Unconquerable Sun

by Elliott, Kate

  I blink my CeDCA net open. “Yes, an online shell. It doesn’t work outside a twenty-klick radius. The sky-tower is our link to the global net. You’re the heir. Don’t you have top military access? Satellite access?”

  “Not at the moment. James, get us into the academy shell.” She waits.

  After a moment he says, “Got it.”

  “Senior Captain Ray is in charge,” I add.

  She nods. “James, patch a priority in my name direct to him and his adjutant.”

  “The command center is going to be swamped with messages,” I say.

  “Contact your cohort. Tell them to gather live-fire weapons and overland vehicles. Set a meet point. If anyone makes visual contact with Ray tell him Princess Sun is here and I’m taking command.”

  A day ago I would have demanded what and why and how, but instead I flood the entire fifth year with pings. The academy network flashes a Service overloaded, please be patient message in reply while a virtual wheel spins.

  The conductor is an older man, pale and sweating. He gives a creditable salute. “Sergeant Brysyn Song Alargos, Your Highness. I served twelve years in the Twelfth Battalion. We have two raptor guns on board.”

  “I need the train readied for immediate transport.”

  He salutes. “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “Aunt, will you stay here and set up an aid station?” she says to Naomi Solomon.

  “I will. What’s your plan?” Naomi wears the same stunned look we all must have, but she’s ready to act.

  “I’m still figuring it out. Hetty, get the cars cleared enough to load up cadets. Leave anything not in the way. Be ready to move in twenty.”

  “Got it,” says Hetty.

  “Leave the bags.”

  Alika clutches his ukulele case against his chest.

  “Leave it,” she says.

  I honestly think he’s going to protest. Instead he mouths inaudible words—swear words—as he seals the case inside a dry bag and sets it atop the gear.

  Sun addresses my cee-cee. “Tiana, if you’re not battle-rated, then stay with Naomi.”

  Ti looks a question at me because it’s my order to give, not Sun’s.

  It’s an easy choice. “Stay with Naomi.”

  She nods. I unseal my duffel, pull out one of the five things I brought with me from home—an illegal stinger disguised as a pair of antique tonfa—then give the bag into her keeping.

  Last of all Sun addresses Zizou. “You have served honorably, soldier. I can’t take you to the assembly because I need the people here to see me as Chaonian first and only. Do you understand? It’s no reflection on you but rather on their prejudices.”

  “Are you releasing me from your service?”

  “No. Head into the forest. Move at speed but under concealment toward the industrial park. I’ll pick you up later. Guard the ring. That’s how I track you.”

  He meets her gaze, as he cannot meet mine. I envy her for being able to address him face-to-face. His expression has the honest intelligence of a person who holds to a code of conduct that does not shame him, no matter what anyone else may think about it. He is not cowed by her, not subservient, and he looks utterly sincere. He’s nothing like I’ve ever thought a Gatoi would be.

  “I am bound by the ancient covenant and by the crown of light,” he says.

  He jogs into the forest. We run southwest into the academy section of town. Firefighting mechanicals come clanging past us to the smoking depot and start spraying it with suppressant. Alarms have gone off all over campus. The top floor of the Moon pagoda is still burning. A spiderlike fire mech crawling up the exterior of the pagoda darts in through a broken window. The top of the sky-tower jolts down another degree of arc with a screech. We all flinch but pick up our pace. This time surely the sky-tower’s spire is going to break off and crash into the plaza below, but it holds like a horribly broken limb barely attached by straining ligaments. Debris is still falling. I can’t see what’s going on at the base of the tower and pagodas, if there are any people left alive to evacuate.

  As we clear the train tracks, running at a good clip, I stake out a route that will take us aslant through a stretch of cultivated land to my brigade’s armory, close to the forest’s edge.

  Eighty-seven reply pings come piling in from my cohort as the academy network connects through its emergency workaround. Out of habit, before I realize I’ve done it, I open a line to Solomon.

  “Perse?” His voice rings tinny in my ear. “Where are you? Is this really you?”

  If it were me before everything that’s happened, I’d have said he sounded relieved to hear me. But I’m so hyped I explode with bursts of rage-filled speech when I should be using all my air for running.

