“Full circle,” Gokhead said in awe of the destruction.
“What’s that?” Blazer asked.
“In olden times, the most destructive weapon any enemy had were catapults. They used those to launch boulders at their enemies, crushing fortress walls. Now, centuries later, and our most effective weapon is once again throwing giant rocks.”
Gavit laughed at that. “And leave it to the Marines to be the best at smashing their enemies’ heads in with them. Gives you a whole new appreciation for rocks and them.”
UCSB Date 1003.253
Cell 113, Gorvian Prison Ship-006, Star System: Unknown
The cramped, dank cell held six men on flimsy wire-framed bunks which offered just enough support to hold their diminished weights. Screams echoed through the cage-like door from the other prisoners the Gorvians were performing their diabolical experiments on. Hundreds of such cages filled this vault alone; stacked up along the walls like grotesque kennels. The dim lights beyond the cage did little to illuminate it. The oscillating lights merely accentuated the shadows, playing on the prisoners’ frayed psyches.
None of the cell’s occupants dared speak as they sat on their bunks in quiet terror. They’d long since learned what speaking out of turn would get them; swift retribution from the guard’s electrified stun baton. All of them bore the scars of the burns they’d received when the cage would be electrified around them. The whole space stank of seared flesh, but even it wasn’t as bad as that which awaited them in the ‘white room.’
The door out of the chamber sprung open and a blinding shaft of light streaked in. Shielding his bloodshot eyes, Dwar Renwar squinted into the light to spy shapes stirring within. Lights shone off the metal operating table; took on a red tinge as it haloed the form of a female Lodran upon it. They’d peeled her skin back to expose her every muscle and organ. She wasn’t even dead, mumbling to herself incoherently. The monsters hadn’t even sedated her. Instead they’d pumped her full of stims while they’d prodded her internal organs. They needed her awake to study her reactions.
Dwar’s rage threatened to override his senses as he observed the cruel experiment. He wished he could do something, anything. It wouldn’t matter if it cost him his life, not if he could end her pain. His anger continued building as another Gorvian eclipsed the light of the White Room. A gasp from a nearby cell made him look down at the pathetic creature that stumbled in at the Gorvian’s feet.
The dark exoskeletoned Shinekian who’d preceded its captor was a mere shell of its former self. Under any other circumstances he’d find the visage of the Shinekian intimidating. Standing in front of a Gorvian four times its size made it look like a beaten pet. They’d ravaged the Shinekian. The exoskeleton looked as if it would fall away from the atrophied muscles beneath at any moment; its right arm had already gone. He stumbled, unable to keep up the pace before the Gorvian kicked him, the hollow sound reverberating about the chamber. It disgusted Dwar, but he couldn’t look away from the grim spectacle.
A look that might have been disgust twisted the Gorvian’s face when it had to reach down to lift the Shinekian into a nearby cell. It opened the next cell over and pulled out an emaciated Fershing. The lizard-like being skittered across the floor towards the white room. Scars across her back showed how hard the Gorvians had worked to beat the fight out of the overly curious creature.
Dwar didn’t want to think about what would come next. The torture and experimentation were neverending and they’d all seen the results of the earliest experiments. Dwar tried his best not to look at the far corner in the remaining light, but he couldn’t help himself. The corpse of his wingman still lay atop the pile of bodies, putrefied flesh sloughing away onto those below. He wasn’t even whole. Where his leg had once been, the Gorvians had grafted the leg of a Chret. The resulting infection had ended his life over a decle earlier. The sight was meant to break their spirits, but in Dwar it had only hardened his resolve to find a means to escape and tell the Confederation of these atrocities.
Debriefing room
The entire briefing was little more than a blur, Marda unable to concentrate on either Blazer’s or Tadeh Qudas’ words. She had to have almost every question asked of her repeated; her focus remained on her micomm. She reached down and adjusted the medical diagnostic tag at her waist. The data it relayed made two things clear; her conception blocks were gone, and she was definitely pregnant.
