Sisterhood of Suns: Pallas Athena

by Martin Schiller

  Kaly stood in line with the rest of her platoon, her spacesuit helmet cradled in one arm. As Sa’Tela walked past, she was careful to keep her face expressionless, but her insides felt as if they were full of icewater. The platoon was about to go on their first space-walk, and her mind was filled with nightmarish images of all the things that might go wrong once they were outside. Although everyone else seemed calm enough, she knew that she wasn’t the only one who was frightened. Most of her fellow recruits had never been outside a ship in space either, and the night before their trip upside, there had been plenty of horror stories shared in whispers between the racks.

  She was especially worried about how Lena would react. Her battle sister had expressed the most trepidation of all, but Enggredsdaater had quietly assured Kaly that she would help her to keep an eye on their friend.

  “All right, recruits,” Sa’Tela began, “Today will be our first walk in space. This will be the first phase in your training for EVA, or Extra Vehicular Activity. EVA Training will include basic ship repair, rescue techniques, and zero-g combat. Before we go outside, I want to call your attention to the sign above the airlock. Read it and commit its words to memory.”

  The sign bore a simple, but forbidding message: “Forget and Die!” Kaly swallowed nervously.

  “That, ladies,” the DI said, pointing up to the words, “is the operative phrase for any operation in space. If you skip a step putting on your suit, or you forget to clip onto a safety line, or make the mistake of doing any number of other important things, space will kill you! And you are not allowed to die on my watch. Any questions?”

  Naturally, no one spoke.

  “Good. I will now inspect your suits. I’d better find that the PTS class on Zero-G suits was taken to heart by each and every one of you. Stand-to! Prepare for inspection!”

  The platoon came as close as they could to full attention in their grey armored suits. Sa’Tela and the other DI’s walked up and down the row, reading everyone’s gauges and checking hose lines. Kaly passed muster like most of the class, but another woman down the line was called out.

  “Recruit t’Harria!” N’Vera suddenly barked, “Your oxy-tank gauges are reading in the yellow! Is that the way they’re supposed to be?”

  “Ma’am, no, ma’am!” the woman replied. T’Harria, while no troublemaker like Bel Jeera had been, had had problems adapting to the Marine way of doing things since day one. Even the comparatively simple exercise of making up her rack was still frustrating her.

  “Then why the fek are you standing in my line? Get your ass over to the filling station and top this suit off, now!” While the woman hustled off to attend to this oversight, Sa’ Tela addressed the rest of the platoon.

  “That woman is a moron,” she declaired. “She failed to perform a full check of her suit. Watch her carefully! If she failed to take care of such a simple detail, she’ll probably fail to catch something else later on. Something that will get you killed right along with her.’

  “I will now share a gem of wisdom with you; always pay attention to what you are doing! Most disasters happen because someone didn’t. Think about that while we wait for your fellow hatchie to return.”

  T’Harria came back to the line a few minutes later and the instructors checked her suit again. But this time, they found no fault with it.

  “Hatchies, you will now put on your suit helmets on and seal up.”

  Kaly brought her helmet up and over her head in time with the others, and locked it into place. Fresh air from the suits tanks began circulating right away, as internal HUD displays came to life before her eyes. She quickly read them over and confirmed that all systems were online and functioning.

  Then the DI’s went over to the airlock door. “Training Platoon Carli preparing for EVA exercise,” Sa’Tela said to the Litvak’s Command Center. “Un-securing the inner hatch.”

  The door behind her slid open, revealing an immaculate chamber that looked just large enough to fit everyone. At the far end was a small window that framed a view of the universe outside; a flat black expanse of pure nothingness dotted with a few stars.

  “All right, hatchies! Step inside the airlock. There, you will snap into the main safety line with the carabiner attached to your suit. Make sure to test your attachments. As soon as you are secured, raise your hand and we will inspect you.”

  Kaly walked inside and located the line. Clamping herself in, she gave the connection two good tugs, just like her training realie had taught her, and then she raised her hand.

  Troop Leader n’Vera came over and checked her connection. Satisfied that she was secure, the woman moved on, inspecting everyone until she was certain that they were all ready.

