“Honestly, I wondered if I made them a bigger boogeyman in my mind than they actually are. Between their pretentious messages and occasional sabotage that seemed to be more for personal amusement or theory, they seem more along the lines of a Skull and Keys sort of secret society than a Machiavellian one.”
“Has something changed your mind?” Sasha asked. “A sudden audit request couldn’t have been all there was to make you suspicious, could it?”
“It’s suspicious, but no. I’d rather not waste the time if this was nothing more than our paranoia,” Laurie admitted. “I had two of my best infiltrators, Xavier and Mako, do some digging over the break.”
“Digging into what? Have you been going into the council systems, Laurie?” Sasha asked. His voice got deeper and quieted. “That’s dangerous and reckless, even for you. If you’re caught, that will cause a huge scandal.”
“Technically it’s not me, although I was the one to give the command, so I suppose that makes me the ringleader or accomplice?” Laurie pondered and acted oblivious to Sasha’s warning tone. “Don’t worry about that. I wouldn’t do anything to besmirch the name of our dear Academy, at least not publicly. My people are very good at what they do, as I’m sure you are aware.”
“Even if you don’t get caught and made an example of, no one is important enough to not be disappeared,” Sasha warned.
Laurie smiled, leaned forward, and patted the commander on the shoulder. “It’s nice to see that you do worry about me sometimes. But don’t fret, dear Commander. I can take care of myself, and during the times I can’t, I have more than enough robots and gadgets to make up for those pesky human deficiencies.” He began to walk down the hall. “But if you are curious as to what I found, join me in my office. I can feel a headache coming on and must attend to it at once with some liquid stress relief.”
“That, and the disruption commands you put on the cameras are about to shut off?” the commander asked.
“That too, but it’s a lower priority,” the professor admitted. “Come along. I think you’ll find that our new friends are a rather interesting bunch of crazies.”
Chapter Eight
Barrier Weaving: Increases knowledge of barrier manipulation and skills to achieve more use out of active barrier energy.
Rank: 2/4
“I might as well. It’ll cost me all my points, though,” Mack muttered. “Hey, Kaiden, do you think I should upgrade my barrier weaving?”
“What is that?” the ace asked as he skimmed through his own talent screen. “Do you use your barriers in home economics or something?”
Mack placed a heavy elbow on the table and rested his head on his clenched fist. “No, dumbass. It means I’ll have more abilities and styles to use when my barrier is up.”
“Then hell yeah, that sounds like it would be a vanguard’s bread and butter.” Kaiden turned his attention to his own screen and flipped quickly through the different trees. “Although shouldn’t you learn stuff like that in your workshops?”
“We mostly focus on the best ways to use our barriers, conservation, and which forms to use and switch to for various situations. We’ll probably get into more advanced stuff this year, but most vanguards don’t exactly have a suit of armor and a high-level projector while growing up, you know? We gotta get the basics down first.”
“I follow, but if you think you’ll learn more stuff this year, maybe wait it out. It’ll be more useful when you boost it after learning more.”
Mack tapped a finger against his helmet. “I’ve got two ranks out of four and three points to spare. Ah, you’re right. I’ll see if I can’t put it into something else. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Armor-smithing? That sounds useful for your class, and it’s in the Soldier tree,” Kaiden advised.
Mack switched to the Soldier tab and studied it. “I could go that way—maybe put a point in that and a point in grappling and heavy arms.”
“You don’t have any points in heavy arms? It seems like a no-brainer for a heavy, no pun intended.”
“I’ve made do with my hand cannon and barriers. We’re the most defensive heavy compared to the Titans and Demolitionists. I didn’t see a reason to focus on weapons training during the first year, but considering the new tests they will throw at us, it might be safer to broaden my horizons.”
“I’d say it’s a safe bet but considering your stunt back at the terminal and watching you fight during the Death Match, Squad Test, whatever, you seem able to crush heads just fine.” Kaiden chortled.
