Redemption : A LitRPG Space Adventure (The Last Enclave Book 2)

by Morgan Cole

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  Power connections

  Salvage: Metals, tier 3

  Cost: 160 Nanite Clusters

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  I hit the button and Nanite Clusters flowed out of me to disappear behind the unit. I began hammering as fast as I could, waving the charged point of Excalibur around as I attempted to get the last of the cable cut. The salvage operation’s progress bar filled, but slower than I liked. I looked at the clock again. One minute left.

  "Jake, we're done. Get your ass out of there. We're leaving," Metra said.

  "Right behind you," I said through gritted teeth.

  I stabbed with Excalibur, wrenching it with my right hand, trying to tear with raw force as well as cut with the chisel tip. I didn't know if it would help, but anything might at this point. If I could tear this cable off with my bare hands, I certainly would try.

  The final bit of cable snapped and the unit fell free. Its enormous mass sagged onto my left arm. With Excalibur still in my right hand, I bear-hugged the harvester and soared up the shaft.

  "I'm coming, clear the way," I yelled.

  At the top of the shaft I arrested my momentum with a smooth transition of the gravity plates from push to pull and back. I described a graceful arc out of the shaft and boosted again for the blast bulkhead doors, open and waiting for me. Around me the sensors Marty and I had placed were still on the walls, our cases still floating where Marty and I had left them, but Marty and Metra were gone.

  I flew awkwardly through the open blast door and down the hall. Blast doors snapped shut behind me one by one, each less than a second apart. As I got through the fifth and final door, I landed, and stumbled to a halt beside Marty and Metra. I had an enormous grin on my face.

  "Reactivating," Metra said, and we were done.

  I slammed the harvesting unit down in front of me, raising my right arm in triumph.

  "Beat that clock, baby!" I yelled.

  Metra rolled her eyes, but Marty gave me a congratulatory fist bump.

  "Solar Tap has reactivated. Minor damage to orbital satellite, function not impaired," Brick reported.

  "Yes, we're all good. Solar Tap efficiency is 70%, which is exactly what I would expect with three rings disabled. Good job, Marty," Metra said.

  "Hey, what about me?" I asked.

  "You endangered the mission, the Solar Tap, and your whole solar system so you could salvage that. Was it worth it?"

  "I sure as hell hope so. You know we desperately need the exotics, Metra. With this, we can finish Redemption. We still have to go up to Pluto and clear those Ferals out, don't we?" I asked.

  A frown crossed her face. "Yes, I suppose we do. Or rather, you do. I'm going to return to Pax and finish my ship. If you boys are quite done?"

  "I think we are, for now. Thanks, Metra. You know we couldn't have managed this without you," I said.

  "Yes, I do. I have to tell you, Jake, being an engineer usually isn't so exciting."

  Metra said her farewells and left Marty and me on the Mercury station a few minutes later. Marty and I returned to the control room.

  "All right Boss, mission accomplished. Connahr field stabilized. Now what?"

  "Brick, would you send some bots to take this through to Pax and salvage it for whatever you can? Once you're done, let me know what you've got," I ordered.

  "Can we actually finish Redemption here, or do we need one of those Light Shipyards?" Marty asked.

  "That entirely depends on what you want to change, Marty," Brick replied. "Most components can be made in Pax's Light Manufactory and transported through the gate for assembly and installation on Mercury. Only major hull modifications would absolutely require something on the scale of the Light Shipyard."

  "That's good, since we don't have one of those anymore."

  "It'd be best, I think, if we can get straight to Pluto after we're done here. Kill some aliens and clean out the infestation as best as we can," I said.

  "Sure. It'll be nice to test out her weapons," Marty said. "Other than using them to dig a big hole, anyway. She performs beautifully in the simulations.”

  "Anyway, I'm going to nip over to Pax and get a shower and some food. You coming?" Marty asked.

  "I'll hang here. See you in a bit."

  Marty went through the gate and left me alone on Mercury. I wondered if, technically speaking, I'd been the first human to set foot on this planet. After all, Marty had still been in the ship when I jumped out. Maybe not the first Humanity-branch species, but it still felt good.

  "Yeah, first man on another world. The moon doesn't count," I muttered to myself.

  "If the movies you like to play for us are correct, Jake, talking to yourself is the first sign of deeper mental issues," Brick said.

  "Geez, Brick, can't a man talk to himself in peace?"

  Chapter Forty: I've got Aliens in my DMs

  AFTER MARTY LEFT, I spent a few minutes looking at my status screen and wondering if I should use some of our new materials to upgrade myself. Depending on the amount, I thought I might. The lack of exotics had been a problem for some time, and I really wanted to see what it was like to be even stronger and faster than I was now. Being a superhero was addicting. And I did expect to be seeing a lot more in-person combat. Clearing structures of Ferals wasn't something I could do from the Redemption. At least not without leaving some of the structure intact to take back.

  Brick knocked me off that train of thought.

  "Jake, incoming message. It was targeted at the Connahr base, but was addressed to you specifically. It is tagged as a private message."

  "What? Where did it come from, can you tell?"

  "It was sent from our northern outpost."