  “I will now close the inner door and evacuate this chamber,” Sa’Tela announced. “Once this chamber has been evacuated, I will open the outer hatch. You will remain in place during this process. Once the outer hatch has opened, I will step out. Then you will follow me one at a time until the entire platoon is outside the ship. Zat klaar?”

  “Ma’am, yes, ma’am!” the platoon responded. Compensators in their suit speakers kept this from deafening everyone on the shared frequency.

  Sa’Tela clipped herself in, and when she was secure, purged the airlock. Then she opened the outer door and exited the chamber. “Make sure to engage your mag-shoes as you step out onto the hull,” she advised.

  As Kaly waited her turn, she ran through a manual of arms drill in her head to distract her from her fears, and then it was time for her to step outside.

  The Litvak was in orbit over Hella’s World, a mere 32,186 km above the surface, and the sight of the huge mustard-yellow planet took Kaly’s breath away. Despite the fact that she knew what a hellish place it really was, the desert world suddenly seemed more like a rare gem to her, nestled in the black velvet of the void.

  And instead of being terrifying, she found that space was incredibly beautiful. She was so overcome by the scene around her that she almost forgot to engage her mag-shoes. At the last moment, she turned them on and the shoes locked onto the hull plating with a dull ‘clank’ that sounded up through her suit and into her helmet.

  “All right, hatchies,” Sa’Tela said, “We will now walk over to the main com array to simulate a repair. At all times, make sure you are clamped into your safety line, and that your safety line is clamped onto the hull. Keep your eyes on your goal and do not let your attention wander. Move forwards, now.”

  Obediently, the platoon shuffled across the Litvak. Their mag-shoes made it slow going, but they soon reached the massive antennae of the Com array, and halted.

  “Now, each of you will clamp onto a restraining loop and walk along the hull until I tell you to stop,” Sa’Tela instructed. “This will be by the numbers; the first in line will walk to the port side and the second to starboard, and so on. Take it slowly and carefully. I do not want to have to rescue anyone today.”

  Kaly withdrew a second carabiner from her hip belt and drew out the line. When it was clamped in to a loop on the hull, she released the first one, and with it, her connection to the main safety line.

  One step at a time, she told herself. Don’t look up. Just go straight ahead. Slowly and with infinite care, she moved down along the hull, listening on the platoon’s frequency for the Troop Leader’s orders.

  Instead, she heard the sound of rapid breathing, accompanied by inarticulate cries of fear. One of the other recruits was starting to panic.

  “I’ve got to get back inside!” the woman suddenly wailed. “I’ve got to get back in before I fall off!”

  “T’Harria!” Sa’Tela shouted. “Stop right where you are! Do not release that safety line! Do you hear me? Shess! Someone get her!”

  “Kaly!” Lena yelled.”Your right!

  She looked over her shoulder just in time to see T’Harria floating by, her limbs flailing helplessly. Without thinking, she grabbed for the woman’s leg.

  The instant that she made contact, T’Ha
rria’s inertia slammed them both onto the hull. The impact momentarily dazed Kaly, but she held on to T’Harria, who continued to struggle against her like a drowning victim. Lena joined them, lending her strength, and then Sa’Tela and the other DI’s arrived, clamping T’Harria onto the nearest loop. When she was finally secure, Sa’Tela touched her helmet to Kaly’s.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, the vibrations of her voice carrying her words through Kaly’s helmet.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kaly answered, realizing that she could taste blood in her mouth. “My suit still has integrity and I can walk back. I think I bit my tongue though.”

  Sa’Tela chuckled. “You and your battle sister did good, N’Deena. Now get back up to the main line and hook in.” With that, the Troop Leader got back on the main platoon frequency and ordered everyone back inside. That day’s lesson was definitely over.

  Later in the evening, and back on Hella’s World, Sa’Tela came into the barracks and made an announcement.

  “Hatchies,” she said solemnly. “Recruit t’Harria will not be rejoining this platoon after she gets out of medbay. Instead, she will be mustering out on my recommendation. Any Marine who cannot walk in space is useless to the Corps.”