  “Yes. Me. The person you betrayed. You fucking spy. I thought we were friends. But no. I’m just your cheap ticket. To a career. You couldn’t earn. Any other way. Also. CeDCA under attack. Do this.” I ping him a long list, then click off and suck in air as I realize I didn’t wait for his response because I’d known I could rely on him utterly.

  He pings me back: Done. At the armory in 10.

  Nothing from Senior Captain Ray.

  I send a ping back to Minh, Ikenna, and Ay to tell them to stick with Solomon. Then, jaw tensed, I open a channel to Jade Kim.

  “Oi, handsome. I’m here with Princess Sun. I need Senior Captain Ray. You’re his best cadet. So. His adjutant will answer your ping.”

  “You must be joking,” says Kim in a laconic beyond-fucks-to-give voice. “Don’t be an asshole, not that there’s any chance you couldn’t be.”

  “I am with Princess Sun.”

  “Where in the hells are you? The senior captain is probably dead. I was on duty in the comms center until twenty minutes ago. He’d just come on to take a classified secure call from the queen-marshal as I was leaving for muster.”

  The news strikes me mute. The senior captain: dead. Jade Kim: avoiding death by minutes. How can anyone process that? I blink my net off before I realize I’ve cut out all the active pings. I’m ashamed that despite all my emergency training I keep making elementary, novice mistakes. I freeze up, and forget what I’m supposed to do.

  Sun easily keeps pace with me, the others at our heels and James lagging behind as we pound past gardens of beets, parsnips, and peanuts spattered with burning oil and an orchard of ‘ulu festooned with bits of debris. Around us the alarms break off one by one until all that’s left is the eerie groan of the dangling spire, the crackling of flames at the depot, and the steady movement of cadets, academy staff, and mechs headed to duty stations while civilians flee to designated shelters.

  With a wrench of will, I refocus. Sun blinks through files I can’t see. She must be trawling deep into the cadet archive.

  “What’re you looking for?” I ask, puffing air.

  Her reply is clipped but steady, timed to her exhales. “After-action reports on cadet training exercises.”

  “What about when hostiles come back?”

  “They won’t come back here. They knocked out the tower and depot to buy time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “You should have figured this out already. We’re going after them.”

  “If you’re wrong they’ll circle back and destroy CeDCA—” A blast of ash in my face makes me cough. I can’t get my breath back, but Sun’s already answering.

  “I’m not wrong.”

  * * *

  Most of a brigade has gathered inside the armory where fifth years muster for field exercises. The big doors gape open as stragglers stream in. The armory stands partway up a slope on the edge of the forest at the westernmost edge of the grid. We have a clear view into the center of town toward the appalling sight of the broken sky-tower and smoke-wreathed pagoda. Our brigade commanders, jovial Chief Bu and serious Chief Dara, stand on the riding platform of a six-wheeled Bear with Jade Kim and Solomon at attention behind them.

  Chief Bu speaks into an amplifier cuff to boom words over
the crowd. “Fifth Brigade will create a perimeter guard. Form up by—”

  The chief breaks off as the background rumble spikes in volume. The ground trembles. I stagger to a halt. The topmost roof of the Moon pagoda shudders. Flames shoot out of its eaves. With a fearful rolling grumble it pancakes onto the roof below. The massive whump sends hammering shock waves through the air, cadets swaying, my ears throbbing. Incredibly the lower floors hold, but it’s just a matter of time.

  Sun shoves up to the vehicle and leaps up onto the hood. The chiefs do a double take as they recognize her. When she indicates the amplifier cuff, Chief Bu hesitates for a breath because Sun is not in the academy’s chain of command. But she is who she is, so he peels it off and hands it over.

  The princess speaks into the cuff, her voice as sharp a call to arms as any siren.

  “Stand to attention, Fifth Brigade! I am Princess Sun, daughter of Eirene, the queen-marshal of the republic you are sworn to serve. Like you, I just witnessed a craven attack by Phene raiders on a peaceful town.”

  There’s a stunned silence as the cadets take in her accusation.

