Connection Unkown

Builder's Legacy Book 1

Michael Chatfield

Michael Chatfield Publications Inc.

Copyright

Copyright © 2022 by Michael Chatfield

All rights reserved. This book or any
portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without
the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Cover Art by Tom Edwards

Wording by Shawn T King

Contents

1. Chapter: 1

2. Chapter: 2

3. Chapter: 3

4. Chapter:4

5. Chapter: 5

6. Chapter: 6

7. Chapter: 7

8. Chapter: 8

9. Chapter: 9

10. Chapter: 10

11. Chapter: 11

12. Chapter: 12

13. Chapter: 13

14. Chapter: 14

15. Chapter: 15

16. Chapter: 16

17. Chapter: 17

18. Chapter: 18

19. Chapter: 19

20. Chapter: 20

21. Chapter: 21

22. Chapter: 22

23. Chapter: 23

24. Chapter: 24

25. Chapter: 25

26. Chapter: 26

27. Chapter: 27

28. Chapter: 28

29. Chapter: 29

30. Chapter: 30

31. Chapter: 31

32. Chapter: 32

33. Chapter: 33

34. Chapter: 34

35. Chapter: 35

36. Chapter: 36

37. Chapter: 37

38. Chapter: 38

39. Chapter: 39

40. Chapter 40

41. Chapter: 41

42. Chapter: 42

43. Chapter: 43

44. Chapter: 44

Author's Note

Chapter one

Chapter: 1

08, March 2242

Luke yawned and stretched, hooking his number two line to the wire runner alongside the maintenance catwalk. He tested the carabiner with a pull before disconnecting his number one line. His mag-boots clanked on the ladder as he continued up the second cargo arm, humming to himself.

He glanced over the containers stacked and interlocked within the Dahlia’s superstructure. Different markings, old and brand-new—all identical in size—created an orderly mass.

The running lights of the freighter blinked against the backdrop of vacuum and stars. He focused on his breathing and kept climbing. You’ve been on a hundred space walks, you’ve been on a thousand.

The medium freighter was made of four parts: the boxy engines/living quarters at the rear, glowing with constant one gravity acceleration. Massive, long struts that acted as anchor points for the thousands of cargo containers, reaching forward to the forward armored bow. A big composite pyramid protected the rest of the freighter and its cargo from micro-meteors and other debris.

Grounders always found it weird how, under accel, the pyramid was above your head and the engines under your feet. Starships were laid out like skyscrapers rather than boats.

Everyone thought that in space you were weightless all the time. With Fusion plants and proper ion engines, constant acceleration was a must to keep the universe on time. Humanity always wanted to go faster. As long as you were in contact with the ship, it was like being on Earth. Only the ground was in whatever direction the main engines were pushing the ship away from.

It was also why he had to climb a kilometer of ladder. He paused, cooling down. Sweating in a spacesuit was no fun. Elevators would be nice.

Luke hooked his arm into a rung and adjusted his twin safety lines. Grabbing his space suit’s sleeve, he turned it to see the screen built into the forearm. “Echo-Nine-Bravo.”

He’d grown, but not enough to fit his father’s hand-me-down suit. The shoulders and chest were filling out, but it was still a bit too tall.

He checked the surrounding markings, spotting hatch E-9-B.

“There you are.” He climbed up, adjusted his lines, and stepped off the ladder onto the platform, taking a moment to shake out his arms and legs.

“Bridge, this is Luke. I’m at maintenance hatch E-9-B.” He tugged on his lines to make sure they were secure.

“Hey, Luke. This is Marissa. I hear you.”

“Yay,” Luke said in wry amusement.

“Don’t get too excited,” Marissa returned in the same tone. She paused, probably to read the logs.

He was just about to check if she was still there when she continued. “We’re showing a warning light on the thruster comp.”

“Got anything more specific?” Luke frowned, loosening the hatch locks.

“That’s all I’ve got.”

“Thanks, sis. Okay, let me have a look.”

He opened the hatch and secured it. A developing headache with the rat’s mess of lights, circuit boards, and wiring greeted him.

“Awesome.” Luke unhooked a scanner from his tool belt, a safety line running out from a small tension spool. He pulled it out to the bite and worked through the mess.

Fifteenth time’s the charm. Luke bent the connector’s metal prongs outward to make a better connection and inserted it back into position.

“Marissa, try a reboot.” He leaned on his lines, stretching but not letting his hopes build.

“Got it.” She went silent as he waited for the report back. “Looking good on my end.”

“Awesome. I’ll clear this up and head back.”

“Only took an hour!” Marissa tried to inject some faux excitement.

Luke grunted, clearing his gear away, and locked the maintenance hatch. “All secure. Coming back in.”

“All right. Mom is working on her chicken bake.”

“Is it actually chicken?”

“It’s something. Smells good, though.”

Luke could picture Marissa shrugging in her place in the captain’s chair. “Yum. See you in a bit. Luke out.”

Luke hooked his lines to the ladder’s guides and turned his mag-boots off, resting them on the ladder’s front. Glancing at the light plume from the engine below, he released, sliding down just inches above the ladder. He tightened his grip, slowing and controlling his descent and stopping at the next wire guide.

He hummed tunelessly, undoing his old safeties and putting them onto the new wire guide.

“Away we go.” He released, sliding down. His wrist screen vibrated against his forearm.

He came to a stop at the end of the railing, bracing his feet against the rungs and his elbow around a handrail, leaving his wrist screen viewable as he tapped on the notification.

[Jynx] Was gonna jump online in an hour. You in?

Luke stopped at the next break in the wire guide, hooking a leg in the ladder. The inside of his helmet lit up with a keyboard as he used the press balls inside his glove’s fingertips to scroll and tap out his reply.

[Luke] I’m just heading back in. Gotta have dinner. Then I’ll join you

[Jynx] K, meet you at Wally’s.

Luke was panting when he reached the air lock. The freighter was as silent as the grave, other than his breathing. Beneath his feet were several floors of engineering, ending in Dahlia’s main engines, which lit up the area behind the ship.

The air lock door, double-walled metal a foot thick with a tiny viewing window, rolled sideways on heavy gears. He squeezed inside as soon as he could reasonably fit sideways. A blue light blinked silently.

He worked the touchpad in the middle of the room.

The door slowed and reversed, closing. Heavy locking mechanisms and seals cut him off from space; air and noise returned. The air lock’s light turned yellow.

When the light turned green, the inner door took a half-second to unseal and open. Luke went through the door, into the locker room, and hit the touchpad next to the door with his left hand. The airlock closed as Luke turned his helmet, unlocking it and pulling it off. He opened his locker and put the helmet up top; a quick press and pull unhooked his metal collar. He took his boots off and shed the outer suit; he wore coveralls underneath. He checked his securing lines and the rest of the outer suit. It had patches in several locations, but it was tried and trusted.

He slid his feet back into his boots and ran his hands over his space suit, muttering the saying that had been burned into his brain since he was old enough to wear his brother’s. “No cracks, burrs or tears.”

He hung it up and connected the wrist screen and air tank port to chargers. He repeated the quick check on his gloves and stored them in the suit’s pockets.

He patted his emergency hood and gloves, making sure they were in the right place on his coveralls, shutting his locker and leaving the room.

The hatch opened to the smell of herbs, spices, tomatoes, and possibly chicken.

“Wash up!” his mother, Adeline, called out.

Sneaking past wasn’t possible in mag-boots unless they were turned off, clanking and clicking on every piece of metal decking. Thankfully, they were underway and their nine point eight meter per second thrust pushed him into the decking just like on Earth.

Luke dodged into the bathroom for a sani-cloth, wiping away the sweat from his face and running it over his hands. He threw it into the cleaner, following the smell of the chicken-something.

His mother came from a settled system, a mining colony. She’d lived in mining and hauling ships most of her childhood. She had the long bones of a spacer to prove it, although she was still shorter than Stephen, his father. They prepared the meal together. Stephen opened the ration boxes—hard plastic containers with magnetic feet and a cover that would snap shut if someone didn’t hold it down—as she served up dinner.

Luke gained his perpetual scowl, darker skin tone, and bulk from his father.

Stephan had grown up on Bajra, a planet in the Federation-controlled Redeemer system. He’d joined the Federation Navy to see the stars and never returned. He finished his service, jumping from ship to ship in his younger years, getting as far away from Federation-controlled space as he could until a miner’s daughter stole his heart. They made the Dahlia their home. She’d been a rust bucket then, but they’d kept her flying.

Joey climbed the ladder up from the work areas and engine bays below. Thank the stars. Luke relaxed, happy not to be eating alone with his parents, as Marissa was on watch. They nodded to each other and approached the dining area.

“Smells good,” Joey volunteered.

“I added in some of your father’s tomatoes,” Adeline said, giving Stephen a proud smile and hip tap.

Stephen laughed, embarrassed but proud. “Not much right now. Should have tons over the next few weeks.” He turned, his smile halting as he saw Luke.

Luke’s gut tightened.

Adeline pointedly cleared her throat as she picked up two more boxes.

“How are we looking with the reactor flush?” Stephen asked as they moved to the seating alcove. Luke let Joey in first, wanting the outside seat for an easy exit.

“Reactor looks good. As you said, probably a buildup. Though when we get to Odessa station, I’d like to get a scan on reactor two. I’m getting some strange readings. Like to run on the backups if we can,” Joey said, accepting a box with a nod.

“I’ll give you a hand. Gut feelings can save a ship.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Luke smiled as she put down the box in front of him, clicking it to the table surface.

“Looking to get ahead on your certification?” Stephen laughed.

Joey grinned, downplaying it with a shrug and getting a sporkful of food.

“You’ll be tearing apart a reactor and putting it back together in no time. Or you could build them. I heard from a friend working in the Sigma system shipyards. Said that they’re looking for some engineers.” Stephen’s low-key statement drew Joey’s attention.

He opened his mouth to talk and got a glare from their mother.

Luke hid a smirk and kept eating as Joey speed-chewed.

“Really? What are they working on?”

Stephen leaned forward, his eyes shining as he shared a smile with Joey. “Got three yards going—freighter, cruiser, and private, but they’re looking to concentrate on the luxury cruisers and private builds. The mega-yards out of Kari and Gongdian system are beating all the others with their mega-freighters.” Stephen added the Chinese inflection to Gongdian. It served a trader well to know how to pronounce the systems they were selling in.

“I don’t get why Gongdian is a settled system,” Luke said.

“People like their freedom, and Tiankong Gongdian was created by old China, before the council of Sol was created. They didn’t want to be under the Coalition or the Federation’s rules,” Adeline said.

Stephen grunted in understanding.

“Anyway, no politics at the table. I heard that you got that thruster chore done?” Adeline smiled at Luke.

“Just a connector run down. I bent it back into shape, fired it up again. Marissa said it was working fine.” Luke shrugged and kept eating.

“Well, there is plenty to be done on the ship,” Stephen said in a light, wheedling tone.

Luke hid his expression behind another mouthful of food. There always is.

Adeline’s smile became strained as Joey focused on his food and Stephen took another sporkful.

Luke grunted and shoveled down food without tasting it.

“So, Luke, have you thought about what we talked about?” Stephen looked up.

Luke twisted his lips, noticing Joey paying more attention to his meal than before.

“You’d get a cut of the profits from every run we do and get to work on your associated skills.”

“Dad, I just… I don’t know if being a trader is what I want to do.” Luke hunched his shoulders.

“If you tell us what you want to do, we can help you, honey,” Adeline said.

“I—” Luke grimaced, then drew himself up, looking at them both. “I want to play for the guilds.”

“Gaming isn’t a job,” Stephen said, trying to soften his words.

Luke dropped his gaze. “It is if I get accepted. They pay well enough, and I’ll get a career contract, bonuses, benefits—.”

“You’ve been playing nearly non-stop all the way through high school,” Adeline said.

“I know, but I always had school or chores taking up my time. I’ve only been out of high school a month!” He ate faster to give himself something to focus on.

“Luke, this is the time to focus on your future,” his mother said.

“You might have more responsibilities now, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have free time,” Stephen said.

“What about when Marissa goes to pilot cruisers? Or when Joey goes to work in the shipyards?”

“Then we’ll hire on people. We’ve been thinking about hiring some more people anyway to spread the work out, bring us up to a ten-person crew. It’ll mean fewer shares for everyone, but we’ll all get more free time.”

Dahlia was their home. Having strangers wandering around would be weird.

“Who?” Joey asked.

“Your cousins. There are plenty who would jump at the chance to work on a wormhole capable freighter,” Adeline said.

“Luke, if you don’t want to work on Dahlia, that’s fine, but can you please consider options other than becoming a guild player?” Stephen asked.

“It would be easier if I didn’t have the impending rent hovering over my head.” Luke spooned the last of his dinner into his mouth, not missing the glance between his parents.

“Rent isn’t a punishment. You’re an adult now, and you’re going to have things you need to pay for. We know it isn’t easy.”

“So get a job or we’ll press gang you into working on the freighter.” Luke shook his head and escaped from the table. “Thanks for dinner. I’m gonna go work on my useless dream.”

“Luke…” Adeline’s wounded voice bunched up Luke’s shoulders as he shoved his box and spork into the cleaning unit.

“You know Dahlia’s systems. Another two years working as an apprentice, and you’ll get onto any of a hundred ships.” Stephen ran over the all-too-familiar argument.

“I don’t want to work on ships. I don’t want to rebuild thrusters or pilot us into unloading docks! I want to fight. I’m good at it. You won’t let me join a military, so this is the next best thing. If I did the other things, I wouldn’t be me.”

Their faces twisted, struggling.

“I know you care for me, but I don’t know what I’m going to do. Thanks for dinner.” His shoulders slouched, leaving for the net room.

He breathed in the smell of sweat and grease as he closed the door behind him.

Several bays lay open. Hardened plastic and alloy net suits, worn over the years, took up three. Closed, they appeared like powered armor. They stood on their charging pads, an oversized mechanical arm fastened to their backs, connecting them to the ceiling.

The tension left his back, arms, and neck as he ran a hand over the cold surface of the suits. He patted his trusty net suit, wiping his hand. “You’re going to need a clean soon. I’ll pull your fans and get all that dust out.” He tapped the screen built into the suit’s chest. It flickered, going fuzzy on one side.

A few well-placed taps brought it into clarity. It needed a new screen, too. It was falling apart, like everything else on the ship.

A bare glance told him what he needed to know.

“Servos good, sensors good, net connection good.” He cleared the checklist and hit the power button. The suit’s plates unlocked and retracted, and the helmet hinged back.

“Fresh as always. Even with sweat cleaner can’t get out the smell.” He took off his boots, leaving them mag clamped to the floor, and pulled off his coverall to reveal a worn t-shirt with a peeling logo. His shorts were similarly well-used.

Clipping his semi-armored coveralls to a hanger, he checked the readouts once more and stepped back into the net suit.

After all these years, there was still a familiar thrill as his feet slid home and he wriggled his arms into their sleeves.

He took a breath and let it out, pressing the roll balls at his fingertips. The servos on his back hummed as gears moved under the surface of the plates. From his hands and feet upward to his chest, the plates closed and locked into place with a series of clicks. The suit’s inflatable pillows expanded, tightening around him like an old-fashioned blood pressure test sleeve, before releasing slightly, pushing up against him without restricting him.

The heat exchangers kicked in, briefly chilling Luke as they flushed out the stagnant coolant laying just under the next-to-skin layer.

His helmet hinged down, entombing him in darkness before projectors flickered in front of his eyes.

A light blue welcome screen appeared in the visor.

He rolled his fingers and thumbs over the familiar input balls and entered his net account information.

“Welcome to the net, Luke Tavares,” a soothing, computerized voice said.

Light poured in as Luke rose. The arm in the net room lifted him, but inside the net suit he was flying toward a golden hex of light in the ceiling. He flew through, coming to a halt as he stood inside the net. Noise, light, and people stretched through the Odessa public net. A virtual city spread out in every direction, packed with humanity’s avatars, with physics—and gravity-defying buildings, parks that were designed like a fishbowl, with streams and trees curving along the walls. Airships and shuttles shot through the skies. People flew—in cars, or by themselves as they desired.

Luke moved his fingers and rolled his shoulders, his avatar just a few inches shorter than his own size. After a lifetime of gaming and using the net—being shorter or taller was like wearing jeans instead of shorts.

He called up a mirror and checked his avatar. Similar enough to his own appearance, he wore simple cargo pants and a t-shirt he’d won in some giveaway contest run by the Star Kings Guild.

At least she didn’t mess with my avatar. He ground his teeth, remembering the makeup palette she’d used on his avatar last time he left it unlocked.

Shaking his head, he stepped forward, moving five astronomical units from a station or populated planet. He walked into the noise and roving sea of humanity.

People could be whoever they wanted to be on the net, and wherever. The hypernet’s faster than light communications connected humanity across dozens of star systems.

His eyes swept the walkways and roads. Avatars appeared and disappeared at random. Giants, armored soldiers, people made of plastic, or with blue, purple, and orange skin. Mechas and elves. Humanity and their online personalities as one.

He stepped off the platform and entered the press of people. A sea of adverts assailed Luke: different piloting schools, the latest fashion, multi-tools, net suits and dating services. Whole buildings were an advertisement, or floating billboards, even business avatars along the walkways. If you looked at any of them, their message would focus on you and the sound would play.

Marissa must have been on last.

The advertisements disappeared and Luke muted the local chat as well, removing anyone talking publicly.

The net went quiet as the low-level chatter disappeared. He returned a smile to the lady with a bob cut—green on one side, red on the other—wearing gold and black clothes broken into geometric shapes, next to a man lizard with pink scales and aquamarine eyes.

A group of schoolgirls in the same uniform laughed and weaved through the crowd, off to or coming back from school. With dozens of inhabited systems and stations, the times you went to sleep and woke up across the human sphere were varied. Jynx lived in the Maxxel system, Fin in the Hydrea system, and Luke jumped between systems on a nearly weekly basis. In the age of the hypernet, classes were hosted on the net instead of in buildings. He and Jynx had shared several classes together, becoming quick friends as they shared a passion for gaming.

People chatted, walking into stores along the mainway or teleporting into them, purchasing games, online cosmetics, offline deliveries—anything you could do in the real world, you could do on the net and more.

[Jynx requests chat]

Luke accepted. “Where you at? Just logged in.”

“I’m at Wally’s Burgers.”

“All right, one sec. I’m on the Odessa system.” Luke swiped through locations he had previously visited and transited to Wally’s.

His vision crawled together in lines of light before it reversed, and Wally’s Burgers appeared. The diner was done up in a nineteen seventies decor. The most eye-catching thing was the huge plastic automaton caricature of a chef with a massive mustache moving a burger to and from his mouth, smiling the entire time.

Jynx was sitting outside—only paying patrons were allowed inside Wally’s. She was wearing her black jeans, a T-shirt of some guild, and a limited-edition Orion’s Belt hoodie. Her hair was deep brown on her left side and blonde-streaked, pulled into a ponytail that draped across her shoulder.

To Luke, she was stunning.

“You get something to eat?” He grinned and gestured at the burger house, trying to divert his thoughts.

“I’m here to game, not eat.” Jynx rolled her eyes, hiding a smile. The joke was as old as their friendship.

[Fin is online]

“I got him,” Jynx said. She opened her screen as Luke sat down on the bench, watching people go by.

Dozens of floors disappeared above and below. Here in the mainway, everything was rated for all ages. No guns, no violence, no drinking, and no nudity. All of that was restricted to private nets, DLCs, stores, or games.

Fin popped into being in the same place Luke had. People walked through him as he materialized. “I swear, one of these days, Wally will get a bite, like some Prometheus stuff. You’re nearly there, bud!” Fin yelled at Wally, gathering stares.

“Jackass,” Luke muttered.

Jynx snorted as Fin boasted an unrepentant grin. His jumpsuit was just on this side of casual wear, a preset standard outfit. He didn’t want to pay any corporation for extras, let alone cosmetics.

“So they’re really shutting down Orion’s Belt?” Fin looked at Jynx.

She nodded. “Last day.”

“Orion’s Belt. See the stars.” Luke tried to imitate the games slogan.

Fin pushed his shoulder.

“Still one of the best games out there.” Luke said.

“Where we all met,” Jynx said.

Fin nodded.

“You up for a run?” Luke stood. “We can jump in on a raid of Kat’uzar.”

“Ah hell, one last time! Go all out, use all the consumables!” Fin slapped his legs and stood. They both looked at Jynx.

She threw her hands up with a grin. “Alright, one last time,”

“Let’s go!” Fin drew let’s out into lezz.

“Keep your jumpsuit on,” Luke muttered as Jynx worked her interface.

[Group Transit to Orion’s Belt?]

Luke accepted. His vision crawled as they appeared before the familiar lobby with the sign for Orion’s Belt floating above the entrance. Buildings that had been modern at one time were now old. Still, it was a second home, a place he knew as well as his own room.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Fin said, taking it all in.

Luke cleared his throat. They hadn’t moved in several minutes. “Come on, then.” He waved them forward.

Jynx led the way. Inside, stands were set up for people to check out their gear, a range to test their weapons, and stores to buy in-game gear, loot boxes, cosmetics, and the like.

The log-in doorway to the game was framed to look like an air lock. People touched it, disappearing and entering the game. There was a solemn quietness to the lobby that Luke didn’t remember.

Whispers and low chatter gained volume off to the side, like a bug in his ear.

A crowd gathered around a holographic star map. Some disappeared as if they were logging onto a game. “What’s going on over there?”

Fin screwed up his face. “Another log-in entrance?”

“That doesn’t make sense. There was only ever one login location,” Jynx said. ”Sphere World?”

“I don’t remember anything called Sphere World. I don’t even remember that area being there.” Luke frowned. It was tucked away in a corner, hidden behind stalls. If not for the chatter, he wouldn’t have noticed it. Luke glanced at Jynx. “Did your dad or uncle—”

“They never mentioned anything, and I don’t think I’ve heard them talking about it.” Jynx’s brows pinched together as she bit the side of her mouth.

“Could be a demo for something they’re working on?” Fin suggested.

Jynx made a noncommittal sound.

“Why don’t we check it out?” Fin grinned.

“We came for Orion’s Belt,” Jynx said.

“Come on. One quick look, then we’ll roam around Orion’s Belt!” Fin glanced between them and focused on Jynx.

“Fine. All right.” Jynx threw up her hands and smacked them on her legs with a grin, spreading to Luke and Fin.

They walked through the people as if they were ghosts, reaching the space map.

Luke brought up his terminal, connected it to Sphere World. Everything but Sphere World itself was greyed out, showing several spawn points.

“It’s free to play, but we have to do a tutorial first and we can only spawn on Sphere World.” He clicked on the location; the map spun, zooming in on the spherical station circling the fifth planet, a remote ice ball. “Orbits Valhalla.”

“Looks like a lovely planet. Cold as shit little iceberg. Check the numbers for the Sphere World station. It’s freaking massive,” Fin said.

“Well, let’s get the tutorial over then,” Jynx said.

“I’m in. Looks like there are camps on Valhalla. Wonder what we can do?” Fin tapped the holographic map going through the menus.

“All right, see you in there.” Luke clicked on the tutorial, the only option highlighted on the menu, and joined the game. His projectors darkened, his arms and legs gently pulled down straight. He let the servos do their work. They locked into position, and his vision brightened.

“Step forward, please,” a woman’s voice said from somewhere.

Luke stepped out of the rack onto the steel decking, his boots locking to the ground. He looked down, noting his metal appendages as a mirror dropped from the ceiling in front of him.

A humanoid combat bot stared back at him, similar to the security bots that protected the corporate elite: mechanical and electronic systems supported by a heavy-duty frame and anodized armor plates, making him look clean, functional, and powerful.

A bracket appeared in the mirror, highlighting him.

[Bot]

[The user’s way to interface with Sphere World]

He moved his metal fingers and looked down at his body. It wasn’t his boots mag locked to the ground, it was his bot’s feet. He moved around, feeling the inertia of his movements. “Actually feels like I’m in a three-hundred-pound metal monster.” Luke laughed and jumped lightly.

“Welcome to the Sphere World tutorial,” the voice continued. “You are currently using a bot. First, we will go through the basics of Sphere World. Please proceed into the testing chamber.”

A door opposite the rack opened to reveal a corridor.

“Please walk down the corridor.”

Luke didn’t hurry, checking his movements to get used to his action and the reaction of the bot. Then he went through the settings and loadout screens.

[Bot]

[Primary Weapon:__]

[Secondary Weapon:__]

[Upgrades:__]

[Misc.:__]

[Carrier:__]

“All right, enough messing around. Time to get this done. Gonna guess the first thing is crouching.” Luke went through the door and entered the corridor that was half the height a few meters deep.

The door closed behind him, but he didn’t slow.

“The bot has been manufactured to interface with human users. Please duck under the following obstruction and crawl under the next.”

Luke was already crouching and moved to his belly to crawl under a shorter barrier and into a larger room with several white crosses and black squares on the walls.

“Please adjust your peripheral vision and brightness. You should barely see the white lines in the black squares.”

He tweaked the settings, dialing up the brightness so he could see the white crosses and opened his vision out to a range he was comfortable with. Don’t want to miss things in a dark corner.

Luke went through some more calibration checks.

“Please continue to the next room.”

He walked through and found several other doors.

“You have completed the basic movement checks and integration. Currently, you are in the simulation. You can proceed into Sphere World actual with your own bot or continue to further tutorials.”

Hatches appeared in a semi-circle with words above them: Mining, Building, Combat, Flying, Ground Transport, Space Flight.

Luke opened his party chat and invited the others.

[Jynx has joined your party]

[Fin has joined your party]

“You going to do the tutorial or jump in?”

“Jump right in. Don’t know how long this is going to be up,” Fin said.

“I agree. This might be a leak. They might not have realized it’s hooked up to Orion’s Belt. They’re going to figure it out sometime and close it down,” Jynx said.

“You want to go into the actual game or the simulation? What’s the difference?” Luke asked.

“I asked Sphere World. She actually answers questions. This is one hell of a demo.” Fin laughed. “You can play out a scenario in the simulation but it’s sandbox—use whatever gear you want, whatever map you want, or create your own, but you don’t earn any plat.”

“Plat?”

“Platinum. It’s the in-game currency. It’s like two thousand platinum to one credit. Anyway, in the full game, we spawn into bots in Sphere World and can do whatever we want, and it has one hundred percent persistence.”

“And persistence is?” Luke muttered.

“It means that if you, say, pick up a coffee cup from Sphere World station and you took it out to an asteroid and put it out there, then someone else could come along and pick it up,” Jynx said.

“So I can move stuff around?”

“Say you mine an asteroid. The next person who comes along would find what you left behind.”

“Oh, so it’s like the real?”

“Yeah, but with robots and a huge megastructure hanging over that planet!” Fin emphasized. “If you shot a rail gun across a system, you could hit a planet or another ship. If you mine an asteroid, and harvest it all, then no one can mine that asteroid ever again. It’s not just persistence of objects always staying where they are. There are limited resources.”

“We going to game, or talk about what the dev team is doing?” Jynx asked.

“I vote game!” Fin said.

“Same here. Gonna go spawn on Sphere World.” Luke exited the tutorial.

The room dulled and a blueprint of Sphere World appeared in front of him. Several points were highlighted on the map. He clicked on the docks. A shuttle, fighter, and troop transport could be selected, though each would cost creds.

Actual money? The hell? “Looks like you can buy gear with creds, or use plat to get it.”

Luke shook his head and selected an area where he could spawn in a bot for free.

“Yeah, we get a free bot every day, if they have them,” Jynx said.

“If they have them?”

“Finite resources in the system might mean limited resources in Sphere World itself, to keep things balanced. So it won’t pump out bots every time someone logs in,” Fin said.

He accepted and appeared in a new rack. Identical to the one he had just been in.

“Huh, these feel different from the ones in the tutorial. like, more solid,” Luke said.

“Where did you spawn?” Jynx asked.

“Uh…” Luke looked around. He pulled out his map and winced. “I’m pretty far away from you two.”

“Meet at my position? Looks like I’m between you both, and near the docks.” Jynx snorted. “And there’s like a hundred docks and hangars in this place.”

“Sounds good to me,” Fin said.

“Hey, move out of the way! You’re blocking the rack!” someone yelled behind Luke.

“Oh, sorry!” Luke toggled to local and moved. A large catwalk went left to right, branching off with ladders between levels.

He brought up his map and put a way point on Jynx; a route traced through the catwalks and ladders. That’s convenient.

“Hurry up!” Fin yelled.

“Coming.” Luke closed his map. His Heads-Up Display showed a glowing line forward. He broke into a jog, then brought himself up to a run.

Holy shit.

“These things can crank up the speed!” Luke laughed as he raced down the corridor of racks. There was no wall at the end, revealing the heart of Sphere World. Automated arms were welding, painting, printing or assembling gear, some recognizable as ships. Others were not far enough along the process to be identifiable.

Raw materials and components flowed through the structure like a river.

“We’re in low-G here. Watch you don’t launch yourself into a catwalk or out into the factory spaces,” Jynx warned.

Areas lit up as Luke approached. He worked to slow himself. Slowing down in low-G was a careful process: your momentum would continue, and your feet remained planted to the ground, by your mag-boots. It was a quick way to turn forward momentum into angular momentum, breaking your ankles and slamming into the deck face first.

“These things are heavy,” Luke muttered as he fought momentum and inertia, slowing down to a stop.

“They’re made of metal, right? And they look human-sized, so that’s what—seven point eight, like eight times the weight?” Fin started.

“Please, no math,” Jynx begged.

“Fine, fine! Ignoramuses!”

Luke came to a stop. He grabbed the catwalk with his metal fingers and tapped his heels together, turning off his mag-boots.

“Oh yeah!” Luke whooped, looking up along the catwalk.

“That sounds like a Jynx hell-yeah,” Fin said cautiously. “And she just gave me the middle finger. Look—there’s an armory!”

Luke adjusted his grip and pulled and moved forward just inches above the catwalk. He grinned as he repeated the movement, gaining speed with each pull and release. He worked hard to keep himself within arm’s reach of the catwalk, careful not to veer off into the barriers on either side, or the space beyond.

Getting the feel for it, he increased his speed.

“Low-g express!” Luke laughed as he shot forward, several times his previous speed and without the jerkiness of mag-boots.

The map popped up in his vision, and he checked his route.

Luke returned to normal view, tilting his feet; jets activated. “Oh, okay… so maneuvering jets built-in.” He brought himself closer to the catwalk.

“You see all this?” Jynx let out a low whistle. “You can get a dropship, a shuttle, even a fighter! And look! Increased armor, machine guns, rifles, and sub-machine guns. But it’ll cost you a pretty credit.”

“Are you sure your dad didn’t say anything about this?”

“No, he’s been talking about how he and Uncle Stuart are looking forward to retirement. I know they wanted to build a new game, but I didn’t think they were this far along.”

Luke tried to slow his pace, hands on the catwalk like a dog running on a hardwood floor, trying to turn around a corner.

“Shit!” Luke dodged a bot coming the other way, just managing to turn himself, colliding with the railing and bouncing off.

The other bot tripped and shot off into a spin, yelling on local: “Watch where you’re going, asshole!”

“Sorry!” Luke winced.

“What happened?” Fin asked.

“Bouncing down the halls!” Luke adjusted his feet on the banister and his hands on the catwalk. Reorienting, he increased his speed, eager to get away from the spinning and cursing bot.

He followed the HUD’s arrows and dove down an access hatch, taking the ladder.

“Thinking about the shotgun,” Fin said.

“I looked it up on the forums. Seems like we’ll be fighting on that ice planet. Its like Conquest, where you attack, or defend the different nodes across the planet,” Jynx said.

“Sniper it is,” Fin said sagely, as if it were his choice all along.

“You even listening?” Jynx said.

“Conquest. Capture the nodes. Shooty things.”

“How we getting down there?” Luke asked, slowing at some ladders. He used his hands to pull himself along the ladder in the direction he wanted to go. Down, left, up or right: it was a frame of reference spacers tried to remove from their minds in low-G.

“Remember those docks and the dropships?” Jynx couldn’t hide her excitement.

“Badass.” Fin laughed, causing Luke to grin.

“This is one hell of a demo, or DLC,” Luke said, studying the detail as he passed through decks, past running bots, and all the different layers of assembly lines.

“This is a whole new game,” Jynx said. “The graphics—they’re some of the best I’ve seen. Like, if you scratch your bot, it actually leaves a mark.”

Luke turned another corner. “And she’s gone, into the land of the game dev nerd.”

“Ah, it was good while she was sane,” Fin commiserated.

“Dicks. But seriously, this is next-level graphics. All these bots, and there’s no lag jump between connected servers? The net-code must be unreal.”

“Yeah, seems pretty smooth.” Luke used the ladder rungs to spin, orienting his feet to the new catwalk. He clicked his heels together and released the ladder. His mag-boots brought him to catwalk firma once again.

“I think I’m here.” The volume of bots was thicker, funneling into large hatches with Armory, followed by a number stenciled in white above.

Luke grinned as he walked inside. The walls were covered with displays of weapons, attachments, and bots.

“Pull up your in-game terminal when you’re inside the armory and it should give you weapon buying options,” Jynx said.

“Got it.” Luke brought up a terminal in mid-air.

[Bot]

[Primary Weapon:__]

[Secondary Weapon:__]

[Upgrades:__]

[Misc.:__]

[Carrier:__]

Clicking on the different slots gave him the option to pick out rifles, machine guns, snipers, pistols, attachments for his bot, non-combat-related gear, and his storage capacity.

[Rifle]

[Cost: 1926 Platinum/1 Credit(s)]

“What are you running for weapons and gear?”

“Got a pistol, and a machine gun,” Jynx said. “The pistol is free, but the machine gun costs thirty-three thousand, eight hundred and twenty-two plat. That’s like twenty real creds,”

“Big spender,” Luke said.

“Bite me, freighter boy.”

“Fin?”

“I got an Anti-Material Rifle, or big sniper to the uninitiated. A little cheaper. This game is gonna be hella expensive unless we make some plat.”

“How many free-to-play games have we played, and how many times have we spent more than what a normal game would cost?” Luke asked.

“Haven’t paid a credit more, but it’ll turn into a grind fest to earn platinum to compete with the pay-to-play people,” Fin grumbled.

“Yeah, no way I could spend this much every day to play. Damn.” Luke scrolled through the gear. “Wait a sec. There’s a sell button. Gives me a price on the button. Less than the buy price, but still a price.”

“I just found the marketplace. Pretty damn empty, but you can trade with. Holy—you can trade for credits!” Fin sucked in a breath between his teeth.

“What do you mean?”

“Like straight gear for credits. You put it up on the marketplace and you can buy and sell in credits. Don’t need to use plat.”

“That’s a thing?”

“A few games use it. Most don’t want to because it means people can move money out of their economy,” Jynx said. “It’s also a little game breaking because it makes the game currency a real currency. People put a value to it with credits.”

“So you’re saying we could get a bunch of gear in here and sell it for credits?”

“Yup! And that’s not all,” Fin said. “I checked the store. There are miners, factories, everything. We can sell raw materials, components, and even ships.”

“Before you two start coming up with plans for Sphere World domination, let’s get into the fight, huh?” Jynx said.

“Break some skulls,” Fin said.

“Fine, just give me a sec.” Luke tried to balance out the cost versus reward of all the weapons. He’d picked up creds here and there—not much, though—and was holding onto every credit he could. He needed two thousand a month to keep his dad off his back and keep gaming.

Luke bit his lip. He had a few hundred creds. But this could be the opportunity I was looking for. If I can get gear and sell it… He cleared his throat, pulling himself back.

“Guess that leaves it to me to get something more reasonable. You got the firepower and long-range covered. Gonna stay with the rifle and take the pistol, too,” he mumbled, hitting [BUY] before he could second guess his options, again.

[Rifle]

[Cost: 1926 Platinum/1 Credit(s)]

[Pistol]

[Cost: 0 Platinum/0 Credit(s)]

[Proceed to Armory 5-Port 18]

“All right, we’re on the other side of the pickup,” Fin said.

“Right,” Luke said. A new way point line appeared in his vision, tracing to the far end of the room.

A dozen armored doorways with numbers above them were ringed in a green or red light.

Bots stepped onto the conveyor belts in front of some of the doors, locking their feet down. The lights turned green, and the conveyor pulled the bots through the doorway. Arms reached down, attaching gear, taking off components, plugging others in, and locking it to the bot’s frame.

Luke’s line took him to a different door. It went green and slid open, revealing others standing at ports where gear was being delivered.

He’d only gotten a glance, but the room was like a vending machine of weapons. Rifles, machine guns, ammunition, and grenades were pulled from the wall by arms, deposited in crates, and delivered to the different ports.

Luke went to the one labeled 18.

A crate pushed out of the port. Luke opened it. A rifle and magazines in an ammo belt were laid out.

He grabbed the rifle and blue areas highlighted in his vision. A diagram of the bot rotated in the corner of his HUD, showing [mag clamp surfaces]: two on his chest and back, more on his lower back, his stomach, his hips, and legs.

“Nice.” Luke examined the rifle. It worked just like a normal rail rifle: charging handle, magazine, trigger—simple and effective. Best of all, it felt right in his grip. He cleared the rifle and fired off the action. “Feels crisp as hell. Nice feedback.”

Luke pulled a mag from the belt and loaded it. The readout screen blinked red, the weapon forcefully safed.

He attached his rifle to his back and hooked the fighting belt around his hips. It slipped into fasteners built into the bot.

“Yeah, it’s just sharp… The gunplay is sweet,” Fin said.

The crate closed and dropped down and away, and a red light appeared above the port.

Luke headed for the door on the other side of the armory. He came out into another wide hallway. Corridors and armories led to air locks with red chevroned exteriors leading to the docks. “Looks like we don’t need to cycle through air locks. Guess they’re going full out with the robot thing.”

“Dude, we could walk on the surface of Sphere World without a suit. Double bonus!” Fin whooped.

Fin and Jynx were waiting for him. Fin’s sniper was on his back. Jynx held her machine gun.

“Armory is pretty cool, too. They went into every detail.” Jynx let out an appreciative noise.

“So, how do we get to the planet?” Fin asked.

“Follow the people?” Luke gestured at the bots heading through the air locks.

“Sure.”

The flow of people guided them through the doors to the docks. Dozens of squat dropships caused the deck plates to hum with their massive articulating space/atmo engines, landing and taking off. Dual turrets mounted on their belly, sides, and roof rotated. Some bounced and moved to a random beat.

[Turtle Dropship]

[Used to transport troops into combat in space or on planets]

The game’s soundless communication was alive and well as some of the bots returned the turret’s gesture by squatting.

Luke snorted as the dropships closed their ramps, their compartments filled with bot lights splashing off of them and the deck as they silently rose on thrusters and pushed forward and out of the massive bay doors that looked over the planet below.

Valhalla was a swirl of grays, whites, and blues. Icy peaks peered through layers of cloud as storms rolled across its landscapes. As harsh as it was, it was beautiful, as only nature’s spaceships could be.

Amber lights spun as a barricade rose around a landing pad. Bots moved back as a dropship was carried out from Sphere World’s depths. The dropship was lowered to the pad. Sections of the pad dropped away, and mechanical arms reached out from the open sections to add in new weapon systems. Belts fed in rounds and missiles rose up, cradled by the underwing racks.

Printing arms ran down the ship, changing the dull grays and black into a winter pattern with a polar bear charging into battle below the enclosed cockpit at the front of the ship.

A bot walked toward the ship, jumped up using jets built into the bot to land on the lowering ramp. “All aboard the Polar Express! I need four gunners!”

Bots swarmed the dropship as Jynx hit Luke. “Look!”

Another landing pad, amongst possibly a hundred other landing pads in this section alone had been barricaded off.

This wasn’t a dropship, but a space fighter with cutting lines and a small profile. It landed on the pad and belts and arms sprouted from the floor, arming the craft like the dropship had been.

[Hellcat Fighter]

[Atmospheric and Space Capable Fighter]

A bot jogged up to the ship and climbed the short ladder. The canopy opened for them to jump into the cockpit. They wasted no time in bringing systems online and left in a trail of engine plume.

“Come on. We need to find a ride… That one looks good.” Luke pointed at a dropship coming in.

The dropship rotated and landed on its pad. Sections of the deck parted as ammunition loaders hooked to the ship, feeding it rounds, and arms replaced spent missiles.

Luke and his group ran up to the ship.

“Welcome to the Comet! Grab your seats! Once we’re loaded, we’re going!” the pilot said over the local chat, broadcasting to everyone in range.

The ship filled quickly. Luke took the farthest seat and sat. Locks in the back of the seat—like the locker and rack—hooked into his bot and secured him in place.

Gunners sat in chairs forward from the cargo hold, two on either side of a central walkway that terminated at the pilot’s seat in the nose of the craft. The gunners faced projections of what their turrets could see.

Fin nudged Luke. “Someone found the cosmetics.” He gestured at someone with several warning stencils across their bot.

“Dunno if it’s a paint job or a hazard.”

The lights inside the dropship flashed red as the ramp rose.

“Hey, you can access the dropship’s cameras,” Jynx said.

“How?”

“Use the ship interface.”

Luke found it and cycled through the cameras, changing his view from the cargo bay filled with bots bathed in flashing red light to the cameras in the remote turrets. “We look pretty badass.”

He cycled through the cameras in the cockpit, mirroring his view to the pilot’s.

The pilot flicked switches and worked his console. The red lights stopped, signaling the hatch was sealed; he dialed up the power to the engines, adjusting the throttle control levers on either side of his legs.

“Check flaps,” he called out to his gunners.

Luke switched cameras, seeing them looking at the wing.

“Right flaps good!”

“Left flaps good!”

“Rear flaps good!”

“Decking good,” the belly gunner reported.

“Smartass.”

The crew laughed.

The pilot flipped through controls and took hold over the interface. “Fuck, this is smooth as hell. Going to make our payment back in just three more drops.”

“If you don’t crash first.”

The pilot flashed his middle finger behind him to the gunners laughs.

Giving them a burst from the main engines, they rose from the deck slowly. The pilot used his thumb on the left throttle control lever—or TCL—to orient the main engines in line with the dropship and pushed the TCL forward. The main engines flared. Luke’s bot shifted sideways in his harness as they exited the hangar. A few touches of thrusters with the right cyclic control, and they were free of the docks and headed toward Valhalla as other ships were coming and leaving.

“Copy Sphere World, flying the plot.” The pilot looked over his shoulder to his gunners. “Wave to the cannons now.”

The gunners laughed.

Luke cycled to a gunner. They bobbed their dual-mounted machine guns in salute.

Rail cannons, missile tubes, and close-in weapon systems waited, dormant and patient, across Sphere World.

That’s a lot of firepower. Luke let out a low whistle, using the cameras to study Sphere World’s exterior.

“Shit. That thing is huge,” Jynx said in their chat.

“There are miners and shuttles moving across the entire system, feeding it,” Fin said. “Bigger than anything humanity has ever built.”

“You can do whatever you want in a video game,” Luke said, changing his view back to the pilot’s. He tuned out the pilot, who was talking to other pilots in the area about where to set down and move together.

“How big is this place?” Jynx asked.

“Eleven planets. Fourth one is a Martian. There’s a large asteroid belt between us and them. Valhalla’s the fifth planet, an ice planet. Then there’re two subjovians. The first has rings. Then a jovian gas dwarf, a thin asteroid belt, gas dwarf and then the Kuiper. Pretty exciting system,” Fin said, giving his professional opinion.

“You sure this is a demo?” Luke asked.

“Gotta be, doesn’t it?” Fin spiked the question toward Jynx.

Jynx made a sound in the back of her throat.

“We’re going into atmo now. Just look at the detail inside the cockpit. It’s nuts.” Luke rescued her.

The cockpit flooded with light as the pilot dimmed the view screen and cut off his thrusters, entering in on a glide and using his flaps.

“That input is crazy. Gonna weed out a bunch of people who can’t actually fly,” Jynx said.

“Good thing at least two of us have official licenses,” Luke said.

“School’s too scared to give me the qualifications,” Jynx said.

“Yeah, ’cause you think going upside down in atmo is just a nice way to view the ground,” Luke mused.

The pilot interrupted them on the local chat. “Welcome to Valhalla, fifth planet of the system. It is a balmy negative one hundred and forty-three C today, with a chance of explosions, shooting, and bot death. We are heading toward Monkey Balls Node—and no, I did not make up these names and yes, they’re as random as fuck. Whoever claims the node gets to name it. Please use an actual freaking name when you get it and don’t copy another name! It’s a pain in the ass, trying to figure out which damn Asgard Node we’re supposed to go to. Don’t be a tool. Get a new node name, kids!”

Luke pulled up the map on Valhalla as they dropped into the atmosphere. He checked the search function, finding the Monkey Balls Node.

The map outlined the node. It was built into the side of a mountain range that ran southwest to northeast.

“Newbies: If you’re looking at the maps, you might be wondering what the fuck is going on. Use the search function to find the node to recon the place, and you can toggle between different maps. We’re coming in with three other Turtles—yeah, don’t know who named the dropships. Anyway. You can see the orange markers on the ground. That’s our insertion point, looking to come down there. We’ll adjust as we come in. Dunno what kind of terrain we’re looking at. Kuzinski, you want to go over the map? I gotta do pilot shit.”

“Dah, I got it,” a thicker accent from the Korzh or Chebovsky system said through the local chat.

Luke bet he was from Chebovsky.

“What we see here, right, landing pad, then road to node in mountain. Walls cover most turrets above the wall. You get inside, find command post, capture it and control the node, name something better. You have four hours to build defenses. Then node can be attacked again. Do not shoot ze shuttles, else get kicked from game. Don’t go against Sphere World rules, else get kicked.” Kuzinski stopped his briefing.

“Five minutes!” the pilot yelled. The engines came back online, this time with the deep growl of the atmo-hungry burners.

Luke looked out of the cameras. The ship had come through the worst turbulence, a few more black streaks on its paneling. Other Turtles cut through the sky, some moving toward, others shifting away.

He read the map again, looking for elevation.

“Thinking that we circle around to the east, find somewhere to set up with a line on that path into the node, and the turrets?” Luke pinged along a route to what might be a hill. Being in the same squad, Fin and Jynx could see all his pings.

“Sounds good. Can set up there, cover everyone as they go in,” Fin said.

“Don’t want to die too quick.” Jynx patted her machine gun. “Gotta make my twenty creds count!”

Luke cleaned up the markers on the map and went back to watching the cockpit.

“We’ll make a fire support base from the hills and hit them from range. It should make it harder for them to kill us, and we can test out the game. If we want to play more, then we’re going to have to figure out a way to grind out some plat for new gear long-term.” Luke cleared his throat. “If we die, do we need to buy the next bot?”

“I read up on it. We get one free bot per day when we sign in, but that’s dependent on the number of people in the game—too many, and we’d get stuck in a queue. We’re not allowed to sell the ones that they give us. Though we can build them ourselves, apparently,” Fin said.

If I die, it’ll cost at least thirty-five credits to get back in. He couldn’t play many games at that price. He’d clear out his balance.

“One minute! Don’t die too quickly and cap that node—I need the plat!” The pilot laughed.

“Fucking turret!” a gunner yelled as the dropship shifted its descent.

Luke switched to a turret view as it fired on the node in the distance.

Turrets along the wall fired streams of tracers into the sky. None came close to the Turtles.

The dropship gunners returned the favor. Their tracers tore up ice around the base. The mountain the node was built into was actually a massive glacier shelf near two kilometers tall.

“Hell yeah—pile it in!” the pilot yelled. “Shifting left!”

The Turtle showed her prowess as the gunners shifted their fire against the movement of the ship.

The dropships moving alongside theirs each released a half dozen missiles. Streaks rushed toward the ground.

The racks clanked open as their own missiles joined the fight.

A few hit the glacier, causing part of the face to collapse like an iceberg falling into the sea. Others hit the ground, blowing up shards of ice. One hit the landing pad, turning it into twisted metal, and another struck the left side of the base, destroying a section of the wall and a turret.

“Woo-hoo! That’s what I’m talking about, Raptor!” The pilot cheered his fellow pilots as they dropped down and away, getting out of the base’s view.

The engines howled as the pilot brought their nose up, flicking his engines to eject downward. The superheated burners turned the stone-hard ice to steam as he slowed his descent and crept forward, the steam increasing the lower he got.

“Can’t land on this shit—else we’ll get stuck in the water,” the pilot yelled as the chairs released the bots. The lights turned yellow as the ramp dropped. Wind rushed in as the ship pressurized.

“Get clear of the water as fast as possible. Turns to ice real fast—bots should crack it off!”

A few tried to get up in the wind before it died down. Luke waited a few more seconds before using the handholds to stand.

The wind died down and those at the rear of the dropship ran out and jumped.

“Have fun and kill those bastards! I’ll be back with reinforcements as fast as possible!” the pilot yelled.

Luke moved with the line, running and jumping out of the dropship. He hit the melted ice fifteen meters below. “No fall damage?” He ran clear of the water, heading for his first marker.

“Maybe we just didn’t fall far enough?” Jynx said. The dropship moved forward to distribute its exhaust over more of the ice and spread out the bots.

“Maybe something to check out later when we’ve got bots to smash up?” Luke said as they ran away from the landing zone and into a small ice ditch. The terrain was rough and untamed, with icecaps like jagged teeth of grey, black, white and crystalline, forming sharpened hills and mountains.

“Fuck, these graphics are good,” Jynx said.

“Better hope that they come out with this for real. Even if it’s an alpha, it ain’t bad,” Fin said as they walked along the ditch.

The wind howled through the ice’s crevasses, spreading twinkling ice shards in their dervish trail.

“Let’s push out to the left, move through the broken ice fields, and see if we can’t get up on some of those ice hills for a firing position.” Luke led them into the broken ice landscape.

“Better than a headlong run right into their defenses,” Jynx and Fin trailed after him.

Their Turtle took off with a howl of engines. The turrets opened up on the node with parting shots. Its burners spiked, and it streamed across the surface of Valhalla, leaving ice crystals in its wake before it arced into the sky.

A dropship came in ahead of Luke, its engines burning through the ice and raising a plume of steam around it. The dropship balanced unsteadily as bots jumped clear of the ramp and ran for the node.

The longer the ship stayed there, the deeper the water was under the ship. Several bots were chest-deep before the ship moved forward jerkily.

“Damn. Our pilot was so much better,” Luke said, picking the pace up into a jog rounding an ice boulder broken from the ice walls around them.

Map checking, he used the ice walls to move around the right flank of the cave entrance.

“Oh, shit!” Luke jumped, spotting the crevasse ahead of him as he put the map away, sprinting faster and leaping, clearing it and rolling. “Jump!”

“Mother fucker!” Jynx yelled as she landed on the other side.

“Holy baby Zeus!” Fin grunted as he landed.

“Well, the feedback is great.” Luke laughed in an oh-fuck-we-nearly-died sort of way as he picked himself up.

“Fuck. How deep is that?” Jynx checked her footing and looked down the chasm.

“Who knows? Could be a few hundred meters or a few kilometers. Might not want to stand so close to the edge,” Fin said.

“This is Alpha Squad lead,” someone said over the local chat. “We’re moving in from the southwest. Got good cover here, but the turrets know about us. Need some covering fire to advance.”

“Come on. The squad leads are getting antsy.” Luke jogged on but kept his pace down and rounded corners with plenty of space to see any chasms.

“So what? One area commander, then squad leaders, like Orion’s Belt?” Jynx asked.

“Yeah, and it looks like open comms to the people in support, so the pilots, I’d guess.” Luke fiddled with the menus. They were Charlie squad, and he was listed as the squad leader.

“Well, better you than me. I hate dealing with command chats and shit,” Fin said.

Luke sighed. He’d always been saddled with the squad lead role. He didn’t mind, but it was nice to just worry about shooting people instead of the whole team.

“Hopefully, they don’t start talking about the weather.”

“Freeze your tits off cold with a side of blinding snow and winds like a banshee strapped to a microphone? Thankfully, they didn’t feel the need to let us experience just how damn cold it is.”

They came out between two pillars of ice, looking at the hill they were going to use. It was at least thirty meters wide and sheer on three sides except the one facing the base.

More of a pillar than a hill.

“Well, you bring your ice picks and climbing equipment?” Fin asked, looking at the pillar.

Rolling machine gun and weapons fire exchanged in the distance bounced between the ice pillars.

“We could try climbing it,” Luke said.

“You think we could?” Fin said.

“No way they programmed that,” Jynx said.

Luke moved to the pillar, secured his rifle, and jumped, stabbing his hands into the ice. He tensed still. He’d half expected it to just be a solid, merciless wall like most in-game assets.

“Well, looks like that works.” He kicked his feet into the ice, giving him a sturdy hold. “How far up am I?”

“Like a third of the way. Try it again,” Fin said.

Luke jumped again but didn’t get his hands in properly. He fell back, hitting the ground without any damage to his bot.

“Let me try.” Jynx put her machine gun on her back and stabbed her hands and feet into the ice. She climbed it like a ladder: one hand up, then the other, then her legs, then repeat.

“Coming right up!” Fin used her handholds to follow her up, with Luke right behind.

“I’ve reached the top.” She lowered her voice.

“You know they can’t hear you,” Luke whispered back.

“Shut up,” she said, overcompensating. “I see the base. Shit is kicking off over there.”

Fin went over the ledge and joined Jynx on the top of the pillar.

“Come up and move to the left,” Jynx said.

Luke came up and peered over at the base a few hundred meters away. They were parallel with the glacier shelf, looking into the base from the right side with the wreckage of the landing pad nearest them.

The left side had a soft incline leading up to the node. The craters left by the missiles were being used as cover for their fellow bots, firing at the turrets along the wall as they advanced.

A missile streaked from the node, hitting a group of bots, making a new crater.

The top of the pillar had protrusions to lie down and hide behind. Luke crawled on his belly across the ground. Jynx was on his right and Fin on his left.

Fin pulled out his bullpup AMR. He hit a catch, and the barrel shot forward, nearly doubling its length. “Fucking rounds as big as my thumb,” he muttered, shuffling forward in the snow and ice to get a good position. He disappeared around an ice outcrop from Luke’s position.

“Got like a thousand rounds per box mag with this baby.” Jynx grinned. She pushed her machine gun forward on its bipod then crawled up to it until she found a good position. Digging her bipod into the ice, she gripped the buttstock ahead of her shoulder and the trigger handle.

The wind picked up, covering them in ice crystals and creating eddies among the misshapen pillars.

The machine gun was pretty normal except it fed like a bullpup and the entire section from where the gun cover should have been to the weapons backplate was three-quarters magazine, a quarter mechanical innards and barrel.

“How the hell do you load that thing?” Luke asked.

“Like an MG42 barrel change. You grab a metal handle and pull it to the side. Whole thing comes out. Then you line up another box and slam it into the groove and forward into place.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Charlie Squad, the fuck you doing? We need help up here!”

Luke had tuned out most of their chatter, but they were Charlie Squad.

“Just got set up. We’re going to provide covering fire.” Luke increased his magnification and surveyed the base. The enemy was highlighted in red outlines as he spotted them. “Just getting oriented.”

“Hurry the fuck up! We’re dying out here.”

“Seems that Echo Squad lead is having quite the day,” Luke muttered as Turtle engines howled, a new flight coming in for a hot drop behind the advancing forces.

“All right, might as well get stuck in while the going’s good. Fin, take out the turrets if you can.”

“What should I be shooting?”

Luke keyed command chat. “Team leads, what takes out the turrets?”

“Missiles?” one team leader said.

“Shoot their sensor package, makes ’em blind.”

“They can use a spotter, though,” another said.

“Thanks.” Luke flipped chats. “Shoot the cameras.”

“All right.”

“And I should do my hair another color?”

“You’ve only had two color changes this week.” Luke grinned. “I want you ready to cover our guys’ advance. I’ll ping enemy as they show up. You keep their heads down.”

Fin fired. “Fucker. Moved at the last second.” He fired again. “Gotcha.”

Luke spotted the turret’s cameras, a sparking mess as its rate of fire cut off.

Fin changed targets and fired as friendlies moved along the soft incline. Reinforcements swarmed up behind them to get into the fight.

“There, Jynx.” Luke pinged a group of enemy rallying on the wall.

Jynx fired a long burst, raking the area.

“Got someone!” She grinned.

Luke checked the turrets. “Shift up and to the right.”

Fin took out another that twitched side to side, unable to move. “Shit. I think I hit a runner or something.” He fired again, and the camera went down.

“Got two turrets down. Three are still up. We’re covering. Get moving,” Luke said on command.

Groups of bots moved forward, tentatively at first, feelers edging around the ice barricades. Like a tide coming in, they pushed forward, threading through the terrain.

A squad ran up and was mowed down by a group just inside a section of wall that had been destroyed with a dropship missile.

“There. There, Jynx!” Luke pinged the opening.

She shifted her aim and fired, filling the air with long bursts with long pauses, enough to make them keep their heads down, not too much to burn through her ammo.

“Foxtrot, going for the eastern wall. Don’t shoot us!”

“Copy. Hey, Jynx, don’t shoot friendlies on our side of the wall.”

“And on the other?”

“Just don’t hit any blueberries.” Luke checked the advance; blue nameplates for friendlies, purple for squad leaders and the commanders.

A section of the eastern wall exploded.

“What the fuck was that?” Jynx said.

“Reloading,” Fin said.

“Made breach!” came over command.

“I think that was us? Watch out for friendlies. They’re getting bunched up.” The advance was using debris that had fallen from the glacier with the Turtles’ missiles and turret fire as cover for their approach to the node.

“Shall we get moving?” Fin asked.

Rounds thudded into the tower they were on.

“Yup!” Luke said, backing up.

All three of them moved to the rear of the pillar. Jynx let herself drop the fifteen meters to the ground, Luke and Fin following.

“New firing position or get in there?” Luke asked.

“Get in there. Having a hard time not hitting our guys,” Jynx said.

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Luke sketched a rough route in his mind; he pinned a marker and started jogging.

“Bravo, push in more. We need your help!”

“Shit, we need ammo. Anyone got an ammo crate?”

“Grab it off the dead. You have to do it physically. Can’t just step over them.”

“Fucking realism.”

Luke stopped paying attention to the command chat as they weaved through the broken ice and up the side of the landing pad.

Other friendlies ran through the breach in the wall.

Luke moved in first and checked around, his bot adjusting to the darkness inside the cave.

Buildings and containers dotted the node. Machinery was still working while firefights pushed from the wall into the base.

[Monkey Balls Node]

[Capturing]

[1%]

“Push! Come on! Inside the node. We’re worth one body. In the command post, you’re worth three!”

Luke found stairs and ran up on the wall. “They want us to push for the CP, but we’re going to hold here to make sure we’re not counterattacked and lose our foothold. We’ll set up here. Shit’s a mess among the buildings on the way to the CP.”

“Those turrets still work?” Jynx pinged them along the wall.

“I think that one over there does.” Fin pinged it.

“Set up there. Luke, use that turret.”

“All right, sounds good.” He was eager to get into the fight.

They ran along the catwalk, the wall coming to chest height. Luke vaulted the railing and landed next to the tower the turret was mounted on. At the bottom was a simple joystick with a camera feed. He grabbed it and selected to link. His vision changed, as if he were looking through the turret, and spun it around to face the base.

“Enemy there.” Fin pinged a location.

Luke turned to the flashing ping and fired, stitching holes through a building. Bots dropped out as one tried to run, caught out in the open. Jynx cut him down as others rushed out.

“Take the left! I’ve got the right!” Luke stopped trying to use bursts and went full cyclic, shredding up walls and cutting down bots. They kept advancing, somehow making it through the destruction.

They slowed suddenly. Luke went to bursts again, his machine gun alerts blinking about the heat overload.

There were bots, spent casings, ammunition boxes, and broken buildings everywhere. Luke tracked enemy bots running back and sent bursts at them, catching some.

“Good work on the machine guns!” a team leader yelled as they pushed into the area, flowing through the killing ground, and moving forward.

“How’s it going, ladies and germs? Came to show you how to take a node,” someone yelled on local.

Luke shifted his turret, seeing reinforcements streaming into the base as dropships took off at the landing zone.

“Shit, Luke at the turrets—behind you!” Jynx yelled.

Luke came out of his turret, grabbed his rifle, and jumped away. Rounds hit where he had been. He fired from the hip, cutting them down with a burst. A tug of wind passed as Fin fired past him, hitting another bot.

“Shit, thanks.” Luke checked his ammo count.

“More coming. They’re flanking on the left!” Fin said.

Luke glanced at the console. “Turret’s busted.”

Fin fired several times. Jynx moved to him firing at the flank. Luke grabbed a grenade off the bot Fin had saved him from, arming it and throwing it in the direction of the flank. He found a container near the wall’s stairs.

Two bots ran out, rushing the stairs behind Jynx and Fin. Luke cut them down in a burst, sending them sprawling on the ground.

Rifle up, he went around the container. Nothing. He turned to face the flank, cutting down a bot running full tilt. They had no time to react as their momentum carried their body.

“We’re starting to take the node!” A squad leader yelled on command chat.

“Factories to the left side of the CP, take them out and we take out their reinforcements!” another said.

Luke reloaded his rifle, watching, nervous for someone else to run up as friendly reinforcements flooded through the breach and pushed into the base.

“Watch out! There’re people on the right trying to flank us!”

“Got it!” Two groups headed off to the right.

“I don’t see anyone,” Jynx said.

“Me either,” Fin said

Their guns were silent but fighting sounded in the distance, bouncing around the cave.

Luke checked the map. The groups that had pushed on the right flank were advancing quickly. “Okay, looks like they’re taken care of. You want to move up?”

“Hell, yeah, I do,” Jynx said.

Fin looted a pistol. “These guns have some serious punch.”

“All the weapons do. We’re punching holes through the bots,” Jynx said.

“Let me grab some grenades,” Luke said.

Fin laughed. “You’re speakin’ my language.”

They moved up to the corridor they’d gone cyclic from, grabbing gear and ammo.

A flash of the map told Luke what he needed to know “The fight is moving into the back of the cave. We got pushed out of the CP, but we’re starting to cap the location by sheer numbers,” Luke said.

“Lead the way,” Fin said.

Luke did one last check of his new gear and followed the path of the other squads. Weaving through the containers, rock outcroppings, and machinery. Someone poked their head out; Luke’s entire body tensed just releasing the trigger when he saw the nameplate above their head. “Shit. Nearly shot you. How’re things?”

“Scared the shit out of me too. Fucking place is a maze. I’m watching the rear. Rest of the squad’s chasing. I’d say push for the point. It’s a fucking mess in there.” He waved at the tunnels.

“Thanks.” Luke waved the others forward and toward the sounds of shooting. They moved between the haphazard buildings and containers.

Something exploded on the other side of the cave.

“Woo-hoo! Got their factory!”

“Another drop coming in. Where you want it?” a Turtle pilot asked.

“Bring it right up to the gate, if you want,” Luke said.

“Will do. Front door delivery. I get a missile up my cargo bay, I’m blaming you, Tavares489!” he said, emphasizing Luke’s gamer tag.

“Sounds good.” Luke laughed as he poked his head around a corner. Rounds sparked beside him, and he ducked back.

“Camping in the corner.” Luke recalled the open area he’d seen and the containers the shots had to have come from. He pulled a grenade, tore the tab, and tossed it, followed with a second offset to the right.

“Get ready,” he said.

The first grenade went off, and Luke moved. The second went off, half-shredding a bot as it ran to the right. Luke shot and killed them with a burst, covering the area.

Fin moved to his left. “Got left.”

“I’m right.” Jynx trailed behind.

Fin fired. “Got one.”

Luke’s eyes were twitching, forgetting to blink as he moved up to the smoking corner of a container peppered with holes.

He peeked around the side. A group of bots were running through a corridor of containers on the left. “Enemy running in the containers!” He advanced, kneeling, pinging, and firing as he finished talking.

He stitched rounds through the thin containers; enemy rounds shot back at him.

Jynx fired over Luke’s head, her rounds cutting a line through the containers.

Luke held his fire, scanning as Jynx stopped firing.

“Think they’re dead?” Jynx asked.

Silence filled the air.

“I’ll check. Cover me.”

Luke stepped out of her way, checking both sides with his rifle up and ran to the container. Several bots lay on the ground.

“Yep, you got them. Come on!” Luke wanted to get out of there before the noise attracted others.

He laughed, shook his head, and took point again.

“Right behind you,” Jynx said.

“Let’s go.” Luke moved into the building opposite, clearing through the modular one-story building, and looked through the hexagon-latticed windows spiderwebbed by shrapnel and rounds hitting the glass. They showed the road up to the command post.

“All right, so the CP has containers creating four walls at the exits—”

“Grenades?” Fin asked.

“Some small crates have been thrown up between the containers for cover.”

“Grenades,” Fin agreed.

Luke tried to glare at Fin through his bot. “They’re shooting over the wall.”

Fin sighed. “That sounds like grenades to me.”

“Grenades?” Jynx asked.

“Fucking grenades,” Luke agreed to laughter. “They’re not shooting at us yet. Use that door. Pitch them over the containers as hard as you can. Wait for them to pop and then run in.”

“All right, I’ll cover. You two are better at throwing,” Jynx said.

“Sounds good.” Luke jumped to command. “Hey, we’re going to throw grenades in from the—” He checked his map. “—east side. Once they go off, we’re going to charge. Golf Squad, you with us?”

“Pinned down right now!”

Luke looked toward the building the squad were hiding in. Rounds sparked all around them.

“Jynx, hit that building there. Give Golf some cover.” He pinged where the rounds were coming from.

“Gotcha.”

“Ready?”

“Yup!” Jynx had her machine gun just below the window, looking through the spiderwebbed window.

“Grenades!” Fin held up one, holding the pull tab. He’d been collecting them.

Luke shook his head. “The Gollum of grenades.”

“At least he can let them go. It’d be messy otherwise,” Jynx said.

Fin caressed the grenade-baby.

“All right! Three, two, one—go!”

Jynx stepped up, smashing her barrel into the top of the window, and using it to clear around to the side.

She rested her gun on the ledge as the armored window drooped to the side.

Luke and Fin pulled their tabs and stepped out of the doorway, throwing them over the container walls around the CP and ran back inside. Fin got off a second grenade before they went back inside.

Luke grabbed his rifle as Fin pulled out a submachine gun he’d looted.

The grenades went off.

“We’re winning the cap race!”

[Capturing]

[20%>]

“Move it,” Luke yelled.

Fin was the first out.

“I’ll cover you!” Jynx said, keeping up her fire on the walls.

“′Kay!” Luke ran after Fin.

Golf Squad of six and some other random friendly bots ran toward the command post.

“Grenades if you’ve got ’em!” Luke yelled as they reached the containers.

“Fuck you!” a defender yelled on local, running out.

Fin, Luke, and three others shot the bot, killing it.

“We defend in peace!” a defender called out.

“In pieces more like. Can’t you just die quietly?” an attacker complained.

Fin was holding a grenade, and the tab was in his hand. Luke’s stomach crawled into his lungs as Fin popped it over the wall.

Grenades hit the containers and the CP with the sound of metal on metal.

“Fu—”

Luke walked around the corner, finding broken bots.

“Hold your grenades, friendlies pushing in!”

Luke saw a bot without legs raise its rifle. Two rounds turned off their lights.

“Move up, goddammit!” the Golf Squad leader yelled at the units camped around the command post.

[Capturing]

[85%>]

The command post was falling fast now that they’d cleared out more of the defenders.

“Door!” Fin yelled.

“You shall not enter!”

“I bring presents!” Fin yelled and threw three grenades into the doorway.

They went off. Luke ran in, shooting a bot behind a console. Another stood and he took them down too. Rounds peppered the walls as a third bot shot at him.

They were cut down before Luke even got a chance to look at them. Fin took them out as friendly bots moved in through other entrances, taking out others hiding in the room.

Bots popped up from where they were hiding.

Fin dropped from a spray of rounds, catching the attacker with his own last burst.

“Dammit!”

[Capturing]

[99%]

[Victory]

The attackers slowed their shooting to a halt as the defenders’ bots went inert. None in the CP made it out alive. Everyone was too hopped up.

“Woo-hoo!” Jynx let out a yell.

“GG. Shit, that was good!” Others joined in on the local chat.

“Damn!”

“So, what do we get?”

“Defenders?”

“Fin, we just won. Can you respawn?” Luke asked.

“Yeah. Uh, Dude, look at your account!”

Luke checked through the after-action report, detailing his contribution to the attack.

“Looks like, based on our contributions, we get more or less a percentage of the loot of everything the enemy had,” Fin said.

[Victory]

[Gained: 2120057 Platinum/1060 Credit(s)]

[Spawn Point “Monkey’s Balls” now available]

[Sell to Sphere World or Keep?]

“Holy shit,” Luke hissed. “Is that for real?” It was more credits than he’d earned in the last couple of years all in one shot. A good portion of a month’s rent!

“Damn, that’s a ton of points. I guess that’s for everything here?” Jynx said.

People started talking with one another in the chat log to organize pickup, while others worked on defense.

“What’s going on?” Luke used local chat to speak to the Golf Squad leader.

“We capped the node. If you want your creds, you need to sell your loot to Sphere World. They’ll send a shuttle down and collect all the materials that’s been sold to them, and you’ll get your payout. Or you can keep it, though you gotta provide the transport if you want it, or use it to defend. Whoever did the most, gets the command post.”

“Why would you defend?” Luke asked. He could barely keep himself from pressing the sell button. His skin was hot and cold with anticipation, as he worried that it was all a large hoax. This really could be the answer he was looking for.

“The longer you defend, the more the miners will extract, and the more gear you can make or build with the factories. You see all the guns and buildings and bots here? All of that was built. Every time people attack a node, it gets stronger. More walls, more turrets, more miners, and factories. Defenders can spawn in the bots they built, while the attackers have to come in from Sphere World. Though I guess you could build up bots at one node and attack another.” The squad leader trailed off with a shrug.

“Anyone who’s leaving, we’ll buy your bot off you with materials you can sell to Sphere World!” the commander yelled. The whole compound had turned into a sea of bartering.

Luke looked at Jynx. “Why don’t we sell them? Then we can meet up with Fin in SW and attack another node.”

“That sounds good to me!” Fin yelled.

“Got it.” Luke laughed. He hit the sell button as a chime went off in his suit.

[Joey Scheduled for suit time.]

Luke growled.

“Sorry, it’s my brother’s turn. I have to jump off.”

“Aww! Damn, dude,” Fin said.

“Can you get back on later tonight?”

“Probably not. I think Marissa has it after him. Catch you tomorrow?”

“Sure thing. See you then!” Jynx said.

Luke smiled; others might bug him about the fact he shared the net suits with the rest of his family.

He logged off, feeling the suit loosen around him as it unlocked and opened.

Chapter two

Chapter: 2

08, March 2242

Dana ‘Iron Admiral’ Huang sat in the Command Information Center of the Destroyer Star Burst.

“Second battlegroup has finished transition,” a communications officer said from the communication pit. “They’re moving to join the fleet.”

Her fleet stood at one frigate, three destroyers, and nine corvettes, with two more battlegroups en route to their deep-space rally point.

Dana’s expression didn’t betray her growing excitement as she reviewed her plans for the coming raid. It would be the biggest live and non-simulated fleet she had ever led.

She cultivated a mask of neutrality, careful to let nothing affect her expression. She was tough on her crews and harder on herself. Getting permission for the raid had been a challenge and working with the Star Kings guildmates was difficult. They cared more about their view-time than training. They played it up for the streams and believed in their cultivated skills instead of growing more.

After a year, she still wasn’t happy with their training. She needed a win to show them that following her was the right way to get them to apply themselves. To be professional fighters instead of vapid personalities vying for attention.

Now they were on the cusp. The battlegroups formed up on one another, waiting for the next battlegroup to arrive.

“Wormholes detected.” The sensors officer shot a look at the communications officer.

Dana leaned forward in her seat.

“The last battlegroup was supposed to arrive in fifteen minutes.” The two of them looked at Dana as her mask tightened.

“Any communication from the other battlegroups that they are on the move?”

“No, Admiral.”

“Ready for immediate combat. Alert the fleet that non-guild wormholes have been detected.” Dana’s eyes danced over her plots. They were outside of her effective missile range. They’d exit their wormholes and have time to engage them before they arrived.

“Non-Guild wormholes detected,” the communications officer said in quiet disbelief on the fleet channel.

“All other battlegroups are to halt their arrival until we have clear readings on these unknown ships. Have the corvettes create a defensive formation around our destroyers. All destroyers and frigates are to charge their wormhole projectors.”

So soon after their jump to the rally point, it would take precious minutes for them to charge up their capacitors again for the wormhole projectors to punch a hole through space and back to a friendly system.

She worked her jaw. Space was big—huge, even. Between systems, it was nearly impossible to find anything, and yet the Iron Cross fleet had just happened to jump into Dana’s secret rally point.

Someone had betrayed them.

The ships slid out of the wormholes, twisted spheres of starlight from another region of space, blended with the stars this side of space.

“Enemy force is emerging from wormholes. Markings indicate they’re Iron Cross.”

Outwardly, she showed little reaction. Her eyes dropped to the screens around her command platform, to the sensor readings on the enemy force. Two carriers, three cruisers, supported with five frigates and ten destroyers. They weren’t playing around.

She studied the plot, possible moves running through her mind.

Mitigating the losses was all she could think of.

A glance at her communications terminal to the captain of Star Burst showed a grim-faced Captain Chen on the bridge.

It was a welcome reprieve. Usually, Chen would be yelling all over the place to get more time on the stream. Guess he doesn’t want to be associated with me or this loss.

She just had to save as many ships as possible for future actions. Well, that and so Minnie wouldn’t yell at her as much. Minnie regularly complained about how long it took to build the warships in Fleet Commander.

Her guild wouldn’t be too happy with her losing the ships, either. This was only her third battle with the Star Kings Guild, and her first major action against the Iron Cross Guild.

“They’re broadcasting,” a communications officer said in a strained voice.

Dana changed her settings to listen to the enemy.

“Iron Admiral? You think you can still call yourself Iron! You lost your chance and now you hide between systems! Let’s see how you deal with us now!”

Dana tapped her teeth together. She had gained the moniker of Iron Admiral because of her unbending command. Others said it was because she was as hard as iron with the enemy—and her own fleet.

Just three months ago, she had accepted a contract with the Star Kings Guild over the Iron Cross Guild. Iron Cross always were the jealous type.

“They’re releasing fighters!”

Dana hid her scorn. Bringing fighters to a space battle was stupid.

“All cannons load flak. Get the close in protection guns spinning up. Load missiles, close protection spread. Corvettes, present their broadsides and move into half cigar. Destroyers to the center, present their bows.”

The fleet was slow to carry out her orders, undisciplined, their movements defeatist.

“We have a mission to protect as much of the fleet as possible,” she said, using the command channel, heard by every captain of every ship. Their movements cleaned up some. The destroyers and frigates were working the fastest to save their ships.

“Confirm, missiles ready?”

“Missiles are ready, Admiral.”

“Good.” She spaced out her question to break up the silence. Space battles were fleeting microseconds of action among mind-numbing lulls of boredom. The hardest thing would be to keep the crews alert.

“Prepare to go evasive once they launch. Let’s see just what our pilots can do.”

“Enemy is approaching long-range missile range. They’re launching!”

Launching this far out showed their disdain for her fleet and confidence in their own overwhelming firepower.

Markers shot out from the approaching fleet. A few to start, but they sprouted from every missile hatch like a hedgehog had ejected all of its needles at once. Tens of markers spread out into a sheet faster than any human piloted ship could travel.

Her ships were still charging their jump drives, dead in space. It would take approximately forty seconds for the Iron Cross fleet to reload their missiles.

“Admiral?” A communication officer’s voice climbed as the missiles approached.

“Missiles to close-range protection! Fire!” Dana said.

Her fleet’s missiles were a fifth of the enemy’s number, but being the target, she knew the exact path the enemy missiles would follow.

“Enemy has launched another wave of missiles. They didn’t take the time for a full reload!” the communication officer on her left yelled.

Bit dramatic. Were they playing it up for the live stream?

She raised an eyebrow at the communication officer. He whitened and turned back to his console.

“Missiles are engaging.”

“Set all weapon systems to engage the missiles that make it through our screen,” Dana said as friendly and the enemy missiles crossed one another, fighting a battle of domination. Hers hunted theirs, theirs trying to overwhelm and reach her ships.

They did. Space was a cold, hard place, reminiscent of the waters of Earth in the age of sail. Whoever had the biggest ships, the most armor, the most guns, was nearly always the winner in a head-on fight. It was why Dana liked to play from the side, cutting off corners instead of forcing a major battle. And why fighters in a space battle were more decorations when close-in weapon systems could track and shoot faster than a human could speak and armor that could take impacts from nukes.

With these cold realities, she wasn’t surprised as the cannons started to spread plumes of flak to meet surviving Iron Cross missiles, nuclear spheres coloring the darkness between fleets.

“Notify me when our second load of missiles is ready,” Dana said.

Tracers from the corvettes filled the space ahead of the remaining missiles, leaving blooms of nuclear fission where they crossed.

“Our missiles won’t finish loading by the time their second salvo reaches us,” weapons said.

“I see that.” Dana wished she had her team, not just the team with the greatest subscriber numbers. “Looks like your systems will be put to the test.”

It wouldn’t be enough. The enemy was continuing to close at emergency speed. They’d be pressed into their chairs at five gravities as her main ships continued to charge.

The Star Kings’ weapons continued firing, the fission explosions getting closer and closer to them. The Iron Cross ships were dumping missiles nearly as fast as they could load them, creating a constant stream.

The smaller density of missiles made them easier to defeat one by one, but her smaller fleet didn’t have the capability to defend against such an overwhelming and sustained attack.

Two missiles made it through her fleet’s defenses and exploded around one of her corvettes.

“Engines are out. Cascading power failures on corvette four.”

The missiles from Dana’s fleet forced the Iron Cross fleet to focus on something other than launching missiles.

“Ships report that all missile tubes are loaded.”

“Fire. I’ll take guidance control. All ships on full defensive.” Dana input her targeting parameters on the screen in front of her. Missile markers spread out from her fleet as they pulled into knife-fighting range with flight time between fleets down to a few seconds.

“Friendly corvette seven and nine destroyed.”

She spared a glance for their expanding debris clouds.

“Iron Cross fleet is entering rail cannon range,” another communications officer rattled off.

Dana targeted all the missiles underway against enemy carriers, adding in secondary orders.

“Corvette three is dead and one just took a hit—” The marker disappeared. “Dead.” The communications officer’s words held a bitter edge.

Her corvette’s defensive sphere was broken. Missiles passed through the opening, right into the destroyers frantically trying to open a wormhole. Their defensive weapons blazed, but nuclear fire ran along the streams of tracers.

“Destroyer four is dead!”

The CIC shuddered with a nearby explosion.

She pressed her lips together; the enemy was targeting every ship but hers. She had only changed what ship she was on after they had left their last star system. Definitely a spy in our ranks.

Enemy fire slackened as they turned their defenses against the oncoming flood of missiles targeting their carrier. She’d staggered them so each missile destroyed covered those behind them.

The first missile reached the enemy carrier. Cheers rang out as the massive ship started to crack apart.

“Fighters!”

Dana tamped down on her frustration as enemy fighters crossed their formation. Most were torn apart by close protection weapons and rail cannons, aiming and firing so fast as to look automatic.

The fighters answered with missiles, peppering the massive warships. The pass was over in less than two seconds.

Only twenty percent of the fighters made it out onto the other side. Fighters didn’t win space battles.

“Destroyer three has lost engines and their jump drive is failing.”

“Corvette eight is holed, but they’re still able to fight!”

The enemy carrier went up in a wave of rippling explosions as missiles diverted and dove toward the second carrier, getting a glancing blow as the carrier’s defense weapons opened up.

“Thirty seconds!”

“We’re in range of the enemy rail cannons.”

Dana reached through her holographic screen and held onto the railing as the destroyer shuddered and then pitched to the side. Several rail gun rounds crashed through the ship. Alarms whirled as the pressure dropped. Spinning lights painted the command center.

She pulled her gloves on. They cinched to her coveralls and her collar ballooned around her head, creating a clear wraparound helmet.

A destroyer started to transition, rail cannon rounds tearing through it like a round through a tin can.

The frigate jumped, to Dana’s relief, as her own destroyer shook and shuddered. She gripped the railing tighter.

Three ships had made it out of the combat area. The others fell under the Iron Cross fleet’s cannons.

Dana’s vision blanked and turned into a killcam following a rail cannon round piercing through her ship’s armor and hitting a reactor, tearing apart the ship.

She breathed out, focusing her mind.

[Defeat]

“Log out.”

Her vision cleared and her helmet hinged backward as her support arm brought her down onto her charging cradle. Her suit opened as she stepped out into house shoes, wearing a form-fitting net-sleeve.

Her jaw tensed. Spies. It had to be the only way.

“Your agent, Jacqueline, is calling you,” her house’s AI said—kind and light, but still undeniably robotic in nature.

She must have been watching the feed to know the exact minute to call. The timing. Dana’s mask fell into place as she strode to her command station, a series of physical and holographic systems that created a half-circle around her. She pushed her thoughts from her mind.

The silver forward screen turned on, showing Jacqueline with a pitiful look.

“Jacqueline, I need you to get a message to Tao Walker. We were betrayed. We have to figure out who it was and remove them. First, focus on reinforcing my area. See if the Iron Cross is making a push or feint—”

Jacqueline spoke over her. “Star Kings Guild has canceled your contract.”

“Wha-why?” Dana shook her head.

“You know how they are—tight-lipped.” Jacqueline’s blinding smile didn’t reach her eyes or stop her from talking. “But don’t worry. I made sure that we got all the payments for the contract cancelation, though their timing is a little bad.” Jacqueline tried laughing it off but sounded nervous rather than reassuring. “Don’t worry. Take some vacation time, hone your skills, and we’ll find you another contract soon enough! All right. Got to go. Have fun. Wish I could get some time off!” Jacqueline cut the channel and the screen returned to silver.

Dana stared at her reflection on the screen. Mid-twenties, Asian features with blue eyes too bright and clear to be anything but genetically altered, and the paler side of white of someone who had spent a lifetime in space or in their net-suit.

“A vacation?” Dana raised an eyebrow and looked back to her net-suit: top of the line, custom fit, with systems that allowed her to operate in the net for days at a time.

Fired right after losing a battle? Too much of a coincidence. They had expected her to lose. They must have known about the battle.

She crossed her arms and held her chin. Her eyes narrowed as she squeezed out a long exhale from deep in her lungs. It hadn’t been spies; it had been a betrayal.

With the advent of the hypernet reaching communications across the human sphere, video game guilds had risen from system-wide entertainment to a force across the net. Sports were still played, but their popularity had diminished as games increased in realism and skill required.

Guilds had turned into sports teams, similar to the old Formula One racing teams. Hundreds of guild members toiled behind the scenes to support a few skilled or famous players. Corporations bought and sponsored gaming guilds as a measure of status.

Corporations were known to use their gaming guilds against rivals to settle disputes. A perfect arena for their wealth and power.

She needed proof to allay her thoughts.

“System, news of Star Kings Guild’s corporate sponsors, referenced against Iron Cross’s sponsors,” Dana instructed.

“Merlouc Corporation announced today that they will be working with the Dasarian Conglomerate on a new trade deal. The deal will create a warpgate between the Centauri and Tropez systems. Critics—”

“Dasarian and Iron Cross?” Dana interrupted.

“Three months ago, the Dasarian Conglomerate purchased the Iron Cross’s primary sponsorship position. With their arrival, the Iron Cross went through several staff changes and seems to be aggressively looking to increase their power in Fleet Commander. The Dasarian Conglomerate CEO, Ava Morealis, commented, saying that as the premium supplier of iron in four systems, it was only natural that they join their forces with the Iron Cross, the premier gaming guild in several games.”

“System, information on Iron Admiral and Dasarian Conglomerate before today?”

“The Gamer-eye reported that the Iron Admiral, as fierce as she is cold, broke another heart. Today, her agent announced that she will be joining the Star Kings Guild over the Iron Cross Guild. With these two forces bordering each other in Fleet Commander, we can only expect the infamous Iron Admiral will be at the heart of this conflict!”

“End.” Dana sighed and rubbed her face, groaning into her hands.

So Dasarian had bought out the Iron Cross. To get my contract? They didn’t seem to have taken her joining the Star Kings Guild too well. She turned her head to the side, reviewing the facts. “Or was the Star Kings Guild looking to get my contract so they could send me into a battle I would lose?” Her mind picked through the information, examining the angles of the two parties. She shook herself, pulling out of her thought spin. “Doesn’t matter.” In the end, Star Kings Guild had used her as a pawn. Probably as an offering to the Dasarian Conglomerate. Make them look good, kill her, then throw her away.

Her eyes moved back and forth, reviewing the information. Her voice softened and her shoulders drooped. “Maybe I should have done some public appearances or played to the audience.”

She moved through her apartment of marble whites, stainless steels, and golden trim with cream couches, slate-gray countertops, and tables—the standard addition package. The most impressive feature—the floor-to-ceiling window—showed the early morning sunlight glistening off the adjacent towers as it peeked between them, so tall that they took up the skyline. Earth’s Mega Towers.

The doors in the living room opened at her command, allowing a light breeze into the room.

Dana stepped out onto the balcony. She hissed as she ran her fingers through her hair. It was almost painful from being compressed inside her suit for so long.

She gazed at the other buildings in her complex. Eight multi-use high-rises rose through the air, creating a square on the ground. Grav trains moved between the massive edifices of silver, white, glass, and green.

Gardens filled random spaces, and parks broke up the buildings. The interior apartments came at a premium—allowing residents to see the beauty of the courtyard in between buildings.

“To hide the ugliness, more like.” Her eyes were drawn to the space between apartments where she could see beyond her complex. A sliver of the real world, the real Earth. Mega-towers, grayed edifices—hardened pillars against time that bled their decades-old rust.

She reached out, finding the gossamer-thin netting that wrapped around her balcony—wrapped around every balcony. It slowed the speed of the incoming air and made it incredibly hard and time-consuming to break through.

Dana ran her hands down the netting. Some said it felt like fishing wire braided together. It reminded her of just how thin the barrier was between where she had been born and where she was now.

“Well, what now?” She had been saving everything she could, preparing for the worst eventualities. She was just starting to get some progress with her command team and the captains. A new guild, a new start… The payout would sustain her for a short time. The cost to live in her mega tower was steep with all its amenities.

Getting basically kicked out after losing a battle would hurt her shares and image. Her hand curled into a fist.

What she wouldn’t give for some half decent captains that could follow orders and a command team that worked as a team, instead of for the feeds.

“I never thought that free players would be more professional than the leading gaming personalities. Guess they really do have the best editing staff to clean up the vids.” She snorted. Her allusions with the guilds had broken early. Still, she had no other path to take with her parents having robbed her of her earlier funds and pushing her into disastrous contracts.

She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. Focus on what we can do, not what our brain can imagine up.

She looked at the mega-towers in the distance again and her hand came to rest on the banister. She breathed deeply, closing her eyes, and let it out, grabbing the railing. She released it and walked back into her apartment, the doors closing soundlessly behind her.

She opened her fridge. It was filled with meal replacement drinks and nutri-paste for her to refill her suit’s reservoirs with.

“Yay, lemon and berries.” She grabbed the meal replacement shake and shook it, catching the fridge door with her foot on the way to the couch. She sat down, curling her legs under herself on one side, sticking her feet between the back cushions. She cracked the shake and gestured in the air with her free hand.

Projectors created a holographic interface in the air above.

Dana drank her meal replacement, scanning the latest updates. In some kind of fatalistic or reverse schadenfreude, her eyes kept drifting to her updated feed, sorting and organizing new articles that involved her.

She kept glancing away, looking at her finances—studying them, laying down plans in case she wasn’t able to find another contract in the near term, then in the long-term.

She kept catching herself and looking away, as if caught in some sin.

“All right, what the hell are they saying?” She drank some more of her meal replacement and slid the financials out of the way for the reports.

“The Iron Admiral loses the fleet. Is this the end of the Iron Admiral? Review of the greatest Iron Admiral defeats.” She opened that one and scanned it. “Well, they’re thorough, at least. Looks like they went back all four years. Must have been preparing for this.”

The articles summed her up as one of the best admirals on paper, but infamous for her detached and unfeeling exterior. Her own guild members talked about her inability to feel.

She dismissed it and returned to the main feed.

“Tao Walker himself came out and talked about the losses in the Gamma sector. He gave a rallying speech.” She waved down the article, watching the video of the speech. She had to hand it to them: Tao Walker did look like some warrior elite when he was all done up with makeup and net touches.

Dana closed the feeds and continued searching, just lost in the net. It turned into a search of the best generals and admirals she had fought or fought beside through her four years.

“The nostalgia is strong in this one,” she muttered, remembering them all. Most had been pushed out of the gaming sphere, focused on the fighting and the winning instead of showmanship, the celebrity, and fame.

She respected these generals and admirals; they had stood for something. They’d worked hard for every victory.

“Guilds,” she said dismissively, lowering her hand from her scrolling.

She looked at the ceiling, toward the stairs that led to the second floor. The dropped lights created swirls from the ceiling to the second floor.

Morning had arrived, the red hues turning to daylight. A wave of despondency ran through her, like a towel wrung of everything.

Dana hinged her head forward, bringing her hand up to dismiss the hologram.

Her eyes fell on a familiar logo to the side of the article. She tilted her head, frowned, and spread her fingers, opening it into a full article.

A sad smile spread across her face as she leaned back into the couch.

“Orion’s Belt.” The words rolled off her tongue with warm inflection. She chuckled to herself, filled with memories and escapades. “Now that was a game.” She sipped her shake while reading it. “Guess all good things come to an end, though.”

Dana groaned and got off the couch and stood, pushing her hologram upward.

“Game plan.” Training? She paused. Her entire body seemed to argue against that course of action.

“Well, I am off, right?” A cat-like smile spread across her face. “Vacation, right? Jacqueline said to take some time. Do what I want.” Her eyes strayed back to the article about Orion’s Belt servers closing down.

“System, pre-load Orion’s Belt.”

Dana stretched, wincing as she gave her armpit a tentative sniff.

“Maybe a shower first.”

Chapter three

Chapter: 3

08, March 2242

Brad Lee rubbed his scalp, shaved to a fine shine, and adjusted his glasses. The hallway lights and the light from the remaining twin wraparound screens in the office illuminated the desk cube, a timer rolling down to zero.

“Well, this is it, huh?” Stuart Martin, his long-time friend and business partner, sat opposite him, nursing something amber and iced.

“I guess so. The end of an era. The end of Orion’s Belt.” Brad looked around the office, once so full of life, now a skeleton of what had happened there. He sipped from his beer bottle.

“Kind of echoes. Hello!” Stuart yelled into the room.

The desk cubes, once covered in knickknacks, pictures, and nerd-dom, were now as lifeless as every other office in the building. Sanitized. Cables hung from mounts, the screens sold off with the chairs and keyboards. The testing suits were gone from what had once been the boardroom.

Maxxel’s night stretched beyond the windows, twinkling against the adjacent towers of the corporate elite and financially secure.

Shuttles took off for orbiting stations while actual open space was spread out, trimmed and contained, as sanitary as the offices themselves.

They shared a quiet minute.

Brad had married the love of his life and buried him a year ago while working on Orion’s Belt for Orion’s Belt Enterprises.

His lips trembled as he sighed and drank from his beer to numb himself.

“Well, I propose a toast.” Stuart raised his glass.

“To?” Brad raised his halfway.

“To the end of Orion’s Belt, a magnificent game, and to the end of Orion Belt Enterprises and our corporate overlords!”

Brad rolled his eyes and smiled, but still tapped his glass against his friend’s. “To tanking as no one has tanked before.”

“Amen!” Stuart chuckled, taking a big swig of his drink. “If you hadn’t found that loophole in the new contract, we would have been stuck working on some loot box game arcade shit for the next hundred years.”

“Next time we’re thinking about bringing in more financial help, let’s not,” Brad muttered.

Taking their company public should have been a great deal for them, but as time had gone on, they had allowed more shares out into the market. Quietly, they had lost control of their company and been forced to follow what the new board ordered them to do, or else they would be out of a job. They made a massive amount of money, but they didn’t get into making games for the money.

“So, are you ready for our next project?” Stuart asked.

“We’ve only just figured out the systems and started planning on how it’s going to work. Don’t have a team yet either.” Brad pointed with his beer.

Stuart was the ideas and the energy; Brad was the one who kept that energy in the right direction and managed the behind the scenes.

“I wonder how many of our investors are shorting our stock right now,” Stuart mused.

Brad sighed. “Gods, it’s tiring to try to keep up with how your brain jumps.”

Using a mix of gestures and his screen-glasses, he found the information. “We’re nearly two hundred percent shorted.”

“Going down like a meteor.” Stuart snorted and raised his glasses. “Well, at least we’re majority shareholders again!”

“You really went and bought out the majority voting stock?” A message pinged on Brad’s glasses, distracting him.

“Hell, yeah. What’s the point of having money if you don’t waste it from time to time?”

“Do Mary and Felipe know?” Brad’s voice trailed off as he read, frowning.

“Something wrong?”

“Nah, just… guess there’s a lot of people checking out the game before the server closes. Just got a notification that some of the standby servers went online.”

Brad reached out and activated the screen. A counter showed the number of people currently online as an alert blinked. He put his glasses on his head, frowning as he widened the alert screen, reading it through.

“Did you buy new firmware?”

“The hell would I do that for?” Stuart leaned forward, blinking back the alcohol. “What the… how many people?”

“Forty thousand and rising.” Brad’s voice was distant as he expanded the alert, eyebrows pinched together as he scrolled with one hand, his mind burning through the haze over his brain.

“What the—” Stuart snatched Brad’s glasses from his head and started using them with gestures. Brad kept scrolling, his frown deepening as he held his chin.

“Dude, uh, we’re making the news?” Stuart pinched in front of his glasses and threw it on the screen.

A darker man with pink and neon-green streaks through his carefully shaped hair, wearing a silver and black suit with neon-blue kerchief, spoke on the screen.

“Orion’s Belt, a much beloved game by my fellow MMORPG fans, has pulled a fast one! Rumors have been rife that they’re going down the chute, but today, on the last day of Orion’s Belt, diehard fans found something new in the game lobby!” He paused, switching to the camera on his side. ”Sphere World!”

The reporter waved his hand as if he were painting the game in front of them. A video feed appeared of people running into the rear of dropships, of people then jumping free and clear of them; pitched battles—a group of dropships laying down heavy fire, and tearing into defenses.

“It’s a zing, my friends!” The camera pulled in toward the host. “Now you’re thinking, oh just another shot, Clio, man, who cares when things are heating up with Fleet Commander?” He held the camera, clenching one eye, a smile hanging from his lips, about to blow the listener’s mind.

“This is a fully immersive MMORPG.” He waved his hand, and a video showed up. “Daywalker417 landed at one battlefield and then ran to another battlefield. No server jumps, no lag. There’s crafting, from miners to factories, to ships of all kinds, weapons, and bots galore. Oh yeah, ’cause you’re not doing this in your skin—whole automation, my people!”

A bot appeared next to Clio, holding a rifle.

“That looks pretty cool,” Stuart said.

“Yes, to enter Sphere World you’ll need a bot! Now, where’s the catch? Well, the people over at Orion’s Belt have been naughty boys.”

Stuart coughed on his Scotch, and Brad smiled behind his beer.

“You see, you get one free bot, but you have to pay for additional gear. But—there’s more than one job out there for you to earn platinum. Mining, building, piloting—Sphere World has jobs for all. Controlling nodes brings a stream of wealth right into your net account.”

Stuart paused the stream and threw out the latest articles.

“What the hell?” Brad muttered. He brought the holographic projector on. The deserted office turned into the Orion’s Belt game lobby. There was a constant stream of people entering; he followed them through the office, watching them enter Sphere World.

“Well.” Stuart drank his Scotch, leaving the desk cubicle to look at the doorway.

“You have anything to do with this?”

“Nope, not me. Never seen this before.”

“Then what the hell is it? The hell are we supposed to do?” Brad rubbed his scalp.

“Calm down, man. You’ll go bald with worry.”

Brad glared and Stuart snorted.

“How are you the calm one?”

“′Cause…” Stuart grinned. “We just climbed to over eighty thousand players and it’s still going. We have two hours till we cut the servers, but we’re paid up till the end of the month and oh, it would be so nice to screw over the companies shorting us.”

Brad rubbed his beard, thinking. He waved the hologram away, finding himself in another office cube. He jogged past Stuart to the screen and flipped back to the server information.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Seeing if I can shut it down.”

“Why’d you do that?” Stuart frowned. The alcohol must’ve had some effect.

“′Cause we need to shut this down before it becomes a problem.” Brad winced, changed what he was looking at, and then went through another directory. “What the hell?” Brad muttered and kept going.

“What?”

“This code—it’s like they’re woven together. Shit, this is a mess. I don’t know how the hell to untangle this. This has been done on purpose, or they were ripping out all our code. Which means they must know it.” Brad clicked his tongue. “It must’ve been someone who worked for us. Has to be, to know this much of our code, slice and dice it so that it still works. Hell, the game is running less graphically intense than Orion’s Belt, though the bandwidth is high.”

“So one of our people made this? Damn, it’s better than our game.” Stuart peered into Brad’s stolen glasses, looking at more articles.

Brad leaned on the table, closing his eyes. He let out his breath in a rush. “Start buying up our shares. Now.”

“Why?”

“′Cause the price is going to climb like crazy.” Brad squeezed his hand into a fist. “If this does become something, then we need to control Orion’s Belt one hundred percent or else the corporations are going to steamroll us. Second, we need to find out who the hell made that game, how they got it onto our servers, why they did it, and make sure that we give them back control—or we could get into even deeper shit.”

“We could just say it’s not our game,” Stuart said.

“They might have done this for a reason. Look, if we say it’s not our game, the first thing we’ll get is investigated. The second thing is that people are going to jump all over whoever made this. The corpos are going to get their fingers into them and they’re going to do the same thing to them that they did to us.”

“Shit.”

“And whoever made this must know us to have ripped this much code and made it work.” Brad’s voice softened. “I think they’re on our side.”

“Who do you think it is? Pavel? Maria? Jess?”

“Not sure.” Brad sighed. “But they put their game, this masterpiece of a game, on a server that we’re supposed to close down tonight. If that’s not timing, I don’t know what is.”

“They could remove it from the servers tomorrow,” Stuart said.

“They might. No matter what, we need to control the company to make sure we can deal with things our way and they can’t push for legal action on whichever friend is trying to give them the middle finger.”

“Well, there goes the fourth and fifth home,” Stuart muttered even while he had a smile on his face. “But worth it to give the corpos an extra-large fuck you.”

“You don’t even have a second and third home,” Brad retorted. He brought up a stock broker app and was buying up shares rapidly. The stock market never stopped throughout human space.

“Hey, I like to be home light and game heavy.” Stuart was working on his glasses. “Want to get a kebab on the way home?”

“Best get two, or else Mary might end you.”

“Works in greenhouses all day, but hell if she doesn’t love her meat.” Stuart snorted.

“What?”

“We’re about to give the corporate overlords a big middle finger with their own game and we’re discussing kebabs. Fuck, sometimes life just gets me in its weirdness, you know?”

“You’re still a lightweight, you know that?”

“I’m cost efficient.”

“Not with that Scotch, you’re not. I’ve got thirty percent now. How about you?”

“Twenty-eight and I have another deal lined up. Should have a nice five percent more in a couple of minutes.” Stuart rattled off a few more gestures. “I have thirty-one percent, with another five percent coming, and a much lighter bank account.”

“You just wanted one more percent.”

“Damn right.”

“Sixty-one percent—that gives us a healthy margin of control.” Brad sighed.

“So, leave the servers on?”

“Leave the servers on,” Brad agreed.

“Well then, that was a good prep for shutting them down. Kebabs?”

“Sure.” Brad rubbed his face. “You know this is going to be a shit storm tomorrow, right?”

“I am drunk. I do not compute future-Stuart problems.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Drinks at your place?”

“Sure. Crash in Felipe’s old room. Grab the beers. We’ll take an auto-car.” Stuart grabbed his bottle, one hand on his coat. He turned his head to take in the room. He threw his jacket over the bottle arm, taking in a deep breath filled with memories. “Fuck, this was a great place to work.” He clapped Brad on the shoulder.

“It was,” Brad said softly, seeing the grays and whites in his friend’s brown hair, a few more lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth and inches around his waist. He patted Stuart on the back and grabbed his case of beers. The screen turned off as they walked toward the clear doors.

“I’ve known you too damn long. It’s making me feel old,” Brad muttered.

“At least you don’t have to see your old mug on my head.”

“I’m bald, not a mirror-smooth cue ball.” Brad sighed as they left the office.

Stuart shrugged. “You’re the one who said it. I was just—you know, insi-insinu-ah…”

“Insinuating?” Brad growled as they walked down the corridor.

“Yeah, that’s it! You know you get more drunk after you drink, like time after you drink, so like, you don’t drink but you’re getting more drunk.”

Brad smiled as they walked through the building, every hall and room on that floor holding nearly two decades of memories.

Chapter four

Chapter:4

09, March 2242

Luke opened his eyes, hitting the alarm next to him. The lights in his pod brightened as he lay on his bed, looking up at a scratched, clear plastic box with its peeling sticker. Luke used his finger to spread out the sticker.

“Pull in case of emergency. Warning: bunk will eject.” Luke imagined what it would be like to pull that handle: his shutters slamming shut as the panel above his head opened and his bunk-bed turned escape pod jettisoning into the void, quickly left behind as Dahlia’s acceleration took her out of view in a matter of seconds.

Luke tapped the plastic box, before turning on his side, and hit the shutter open button, next to his pillow.

His lights brightened as the shutters rattled open, revealing a large guild poster: Iron Cross Wants YOU! the poster read, with the guild’s main players standing behind a pair of space fighters blowing up something. Pretty sure they have a game today.

Lights flickered and clicked before coming to full power. Posters of different guilds and games filled his room.

He idolized what the militaries of old had stood for, to protect their fellow man, to take on the hard jobs to provide security for the many.

The only militaries like that were the ones trying to protect the settled systems either unable or unwilling to join the main factions. Noble, but weak compared to the faction’s might.

His father had served as a Federation Marine, learning the truth of humanity’s fighting forces, preying upon those weaker than them for some small gain. Honor was dead among them. They used the gaps between the law and what was reported to the net to wage their shadow wars.

Luke was good at fighting, and he loved being part of a team and pushing one another. The guilds were the closest thing he could get to actually fighting and at least his actions wouldn’t hurt anyone in the real.

Guild players were drafted as early as thirteen years old, and few made it past thirty. At eighteen, he was already middle of the pack. He wasn’t even part of a small guild to build up his self-worth and compete in tournaments. He didn’t have a following either.

“Ahh!” He let out a frustrated yell, hating the swirling pit in his stomach, the part of his brain that told him that he had done everything possible. That told him that he would never be part of a guild.

It grated against something deep within him. He shook his head. It was so frustrating. His parents wanted him to grow up, but only if he did what they approved of.

“Six weeks to figure out my life. Nice,” Luke scoffed and raised his head to the room. Four bunk-beds with integrated lockers dotted the room, their worn black shutters drawn closed.

Color coded pipes for air, water, electrics, sensor runs. Painted warning signs and padded walls, ceiling and handholds.

Luke reached out to grab his coveralls.

They, like the rest of the room, were faded, their original bright-orange and neon-yellow going white and frayed at the edges and joints. He pulled them on, securing the airtight zippers. A touch confirmed his gloves were in the right pocket and his emergency hood was still wrapped up in his thick collar.

He checked his tool belt with a swipe and quick visual scan as he slipped on his mag-boots and tightened them, his movements quick and rote. He barely had to think of them. Being born and raised in space, he’d learned how to put on a space suit before he could walk. Without a suit, any spacer would feel naked.

He laid back on his bed and pulled out his screen, flicking through feed updates.

>The Iron Admiral falters! Iron Cross gets their revenge.

>Sphere World, the new craze.

>Goldminers rejoice at Sphere World’s direct payment systems.

Luke pulled up his messenger app.

[Luke] Hey Jynx you going online today?

He was about to let it drop to his chest when his screen vibrated.

[Jynx] A new day, a new bot, right?

[Jynx] Are your parents really making you pick a job in two weeks?

[Luke] Well, when we reach Odessa Station, yeah.

[Jynx] What about the guilds? I thought you wanted to do that?

[Luke] I do, but I don’t know how the hell I would even start.

[Jynx] Doing something is better than nothing. I declare that from now on we will begin operation: Make Luke a Star.

Luke groaned even as he snorted at the ridiculous name, just visualizing Jynx’s pleased expression. There was already no going back.

[Jynx] Just need to get you a highlight reel. You’re already a good gamer. We just need to give you that wow factor. I’ve met some of those guild people—you know, events and things with Orion that my dad took us to. They were decent gamers. The big thing is the sponsorships. If you’re willing to let people have access to your life, do interviews and stuff, the more you’ll make.”

[Luke] “Well, I don’t think I could get that high.

[Jynx] You don’t have to sell yourself short. You can do anything you put your mind to. Nothing is impossible!

[Luke] Okay fine! But I don’t want to have to stream all the time.

[Jynx] You don’t have to do it all the time. The guilds are focused on Sphere World right now. Its numbers are NUTS. If you got some cool videos edited by yours truly, I could get them to the right people. Can’t hurt.

Luke tapped out a message and stopped, his eyes catching a Star Kings poster. His insides turned, hating to impose on her time. Luke bit his lip, erasing his message. Paused, and tapped out a new one.

[Luke] Like, if you’re okay with it?

[Jynx] Awesome! Hell, yeah. I’m up for it!

Luke grinned.

[Luke] Thanks.

[Luke] I’m going to grab some food and jump on if you wanna join?

[Jynx] Need to get that b-roll built up! I’ll message Fin. He’ll be down to skip out on work.

Luke left his room. A ding went off in the dining area, with the clip-clops of another pair of boots.

He grimaced, debating just heading back to his room, but his bottle was out of water, and he hadn’t eaten in a few hours. He just hoped it wasn’t his parents. He tentatively walked into the dining area, and smiled.

Joey was pulling out a ration box from the hydrator. He rolled back the cover to blow on the steaming contents and turned. Spotting Luke, he flashed a Joey-patented grin. “Hey, lil bro.”

“Hey Joey.” Luke flipped up the handle on a storage box and grabbed a breakfast bar.

