RADE KILLS BUGS

ARGONAUTS BOOK 10

Isaac Hooke

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

About the Author

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1

Rade resided on the bridge of the Argonaut. He was seated at the Sphincter of Command, that series of curved stations forming the control center of the vessel. Tahoe, Manic, Harlequin, and Fret occupied the other stations. Their eyes were defocused—they interfaced with the ship via their Implants.

The astrogator seat immediately to Rade’s left was conspicuously empty—Bax assumed Shaw’s role. That empty seat was a constant reminder to Rade of what he’d lost.

He dismissed the thought, focusing on the mission. “Bax, give me an update on our target.”

“Target is proceeding toward Sigma V as expected,” the Argonaut’s AI said.

Rade nodded. “How long until they enter orbit?”

“Approximately thirty minutes,” Bax said.

Rade glanced at Tahoe, who subtly shook his head. “We won’t make it.”

Rade’s knuckles tightened on his armrests. “We’ll make it. Bax, any sign of drones or defense platforms in orbit?”

“Negative,” Bax said. “According to our spatial database, the Asiatic Alliance only has colonies on the—”

“Fifth and eighth planets,” Rade interrupted. “Yes, I haven’t forgotten.”

“Thought I’d remind you,” Bax replied. “Most humans aren’t known for their memories.”

“Most,” Rade agreed. “Unfortunately, some of us are cursed with something more photographic.”

Tahoe gave him a questioning look at that, but Rade ignored it.

“Asiatic Alliance,” Fret muttered under breath. He glanced at Rade. “It’s not the Asiatic Alliance we’re worried about…”

“No,” Rade agreed.

Thirty minutes passed. Rade kept an eye on his HUD—Head’s Up Display—where the target was represented as a red dot on the overhead representation of the system. Currently that dot resided just above the inhospitable world known as Sigma V, on the fringes of Asiatic Alliance space.

“Sit-rep,” Rade asked.

“The target has successfully attained orbit,” Bax replied.

And then the red dot disappeared.

Rade sat forward. “Where’d she go? Update me, Bax.”

“Target vessel attempted atmospheric entry,” Bax replied. “They did not succeed. They burned up.”

Rade hunched in his seat. “I didn’t think we’d damaged them that badly.”

“Judging from the burn pattern,” Bax explained. “I believe there were multiple holes in their heat shield, likely from our attack, yet they attempted atmospheric entry anyway.”

“Reckless bastards…” Rade said.

“I’m reading a signal, beamed at the Gate,” Fret said. “Looks like they sent out a last call for help.”

“They wouldn’t send out a call for help unless they expected a pick up at a later date,” Manic said. “They must have launched life pods.”

Rade tapped his lower lip. “Why bother? It’d take weeks for help to arrive. Even with life pods, they wouldn’t have enough oxygen to survive that long.”

“Unless they had another vessel following us,” Tahoe replied. “It’s possible, given how heavy the trade traffic was in the previous system. A vessel a day or two behind.”

“You think they disguised one of their ships as a merchant vessel?” Rade asked. “Something that would have escaped our notice, blending in with the background noise of trader ships?”

“Again, I’m just stating the possible,” Tahoe told him. “Not sure how likely it is either way.”

Rade sighed. “Bax? Detecting any life pods yet?”

“Scanning,” Bax said. Finally: “I have indeed detected life pods. They’re descending toward the surface.”

Rade sat up straight. “I want trajectories and landing coordinates. Prepare the Hoplites for launch. And alert the crew.”

As the Argonaut reduced speed to assume an orbital trajectory, Rade and the others rushed to the deployment hangar bay.

Rade fished out his cooling and ventilation undergarments from the storage closet and then donned his jumpsuit. He attached the different assemblies to the hardpoints protruding from his joints.

Beside him, Tahoe, Fret, Harlequin, Manic, Bender, Lui and TJ similarly suited up.

“Damn,” Bender said, seeming groggy. “I was having the best dream.”

“Let me guess, it involved your hand, and TJ,” Manic chimed in.

“You betcha,” Bender said. “My hand was bashing in your face while TJ filmed it all for his BlueTube channel.”

“Maybe we’re going to have to make this dream a reality soon,” TJ said. “There’s nothing like a Manic beatdown to drive subscribers to my channel.”

Harlequin finished donning his jumpsuit first, courtesy of his Artificial nature, and joined the Centurion combat robots, who were already suited up and waiting nearby: Algorithm, Brat, Ernie, Humpty, and Formaldehyde. The remaining two Centurions—Grumpy and Ulysses—would be staying behind to secure the ship.

All of the robots, including Harlequin, were equipped with anti-Phant emitters. Surus had been able to miniaturize the technology enough that the machines could wear them and still fit in jumpsuits. The suits had similar emitters installed as an added layer of protection, so that the robots were protected while both inside and outside the jumpsuits. Every AI-enhanced technology aboard, from the Dragonflies to the Hoplites to the Argonaut’s main core itself, was similarly shielded.

Rade attached his helmet, and the internal oxygenation and pressurization system activated. He felt a prick in his right hand as the suit injected the accelerant that allowed his body to quickly acclimate to the inner environment. He felt a moment of dizziness as it took effect. That had never happened before.

Getting old.

He caught Tahoe looking at him from behind his faceplate.

Are you going to be all right? Tahoe sent over a private line, direct to his Implant.

Never better, Rade replied as he attached his jetpack. The others were likewise securing that final component of their gear repertoire.

The Centurions loaded into the Dragonfly shuttle, along with TJ and Harlequin. The others headed for one of the six mechs.

Rade climbed the rungs on the leg of the waiting Hoplite and slid into the cockpit. The mech’s hatch sealed behind him, locking him inside. At the same time, inner actuators enveloped his body, suspending him in the center of the cockpit. Those actuators yielded to him, translating each flex of a muscle or bend of a joint into machine instructions, so that the external war machine mimicked his every movement.

“Welcome back, Boss,” Electron said.

“Electron,” Rade replied amiably.

“Did you miss me in the long time we were parted?” Electron pressed.

“Like a moth misses its wings,” Rade told the AI with a grim smile. He directed his next query to the Argonaut’s AI. “Bax, do you have coordinates for me on those landing pods yet?”

“I do,” Bax replied. “Transmitting now.”

Rade pulled up the map of the surface on his HUD. Three flashing yellow dots appeared, marking where the landing pods had touched down.

“Are you detecting any signs of life from those pods?” Rade queried.

“The surface of the landing zone is covered in thick vegetation,” Bax transmitted. “I am unable to get a visual of any kind, nor detect the pod statuses. My apologies.”

“Any sign of colonies nearby on the surface?” Rade asked. “Asiatic Alliance or otherwise?”

“Negative,” Bax said. “I’m not detecting colony footprints in close proximity, nor anywhere else on the surface for that matter. As expected. The Asiatic Alliance only has colonies on the—”

“Fifth and eighth planets,” Rade interrupted by rote.

“It’s a pirate base we’re worried about…” Fret said.

Rade nodded. “Which is why we’re bringing the Hoplites.”

“There is something interesting of note, however,” Bax continued.

“Do tell,” Rade said.

“It does not concern Sigma V,” Bax said. “But rather, the colonies on the fifth and eighth planets.”

Rade frowned. “Go on.”

“I still haven’t picked up any comm signals from the two colonies since our arrival,” Bax said.

Rade nodded. “You did mention the lack of signals when we arrived in-system. You suggested it could be because of interference from the gas giant?” The main gas giant in the system was undergoing severe atmospheric storms at the moment, and was also throwing out much higher doses of cosmic radiation than normal.

“I did suggest this, yes,” Bax said. “But now I’m not so sure. It’s been three days, and still I’ve detected not even a peep from the fifth and eighth planets. Something should have punched through by now. A weak signal. At the very least a few intergalnet packets. And yet all I’ve received is static.”

“Do you have a visual on these colonies yet?” Rade asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” Bax replied. “As both are located on the far side of the respective planetary surfaces. We’ll have to wait a few more days yet.”

“We don’t have time to wait,” Rade said.

“What about celestial artifacts?” Tahoe interjected. “Ships in orbit. Bases? Platforms?”

“I am not detecting any either,” Bax stated. “However, it could simply be that said objects are too small to discern at our present distance, or that the majority are located on the far side of the planets as well. After all, most space platforms and bases are usually positioned in geosynchronous orbit above their respective colonies on the surface.”

Rade studied the holographic representation of the star system that floated in front of his eyes while Bax spoke. He stared at planets five and eight, then rubbed his chin. “Damn peculiar.”

Tahoe glanced at him. “What do you think?”

Rade stared at the display a moment longer. Then: “We’ll investigate once we’ve done what we came to do. In the meantime, Bax, keep an eye on that Gate, and let me know if any newcomers arrive in-system. Last thing I need is some pirates coming up our ass.”

He gave the order to drop when the Argonaut passed over the landing zone.

The hangar bay doors opened and the Hoplites launched one by one. As they hit the atmosphere, the aeroshell heat shields deployed, protecting the mechs from burning up during reentry.

This was almost his two hundredth drop. And yet he never did quite get used to the G forces. Even so, it was over mercifully fast: the ground came up quickly.

Rade fired the aerospike thrusters and deployed his air brakes. He broke through the thick canopy and landed in the dense jungle, sending up a cloud of broken branches and leaves upon impact.

He glanced at his overhead map. Despite the jungle foliage, interference was only moderate, thanks to the powerful comm nodes in the Hoplites, which Bender and TJ had upgraded after the last mission. Because of this, he was able to readily pick up the locations of the other five mechs and the Dragonfly, all within a two-kilometer radius. The location indicators did flicker occasionally, thanks to the aforementioned interference from the heavy undergrowth, but otherwise everything was operating as expected.

He zoomed out on the map, looking for… there: four kilometers to the southwest six booster rockets had touched down—those would be used for launching the mechs back into orbit. They were scattered across an area of three square kilometers.

“Bax, do you read?” Rade tried.

“Yes,” Bax’s voice came back, distorting slightly due to the distance and the interference. “Situation is normal in orbit.”

“Are you able to get a visual on any of our locations?” Rade asked.

“Negative,” Bax replied. “As predicted, the foliage is proving an impenetrable screen. Would you like me to launch the Raptor?”

“No,” Rade said. “Its cameras won’t be able to penetrate the jungle any better than yours. You’re all the air support we need at the moment. Keep weapons hot. Just in case.”

“Roger that, Boss,” Bax said. “Hellfires and Vipers are charged and ready to fire.”

Rade made his way through the jungle foliage, his mech ripping a path into the thick fronds and branches. He rendezvoused with the Dragonfly, which had touched down in the jungle five hundred meters to the east. The robots cycled out of the craft, along with TJ and Harlequin.

“We dropped off Humpty at the booster rockets to stand guard, as requested,” Harlequin announced.

Rade nodded. Humpty would install himself at one of the booster rockets and monitor the camera feeds of the others. If anything bad happened at any of the other sites, Humpty would alert Bax, and promptly intervene—if it was within the Centurion’s capabilities.

“Electron, deploy the HS3 scouts,” Rade ordered.

On cue, spherical drones emerged from the Dragonfly’s hatch, dispersing through the trees in the general direction of the closest escape pod. As they departed, they activated their holographic emitters and vanished from view—at least on the visual band. Meanwhile, the Dragonfly took flight, heading back into orbit to dock with the Argonaut.

When the other five mechs arrived, those still on foot loaded into the passenger seats. TJ boarded with Fret, while Harlequin climbed into Rade’s passenger seat.

“Centurions, black out and lead the way,” Rade ordered.

The combat robots activated their holographic emitters and vanished, blending into the trees. Their noise cancelers also kicked in. Rade was aware of their advance, courtesy of location sharing, which outlined the Centurions in blue on his HUD; the drifting blue dots on his overhead map also allowed him to track their progress. Even so, he turned on LIDAR. The blue outlines filled out, becoming solid structures mapped out by photons, also depicted in blue on his HUD. No other hidden figures appeared with the activation of that LIDAR—a good sign.

“The rest of you, follow suit,” Rade said.

The others activated the holographic emitters attached to their mechs and vanished from view. Installing holographic emitters into the actual mechs was another upgrade from Bender and TJ, funded by a hefty contribution of knowledge and capital from Surus—her final parting gift. The three of them had even come up with a way to retrofit the noise cancelers across the outer skins of the Hoplites to mask not only the hum of their servomotors, but also the thud of their heavy footsteps and the crack of any foliage broken by their passage. Those sounds became whisper quiet with the noise cancelers active, and could be heard only within a two-meter radius—if you let a mech get that close, it was too late for you anyway.

All of the jumpsuits had holographic emitters as well of course, so that Harlequin and TJ vanished in the passenger seats. Like the Centurions before them, while hidden from the naked eye, everyone was still visible on LIDAR and via the location sharing outlines.

“Remember, move less than ten kilometers per hour,” Rade instructed as the team advanced through the jungle, assuming a well-spaced, zig-zag formation. If they progressed any faster than the specified ten kilometers per hour, the holographic emitters wouldn’t be able to keep in sync, and the mechs would flicker in and out of view.

“Not that it matters,” Fret commented. “If the swaying branches above our heads don’t give us away, then the broken trees in our wake will.”

“If those we track don’t have LIDAR, they won’t know what’s coming,” Tahoe said. “Let them sweat at the coming invisible terror.”

“I’ve always liked the way you think, Tahoe my man,” Bender said.

“They have LIDAR,” Fret insisted.

“I want the emitters active mostly for the noise cancelling tech,” Rade said. “If we can surprise our prey, it’ll make things a lot easier.”

“But nothing’s ever easy…” TJ said.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Rade agreed.

He advanced methodically, weaving between the trees, the palm fronds and branches whipping against the exterior of his mech. He tried to avoid the bigger branches as much as possible, even if the crack of breaking boughs was muted by noise cancelers’ radius of effect.

The foliage was quite alien. With leaves that swirled in amongst themselves, the palm fronds looked more like fractals than the vaguely triangular leaves typical of Earth. And the tree trunks swelled in the centers, like rubber barrels filled close to breaking.

“Boss,” Bender transmitted. “Got a visual on the first life pod.”

“Pipe it in,” Rade instructed.

In the upper right of his HUD, next to the overhead map, a video feed from the lead HS3 appeared. Rade found himself looking at the wreckage of an abandoned pod. The escape vehicle had cut a long runnel into the forest upon impact, coming to rest in the crook of a dead tree. Despite the trench carved into the ground, the tall canopy overhead remained relatively undisturbed, effectively occluding the site from the Argonaut’s view. As for the pod itself, the exit hatch had fallen away, revealing a vacant interior.

“Well, they must have survived,” Lui said. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to get the door open.”

“It is not entirely necessary that they survived,” Harlequin stated. “The doors of some escape pods are programmed to automatically open after the unit halts.”

“Well, if they didn’t survive, where are they?” Lui asked. “Their dead bodies got up and waltzed away into the jungle?”

“My point is, it is possible the pod was jettisoned empty,” Harlequin said.

“Possible,” Rade agreed. “Bender, is there any evidence of flight? Footsteps. Broken branches?”

“The HS3 isn’t picking anything up,” Bender said. “I can have it initiate a search pattern, circling in an expanding radius until it finds something.”

“Do it,” Rade said. “Meanwhile, have the remaining HS3s continue forward to the next pods.”

The group advanced, and paused five hundred meters from the first pod—Rade didn’t want to disturb the area with the mechs, in case there were footprints or other tracks left by their prey. However, he let the Centurions proceed.

The combat robots advanced, keeping an eye out for spoor. Shortly, they reached the first pod and gathered in a defensive half-circle around it. There was still no sign of any occupants, or a trail.

“Formaldehyde, can you give me override control?” Lui asked.

“Done,” the named Centurion replied.

Rade tapped into the combat robot’s video feed so he could observe.

“You know,” Lui said, bending Formaldehyde close to the ground to examine the runnel cut into the dirt by the pod. “If I were trying to hide my tracks, I’d make my way along this runnel.” Lui had Formaldehyde follow alongside the channel the pod had made, and stopped next to the intact foliage on the far side. “And when I reached the edge of it here, I’d climb into the trees. Or use my jetpack, if I had one.”

Rade nodded. “Bender, have the HS3 double check this area, specifically the trees.”

“On it,” Bender said. The HS3 that had stayed near the first pod initiated a new search pattern corresponding with the height of the branches; it spiraled outward from the edge of the trench.

“Centurions, fan out and search as well,” Rade ordered.

The robots complied.

After a few minutes Bender announced: “The HS3s aren’t picking up anything obvious. If the occupants fled through the trees, they were damn careful about it.”

“And the Centurions?” Rade pressed.

“Nothing as well,” Bender replied.

Rade nodded. “We’ll have to join in the search. Tahoe, assign directions.”

Tahoe assigned search vectors for the team members, and the Hoplites separated.

A short while later, Rade received word from Bender that the remaining HS3s had come upon the wreckage of the other two pods. The exit doors had jettisoned, but the two pods proved similarly abandoned: no footsteps, no broken branches leading from the site.

“Well, looks like we have a bit of a mystery on our hands,” Rade said.

2

The team continued searching the immediate vicinity of all three pods for half a day—Earth time—until Rade finally called a halt. He gathered the team to make camp and discuss their options. The Centurions assumed a defensive position around the perimeter, while the HS3s continued searching the thick foliage for signs of their prey.

“We’ll rest here for fifteen,” Rade said. He engaged the MRE—Meal Ready to Eat—option in his suit, and a straw pressed against his lips. He took a sip of the terrible-tasting liquid concoction of carbs, protein and fat. Mm-mm, nothing like imitation spaghetti Bolognese to whet one’s appetite. Rade gagged, and forced himself to take another sip. This was the last time he’d let Bender choose the menu.

“Why would they jettison all three pods without boarding them?” Fret transmitted. His avatar appeared in the upper right of Rade’s HUD as he spoke. “And let themselves burn up aboard the ship? Just to spite us?”

“That’s an odd way to spite someone,” Lui said. “I guess if they really preferred death to capture, they’d do it. But I’m thinking more along the lines of computer error. As in, the pods malfunctioned, and jettisoned before anyone could get on them.”

Manic’s avatar pursed his lips. “We did cause some damage to their ship. So it’s possible.”

“No, they’re here,” Tahoe said. “I know they are. I can feel it.”

“Yeah, you would,” Bender said. “The spirits are talking to you, right?”

“No,” Tahoe said. “Not the spirits. The forest.”

“Ah, the forest,” Bender said sarcastically. “I see. Big difference. Hear that everyone, the forest is talking to Tahoe. Whispering all its secrets. Tahoe’s got an in with alien jungles you see. They don’t call him the jungle whisperer for nothing.”

Tahoe’s mech extended an arm and its fist smashed into the shoulder of Bender’s Hoplite, knocking him right over.

“Hey!” Bender said. “That was uncalled for! You wanna go?”

“Sorry, my arm malfunctioned…” Tahoe said drily.

“Easy, boys,” Rade said. “You intentionally damage the goods, I’m deducting the repair cost from your respective paychecks.”

“Sorry, Boss,” Tahoe said.

“Now then, you’ve seen something, or not?” Rade asked his friend.

“No,” Tahoe said. “But something is definitely off. Our prey is here. Maybe watching us even now.”

“You’re creeping me out,” Fret said. The torso of his mech rotated to and fro as it scanned the dense foliage between the trees.

Rade too was scanning his surroundings, though he concentrated on the boughs overhead. He wasn’t sure he agreed with Tahoe. It definitely felt like something was watching them, but Rade didn’t think it was their prey.

“You ask me,” Lui said. “They ejected from the escape pods before landing. That’s the only explanation.”

“It has merit,” Harlequin said. “If they wore jetpacks, they’d easily survive.”

“Hate to say it, but our robotic friend here is talking more sense than Tahoe,” Bender said. He gave Harlequin a quick glance. “Don’t get a big head or nuthin.”

“I cannot get a big head, since the size of my head is restricted by the dimensions of its metallic shell,” Harlequin said. “Therefore the phrase—”

“Oh, just shut it, Iron Face,” Bender interrupted.

Rade considered for a moment. “Bax, can you review the orbital footage you recorded of the escape pods before they touched down? Look for signs of egress before they hit the forest?”

“I have already reviewed the footage,” Bax said from orbit. “The results are inconclusive. For two reasons. The first: the resolution is inadequate for the distances we’re working with. The second: atmospheric conditions were quite hazy at the time. So, I am unable to confirm or deny any egress from the escape pods. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Rade said. He glanced at his fellow mechs. “If our targets ejected before landing, we’ll just have to continue expanding our search radius, and hope we find something.”

Rade took another sip from his MRE and disengaged the motion controls of his mech so that he could sit back in his cockpit without the Hoplite mirroring his movements. As he sipped, he stared into the alien forest before him, and resigned himself to a long search. The spaghetti Bolognese was starting to taste better—at least it didn’t make him gag.

He received a private tap-in request from Tahoe and accepted.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Tahoe asked, his avatar appearing in the upper right of Rade’s HUD.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Rade said. “How about you?”

Tahoe grunted. His oldest friend waited a few moments before adding: “It’s been six months.”

Rade nodded slowly. Six months since he’d last seen Shaw and the kids. She had taken Alex and Sil off the ship for their own safety. He couldn’t go gallivanting around the galaxy with them aboard, not anymore. The last couple of missions had shown him that. Since then, he’d revamped all the security procedures aboard, shielded all bulkheads and decks, and required backup jumpsuits and weapons stowed in every crew quarter.

But even with all that, he didn’t trust that she and the kids would be safe. Hell, he wasn’t sure they were safe on Earth either, but at least their whereabouts weren’t known to any government agencies, and thus any rogue Phants. Shaw was living off the grid. If Zhidao ever got off the world Rade had stranded him on, the Phant would never find her.

With Surus gone, the Phant hunting days of the Argonauts were officially over. Rade was free to find new clients—he and his team had become mercenaries for hire once more.

“Six months,” Rade mused. “Seems like an eternity, to be honest. I understand now what it’s like for you, brother. If I didn’t have videos of their birthdays and other special occasions stored in my Implant, I don’t think I could cope. Sometimes I send them two or three video messages in a row while I wait for a response.” Which could take two weeks or longer, given the nature of the delay-tolerant InterGalNet network that spanned human space. “You told me once that… sometimes you were afraid you’d forget the faces of your family. And to be honest, if I didn’t have those special occasions, or the bimonthly video messages, I’d probably forget my own family as well. So as I said, I understand now.”

Rade paused, giving Tahoe a chance to interject his own thoughts. But apparently the Navajo didn’t have any, or preferred to keep them to himself, because after a few moments, Tahoe still hadn’t responded.

So Rade continued. “And while it hurts to have them gone, the only thing I can do is press on. I have to remind myself why I’m doing this. A ship like this is no place for them. I’m not going to risk their lives anymore.”

“It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than anyone else,” Tahoe said.

“Maybe I am,” Rade said.

“And how’s that going for you?” Tahoe pressed.

“I’m mostly convinced,” Rade said. “Though I do have my weaker days. But all it takes is a mission like this one to remind me why they have to stay home.”

Tahoe nodded. “I knew you’d eventually come around. I didn’t want to say anything—it was your choice. But when danger came… an enemy ship firing upon us, or aliens trying to board the vessel, I’d cringe every time I’d see those kids aboard. Or even your wife. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself. But still… kids, my brother. Kids.”

It was Rade’s turn to remain silent.

Tahoe continued after a moment. “Plus, they were a distraction. They caused you to make mistakes. While Shaw might have been able to stand her ground against the best of them, knowing she could be struck down at any time has got to wear on a man.”

“It did,” Rade said. “I realized that too late. They definitely were distractions. After the disaster that was our last mission, I swore I’d never take them along ever again. My decision was made all the easier knowing Zhidao is still out there.”

Tahoe pursed his lips. “The rogue Phant is probably never getting off that world.”

“Never say never,” Rade said. “Anyway, you didn’t see Shaw’s face when I suggested she take the kids away. Sure, there was indignation—she’s a strong woman, doesn’t like to be told she can’t stay and fight. But mostly, there was relief. Relief, Tahoe. She wanted to take the kids off the ship. She was only letting them stay aboard because I wanted them close.”

He shook his head before continuing. “I’m glad I finally realized the kids and Shaw were interfering with my ability to command. So many mistakes… what’s the old saying, sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees? Well I definitely didn’t see the forest.” He sighed. “Still, it hurts having them stay behind. Especially considering how I told Sil I was never going to leave her and Alex again. And yet I did. She probably hates me right now. Damn, but I miss the hell out of them.”

“We all do,” Tahoe said. “Especially Bender. He hides it well, but you can see he’s hurting.”

“Are you sure it’s not Surus he’s missing?” Rade asked.

“Her too,” Tahoe admitted. “But you can’t deny he loved your kids. He treated them like they were his own.”

“You’re right,” Rade said. “And you know what, they love him too. I can’t tell you how many times I get asked when me and ‘Uncle Bender’ will be coming home.”

“They don’t ask about me?” Tahoe said in mock shock.

“Of course they do,” Rade said. He couldn’t keep the glitter from his eyes as he added: “Once and a while.”

Tahoe shrugged. “You’d think your little ones would have realized Bender isn’t their uncle by now.”

“Isn’t he?” Rade asked. “And aren’t you? You were all like family to my kids, and me. More than family. We’ve lived through hell. Seen brothers and sisters die. Seen the world we fought for change beyond our own recognition.”

“Which is part of the reason we left that world in the first place,” Tahoe said. “We fought and died for Earth, and yet when we got back there, sometimes it really felt like all that fighting had been for nothing. Sure, at first, we were thanked everywhere we went. In the streets. In the cafes. Those of us who went out anyway. But as the months passed, the thanks came less and less often, and soon ended entirely, to be replaced with… condescension. Those kids in adult bodies, getting fat eating at their buffets and playing their video games don’t know how many people died so that they could enjoy that privilege. They don’t care. They think they’re better than us.”

Rade smiled patiently. “No they don’t, Tahoe.”

“They do!” Tahoe said.

Rade shrugged. While he didn’t entirely agree with Tahoe’s reasons for leaving Earth—Rade had wanted to do something that would allow him to keep fighting, while choosing his own battles, and running a security consulting business fit the bill—he wasn’t about to further antagonize his oldest friend. “Well, let them. I’d rather they had the freedom to have thoughts like that, than to have their bones resting in the belly of alien slugs.”

“Sometimes I think I’d prefer the bones option for them,” Tahoe quipped.

Rade chuckled.

Their conversation at an end, Rade disconnected and finished his MRE, then reactivated his motion control and stood up. “Well team, it’s time to move out. Search Pattern Alpha.”

Spreading out to cover a wider area, they advanced through the trees once more with their holographic emitters and noise cancelers operating full bore. The four Centurions led the way, while the HS3 drones weaved between the alien bark in an overall circular pattern, orbiting around the party’s advance.

As the minutes dragged on, Bender’s mech began to move with a nervous energy, a direct reflection of the current state of mind of its operator. Bender was impatient for action. They all were. Rade knew that pent-up energy was going to have to rear its ugly head sooner or later, likely in the form of antagonist banter. Well, a little venting would be good for all of them. To a degree.

Sure enough, a moment later Bender said over the comm: “Manic, there’s something different about you today. I can’t quite place it.”

“Uh huh,” Manic said.

“Wait,” Bender continued. “I know! Did you shave your pussy?”

“Um, I don’t have a pussy,” Manic said. “It’s called a dick, bro.”

“Ohhhh,” Bender said. “So that’s what you call it! Bet you wish you were like Harlequin. Mr. Interchangeable Genitalia. Then again, I suppose you always have VR. You can be the woman of your dreams there, Manic.”

“I have to interject,” Harlequin said. “My genitals aren’t interchangeable.”

“Like hell they’re not,” Bender said. “You’re an Artificial. They got swap out parts. Hey, I got an idea, you could be Fret’s vibrator!”

“Don’t drag me into this…” Fret said.

“Nothing is compatible with my make and model,” Harlequin said. “I’m a military model, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh I haven’t forgotten,” Bender said. “Harlequin, combat robot by day, fembot by night.”

“I take umbrage with that remark,” Harlequin said. “I’m not a fembot.”

“You are what I say you are,” Bender told the Artificial. “Umbrage. He takes umbrage! Who talks like that? Oh yeah, Mr. Interchangeable Genitalia.”

“There’s a special place in my heart for fembots,” Manic said.

“You still talking, Skinny Arms?” Bender taunted him. He paused. “Wait, what? Please continue. This should be interesting. Why is there a special place in your heart for fembots?”

“I lost my virginity to a fembot at fourteen,” Manic said. “I still remember renting the model from the store. How embarrassed I felt bringing it to my friend’s house. But man, it was so worth it.”

Bender was cracking up. “Bro, losing your virginity to a robot don’t count worth shit! That’s like saying you lost your virginity to a blender! Though I’d hate to see what your dick looked like after…”

“Brings new meaning to the phrase ‘ribbed condom’ don’t it?” Manic said. “And sure it counts. Fembots look indistinguishable from real women.”

“Nope, only real women count,” Bender. “I lost my virginity to a real woman when I was twelve. She was the hottest gym teacher I ever had. Lusted after by the entire class, male and female alike. And when we was done playing hoops on the court, I’d go in back with her and play real hoops, if you get what I mean."

“Uh huh,” Manic said. “So how long has this been a recurring wet dream of yours?”

“Funny man,” Bender said. He paused for several seconds, and when he spoke again his voice was filled with excitement: “Got something!”

“What?” Manic asked. “In your pants?”

“Not you,” Bender said. “Boss! The HS3s got something!”

Rade straightened. “Footprints?”

“No,” Bender said, rotating a cobra into the weapon mount of his Hoplite. “Mhm mm. My oh my, Boss, have a look at this!” He smacked his lips over the comm.

Rade received a share request from Bender and accepted it. In the upper right of his vision the feed from one of the HS3 cameras appeared.

Rade stared at the video image for a long moment, unsure just what it was he was supposed to be seeing. And then he noticed it: a long, sleek body, slightly brighter than the surrounding trees. It was scaled, like a reptile, with smallish spikes lining the backside. From the sides emerged four spindly legs, two per side. Two long barbed tails protruded from the rear, and at the front resided an expansive neck topped by a small head. Four red dots on the sides appeared to be eyes. Beneath them, bifurcated mandibles from either side of that head jutted outward, and under the jaw it had a long swaying wattle like a chicken’s.

Via the feed, Rade picked out similar creatures among the nearby trees. The upper parts of their bodies leaned against the trunks, and their forelegs rested against the bark to support them. Those bifurcated mandibles moved up and down as they appeared to chew the woody surface.

“Bugs bugs bugs,” Bender sang over the comm.

3

“I thought Sigma V was supposed to be uninhabited,” Rade said.

“Perhaps the Asiatic Alliance has been performing bioweapons experiments here,” Lui commented.

“Or they just don’t know,” Manic interjected. “The foliage is fairly thick after all.”

“Surely they’ve sent at least scientific expeditions down to investigate the more Earth-like planets in their own domain,” TJ said. “So they must have cataloged something.”

“Unless these things weren’t present the first time the Asiatic Alliance drones landed…” Lui said. “I wonder if this has anything to do with the lack of communications from the other colonies in this system?”

“What are you saying, these aliens recently invaded?” TJ said.

“Stranger things have happened on our watch…” Lui commented.

“They don’t look capable of spaceflight to me,” Fret said.

As if to emphasize Fret’s point, on cue two of the aliens paused in their foraging to lift their legs and take big, steaming dumps.

“I came, I saw, I shat,” Manic commented.

“It’s also possible these creatures were indeed present when the Asiatic Alliance dispatched drones to catalog this place,” Harlequin said. “And afterwards, the AA issued a silent quarantine on the place.”

“Keeping the news to themselves, all quiet-like,” Manic said. “I can see it.”

“Could be,” Lui agreed. “The Asiatic Alliance isn’t known for sharing.”

“A silent quarantine?” Rade said. “Then why would they even let us approach? I don’t buy it. They don’t know.”

“Might be that now we’ve landed,” Fret said. “The AA will never let us leave.”

Rade glanced at Fret’s mech. “They can certainly try to hold us here. Whether they’ll succeed or not…” Rade purposely rotated cobras into the weapon mounts of each arm to emphasize his point. “Either way, Asiatic Alliance or aliens, I’m sure there will be some sort of vessel arriving in orbit to have a talk with Bax at some point. Plus, there’s the distress call our quarry sent out.” He was very glad Shaw and the kids were at home. “Speaking of visitors in orbit, Bax, how’s it look up there?”

“Quiet,” the distorted voice of the Argonaut’s AI answered. “No vessels have come through the Gate. And I still don’t have a visual on the two colonies.”

“The Gate on the far side of the system is still intact?” Fret said. “That’s a good sign! Please tell us the intergalnet comm nodes are still there…”

“They are,” Bax said. “And to answer you next question, I’ve already attempted to alert the United Systems and the Asiatic Alliance. If they don’t know alien life is present on this world, they will soon.”

Rade nodded. His team couldn’t send any transmissions to the intergalnet node near the Gate on their own, not while this backwater planet had no repeaters in orbit.

“Keep us apprised,” Rade commanded.

“Got another hole in the silent quarantine theory,” Tahoe said. “If it was true, why would the AA let us and our target into this system in the first place?”

