“Justin is dead,” Kasidey said while her eyes examined the data displayed on a small holo window next to her. Her hands typed in a command with a holo keyboard. Seconds later the last recorded imagine of Justin’s sights replayed, showing the mysterious black man. “Who the hell is he?”
“He must have been one of the cloaked targets,” Ken said and sat back in his chair, loaded up a holo keyboard of his own, and began a furious information search. “Run a facial recognition scan. I want to know everything about him. Hack into Radiance databanks if you have to.”
“I’m sure the Radiance Union shared all their intel with the EISS.”
“Not everything.”
“Oh?”
“Ever heard of the Whisper? They put us and the Hashmedai Assassins’ Guild to shame when it comes to knowing everything.”
Chapter 14
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
Captain Martin Xavier stood with his arms behind his back in the infirmary of the Winston Churchill. Dr. Derek Sutherland stood examining the resting bodies of Chloe and Ella, completely dumbfounded by the data his holo medical scanner was displaying to him: their status, alive and recovering, fast. Their bodies were brought back to the Winston Churchill dead via close-range gunshot wounds to the head. And if it wasn’t for one spooked-out petty officer who saw Chloe’s arm move, they would have been dumped into cryo chambers in the morgue.
Their gunshot wounds have all but completely healed by themselves. Xavier looked at the two as they talked with the doctor. Chloe sat up; her head was free of any wounds. It’s like the whole ordeal never occurred, and he was totally fine with that. The mystery of them recovering like this needed to be solved—oh, and that psionic energy spike returned as they were brought back. There was some kind of connection; that much he suspected. Just what was it exactly? Too many goddamn mysteries, he thought.
Xavier’s holo communicator chimed, his fingers hit a small button on his wristband, triggering a holographic window to appear with Commander Cassandra Benally’s face. “Captain, I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she said.
“Not at all, Benally. What’s up?”
“There’s an incoming transmission for you coming from the Sun Tzu.”
His eyes shut and he pounded his fist at this news. The ESV Sun Tzu was the flagship of the UNE and commanded by Adm. Linda Stone. If they were contacting him personally, something was up, and that something would be probably be discussed in great length. “I’ll take it in my office,” he said and proceeded to exit the habitat ring.
Xavier’s office was a small, enclosed room with a sliding door connecting it to the main bridge. A desk with a computer was located at the far end of the room, and a bookshelf held dusty and partially burned old-world novels and textbooks. Adjacent to that was a glass display cabinet with model ships. The lower-tiered shelves held model ships from the early exploitation days. The middle shelf featured British World War II ships, and the shelf above that held model ships of the new UNE fleet, with the Winston Churchill prominently displayed front and center.
Xavier’s magnetic boots carried him toward a seat next to his desk, and he activated his waiting communication. A holographic projection of Adm. Linda Stone materialized. She was a tall black woman; her dark hair was showing the signs of aging along with the new reading glasses she wore. “Ah, Admiral,” Xavier said.
“Good afternoon, Captain,” she said after a five second communication delay. “There’s been a slight change in plans with our scheduled training voyage.”
Damn it, forgot about that because of the recent problems. “What sort of changes?” he asked and waited another five seconds for the reply.
“The Winston Churchill is to remain here in Earth’s orbit along with the Enterprise,” Stone said. “I’ve read your reports in regard to your current situation, and I believe it’s best you remain here until your crew has fully investigated the matter.”
“Understood,” he replied, though he did not like the idea. Part of him felt as if he and his crew were being singled out for the past few days. Besides what else could they investigate? They were no closer to finding the exact source of the psionic energy, and Chloe’s and Ella’s miraculous recoveries were nothing short of an act of god.
Or perhaps gods? Maybe Radiance religion isn’t as farfetched as it seemed to be.
“Part of the training was to involve EDF anyway.” Stone added and then paused with a puzzled look on her face. “Does your psionic not provide gravity?”
