Battleborn

by Andrew Beery

  “I would suspect it’s because the enemy is shooting at us,” the Founder AI said as if explaining something to a child.

  I suddenly felt very stupid.

  I didn’t have much time to contemplate folly. The ship shook three times more in rapid succession.

  “What the…”

  “Colonel!” the Master Gunny shouted. “The Appaloosa and Viper are launching barn-busters!”

  A barn-buster is the biggest nuke made by the hand of man. Its use was highly restricted because less than a dozen could strip the atmosphere off a planet like Azul.

  “Are they nuts?” Horse and Captain Deborah said in virtual unison.

  “They’ll destroy themselves as well as us,” the Captain added.

  Arquat shimmered into existence.

  “They are firing from the extreme edge of the conflict zone. They will likely be fine. The same cannot be said for other members of their fleet. They have destroyed or severely damaged a dozen of their own ships.”

  “Helm move us away at best speed. Let’s give ourselves some breathing room.”

  “Moving away…”

  WHHHHOMP!

  WHHHHOMP! WHHHHOMP!

  The artificial gravity cut out and then reversed briefly before returning. Everybody on the bridge got tossed out of their seats in the process. I suspected the only reason Tange would not have a lot of business was because there were only eight of us onboard.

  “Everybody OK?”

  When I had gotten a thumbs up from everybody and confirmed that Horse had us moving to a safe distance, I toggled the comms for engineering.

  “Chief, how are you doing down there?”

  Arquat answered for him.

  “The Chief is unconscious and has a broken leg. I have notified medical. The sickbay systems run on a redundant power system and so were not impacted by the power surge.”

  I turned to Doctor Thompson. “Jamie, I need you to take over engineering. Can you handle it?”

  “Can a baby burp?”

  “Ah…”

  “Yes! This is me we’re talking about. Of course, I can handle it,” he said, in an exasperated voice.

  I’m sure I must have said it before, but I think I liked him better when he was afraid of his own shadow.

  This wasn’t how the Queen had anticipated her reign ending. The executioner had tried to put a mask over her face, but she had refused. She wanted to look the men of her firing squad in the eyes. She had always believed that how one faced death was at least as important as how one faced life.

  She wanted her people to know she wasn’t afraid to die for them. And she knew they would see. Her execution was being televised. Mashuta Industries was making sure of that. They wanted there to be no doubt that the monarchy was well and truly dead.

  Truth be known, she was terrified, but she would be damned if she would give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her quake. She carried a proud blood in her veins tracing all the way back to the Founders and Commander Tanny Mumba.

  It was the same blood carried by her children… Her children, all save her youngest, stood with her. Their hands tied like hers. She was both ‘proud of’ and ‘sad for’ her children. She hoped Tange would have a long and joy-filled life.

  She heard and saw the bolts being pulled back on the ancient rifles that would end the monarchy…

  Chapter 21: Of Mice and Men

  The battlefield was a mess. Ships floated randomly. We had disabled and collected all the remaining High-Fives. In the end, Clarkson’s taskforce had been defeated not by the Defiant or even the Javan taskforce but by their own commanders. It seemed using barn-busters in close proximity to one’s own troops was not a way to inspire loyalty.

  Admiral Forest had finally had enough. Corporate mandate or not, Colonel Clarkson was through. The Admiral locked him and six of his loyal troops in the ship’s brig. Once this was done, Forest had wasted no time standing down his forces and suing for peace.

  We spent the next several hours licking our wounds. Chief Michaels was the worst of the injuries we had to deal with. Fortunately, Founder technology was very adept at handling things as insignificant as broken bones. The Chief was back on the job twenty minutes after the good doctor was done patching him up.

  At the moment, I had the entire ship’s compliment, including a very apologetic Second Lieutenant Jesús Del Torres, in the Admiral’s Ready Room. It was easily twice as large as the bridge and the only thing it held was a conference table, a coffee bar and something Arquat called a popcorn machine.

  That was the advantage of flying what had once been my ancestor’s shuttle. He had been an Admiral and Admirals got all the good stuff.

  “Chief, have we corrected the issue with the phase discriminators?” I asked.

  “Yes and no,” the Chief answered. “We have them back in alignment, but I’m at a loss as to why we had the problem to begin with.”

  “Arquat, what are your thoughts on the matter?”

  The Founder AI paused to think. At least, that’s what he appeared to be doing. I suspected it was some type of anthropomorphic subroutine. His thinking processes were orders of magnitude faster than us organic bags of water. He likely knew what I was going to ask before the words where out of my mouth.

  “I have no explanation for what happened. It may simply have been the coalescence of disparate factors leading to a single one-time event.”

  “In other words, it may not happen again,” I said.

  The holographic image of Arquat nodded.

  For the record, I hated that type of answer. I was a meat and potatoes type of guy. I wanted my answers plain and simple. Random chance wasn’t meat and potatoes; it was some fancy bolognaise sauce.

  Further conversation was interrupted by an urgent call from Admiral Forest aboard the Appaloosa.

  The call wasn’t for me. It was for Tange or more specifically Her Highness… and this time there was no ducking her royal linage.