“You forget how much Boss had to bribe customs at the Gate…” Lui commented.

“We didn’t forget,” Fret said dourly.

Rade had made them all take a pay cut for the month so he could pay that particular bribe.

“Speaking of our target, I wonder if they knew what was here,” Manic mused. “Why else come to this world?”

“Could merely be bad luck on their part,” TJ said. “And ours.”

“Bugs bugs bugs,” Bender sang over the comm. “Gonna kill me some bugs. You fools quit chirping and let’s get down to business. It’s bug killin’ time. Can I Boss, can I? You know, they look a little bit like chickens. Chicken heads on alligator bodies. I’m calling them ChickenGators.”

“You and your silly names,” Manic said. “I refuse, on principal, to call these things ChickenGators.”

Ignoring him, Bender took a step forward. “Here little ChickenGators. Come on, I got some food for you. Sweet nourishment.” He outstretched the right arm of his mech in the direction of the aliens, and pointed the cobra into the undergrowth as if intending to clear away the trees so he could mow down the aliens, even though they were well out of range, and not even visible from here thanks to the foliage.

“Stand down,” Rade ordered. “They haven’t seen the HS3s, or us, yet. Let’s keep it that way.”

“Come on, they can’t even see us,” Bender said. “Besides, they’re just plant eaters. They can’t hurt us. What’s the harm in knocking off a few?” But to his credit, Bender lowered his cobra.

“They’re not herbivores,” Lui commented. “You think those are plants they’re eating? Look again. Closely. They’re ripping away the bark to get at the nests of what appear to be alien insects. They’re eating them.”

Rade zoomed in on the feed. Yes, he watched as one of the big creatures peeled aside the bark of its current tree with those mandibles, revealing a nest of much smaller insect-like creatures: each one had a carapace, with ten long, spindly legs, five per side. At the tip of the carapace emerged a thorax, with a head dominated by fingerlike mandibles.

The ChickenGator gobbled up as many of the scattering insects as it could. Rade could almost imagine the small things hissing and screeching as they were devoured. Quite a disgusting sight, actually.

That made up Rade’s mind. “We’ll take another route. Recall HS3s.”

“Aw, Boss,” Bender said. But he recalled the HS3s.

“Centurions, I want you back here on the double,” Rade ordered. “Into the empty passenger seats!”

The four combat robot scouts retreated to the Hoplites, and loaded into the empty passenger seats of Bender, Lui, Manic, and Tahoe.

The Hoplites backed away from the area in an organized retreat. The rearmost HS3 led the way. Even though the noise cancelers were masking their movements, Rade and the others moved slower than usual, more cautiously, careful where they stepped, not wanting to alert the creatures in any way.

“Hm,” Bender said. “Got more ChickenGator friends ahead.” He paused. “And the secondary HS3s are running into others on the left and right. We’re hemmed in.” He sounded excited once again.

Rade glanced at the overhead map. The HS3s had transmitted the positions of the aliens, so that the map displayed them as red dots. The creatures were indeed all around the party members, who were indicated as blue dots on that same map.

“Intentional, or random?” Tahoe asked.

“Gotta be random,” Lui said. “Look at how they’re scattered. It’s not a perfect circle.”

“Lui’s right,” Rade said as he examined the feeds from the HS3s. “They’re not paying any attention to us. They’re concentrating on stripping the trees and getting at the alien insects.”

“We must have wandered into some sort of insect breeding ground,” Harlequin said. “The bigger aliens are foraging for them.”

“We could wait till they move on,” Fret offered.

Rade glanced at the nearby trees. “The bark here is fresh, unstripped. If we stay here, we risk having the aliens move directly into our midst.”

“So?” Fret asked. “We’re invisible to them. We’ll just have to sidestep occasionally from time to time when they get close. Though I suppose the hard part will be keeping Bender from firing.”

“Bugs bugs bugs,” Bender sang.

“You really want to stay here while these creatures eat through the trees around you?” Manic asked. “Sending little alien critters skittering away in all directions, some of them probably onto you?”

“Hm, on second thought, not really,” Fret said.

Rade nodded. “We continue forward. Walk right through them. I don’t like have a noose of aliens around me.”

“Boss is right,” Lui said. “I feel like a sitting duck here.”

“Maybe they’ll attack!” Bender said eagerly. “And we’ll have to kill them all in self-defense!”

“I want your cobras offline until ordered,” Rade told Bender sternly.

“Boss!” Bender whined, but obeyed.

“He’s like a little girl,” Manic said.

Normally such a comment would have provoked a stabbing retort from Bender, but that none came was a testament to how seriously upset he was about not engaging.

The team advanced. Rade watched the lead HS3 move past the scattered line of aliens and into the empty forest beyond.

“Well, at least the HS3 proved the aliens can’t see us,” Fret commented.

“We’re slightly bigger than a drone…” TJ said.

“Nice and slow, people,” Rade sent as the first of the foraging aliens became visible through the trees ahead.

“Should we deactivate our LIDAR?” Lui asked.

“No need,” Rade replied. “The aliens can’t see LIDAR. If they could, they would have detected our HS3s.”

More and more aliens appeared as the team slowly advanced through the trees. The creatures were occupied with their prey—peeling back bark, and gobbling up the occupants. Rade upped the sensitivity of his external microphones, and now that he was closer, he could hear the little creatures squealing and shrieking as they were captured by those hungry jaws and crunched to pieces.

He and his party slowly entered the midst of these aliens, being careful not to disturb too much of the surrounding foliage. Oh sure, the mechs left heavy footprints in the moss and dirt, and broke away or crushed some of the lower lying shrubs and branches, but otherwise the Hoplites made very little in terms of disturbances, and any sounds they produced were quiet enough for the noise cancelers to absorb.

As such, none of the hungry aliens even looked away from their meals, and seemed utterly oblivious to the presence of the Hoplites. The team truly was invisible to them.

“So far so good…” Rade said over the comm.

A stray insect skittered toward him across the jungle floor, and Rade had to quietly sidestep to avoid it.

Behind him, Bender simply stomped on the same insect; the man giggled as it splattered beneath the invisible foot of his mech.

“You’re lucky the smell of freshly squashed insect isn’t attracting the bigger aliens to you,” Harlequin commented.

“How do you know I don’t want that?” Bender said. “Actually, you’re lucky I don’t stomp my boot into your face and rub alien guts all over your fake skin. You think you’re safe up there riding in the Boss’s passenger seat? Well, you’re wrong.” Despite his words, Rade noticed Bender was smearing his foot across a thick area of moss as he walked—trying to wipe off the insect guts and blood. Heeding Harlequin’s subtle advice. Though he might want to fight, and badly, Bender wasn’t about to compromise the team. The man knew a thing or two about honor and duty.

As the team passed through the middle of the alien mass, a ChickenGator tore into a tree and discovered a particularly active nest. A veritable swarm of insects emerged from it and scattered in all directions. The hive attracted other nearby predators, so that four of the big aliens amassed on the tree to snatch up as many of the insects as they could.

Fret was closest, and when twenty of the fleeing insects flooded toward him, crawling over the ground and the foliage, he jumped to the side to get out of the way.

“Gah!” Fret said.

He smashed into a small tree behind him and completely uprooted it. The tree fell over and Fret froze.

The closest ChickenGators swung their twin bifurcated mandibles toward Fret’s location. The four had begun to fight amongst themselves over the contents of the nest, and when they saw only the fallen tree, they quickly returned to their squabbling.

“This is why we don’t let Fret pilot a mech,” TJ complained, dusting himself off in the passenger seat of Fret’s Hoplite.

One of the four aliens, quicker than the others, scooped up a bulging mouthful of the insects from the peeled bark and retreated to chow down on its banquet.

A second darted forward and sunk its teeth into that one’s neck, swinging the head back and forth until the victim opened its mouth. When several partially chewed insects dropped out, the attacker released the alien and snatched up as many of the insects as it could before the other alien lunged at it in turn.

“Reminds me of the buffet line,” Manic quipped.

Rade and the others continued forward to the outer extents of the alien herd, and soon moved passed them.

Rade exhaled in relief.

“Well that was fun,” Bender said. “Can I go back for some more?”

Lui was at the forefront of the party, and approached the waiting HS3s.

“I don’t remember passing these on the way here,” Lui said, indicating a series of long, liana-like trunks around him that thrust from the jungle floor like seaweed.

“That’s because we didn’t retreat in a straight line,” Harlequin commented.

“The AI dazzles us with its amazing mathematical skills!” Bender mocked.

“Go around them,” Rade said.

The team started to swerve around the vines, but then the plants moved. Heading toward the team, as if to wrap them up.

Rade and the others were forced to bash the vines aside. And as they did so, the plants released a vile, yellow gas.

“These are spores or something,” Lui said. “They’re sticking to my mech!”

“Mech eating plants!” Bender said. “I’m not sure I want to kill them, or respect them! I’m leaning toward the kill option…”

“Retreat! Fire if you need to!” Rade continued bashing away the vines as he and the others retreated from the things. Finally, the assault ceased when the team moved beyond their reach.

Tactile alerts flashed on Rade’s HUD. He glanced at the exterior representation of his mech in the upper left of his HUD. Red swaths indicated where the released substance had coated the metallic surface of his Hoplite.

“That can’t be good,” he said. “Electron, are we taking any etch damage?”

“The spores are not acidic, if that’s what you’re asking,” Electron replied. “They appear to be harmless.”

Rade tried to wipe them off his chest but, according to the tactile indicators, he only succeeded in transferring the spores to the palm of his Hoplite.

“Look at me,” he told Tahoe. Rade piped in the video feed from Tahoe’s mech and examined his own Hoplite on the visual band.

Rade exhaled in relief. “At least the spores aren’t interfering with our holographic emitters.”

The ground began shaking.

“Tell that to the other aliens,” Manic said.

Rade glanced over his shoulder.

The herd of ChickenGators was trampling through the forest with teeth bared, and screaming wildly.

They were headed straight for Rade and the others.

4

“Jumpjets!” Rade shouted. He ignited his own jumpjets and thrust his Hoplite upward, into the trees. Around him, the other mechs did the same.

The branches were too numerous overhead and provided a thick canopy that constantly snagged against his mech; the impacts changed his direction while at the same time slowing him.

“The branches are too thick!” Rade sent. “We’re going to have to climb, and then jumpjet when we’re higher. Land where you can.”

Rade landed on a branch. It broke.

He plunged right back into the incoming path of the aliens.

“Harlequin, you okay back there?” Rade asked his passenger.

“All systems operational,” Harlequin replied.

Around him, other Hoplites dropped as their branches were unable to hold their respective weights as well.

“Can’t we just fight them?” Bender asked.

“Too many!” Rade said, glancing at the incoming herd. “They’ll overwhelm us!”

“I can break through, I can break through!” Fret said, yet jetting upward. But then he rammed into a thick branch and fell all the way back down. “Stupid, stupid trees!”

“Climb!” Rade folded away his weapons so that his hands were free, and wrapped his arms around the closest trunk. He began to climb.

Those others who had fallen from the trees, chose trunks to scale as well.

Branches fell away as he climbed, making the task difficult. He was forced to keep either one arm or leg wrapped around the main trunk at all times simply to support his weight.

Rade had only just pulled himself out of the way of the incoming throng when the aliens began to congregate around the base of his chosen tree. They howled and yapped, leaping up at him, biting at his feet—he kicked them away and hauled himself ever higher.

The aliens began to climb, too. They were taking only the trees Rade and the others had chosen for themselves. So far.

“So much for that idea,” Rade muttered.

“How are they seeing us?” Fret asked. “Our emitters are still functioning at one hundred percent efficiency. At least according to my diagnostics.”

“They can’t see us,” Lui said. “It’s the spores. They smell us! Or rather, they smell the spores. And apparently, they like that smell very much. It drives them wild.”

“Like the smell a doe’s dripping pussy does to a horny buck in the forest,” Bender said.

“Yeah,” Manic said. “But in this case, you’re the pussy to these aliens, Bender. Probably not a situation you’re entirely unused to.”

“I don’t think they want to mate with us,” said Fret, firing down at the aliens with his cobra laser.

“No, just you,” Manic quipped.

Rade released the trunk with his left hand and rotated the grenade launcher into place. He launched a succession of fragmentation grenades down into the growing congregation below him. The devices exploded, sending high-speed molten shrapnel into the aliens.

Necks tore away. Sometimes a stricken arm or leg sliced off entirely. The whole mass of aliens around the impact site dropped.

But half of them simply rose again. And others flowed in to replace those that did not.

More fragmentation grenades detonated as the remaining members of the team opened fire at the aliens gathered around the bases of their own trees.

“Wahoo!” Bender said. “Rip and tear, baby! You like it? Come get your pussy, you horny bucks! I’ll shoot you a new one.”

Those in the passenger seats—the Centurions, Harlequin, TJ—opened fire with their laser rifles, joining in the attack. Small black circles marred the flesh of their opponents wherever those lasers struck.

When Rade exhausted the fragmentation grenades in his free arm, he swiveled the cobra into place. He unleashed the powerful laser at the aliens, leaving dark marks on their heads as the laser drilled into their craniums in turn, killing them instantly.

Motion at the corner of his eye alerted him to an alien trying to climb one of the trees next to his own. It was almost level with him. Rade swung his aim outward and fired. The alien went limp as a fresh black circle the size of a dime appeared on its forehead, and it dropped from the tree.

Unfortunately, the distraction gave time for two of the creatures below to wrap their claws around his ankles and yank him free. He landed, the heavy mech crushing the two aliens below him.

Other aliens from the milling throng immediately swarmed in, pinning him with their powerful limbs. Rade was unable to flex his arms to bring his weapons to bear. He tried activating his ballistic shield, but the defensive system would not deploy, weighed down as it was.

Teeth and claws scraped over the skin of his mech as the aliens tried to devour this sweet-smelling machine. Scratching and scraping sounds filled his cockpit.

“Harlequin, you all right?” Rade asked.

“The passenger seat is pinned squarely beneath your mech,” Harlequin replied. “The edges are digging into the ground—the aliens can’t get at me. Besides, none of those spores rubbed onto my jumpsuit. It’s your mech they want.”

“Perhaps you should eject,” Electron suggested. “Save yourself, Boss.”

“Not going to happen,” Rade said. “I swore once I’d never lose a mech again. Besides, you’re too expensive for me to feed you to the wolves.”

“Need a hand?” Tahoe asked. The surrounding aliens began to release Rade’s Hoplite, dropping dead—no doubt thanks to Tahoe’s cobra. But always there were new creatures to take the place of the fallen. Some aliens would drag away the dead, while others simply leaped onto Electron, and the dead. “I can come down…”

“I’m good,” Rade sent. “Stay where you are.”

Rade fired his Trench Coat—a series of three-hundred-sixty-degree nozzles located around the waist of the Hoplite. From those nozzles emerged thirty-four pieces of seeking metal… normally reserved for anti-missile defense, the Trench Coat wreaked havoc at close range, tearing through the bodies of the aliens that pinned him, ripping away fore and hind legs, and punching holes through their reptilian bodies. The few nozzles that pointed directly toward the ground didn’t activate, preventing damage to his unit.

Building on that initial momentum, Rade bashed outward with his arms, sending up additional chunks and body parts, and clambered to his feet. He fired his jumpjets as more of the aliens attempted to leap at him past the bodies of their dead, but he narrowly slipped from their claws.

He ascended, and cut thrust before the branches became too thick. He wrapped his arms around the tree and began climbing once more. “Harlequin, you good?”

“Never better,” Harlequin replied.

“Make sure the trees around us remain clear!” Rade ordered the Artificial.

Rade paused now and then to fire into the fray below him, but also to break away branches that might be blocking his path overhead. If a branch was too thick to tear off, he simply hauled himself onto it and continued the climb.

Meanwhile, in his passenger seat, Harlequin kept watch on the nearby trees, and fired his laser rifle whenever any aliens tried to scale them in an attempt to outflank.

Below, the creatures proved a constant threat, because the piled bodies of their dead formed ramps that reached well up the tree. Rade kept pausing to clear the closest, but that only added to the ramp.

The branches were growing quite thin. He glanced up. Past the boughs, the HS3s waited in the clear overhead, marking the route to freedom.

The other five Hoplites dwelt near the top of that canopy, perched in their respective trees, clasping onto branches that looked ready to break away beneath the weight of their mechs at any moment. They continually fired down at the endless horde that seemed to fill the entire forest below.

When he judged that the remaining boughs were weak enough to penetrate, Rade commanded: “Jet through!”

He activated his own jumpjets and broke past the remaining thin boughs. As he arced upward and away from his previous location, he cast his gaze out across the otherworldly canopy sheathing the land below him.

In the far distance, the trees were calm. But below, the branches waved to and fro, indicating a jungle infested with hungry aliens. Indeed, through the thinner areas of canopy, he could actually see the aliens swarming by. Those agitated trees formed a circumference of at least a few kilometers around him.

He continued firing his jumpjets, making his way toward the far end of that writhing circle of boughs. But unfortunately, it shifted, following them. The aliens were pursuing. Though they could not see his team, they smelled those damn spores.

“We’re going to run out of propellant at this rate!” Lui said.

Rade glanced at his fuel levels. Propellant was indeed rapidly depleting.

His gaze was drawn downward: sometimes an alien would leap up from the tree cover below, where it had climbed to the top of the boughs. Invariable, that alien would be shot down by a cackling Bender.

The circle continued to follow them. Rade and the others couldn’t outpace the creatures.

“We’re not going to make it!” Fret said.

“Bax, are you there?” Rade sent.

“I am,” came back the relatively undistorted voice of the Argonaut’s AI.

“Are you monitoring the situation?” Rade pressed.

“I certainly am,” Bax replied congenially.

“Good, because we need an airstrike,” Rade sent.

“I was wondering when you’d give the word,” Bax replied. “One airstrike gladly coming up.”

Rade kept an eye on his propellant indicators as he continued jetting forward. Getting low…

A moment later four streaks darted across the sky. A high-pitched keening filled the air, and then the missiles ripped past, plowing into the seething forest below.

The land was blanketed in flame. Multiple fireballs went up, sweeping past the airborne mechs. The explosions sent the Hoplites reeling, but the mechs were otherwise unharmed—the machines were rated to withstand temperatures in the extreme, and the flash of heat produced by a fireball was of little concern. Harlequin and TJ were also unharmed in their passenger seats, as their jumpsuit armor also protected them adequately. The Centurions were likewise protected.

The forest, however, and the aliens within it, didn’t fare quite so well. Neither the visual, thermal, or LIDAR bands could penetrate the thick cloud of dust that had formed, but a scan on the echolocation band reported massive devastation. Four huge craters had been dug into the ground. Of the trees, and the aliens, nothing remained in those craters. Along the edges a few stumps remained before the forest began, and what looked like body parts. Some of those maimed bodies moved—that was the extent of the “survivors.”

The other members of the team were also operating echolocation, judging from the repetitive squawks emitting from their units.

“Man oh man, gotta love it when bugs get squashed on a massive scale,” Bender said. “Brings back good memories.”

“I kind of feel sorry for them, actually,” Fret said.

“You would,” Bender told him.

“I do as well,” Tahoe said. “It’s always a waste, when beings have to die for no reason, aliens or no. They attacked us out of instinct, not because they desired to harm us. It’s too bad we had to nuke their entire herd.”

“Yeah well, I’m surprised you’re not crying about the trees too,” Bender said. “Oh no, look at all the dead trees. My bug loving, nature loving ass is so sad!”

Tahoe growled over the comm.

“Just kidding,” Bender said. He knew it was best not to cross Tahoe.

Rade and the others had jetted by the edges of the blast crater to the intact portion of the forest. The trees directly below were calm. Peering past the clear areas in the canopy to the ground below, Rade confirmed that the land was devoid of aliens.

He cut off thrust and crashed through the branches to land heavily on the forest floor.

The other Hoplites landed around him, and their squawking ceased as they shut down their echolocation.

Rade did a quick head count, and confirmed that none of the mech passengers had succumbed or were lost during the fight.

Still at full strength after a fight. Always a good sign.

“Any injuries?” he asked, doing a quick scan of the health stats on his HUD. Everyone was in the green. Another good sign.

“Bender, send the HS3s forward,” Rade said.

“We fan out and continue the search?” Bender asked.

“Not completely, at least until we’re well away from this site,” Rade said. He didn’t want to dismount the Centurions, not until he was sure they were in the clear.

“Worried that the explosion will attract more aliens?” Lui asked.

“It’s possible, or it might frighten them,” Rade said. “Either way, we’re getting the hell out of here. Still, keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.”

“Like more bugs?” Bender asked.

“Like more bugs,” Rade agreed. “Or fugitives from certain escape pods.”

The HS3s led the way, and the Hoplites followed in a zig-zag, patrolling formation.

As Rade walked, he tapped in the Argonaut. “Bax, tell me the damage.”

“I only utilized four Hellfires in the air strike,” Bax replied. The AI’s voice distorted again now that the team was beneath the trees. “Perhaps overkill, but I wanted to make absolutely certain none of the aliens survived.”

“Well you achieved that goal exemplarily,” Rade said. “So that leave us with four Hellfires in the hold?”

“Correct,” Bax told him.

“Damn,” Rade said. He had wanted to purchase more, but to save on expenses, he’d only picked up eight at the last dry dock. He would probably regret that. Especially considering that the Raptor didn’t have any. Not that the Raptor variants were compatible with the Argonaut’s missile chambers anyway. Well, there were always vipers—the ship’s lasers were twice as powerful as the cobra’s the Hoplite’s possessed. Though it would prove difficult for Bax to aim them through the thick canopy.

“I guess that means no more airstrikes,” Fret said.

“Trust me, I’ll order a strike if we need it,” Rade said. “I’m not going to hold off, just because I think I’m saving money. Not if it means potentially saving lives.”

“I know that, Boss,” Fret said. “I wasn’t trying to imply that you’re parsimonious or anything. What I meant was, what about orbital encounters? Won’t Bax need them to defend himself? We already agreed the Argonaut would have visitors shortly…”

“Did we?” Rade said. “Guess we’ll have to see.” He glanced out at the forest around him, searching the trees. “Anyway, keep your eyes peeled, people.”

5

When they were well clear of the blast crater and its dead aliens, Rade had the party return to their original search route, so that they could expand outward from the escape pods once more.

He deployed the Centurions, and the combat robots advanced ahead of the party. The HS3s orbited the two teams, searching the surrounding forest. No further signs of alien habitation were encountered, nor of their prey.

“Man, these past few security consulting missions have been so, well, ordinary,” Bender said. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed killing bugs. Almost as much as I miss smashing pussy.”

“Aren’t you dead yet?” Manic said.

“Hey, don’t be getting all sentimental on me,” Bender told him.

“What?” Manic said. “Not sure how asking if you were dead is me getting sentimental.”

“You’re just jealous because I bopped that stripper girlfriend of yours last time we visited Earth,” Bender said.

“You didn’t bop her,” Manic told him.

“Oh really, haven’t you ever wondered why your kid is black?” Bender said.

“Bender, my kid isn’t black,” Manic said.

“Oh yes he is!” Bender said. “He’s black on the inside! Just like me! I seen the way he looks at girls. He’s got that killer instinct, just like me!”

“Uh huh,” Manic said. “Though I do have to admit, it is kind of strange that she got pregnant, considering I always wore condoms.”

“Ha!” Bender said. “Have you ever heard the story of the guy who went to see the doctor?”

“The guy who went to see the doctor…” Manic said sarcastically. “Oh-kay. Uh uh, people, we gots a Bender joke coming.”

“Yeah,” Bender said. “The dude complained to his doctor during his checkup about how his girl somehow got pregnant, even though he always wore condoms. ‘Condoms leak!’ the dude complained. And the doctor was like, ‘let me tell you a story. There was this guy who liked to hunt a lot. He could shoot a duck from twenty miles away. He—’”

“That’s impossible,” Fret interrupted.

“Let me tell the story!” Bender said. “Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. He could shoot a duck from really far. He was an expert hunter. The best. And one day when he went out, he was in a bit of a hurry, and he picked the wrong rifle case. It contained an umbrella, instead of his rifle.”

“What?” Fret said. “Who in their right mind puts an umbrella in a rifle case? As if it would even fit. And why wouldn’t he check it before taking the case? He can’t be as much of an expert hunter as you let on…”

“Let me tell the story!” Bender said. “Anyway, so he’s just driven out to the field, and is getting out of his car. He grabs his rifle case, but before he can open it, a bear rushes from the trees. So he opens the case—”

“Why wouldn’t he run back into the car?” Fret said.

“LET ME FINISH THE FRIGGIN’ STORY!” Bender said. “He opens the case and without looking rips out the umbrella and points it at the bear. Incredibly, the bear drops.”

“The umbrella was a rifle in disguise?” Fret asked incredulously.

“No, you idiot,” Bender said. “Someone else shot the bear.”

“I don’t get it,” Fret said.

“He’s trying to imply that someone else got the wife pregnant,” Manic said. “And that it wasn’t the fault of a leaking condom. Nice try, Bender. But you didn’t get my girl pregnant.”

Bender shrugged in his Hoplite. “If not me, then someone else. I’m telling you.”

“Don’t make me bring up your sister’s pussy…” Manic said.

“Hey, don’t go there, Skinny Arms,” Bender said. “Seriously. I don’t care if we’re on a mission, I’m gonna kick your pimply backside.”

“I’d like to hear about Bender’s sister,” Harlequin stated. “It sounds like an interesting story.”

“Damn it, tin bucket!” Bender said. “Don’t make me tear you off the Boss’s passenger seat.”

“All right, Bender,” Rade said. “Cool it, would you? We’re trying to concentrate here.”

“Sorry Boss,” Bender said. “Got carried away.”

They walked on in silence for some time.

“We’re going to get home, right Boss?” Fret said out of nowhere.

“Of course we are,” Rade said. “We have a ship in orbit. Booster rockets to take us there. We’ll head back as soon as we retrieve our target.”

“But we’re so far out of range,” Fret said. “We can’t connect with the comm nodes of the booster rockets. How do we know they’re still there?”

“Bax, are the booster rockets still there?” Rade asked.

“Affirmative,” Bax replied in a distorted voice.

“There you go,” Rade told Fret.

“What if we can’t find our target?” Fret said. “We can’t stay here forever. Especially since we’re worried that Bax will soon have company in orbit.”

“The sooner we leave here, the better,” Rade agreed. “Tell you what, if we don’t find anything in twelve hours, we’ll call it a scrub.”

“Twelve hours,” Fret said. “Our oxygen supply will be fairly low by that time.”

“We have enough,” Rade said. Normally they’d have sufficient oxygen to last for far longer, but their supplies were already low, owing to a spacewalk made only a few days before as part of an effort to infiltrate the target vessel while it was docked at a space station. That attempt had failed, unfortunately. Too bad, because it would have saved Rade a whole lot of trouble. The remote station had no O2 to spare, so Rade had been forced to disembark without refilling.

“But anything could happen in that time,” Fret pressed. “We could be trapped by more aliens. Or buried in a landslide. And what if Bax spots an alien ship for example, incoming toward the Argonaut?”

“Then we’ll head back before it arrives,” Rade said. “Look, we’ll keep a wary eye on our oxygen supply and the distance from the booster rockets at all times. Come on, enough with the downbeat attitude. We can do this.”

He continued to survey the trees as he walked, wishing that the forest would yield some sign of their prey. He didn’t have much hope. The escapees could have gone anywhere, by now.

“I sometimes wonder as to the behavior of humans before and after a battle,” Harlequin said to Rade over a private line. “During a battle, you are all calm, focused. Even Bender, despite the fact he seems to be enjoying himself immensely when the shit hits the fan. But before, you are on edge, find it hard to focus, and often banter with one another, cracking jokes invoking genitalia and excretion. And after, you are drained, experiencing adrenaline hangover, yet you still joke, often to the point of getting on one another’s nerves. What is the point of such behavior?”

“Before, we’re mostly trying to forget the coming battle,” Rade said. “It’s a way of calming our minds. Distracting ourselves. We know that any of us could die, and dwelling on that won’t help anything. So we joke and make light of everything, even death. And after, even when adrenaline hangover begins to kick in, we still have the fight in our systems. The urge to kill things. It’s hard to transition from kill or be killed, to… nothing. To come down from the high of battle. Where the mind is so attuned, so focused on its surroundings, and struggling to preserve the body. Because we don’t want to stop fighting. So, some of us make fun of our brothers. Try to get on their nerves. Stir up their own fight, if you will. But eventually exhaustion and post battle fatigue will set in, and they’ll shut up. Like now.”

“But you never try to get on anyone’s nerves,” Harlequin said. “So, you must not experience this.”

“Actually, I do,” Rade said. “But I control it. Restrain the feelings.”

“No, surely not,” Harlequin said. “You are the epitome of calmness, before and after a battle.”

“I assure you, my friend, I experience it just like everyone else,” Rade said.

“Interesting,” Harlequin said. “I wouldn’t have realized it. Humans never cease to fascinate me.”

“We’re a likable bunch,” Rade said.

“I never said I liked you,” Harlequin quipped.

Rade smiled, and continued the advance in silence.

A few minutes later, Bender said: “Uh, Boss.”

“What is it?” Rade asked.

“Lead HS3 finally found something,” Bender said. “Gotta warn you. It ain’t pretty.”

Rade switched to the viewpoint of the HS3. He had seen a lot of graphic deaths in his day, but this one certainly ranked near the top. It looked like it had been human, once. The faceplate of the suit was smashed, and the skull flowered outward, leaving a gory mess that made the features indiscernible. But otherwise the rest of the suit remained in intact.

“Well, at least we found something,” Lui said. “I was beginning to give up hope.”

“We got lucky,” Fret said.

Rade didn’t disagree.

“Wait, that helmet…” Fret continued. “One of those aliens did this?”

“Hard to tell,” TJ said. “Look at the way the skull exploded outward.”

“So what, a depressurization event?” Manic said. “A suit depressurization isn’t going to cause your skull to explode, especially not in this atmosphere. Sure, it’s poisonous, but it’s not going to do that.”

“We’re on an alien world,” Harlequin said. “Anything goes. Could be after his faceplate broke, his teammates abandoned him, and some other form of indigenous life arrived to lay a few eggs in his face.”

“You’re a cold-hearted machine, you know that?” Bender said.

“I’m sorry you don’t like my speculation,” Harlequin replied. “I’m merely stating that anything is possible.”

“Have the Centurions secure the site,” Rade said. “And I want the HS3s to fan out from that location. I’m guessing that our prey got sloppy when this happened.”

“And finally left a proper trail?” Lui asked.

“Exactly,” Rade replied.

He continued forward through the jungle, moving cautiously.

“Looks like our friend fell from the trees,” TJ said. “Take a gander at the feed from HS3 One. Specifically, the ground around the jumpsuit.”

Rade did so. A series of broken branches were scattered on the forest floor next to the body. He continued watching as the HS3 ascended; it following the trail of branch stumps upward along the closest trunk. Sure enough, when the HS3 reached the upper boughs, it discovered more broken branches, along with jetpack burns.

“The HS3s have a trail,” Bender announced.

“Have them follow it,” Rade said, relieved.

The HS3s departed, two of them keeping to the trees and following the trail, while the third remained closer to the forest floor as it moved. The three would continue only to the extremity of comm range, or until they encountered a tango, whichever came first. And then they’d wait for the team to catch up, or until Rade gave further orders.

Rade and the others proceeded forward until they reached Algorithm, Brat, Ernie and Formaldehyde, who had taken up a defensive position around the body. Rade stepped between the Centurions to approach the dead individual.

Rade examined the jumpsuit. It didn’t have holographic emitters, of course—that was an innovation Surus had given the Argonauts. No, the suit was standard issue, the kind most United Systems soldiers were given.

“Interesting that our friend here is wearing a military outfit,” Lui commented.

“Stolen, no doubt,” Manic said. “They rubbed out any patches or affiliations.”

Rade tried to access the embedded ID of the corpse, but got nothing.

“Wiped his embedded ID, too,” TJ commented.

Lui knelt, and examined the shattered faceplate. “Hm. You know, I can’t actually tell if the glass shattered from the outside. But that’s the only obvious conclusion. Unless he had a fragmentation grenade or something embedded inside his helmet, I’m almost inclined to believe an alien burst out of his head.”

“Don’t say that,” Bender said. “You’ll freak out Fret.”

“I’m already freaked out,” Fret agreed. “Wait. How did the alien get inside his head?”

“Dude, there was no alien in his head…” Bender said.

Lui flipped the body over, looking for any other signs of suit penetration, but there were none.

“Well, I think we’ve seen enough,” Rade said. “Centurions, lead the way. Everyone else, move out.”

Rade and the others followed the Centurions, who in turn were walking in the general direction of the HS3 scouts.

After a moment, Bender announced: “The HS3s lost the trail again.”

“How could they lose it again?” Rade asked, examining the video feed in the upper right of his vision. The HS3s had stopped.

“Guess our sloppy friends became careful once again when they got away from whatever attacked them back there,” Bender replied. “The upper branches of these trees can be fairly resilient… at least for weights below that of your typical mech. You bend one of these branches, it’s more likely to rebound than break off. If you traveled slowly enough in your jumpsuit, carefully enough, you wouldn’t leave a mark…”

“Have the H3s fan out,” Rade ordered. “Search pattern Alpha. Somewhere out here, they made a mistake. I know they did. A bent branch. A twisted leaf. And we’re going to find it. Then find them.”