“I grew up with three older brothers, and all of us trained in wrestling and boxing and picked up a few ranks in kick ass the natural way over the years,” Mack explained and finished with a chuckle. “What are you going for?”
“I think I might put a point into the pilot talent,” the ace replied. “Maybe it’s time to get accustomed to flying on my own. I’ve usually had someone else on my team who could do it, but like you, I have to plan for whatever is gonna happen next. And actually being able to fly when we get caught in another situation like that will be important.”
“Have I not done a good job?” Chief asked as his eye furrowed in the HUD.
“You’re not even the one flying. You merely activated the auto-pilot,” Kaiden retorted.
“I got us out of the hangar,” Chief countered. “Granted, it could have been smoother, but I was also taking care of business with those mercs at the same time.”
“I ain’t dogging ya.” Kaiden tried to quiet the EI. “But what if the ship didn’t have an auto-pilot? Or it required a pilot to physically activate it in some way? We would have been up a creek. I’m a plenty good shooter, I think anyone would agree.” He looked at Mack who waved his hand from side to side in a “so-so” manner. Kaiden opened his visor, glared at him, and raised a middle finger. The vanguard laughed. “Anyone who isn’t trying to be a smartass would agree,” he amended. “But I’m diversifying. We talked about this the other day when I spent most of my points.”
“I still can’t believe you put points into cooking,” Chief muttered. “Do you think of yourself as more of a baker or grill master?”
“I already told you I did that because of the gig. If I already had points in cooking, I could have sneaked into the kitchen to poison that guy instead of having to wait almost four hours in the alley for him to leave the damn place.”
“You did a gig over break?” Mack asked and sounded impressed. “That much of a go-getter, huh?”
Kaiden smiled under his mask. “I did three, actually. Nothing too big but I got some good credits from them. The one I’m talking about is the one that actually left me with this scar.” He removed his mask to reveal the scar along his eye and traced it carefully with his pointer finger. “I wish it was a cooler story, but the gig was a simple shakedown. One mob guy owed another some money and I played collector. I roughed up his two bodyguards while he was eating. I’d been told to leave all the parties alive, but they didn’t have the same orders. One of them got me with a knife, but that was my own stupid fault. I was suckered into a bad situation with not a lot of room to maneuver. Still, I incapacitated them and waited for the target to come out so I could ‘remind’ him about a debt he owed. It turned out all right in the end. He paid on the spot and even tried to appeal to me by giving me something extra. It took my kind of ‘diplomacy’ to get that out of him, but it worked.”
“That actually sounds more like enforcer work than something an ace would do,” Mack commented.
“I’m starting out with a small list of clients while I build a rep. Fortunately, one of my contacts has been able to get me some good gigs, so I already have five to six-digit cred listings and jobs.”
“Is your aim to stock up and be ready for when you get contracted?” Mack asked. “It’s not a bad plan—it keeps your debt low, and you command higher prices and reputation so you access the good positions when you graduate.”
“My aim is something a little different, to be honest,
” Kaiden admitted.
The vanguard tilted his head. “Like what?”
Before he could answer, Lancia spoke over the comm link. “Hey, guys, could you come to the cockpit?”
“On our way,” Kaiden answered. He stood and curled a finger at Mack. “Let’s go, jolly blue.”
They entered the cockpit where Lancia sat in the co-pilot’s chair. “What’s up?”
“It looks like we’re almost there,” she said. “Or at least that there’s something on the horizon.”
“Considering this is deep space, I hope it’s friendly.” Kaiden took the pilot’s seat. “That is…big.”
In the distance, a massive dark ship floated directly ahead. It was almost hidden in the blackness of space but for the illumination of large lights along its hull.
“Is that a Dreadnought?” Mack asked.
“It looks like it,” he replied. “It’s not shooting at us so far, which makes it the nicest Dreadnought I’ve encountered so far in the Animus.”
