《Nebulous Fate》


 Adrift at ships end

    Adrift at Ship¡¯s End


    Mist curled in from beside the corrugated steel edges of the catwalk. James could taste blood in his mouth. The readouts from the status panel above him were wrong, indecipherable even. It was a moment before he realized that they were upside down, or that he was.


    The world slid sideways as he struggled upwards. Shattered glass tinked around him as his boots disturbed the remnants of his diagnostic screen. Small shards echoing down into the dark as they fell away from the scaffold¡¯s edges. Getting to his feet was not a simple task. Hot roiling nausea swept down his body as he gripped the railing.


    Neon green light shot through the swirling mists as the shuddering ship threatened to pitch him once more to the floor. He remembered that he was supposed to be administering the communications check. It was impossible without the glass. He stumbled away from the futile task. The ship shuddered and rocked again and thick waxy fear coated his mouth.


    Plasma...Plasma plumes gave off that kind of light, but I shouldn¡¯t be able to see them. He thought, The color should never have reached me in this section of the ship, the communications array was insulated entirely insulated.


    Pain flared as he rubbed his scalp in a nervous habit. His hand came away warm and wet. He knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to see anything, no condensation vapors, and certainly not that light. Unless something has gone horribly wrong. He stepped heavily forward until violent shudder brought him painfully to his knees. He crawled out of the corridor and into the bright foggy bend of the hallway.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Twisted metal and floating debris formed an iris out into space where the main deck lift should have been. Fusion trails of hot sulfurous orange criss crossed the night before bright green blossoms washed out the starry universe. Cries and groans twisted through space as the once proud leviathan screamed a keening cry amidst the vicious and unrelenting assault. James knew the profile, even without a digital readout. Swarms of Eradi light fighters and bombers made passes.


    Molten bits of tungsten plating burst outward as another strip of shielding was peeled away from the dying ship. She began to list in a hopeless attempt to put that damaged section on the far side. Or maybe it was just a result of the forceful explosion. James sunk to his knees and screamed as he watched on in horror. The emergency field shimmered as bits of the com tower passed beyond it. Flipping and spinning endlessly, uselessly. Like the pride of the fleet before him.


    A glowing white bar of light lanced down from above ruthlessly tunneling into the open wound. He squinted his eyes against the searing brightness, but refusing to look away, rather risking blindness through watering eyes. It flashed off but was replaced by another, and another as they bore deeper ceaselessly.


    With clipped wings and broken weapons the once impressive bulk of the Helena only served to prolong her suffering. James watched on as the last remaining Leviathan class warship in Humanity¡¯s fleet shuddered a final gasp before it buckled once more, and then broke apart. Burning salt streaked down the young engineer¡¯s face as watched on from the sheared com tower. The dead hulk¡¯s twisting and burning pieces became a burning effigy. The grave was testament to the displeasure brought down upon his race. He stared out at the tomb of his fellows knowing that hope was lost.


    The struggle was over. Humanity would cease to exist. Reaching for his sidearm he chose to join his crew. His legacy would not be decided by the cruel whims of fate. At the very least he would leave this life on his own terms. But his clawing fingers were met only with empty air. The weapon had been lost amongst the chaos.


    The formerly frantic activity around the now dead vessel slowly ceased. Orderly wings and formations gathered coalescing into a colossal strike force. Pockets of distant laser fire and muted explosions sporadically lit up the hellscape as the remnants of survivors were hunted down. They could take their time now, none of those ships were capable of making a jump unassisted.


    Once collected, the emerald fleet made way. A single engineer languished alone amongst the wreckage. Encased within the failing shield¡¯s power he slowly tumbled. Adrift, at ship¡¯s end.

 Years in the Dust

    Years in the Dust


    Search lights roamed across the pitted and rent surface of the once great Helena. A true monster in its¡¯ day. Borgen practically salivated rubbing his hands together. The wreckage alone would fetch immeasurable wealth amongst the galactic core, there was almost no irradiation either. What was unfortunately irradiated would still turn credits out at some of the less savory places along the rim.


    ¡°Captain, we¡¯re coming alongside the carrier bays now!¡± Growled out a frothy bubbling voice that could only belong to the first mate. Eshka was a melden reliable and malodorous in equal measure. Borgen wrinkled his nose at the stench before responding.


    ¡°Eshka! Mask damn you! You¡¯ll overwork the scrubbers with that stink. Cortha bring the dish out and scan for any salvageables before we get to cutting up some of that plating. The mere weight alone will earn for us all a week in the taverns,  but a whole ship¡­.Well, that¡¯s the kind of find that makes a captain.¡± Borgen drawled out. He had no intention of promoting any of his own crew however, but any whole finds would be worth more than a hundred runs of this slag. He grinned as Cortha¡¯s powerful frame began working her rusted control wheels with renewed vigor.


    The powerful reactor hummed as the nimble Broken Tusk swung low over the blasted hull. Lights played over the gigantic buckled plating. There was hardly an unmarred surface along the gutted terran battleship. The salvager darted unerringly through the wreckage until it reached the edges of a massive crater that had been burned straight through the ship.


    Chirps of static began rapidly increasing in both frequency and amplitude from a bank of scanners.


    Borgen spat.


    ¡°Pull us away from this blasted crater, it¡¯s so hot in there I can feel my grandchildren dying from the wastes. Worthless this whole charred section.¡± He flicked his red hands as if casting it away.


    This was all ruined. He could sell some irradiated plating out at the rim, but nobody would bother with this kind of molten ruin. Terran ships were known for their ruggedness so Hopefully the containment fields isolated the meltdown to this central portion of the hulk.


    ¡°Ffaa, looks like they burned all the way down into the core here eh captain? Vengeful murderous bastards that lot. Eh? Only an idiot picks a fight with the Eradi¡± Sloshed Eska, some of the ever present refuse splatted down the front of Borgen.