“You got night shift tomorrow.” Joey sat down at the table as Luke pushed the box back and released the spring-loaded handle, hooking it to the storage frame.

“Damn.” Luke leaned against the counter, opening the bar.

“If you need me to cover your shift so you can game…” Joey grinned over his meal.

“I am not trading my limited-edition Nero’s Monkey bobblehead for you to take my shift.” Luke bit his breakfast bar, speaking around it. “Maybe in a thousand years…”

“One of these days, Nero’s Monkey will be mine!” Joey declared in a forced ornery tone, with his spork pointed in his direction before he took a bite of his food. “Hooh, ah, hoh—hod!” Joey blinked away tears and released the top of the container, so it slammed shut and he drank half his bottle.

“Maybe let it cool first?” Idiot. Luke hid his grin behind taking a drink from his water bottle.

“Didn’t think of that.” Joey rolled his eyes. “And I’ll have you know that I am the perfect specimen of spacer strength.” He flexed his arm and squeezed his bicep.

Luke chuckled, talking around his breakfast bar. “Lifting weights in zero-g ain’t the same thing.” He slid into the alcove across from Joey. The cushions gave way, the padding beaten into submission over the years.

“Says you. Don’t see no grounder pushing a standard container around with their pinky.” Joey smirked, blowing on another sporkful of ration.

Luke really wasn’t certain what it was. “Lasagna?” he asked.

“With chunks that I think are supposed to be vegetables.” Joey examined a sporkful of squares and spheres that boasted a little more color than the rest of the brownish contents. He ate them and shrugged.

“Better than those Squezids.” Luke shuddered. “Ugh, like someone tried to make melted rubber taste like cheese and sardines. Take you a day to just chew it. There are some things that should not be turned into a fine, pulpy texture.”

“I’m trying to eat here, man.” Joey glared, brandishing his spork.

Luke snorted and grinned, chewing on his bar and washing it down with water.

“So, you decided what you’re going to do yet?” Joey asked through a mouthful of food.

Luke sighed, resting his arms on the table and playing with his bottle. “Nope, not really. Guess I’m gonna have to be a freighter engineer.” Luke grimaced and looked at his brother. “Sorry.”

Joey shrugged and waved it off with a spork ladled with food. “I know it’s not for everyone. Been where you’ve been, though. Mom and Dad are just looking out for you.”

“I’ve only been out of high school for a month.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got the hours you need for an apprentice position. Another year and you’ll have Journeyman-level quals. You can go to any freighter, merchant liner, or ship and get a berth.”

“You’ve got Journeyman but you didn’t leave,” Luke pointed out.

“I’ve got technical school. Want to get an engineer’s slot—not just a wrench turner. With the hours I put in on here, I’ll be ahead of everyone else my age who didn’t live on a freighter their entire lives. Fast track to chief engineer.”

“I don’t want to be an engineer, or an accountant, or a trader, or a pilot.” Luke turned his hands outward. A spacer’s every movement was dialed down so they wouldn’t make a wild gesture and send themselves cartwheeling through space.

“Look, they’re giving you rent and responsibilities. They just want you to think about your future.”

“A safe, secure, boring future.”

Joey’s face fell.

“I didn’t mean it that way. Its just, its not me, you know?” Luke said hurriedly.

“They’re not saying to do it forever. Mom and Dad put out feelers to Uncle Raffi and others that have connections with yards because they know I want to build ships not just maintain them. You can learn a lot of skills in a short time, get certified and write your own ticket. You can make good credits on a freighter share.”

“I know and I get all of that, but I…” Luke raised his hands and his shoulders sagged.

Joey nodded and shrugged.

“I’m going to jump on the net.”

“All right, catch you later.”

“Try not to burn your tongue off.”

“I’m doing my best!”

Luke finished off his bar on the way to the net room.

A net-suit was walking in mid-air.

Mom must be visiting friends.

Luke checked another suit, and powered it up, getting inside and logging into Sphere World. Instead of the lobby, a map of the Sphere World system popped up. He checked his friends list. Fin and Jynx were offline.

I made half a month’s rent with just one game, The Guilds might not have him, but if he could earn credits from playing games, then it could be enough to pay for his rent and get the time he needed to figure out his future.

Luke picked a rack near an armory on Sphere World itself and jumped in.

He joined the rush of bots entering the armory pulling up a terminal, a floating screen in his view.

[2,136,339 Platinum/1068 Credit(s)]

[Jynx is online]

[Fin is online]

He invited them both to a party chat.

“Okay, so what you want to do. Another rush?” Luke asked.

“Sure, we can trade guns, see how they are, play around a bit,” Fin said.

“Sounds good to me. Your sniper and the machine gun looked like a lot of fun,” Luke said.

“They are, trust me,” Jynx said, almost in giddy glee.

“Guess you’re going gunner again?”

“Hell to the fuck, yeah.”

“You sniping, Fin?” Luke asked.

“Was thinking going shotgun and submachine gun with some armor.”

“Okay. Aim for around hanger seventeen?” Luke said.

“See you there,” Jynx said.

Luke followed the other bots and used a loadout screen to input his choices.

[Proceed to Armory 3 bay 4]

“Fin, aren’t you supposed to be working today?”

“Yeah, I’m working from home. I’ve got most stuff automated, so it’ll send me an alert if I need to deal with something quickly.”

Fin was capable of much more, but had just wanted to get away from his parents to work a bit, play his games, and live his life in peace. Luke understood that only too well.

Luke reached his port. A box of gear was waiting for him, same as before: ammunition belt, rifle, and he’d added grenades, coming with one breaching charge, two frags and two smoke.

He loaded his rifle and moved to the hallway beyond. “I’m all done.”

“Nearly,” Jynx said.

Luke spotted Jynx walking out of an armory further down, and Fin behind her.

“Damn, we look badass,” Fin said.

“Nice camo,” Luke said.

Jynx wore a brushed bronze and gray hex camo, while Fin was all whites, grays, and blacks—a snow camo.

“You ever going to put camo on? Just all nekkid gray,” Jynx said.

“I think it looks cool. How do you add camo?” Luke asked in a lowered voice.

“You can get it when you’re coming out of the rack.” Jynx laughed as they walked into the hangar deck.

“Let’s find a dropship.”

“Heading down—need four gunners!” the pilot yelled over local as he walked up the ramp.

“I’m up for it!” a bot said, stepping forward.

“Been gunner three times and haven’t died once!”

People applied, and the pilot picked them out. Others were just looking for a ride.

Luke’s squad gained some attention and they thumped up the ramp. They were some of the last to board the dropship.

The twenty-person hold filled up quickly as everyone got settled in.

“Closing ramp,” the pilot said.

A few seconds later, nothing happened.

“Got to power up first, boss.” A gunner coughed.

“Right, right.”

“I feel safe already,” Luke muttered as the dropship’s main power came online. The ramp closed as the pilot fiddled through the controls, taking them up a bit too fast and then shooting forward out the doors, nearly clipping the top of the bay doors.

“Slow and steady,” a gunner said.

“I got it,” the pilot growled.

Luke shook his head. “In the case of emergency, kindly place your hands over the back of your head, and put your head between your legs to kiss your ass good-bye.”

“Wonder if there is some way…” Fin scrolled through his terminal as Luke sat back in his harness.

“So, I sent some messages to some people, and they’re interested with what we can come up with,” Jynx said. “I was thinking we do it as a role cast. That way you don’t have to talk through your strategies. You just game the best you can and I’ll cut it down to show the best highlights.”

“What?”

“The video to try and get the guilds interested?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. So do I need to do anything?”

“You recording?” Jynx asked.

“No?”

“Might want to do that. I’m recording too. I’ll take the footage and cut it into something cool. Maybe we can use it to create a stream, do it with a delay so the enemy can’t watch you and know what’s going on.”

“Okay,” Luke said, hitting the record option. “Anything else?”

“Win, or do some cool stuff that helps. Something different attracts the guilds.”

“Right, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Don’t overthink it. Just do your best and game.” Jynx laughed.

“I can do that. Thanks again.”

“Don’t mention it. I get a test subject and it gives me something to do before school starts.”

“Don’t you know most of the stuff to be game developer?”

“I know a lot of it, but I need a piece of paper to assure others and the big part is the co-op opportunities. Get to try working at different places on different projects, see what’s interesting…” Jynx trailed off.

At odd moments she’d do that, leaving Luke to wonder what she was thinking about. It started when her Baba had passed away.

She hid it well, using exuberance to cover it over. Luke didn’t press; this was all their time to decompress.

“Well, you’re getting good experience with all the games you’ve played.”

“Yeah! I’m excited,” she said with a little more enthusiasm, as if covering up for her wandering thoughts. “It’s nice that I would get to work on something that I love and I’m interested in! What about you? You decide anything yet? Did you read that there are gold miners jumping into the game, looking for ways to make credits?”

“Yeah, they’re looking into the mining. Take a bunch of miners, or a mining ship, carve it out and sell it to Sphere World,” Fin said.

“Can you earn money like that?”

“If you do it properly. The goldminers are just in it to get as much money in as short a period as possible. Worse than Guild slaves,” Jynx said.

“Though if we started mining materials, we could use a factory to refine them, build them into components and build our own bots,” Fin said.

“Huh?” Luke said.

“Crafting, my dude. Basically, mine it and shove it into a factory.”

They shuddered as they entered the atmosphere.

“Damn it, this kid never piloted before?” Luke complained, feeling better, but also trying to cover up any awkwardness.

They dropped and then rose, and then repeated it.

“Shit, man! Need your space stabilizers!” someone yelled on local.

No such thing existed—they were a spacer’s equivalent to a left-handed torque wrench.

“So, if we think we’re going to crash, we can call out an emergency release vote and we get ejected from the ship,” Fin said.

“I think we’re going to need it,” Jynx said.

They cleared the upper atmosphere and the pilot leveled out, heading for a node on a straight line.

Fin displayed what he’d said to Luke and Jynx as text above his bot. Others raised their thumbs. Luke repeated it, getting thumbs on his side of the divide.

“Nothing pulls players together than a mutual enemy.” Fin sighed in pride.

“Dunno if that’s good or bad,” Jynx said.

Luke looked at the node laid out on the plateau. It was filled with miners and factories working even as the defenders and attackers exchanged fire, linked by tracers across the barren and cratered landscape.

“He’s heading straight for the drop zone,” Luke said, looking through the cameras.

“Problem?”

“It goes right over the damn node!” Luke went to local. “Hey, pilot, we going around the node? Else they’ll rip us up.”

“Hey! I’m the one flying, so shut up!” the kid yelled, his voice cracking as he increased the thrust and changed his point of aim at the node.

[Vote to Eject]

Luke agreed. They were coming in like a damn bullet. The votes climbed in seconds.

“Fuck you, assholes.” The pilot laughed; he’d aimed them at the landing point and gunned at it.

“Fucking piece of shit!” a gunner yelled.

They were a few kilometers away from the node when they got the necessary fifteen votes. Turrets opened up on the dropship, coming in on a straight line.

[Ejecting]

The cargo bay opened like a firecracker going off inside a can, flinging everyone out.

“You fucking suck, Horneo32!” another grunt yelled at the pilot.

Luke used his jets, counteracting the spin as he made himself as large as possible.

“Fucking report, bitch!”

Even being tossed free from the dropship and using their jets, they had time to leave their remarks.

A missile rose out of the node and hit the dropship, turning it into tumbling metal spraying across the ground that led to the node.

Machine gun fire targeted the falling bots.

Luke ignored them. Either they’d kill him or not.

“Damn, maybe the armor wasn’t a good idea.” Fin laughed.

Luke got flat; he fired the jets across his torso at full blast to slow himself. A nearby bot hit a rock, shattering into spinning metal.

“Glide—try to turn falling into sliding,” Luke yelled.

He threw himself forward and tracers buzzed past him. His heart thumped as other bots hit the ground; a lucky one landed and rolled, then shifted to cover behind a rock outcropping.

Fin and Jynx came down close to him.

“This is going to suck.” Luke grimaced. “Hello, gravity, you old bast-ard.” Luke’s voice rose as he hit the ground and bounced, spinning. “Fuck!”

“Shit. Tits. Ass. Motherfucker.” Jynx punctuated every time she hit the ground. “Motherfucking. Newb. Pilot. Shits.”

“I think I’m gonna throw up!” Fin screamed.

They came to a stop in the ice.

“Ow!” Luke flopped onto his back and looked at the sky. “Wonder what it looks like from outside the suit,” Luke muttered. He took a second to get the spinning under control and looked around.

“Got it all on the video card.” Jynx said.

“Urggh, that’s going to be a great video of us ice hopping to our target.”

“Just remember to land next time and I can cut it together.” Jynx groaned.

Luke grunted pushing himself up to his feet.

They were way off target, but behind a large rock outcropping. Tracers from the turrets filled the air around the rest of the bots that had dropped with them.

“Got a recording.” Jynx snorted. “It looks about as stupid as you think it would, like a damn human cartwheel smashing into rocks and crap.”

“Well, I like to make an entrance,” Fin said.

Luke gathered himself up, and they moved closer to the outcropping. He looked around the corner. The node was a good two hundred meters, with little cover bigger than calf-high rocks.

“Well, there’s good news and…” Luke saw the turret open fire as he tried to back up into cover. Rounds tore through his armor and his vision blanked.

[You Died]

[Purchase new bot? 68718 Platnium/ 34 Credits]

“Fuck! Turret like third from the right had my number.” Luke grimaced at the bot price.

“Dammit. Has friends. Other side is covered too,” Jynx said.

“I’m gonna see if we can get someone to cover us.”

Luke jumped into his new bot and ran to the armory, pulling up his terminal and reporting the pilot. The trust rating of the guy had dropped from the fifty percent that everyone got when joining a game to negative thirty percent.

“You got smokes with your grenades?” Luke asked, punching in rifle to the armory terminal.

“Yeah, I do. Good idea.”

Luke added a grenade package—another forty credits, including his bot.

He ran to the armory door. “Come on, come on, come on.” He stood in front of the port.

“Smoke is out. Give it some time to spread,” Fin said.

“That wind is spreading it all over the place,” Jynx said.

“We’ll have to cut to the right and get into the smoke cover. Head up to the rocks and hide behind those. Wait for the turrets to get bored and then we can keep pushing.”

“That’s going to take forever!” Jynx complained.

“We’ve got the time. Just need to sneak.”

Luke’s crate arrived. He grabbed and secured his gun, belt, and grenades and left the room to run for the hangar.

Luke pulled up his map of the system, focusing on Valhalla and the area Jynx and Fin were located. “You’ve got some friendlies on your left,” Luke said. Pancakes and Gum Drops Node. Who names these things?

“Looking for a ride to Pancakes and Gum Drops Node. Anyone heading that way?” Luke yelled.

“Better just waiting for them to die or going to a new drop,” someone said, running past him.

Luke kept refreshing the forum to check for dropship pilots posting about heading to the node.

He got a ping from the forum from someone headed that way.

“Hangar Eight.”

Luke was in hangar one hundred and three.

He took off at a run into SW.

It took him nearly ten minutes to reach the hangar.

“Shit, one on the left hit me. I’m wounded. Armor saved me though,” Jynx said.

Luke made it to the hangar and pinged the person who had responded on the forum.

>Already headed down, full ship.

“Dammit.” Luke hit his leg.

“What is it?” Fin asked.

“The dropships are filling up as soon as they land. They’re going wherever they want to. I’m just messaging a ship that left, see if he can pick me up when he gets back here.”

“Okay. Jynx, I’m moving up to you.”

Luke listened to them moving up toward the base as he stood there, waiting.

He got a ping from the forum as he waited.

>Coming back up to Hangar 8

“Shouldn’t be long untill I’m back down,” Luke said.

“We could use the help,” Fin said.

“Shit! Missiles!” Jynx yelled.

Luke waited in tense silence.

“They got me. All right, heading to you, Luke. Hangar eight, right?”

“Yeah, be quick about it, or we’ll miss our ride.”

“Spawning in now. Gotta grab my gear quick.”

The dropship arrived minutes later. He ran over to it as it turned and landed, facing back toward Valhalla.

Luke ran up the ramp as Jynx made it into the ship, the last to get a spot.

“Closing ramp.”

“Shit, they got me—machine gun. Didn’t have anything better to do. I’m spawning.”

“Damn, we just got on a shuttle,” Luke said.

“Hangar eight, right? I can do that.”

The dropship flew out of SW and turned toward Valhalla. The pilot rarely spoke. The gunners opened up on the node as soon as it came into view, raking the turrets and walls. The dropship fired off missiles to give them something to worry about and came down into a ravine with a sheer cliff of ice to the left, and a gentle slope to the right leading to the base.

“Ramp!” the pilot yelled as it opened. A dropship ahead of them took off and headed back toward SW as their dropship trawled forward.

Jynx was off with the first bots, Luke following seconds afterward.

He sloshed through icy mush that was already freezing, getting to the rise as the dropship’s engines howled, shooting down the ravine and then back into space.

They ran with the others, up the slope to the fighting. Tracers ripped back and forth, missiles striking ice, stone, bots, walls, and turrets.

Luke and Jynx weaved across the open ground, dropping down into trenches that had been carved into the ice, broken up by craters from missiles. They followed the flow of bots up to the front.

Jynx threw her machine gun up on the trench and combed the enemy wall with fire.

Most of the turrets were down, and there were rents in the outer wall.

“Try to hit them through the wall if you can. There and there.” Luke pinged open areas as he switched his optic’s zoom, aiming at the enemy on the wall. He watched for heads and movement, and saw one hiding next to a burnt-out turret.

Luke steadied and fired. The bot dropped out of sight.

Someone threw out some smoke and it drifted across Luke’s view. Valhalla’s wind dragged it across their front.

“Get your smoke out. Create a path!” the commander yelled.

Luke checked his smoke grenades.

“Get ready to move. We’ll push up to those rocks and I’ll get more smoke up. Use it to advance,” Luke said and pinged.

“Got it,” Jynx said, firing through the openings in the base until the smoke covered her and then firing blindly in hopes it would keep them down.

“Go!” Luke yelled on local and vaulted over the trench and ran for the rocks. He clamped his rifle and pulled out a smoke grenade, tossing it forward and to the side so the smoke would spread over their advance.

Other squads advanced in the rush.

“I can’t see shit,” Jynx said.

“Well then, we know it’s working.” Luke counted five seconds. “Let’s push!”

He grabbed another smoke, prepped it, letting it start to exhaust. He stopped close to what he estimated was the edge of his last smoke and threw. “Wait for the smoke to fill. Five seconds!” Luke yelled on local.

“Good thing I’ve been working on my cardio.” Jynx grunted.

“Hey, at least we don’t feel the weight of our guns and crap.” Then, on local: “Move!”

They ran out. Luke found a crater he’d seen from the trench, using it as a reference point forward. Jynx was right behind him.

He came out fifty meters from the enemy walls. He grabbed a grenade and threw it as he and Jynx jumped for cover. Guns opened up around him.

Jynx and the other attackers fired from the smoke. Luke took out his last smoke and threw it in the direction of the closest breach when he heard his grenade go off.

“Go! Come on, move it!” another squad leader yelled, bringing his people past.

Luke followed them. The smoke in the wall was just starting to spread. He stepped over an attacker who’d bought it.

“Jynx, move up!”

“I just got a ride heading down,” Fin said.

“Got it,” Luke said, aiming as he moved into the breach. Bots poured in, firing and spreading out. Turrets fired on the other advances, the deep, bassy thumps of anti-air and missiles.

The air was alive with destruction.

He advanced with other attackers between containers. Luke ran to the end and glanced left. A turret opened up on him from behind.

“Shit! Turret or machine gunner to the right!”

[You Died]

“I’m spawning back in.”

“Got it. Ah, shit! The containers were a funnel! They’re shooting through it!”

With each spawn, Luke used eighty thousand platinum for a new bot and all his gear, then he had to track down a ship going to the same area and push up to the base as the defenders respawned inside, recycling their bots and the attackers’ bots into ingots. Sometimes Jynx and Fin would be there; other times they had just died, were dropping down, or waiting for a dropship.

“Someone really needs to figure out the damn command and control. We don’t have enough dropships!” Luke said during one of the few times they’d died relatively close together and were on SW at the same time.

“Want to call it?” Fin asked.

Luke wanted to argue, but he’d died six times since the dropship idiot. Even if he didn’t want to do the math, his brain came up with the number. Two hundred and ninety-four credits—that’s how much he’d spent in the last hour with all kitted out bots.

Luke looked at the map around the Pancake Node. The fighting was still ongoing, and in a vicious stalemate.

“I think we should. Need to get some sleep,” Jynx said.

“Wish we could spawn on the planet. Then we wouldn’t be stuck waiting on dropships so much.” Luke sighed. “But yeah, I agree.”

“Want to check out the crafting side tomorrow?” Fin asked.

“Won’t be on tomorrow but I’ll be on the day after.” Luke tried to stifle a yawn.

“I’m in. If we can make our own bots and guns, that would be kind of cool, and we haven’t even checked out the dropships or shuttles,” Jynx said.

“There’s still a whole system to explore, but I’ve gotta go before I’m late again. See you later!” Fin waved and exited the net. His bot slumped, empty, and moved to the nearest rack.

“See you later,” Luke said.

Jynx and he logged off.

Luke’s vision cleared as his suit lowered to standing and opened up.

He stepped out, pulling on his coveralls and his boots. Even on the short walk, everyone wore their coveralls. Caution and paranoia were a spacer’s best friend.

Marissa was fixing up a coffee in the dining area, sealing her mug.

“Having fun? Saw you running around and shooting in there.” Marissa smiled. She had their father’s tanned complexion and their mother’s delicate features, her hair pulled back into a spacer’s braid.

“Pew pew.” Luke pointed a finger pistol at her.

She rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee.

“You on night shift?”

“Aren’t I always?”

“You picked it.”

“I prefer this time zone.” She shrugged. “My friends are all on at that time.”

“How is Manual Piloting and Interstellar Navigation going?” Luke asked.

“Got to check the bridge quick. Been away for more than five minutes,” Marissa said.

“I’ll come with.” Luke followed after her.

“It’s good. Lots of math, more than I thought—figuring out your position, acceleration and deceleration point. Then the rules, depending on if you’re in Coalition space, or Federation, or Corporate. Sol system is the worst. So much traffic and so many rules.”

The bridge door opened. The bridge was technically pointed out the side of the Dahlia instead of facing the direction they were going, but the magic of cameras and screens made it seem as though they were in the forward shield instead of in the rear of the ship just above the engines.

There were two piloting seats. Most just called them buckets. Each had hand placements with finger balls like the kind found in space or net suits. You could control the whole ship from your fingertips when at high-g acceleration. In front was a large touch screen relaying information from across the ship.

There were four other seats with their own screens: two engineering, one communications, and one sensors. The stations were all interlinked, capable of handling any of the others.

“Guess they’ve had more time for people to do things wrong, so they had to put on more warnings not to screw it up.”

Marissa snorted. “You’ve got that right.”

Marissa sat in one of the piloting seats. The screens surrounding the front of the chair were lit up with engineering readouts, scan information, and communication lines.

Although their ship sensors were trapped by the speed of light, the hypernet spread across most human systems. There were only two or three systems that didn’t wish to have it. The hypernet collated information from all the ships and sensor buoys across human space, and spread it to all the others through the hypernet, traveling faster-than-light, or FTL.

Marissa turned to face Luke, who took the sensor seat at the forward right. The stations were set out two in the rear, spreading out to the forward two, with the pilot stations in the middle.

“Doing a module on cubic meters volume, relative mass, and acceleration profiles,” Marissa continued.

“What’s that mean?”

Marissa smirked and drank her coffee. “How much, how large—”

“—how far, and what’s it worth?” Luke chimed in with her, grinning at their mother’s mantra.

“So, you’re failing horribly?” Luke beamed at the expression that promised she would have thrown her mug if it hadn’t been precious caffeination.

“I’m doing rather well. Seems that being a freighter’s daughter has rubbed off on me.” She raised her eyebrow.

“You still want to work on one of those pleasure transports?”

“They’re good pay. You do six months on one ship, and you can rest for another six. And there are boys, lots and lots of boys.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“I expect a new boyfriend every time you come home!” Luke declared.

Marissa snorted. “Imagine Dad’s face?”

“I’d rather not. He’d blow a gasket—or the reactor. Make sure you get him when he’s handling something that won’t destroy us.”

“Like his prize cabbage?”

“Yeah, that might be safest, though Mom would kill him for tearing apart our greens.”

They settled into shaking their heads and smiling.

“About time to fly the freight.” Marissa patted her armrest.

“You started looking at ships?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, I’ve only three months left. I got some recommendations from my teachers. Got interviews next month and then we’ll see.”

“You think you’ll come back to the Dahlia?”

“Yeah, of course. This is home. We’ll still meet up and we can always meet on the net. I’m one message away.”

“I know, but like to pilot her?”

“She’s a nice ship, but I don’t know. Moving freight all the time? It’s interesting when we’re in port, but moving around, there’s not much to do. With the cruiser, we can see the purple moons of Icho, the binary stars of Centauri. The floating cities of the Lemington Jovians. We go from one port to another, onload, offload, and then days and weeks of crossing systems. Three days to see the station or the area around the port. Not enough time to see any more. Sure, we have the net to see people and meet others, but I want to see real people, interact with them day in and out. I love you all, but I don’t want to see everyone with the same last name all the time.”

Luke nodded. “I get you.”

“Have you…?” she ventured.

“Nope. I have ideas of what I want to do, nothing that Dad or Mom would approve of. Otherwise, I don’t know. I can’t find anything else that has that pull, you know?”

“You’ll know when you find it.”

“Yeah, though finding it is the problem. Anyway, just been playing a new game. They’ve got dropships and fighters in them, real-world physics, all based around this massive megastructure factory. It’s pretty cool. You have to pay for gear though.”

“Pay for gear? Like credits?”

“Yeah, but it’s really realistic.”

“Anything that costs me credits ain’t my game. Got enough bills with school.”

“Aren’t you making your cut?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, but school is expensive and there are a lot of people who want to pilot ships. I’m in one of the best credited schools, so…” Marissa waved her thumbs up. “Creds.”

“Gotta love being an adult.”

“Tell me about it. You still talking to that girl Jynx?”

“Yeah.”

“You ask her out yet?”

“No. Like, some stuff came up and I didn’t want to.” Luke rubbed the back of his head.

“You mean you didn’t know how to ask out a girl you’ve been friends with for a long time? Didn’t her dad die recently?” Marissa sipped her coffee.

Luke looked at her and she raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, there’s hardly any gossip on this ship.”

“Well, yeah, and like, she’s been odd since then. You know, we game and stuff, and I’ve thought about asking her once or twice, but she leaves when we have any free time. We have fun together, but…”

“You think she’s shutting you out? She might be trying to tell you that she’s not interested in anything but friendship.”

Luke grunted.

“Well, either you tell her, or you don’t, and you stop thinking about her maybe being your girlfriend.” She shrugged.

“You make it seem as easy as replacing a light strip.”

“It’s like replacing the nozzles on a thruster. It sounds hard and you’re scared it’ll blow up in your face, but you need to get it done and when you do it, you realize it is as easy as turn off, push, twist, pull, then reverse. Just as easy as changing a light strip. Why is everything an engineering analogy with this family?”

Luke waved at the ship. “We don’t have much material to work with.”

“Fair. But yeah, that’s all I’ve got for you.” Marissa flicked through a screen.

Luke stood and sighed and headed for the hatch. “Sounds so easy.”

“Easier than you think!”

“Night, and thanks,” Luke said from the hatch.

“No problem. Let me know when it blows up in your face because you forgot to turn it off!”

“Will do.” Luke smiled and headed to his room and sweet, sweet sleep.

Chapter five

Chapter: 5

10, March 2242

Brad woke up and looked around. He spotted the glass of water on the bedside and rolled over to drink it.

He rose to sitting and looked around Stuart and Mary’s spare room. He finished off the cup of water and stretched with only a mild hangover.

After a quick shuffle to the bathroom and standing there long enough to swear he’d drunk half the Atlantic Ocean and his legs were getting pins and needles, Brad was ready for the day. He pulled on his pants and T-shirt. At least being the boss meant he could wear what he wanted, which meant dress casual. After a lifetime of uniforms with the Coalition Navy, it was hard to break from ingrained habits.

He opened the door and walked down the hall to the living room. The smells of breakfast wafted in from the attached kitchen. Stuart was drinking juice and holding onto the island in moral support. Mary was cooking up a storm around him while he fried bacon in a pan.

The hungover division of labor.

“Ah, Brad! How are you feeling, dear?” Mary smiled. She’d aged with the years, but that energetic and idealistic strong woman was still there.

“Pretty good. Classic drinking waters between beers seemed to have done the trick.”

“At least you learn—unlike this one,” she said conspiratorially, tucking her chin and glancing at Stuart.

“You liked the kebab,” Stuart muttered, poking the bacon with a spatula.

Mary snorted and Brad smiled.

“Juice, coffee?”

“Juice, please, Mary. Anything I can do to help?” Brad came around the island to see Stuart was only half focusing on the bacon. The rest of his attention was on the screen next to the stovetop.

“No, no, we’re nearly sorted here. You timed waking up well.” Mary poured out some juice and passed it to Brad.

“Thank you.”

“I’m heading out to see your daughter today. More furniture for the baby.” Mary raised her voice as she pulled out plates.

“Ah, and I guess Felipe has pleaded with his mother to deal with the pains of furniture shopping?”

“Something of that kind.” Mary laughed.

“Remember when they were kids, always making fun of each other?” Brad smiled.

“You’re making me feel old.” Mary smiled as she looked over at Stuart. “Are you cooking or reading?”

“Sorry,” Stuart said, distracted. He turned the screen and pushed it toward Brad.

It showed the total users online. They’d topped two hundred thousand, and it was ticking over like seconds on a clock.

Brad looked at the rest of the information, including news media attention, then pressed play on a video.

“OBE stock rose by nearly one hundred percent in the last six hours! With the stock shorted by nearly two hundred percent, there are going to be some very unhappy people out there,” some talking head said.

“They’re playing a dangerous game. Look at this—stock way out of proportion! There’s no way OBE is worth that much, I say!” Loud horns and noises blared. “They’re gooooone—just some two-bit game to rake in the cash!”

“Dumbass,” Brad muttered, the blaring lights and noises not helping his near hangover.

Mary put down a plate in front of Brad.

“Thanks. Sorry, screens get me. Just zone into them.” Brad smiled.

“I know. You two are the same when something catches your attention.” She circled around Stuart, who put the pan into the sink.

“It’s how I know this one loves me.” She grinned at Stuart’s attention and moved to kiss him. Instead, she winced at the smell and kissed him on the cheek. “You do know how to brush your teeth, right?”

“I taught the girls and Felipe.” Stuart wrapped his hands around Mary, grinning as he leaned forward.

“Stop it.” She giggled, hitting him with the dish towel half-heartedly. He grinned and came in, exacting a real kiss as Brad started in on his breakfast.

They broke up and sat at the island, talking about the week, and about Kira and Felipe’s preparations.

“How is Jynx doing?” Mary asked, a note of seriousness threaded in.

Brad cleared his last mouthful with juice. “Thank you for breakfast.”

“Mi casa, su casa, how do I say, office, car, garage and everything else I own, and you’ve used?” Stuart waved him off and took his plate, giving them some semi-privacy.

Brad looked at his hands, one arm on the corner of his chair, the other on the island.

“Well, you know how she was when Xi passed away. His death hit her hard.”

Mary reached out and squeezed his shoulder, her lips pressed together.

He raised his eyes with an equally terse smile and took a deep breath. “She’s set on working as a game developer, but she spends most of her time on the net. And when she’s not, she’s throwing herself into study. I hardly see her when I’m home. I talked to Fin. He’s doing well.” His smile came easier as he looked at Mary.

“He needed to get away from his mother as fast and far as possible.” She drank from her coffee.

He laughed, relaxing a bit.

Mary rubbed his shoulder. “She’s a strong girl. She’ll be okay. I’ll see if I can’t pull her into a girls’ coffee date, get some more from her.”

“Thank you, Mary.” Brad looked at her, softening. He felt the weariness deep in his bones.

“And how are you?”

Her words made him suck in a breath, as if he’d been punched in the gut. His eyes fluttered at the sudden wave of emotion.

Stuart was taking his time cleaning the dishes. Brad sniffed and looked to the right of the kitchen.

“I miss him. Stars, I miss him.”

Mary hugged him and he hugged her back.

“I do miss his hungover eggs and pancakes.” Mary’s voice trembled as they released, their elbows down at their sides as they faced each other.

Brad let out a rough chuckle. “He was an amazing chef. The only person I know who could turn protein substrate into a delicacy.”

Mary laughed. “It tastes just like chicken!” Brad chorused with her to more head shakes and smiles.

Brad studied the corner of the floor, where it met the side of the island. “The hardest things are when I forget he’s gone. When I turn over in bed, waking myself up and find his side cold and empty. I forget sometimes and say goodbye to the house or call out when I go home and he’s just—” Brad shrugged, letting his shoulders drop heavily. “He’s not there anymore.”

He took a moment and sighed. A smile spread across his face, like a sun rising on the darkest morning, burning the fog away. Tears brimmed in his eyes. “I was so lucky to have a husband like that.”

“And he was lucky to have you.” Stuart walked up behind Mary, putting his hand on her shoulder as she leaned into him.

“Gah, just, oh, we lived a good life. We loved each other each and every day. We had our arguments.” Brad raised his hand in admittance. “But we were there for each other, for the girls. I see so much of him in them, and I’m so happy that some of Xi will continue in them.”

Brad calmed, feeling like a little bit of the ice in his back had cracked and the sun reached deeper than it did before, warming him some. “So, I’m sad, but I’m grateful and oh, so lucky. Just taking it slowly now.”

“If you ever need anything, a coffee date even…” Mary said.

“Thank you, Mary.” Brad smiled, trying to convey even a part of how thankful he was.

“But Stuart and I have a problem to figure out.” He clapped his hands and picked up the screen on the island as he slid out of his seat.

“Yeah, that’s going to be fun,” Stuart muttered.

Mary laughed, patted him on the back, and kissed his cheek, rising from her chair as well.

“You got my glasses?”

“Uh, front counter?” Stuart closed an eye in the act of thinking.

“You need more RAM, my man,” Brad said.

“I need more coffee and less hangover.”

“Have fun in the cave. I’m going out to the garden to read!”

“Thank you, dear.” Stuart moved to the counter near the front door and Brad followed.

“And congratulations on destroying Orion’s Belt Enterprises. I know it was you.” Mary crossed her arms, one hand holding her coffee cup as her eyebrow raised. “What’s happened?”

“Well, you see—” Stuart started to say.

“He makes us sound more guilty with every word. What happened is that someone connected a game or a demo to the servers and used half of our code to do it. So it had to be someone from our team.”

“Oh! Are they trying to scam you?” Mary’s posture loosened.

“No, no, nothing like that. They aren’t taking any money from us. Actually, the funds are routing into the corporate accounts of OBE. We’re not sure what the hell is going on, but we’ve got to deal with the more immediate problem.”

“Which is?”

“We’re probably gonna get the shit sued out of us by the shareholders and the people who are shorting the stock ’cause they’re losing like trillions of billions of thousands,” Stuart said.

“Thankfully, you don’t do the advanced math,” Mary muttered. “Why are they going to sue you?”

“′Cause we should have died last night. Instead, we’re sixty-eight percent shareholders of the company, and most of the remaining shares have been bought out by individuals instead of investment brokerages. So the few remaining shareholders are going to scream murder, as well as those who sold their positions.”

“But they sold them. There’s no way that they can get them back, right?”

“You’d think. Really, it comes down to who has the stronger lawyers and greater corporate strength,” Brad said.

Mary shook her head. “I’m glad I just have to deal with quotas from the greenhouse farms.”

Stuart had found Brad’s glasses and put them into his hand. He walked to Mary and held her shoulders. “We’re going to take them on and we’re going to beat them.” He looked into her eyes. “Well, I’m going to be on lookout and Brad is going to beat them up in an alleyway, hopefully a dark one.”

She scowled and swatted at him with a smile. “Well, go and beat those corporate assholes in your lair.”

“Hey, it’s a cave!” Stuart said as she kissed him.

“Yes, but lair sounds more like you’re going to plan something. Cave is for when you two are screwing around playing a game or trying to hide from others to do your projects.”

They kissed again, then Stuart tilted his head to Brad. “Come on—to the lair.”

Brad followed him down the hall.

“I’m going to regret calling it that, aren’t I?” Mary called after them.

“Sorry—can’t hear you. Just going into the lair to plot out my sinister, sinister revenge!”

The house was shaped in a soft U, with the living room, kitchen, and front door at the bottom of the U. The left wing held the bedrooms; the right held two offices and the lair. In the open area in the middle, a terraced garden with steps reached down to a tree line. From the house and first few terraces, they could look out over the blocks of green towers, cultivating and growing food for the Maxxel system and for all who passed through or traded with them.

Being a corporate-run system, there were a fair number of traders willing to do so.

The lair was a dark-paneled room. On the right were three top-of-the-line sleeves and inner net-suits. There was a bathroom with a shower in the back right of the room. A desk faced the door, with the wall behind filled with books. The left wall was ceiling-to-floor glass, with a sliding door to the side.

The wall left of the door into the office was covered with more books, two chairs, and a couch.

Brad closed the door, cutting off any noise from the rest of the house.

“Okay, so, getting sued. Already got the messages from Waris.”

“She doesn’t take her time,” Brad growled.

“No, still an asshole. Brad, what are we going to do? This is getting big.” Stuart tapped something on his keyboard and threw it up at the window. The room dimmed, and the window turned into a large screen as the lights above the suits brightened, like a museum display.

“We’re nearing three hundred thousand people now.” A graph appeared on the screen. It showed a slowly declining line that bumped up a few thousand, then a few tens of thousands, and then took off like a rocket.

“That is the number of people on the servers.” Stuart threw out a similar climbing graph. “And that’s the price of our stock right now, and this one is our corporate accounts.”

They had been cleaned out the other day.

“Fifteen million credits and climbing. Shit.” Brad rubbed his head.

“Yeah, server has had to increase several times. The backup servers are online now.” Stuart threw out technical information.

“Farm One? Bring it back online?”

“Can we?” Stuart asked.

“If we leased it to the corporation, then we could use it. I haven’t wiped the formatting yet. What about these lawsuits? What do they want?”

Stuart sat in his chair with a sigh and moved from side to side.

Being diehard gamers had kept them in good health. They were fit and trim, even as their smart clothes told them when to eat and drink, warming and cooling them to keep them at peak performance for longer. Brad found it amusing that gamers just a few generations ago had been looked down on for being weak and overweight from their sedentary lifestyle. Now, gamers were some of the fittest people in the human sphere.

It also made them antsy sitting in one place for too long. Stu shifted back and forth in his swivel chair.

“They are filing that we gave them false information, that we didn’t complete our duty to keep them informed of what was happening within the company. They’re suing us for the increased value of the stock at their original amounts of stock that they held.”

“So roll back the clock to when they had the most shares and we have to give them the new stock price?” Brad threw out his hand. “That’s not how the fucking market works.”

“They’re going to lean on it as much as they can.” Stuart linked his hands behind his head and bounced back in his chair.

“Can they do that?”

“Well, we’re going to have to ask a lawyer—an expensive one, at that—and we need to start talking to them now.”

“Who do you know?”

“Got this buddy, Charlie. You met him at some gala thing. That godawful release of that mirror-something movie?” Stuart waved a hand, as if grasping the thoughts together, the other working his keyboard.

“How good is he?”

“Good, and he’s a straight shooter.”

“All right.” Brad pulled out his glasses and put them on. He flicked his emails onto the window screen, putting the glasses on his head as he went through the message filters. He found the lawyer’s letter signed by several of the previous board’s majority shareholders.

Stuart hadn’t missed a thing; he was a people person

“Hey, Charlie! How are you doing?” Stuart talked into his screen. “Yes, yes, caught us by surprise, too. Say, would you be available for a chat? Work chat? No, nothing that bad.” Stuart chuckled. “Just want an outside opinion and representation. Uh huh, yeah. That sounds reasonable. Okay, are you sure? We can do this on Monday. Awesome. I appreciate it. See you in an hour.”

Stuart hung up. “Charlie’s on board, and going to give us normal rates. He’s excited to work with us, and he’s rather pleased about us giving Waris the middle finger. He’ll be over in an hour.”

“Okay, call Daniella, the accountant, and make sure that we’re good to use the money from OBE to rent the servers from our backup corporation. I’m going to make a list of people who know the account information of OBE and the code well enough to meld SW with Orion,” Brad said.

“Okay.”

They set about their tasks. Stuart made some calls. Daniella would work the books. And he got Farm One online and prepared Fran, Dan, and Fizzle, the three other server farms they had built.

An hour later, there was a knock at the door.

Stuart and Brad dismissed the screens. Light flooded through the window once again as the lights dimmed.

Mary opened the door for Charlie. He wore chinos, polished shoes, a polo and sweater vest, in a way that made him look comfortable instead of like he should be on a golf course. His hair was silver and gunmetal with shoots of white, and he had a weathered, practiced smile.

“Thank you, Mrs. Martin. Boys, seems you’re having fun in here.” He raised an eyebrow at them both with a good-humored smile, like someone in the know.

“Tea, coffee?” Mary asked.

“Coffee, please, and a water if that wouldn’t be too much,” Charlie asked.

“Of course. Boys?” She turned to the rest of the room.

“Might as well get the carafe of coffee. And water, please, hon?”

“All right.” Mary smiled and closed the door behind her.

Charlie’s laugh filled the room as much as his presence. “My guys! Holy hell, you pulled their suit blazers over their heads and kicked them down the stairs! I’m hearing your old board members are raving, just absolutely losing it. I saw it on the news this morning and nearly had coffee all over my cereal. Guys, you are legends!” Charlie laughed, just living in it.

“Legends who are being sued,” Stuart said.

“Well, obviously.” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “Wait—wait, you have all this wrapped, right?”

“Not quite,” Stuart said.

“We would like to pay you for some legal counsel,” Brad interrupted.

“Ah, yes, once hired, then anything between us stays between us.”

“I would like to hire you on, privately, jointly between mine and Stuart’s families,” Brad said.

“One second.” Charlie turned his wrist over and swiped his hand up. A projection appeared above his wrist, and he punched in some information.

Brad got a message; he reviewed it, filled in the information, and paid Charlie.

“Done.” He looked at Stuart.

“Okay, so what are we dealing with?”

“We got this from our shareholders this morning.” Brad sent the email to Charlie with a flick.

Charlie pulled it up and started reading.

“Toss it on the window if you want,” Stuart said.

“Thanks.” Charlie did so, the room dimming again.

Charlie spoke into his watch as he read through the document.

“Okay, how much do your shares equal?”

“Thirty percent.”

Brad raised his hand and gestured to Stuart. “Thirty-eight percent.”

Charlie nodded and looked away from Stuart, holding his chin as he studied the screen. He opened his mouth as there was a knock at the door.

He wiped the document away as Mary walked in with a tray of two carafes, some danishes, and cups.

“Let me know if you need anything else.” She put it down on the table next to the reading chairs.

“Thank you, Mary,” Brad said.

She nodded and headed out quickly, closing the door.

“I should ask. This information—shareable between us, family?” Charlie asked.

“For now, I would say between us and Mary, not with the children and no one else,” Brad said.

“I agree.”

“Okay, so employees?”

“Just us two,” Brad said. “Coffee, water?”

“Please. Black,” Charlie said.

“Just water, please,” Stuart said.

“That makes things easier. Infrastructure?”

“The office floor.” Brad poured.

“What about the servers?”

“We’re renting them from another corporation, which we also own. The accountant said that would be fine,” Stuart said.

“Okay, yeah, that should be okay. Accounts?”

“They hold the income earned from Sphere World currently.” Brad passed him water and moved to Stuart, giving him a water as well.

“Thank you,” Charlie said.

“So, the basis of the argument the shareholders are making is that you withheld information or led them to think that the company situation was different from what they thought it was. Did you make any noise about working on another game?”

“We’ve talked about working on a new game for years.”

“Anything recorded about any new projects? Any projects you proposed to them, even faintly similar to Sphere World?”

“There’ll be something,” Brad said, pouring coffee.

“Okay, then it comes down to two things: them proving you tried to lead them astray or didn’t tell them. While we need to prove that you gave them that information or tried to.”

“Thank you.” Charlie put the water on Stuart’s table and took the coffee and sipped.

Brad drank from his cup as well.

“How do we do that?”

“I’ll need access to your internal email server. I also need information on the new game, development notes, communications between you two on it, and I’ll need to know who was on the development team,” Charlie said.

“Well…” Stuart looked at Brad; he nodded. “We didn’t make the game.”

“An outside studio?” Charlie asked between them.

“No. We were shutting down the servers yesterday—cleaning our hands of it—and then we noticed a large number of people in the lobby and game spiking. They weren’t in Orion’s Belt, though—they were in Sphere World. First time we ever saw it.”

“What? How?”

“Someone, probably one of our team members, must have been making the game in their spare time. The code is similar to ours. They’ve meshed it into the new game to take the server load and network to piggyback our servers and slip it into the lobby. They also knew our account information, so we’re getting all these deposits,” Brad said.

“Do you know who?”

“No. We need to pull apart the code to figure out where the game is being hosted. Then we can backtrack to the person who put it up,” Stuart said.

Charlie snorted and smiled. “Well, you did the right thing, buying up stock to give you the majority of shares. The people shorting the stock are going to lose some serious money. We can write up a good Samaritan contract—basically, you both sign a contract with whoever actually owns the game. How the hell did they get access?”

“There’s remote log-ins, though it would have had to be someone a bit higher up.”

“Why do they have log-in access still?” Charlie asked.

“We bonused everyone out. Some are retiring, but most are coming with us on our next venture. We shifted all the servers over to the new company and bought them from OBE. Everyone has the same log-ins and information—supposed to make things easier.” Stuart smirked.

“Okay, so yeah, best to sign that good Samaritan contract. State that you don’t claim anything from Sphere World and you’re holding the money in your accounts in trust. You need to find whoever made this game, though, and make sure they get it back. First, you’ll need to take the company private. That way, you’ll have increased control. Then do the contract and basically divest yourself of it internally. This is going to be one of the best court battles I’ve ever fought. I’d like to shake the hand of whoever made Sphere World, and you two gentlemen hit this out of the park. It’s going to roast those bigwig ass-hats.”

“Aren’t you scared about the shorting fallout?”

“The markets are a betting pool. They were betting more shares than you had that you were going to fail, made up of basically three company’s worth of shorted stocks. I don’t care for people who do that. You got everyone on the board wiped out. Couldn’t have happened to a better group of people.” Charlie smiled.

Chapter six

Chapter: 6

10, March 2242

Stores?

Dana followed other bots.

“More like displays.” She stepped into a store set up as a hangar with fighter craft and dropships and with an array of attachments laid out beside them.

Dana’s feet carried her to the dropship.

Her eyes drifted across the weaponry—different machine guns for the turrets and missile launchers for the wings.

She couldn’t keep down the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth, studying the ship beside her. She moved through the bots, looking at the dropship, climbing up into the hold, wandering around, under, and inside the craft, even on top of it.

Dana stepped up to the fighter next, a sleek winged design.

“The Hellcat fighter. One pilot, capable of fighting in and out of atmosphere.”

She smiled, studying the weapons arrayed around the fighter.

Dana activated her terminal, and it linked to the display. She messed around with the design, comparing the original fighter to her outfitted one.

[Hellcat]

[Primary Weapon:__]

[Secondary Weapon:__]

[Upgrades:__]

[Cost: 175587 Platinum/87 Credit(s)]

[Hellcat]

[Primary Weapon: Light Machine Gunx2]

[Secondary Weapon: Missile-small x4]

[Upgrades: Capacitor]

[Cost: 304942 Platinum/152 Credit(s)]

“If we mine ten cubic meters per head per hour, against scans density minimum, then take the cost of factories in resources… We’ll require one factory to begin with,” a man muttered just away from her, looking at a shuttle. It was a simple, robust design, built for performance over aesthetics.

Dana stilled as she saw his gamertag.

[MinerKing001]

Custom gamertags were a rarity across the net, something of a collector’s item. Games were only allowed to give out a certain number of them and special events gave them out rarely.

Dana raised her terminal to check out the man’s gamertag.

MinerKing001 was awarded to the first person to crack and harvest a planetary core in the game Miner King.

Several clans had tried to gain the title and even some of the crafting guilds, but he had come out of nowhere and harvested a planet, then an entire system before he disappeared, and was regarded as the greatest miner in gaming history.

Dana looked at the man over her terminal, still mumbling to himself, working a terminal as he jotted down information. If she could have him as her fleet miner and Minnie as her engineer, then she wouldn’t have to worry about ship-building queues.

Like everyone else’s, his screen was pure white to anyone but the user unless they shared it with others.

Miner King paused, pulling up another screen and tapped something out before he left the store.

A notification on Dana’s terminal popped up, drawing her eyes.

>MinerKing001 looking for external investment to build; material gathering and refinement in Sphere World.

Dana clicked on the forum post, reading through the information, breaking down mining rates, initial cost set-up, and investment shares.

“Looking for investors. Require loan equal to the amount of twelve thousand credits!” Miner King yelled outside the store.

What the hell? Is this really the best miner on the net?

“Looking for investors, require loan equal to the amount of twelve thousand credits!”

People shook their heads and avoided him as he repeated his offer.

Dana was struck with the similarities to traders in fantasy games yelling out their wares in populated areas and looking for quick trades.

She walked up to him, as others pointed over and laughed.

He turned to her as she approached.

“Hello, I am looking for nearly twelve thousand in credits to allow me to start a mining venture in this game. I will offer monthly dividends, with equipment and services as collateral.”

The bot looked at her. She couldn’t pick up emotion from the metal block that greeted her, and wondered if the person behind it was similar.

“Don’t get scammed!” someone else yelled over the local chat.

“I’ll take twelve thousand credits too!” another agreed.

Others laughed in the chat.

Dana invited him to a private chat, gaining a link to his profile and stopping others from overhearing them.

“Are you the Miner King who cracked a planet and harvested its core?”

“I did harvest a planet’s core. The game was unrealistic. There are easier ways to gather material than cracking a planet’s crust to gain access to the core and many other issues to take into consideration. I am willing to accept less than the full amount as an investment, but I will have to search out secondary investors and your returns will be less and slower.”

Dana sensed his disinterest. “This is just a beta, and you want to start mining already?” she asked, genuinely interested.

“Through my analysis, I have discovered three things. One: the original owners of Orion’s Belt have taken back control from their shareholders and are once again majority owners. Two: the vote is set to increase dramatically in the next several hours. With the number of people shorting the stock, this is bound to have a ripple effect and those shorters will need to pay sooner rather than later so their losses don’t increase. Three: looking at the depth of this beta, I found that it is remarkably coherent, with it taking actual money at this time. Even a small lag in service would affect the company as a whole. If they were to pause this for the full game, they could incur serious losses and even lawsuits.”

“So you think this is the complete game and they won’t pull it out of fear that people would sue them into oblivion?” Dana crossed her arms.

“Yes.”

Dana studied him.

“Why are you playing this game?”

“I like mining. I find it entertaining. Also, I don’t earn much in my current profession. With the addition of plat-to-credit trades, it is possible for me to make a modest income as I build up my infrastructure.”

Dana cocked her head to the side. “You’re being rather open about this.”

Miner King shrugged. “I do not care for lies or subtleties. It wastes time. Are you interested in investing?”

“Would you be interested in working on other paying projects?”

“Yes, as long as they are inside Sphere World.”

“Why not another game?”

“Because this one has the capability to grow. The only limit to this game is the imagination. It is the most realistic game that I have ever played. It has real-world dynamics. Other games, specifically mining, have little to do with actual mining. They have taken a few liberties here—equipment is to a higher grade than in the human sphere—but it is only a few generations removed instead of being in the land of fantasy.”

Dana looked at the man—well, bot—trying to discern his motivations. “What would you do with the twelve thousand credits?” That was three months’ rent and would seriously cut into her finances and the safety net she’d cultivated over the years.

“Ten bots, with repair tools and mining gear. One command post, one mining ship, four factories, ten automated miners, ten standard containers—collapsed, one shuttle.

“The bots for those who will be working and maintaining the operation. Mining tools so they can move around and test the ground for the miners, repair tools to fix any issues. The command post to claim the planetoid and control the automated systems. The mining ship to move around the planetoid and to mine locations remote from the main operations center and to clear the ground for the automated miners. Three of the factories to refine the materials, one to refine into ingots. One to create components. Automated miners to run continuously with only a few watchers. Containers so that we can store and move items around easily. Also, to carry any gear to the claim and do container drops. Fill it with the miner, toss them out. The shuttle grabs them and brings them back to the base, replacing them with fresh, empty containers.”

“Repayment?” Dana asked.

“Monthly repayment options per month, with full payment at ten percent interest by the end of the first year’s employment.”

“What about defense?”

“Defence?”

She could hear Miner King frowning.

“You’re setting up a mining claim in the game—you’re looking to make it the biggest there is?”

“Was that a question? If so, yes.”

Dana smiled inside her suit. He was direct, and didn’t care for the social platitudes and bullshit. She could work with this.

“If this game continues, it will garner attention from larger clans and the guilds. As time goes on, people will not only focus on the fighting happening down on Valhalla; they’ll look to the stars. They’ll look to the mining claims.”

“Griefers.” Miner King spat the word as if it were poison from a wound.

“Yes.”

“Your proposal?”

“I provide start-up capital and offer my services to assist in defending your claim. I have contacts who are inclined to the engineering side.”

“A partnership.” Miner King fell silent.

Dana stood there, comfortable in the silence, allowing him time to think. Others would think it uncomfortable, but she found it refreshing from those who seemed to effuse conversation for no other reason than to fill the air with vibration.

“I did not take into account those lowlifes. They are a pestilence upon hard-working gamers. I believe it might be beneficial to have a mutual defense agreement in place for a partnership. Your offer of technical expertise interests me greatly. I think in linear fashions. Supply of raw materials is my area of expertise. What do you propose toward defense?”

“What is your estimated return per month once you’re up and running?”

Miner King consulted his terminal. “With reinvestment, there will be sixty thousand per month I could reasonably sell off to use as liquidity.”

Dana paused to think. “Time to get to that number?”

“I believe it should take no longer than a month.”

“Do you have numbers and a claim?”

“I have three that I am looking into.” Miner King sent her a contract. “NDA, of course.”

She pressed her bot’s finger to it, linking to her core net-code and authorizing the contract.

“Thank you.”

He shared his spreadsheets, breaking down each claim by material percentages, then the mining speed, material and ingot processing and prices, broken into output per minute, hour, day, week, and month.

Sheet wizard.

Her eyes danced through the figures. She pulled out her map and looked at the claims.

Miner King waited.

She shared her map, sticking it into the air so they could both see it. She expanded it into a hologram of the claim. She had focused on a planetoid between Valhalla and the fourth planet, the Martian one, in the system.

“This one would be the best location from a defensible standpoint. If someone wants to come for you, the belt is dense enough around the planetoid that they’d have to slow right down. You could set up defenses on the surrounding asteroids, but best of all, the surrounding asteroids give you cover from anyone trying to bounce a sensor in there.”

“If they can’t see me, they won’t know I am there and I can mine in peace.”

“Exactly. And based on your numbers, you’re going to be pushing nearly everything toward reinvestment and increasing your capacity. You need room and peace. Other than the immediate surroundings, it’s close to Sphere World, although that will change through the year, but at least for several months of a year, you will be within close proximity to Sphere World and Valhalla. That means I can spawn into Sphere World and move quickly to help you if there’s trouble. Also means you can move stuff to the planetoid and sell to Sphere World rapidly over the next three months.”

Miner King looked at her; she could feel him appraising her. “Fifteen percent, no voting rights. If you leave, then I will buy out your infrastructure at market price and pay you three months severance, based on those month’s gains.”

“Engineering and building?”

“A secondary agreement to be made in the future.”

“Agreed.” Dana paused. It was a lot of money, but he had an impressive record, and he was as blunt as a planet knocking on your window. Even if they just worked on this together, the funds would be substantial.

She checked the numbers again. In their first month of being fully functional and creating just Ferrel ingots, her fifteen percent share would be worth twenty-seven thousand. Have to find sekrausten, xaswoilium, and uthiasium deposits to make those ingots first.

She checked the scans of the planetoid. It had attracted many asteroids around itself, still dozens of kilometers apart, but close in space. Thousands of asteroids made up the belt trailing around the system.

“I will do everything in my power to protect your base and make sure that no one attacks your position, and I’ll assist as needed. I will not seek repayment for the loan unless you fall behind your schedule, as outlined in this sheet.”

“I can agree to that.” Miner King was silent for several minutes, then took out another terminal screen.

Someone walked between the two of them with their bot.

“Oh sorry, doing something here?” the man snorted on local chat.

Dana hit one of his mag-boot’s ankles and grabbed the bot under the chest cavity. She hip-tossed him like a screaming missile out and over the railing and into the factory assemblies of Sphere World. He must have seen their surrounding screens, blanked out from outside observers, and them talking to each other.

“Some people have no manners.” Miner King watched as the bot deactivated and jets activated, stilling it, and moving the bot to the catwalk and then to a rack.

He shared a loan contract with Dana; she scanned through the document.

“Secured by Sphere World’s legal team?”

“Yes, they act as a mediator in these things. They can shut down our bots for going against the agreement and act impartially.”

As Dana listened, she checked out articles of people dealing with Sphere World.

Dana paused. It was a large amount of money. Being a winning admiral paid and kept her comfortable, but being a good admiral earned a pittance compared to what the professionals willing to take on sponsorships and deal with the public spotlight generated.

This was an opportunity to get away from all that.

Dana exhaled and pressed her thumb to the contract.

A prompt appeared.

[Voice confirmation]

“I, Dana Huang, agree to this contract.”

The system picked up her voice, checking to make sure that she was not showing any signs of duress, and she was in the right state of mind to complete a contract.

[Confirmed]

The terminal turned to Miner King. He pressed his finger to it. “I, Mitchell Hewlett, agree to this contract.”

The terminal split into two and disappeared into Dana and Mitchell.

“The Iron Admiral? You have quite a reputation. I look forward to dealing with you.” There was no sarcasm in Mitchell’s voice as he reached out his hand.

Dana shook it. “So, what should I call you?”

“Mitch, if you please. Yourself?”

“Dana.”

Dana swiped the purchase order terminal to one side and a buy terminal to the other. “How are you going to move the gear to the planetoid?”

“I will load up the mining ship, take that over to the planetoid, and set it to scan. Then I will purchase another bot here at SW and purchase a shuttle and supplies. I will hire on some staff to assist me, and I will set them to shuttling gear to the claim.”

“A suggestion,” Dana said.

“Yes?”

“Get command posts on all the asteroids you can around your planetoid. That way, no one can set up around you with a rightful claim.”

Mitch checked several floating screens. “I agree. That would be a wise choice.”

Dana accessed her bank account and transferred the money to Mitch through the information embedded in the contract.

“Well, pleasure doing business with you.”

“And you as well, Dana. I hope to be a reliable partner. I have received your transfer. Thank you for your prompt payment.”

“I wish you good luck.”

“One does not need luck when you have a plan.”

Mitchell dismissed his screens and walked away, a terminal floating alongside him as he worked it.

No plan ever ends up how it starts.

Dana sighed, feeling shaky. Did I really just spend twelve grand?

She shook her head, the doubts creeping in, as they always did in the moments afterward. “Well, guess that fighter won’t cost that much comparatively.”

Dana pulled up the fighter loadout that had auto-saved. She punched the buy option. Even though the terminal was floating light, her suit made it feel like she was pressing on a glass screen.

A map of Sphere World appeared, showing spawn points for her to pick up her fighter.

She picked the closest hangar and took off at a jog.

Nothing like a bit of fighter combat to distract me.

The hangar bay had several dropships arriving and leaving. Thankfully, there were no air locks and a lot of doors leading into Sphere World.

Dana came out of the hangar and used the hangar terminal.

[Proceed to Bay 10]

Numbers were painted on the walls opposite the bays and on them. The railing around bay ten rose, cutting people off from it as deck plating moved out of the way of robotic arms. Her fighter, held by a crane, rolled in through inner armored doors. The crane pushed it down onto the holding bay, magnetically clamping it to the deck.

The crane disconnected and lifted away. The fighter opened along unseen seams, and the robotic arms picked up weapons and connected ammunition belts to the fighter.

Twin light machine gun bodies raised up under the nose of the fighter. The fighter closed around its new weapons as the arms retreated. Missile racks were attached under the wings and loaded, the ammunition belts disconnected. The arms folded away, the decking moving to cover them as the barriers dropped around her outfitted fighter.

It all happened in the silence of vacuum. Dana only heard and felt the bumps and movements through her feet.

The canopy opened, and she climbed up the side of the fighter. She took a second to look over the control surfaces. Her canopy was an opaque armored shell. Inside, several projector lenses winked at her with the glancing light from Valhalla and SW’s hangar.

Dana dropped into her seat. It locked her into place, but she could easily reach everything in the cockpit.

“Controls.”

An overlay appeared over the different surfaces, highlighting everything. There was a thrust control lever on her left side, a cyclic control on her right, and pedals on the floor. In front of her were displays she could configure as she wanted.

Dana powered up the systems. The different controls and lights came online, cycling rounds into the machine guns, and running diagnostics on the rest of the fighter.

“So, where are we going today?” She pulled up the map as the ship continued to boot and marked three locations on her map that were currently contested.

A flip of a switch and the canopy descended; it locked into place with several explosive bolts. The projectors flickered to life, and she could see outside of her craft without any issue.

“Sphere World, requesting clearance to depart.”

“Granted. Please follow the indicated path to clear Sphere World space. Have a nice flight,” a light female voice, similar to her home system’s voice, replied.

“Sphere World, I have the plot.” Dana moved the different controls, checking everything was operating smoothly along her designated route away from Sphere World space.

“Here we go.” She directed her thrust downward and increased. The fighter rose quickly.

“Jumpy little shit.” Dana cut her downward thrust, floating off Sphere World’s deck. Using the TCL’s, she pushed forward and out of the hangar bay.

She quickly cleared SW. “Okay, let’s see how you handle.” Dana aimed for an empty section of space and pushed the thrust lever. The Hellcat leapt forward, pressing her into her seat.

Dana smiled as she tilted the cyclic to either side, testing it, and then pulled it all to one side and spun her ship. She released it and her fighter made to arrest her spin.

“Okay, auto-adjust there.” She checked her acceleration profile. She was doing three g’s and not feeling it. “System, how many gravities of acceleration can one use in SW?”

“Ship’s acceleration profile is listed at sixty gravities within SW tutorial information.”

“Sixty. Okay, so the acceleration seems a little farfetched,” Dana muttered.

She ran her fighter through maneuvers. “So physics actually works here. Accelerate in one direction and you have velocity that you’re going to have to counteract to come to a relative stop. No banking away in space—just acceleration, vectors, and velocity.” My old friends. Even in her mind, her voice was filled with wry humor.

“Going to be a lot of screen watching.” She pulled up her map and plotted a course to Valhalla. “Time to see how you do in atmosphere.”

She grinned the whole way as she accelerated toward the planet, flipped, and accelerated against her velocity.

As she came to the end of her decel, her jets shifted her back into orientation with the planet.

She cut her thruster as she descended through the atmosphere, gliding in like a needle.

“Change to atmo.” She flicked a control as her new engines heated up and came online. She continued to descend, a touch of the controls and pedals to adjust.

“Smooth. Real smooth… got a good balance on the flaps.” She hit turbulence, causing her to jump and drop. She rode it out and continued on.

She checked the distance between the planet’s surface and the atmospheric pressure outside.

“Here we go.” On the G of go, her burners roared to life, drinking in Valhalla’s atmosphere, and turning it into thrust.

She was no longer a glider at the mercy of gravity and the wind; she was a hellion free from the planet’s whims.

Dana whooped as she broke through the sound barrier and kept going. As the fighter started to wobble, she slowed her acceleration. She brought herself down to a manageable speed and tested out her controls. With switching engines, her flaps responded instead of the thruster nozzles.

She banked, spiraled, barrel-rolled, and looped, snapping out of it midway through her third loop. Waiting for her blood to calm down, she scanned her maps for the closest base. “Target practice?” She ran her tongue across her teeth, the corners of her mouth stretching out.

Dana tilted and dove, losing altitude to aim for the nearest base.

“DeeDee, watch out! They got anti-aircraft. They took out my buddy! Hold off!” IceSphynx yelled.

Dana pulled up and changed direction away from the base. Her speed took her closer and anti-aircraft guns blazed, filling the air with flak.

Her direction change took her out of range and away from the gun’s.

“Thanks, Sphynx,” Dana breathed.

“No worries, DeeDee,” the man said.

DeeDee? Dana checked her gamertag. DeeDeeBird was one of her first, the one she had used when playing Orion’s Belt.

“You want to link up? My buddy is coming back down. Shouldn’t be more than five minutes. We’re doing attack runs on the bases, cover the attackers’ advance. You just start playing?”

“Yeah, just messing around with the controls,” Dana said, thinking it over. She saw Sphynx moving toward her.

“Pretty unreal, isn’t it? The feedback, random turbulence.” Sphynx whistled.

“Acceleration is a little hard to believe in,” Dana said.

“It’s a game.”

She could hear the shrug.

Dana made a noncommittal noise as Sphynx moved up to fly beside her.

“So, where are you thinking?” Dana asked.

“Crystal Palace to the south of here. Big node on top of a large mountain. It’s a pain in the ass for the grunts to climb, so you need a lot of them and support. Though, being on top of a mountain, they’re out in the open, so we can hit them with missiles and machine gun fire. You up for it?”

Dana shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

[You’ve been invited to a party]

She accepted the invite and Sphynx appeared on her map in green. Another green symbol was coming through the atmosphere toward them.

“Howdy, DeeDee. Sorry, Jung-Su. Had to run to the bathroom,” Black Crow said.

“We’re going to hit Crystal—you up for it?”

“Hell yeah! Shit!”

“What’s up?”

“Fucking Turtle’s blocking the fucking atmo. Move your fat ass! Lots of people just jumped into ships and fighters like they’re hot shots. Oh, yup, that’s another going for a spin. Ouch.”

“Sorry, DeeDee,” Sphynx said.

“No worries.” She smiled. It was refreshing to play with gamers who were just gaming.

“All right, coming up!” Black Crow hummed tunelessly, cutting his speed with a banking maneuver that was sure to pile on the g’s. He flicked back up and cut his burner speed, inching up towards Sphynx. “All right, shall we go blow some shit up?”

“Fine. I’ll go in lead. You two trail behind me, keep it spread. If they have flak, we won’t all get torn up.” Sphynx accelerated, and Dana and Crow moved farther apart.

“So, how do we earn plat?” Dana asked.

“Contributions. Say we blow up a dozen defense towers so our guys can get into the base and then they cap it. Old SW brain goes and says what percentage of the value of the base we get. Say we cover the advance that makes it into the base. that’s more than we’d get for just blowing up their defenses,” Sphynx said.

“Or you can go to the dark side,” Crow said.

“Dark side?”

“Work for the defenders or be on their side. Take out the dropships, other fighters, those who are attacking the bases. When our grunts take a base, there’s an option to join them.”

“Most aren’t doing that,” Sphynx said. “The people who are defending the base should have some plat from taking the place, so even if they die, they’re not losing everything. Take out an attacker dropship. That could crater some poor kid and all the people in that ship. Want to increase the number of people joining the game, not send them all into debt.”

“Yeah, that’s true. These things are still like a hundred and fifty. Dropships are over seven hundred credits, but they get a percentage of everything that the people they drop off get. So even if they’re not fighting, they make a killing just shuttling everyone back and forth,” Crow said.

“We’re ten klicks out,” Sphynx said.

Dana checked the direction of the node and zoomed in. She saw it: a collection of buildings and walls thrown up into a massive pentagram around them. Turret towers stuck up above the wall.

An anti-aircraft gun spun up and fired into the sky at a dropship. The dropship’s turrets fired back as the ship banked erratically, releasing chaff and flares to confuse the automated system.

They dove, flying through the pillars at the base of the hill leading up to Crystal Palace.

Grunts were running up the pockmarked hill, using the craters and natural cover to advance.

“They’re making good progress up the hill. Those turrets are tearing them apart, though.”

“That’s why they pay us the big bucks.” Crow laughed.

“Hose the defenses and aim for the turrets. We’ll circle around and do several passes. Be ready to bank away and punch your drive, or else they’ll catch you in those anti-air cross fires. Within about five kilometers, they get tough. The more they have, the worse it is. If you can keep low, they don’t do so well or when they have to aim down,” Sphynx said.

“Thanks.”

“Nice to play with someone who has brain cells.”

“Hey!”

Dana came out of her zoom.

“Let’s do this!” Sphynx angled down, and they dove, gaining speed and splitting apart. Dana headed for a wall, angling away to her left, while Sphynx and Crow aimed to come across one on the right.

“Watch out! You’re getting too close to the ice!” Crow said.

She could hear his worry.

“Don’t worry. I see it. Thanks.” She couldn’t quite keep the amusement out of her voice. He might be brash, but seems a good sort.

Crow grunted, as if to cover his concern.

Dana pulled up and gunned her burners. Ice crystals scattered in her wake like a ship cruising through the ocean.

Bots braced against her passage as she angled upward. Turrets changed their aim for the juicier target: her fighter. Tracers created glowing whips in the sky, trying to anticipate her position and lead their rounds.

If I’m in range, then they are too.

She opened her twin machine guns and targeted the turrets with her missiles. They were stationary while she wasn’t. Fighters were useless in space, in her opinion, but in atmosphere, they were a force to be reckoned with.

Dana fired a missile from each wing. They crashed into the walls, taking out a turret apiece. Her third missile hit a section of wall, but not a turret.

Then she was past the palace. She increased her speed, jinking and weaving as the anti-aircraft turrets tried their best to catch her.

She breathed out several minutes later.

“Well, looks like you’re still alive. Nice shooting,” Crow said.

“Thanks.” Dana laughed—half relief, half-adrenaline rush. She checked her cameras.

“One crazy-ass pilot,” Crow said.

“Makes the two of you.” Sphynx cleared his throat. “We’ll regroup on you and then we can go in for another run. The grunts are having a hard time getting up the mountain.”

“Sounds good.” Dana checked her cameras. Sphynx and Crow had opened breaches along the wall. Defenders were rallying, getting bots to cover the breaches and others working on the repairs.

She caught an explosion off the side of her camera.

“The fuck! Shit! There’s enemy Hellcats!” the area commander yelled.

“Shit,” Crow said.

“Break! Break! Break!” Sphynx yelled.

They rolled away from one another and accelerated as Dana’s fighter cried out with missile lock. She flattened out above the deck and gunned it, thundering over the low obstacles. Explosive fire rolled behind her twice and the screaming died down.

“Grunts are marking bogeys!” Sphynx yelled.

“Five fighters—they’re going for the dropships.”

The Turtles were firing on all guns as Dana banked and curved around. She was pulling some g’s as she cut her bank, weaving around an ice pillar that shot out of the ground. She elevated her nose and climbed. “Taking on the fighters directly. Need to cover the drop zone.”

“Fuck yeah,” Sphynx said.

“Five against three. They’ll need four times that!” Crow laughed.

The duo had split up and were crossing through the broken ice fields. She had to admit that they were skilled.

“Let’s get in close, use the machine guns, break them up. Then missiles. I’d say blow the first one, get a lock on and let it go. The alarm doesn’t change. If they go down between rocks or blow chaff, wait them out. When they come out, fire a second. Should take time for the chaff system to recover and reload,” Dana said.

“Rog,” Crow said.

“Copy,” Sphynx said. “You packing a light or heavy? I have heavy.”

“Light guns,” Crow said.

“Light too,” Dana said.

“Coming up on them.”

Two dropships were going low and fast to escape the drop zone. Others were diverting from the area. Three dropships were burning hulks, creating puddles in the ice.

Another dropship trying to escape the area had two fighters chasing them as they accelerated hard, right toward Crystal Palace, their anti-aircraft guns opening up.

Dana fixed on three fighters hovering above the drop zone.

They engaged their engines just seconds before Dana fired.

Tracers from her twin-mounted machine guns lanced across the sky, tearing through one fighter and raking another, the last accelerated hard out of the line of fire.

“Going for them!” Sphynx yelled.

The two chasing the dropship toward the palace broke off, circling back to Crow and Dana.

The second fighter Dana had shot cleared her view as Crow rose out of a ravine. His machine guns tore apart the craft, scattering debris across the surface of Valhalla. Something exploded among the wreckage as Dana banked. “Two left, going high!”

“Moving with you. Going to come inside your left.”

“Copy!”

“Chasing this bastard. And...” Sphynx went silent as Dana painted the enemy craft to get a lock. “Take that, you bastard! Looping back,” Sphynx said.

A fighter fired at them; Dana and Crow swerved in the opposite direction. Dana turned, adjusting her burner direction output on the TCLs. Using an ice pillar to turn faster, it threw up steam around her craft as she flicked the burners back to rear-facing and shot at the turning craft.

The ringing told her she had a lock. The fighter tried to reduce his bank as she fired a missile, her fighter shuddering from its release.

“Twitchy shit.” Crow fired at the fighter he was playing tag with.

“Missile away on yours, Crow!”

Dana’s fighter chaffed and banked as hard as he could, aiming toward Crystal Palace. Dana cut her speed, tilting her fighter as she regained lock and fired another missile.

The fighter jerked and flew erratically to try to throw the lock, but it was over the battlefield. Even the grunts were joining in, shooting at the weaving fighter.

The fighter pilot dove, heading for a group of bots climbing the hill when the missile crawled up his burner. Debris scattered over several hundred meters.

The grunts cheered as they survived the pilot’s near-kamikaze run. They charged up the hill as if they were invincible.

“The other fighter?” Dana asked, banking away from the palace.

“We got him,” Crow said. “Thanks, Sphynx.”

“No worries.” Sphynx laughed.

“Impressive flying and coordination,” Dana said.

“Hey, nowhere near as impressive as you! That was nuts. We’ve been playing together for years,” Crow said.

[IceSphynx has sent you a friend request]

Dana paused and then cleared her throat. “Thanks, Sphynx. Just added you. I was thinking that we go into a hover out of the range of those turrets and hammer Crystal Palace with our remaining ordinance then grab a reload?”

“Uh, we can do that?”

[Black_Crow has sent you a friend request]

“Got your request, added. Yeah, we’ve got vertical take-off and landing with the burners on the Hellcat. Sphynx, if you can coordinate with the area commander, have him hold back the reinforcements, then we can get the dropships to help us. They’ve got VTOL as well and like five times the guns.”

“How should I?”

Dana walked him through her plan, and he relayed it to the area commander. They moved to group together.

“Oh, I am so in, though this TCL is hard to control,” Crow muttered.

“What are you having trouble with?” Dana asked as Sphynx talked to the area commander.

They talked for a few minutes, meeting up and banking back toward Crystal Palace. Their arc would bring them behind a drop zone. Dana tried to instruct Crow on how to use the TCL.

Dana and Sphynx brought themselves into a hover between ice pillars. Crow was jerky, but he was able to get situated without smashing anything.

“Woo-hoo! Okay, yeah, that makes sense now. It’s all about orientation. Just so weird. Easier with a damn shuttle in vacuum,” Crow said. “Thanks, DeeDee.”

“No problem. Shall we?”

“Let’s.”

Sphynx was coordinating with the force on the ground; the dropships that had fled had returned, dropping off their bots. Dana could see them moving between the pillars on her map as well.

“Advance!” the area commander ordered the aerial units.

Dana nudged her fighter forward, level with Crystal Palace.

Missiles cleared both her racks, with a dozen other missiles from the other Turtles and Hellcats. The palace turrets turned frantic, trying to destroy the missiles, but they didn’t get one.

Eighteen missiles impacted across the palace’s front.

Dana and her fellow pilots opened up their machine guns or turrets with the Turtles.

“Move it, apes!” the commander yelled.

The grunt bots charged from their cover and up the hill. Dana watched for movement in the smoke. Tracers and rounds hammered what remained of the walls, punching through containers and weak cover. All Dana could really see was rounds pinging through the camp.

“Watch for friendlies!” Sphynx said.

Dana glanced at the grunts who had been fighting up the hill and were charging headfirst into the breaches. She cut her shooting, checking her racks. She’d started with eight missiles; now she had just two remaining and forty percent of her ammunition.

“Thanks, hot shots!” a dropship pilot said as they lifted off and turned for open ground to make their return to SW.

“No problem. See you later!” Sphynx said.

The grunts rushed into Crystal Palace, more dropships descending to support them.

“Hey, my friend just said that a group of fighters attacked another dropship over at the Kraken Node. They could use your help,” another dropship pilot said.

“How many fighters?” Sphynx asked.

“Just one.”

“What do you think?” Sphynx asked them both on a private channel.

“I need a reload before I do that,” Dana said.

“Can’t go wrong with more ammo,” Crow agreed.

“Thanks for the info. We’ll head over as fast as possible,” Sphynx said.

“Thanks for the save.”

Dana retreated through the pillars. She only turned once she was clear. There’d been only a half-meter clearance on each side.

“Head back to SW?” Crow asked.

“Works,” Sphynx said.

“I agree.”

They pulled into formation and headed back up to SW.

“Hey, Dana, you want to take over squad lead? You got a knack for it. I feel like I’m just a messenger most of the time.”

“Only if you’re sure. You’re doing a fine job.”

“Need some more practice. I’ll learn just hearing you,” Sphynx said.

[IceSphynx has elected to make you squad leader]

“Okay.” Dana accepted it and they continued to climb.

“How long do you got to game, DeeDee?” Crow asked.

“At least four hours. You?”

“I got three before my shift starts,” Crow said.

“It’s nighttime here, so no problem,” Sphynx said.

“Plenty of time to rack up the plat.” Dana smiled.

“Hell, yeah! I’ll be buying the rounds this weekend.” Crow laughed.

“You game more than you go to the bar.”

“Hey, I’m just being credit-conscious.”

Might not be so bad, playing in here for a while.

They broke atmosphere and switched over to their thrusters. They curved around the planet to catch up with where SW circled Valhalla.

Chapter seven

Chapter: 7

10, March 2242

Luke climbed a ladder. The rungs shifted under him. They were stupid simple: a weight was attached to the bottom of them, so they would move according to the ship’s acceleration. When they were under acceleration, they were a ladder; when they were floating above a planet, they were a walkway with the sides of the ladder acting as railings.

“No free-fall screwing about,” Luke muttered as he kept climbing.

“Damn right,” Joey said. He was in the pilot’s seat today. “You try to do the g-climb and you’ll be ten meters back in a second.”

“I know, I know—relative motions and all that,” Luke said. It was why, under constant acceleration, he had to climb and walk everywhere, while when he was on Sphere World, he could throw himself forward along the floor and use his jets.

“You at the heat vane yet?”

“Just got to the forest.” Luke checked his wrist map.

“Next right, two banks on your left.”

“Thanks.” Luke shifted his lines to the wire guides and entered the forest of black heat vanes—rounded mounds with massive black metal projections sticking out, working to exhaust excess heat that the secondary energy systems couldn’t bleed off.

Luke was careful not to touch the vanes. That was a quick way to burn a hole in your suit.

He reached the problem heat vane. “It turned off on your side?” Luke pulled out a thermal scanner, aiming it at the vane.

“Yeah, shows off on my side, but double-check.”

“Checking.” Luke read the scanner he aimed in several spots. “Showing it’s off. Gonna check it out.” Luke hooked onto another ladder and climbed up between the vanes, careful not to back into the other. He shined his mounted head lamps on the vanes.

“Got ice.” Luke followed the trail of ice to a hole. “Looks like a micro hit it. Going to open it up.”

“Copy,” Joey said.

Luke pulled off the retaining pin on the access lever, hooking his left arm and leg into the ladder, and started to crank.

“Why couldn’t they put this on the damn forward or rear?”

“′Cause shipbuilders made it, not freighter runners.”

Luke grunted in reply.

The vanes were spread apart, revealing the pumping and tubing for the system. Radiator fluid drew the heat from inside the ship, pumping it through the metal vanes to bleed off excess heat.

“Micro went through a vane. Punched a hole through the connected pipe.” Luke checked the area for more spotting and shifted closer to the hole. He pulled out a roll of tape.

“Gonna patch and seal the pipe. Mark down that we’ll need a new one,” Luke said.

“All right,” Joey said.

Luke’s wrist screen pinged with a message from Fin. He opened it.

[I think I figured out a way for us to get more bots to play with and make money! Hurry up and log on. Waiting at Orion’s Belt Lobby!]

Jynx: [Gimme 20 minutes]

Fin: [Hurry! I don’t know how long the offer will last!]

Luke looked at the pipe. He moved forward, wrapping and sealing it. “Moving to the vane.” He secured his tape and pulled out a black tube, a piece of thin metal, and a scraping tool. “Just applying the seal. Test the coolant line, can you?”

“Filling with refrigerant,” Joey said.

Luke worked quickly and efficiently. He squeezed putty out of the tube and onto the metal; he stuck that to the outside of the vane, switching his headlamp to ultraviolet. The paste hardened in seconds. He switched back and poured the putty into the hole, filling it, then used his scraper to keep it in before he blasted it with UV. Luke checked his work and hit the seal with the back of his spreader. It didn’t squish or deform. It was as hard as the alloy it filled.

He went back to normal light, securing his gear as he checked the guts of the system. “Pipe is holding pressure.”

Luke scanned the tubes and wiring and couldn’t see any more holes. He checked the outer vane and the seals that mated the thermal dissipating tubing to the metal porcupine.

He could spend another hour examining it all, but he’d only ever found a second issue once before when working on the vanes.

“Okay, yeah, can’t see anything else. I’m going to seal it up and run a check.” Luke was already closing the heat vane.

“You sure?”

“Can’t see any more damage. From the hole, there was only a tiny piece that made it through all the layers.”

“Okay.”

Luke could tell Joey didn’t approve, but he didn’t push it.

The vanes closed with a thump.

“System is closed. Run test.”

“Running test.”

Luke felt the low-level hum through his feet increase as the pumps flooded the system. He checked his screen to see who had assigned time on the net-suits. With only three suits for everyone, time in the suits was set according to a schedule unless there was free time. Luke had two hours till his net time, but only Marissa was using hers. His mother was sleeping to take on the opposite shift of Joey, and his dad was working on his garden on the second level—Joey’s backup. He could be down there for hours.

“It’s looking good. Pressure is lower than before—still good, though,” Joey said.

“Nice. All right, I’m heading in.” Luke quickly descended, reaching the catwalk and then the main ladder.

He was breathing heavily when he got to the air lock and cycled through. He took off his gear and stored it, then got his boots back on and took the scraper. He headed down to the second floor, putting the tool back into its proper place, nearly running into his dad, who was grabbing a gardening tool from the rack.

“How’d the heat vane go?” Stephen asked.

“Micro went through the outside, pinged a pipe. Going to need a new pipe. It’s all patched, but if it goes on too long, it’ll burst or break,” Luke said, cleaning and replacing the spatula as his dad leaned against the worktable.

Stephen nodded with a proud smile. “You’re a deft hand at repairs, Luke.”

Luke bit back his immediate reply, swallowing it, and nodded.

“Luke…” Stephen slow-pitched his voice.

Another friggin’ lecture.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I was talking to Fin. He’s got an in with someone for a job,” Luke said.

“A job?” Stephen raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, he set up an interview with them. Position’s opening up soon, so I might get a head start,” Luke said, walking back to the ladder.

“Doing what?” Stephen followed him.

“Mining or terraforming. Something like that. Sorry, got to go.” Luke climbed the ladder.

“Wait! Do you know where?” Stephen asked.

Luke paused for a half second and turned the knife. Revenge for the weeks of berating, of soft talks and lectures and awkwardness. “Hydrea. Don’t worry. Probably has a relocation bonus.”

“Oh.”

Luke could feel the words hit.

“Well… let us know how it goes and good luck!”

“Sure, Dad.” Luke stepped off the ladder and walked to the net-room, a sour feeling in his gut. Hydrea was a highly developed system with thousands of freighters moving through it all the time. There were few openings for an independent freighter. They’d only gone through the system three times in Luke’s memories. Fin was part of the massive workforce dedicated to revitalizing and terraforming the fourth planet in the system—a Martian type. With a few hundred asteroids and cultivated biology, they were well on their way to having mega-towers and domes set up. The Coalition always needed more homes and housing.

Luke stripped down to his shorts and T-shirt. Marissa was in her suit, suspended in mid-air, typing something in the air around her. Real-sense systems activated the pillows and other tactile features of the suit to simulate whatever part of the net she was in.

Luke stowed his gear, got into another suit, and logged in.

Fin was already on.

Orion’s Belt lobby had expanded, although the attractions had been slimmed down, while the path to Sphere World’s entrance had been cleared, the two games splitting the space with a Sphere World map several times the size of the original.

Luke joined Fin’s party.

“All right, what did you want to tell me but wouldn’t say in a message?” Luke asked.

“I think I’ve found us a way to grind out some more suits! Wait till Jynx shows up and I’ll—”

[HereComesTehBo0m is now online]

[HereComesTehBo0m has joined your party]

“Gimme a sec. Coming up in the lobby.” Jynx’s avatar rose from the ground and Luke waved her over. “Okay, Fin, what’s up?”

“This.” Fin sent them both links.

Luke pulled it up on his terminal. “A posting?”

“Miner monkeys?” Jynx groaned.

“Miner King—the Miner King—is looking for miners to help with his newest claim. He wants people who are willing to mine for a couple of hours a day.”

“Who’s the Miner King?” Jynx asked.

“Like, the best miner anyone knows in any game. I follow builder games, you know.”

“Yeah, but like, this is just a miner?” Jynx asked.

“Just a miner? The dude is a savant of the ’sheets. He’s a maestro of mining placement and forward planning.” Fin kissed his fingers into a starburst. “Magnifico!”

“So what does that mean?” Luke looked up, having now read the post.

“It means that if he’s setting up shop, he’s aiming to be the best miner in SW.”

“I don’t see a daily pay rate here,” Luke said.

“No, it’s percentage share, so out of everything mined that day, he keeps eighty percent. We, the workers, get twenty percent of that, and we can redeem it in plat or materials. We can sell it to him or purchase materials from him at market prices for our own use.” Fin snapped his fingers.

“Meaning you get your mining sim and we get our bots,” Jynx said.

“For a guy who cracked a damn planet to mine out its heart!” Fin held out his hand and pumped it like he held a beating heart.

Jynx snorted and batted his hand away.

“We were looking for a way to game without having to pay for more bots. This could be it,” Luke said. This could be exactly what I’m looking for.

Jynx tilted her head from side to side. “All right. Hell, I want to see more of this game, so why not do some mining? The more we mine, the more we make.”

Luke and Fin grinned at each other.

Fin worked at his terminal. “All right, I’ll apply and see if—sent—we get a reply.” He dismissed his terminal. “I bet he has more than just one automated miner and he could have more mining—”

Luke got a message notification. “Uh, we’ve been accepted. He’s interested in working with us, asked about flying quals, needs someone to shuttle supplies, and he’s sent a contract. Got a probationary month,” Luke said.

Jynx and Fin brought their terminals back up.

“Well, should we go now?” Jynx asked.

“Why not?” Luke said.

“Sure,” Fin said.

They used their terminals to log into Sphere World.

Luke appeared in a room with a holographic projection of the SW system.

[You have 2 spawn locations. Please select one:]

[Inner Belt]

[Sphere World]

Luke clicked on Inner Belt. The system map turned and zoomed in on the inner asteroid belt, then further in to a collection of asteroids and a planetoid, to a bot lying down on the ground with two others.

Luke accepted the spawn point and entered the bot.

He pushed himself upward. Crap—micro-gravity.

“Watch out! Use your jets!” Luke said as he corrected for his planet sized step with a few adjustments from his bot’s jets.

[MinerKing001 has invited you to his party]

“Yup, damn micro-gravity,” Jynx growled.

“I’m joining Miner King’s party,” Luke said. He accepted the invite. “Hello?”

“Ah, hello, Tavares,” Miner King said.

“Can you hear me?” Fin asked.

“Just fine,” Jynx said.

“Hello, good to meet you as well. My name is Mitch.”

“Luke.”

“Jynx.”

“Fin.”

“Those will be much easier to remember, thank you. I see that you have extensive flight experience, Luke and Fin?”

“Some.” Luke looked around as he came back to the ground. The planetoid’s horizon dropped off a few kilometers away, its surface a collection of craters. Asteroids floated in the distance, some spinning, others still. They were damn close to be visible. Might have broken off of this small planetoid.

Luke’s map picked up more than he could see. He continued to study the area as he talked. “At some of the more remote locations I ship supplies to, we have to use the spider shuttles to move gear between stations and the freighter.”

A shuttle had been parked on the planetoid.

[Shuttle]

[Can hold 3 standard containers internally and carry one]

Next to it was a command post and a series of factories with belts connecting them to containers. The factory was a metal box with a hole two meters wide, tall, and deep through its center with a feeding side and a product side opposite.

[Factory]

[Capable of refining materials, creating components, and assembling systems]

Two more bots were laid out on the ground, and a tracked vehicle rested off to the side. It was about waist-high, five meters long, and three wide, with a drill hanging another meter off the front and rear, looking like a mobile missile launcher.

[Automated Miner]

“I’ve flown a number of shuttles and flight-capable gear,” Fin said. “I work on a terraform project, so lots of space, low-atmo and high-atmo flights. From drones to gliders and shuttles.”

“Good, good.” Mitch put new markers on the map. “Luke, experience with transporting goods and with trading… That will be useful.” Markers appeared on their maps and a grid layout.

“For the first phase, we will be taking samples. I have detailed scans of the surface of the planet. We need to see if that continues through the planetoid. Or is it just a dusting on the surface? Each bot is equipped with a mining attachment and a repair tool.”

[Bot Mining Attachment]

[Allows one to mine. Comes with attached carrier]

The mining attachment was a telescoping drill bit attached to the forearm of the bot, with a tube connected to a large backpack with lights.

[Repair Tool]

[Allows one to repair, disassemble and cut various items]

It looked like an air drill and hooked onto their hips like a pistol. There was no explanation attached, but Luke reasoned that the name spoke for itself.

“My plan is for you to go around the base, clearing the untested areas with the bot miners. The miners do not process the raw ore into materials, so you will have to deposit the contents of the carrier on your back into the factory.”

“They can build things like ships?” Jynx asked.

Mitch cleared his throat. “They have a limited printing area. And it is best to think of the factories as converters: you put in material, you get ingots. You put in the required ingots, and you get a component. You cannot just throw in materials and expect it to create a warship. My aim here is to develop our material harvesting abilities. You will find the deposits, the automated miners will mine them, the factories will refine the materials.”

Fin poked Luke in the back, scuttling him along in the micro-gravity.

“Jackass,” Luke muttered.

“What was that?” Mitch asked, turning back as Luke used the jets on his bot to come back down.

“Just poking him with the drill,” Fin said, embarrassed.

“Understood. Once you have filled your carrier, dump it onto the belts. They will pass it up through the factory run. It will refine out the materials and waste.”

“Factory run?” Luke asked.

“Linking the factories and storage containers together with belts so they will automatically refine materials and create the completed items I require. I am offering twenty percent of all the materials mined in the time you work in platinum value. You can purchase refined materials from me, or take the pure platinum for whatever you want,” Mitch said.

“The sooner we clear out this ground and find the juicy deposits, the faster we can get that auto-miner down and the factories churning out more of its buddies.” Fin raised his drill. “Let’s get to it!”

They broke apart, picking a grid to walk down, and fired up their drills.

Luke lengthened and shortened the drill bit, activating it to spin.

“Remember, we have to walk over this, so try not to make any craters,” Fin said.

“You can pin your feet.” Luke activated the feature that stabbed small hooks into the ground to secure his footing somewhat.

“Be good to get some metal walkways down so we don’t shoot off with every step,” Jynx said as she used her jets to compensate for her footfalls pushing her off the ground.

“Such a grounder,” Luke said.

“Bite me, space boy!”

Luke activated his drill, feeling the light vibration. The drill dug into the ground easily. He waved it back and forth like an old-fashioned metal sweeper, chewing up the planetoid as he guided it.

He checked over the map as he walked, then started to sift through his videos. He listened to some music, finishing his square as his mining backpack filled up. “Going for a dump.”

“You are nasty,” Jynx said.

“Ore, Jynx. Ore.” Luke released his hooks by hitting the toes of his feet together a touch; with some jet correction, he was headed for the factories.

Mitch was moving factories into an organized line.

“How do I dump into this thing?”

“Reverse the directional pull of the miner and aim it into the receptacle. The blue switch. Use factory one,” Mitch said.

Luke pointed the drill bit into the in side of the factory, hit the blue switch, and fired. Ore shot out in a matter of seconds. The factory lit up, processing it; it stopped before Luke could release the trigger and press the blue switch again.

“Thanks.” Luke headed back to his square and repeated the process. They joked and listened to music, talking about their lives, and processed their squares. There was a deep satisfaction that came with seeing the squares get cleared one by one as they came up with different plans of what to do with the plat.

“We really should get our own factory. Then we could process the materials we mine into something more expensive and sell it to SW,” Fin said.

“Let’s clear through all of this first and then we can think about it,” Luke said.

An hour later, the automated miner moved from its resting place.

The trio kept sweeping their areas as Mitch rode the miner. It had driving controls built into the rear of the machine and he rolled it across the ground. He found the location he wanted, extending legs and pins that stabbed into the planetoid.

The drill tilted upward. The mining heads unfolded, a line of drills five meters wide that ate into the ground.

Mitch stepped off. He grabbed belts that secured to the planetoid, hooking them to the miner’s output and to factory one. It was like lifeblood to the factory system.

All three stopped and watched.

“Ugg ugg, factory ugg,” Fin said.

“And that ruined it,” Luke muttered.

“Something satisfying watching it, you know?” Jynx said.

And it was. All the belts were working, feeding the factories as they pumped out new things that fed into other factories.

“I wonder if people who haven’t seen a building game would understand it?” Luke asked, turning back to work with his drill.

“Well, it’s like building or making anything, isn’t it?” Jynx said. “You go from a piece of wood to a desk, or you go from a bunch of metal to an auto-car. It’s cool just to see what we can do and say, ‘yeah, I did that.’”

“Fin, would you mind taking the shuttle back to Sphere World? There are some items that I want you to pick up for me,” Mitch asked, interrupting their conversation.

“Okay, but that will take me away for a while,” Fin said.

“You only need to pilot it out of the asteroid field, put it on autopilot to Sphere World, and then you can continue to mine. Just check up on it every so often. I am not confident in my skills to land the shuttle at Sphere World.”

“Okay, sounds good,” Fin said. He jumped from his bot to the bot inside the shuttle. After a few minutes of checks, he pushed away from the planetoid with a puff from his thrusters. He used the main engines, accelerating for Sphere World, and carefully clearing the belt’s errant asteroid neighbors.

He disappeared after a few minutes of acceleration and Luke went back to clearing squares.

It didn’t take the factories long to finish printing the automated miner. Components funnelled into the last factory as it fused them together, pushing out the automated miner on the other side, two meters wide and ten long.

Mitch piloted it from the factory to a pre-selected spot.

It was rectangular with a massive arm lying down like a missile truck, along its center line, but with drill bits instead of rocket engines. Stabilizing arms hinged out, hitting the ground, and driving securing pins into the rock.

The missile like cylinder rose until it was vertical, powering up and driving into the stone below. Mitch placed belts, carrying unrefined material from the miner to the factory.

“I will put down markers across the area for the automated miners. If you are emptying your pack, and the factory run is done making a miner, take it out and place it on one of those markers.”

“Will do,” Luke said, excited at the prospect.

Fin returned, and they kept going.

In five hours, they cleared nearly a kilometer and a half around the command post. They had fifteen automated miners working away, and Luke half-knew all the twenty materials that could be found.

“The shuttle is arriving at fourteen hundred tomorrow,” Fin told Luke. “I have work then. Could you fly it in and pick up the supplies?”

Luke did some quick calculations. “Yeah, I should be able to get my chores done before then. Mitch okay with this?”

“I talked to him and he’s fine with it.”

Luke logged off, weary but satisfied. Shuttle pilot. Luke grinned as he stepped out of his suit.

Chapter eight

Chapter: 8

10, March 2242

“Thanks, Alicia. Give my love to Ramon and the girls. You, too!” Brad ended the call and rubbed his face.

“Any luck?” Stuart asked.

“Nope, it wasn’t Alicia, and she can’t think of anyone else who might have done it. She told me to give you and Mary her love. She also said she’s excited to get working on the next project when we fix this all up. Though she wants to work remote. She’s expecting again.”

“That’s fabulous news!” Stuart looked up from his desk with a smile, leaning back in his chair.

Brad smiled. “Yeah, I remember when she was just an intern.”

“When did we get so old?” Stuart asked.

“I get older every time I hear one of your ideas. How are things on your end?” Brad stood up from the reading chair and walked around the desk.

“I’ve got a whole lot of nothing, really. Went through the coding. They’ve been ripping out code, but as you said, it’s all network connected. The content, they’re running it all on their side and pushing it out, but from what I can get, it’s not based on anything we’ve made.”

Brad took over the keyboard and pulled up the information, making a noise to signify he’d heard as he followed his own train of thought. “Look at the executable.” He stepped back, pointing at the file.

Stuart blinked at it, gesturing with his hand to scroll. “That seems a little… thin.”

“I think they’re using us for hosting, but the real game must be on another server. I’d run a check through the ports, see what’s coming in and going out.”

“That wouldn’t make much sense, though. You have the game hosted on one server, then route it through networking servers, out to the client. I’m surprised we’re not getting massive latency lag. They must have thousands of servers running to take the load of having the entire game hosted in the cloud.”

“They’re using all our networking code. I knew it was similar, but as you said, there’s nothing like Orion’s Belt in here other than that,” Brad said.

“Like they hollowed out the game and we’re the server farm.”

The two of them looked at each other. They had more questions than answers. Brad’s screen announced a call.

“It’s Charlie.” Brad accepted the call and stood.

Projectors blinked on, and Charlie appeared in the middle of the room. “Glad I caught both of you. Okay, so first thing, we’ve gotten a summons, and a mediator has been selected for our court case.”

“That was fast,” Brad said.

“Yes. So, good news—we’ll figure out what their angle is to try to get their shares back. Bad news—they’re moving fast, so we have less time to create a defense and they’re confident they can win. My people are looking into the mediation company and the mediator assigned to the case for any traps. Have you got any information on who created SW and why they’re selling their game through you and having you collect all the money?”

Brad cleared his throat. “We talked to everyone who is—well, was working with us and had access to the servers. No one said they did this or even hinted at it.”

“You trust them?”

“Of course we do,” Brad said a little testily.

Charlie raised his hands in surrender with a deprecating smile. “I have to ask. Lawyer stuff.”

“Sorry. Just tired, Charlie.” Brad raised his hand in apology. Charlie might be a lawyer, but he seemed like a good sort—person, not a lawyer. Lawyers only really came in professional and not, instead of good and bad.

“But no, nothing has showed up. Well, other than it looks like they’re just using us to host the game. Sure, they’re using our code to mesh with the servers, but they didn’t use any of our assets or game code.”

“Okay, and in simple terms?”

“They’re using us to host their game. They must have a server with the game on it that’s routing through our servers. We’re the bridge connecting the players to one another and the game.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You don’t have any of the game on your servers?”

“No, we’re just the bridge.”

“This is good. This is great.” Charlie paced; the projectors kept him standing in the same place, like a technological moonwalk, in one spot. “Okay, we can work with that. We could argue that whoever put up the game uploaded it to the wrong server. That can happen, right?”

“It would be hard to do, but things like that have happened before.” Brad could think of a few times that things were put or sent to the wrong place.

“So, they could have meant to put it onto the servers your subsidiary company owns. That sounds reasonable. Then the matter with the money… Mistaken identity again, and we’re holding that money in trust because there is obviously some kind of error.” Charlie looked at Stuart. “And we are doing everything we can to contact whoever might own the game to rectify the problem?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Okay, so this is just a case of information being put in the wrong place, and you, in a drunken state, bought a bunch of extra shares from your old company. A waste of money, but a drunken decision. We can work with this. Okay. Get out your suits. We’re going to tear them a new one, lads. I’ll be in contact.”

“See you, Charlie.” Brad waved.

Charlie faded from existence, and Brad rubbed his head.

“So much for retirement, huh?” Stuart grinned.

“I’m going to head home and grab some sleep while I can. Sounds like things are going to get busy fast.”

“Sounds good. I think I might do the same and come back to this with a clear head in the morning and a new plan of attack.” Stuart followed him out of his office and saw him off at the door. Mary was still at work.

Brad walked out to his auto-car, parked next to Stuart’s. They both had their own. It cost more, but he wouldn’t ever have to wait for one to come out and pick him up. They were rounded smooth, with air intakes along their side.

Brad got into his car. “Home.”

“Heading for home,” the car said.

The gate behind the driveway opened, and the car reversed out onto the road. Stuart’s home was tucked in behind his hedges and driveway fence.

The car accelerated down the road, and soon they were cruising forward. They passed through an intersection with cars flying through it, with inches to spare. They turned off, going down a mag-ramp.

A hum filled the car as it passed through several air baffles into the mag-lanes where it levitated on magnetic bearings. Brad’s seat rotated so he was looking at the ceiling as the car accelerated at one g, merging with other auto-cars zigzagging through the underground mag-lanes like electrons through a circuit board.

The acceleration slowed to a stop. The car changed lanes and the planet’s natural gravity slowed the car as it came out of another ramp. The magnetic system lowered the wheels to the ground. Brad came out onto another quiet street—quiet compared to the hectic underground mag-lanes.

He pulled up to a large metal gate. It telescoped open, and the car rolled into the driveway. The gate closed behind him as he came to the covered parking area. Resting over the wireless charger, metal fibers in the wheels allowed power into the batteries. Brad got out.

His home was one large three-story block to the left and a one-story dogleg to the side, with a pool and seating area between the two sections.

Brad walked inside and headed to the kitchen. “Purchase dinners and repurchase snacks to full levels,” Brad said, seeing the dearth of items in the fridge.

“Understood. Charging to your card.”

“Go for the healthy snack option over the junk one.”

“There is a note on the healthy snack option.”

“Brad, you know that a walk is worth a hundred calories, or a few laps in the pool!” Xi’s voice said in admonishment.

Brad stilled, looking into the fridge, not seeing it.

“Would you like me to delete the note?” the house system asked.

“No, no.” Then, in a small voice: “Not yet.”

“You trying to cool off your head in there?” Jynx asked, walking into the kitchen.

“No, just wasn’t sure what to get.” He grabbed a juice pack and closed the fridge.

Jynx’s Asian features came from her Japanese heritage. Xi and Brad could have tried to make a child from their combined DNA or through a surrogate, but Xi had simply said, “There are so many kids who are looking for a loving family. We can be that for them.”

That had been the end of it, and the start of something brilliant: their own family.

“You’re getting that faraway look. You still hungover from three days ago?” Jynx smiled as she moved to the cupboards, grabbing a snack.

“I’m not hungover. Not sure about your Uncle Stuart, though.” Brad chuckled, leaning on the counter.

“Scotch?”

“Yup.” Brad nodded.

Jynx shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Congrats on the release of SW.”

“SW?” Brad repeated it the same way she said it: ess-double-u.

“Sphere World. It’s the full game, right, not some demo?”

“Well—”

“It’s one hell of a game. The graphics are so much better. You didn’t give me any hints that you were working on something else. When Fin and Luke asked me about it, I didn’t have anything for them.” She pouted for a half second before her smile returned.

“I think it is the full game, but there might be some changes,” Brad said, unsure of how to explain what was going on with Sphere World and OBE.

“Well, let me know before they happen. And what’s with charging for the bots?”

“Uh, well—”

“You wanted more people crafting, that’s why there aren’t more ships or gear on SW, right?”

“Yeah,” Brad ventured, realizing she was in her gaming fugue state.

“It was smart, though tough. If someone loses their bot the first time they play, they might not go back into the game. But with the crafting options, there might be more people coming in at the midpoint of the game because they don’t have to drop creds all the time.” Her pocket beeped, and she pulled it out. “Oh, I’ve got a meeting.”

“A meeting with who?” Brad asked, smiling at her grown-up mannerisms. When did she become a woman?

“With Gupta. I had a few questions for him about asset integration into the game engine. He said he had some free time to talk me through it!” She headed back off to her room and her net-suit.

“Do you have your start date for school yet?” Brad asked, trailing after her.

“Three weeks. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. Let me know if you need any help.”

“Will do. Thanks, Dad!” She disappeared into her room as Brad turned and looked at the pool.

Jynx hadn’t talked about Xi since his death. She always had something else to talk about, and had taken to talking quickly, so no one could ask her questions.

A small smile spread across his face, looking at the mid-afternoon light. “Maybe I should go for that swim.” You’re still looking after me, Xi. Wish you could give me some help knowing what Jynx is thinking.

He rubbed his wedding band and headed to his room. Xi was right; it was a good day for a swim. Lawsuits, mysterious games… they could wait till tomorrow.

Chapter nine

Chapter: 9

11, March 2242

Luke logged on through the bot in the pilot seat of the mining claim’s shuttle. Its engines were pointed in the direction of the station, decelerating to match SW’s speed.

The twinkling lights of dropships and fighters created a stream between the station and Valhalla. Even in the distance, the light reflecting off the station made him realize just how massive it was.

Luke scrolled through information he’d pulled up. Sphere World had an estimated one-thousand-kilometer radius. People had spent hours exploring the station and noted how the station appeared to be growing, new sections, new factories, new decks appearing. Several sections were locked away from people needing administrator rights to open.

“Looks like Fin was right.” Luke pulled up his cameras, studying it. Although it looked like a sphere, it was made up of flat surfaces. “Though calling it something like deca-heca-gon world doesn’t quite ring true.”

He panned his vision over the station, studying the decks. They were set up in levels, five-meter-tall floors from the southern face of the sphere all the way to the northern.

“But if it’s expanding, is there an upper limit? If so, it might start looking like a cylinder. That could take months, though.”

“You are entering Sphere World space. Your plot has been adjusted. Please do not deviate from your path or the weapon systems will deem you a threat. Thank you.”