How did she know? Everything is bolted down here. “He’s on strike.”
“Seriously, Martin?”
Xavier sighed and then said, “Radiance is going to replace his arse soon. Until then, mag boots are commonplace on the bridge. Is there anything else, Admiral?”
“Nothing, just remain vigilant; we’re entering some strange times now, quite possibly stranger than what we encountered during the invasion.”
He nodded, and then her hologram disintegrated into nothing. Turning in his chair, he saw the source of the admiral’s puzzled look. His coffee container was floating behind him, the one thing that wasn’t securely placed away.
… … …
Chloe wiped the sweat pouring off her forehead as she cleared all targets within the Winston Churchill practice range, two days after returning from the surface. It was a small obstacle course located within the habitat ring, filled with ramps, random geometric shapes and walls. She wore her protect suit that she and her team brought back from Alpha Centauri and was armed with her EDF modified magnetic rifle, set to training mode of course. No need to fire live rounds at holographic targets.
The doctors were still on the fence about having her return to active duty despite the fact that she was now in perfect health with no injuries to her body whatsoever. Adding to the mystery, the medical scanners that were used on her malfunctioned at random times. All that combined with the fact that she was taken out to start with, and now her sister and Chris were missing, created a frustrating stressful position for her to be in. Stress that was now being taken out on holographic Hashmedai.
“EVE, level two and increase difficulty one notch, please,” Chloe demanded as she returned to the start of the practice range. Twelve 3-D holographic Hashmedai appeared in random locations throughout the white-and-gray obstacle course. She aimed her rifle forward, took aim, and yelled, “Begin!”
The Hashmedai slithered away, using the shapes and walls as cover while Chloe stormed in. Every successful shot from her rifle triggered the hologram to vanish as she swiftly engaged and eliminated her targets from cover, one by one. Only two of them managed to get a shot off, none of those shots connected. Still too easy.
“Level three, increase difficulty again!” she ordered and began another run.
Same results, though she had to change things up. She had to command her suit to allow her body increased movement speed to dodge massive sword cleaves from the warrior holograms toward the end. Level eight forced her to leap off the walls to get an edge, and level ten saw her being defeated by the same target over and over. Instead of relieving stress, she was now creating more. The increased stress resulted in rookie mistakes being made. Not staying in cover and forgetting to use grenades or any type of tactical thinking. Every action she performed was straight aggression, guns blazing in the open. Then there was that assassin—she could never predict when he was going to strike. Fuck this!
“’Em hollies giving you a rough time, eh?” said a voice from behind Chloe.
She turned around to see where the source of the voice came from. A large man stood at the entrance. He had brown hair and thick beard and wore an exosuit while his eRifle pointed down. Great, now there’s a witness to my recent performance, Chloe thought as she walked over to him. “I’m done here if you need the range,” she said.
“Was hopin’ we could use it together,” he said with a Newfoundland accent. “I’ve wanted to see how you EDF folk
s stack up compared to our gear eh.”
“It’s better than your stuff…Mister?”
“Ah name’s Miles, Staff Sergeant Jacob Miles, UNE Marines, ma’am,” he said. “If you don’t min’ me askin’, what makes your stuff better?”
“Various factors,” Chloe said. “For example, the magnetic rifles we use are the same ones Radiance uses, just reprogrammed and modified for human use.”
He commanded EVE to load the obstacle course with Hashmedai holograms and signaled with his head for Chloe to join him. “Ain’t ours basically the same?” he asked and then ran in with his rifle erupting in training mode.
“No, eWeapons are just Earth-built magnetic rifles using Earth-based materials. The power source in Radiance weapons uses Xenethereal crystals; which mainly exist on the Vorcambreum home world.” Two of the twelve targets vanished via Chloe’s rifle shots. “Needless to say, every Xenethereal crystal humanity receives from the Union goes right into ship production. The supply just isn’t big enough right now to use them in weapons.”