    ¡°Mask Eshka MASK! Dammit!¡± Borgen screamed, wiping at the effluent slime. Eshka grumpily pulled down the bulbous gasketed bladders that recirculated his mouth exhaust.


    ¡°Captain! I¡¯ve got something!¡± Cortha practically mewled with excitement, ¡°It¡¯s live circuitry out there maybe a ship!¡±


    Borgen slapped one slime covered hand over the scaled shoulder to peer at the readouts.


    ¡°Corthaaa my girl, Good work! Eshka, bring us up from below it, and let¡¯s active scan the area, it wouldn¡¯t be the first time I seen trapped electrics after a battle like this.¡±


    The nimble salvager darted away from the frozen ripples of mechanical slag and began a cautious approach towards one of the only still active and live signals within a lightyear. A large obelisk still tethered by rippling strands of cabling.


    ***


    Having failed to kill himself, and witnessing the utter loss of life that came with the destruction of a capital ship. James lost his nerve, and later he would realize not a small part of his sanity. He clung to life with a feral intensity that almost always shone through the veneer of polite societal constraints near the end.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Deep in within the com-relay¡¯s core he had rerouted the rapidly draining power to just this room. Wrapped in an emergency eva suit he¡¯d directly vented into the life support system and having cut power to everything other than what was required to keep him alive and breathing he knew that he wouldn¡¯t die from exposure to vacuum or asphyxiation. No he had traded one fate for another when he¡¯d begun the slow struggle against starvation and dehydration. He had been a coward in the end. It was the same reason he was better stuck out here with the machines than manning a critical post or outright fighting in an assault craft.


    Hanging suspended over the decking time had stopped meaning all that much to him. He wasn¡¯t sure when he had begun fading into and out of consciousness. Hallucationations continually plagued him he was certain. Those had just started within the last day or was it days. He couldn¡¯t remember.


    Jame¡¯s mouth salivated at the countless rows upon row of immaculately prepared courses that lined the dining hall banquet table. He carefully shrugged the starched white cuffs of his sleeves up and away from the dishes as he turned to pay rapt attention to a chiming of cutlery upon crystal. The universal signal for a toast.


    The silvered hair of a living hero framed the face that had brought young recruits like him to serve along the front lines despite the risks. Fleet Admiral Olius Cromwell had been at war with the Eradi for longer than many of the freshly minted officers seated beside him had been alive, himself included. Not only had the veteran survived far more encounters than any other, but the crafty fox had been winning too. To his left and right fanned out the senior bridge officers, many of whom were nearly as legendary in their own rights.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for joining us. It isn¡¯t easy to ask anyone to take up this kind of life, but I see earthborn nobility before me, which is a sacrifice doubly so. It was easy for me to join when we lost the Ice planets in foren, The war was young then, but I never had a future outside of the processing plants, hell I didn¡¯t want one. The frontier was all I¡¯d ever known. All a simple man like me could have ever known. But for you, it¡¯s different. You didn¡¯t have to be here. And I just wanted to acknowledge that.¡± He grimaced distastefully, as if the words were leaving an aftertaste.  ¡°Hell, I¡¯ve spent more years fighting than I have living. Seeing you here, so young, and the human race where we are, well, it breaks my heart to know that Sol is all we have left out there. Things might have been different, if we hadn¡¯t been so damn optimistic and naive, or perhaps if the endless debates over what needed to be done to stop the menace hadn¡¯t been so political. The truth is our last best chance to win this war was lost the moment we took the time to consider any other option the complete and utter annihilation of the entire Eradi Empire. It could have been different in the beginning but, we gave up too much too fast, we took too long to get on a war footing. And we¡¯ve been sliding downhill ever since.¡±


    The tablecloth bunched in James¡¯ fists as he balled up his hands angrily until all the blood had gone from his knuckles. It was true, that humanity had suffered humiliation and defeat for the better part of a century. The once great and noble ideals of expansion and exploration had been replaced by the stone faced desperation of a race that was doomed to die.


    ¡°We can¡¯t win this war. Ladies and Gentlemen, I¡¯m not going to lie to you. I don¡¯t know what those recruitment videos spew, or if they¡¯re still spinning something about glory back home, but out here, on the edge of what¡¯s left we know the truth. I personally haven¡¯t achieved anything better than a stalemate in over a decade, and our sister fleet led by my dearest friend Avrus...Well...Even I wouldn¡¯t have labeled the battle within the belt a victory, but I understand moral... Athena hasn¡¯t made contact in over two years.¡±


    Audible gasps could be heard in the cavernous hall. He ran a hand slowly over the polished table almost fondly and looked up ¡°Helena was part of the greatest feat of engineering humankind will likely ever undertake, but she is the last of her kind. You might have heard that the stellar factories are gearing up for a new push, bigger and better tech, but they aren¡¯t making warships anymore. Those are deep space ships capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of human lives across interstellar distances. The real mission we have been entrusted with is that of buying time. Earth and the colonies won¡¯t be able to complete a single one for at least another year, but there would be another one ready every few months after that. The population we would need to evacuate is in the trillions. That is why only those in this fleet know the truth, we¡¯re not going to be able to save even a fraction of them, but in recognition of your service, each and every one of you has been given the privilidge to save one person back home. The catch is, the Eradi fleet projections put them in system in the next five months time. They need a year, but we can¡¯t even give them half of that time.¡±


    He held up a picture of a smiling young woman.


    ¡°This is my daughter Samantha. This is the reason I¡¯m still fighting. I intend to see she makes it.¡±


    Every minute we hold back this enemy is another bolt another rivet in an escape vessel, another soul saved. Each fight is going to be costly, and no, we are not going to win this war. I will spend your lives, each and every one of them, including my own. I will do whatever it takes to buy as much time as possible. Do not doubt that even for a moment. But so long as I am alive and so long as I have this ship so long as blood pumps through these veins I swear to you I will not let a single damn one of those genocidal sons of bitches within jumping distance of earth! And you can be damn sure I¡¯m not going down without a fight! Are you with me!¡±


    Thunderous roaring drowned out everything else when unanimously the young recruits erupted from their places and shouted in agreement. They would die, they had known that almost from the beginning, but they spend their lives dearly in the fights to come.


