Turner gave me a hopeful look. “What do you think, David? Wanna try something stupid that will definitely get us killed?”
“I think that we can accomplish anything,” I said, gesturing out the viewscreen toward space. “Let’s hit the Matriarchy where it will really hurt.”
“I agree,” Tulip nodded. “The three of us against a galactic army? They don’t stand a chance.”
“Besides, if things don’t go as planned, we can use our returner. Um, this ship does have a returner, right?” I asked.
“It does,” Turner acknowledged, and I let out a sigh of relief.
The returner system was, in effect, a mix of fast travel system and your typical ‘return to base’ option in Star Conqueror. From any returner station, large, immobile units, you could teleport to any other returner station you had codes for, which usually involved interfacing with the station. Portable units were also standard issue, each one capable of returning to a single station. They could be reset, of course, and linked to a new returner station. In essence, they were Hearthstones from World of Warcraft on steroids.
Obviously, codes for returner stations were highly guarded secrets, even in the game. In real life, I can imagine it was a million times more important to safeguard them. If, for example, the Matriarchy ever learned the codes for the stations at resistance headquarters, it would be the end of the resistance in moments.
“The rest is just details then,” I said, pulling up the mission on my control screen and glancing through it. “According to this, it seems like our best bet is to go to Balarian in the Skydrid System. It’s a tidal locked planet in a dwarf star system.” I hit a button to bring it up on the big screen, and as the mission briefing popped into view, I pointed at it. “This seems like it’s the least defended Matriarch planet that also has the cloaking tech.”
“So,” Turner said as he finished scanning the docket, “you want us to fly deep inside the Left Hand’s territory and land on a Matriarch planet with a tiny strip of livable land between a frozen wasteland and a molten desert?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Aren’t we trying to escape the Left Hand?”
“That’s the genius of it.” Tulip said, grinning at me. “She’d never expect us to go into her own territory.” She waved her tablet in the air. “Given the subroutine I’ve cooked up, it’ll be one of the least likely places she’d actually check for us.” She smirked. “I’m planning a ten-jump sequence that will pretend to land at random throughout it. Once that sequence is done, the system will generate a new one and execute it. Finding where we actually drop will be almost impossible given the vastness of space.”
“Actually, the smart thing to do would be for me to stay onboard the Orion, keep it going manually, if that’s what we intend to do,” Turner said, rubbing his huge chin. “No offense to your sequencer, but a manual hand will be better at keeping my baby here out of enemy hands. Besides, this is going to have to be a stealth op, right?” He slapped his barrel gut. “This guy doesn’t stealth worth a damn.”
He presented a good point. “Okay, Turner, as much as I would hate to leave you behind, that is smart thinking,” I agreed, looking over at Tulip. “My armor might be pretty heavy, but I still have full maneuverability and stealth capabilities. Plus, a lot of my firepower is, well, hidden until I go all dragon on them.”
“That still leaves us a problem of getting onto the planet.” Tulip gestured at the screen, causing a 3D holographic model to appear in the space between us. “While they don’t have much in the way of space-based weaponry, probably because no one is dumb enough to go deep into the heart of the Left Hand’s territory, they do have standard ground-based missile systems that would blow up our ship pretty quickly. She’s not meant to handle something like that.”
“That’s why we aren’t going to land.” I smiled as I moved toward the planet and expanded the view, so we could see the outskirts of the city. “According to the intel, this area is protected by only one launcher. If we do a planet entry jump—”
“A planet entry jump?” Even Tulip paused at that. “You mean you don’t want to land?”
“No. If we try to take the ship anywhere near those turrets, we’ll get blown away, and besides, everyone will know we’re there.” I tapped the spot again. “They won’t be able to easily detect us if we jump inside.”
“He’s got a point.” Turner turned to me and grin. “That might actually work. Those missile systems aren’t designed to target people and other small objects. They’re designed for ships.” He scratched his chin. “That does leave you guys outside the main walls of the arcology.”