Sure enough, only five minutes later Bender said: “Got something. Looks like someone is purposely leaving clues. Check out the feed.”

The HS3 moved forward, to a small dark spot etched into the trunk ahead. The kind that could have been formed from the surgical laser embedded in the index finger of many environmental suit gloves.

“Interesting,” Rade said. “You think our target did that?”

“Has to be,” Bender said. “Either that, or one of the kidnappers… someone getting sick of being stranded on this world and wants us to put them out of their misery. I’ll be glad to oblige.”

“How the hell did the HS3 notice that burn mark?” Fret asked. “It’s tiny.”

“It’s part of the new software we installed,” TJ said. “We got it programmed to detect all sorts of minuscule irregularities. Something the human eye could never hope to pick up on its own.”

“Like when Bender is menstruating?” Manic asked.

“Funny man,” Bender said. “Get along now. Go cuddle with your boyfriend Fret. Go on.”

Rade gazed at the HS3’s feed, and watched it pause before another tiny burn mark. “Another one. Someone’s definitely laying down the breadcrumbs for us.”

Rade kept an eye on the feed as he advanced. The HS3, along with the other drones, paused every few moments to move twenty meters perpendicular to its direction of travel. The goal was to be as thorough as possible in scanning the immediate area for laser marks or other irregularities—there was no guarantee the escapees were fleeing in a straight line, after all.

It was the same search pattern the drones had used earlier. They zipped back and forth quickly, so the team’s advancement wasn’t adversely affected. Thanks to that thorough search pattern, every ten minutes or so the HS3s discovered another burn mark among the trees, reassuring Rade that his team was traveling in the correct general direction.

“It feels good that we’re finally on the right path,” TJ said.

“Hell yeah,” Manic said. “We’ll be going home soon. No more MRE rations.”

“Yeah, but there isn’t much better on the ship,” Fret said. “Bender ate all the good food.”

“I did not,” Bender said.

“Oh really, didn’t I see you with turkey breasts that time?” Fret asked.

“That was my own food,” Bender said. “Picked up at the local space station. You should try it. Shopping for food sometime, that is. You might be pleased at what you find. Dickwad.”

“You and your turkey breasts,” Manic mocked.

“Hey, good protein, man,” Bender told him. “Almost as good as chicken.”

“Oh yeah?” Manic said. “Then what about turkey vagina?”

“I wouldn’t do that to a turkey…” Bender said.

“Yeah right, you eat turkey vagina all the time I bet. When you call ahead at a restaurant, you’re always like ‘hey, do you have turkey vagina available on the menu today?’ And the robo on the phone is like, ‘no.’ And you're like ‘well what about turkey breast then?’ It’s always your second option, but you’d take the first if you could.”

“Huh?” Bender said. “Okay, settle down there, bro. Leave the turkey pussy alone. And I don’t know about you, but I actually don’t have turkey or chicken on my mind at the moment. No sir. See, next space station we visit, I’m going to have sloppy sex with cinnamon pull-aparts."

“Careful, you’re going to make the turkey breasts jealous!” Manic quipped.

Two hours later the lead HS3 emerged into a clearing of sorts.

In the center stood two humanoid figures in jumpsuits. Because the HS3 was relatively far from them, Rade couldn’t yet discern the features behind the faceplates. One figure stood behind the other, as if using the first as a shield; the second individual also held a pistol to the head of the foremost.

“I think we found our target,” Rade said.

6

In moments the Centurions entered the clearing and assumed defensive positions, dropping to one knee.

“More tangos spotted in the treetops,” Algorithm announced in a tinny voice.

Rade glanced at his overhead map and saw the red dots marking the positions of the secondary tangos the combat robots had identified. He counted six in total, in addition to the two in the middle of the clearing. Apparently, the escapees had crammed in three people per escape pod, including the dead individual Rade had already encountered. Assuming there weren’t any more combatants hidden out there. To account for that latter possibility, the HS3s were already fanning out along the perimeter, searching.

“I’m picking up LIDAR emissions,” Formaldehyde said. “They can definitely see us.”

“Should we advance?” Bender asked. “Those bitches have nothing to counter our mechs.”

“Except a hostage,” Rade said. “We stay where we are. Algorithm, can you read the embedded IDs on any of them?”

“Negative,” Algorithm replied.

The Centurions had come closer to the tangos than the HS3s, allowing Rade to zoom in on the faces of the pair. The hostage taker appeared to be a man, while the prisoner was a woman—she matched the description of his target to a T. Of course, it could have been a holographically generated image on the faceplate. The man was wearing a jetpack, the woman was not.

“Centurions, do you think you can take him out before he pulls the trigger?” Rade asked.

“Undoubtedly,” Algorithm said. “However, the tangos in the trees also have their weapons aimed at the hostage.”

“Can you take them all out before any of them fire?” Rade pressed.

“There are only four of us,” Algorithm said. “And seven of them. While I appreciate the faith in our abilities your question suggests, there are limitations to even our movement speeds.”

Rade glanced at the overhead map, focusing on the Centurion half circle formation. Formaldehyde was closest to the hostage and her taker. “Formaldehyde, switch to external speakers. Transmit my voice.”

“Roger that,” Formaldehyde responded.

“Let the girl go,” Rade said, mustering as much authority as he could into his words.

He waited as Formaldehyde retransmitted the words into the clearing.

A haughty male voice responded. “And lose all my leverage? I don’t think so, Mr. Galaal. That is your name, isn’t it? Of Unlimited Universe Security Consulting Incorporated. Owner of one Marauder class starship, and a team of ‘Argonauts’ comprised of yourself, six other human employees, one Artificial, and seven combat robots. Plus six Hoplite mechs. That’s right. I know everything about you.”

“Then you know I’m a man of my word,” Rade said. “Let the girl go, and you and your friends can live.”

“I believe I’m the one with all the negotiating power at the moment,” the man said. “You know, I find it interesting that you send your robots forward to speak for you, while you hide out of range. Cowardly, isn’t it?”

“Let me attack this bitch please,” Bender commented softly over the comm.

The man continued. “You have brought your mechs down to the planetary surface I assume?”

“No, we left them aboard,” Rade lied.

“Don’t patronize me, Mr. Galaal,” the man said. “We saw all of you land. You’ve brought your mechs. You will give one of them to me. Otherwise, I will kill the girl here and now.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Rade said.

“I’m not bluffing…” the man insisted. “I’ve had enough of her. When I caught Rebecca here leaving burn marks for you to follow, I knew it was time to end this charade.”

“Ms. Daggart, are you all right?” Rade asked.

The hostage taker looked at her expectantly. “Well, go on, answer.”

“Am I all right?” she replied, sounding a tad hysterical. “Do I look like I’m all right?” If it was a holographic projection on her faceplate, it was certainly a realistic one—the movements of her lips matched her every word. And there was definitely terror in that face. Her eyes blinked rapidly, as if on the verge of tears.

Rade considered for a moment. Then: “You give me the girl, I’ll give you a mech.”

“No,” the man told him. “I keep the girl. And I keep your mech. Think of it this way, you’re helping her remain alive. A mech will go a long ways to preserving not just our existence, but hers. You’ve encountered the locals by now, I assume?”

“We have,” Rade said. “I take it one of them got to you back there.” It was a none-to-subtle reference to the dead individual.

“Something like that,” the man said. He tightened his grip upon the girl and tilted his pistol toward her helmet menacingly. “Now then, you’re going to give me a mech, Mr. Galaal. And you’re going to instruct it to lead us to your booster rockets.”

“And let you take our only means of returning to orbit?” Rade said. “I don’t think so.”

“I wouldn’t be so cruel,” the man said. “I’ll leave a couple of booster rockets for you. Enough to get two of your mechs into orbit. If you leave behind your combat robots, and load into the passenger seats and cockpits, you’ll have more than enough space.”

“And what exactly do you expect to do once you’re in orbit?” Rade said. “My ship won’t let you aboard.”

“We have another ship coming,” the man told him.

“Yeah, in a few weeks,” Rade said. “You’ll run out of oxygen long before then.”

The man didn’t answer.

“He obviously intends to board the Argonaut,” TJ said over the private line.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Bender said. “Bax will shoot him down before he gets close.”

Rade wasn’t entirely sure he’d give the order to do that. It would mean losing the hostage. Then again, if it was a choice between his team, or the woman, obviously he was going to pick his team.

“Maybe we were right about another pirate vessel following closely behind us,” Lui said. “One disguised as a merchant.”

“Well, even if that were true,” Tahoe said. “It still hasn’t arrived in the system, or Bax would have notified us. If the ship really does exist, I doubt it will arrive before these miscreants run out of oxygen waiting for it in orbit. I’m with TJ on this one, the man indents to board the Argonaut. And he knows, if he gets that far, that we’ll probably let him.”

“This is your last chance,” the hostage taker said. “Give me a mech. Tell it to bring me to your booster rockets. And stay well back the entire time. As in, not pursuing us at all. Or I’ll terminate your precious Ms. Daggart.”

When Rade didn’t answer, the hostage taker announced: “You have five seconds to decide.” He made a show of pulling the hostage closer to him and pressing the muzzle of the pistol harder against her helmet.

“Five.”

“Let him do it,” Bender said.

“Four.”

“We need that reward money…” Lui commented.

“Three.”

“Let him do it,” Bender hissed.

“Two.”

“One.”

“All right!” Rade sent. “All right, I’ll give you a mech.”

“Boss?” Bender asked over the private line, sounding confused.

“He wants a mech, we’ll give him one,” Rade told Bender privately. He spoke to Formaldehyde for retransmission: “I’m sending you my own Hoplite.”

“Very good,” the man replied.

Rade opened up the cockpit and the inner actuators released him. Unwilling to waste any propellant from his jetpack, he swung outside and clambered down the mech’s leg rungs. He paused to retrieve a laser rifle from a storage compartment in said leg, and slid the strap over his shoulder. He left the remaining equipment inside and locked the compartment so that the pirates wouldn’t be able to break in.

Meanwhile Harlequin dismounted from the passenger seat and joined him on foot. Rade activated his jumpsuit’s holographic emitters and vanished from the visual band like the rest of the team—not that it mattered all that much, given the enemy possessed LIDAR.

“Formaldehyde, continue transmitting my voice to the hostage taker,” Rade said. “Electron, I’m ordering you to do everything this man asks of you.”

“Understood,” Electron replied, which Formaldehyde also retransmitted for the courtesy of the hostage taker.

“You will allow him complete control of your systems, even to the point of engaging us in combat, if he so orders it,” Rade told the machine.

“Understood,” Electron stated.

“Go to him,” Rade ordered.

Rade watched the Hoplite retreat into the forest ahead.

“Excellent choice, Mr. Galaal,” the man said. “Though I admit, I didn’t think you’d really do it. I’m almost of a mind to shoot Rebecca anyway, just to spite you. But alas, I’m a man of principles.”

“I’m sure you are,” Rade said.

Soon Electron vanished from view, engulfed by the thick foliage. Rade glanced at the feed from Algorithm in the upper right of his vision, and watched the Hoplite walk past the Centurion and into the clearing.

“Call off your Centurions,” the man said.

“Centurions, return,” Rade ordered. He kept the HS3s in the area. Even with LIDAR, the enemy had yet to pick out the scouts, as the floating units were able to blend in well with the boughs.

As such, even with the Centurions gone, Rade was still able to watch Electron approach the pair. The man appeared to regard the Hoplite suspiciously. He gestured at the mech, lips moving soundlessly. No doubt he had joined a private channel to communicate with Electron. Wisely, Electron wasn’t retransmitting what was spoken to Rade and the others, lest the pirates detect it and question the mech’s loyalty.

Electron abruptly knelt and the cockpit fell open.

Grinning widely, the man shoved the woman aside, and two men in jumpsuits jetted down from the trees to hold her. Meanwhile the leader climbed into the waiting cockpit.

The hatch sealed, and Electron stood up. Under the control of the individual inside, the Hoplite raised its right and left arms, examining them in turn. It folded different weapons into its mounts. It fired a fragmentation grenade into the forest, ripping through a group of small trees. It experimented with the laser, releasing several random shots.

Meanwhile the rest of the enemy tangos joined their leader on the ground. They all raised their hands, seeming to cheer.

Then the group proceeded onward, turning east—the direction of the booster rockets. With their jetpacks the other pirates returned to the trees, dragging the woman with them—they seemed to prefer the imagined safety the boughs imparted.

The HS3s followed quietly alongside.

“We’re getting in front of them,” Rade announced, moving into the lead on foot with Harlequin at his side. He upped the output of his jumpsuit servomotors so that he could keep pace with the bigger Hoplites.

“May I offer you a ride, Boss?” Tahoe asked.

“Not yet, Tahoe,” Rade replied. “I’d like to continue on foot for the moment.”

Hurrying through the trees, the five Hoplites and four Centurions repositioned stealthily until they resided directly in the path of the incoming group.

“Wait for it,” Rade said. “Electron, do you read?”

“Of course,” Electron replied on a private channel.

“You know what to do,” Rade said.

Observing through the feed of the closest HS3, Rade watched Electron’s arms rotate outward to unleash a stream of deadly cobra fire into the canopy. Three kidnappers fell dead from the branches.

The remaining men jetted away, dragging the woman with them. They were headed straight for the team. Meanwhile the leader remained trapped in Electron’s cockpit, his movements no longer being translated to the Hoplite by the inner actuators.

“Can’t believe the morons fell for it,” Bender commented. “‘You want a mech? Sure! I’ll give you one. And it’s going to obey your every word!’ Dumbasses.”

“Get ready,” Rade said. He jetted upward, assuming a position in the boughs of a nearby tree. He swung the laser rifle from his shoulder and aimed it into the upper branches of the forest ahead, where the ragtag escapees would soon appear.

Harlequin and the Centurions took up similar positions in the boughs nearby.

Rade looked through the scope of his rifle and slowly slid the weapon from side to side as he scanned the forest. The holographic emitters enveloped the weapon as well, masking it from view.

“Remember, don’t shoot the girl,” Rade said.

“Like we need a reminder,” Lui told him.

“That comment was more for the robots, of course,” Bender said. “Emotionless, irreverent things they are.”

“Interesting you assume he meant us,” Harlequin commented. “Whereas I interpreted his comments as applying to you, in particular.”

“Me?” Bender said.

“You seem to lose control when firefights begin,” Harlequin replied. “Like most humans, unable to restrain yourself from firing upon even the smallest thing that moves.”

“Don’t piss me off,” Bender started. “I’m not in—”

“Quiet,” Rade interrupted. “They’re coming.”

Via the scope, Rade caught a glimpse of a jumpsuit through the upper branches ahead. His finger tightened around the trigger of his laser rifle.

“I’m detecting LIDAR from behind,” Harlequin announced.

Stunned, Rade looked from his scope. “More of their men?”

“I don’t know,” Harlequin said.

“We’re taking plasma fire!” Lui shouted.

Glancing back, Rade saw thick white beams cutting through the trees. One of those beams struck Lui, completely severing the right arm of his Hoplite.

“That’s not plasma fire!” Tahoe said. “It’s some kind of energy weapon.”

From the foliage behind the team emerged several of the “ChickenGator” aliens encountered earlier. Except these ones were bigger, and regimented. They wore armor of some kind over their reptilian bodies, which allowed their twin barbed tails to poke free. Their heads were completely encased in the metallic material: a segmented section even enveloped the swaying wattle that hung beneath their jaws.

On the shoulders of the forelegs were mounted big, menacing cannons—the source of the energy blasts.

“Ah, shit,” Manic said.

7

“Retreat!” Rade shouted. “Bax, you seeing this? We need an airstrike ASAP!” He marked the coordinates of the aliens.

“Airstrike imminent,” Bax replied.

Rade rushed away, zigzagging left and right to avoid the energy beams. The team headed straight toward the coming pirates in jetpacks.

These pirates seemed surprised at first, but when they spotted what was coming after Rade and company, and the energy beams that were chewing up the forest behind the Hoplites, they, too, retreated, heading north, perpendicular to the party.

“Follow them!” Rade shouted. He swung to the north, the aliens keeping up behind them.

He heard the familiar high-pitched keening of Hellfires then. The four remaining missiles aboard the Argonaut slammed into the jungle behind Rade and his team, tearing into the heart of the alien pursuers.

A wave of fire swept over Rade and the others, but their mechs and jumpsuit armor protected them from any damage. When it was gone, from the smoking forest behind them there was only quietude.

And then aliens began pouring out. Some of them had blackened armor. Others were visibly injured, with the helmets having fallen from their heads, leaving charred, grisly messes. But their shoulder-mounted weapons were invariably intact, and they came on relentlessly.

“Shit,” Fret said. “That was the last of our Hellfires.”

“Continue the retreat!” Rade ordered.

Bender fired over his shoulder with his mech, and struck one of the armored aliens in the chest.

“Got one!” Bender cheered.

The stricken alien continued to pursue.

“Chickens got some armor!” Bender cursed.

“Aim for the heads,” Manic suggested.

Manic practiced what he preached and caused a fresh hole to appear in the skull of the foremost alien, which had lost its helmet; the creature fell like a puppet whose strings had been snipped.

“Oh, you’re good,” Bender said sarcastically. “I don’t know how you figured that out. Target the bugs who’ve lost their helmets! You’re like the smartest person I know!” He released several quick shots in rapid succession, but missed every time. The pursuing aliens had taken to dodging left and right as they ran, copying the team’s tactics.

Coming in from the southwest, Electron joined up with Rade.

“You still have our friend in your cockpit?” Rade asked.

“I do!” Electron replied.

“Keep running,” Rade instructed his team. “Don’t let the others get away with the girl! Harlequin, with me!”

Rade jetted upward, landing in Electron’s passenger seat. Harlequin did the same, joining him in the same seat, and together they fired back at the pursuing aliens. It was difficult to hit anything, given the zigzagging of both Electron and the aliens that pursued.

Around Rade, trees fell as those deadly beams sliced through everything they touched.

“Where the hell did they get that equipment?” TJ asked.

“Someone is arming them,” Fret said. “And it sure as hell isn’t us!”

“Maybe these aliens weren’t quite as primitive as we thought,” Tahoe suggested.

“What?” Fret asked. “When we attacked them, they decided to break out the ol’ gear? Shit they hadn’t used in years?”

“I doubt it,” Lui said. “More like, they’re a different caste of the same aliens.”

“Then if that’s the case, as a species, overall they’re obviously of a higher technological level then we initially thought,” TJ said. “But if that’s so, why haven’t we seen more technology, like shuttles or ships? Bases?”

“I’m sure we will…” Tahoe commented. “If this is an invasion, these are only the forerunners.”

Electron leaped over a tree that toppled in its path.

“Electron, ask our friend if he knows anything about this,” Rade said. He swung his scope back and forth, attempting to target the pursuing aliens, and squeezed the trigger. Finally, he scored a hit, this against another alien that had lost its helmet. The creature toppled forward with a fresh hole in its forehead.

“The man claims innocence,” Electron said a moment later. “These are the first he’s seen of armed aliens.”

The HS3s were continuing alongside, some following the fleeing men ahead, others keeping pace with the Argonauts.

“The lead HS3s are reporting a river of sorts ahead,” TJ said. “Made of liquid hydrocarbons.”

Rade pulled up the feed in the upper right of his HUD. Sure enough, there was indeed a river. And the fleeing men were leaping into it in pairs. They dragged the woman in after them.

“We follow!” Rade said.

The Centurions and Hoplites emerged from the trees and onto the banks of a fast-flowing, yellow river. They immediately leaped en masse into the liquid and were swept downstream. Well, the Centurions, anyway. The Hoplites sank almost immediately.

“Shut off LIDAR!” Rade ordered as they descended to the bottom. He didn’t want the aliens using photon leakage to guide their weaponry. The visible light drop-off was quite severe, so that without high-intensity LIDAR active, the team could only see a few meters in any direction through the murky environs. When he glanced up, Rade couldn’t see to the surface at all—he hoped the aliens would be similarly hampered when looking in.

The mechs advanced in the gloom, bounding from foot to foot across the riverbed. They made relatively good time, because the river current shoved them forward with each step.

“Stay with the pirates!” Rade ordered the Centurions from where he was strapped in to Electron’s passenger seat. “HS3s are to keep pace as well. Except one… I want it to mirror our position, staying out of sight near the tree line, and keeping an eye on our alien friends. Switch to comm protocol Behoovement.”

That last order meant all local communications were to limit transmission range to five meters. Remote transmissions were to be ping and relocation based, as in, after sending a quick transmission, the sending unit must rapidly relocate.

“Gotta love a bath in liquid hydrocarbons,” Bender said as his mech bobbed along the river bottom like the others.

“An experience not entirely unfamiliarly to you, huh, Bender?” Manic asked.

Rade glanced at the signal strength bar, and confirmed that both Bender and Manic had dropped their transmission range to under five meters. Of course they had—they wouldn’t risk giving away their positions with idle chatter. Plus, they were constantly moving, thus observing the Behoovement protocol.

“Yup!” Bender said. “Nothing more fun than a dip in liquid hydrocarbons, and then lighting myself on fire afterwards!”

“That’s why you got such burnt skin!” Manic said.

“That’s right, I used to be white,” Bender said. “Till I burned my ass. You should try it. Once you go black…”

Rade received a quick transmission from the HS3 that waited behind—an image. It showed that the aliens had paused at the edge of the river.

He received another image a few seconds later. The HS3 was in the process of relocating—some of the aliens were heading toward the HS3’s last known position. Another alien had stayed back, and was aiming its shoulder-mounted weapon toward the liquid hydrocarbons of the river.

A third update came. Again, the HS3 was even farther from its original position, and this time the surface of the river was aflame. Apparently, the alien had fired the energy beam at the flowing liquid.

“Oh crap!” Fret exclaimed.

“Relax,” Lui said. “The flames are restricted to the surface.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to leave?” Fret said. “They’ll spread across the entire river!”

“Easy, we walk out of the water,” Lui said.

“But we’ll catch fire!” Fret complained. “You got your wish, Bender!”

“Wooyah,” Bender said.

“The methane will burn itself out shortly after we emerge,” Lui said. “We’ll hardly notice a temperature difference.”

“Oh,” Fret said.

“Dumbass,” Bender commented.

The group continued hopping forward along the river bottom, aiming to catch up with the Centurions, who were almost out of comm range.

But the aliens didn’t pursue.

“We got lucky,” Tahoe said. “They seem afraid of the river.”

“Not so much afraid,” Rade said. “As annoyed, is the impression I get.”

“We just lost contact with the Centurions, and the lead HS3s,” TJ announced. “They’ve left comm range.”

Rade checked his overhead map. Sure enough, the indicators representing the Centurions and HS3s had frozen at the extremities of comm range.

“That’s fine,” Rade said. “We’ll catch up with them soon, hopefully.”

The trailing HS3 followed along as the Hoplites continued forward. It continued to send sporadic updates, but they increased in frequency as the AI operating the HS3 became confident that it had lost the pursuing aliens.

In fifteen minutes, Rade reverted back to normal comm range, and ordered the HS3 to secure the area. After another five minutes, when the HS3 reported the all clear, Rade gave the order to return to the riverbank.

The six mechs emerged from the flaming liquid and climbed onto the banks. The mechs were afire, as were the jumpsuits of Rade and Harlequin, but as Lui predicted, the methane quickly burned away from the metallic skin of mechs and jumpsuits alike, and the fires went out.

The team members spread out, continuing downstream along the shore. The HS3 trailed them.

“Bax, do you read?” Rade tried. He knew the transmission would be detected by any nearby aliens, but he was okay with that, since they knew he was in the general area anyway. They wouldn’t be able to tell precisely where, however, not with the way the thick foliage reflected all signals.

“Indeed,” Bax replied. “You encountered some interesting forms of life down there.”

“Yes,” Rade said. “Tell me the Centurions are ahead.” He didn’t want to have to backtrack, in case the party had walked past them—the indicators frozen on the overhead map were now kilometers behind them.

“They are indeed ahead,” Bax replied. “About fifteen minutes.”

Rade nodded. “Good. And Ms. Daggart?”

“She remains in the custody of the kidnappers,” Bax said. “Our Centurions pursued them into the forest when they left the river, and have the kidnappers pinned.”

“Any sign of further alien presence?” Rade asked. “Bases. Shuttles.”

“Negative, no sign,” Bax said. “If there are such artifacts, they are hidden well within the jungle.”

The team continued forward while the river burned beside them.

“You know, those aliens could have set this afire to serve as a beacon of sorts,” Tahoe suggested.

“To call in more Chickens?” Bender asked.

“Yep,” Tahoe replied.

“Goodie!” Bender said.

“We’ll take cover if we have to,” Rade said from Electron’s passenger seat. “For now, we continue forward.”

In fifteen minutes, as Bax had promised, TJ announced that one of the other HS3s was coming into range.

Rade glanced at his overhead map and watched the blue dot pop into existence. A moment later another blue dot appeared, along with several others, situated deeper in the forest. Red dots appeared as well, where the Centurions had pinned the surviving three kidnappers, along with Ms. Daggart.

Rade and the others reached the HS3 waiting at the edge of the forest, and headed inside. Shortly, he saw where his Centurions were taking cover: the combat robots perched behind trees and bushes with their weapons aimed into the forest ahead.

“We could rush them,” Bender said. “Their pea shooters won’t do shit to our mechs.”

“I’m hesitant to,” Rade said. “It might cause them to do something rash, like shoot the girl.” He paused, then made up his mind: “Electron, pipe me into the prisoner in your cockpit. “

“He’s listening,” Electron replied.

“Tell your friends to stand down,” Rade said.

“Certainly,” came the man’s pleasant voice. “Please, proceed closer, so they can hear me. Unless you’d prefer I broadcast?”

“No,” Rade said. “The mech will make a better impression.” He switched back to the team comms. “Get closer, Electron. The rest of you, stay here.”

The Hoplite broke away from the other five, and proceeded toward the Centurion line. There it paused, presumably in full view of the kidnappers.

“Is my voice amplified on speaker?” the man trapped inside the cockpit asked.

“Electron, project his voice on the speakers,” Rade told the mech’s AI. He added on a private line: “Don’t do it. Just continue to record him. But pretend to obey.”

“His voice will be projected in realtime,” Electron replied for the man’s benefit.

“Kill the girl!” the man shouted.

“I figured as much,” Rade said. “Have you recorded enough samples to produce a convincing deepfake?”

“I have,” Electron replied.

“Good, give the order to stand down,” Rade said.

From Electron’s external speakers came the man’s simulated voice. “Stand down. I repeat, stand down. Surrender.” The words sounded indistinguishable from those of the actual pirate.

The kidnappers emerged from the trees, their hands and weapons raised.

“Algorithm, Formaldehyde, collect their weapons,” Rade ordered.

The pair of Centurions left cover and dashed forward to collect the weapons of the three kidnappers.

“Brat, Ernie, help them herd the lot to me,” Rade said, swinging down from the passenger seat. “Argonauts, join us.”

The five Hoplites came up just as the Centurions led their prisoners to Rade. The woman seemed relieved.

“Ms. Daggart,” Rade said, initiating a private connection. “We’re here to take you home.”

“Thank you,” the shaken woman said. “I’d rest easier if you executed these bastards in front of me, however.”

“I’m sorry,” Rade said. “That’s not how we operate. They’ll be taken to the nearest space station to be tried by the appropriate court.”

Her eyes flared with anger behind the faceplate, but instead of answering, she turned roughly away.

The Centurions stowed the extra weapons in the storage compartments of the mechs, and bound the gloved wrists of the men with elasticuffs.

Rade had the ringleader hauled from Electron’s cockpit, and similarly bound.

“It’s not like we’re going to run anywhere,” the ringleader said on the common band. “If you’re taking us back into space, of course we’re not going to say no.”

“He says he’s going to have us tried,” one of his henchmen said.

The ringleader seemed amused. “Is he, now?”

“What’s your name?” Rade asked him on the common band.

“Leopold Socrensly, at your service,” the man said.

“Leopold?” Rade said. “The pirate leader?”

“The one and only,” Leopold said, smiling behind his faceplate. Rade almost expected to see a gold cap of some sort on his teeth, but such affectations were reserved for Bender, apparently.

“Well then, looks like we’ll be getting an even bigger reward,” Rade said, glancing at his Hoplites. He continued to speak over the common band for Leopold’s benefit.

“Good, because this bitch has been almost more trouble than he’s worth,” Bender commented.

“She’s worth, you mean?” Lui asked.

“No,” Bender said. “I’m talking about the pirate dude. The other bitch, I’m kinda liking…”

Fret leaned down from TJ’s passenger seat to gaze into the faceplate of one of the henchmen.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but those look like miniature fragmentation grenades tied around their foreheads,” Fret said.

Rade noticed it too, then: all the men, except for Leopold and Ms. Daggart, had bands embedded with grenade-like amulets wrapped around their foreheads.

“They certainly are grenades,” Leopold said proudly.

“Convenient way to prevent mutinies,” Manic commented.

“It is,” Leopold agreed. “I would have done the same with Ms. Daggart, but I ran out of grenades.”

“That explains what happened to the dead man we encountered,” Lui said. “Wasn’t the aliens that had gotten to him after all. I’m kinda relieved, yet revolted at the same time. Dude should be tried for murder.”

“I’m sure they all have murders under their belt,” Rade said, eying the four pirates.

“You’re mercenaries,” Leopold said. “Formerly MOTHs. You’ve killed countless men. Not to mention aliens. If anyone should be tried for murder, it is you.”

“I can’t claim never to have killed,” Rade agreed. “But the difference between you and me is, you kill for fun and profit, robbing and terrorizing innocents, kidnapping young women from their parents. I, meanwhile, only kill in self-defense.”

“You’re so much better than me, Mr. Galaal,” Leopold spat.

Rade shrugged, he started to turn away, but then paused. “There’s one last thing I’d like to know. You chose this system, and this planet, specifically, out of all the others. Did you know aliens were here?”

Leopold regarded him smugly from behind the faceplate for several moments. Finally, he deigned to open his mouth.

“No,” Leopold said. “That was an accident. I chose this system because I was running from you. I hoped to lose you on the colony worlds. But when I saw they were destroyed…”

“You actually saw the habitation domes?” Rade said. The pirates had passed through the Gate and into the system some hours before the Argonaut.

“You didn’t?” Leopold asked.

“The colonies were on the far side of their respective planets by the time we entered the system,” Rade said. “So we didn’t get a visual on the habitation domes themselves. But we did detect a lack of communications. And a dearth of orbital structures…”

Leopold smirked. “Too bad, you missed some… interesting… sights.” When Rade didn’t answer, he sighed, and added: “Yes, the colonies and their orbital supports are gone. Vaporized into so much space debris.”

“So you headed for the nearest planet instead, hoping to lose us here,” Rade said.

“Good supposition,” Leopold replied. “And entirely correct. Unfortunately, The Feisty Ann—my ship—had taken too much damage, and was unable to survive reentry. You know what happened next…”

“We detected a distress signal before you burned up,” Rade said. “You sent out a call for help? Why bother, knowing your oxygen would be long gone by the time any of your pirate friends arrive? Unless you were expecting one of your ships to be closer, maybe hiding in the next system…”

“It wasn’t a call for help, so much as a notice,” Leopold said. “Letting my fellow pirates know that they’d have to use deepfake replicas to extort any money from Rebecca here’s father, given that she, and the rest of us, were about to die.”

“You didn’t notify the Asiatic Alliance or anyone else that the colonies were destroyed?” Rade asked.

Leopold waved a dismissive hand. “Why? What have they ever done for me, except hunt and chase me? No no, there was no contact with the Asiatic Alliance. However, I did send a note to my fellow pirates, mostly to avoid this system. Though I’m sure eventually some will come this way looking for salvage. Recently destroyed colonies usually have some excellent pickings. I would have headed there myself if you hadn’t been so hot on my heels.”

“Wait, if the colonies are really destroyed, why didn’t a distress signal get out?” Lui asked the man. “Customs would have never let us enter the system.”

Leopold shrugged inside his suit. “I don’t know. Maybe the aliens attacked too quickly, and it was over almost the moment it began. Or maybe the attackers activated some sort of jamming device while doing the deed.”

“If aliens attacked…” Fret said. “Then where is their ship?”

“That’s a good question.” Rade studied Leopold, who merely shrugged.

“You think he’s telling the truth?” Tahoe asked over the Argonauts’ private band, excluding the pirates and Ms. Daggart.

“About the colonies?” Fret said. “Personally, I do. We’re doomed. As usual, we just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, at the backward end of an alien invasion. Why couldn’t we have a mission on the far side of the galaxy for once, on the opposite side of an invasion?”

“I say we’re on the right side,” Bender said. “We were meant to be here. If there’s anyone qualified to deal with aliens, it’s us. We’ll destroy their asses, send them running away to their alien mommies. They’ll learn that you don’t mess with us humans. Especially the Bender types. And they’ll never come back again.”

“Yeah, sure,” Fret said. “With our luck, after our little scuffle, they’re already on the way back to this system with a whole freakin’ space navy.”