  "Shit, the Greys are sending us messages now? And they know my name? This can't be good."

  "I agree," Brick said. "As the message is tagged as private I've only informed you of its existence. Would you like to view the message in private mode?"

  I thought about it for a second. I couldn't see any reason to exclude my friends and allies from hearing whatever the aliens had to say.

  "No. Everyone, heads up. I've got a message from the Greys and I'm going to play it."

  "Ferals you are!" Metra cursed at me.

  She must have sprinted back from Pax and through the gate, as she was beside me less than a minute later.

  "What's the problem?" I asked.

  She had pulled free her portable computing unit and had placed it on a control console nearby and was rapidly manipulating her invisible Interface windows.

  "You were just going to expose Brick to whatever viral payload those little grey shits shoved into that message? Are you crazy?"

  "Hey, it's Brick. If he can't defend himself from computer viruses who could?" I asked.

  She sniffed and paused for a moment. "Brick is very capable, but there are potentially hardware-level exploits that could be triggered."

  "The Union is pretty weird," Marty said. "You guys don't have virus scanners on your email? It's like the Internet in the bad old days."

  Metra opened her mouth to reply, and I suspected this was going to be one of those deep rabbit holes, so I stepped in.

  "Metra, is it safe for us to watch the message now?"

  "One second," she said, and went back to her interface for a moment.

  "Now it is. I'm filtering the data through my processing unit before display. Nothing should make it out of the unit that could possibly harm Brick. I'll make up a more permanent version of this filter for any further communications with these aliens."

  "I appreciate your concern, Metra."

  She simply nodded and looked at me.

  "Alright, let's see what these guys have to say to us. Play it!"

  What happened next wasn't at all what I expected. A woman appeared in front of me, standing six feet away and looking me in the eyes. There was almost no sense that this was anything but a real person standing there, although I knew that this was just the
way that Union messages worked. I'd expected that.

  What I hadn't expected was that the woman would be Meredith, my sister. I was frozen in shock, my mouth slightly open.

  "Dude, your sister! I fucking told you!" Marty crowed before she could speak.

  "Jake, I hope you are well," Meredith said. She was like that sometimes, strangely formal when she'd leave voice mails or email me. That was usually when she wanted something.

  "I was quite surprised when I found the cache of Union materials in your basement in Paradise Plains. I couldn't think of a reason for them to be there. Was Grandpa Mattias a Union citizen? Surely my little brother had no knowledge of this.

  "Then my men trace a terrorist raid on a US military base back to a Union site in northern Canada, and I am again surprised to find that my brother is involved. Your DNA was found in a set of winter clothing, as well as that of Martin Farnell. The nephew that Sheriff Farnell neglected to mention had gone with you."

  "The clothes! We forgot the clothes and DNA! They CSIed us!" Marty cursed.

  "Shush, I'm listening, Marty," Metra replied.

  "Was that you in the armor, Jake? The other two were clearly Union aliens. If so, you should know that you and your accomplices killed several of my men. They were good men—patriots wanting to protect their country and their world from alien interference."

  That turn of phrase broke me out of my trance.

  "Hold up. Pause, Brick," I ordered and the playback stopped. My sister became completely still. It was quite creepy, actually.

  "She said we killed several? We killed a lot of Greys. Is she not counting those? Only the humans count?" I asked.

  "I was not ready to present my findings yet, but I can fill in a gap here," Kiril said.

  After a pause Kiril continued. "I've examined the 'Grey' as you call it. It is not a corpse, but an Artifact. You might call it a robot."

  "Those things didn't fight like robots. They were all different," I said, remembering a few moments of the fight.

  "That is the part I am not 100% certain on, as I have not finished my analysis. I believe that they are remotely controlled by sentients rather than any kind of programming or AI."

  "What? The Greys are remote controlled robots?" Marty protested.

  "That is what I believe. I have to complete my analysis," Kiril said.

  "Let's hear the rest," I said, and signaled Brick to resume.

  Meredith's image came back to life and continued to speak. "You also seriously damaged or destroyed a lot of irreplaceable government hardware. Combined with your extensive intrusions into restricted computer systems, I feel confident in predicting a prison sentence in the millions of years range for you and all your companions."

  She paused to let her words sink in. I waited patiently. This was patented Meredith. The stick always came first, usually followed by the carrot. She wanted something and this was how she got what she wanted.

  "I am not blind to the fact that we seem to be working toward the same goal. Whatever you did on Mercury has restored the Connahr field, and your country is grateful to you. Yet we cannot overlook the laws you have broken and the lives you have destroyed. With this in mind I am empowered to propose a deal that will grant a full pardon to you and your friends."

  "Here it comes," I muttered.

  "We require that you proceed to Pluto and neutralize the Feral threat there. Despite the positive aspects of the Connahr field's renewed stability, there is one large negative aspect. Since it is now overlapping Pluto again it is severely agitating the Ferals there. The Shards are growing their Spikes longer and ramping up the frequency of their launches. Our models show that within five days the first of the Spikes will be long enough that the Feral payload will have the velocity required to leave the orbit of Pluto and threaten the inner planets. The last thing we need is the infestation spreading throughout the solar system, or reaching Earth.