    The months of endless struggle and loss flashed by, forward and backward. He remembered the friends he had lost, nearly everyone was gone by the end of those two years, but he had been part of that remnant skeleton crew that was left he had survived. Hatred and disbelief warred within him. They had held on far longer than anyone thought possible, and he had even begun to hope that maybe, maybe they weren¡¯t destined to lose after all. After fighting for so long, he felt like maybe it was time to rest.


    Bright lights swam over the condensation that flowed in rivulets across the front of his EVA visor. Something large and green filled his vision as he collapsed forward. Twin hoses from his mask untethering with a hiss as he was pulled into blackness.

 Salvage Destiny

    Salvage Destiny


    With the terran slung over her shoulder Cortha stomped heavily back down the gangway towards the shaft she had climbed down when leaving the ship. Her slitted irises focused on the soft and round shape of her captain waving to her from the ledge hundreds of feet up. He had pitifully short arms, she thought, as she began her ascent. Her forelegs gripping and tearing easily into the nearly vertical shaft wall while her powerful rear limbs launched them from perch to perch.


    The power had died in the consoles with a pop when she¡¯d pulled him free of the tubing snaking into his helmet. Borgen wouldn¡¯t like that. But what could she do. He had said to go get whatever it was that was down there, and this was it. She idly wondered what he smelled like. He wasn¡¯t impressive, yet, she had actually been surprised to see any survivors from the battle of this scale that had long since ended. She had been privy to little more than digital information and radiation signatures. Their ship had waited passively at the edges of even their own impressive scanning range for an extra two cycles just to be sure that all the patrols were gone. Her ear-flaps flicked against the inside of her helmet in irritation. Her people were far more mighty than any of these, beings, they were nothing more than mere fledglings. This part of the galaxy was drowning in poor cripples lacking for even the right number of limbs, but without the technology of these advanced races, her own people had been repeatedly forced to bow low to such others.


    Borgen rubbed his hands excitedly as the agonizingly dim witted help made her ascent. He waved again encouragingly trying to will her upwards at a faster pace. She was definitely carrying something. A core? Could it be one of the cells were undamaged? Or even some kind of terminal. He was salivating at the thought. The cavernous pit yawned before him as he tried to get a better look. The magnetic locks clamped to his boot soles kept him from falling through and with a wild riggle he fell back awkwardly spinning away from the chasm. He nearly forgot himself in all of his excitement, it wouldn¡¯t do to go floating away, it wouldn¡¯t do at all. Stepping back from the ledge he decided to pace instead.


    He could see the ever frothing Eshka¡¯s bobbing head in the cabin window looking down at him. His breath fogging and saliva coating the port and thin trails of drool were visible even from outside. He stopped pacing to stare at the pilot. The melden nodded eagerly as if pleased to be noticed. Splashing even more froth out onto the ship¡¯s interior. Borgen took a deep breath and tried to remind himself how expensive guidance A.I. were, and the regulations they were programmed to follow.


    A single black gauntleted claw slapped the surface of the shaft and the tremendous Cortha emerged. Her armored frame bending sinuously over the lip. Something limp and disappointingly biological hung draped across her shoulder.


    ¡°What the fuck is this?¡± he objected into his com with narrowed eyes. His glare did little to upset the imperturbable Cortha. She merely shrugged causing the alien to jostle wildly. Quickly realizing his mistake the formerly excited captain made placating motions with his arms as he gestured for her to bring the ¡°prize¡± up the gangway. Even if it wasn¡¯t still alive there if it was a terran there was a standing bounty out for this kind.


    Surprisingly, it was alive. After setting the atmospheric controls to increase the right gases they removed the space suit. Peeled out of its coverings an alien body fell to the deck with a soft whump. It began rolling in earnest down the uneven plane along the floor. Cortha arrested the flopping motion with a lightly stomping forelimb. Yellow and purple coloring seemed radiate outwards across both it¡¯s upper and lower parts seeming to randomly fade into the pink skin. The trio of crew stood in silence around the pale terran.


    ¡°Well ain¡¯t much to look at is they.¡± Eshka commented his voice coming out muffled from behind the bulbous mask covering his face. The first mate was hunched over the form. Stooping low he prodded the fleshy cheeks of its face. And make a yick sound in disgust as it wriggled at him. ¡°A truly hideous race.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not his face.¡± Borgen said while seriously reconsidering his choice of navigator. ¡°Cortha roll him over. I want to make sure you didn¡¯t break anything too important¡­.¡± The body flopped bonelessly and presented him with, a more familiar if still alien picture.


    ¡°Not worth the time. Just stick it in cold storage. We can trade the body at the next post for a bounty.¡± Cortha groused. He had forced Cortha to surrender her quarters. It was her own fault for bringing back something so troublesome. His eyes dilated to a deep purple as he began to focus.


    He knew it was a terran, he had seen them before. There wasn¡¯t a corner of space within the Eradi territories that hadn¡¯t. Images of them had been broadcast across holonet news boards for years, but they all looked the same to him. Unimpressive and unassuming just another species that wasn¡¯t his own.


    The news was always the same. Total quarantine of the species. Full blackout no contact and no travel was permitted within a gigantic swath of the active borders. Violation of this military quarantine would be considered treason. He personally pitied the Terran race. They would find no succor from a foreign power either. The Galactic Hegemony would not interfere for a non-member race. Appeals to their unified governing bodies for protection and amnesty would not be granted to any cultures in times of war.


