hundred,” Emily corrected.

“You and numbers,” Cole said to Emily.

“You and letters.”

Emily continued. “Taking into account the DSMU’s burn rate, that means in the low gravity of the planet, the thrust-to-weight ratio is roughly 500:1. It is the safest landing possible. See, if you have a problem, you do the math, and the math will solve it.”

“Erratic winds, alien planet with an unstable atmosphere. My words trump your math.”

“I thought you were looking forward to this, hey” Mathieu said. “‘Exploration is the destiny of mankind,’ you said.”

“I am. I’m just not looking forward to being dropped into an alien planet’s upper atmosphere.” He rubbed his stomach.

“Did you take the antacid?” Emily asked.

Cole nodded. “But I’m not sure it was enough.”

“You’re cute when you’re nervous. Do you need help into the EDLS?”

He shook his head. Emily kissed him tenderly. For a brief moment, he held her lips to his, like he could hold her safe and close to him. Like he could hold their lives together.

She pushed away and crossed the room to her Entry, Descent, and Landing Shell (EDLS), where she pulled herself into the polished metal structure. Like butterflies reverse-engineering themselves into their cocoons, the astronauts pulled themselves into the domed EDL structures.

“This way to the EDLS, sir,” JEVS said to Cole. JEVS, which was short for “JPL EVA System,” was the robot custodian of the Anchor while the astronauts were away.

“Thank you, JEVS.”

Cole had a little more trouble than his compatriots with climbing backwards into the EDLS. Granted, he hadn’t had half their training.

“Here we sit like birds in the wilderness,” C.C. sang. “Birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness! Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting on Cole Thomas Musgrove.”

While the others chuckled, JEVS buckled Cole into his seat in the DSMU. Cole shot back, “I’m late cause I got to kiss the commander. She’s a damn good kisser, by the way.”

“Stop it,” Emily said.

Cole said, “I want that on the record before we plummet into history, or to death. My wife’s a damn good kisser and I would follow her to the ends of the galaxy if she asked.”

“Got it,” C.C. said while the rest of the crew chuckled.

Emily checked the status of her equipment. The screens and joysticks were all operating normally. She stretched her arms into the DSMU’s revolutionary dynamic chair. It was a multi-axis gimbal chair that allowed the user to sit in virtually any position and move freely while communicating with the DSMU.

While she completed her status checks, C.C. said, “Hey, you’re not in charge yet. I’m still the commander of the Anchor.”

Emily exhaled sharply. “C.C., are you going to give me any crap?” Her tone implied a cornucopia of bad things if C.C. responded incorrectly.

“Not giving you any crap, sir. Just not ready to relinquish my command, I guess.” He cleared this throat and said to everyone: “Ahem. It’s been three years that I’ve been your commander onboard the Anchor. I want you all to know that it was an honor and a pleasure serving you. Thank you for flying with Titan Space. Please place your trays in the forward upright position. Bad jokes aside, I’d like to thank Mr. Dan Deerfield, the CEO of Titan Space, as well as the board of directors, chief engineer Rick Render, and all the hard-working engineers at Titan Space and NASA who developed and tested the Anchor.”

“Gracias, C.C.,” Anna said.

“Yeah, thanks, man,” Cole said.

“Three big cheers for C.C.,” Mathieu said over the communications network, clapping.

C.C. said, “Commander Musgrove, the mission is yours.”

“Thank you, Commander Crenshaw. Crew, prepare for EDL.”

“Let’s rock ’n’ roll,” Anna said. “I want to get off this ship. It’s time to see some wide open spaces.”

“At least as much as you can from inside a DSMU,” Mathieu said.

“I’ll take it.”

Emily pulled up her crew’s vitals. Everybody looked good except her husband, whose heart rate was elevated. “Cole, I need you to breath slow and deep. Your vitals are too high.”

“I guess I’m nervous. I’ve never jumped from orbit before.”

“Neither have any of us.”