“It does, which is why we’ll have to go through the outskirts until we reach this sewer system.” I brought up the entrance on the screen. “Then we can move beneath the main armored wall and into the center with ease.”
“There will be a lot of defenses in that area, and for all we know they have drones in the sewer.” Tulip let out a purring laugh as she looked at the map. “But I guess we’d have to deal with that no matter what.” She turned her gaze to me and nodded. “Okay, let’s try it, and if things go south, there’s always the returner option.”
9
A few hours later, we stood at the back of our ship with the bay door open since, assuming we had power, our suits kept air, pressure, and temperature at comfortable levels at all times.
We neared the edge of the ramp, holding magnetically connected lifelines, and gazed down at the planet below. It looked like it had been split in two, with a frozen, white side and a molten, reddish hot side that endlessly faced the dwarf star. Down the middle of the planet, on a thin strip of habitable land, what looked like city lights were barely visible through the bank of clouds. Now that we were over the drop zone, Tulip and I took a moment to disengage the lifelines.
A split second later, Tulip grinned at me, her excitement infectious, and jumped.
“Guess they were saving the best for last,” I said before leaping off myself, and oh, my God this was so much better than it had been in the game. As I hurtled toward Tulip in the thin air of the upper atmosphere, I glanced back at the ship as it sped away before making the jump to hyperspace.
We’d get low, slip in through the planetary sensor grid, then go full stealth mode from there. Sneak through the outskirts, hit the sewers, then we were in like Flynn. Once we had the cloaking tech, we’d use the returner to teleport back. Truth be told, I’d done variations of this mission a million times back in Star Conqueror, and sure, those hadn’t been real, but as I turned my gaze back to the majesty of the world below us, I couldn’t help but have a good feeling because, crazily enough, I felt prepared for this.
We rushed toward the dark, red clouds that swirled in tight circles below us like a bunch of small hurricanes. As we got deeper into the atmosphere, the wind picked up and I felt the resistance of the air against my suit.
Our suits were on camouflage setting, constantly shifting in color as we passed through the sky. They were mostly black at first but shifted into shades of red and yellow as we continued our plunge. Eventually, our suits shifted to a deep shade of red as we passed through some clouds. Without true cloaking tech, this was our best attempt to avoid visual detection as we fell.
As we passed the cloud cover, I got my first clear view of the city below. Definitely Matriarchy-influenced, the place was composed of massive white structures that curved and connected like a city from the mind of Dr. Seuss. It made for a striking sight from our current aerial view, and I was sure that was by design. A fully developed Matriarch, like Alyra, could fly, so the Matriarchy designed their cities with flight in mind.
A few seconds later, I spotted our ultimate goal. The building we wanted was deep within the walled Matriarchy stronghold, and it stretched to cover a whole third of the city. Truth be told, it was exactly like every one of its ilk I’d seen in the game, a full arcology from which the onsite workers would never have to leave, not even to eat or sleep. In essence, it was a work prison for anyon
e not aligned with the Matriarchy.
“See it?” I said into my comms, pointing at the building. “That’s our target.”
“Affirmative,” Tulip replied. “Do you want to change the landing spot? Try and land within the city, maybe?”
“No, let’s keep with the plan.” I pointed at the missile launchers mounted on the top of the wall. “Those don’t look very friendly, and while they probably couldn’t track us during a free drop with our small size and great speed, I don’t want to give them the opportunity to try. There’s a slim chance that once we pop our chutes, our profile will be big enough for them to track, after all.”
Our drop zone was on the outskirts of the city and looked uninhabited, though the mission briefings had told me lots of refugees lived in the vicinity. Still, they shouldn’t be a problem. Not unless they decided they suddenly had a love of the Matriarchy, but if that was the case, they’d be inside the walls.
“Okay, here we go,” I murmured, as much to psych myself up as for Tulip’s benefit.