    He took time inspecting the creature. Almost universally they appeared as stick-like scraggly creatures. In possession of a mere single head tentacle as a rule demarcated a pitifully low level of intelligence. Few of this kind managed to achieve the graceful folds of body lining that signaled opulence and success. He reached out lightly to touch the warm skin. There wasn¡¯t a lot of muscle tone. It probably wouldn¡¯t make a great laborer either. Air bladders seemed to be slowly cycling through inflations. That was a good sign, probably. As if the suit hadn¡¯t confirmed it this also meant it wouldn¡¯t be particularly suited to work well in a vacuum. His prospective profits were in a rapid decline.


    The Broken Tusk was great for smuggling inanimate cargo, but between the spartan main deck and comparatively massive cargo space there was no room or value wasting space to setup for live containment. He hoped it wasn¡¯t carrying anything, but even with a proper quarantine he was certain the pitiful medical facilities onboard would fail to detect foreign contagions. Still a living slave was worth far more than a dead bounty. He opened the jaws.


    No he probably wouldn¡¯t trade this one to the Eradi. The fact that it was alive would raise too many questions but it would too wasteful just to kill it. He let the mouth fall shut with a clack. Dusting his hands off Borgen stood and walked over to inspect the space suit.


    A suit and a slave. He thought. Well at least one thing fell in my favor. Package deal.


    Out along the rim they didn¡¯t ask so many questions. It was cheaper to use expendable labor for some of the more dangerous tasks than it was to pay for robotic workers sporting expensive AI, though if he bargained well it wouldn¡¯t be by much. He wondered what kinds of skills this one possessed. Robots and to a lesser extent androids worked tirelessly and barring an accident lasted forever, It was just that those kind of workers were almost universally stolen and reprogrammed for new masters before they could earn any profit. Slaves were just too plentiful and perishable to bother stealing.


    At the door Borgen slapped a hand on the access panel and left while pondering the appropriate price of such a ¡°rare specimen¡±. He left orders to get it down to the medical room and make sure it didn¡¯t die.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Now that Borgen had left, Eshka was technically in charge. Sensing the expectant eyes of his subordinate on him he shuffled forward and grinned amicably. Borgen would probably do it like this.


    ¡°Hello...Ter..-hummen. You have been rescued!¡± Eshka said in standard, mentally patting himself on the back for remembering that they called themselves Hummens rather than Terrans and likely preferred the moniker. He stared pointedly at its¡¯ face. Despite his gracious mannerisms it made no response. Eshka¡¯s bladdermask jostled in surprise as he looked from the still silent terran to the resident strongarm. Cortha looked amused.


    It wouldn¡¯t do to let her think mere chattel could defy him. He thought while nervously shuffling closer. Weak captains didn¡¯t last long after all. And he would be a captain someday. Knowing this he cleared his throat and tried again.


    ¡°Congratulations you are very lucky to be alive! I Eshka have saved you.¡± he said trying out lowering the pitch of his voice and increasing the volume. Maybe they were more deaf and slow on the whole than he had been led to believe. To his relief the limbs began to stir. It was working. They either just couldn¡¯t hear very well or only responded to a show of force. He glanced up at Cortha smugly. Knowing that she would be properly impressed Eshka unconsciously began bobbing his head. But Cortha merely rolled her eyes. Glowering at her he continued to communicate.


    ¡°You were in an accident are you hurt?¡± Eshka shouted while wincing at the strain.


    James woke to a pounding headache, and a terrifying sight. No doubt his delirium had taken a turn for the worse. Looming over him was the underside of something monstrous green and scaly. It was the mixture of a dragon and a woman. A large claw of the monstrous beast pinned his chest to the floor, but that wasn¡¯t what disturbed him the most. He had followed the direction the feminine face was looking and it wasn¡¯t looking at him. Glancing down he saw something truly horrendous. A grotesquely oversized yellow slug was currently screaming into his crotch. Despite knowing it was a nightmare he gave a startled yell and began to fight.


    Reflexively grabbing at the talon pinning him to the floor he flailed his legs in panic. A stray foot kicking out and catching the startled alien in the side. He lost sight of the creature when he was quickly pulled upward and restrained. A wretchedly foul odor began to permeate the room making his eyes water.


    Cortha roared with laughter while clutching the struggling terran against her chest with one arm and pointing at the navigator with her other. She practically bellowed with unconstrained mirth at the sight of his unconscious form. Until the smell hit her as well, and her laughter became a hacking and choking rasp. She retreated from her old quarters deciding to rescue the terran as well. She squeezed the terran tightly in joy not having laughed so hard since the last call to port, and headed off to the modest medical room.


    James glimpsed the sprawled form through watering eyes gagging at the smell. He tried to get his bearings and struggled on despite the deafening roar in his ears and the violently disorienting shaking making it so hard to focus. As he was being crushed to death he continued stubbornly punching and biting at the scaled arm that held him. Quickly becoming exhausted he could do little more than bounce along down a broad tunnel.


    ***


    Ian Helford clutched the stout glass of brandy in his hands. Rolling it slowly between well groomed fingers.


    ¡°You know Stephen, my friend¡¯s used to make fun of me for enjoying such a cheap drink. It isn¡¯t elegant like wine, nor truly distinguished like a proper Bourbon can be. Bourbon they¡¯d say, now that is a proper drink.¡±


    ¡°Bourbon is a gentleman¡¯s choice.¡±


    ¡°Indeed! Do you remember South Africa that time after Reynold¡¯s firm acquired the Exitor contract?¡± Ian let out a chuckle while musing.


    ¡°Quite well sir, a remarkable occasion.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, it was remarkable wasn¡¯t it? He claimed having attained the pinnacle of his career that the only way not to stagnate would be to endure conquering a lifelong dream. And what was that dream Stephen?¡±


    ¡°Sailing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, it was sailing, and he decided that when life was that good you just had to properly commemorate the occasion. We were supposed to take up sailing off the coast of Cameroon? I remember now. He had purchased that commercial monster and the rest of us were cheering from the docks as he disembarked, but something happened. He never made it out past the jetty before he was¡­¡± Ian trailed off as if searching for the right word.