She couldn’t help but look around at the others. A standard medical scan wouldn’t reveal the condition of their blocks; that required a more focused test. The bigger question remained of how it had happened. She knew for certain that she and Blazer hadn’t requested that their blocks be deactivated. While they wanted children, now wasn’t the time. The readout in her micomm indicated that the baby was around eight decles old. That would place the conception right after their first mission on the Planet Slicer.
“If there’s nothing else,” Tadeh Qudas said, pulling Marda back into the moment. That was his usual cue for questions as the end of a briefing.
Marda didn’t even wait and stood. “I think we all need to get full medical scans.”
Blazer turned a concerned eye to his wife. She’d kept the pregnancy secret even from him, and he’d begun to see through her evasion of his questions and concerns. “We’ve already done that when we went through decontamination.”
“I’m thinking deeper level scans. I’ve figured out why I was at less than optimum performance during the mission,” she replied, careful with her words.
“Are you sick?” Tadeh Qudas asked.
“No,” Marda replied and realized that her hand had fallen to her still flat belly. From the corner of her eye she caught Chris’ wide-eyed reaction. “I believe that the Gorvians might have some form of nanoprobe deactivation system aboard the Planet Slicer. It didn’t affect our micomms because those require a very specific command coding to deactivate. It may however have affected other nanos that have less secure deactivation protocols.”
Blazer’s face screwed up first in confusion, and then in questioning wonderment.
Marda nodded and sent Blazer the image of their growing child within her over the micomm link.
Blazer bucked at the podium, as if ready to run and take her in his arms. He held fast instead and looked out over the team. “I concur. We all need deeper level scans immediately, especially anyone who had suit breaches or who opened their MeG-CEs.” Blazer couldn’t help but smile as he looked back at Marda. “Do you want to show them why?”
Marda thought on that a long moment while Tadeh Qudas fixed her with an impassive stare. The others’ faces were filled with concern. She nodded and tapped into the holoprojector, sending it the image of the baby. The room when dead silent in response. “I’m pregnant. There’s a good chance that my blocks were deactivated, as were Blazer’s, aboard the Planet Slicer during our first mission.”
Everyone in the room looked around in shock, some laughing nervously. Marda could guess why. With the exception of Arion, she doubted any of them had celibate after their first mission to the Planet Slicer. Even Chris appeared concerned despite the precautions she’d taken since she didn’t have conceptions blocks in place, in defiance of Confederation law. The reason behind her lack of blocks was now one of rebellion, but a secret kept amongst her Chamalad people. The blocks rendered them permanently infertile, even after their deactivation.
Tadeh Qudas stepped up, drew their eyes. “Everyone to medical, now!”
UCSB Date 1003.282
Simulator Bay, UCSBSB-162, Veglid System
The Explosions stormed the passageway of the Gorvian Cruiser. Suppressive fire rained from both directions as Porc’s MeG-CE rushed the Gorvian line. A single Gorvian leapt out to engage him and Porc raised his arm to strike. There was a moment’s hesitation and Porc looked at his forearm. That was all the Gorvian needed and it attacked, plunging a sword into the chest of Porc’s mech suit.
B
lazer winced at the scene. This was the fifth round of simulator combat he’d overseen for the Explosions. He tapped the side of his head to activate his micomm.
Blazer shook his head and laid a hand on Acknit’s shoulder as he worked the console. “Can you reprogram the system to trigger his monomolecular cutter to his natural blade claw commands?”
Acknit navigated several menus, tapped a few keys then looked back up. The simulated form of the Explosions stood there awaiting their next attempt. “Try it now Porc.”
Porc did as commanded, extending and retracting his monomolecular blade several times. “It’ll do. I don’t know how you all manage this.”
Blazer cocked an eyebrow at that. “Trevis are all of you having these issues?”
“Aye. We all be having trouble adjusting.”
“Why?”
“We be used to each other's differences. Our tactics be relying on them.”