Tahoe cleared his throat. “I actually meant, do you think the pirate was telling the truth about not knowing the aliens were here?”

“I doubt he knew,” Rade said. “He would have no reason to. Aliens usually don’t give a warning when they decide to invade. They show up on the fringes of our populated systems and simply start destroying things. It’s a pattern we’ve seen with the Phants and other races since.”

“You’d think we’d catch a break, and have friendly aliens enter our space for once,” Manic quipped.

“Actually,” Harlequin said. “Any friendly aliens probably wouldn’t make contact. They’d just move on to the next system, avoiding our space entirely.”

“Why wouldn’t they make contact?” Bender said. “You don’t know how aliens think, Machine. I’m fairly sure they’d contact our asses.”

“Why would they?” Harlequin asked. “Like you said, they are alien. They do not think like humans. Not all aliens are going to be as inquisitive as your species. Or perhaps they simply have a directive that prevents them from making contact with beings of a lower Tech Class.”

“You’re assuming that friendly aliens will be of a higher Tech Class than us,” Bender said.

“I am, yes,” Harlequin said. “Friendliness, or at least indifference, seems a trait inherit to those of higher Tech Classes. They are so advanced they’ve evolved beyond the need of any resources our systems might offer, and their enlightened cultures do not have any reason whatsoever to invade. We’ve already seen evidence to that effect in the Elder, for example.”

“The builders of the Slipstreams themselves,” TJ said. “We’re like flies to them. I can see why they’d ignore us.”

“Except the Phants were close to the Elder Tech Class, and you saw what happened with them,” Tahoe interjected.

“All right, the philosophical debate is over,” Rade said. “It’s time to head back to the booster rockets. We’re getting out of here before this place becomes too hot. I want the HS3s to resume Search Pattern Alpha. This time it’s not kidnapping pirates we’re looking for, but aliens.”

“Oh good!” Bender said. “I can’t wait! Rematch time!”

“You misunderstand,” Rade said. “We’re looking out for aliens not so that we can engage them, but avoid them.”

“You didn’t like those energy weapons I take it?” TJ said.

Rade loaded into Electron, while Harlequin took the back seat.

“No, I did not,” Rade said.

8

Rade and the Hoplites proceeded east toward the booster rockets. The Centurions marched the bound prisoners ahead of them—those prisoners had their jetpacks and weapons confiscated. Scanning for danger, the ever vigilant HS3s revolved around the combined group. Rade had had them all reduce their respective transmission strengths down to the bare minimum, to hopefully prevent the aliens from tracking them. Even though the crunch of the foliage underfoot was noise-cancelled, he was well aware of the path the big Hoplites were leaving through the forest. He knew that the aliens would be searching for this path, and once they found it, it wouldn’t take them long to track down Rade and the others.

Rade took a break from surveying the surrounding foliage to study the pirates. Their beliefs and moral codes went against everything he stood for. He wasn’t really afraid the pirates would run if the shit hit the fan—they needed his team to get off this world. Still, he kind of hoped that they would run, if only so he could be rid of them without affecting his conscience over much.

Ms. Daggart wasn’t bound, and rode in Bender’s Hoplite—he had volunteered to carry her before Rade had even asked.

Speaking of Ms. Daggart, Rade took it upon himself to introduce her to the others while on the march. He created a new team comm band, and invited her to it.

“Ms. Daggart,” Rade said. “I realize I haven’t yet introduced you to the team. Rude of me.” His avatar would be appearing on her HUD as he talked, so that she could see what he looked like. As would the faces of everyone else that spoke hereafter. “I’m Rade, of course, the leader of this ragtag crew. And you’ve already met Bender, our lead drone operator, and one of our hackers.”

“Bender is here to provide the comic relief,” Manic said. “Pussy jokes, and so forth.”

“What?” Bender said. “Shut the hell up, Bitch. Don’t you be trying to embarrass me in front of our client.”

“Uh huh,” Manic said.

Rade highlighted Manic’s mech for her benefit. “That’s Manic, mech specialist.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Manic said.

“Mech specialist my ass,” Bender replied. “Do the rest of us look like we’re not mech specialists? He’s a redundant punk ass little bitch is what he is. Here to serve as our platoon punching bag. Also, he’s got a toilet fetish. Yes ma’am. Never seen a toilet he didn’t love. And I mean that literally.”

“Don’t take him seriously,” Manic said. “I only make love to toilets after they’ve been flushed.”

“I see,” Ms. Daggart replied.

Rade knew they’d all try to one up each other. He could’ve conducted the introductions over one-on-one private lines, but he wanted the Argonauts to have their fun. That’s right. The introductions were for them, not Ms. Daggart.

He highlighted the next mech in their formation.

“This is Tahoe,” Rade said. “Our resident heavy gunner.”

“I’m a Navajo,” Tahoe said. “I take scalps. When we get you aboard, I’ll show you my collection.”

Ms. Daggart immediately sent Rade a private message: “Is he serious?”

“Afraid so,” Rade replied dryly. He highlighted Fret’s mech. “Meet Fret, our comm officer. Riding in the backseat is TJ, our other hacker, and secondary drone operator.”

“Also known as the Italian Stallion,” TJ said. “Allow me to show you my many tattoos.”

“I’ll have to pass,” Ms. Daggart said.

Fret giggled.

“You think that’s funny?” TJ asked.

“Oh no, not at all,” Fret said. “I’m sure you thought she’d be mightily impressed by your tattoos.”

“Yes, well, I’m sure she’s impressed by you,” TJ said. “Our comm officer.”

“He thinks he’s badass just because he has a popular BlueTube channel,” Fret said. “Yes, I’m a comm officer. But I’m also a seasoned vet. I’ve been putting foot to ass for a very long time.”

“You sure that’s foot to ass you meant?” TJ mocked. “And not dick to…”

TJ and Bender cracked up.

“Lastly we have Lui,” Rade said quickly. “Our other mech specialist.”

“I squash bugs for breakfast,” Lui said. “Ride the rings of Saturn for lunch, and shoot fire from my ass for dinner.”

“You shoot fire from your ass…” Bender began. It sounded like he was on the verge of breaking out into another laugh. “Is that because of the bugs you ate for breakfast?” Sure enough, he erupted into boisterous chuckles.

Ms. Daggart didn’t answer him. Instead, she turned toward Rade. “Who’s that riding with you?”

“Oh, that’s Harlequin,” Rade said.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Harlequin interjected.

“Finally, someone polite,” Ms. Daggart commented.

“That’s because he ain’t real,” Bender said. He’d only just recovered from his latest laughing binge, and seemed poised for a third. “He’s an Artificial!” Yup. He couldn’t hold it back, and erupted in another round of boisterous cackles.

“Yes, I’m an Artificial,” Harlequin said. His avatar betrayed no annoyance at Bender’s behavior.

“Got an Artificial dick!” Bender said, tears streaming down the cheeks of his avatar as he laughed. “Can you imagine? He’s like a walking vibrator!”

“Ooo,” Ms. Daggart said, sounding interested.

Bender stopped laughing. “Hey, wait a second…”

“In the lead we have the combat robots, Centurion models,” Rade said. “Algorithm, Brat, Ernie, Formaldehyde.”

“Interesting names,” Ms. Daggart said. “For combat robots.”

“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Brat said.

“And I suppose I should introduce the mechs themselves,” Rade told her. “Hoplite models. I’m piloting Electron, Tahoe has Warlock, Fret has Torment, Manic has Sprint, Lui has Nemesis, and Bender has Juggernaut.”

“Juggy!” Bender exclaimed with glee.

“Yes,” Rade said. “Many of the pilots have given their mechs nicknames. The Hoplites are just as much a part of the team as everyone else. They pull their weight. They’re not mere machines that we ride inside, but living and thinking beings. Like the Centurions.”

The introductions done, Rade returned his attention to the march once more.

Ms. Daggart sent Rade a private tap-in request almost immediately. She wanted to talk more, apparently.

“How much is my father paying you?” she asked.

“Five hundred K, give or take,” Rade answered without hesitation.

“Unbelievable,” Ms. Daggart said. “My father should’ve just paid the ransom. He’s so cheap.”

“I wouldn’t call five hundred K cheap,” Rade told her. “But I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective. Your father did the smart thing. He knew there was no guarantee the pirates would release you even if he paid. I’ll be honest with you, when he called us in to consult on the case, he originally wanted to do just that: pay the ransom. But we talked him out of it.”

“Because you wanted the money,” Ms. Daggart said. “You’re no better than the pirates.”

“Wrong, we talked him out of it because we didn’t want you sold into sex slavery on some backwater world after he paid,” Rade told her. “Pirates rarely return kidnap victims. Why would they, when they could make double the money?”

She sighed audibly over the comm. “Well, thank you for rescuing me, I guess. Though next time, maybe you can arrive a bit earlier? It’s been a bit… traumatic.”

“I suppose being stranded on a barren world surrounded by hostile aliens isn’t going to be anything but traumatic,” Rade agreed.

They walked on in silence for a few moments.

“You married?” she asked.

Rade had to suppress a chuckle. “Why does it matter? Given our circumstances.”

“I’m just curious,” she said.

He shook his head, but didn’t answer. Finally: “No. Well yes. Sort of.”

“Which is it?” Ms. Daggart pressed.

“Not married, but I’m with someone,” he said.

“Then why don’t you marry them?” she asked.

“Never was a big proponent of marriage,” Rade told her. “I have two kids with her. If that doesn’t bind us, I don’t know what does.”

“How about love?” she said.

“That would do it,” he replied.

“Is she aboard your ship?” Ms. Daggart asked.

He was growing weary of this discussion. Maybe it was because of how soon it had come after the introductions. He wanted the lighthearted banter. Not this poking-at-personal-issues stuff.

“You certainly have a lot of questions,” Rade replied. “No, she’s not aboard my ship.”

“How do you manage it?” Ms. Daggart pressed.

Rade sighed.

“The whole long-distance relationship thing,” Ms. Daggart clarified. “Being away from her, and all.”

“Look,” Rade said, finally having enough. “While you seem like a pleasant person, I… well, to be blunt: I’m not here to help you pass the time, or to comfort you in your loneliness with idle chitchat. I’m only here to do my job, which is taking you off the hands of these kidnappers and reuniting you with your father. After this mission, we’re never going to see each other again. So there’s no point in forming any bonds. I don’t want to be your friend. You, or I for that matter, could die at any time down here. And while I’ll do my very best to prevent that eventuality, it could happen. So that’s another reason it’s best if we don’t get too attached, if you catch my drift. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Don’t take it personally—this is just business.”

“Why did you introduce me to your team, then?” she asked. “If it’s just business?”

“You want the truth?” he asked. “Mostly for the entertainment of my men.”

Her avatar looked quite angry at that. “So you could all secretly make fun of me?”

“No,” he said. “So they could make fun of each other. I know it’s not easy to understand, but that’s the culture we have around here. Now then, I’d appreciate some quiet, thanks. I have a lot on my mind.”

“Asshole!” She closed the connection.

Rade sighed. Well, it was for the best. He meant what he said. He didn’t want to get attached to her, not when he had the well-being of his brothers to place above hers. If he had to make a choice between her life and one of his crew, he didn’t want feelings to cloud that choice. Because at the moment, any sense of obligation was reserved exclusively for his Argonauts, as was only right.

Rade glanced at Bender’s mech. He knew that Bender would have been listening in to the whole conversation—Rade had ordered the man to hack into her comm system, along with the comm systems of the pirates. A precaution to ensure the captives, and Ms. Daggart, didn’t plan anything. There was a chance she had developed Stockholm syndrome after all, and fallen in love with her kidnappers. Then again, if it was true that she had left those burn marks as breadcrumbs, that probably wasn’t the case. But Rade wasn’t going to take any chances.

“Mm-hmm,” Bender suddenly said over the main team band, which excluded Ms. Daggart, and the pirates. “I bet that Ms. Daggart has a mighty fine ass. Mighty fine.”

“You’re the one who wanted the pirate leader to shoot her,” Manic said. “Guess you regret that now, huh?”

“Bro, I didn’t want him to shoot her!” Bender said. “Quit twisting my words!”

“Well, either way, you’re right, she probably does have a fine ass,” Manic quipped. “Too bad you’re never going to see it!”

“Why the hell not?” Bender said.

“Uh, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a few tons of metal between you and her,” Manic said. “Not to mention a couple of jumpsuits.”

“We’re going to get back to the ship eventually,” Bender said. “At which point, we’re going to be stripping out of our mechs, and jumpsuits. And if I accidentally find myself admiring that fine ass from the inside of her pussy, what can I say?”

“Accidentally, huh?” Manic said.

“Yup,” Bender said. “Completely accidentally. What can I say? I’m a woman’s man. You can tell by the way I walk.”

“Uh huh,” Manic said.

“Didn’t you see how fast she accepted my offer to carry her?” Bender said. “She was eager to ride this stallion.”

“Yeah, I saw,” Manic said. “But what we forget to tell you was, she accepted out of pity.”

“Whatever bitch,” Bender said. “You’re just pissed because I called dibs on her first. We’ve been having good talks, her and I. She taps in often, just to hear my sweet voice.”

“Oh really, and how’s that going for you?” Manic said.

“Well she started out real cold like and all,” Bender said. “Typical spoiled princess type, as can be expected from the daughter of a rich trader. Keeps complaining how cheap her old man is for not paying her ransom. But using my famous Bender charm, I’ve gotten her to lower most of her barriers. She’s really letting me in. Like really. I’m slowly weaseling my way into her heart.”

“Like the weasel you are…” Manic commented.

“I’m telling you,” Bender said. “When she visits my quarters aboard the Argonaut, once she sees the muscular body to back up the charismatic personality, the deal will be sealed. It’ll be all over. She’ll be dropping those moist panties of hers and baring that fine ass only a few seconds after laying eyes on me. And the rest, as they say, will be history.”

“Uh huh,” Manic told him. “You’re assuming that ass is as fine as your mind has conjured it up to be. And that’s what you said about Surus, by the way. Last time I checked, you and your alien dream babe never hooked up.”

“Oh but we did,” Bender said. “Surus and I, we had a secret shipboard relationship. We’d do it in the storage closets, the sickbay, wherever we could really. Check the logs, you’ll see.”

“Uh huh,” Manic said. “I actually asked Bax after Surus departed. What were his words? ‘I never recorded Bender having sex with Surus aboard the Argonaut.’”

“Oh, did I say shipboard, I meant station-side,” Bender told him. “We banged at all the different stations we docked at. Actually, yeah, I can admit this… we did bang aboard the Argonaut, too, but I did some hacking to delete certain video feeds. Gotta keep her reputation intact, you know.”

“You deleted the logs, and yet you just said to check the shipboard logs…” Manic stated. “Anyway, I don’t know what the big deal is. Only you would be attracted to some Artificial chick carrying an alien parasite in its body.”

“Hey, you were attracted to Surus too,” Bender said. “The whole crew was. Any of you would have bopped her host, Ms. Bounty, given the chance, and you know it. Y’all are just jealous of me.”

“How can we be jealous over something you never did?” Manic said. “You’ve only become more delusional over the years, Bender. You should sign up for online therapy or something.”

“You should, bitch!” Bender said. “Delusional, my ass. You’re delusional. You probably think you’re the best of us, don’t you? Well when we get home, you and me are gonna go one on one. We’ll settle this once and for all. For everyone to see.”

“Okay…” Manic said.

“I don’t know how you two can banter at a time like this,” Fret said. “We’re hiking through a forest infested with aliens, some of which can shoot energy beams at us. We could be attacked at any time. And you’re acting like this is just another hike through friendly territory. A joyride.”

“Well, that’s because it is,” Bender said. “I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to the next battle. I didn’t get to kill enough bugs last time. I hardly whetted my appetite.”

“You and your bugs,” Fret said.

“Bender can go for longer without pussy than he can without killing bugs,” Lui quipped.

“Stay out of it Fooey Lui,” Bender said.

“Racist,” Lui said under breath.

“How the hell is Fooey racist?” Bender asked.

“Because you’re assuming I know Kung Fu,” Lui replied. “Implying that all Asians stereotypically know Kung Fu.”

“Uh, no,” Bender said. “I’m calling you Fooey because it rhymes with Lui, moron. Anyway, I’ve had enough with you fools. I’m muting y’all.”

And his name turned dark on Rade’s HUD.

“Finally,” Tahoe said.

“I kind of enjoy his inane rants,” Harlequin said. “It allows one a direct feed to his thoughts and internal state. It is quite an elucidating window into a troubled mind.”

“I heard that!” Bender said, his name turning green again.

“All right, I’m going to have to ask for quiet, people,” Rade said. “Let’s stay alert. The booster rockets are still a long ways yet, and there’s a chance we could be ambushed at any time. Look sharp.”

He glanced at his oxygen levels. The team had more than enough to make it back. He’d checked earlier with Ms. Daggart and the pirates, and confirmed that they had enough oxygen, too.

It was going to be a relief to leave this world. His only potential worry at the moment was being shot down while trying to enter orbit—if these aliens were equipped with technologically advanced weapons, it made sense that there were bases or shuttles out there capable of taking down his mechs while they were exposed during the launch. Then again, if surface-to-air capabilities truly existed somewhere out there, the aliens could have fired at the team while they were landing.

Unless the invaders had a different aim in mind: to capture his team, study them, and extract information.

Well, either way, he was going to have to assume the mechs would be targeted during takeoff. Before launch, he’d give the order to alternate lateral thrust to achieve a zig-zagging vector while airborne. Hopefully that would prevent energy beams and other weapons from scoring easy hits. And if any seeking-style projectiles arrived, the Hoplites would engage their Trench Coats in an attempt to divert the attack. Neither tactic might work against the aliens, but it was all he had. In any event, the team had to try, because staying here was a death sentence, considering their ever-depleting oxygen levels.

Rade dismissed the thoughts, focusing on the thick forest around him with its colorful, fractal-like foliage. First of all, he needed to actually get his team to those booster rockets before he could even think about lifting off.

The group trudged eastward through those thick trees for about an hour. No further aliens were encountered. Rade wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

As they grew nearer the booster rockets, he had Bender send two of the HS3s forward to secure the site.

The scouts operated in realtime transmission mode, though they employed directional comms to limit potential exposure. They headed toward the closest of the booster rockets, which were scattered across an area of three square kilometers. Humpty was located at that one.

“Bender, shouldn’t Humpty be within range yet?” Rade said, keeping an eye on the map.

“Yes,” Bender agreed. “Though the HS3s haven’t been able to reach him, as of yet. The forest does get a bit thicker in that area, so I’d give it a few more minutes Boss.”

Rade nodded.

The prerequisite “few more minutes” passed. Humpty was definitely within range, as the HS3s were only five hundred meters out. But still no blue indicator appeared on the overhead map.

“Anything?” Rade asked.

“Negative,” Bender replied. “It’s possible Humpty has turned off comms.”

“You’re thinking Humpty sighted aliens?” Rade asked.

“Something along those lines,” Bender agreed.

Rade resisted contacting Bax—he definitely didn’t want to reveal the general location of the Argonauts, not this close to the booster rockets. He wanted the launch to be a surprise. Only when the team was ready to lift off would he contact Bax and let the AI know to expect them, because by then it wouldn’t matter if the enemy picked up their signal—their launch would be visible to alien bases for kilometers around.

The HS3s separated, with the first breaking off to head toward the next closest booster rocket, and the second continuing onward to the original.

The second HS3 finally reached the site. The foliage all around had been trampled, and the booster rocket package itself was no more—energy beams had sliced the payload into individual pieces. A portion had exploded, courtesy of the highly reactive propellant, leaving a blast crater in the forest floor.

The body of Humpty had been partially reduced to slag, and was melted into the frame of one of the mangled rockets. It was fairly obvious that Humpty’s AI core had been destroyed, as the chest plate was partially open—the melted central compute cylinder had ripped apart, allowing the millions of blue neuron-mimicking chips it had contained to scatter across the robot’s leg.

“Looks like Humpty had a great fall,” Bender quipped.

“Have you no heart?” Harlequin asked.

“I’m with Harlequin on this,” Manic said. “I kind of liked Humpty. We all did.”

Bender seemed unfazed. “We’ll buy you another robot friend when this is over.”

“It’s not about Bender having no heart,” Fret said. “It’s about his willingness to joke at a time like this. It’s not even funny. We’ve lost a booster rocket. The others are probably gone, too! We’re stranded here, hopelessly stranded, and he’s gotta crack jokes about fallen robots!”

“We don’t know that we’re stranded yet,” Rade said, calling a halt. He didn’t want to get any closer than he had to, now that it was obvious the booster rocket sites were compromised. “We have other sites to explore yet.” He paused. “Notice how the foliage is trampled around the destroyed package. Is there a path leading away through the trees?”

“Negative,” TJ said. “Apparently these aliens can be just as stealthy as our pirates when they want to.”

“It’s too bad we can’t do the same,” Tahoe said, glancing over his shoulder at the path the mechs had made through the forest.

“Why didn’t Bax mention anything about this?” Lui asked.

“It’s possible Bax didn’t actually see what happened,” TJ replied. “Look at the overhead canopy on the feed. It’s still intact.”

It was true. The booster rocket packages had broken holes into the canopy where they impacted, but otherwise the runnels they carved before coming to a halt were at ground level. So Bax would have no idea what had happened.

“Bender, have the HS3 continue to the next booster rocket,” Rade ordered. “Also, switch the HS3s to omnidirectional mode. If they’re being watched, no point in using directional mode to reveal exactly where we are.”

“You’re not contacting Bax?” Manic asked.

“Not yet,” Rade replied.

He was half expecting to lose the HS3s at any moment, figuring that the aliens had left some sort of trap behind, but no harm befell the scouts.

The HS3s soon explored the remaining sites: all five subsequent booster rockets proved similarly destroyed.

“How the hell did the aliens find them?” Fret asked.

“It’s not hard to figure out,” Lui said. “They saw the rockets drop from orbit, and recorded the positions. They’ve probably been tracking us since we landed as well. Followed the well-laid path we made through the forest. How else do you think they found us that first time, ambushing us from behind while we stalked the pirates?”

“And here I thought it was because of the commotion we stirred up by attacking their unequipped brothers…” Fret turned his Hoplite around, as if nervously gazing down the path the Argonauts had made in coming here.

“We can’t recall the HS3s,” Tahoe said. “If the enemy is watching, we’ll lead them right to us.”

“No, we can’t,” Rade agreed. “Not directly, anyway.”

“So that’s smart about not leading the enemy to us, but how the hell do we get back into orbit?” Fret said. “Even if we share oxygen with Ms. Daggart and our prisoners, we only have six hours left! I knew it. My greatest fear has come true. I’m going to die alone on an alien world.”

“You’re not alone, brother,” Lui said. “You have us.”

“Like I said, I’m going to die alone,” Fret repeated.

“No one’s going to die,” Rade said. “There’s still a Dragonfly aboard the Argonaut. If we have to abandon the mechs to get back, then we will. Sorry, Electron.”

“No need to be sorry,” Electron replied. “I know you’ll return to get us.”

“You’re right, at that,” Rade replied. “We’ll do our best, anyway.”

“So, I guess it’s time to contact Bax?” Tahoe asked.

“It is,” Rade replied. He was reluctant to transmit, but the aliens already knew he was somewhere in the area anyway, thanks to those HS3s. And he needed to get an update from the ship in orbit. “Bax, do you read?”

No answer.

Rade frowned. “Bax?”

“That’s not good,” Tahoe said.

Rade glanced at his friend’s Hoplite, but Bender was the one who answered for him. “No shit.”

9

For the next two minutes, Rade continued trying to raise Bax, to no avail.

“So what do you want to do?” TJ asked.

“We can’t stay here,” Rade answered, glancing over his shoulder at the way they had come. “Not with a path through the forest leading directly to us. Plus, I just broadcasted several high intensity radio beams into orbit. They definitely know our general position now, if they didn’t before.”

“If the aliens really left scouts in hiding near the destroyed booster rockets,” Fret said, “they’ll be dispatching some of them to search this area. And when they find the path we’ve been cutting through the forest, it’s all over.”

“Maybe we should abandon the Hoplites,” TJ suggested. “Send them off in another direction, while the rest of us continue down a different path. With jumpsuits, we can advance far more carefully, and not leave as obvious a trail. Or stick to the trees like our pirate friends did before us, leaving no trail at all.”

“It’s tempting,” Rade said. “But if an attack comes, we’re going to regret abandoning the Hoplites.” He made up his mind. “No, we stay with our mechs. As for the two HS3s, Bender, have them depart in a random direction away from us. Say the northeast. If the enemy is watching them, they’ll enjoy a fine wild goose chase. They are to maintain radio silence, and if after two hours they’re certain no pursuers are within range, they are to rendezvous with us here.” He highlighted a spot on his overhead map.

“To clarify, you want each HS3 to travel in the same random direction,” Bender said. “And not two random directions, correct?”

“Correct,” Rade said. “The same direction. Northeast. That area should still be within the margin of error, in regards to pinpointing the radio broadcasts I’ve been sending into orbit. Unless the aliens have some incredibly advanced tech we’ve never heard of, which isn’t entirely impossible. Anyway, make it look like both HS3s are heading home to the main group. As for the third HS3, which stayed back, we’ll have it act as our only scout, now.”

“Done,” Bender replied.

“What are we going to do about oxygen?” Fret asked.

“I’m working on that,” Rade said. Six hours. It didn’t leave much time.

Rade steered the party north, away from the booster rocket site. The Centurions yet guided the prisoners on foot. Ms. Daggart remained in Bender’s passenger seat.

Speaking of Ms. Daggart, she abruptly tapped in. “What’s going on? Why aren’t we heading back to your ship?”

“Our booster rockets are gone,” he told her lifelessly.

“Gone? How?” she asked.

“The aliens destroyed them,” he replied.

“Then contact your ship,” she said. “Have it send down a rescue shuttle. Or something!”

“I haven’t been able to reach it,” Rade told her.

“What?” she said. “What kind of a shabby operation do you run? You can’t contact your ship? When I talk to my father, I’m going to insist that he—”

Rade cut her off and continued walking in silence. Thankfully, she didn’t try to reinitiate the connection. He didn’t want to have to explain to her that there was a good chance she wouldn’t be talking to her father again.

A few minutes later he heard a deep rumbling, like that of some sort of troop transport or shuttle passing overhead.

“Have the HS3 dart upward, through the canopy!” Rade instructed Bender. “I want it to clear the treetops just enough to get a bead on that noise!”

The HS3 rose, and transmitted its video feed to Rade. He saw several large, cylindrical craft passing by. They were horizontally oriented, and had no obvious means of propulsion: no engines, fuel nozzles, or rotors. From open doors in their sides, more of the armed “ChickenGator” aliens dropped down, landing in the forest.

“Looks like they’ve decided to up the ante,” Lui said.

“The question is, where did those craft come from,” Tahoe posed.

“Has to be a base nearby,” Rade said. “TJ, triangulate backward from the current speed and positions of those craft. Give me a source vector.”

“Source vector plotted,” TJ replied.

On Rade’s overhead map a straight line appeared, leading away to the west.

“You’re assuming they traveled in a straight line to get here…” Harlequin said.

“It would make some sense,” Rade said. “If they wanted to deploy these troops as quickly as possible. Let’s see where the craft go when they’re finished unloading.”

But when the armed aliens ceased leaping from the sides, the cylindrical troop carriers merely hovered in place.

“Well, we’re not staying here, waiting to be discovered,” Rade said. “We head west, toward the source.”

The HS3 returned beneath the foliage to lead the way, with the Centurions following, leading their captives. Rade and the Hoplites brought up the rear. From their respective passenger seats, TJ and Harlequin kept their laser rifles pointing into the forest behind them, scanning for signs of pursuit.

Tahoe tapped in on a private line. “How are you holding up?”

“As good as can be expected,” Rade said. “I’m leading my men across a strange world, surrounded by aliens who shouldn’t be here. I’ve lost contact with my ship. And my team only has six hours of oxygen left.”

“It isn’t the best scenario,” Tahoe agreed. “Though we’ve been in worse.”

“I suppose,” Rade said. He eyed what appeared to be a nook in one of the trees, zooming in to make sure nothing hid inside. It turned out to be a minor curvature in the bark, not deep enough to hide a nest of insects, let alone an alien. “Look, Tahoe. I’m not in the mood for a pick-me-up sort of chat right now. We need to be keeping our eyes peeled for signs of the enemy. They could attack at any time.”

“I’m aware of that,” Tahoe said, sounding hurt. “And I wasn’t planning on having a pick-me-up chat. I merely wanted to check on how you were doing. Tahoe out.”

He disconnected.

Rade sighed, feeling bad. But he knew Tahoe understood.

He returned his attention to scanning his surroundings.

“Got more bugs ahead,” Bender announced. For once he didn’t ask if the team could attack. He knew what dire straits the Argonauts were in. He did sound somewhat happy, however.

“Halt.” Rade tapped into the HS3’s feed, which was operating in directional mode once more, pointed directly back at the Hoplites. He saw the aliens to which Bender referred.

“None of them are equipped,” Lui said.

“No,” Rade agreed. The herd he saw was naked, just like the original group. They appeared to be ripping away the bark of the trees to dine on large insects, again like the original.

“That means we can walk right through them if we want,” Fret said.

“I still don’t understand why they’ve got some separate caste wandering around unarmed,” Manic said.

“Maybe they’re escapees,” Lui said. “Or part of some advance terraforming force. Every breath they take, every dump they make, doing their part to transform the inherent structure of the world.”

“Why did that particular turn of phrase remind me of an old Earth song?” Fret asked.

“Advance terraforming force, ha!” Bender said. “Given how small these bitches are, it’ll take them a billion years to produce enough air and shit to significantly alter the environment of this toilet.”

“Unless the aliens reproduce like fruit flies,” Harlequin said. “Say we start with one thousand specimens. If they can match the fruit fly gross reproductive rate of 317.8 daughter eggs per female, then I estimate within thirty years these aliens could form a critical mass significant enough to alter the atmosphere and soil contents of this planet.”

“Unless the aliens reproduce like fruit flies,” Bender mocked in a high-pitched voice. “Bra, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. The energy requirements for a fruit fly are far less than the energy requirements of a full-blown alien. They probably need to eat ten times their body weight a week! If they reproduce as fast as you’re saying, they’ll have eaten up all this world’s supply of insects well before the thirty-year mark.”

“Destroying most of the trees in the process,” Harlequin said. “And thus only furthering the terraforming process. Besides, the insects likely have a matching rate of reproduction, and if not, it wouldn’t take much for the overarching aliens to supply more. Yes, that’s right, you assumed that the insects were native. Of course they are not. They are part of the terraforming, too.”

“We move around this latest group,” Rade said, ending the speculation. “I’m not going to risk moving any closer to these aliens than I have to, even if they can’t see or hear us.” He paused. “Although… if any of their better equipped cousins are following us, this could be our opportunity to lose them.”

“You’re talking about the trail these creatures are carving through the jungle in their wanderings?” TJ asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Rade replied. “When they’re not trying to be stealthy, these aliens leave a fairly obvious trail. Look at the HS3 feed. Already, from what we can see, they’re leaving quite the route. If we pass into their midst, to the other side, and take one of the other trails they’ve made in their foraging, we throw our pursuers for a loop.”

“Let’s say we do it,” Fret said. “And crawl straight through these aliens. What about the pirates? They don’t have holographic emitters.”

“If we transfer them to the passenger seats of the Hoplites, and they keep down, the rims of the seats will shield them,” Tahoe said.

“Actually,” Rade said. “Maybe we don’t have to pass straight through the herd. Just around it. And then we can take one of their foraging trails on the other side, moving back and forth among any paths we find first. You know, to further muddy the route. It’ll be just as confusing to our pursuers as if we’d actually passed through the main herd.”

“It’s worth a try,” Tahoe agreed.

“How do we know the better equipped aliens won’t send HS3 equivalents to follow us?” Fret said. “Dispatching them down all the available trails?”

“They might not have such equivalents,” Manic said. “In fact, if they did, we probably would have seen them already. Then again, maybe not.”

“If it’s true they don’t, then for such a high Tech Class, they’re certainly lacking in some of the basics,” Lui said.

“Not every species is going to evolve along the same technological lines, no matter their Tech Class,” Harlequin said. “Perhaps these aliens never had need of atmospheric-based scouts before. I know it might seem like a long shot, but it is possible.”

“Yeah okay, but even if they don’t have HS3 equivalents,” Fret said. “They could still send troops down every possible path.”

“That’s true,” Rade said. “But just because they split up, doesn’t mean they’ll be able to advance any more quickly. On the plus side, if they do catch up, their numbers could be reduced when they attack, giving us a better chance. Depending on how different the lengths of the trails are.”

“Assuming they don’t simply notify their brethren, and wait until they all arrive before attacking en masse,” Fret retorted.

Rade considered for a moment. He doubted that scenario would come to pass, because by the time the aliens were able to achieve such a mass gathering, Rade and the others would be dead from lack of oxygen anyway.

“I’m not sure it will really work,” Tahoe said. “The footprint of a mech is deeper and wider than that of one of these aliens. The Hoplite trail will stand out.”

