“Now, go get some rest and keep up that training. It will keep you alive in this galaxy.”
“You heard him—up you go!” I said as the commandos started to move.
I punched the manual override for the air lock. The pilots hadn’t bothered to open it in their mad race. The AMC walked out before we turned, waiting.
Steven Robertson was carried in his Mecha between four Mechas. We walked him to the center of the hangar. Thirteen other downed Mechas joined him.
No work was going on in the shuttle bay as Kuruvians and a few Sarenmenti joined us, watching the procession.
“If any of you have any words, please come forward before we send them on to their final resting place.” One by one, people said stories, laughing sadly, or talked about some memory they had of the deceased. I listened to all of them, all of their stories adding to the weight on my heart as Hitomi finally stepped forward.
“Steven was a good man. He was rough and always ready for a fight, but he would help someone if they were willing to accept his help. He was funny, loud, and a kind person.” Tears came to Hitomi’s eyes. She’d only taken off her gauntlets and helmet and it looked as if she was only standing because she was still wearing her Mecha.
“I have never met his family and friends; I have never met his mother or father. Yet, we here are his family. We were with each other in the worst of times and we trusted each other with our lives. I will meet his biological family to tell them about their son, but do not doubt both me and him call you our elected family.” She steeled herself as she looked out over the crowd. “For the AMC!”
“Oorah!” Marines in their previous lives roared, making up for those who didn’t know how to reply.
“They are lost but never forgotten!” I said. My eyes flashed in anger as I pointed down with my finger, declaring my convictions.
Everyone now knew the response.
“OORAH!”
Fresh tears sprouted from Hitomi’s eyes. The group of four still armored AMCs closed on the floating Steven Robertson. Hitomi fell in. Yasu appeared at her side for support as they walked out. Everyone in their way moved aside as they made their way to the missile tubes of the ship.
Once they’d walked out of the shuttle bay, I looked about at the AMCs around me.
“All right, once you’re out of your Mecha, get some food and rest as you need it. Instructors, follow the schedule in case anyone wants to do any training. That’s all.” I caught Henry’s eye as we nodded to each other before we continued to our separate armories. I knew he’d get everyone sorted out in quick time.
I went straight into my room, getting in the shower. I let the battery acid wash over me, trying to relax. It didn’t help much. Now that we were back on the ships, it wouldn’t be long before we were ready to start our little rebellion.
I left the washroom, going to grab a battle suit.
“Will you please put on some damned clothes?”
I jumped, landing in a fighting stance, seeing Yasu now covering her eyes with one hand.
“I didn’t hear you coming in!”
“Well, at least I wear a damn towel!”
“Sometimes,” I muttered.
“What was that?” she said dangerously, taking her hand away from her face before quickly replacing it after she’d realized what she’d done, blushing.
“I’m putting on my damned battle suit!” I said, doing just that and pressing the sealing tabs. “I’m dressed.” I squeezed past her, fleeing the room to find the safety of the armory.
“All right, Min Hae, what’ve you got for me?” I said, my heart beating rapidly in my chest.
“We have forums running on every ship, including the corvettes now.”
“Good. Have the training schedules and sleep training modules been taken and used?”
“Yes, everyone is training to fulfill basic crew positions; that way, they can help in the running of their ship.”
“Good. Try to get some extra people for critical positions so we can have more than one shift and in case someone is wounded or killed before they can use the systems. Do we know where we’re going yet?”
“A station called Parnmal. I checked the database; the thing is a damned fortress. This thing has more firepower than ten times all of our ships, including the five corvettes, three cruisers, and battleship that entered the system. Not to mention that they have planetary-based weapon units, not ship. Weapons that could gut a cruiser—the long way—with one hit. Lasers that are twenty times our imperial dreadnought’s range. The armor is a kilometer thick in places. That this criminal organization has such a facility in their control scares the bejezus out of me. This thing represents tens of planets’ outcome from what I can piece together and is the secondary base to the Syndicate’s home system on the other side of the border systems. It’s filled with armed and armored criminals. There are over ten thousand of them in the station at any given time. With at least twenty ships docked at a time. Meaning their numbers can be ten to eighty thousand at any time. Not including Sarenmenti, which are at least thirty times that number.”
“Why only ten thousand?”
“Well, with pirates, the less people to share the bounty, the bigger their share, right?”
“Makes sense. How long until we reach it?”
“A week.”
“Then that’s where we’re going to make these scum realize their mistake.”
“Yes, sir.” He looked pale as he looked down at the screen filled with the station’s information before he looked back up at me.
“Felix!” I yelled as he appeared behind a rack of Mechas.
“Commander?”
“Are the disablers good?”
“Yes, boss. We’ve got people putting them on Mechas on every ship.”
“Good work. What about the armory controls?”
“We don’t know about that; I believe we should practice to have to deal with the criminal part of the crew with hand-to-hand.”
I winced at the thought of fighting hand-to-hand against rail guns and whatever else the personal crew kept as weapons. “All right, keep working on it. We might need it. At least we’ve got a few of those pistols from Chaleel.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Min Hae, get as much detail on Parnmal as possible. Be ready to present your results at the meeting between all of the ship commanders.”