  In a low voice meant only for her and Dara, Chief Bu says, “Do you have classified intel on those freighters, Your Highness?”

  “I have the same sound signatures you have analyzed by now.”

  Chief Dara says, “Like I said, Bu, disguised exteriors, gunships underneath.”

  “What does an attack on the academy accomplish?” Bu shakes his head. “No strategic or tactical benefit.”

  “It’s not an attack on the academy,” Sun says. “You’ve heard the theory the Phene are controlling Gatoi soldiers with engineered hallucination.”

  “Wild speculation.” Again Bu shakes his head.

  “Except it’s true. There’s a classified lab hidden in the industrial park. Chaonian scientists are working to break Phene control of the banner soldiers. It will change the course of the war. Do you understand?”

  Chief Dara whistles.

  Bu says, “Yes. That’s big.”

  Facing the assembly, Sun speaks into the cuff. “The Phene are headed for the industrial park. A second wave of our high-atmosphere alert fighters will take at least thirty more minutes. They might be held back in favor of ground-based fighters who have to be prepped, fueled, and armed. Even a quick reaction force will take an hour. But we can get to the park in twenty minutes. And you cadets have done training exercises in its avenues and blocks. You know the ground, and the tactics that work.”

  She turns to Solomon, who for once is all out of killing ripostes. “Cadet Solomon, do you stand against the Phene?”

  “Of course I do!” He catches sight of me, his brow furrowing as I realize I’ve still got that stupid mask pulled over my face.

  “Good! Because I need soldiers who honor Chaonia and our ancestors. I need soldiers who will take the attack to the Phene. I need soldiers who will not allow the enemy to brag of how they slapped us in the face and escaped unharmed. Are there soldiers here?”

  “Yes! Yes!” The cadets surge forward.

  “We’ll go in two ground waves. Half on the train. Half to accompany me overland. I need twelve volunteers to fly the gulls.”

  “With all respect, Your Highness, the gulls are unarmed,” says Chief Bu.

  “The Phene don’t know that. Unarmed gulls can harry gunships to distract them. Who is bold enough to draw their fire away from our ground attack?”

  Since the training vehicles are older-model alert fighters with no ammunition, flying the gulls is as close to a death sentence as any action that will be taken today.

  To my shock Candace springs up beside Sun. “I will go, Your Highness. My parents died fighting for Chaonia. If that is to be my fate, then I embrace it.”

  Jade Kim’s beautiful eyes have narrowed speculatively, taking in Sun, Candace, the chiefs from whom the princess has wrested control of the situation. Taking in me, in my skeleton mask. I yank it off, not wanting to seem like I’m hiding.

  A sardonic smile lights that handsome face. Kim calls down to me, “The death’s head suits you, asshole.” Then turns to the princess. “I have my pilot’s qual, Your Highness. I’ll go.”

  A new rumble rises from the Moon pagoda. My chest constricts with anticipation. The structure implodes. The fourth floor slams down onto the third, and the whole thing collapses and tips over sideways, roof tiles avalanching into the churned-up waters of Heaven Lake. A horrific rumbling shattering noise piles in until I cover my ears, head bowed. Grit and heat gusts into my face, stinging up into my nose, coating the inside of my already dry mouth.

  As the worst of the deafening sound dies down, every gaze turns back to Sun.

  Chief Bu steps forward. “I’ll take command of the gulls.”

  She nods as at an answer she’d expected. “Hold your approach until the rest of us have had time to get there. Mob the Phene ships as the train arrives. The train troops will grab the attention of any Phene ground troops while the overland group strikes from the flank. It seems the big cargo barges are a good bet to provide cover along the avenues, if that’s needed.”

  “Your Highness, that’s a lot to coordinate. If we wait for the quick reaction force—”

  “No. The Phene will be in and out before the QRF can get here. We act now.”

  The ping of an incoming message from the executive officer hits my academy net. Orange letters flicker into view: All hands, this is Captain Vata. Evacuate all personnel to bunkers and await orders at

  The letters fizz out in a burst of static as a flash lights up the horizon. Thunder booms across us so deep and resounding that it is like the rake of claws. Windows shake. Something massive just happened in the industrial park.