“We’re being hailed,” Lancia stated.
Kaiden folded his arms and his visor closed. “Chief, bring it onscreen.”
A holoscreen appeared and displayed an older man with a salt-and-pepper beard in a black and gold uniform and hat. “This is the Enyalius. Identify yourself.”
“Hmm… Do you wanna take the reins here, negotiator?” Kaiden offered Lancia.
She nodded and slid the screen to her side. “Greetings, I am Lancia Guðmundsdóttir, a negotiator here on behalf of the World Council to negotiate a ceasefire with the Io Marauders.”
“Ah, splendid.” The helmsman smiled. “We were worried that you wouldn’t make it after reports of trouble at your last known location.”
“There were some difficulties but nothing that my comrades couldn’t handle.”
“Very good. We will open a docking bay as soon as you send us your ship’s information.”
“Hop to it, Chief,” Kaiden ordered.
“I can’t. That requires pilot input.”
“Seriously? You can fly the thing, but you can’t transfer a file?”
“I’m not flying it, remember?” Chief reminded him. “You simply have to click a few buttons unless you wanna go ahead and use that talent point.”
“Will it be enough?”
“To fly this jalopy? It’ll be plenty. This isn’t a bomber or fighter, merely a shuttle.”
“Go ahead and load it in then,” Kaiden requested. He leaned back and took a deep breath. A string of information and instructions appeared in his head as if it something he had grown familiar with over time came back to him in a rush. He exhaled, rolled his shoulders, and leaned forward to punch a few buttons on the screen. “Sending the ship’s navpoint and model to you now, Helmsman. Which bay should we head to?”
“Usually, it would be on the lower decks, but the ‘delegates’ from the marauder band are already here, and some of my people say they have grown restless. We’ll give you clearance to access the fighters’ bay and will light the barrier green to make it easier to spot once we send you a navpoint.”
“I appreciate it.” Kaiden turned the shuttle’s auto-pilot off and took control of the throttle. “We’ll be there soon.”
“Acknowledged. Prepare yourself, Negotiator. This may be…problematic for you.”
“That’s what we do, Helmsman. We solve problems,” she said crisply. The man nodded as the screen disappeared. Kaiden guided the ship to the navpoint destination.
“Do you normally have long talks with moon mercs?” Mack asked and leaned against a console in the back to steady himself.
“Technically, marauders aren’t mercs,” Kaiden stated. “More like tribes or settlers that simply said ‘fuck it’ for one reason or another and became scavengers or hunters. They often go to war with other marauder clans and the WCM.”
“But there have been over a dozen cases where peace was achieved between warring factions, so there is precedent that this can work,” Lancia explained.
“Is that your mission? To bring peace between two marauder clans or something?” the vanguard inquired.
“My objective is to negotiate peace between the Io marauders and the WCM. Apparently, there aren’t multiple marauder tribes on Io, only one large one. The others were wiped out.”
“I suppose when you’re the big dog, you get to say you own the planet.” Mack chuckled.
Kaiden drifted the craft slowly to the side of the Dreadnought. “We actually studied some of their history in Ace strategy class. The Io marauders ain’t as bad as some of the Phobos clans or even some of the merc groups in the area, but they make up for it by being crazy hostile, especially to the military. Apparently, they harbor a grudge due to the fact that the first settlers were stranded there for some time due to a mutiny that happened on one of the supply runs. That led to the creation of the Omega Horde, one of the only merc companies with an active line of battlecruisers.”
“Sheesh, I can’t blame them for being a bit pissed but becoming a marauder tribe seems to be an extreme reaction. It’s not like they did it on purpose.”
“Hunger and disease on a lonely planet will drive you to some radical choices,” Kaiden reasoned. “But hey, if they are here to bargain, it can’t be all bad.”
“There was an attempted negotiation with the actual Io marauders a few years ago, although that one ended poorly,” she admitted. “I should also mention that ‘stay alive’ is still in my list of objectives.”