  "If you successfully neutralize the threat, you and your ship will return here to the facility in northern Canada where you will be granted your pardons, fully debriefed, and then integrated into US forces. I'm sure you agree that this is a very generous offer, and I must stress that it will not be repeated.

  "On a personal note, I am looking forward to speaking with you soon, Jake. I'm sure we have a lot to tell each other. Good luck."

  With that, the message ended and she winked out of existence.

  "Shit, I see what you mean about your sister. She is cold," Marty said.

  "I do not like her," Metra said.

  "It doesn't really matter what she wants, anyway. We were going to clean out that infestation with or without her requiring us to do it," I said.

  I have to admit, I chafed a bit at the thought that she'd think she had gotten her way and made me do what she wanted.

  What was really blowing my mind was the idea that somehow my sister was not just in a secret US government agency that used alien equipment and apparently knew all about the Union, but she seemed to be in charge. She'd always been cagey about her job, but I'd assumed that was because it was really boring.

  Meredith had been recruited out of her master’s program almost ten years ago by a staid mid-sized management consultancy and had settled in. She was obnoxiously well paid, but that was pretty much the extent of what I knew about her work. Whenever we talked, she was always much more interested in making sure that I was doing the "right" thing.

  "Would you like to respond to this message, Jake?" Brick prompted.

  Without even thinking about it I answered. "No. We'll hash it out with her and whatever agency she's a part of, but that can wait until we're on a better footing. After we clear out Pluto. We don't want them as our enemies, but we definitely will not be 'integrating' with US forces."

  "Fuck, yeah!" Marty said.

  I wasn't a die-hard government hater like Theo, and to a lesser extent Marty, but I was getting there. The backdoors in everything, the secret alien tech. My sister a spook. For all I knew Marty was right and the government had disappeared my grandfather. When we got back from Pluto and I had a big enough stick, I'd find out the truth.

  "For now, everybody get back to work. We're on a clock, it seems."

  Chapter Forty-One: An Unexpected Find

  METRA LEFT, RETURNING to Pax to continue working on her hauler. Brick's bots were breaking down the unit I had torn out of the Solar Tap, and with luck it would have enough materials to finish the Redemption. Until then, I had time to kill.

  I briefly brought up the design interface, thinking about building myself a new weapon. Inspiration didn't come. I closed it again almost immediately.

  Idly, I studied the map of the base instead. Everything was labeled, and the base was almost elegant in its simplicity. It existed to provide Sol with the Connahr field, and to protect the base itself from outside interference either from Ferals or people like me but less well-intentioned. It was noble, in its way. For whatever reason the Union had declared our primitive offshoot of Humanity off-limits, letting us live in our natural habitat. An Enclave World.

  I was just about to close the map when something caught my eye. An unlabeled section—a room off a Connector node not far away.

  "Brick, what's this room?" I asked, pointing to the map.

  "It is an unlabeled secure space. There are no sensors in it, so I cannot tell you what it contains. It is likely to simply be empty, as if it were an important space it would have been labeled on the internal map."

  My first thought was it was probably someone's room. That's generally what the spaces off of Connector nodes were used for. Officer quarters, or guest quarters. Rooms that didn't require much of anything except space and life support. For people that were too important to sleep in the barracks with the common folk.

  "I'm going to go check it out," I said, and stood up.

  The base was small, so the walk was short. I was standing in front of the closed door a minute later. I was quite surprised when it didn't open for me automatically.
<
br />   "Open this door, Brick," I ordered.

  "I cannot. The locking mechanism is on a separate circuit. This is commonly used for personal spaces inside of stations. You will need the proper access key, or you can use your Link and I will break the encryption."

  Before he had finished half of that sentence I had raised Excalibur, powered the chisel tip, and with the help of my Engineering vision Augment, had plunged it into one of the three locking mechanisms on the door. The metal crunched with a satisfying sound, and the first of the three locking mechanisms became useless.

  "...Or, you could do that."

  "I already have a key," I said, as I moved on to the second locking mechanism.

  The second and third were equally as ineffective as the first. Despite there being three locks, the door didn't end up being any more secure than a standard door inside the station. I wondered why the owner had bothered.

  After the three locking mechanisms were done, I levered the door open. I heard the clunk of metal bits falling out of place as the destroyed locking mechanisms rained parts onto the floor.

  Behind the door wasn't what I was expecting. I'd been expecting somebody's man cave, or their luxurious bedroom. Why else would you put three locks on your quarters in a remote base? Instead what I saw were the Union equivalent of cardboard boxes. Grey packing cubes stacked to the ceiling, filling almost the entire room.

  "Whoa. What's this then?" I asked. I reattached Excalibur to my right hip.

  I entered the room, focusing on the first box in front of me. The Interface popped up a label.

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  Anti-personnel defense turret parts

  Spares for interior anti-personnel turrets

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  The next and the next were similar.

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  Nutrient paste dispenser parts

  Spares for nutrient paste dispenser

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  "It's all parts."

  "It seems so. Allow me to inventory," Brick said.