  Everyone starts talking, but Sun flicks up a hand for silence.

  “We are headed for a secret lab at the industrial park. The lab contains captured Gatoi soldiers. Do not, I repeat, do not attack subdued prisoners. There will also be Gatoi working for us as guards at the lab. They are our allies.”

  Everyone is staring at her in mingled disbelief and determination.

  “The Phene use Gatoi drop troops,” says Solomon. “How will we tell the difference between enemy troops, subdued captives, and supposed allies?”

  She stares him down. Although he’s much bigger, her presence envelops him. “You know how to tell an ally from an enemy, don’t you, Cadet Solomon?”

  She deliberately looks at me and then back at him. He blanches, as well he might.

  She says to me, “You and Solomon will work together.”

  I hate her in that moment. But it’s a brilliant piece of maneuvering, so I nod.

  “Chief Dara, you’re in command of the train, with Lee and Solomon as adjutants. The Honorable Hestia Hope will remain at the depot to secure all cargo. Let’s go.”

  27

  In Which the Wily Persephone Is Stabbed by a Splinter of Rebellion

  Solomon and I gather up the cadets of Stone Barracks and another three cohorts. There’s a weapon for each cadet, but most fire only webbing or tracker spray.

  Solomon says to Chief Dara, “There’s only live-fire weapons for a quarter of us. What if we collect janitors and program them to be a first wave? Mechs will draw fire.”

  My right hand clenches into a fist just hearing the sound of his lying voice.

  The chief says, “Do it.” Then he turns to me. “Cadet, last we heard, Queen-Marshal Eirene called for her heir’s arrest.”

  “That’s right.” I make up a story on the spot even though it makes no sense if you think for two seconds. “It’s a decoy story. They have to keep this operation secret from the Phene.”

  He gives the go-ahead. We set out at a run northeast across the academy grounds, back toward the depot in its haze of smoke. By the time we reach the train, mechanical janitors are rolling up to join us, their sweeper and scrubber arms furled and sensor stalks swiveling toward the chief. Boxes and crates litter the ground. Cadets clamber into the empty boxcars, lo
ading the mechs. Solomon sees his aunt and stops dead exactly like a small child caught eating the entire malasada he’d been told to share with his siblings.

  Naomi gives him a shake of the head that makes me hope I get to be there when she drags him. If we survive this.

  A splinter of rebellion stabs me. Why are we doing this? We should just keep running.

  A gust of wind blows stinging ash into my face. I don’t know how many dead there are or if their bodies will be recoverable. The Phene can’t attack without us answering. Anyway, people are trapped, or dead, in the lab, people we need to help. People like Zizou.

  I scan the forest but see no sign of him. On the western horizon, in the direction of the industrial park, dark smoke rises with an ominous message.

  As I jump into the crew car Tiana emerges from the haze around the depot. She’s smeared with ash and soot. Her gaze looks a little wild above an emergency filter mask fitted over her mouth and nose. She raises a hand with the sign for good fortune. The train lugs once and glides away.

  Hetty comes running from behind a pile of cargo, making ready to hop aboard.

  Chief Dara calls down, “If you are the Honorable Hestia Hope, you’re tasked with remaining behind to secure the cargo.”

  She staggers to a stop with an expression of disbelief on her face. Setting her hands on her hips she watches us go with a stare that ought to be able to drill a hole through the locomotive.

  We pick up speed, leaving CeDCA behind as the trees close around us. The door between the crew car and the locomotive remains open so we can see Conductor Song and his engineer at the controls.

  “Hey.” Solomon offers me a weak-ass spider rifle that shoots webbing.

  I ignore him as I twist my tonfa together to engage the stinger.

  He looms over me. In a soft voice he says, “I had no choice, Perse.”

  “You always have a choice.”

  “Solomon. Lǐ.” It takes me a moment to realize Chief Dara is using my academy name. He has a bag of nine battered old walkie-talkies, used for exercises where we’re simulating ground fighting on worlds with no net. Solomon and I each get two, while the chief keeps the others for his unit. “We’ll lose the academy network before we reach the park,” he says.