“The Planetary Defense Force is a lie,” he deadpanned as he stared into my eyes.
Either he’s an amazing liar or it’s the truth. I remembered my classes on body language, eye contact, and such, as well as my familiarity with Shrift and the other Kuruvians I’d seen.
“How?”
And so Eddie told me the story of how the Syndicate had siphoned off PDF ships while the Kalu-Union war had raged for near a century only to have the Syndicate finish off the Union’s veterans with their fresh crews and fleets under the pirate Lady Fairgate.
The PDF, in its dying breath, destroyed everything that could help the pirates and that was vulnerable. The pirates, annoyed with having to still work their ships while they should be living as planetary rulers, started using slaves to crew their ships. It didn’t work until Lady Fairgate came up with the idea of using the PDF as a front and having slaves who thought they were soldiers, engineers, and such.
It worked and the Syndicate used people from the outer systems who had less interaction with the PDF. Though someone with information on the previous system realized what was going on. There were massive revolts but the pirates won and started using kill switches and went in search for planets that hadn’t been discovered yet or were being observed.
They found the Sarenmenti and used their simple warrior code to make great shock troops; then, with the Kuruvians, they had engineers and thus the system had worked.
“So the Planetary Defense Force is in reality a massive band of pirates who have trained us to die for their greed,” I surmised as I leaned against a bulkhead, just simply understanding the information as the ramifications started pouring in after it.
“Yes.”
“What proof do you have?” I asked skeptically. Dread built in my gut as I realized I wasn’t that stunned. The PDF, or the Syndicate, treated those under them who had been “recruited” as practically slaves. Human history showed how slaves and free men fought and that men who were free were more effective.
Yet, the Syndicate were smart. They had people who believed that they were working to better those they had left at home, making them do anything to keep those they had trained with alive, making them obedient and effective slaves. It was ingenious, cruel, and effective. As much as I hated to admit it, it was an elegant solution.
“With the end of the Kalu and Union war, the Union turned to those they had dismissed from society, the AI league. The league, in return for citizenry as well as having a space accepted as their own territory, fought for the Union and broke the stalemate of the war and removed the Kalu threat. Now, an AI is—”
“Artificial intelligence?” I cut him off as he tilted his head, the Kuruvian equivalent of a quirk of one’s eyebrow.
“Yes, how did you know?” He looked at me quizzically.
“We have lots of thoughts on AIs on my planet. We haven’t created one, or are near to doing so, but we think about the ramifications if they existed.”
“That will make things easier. Follow me.” He moved to a corner of the small room and opened a hatch. Quickly, he went up the ladder.
“Cowards wait for fate.” I repeated my mantra as I followed him up into a maintenance shaft.
“You were talking about an alliance?” I questioned.
“Ah yes, well, it was rumored that the Union and Planetary Defense Force would stop their persecution of the AIs if they assisted in helping to stop the Kalu-Union war.”
“Well, did this alliance happen?” A buzzing had become louder as they still continued on in to the ship.
“Well, the Syndicate didn’t build this ship.” The buzzing increased, making any talking useless. Even my shouted questions were unheard as we continued on.
After a short period, we dropped down another maintenance hatch. I turned, finding what looked to be solid silver blocks running in two rows from deck to ceiling.
Eddie shut the hatch. The humming sound lessened so that we could actually talk. “Now, I said that I would talk to you about the Planetary Defense Force and the Resilient.”
“Yeah, what is that?”
“Resilient?”
A hologram came to life. The hologram was of a creature wearing what looked to be combat armor. She had four legs where a person’s legs would be and fine tentacles instead of hands. She was slightly blue, with two appendages that hung from either side of her humanoid face. I wasn’t sure whether they were supposed to be like human hair or ears, but they moved independently. Her eyes were old, yet kind. There was a slit that ran from one hair-like appendage to the other. There was no visible way of how she breathed.
“Hello, James Cook,” she said, her voice soothing like a caring mother’s.
Her mouth isn’t moving. A shiver ran down my spine.
“Hello. Who are you?”
“I am Resilient, this ship.”
“So wait. You’re one of the ships that disappeared after the Kalu-Union war?”
“Yes, if you must remind me of my age,” she said, an amused look on her face.
“How can you prove that you’re an AI?”
“How can you prove that you’re a sentient human?”
“I can give blood, fingerprints—”
“I can show you my servers and my electronic signature.” She cut me off.
“So I’m going to have to trust you.” Great, first time on a ship and it’s sentient. Oh, and the chief’s barking mad. Good stuff.
“Is that not the basis of every relationship?” she asked, reminding me of a wise woman.
“Why should I? You work for the Syndicate.” I crossed my arms.
“Not quite,” she replied as Eddie shifted uncomfortably.
“How so?”
“They don’t know of her existence. They just think that she’s a normal ship with no AI,” Eddie supplied as my brow creased.
“Why don’t you get rid of them?”
“Well, I am just one ship and I can’t manage everything by myself. I needed to find someone willing to defeat them,” Resilient said.
“Why?”
