Maelstrom of Treason

by Michael Anderle

  “No one’s driving them,” she exclaimed. “But why… Oh. Squad, line up and prepare to fire.”

  “Fire on civilians?” one of her squadmates. “Ma’am, these aren’t rebels.”

  “They aren’t anyone! It’s a trap. Nothing but holograms.” Jia reset her visual feed, expanded her shield, and brought up her rifle after setting the drone to keep pace with the convoy. “Prepare to fire.”

  “We can’t follow that order, ma’am.”

  Jia groaned. “Fine. Just stay out of my way.” She advanced and waited, holding her breath.

  The trucks accelerated and grew closer, now visible as more than dark splotches in the distance. Jia lacked a grenade launcher on her simulated exo, so she adjusted her rifle to automatic and then opened fire, spraying back and forth. She spotted sparks in the small drone feed she maintained in the corner of her eye. She was hitting the trucks. A massive explosion ripped through one truck and consumed a second. She hissed in surprise and ceased fire.

  “There’s no way that should have blown up like that from my shots,” Jia declared. “They’re bombs. Open fire!”

  Some of the squad opened fire, but some didn’t. More trucks exploded, launching balls of flame into the air amid massive plumes of smoke. Jia kept up her fire, destroying another truck. The remaining vehicles were spaced out, smoking but more than enough to wipe out the squad. Convergent fire from her squadmates set off another truck. She killed another, and then another, leaving the last barreling right toward them. She doubted their shields could protect them from an explosion as large as what she’d just seen.

  “Everyone back off!” Jia charged the truck, bullets flying near her on both sides. She keyed in an ejection sequence and activated the jump thrusters. Her suit flew into the air, the arc carrying toward the truck bomb. She entered the final command and the back of the exo opened, releasing her. Her body tumbled, the odd shaking accompanying her spinning not quite right—a limitation of Lanara’s lower-budget, quick-production VR system.

  The exo collided with the truck. The vehicle burst apart in a massive plume of smoke and fire, parts shooting everywhere. Jia hit the ground, wincing as her chair’s arm tightened to simulate the collision. The smoke stopped rising, and it took Jia a moment to realize the simulation was paused.

  “That hurt,” she muttered, rubbing her arm.

  “No risk means bad training,” Erik commented. “If this had been real, you would probably have snapped your arm in half from that impact, but it was a smart move. If they’d planned to ambush you right away, they already would have, so it’s better to sacrifice one exo than get killed or lose people. That’s something a lot of new recruits in Assault Infantry have trouble absorbing. They get used to thinking of the exo as their own body, forgetting it’s just another weapon in the end. It’s more expensive than a rifle, but that doesn’t mean it’s not disposable when the time comes.”

  “But where is the APC?”

  “They ran away the same way they came,” Erik explained.

  “That’s not what the briefing said,” Jia complained. She sighed. “Never mind. It’s not like we expected nanozombies on that station, either. I should extend my real-life paranoia into these training sessions.”

  Erik laughed. “Now you’re getting it.”

  Jia lifted her VR helmet from her head, blinking at the bright lights in the cargo bay. She reached down to unfasten her seat harness. “Have you ever had to do something like that?”

  “Like what?” Erik asked.

  Jia stood and rubbed her arm again. “Eject from an exo while launching it toward a truck bomb.”

  Erik grinned and patted his right arm. “Yeah. That’s how I know you would have snapped your arm in half.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  November 13, 2229, near Unity City, the Capital of Mars

  The Pegasus shook lightly as the craft descended toward the surface.

  The team, except for Lanara, was clustered in the tiny cockpit, taking in the view. For millennia, Mars had been the red planet, but even though plenty of the red remained—a reminder of the planet’s former desolate existence—patches of brown and green spread out below and extended in all directions.

  Unity City lay on the horizon, a blur at this distance.