“Not necessarily,” Lui suggested. “Look at the HS3 feed. The trails they’re making right before our eyes are quite deep. All those alien bodies passing over the same area, repeatedly trampling the foliage, packing down the dirt. They’re carving a rut.”

“Only way to know is to try it,” Manic agreed.

“We’ll go around the herd,” Rade decided, “and attempt to blend in with their foraging trail. It’s the best option.”

Neither Fret nor Tahoe contested him further once the decision was made.

Using the path the HS3 laid out, Rade and the others circumnavigated the foraging aliens until they came to the far side of the herd. Once there, they crisscrossed among the various trails through the forest the creatures had make, so that the Hoplite’s path would be lost among them. They were careful to place their feet into the bigger of the alien trenches.

“Looks like we’re not standing out too badly after all,” Tahoe conceded. “These aliens certainly can make an impression, if you don’t mind the pun!”

“It’s not surprising, considering how many of them passed this way,” Lui told him.

After Rade judged the Hoplite footprints sufficiently intermingled with that of the alien trail, Rade chose one of the bigger paths to continue heading west.

“Interesting,” Lui said when they were underway. “That the trail seems to lead back to the same source as the alien troop transports.”

Rade glanced at his overhead map. They were indeed traveling west, almost along the same line as the vector TJ had calculated. That was good, because it meant they could stay on the alien path for longer.

“Maybe they all came from the same source,” Fret suggested.

“Yes,” Lui said. “Lending credence to the theory that these are escaped lower caste aliens. Or terraformers, at the very least.”

The group traveled that route for another hour until the path swerved abruptly south.

“What now?” Tahoe asked.

“Well, we’re going to continue west along the vector TJ calculated,” Rade said. “But I don’t want to make that too obvious.”

“You want any pursuers to continue south,” Tahoe said.

“Yup.” Rade glanced upward. The canopy wasn’t too thick in this particular location. Good.

“Jumpjets,” Rade said. “Let’s not make it too obvious where we’ve gone.”

The Centurions wrapped their arms around the prisoners, and followed Rade and the others as they jetted upward. The team was careful not to hit too many branches, and shortly emerged above the canopy. They thrust forward, staying close to the treetops. Their propellant levels, already low, were rapidly depleting.

Rade noticed an area where the canopy wasn’t so dense ahead, and immediately steered for it. When he arrived, he descended, and the others followed suit.

In moments, they were all on the ground once more. He glanced up. “Not bad. I can’t see any obvious broken branches.”

“Not that it matters,” Fret said. “The aliens will be able to see our footprints from this spot going forward.”

“First they’ll have to find this spot,” Rade said.

“That’s right,” Manic said. “Cheer up, Fret my boy, by the time they find us, we’ll be dead anyway.”

Rade glanced at his oxygen levels. He was afraid to say it, but Manic was probably right.

10

It was less than an hour later when the HS3 reported something new.

Rade studied the feed on his HUD. A cleared area awaited ahead—the trees there had been reduced to ground-down stumps, and the shrubs had become little more than burn marks in the soil. Armed alien variants patrolled the clearing, equipped with those menacing energy cannons on the shoulders above the forelegs. Dispersed among the reptilian creatures at regular intervals were what could best be described as defense platforms—wicked turrets set on rotatable mounts. Probably capable of spewing the same sort of deadly energy as the shoulder mounts, except on a more damaging scale.

Beyond the aliens and platforms, about a kilometer away from the tree line, a long perimeter fence had been raised. It was composed of tall, translucent blue glass situated between thick metal posts. Defense towers interrupted the glass at intervals, sheltering more aliens, and topped by turrets.

The fence was circular in nature, and designed so that the one-kilometer distance between the tree line was maintained all along the perimeter, at least as far as Rade could see on either side. He didn’t doubt that the land was cleared all around the unseen portions of the perimeter as well—it was simply good design to keep your approaches unobscured.

Past the translucent glass of the fence, Rade could see into the base itself. Windowless metal stacks jutted skyward in clusters of differing heights. His gaze was drawn to the far side, where more glass enclosed a smaller series of cylinders whose surfaces seemed to be moving. It took a moment to comprehend just what he was looking at, but after catching flashes of carapaces, spindly legs, and fingerlike mandibles, he realized the container swarmed with the same insect-like creatures the ChickenGators had hunted in the forest. The disgusting things frolicked and bred inside, oblivious to their coming fate as alien finger food.

Rade let his eyes roam onward, casting his gaze across more of the base interior. There were other armed aliens patrolling inside, but otherwise no sign of any robots or other automated units. No defense platforms, either. He supposed if added firepower was ever needed, the turrets atop the perimeter defense towers could probably help with that, as they seemed capable of rotating three hundred and sixty degrees.

He noted that the building clusters were constructed around a central area, where a rectangular piece of metal sheathed the ground: perhaps a landing pad for the transports he had seen earlier. It was wide enough to hold at least ten of the craft.

“Well, well, well,” Bender transmitted. “It’s a bug luxury resort. All we have to do is break through that glass, and we’re in. Then it’s time for our bug roast. I’m looking forward to some ChickenGator fricassee myself.”

“You and your fricassee,” Manic quipped. “You always want fricassee.”

“By the way, you said break through that glass?” Lui asked. “That’s not glass. It’s some kind of energy barrier.”

“Well I’ll be, Fooey Lui, you’re right!” Bender said. “I’m going to have to cook some Chop Suey from these bugs in your honor!”

Rade looked again, zooming in on the glass. Lui was right. It flickered almost imperceptibly at intervals. Not glass. The insect creatures were contained by a similar energy barrier. Which meant, if it went down, those insects would be swarming all over the camp. That could be useful… well, first the team would have to figure out how to lower the barrier, and not just on the insect pen, but the main perimeter itself.

He caught himself. It was one of the peculiarities of how his mind worked that he was already thinking strategically about how to get inside. And he had to ask himself: Do we actually want to do that?

“By the way, the HS3 is picking up LIDAR transmissions,” Bender said. “The bugs are sweeping that entire field with LIDAR. Looking for us.”

“So it wouldn’t be wise for us to rush them headlong, you’re saying,” Lui told him.

“I didn’t say that,” Bender replied. “I’m merely pointing out that as soon as we set foot in that field, they’ll know.”

“Make sure the HS3 blends in with the tree line,” Rade ordered.

“Already done,” Bender said. “The alien LIDAR won’t be able to pick out the HS3 from the trees.”

“Any news on the other two HS3s?” Rade asked. The team had left behind an instruction beacon when they passed the rendezvous point, in case the two scouts ever returned from the booster rocket site.

“Negative,” Bender said. “I think they’re gone.”

Rade nodded slowly.

“Why didn’t Bax detect this base from orbit?” Lui asked.

“That’s a good question,” Rade replied. On a hunch, he added: “Bender, have the HS3 rise to the top of the canopy. Stay within the tree line… don’t trigger that LIDAR.”

The HS3 did so, and halted at the top of the canopy. On the video feed, Rade saw the cleared field spread before it, and the base beyond.

“How much higher can the HS3 rise before it’s easily picked up on the LIDAR?” Rade asked.

“Another thirty centimeters or so,” Bender said. “Any more than that, and we risk detection.”

“Proceed to the maximum safe height,” Rade said.

The HS3 moved higher, breaking away from the shelter of the canopy. Before the scout reached the maximum height, the base abruptly ahead vanished from view, seemingly consumed by an interrupted sea of green.

“Stop,” Rade ordered, and the HS3 halted.

“Sneaky bastards,” TJ said. “They’ve got the area rigged with some sort of holographic emitters.”

“Interesting…” Harlequin commented. “The power requirements for such an illusion would be immense.”

“Return the HS3 to a less exposed observation height,” Rade ordered.

The HS3 descended, and the base became visible on the feed once more.

“So what’s the plan?” Tahoe asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Rade answered.

“I say we do what Lui doesn’t want us to do,” Bender chimed in. “Let’s rush them headlong. Kill as many of them as we can before we go down. Go out in a blaze of glory. I’d rather do that than die of hypoxia.”

“So would I, actually,” Fret said.

“I think we all would,” Lui agreed. “Except there’s no guarantee you’d go down in a blaze of glory. Sure, a few of us might, but I think most of us would be captured. Trust me, you’d very much wish you let yourself die of hypoxia at that point.”

“Then beforehand each us straps a demolition brick to our helmets,” Fret said. “And detonates it if we’re captured. Pirate-style.”

“That’ll interfere with the operation of your mech,” Lui said. “Remember, cockpit sensors aren’t designed to work with impediments between the jumpsuit and inner actuators.” Which was why the team couldn’t carry laser rifles on their person while inside the cockpit, for example.

“It’ll barely interfere,” Fret said. “We can have the AIs compensate.”

“We’re not strapping demolition bricks to our heads…” Lui stated.

“So Boss, do we rush them?” Bender pressed impatiently.

Rade didn’t answer. It was a tempting option. Rushing in for one final fight. However, it was tantamount to giving up in his eyes.

And Rade wasn’t ready to give up, not just yet.

“No,” Rade said. “We won’t do that, not until we have five minutes of oxygen left, and we’ve exhausted all other options. We camp here. Keep the HS3 where it is, watching that base. I want to see what happens when the troop carriers return.”

The team posted up as Rade requested while the HS3 kept watch. He also had two of the Centurions post a guard to the rear of the party, to watch their back near the edge of comm range.

“You know, that these so-called troop carriers haven’t returned means they’re soldiers are still out looking for us,” Manic said. “They could be following our trail even now.”

“It’s also possible the craft returned hours ago, but didn’t pass near us,” Harlequin said.

“If they returned, then where are they?” Manic said. “That landing pad looks empty.”

“They could have departed to a different base,” Harlequin said. “There is no guarantee this is the only one. In fact, it’s highly likely that there are more.”

“Makes me sad,” Bender said.

“Why?” Harlequin asked.

“Because we can’t take them all down with us,” Bender said. “We’ll have to satisfy ourselves with this one base full of French-fried bugs.”

“All you can talk about is killing bugs,” Manic said. “As if there’s nothing more to life.”

“That’s because there isn’t,” Bender said.

“If anyone ever made our story into a BlueTube movie,” Manic continued, “it’d be called Bender Kills Bugs.”

“Ha,” Lui told him. “I think the rest of us have killed just as many bugs as Bender, if not more.”

“No you haven’t,” Bender said. “I’ve always killed the most bugs on every mission we’ve been on. Well excepting the Boss, of course. He’s the master of all things bug related. The Bug Master.”

“I appreciate the honorific,” Rade said drily. “But I somehow doubt anyone would ever make a movie, or book, about me. I’m not that interesting. Nor would I want anyone to produce something, really. Last thing I need is some revisionist to paint me as the hero of everything, killing all the bugs, getting all the girls, when I’m nothing without my brothers.”

“Good point,” Manic said. “Writers and directors are nothing more than professional liars. There’s a reason why they call what they produce fiction.”

“Sometimes I find it hard to believe my own life isn’t fiction,” Fret said. “And I don’t mean that in a good way.”

“I’m happy about the life I chose,” Tahoe said. “I wouldn’t do anything differently. If we end here, and never leave this world, I won’t have any complaints. I’ll have died free.”

They were quiet after that.

Thank you, Tahoe, Rade thought. For putting things in perspective.

They had all chosen this life. Chosen to work on a starship far away from home, undertaking missions that allowed them some semblance of the military life they had given up.

Rade knew that if he ever lost his ship, or retired it, he’d go back to the military at some point, or try to, anyway. The fighter in him wouldn’t let him do otherwise.

He truly lived for this, right here. And he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

If we die here, we die free.

Rade heard that familiar rumbling of the troop transports again. He glanced at the feed of the HS3 in the upper right of his vision: its position at the edge of the forest afforded it a good view of the sky, but the craft weren’t yet visible.

“Bender, give me a bead on those craft!” Rade said.

He wanted to ensure the enemy wasn’t dumping aliens on their position.

Sticking close to the trees so as to not trigger the enemy LIDAR, the HS3 rose. It reached the top of the canopy, and there it halted, rotating to take in the sky behind: there were no troop transports above the treetops.

“Wha—” Manic said. “There’s nothing there.”

“Maybe they have holographic emitters like us,” TJ said.

On the feed, motion drew Rade’s gaze upward, to the sky above the base. A large cylindrical vessel descended from the heavens. It was oriented vertically, like a rocket ship, however like the troop transports before it, there was no sign of any propulsion mechanism.

In a few moments the vessel touched down on the landing pad. Several circular panels opened in the sides, splitting down the middle and retracting to the left and right to reveal a line of dark, round openings. From these openings, smaller cylindrical craft emerged—identical in design to the troop transports Rade had seen earlier. Except for the bottommost portal, where alien troops marched out on foot in regimented lines: two columns of reptilian creatures, carrying identical armor and arms as their brethren in the base.

The troop transports headed east, traveling over that portion of the forest located directly above Rade and the others. He confirmed via the HS3 feed that no aliens were leaping down into the forest above them, and soon the craft were heading toward the distant horizon.

When the last of the regimented troops emerged, the main vessel remained in place with its circular panels open. Perhaps refueling in some way, or cooling down.

The newly deposited alien troops immediately marched forward, heading toward the energy barrier that enveloped the southern side of the site. As they approached, the blue barrier between two of the fence posts deactivated, allowing the troops to pass through.

The aliens marched into the cleared field and spread out into smaller groups as they headed toward the forest. Behind them, as the last of the troops emerged from the opening in the fence, the energy barrier reactivated, sealing off the base.

The creatures passed by their brethren on patrol in the field, and gave their fellow aliens no acknowledgement whatsoever. The newcomers continued to spread out as they advanced. None of them came toward that part of the forest harboring Rade and his team.

Finally, the circular panels on the vessel sealed, and the ship launched without signs of external propulsion. The vessel accelerated rapidly once it cleared the base. Obviously, it was heading back into orbit.

“Methinks there is a mothership up there,” TJ commented.

“Or more than one,” Lui said.

“Could be,” TJ agreed.

“That explains why we haven’t heard from the Argonaut,” Tahoe said.

“You think they destroyed it?” Fret asked.

“Hard to say,” Tahoe replied. “Though I doubt Bax would give up our ship so easily. At the very least, the aliens have sent the Argonaut limping away.”

Rade might attempt to contact the Argonaut again if battle was joined. But until then, his team would maintain radio silence, or at least their extremely reduced comm range.

Soon the different alien parties were passing into the jungle, and when they were gone entirely, leaving only their brethren patrolling the field between the tree line and the fence, Rade turned toward Bender’s mech.

“Bender, have the HS3 fan left and right, watch the sides,” he said, not putting it past the aliens to be attempting some sort of ruse, with plans to converge on his position. “I also want the Centurions deployed on all sides. The rest of you, keep an eye on the forest.”

Algorithm, Brat, Ernie and Formaldehyde moved into the forest, each Centurion taking a different point of the compass. The prisoners meanwhile remained in the center of the Hoplites, where it was easy to supervise them.

After a few minutes, Bender said: “Looks like the aliens aren’t coming this way. But they’re fanning outward. Definitely looking for us.”

“The aliens from the troop transports we originally spotted must have picked up our trail,” Tahoe said.

“Or at least a portion of it,” Rade agreed. “Before we blended our footprints with that of their brethren. That they haven’t returned, or attacked us from behind, tells me they don’t know exactly where we are, at least not yet. But they do know we’re likely in the area.”

“We got lucky that none of those new troops came this way,” Manic said.

“Even so, I doubt it will be long until the gig is up,” Fret said. “I guess we won’t be running out of oxygen before we’re discovered after all. You’ll get to have your blaze of glory, Bender.”

“Wooyah,” Bender said.

“Not necessarily,” Rade said, studying the base through the HS3 feed. “I have an idea.”

11

Rade explained his plan to the team, including the pirates and Ms. Daggart in the conversation.

“It’s worth a try,” Tahoe said. “But what about them?” He nodded at the pirates.

“If you leave us here, we die anyway,” Leopold pleaded. “At least put us to use.”

Rade hesitated. He had intended to use the pirates—that was why he had included them in the dialogue—but now that the moment came, he wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea.

“Please,” Leopold said. “Let us fight with you. Don’t deny us this final battle. You’ll need our rifle arms.”

“He’s right,” Tahoe said. “Without the Hoplites, we’re going to need every last laser rifle we can get.”

Rade sighed. “Fine. You can fight with us. But if we survive, I’m still taking you in.”

“Suits me just fine,” Leopold said, flashing a toothy grin behind his faceplate.

Rade assigned duties to each of his men, laying out the path they would follow, and gave his final orders to the Hoplites and Algorithm, who would stay behind if things turned out as Rade planned.

“Well Electron, this is it,” Rade told his mech.

“Yes,” Electron said. “We will see each other again. If not in this life, then the next.”

Rade smiled sadly. He wasn’t sure anymore if he believed that AIs made it to an afterlife, assuming there was one. But he wasn’t about to counter Electron’s beliefs. “We will. But let’s make it this life where we’ll be doing the seeing.”

“Hope so, Boss,” Electron said.

The team members debarked from the Hoplites, leaving cockpits and passenger seats. They retrieved the confiscated jetpacks from the storage compartments in the legs of the mechs, and returned them to Leopold and his three pirates. They also gave them new laser rifles.

“You do know these are reprogrammed not to fire on us?” Rade said after he handed a rifle to Leopold. “But you can shoot at your friends all you want,” he added sarcastically. “Should help you maintain discipline.”

Leopold grinned. “Don’t need to, I’ve got bombs strapped to their heads, remember?”

Rade and the Argonauts also fetched blocks of C4 from the storage compartments, stuffing them into the cargo pockets of their leg assemblies and the pouches and webbing of their chest rigs. Rade wouldn’t let any of the pirates take the demolition bricks—those were the domain of the Argonauts alone.

TJ and Bender also transferred the holographic emitters from Tahoe’s Hoplite to Leopold and the three pirates, along with Ms. Daggart. It took a good ten minutes, but when they were done, Tahoe’s mech was visible to the naked eye, while the four pirates and Ms. Daggart were not. Rade could still see them courtesy of the outlining provided by his HUD, which would remain in place while he kept his comm systems running at low power.

“Watch yourself,” Rade told Warlock, Tahoe’s mech.

“I’ve got his back,” Torment replied. That was Fret’s mech this mission.

Rade went to the only woman among them. “Ms. Daggart, I want you to follow the path I laid out on your HUD to a T.”

“You promise I’ll be right behind you the whole time?” she asked.

“I promise,” he replied.

On her back protruded the outline of the spare jetpack Bender had lent her. Rade’s eyes dropped to her hips, where the laser blaster Rade had given her appeared silhouetted on his HUD as well. Since she had never fired such a weapon in her life, Rade had dialed up the auto targeting and safety features. Like the rifles he’d given the pirates, the weapon wouldn’t engage when pointed at the Argonauts, but when aimed in the general direction of the aliens her shots would target the closest area of unarmored flesh.

“I wish I could stay here,” she said.

“If you want to stay, I won’t stop you,” Rade told her.

“What’s the point?” she said. “I’m dead anyway. Better to die in the company of humans, than machines. At least with you I have a chance. I think.”

He nodded. “Argonauts, enter the black and proceed to Waypoint One.”

Ceasing comms, one by one they dropped from his HUD overlay and overhead map, until the team was entirely invisible. He terminated all communications himself. They would use no active sensing technology. No LIDAR, echolocation, or anything of the sort that might give them away. They would be relying on their good old eyes and ears, and sense of touch, going forward. Or at least, the sense of touch provided by the tactile sensors on the jumpsuits.

He made his way through the forest until he reached the edge, and soon found himself crawling along the ground, across the cleared field between the trees and the energy barrier. He followed the virtual, low-lying tunnel overlaid onto his HUD, which represented the path he was to take. He knew the other Argonauts were out there as well, following the other virtual routes he had prescribed, along with the pirates and Centurions. And Ms. Daggart.

Rade had chosen the paths very carefully, which were based on the topographical data the HS3 had transmitted. Every route utilized the cover of exposed roots and stumps, along with the natural mounds and depressions in the terrain, so that any LIDAR reflections the team members produced would blend imperceptibly with the landscape. His passive sensors reported LIDAR interception even now, so that he knew the aliens were continuously scanning the field.

He passed a stump that had survived the clearing process to a degree, in that it protruded a good thirty centimeters from the soil—whereas the other stumps were usually ground down more than that. A low-lying branch stuck out from its rear, away from the alien base, and he accidentally hit it as he passed, causing the branch to sway visibly. While located on the far side of the stump, it could still potentially be picked up by enemy LIDAR—photons reflected and scattered around objects, after all—but he was relieved when no attack forces came bearing down on him. If any enemy scanning algorithms had picked up the motion, evidently they’d concluded it was the result of the light breeze that seemed prevalent in the area.

He wanted to warn Ms. Daggart, but since there was no way to do so, he continued forward. He activated the rearward feed of his helmet to keep an eye on that stump. Nothing happened for several moments, and he began to think that Ms. Daggart wasn’t following behind him after all. But then the branch swayed, just as it had when he had passed the stump, and he knew she was behind him, if moving a little slowly.

He continued forward, making his way between the patrolling aliens and the menacing defense platforms. He paused when one particular group passed close to him. They moved like alligators on all fours, their twin tails dragging along behind them. They cast their helmeted heads his way, the armored segments that hung beneath the jaw area rattling in time; lizard-like tongues darted out from gaps in the helmets as the shoulder-mounted cannons swept across his position.

He exhaled in relief when they moved on. Another positive: Ms. Daggart hadn’t run into his invisible boots, telling him she had wisely halted as well.

As he got closer, he kept an eye on the deadly turrets topping the towers of the perimeter fence. The devices slowly swiveled to and fro, scanning the field and forest beyond. Every time the aim of one of those turrets gyrated past his position, his breath caught.

Shortly he reached the edge of the energy fence, near the section that had deactivated when the troops emerged earlier. The other members of his expanded team would likewise be reaching their own designated positions. Ms. Daggart should be just behind him. He half expected her to plow into him at any moment, but he felt nothing, meaning she had stopped where he had indicated.

He parked himself close to the metal post that he guessed was generating that particular portion of the energy fence.

Once in position, he waited, watching his oxygen levels tick down. What if he was wrong? The success of the plan depended on another delivery vessel arriving from orbit. But what if one didn’t come?

Well, if he was wrong, the Argonauts would still attack, falling back on Plan B—the go-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory plan. Or perhaps blaze of gore might be more appropriate, considering what would happen to them. But at least death would come quickly.

In Plan B, the Centurions would retreat, joining the Hoplites, who would also stay back, and not intervene. No point in sacrificing the mechs when the Hoplites would be better served keeping an eye on the enemy once the humans were gone. Harlequin was to stay back too, something the Artificial didn’t like.

“I wish to die with you,” the Artificial had told him on a private line.

“I’m sorry, my old friend,” Rade had told Harlequin. “You already died for me once before, and that was more than enough. I never want that to happen again.”

“It wasn’t me who died,” Harlequin said. “But my original.”

“We’ve been through this before, you’re not just a mind dump,” Rade said. “You’re your own person.”

“I know,” Harlequin told him. “But when you use phrases like, ‘I already died for you,’ it impels me to clarify. And to further elucidate, I said I wish to die with you, not for you.”

“My orders are firm,” Rade said. “I won’t have anyone who doesn’t need to die, do so. You don’t need oxygen. Therefore, you don’t need to throw your life away unnecessarily. The rest of us are dead anyway, if it comes to Plan B.”

“Then I sincerely hope we don’t have to fall back on Plan B,” Harlequin said.

“I do, too, my friend,” Rade told the Artificial.

But as the minutes ticked past, and still no vessel containing alien reinforcements or supplies appeared, Rade began to lose hope.

To distract himself, he pulled up a list of old video messages exchanged between himself and Shaw during his tenure aboard the Argonaut without her. He chose one, and played it in a corner of his screen so that he wouldn’t lose situational awareness.

In this particular video, Alex and Sil stood eagerly behind Shaw, who sat on a bar stool at the kitchen table. Behind her, past the window, were the trellised vines of her parents’ vineyard in France, where she stayed.

“Are you going to make it home for Christmas, Daddy?” Sil asked.

Rade smiled sadly. He hadn’t made that particular Christmas.

“We got you a special gift,” Alex said. “So, you better!”

Shaw was grinning. “Hear that? If you don’t make it, you’re going to have two extremely angry kids to deal with in the next message. Not to mention an angry girlfriend.” She sighed. “Things are going well, my love. I do miss you, more than you can ever know. My parents are still smothering these two, and spoiling the heck out of them. I’m not sure it was the best idea to come here, yet they won’t let me move to the city. They say they’ll follow me if I do. Can you imagine that? Though I admit I appreciate their help with the kids. It’s probably better than robot assistants.” She shuddered. Apparently, she hadn’t forgotten what Cora and Dora had done. Rade hadn’t either.

“Anyway,” Shaw continued. “Please try to make it home for Christmas. It would mean so much to us. To me. I haven’t…” She closed her eyes. “Ah, I won’t try to guilt trip you. I know that you’re doing what you love. Just as I’m doing what I love.” She glanced at Alex and Sil, and hugged them close, kissing them each on the forehead.

“Ugh, mom!” Alex said. “Cooties!”

It was always amazing how big his children had become. He still remembered when Alex and Sil were babies, able to fit in his arms, one each.

Shaw grinned, releasing them, and mussing their hair.

“They miss the crew, too,” she said. “Can’t tell you how many times Alex asks for Uncle Bender.”

“I do not!” Alex said, crossing his arms. Then his face softened. “Okay, maybe once or twice.”

“More than once or twice,” Shaw said. “What’s the AR game you want to play with him?”

Alex shook his head. “Nah. Mom.” He glanced at the camera. “Dad, see what we’re reduced to? Playing games all day. You have to come rescue us from this boredom.”

“You get to play games all day,” Sil said. “You’re lucky. They make me work in the field.”

Shaw smiled, and told Sil. “It builds character.”

“Builds character,” Sil said. “I don’t even know what that means, Mommy.”

“You’ll understand someday,” Shaw said. “When you grow into a good woman, and have children of your own.”

Sil made a disgusted face. “Yuck. I’m never growing up. Or having children.”

“Besides,” Shaw continued. “Your brother is going to be joining you shortly. As soon as he heals up.”

Rade’s gaze involuntarily dropped to Alex’s arm. Rade still remembered when he had been forced to cut off that arm to save his son from a deadly nano-machine infection that was spreading through his bloodstream, which would have eaten his mind when it reached his head, replacing his living neurons with machine variants.

Rade had had no time to think. He could only act to save his son’s life. Alex had nearly died from the resultant blood loss. They had to rush him to a nearby gymnasium, which was serving as a field hospital during the invasion of Earth by an alien species known as the Mahasattva. There, Weavers had replaced his son’s arm with a bioprinted version.

Just like Rade’s own arm. And his eyes.

He wondered how many more bioprinted parts his son would have, if he one day joined the military, like he seemed set on.

I’ll have to do everything in my power to stop him.

He somehow doubted he’d be successful. His son was just as headstrong as Rade was. Sil seemed convinced she’d be joining as well. That would definitely never happen, not if Rade had any say.

On the video feed, Shaw lifted the sleeve of Alex’s T-shirt to show the damage his bioprinted arm had suffered. He’d taken a fall the week before the video was recorded, tumbling from the automated picker and receiving a good cut in the process. They’d taken him to a Weaver, who had injected healant into the arm, however it had left a big bruise in the process. The color had still been draining from the bruise at the time the video was recorded. Apparently, it was part of an aberrant reaction with the healant, and the Weaver had advised not to put the arm through too much stress until the mark dissipated. Rade could happily report that in the next video, his son’s arm had been fully healed—Shaw had put him back to work in the fields, much to Alex’s chagrin.

What a way to watch my kids grow up, Rade thought sadly. Through video recordings.

Alex quickly rolled down the sleeve. “Get back here for Christmas, dad! Save us!”

Shaw smiled, then kissed her hand and blew the air above it toward the camera. “Come home soon, love.”

The video feed turned black.

He was so far away from home. So damn far away. He missed the hell out of them.

What am I doing here?

Rade terminated the feed, and was left staring once more at the barren alien field before him.

12

Rade was drawn out of his reverie a short while later when a familiar rumbling filled the air.

He glanced upward, and spotted the alien cylinder descending from orbit.

He smiled grimly.

The Argonauts would be executing Plan A after all.

He stared past the translucent energy field, and watched the vessel descend between the stacks of buildings.

When it touched down, the circular panels opened, and troop transports flew forth, heading toward the forest once again. From the base of the vessel, two columns of regimented foot soldiers also emerged.

Rade had already accounted for the chance that the armed aliens wouldn’t head his way, by earlier instructing TJ and Lui to place demolition bricks on the closest pair of metal fence posts.

But he needn’t have worried, because the armed aliens headed directly for the same portion of the fence as before. Near where Rade and the others camped.

Staying low, he edged closer to the metal post near him, giving the aliens more room to emerge, and hoped Ms. Daggart did the same.

As the foremost among the aliens grew near, the energy barrier deactivated entirely. Rade waited until the aliens were passing through the opening in pairs of two before worming inside along the edge.

He had programmed a route for his companions to navigate the base interior as well, as the terrain wasn’t much difference from outside, and the HS3 had been able to easily map the topography from its position next to the forest, courtesy of the translucent nature of the fence.

He knew the others would be sneaking inside at that moment, following those predefined routes. Indeed, on his overhead map, he could even see the other paths his companions would be taking, along with their estimated positions along the routes, even if he didn’t know their actual locations. He wasn’t worried so much about his Argonauts, as the pirates and Ms. Daggart. None of them were trained soldiers. It would be all too easy for any of them to make a mistake. But so far, all was going as planned. Still, he doubted the estimated positions for the pirates and Ms. Daggart were accurate. He suspected they were either behind, or even outside the routes he’d laid down for them.

The marching creatures suddenly broke into a run. The aliens on patrol within the base joined them, racing to augment their ranks. One sprinted directly for him, and Rade readied his weapon.

But instead it scrambled past, narrowly avoiding trampling him.

Rade glanced over his shoulder as the ranks poured out. The turrets at the top of the defense towers had swiveled around, aiming toward the forest, and opened fire as he watched.

All of this would be because of Algorithm. Rade had ordered the Centurion to deactivate his holographic emitters shortly after the fence barrier went down, and then to step out tauntingly from the tree line before vanishing within and taking shelter among the treetops.

Algorithm, along with the Hoplites, was to remain in hiding until the team returned. If they returned. Of course, there was also a chance the Hoplites would be discovered, either moments from now, or at some point in the future. If so, they were authorized to fight to the death if necessary.

The goal of Algorithm’s diversion was to reduce the LIDAR-capable forces inside the base, and thus decreasing the chance Rade and the others would be discovered.

The aliens didn’t send all of their personnel of course, keeping a contingent inside to secure the interior. There were a bit too many enemies for Rade’s tastes, but once again he had planned for this.

When the first ship had come, Rade had recorded the interval between the vessel’s arrival and take off, and he had that time running as a countdown right now: the team only had about two minutes before those circular panels closed and the vessel launched.

After the last alien trooper had passed through the open fence behind Rade, the energy barrier activated, sealing off all access to the outside.

Well, we’re committed now.

Rade crawled slowly between the different buildings, forced to divert several times to avoid the patrols and their LIDAR, and made his way toward the waiting vessel. He didn’t hear any more shooting or other commotions coming from beyond the base, which meant the Hoplites, and Algorithm, had avoided detection thus far.

What he did hear was a more localized explosion. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the demolition bricks Rade had instructed Lui and Manic to affix to the four corners of the insect enclosure had detonated.

Only one post had gone down, but it was enough to disrupt the two energy barriers on that side, so that the penned insects were able to swarm out. Several of the patrolling aliens diverted to the area.

Rade continued forward, not worried about Lui and Manic—they would be well away from the enclosure by now. Thanks to the diversion, the path ahead was mostly free of aliens, and thus LIDAR; as such, Rade was able to move a whole lot faster, taking a more direct route to the waiting ship. In fact, he even felt confident enough to switch to a crouch to cover the distance faster.

He reached the ramp that led to the opening in the base of the vessel. A pair of reptilian aliens guarded the entrance. Those guards hadn’t been present for the earlier ship. But they weren’t entirely unexpected—he had also planned for this contingency.

He made his way along the edge of the ramp, and bumped into someone invisible. Glancing at the paths he had painted on his overhead map, he realized it had to be Tahoe, since he would have been the closest. He gave his friend a moment to move out of the way, and continued forward until he resided on the ground next to the ramp, close to where the aliens stood.

Bender appeared in full view at the base of the ramp. He was doing some sort of breakdance routine.

The aliens opened fire with their energy weapons, but the beams passed right through him. His hologram flickered.

The two reptilian creatures exchanged confused glances, then proceeded down the ramp toward the dancing Bender. They swept the ground with their tails, and discovered the holographic emitter—an extra one Bender had taken from Tahoe’s Hoplite. The device flipped over, promptly dispersing the hologram.

Meanwhile, Rade had already pulled himself onto the ramp, and into the vessel. There was no point in crawling, because he’d stand out like a sore thumb from the metal deck below him—there was no way he’d be able to trick any LIDAR sensors here. But fortunately, his external sensors reported no active LIDAR present inside.

