Katherine- Forged in Exile

by Will Crudge

  Jimma slowly pulled her sword back. “Grinder!” She called out.

  “Already doing it.” The large K-9 replied. “We’re coming to you.”

  Jimma didn’t take her eyes off the woman for a second. Instead, she studied the woman’s appearance for a moment. The woman, known as Katherine, wore a black leather suit. It was skin tight and covered her entirely from her wrists and down to her boots. She had a belt with additional energy packs for her sword and a holster with a discontinued UAHC pulse pistol. She had straight blonde hair, but very thick, and bright blue eyes that seemed to peer back into her own soul.

  “Where did you get that sword?” Jimma demanded.

  “I’ve had it for decades.” Katherine replied.

  Decades? Even with advance med tech, she barely looks my age… But then again, I look seven decades younger than I should. Jimma thought to herself.

  “Where did you learn how to use it?” Jimma pressed.

  “I was training to be a War Master before my temple was wiped out.” Katherine stated as a matter of fact. Jimma wasn’t prepared for that. The last temple that had been attacked was more than thirty years prior, or so she had been told.

  Jimma couldn’t sense any deception in Katherine’s mind. In fact, she was beginning to connect deeply with her. She is one of us!

  “I’m sorry I attacked you. I had to be sure you were legit, and not one of them.” Katherine said empathetically.

  Jimma finally decided to sheath her sword once more, as she noticed Grinder was coming right up behind her. She wheeled around to see who else was there and did a double take in the process.

  Standing beside Grinder was a shiny humanoid infantry battle drone. Crimson drone. It had no markings, no paint, and appeared to be highly polished. It had a coppery pewter color and had some sort of rifle strapped over its shoulder.

  “Hello.” The drone spoke with a human-like voice. Jimma had no idea drones could even speak. “Call me Marbles!”

  Jimma studied the mechanical creature for a moment, and then it did something she wasn’t expecting. It extended its shiny hand. She hesitated for a moment and then reached her own hand out to shake it. “You’re a Crimson battle drone, aren’t you?”

  “I was, yes.” Marbles replied. “But it’s amazing what sentience can do to change your outlook on life.” Marbles blinked one of his eyes off, and then the amber led illuminated a second later. Jimma figured it was some sort of wink.

  “Sentience?” Grinder asked. Marbles looked down at Grinder to reply. “Indeed! It’s a long story, and I’d love to share, but we have some – business – to attend to.”

  Jimma wheeled back around to look at Katherine. “What kind of business would drive you to ambush one of your own?” She asked scornfully.

  “I’m very sorry about that.” Katherine frowned. “It would seem our enemy shares our blood, and we had to be certain you weren’t allied with him.”

  This is getting interesting. Katherine thought to herself. “Well, none of us are dead. That means we’d all better come clean, don’t you think?”

  Katherine hesitated for a moment, and Jimma could feel a sense of apprehension in the woman. It was an alien concept for a member of their gene pool to conceal anything. She supposed Katherine must have spent decades isolated from the Guild, and since she apparently had not completed her training, she must have been relying heavily on herself. But there was no time to deconstruct this woman’s story. They had their own mission, and she had to be sure the presence of this – anomaly – wouldn’t be a hindrance.

  “Marbles and I were marooned on an uninhabited, yet terraformed moon, for around thirty years. After my temple was attacked, the UAHC rescue ship I was on was isolated from the rest of the rescue vessels, and we crashed.” Katherine began to explain.

  “We as in, you and Marbles?” Jimma sounded confused. “What was a Crimson battle drone doing on a UAHC ship?”

  “The UAHC Soldiers recovered several drones that had been damaged during the attack. I can only assume they intended to do some forensics for intelligence purposes, but we don’t know for sure.” Marbles chimed in.

  “Yes. And when the ship crashed, I was the only living survivor. The ship’s AI remained intact, as well. After several weeks, I decided that I needed someone to help keep me sane. The AI’s name was Trixie, and she did all she could to help in that regard. But the best way to keep my mind focused was to master what combat skills I had already learned. I also needed a helping hand to make whatever repairs to the ship’s systems I could, as well. That’s how I was able to eat, and what kept Trixie’s core energized.”

  Jimma pointed at Marbles. “So, you decided to reanimate one of the battle drones?”

  Katherine gave a half nod. “More like, piece one together from all of the damaged ones. Trixie helped me disable his prime directives so he wouldn’t try to kill me, and the rest is history.”