  Cutter’s fingers flew over the controls. “Sahoma Control, this is LLT5542, requesting docking permission and nav path.” He nodded a few times to a voice only he and Emma could hear. “Roger that. Adjusting course. Thanks. We’re happy to be here.”

  The ship’s lateral thrusters fired, and Cutter leveled out the ship smoothly.

  They continued heading toward the city, their sensor display revealing a sky filled with ships. On some days, Erik was amazed paranoia hadn’t convinced people to let only AI fly spacecraft, but he was also glad. He might trust Emma, but he didn’t trust a normal AI. For all her differences, Emma shared one important trait with a human: she didn’t want to die and would do everything she could to prevent that. Erik didn’t think of that as fear.

  He thought of it as a survival instinct.

  Jia frowned. “Our first real assignment, and we’ve come in with a fraudulent registry. I was a cop only a couple of weeks ago.” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “Alina was right. I really won’t be able to go back.”

  The ID agent had sent them a message the day prior providing cover identities. Erik didn’t care, but he wasn’t surprised Jia was having trouble.

  Nobody changed their mental paradigm overnight, and even if she’d learned to be more flexible in the last year, that wasn’t the same thing as not caring about the law. It was time to provide context.

  “Think about how many fake IDs Alina has used throughout the years,” Erik suggested. “Sometimes you need to bend the rules for the greater good. When you’re chasing someone who operates outside the system, you do too. You know the reality as well as I do. If the conspiracy could be caught by normal law enforcement, it already would have.”

  “I know,” Jia grumbled. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  “Feel free to complain to HR if it makes you feel better.” Erik smiled as she glared at him.

  “We have no HR department,” she pointed out.

  “I know. Isn’t it grand?”

  They passed over small domes, vestiges of the original colonization efforts. They had been erected in tight formations linked by transport tubes. Dust and vines covered the abandoned structures, and Erik was surprised to see that the relics of the past remained so close to the modern city.

  Red and orange gave way to greenery.

  The city came into view. Unity City might not be Neo SoCal, but the settlement stretched across their view, extending kilometers in every direction, near-perfect squares of green and blue alternating with dense blocks of black and gray buildings. Many extended into the sky, impressive in their height compared to almost anywhere but Neo SoCal.

  Unlike on the moon, plenty of flitters filled the sky, along with drones of every size and shape. Large blue pyramids dominated the landscape, festooned with grav towers and vents on top. They were part of the complicated network of systems that kept the gravity and atmospheric composition near the city close to Earth norms.

  Over a hundred years of terraforming had given Mars a decent atmosphere, but humanity’s technological help was still needed.

  Erik barely understood the array of satellites and massive shields set up in orbit and at the Martian Lagrange points, but from what he’d heard, they reflected sunlight onto Mars and protected it from magnetic particles, respectively. Those helped keep the planet warmer and protect the atmosphere.

  Mars might not become Earth, but they had a good start on making it close. Humanity didn’t want to fundamentally change itself for other worlds and had decided to force those worlds to serve them.

  Erik inclined his head toward the back door. “Remember to bring a breather if you leave the city. You won’t die, but outside of that oxygen field, it’s like be
ing up on a tall mountain on Earth.”

  “Lungs are so unfortunate,” Emma suggested. “Let me clarify: human bodies are unfortunate.”

  Jia took a deep breath and held as if savoring the oxygen. “How sure are we concerning this private hangar?”

  Cutter offered a thumbs-up. “It’s fine. No one will have direct access to this ship but Customs. That’s one nice thing about working for Alina. Luxury treatment.”

  “According to what she said, technically everything we have aboard right now except Emma is legal because of Erik’s weapons dealer license,” Jia commented. “Surprisingly, even the grenades. It’s nice not to have to add smuggling to my new experiences.”

  “Don’t worry.” Erik grinned. “We’ll get you there. Next time we can pack some Archangel.”

  “Funny.” Jia punched him lightly in the shoulder.