“Technically, I have,” Mathieu said.

“Except Mathieu,” Emily said. “Mathieu’s done it all. He could probably do this all without any of us, but NASA won’t let him work alone.”

“She’s right, you know. I met with Director Craft about it. He said NASA policy hasn’t caught up with me yet. Cole, let me give you some advice. The trick is to not throw up on the way down, hey. Because if you do, your vomit will first hit the ceiling, but then eventually gravity will suck it right back down onto your face.”

“Not helping,” Cole said.

“Come on, Cole,” Anna said. “It’s ten minutes of the best thrill ride ever invented. Think of it like being on a roller coaster dreamed up by the best minds on earth. It is perfectly safe.”

“So long as all one hundred pyrotechnics go off according to plan and nobody was sleeping on the job when they installed them,” C.C. said. “Also, there are the five hundred thousand lines of code that—fingers crossed—all work and haven’t been affected by radiation.”

“Those codes have been checked and double-checked by JPL,” Emily interjected. “Not to mention, we have radiation recovery protocols in place.”

“Don’t forget, it’s all built by the lowest bidder,” C.C. added.

“Really not helping, C.C.,” Cole said.

“I don’t want to make you nervous, Cole, but there’s basically a zero percent margin of error or we die,” Mathieu said.

“Mathieu, do you want to stay on this ship while the rest of us explore a world never before visited by mankind?” Emily barked. “Zip it. Cole, your blood pressure is elevated. I cannot start the EDL sequences until your blood pressure has gone down. So I need you to find a happy place. Use the words the brain trust at JSC gave you. The rest of you, I appreciate you taking the chance to get back at my husband’s humor, God knows I’ve wanted a little vengeance there myself. But you’ve had your fun. Enough.”

“Mellifluous,” Cole said to himself. He thought of the DSMU frame at a station at the JPL, hung up on a giant crane in the Robot Assembly Building along with the other twelve DSMUs. Contractors wearing clean suits installed the wiring harnesses, the radio assemblies, and weeks later, the carapace. They would bolt the DSMUs to their heat shields. Hell, they would glue the tiles to the heat shield. He hoped they installed everything probably. He hoped they were clearheaded. He hoped that if they saw something wrong during the installation process, they reported it. He hoped that the testing was as thorough as possible and that all the bugs were discovered. It was a lot of hope, but he trusted them.

With your life, his inner monologue reminded him.

Cole stuck the photo of his family between the screens. There was him, Emily, and his sister Clara, who was holding a newborn child. Cole focused while a tear ran down his cheek. “Calm, balanced, serene. Mathieu, C.C., and Anna can go fuck themselves. Mellifluous.”

Emily watched her husband’s heartbeat lower from 149 bpm to 118 bpm.

“Much better, my love,” Emily said. In her EDLS, she toggled away from the abort menu that she had pulled up while everyone was razzing her husband. She moved to the sequence menu. “JEVS, you ready?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“DSMU 1 go for EDL.” She punched a button.

The others sounded off.

“DSMU 2 go for EDL.”

“DSMU 3 go for EDL.”

“DSMU 4 go for EDL.”

Emily waited a second. “Cole?”

“Mellifluous,” he said. She could hear his slow inhalation over the com, then, “DSMU 5 go for EDL.”

Emily said, “JEVS, initiate EDL sequence in 3…2…”

“Mellifluous,” Cole said, looking at his family. On his screen Distance from Ground read as 177 kilometers.

“Oh, shit.”

There was a loud boom and the floor fell out from under his EDLS. Cole was in gravitational freefall.

2

The group of school children sat quietly in the large theater auditorium. Normally, they would be picking their noses and squirming in their seats, but not that day. That day they were visiting an astronaut at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The astronaut had their full attention.