Blazer hadn’t considered that. While most of the Blade Force was Anulian, Gokhead’s MeG-CE featuring Drashig knees, the Explosions were a mix of Tomeris and Nerzain. The Tomeris towered over the smaller Nerzain. Strength versus agility. The MeG-CEs balanced the field. “All right then, it’s back to basics. Remember Tadeh Qudas’ earliest instructions to us all. Acknit, Mikle. Let’s reset and get them ready to go again.”
“Sounds good boss. Give me about twenty pulses,” Acknit replied.
“So why are we pushing the Explosions so hard here Blazer?” Mikle asked from his seat beside Acknit.
“The prison ships mostly. If we get to go after one there’ll be no way to move that many people without taking the ship. We’ll need a ship capture team, and I’d rather have the Explosions with us than a team we don’t know.”
Mikle nodded. “And what about Marda? Are we thinking of borrowing one of their medics.?”
Blazer looked at the Explosions as they awaited the system reset. Each of their three fire teams had a field medic; Telsh the most experienced and skilled of any of them. “We’ll start integration training with Telsh soon. It shouldn’t be that hard a transition. She knows our style.”
Macomm in hand, Marda strode through the door, a bump beginning to show on her abdomen. She took one look around, set her macomm aside, and marched right up to the console. “I don’t think so. They’ve been in there all cycle and need a rest,” she ordered. “You know how the system keeps you pumped up the whole time. They’ll burn out.”
What was it the admiral used to say? ‘Don’t upset the pregnant lady.’ Blazer conceded and turned to Acknit. “You heard the lady. Pull them out.”
Mikle twisted about in his seat to look at the couple as Blazer took Marda’s hand and felt the growing bump. “Someone please remind me why we’re doing this instead of Gokhead? I mean, I don’t mind picking up the flying slack and covering Blazer’s wing since you’re out of the cockpit. But this,” he said motioning into the simulator bay as technicians helped the Explosions out of their pods. “This is more his thing.”
Marda pulled away from Blazer and leveled a finger at Mikle. “You’re not picking up my slack. You’re being given the opportunity to fly my husband’s wing and improve your chances at promotion.”
Mikle just shrugged and turned back to the console. “If you say so,” he began and winked at the console.
“Mikle. Don’t take holos in here,” Blazer snapped.
“I was just getting one of Acknit. I didn’t get the console. See,” he replied and sent the image to Blazer over the micomm. “I figured his folks would like to see it, since he hardly ever calls them.”
Acknit just shrugged. “He knows what he can and can’t image. Oh Marda, did all the test results come back?”
Marda nodded and laid a hand on her belly. “Yes. They finished testing all the prisoners too. Their results were the same as ours. The Gorvians have some form of airborne hyperfertility drug in their air supply. I was exposed to it when I helped the prisoners. Chris when she helped me out of my suit, along with most of the technicians who serviced my suit. Blazer when we,” Marda blushed, “celebrated the win. Then Gokhead when he exited his suit this last mission.”
Mikle laughed and turned back. “Good, otherwise I might have fathered a few kids. Thank goodness my blocks are still in place.”
Blazer just shook his head. He hated to lie to his teammates like this, but most still didn’t know about Chris’ fake conception blocks. The fertility drugs in the air worried him though. Why would the Gorvians want to get their soldiers pregnant so much, and how many did we kill that were? He didn’t want to think about that, especially not with his pregnant wife beside him.
“But anyway, back to my earlier question. Where is Gokhead lately anyway?” Mikle asked again.
Blazer shrugged. “I don’t really know what he’s up to. None of us have been read into the project that he, Tadeh Qudas and Que-Dee are into. All I know is that they’re holed up in one of the spare communications nodes all the time.”
“Comm node? What are they doing in there?” Mikle asked, sitting up straighter.
“Like I said, no idea. Might have something to do with that package they inserted, but I can’t be sure.”
Mikle rubbed at his chin and turned to Acknit. “Strange. I hate all this sneaky stuff we get into sometimes. Though I’m surprised they haven’t asked Acknit or Bichard to help them out, if it’s a communications thing.”