“Eh.” he said as their backs rested behind a solid cube shaped object, knowing full well ten more targets were still at large and hunting for them.
The two of them saw green light coming from behind them; a warrior creeping up. They leaped out of cover in unison and fired. Chloe’s sights found the target faster than Jacob’s despite their reaction time being on par. “So…the batteries for your weapons are human-made and add a lot of extra weight to the gun,” she said and ran toward a long wall. “Not to mention they don’t last as long.”
“I see.”
“Which brings me to the next point—power,” Chloe said as the two once again took cover. “Despite the fact that UNE basically uses technology that was given to them by Radiance, reverse engineered from downed Hashmedai forces, just straight-up a brilliant human invention, or a combination of all three. We have yet to master the ability to wirelessly transfer large amounts of power from a power source to a device or weapon. UNE combat armor and weapons have separate battery packs.”
The wall they were using for cover unexpectedly started to fall over. Chloe looked at Jacob; he was pushing it over as if it weighed nothing, aided by the superhuman strength his exosuit gave him. “Adding to the problem of weight,” he said, as the wall fell to the ground, crushing the five Hashmedai that were behind it.
All right that was impressive, she thought. “With our setup, not only is my protect suit powered by a Xenethereal crystal battery pack, it also shares energy with my rifle. The end result is I have two sources of lightweight power that work together as one,” she explained.
They ran farther in the course, each of them taking down a Hashmedai target in the process. “I dunno; my setup here seems on par with your performance,” Jacob said. “The eWeaps are just as deadly as mag weaps.” He dropped his weapon upon seeing a guardian. The mechanical joints of his exosuit caused his legs to move faster than normal, and aided by the jump jets, he leaped right into the shield of the guardian. Using the strength of his suit, he pulled the guardian’s shield to the side and then tore off its arm, which held its shield generator. Suddenly the armored guardian was raised high in the air by his arms. After a few seconds of bending, the guardian’s body snapped in half like a tree branch. “I like being able to lift heavy-as-fuck objects.”
“That exosuit may give you superhuman strength, but its mobility is going to fuck you up if you ever see action on a high-gravity world. Hell, even on Earth, a suit like yours will never be able to keep up with mine.”
“How so?”
“Mass reduction, that’s how.”
“That sounds, crazy. I think you’re makin’ that up. Radiance doesn’t have tech like that.” He stood up straight and added, “Ma’am.”
“No, Radiance doesn’t, but the Linl, on the other hand.” she said as they approached their final target, a psionic floating in the bottom of a bowl-shaped pit. “The Linl had some advanced shit being worked on in their labs before Radiance acquired them. Not a lot of that tech got integrated with Radiance.”
“Why’s that?”
“Radiance believes their tech was either given to them by their gods, or their gods directly influenced the inventors who made it. Any technology made outside of that has to be evaluated by their churches and voted on if it is something their gods would approve off. This is why you don’t see stuff like stealth tech in the Union that was invented by the Hashmedai. Everything the Hashmedai created is considered to be demonic.”
They arrived. Chloe waved Jacob back while she stepped up to the challenge. She began to run; her steps became lighter and lighter. She felt like she could fly with how massless the protect suit forced her body to become. As she got closer to the mouth of the bowl-shaped pit, she leaped and glided through the air as if she were on the moon.
Her rifle unloaded its gift toward the top, and then later the back of the psionic’s head as she glided over it. Its shields ripped as every virtual shot hit it. Chloe’s body landed on the sides of the bowl-shaped pit. She ran along the sides of it, shooting the psionic in the process. The psionic could only hiss in anger, as none of its virtual psionic abilities could lock on Chloe’s never-ending wall run and weapons’ fire. After two laps, the psionic’s shields shattered, and then its form vanished altogether as a single bullet landed between its eyes. Jets on her suit launched her body off the walls to land perfectly on her two feet within the center of the pit.