  “Everything we do, we do for the UTC,” Erik intoned in mock solemnity. “And revenge, but hey, this time revenge helps the UTC. Everyone wins, except the people we’re going to take down.” He chuckled. “But screw them.”

  Cutter decelerated further and brought the ship lower. They zoomed over the outskirts of the city, the towering buildings in the center now higher than them.

  All of the roads and blocks beneath them had been perfectly planned and arranged, squares and rectangles like a gigantic sliding puzzle. Countless tall, spidery trees aligned in careful rows grew everywhere.

  “Huh,” Jia murmured. “It’s different than I expected. It’s not like I haven’t seen pictures, but seeing this live has an emotional impact pictures don’t.”

  Cutter glanced at her. “This your first time on Mars?”

  “First time going anywhere other than the moon,” Jia admitted. “And that is nothing but domes and tunnels. This, though? It’s stunning in a way. Awe-inspiring.”

  “Huh?” Cutter’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t take his attention away from his landing. “It’s nothing compared to Neo SoCal.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jia replied firmly. “Mars was dead.”

  Cutter frowned. “But the Navigators used to live here, right?”

  Jia shook her head. “We found artifacts, but no sign of a colony or a city. For all we know, a ship crashed here. But even if they did live here, that was a million years ago. Humanity used its collective knowledge and came together to bring a dead world back to life. We’ve still got a ways to go, but it’s halfway there. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  “It’s nice to be able to breathe,” Cutter offered.

  “So,” Erik began, “in other words, we’re landing on a zombie planet.”

  Jia folded her arms. “A zombie planet? Seriously?”

  “It’s half-dead, half-alive. Sounds like a zombie to me.”

  “Just give me a few more minutes, and we’ll be on the ground,” Cutter announced. “Watch out for your brains!”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Erik jogged down the open cargo ramp.

  The private hangar was larger than he’d expected. It could have easily accommodated a larger vessel, but other than that, there was nothing spectacular about it, nor was it different from hundreds of other hangars he’d seen in his life.

  Two drones covered in antennae and dishes hovered near the base of the ramp, waiting to inspect the ship. He tapped his PNIU. One zoomed away to slowly fly along the exterior of the ship. The other moved into the cargo bay.

  Jia ducked out of the way and joined Erik. She wrinkled her nose. “You remember when you were complaining about the taste of food on the moon?”

  “Yeah? What about it? I haven’t even had a chance to taste the local food here so I could bitch about.”

  “I think my thing is the air.” Jia sniffed. “The moon, here, that station. It’s not like there’s something in particular, but I can tell they don’t smell the same as on Earth. And it’s not just about being in different places. The air smells right in both Neo SoCal and Central Florida. The air here smells wrong.”

  Erik shrugged. “If you say so.” He sniffed a few times. “Smells fine to me.”

  Jia brought up a map of Unity City on her PNIU.

  She pointed to smaller settled areas outside the main city limits. Some were close to old domes, but some weren’t. “The gravity situation is a lot more fluid away from the main city. According to this, there are a lot of pockets of original Martian gravity very close to the city.”

  “That’s pretty common on colonies.” Erik shrugged. “This might be one of the first places we colonized, but until we reverse-engineer a grav field gadget that can change an entire planet’s gravity, that’s the way it’s got to be.”

  “That might complicate things, depending on where we need to go,” Jia mused. Her eyes darted around as she took in different parts of the map. “I couldn’t memorize the entire map, but I did study it. That should help.”

  His mouth was open for a moment before he asked. “You tried to memorize the entire map of Unity City? For real? We have PNIU access and AI help.”

  “It helps to have a baseline of knowledge to get the most out of the assistance,” Jia countered with a shake of her finger.

  One drone emerged from the cargo bay. The second drone finished its external sweep. They flew off in formation, disappearing into a vent in the wall.

  “Sahoma Customs says we’re clear,” Cutter transmitted. “Welcome to Unity City. Better Red than dead and all that.”