Dr. Emily Musgrove, who was introduced as the commander of Exo-Planetary Space Expedition (EPSP) 18, stood in a sky blue jumpsuit on a narrow stage above her rapt audience. Behind her, on the giant screen, was that universally revered symbol of space exploration, the NASA logo. A blue circle of the cosmos with the agency’s name orbited by some unknown space vehicle—perhaps it was John Glenn in the Friendship 7. The acronym “NASA” floated weightlessly among the stars and in between the lines of a bright red chevron, a tip of the hat to the aeronautic purpose behind the agency.

The crowd of children had just finished watching a short video showing kids building all kinds of things using toys, including toy robot build kits, popular world-creation games, and even the old stalwart, Legos. In the video, the toys were always being used to build science fiction playsets or toy space vehicles.

“Do you like the toys you get to play with?” Emily asked the room.

“Yes!” the enthusiastic crowd shouted back at her.

“Well, these are the toys I get to play with, and these are the things I get to build.”

The NASA logo faded, and the agency-created sizzle reel started with old, historical footage of the Mercury and Gemini capsules and NASA’s early missions. The children oohed at the large booming thunder of Saturn rockets blasting off from Cape Canaveral. They awwed at the footage of a space shuttle landing at Kennedy air strip. They got silent as they watched space stations hurtling over the Earth and cheered with the first rockets to Mars. In less than two minutes, the entire history of NASA was provided to them in a historical perspective of space hardware: landers, robots, rovers, submarines, drones, and super drones. The footage video culminated in views of elegant interstellar vehicles and finally, the giant robotic mechs. Kids stood up to get a better view of the mechs. Emily smiled from the stage.

As the video ended and the screen faded to black, a spotlight fell on Emily. “NASA is about exploration. But it is also about perspective.” She pressed the button on her clicker, and a life-size model of a Crawler appeared on the screen. The Crawler was too wide to fit on the screen.

“This is a Crawler. It sits over two stories tall. Similar versions of the Crawler were used to move rockets over a hundred years ago.” As she spoke, the Crawler shrunk so that it could fit on the screen. The bottom of a rocket appeared to stand on top of the Crawler.

“This is a Delta heavy rocket, which was the rocket that helped us get to Mars.”

The Delta shrunk so that it could fit onto the screen. Now the Crawler, which seconds ago was too large for the giant screen, was no more than a small wedge at the bottom.

“Now we have a better rocket, an Omega. These are the workhorses of the Exo-Planet Search Program, the EPSP. Like with your toys where you sometimes have to build one part of the set, then connect it to another part of the set, the Omegas deliver large payloads into low earth orbit, where robots and astronauts at Space Station Hephaestus assemble the interstellar vehicles.”

Behind her, thick pieces of thrusters and drives and capsules were launched into the Earth’s atmosphere, where they were assembled into a large white and black space ship that made the Omegas look like two-door economy-sized cars parked next to eighteen wheelers.

“Pretty big difference, right?” As the children nodded, she said, “This is IV-104, the Anchor. And it is the best and latest interstellar vehicle built by Titan Space and NASA. But that is only one part of the story. Because we now have to take this giant spaceship, which is bigger and more powerful than anything NASA has ever built, and we have to fling it through space to a faraway planet.”

Up on the screen, the giant interstellar vehicle squeezed down next to the Earth, and then a red line shot out from the Earth, past the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and then Neptune. With each passing planetary body, the speed of the red line picked up. Within seconds it had passed the Oort cloud and broken free of the solar system.

The cloud joined the shrinking rings of the solar system’s planetary orbits, and suddenly stars began to pass at dizzying speeds.

“We have now traveled farther than anyone has ever traveled in the history of humankind,” Emily said.

Finally the red line settled on a small system with five orbital rings. The orbital rings grew and grew until large terrestrial bodies floated past the screen and out over the audience.

As the projection moved over the students, a small planet covered in oceans of sand and islands of lakes appeared. “This is 51 Golgotha a, our final destination on our long voyage from Earth. We have traveled 7 light years at this point. We have arrived at a planet that caught our interest because it has something no other exo-planet has yet shown: signs of civilization.”