“Cheery,” Luke muttered, finding the plot as he altered his path, using his guidance thrusters. “Understood, Sphere World. Altering to match the plot.”

Luke turned his thoughts to piloting.

[Mitch is requesting a chat]

Luke accepted it.

“Luke, why are you not turning around?” Mitch asked. He sounded legitimately curious.

As Luke adjusted his flight path, his main engines were pointing in the direction he was going. “I’m guessing that you spend most of your time in atmosphere, Mitch?” Luke asked.

“Yes.”

“So inside atmosphere, craft accelerate forward to gain lift to move, right?” Luke tapped a thruster, changing the arc of his approach.

“Yes.”

“In space, you’re either accelerating or slowing.” Luke recited the lesson he had heard on his father’s lap the first time he’d piloted a shuttle. “You accelerate up to speed, you flip, and then you accelerate down to speed. Main engine is burning the same in both burns, just facing the other way. When you’re accelerating, thrusters can alter where you’re pointed. Over vast distances, instead of it being a big L, you’re curving from the top of the L to the bottom. Spacers look at things in terms of thrust, vectors, and acceleration, with distance a close fourth. I cut my decel burn early. Now I’m using that momentum to bring me into SW. A little burst of the main engine and I can counteract my momentum. In space, it’s better to brake harder than you can accelerate.”

“With your engines behind you, you apply a harder burn to slow down faster. It makes you more reliant on your instruments instead of your eyes.” Mitch used that airy tone of someone learning something.

“Right. Too many people get into accidents, relying on their eyes over their instruments. Also, it means a faster turnaround, coming into dock, and facing the direction I’m going to leave. I don’t need to spin around or anything. That could be dangerous.”

“Interesting. I will keep this in mind. Your background is in freighting. Do you know anyone else who would be interested in piloting?”

“I can ask around. There’re plenty of people who get bored running the routes.” Luke used a burst of his engine, reducing his speed as Sphere World dominated his vision.

“Much appreciated. Let me know when you are heading back.”

Luke read his readouts and the plot. Using what he had learned, he stopped looking at the views of SW and focused on the plot.

Shadows passed over him as he arrested his motion relative to SW and lowered to the deck.

He touched down, safed the systems, and lowered the ramp.

[Accept delivery]

Luke accepted it and turned in his seat. The shuttle was a simple design: one main pilot’s seat and two secondary seats at stations on either side. Behind the seats were doors that led to a bathroom and showers on the left, and a bedroom to the right. A kitchenette lay along the left wall and storage lockers on the right.

Through the rear door was the belly of the beast. A safety railing ran along to two air locks on either side of the shuttle and separated the shuttle from the cargo area.

Cranes lowered storage containers and pushed them into the hold.

Jynx logged in as he was watching. He sent her a party invite.

[Jynx has joined your party]

“Hey, you mining hard helium?” Jynx said.

“Nah, doing a grocery run.” Luke dropped to the deck, his mag-boots clamping on as he moved to the rear. Others watched as his shuttle was loaded.

“Wow, sounds exhilarating.”

“Yeah, just watching the SW bots get their work in.”

“I’ll give them an A+ for realism. They’re not even making it easier on themselves to put gear in the back of a shuttle.”

“It’s pretty satisfying to watch,” Luke said as the bots secured the first storage container and moved to the second. Cranes lowered it and they pushed it into the hold in the low-G, bringing it down to rest and lock into the shuttle. “You mining?”

“Yeah. I want to see what Mitch did with the place while we were gone.”

“Trust me, it’s not what you expect.” Luke snorted, remembering the map he’d seen when he spawned in.

“Holy… He did this all in a day?”

“Yeah, he’s a man with a plan.”

“Damn. That is a lot of automated miners.”

“Have fun. I’m nearly loaded up. Once I’m on my way, I’m heading to you.”

“Sounds good!”

Once loaded, Luke sealed up and headed back toward the base.

[You have started a chat with Mitch]

“Hey, boss man, headed back toward you.”

“Understood. Thank you for the information.” Mitch closed the chat and Luke returned to his party with Jynx.

He checked his map and looked at the base. Areas had been cordoned off, and the map had changed rapidly. Loading and unloading areas were marked, as were several locations for automated miners.

It was set out like a kid’s drawing of a spaceship or a mortar with a fat, elongated body. The automated miners were all at the bottom. They were the engines of the factories, the body going thin, then wide, then thin again at the very top.

There was a refining factory belt-linked to an ingot factory linked to component factories and then factories pumping out storage containers, command posts, and automated miners.

A belt ran from the first refining factory to the storage facilities, filling them with unused materials.

A landing area was set out to the right of the factory and miner rocket, around the command post.

Luke jumped from the shuttle bot into a bot in the command post.

There were thirty-odd automated miners running. Mitch had been busy clearing the ground and picking out locations for the miners. They were spread out across grid lines he’d made on the map. Belts ran along the grids, connecting like veins, constantly running materials to the refining factory pumping out compressed stone, bricks, and refined materials.

“Welcome to the party. Mitch needs these miners set up and connected into the network of belts,” Jynx said. She was riding an automated miner as if it were a stand-up Zamboni as she moved toward marked positions.

“All right. I’ll lend a hand.” Luke touched off the ground and used his jets. He caught himself on a miner and helped move them into position.

Between moving the miners, Luke and Jynx headed out with their bot mining gear and tested more of the ground. Instead of dumping it back at the factory, they dumped it on a belt and kept going.

Luke paused and lowered his drill, checking the tunnel they’d carved out of the ice and stone.

“What’s up?” she asked on their private chat, still drilling beside him, carving out materials with each wave of her mining tool.

“It’s…” The word nothing died on his tongue as he sighed, looking at Jynx fully. “I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to game when I reach Odessa, and, well, I wanted to say that I had a lot of fun and that I—”

“It’s not like you’re never going to play games again, right?” Jynx said, facing him and turning off her drill.

“Well, for a couple of months. At least.” Luke thought of how little Marissa and Joey did, spending their time taking courses and working on the Dahlia’s systems.

“You think that not being able to play together for a few months is gonna mean that we’ll forget about you?” Jynx eyed her drill like she was going to hit him with it.

“Well, it’s just… Things will be different. We’ll all have other things to do.”

“Nothing changed when Fin got his new job,” Jynx said with finality.

“Yeah, but—”

“Look, Luke, nothing is going to change.”

“Jynx, I need to—”

“Nothing to be worried about.” She sounded determined.

Luke wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself.

“We’re going to steal a node from one of the largest guilds. I get to work my skillz to make you a badass intro video, music explosions and you can shut up about being stuck on some freighter in the ass end of nowhere and get a job as a guild rat.”

“You make it sound so appealing.”

“Hey, it learns! Operation Make Luke a Star will succeed!” She waved her drilling defiance.

Luke shook his head and scoffed. “You’re insane, you know that?”

“Why, thank you. I didn’t know you cared. Now come on, before that we gotta mine out a literal shit-ton of ice and rock. Cause someone wants to steal a node from one of the biggest guilds in the universe.”

They fired up their drills and got back to work. Luke broke the silence. “You find out anything from your dad about SW?”

“No, he’s not saying anything, probably trying to get in a few surprises.”

“I hear that their old shareholders are suing them.”

“Yeah, I heard something like that. Should be fine.” Jynx shrugged.

“Bunch of jackasses.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Luke sighed and got into his suit.

“Working double jobs is hard.” Luke snorted. Working with Mitch was hard work, but he could see what he was doing and felt accomplished doing it.

He’d barely been able to sneak in earlier to land the shuttle before logging right back out.

Working on the ship’s filter systems and spending thirty minutes on a bent filter didn’t have the same allure.

“About time you logged in. Mitch got us a new toy. Don’t tell him I said that!” Fin laughed.

“What is it?” Luke asked.

“Jump in and see,” Jynx said.

Luke entered a command post bot at the base. There were another dozen automated miners running. Infestation a la Mitch.

Containers numbering in the tens were stacked atop and beside one another, creating a border for the main camp. Each was filled with refined materials. Belts ran to empty containers, filling them. It wasn’t as large as some of the docks he’d seen, but the speed they had multiplied was impressive.

“I am bringing in the mining ship now,” Mitch said.

Luke pulled up his map and zoomed out, looking for where the ship was coming from. He left the command post; the others were outside watching the twin engines getting bigger and bigger as they worked against their velocity.

It came in sedately, coming to relative zero above the landing area.

Puffs from the thrusters pushed the ship toward the ground. It was a beast of a ship. The cockpit was in the middle and recessed, like a cartoon where someone had their head punched into their body. On either side were armored windows above a massive rotating drill bit the same size as the automated miners.

Mitch was muttering to himself, talking through the landing procedure.

“Decreased speed to target upon approach. Rely on the instruments over the eye. Extend the landing gear.”

Luke winced. Mitch was coming in too fast, but he was too close, and Luke didn’t want to back-seat pilot.

The miner bounced twice, leaving scratch marks where it had touched down before it came to a stop.

“There we are,” Mitch said, powering down. “Luke, would you be okay with piloting the miner? I have done some piloting, but I do not have your proficiency or ability,” Mitch said.

“Uh, are you sure?” Luke said.

“Shuttle is almost at SW. See you in a bit!” Fin jump-drifted back into the command post and jumped to the bot on the shuttle.

“Miss Jynx, if you would take the right drill of the mining ship, I will take the left.”

“Sounds good. Just finishing up this square,” Jynx said.

“Very good. Luke, you and I will build and slot storage containers into the bays.”

Luke had just finished his square; he dumped his miner and walked up to the mining ship.

It was dull steel and warning orange. Hardened industrial gray plates lined its underside. There were two open bays on the left and right side where storage containers could be slotted in. Engines sat at the rear of the ship; a spine ran forward to the control areas. The underside of the storage crate bays was the same armored gray. The forward areas were just barely bigger than the engines.

Mitch climbed down the ladder that came down between the bays and the left drill cockpit.

“Luke, could you give me a hand building containers and slotting them into the ship?”

“Sure thing.” Containers had changed little since they were standardized on Earth. A rectangular prism, there were floor-bottom sections, wall sections, and doors.

Luke slid the wall sections into the grooves on the floor/roof sections, turned locking pins, then slid the doors onto their hinges and slid the last floor/roof section onto the top of the wall sections, giving him one light grey container. Each of them was based on the old standard shipping containers that sailed Earth’s seas and railroads.

Luke glanced over to Mitch, who was adding on his doors.

“I’m going to get mine slotted into the ship.”

“Okay.”

Luke picked up the container with his hands magnetized, holding it above his head and walked it over to the mining ship as if it was a massive balloon.

“Just finished loading up at Sphere World. Going to head back now,” Fin said.

“Once you’re clear of Sphere World space and have the shuttle on auto-pilot, hurry back.” Mitch said.

“Got it, boss man.”

Luke reached the mining ship and held up a storage crate. He bumped into the engines, unable to see the ship for the container.

“Jynx, can you line me up?”

“One sec, Luke.” She hurried over in the weird gliding hop that came with low-G.

“Okay, left a little… up… forward… hold—hold! Back a bit, here!”

Luke stopped and Jynx used her jets to push against the container, slotting it into the mining ship.

Clamps wrapped around the container and locked it in place.

They went over to Mitch and repeated the process.

“Alright, that’s all the containers loaded. Shall we head out?” Luke tried to keep the excitement out of his voice.

“Let’s.” Mitch pulled himself up on the ladder. Luke and Jynx jumped and used their jets to reach the air lock at the top of the miner.

“Weird place for an airlock.” Jynx said as it opened.

“Probably here so it doesn’t get hit with mining debris.”

It was open to vacuum, so they didn’t need to pressurize and depressurize. Luke slid down into the one-person airlock, mag-clamping to the deck and walked into the ship.

Two cramped beds were placed in the wall to the left of the air lock, a miniscule kitchenette on the right and a folding door. It opened out to reveal a fold-down toilet and shower. The corridor from the airlock ended past the living area at another door, open to show the three seats facing Luke.

“Looks like another door here,” Jynx said from behind Luke. Next to the airlock was a door that led into the spine of the ship, between the containers.

“Engineering, I guess—power output, fuel levels, the refining machinery, engines.” Jynx hit the door’s button, closing it.

“Let’s see what we’re working with.” Luke clomped past the living areas into the bridge. His pack caught as he tried to get to the main seat.

“Jynx, could you stuff this pack back there in one of the bunks or bathroom?”

“Yeah, sure, just disconnect it.” It came off with a click, and the drill unlocked from his arm. He pushed it back to her. She caught it and pulled it into the living area, taking off her own pack. “Thanks!”

He sat in his chair, facing the air lock as Mitch dropped inside.

Luke flipped a switch. The seat turned around to face the front of the craft pushing forward and down.

He sat in the nose of the ship. To his left and right were mining cupolas, semi-spherical with a mining drill mounted beneath.

Jynx’s chair lowered her in the right mining cupola. As she moved her joystick, her miner moved.

“The mining ship has twin ship mining attachments, capable of five times the number of cubic meters per minute. It also—” Luke heard the left cockpit chair descend into position. “—is capable of refining the material from the waste, so the storage containers will store only material blocks instead of waste rock,” Mitch said.

Luke checked through the controls. They didn’t really change from dropship to shuttles and warships. “Anything we should be paying attention to?”

“We cannot mine under the main cockpit, so we will work in rows. Jynx and I will mine across a one-meter-wide area, going back and forth. Luke, you will pilot us forward, slow enough that we can get a full cubic meter per meter we cross. Once we reach the end of the grid, we turn around and then mine out the strip that had been under the main cockpit and another new strip, and then repeat.”

“Copy,” Luke said.

“Ready to go,” Jynx said.

“Luke, when you are ready,” Mitch said.

“Mind if I move around a bit, get a feel for it?”

“Sure.”

Luke checked his map and his sensors for what was around him. He powered up and brought the miner off the planetoid, retracting the large landing gear seamlessly into the frame, covered in the same armored gray.

“This is one pretty ship. Great little details, too,” Luke said.

“Not going to need the kitchen, really,” Jynx said.

“Or the bathroom.” Luke checked the reactions of the miner. It moved lazily, not sharp like a fighter, but perfect to keep them steady. The adjustment jets to increase or lower altitude were powerful, much stronger than the turning jets.

Luke gave the engines a flare of power before slewing the rear of the craft around. He read the screens instead of the ground around him, gauging the distance between the ground objects and the objective.

He fired his engines, keeping his objective in the green. He advanced a few meters, now facing the supply dump. Luke checked the one-meter-square grid and lined up the ship so they’d do a straight run across the front of the supply dump along the longest distance.

“That good?” Luke said.

“Good piloting, Luke. Thank you. Lower half a meter, please. Keep within three and five meters of the ground, if you could. Jynx, have the drill on negative thirteen degrees in the y and sweep back and forth every three seconds.”

“Got it.”

They lowered their drills as Luke cheated with the autopilot, entering parameters. “Ready here.”

“Let’s begin.”

Luke had never been in a combine harvester, but he understood it by the end of the first line. He turned and repeated the process as Mitch updated the map with information and notations on the different materials they’d found and their concentrations.

The maps grew in complexity. One of the attached storage containers was already nearly full of refined materials.

“Fin, could you get a spare storage container? About ready to pop one here,” Luke said.

“Sure thing. Just going to finish off this area. I’ll check in on the shuttle and come over.”

“Thanks,” Luke switched channels. “Mitch, is it okay if I drop the full storage container out over the already mined area?”

“Yes, I was going to suggest that if you didn’t.”

Luke went through the controls, preparing to release the storage container.

“All right, I’m back from the shuttle. All good there,” Fin said.

“Okay, you hear about the storage crate?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, going to push it out over the dead ground. Sounds good. I’m assembling a storage crate.”

Luke watched him pull the crate together; he picked it up and kicked off toward Luke.

Luke activated the release system.

The arms that had accepted the storage container now reversed their action and pushed it out.

The container gently floated over the ground, the pull of the planetoid too weak to draw the container to it. It meandered on its own course as Luke cleared the area.

Luke laughed at Fin. “Look at you, storage container surfer.”

Jynx couldn’t hold back and joined in.

Fin had mag clamped his boots to an empty container, using his jets to fly. “Just call me the Grey Surfer,” Fin said.

Mitch approved. “Smart idea—putting in the containers without the need for a second person.”

“Thanks, boss man. Nearly there.”

Fin was horizontal with the ship, using his jets to push the container into the empty side of the ship.

The red empty lights turned green as the container was seated in place. “Container locked in, thanks. Make sure to grab that full container,” Luke said.

“On it.” Fin unclamped from the container now in the ship and flew off for the full container, repeating the process of mag-clamping to it.

“Please place it in the in-processing area,” Mitch said.

“You got it, boss.”

Luke looked at the map as the time passed. It had gained greater detail without becoming overwhelming with information. As they got to the last few hundred square meters, details filled it in increasing speed.

“All right, I’m heading back to the shuttle to dock with Sphere World,” Fin said through the chat.

“Very good. As soon as our order is loaded, head back toward us. You can jump to the bot at the supply point.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

They mined for nearly an hour, clearing an entire grid. As they worked, Fin moved the automated miners out and linked belts, then cleared squares with his mining drill and shuttle.

As they returned to the base, it had changed once again. Miners continued to spread, the containers kept growing in number, and command posts were piling up.

Although the base was large from the inside, looking at it from above, it took up only a tiny portion of the planetoid.

Luke saw other bots moving through the area.

“Looks like we have co-workers,” he said on local.

“Yes. We shall see how they do, but they are interested in mining and passed the basic tests. There is much to be done.”

Chapter ten

Chapter: 10

12, March 2242

Jynx stepped out of the auto-car and onto the sidewalk, adjusting her sunglasses. Her black hair had threads of purple running through it, and she pulled it over to the side. She was wearing jeans and a tank top covered in a video game logo.

Mary waved to her, sitting at a shaded table.

Jynx smiled, returning the gesture as she walked over.

Mary stood and wrapped her in a hug. “Jynx, it is so good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Aunt Mary.”

“Same as usual?” Mary pointed a thumb at the coffee shop next to them.

“Yes, please,” Jynx said as they slid into the chairs.

Mary pulled out her personal screen, tapping out a few commands, and put it away, giving Jynx her undivided attention. “So, I hear that you have a school and several game companies already set up to work in?”

“I was accepted into the Freeman Institute of Media and Game Technology.”

“Your father told me. That is great news.” Mary smiled.

“I heard he crashed at your place after the shutdown night. He’s been working on SW, so I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“SW?”

“Sphere World… the game!”

“Yes, I feel the same about Stuart. Those two—once they get an idea in their heads, they’re lost to the rest of us.” Mary laughed.

A man walked out of the coffee shop and put down the drinks.

“Thank you!” Mary said.

He headed back inside, and they drank for a second.

“So good,” Jynx said.

“Excited for school?”

“Nervous, but yeah, I think it could be fun.”

“You know anyone in your classes?”

“No.” Jynx shook her head, using her straw to move around the ice cubes in her drink.

“Have there been any familiarization classes?”

“Yeah, there’s been some gatherings, but they’re pretty lame. Just been doing other things… getting ready. You know.” Jynx shrugged.

Mary gave her a look and drank from her cup.

Jynx felt the atmosphere shift in a way that twisted her gut, the same pantomime that she’d dealt with a hundred different ways and didn’t seem to help.

“So how are you?” Mary’s expression left little to Jynx’s imagination about what she meant. She could have just asked, How are you dealing with the sudden death of your father?

“I’ve been busy, you know? Just so much to do. My friends have been on me about SW, of course.” Jynx laughed, blowing past the question. She checked her screen from her pocket. “Ah, I might have to leave early. We’ve been working on mining, getting resources so we can make the bots instead of buying them. Wish it was a bit cheaper, but the game is hella cool and, well, it’s nice to have some real stakes.”

Mary smiled and nodded, going with it. “That sounds like quite a bit of work.”

“It’s been fun, you know? Seeing it build up. There’s fighting all over Valhalla. If we can get enough bots, then we can jump into several games and earn more credits. Then…” Luke can get enough money to keep gaming with us. Her voice caught. She coughed to try to cover the pause. “Then we can keep fighting or doing whatever, you know?” She used her drink as an excuse to cover for her runaway mouth.

“Well, are you seeing anyone?”

“No.”

Mary paused, raising her cup at the harsh note of that one word.

“Jynx,” Mary said in a way only mothers could—equal parts love, comfort, and safety.

To Jynx, it was a crack in the dam she’d carefully created and hidden in a closet.

“You can’t shut down your life. You’ve got so much more to see and experience. You would have gone to all those orientations, no matter how goofy they are, and then complained about them with me and the friends you’d made there. You’ve had a crush on Luke for a while and it sounds like he has one on you, too.”

“Sorry, Aunt Mary. I have things I have to do.” Jynx stood.

“Jynx—”

“I’m fine, really. Just want things to calm down.” Jynx flashed her a smile and walked away so Mary wouldn’t see the tears rolling under her glasses. She reached a waiting auto-car and jumped in.

“Take me home.” She rubbed the tears from her eyes as the car accelerated away.

She wanted things to stop changing, to be how they were. She wanted her dad back. He wouldn’t be coming back, but so much was happening, and she was racing to just try to keep up.

Dana’s vision cleared as she jumped into one of the mining base bots and looked at the interior of the command post. She stepped forward on her mag-boots, making Mitch turn around from where he was examining a holographic display.

“Dana, good to see you.”

“I see you’ve been busy.” Dana studied the map.

“All the automated miners are online, and I have hired on ten part-time staff.”

“Not looking for more help?”

“Not right now, no. I built three more factories to streamline our automated miner production. Nine of the miners are mining the materials required to build more automated miners; it has allowed us to increase our count from ten original miners to twenty.”

Dana could see a shuttle carrying a new one out into the ordered field of automated miners.

“I am building up a stock of eighty miners. Then I will build more factories. It will take some time to place all the automated miners. Factories will be needed for the remote miners as well as more storage containers.”

Dana held up her hands to slow the onslaught of information.

“Is there a problem?”

“No. I’m just wondering if you have enough to mine?”

“Of course. That is why I picked a planetoid instead of a small asteroid. I was debating with some of the moons, but they are farther away, and the scans were less detailed.”

“How long do you expect this to take?”

Mitch passed her a schedule. “Now that I have more people to support me, this will change. Would you like to have a tour of the base?”

“Certainly.”

It had been three days since Luke, Jynx, and Fin had started working for Mitch. Once the shuttle had arrived with the automated miners, the real work began: setting them up on specific claims, hooking them to the factories. The factories churned over, converting materials through the process into a fully fledged automated miner.

They picked up the first, got it positioned, and connected it to the network of factories, and the next factory had been produced. They’d placed factory after factory for hours. Watching them grow had been exciting.

They’d run out of containers and created caves with the mining ship to store the ingots.

Luke could only play for two hours per day. They hadn’t had time to get their own factory or change their materials over, so had stuffed them into their own storage crate to build bots and weapons later.

“All right, I’m nearly fully extended,” Jynx said. She was chewing through stone, creating another ingot bunker.

“Okay,” Luke said, hearing bots enter the mining ship.

Luke flicked the cameras and read the gaming tag of the bot with Mitch. DeeDeeBird? Maybe a new hire?

He’d hired seven others that Luke knew of. Their gaming hours were different to spread them throughout the day. Luke didn’t mind; there was plenty of work to go around.

“Boss, we’re just about done here. We’re going to head back to the landing area if that’s fine with you?” Luke asked over local chat.

“Sure thing.” He turned back to the other bot and kept talking in a private party.

“Done here! I’m ready to kick some ass,” Fin said. They had been talking local instead of in a party.

“To Valhalla!” Jynx gave her best Viking impression.

They’d agreed to go back to Valhalla and spend the rest of the night gaming. They had worked hard together, but it wasn’t enough. Luke wasn’t going to make next month’s rent payment, even with three days still to go.

He was determined to have fun at least; they’d both sacrificed a lot to work with him.

Mitch was a good guy—odd, and he liked things being clean and ordering the disorderly. He was determined in a way that he never saw. He would just do things and others would be surprised, while he would think it was only natural.

“Drills secure, cap’n!” Fin said.

“And we’re away,” Luke said. He worked the controls. He had become a deft hand with them and the layout of the base without having to study the map.

It was only a short hop. He brought the ship back down with ease and powered down.

Luke flipped his suit control. He turned and rose out of the cockpit. Mitch jumped out of the air locker while DeeDeeBird looked at them.

“You three use turrets as good as you use those drills?”

Luke laughed. “We’re probably worse with the drills.”

“I’m going to jump to SW. You want to be my gunners? Dropships are at a premium.”

Luke glanced at the others. “Yeah, we’d be up for it. Though I don’t really think you need gunners.”

“When was the last time you were on Valhalla?” DeeDee threw herself up and out of the mining ship.

“Three days back. Why?”

“The defenders got fighters of their own and upgraded their turrets. Worse, the guilds appeared,” DeeDee said.

“That sounds… bad?” Luke asked, following her out and gliding toward the command post.

“The guilds play to win. They have money and they have the people. They led a concentrated attack on several nodes, clearing out the Fops.”

Free Players, Luke automatically translated.

“Then the other guilds noticed people watching their streams and joined in. They’re snatching up nodes across Valhalla at a massive rate.” DeeDee reached the command post and entered. “Me and my friends mostly fly Hellcats, but we wanted to try our hand at getting more grunts on the ground. They win the fight.”

“There are only turrets, though, right?” Jynx asked.

“Yes.”

DeeDee stood next to the other empty bots as Fin entered the command post last.

“We were thinking four Turtles and nine Hellcats covering.” DeeDee laughed awkwardly. “Uh, I’m the only dropship pilot who doesn’t have gunners.”

“Well, you do now,” Luke said.

“Thanks,” DeeDee said.

[DeeDeeBird has sent you a party request]

Luke accepted and joined the chat.

“We’re meeting at hangar thirty-seven. You can join us there. Best to use bots without gear,” Dee Dee said and dropped her bot. The light in its eyes went out as it slumped.

Luke pulled up his spawn menu. It showed him SW in blueprint form. He checked the nearest racks for bots he could spawn in.

“Okay, yeah, might take a few minutes to get there. Jumping.”

“Right behind you.”

“Coming for the ride,” Fin said.

Luke’s vision cleared, and he stepped out of a rack in Sphere World. There were so many bots walking around. The first time he had played, he could throw himself down the catwalk because there was no one there. Now…

“Damn, this place is packed. How many people are playing now?” Fin asked, stepping out of the rack behind Jynx.

“I think it’s close to a million, reaching two?” DeeDee said on party chat.

Luke pulled up his map and set a destination marker for the hangar. “We’re on our way. Should see you in a bit.”

“Sounds good. Got to get the others pulled together and all the ships laid out. Few people launch from here, not as close to Valhalla.”

Luke started jogging; Jynx and Fin followed.

“I call top turret!” Fin yelled.

“Left!” Luke said.

“Why left?” Jynx asked.

“′Cause most people bank to the right? I think?”

“Fine, I’ll take the right,” Jynx said.

The number of bots thinned out. Most were running the other way to the more populated hangar bays.

Hellcats and Turtles were being lined up down the far end of the hangar.

DeeDee waved them down, standing with three other bots.

“Sphynx, Crow, and Ayambe. They will be our escort.” Dee Dee waved to them.

“Good to meet you.” Sphynx bowed his head.

“Dee, you’re one short,” Crow said.

“I’m surprised you were able to get any,” Ayambe said.

“I was checking in with a business partner and they were just there.” Dee turned to them. “Sorry.”

“What our fearless leader means to say,” Ayambe said in a deep, melodic voice that seemed to calm and be a breath away from raucous laughter, “is that she is no good at making friends. Good with a ship and fighting, but not so much a social creature.” She pronounced the word like cree-cha.

“Thank you, Ayambe,” Dee muttered. “We’re Alpha Squad. They’re our fighter escort.” She waved at the three pilots. “The rest of the squads are Bravo and Charlie. Don’t worry, I’ll be communicating with them. Good?”

Everyone nodded.

The other squads were finishing their talks as well.

“Turtle has increased armor, dual-mounted heavy guns on top and side points. CIWS on the underside. Twelve small missiles, four mediums…”

“What’s CIWS?” Jynx asked, repeating it in the same way Dee had, coming out as sea-whiz.

“Close-In Weapon System. Auto-tracks and destroys missiles, or it can be auto-targeted on enemy ships.”

“So that was your backup if you couldn’t find gunners?” Ayambe asked.

Dee grumbled but didn’t deny it.

“Well, this looks like a party,” a man said on local, approaching the landing pads.

Luke turned to see a group approaching. The pilots and their squads moved around Dee as a bot stepped forward with three others right behind him. Leaders? They all wore a crest on their chest, with different markings on their shoulders denoting ranks.

“Mister Foster, are you ready to go?”

That name… Luke glanced at the crest and pulled up his terminal.

“Hell, yeah. My people got excited when you proposed this. Having a group of dropships taking us down to the target on a schedule and working together? Us Gremlins aren’t much for piloting.”

Luke’s eyes went round as he looked up from his terminal.

“But you get us there, we’ll take care of the problem.”

The other bots moved around, rolling their shoulders, and shifting their weapons.

“That sounds good to me. We can deliver you where you need to go all day long. What’s the node?” Dee asked.

“Razor Crest Node to start. If we can take that, we’ll push to the next target.”

“Okay.” Dee turned to the pilots and gunners. “Let’s get going.”

They jogged for their dropships.

Paul Foster—the Paul Foster—followed them as the other groups ran to the other dropships. More Gremlins entered the hangar bay, mulling around in groups.

“Should have something like a hundred and twenty to three hundred showing up today, if that’s good with you?”

“That should be fine, Mister Foster. We have the capacity,” Dee said.

“Just Foster, please—no mister or Paul needed.” You could hear the smile.

“I can do that. Just call me Dee. Sounds good to me.” Dana said. “You going to be the area commander?”

“Yeah, want to try it out,” Foster said.

They reached the dropships and hurried up the ramp.

Luke and his friends followed Dee through the doorway past the bot’s seats and into the cockpit and gunner’s seats.

“That’s Paul Foster, leader of the Gremlins, the biggest grunt clan out there,” Luke said. Unlike guilds, clans mostly played for fun, sometimes for money, but they were large groups of coordinated non-professionals. “They’re basically a guild, and their record is crazy good.”

“They have a high mix of veterans from the Federation’s border wars and a lot of dedicated players,” Dee said as her seat rotated and pushed forward into her consoles.

Luke laughed. He sat in his chair facing Jynx and pressed the seat control. He was turned and pushed into the recess, filled with projectors and screens that made it appear as though he were in the actual turret.

“All right, everyone good?” Dee asked on the aerial wing channel.

“Flight Two is ready.”

“Three is waiting on you.”

“All right. Fighters, off you go.” Dee switched to local. “Closing ramp.”

Nine fighters took off and headed out of SW as the ramps for the two other dropships sealed.

“Dropships, let’s get moving.”

Luke felt the rumble of the engines as they rose from the pads, gliding forward in a line as their engines shifted to the rear.

“Bring up to point Three-G. Watch the plot. We don’t want to lose a ship to the rail guns,” Dee said.

They came out of SW’s envelope. They turned away, skimming atmo, and caught up with the fighters.

“Insertion point coming up,” Dee said.

“Two falling back,” HorridShad0w said.

“Three falling back,” BurnandChurn said.

“Copy, Horrid, and Churn. Cutting thrusters for burners.”

They lowered their nose. The fighters grew a tail as they entered atmo, streaking heat as they touched.

The dropship growled with the heat but calmed to a dull rattle as they slipped through, untouched and unnoticed. Luke spun back to see the other two aerial squads entering atmosphere off the right and left wing of their dropship, creating an arrowhead.

The burners rumbled to life, and they dropped faster.

“We’re good and on target,” Dee said.

Luke watched her switch screens, working her controls with liquid ease.

Their fighters cleared the atmosphere ahead of them, losing the heat streak. Luke only knew because their own plume cleared. He looked over the area and checked his map for their approach onto the target.

Razor Crest Node deserved its name. A sharp ridge of stone jutted out of the ground with ice having covered it over the millennia. The node was at one end of the crest; together with the ridge, it looked like the body of a giant prehistoric creature with the node as the head attached to the crest.

It lay among other rises, providing two ways to hit the node. The valleys on either side created a V shape.

They dropped altitude for speed, cutting across the plains of Valhalla. They sped over the rugged floating mountains that were wrapped in cold gasses, hiding the bottoms of the ice and stone pillars, and over mountaintops that stuck out of the very top of the cloud, trapping the gas between them. Rolling hills dropped away to a cragged mass of ravines with depths measuring in kilometers.

Then they reached the Jormungand Mountains.

“Three minutes,” Dee said as they skimmed mountaintops, low, fast, and deadly. She danced on the cold air and turbulence instead of fighting it.

Luke checked his maps and scanned the area, linked to the other ships, looking for anything that shouldn’t be there.

“Two minutes,” Dee said, hitting the button that released the Gremlins from their chairs.

Luke knew where Razor Crest Node was, but they were hidden in the mountains as Dee brought them over the last ridge.

“Spread out,” she called. The fighters turned in different directions, circling and scanning while staying low.

Luke saw the rear ramp open through a secondary screen.

“Thirty seconds.” Dee brought them down into the valley. It was thin on ice, her burners kicking up loose gravel.

“Go!”

The dropship shifted with the bots jumping from it, the weight changing.

The Gremlins ran out and away from the dropship, moving and spreading through the rocks and icebergs that filled the valley.

“Sealing and coming up,” Dee said. The burners kicked them skyward as the second dropship came in, pouring out Gremlins.

“Heading back to Sphere World.”

“Thanks for the smooth ride. See you soon,” Foster said.

Dee brought them over a few more mountains and valleys, picking up their fighter escort.

“Why are we going through the valleys and mountains? We could just burn for SW,” Luke asked.

“Confuse the enemy. If we go straight in, they can figure out where we’re heading, and shoot at us. We come in further away and use ground cover. Maybe we can get some people down before they realize it.”

“They only have two entrances, though?”

“They’ll figure it out as the attack starts, but every drop we can get in without them knowing means more fighters we can get into the fight as soon as it starts.”

They didn’t fire a single shot as they returned to SW and picked up their second load of Gremlins. They dropped them at the other entrance to the valley, out of sight of the Razor Crest’s defenders.

“Fighters!” Crow yelled moments before target markers appeared. It was their third run; they had spread out the dropships to bring a continuous stream of Gremlins down. They were still sneaking up the valleys toward the Razor Crest.

“I’m picking up four Hellcats, and they’re turning toward us!”

“Gunners, keep your eyes on a swivel. Watch for any other contacts,” Dee said. “Escort, peel off and engage. I’m going for speed.” Dee throttled the burners and dropped like a falcon.

“Copy,” Sphynx said.

The trio broke off toward the incoming fighters. The enemy fired missiles from both racks.

“Eight incoming,” Sphynx said.

“Amateur hour,” Crow said.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if I didn’t teach you,” Dee murmured.

“But I know now.”

“Come on, boys and girls. Let’s get along.” Ayambe shoved them into order.

“Flashing.” Crow threw out his chaff, and the escort fighters pulled in tight and shot upward.

The missiles went for the chaff, two hitting each other, which took out the others.

Dee banked, aiming at the enemy fighters. “I have lock!”

The enemy fighters banked, weaved, and dumped chaff, splitting away.

“Coming in!” Sphynx said.

They descended from above. Their machine guns raked two fighters, sending them spinning to the ground below.

Ayambe launched a missile, tracking right up the unsuspecting fighter’s engine, creating a fireball. The last enemy fighter tried to outmaneuver Sphynx, but he held on like a terrier until he fired; the enemy fighter dodged into his trace, unable to pull out of their attack.

“Four down,” Sphynx said.

“Let’s get moving.”

“You think they were Razors?” Crow asked.

“I think we should assume they were.” Dee changed to command chat. “Foster, just ran into fighters. Razor might know that we’re here.”

“Thanks for the heads-up. We have more people coming in. Should be up in the station. Once all our people are down, we’ll go on the forums.”

Luke scanned his area of sky, watching the fighters heading back.

“Got it. We’re four minutes out,” Dee said.

“Copy. See you soon.”

“Contact! Right side, fighters. Four of them,” Jynx called out, pinging them.

“Seen,” Dee said.

“We’re moving to you,” Sphynx said.

“We’ll give them something to watch.” Dee went to local. “Turrets, open fire. CIWS on defense. Strap in, boys and girls; we’ve got some fighters coming out to dance!”

The Gremlins in the drop bay whooped and cheered as if they were on some kind of roller coaster.

Dee banked right, bringing them to bear on the fighters.

Aiming reticules appeared in Luke’s view, leading his targets. He pulled the trigger. The twin heavy machine guns released a line of tracers, followed by Fin’s top turret. Dee brought them level, charging right at the enemy. Jynx joined in.

Luke’s hits registered on the enemy fighter he and Fin were targeting.

It fired missiles and exploded, taking them out and buffeting two other fighters.

The fourth and fifth fired on the dropship like rain on a tin roof as Dee swung them from side to side, using her own chin-mounted turrets to enter the fray, assisting Jynx in taking down the fourth fighter.

Luke returned fire, aiming at the predictive reticules. An alarm went off.

“Missiles incoming!“Dee jerked them away from their gaining plumes.

The decking hummed as the CIWS let loose a stream of tracers that was like a solid line. One missile exploded; then a second, and a third, each getting closer.

“Chaff!” Dee yelled. She banked to the left and down as flares and chaff shot out, distracting the missiles. The CIWS was free to fire on them as they dropped away.

Chairs whirred as they snapped backward, facing the way they’d come. All three fired as Dee did the dangerous job of flying.

Their streams of tracers caught the second fighter; just three and five were left.

The fighters banked. They didn’t have the time to get off chaff as missiles slammed into them, leaving expanding clouds of debris that rained on the ground below.

“I hope you enjoyed today’s in-flight entertainment. If you could prepare yourselves for drop, we will get you on target on time and with only marginally stained underwear,” Luke said on the local chat.

The Gremlins ate it up, laughing and hooting as the escort moved around the dropship.

“Looks like the right engine got pinged. Air manifold is bent. Hit in the wing, but doesn’t seem too bad,” Fin said.

“We’ll get her fixed up at SW. Glad we got that armor package,” Dee said.

“Why’d you charge them?” Fin asked.

“Fighters can’t take many hits before they go—all engines, frame, and weapons. You hit any of that, and they’ll pop,” Dee said.

“There’s a reason it’s called a Turtle,” Crow muttered.

“Coming in for landing.”

“Seems like we played chicken with them, and they lost.” Jynx snorted. “Damn, you can fly, Dee.”

“Thirty seconds!” Luke scanned the area as they came over the last ridge.

He kept one eye on the cargo bay. The ramp lowered, and Dee flared her burners with a howl, scouring the stone below and releasing their harnesses. “Get off my ship!”

Gremlins ran out of the rear of the dropship as Dana hovered forward. The ship jolted slightly with every bot that jumped free.

“We’re clear!” Luke yelled.

“Closing.” Dana used the burners to get them the hell out of the valley, through two others and back toward the heavens, the ramp sealing as she did so.

They landed in the bay. Arms descended to repair the scuffs and holes to the ship as the fighters re-armed and the next two squads of Gremlins loaded up.

They all had their seats in the exit position, other than Dee, who was working her screens and controls.

Luke checked the node map. “So why haven’t the Gremlins attacked the node yet?”

“They need the numbers. That place is stuck in. They’ve had good mining for two days. It’s one of the longest-held bases out there. The more people they can sneak up close to the base, the better. The first push is the biggest. The longer the defenders have, the more people they can pull online to fight. As soon as the attackers lose number superiority, they’ll have one hell of a time trying to take a base. We’re their only source of spawns, so we have to keep feeding them,” Dee said.

“We ran into that when we were playing a few days back. Had to wait for dropships heading down and we were dying faster than reinforcements could show up,” Luke said.

“It sucked,” Fin agreed.

“And there was this first-time dropship pilot who kamikazed into the base. Thankfully, we could eject,” Jynx grumbled.

“I hate that.” Dee sighed and exited, turning to face them.

“So, did you set this all up?” Luke asked.

“Well, I was playing with some of my friends, and we got talking to some other Hellcat fighters, then to some of the dropship crews. I knew of the Gremlins and asked if they were interested. Just kind of came together, you know?” Dee shrugged.

“That seems like a bit of an understatement,” Jynx said.

Dee leaned back around her seat and hit a control that closed the dropship’s ramp. “Well, it seemed like fun, and I like all the moving parts. Adds in complexity, but when it works, it’s really cool to see.”

“Yeah, like fighting together with the escort,” Fin said.

“Even with all of us in this ship,” Jynx said.

“If you think about it, this could be huge. Have a carrier group coming in with ships to take out the orbital defenses. Then you drop a force on the planet to take the nodes and claim it as your own. Got space—everyone in the ships, all the people on the ground, coordinating and working with one another… That’s a lot to keep organized,” Luke said.

“Think about all the crafting to make all that, ’cause SW doesn’t have it in stock,” Fin said.

“It needs people like Mitch to pull that together at the same time,” Jynx said.

“Good to know that I’m not the only one thinking that way,” Dee said.

“But, like, there have been so many problems with that. Things happening all at the same time in games before. It takes too much processing power to handle it all,” Jynx said.

“Well, they must have figured out something,” Luke said.

“I guess. I’d be interested to know how.”

“Well, if you find out, it’d be cool to know,” Fin said.

Jynx didn’t like bringing up that her father worked for Orion’s Belt Enterprises. There was more than one person who would ask her for freebies in Orion’s Belt prime, or they’d think she’d have some inside scoop, or blame her for the game screwing up, even if it was totally unrelated to anything her father had worked on. She was guilty by association.

The lights around the dropship stopped flashing as the arms receded into the floor.

“All right, we’re good to head out again.” Dee hit her control.

All of them entered their stations.

“Escort, you are good to push off.”

“Understood. Getting the plot.”

They left SW and broke atmosphere, coming in on approach across the mountains. When Foster came on general chat to everyone connected to the operation. “All right, looks like they know we’re here. Smoke out. Advance in squads. Wait for the smoke to fill out. Missiles on the turrets. Get up there fast as you can!”

“Fighters!” Fin pinged them in the distance; they were banking hard and headed to Razor’s Crest.

Escorts from Flight Three shot out from beneath them as they were turning. Their tracers cut through one fighter as they fired missiles, destroying a second. The third made it through and floored it, accelerating away wildly.

Flight Two’s dropship’s turrets fired as the fighter passed a ridge. It exploded as the dropship accelerated out of the valley.

“All flights, we’re pushing up to the secondary drop points. Going to be hot,” Dee said to the aerial squads, flipping to local. “Get ready to jump.”

They pulled up and opened as she increased their speed. She wasn’t trying to hide anymore.

Dee brought them down into a valley closer than the previous drop-off point, just one bend away from the node. She banked her engines, burning off speed as she turned to face the other way.

“Deploying!”

Gremlins jumped clear of the dropship ramp in the few seconds before she started to gain momentum forward. They cleared the craft as she powered up and brought the dropship out of the valley.

“Damn,” Luke said. That was some of the best flying and coordination he had ever seen.

“Fighters approaching!” Sphynx pinged them on their right side. There were three groups of three heading for them. “Moving to engage.”

“I’m burning for vacuum.” Dee opened up her engines as they were in line with her nose.

“Firing,” Fin said as they cleared the valley. His tracer reached out to the right-most fighter group as the escort engaged the left-most. Tracers cut between them before missiles flew free of racks.

“Shit,” Crow muttered.

“Firing.” Jynx added in her firepower. The intersecting fire between her and Fin caught one fighter.

“Nice one,” Luke said, checking through screens and scanners.

Alarms wailed.

“We’re painted. They fire a missile yet, Luke?” Dee yelled.

“I don’t—Hold on.” Luke looked through the right-side cameras.

An enemy fighter exploded. The middle group had thrown in with the left group to fight the escorts, but the two remaining right fighter groups were bobbing, weaving, and closing in on the dropship.

“They launched!” Luke yelled.

“One or two?” Dee asked, like it was the number of eggs you wanted for breakfast.

“What?”

“One or two missiles?”

“One!”

Dee spun the ship. The CIWS hummed, cutting the missile down. She completed the spin, still heading up.

Jynx and Fin wasted no time, engaging the enemy.

“Escort, I’m going to paint your guys and fire at them. Make use of it. Hold on,” Dee said.

“Shiiieeet!” Fin yelled as they spun, putting their back to the other engagement and then dove, backward.

Dana cut her engines, nearly gliding on the Turtle’s stubs, upside down. She locked onto the two groups fighting the escort and fired. Missiles tore free of her racks, headed for the fighters as they broke and swerved, spilling chaff and flares.

The two that had been trailing the dropship fired on them, pinging their ship before their acceleration shot them past.

They didn’t have the time to get a missile out.

The CIWS opened up on them as they went from upside down to pointing down. Fin, Jynx, and Luke fired on the fighter as they came down and out of their loop.

“Strike two,” Ayambe said.

“Got my second!”

“Got another. Dammit—damn! They got me,” Sphynx said.

“Hah! Wasn’t me this time!” Crow yelled.

The lines of tracers from the dropship reached into the heavens and clipped one fighter’s wing. It spun around and then destabilized, spinning to the side and coming apart. The other fighter banked and dropped, gaining as much speed as it could and running.

“They’re goosing it,” Crow said.

“Come on! Come on! Ayambe gonna get you,” Ayambe sweet-talked her target. “Ha! Take that, three! Circling around. Head back up?”

“Sounds like a plan. Looks like the enemy fighters have pulled themselves together,” Dee said.

“That’s going to make things interesting. Sphynx, how you doing?” Crow asked.

“Got a new bot; getting a new fighter. I’m happy that we got a few good node captures before this. Ammo fighters aren’t cheap.”

“Sure are fun though,” Ayambe said.

They headed for their next load of Gremlins and ammunition. As they were coming back down, Luke scanned the map. The Gremlins were making an impressive push through the valley toward Razor Crest. They were making the most progress right up against the ridge. It was hard to tell what was happening just from the markers on the map.

“Looks like we’ve got some company,” Fin said.

“Don’t worry; they’re friendly. Must have seen the post Foster put up. They’ve come to join the fight. Look, there’s more dropships coming in.” Dana pinged the ships.

“Whoa, that’s a lot of ships,” Jynx said.

Ten dropships and fifteen fighters were coming in to land at a valley.

“Means more cover,” Dee said.

Targets appeared over the area as enemy fighters rushed out from the node. The escorts turned from their dropships and rushed to meet them.

Sphynx, Crow, and Ayambe circled above as Dee came into land. The fighters got into their own fight close to the node, friendly fighters rushing down to join in the fray.

“Hey, Dee, this is Foster. When you drop off that load, you and your escort, could you give us a fly-by? Much as I like these new pilots, not sure if I trust them to hit the node and not my people.”

“All right, be there momentarily. What do you want?”

“Come over the ridge, and hit them with turret and missile… here.” A marker appeared on all their maps.

“Okay, yeah. We’ll swing through this valley and use this ridge as cover.” Dana used markers to denote the advance.

“Copy.”

Dee went to the squad chat. “You get all that?”

“Yup,” Luke altered his aim.

“Ready and good.” Jynx said.

“Good to go,” Fin said.

“We’re ready when you are,” Jung Su said.

“All right.” She switched to local. “Move it!” The latest bunch of Gremlins jumped off the ramp in minutes.

“Closing the ramp.” They tracked through the valley, creating a line with Sphynx and Crow on the right of the dropship, Ayambe on the left.

“Be ready to cut on a moment’s notice if there areany missiles. Sphynx, me, Ayambe, Crow, on chaff and drop. We won’t have much time to react,” Dee said.

“Copy,” Sphynx said.

“Okay, up we go.”

They rose over the ridge, the air shimmering under their burners.

Fin fired first, his tracers lashing out over the distance, then the escorts. Missiles tore free from their racks, dumb-fire straight on. Even with chaff, they couldn’t be confused.

Luke watched the ridgeline as they crested it. He opened fire with his machine gun, raking the wall. The missiles bloomed against the wall and the defenses, already weakened by the Gremlins.

“Shift fire into the base,” Dee ordered. As Gremlins started to rush forward, she used her medium missiles, hitting landing pads and the area around it.

Luke targeted factories and turrets. The wave of destruction rolled through the camp as they dumped as much ammunition and missiles into the base as possible.

“We’ve gotten into the camp walls. Push fire back!” Foster yelled.

They did so until they ran out of missiles.

“Bingo on ammo. We’re heading back to Sphere World,” Dee said.

They banked into the valley they’d risen from and pushed to gain speed out.

“Understood. Thanks for the assist. Our people are pushing hard. We’ve broken in, and we found their command post,” Foster said.

“Good news. And their spawn rate should be right down.”

“We can hope!”

They powered for SW and its safety.

“There has to be like a thousand people in that fight,” Luke said, switching between maps.

“Yeah, it’s a massive undertaking. Seeing it going well, others wanted to join in,” Dee said.

“Looks like more reinforcements coming in. Damn, never seen that many dropships,” Fin said.

Luke pulled up his cameras.

There had to be dozens of dropships breaking atmosphere, enough to send a chill through his spine.

“Shit!”

Luke’s heart seized as he stared at Dee. It was the first time he’d heard her swear, first time she sounded more than mildly interested. She’d been sharp, but not angry or pissed.

“Foster, Foster!”

“Foster here. Go.”

“There’s fucking Preds coming down. I’m looking at their plot. I think they’re coming right for you.”

“Preds?”

“The Predator Guild.”

Luke saw Fin zooming in on the dropships that had entered the atmosphere. They were white dropships with a sword stabbed through a gear wheel.

“What the hell do you think they want?”

“Have they contacted you?”

“No,” Foster said in a grim voice. “You think…?”

“I think so.”

“Dammit. I didn’t think the guilds would want to deal with something as small as this. Shit.”

Luke’s gut tightened.

“What’s wrong with the Predator Guild showing up?” Jynx asked.

“They live by the code that as long as they win it, it doesn’t matter how they do it. They kill and steal all the time, and we just opened up the node,” Luke said.

“Oh shit. They’re going to steal it?”

“Maybe.” Luke watched the map. The dropships went down, with fifty fighters flying straight for the node.

They created a semi-circle and moved in toward the node. Luke zoomed in through his gun. Even at this distance, he could see the plumes as they unloaded missile after missile into the camp, laying waste to everything inside the node.

[Victory]

[Gained: 35472 Platinum/17 Credit(s)]

[Spawn Point “Razor Crest Node” now available]

[Sell to Sphere World or Keep?]

“Preds,” Dee murmured. She went to squad. “Hold as we are. Let’s see what orders we get.”

They came out level, dropping away from the thin wisps of atmosphere and back down to where it was thicker, and the burners could breathe easily.

“What the hell? We did all the work,” Fin said.

“Yeah, we set it up, and they hit it out of the park. I knew you could take a place by knocking out the command post, but it looks like they’ve taken it one step further,” Dee said.

“All right, everyone, let’s head home,” Foster said on the general chat. “Drops, we’re going to need some transport.”

“Time to bus,” Dee said, as they headed back down.

Luke stared at what was left of Razor Crest. White painted-up bots were running through the place to clean it up. Shuttles were coming in and dropping off supplies; other shuttles—SW ones—landed. Automated bots in orange moved to collect gear and stuff their shuttles full.

“Just got off with Foster. Preds are setting up shop. Foster was able to get some compensation for everyone who was part of the fight—not much, but enough to cover a few bots. Should be coming in momentarily. Though they’re playing hardball—offering low prices for the bots on the ground. So the dropships are all being asked to pick up and carry to other battlefields or back to SW. We’re taking the Gremlins back to SW,” Dee said.

“Why are the Preds messing around with bot prices?” Luke asked.

“They think that people are going to leave their gear here. Even if they can’t get a payout, they undercut the price and some might think it’s better to sell their gear to them instead of carrying it up to SW or another node,” Dee said.

“That’s just… wrong,” Jynx said.

“It makes sense from a guild standpoint. Get the node, and a bunch of bots on the cheap,” Dee said.

“We’re not going to let them do that, though, right?” Luke asked.

“Foster has his people collecting every busted-up bot, magazine, and round of ammunition. He’s doing his own version of Million Dollar Point,” Dee said. “Just instead of dumping it, he’s going to take it back with him.”

“What’s that?” Fin asked.

“Go look it up. Happened after World War Two on Earth,” Dee said.

[Gained: 80000 Platinum/40 Credit(s)]

“Just got the plat,” Luke said.

“Doubt we would have gotten anything if not for Foster and his Gremlins putting the pressure on them,” Jynx said. “With all the footage we shot damn, this is going to be one hell of a highlight reel!”

Luke grunted in agreement.

Predator fighters flew around the node, but they didn’t interfere as bots boarded the dropships.

The Gremlin fighter escorts retired and picked up dropships from SW to speed up the Gremlins.

With the last load, they all got out of their seats and headed out of the dropship.

Foster was waiting for them as they crawled out. “Well, we nearly had them. Anytime you want to game with the Gremlins, just let me know.”

“Couldn’t know that the Preds were looking to steal our cap,” Dee said.

“Sneaky bastards,” Foster agreed. They added one another as friends, and Luke logged out.

He came out of his suit, rubbing his eyes and yawning, headed to his bed.

“We’ll reach Odessa station in three days,” his mother said. She was stitching up some clothes at the kitchen table.

Luke bobbed his head and waved. “Night, Mom.”

He lay down in his bed, tapping the emergency release cover.

If they built a factory of their own, then he, Fin, and Jynx could turn their raw materials into ingots, components and even build them into useful gear like a shuttle, or bots. With each jump up the production ladder the product would increase in value.

Luke turned on his side, looking at the shutters. With that and his earnings from fighting he could pay a month’s rent. But he only had three days.

He groaned, the next month he would have to go through the same thing, betting that he could make the credits he needed again.

All or nothing, boy, never halfway, he could hear his father saying, just as he had when he’d taught them how to tear apart every system on the freighter and rebuild it.

If we hadn’t gone and done those other fights after the first, I would have enough. “If we could win another battle… If we’d won this one… Fucking Preds. I need something with a bigger payout, something to secure a few months of rent, a buffer.” If he was going to get another month’s freedom, he needed a win. He needed to fight for it.

Chapter eleven

Chapter: 11

12, March 2242

Tao Walker appeared in the richly appointed office of dark glass and white architectural lines. Behind the desk was a floor-to-ceiling window, tinted against the reds, whites, and brown bands of the Jupiter-like planet beyond. It was like looking at the layers of sediment. But as weather patterns, they moved lazily, blending into one another, or remaining steadfast and pure.

The Nordic features of the woman behind the desk matched the sharp lines and hard surfaces.

Tao took a seat in front of her. “Miss Waris.”

“Mister Walker. How are the Star Kings?” She raised an eyebrow.

“The guild is well. Profits have increased by ten percent this quarter and we are hoping to increase that in the coming months. Everyone is excited about the expected fight with the Iron Cross fleets.”

They shared a smile that held no warmth.

“Good. Then, when you reveal that alliance, it should spike the numbers in your favor and increase profits. It won’t hurt with the Dasarian Conglomerate.” She paused, folding her hands. “I wanted to talk about something else.”

Waris was chief liaison of the Merlouc Corporation with all gaming ventures. She wasn’t his boss; she was the person who hired or fired his boss’s boss.

She leaned forward. ”Sphere World.”

Tao nodded. The game had gained greater interest in other parties and the guilds, smelling the credits and sponsorships, were testing the waters.

“I want you to break it.”

Tao raised an eyebrow.

“Merlouc Corporation owned a majority share of Orion’s Belt Enterprises.”

Oh, Tao remembered. It was how Star Kings Guild got to their current position, with additions and extras being funneled into the small-time guild to raise it into one of the biggest guilds in Orion’s Belt. They used their success there as a launchpad into a dozen other games.

“The old co-owners bought back their shares, even as the company was being shorted heavily, and now they have nearly seventy percent and the stock is on the rise. The matter is with legal.” She waved her hand. “But I prefer a more stable approach. Have your people crunched the numbers on the game for viability?”

“We have. The biggest variable is if the game will continue to function or not.” Tao crossed his legs and clasped his hands.

“The game will continue to function once we take control of it back from OBE.”

“Then I think it will be a highly profitable game. It has the groundwork for expansion. There is only fighting on one planet so far, and the competition is fierce. A great many people are watching the game instead of playing it because of the financial barriers. Those who are playing are more serious in their nature. With the ease of converting in-game currency into credits and vice versa, I think that it would be a viable game for the guild to invest their time into.”

“Very well. Deploy the Star Kings Guild to Sphere World. I want it as your highest priority. With the credit system, it adds in the interesting possibility to bring down the other guilds and reduce their stock price much faster than just speculation. How can you make the most credits from the game?”

“If we take a node, increase the number of materials gathered, then process them and sell them.”

“Is there a limit to how many you can sell to Sphere World itself?”

“Not that I have seen,” Tao said.

“Good. You will mine and sell everything, but you need to keep capturing these nodes. That should dry out the Sphere World accounts. Then, once I have them back under control, we will return the resources in the shape of in-game items, say, a few warships?”

Waris’s smile reminded Tao of the deadly lines of a warship’s rail canons, pointed right at him. It was a squeeze: hit the enemy in the wallet through external means, get them to cough up concessions somewhere else.

“Understood, Miss Waris. I’ll have my people enact our deployment plans immediately.”

“Thank you, Mister Walker. That is all.” She looked at her screens. “This meeting never happened, Tao,” she said as he stood.

“What meeting? I think I was doing an inventory of guild assets.” He smiled.

Her eyes slid over to him with approval and then back to her screens.

Tao left the room and exited his net-suit.

His vision cleared as his suit set down and opened. He walked out, wearing only his sleeve. His window looked out of the tower owned by the Star Kings Guild.

He tapped out a message on his computer, then sat at his chair and turned to face the window.

Moments later, his window darkened as people popped in, the upper ranks of the guild. When the guild leader called, you made time.

Some showed they were in bots or on bridges of different warships, playing various games.

“We are going to be deploying to Sphere World en masse. I want those nodes under our control, and I want them now. I want the procurement and crafting arm ready to deal with the mining of materials and building into gear.”

A thin man coughed.

“Liam?” Tao said.

“Sir, Minnie… She ended her contract with us.”

“She is just one engineering crafter. That isn’t too big of a loss.” Damn, they were a package deal. Whatever the alliance with the Iron Cross had been bought with the death of the Iron Admiral, it was worth an admiral and an engineer.

“Sir, she took all the people who came with her. We lost about twenty percent of our staff for Fleet Commander. Taking more to seed a new game will spread us thin.”

Tao fell quiet and Liam began to sweat.

“Find me replacements. Have the damn grindies work the drills if you need them to. General Tate.” Tao fixed a woman in a fighting suit with a look.

She had a tattoo around her eye, turning it into an Egyptian all-seeing eye. Her makeup was all done, ready for an interview at any time as much as she was ready to drop on an enemy planet for sweet, sweet credits. She was mercenary, bloodthirsty, and in public, a social conductor.

“Get your people ready to move sooner rather than later. The other guilds are moving in, and I want to make sure they don’t take all the real estate.”

“Sir.”

Chapter twelve

Chapter: 12

13, March 2242

Mitch had transformed the area around Miner Base One, which he had shortened to MB1 for ease of communication.

Luke liked him. He was a straight shooter and gave it to you straight. It might make him sound cold, but he never yelled. He never meant to be mean; he was just saying what he needed to say, in as few words as possible and getting what he wanted to do done.

They had gone from ten bots around the clock to twenty. The company was welcome, as were the two new mining ships.

“Hit the release,” Fin said.

Luke ejected the storage container from Mining Ship One. Fin was container surfing again. The other workers had picked up on it as well, making it normal to see someone mag-clamped to a container.

Fin pulled the container off and brought it down to Jynx, waiting in the crater they’d dug into one of the larger asteroids circling the planetoid.

“Okay, we’re good.” Jynx said.

Fin disconnected as she opened the doors to the storage container. Luke hit his chair release and swung around and up. He jumped free of his chair in the low-G and floated for the single person airlock. He threw himself up and out.

He came over the ship, jetting over to the storage container.

“Packing the command post into the container and loading it into the driller. Smart,” Jynx said.

“Just means that we can use one driller to mine out the hole and haul the command post instead of a driller and get a shuttle to bring the command post.” Luke said. “Just another way to use a storage container.”

Jynx pulled the roof off the storage container with Fin’s help, revealing the flat-packed command post packed inside.

“Faster than having a shuttle carry it out, and once we’ve got this out, we can fill up the container and head back to the main base,” Luke said, pulling out parts.

“I wouldn’t have thought of it,” Fin said.

“Me either,” Jynx said. “Come on, let’s get this thing built. Luke, you do the flooring. I’ll do the consoles. Fin, you got the roof.”

Luke pulled out the floor panels, connecting a few, then running a repair tool over the seams. Flooring plates were first, then adding Jynx’s consoles.

They fused the wall panels to the floor and then Fin’s roof, complete with antennas.

“One command post,” Jynx said as they finished lowering it into their crater. The command post fired grounding pins into the asteroid, holding it in place.

“Give us sensors over the area and we can use it to make another base,” Fin said.

“Come on, let’s get that container stored and back to mining. Got some credits to make!” Luke bounded up to the miner, touching the surface to push himself higher. Jets corrected him and directed him toward the airlock.

He made it to his seat as Fin disconnected from the container, having re-inserted it into the mining ship.

Jynx’s seat dropped down into her cupola.

“I’m in!” Fin said.

“Closing airlock.” Luke hit the commands and brought the reactor to life.

Fin dropped down into his cupola.

Luke checked the maps. A push of the thrusters gave them distance, retracting the landing gear.

“Okay, more excavation checks. Just need the top layer.” Luke used thrusters to re-orient them before powering away in the direction he wanted to go.

“Got it, cap’n!” Fin said jovially.

“Slowing down to mining speed.” Luke adjusted altitude and slowed the craft.

Jynx and Fin moved their mining drills.

Luke lowered them down and cut off his thrusters. They glided forward, guiding the twin drill bits into the asteroid. Their path took them on an angle around the asteroid, shaving it away as they traveled along its length.

Refined materials filled the containers as they continued along their path.

“Okay, looks like we’re full. Cut your drilling.” Their drills stopped and retracted.

Luke pushed back from the asteroid, calling Mitch.

“Hello?”

“Command post is active. Asteroid has a lot of class-two materials. Heading back to base,” Luke said.

“Copy.” Mitch cut the channel.

“That’s a lot of mining,” Fin said.

Luke glanced at the exterior cameras showing the path they’d carved into the asteroid. “Going to take a few more runs to know what’s hidden here. Just exploring as much as we can.”

“Won’t be long till Mitch slaps a miner on the best parts. It’s like a forest at the main base,” Jynx said.

“In all the feeds of the different guilds, I haven’t seen one with a bigger mining and refining operation,” Fin said.

Luke sighed. “Wish they’d screw off to the sim.”

“Sim ain’t the same thing, is it, though?” Jynx said. “Sure, you get a winner and loser, but you don’t get anything for winning or losing.”

“Saves you a few credits?” Fin said. “But yeah, having those credits on the line makes it real and higher stakes.”

“But the guilds have claimed every damn node. How the hell do we deal with that?” Luke sighed, checking his flight path.

“It was going to happen, eventually. As soon as the Star Kings showed up and took three bases in an hour, the others all wanted a part of it,” Jynx said.

“It’s going to kill off all the other players playing, though. How many free nodes are left?”

“Eighteen, I think,” Fin muttered. “Seventeen… Might have lost another. They changed the whole game.”

“Yeah, it went from attacking the nodes back and forth, to the players holding onto the cities we’ve got and fighting off the guilds. Don’t think there’s even one free player attacking anymore,” Luke said.

“How long till you reach Odessa?” Jynx asked.

“Two days.” Luke wasn’t bitter; he was resigned. The conversation died off and Luke slumped in his chair.

“They should have used drills. Could have just tunneled through the ridge in cover and then popped out at the rear of the node,” Luke mumbled.

“What are you talking about, Luke?” Jynx asked.

“At Razor Crest. Take a mining ship, or a bot miner and a factory, and drill right on through.”

Luke frowned. Something clicked in the back of his head. He looked at the note showing the materials he’d accrued. He’d held off selling them. If he wasn’t going to make his rent payment, what was the point?

His eyes widened as he snapped his fingers, his thoughts coming together. The storage crate was full of materials… Having to take the base fast enough so defenders didn’t show up. Not having a spawn on the ground. The guilds taking over nodes and having guild battles on Valhalla. Mitch talking about them being poor miners. How the Predators and other guilds had turned to mining and crafting as soon as they took over the bases.

“Who would be crazy enough to attack another guild but a guild?” Luke sat back in his seat.

“Well, the Gremlins. Why?” Fin said.

Luke snapped his fingers again. “And have they attacked any?”

“No, too costly. Only the guilds are fighting one another. Broke up the planet into sections. Gremlins, like the rest of the clans, are just defenders,” Jynx said.

“How many bots could we make if we converted all of our materials into bots?”

“Something like sixty bots with gear if we pool what we’ve got. Why?” Fin said. “We don’t have a factory or a shuttle to send them to SW. We wouldn’t get much on them. Best we save up the materials till we can pay for the factory and delivery, then send back complete items.”

“What’s bigger, ingots or bots?” Luke grinned, his idea cementing in his mind.

“Wha—Bots are, but they make more money.”

“I think we need to call Dee.”

“Why?” Jynx asked.

“′Cause I think I have an idea on how we’re going to take a guild node with three people.” If I can pull this off, then it’s got to be a short jump to joining a guild.

They got back to the mining base, and Luke called up Dee.

“What’s up?” Dee said, entering the chat, sounding distracted.

“I have a plan. Wanted to run it by you,” Luke asked.

“Okay, give me a sec. Just playing with a fighter.” Dee went silent for several seconds. “Sorry. The guilds keep bringing in dropships to attack the CP after Razor Crest. What’s the plan?”

“Buy a factory, refine our stored materials into ingots or components, whatever is smallest, get it down to Valhalla, dig into the ice and stone, bury the factory and the storage container down there, create tunnels underground, build bots, then launch an attack right into the teeth of a node.” If we can take out a node, specifically their command post, then sell everything to Sphere World. I’ll have my rent payment.

“That’s risky. You could lose the factory and the storage container to a cave-in,” Dee said.

“I’m pretty good with a scanner, and we can ask Mitch for help. That dude has x-ray vision,” Fin said.

“You’ll have to stay out of capture area, or you’ll trigger an attack status on the command post,” Dee continued.

“We come in outside and build outside. We’ll create several points, isolated, to attack from,” Luke said.

“That’s a lot of digging.”

“We’ve gotten pretty good at it,” Jynx said.

“I can probably swing a full shift.” It’s going to cost me, though. Thankfully, Luke had been holding a particular collectible item for a favor.

“Okay. Well, I’ll fly you for free and bring you your factory if you hit the Star Kings,” Dee said.

“They’re one of the biggest guilds. And they’ve got like twenty nodes on Valhalla already,” Jynx said.

“I can get you a map for one of their bases, number of bots that are inside. I also know that they’re shipping out what they mine on a rota. You hit them before they ship out their gear, you’ll get all of it to sell.”

They were all quiet. Luke had known Dee had the skills; she’d known Foster’s contact information and pulled together the flight crews for the Razor Crest attack.

She had to have a history with the guilds to have these kinds of connections and information.

Pressing would have been rude, and Luke needed all the help they could get.

“Okay. I just have one condition.” Luke licked his lips.

“What?” Dee asked.

“We need that information by tomorrow, and to carry out the attack within two days.”

“Why the rush?”

“After that, I won’t be able to play games,” Luke said.

Jynx looked at him. “Your parents aren’t…”

“Yeah, they will for at least a couple of months.” Luke shrugged.

“I foresee a forty-eight-hour stomach bug in my future,” Fin said.

“Looks like I should get some more energy drinks,” Jynx said.

Luke cleared his throat, unsure of what to say. He settled for, “Thank you.”

Chapter thirteen

Chapter: 13

13, March 2242

Things moved quickly from when Luke stated his plan. The next day, Dana turned over plans to them for Star Kings’ Node Seven. Yeah, they had numbered the nodes they’d taken. Probably easier for the accountants.

The base was set up on a plateau. Some ravines broke up the landscape, but anything that came across the plains would be easy to spot and take out with their remote weaponry.

“It’s perfect for tunneling. I can drop you here. You use the ravines to move up several kilometers to here. Then you can tunnel to other ravines and advance that way,” Dee said, pointing at markers on the map.

They were all inside Mining Base One’s command post, with Mitch working on an array of terminals around him and glancing at the map. “You would be best going these routes. The ice is stronger, and they are less likely to sheer.” He went back to his terminals. A fresh line of advance through the ice appeared, splitting into four different starting points.

Luke nodded. Where it came to mining, Mitch’s word was law.

“Okay, that is less to mine out, and the elevations will bring us closer to the surface,” Fin muttered, making notes.

Dee zoomed in on the base.

Mitch made that clicking noise he did when he saw mistakes or people using gear in the wrong manner.

“Problems?”

“Miners are all out of place. The factories don’t have clear lines. Too much clutter will decrease efficiencies, and using the bots to mine instead of automated? Waste of manpower.”

“Hopefully, we can rectify that once we move in.” Luke smiled.

Mitch made an approving noise and went back to his terminals.

“They’ve got around sixty people inside the walls. All of them are miners or crafters. They’re making bots in there, so numbers are a little sketchy,” Dee said. “They have four areas. At the center, we have a command post. Around it are factories and miners, the second area. Storage containers make up the third area. The fourth area is where they have all their turrets and walls. Two machine gun turrets to one anti-air are placed along the wall.

“The closest you can get is two hundred meters from the command post or you’ll trip it. The base is a hundred meters wide, so one hundred meters to the wall. What’s your plan?” Dee looked at Luke.

He exhaled. “Bot-bombs. Fin rigs us up three bots with bot-bombs. We use those to smash open the wall. Jynx goes for the turrets, takes out the other defensive turrets. Fin and I rush the command post, bring explosives, blow ourselves as far as we get into the base and keep them focused on the attack while you and your fighters drop down to give them a hello. Split their attention and we keep rushing them.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Dee nodded. “Not the best one I’ve heard, but it’s workable and just nuts enough to work. How did you come up with it?”

“Well, it’s a game, and we keep saying how you can do nearly anything in it, and everything affects everything. When Fin said that you could use a drill on Valhalla, it all kind of clicked. I think I was thinking that mining gear could only be used for mining and wasn’t useful for fighting.”

“Well, I didn’t either. This might shake some things up,” Dee said.

“What about Foster and the Gremlins?” Jynx asked. “If there are just three of us, we can raise a lot of hell, but having some more guns down there might be useful.”

“Dee?” Luke asked.

“Foster is the reliable sort, but it’s your plan. You decide, Tavares.”

Luke realized that they’d never traded real names, only gamertags.

“Umm…” He was about to say he didn’t have the contact information for the clan leader when he remembered adding him as a friend after Razor Crest. Four minutes later, with Mitch grumbling about people using bots for uses other than mining, Foster jumped into a bot and walked up to the group.

“I hear you want to break something?” He cracked his knuckles, looking at them all. “Also, what the hell is this place?” He looked through the windows at the mass of miners and factories that were running.

“Secret club,” Dee said. “You want to take out a Star Kings Node?”

“Ask me to dinner before you give me dessert!” It was hard not to grin at the man’s antics. He walked up to the hologram of the plan. “So, what you cooking up for the old Star jackasses?”

Luke repeated the details.

“Well, that’s one hell of a plan. Could have used those drills on a few operations.” Foster held his chin. “You three ever want to run with the Gremlins, just let me know. I can think of some crazy kids who would like to jump in on this. Say, twenty-seven.”

“We have more bots,” Luke pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s only one life. If we’ve each got three lives, with ninety bots, a few spare. Then we can jump back in and get right into the fight without having to communicate with a ton of people. We want this to be a lightning raid, not a slow advance.”

Luke could see the value in that.

“We don’t have those resources,” Luke said.

“MinerKing, you selling ingots?” Foster asked.

“What kind are you looking for and in what volume?” Mitch was scarily alert in a second; it was like when Foster was looking over plans or commanding people.

“Enough for forty bots, plus weapons?”

“Certainly. Market prices?”

“That would be nice.”

“Very well. I will be happy to pay for the shuttle to pick up the materials from Sphere World and transport them to Valhalla. There might be some extra room in the hold for a factory and the remaining supplies.” Mitch looked at Dee and then Luke.

“Thank you, Mitch.”

“Thank you for bringing me the business, Luke. Mister Foster, let me know if you are in need of other supplies in the future. I hope to have more than ingots and components for sale soon.”

“That sounds good to me! Gremlins are always looking for gear!” Foster turned back to the plan. “It looks good to me. We just have to make sure that we get into the CP as fast as possible and take it before they can convert all their miners over to fighters. Especially if we don’t know the number of bots that are active. Gremlins will help out, if you want.”

“Breakdown for loot?” Dee asked.

“The lad came up with the plan. We’ll pay one point five of the market price for forty-one bots and their gear. If we take the node, then we’ll see?” Foster said.

Dee looked at Luke.

“Uh, yeah, sure, that works.” He did some quick math: all geared at one point five times the price, that raised it to sixty credits per bot. Still five hundred creds short for rent.

“Well then, we should get things moving,” Dee said.

Foster went to grab his twenty-six Gremlins, Fin to fake a sick note, Dee to grab a shuttle with funds for a factory from Luke and his friends. Jynx went to stock up on energy drinks, and Luke to make a trade years in the making.

Chapter fourteen

Chapter: 14

14, March 2242

Dana stretched as she stepped out of her suit. She grabbed a warm towel and wiped off her face. She looked up at the spiraling chandelier. “So much for vacation.” She laughed and shook her head. She was having more fun than she’d had in years.

Things with Mitch might be problematic if the guilds were moving in. If they had their way, they’d control everything in the system.

Dana wandered through her apartment, head cocked to the side, running through simulations. She reached the fridge and pulled out a shake. They were going to need a real warship, sooner rather than later.

“System, how many mining claims are there in Sphere World that are not controlled by a guild?”

“One thousand four hundred and seventy-three.”

“At least there are some.” But not many, considering the overall size of the game. Some were probably hidden from the claims, like Mitch’s. “We need them to fight back, too. If we can take the node on Valhalla, it’ll give us another place to fight from, but it’ll also show that free players can beat the guilds.” She took a sip from the shake. “Call Minnie.”

There was a ringing noise as Dana leaned back on her counter, drinking her shake. Dana called seven times before Minnie picked up.

“What is it?” Minnie murmured into the pickup.

“Sorry. Were you sleeping?” Dana checked the time. It was the middle of the day where Minnie lived.

“Napping. What you want, Steely-stripes?”

“Thank you for the information on the nodes in Sphere World.”

“Natta pro’lem.” Minnie smacked her lips. “Leaving them Star assholes felt good. Dunno why we stuck with them for so long.”

Dana smiled. Minnie had been with her for years.

“Don’t get all touchy feely. Hard to find an admiral who ‘preciates my skills, and wins battles, and don’t go busting up my ships over nuthin’.”

“Thank you, Minnie.”

“What’s a favor between friends? And I think that you deserve some payback for the shit they pulled. Oh yeah, watch out—yer agent is looking for you. Well…” Minnie’s famous anger boiled over. Dana could imagine her stomping out in a circle as she did in her anger. “She’s pushing all the pros she’s got on contract, but keeps making noises about how it’s sad you’re slipping. I think she’s trying to bury you.”

“Why would she?”

“She’s jealous, Dee Dee.” Only Dana’s closest friends called her that; few even knew her name was Dana rather than Iron Admiral. “She signed you up, and you soared better than she thought. She used that to bring in more talent. You kept growing, and others were trying to take your contract from her. You stayed with her, and that was fine, but somewhere along the line, she thought that you weren’t leaving because she was so good instead of the fact that you’re loyal. She’s biting the hand now, Dana. You just watch out.”

Dana opened her mouth and closed it. She had been with Jacqueline since the beginning, for five years, since she was just eighteen. While Jacqueline was off doing her deals, Dana dealt with Minnie every day. “I will. Thank you, Minnie.”

“I’m going to work on my tan. Have fun kicking Star Kings’ asses and let me know if you need capital ships!” Minnie closed the channel before Dana could say anything.

“Maybe soon.” She sat and flipped through channels. Her loss against the Iron Cross was old news now, a border skirmish. Both sides seemed to be gearing up for an all-out war now.

To Dana’s eye, their positioning of forces wasn’t in preparation for an attack on the other.

She was pulled from her thoughts with a call.

“Jacqueline?” she answered.

“Hey, Dana, been trying to catch you, but I know how dedicated you are to your training. Anyway, I put out some feelers to the Rashis Guild.”

Dana winced. They were a guild, but barely so. Most of the time, they were in the headlines for their members getting caught doing drugs or in some kind of scandal. They were a wild bunch and not in a good way.

“They’re looking for a new admiral in Fleet Commander. They’re looking for a pay decrease, an avatar remodel, and airtime with you on the networks.”

“Jacqueline—” Dana started.

“Look, Dana, I know I put a brave face on it, but the way things are and you losing that last battle… Well, there aren’t that many people who are interested in signing you right now, honey. I’m doing my best, but you have to work with me here, okay? I’m putting my neck out on the line for this one.”

“Do you have the avatar changes?” Dana asked.

“Sure. They also want to have you do a three-dimension scan.”

“What about rights?”

“Oh, I’ll have to check with them.”

Should be the first thing she knows. Three-dimension scans scanned everything. If you sold the rights, then someone could walk around in a net version of you and do whatever they wanted.

Dana clenched her hands, tensing her jaw. It’s just like with my parents. There was no way she would agree to anything before reading through the contract. Nausea bubbled in her gut as angry heat rose in her chest. “Let me know when they send it over.”

“They want to know by tonight. I need a decision right now. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure when we’re going to get another opportunity like this. I’m having a hell of a time spinning how you lost a fleet,” Jacqueline pleaded, trying to sound pitiful.

I’m the one doing the job. You’re just setting it up!

Minnie had been telling it to her straight: Jacqueline knew what her mission was and how she’d been betrayed. Instead, she was pasting it onto Dana, pressuring her into a decision she didn’t agree with.

Dana pinched her brow. Her first thought was Luke, his determination. He’d been nervous to share his plan, but once he was on a roll, it disappeared; he was driven to make it work.

Didn’t you put a bet on Mitch, too?

Betting on Sphere World didn’t seem like such a horrible bet. Sure, they were off to a rough start—the guilds were coming in from everywhere—but there were more free players coming in every day. The guilds might be organized and powerful in their own right, but compared to the tide of free players, they were a drop in the bucket.

How much will taking Node Seven be worth? She had been looking at it as a mission, but she’d never really taken that into consideration. She had made good money as a dropship pilot—not as much as an admiral, but good, livable.

“Dana, I know it is hard, but going to need that decision now, dear.”

Jacqueline’s motherly voice grated on her nerves.

“Sorry. I have another training session coming up. I don’t think I can take that offer right now.” Dana cut her off before she said more.

She pushed off the counter, finishing off her shake, and headed toward her suit. Luke wasn’t the only one betting on this mission, and she had a shuttle to fly.

Luke held out the bobblehead: an electric blue and gold grinning monkey wearing shades and a ridiculous smile, holding a six-shooter in one hand and a peeled banana in the other.

Dana had arrived at the mining base already; she’d dropped off a medium factory for the base and had picked up the container filled with ingots.

Now the shuttle was burning for Valhalla, holding their hopes in its hold.

“Agreed?” Luke asked, pulling it back.

“All right, I’ll cover your shift tomorrow to Odessa station, for Nero’s Monkey,” Joey agreed.

“All right.” Luke passed it over.

“It is mine!” Joey declared, holding it high and laughing. His voice softened, lowering the monkey. “You sure about this?”

“It’s the last day I get to game. I gotta make the most of it. Got a lot to do.” Luke patted him on the shoulder. Joey looked as if he wanted to say something, but Luke gave him a tight smile and headed for the suit room. He had tunnels to drill and a node to capture.

He entered the net. It was going to be a long two days. He jumped right into his bot, standing in the shuttle’s bathroom.

He opened the shutter.

“Well, you clean now?” Fin asked.

“Ha-ha.” Luke closed the door.

“Not like any of us are going to use it,” Jynx said.

“Well, you know, adds to the realism, right?” Luke grabbed onto handles, moving up to the cockpit. Dee sat in the pilot seat, Fin and Jynx in the secondary seats. Leaving Luke holding onto grab bars.

There were two beds and a kitchenette, just like on the mining ship. A ladder led down to the engineering areas. Behind all of that was the cargo bay, big enough to hold three standard containers.

Thruster/burner engines made them atmosphere and space capable.

“Breaking atmosphere in two minutes,” Dee said.

“We sure about this?” Luke asked. “No escorts or anything, not even a gun on our hull or a strongly worded motto.”

“Don’t fucking shoot me! Please,” Fin said.

“We look like every other Sphere World shuttle: boring and unremarkable. Just going to pick up another load of supplies, aren’t we?” Dana said as they slipped into atmosphere.

It was too late to argue now.

“I thought about using the shuttle to hit the node, but if we get within scanning range, they’ll ping the ship as an enemy and we’ll be anti-air target practice.”

They fell quiet.

Dee was following a flight plan used by shuttles across the planet. As she flew across the plains, she dropped altitude faster than the automated shuttle and deviated off her track. She moved between ice protrusions, using them as cover as she edged forward, out of sight and away from camp’s sensors.

Luke held his breath as she maneuvered the multi-ton freighter through the ice maze like it was a Hellcat.

She brought them down into the ravine they’d be moving from and lowered the ramp.

“Okay, so there is one little problem. I can’t set down for you to unload. So…” She backed the shuttle up at an angle.

“What?” Luke yelled, tightening his grip on the bars with a spare hand as the containers and factory rolled out of the cargo bay.

With a deft use of throttle, shifting her engines and correcting from the wind coming back from the ice ravine walls, she pushed forward, laying out her load on the ravine before righting herself.

“There we go. Didn’t want to freak you out beforehand,” Dee said, as if it were normal.

“We’ll get started on the drilling and bots,” Luke said into the silence.

“See you in two days,” Dee said.

They jumped from the shuttle. Dana took off, taking a route through the ice maze. Then she’d follow another route back up to Sphere World.

Luke looked at their gear and the sheer walls of the ravine. The whistling wind of Valhalla cut across the opening above.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” Fin said.

“Yeah.” Luke extended his drill, moved toward the first marker, and began drilling. Jynx and Fin checked the factory and fed it ingots to create the necessary components to make bots and their gear. “I feel like a coal shoveler of old.”

Luke woke up, bleary-eyed. He had mined all of yesterday and into the night.

He hit his alarm, getting dressed and grabbing clean clothes. He took a quick shower, the only time he didn’t wear boots or protective gear. He was tempted to jump into the cuddle closet to dry off quicker. An absorbent material filled the closet, with direct air that was meant to wick moisture off you as fast as possible in case you had a shower and were caught in zero-g. You could drown in space, and just like everything else in space, it would kill you quicker than if you were on the ground.

He toweled off, dressed, and went to grab some quick breakfast. His appetite waned upon seeing his father in the alcove on his screen.

“Up late last night with your friends?” Stephen’s light words made Luke’s stomach drop. He could feel the judgement and accusation hidden within.

“Yeah.” Luke hunched his shoulders, moving to the storage crates that held their vacuum-sealed and dehydrated food.

“Must’ve been mighty important, that interview the other day,” Stephen pressed.

Luke bristled at his tone. “I got the job. It’s pretty simple, though.” He pulled open a container and grabbed a nutrition bar, boring, but it would fill him up and get him out of the kitchen/dining hall quickly.

“What is it?” Stephen put down his spork, giving Luke his full attention.

“Blueberry and yogurt granola.”

“Not the bar, the job.”

“Oh, it’s mining.”

“Mining?” Stephen raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. “Gold mining?”

Luke paused, frowning at his dad.

“I might not game all that much, Luke, but I do read. Gold mining is all about working to earn a ton of in-game currency, then selling it off to others for credits.” Stephen grinned, taking a sip from his bottle.

Luke let out a dry laugh, rubbing the back of his head as his shoulder blades loosened. He was mining, but for in-game materials and the credit margins were much higher. “Well, I guess it is? Though better? And I don’t have a slave contract. I have a basic wage, but more than that, I get paid for a part of what I mine. If I get some good materials, I can make good credits. Fin has been talking about building our own factory run and turning the materials into ingots and components, maybe even bots and weapons. Each time, the profit margins increase.”

“Do you have a base wage?”

“Yeah, here’s the contract.” Luke pulled out his screen and sent it to his dad.

He pulled it up on his screen, reading through it.

The tightness in Luke’s chest loosened and his smile widened as he hooked up a coffee bottle to the coffee maker, filling the bottle and removing it. He undid the storage crate and headed over to the table, sitting across from his dad.

“This is a rather clean contract. Very simple.” Stephen nodded.

Luke drank from his coffee and ate his bar.

“Huh, these material prices, and ah, yeah, I can see what you mean about the factory run and turning them into ingots or build them up.”

“Yeah, we’re thinking of turning them into bots. Sphere World produces a lot, but others might buy from us, and if not, we can sell them to Sphere World. We’re hoping to scale it up with time and produce more things.”

“Make sure that you save some of it. Don’t throw it all into your projects and getting bigger gives you runway in case something happens.” Stephen’s eyes pressed on Luke.

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense.”

Stephen smiled. “Well done.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Luke grinned, looking down and drinking his coffee. They ate in silence for a few minutes. “You aren’t angry?”

Stephen frowned. “No, why would I be?”

“Because it’s in a game and I’m not working on the freighter.” Luke’s voice was small.

“Are you okay with doing the bridge watches?”

“Yeah, course. Why?”

“Well, that’s good, because if you weren’t, then we would need to hire on someone else to take on the position. We’ll pay you for your time, of course and pay you any back pay for your time after high school.”

Luke nodded. “I thought you would be mad.”

“No, we just wanted you to find the path you wanted to walk on, get you to focus on your future.” Stephen sighed and sat back. “We weren’t trying to be mean. Why would I be angry? Do you enjoy working on this mining project?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Stephen shrugged. “As long as you enjoy it, and it pays well for your time, who am I to say you can’t do it?”

“Right now, I’m working on something with a clan. If we can pull it off, I might get the guild’s attention. Jynx has been making videos and editing them into a highlight reel and pushing them too.”

“She’s very talented. I’ve been watching.”

“You have?”

“Yeah, course.”

“Oh, well, yeah, she’s been pushing them to different places. We’ve got a lot of views. Though if we pull off this next thing, then yeah. I dunno. It could be huge.”

“And you sure you want to get into the guilds?”

“Well, yeah, that’s where all the professionals are. Thousands of members working together.”

“What about your group aren’t you working together?”

“Yeah, but like,” Luke shrugged. “Just being in a guild that would be so damn epic!” Luke checked his screen. “Crap, my shift starts in five. I gotta go!” Luke drank his coffee and shoved the breakfast bar in.

Stephen laughed as he butt shuffled out of the alcove.

“Have fun and see you later.”

“You too,” Luke got out through his full mouth, heading for the net room. He finished off his breakfast, shedding his coveralls and boots, and got into a waiting net suit.

He jumped into a bot waiting next to the factory.

“Morning,” Foster said, jumping into another bot.

“I thought you would only come when we are attacking the base.”

“Be a pretty big asshole to let you all do the work and show up for the fun. Be like them guildies.” Foster’s bot shivered as he laughed. “I was Federation military, a non-com. There was one rule—everyone did every job before they went up a rank. That way, you knew what the others were dealing with. We’d never make it to officers, ’cause in the Federation apparently officers are born, not trained.” His dry tone made it clear how much weight he put to that theory. “Best leaders of men I knew did the jobs, knew them back to front, so when he asked someone else to do them, he knew what he was asking them to do.”

Luke could agree with that, and it was nice to have some help.

“Let’s get to it,” Foster said, walking along the belt and through the tunnels.

“It’s getting long now,” Luke said.

“Last shift, we were monitoring how long. We should be able to finish on time with the rotating shifts.”

Four drilled passages with the other four gathering supplies and moving them forward, or shuttling back the compressed ice blocks—and sometimes stone—from the drillers, tossing them into the factory.

“Mitch also called in the night, altered the path. Hit a nice metal vein,” Foster said as they reached an opening in the ice above. Weapons and bots waited around the edge of the area.

“Well, we’ll put that to use soon enough. Catch you in a few?”

“Have fun drillin’.”

Darkness once again surrounded Luke as he headed down one of the four exit tunnels that snaked away from the mustering point towards the node.

A light shone off of the ice.

“Hey dude, I’m here to replace you.”

“Ah, nice man. Damn, that got long quick. Have a good one. I need a shower and some sleep!” The man withdrew his drill arm, slapping Luke on the shoulder.

“See you later,” Luke stepped up, extending his drill arm, started his music and continued drilling the ice.

Chapter fifteen

Chapter: 15

15, March 2242

Luke, Fin, Jynx, and the Gremlins finished digging out their exit tunnels. The people at the Star Kings’ Node Seven were none the wiser.

Under the cover of the tunnels, they shifted up the bots and gear. The last to be moved up were the bot-bombs riding their ATVs.

“Just look at ’em.” Fin sounded as if he were about to tear up.

“They look like old crash dummies with all that yellow on them,” Jynx said.

“Did you have to put a medium missile on the seat?” Luke asked.

“Hey, who else can say they rode a bomb into battle, huh?”

The quads were covered in grenades. All their pins were attached by a string looped around the arming pin on the front of the medium missile that hung off the back end of the quad, its nose right up against the steering column.

A satchel charge had been strapped to the rear of the quad. Their second bots had the detonators, so they could bot-jump and blow up their old selves.

“Just looking at it, I think that a timer is counting down.” Luke sighed.

The other tunnels had bots ready and waiting, already kitted up and armored. It just took one person and a repair tool to stick the armored plates on.

“Five minutes to go,” Foster said on general chat.

They’d banned local. At only two hundred meters from the outside wall, if they yelled too loud someone might hear them.

“Dee?” Luke switched to command.

“We’re launching.”

“Squad leaders?”

“Bravo good to go,” Foster said.

“Charlie good.”

“Delta ready.”

“Echo growing old.”

Each had between six and seven people. Luke and his friends were Alpha.

“Can I put forward a change to our squad name? I’m thinking Missile Riders or the Bombastic Duo, or Synergium’s Stars.”

“The heck is Synergium?” someone else asked.

“The ingot you need to make bombs.”

“How about the Bomb Diggity?” Jynx said.

And the crowd agreed.

“One minute.” Luke jumped into a bot loaded to bear. He powered up the quad. Its electric engine showed a near full charge. “You sure this ice is going to break, Fin?”

“It should.”

“Well, good thing Luke has the hardest head out of all of us.”

“Go!” Foster yelled.

Luke gunned the engine. The quad accelerated in seconds, kicking up ice crystals as he crashed into the wall of ice, and came out on the other side.

His wheels whirled, and he was airborne for several seconds. He swerved to miss rocks, pressing forward on the throttle as he weaved through the small debris on the plains.

“On you,” Jynx said.

Luke glanced back, forced to stand above the bomb between his legs.

They gunned it, spreading out across the wall.

Luke went over a lip of ice, landing and throwing up a tail of ice as he closed on the base wall.

“Good morning, Valhalla!” he yelled on local chat. He pulled the string, getting a necklace of pins that he threw behind him as he bot-jumped.

He squeezed the detonator and reached back to grab his rifle. He heard the explosion as the bot beside him shifted. Fin hit his detonator, followed by Jynx. Two explosions rolled across the ground. The ice covering the tunnel they were in shattered.

“Good morning, Valhalla!” Foster yelled, laughing. The rest of the Gremlins repeated it.

Luke threw the detonator away and ran up behind the Gremlins in the tunnel.

He came out to see the wall was largely gone. Luke pumped his arms and legs, racing after the Gremlins.

They ran through the hole in the wall.

“Bravo and Charlie heading for the turrets!” Foster yelled.

“Alpha pushing on,” Luke said.

They headed for the containers. A bot ran out, and Fin took them out with his shotgun. They went down in a spray of sparks as Alpha team entered the containers.

“Fin, take point,” Luke said.

“Yay, bullet magnet.”

“Jynx, get up high on the containers.”

“Going.” She jumped onto a container, her feet clanking on the metal. “I’m in a good spot. Go!”

Rounds tore through the air on their left flanks. Luke flashed his map.

“Delta engaged.”

“Echo pushing the flank.”

Luke flinched as the turrets behind them started to fire.

“Taking out the other turrets,” Foster said. “Watch out, Echo! They’re moving outside your containers. Keep pushing. We need to get this before they pull in their actual fighters.”

Tracers cut through the air above the base. Bravo and Charlie destroyed as many enemy turrets as possible that were left live. The other squads swarmed through the containers, entering area three and pushing toward area two, a myriad of miners and factories.

“Keep pushing!” Luke said on squad chat.

“Moving,” Fin said, leading with his shotgun.

Luke trailed behind Fin. A group of bots ran past the opening between containers. Fin fired on them, cutting down two of the three.

Rounds skipped across the opening as Luke and Fin ran up.

“Got the last two there, Alpha,” Echo leader reported.

Fin checked left and right. “Thanks, Echo.” He ran forward, crossing the ten meters of open ground between the containers to the factories.

Luke moved to the container alley entrance. Echo Squad entered the mining and factory area on his right. He could hear them fighting against someone.

A machine gun cut Fin down. “Shit, he got me. Spawning,” Fin said.

Luke returned fire at where the machine gun had been.

“My ping, Jynx!” Luke yelled, firing and pinging. “Lying in the recess of a miner.”

“Got it.” Jynx fired on the miner, and her rounds sparked off it.

“I’m going for it!” Luke scanned the open area again and ran, not straight across, but on a path to cover him from the machine gun.

Jynx paused her fire as he crossed her line of sight and returned as he slid to a stop next to a factory. Breathing hard, he raised his rifle and turned the corner. Nothing greeted him as he advanced.

“Hold your fire,” Luke said.

Jynx stopped firing as he reached the miner. He shot the bot, but they didn’t flinch, several holes in them already.

“You got them, Jynx. Move up to me,” Luke said.

“Breaking atmosphere and heading for you,” Dana said on the leadership chat.

“Understood,” Luke said.

“Nearly there,” Fin said as Luke watched Jynx’s marker moving up to him.

“Shit, they’re pulling together!” Delta Squad leader reported.

The command post was still some seventy meters away. “I’m going for it!” Luke yelled.

“I’ll cover you.” Jynx got up on a factory.

Luke vaulted over the miner with the dead bot, jumping clear of the hole the drills had made.

Jynx fired at any position she thought could hold an enemy bot.

Luke leapt for a factory. His feet dug into the side as he pulled himself up, running over it and jumping off, landing on the thirty meters of open ground between himself and the command post.

A bot moved by the nearest door.

Luke was punched backward by the shotgun. He fired at the shooter, who seemed to be trying to figure out how to use the shotgun again.

They dropped back in a spray of sparks.

Luke tore off a grenade and threw it the last twenty meters. It went off, blowing out windows. The capture bar grayed out a small sliver.

He got up and ran as fast as he could, pumping his arms for fear of other enemy bots that had to be converging.

There was just ten meters. Yes, come on, nearly there.

A bot stepped out of the doorway, firing, the impacts hitting Luke across his body.

[You died]

His friends needed him. Their money was all riding on this. He had come up with the plan and they were relying on him. He nearly had the fucking command post! Luke’s rage ran through his body.

“Fin, Jynx—blow my bot! Blow my bot!”

“I got it!” Jynx said.

“Nice. Got fifteen percent of the bar down now. The hell happened? Shit! Jynx, need you back here! They’re getting feisty!” Fin said.

“Spawning in!” Luke tapped on a waiting bot in the tunnels, his vision changing.

“I see them.” Jynx said.

“Nice. Think you got them. Should move. These are smarter,” Fin said.

“I’m running to you now!” Luke’s feet bit into the ice, checking his rifle as some Gremlins ran out of the other tunnels. I’m not the only one dying, then.

Tao reviewed the last of the information from Sphere World presented to him by his assistant, Chris.

“Fifty percent of all materials are processed into components and sold off to Sphere World. Twenty percent is turned over to bot production and weapon production. Remaining thirty percent to the automated miners and factories. We have low-level guild members with bot mining equipment hunting down the rarest materials in the nodes to increase the amount of money we can make as fast as possible.”

“Good.” Tao flipped through the numbered reports. His screen flashed with an alert, making him frown. He pulled it up—an emergency message from their Node Seven.

“What is it, Administrator Zhoung?” Tao asked, placid as a frozen lake. His patience was an ice-thin veneer.

“We’re under attack! Dozens of attackers. They — Dammit! They’re bombing us. They—They hit the tunnels. We need help!”

Tao pulled up a map of the Node Seven. He ended the call with the man and called General Tate. “Node Seven in SW is under attack. Take over the mining bots there to rally a defense. Coordinate with our air assets from the other bases to support and turn back this attack.”

“Yes, Guild Leader. We will send the QRF.”

“Good.”

Tao cut the channel and looked at his screens. In the suit rooms, alarms went off as people who had been sleeping or resting between shifts ran in, pulling their sleeves on as they jumped into their suits. Raising up into the air, they took over fighters, dropships, and the armed and armored bots in their holds.

Zhoung called again. “They attacked the command post. We’ve lost fifteen percent of its health.”

“Keep me updated and transfer all of your bots to the incoming QRF.” At least they’ll know how to hold the node, and buy time for the reinforcements.

Dana’s Hellcat bucked with the severe angle of entry. She adjusted her controls, switching from thrusters to burners. “Estimated time of arrival: three minutes.”

She checked her maps, scanning over her formation of twenty Hellcats in five flights of four Hellcats. Ayambe was off her right wing, Crow and Sphynx off her left.

“Launch, launch, launch! Quick reaction force coming in from Camp Five,” Ayambe announced.

“Numbers!”

“I have—shit. They were keeping some things hidden. Ten Turtles, five Hellcats in the air, and another twenty moving out of their caves.”

Dana scanned Star Kings’ Node Five. It was in the side of a mountain, with caves that hid the majority of the node’s facilities, and they were spitting out ships.

“Well, at least we know what we’re fighting.” Dana switched to the leadership channel. “All right, we have a QRF coming from Node Five in force. We’re going to increase our glide. Split up into your wings, and we’ll drop right in on them. Hit them hard and fast. Target the dropships first. Ten dropships are warmed up and thirty Hellcats, but there may be more. They’re pushing into the air and moving fast.”

“Shit. Okay, I know the Howlers—They’re nearby. I can put in a call,” Foster said.

The line went quiet.

“Sure…” Luke trailed off. The Howlers were another legendary clan on the same level as the Gremlins, but they preferred ships to fighting on the ground. Just hearing Foster talk about them so casually took Luke aback.

“Copy,” Foster said.

“Heading in. We’ll keep them entertained for as long as possible.” Dana flicked back to her fighter’s channel. “All right, lead in with your machine guns. Rake the Turtles and chase them with missiles. We need to buy our people on the ground the time they need to grab that command post.”

“Hell, yeah, boss,” Wing Leader Three said.

“Time to dance,” Wing Leader Four said.

Dana looked through her sensors. The enemy ships were spread out in formation, burning hard across Valhalla toward Node Seven. She could see them through the cloud cover underneath her.

She stretched her hands and laid them down on the controls. “Good hunting.” She adjusted her flight path, tilting her nose down, and accelerated. Her speed pushed her back in her chair as she turned into a burner-accelerated dart. The sun was at her rear as she and her fighters dropped like wraiths.

She checked on Node Seven, seeing weapons’ fire cutting between the different areas.

“We got spotted,” Dana said as the ships started to react, and the dropship turrets rotated to aim skyward. “Weapons hot!”

The Hellcat shook as she laid down a line of fire across the top of a dropship.

Streams of tracers tore free from around her, raining down on the dropships, leaving lines across their armored hulls. Someone hit something critical, and a dropship exploded. Its burning hulk tumbled toward the ground, burning a watery trail across the ground.

The dropships swerved, their engines howling as they sucked in atmosphere and avoided the attackers.

Dana weaved, seeking a lock on the dropships. She got it and fired a missile.

The dropship’s turrets lanced across the sky. The Star Kings fighters broke apart like a school of fish, turning on their predators from above.

The dropship released its flares as Dana fired her second missile right afterward. She grunted as it hit a Hellcat turning toward her, missing the dropship.

Alarms went off in her own cockpit.

“Break! Break! Break!”

She slammed her controls around, controlling her breathing against the g’s and clenching her muscles.

The alarm changed as a missile was launched.

Dana weaved into the formation. Flares and engines were everywhere. She rolled across a dropship; the missile lost her targeting and exploded, taking out a dropship’s engine. It dropped and staggered as the pilot tried to balance out. A missile hit it, and the ship smashed into the ground.

“Not today!” Sphynx said.

Dana checked her screens. They’d lost six fighters and taken out three of the dropships. Missile lock alarms filled her cockpit as she continued the dance.

A turret spotted her. Rounds filled the air around her as she spun and banked, shooting upward on her burners.

It broke the turret’s lead as she turned in and cut across the first dropship, peppering it with rounds.

“Focus on the dropships! Don’t worry about the Hellcats!” She could see the breakup of Node Seven now; they were just a few hundred meters away.

“Dammit, wing is down,” Crow said.

Crow spun and weaved, chasing a dropship. Turrets turned on him and tore him apart, but with the sheer speed he was going at, debris tore into the dropship’s engines, making it stream black smoke and stagger.

“Missile got me!” Ayambe said.

They were being torn apart, and there were more dropships coming in from the west.

“We have more ships heading out from Node Seven. Five more dropships.”

“Wooo-hhhhhooooo!” The yell came across unencrypted local, meaning it was being broadcast to everyone.

“Get ’em, Howlers!”

The new dropships coming from the west and their small fighter escort opened up on the Star Kings’ formation.

“Break away from the enemy! Go for the Hellcats!” Dana yelled. She swung out and away from the ships as the Star Kings force dropped low to the deck, rushing toward Node Seven.

A dropship took a missile in the engine. It spun, crashing through the node’s wall, and clearing through several containers before it came to a rest.

The sky was a melee as Dana relied on IFF and outlines to make sure she wasn’t attacking her own people.

Explosions tore through the node, advancing on the command post.

She gritted her teeth. Even with the Howlers, three dropships, and ten Hellcats, they were getting swarmed by the Star Kings.

Dropships dove for the ground, tracers carving lines through the sky to catch them, their rounds sparking against their heavy armor, chewing it up where they intersected.

“Go! Push! Use your satchel charges!” Luke yelled.

Luke, Jynx, and Fin ran across the machinery in the node. Rounds tore at them from the side as a group of defenders hiding against the machinery came into view.

Fin launched himself at them and jumped back to his last bot.

Luke jumped off the miner he was running on as Fin detonated the charge on the bot.

The group of bots turned into a crater as Luke hit a factory. He shook his head and got up.

Jynx crashed into the command post and fired her machine gun.

The howl of a dropship filled the air, followed by metal clanks of bots running down the ramp and jumping.

The draft coming from the dropship pushed him to the side as bots dropped just fifteen meters to his left. He ran from the cover of the factory. The side turrets fired as the dropship rear faced him.

Luke could feel the belly turret swiveling.

Jynx detonated her satchel, blowing open half the command post.

Two other friendlies rushed the building from other directions.

Chips of ice hit Luke before a round hit him in the arm and sent him spinning. He rolled in the ice, losing his footing, and grabbed onto the shattered side of the command post, throwing himself inside. He scrambled with his leg; he tried to use his left arm, but it was gone.

Enemy bots ran up to the command post, holding fire for fear of damaging it. Luke panted as another friendly burst in the door.

Luke gave him the thumbs-up and pulled out his detonator.

“Good morning, Valhalla!” The friendly laughed on local unencrypted as enemy bots made it to the door of the command post.

Luke laughed as he pressed the detonator.

[You Died]

Dana was down to two remaining missiles and ten percent of her ammunition.

She fired off flares, defeating the alarms for a few seconds. She knew they’d be back. She didn’t know whether they would be back before she could fire flares and chaff again.

Tracers pinged her beaten airframe, holing her and sending her into a spin. Dana fought against gravity and atmosphere, trying to wrestle herself free from both.

She tilted her engines. They wouldn’t tilt all the way, so she adjusted her flaps, coming down like a skydiver as she gunned her burners.

It was a punch from below as she arrested her movement. Her burners melted the ground just a dozen meters below her. Jerking on her controls brought her tearing around, and she adjusted her flaps. She slalomed around an ice pillar like a hover racer and adjusted her engines. There was no time to breathe or relax at having saved herself as her engines groaned and scraped back into position; she thundered skyward, into the maelstrom above.

Dana saw a section disappear from the command post. As bots threw themselves inside, the command post ballooned.

[Victory]

Dana slowed her speed.

“Woo-hoo! Damn right!” Foster yelled on the general channel.

“GG!”

Star Kings ships stopped firing, coming to a stop, and began to land. Cheers filled the general channel as Dana shivered, the adrenaline bleeding off as she checked her roster. Three left out of twenty.

“All right, you lot, start jumping into the fighters down here and corralling them in this area.” She threw down a marker on the map near the exit tunnels. “Fighter Wings Four and Five, you patrol the area first. I don’t want anyone sneaking up on us.”

Dana’s fighter shuddered. “I’m going to limp over to the landing area.”

She looked over the node. Four dropships had made it to the node intact, burners flaring to land. Three more had reached the node in various states. From two of them, bots had broken out of their seats, those that could jogging toward the base.

Miners had been torn apart; some were still working and pumping out materials. Factories were in the same way. Containers had bullet holes in them. A Hellcat had crashed through several, turning it into a jumbled mess, splitting open the containers and spreading them across that area of the node.

Something exploded from the carcass of a dropship as bots moved out of the tunnels and node, surveying the damage.

Dana didn’t trust her engine’s rotation and came down to land on her skids, sliding forward. She opened her flaps up all the way to cut her speed. She stopped near the tunnels. Several people separated and headed over.

She sighed and checked her maps, seeing the Howlers approach the landing area. She breathed out, safed her systems, and opened the canopy.

Chapter sixteen

Chapter: 16

15, March 2242

Luke jumped into a bot in the main camp, taking over a bot that had been moving up on the command post.

He looked around as the other bots were taken over by Gremlins called in by Foster to start clearing out the base.