  Erik nodded toward the cargo bay. “Let’s go talk in there. I’m guessing Emma can secure it better.”

  “Indeed,” the AI commented.

  They headed into the cargo bay. Lanara was already waiting, leaning against a wall, her arms folded. Cutter stepped through the crew quarters door with a smile.

  “We’ve got leads to check out,” Erik announced once they were inside and Emma had given the go-ahead. “We have no idea how long it’s going to take. I’ve booked rooms under our false names. I’m not going to tell you to live there, but it’d be helpful if you spent most of your time there in case we need to leave quickly.”

  Lanara folded her arms. “That’s inefficient.”

  “Getting caught by terrorists is pretty inefficient,” Erik countered.

  “No, the hotel room. I have a better solution.”

  “Go ahead and offer it then.”

  Lanara inclined her head toward the crew quarters. “I’ve got a bed in there and food. I’m going to stay here. It makes no sense to waste money and time having me stay in a hotel.”

  “We have no idea how long this will take.” Jia gestured at the ramp. “It could be over in an hour, or it could take weeks. You want to sleep on the ship for weeks?”

  “I have a bed and food,” Lanara repeated. “Besides, I’m still working on all sorts of improvements. There’s still reactor efficiency, modifying the VR, making the thrusters more responsive, grav field modu—”

  “Fine.” Jia waved a hand. “Knock yourself out.” She glanced at Cutter. “I can’t imagine you want to stay on the ship.”

  Cutter shrugged. “Why not? I’m a pilot. I’m used to being on ships. The food printer ain’t half bad, and there’s far less chance of me getting shot if I’m on the ship. Maybe if I chat up Lanara, she’ll soften up.”

  “Unlikely,” the engineer declared.

  Emma appeared next to Cutter, smirking. “Pilot Durn, I regret to remind you that you got shot while staying near the ship. You might be safer in the hotel.”

  “Sure, but that was on a prison station. They’re going to go blow stuff up way away from here.”

  Erik shrugged and headed toward the MX 60, which they’d registered ahead of time to get their transport permit. Most of his standard weapons, including the laser rifle, were stored in the flitter, along with Emma. They had almost everything they needed, even if they ran into trouble. Using their toys could cause issues, depending on the situation. His license allowed possession and transportation of heavy weapons, but that didn’t allow him
to open fire wherever he wanted.

  Lanara sprinted toward Erik, skidding to a halt in front of his face and speaking rapidly. “I was talking to Emma, and we made some modifications. The grav emitter control system has been modified to be more dynamic. That will make it less effective on Earth, but I can adjust it before we go back. While we’re on Mars, it’ll help keep performance smooth when you transition outside a grav field zone to normal Martian gravity. Same thing with the thrusters. You might notice slight handling issues, perhaps a 0.2 percent difference, especially with any later—”

  He put up a hand. “In other words, you customized the MX 60 for Mars,” Erik summarized.

  Lanara nodded once. “Yes. That’s an efficient summary. Good job.”

  “Thanks.” Erik reached for his door and stopped. “Damn.” He turned back. “The disguises. Since we’re using fake IDs, we better use them. Let’s go get them and head out.”

  Erik half-believed the partial disguises with their mild modifications of facial features were more effective than Alina’s complicated efforts. Sometimes the easiest way to slip past someone was to lower their suspicions. He would have preferred to look at Jia’s normal face, but hints of the beautiful face he appreciated remained, despite the difference in shape.

  Three days there and three back in a cramped ship might have been fun under other circumstances, but they weren’t alone. They definitely needed a bigger ship with private rooms.

  “Before we go check—” he began.

  A loud knock sounded from a door near the back of the hangar.

  “There are six men in colorful suits outside the hangar,” explained Emma. “According to the door camera. I do not have direct access to the local police facial recognition database, but one man has inadvertently revealed a weapon while gesticulating to his friends.”

  “They work quickly,” Erik commented.

  “You think it’s whoever took out Sukorn?” Jia asked.