The camera angle swept over the exo-planet’s many deserts and came to a jungle. Along the horizon, a tall, gray wall appeared. From behind the wall peeked the tops of twelve long pyramids. They rose slow and steady over the wall, like giant sentinels.

“This is what we have been chasing since before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. We know we are not alone in the universe. Microbes and fungi have been discovered on other planets. 51 Golgotha has plants. But these pyramids are something totally different. They hold the answers to questions we’ve been asking since we first looked up at the stars thousands of years ago. Are we the only civilization in the universe?”

The video did not show the fields of dead, mummified bodies that lay beyond the wall. Some things were not meant for school field trips. She was certain the children had seen photos of the aliens. Who hadn’t? They were aliens. But this was a government program, not a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

She paused. “But that’s not what you came to see, is it?”

Kids gasped. On the screen, the point of view of the camera swarmed from the planet back to IV-104 in orbit. The point of view breached the hull of the Anchor. Inside, small robots no bigger than a soccer ball whisked around the ship’s interior, performing maintenance chores. They whizzed by larger, bipedal robots that walked heavily down the interstellar vehicle’s halls.

“There are robots like these already on 51 Golgotha, taking measurements and relaying data back to us. But not until humans get there will there be robots like these…”

One of the bipedal robots seemed to walk across the screen. It bumped into a shadow, then stepped back as if it had run into something solid in the dark. Out of the shadow emerged the giant robot, a large DSMU, a Dynamic Supplemental Mobility Unit. It was 8 meters tall. The DSMU was painted white and black like a space shuttle, and it had the EPSP 18 mission patch painted on one shoulder and an American flag and NASA logo on the other. Its large feet stepped forward onto the stage. Each step made a big whumph noise as the weight of the DSMU met the stage. Only then did the children realize that while they had been looking at the holographic projections above them, the screen had been lifted. An actual DSMU stood on the stage with them. It was so tall it had to duck to fit into the theater. The DSMU raised its arms wide. Its giant robotic arms fanned over the children. Much like theater goers being mesmerized by a chained King Kong, some children smiled, others laughed, and others screamed in glee. And fear.

Then they all cheered and clapped. Even the teachers stood in awe.

Emily looked off stage to her husband Cole, who was sitting on the front row alongside a Public Affairs Office specialist and the JSC Center Director. Emily winked to her husband. Then to the children she said, “Okay, who wants to see the DSMU jump?”

More cheers.

3

Sensors were blaring, most of them warning codes, and none of them serious. The system was not happy with the freefall event. Through the portal window above him, Cole could see the Anchor. It seemed to be falling away from him into space (or maybe he was launching away from it—being in space had really messed with his sense of up and down). He turned to look outside the EDLS. 51 Golgotha was getting closer with every second. It was lush and green and full of alien plants. Anna had been gushing about them the entire course of the trip. He had seen holograms from the autonomous devices already exploring the planet. But now they were actually going there.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Imagine the loudest explosions you have ever heard. These were louder. The sound was so intense, Cole could feel the vibrations rattling in his chest and tickling his ribs. They startled the hell out of him.

The explosions came to a crescendo, and then the shell flew off of the DSMU. The robot lay kneeling in its EDL configuration tethered to the heat shield. An intense orange and red glow was burning all around Cole’s DSMU. He was sure that, from an outside perspective, this looked very much like a giant robot skateboarding through the atmosphere. In the future, assuming he survived the landing, he would assure anyone who asked that it was nothing but terrifying.

The world was coming up to meet him as he plummeted to the ground at nine Gs. The status screen showed Environmental Controls and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) as nominal. His kph was somewhere around 500. He was 80 kilometers from ground. As his vision tunneled, he focused on the DSMU temperature readout, which was pushing toward peak heat, 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. And then Cole blacked out.

Kaijunaut is available from Amazon here.

Table of Contents

- Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three