He stood in a vaulted, unlit metal hallway. In the dim light from outside he made out empty clamps running up and down the bulkheads. These clamps were open, and arranged in neat rows—no doubt indicating where the alien troopers had resided before the vessel had unloaded them. Metallic rectangles protruded from the deck below at regular intervals as well, equipped with similar clamps.

He waited well away from the entrance at his assigned position, hoping his companions were here, too, but didn’t dare activate comms. Not all of the assigned positions were tenable—there were one of those waist-high metal protrusions on the floor where Rade had assigned Lui, for example, something he hadn’t seen when deciding on the waypoint from outside—the ship hadn’t even been present at the time, after all. But his men knew the waypoints were meant more as guides, rather than positions set in actual stone.

His timer reached zero. The circular hatch didn’t seal, nor did the ship take off.

He could see the two guards outside cautiously turning around. Their shoulder mounted weapons moved to and fro, scanning. Those devices would soon be pointed at the interior…

Damn it.

He wished the situation hadn’t necessitated the release of the insects, nor the Bender hologram, but he’d just have to deal with whatever came next. Plan B was still in the cards…

Staying flat, Rade quickly relocated behind the closest deck protrusion. He didn’t have to worry about his former MOTH teammates likewise taking the initiative and repositioning: they would have done it the instant those guards turned around, like himself. He didn’t have as much faith in Ms. Daggart and the pirates, however.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to bring them along…

Something invisible crashed into him. Rade slid sideways, making room for whoever it was, but being careful not to move from cover. He was tempted to activate his comm system at the weakest setting, if only to scan the embedded ID of the person, but resisted.

Instead, he flattened himself against the surface as his LIDAR sensors weakly chimed. The aliens were definitely scanning the interior with their equivalent of the photonic technology. That they weren’t rushing inside or firing just yet told him the pirates and Ms. Daggart had the sense to take cover like the others.

He peered past the edge of his hiding place. Past the guards outside, he could see more troops piling onto the ramp behind them, also approaching.

Rade gritted his teeth, and tightened his fingers around the grip of his weapon. There was definitely going to be a firefight.

Plan B it is.

And then fragmentation grenades began to go off outside. Armored aliens were sent flying from the ramp. The lead two guards spun around, and their shoulder-mounted weapons aimed skyward.

Rade followed their aim, and saw three Hoplites jumpjetting over the energy fence toward the vessel—they had deactivated their holographic emitters.

Rade recognized the mech at the forefront.

Electron. No!

That was enough to spook the aliens into action. The circular door promptly sealed, shutting out the troops outside, and from the vibrations Rade felt, he suspected the craft was already heading into orbit. Still, he felt no acceleration. No G forces. But that could be expected for a race of their Tech Class—they possessed energy cannons, after all.

Rade slumped against the metal protrusion. He knew there was no way Electron and the other two were going to survive. The Hoplites were completely exposed to those deadly energy weapons.

What the hell were they thinking?

But he already knew the answer.

They were saving us.

Well, it worked. Now he just had to make sure the Hoplites hadn’t died for nothing.

The vessel stopped rumbling shortly, and he suspected the ship was already in space. However, he felt no weightlessness.

Artificial gravity already?

He wasn’t expecting that until they arrived at the mothership.

He did notice that the gravity was heavier than what he was used to, so he upped the output of his servomotors to compensate. He swung his arm experimentally; it felt like he was moving it under the usual Earth gravity.

A short while later he felt more rumblings. No doubt the vessel had just docked with whatever ship awaited in orbit.

The circular hatch opened, and the ramp extended. There was no explosive decompression—Rade’s sensors still indicated atmosphere.

Outside, he could see what looked like a huge hangar bay of sorts. There were more cylindrical vessels within, similar to this one, secured against the bulkheads by clamps. He couldn’t see a hangar door of any kind.

A different kind of alien entity slithered up the ramp. This one was tentacled, with a central saclike body, reminding Rade more of an octopus, or squid. Its many appendages slithered about, as if searching. On its back it wore a small metal backpack.

From that backpack several spear-like pieces of metal abruptly fired. The spears streamed into the vaulted chamber, crashing into bulkheads, deck, and overhead. Their tips lit up, flaring brightly, illuminating the interior of the craft.

Rade’s LIDAR sensors blared in warning.

The gig was up.

13

Rade activated his comms. Full transmission range.

“Everyone out!” Rade shouted. “Use jetpacks!” He wanted to evacuate before the aliens decided to jettison this craft to get rid of them.

He jetted toward the octopus and fired his laser rifle into its maw. The creature squealed in obvious pain.

“That’s for Electron, you piece of shit!” Rade said.

He swerved upward and out of reach of those flailing tentacles; he steered toward the closest bulkhead, and clamped the fingers of one hand around a pipe running along its surface.

He caught blurs of motion at the corner of his vision as other Argonauts and pirates activated their comms and streamed out of the craft. Not an instant too soon: sure enough the door to the vessel slammed shut and the craft broke away from the bulkhead as docking clamps released it. The entire floor of the hangar bay fell away, and the craft was sucked out in the resultant explosive decompression. As was the tentacled alien.

Rade glanced at his overhead map and did a quick headcount. All his men were transmitting again, as were the pirates—before heading toward the base, he’d given them the necessary passcodes to join the main encrypted line. Like Rade, everyone had attached to the wall.

Everyone except Ms. Daggart. There was no sign of her…

That meant she was still aboard.

Rade glanced past the bay doors, at the receding ship; as he watched, an energy beam from the mothership slammed into the side of the cylindrical vessel, sawing the lower section in two.

Rade slumped.

“There goes our reward,” Manic said.

“What about the loss of human life?” Harlequin asked. “Does that not concern you?”

“Sure,” Manic replied. “Though I admit, it’s kind of hard to feel anything for her at the moment, considering our own predicament.”

Rade realized the artificial gravity was no longer active in the area, because he felt no pull on his body whatsoever. Instead, he felt that usual queasiness that came with space walks…

“What the hell…” Bender’s outline shifted to and fro.

“Something wrong, Bender?” Rade asked.

A moment later a new jumpsuit silhouette appeared, this one hanging onto Bender’s waist for dear life. Rade’s HUD identified the owner as Ms. Daggart.

“I was wondering why I felt so heavy,” Bender commented.

“Welcome back to the comm line, Ms. Daggart,” Rade said. “For a moment there, I thought we’d lost you.”

“I thought I’d lost myself,” Ms. Daggart agreed.

“Notice how she chose the only real man among us to hitch a ride with?” Bender quipped.

“Actually, I just grabbed onto whatever I could,” she said. “And it happened to be you.”

“Fret, Formaldehyde, switch your weapons to cutter mode,” Rade instructed. “Get us inside.”

“Could be difficult,” Formaldehyde said. “The hulls of spacefaring vessels aren’t known to be thin.”

“True,” Rade said. “But we’re not exactly cutting in from the outer hull. We’re in the hangar bay. The bulkheads, while still thick, should be a lot thinner.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Formaldehyde said.

“Look at this place,” Bender said, beckoning toward the cylindrical vessels docked in neat rows around them. “Definitely a mothership. I’m looking forward to C4ing the shit out of this place. Speaking of which, when can we do the deed, Boss?”

“I’m thinking somewhere deeper inside,” Rade told him. “A more vulnerable area.”

“How do we know what’s a more vulnerable area?” Leopold asked. “Why not place the C4 here and get out while the getting is good?”

“Didn’t you see what happened to the vessel we hitched a ride on?” Rade asked. “If we don’t significantly damage this mothership, the moment we jettison we’ll be shot down. Maybe we’ll be shot down anyway, regardless of the damage, as far as that goes. And if that’s the case, I’d rather cause more damage than less anyway.”

“You’re assuming they’re targeting technology has a granularity fine enough to pick out humanoids of our size floating through space…” Fret said.

“That’s right, side with the pirates,” Bender said.

“Actually, I’d say it’s a good assumption they’ll be able to target us,” Harlequin interjected. “Such a targeting granularity should be standard for a ship of this Tech Class. Part of its point defenses, or perhaps even its hull defenses, allowing the mothership to travel through asteroid belts or comet tails for instance, without worrying about damage.”

“And leave it to the machine to side with the pirates as well!” Bender complained.

“Do you really want to risk it?” Harlequin asked. “Planting C4 here and then leaping out into space, hoping for the best?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Bender replied. “I want to stay and squash these bugs.”

“So, you didn’t answer my question, Boss…” Leopold said, putting a particularly disdainful emphasis on the latter word. “How do we know what a vulnerable area is? This is an alien ship. The design will be completely foreign to us.”

Rade glanced at the outlines of his companions on his HUD. “We’ve been aboard a few alien ships by now. Enough to have a good sense, I think.”

“No, you haven’t,” Leopold told him.

“Actually, we have,” Rade said. “I guess you aren’t as familiar with my team as you thought.”

Leopold didn’t have anything to say to that.

“I hope you know what you guys are doing,” Ms. Daggart said.

Bender glanced over his shoulder at her—she had clambered onto his back, piggyback-style. “You’re in good hands, Missy. We’ve been killing bugs since before you were a goner.” He burst out in giggles. “Whoops! I meant before you were born! Sorry, my bad.” He continued laughing, no doubt to Ms. Daggart’s dismay.

Fret and Formaldehyde had jetted to the bulkhead and were working on cutting their way inside with their laser rifles. Fret worked on the left, and Formaldehyde the right. Their weapons left red hot trails in their immediate wake, paths that were black against the metal farther up before turning inward to join at the top.

“How thick is it?” Rade asked from where he gripped the bulkhead pipe nearby with one hand.

“It’s moderate,” Fret said. “We have to hold our weapons for five seconds in each spot. They’ve been overheating fairly badly.” On cue, his weapon overheated, as did Formaldehyde’s, and they swapped out their rifles with the closest Argonauts and switched them to laser cutter mode before continuing.

Soon the lines Fret and Formaldehyde were cutting into the bulkhead met at the bottom, so that they formed a complete black frame upon the surface.

“That was relatively quick,” Ms. Daggart commented.

“We’re not through yet,” Fret said, exchanging his laser rifle for a fresh one from TJ. “That was just the first pass.”

Fret and Formaldehyde lifted their weapons back to the top part of the rectangle they were carving. They pressed the muzzles close together, to a point near the middle of the black line, and squeezed the triggers.

A slightly orangish mist jetted outward from the resultant hole, along with pieces of metallic debris.

“There we go,” Fret said. “Now we’re getting through.”

The mist and debris outflow continued as they went over the dark frame a second time. When they reached the quarter way marks on either side, the gaseous outflow ceased entirely.

“Looks like they finally activated a breach seal somewhere inside,” Harlequin commented.

“Took them long enough,” Bender said.

Fret and Formaldehyde continued cycling their weapons downward, replacing them as needed, until finally the muzzles of the latest rifles joined at the bottom.

“Well, that should do it.” Fret slid away from the opening.

“Centurions, remove that plug,” Rade ordered. “Argonauts, assume defensive positions.”

The Argonauts jetted into place, forming a circle around the plug. Their bodies were positioned outward so that, when the plug was removed, only part of their rifles and heads would be exposed. Taking their cues from the ex-MOTHs, the pirates joined them, also aiming inside in a similar manner. Well, a bit farther back than the Argonauts, of course, who had crowded them out.

Meanwhile the three Centurions proceeded forward and planted their boots against the surrounding bulkhead. They wrapped their gloved fingers around different protrusions in the laser-carved surface—pipes, partial depressions, or whatever else they could use to attain a grip.

“It’s heavy,” Formaldehyde said. “The artificial gravity field extends right to the surface.”

“You can do it, little robots!” Bender taunted.

The Centurions pulled simultaneously, and between the three of them, managed to remove the plug.

It drifted outward, moving away from the opening. The Centurions quickly jetted away, assuming their own places in the defensive circle.

As the plug drifted free, the interior was revealed. Rade scanned his rifle from left to right across the interior hallway, but spotted no enemy forces or defense platforms.

The passageway was big enough to fit two jump-suited individuals abreast. The bulkheads were made of a smooth material, polished to a shine, and glowed with a gentle white luminance. The corners where deck and overhead met bulkhead were rounded, so that his overall impression was of a passageway whose vertical profile was elliptical rather than rectangular. On the far side, the corridor terminated in a round bulkhead—no doubt that would be the breach seal that had closed while Fret and Formaldehyde had drilled inside. There was no sign of any other means of egress.

“Brat, Ernie, inside!” Rade ordered.

The two Centurions jetted into the opening. As soon as the pair passed through, they fell upward, smashing headfirst into the overhead—which was evidently the deck, according to the internal artificial gravity vector.

“Well, at least we know which way is up now,” Bender commented drily. “I knew we’d find a use for these robots someday…”

The two robots scrambled to their feet—they appeared upside-down relative to Rade—and assumed a defensive position, with Brat on one knee, and Ernie standing full height. Ernie’s laser rifle swept from left to right, while Brat’s moved in the opposite direction.

“Clear!” Brat announced tentatively. “However, my LIDAR alerts are spiking.”

“Source?” Rade asked.

“Seem to be the walls themselves,” Brat replied. “Our holographic emitters are useless here.”

Rade considered having the Argonauts shut off those particular emitters, but the drain on the batteries was negligible, especially when considering that the team would run out of oxygen long before it ever ran out of battery power.

“Boss,” Formaldehyde said. “If we want in, now’s the time. The aperture is closing.”

Rade’s eyes shifted to the edges of the opening. It indeed seemed to be contracting, as if the surrounding surfaces were drawing inward.

“Everyone go!” Rade ordered.

The team members oriented themselves to match the gravity vector, then jetted in, piling inside. Rade and Tahoe waited until everyone else was in, then passed through one at a time. The pair had to fold into a ball to fit the ever-shrinking aperture. Rade shot out his feet as the artificial gravity took hold, and he landed on the deck. Once again, the gravity was heavier than standard Earth G; Rade didn’t have to adjust his servomotors this time, as they operated at the same settings as before.

The corridor was rather tight, and Ms. Daggart and the pirates were packed in just ahead of Rade and Tahoe, giving them little room to maneuver.

“Spread out!” Rade ordered, more for the pirates’ benefit than his own team members, who were already moving apart.

The pirates moved ahead, and finally Rade and Tahoe were able to pull away from the shrinking aperture behind them. In moments it had sealed entirely, with the glowing white surface so smooth and polished that Rade was unable to tell if any gap had ever existed in the first place.

“The atmosphere is pressurizing,” TJ announced.

“That can’t be good,” Fret said.

“Oh, it’s good,” Bender said. “It means bug killin’ time a-comes.”

“Was this such a good idea?” Leopold asked, turning toward Rade.

Ahead, the breach seal irised apart.

Two octopus-like creatures waited past the opening. The first balanced on the back of the other, so that they filled up the whole corridor. Past the pair, Rade could see at least three more of the stacked pairs waiting in reserve.

The two octopuses opened their beaklike maws and sprayed a strange yellow liquid. Brat and Ernie, in the forefront, dodged, but Formaldehyde wasn’t quick enough, and the liquid enveloped his jumpsuit. The robot was immediately slammed against the wall as the liquid solidified into a net of some kind that pinned the Centurion to the bulkhead.

“They’re trying to capture us!” Fret exclaimed.

“No, really?” Bender replied, opening fire.

Rade didn’t have to give the order, as the Argonauts were already lighting up the aliens. Dark spots appeared in those saclike bodies as the lasers drilled through them, and the aliens collapsed.

The team fired past the bodies, into the other alien stacks, taking out the next group as well. The white walls became smeared with the black blood of their enemies.

Brat and Ernie advanced, leading the advance, but before they reached the piled bodies, the breach seal irised shut in front of them once more, so that the team’s weaponry left black marks on the smooth, elliptical surface instead.

“Where are my ChickenGators!” Bender complained. “I don’t want octo-pussies. They’re too easy.”

“Obviously the ‘ChickenGators’ are bioengineered for the specific environment of the planet below,” Lui said. “What you’re seeing here are the actual aliens responsible for the invasion, I believe.”

“Or their surrogates,” Harlequin clarified.

Rade went to Formaldehyde, who was yet pinned against the bulkhead by the sticky yellow net that had formed. He waved Brat over.

“You think they’ll switch to their energy beam weapons…” Tahoe asked. “When they realize capturing us will prove difficult?”

“Eventually,” Rade said. “But I suspect it’ll be a last resort, if they do use them. Don’t want to damage their own ship too much, I’m guessing. Then again, given the repairing capabilities we’ve seen, maybe they won’t care.”

“Makes you wonder if we’ll be able to cause any lasting damage with our demolition bricks,” Tahoe said.

Rade nodded slowly. “Well, at the very least, we’ll make them hurt.” He glanced at his oxygen levels. An hour left.

“Leopold, come here,” Rade said. “You and your pirates have two hours left each? As does Ms. Daggart?”

“That’s correct,” Leopold replied.

“You’re going to share oxygen with the rest of us,” Rade said. “Ms. Daggart, you too. I want us all to have an equal amount of oxygen remaining.”

The robots and Harlequin didn’t require oxygen of course, only the human Argonauts. So when it was done, the four pirates plus Ms. Daggart gave up thirty-five minutes of oxygen each, giving the seven Argonauts twenty-five extra minutes in turn so that everyone who needed it had eighty-five minutes of oxygen. They did the same with their jetpack fuel, spreading it equally across the team.

Meanwhile, Brat helped Formaldehyde cut through the strands that glued the latter to the bulkhead, and Ernie and Harlequin stood guard.

Rade studied the laser-riddled breach seal. “We’re going to have to cut through again.”

“Maybe not,” Harlequin said, joining him.

Rade glanced at the Artificial. “What do you mean?”

“I detected electromagnetic field emanations from the bulkhead as it sealed,” Harlequin explained. “A sign that current was passing through it. I detected similar emanations from the aperture behind us as it closed.”

“So what are you saying?” Rade asked. “If we can mimic those currents, we can control these seals?”

“Not just the seals,” Harlequin said. “But the bulkheads themselves. I’m detecting similar resting state energy signatures everywhere—I believe we can create openings at will, anywhere we want in the ship.”

“Bullcrap,” Bender said. “If that were true, it means the bugs could do the same. What would stop them from simply opening apertures in the hull and herding us from the ship? Or simply opening up every deck and letting gravity take its course?”

“While it’s true that they appeared hesitant to take us aboard at first, considering they jettisoned one of their own craft in an attempt to be rid of us,” Harlequin said. “They seem interested in us at the moment. Perhaps intrigued at our audacity. Or maybe amused. Either they want to study us, or toy with us. Who knows? Regardless, they seem intent on capturing us at the moment. So they won’t be jettisoning us from their vessel any time soon, not unless it’s clear that we pose a grave danger to the ship.”

“If that’s true,” Rade said. “Then by the time they realize how dangerous we really are, it’ll be far too late.”

“Yes, it is a calculated risk they are taking,” Harlequin agreed. “It won’t be so easy to get rid of us once we’re deeper inside. Here, they could flush us relatively easily by means of an explosive decompression. But once we’re deeper, they’re going to have to rely on gravity. Even if they can create a wide hole all the way to the bottom of the vessel, our jetpacks would hold us in place.”

“Except our jetpacks have a limited propellant supply,” Rade said. “A supply that’s currently low.”

“True enough,” Harlequin agreed. “But the aliens don’t know that. Like I said, a risk on their part. Then again, we might be overestimating how much damage we can really cause. We probably are doing just that, in fact.”

“All right, see if you can find a way to mimic that current to open up some corridors for us,” Rade said.

“TJ, Bender, if you don’t mind?” Harlequin said. He gathered the pair, and they set about dismantling one of the spare laser rifles.

Rade sat with Tahoe. He kept an eye on the forward area, ready to leap up if it opened. The other Argonauts were watching every other bulkhead, because if it was true that a portal could be made anywhere, then the team had to be ready for an attack from any direction.

“We’re probably not going to survive this,” Tahoe sent Rade on a private line.

“I know that, old friend,” Rade replied.

“I was going to suggest dispatching a final message to Shaw,” Tahoe said. “In the hopes that the intergalnet node is still active. But then I remembered, our comm nodes aren’t powerful enough. And our signal isn’t likely to penetrate the hull of this vessel.”

“Yeah,” Rade said. “I suppose it’s worth a try, if I can bring myself to. Speaking of trying… Bax, do you read?”

No answer. Transmission intensity was dialed to max. “Bax? Over.”

Nothing.

Rade shrugged in his jumpsuit. “I guess Bax is really gone.”

“Or he can’t read us,” Tahoe said.

“Either way, he can’t help us,” Rade said.

“No,” Tahoe agreed. “We’re on our own in here. But remember, we chose this.”

Rade nodded. “Thanks for saying we. Makes me feel a bit better. Shifts some of the burden of guilt away from me. We chose this. Not I.”

“Yes,” Tahoe said. “We had little choice, really. With no oxygen, we would have died on the surface anyway. At least we’re attempting to make some sort of difference here.”

“Yes, but… a part of me wants to just pull out the white flag and surrender to these aliens,” Rade said. “It seems like it’s the only way I can save the team.”

“Never give up,” Tahoe said. “Never surrender. Those words were drilled into us during training.”

“Suppose they were,” Rade said. “But there are times to surrender, don’t you think? Times to throw in the towel. When the odds are so stacked against you, that there’s no point in continuing.”

“This isn’t the Rade I know,” Tahoe said. “He’d never say such a thing.”

Rade sighed. “You’re right. I’m getting old, I suppose. Aging is making me lose my resolve. Because I really just want to see my kids again. And Shaw.” As he continued, he spoke more for himself, than Tahoe’s benefit. “But you’re right of course. If we surrendered, there’s no guarantee the aliens would be able to prepare a human-compatible atmosphere in time. They probably wouldn’t even know that our oxygen was almost gone until we started expiring in front of them. And if they did have the ability to create oxygen, who can say how many of us they’d actually deign to spare? They’d probably lobotomize us all, keeping us alive like living vegetables to study.”

“No, surrender isn’t an option,” Tahoe agreed. “I want to see my kids too, you know. See Tepin.”

“We’re going to have to have a family barbecue when we get back,” Rade said.

“I’d like that,” Tahoe said. “Tepin likes Shaw. Doesn’t get to see enough of her.”

“Shaw feels the same way,” Rade said. “As do I.” He hesitated. Then: “You know, if we survive this, maybe I should shut down the company.”

“Why?” Tahoe said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. Hell, if you shut it down, I’d probably go back to the military.”

Rade laughed. “So would I, if they’d take me. Though they’d probably permanently keep my rank at chief to prevent me from advancing.”

“Why?” Tahoe asked.

“I rattled a few Brass egos when I stole Harlequin’s AI core backup,” Rade replied.

“Ah, that,” Tahoe said. “Yes, that would do it. The Brass don’t really like soldiers who steal backup files of military combat robots.”

“No, they don’t,” Rade said. TJ and Bender had hacked the records so that Rade didn’t face any prison time, but the lieutenant commander still knew what Rade had done, and had been forced to file a report. He wondered if the military would even let him come back.

No. Tahoe was right. He wouldn’t be shutting down his business if they survived.

A big if, that.

Then again, even if he did somehow make it through this, he might be forced to shut down if the Argonaut was truly gone, or there weren’t enough surviving crew members to man it.

Rade’s external speakers picked up a loud zap. He glanced up.

“Got it,” Harlequin announced. He held up the final product that he, TJ and Bender had come up with: a laser rifle with its tip removed, so that it looked more like a cattle prod than anything else. He stood beside an open aperture in the bulkhead directly beside him.

Harlequin applied the prod to the edge of the aperture and Rade heard the zap again. The surrounding surface quivered as if alive, and then the aperture promptly closed.

Harlequin held the prod to the overhead next and activated it. Rade heard the zap, saw the surface tremble. An opening appeared as a circular portion of the impacted area irised apart.

“Good job,” Rade said. “Remind me to pencil you in for a promotion,” he joked.

“Will do,” Harlequin beamed.

“Keep it open,” Rade said. “We’ll take that route. Meanwhile, I want you to put together a backup prod for TJ.”

Formaldehyde and Ernie went first, pulling themselves through into the next floor above to clear the corridor.

When the Centurions pronounced it safe, Rade and the others lifted themselves through to follow, and then Harlequin sealed the deck beneath them.

14

Rade and the others made their way through a slightly larger corridor. Like below, the bulkheads continued to glow. There were no signs of enemies. Yet.

Ahead, the passageway was sealed off. Brat and Ernie assumed defensive positions behind Harlequin, who stood ready in front of the seal. Harlequin glanced at Rade for confirmation.

“Do it,” Rade ordered.

As soon as the Artificial applied the prod, Harlequin stepped back, allowing Brat and Ernie to move forward into the aperture that formed. Brat went high, Ernie low.

“Clear!” Brat announced.

The team proceeded into the new elliptical passageway, which seemed little different from the previous. Twice more they encountered sealed off areas, and twice more Harlequin opened the bulkheads to reveal empty corridors. The aliens seemed content to allow Rade and the others to advance unhindered, for the time being.

The next opening led into a wider room. It was ovoid in shape, and about the size of a small theater. The glowing walls revealed circular glass pillars that rose from floor to ceiling, serving as tanks of sorts: inside them floated more of the octopus aliens in a greenish liquid.

Brat and Ernie advanced first while the rest of the team waited outside.

“They seem to be hibernating,” Brat announced over the comm.

“Can we toast ‘em Boss, can we can we?” Bender asked.

“Negative,” Rade said. “I have a thing against attacking the defenseless. Even if they are alien.”

“Aw, come on Boss!” Bender said. “We’re eventually going to blow them all to hell anyway!”

“He does have a point,” Lui said. “Although, I imagine if we attack here, we’ll bring more of the aliens down upon us. Since I doubt they’d like us attacking the weak and vulnerable…”

“Maybe it’s a test of sorts,” Tahoe said.

“For what?” Rade asked. “The aliens are testing whether we’re capable of showing mercy?”

“I don’t know,” Tahoe said. “As we agreed many times, these are aliens, possessed of alien thinking. Who knows what’s going through their minds?”

“We could go around,” Harlequin suggested.

Rade glanced at his HUD. The alien ship was depicted as a black outline on the overhead map. The portions of the interior the party had mapped were filled out, while the remainder was dark with the “fog of war.” Rade was steering the team in the general direction of the center of the ship, which he had decided would probably be the most vulnerable portion.

According to the map, the room ahead was about three times as long as the typical corridor, meaning they’d be able to skip three breach seals by passing through it. Not that it took long to open a seal with Harlequin’s prod, but still… every moment counted at this point.

“We’re here,” Rade said. “We might as well take it. First of all, Harlequin, go with Brat and Ernie to the far side, and open up the way out. In case we need to hustle.”

Harlequin entered. Brat and Ernie escorted him across the room. Rade half expected those tanks to open up at any moment, allowing the octopuses within to attack his team members, but the glass cylinders remained sealed and the alien occupants didn’t move.

At the farther bulkhead, Harlequin applied the prod, opening a doorway. The two Centurions advanced, taking the usual defensive positions.

“It’s clear,” Brat announced.

“Let’s go,” Rade told the rest of the team.

Pirates and Argonauts started across the chamber.

Once again, as he passed the glass cylinders, Rade couldn’t shake the feeling that those aliens would burst out at any instant. But so far, nothing happened.

“So disgusting,” Ms. Daggart said, staring up at the tentacled aliens floating in the tanks.

Bender paused next to one such tank. He raised his laser rifle toward the octopus within.

“Bender…” Rade warned, shoving the weapon back down.

“Damn it,” Bender said. “So tempting.”

“I know it is,” Rade said.

“Can we at least plant some C4 here?” Bender asked. “You know, for when we finally detonate? It’d make me feel real good knowing the bricks are in play.”

“No,” Rade replied. “We won’t be detonating the C4 for a while yet, and I don’t want to give the aliens time to study the devices before we’re ready to use them. You get me?”

Bender sighed. “Okay Boss. No bug toast here. For now.” And he continued onward.

“How do we know the aliens aren’t studying our C4, and other weapons, as we speak?” Lui asked. “We’re being bombarded by a constant stream of probing LIDAR, after all. Who’s to say they’re also not using something more penetrative? Something we can’t detect?”

“I guess we don’t know for sure,” Rade said. “Either way, we’re not planting any C4 here.”

To Rade’s relief, the team reached the other side without issue, and proceeded into the more cramp elliptical hallway. Harlequin shut the aperture behind them. Rade slumped slightly in his jumpsuit, glad to be past that room.

They proceeded through the glowing corridor, and once again passed through several more breaches on the way toward the center of the ship, but still encountered no resistance.

“Maybe they’re resigned to their fate,” Manic said. “They’ve realized they can’t defend against us. That we’re a superior force.”

“Damn straight!” Bender agreed.

“No,” Fret said. “They’re watching. Waiting. Studying us. We’re like lab rats in a maze.”

“We’re not your typical lab rats, though,” Manic said. “You gotta give us some credit.”

“Yeah but, I’m willing to bet, they’ve got cheese in here somewhere,” Fret said.

“Cheese, bro?” Bender said.

“Yeah,” Fret said. “Like in a rat maze. They put cheese to reward the rats for completing the maze. Or to trick them.”

“Don’t think we’ll be getting no reward at the end of this maze,” Bender said. “Unless by reward, you mean blowing up the ship. So it’s gonna be a trick.”

They reached another wide room. This chamber was ovoid like the previous larger room. There were no pillars within, however. In fact, it was completely empty, save for one of the energy weapons the ChickenGators from the surface had carried on their shoulders, a cannon seemingly abandoned on the deck in the middle of the room.

“There’s your cheese,” Lui said.

“Feels like a trap to me,” Tahoe said.

“It’s definitely a trap,” Rade agreed. “We go around this room.”

“How stupid do these alien bitches think we are?” Bender mused.

“Wait, do we really want to give up the chance to acquire some alien weapons technology?” Lui asked.

“I guess the aliens were right to assume we’re stupid,” Bender sounded like he was rolling his eyes. “I’m gonna have to start wearing my shirt that says ‘I’m with stupid’ again. With an arrow pointed Fooey Lui’s way.”

“I hate to be the one agreeing with Bender,” Fret said. “But he’s right. Even if we’re able to grab that weapon, we probably won’t be able to fire it. Do I need to remind you that the technology is alien? And we’re humans?”

Rade nodded. “As I said, we go around.”

Harlequin used the prod to make a new aperture in the bulkhead, away from the room. After the Centurions cleared it, the team entered.

The corridor sloped upward, Rade noticed immediately. In moments, it also began to curve left. A glance at the map told him the team was beginning to walk directly over the very same room he’d been trying to avoid.

“Halt,” Rade said. “We turn back and take another way. I don’t like how—”

Before he could finish, the deck opened up beneath Rade, and he fell through into the room below.

He activated his jets, but before he could return through the aperture, it sealed above him.

“Harlequin, open it up!” Rade transmitted, hovering below the overhead. “Harlequin?”

No answer.

“Damn it.”

Rade descended. No point in wasting propellant.

He landed, and his gaze drifted to the energy cannon, just sitting there at the center of the room. Curiosity got the better of him, and he walked over. He swiveled his neck left and right as he did so, keeping an eye on every bulkhead.

When he reached the cannon, he gave it a tentative kick. While it rocked back and forth, he rapidly slid the aim of his rifle across the room, once again expecting the trap to trigger.

But no aliens appeared.

Frowning, he slid his laser rifle over his shoulder and attempted to pick up the cannon. It was extremely light, feeling almost hollow—at least with the boost provided by his jumpsuit servomotors. He held it over one shoulder like a rocket launcher, and pointed the open end toward the closest wall.

There was no obvious firing mechanism.

He slid his gloved finger across the surface, looking for a depression or indentation of some kind. There… he found something on top. A slight rectangular cut-out. He pressed the center.

To his great surprise, the weapon fired. A bright beam of energy erupted from the barrel. It stopped short of the bulkhead before blinking from existence, leaving only the lingering afterimage on his retinas.

It shouldn’t have fired. Fret was completely right. Alien technology wouldn’t have been designed to be operated by humans. There would be security features inherit to prevent that. Just like his team’s laser rifles couldn’t be fired unless unlocked. And even once unlocked, they wouldn’t engage friendly units.

Well, he had some evidence of security features. The beam had stopped short of the bulkhead, after all. He pointed it toward the deck immediately below and tried again. The beam engaged, but halted well short of the floor before dissipating. It seemed as if the weapon had been designed to adjust its focal length based on the distance to the nearest bulkhead or the deck.

Interesting.

He launched a few more test shots at the overhead, and confirmed that it was programmed not to strike the ship interior. That meant the aliens themselves could indeed use their energy weapons aboard if they so wished it. And could probably prevent him from using the weapons entirely. But for now, they were allowing it.

He shot more of the bolts at his surroundings, and recorded the electromagnetic field patterns the weapon produced when fired, figuring that the data could prove useful later when he wanted Harlequin to study the device. He still didn’t know why the aliens left it lying here for him to grab.

He had his answer a moment later when portals opened in the bulkheads around him, and octopus-shaped aliens entered the room. They carried similar energy cannons.

“Harlequin, do you read?” Rade tried again.

The portals closed behind the aliens. One of the octopus creatures approached Rade.