I held my breath as the altimeter on my HUD counted down to parachute deployment. It hit five hundred feet, and the popping sound of my parachute deploying echoed in my helmet. There was a sharp pull as the chute caught air, and I abruptly slowed before slamming into the ground beside Tulip a few moments later.
As the impact rattled through my bones, I checked my stats and made sure I was okay. Thankfully the whole drop and landing had only taken five percent of my power. It wasn’t ideal, but since the estimates had come in around eight percent power, I was calling it a win.
Tulip had barely been affected by the drop, the literal cat landing on her feet, and as we gathered ourselves, our parachutes auto-retracted back into our power suits, ready for another drop.
“Okay,” I said as I detached my Arclight Double from its magnetic clamps, “we go fast, stick to cover, and try to stay out of trouble. Maybe we can get to the sewers without starting a firefight …”
“I’ll believe that when it happens.” Tulip smiled and nodded at me. Without another word, we jogged forward into the nearest cover we could find.
Said cover had obviously once been a house. The rock wall of a fence had collapsed into nothing more than piles of rubble. The house wasn’t much better off. The roof had a massive hole in it, and the entire structure was the color of rust. A small rabbit-looking creature hopped around the rubble, looking at us curiously before it hissed at us and bared large, black teeth before scurrying off, stirring up red dust as it did.
I tracked the ugly thing for a moment, as much fascinated by how similar it was to something from Earth as I was put off by its ugly teeth.
Tulip was tapping at her suit computer intently. “We seem to be clear, David. No pings on the security net or the general news channels.”
I nodded. “So far, so good. Let’s move out.”
“Affirmative,” she replied, and tapped her wrist screen. A glowing red line marked the tactical map in the top corner of my HUD. “Suits synched up and I’ve transmitted our mission map to our HUDs.” She smiled at me and winked. “We’re good to go.”
“Let’s move then.” I waited a heartbeat for her to nod, and then I started moving forward.
We broke into an eerily familiar rhythm like I had never left the game, moving from cover point to cover point, keeping our camouflage mode on. While it wouldn’t fool someone looking closely, it would keep us concealed from casual observation.
Keeping low, we jogged down the street, flanked by the same kinds of run-down, rust colored houses. Up ahead, the city lights pierced through the perpetual twilight this world lived in, and the immense white wall of the Matriarchy arcology loomed. It wouldn’t take us more than twenty minutes to get to the sewer entrance, maybe a bit longer if people were out and about to complicate matters.
As the ruined residential area came to an end, a series of warehouses filled both sides of the road ahead. They were all uniform, two story tall boxes. From a glance, they all looked abandoned, much like the houses we had passed, except for one with lights on and a few people meandering near the front door. Well, people in the terms of aliens. Humanoid in configuration with skin in various shades of red, I recognized them as Ar’abi from Star Conqueror, one of the oppressed species under the Matriarch’s thumb.
As we got closer, I raised a fist to silently signal a halt and gestured to the crumbling façade of an even more ruined warehouse a block away from those signs of actual life.
Tulip slipped in silently and took a position by the doorway, while I moved to be opposite her. Properly concealed, I took a closer look at the street.
Now that we were closer, it was obvious that the building ahead wasn’t a warehouse, at least it wasn’t one any longer. No, it was some kind of meeting spot for the locals. Threadbare cushions sat as makeshift sofas in front of it, with a fire pit blazing to one side of the door with a pot suspended over it. There were more flickering lights inside and quite a few Ar’abi sitting out front, talking in low, hushed tones. They were obviously, at best, working poor, the cast-offs of Matriarch society.
“Huh,” I murmured. “While these folks might be tempted to hang us out to dry for a reward from the Matriarchy, they aren’t living the high life behind the arcology wall. They might have information we could use. They’re victims of the Matriarchy, so they might be willing to turn. On-the-ground intel is the strongest kind, after all, and we could use more.”
Tulip nodded with a smirk. “You’re right, and even if they were looking to get the bounty on my head, they’d never know it’s me.”