“Yes, sir.” He sounded a little nervous.
“You’ll do fine,” I said reassuringly as he nodded.
“Just like a meeting.”
“Exactly.” I grinned as I gave a two-finger salute before I left and entered the hangar. Henry and a few other instructors were about, with a few students, eager to learn more, wearing their Mechas.
“Damn, and I thought I was a glutton for punishment,” I said as Henry joined me by the armory door.
“Well, they now know the value of training after seeing how some of the ships that didn’t have training fared,” he said in his always gruff and business-like manner.
“That’s true, but I wish it wasn’t the reason. Hungry?”
“Famished.”
“Same here. Let’s go grab some food.”
Slop and Best Laid Plans
“Same old slop.” I raised a spoon of the mess’s finest, slurping it down as Henry nodded.
“Military food is always the worst.” He scooped some of the goop into his mouth.
“Got that right.” I followed suit.
Min Hae rushed through the mess hall to me and Henry, out of breath as he arrived. “Boss, you’ll never guess what I found out!”
“That you’re a leprechaun and there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?” This drew him up short as he looked at me with a perplexed look. I, in turn, studied the green goop that had decided to attach itself to the end of my spoon, shrugged and ate it.
Henry made some sounds of a mix between a laugh and him eating as Min Hae looked at me with a still confused look.
“I guess
not then. Please continue.”
“Uh, well.” He sat down, scanning for Sarenmenti. Not seeing any, he continued. “I found out that we can program the computer to open doors for us by hacking the friend-or-foe identification tag implanted in us. I also found we can put bells on them when someone comes close to them, warning people on the other side.”
He had my attention. I leaned forward. “So we could find out if an assault team is building up outside a door? Or an irate wife?”
“Yes...wait, what?” His confused expression returned.
“Well, this is good news. Well, since you’re here, get Henry updated on the Parnmal station. I already have a few ideas but might as well start thinking before the meeting tomorrow at ten hundred.”
Min Hae pulled out a data pad, showing a labeled outline of Parnmal station and the surrounding, largely abandoned, star system that held massive asteroid mining facilities in eight rings all at different angles to the eclipse of the system, with Parnmal belonging in the third ring away from the center.
Quickly and efficiently, he highlighted the weapon systems, then the different kinds including PD systems for missiles. He detailed the defense grid and the docking bays for ships. Where the armor was weakest, and strongest.
Henry asked a flurry of pointed questions to things I hadn’t even thought of, such as the weapons arcs, areas not covered by shielding, the effects of hitting a shield. They continued on as I quickly finished my meal.
“Well, I’m going to hit the hay. Record your conversation so I can listen to it later.”
“Night, boss,” Henry said with a wave, not looking up. “So how close are the shields to the hull of the station?”
I knew he was fully engrossed with his task.
“Well, the station is actually an asteroid but it’s usually ten or so meters. In places like the docking area, it’s kilometers big.”
“You two should get a room,” I snipped, getting a few laughs around the mess as I quickly left them to talk. A few jokes are just what the commandos needed to hear after our last engagement, and with the one coming up. Well, I was being reminded that life was short.
“Yasu, are you awake?” I asked tentatively as I walked in the room. The lights turned on, showing that I was the only one in the room and awake. I checked the bathroom and with an excited grin, jumped on the bed. I luxuriated in the feeling of the mattress as it conformed to me as I moved, stretching out on the bed and pulling the thin sheet, which adjusted to my body’s temperature, making it comfortably warm.
“Hey, Resilient?”
“Yes?” Her liquid voice came over the intercom.
“Can you tell me before someone enters the room?”
“Like your wife?”
“Yup, that would be the one.”
“Done. Anything else?”
I had a ton of other questions—where she was from, where were the other warships that had helped the Union—but sleep was catching up with me. Instead, I just went with the biggest thing on my mind.
“Can you put any information you have on Parnmal at Min Hae’s discretion?”
“Done.”
I paused as I collected my thoughts, my brain weary as the Wake-Up was quickly wearing off. “Do you think that we’ll be able to take Parnmal?”
“Usually I would say no, but you humans are very adept at turning the tide of probability.”
“Cowards wait for fate to guide them,” I said, repeating the full phrase of my mantra as the Wake-Up diminished and I fell into a sleep so deep not even the nightmares could find me.
***
It had been two nerve-racking days since we entered the third and final system. It looked just as the previous two had—lifeless and barren except for a sun and an asteroid belt. That made up the system.
Now we were connecting with the other ship commanders in preparation of our assault. In a few hours, we would either be dead or fighting for our very lives. We were only risking this now a few hours before the attack as we didn’t know whether the ship’s crew would pick up on something.
Everyone was on edge as I and the command group of the Resilient sat in the maintenance hub, which had turned into the entire commandos’ command center. Everyone was briefed and in the time we’d had, we’d trained as much as possible. Everyone was tired and nervous and with two days until we got to Parnmal, sleep was the last thing on our minds.