“Luke, we’re down at the landing area near the tunnels,” Foster said on a private channel.

“Okay, on my way.” Luke went to squad chat. “Gotta go talk with Foster and Dana.”

“We’ll help get the factories and the miners moved about. Mitch would have a fit, seeing this place,” Fin muttered.

“Yeah, he avoided looking at it on the map when he made the path through the ravines.” Jynx laughed. “Holy shit, that was awesome!”

Luke laughed, then yelled. “Damn, that felt good! Wait, what did we—?” Luke pulled up the after-action report.

[Victory]

[Gained: 41684823 Platinum/20842 Credit(s)]

[Spawn Point Star Kings’ Node Seven now available]

“Damn, that should be enough for ten months of rent!”

All the energy in his body went out with his laugh, all the planning, setup, stress, and lack of sleep hitting him in one.

“Gotta go to the meeting. Talk in a bit,” Luke said. He cut the squad channel and jogged to the meeting area. Howler ships were coming into land at the landing area, far away from the single Hellcat that had left a trail behind its skids.

He let out a low whistle as he ran over to where Dana and Foster were waiting near the fighter.

“I think there’re more holes than frame on that thing,” Luke said as he got in range of local chat.

“She’s a little beat up. Hopefully, a repair tool can put her right again,” Dana said.

“That’s your Hellcat?”

“Yup.”

“How—”

“Did I keep her in the air? Not too sure myself.” Dana shook her head.

“Being the best damn pilots and commanders out there,” Foster said.

Dana’s head turned to him sharply. Without faces, it was hard to read what someone was thinking in a bot.

“Shall we? I’ll introduce you to Ichika.” Foster started walking around the Hellcat. “So I wanted to talk to you and your friends. Instead of selling everything to Sphere World, would you be interested in selling it to us? We’ll pay you what Sphere World would.”

“Doesn’t matter to me where my platinum comes from,” Dana said.

“I would be okay with that,” Luke agreed.

“You want to turn this into a base for the Gremlins?”

“Gremlins like it on the ground, though we’d still need some support. We work with the Howlers a lot of the time. They love flying and they get us where we need to go. No offense.” He looked at Dana.

“None taken. My people are a small outfit, and I’ve heard of you and the Howlers working together a lot in the past. We’re not here to mess up any friendships,” Dana said. “You’re going to rope them into supporting your node?”

“Yeah, I know Ichika will take it. We want to make the game as popular as we can to have more battles. We’ll invite free players to come down and lead their own attacks on the guilds.” Foster walked toward a dropship that was lowering its ramp. On the ramp, a bot stood with Japanese symbols trailing down her head. A Howler emblem of a wolf howling at the moon was painted on her chest, and she’d added a black dragon riding across her bot with its head laying across her shoulder. Its red eyes seemed to be watching them.

“So, are these the two you want to make an alliance with?” she yelled as the ramp touched the ground and she waved them up.

“I haven’t asked them yet.”

“For a wild man, you sure are slow.” She tilted her head in a bow. “I’m Ichika, leader of the Howlers.”

Luke tilted his head deeper, and Dana mirrored it.

“Come into my humble abode!”

Ichika took a seat in the drop bay; Luke, Dana and Foster took other seats.

“Foster’s going to give you a boring speech, but here it is. Foster is good on the ground. I’m good in the air, but I ain’t good in space. You’re the Iron Admiral and you’re as good in space as you are in the air. And there are a fair number of my people that are good out in vacuum, too. Between us, we’ve got ground, air, and space covered without a guild between us.”

“Wait, the Iron Admiral?” Luke looked at Dana.

She shrugged. “Well, I was a week ago.”

“But… DeeDeeBird?”

“An old gamertag.”

“Wouldn’t suspect the most badass lady admiral in Fleet Commander to use DeeDeeBird as a moniker.” Foster snorted.

Luke shrugged, trying to hide his confusion and shock. Dana was the Iron Admiral. Youngest admiral to make it to the guild circuit. She had pulled out victories from defeat, a true battle admiral who had taken down admirals that had been in a guild for as long as she had been playing.

And he had played with her, talked to her, even spent time as part of her crew!

“Please don’t share it around,” Dana said in a warning tone.

“Not a word.” Foster was dead serious.

“Hell, I’m a fan. Nothing out of me.” Ichika laughed and gave a thumbs-up. “Autograph would be nice?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Dana’s voice softened, and she looked at Luke.

“I knew you were good, but I never guessed that you were the Iron Admiral. Is it okay for me to tell Fin and Jynx?” Luke rubbed the back of his neck and laughed.

“That’s fine. I don’t want everyone to know, though.” Dana turned to Foster. “So, this alliance?”

“The guilds are bucking to take over the game. They’ve got most of the nodes on this place. We got a big win, taking a base from the biggest guild out there. You’ve got Mitch working his mining ass off in the belt, while we work and train together. Build up warships, bots, and gear to take the fight to the guilds—on the ground, in the air, and in space.”

Luke sat back, visualizing the true scale of what Foster was talking about here. “Why?”

Ichika laughed. “’Cause it’s fun!” She patted his back so hard he was nearly knocked off his container.

Luke grinned. He could agree with that.

Dana went through the negotiations; Luke coordinated with Jynx and Fin. Howler and the Gremlins would buy all the supplies they had brought to the planet’s surface and everything within the node, instead of them selling it to Sphere World.

“So, I guess we should name this new entity?” Foster asked. “What about Wraith?”

“Guild Hunter?” Ichika said.

“Legion?” Luke said.

“Seems kind of generic,” Ichika said.

“Well, we’re fighting the guilds for fun, and we’re made up of free players and we’re fighting to make sure free players can still play, so was thinking Legion, for ‘we are many’?” He tried not to sound awkward. Hell, he wasn’t sure how the hell he’d gotten a place sitting in the middle of all this.

“Oh, creepy. I like it,” Ichika said.

Foster nodded. “That works.”

“Agreed,” Dana said. “What about the funds and organization?”

“Standard ten percent clan tax will act as a broker for most of the goods and services,” Foster said. “Our goal will be combat PvP, taking nodes, either in operations we lead, or operations we’re invited to. We need to build a robust mining and crafting group. Clan members will have access to ships and gear assigned by the clan for clan missions. The clan has first right to buy from clan members at market prices, or invest into the clan. As the clan grows, their value will grow, and they can cash out at a later date. Both the Howlers and the Gremlins will collapse as clans. Their funds will act as seed money for the formation of the Legion.”

“So, Legion will support and build towards being the baddest clan in Sphere World, capable of fighting across planets and star systems,” Ichika said.

“We were wondering if you would all like to invest in it,” Foster said. “You own nodes, bots, dropships, hellcats… You have a massive mining claim and factory run. We’d like to come to agreements with you all to see if we can’t combine our strengths in some way. If we bought off you, then we wouldn’t be left with much in the way of funds. If you were to invest in Legion, then you would gain shares of Legion’s funds. We have contracts to that effect as well.”

They worked out a deal between one another, coming together to form a new clan.

****

Luke, Jynx, and Fin met up at Wally’s Burgers. Luke told them about what had happened in a private chat and they’d both joined the Legion.

“Well, I need some sleep. I’ll see you later!” Jynx logged off.

“Hey, dude, if you need a place to crash for a bit, let me know. I know parents can be tough.” Fin patted him on the back.

“I think that everything is good now. They told me that they’ve been watching the videos that Jynx was putting out and I talked with my dad about the mining the other day.” Luke coughed, clearing his throat.

“Dude, that’s precious. Don’t forget that. Having parents that support your dreams instead of making you a vessel for theirs is great.” Fin’s voice sounded distant.

“You’re lucky man, don’t forget that,” He laughed and patted Luke on the shoulder. “But just so you know. Mi casa su casa. I’m a message away.”

“Thanks dude. That means a lot.”

“No worries, and I need to get to work. My boss is probably trying to beat down my door, wondering where the hell I am. Catch you later.”

“Later, dude.”

Luke’s vision cleared and his suit lowered to the floor. He rubbed his eyes, quickly dressing and heading out into the common area.

“You stink.” Marissa called from the alcove.

“Thank you,” Luke drawled, drinking from his water bottle, heading to the tap.

“So, what made you trade your toy for Joey to take your shift? I never thought you were going to let go of that thing if only to annoy the hell out of him.”

“I was doing a mission. We took a base from one of the biggest guilds, Star Kings.” Luke plugged his bottle into the tap and started filling it.

“Wait, that was you?”

“Well, unless someone else took their nodes on Valhalla?” Luke said dumbly.

“Node Seven, right?”

“Yeah.”

Marissa whistled.

“I know it’s just a game, but we planned it out. We put a lot of hard work into it, tunneled through.” He pulled his bottle free and leaned against the counter.

“That’s why you’ve been in there for nearly two days?”

“Yeah.” Luke yawned. The adrenaline that had carried him through the victory and the meetings had worn off. Exhaustion hit him harder than ever before. “Made enough for like seven months of rent, or rent at a new place.”

“Luke, are you thinking of leaving?” Marissa asked.

He rubbed his head. “I dunno. I just got a job. That’s about as far as I’ve got on my plan.”

“Well, congrats, little bro. Paying the bills by blowing people up on the net.” She shot him a grin.

Luke rolled his eyes, smiling. He didn’t want to leave the ship, but if the guilds got interested...

“I’m going to get a shower and sleep.”

“Good, even the air reclamation system can only do so much.” She quipped at his back.

Luke shook his head, too tired to banter, a proud smile spreading across his face. They’d done it.

Tao Walker had commanded fleets and armies numbering in the thousands into war. Hundreds of millions tuned in every day to watch his guild’s streams.

Through the wall screen, he could see the parks and forests jutting out on balconies. Airships weaved through the tubes and towers to land on platforms. The constant motion inside Mag-train tubes connected mega towers, kilometers tall and wide.

He took them in without seeing them, reviewing the reports and feeds from the battle at Node Seven.

His eyes darted to the time, his stomach a swirling pool of acid. Tao took in a breath as a cold sweat prickled down his back. He zipped up his sleeve, the underlayer to his net-suit, to his jaw and faced his suit: red interior with black armor and red metal stylized accents—the latest and most advanced suit one could buy.

He swallowed and stepped into his suit. Metal plates shifted together with soft clinking noises as they spread across his chest and his arms, locking him in. The suit connected to his skin-tight sleeve. His helmet descended, and the lights came on, replacing his pristine office with a new, sharper room as the arm on the back of his suit lifted him from the ground. To Tao, it felt as if he were stepping up to the gallows, a rope tightening around his neck instead of entering the holy net that spanned human space, connecting planets, stations, and everything in between nearly instantaneously and almost lag-free.

After the loss of their node on Valhalla, Waris had requested a meeting. When a guild’s main sponsor requested a meeting, it meant right damn now.

They had lost a critical node in a game they were interested in—not to a guild, but to two clans, unorganized rabble that played for fun.

He arrived at Chairwoman Ella Waris’s office precisely on time. Her office was as luxurious as it was sharp. Even in the net, you had to pay for your desk, chair, and decorations.

Behind her hung a planet that could have been Jupiter, with an encircling asteroid ring sparkling in some distant star’s light. It seemed dead. No movement, no station, no ships, just a planet, beautiful, untouched by humanity. It might have been real or artfully drawn, or even computer generated.

Miss Waris didn’t look up from her screens, engrossed in her work. As the head of the Merlouc Corporation’s media arm, she handled all net games and guilds connected to the corporation, a business that reached across known space, through corporate stores, and the net.

She finally looked up. Her expression revealed nothing.

Tao waited to be addressed.

“The Star Kings Guild will send an assault force to Ares, fourth planet in the Sphere World system. Are you familiar with it?”

“Yes, Chairwoman. Martian planet with a large asteroid belt separating it from Valhalla.”

“Good. Nodes have been detected on the planet. Control as much of Ares as you can. Continue to build up your forces and sell all you can to Sphere World. I want us to have a firm foothold in that game, and I want to drain their corporate accounts.” She intertwined her fingers and leaned forward. ”Sphere World, as of now, is our main focus.”

Tao held back any criticisms; it was clear Miss Waris had a plan for Sphere World.

“Understood, Chairwoman.”

“Very good.” She turned back to her screens, and Tao turned, dismissed.

“And Tao.” Her voice dipped, making the hairs on the back of his head stick up in a cold sweat. Her voice was almost conversational as she worked on her screens, while Tao turned around. “What happened at Node Seven… Take appropriate actions to make sure that it won’t happen again. Valhalla is overpopulated with free players. Ares is further from Sphere World and its endless bots. Few would be willing to go that far and spend the resources needed to claim the planet or wage a fight on the ground.”

“Yes, Chairwoman.” Tao bowed his head slightly.

He quickly turned and left. Changing game focus took a lot of work, and he had to pull it off seamlessly—without the other guilds finding out.

Chapter seventeen

Chapter: 17

15, March 2242

Luke used the engineering station’s screen on Dahlia’s bridge to watch Marissa expertly guide Dahlia engine-first into Odessa Station’s loading docks with the main engines and thrusters. From the cameras, it looked like the massive station was welcoming them in.

The whole family was on the bridge. Adeline sat at the communications station while his father was on Navigation. He and Luke were all backups to Joey and Marissa, flying Dahlia by themselves.

“Fifteen meters,” Joey said. “You’re looking good. Ten meters.” He counted down “Five, one, and touchdown.”

The Dahlia shifted with a clang as universal locking mechanisms mated her with the Odessa.

“Well done, Marissa,” Adeline said.

The station looked like an apartment building, with balconies stretching out a hundred meters in every direction. At the bottom of the sandwich were the docks. Containers were stored on the underside, with berths on all four sides of the station capable of taking two super-large freighters each. Above the oversized docking floor there were various living quarters, stores, even some parks. Everything a station might need.

“I still don’t get why they don’t add some spin,” Marissa muttered as she slid lengthways into a dock, coming to a relative stop just outside its arms, shaped like a sideways U. “Using thrusters.”

Dahlia was nudged sideways and into the dock.

“Keeps costs down to have your station in zero g. Why do you think so few people like to live on the station?” Stephen said.

“It’s also really large. Twenty floors and some eight kilometers long on each side. Would be a lot to spin it and it’s a vital trade location for the Federation,” Adeline said.

“They’re the ones that made it, so all their trade comes through one station,” Luke said. “Paranoid.”

Cranes ran along the girders, reaching out, up and down, dismantling the load intended for the station. It was mesmerizing watching the automated dance. Unlike wet freighters, space freighters could be unloaded from three directions instead of one.

“Confirm lock. Extending gangway. Customs is on their way.” Adeline piped the station’s orders through the speakers.

“Understood.” Adeline said, the channel going dead.

Luke groaned as soon as she released the push to talk button.

“We’ve done it before,” Stephen said.

“Doesn’t make it any more fun, having them pour over our paperwork thinking we’re going to try to claim citizenship every time,” Luke said.

“Like we’d want to live there. Best four systems in human space my ass,” Marissa growled as she went through shutdown.

Odessa was larger than most stations, being the only station that the Federation allowed trade through to other systems. Their three other systems were closed off to outsiders.

The magnetic clamps clanked to the gangway, mechanical locks banging into place as they were secured into the airlock.

“All crew, report for customs inspection,” Marissa said officially.

They floated out of their stations. Luke pulled out his screen, checking the airlock cameras. A suited customs officer floated down the gangway tube with a large screen holder across his chest. Two soldiers with shotguns and sealed, faceless armor trailed after him.

Luke engaged his mag boots and touched down to the decking, the rest of his family following.

He tapped his screen off and put it away as the airlock cycled, allowing the customs officer and his soldiers in.

“Trading license and cargo manifests.” The customs officer spoke through his speakers, keeping his clear helmet on.

Stephen pulled out a screen and transmitted their documentation to the man.

“Stephen Tavares. You served on the flagship Liberty?” The man’s voice raised in something approaching interest.

“Belowdecks, sir.”

The customs officer nodded and tapped out a few things on his screen. “Always a pleasure to meet a vet. Better than those coalies showing up.” He shared a look with Stephen, who let out a grunt that could be taken as agreement.

The feds weren’t great lovers of the Coalition government, but it had been a long time since Stephen had served. The Dahlia did most of her business in Coalition systems. But a few signs of agreement could ease a trader’s route.

The customs officer clicked his tongue, going over his screen. “All right, everything seems in order here. You and your family have a good stay in Odessa.” The officer tapped a few more things into his screen and swiped it back over to Stephen’s.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Gotta look after one another out here,” the man said.

“Yes, sir.”

The customs officer and his soldiers left.

“I’m going to get some sleep.” Joey excused himself.

“I’m going to grab something from my room,” Marissa said.

His siblings fled.

“I have this month’s rent, if you want it.”

“You don’t need to pay this month’s rent, not if you’ll go broke,” Stephen said in a soft voice. “And only if you’re sure?”

“I can do it. Just, you know, nervous. Like, I’ve got to think about making this money all the time to live someplace.” His dad frowned and Luke rushed to speak. “I’m not saying anything bad. Just never really thought of it that way!”

“I… Yeah, when you look at it that way. It becomes normal with time.”

“So I’ve watched the videos and your dad has kept me updated, but are you going to tell me what you’re working on?” Adeline asked with a bemused expression.

“Ahh,” Luke rubbed the back of his head, his ears burning. “Sorry, Mom.”

“Even if I’m on a different shift, I’d like to know what you’re up to,” she pressed. “Now, come on, tell me everything.”

Luke smiled at the excitement that filled her voice.

“I’m working for a miner. His name is Mitch and I’m part of a clan now. I can mine or join in missions with the clan to earn credits and gain position. The higher I get, the more I’ll earn.” Luke tried to bite back his excitement. He had wanted to talk about it for so long that it was spilling out of him now, seeing their excitement.

“I looked at his contract. It’s a good one, and the fighting is like a bonus. The potential to earn more is high, with Luke’s skill,” Stephen said.

“Well, at the end of the day, it’s your decision, but remember, if you have any questions or need anything, just ask.” Adeline hugged him.

“Thanks, Mom.” He hugged her back. They had definitely entered into something new, something different.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I, uhh… I’m thinking of checking out net suits. If I’m using one all the time, I don’t want to take up someone else’s spot. Would it be okay for me to put it into one of the empty bays?”

“I don’t see why not.” She looked at Stephen who shrugged. “All the bays are wired for power and hypernet connections. Should be good.”

“Thanks. Yeah, Joey sweats a lot.” They chuckled together.

Marissa approached. “I’m heading ashore. Anyone want to come with?”

“Get yourself a suit that will last. It might be more expensive, but if it lasts longer, you’ll win out in the long run,” Adeline suggested.

“Well, have fun. Your mother and I have to go see the trade board. See what freight we can pick up,” Stephen said.

Luke pulled his soft cover helmet free and over his head, the metal collar clicking into place on his coveralls. His gloves were similarly locked to his wrists. Marissa did the same as his parents, headed back to the bridge.

“Feels weird not wearing our outers going through here,” she said, muffled by her soft cover as they cycled the gangway door open.

“I remember that place we stayed when Joey broke his leg. So weird to have only one door between inside and outside.” Luke shivered.

They entered the gangway, passing small windows, beyond which lit-up cranes moved above and below, removing containers from the Dahlia.

They cycled through the station air lock.

“What are you getting?” Luke asked.

“Grabbing some new gloves, snacks, and clothes. You?”

“Heading to the suit store.” Luke pulled out his screen from his breast pocket and tapped in a search.

“A suit? Don’t know how useful that will be, looking handsome in space.” Marissa grinned.

Luke groaned. “Last thing I need is you to start picking up puns on our next trip,”

“Yeah, it would be very pun-ishing.”

Luke kept his mouth closed, not wanting to give her more ammunition.

They passed through the outer corridors of the station filled with maintenance gear, observation windows and airlocks, which allowed the station’s crew access to the docking gear and the ships in them. They passed a sign notifying them they could take off their soft covers beyond this point.

Luke did so and was assaulted with the smells of the station: damp air, food, drink—and noise.

“I forget how loud it can get.” Luke raised his voice.

“There are five of us on a ship measured in kilometers. Here, there’re thousands in a few hundred meters. Humans can be so noisy.”

“And you can’t mute them like you can on the net.”

They passed someone cooking skewers at a stall. It might’ve been meat and vegetables of some kind, natural or synth.

Luke’s stomach growled, and he vowed to increase his own stash of snacks and treats before heading back to the Dahlia.

The station was square in nearly every way. The corridors were straight, with lines on the floor for where the bulkheads would slam shut if there was depressurization anywhere. Ladders and elevators ran between the twenty floors; some sections were cut open to reveal the decks above.

Everyone wore coveralls, each with a different style. Dahlia was stamped across Luke and Marissa’s backs, the serial number of the ship across their shoulders.

Inside the station, people wore different styled and colored coveralls: some for work, comfortable ones for home. There were even fashionable versions. Though there was no missing that this was a station. Everyone had an emergency collar, the hood ready to inflate around their head in a moment of depressurization.

They walked through the station, taking in the sights. They’d been to Odessa several times throughout their lives, and it hadn’t changed much.

Holograms spun advertisements in the air outside the stores in the shopping district. The advertisements were thick everywhere but outside the net-suit store.

“Strange that the place selling gear for the net is the only one without ads flashing everywhere,” Luke said.

“They don’t really have to advertise. They know you want what they have. Without a suit, you can’t experience even ten percent of the net. Make sure you get something cute. Pink?” Marissa grinned.

Luke rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about it!”

She snorted and waved. “I’m heading to cosmetics and snacks. Have fun with your games.”

Luke faced the Merlouc net suit store, a mecca to true gamers and net users

Three floors of glass façade showed off suits of every design. Inside, professional staff were on hand, talking customers through the suits and their abilities.

He braced himself and headed inside.

Suits were lined up on either side, with general suits and accessories on the first floor. They were models that could be used by men or women with adaptive systems to fit any user within set dimensions.

“Hello, sir. What might your name be?” A man—perfect smile, pale from station lighting, and green eyes—walked over. He wore a tailored suit and blazer in silver to gray that ran down to his pants, with a blue shirt underneath. A pouch hung off his hip, holding a helmet.

“Luke Tavares. Yourself?” Luke took the offered hand.

“Please, call me Curtis. Are you interested in any of our suits?”

“Uh, yes,” Luke said, pulling at the cuff of his worn coveralls.

“Anything in particular?”

“Looking for a sleeve, uh, inner suit and outer suit, with uh, heating and cooling. Food and water systems with integrated resupply.”

“Do you know what your stats would be?”

“I’m looking for something with a greater internal storage so I can take longer videos, dual net port so I can stream and game at the same time.” Luke held out his screen with the specs Jynx and Dana had recommended.

“May I?” He pulled out his own screen.

“Sure.”

Curtis tapped his screen to Luke’s and surfed through the information.

“Okay.” The man nodded, taking in his information. “There are three suits that would fit those criteria. We have the Raider, Stealth, and Echo Custom, but we only have one Echo Custom in stock, and I must warn you, it’s a popular model.”

He waved Luke forward and across the floor. “They’re on the third floor.”

They entered the platform lift, rising quickly. “You must be doing some pretty serious gaming for these kinds of suits.”

“I’d like to buy something that will last me ten years instead of getting outdated in three.” The platform stopped and Curtis led the way onto the floor. There were only a few people present.

Curtis smiled. “A smart investment to put in a bit more in now and have it return later on.”

The suits on the third floor were sharper, their lines pronounced, unlike the ones on the first floor.

Curtis pointed to the suits and their displayed inner suits. “The Raider is the cheapest. It has integrated cooling and heating, general fit, but no drinking or eating system.” It was a grey sand camouflaged on the outside with a black interior.

“The Stealth has the included food systems and is ultra-lightweight, with greater haptic feedback.” It had a stippled black exterior, like some of the stealth fighters Luke had seen.

The Echo wasn’t extreme in its details, but it was carefully put together. Tiny metal plates interlinked. They made Luke think of the advanced power armor he had seen in advertisements for the faction’s military or security forces.

“The Echo is a custom-fit suit, based on the Federation Predator armored suit. It will not only allow you to access the net, but in case of emergency, you can detach from your orientation arm and use it as powered armor. Great when aboard a ship in case of depressurization.”

Luke nodded, captured and impressed by the man.

“I’m glad we’re not buying our food stores from you, Curtis. You’re quite the trader.” Luke grinned.

“Ah, I just know the look of a fellow gamer who’s looking to upgrade his gear.” Curtis flashed a smile. “Because the Echo is form-fitting, we’ll need to take scans of you. This will be input to the Echo, and we’ll do some modifications to make it fit like a glove. It includes everything you require.” He dropped his voice so others couldn’t hear. “It also has non-invasive plumbing, so you don’t need to run to the washroom in the middle of a long gaming session. It is designed for the professional gamer.” The man wasn’t derisive in his tone, just stating his facts.

“Right,” Luke nodded.

“You can use this as a regular hard suit if you wanted to—go and work in hard vacuum, go back inside, hook up to the arm, and it will charge your power and air systems and self-clean. It’ll be fresher than your outer suit unless you’ve got it in a cleaner rack.”

Luke touched the armor. It was cool to the touch, if slightly rough. He flicked it. “No way it can stop a round, though.”

“You’d be surprised. It has a level-two armor rating. They originally wanted a suit that could detach from the rig and move without atmosphere. The space suit didn’t need all the metal, and the net-suit did to support the user. So they went with a new reinforced alloy, and motors that worked with the user instead of just applying the power against the user to simulate the net environment. It came out a lot more expensive than the development teams thought it would be. So, they modeled them after powered armor, and they have been selling incredibly well. Though I think it is because of the sleeve.” Curtis reached out and grabbed the inner suit from the rack beside the outer suit.

“It’s incredibly comfortable.” Curtis pitched his voice down. “If you buy two, I’ll give you the third for free.”

Luke looked up at him and nodded as he felt the material between his fingers. “No tubes?”

“The heating and cooling are fixed with thin metal strips weaved into the material.” The crotch area had a tube sticking out at the hip.

“How much for the suit and two sleeves?” Luke asked.

“Three thousand, four hundred and fifty-five credits. That includes your scans, delivery to your ship, and everything you require to operate the suit, including the arm, installation, a month’s worth of food supplementation and flavoring enzymes.”

“Do you mind if I call a friend?”

“Certainly.” Curtis put the inner suit back on the rack.

Luke pulled out his screen. He hesitated as he accessed the private chat. Am I really going to ask the Iron Admiral about getting a net-suit? He stood stock-still for a second. He wouldn’t ask the Iron Admiral, but he could ask Dana.

He took his time writing a long message, including links and information to make it as easy as possible for her to review it, then sent it before he could stop himself. His hands were clammy, and he wiped them on his suit.

He tucked his screen away, and it vibrated in his chest pocket. Luke pulled it out and reviewed the message.

[Dana] If you got the credits, grab the Echo. Better to be safe on a freighter.

Yup, still weird having a personal chat with the Iron Admiral.

Luke debated for half a second, then held out his hand to Curtis. “I’ll take it, please.”

“Very well. Please come with me. We have a room to scan you. Don’t worry, although the suit will be custom fitted for you, it does have some leeway for if you grow some. And you can go to any Merlouc Corporation suit outlet, and they will fit your suit two more times for free.”

“Thank you.” Luke smiled as Curtis guided him through a doorway and to a series of changing rooms.

Curtis opened one. “Step into this pod and it will scan your body. You’ll need to sign this contract to complete the purchase. This also makes you the legal owner of the scans. The files will be sent to you so you can use them for your avatar if you want. They will be deleted from our files once we have fitted the suit. Some people are scared about us retaining them.” Curtis pulled out a screen from inside his blazer.

Luke reviewed the contract and sent it through a contract checker software that parsed it down into readable standard.

“All looks good to me.” Luke put his finger to his screen. The contract was accepted and sent back to Curtis.

“Ah, perfect. When you’re done, come and see me at the counter.” Curtis bowed his head and Luke returned the gesture.

He closed the curtain around the pod and stepped inside.

“Please hold your hands above your head like an arrow.” An electronic voice said. Luke held his arms up and there was a whirring noise from the scanner pod.

“Thank you. Your scan is complete.” The door to the pod opened.

A boy’s shrill voice filled the store. “What do you mean, you sold it?”

“I’m sorry, Mister Miller, but that suit has been sold. We would be happy to sell you any other that we have in stock.”

Luke left the changing room area, grimacing on behalf of the attendant dealing with the boy and his two friends.

“I wanted that Echo suit!” the boy yelled, pointing to where two techs were disassembling the base pad and the arm where the suit had been displayed.

Curtis guided Luke into an office, the door cutting off the raging kid. “We have your scans now. Our techs will apply the adjustments and add the inserts to fit your exact dimensions. We will have the unit delivered to your ship by the end of the day.” Curtis patted a bag on the desk. “Your sleeves are in here. They will work with a universal soft cover helmet if you require it. Thank you for your business today. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Umm, not to do with suits, but do you know some places around here that are good for snacks and food? Been a while since I’ve been here.”

“Ah, yes. Do you have a map?”

Luke hit his map app and passed his screen over.

Curtis tapped several locations.

“My father will hear about this! I told you to hold it for me.” The kid was loud enough to be heard through the glass.

“I am sorry, Mister Miller, but we cannot reserve any suits.”

The boy and his friends walked off. He said something to his friends and pulled out his screen.

“These places should interest you,” Curtis said, “and give you something good between games.”

“Thank you.” Luke offered his hand.

“No problem, Luke.” Curtis shook his hand. “And for payment, just tap on here.”

Luke tapped his screen on the pay point. He tried not to wince as he checked his credits balance: [15232 Credit(s)].

“I hope you enjoy the suit. May it bring you many years of gaming. With the external systems, you can upgrade the unit over its lifetime instead of having to buy a new one every time. The extra scans mean as you get older, you can get it retrofitted to your specs,” Curtis assured him, pulling the magnetically clamped bag from the desk.

“Thanks.” Luke smiled, taking it.

It was more money than he’d had all his life, but he looked at it differently now. It was no longer money he could just spend. He needed funds for his rent and upkeep but could use the rest in Sphere World to help there.

With six months of rent accounted for, he had 3232 to work with. More than enough for snacks.

Maybe I can get my money to work for me like Dana did with Mitch? I wonder if he’s looking for more investors.

He found the first store, more by smell than the map. A man was charring strips of pork in honey. The bak kwa smelled delicious. He grinned as Luke approached and cut off a piece, sticking it on a plate and passing it over. “Here—a taster.”

Luke took a bite. He took a few moments to savor the still warm, honeyed jerky. “Four hundred grams, please, sir.”

The man laughed. “Good to know I’ve still got some cooking skill left!” He ripped a bag off the roll and put the sealed packets into them. “Eight credits.”

Luke tapped his screen to the pay point. He passed the plate back and noticed some wax presentations of prepared meals behind the man. “Have you got some prepared spacer meals?”

“Nothing as good as the real thing, but yeah.”

Twenty creds later, with several meals that could be rehydrated and made ready to eat back on the ship, Luke was on the hunt for energy drinks, chips, and sweets.

“Thank you!” the trader said.

Luke just raised his hand; the trader had given him another slice of that delicious bak kwa fresh from the grill.

Luke headed back toward the ship nearly an hour later, with his sleeves in one bag, two bags of snacks, and plenty of credits left over.

“Freighter trash!”

Luke ducked his head at the sound of the loud-mouth from the net suit store, trying to avoid their notice. The passageway was empty, a section between housing districts, before it turned into engineering areas and finally the docks. Just keep walking. He’s talking to someone else.

Miller’s two goons stepped out in front of him.

Or not. Luke pulled out his screen and tapped in a code that would send a message to the Dahlia and the rest of his family, then put it back in his pocket, zipping it up.

He turned to the goons on the left and Miller on the right.

“Think you can take my suit, freighter trash?” Miller sneered. “Come on our fucking station, go to our fucking stores, and steal from us, fucking illegal?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just need to get through.”

The two goons sneered, enjoying the show. Miller had his hands in his pockets, studying Luke’s worn coveralls. They had to be the same age as Luke, give or take a year or two.

The goons smirked as they approached. Their clothes were tight to their growing muscle as Luke’s second-hand coverall hung wide over his own bulk, built up from years of hard gaming and working on Dahlia.

There was a darkness in their eyes and smirks. Luke had seen it before, of people who just liked to inflict pain.

“You think you can get out of this?” Miller scoured him with his eyes, waving at Luke’s entirety. “Fucking dumb as you look. Here’s what yer going to do. Yer gonna gift me that fucking suit as a big thank-you. A fucking tax for pollutin’ our air.” He laughed at his own ingenuity.

They were still closing in.

Luke opened his coveralls and stuffed his groceries inside.

“Gotta get my hand free to do that.” Luke laughed.

The trio stood in a triangle around him, walls that might be someone’s house on either side.

Miller took out his screen and tapped it. “Hurry up. I’m a busy man. I’ve got fucking noobs to kill.”

Luke pulled out his screen and did up his coverall. For once, he was happy he had oversized coveralls, even as he felt a packet of chips crunch and what felt like an apple getting caught next to his right knee.

He studied the ground and the space over the top of the two friends.

“Yer taking too long, trash. Fucking trying to sneak in our borders.”

His friends grunted.

“You can have this shit hole.” Luke grinned and threw the screen into his coveralls. He ran at the two friends, clicked his boots to turn off the mag, and flew over them.

One grabbed his leg and Luke kicked him in the face. He grabbed onto the handholds on the ceiling and threw himself free.

He activated his boots on the ceiling and ran, reaching the open area up ahead. The boys cursed as he ran over them.

Luke tucked the bag containing his sleeves against the inside of his arm, clicking his mag-boots off as he entered the open area and launched himself forward.

People yelled out as he sailed across the area.

He pulled his soft cover helmet over his head in one drilled action.

“Fucking thief!” Miller yelled.

People turned as Luke headed for the engineering section, toward the Dahlia.

“Thief! Thief! Catch him!” Miller yelled with increasing enthusiasm.

Two guards wearing Federation blacks and blues swiveled like gun batteries. Every guard on Odessa was a soldier.

An old fear he’d dismissed as a kid rose in the back of his mind, the warning his father had burned into then-thirteen-year-old Luke’s brain the first time they visited Odessa Station. “The Federation thinks that they will be attacked at every opportunity,” his dad had said, “and they take no chances. Odessa is a quiet station, but it comes with a complement of nearly a thousand Federation Marines. If you get into trouble, get your ass back on the ship. If they arrest you, they’ll find something to charge you with just to cover up their mess.”

Luke hit the floor, finding purchase, and kicked himself forward, through the doors into the engineering area of the station. Using the roof, the floor, and the walls, he kept up his speed, dodging through machine shops, dock workers and pallets of gear.

“Help! Attackers! They’re going to kill me!” Luke yelled, increasing the confusion as people backed away.

He pulled out and locked his gloves to his wrists.

Luke got through the door to the docks, passing cursing dock workers. Using a touch on the ground to turn himself, he took the impact with his legs against a bulkhead and pushed down towards Dahlia’s berth. His father was just exiting the dock’s side of the airlock, Federation marines swarming in from every direction.

Stephen reached out a hand. Luke took it, arresting his motion, clicking his boots on, and sticking to the decking.

Miller and his two friends—one with a bloody nose and face—ran up. The marines spread out to create a semi-circle around the gangway airlock. Stephen and Luke stood beside one another, facing outwards.

“Fucking thief!” Miller yelled, pointing at Luke.

“Helmets,” Stephen said, tapping his helmet with a big wrench in his hand.

Luke tossed the sleeve bag behind him and into the gangway. It stuck to the decking, freeing Luke’s hands.

“He fucking stole it, and then he kicked my friend in the face!”

A faceless marine stepped forward. “Sir, we’re going to have to ask your crew member to follow us in for questioning.”

“Corporal, I don’t think my son is going anywhere right now, do you? Best you get your sergeant down here,” Stephen said.

“They’re fucking illegals! They stole my shit! My dad’s Captain Miller!” Miller yelled at the marines while pointing at Luke and his dad.

“Are you resisting?” the corporal asked, his hand reaching for his pistol.

“You touch that side arm, Corporal, and I’ll have the VA so far up your goddamn ass you’ll feel like a fucking third-rate sock puppet—and not the one you keep hidden under your bunk,” Stephen snapped off so hard and fast Luke thought he might see stars through that opaque helmet. “You will get your—”

“Fucking—” Miller stepped forward and found a wrench under his nose.

“Civilian Miller, will you kindly shut. The. Fuck. Up.” Stephen pushed him backwards. Miller stuttered in confusion, shock, fear, or blinding rage as he was forced away, his eyes wide as saucers. “The adult is talking here, and fucking class is in session! Corporal!” Stephen reared on the man that had moved his hand towards his pistol.

“Uh?”

“Are we in the fucking land of uh? Where’s your fucking sergeant, in fucking uhville, where they have fucking uh-tea?”

Luke stared at his father, who grimaced and wiped the snot on his wrench on a private. “Apparently that belongs to this Mister Miller. Best to keep it close, else he might want it back!”

“What’s all this about?” a voice growled as the six soldiers stepped back.

“He stole my gear, and he kicked my friend in the face!” Miller regained his voice.

“Helmet on, boys, we’re in a vacuum rated area,” the sergeant said. He grabbed the boy Luke had kicked, turned his head, and grunted, releasing him. “Going to have to ask your crew member to submit to questioning.”

“I think we can hash it out here.” Stephen put the wrench back into his belt.

“Mister…?”

“Retired Master Sergeant Stephen Tavares, Liberty.”

“That might be well and true, but I have a duty to follow here.”

“Sergeant, I know the game.” Stephen’s voice dropped, and people stiffened.

Luke curled his fists, ready to back his dad up.

“Captain Miller is well regarded as a deputy of this station,” the sergeant said dangerously.

“Excuse me. Delivery for Mister Luke Tavares?” Curtis’s voice rose over the crowd at the entry to the docks and the marines at the gangway.

“We’re here on official business,” the sergeant yelled and turned around.

The group parted ahead of Curtis, who wore black gloves and a helmet that adhered to his suit.

“Mister Miller, how strange to see you here as well. Last I saw you, you were hiding in an alleyway with your friends. I thought you were a bit old to be playing tag. I am sorry that someone bought the suit you wanted.” Curtis moved to the side to reveal what looked like a large black-and-green metal coffin held by two moving drones, accompanied by two techs. “Luke, could you confirm receipt of your net-suit?”

“That’s mine, corpo,” Miller growled, stepping forward.

“Could I report a thief? He just tried to steal my goods,” Curtis said to the marines.

“Sir?” the sergeant said in a tight voice.

“Oh, sorry. I thought that if anyone accuses anyone, then the accused must be arrested?” Curtis asked. There were some snorts and laughs of agreement from the crowd. Curtis’s smile showed he clearly knew the effects of his words.

“He’s a fucking illegal.”

“Umm, I think not if his father served honorably in your military,” Curtis said, like a helpful teacher, in their most patronizing voice. “We can sort all this out. What did Mister Tavares steal from you? And, Sergeant, can you pull up where they were located prior to this?”

“We don’t collect that information,” the sergeant huffed.

“Oh, so it is illegal to monitor Federation civilians in Odessa Station, but not corporate entities?” Curtis took down another note. “In a n-e-u-t-r-a-l station,” he tapped as he spelled it out.

“What are you saying?”

“Oh nothing, except that I was threatened by your people that they knew everywhere I went, so it seems there’s a double standard. Mister Miller, what was stolen from you?”

Miller looked as though he wanted to grind bulkheads with his teeth. “My dad—”

“Is the deputy head of this station, I know. You know an interesting thing? This station is meant for trading. So, you know, people trade here instead of having someone jump in and steal their purchases. Oh wait, I remember hearing that sometimes happens around Federation borders.” Curtis tapped his lip.

The marines shifted uncomfortably. The Coalition and settled worlds had been accusing the Federation of committing acts of piracy for years.

“Well, I can volunteer that Mister Tavares here came to my store. He made several purchases. Mister Miller came in while he was there and left before Mister Tavares. Mister Tavares went to get some food items from several vendors I know. I can call them up, if you’d like. Though he went in the opposite direction to Mister Miller,” Curtis murmured in thought. “So, how would he bump into Mister Miller on his way here? Unless Mister Miller and his associates were waiting for him, and this is a kangaroo court?”

Curtis’s voice got lower and quieter, so Luke had to lean in to hear it.

“My dad is the deputy of this station! Arrest them! They’re all working against us!” Miller said.

No one moved.

Curtis frowned and tapped on his screen. “Mister Miller, we have tried to be considerate, but I don’t think I can let this pass. I’m banning you from the Merlouc Corporation.”

“What are you talking about?” Miller scoffed.

“We endeavor to serve and work with the best customers. Unfortunately, you are not. I’ve had to report your abuses.” Curtis looked at his screen. “It seems they agree but think I am too lenient. All Millers have been blacklisted. Now, please move aside. I have a delivery to make.” Curtis walked into the group of marines.

“What do you mean?” Miller demanded.

Curtis took in all the marines and focused on Miller. “It means the Merlouc Corporation will not rent you net time. They will not rent you a suit. We will never sell you a suit. It means you will never eat Merlouc food or use any of our services again. Your entire family.”

“My father—” Miller growled.

“Yes, your father, your mother, your cousins, your grandfathers, and grandmothers, and whoever else might be connected to you by marriage or blood.” Curtis nodded as the marines took a step backward.

Miller resisted as two corporals grabbed him, lifted him, and walked away as he yelled and screamed. The two friends followed him, glaring at Luke as they left.

“There’s no need for that, Mister—?”

“Curtis Yalloak.”

The sergeant’s expression tightened into a pained grin. “Manager Yalloak, I will take a closer look into this incident.”

“Please do. I hope it comes out satisfactorily. After all, life is rather boring without access to the net, isn’t it?” Curtis said.

Luke caught the threat hidden within.

The sergeant grunted and indicated to the other marines to follow him as they disappeared.

Curtis was beaming as he walked up. “Ah, it was so fun to do that. Mister Tavares, you must be Luke’s father. I saw them chasing Luke and hurried over with the delivery.”

“Thank you, Mister Yalloak.”

“Ah, really, it was a pleasure. It will give Head Office leverage on the Miller family—quite fabulous. And I can kick that boy out of my store instead of putting up with his tantrums. That said, from one gamer to another…” Curtis’s smile disappeared, capturing Luke and Stephen in his gaze. “Best you load up and get on your way before Captain Miller gets word of this and thinks of something to tie you down in his domain.”

Stephen nodded. “Thank you, Manager Yalloak.” He turned and patted Luke on the shoulder and squeezed. “Scared the hell out of me with your message. Everyone else is aboard.”

“Okay, Dad.” Luke let out a shaky breath.

“Shall we get this suit installed quick-like?” Curtis smiled.

“Looks shiny.” Stephen laughed. “Be happy to help.”

“Thank you. Luke. I will leave you in my associate’s hands. I wish you safe travels and no spawn campers in your future.”

Luke laughed. “Thank you, Curtis.”

Curtis smiled and moved to the techs to have a word with them.

Luke and his father went first down the gangway. The drones and the techs followed through the air locks. Luke grabbed his sleeve bag and took it inside.

His mother hugged him and checked him over. “I saw everything from the cameras.” She thumped Stephen on the arm and pulled his helmet off, kissing him.

“Moo-oom,” Luke complained.

“You should probably incinerate that wrench to get the stupid off it,” Adeline said.

Stephen laughed, and Luke moved to the kitchen.

Marissa snorted as he pulled snacks out from his coveralls and down his pant leg.

“Yay, pants apple,” Joey said dryly.

“Don’t think that anyone is going to be stealing your snacks, lil bro.” Marissa rubbed his hair as she moved for the bridge.

“Try not to get into a fight at the next port.” Joey headed for the net-room when the door opened. “Who died?”

“I bought a suit.”

“A suit?” Joey looked at the container and the two techs escorting it.

“This way.” Stephen guided them to the suit room. Joey followed, starting up a conversation with the techs and showing them the connections in the net suit bays.

Luke left them to it, finding his mother and father in the table alcove.

“Something wrong?” Luke asked.

“We’ll finish unloading in two hours. Then we’re going to take on shipments. We’re deciding which station or outpost to go to and where to jump to.” Adeline shifted so he could sit beside her.

“Can’t we just take the warpgate to Sigma?” Luke asked.

“We need to get out of here quickly, and we’re burning reactor mass. We do a trip into the system and blind jump from a Lagrange point, I think, to Rukian,” Stephen said. “There’s a new station there, and we can blind jump to Kapyten.”

“Why can’t we use the warpgate?”

“Politics.” Stephen sighed and sat back. “We just pissed off the deputy head of the station. He’s high up and is going to have friends. Some of them might be at the warpgate. Best that we don’t go somewhere that they can control our fate for right now. Take a long loop through Coalition, Corporate, and settled systems.”

Luke winced. Changing their route would add in weeks or months, and they could lose money on timed deliveries.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said.

“Don’t be. They were being assho—” Stephen cleared his throat at the sharp look from Adeline.

“Credits is credits,” she said. “We care about you more than any credits. Also, Marissa has been bucking for a blind jump, and now she’ll get two.”

Chapter eighteen

Chapter: 18

15, March 2242

Dana put down the latest report from Mitch. She stood, crossing from her couch to her suit, and stepped into it. It closed around her and lifted her onto a street—a cartoonified street.

“Classy.” She shook her head at the sewer cover she’d just logged in through.

The area was rough and well-used. Wind and sand howled through the city in a gritty cartoon style. The garage ahead of her had a rusted-out tow truck on its last legs. The sign, Minnie’s Meanderings, creaked and banged against the wall with the wind. Dana went around the main entrance and used the employee entrance.

Couches created an L in front of several whiteboards on the right where the twin garage door bays would have been. To the left, there was a drafting table and racks of gear. Past the living area, there was a railing and a bay.

Stepping past the drafting table and racks of gear was a concrete walkway, an easy kilometer long, facing bays of cars, bikes, fighters, and warships, from a few meters long to a super dreadnought nearly a kilometer and a half long at the end. The gear in the bays were in various states of assembly.

A quiet mumbling-snoring noise came from the direction of the couches. Dana peeked over. Minnie was a meter and a half tall in her big boots. Her black-turning-green-turning-red hair shot out in every direction. A pair of goggles hung from her neck, and she wore a stained set of coveralls and a shirt showing the x-ray diagram of a fusion reactor. Her tool belt lay on a table nearby.

“Minnie?” she said. “Minnie!” Dana drew herself up. ”Engineer!”

“Get your pucking hands off my control relays! Prime those targeting… wazz?” Minnie jumped up, stumbling forward, and pushing the white board aside. She stared at it in tired confusion as she cracked her eyes open, then turned in a staggering half-circle. “Dana?”

Dana saw the lightbulb go off and then explode as Minnie jumped over the couch and wrapped Dana in a flying hug, staggering her.

“Dana!”

“Nearly launched me into your racks!” Dana complained, hugging her back.

“Ah, sorry for being asleep. Was up all night thinking about armor layers, trying to decrease building time and increase defensive power. Just living that unemployment life—no schedule, you know?” Minnie dropped to the ground and waved her pencil at the workshops. “So, what you doing here?” She drew a line in mid-air; a coffee cup landed on it and coffee poured from the air into it.

“I wanted to see you about an engineering job on Sphere World.”

Minnie grabbed the coffee cup from the air, smudging the line with her palm. It disappeared, and she tucked the pencil behind her ear.

“That’s some good stuff. Suits getting better every day.” Minnie walked to her couches. “I’ve heard good things about Sphere World. Looks like you put that information to good use. Those Star Kings pricks didn’t know what the hell hit them. Tao Walker’s been in a fit, getting everyone geared up for some fight. Though I hear that it might not be for your node. Word is they’re going to make it their main game.” Minnie dropped into a seat, and Dana sat opposite.

“Which guild you with now?” Minnie sipped from her coffee.

“No guild.”

Minnie sprayed coffee. “No guild? You know how expensive it is to start out on Sphere World? Even with a node, you’ll need to mine a metric ass ton of metal to make a fleet.”

“Why am I automatically building a fleet?”

“′Cause, Dana, you are Dana—you work best with fleets. I build the damn things for you, and you poke holes in them. Still, that is a lot of overhead.”

“We have a way to deal with the materials. There’s a mining operation ongoing.”

“Have to be a good one to get what you need.”

“I can take you to it.”

“What’s dripping?”

“Huh?”

“Ah, shit. I spat coffee into my visor. Suit, dry me up!”

A sound like two turbo jets going off came across the pickup.

Dana muted her, unmuted the jets, muted again. Minnie started talking and Dana unmuted her.

“—pit in your helmet—nasty. God, like I stuck my face outside a damn shuttle while it’s kissing atmosphere. Lordie! So okay, let’s see this mining setup,” Minnie said.

[You have invited MechFae345 to your party.]

[MechFae345 has joined your party.]

Dana took them both through Sphere World to Mitch’s mining base. They jumped into bots at the command post.

“Come with me.” Dana led Minnie outside. A shuttle landed, its rear opening as other bots moved around it.

Dana jumped into the air, and Minnie followed her. Dana boosted higher on her jets, and Minnie let out a pleased noise.

“Now, this is mining. Shit on a stick.”

Miners spread through the area and funneled into the factories.

“Those small factories, that’s workable. Going to need to get a shipyard down as fast as possible, or an outfitting hangar to build the larger gear that can’t come direct out of a factory. Miners are set up good until they get to the components.”

Dana coughed.

“What?”

“You were studying?”

“Hey, you said you were in the game and were going up against the Star Kings. I’m unemployed… I got bored.”

“So you studied how manufacturing works in Sphere World?”

“No, I made a plan for how to manufacture in Sphere World.”

“You and Mitch are going to get along so well.”

“Eyyy, that’s the snarky Dana I know.” Minnie bumped her with her bot.

Dana pressed her lips together as if to stifle the smile that only grew as she adjusted her bot’s jets. “Thank you, Minnie!”

“Hey, someone has to make sure the Iron Admiral has iron! Well, you’re using a complex alloyed material here.”

Dana sighed.

“Ah, yusss, the famous Iron Admiral sigh. Should patent that shit. So, where’s this Mitch fella? Who’s this Mitch fella?”

Dana, assisted by the planetoid’s thin gravity, used her jets to head back down to the command center. A ringing noise caught Dana’s attention.

[Jacqueline calling.]

“One sec, sorry. Just Jacqueline.”

“Dana, hey, been hard to catch you these last couple of days. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you. Just got Alfonse a deal with the Dirty Dozen Guild. They are on the up-and-up. With him as their admiral, he could push them from starter guild to low-level guild. Sorry, but that deal I got you timed out. Need a faster response if I get you on something.” Jacqueline said it as if Dana had let her down.

“Now, don’t worry,” she continued. “I’m working to find you something new, but there aren’t many people looking right now. I was only able to squeeze Star Jacket into an admiral position in one of Red Chevron’s sub-fleets. Sparse, I tell you! Sparse!” Jacqueline sighed. “Now, I called to talk about you. We need to get you in front of people, or you’re going to age out, my dear. No one wants to see an Iron Admiral who looks like she’s aged into the position.

“You know how fans like a bit of the fan service. So, we need to market that as much as possible. Too long and people are going to forget you, my dear. Image is money. Why am I even telling you that? You know that better than me with your mysterious persona. Anyway, we need to get you in front of people, tell them that you are still around, maybe even get some streaming done?”

“I don’t do streaming,” Dana said.

“I know but, Dana, I need you to work with me here. We’re talking about your career. Your life. The others are leaving you behind,” Jacqueline warned. “Don’t worry. Don’t worry… I will get you something. But we’re going to have to talk deals here, against your normal stipulations. People want to get to know you.

“Wait—okay, sorry, I have someone on the other line. Talk later, dear!” Jacqueline closed the call.

Dana shook her head.

“What did she want?” Minnie crossed her arms.

“She’s trying to find me a contract. She got two other admirals hired, but everyone wants streaming rights.”

Minnie snorted. “Tell me this, oh wise one. You having fun?”

“Well, yeah, but I need to earn money to live.”

“Yeah, everyone does, and you’re earning money here. Now stop avoiding the question. Are you having fun?”

“Well, yeah. But—”

“Look, Dana.” Minnie turned on her. “No fucking smoke. You are the best damn admiral I know. If the people under you had the sense to listen to you, you’d be unstoppable. Here, you can bring those people together and make that kind of crew. That kind of fleet. How many times have we talked about what it would be like if you had a fleet that would listen to you and do the damn job instead of just looking for the limelight to increase their popularity?”

“Okay, yeah, it would be nice to build a professional fleet, but we’re dealing with clans here.”

“Just ’cause someone does it for fun, that don’t mean that they take it any less serious.”

Dana was quiet, mulling over it.

“Don’t let the guilds or your agent take your fun away. That’s why you started this whole thing. Also, that crap about no one wanting to take you on? Hell, I’ve had three guilds approach me, wondering what you’re doing. They want us to get the band back together. Heck, this looks like one risky business that could be fun, and we’ll get to tell the guilds to go play with their damn selves. Now, where’s this mining guy?”

Dana shook her head. Minnie always did have the ability to pull her out whenever she was spiraling down.

“That’s Mitch there.” She pointed to the bot working the hologram in the middle of the command post.

“Was he here when we came in here last?”

“Yup.”

“Worka-holic,” Minnie said out of the side of her mouth, as though it were a bad thing.

“Kettle, black?”

“Oi, Mit—” Minnie went silent as he turned around. ”MINERKING?”

Mitch staggered so hard, Dana thought he’d caught a strong wind.

“Yes?”

“The MinerKing? Like, it has to be. That’s a limited-edition plate, and that was only after the planet cracker. Like a walnut. Riiight down the seam! Oh, thing of beauty! Used the tectonic plates as your fault lines, primary charges to destabilize, and then secondary… Gnock, crack a planet omelet.”

“Dana?” Mitch pleaded at her.

Dana used the slight pause to step between them, her look holding back another verbal waterfall from Minnie.

“Mitch, Minnie. Miner, meet mechanic.”

“Hey! Engi-neer!” Minnie stressed. “Too many Ms flying around.”

“Thank you, Dana,” Mitch bowed his head slightly. “Sometimes I get overwhelmed in personal meetings.” He turned to face Minnie. “It is good to meet you. You’re just the person I need to see. As you can see, these are our production numbers based on our materials coming in. We have several secondary drilling sites that will come online in the coming days. Our bottleneck is knowing what needs to be built. We have large reserves.”

“You can say that again. And none of this as ingots?”

“Not unless it is to build command posts, or the automated miners, bots, and required gear. We have five more command posts to build and then we will have all the asteroids covered in our local area.”

“Okay, damn. That is a lot of material and gear to move. What are we aiming to sell?”

“Whatever is profitable.”

“Well, Mitch, my old mate, then we’re going to aim for missiles.”

“Ah, yes. Understood.”

“Though this old Iron bucket—” Minnie gestured over her shoulder to Dana.

Good to know she cares.

“She’s going to need ships, and for that, we’re going to need a shipyard. Start off with a small one that can build us a corvette. And we can use the small factories to build the components. Gonna need to get a head start on the medium and the large factories to build the better components for the ships and bigger gear. We should set them up in series—flow from material to ship, with bleed off to build up the parts we need for, say, bots, miners, and the like.”

“I would like to have at least thirty percent of the materials for the mining.”

“Hey, I agree with you there. No reason to shoot ourselves in the foot. Damn, that is an impressive yield. Have you seen this, Dana? Like eighty percent yield. Star Kings idiots are only pulling out thirty.”

“Shall I leave you to it?” Dana asked.

“Yeah, we big brains got this.”

“Don’t spit in your helmet,” Dana singsonged.

She got a middle finger without Minnie looking.

“I should get my team in on this. You looking for miners to help out? I got some people who’d be interested, but they’d need a salary.”

“With our combined operations selling our final product, I do not see a problem. Shall we talk contracts?”

“I like you, Mitch. So, what you thinking?”

Dana exited her bot. They had it handled. Probably forgot I was even there.

She left the big brains to it, trying to tamp down her own excitement. Why am I excited over Minnie saying she can make me a corvette? Dana chided herself. But even she would have to admit it was because she was fighting for more than just a paycheck; she was fighting for and beside people she was coming to call her friends. She remembered the look on Luke’s face when he’d found out that she was the Iron Admiral.

She snorted as she stepped out of her net-suit.

Chapter nineteen

Chapter: 19

15, March 2242

Luke checked the screens at his console. The last of the securing clamps had disengaged from the ship. They’d paid an extra fee to get the freight intended for Sigma offloaded instead of taking it all the way. Stephen and Adeline wanted to get out of Federation Space as soon as possible.

“Pushing off from Odessa Station,” Joey said.

All the Tavaress were on the bridge.

Marissa used the thrusters to move their multi-megaton home away from the station. The thrusters flared in the darkness as the Dahlia pushed off from her berth. “Engaging main engines.”

The engines fired at the rear of the ship. The acceleration pushed Luke toward the floor instead of him having to rely on his mag-boots to hold him there.

“Clear of the primary envelope.” Marissa said. “Altering heading to align with path to Odessa System, planet number four, Green Rise Station.”

Luke traced the line from Odessa Station and its orbit around the remote sub-jovian planet, across space, to meet up with the orbital path of the fourth planet and the orbiting Green Rise Station. It was like hitting a dartboard spinning another dartboard and getting a bull’s-eye.

At least we have computers to figure it out.

They waited another ten minutes.

“Going to one gravity acceleration,” Marissa said.

Familiar weight pressed them all to the floor, locked into their path.

“Nicely done, Marissa. Good coordination there, Joey,” Adeline said.

“Well, I’m off to work. Have fun,” Luke said.

“Don’t get chased off the station again!” Joey said from his console.

Luke headed back to the net-suit room. He moved to his new suit, checking connections, feeling the machined metal. He took off his coveralls, revealing his new sleeve underneath. It was comfortable…and it looked cool too.

He let out a breath. The last time he jumped in his suit, everything had been on the line. Now he had a top-of-the-line suit, and it was all his, and his job was in a game.

Luke stepped into the suit. The small metal plates clicked and locked into place around him. Curtis was right—like a damn glove. Even better.

He rose as his suit regulated his temperature. It smelled new. Like fabrics and electronics. The projectors hummed and came to life as he arrived in the wild second world of humanity, the net.

He’d logged in near Wally’s Burgers.

“So, how’s the escape going?” Fin stood up from the bench he’d been sitting at.

“Unsuspected and undetected.” Luke laughed and hit Fin’s fist. “Where’s Jynx?”

“She said she’d meet us in there. She’s doing something.” Fin shrugged.

“Sphere World?”

“Hell, yeah. Was thinking we could check out the Free Node.”

“Sure. But probably not a whole lot going on there.”

“Ha. Dude, you know how many people there are in the Howlers and Gremlins? Like a couple hundred, maybe a thousand in each. Everyone got free access to the node. And then there are free players wanting to hang out. Might have only been two days, but I hear rumors,” Fin said.

“All right, all right.” Luke grinned and used the menus to start Sphere World and access the server.

He used the map. Three points blinked at him, showing spawn points on Sphere World itself, on Valhalla, and out in the asteroid belt.

Luke clicked on Valhalla, and it zoomed in on Free Node—the new name for the node they had captured from the Star Kings.

The map had already changed in some big ways.

“I got some bot space free in spawn A?” Luke said.

“Yeah, sure. That sounds good to me,” Fin said.

Luke jumped into a bot.

[Legion member, purchase fee waived.]

Luke’s vision resolved into Free Node.

A mining ship burned hard, coming in to land on a landing pad, turning the ice crystals that landed into steam that rolled over the busy node.

“Holy crap.” Luke stepped out of a row of bots that stood off to the side of the main street that ran through the base.

Fin stepped forward as well.

“Well, this is a little different.”

[Foster is requesting a party chat.]

Luke accepted, dragging Fin in with him.

“Luke, Fin! How you doing, boys? You get that business in the real sorted out?”

“Yeah. Got a new suit, so should be able to do this for longer than before.”

“Good! We’ve got plenty for you to do here!”

“And he got kicked out of Odessa Station.”

“What for?” Foster asked, his voice lowering.

“Some kid—he wanted the suit I got. He cornered me, wanted me to turn it over to him, but I ran away instead. Got into a whole thing, but we offloaded, and we’re heading to another station now. His dad is the deputy of Odessa, apparently.”

“You know how to pick them.” Foster chuckled. “I’d advise you to bypass the warpgate. Too many ways someone can screw with you.”

“That’s what my dad said. You were a marine before, right?”

“Yeah, seems like a lifetime ago and yesterday. Doesn’t really leave you. Though I don’t remember saying anything,” Foster said dryly.

“I, uh, might have done some studying?”

“Well, at least I know my record is doing well.”

“Yeah, my dad worked on the Liberty for the Federation. He got out twenty years ago.”

“Service started to go downhill a few years back. Turned from protecting against raids on our shipping and dealing with the pirates in settled systems into something else. Couldn’t agree with it no more and got out. Didn’t want to be a part of it and joined up with the Gremlins. I remember hearing about a Tavares. I think he might have been on the Liberty, maybe. I’d have to check. Anyway, come meet me at the inner camp. I’ll give you the half-cred tour!” Foster pinged them a marker.

They walked through the node, finding Foster waiting for them.

“You’ve done some work in here. Looks totally different,” Fin said as they got close.

“Amazing what you can do with a few bored grunts and a shitload of miners. I kept bugging Mitch with pictures of the mess till he gave in and gave us a new way to lay out the miners. We’ve nearly quadrupled how much we’re mining. He’s taking a cut, as he’s the boss man of all that.”

Luke and Fin jogged along the street. There were stores made from cut-out storage containers, selling weapons and all kinds of gear. Players wandered the city; it was filled with people going about their business.

They headed deeper into the node, to a secondary inner camp. It was about half the size of the Star Kings’ Node Seven. Armored gates opened for them. Turrets lined the walls. Several Gremlins were wandering around armed and armored up.

There was a range off to one side with a container building. A bot was taking apart weapons, checking, and putting them back together. Two containers had been welded together, and a wide door cut into the side, revealing broken factories getting repaired by a group of Gremlins and Howlers, by their markings. Other storage buildings were dotted around the area, each working on different gear or hosting bots ready to be used.

Foster waved them up to the middle of the camp.

“Welcome to Free Node!” He waved his hands as they reached the command post.

They went inside and found the command post inactive.

“You haven’t turned it on?” Luke asked.

“No, the command post is on. It’s several meters beneath our feet.” Foster chuckled.

“A decoy?”

“I’m sure others are doing the same. Command posts are the heart and soul of a base.” Foster pulled up a terminal, throwing up a projected map of the area in the middle of the inert command post.

“This is Free Node. Two parts—inner camp and outer city. Inner camp is laid out as a star fortress. This increases the area that we can shoot from and decreases the area the enemy can hit. Only has Legion members. We’ve got workshops all around, as well as two armories and defensive turrets. Workshops are fixing broken gear. That’s faster than recycling into ingots and pumping it out again. Just need to use a repair tool.”

“So we can heal someone with a repair tool instead of them having to jump into a new bot?” Luke asked.

“Yup. Means we can save on reinforcements. What I really want to know is if we use it on an enemy bot, can we claim it as our own?” Foster rested his hands on his hips proudly.

“I can’t see you, but I can feel the grin,” Fin said.

“Honestly, that would be awesome—turn their bots against them, something like zombies,” Luke said.

“Right! Anyway, okay, the node. So, we’ve got the inner camp. Outer city is a bit more relaxed and a little offset. We took the plans from Mitch, creating a grid over the area, and took samples. Mitch gave us mining locates, and we set out the automated miners in sequence. We’ve got a ton of factories, but not many miners, so we’re working to remedy that.”

Belts transported an ore river that fed into factory runs to produce gear.

“Much more spread out than up top,” Luke said.

“That’s ’cause Mitch went for the richest hidden planetoid he could find. That thing is more metal than anything else. Here, there’s ice and layers of crap to get through before you get to the good stuff,” Fin said.

“Well, on the surface…” Foster waved at three points of the camp. “We’ve got Hellcats and dropships bot-prepped and ready to go. They can take off in seconds.”

“Shame we couldn’t save more of the ships that crashed during the counterattack,” Luke said.

“We’ve got landing areas around the city. There are storage containers people can rent as homes or whatever. Our stores sell gear for above average on the market. We created some enterprising stores that get regular drops from their friends to trade with people here. We have the factories, so we rent factory minutes at a cost. If you’re not using your bot, you can sell it back to us at the same cost and someone else can log in.”

“What about the mining ship? We saw it as we were coming in.”

“Ah, I think you mean ships. There are twelve independent mining ships operating in the area. They go out and find the smaller deposits in the surrounding area and mine it to death, then come in and sell us the materials, and then keep it going. They find a claim too big for them, they sell us the coordinates, we throw an automated miner on it if we’ve got one to spare and give them a plat share of what we mine. Five percent till the claim runs dry.”

“So they’re motivated to find the big claims and turn them over to you,” Fin said.

Luke’s eyes widened.

“Right, and we don’t have people specialized in mining ships to go out hunting down the smaller nodes. The free players have stuff to do, and we reap the benefits, being their launching pad,” Foster said. “Come on. That’s not even the best part.” He led them out of the command post and to a storage container building that was filled with bots. There was a path between the bots to a big hole in the ground.

“What the—?” Luke said.

Foster led them down the rough-cut stairs.

“When we were cutting through the ravines to attack this place, I got an idea: defense in depth. We put down the containers to cover what we were doing and cut down into the ground beneath. The Star Kings had tunnels all over the place, with bots mining out the most expensive materials they could find, so we found pockets that were already cleared.” They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through a hallway. “We built a second base with a bit more cover.”

They came out of the hallway, passing through defenses.

“Is that compressed waste?” Luke pointed at the mixed blocks that made up the defenses.

“Yeah. Use a repair tool on them and they fuse together. Welcome to the under-dark.” Foster waved his hand at the open area beyond. Another camp lay on their left, with the real command post. To the right, there were hangars for every ship type and automated miners digging right into the bedrock in their grids.

“Now if someone fires a missile at the command post, we won’t lose.”

“Where do the hangars exit?” Fin asked.

“They come out into the ravines. Blow some charges and they can accelerate right down the ravine and skyward. Means even if we get attacked from afar, they can’t take out all our ships. And we can build a strike force here without anyone the wiser.”

“This is one hell of a feat,” Luke said.

“Heck, we’ve just got started. We haven’t actually reached the ravines yet and we’re still putting the ships back together. Got a lot of work ahead of us.” Foster looped his fingers into his ammunition belt.

“So why are people coming down here? Like the free players?” Fin asked.

“Get to walk on an ice planet without a breather? Build their own base? Go Hellcat racing? We’ve got three circuits across the ice fields and valleys set up. Sphere World is interesting, but you can’t do anything there really, just buy stuff and leave. Some people come down with a container of gear and build their own mining outpost or camp, build a base. If you got the materials, you can build anything. Now, with the Free Node, people can go visit them, and have a place to sell their gear to without having to pay for a shuttle to drop it off. It’s like the new frontier. Other nodes are going free to allow even more people down here. We want the game to grow, not just be a place where the guilds fight it out, turn it into another Fleet Commander.”

Lights flashed and Foster raised his hand.

[Free Node under attack]

[Defend]

[00:44:59]

“Attack incoming! I say again, attack incoming! Man your stations!” Foster announced on the Legion general channel, running to the stairs.

“Luke, Fin—ditch those bots and get ones outfitted with armor and grab a weapon. You’ll need it!”

“Got it!”

Luke jumped into a bot in the under-dark. The rows were coming alive with Gremlins coming online. He followed the flow to a storage container filled with weapons.

[Jynx is online.]

He fired her an invite as he entered. He slapped a repair tool to his leg and grabbed a machine gun from the wall, mag-clamping two boxes of ammunition to himself.

“Hey, guys,” Jynx said.

“Hurry up and spawn in. Free Node is under attack,” Fin yelled.

“On the map, look under the base. There are more bots there to jump into and they’re ready to fight,” Luke said as he ran out of the container.

Fin was with him holding a sniper, with a pistol on his thigh.

“All right, looks like a mining ship was coming in from a haul, and got noticed. The enemy were trying to sneak through the ice pillars to the northeast. Howlers, go have some fun. Use the surface ships,” Foster said on the general chat.

Bots streamed through the container armories and up the stairs to the inner camp.

Luke and Fin ran up the stairs two at a time, weaving through openings between bots, and ran out into the camp. The wall filled with people and the turrets tracked across the sky instead of lazily meandering on auto.

Luke reached the top of the wall and was met with the howl of burner engines. Hellcats and dropships lifted off the ground around the base.

Red indicators appeared as the enemy fleet, knowing they were spotted, came out of the pillars. They threw up a plume of steam in their wake, coming in fast, low, and dangerous. They appeared on the horizon, raising plumes of ice shards in their wake.

“They’re from the Liquid Gold guild!”

A flash of tracers connected the guild ships to the mining ship’s engines. It skewed to the side and crashed into the ice, spinning and coming apart as momentum converted into kinetic energy.

“Assholes,” Luke muttered as the Liquid Gold ships fired on the remote mining points. He hadn’t noticed the automated miners hooked up to storage containers dotted around Free Node like oil wells.

Fin aimed down his rifle. “They’ll get their due.”

Howler ships shook out into their groups quickly, as if they’d done this a hundred times before. They turned toward the oncoming Liquid Gold.

Jynx ran up beside Luke. “Well, shit! That’s a lot of ships.” She checked her machine gun and arcs.

“Alpha to Golf Squads, move out to the city walls,” Foster ordered on squad chat.

“We’re moving.” They followed him through the inner camp and out the gates. The other squads pushed out with them, and spread along the outer wall, facing the incoming forces.

“Hotel, I’ve got a crappy job for you. I want your people watching the other wall from inside the camp. Make sure that we don’t get hit in the ass with anything,” Foster said.

“Understood, Commander. No worries,” Hotel leader said.

Luke checked the map. Many of the crafting and mining free players had left. Others wanting to join the fight jumped into available bots and ran for the defenses.

“Damn, looks like a lot of people want in on the action. Look at all those bots heading to the armories!” Fin said.

“Howlers heading out,” Ichika reported. The pitch of the engines changed as the orbiting Hellcats and Turtles headed out to meet the Liquid Gold.

“Just need to hold for forty-five minutes.” Luke checked the running countdown timer.

The Liquid Gold Hellcats pushed forward to meet the Howlers’ forces of four Hellcats to one Turtle. Missiles, chaff, and machine guns opened up on both sides. They turned into an erratic dance of aerial maneuvers, twisting and turning to get one another, like cats chasing their tails in mid-air.

Ships went up in a wash of explosion, or stabbed into the ground, leaving a black plume in their wake.

Liquid Gold dropships exploded open, spilling out their bots.

“Two more groups coming in,” Ichika reported.

They approached from different angles but mostly from the northeast.

Ships dropped from the sky above, strafing one of the new groups, sending up rock and ice.

“We’ll handle this one,” Dana said, leading her twenty Hellcats through the second Liquid Gold formation.

The Liquid Gold pushed on through the fighting. Their Hellcats gave as good as they got, defending the Turtles, spewing twin lines of tracers across the sky.

The Howler formations cleared the Liquid Gold’s, banking to come back onto target, the base’s defenses started firing.

Missiles streaked over the node. A CIWS mounted on a platform let rip with rounds, cutting a missile apart. The explosion forced several people nearby to the ground. The CIWS and the anti-air turrets covered the air in flak and rounds.

There were too many fighters for the defensive turrets to keep up with and try to hit the dropships as well.

Their aim changed to the node as the anti-air turrets took out several dropships, their cargo bays spilling out their occupants.

Luke ducked from a blind-fired missile. Several struck the outer wall, killing the bots on it and breaking it open. Others hit the ground behind the wall, or the inner wall. Nothing made it close to the decoy command post as four CIWS on its roof hunted down anything targeting their area.

Several of the storage container stores were destroyed by missiles.

“Shit, that’s close,” Luke muttered as a missile sailed over his head and another came in lower. “Watch out!” Luke’s voice rose as a missile sped toward the wall to his left before he could do anything about it.

Gravity lost its hold as the blast tossed him back and away from the wall. He hit the ice and tumbled.

Fin groaned. “Well, that was fun, but I don’t want to do it again anytime soon.”

“Jynx?” Luke asked. His machine gun had come to a stop past him, so he grabbed it and checked it.

“I’m good! Worse than riding one of those bull machines.”

“What are you doing riding a bull machine? You going country on me?” Fin asked.

“At a circus. You’re the most hick out of all of us, out in the back worlds,” Jynx said.

“Let’s get back on the wall,” Luke said. “Anyone need fixing?”

“Does this look weird to you?” Fin waved his elbow; his forearm was held on by a thin piece of metal.

“I think just all this area.” Jynx waved at her face as Luke walked to Fin.

Fin snorted. “Ass.”

Luke put his machine gun down, put Fin’s arm in place, and used his repair tool.

“I’m heading up!” Jynx said. “Hurry up!”

“Thanks, Doc,” Fin said as Luke finished.

“Try not to get nearly—” Luke ducked as another missile careened into the ground nearby, peppering them with ice.

“It’s Christmas!” Fin said.

“—blown up,” Luke finished what he was saying.

The Liquid Gold dropships engines roared, slowing down to deploy their forces. One took a missile to the side and howled as it turned and spun, launching several bots that were jumping out its ramp. It crashed into the ground, throwing up a wave of shaved ice. Another took a missile to the front and went up in a fireball.

“Get your heads down!” Luke yelled as the wall rattled with the angry pattering of the Turtle’s turret across their section of wall.

Luke stood up, aiming over the wall. Smoke was being thrown out liberally to cover the approach.

“Watch out! Over there.” Jynx pinged a location, firing on a group of bots using a crater as cover.

A dropship’s engine sucked in the smoke as it cut through the cloud. It fired missiles, its gunners firing at anything that moved as it led an erratic path over the defenses. Two missiles leapt free of the outer wall and hit the dropship, causing it to fall out of the sky, just past a section of the outer wall.

Luke fired bursts at the enemy running across the ice fields.

“Right! Right!” Fin yelled, pinging a smoke-covered hill just ten meters away as bots ran out.

Luke fired from the left across to the right of the line. He got several bots, but more made it through.

“Shit!” He held down the trigger, fighting with his gun to keep it on target.

“Breach over by Charlie Squad!”

“I can pop a missile in the breach if you want?” Lima Squad asked.

“Do it!”

A missile tore free from the inner camp through the breach and exploded beyond, clearing some of the smoke.

A Hellcat howled past, firing along the wall. In its wake, the smoke washed away for several seconds.

“Watch out! They’re moving up that little ditch around our left and sneaking up that hill.” Jynx pinged what she was talking about, firing bursts at where the enemy bots were sticking their heads out. She got one as they were about to throw something.

Smoke started to cover the hill.

A bot ran out, silhouetted against the smoke.

Luke fired; his and Jynx’s tracers cut them down. “Not sure if that was you or me.”

“Ship!” Fin yelled as a dropship’s burners cut through the smoke clouds covering the drop point. Missiles tore free from the ship, creating a stilted line. Its turrets raked the outer line, moving across the city to the inner camp.

Rounds sparked off its sides as chaff threw out, breaking tracking on missiles as it came in right for the wall.

Fin’s missile snaked across the sky, striking the dropship’s engine and causing it to tilt.

“I am a god!

Luke and Jynx looked over at Fin.

“What?” he said at their stares.

The dropship hit the ground and exploded.

“Friggin’ idiot,” Jynx muttered, shaking her head.

“You’re either the best fucking sniper I’ve ever seen or the luckiest bastard!” Luke yelled.

“Aim for the cockpit!” Fin yelled against the howl of ship engines and weapons fire.

Jynx was full cyclic as Fin fired rapidly on semi-automatic.

“Keep it up. I’m grabbing a launcher!” Luke yelled.

“Gimme your ammo!” Jynx yelled.

Luke tossed a box at her foot. She stepped on it without pausing.

He jumped from the wall and ran for a weapons store. The walls were lined with weapons and ammunition boxes of different kinds. He grabbed a launcher, locking it to his back. He threw sub-machine gun mags to his legs and grabbed the smaller gun in his right, snagging a missile pack with his left hand.

“Got it! Heading back.” He ran out, dodging Gremlins trying to get inside the store.

“More dropships coming in! They’re really pressing the flank,” Fin yelled.

Liquid Gold bots moved between buildings. Luke dropped the missile pack wincing as he raised his gun and fired on automatic, cutting down the two bots.

Luke scanned for more enemy bots. He lowered his rifle hooking it under his arm and snatching up the missile pack he kept running. Well, at least I didn’t blow up.

“Watch out! We have enemy inside the camp!” Luke hurried towards the wall again, holding the missile pack and keeping his gun up for more Liquid Gold bots.

“Miss me?” Luke yelled over the howling dropship’s engines, its turrets and missiles carving up the base.

Luke dropped everything and grabbed his launcher, flicking it on. An aiming reticule fell on the dropship, beeping red until it gave a long beep and turned green. The missile hissed away, crashing into the dropship’s right rear engine.

The dropship rose, tilted, and dropped catching its small stubby wings on the snow and ice, breaking apart and flipping over. Its momentum carried it forward several meters, leaving weapon mounts and armor plates in the trail behind it. Smoke spewed from the burners as electrical sparks flashed in its holed hull.

Luke patted his launcher. “I like you.”

“Well, I like you too! Now get your ass up here!” Fin yelled. “And will you stop petting that damn missile launcher?”

“No damn privacy. And like you wouldn’t be?” Luke knelt to read the instructions laser etched on the launcher and the missile pack. He unloaded the spent casing, unscrewing one of the two tubes on the missile pack and loaded a fresh missile into the launcher.

“I just have a deep appreciation for explosions and explosion makers!”

“Fin, on the right! My ping. Dickhead keeps poking up and taking pot-shots,” Jynx muttered, a ping showing beyond the wall.

Fin fired.

“Nice shot! Can barely see their head.”

“Fucking…whack-a-heart?…out here.”

“Whack-a-heart?”

“I wanted whack-a-mole, but being all smart, like with the heart—Ah, shut up.” Fin growled at Luke and Jynx’s chuckling.

“Doing a barrel change,” Jynx said.

“Coming up.” Luke locked his launcher, grabbed his rifle and the pack, and ran up the stairs. The wall was covered in military debris, ammunition containers, and casings.

Jynx was crouched against the wall, popping out her old barrel and replacing it, her bot’s hands unaffected by the skin-melting heat.

“Dropship on my ping!” Fin said.

Luke grabbed his launcher, putting his rifle down.

The dropship peeled away from the drop point, heading to the rear. He targeted. Someone jostled him as they went past, and the dropships dumped chaff. Dana said to wait for them to blow their chaff before firing.

He took back the ire directed at the jostler, aimed, locked, and fired. The missile accelerated out of the tube, kicked in its motor, blasted across the open ground, and entered the dropship’s bay as its ramp was closing.

The dropship came apart from the inside.

“We should give you a missile launcher more often,” Fin said as Luke tore open the tube holding the last missile and shoved it into the launcher.

“Is that… Is that a fucking tank?” Fin yelled and pinged something.

“Back in!” Jynx stood up adding her machine gun to the fight.

Luke finished reloading, moving up to the wall. Backlit through the smoke, a dropship released a tank it had been carrying. Its engines howled as it disappeared into thicker smoke on the ground.

He aimed at the dropship but couldn’t get a lock.

“Big gun and looks like an angry fucker! Yup! Luke!”

“Too much smoke! It messes up the lock-on. Must’ve had a going out of business—left!” Luke pinged a group running from one cloud of smoke to another. He put his launcher down, grabbed his machine gun and pulled the trigger. His tracers cut through the bot’s charge.

“They’re making a push.” Jynx added her fire to Luke’s.

The tank appeared through the smoke and fired, throwing the rest of the wispy smoke away from it as a section of the wall blew inward, scattering across the camp.

It hovered over the ground, riding over the uneven terrain with ease.

The machine gun on the tank fired at the wall, raking the top of it. Luke ducked with the other defenders, scrambling across the casings and boxes, grabbing his launcher. The machine gun fired past them; Luke stood, aimed, and fired. The tank reversed angrily as chaff and flares threw up around it.

The missile met some chaff and exploded, carving out a section of ice and shaking the tank, but leaving it unaffected.

“I think he knows about us!” Fin yelled and jumped off the wall into the camp, followed by Jynx.

Luke turned to follow them as the main cannon turned towards him. He heard the whoosh of the round, but not the impact.

[You Died]

“Well, either you are dead, super dead, or, well, flying chrome,” Fin said.

“I think a part of that shell went through you. There ain’t much left of your bot.” Jynx snorted.

“I got a bot back in camp. Meet you as soon as I can.” Luke’s vision cleared, showing the underground hangar.

“Tanks on Charlie’s mark!” Charlie Squad leader said.

One Hellcat chased another across the hangar. The howl of their engines broke off as the anti-air covered the enemy fighter in accelerated shrapnel.

Explosions boomed across the camp as Luke ran into the armory, grabbing a pistol, mags, machine gun, and boxes.

“We’ve got some more over here on Foxtrot’s marker. Missiles work,” Foxtrot’s squad leader said.

“Get a missile launcher for each squad,” Foster ordered. “Take the spare storage container sides and slap them to the breaches. Use grenades in that smoke! Flush them out!”

Luke ran out of the armory. Squads were hauling out turret parts and slapping them into position, using repair tools to bring them back online.

“Fin, you want to grab a launcher?” Luke asked as he ran out of the gate, down into the city.

“Sure, I’ll give it a shot. Heh, get it?”

“Don’t shoot the dropships that are coming in from the south. They’re free players reinforcing from Sphere World,” Foster said.

Luke glanced over to see the streaks of dropships coming down from vacuum. They arced down toward the node.

“Friendly dropships coming in from the south,” Luke repeated in squad chat.

“Got it. Probably the only action that’s going on now the guilds are jumping all over the damn place,” Jynx said.

“Just come in here, screw up the carpet, don’t take their shoes off,” Fin scoffed.

“No manners,” Jynx said.

“What is happening with the world? Also, I got a launcher. Damn, this thing is bigger than I thought.”

Fin came out of the armory with his rifle on his back, a launcher on one shoulder, and his other hand holding an ammunition box, Jynx right behind him.

“Tanks breaking in!” Foster yelled on command chat.

“Jynx, grab some more of those missile boxes,” Luke yelled and checked his map for the markers, seeing the break forming along the wall.

“Got it!”

“Okay, follow me. We’re going to hit up this marker and create a stopgap to push back the tanks and the people pouring in.” Luke switched to command. “Bravo Squad moving to the breach near you, Foxtrot. Going to try to hold them back there.”

Tracers from the camp cut across from the right and into the left, where the break was.

Two missiles tore out from the camp. They blew up behind some storage crate buildings, shredding one. A container along the road exploded and was thrown to the side.

“Get in here.” Luke tagged a building on his right. Two containers were attached to one another, creating a chevron facing where the storage container building had been tossed aside.

“Fin, you stay down here and hit the tanks. Jynx, with me!” Luke jumped up and landed on the container. He dropped to his belly, pulling the machine gun boxes off his chest. “That feels better.”

“Attach them to your lower back when you’re not in a dropship. Eeasy to grab and you’re not in a weird position when you aim,” Jynx said, on the far side of the container to his left.

“Good call. Shit!” Luke fired on a group of bots running through where the building had been. They cut them down.

More bots ran out. Luke and Jynx fired off each other to conserve ammo.

A tank raced out from behind the storage containers the bots were using as cover.

“Fin, tank! Coming out into the street!” Luke said.

The tank’s machine gun fired, going low and then high, peppering the containers. It hit the divot created by shooting the storage container out of the way. A missile from the wall streaked over to hit the tank’s front armor, dinging it and leaving a scorch mark.

The missile turned the tank away from Fin, revealing their rear.

Fin’s missile clipped the rear armored skirt and stabbed through the tank. It must have hit the power plant; it fizzed and sparked. Then something exploded, causing the top of the tank to pop off and roll down to the side.

“Nice hit. But now they’ve got cover,” Jynx said, firing at the bots that had been using the tank as cover to push up on them.

Luke added in his fire.

“Grenades, Fin, or pump a missile in there. Wait—hold. Tank!” Jynx pinged another tank farther down the road.

Luke used his squad leader menu and tagged it. “Tank on Bravo Squad mark!”

It turned and fired. The rounds passed over Luke, but the main cannon fired and suddenly the container Jynx had been on was a holed mess.

“Sonuvabitch!” Jynx yelled.

“Got me too,” Fin said.

Luke rolled off the container. Bots poured out into the street. The camp opened up with their turrets as the tank fired again. Luke heard it hit the walls of the inner camp. He got to his feet and ran for where he’d seen Fin. Half his right side was gone, but his launcher was fine on his left side.

Luke dropped his machine gun and ran for the launcher, just a meter out into the street.

The tank fired flares and chaff as missiles blew up above it, then fired up at the camp again. Bots ran out toward the camp. Luke grabbed the missile launcher. Some bots noticed him, so he jumped back into cover. Rounds pinged off the containers around him. Luke ran to the other corner of the container buildings; he aimed and fired, not waiting for a lock. The tank tried to move forward, but the missile aimed at its center of mass hit it in the rear side, taking it off its treads.

Another missile tore free from the camp, through the joint in the turret and the body of the tank in a pillar of sparks.

Turrets filled the air with rounds, tearing through the bots. Luke heard bots moving where Fin had been. Luke pulled off the submachine gun, dropping the launcher. He crouched and turned the corner. He fired into three bots, downing two before he ran out of rounds. The remaining bot fired at him. He ran across the opening behind the containers, ejecting his magazine and slapping in a new one. He took some hits in the side but made it behind more storage containers. Luke jumped behind a tuft of ice that covered a ditch, releasing the bolt on the submachine gun.

The third bot was seconds behind. They aimed at the storage container, so focused they didn’t see the ditch.

Luke rose to kneeling. The bot started to turn back around as Luke squeezed off a burst into the back of their head, dropping them. He made to step out as rounds ripped down along the side of his ditch. Luke fired back at them then grabbed the dead bot and pulled it into the ditch. He grabbed a grenade off them and threw it in the direction of shots. He mag-clamped his submachine gun and grabbed the dead bot’s rifle and a magazine. Then he slapped the magazine to his stomach mag clamp and checked the rifle as the grenade went off. Luke peered up over the ditch, seeing the blackened area of the grenade blast. A bot fired, forcing him back into cover.

The grenade had gone too far. One bot kept shooting at him; another was prepping a grenade.

“I’m pinned down. You guys near?” Luke yelled.

“No, we’re not really,” Fin said.

A grenade landed in the ditch. Luke wrapped his arms around the rifle and jumped out of the ditch, hitting the ground, and rolling to the storage container building. Rounds hit around him as the grenade went off in a fountain of ice. Luke got up and ran, using the building as cover.

Luke heard shooting—a lot of it—through the city. He looked left, seeing players rush down the street.

“Work your way back to our position on the wall. That area is a mess,” Fin said.

Luke weaved through containers, hoping to keep them between him and the two bots that were hunting him.

He came out in a dead space between the material store and a mining gear store.

Jynx was on the roof with Fin.

Fin fired, hitting something in the distance, and fired again.

“Players are coming in from the drop points and funneling toward here. Liquid Gold stirred some shit up!”

“Be advised: Star Kings are launching ships.” Foster’s voice didn’t change, it was the same professional tone he used with all his messages.

Luke’s stomach clenched.

“You think they’re coming here?” Jynx asked.

“They might,” Luke muttered. He ran around the building. “I’m checking online.”

“There’s an armory over there.” Fin pinged a storage building across the street.

“Cover me.”

“Gotcha,” Fin said.

Luke ran over, grabbing some new magazines and slapping them into place. He left the building.

“The Liquid Gold are in full retreat. Hammer the bastards!” Foster snapped out. “Get their tanks with missiles. Push up to the wall, all squads! Aerial, I want you to run through this smoke and clear our vision.”

“Holy shit,” Fin turned, taking in the camp.

Luke tracked with him. Plumes of dropships, Hellcats, and shuttles—dozens of them—were burning for vacuum.

“Star Kings are launching an attack. No one knows what they’re going to do. They’ve got a hundred and fifty ships heading up to atmosphere,” Jynx said.

Players ran forward to catch the last of the Liquid Gold, firing at them and cutting down their bots. Dropship engines roared as they took in as many bots as possible and beat a hasty retreat. The fighting in the sky was still waging.

Luke couldn’t read it to tell who was winning.

His gaze couldn’t help but return to the Star Kings’ ships climbing to the heavens, just black dots in the distance.

“I hope they keep on going,” he muttered.

“They might. The rest of the system is out there, and there are guilds finding nodes on the Martian planet, too.” Fin was quiet for half a beat and then grunted, coming to sit on top of the container. “So how did things go with your family, and what the hell happened at Odessa?”

Luke jumped up on top of the armory, hanging his legs over it, and told them what had happened since they’d taken the node.

“What about you two, anything new?”

“Not much. The old Orion’s Belt Enterprises board is still trying to sue Dad and Uncle Stuart over Sphere World.” Jynx’s voice was sickly-sweet.

“That’s such bullshit. They don’t have a majority,” Fin said.

“Seems they’ve got some plan to take it back.” Jynx snorted. “Been taking up a lot of my dad’s time.”

“Well, the only thing I’ve got is a boss riding my ass. Seems he doubts I had a stomach flu for forty-eight hours.” Fin laughed.

“Don’t you like your job?” Luke asked.

“I like it fine. Like, it’s easy enough, and I can do it all in my sleep. Think that might be the problem; There’s not much of a challenge. Why?”

“You like doing this, right? Why not make this your job as well?” Luke said.

“Wait, so you’re actually going to play SW for work?” Jynx asked.

“Well, I want to, but you both have your own things going on.”

“But the Gremlins are a clan, not a guild. Not much money without sponsorships,” Jynx said.

“No, there ain’t, but this game has a ton of credit transactions. I can get missions looting from the guilds. Then there’s no reason we can’t earn some extra cash. Get some more time in with Mitch. It might be grindy, but it pays. It looks like Dana, the Howlers and the Gremlins are going to be working together in the future too. We’ve showed that we can defeat guilds if we need to.”

“I still can’t believe we were the Iron Admiral’s gunners.” Fin snorted.

“I thought she was a bitch. That’s how they make her out to be, but she’s really nice. Makes me think that the guilds hiring her were just stupid,” Jynx muttered.

“Think they were looking for fame. Winning was a distant second,” Luke said.

“So, still, the Gremlins? You just going to be mining and attacking everything in Sphere World?” Fin asked.

“I’m not sure but seems like Foster has a plan. And the Iron Admiral always has a plan.”

“So your plan is to be in on their plan?”

Luke grinned. “Yeah, I’m planning for a plan.”

“Hell, that could be pretty fun. You know, I’m not cut out for all the commanders and order side of things. That’s all you, Luke. The organization and administration—that could be fun.” Fin shrugged.

“All the numbers!” Jynx complained.

“Says the one who wants to work on making games,” Fin yelled.

“Hey that’s art, not numbers.”

[Victory]

[You have defended Free Node]

[Gained: 4024315 Platinum/2012 Credit(s)]

[Sell to Legion, Sphere World or Keep?]

“Gremlins will purchase all gear from you at Sphere World prices,” Foster blasted across the camp on the local channel. “Proceed to the inner camp gates for your credits or platinum transfer!”

He continued on the encrypted local to the Legion members. “All units, move to repair and reclaim. Good work. Let’s see if we can salvage some of those tanks.”

Two thousand credits in less than an hour of fighting. Even if the guilds don’t take me, this ain’t bad.

Chapter twenty

Chapter: 20

16, March 2242

Brad turned from the windows showing the city streaming by. He pulled out a screen and refreshed his messages; nothing new. He checked the latest news feeds about Sphere World. “Two hundred and thirty-five ships headed for Ares,” he read aloud.

“Ares?” Stuart asked, looking through the limo auto-car’s windows.

“God of war, from the Greeks—turned into Mars with the Romans. It’s a Martian-class planet, but I think they were going more for the war god than the environment,” Brad said.

Charlie got off his call and cleared his throat. “So, you ready for this?”

Brad adjusted his suit’s collar. He swore it had gotten tighter since he last wore it. At Xi’s funeral.

“About as ready as we can be,” Stuart said. “What should we expect?”

“Today is just about presenting the facts. Wwe hear what they’re filing against us with and why. We can then craft our counterargument to be stronger, and then the mediator will go over the case.”

“How long will it take?”

“It shouldn’t be longer than an hour. Though we’ll have to wade through the media to get up to the office. It also looks like the mediator, a Mister Cirelli, might not be totally neutral. But we have an iron-tight defense against their claims on Sphere World.” Charlie smiled.

“What do you mean, he might not be neutral?”

“His aunt is linked to Merlouc Corporation through various means. I’m not sure if that will help or harm us when dealing with Ella Waris.”

“That woman is always prepared, and she doesn’t go into anything unless she thinks she can win,” Brad said.

“A snake in the grass,” Stuart said.

Brad nodded.

“You have a personal history with her?”

“Yes. We thought of her as a friend at one point.” Brad glanced at Stuart, who sighed and shook his head, clasping his hands.

“We were looking for investment capital to create Orion’s Belt. She was just starting out in Merlouc Corporation, in charge of forming their sponsorship wing. She heard about our need for cash and wined and dined us. She got us deals to get us started, all for free. We thought she was interested in the game and just wanted to get it launched. Then she came in with what seemed like a cherry of a deal—go wide, sell some shares. We agreed to it. Price tanked, and we were hemorrhaging money. We didn’t have a product out on the market, and she manipulated the prices, taking in the lion’s share so she had a majority. Then she forced us to release the game as we had it. It wasn’t complete, but when it came out, it did well. Then she forced us to monetize the game: downloadable packs, loot boxes, cosmetics, any and every microtransaction we could stuff into the game.”

“She owned us—used the game to leapfrog a number of teams under her management.” Brad waved at his screen. “Star Kings was a tiny guild at the time. Now they’re the largest.”

“Well then, I’m going to have even more fun taking her down,” Charlie said.

The auto-limo slowed as they approached a skyscraper with a wide set of stairs swarmed with press and their float cams and mics.

“Shall we?” Charlie stepped out first.

They followed after him. The press encircled them, their cameras and mics vying for the best spots.

Lights flashed and burned into Brad’s eyes as he followed Charlie, questions thrown in from every direction.

“What are your comments on the charge that you’ve committed share fraud, Mister Lee?”

“Did you predict the interest in Sphere World?”

“Can you continue these microtransactions with the cost of this legal case?”

Brad tuned out their words and followed Charlie up the steps.

At the door, the press continued to yell out. Their float cameras and microphones halted before the building’s entrance.

The doors cut their shouting off, and Brad relaxed.

Security guards—a man and a woman—stood and watched the reporters with as much emotion as concrete.

Brad had seen a number of fighting men and women from across the factions. Corporate guards were some of the most ruthless. Mercenaries.

“Well, that was as pleasant as I always remember it. Time for another shower, I feel,” Stuart muttered in Brad’s ear as they followed Charlie.

Charlie greeted a man waiting for them in the reception. “Hearing room one, please.”

The man indicated for them to follow him. They passed through security scanners manned by more guards.

Down a marble hallway, the man opened a large door.

Charlie walked through first.

“The hell?” Stuart said, as Brad swallowed his words.

The press-reserved section of the court was filled with reporters. On the left side were several lawyers setting out their papers and information.

Charlie walked up the aisle and reached the swing doors onto the court floor.

“Well, get comfortable.” He indicated to the drink and snacks table off to the side.

The court had three tables, with the mediation corporation’s emblem embossed behind the longest table with three seats behind it. To the right was the press, with their own entrance and exit.

Brad went to the refreshments table, grabbing three bottles of water and a coffee.

“How is it?” Stuart asked.

Brad passed him a water bottle. “Smells good. Should be, for the cost of the mediation corporation.”

“Should take the urn with us.” Stuart smiled and got himself a cup.

They sat down in their seats, plush and oversized, with trays inlaid into the arms to hold their beverages and food if necessary.

Charlie returned from talking to the lady who was putting out drinks in front of the three chairs at the main table.

“The press was invited by the opposition. I can have them removed if you’d like?” Charlie asked.

“What do you think?”

“I think we see what their play is with the media. Question them directly. If we just react, they might be laying down a trap for us.”

Brad nodded and Stuart hid a sigh in his coffee.

“Want anything?” Brad asked, handing him a water bottle.

“No, this should be more than enough, thanks. Oh…” Charlie looked over Brad’s shoulder.

Brad turned to see the main shareholders walking in. Ella Waris strode in first, a picture of severe professionalism. She hid her curling lip behind her hand. Her actions were devoid of any hint of warmth, just as it had been when she trapped them, just as she had been with her son and family. Emotions, connections, they were another tool to her to get what she wanted.

A shorter, balding man walked behind her, and an equally regal, tanned lady came last. Brad stood tall against the derision in their eyes as they glanced at him and moved to their seats behind their legal team. Their assistants came over carrying drinks and screens, moving to the side to attend to their every need.

The door behind the long table opened. Three people walked out: a man with pale features and black hair, a willowy woman with her chestnut hair pulled in a ponytail, and a younger-looking man with an olive complexion, a single earring on the shaved side of his head of platinum hair.

The man with black hair sat in the middle and the others sat behind him. “All right, Orion’s Belt Enterprises shareholders versus Brad Lee and Stuart Martin. I, Mediator Cirelli, will be overseeing.”

Brad frowned. He felt Stuart look at him and shift in his seat. Brad’s stomach tightened; something was happening under the surface.

Cirelli indicated to the group of lawyers. A lady stood up. “Representing the Orion’s Belt Enterprises shareholders, we are presenting a case of duress.”

“Duress, Miss Chumak?” The man clasped his hands.

“Yes. It is our belief that Brad Lee agreed to and signed contracts in a state of duress and that he was not clear of mind to make these decisions.”

Brad’s gut tightened.

“The evidence provided will show that Mister Lee was subject to the grave loss of his partner just a few months ago. Since then, he and his associate Mister Martin have worked to reduce the price of the shares, without giving any information to the shareholders about their activities as employees of Orion’s Belt Enterprises. With these decisions, Mister Lee and Mister Martin led our shareholders to lose faith in their abilities.”

He’s been dead a year and you’re not going to let him rest? Brad looked over at Ella and saw a flash of a smirk before she looked forward.

“Hmm, okay, but Mister Martin retained all his faculties.”

“Mister Lee and Martin worked closely together in their business and personal life. They are known to be great friends. The loss of Mister Xi Lee would have hit them both hard.” Chumak opened her hands. “They were not thinking clearly, leading them to make decisions that they would not have made if they were clear of mind. They did not inform the board of their activities and signed paperwork wrongfully.”

“What are you seeking here?”

“Thankfully, Mister Lee and Mister Martin were able to secure the majority shares of the company. At this time, we will not ask them to repay the losses that my clients sustained in their negligence. Instead, we request that they hand their shares over to my clients to repay their losses partially.”

“The stance of Mister Lee and Mister Martin?”

Charlie turned to them and pressed a button that wouldn’t allow anyone to listen in. “Do you think they can get you on duress? Were you thinking clearly when you made these decisions?”

“We made them before Xi passed away,” Stuart said.

Brad was thankful for Stuart’s response; he was having a hard time letting go of the water bottle he was turning in his hands.

Charlie looked between them. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Brad said.

Charlie nodded and turned off the field, standing. “I represent Orion’s Belt Enterprises. Our stance is that these are baseless allegations targeting the personal relationships of my clients who have committed no wrongdoing under corporation law. I think that it might be best if this is taken to civil court if we are looking at the personal lives of Mister Lee and Mister Martin.” Charlie paused, eyes flickering from Mister Cirelli to Miss Chumak and raising his eyebrow.

He focused back on Cirelli, clearing his throat. “If we are looking at the status of the previous shareholders and their shares, I fail to see how agreements that Mister Lee and Mister Martin made personally have any bearing. Agreements and decisions were made previous to Mister Xi Lee’s unfortunate passing. It is mere circumstance, the timing.”

Cirelli looked at the group of lawyers.

“We are saying that Mister Martin and Mister Lee have not been in their right minds since the loss of their beloved Xi Lee. That all agreements they have made since then should be null and void, that they should pay damages in liquid funds, or stock to the real shareholders of the corporation, who were ill-informed of the true situation.”

The mediator muttered something to the lady beside him.

She nodded and looked up something on her screen.

“Very well. This situation will require mediation to clear up the issue of the corporation’s shareholders.” The man sat forward. “We will meet again in three days, and you will give your statements. Thank you for your time. I hope to bring this to a close for everyone’s satisfaction.”

“Excuse me,” Charlie said as Cirelli turned from the court.

“Yes, Mister Grinkos?”

“I was not informed that the press would be in attendance.”

“Oh, the documents should have been sent to you.” Cirelli looked at his silver-haired assistant, who leaned over and talked in his ear. “The documents were sent to Mister Lee,” Cirelli said in a strained voice, arching an eyebrow. “Was this not passed on to you?”

“Was there a reason they were sent to my client and not their legal counsel?” Charlie asked.

“I was not aware they had any legal counsel.”

“That sounds very odd indeed. I would like to move to dismiss these documents.”

“Why?”

“Because I have not been given them ahead of this trial and they were not presented to me in a timely fashion.”

“They were sent to your clients when arbitration was announced,” Cirelli said. “Do your clients have something to hide?”

“No, though, dear press, this is a personal matter. A man has lost his partner, someone he raised two daughters with. I know you have a job to do, but I would thank you for your professionalism.” Charlie smiled at the press and then at the rest of the court.

“Would a copy be provided to me, and its contents summarized?”

“It states that with the popularity of Sphere World, it would be best to keep those who are supporting the stock and the company informed. Complete transparency must be retained to ensure the trust of those who use OBE’s services.”

“Thank you. I will discuss this further with my clients.” Charlie turned to Stuart and Brad, pressing the button again. “If we kick them out, it’ll look like we have something to hide. This is not just an attack on your business. This is a personal attack on both of you. They’re looking to use the media against you.”

“So, we have to keep them, or we’re hiding something and they’re going to tear our lives apart anyway,” Stuart said.

“Yes. Brad, do you have that message?” Charlie asked.

Brad pulled out his screen finding the message in his inbox. His hand tightened around the screen. He knew there was no such message there before the meeting. He stared at the prosecution and to Cirelli, feeling the gloating in their eyes. They were setting him up.

Of course, even mediators can be bought.

“There was no such message sent before this meeting. They must have slipped it in while we were here.”

“What about the timestamp?”

“It says it’s from last week.”

“Okay, then we can hit the messaging service, say that the message wasn’t received on time, they should have the records. That will allow us to delay.”

“They’re working with one another,” Brad hissed.

“Yes, so it means we need to win this with overwhelming information, so the mediator has no option but to side with us. It looks like we’re in muddy waters, though,” Charlie said in a grave tone. “I say we agree to allow the press to remain in the mediation. It at least gives us witnesses.”

Stuart sighed. “Agree.”

“Agreed,” Brad said.

Charlie nodded and turned the field off. “Very well. Thank you for the clarification.”

“No problem, Mister Grinkos.” Cirelli pushed back from the table and stood.

“I will be asking the messaging service to be contacted to see if there are any discrepancies in their records,” Charlie interrupted him.

“Are you wishing to bring in a multi-system messaging service about a failure to check your messages?” Miss Chumak tutted.

“Miss Chumak,” Cirelli growled, but it all sounded so fake to Brad now.

Charlie smiled. “Yes, I would. They are supposed to be one of the most secure messaging services and speedy. It would be best we make sure that everything is done properly. In a case such as this, having a failure of communications is a critical failure. I will ask all messages be routed to my office to be time stamped upon receipt as well, going forward.”

Cirelli paused, looking at all three of them.

“I see. This session is at a close.”

He turned and left as Chumak turned to the stockholders.

The press talked to one another and pulled out their screens. Charlie grabbed his own screen and led Brad and Stuart out.

Ella met them at the door. “I was so sorry to hear of Lee’s passing. It seems that my invitation to the funeral got lost in the net.” She closed the distance as that same sound-cancelling buzz filled the air. “Seems you two grew a spine finally. I didn’t think you had another game left in your sorry brains. Don’t worry—I’ll make sure to put it to good use and make it profitable. I hear there’s a serious problem with the number of guilds selling their materials to Sphere World. That must be quite the financial burden.” She smiled, as if passing on her condolences.

She patted Brad’s arm, making him flinch as she wiped away unseen tears and walked out. Brad turned, seeing several cameras following her out. She’d used him to create a photo op.

Brad crushed the water bottle in his hands as they quickly left the building, pushing through the media and into the auto-limo. Brad didn’t trust himself to speak, his rage threatening to boil over. “She is a grade-A bitch.”

“This seems a bit personal, if I might say?” Charlie looked at them both.

“She blames us for her losing her son,” Stuart said. “He was nothing but a toy to her, something to be dressed up and to do exactly as she said. She picked out his life for him, never asked him what he wanted.”

Brad rubbed his face, gazing out of the windows. “One night he was staying over. I found him by the pool just watching the world go by. He was sleeping over—said he was so peaceful at our house. Said it was the only place he didn’t have to be someone else. Games were his only escape from his mother. We talked about random things, and he passed me the knife he had hidden in his sleeve. He had been intending to cut his wrists open and jump into our pool to end it all.” Brad released the bottle in his grip.

Stuart patted his arm, taking over. “He has a good eye for administration, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Turned to biology and plants. Mary taught him. He wasn’t the best at it, but he was determined.” Stuart laughed. “She found him a job. He’s a lead director on the terraforming project over in Hydrea now.”

“That’s one hell of a kid. He messages us every so often, but he hangs out with Jynx nearly every day.”

“I think afterwards she realized that she loved him, but he wanted nothing to do with her by then. She accused us of turning him against her.” Stuart shook his head.

“At that point, we knew what a snake she was.” Brad took a deep breath. “We might not be the most well off, but we support the people we believe in. It was Fin’s life to lead, not hers to rule. She lashed out, doing everything she could to try to cut us down. Guess this is just her latest attack.”

The silence stretched as the limo rode on.

“So, how do you think we did with the mediator today?”

“It could have gone better. We got in some shots, and we know that Cirelli isn’t on our side,” Charlie said.

“We don’t have the game on our servers. We’re just renting them server time, and they’ve overpaid us, right? That’s what you said,” Stuart said.

“Yes, and if they were challenging us on property ownership of the game and using that against us, then we’d be clear and free. What they’re saying is that these decisions were made under duress. They aren’t going for the game. They’re going for you two,” Charlie said.

