Orbital Academy XVII

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by MaddiroseX

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Please let me know at maddirosex@gmail.com!

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*** Part 1 - General of Academy ***
Lieutenant James pulled himself across the dirt, trying to ignore
the trail of blood he was dragging behind him. The trail would
make him trivial to track, of course, but if one of the Terrans
got close enough to track him, he was as good as dead anyways.
"You should just give up, Jimmy." He said, his voice breaking as
he moved another arm's-length. "Where are you even going Jimmy?
Get to that clump of trees, and then what Jimmy?"
*Is it normal to talk to myself like this? Probably not. I'm
probably going into shock.* James glanced behind him,
surprisingly calm as he carefully looked down at his legs. "Well
ain't that a pretty sight! Can you even tell where your legs end
anymore Jimmy? Nah, you can't. Twists of meat now, ain't they
Jimmy?"
*Okay, stop. I need to pull myself together.* James pushed
himself onto his back and stared into the green-tinted sky.
"Deep breaths Jimmy. Focus Jimmy. And for god's sake Jimmy, stop
talking to yourself." He lapsed into silence, taking deep breaths
and blinking slowly.
The pain repressors would wear off within an hour or so, that was
when he would really go into shock. In the meantime, besides the
weariness, James felt almost peaceful. Unlike the quiet thrum of
the Orbital, the silence on the surface wasn't true silence.
Little snips of music reached his ears from far off, made by the
animals that lived here. Irregular drones of tiny animals, the
insect-class, filled the blanks between them.
"They're playing me a song, that's kind of them." James chuckled.
"They should do that up in the Orbit, play some music to send a
soul to sleep. Wish I could tell them that, music makes it hurt a
little less. Makes the heart hurt, I mean, the legs'll still hurt
plenty."
He lifted his head to check on his legs again. It was almost
fascinating how much damage they'd incurred in the crash; they
were a wreckage of mangled gore.
"Hate that it ends here though, so young and all." He sighed. It
was tiring now, filling his lungs with air. "I suppose...S'ppose
it must be the same with everyone. Nobody's gonna die like this
and think 'well, I suppose I'm done then'. Still, wish I
could've..." another arduous, laborious breath "...wish I
could've done more with my life."
"What would you do with your life, space boy?" It was such a
sweet, feminine voice that James wasn't sure he had actually
heard it. He cast his eyes around for some time before his gaze
settled on the woman. She was rosy and alert, squatting by a
nearby tree with her arms resting on her knees. James was having
trouble focusing, and he felt as if he was noticing things in the
wrong order. He noticed her matronly air and comfortable
confidence before he noticed the knife in her hand, and it took
him long moments after he saw her short curls of lavender hair
before he put two and two together.
"Terran?" He slurred.
"You say 'I would do more with my life'." The Terran approached,
but James was too tired to be worried. He might even still have
his pistol in his holster, he hadn't noticed.
"Yea, I think I'd...think I'd do more with it. 'ventually." He
tried to shrug. "Not much good now, but I would've
gotten...gotten my shit together." His voice was so weak that the
Terran had to lean close just to hear him.
*That would've been a great plan, pretending to be dying and
killing her when her guard went down.* James thought,
absentmindedly staring at her face. *If I weren't actually
dying.*
"Tell me, space boy. Talk to me. What would be your 'shit' that
you got done?"
James chuckled. His last words were going to be reminiscing about
what might have been, and with a Terran no less.
"Actually apply myself." He coughed, closing his eyes. "Get a
promotion, get a girlfriend. Nah, fuck it, 'slong as I'm
dreaming, I'd get all the promotions. I'd get promoted to Marshal
of the Orbit, impress all the smart guys and fuck all the pretty
girls. Then I'd fuck all the smart girls and lord it over all the
pretty guys."
"That's very ABI(*ambitious, adventurous, motivational*)." The
Terran girl's words burrowed into his mind, like an annoying
insect's sting, but everything was fading out anyways. "I am Cha,
what is your name?"
*And...now...death...* James thought, feeling himself slip under
the darkness that had been hovering around him.