  A holographic image of the Admiral floated at one end of the room where everyone seated at the table could see him.

  “Your Highness, we just received a video feed from Azul. It has to do with your mother and siblings. I am deeply sorry… Your Majesty.”

  ***

  I watched the video loop for a second and then a third time. Tange forced herself to watch with me. I had dismissed the crew after the first run through. We watched as the Queen and two of her children were blindfolded, tied to posts and shot. There seemed to be no question but that they were dead. Executed by a coup that claimed to be a worker revolt.

  “Arquat I assume you have done an analysis of the footage we’re seeing. Can you authenticate it?”

  The AI folded his hands before speaking. “The video feed originated from a Mashuta Industries facility on the northern continent approximately thirty kilometers from the capital. There is no evidence of tampering with the feed or the content.”

  “Meaning it’s real,” Tange said. Her voice was stern in a way I had never heard before. There was no doubt in my mind that she was being driven by barely controlled anger.

  “The footage is real. Whether the victims are of the royal family is impossible to determine definitively.”

  “Do you believe it to be the royal family?” I asked.

  Arquat turned to look at Tange. There was sadness in his expression.

  Yes. I believe it to be so. Let me say, I would welcome a chance to be proven wrong.”

  Tange turned to face me. The was a coldness in her eyes.

  “I’m going to make them pay… and you are going to help me.”

  It wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact.

  “As always, I’m at your command. What would you like me to do?”

  I had a pretty good idea that whatever she said it was going to involve kicking some serious butt and only taking names after the fact.

  “First, you are going to take command of this entire fleet. Then, you are going to develop a plan to visit destr
uction on the Mashuta corporation and any others that supported this coup.”

  Again, I nodded. There were several concerns I had with regard to implementing her orders. Not the least of which was the idea that a Colonel could command a fleet. That was more of an Admiral job, and as it turned out, we had an Admiral by the name of Forest that was available.

  Before I could same anything she spoke again.

  “Understand me, Tad. When we are done, the people of Azul will finally be free of the yoke of oppression they have been forced to live under for generations. My family will not have died in vain. If it’s the last thing any of us does, we will give their sacrifice meaning.”

  Her eyes bore into me like lasers. There was not an ounce of doubt in her visage. What she had just said was etched in stone as far as she was concerned, and woe be the fool who tried to oppose her. Hell, hath no fury like a woman enraged.

  I had a feeling she was not done speaking… so again I simply nodded and kept quiet.

  “You cannot command a fleet with your current rank, and I will not have anybody else at the helm. Consider yourself promoted and transferred. You are now Admiral Riker. Admiral Forest will assume the role of fleet advisor under your command. His punishment for his role in this mess will be the loss of his seniority.”

  I stood and saluted my queen.

  “With your permission, Your Majesty, I will begin implementing your instructions.”

  Azul’s newest queen stood and stepped over to where I was standing. I really wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She surprised me by wrapping her arms around me and burying her head in my chest.

  I hesitated for a moment and then placed my hands on her back and held her close. She spent a moment or two sobbing gently. I let her. They were the first tears I had seen her shed and I had the feeling there would be more as the days went by. If she needed to cry, and I couldn’t blame her, I was a safe shoulder to cry on. I realized then, that for the first time in my life, I would gladly die to protect the queen.

  Finally, she spoke again. “If you ever call me Your Majesty when we are alone again, I will have you drawn and quartered.”

  Rather than answer, I kissed the top of her head. I don’t know why I did it, but it felt right. She sighed contentedly and stayed for a moment longer before letting go. Our moment was over.

  ***

  Admiral Forest took the news of his administrative punishment rather well. He would confess years later that he had expected to be cashiered out of the military entirely. Simply losing his seniority was a better fate than he had ever imagined.

  The Queen, Horse (who I had transferred to the navy and promoted to captain O-6), Captain Deborah, Admiral Forest and I were just sitting down in my Ready Room. We were about to finalize our plans for liberating Azul.

  The Defiant was in pristine shape again. We were no longer in orbit around Menaechmus but were instead in a parking orbit near Beta-118. That meant that the Defiant was fully staffed. The last of her crew was just finishing up their quality time in the Da’Tellen Engram Transfer device.

  In a surprise, Captain Deborah has shared the other day that she had been a TransCorp double agent for years. This went a long way to explain why she had rebelled against Admiral James.

  This had presented us with an opportunity to gather intel. We already knew what Mashuta was telling the world about the fall of the empire. It could be useful to find out what TransCorp was sharing. The two organizations had been reluctant partners for years.

  It was no secret that the TransCorp CEO, Ronit Yargiv, was not a fan of Mashuta-style heavy-handed tactics. She was, in fact, a reformer. I could tell that it pained the captain to think a person she had idolized and looked up to had been involved or at least complicit in the coup that had taken the previous Queen’s life.

  I nodded towards Tange. She smiled and nodded back. It was time to start the meeting. The first order of business was to find out what Captain Deborah had learned from her TransCorp contacts.

  “Well Captain,” I said. “What can you tell us about the state of affairs on the home world?”