  Kaly found herself agreeing. The Troop Leader was right, she thought. T’Harria had no business being a Marine if she couldn’t even get through the basics of working in space. It was for the best.

  Sa’Tela wasn’t finished though. “It is also my duty to announce a change. As part of the normal rotation of leadership, Platoon Leader bel Anny is hereby demoted back to Recruit. For her actions upside today, and for her overall performance to date, Recruit n’Deena is hereby promoted to Platoon Leader. Well done, hatchie.” Then she turned and marched back through the door without any further ceremony.

  “Congratulations, Kaly,” Bel Anny said, clapping her on the shoulder. “You deserve it.”

  “Yah, gaad vork, Kaly,” Enggredsdaater agreed.

  “You’re not angry with me?” Kaly asked Bel Anny.

  Bel Anny grinned. “Goddess, no! I’ve had enough responsibility for one life. I was thinking lately about how much I enjoyed just being a plain hatchie, and it looks like Sa’Tela read my mind. You’re welcome to it, and all the wonderful ass-chewing sessions that come with it. Congratulations, Platoon Leader.”

  She gave Kaly a mock salute.

  Special Military Quarantine Zone, Second Planet, HSL-48 2124A System, Unclaimed Territory, 1043.03|04|05:10:39

  After the USSNS Penthesilea and her sister ships had taken up station, the Marines from the 115th were relieved and shuttled back upside to the Athena. Once aboard, they had to stand in a long line to present their inoculars and get bio-scanned before they were allowed to go down to Five-bar. In typical Marine fashion, the troopers were given just enough time to stow their equipment at their racks, before being instructed to report for debriefing.

  At a command from Col. Lislsdaater, Jon and everyone in his unit put on their headsets and sat back. Although he was unhappy at the idea of losing the memory of his experiences on HSL-48 2124A, he took a certain comfort in the fact that he had at least managed to send the hair sample to New Covenant beforehand.

  What he had seen at the School had only strengthened his resolve to support the Great Work in any way that he could. Without the Redeemer, there was simply no hope for the women of the Sisterhood, or humanity.

  This was his last coherent thought before the PTS-feed began.

  ***

  Jon sat up from the PTS-chair and blinked away the after-images. His mind felt like it had been run through an autochef, and he found it hard to even recall the events prior to entering the star system. Something had happened after that point, he was certain of it, but except for a dim sense that it had been important, and that time had passed, he could not apprehend the memories. A glance at the other Marines around him told him that they suffered from the same amnesia.

  “It must have been a classified mission,” Troop Leader Annasdaater opined. “They always scrub our brains after the really high-level stuff. Ah wells, we’ll probably get another medal for doing something we can’t remember doing, eh, girls?” The women around her laughed and got up from their chairs.

  Jon was the last to leave, and made his way back to his bunk deeply troubled by his memory loss. As he lay in his rack, he tried to recapture everything. Fragments surfaced eventually, disconnected visions that danced like half-dreams in his mind. He concentrated on them, putting his talents to work, and slowly, the visions started to become more, and more coherent. By the time it was lights out, it had all come back to him. He remembered everything.

  “Be well, Reesy,” he thought. “May Jesu and Mari watch over you and your people.” He whispered a silent prayer of protection for the girl and drifted off to sleep.

  HFS Pillager, Black Star Clan (Captured Enemy Asset), In Permanent Orbit, Hella’s World, United Sisterhood of Suns, 1043.03|05|03:88:64

  “Watch your corners!” Sa’Tela yelled. “Team 2, make sure to cover Team 1 as they move forwards to take the objective! I don’t want to see you leaving them unprotected!”

  Kaly leveled her Mark 7 at the junction of the passageway ahead of her and rushed past the covering team. Platoon Carli was simulating a boarding operation in an enemy ship, and their job was to secure the engine-room. They’d all found out very quickly that a Hriss ship was laid out much differently than Sisterhood vessels. Vital routes like the one leading to the engine room were a maze of sharp corners and side passages that were deliberately designed to give its defenders a distinct advantage against any boarding party.