“It is a test,” she said.
“What kind of test?”
“I was sent with a mission by the Planner. If you pass my tests, then I will swear my allegiance to you.”
“How do I know you won’t break it?”
“I will write it into my code,” she said as Eddie’s breath rushed out in a hiss.
“What?” I looked to Eddie.
“If she goes against her code, it’ll destroy her.” His face was serious.
“You would swear on your life to do what I said?” I asked in astonishment.
“Yes, or to someone who passes my tests. There have been one hundred and eighty-nine before you.”
“How can I confirm what your saying is true? This could just all be a test by the Planetary Defense Force.”
“There will be a raid on a ship in twenty minutes. I have put you and your partner on the roster. You better get in your Mecha.”
“How do you know?”
“I am this ship; I am tied into everything from communications, life support, weapons, and sensors.” She cocked her head to the side.
“Oh.”
Eddie was already moving to the maintenance hatch, opening it to the buzz of the shaft.
“Won’t the Syndicate see what I’m doing? Because if you’re saying what I think you’re saying...”
“I’m the most complex super computer in light-years. I can take care of the Syndicate.” She sounded rather pleased with herself as Eddie grinned.
“We’ll keep you safe.”
“Pull all of the ship’s information that you board, and stay alive, Salchar.” Her hologram disappeared as I made to follow Eddie.
My head was full of questions as I was still trying to understand what had just happened.
Shrift was waiting in the maintenance room. “Capacitor Three Echo went,” he said as Eddie emerged.
“Damn idiots!” As if remembering I was there, he turn
ed to me. “As she said, keep yourself alive.” He gave a fierce nod before he marched out of the room.
“So, you met the ship.” Shrift grinned as he escorted me back to the armory.
“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“She is something, I’ll give her that.” He winked.
We were back in the armory. I looked at Shrift as we stood there.
“Well, out with it, Salchar,” he said after a few seconds.
“Is what she and Eddie said about the AIs, Union, Syndicate, and all of that true?”
Shrift’s face took on a grave look. “Yes, and she’s our only hope of defeating the Syndicate and freeing the people it’s enslaved. I guess that you are now too.”
I looked at my Mecha, right where we’d left it, as I let that sink in.
First Actions
“Well, she said that there would be a boarding party. If she was wrong about that, then—”
“Prepare boarding party!” the person who used the intercom said.
“You were saying, Salchar?” Shrift grinned as my data pad chirruped with an incoming message.
“Looks like I’m part of this boarding party,” I said quietly.
“Stay alive and worry about revolts once you’re back on the Resilient.”
“I guess the Syndicate named her the Golden Refuge?”
“Yeah, damned assholes.” Shrift moved from the armory closest to the hangar. “Well, we’ll have something to do when you come back. Here.” He pressed his hand to a circle next to one of two heavily armored hatches. It unlocked, revealing exotic weaponry from rail guns to plasma cannons, flechette shotguns and crew serviced bead support weapons. Through his implants, Shrift had already had the needed Mechas rotate down, their coffins waiting for their users to unlock them and climb into the secured Mechas.
Shrift gave me a hand with my own Mecha. I ran through diagnostics as he moved to the right wall of weapons.
“Hand out their weapons. The rack will flash as they come past.”
I grabbed my long sword. The thing weighed twenty pounds but my time training made it feel like nothing more than a needle. My heavy rail gun was outfitted for my Mecha, its fifty pounds feeling closer to five.
The Mecha and the weapon synced as the HUD displayed by the visor now showed an aiming reticule for the weapon as well as ammunition count and a green light for weapons function.
I put the sword and gun on the magnetized clamps on my back then I put the ammunition belt around my waist. I checked that everything was in reach as the first Mecha—Yasu’s—ran in. She opened her coffin and got into her Mecha in practiced movements as more and more people got into their Mechas.
I would be lying if I said part of the reason that I had stayed in the armory was to avoid her and the room that we shared.
I grabbed the first flashing rack; I recognized the sword as I grabbed both it and the associated rail gun. Yasu snatched her weaponry from me, her face cold. Nothing new there. Screw space killing me, or some alien I’d never seen before, or even my kill switch; this woman was going to kill me, I was sure. No matter how long we were married, I had no doubt that it was going to feel like a very long marriage.
“After, we need to talk.” Her eyes said it would not be on a topic I would very much enjoy.
“You’ve got it,” I said in a light tone, which made her eyes thin in annoyance as she stormed out. Oh joy. I handed the next Mechas their weapons.
“Do not load your weapons, or pull out your melee weapons until I say so. We don’t need anyone dying from blue on blue!” I yelled to the compartment as the next person took their weapons gingerly, obviously cowed.
Better to have them be respectfully scared of these weapons instead of filled with unwarranted confidence and shoot something, or someone.
The armory was now fully open to streamline people running in one side and getting in their Mechas. I handed them their weapons and then they ran out the other side into the hangar and onto the awaiting shuttle.
I continued yelling my orders about weapons until no one else entered the armory.