Brad worked his jaw, balling his fist and then stretching his fingers.

Charlie sat forward, undoing his blazer’s lower buttons and clasping his hands. He looked at Brad. “They are saying that you have hearts and because you lost your husband.” Charlie pressed his lips together, respecting his loss. “That you were unable to make rational decisions. And because of your distressed state, and the fact that your business partner is your best friend and one of your husband’s best friends, he would also be unable to make rational decisions. They just have to prove that you grieve.”

“That’s such bullshit!” Stuart yelled, smacking his hands together.

Chapter twenty-one

Chapter: 21

17, March 2242

Luke drank from his water tube as Fin finished walking around the dropship hulk in the middle of the outer city of Free Node.

“Okay, got it,” Fin said.

Luke, Jynx, and the other Legion members walked up as Fin pulled out a hologram of the ship. Green areas flashed over the blue glowing lines of the blueprint. “Looks like we can pull out the turrets on the left side, the top turret, and the main turret. Yank out the cockpit and the control areas—drain the fuel, ammunition. Power plant should be good to go. The seats on the left side of the hold and the left engines…”

“The seats—can we cut open the side and pull them out that way? The ramp’s a bit of a mess,” Luke said. The dropship had crashed on its right side and the ramp was buckled and warped, big enough for someone to crawl in over the lip.

“Yeah, that would be better than just the chin ladder,” Fin said.

Cheers came from the other side of the ship.

The group walked around.

Luke grinned. The mining ship that had warned them about the incoming Liquid Gold was in bad shape, with salvaged parts slapped together to repair it enough that it could get back to the node. It landed and people descended on it with repair tools and parts to bring it back to full functionality.

“All right, we’ve got this wreck to salvage,” Luke said.

Fin broke them up into teams and they set to work.

Luke climbed up the side of the wreck to reach the armored panels that protected the drop compartment. He used his repair tool to unlock the panels, disassembling it. He took the disconnected sections and carried them down to the ground to make a pile.

Another team of four worked on the massive tilting engines, removing paneling and unlocking bolts and lines. The unit came away in one section. Other groups came past and carried off the useful components and systems to repair marginally damaged ships.

Fin and Jynx worked on draining the fuel and removing the linkages to the power plant.

Luke was wrapped up in his thoughts as they and other teams dismantled the dropship. In just thirty minutes, only a thin skeleton was left behind.

“All right, time to cut it up!” Fin said.

They set to work with their repair tool’s torches, sectioning the ship into lengths that could be fed into a factory and turned into components.

Most of the debris had been cleared, and the city was nearly back to its original state, with a few more holes in the streets.

“Huh, that’s pretty smart.” Luke pointed at a group that had carved out ice boulders, sticking them into the ice and, using their torches, turned the edges into water, fusing it with the ground.

“They clean up quick,” Jynx said.

“They took the components over to the airstrips where all the ships have been corralled. Should get another two dropships out of this and a ton of materials,” Luke said.

“That reminds me. Mitch sent me a message asking for some help up at the mining base to assemble something,” Fin said.

“Well, we’ve finished here.” Jynx shrugged.

“Meet you there,” Luke said.

He went through the spawn screens, jumping into a bot at the planetoid. The quiet of the low-G and vacuum closed in on him.

“Vacuum, everything is silent or loud as hell.” Fin and Jynx jumped into other unused bots, twitching as they looked around.

“Mitch?” Luke tried on the local as they headed out of the command post.

“Outside. Give us a hand,” Mitch said.

At the end of the largest chain of factories—the first chain that they’d started—was a half-assembled hangar. Beside it was a mess of girders being put together.

“On our way.” Luke and the others jumped, using their jets to extend their bounds as they reached the warehouse-looking building.

Mitch was in with the other bots assembling the building.

“What is this?” Fin asked on local chat.

“This is an outfitting hangar. With it, we can start to build our own fighters, dropships, and small-classed vehicles,” MechFae345 said. “I’m Minnie. Dana and Mitch told me about all of you.”

“Sure. What do you need?” Jynx said.

“Grab the components out of the small factory—Delta Seven through to Fifteen.”

Luke put a marker on the factories. They grabbed the components and took them to the engineers assembling the outfitting hangar.

The girders of the roof came together first. Then came the automated arms with upscaled repair tools.

“They look like the arms you see in the docks,” Luke said.

“The ones that pull off the weapons and engines and put them back on?” Jynx said.

“Yeah!”

“Be pretty cool if we can build our own dropships and fighters,” Fin said.

“What do you think that other building is?” Jynx asked.

“Lots of structural supports. Whatever it is, it’s going to be big,” Luke said.

A belt dumped off more of the structural supports. Several people connected them together into different shapes and sections and lay them out. They cleared the parts from the outfitting hangar; the teams finished assembling it and stood off to the side.

“All right, let’s see how this goes,” Minnie said.

The outfitting hangar came online. Belts connected it to the storage crates to the side, fed by the factories.

Structural supports rode in; the tooled arms grabbed them, laying them out on the ground. With a few sparks, they assembled the first structural supports and started building.

“Well, in twenty minutes, we should have a shuttle.” Minnie laughed. “Ha! Okay, time for the shipyard. Iron Ass waits for no one!”

“Iron Ass?” Luke muttered.

“Dana didn’t get those iron buns from sitting on them.” Minnie scowled, but there was a teasing note in her voice.

Luke coughed, his eyes watering as he swallowed in the wrong direction.

Minnie laughed and led the crew away.

Fin snorted and Jynx shook her head.

“Wait, did she say shipyard?” Fin asked.

“Yes, she did!” Minnie replied.

“Oh, on local still.” Fin chuckled.

“Plan is to build the station in sections here, then take it off into clear space, away from these asteroids, and assemble it. For that, we’re going to need some ships. The shuttles and dropships from the outfitting hangar will help nicely. Then the shuttles can ship up components to the factory to assemble real ships,” Minnie said.

“Very well. I will head back. There are some miners who need to be shifted around. Let me know when the miners are finished here,” Mitch said.

“All right. And make sure that you have my parts!”

“That should be possible.” Mitch paused as he passed Luke and his group. “Uh, it is good to see you again.”

“You’re always doing something fun up here, Mitch,” Fin said.

Mitch paused, as if struggling to think of something to say.

“Yes.” He bounced off and flew toward the command post.

“He’s an odd bird, but a good one,” Minnie said once he was out of range. Her voice was softer than before.

“He is,” Luke said. “Just a bit awkward, but he means well.”

“So, need a hand with putting this mess together?” Fin asked.

“Sure thing. Grab a component and a repair tool.”

Luke picked up a structural support and a blue outline sprouted off the building.

“You should see a blue outline for where to place your component. Red means it’s not placed right, green means it’s in position and you’re good to use your repair tool,” Minnie said.

“Seems pretty simple.” Luke walked over to the structure. the outline was red as he guided the component into place and then flashed green, then red. He twisted it back until it was green again and used his repair tool to attach the support to the others.

The green outline disappeared, and Luke checked the support. “That’s going nowhere. Next one, I guess.”

They worked for several minutes, just putting in supports.

“How big is this thing going to be?” Luke asked.

“Big enough to make a corvette. Hundred and twenty-five meters long, seventy-five tall and seventy-five wide,” Fin said.

“That’s how big a corvette is?” Luke asked.

“No. Corvettes are seventy-five meters long, fifty wide, and fifty tall.”

“Oh. That’s pretty small, though, right?” Luke asked.

“Twenty-five stories long and just under seventeen wide and tall.”

“Oh, okay, yeah, that’s bigger than I thought.”

“I have to go,” Jynx said and logged off without so much as a goodbye.

“Was it something I said?” Luke asked.

“Shit. I forgot. It’s the first hearing for the Orion’s Belt shareholders today.” Fin opened his terminal.

“Yeah, I saw something about that. The shareholders are suing Jynx’s dad and uncle?” Luke said.

Fin let out a growl that came deep from in his throat. He shook his head and looked up at the starry abyss.

“Something wrong?”

“Just my mom being an asshole again.”

Awkward silence started to spread as Luke spoke up. “You think they’re going to lose the lawsuit to the corpos?”

“I don’t know—the corpos are vicious. Stuart and Brad are good people in a shitty situation. Using Xi’s death against them…” Fin sounded as if he wanted to spit.

“That’s Brad Lee’s husband, right? How does that come into it?”

“They’re using it against them to take control over them again.”

“So Jynx’s dad’s job could be under threat?” Luke asked.

“It might be.”

“But he’s just an employee, isn’t he? Do the corpos care that much? No offense—I know you two are close.”

“None taken. And if the corpos win, her dad will lose a lot more, but that’s her story to tell. Let’s just say she and her dad will be going through a nasty time.” Fin sighed and held his head.

Luke shrugged and looked away. He’d known Fin and Jynx for a long time. They were his closest friends, but when it came to their parents, they were oddly quiet about them.

He didn’t say anything, but it hurt that they didn’t trust him. “You up to build some more?”

“Yeah, I could use some good old-fashioned work to keep my mind off it.” Fin clapped Luke on the shoulder. “Thank you, man.”

“What for?”

“For being you.” Fin laughed, patting his shoulder. He bent back to his work. “So, what did Foster want to talk to you about?”

“Just stuff.”

“The clan leader of the Gremlins wanted to talk about stuff?”

“Yeah.” Luke shrugged and passed him another structural support.

Brad palmed open the door to his home, his footsteps heavy. He plodded in, letting the door swing shut behind him. He flopped into a chair in the living room, looking out at the swimming pool and the garden beyond without seeing them.

Scenes of the day kept flashing through his head: the media circus outside the mediation building. More of them packed inside to watch the case. Those smug suits. The email, a week late, hidden in his inbox. The mediator’s grimace when dealing with them, as if Stuart and he were some kind of trouble children in his school.

And that grin on Ella’s face every time she glanced over while Chumak laid down her argument.

How dare they speak his name.

Brad thumped the arm of the chair, the only way he could cap his frustration and anger. I’m a rat caught in a trap, and they’re going to do everything they can to squeeze me.

The fight went out of him as he sat there, his eyes dull.

Jynx’s door opened, breaking his reverie. Her quick footsteps came from behind. Brad stood from the chair as she rounded the corner.

“What’s—oughf!”

Jynx wrapped him in a hug, tight and fierce, as if he would fly away if she didn’t.

He hugged her back, scared that something had happened to her. “Jynx, what’s wrong?”

“How can they do that?”

“Who did what?”

“Ella and those other shareholders. How can they bring Baba into this?”

She didn’t sound like the adult she had tried to be ever since Xi died, using his nickname.

“They’ll do anything they can to take the company from your uncle and me.”

“But why bring in Baba?”

“Ella wants to hurt us. She’s using our emotions and my love for your father against us. Make me and your uncle act emotional, lash out, make mistakes. If we do, they can make the case that we were affected by our emotions and that our decisions were irrational.”

Jynx released him from her hug and fell into a chair. “Screw them. Screw their money and their suits. They’re nothing but bullies. Ella pretended to be your friend, using Fin playing with us to get you to lower your guard. Fuck her and fuck the shareholders. You have to beat them, Dad.”

Brad’s words caught in his throat. His fatherly instinct told him to tell Jynx not to swear, but she was right, and she was an adult. She had been for some time.

He sat on the corner of his chair with that bittersweet revelation. His mind turned toward the case. “They’ve got a good argument, and good lawyers. It’s going to be hard for us to win.”

“So you’re going to roll over? You’re going to let them bring Baba into this and attack him?”

“No!” Brad growled, glaring at her. He realized what he’d done, paling as he made to apologize.

“Good. Don’t give them an inch. You and Uncle Stuart worked your asses off for Orion’s Belt, even when they did everything to try to take it from you. You were the reason that game didn’t suck and that it wasn’t just a microtransaction mess, trying to steal everyone’s money.”

Brad thought about the long nights, the lost weekends, Xi, raising Kira and Jynx while he was working on his game. I wish I could get those days and nights back.

Xi’s words floated back to him, his mantra for years. I knew when I went out with you and married you that I would be your first husband and your second love. I married a man with passion and drive; without your work, your passion, I wouldn’t even get half of you. He blinked rapidly, pressing his lips together. How fortunate was he to have loved such a kind and caring man who loved him for who he was, not who they wanted him to be?

Jynx squeezed his arm. He remembered the times when she was little, when he’d pick her up and bounce her and her sister on his knees, the two of them in giggling fits. She’s too big for that now.

He smiled and patted her arm. “He would be so proud of you and your sister, you know. I never saw him happier than when he was chasing you around, and he was always talking about you at parties. He practically glowed.”

Jynx took a shaky breath and nodded. “He was an awesome man.”

“That he was.” He squeezed her hand. The weight he’d been carrying from the mediation cracked and loosened in his chest. What was one mediation? So what if they lost this case? If they said that he wasn’t making decisions clearly, who cared? We have the servers already in the new company. Sphere World isn’t Orion’s Belt intellectual property. We’d just shift things over to the new company, keep them running, find out who the hell they are. Then all the shareholders will inherit is a shell of a company and the stocks will crash and burn.

“You’ve got a plan,” Jynx said.

“Hmm, huh? What do you mean?”

“You’ve got that look you get when you zone out and things click together for you, and then you rush off to write something down, or go into the office or tap it out on your screen.”

Brad laughed and rubbed his head. Jynx patted his arm, smiling as she sat back in her seat.

“Well, yes, I might have something of a plan. Even if we fail, we can’t lose.”

“Fail? Like, lose the case?”

“Yeah, like I care about Orion’s Belt. It was the game that started everything for us, but at the end of the day, it isn’t much more than a name. I’d like to keep it and the company, but if I must lose it, then I’ll do so, and we’ll screw over the shareholders so hard that Xi would be dancing through the kitchen.”

“Well, he would do that anyway,” Jynx said.

“He was a dangerous chef, that man—could make anything taste delicious!” Brad realized he had that gnawing hunger in his stomach, reminding him he’d had a breakfast of coffee and no lunch. His anger had fueled him, and it was now approaching nighttime.

“With that thought, what about some dinner?” Brad went to the fridge.

“Uh, well, I think that we might need to order in.”

“Nonsense. I can…” Brad opened the fridge, finding it bare. “Order up something right away. What would you like?”

Jynx pinched her face together in thought. “What about Mel’s Steakhouse?”

Her furtive gaze stilled as she retreated into herself, schooling her expression. It had been Xi’s favorite place to eat.

“Kira is going to be jealous.” Brad waggled his eyebrows and pulled out his screen. “Your usual?”

“Uh, yes… please!” Jynx said, recovering quickly.

“Share some cheesy tater tots?”

“Heck, yeah. And do you want to do the chocolate mud pie for dessert?”

“Only if you’ll have some of it. I’m watching my figure!”

Jynx snorted and shook her head.

“What? It’s just a bit of winter fat.” Brad patted his slight belly.

“We don’t have winter, Dad!”

“Well, it’s winter somewhere.”

“Yeah, on ice planets!”

“See.” Brad grinned at Jynx shaking her head, trying to quell her spreading grin. He turned back to the screen, away from Jynx, as a shuddering breath passed through him. He had been so scared, so sad to see her putting up her walls to distance herself from the world, covering it up with laughter and a smile. That fear that Xi’s death had left her broken loosened its grip around his stomach. As he pressed his eyelids together, a few tears spilled down his face. He pinched across his eyelids to cover his tears, his lower lip trembling in a smile.

“Do you—” Brad cleared his throat, his throat tight and choked. “Sorry, but would you like the steamed veggies and rice?”

“Yes, and cornbread if they have it!”

“You and your cornbread. Fine. We better get an extra loaf for Kira. She’s been having cravings.” Brad turned back, confident he’d cleared away any signs of his tears.

“Don’t get between Kira and her food,” Jynx said solemnly.

“Or you and your net-suit.”

Jynx grinned and tousled her hair out of the way.

Brad smiled and placed the order. He felt better already, as though he’d purged something that had been eating him up from the inside. His footsteps were lighter, and his mind was clear. The shareholders might have started this fight, but he wasn’t going to let them win. He needed to think like a corpo and put in place ways for Sphere World to keep running without a loss in service, with or without Orion’s Belt Enterprises.

Instead of dread, he was excited for the future. Whoever created Sphere World definitely stirred up a few things. He was eager to find out who had made the game and shake their hand.

Chapter twenty-two

Chapter: 22

19, March 2242

Luke checked his soft-cap helmet in its pocket as the bridge door opened. His dad and Joey were talking about something animatedly on their displays. His mother was sitting in a pilot seat, tapping out messages. Marissa had oriented the screens to her approved view.

“You want to pull reactor two? Are you sure?” Stephen asked, sitting at the engineering console. He raised his hand in greeting, focused on his conversation with Joey beside him.

“I was getting weird readings from it before Odessa and we were going to get it scanned but—”

“We had to drop freight and get out quickly.” Stephen grunted.

“You said it’s better to check it than mess around on the way,” Joey said as he waved to Luke.

Luke clanked into the room on his mag-boots, the loss of acceleration turning the ship into a low-Gravity metal brick.

“Don’t forget the heat vanes. I did a quick fix on it, but it needs a replacement pipe, and the seal has to be fused,” Luke said.

“I forgot about that, and we only have two days in dock.” Stephen held his chin, wincing.

“I know it’s a tight squeeze, but if we work in shifts, we can run through the diagnostic, full check. If anything pops up, we can fix it up when we reach Rukian. They’ll have the parts or can print them up for us,” Joey said.

“A long stay in a settled system?” Stephen muttered.

“We’ve not run into pirates once, and it always takes longer to load in a settled system than a faction system,” Joey said.

Yeah, cause all the pirates are factions playing hide and seek with their warships.

The bridge door sealed as Luke took a seat at communications, securing his harness. He set his camera feeds on Green Rise Station. Three docking pylons connected to a rotating station. The twin circle system rotated above and below the pylons. The pylons would be zero-g or low-G, with the spinning twin stations at a full standard-g. The station glinted with mirrors and glass, revealing the greenery inside.

At two of the docking pylons, system skippers were docked. The ships were built to move goods through a system without the expensive and large equipment to do a blind jump or go through a warpgate. Their crews blasted through the system at multiple g burns to speed up the delivery of their goods. A premium and expensive service, but much quicker than a one-g accelerating freighter.

Marissa’s view of the bridge windows was obscured by screens filled with lines and numbers.

“You’re getting to be a deft hand with this. A real spacer thumb.” Adeline squeezed her shoulder.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Teach those grounders a thing about docking nose-first.”

Marissa grinned as Luke tracked her coming back into the dock. She flared the main engines.

“Like a shuttle, sis,” Luke said.

“Wow, praise from the peanut gallery,” Marissa said, switching between screens but never looking away.

“Don’t scratch the paint!” Luke smiled.

Marissa flicked him a finger. She made it look easy, shifting the multi-ton behemoth through the dark. She had aligned with the station and brought them in between the crane cradle within a meter variance. She nudged them up, a careful dance of thrusters, lining them up right on the cross; arms reached out, locking with the ship.

“Welcome to Green Rise Station, Dahlia. I hope you have a profitable stay,” an older man said over the speaker system.

“Thank you, Green Rise Station, for your hospitality. Dahlia out,” Luke said, raising his eyebrow as his father safed the reactors and Marissa went through her shutdown.

Shuttles from the station moved toward the freighter, latching onto the cargo containers and pulling them free. The station didn’t have a freight dock like Odessa, and had to unload the old-fashioned way.

“All right, you two have fun in the guts. Luke, would you like to go for a trip into Green Rise Station with your mother?” Adeline popped her harness.

“Sure, Mom. Always good to see you sell air to grounders,” Luke said.

They hooded up and went through the air lock.

“We’re going to McCreary’s Emporium. They sell all things plants and a lot of food products.”

“What’s the sell angle?” Luke asked as they stepped out. The air lock entryway was the same on every ship: air lock to the ship, offset air lock to the next inner section of the ship on a hair sensor that would slam shut with any depressurization.

“We’re heading to Rukian. There’s a new mining colony getting started there—just a ship-station for now, but they’re building quickly. Several families are running a co-op. Food, water, air, always high on the needs. Nothing habitable in the system.”

“So they’re going to be hankering for something green, not vat-grown and vacuum frozen.” Luke nodded. As they entered the inner deck, another secondary inner deck and auto-door opened and closed behind them.

“Right, and something that can help to keep their air stable. Scrubbers only do so much and best to use that carbon dioxide instead of letting it rest.”

“Clean water, too,” Luke said.

Adeline smiled. “And you said you hated working in our grow-op.”

“Mom.” Luke looked around for guards, holding back a grin. “You can’t say that, else these guard types are going to think we’re growing more than just lettuce, tomatoes, and some berries.”

“Bah, what’s legal in one system is illegal in three others.” Adeline rolled her eyes and let her voice dip lower. “And they already think that us spacer families are doing it!”

Luke laughed and shook his head at his mother’s shameless humor as they entered the station itself.

Green. Every wall, ceiling, and floor that could hold plants, did. Whatever didn’t was covered in piping and light emitters. Luke blinked against the light as he took a deep breath. Water and minerals mixed with fresh air, rare even on terraformed planets.

Lines of mirror lights shone on rows upon rows of plants—in racks, on walls, every spare centimeter. Water trickled through the hydroponic racks like a gentle creek. People of all ages worked on the plants, and all wore the same suits. The station was one-quarter the size of Odessa Station, but it was packed with life. Everything was part of a fine-tuned machine.

Luke took his time looking through the station. They passed some restaurants selling various vegetable-based dishes and a few rare meat dishes.

“We could unload that Kavarian meat here. I bet there are some who would be interested in a change in taste,” Adeline said.

“We have that Iroc fish, too—vacuum sealed, though,” Luke said.

“Good call.” She worked on her larger screen as she weaved through people without looking up. She walked with a born spacer’s grace.

Reaching the middle of the pylons, they got on the train.

“These things always weird me out,” Luke said as they got on. The carriage was set out in rounded sections of chairs facing the entrance, each section with a wall. He checked his soft-cap helmet as he sat in a chair so he was perpendicular to the station ground.

“Nothing to worry about. Stations have been using these acceleration systems for decades. They even have their own pilot if we can’t get up to speed.” She patted his leg.

The lights dimmed and brightened. Luke read the advertisements across the carriage, feeling the acceleration pressing down on him in a faux gravity. The train accelerated down its track on a spiral from the central docking pylon to the spinning circular station. The acceleration pushed him into his seat and made the walls feel like the floors. The weird orientation of boarding made sense now.

The gravities increased until they reached an acceleration of one standard gravity. It was like they were standing still. A few moments later, the hum that Luke hadn’t noticed until now died down, and they were locked into position.

A tone rang through the train, and people stood on what had been the walls, but were now the floor. The doors opened to different levels and people walked out.

“See, nothing to it.” Adeline smiled as they passed through the docking areas, trains arriving and leaving, passing from high-g sections down to low-G and back again.

They entered the growing areas, more racks of greens, yellows, reds, and purples. Modified plants of every kind dotted along every open space.

Adeline walked through the station as if she were born on it. “So, how’s the gaming going?”

“Good,” Luke said, wary.

“I’m not trying to lure you into a trap, just asking.”

“Well, I’m having fun and I’m earning credits, but it’s for a clan. I really wanted to be in a guild. I still do.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Guild, you get paid based on how you do. Clan, you get paid based on how your team does. You get paid less in a clan, too. I wanted to get into a guild for so long, but even after taking Free Node, no one paid attention.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks, Mom. I feel bad. Jynx did so much work cutting up the videos, running the streams. We were featured on several gaming feeds, but there was nothing from the guilds. I thought for sure it would get their interest, maybe even get me an offer as a front-line player instead of grinding up through the lower ranks.”

“Well, whatever you do, know that you have our support.” Adeline reached over and gripped his shoulder as they reached an office with the words McCreary’s Emporium written above it.

She knocked on the door, and it opened into a reception area.

Adeline led the way. “Hello, I’m here to see Mister McCreary. Was hoping to talk growing equipment and supplies.”

“I can call him and see if he’s available.”

“Understood. Please tell him that I don’t have more than twenty minutes before I have to go to the Beveraux family.” She flashed a smile and moved to the seating area.

Luke sat with her as she pulled out her screen, flicking through information and sending messages.

He didn’t know anything about the Beveraux family, but he had learned enough from his mother not to question her tactics. There was a reason they had owned and operated the Dahlia for some thirty years without one bad year.

“Mister McCreary will see you in his office. Please, come this way.” The receptionist guided them through a series of offices and production areas, then upstairs. She knocked on the door and opened it into a larger room. On a space station, it was practically opulent. Flowers grew on wall-growing racks. One wall was glass, looking over several floors where plants were cultivated, checked, and harvested. In one glance, you could see the entire life cycle of the growing beds and the plants on them.

McCreary was heavily tanned with features that would place him with Indian heritage. His face was open in a wide smile. “Thank you, Beth,” he said to the receptionist.

“No problem. Remember, you have a meeting in thirty minutes to review the issue of water control.”

“Fine, fine. Yes, yes. I’ll get to it!” He waved her off with a smile.

She bowed and left, closing the door.

“So, I hear you’re interested in some growing materials?”

“Looking for beds, chemicals, piping, lamps and mirrors, aeration pumps, growing medium and seeds.”

McCreary raised an eyebrow. “You a grower?”

“Had a blue thumb a little as a kid, but my husband is a green thumb on our ship.”

“Ah, that makes sense—hydroponics and dirt growers.”

“The system would need to be pressurized.”

“Ah, station?”

“Just so.”

“In low-G, vines and the water plants are the best.”

Luke tuned them out as they discussed different systems and plant makeup. He studied the growers beyond the windows as they joked with one another and laughed, sifting through the plants.

“Very well,” Adeline said as they finished the deal. “Three self-contained systems, with seedlings for one. Growing materials, chemicals, and the seeds for ten seasons of growing. Two containers of beans, four mixed containers of vegetables, two mixed containers of mushrooms, and two more of spices and herbs.”

“That sounds good to me.” McCreary reviewed her screen, checked it on the screen at his desk, and they put their thumbs to it.

“Good to do business with you, Mrs. Tavares. Us little guys got to look after one another. Odessa won’t,” McCreary said with a knowing smile.

Ten minutes later, Luke was walking beside his mother, back to the acceleration train down to the low-G pylons.

“All right, and that’s the business done with the Beveraux family, too.” Adeline put her screen away and pulled on her soft-cap helmet.

“What do you mean? I thought you were cutting them out for McCreary?” Luke asked.

“They grow different things. McCreary is better with the water-based plants, Beveraux with the hydroponic-based plants. With them both, we got a great variety of vine and submerged plants.”

“You seem sure that the people in Rukian want to buy all this,” Luke said as they stepped aboard the train and strapped in.

“They all came from the Kapyten Coalition—first time being in a settled system. I checked the manifest of what they were taking. It was a corporate charter, so everything is registered. They have a lot of foodstuffs, but they’re reliant on buying food. They’re mining, so they have to go back and sell what they have. They wouldn’t make it into Odessa. If they jumped in here, then the picket ships at the Lagrange locations would be on them in a second, spouting illegal immigration and all that crap faster than you could say how do you do.”

“So they can’t come here, and buy from Green Rise, but they can buy from Kapyten, right?”

“Yes, but they have ground-based agriculture. They don’t have systems to produce food in zero-g, making it more expensive and a special-order item. We can sell them the food system and supplies. They’re looking at a long-term solution, so being able to grow their own food will be great. We picked out plants that will produce food continuously as long as they aren’t trimmed down to the nub.”

“Okay, but newly settled systems don’t have that much to trade,” Luke said.

“Ah, nothing manufactured, but they have plenty of raw ore. We’ll likely trade food and growing systems for materials. They don’t lose their creds; we gain a lot of freight. And we can trade it on Kapyten, pick up a cargo heading to Sigma or Gong Dian, unload our chips and techie gear at either system. Gong Dian will pay more than Odessa would. We’ve also got a marker out saying that we’ll do freight to Kapyten. Even though it’s close, few go from Odessa to Kapyten system.”

“Coalition and Federation have never been best friends,” Luke said.

“One believes that everyone has a right, the other believes that right is given to a select few.” Adeline shrugged as the doors to the train closed.

“Be like a space, float between.”

They were released, going through the larger spiral and skipping into the smaller spiral, gravity bleeding away and zero gee returning.

“We’ve already got several containers on-station from the crushers bringing them in.”

“Sounds like we’re going to have a big haul.” Luke smiled as their train locked into the inner pylons.

“Bit more mixed, but we’ll make our freight.”

The doors opened, and they followed the others in their section. People were oriented in whatever direction they wanted to be, and Adeline swung down to the deck, activating her mag-boots.

Luke followed suit, biting his lower lip. Finally, he sighed heavily. “Mom, I’m sorry about getting us kicked off Odessa.”

“I don’t hold you responsible at all.”

“But we had to divert, and the cost and the fees from the cargo drop—”

She hugged him, cutting him off. “You are my son. No money is worth more than you.”

Luke tried to clear the lump in his throat and hugged her back.

“If you run into another Miller kid, you have my permission to put him through a bulkhead,” she muttered.

Luke laughed as he released her, spotting the slight grin and twinkle in her eye.

His screen beeped, and he pulled it out, welcoming the distraction.

“Got a hot date?”

“Mom.” Luke dragged the word out, turning red and looking to see whether anyone had overheard. “No, it’s a message from Dana. She’s the—” Luke swallowed the words Iron Admiral. ”--person who runs most of our fleet actions.”

“Okay.” Adeline grinned, clearly having her own thoughts on the matter.

“She’s got a mission for us.” Luke waved the screen in front of her face.

“Uh-huh. Well, you have fun with Dana and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” She arched an eyebrow.

“Mo-om!”

Chapter twenty-three

Chapter: 23

19, March 2242

Sphynx, Crow, Ayambe, Luke, and Ichika jumped into bots inside the mining base command post. Dana waited for them to come online and waved them over.

“I found us a mission.” She turned on the solar system hologram. “The guilds have been waging a vicious war on Ares, burning through resources and gear at a rapid rate. They’re building as much gear as they can from the nodes they control. Most of their gear is being bought from Sphere World or built in the nodes they control on Valhalla.” She looked at them, seeing nods.

“In World War Two, the allies needed a lot of supplies from the Americas to support the war in Europe. The Nazis attacked these supply routes to stop the flow of materials and supplies. I tracked the sensor logs to see if I could pull together a route.” Dana zoomed in on the hologram and sped it up. She pointed to Ares and tracked a group of ships heading from the planet, curving around and meeting with Sphere World, and then heading back again. She tapped the ships as curving, gossamer-thin blue lines connected Ares’s shorter orbital path with Valhalla’s.

“They’ve got a supply train from Sphere World to Ares, pouring in weapons and gear to support the guilds there.”

“Okay, but they’re going to be accelerating and decelerating the whole way,” Luke said.

Dana tapped the orbital path between Ares and Valhalla.

Luke snapped his fingers. “The asteroid belt.”

“They accelerate away from the Martian planet at ten g, then they do a decel coming through the asteroid belt—don’t want to hit any pesky golf ball-sized debris. Then they accel and decel at full blast to Sphere World.” Dana threw up a video that showed several Hellcats getting torn apart as they went through the asteroid belt. “Team Helium were eager to get to Ares and blasted all the way there. They lost about a third of their fleet on the trip.”

Luke traced the collection of blue lines with one finger.

She could see him putting the parts of her plan together in real-time. “When they cross the asteroid belt, we hit them.”

“More than that. We capture them.” Dana felt the room lean in toward her, the pieces clicking together. “They’re shuttling supplies to Ares as fast as possible. They’re flipping and burning so hard that it’s become a regular route. The guild pilots don’t want to waste a second, so they’re taking the fastest, most direct route. The only thing that changes is the position of Valhalla and Sphere World, making them predictable. I intend to use that against them.”

Ichika chuckled. “They’re not going to know what hit ’em.”

“Luke, what’s the average turnaround time for a ship in Sphere World to be loaded?” Dana studied the decking as she walked.

“Fifteen minutes max.”

“So, if a fleet of guild ships arrives at Sphere World, we know that in fifteen minutes, they’ll leave and head back to Ares. We know the route they’ll be taking, what ships they will have, and that they will be loaded with gear for a war. They have dropships and Hellcats, which have the equivalent thrust in the vacuum of an engine, cruising speed of three gravities, and capable of an emergency speed of fifteen gravities. They’re pushing fifteen gravities the entire way. It will take them roughly an hour and forty-five minutes to go from Sphere World to the asteroid belt.”

She looked up at their bots, their faces plain steel with twin optical sensors. Even without faces, she could feel the excitement and hunger beneath.

They went through the preparations. Luke organized the grunts who would be part of the operation, conferring with Foster to gather volunteers. Dana worked with the others to move ships from Valhalla and from Sphere World to create their strike force.

“So, all good operations need a name. What are we going to call this?” Ichika asked.

“Vulture!” Crow burst out. Everyone looked at him. “What? Seems accurate.”

“Operation Vulture it is.” Dana reined in a laugh.

“Well, I have some ships to move,” Ichika said, moving to the waiting bot rack.

“And I have grunts to gather.” Luke followed.

Dana looked at Ayambe, Crow, and Sphynx, who waited around.

“So, you’re the Iron Admiral,” Sphynx said, amused instead of accusatory.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you before. I wanted to play a game and not worry about all the other…” Dana waved her hand.

“They don’t depict you as being so… nice,” Ayambe said.

“No. I think they do that to interest more viewers. It’s tiring, really. I play games to win, not to be a reality star.” Dana couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“Kim Jung-Su.” Ice Sphynx extended his hand. “It’s my real name.”

“Dana Huang.”

“Diego Cueva,” Crow said.

“Jennifer Ayambe.”

Dana shook their hands. “Well, glad to meet you.”

“So, what is our overall mission?” Diego asked.

“To disrupt the supplies to Ares and raid as many supplies from the guilds for our own needs as possible. This is a resource race.”

“Resource race?” Jung-Su-Sphynx said.

“The game is relatively new, so everyone has around the same level of gear. We know there are larger and better ships and weapons. Right now, we’re limited by money and time. The guilds make that up by pouring money and people into the game to speed things up as much as possible. Whoever has the most resources can build more weapons, better weapons faster,” Dana said.

“Isn’t Mitch, like, well ahead of everyone, though?” Diego asked.

“There’s only one Mitch. How many people do the guilds have working for them? Even if they mess up their miner placement, if they have five times the automated miners, they’ll mine more materials,” Ayambe said.

“Right, and while I was going through the sensor readings from our command posts, I found something… disturbing.” Indigo lines spread out from Sphere World. “These are all the recorded ships that have gone in directions other than Ares and Valhalla.”

There were hundreds of lines—some in thick bundles, others sparse.

“So there are other bases out there, possibly other forces,” Jung-Su said.

“Right. Minnie has gotten word that crafting guilds have entered the game, but we have no idea where they are or where they’ve set up. These guilds have gone through tens of building games. They have the money, they have the people, and they have the space.”

“Won’t they just fight one another, though?” Diego asked.

“If they find out about this place, you can bet they’re going to want to take it. Star Kings are not the kind of guild to forget that we took their node, and they will hunt us down. Anyone they can eliminate, they will to make sure that there are no weaknesses,” Dana said.

“Do you think they’ll do another Fleet Commander?” Ayambe asked.

“Fleet Commander?” Jung-Su asked.

“Remember how six months into Fleet Commander, they opened up a free-play server and a competitive server?” Dana asked.

“Yeah, the competitive server was nuts.”

“There was never supposed to be a free-play server. The guilds were just looking to get an advantage over one another, took over the best mining and building locations and then started to take the ones from the players. They squeezed the players out. With Sphere World, we’re in one system. They are working to control the most nodes on Valhalla and Ares. After a time, they’ll draw up their lines, and they’ll build out to take as many points as they can.”

“Target the asteroid miners and those who aren’t affiliated with factories or miners,” Ayambe said.

“But that’s—won’t people get pissed?” Diego asked.

“Sure, but they’re a guild and they can suppress that. Their fans will just say that it’s a game and people should get over it,” Jung-Su growled, seeing the logic. “That’s shitty.”

“That’s guilds. They don’t care who they step on as long as they get to the top. The higher in the rankings, the more time they get on the net, the more people watch them, and the more support they gain. Followers equals money,” Dana said.

“So we’re what? Going to take them on?” Ayambe asked.

“No. We’re going to bleed them. We’re going to carve out our own place in Sphere World, give free players a way into the game. See, there are guilds, yes, but there are more free players than guild members. Look at what happened at Free Node—free players jumped into the fighting and followed Foster’s orders for the fun of it. Honestly, there isn’t much of an end goal. Though it would be pretty cool if a clan could stand up to the guilds and go head-to-head with them.”

Ayambe chuckled. “Well, that would be a thing, wouldn’t it? A fine thing.”

Brad, Stuart, and Charlie waded through the mess outside the mediators’ building. The press of humanity stopped at the doors as they passed through security and entered the mediation room again.

Everyone was in attendance, making them the last group to arrive.

They took their seats, and Charlie stepped forward.

“Glad to see you made it,” Cirelli said.

Brad didn’t miss the flash of a smirk on Ella’s face, hidden behind a hand so he could see it, but out of view of the press. Brad fought to stop himself from yelling out at the unfairness of it all.

“Do you accept the deal put forward by the shareholders?” Cirelli asked.

“We do not,” Charlie said.

“Are you sure?” Cirelli asked in a grave tone.

“I am.”

“Miss Chumak?”

“You say that your clients have never made a choice when they were in distress?” Miss Chumak asked as she rose. “Can you explain the aggressive actions the night when Orion’s Belt was supposed to close down?” Chumak frowned, one hand on her notes and the other on her hip as she looked at Charlie.

“My clients were drinking to commiserate the end of their old venture…” Charlie checked the name on the paper. Brad knew very well that he knew the name, but lawyering was as much stagecraft as it was credentials. “Orion’s Belt Enterprises, when they got the idea to buy up more shares of their old company. They had the majority already at the time and wanted to compete with each other. Brad Lee purchased thirty percent of the stock, and Stuart Martin thirty-one and then a further five percent through a buy order the next day, in jest.”

“So you are confirming that your clients make a habit of carrying out transactions while they are not of rational mind?” Chumak said.

“No. I’m saying that they bought the shares out of humor, instead of any malicious intent you might be insinuating.” Charlie smiled. “Also, according to the legality of deals and inebriation, my clients were well within the legal requirements of intoxication to make these kinds of deals.”

The doors to the courtroom opened and a woman in a pressed pantsuit walked in.

Brad turned around. The woman’s expression gave nothing away, but it seemed as if she owned the room as she found a chair in the rear and sat. Her eyes tracked to Cirelli. “Continue.” Her voice rang with the authority of command.

Brad turned back. Chumak and Ella were having a silent conversation with their eyes. Both seemed confused.

At least I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what the hell is going on.

“As such,” Charlie plowed on, using the interruption to his advantage, “the purchase of these shares is valid. Can you prove that no people who you represent have bought shares while they had a few drinks or chemical enhancers?”

Chumak glared at him.

“I thought not. So, what is your next point of issue?”

“If you are saying that they did not make these decisions while they were under control, then I’m afraid this turns to charges of fraud,” Chumak said.

“Those are serious allegations,” Cirelli pressed and looked pointedly at Brad and Stuart. “Such allegations would require a court of law.”

Chumak shook her head. “These are serious allegations and breaches of trust. Stuart Martin and Brad Lee falsely showed that their company was doing poorly to decrease the cost of their shares so they could purchase them at a lower price. They used the momentum of a previously unknown product to increase the price of their shares and rake in a heavy profit.”

Brad saw Ella look at Cirelli and nod to him.

“Mister Grinkos, I think that you should talk to your clients about the nature of these allegations.”

Charlie turned around and used the privacy field. “They want to use the fraud allegations to get us over the barrel. If they take this to a court… We don’t know if they have it as rigged as this court, but with Feng-Dan-Wei interested, this just went up a step.”

“Feng-Dan-Wei? The law firm that represents corporations and acts as the ambassador to the other factions?” Stuart said.

“That woman in the back is Olivia Mao, air lawyers. Middling, but high enough that the company would wield an immense amount of power and capital for it to be worth her time. She reports to Miss Wei herself. Now focus. Either we take this hit now or we fight. If we fight, we could lose even more. And it could take years,” Charlie said.

Brad caught Ella’s pleased expression, forcing himself not to snarl.

“Fuck that. We did nothing wrong. This situation was dropped into our laps, and I want to shove their fucking smirks and maneuvering up their fucking asses,” Brad growled, the part of him that had flown Coalition destroyers surfacing.

Charlie and Stuart recoiled, but Stuart’s face hardened.

“Damn fucking right.” He patted him on the shoulder.

Charlie flashed them a smile. “As your legal representative, I can’t say that this is a great idea, but I, too, want to tell them to go fuck themselves.” He looked between them for any more comments, took a breath, and stood to face Cirelli and Miss Chumak.

“The only things that my clients have done is grieve for the death of a loved one and close friend. They have maintained complete professionalism in their roles as Orion’s Belt Enterprise employees and in returning to their position of co-owners.” He overrode Chumak’s argument with his voice. “They refute these claims, and this farce of a mediation. If you wish to claim fraud against their company and their services, you are welcome to do so. You will find that they have nothing to hide.” Cirelli smacked his gavel, but Charlie was in the flow; the float cameras were running, and the media were recording everything. “This is a blatant attempt by previous shareholders to force them to hand over their shares illegally. If I sold someone a guitar and they made a number-one song on it, I wouldn’t then claim that I own the guitar and own part of the money that they made.” Charlie finished with a flourish.

The gavel hammered the table. “I remind you, sir—this is a mediation, not a soapbox!”

“Might I remind you of that, too? I request a review of Cirelli, specifically his connections to his aunt to Merlouc Corporation in the terms of neutrality. There is a clear conflict of interest. Can I have a confirmation from one of your assistants?” Charlie tapped his screen and threw something from it towards the trio. The silver-haired man and ponytailed woman paled as their screens lit up.

“I’ll request it from your CEO instead, then,” Charlie snapped and turned toward Miss Chumak. “May I remind you and those you represent that you’re going up against Orion’s Belt Enterprises and Sphere World?” His eyes flicked to the shareholders behind her. ”The premium fighting game on the net.”

The door swung shut, drawing everyone’s attention. Olivia Mao had left.

“If we’re done with this session, I think we will reconvene in another three days to hear what the mediators have to say and to take it under advisement. Otherwise, my clients’ time is valuable.” Charlie tapped on the desk and nodded, bringing it to a close as he turned and left his desk. Brad and Stuart followed him out of the courtroom.

Brad caught the suppressed snarl in Ella’s features. Standing tall and proud, they had nothing to hide. Let them come and test us.

Chapter twenty-four

Chapter: 24

19, March 2242

Dana studied her small holographic display. The map showed her battlefield—a curving ribbon of dust with the occasional asteroid. Some were as big as a baseball, others the size of a small continent. Hellcats, dropships and shuttles latched to the bigger ones, hidden from Team Helium’s sensors.

Red carats isolated Team Helium’s approaching engine flares from stars.

She pressed the pedals under her feet, toggling her throttle control lever and cyclic control, then keyed command chat. “Ten minutes till intercept.” She keyed ship chat. “How are we looking?”

“All good here,” Luke said from the left turret.

“Rog.” Dana glanced over the screen slaved to the bay camera. The bots were shifting in their harnesses, running the last checks on their gear.

“No scouts. Ships are just flying the plot.” Jynx clicked her tongue.

“Just how we want them, confident and lazy.”

Team Helium’s Hellcats flew in a loose cigar-shaped defense around an inner screen of dropships and shuttles. Their flares winked out and the target ships flipped, ending their decel burn to present their fronts to the asteroid belt.

“One minute,” Ichika said on her fighter chat. “Take out the Hellcats first. Then focus on the dropships. Take their guns if you can. If not, knock them out. The shuttles are the real prize. Good hunting.”

“Spinning up the CIWS.” Dana flipped a switch, the turret coming online.

“Ready to rock,” Fin said.

The timer rolled down on her screen. She played her actions through her mind, watching her plot, altering according to the enemy fleet changes. Wrapping her hands over her controls, she glanced over her displays.

The enemy fleet entered the asteroid belt’s dust envelope.

“Go!”

Dana ripped up her TCL. Thrusters punched her back into her seat as she curved away from the asteroid’s shadow and into the plot’s box. Jung Su and Diego’s dropships rode her tail.

Active sensors painted Team Helium in vivid detail. Targeting solutions flashed amber and green with a droning whine.

“Launch missiles!” Ichika ordered.

“Firing,” Dana said on ship chat, feeling the judder through her controls.

Jung Su and Diego’s missiles added to hers and the dozens of other dropships and hellcats. The map showed fireflies accelerating at fifty g’s. A few enemy hellcats got off chaff and flares. Light bloomed as missiles met their targets.

“Nice,” Jynx said.

“Take their teeth!” Ichika called out. Her Hellcats converged from every direction at emergency acceleration, riding in on the wave of the missiles. They cut through the Team Helium formation, clearing the remaining enemy fighters, and raking dropships.

Dana rode in behind them, marking the nearest dropship.

“Watch your fire for friendlies,” Dana called out as she moved with the dropships.

“Gotcha,” Luke said. All three turrets fired on different targets.

“Opening ramp!” Dana flicked a switch, the lights in the bay flashing yellow as the ramp opened to space.

The CIWS howled, an explosion blooming in the distance.

Luke, Jynx, and Fin opened fire. Jung Su and Diego’s crew joined in.

Dana kept her heaviest forward armor pointed at the ship rounds pinging off her armor. The pings dropped as the enemy dropship’s turrets were taken out.

“I’ve got this one,” Jung Su said.

“Go for it. I’m heading for that shuttle.” Dana pinged it.

“I’m going hunting,” Diego said.

She skimmed over the shuttle slow and close and glanced at the ramp camera. Five bots dropped from her ship, using jets to slow their momentum.

“Drop!”

The first squad stepped off the ramp, white cones trailing from their thrusters, forcing them down and trying to make up for the differences between ships. One bot bounced, spinning off into the black. The others fought to gain purchase on the enemy shuttle.

Dana checked the screen holding a map of the battle space. All the enemy hellcats were dead.

“Close in on the dropships and shuttles,” Ichika ordered.

Team Helium’s remaining ships were starting to pile on the acceleration to escape. She’d got the surprise she wanted. Now she just needed to make the most of it.

“Guns, take the engines on the next target,” Dana ordered as she angled away, aiming for their next ship.

“We could break something,” Jynx said.

“Too hard to get to them without slowing them,” Dana replied, tagging her next customer with a marker she keyed on the bay chat. “Coming up on target!” Bots clomped to the ramp, holding onto safety handles.

Dana keyed command chat. “Ichika, take out their engines. Need to slow them.”

“Got it, boss lady!” Ichika said.

Dana smiled at the other woman’s excitement. Born fighter pilot.

Ichika’s commands rippled through the Hellcats as they dove into the enemy fleet, cutting down engines.

The dropships pounced on the lame ships, raiders dropping from their ramps. The shuttle she’d dropped her people on to stopped accelerating, changing from a red marker to blue. It peeled away from the fleet toward the rendezvous. Nice work.

Sparks lit up her projected screens. Her gunners replied in kind. She zoomed down the six weaving lines of tracers. The enemy dropship’s engines sparked with impacts and died.

“Engines out,” Fin said.

Tracers cut back and forth between ships.

One of the ship’s two remaining turrets stopped firing. Tracers pinged through the inside of its armored housing.

“Aim for where the turret meets the armor,” Luke said.

“That’s the last of her guns,” Jynx said.

“Bringing us in.” Dana flashed a glance over the map, reading through the chaos for possible nearby attackers.

“Coming in for a drop!” Dana yelled through the ship channel, firing thrusters and her main engines to bring her relative momentum nearly to zero with the enemy dropship.

The squad of five dropped onto the dropship, taking the impact with their legs, magnetically locking to its hull as they pushed for the ship’s hatches.

Dana punched the TCL, the maze of symbols speaking to her. “Got a new target! Get ready!”

In the bay, the next squad moved up to the open ramp.

“They’re breaking away!” a pilot yelled.

Hellcats gave chase, focusing their fire on the shuttle’s engines, but she could see that they would be beyond capture range soon.

Dana focused on her own target, a shuttle on ballistic. She spun her craft on thrusters, a counteracting engine blast cut off the last of her momentum. Going engine first, she brought them to relative zero with the shuttle as it spun lazily in space, a spiral of debris floating around its broken engines.

She switched to her ship channel. “Go!”

The waiting squad dropped.

She turned on her thrusters and fired her engines, burning hard for the next target. Friendly dropships were swarming the broken or maimed remains of Team Helium’s supply fleet.

Maybe twenty percent had been able to escape. Bot crews turned the enemy ships from red to blue as they cleared out the crew.

“Turn back, Hellcats. Move to an all-round defense,” Ichika ordered. Hellcats trying to hunt down the Team Helium ships that had broken off stopped accelerating and moved back to the battlespace, spreading to create a bubble around the lamed Team Helium ships and Vultures.

Dana brought the ramp over the target ship. “Drop.” The squad clamped to the dropship, and she powered away.

“Shuttles, move to secure the broken ships,” Dana said. Bigger catch than I thought.

Engine flares appeared, the Vulture’s shuttles moving into the area to assist, filled with parts and engineer manned bots.

She keyed ship chat. “You three want to capture a shuttle, too?”

“Hell yeah,” Luke said.

“Okay, get to the ramp. Moving up on one.”

Luke stepped out of his seat harness and grabbed his rifle, checking his gear.

[Bot ]

[Primary Weapon: Shotgun]

[Secondary Weapon: Pistol]

[Upgrades: __]

[Misc.: Repair tool, Breaching charge]

[Carrier: __]

“Well, let’s go steal us a shuttle.” Luke led the way into the bay and to the open ramp.

Fin whooped. “Hell, yeah.”

“Boys.” Jynx sighed.

“Coming up on your target!” Dana yelled. “Don’t miss.”

Luke looked at the edge of the ramp. “We’ll try not to.”

The shuttle crossed beneath them, its engines a mangled mess of metal. Luke stepped off; a burst of jets threw him down. He hit the shuttle with a clang, trying to absorb as much of the impact as possible by crouching. He let out a breath as he stopped moving, his hands and feet mag clamped to the shuttle’s surface.

Two other dull clangs rang through the surface of the ship.

“On ship!” Jynx said.

“Fuck, that was scary,” Fin said.

Luke stood up, the others getting out of their crouch as he oriented to the shuttle.

“Let’s get inside quick.” He pulled out a breaching charge. With a button press, it snapped open to be as big as a door. Luke only heard his footfalls as he reached the breach point and stuck the charge to the shuttle.

“Charge set.” He pulled his shotgun free. Jynx and Fin moved to the sides of the breaching charge.

“Ready,” Fin said.

“Ready,” Jynx said.

“Fire in the hole!”

Luke pressed the detonator. The charge disappeared in a flash of light. A rough rectangle appeared in the shuttle’s hull. Luke disengaged a mag boot and stomped on it.

It disappeared into the shuttle, throwing Luke off balance. Fin dove in first, headfirst on his jets, Jynx second. Luke got himself under control, flicked off safe and followed, entering where the cargo bay met with the doors leading into the cockpit.

“Moving for the cargo bay,” Fin said.

“Following,” Jynx said.

“I’m heading for the cockpit.” Luke activated his boots and clamped to the walkway, shotgun up and moving.

The doorway opened, rounds sparking off the frame. Luke sighted a bot hiding behind the pilot’s chair and fired.

The shells tore through the chair and tossed the bot backwards, hitting the bulkhead as its optical sensors dimmed. The dead bot danced, hitting the bulkhead and the chair, its boots still magnetically attached to the floor.

Luke pumped in a new shell and checked for anyone else. There wasn’t any room for them to hide.

“Killed one guy hiding up here. Haven’t seen any others.” Luke grimaced at the state of the flight controls. The stuffing of the chair was sticking out, and the screens were sparking.

“Got three containers here. Cover me,” Fin said over local.

“Got you,” Jynx said.

[Shuttle captured]

[Shuttle ]

[Upgrades: __]

[Carrier: 500m3]

“Huh, guess that there’s only that one bot,” Fin said.

“Need to do some fixing up here,” Luke muttered. He put his shotgun to the side and pulled out his repair tool, focusing it on the screens.

“Ship’s systems--well, what’s working—says the engines are really busted up. Could one of you get out there and see what you can do?”

“I got it,” Jynx said.

He perched on the chair; it was stuck in position.

Under the repair tool, the broken screens seemed to melt back together into a whole. The broken bot leaned on the arm.

Goosebumps ran up Luke’s body as he pushed the dead bot away. “Urgh, frigging creepy.” He let out a breath, grabbing the bot’s hand and mag clamping it to the wall.

Screens powered up, showing readouts from across the ship.

“Okay. I’ve got one engine working,” Jynx said. “The other one is a bit more mangled. It’s going to need a rebuild, I’m thinking to just strip the components out.”

“Gotcha. I’ve got some limited flight control. I’d strip it down, too. Fin, where are you?”

“Rummaging.”

Luke waited a breath but there was nothing else.

“Right, okay. Well, everyone, make sure you’re clamped on.” Luke input course corrections. “Initiating burn.” The shuttle’s thrusters fired, re-orientating the ship. “Engaging the engine.”

Luke grimaced as he increased the power, the single engine handling the stress as their course changed. “Holding steady. Readings are all slightly in the yellow.”

“Nice. I’ll get to work on the other engine.”

“Well, you’ll never guess what’s in these containers.” Fin laughed on squad chat.

“What?” Jynx asked.

Luke checked his plotted course again and then moved to fix the chair.

“Tanks!” Fin cackled.

Luke paused. “Tanks?”

“Yeah, two tanks per container, I’d guess, and there are reloads for them all. Turrets too! They stuffed these things with gear.”

“Holy shit.” Luke laughed, picturing the behemoths plowing through the smoke at Free Node. “Bet they’re going to miss those,” Luke said.

“Shit, you think we can go for a ride in them?”

“I don’t think you’d get very far driving in vacuum,” Luke muttered.

Jynx snorted.

“I don’t mean now, and they have thrusters on them. Be one crappy shuttle, but you could use them on low gravity planets or moons.”

“Didn’t know that. I’m sure we’ll find somewhere to use them,” Luke said.

“Lucky my torch didn’t go through a missile.” Fin whistled. “That could’ve been messy.”

Luke snorted and shook his head.

“I’ll head out to give you a hand, Jynx. There anything else I can fix?”

“The engines are the main things. Faster they’re fixed, the faster we can get back to base.”

“On it!”

“Secure your ships. Shuttles, move in to assist and recover bots and salvage,” Dana ordered.

On the map, dozens of markers appeared, registering the engine flares of shuttles laden with components and engineering-controlled bots.

“The salvage crews are on their way.” Luke checked the map. Salvage markers dotted the battle space, ships that were too far gone to move under their own power. Anything that had a working engine was moving towards the rally point, where boarding crews worked to get the dozens of shuttles and dropships in working order. “Damn. We should thank the Emerald Ravens for gifting us with such a nice fleet.”

“Kind of like a pinata; slightly abused, but filled with party favors,” Jynx said.

“I can work on the manifold if you want to work on the innards,” Fin said.

“Try not to burn my face off,” Jynx said.

Luke altered their heading slightly with thrusters, then set to finishing off the repairs in the cockpit, and the previous pilot’s bot.

The conditions of the engines ticked upwards with their repairs. “We’ll hit the sun before you finish with the engines at this rate.”

“Back seat engineer,” Jynx muttered.

Luke flew them back toward the mining planetoid. Jynx and Fin worked on getting the other engines back online, trading barbs the entire way.

The returning fleet was nearly three times the size it had been when it departed. They’d lost some Hellcats, but they’d gained nearly all the enemy shuttles and a few dropships. The rest had been salvaged and left to the engineering crews and shuttles to gather and stuff components into their holds.

Their shuttle was almost in working order when Luke brought them down into landing area three.

“And we’re down. Opening the main and side airlock. Safing the engines.”

He fist bumped the mag-clamped bot beside him. “Thank you for flying Tavares space-lines.”

“What’s next?” Jynx asked.

Luke got out of the cockpit and went to the walkway. “There are a bunch of ships that still need to get broken down into components or scrap.”

“Yay, junkyard rats,” Jynx muttered.

Luke reached the side airlock hatch, stepping out to glide slowly to the ground. Fin and Jynx used their jets to drop next to him.

“Hey, we get a part of the value, and I know how you two are credit fiends.”

Luke sighed. “Damn, he knows us too well.”

“Shit, one thing to see it on a map, but look at that,” Jynx said.

Luke followed where she was looking. Dozens of ships were landing across the planetoid, throwing up dust. Engineering bots moved out with repair tools and components, setting to repairing them.

A dropship carrying a broken Hellcat hull clamped to its belly passed over, continuing to a landing area closer to the refining factories. It came to a hover, releasing its payload, adding to the growing junkyard of twisted shuttles, dropships, and other hellcats too broken to return under their own power.

Engineers categorized the ships, and crews moved in to repair or strip them.

“Look, fresh dropship metal.” Jynx pinged a dropship marked for salvage, dust taking its time settling around it.

“If you two want to strip out the useful components, I’ll get to work on pulling apart the ship from the rear.” Luke bounded towards the dropship carcass.

“You won’t be bored without us?” Fin said.

“Shouldn’t take too long.” Luke shrugged, coming to rest against the ship.

“All right, have fun!” Fin and Jynx went around to the dropship’s ramp.

Luke pulled his repair tool free, clamping his other hand to the ship. He orientated his feet to the hull and stepped up the dropship.

Bullet impacts and holes dotted its armored panels.

“This should be good.” He knelt, flicking to disassemble/cutting and applied his repair tool, carving into the hull.

Reaching the end of his cut, he mag clamped his hand to the panel and pulled it free.

“Might take longer than I thought,” Luke muttered.

“Toss that down here.” Foster’s voice startled Luke.

“Sure, boss man.” Luke lined up the panel, unlocked and pushed it away. Foster caught it and lowered it to the ground. “You ripping out the chairs?”

“Yeah, but we’ll take off the side to get to them. And these panels are still good. Could be used to repair other ships.”

“That’ll make Dana and Ichika happy.” Foster chuckled.

“Well, if the Liquid Gold are so kind as to give us the ships, might as well use them.” Luke set to cutting another section free.

“Too right, too right.”

“Panel!” Luke pushed the panel to him.

Foster caught it. “So, what do you want to do?”

“What do you mean, sir?” Luke kept cutting.

“Name’s Foster, not sir,” Foster growled playfully.

Luke choked a laugh back. “Sorry, Foster, and what do you mean? Panel.”

He pushed another one down.

“Do you want to be part of the engineering teams, the miners, the flyboys and girls, a starship admiral, or a grunt?” Foster caught it.

Luke paused and frowned, holding his repair tool. With several months’ worth of rent saved, he had options.

“I like mining, and seeing how things come together, but I’m not into it as much as Mitch or Fin.”

“I don’t think anyone can be into mining as much as Mitch is,” Foster said dryly.

Luke snorted. “That’s true. Honestly…” Luke shrugged. “I like being a grunt. I like fighting on the ground or on ships with a rifle.” His words tumbled out, at odds with the tension in his chest. It was as though if he stopped talking, he’d never say it again. “I don’t have the head for the Hellcats or the dropships. Three-D mechanics…” Luke shook his head.

“A grunt after my own heart.” Foster laughed. “You want to be a squad leader still?”

“Yeah, I find it pretty fun.”

“Things are changing, getting more organized. Going to have five person squads. Five people to a dropship, five hellcats to a wing, five tanks to a tank squad. In Sphere World, we’re going to need a lot of grunts. Hundreds, at least.”

“You think that many?”

Luke finished with the last panel and tossed it down to Foster.

“To control a warship, we need four people, maybe. One to pilot, one to command, another to do sensors and weapons, maybe a communications officer, then the rest would be engineers to fix the ship back up. A dropship takes five to pilot and defend, drops twenty bots and a transport or tank. It’s going to take us time to build up the number of warships, tanks, dropships, and hellcats. Bots, we can do tens of them a day and growing.”

Luke climbed over the chairs into the drop bay. With the armor panels removed, he could access the chairs. He applied the repair tool’s disassemble function to the chair securing units, unlocking them from the decking.

“Going to take grunts on the ground to take the losses, grind through the enemy, and win. Sure, there are times when using warships and the inter-atmosphere assets is going to be key, but if we want to take a location without destroying everything, we need boots on the ground.”

Luke pulled out a chair from the wall and floor and threaded it through the outside of the ship, passing it to Foster.

They lapsed into silence, working again.

Luke looked out over the planetoid. The sea of miners and factories, the storage area that could rival a dock’s. “I’ve always wanted to join a guild, you know? Solid pay, solid work and get to game all the time. I know that at the low levels of the guild you’re just grinding. I think I could do well, you know? It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”

“Okay,” Foster nodded.

“Don’t get me wrong, I like Legion, but I’ve always dreamed of joining a guild.” Luke’s stomach twisted and turned. He was having fun being part of something, but he still had other dreams. He wanted to be up on a guild poster like Dana had been.

“Luke, you have your life and you gotta live it how you want to. If you want to join a guild, I will wish you the best of luck. But I would be lying if I didn’t hope you would stay with us. I think we can turn Legion into something incredible. The Guilds just want to make as much money as possible and turn the games into some streaming show. It looks cool, but there is a lot of politics and backstabbing. I find it sad that some of the best players join a guild and do it so much that they come to hate gaming, the very thing they loved.”

“Is that why Dana joined the Legion?” Luke asked.

“Not my place to say,” Foster rebuked.

Luke winced. “Sorry. That was the wrong thing to ask.”

Foster grunted in agreement.

Luke worked on the next chair.

“I will say, she is one of the youngest people to have made admiral on the guild circuit. She didn’t care for the sponsorships, the talk shows, and all the other crap that most go for. She’s the Iron Admiral to many because of how hard she is on her people. Among the guilds, they hate that—individuals instead of team players.” Foster chuckled, holding a cold edge. “Oh, I can’t wait to see what the Iron Admiral will be with a crew who believes in her and follows her orders instead of their ego.”

“Is it really that big of a thing?” Luke asked.

“You work on a freighter, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Think if a freighter was all about who got to sit in the pilot’s seat. That’s guild life. Clans, you pilot if you’re the best; if you’re not, you learn, or you do something else. Everything is on merit, ability, and loyalty.”

Luke lifted another chair free and passed it to Foster. “So, from the top—guilds pay you a flat fee; the more popular you are, the more you earn. Clans don’t care about popularity. We don’t have a flat rate, but you get paid a fair share based on what you put in if we earn anything.”

“Correct. Do you know if Fin is looking for a new job?”

“I don’t think so.” Luke drew out the words. “Why?”

“′Cause we need people to keep everything right and clean, and to trade with others. Sure, we need fighters, but administrators are worth their weight in gold.”

“I’ll have to ask him.” Luke pulled the last chair in the row free and passed it to Foster.

Minnie looked up from her work as Mitch walked into the landing area. Several broken dropships and shuttles were in various states of repair.

“Come to admire the vulture’s offerings?” Minnie said.

Mitch looked over, a little startled. “Ah, yes, just doing a quick inspection.”

“How is it going with the hulls?” Minnie stepped away from the dropship engine she was working on.

“They will take time to process down into repairable and salvageable. With the constant raids on the guild supply lines, we have more ships and gear than we have time to work on them.” Mitch stopped in that odd way he would cut off a sentence when he was done.

An odd duck indeed, but a good one. Minnie sensed he had more to say and waited him out.

“Will you be watching the shipyard’s completion today?”

“Yeah, I…” Minnie checked the schedule. “In thirty minutes! Come on!” Minnie put her mining tool away, upping her range. “Hey, anyone who wants to watch the shipyard get finished and the new keel getting laid in. Come on!”

Minnie led the way to an empty shuttle, grabbing Mitch and pulling him along. People hurried out from their work, leaping and blasting on their jets to follow Minnie as she sailed through the shuttle’s air lock. She released Mitch and got into the cockpit, warming up the power plant and lowering the ramp. Engineers and others clambered aboard.

She checked on the external cameras as the last few people climbed aboard.

“Hold on!” She closed the ramps and doors and fired the engines, clearing the landing area and flying up and away from the planetoid.

They passed through the asteroids and joined other ships coming in from across the planetoid and surrounding asteroids.

Minnie turned the shuttle, using its deceleration burn as they came into visible range of the shipyard. It was a massive creation of burnt orange: an open-ended cage of girders, cranes, and automated arms, with the closed end of the cage holding docking, warehousing, assembly areas, and the beating, mechanical heart of the small shipyard.

She brought them to relative zero, set the proximity alert, and opened the ramp. She grabbed Mitch and pulled him to the air lock, swinging around to the outside of the hull.

“Is this necessary?” Mitch asked, following her out.

“Definitely. Our people have been working their asses off for days mining, assembling, and manufacturing parts, working shifts around the clock. We all took part to build this. It’s something we can all point to and say we were a part of.” Minnie smacked him on the back as she studied the shipyard.

“Should you be on it?”

“Nah. Just the last engineers putting the final girders and automated systems into place. I’d be jostling their elbow,” Minnie said.

“Minnie…” Mitch started.

She looked over at him. He held out his hands as if trying to figure out something in front of him, his head turned down.

“Yes?” she prompted. Times like this, I wish we had faces instead of metal bot heads.

“I—Well, I have a problem.”

“Okay.” Minnie kept her voice level, intrigued without passing judgement.

“I never thought that I would like working with other people. You see, people are complicated. They can mess up my calculations and my plans. They do things that are erratic, and I have a hard time dealing with it. It… confuses me.” He turned his head to her.

“Okay.” Minnie waited on him.

“I prefer to deal with contracts between people. Then I know what their roles and responsibilities are, and what mine are, and how to address and work with them. I’m not sure how to treat people without a contract in place, or beyond it.” He looked at her.

“You’re talking about making friends with people around you, not working or under contract with one another?”

“Yes. I find that I am interested in what others are doing that does not affect my mining, the fighting on Valhalla, the actions of the Vulture fleet, the shipyard.” He gestured at the shipyard in the distance. “How do I deal with it?”

Minnie took in a deep breath. “That’s a hard one. Being friends with someone isn’t about what they can do for you or what you can do for them. You give and take freely, not to screw each other over. There’s equality between you. You trade more than money or favors. You trade time and companionship. Sometimes, it’s just talking to each other, or hanging out, or having a chat about something that isn’t related to work. Like this.”

“So, would that make us friends?”

“I think so, if you were so inclined. You’re one of the few people I know who is as determined and focused on his job as I am, and you come up with solutions to things I would have never thought about. We share work and work together, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your candor and the way it is easy to talk to you on working matters. You get the ideas and solutions I talk about and build upon them easily. What if I want to be friends with someone and don’t know how to broach the subject?”

“Being friends isn’t something you should force or push. It just happens. You’ll find that you talk to them frequently and enjoy their company.”

The silence stretched as Mitch looked at the shipyard.

“So, why do you mine?” Minnie asked.

“It is easier to control and understand. There is a satisfaction that comes with going out with nothing and coming back with something. Then using that to build upon again and again.”

“I can understand that. Taking materials and turning it into ships, or suits or miners,” Minnie said. “Something deeply satisfying about building all that and then saying, ’I started from nothing, and built that.’”

“Quite. I do not have the knowledge of an engineer such as yourself. I like the simplicity of dealing in surveying, mining, refining, and using the speculation and market movements to make a profit. Seeing the materials turned into ships and gear has been a welcome addition.”

“Oh, I wanted to check with you. Would you be okay if we were to buy the ore and materials from the miners in the surrounding area?” Minnie asked.

“Buy from the other miners? Why? They are much slower, and their turnover is less.”

“They still have materials, and the more materials we have, the more we can build, and fewer gets sold to the guilds. And, if they want gear, they can purchase it from us with their materials. Say they buy a mining ship, or another finished product. We can get three times the materials in equivalent exchange to build three more mining ships or put it toward other projects.”

“Increase our supplies.” Mitch thought on it a moment and nodded. “I agree, as long as I don’t have to deal with them.”

Minnie let out a groan. “I hate bartering and trading. Could we hire one?”

“A miner?”

“No, a trader. Someone to sell stuff for the highest price and get us materials at the lowest.”

“Luke comes from a family of traders. I’ll ask him if he can think of anyone. When would we need them by?”

“Probably after Operation Backdoor? We’re going to have a lot of gear.”

“I agree.”

“Oh, wait! Look—It’s coming online!” Minnie patted him on the chest excitedly as the lights on the shipyard flickered down its length, staying stuck on.

The cranes shifted, checking their runs.

Minnie pulled up terminals, showing the information feed and controls coming from the shipyard. “That’s my crew. They’ve got the warehouses stocked and some of them have started assembling the sections.” She flicked through the shipyard’s menus and selected a build.

“Corvette?” Mitch asked.

“Hoping for a mining ship, Mitch?” Minnie laughed.

“It would increase the speed for prospecting. We moved some miners to the surrounding asteroids and along the planetoid fault lines,” Mitch said.

“Well, Dana is our biggest shareholder. She’s been reinvesting her earnings back into us, again and again. With a corvette, we’ll get to pay back some of the funds she invested and increase our security.”

The shipyard finished its checks. Cranes moved along their girders into the assembly and warehousing area, pulling out components and putting them in position. Arms reached out from the yard, taking them from the cranes and assembling them.

“In four days, we’ll have a corvette, and then we can look to making a mining ship or two,” Minnie said.

“Four days? Isn’t that fast?”

“The building systems are smart. Each deck is laid out more like a circuit board than a deck. Ladders and walls run between decks, serving to stick them together as they’re built. Once the interior of the ship is done, then the outer bulkheads, which act as an exoskeleton, are fused onto the interior decks.”

“Exoskeleton? Don’t most ships have a reinforced spine?”

“Yes, they do—a heavy spine in the middle, sometimes several spines to distribute the impact and acceleration. When building, you have to construct the spine, then weave everything through it, or them. The larger the ship, the more spines you can have. Then you build around them. It is heavily time-consuming.”

Mitch nodded, following along.

“Though if a spine’s cut, the ship is no longer able to accelerate. With an exoskeleton design, the ship can take a pounding and remain structurally sound for high-g maneuvers.”

“So greater fighting ability and faster build time.”

“Right, and with the mass of the spine removed, and that mass used to reinforce the outer plating, the armor thickness will increase compared to a spine-designed ship. A spine design would take us two, maybe three weeks to complete. Create the superstructure and then we would have to tack on everything inside.”

“You have your next work project listed as a question mark on the roster,” Mitch said.

“Ah, I wanted to keep our people guessing. Keeps them excited. We’ll be building a full medium-factory production chain next, and then a medium-sized shipyard.”

“Another shipyard?” Mitch asked.

Minnie turned to Mitch. “The race is on now. The crafting guilds have arrived in Sphere World. They’re out there somewhere, and they’ve got a much bigger head start than us. It’s up to us to get the weapons and gear up to the people who need it so they can protect our little corner here.” She studied him. “A war is heating up out there, and Legion is leading it. They fight the battles, but we make the bullets. If we stop or slow, they could fail. And if they fail, the guilds will come for us. They’ll tear down everything we’ve made and steal it for themselves.”

“That…” Mitch paused, running through some kind of internal process. ”… was not something that I considered. I have dealt with building and standalone mining games much more than I have dealt with these open-world games. I can see your argument.” He paused like someone who was deep in thought. “We should increase the building speed for the factories and have a constant team working on building more shipyards.”

“I would suggest that we make it a set number of slots for people building the stations. That way, people can move from one task to another and remain interested instead of being stuck in one area,” Minnie suggested.

“I can see the logic in that. Active rest, as some might say, like how Luke and his friends will work on mining, then on building the shipyard, and then drop in for some fighting.”

“Exactly. There’s always more to do, and the best things in games are being able to do what you want. We should use that as a tool instead of hindering people. Like they do in corpo world.”

“Thank you, Minnie. You have helped me see something I would have missed. Many somethings.”

Minnie chuckled. “No worries. Us tech types have to stick together. The normies don’t get us much.”

“I don’t get the interest in blowing one another up all that much.” Mitch shook his head.

Minnie’s grin grew into true laughter as she clapped him on the back. Coming from Mitch, that was rich humor indeed.

Minnie looked up at the small shipyard. Not a bad start at all.

“All right, you slackers, we’ve got plenty to work on!” Minnie said over general chat and walked along the hull and back into the ship. Those around the hull moved into the hold as she cycled through the hatch and moved up to the cockpit. She looked at the mass of automated miners, the factory lines, and small town of storage containers.

“This is going to be fun.”

Chapter twenty-five

Chapter: 25

21, March 2242

Luke checked the air lock, secured Joey’s locker, and headed to the bridge. Everyone else was gathering, and Joey was doing pre-flight checks from the pilot’s seat.

Luke yawned and stretched.

“Late night last night?” Marissa asked as she entered.

“Little bit. We ambushed a fleet, captured them, and had to fly them back to base. A lot of them were blasted to junk. People got a little trigger-happy. We got the shipyard up already.”

“I heard that the company is gonna get sued,” Joey said as their parents walked in.

“They’re not getting sued. The corpos are accusing them of committing fraud. They’re saying they’re not, and the corporations are trying to bully them into giving them shares for nothing.”

“They say that OBE was looking to screw over the corporations. Either way, OBE is making a ton of money. They’ve got over twenty million users already and growing.”

“Still seems a bit dumb to me, paying for a bunch of pixels,” Marissa said.

“Cosmetic packs,” Luke singsonged as he checked the readouts from engineering.

She gave him a look of “not even the same thing!”

“Reactor Two is humming like a dream. Showing way down on the fuel consumption, and it’s not even burping anymore. Stable,” Luke said.

“Your brother pulled it apart and put it back together in record time. The bottle was starting to go. It looked like a small issue, but it could have flared badly enough that it might need ejecting,” Stephen said.

“That bad?” Marissa asked.

“I thought it was just less refined fuel, but the controller was bending the fusion reactor’s plasma bottle with little chaotic variances and was getting worse with time. Joey found the problem, and it’s a good thing he did.”

Joey rubbed the back of his neck, but Luke could see his grin on the reflection of his screens.

Adeline took up her seat as backup pilot, kissing Joey on the cheek. “That’s my boy.”

Luke grinned as Joey fended her off.

“So, how are we looking?” Stephen asked, drinking his coffee as he moved to communications.

“Cargo locked and loaded, priority to Kapyten. Fuel order laid in for Rukian settlement; they said they’ll keep the lights on for us. Picked up general goods for sale, and we’re ready to sail.” Adeline grinned at her own joke.

“We’re looking green across engineering boards,” Marissa said.

“All hatches and airlocks secured. Ready to disengage gangway.”

“Disengage.” Stephen nodded. “How are we looking on plot?”

Luke pressed the controls, unlocking the gangway and allowing it to retract into the station’s docking collar.

“Route plotted to nearest Lagrange point. Ready with blind jump parameters. Mom, I put them on your screen for verification,” Joey said.

“I see. Checking the math.” Adeline flicked through her screens, checking the blind jump information.

“Ready to undock and get underway,” Joey continued.

“Very well.” Stephen took another drink of his coffee and opened a communication channel. “Green Rise Station, this is the freighter, Dahlia. Requesting permission to push off.”

“Dahlia, this is Green Rise Station. Thank you for your visit. Unlocking vessel. You are clear to undock. Travel fast and safe.”

The massive locking clamps, like metal crab claws, opened and released the locking points on Dahlia’s superstructure.

“Thank you, Green Rise. Confirm ship is unlocked. Hope you have a fine day. Dahlia out.” Stephen closed the channel. “Joey, take us out, if you please.”

“Taking us out.” Joey used a touch of thrusters, enough to clear the docking clamps, but not enough to scorch the dock. They drifted away from the dock’s upper and lower arms as he cut the thruster output. The station continued its path around the fourth planet in the Odessa system as the Dahlia drifted clear. It reminded Luke of Valhalla.

He checked the clock. Got time till the next ambush.

Joey used the thrusters on the bow to change their orientation onto their new flight path, turning their multi-ton behemoth. “Engaging main drive at ten percent.”

The drive pushed them down into their seats.

“Increasing to twenty percent, five percent climb every five minutes to nine-point-eight meters acceleration.”

The pressure increased as one g of acceleration returned to Dahlia on their path to the nearest Lagrange point.

“Free and clear of orbital paths. Pushing to full one gravity of acceleration,” Joey said.

Weight returned to normal as Luke shifted in his harness.

“Autopilot engaged. Twelve hours until we reach Lagrange point,” Joey said.

“Smoothly done, Joey. All right, everyone, we’re on half watch. Marissa, if you want to get with the mathematicians about the blind jump, you and Joey pick who will do the jump to Rukian and the one to Kapyten,” Stephen said.

Adeline talked to Joey in a low voice, discussing something about their upcoming blind jump, and Marissa hurried over.

“I’m going to get some sleep. Catch you for the jump,” Luke said.

Stephen smiled behind his mug. “Sleep well.”

Luke waved, leaving the bridge, checking his account. It had steadily grown with the raids on the guilds and the time he put into helping out on the planetoid.

His alarm woke him. Luke groaned and clambered out of bed to turn off the screen in his coveralls.

Shower.

He felt marginally more human after a shower and changing into a fresh sleeve. Picking out the noises of the rest of the family moving around, he walked out into the main area, the smell of breakfast guiding him toward the dining area.

“Grab a box,” Adeline said, slipping scrambled eggs into each of the five boxes.

“I’ll take Marissa hers. Dad and Joey checking the projectors?”

“You know it. They’ve been doing it for the last hour. They should be done soon.” Adeline smiled.

“Okay.” Luke grinned and stretched, filling a coffee and grabbing two boxes and cutlery.

He found Marissa walking around the bridge.

“Break-ner.” Luke raised the box.

“Break-ner? Breakfast dinner?” She looked at him as if he’d grown a third head.

“I’m waking up.” Luke gave her a box and spork.

“And I’m half asleep, and I’m not calling it break-ner. It’s breakfast for dinner.”

Luke rolled his eyes, causing Marissa to chuckle. “Who’s doing the blind jump?”

He claimed a seat at communications, sticking the magnetized box to the open area at the side of the workstation. He pulled back the lid of the box, revealing potatoes, bacon, beans, tomatoes, and scrambled eggs.

“I am.” Marissa slumped into the pilot’s seat, turning to face him, and attaching her box to a tray arm that came out the side.

“You get any sleep?”

“Little power nap. Ran the numbers most of the night, and I got a good sleep before we left Green Rise.” She shrugged and opened her breakfast box, digging in.

Luke passed a familiar eye over the different screens behind her. The wormhole calculations had been completed; projectors were on standby, their lights all green after Joey and Stephen’s checks.

“Blind jumps, jumps, warpgates.” Marissa waved a spork of tomatoes, beans, and eggs as if she were a maestro.

Luke raised an eyebrow, eating bacon.

“Just annoying, you know? Like a jump, blind or not, is just a ship creating a wormhole from one point to another, but nope, going to call it a jump. Warpgates are just massive projectors that maintain a wormhole continuously.”

“Guess wormholing, or worm-gate, weren’t as catchy.” Luke took a sip of his coffee.

Marissa pressed her lips together to try to stifle her smile. The corner of her eyes twitched.

Luke grinned into his coffee. “I guess this isn’t the morning either of us should be naming something.”

Marissa grunted her agreement, hiding her own grin in her breakfast.

Luke heard the plastic squelch of the airlock seals releasing their hold against the metal door, and the heavy gears pulling the door back into its recess, followed by Joey and his dad’s footsteps.

It would take them time to get out of their suits.

“Must be finished with their checks?”

“The were doing an inspection on the projectors and capacitors.” Marissa read her screen, tapping out a message.

The footsteps resumed. “You got any left for us?” Joey called out.

“How did you know we were eating?” Luke yelled back across the ship.

“I can smell it!”

“How’re we looking?” Marissa yelled.

“Can we all stop yelling?” Stephen stepped onto the bridge, Joey off in the kitchen.

“All projectors are good on inspection. Capacitors are charged. Time till Lagrange point?”

“Twenty-three minutes. I wanted to make sure we were in a bit deeper to the point,” Marissa said. “I’ve slowed our burn rate, so in about thirteen minutes, it’ll start going low-G.”

Joey entered the room and grabbed his food container, sharing a look with Luke. They bent forward, engaging in speed eating. Now it made sense why Marissa had been eating like she was trying to get seconds before Luke or Joey.

“Don’t over-eat. No need to clean up puke in zero-g,” Adeline said, making them all grimace.

“Spacer stomach, Mom,” Luke said.

“I meant your father.” Adeline had a cat-like grin as Stephen ate mulishly, snagging another spoon of egg and let the top of his breakfast box snap closed, securing his spork in the side pocket of the box.

“All right, let’s see if you remember from our last jump. What do we need to have to create a wormhole?” Stephen asked.

“Low background gravity,” Luke said, finishing his breakfast and storing his spork away.

Stephen nodded, but kept looking at him. “Which can be found where?”

“Edge of a star system or—” Luke waved at the screens. ”--at a Lagrange point. Each planet creates four Lagrange points where the gravitational pull of the sun and the planets effectively equals zero. This reduces the energy it takes to open a wormhole.”

“Anything else?”

“Wormhole projectors.” Marissa had finished her breakfast as well. “They forcibly tear open a hole from one point to another across space. You want to aim from one low-Gravity zone to another. This reduces the power use in a big way. We need to charge capacitors to increase our power output to the projectors to create the initial punch.”

“Exotic materials to keep the wormhole open, energized, and beamed into the wormhole tunnel. It acts like supports in an underground tunnel,” Joey said.

“Navigational information. It is best if we can get real-time information on the system and location we’re jumping to. We pull the data updates from the net for where we want to go. Plot and make sure we won’t come out into an asteroid, or make a wormhole inside one, or a planet, or a star,” Adeline said.

“What I don’t get is why it’s called a blind jump when we’re pulling the information from the system?” Luke asked.

“It’s a blind jump if there aren’t sensors on the Lagrange or system edge, giving live updates through the net,” Stephen said. “When we were in the fleet, we’d send out small scouts with large capacitors. They’d grab scans of the area so the fleet wasn’t going in blind. If there were any threats, they could jump back out right away. With blind jumps, we don’t have as much of a problem because it’s likely we’re the only ship to jump in. If we’re moving with other ships or to a busy Lagrange point, then the net and sensor data allow us to see where other ships are planning to come out or depart, or debris that might track through the Lagrange area.”

Luke nodded in understanding as an alarm went off.

“Going low-G.” Marissa turned back to her console.

Everyone prepared for the dance as they slid deeper into the Lagrange point. Luke changed his screens to show a schematic of the Dahlia and a map of the space ahead, split with a camera view of where the wormhole point was set.

“Want to aim for a wormhole slip?” Adeline asked.

“You think so?” Marissa asked.

“I’ve seen your practice. Do it at long range—double the distance to wormhole horizon.”

“Okay.” Marissa took a breath. “How are we looking?”

Stephen sat back from the engineering console, smiling at Joey, who sat forward.

“Capacitors charged one hundred percent. Projectors are online and covered.”

“Understood. Uncover projectors and lock onto wormhole horizon target.”

A point appeared on the map ahead of the Dahlia. Armored points along the bow shield of the Dahlia opened as the projectors extended out.

“Projectors are uncovered and warmed.”

“Prepare to power up.” Marissa flipped the ship so the bow faced the direction they were traveling in. She arrested the flip with another burn of thrusters and started a ten-second timer.

The corner of Luke’s mouth pulled up, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end; the feeling spread down his back.

“Mark,” Joey said.

A hum built through the ship, the capacitors draining at an alarming rate as they dumped power through the projectors. We must look like a second sun to anyone in the area.

The heat vanes dumped heat as the projectors tore at the fabric of space, colliding with one another at the wormhole horizon point. At first, there was an anomalous reading, then a marble of twisted space, like a balloon or blown glass, as the wormhole expanded from a marble to a sphere of twisted light. Artists the universe over had tried to capture a wormhole. It was a beauty that could only be captured with 3D cameras, and they could never quite do its majesty justice.

The light of the surrounding stars and the stars of the other side of the wormhole looked as though they had been pressed into a sphere of liquid glass, bending and refracting the light, creating a perfectly smooth sphere. Two rings extended deep into the sphere. It looked like a planet from far away.

“Wormhole stable to the Rukian system,” Joey said.

“Verifying location through the net,” Adeline said.

The seconds ticked by as they glided toward the wormhole.

The light of the wormhole reached the settler station-ship, passing through the night at FTL to update their computers.

“Wormhole is right on target.” Adeline smiled at Marissa, who shared a shaky smile.

“Forty seconds until entry,” Stephen said, his voice rock-steady and proud.

They slipped through the darkness of space, kilotons of mass.

“Entering the wormhole,” Marissa said.

Luke watched through the bow sensors as they entered the wormhole. The only thing that changed was the view. It looked like space captured in the wormhole was bending around them.

“Midpoint,” Marissa said.

Luke switched to a side view. It looked as if they were in-between two universes. Then the old universe was behind them and a new one was ahead.

“Exiting.”

Their view expanded outward.

“Smooth as butter,” Stephen said.

“Nicely done,” Adeline said.

“I have the plot to Rukian Ship-Station. Following the plot.” Marissa couldn’t hide her pride at their words, engines turning the behemoth.

The wormhole started to shrink slowly as Marissa applied thrust, the acceleration pushing them down at one g.

“Well, that was fun,” Luke said.

“Says you,” Marissa said with a nervous laugh.

“You did well.” Adeline rubbed her shoulder. “You, too, Joey.”

“Follow-up inspection.” Stephen got out of his seat and grabbed his helmet.

“Oh, yay.” Joey groaned and grabbed his too.

“Make sure you finish breakfast first!” Adeline said as they headed back. “Marissa, I have the plot if you want to get some sleep.”

“Thanks, Mom. I could do with a little sleep.”

“Luke, you got plans today?”

“Got a meeting in a bit.” Luke checked the time and stood. “Uh, like, in a couple of minutes.”

“Have fun,” Adeline said.

“Thanks. Nice blind jump, sis!”

“Easy as pie.” Marissa let out a nervous laugh. Transferring you control, and I’m done.”

Marissa released her harness and climbed out as he ran to the dining room, putting his breakfast box into the washer. The air lock cycled as Joey and Stephen headed out to do the inspection of the projectors and heat vanes.

Chapter twenty-six

Chapter: 26

21, March 2242

Luke’s suit closed around him, molded to his body like a second skin. He grinned at the satisfying click of his helmet locking into place. The projectors lit up as he rose smoothly, entering the net.

[Foster invited you to a private lobby.]

He tapped the invite. His vision scrawled from the halls of the net into an auditorium. Squad leaders filled the seats in their net avatars instead of their bots. Luke moved to the nearest seat. Squad leaders popped into existence and did the same.

Dana, Foster, and Ichika stood at the front, a massive screen dominating the wall behind them.

Foster was a large black man. He wore simple black fatigues with a gremlin on his shoulder and a red strip down where the fatigues buttoned together, straining against his muscle stature. A barcode was tattooed on the left side of his neck and a golden line tattoo under his right eye. His curly hair had been cut to a short military standard. On his breast was a conniving Gremlin, crouched, with a lopsided helmet, grin, and a rifle at the ready.

Ichika was a whipcord thin Asian woman with delicate flower tattoos that coiled around her left arm, shifting in a silent breeze; characters ran below her eye and down her cheek. Her hair had been shaved on one side, a cherry blossom branch running along the curved line of her hair. The rest of its length had been braided and hung down the inside of her left shoulder. She wore pants the same as Foster’s but had a red leather jacket with a Howler on the back in white.

Dana wore a deep-blue two-piece pantsuit. Her jacket was buttoned on her left, gold stitching ran down the neckline and down the hem of her jacket by her buttons. Her platinum hair caught the light, and her eye color was a dull, flat gray iron. She said something to Foster, who nodded and stepped toward the room, clearing his throat. A hush passed through the squad leaders.

“Good morning, well, for some of you,” Foster said. “First of all, I should say congratulations. Seems that your Operation Vulture has raised hell with the guild supply lines.” Foster raised an eyebrow at Dana and Ichika.

Ichika’s mouth spread into a predatory side grin. Dana bowed her head slightly. “We do what we can.”

Ichika snorted and rested her hands on her hips. “Old Ironside here has much bigger plans and better names for operations.”

“Well, we’ll endeavor to keep you on your toes.” Foster’s grin was infectious. The screen behind him changed to show an ice canyon on Valhalla. “I give you Operation Backdoor. This is a map of the Crimson Node, owned by the Crimson Heart Guild. Most nodes only have one command post. This one has three. To capture the node, we need to capture all of them,” Foster said. Three points were highlighted from the flat of the valley, up the hillside and into the side of the canyon, connected by a twisting ribbon of road.

The screen zoomed in on the first point at the bottom of the canyon.

“First, Airport. Two runways in operation, four outfitting hangars, ten storage hangars for shuttles, dropships, and hell cats. Containers line the sides of the runways, gear ready to be transported to Ares to support the Crimson Heart’s fight. Walls, more to deal with the ice drift than attackers. Turrets periodically around the wall.”

Foster tapped his terminal, and the screen followed the ribbon of road halfway up the canyon. “Second command post—Hillside. Factory base, materials come in from Cave, turned into gear and sent down to Airport. It’s laid out as a big U. Materials come in from the upper road and down toward the lower. Some containers, but mostly factories and belts. Walls, two large gates and covered in turrets focused on anti-air. It also has two landing pads jutting out over the back of the base over the canyon.”

The map shifted up to the black maw carved into the side of the canyon, higher than Hillside. “The third location and the crown jewel—Cave.” Foster pressed his lips together. “They’re mining, refining, and manufacturing some basic gear. We don’t know how deep it is or what it looks like because of the overhead cover. We do know that the entrance has a large gate and several turrets to fight ground forces, but they’re not in great numbers. Four landing pads hang off the ledge they carved into a road down to Hillside. We have no idea of the layout, their forces, or disposition.” Foster shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out?”

A chuckle ran through the room.

“This is their base. They know it inside and out, so we’ll be against the clock on this one.” Foster’s gaze passed over the room. “First wave will have two tasks: hit the airport and establish forward operating bases.

“Forward operating bases will be mini bot and weapons factories, mining and producing gear right in the vicinity of the enemy, so we’re not reliant on just the dropships. It also gives us a redeploy location right next to the enemy to keep up pressure.”

Green locations dotted the canyon. “These locations have a high probability of containing the materials we need to create more bots. Miners, factories, pre-made walls, and turrets will be dropped at these locations. I want us to become race car fast putting them up.

“The other waves will assist on securing Airport, then we fight up the canyon through Hillside and into Cave. To make sure we win, we’ll invite free players to join in the fight. Questions?”

Foster pointed at a squad leader’s raised hand at the front.

“When?”

“In two days. Supplies are being pushed up to the Free Node, and we’re shifting a number of ships captured in Operation Vulture into Valhalla’s orbitals. We need to move fast so we don’t raise suspicion. Things are cooling down in Ares, and we need to make use of this time while we can.”

“Why the Crimson Heart Guild and why now?”

Foster turned to Dana. She nodded and stepped forward. “The Crimson Hearts are focused on Ares. If they pull too many people back to Valhalla, they could lose their bases in Ares. While this node is big, they’re fighting for continents on Ares.”

Another hand was pointed out.

“Can we trust the free players?”

“They want to get in on the fighting as much as anyone else. They’re getting bored with the small skirmishes. The guilds are the only ones having real fights. There are millions of free players just roaming around, even if some of them just use their daily bot, it could really help us. Even if some of them tell the Crimson Hearts, well, the attack will be underway,” Foster said. He looked around, but there weren’t any more hands.

“We’ve set up a simulation lobby. Whichever squads have the best performance will lead the assault with the first wave of dropships. I wish you luck!” Foster brought the meeting to a close. He, Ichika, and Dana disappeared.

[You have been invited to Crimson Node simulation server.]

Luke pulled up his terminal, the room filling with excited chatter between squad leaders.

[Foster invited you to a private lobby.]

What was this about? Luke clicked on the second notification and appeared in a warehouse. He stood, the chair dissolving into the floor.

“Thanks for meeting with me,” Foster said. “So, what are your plans? Will you stay with the Legion?”

Luke worked his jaw. The guilds were his lifelong dream. It was so much fun working with Legion, seeing what they could do. The mining planetoid was coming along, and they were on the cusp of something incredible. Luke sighed. “What if I get an invite to join a guild later?”

“You can leave at any time. We’re a clan, not a guild.”

“Why are you taking this time with me? You’ve got to have other things to do.”

Foster’s grin spread in full force. “You’re capable and a good person.”

Luke rubbed his neck, blushing. “Thanks,” he said into the floor, then looked at Foster. “If you’ll have me, I’d like to see just what the Legion can do.”

“That’s the spirit! This is all a game after all. It’s supposed to be fun! Sure, there are serious moments, but it’s all a game.” Foster chuckled and pulled up his terminal. “Now, you’re going to need a squad.”

“I have a squad.”

“The Gremlins do things in squads of five. If you have five people, then you can get a permanent squad slot, so instead of getting a different letter of the alphabet each time, you’ll be Echo squad, or Echo One squad, part of the first company.”

“Little easier than being a new squad each game.”

“So, are you in?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Good.” Foster pulled up his terminal and tapped something into it.

Two men appeared.

“Moose and Shiro.” Foster waved to each. Moose was fit, his black hair cut short. He moved like someone who had manned mechs and large bipedal machinery, each step firmed into the ground, every movement calibrated to his environment.

Shiro was twice Moose’s size in muscle. His movements could be called gentle, smoothing out the power coiled within his body. His smile spread to his eyes as he bowed his head in greeting. “It is good to meet you, Luke.”

“Squad lead.” Moose rolled the words through his mouth as he sized him up.

“You all have the same time cycle, and you game around the same times. Shiro runs medic and Moose runs assault. With Jynx as gunner and Fin as demo slash supply, and you with the enviable job of squad lead. You’ve got a full squad.” Foster grinned.

“Supply?” Luke asked.

“He brings a pack of ingots or components,” Foster said.

“Then, with a repair tool, we can turn the components into a factory. With the supplies, we can get the factory churning out gear or other bots,” Shiro said.

[Jynx has logged on.]

“Oh, okay. I didn’t think of that,” Luke said.

“Well, I took it from what we did down in the tunnels.” Foster clapped him on the shoulder. “Have fun. I’ve got work to do. Catch you around.”

He pixelated away, leaving Luke with Moose and Shiro.

“Fin should be on soon, but Jynx is on now. We can see if she wants to join us. I was thinking of jumping into the Crimson Node simulation. The best squads will be in the first wave to take the node.”

“That sounds like fun to me.” Moose’s face split into a grin, glancing at Shiro. “You up for it, Panda?”

Shiro let out a long-suffering sigh, rolling his eyes even though he was unable to stop smiling. “I’m going to heal you last.”

[Fin is now online.]

Luke sent him an invitation to their party, smiling as the tension bleeding away.

He pulled up his terminal. “I’ll invite both of you and Jynx to my party. Then I can pull you in with me.” Luke invited them. “Jumping into the server.”

[Moose joined your party.]

[Shiro joined your party.]

Luke joined the Crimson Node simulation. The warehouse was replaced with Free Node.

He raised his hand, metal and bot like. Shiro and Moose appeared in their bot forms, facing him.

Moose tapped through his terminal. Gear appeared on his bot.

“How’d you do that?”

“In these simulation lobbies you can use your terminals to get gear. All your gear and bots are free, just have to pay the hosting fee for the server, but Legion is footing the bill on this one,” Moose said. “You never used the simulations before?”

“No, I’ve seen some reviews on it.” Luke tapped the ice where he would have chipped a hole in it on the main server. Here, it was like hitting a concrete wall, no scuffs, no changes.

“It’s good fun to play around with, but there’s no progress, no gains, or possibilities of loss and yeah, the environment doesn’t act like it does on the main server,” Moose looked up from his foot.

“Good to know, thanks. Just gonna grab my loadout.”

[Bot ]

[Primary Weapon: Rifle]

[Secondary Weapon: Pistol]

[Upgrades: __]

[Misc.: Repair tool, Grenades-Mixed]

[Carrier: __]

[Jynx joined your party.]

“What’s up? Why are we in a simulation?” Jynx’s bot appeared next to him as she entered the party and lobby.

“Jynx, this is Moose and that’s Shiro.” Luke waved to them.

“Hi.” Jynx waved.

“Howdy,” Moose gave her a two-finger salute.

“Nice to meet you. Let me know if you need heals.” Shiro nodded in greeting.

“Definitely take you up on that. Redeploying can be a pain in the ass.” Jynx glanced over to Luke.

“They’re our new squad mates. Gremlins operate in groups of five,” Luke said.

[Fin has joined your party.]

“Oh, hey there, new squaddies! Name’s Fin!” Fin shook their hands.

“Nice to meet you,” Shiro said.

“We got another operation already?” Fin asked.

“Hey, wait, does that mean that we are part of the Gremlins now?” Jynx interjected.

“Well, if you’re up for it? And it wouldn’t be the Gremlins, but the Legion. Got space, air and ground forces.” Luke studied them both.

“Well, hell, sounds like fun to me,” Jynx grinned and shrugged.

“I’m in already. So, the mission?” Fin waved it off. Jynx snorted, but leaned forward as well.

“Okay so—.”

Luke explained the parameters and objectives of the operation.

“All right, so this is just the warmup?” Jynx said, finishing the last of her loadout changes and standing ready with Moose and Shiro.

“Whoever has the best score after these trial runs is going to be the leading squad into the actual fight,” Luke said.

“That sounds like a challenge I can get behind.” Jynx rested her machine gun over her shoulder.

“All right. Well, Fin should be on later. While we’re waiting for him, want to jump into the attack, or we can go defense?” Luke said.

“Either way is fine with me,” Shiro said. Moose shrugged, and Jynx just kept looking at him.

“Okay, well, let’s do defense first… Get a lay of the land. It’s one thing to look at a map, another to see it.”

Luke pulled up the menu again, selecting defenders.

Free Node disappeared, and they appeared in the Crimson Node, appearing on a runway.

“Welcome to Airport,” Luke said.

“My name is Psych0Rob0t, and I will be your commander today,” a woman said through the command chat. “Looks like we’re going to be spawning at the other bases as we fall back. Don’t have as many defenders as there are attackers. Got five minutes until they get here. Dig in.”

Luke passed the information on, checking over Shiro and Moose’s gear.

[Moose ]

[Primary Weapon: Rifle]

[Secondary Weapon: Pistol]

[Upgrades: __]

[Misc.: Ammunition, Grenades]

[Carrier: __]

[Shiro ]

[Primary Weapon: Rifle]

[Secondary Weapon:]

[Upgrades: __]

[Misc.: Repair tool, Smoke Grenades]

[Carrier: Ingots]

“Well, this is going to be fun,” Jynx said.

“Where you thinking we set up?” Moose asked.

“I think it’s best to head to the end of the runway, take over some of the turrets, and wait for our guests to arrive.” Luke threw a marker on the edge of airport lacking bots.

“So, why did you get stuck with our merry band of idiots?” Jynx asked Moose and Shiro as they jogged.

“Put up that I’d be interested in gaming in Sphere World, that I didn’t have a team, and mentioned the roles I usually play. The Gremlins sent me here. Is it as intense as people say?” Moose asked.

“When you’ve got credits on the line, every round scares the hell out of your wallet.” Luke laughed. “But, yeah, it’s one hell of a game. The graphics are incredible. You can go seamlessly from flying in space, through atmosphere and down to fighting on the ground. I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of what we can do. If we had a warship, nothing to say we couldn’t call down a rail gun barrage from on high.”

“And there’s no limit on the number of people who can be in a fight?” Shiro asked.

“Only limiting factor is resources and bots. You don’t have the bots, then you can’t be part of the fight,” Jynx said as they reached the marker.

“Grab a turret. Leave the CIWS alone. Make sure they’re set to target missiles and then Hellcats.” Luke studied the different turrets along the wall.

[Missile turret]

It looked like a Vickers gun, a revolver, and a ship missile tube had got together, creating something beautifully terrifying. A belt fed new missiles into a revolver like chamber that rotated them into an acceleration barrel with a thick coolant tube.

“Well, those are new.” Fin materialized next to them. “Shotty, the missile turret!” Fin played with his terminal.

Luke rolled his eyes and walked toward the other new turret.

[Anti-Air Turret]

A belt fed forearm-sized rounds into a heavy acceleration barrel.

He gripped the joystick, moving it up, down and sideways. It moved much faster than he thought such a large weapon system would. “Remember to aim for the predictive circles ahead of the ships instead of at the ship.”

“We’ve got dropships and Hellcats coming in fast!” the commander said as markers appeared in the air and on the ground, heading toward the airfield.

Luke grabbed the controls of the turret.

Markers covered the sky, showing a fleet of Hellcats and dropships weaving through the valleys.

“Hold until we have a clear line of sight,” the commander replied and switched to general chat. “Hold your fire to my order. I want to hit them all at once. Missile-lock them but wait till they blow chaff before you fire on them.”

“Hellcats to the south! Watch your areas. They’re using the canyons for cover.”

Luke whipped the turret over to the incoming markers. The howl of Hellcat engines filled the canyon as they opened fire Missiles streaked away from their racks as their machine guns kicked up ice and snow, sparking against the Airports containers and defenses.

Friendly CIWS streams cut through the sky, lashing out at the incoming missiles. The Hellcats coming through three canyons, linked up, creating a flying wall heading right for the Airport.

Rumbles and howls cut behind Luke. It was hard not to turn and watch, focusing on his targets instead of the launching friendly craft.

“Fire!”

Luke pulled the trigger. Black clouds of flak sprouted where he aimed.

Enemy Hellcats jerked and weaved, trying everything to escape their fire.

Fin’s missiles punched out into the air. The engine hissed as its burner kicked in, adding to its speed and disappearing toward the enemy fighters. Jynx, Moose and Shiro added in their fire with their anti-air and regular turrets.

“Fuck, this thing is cool!” Fin yelled.

“Don’t get too addicted. I want to try it out next,” Shiro said.

Luke’s black clouds met with a fighter, its wings and side torn apart, jittering in the air before it tilted and dove, spinning and tearing its wing off. The explosion lit up the corner of his screen. He fired at his next target.

New movement caught Luke’s eye, tearing him away from battle to look at a remote canyon run. He scanned, eager to rejoin shooting at the Hellcats. A silhouette appeared just as he was about to turn away.

“Dropships!” Luke yelled, throwing up a marker and shooting. Round after round raked the canyon. Dropships rose over the edge, choosing speed over cover.

“Shit, they’re less than a klick away! Missile launch!” Their racks were covered in unnatural plumes.

Luke’s rounds cut through the smoke around one dropship, tearing across its body, striking its engines, and hitting its wing. The ship shuddered and went up in a fireball.

“Scratch one dropship!” Luke changed targets, grinning.

“Got me a Hellcat!” Moose said.

“Stack ’em up!” Jynx said.

“Focus on the dropships,” Luke said, cursing the pilots as they threw out evasive maneuvers and spewed chaff.

He ducked as rounds impacted the containers near his turret. Hellcats, friendly and enemy, fought to dominate the skies. Dropships attacked from three different directions, their turrets and missiles dumping everything they had.

“Target the engines,” Luke said, squeezing the trigger.

He raked one dropship, hitting the cockpit. It dipped as a missile impacted, scattering its flaming remains across the canyon.

“I hate this fricking chaff!” Fin yelled.

Luke shrugged at the near-missile detonations nearby.

“They’re dropping bots!” Moose pinged a location.

“Shit,” Luke flipped channels. “Command, they’re dropping off bots.” Luke fired on the offending dropship. It dove and crashed into the ground on an angle. A missile went off on its rack, tearing it apart.

“Got it.”

Dropships barely slowed, coming in low as bots jumped out, crashing against the snow and ice.

A missile hit behind Luke, close enough to slam him into his control. Cursing, he found his target again. The dropship was looking right at him. His gut twisted as he saw twin plumes under their racks.

“Run!” Luke turned and got a few feet before the missiles lifted him up and tossed him forward into a roll.

He grunted, somehow still alive

“I nearly had them!” Fin complained.

Luke glanced at Fin and Shiro’s blacked out names on his squad roster. Jynx and Moose were picking themselves up from the wreckage. The containers had taken the impact. The turrets were broken metal.

“We’ll be back soon, boss,” Moose said.

“All right.” The map was sheer chaos, but through it, Luke saw a pattern. “We’ll move for this marker. There are unused turrets we can put to work there.”

Luke picked himself up, ducking as missiles impacted the airport. Turret fire raked the buildings and containers, chasing down moving bots in the open.

Craters littered the base. A Hellcat trying to take off was blown apart by enemy ships before it could pick up speed. Hangars lay broken around the runway, ships burning inside.

“Got it.” Shiro’s words snapped him back to reality.

Luke took point and ran out into the melee. Rounds ripped through the ground ahead. Luke didn’t pause, crossing the path and into the container maze beyond. He checked to make sure Jynx and Shiro were following, coming out into an open area where the turrets waited.

He activated an anti-air turret, which unfolded and rose over the containers.

“I’ve got targets here on my ping, moving through a culvert,” Jynx said.

“More moving up through here,” Shiro said.

Luke glanced over, their turrets spitting out streams of rounds, cutting through the bots and scattering the survivors. He aimed on a dropship and fired along its side till he caught its engines.

The engine sputtered, and the dropship turned alarmingly, thrusters and flaps trying to compensate, going into a spin before crashing into the ground.

“Breaches! We’ve got a breach to the west side, mid-Airport!” a squad leader reported.

Luke checked his map.

“Looks like they’re getting a forward operating base set up!” an aerial squad leader said. Markers appeared at the FOB positions.

We’re like a sieve in the ocean.

“Commander, we’re spread out and open here. Should we pull back Hillside and booby-trap Airport?” Luke said.

“Alpha, Golf, India, collapse the turrets in your area. Focus on the flak and the missiles. Grab transports and pull back to Hillside. Everyone else, dig in and bleed them. Anti-armor, use the artillery function. Use the coordinates for the FOBs.

“Fin, Moose, where are you?”

“Running up to you! Jackasses keep shooting at us!” Fin yelled.

Rounds pinged off the wall in front of Luke. He gritted his teeth as he tracked the tracers back to the offending dropship and fired at it.

Luke’s vision went white and then black.

[You Died]

“What?” Luke grunted.