Jacob gazed down at her the whole time; his hands had risen to applaud her performance. “So your suit is more of a Linl design than Radiance?” he asked.
“Pretty much,” Chloe said, looking back up at him. “Lejorania Sanctum was a Linl colony before Radiance took control of it. There was a stockpile of high-tech stuff gathering dust in old labs. It was deemed forbidden for Radiance members to use…humans, on the other hand.”
… … …
►► HLF Headquarters, Northern Canada
► Sol System
Eupiar’s finger tapped a command that brought up a small holo window in front of her. There was a new encrypted text message waiting for her…and only her. She spun her chair around, examining the situation in the CIC. Two people were there, and they were both at the far end with their faces glued to their displays—good. She interacted with her computer terminal, decrypting the message, revealing its contents.
User19130817, 9:45pm: We need to talk, face-to-face. It is very important.
Eupiar produced her holo phone and pushed a button on the side of the pink rectangular device. A holo window displaying the contents of her phone’s screen displayed next to her and the window that held the message she just received. Her right hand raised and swiped across the message, causing it to drag and drop into her phone’s window. Her Hashmedai-human hybrid thumbs started typing a reply message with her texting app.
Me, 9:46pm: Why?
User19130817, 9:46pm: The survival of your organization will depend on it. Trust me.
Me, 9:46pm: What do I have to do?
User19130817, 9:47pm: Stanly Park, Vancouver. Meet me there. Come alone.
A seventeen-year-old girl alone in a park with a strange person. Every bit of her upbringing told her not to go. Then again, every bit of her upbringing also told her to stay in school and not join the HLF, which the media now called a terrorist group. This person, this User19130817 was the sole reason the HLF called on Eupiar to handle its delicate hacking jobs. He or she always knew of the exact location of vulnerable UNE or Radiance servers or which ones had intel that would be useful to the HLF. Upsetting him may just put her “job” on the chopping block. She stared at the text messaging holo window once more. Her thumbs hesitated before typing her reply.
Me, 9:49 p.m.: K
… … …
►► Vancouver, Earth
► Sol System
Eupiar’s boots splashed through the wet and puddle-filled path leading into Stanly Park. Her umbrella was held high above her, deflecting t
he downpour of rain coming from the blackened skies, while the interior of the umbrella shined bright light that resembled sun shine, along with small holographic pictures of blue, sunny skies, giving the user the false sense that it’s a sunny day. Her hand slowly imputed a new message to be sent with her holo phone, while her other held the umbrella steady. She still felt nervous about what she was getting into.
Me, 10:24pm: I’m here, where are you?
User19130817, 10:24pm: Robert Burns statue. There’s a park bench nearby.
User19130817, 10:24pm: Come sit with me.
The last message caused her feet to stop moving, and for a brief second, she seriously considered saying fuck it and leaving. Come on, Eupiar, you can do this and survive. Destiny has done worse. She continued forth, and looked down at her handbag, which held her ePistol, just in case.
Off to her left, she saw the statue of Robert Burns standing atop a white pillar. Soaking green grass and autumn-touched trees accompanied it, while a figure sat on the park bench closest to it. He wore a black business suit, small reading glasses, and a black fedora hat on top of his head. Above that was his umbrella drone, which hovered and blocked out all rain with a thin kinetic shield. His thin hand rose to wave hello at Eupiar as their eyes met.
Eupiar walked toward him while putting her phone away. The holo window for it vanished as the device entered her pocket. She stood next to him, but refused to sit. He, however, insisted she sit.
“That ePistol of yours is now useless,” he said to her. “Next time bring a weapon that can’t be hacked like an old-world one.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.
“Sit, seriously, people will suspect us less if you did.” She sat, though she questioned why. After all, there were few people in sight, what with the rain, night skies, and all. “I’m impressed you got her so quickly,” he said.
“Norvot may be too old for combat duty, but he can still provide a teleport when needed,” she explained. “Now what do you want?”
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 20