"What is your name, space boy?" He barely heard her, barely felt
her arms around him.
"James." He mumbled. "James Auspus."
***
General Auspus sank into the depths of his chair, as if he could
fall asleep if he got comfortable enough. Every day would always
present a new set of challenges, but he didn't see that as a good
thing. A day's challenges weren't opportunities, they weren't
lovely little possibilities to highlight the strengths of a great
leader. Auspus sifted through the messages on his screen,
flipping most of them into a lower priority queue. Challenges
were enemies to be slain.
"Sara, half of these requests could've been handled by the
Captains." Auspus didn't look up from his work, but he knew his
assistant would be taking notes. "I've asked you to please be
cognisant of what matters you bring to my attention, I only have
so many hours in a day." As if brought on by his words, a wave of
exhaustion overtook him, and he set the screen down on the desk.
Sara watched him carefully, too carefully for his liking. He had
a reputation to uphold.
"I think I need another injection Miss Sara. Please have Ariel
sent in to me.
"Yes sir." Sara gave him a worried look. "This will be your
second injection this week sir. Is your condition getting worse?
Should we perhaps schedule a visit to Orbital Basura to schedule
an appointment?"
"Just the injection I think, but I appreciate your concern."
Auspus gave a friendly smile instead of the snarl he wanted to
provide. The girl meant well, and it was hardly her fault for
being worried. She didn't know that all he wanted was for her to
leave the room. None of them did.
"Right away sir." Sara left the room, and Auspus waited for a few
moments before sealing the door to his office closed behind her.
He loosened the collar of his uniform and leaned back in his
chair in earnest, heaving a sigh of relief and letting the
anxiety that he had been bottling up wash over him. Politics,
war, worry, all on top of the typical challenges that plagued
him.
His blood buzzed, as if millions of tiny creatures were inching
their way along the inside of his veins. He had no way of knowing
the science of what had happened to him, so for all he knew there
might be.
*Still,* he thought, *at least I'm more used to it now than I
used to be.*
***
"Oh god...my skin...my skin is crawling! There's something wrong
with my skin!" Lieutenant Auspus tossed on the pile of furs.
"Shh, hush space boy. There is naught to fear, naught to fear."
Cha crooned and stroked his hair, seeming to not mind that it was
drenched in sweat. "It is always difficult, the first time."
Auspus looked up at the woman, trying to make some sense of what
he was feeling. He was lucid enough to know that he was feverish,
his clammy forehead and shivering told him that much.
"Where am I? What happened? Why is your hair purple?" Auspus
shivered again, swatting his skin, then scratching it.
*Have to get them off of me. Out of me. Scratch them out, get
them out, out out out.* There were so many questions running
through his mind that it was hard to focus on any one of them.
The woman hovering above him was talking again as she held his
hands down, something about losing legs and crashing ships, but
try as he might Auspus couldn't quite focus on what she was
saying. Later in his life, he would remember the last thing she
said before he slipped back into fever dreams, although at the
time it barely registered.
"You cannot help but achieve your dreams, now that I've given you
the gift of magics."
***
Auspus gripped the edge of his desk, shivering at the intensity
of the memory.
"Been running myself too ragged lately." He said to himself. Time
always got a little slippery for him when it had been too long.
He yanked the desk drawer open and removed the Coricia, running
his fingers along the edge of the purple crystal without
thinking. No matter how long it had been, his stomach jumped at
the sight of it, his heartbeat quickened slightly. He hated his
dependence on it.
He had already drawn the parallels between his reactions to the
crystal and those of a drug addict. Like an addict, when he was
running low his body crawled, and the more he put if off, the
more intense his need was. Despite the obvious similarities,
Auspus didn't like thinking of it that way. Treating the Coricia
like a drug was dangerous. Start to think you couldn't live
without it, and you would take risks to take another dose of the
sparks within.
It had been one of those risks that had resulted in this entire
mess, using the Coricia in the sight of two of the rookies.