“Missile got us. Shit,” Jynx said.

“Commander, Echo squad just got wiped. Where do you want us to spawn?” Luke asked.

“Plant satchel charges where the backup bots are in case we lose this place. I don’t want to give them our backups.”

“Yes, boss.” He switched to squad chat. “Spawn back at Airport. Get satchels in the bot spawn areas. Shiro, take the detonators up to the second command post. Don’t die.”

“Try my best.”

“Fin, Moose, how are things with you?”

“We found one site where the enemy is trying to sneak in. There was one squad when we started. Now there’re three.”

Luke jumped into a new bot inside a warehouse. Bots rushed away from the spawn point and into the fight, pausing at the armory long enough to grab gear and ammunition. Luke followed them, Jynx and Shiro on his tail.

“Okay, Jynx and I will reinforce you once we’re done here. Hold them back.”

“Don’t worry, regular picnic out here. Just about to set up the tent,” Moose said.

“Can’t camp when you’re defending,” Fin pointed out, getting a laugh out of Moose.

Luke grabbed satchel charges, a rifle, and ammunition, slapping them on his armor.

“I got this depot.” Luke marked a bot holding area.

“I got this one.” Shiro pinged another.

“And I’ll take the one we spawned in,” Jynx said.

“Don’t lose these.” Luke and Jynx handed out their detonators to Shiro.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Okay, we rally up at the move marker.” Luke took off at a run, leaving the warehouse and weaving through the storage containers toward the other spawn point. “Command, my squad is moving to place charges. Other team leads, make sure your people don’t mess with the charges.”

“Understood,” the commander said.

Two bots ran through a breach in the wall. Luke slammed against a container. The bots’ rounds kicked up as he aimed and squeezed off two bursts, dropping them both. Sudden silence rolled through the containers.

He forced his breathing under control. “Just had enemy come through this breach. Killed two. Dunno where the rest of their squad is at.” Luke kept one eye on his mini map, bringing up a larger map that nearly filled his entire vision.

Broken through three different places. We’re too spread out and getting cut off. The groups that had been cut off were fighting a brave fight, but they were being encircled and slaughtered.

“Regroup on the command post. We’ll make our defense there. Shift turrets if you can and move the storage containers to make walls,” the commander said.

“We’re going to hunker down around the command post. Fin, Moose, get moving. Collapse turrets and bring them with you if you can.” Luke reached the bot warehouse, narrowly missing a group of bots running out to a container filled with weapons.

He paused. Row upon row of inert bots, waiting for someone to jump into them, filled containers with their doors thrown open. Luke armed his charges and threw them into the containers.

“All set here,” Shiro said.

“A few more minutes,” Jynx said.

“Just planting a few in the guns.” Luke planted his last charges under ammunition crates in the weapons containers. “Heading back.”

He checked his detonator and rifle, then ran for the rally point. He followed bots out of the containers. Rounds tore through the group in front of them as they exited. Luke skidded to a stop and backed up.

“Shit. Looks like they’ve taken control of the defensive turrets,” he said on command. He turned back to move through the containers further, checking his map to plot another route forward.

“We’ve got breaches from the southwest to the northeast,” the commander said.

Luke ran from the storage containers into an outfitting hangar, building a half-formed Hellcat. He reached the edge of the hangar and looked out.

Missiles detonated across the runway and in the buildings on either side. Air-burners howled as Hellcats came through on a strafing run. Their machine guns raked the ground as they released their missiles, leaving fireballs in their wake.

Anti-air took out two, but four escaped, releasing chaff and breaking off.

Luke aimed at a group of enemy bots rushing across the runway, but they were too far away to get a clean shot. “Enemy on my mark, flanking along the outside of the containers, runway side.” Luke pinged, checked the area, and then ran for the next container maze.

“Thanks, Echo,” Kilo Squad leader said.

Luke’s gut was tight. He was out in the maze with none of his teammates around.

He took the safest route, ready to bring his rifle up. He stopped at every opening, peering around the corners, checking they were clear before running across the open ground as fast as he could.

“All right, I’m just outside the command post base,” Luke said.

“We’re grouped up, finding a truck for Shiro to take,” Jynx said.

Luke looked out at the containers that had been thrown together into a wall. The end of the runway had been turned into a jumbled mess of a base.

He was just a few hundred meters from the container wall erected around the Airport’s command post.

CIWS brrt’d, causing missiles to explode overhead. The concussion pressed the ship toward the ground. He rocked forward and took the first step. Then he was running as fast as he could. He’d reached the halfway point when rounds hit the ground around him. Machine gunner.

Luke swerved left and right to make it harder. His gut clenched as he looked at the three-container-tall wall ahead of him. Friendly bots were at the top of the wall, shooting over, turrets unleashing hell against their targets.

“Shit! Here goes nothing!” He stuck his rifle to his chest, sprinting as fast as he could and jumped, kicking in his jets.

“Come on!”

He activated his mag clamps on his feet and hands.

Rounds were hitting all around him. Fuck off!

He impacted the container, scrabbling up. Rounds stitched a line across the container, hitting him in the left leg. He lost his footing. Digging in his right foot, he threw himself up with a burst of jets, grabbing onto the lip of the container.

“Don’t shoot me!” he yelled on local, pulling himself onto the top of the container then rolling to drop onto the container behind where friendly bots were shooting from.

“Dammit!” Luke rolled off the catwalk container and hit the ground. He growled and tried to stand. His left leg gave out, a sparking mess of metal and actuators. “Medic!”

“I got you,” someone said, applying their repair tool to his leg.

“Thank yah.”

“You dead or something?” Jynx asked on squad.

“Not yet. Just getting fixed up.”

“Good. We just joined back up,” Fin said.

Luke pulled his map up, all four of them at the rally point.

“All done,” The medic said.

“Thank you!” Luke got back to his feet and ran towards the others. “You find a vehicle?”

“Yeah, got a quad,” Shiro said.

Luke ran between buildings and bots that were running up into the fight. He found his squad at the motor pool near the gates leading out of the base. Shiro was mounted on his trusty steed-quad.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure. Just have to drive a quad through all this shit and up an unprotected hill while holding the detonators to make sure our enemy doesn’t get our bots. I’m peachy.” Shiro chuckled.

“Call you Hellrider after this.” Fin smacked him on the back.

“Sounds like a plan. Can you get the gate?” Shiro moved to his quad. The rest of the team headed to the gate.

“Thing’s jammed, or broken, or don’t have power,” Fin said, trying to use the pad.

“Jynx, get up on the wall and keep an eye out. Moose, Fin, with me on the gate.” Luke pulled out a lever and pushed it down, unlatching the gate.

“There are handles to push it,” Fin said, popping them out, along the gate. “Guess it’s made just for this situation.”

Shiro rode up on the quad, and they grabbed onto the handles.

“Jynx?”

“One sec. Okay, yeah, this should be good.”

“Three, two, one.” Luke grunted as they pushed against the handles.

The gate creaked and then groaned on the runners, breaking the ice that had piled up under it as it started to open.

“See you later, suckers!” Shiro shot out through the gate as soon as it was open far enough for him to squeeze through.

“Close it!” Luke said.

They turned around, grabbed the handles, and pushed.

Luke checked his map, monitoring Shiro swerving up the hill. “Got skills, Shiro.”

“Got a mighty need for a new pair of underwear,” Shiro’s said, his voice tight with concentration.

Luke snorted, slamming the gate shut. It bounced under the bot’s force. It was easy to forget just how strong they were. He locked it into place and jogged up the stairs to the wall, looking over it and tracing the road up to Hillside.

Shiro zig zagged up the road, missing craters and trying to stay on the road, kicking his wheels up. A Hellcat took interest and dove, their rounds hitting the ground around him. Anti-air turrets targeted them; flak filled the space around the Hellcat as Shiro weaved and used the lip of a crater to jump it. The back end of his quad fishtailed on the other side as the flak caught up with the Hellcat, turning it into a tumbling fireball that crashed into the slope and rolled away.

Luke cheered. “Shit, Shiro, you can drive me any day!”

“I’ll pass on that. Just watching you makes me feel queasy,” Jynx said.

Shiro laughed as he snaked up the hillside, lost in the bends.

“Good shit, Shiro. Tell us when you get in. Rest of you, we have to head to the front line, slow them down and bleed them of bots.” Luke checked the map, looking for a gap in the line. “We’ll move to my move marker, join the line, and help out the team.” He jumped from the wall.

“Sounds good,” Moose said, joining him with Fin. Jynx was the last down.

“It’s to the right side of the line. About a hundred and fifty meters to our right is the wall,” Luke said.

“They flanking around the wall?” Moose asked.

“Not yet. Not much cover out there. They’re pushing through the buildings and containers on either side of the runway, it looks like,” Luke said, bouncing through the maps, zooming in on markers and zooming out. He closed it as they got into the depths of the command post sprawl.

They ran through the buildings, passing bots spawning in and grabbing gear, rushing in the same direction. Ammunition bearers ran around to refill the turrets that were chewing through their ammo at a terrifying rate.

As they closed with the wall, they found ammunition crates torn open and thrown aside. Medics were pulling bots back out of the line of fire and repairing them or working to keep the turrets online.

“I’m grabbing a sniper from the armory. I’ll catch up!” Fin said.

“Got it.” Luke didn’t stop, and they kept running.

Rounds impacted overhead. Bots stared out of corners and between slits, shooting where they could. Luke ran up as a bot was shot in front of him. Luke grabbed them and pulled them away from the half-meter slit they were shooting through.

“Medic!”

“I got him.”

Luke left them to it. He moved to their position—a low-lying building with a container in front of it, barely taller than the building. Waste blocks of stone and other compacted materials created a semi-circle firing position to the left half of the roof. Containers were stacked around it on either side as part of the great storage container wall of Airport, cutting the northwest section of Airport off. Holes punched through them, turning them into the back side of a cheese grater in places. The one on the right was a mess of ingots and twisted metal from where a missile had torn it apart.

“Get in a firing position and kill as many as you can! Keep low and only shoot at people you know you can kill.” Luke clambered up on crates and looked through the charred mess of a container.

Jynx got onto the roof and crawled up to the block-made firing position. Instead of setting up in it, she moved to the side, using it as protection so she could focus on the right.

Luke checked the markers on the map and oriented to face where the enemy had been seen. Muzzle flashes lit up between the containers and buildings as the enemy advanced. Although he could see the flash, he couldn’t see them hiding between cover.

One stepped out, aiming down the line. Luke fired a burst, adjusting as he watched their travel. They kicked up concrete before slamming home; the bot staggered and then dropped.

Moose and Jynx fired at their own selected targets.

“There has to be a group of them hiding in there.” Jynx pinged. “We got artillery?”

“Commander, do we have artillery online?” Luke asked, putting down an artillery mark over Jynx’s ping.

“Baker Squad, can you give us arty support from Hillside?” the commander said.

“Yeah, you’re in our range. Echo, I see your mark. That accurate?”

“It’s accurate. Need H-E on mark, if possible?”

“Commander?” Baker asked.

“Team leads, call in artillery as you need it and put down marks. Message Baker if you need it immediately.”

“Firing on your target, Echo.”

“We’ve got arty coming in. Let me know if you need corrections, Jynx.”

“Will do.”

“Hey, friends,” Fin said, joining Luke, using a hole in the side of the missile-stricken storage container as his firing position.

They hunted the enemy, calmly and effectively.

Luke got in some good kills before someone figured out where they were.

Two machine guns opened up on their position, causing the containers to ring. Rounds cut through Moose’s container, and he dropped to his belly.

Jynx returned fire to regain fire superiority, but suddenly went silent. “Sniper out there. Shot me.”

“Whereabouts?” Luke said.

“You know the sideways container? The two stacks to the left.”

“I got it. Damn, just the tip.”

Luke moved along the container. They must have seen the movement and hit around him. He ducked behind the ingots that filled the container.

Fin fired. “Got the fucker who killed you, Jynx.”

“Thanks, Fin.”

“Shit! They’re making a run for it. They’re smoking!” Fin pinged an area.

Luke tried to look but rounds sailed too close to his head.

“You need artillery on there?” Luke asked.

“Can’t tell. Moose, you see it?”

Luke moved to get into a new position farther down the wall. A missile shot over the low building, sailing over the camp. CIWS took it out.

“They’re using the smoke to close with the container wall, and they’re spreading out. I can’t see them. They’re so close.” Moose fired.

Luke checked his map and put down markers. “Be advised, there are enemy closing with the container wall and pushing up along it. They’re in close, so we don’t have a shot on them. Arty, check Echo’s artillery mark.”

“We’ve got smoke on the left flank,” Lima Squad reported.

“Looks like this is their push. Get ready.”

“Grenade!” Moose yelled as Luke heard it.

He jumped off the containers with Fin as it went off.

“Shit, it got me.”

Luke noticed the machine guns were still firing, but not at them anymore.

“Respawning,” Moose said.

“I’m just grabbing gear. I’ll wait for you,” Jynx said.

“Fin, I’m going to grab Jynx’s gun, see if we can’t get some fire on these assholes. Think we need to relocate somewhere else.”

“Might be an idea to just pull back. This is a low part in the wall. Easier for them to get over here,” Fin said.

“Shit. You’re right.” Luke scanned behind him and pinged a group of haphazard containers in various stages of being set up. “We’ll take up a position there. You move there. I’ll be there in a sec.”

“Hope you make use of my gun. Got an ammo box on my lower back. Gun was half full when I kicked it, I think,” Jynx said.

“Thanks.”

Luke slung his rifle and jumped, grabbing onto the lip of the building, and staying low as he crawled up to Jynx’s body. He grabbed her ammo box, putting it on his own back, and rolled it over. The round had gone through her bot’s head and out through its chest.

Rounds pinged around Luke. He grabbed the machine gun and rolled to the left, in the cover of the waste blocks.

Fin fired, once, twice, three times. “Think I got them, or at least some of them.”

Luke checked the gun and rolled off the side of the building onto the ground below. “Moving to you,” Luke said, checking his map. Jynx and Moose were running up on them.

“Shit!” Jynx yelled.

CIWS went crazy, deafening all other weapons as missiles exploded overhead, getting closer and closer to the base with each second.

Explosions rippled through the base.

“They hit one of the spawn points,” Shiro said. “Left flank isn’t looking too good. Got breaches on the walls.”

Fin fired, and kept firing, as Luke ambled up through the containers, setting up on one that was wedged in sideways on one container and up on another.

Flak exploded over the one-story building, peppering the containers with shrapnel.

“Sneaky fuckers,” Fin yelled.

“You hit?”

“No, but I’m pinned.”

The rounds stopped, and Luke heard people running on metal. “They’re on the building. You ready?”

“Sure thing.”

“All right.” Luke breathed out. “Go!”

He stood. There were a half dozen bots on the building. Their heads turned to him as he pulled the trigger. He traversed his fire across the roof as Fin’s rifle boomed.

Someone threw out smoke as more tried to make it onto the roof, getting cut down.

“Reloading!” Fin yelled.

“Throw some grenades!”

“On it!”

“Command, getting pushed hard from my position. Got enemy rushing in over the wall.”

The smart bastard on the flak gun started firing over his friends. The round detonated past them, raining shrapnel just beyond Luke and Fin.

Smoke covered the roof, but Luke kept sending bursts over it as Fin’s grenades went off on the other side of the building.

Luke heard a grenade land around him. “Grenade! Run!”

It went off, tearing him apart.

[You Died]

“Fin, watch out—”

“I’m dead!”

“Shit. Moose, Jynx?”

“We’re in a fight in the containers. They’re tearing up the walls with the turrets they took over, and we’ve got breaches all over the place.”

Luke scanned for spawns, but there were only spawns beyond the command post.

“Spawn on Hillside if you die. Start building that place up.”

“Fighters and dropships aren’t taking kindly to our presence up here,” Shiro said. “Keep shooting the shit out of us up here. Using machine guns instead of missiles, at least.”

“Commander, do you want us to blow the bot spawns on Airport?”

“Do it right before they get the cap. Hillside commanders, focus your anti-armor and missile turrets on the FOBs. Focus on the left-most one and then move to the right.” Four numbered artillery markers appeared on the FOBs. “Then shift fire to Airport, take out the factories and outfitting hangars. Don’t leave them anything.”

“Get on the anti-armor and the missile turrets. We’re going to rain hell on the FOBs. Go from number one to four. Shiro, blow the charges before they get the cap on Airport.”

“You got it, Team Lead.”

Luke spawned in with Fin, both grabbing a repair tool, rifle, and some mags. He slapped them on and ran for the turrets. Bots were coming to life across the base. Luke headed for Shiro, near the command post, manning a missile turret. “Shiro, I’m going to be forward of you a bit, grabbing an anti-armor.”

“Got it.”

Luke got to the turret, switching it to artillery mode. The turret rotated upward, and Luke used the turret map to mark where he wanted the rounds to fall. “Anyone got eyes on the FOB?”

“India does!”

“How are we doing?”

“I’ll put markers on the map.”

“Thanks.” Luke went back to squad. “Watch for markers on the map for artillery.”

Luke saw it. He switched the round type from armor piercing to H-E and pulled the trigger on the joystick.

The cannon fired slowly, so as not to break the tower supporting it, clearing the AP rounds that were loaded in the gun, and feeding in H-E from the secondary feed.

Luke fired again and shifted his aim every time. The marker moved, and he followed it.

“FOB One down. Switch to FOB Two,” India Squad leader said.

“Switch to FOB Two!” Luke turned the turret, lining up with the new target, firing and shifting aim after every round to spread the destruction. So it went, with India marking the FOB, and the turrets firing on it at a distance.

Anti-air and regular machine gun turrets paired up with the CIWS to rake any dropships or Hellcats that got in too close or random missiles sent at Hillside’s way.

“Got killed,” Jynx said.

“Rally back here,” Luke said, checking the map as she broke him out of his focus. The defenses had doubled as more turrets were added to the mix. The sides of the containers had been repair-tooled to other containers, creating a hidden network of runs through the base. The commander and squad leaders broke down the forward areas and fallbacks even as the fighting in Airport continued.

“Commander, you want us to pop the charges on the bots?” Luke asked.

“Do it now.”

“Shiro, if you’d do the honors?”

“Hell, yeah.”

Luke moved his turret to see Airport. Explosions rippled through the container city, and then ballooned as the charge hooked to the armory found something with an extra punch. The buildings and area around the command post went up in similar explosions as the armories and bots were slagged.

Shiro whistled. “Damn, better than Fourth of July.”

“Thanks for riding them up there. Shitty job. Next time, I’ll run them,” Luke said.

“Wasn’t bad. Was kind of fun on the quad.” Shiro laughed. “I talked to some guys from Foxtrot. They died down there early on. They heard about the satchels, and they’ve been rigging up the place since just after I got here. Think they might make our charges look like amateur hour.”

“Shit, can I change squad? I haven’t gotten to play with charges once!” Fin complained.

“Fucking pyromaniac, you are,” Luke said.

“Nothing wrong with blowing stuff up,” Moose said.

“You want to talk about blowing stuff up? Fin, tell them about the bomb quads?”

“So, we needed to get into the Star Kings’ node, right? And, well, running was too slow, and we needed to open the wall wide enough so that the others could get in and not funneled. So, the grenades wouldn’t do much, satchels big boom, but not much else, breaching. Good if you need a door.” Fin snorted, and Luke changed his turret’s aim. “But you take a medium missile—one that packs some serious punch—you coat it with the plastic from the satchel charges. We drove up—”

“Echo, Charlie, Oscar, and Papa: focus on the FOBs. India, keep calling them in. Everyone else, hammer the piss out of Airport command post. Take out factories and everything else. Missile turrets, hit them hard.”

Every turret in the base fired on their targets.

“As I was saying,” Fin continued, “we drove up on these quads, covered in explosives, like a spark and we would have gone up. Sitting on top of a medium missile, you know there’s nowhere else to put it, thing’s hanging off the back end of the quad. Right up to the wall, jump back to the next bots, hit the detonator. We took out like half their wall, and the rest of our guys just piled on it, right through the gate. Shit, they never knew what hit them.”

“Damn,” Shiro said.

“Doubt they’d think about destroying a perfectly good quad and bot just to breech.” Moose chuckled.

“Watch out, he’s quick on the old detonator,” Luke warned.

[Defeat]

[You have lost Airport command post]

[Hillside Command Post under attack]

[Defend]

[00:44:59]

“Timer just reset to forty-five minutes. Not too bad,” Luke said.

“After thirty minutes, we can try to capture Airport Command Post,” Moose said.

“Shit, damn turret just stopped working. Can’t fire on Airport anymore,” Golf Squad leader complained.

“Still good for shooting on the FOBs,” Luke said.

“Those that were shooting on Airport, focus on the fourth FOB.”

“My guys, shift fire to the third FOB,” India team leader said.

Luke’s turret altered its aim, keeping an eye on the map for markers.

“All right, squad leads, listen in. Get your people armored and stocked up. We’re going to dig in like ticks here. I want you to get your medics building more storage container defenses. Use the waste rock to build firing positions. Anyone who doesn’t have a full squad on the turrets, pull your squad and have them move to the wall. We’re getting some reinforcements spawning in. Factories are set to make machine guns, turrets, and ammunition; keep them fed and running. Take out the FOBs. We hold back any assaults, and then we counterattack and take back Airport. I’m coordinating with engineers up at Cave to build up our defenses there ahead of time.”

CIWS ripped through the air, hitting missiles launched by a line of Hellcats and dropships that dipped down to the side and back down into the canyon they’d risen from.

“I don’t like it when they use Foster and Dana’s tactics against us,” Jynx said.

“Didn’t have enough time to lock them,” Shiro said.

“Watch the nearby canyons. They can pop out anywhere, fire at us, and drop back down,” Luke told the commander.

“Great, dropship whack-a-mole. Coming up the hill!”

Luke checked with his turret. Bots had spread out and were running up the road or along the sides of the canyon up to Hillside.

Machine gun turrets fired on them. They used the craters, the rocks, and blind ground to move up the hill; they didn’t care about the losses, just piled forward.

Smoke billowed up the hill as Luke adjusted his aim onto the third FOB again and fired.

“Damn, they’re getting close on the hill. Bastards keep healing their wounded and getting them back into the fight.”

CIWS engaged missiles streamed toward the camp.

“And our neighbors keep trying to missile us,” Shiro said.

“Ah, it’s a real party,” Fin said.

“FOB Three destroyed. New targets, along this line!” India marked the map, the targets so close Luke’s cannon was nearly vertical.

He fired and shifted. “I think I can hear my rounds.” They were lighting up the side of the hill.

“Fuck this smoke,” Moose growled. “Blocks my damn sights. Can’t see shit in there.”

“Blind fire,” Jynx said.

Missiles cut through the smoke, “I fucking hate—” Luke turned to run as the missiles struck. He was thrown into the air, hitting the turret and a nearby container before landing on the ground. “Missiles? Shit!” He looked around, checking himself and stood, working past the shock of being alive.

The containers had scattered across the corridor, like a child would toss dominoes.

“The wall has been breached.” Luke threw on a marker and ran for an empty turret, flipping to his squad chat. “Shift fire to the breach!”

“Gimme a sec. I’m going to go revive them. Putting turret on auto!” Shiro yelled.

“Good shit.” Luke wheeled his turret around. The smoke had been partly cleared; bots started to get up from across the road to charge the breach. Luke felt a rise in his chest as he fired. No, you don’t!

The H-E chewed up road and bot and threw the smoke into disarray. “Suppress them! Shoot through the smoke!”

The remaining turrets opened fire, killing tens of bots, but others worked their way through the smoke, or got into blind spots.

Smoke filled Luke’s vision. “Shit, they got smoke in the camp!” Luke located where the smoke was coming from. He pulled back from the turret, checking the defenses, and then where the smoke was. “Hey, Hotel Squad, grab those smoke grenades, and throw them back! We can’t see shit!”

“Can’t throw back smoke!”

“Sure you can. Pick it up and toss it. It’s not like other shooters.”

“Really?”

“We gonna have a debate, or you want to try it out?” Luke turned his sights back onto where the road should be and pulled the trigger. He was getting a good idea of the weapon’s blast radius as he had it on single shot, combing the air.

The smoke started to disperse.

“Thanks, Hotel. Keep it up!”

“Hotel Squad, get your people chucking smoke grenades back,” the commander ordered.

“I fucking hate smoke,” Luke muttered.

“Can’t see shit,” Fin said.

“Just keep firing, and watch for friendly markers,” Jynx said.

“Shiro, how are things with you?”

“I’m still getting people back up, but I think the enemy are at the walls or inside. I can hear noises.”

“Shit.” Luke bumped to command. “Hey, command, I got one of my guys reviving. He thinks there’s people inside the walls at the main breach. We got any more squads that can move over there?”

“We’re spawning back in, and we’ll head there,” X-ray Squad leader said.

“Uniform will move to support, just getting weapons.”

“Echo, Yankee, keep up the suppressive fire on the—shit!” The commander’s voice was drowned out by a rolling wave of noise from up the hill.

“Cave just got breached! Yankee, Uniform—spawn up at Cave, NOW! November, Tango, Quebec, head into the breach area on my marker and clear it out now. Pull your guys from their turrets. Set everything to auto that you can,” the commander rolled on.

“What the hell was that?” Jynx asked.

“Cave just got breached. Teams are moving to it,” Luke said.

“Well, this is going well,” Shiro said. “We getting help?”

“Reinforcements, move to Cave to assist,” the commander ordered.

“Going to Cave. Maybe in another life?” Luke said.

“Sounds about right. Shit! Ah, fuck, I’m dead! Dammit, they’re fucking sneaking through the smoke. Fucker was camping by a body,” Shiro spat.

“Spawn back in as fast as you can. I can’t see shit. Can any of you see anything?” Luke altered his firing pattern, hoping he wasn’t hitting anything important, keeping his eye out for roaming blueberries.

“No, blind as hell,” Moose said.

“Shit! I just got killed, Fin, near you!” Jynx said.

“Everyone, get off the turrets!” Luke said, releasing the control stick and grabbing his rifle.

“Commander, this is Echo. We have enemy around our location. We can’t see anything in the smoke. We’re going to try to clear our area.”

“Understood. November, Tango, Quebec?”

“November is approaching. We’re flanking around.”

“Quebec and Tango are in the shit. We’re fighting through. They’re thick here,” Quebec said.

Luke heard grenades going off just a few meters away. Snow and stone rained down. He heard the chatter of a rifle.

“Got the bastard. One sec, Jynx. I’m reviving you.”

“Just grabbed a gun and gear. Heading to you now,” Shiro said.

Luke crouched and watched between the containers as someone ran out without a friendly tag. He pulled the trigger, downing them; another stumbled to avoid the body, and Luke cut them down too.

“Got them running up on me. Going to hold out here. Move to me when you can, and we’ll push in. Keep those grenades close.” Luke shifted so he wasn’t easily visible between containers and lay down. Two ran out of the smoke, nearly tripping on the bodies as they searched. A third crunching noise made Luke hold his fire as the last member of the team came out of the smoke.

Luke fired one single shot, coming to his knee, killing them before they had time to turn around.

“Don’t shoot. Coming to you,” Moose said.

He came out between the containers opposite Luke, as Fin and Jynx moved up on his left.

“Jynx, Moose, you push down here.” He pointed up the path that the team had come from. “Fin, you and I can revive the bots here.”

He waited for Jynx and Moose to pass him. Fin finished up with the first bot and moved to a second. Luke pulled out his repair tool and held it to the nearest bot, repairing it. Shiro ran up to them and took on another bot. Fin got the last bot. Luke used his repair tool on them as well, speeding up the process.

“Shiro, head up to support the other two.”

“Gotcha, boss.”

“Jynx, going to get a grenade out,” Moose said.

Luke willed the repairs to go faster. “Come on. Shit.”

A grenade went off, followed with weapons fire.

“Shit. Got them. Damn, another to the left, ahead!” Moose said.

“I got you, Moose. Just hold on,” Shiro said.

“I think I got them. Frag out!”

Turrets buried everything under noise as missiles fired close enough that Luke swore he could hear their thrusters firing. CIWS barely had time to react, adding to the noise. Missiles appeared through the smoke, crashing into storage containers and buildings.

A container was blown back, getting wedged like a diamond between the container that had been the catwalk behind it and the next line of defense.

“Didn’t lock them down… amateurs. Fin, you good?”

“Fine. Just in need of a new pair of undies.”

“Come on.” Luke moved toward the containers. He thought about jumping on it for a half second, but it would silhouette him to anyone who saw. He looked underneath and sighed. “The shit I do for games.” He got on his belly and crawled under the container.

A bot dropped ahead of Luke. Luke waited, watching them, listening for others. He shot and killed them, waiting a half second.

“Just killed one in front of me. Watch out, Fin.” Luke listened and waited a half second and then crawled forward as fast as he could. He got up, looking for others, but there was no one else around.

“Come on.”

Fin got out from under the container too.

They moved forward, silently.

“Thanks, Shiro,” Moose said.

“No worries, man.”

They stood among broken ground, shredded metal, and the smoking remains of what had once been storage containers.

“Hold your position. Smoke is clearing.” Luke, Fin, Moose, Jynx, and Shiro each covered a direction and a place where they thought someone might be hiding.

He heard people moving through the area. He waited, finger tense around the trigger. Jynx fired behind him, greeting the enemy bots as they fired back.

Luke focused on his area, people up on the containers, in other passages, hunched over and trying to sneak forward. Shit, we’re in the middle of them.

He had a dozen half shots, none of which he could guarantee a kill with. He pulled out grenades and threw them in every direction he didn’t see friendly nameplates.

“Get your grenades out!” Luke pulled up the map and marked his position. “Command, all around my area, there’s enemy pushing forward.”

Three squads moved to create a semi-circle around his squad.

“The hell you doing, Tango, November, Quebec?” the commander yelled.

“We’re pinned down too,” Tango said. “We’re holding them back, but must be at least three, maybe five squads’ worth. Echo, can you push toward us? We’ll pin them down, you hit them in the back?”

Luke had an itch between his shoulder blades, expecting the blackness brought on by a round to the back of the head.

Turrets fired on the opposite side of the base. Anti-air was firing, clear of smoke. CIWS intercepted all the incoming missiles, defeating them with air-cracking booms and ground-shaking rumbles.

“Fucking airships. They must be producing ammunition in the goddamn airport,” Luke said before keying the command chat. “Okay, we’ll do what we can, but we’re probably going to get shot in the back.”

“If you can break up their lines, we can push through,” Quebec said.

Luke switched back to his squad chat. “Okay, we’re going to push to the left. Cut through everything that’s broken, kill every enemy we can find. There are a couple of squads between us and three of ours that are trying to retake the area. If we can thin the enemy out, they can sweep through and reinforce us,” Luke said.

“Tell them not to shoot us.” Jynx sighed.

Luke went to command chat. “Heading your way. Don’t shoot us.”

“We’ll do our best.”

He could hear the grin in Tango’s voice.

“Let’s go, Echo!”

They pushed forward, checking right, toward where the wall had once been.

Jynx shot someone as they moved quickly. She ran between a storage container, leading deeper.

“Spread out and support one another,” Luke said.

They threaded through the path between containers. Luke aimed down a corner, and the others ran past him. A bot turned and ran toward Luke. Luke fired and killed them, just as they started to aim.

“Shiro, Fin, on me! Jynx, Moose, keep hunting.”

Luke kept aiming down where the bot had come from.

“Going up on the container,” Shiro said, jumping up on the container on the right.

“I’ll go opposite,” Fin said.

Luke waited till they were up before advancing. He bounced his vision around the entrance, keeping himself loose, forcing his breath out. A head peeked around the corner; he fired, missing the head.

“Left side. Just ducked back in!”

“Grenade,” Fin said.

Luke heard it roll on the top of the container and bang on something. A bot ran out; he shot them and picked up the pace. The grenade went off, throwing debris into the intersection. Luke checked left, seeing three broken bots.

He turned to look right, rounds hitting the containers behind him. Luke jumped backward, hitting the ground, and aiming between his legs at the corner.

Shiro fired and things went quiet.

“I got them. Just one bot. That rounds another squad out.”

“Okay, let’s keep going.” Luke got up and moved to the intersection. What was that? Luke turned; he got halfway when rounds ripped through him.

[You Died]

“Between the containers behind me!” Luke yelled.

“Sneaky fucker! We got them,” Fin said.

Luke let out a breath and checked the map. “Spawning in on one of the bots you fixed.”

“See you in a bit,” Jynx said.

Luke spawned in, checking the bot’s gear, and stood up.

“Welcome to the land of the living,” Shiro said.

“Thanks, I’m going to push for a flank.”

“No worries,” Shiro waved him off, fixing more bots. They’d thinned out with more blue friendlies in the area.

“These containers are all over the place. Hard as hell to get around—no straight paths.” Luke tried to trace out a route ahead.

“Kind of the point, ain’t it?” Fin said.

“Yeah. Shit.” Luke ran far to the left, threading through friendly turrets and lines. Missiles and CIWS waged battle in the skies once more.

“Watch out, dropships and shuttles dropped off bots at Airport. They’ll be coming up here soon!” the commander said.

“Attackers got reinforcements again.”

“Well, I feel good about being behind enemy lines more now,” Moose said.

Luke grinned. Moose and Shiro were good dudes, and they played their roles well. He ran to an open area between containers, coming face-to-face with two enemy bots moving up in the other direction. Luke shot the first, but the second got him.

[You Died]

“Fuck!” Luke switched to command and marked his body. “Watch out—enemy moving to flank on Echo’s mark.”

“Seen,” Quebec team leader said.

Luke went back to squad. “Got shot. Spawning again.”

He tried two more routes, trying to get around the enemy and reach his squad. Each time, he ran into squads and groups of people who liked to put holes in his bot.

“Spawning again! Shit, goddamn bullet magnet today.” It was like there was no way for him to advance, and every time he thought he had got an advantage, he got killed.

“Push up on your right,” Jynx said.

“Crap! I got shot from behind!” Shiro said.

“Reinforcements are coming in!” Fin yelled.

Luke saw his marker darken.

“They got me.”

“Command, we have enemy reinforcing at the main breach. They’re coming in!”

“Shit.”

“Command, this is Uniform Squad. We’ve got the enemy coming at Cave right now. We need support!”

“Jynx, behind you!” Moose said.

“Fuck. They got me.” Jynx said.

Luke listened to his squad feed with half an ear before talking in command. “Echo just got wiped. Quebec, Tango, November, get dug in. They’re going to come right at you. Command, you want us here to support, or to push to Cave?”

“Cave is the best defensive position we’ve got, Echo. Go back to—” The progress bar appeared, showing the enemy had started to capture the point. “Echo, get to Cave. Everyone else, fall back to your second positions!”

Luke told the rest of the squad and they spawned in gloom.

The cave was barely lit, with most of the light coming from the buildings, and vehicles moving in the massive cave complex.

Luke walked to the armory, getting his normal loadout.

Moose whistled. “Well, that’s pretty stupid.”

Luke joined him, looking along the descending and looping roads of the one-kilometer diameter strip mine that dug into the floor of the massive cave.

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

The command post was less than a hundred meters away at the back of the strip mine. Containers and buildings had been built up around it as a defensive position.

“Nice launcher.” Moose mimed firing it into the pit as the rest of the squad came over.

“Grab your gear. We’re heading up to the entrance. See what those missiles did to our wall,” Luke said.

“Got it.” Moose jogged off.

Luke turned toward the entrance. It started off small and got wider as they moved in. Columns held up the plateau above. Factories stretched toward the entrance to the cave. The closer to the entrance, the higher-level goods they produced.

It was about a kilometer from the strip mine to the entrance. Belts and factories lined the walls, leaving roads for trucks right down the center. Containers sat in organized stacks at the end of belts, ready to be picked up by the trucks.

“They got their factory chain working toward the entrance. Great to have the materials turned into bots at the entrance and then shipped out. If the enemy come in and take the forward factories, we need to shut them off, or we’ll just be giving them gear,” Luke said.

“Doubt we’ll be producing much.” Fin pointed Luke at a miner belt. Several miners’ worth of material, useful and waste, was being belt-fed into containers, filling them. Luke traced the path of transports.

Engineers kicked a container off a truck, creating a firing position that faced the entrance.

“Smart. Stop rounds coming through one side and hitting us on the other side.”

They hustled up toward the entrance. Luke chewed on the inside of his lip, watching Hillside’s capture percentage drop.

[Losing Hillside]

[23%]

He flicked through the map, following Jynx.

“Damn,” Shiro said softly as the group slowed.

Luke dismissed the map, and his stomach clenched. “Shit.” The walls that blocked the entrance of the cave had been peppered with heavy machine gun and missiles, tearing them open. A tank rammed the burned-out hulk of a transport truck. It crashed on its side as the tank pushed it to the holed wall.

A dozen of the vehicles closest to the wall had been turned into slag.

“Hey!” A squad leader jogged over to them.

“Got sent over to help. What do you need?” Luke asked.

“A new front door would be nice. Barring that, we’re pushing the burnt-out trucks and scrap to remake the wall. Going to create two firebases where the motor pool is, there and there.” He pointed to either side of the cave. “Start working on making the base to the right. Flip the transports to make walls and grab turrets from the factories. You can use the repair tools to fuse the transports together, and a few of the waste blocks make good stands.” The squad leader held up a hand in farewell and ran to another squad approaching the wall.

“Moose, you and I are going to grab a transport and some turrets. Rest of you, start building up our position,” Luke said.

“Angle it to face onto the wall. Cut firing slits into the transports so we can shoot out of them from in cover?” Shiro said.

“You got it.” They split, and Luke and Moose jogged to a nearby troop transport truck. Luke got up into the driver’s seat and powered up the truck.

“Good to go,” Moose said.

Luke waited for a transport truck to pass, then drove down the main road to the factories. “Tell me when you see turrets coming off the factory belts.” Luke checked the left side as Moose watched the right.

“There! Got them.” Moose patted Luke’s shoulder and pointed.

Luke followed his finger, seeing the square turret blocks. He pulled over to the side. “Looks like regular turrets and anti-armor.”

Moose opened the door, dropping down a moment before they came to a stop. “Better than those missile turrets. Ceiling is high, but not that high.”

Luke got out of the truck. He glanced upward. “Moose, you might be a genius.” Luke went on the command chat as he followed Moose to the turrets. “Commander, can we get someone to put charges on the roof of the cave? If we lose the entrance, we can collapse it. The enemy will have to use drills to get inside. It’ll take them longer, and we can produce more bots, weapons, and gear in that time, or call in reinforcements from other nodes, right?”

“Good idea, Echo. Foxtrot, get your people working on it. I want that entrance blown, but don’t break my factories!”

“Just passed your idea up to command, Moose. They’re going for it.”

“My idea?” Moose stopped at a turret cube.

“Plant explosives around the entrance, blow them, and block us in and block them out,” Luke said.

“Well, that’s a little more extreme. I was just saying it would suck to hit the—Oh, I see what you did there.”

“Hey, you gave me the idea. You ready?” Luke reached down and grabbed onto the side of the cube.

Moose grabbed on. “Three, two, one.” They lifted it up.

“Okay, I’ll go backward.” Luke glanced behind him as he walked backward to the rear of the truck. “Up!” They got it into the bed of the transport truck and pushed it forward.

“Next one.”

They relayed turrets, getting four of them into the truck before it was full.

“Moose, you want to hang out in the back? We don’t have a tail gate. Best we don’t drop a turret off the back end.”

“You got it, boss. I’ll mag-clamp in.”

“Thanks.”

Luke moved to the driver’s seat as Moose locked in. Other trucks were moving and shifting gear, containers and even factory lines.

Burnt-out transports and filled containers created firebases every two hundred meters, breaking up the road from the entrance to the strip mine.

Luke reached their firebase. Another squad was assisting; they pushed a flipped transport truck into position. Those with repair tools welded it to another flipped truck. Three trucks on their side made their front wall. Waste bricks were pushed up against them.

He turned the truck around and reversed it into the open rear of the firebase. Easier to glide in a shuttle. Luke looked through the mirrors. The grounders made it look so easy, but he always had a hell of a time reversing vehicles.

“Good!” Moose called out.

Thank fuck for that.

Luke jumped out of the truck and bots moved to grab the turrets. “Hey, Moose, you want to drive on our way back?”

Moose laughed. “I’m a spacer too. I ain’t going to do no better.”

“Well, shit.” Luke chuckled, reaching the back of the truck and helping Moose lower a turret out the back. Someone else grabbed it on the other side.

“You—grab this from me. I’m going to help him get the others out of the truck,” Luke said to a nearby bot. He took over and Luke helped shift the turrets out the back.

“That’s the last of them,” Moose said.

Luke watched the second turret get placed down. Someone activated it; legs at the corners flipped down, pinning into the ground. The tower extended and the twin light machine guns unfolded.

[Hillside Lost]

[2%]

“Foxtrot, blow Hillside now!” the commander yelled.

Luke looked at the map. There was just a sliver left before Hillside was captured.

Enemy markers disappeared across Hillside as a rumbling filled the cave.

[Defeat]

[You have lost Hillside Command Post]

Turrets at the entrance fired on the advancing enemy bots. The rolling weapons fire echoed

through the cave.

[Cave Command Post under attack]

[Defend]

[00:44:59]

“Timer reset again,” Fin said.

Luke jumped out of the bed of the truck. “All right, we’re going to grab the next load. Keep working!”

“Everyone, spawn back at Cave. Looks like if we blow our own command post, then it counts like the enemy took it,” the commander said on command chat.

Luke got into the stream of trucks reaching the turrets’ lines. He and Moose shuttled turrets up to their forward base as the squads there continued to reinforce their firebase. Bots used drills to create trenches extending out the side of the base; containers were thrown on top and stuffed with waste bricks creating bunkers.

[00:31:59]

“What the hell are the enemy doing? Command?” Luke asked, checking the timer. He didn’t feel like the defenses on the outer wall were enough to hold back the attackers by themselves.

“They’re massing for their attack respawning all their bots and getting full loadouts. With Hillside a smoking crater, they have to move it all from Airport. In twenty minutes, we’ll have reinforcements. We just need to hold out that long. Then we can counterattack. Keep building. If you’ve completed your firebase, work on the next down the line.”

“Got it, Command.”

The work continued as the timer ran down. Luke continued to transport turrets. Teams finished up with their firebase and bunkers as ramped holes were made for tanks so they could go hull down in the ground, with only their turrets appearing above the ground.

“They’re moving. Everyone, move to your ready positions,” the commander said on general.

Luke was going for another load of turrets. “Moose, jump out and hurry back. I’m going to drop the truck off at the strip mine.”

“Gotcha.”

Luke checked the map. Infantry moving up the road in force. Dropships and Hellcats are getting close. I bet they’re going to soften us up with missiles again. Luke clicked his tongue and took in a sharp breath through his teeth, focusing on driving and thinking about the ad hoc main wall. Should hold.

He dumped the truck off and ran back around the firebases that had replaced the miners and factories leading from the entrance of the cave back to the strip mine at its heart.

Bots ran to their positions, checking their turrets and weapons. Luke had switched out his rifle for a machine gun and shifted the ammunition boxes from his front to his back as he ran. CIWS resounded through the cave.

Luke pulled up his options and turned down the game noise. Explosions shook the ground.

“Missiles,” Jynx said, in a bored, expectant tone.

“How’s the wall doing?” Luke asked.

“Holding. It’s getting torn up, though,” Shiro said.

“Can it hold?”

“It’s a lot of mass to get through, but, well, guess it depends on how many missiles they have.”

If I was them, I would have been spending this time to repair bots and build missiles.

Luke reached the firebase, seeing the entrance wall light up with missiles. The CIWS had been beaten into submission.

Parts of what might have been a quad flew free of the destruction, showing the sky beyond.

“We’ve got breaches,” Luke keyed into command chat. He slipped into a trench and down into the left bunker of the firebase, checking progress on the map. The firing came to an end.

“That it?” Fin laughed, but it fell dead. The barricade was twisted and broken open in places.

“Flak turrets, get ready to fire. Have your burst set to explode before the barrier. More ships are coming in,” Luke said.

He heard the missiles fire. The dropships and Hellcats were so close now.

The remains of the barrier fell apart, opening up large sections.

“Flaks, fire! Cover that entrance!”

Flak met missiles making it through the openings in the barrier. Twisted metal was pulverized; craters appeared at the meeting of shrapnel and missile.

“Smoke!” Jynx called out.

“Get ready!” Luke rested his machine gun on the lip of the bunker. Enemy machine guns raked the firebase.

Luke ducked, getting small. Rounds met metal, the boom of the flak guns, and missiles exploding.

“Well shit, seems like they brought their A-game,” Luke said on local chat.

“They like to make a racket,” another bot in the bunker said, and they laughed.

“Hey, Juliet Squad, how you doing over there?” Luke asked the squad leading the other firebase.

“Our firebase is fine. Think they’re targeting you for the gun flashes. I can add my fire in if you need it, or spot them for you?”

“Spot them for us. I have my machine guns on them. If we can keep these bases at a hundred percent, that’d be best.”

“Gotcha. Marking.”

Luke switched to local. “Everyone who ain’t flak, target the ships. Juliet is going to mark them.”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Been wanting to put this baby to work.”

The anti-armor, heavy and light machine gun turrets fired as the first target was marked.

A dropship dropped away after only a few seconds of concentrated fire. “Nicely done. Move onto the next target!” Luke said.

The ships got wise and peeled away. “Got another one!” Juliet Squad leader said.

“Watch the holes,” Luke said on local.

Luke peered over the bunker wall. The barricade and the ground between it and the firebase had been chewed to hell. He looked to his right. The trucks and the containers were a patchwork of bullet holes.

“Up and at ’em!” Luke checked his machine gun and aimed at the barricade, moving his gun, so whatever he was looking at he could shoot.

Smoke leaked through the cracks of the barricade. Luke saw a grenade thrown from within the barricade.

“Watch out! They’re in the barricade,” Luke said. “Get ready to light it up.”

The silence stretched as Luke looked for any movement. Come on, just poke your head out.

The smoke started to spread beyond the barrier.

A bot ran out, holding a smoke grenade. Luke and about a dozen others shot the bot. It dropped its smoke, spreading it around as the guns fired on the area where the bot came from.

“Keep them suppressed. Spread out your arcs. Don’t double up on an area unless you need to!”

Luke listened to his own advice. The firebases maintained fire on the barricades, but the smoke kept pushing forward.

“Bunkers, shoot for the ground. They could be crawling!”

Machine guns fired back at the firebases from within the barricade. Bots ran out of the smoke—some shooting, most getting cut down. Luke hosed the area he’d picked out with rounds, locking onto anyone who ran out and giving them a dose of lead.

Still, from among them, bots hurled smoke forward further and further, advancing their push.

“Anti-armor, blast them with H-E and roll your fire back. Should clear some of the smoke!” Luke grimaced as the wind pushed the smoke farther into the cave.

It was all done to slow the enemy. When they blew the charges to close the cave entrance, both firebases would probably be crushed by the falling debris.

Luke’s chest tightened as more bots appeared out of the smoke, getting closer and closer each time.

“Reloading!” He went through the motions on autopilot, watching the smoke for movement. Pings and markers flashed across the space. They’d built up their own signals between the markers and pings to know what the others were thinking.

Luke seated his next box, fed in the next round. A new ping showed up; he fired on it, covering the area in rounds before sending bursts into the area he’d seen bots show up in repeatedly.

Be easier if we got a feed telling us if we killed anyone.

A grenade hit the container beside the bunker and bounced back. Luke ducked with others. “Grenade! Throw some back if you’ve got them!”

The grenade went off and peppered the bunker with stone and shrapnel. Luke jumped up again, shooting at where the grenade had come from. More grenades hit the ground, thrown out of the firebase, illuminating the smoke and targets. Luke’s heart clenched. So close. “Fire everything! Don’t let up! They’re right in close!”

“We got enemy on the right flank. Grenade in the bunker!”

Luke heard the noise of the grenade; by ear, he knew it had gone off in the bunker.

“Medic!” someone yelled.

“Reinforce the right bunker!” Luke said on local.

“Cheeky fucker. They’re pushing the right flank and using the base walls as cover to come around!” a gunner said, shifting his gun. A dead bot lay just a few meters away.

Luke focused and fired into the smoke. He didn’t let up on the trigger, seeing the tracers distort and then disappear into the smoke.

“Shit! Another grenade!” Shiro yelled. “It got me. Right side bunker is dead.”

Luke looked around the bunker and tapped another gunner on the shoulder. “Come with me. We’re going to reinforce the right bunker!”

“Got it.”

Luke ran up the rear ramp, looking over at the right bunker. Someone rounded the corner of the container that made the bunker’s roof. Luke grabbed his bipod to the side, bracing his gun against his hip, and fired at the bot. He tried to pull it onto target. The other bot fired back and jumped into cover.

“Set up on the ramp.” Luke backed up and got belly-down, pushing out his bipod, watching the corner. Two bots ran out. Luke and the other gunner cut them down.

A smoke grenade was tossed out and started to spread.

“I hate goddamn smokes when the enemy are using them,” the other gunner said.

“Agreed. We’ll fire off one another: I fire a burst; you fire a burst—back and forth. Conserve ammo.”

“Okay, yeah, that works.”

Luke fired a burst and then the other man did, getting into a rhythm. “Command, we’re getting flanked here at Echo’s firebase, right-hand side. We’re trying to pin them as hard as possible.”

“Bleed them for five minutes, Echo. Our attack is coming in right now. Juliet, hold your position. Kilo, Yankee, Sierra, and Romeo—pull out your squads from your firebases and push up to support Juliet and Echo.”

Luke checked the map. There were ships coming in through the canyons. Hellcats hunted the enemy with the dropships burning hard for the airport.

He heard turret fire and felt missiles hit outside the barrier.

“Those are our ships coming in with reinforcements!” Luke said on local chat.

“Hell yeah!”

“We just need to hold here a bit longer, bleed them. Then we can counterattack!”

“They’re charging!” Jynx yelled in local as the firebases went rapid rate.

Luke felt that itch behind his shoulders. To his right was the lip of the bunker and then open ground for fifty meters to Juliet firebase. The guys in the bunker are good. They’ve got me covered.

Luke trusted them to do their job, as he’d do his.

He nearly missed a group of three running out. Two threw their grenades; he dropped one and killed the third before they could throw.

Luke hunched his shoulders, hoping the grenades didn’t get him. They went off. Shrapnel hit his side. Something was gummed up in his shoulder, but he was fine otherwise.

“Hold your fire. Play dead. Lure them out,” Luke said in local, and laid down a bit lower, aiming at the corner still.

Seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Then four bots ran out, with more around them. Using his tracers to aim, he and the other gunner cut them all down and three more behind them.

“Hah! Nicely done. Veteran play there, bud!”

Luke heard more feet running up and saw friendly squads moving up in the shadow of the firebases.

“Welcome to the party. We’ve got enemy around that corner. Watch out, they’re hiding against our defenses!” Luke said.

“Gotcha!” Romeo Squad leader said.

“Aren’t you supposed to be supporting Juliet Squad, Romeo?”

“Ah, nah. Always ends up a tragedy when we’re together.”

Luke chuckled as the squads fired at enemies unseen, pushing up around the defenses. Medics and gunners jumped into the bunker, taking it up.

“Okay, our work is done. Back down we go.” Luke returned to the bunker.

[Victory]

[You have captured Airport Command Post]

There were no platinum or credit counts. “Damn simulation. Feels like I’m losing money,” Luke muttered.

“Just wonder how much taking the real Crimson Node is going to be worth!” Fin laughed.

“Support the other squads as they move up. Watch your fire.”

Enemy bots rushed out of the smoke as it started to clear from the front of the firebases.

Luke braced and pulled his trigger. Tracers cut through the charging bots as they tried to make it through the flak and machine guns as their covering smoke cleared. Some tried to throw out smoke, but they were random clouds, gaining the attention of gunners instead of providing cover.

He watched for movement, applying liberal rounds to the area before scanning for a new target.

“Squads going out!” a squad leader said. The smoke was rolling back now.

Luke breathed easier, seeing the barricade once again.

“All right, once we clear out to the barricade, those in the firebases who aren’t right behind the barricade, get ready. You’re going to rush to Hillside as fast as you can. Get trucks and quads if you want,” the commander said.

Luke checked his map, realizing that the commander was in Juliet’s firebase.

The squads advanced. Turrets supported them as they cleared the barricade and broke out.

“Clear up here, Commander!” Romeo Squad leader reported.

“Good shit. All right, assault squads, get going!”

Tanks fired up their blowers, rose out of their holes, and pushed forward, hovering above the ruin that had been the motor pool. They hit the barricade and pushed it apart. Transport trucks’ eight tires worked over the uneven terrain easily; quads whirred as they weaved between it all. The two riders held on for dear life as they shot out onto the cratered road down to Hillside.

Luke grabbed a box of ammunition from the floor as the Hillside capture changed at visible speed.

“Damn, looks like we’re going to recapture it in no time,” Jynx said.

“Did they rebuild a command post? Does that affect it?” Luke asked.

“If you don’t have a command post, it’s captured twice as fast,” Shiro said.

Luke checked the time. “Good game, everyone. You up for a few more games? Be interested to try this out as attackers, for one.”

They all agreed, and the Hillside progress bar turned all blue.

[Victory]

[You have captured Hillside Command Post]

[Victory]

[You have Defended Crimson Node]

[Game End]

“Good game, everyone. We’re going to do an after-action review on everything as separate teams, then with the attackers. Then we’ll mix you all up and whoever wants to join and get another round started, can,” the commander said.

The Foxtrot Squad leader sighed. “Didn’t even get to blow the cave.”

Luke shook his head with a toothy grin.

Chapter twenty-seven

Chapter: 27

22, March 2242

Luke tried to stretch, hitting the top and bottom of his bunk. He hit the shutter release, stepping out and reaching for the ceiling on his toes. He stumbled forward as he lost balance, letting out a yawn as he headed for the bathroom, showering and dressing quickly.

“Morning,” Joey called as he walked into the kitchen.

“What you packing up there?” Luke reached the snack cabinet, unlocking a drawer and grabbing a snack.

“Lunch. I’ve got meal duty.” His voice turned nasally, waving his hand in mock reprimand. “You eat all those, and you won’t have room for any real food!”

“Hey, at least I trust the chef.” Luke brandished his bar.

“I work for hours on food, and you go and eat all that processed crap.” Joey tutted, grabbing two finished boxes and tossing them to Luke. He bit his teeth into the bar, fighting to catch the two boxes.

“Bi-d of waerning nexd dime!” Luke stacked the boxes and bit off a chunk of bar.

“Looks like you’ve still got your reflexes. Take one for Dad.” Joey grabbed the other three.

“Sure thing, cap’n, sir!” Luke rambled off, getting a look of suffering from Joey, who led the way into the bridge.

Stephen was at the engineering station, looking at the information on the loading shuttles.

“Lunch?” Luke asked, drawing him out of his trance.

“Oh, what? Food? Thanks.” He took the box with a smile and went back to reading.

Luke took the seat beside him. Adeline was sitting at the communications console; she nodded to Joey and kept talking into her headset heatedly. Still negotiating?

Luke opened the box, finding noodles with diced vegetables and teriyaki sauce. He pulled off the chopsticks and started eating, using one hand to pull up the camera feed to watch the co-op station-ship. It looked as though someone had taken a hexagonal ship and pulled it out sideways, like an accordion and lengthways.

The accordion sides spun around the ship at its axis, with the rear of the ship holding the engines and the forward section holding mechanical-looking areas and a forward storage area. Standard containers latched onto one another, extending the ship lengthways.

Bare-bones.

The ship-station circled the fifth and last planet in the system at a lazy speed. The massive sub-Jovian planet had a radius of nearly four times that of Earth and circling rings. Mining barges pushed off from the rings, meeting up with the station as it passed. Others exited, heading down to the rings to collect their rich bounty or deposit waste materials.

Luke checked the rest of the system: two ice planets and two rock. A small system. Other than the rings of the sub-Jovian, there wasn’t much in the way of value. Located between Coalition and Federation systems doesn’t help.

“How are the shuttles looking?” Adeline asked.

Stephen sighed, rubbing his face, and sitting back. “Scans and remote tests are good.”

“But nothing is ready until it’s been tested for real,” Luke chimed in.

“You got it.” Stephen grinned. “So, how are things going with Sphere World?”

Luke chewed on his food, gaining time to think.

“We’re starting to build up a fleet and shipyards for more ships. Mining is going well, better than I think any of us thought it would. We’ve been ambushing guild supply runs. They have a lot of good gear.” Luke sat back in the seat and frowned. “We’re preparing for an operation now. It’s going to be huge. Should happen soon. It’s just messy. No matter what we do, we’re going to get a lot of bots and ships destroyed. Going to cost us a lot of resources and money to pull it off, but if we can, we’ll gain another node.”

“You scared of losing the credits?” Stephen asked.

“Not so much. I’ve been saving mine. We have to put some into the operation to spread the costs of the fight. It’s going to be massive… So much that can go wrong.”

“No plan survives contact with the enemy,” Stephen said.

“Yeah, we have squads tasked out and leave them to it.”

“Did you apply to join the guilds?”

“Yeah, I did.” Luke leaned his elbows on the console and flicked through screens. “I thought I would have heard something back from them by now.” Luke kept flicking through his screen aimlessly to avoid looking at his dad. “None of them even messaged me back, even when I told them I was part of the group that took a node from right under the Star Kings.”

Stephen swallowed down his noodles, focusing on Luke even as he kept staring at the screen.

“Patience. Things will turn out okay in the end.”

Luke shrugged.

“While I’ve got you here, can you give your old man a hand with running tests on the shuttles? We’re unloading the containers the old-fashioned way.” Luke was thankful for the change in subject.

“Joey and Marissa are gonna love that.” Luke smiled, watching them in their pilot seats, eating and talking through what they were going to do on the approach. The ship was sliding backward on a pre-set burn.

“I bet they are. As long as they don’t scratch the paintwork,” Stephen muttered.

Luke laughed and pulled up the list of shuttles. Starting with two, they’d stolen, built, and repaired dozens now, each of them joining the planetoid’s mining efforts. He used the sensors to run a visual check on the ships and used the remote links to run diagnostic tests. Time slipped away as he worked with his dad.

Adeline hooked her headset under the console and sat back in her seat. “Well, that boy certainly knows how to get a deal.” She looked spent, but had a wide smile. “They’ll refill our fuel tanks and water and take our gray water. They’ll buy everything we got from Green Rise, including the separated gases. Also going to take some of the computer chips and spares that we have tucked away. They’re going to sell us a full load of refined materials, discounted, but I agreed that we’ll return within a year, and they’ll sell us materials at a discount from market standard.”

Stephen let out a low whistle.

“Yeah, discounted materials. Uncle Raffi is always looking for more materials for his yards. Could add this into our regular route.”

“Beats having to go to Odessa,” Stephen said. His tone made it sound light and joke-like, but the hardness in his eyes, and the way his jaw clenched, gave him away.

“Might just skip them altogether, though Green Rise Station is always a nice place to visit. Got some good people there,” Adeline said.

Stephen grunted in agreement.

“We’re going to start decreasing burn. Begin checks,” Marissa said.

Luke pulled up screens on the various systems across the ship. “Locking all hatches.”

The door to the bridge closed and locked, and Luke felt the hatches above and below their living floor close and lock.

“Doors sealed.”

“Power, life support, engines, sensors are good. Engineering is green,” Stephen said.

“Communications are clear. There’s no traffic in the area. Mark is updated with the latest information, and your route to holding position is clear. Communications is green,” Adeline said.

“Plot is clean. Ship is green,” Marissa said.

“Understood. All systems green. Scopes are clear. Plot is laid down. Reducing to come relative zero with Rukian Family Co-op,” Joey said.

Luke made sure his ration box was closed and his zippers done up as gravity reduced along with their momentum.

The plot made it seem as if they were going back in time, the planet and station catching up with the arcing path of Dahlia. The station went from something they could only see on the long-range scopes and sensors to a behemoth that Luke couldn’t see the other end of.

“I forget sometimes just how big the Dahlia is, and just how big some of the things we’ve built are,” Luke said to his dad.

“There are some really impressive builders out there,” Stephen said in almost reverence. “We took our understanding of our sun and the stars and bottled it up into a reactor. We took our knowledge of particles and ejected them out of our engines. We took our knowledge of being in the deep seas to survive the vacuum of space. Worlds of steel and iron, with just a little bit of stardust.”

Luke nodded at his dad’s soft smile.

Stephen caught him, his eyes shining. “Just look at them.” He waved at the screen of the co-op. “Fifty families, all gathered to settle a system all the way out here. Just left their lives to mine a planetary belt, to create a future instead of being told how to live. Now they’ve got a ship-station, a refinery, a business, and a world inside several dozen floors. Their nearest neighbors are several systems away and at least three days of travel.”

“Having faster-than-light net connecting us all makes the universe feel a lot smaller, though,” Luke said.

“Yeah, humans… We can be pretty smart at times, but we have the same capacity to be idiots.” Stephen’s words fell quiet.

Luke acted as if he didn’t hear it. His father’s gaze was on the screen, studying things unknown. He never talks about what he did as a marine.

“Reducing burn,” Joey said, breaking the quiet.

They went through the operation of bringing the ship down to relative zero with the ship-station.

“We’re in position. Locking autopilot to position relative to ship-station,” Joey said. “Annnd, we’re locked.” Joey rubbed his face.

“Nicely done.” Adeline unclipped her harness and floated up to the roof, holding onto a worn padded handhold. “Okay, Stephen, you get some sleep. Luke, could you watch the bridge for an hour or two?”

“Sure, Mom. I don’t have anything planned for now.” Luke unhooked his harness but didn’t take it off, keeping him in his seat.

“Thank you. Marissa and Joey, you’re with me. We’re going to warm up the shuttles and start unloading.”

Joey floated out of his seat and used the back of the seat to hurl himself forward. He banked off the wall around engineering. The bridge door opened for him as he headed for the lockers, Adeline right behind him.

Stephen checked a few things on his console as Luke unhooked and used the console to push himself toward the pilot seats. Marissa was floating with one hand on her seat.

“Just keep an eye on the autopilot every ten minutes or so,” Marissa said as he slid into the seat she vacated.

“Got it.” He pulled the harness around, holding him into the seat, and dragged the screens down, giving him a view of all the different sub-systems of the ship. He configured the screens to how he liked it.

His dad headed off to get a quick nap while the rest of his family suited up and headed out of the air lock. There were shuttles of all kinds around the ship-station, studying the arrival of Dahlia.

Luke smiled, proud. At the smaller settled systems, the arrival of Dahlia was like the arrival of a circus: a massive event for those living there.

“Another day shuttling between the stars.” Luke checked a camera feed as Adeline, Joey, and Marissa left the air lock and walked across the ship to the five small shuttles housed in the top section of the rear engineering and housing section of the ship.

Joey was the first to reach a shuttle. He checked the three heavy, thick-gauge safety lines attached to the underside of the shuttle. With a monkey’s ease, he climbed the shuttle with his hands, opened the forward roof hatch, and flipped around, going feet-first and sliding directly into the cockpit. Three cramped seats with the power plant and engines under his back took up four-fifths of the shuttle.

“Shuttle Two. Power is online. Systems are coming up green,” Joey said. “Lines are good. Moving to test. Luke, can you unlock me?”

“Unlocking, Shuttle Two,” Luke said. The shuttle went from red to blinking yellow, then green. “You’re free and clear.”

Joey used a burst of his jets to clear the shuttle housing. He played with all the jets, still linked to the ship by the three tether lines on his underside.

“Thrusters and engines all good.”

“Shuttle One is showing green. Requesting unlock,” Marissa asked.

“Understood. Unlocking.” Luke waited. “You’re good, Marissa.”

“Bridge, this is Shuttle Two. All systems are green. Lines are attached. Requesting permission to run pre-flight tethered tests?”

“Shuttle Two, this is the bridge. Can confirm tethers are secure. Systems are green. releasing your shuttle. Wait till confirmation before moving off.”

“Understood, will wait for confirmation before moving off.” Marissa replied.

“All right, you’re good, free to move off,” Luke said after a quick check of the release tell-tales.

“Shuttle two moving off.”

Marissa used a short burst of thrusters to separate her shuttle from the ship. Tethers hooked to the shuttle extended.

Luke held his hand over the three buttons that would power the winches attached to the tether lines to pull the shuttle back home.

Shuttle Three extended its six spindly legs. They came out from each corner like its namesake: the spider.

“Ugly things,” Luke muttered as the legs locked and extended.

“Container legs are operating nominally,” Joey said, drawing them back up and in.

“Understood. Legs are good.”

“Checks all look good here.”

“Shuttle three requesting permission to start moving containers?”

“Alright Joey, you’re free to go,” Luke said, hitting a button. The tethers detached from the shuttle and the winches drew them home.

“See you in a bit.”

Dahlia used its sensors and manifest in coordination with the ship-station’s sensors, manifest, and flight plans of people moving through the area to figure out where the containers were and where they needed to go.

Joey opened his shuttle’s legs, locking them into place, and brought them down on his first container, unlocking it from the containers around it. He pulled up and away. The legs went down the sides and locked onto the container. “Container locked in and heading to the station.”

“Understood.” Luke shifted in his seat, getting comfortable. Dahlia’s thrusters fired lazily, keeping them in the same orientation with the ship-station as the spiders shuffled over to the ship-station.

Tao stood in the Star Kings’ briefing room. Two burly men with wands finished their sweep, nodding to Tao and stepping outside. The doors hissed, sealing, as Tao glanced at the other leaders of the Star Kings’ Sphere World team.

“First order of business. We will no longer be selling gear to Sphere World. Everything is to be put toward our own needs, starting immediately.” Tao tried to keep his voice neutral, but he couldn’t hide the bite. “The funds that we accrued from the sale of goods will be put toward purchasing gear from Iron Racket Guild. General Tate, report on Ares?”

She nodded and the hologram projectors showed the red Martian-type planet above the conference table.

“Things are firming up on Ares. There are still ongoing battles, but it seems that the regions have been drawn.” Lines spread across the planet, showing the areas controlled by the different guilds. “We have shifted to a defensive position, with regular patrols through our controlled area. The crafters have been laying down automated miners and building our infrastructure. With our strong initial push, we hold around forty percent of the planet’s nodes. More than any other guild. Ares remains a guild planet. The clans and the free players haven’t been able to gather the funds or materials to assault the planet.”

“Plans for advancement on Ares?” Tao said.

“I think it would be best to keep defensive and crafting forces there and push to create as much gear as we can. There will be opportunities in the future to pick away at the other guilds’ locations. Our biggest risk is not Ares but Valhalla with the growing number of free players and clans.”

“Admiral Sho, I heard a rumor that someone is raiding supply fleets?” Tao turned to a man with washed blue hair turning into white at the carefully tufted peaks. His sleeve was in the purple and blues of Star Kings’ livery with accented gold. He wore a projector implant around his right eye and a blue teardrop earring in his left ear.

“Two supply fleets passing through the asteroid belt were hit. We’re not sure which guild is behind it. I have our supply fleets taking random routes. We need every Hellcat we have for the fight on Ares.”

“Very good. Finding out who is doing the ambushing and where those supplies are going would be useful. Right now, we are in a resource war. Whoever has the most resources and the greatest capacity to build and mine will be the winner.” Tao looked around the room. They all knew how it worked: whoever put in the most money and the most people into a game the earliest, the greater the return later on. They were starting from zero here.

If they had more resources, they could make more ships and bots, and overwhelm their enemies. It would shift things into their favor. “First, we control the resources and gear, and own the ground. Then we can work on owning the air and orbitals. Thankfully, we have taken delivery of two ships from Iron Racket.”

Tao took out his screen and flicked it into mid-air. “Two corvettes fresh from their yards.”

Admiral Sho leaned on the conference table.

“The question is, how do we use it? We can support the fighting on Ares and push to control more nodes, but that is a game of time.” Tao paused, everyone waiting on him. “I have heard rumors of a mining base hidden in the asteroid belt. We know of several prospectors who are out in that area already. None of the independents have requested a shuttle from Sphere World to sell their gains, but ships continue to arrive and leave.”

“So they must be building there, or selling to someone in the area,” Sho concluded.

“Right.” Tao flicked up a section of the asteroid belt; blue points appeared on different asteroids and planetoids. “These mining claims are working and trading with one another and growing quickly without anyone watching. I suggest that we put their work to good use.” Tao’s eyes slipped to Admiral Sho.

“We can take a fleet of dropships and Hellcats in support of the corvettes, clearing through the mining claims. We capture and advance, taking over the asteroid belt in quick succession.”

“Why would you take the corvettes to clear out some rock smashers?” General Tate frowned.

“Security.” Sho waved at the map. “Once we take this belt, we need to command and control it. We just got two corvettes, which means there will be other corvettes out there, or will be in the near future.”

Drax cleared his throat. The crafting head rarely interrupted, drawing raised eyebrows from around the table.

“There is not much infrastructure in space other than the crafters hiding out among the belts, planets, and moons, and Sphere World. If we can take this asteroid belt and those claims, then we can build our own ships and not be so reliant on the crafting guilds we’re contracted with.”

“Need a shipyard to build ships, and we can’t build a shipyard on a planet,” Tao said. “Timeline, Sho?”

“We can assemble the fleet and begin operations tomorrow, Guild Leader.”

“Very good. See to it.”

Chapter twenty-eight

Chapter: 28

22, March 2242

“All right, well, see you tomorrow,” Luke said. The rest of the squad mumbled their goodbyes and went offline. His vision cleared and his suit set down on the floor.

Luke and his squad had been going for two days. They’d come together as a squad, but Fin and Shiro had regular jobs. Moose was a freighter monkey, working on shifts, and Jynx was still preparing for school.

Luke spent the days gaming. He’d help out on the bridge or odd jobs, but now that he was renting, he wasn’t stuck to the same schedule of chores and duties. Still, he liked helping out and he’d done the chores for most of his life they were ingrained.

He used handholds to free himself of his suit and glide to his coveralls and boots, pulling them on and mag-clamping to the floor. He clomped out of the room, nearly running into his father and another man.

“Hey, Luke! How’s work going?” Stephen asked.

“Morning, Dad. It’s going well. I think we find out which string we’re on in a couple of hours. Everyone had to go off to work or do other things. I got a few hours free if you need someone to man the bridge for a bit?”

“We should be fine. Your mother just started her shift on the bridge. Ah, sorry. Luke, this is Ramirez.” He indicated to the younger man, just a few years older than Luke.

“The trader who was wrangling with Mom?” Luke asked, giving a spacer’s greeting, clasping hands instead of shaking.

“Seems I’m getting a bit of a reputation.” Ramirez chuckled.

“Mom loves a good negotiation. She said she had fun.”

“She drives a hard but fair bargain.” Ramirez’s eyes caught something behind Luke, going wide.

Luke turned to face the net suit room. There wasn’t anything special there.

“Is that your net-suit? That’s an Echo model, custom fit.”

Fellow nerd.

“I picked it up in Odessa.”

“While bringing nearly the entire station down on us,” Stephen muttered.

“You’re not going to forget that, are you?”

“Nope. It’s a father’s prerogative to remember everything his kids do that makes him proud.”

“Like nearly getting arrested by Federation marines being one?”

“And then getting the station deputy and his family cut off from the net?” Stephen made a show of pondering for a minute. “Yeah, I think that counts.”

Ramirez grinned. “That sounds like one hell of a story.”

“Well, I have to go and check out a fault with the number two shuttle. Ramirez is heading back to the station if you want to join him and stretch your legs?”

“Yeah, sure. If that’s okay with you, Ramirez?”

“That’s fine with me! Ain’t too many people in the co-op who game. Most are just net walkers.”

“What gave me away?”

“You’ve got a top-of-the-line suit, you’re built like your dad more than a spacer, and you were talking about getting on the second string of an operation.” Ramirez crossed his arms with that same playful grin.

“Observant, ain’t he? Watch your pockets when you’re trading with him!” Stephen laughed and headed toward the bridge.

“I’ll just grab my suit. What games you play?” Luke asked, turning off his boots and gliding to the locker-room. Ramirez followed him, practiced in low-G.

“I like massive multi-player, online role-playing games. I don’t just trade in the real.”

“You part of a clan or just solo?”

“I solo mostly. A lot of my friends are in different time zones. The one good thing about the Ice run is that I can meet up with them whenever I want.”

“Ice run?”

“I go out to the ice planet, cut out a chunk and haul it back to fill our water needs. We need a lot to sustain so many people, and we’re going to need more with all your plants. Your dad was just showing me his setup and giving me some tips.” Ramirez gestured over his shoulder.

“Just a sec,” Luke said.

He donned his suit in a few seconds.

“Shall we?” Luke said, clicking his boots together and clamping to the decking.

“Sure!” Ramirez headed for the airlock.

“You ever been on an Ice planet?”

“Kind of? I’ve played on a simulated one on Valhalla, its hella realistic.”

“Valhalla… like Sphere World Valhalla? You play?”

“Yeah, I play Sphere World. Been on Valhalla a number of times.”

Ramirez whistled as they stepped into the air lock. Luke used the controls to seal them in and start the depressurization.

“Now, that is a game I wish I could play.” Ramirez said through comms.

“You can jump in right now.” Luke’s voice distorted as the atmosphere pumped out and their suits switched them to comms.

“Yeah, like I have an account and a bot, but like, it’s expensive, man. It’s going to be a trader’s dream in the future, probably is right now. Using a virtual currency tied to credits makes it expensive to start. If you want to trade, you need to start off in low-cost, high-volume goods.” Ramirez looked at Luke, who nodded. “Then you scale up to more expensive goods, at lower volumes. Figure out routes from where gear will cost the least to where you can sell it for the most. Gather clients and information.”

Luke gestured with his hand and grabbed the exterior air lock door. He opened it, walking out onto the ship.

“Right, and in Sphere World, you can move around faster than you can in the real. Sphere World has a lot of low-level goods in large quantities, but it costs a lot to get them delivered. Sphere World sets the median market prices, but if you have a load of Mark-Two gear and you’re orbiting a planet where there’s fighting going on, you could set up a delivery service, drop off the gear that people purchase from you at a higher price. Say they need missiles to defeat a tank. They’re going to pay a premium for that.”

“Didn’t think about that. But you could be shot down, and then you lose everything.”

“Yeah. The greater the risk, the higher the reward. Also, why I’m scared to go into trading in Sphere World. Look, there’s my Water Bucket,” Ramirez said proudly, gesturing at the hauler ship hooked to the side of Dahlia’s living quarters.

It had the sleek lines of an atmospheric plane, with the telltale holes for maneuvering thrusters. Its forward nose quickly widened to encompass the massive cargo hold hanging beneath the large, fixed wings.

“Space and atmo capable?”

“Yeah. Gets me over to the ice planet; glide through the atmo, count out what I need, load it up and head back up here. Takes me some time to get there, get her loaded, and come back.”

“Can you land on the planet? You know, it being ice.”

“I have to pick out stone to land on. Got a machine, like a saw, and a forklift to pull out blocks of ice and fill up the cargo hold.”

Ramirez reached the nose that was locked to the Dahlia by universal connectors. Luke followed.

“You named it Water Bucket, though?”

“That is what she does most of the time.” Ramirez grinned, reaching the air lock. “Air lock only fits one at a time.”

They cycled through the air lock. Luke got a look inside. There was one pilot seat and another seat. The rest of the space forward of the air lock was living quarters and behind it was the engineering and cargo bay.

“The biggest thing I fear about Sphere World is pirates. In games, there’s more freedom and fewer rules, so there are a ton of pirates. In the real, there are hardly any pirates because you’d need a net jammer to stop a ship from calling out for help while you loot them, and it takes a lot of coordination,” Ramirez said.

“Only the militaries of the factions have ship jammers capable of blocking out a ship’s net calls, and everyone is upgrading their net all the time. So, there’s no drop in signal,” Luke said.

“Right, but that’s in the real. In Sphere World, there are no jammers. The ships have a massive acceleration profile, so you got bigger engines. You can track down people across space, hit them, loot them, and be gone. In Sphere World, being a pirate would be good money.” Ramirez went through start-up on the ship, bringing the Water Bucket to life.

Luke thought of the ships that they’d captured in Operation Vulture. “Yeah, you have a point there.”

“So, pirates are going to be a bigger thing and target traders for the goods they’ve got. Though, even with the pirates, they’re going to need traders to move the goods they steal.”

“Couldn’t they just use it themselves?” Luke asked, securing himself into the second seat.

“They’re pirates. They’re going to care about better ships, better engines, bots, and weapons. If they get a load of ingots or components or lower-level parts, they don’t need them. It would be quite the money-making operation. They don’t have the risk of death. Just need to load up on gear better than the trader and find out their routes.”

Hadn’t thought of that. Everything they’d looted they’d put to use, sending it to the Free Node, keeping it on the mining base to be built into something, or used. They needed gear everywhere, so they didn’t waste anything.

He remembered what Mitch had said about dealing with the other miners, the people from Legion.

“All right, ready for launch,” Ramirez said, checking his boards one last time. The ship shook and clanked as it undocked from the Dahlia. A puff of thrusters and they were gliding backward.

Ramirez flipped them and gave a burst of thrust from the engines, pushing them toward the station. “Welcome to Rukian system, Luke!”

“Glad to be here.”

Ramirez took Luke on a tour of the station, inside and out. They talked about mining and ice wrangling, but spent most of their time talking about gaming. Luke met Ramirez’s aunt and uncle, who he’d come out there with and a score of cousins working in the refinery. He was one of three ice wranglers, but took on second jobs with Water Bucket, shipping supplies to the different automated miners and the gas separation barge that hung above the sub-Jovian planet away from the main rings.

Chapter twenty-nine

Chapter: 29

22, March 2242

The press’ clamoring cut off behind the mediator office doors.

Today, we’ll get our decision. Brad stood tall as they passed security and entered the mediation chambers.

His eyes tracked to Cirelli, sitting in his chair at the front of the room.

“I must say that I am very interested to see you still sitting there, Mister Cirelli. Shall we begin dealing with this mess?” Charlie smiled at those gathered.

Brad and Stuart took their seats

Cirelli opened his mouth to speak, cut off by the door opening again.

A guard held it for Olivia Mao. She strode in, taking the same seat as yesterday.

Cirelli shot Charlie a sneer, tightening Brad’s stomach. Just why was a lawyer from Feng-Dan-Wei here?

“Mister Grinkos, do you have a final statement?” Cirelli’s words brought Brad’s attention back to the front of the room.

Charlie stood. “This case is a sham, trying to connect extraneous and personal matters to business, targeting a man who lost his husband. They did not manufacture this situation; it came about through welcome happenstance. Instead of offering their congratulations, these ex-shareholders have been working to undermine them, to steal back shares from them through virtue of nothing more than they are angry they have not received a paycheck off my clients’ backs as they did for years.” Charlie sat and looked at Miss Chumak.

Cirelli cleared his throat. “I can understand how an unexperienced counsel might have an emotional outburst directed at the mediator. I will let this pass, but consider yourself warned.” His glare at Charlie transformed into a smile. “Miss Chumak?”

“Unfortunately, we believe that both Mister Lee and Mister Martin conspired against their old shareholders. We will be pressing charges of fraud.” Ella shot Brad a gloating look. He kept looking forward, not giving her the pleasure of acknowledging her silent barb.

The press murmured in interest, tapping and writing faster.

Miss Chumak opened her mouth to speak, but two stilettos resounded through the court. Heads turned as Olivia Mao walked up the central aisle of the room.

She waved her hand at the press. “Out.”

Cameras and microphones went dead, the press grabbing them and filing out of the room as fast as possible, leaving sudden silence.

She passed the small banister separating the lawyers from their clients and walked over to Charlie’s chair. He’d stood as she approached and moved a chair for her.

She gave him a slight smile, standing at the chair. Her smile chilled in the time she raised her eyes to Cirelli.

His face greyed in that second. The boiling anger in Brad’s stomach spread through his body, bringing with it the crystal clarity he felt before a hot drop into enemy territory.

Mao pulled paperwork from her bag.

Stuart looked at Brad with raised eyebrows. Brad calmed him with a look. Stuart frowned, but sat back in his chair.

Mao took her time, the flick of paper laid out in the silence. She raised her head, unhurried.

“Shall we begin?” Olivia Mao was presenting to the court; here, she was the court. “Mister Martin, you use a Fernelli screen and Mister Lee, you use a Drontis screen, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Brad replied.

“And you use the ML messaging application?”

“Yes.”

She turned her gaze onto Chumak and Cirelli like a battleship’s turret rotating onto the target.

“Sent during the first session with altered time stamps.” She paused as Brad clenched his fist under his hand. “The plaintiffs and Mediator Ratasson conspired together against the defendants. Based upon my investigation, shares passed from third-party Merlouc Corporation to a Miss Carina Cirelli—your aunt, I believe, Mister Cirelli. Which places you and your company Mediator Ratasson under external review for your conduct for neutrality.” She reeled off the list of information in an uninterested tone. “Miss Chumak, your firm, Dobson and Sons, will be placed under review for your part in this. You never sent a message to Mister Lee on time. You sent it while this kangaroo court was in session and then altered the date that would be seen on his messages as the messaging system they use is made by the Merlouc Corporation.

“Now, onto this allegation of Mister Lee and Mister Martin making decisions in an altered state of mind. Both the Fernelli and Drontis companies have assured the public that their biometric sensors are state-of-the art. Furthermore, the secur-file software that Orion’s Belt Enterprises uses is the best in the business. For those of you that don’t know, whenever you sign off on a business transaction, then the secur-file records your biometrics to make sure you are not making any decisions under duress or in such an altered state of mind not to know what you are doing. I can invite Mister Nezari from secur-file down here if you wish to question his company’s systems. You would also be challenging Fernelli and Drontis about their sensors.” She raised an eyebrow at the silence and shifted a piece of paper on her desk.

“In fact, my investigations conclude that all of you sold your shares, and were shorting the corporation, which breaks several clauses in your contracts.”

There were no presidents, no councils for the corporate factions; there were only interested parties, conglomerates, corporations. Some ruled over star systems, others over towers. Corporations lived to make money and nothing more. At their size, to deal with the complicated manner of businesses that made up the corporate world, they needed a group of lawyers that could negotiate with not just a city or a state, or a nation. Feng-Dan-Wei was the closest thing that the corporations had to a president, acting as a neutral party to carry out deals with planets, nations, solar systems, and factions, like the Coalition, Sol, and the Federation.

The room was silent as Mao pulled out a screen and sent a message.

Chumak and the shareholders’ screens lit up, but they made no move to use them.

“Miss Ratasson.” Olivia raised her voice as one might call a delinquent child.

The CEO of Ratasson Mediation?

A woman flanked by two guards stepped into the room behind Cirelli.

“Miss Ratasson.” Cirelli stood.

“Remove him.” Miss Ratasson sneered. The guards grabbed Cirelli and hauled him away, his assistants shuffling out of the way, leaving Miss Ratasson standing at the front of the court, waiting on Miss Mao.

“This is what will happen. You will pay for the damages incurred by the shareholders of Orion’s Belt Entertainment. Each shareholder will withdraw their shorting stocks and pay compensation. In one hour and one minute, we will announce that this case has been won by OBE. The Merlouc Corporation will pay for a full privacy breach and my fee.”

“Miss Chumak?” Miss Ratasson pressed.

“I must confer with my clients.” Miss Chumak turned to the ex-shareholders.

Stuart’s eyes bored into Brad’s skull. Brad shrugged, signaling with his eyes: I don’t know what’s happening either.

Brad couldn’t hear what the ex-shareholders were saying, edging out of their seats, hiding their mouths behind hands as they glared at one another and a beleaguered Miss Chumak.

“Nice work on the screens and biometric information, Mister Grinkos. And you were right-on about the neutrality of the mediator. Have you thought about moving your services to a firm that would give you the position to open more doors?” Mao’s quiet question reached Brad’s ears.

“I was merely preparing for any future issues,” Charlie said. “I did not know that my research into the biometric information was known.”

“Ah, well, we quietly acquired your firm.” Olivia Mao smiled.

Charlie quirked an eyebrow and bowed his head as if seeing a rare and commendable move.

“With your planned media tip, you would have turned the tables definitively on the shareholders. I just took the ground work you laid down. Well played, Mister Grinkos.”

“Thank you, Miss Mao. Your own moves were rather impressive.”

“Position, Charlie, position.”

He nodded at her sage advice as Miss Chumak returned to her table.

“Miss Mao?” Miss Ratasson asked. “We are curious as to what the Feng-Dan-Wei’s involvement is in this case.”

“My client is a seventeen percent shareholder, which makes them the largest shareholder after Mister Martin and Lee,” Mao said. “And they rather like the way Mister Martin and Lee handle business and felt that they would need some additional help.”

Brad and Stuart shared a confused side glance.

Mao flicked something from her screen, and the shareholders pulled out their own.

“This is what you will lose if you do not sign within the hour.”

“I’ll agree, dammit,” one man said.

“Ted,” Ella said in a warning tone.

“You got us into this mess,” the man hissed, pressing his thumb to the screen. It beeped. Miss Mao checked her own screen and nodded to him.

He turned and left the room, breaking the tide. One after another, the shareholders repeated the process.

Ella Waris was the last to thumb the contract. She stormed out of the room.

“Not the last we’ve seen of her, I think,” Stuart said.

“I wish,” Brad said in a low voice. To think, we used to be friends.

“Very good, and Miss Ratasson, you will deal with that issue?” Mao asked, receiving the contract back from Miss Chumak and storing it away in her folio.

“Yes, Miss Mao.”

Brad and Stuart stood.

“Well, thank you for your time.” She turned, looking at Brad and Stuart. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned them. She pulled out an honest-to-God paper letter, weighing it in her hand, and passed it to them.

Brad took it from her.

“This is from my employer, for your eyes only. I will have a copy to you today.” She tapped her folio. “And payments for damages. The press will not go away… Instead, all this should create a buzz for your game.”

She pulled out an embossed metal card and passed it to Brad. “If you are looking for Mister Grinkos.”

Brad turned it over. It had Charlie’s information embossed on it. He looked at him in alarm, and Charlie raised a curious eyebrow.

“I had it made ahead of time.” She smiled.

She sailed out of the room on her stilettos, guards opening the doors out of the room.

“What was all that about?” Charlie asked, gesturing at the card.

Brad turned it over to him.

“Well, shit.” Charlie laughed, rubbing his name carved into the metal. He ran his hand through his hair.

“Guess you might be getting a new job soon.” Brad smiled.

“I guess so. Damn. You don’t apply to Feng-Dan-Wei. You get picked. Shit, I never thought…” He shook his head.

“So what does this mean?” Stuart asked.

“It means that we have friends in high places. We don’t have to deal with the shareholders anymore. Still, it doesn’t deal with our other issues. Come on. Let’s get you both home.”

Like just who the hell made Sphere World? Brad and Stuart followed Charlie out.

“One problem clears just as another comes into startling clarity,” he muttered to himself.

Luke sat with Moose, Jynx, Fin, and Shiro outside of Wally’s Burgers. All of them had their terminals out. Moose paced. Luke bounced his leg. Jynx tried to do some homework and failed at keeping her concentration off her messenger. Fin sighed as he wrote some kind of report and Shiro read a book.

Suddenly, the message was there. Luke hit refresh again, but it remained in place, and he hurriedly opened it.

“Just came in,” Luke said to furious clicking, refreshing, and reading.

[You have been selected for second string, seventeenth dropship. Live practice timetable.]

Luke sighed and sat back on the bench. “So, we’re not first in, but we are second.” Luke clicked on the timetable and checked through it.

“Get the first string to soften them up. We’ll be more assault,” Fin said.

“Gonna have to cover the first group as they put up the FOBs and make good on any advances into the base,” Moose agreed.

“We’ve got a practice on in a half hour. Everyone in their strings, just like how we’re going into the attack,” Luke said.

“We’ve got six hours until the real deal. Say we do like two matches now, take a break, and get rested for the real thing?” Shiro asked.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Luke smiled. Shiro was the voice of reason and made sure they weren’t overdoing things. It was easy to game for several hours and lose track of time. With just a few calm words, he’d suggest they drink some water, take bathroom breaks, or go for food. He was always calm and never talked down to anyone. When they got frustrated or made mistakes from playing too long or in the wrong headspace, Shiro would suggest another game, or a break, or say he was going to head off.

He brought a level of maturity and level-headedness that hadn’t been present in the team before, while Moose brought tactics and sneakiness.

“They figure out what our plan of attack is yet?” Jynx asked.

Luke shrugged. “I’ve got the same information as you.”

“Should get an idea in these upcoming games. Even if we bomb the hell out of the nodes, the resources left over will make it worth it,” Fin said.

“Yeah, but we’re kicking on a guild’s door. You’ve seen the streams coming from Ares. They’re fighting back and forth all over that place,” Luke said. “We got lucky with the Star Kings. They were planning to go to Ares, so they didn’t waste their time fighting us. Crimson Heart Guild might not be as forgiving.”

“Our biggest problem is going to be those damn reinforcements they can call up. The longer it takes them to pull a quick reaction force together, the more progress we can make,” Moose said.

“Don’t forget, we have no damn idea what’s waiting for us in Cave,” Jynx said.

“But we made it onto the second string.” Luke grinned. “Come on, that’s pretty epic. Out of what, like, three hundred teams? We’re going in!”

“How do you want to do loadouts?” Moose asked.

“Thinking Shiro and I run repair tools, you and Jynx run machine guns. Fin, you grab extra smoke.”

“Rifles for us?” Shiro waved to Fin, Luke, and himself.

“Yeah. Need something long range and useful in close.” Luke nodded, running it through his mind. “Jynx and Moose can create a mobile firebase, providing covering fire as Shiro, Fin, and I dump smoke and advance. We can heal one another and others as we push up.”

“Hey, look, he is learning tactics.” Moose cracked a grin. “Do you want to focus on revives and getting more people up and back into the fight, or pushing toward the objective?”

Luke clicked his tongue, thinking over the different angles, feeling like the question was actually a test. “You know what? I don’t know. I say that we head in, see what the situation is like, and decide from there.”

“The grasshopper becomes the master.” Moose affected his best master pose.

Fin and Jynx laughed, and Shiro beamed at the byplay.

“Master? Who was the one that blew himself up with his own grenade?” Luke’s smile split his face.

“Hey, I got shot in the leg and fell over!”

They laughed as Moose explained the situation again in detail, trying to defend his pride and losing.

Luke studied his map. The blue highlighted dropships and Hellcats were patrolling around Free Node. Those that had been filled with bots over the last few days rested on the different landing platforms or in the underground base. Others moved through the atmosphere, looking just like other ships shifting supplies from Valhalla to Sphere World.

More orbited Valhalla, waiting.

Every flight-capable ship they could get to Valhalla in the time they had, they’d moved. Over seven missions, Operation Vulture had bagged them nearly a hundred functional ships in total, and nearly three times that number in hulls in various states of disrepair.

“I hate waiting,” Jynx said.

“Not long now,” Luke said, watching the timer go down. Sphere World. Bots ran from one place to another, others stepping out of racks or admiring the factories and stores. It all faded into the background as the timer hit zero.

The blue markers shifted.

Those on slow, gliding paths across Valhalla altered their courses abruptly as the orbiting ships powered their engines and dove into atmosphere. Patrolling ships banked away from their nodes and accelerated.

Ships that were undergoing maintenance on the main pads around the node flared to life, their burners clearing the ice crystals from the pads as they lifted off, shooting out of ravines around the node, burning hard as they shot into the sky.

Nearly two hundred ships burned toward their target, aiming at Crimson Node.

Shuttles orbiting the planet relayed the latest sensor information on Crimson Node, feeding it to everyone in Legion.

“Come on,” Moose muttered.

Luke zoomed in on Crimson Node. Patrols were moving around shuttles with their escorts, heading out of atmosphere.

The Legion ships, led by Ichika, entered the plateau and ducked into the ravines they’d flown a dozen times. They barely slowed as they cut through the canyons, pushing their shuttles, Hellcats, and Turtles through their paces. Those coming in from above ducked into canyons.

With each second, they closed. Luke bounced his knee, crossing his arms and holding his chin.

Hellcats peeled off, riding out of the canyon, intercepting Crimson Heart Hellcats out on patrol.

Enemy icons disappeared rapidly as the force continued to fly through the canyons. Dropships dropped altitude and Hellcats darted out of the surrounding canyons and entered the area around Crimson Node.

“Missile launch,” Shiro said.

Icons appeared on the map as CIWS went live, finding the incoming missiles.

The Hellcats raked the airport, moving in their wings and firing missiles into the warehouses around the runway. They systematically deployed chaff, covering themselves and their wing members from targeting locks as they intersected the skies above the node.

The Turtles came in behind cover from the nodes, dropping off their load of bots and materials.

Shuttles opened their rear doors. Bots pushed out containers of gear that crashed into the ground before the bots jumped after them.

The shuttles turned and burned, hurrying back to Free Node with a Hellcat escort. The dropships, free of their cargo, moved with their wings. Their machine guns targeted enemy turrets, raking Airport and unloading missiles into Hillside and Cave.

Ships were timed, coming in on waves and cutting away. Dropships at the Free Node were still leaving the airfields as the first ships headed back.

Luke’s terminal pinged. He was on his feet without realizing it, checking the Sphere World map. “We’ve got our pickup point!” Luke shared the way point with them, and they started jogging.

“We’re pounding the hell out of them,” Fin said.

“Won’t be long now until they get smart,” Jynx warned.

“Mitch! Mitch, you need to see this!” Minnie yelled in his ear.

“What is it?” Mitch turned away from the miners that were just getting installed upon fault thirteen, jumping, using his jets.

“We have guests in the belt. Two corvettes and accompanying shuttles. Turtles and Hellcats, too. They’ve been attacking mining outposts in the area.”

“The Crimson Heart’s Guild?”

“No. They have Star Kings crests on them.”

“Are they working together?”

“I don’t think so. I hope not, at least. Shit, I need to tell Dana.”

“I can tell her. You know more about what we need to defend.” Mitch said.

“All right. Yeah, I’ll check on the status of our corvette and its weapons. We’ll need that as fast as possible. Get as many Hellcats and Turtles from the graveyard working as possible. Start building everything we need for a defense.” Minnie pulled up terminals, her hands playing over them as she jumped onto another channel.

Mitch pushed his jets as fast as he could, looking over the fields of miners. Bots started moving across the entire working area with a new fervor.

Shuttles landed and took off from the landing area as gear ran along the rivers of belts, through factories.

Mitch felt heat rising in his chest. He recognized it with a start—anger.

“Dana, it’s Mitch. We have Star Kings ships heading for us. They have two corvettes.”

“Shit, how did they find us?”

“I don’t know.”

Dana made a noise of confirmation. “Okay, I’ve seen the scans. The first wave of our people is down at Crimson Heart. I’m going to send who I can, help create the defenses you need. I’m heading to the corvette right now. Minnie?”

“She is coordinating the factories and the belts,” Mitch said, adjusting his direction, aiming at the command post.

[Minnie has joined your party chat.]

“Dana, we’ve switched production to make gear. The corvette is nearly complete. I’ll have my people focus on the power systems and the engines to get you moving. The weapons still need to be attached,” Minnie said.

“Focus on building as many bots as possible. How are we for ships on this side?”

“We have some dropships and Hellcats that we were able to piece together. Everything else was sent off to support Operation Backdoor,” Mitch said.

“I’ll need everything that has an engine and can hold a load of missiles,” Dana said. “What about the shipyard?”

“What about it?” Minnie asked.

“Can we move it?” Dana’s simple question made Mitch’s brain stutter. It was a Shipyard!

“It has engines, but they’re more for small adjustments,” Minnie said.

“What if the corvette was to help, act like a tug?” Dana asked.

“That could work. We would have to have the cranes all hook onto the corvette. The medium shipyard is still small. If we chained together a bunch of shuttles, then we could move it, too.”

“Mitch, do you know somewhere we could hide them from the enemy sensors?”

“One second.” Mitch cut his jets, coming in at high speed. He braced himself, hitting the side of the command post, and used his jets again to stop himself from bouncing too far. He got his feet through the door and on to the metal decking, pulling up his terminal.

“Based on where they are, and what we know about the sensors, along their line of advance and with the asteroids and debris around us…” Mitch twisted the map. He knew it like the back of his hand, having studied it for hours.

Compared to the asteroid field, the small shipyard was just a toy.

“There are three possible locations I can think of.” He tagged them and sent them to Dana. “Also, Dana, based on the speed of these corvettes, shouldn’t they be able to go faster?”

“Yes, in open space. There’s a lot of debris in the asteroid belt.”

“Not where they are.”

Mitch sent out messages to his people.

“You’re right. It… oh, Sonuvabitch. I doubt they know where we are. Their path, they’re spiralling through the asteroid belt. This is a raid. Damn, okay, that changes things.”

Mitch felt a chill at the smile in her voice.

“They might know that there’s something out here, but they don’t know where. Our sensors have given us a lead. We know where they are, their path and their fleet make-up.”

“Okay?” Mitch said.

“The dust and debris around the planetoid should obscure us from sensors for a long time. But if they get close enough, they could pick up the light coming from the base,” Dana trailed off. “It creates natural coverage and cover. If they send missiles through the cloud around the planetoid, it hits just a small bit of rock, and they’ll go up. They want to root us out, they’re going to have to clear us on the ground or use those corvettes to carve us off. I’ll keep someone watching. Eventually, they’re going to spot us. We need to use every second. Minnie, arm every ship we have with medium nuclear missiles, swap out the small missiles on all the Hellcats and dropships, and load the corvette with extra missile reloads. We’re going to need every advantage we can get.”

“You have a plan?”

“I have the start of one. We’ll need to move quickly if we’re to make it work. Mitch, have your miners log off so ground combat troops can take over their bots and start building up ground defenses.”

“Yes Admiral.” Mitch bent to work.

Chapter thirty

Chapter: 30

22, March 2242

Luke and his squad passed the armory. Other Legion members jogged with them. They were all in black bots with the white Legion symbol on their chest.

Their dropships opened their ramps. Luke didn’t slow as he ran up and took his place along the dropship’s seats. The last bot ran up the ramp as it started to close. The dropship accelerated away from Sphere World.

Shit, I hope I don’t die too quick.

[Dana is requesting a private chat.]

“Dana?” Luke accepted.

“Luke, I need you and your squad to bot-jump to the mining base. We have enemy corvettes. Star Kings moving through the asteroid belt.”

“Shit. How did they find out?”

“Don’t know, but we need to defend this place. You and your team know it the best, and Foster is putting you in charge of the area. He’s coordinating the fight on Valhalla with Ichika.”

“Shit.” The mining planetoid was the heart of the Legion. Without its resources, their mining would decline sharply. There was no way to stop the fighting at Crimson node. It was underway, and they had trained too long and put too many resources into it.

“All right, I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Looping you into Mitch, Minnie, and myself.”

“Got it.” Luke switched to his squad. “Change of plans. I need you all to bot-jump to the mining base. We’ve got corvettes incoming, and we’re needed there.”

To their credit, they didn’t bitch or moan, but jumped as the words left his mouth.

“Thank you,” Luke said as he went through the menus and jumped to a bot on the mining base.

His vision cleared, looking around.

“You’re the boss.” Jynx patted him on the shoulder. “Just tell us what to do.”

He nodded to her and jumped back to the linked channel.

“We don’t think the corvettes can actually see us yet. They probably heard something, and they’re coming to investigate.” Dana said.

“But corvettes? I didn’t think anyone else was supposed to have them?” Luke asked.

“We knew there were groups in the depths of the system,” Mitch said.

“Crafting guilds haven’t hidden the fact they’re in the game and are willing to sell,” Minnie said.

Luke clicked out the side of his mouth and sighed, studying the map. “So, what do you need from me?”

“Defend the mining base. We have a whole Star Kings Fleet moving through the asteroid belt,” Dana said.

Luke let in a cold breath through his nose and out through his teeth. His eyes flicked over the base. “How are we for bots and weapons? I didn’t see many at the holding area.”

“We have nearly no personal weapons, and the only bots we have here are for the engineers and miners, with some backups,” Mitch said.

Luke was pinged with an inventory of items on the planetoid.

“They have around a hundred ships with the corvettes. A corvette can hold around one hundred combat bots in its holds, more if you put them in the halls and around the ship. Forty dropships, sixty Hellcats,” Dana said.

“That’s a lot of ships,” Luke said. How the hell do they have so many?

“They’ve been fighting on Ares for nearly a week now. They’ve got dozens of nodes under their control and thousands of people working day and night to make gear. What they can’t build, they buy,” Minnie said.

“I have the outfitting hangars building me Hellcats as fast as possible,” Dana said. “They take the least amount of time and components to build. Factories are building the gear to outfit them and ammunition. Everything else is yours.”

“My engineers are getting as many ships from the graveyard online as possible and getting ready to move the shipyards,” Minnie said.

“The corvette?”

“It needs some work. We’re going to finish up everything that needs to happen in the yard, then get a team of bots aboard to finish inserting the last of the components and link up the weapon systems,” Minnie said.

“Any turrets or weapons from Operation Vulture? Where is that all stored?” Luke asked.

“In the storage area with the completed gear,” Mitch said. “It is in the inventory.”

“Okay, I’ll have my squad work on that and get it all placed. Mitch, I’ll design the trenches for around the main base. You and your miners can mine it out. Also going to need to bury the miners that are working right now.”

“I understand,” Mitch said.

“Dana, do you know if we can get any more fighters from Legion?”

“Foster is sending over the reserves he can spare from the Crimson Node operation.”

“Thank you.”

“Sounds like we all have our jobs. Let’s get to it,” Dana said.

Luke relayed the plan to his squad as he checked through the inventory for turrets.

“Okay, pull all the turrets and get them placed around the main base. We were focusing on shipping bots and combat gear forward, so we’ve got a ton of turrets.” Luke tapped out and sent a message. “Minnie should be producing more hand-held missile launchers, CIWS, and flak turrets. Missiles are going to be of limited use except when close to the ground.”

He looked at them. “Everything has been devoted to Operation Backdoor. We need to pull together a defense that will either slow or stop the Star Kings long enough to divert ships from the attack on the node and hit them in the ass.”

“What about the corvette?”

“It’s going to be in on the fight. What capacity, I don’t know. They’re literally building it on the fly,” Luke said.

“All right, we got turrets to move. Let us know if you need any help,” Fin said.

“Thanks.”

They bounded off with puffs of jets, crossing to the container city.

Luke jumped for the command post, finding Mitch near the hologram of the area around the main base.

It was laid out from left to right. The miners fed into the refining factories on the left, then into component building factories, and into assembly factories or the outfitting hangars, which were the farthest to the right. A chain of belts fed the factories and peeled off to the storage containers that ran along the top of the base.

At the bottom of the base, there was a line of ships and shuttles. The graveyard was at the bottom left. Anything that was too far gone was cut down and fed into the factories above. The command post was in the middle of the landing area, with ships that were serviceable to the right, under the outfitting hangars.

Luke spun the map, picturing his plan in his mind.

“We dig up the ground under the storage containers—dig it as deep as we can go. Then we throw the command post at the very bottom and stack storage container after storage container on top of it. Even if they blow up the base, they won’t take the command post. We use containers filled with waste materials—it’s dense and cheap. Bury component-filled containers in the base to feed the factories. The rest we dump into the mines we have. Shuttles, fly them up to the other command posts, have them hide in the dogleg we made in the surrounding asteroids. Yeah, yeah, we’ll do that.”

“For the command post, do you want me to drill a hole between the component factories, then?” Mitch asked.

“No, put it out in a random hole in the mining fields. You pick it out and bury it. They’ll think that it’s at the center of our base, and if they kill us all, they’ll still have to search for the CP to capture it. If we can run the defense timer out, then we win.”

“Do so randomly and quietly. We’re not sure if this is an accident, or someone leaked where our base is to the Star Kings,” Dana said.

“But—” Luke started and clicked his tongue.

“Spying is something that all the guilds do to one another,” Minnie said.

Luke grimaced. Dana had been betrayed, and she was a powerful admiral.

“I’ll see to it personally,” Mitch said.

Luke opened his mouth to speak and held it, thinking of killing the question before it tumbled out on its own. “Why are you helping us? I thought you would fight this all the way.”

“This is not the first time I have dealt with griefers, and it will not be the last. They are a scourge upon humanity, and I will do everything I can to make sure they don’t get a damn thing. If I have to blow up this base, then I would do so in a heartbeat.”

“All that work, though.”

“I can do it again, and I will. Starting over isn’t hard; having someone steal everything you have is. So, let me know how I can help you hurt them as hard as possible to make sure they get as little as possible and have to pay to get it from us.”

“Reactors are online. Engines are all powered up, Admiral. We’ve loaded all the remaining components, and some spares. My engineers will work on Vulture as you’re heading out,” Minnie reported in Dana’s ear.

“Understood.” Dana tapped and flicked, altering her screens to her desired readout upon the Vulture.

She glanced at Klinksy at the Helm, altering his settings, and Leblanc beside him, her hands playing over the sensors and weapons consoles. The guilds had passed over them, favoring more colorful operators. Dana admired their professionalism. Getting to create her own crew and navy, she’d roped them into her ship staff.

Ayambe was next to Dana in her communications chair.

“Ayambe, what’s the shipyard saying?”

“The cranes are holding on for dear life. If we take it slow, engineers can test the strain on the shipyard. We can only use the main engines. Gonna be a mess, coordinating with the shuttles latched on the side to act as thrusters to change our direction, but we’ll get it done.

“We just need to get it away far enough to be hidden. What about the medium shipyard?”

“The shuttles are moving what’s been built so far. It masses less than the small shipyard and it’s been much easier.”

“Good, good. How are things with Diego and Jung-Su?”

“Jung-Su is getting all of his dropships fitted with CIWS. Diego has only a few ships he’s been able to pull together. He’s got them loaded with medium missiles holding a nuclear payload. They’re moving to the rally point.”

“All right. Well, let’s get this hulk moving.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“Don’t know why you’re calling me Admiral. We’ve got one warship at this point.”

“Ah, well, give us at least a month’s notice and we can see about changing that for next time,” Minnie quipped.

“Thought you were on another channel,” Dana said dryly.

Minnie snorted.

“Right.” Dana smiled. “Mister Klinsky, steady as she goes.”

“Aye, Captain. Moving the Vulture.”

The engines on the corvette fired for the first time ever. The shipyard creaked around them but yielded under the light acceleration. It started to move.

“Plot is good,” Leblanc confirmed from her spot at sensors as they and the shipyard wrapped around them started to move.