    ¡°Arrested. Apparently it was illegal in Cameroon to purchase state owned property from a bartender.¡±


    ¡°Arrested, right.¡± Ian said, rolling the word on his numbing tongue as if to taste it. ¡°There was a whole thing in the media after that, all of us were to be included. You know Frederick threatened to take away the reigns of the company. You know he would have given it to a member of the board over that. I should have let him do it, the rotten bastard. I would have loved it, watching those useless sycophants attempting to deal with the naval manufacturing conscription. It would have served him right to see it all torn down.¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t speak ill of the dead sir, especially not your father.¡±


    ¡°Well then who would we talk about? The Eradi? Besides the local telecasting companies had an absolute field day with the story and most of them are dead too. Or they would have anyway if it weren¡¯t shut down almost immediately. Frederick never did tell me what he had to do in order to keep me out of it entirely.¡±


    ¡°It is actually one of the few places in this solar system to which your colleagues, and the esteemable Captain Reynold are no longer welcome to drink nor visit. The court even managed to mandate six months of involuntary rehabilitation.¡±


    ¡°I always thought they were a little harsh on them, what do you think?¡±


    ¡°Just so sir, perhaps your friends, having attained near prescient awareness of the human condition, due to their elevated station in life, while simultaneously wallowing within the apparent stigma of sociopolitical inadequacy foisted upon them through the inhumane connotation of a peonage towards affluence acquired throughout the history of mankind when confronted by the primal jealous force that lurks within all of human nature upon realizing difference, were merely forced to act upon an unfathomably noble appreciation of the mundane while becoming entangled within the corruption of a world¡¯s fundamentally inimical mores with regards to the truly guiltless gentry which exist in tandem to such a diametric inequality that holds falsely guiltless a life of burgeoning destitution through inaction which heretofore resulted in the unrighteous and shameful condemnation of the victims.¡±


    ¡°Truly?¡± Ian asked in surprise.


    ¡°No sir, a goodly number of your friends are indeed alcoholics.¡±


    Ian tipped back the glass and swallowed. The chilled brew trailing bitter notes of flame as it passed. Warmth crested outward through his chest as the fiery liquid battled against both the arctic cold and frigid memories.


    ¡°Did I ever tell you that I actually hate it? Brandy that is. I can¡¯t stand the stuff to be quite honest.¡± Ian said. And now it was Stephen¡¯s turn for surprise. For after a life of devoted service he had thought to well and truly know the man before him. The man currently peering down at the icy depths of the an ocean beyond the arctic circle and yet he had never suspected it.


    ¡°I only drink it because it reminds me of her.¡± Ian said with a sigh, ¡°And now, I suppose, of him too.¡± He took a long draft finishing off the glass, before hurling it out over the Atlantic. ¡°My son the hero, dead at 29 in some backwater system and for what, so that a few more rich bastards like me can run away and start over? Frederick would never have put up with this shit. I will say that, the old man had a lot more spine than I do I guess.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not fair sir, you did all that could be done, but he was already out system and off world before you even got a chance to stop him. Not even I suspected that he could have broken your family¡¯s private encryptions and removed himself from the network. I don¡¯t even think he booked a private flight, it was some kind of passage as an illegal stowaway. I¡¯m quite sure he didn¡¯t even enlist with his own DNA and obviously not under his real name.The only reason we know where he most likely ended up was because of Ingrid¡¯s quantum bonding. As it stands she absconded with the entire Plution estate''s private security detail to search for him. If he misled even her somehow¡­ There was absolutely nothing that could have been done¡­¡±


    Stephen trailed off under a baleful gaze.


    ¡°Well go on, don¡¯t stop. Tell me again why it¡¯s okay that my son is dead, and I¡¯m not.¡±


    A silence settled over the tableau broken only by the unending waves continually to lapping against the sides of a ship with a rhythmic tinny thok.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know that he is dead. They could have found him in time. He might have went somewhere else.¡± he quietly answered.


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing you keep failing to say Stephen. There is nowhere else to go.¡±


    A portion of the billowing atmosphere that shrouded the world began to glow brighter and brighter violet before burning away beneath a ponderous globule of plasma. It fell inexorably planetside until colliding with the field from an in-atmosphere shielding frigate that immediately erupted into a coruscating nova. The sheer force of it thundered deafeningly out over the atlantic before reaching the two onlookers and showering them in a blast sound and spray of freezing meltwater. The mushroom cloud slowly billowing upward from the ruined metropolis it had been defending was only one of many to come.


    Gazing out through the broken clouds Stephen was sadly forced to agree.


    The night sky was illuminated by the still raging engagement hundreds of miles overhead. The mixed wreckage of the both the United Earth Reserve force in orbit and the Eradi fleet ships continually plummeted through the stratosphere. Burning smoking meteorites of flickering light fell through the night. The debris that resisted the friction of reentry ended their journey in dire consequence for anyone unlucky enough to be trapped below. Rapid lances of chaotic energy tore through the heavens as the desperately outnumbered humans made a final stand above their homeworld.

 The Fall

    The Fall


    Klaxons warbled piercing cries signaling the dawn of flight. Amber light flooded along the cavernous interior of Casey''s coffin. Looking up he saw the ghastly lighthouse that had blazed to life. Sweeping illumination cast a palid light that played over the rugged angles and worn steel surrounding him. The superstructure quaked as a series of impacts clanked, pinged, and ratcheted it inexorably forward.


    The chaotic vibration woke his cross, setting it to dance a wild jig. The black iron dangled on silver chain mirroring his anxiety. The blunt edges rattled out panic against the cockpit glass. Slipping out of a haptic glove he reached out and gripped it. Closing his eyes and squeezing hard as if the symbol itself would remain indelible against the flesh of his sweating palm.