  “But how does a battle drone end up being sentient?” Grinder asked.

  “Because I was too robotic and predictable.” Marbles answered. “I may have been able to be a challenge against a normal human combatant, but not for a War Master… Even one with only partial training. Plus, Katherine had to teach me how to fight with a sword… A normal dumb-old drone lacks the processing power to challenge her skills.”

  “He’s right.” Katherine asserted. “Trixie guided me through adding additional processing power to his core. The superior UAHC components allowed him to have the potential for sentience. It took several years for him to achieve it, but now we’re inseparable.”

  “Ok, got it.” Jimma nodded. “Now what are you here for?”

  Katherine let out a deep sigh. “Twenty years into our isolation, a Crimson vessel arrived. Trixie recognized that they were Crimson Agents, and had me and Marbles hide in the hillside. While we were up there, I kept getting spooked by some kind of eerie presence. Kind of like a War Master’s energy, but much rawer. Long story short, the leader of the Crimson troops must have had strong genetic ties to the Guild, and I thought I could reason with him.”

  “But you couldn’t.” Jimma stated it as fact.

  “Exactly.” Katherine frowned. “I was captured, as was Trixie’s core.”

  “So, where did they take you?” Jimma asked.

  “Nowhere. I – I kinda blacked out.” Katherine said in an awkward tone. “I can’t quite explain what happened next, but when I woke up, I was in Marbles’ arms, and my clothing had burned completely off.”

  “I begged her not to go, but she ordered me to stay put until the enemy left. I waited for their ship to dust off, and then I went searching for her. She was near death.” Marbles said while shaking his head.

  Jimma couldn’t help but wonder if Katherine had experienced Primal Rage. All War Masters were trained to control it, but some bloodlines were more prone to manifest its destructive power than others. Jimma was among them.

  “I don’t know why they left me, but they took Trixie. We’ve been hunting the leader since we managed to get off that rock a decade later.” Katherine frowned. “Trixie is why I’m still alive. She’s Marbles’ mother, in a sense. If there’s a chance I could free her, or at least find out what happened to her, then perhaps I could find peace.”

  “Why not reach out to the Guild?” Jimma asked.

  “We were on our way to do just that until we were drawn here.” Marbles answered.

  “Why were you drawn here, of all places?” Jimma asked.

  “The last thing I remembered doing before I blacked out was attaching an old UAHC tracking beacon on the leader’s armor. It was one of those tiny devices that could draw from nearby energy sources but avoid scan detection. It’s how the UAHC makes sure their ammunition doesn’t get into the wrong hands.” Katherine explained.

  “Neither of us expected the beacon to still be working after ten years, but it came to life when we landed at Tangine Station. We tracked it here.” Marbles explained.

  Jimma tapped a key on her m
anual interface and talked into it. “Kindle, are you getting any of this?”

  “Are you kidding?” She replied sarcastically. “I’ve had the weapons bays open, and was about to take out half the dock!”

  “I take it that’s a yes?”

  “Yes, dear!” Kindle replied. “I’m scanning all known beacon frequencies, and even cross-leveling them with archived encryption keys from the time period. The only thing I’m getting is Sheba’s voice module.”

  When Kindle completed the sentence, Jimma noticed Katherine cover her eyes with one hand. The former apprentice’s posture changed to that of a woman defeated, as she slumped down on the deck. She had her face buried in her hands as Marbles walked over to place his hand on top of her head. She then leaned into his cylindrical legs and hugged them as if she were desperate to be comforted.

  Jimma asked him via mental message to his voice module.

  He replied.

  “What’s wrong, Katherine?” Jimma asked, but the woman seemed too distraught to respond.

  Marbles had been leaning over Katherine but lifted his head to face Jimma. “I was afraid of this.” Marbles said as he shook his head.

  “I don’t understand.” Jimma said softly.

  “The UAHC beacon tech is derived from the same tech the Guild uses for Zodiac voice module distress beacons. Trixie had warned us about that, but we had no reason to believe that there would be any Zodiacs in Sol.” Marbles continued.

  “Why would you think that?” Grinder shook his head. “We are at war, after all!”

  Katherine stiffened straight up and cleared her throat. Both of them stared directly at Grinder as if he’d said something shocking. Jimma said privately to Grinder.

  Kindle chimed in now. “You must have just recently escaped from isolation haven’t you?”