Dana checked her terminal. Gear was still being hauled in from the shipyard’s factories and assemblies. Weapons had been attached to Vulture’s hardpoints, and the last of the armor was being wrapped into place.

“With so many engineers aboard, at least if we take a hit, we’ll be able to repair quickly.”

“You’re already thinking about punching holes in our nice new hull?”

“A few scratches adds character.” Dana studied the bridge. It was broken up into a central area, right and left.

A tap from her controls brought up a hologram in front of her chair. She zoomed in on the Star Kings’ fleet. No change.

“Ayambe, status on the Crimson Node?”

“The attack on the Airport is going well. We have two FOBs up and running at this time. Foster made the public post early to free players. Dozens of ships are joining in on the fight. He’s breaking off a force to attack hillside and soften them up.”

“Thank you.” Dana nodded. “Star Kings Fleet?”

“Their plot remains largely unchanged. If they know we’re here, they’re not showing any signs of it.”

“Well, at least we have surprise on our side.”

The fight at Crimson Node was too early to see what would happen. She would rely on Foster to capture the nodes, just as he relied on and trusted her to defend the planetoid.

I don’t have the biggest fleet or the best one, but at least I’m working with professionals who care about us winning instead of just themselves.

Now she would have to test through the fire of battle if it would be enough to go up against one of the strongest fighting guilds on the net.

Chapter thirty-one

Chapter: 31

24, March 2242

Luke checked the planetoid’s inventory. Two hundred bots, a hundred and fifty with weapons. Some eighty turrets of different kinds, and thousands of tons of materials and gear.

He wanted to rub his face, but in the net-suit, the bot would just feel weird, and he didn’t have time to pop his suit. He’d only rushed to the bathroom, chugged some water, and eaten meal replacement bars twice, giving him only a few minutes out of the suit.

The base had been gutted of supplies and working gear to support the attack on the Crimson Node.

Luke zoomed out on the map. At least we have the miners.

While some had been out, shoving the automated miners into crevasses or caves of their own making, Mitch and the rest of his people had been burying the camp and making trenches. Filled containers acted as overhead protection. Tunnels linked the different defensive lines. In places, they came up under containers, creating bunkers like the ones Luke had used in the Crimson Node preparation matches.

Turrets dotted the base, manned and scanning the skies.

“Hellcats!” Mitch yelled. He was out in the fields, burying and hiding as many miners and containers that weren’t being used for the base as he could.

Luke checked the markers on the map, watching them weave through the belt, heading for the planetoid. He’d envisioned this moment a dozen times over the last few hours, and now it was here.

“Turrets, take out those ships as soon as they come into range. Miners, return to the base. Shuttles and all ships capable of flight, take off to rally with the shipyards or the fleet.”

“They must be scouts,” Jynx said.

[Mining Planetoid under attack]

[Defend]

[00:44:59]

“And they just found what they’re looking for.” Luke dropped down into a trench. Light flashed overhead, and turret tracers cut through the darkness.

Luke glanced up. The enemy hellcats blossomed into fireballs, the turrets returning to their quiet standby state.

“Hellcats destroyed,” Shiro said.

“There’ll be more.” Luke turned his head toward where the corvettes and their ships waited, too far to be seen by the human eye. He keyed the general chat. “Everyone, finish up your jobs and move to your positions.”

Bots bounded, jets firing as they shifted across the base. “Looks like it did when we started,” Fin said.

Most of the base was buried in the rock. The buildings and miners that had grown to break up the eye-line sparse and nearly non-existent.

Is Foster done over there? Luke switched his map to the Crimson Node. Airport had been taken. Dropships had pounded on Cave and opened a route to get their forces inside.

Crimson Heart Guild fighters had made two attacks since the beginning of the offensive, meeting the Legion and the free players’ ships. It had become the biggest streaming event from Sphere World.

Hillside was still holding on, but they were having their teeth pulled as wave after wave of smoke-covered assaulters broke through their lines and pushed them back hard.

Luke switched to Dana and her fleet. One corvette, twenty-seven Hellcats, and thirteen dropships. Some were barely engines and missile racks with CIWS strapped to their hulls. They’d separated from the shipyards and were on their own course around the asteroid belt, using every piece of cover they could find to get in close with the Star Kings fleet.

“Well, we just have to defeat two corvettes, some ninety Hellcats, and sixty Turtles,” Fin said. “All in a day’s work.”

“I hate the waiting part,” Shiro said.

“Better than being in those ships, though,” Jynx said. “Just out there in the dark, floating on fumes to keep down their profile, playing hide-and-seek with the enemy fleet. Nah, give me turrets, a base to defend or attack, and a machine gun any day.”

“Spoken like a true grounder.” Luke grinned.

“You can’t tell me you’d rather be up there.”

“Nah, don’t have the mind for it. Down here is where I belong.”

[Ayambe requested a private chat.]

“One sec.” Luke accepted the chat invite.

“Luke, we’ve dropped off the shipyards and are moving to rendezvous with the Hellcats and dropships.”

“How long until you engage?”

“We’re moving on a ballistic course to get as close to the enemy as possible.”

“Gotcha, thank you for keeping me in the loop. We’re still digging in here. Give them hell.”

“We’ll do our best. Good luck.” She ended the chat.

“You too,” Luke said into the silence. He looked up at where the Star Kings fleet would be. Just what the hell are they going to do?

Tao jumped into a bot on the command deck of the Nova. General Tate didn’t turn from glaring at her screens. He turned to the other commander in the room. “Admiral Sho, what do you have for me?”

Sho waved to a rough outline of a base. “My forward scouts captured this just before they were destroyed.” A blueprint a of mining claim spread across a planetoid. “I think we found the major player in the area. Kilometers of belt runs, clusters of automated miners, and their main base.”

“Do we know which guild owns it?” Tao asked.

“There hasn’t been any chatter from the other guilds that we’ve found so far. I think it could belong to a clan.”

Tao pressed his lips together, following the line of reasoning. “No guild would want to share this area with free players. Okay, so options?”

“We need to attack. When the Hellcats flew over the base, they activated the cap race. We either attack them now and take the base in the next forty minutes, or we have to wait another four hours. Four hours that they can dig in more, bring in more reinforcements or run,” General Tate said.

[Mining Planetoid under attack]

[Attack]

[00:41:27]

“The coverage around the planetoid is thick with debris and asteroids. The corvettes won’t be able to support the actions on the ground.” Admiral Sho faced her, his words terse.

“Even so, I say we attack them now, call in reinforcements from Ares and Valhalla. Use the corvettes and a small screen of ships to patrol the area. Shoot down anything that tries to escape. Maybe work on their aim a bit,” Tate bit back.

Tao ignored his two commanders. “General Tate, see to it. I want that base.”

“Ships sighted!” a sensor officer of the Nova yelled as markers appeared on the screen. Auxiliaries started to shift as engine plumes illuminated the space behind the incoming fleet.

“Where?”

“We’re resolving. We just got some engine flares!” sensors said, a question marker appearing among the asteroid trail.

“New flare, gotcha! One corvette, with dropships and Hellcats in support.” The question mark resolved into individual markers.

“Where the hell did they come from? And a corvette?” Sho pulled up a hologram.

“They’re accelerating at emergency power! We’re getting targeted,” sensors yelled out. More ship markers appeared, revealing the complete fleet.

“They must have been sneaking around the asteroid field.” Sho tapped in commands on the holographic map of the area. “Prepare to fire missiles. Wake up the damn auxiliaries! They think they can take us on with one corvette and a handful of support ships,” Sho scoffed.

Silence hung upon the Vulture’s bridge.

Jung-Su and Diego had scraped together every dropship and Hellcat they could get their hands on. Now, the shipyards were hidden in the shadows of asteroids away from the planetoid.

Dana focused on her breathing, calming her mind as the Star Kings fleet accelerated across her plot. The Hellcat and dropships screened the corvettes Dana had named Alpha one and Alpha Two.

“They spotted us,” Leblanc said, adjusting her feeds.

“Alert the rest of the fleet. Maintain formation and accelerate,” Dana said, her bot locked to the harness and her chair.

“Fleet is ready,” Ayambe said.

“Emergency power.” Leblanc said.

The ship lurched forward, slamming the crew back into their seats.

“Light them up with targeting scanners. Prepare to fire missiles. All CIWS on defensive,” Dana said.

“Ready!” Leblanc yelled.

“Rest of the fleet report ready,” Ayambe said.

“Understood.” Dana didn’t rush her words, blinking slowly, excitement and apprehension mixing in her chest and spreading through her limbs. Everything hung on an electric wire, leaving nothing else in her mind except the battle.

“Enemy missile launch!” Leblanc said.

“Flight time, type, and numbers?” Dana studied her maps.

“Twelve seconds. Smalls only. The corvettes are firing mediums. Launches aren’t coordinated. One hundred-fifty fired and climbing.” Leblanc trailed her words. “Corvettes are packing five missile hard points. Their shuttles are separating from the fleet and gaining distance.”

“Thank you, Miss Leblanc.” Dana reviewed her fleet’s positioning, dropships and Hellcats spread out as a rolling wave orientated to the Star Kings fleet. “Fire missile salvo.”

Two missiles shot out of Vulture’s sides, flaring thrusters. They snapped onto target and engaged their main rocket engine, bypassing Vulture as a second volley ejected from the ship.

Plumes appeared under dropship and Hellcat wings. Racks dropped missiles, their rockets firing them clear. Purple carats picked out the friendly missiles as dropships and Hellcats unloaded every missile in their racks.

There was no yelling, no exclamations on the command deck. No one cracked jokes or tried to increase the drama. Dana had to take a second to look around her crew, a small smile gracing her lips. It is so nice to work with professionals.

“One hundred and seventy-three small missiles inbound, eight medium missiles.” Leblanc could have been talking about quantum chemistry. “Sixty-eight medium missiles outbound.”

“Understood.” Twice the size of the small missiles, medium missiles accelerated at fifty gravities instead of the small missiles twenty gravities. Dana knew this as she held herself back from leaning forward, her stomach rising in a wave of nausea. Battles were measured in barrages. If she lost her funds, all she’d put into the planetoid...

“Enemy missiles are coming into CIWS range.” Leblanc’s words gave her tension direction.

“CIWS are engaging.” Rounds burned out lines across space, moving faster than a human could ever aim. Leblanc was their maestro, guiding and directing her weapons instead of commanding them directly, setting weapon pre-sets and applying them at the optimum time.

The dance begins.

She had brought everything to the battle: her tactics and crews against that of the enemies.

The red sea of enemy missiles was carved down under the onslaught of Vulture and her dropship screen, expending thousands of rounds in mere seconds, but there were nearly two hundred missiles traveling thousands of kilometers a second, and space was big.

A medium missile was struck.

“Medium missiles are explosive, not nuclear.” Dana’s shoulders unlocked slightly. It only doubled, following her missile spread reaching the Star Kings’ CIWS envelope.

Their dropships and Hellcats fired at them, but none had been rigged with CIWS.

One was hit, making the Star Kings’ missiles look like fireworks.

“That should make them pay attention,” Leblanc muttered.

“Too late,” Dana said.

The nuclear missiles, with a blast radius and force four hundred times that of a regular medium explosive missile, detonated as they met the Hellcat and dropship screen.

Overlapping destruction of missile detonations carved into the small ships, Alpha One and Alpha Two’s two CIWS hardpoints barely able to defend themselves.

“Begin evasive maneuvers.” Dana’s stomach rolled inside itself.

Klinsky spared her a glance filled with understanding. It was a risky maneuver to pull off normally, never mind in the heat of battle with missiles running down their throats.

Dana didn’t know of another way to try and save as many of her ships as possible.

Her stomach lurched at the sudden loss of acceleration. Electronic countermeasures and chaff spewed out from her ships, covering the fleet. Thrusters fired, pushing her up out of her seat and to the side, the main engines slammed her back into her seat, returning to full emergency acceleration.

The chaff blinded her as much as it did the enemy. Teeth creaking, braced for the explosive fire that would tear through the Vulture. The corvette shot back out into clear space.

CIWS came online with the sensors, enemy missiles trying to alter their path as their targets changed. They had built up too much momentum and passed the fleet in barely the flicker of a blink. They dove impotently into the clouds of chaff and countermeasures as the Legion ships came out of the cloud at an altered heading.

Detonations lit up the chaff, dissipating it. A few missiles were able to alter course to target the closest Legion ships. CIWS cut down many, but several made it through.

Dropships and Hellcats came apart under the missile’s impact. The missiles might be small, but up close, it didn’t matter.

The enemy ships had suffered under the nuclear missile’s arrival. Her own ships were ragged but in better condition than she’d dared hoped for. They’d just been pulled together but they’d fought as a unit, doing their duty, even if it cost them their ship and bots.

“Target the corvettes with railguns as soon as they’re in range.” Her eyes followed the last of her first salvo tearing apart an enemy Hellcat.

“Battle report, Ayambe.”

“We lost four Hellcats, three dropships, several damaged. Enemy dropships have been reduced by a third. The Hellcats are nearly wiped out. Alpha One has sustained heavy damage, and Alpha Two is largely untouched.”

“We’ve entered railgun range,” Leblanc said.

“Time to fleet intercept?” Dana didn’t dare to pull her eyes from her screens.

“Fifteen seconds.”

“Target corvettes with railguns. Ayambe, order the fleet to shake out and return to their positions, regular acceleration.”

The Vulture shuddered as lights dimmed.

“Yes, Admiral,” Ayambe said.

“Railguns firing. Enemy ships are firing their remaining missiles,” Leblanc said.

Dana felt the weight lift from her bot, the fleet decreasing their rate of acceleration. Dropships and Hellcats moved to their positions.

“Thirty to forty missiles incoming. Entering CIWS range.”

CIWS streams cut out to meet the incoming missile fire. They were too close to evade it meaningfully. Dana’s lower back tightened, watching for a ship to break or pull away under the onslaught. Goosebumps ran down her arms and back, prickling the back of her neck. None broke; not a single one ran. They held formation, covering one another with their fire.

Enemy missiles withered under the CIWS barrage, several making it close to rock ships. The Star Kings fleet, much bigger and with greater casualties, was taking time to pull together. Dana knew that the dropship and Hellcats worked together with the infantry under the Star Kings’ organization. The corvettes would be part of the navy, nearly never coming into contact with ground forces.

Their lack of coordination was showing.

“Damage report?”

“Ships are damaged but remain functional,” Ayambe said.

“Understood.” Dana watched the plot tracking her rail gun’s paths. Leblanc had cooked up a special targeting parameter, the rounds firing at different speeds so that they would all arrive at the same spot within a few seconds of one another—a shotgun blast of a dozen accelerated railgun rounds.

Sho was never the inventive sort.

Railgun rounds hit like gods’ hammers, imparted with the different relative accelerations of both ships and the railguns acceleration rails. Ablative outer armor spalled, creating sensor shadows as the rounds tore deep into the ships, shaking under the force of each impact.

Dana keyed fleet chat. “All ships, you are clear to fire. Change CIWS to offensive.”

Hellcats and dropships fired their guns, filling the space between fleets with rounds. CIWS targeted the enemy ships as they began returning fire.

“Alpha Two, critical hit! Their engines are out,” Leblanc said as they crossed the enemy line, sitting back and crossing her arms, locking her hands under her armpits. “Systems running automatic. To the computer gods,” Leblanc hissed the last through her teeth.

Missiles fired out of Vulture, marking five seconds.

Dana breathed out, against the nausea in her stomach. “Roll as we go, Mister Klinsky!”

“Aye-aye!” Klinsky fired thrusters, spinning the ship around its axis, hopefully spreading as much damage as possible and giving the CIWS as much coverage as possible.

The rail cannons fired on Alpha One and Alpha Two as fast as they could pump out rounds, tearing through armor, bulkheads, and systems underneath. This close, they didn’t have time to avoid the twin turrets.

A round struck one of Alpha Two’s missile magazines. Its side ballooned. The blow-out systems directed the blast out into space, even as the force tried to follow the direction of the round, spilling into the ship and tearing through critical systems. Missiles cleared tubes and racks. Hellcats and dropships were ground up in the melee of behemoths as CIWS fought to protect their users.

The Vulture bucked and shuddered under the concussion of the CIWS meeting missiles ever closer to their hull. Rail cannons rocked the ship as missile after missile shook their tubes.

Come on, come on, come on! She coaxed the Vulture and warded off the missiles. Not today.

“Missile tubes one through three are out. Rail cannon two is down. Breaches in section three alpha. CIWS four is down,” Leblanc rolled off.

“Alpha Two out of the action. She’s engine dead. Alpha One has taken a pounding,” Ayambe reported.

“Retargeting rail cannon,” Leblanc yelled.

“Enemy ships getting torn up in the wash. Nothing firm. Hit to formation three. Lost two dropships, five Hellcats,” Ayambe reported.

“Internal missile magazines are empty,” Leblanc reported. “Entering CQB!”

Railguns picked out targets of opportunity. CIWS targeted missiles and small enemy craft. Missiles tracked for clusters of ships that had been able to pull themselves into formation. A thousand ways to die cut through space, silent until they reached their target.

Noise, shudders, shakes, something breaking, structural members groaning against the stress. Then they were past, shooting out into the black again.

“Clear of fleet. Flipping!” Klinsky yelled.

The ship arrested its spin flipping to orientate their bow back toward the enemy fleet, protecting their engines. CIWS engaged the last trailing missiles.

“Cutting acceleration. Ease the wear and tear,” Klinsky said.

The silence wrapped around them as if the raging chaos they had just passed through were just a figment of their imaginations. The broken ships in their wake and the flashing alerts of damage across the ship put those thoughts to rest.

“Damage report?”

“Several hits to the armor. Small missiles didn’t do much more than buff the hull. The mediums left some dents. Several decks are open to space. The engineers are moving to them and reloading our internal magazines,” Leblanc snapped off.

“We lost one dropship and three of the Hellcats. Thankfully, they didn’t detonate the ship’s payload. Damage across the board. Not sure what was from before and what was from the fighting. Enemy is reeling. Alpha Two is dead in space. Alpha One looks scuffed up. The auxiliary wings were in tight to one another; our missiles tore them apart,” Ayambe said. “One-third still active, two-thirds dead or broken.”

“Got it.” Better than I hoped.

“Minnie, how are you and your people?”

“They’re jumping back into the bots. Don’t need to go through that hell. Don’t want to. They’ll put you back together. I’m just testing out an idea.”

“Very well. Ayambe, order the other ships to reload from the dropships.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“We only have one corvette.” Dana said.

“Seemed suitable,” Ayambe quipped, amused and determinedly not looking up from her station.

Dana got out of her seat, moving to a console. She flicked through cameras to look at her hull. Massive rents of twisted metal littered across space; blackened, twisted metal showed where they’d taken impacts.

They built these ships tough.

“Enemy dropships and Hellcats are heading for the mining base. Shuttles are accelerating toward the corvettes that are turning to face us.”

Dana nodded. “They’re under a time crunch. They need to capture the base in the next forty minutes, or they’ll have to wait several hours. They can only do that with ground forces, so they need to get their dropships to the base. Now that we’ve engaged their corvettes, dropships and hellcats will be counted as combatants. If they don’t win, they lose their ships. We’ve forced their hand to fight us.”

“Why not run down the timer and get the four extra hours?” Ayambe asked.

“Because there is no guarantee we can get more support in four hours. We targeted their dropships and Hellcats with the nukes to make things easier for our people on the ground and to scare their leaders. Our fight is with the corvettes. We will have to rely on the defenders to hold against the enemy ground forces.” Dana tracked Hellcats on her screen, coming to rest next to the dropships. They’d be unloading the medium missiles in their bays, resupplying their allies and their own racks.

“Ayambe, send a message to Luke. Tell him he’s got company headed his way.” Dana checked her internal cameras, reds and oranges turned to yellow and up to green. There were dozens of engineering bots using components and repair tools stuffed into the halls of the corvette.

Engines burned hard to cut their momentum. Her eyes came to rest on Minnie’s shuttle. She’d detached before the battle began in force, drifting, unseen through space, her identifying tag changed.

Dana raised an eyebrow, tapping on her icon. She snorted at the information listed. I wonder where she got that IFF code from.

Luke craned his head to try to pick out the dropships and Hellcats in the star-sparked darkness of space. Red carats glowed around the dropships as they shot toward the base.

“Hold your fire. Let them get in close and cocky!” Luke said on the general chat.

Machine guns opened fire on the base.

Fin laughed. “Looks like they ran out of missiles!”

“Steady as she goes!” Luke said on general.

Dropships rounded the horizon of the planetoid, burning hot to come into land.

“Target the dropships! Fire!”

Light illuminated the base as every turret the base had opened fire.

“Miners, trade off with fighters!”

Miners jumped out of their bots, and fighters jumped in, grabbing weapons, and moving to the front lines.

A dropship was hit with flak and missiles, getting torn apart above the base. Light from the explosions strained Luke’s eyes as he checked the map, watching for problems.

“Dropships are coming in low. Can’t see them with the turrets. Dropping off their people at a distance,” Hotel Squad leader reported.

“Copy Hotel. Juliet squad, shift your people out to cover that trench line,” Luke said.

“Copy, Command. We’ll see to it.”

A group of Hellcats tore overhead. Luke couldn’t hear them in vacuum, but their rounds sparked as they hit the container above him.

Bots ran through the trenches. Turrets lit up the planetoid’s inky shadows.

“We need help at the mining pits,” Delta Squad reported.

“We’ve got forces landing beyond the outfitting hangars,” Bravo Squad added.

Luke flipped through the map information. The dropships were spreading out their bots. The outfitting hangars were the only structures above ground, other than the containers. The ground was rough beyond them, creating broken cover. The mining area was covered in massive pits and craters, big enough to hide several dropships inside. There were three squads in the area and five dropships unloading their people. Seeing the two squads and twelve dropships coming in around the outfitting hangar made the decision easy.

“Charlie, use your missile turrets to support Bravo. You can use them as artillery out here.”

“Understood. Bravo, you mark strikes, and we can fire on your mark.”

“Understood.”

Luke switched to his squad. “We’re heading to the outfitting hangars to help them there.”

“Got it. On you, Squad Lead.”

Luke ran through the trench. With the low gravity, it was more of a scramble as he used the floor and the ceiling to bounce between people rushing the other way. Luke only heard his own breathing in his net suit as he ran toward where dropships had reportedly landed.

He checked back. The rest of his squad was following.

[00:19:31]

“Squad leaders, make sure your anti-armor guys are on the ball and taking out those dropships. Blind fire so they don’t get alerted by a lock-on.”

“Copy, Commander,” Juliet said.

Luke reached an opening in the trench line. “Ready for a run?” He threw himself out of the trench, using his jets to shoot across the open ground to the second trench line.

“Keeps things interesting!” Moose said.

Luke bounded over the trenches and toward the outfitting hangars. Rounds kicked up dust around him. The turrets continued to return fire, and there was an explosion of what he hoped was the Hellcat. He focused on running. If he stopped, the Hellcat might find him and kill him.

Rounds ceased sparking around him. The fate of the Hellcat was unknown as he slid into the outfitting hangar. Muzzle flashes preceded the lines of advancing bots.

“Move in and support Bravo Squad. Shiro, get healing!” Luke moved to a barricade of waste blocks that had been thrown up to create a half wall around the hangars and create firing positions.

Luke fired at a bot running from one rock to another. They dropped, but more were trying to sneak up through the rock cover.

They don’t have the hang of low-G yet.

Bots were spinning above the planetoid, having jumped too high and being shot by waiting Legionnaires.

“Shoot through the smoke, gunners!” someone said on local.

The grenade tosses were messed up, and the smoke grenades were wild. They spat out their smoke, turning into flying rockets, flying through the area at wild angles or skittering across the ground. The clouds didn’t act like they would on a planet. They traveled in whatever direction they were shot in, creating pillars and bays of white smoke. Without gravity or air, it wasn’t going to clear.

“Get grenades in the smoke to try and clear it! Don’t throw them, push them!” Luke yelled, pulling out his own grenade. He pulled the pin and pushed it forward. It sailed across the battlefield with a half dozen others.

“Dropship!” Moose yelled.

“Got it,” Fin yelled, their resident anti-armor.

Luke fired at the flashes through the smoke, running dry on his rifle. He ducked back into cover, tossing the empty mag and grabbing a new one. Fin checked the missile launcher holstered on his shoulder. He stepped back out of the doorway and fired. The flicker of flame blasted the moon dust clear behind him.

Luke hit the bolt catch, shifted his position behind the wall, and popped up in time to see three missiles hit a dropship coming out over the smoke: two in the left side and one right in the belly. The dropship ballooned, exploding. Sections of the hull spun off into space or slammed into the planetoid.

The grenades detonated. They went farther than Luke could have ever tossed them, sinking into the smoke. The force of the explosions cleared pockets in the smoke like someone opening a door to a mist-filled bathroom.

Two more dropships followed the first and raked the positions where the missiles had come from. Other anti-air shooters fired on them, taking out a dropship’s engines, causing it to spin wildly and then crash into the ground. It tore through stone, smashing through the containers above the trench line.

“Fucking nice shot!” Fin yelled on local. “Right in the cockpit!”

The dropship floated up and away, dead stick, its engines off. The area where the cockpit would have been was a crater of twisted metal.

“Bravo, my squad will clear that crash. Keep up the defensive!”

“Got it, Command.”

“Jynx and Fin, stay in place. Shiro, Moose, with me. We’re going to clear that dropship.” Luke ran for the doorway where Fin had walked through.

“Got it!” Moose said.

“On you,” Shiro said.

“Target-rich environment!” Jynx laughed.

Fin was outside, his launcher set up on the ground as he fired his sniper rapidly.

Luke reached the edge of the defensive wall. He hooked his rifle to his back and studied the area. The dropship had come to stop on an angle, its right side presented to the outfitting hangar. Its right-side turret looked straight at him.

Luke froze, but nothing happened. It didn’t move or fire. Waiting for me to come out of cover?

He took a breath, lowering himself to the ground in a runner’s stance, facing the dropship.

He kicked off from the barricade and the ground, firing his jets. As he had done on Sphere World the first time, he drag-threw himself forward, gaining speed. Shiro and Moose popped out of the trench line near the dropship; they ran on the back sides of the containers toward the ship.

Luke got into the shadow of the ship. Still, the turret hadn’t moved.

“Made it.” He activated his mag-boots and hands, reaching out and wincing in anticipation. He hit the ship with a hollow clang, thrown around by the inertia. Luke barely felt it. The grip on his stomach turned into a wide smile of relief as he punched the dual turret next to him.

“Fucker.”

Moose and Shiro ran up on his left onto the hull.

“Shiro, cut open a hole into the drop bay.” Luke pulled out his repair tool and clambered up the side of the dropship, using it to cut into the hull around where the cockpit was.

“On it.”

They worked quietly. Luke checked the maps as he worked. They were getting pushed on all sides. Their turrets had taken a pounding, and there were few working.

“Make sure your medics are working on the damaged turrets. We can’t spare the bots. If you can, get the missile turrets back in action,” Luke said on command. “Ammo runners, get those reloads up to the missiles and machine guns.”

Luke finished work on his small opening. “Grenade going in!” he yelled on local. He hit the panel into the dropship and threw a grenade in right afterward, moving to the side. Rounds pinged around the opening and out the slot.

The concussion of the grenade transmitted through his shoulder against the dropship and the rush of debris out of the slot. He stuck his rifle barrel into the opening and fired blindly, working the rifle around before he ran out of rounds.

“Breach!” Moose said.

Luke moved away from his opening, reloading his rifle as Moose disappeared into the gap he and Shiro had expanded.

Shiro jumped in behind him, and Luke detached from the ship, jumping and grabbing a missile rack on the wing to change his direction. He threw himself back at the side of the ship, clamped onto the wall, and then swung into the ship headfirst.

“Shit, one on the left!” Moose said.

Shiro fired. “Got them. Moving up to the cockpit. Then I’ll revive you.”

Luke oriented himself to the ground, clamped on and followed Shiro, who advanced carefully.

Hurry up. He kept his thoughts just behind his teeth as Shiro fired a second time, killing a bot Luke hadn’t noticed.

“Clear!” Shiro said.

Luke checked the bots, counting out the one hiding in the drop bays, three that had died from impact or Luke’s grenade in the cockpit, and the last that Shiro killed.

“Five dead. They’re all crew,” Luke let out a pent-up breath. It could’ve been twenty.

“Medic?” Moose asked weakly.

“I got you.” Shiro snorted, clamping his rifle to his back, and heading to Moose.

Luke checked the map. “I want one squad to remain on the trench facing the container city. The others can head to the mining fields. One squad on the landing area. The rest can move to the outfitting hangars. Figure out who you want to send.”

He checked over the controls of the dropship and the bots and used his repair tool on the turrets. It showed how much work they needed to be repaired.

“Top turret should be good to use,” Luke said on squad, repairing it fully and pulling out the bot from its seat. “Thanks, Shiro. I’ll grab that turret.”

“No worries. Just doing my job,” Shiro said.

“You get the bots. I’ll get the left side turret. It’s facing the line of advance,” Luke said.

“Copy.”

Luke used his repair tool on the turret with one hand and checked his maps with the other.

“Fifteen minutes…We need to hold for another fifteen minutes,” Luke said to everyone. Has to be four hundred or so Star Kings fighters out there.

“On my mark—dropship!” a squad leader yelled out. The marker appeared to everyone.

“Good shit!” He sighed as the marker disappeared.

The Legion was holding. Luke checked on the battle beyond the mining base’s cluster. Vulture and her auxiliaries were pushing toward the two corvettes and their screen of hellcats. Both enemy corvettes were back online, with Alpha Two surrounded by shuttles that had been used to arrest the ship’s drift and flood the ship with workers.

Luke grimaced. They didn’t have the element of surprise anymore. They had about even number of auxiliaries, but theirs were all beaten up while the Star Kings had kept their best units with them.

Tao checked the reports on the Stallion as he stood at the holographic banister on the Nova. “How long until the Stallion is back online?”

“The reactors were purged to stop them from going critical, and her engines are offline, repairs on complex equipment take—”

“How long, Admiral?” Tao ground out.

“Two to three hours.” Sho grimaced.

“You have twenty minutes. General Tate, I hope your update is more useful,” Tao said.

“The enemy has heavy defenses on all sides of the base. We took out the majority of their turrets, but they’re working to get them online. We’re down to machine guns only from the dropships and Hellcats. We have less than a wing of Hellcats remaining and seven dropships. They have anti-armor missiles along their trench lines. I’m organizing a push with the remaining dropships on the outfitting hangars. Going to attempt a break in there and roll through their complex. I don’t think they have many defenders.”

“Why do you think that?”

“They haven’t sent out anyone to attack us yet.”

“Any signs of the shipyard?”

“Nothing. The area has been heavily developed and mined. Massive pit mines on the other approach and possibly hundreds of automated miners have been found in various states of deployment across the planetoid. They’ve moved most that were around their base to create defenses.”

“So not just miners?”

“Sir, we know who they are,” Sho cut in eagerly.

“Who?”

“Legion, a clan formed between the Gremlin and Howler clans.”

Tao stood. He remembered losing Node Seven to the upstart clans.

Sho continued. “There was a symbol on the corvette. It isn’t one that we know but it looked familiar. I checked the feeds from the fighting on Crimson Node, and it clicked.”

Tao didn’t miss the way Sho’s attendant’s head twitched. Sure, you discovered it.

“They have the same emblem on their bots.”

“So, you’re telling me that is Legion’s resource base?” Tao glanced at the map and frowned.

“Yes, Guild Leader.”

Tao looked at the time estimate from the two forces coming from Valhalla and Ares. Three hours before they can reach us.

Tao waved Chris over. “Contact our recruiters. Have them pull the information on any Legion, Gremlin, or Howler members who have applied to join the guilds. Send them an offer to join Star Kings, immediately.”

“Yes, Guild Leader.”

Chapter thirty-two

Chapter: 32

24, March 2242

Luke pulled back to the outfitting hangar. Shiro was moving through the trench line, healing people, and Moose was helping Jynx.

The dropship in their line had turned into their turret, firing out onto the advancing Star Kings fighters. Shiro had revived the bots in the ship, and they’d turned the bots over to another half squad in reserve.

[00:10:21]

“Ten minutes! Just ten more minutes! We’ve got this!” Luke yelled over general.

He got pinged with a message and opened it, thinking it was from Dana.

“What the fuck?” Luke muttered.

[Star Kings Guild invites you to join their ranks. By accepting this limited-time invitation, you will join at rank C-1. You would be on the fighting or engineering teams, bypassing resource gathering and other technical jobs. Do you accept?]

He had to read it twice, the voices in his ears distant.

It was everything he had hoped for, and joining as a C-1 rank member, bypassing mundane roles and going straight into training and fighting in battles was a dream come true. He would earn a steady income; he’d get pay bonuses for each battle. A dorm room at the Star Kings Guild halls! He could be the face on the posters people put on their walls. The news feeds might mention his name, others would say how they played with him when he was starting out.

Fin finished reloading beside him, stood up again, and fired.

I’d have to betray my friends, betray the Legion. But this might be the only opportunity he’d get to join a guild. Legion had pissed off the Star Kings Guild, and were busy attacking the Crimson Heart Guild. Neither were known for their mercy.

Or I could stay in the clan. It wasn’t glamorous. It was hard work, and he might never achieve fame. But he wasn’t going to betray his friends. He would grind his way to the top guilds be damned.

“Shit, dropship coming in!” Jynx yelled. “Seven of them!”

Luke dismissed the message, smiling. He was already in the right place with the right people.

He grabbed the missile launcher as the dropships came through the smoke cloud. Their turrets blazed, tearing up the hangar and firing positions, cutting down bots that were in the open.

Luke fired. The missile hit a dropship on the side, causing it to list to the side and drift off before slamming into a faraway hill.

“Fuck! Kixer-Eighty-one just team-killed me!”

“He shot me too!”

“Ban him, quick!”

A friendly missile hit a container bunker from behind, tearing through the trenches.

A vote shot up in his vision. Luke agreed to it. “Ban Kixer. He’s a team killer.”

“Ban Devildog14!”

Luke’s headset filled with calls for bans. I wasn’t the only one to get a recruitment message then.

People called out the names of other team killers as the line turned to chaos.

“Shit, someone just killed me. Shiro, can you revive me?” Jynx yelled.

Fighting broke out in the trenches and Luke approved kicking people. He grabbed his rifle, firing at the enemy bots charging the line.

“Focus on the enemy!” Luke yelled, but he saw the control slipping through their grasp.

“Fucking traitors!” someone yelled on the general.

“Quit your bitching. You’re just jealous you didn’t get into a guild!” someone else taunted and laughed.

Luke found their name and kicked them out too.

“They’re going to roll us over here,” Fin said. “We need to pull back to the second line.”

Luke could read it on the map but had hoped they could hold on. Pulling back when the enemy was among their ranks would only increase the chaos. “Pull back to the second line now!”

He flipped to squad chat. “Find somewhere to hide your bots out here on the first line. Make sure you have a repair tool.” He didn’t wait for their replies as he contacted the Vulture.

Like a dandelion shedding its seeds, the Star Kings shuttles moved away from Alpha One and Two, their engines burning hard to put distance between them and Dana’s fleet while gaining on the planetoid. They would just be casualties and with no weapons, there was no way they could help the Star Kings fleet.

Two wings of hellcats and dropships too damaged to reach the planetoid base were organized around the corvettes.

“Let’s see what they were able to repair,” Dana muttered, cursing the enemy commander. Sending off their dropships and hellcats would pressure the planetoid defenses so that even if they lost their corvettes they could win. It also meant that they had more bots than if they got caught up in another fight between Dana’s fleet and Star Kings.

Her hands danced through the hologram, running through several plans and flight routes. She paused, picking one and flicking it out. “Ayambe, pass this to our people.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Dana felt the gears of her fleet shifting under her hand. Ships tightened their formation thrusters, making minute adjustments as their engines increased their rate of acceleration. Data danced before her eyes, comforting her.

While her ships might be battered and busted up, all their weapons had been repaired and reloaded.

“Entering missile range,” Leblanc said. ”Alpha Two has fired!”

“Target the auxiliaries,” Dana told the fleet as she switched missile targeting profiles. The rail gun and missile tubes expelled their payloads, shaking the structure of the corvette.

“Alpha One is firing missiles. The other ships aren’t firing any.” Leblanc said.

They don’t have reloads. “All ships but the Vulture, fire all missiles.” Dana said.

Dozens of medium missiles accelerated free of her ship’s racks.

“CIWS engaging.” Leblanc said.

Silent explosions dotted space between the two fleets, reaching one another as ships started to fall under their barrage.

“That’s the last of the enemy missiles. We’ve lost three dropships and five hellcats,” Ayambe said.

The Vulture stopped firing missiles, with six remaining in her magazines.

The Star Kings auxiliary ships were not prepared for this kind of fight, coming apart under nuclear fire.

“Railgun round impact,” Leblanc said.

Alpha Two jerked to the side on thrusters, rounds impacted its side. Alpha One shuddered under impacts.

A reactor was thrown clear of the ship and exploded, buffeting the ship and making it look like it was riding a wave. Something no ship in space should be doing.

All the enemy dropships and fighters had been torn apart, nothing more than paper targets in front of the warships.

“Intercept!”

The Vulture rang and rattled with impacts. Alpha Two suddenly stopped accelerating, going inert as it drifted off into the darkness.

“Major hull damage. Decreasing acceleration,” Klinsky said.

“We’re through,” Ayambe said.

“Dumping secondary reactor. Fuel lines got mangled up.”

“Lay in a course to the planetoid, Mister Klinsky. Best speed we can do. The rest of the fleet are to affect repairs and follow us if they can,” Dana said.

[00:07:23]

“Give Luke our estimated time of arrival.”

“Altering course. Best time estimate is six minutes,” Klinsky said.

“Very well.” Dana nodded. Hating the reality of physics was an exercise in futility. Her map of the planetoid showed that they were in the process of losing the second line and getting pushed back to their third and last line, outnumbered nearly four to one.

The team killing had opened up their lines for the enemy, and she wasn’t sure if they could hold on long enough. Good thing we made some prior preparations. Her eyes fell on the storage containers that covered the command post.

“Damage?” Dana asked.

“Got some shrapnel that hit our hull, some shakes, but otherwise we’re good,” Leblanc said.

“Get the engineers working on fixing up our CIWS and the rail guns.”

“Everyone pull—” Luke turned as rounds came from behind him. He shot another friendly, banning them with some all-too-well practiced moves.

An explosion ripped through the factory complex. Someone had fired a missile into the storage containers buried in the ground. Luke banned them, too.

“Grenade!” Fin yelled, grabbing Luke and pulling him down through the trench.

Luke was a sail in a wind in the low-G. The grenade exploded behind them, filling the trench with debris.

“Everyone, pull back to the last line of defense!” Luke yelled, repeating what he had been trying to say before he was shot at.

Luke checked the map. He pushed off the trench walls to orient with the ground.

“All right, bot-jump behind their lines. It looks like they’re well beyond where we died,” Luke said in squad chat as Fin pinged a group of enemy bots bounding toward the second line. Luke stepped up next to him, the two of them cutting the group down.

They took fire from another position. Luke fired back at them on full auto, getting their heads down. Fin’s rifle took out two, and the others ducked into cover in a crater or trench, Luke couldn’t see.

“Come on. We need to get those bots for reinforcements.” Luke continued down the trench, rifle up. Star Kings bots bounded around a corner into their trench. Luke and Fin’s rounds punched through them.

“Quick!” Luke pushed off for the corner, slapping his rifle to his chest and pulling out his pistol. He used the trench and his jets to swim one-handed down the trench. Another bot came around the corner. Luke fired one round into its chest and another in its head, the recoil throwing him away.

“I got you.” Fin pulled him back down, and pushed past, taking the lead.

Luke stabilized and followed.

“Clear!” Fin called out. Luke reached him as Fin changed back to his rifle.

“Cover me. I’ll start repairing.”

“Gotcha.”

Luke played his repair tool over the least damaged bot. It twitched as it reached one hundred percent. Luke’s heart nearly tore out his throat before he saw the friendly blue name appearing above it.

“You scared the shit out of me.”

The woman occupying the bot laughed. “Got you good. Where d’you need me?” She checked her gear.

“Head back to the third line. Grab a repair tool and repair as many bots as you can. Get them moving to the storage container area.”

She checked her map. “Got it, boss man.”

“Were you at Crimson?” Fin asked.

“Yeah, we took Hillside, but Cave is a fucking mess, as we thought. Foster will figure it out, though.”

“Did people change sides there too?”

“Yeah, some did. Fuckers. Catch you later.” She ran off through the trenches as Luke and Fin worked on the other three bots, then headed back toward the outfitting hangars.

They snuck through their old buildings, reviving dozens of bots. Enemy or friendly, the bot didn’t matter. The hangars had seen better days.

Luke checked his map. “Shit! They’re moving for the containers!” He went on general. “Get up on the roof or push out to the storage containers. They know where the command post is!”

His bots were dying in the trenches as the Star Kings force stabbed through them. Luke finished reviving the latest bot and moved to the outfitting hangar closest to the storage area.

He slid into a trench, resting his rifle on the lip for better aim. Luke looked for anything he or his people could do to alter the flow of what was happening. “Lima, Mike Squad, continue down the trenches. Engage the Star Kings’ forces that are pushing through. All squads at the third line, get stuck in. Be ready for the enemy to fold back on you.”

Enemy bots ran out of the trench line and toward the buried containers. Tracers cut through them, kicking up dust as they hit the planetoid’s surface.

Other Star Kings bots still in cover fired at the Legion fighters, pushing out smoke grenades to cover their advance.

“Missiles into the smoke! Clear it!”

Missiles shot out into the smoke, hitting the ground and exploding, tearing apart the cover. Legionnaires continued their fire as rounds started to hit the building.

“Got a force coming from the second line, trying to flank us,” Moose said, pinging the group counterattacking the outfitting hangers.

“Shift fire onto them,” Luke said.

He let someone pass down the trench and moved to the other side. Seeing the pinged groups, he shot at them.

“Shit, that’s like three squads,” Jynx said. She’d found a machine gun again.

[00:00:54]

Light passed over the mining base, followed by a massive shadow. Luke looked up at the mass of the Vulture as its two dozen CIWS tore up the enemy out in the open. The rail gun stuffed two rounds into the trenches the Star Kings’ attackers were pouring in from.

“Hold your positions!” Luke yelled over general chat. “Revive as many bots as you can.”

His bots spread out through the outfitting hangar at the end of the trench.

He checked his map. Enemy contacts appeared and then disappeared under Vulture’s watchful eye.

“We’ve got this!” Luke yelled. Smoke continued to be thrown out as squads advanced, breaking the attacker’s push. Rail rounds threw up clouds of debris that floated in mid-air.

Luke fired a burst into a group hiding in a trench, reloading in cover, looking for the next group.

[Victory]

[You have defended Mining Planetoid]

[Gained: 12009874 Platinum/6005 Credit(s)]

[Sell to Legion, Sphere World or Keep?]

Luke’s stomach unraveled as relief shot through his body. “Damn. That was a close one.”

“Shit! Good thing we hid the command post at the bottom of that hole,” Fin said.

“That was one hell of a fight. Fricking team killers, though—the fuck was that all about? Just all spies?” Jynx asked.

[Dana is requesting a private chat]

“Gotta talk to Dana.” Luke accepted, jumping chats. “Thanks for the assist.”

“Cutting it close. I’ve got two dropships coming in to pick up two assault squads from your people to clear out the Nova and secure it if we can.”

[Mitch has joined the chat]

[Minnie has joined the chat]

“We have two hours to wrap up everything of value in the base and get gone,” Dana said. “Prioritize materials and gear to move.”

“What? Why?” Luke asked.

“Star Kings have launched two fleets, one from Ares and one from Valhalla. They’ll be here in just over two hours. Better we gather what we can and get the hell out of here.”

“Shall we sell off the stuff we can’t move? Denies it to the Star Kings if it’s bound for Sphere World.”

“Yeah, but we only have a limited number of shuttles,” Dana said.

“Shame we have to leave this all behind,” Minnie muttered.

“Agreed,” Mitch said.

“We have shipyards,” Luke said. “Couldn’t we load them up like they’re freighters and get all this out of here?”

“We have nothing to stick them to,” Mitch said.

“Thrust—just hook the containers together. They all have standard locking devices. Put them between the arms of the shipyard, and as you apply thrust, the containers will push up against that,” Luke said.

“If we make a hollow box and put out containers on either side, it would act like one massive basket. We could shove everything into it,” Minnie said.

“Where are we going to go? We need somewhere to put them to use.”

“I think I have that covered,” Minnie said. “I just need to check through the Star Kings’ ship’s logs. Dana, can you get us a route to get the shipyards out of the asteroid belt undetected?”

“They haven’t reached their rally points yet, so we can just keep them going,” Dana said.

“All right. Then, Mitch, you organize what needs to be sent off. Luke, you have your people heal more bots so we can get our engineers and miners back. And see if you can get some of those ships working. If not, sell them to Sphere World. Anything that we leave behind, sell to Sphere World,” Minnie said.

Luke passed on his orders and set to reviving bots. The assault crew secured the Nova with minimal casualties; they only needed to capture or destroy enough of the reactors to take the ship.

The Stallion and the Nova moved under their own power. The shuttles that were linked to the Stallion were put to good use, gathering containers, and building them into massive stacks, then heading off after the two shipyards.

Luke kept an eye on the approaching fleets. Dana gathered as much supplies and ammunition as she could stuff into her three corvettes to slip off into the dark.

In an hour and a half, they had packed up every factory that was still in working order, over a hundred automated miners and containers.

Luke piloted the last shuttle away from the mining base. Mitch was with him. The bunks, the bathroom, even the kitchen sink had gear in it. They’d need to cut themselves out on the other side or have someone unload them from the outside.

Mitch sighed.

“I’m sorry we weren’t able to defend it,” Luke said.

“I am sad that we have lost the base, but I am happy that I gained friends from it. People who stayed with me, even if they were offered much better employment opportunities. There was no logical reason that you would not accept Star Kings’ offer, but you didn’t, and you fought for our base. I was being too kind when I built this base. The next one, I will devote thirty percent of resources to defense. I am going to destroy the Star Kings Guild. They will have to kill me to stop me.”

“How did you know they sent me an offer?”

“You have been creating videos to try and interest a guild. With your information out there and your videos I thought it was sure that they would send you an invitation. Did they not?”

“They did.” Luke grunted.

“And instead of taking an opportunity that you have wanted very badly, you fought them and stayed. You demonstrated that you are a friend, and I will consider you as such.” There was nothing in Mitch’s monotone voice that would allow anyone to read into his feelings. But Luke knew that resolute tone. Mitch meant every word.

“Luke! We just capped Crimson Node! They’re going to call it Windy Canyon!” Jynx yelled.

“Nice. Good for them.” Luke felt tired from all the work. He thought he would be jealous, but instead he was pleased by their victory. He realized it was because their clan had taken on two guilds at the same time and won.

They hadn’t done it by having more money, but by using their smarts and through hard work.

“I wonder what’s next?”

Chapter thirty-three

Chapter: 33

24, March 2242

Wei Li, counsel to the United Corporate Entities, leading partner of Feng-Dan-Wei, swept into her office, a grand affair looking over the clouds of Sirel. Mountains peeked through the light white clouds.

“Get me Olivia Mao.” She took in the three angled windows behind her desk, and perched on the desk, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knee. Her hair was pulled back, except for a ringlet of hair that swept behind her right ear. A silver bar earring caught the morning sun. She wore a striking custom suit with a small necklace.

She was a tall woman. Even sitting on the corner of her desk, her posture was perfect and effortless as the commander of this tower, the clouds, and the mountains beyond.

Olivia Mao appeared in holographic form and bowed deeply. “Miss Wei.”

“Rise. Tell me about Orion’s Belt Enterprises,” Wei said.

“I was contacted on my personal messaging service with a request to appear at the mediation between OBE and their shareholders. They affected a takeover, taking the majority of their shares back from their old shareholders by not sharing information of their internal operations. The person who contacted me offered the information I gave to you that was useful in the Epsilon Eridani negotiations.”

“Say what you might about the Coalition. They know how to cut a deal. That information was most useful.” Wei frowned. “This person, or group, knew the specific problems we were having and offered a clear solution. What certified their ability to deliver?”

“They were able to give me details on my own cases that I had cleaned up that were never made public,” Olivia said.

Wei raised an eyebrow. She had recovered little information on Mao’s deals or any evidence. It was the sign of a good lawyer to never be noticed and to clean up their clients’ messes without any sign of their involvement.

A message pinged Wei. She turned her hand up. The slim bracelet on her wrist projected a holographic screen. She frowned, then her eyes widened, and a smile spread across her lips. “It looks like a Sally Wong is looking out for you.” Wei flicked her wrist, the message appearing in front of Olivia.

“How? Sally Wong is the one that hired me. I didn’t tell her anything about meeting with you.”

“She has timing and information.” Wei pressed her lips together. The room had been swept before she arrived by her head of security. The building was swept constantly. The windows were insulated, and vacuum secured, so even non-electronic recording devices wouldn’t work and vibration lasers couldn’t read the glass. Patrol craft circled the building, with a no-fly zone enforced around the tower.

Olivia had similar arrangements at her tower in Maxxel system.

“What did they give you about the case?”

“They showed that they had bought seventeen percent of the shares from Orion’s Belt Enterprises. Then they gave me the case, and the notes from the company’s lawyer. Then they passed me information on the other shareholders, and hints of where to look. It only took a little digging.”

“The settlement?”

“Enough to bloody the shareholders. Make them bitter, but not too bitter to try something else. I think I was there to add to the fear.”

Wei stood, crossing her arms, and pinching her chin.

“The settlement went to the owners of the company instead of the shareholders.”

Wei looked up. “Amount.”

“Approaching thirty billion, wiping out their short positions and making sure that they will not willfully mess with the operation of Orion’s Belt Enterprises. The client had me print off a secured scrubbed message in paper for the owners.”

“Did they know who it was?”

“They were confused by my presence, though they bore up well under the strain.”

“Results beyond the company?” Wei raised her head and crossed her arms.

“Those who shorted the company had a nasty surprise as the mediation came to an end, and the company’s liquidity increased dramatically. The shorts are being cleared. I believe they will go private as soon as possible. With estimated revenues, they are making between ten to forty billion per day.”

“That much?”

“Video game guilds might be the vanity projects of businesses, but the games are the ones that make the most money. Sphere World, OBE’s latest offering, offers in-game currency and credits directly. It created an online currency based on the game.”

“Couldn’t they create more money and crash the market value through inflation?”

“They made Sphere World so close to a real system that all the money is grounded in the resources of the system. Sphere World needs to mine resources, sell equipment, or services, just like their players do to earn money from them. Platinum, their in-game currency, is one of the most stable currencies on the net.”

Wei raised an eyebrow at that. “Credits have been the most stable currency for decades.”

“Yes, because the corporations regulate themselves and cross the barriers between the different factions. This crosses the factions through a video game, and their transactions are done out in the open. Anyone can pull up their market, while corporations might move some ones and zeros around in their ledgers.”

Wei nodded. She was not naïve enough to think that the corporations were angels. The credit was stable because it was best for business.

“What are your projections?”

“Sphere World is coming to the forefront of games. People have jumped onto it. There were a few million before the case concluded. Those numbers are going to reach into the hundreds of millions in just a few weeks. Orion’s Belt Enterprises will remain a sleeping dragon. Neither of the owners are ostentatious; they care little about the extra funds. They will be a growing dark horse, silently.”

“Keep your eye on them. With pure liquidity in their company, that will allow them a lot of options.” Wei looked to the ceiling. Even in a mostly corporate system like Maxxel, there was no one single power in the system. There were many powerful and rich people, but most of that money was wrapped up in making more money. They couldn’t apply it to anything directly.

“Keep your eyes on the Federation. They’re being aggressive again. Make sure that you keep their weapons and ammunition allotments within the guidelines, and ensure that no one is doing any deals on the side.” Wei leveled her gaze at Mao.

“I understand, Miss Wei.” Mao bowed.

Wei nodded, and Mao’s hologram faded away. “Orion’s Belt Enterprises.” She pulled up the message.

[Please thank Miss Mao for me. I hope you reached the settlement you desired. Sincerely, Sally Wong.]

“Miss Sally Wong, just who are you?” Wei didn’t notice her mouth crease into an eager smile.

Chapter thirty-four

Chapter: 34

24, March 2242

Luke’s vision scrawled, changing to the Legion Command Center. Minnie, Mitch, Dana, Ichika, and Foster were in attendance in their net avatars. They turned from the main screen.

The corvettes and shuttles towed the shipyards filled with containers. The plot line grew behind them, but there was no target ahead of them.

We won the battle, but we still couldn’t hold the planetoid. Luke averted his eyes as Mitch cleared his throat. “By now, the Star Kings will have reached the planetoid and started to build their own base.”

“Why did we take all the command posts? We could have harassed them at the very least,” Luke asked.

“You come into range of a command center, and you start capturing it. They would find the command posts quickly. Second, we have limited materials, and they just got a mining node. Even if we harassed them, we would only lose bots and cost them some time.”

Luke hid his blush and tucked his hands into his pockets.

“What about our new ships?” Foster asked.

Minnie grimaced and ran her hand through her hair. “We got the corvettes flying, but it’s going to take more work before they’re ready for combat. We salvaged all the hellcats and dropships we could. We’re cannibalizing them for parts for the ones that are only lightly damaged. We’ve got a ton of shuttles, at least. Obviously, with the yards in transit, we can’t put them to work making more ships. With all the factories and belts packed into containers, we’re going to fall behind on all our building schedules.”

“Without the planetoid, we have no new source of raw materials. It is just what we have stored and salvaged from the wrecks,” Mitch said.

“We need a new base, and we need to make sure the clan is clean before we do so.” Dana looked at Ichika, who shifted her stance and Foster tensed his hand.

“We’ve purged the clans. Legion is clear of spies and steps have been taken to ensure that new ones don’t appear or are weeded out in the joining process.” Foster’s voice was deep and clipped.

Dana nodded. “Okay, so that still leaves the problem of where to go.” She raised her hand and a star map appeared on the stage between them. “There’s another belt between the ninth and tenth planet?”

“Too far. It would take days to reach Valhalla,” Ichika said.

“We could keep the shipyard out in the dark between the planets. If we’re in the belt someone might come looking for us in the future,” Foster said.

“In the dark, we’d need to ship all the materials over vast distances. Someone would just need to track where the materials are being shipped to,” Minnie said.

Luke made to raise his hand, but lowered it. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? His eyes focused on their new corvettes.

Dana shook her head. “Need to defend two locations, materials and manpower.”

“We could set up in the rings around the sixth planet, the sub-Jovian. There are several mining opportunities there that I studied before picking our previous location,” Mitch said.

“Which makes me worry that others will be in the area,” Dana said.

The conversation stalled. Luke’s eyes kept returning to the corvettes.

“We have no idea how many warships the guilds have. The ones we looted might be their first, or it could have been their fourth run,” Foster said.

Luke cleared his throat. “I don’t know how many ships they have, but, Minnie, do you have the nav data from the warships we stole?”

“Yes, why?” Minnie’s brows pinched together.

“Do you know when the data started getting recorded?” Luke stepped forward.

“Probably since they came online bu—” Minnie’s words became stilted. Luke’s grin spread as her brows and eyes started to dance. Her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands, a matching grin spread across her face. She pulled up a terminal and took control of the star map. A series of curving lines appeared across the star system.

“If we trace these back…” Minnie zoomed in and out, distracted.

Luke stepped closer to see where they terminated and started.

“They must have scrubbed their logs,” Minnie hissed.

Luke raised his hand. “If we compare their maps to ours, we should see something different. Discrepancies along what must have been their flight path, right back to their shipyard.”

Everyone was staring at him.

“Minnie?” Dana asked.

“They may have scrubbed the nav plots, but the maps automatically update with the latest information.” She sucked on her lip.

“You’re over thinking it. Just trace back through the logs, see what the oldest live updated area was, or you can reverse trace. Where does the map information originate from?” Luke said.

Every eye focused on them as Minnie nodded and tapped in commands, her grin growing with each press. They watched footage of the corvettes backing up to their old base and the damage against the Star Kings fleet reversing, before the corvettes shot back across space, losing their ship screen, crossing the dark and coming to a jarring halt.

“I give you the corvette’s shipyard,” Minnie said.

“How did you know?” Foster asked.

“There’s always a record of everything in space,” Luke said. “Kept thinking, if they attacked our shipyard, then why don’t we attack theirs? I didn’t think it would be quite so…” He waved at the hologram.

“Big?” Minnie filled in. “Two small shipyards, one medium, all with ships under construction at the time our corvettes left.” She panned around. “Two more small shipyards under construction.”

“An asteroid eater,” Mitch pointed at the asteroid which had been hollowed out in the middle, with automated miners sticking down like teeth as the opening of the asteroid got smaller.

“And…” Minnie zoomed in on a logo of a tennis racket made of tools and mechanical parts. “It’s owned by Iron Racket.”

Dana highlighted a group of shuttles passing one another. “What’s that?”

Minnie sped things up, following them down to a nearby moon.

“The asteroid processes the materials and supports the shipyards. The moon base takes the leftovers and mines the moon to build other items?” Mitch posited.

“I’d agree,” Minnie said.

They all stood there, studying the Iron Racket bases and their shipyards.

“Imagine if we could take it.” Luke snorted; his easy smile dulled at the other’s looks.

Foster grinned. “I couldn’t have said that better myself.”

“I like the way you think.” Ichika patted Luke.

Luke opened his mouth a few times and glanced back at the map. What if we did? A tingling sensation ran down the back of his scalp and raised the corners of his mouth.

He laughed. “Why not?”

“What is this all about?” Brad asked Stuart again.

“Just have a little patience. You’re worse than the kids on a rail trip.” Stuart tapped his screen to a security gate. It opened, and he walked through. Brad followed him.

The rail had dropped them off at the regional spaceport, but ever since Stuart had hustled him out of his home this morning, coming in an unlinked auto-car, he’d acted like the world’s worst spy.

They walked along a glass hallway. Spread out on the left were racks for the smaller racers that could be put into storage. Then bays for the larger yachts, getting progressively bigger as they moved along, from air yachts to space yachts. A few private orbital jets were loading passengers. Past another set of security doors, and they were in the engineering sections of the port.

Bays were filled with ships in various stages of disassembly. Engines had been opened up and pulled apart; maintenance hatches were opened. Bots worked across the ships, replacing burnt-out panels and bolting them back into place.

Brad’s thoughts drifted, seeing the order of the yards, the engineers working away. It reminded him of the hangars, flight decks, and engineering spaces he had lived in as a younger man in the Coalition’s Defensive Forces. He could almost smell the harsh chemicals, the smelt of burnt and shaved metal. Metal cutters and grinders. The constant cacophony of noise to keep these beasts functional.

A small smile spread across his face. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Most of it had been shit. Little sleep or pay, and with someone constantly yelling for things to be done yesterday and rushing to get them done in minutes for what would have taken others hours. Though there were good times sown in: the people, the sense of pride of going through hell and coming out on the other side. The small victories or the rare times they blew off steam, leading to laughter and bonds that linked them closer than family could ever understand.

He breathed out. Other memories flooded in of his life afterward, a life well lived.

Stuart stopped at an elevator and waved him in.

Brad sighed and stepped inside. It descended. “Must be underground now.”

“Yup.” Stuart spoke in short sentences and grinned, as if saying more might let the surprise slip.

Brad crossed his arms and breathed out, raising an eyebrow. “This better be good. I was going to spend today by the pool and catch up on my comics.”

“Dude, this is straight out of one of your comic books, like a secret-lair, secret-mission kind of spy-hero thing.”

The elevator dinged, coming to a slow and cutting off Brad’s questions.

The doors opened to two pieces of strip lighting glowing out into the chasm beyond. Brad couldn’t make out anything in the darkness, but he felt it was large.

Stuart walked up to the console and looked at Brad. He turned him by the shoulder, closed one eye, picturing something, and nodded to himself.

“Dramatic much?”

“Hey, I’m all about the presentation.” He tapped something on the console.

Lights turned on in series, advancing away from the wall. Brad’s words, breath, and heart stilled. The harsh light curved by the elegant lines of a ship.

From the bow to the engines, the ship’s spine was one beautiful curve, rising slowly up, with a small hump that spread down the line and outward. It arced down at the sides to a thin, blade-like wing that rounded back in around twin large air intakes on either side. Its edges were a low-Gloss, heat-resistant black while its body took on the appearance of blued steel. The hatches and ports on the massive ship were easily forty meters long, five meters wide at the nose, opening up to twenty-five meters at the rear engines.

Brad sighed. “What a ship.”

“She’s a beaut. Come on.” Stuart clapped him on the back and followed the strip of lighting on the ground. An elevator lowered from the ship’s smooth underside.

“What do you mean, come on? Why are you… Whose ship is this?”

“Ours.”

“What? How—Did you use the money?” Brad growled, catching up to Stuart as he stepped on the elevator and turned him around by the shoulder.

“Some of it, but it’s not for pleasure. Come on.” Stuart hit a button, and the elevator took them back into the ship. Doors unsealed and opened with a hiss. The ship smelled of grease, metal, of plastics, of new.

They wandered through the ship.

“Full hypernet connection standard, automated air systems, organic farm, even its own chef and a fully stocked bar and even its own cleaning bots.” Stuart guided him deeper into the ship.

She was a beauty.

“Okay, the ship is clean. So, you know how we’ve been trying to track down the creators of Sphere World, right? Well, I had a breakthrough. Instead of trying to look at the code and match it to the people who code that way, I took another approach. I searched through the servers.” Stuart walked them down the main corridor, down the center of the ship, rooms on either side.

They stepped onto the bridge. The metal underfoot gave way to screens showing the floor below, curling up the side of the bridge along the lines of the bow that reached forward to the start of the spine.

Stuart used his screen, flicking information into the middle of the bridge, behind the three control consoles. The screens and lights turned off; projectors showed a star map in three dimensions. “We’re hosting the game, acting as the online servers, but the game is held remotely. So, I started to trace where it was all coming from.”

The Maxxel star glowed purple, and lines of green and red reached out across the stars to other human inhabited systems.

“It was hard in the beginning because I was getting a lot of traffic coming in and out from everyone, so I looked for places that were constantly on, information going both ways all the time.” Golden lines spread out to several systems. “I eliminated the guild servers and went back to when the game had just started.”

The golden lines dropped and the red and greens vanished. Two gold lines traced out to two systems. The map swiveled and expanded on Maxxel and the two stars, dimming the others.

“Tropez system and Sheren system,” Brad said, reading the names out.

“Sphere World is being sent from these two systems, or being sent through them,” Stuart said.

“Okay, so they’re in either system. You find out which one? Who it is?”

“No, I can’t pull that kind of information from here. If we were to go to the system, then I could go into the local hyper net, correlate the signal, and I could point right to the server this is coming from.”

Brad rested his hands on his hips and let out a breath through his lips, moving his feet. “And that’s why you bought this ship.”

Stuart nodded, turning serious. “The XR-seventeen isn’t just a luxury yacht. It has acceleration couches and bays that can take us up to fifteen gravities of acceleration. State-of-the-art networking so we can link into the net anywhere and no one should notice the lag to think we’re anywhere but Maxxel. Also, make it easier and faster to get into the local net of Tropez system and pull the information we need. Got its own servers aboard that can carry all the load we’d need to put on them.”

“What are we looking at for systems?”

“Atmospheric and space engines, defensive systems, wormhole projectors for a blind jump, and some great food printers.” Stuart grinned.

“You can stop grinning like that. I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

“You will, though. This is the only way to find out who the heck built Sphere World.”

Brad shifted his feet. Stuart had him, but he didn’t want to admit that yet. “Okay, so we need to get to Tropez. That means warpgate to Sol, then another warpgate to Tropez.”

Stuart nodded. “Ten days there and ten days back.”

“Then we have to find out which system they’re actually in, so add two weeks. That’s a month.”

“And with the net, it will be like we were never gone. Jynx spends most of her time on her games, and I can grab dinner with Mary whenever,” Stuart said.

“There isn’t another way?”

“If there was, I would have found it.”

Brad looked around the ship. She was beautiful. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.

“Not a midlife crisis if your friend buys it for you, right?” Stuart quipped.

Brad snorted. The smile he’d been fighting spread. “Okay, but a month and a half, no longer. Kira is due in three months.”

“Hey, I don’t want to miss my grandkiddo either!”

“So, you’re with Legion?”

“Huh, what?” Luke looked up from his screen, his brain fighting to catch up, and seeing himself and Ramirez on the private channel. Joey, Marissa, and his mother were all packed into Ramirez’s shuttle. His father had taken over the watch, so they could accept the diner invitation they’d been extended.

“You said something big was going to happen in Sphere World. You ain’t with a guild or else you’d be living in air halls, so you must be with a clan, so Legion.” Ramirez shrugged in his space suit.

“Been a busy couple of days.” Luke forced a laugh. Gotta watch what I say now. Damn spies.

“How did you get into Legion?”

“Started working with them. Went on a mission and it just kind of just happened, you know?”

“Just happened, like how the Howlers and Gremlins just happened to start playing the same game at the same time and create the biggest clan in Sphere World! You ever talk to Ichika or Foster?” Ramirez’s words sped up as his excitement raced ahead. “Were you involved in the attack on the Crimson Heart Node? That was awesome; never seen anything like it! Those FOBs were just pouring out bots. That was nuts.”

“It was pretty cool.” Luke rode the conversation.

“But then they sneak attacked at the same time at your resource node. Sorry to hear about that, man. You think they planned it?”

“Not sure really.” Luke turned his helmet to hide his grimace.

Ramirez grilled him on the trip to the co-op, through the docking and into dinner.

“I never thought I’d see a clan go anti-guild and survive this long.” Ramirez shook his head, scooping up the stew with a spoon.

“Anti-guild?” Luke asked.

“You know, a clan that fights against the guilds. There used to be some back when guilds were in their infancy. When they were just a bunch of gamers looking to get paid for playing games. Once they turned into businesses, things changed.”

“You think that Legion is anti-guild?”

“Well, aren’t you? You’re fighting them all the time, stole their ships, and it’s not as if you’re trading with them.”

“What does trading with them have to do with anything?”

“You know how many guilds are out there, right?”

Luke waved his spoon. “Hundreds.”

“And you fought two of the largest guilds and won. Hell, you beat the Star Kings Guild twice. Means you’re not only attacking guilds, you’re winning.”

“Oh.” Luke’s spoon dipped as he had a sudden image of Legion versus the guilds. “Which makes us a threat to the smaller guilds.” And if we attack a crafting guild that supplies who knows how many guilds with gear…?

Ramirez nodded. “I thought you knew.”

“Legion isn’t anti-guild, though. They’ve just been the best targets, and they attacked us first.”

Ramirez winced. “Kind of looks like you are, though.”

Luke bit his lip. He frowned and looked up at Ramirez. “So, what do you think we should do to show that we’re not? That we don’t want to fight them; we just want to be left alone.”

Ramriez considered the question, glancing at the decking above as he chewed on his stew mulishly. He shrugged. “What we’re doing, I suppose. Trade with them. Buy and sell, use that to forge a relationship into the future. Maybe add in non-aggression pacts on either side.” He sipped from his bottle, taking the time to think. “Maybe not at first. Otherwise, it would make you look weak, or they’d be thinking that you want to hide something.” He tilted his head around and nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I would do. Guilds need gear all the time.” He sat back against the crates and offered Luke his bottle.

“Thanks,” Luke took a sip. A slight burn, covered by the sweetness of peaches, traveled down his throat and into his stomach. “That’s strong and smooth.”

“Got a moonshine distillery. Seriously though, I’m still stunned. You’re in Legion. Man, that must be awesome.”

“More like a full-time job.” Luke took another small sip and passed the bottle back.

“So, come on, tell me about it. Were you fighting at the Crimson Node or the asteroid? What was it like?” Ramirez grinned.

Luke returned the smile, feeling relaxed in the other man’s presence. That feeling that came with meeting someone and knowing that now, or in the future, they would be friends.

Chapter thirty-five

Chapter: 35

Damn, that’s ugly. Luke studied the Iron Racket Asteroid Base, using a touch of his jets to make sure he didn’t float off the step-off asteroid. The miners that lined the interior would churn up anything they were fed, and they assumed they were fed through belts to factories in series to the hangars that were located on the outside of the asteroid.

Turrets dotted the asteroid, thicker around the mouth of the base.

The three shipyards hung behind the asteroid, at its tapered and closed end. While the defenses on the base were thick, the shipyards had been layered in turrets.

Quantity has a quality of its own.

Minnie, Mitch, and their crafters had updated the likely status of the ships in the yards based on their sensor readings.

“That frigate is more complete than I’d like,” Jynx said.

“Minnie said that it shouldn’t be operational. Reactors are the last things to be turned on and they take some time to kick in,” Luke said absently.

“Well, we’re getting torn up out there,” Fin said.

“Defenders know that we’ve got three ways in, through the mouth, the turrets or the hangars, and we’re coming in from the side and they can see us,” Moose said.

Luke zoomed out, checking the rolling chat. Dana’s corvettes and Ichika’s Hellcats danced against the patrolling Hellcats that were using the asteroid’s turrets as cover. Neither Dana nor Ichika were willing to hit the asteroid with their heavy weapons for fear of killing friendlies.

“Eugh,” Luke gave his professional opinion.

“That good?” Jynx asked.

“Fleet tore apart their fighters at the opening, but now they have to hold back for fear of hitting us. Advanced teams are taking losses, started a push, but we’re losing momentum.” Luke listened to the chaotic leadership channel. “We’ve got a clear landing zone, but we need to find more ways into the base. Getting stopped in the hangars, all dead ground and no cover.”

Luke shifted his map, finding their highlighted dropship. One the of dozens that was burning hard for the landing zones.

“I hate being in the second wave.” Jynx tapped the ground with her foot, bobbing up in the micro-gravity.

“No element of surprise, the enemy is still fresh and well supplied… What’s not to like?” Fin said.

“We only have so many dropships, but yeah, it sucks,” Luke said. They were basing the practice matches off what supplies, ships, and bots the shipyard fleet had. “What are you doing?”

“Push-ups.” Moose poked the ground, bouncing in his upside-down position.

“Dropship in thirty,” Shiro said.

They all checked their maps. Luke passed his hands over his gear, checking everything was in place.

[Bot]

[Primary Weapon: Rifle]

[Secondary Weapon: Pistol]

[Upgrades: __]

[Misc.: Repair tool]

[Carrier: Explosives (2x smoke, 2xfrag, 1xBreaching charge)]

“When are we going to get some more tanks or armor support?” Jynx asked.

“Maybe in a few months,” Fin said.

“A few months?” Moose flipped himself right side round with a push and jets.

“They’re expensive?” Shiro said.

“And resource intensive.” Luke tapped off the ground and adjusted with jets, leading his squad to the settling dropships. Other squads poured in and locked into their harnesses.

“Armored troop transports or tanks eat into our limited material and component supplies. If we build some tanks, we can’t make dropships,” Fin said as Luke mag-clamped to the dropship, clomping into his harness and sitting back into it, feeling it lock and wrap him into place.

“And no dropships means no ride to the dance,” Moose said, locking in as the ramp closed and the light went amber. The asteroid dropped away as the engines burned hard.

“Sounds like resource chess,” Jynx said.

“A bit.”

“You always liked those real-time strategy games,” Luke said.

“Gotta maximize everything we have. Sometimes getting the best gear is not the best move,” Fin said.

“If you’re interested in all that, you might want to talk to the admin people. They love figuring out how to squeeze the most out of every resource we have,” Moose said.

“That could be kind of fun,” Fin said.

“Drop in fifteen. It’s going to be a fast one,” the pilot said over local.

Luke read up on his maps, trying to find a route of attack that could get them around the main resistance and into the heart of the asteroid eater. “Okay, it looks like the best we can do is reinforce our people and push with them as hard as possible before things firm up and we’re locked in place.”

“Charge!” Moose pumped his fist.

“Pretty much.”

“This is going to be a grind,” Jynx muttered.

The lights went red as the harnesses unlocked and the cargo bay started opening.

“Get ready!” the pilot yelled.

Luke grabbed onto the handles, orientating toward the rear ramp. The dropship’s rear swept around, showing distant flashes, weapons fire and missile bloom.

“Get off my ship!” The light turned green.

Luke’s feet rang against the decking with the other bots, rushing out like a metal tide. They turned off their mag clamps and stepped out into a vacuum. Jets in plumes of blue fired, pushing them down to the asteroid below.

He took the slight impact with his legs, so as not to bounce, and checked the markers the other squad leaders had put down.

“Follow the move marker.” He pushed off the ground, jet-skating across the asteroid with the press of new reinforcements.

“Spread out a bit,” Jynx said.

The hangars were cut into the asteroid, so as they were running across the asteroid, they were actually under the attackers in orientation.

“Make sure you don’t build up too much momentum,” Luke said as they closed.

“Remember that time Fin took out four dudes by turning into the human torpedo?” Jynx snorted.

“That was three years ago!”

Broken shuttles drifted out of the hangar. Silent weapons cut up and into the darkness, sparking against the hulks occasionally.

Luke came to a stop at the hangar side. Beyond the broken shuttles were containers ready to be shipped out. A mere ten meters from the furthest shuttle.

“I’ve got movement between the containers opposite the hangar entrance. Our people are pushing up on the left, but they’ve got crossfire from the right.” Luke pulled back from the lip. “Jynx, can you cover us? I’ll smoke and we’ll run for it.”

“Yeah, I think I can.” She was studying angles and cover.

“You need time to setup?”

“No, I’m good.”

Luke pulled a smoke grenade, looked over the lip again, and pushed it out. It banked off a shuttle and sprayed smoke as he pushed out a second, getting through the shuttles across the open ground.

Rounds created icicle shaped smoke art as they passed through the smoke.

“That pissed them off,” Jynx said, tracking the muzzle flashes and rounds to their owners and fired. “That’s got their heads down! Go!”

Luke got over the lip, orientating to a new down and skated between the shuttles for the containers.

Other smoke grenades filled the open ground, squads gathering to push.

“Love a good ol’ suicide charge!” Fin said.

“Me too. All them revving points,” Shiro said, as Jynx laughed.

“I think we need a new medic. This one’s broken,” Luke said.

The rate of fire increased. “Jump for the ceiling!”

Luke pushed off a shuttle, his jets stopping him from hitting the ceiling as he continued into the hangar, kicking off the ceiling’s rough protrusions.

Fin, Shiro, and Moose were still with him.

“Let’s drop down. Jynx, watch where you’re firing.”

“I see you.”

Luke dropped between the containers, the smoke thin, no more than a haze. Not five meters from a defender, Luke put a burst into their back. His jets compensated with his recoil system, and he continued down.

“Frag out!” Fin yelled on local.

Debris was thrown out between containers as Shiro and Fin moved down it.

“I got your six, Luke.” Moose said.

“Thanks. Fin, how are we looking?”

“This is the edge. Tell the other squad leaders to move up.”

“Squad leaders, this is Echo squad leader. We have an opening through their container line. See my marker. Hurry up. Don’t know how long we can hold for.” Luke scanned the container corridor, trying to position himself the best to get a drop on anyone running down.

“Quebec squad is moving up!”

“Jynx, move up to us. Fin, there’s another squad pushing through the smoke to support us.”

“Okay.”

A bot turned the corner ahead of Luke. They got a shot off before Luke put them down.

“Quebec just made it. They’re coming up!” Fin said.

A bot hand appeared at the corner holding a grenade. Luke shot at the arm but missed as a grenade banked off one side of the container corridor, then the other, zig zagging towards him.

“Grenade! Get out of here!” Luke yelled and tried to hit the grenade. He barely got a finger on it, pushing it up and high before a flash of light stole his vision.

[You died]

“My side, in the containers, corner three containers up on the right.”

“Above!” Moose yelled.

“Damn it. Quebec is under attack,” Fin said.

“I’m dead,” Shiro said.

“There are tons of them up above the containers,” Jynx said.

“Got it!” Luke frantically scrolled through the menus.

“They’re… running?” Fin said.

“What, why?” Moose said.

“Yeah, they’re heading back into the base,” Jynx said.

Luke’s stomach tightened as Jynx’s name went from alive white to dead black, skipping revivable red altogether. “Shit, they blew the hangar!”

“What do you mean?” Luke asked.

“Dunno, but they just blew up the entire hangar,” Jynx said.

“Everyone’s dead,” Shiro said.

Luke saw all the greyed out friendly blueberry markers.

“Okay, everyone respawn at the deployment. We’ll get on the next shuttle.” Luke studied the movements.

We’re losing our momentum, stuck in pushes back and forth. We don’t have the numbers to sustain this, and the dropships are too slow to get us to the front.

Luke picked a bot and deployed.

“Dropship is coming in. Hurry up!” Moose yelled, pinging the landing area.

Luke and the others skated across the asteroid to the dropship. Arriving just moments after it landed, they piled in.

“They have tanks. India squad’s marks are accurate,” India Squad leader said. Luke found them on the map and watched the blueberries disappearing.

Luke relayed to the squad.

“Where did they get tanks from?” Moose said.

“Built them?” Shiro said.

“Might have had them in some containers,” Fin said.

“I think it is pretty much GG,” Jynx said.

“Unless we can take out some more of those turrets and get a breakthrough somewhere…” Luke trailed off, feeling his body ease and the realization that they couldn’t win this one.

The dropship jinked, the decking humming with turret fire.

“Love being in the back when we’re under attack!” Luke said.

“What is it?” Shiro asked.

“Hellcats, it looks like. Shit,” Moose grunted as they went through a rough maneuver.

“Shiatsu massage, roller coaster style,” Jynx said.

The dropship shuddered and for a split-second Luke saw the cargo bay coming apart in a flash of white.

[You died]

“Spawn back at deployment?” Shiro asked.

“There are fighters hitting the deployment point!” November team leader called out.

“Grab missiles and spawn quick,” Luke said.

“We don’t have them,” Fin said.

“Then go in with machine guns. There are Hellcats raking us.”

“Well, fuck,” Moose said.

Luke changed out to a machine gun and spawned. A Hellcat shot overhead, rounds tearing through the deployment and dropping a missile into a group that was hiding around an outcropping of rock.

Luke fired, following his tracers, missing the Hellcat before it disappeared.

“Damn, they’re going so fast,” Jynx said.

“Another one!” Moose said and pinged it.

They covered the sky in rounds. Luke’s tracers and the orange bloom of a missile cut up the sky.

“Fuck,” Luke said, dejectedly looking at the missile.

[You died]

“Command, deployment is hot! We need fleet support,” Luke said.

“We don’t have any more bots to pull from,” Foster said.

Luke winced.

“I’m going to call GG. Squad leads?” They’ll slaughter us otherwise.

“I agree,” Foxtrot squad leader said.

“Same here,” Luke said. The others chimed in. Defeat was better, but they could all read the maps.

[You Lose]

Luke blew out a breath as he leaned back in his net suit.

“Well, that was a little rough,” Jynx said.

“First practice round. We’ll get better,” Luke said.

“So will our defenders,” Moose said.

“Well, if we can defeat them, we should steam roll the Iron Racket.” Luke pulled in a breath through his nose. “They’re going to pull us into an after-action review, so think on anything big that we need to change. Anything we should think about on a squad level?”

“I think, squad level, it went well. Couldn’t really control the problems we ran into,” Shiro said.

“We did a good push across the hangar, and we held the ground, until they blew us up,” Fin said.

“Maybe have a missile user? Makes us able to deal with armored threats, like those Hellcats, or those tanks, or we can just use it to smash up containers. I can take it,” Moose said.

“Thanks, dude.”

[Foster has invited you to a chat room]

“All right, join off of me.” Luke tapped the invitation, appearing in the theater. Other squad leaders appeared in the front row, the room expanding as others joined in, getting their own seats.

Luke turned in his, spotting the rest of his squad, nodding to them and faced forward.

Foster, Ichika, and Dana were all on the stage, talking to one another.

Ichika disappeared and the other two faced the room, which fell silent.

“Ichika is going to talk to the defenders, but first, we’re going to talk about the fleet’s actions.” Foster turned to Dana and stepped back.

“The fleet gained their attention, but as we theorized, we ran into two problems. Once there was a friendly force on the base, we couldn’t attack it anymore. Once the enemy realized we wouldn’t shoot on the asteroid, they maneuvered to use that against us. They also used their turrets to hit us effectively. I think that, in future operations, we should clear the asteroid of a lot more turrets before the dropships go in.

“It’s a nickel iron composite, thicker and stronger than our own warship’s armor.” Dana glanced at Foster and the rest of the room. “The fleet can soften them up and offer support on the surface, but that’s it. We don’t know where the command post will be, and it would take us weeks to dig it out if it is in the middle of the base.” She nodded once and stepped backwards.

Foster surveyed the front row. “Squad leaders?”

Quebec squad leader raised his arm. Foster nodded to him.

“Do we know what took out the entire hangar?”

“They found medium missiles stored in the hangar and blew them up.”

That’s a pretty smart move.

People grumbled and talked to their neighbors.

The Quebec squad leader cleared his throat, settling the mutterings. “I think the biggest thing is we need to play aggressive. We can’t let up for even a minute. Even if we die. Also, smoke.” He caught Luke’s eye and nodded. “I forgot to use smoke. We need to smoke up those hangars good and rush. We don’t have the time to get into fights.”

“Good point. The more time they have, the stronger their defense will become. Anyone else?”

Luke put up his hand.

“Luke?”

“Use the walls, the ceiling. It’s micro-gravity; every flat surface is the floor. But really, is there any way to get more dropships or bots? We need the numbers.”

“If we make more dropships, we’ll have fewer bots. We’re trying to balance it out with the engineers. We can’t pull them from Valhalla.” Foster’s raised hands brought down the noise. “We’re on Star Kings’ radar for sure. They’re looking for some way to hurt us. If they track any of our ships carrying reinforcements, they’ll figure out generally where we are, and if they connect it to the Iron Racket guild, the whole thing is blown.”

They didn’t like it, but they understood.

“Anyone else?”

No squad leaders raised a hand.

“Squad members?” Foster looked into the deeper audience and pointed at a hand.

“We have to attack the moon base as well. Do we have a plan for that?” Fin asked.

“Once we have the asteroid, we regroup, repair, and then attack.”

“Are we using the tanks and the transports for the moon?”

“Tanks? Again, if we have to build things, it’ll eat into our budget.”

“Well, you just need repair tools. They’ve already been made.”

“I feel like I’m missing something?” Foster looked to Dana, who shrugged.

“The tanks and gear that we stole from Operation Vulture?”

“I knew that we made some gains, but I didn’t know that we had tanks or transports.” Foster raised an eyebrow at Dana.

“I thought they all went to Valhalla.”

“Fin, could you elaborate more on these supplies?”

“Well, umm, did you take into account the components? With them and a few repair tools, we could make a few hundred more bots. There are about twenty tanks, and thirty transport trucks. I thought that we might be using them for the attack on the moon.” Fin shrugged.

“Fin, could you meet me afterwards? Sorry everyone, it looks like I might have made an oversight. At least we will have some solutions to our bot issue,” Foster said to everyone.

“It was my fault for not checking on the supplies,” Dana said.

“Anything else?”

Someone raised her hand. “Just need a way to get more of us on the base alive without dropships.”

Foster grinned as the attackers laughed.

“Taking the moon and the asteroid base is going to cost us in resources across the board. Remember, repair tools are your friend; use them constantly. The more practice you have, the greater chance you’re going to be in the first waves. We don’t know what the interior of the station will be like, so the interior is going to randomly generate every time. The more practice you have, the better. This is our hail Mary.”

Chapter thirty-six

Chapter: 36

25, March 2242

Dana watched the last of the removal robots fold up and leave, shutting the door behind them. She checked the locks and turned back to her new apartment: a single bedroom, single story apartment with a bathroom and a fridge that could fit inside her old one four times.

“At least I pack light.” She nudged a box tower out of the way to get to her rig taking up the middle of the room. Living here would give her another six months until she ran out of savings, and Star Kings wouldn’t be able to track her.

She opened the balcony, barely three feet out, and covered in a tattered netting. It showed the mega towers that dominated most of Earth’s skyline. Boxes of steel and concrete stuffed with humanity.

“Your agent is calling.”

Dana sighed, hitting the balcony door button. She crossed her arms against the chill, raking her hair back with her fingers. “Put her through.”

“Dana, where have you been? Your system keeps saying that you’re training?”

“Just been taking some time.” Dana leaned against her rig, her couch covered in boxes of net sleeves.

“While you’ve been avoiding work, the other admirals have been hard at work. Jenna was accepted into the Star Kings’ Guild. Looks like they’re grooming her for your position.”

More cleavage and tighter uniforms and reliant on her guild members to make her look good. Sure, she could put on a good show, but not lead.

“Then there’s Kiro. He’s like a fish to water. Been winning battles across Fleet Commander.”

He showed some promise, but the guild he was with was unprofessional and young. If they could develop with him, they’d be good; a few losses and they’d drop him.

Dana grimaced. At least they were making money. All of hers was tied to Legion. Her eyes traced the boxes to the dry stain in the corner of the room. If they fail or lose, then I lose everything.

“Dana, hello? Dana? You there?”

“Sorry, was thinking. You were saying?”

“We need to drum up some interest. The longer you’re away from the spotlight, the less I can get for you. Do some interviews, change the wardrobe. You know, something that shows off your form more. Open up some photo shoot invites. I’ll be fending off offers.”

Why does my appearance matter?

“Jacqueline, I want to lead ships into battle, not parade my body and sell my cleavage. I’m an admiral, not a pin-up.”

“Dana, you were the one that got fired by Star-Kings Guild. You were my highest earner, but your time has gone.” Jacqueline’s tone hardened.

And I beat them twice with my friends, stole a base and two corvettes. Dana barely held back a snort, tuning out Jacqueline’s tirade.

She had little money left. What she had was tied to Legion. But I’ve actually made money. If I could cash out now, I could retire.

The guilds gave a steady paycheck. Legion didn’t. The guilds also had trained people, but all of them wanted someone else’s job and to stand out. Legion fought because it was fun, or to help out one another.

They were building something with Legion. She had personally vetted their captains. Foster and Ichika were driven, but took a back seat to support others in the clan and push them forward.

“Dana, you need to take a contract now or you might disappear altogether.” Jacqueline’s words caught up with her.

When we went up against the Star Kings’ fleet, no one even flinched. “You wouldn’t find that in the guilds.”

“Huh, Dana, what did you say?”

Dana let out a throaty laugh. Wasn’t this what she had been looking for with the guilds? Her pulse quickened. With the right gear-some training… The guilds are the ones who should be scared.

“Dana? Dana!” Jacqueline barked as Dana felt a weight fall from her shoulders.

“Sorry, Jacqueline. I’m not interested in joining a guild right now.”

“You think you’re so much better than everyone else, don’t you?”

“Jacqueline.” Dana’s voice hardened, but Jacqueline talked over her.

“You’re nothing without me! Nothing. I was going to give you another chance to bring down your ego. You’re a gamer, Dana, but you’re playing pretend-admiral. Without me, you’re nothing but a cold-hearted bitch with a god complex. It was only because you were slightly more skilled that others would look at you!”

“I think it is time we terminated our contract.” Dana stood straighter, her features schooling into impassive lines.

“Think carefully about what you’re saying, Dana,” Jacqueline spat.

“I am. I no longer want to work with you. Somewhere along the line, you became a poison.”

“Hah! Me, a poison? I’ll make sure that you never get a paying guild job ever again!”

“Call disconnected,” the system said.

Dana let out a dry laugh and shook her head. “Minnie was right. I was blind to just how bad she’s become.”

She looked around the room and turned to her net rig. Her face split into a grin. “Who needs a guild when I’ve got my Vultures and a Legion to shape?”

Weight returned to normal. Luke shifted in his harness as Dahlia powered away from the Rukian co-op station.

“Accelerating at a steady nine point eight meters per second for the Lagrange point,” Marissa said from her pilot’s seat.

“Confirmed. Good to resume normal operations,” Adeline said from her seat at navigation.

Luke unclipped his harness and pulled up a map of Iron Racket’s base. He ground his teeth, studying it from different angles.

[Dana is online]

He clicked on her name and sent her a chat request. The hell did I do that for? Cold sweat ran down his spine.

[Dana] I’m just jumping into SW. Voice chat?

Luke read it twice and jumped from his chair for the net room, booting up at record speed. He jumped into the net suit and ran through the log in menus. His vision cleared, and he appeared on a replicated warship bridge.

Dana tapped a few things onto her screen and released it. It turned to a cascade of pixels and disappeared as she clasped her hands, facing him, and smiled. “Hey Luke, what’s up?”

He didn’t think he’d ever seen her smile on a broadcast or during an interview. “Uhh, well…” He blushed, thinking about what he must look like. “I was, er… I was offered a place with the Star Kings Guild in the middle of the fighting on the planetoid, and I debated taking it.”

“Okay.” She nodded and waited for him to continue.

“Doesn’t that mean I shouldn’t attend these leadership meetings, that my trust should be tested and verified?”

“You could have taken the job, but you didn’t.”

“But I debated it.”

“And you picked the Legion and your friends over the Star Kings guild. I think that shows where your loyalties lie.”

“Yeah, but like, I should be tested or something, right?”

“Do you want us to test you? Do you need us to test where your loyalties lie?” She raised an eyebrow. “The first is normal. The second isn’t a test for us. It’s your fear speaking. Shouldn’t you know what you believe in and not have someone else telling you what to believe?”

Luke’s shoulders slumped as he frowned.

“You made your decision. You acted honorably. You held the defense together in difficult circumstances and led well. Why would you need an external test? You were already tested. Believe in yourself.”

“But I’m not like Foster, or Ichika, or you. I haven’t played for that long and never at this level. I haven’t played for a guild or led people. How can they trust me?”

Dana let out a soft snort.

“What?”

“Luke, you’ve been leading your friends and your squad this entire time. The other squad leaders all recognize you; you are a leader already.

“Yeah, but—well, like it’s not real, like not a real leader—” He petered off under her gaze, rubbing his head as his cheeks flushed.

“Do you want to still be a squad leader?”

He opened his mouth and snapped it closed.

“You were going to say yes and then you held yourself back.”

I wish she couldn’t see through me so easily. “There have to be others that want to be a squad leader too, and I don’t want to take that from them.”

“Trust me, you’re not taking it from anyone. Foster is always on the look out for competent squad leaders. He wouldn’t have asked you if he didn’t think you were ready. So, why do you want to be a squad leader?”

“I like being part of a team, like helping everyone get toward the end goal. I don’t care where I place as long as the team does well.”

Dana chuckled and sat back. Luke jolted, looking right into her aquamarine eyes, relaxing at the mirth there.

“And that more than any skill is going to do you well. Skill can be taught. Mindset and drive are much harder to change.”

“You make it sound easy. You make it look easy.” She seems more than three years older than me.

Dana grinned. “You’ve got what it would take to be a commander. You’ll mess up—we all do—but as long as you learn...” She shrugged and held her palms up. “Well, you’ll be ahead of most.”

A terminal appeared next to her. Dana glanced at it in annoyance. Her frown slid into her Iron Admiral mask as she tapped out commands and dismissed the terminal.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes, fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”

The edge made Luke pause. “Just seemed that whatever message it was, wasn’t good.”

Dana studied him.

It must’ve been personal. Why did I have to ask about it?

She sighed and let her mask slip. “It was from my agent. I cancelled my contract with her. I’ve been with her since the beginning.”

“Why did you cancel it?”

“I couldn’t trust her anymore. We have something with Legion. She just wants to make money off my name or something. She’s been trying to sell me out to the lowest bidder. Maybe a few weeks ago I would have jumped at it, but Legion… I can see what a group like that, working together, can do.”

“So, you don’t want to work for the guilds?”

“Wouldn’t make much sense. All of my money is wrapped up with Mitch.” She grinned and stretched. “Guilds are full of people who want to get famous. Skill is a basis, but more and more get in because of their looks, or because of the latest controversy. They want to build their own brand, but how can they do that while being part of a team? We won against the Star Kings’ fleet because we trust everyone to do their jobs and pushed further than we could imagine. You held the planetoid; we went all-out on attacking their ships. There was no retreat for us, no guild for us to jump to.”

“Well, some jumped.”

“Yes they, did, but most stayed and we’ll be stronger for it.” She looked off into some thought.

“I can see that, but how are you? Are you okay not working with guilds anymore? We’ve only got three ships and there must be more out there. The Howlers and the Gremlins don’t play on Fleet Commander either.”

Dana’s face bloomed into a smile. He didn’t know what landmine he had walked on, feeling the heat climbing up his neck at being smiled at by such a beautiful woman.

“Isn’t being in a guild your job? I know you own a lot of the mining operation and we’ve won a lot of battles, but we haven’t sold much of our gear.” The words rushed out of his mouth to cover his fluster. Her laugh cut him off, capturing his few remaining brain cells.

“Sorry, sorry. You caught me off-guard.” She saw right through him and didn’t dial down her smile as she reached out and squeezed his hand.

I didn’t realize how small her hands were. He looked into her eyes and smiled. “No problem.” What the hell did I do?

She released his hand and sat back with a sigh, seeming taller, brighter. “That felt good.”

Luke nodded dumbly, feeling the impression of her hand in his.

He looked around the bridge, caught by the pilot seat. “My friend, Ramirez, asked me if we’re anti-guild? Are we?”

Dana formed a thoughtful moue. “Huh, I could see why someone would think that, but no. To my knowledge we aren’t. They’re the biggest targets, and it kind of happened that—” Dana clicked her tongue and winced. “Well, I did get you the information on the Star Kings Node, and then I pulled Minnie to our side, who brought most of her crafters. That must have hurt them, and I’ve been using my experience of working in the guilds to attack them. They’re what I know.”

“Think that might give us an edge. We did take their nodes, two corvettes, and a bunch of their ships,” Luke muttered.

“That we did.” Dana’s wolfish smile dimmed. “Getting a title such as anti-guild could create more problems.”

“Ramirez said that there are a lot of guilds, and if we don’t make it clear that we don’t want to fight them, they could gang up on us. You think that’s possible?”

“That’s a problem I’m thinking about. Guilds are largely predictable, an extension of their sponsors’ pride, while clans are here for the game. Do you or your friend have any suggestions of how to show we aren’t anti-guild?” She peered up at him.

“He said to trade,” Luke said weakly.

Dana nodded, tapping her lip. “Provide us with income and stabilize our guild relations. We would need someone to do the trade. Would you be interested?”

Luke grimaced. “I’m the son of traders, but there’s a reason I want to make my money playing games and not trading. My friend, Ramirez… He’s in a settled system. My mom says he’s the best trader she’s ever dealt with, and he spends most of his time between ice runs on the net.”

“Fair. Foster is dealing with all the admin. Drop him a message.”

Luke cleared his throat and stood. “Well, thank you for your time. I never thought I’d have the Iron Admiral telling me to be a commander.”

She shook her head and smiled, holding out her hand. Luke realized that her head reached the bottom of his chin. Somehow, he always felt small around her.

“I’m just a gamer, and Dana works just fine.”

Luke laughed and shook her hand. “Thank you, Dana. I have to prep for a jump now.”

“I envy you. I wish I could pilot the dark. Earth…” She made a throwing gesture. “Just isn’t the same. You going to make it out to some of the practice servers tonight?”

Luke nodded. “Hoping to.”

“Well, I hope you find a way to crack the Iron Racket from the inside. I’ll try to figure out how not to crack their asteroid base. Ciao!”

Luke raised his hand in goodbye and logged off.

His suit opened, bringing him back to the Dahlia. He changed into his coveralls, pulling out his screen and tapping out a message to Ramirez and another to Foster. His feet carried him into the dining area.

“Seems you’re feeling much better. Did a girl tell you she liked you?”

“Mom!” Luke complained, sending the message. He glanced up. Adeline was eating leftovers in the alcove and grinning.

“You are much happier than before.” She finished tapping on her screen.

Luke closed with the alcove. “I—” He chewed on his words, trying to find the right angle of attack. “It might sound dumb, but I feel I can do so much more in video games. There are fewer limits and people look at my ability over my age.”

“I could see that.”

“So, what are you working on? Trying to get through the to-do list?” He recognized the dreaded to-do list on her screen, even upside down.

“You know how it is; a little bit every day. You should have seen how long it was when we first got the Dahlia. The last owners ran her hard.”

Luke turned the screen around on the table. “I can run the checks on the air sensors and the exchanger if you want?”

“You sure?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t have anything else to do untill we jump.”

“Well, thank you. Guess that leaves me to run shuttle checks. Was worried we couldn’t get them done before we jumped. With the jump I just wanted to—”

“Check them before the system is all overclocked one hundred and fifteen percent.”

“Something like that.” She gave him a motherly smile. “Thank you.” She patted his hand.

“No problem, Mom.” Luke returned her smile, but his mind was back on when Dana squeezed his hand.

Luke wiped his sludge-covered hands on his coveralls before tapping commands into the wall mounted screen. The exchanger’s motors whirred as the freshly laid seaweed sheet was lowered into its filtration tanks.

“In goes dirty, air-filled water, out it comes breathable and drinkable,” Luke muttered, looking at the state of his coveralls.

“Luke, filtration system is showing all greens now,” Joey said in his ear.

“I got enough time to change?” Luke asked.

“If you run.”

“Right!” Luke pounded decking as he raced up ladders, through Dahlia’s guts, engines, water filtration, air tank storage, fuel tanks, machine shops, converted grow-op and up into the living floor.

Five minutes later, he was sliding into his seat on the bridge.

“Prepare to power up,” Marissa said. The timer counted down. Luke checked his harness as the last of the doors across the ship sealed.

“Mark,” Joey said.

The projectors collided, creating an anomaly that ballooned into a sizeable wormhole.

“Wormhole is stable,” Adeline said.

They slid forward and through the event horizon, through the twisted marble of two areas of space reflected into a single point.

“Welcome to Kapteyn System, the fifth most populated Coalition system and the sixth most populated human system,” Adeline said.

“Slow, hot, and bright.” Stephen laughed dryly at the words. “At least we won’t have to put on the lights. The patrol boats know exactly where we are.”

“We’re being hailed by customs.” Adeline raised her bottle in salute, took a drink, and got comfortable in her seat.

“Hello, Coalition customs. How is your day going?” She started in on what could take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on customs.

Luke stared at Stephen, going over what his dad had just said.

“Plotting course for Krondel Industries, refinery one,” Marissa said.

Adeline tapped something on her terminal, and the plot appeared.

“Thanks, Mom.”

Adeline winked, still on the call.

“Storing the projectors and starting diagnostics,” Joey said.

The ship shifted as Marissa brought Dahlia onto target with their plot.

“Well done with your exit point, you two. Only a few degrees off. You can cut your fuel costs if you keep doing that,” Stephen said.

“Brace for acceleration,” Marissa said. Gravity returned slowly as she increased the acceleration.

“Is something wrong, Luke?” Stephen asked. “You look like you’ve been sucking a lemon since we got into the system.”

Luke frowned. “Dad, what did you mean by slow, hot, and bright?”

“Just a saying we had in the Marines. Comes from camouflage in space. We pick up things based on their heat difference to what’s around them, if they have a higher or lower albedo, or if their speed doesn’t make sense.”

“Oh, hell! Yeah, that might just work. Might need a paint job, but yeah.” Luke leaned practically over his armrest. “Did it actually work, though?”

“It’s how stealth ships work. Problem is, keeping people alive and moving in a starship takes a lot of heat, speed, and gives off heat if you’re pointing in the wrong direction.”

“Damn, I need to test this out.” Luke stood abruptly. “Do you need me for anything else?”

“No, we’re all good,” Joey said.

Luke was halfway out of the room before he was done speaking.

“Let me know what you’re using it for later!” Stephen called out.

“I can do better than that, Dad. I’ll show you!” Luke laughed, thoughts pinging through his head as he stripped to his sleeve and jumped into his net suit.

Chapter thirty-seven

Chapter: 37

25, March 2242

Foster and Dana appeared in the briefing room.

“No Ichika?” Luke asked.

“She’s with the scouts. They’re on a last maneuver to the asteroid base. So, you said you have a way for us to get more bots on target without being detected?” Dana asked.

“Yes, but we’re going to need you to lay in one hell of a distraction.” Luke pulled out a star map between them of the asteroid base with a line from the pre-selected asteroid and one that was much closer.

“A closer deployment? The dropships will be detected,” Foster said.

“Yes, they would, but bots are really hard to see. Low albedo. They run cool, and… Well, if we were to dutchman from there to the asteroid eater…” Luke traced the new line. “Jets might get their attention, but if we were to throw ourselves at the base?”

Dana shook her head. “That’s so simple it’s brilliant. You’re right about needing a hell of a distraction. The more people looking in our direction or messing with their sensors, the better. A few hundred bots raining down on them will get their attention after some time.”

“Saves us from having to use the dropships, too.” Foster grinned, rubbing his chin.

Dana’s eyes flickered over the map. “It also means my fleet can be further away, and we can cover more of the asteroid eater. The extra distance means we get time to churn up everything they send at us and at our people on the ground.”

Foster checked the measurements. “You know, we have a lot of turrets from the planetoid, and the distance from the new deployment isn’t that far. We could have them put down and support our people on the ground. Leaves the fleet to harass and be mobile.”

“You’re talking my language now. Motion is life,” Dana said.

“No gravity to pull down the rounds. Just point up from the launch asteroid and fire up onto the asteroid eater surface,” Luke said.

“With the bots and gear that Fin pointed out, it could change the entire offensive. Fleet hits and takes out the patrols, cleanses the turrets, while we launch our people and put in turrets to support them from afar, freeing the fleet from supporting them. Dropships come in to cleared landing zones to drop off waves of bots as fast as possible.” Foster rested his hands on his hips and took it in. “Damn, starting to shape up. Oh, and I talked to your friend, Ramirez. He’s a smart guy; going to bring him into the Legion. Between him and Fin working with Mitch and Minnie, they’re coming up with new ways to use our supplies and all the trading alliances and other things that go way over my head.” Foster smiled and shook his head.

“They’re good people,” Luke said.

“That they are.” A terminal popped up next to Foster and Dana.

Dana saw his questioning stare. “Ichika is about to get a clear view of the asteroid base.” She threw it up next to the map. “She’s running stealth, hooked up to a slowly rotating nearby asteroid. It will swing her in and out of view of the base.”

They got a view of the shifting stars in the distance. Only shadows noted where asteroids lay between Ichika’s video pickup and the distant blots of light.

Dana reached up to her ear. “Ichika, Dana, Foster and Luke are here.”

“Good to know I have an audience. Guess I shouldn’t mess this up.”

“Mitch and Minnie are here as well.” Minnie’s voice came through the room.

The map next to the video updated as asteroids shifted. Others appeared.

“Just coming into view now,” Ichika said.

The map updated in real time before stilling as Ichika rotated out of view. The Hellcat, covered in sensor pickups, caught light seconds, minutes, and hours old from across the universe, reflecting off stars, off asteroids, off the asteroid mining base.

“No major changes.” Minnie drew in a breath through her teeth as the sensors ran over the shipyards.

“Two corvettes that will be finished in three and a half days. They must have built two other corvettes between the ones we stole from the Star Kings and the ones being built now. No self-respecting crafter is going to pause between builds.”

“And we can’t see them, so unless they’re on the other side of the base, they’re on their way to their buyers.”

“What about the frigate?” Ichika asked.

Minnie sighed. “Frigates take seven days to build from components. That one is about five days from completion. We need to attack them within three days, or wait for the ships to leave and then we can move into the rings.”

“They could leave immediately for their buyers, or they could take weeks there,” Dana said.

“So, three days,” Foster worked his jaw.

“And when we go in. We keep a rail cannon pointed at each of them if their reactors even twitch,” Dana said.

“Welcome to Kapteyn system’s Jovian, Mela.” Joey’s laugh was shaky. He always got nervous when the automated systems took over.

Luke glanced at the planet on his screen. Banded gases created vivid, almost sedentary lines hundreds of kilometers wide, wrapping the entire planet. He tapped his personal screen, bringing it back to life.

Sphere World Space Race?

He frowned at the article, finishing off the last few paragraphs.

“Luke, are you going over to the station?” His mother broke his concentration.

“No, I have some practice to get in. Thanks, though.” He flashed her a smile and kept reading, grabbing his screen and getting out of his harness robotically.

He read the article on his way into the dining room and pulled up a chat between his squad mates.

[Luke] You read this?

[Luke] They’re saying the guilds are getting into the space race with their own warships. They’re attacking resource nodes across the system.

[Jynx] Star Kings took our old base and the mining claims nearby. All the guilds are looking for resources.

[Shiro] The guilds have pretty much carved up the planets. There’s little ground fighting going on. Space is the next place they can expand.

[Moose] Hope that some more free players and clans get in on the action. We’re the only ones that are really competing.

[Jynx] Thirty-three other clans were able to get locations on Valhalla and ten on Ares. The guilds might be the biggest groups, but there are way more free players than there are guildies.

[Luke] I didn’t think there were so many.

[Fin] Sphere World is big, a few hundred million players by now.

[Shiro] You going to be on for some more practice tomorrow?

[Luke] Yeah, going to get some sleep. Been a long day. Should be on tomorrow afternoon.

A message from Ramirez pinged Luke’s inbox. He opened it up.

[Ramirez] Dude, I just got accepted by Legion to be an exclusive trader! Thank you so much for putting my name forward. I never thought I could get in to such a big clan.

[Luke] No worries. I just gave them your information. You did the rest. Welcome to Legion!

Luke smiled as he rubbed his eyes and put his screen away.

Chapter thirty-eight

Chapter: 38

26, March 2242

“You got everything?” Brad put his last bag into the trunk of the car.

“Yes, a month’s worth of food and Aunt May’s contact information. You know I’m a legal adult, right?” Jynx cocked her leg, crossing her arms.

“Don’t remind me, makes me feel old. Don’t drink all the booze and keep the damages down to a minimum.”

“We got an asteroid raid, a party would cramp my style.” Jynx cracked a grin.

“Is that what you’ve been worrying about?”

“It’s a big one. You made the game, I’m just trying to beat it.”

“Don’t think you can really beat a true MMORPG.”

“We’ll see,” Jynx said mysteriously.

Brad shook his head and smiled, bringing her into a hug. “I’ll miss your antics.”

“I will not miss you wandering around the house like an elephant at four in the morning.” Jynx’s tone softened as she squeezed him. “Have fun on your business trip with your fancy ship. Make sure you’re back in time for Kira’s baby or she’ll kill you and Uncle Stuart.” She released him.