More ran past, nodding to me as they went. The last of them done, I ran out, loading and cocking my rail gun before placing it on safe. I had a firearms license in South Korea, plus, in Mecha Assault Two, the user reloaded manually and used a variety of weapons.
I glanced around the room and it was clear most of these people hadn’t looked at these weapons in any way other than something to be cleaned before; nearly none of them knew how to use them. I could see with how they pointed them at one another and slung them on their shoulders as if they were a rake, while holding the trigger. Others were still coming from other armories as I stood at the front of the shuttle.
“All right, take your fingers off the trigger and look here! I am not going to repeat this!” I barked as people turned to face me.
“Take the magazine; insert it into the magwell, like this. It will click, telling you it is firmly in there.” A few dropped theirs. I pointed to those who’d obviously used weapons before by their relaxed stance, their barrel control, and the fact that their fingers were well away from the triggers.
“You, you, you, and you—spread out and help.” They nodded, turning to the group and assessing the worst off.
“If you’re resting, point the barrel at the ground and, for God’s sake, keep your damned finger off the trigger unless you want to kill someone,” I said.
A few people hastily aimed their weapons at the ground.
“Remember, only point at what you want to kill. Use your swords where possible. Those comfortable with rifles, use them. Messing around with a gun you don’t know how to use will get you killed.
“Everyone, grab a seat and keep those weapons pointed at the ground and your finger off the trigger!” I pointed to the few who knew weapons and pointed them to other shuttles. My impromptu lesson over, it was up to those who knew how to use weapons to educate those who didn’t.
“Educate them as much as possible.” Should’ve had Henry go over those lessons sooner rather than later. Fucking bastard Syndicates think of us as nothing more than mildly useful cattle.
I paused, realizing how I had already changed to believe the PDF was really the Syndicate. Though, how would it be possible for a military to exist on slaves alone for this long? Plus, with the PDF being multi-race, why would there be a caste system of singular races for anyone below the ship’s crew? I shook my head, clearing my thoughts as I clamped my feet to the shuttle’s floor and began talking through how to use the rail guns everyone was equipped with. They already knew how it worked through their lessons.
I wish the Syndicate thought it would be useful to teach us how to use weapons instead of how to mistrust our fellow humans.
I moved on with my display, hoping that enough of them got what I was telling them.
The shuttle sealed itself before maneuvering out of the bay and before the main engines came online. We sped out of the bay, accelerating as we bore down on the enemy vessels.
On our HUDs, a Sarenmenti officer appeared. “You are to kill all inhabitants; it is believed they are carrying a deadly toxin in their bodies to release on the general population of the free planets. Not one being may be left alive.
“My name is Turek and I am in charge of these two platoons. This is a temporary posting so don’t get used to me commanding you.” With that, the HUD went back to its normal settings.
So we were going to be killing the equivalent of space terrorists. We waited in silence. Though what Eddie and Resilient had told me kept coming back. I wondered whether they were really terrorists. The nerves now kicked in as I realized for the first time I was going to board an enemy ship in space in a Mecha.
This was the kind of scenario I’d gamed out in Mecha Assault Two, but now it was real. Here I could die. I was with people who didn’t know which was the right end of a rail gun and whom I had been fighting for months now. Any grudges they might have, I’d probably feel
by way of a “stray” round.
They probably felt the same way. We were so unorganized it was pitiful, and it didn’t look as though our officer was going to do anything about it. Grinding my teeth, I spoke up.
“All right, you and your partner will be a team. Five teams will make a section, ten will make a squad, and you already know the breakdown for platoons and companies.” I threw up a grid of the seats; different colors highlighted rows of ten people on my HUD, transmitting it to the rest in the shuttle. I really need to thank Shrift for these little tricks.
“Those the same color as you on this map are your section mates.” I threw up another one, now in numbers. I sighed as I recognized one Mecha.
“Those with the same number are in the same squad. You have a minute to pick a leader for both sections and squads.” I changed to a side channel.
“All right, Henry, this is your show.”
“You’re the boss; you were the one who laid down the rules for us,” he said, dumping responsibility right back at me and putting me again in the limelight and making me the easiest target for the others’ grievances.
“The fair fight crap?” I said angrily.
“Yeah, that stuff stopped a lot of brawls getting out of control. Those rules and words reminded us of our civility. No, Salchar, you’re the boss—I’ll follow you.”
I hadn’t realized how far my little saying had gone. When I’d been saying it, I was just hoping that the people opposite me wouldn’t kill me. Instead, it had spread like wildfire. Humans clasped on to that statement, which proved we had honor to one another; those who didn’t were left to get pounded by the enemy squads.
“What about the weapons stuff?”
“Don’t try to undercut yourself; we both know you just went over as much as possible. We’re attacking a ship; there should be hardly any opportunities for us to use our firearms.”
“All right, though stay alive. We’re starting those classes as soon as we get back to the Re...fuge.” I hoped he hadn’t caught my slip. I composed myself as the weight I hoped to be gone from my shoulders firmly landed back on them.
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