    The procession ground to a halt and flashing light faded before ominous dark.The shrill blaring cries fell mute as vacuum began filling the chamber. The rumble of two great bay doors opening shook him against the harness as the cradle spun him. Finally he released the cross, and slipped his re-gloved hand back into the interface gauntlet. The ropy silver chain, as it was want to do, spun lazy circles as if finally satisfied. The cross floated upward lazily without gravity.


    Far below the the sleek lines of an invading cruiser swam through space. Beams of white plasma streaking away from its main cannons as it pursued the smoking ruins of a dreadnought still struggling to come about. With the once shielding enormous bay doors now open Casey felt naked despite the armor all around him. He willed the cruiser to move faster, but it paid him no attention seeming to barely grow in sight. The earth was just visible from the corner of his vision. Bright and blue and still, so far far below. A glowing form blurred by from out of sight exploding rapidly. Devastation clawed into the open belly of the dropship belching out gouts of flame and tearing something free. Tumbling innards scattered out into space. Two more impacts ripped through the hull of the ship seeming to come closer. He didn¡¯t know what to hope for as he watched. He was just glad it hadn¡¯t been him.


    ¡°Undertakers commence drop!¡± The com crackled into Casey¡¯s helmet from the overly loud speaker to deliver the frivolous order. No one had direct control over their own drop anyway.


    Bile threatened to fight passed his clenched teeth. The clamps holding him blew their seals and the thrust of acceleration shot him downward. Hundreds of similar black seeds shot away from identical creaches. The red glare of laser fire erupted from batteries along the surface of the ship below. Casey watched helplessly as the coffin beside him transformed into an inferno before bursting apart and vanishing into nothingness. He held on to stirrups as death rose up to meet them.


    Maneuvering thrusters jinked and adjusted for the fire in a random pattern as blistering spreads from below tried to correct for the relatively small and erratic targets. He slammed against his harness and stopped watching anything other than the squad display to the right of his console. Already several of the green outlines glared an angry red.


    The hull of the coffin beneath began glowing as the heat from near misses threatened to overwhelm thermal shielding. He stared as it grew to a bright cherry. The tension climbed to the unbearable. He waited with baited breath for it. He counted down the drop with a sick fatalism. It was the most deadly ten seconds imaginable. He knew all it took was just one hit, one bright flash, one moment too slow to jink. And then he was through it. Too close to be targeted, and he dared to look out again away from the displays. Spiraling shapes spun closer as the survivors gathered in fall. While some were shattered and broken but still grotesquely following their protocols he hoped that more seemed to be whole than not.


    Peering down the display adjusted and showed only the surface of the cruiser as it grew large enough to eclipse everything else. It was the last thing Casey saw before the harness gripped his head and leashed him roughly upright. The screens shut off completely to prevent motion sickness and mental trauma from witnessing a landing. The woefully inadequate simulation of impact barely nudged him. He watched as a few more squad status lights faded to yellow then went out and glowed red. Some had impacted at too oblique an angle and failed to penetrate and anchor spinning off like human ricochets. Still others had missed the ship entirely firing uncontrollably down to burn up in atmosphere, the lucky ones burned up at least.


    The reactor thrummed to life as Casey was released from the harness and finally given control. He reached forward and a massive skeletal steel-shod arm mimicked him. Biomimetic fingers curled against the front shielding of the coffin and he felt the pressure in his hand. He shoved outwards tearing it off the hinges and stepping out into the night. The black cape unfurled behind him to billow unnaturally in the vacuum. The gyroscoping cockpit rolled in compensation as he stomped forward.


    He rapidly ran through a series of system¡¯s checks and diagnostics. At around eight meters tall there was a lot of machine beneath him, and a lot that could go wrong with it. They came under fire before he could finish with it. Nearly everyone made it to cover as high velocity slugs started slamming towards them in a dense trail. The single fighter failed to do any real harm before it zipped away, but that meant they were on a time limit. It was just a scout. It was hard to detect something so small and scattered as a boarding party with sensors alone without all the interference blaring around them.


    The surface of the ship was broad and gently sloped away from him. It was open and almost completely devoid of any sort of cover besides the still smoldering pillars of coffins scattered around him and the other landers. The others milled about in a seeming daze and Casey felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. He thumbed his coms.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Jenna why aren¡¯t we moving?¡± Casey said. He rolled his neck and blew out air uneasily as he waited too long for a response. They were currently in the relative safety between two massive laser batteries. He checked the rest of visible space for threats. Far overhead against the shining backdrop that was the surface of the moon the shadow of the blocky dropship was being hammered. Geysers of violence sprouted along its¡¯ surface as it was swarmed by a wing of fighters. They might prevent it from making any more landings. Too bad for them that there wasn¡¯t anyone left to send. They should be ok Casey thought, at least until the bombers or something big shows up. Without some ordinance it would take them a long time to destroy the heavily armored ship.


    On the earthside Casey watched as a UER ship of the line and destroyer made a broadside pass against an unlucky Eradi cruiser that was caught out of position. The high caliber kinetics blew gaping holes through the pale ship and it was left seemingly dead adrift at the end of their pass. The engines guttering out completely. Casey¡¯s mind was pulled back to the ship when the sound of a static cut in over the air.


    ¡°She¡¯s jammed.¡± came the reply, ¡°I can see her from here.¡±


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Casey said simply and shut his eyes. He didn¡¯t bother to transmit the curse.


    ¡°Well can¡¯t someone just fix her coms? Where is she? All this standing around is making me nervous.¡± asked Lee.


    ¡°You are so fucking green Lee, how the hell did you even make it down here.¡± snapped Bjorn.


    ¡°She¡¯s not being jammed...¡± a voice explained sadly, ¡°She¡¯s been jammed.¡±


    ¡°You mean like...¡± Lee said.


    ¡°Strawberry? Yeah just like strawberry.¡± said a fourth voice. It was Miranda of course. She always did have a perverse sense of humor.