He spun toward the creature, and realized the alien was aiming its weapon directly at him. Rade immediately leaped to the side, engaging his lateral jets to give him an added boost of speed. He narrowly jetted out of the way as a beam cut through the air beside him.

He returned fire, sweeping the beam toward his foe. He expected the bolt to shut off before reaching the creature, but incredibly, it continued on, forcing the octopus to dodge out of the way. The creature caught a glancing blow to the side, which carved a bloody line through its body sac.

It fired again, frantically, at Rade, who was forced to jet left and right, expending his depleted jet fuel at a frightening rate.

He rolled to the deck, and when he righted himself, he made certain his weapon was pointing directly at the alien’s exposed underside. He fired, drilling a hole straight through the heart of the creature. It squealed, and collapsed.

Rade scrambled to his feet and shot at the next closest aliens, which yet resided in the circle next to the bulkheads. This time the beam fell short. The creatures would only let him attack those who left the circle, apparently.

Motion drew his gaze upward. An aperture opened.

Harlequin appeared.

Rade jetted upward immediately.

“Sorry about that,” Harlequin transmitted. “Our comms don’t want to penetrate these bulkheads. Plus, there is electromagnetic interference in the deck, preventing me from opening an aperture. I figured out a workaround.” In the corridor above him, energy beams cut sizzling swathes through the air over Harlequin’s head. “Oh yeah, we’re also a bit busy!”

Just before Rade reached the opening, it sealed again, and he crashed headlong into the overhead. The suit’s internal padding saved him from serious harm, but the impact still hurt.

“Gah!”

He dropped, but had the presence of mind to fire countering thrust before he hit the deck.

He scrambled to his feet in time to face the next alien as it emerged from the circle.

This time Rade fired first, taking the initiative. The alien dodged to the side. The creatures could move fast when they wanted to.

It returned fire at the same time, forcing him to throw himself to the deck. It spat yellow liquid from its maw at the same time, attempting to pin him with that solidifying net the aliens could form.

He rolled away just in time, and scrambled up on one knee to fire again. He scored a hit, slicing off a tentacle.

And was forced to leap aside when the alien unleashed another beam.

He engaged his jetpack, arcing over the alien, and fired down at the creature at the same time.

The alien dodged left, then right, then left again, directly into Rade’s arcing path.

He landed on its body sac, which collapsed somewhat under his weight, and the creature screamed. He smiled grimly, poked the energy cannon into its back, and depressed the firing mechanism.

The alien collapsed with a fresh hole carved into its body sac, and Rade rolled to the deck beside it.

The next creature came out to face him. This time Rade used the body of the fallen alien as a shield against his foe. His opponent’s beam penetrated the carcass easily, forcing Rade to keep switching positions behind it.

He feinted a lunge toward the far left side of the carcass, but then jetted upward, topping the corpse, and taking his opponent by surprise. In desperation, the alien spat yellow liquid at him, which narrowly missed. He fired, drilling a hole through its midsection.

He continued to fight the aliens one at a time like that, using the growing fallen as his defensive bulwark. The aliens started doing the same, treating their dead companions as little more than protective barriers. He almost took a hit several times, if not from the energy cannons, then from that solidifying spit of theirs.

In only a few minutes it was over, though it felt to Rade like an eternity. Around him lay the bodies of eight dead aliens. It didn’t make sense. If they had wanted to take him down, they could have easily concentrated their fire on him, instead of coming at him one at a time. He would have been hard-pressed to dodge eight beams at once, and indeed, would have probably fallen. But it wouldn’t have been a fair fight, of course.

And maybe that was the crux of it.

A portal opened in the overhead once more.

Once again Rade immediately jetted upward. He was almost out of jetpack fuel. This time Harlequin physically held the edges of the aperture open with his hands.

“Quickly!” the Artificial transmitted.

Rade reached the opening and jetted through. He landed, then swiveled in place, looking for the attackers, but found only dead octopus bodies. Three in total. Two behind the party, and one ahead. If there were more, they had fled.

Some of the Argonauts and pirates were pinned to the deck or the bulkheads by the yellow nets the aliens could spit. Other Argonauts were freeing them.

Harlequin released his hold on the aperture. When it remained open, the Artificial nodded to himself. He glanced at Rade. “I think I’ve found a permanent bypass to the electromagnetic interface they’ve got pulsing through the surface now.” Harlequin glanced through the opening at the room below. “Looks like you were busy down there.”

Bender took a peek. “Woohoo, eight bugs in total. And all by yourself. Nicely done, Boss! Plus, you confiscated one of them alien energy weapons to boot!”

Rade glanced at it, and nodded. “That’s because they let me. I’m willing to bet it won’t fire anymore.” He pointed it through the aperture toward the room below and depressed the firing mechanism. Sure enough, nothing happened. “There you go.”

“Too bad,” Bender said, producing his own stolen energy cannon. “We managed to get one, too. It also doesn’t fire.”

“What happened down there?” Tahoe asked.

“They attacked me one at a time,” Rade said. “Like it was some sort of competition, or event. Like they wanted to test my battle prowess, or something. And up here?” Rade’s gaze drifted to the three dead aliens.

“They weren’t really trying to kill us,” Tahoe said. “Mostly, just attempting to keep us pinned.”

“They wanted to prevent you from helping me,” Rade said.

“Apparently,” Tahoe agreed.

His eyes drifted to a lifeless form on the deck next to one of the aliens. A dead pirate. “So what happened to him?”

“Tried to run,” Tahoe said.

“The aliens didn’t like that very much, did they?” Rade asked.

“Actually, it was Leopold who did him in,” Tahoe replied.

Rade looked more closely, and realized the man’s helmet had exploded. From the inside. “Ah.”

He turned toward Leopold, who shrugged in his suit. “I warned him.”

“Surprised you’re not pissed at him,” Fret told Rade.

“Why should he be?” Bender chimed in. “That’s one less pirate to worry about.”

Rade couldn’t disagree there.

“Here,” Rade handed his energy cannon to Harlequin. “See if you can figure out how to get this thing to fire. I recorded the electromagnetic signature the weapon produced whenever I took a shot. Maybe it’ll help you.” Rade sent Harlequin the data.

“So, what now?” Lui asked.

Rade looked at Lui. “We continue toward the center of the ship.”

15

When everyone was free of the yellow nets, Rade had the team backtrack to the start of the corridor, as he didn’t want to risk crossing over that room any further.

At the bottom, Harlequin opened up another aperture. The new route led completely around the bigger room, much to Rade’s relief, so they were able to continue toward the core of the vessel without issue.

Ms. Daggart requested a private connection. Rade accepted.

“I thought you were going to die back there,” Ms. Daggart said. “When you fell through that hole, I thought I was never going to see you again.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too attached,” he said. “You might see me die, yet.”

“What a horrible thought,” she said. “I’ve never seen so much death as I have in the past few days. Aliens. Men. So much. Too much.”

“I wish I could be your counsellor,” Rade said. “But that’s not my job. Might I recommend you try a few good AI programs. Usually embedded IDs have some good shrinks.” It was cold, perhaps, but he really didn’t have time to hold her hand at the moment.

“Why are you such an asshole to me?” she said. “Is it because you’re afraid you’re going to fall for me? Because you find me attractive?”

Rade frowned. “I’m an asshole because I have to be. I have a team to lead. Aliens to watch for. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of in the shit at the moment. Under different circumstances, I’d be happy to chat with you. But right now, any counseling I give is going to have to be reserved for my men, as they’re the ones who will be getting us through this. So, suck it up, and do your best.”

He disconnected.

Tahoe tapped in next. “I picked up a connect request from Ms. Daggart. Is she getting on your nerves, too?”

“What do you mean, too?” Rade asked.

“She’s playing with all of us,” Tahoe said. “Trying to evoke sympathy. Or attraction. It depends on the person. Pulling the whole princess in distress routine. Bender’s the only one falling for it, so far.”

“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Rade said. “It’s only natural. She’s looking for friends and allies. We’re in a very dark place right now. If I was among the only people who had even the remotest chance of getting me out of here, I’d be doing the same. I just might go about it a bit differently.”

“All right, but I’m worried Bender might be letting himself get wrapped too tightly around her finger,” Tahoe said. “If it came to a choice between saving her, or one of us, I’m not sure he’d pick us anymore.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Rade said.

When the Centurions cleared the passage after the next breach seal, Rade advanced until he was walking beside Bender in the tight corridor.

“Boss.” Bender inclined his head.

“I hear Ms. Daggart has you wrapped around her finger,” Rade said.

“Rebecca certainly is a mighty fine woman,” Bender said. “She’s sent me some bikini pics. I was right about her ass, you know!”

“She’s using you, you get that, right?” Rade asked.

Bender sighed. “Yeah boss. I figured. But I don’t actually mind it. I like it, actually. Because I’m going to be using her ass as well when this is all over.”

“Fair enough,” Rade said. “But just remember, the team comes before her. Under all circumstances. Got it?”

“Even Fret?” Bender asked.

“Even Fret,” Rade said firmly.

“I was joking,” Bender told him. “Of course I wouldn’t let Fret or any of you down.”

“See that you don’t,” Rade said.

“Bros before hos,” Bender finished.

Rade paused. “See, when you make comments like that, I can’t tell if you’re being serious, or mocking me.”

“Sorry boss,” Bender said. “Definitely not mocking you. I meant it in all seriousness.”

“Good,” Rade said. He disconnected, and resumed his place behind the marching pirates.

It was Leopold’s turn to work on him. “So, are you pleased with our performance so far?”

“Can’t say,” Rade told him, growing weary of conversation. “I didn’t actually see you fight in the last battle.”

“Well how about in the battle before that,” Leopold said. “We kicked some ass.”

“It was mostly us, if I recall,” Rade said. “If you’re trying to evoke sympathy in me so that I’ll let you go when this is done, it won’t work.”

“No, not at all,” Leopold said. “I already know we’re all going to die here. I just wanted. Hm. Your approval, I guess. It’s important to me, for some reason. I respect your opinion.”

“Good,” Rade said, face darkening. “Then know that I have no respect for you whatsoever. You kidnap women, steal from innocent people, kill traders for looking at you the wrong way. You’re not going to get approval from me.”

“Thanks,” Leopold said. “Nice pep talk.”

“Don’t mention it.” Rade disconnected. Maybe he shouldn’t be antagonizing the pirates, considering they were supposed to be working with his team. But it was true, Rade couldn’t really respect the man. He would use him while he could, and if they survived, he intended to turn him in just like he promised. He just hoped that they weren’t able to hack the safeties of the weapons: he had Harlequin and the Centurions monitoring the weapon interfaces at all times, and so far, there was no indication that they even attempted any hacking. Bender had said it wasn’t possible to hack the rifles anyway, but Rade wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

Shortly thereafter, they arrived at another big room. The glowing walls of this one illuminated regular depressions in the floor. Rade couldn’t see what was in these troughs from his current angle, and found himself wishing the team had an HS3 with them.

“We go around, of course,” Rade told Harlequin.

But then doorways opened in the bulkheads behind them, and several aliens flooded into the corridor. They pointed their energy cannons at the team.

“Retreat into the room!” Rade shouted.

They moved backwards, firing their laser rifles at the aliens. Most of the creatures dodged out of the way, taking cover in the doorways, but some of the aliens were hit, and screeched in pain. Bender and Harlequin tried to fire the purloined energy cannons, to no avail.

As soon as the last of the companions were in the room, the doorway sealed, trapping them inside.

“I could have told you that would happen,” Fret said.

“Boss already knew,” Tahoe said. “He let the aliens herd us inside.”

Rade nodded. “We couldn’t stay out there.” He paused, studying the room. “They want us to fight in here.”

“How do you know that?” Lui asked.

“I’m starting to understand these aliens,” Rade answered. “They’re not so alien after all…”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to spare them the C4,” Bender said.

“Understanding doesn’t equate to mercy,” Rade said. “They eradicated two of our colonies. Half a million people. That’s not something I’m going to forget, nor let stand.”

Rade and the others backed away from the bulkhead, moving toward the closest depression.

When they reached it, Rade peered inside. It was waist deep, and empty. Deep and wide enough to provide cover if needed, however.

“Let’s get these depressions cleared,” Rade said. The team fanned out, and confirmed that all the other holes were empty as well, and of a similar width and depth.

The team regrouped near the center of the room.

“I just detected an electromagnetic surge from the energy cannons,” Harlequin announced. “I believe they are functioning again.” He pointed his cannon toward the overhead, and fired. “Indeed.” As usual, the beam stopped short of the actual ceiling.

Bender, possessing the other weapon, also opened fire, aiming at the far side of the room. The beam dissipated before hitting the bulkhead.

“Wooyah!” Bender said. “It too bad this bitch won’t touch the walls, though. Still, will it let me kill aliens?”

“I believe so,” Rade said.

On cue, doorways opened in the bulkheads, and forty of the octopus aliens entered the wide room.

“I want two teams,” Rade said. “Bender and Harlequin are the strike leaders. Tahoe, assignments.”

Rade received his team assignment from Tahoe a moment later. The three Centurions, the pirates, Ms. Daggart, and the eight Argonauts were divided among two teams, with Bender and Harlequin providing each team with an energy cannon.

“Team A,” Rade said. “Take cover here.” Rade indicated a depression several meters behind him. “Team B, we take our cover right here. Lay down suppressive fire for Team A.”

Rade and the others poured into the closest depression while Team A, led by Bender, raced across to the designated hole. As Rade opened fire at the aliens to cover Team A, he noted that Tahoe had judiciously avoided assigning Ms. Daggart to Bender’s team.

Harlequin fired his energy weapon at the aliens, though the creatures moved fast, dodging it. They, too, took cover in the closest depressions, with most aliens preferring to occupy one hole each.

“Got ya, sucker!” Bender announced over the comm. “Look at that, I have faster reflexes than an Artificial! Suck it up, Harley Boy!”

Rade saw an alien drop on the far side of the room before Bender and Team A dove into their assigned depression. Just in time—the air above them crackled with energy beams that fired in return. Yellow liquid also arced though the air, solidifying into nets as it headed toward Team A’s position.

Rade glanced at the aliens assailing his own position. They too were launching nets.

“Cut those down before they reach us!” he ordered Harlequin.

The Artificial lay on his back in the depression and fired upward as the nets came in. He moved rapidly, firing repeatedly.

“Let’s hope these energy weapons don’t overheat too fast!” Fret said.

Sticky pieces of netting fell on Rade and the others. It wasn’t enough to pin them, though it did mar their suits, partially interfering with the holographic emitters so that portions of the assemblies became visible.

Rade peered over the top edge of his shelter, and immediately withdrew as several energy beams came in on him.

“Harlequin,” Rade said. “Give Tahoe the weapon.” Harlequin did so. “Tahoe, make sure no aliens get close to us. And cut down every net they launch.”

“Will do,” Tahoe said, assuming a position near the edge of the depression.

“Harlequin, use the prod,” Rade said. “Make us a tunnel to the next closest cavity.”

Rade glanced at the overhead map, and indicated the location.

Harlequin nodded, then dropped to the edge of the depression and applied the prod. Because technically there were no corridors or rooms adjacent to this one, Harlequin only formed an alcove, whose extents were from the bottom of the cavity to just beneath the upper edge of the deck. However, Harlequin merely continued applying the prod into that alcove, which further opened up the tunnel, allowing him to drill underneath the deck.

“Follow him,” Rade ordered. Rade waited with Tahoe while the others entered the tunnel and followed Harlequin. Tahoe alternated his energy beams between the nearby enemy, and those accosting Bender and his team. “When you arrive, stay low. Don’t let the enemy see you. I want them to think we’re all clustered here, still.”

When Harlequin and the rest of Team B were across, Rade instructed Tahoe to hand over the energy weapon.

“Draw their fire as much as you can without putting yourself in danger,” Rade told his friend, then he dropped to hands and knees and crawled into the tunnel.

It was tight, claustrophobic. Rade kept expecting the walls to close in on him at any moment, trapping him in their midst, perhaps crushing him. But they did not.

That wouldn’t be fair now, would it? Rade thought. They want us to fight within the default parameters they’ve defined. Anything goes, as long as it’s within those default parameters.

He reached the target depression, where all of Team B, save Tahoe, awaited in cover.

“Carve a tunnel to this depression next,” Rade ordered. He indicated another cavity not far away.

Harlequin nodded and took the team with him. Rade meanwhile stayed behind, laying low, hoping the enemies didn’t realize where he was. He didn’t dare peak over the edge, instead relying on the positional data from Tahoe and Team A to confirm the locations of the aliens.

When Harlequin was finished, Rade assigned him yet another depression: Bender’s. In short order, Harlequin had successfully joined Team B with Team A.

“Tahoe, take the tunnels to Bender,” Rade said. “I don’t know what these aliens are going to do when the shit hits the fan.”

Tahoe quickly relocated. He reached Rade’s cavity, exchanged a nod, and continued onward. Meanwhile Bender and the others continued firing, keeping the aliens pinned, distracted.

After Tahoe reached the combined teams, Rade transmitted to Harlequin: “Make a new tunnel.” Rade indicated the next nearest depression to the group on the map.

Meanwhile, Rade slowly lifted his aim past the edge. As expected, none of the aliens were targeting him. If there was an overarching AI or other aliens observing this match from the outside, they weren’t informing the fighters within of what was going on.

Keeping it fair. Or somewhat balanced, at the very least.

He aimed his energy weapon at the head of the closest alien as it lifted from the depression to fire. That head was turned away from Rade, as was its weapon.

Rade unleashed the energy weapon.

The beam drilled right through that head, and the alien collapsed like a rag doll.

Rade dropped immediately. His team members were still transmitting updated alien positions to him, so, though he couldn’t see them, he knew the aliens were remaining in their hiding places for now.

He wormed through the tunnel to the next depression. Once again, he was able to get a free shot at the next alien, who wasn’t expecting Rade to appear where he did.

Rade dropped, and was about to crawl to the next depression via the tunnel Harlequin had made, when the aliens began to screech in outrage. He glanced at the overhead map. Several of them were leaping from their hiding places, sallying forth to rush the different depressions in search of their prey.

That was a mistake on their part.

Rade and Bender easily mowed down the exposed creatures. Even better, since the aliens were approaching from multiple sides of the room, some of the creatures killed each other in the crossfire of their own energy beams. All in all, a good score of them were terminated. That left seventeen still in cover.

Rade joined up with the others. Harlequin continued forming passages between the depressions, allowing Rade and Bender to snipe the remaining aliens from ever-changing positions. Sometimes, Rade gave Harlequin the beam weapon, so that the Artificial could use the prod to tunnel directly into a depression where an alien was hiding, and then incinerate the creature.

Occasionally more aliens got impatient and tried to rush the field, only to be mowed down by the latest holders of the energy cannons, or the well-placed shots of those equipped with laser rifles.

“Why don’t they open up tunnels for themselves?” Lui asked at one point. “Like we’re doing?”

“Probably because that wasn’t part of the initial rules they set for themselves,” Rade replied. “They were too confident. Believed they didn’t need such an ability, because we’re easy prey. Insignificant. Guess they were wrong.”

“But how do you know?” Lui said.

“I don’t, for sure,” Rade said. “But I can guess.”

Soon it was done, and the team was left standing inside a roomful of dead aliens. Rade sent the Centurions out at a crouch to check the remaining depressions, confirming that all of the octopus creatures were terminated.

A door opened on the far side of the room.

“Looks like we got permission to continue further,” Lui said.

“Joy,” Fret quipped.

Tahoe grabbed one of the energy cannons and pointed it at the bulkhead. Nothing happened.

“They’ve disabled them again,” Tahoe announced.

Rade nodded. “Not surprising.”

“When are we going to plant those charges?” Manic asked.

Rade glanced at his map. “Very soon now.”

16

Rade and the team continued deeper into the alien vessel. He glanced at the overhead map. According to the positioning indicators, the team was getting closer to the heart of the ship. From here on out, he planned to give the order to affix the demolition bricks to the first vulnerable section he spotted. Of course, he’d been watching for vulnerable portions of the ship since the penetration began, and hadn’t really found any. Something like an AI core. Or a power center. Or an alien captain.

But if he couldn’t find any of that at the heart of the ship, then he’d just have his team lay the explosive charges anyway, and hope that they damaged something. After all, an alien AI core might look nothing like he was used to. Ideally, he hoped to cause a chain reaction that would destroy the whole ship, the kind that came with rigging the plasma field of an engine core to blow, for example. The trick would be getting out alive. Not that they had anywhere to go after, but at least it gave him a goal he could work with: when you were running a 50k marathon, you always concentrated on the current kilometer.

“You know, has anyone ever considered the possibility that the aliens can reconfigure their passageways in realtime?” Lui said. “Consider: they can open and shut new doorways at will, seemingly on any part of the bulkhead, deck and overhead. So, it stands to reason that they could form entire passageways by opening up certain sections, and closing others.”

“So, you’re saying,” Manic began. “That the reason we haven’t discovered any vulnerable portions of the ship, is because they’re leading us right past them?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Lui replied. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, when we reached the heart of the ship, we’d only find ourselves in another nondescript passageway. Or perhaps another alien proving grounds.”

“Which is why I intend to set the charges regardless of what lies at the core,” Rade said. “We’re going to carve out a nice blast crater in the center of this ship no matter what happens.”

“But if Lui is right,” Harlequin said. “That also means these aliens could potentially move entire rooms as well. So, if there was some sort of engine core at the heart, they could open up passageways to move it.”

“Could be,” Rade agreed.

“Then that means we did all of this for nothing,” Harlequin said.

“Harlequin, bro, for a super intelligent robot, sometimes you’re mighty stupid,” Bender said. “And I don’t mean that as a compliment.”

“I didn’t take it as one,” Harlequin replied.

“Don’t get lippy with me!” Bender said. “Or you won’t like what happens to you when we get home. Your head might be busting a few toilets.”

“Why am I stupid?” Harlequin asked.

“Because this wasn’t for nothing,” Bender said. “We’ve killed a lot of aliens by coming here. And our little C4 explosion will give them a nice spook, at the very least. Teach them we aren’t a species to trifle with: harass our worlds, and you’ll get a few of our warriors inside your ship, ripping and tearing. Also, seeing as we’re going to die anyway, we might as well go out in style. So not for nothing. Just wish I could bust some toilets with your head though…”

“You forgot,” Lui told him. “That Harlequin won’t die. He’ll still be here when the rest of us are gone.”

“Well, good for him,” Bender said. “Guess you can gloat over my dead body then, Harley Boy.”

“I would never do such a thing,” Harlequin stated. “In fact, if the worst should happen, I plan to retrieve your bodies and take them with me to the exterior. None of you will remain aboard this vessel.”

“Don’t waste your time with me,” Bender said. “I don’t want your metal paws touching my dead body.”

“You’d rather he left you for the aliens?” Manic asked.

“Actually, I would,” Bender replied.

“I think that was an insult, Harlequin,” Fret commented.

“One among many,” Harlequin replied. “Sometimes I wonder why you haven’t simply dismantled me. Because if I’m so stupid and useless, why do you put up with me?”

“Maybe I will,” Bender said.

“Now now,” Rade said. “You’re not stupid, Harlequin.”

“He is too,” Bender insisted.

“Bender, I want you to—” Rade began.

The bulkhead beside Harlequin opened up, and several tentacles wrapped around his body and pulled him through.

“Get your paws off him, fucker!” Bender plowed through the aperture after Harlequin.

“Bender!” Rade rushed for the opening, but it shut in his face. “TJ, the backup prod!”

TJ rushed forward and slammed the backup prod into the bulkhead with a backhanded sweep. An aperture formed.

“Brat, Ernie, through!” Rade shouted.

The pair entered, and Rade followed after them before they could indicate whether it was clear or not.

Past them, he saw Bender on the far side of the passageway. Bender was firing through a closing aperture, and leaped through just in time.

Rade and the others hurried forward, and cleared the way for TJ to open up the next corridor.

In the next passageway, there was no sign of Bender, Harlequin, or the alien that took him. Rade glanced at his overhead map. Bender’s indicator was just in front of him, as was Harlequin’s—indicating that was the last recorded position before the pair lost communications with the rest of the team.

“Cross!” Rade and the others went to the far seal, and once again TJ opened it. The next passage was also empty. Rade glanced at his overhead map. The indicators for Bender and Harlequin still hadn’t updated.

Rade hesitated.

“They could be anywhere,” Lui said, voicing Rade’s own thoughts. “There’s no guarantee the aliens retreated in a straight line.”

“Let them go,” Leopold said.

“No,” Rade told the pirate. “No member of my team is left behind. We’re going to search this entire ship if we have to until we find them.”

“We don’t have the oxygen for such an undertaking,” Leopold told him gently.

Rade swallowed, trying to get a hold on his emotions. Finally: “We’re not going to leave them. Because you see, even if we escape this ship, we’re still going to die. Don’t you understand? There’s no oxygen waiting for us anywhere. Not in here. Not in space. I thought it was clear this was a suicide mission when we began. I thought you understood this was our last stand, our final strike against a powerful enemy before we died.”

Ms. Daggart was the one who replied. “I understood.”

Rade nodded. “We find Bender and Harlequin. We die together. And besides, Harlequin is the only one of us who can survive this. He of all must live, so he can share our story with the galaxy. He and the Centurions.” All eyes fell upon Brat, Ernie, and Formaldehyde, and the robots seemed to shift uncomfortably.

“Say good things about me, Formi,” Manic told the Centurion. “Make me out as a hero.”

“You’re all going to be heroes in our story,” Formaldehyde said. “But you’re not dead yet.”

“He’s right,” Rade said. “We move! Forward!”

So Rade and the others continued the advance, following in the direction he hoped Bender and Harlequin had gone. The route led away from the ship’s central core, which troubled Rade, but there was nothing for it. He planned to transfer all the demolition bricks to the robots before the end, so that the Centurions could continue the mission when the others expired from lack of oxygen.

“Can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Fret transmitted. “We’re actually going to die fighting.”

“Can’t imagine going out any other way,” Lui said. “We all knew this job would end this way. And I don’t mean this particular gig, but the job in general. Security consulting.”

“Focus, people,” Rade stated. “Remember what Formaldehyde said. We’re not dead yet.”

Ms. Daggart tapped in on a private line.

“What can I do for you, Ms. Daggart?” Rade asked impatiently.

“I wanted to apologize,” Ms. Daggart said.

“For what?” Rade pressed.

“For being a bitch to you,” Ms. Daggart said. “I’m sorry for calling you an asshole. I… I’m just not very good with people. I can admit that. I’m used to adoration. Likes on my BlueTube posts. I’m used to luxury. I know all of that is fake, now. This is real, what we’re doing here. I hope so badly that Bender is all right. I was falling for him you know. He pretends to be a moron, but he’s actually really smart. Smarter than me. Smarter than most people I know. I just wanted to tell you that, before I died. And I wanted to thank you, for trying to rescue me. You’re worth every penny of what my father offered to pay you.”

“You’re welcome,” Rade said.

He waited, but she had nothing more to add, and instead disconnected. She had said her bit.

The team continued through the corridors, almost retracing the path they had taken to get here in the first place. They did not encounter any further aliens.

“I think we went the wrong way,” Fret said.

Rade wasn’t going to disagree. He wasn’t sure whether to turn back, or keep going. At this rate, they’d be back at the hangar right before their oxygen ran out.

And then finally TJ opened a door to a more expansive room.

Rade glanced at the Centurions. “Brat, Ernie.”

The pair hurried forward.

“Harlequin and Bender are here!” Brat said a moment later. “There are no tangos present. Though the overhead is shrouded in darkness, so it may hold a trap.”

Rade accessed Brat’s video feed and saw Harlequin and Bender suspended in midair, their arms and legs held spread-eagled by yellow strands of solidified spit that drooped from the darkened overhead.

“Sorry, Boss,” Bender transmitted.

“Brat, Ernie, cut them down,” Rade ordered.

Remaining where they were at the edge of the room, Brat and Ernie lifted their laser rifles to open fire at the yellow strands, but before they could shoot, yellow spit came down from the depths of the black overhead, attaching to the arms and legs of the Centurions’ jumpsuits. The spit solidified into strands that scooped them up, lifting them spread-eagled beside Bender and Harlequin.

TJ and Formaldehyde, closest to the opening, raised their weapons and scanned the overhead for signs of attackers. Rade accessed their respective feeds, but saw only darkness above.

“Should we open fire?” TJ asked. “Cut them down from here?”

Before Rade could answer his external microphones picked up a voice speaking Japanese. It was translated into perfect English by the translator in Rade’s Implant.

“These are different than the rest of you,” the pleasant male voice of the translator said.

The threads holding Harlequin, Brat and Ernie shifted so that the trio flopped about. Suddenly, the strands enwrapped about their leg assemblies twisted violently, tearing away the components so that only their bare, exposed legs remained.

“They are… artificial,” the voice concluded. “It is beneath one’s honor, to let machines fight one’s battles.”

Rade moved forward to stand between the pair, next to the aperture. He gazed into the room, looking at his trapped companions, and activated his external speakers, setting projection mode to max, and auto translate to Japanese.

“They don’t fight for us,” he announced. “They fight with us.”

“You speak for your companions?” the voice asked.

“I do,” Rade replied. “And who are you?”

The bulkheads below the overhead brightened, illuminating the ceiling. There resided the biggest alien he had seen yet, this big amorphous blob with countless tentacles hanging down.

Rade smiled inwardly. He could almost hear Bender singing “bugs bugs bugs.”

This had to be the commanding officer of the ship. Probably linked directly to the AI core. Or perhaps it served the same purpose as an AI core.

Yes, for whatever reason, the alien leader was exposing itself to Rade’s team. Perhaps out of some misguided sense of honor, believing that Rade and the others would be too principled to attack the alien here, in its den. Or too confident that even if Rade and company did attack, that they wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Well, this cocksure alien was about to receive the surprise of its life.

“Inside, team,” Rade transmitted to the Argonauts. “No aggressive movements. Keep your weapons down.”

17

Rade and the others filed inside, spreading out along the interior bulkhead. They kept their weapons lowered, including the energy cannons they’d confiscated, which likely weren’t functional anyway.

The aperture sealed behind them. Rade nodded to himself.

“Why are you invading our space?” Rade asked.

“Your space?” the alien asked. “Who gave it to you? You are on the outskirts of our space. We are taking back what is ours.”

“We didn’t know it belonged to anyone,” Rade said. “There was no evidence of ownership.” At least, he assumed as much. Maybe the Asiatic Alliance had ignored the typical signs of alien visitation.

“This system was earmarked for future expansion,” the alien commander replied. “There was no need to leave physical marks in the system itself.”

“I see,” Rade told the alien. “Your command of Japanese is impressive. No doubt you have taken prisoners from the colonies?”

“Numerous,” the commander answered.

“We would like to negotiate their release,” Rade stated.

“Unfortunately, the captives did not survive the absorption process,” the commander told him. “It involved dividing their primitive brains into slices, which were then uploaded into our processors for analysis.”

Rade supposed processors meant computers, or AI cores.

“We know all about your species,” the alien commander said. “We know most of you are cowards, living under cowardly rulers, in cowardly cultures, with cowardly laws.”

“You’ve only encountered a small subset of my species,” Rade said, glancing at Tahoe. He sent him a mind transmission. Have the team begin planting demolition bricks. Surreptitiously! “I can assure you, we’re not all cowards.”

“We are a warrior race, through and through,” the alien commander announced. “We have no subsets. We are all the same. The weak were destroyed millennia ago. Only the strong have survived. It is the way of nature. What your race has done, is subvert nature. Some of you, in any case: these two colonies of your species that we encountered were repulsive, and I don’t just mean in looks. So weak. So easy to destroy. The second colony actually attempted to surrender, of all things. We were so disgusted that we destroyed them to the last man, woman, and child, not even bothering to prepare brain slices from any of them. There was nothing we could further learn from them. Nothing they could teach us.”

“So, you’re planning on taking brain slices from us, I take it?” Rade said. From the corner of his eye, he saw the team members reaching into their chest rigs and slowly removing demolition bricks. They furtively reached behind their backs to affix the devices to the bulkheads behind them.

“Very good,” the alien commander replied. “You, and your people, you impressed us. Here were members of your race with some backbone! People we could potentially learn from! Do you know, we were so initially disgusted with what we found that we were going to leave this system and never return to this region of space? Earmarked or no, we felt that these cowards had permanently sullied the system. And we had no intention of penetrating further into this area, not when we’d only encounter more cowards, and more dirty systems.

“But then we met you. You changed everything. You have provided an excellent diversion. We like to fight. We like our prey to give us some sport. And what sport you gave! It has been hugely entertaining, watching you infiltrate our ship, and pretend like you had any chance of ever coming out of this alive. We know that your oxygen levels must be very low right now. Perhaps you have minutes left. Maybe seconds. And yet you still fight. This is what we like. You do not give up. You do not surrender. You are fellow warriors.

“We have decided that we will stay here now, and pursue further conquest of your race, traveling deeper into your space to subdue more of your colonies, and taking prisoners who can entertain us as you do.”

“The rest of us won’t be as easy to subdue as these colonies,” Rade said, getting a sickening feeling in his stomach. “We have mighty space navies. Mighty armies. They fight like we do. To the last man.”