“All right Min Hae, how’s it looking?” I asked, trying to keep my face clear of the nervousness I felt.
“We’re all set. Ship commanders coming online,” Min Hae said as the main screen began populating with ship commanders.
“I haven’t commended both your and Felix’s people on the communications being able to transmit video yet, thank you.” I inclined my head to them. Both Felix and Min Hae looked embarrassed.
“It’s nothing, sir. Just doing our part and it helped to train our people on systems they’ll need to know after this,” Felix supplied.
“Still, good work, and that goes for all of you and your people who have pushed them so much since our departure from Chaleel,” I said to the room. Henry visibly straightened. Yasu’s expression was unwavering. Eddie and Shrift—representing the Kuruvians onboard the Golden Refuge and the other ships—looked proud, no matter how much effort it had taken me to get them to attend this meeting in the first place; those on the main screen also visibly straightened.
I focused my attention on the view screen.
It was split into seven, with all of the ship commanders and their own command teams waiting. Where I had five people on my staff, they had three: one the Mecha commander and usually second in command, a Kuruvian for engineering, and a third in control of the people who had been trained for technical specific jobs such as bridge crew and gunnery crew. In the future, I knew it would expand, but for our limited manpower and responsibilities, it worked.
I hid my nervousness with a grin before I started. “All right, ladies and gentlemen, it’s nearly time. We have—” I looked at Min Hae, who held up three fingers.
“Three hours until we reach the station; ready your Mechas and check that everyone has their disabler connected and prepped. Our internal kill switches have all passed through our systems, as uncomfortable as that was.” My face screwed up in discomfort as grins spread across the screens.
Eddie had created an injection with Resilient, which had gone through our systems, feeling like ants crawling through our bloodstreams, destroying the kill switch and pain implants, depositing the collection in our waste systems. The head had never been so popular, with lines at them for days. Eddie had happily said how the waste incinerator could power the entire ship as his Kuruvians just shrugged the waste off with a peeling.
“Remember your jobs, the plan, and your training. As you all know, I wish we had more time to train, but I know our people can do this. They came to our house and played about; it’s about time we showed them what happens when someone messes with our house,” I said with vehemence.
Hungry looks came back at me from around the room; the commandos had been crafted into a deadly and proficient force. There was still room to grow, but the veterans left—if any of us survived—would be among the best.
“All right, let’s go over some key points. Rick, you’ll be my second-in-command. If I die, you’ll take over. Monk, third; Cheerleader, fourth.” I’d offered fourth to Henry but he’d declined; he’d said he already had too much responsibility managing all of the commandos.
“But Salchar—” Cheerleader pouted. She’d been up to her antics as soon as I’d gotten in contact with her. Privately, I was happy to deal with normal issues, though this was not the place.
“In Sook,” I said with a soft but firm stare. I could see Yasu was pleased with In Sook’s reprimand out of the corner of my eye.
“Oh, all right. You better see me right after this!” She pointed fiercely, squinting at me to make sure I knew to do as she said—or fall under her wrath.
“Ne yeod
ongsaeng,” I said, lapsing into Korean. She continued her pout again, now with her hands on her hips. She hated when I called her younger sister.
“If there’s anything else?” I looked at them.
They shook their heads. They’d been over the plan countless times now and we were prepared as we could ever be.
“Good luck to you and your crews. Let’s tell the universe what humans and the AMC’s all about.”
Rick drew himself up, snapping out a two-finger salute that would’ve done any drill sergeant proud. The other commanders joined in with close precision, including Monk and Cheerleader. They’d apparently been practicing, much to my chagrin, as I tried my best to return the gesture, my pride in them soured by my own inability to snap out a salute to be proud of. Well, if I survived the upcoming battle, I’d be damned well learning how to salute!
Min Hae cut the channel as I turned to the people in the room.
“Get everyone ready and in position in an hour and a half. Then get the advanced party—”
“We know the plan, Salchar,” Henry said.
I found comfort in his deep and confident voice. “I know, I know,” I said, frustrated.
A grin appeared on more than one face.
I threw my hands up in the air. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands. Now I’m going to get in my Mecha.”
Henry screwed his face up. “Wouldn’t it make it easier for us to secure the ships if you stay onboard?”
“Henry, I’m not going to make my people go out there and risk their lives when I’m not willing to do so myself.” My tone was soft, but there was no doubt of the iron in it.
“Yes, sir.” His face fell as I walked out of the room and into armory three, where I began putting my Mecha on, latch by latch.
Yasu began doing the same with her Mecha, not looking at me as the others filed out to their jobs.
“Are we going to win?” she said after a few minutes.
“Who the hell knows?” I said flippantly, annoyed how my team wanted me to stay on the nice safe ship while they were charging the enemy head on.
“You’re the man with the plan, the head honcho, and the one who’s planned four steps ahead. I know that you had that information about who the captain and his crew were associated with. In training, making us train with one another and not turn into monsters by killing one another. How long have you been planning to take over these ships?”
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