    It wasn¡¯t supposed to happen, but like plane crashes it still did. Especially during these last few years, it felt like someone was cutting serious corners when it came to all kinds of marine equipment. He supposed these particular units weren¡¯t called coffins for nothing. These suits were never designed for space combat anyway. More like station boarding or colonial suppression. He supposed there was little sense in not using them now that, they had nothing left to lose.


    ¡°Bjorn, I guess that makes you..¡± Casey said.


    ¡°Like hell it does. As acting squad leader I have only two commands.¡± he replied ¡°Number one, Lee you¡¯re on point, and number two Casey you are now in command.¡±


    ¡°What?! But you can¡¯t do that.¡± said Lee. He was currently backing towards the far sloping edge of the ship¡¯s exterior. ¡°I¡¯m the field mechanic!¡±


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    ¡°I am.¡± said Bjorn, ¡°Lee you¡¯re on point. And if you fuck this up I¡¯ll pull the trigger myself, where do you think you¡¯re going.¡±


    ¡°Bjorn.¡± said Casey


    ¡°I am not getting shot in the back by this greenhorn. Just look at how he¡¯s holding his rifle. HEY POINT IT UP! NO UP THERE AS IN NOT AT US!¡± Bjorn was shouting now. His own mech had intercepted the slowly retreating Lee and was shoving the long barreled repeater up and away from the rest of us. ¡°There is no way in hell I¡¯m ever letting you near my...¡± said Bjorn.


    ¡°Bjorn! We don¡¯t have time for this.¡± said Casey.


    ¡°Alright whatever. Get back here before you fall off the edge. But I swear...¡± said Bjorn his radio chatter ended as Casey grouped him and Lee on a seperate relay.


    ¡°Take it to a private channel. Everyone else form up. Standard phalanx we¡¯ll start out by targeting the nearest point defenses.¡± The image of a middle finger appeared in his prompt courtesy of Bjorn.


    ¡°How are we on explosives? Did any of the demolitions team make the landing?¡±


    ¡°No, but luckily one of the zombied drops still had charges intact 3 looked good, I already split them up. Two guppies, one boomer.¡± said Miranda jogging up beside him. Instead of a shield she lugged the gigantic boomer with one arm. She had painted the weird mask over the skull face. The pink somehow made it a lot worse.


    ¡°I guess that¡¯ll have to do let¡¯s get moving. Oh and Miranda.¡± said Casey.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Try to stay as far away from me as possible. I don¡¯t even want to be on the same ship still when that thing catches a round and goes off.¡± he said. She snorted and fell in right beside him.


    ***


    Sorenson stared with glassy eyes at the projection before him. He evaluated it with curt professionalism. The UER ships had finally given up on the hopeless tactic of encompassing the entire earth and instead had pulled back into a binary formation covering the polar caps. The bloated cylinders of bombardment vessels eagerly filled the gaps left between the lines. They flocked out from the darkness like vultures. They had come to feed on the corpse of something dying.


    With heavier ships in escort beside them, and the ring encircling the globe finally complete they began. Each slow firing sequence belched and spewed extinction level destruction. Sterilizing force fell toward the earth in violet waves.


    The bulk of the Eradi fleet¡¯s combat vessels wrapped the earth¡¯s caps in an ever constricting shroud. There would be no escape for any ship, nor man. The hologram practically glowed in bright bands overlaying the UER clusters.


    ¡°Any change?¡± Ingrid asked.


    ¡°None. It is as I said, having failed to abandon this folly they have doomed everyone that remains. Admiral Woolbert is a true fool.¡± Sorenson said.


    She did not doubt it. Ingrid could have reached the same conclusions, but her mind was focused elsewhere at the moment. And he had been the head of fleet security for the family. Why not put him to good use.


    ¡°Oh let her be at least she has afforded us this opportunity to study.¡± Ingrid said.


    ¡°Speaking of which she is hailing us again now.¡± Sorenson said.


    She trailed a finger back and forth over her lips three times until she remembered that no one could see her. ¡°So be it, very well put her on screen.¡± Ingrid said.


    An aging and stout woman with short hair as white as her uniform seemed shocked to be viewing anything at all. Her face contorted into indignance.


    ¡°It is about time you have answered my hails did you think I could not detect your stealth¡­¡±


    ¡°Suzanne, let me cut you off right there. No we will not be aiding you in this fight. No you may not conscript this vessel nor any vessel currently under my command. And no we are not going on some suicidal humanitarian errand earthside. Anyone unfortunate enough to still be down on the surface is either boiling now or will shortly be wishing they had been. Honestly entombing yourself beneath the surface while all you hold dear becomes glass has got to be one of the most idiotic and stupendously ridiculous acts of gross cowardice I have ever witnessed. Take solace in the knowledge that this failure will survive you not long at all. As for your people, now to cut to the quick they lack the wit necessary to to prevent themselves from being placed under your command and therefore fail to warrant the risk so yes while admittedly I may have interceded on behalf of some small few them... But no, what is the point? Short of a miracle there is little I or mine could possibly do to reverse this lobotomized catastrophe that you have wrought through shere ineptitude. And to that end I applaud you having reached such a dubious pinnacle. Honestly what possessed you to split your forces against a fleet this size? Never mind don¡¯t answer that it might be contagious. Sorenson strike that from the record.¡±


    ¡°So stricken.¡± Sorensen deadpanned.


    ¡°How dare you! You can¡¯t talk to me that way! You¡¯re just some up jumped exper¡± Admiral Woolbert began a rebuttal. Sorenson waved to get Ingrid¡¯s attention, they were getting another call.


    ¡°Sorry Suzanne, but I¡¯ve got another call coming in do you mind holding?¡±


    ¡°You M-Monster! Rot in He-¡± She sputtered. But the screen cut off abruptly.Ingrid tapped her fingers across her front teeth, left right up down left left right. That was the right pattern she felt a small knot of tension inside her come undone.