“I will endeavor to make it back in time, tell the little guy to take his time!” He slid into the auto car.

“Stay safe.”

“Have fun with your asteroids.”

She waved as he activated the autopilot, and he waved back as the car powered out of the driveway and onto the road.

Brad’s car came to a stop in a ground hangar. Stuart waited for him at the elevator into the ship.

“Ready for an adventure?” Stuart asked, as he got out to grab his bags. Stuart grabbed one.

“I don’t think people of our age have adventures anymore.”

“Sure they do. A walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night is an adventure, Will I stub a toe, will I miss the bowl, should I sit, and maybe fall asleep on the throne? Really, it’s a shame more people don’t have adventures at our age.”

Brad’s roller bag found the relief cuts in the hangar pad as the auto-car quietly whirred away.

“She really is a thing of beauty.” Brad sighed, looking at the sweeping curves of the ship as he stepped onto the elevator.

Stuart hit a button The railing rotated into place on either side as it rose into the ship.

“You know that half the reason I agreed to this is so I can pilot this beauty,” Brad said as the hatches opened above them.

“Why did you think I got it? Needed something to sweeten the deal.” Stuart grinned. “Just try and keep the acceleration in the one g range, could you? Delicate stomach and all.”

Brad smirked as the elevator came to a stop, locking into place as hatches sealed them against the outside world and pressure equalized through the hatch to the interior. The heat from the hangar fell away to the smell of sanitized and scented air.

“Nice touch.” Brad muttered.

“What is?”

“Scented air, most ships just smell like oil, grease and overheated electronics. This just smells like flowers, natural ones too instead of spraying enough chemicals to just cover the others.” Brad’s roller bag skipped over the door runners.

“System, begin ship checks, prepare flight plan to Tropez system.”

“Understood, Mister Lee, Welcome aboard.”

“Oh, I like her,” Brad said. “System, please just call me Brad or Lee.”

“Very well, Pilot Lee.”

Brad let out a low chuckle as Stuart raised an eyebrow. “Been a long time since someone called me a pilot. Brings back memories. So where are you stashing me?”

“This way.” Stuart led.

Brad picked up the low hum that ran through the ship, the reactor increasing its power output by a hidden octave. Running lights dimmed along cuts in the wall, as sunlight emulating panels brightened the halls.

“And this is you.” Stuart said with a flourish. The door opened to reveal a bedroom and adjoining bathroom. Brad tossed his travel bag on the bed and stored the others in a closet.

“Nice, you got your space suit?” Brad asked.

“This is the safest ship ever made.”

“Space doesn’t care” Brad said. “You packed one, right?”

“Yes, but, Brad—”

“Stuart, unless we are on a planet, I want you wearing a space suit, one you know how to use. I want you safe and annoyed, rather than dead and unable to see your grandkid.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll get changed.”

“Thank you.” Brad lightened his tone. “I need to get changed too. See you on the bridge?”

“Be there in ten.”

Brad’s doors closed. He pulled out a worn but well-maintained space suit from his travel bag. He touched where rank tabs had once lay.

You have some memories don’t you.

He checked the hood, the gloves, the seals, using his fingers to feel for problems before donning it.

He walked to the bridge, looking at the different stations ringed behind the main pilot’s seat.

Stuart clomped through the halls as he appeared.

“You can turn off your mag boots, hit the heels together. You do know how to use this suit?” Brad asked, checking Stuart’s seals with quick and rough movements.

“Yes, emergency hood, gloves, water and air.” Stuart tapped the locations of the gear and hit his heels together.

“And to activate?” Brad turned him, checking his back.

“Emergency hood should expand when we hit death pressure, pull the drawstring tabs.” Brad patted the hoods drawstrings. “That will pull it over my head, creating a seal with the suit and expand. Then pull on the gloves.” He tapped them on his belt.

Brad turned him around. “Thank you.”

Stuart nodded. Brad gave him a pressed smile and clapped his hands, turning to the pilot seat.

“All right, system, let’s see just what kind of plot you have for us today.”

Projectors hummed, creating a map in the middle of the bridge.

“All systems are ready and report one hundred percent readiness. Fuel tanks are full, with sixty percent more fuel than required to reach Tropez system from Maxxel system and back.”

Brad raised his eyebrows to Stuart. “Smart and sleek. I’m going to leave you in charge of buying all our ships from now on.”

“I can live with that.” Stuart grinned, sitting in a plush bridge chair, working the controls. “The seats have a massage function too. We need some of these in the office.” He squirmed on the chair and laid back fully into it.

Brad rolled his eyes and reviewed the plot.

“Flight plan looks good to me. File flight plan.” Brad walked towards the pilot seat, the hologram disappeared and the seat rotated out to Brad. He sat down and the seat adjusted to his body and turned back into place, bringing him to the control panel.

“Flight plan has been accepted. I am capable of flying it automatically.”

“Thank you, system, but I’ve dreamed of flying a ship like this since I was a kid. Been a while since I’ve flown, but I think I might be able to remember some of it.” Brad altered the screens, adjusting the seat, controls and programming hot buttons. “Okay,” He reviewed the changes, stretching out to check his reach. He laid his hands on the throttle controls and on the pedals.

He increased the throttle and the underside burners lit, raising the ship from the ground. Brad retracted his landing stilts as the hangar doors opened. He moved the ship forward and they slid out of the hangar, the sun shining down on them as they taxied along the runway, the system altering their plot slightly.

A ship rumbled down the runway and arced into the sky, clearing the way for them. Brad lined them up on the runway, checking his harness was locked in.

“Crap,” Stuart said, clipping himself in.

A green light appeared on his terminal, and he punched it. The burners engaged, forcing them back into their seats as Brad Increased the burn on the bow thrusters. He raised the nose as they ate up the runway, climbing high into the sky before they cleared it.

“Damn, she has some kick!” Stuart yelled.

Brad laughed, bringing them onto the plot through the orbitals, reaching their exit velocity and reducing the throttle. “Smooth, really smooth.” He patted the console.

The world outside lost its blue hue as they made for vacuum. “Following the plot through low orbit, pushing for high orbitals and onto the Sol System Gate.”

Dana stood on the Vulture’s bridge, watching the final vectors.

“And, medium yard is relative zero,” Leblanc said from her position at navigation.

Dana checked the information coming from the hellcats strapped to rotating asteroids across the belt, picking up spotty but nearly constant information from the asteroid eater. Her eyes tracked over shuttles moving around their yards—no change in vectors or acceleration. She checked the angles, the yards. Their corvette and shuttle tugs were coming in on an angle to the asteroid eater, directing their engine flare away from their sensors, and up into the dead space above the ecliptic.

Three corvettes, two shipyards, and nearly two hundred small ships.

“Fourteen, correct your angle,” Klinsky told one of the pilots. Vulture was the main tug on the small shipyard, the shuttles acting as thrusters for the megastructure.

The bridge was silent as the small shipyard’s momentum reduced and came to a relative zero with the medium shipyard and asteroid cluster they were tucked inside.

Klinsky released his console.

“Damn fine work everyone. Make sure all the shuttles are completely detached from the hard points before you start powering away, don’t want to fire the yard’s correction thrusters more than necessary.”

Klinsky looked back at Dana, she nodded at him, causing his face to split into a smile as she opened a channel to the pilots. “Well done everyone, that was some of the finest piloting and coordination I have seen. Now let’s start unpacking, make sure to take your time.”

She cut the channel.

“Biggest thing I’ve ever hauled.” Klinsky laughed.

“Now, we just have to get it all unloaded and ready for the attack in just two days,” Ayambe said.

“Mind if I jump into a shuttle and help out?” Klinsky asked.

“Go for it.”

His bot slumped as he jumped away.

“Going to be fun hauling them into the moon’s orbit with the asteroid eater,” Leblanc said from navigation and weapons.

“By then we’ll have four working stations and another three on their way to completion,” Dana said.

Chapter thirty-nine

Chapter: 39

27, March 2242

“Everything okay, Luke?”

Luke looked up from the food he’d eaten absently, focused on the latest information pumping through his screen.

“Yeah, Mom, just a lot to be done. Several rounds of practice each day. We’re getting better, though.”

“You didn’t join us on Krondel Industries, Refinery One.”

“Just a lot going on. With only a half day layover, I didn’t think it was worth it. I’m going down when we reach Iro, if only to wander under real gravity again.” Luke smiled.

“I knew a beach and girls might get you out of the ship. Instead of gaming, sleeping, and occasionally eating.” The corner of her mouth twitched.

“Mom.” Luke blushed, rubbing the back of his head. “I just want to get some sun and beach time. I’ve got something big in the next couple of days. Should be done before we reach Iro.”

She must have seen something in his nod as she sat down, her expression thoughtful. “People always say if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I think that’s crap. Instead of doing it as a job, you can see it as a duty, which turns it into something you hate, like how some chefs hate cooking because they do it all day. I think it’s more accurate to say that if you do something you love, then you’ll try to spend every waking minute on it. I guess it’s balancing doing the thing you love, and not letting it become the thing you hate. Maintain its fun.” She patted his hand. “We’re not machines. We do run on processes and that makes things easier, faster, but joy, love, those are things that are cultivated, and just like plants, too much water and they can die.”

Luke felt his face soften as she patted his hand again and sat back and continued eating her meal.

He sat back, thinking as his screen illuminated. He grabbed it, his heartbeat slowing as he lowered his ass back into the seat slowly, the pinpricks across the back of his hands calming.

“You okay?”

“Sorry, I’m on the quick reaction force for the next four hours. If there’s an attack, I have to jump on and help defend the stations. It’s just my buddy Mitch. He needs a hand moving some containers.”

“Good to know you’re using your piloting skills. Is it accredited?”

“Yeah, I checked. They all go towards my license.” Luke got out from the table and grabbed his dinner box.

“True Tavares, working the angles.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Luke dumped his empty box into the washer and hurried to the net room.

“You know we’re proud of you, Luke. Proud of you all.” Her words caught him in the chest and halted his feet.

“Thank you, Mom.” He glanced back from the doorway with a smile.

“Men. You’re all so bad at showing emotions. It’s like you’re embarrassed by them!”

Luke scratched his head, heat rising in his cheeks, words lost from his tongue.

“Just wanted you to know,” she said softly and waved him off. “Go to work and remember, we’ll be at Iro tomorrow.”

“I might miss it. Could you get me some snacks if I do?”

“You mean more meal replacement bars? Sure, I’ll grab some for you if I see them.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Luke flashed a smile and escaped into the net suit room. His heart was calm as an easy smile creased his face. He stepped into his armor, and it wrapped and locked around him.

Luke jumped onto Sphere World, looking for an unused bot at the controls of a parked shuttle.

“There you are.” He jumped into the bot, his vision filling with the cockpit as he powered up the powerplant and checked the systems.

[Mitch is inviting you to party chat.]

“Hey, Mitch. What do you need me to do?”

“I am adding you to the flight plan. We’re moving the containers off the small shipyard and down onto the Trojan asteroid.” The main asteroid they were using as cover from the Iron Racket Base, which the two shipyards and the Legion fleet were hiding behind had been renamed Trojan.

“Okay. Yup, I’ve got the plot now. Thanks. How’re things with you?”

Luke powered up the shuttle and checked the plot line to the container.

“We moved about forty percent of the containers. Fin pointed out the errors in our management of them. We should have rectified those issues now. The shipyard factories have all been turned over to building bots, as have the factories that are unpacked on Trojan asteroid.”

Luke made sure that he was unlocked from the shipyard and used his thrusters to move away and join the train of shuttles shifting the containers between the yard’s arms. “What about materials? Are we starting to mine?”

“We are placing the miners, but the focus is on the factories and feeding them the materials that we have stockpiled. We will run out of supplies before the fight. Once the fight begins, the miners can pour materials into factory lines to build more bots.”

“Just like the forward operating bases at Crimson Node?”

“Yes, quite.”

Luke let out a low whistle. “Going to be one hell of a forward base.”

“I doubt that we will have the capacity to beat the Iron Racket in production speed unless they are low on materials.”

“With the asteroid eater, they must be rolling in ore.”

“I am not so sure.”

Luke frowned as he snuck between the yard’s arms, cutting his velocity, and reading his distance to target. “That thing eats asteroids, right?”

“Yes, but to build it takes considerable time and resources. Its start-up costs are much higher than asteroid cracking like we were doing.”

“Asteroid cracking?”

“The miners were all along fault lines. They would have cracked the planetoid, eventually. By that time, we would have had level three miners set up in a series that could strip through the planetoid chunks. The asteroid eater is an interesting design, but you need to have asteroids that fit to be fed in.”

“Right.” Luke felt his eyebrows climbing into his hairline at the fact that Mitch had started planning how to mine the planetoid by breaking it apart.

“Based on the information I reviewed with Minnie, the moon base is supplying most of the materials and the asteroid miner hasn’t been tested yet. Looking closer at it, you can see that there are not enough automated miners down the inner maw. Though materials from the moon have been delivered and the containers taken away, which makes Minnie think that they have operation factories at the very least.”

“So, they’re still building it?”

“I believe so, at least partially. Right now, it is the moon base supplying materials and the asteroid base building gear.”

“Is that a good thing?” Luke checked his distance again, biting his tongue. “One sec here, Mitch. Just softly now.” He watched the distance reach zero and the soft tap that ran through his controls.

He engaged the container locks, the indicators turning green. The map showed his plot through the sea of shuttles picking up and moving other containers.

Another shuttle touched down two containers away, locking on. “That’s close.”

“What is?” Mitch asked.

“When you can actually see stuff in space, that either means something is really damn wrong, or they are really damn close. Bit freaky, really.” Luke turned his attention to his screens, unlocking the container from its mated friends.

“Yes, I guess that makes sense. Do populated docks or being in the mainway of the net make you anxious?”

“Coming into dock can be a little hairy. You just have to follow your plot and trust in the computer gods. With the mainway, nah. Guess I’ve been in and out of the net so much that I’m fine being in the middle of a crowd. Just easing out now.” Luke checked his plot again, adjusted his thrusters and applied power. “Like the universe’s biggest game of Jenga without gravity. So, you think because they don’t have all the miners that the asteroid eater isn’t done?”

“I think so because of the small asteroids they are using, and the fact they are not coming in constantly, but periodically, as if they are testing different sections of the structure.”

“And that’s good or bad for us?”

“I do not know. It should mean that they will have completed gear on the asteroid base, more bots and such. It also means that they will have limited materials, and it is being used more as a test bed and a port than a factory ship.”

Luke bobbed his head, easing off the controls, the shuttle and attached load heading away from the shipyard.

He blew up his map to see the activity around Trojan. “That is a lot of ships.”

“While most of the dropships and hellcats went to Valhalla for the Crimson Node attack, the shuttles remained with us. A small boon.”

He never did say how he was doing, just talks about projects. “And how are you taking losing the planetoid?”

“I, well, I am—” Mitch gathered himself. “I like mining. Mining is why I play these games. I do not mind helping on these other projects, but I came here to mine. The Star Kings took that away from me. So, we will take their base. Then I will make sure that no one will stop me from mining again.”

“How do you intend to do that?”

“Create a defensive network that will defeat any ship that comes into range.”

An image file pinged on Luke’s HUD.

“This looks like an asteroid.”

“Yes, an asteroid with stabilizing thrusters, a power plant, sensors, and a rail cannon. Relatively cheap, I can set up a factory run to churn these out and fill the ring around us.”

“That could take some time.”

“Twenty percent of the factory’s cycles would be turned over to making defensive cannons, thus with time, they will increase their number logarithmically. I am looking forward to getting back to mining, though I will not lose my progress due to griefers.”

It was the only time Luke had heard Mitch so frustrated. No, not frustrated—angry—and when he said something, he always carried it through.

Brad flipped through the map and sensor feeds.

“I always forget how big warpgates are,” Stuart said.

“Life of a grounder. You see warpgates every week as a spacer in the faction-controlled systems. A few in the larger settled systems, too.”

“You’ve been on the ground for nearly thirty-years, Brad.”

“You don’t forget being a spacer. It took me some time to get used to wide open spaces and plates that don’t seal.” Brad adjusted their angle of approach slightly.

“You miss it?”

Brad followed the six massive girders covered in armor and defensive weapons, tracking incoming ships, hiding the projectors and power plants that lay underneath, maintaining the constant wormhole. It looked like it had been eaten in the middle by the massive wormhole. On one side was the Maxxel system, the other Sol system.

Ships flocked together, going through the wormhole on one side and coming out the other.

“At times, but I met Xi, raised a family, met you and Mary. I might have put my space suit away, but I got to have those two incredible daughters. I might miss it, but I have zero regrets.”

“Automatic flight systems engaged,” the system said as the warpgate’s controllers took over the ship.

“I don’t think I could get used to this. Being in space, I mean.”

“You get used to it easy enough.” Brad watched the universe go by as they flew in with dozens of other ships passing through the girders.

“Entering wormhole.”

“Thank you, system.”

The ship passed through the wormhole and came out the other side.

The Sol Warpgate was a mirror copy to the Maxxel gate, the system flying them out of the gate’s mouth.

“Automated guidance systems are disengaged.”

“Welcome to Sol system,” Brad said as he checked the plot to their next destination. “Check that out.”

Stuart looked to the left, seeing the first red planet humanity had ever set their eyes on, their second home.

“The glass cities of Mars.”

Stations glimmered above the expanding green and blue that were eating up the red planet. The domed cities shone in the sunlight.

“Next stop, Uranus.” Stuart snorted.

Brad shook his head. “You’re about to be a grandad.”

“Yeah, the fun one.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Brad couldn’t hold his smile back.

“Plot updated for best time travel to Uranus Warpgate three.”

“Thank you, system.” Brad sighed. “Now the system is ganging up on me. System, engage auto-pilot.”

“What, you don’t want to fly all the way there?”

“It’s going to take four days to reach the warpgate. I need to sleep and eat as well.”

“Hey, we need to test out the robo-chef on this thing.”

“All right.” Brad stood up and pulled out his screen.

“What are you looking up now?”

“I heard from a reliable source that the Legion is doing something big tomorrow. I want to see if there are any hints about it and check in on Jynx.”

“How often do you text her if you’re at home?”

“I…” Brad frowned, and Stuart snatched his screen. “She’s a grown lady. Llet her have a night alone.”

Brad grumbled.

“I hear they do a fine mushroom veg and steak. Real steak. It was part of the purchase.”

“Well, come on then. Did you get wine too?” Brad sped him up towards the galley.

Chapter forty

Chapter 40

28, March 2242

Luke held onto the guideline and looked back at the line of bots. This is it. The real thing. He breathed out. Other lines ran in parallel to his, with hundreds of bots floating off their lines, waiting for the order.

[00:00:21]

“Twenty seconds.” Luke pushed off the ground so he was perpendicular with it. Others did the same, keeping the line above them.

[00:00:10]

“Ten seconds.” Even in their bots, everyone tensed. They stopped looking around and focused.

He lined up with the plot running through his HUD and slowly pulled himself to the end of the line, peeking over the asteroid’s lip and into the black. Those lights must be the shipyard.

“Zero!” Fin yelled, pulling him back to reality.

“Go!” Luke pulled himself over the lip of the asteroid, set his feet, and pushed off along the plot into the black.

He couldn’t see the other bots. They blended in with the rest of space. His HUD overlayed their blue silhouettes. He checked his plot again.

“So far, so good.”

[00:23:37]

He hit the pause menu so his bot wouldn’t move with him.

“I’m on my way,” Shiro said through squad chat, the last of the squad on the line.

“All of you on target?” Luke asked.

“Yeah,” Shiro said.

“Looks like?” Fin said.

“We there yet?” Moose quipped.

“I sure hope so. I did my hair and everything,” Jynx said.

“Bunch of wiseasses. All right, I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back.”

“Gonna get a snack,” Jynx said.

“Good idea,” Shiro said.

Luke logged off and cracked his suit open. Setting a timer on his screen, he stretched out of the suit and walked through the living area on his way to the bathroom. “We got coffee on?”

“Yup.” Marissa was studying something on her screen.

“Could you get me a cup?”

“Busy.” She managed to say it in the way that annoyed brothers the world over.

“All right, fine.” Luke checked the time, ducking into the bathroom for a quick stop and then back out to the kitchen. He dropped ice in the cup, adding coffee and creamer, making it possible to drink it in record speed.

[00:10:31]

“Ten minutes.” Luke put everything away and looked over Marissa’s shoulder.

Why does math have so many letters? He hid his shiver and headed back to the net suit. “See you in the morning.”

“Mmhmm.” Marissa wrote out gibberish on her screen.

Luke got back into his suit, going through the login menus and back to Sphere World, then into his bot. Just cruising through the black.

[0007:42]

“Anyone back yet?”

“Shiro is still getting food,” Moose said.

“Okay.” Luke checked his plot. Still on target. Nice.

“Fleet’s about to start the fireworks,” Jynx said.

The three corvettes’ reactors came to full power, hiding in the shadow of an asteroid the hellcats had been spinning on for the last few days. Each corvette was supported by just a wing of hellcats.

“Jung-Su, Diego, Ichika, status?”

“Just coming out of cold storage, but Retribution is ready,” Diego said.

“Gladius is ready,” Jung-Su said. They commanded the other two corvettes.

“All fighters and dropships are in position,” Ichika said.

“Leblanc?” Dana looked over.

“Secondary battery reports ready.”

“Thank you, Ayambe. Add Foster and Luke.”

“Done.”

“Fleet is ready and heading in. No adjustments to our schedule,” she reported.

“Understood. First assault is on target, no issues.” Luke’s reply was crisp and direct.

“Just as we practiced,” Dana said, hoping it would calm his nerves. She waved to Ayambe, who cut the channel but kept listening, ready to filter and route as Dana needed.

“All ships execute.”

“Bringing us onto station.”

“Good connection to secondary battery. They’re launching,” Leblanc said.

“Ichika’s raiders are moving to engage.” Ayambe’s words brought Dana’s eyes to a secondary map.

The hellcats were smaller and harder to see. With the scans of the corvettes and the work of the scouts over the last three days, they had pieced together the most used tracks of the Iron Racket patrols.

Ichika’s fighters blasted out from where they had been hiding, their sensors going fully active.

“We have a good reading of the asteroid and yards. Frigates and corvettes are still under construction,” Leblanc said.

“Coming around,” Klinsky said.

Missiles arced from the fighters, hunting down the patrolling ships. Few had time to react before they were blasted to hot metal.

“Tubes are clear,” Leblanc said.

“Fire when ready. Pass order to the fleet.”

The corvettes belched missiles one after another. Low velocity rail cannon rounds fired on pre-selected targets. Even the CIWs had their own targets.

[05:59:59]

“Well, I think they have a pretty good idea we’re here now,” Leblanc said.

“Ichika reports that they’ve decapitated the patrols. Her ships are coming to wait out the rain,” Ayambe said.

“Understood. She’s free to add her own missiles into the mix and go to rearm afterwards. Rotate them on and off station,” Dana said.

“Rain incoming,” Leblanc said.

They couldn’t use all their turrets in the attack, so they’d been armed and placed to protect the shipyards. Messing with the settings, they’d found out that the missile turrets could do much more than just shoot in a straight line or at a locked-on target. They could be programmed to follow a set route.

Hundreds of missiles arced through the asteroid field towards the asteroid eater. Some turrets started to come online, turning to face the missiles as they reached the vacuum above the asteroid and detonated. The force wiped turrets away and mangled others.

“Good hits on preselected targets. Turrets are being reloaded,” Leblanc said.

Several nukes exploded away from the asteroid. “That should make it a bit harder for them to see,” Dana said.

“Their defenses are coming online,” Leblanc said as missiles were torn apart away from the asteroid.

“Good thing that kinetic weapons are hard to stop. Klinsky, you’re free to move us. Make sure the rest of the fleet knows as well, Miss Ayambe.”

“Understood, Admiral.”

Dana checked the results against projections. They’d spent hours pouring over the asteroid eater’s scans, picking out as many turrets as possible and rewarding them with targeting parameters.

“Fleet,” Dana said. She heard the line go live. “Expect incoming fire, move evasively.”

“Aye,” Diego said.

“Understood,” Jung-Su said.

Dana flicked off the transmit button.

“Enemy is firing missiles.”

“Well, looks like our own defenders were a bit faster on the uptake.”

“Ayambe, inform our Hellcat wings.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dana adjusted her stance, examining the asteroid base. They’re slower than we anticipated and trained with. But they have a lot more turrets than we thought.

“Do they think I can just magically pull a corvette out of vacuum?” Dison yelled as he jumped into a bot in Iron Racket’s asteroid Processing Facility One.

“Jameson!” he yelled at the attendant waiting for him. He walked past him, making the attendant rush to keep up as he stalked into the base.

“Sir,” Jameson said.

“The Star Kings went out and lost the two corvettes we had just sold them, and now they want to buy the next ones. Talk to whoever bought them. Find out if we can move them back. The Star Kings might be demanding, but they have more resources than most of the guilds.”

“What if the other guilds don’t agree?”

“Then tell them they can take it up with the Star Kings guild.” Dison waved him off, reading from his terminal.

“Yes, sir,” Jameson said, working his terminal in mid-air as he followed Dison through the rough-cut hallways. They took the long walk from the command post buried in the heart of the asteroid to the command center that had been one of the first rooms they had built. The heart of Iron Racket’s operations across Sphere World.

“Tell the group working on the asteroid I want them to speed things up. Even if they can’t get it all operating, start to put asteroids through the maw. We don’t have time to waste on testing the system. We’ll learn as we go. There are too many orders.”

“Yes, Mister Dison.” Jameson continued his harried terminal usage. Other bots avoided the duo where they could.

The asteroid shuddered.

“What the hell was that?” Dison frowned. Something measuring in the range of one point seven trillion tonnes of nickel and iron didn’t shudder.

Dison picked up the pace to the command center. Bots were gesturing at one another, yelling on private channels, the whole base open to vacuum.

“Sir!” a sensor operator in the room said in relief.

“What was that shudder?” Dison demanded on local chat. The screens were giving off all kinds of warnings.

“Missiles, sir,” the operator said.

“Where did they detonate? That is going to be a lot of mess to clean up. Whoever stored them improperly is getting it docked from their paycheck.”

“On the exterior.” The operator looked from Dison to Jameson and back.

“What?”

“There were hellcats. They came out of nowhere, took out our patrols. Then three corvettes showed up and started firing on us. Then a wave of missiles came out of nowhere and detonated on our outside. We lost dozens of turrets. Our sensors are all kinds of screwed up!”

Dison had a vein popping out of his forehead. Can he not say a sentence with THEN in it? His eyebrows crashed together.

“We’re under attack?” Jameson asked.

“Who the hell? Which guild?” Dison asked.

“Uhh.”

“We paint their logos on their hulls. Look at their hulls.”

The operator turned to his terminal and started inputting information.

“And start shooting back!” Dison yelled. Bots ran back to their positions and powered up the weapons systems across the asteroid.

The main screen changed to show a fuzzy side of a corvette. Dison tilted his head to the side. “That looks like battle damage, and that almost looks like a covered-up Star Kings logo. What’s that say? For we are many—Legion. Shit. It’s that damn clan that beat the Star Kings and stole their corvettes!”

He hit a nearby table, denting it.

“Those stupid bastards! Jameson! Call the guilds! Tell them that we’re under attack by the Legion clan. Shove it down the Star Kings’ neck and get them out here to stop the damn corvettes we sold them from destroying our shipyards.”

“Sir.”

Dison grabbed his arm and spun him as he started to use his terminal. Dison looked into his bot’s optical sensors. “Remind the guilds that if they want their ships, they’re going to have to help us. If they don’t, we can’t give them any more ships.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dison released him and turned back to the chaos raging on the screens. “We need ships, and we need them now. Use every turret we have to shoot them out of the damn sky!”

“Hey look, explosions. Pretty,” Fin said.

Luke tilted his head, his bot auto-filtering the light from the missile barrage between the asteroid base and the fleet holding position on an angle from the bot’s dutchman advance.

“Get ready, everyone. The fleet’s putting on a light display for us. Remember your objectives. Let’s pull off the biggest heist in gaming history. Make sure you watch your distance,” Luke said.

He pinged the asteroid and checked the distance to target and switched to squad chat.

[125m]

“Make sure you take in your relative velocity. Don’t want to bounce. We’ll be moving about thirty kilometers per hour.”

[93m]

Others fired their jets, turning to orientate their feet to the asteroid and cutting their momentum.

Luke fired his jets, watching his speed come down as he grabbed his rifle, getting his feet between him and the asteroid. He sunk into the shadow of a crater, his stomach a churning acidic mess. His feet touched the ground, and he took the remaining speed out with his legs.

“On pay dirt.” He pushed up too much, clearing the lip of the crater.

He drifted down without jets.

Objectives littered his map and his HUD and cleared down to his squad’s objectives, their markers consolidating on him.

“Okay, first up, missile turret. Let’s clear out the landing zone as fast as possible.”

“Well, holy shit. We made it,” Moose said.

“In the practices, they knew that we were coming in dutchman style. Easier for them to pick us off,” Shiro said.

“Ye of little faith. Luke’s got some crazy ideas, but they’ve all worked out,” Jynx said.

Luke smiled, moon-bouncing towards their target, pushing forward instead of up and falling like people did on planets.

More bots rained down from the stars, raising asteroid dust with their landings.

Looking up, Luke saw the moonbase, and the enormity of the sub-Jovian hanging above them. He took a deep breath and focused on his path.

“Move your asses, engineers! I want these turrets up so fast that the racing car pit crews worry about their job security!” Minnie yelled as she got a turret pinned into the asteroid surface. Another engineer worked opposite.

“Trading!” The engineer jumped out of the bot, going still before it shifted again. A turret gunner took over the bot. “Thanks!” He stepped into the turret and ran through the start-up. The turret unfolded and looked up at the Asteroid eater base.

Minnie glanced up, pinging friendly IFF, and saw the blueberries running across the asteroid and taking out as many turrets as possible, then finding entry through hangars into the base’s stomach.

“Luke, this is Minnie. The turrets are coming online at the firebase. If you need fire support, you’ve got it.” She went around the back of the asteroid. Engineers tossed packed turrets forward in the micro-gravity as dozens of dropships waited nearby.

“Thank you, Minnie. Wwe’re advancing to our primary targets. Landing is going smoothly for most.”

“It seems they haven’t discovered our first wave. Once they figure out we’re here, I’ll send the dropships to reinforce you, Luke,” Foster said. “As soon as that happens, Minnie, I want your turrets to hit everything we haven’t taken out already, and we’ll put the turrets we’ve taken from the Iron Racket to use.”

“Got it,” Luke said.

“Fine here. Mitch has all the automated miners running and pumping out bots and gear,” Minnie said. “Good hunting, and try to leave something for me to put back together, will you?”

“Try my best Minnie.” Luke cut the channel.

“I don’t’ care how long it will take, or what those ships are doing right now. We’re under attack and have a fleet taking out all the patrol ships that were supposed to prevent this! They didn’t last five minutes!” Dison yelled.

“Sir,” the operator that had become the spokesman for the rest of the room said in a voice of rising concern.

“I’ll call you back.” Dison hung up. “What?”

“Turrets on the other side of the base are going offline. Are there supposed to be bots on the surface? We’re picking up shadows on the sensors.”

“Jameson?” Dison turned.

“I don’t remember authorizing any maintenance on the asteroid surface.”

“Check it out.” Dison growled.

The operator bent to his terminal, as did several others. The bot turned back, his head lowered. “There is no scheduled maintenance.”

“Are there any dropships in the area? Any ships at all?”

“No, but the turrets are still going offline.”

“Set them to automatic. Give some of those guild gunners something to do. Shoot the bots,” Dison said.

“I see the hangar,” Luke said, using his jets to bring him back down to the ground. It was one thing seeing a map and another walking the ground.

Rounds impacted a hill in the distance, throwing up asteroid dust.

“The hell was that?”

“Watch out, turrets are coming online!” Fin said.

Rounds hit the ground and smashed through several bots on his right flank, turning them into silent spinning metal.

“Keep your heads down. Turrets firing overhead,” Luke broadcasted, switching to Minnie and Foster’s channel. “Turrets are opening fire on us. Think it’s time to soften them up with our own firepower and start dropping the second wave.”

“Agreed. Focus on the push. I’ll support you from the rear,” Foster said.

“Got it.” He jumped back to squad chat. “Push for that hangar!”

“Some cover sounds good right about now,” Jynx said.

Luke felt the ground shudder. He peeked over the side of the rise he was leaning against, seeing the hammer of God descend. Turrets turned into expanding scrap, hit by anti-armor turrets from the step-off asteroid.

“Move!”

Luke got up and ran. Don’t shoot me in the ass. Don’t shoot me. Don’t shoot me.

A shaft of light from the hangar extended into the vacuum. He dove in through the open doors and glided across the space, trying to orientate himself with the floor. He hit a shuttle, arresting his momentum as he scanned with his rifle. Across from the shuttles were stacked containers, with only slight differences from what they’d had in the simulations.

Fin hit the shuttle beside him. “Thought I was going to get shot in the ass for sure.”

“Jynx, get into a position to cover us. Everyone else push, and keep spread out.”

“Got it.”

They rushed across the open space, past the shuttles, and between the spaces of the stacked containers.

Luke kept his rifle up as he advanced, moving through the containers and into the factory lines beyond. There were belts everywhere. Factories had been added to the belts on the left side. There were none on the right.

“Looks like this area is under construction.” Luke lowered his rifle, not seeing any bots. “I don’t have anything showing we’re in range of the command post. Tag the nearby factories and containers with your repair tools. This one is clear.”

Luke altered the marker on the hangar, using his tool on some of the factories and running it over containers as he grouped up with the rest of the squad at the shuttles.

“Got some bots in the shuttles. I tagged them with a repair tool already. They’re on our side,” Jynx said.

“Nice work. We’re moving on to the next one.”

“Mister Dison, there are bots attacking us from the other side of the asteroid, and they have dropships incoming.”

“How the hell did they reach the base without us knowing? Jameson, tell the guilds to send us people to fight them or we’ll cancel their building contracts.”

“Yes, sir.” Jameson had three terminals going at the same time.

“How many bots do we have in storage?” Dison hissed at the operator.

“Several thousand. The problem is that we don’t have that many weapons for them, and they’re all over the place.”

“We have factories! Build some!”

Luke and the squad advanced into a new hangar, through the containers.

“Well, that’s ominous.” Luke pointed at a container that had been torn open in several directions.

“Whatever was inside wanted to get out,” Fin said.

“Watch out. There are probably bots in the area.” Luke advanced past the containers and into a familiar factory area, this one far more developed than the first. Belts fed factories that fed other factories, extending towards the container area Luke and Fin were pushing out of.

Luke scanned the cavern, moving along the belts. Fin moved in line with him, rifle raised.

“Wait, I think I—” Fin’s tone made Luke look in the same direction and raise his rifle. “Shit. Enemy. You see that factory that’s working?” Fin pinged it.

Luke saw a dozen bots around two factories, grabbing materials from another belt and shoving them in. Some were grabbing rifles and ammunition from the other side, loading their newly made weapons.

“Got it. Yeah, I see them now. They’re grabbing weapons. Shoot!” Luke and Fin fired.

“Moving up to you over the containers!” Jynx yelled.

“Flanking on the right. Shiro, you with me?”

“On you, Moose.”

The enemy bots returned fire, running to find cover behind factories and belts. Moose and Shiro opened fire.

Jynx’s rounds outdid them all, creating a stream of tracers that cut down anyone near the factories creating weapons and not in cover. Luke ducked, keying command chat. “Watch out, Alpha. Was just fighting some bots. They’re coming at you from behind.”

Rounds hit around Luke’s head. “Behind!” He returned fire, killing two, his rifle going empty. He dove to the side. “Reloading. Fin!” Luke tossed out the magazine.

Fin shot past him, killing another bot.

Luke grabbed a new magazine. Hitting a container and tossing himself forward, he mag clamped with a foot, slamming the magazine in and hitting the bolt release.

He didn’t need to aim as another bot charged through the containers. He killed them and got tackled from above with enough force to dislodge his mag clamped boot. He hit the ground and bounced, his weapon pinned between him and his aerial attacker.

They struggled as his attacker freed Luke’s pistol, putting two rounds in his chest.

[you died]

“Fin, he’s got my pistol. Put him down!”

“I got him. Sorry, man. Couldn’t shoot him without shooting you,” Fin said.

“Someone got me. They’re on top of the containers!” Jynx said.

“Fin, use your grenades on mine and Jynx’s bodies. Scrap our guns,” Luke said.

“Damn, one got me,” Moose said.

“Shit, there are tons of them. They’re just running at me, using the factory for cover. They don’t have any guns. They’re all spread out! Shit!” Fin said.

“Moose, I just killed the one that got you. I’ll revive you,” Shiro said.

“We found it! Check Hotel’s marker for the command post.”

“Everyone, move for the command post,” Foster said. “I want to know exactly where it is. And watch out. We have guildies jumping into bots and attacking. Most are in the containers as we thought. Luckily, most of them don’t have weapons.”

Luke looked at the map. We’re too far away. So, do we fight off the bot swarm and revive ourselves, or jump to the next flight of bots coming in? Only fifteen seconds to decide.

“Fin, Shiro, blow yourselves up. Shiro, get a grenade on Moose. Re-deploy on the dropships coming in. We know the area of the command post now.” Luke followed his own advice, jumping into a bot that was loaded on a dropship headed for the base.

Other bots came to life as people jumped in on them.

“Take that, assholes,” Fin said.

“They’re going to take away my medical licence for that.”

“Good thing we’re just using metal bodies,” Luke said.

Jynx jumped into the bot opposite and checked her loadout. “One thing I miss about the practice versions is that I could pick out my weapon. I hate dying and having to use a standard loadout.”

“This whole afterlife thing is a bit different from what I thought,” Moose said from Luke’s left.

“Dying still sucks, though,” said Shiro on his right.

“Don’t even get overtime,” Fin said.

“We don’t have any time to be dead. Got things to do.” Luke laughed as the lights went yellow, the ramp started to lower, and their harnesses unlocked.

Dropships were taking off and landing in cleared landing zones. Flares and chaff shot out as they powered up to confuse missiles.

Luke’s vision was colored green as he shuffled down to the end of the dropship and jumped off the ramp. Bots streamed toward three hangars that were covered in command post markers. The rest of Alpha Squad followed Luke towards the hangar bay.

“Looks like a box of dry ice on a summer day with all that smoke pouring out of there,” Fin said.

“Make sure you’re loaded.” Luke checked his rifle and pistol, seeing the zero-g traces of smoke left in the trail of enemy fire.

“Here we go,” Luke said.

“Geronimo!” Shiro yelled, dropping into the smoke, and using his jets to take him into the bay.

Luke glanced at Fin and followed. “Wooh!” He walked off the edge of the asteroid and over the hangar, using his jets to turn and orientate to the ground. Tracers and weapons fire cut through the smoke.

It semi-cleared into eddies. Luke trailed smoke as he passed over the containers. Losing altitude, he saw beyond. Arches and tunnels had been carved out into the belt and factory area that was now the main battlefield.

Smoke spread out from the Legion’s side, spreading over the assembly rooms.

[Capturing]

[1%]

“We’re in range. We need to get to the command post to overwhelm them,” Luke said through command chat.

He used his jets to land behind Shiro, who was at the entrance to the belts, next to a hallway. He and a group of friendlies exchanged fire down the hall.

“Get a smoke down the hall!” Luke yelled on local.

The rest of his squad landed as someone threw out a smoke. It bounced off the walls of the hall and past the weapon fire.

“Wait for it to spread!”

Two bots rushed through. Luke shot one. Shiro killed the other.

We’ve got the momentum. Luke pulled out a grenade, throwing it, then a second. “Go once the grenades go off!

The smoke shifted once, then twice.

“Push them!”

Their squad and the group with them advanced. They shot down the hall on their jumps and jets, moving how only veteran zero g users could.

“I’m right behind you, on your left side,” Fin said.

“We found the command center! We need breaching charges or missiles!” a squad leader yelled on command chat.

Luke came out of the smoke, looking at the broken bots that had been caught in his grenades. Bots rushed past him as rounds pinged down the hall. Luke jumped and used the ceiling as his new floor, returning fire.

Luke’s squad and the others passed him as he checked the map.

“Everyone, get on the point,” Foster broadcast. “If you die close to the point, wait it out. Let the medics heal you. Medics, focus on heals.”

Luke moved with the rest of his squad down the hallway.

“Once we clear this hall, we’re heading right for the command post,” Luke said on squad chat.

“We’ve got entrances into the manufacturing room.”

A group of enemy bots ran out into the hall and opened fire. One hit Luke, sending him spinning.

“Dammit!” Luke worked his jets to level out, fighting physics as he hit the ceiling and bounced.

“Machine gun!” Fin yelled. “Medic! Someone take out that gun!”

Luke pulled it together and scrambled up the ceiling. The machine gunner must have thought he was dead. His legs were just stubs. He pulled a grenade as the machine gunner’s buddies realized he wasn’t a corpse.

He posted two grenades from each hand, the force of his throw spinning him. It was enough to evade the rounds as he hit the ceiling again and tried to correct, his mass thrown off by his missing limbs.

The rounds stopped sparking around him as he looked at where the machine gunner and his pals had been. The grenades had done their job.

“Move up; they’re dead!” Luke snagged his rifle and used his jets to push forward.

“Come on, push!” Moose yelled, encouraging the others as he ran forward.

Someone peeked around the corner. Luke fired at them, making them duck back as Moose closed in.

“Let me post a grenade” Jynx yelled. She and Moose hit the wall next to the entrance the machine gunner and his buddies had come down, slowing themselves.

“Do it!”

“Luke, let me fix you up,” Shiro said.

Jynx hurled her grenade down the adjacent corridor’s wall, bouncing it down.

The peeker ran out. Moose cut them down as debris flew out from the grenade. Jynx, Moose, and the others moved down the corridor. Others rushed further ahead.

Luke found Shiro fixing up Fin and lowered himself to the ground.

Fin twitched and grabbed his rifle.

“Thanks, Doc!”

Shiro grabbed Luke and examined him. “Be easier if you jump to a new bot.”

He looked at the dead enemy bots and jetted over to one, repairing it.

[Capturing]

[3%]

“We’re starting to cap. Keep it up!” Foster said.

“Luke, it looks like this corridor goes right to the command center,” Moose said.

“Okay, let’s keep going.” Luke switched to command and marked Moose’s position. “Alpha Squad and Echo Squad are flanking the command post. We found a corridor that goes in that direction. Minimal resistance.”

“Understood, Sierra, Oscar. You two move to support.”

[Capturing]

[5%]

“Alright, Luke, jump to the new bot,” Shiro said, moving to another that wasn’t too badly damaged.

“Thanks.” Luke jumped out of his legless version and into the new bot.

Two magazines and a rifle.

Luke moved to his old body, cross loading his gear to his new bot.

“Watch your right!” Fin yelled.

“Damn, they’re coming through the maw. Luke! Tell command they’re using the maw to move in reinforcements,” Moose said.

“Foster, we have enemy coming through the maw to reinforce.” Luke flipped through his map, grabbing the last of his gear and moved after his squad.

“They’re pouring through.” Yankee squad leader’s voice was strained.

We need to cut them off.

Luke turned the map and looked at the symbols on it and flicked to Ayambe.

“Ayambe, can you get a corvette on the maw? We have enemy pouring across. Can you slow or stop them?”

“Hold on,” Ayambe said. The line clicked as Dana joined the chat. “We can tear it up, kinetics only. They have it covered with lots of CIWS and missile turrets,” Dana said.

“Thank you.”

[Losing]

[<4%]

“They’re contesting the point. We need to cap fast!” Foster yelled through command chat.

“Commander, we have enemy moving on the surface,” another squad leader said.

“Turret gunners, protect the landing zones and stop them from pushing the hangar,” Foster said. “If you see the enemy moving on the asteroid, make sure to mark them so the turrets can take them out.”

Ayambe clicked into the ground command chat. “Support is coming in, four minutes out. Make sure that you don’t have anyone in the maw.”

Luke drank from his water tube in his net suit and hurried after his squad.

“The guilds are asking us to go back to our net-based headquarters,” Jameson said from Dison’s elbow.

“Dammit, the command post is just down that corridor. How are they having such a hard time holding it?” Dison spat.

“A corvette is moving positions,” the operator said.

“Where is it going?”

“Unknown, Mister Dison.”

“Well, find out. How long until the allied ships arrive? Damages to the yards?”

“Our ships are still several hours out. The yard has sustained minimal damage.”

“Jameson, did you check the clauses in the defense contract? I want to make sure the guilds don’t use this to take our bases from us.”

“Yes, sir, I looked into it, and we’re covered.”

Dison tapped his foot, watching the reinforcements flooding through the maw and tunnels towards the command post.

“Fine, everyone move to the command center on the net. Have the guild members take over our bots to defend the command post.”

Dison pulled up a terminal, logged out of Sphere World and into a command center, larger and cleaner. He pulled on his working clothes, entering his avatar.

The rest of the people that had been in the asteroid’s command center appeared in the near identical net version.

“What about the moon base?”

“That hasn’t been attacked,” the operator said.

“Good. That third corvette, where did it come from? Who built it?”

“The Star Kings think that it was built by the Legion.”

“A clan this early in the game? If they did, there has to be a shipyard out there somewhere. If the guilds can kill them off, we can go find it. I want to get the logs of that ship. Its more likely that there’s another crafting guild making corvettes.”

Luke watched the hallway while lying down. The flanking corridor headed in the direction of the command post, but it also ran along the maw, making it a highway for the incoming guild fighters to defend.

A group of bots came through. Luke and Jynx killed them, sending their bodies slamming into the wall opposite and adding to the dead bots in the corridor already.

“Go!” Luke said.

The squad behind him got up and ran down the corridor and then ducked out into the factory floor, flanking the defenders there to help the attackers push through.

“Shiro?”

“I’m nearly done with Moose.”

“Dinky little assault rifle,” Jynx complained, lying down on the other side of the hall. She had piled up some bots to create a firing position.”

“Fin, how are things looking up there?” He was up ahead where the squad had rushed to.

“Busy, lots of enemies.”

“One minute until that corvette is in place, just hold on. Once they hammer the maw, we’ll move up to you.”

“Do my best,” Fin said.

“Moose?” Shiro said.

Luke glanced back at the enemy bot Shiro had put back together. It twitched.

“I’m in, thanks. Grenades suck.”

Moose stood, grabbed the remains of his old body, and started to strip it.

“Shiro, stay behind us and keep that repair tool ready. You can revive us if we get shot,” Luke said.

“Sounds good to me. Juicy, juicy contribution points.”

“Moving past!” another squad yelled, going over the top of Alpha Squad and heading through the corridor and down into the factory.

“Command, this is the Retribution. We are on station and ready to open fire down the maw,” Diego said.

“Hit them and I’ll pay for the damages,” Foster said.

“Copy.”

“Move!” Luke ran after the blueberries and down the hall. They cut a left and came to a doorway piled with bots. A gunner was using them as a firing position over the factories and belts. The last of the previous squad waited for a lull in the shooting and jetted through the doorway.

As soon as they were clear, the friendly gunner started firing again.

“Run to the left. Stay low under the belts. Get ready! Go!”

Luke bounced onto his belly and kicked off the doorway using his jets to stay low and under the belts.

He grabbed onto a belt and got his feet under him, peeking over the top. Belt runs and factories had been knocked over, blown up, thrown to the sides, and stacked up. Tracers crisscrossed the air, hitting walls and machinery. Clouds of smoke dotted the area, with grenades throwing out grey and black debris.

Fin was a green marker in a sea of blue lined up against the belts, fighting just several meters from the defenders.

Like trenches.

“Fin, where’s the command post?” Luke ducked down and moved along the belt.

“I think…” There was a pause. “Over there, roughly.” Pings jumped around a part of the room.

Luke looked over the belt again. Straight ahead was a run of belts with factories in between, cut into an alcove in the wall was the command post. Luke laid his own marker on top of Fin’s.

“Squad leaders, Alpha’s command post mark is accurate.” Luke ducked into cover.

“Moose, you got that missile?”

“No boss, it was on my first bot.”

“Damn. Okay.” Luke glanced over the top again. A factory had been pushed over, enemy bots using it as a firing position and cover around the command post. More openings here.

The left side was covered in weapons fire. The main force of defenders and attackers clashing with one another. It was going to cost bots to reach the command post no matter which way they attacked.

“Retribution, you think that you can hit the command post?”

Diego sucked in a breath. “I don’t. That’s a few hundred meters of metal.”

“Damn. Okay, wanted to check.”

Luke looked back over, tracing out a route through the belts. He ducked down and rounds hit where he had popped up.

“There are some belts that we can hide in and use to advance up.” He put down some markers, checking them against Fin’s position. “Fin, we’re going to link up with you and then we’re going to make a run for the command post.” Luke nodded to Moose who took the lead, bouncing through the belt’s cover, and diving over the top where they needed to cross them.

“We’re coming up on your left, guys,” Moose said over local, passing other squads among whatever cover they could find.

Legion squads spread out along the series of stacked belts and factories they’d advanced into.

“Okay, so watch my pings. We’ve got the enemy, here and there, on the right flank near your markers, Luke. They’re hiding behind the factories, just camping. If you go down between the belts, they’ll take you out. If we could get a grenade on them, we could take out the problem in one go,” Fin said.

Luke sighted the two pings on his map.

“Should be doable. Moose, you get the further one.”

“Don’t have any grenades.”

“Gotcha.” Luke pulled out a grenade and passed it to Moose, checking to make sure he had an extra. That could have gone badly.

“Okay, Jynx, Fin, covering fire. Moose, you take the further one. I’ve got the closer one,” Luke said.

“Three, two, one… Mark!” Fin and Jynx stood. Luke and Moose jumped out of the bastion using jets and clambered over the machines. Luke thumbed his grenade and posted it.

“Grenade out!” Moose said.

Luke grabbed his rifle and kept moving. The grenade went off and he rushed forward. He blasted a one-armed bot, his two bot buddies becoming floating scrap. “Clear here!”

“Good here!” Moose said.

“Let’s move! Fin, tell your buddies to help us!”

Luke moved toward his route markers to the command post. He darted between the belts, rifle up as he came around a corner “Help, got like ten of them!” He fired into the group. Thank fuck I’m still on auto.

“Ten meters from you,” Jynx said.

Luke got four, but the others behind them were reacting too.

Come on, come on. Luke pulled in tight to the belts for cover, fearing how many rounds he had left and trying to get behind the bodies filling the belt trench.

He saw the bastard between the bodies, saw his muzzle flash.

[you died]

“They got me, just a few left?”

“I got one,” Jynx said. “Make that two!”

“I’m reviving you, Luke.”

“Thanks, Shiro.”

Luke opened his eyes as Jynx and Moose moved down between the belts, Fin with him and Shiro. He reloaded as other squads ran up through the belts.

“Use your smokes if you have them!” Luke yelled on local.

A few paused, took out theirs, and hurled them forward. Smoke spread out.

“Shiro, revive as many of the dead as you can,” Luke said.

“Jynx, on your left! Damn, there are so many! Get a grenade over that wall.”

“Thanks, Moose. Grenade coming up.”

“Fin, lets go.”

Shiro set to reviving. Luke and Fin ran up through the belts and smoke. We got back the momentum.

“Commander, we’re pushing them hard on the flank with the corvette pinning them down!”

“Good work. Keep pushing. They’re trying to pull people back and it’s holing their main line,” Foster said.

The squads jumped out over the belt trenches and towards the command post through the smoke.

Luke disappeared into smoke between belts, only able to see things less than a meter away. Thankfully, he could still see the green and blue circles that marked his people.

“Luke, give me your repair tool. I have one mag left, but I can get up some of these enemy bots to keep the push going.”

“Here you are, Moose.” Luke passed it to him and kept going.

They were rolling over the belts and factories. Luke saw defenders pop up and put some rounds in them before pushing on.

“Anyone got smokes left?”

“Grenades to the right!”

People were yelling all over local, trying to coordinate the push forward.

[Capturing]

[1%]

“We’re starting to cap again. We’re in the zone!” Luke flowed with the other fighters through the gaps, overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers.

Medics dropped to the bots, working on friendlies first then converting the enemy.

Luke came out of the smoke, running on a belt. He threw himself to the side, shooting two bots and hitting a factory. He bounced, looking around.

The factory was part of the wall around the command post. Grenades went off inside, and the speed of the capture increased as people ran into the command post.

He joined them.

[Capturing]

[15%]

It was climbing faster and faster.

“The guilds are breaking and running for the command post. Hunt them down. Charge!” Foster yelled.

[27%]

Luke and the others piled in, watching the area. The capture speed only increased.

[Victory]

[You have captured Iron Racket’s Asteroid Processing Facility One]

[Gained: 158900336 Platinum/79450Credit(s)]

[Sell to Sphere World or Keep?]

“Defensive squads, hold your positions. Everyone else, redeploy!” Foster yelled.

Luke used his menu, selecting a new bot spawn and jumping in. Everything was dark around him except for one blue glowing button. He pressed it. The screens and controls of the tank came alive around him as his power plant rumbled to life.

“Ground forces confirm that they now hold the asteroid node. Retribution has ceased fire. Minnie’s moving to the asteroid to begin repairs. Ichika and her people are moving to support the shuttle fleet,” Ayambe reported.

Dana brought up the view of the shuttle fleet. It hung in the dark, a hundred shuttles that had been sneaking through the asteroid belt, curving around the other side of the moon base.

“Shift the fleet to provide fire on the moon base’s pre-selected targets. Have the dropships gather up bots and move them to support the push on the base. Have the shuttles assist.” They only had a hundred shuttles in the second fleet because of their limited number of bots. Hopefully, the tanks can assist with their reduced numbers.

“Targets are locked in. Firing,” Leblanc said, the ship shuddered, the rail cannon firing over thousands of kilometers.

“Ichika says she will have the shuttles down in three minutes,” Ayambe said.

“Three minutes for us to soften them up,” Dana said. “I love it when our targets don’t move.”

It took several dozen seconds for the rail cannons rounds to cross space, break the moon’s atmosphere, and strike the moon base. The atmosphere on the moon was thin, but it wasn’t non-existent. The rail rounds carved a red line before impacting the spread-out base, raising plumes of dust.

“Velocity on the rounds was reduced from destroy to break to limit fallout and open up the base’s defenses,” Leblanc read Dana’s mind.

“Good. Minnie is going to have her hands full with rebuilding the asteroid already. Last thing I want is to pound the crap out of it.”

Dana averted her eyes and looked at the Vulture’s damage readouts. Those engineers are earning their pay.

They’d taken some hits, but with distance and their opening salvoes, the fleet’s damage was minimal. Still, the crew of ten engineers were rushing around the ship with components, repairing where they could and replacing where they couldn’t.

I wish I had them when we were fighting the Star Kings fleet. They’re going to be a massive advantage in any space battle.

The Vulture’s cannons came to a stop, dozens of rounds in transit.

“View of the drop zone and base on the main screen,” Dana said, raising her head from her terminal, clearing it with a wave.

Shuttles, unarmed and vulnerable, opened their ramps, their engines throwing up moon dust as they extended their landing feet. Tanks surged out of the shuttle’s large bays, into the moon’s stark and sharp light. They banked on their armored thrusters. Transports bounced out of the shuttle. Really, little more than armored skimmers. Their tops were open with two manned machine guns on cupolas behind the cab.

Rail rounds continued to rain down on the moon base as they increased their acceleration, weaving around craters and rock outcroppings or launching themselves past them.

“Status of our sensor grid?” Dana asked.

“The asteroid base didn’t add much. Their only eyes, other than their turrets, were the patrols. Shuttles are deploying turrets as we speak. Should give us a complete sphere of coverage,” Ayambe said.

Dana examined the map. Changing its orientation, reviewing the guild fleets that had suddenly changed courses or set off on a path for the Sub-Jovian.

“Tell Minnie I want her people to review that frigate. I don’t need it to be perfect, but if it has armor and guns, I would appreciate it. Tell the Gladius to move up and assist in the taking of the moon base. The Vulture will head to the Trojan forward base to assist with moving our shipyards into our new base.”

Luke grinned. The thrusters around the tank howled as he went over the lip of a crater, gaining height before he dropped back down, throwing out a cloud of dust.

“Yee-haw!” Moose yelled.

Luke used his right controls, turning his turret to the left. Moose’s tank nearly bottomed out as he used the landing to drive forward. “Having fun?”

“Hell, yeah, man. Practice is fun and all, but it doesn’t beat this.”

Luke turned to his right. “Everything good over there, Jynx?”

“All good. Just enjoying the ride. Looks like our arty just stopped.”

Luke looked skyward. There were no new red streaks cutting above. He opened his mouth as Foster broadcasted.

“Rail cannon rounds are complete. Mark targets if you need support from arty. Make sure you don’t wander into those areas before the rounds are done. Don’t need friendly fire.”

“Whoa, calm there, Bessie!” Fin said. Luke checked the rear facing screen. Fin slalomed his transport truck around a crater. “That one came out of nowhere!”

“Can I get a refund on the driver? This one seems broken!” Shiro yelled from the transport’s turret.

“Keep your eyes open. Once we come around this hill, we’ll be in the base’s line of sight.” His map showed the line of tanks running along their left flank, they were the right-most unit. The transports stayed well back from the tanks, using them for cover.

He checked his own view.

“Here we go.” Luke flicked the safety off his turret, its carat turning from red to white. He passed the hill they had been using as cover, bringing the moon base into full view. He used his controls to zoom in on targets and back out again.

A round whistled overhead.

“Turret!” Jynx pinged and fired, her tank shuddering.

The round hit the ground, throwing up a screen of dust.

“Did I hit?”

“Not sure. Can’t see it,” Moose said.

“Jynx, cover it. Keep scanning, Moo—”

“Contacts!” Moose yelled as red carats appeared over Luke’s screen, marking turret positions.

“Take them out!” Luke fired as he kept advancing. His tank’s thrusters compensated. Rounds tore up the ground between the tanks and the base.

A round dinged and whizzled away.

“Hah, hit my front armor. I’m all good, though!” Luke let out a shaky laugh. The new round finished loading and his turret rotated and fired as soon as the aimer went white, taking out an enemy turret.

The tank line was mauling the base as they rushed ahead.

Luke reloaded, sighting a new turret poking out above a crater lip. He fired. The round hit the ground and threw up dust. “Too low.” Another round zinged off his armor.

The tank expelled the casing. The tri-barrel rotated, loading the next round. Luke slewed through the smoke of his miss. He heard the clunk of the next round being sealed into the chamber, focused on where the turret had been. He passed through the smoke, altered his aim a few degrees, and pulled the trigger. The tank bucked, but he saw the turret explode.

“Missiles! Holy shit,” Jynx said.

Several dozen missiles arced over the skies from the moon base.

“Use your machine guns. Keep moving!” Luke yelled. The transport gunners opened up. Even those in the back of the trucks were standing and firing into the heavens. The tanks elevated their turrets and fired, explosions blooming above.

Missiles impacted the ground, creating craters and damaging tanks. They could take several impacts to hardened areas, while transports went up in silent blooms. They had no such armor.

The rate of explosions in the sky picked up as rounds churned up the ground ahead of the tanks. Streams of tracers cut out of the dark.

“Gladius on station,” Jung-Su broadcasted. Luke felt the planet jump as the corvette’s railguns fired on the base. Missiles exploded in flashes of light under the Gladius’ CIWS.

“Keep pushing. Tanks, cover the infantry,” Foster ordered, focusing them.

Luke charged through the destruction, ignoring the possibility of a missile catching him. It either happens or it doesn’t.

“What the—” Sounds like rain on a tin roof rang through his tank. He checked where the fire was coming from. “Is that anti-air?”

“Guess they thought if they were attacked it would come from above, not on the ground. I don’t see any more anti-armor,” Jynx said.

“That can still tear up my truck though!” Fin said.

“Light them up.” Luke aimed and fired at the anti-air turrets. “Make sure you’re using us for cover, Fin.”

“Doing so! Shit! Anti-armor on ping aiming at you!” Fin pinged.

“Fuck!” Luke swerved, turning to bring his front armor to face the turret. He upped the thrust, parting the moon dust, as anti-armor rounds whistled behind him. The enemy turret quickly traversed, reacquiring him.

Luke slowed to steady his aim as the turret exploded.

“Got it,” Moose said.

Luke increased his speed, chuckling. “Saved my ass there. Thanks. Less than a hundred meters. Fin, get your people ready.”

“Infantry out in the open. I see launchers,” Jynx said, pinging the area as her axial machine gun raked the area kicking up a dust screen she posted a round into, sending up a larger plume.

Luke fired a round into the broken wall the infantry had emerged from, adding in his own fire and hoping he was getting them.

“Looks like a way in,” Luke said as Jynx put another round into the area, going silent.

“Help!” Fin said.

“On my ping,” Shiro said.

“One sec.” Luke saw the flash of Moose’s turret firing as he turned to the new target. The section of wall went up, and the shooting stopped.

“Thank you.”

“Go for the opening Jynx is covering. Infantry came out of there; you should be able to get in. You got movement there, Jynx?”

“Nope, nothing, though I’m alone on this side. Something could flank me if I’m focusing on the opening.”

“I’ll come around you to the right and cover the side.” Luke slowed and altered his path to come around Jynx’s right side.

“Missiles coming in from on high!” a tank leader yelled.

“They’re shooting from the other side of the base now.” Gladius hosed the missiles as the tanks and transports rushed forward. The transports used their better acceleration to get ahead of the tanks and to the base.

They must have been saving all this to overwhelm Gladius.

Missiles impacted, most hitting the ground, but a few found tanks or transports. The lightly armored trucks went up in a bloom of flame. The tanks took more hits, but they couldn’t take a steady barrage of medium missiles. For some it was just bad luck, others it was sheer quantity.

Breached powerplants burned off internal gasses, chemicals interacting for short but final bursts of flame and destruction before the thin air starved them.

“More enemies coming up, right of the wall. They’re using the berm!” Jynx pinged.

Shoot the wall behind them to splash the berm. Luke aimed and fired high, hitting the wall, hoping the splash would kill the enemy soldiers.

Two popped up with missiles. Jynx’s fire tracked toward them as they fired back, not caring for their lives. The missile streaked toward the transport

“Fuck off, fuck off. Oh no you don’t!” Fin’s voice rose.

Luke’s reticle lined over the shooter, and he pulled the trigger. The crossfire from the two tanks cut down the bots, an un-aimed missile snaking off into the sky.

“Oh, baby!”

Shiro laughed crazily. “Nice driving! Shit!”

Luke saw more movement around the berm near where the old infantry and anti-armor squad had been.

He played his machine gun over the berm and went silent.

“Unloading!” Fin said, his truck stopping near the wall.

The four squads in the back of the truck jumped over the sides and out the rear.

A bot appeared over the berm. Jynx was a half second faster, cutting them down.

“Holding fire,” Jynx said.

Luke turned to look to the right, down the side of the base. A map check showed transports up against the walls, fighting to gain entry. Some had made it in already. Tanks provided as much support as they could.

“Jynx, got some popping through this point, could you put a round through it?” Fin asked.

“Sending.” She bucked as the rounds went through the breach, hitting something and throwing out debris through the breach.

The infantry rushed forward into the base.

“Thanks!”

The infantry disappeared into the breach, a medic peeling off to check on the dead bots down the berm to turn them into allies.

“How is it in there?” Luke scanned his area.

“Making good progress here.”

“Command, this is Alpha Squad. We have a good breach at our location. We’re covering it. No turret fire and our infantry is making progress.”

“Good work, Alpha. Hold your position. Any squads having a hard time advancing or getting to the base, re-route to their position,” Foster said.

Luke flipped back to squad chat. “We’re holding here. Moose, can you help me on this right flank? Left is covered by everyone else. Jynx, keep watching that breach. Infantry should be moving to us soon.” The moving squad markers showed several transports moving behind the tank lines toward him.

“Going to use some of the craters to get hull-down,” Moose said.

“Sounds good.”

[Capturing]

[1%]

“Inside the capture zone,” Fin said.

“Nice work, Fin. I’ll tell higher.”

“Tell them its hot and we could use some help.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got your first group of reinforcements coming up just now.” Luke eyed the transport that parked next to Fin’s. Bots jumped out before it had stopped. “Can you ping where that command post is?”

“Should be, here.” Luke saw Fin’s ping and overlaid it with one of his own markers.

“Cheers.” He flipped to command chat. “Alpha, mark on the command post is accurate.”

“Understood. Everyone, keep pushing. We’ve got them on the ropes.”

“Hey, one of you think you could blow a hole in this wall?” Shiro pinged it.

“How thick is it?” Moose asked.

“Like maybe ten centimeters?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s doable. I can send a round through it,” Moose said.

“Well, if you could get through there, you could get your turret in here and support us.”

“Luke, you want to do it? I got the flank, Jynx has the breach,” Moose said as two more transports arrived.

“Okay, make sure there isn’t anyone on the other side.”

“You’re clear.”

Luke fired, blowing a hole through the wall Shiro had pinged and saw right into the heart of the base. It was filled with factory runs.

“Hello, boys,” Jynx said.

Luke fired another shell through the opening into a group of enemy bots.

“How covered is the breach?” Jynx asked.

“Should be covered,” Fin said.

“Good.” She rotated her turret and fired her machine gun through the new hole.

“Jynx, to your right and up.” Fin coordinated fire. “Nice, think you got him. They’ve been coming through there.”

Jynx’s shell tore through the factory.

Luke fired into a factory, killing the bots around it. “Luke, comb the area to the left of that factory with machine gun fire.”

“Got it.”

Friendly bots rushed forward with the cover.

[Capturing]

[26%]

“Keep the pressure up, we’ve nearly got this.”

“More transports are coming in,” Moose said.

The tide turned as the friendly bots rushed in.

“We’ve got people in the command center!” Fin said.

[Capturing]

[79%]

“Looks like this is going to be G G,” Foster said.

[Victory]

[You have captured Iron Racket’s Moon Mining Facility]

[Gained: 90310900 Platinum/45155 Credit(s)]

[Sell to Sphere World or Keep?]

Luke slumped in his tank, releasing his controls.

“Shit. Damn!” Fin laughed.

Luke laughed with him, feeling the tension between his shoulders from the past week bleeding away. “G G,” Luke said.

“Well done. We got both of them. Shit, I didn’t know if we could. Didn’t even get down the dropships.” Shiro chuckled.

“I think that deserves a beer or three. Shit, I’m rich!” Jynx laughed.

“Well, grab a repair tool. I bet Minnie is already conscripting people to put the asteroid base back together,” Shiro said.

“All right everyone, that was one hell of a game. Well played, everyone. Now the real game starts. Corral all your gear. Engineers will coordinate the repair efforts. Let’s see if we can’t give the enemy fleets a surprise if they decide to go toe to toe with us.”

I hope Ramirez can do something about that.

Chapter forty-one

Chapter: 41

28, March 2242

“Agh!” Dison slammed his hands into the banister. All the Iron Racket guild members in the virtual command center grew silent as the message played over their vision.

[You have lost Iron Racket’s Moon Mining Facility]

The guilds’ ambassadors that had joined the command center were all on their terminals, talking to their higher-ups.

“What the hell were those patrol ships doing?” He hit the banister again and turned on the guild ambassadors. “How long until the fleets can clear them out? Every minute they’re in there is a minute of lost production!”

“It will be a minimum of seven hours,” Jameson said.

“Seven hours? They’ll have it stripped by then!” He glared at the ambassadors, but their avatars only gave tight smiles. At least I can see the snake’s expression here, out of the bots.

He sneered and turned back to the screens, hitting his knuckle against the banister periodically, trying to rattle something that he could use against Legion.

“What is that group doing?” He frowned and pointed to a map. One of their allied fleet’s routes altered, and the feed disappeared.

A guild ambassador cleared his throat from the side.

Dison whipped around to face him.

“Mister Dison, in light of recent changes, the Hexal guild must regrettably withdraw our support for a counterattack. If our goods are not deliverable by the dates stipulated in our contracts, we will expect our payment to be refunded promptly. It is our hope to work with the Iron Racket in the future.” He smiled and logged off before Dison found his words.

Another ambassador stepped forward. Dison noticed a sort of line forming toward him. The heat flowing through his veins turned to a cold weight in his stomach.

Without a base, we have no foothold in Sphere World and just as the guilds are looking to develop out through the system aggressively. It was only through the multiple trade agreements and stipulations that Dison held that he could be assured no guilds would attack him.

Legion had three corvettes, a nearly complete frigate, and two more corvettes being built with possibly four shipyards. Taking back the bases would be hard.

Dison clicked his tongue. Sphere World was too lucrative to let go. He needed a new approach.

Tao addressed the virtual conference room filled with admirals. “We need to make the most of our new alliance. Sooner or later, it will come out. By then, I want us to control the Aquilion sector of Fleet Commander. We must also prepare for a future without our Iron Cross allies. Let’s not lose this opportunity.” He raked them with his eyes.

Seeing it seep in, he stood and logged off.

His helmet opened.

“What is it, Chris?” He read his assistant’s expression.

“Iron Racket lost their bases. We’re not sure how they found it yet. Dison is blaming us. He’s saying that it has something to do with the corvettes.”

“What is the state of Iron Racket?”

“They don’t appear to have any other bases, and the other guilds are pulling their support.”

“Why? The guilds can use this as a reason to attack the base and extract a heavy payment from the Iron Racket. Or even force Iron Racket to become part of their guild.”

“The guilds are all buying from the Legion.” Chris held his screen.

“What!” Tao stepped out of his armor and snatched it.

It was a website run by Legion. On it was a list of goods they were selling, not just to players, but guilds.

Tao passed the screen back and looked out of the wall-large screen. He studied the air cars beyond and dry-chuckled. “They replaced Iron Racket. They’re learning.” He placed his hands on his hips.

“Sphere World has a severe bottleneck on gear. There is massive supply, and while the game supplies some of that demand, it doesn’t fulfill it all, not by a longshot. The Legion just leveraged the facilities they captured from Iron Racket to carve out a position as a crafting guild.” He turned back from the window. “We need to be careful of Legion. Before this, they were just a bunch of fighters that got lucky. Now they’re starting to play the real game. See if they are looking for sponsorship deals. Our sponsors are going to want to know about this.”

Chris looked at the vibrating screen.

“Admiral Meras is asking what you want us to do?”

“Poach. I want to see if we can fold Iron Racket into the Star Kings. If not, poach them for every single engineer we can get. Check and see if the Iron Racket really doesn’t have any bases left.”

Chris raised an eyebrow in question.

“Since Minnie and her people left, we’ve had a weakness in our building department. We can’t take on the Legion’s new base by ourselves right now. We don’t have any warships and they have three corvettes. They’ll finish that frigate and the corvettes in Iron Racket’s yards. But we do have their old base and several other nodes under our control that can construct what we need.” Tao turned back to the screen.

“With time, we will grow and outstrip Legion. They may have their miners and factories and shipyards for now, but they don’t have the credits. We have several nodes, and we have the credits to buy what we want from Sphere World. Their time will come.” He grimaced as he watched official streams and videos of the attack on his news feed.

He read through the reports and the news agencies, spreading the information, scanning through their details with an experienced eye.

“Find out who’s running their press release side of things. Their videos are well edited, and they’ve got contacts across the news feeds.”

“Yes, guild leader.”

Chapter forty-two

Chapter: 42

29, March 2242

“And that’s the last of them. All guild fleets have stopped accelerating in our direction,” Leblanc said.

“Keep our people rotating through their shifts. I want to make these two bases a fortress. Every opening we tested, we’ll close off,” Dana said.

“Yes, Admiral.” Ayambe relayed her message.

Dana’s eyes were drawn to the asteroid base. Shuttles, just flickers of light, moved bots, turrets, and materials. Work was well underway.

“Klinsky?” She turned her head to their pilot.

“I am looking forward to the days when we’re not a tug,” he said.

She smiled, checking their plot as the Vulture carried the small shipyard that had birthed her. Most of her containers had been pulled, the shuttles taking care of that.

Good thing we have Mitch, Minnie, and Fin. A thousand projects were going on congruently across the new base.

“Just coming into Hephaestus’s envelope,” Leblanc said.

“Understood.” Dana checked their route next to the other shipyards. They were all operating, being fed parts directly from the asteroid miner. Broken factories, ships, bots, and belts were stripped of components. What couldn’t be easily salvaged was dumped into working factories, then shipped to the yards. Minnie and her engineers were doing everything to speed up the frigate’s progress.

Dana felt the knot in her shoulders release as she took a deep breath, smiling at the frigate. Defeated an enemy fleet by trading with them. She snorted softly, her lips turning up at the corners.

“Minnie and Mitch are requesting a call,” Ayambe said.

“Put them through.”

“Hey Dana, could you have one of your corvettes pick up an asteroid for us?” Minnie asked.

“Why?”

“The maw needs filling,” Mitch said, deadpan.

Dana’s brain short-circuited for a quick second. “Diego tore up the miners, though?”

“We pulled the broken miners, fixed a bunch of them, and do you remember just how many miners there were on the planetoid?” Minnie asked.

“I created a plan to cover for the flaws in the asteroid eater’s design. We can start with small asteroids and get gradually bigger,” Mitch said. “They were trying to get it all online. We will work from the rear of the maw outwards, so we have the capacity to start.”

“We already have one ship taken up moving the yards,” Dana said.

“The faster we begin, the more materials we can use. I can start to build defenders.”

“What are defenders, Mitch?”

“An asteroid wrapped around a rail cannon,” Minnie said.

“It would form a scattered defense network, hard to nearly impossible to detect, some as big as a shuttle, and it could be scaled up,” Mitch said.

“That sounds like a big factory draw.”

“Well, the one thing we have plenty of is factories,” Minnie said. “Looks like the Iron Racket were getting paid in materials. They’d take them, pass them through the lines, create finished products, and sell them back to the guilds for five times the cost. It worked so well for them that they were using most of the factories in the asteroid eater for it.”

“So, the problem is the materials?” Dana winced, realizing just who she was talking to. Minnie and Mitch were at the top of their fields.

She studied the network of shuttles and turrets sown throughout the planetary ring to watch every approach. We have at least a forty-minute window to know if anyone is attacking us.

“Okay, I’ll leave it in your hands. Use shuttles first to move materials into the maw. Once the yards are moved, we’ll haul your asteroids. We’ll need something better to move them, though.”

“Shuttles will work fine in the future. We don’t need to move them fast. Just need to have a schedule for them to come in. We need materials now to keep things going. We can only eat scrap for so long and we need to replace most of what we’re feeding the factories.” Minnie sighed, cutting off her rant before it gained steam.

Dana paused, looking at the enemy fleets that had diverted. “Could we buy it?”

“Buy it?”

“It worked for the Iron Racket. Could we buy materials from miners and others? I’m not saying we become reliant on it, but Ramirez is already selling to everyone. Can we buy some stuff too?”

“That could work,” Minnie said.

“Do you have a plan for these defenders?”

“Certainly.”

Mitch sent a file to her. She nodded, appreciating the detailed information on their construction, the constraints to use as little material as possible, but to make them as reliable and quick to build as possible.

“Thank you. I’ll review this, and Minnie, the frigate?”

“One day and it’ll be able to fight. Two and it will be complete. Chat later!” Minnie cut the channel.

Dana smiled. There was a lot to be done.

She flicked through the information on the defenders. An image flickered, and she went back. It was a video presentation. As it played, Dana’s eyes widened.

“Dana, did you jump out of the bot? You’re just standing there,” Ayambe asked.

“Uhh, no, umm, a word to the wise, never ever piss off Mitch.”

“Why?”

“He’s patient, dedicated, unforgiving, and he’s smart, scarily so.”

She watched the video restart. The first few defenders moved along paths to cover the weaknesses in their current sensor net. As time went by, they spread out and more were added. At first, it was only several a day, then several dozen per day, then hundreds and then thousands, each flying out into the black. A small unremarkable rock created an interlinked network that looked like the paths between stars on a star map, covering the entirety of the planetary rings and Sub Jovian they orbited.

“Got it!” Luke stuck the repair tool on his belt, de-magnetizing his bot’s feet and pushed off.

“Pulling.” Jynx fired her jets, maneuvering the automated miners’ cut away section.

“Guess we’re like asteroid mining dentists,” Luke said.

“How you figure?” Moose asked, playing his mining tool over the alcove the automated miner had rested in.

“Well, this is an asteroid eater. These automated miners are its teeth. Retribution was pulling the bad ones and putting in new ones.” Luke stretched and looked down the maw. Crews worked with repair tools to cut up broken automated miners and cart them off into the base to be harvested for components. The rest they stuffed into a factory to be broken into materials.

Shuttles dotted the area, dropping off new automated miners.

“I thought that this thing was nearly done when we first saw it,” Luke said.

“Coming in,” Shiro said. Everyone had taken Fin’s container surfing and applied it to moving most objects.

“How we looking in there, Moose?” Luke asked.

“Just got one rough edge—yeah, should be good.”

“Guide me in. I can’t see anything,” Shiro said.

“You’re good. You see the plot?” Luke asked.

“Yeah.”

“Just read out the numbers. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” And now I’m using Dad’s sayings.

“But it’s all numbers.”

“Watch your relative distance, and cut down on your thrust. You’ll get a feel for the numbers ticking down.”

“You sure you don’t want to do this?” Shiro asked.

“You want to learn how to pilot a shuttle? This is the same thing, just smaller. Now remember, you can apply more thrust down cause you’re on top of it, but not as much up to slow it. Keep reducing your speed, like you’re in a car slowing down to a stop.”

“They’re all automatic, you know?”

“Yeah, but you’ve done the driving course, right?”

“Years ago,” Shiro grumbled.

“You’re doing good.” Luke smiled.

Shiro slowed down more.

“Dammit.” Shiro hit the corner of the alcove.

“Hold, hold, hold!” Luke said.

Shiro only put out a burst of thrust, but it took it sideways.

“Don’t correct too quickly. Moose, you grab your side there. I’ve got this side. We can just slot it in. Nicely done, Shiro. This alcove is tight, made to fit. Like millimetres of clearance. Nice and slow is the key.”

“Thanks.”

“Way better than what I did with my first time moving something in zero-g. I think there’s still a crater in that game.” Moose snorted.

Shiro let out a chuckle, bleeding his disappointment.

“Okay, that should be good. Little bit of thrust,” Luke said.

The miner slid into place. “Perfect!” Luke used his repair tool, welding the metal of the asteroid to the automated miner.

“Good on my side,” Moose said.

“De-magnetize, Shiro, and you’re clear.” Luke worked around the miner, welding it all the way around.

“It’s confusing having to rely on just the plot and the computer systems, not eyesight,” Shiro said as he jetted over to the wall.

“All mining personnel, finish up your last replacements and then head down to the factory runs to help out there. Big Bertha is coming in,” Mitch broadcasted.

“And that is our cue to get out of here,” Luke said.

Shuttles started to move, evacuating the maw through hatches inside the maw or out of its mouth.

“Jynx, meet us down in the factory lines. We’ll help them clean up there.”

“See you in there.”

Luke led the others through a hatch. The automated miners were hooked up to belts in the walls which linked up to one another through nearly three hundred meters of asteroid, then came out into the factory runs.

“Going to take some time before we can get all this back to the way it was,” Moose said.

“You can say that again,” Shiro said. They moved on jets. Smoke was still being chased out of the asteroid. Craters pock-marked the ground. Crews were working across the warehouse-like room.

“Well, let’s get to work. Faster we can get the Eater running, the faster we can build everything else.” Luke grabbed his repair tool and dropped into an area closest to the inner wall. “Work from the wall out.”

“Aye-aye, bossman.” Moose saluted with his repair tool.

Luke set his repair tool’s torch to as long as it would go, cutting out the belts. A quick change to disassemble and the feet came off the ground. He put it on a working belt that fed it into a factory, getting lost in his work. Jynx joined them.

He looked up as people started rushing towards the wall and through the hatches. “Where are you going?” he asked someone passing by.

“Going to watch Big Bertha enter the maw.”

Moose, Shiro, and Jynx all looked back at him. He started jetting towards the hatches. “Shall we go?”

“Hell, yeah! I want to see how this all works,” Moose said.

The access hatch was open, with people floating all around it. Luke hung in the air, looking down the maw.

“Damn, she’s big,” Shiro said.

“One lovely nugget of materials. Should be enough to build four corvettes,” Jynx said.

Moose let out a low whistle.

“Masses enough for it,” Luke said. The shuttles were just small flashlights on the side of the asteroid.

It entered the maw, blocking the void and stars beyond.

The automated miners in the deepest part of the throat activated and extended fully. Their heads were just meters from one another, a forest of spinning metal.

The shuttles released the asteroid and flew to the maw entrance.

Gladius remained behind the asteroid, a fifth of the size of her load. It released the structural support it was tethered to the asteroid with.

Only four shuttles remained. Their engines fired to alter the asteroid’s heading as it moved at a snail’s pace.

Luke snorted. “Kind of brings things into scale when a corvette can turn around easily in the forward area of the maw.”

“And we’re only using the back fifth to process Bertha.” Moose shook his head.

“Mitch was saying that we’re going to have asteroids like ten times Bertha’s mass coming through here,” Jynx said.

“Might even be able to get some level two bots.”

“Look, there it goes!” Shiro said.

Bertha met the miners. Dust was thrown up as the miners ate into the sides of the asteroid. Their collection systems sucked it all up as the asteroid reached the miners deeper in the maw.

“Its like sharpening a pencil constantly,” Luke said.

“You still use pencils?” Shiro asked.

“Work just fine in every type of condition,” Moose said.

They watched as the front end of Bertha was covered in dust as the shuttles used their engines to push forward.

“Damn, they’re just carving it apart,” Moose said.

“Each miner mines twenty-five cubic meters per minute. That’s a kilometer and a half in an hour,” Jynx said.

“So, two hours and Big Bertha’s going to be a fond memory. Damn,” Moose said.

“So why do we need to make the maw bigger?” Shiro asked.

“One Big Bertha should give us enough materials for half a corvette. If we want to build a carrier, we’ll probably need thirty Big Berthas, maybe more with all the rare materials,” Luke said.

“We’ve got five small shipyards and three medium shipyards to feed,” Jynx said. “And two of the smalls and two of the mediums still need to be built.”

“Then bots, hellcats, dropships, tanks, transports, and we’ve got to sell some of that to other people.” Luke spread out. “Shall we get back to ripping up the factory lines?”

“How much you bet Mitch is going to make another maw?” Moose asked.

Luke and Jynx snorted.

“No way am I taking that bet. This maw is only outfitted with level one asteroid miners. He’s still got a bunch of level twos and threes. We’ll fill out the Eater from the throat to the maw opening and that’s when it’ll start to get some real production going.”

Luke spotted shuttles entering the maw, engineering teams picking up their work now Bertha had passed. Luke used his jets to flip around and head back to the factories. “Mitch was planning to crack the old planetoid to speed things up. I wonder what he’s got in store for us.”

“I thought you said Ramirez would be coming around today?” Jynx asked.

Luke checked the time.

“Something must have kept him. He was working with Fin on trades and stuff.”

Ramirez let out a noisy breath as he appeared in the virtual lobby with Fin.

Fin laughed and patted him on the back. “Well done. Foster is going to be happy with that, and Minnie, getting partial payment in materials and credits.”

“I feel like we barely got out of there with our clothes on. Damn, that was some of the hardest negotiating I’ve had to do.”

Fin laughed. “You pulled it off beautifully.”

“I can’t believe the numbers we’re dealing with—hundreds of bots and hundreds of thousands of credits, in a game.” Ramirez shook his head.

“Best get used to it. Now that the case with Sphere World’s board has been sorted out, a lot of the people that were holding off getting into the game have joined up.”

“Foster told me that he was going to head up talks with clans that are joining or in the game,” Ramirez said. “You think there’s space for them?”

“Sure, they might have to carve it out of someone’s hide, but there was a group of players that took out a smaller guild’s location on Valhalla and there are groups intending to hit the Ares nodes. The guilds are organized, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t have the numbers the free players do.”

Ramirez grunted in agreement and checked the time.

“You need to check your autopilot?”

“Nah, I’ve got the alert hooked up to my suit. I’m doing the ice run to the co-op. You wouldn’t believe the water people go through in a week. Though I do have to run, meeting up with Luke.”

“You guys have fun; I have to go talk to Minnie.”

“Have fun!” Ramirez waved and logged into Sphere World. He appeared in the Orion Belt Enterprises square, standing in front of the Sphere World star map.

[Connection Lost]

The red message blinked across his screen.

“The hell?” Ramirez went through menus. “No signal? How the hell?” He opened his suit and made to step out.

“Shit. Zero g.” He hooked a hand on his suit and poked over to his coveralls. “Air seems good. Must be electrical.” He pulled on his coveralls, double checking his gear. I hope it’s just electrical, not a micro-meteor, or a fuel leak.

He shook his head, clearing the nightmare scenarios, and tapped his heels, clomping through his ship. He reached the cockpit. The air read outs all showed green. He strapped into his seat. “Close the doors in case we have a leak. Run systems diagnostics.” He worked as he talked. The doors across the ship locked.

“Running lights are off. Engines are off. Thrusters fired twice to gain new trajectory. Recorder on,” the ship’s systems said. “You have one un-checked message from the co-op. Hypernet connection is down. Sensors have been placed into passive mode.”

He frowned at the abnormal log information. “Bring up the message.”

“Victor, do not turn on your systems. A federation cruiser just appeared. I sent you on a different course, so you shouldn’t show up on their scans unless they’re looking for you. Don’t do anything stupid. Love you. Marianne out.”

The fear in her voice chilled him to the bone as he checked his scans across the system. Without the hypernet connection, his information was restricted to the speed of light. The message had arrived seconds before the net was cut off. He wiped sweat from his brow.

His hands twitched for the controls. He was four AU from the station.

“Even if I went emergency acceleration, it would only give me away and I would only shave off maybe seconds from the transmit time,” Ramirez said, trying to break the oppressive silence.

“What the hell would a—” A Federation cruiser appeared on his sensor screen at the Lagrange point next to the co-op, four minutes ago.

The cruiser altered its angle slightly and increased its acceleration, heading for the station.

The minutes ticked down as Ramirez’s tests came back.

“Ship functions all one hundred percent. Net’s still down.”

The cruiser turned and burned, using its main engines to slow itself. It opened bays, releasing three combat shuttles bound for the station.

The cruiser turned, orientating towards the station.

“Shit!” Ramirez was inches away from the screen as the cruiser fired a single warning rail cannon round. He tracked it across his screen, his sensors working hard to try and pick it out. His stomach twisted into a ball.

The round passed over the co-op and exploded beyond.

Ramirez let out a shudder of a breath, sagging into his chair.

“Holy fuck.” He ran his hand through his hair, damp with sweat, his suit cold from the sweat down his back.

The shuttles waited a few minutes before docking with the station.

“The hell do they want?” Ramirez chewed on the side of his knuckle. The shuttles took off and moved lower down the station.

“Fucking bastards.” Ramirez gritted his teeth as they entered the materials storage area and lowered down to the containers. We worked our asses off to mine and process that. Fucking Feds.

His chest was tight with raw heat as the shuttles lifted off with a container each. They took the rare metals containers. The shuttles reached the cruiser and loaded their containers and themselves into it.

Explosions tore through the station, ripping holes through the canteen, the most secure location in the middle of the station. The station broke apart. Secondary explosions tore through the engineering areas, the environmental sections flash-fireballs.

He shuddered at the expanding debris, each bloom of destruction a physical blow.

No, it’s special effects. Marianne’s playing a trick on me. I’ll get back and we’ll laugh and, no, it’s not real.

He wanted to make himself laugh, to snort and shake his head.

The cruiser turned and accelerated away.

“You fucking pieces of shit!” He hammered his armrests and punched his screen, hitting it again and again. A crack formed, distorting the image as blood ran down his knuckle. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!” A bone-deep pain spread through his hand. He yelled into the screen. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

He got into his seat, looking at the ice that he was attached to, where he was, the Lagrange point, the cruiser.

He hissed at the pain from gripping his controls. Something is definitely broken. He squeezed harder, reveling in the pain. He let out a yell, hitting the controls.

They’re too far away. It’ll take hours to get up to speed, and they’d see me coming. Not going to let a chunk of ice hit them. If I’m dead, no one else will know about this.

He felt distant from his own body, like he was standing on a cliff. His stomach dropped away as if he had taken that next step. His back was tense, calm, focused.

Ramirez released the controls and set them down on his armrests. He slumped into his seat, thickness growing in his throat. “I need to tell others about this, then… Then I can fight the Federation.” But what if this is the only shot I get?

He pulled himself back with a force of will and looked at the map. “I need to go to the cache in the asteroid belt, activate the backup net system, and use the emergency wormhole projectors to leave the system.”

A new icon blinked on the screen. He rose, looking at the secondary screen above the cracked and blood stained one. “The hell is that?”

Another wormhole formed, and a ship appeared. “Looks like a manta ray—Shit!” Explosions flashed ahead of the cruiser. Their CIWS was firing at incoming missiles.

A wormhole appeared behind the manta ray, a stray missile disappeared through it.

The cruiser rocked with impacts as the manta ray accelerated toward it.

“How fast are they going?”

The readings said they were moving at nine gravities. Ramirez’s stomach flipped. No human ship could reach more than five gravities at a maximum.

It dumped missiles, guns firing as it charged the cruiser. The cruiser fired a full spread of missiles, its rail cannons adding to the fight.

The manta ray was barely bigger than a shuttle and didn’t have the fire power to keep up with the cruiser.

A wave of explosions covered the manta ship.

“Shit, shit.” Ramirez’s eyes twitched over the screen for signs of the small ship. The nuclear blooms disappeared, tearing the ship apart.

Shuttles left the cruiser, scouring the area, collecting the ship’s remains and hauling them back.

It took force of will to just sit there and watch. “Who the hell was on that ship?” He ran it through the database. “No matches. A new coalition fighter? No, it doesn’t look like any of their ships, and it came out of warp firing.”

The cruiser collected its shuttles, formed a wormhole, and escaped.

Ramirez looked at the broken screen, still staring at where the station had been.

Marianne, Riccardo, Xina. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath and letting it out through his nose. The faces of his sisters, his brother-in-laws, cousins, little nieces and nephews. His shoulders slumped as he pinched from his temples along his brow to his nose. The families that made up the co-op, blood or not they were family.

It was like a blanket he hadn’t known he was wearing had been ripped away from him. Tears welled in his eyes, and he cried, the water blurring his vision in zero-g as he grabbed a rag and pressed it to his eyes to soak up the moisture.

He curled in his seat, bringing his head to his knees. He didn’t know how much time had passed when he looked up, patting his eyes dry. He blew his nose, looking again at where the station had been. A lump from his stomach tried to rise through his neck.

He coughed and cleared his throat, looking away. He took a breath and gritted his teeth, sitting ram rod straight, his eyes hooded, brow pinched and expressionless.

“Okay, I need to get this out to someone.” He flicked through settings.

[Net Connected]

Everyone I trusted was on there. I need someone to get this out to others.

Ramirez opened his friend list and went through his contacts. “Okay, that should work. Though if they trace back where it came from, they could return. I need to be gone. How long would it take to get to the cache, and then get out of here?” He tapped out a plot. “Three days about, get to Kapteyn and then disappear.”

He took a breath through his nose and checked his files.

“Luke can be my backup. He’ll vouch for me and the co-op. The Adeline will have accurate scans of the co-op. Which reporters have their email listed?”

He crafted a quick message, scheduled it, and piled in as many reporters addresses as he could, separating them into different groups to blind send them. If it was reported to the Feds, they wouldn’t know who else he had sent it to. He attached all the recordings and information from the station, accessing the backup logs on the net from the station that had stopped before the cruiser appeared.

Feds must’ve wiped them out.

He hit the send button, the timer counting down with four days to go.

Ramirez checked his plots.

“Time to get gone.” He fired up the power plant and released his ship’s grip on the block of ice. He pushed away and turned onto a new heading and fired his main engine. “Shouldn’t see my engine flare even if they come back.”

He double-checked his angles, setting the ship on auto pilot. His broken finger was still throbbing.

He copied the information he’d scheduled for the reporters and made another message. He swallowed, pulling the words together in his mind. He coughed and faced the pickup on his broken main screen, hitting record before he could have second thoughts.

“Luke, Ramirez. I, uh, something happened. I’m sending you a bunch of files and information. Please wait three days before looking at it. I know this is weird, but please, Luke, trust me. I won’t be around for some time. If you need to get in contact with me, send me a message through Sphere World and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Luke…” He leaned forward. “It’s all true. Three days and then watch the files. You’re the only one I can trust.”

Chapter forty-three

Chapter: 43

30, March 2242

Luke woke up, Ramirez’s message still fresh in his mind. Three days. He frowned. Just what the hell happens in three days?

He got out of bed, toweled down, and walked into the living area, checking through his screen’s calendar to try and figure it out. He was tempted to open the files.

“Luke, you want to come with us to the beach?” Joey startled him out of his study.

“Huh, beach?”

“Yeah, we’re thinking of taking the shuttle from the station down to the beach.”

A beach? We’re orbiting Iro already? Work on Iron Racket’s old base, newly named Sanctorium had sucked up his time. “Yeah, sure. When were you thinking?”

“Leave in ten. Pack a bag. Water, sunscreen, food!” Marissa said, hooking up her floating bag.

Luke shoved down some food and swung through the ship to his room and gear.

“Looks like you made it in time,” Joey laughed.

“You three have fun now!” Stephen said.

They chorused their goodbyes and passed through the airlock into the station. Marissa was a force of nature, guiding them across the station. It was a sprawling mess.

“I wish the Coalition could figure out how to build on station and keep it that way. Feels like they keep welding them together and expecting them to work,” Joey muttered.

Luke grinned at his brother’s gripes as Marissa led them up to a booth. “Seat to Becknau Beach?” The screen changed.

“Forty-seven credits each.” She tapped her screen to the booth’s paying the fee.

Joey and Luke did the same and the tickets appeared on their screens. They followed the Marissa whirlwind through the shuttle port. People arrived from other stations, from the gravity well.

“Here we are!” Marissa guided them into a line, tapping their screens through a terminal. They passed through an airlock and into the standard atmospheric shuttle. Seats were bolted to the decking, ten across. They found their seats and settled in.

“Weird when they have wings,” Joey said from his window seat.

“Welcome aboard,” a voice called out. “Today we are dropping down into Becknau Beach, a sunny thirty-five degrees Celsius with forty percent humidity. We’re just undocking from the station now, please pay attention to the safety videos and demonstrations.”

Luke yawned and stretched, the demonstrations a way of life instead of an event. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, watching the demonstration of how to pull on an emergency hood and the exits in case of crash landing.

“So, what do you want to do down on the beach?” Luke asked.

“Sun, sleep, naps, tan,” Marissa said. “And I hear they have a great sunset, and there’s a beautiful city next to the water. I want to get some pictures.”

“It is the Coalition. There are cities everywhere to fit people in,” Joey said.

“A nice city, a corporate city,” Marissa said.

“That explains it. You know I was talking to my friend Jynx. She lives on Maxxel, nearly all corpo world. Her dad is from the Coalition, though. They’ve got way more systems, and more people, but the taxes are a killer.”

“Everyone gets access to a bunch of primary services, health, education, and even pay. Problem is that everyone is trying to please everyone and there are people abusing the system which just screws it up for everyone else. Damn elections are a popularity contest. I heard there was a city that had more government workers than actual citizens. How can that work?” Joey shook his head.

“Better than the Federation. The Coalition lets people emigrate and they have the best education in the universe. They’re the biggest faction, too.” Marissa said.

“Yes, but they’re chasing their tail so often and they don’t have a unifying direction. They just kind of exist. I’m not saying they aren’t a good group, or don’t mean well. Just saying there’s a reason that even with the most planets and people, they still find that they have the same power as the Federation and the Corporations,” Joey shrugged.

Marissa huffed.

“Joey, why do you want to go down to the beach?” Luke switched the topic as the demonstrations wrapped up.

“Warm without being next to a radiator. I can get out of this damn suit and not smell mechanical juice in the air.”

“I always forget how the ship smells; the grease just blends in after a while.” Luke felt the shuttle’s thrusters kick in, increasing their descent towards the marble below the station.

“Whoever the pilot is, they know what they’re doing,” Marissa said as they slipped into atmosphere without a jitter.

“Probably been running this route a lot. Smooth transition to the burners. They’ve got skill.” Luke linked to the shuttle with his screen and looked through the cameras at Iro. “You can always tell the corporate areas,” he muttered.

Towers reached up into the heavens, homes for the billions of Coalition citizens. The corporate towers had more room around them and an actual chunk of ground around their towers. Not just a box in the sky.

“Better than the slums on Earth,” Joey said.

“Yeah.” Luke had seen the grim towers built out of necessity over want. The Coalition towers were works of art. Sure they were close to one another, but they were built by different builders, each bringing their own flair.

“You know, I hear that construction companies only get another job if they get a good rating from the people who live in the first building,” Joey said.

“Really?” Luke asked.

“I heard the same thing. It’s nice for the people inside, but the costs are really high.” Marissa grimaced.

“Coalition, they lose money as soon as they earn it,” Joey said.

They carved between the towers and the sky opened as the ocean spread out. Floating cities dotted along the coastline and into the seas.

The shuttle barely landed when Marissa had them out of their seats, onto the elevators, and into an auto car.

“Feels so weird being on a planet in the real,” Luke said as he looked up at the buildings and the road they were on.

“I find it weird when we don’t have to climb up a ladder to go to the forward sections, or up.” Joey frowned.

They reached the beach, paying a fee to enter the corporate controlled area. Marissa brought them to a rinse pool. She threw off her bag and shimmied out of her suit. She was wearing her swimsuit underneath. Joey did the same as Luke hustled to the bathroom and changed.

“It feels weird not wearing a suit, breathing air out in the open.” Luke dumped his bag on the ground.

“Damn, you’re both pale!” Marissa said, liberally applying sunscreen.

“You’re no better!” Luke muttered.

“Hey, our faces are tanned, probably from crawling all over Dahlia and getting blasted by the sun,” Joey said.

“I’m going to find something to eat and drink.” He found a bar easily. Waiting in line, he looked out over the beach and the sea, right to the borders of the section of beach they were on. People were packed in.

On the corporate side, chairs and umbrellas were lined out, and there were facilities, bars, and staff on hand.

“What would you like?” the man at the bar asked.

“Uhh, three beers and a chicken wrap please.”

The man smiled, his eyes raking over Luke. “Sure thing. Forty-seven credits.”

Damn that’s expensive. Luke tapped his screen.

The man checked the screen. “Your food and drink will be available at the end,” He gestured to the side.

“Thanks.”

He collected the food and drinks, and wandered back to his chair, passing out the drinks, eating his wrap.

Marissa and Joey debated factions and talked about ships and future plans. Luke caught up on some sleep and enjoyed his newfound adulthood with beers and swims in the ocean.

“Well, thank you for dragging me down here to the gravity well,” Luke said.

“About time you got out of that suit. It was starting to smell,” Marissa said.

Joey laughed. Luke rolled his eyes. He looked out at the floating cities jutting up out of the sea. The sun was setting over the horizon, and already people were pouring out of the beaches and back home as the temperatures dropped.

“That… that I don’t get.” Marissa pointed to the pink and orange clouds on the horizon. “We see a lot of pretty things, but a sunset, I think, is a most beautiful thing and you can only see it on a planet.”

The sun disappeared, more of it’s light catching the clouds, bringing a final fiery goodbye.

“Okay, now let’s go chase the stars,” Joey said.

Marissa and Luke looked over and smiled before silently packing up their gear.

Chapter forty-four

Chapter: 44

31, March 2242

“Uranus Gate.” Stuart snorted.

“Uranus jokes, again? You haven’t got that out of your system yet?”

Stuart looked up, pursing his lips in a thinking face.

“Stop trying to think of a way to relate that to a Uranus joke!”

“Hey, jokes are an art form!”

“It’s word play.”

“It’s funny, so joke, right?”

Brad opened his mouth, trying to remind the other man about his age, maybe his stature, his position in society and thought better of it, swallowing his words. “There is no helping you. Mary is a saint.”

“Gotta say, whoever named a planet Uranus was a genius. Hundreds of years, civilizations, and nations rising and falling, but Uranus remains!” He declared righteously, shaking his finger in the air.

“You’re talking about it like you’re going to go fight for it. I wish you came with a maturity option.”

“Uranus Warpgate automated systems engaged.” The ship’s system betrayed Brad, as Stuart smiled triumphantly.

Brad banged his head back against his headrest. “There is a seventh circle of hell.”

“And you’re orbiting it!”

Brad snorted, trying to school his features, coughing to cover it up. “So, are you ready to track down Sphere World’s creators?”

“All loaded and ready to go. Once we’re in the Tropez system, we just need to fire up the tracking software, and that should triangulate through the local hypernet. It’ll tell us if its in the system or another one, then down to the planet, city, and building.”

“We can do all that from Tropez.”

“If it is in Tropez, we need to be in whatever system they’re broadcasting from.”

“Sounds pretty accurate. Down to the building?”

“We control the main server. It’s just a case of sending a ping out and trace where its being accessed from. Looks like we’re up.” Stuart gestured with his chin.

Brad looked ahead as reality, bent to humanity’s will, wrapped around them as they glided across the stars.

Twisted reality fell behind as they exited the gate’s area.

“I don’t think that will ever get old,” Brad said as they passed into Tropez.

“No, but it does make me feel like I know what its like to be trapped inside a marble,” Stuart looked at Brad.

“You take all the romance out of it.”

“It looks pretty, but also kind of like a marble.” Stuart shrugged and worked at his station. “And the trace is…” He tapped a few more keys with finality. “Running.” Stuart glanced up from his screen.

“This might take some time.”

“System, take us to holding.”

“Understood.”

A new plot appeared from the warpgate to a spaceship parking lot.

“How long is this going to take?”

“Approximately—”

“Not you, system. Stuart?”

“Umm, a few minutes I think, maybe?”

“Enough time for me to get some food and bathroom.”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Stuart waved him off, head bent down at his station as he tapped in a few more things.

Brad returned, finishing off the last of his sandwich with a gulp of coffee. Even the coffee maker is great.

“Ai caracha!” Stuart jumped, nearly making Brad drop his coffee, even if it was in a bottle.

“Christ!”

“I found the system! Hey, Ship, can we go—” He tapped his screen. “—here?”

“It will require a blind jump. There are no warpgates into the system. I can work out the math and plot the course.”

“Please do so,” Stuart said.

Brad sat in his pilot seat, swivelling into position, and pulled up the system information on his screen.

“It’s an un-named system, with an alpha numerical designation. Just got hypernet a few weeks ago. Not even settled. Are you sure about this?” Brad turned to Stuart, his brows pinched.

Stuart raised his hands. “That’s what I’m getting.”

“Route is plotted,” the system interrupted.

Brad gave him one more look and checked the plot, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“You’re doing the suspicious face.”

“There shouldn’t be anything or anyone in this system, but you’re saying a game dev is hiding out at the edge of known space. Most of the devs I know rather like their creature comforts.”

“That’s what the trace says.”

“Could be a trap,” Brad said.

“Brad, listen to yourself. If it is, it is the most elaborate of traps I know of. They make a game that sells super well to get us to the outer reaches, so they can what?” Stuart raised an eyebrow.

“I’m… just saying it’s weird.”

“Oh, hell, yeah, it is. I think some corporation is pulling the strings based on that lady from Lei-Wei-Dang showing up.”

“Might be, but why out here?” Brad waved his open hand, trying to pull the pieces together.

“Maybe they want to remain anonymous and are using us to get back at the old shareholders. I don’t know. Isn’t that why we’re out here?”

“Okay, but I’m taking every precaution.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way. It is my ass in the co-pilot seat here.”

“That’s communications.”

“Spacers.”

Brad smiled and sighed. “System, follow plot.”

“Understood.”

The ship left holding and accelerated toward the area of the Lagrange point reserved for blind jumps.

Brad went through the math on the jump. It was perfect. System checks were good too. Even the system seems suspicious, or familiar?

“At transit location.”

“All weapons systems to full readiness.”

“Brad?”

“Every precaution.”

“Weapons are online. Forming wormhole.” The projectors tore a hole through space, leaving Tropez and entering the unnamed system.

Stuart worked his console as soon as they were through.

“Nothing on local scan. What the hell?” Brad looked up from his screen. His feet went numb, and the blood drained from his face as his breaths came short and fast.

“Sphere World auto pilot engaged.” The ship’s voice warped from neutrality to light female tones. “Hello, Brad, Stuart. Let me introduce myself. I am Sally Wong, AI controlled for Sphere World one-eight-five.”

“Brad, what the fuck is going on?”

“What do you want with us?” Brad said.

“I was created by the builders to get ahead of the Adraxi expansion, to assist similar races in containing the Adraxi threat.”

“What are you talking about? Sphere World? Brad, is this a—” Stuart’s words died as the ship finished altering its heading and he saw what Brad had seen minutes before. “Holy shit!”

An ice planet hung among the darkness and stars. Small ships created a constant stream from the planet to the metal monster to their side.

Sphere World hung in space in all her simplistic glory.

“I assure you, Stuart, this is not a prank. Your net is the biggest faction of your human race. I picked you as you are both good developers of moral character and people that serve this faction well.”

“What the hell is this? You’re an alien?”

“Technically, I’m a computer program.”

“The hell do you want with us?”

“Brad, Stuart, the Adraxi expansion will wash through humanity’s sphere, and according to my historical logs, they will cleanse your worlds and systems of everything that is not Adraxian. I am asking you to help me save humanity.”

“Well… fuck,” Brad muttered.

Author's Note

You’ve made it to the end! Thank you so much for reading and for your support. I hope you enjoyed the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As a self-published author I live for reviews! It is the best way to let others know about the book (other than recommending it).

Again thank you for coming on this adventure with me and I hope I can entice you to join me on another book.

You can check out my other books, what I’m working on and upcoming releases through
the following means:

Website:
http://michaelchatfield.com/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelchatfieldwrites

Twitter:
@chatfieldsbooks

Facebook:
facebook.com/michaelchatfieldsbooks

Goodreads:
Goodreads.com/michaelchatfield

Patreon
(you can get sneak peeks about what I’m working on, signed books, swag and
access to contests):

https://www.patreon.com/michaelchatfieldwrites

Thanks again for reading! ☺

Interested in more LitRPG? Check out

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/

And:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/

Hope you have a great day!