“Good!” the alien commander said. “Foes worthy of battle. That is what we want. That is what we live for. I’m hopeful that the conquest will take many years. Decades worth of entertainment. And when we secure victory, and all of your colonies and homeworlds are wiped out, we will breed the strongest of you aboard our ships and colonies to provide perpetual entertainment through the millennia. I’m looking forward to adding you to my personal collection of conquered races. Should I pit you against the Wrexan, or the D’Trianth? The Myrn, or the Populaen?”

“Those aliens you sent to the planet below?” Rade asked. “They are from conquered races?”

“No,” the commander told him. “They are from our land caste. I, and my comrades aboard, are of the space caste. We thrive in zero gravity.”

“But there is gravity here,” Rade said.

“Not where I reside,” the commander told him. “But where you stand, yes.”

“Interesting, that they can control their gravity so precisely,” Manic said over the comm line. “Can we kill it now?”

Rade muted his speakers. “Not yet. Finish planting the toys.” Gazing at the alien, he unmuted and said, stalling for time: “You say the surface aliens are from your land caste… I find it hard to believe they’d be able to natively survive the atmosphere of the planet. I saw no signs of breathing apparatus, or pressurized suits.”

“We genetically engineer the bodies they use on a per case basis,” the commander told him. “Modifying them to survive the planets where we wish to establish a presence. The land caste members physically resemble the space caste, but on a much smaller level. They are more like parasites, in that they inhabit the bodies we provide. So, in a sense, the bodies you have seen on the planet are the pressurized suits.”

Rade was a little surprised the alien would reveal so much to him. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t have been. After all, he had no idea how these creatures thought. Perhaps it was customary to gloat about one’s advanced bio-technology before terminating an enemy. Either way, he would roll with it.

“So, if you were leaving this system, as you say,” Rade pressed, still stalling, “why send down members of this land caste? It looked to me like you were colonizing the planet.”

“No,” the leader said. “What you found merely served as our forward operations base. A place we used while we attacked the two other planets. We did mean to originally colonize the world, this is true, but were in the process of packing up. Until we met you.”

“What about the unarmed aliens on the surface below?” Rade asked.

“The young of the land caste,” the alien told him. “Set free to forage for the food source we released. They had not yet earned the honor to wear gear.”

“What did you do with my ship?” Rade asked.

“So many questions,” the commander said. “Are all members of your subset as inquisitive as you?”

“Guess you’ll find out after you take our brain slices,” Rade said. “If you can, that is.”

“I like it,” the alien told him. “You’ll fight to the end. Definitely a worthy foe. I can’t wait to communicate this information to the rest of my species. Oh and, to answer your earlier question, your ship is destroyed.”

“Liar!” Lui exclaimed via his external speakers.

The alien seemed shocked. “Why would I lie about something battle related, such as the destruction of a foe’s ship? There is no honor in that. Your vessel has been destroyed. I must admit, I was disappointed by how easily the craft fell. I even tried to give it a chance. But I suppose I can’t expect everything under your command to put up a decent fight. Technology can certainly be the limiting factor.”

“So, there’s no escape after all,” Fret said over the comm. “We truly are doomed. Poor Bax. Poor us.”

“Then let’s not sell our lives cheaply,” Tahoe commented.

“By the way, I have detected the explosive devices you attached to the bulkheads,” the alien commander said. “They are disabled.”

Rade cocked an eyebrow. “TJ, is that true?”

“The remote interfaces are offline,” TJ confirmed. “Can’t access the detonators.”

“Damn it,” Rade said. “Open fire. Here’s your blaze of glory.”

The team members raised their laser rifles and began shooting at the amorphous blob floating above them.

Bluish circles appeared along the paths of the laser fire, just underneath the alien, as if an energy field protected the creature—similar to the energy fence the team had encountered on the planet.

Laughter filled the air.

“You think I would allow you here if your weapons could damage me?” the alien said. “While I’d hoped your species would act with the same honor I have shown you, I didn’t count on it. Foolish.”

Based on the plane of those energy circles, Rade estimated where the field generators might reside in the bulkheads, and marked potential locations on his HUD. “We have to take down that field. Fire at these spots. Look for the generators!”

“Boss,” Harlequin transmitted as the others switched their aim to fire at the bulkheads. “I’ve been working through the problem of activating the energy cannons. Running a background simulation process. I believe I’ve found a solution. Program the prods to transmit a secondary current with the following parameters, and apply them to the energy cannons here.” A diagram appeared on his HUD, indicating the aforementioned prod parameters, and where to apply them to the cannons.

Rade sent the information to his current cannon holders, TJ and Tahoe.

Spit sprayed down at his party, launched by the creature. Rade and the others dodged out of the way as the substance solidified into yellow nets that struck the floor harmlessly.

Rade wondered if the alien had to turn off the protective layer to do that, though it was possible the field was set up to allow objects to pass through one way. He tried shooting upwards when the next spit salvo came, but the blue field blocked his attacks. So, it was one way after all, then…

TJ applied the backup prod to the indicated site on his cannon, and tossed the prod to Tahoe, who did the same.

“Fire at will,” Rade told them. “Let’s see some alien brain slices.”

TJ and Tahoe opened fire at the bulkheads with the energy cannons. The weapons indeed worked. Very well.

The beams tore into the surface, vaporizing any field generators beyond. More spit came in, concentrating on that pair. TJ and Tahoe simply sidestepped, and tilted their weapons directly upward to aim at the exposed alien.

They fired. Energy beams tore into the underside of the alien, ripping right through to the ceiling. The creature howled in pain, and flailed about. TJ and Tahoe shifted the weapons as they fired, carving slices all the way through the creature, severing tentacles and pieces of its saclike body. Black blood floated in globules around its body, thanks to the zero G environment up there.

“Wooyah!” Bender said. “Slice and dice, baby! I’m living vicariously through you two right now!”

Finally, the creature ceased struggling, and simply remained motionless while TJ and Tahoe continued to work. The pair finally stopped when they were satisfied that the alien was thoroughly dead.

“We could’ve probably shot through the energy shield directly,” Tahoe said when it was done. “But I figured we should try to get the field down, first.”

“Good choice,” Rade said, regarding their gory handiwork a moment longer. Finally he turned his attention to TJ. “Is there a way to reactivate the charges?”

“As I mentioned, the remote interfaces are all offline,” TJ said. “But a few well-placed shots with the laser rifles would set them off, assuming the individual bricks are still actually armed.”

“Then pile them in the center of the room,” Rade ordered.

“You think the aliens are still capable of operating this ship without their commander?” Tahoe asked.

“If it’s anything like our own vessels, then there are redundant systems,” Rade said. “However, if this ship has the equivalent of an AI core, then it’s likely in this room. We destroy that, this ship becomes basically a derelict.”

“Maybe TJ and I should cause a bit more damage while you set up the charges,” Tahoe agreed.

“Please do,” Rade said. “Formaldehyde, help me cut the others down.” The Centurion joined him, and together they used their laser rifles to shoot through the yellow strands holding Bender and the other prisoners.

“Thanks boss,” Bender said as he dropped down.

Rade released Harlequin next. The Artificial gave Bender a respectful nod, which Bender returned.

“Thanks for coming after me,” Harlequin said.

Bender shrugged. “You’d do it for me.”

It was nice to see them on good terms for once.

While the remaining members of the group removed the demolition bricks from the bulkheads and placed them in a pile in the center of the room, TJ and Tahoe continued opening fire on the ceiling, shooting past the torn body of the alien. They carved many deep fissures, ensuring that when the charges detonated in the middle of the room, the blast would penetrate deep into the surrounding sections.

When everyone finished, Rade retrieved the charges from his own chest rig and dropped them onto the waiting pile. “Well, that’s the last of them. Let’s give the aliens a further taste of what awaits them if they decide to pursue this reckless invasion.”

The team retreated to the edge of the room. TJ used his prod to open an aperture directly to the east, in what Rade hoped would be the shortest path to the hangar bay. Brat and Ernie cleared the hallway beyond, and then the rest of the team exited. TJ waited by the aperture.

The foremost members of the group approached the next breach seal, and Harlequin opened it with the main prod.

“Everyone through!” Rade instructed. Then he glanced over his shoulder: “TJ?”

TJ, who was still waiting by the first opening, planted a spare laser rifle on the deck, and positioned it so that when it fired, the beam would strike the waiting pile of demolition bricks. Then he shut the aperture with his backup prod.

“I got it set to fire in five minutes,” TJ said.

“Good enough,” Rade said, moving through the next opening with TJ, who shut it behind him.

Now we just have to get off this ship.

He smiled grimly when he looked at his oxygen supply.

Well, Harlequin and the Centurions do, anyway. It’s an interesting feeling, knowing you’re the expendable one. Knowing nothing you can do will save you or most of your team.

He dismissed that thought. They were getting out. If he had to die, he preferred to do it in space, where the aliens couldn’t find him. Maybe even Harlequin and the Centurions would find a way to bring his body home, so Shaw had something to bury.

18

Rade felt the deck vibrate a few minutes later.

“That would be the demolition bricks,” TJ said.

“Wooyah,” Bender said. “Got me some roast alien back there. Just wish I could save some. As a souvenir, you know.”

“Yeah right, you just want to eat it,” TJ said.

“And what if I do,” Bender said. “After this MRE crap we’ve been living on.”

“Hey, you’re the one who chose imitation spaghetti Bolognese,” Manic piped in.

“Yeah, but I never said it was going to be good!” Bender replied. “Anyway, it’s not so much the flavor I’m looking for, when it comes to chowing down on roast alien. Maybe I just want to die with the aliens who killed me digesting in my belly.”

“Hey, is it just me, or is the glow from the bulkheads fading?” Lui asked.

Rade noticed it then. The surrounding surfaces were indeed darkening. In moments Rade could scarcely see his hand in front of his face. Also, the artificial gravity cut out, and he floated from the floor.

There had been no chain reaction explosion that spread to the outskirts of the ship, but cutting all power to the vessel was just as good as far as Rade was concerned. Plus, it meant his team didn’t have to die just yet.

“Activate LIDAR,” Rade ordered.

He did so himself, and white wireframes appeared on his HUD, outlining his surroundings. The blue outlines of his companions that were generated from location sharing also filled out, the interiors crisscrossing with polygons that matched their jumpsuit topography.

“I guess our little attack at the heart of the ship worked better than we thought,” Fret said.

“Thank Harlequin for that,” Rade said. “He was the one who figured out how to fire these energy cannons.”

“No need to thank me,” Harlequin told them. “I was only doing what duty required of me.”

Rade smiled. “Duty. There is no duty here. We’re brothers, my friend.”

“What about us?” Leopold asked.

“Well, excluding you,” Rade said. “And Ms. Daggart.”

“Gee, thanks,” Ms. Daggart said. “You could have let us die on a high note.”

Rade shrugged. “Better that you know the truth before the end.”

At the next seal, the prods proved ineffective. The current the devices imparted to the bulkheads no longer did anything. Which made sense, if there was no power to supply those bulkheads anymore.

“On the plus side, at least they can’t surprise us anymore,” Lui said. “Nor change up the routes on us.”

The team switched to using the energy cannons to drill a path through any barriers they encountered. And thus, they made their way outward through those corridors, shoving off and pulling themselves along the bulkheads in the zero gravity, opening apertures with the cannons as necessary, and soon joined up with the passageway they had taken to travel here in the first place.

When TJ opened the next seal with the cannon, he shouted over the comm: “Tangos!” His cannon flashed a bright white as he fired, attempting to bring the beam to bear on a waiting alien while he jetted to the side.

“Drop!” Rade ordered. He watched TJ score a glancing blow with the beam, slicing off a pair of tentacles.

Everyone activated the side thrusters on their jetpacks. Men and women slammed into the bulkheads, overhead, and deck, in an attempt to “drop.” Everyone except Leopold, who was too slow to react. An enemy beam slammed into his side.

Rade reached up and yanked the man down with him.

Tahoe and TJ were already returning fire with their own energy cannons. The lead alien was struck, and died. It floated in place. Other aliens behind it merely took cover behind the body.

“Clear us a path!” Rade ordered. “Shoot through that body!”

Rade turned his attention to Leopold. One of the other pirates had retrieved a suit rep kit from a cargo pocket, and was trying to repair the breach in Leopold’s jumpsuit—the energy beam had carved a circular chunk out of the right side of his hips. Blood spurted from the wound, collecting into fat, floating globules.

Rade activated his headlamp to look at the man’s face, and realized Leopold wasn’t going to survive. Already the alien atmosphere was causing third degree burns across his skin. His eyes bulged nearly entirely out of their sockets, and blood oozed from his every orifice. He was gasping wildly.

Rade deactivated the headlamp.

He promptly received a mental message from the man. Help me!

I’m sorry, Rade returned. You’re not going to make it.

Meanwhile, Tahoe and TJ were continuing to fire. The aliens beyond the carcass were too big to flatten themselves against the bulkheads like the Argonauts, and the energy beams quickly riddled their bodies with holes, killing them.

Leopold grew slack beneath Rade.

This is it, Leopold transmitted mentally. Take my oxygen. Use it. Don’t let my death be for nothing.

Rade gripped the man’s gloved hand and tightened his fingers around it.

I will, he returned. You died well.

Thank you, Leopold replied. Coming from you, that means a lot.

And then his vitals flatlined.

The pirate’s henchman continued repairing Leopold’s suit.

Rade pried the man’s hands free. “Leave him. He’s gone.”

Rade disconnected the oxygen canister from Leopold’s suit and shoved it into his chest rig. He was about to grab the propellant tank from his jetpack as well, but a quick glance at the fuel levels informed him that Leopold had no more propellant—that would explain why he hadn’t moved out of the way in time.

Rade abandoned him. “Let’s move!”

The team members shoved off, floating into the next passage. They crawled between the bulkheads and the dead alien bodies, and underneath the globules of black blood that floated in the air.

“Maybe we should just shoot a path through the floor or something, so we don’t have to get so close to these… things,” Ms. Daggart suggested.

“We stay in this corridor,” Rade said. He wanted to stick to the previously mapped area, which he knew would eventually see them out.

“What’s the matter, afraid of getting a little bug blood on you?” Fret mocked.

“Leave her alone,” Bender said.

All of a sudden Ms. Daggart screamed. One of the aliens wasn’t entirely dead, and it wrapped its tentacles around her, pulling her into its saclike body.

Bender ripped the energy cannon from TJ’s grasp and turned it on the alien. “Die bitch!”

The energy beam tore into the floating alien, and Ms. Daggart, kicking and screaming, broke free.

“I thought you were going to kill Ms. Daggart for a second,” Lui commented.

She wrapped her arms around Bender, who slid the cannon to TJ once more.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s all right baby,” Bender said. “Big bad bug not going to hurt you anymore. No bug’s gonna touch my baby, not while I’m around.”

Rade eyed his oxygen levels. “Let’s move.”

Twice more octopus aliens awaited behind the breach seals, and twice more TJ and Tahoe mowed them down.

And then they were at the sealed bulkhead adjacent to the hangar bay.

“Get us through,” Rade ordered.

TJ and Tahoe opened fire, cutting through the bulkhead, revealing the hangar bay and a few docked vessels beyond. Rade noted that there were far fewer vessels than the last time he was here. Perhaps the aliens had used them as escape pods of sorts before the power had failed entirely.

The bay doors were currently closed, which explained why opening the seal hadn’t yet resulted in an explosive decompression.

“Maybe we can commandeer one of these vessels?” Manic suggested.

“What’s the point?” Fret asked. “They’re not going to have oxygen aboard.”

“Oh, yeah,” Manic replied.

“Moron,” Bender stated.

“Let’s get down to those doors,” Rade said.

They shoved off, and floated down toward the sealed outer bay doors.

“Open her up,” Rade said when they were halfway to the doors.

Tahoe and TJ fired, carving multiple holes.

Rade and the others were sucked out due to the resulting explosive decompression.

The instant they emerged into space, the energy cannons abruptly glowed red hot, forcing Tahoe and TJ to let them go. The devices incinerated into little pieces.

“Damn alien tech,” Lui said. “Programmed to self-destruct beyond the confines of the ship…”

“Everyone, if you have jumpjet fuel left, use it to join together,” Rade said.

The team members did so, jetting close enough to join hands and form a big circle. Tahoe was on his immediate left, Ms. Daggart on his right.

They shut off their holographic emitters, as there was no point in keeping the devices active. The jumpsuits materialized, along with several faces, some frightened, like Ms. Daggart and the pirates, others grim, still others stoic and at peace with what was coming. Even Fret seemed resigned.

Thus the survivors drifted together across the planet, whose vast curvature ate up the horizon beneath them. Meanwhile, the stars, the beautiful, bountiful stars, floated past overhead.

“Well, we did it,” Tahoe said. “We actually did it. What a bittersweet feeling.”

Rade’s gaze drifted to the alien ship, which slowly receded behind them.

“It kinda looks like an acorn from the outside,” Bender quipped. “A big ol’, chipmunk’s acorn.”

“He’s right,” Manic agreed.

“You know, I was almost hoping we’d find Bax out here waiting for us,” Fret said. “Too bad.”

Rade searched the empty horizon, and smiled sadly. “Bax is gone.”

“I’m going to miss them,” Lui said. He was gazing upward, away from the planet.

“Miss who?” Bender asked. “The aliens?”

“The stars,” Lui replied.

“Oh,” Bender said. “Well myself, I miss the aliens. Killing ’em, that is.”

“Activate PASS distress beacons,” Rade said.

Dutifully, his men obeyed.

He looked at his O2 indicators. Only ten minutes left.

Ten minutes.

“Grab a loop in my belt,” he told Ms. Daggart, sliding her hand to his utility belt.

She released him and transferred her grip to the loop, as requested.

With his free hand Rade retrieved Leopold’s canister. “This will give us about another minute each.”

“Not sure it’s worth using,” Fret said. “Why prolong the inevitable?”

“Because we have to try,” Rade said. “Take it.”

And so, they apportioned the remaining oxygen, then discarded the empty canister.

“Take mine, too,” Ms. Daggart said, letting go of his belt and reaching behind her back as if to remove her own oxygen tank. Her voice shook with emotion.

“Stop!” Rade said, grabbing onto her arm. “While it’s a touching gesture, there’s a limit to what I’ll allow. I refuse to watch you die, just so the rest of us can live another minute longer. I refuse. We go at the same time. Do you understand?”

She didn’t answer.

“Do you?” he pressed, angrily.

“Yes,” she said finally.

“Good,” he said. “Now hold my hand.”

He released her arm, and she wrapped her fingers around his glove. Silence descended among the group. Rade gazed at the planet slowly revolving below. He listened to the sound of his own breath, sounding loud in his helmet.

“We had a good run, didn’t we?” Bender said. “I killed so many bugs. I’m so damn proud of myself. I got my revenge.”

Rade nodded sadly. Bender wasn’t the only one who had lost good friends to aliens. Not these particular creatures, of course, but a bug was a bug.

“You must be awfully proud of yourself though, Harlequin,” Bender said. “You get to survive.”

“I’m not,” Harlequin said. “I can’t tell you how afraid I am.”

“Of what, bro?” Bender said. “You’re not the one dying.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” Harlequin said. “Any of you. I love you. I don’t know what I’m going to do without you.”

It sounded like Harlequin was weeping inside his helmet.

Rade sighed. He never felt the weight of command more than he did in this moment. He tried not to blame himself for this situation, but it was hard not to. His Argonauts would have followed him anywhere, even to the doors of death.

And now, they had. He forced those feelings back. For Harlequin.

“You’ll get on, my friend,” Rade told Harlequin. “You’ll find a way. All I ask is that you honor us, at least once a year. Remember your friends. What we did for you. What we meant to you. I ask that of you, and all the Centurions.”

“We’ll never forget you,” Formaldehyde said.

“Now that we don’t have an alien hull interfering with our transmissions,” Rade continued. “Might I suggest that the rest of you point your antennae toward the intergalnet node at the Gate, and use these last few minutes to send your final farewells to your families. If you haven’t updated your wills, now’s the time.”

Rade shut off all external communications, and recorded one final message for Shaw. He wasn’t able to finish it without weeping, and had to stop recording several times to get a grip on himself. He just wished he could wipe his eyes, because the tears were stinging, and itchy.

When it was done, he re-watched the recording. Man, that was going to be a hard video for her to watch. It was hard for him to watch.

But it needed to be sent.

Forgive me, Shaw.

He cast his gaze around the circle of friends.

Forgive me, Argonauts.

He focused on the send button that overlaid his vision. Behind it, one of the stars seemed to shift.

He quickly dismissed the display.

“Harlequin, do you see that moving star?” Rade asked.

Harlequin turned to follow Rade’s gaze. “That’s not a star.”

19

It wasn’t a star, no. But a Dragonfly.

The shuttle quickly came alongside. The entrance ramp lowered, and Rade and the others pulled themselves inside.

“Welcome aboard,” came Bax’s voice over the comm.

“You’re a sound for sore ears,” Rade commented.

“The feeling is mutual,” Bax replied.

“How fast can you get us back to the Argonaut?” Rade asked.

“Fairly fast,” Bax said. “I’m coming over the horizon now.”

“Good, because we have three minutes of oxygen left,” Rade told the AI.

Two minutes later the shuttle docked with the Argonaut, and as soon as the hangar bay finished depressurized, the team members piled out and tore off their helmets. They gasped for air.

They hugged one another, crying.

“We survived,” Manic said. “I love you Bender.”

“I love you, too, brother!” Bender told him. “I love you Harley Boy!”

“I love you as well,” Harlequin replied.

“Is there a way to delete a message after it’s been sent?” Fret asked.

“Nope, my friend!” TJ said, laughing with tears of joy.

“Ah well,” Fret told him. “Guess I’m gonna give the girlfriend a scare!” Tears of relief were streaming down his own face.

“Girlfriend, you mean boyfriend!” Bender said.

“Send him another message!” Tahoe agreed, laughing boisterously.

“I will!” Fret replied, laughing just as uproariously.

Grumpy and Ulysses arrived, and joined in the group hugs.

“It’s good to see you Boss,” Grumpy said.

“And you as well,” Rade told the Centurion.

When the team had calmed down a bit, Rade told Bax: “So, my friend, you’re going to have to tell us what happened. The aliens claimed they destroyed you. We had the misfortune of believing them.”

“Oh, as far they were concerned, I was indeed destroyed,” the Argonaut’s AI informed him.

Rade cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Do tell. Start from the beginning.”

“Well,” Bax continued. “I was minding my own business, when that ship suddenly floated up from the planetary horizon. Apparently, it had been hiding on the other side of the world the whole time. I had launched a telemetry probe to investigate the far side beforehand, to prevent just such an occurrence, but apparently all I did was draw the aliens to me. I tried to contact you, but the vessel emitted some sort of jamming frequency. Very powerful.”

“Jammers?” Lui said. “That would explain why the colonies weren’t able to get a distress signal out before they were destroyed.”

“Yes,” Bax agreed. “The fight was over rather quickly, considering I had no Hellfires, and my Vipers were useless. After the aliens scored an engine hit, I tricked them by decelerating. Made them think my engines had cut out entirely. That forced the Argonaut to begin atmospheric reentry. I’m sure their scans picked up that parts of my hull were breaking off—they would have known I didn’t have the necessary heat shields to survive. I added to the impression of the doomed starship by releasing all the garbage aboard, along with most of the food stores. The jettisoned goods made quite the fireworks as they burned up.”

“Wait, you dumped my chicken chips??” Bender asked. “Bastard!”

“I’m afraid so,” Bax said. “But it was all for a good cause. In any case, the aliens didn’t actually bother to pursue as I crossed beneath the planetary horizon and out of sensor range on the far side of the world. It was almost like they wanted me to get away. Giving me a chance, as it were.”

“That’s their style,” Rade said. “They like to give chances. More sporting that way. I’m guessing if you’d shown up again, they would have been happy to blast you from the stars.”

“Probably correct,” Bax said. “When I was out of view, I accelerated, and returned to a more stable orbit. I hid just behind the cusp of the planet, using the Raptor as my repeater to keep an eye on them. A unit small enough that I hoped they wouldn’t detect it. And sure enough, they didn’t. I noticed they were utilizing their jammer once again, this time pointing it at the surface. I guess they didn’t want you trying to send a signal via the intergalnet… they probably didn’t realize your comm nodes weren’t powerful enough to reach the Gate. It did prevent you from contacting me, however, if you tried. And vice versa.

“Anyway, I was ready to retreat if they sent probes in my direction to investigate, but I guess all of their attention was consumed by a certain vessel that docked with them a while later. When I witnessed them jettison that vessel, and cut it in half with energy beams, I feared that you were aboard. I had the Dragonfly scan it remotely, and was relieved when I detected no signs of life.”

“But no signs of life could have meant we were all dead aboard it…” Bender said.

“I suppose so,” Bax said. “Lucky for you, I am a patient AI.”

“All right,” Rade said. “Send a message to Ms. Daggart’s father informing him that her daughter is on the way.” Rade glanced at the pirates. “Also inform the space station in the adjacent system that we have some prisoners. Grumpy, Ulysses, escort these fellows to the brig.”

The pair promptly marched the downcast prisoners away from the hangar bay.

“Maybe we should let them go,” Lui suggested. Then he glanced at Ms. Daggart. “Nah.”

“Good choice,” she said, nodding.

“Have you heard back from the United Systems or the Asiatic Alliance yet?” Rade asked Bax.

“I have attempted to repeatedly inform them of the alien invaders,” Bax said. “But no, I haven’t heard back yet.”

“Well update them with the latest news: we’ve turned an alien ship into a derelict for them,” Rade said. “Free of charge.”

“Will do,” Bax told him.

“Actually, I think we should charge,” Bender said. “After all, we just saved the next system from a whole lot of damage. Plus, Ms. Daggart’s collection fee here is way too low.”

Rade eyed Ms. Daggart. “I’m going to be asking for a higher fee, given the circumstances of your rescue.”

Ms. Daggart nodded. “I’ll back you up every step of the way.”

“Good,” Rade said. “Bax, how are you doing for repairs? You said you took an engine hit, and suffered atmospheric reentry damage…”

“Engines are at about eighty percent,” Bax said. “The hull underside will likely have to wait until we’re at dry dock, unless I divert some of the repair drones. But I assume you want me to concentrate on the engines.”

“Good assumption,” Rade said. “Let’s collect our Hoplites.”

“About that,” Bax said. “Might I suggest we wait until reinforcements arrive? I did launch some HS3 drones, via the Dragonfly, to investigate the launch site after the alien ship arrived. I saw the aliens dragging the wreckages of six Hoplites, and one Centurion, into a base of sorts. Where the AI cores of these machines previously resided, was only empty space. Shot straight through by some sort of energy weapon.”

Rade stared at his companions in shock. He had been hoping to recover a few of the AI cores, at the very least.

“They died trying to save us,” Bender said. “Giving us a diversion, so we could get aboard.”

Rade closed his eyes. It wasn’t so much the financial cost that hurt, but the loss of his friends. Algorithm. Electron, Juggernaut, Sprint, Nemesis, Warlock, Torment. Hoplites that were more than machines to him.

“The base below is still swarming with enemy units stranded after the mothership went offline,” Bax continued. “So, I wouldn’t advise any sort of salvage operation, not until you are better equipped.”

“Take us to the Gate at maximum speed,” Rade said. “We’ll come back with the fleet to salvage their bodies.”

“You’re assuming a fleet is actually coming,” Fret said.

“They’ll be coming,” Rade said. “The Asiatic Alliance takes reports of alien invaders very seriously in these parts.”

A few hours later Rade was sitting alone on his bed, in his private quarters. He watched the final recording he had made for Shaw one last time, then he deleted it, very glad she never had to see it.

* * *

Two days out from the Gate, the Argonaut met up with military ships from the Asiatic Alliance space navy. The admiral hailed Rade, thanked him for his service, and agreed the Argonaut could return with the fleet to salvage their lost units after the cleanup operation finished.

Rade transmitted the video dumps the team had taken of their encounters so that the Asiatic Alliance soldiers would have some idea what to expect when they dropped to the surface to perform the aforementioned cleanup. Rade didn’t think the admiral would nuke the place from orbit, because the fleet would want to collect samples of the aliens and their technology.

The United Systems would also want to interview Rade and his crew about those aliens at some point, and more specifically about their technology. He already had Bax transmit the same video dumps to the United Systems governmental official who had contacted them, but Rade knew in-person interviews would eventually be required. He actually didn’t mind, because it meant he’d be going home to see Shaw. Not that he had plans to go anywhere else at the moment—after the Hoplites and Algorithm were retrieved, of course.

Rade also handed over the pirates to the Asiatic Alliance fleet. Apparently, the men were known to the admiral.

“They’ll be going to prison for a very long time,” the admiral explained.

On the second day of the journey back to the invaded planet, Rade visited the kitchen to grab some grub. Manic, TJ, and Fret were there, eating some of the rations the Asiatic Alliance had sent over. Chicken Chips. Turkey Jerky.

“I’m surprised Bender isn’t eating those,” Rade commented, nodding at the chips.

“He’s busy,” Manic said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Oh really?” Rade asked.

Bender abruptly entered the compartment, coming from the pantry. He high-fived Manic, TJ, and Fret in turn. He seemed very proud of himself.

“Someone’s happy,” Rade said.

“Uh huh!” Bender said. “Finally dipped my wick in Ms. Rebecca Daggart’s pussy!”

What he didn’t realize was that Ms. Daggart had entered the room right behind him. She was pulling on a tank top, as if hurrying to dress.

When Bender noticed her angry expression, he quickly looked away, and tried to pretend he wasn’t happy or celebrating at all. He grabbed a handful of Chicken Chips and stuffed them into his mouth. That was the most miserable Rade had ever seen Bender, at least where Chicken Chips were involved. Meanwhile, Manic, TJ and Fret were doing their best not to crack up. They only lasted ten seconds. Rade had to leave, because if he stayed, he would have lost it as well.

Finally, the fleet achieved orbit above the planet. The admiral dispatched salvage crews to the derelict, and a cleanup team to the surface. The fighting lasted only a few days. When it was done, the admiral allowed Rade to take a Dragonfly down to retrieve his lost units.

Rade took Harlequin with him. The cleanup team had lain out the Hoplites, and Algorithm, on the outskirts of the pillaged alien base. Their wreckages were partially dismantled, and as Bax had told him, holes were punched in the AI cores, making their neural nets unrecoverable. It was probably for the best—the aliens wouldn’t have been able to recover any data from those cores either.

“It’s small consolation that we have backups of their cores,” Rade said inside his jumpsuit.

Harlequin shook his head. “That’s no consolation at all. They won’t be the same when you restore them. Copies of who they once were. It’s going to hurt.”

“You know that more than anyone, don’t you?” Rade asked.

Harlequin nodded. “Always wondering if you’ll ever measure up to the other you. Always feeling like you’re not good enough.”

“But you are good enough,” Rade said. “Surely you realize that by now.”

“Sometimes I still have my doubts,” Harlequin countered. “But all it takes is the look in your eyes when you give me an order. A look that tells me you trust me absolutely. That you’d place your life in my hands if you had to.”

“And so I would,” Rade agreed. “You’re one of us, Harlequin.”

The Artificial inclined his head. “I think, when you restore them, you should give them the option to destroy their old backups. Just like I made you do for me.”

Rade sighed, looking off into the distance. “If you think it will help them recover…”

“It will,” Harlequin said. “It helped me.”

Rade nodded. “Then I’ll give them that option, as much as it’ll hurt to truly lose them.”

With heavy hearts, Rade and Harlequin loaded the wreckages into the shuttle, taking them up two at a time, as that was the maximum capacity of the Dragonfly.

Aboard the Argonaut, Bender, TJ, and Harlequin set about trying to repair the units. It would be a long time before anything could be restored from the backups.

* * *

The flight to Ms. Daggart’s home system was on the way back to Earth, so Rade didn’t have to detour too far to bring her home.

Before climbing aboard the shuttle that would take her to her father’s palatial estate, she gave Rade a hug.

“Thank you for everything,” she said. “I learned a lot from you, and your team. About myself. And what it means to be alive. Truly alive.”

He nodded. He noticed that Bender wasn’t among those who had come to see her off. “Bender’s not coming?”

“He said his goodbyes last night,” Ms. Daggart said. “Told me it would hurt him too much to say goodbye here. I think he just didn’t want the men to see him cry.”

Rade frowned. “Although we can be brutal with each other, I don’t think anyone would ever tease him for crying. Not if he was saying goodbye to someone he cared about. That’s something we just don’t do. Part of our unwritten code.”

She considered that for a moment. “Oh. Then he really meant what he said.”

“What did he say?” Rade asked.

“That he loved me,” Ms. Daggart replied, tearing up.

She turned to go, but then paused before climbing onto the ramp. She took a moment, apparently to compose herself, because when she glanced at him once more the tears were gone. Though her eyes were still red.

She smiled. “Maybe you should look me up, next time you’re in my home system.” Her voice betrayed a tremble. “I’d like to see you and your team again. Someday.”

Rade returned her smile. “Maybe I will. I guess we’ll have to see.”

With that, she walked onto the ramp.

Rade watched it seal behind her.

Time to go home.

Thanks for reading!

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About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Isaac Hooke holds a degree in engineering physics, though his more unusual inventions remain fictive at this time. He is an avid hiker, cyclist, and photographer who sometimes resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

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