    ¡°Ingrid, I have the pilot of scout three reporting. He says he found what you have been looking for...But we¡¯re going to need a distraction.¡±


    Ingrid leaned forward. A braid of her lightly colored hair fell from across her shoulder. All traces of levity were gone as she said coldly. ¡°There is nothing more important than this. Now tell me what it is that I want to know.¡±


    ***


    ¡°They¡¯re pulling back!¡± Lee screamed. His left arm was fused into the side of his exosuit. The barrel of his repeating rifle smoked and glowed. Steaming Gore spattered the sides of walls beside him. Heavy box shell casings chunked across the narrow space before snapping together in a mound along the corridor edges. The hysteric mechanic secured the enormous rifle against his back, shoving the barrel down beneath the remains of his still burning and tattered cloak. Or at least he would have if the magnetic carabine it normally secured to hadn¡¯t snapped free like a piece of brittle charcoal.


    The gun slammed against and dented the hangar floor beside him. The radio filled with his muttering seemingly ranting voice as he ignored it and reached down for something else. The skeletal fingers of his remaining arm clutched the remains of a comrade with a crunch. Carbon cartilage snapped and popped as his fingers broke through the ruined plating and he gripped it by the sinewy neck.


    ¡°What the hell was that noise?!¡± Bjorn yelled.


    Lee ignored him as he tugged the robotic corpse out of the corridor, and out into the hangar. Torn things screeched across the floor as he pulled it in jerks around the corner. It was the gigantic equivalent of a quadruple amputee, and the broken neck made the hunk of remaining face hang at a macabre angle. The servos in his joints whined in protest as he hoisted it upward. He slung it up and against the side of a nearby mag lev sled causing it to dip wildly. Bright yellow warheads or maybe bombs rocked against one another as the slab rocked like an unbalanced canoe. Lee slammed his controls forward and he heaved against the dead weight somehow managing the feat. Displaced munitions tumbled to the floor banging and careening away. With a few more jarring punches the rest finally scattered as he shoved the body into the center of the sled.


    Reaching out with a neural command he flicked the virtual mute button silencing the now frantic Bjorn. Gripping one of the hooping bands, that protruded out along the edges of the mag lev, he enacted a plan. He put some distance between himself and the corridor and things that wanted to kill him. The heavy burden glided easily across the distance. The lift did not hum it merely glowed. The corona beneath it flared brightly as he began to move. The only sounds in the hangar were his own echoing footfalls as he slowly made his way across. Lee didn¡¯t stop until he was standing before the immense field covered exits to the hangar.


    Letting go of the sled he let it bump into the edge of an immense pilon. He stepped forward until the battered section of his body squeezed against it¡¯s edge. The metal that split the glowing field across from him in twain climbed up into the immense dark recesses of the hangar. The yawning portal was a near perfect invisible except for the faint tinge of green along the edges. He let himself slump against the pillar, enjoying the feedback and stared out into the graveyard along earth¡¯s orbit.


    The drifting wreckage that remained over this part of the world would make impossible any kind of satellite or safe orbit for miles. Dead hulks and bits of human fleet careened against the debris and one another devoid of purpose. He watched the meteor shower of flotsam from space. Arcing fireballs descended towards something that was already no longer resembling a serene Earth. He compared the fiery storms of boiling seas and ashed plumes of cities that roiled outward along great cloudfronts to blanket the planet. It looked a lot more like jupiter or mars now than that blue place in his mind¡¯s eye. No longer fighting, the dead had finally made peace. He could see Eradi warships intermingling within the ghostly fleet. An endless procession began to fall out across the world. Coasting along eccentric orbits.


    He didn¡¯t bother to turn around as he heard the unique bellowing sound of the enemy crying out from behind. He remembered Bjorn then. Deprived of power and trapped within the chest of that husk. He unsquelched communications and piped his visual feed across. No one should have to die alone and in the dark.


    The bellows reached a screeching crescendo as the marching drew near. Turning away from the end of the world Lee witnessed something unexpected. Grasping a writhing giant across the throat Captain Casey was heaving it bodily forward. Bulbous fused digits suctioned and gripped as it struggled jerkily to free itself. The clawed heels scraped uselessly against the mirror surface of the hanger as Casey trudged forward. When he was nearly at the edge it broke free with a panicked strength. It lurched to the side trying to dart away. The crack of a meaty backhand caught it on the jaw stunning it. A spray of blood added to the black phlegm already coating the front of his chipped and scraped skull. Cruel fingers dug into the warty flesh of its face as he wrenched it back violently. It screamed a final time one long drawn out cry as he began slowly shoving its head through the field and out into vacuum. The body eventually stopped jerking and went stiff. In a single motion of contempt Casey placed his foot over the chest and kicked.


    The corpse he had flung out began a slow twirling through space.


    ¡°Best thing I¡¯ve seen all day.¡± Bjorn said.


    Lee glanced back, but he didn¡¯t see anyone else. And judging from what he had just seen, he hadn¡¯t expected to. Palpable waves of rage and despair were lifting off from the Captain.


    He watched as the Captain stared out. An idle hand fingering a large canister strapped to his suit¡¯s waist with thick lines. He watched as it dropped back down and the Captain stopped contemplating something. A radio feed opened up as Casey looped them in.


    ¡°...No we¡¯ll only need the one. It¡¯s just us that¡¯s left.¡± Casey said.


    ¡°And?¡± came an expectant reply.


    ¡°There is no need to wait any longer I have the package.¡±


    ¡°Bringing her in now. Be ready in five.¡±


    "Just get us out of here before the charge goes off."


    A few minutes later the angular form of a cormorant transport swung sideways and into view. Only it wasn¡¯t a UER vessel and even Lee recognized the house colors of this particular aristocrat. As it tilted forward he saw the bright crest of Pluto decorating the prow.


    ¡°Congratulations Captain.¡± The voice said, ¡°Looks like you survived the fall.¡±