Her form shimmered as her voice trailed off, her power suit shifting along with her body. As the shifting ended, Tulip’s sleek, black-furred body had become a well-proportioned Ar’abi woman, her black fur melding into now-rust red skin and the hair on her head turning shock white. Ar’abi looked very similar to humans once you got past the coloration differences, but one detail I saw now on Tulip that I hadn’t in the game was the four-fingered hands. As she changed, so did her suit, settling into the appearance of the grungy coveralls worn by most Matriarchy workers.
Flashing her a smile, I said, “Good call.” I glanced out into the street. “There’s no telling for sure if the Left Hand put out a bounty for me already, so I’d best stay back.”
The Tulip-Ar’abi nodded, running a hand down my arm. It was growing more and more endearing each time she did it. “Yes, we can’t risk you, not with the dragon awoken. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
I nodded. “Go for it. I’ll keep watch and if I see something suspicious, I’ll ping your suit.” That’s how it would work in the game anyway, but considering this was reality, I had to make sure of something. “I can still communicate with you when you’re shifted, right?”
She nodded. “Just like Star Conqueror.”
“Okay, then you’re on.”
I had to admit to myself, even in this shapeshifted form, Tulip kept enough of her beautiful features to make her walking away almost as nice as when she came towards me. Still, I didn’t let that distract me, keeping on high alert as she made her way across the street and up to the bar. The outer slums of most Matriarchy-held cities weren’t highly patrolled in the game, often serving as the setting for beginner missions, so we were relatively safe.
It was when we were on the other side of the wall that things would get hairy.
I knew stealth would be a non-option once we were in the heart of the Matriarchy base. It’d be all-out gunplay until we got to the research and development areas. Once we burst in, Tulip would hack the hell out of the mainframe, get the schematics, and then click, we teleport out, laden with loot. Returner for the win! I fingered the device magnetically clamped to my suit, just to remind myself it was still there.
Whatever was ahead, we could handle it. I refocused my attention to the meeting spot, where Tulip was blending in seamlessly.
In fact, they seemed to welcome her with open arms as one of the older Ar’abi flashed her a
sign that I recognized as a sort of ‘secret handshake’ between Resistance members. It looked like we’d be getting some on-site intel after all. While she worked her magic, I settled down, keeping careful watch on the street with an occasional scan of the skyline from recon drones.
Tulip was plying the crowd of disgruntled workers for a good ten minutes before things started to go south. The orderly tramp of armored feet on the cracked pavement of the street echoed in my ears. Doing a quick scan, I found the source of the footsteps swiftly enough, coming from down the road leading towards the arcology.
What I got was the lovely sight of four Quibs marching in identical black power suits. Male soldiers of the Matriarchy culled from their various conquered races, the Quibs were the vanguard of the High Priestess’s army, considered expendable troops in her eyes and lacking the magical powers that the Matriarchs had. That didn’t mean they couldn’t be trouble, as they used the same upgradeable power suit technology the rest of the galaxy did, and some, like the Quib Elites and the Royal Guard, were lethal to the extreme. These guys looked like a standard security patrol, but that could still spell long-term trouble if they found us out.
“Tulip,” I whispered over the comms as I tracked the Quibs’ movements with my rifle, “security patrol coming. No indication of back-up or FoF scanners, but we can’t assume either way.”
That was the real threat. Just like most advanced Earth military vehicles and aircraft, power suits were equipped with Friend or Foe beacons that constantly transmitted a low-level signal that could be picked up by guided missiles and the like. Great for preventing friendly fire, signaling friendlies that you didn’t need to die, but in Star Conqueror, some Quib patrols had scanner systems that detected non-Matriarchy power suit beacons. If these guys had them, we might have a fight whether we wanted it or not. I knew Tulip likely had high level bafflers to hide her signal, and my advanced model had them equipped standard issue, but that wouldn’t be a guarantee against a close-range scan or highly advanced Elite Class weaponry. These guys didn’t have the latter, but they might have the former.
Star Conqueror: An Epic Space Adventure Page 8