  “For starters, my contact is scared. Mashuta corporate goons are kicking in a lot of doors. Places that used to be safe, like the corporate headquarters of some of the smaller organizations, are finding themselves the targets of forced entry and ransacking. Mashuta is looking for something but nobody knows what for sure.

  “Also, Ronit Yargiv has not been seen in weeks. Mashuta types are sniffing all around TransCorp facilities but, so far, they have been unwilling to employ the same bash, snatch and grab techniques they’ve been using on the smaller concerns.

  “And finally…”

  “And finally, what,” Tange prompted.

  “Your Majesty, there is a rumor the Queen… your mother, the Queen… is not dead. The rumor is somebody, perhaps Ronit Yargiv intervened and rescued them at the last moment.”

  The woman heard the door creak open. She couldn’t see anything but that was to be expected. It was pitch black. No light ever shone in this house. To any curious eyes, it was nothing more than an abandoned home suffering the ravages of age and neglect.

  Whoever was entering the safehouse was doing so carefully. Should she grab her children and run? Perhaps she should stay and fight. She was tired of running. Her children were tired too. They were sleeping upstairs. She continued to listen carefully. She heard nothing more. Maybe the creak of the door had been nothing more than the wind.

  Chapter 22: This Sword was Battleborn

  If I were a Mashuta executive, I’d be soiling myself right about now. The Defiant and sixteen heavily modified cruisers jumped directly into orbit around Azul. Each of the ships, aside from the Defiant herself, had a functional, albeit limited Skip drive. Each of the ships had Founder-grade shields.

  We would have brought more ships but sixteen were all we could retrofit in the time our Queen gave us to do the work.

  The moment we arrived in orbit Her Majesty, Queen Tange Mumba, broadcasted a message on all frequencies. Arquat usurped control of the planetary communication network for this purpose.

  The Queen ordered all personnel to vacate Mashuta facilities. They had one hour to do so before those facilities were destroyed.

  Of course, none of us were expecting Mashuta to roll over and play dead. I suspect Tange would have been inconsolable had that happened. That was something I didn’t want to see. I found myself really caring for the young woman. It seemed strange but adversity had drawn us closer.

  “Admiral, I have twenty ships approaching from port and another thirty-two approaching from the stern,” Lieutenant MacGyver reported from his sensor station.

  “Get me Admiral Forest on the Appaloosa,” I ordered.

  My friend’s holographic imagine floated in front of me.

  “There sure are a lot of them coming at us Tad,” the Appaloosa’s skipper said.

  “May be so,” I agreed. “But we’re bigger, meaner and hungrier,” I added.

  “That we are. How do you want to play this?”

  “Send the Javan and Viper out to deal with the orbital weapons platforms. You grab the Alpha wing and engage the smaller group to port. The Defiant and what’s left of Beta after Javan and Viper are gone, we’ll take on the larger group. The Defiant should give them more than enough cause to rethink their life choices.

  In the end, it took us about thirty minutes deal with the Mashuta loyalists. In point of fact, twenty more ships joined the fight… on our side. They were the Wolf corps led by Colonel Michael, my former CO.

  Orbital bombardment of Mashuta targets began exactly one hour and one minute after the Queen’s ultimatum was broadcast. The one minute was because I was feeling generous.

  There were three facilities, we did not carpet bomb with KEWs. They were too close to civilian population centers. For them, we flew the Defiant into the atmosphere and targeted the buildings with our plasma beams.

  The corporate headquarters was one of the three facili
ties. When we arrived, the entire campus was under a protective shield.

  “It’s almost like they don’t want us to come a calling,” Horse said with a southern twang.

  The forward viewscreen showed a shimmering golden dome coving the facility.

  “That’s downright un-neighborly of them,” I agreed. “What do you say we do something about that.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong but the town is a good twelve to fifteen kilometers away is it not?”

  “It is indeed,” my friend agreed.

  “And are we not just two kilometers from the Sargasso Sea and is this valley not a few meters below sea level?”

  “Why yes I believe it is on both counts,” Horse agreed again.

  I paused as if thinking about the situation. I looked over at the Queen who had been quiet up to this point.

  “Your Majesty don’t you think your people would like a large saltwater lake right here? It would be simplicity itself to use the plasma cannons to dig a drench to help get the project started.”

  Tange smiled. “Admiral I think that is a capital idea. Make it so.”

  ***

  Two days later, after a number of hands-on mop-up operations, I was finally satisfied that Mashuta and her allies would no longer pose a threat. Sadly, this included those Battleborn factions that supported the coup.

  The Battleborn that supported Mashuta and committed atrocities were cashiered out of service. To my way of thinking they got off easy. Many, however, were like Jesús. They got dragged along for the ride by corrupt commanders. Those that could prove they were unwilling participants were given a chance to join one of the loyal corps. Those that could not, got the boot.

  Our biggest problem was the power vacuum that had been created. Mashuta had butchered the monarchy. Even the imperial palace had been knocked to the ground. Mashuta had worked hard to destroy any and all reminders of the old order. Now even Mashuta was gone.

  The reality was power vacuums always resulted in violence as different factions vied for control. This time was no different. The Queen reluctantly declared Martial law. The Battleborn corps and marines that had remained loyal to the Queen took over policing duties.