  “Yes, nice lady… voice… thing.” Marbles said as he was looking around for the source of the sound. “Sorry, my audio sensors need some serious upgrading. Battle drones aren’t designed to be great listeners when we have more reliable onboard sensors and all.”

  “My name is Kindle, and I’m a NAV system on an LRF-90 super fighter. Nice to formally meet you.” She responded.

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me!” Marbles exclaimed. He may have looked like an infantry drone with no capability to make facial expressions, but his body language more than made up for it. He covered his small slit of a mouth with one hand and seemed to saunter around in a circle as if he were a surprised winning contestant on a game show. “I’ve only read about those! I hope…”

  Katherine cut him off with a single hand gesture and a stern look. Marbles responded immediately and put both palms up and towards her as he stepped back into a more compliant posture.

  “I’m very sorry you’ve waited ten years for a chance to recover your friend, only to get your hopes dashed at the first glimmer of hope….” Jimma said empathetically. She paused to reach down to Katherine and then helped the grieving woman to her feet. Grinder came over and rubbed his monstrous neck against Katherine’s hip as his own form of consolation. Jimma noticed Marbles must have had some kind of protective instinct, and took a half step towards Katherine when the wolfdog made contact. It only took a quick flash of four-inch-long fang for the robotic drone to stop dead in its tracks.

  Jimma wiped a tear from Katherine’s face, and Katherine smiled in appreciation. “Do you know any more about this Crimson Agent of yours?” Jimma asked.

  Katherine’s lips were quivering as she struggled to compose herself. She sniffed slightly and took a deep soothing breath. “He had a small nameplate on his chest armor.” She paused again to swallow. “His name is Peterson.”

  Jimma’s facial expression went from empathetic to angry. Katherine seemed to pick up on the change immediately.

  “What’s the matter?” Marbles asked Jimma.

  “Dry those tears, War Master Candidate!” Jimma said firmly. She knew that Katherine would respond immediately. And she did. Katherine stood straight up and locked eyes with Jimma. “Peterson is who we are after!”

  Katherine’s face drained of blood and went pale for a moment. Then she nodded. Jimma studied the former trainee and then proceeded to speak. “He and his twin brother have kidnapped a Zodiac elder. That’s the beacon that led you here. There are no coincidences, remember?”

  “Yes, War Master!” Katherine replied. Marbles had no facial expressions for Jimma to measure, but his exaggerated body language spoke volumes. He must never have seen Katherine behave like this before.

  “Good!” Jimma finished and then turned to Marbles. “Marbles, you are free to do as you will. However, you need to know that you’re not going to be very welcomed by most humans in UAHC controlled space at the moment. The Crimson Alliance attempted a bold attack on the inner stars a few months ago. It failed, but the civilian death toll was immense. You may not be a Crimson drone anymore, but nobody else will believe you. Help us, and I’ll make sure the Guild offers you sanctuary.”

  “Hell yeah!” Marbles exclaimed. “Fight our enemy, and then go somewhere where I won’t get killed? Shit! You had me at Marbles.”

  “I like this guy.” Grinder said casually.

  AFTERWORD

  Admittedly, I was hesitant to have this series intersect an existing one so directly. But as it turns out, it made sense in the end… To me, at least.

  Story arches have a funny way of breathing life into themselves, so this was an adventure for me to write, as much as it was a serious challenge. These books may be shorter than the main books of the War for Humanity Saga, but they’re so gratifying to write.

  I can only hope that you, as the reader, have enjoyed it also!

  -Will Crudge, Pendleton 2018

  THE BOOKS OF HUMANITY WEAPON

  War for Humanity

  - Book 1: Sovereign Protocol: A Soldier’s Rise

  - Book 2: The Battle of Tangine

  - Book 3: United Front

  - Kara’s Flight – Saga Companion Story #1

  - Broadsword – Saga Companion Story #2

  War Master Candidate

  - Book 1: Katherine: The Monster Within

  - Book 2: Katherine: Forged in Exile

  - Book 3: Katherine: I Am Vengeance

  - Book 4: Katherine: A Woman At War

  - Book 5: Katherine: War Master

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Will Crudge is a long-time military vet, and a devoted family man.

  He shares his home with his beloved wife, his amazing daughters, a cat, and a dog. He also shares headspace with his insanity. Although most people suffer from mental illness, but Will enjoys every minute of it!