The ace looked at Mack for a moment before he turned to her. “Yeah, that would be good to know. We’re not in the homestretch just yet.”
“Normally, these negotiations are for tests and trials to see how to deal with situations where one party is less interested in peace than the other. This could end up as a disaster.”
“It’s time to flex your throat muscles,” Mack quipped and went silent for a moment before he continued. “That sounds wrong—”
“I assume you’ll be able to have a bodyguard with you?” Kaiden asked.
“Well, yes, but that could put the other party ill at ease.”
“Not that I think these guys have a hell of a lot of common sense, but a little wariness is warranted when you have the reputation as a pack of raving lunatics from the stars.”
“I can work something out. If I bring one of you, I could say that you represent the kind of soldier or technology we offer if they come back under the jurisdiction of the WCM,” she suggested.
“If we’re gonna go that route, take Mack. He’s not packing like I am, and considering how big he is, he’ll probably make them less likely to try anything stupid. Plus, his barriers will catch them off guard.”
“I imagine that most of their weapons are energy based rather than kinetic. Even if they do attack, it’ll be useless against me,” Mack concurred.
“That sounds good.” Lancia nodded and peered through the cockpit window. “Look above, Kaiden.”
“I see it,” Kaiden acknowledged and glided the ship easily into the docking bay. The green light of the barrier shimmered around them as they coasted in. He drifted to the left of the bay and followed the directions of large glow strip signals to an open space. Without conscious thought, he activated the landing gear, lowered the ship carefully into place, and set it down gently before giving the okay signal to his companions.
“Nice work. It’s almost like you’ve done it all your life,” Mack congratulated him.
“It kinda feels like it too,” Kaiden said and flexed his fists. “I don’t think I’ll trade my guns for a pilot’s license, but at least I have a fallback plan now.”
“Please allow me a moment to change,” Lancia requested as she stood and opened her loadout screen. She pressed one of the options, and her body was engulfed in white light. Once it faded, she was once again dressed in the dark formal suit she had worn when they first ported in.
“You still have your weapons, right?” the ace asked.
The negotiator nodded and moved her
coat aside to show her Servitor attached to her upper thigh. She also revealed a bracer on her left hand that hadn’t been there before, and she flicked it quickly. Her blade popped out, and Kaiden nodded approvingly.
“I had to ditch my gadgets, but this is better than nothing,” she admitted. “For now, I’ll rely on you two if this takes an unfortunate turn.”
“We’re always ready for that,” Mack assured her. “But hey, take this as your moment to shine.”
“I am quite confident in my talents, thank you. But I have seen how you fight, and it’s not exactly subtle.” This earned a shrug from Mack. “And I know about him—specifically that things tend to blow up around him.”
Kaiden raised a hand in protest. “In my defense, something else generally makes the first move.” He drew his Tempest. “That noise we hear could be a merc with a chain gun or a Cleaning droid making weird noises.”
“Well, this is a replication of a top-of-the-line WCM Dreadnought. I doubt we have to worry about the Cleaning droids rioting.” She chuckled and pressed the button to open the exit on the side of the ship. “Ready, gentleman?”
Mack knocked his fists together. “Let’s go negotiate the hell out of these guys.”
Chapter Nine
The trio exited the shuttle. A group of Marines waited on the ground with the helmsman they had spoken to at the front of the group.
“Good day. Nice landing.” He tipped his officer’s cap. “Welcome aboard, but as much as I would like to go through all the proper pleasantries, we must get going.”
“I understand.” Lancia nodded. “Our apologies for the delay. Which way to the meeting?”
“These men will escort you.” He looked at the group of six guards behind him. “It’s up the hall, out of the bay. We can leave immedi—”
“Just a moment, Captain,” one of the guards said and walked up to Kaiden and Mack.
Advance (Animus Book 4) Page 7