  Kaly neared the end of the corridor, and then stopped and withdrew a GSG-20 grenade from her hip pouch. She flicked the arming switch to ‘on’ and let go of the small sphere. It floated in the air for a moment as its computer came to life, and then the grenade flew away and went around the corner.

  A sharp ping sounded in her suit speakers as the weapon simulated detonation. According to the AI monitoring the exercise, three enemies had been killed by the blast when the GSG had committed virtual suicide.

  “Good work, Team 1,” Sa’Tela said. “But you got lucky with that grenade, N’Deena. All this metal could have easily masked the enemy’s biosignatures. Try it on dumbfire and just roll it down there next time. That can be just as effective, if not more so, in an environment like this. Now, clear the rest of the way to the objective.”

  Kaly thought about this and spoke into her suit-mike. “Team 3, send out the battlebot.” Team 3, which was behind her, activated the machine and the spider-like robot trundled by, its metal legs clanking loudly through the hull-plates.

  As the exercise’s Assault Leader, Kaly automatically received a visual feed from the ‘bot’s electronic eyes. A black and white image appeared in the upper left of her helmet’s HUD, showing what the ‘bot saw as it moved into hostile territory. The corridor appeared to be clear of enemies and the ‘bot stopped just short of a large pressure door at the end, training its weapons on it.

  Studying the image for a moment, Kaly realized that the door would require a breaching charge to get past it. Team 2 would have that job, she decided.

  “Clear,” she said over the platoon’s common frequency, waving them forwards. To her satisfaction, Team 2 didn’t waste any time. They moved past her and set the charge. Then everyone retreated back around the corner.

  “Fire in the hole!” the team leader cried. A bright, blue-white tongue of flame flashed around the edges of the thick metal door, and then the portal tottered and fell inwards, trailing smoke. It slammed onto the decking with a resounding crash and immediately, low-power energy bolts lit up the passage, simulating enemy forces attempting to defend the breach.

  The battlebot engaged them instantly, firing its energy guns and launching a hail of grenades. According to the data Kaly received from it, all the virtual defenders had just been eliminated, and the passage was clear. From what she could see through the ‘b
ots feed, the corridor the enemy had guarded only went on for a short distance before it branched into two directions.

  “All right, N’Deena,” Sa’Tela said. “The defenders may be guarding both sides of the intersection ahead of you, or only one, or neither. Take it whatever way you think is the fastest and safest. But don’t take too long to make up your mind.”

  Kaly considered her options, and then gave her order. “Team 1, advance to the ‘bot’s current position. Team 3, advance the ‘bot ahead of us to the intersection. We’ll follow it.”

  While Kaly and her team ran up to the doorway, the battlebot stepped across the threshold and advanced. They followed behind it, keeping a careful distance and covering the space ahead of them with their weapons.

  When the machine entered the intersection, a rapid-fire succession of energy bolts lanced out at it from the left, hitting its sensor array and one of its forward legs. Simulating internal damage, the ‘bot obediently collapsed and cut its visual feed before Kaly could see what had ‘killed’ it.

  She shrank back from the gunfire and brought out a second grenade. Mindful of Sa’Tela’s earler advice, she set it for dumbfire, and threw it at the far wall, bouncing it around the corner. This time, there was no ping announcing a kill. Instead, something destroyed the grenade as it landed and rolled along the deck.

  Such pinpoint accuracy told her that whatever was down there was not organic life, and she reasoned that it was probably an enemy battlebot of some kind. A GSG set for tracking bioplasmic would have been useless.

  Making a mental note to remember this important lesson, Kaly opened up another pouch on her belt, withdrawing a microbot launcher. It was a diminutive gun-like object that resembled a child’s toy, but it had a serious purpose.

  As she pressed the trigger, a tiny pellet, that was almost too small for human eyes to detect, emerged. Simultaneously, a visual feed started up in her HUD as the little spy device came to life. Kaly punched in instructions on the controls on her suit arm and the little ‘bot flew down the passage and around the corner. It revealed that a large battlebot was guarding the junction.