Marda took Blazer’s hand and placed it to her belly. “Darn, missed it. Anyway, I just came to check up on you guys and make sure you all get something to eat. Speaking of which, Blazer. Take me to lunch.”
Blazer smiled, sorry he had missed the fluttery kick. He tended to. He kissed Marda’s hand and turned her towards the door. “Let’s go. And you guys get something to eat too.”
Communications Bay 12, UCSBS Mercy
Gokhead’s frustration continued to mount as he pulled off his interface helmet and set it aside. He’d hoped that being amongst the rest of the fleet would have helped his search for the source of the mysterious carrier signal, or its intended recipient. Instead it had made things worse. The presence of so many ships had given the carrier wave more ships to jump to. So far, the only ships which appeared to go unaffected were Galactic Federation’s. If the signal was of Galactic Federation origin that made sense. With all the communications traffic between the two fleets, any spy wouldn’t even have to bother with the carrier signal if they were clever. Whoever inserted this signal was.
“Que-Dee, please tell me that you have something, anything.”
The little robot remained silent for a moment, turned to face him. “Just the same conclusion that you don’t want to face. The source is aboard the Mercy.”
Gokhead sat back and considered that. Worse than it being someone on the Mercy, it could be someone within their own squadron. “Do you have any clue who it might be?”
“Therein lies the problem. If we consider that our mystery person inserted this into the engines and shields, how they did so we have yet to figure out, then they must have a high technical proficiency. In addition, we assume that they went to the academy and graduated with you. Taking that into account, the individual may not even be aboard the ship anymore.”
That piqued Gokhead’s interest. “What do you mean?”
“Before we detected the waveform’s presence at least ten members of your academy class visited the Mercy. Of those, four were stationed aboard Blue Force transports. Two of those possessed the technical background to possibly insert the signal. Given that we still don’t know how it was done…”
“I understand, but why rule out Red Force cadets?”
“Vocal and physical analysis of Red Force personnel when we asked them about the waveform. Cadet Chertsin and his crew had no knowledge of the waveform when it was addressed.”
“I understand. What if this isn’t as nefarious as we’re thinking? What if this is just so
me weird filesharing system that some cadets have cooked up. Could any of those Blue Force cadets have done it?”
“One,” Que Dee replied. “But he’s dead, killed at As’Tril.”
Gokhead scratched at his arm, and a tuft of hair came loose. He stared at it for a long moment. “Then that leads us back to the squadron. I really don’t like thinking this way.”
“I understand.”
The door chimed and Gokhead turned towards it. Tadeh Qudas never keyed the call button. He would just burst right in. Beyond him, few knew where he and Que-Dee conducted their investigation, but it wouldn’t be hard to find them if someone looked. “Identify!”
“It’s Mikle. Heard you’d been cooped up all cycle in there. I thought you might like something to eat.”
Gokhead’s stomachs rumbled to life in response and he realized just how long it had been since he’d last eaten. Taking a moment to rub his eyes, he clicked the various monitors off. “Enter!”
The door slid away and Mikle came in, a tray of food in each hand. “Here you go Gok, been missing you at chow lately.”
Gokhead accepted the food and looked Mikle over. Shaking his head, he dismissed him as a candidate to be their spy. Mikle was clever, but his specialties were in language, food, and flying. “Thanks, Mikle. I thought that you were helping Acknit get the Explosions checked out in the MeG-CEs.”
“I was. Marda ordered us to take break. When I heard that you hadn’t been out of here in a while, I figured you’d want some company.”
“Do I not count?” Que-Dee asked.
Mikle looked down at the robot and laughed. “Not that much.”
Gokhead even had a to crack a smile at that as he picked a wiggling grub out of his salad;
ate it. For all Mikle’s faults, he knew what the team liked to eat. “Thank you Mikle.”
“Anything I can help you with here? Heard you’re chasing down some kind of communications problem.”
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