by M. D. Cooper
VESTA BURNING
LEGENDS OF THE SENTIENCE WARS
BOOK 2
BY JAMES S. AARON
& M. D. COOPER
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers
TBD
Copyright © 2018 James S. Aaron & M. D. Cooper
Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper
Version 1.0.1
Cover Art by Andrew Dobell
Editing by Tee Ayer
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREVIOUSLY…
MAPS
PART 1 – ASSEMBLY AREA
TEST DUMMIES
THE NEW ORDER
SETTING THE BOARD
BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
WAITING GAME
REQUESTS
STRAWBERRIES
SPLINTERS
DECISIONS
PART 2 – POINT OF ATTACK
ARRAYAL
BEST LAID PLANS
DUE TO THE NATURE OF MY TRAINING, IT’S DIFFICULT FOR ME TO REMEMBER
BACK IN THE SADDLE
GAME PIECES
GLITCH
SWARM
WHISPERS
RUSH
DIGGING IN
THE ENCLAVE
THE INCLUSIONIST
ACTIONS ON ENTRY
CAGES
JUDGEMENT
ANGRY QUEEN
THE WAY AROUND
INSTANT OF OPPORTUNITY
PINBALL
GROUND ATTACK
FREEDOM
CONTROL YOURSELF
PART 3 - ESCAPE
ARRANGEMENT
WEAPON BORN
IMPASSE
LONG ARRIVAL
MEMORY GAME
FINAL RUN
ALEXANDER’S GAMBIT
THE FOUNTAIN
PERSONAL DETAILS
THREADS
THE INEVITABILITY FUNCTION
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
FOREWORD
The first thing I should say about Vesta Burning is that if you haven’t read the Sentience Wars: Origins, please put this book down and head back to Lyssa’s Dream, or even Proteus Bridge.
With that said, Vesta Burning is a story that helped arrange the pieces for a really big chess game that we’re about to play. Michael has often said that the stories of the Solar Wars 1 and 2 will mirror and exceed our own World Wars 1 and 2, which meant I needed some time to explore ideas left at the end of Lyssa’s Flame and decide the best way to start the next phase of the story.
We’re going to get a Franz Ferdinand moment, but a few details needed to be worked out first.
Michael had noted that Vesta, Sol’s largest asteroid, was the site of a battle before Solar War 1 started, and I considered what would lead to that kind of conflict. Also, what kind of place was Vesta? Who lived there and why? The scope of this book grew and then had to be scaled back to just the battle, but the stories of places like Vesta in Aeon 14 are really intriguing.
This story opens thirty years after the end of Lyssa’s Flame. Lyssa is still the liaison between SolGov and Psion, although at this point that relationship is dissolving under strain.
Ngoba Starl has risen to the head of the Lowspin Syndicate and now controls most of the pirate activity between Mars and Earth, while Fugia Wong has become de facto leader of the Data Hoarders, controlling the flow of data throughout Sol.
The future is uncertain for the Psion AIs living on Ceres. They continue to be seen as a threat to humanity, and until the Psion question is solved, all other problems seem secondary.
And Lyssa still mourns the loss of her family, uncertain what the future holds for her or the Weapon Born.
In the midst of this chaos rests Vesta, midpoint between humanity and Psion, a friction point ready to catch fire.
James S. Aaron
Eugene, 2018
PREVIOUSLY…
In the wake of Psion’s attack on Ceres, the Sol System has settled into a cold war. The three largest human factions: Terra, Mars, and the Jovians have created a relatively united front against the Psion AIs while Lyssa plays the part of a diplomat carrying missives between each group.
Thirty years have passed, dragging on for the humans, though they are little more than the blink of an eye for the AIs.
But neither side has been idle, and as Sol’s largest, Vesta, draws close to Ceres at a time close to the anniversary of the attack on that world, skirmishes begin to break out on its surface as both sides test the other’s resolve.
In the intervening years, Lyssa has lost touch with the small family that had once been so important to her. Brit disappeared back into the TSF, and Tim joined up with the Marsian military. No one has seen or heard from Cara in years.
A few constants remain. Fugia still controls the Data Hoarders and their mesh, and Ngoba Starl controls Cruithne while Crash lords over the Night Park.
On Ceres, the Psion five are now just four. Shara is missing, and Camaris watches from the sidelines after her defeat at Lyssa’s hands.
And Yarnes, once a colonel in the TSF is now an Admiral, tasked with the job of ensuring that Vesta is not the place where the next war begins.
NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS
Fugia Wong – Leader of the Data Hoarders
Kylan – AI who was once the son of Kathryn Carthage and is one of the Weapon Born wing leaders
Lyssa – Leader of the Weapon Born AIs
Alexander – Multi-nodal AI who leads the Psion group
Ngoba Starl – Leader of the Lowspin crime syndicate on Cruithne.
Xander – Shard of Alexander who destroyed Proteus
Rick Yarnes – Admiral in the Terran Space Force
Crash – Master of Cruithne’s Night Park
MAPS
Also available at www.aeon14.com/maps
PART 1 – ASSEMBLY AREA
TEST DUMMIES
STELLAR DATE: 3.13.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: High Orbit, Mars 1 Ring
REGION: Mars, Marsian Protectorate, InnerSol
On the execute command, the transport’s interior lighting went dark and there was a ten-second wait as the cabin bled internal atmosphere.
Sergeant Ty Fisk waited, checking the status monitors on his HUD as the space around him became vacuum. With internal pressure equalized, the side cargo-door slid open on bright black space.
Sitting across from Ty was Sergeant Manny Hesteros, also of the Mars 1 Guard Special Ops Division. They had been assigned to test duty for the last thirty days. Today they were stress-testing a high-capacity personal thrust harness. It had been cake duty.
Ty gave Manny a thumbs up.
Rolling, Ty turned to find the silver-grey expanse of the Mars 1 Ring shining below him, with the greenish haze of Mother Mars beyond.
From this distance, the ships and drones approaching the ring flashed like bits of glitter as they reflected sunlight.
As far as Ty knew, he and Manny wore the same test units, however he had suspected since the beginning that the researchers were testing them against each other. While Manny had a lead on him, it was possible Ty might be able to push his unit harder. Or it might just explo
de.
As Special Ops, they were both equipped with thousands of implants and upgrades, including the onboard ‘Caprise’ NSAI unit, enhanced Link capabilities, and civilian memory suppression, all of which should have provided improved focus and response times, but they still managed to glitch during combat.
Under normal conditions, they could both withstand g-forces capable of crushing the average human. These new harnesses turned them into human missiles—human attack platforms that could hit a target and infiltrate rapidly—the equivalent of the Heartbridge shipkillers that had been so effective against Marsian ships in previous battles.
The problem with the shipkillers was their dependence on Weapon Born or other SAIs, so the Guard wanted a human alternative. Not that Mars was exactly anti-AI, but Marsians were always pragmatic. Generations of hard lessons on the surface of Mars had taught them to hedge their bets.
The ring swelled rapidly as Ty gained velocity, tracking Manny on his HUD.
While Caprise had her uses, he found her tacked-on intimacy annoying. He had requested several times during his career to have her personality dialed back, but the maintenance techs always gave him the same excuse: Caprise protects your sanity.
One helpful tech had gone so far as to tell him, “They took your past, man. Caprise keeps you from falling into that black hole of despair all you spec ops complain about. No past, no future, only now, only the mission. Without Caprise, you’d be a robot.”
Ty didn’t believe that; at least the NSAI shut up when he asked. He also didn’t dwell on his memory suppression as much as others did. Some spec ops acted like they’d had an arm amputated. He couldn’t say why, but the thought of his past only filled him with dread. The fact that his active memory started with a medbay in Spec Ops in-processing helped him feel light, lean, ready to fight. His thoughts rarely got in the way of the mission.
Ty growled at Caprise.
She sent a mental pout.
Ty’s Caprise had long ago dropped the pretense that she was unique to him, which he supposed was just another protocol to stroke his ego and corral errant thoughts.
He increased his thrust output. They were entering a more congested layer of traffic and he shot past a line of drones on their way to some cargo drop behind him. He rolled, enjoying the increased sense of motion as he accelerated relative to the drones and cargo containers nearby, which appeared and were gone in seconds.
He closed on Manny, who had been forced to brake when a passenger vessel shifted into his flight path.
He completed a series of course adjustments as he approached Manny. Every indicator in Ty’s HUD was shifting from yellow to red as he maxed thrust.
Manny, on the other hand, was reducing speed as they neared the hulking ring. More moving objects became visible as they approached, until Ty had to filter layers of activity with his HUD. His friend’s flight path flattened, no longer taking risks to maintain his lead. That was very much unlike Sergeant Hesteros.
As Ty came alongside his friend, Manny abruptly shot forward on a vector that didn’t look at all planned.