Auspus clenched his fists at the thought of them, but was
distracted by the first purple spark that lept from the crystal,
burrowing into his skin and leaving a trail of warmth inside of
him. He settled back into his seat with a sigh.
***
"But where are the sparks actually going? And what are they made
of?" Lieutenant Auspus watched the crystal suspiciously,
flinching a little at each spark that jumped from it to land on
his skin.
"You wish to know so much, space boy." Cha smiled at him from
where she sat at the fire. "Why you not leave the MYA(*the charm,
the mystery, the thrill of discovery*)?" Auspus jumped at the
words that burrowed into his mind.
"I wish you wouldn't do that. Talk in my head like that."
"You will grow used to it. I try to speak your words, but one day
you must get used to ours."
"And someday I'll be able to talk like that?"
"Yes, one day soon. You will be one of us."
Auspus leaned back with a frown. The prospect didn't sound
appealing to him. Cha hadn't let him out of her hut yet, but
compared to Orbital Academy the Terrans seemed to lead a
horrible, primitive life. He flexed his legs again, wiggling the
toes that had been regrown. True, magic saved his legs when
nothing else would've. Cha clearly had great aspirations for him,
and for whatever reason she helped him, but spending the rest of
his life on the surface seemed too heavy of a cost. Auspus
would've already tried to escape, but...
He opened his hand and focused. In his cupped palm, a purple
flame sprang into being, warm and real. He flicked it back and
forth between his fingers, trying to ignore Cha's amused look.
*I can play along for a while, if it means getting so much
power...*
***
He must've turned the lights out at some point, because as the
Coricia's flow of sparks died down, the room slowly descended
into darkness. General Auspus lazily waved a hand to bring the
lights to full level, stretching before he slipped the purple
crystal back into his desk drawer. As usual, he felt as if he had
just had a long sleep, and he felt ready to tackle another full
day, even though he hadn't slept for 72 hours.
Ariel knocked discretely, but she entered without waiting for him
to answer.
"I came as quickly as I could, General."
"Ah, my angel." General Auspus used magic to draw color from his
skin and pull bags beneath his eyes, and he tried to slump in his
chair as he looked Ariel up and down. Despite the fact that her
medicines were utterly useless to him, she really did look like
an angel this evening. She must've been sleeping when they
summoned her, since she was wearing a white nightdress,
contrasting with her strawberry blonde curls. It wasn't improper,
but it was thin enough that he could follow the curve of her
breasts as she busily unpacked her case on his desk and mixed the
medication. Ariel caught him looking, and she blushed.
"Even in your state you have the energy to be perverted." She
teased, filling a syringe.
"You wouldn't begrudge an old man his love of pretty girls, would
you?" Auspus smiled.
"I always forget..." Ariel gave him his injection with a
professional air, unaware that just beneath his skin, the magic
ate away at the medication before it could even enter his
bloodstream, devouring it and neutralizing it. "You always have
so much energy after the injections, I sometimes forget your
advanced years." She teased. Auspus leaned his head back and
watched her from the corner of his eyes.
***
"Why do you look at me like that, whenever I use the Corincia?"
Lieutenant Auspus had gotten used to the tingling feeling of
energy that recharging gave him, but he was still annoyed. Cha's
smile always looked as if she knew a secret he didn't.
"For the TER(*we of the earth, the loyal*), to use the COR(*the
crystal of light, the Corincia*) of another is a sign of
TRIU(*intimate and trusting, like a lover*)." Auspus still had
trouble sometimes, following a sentence with many charged words
of power within it and he had to think about what she said for a
while before he could make sense of it.
"The crystals are private? Wait, like lovers? So it's as if
you've been watching me change clothes this whole time?"
"I had to teach you how to use it." Cha said defensively, but she
blushed furiously. "And then...well you had it once. No hurt to
use it AGA(*once more*)."
Auspus turned the information over in his mind.
*An infatuation then. I suppose it explains why she's done so
much for me.* Despite the help, his confinement chaffed him. As
always, Auspus took his frustration out on the nearest available
target.
"Aren't you a hundred or something? Should you really be crushing
on young guys like me?" He said dismissively. It was a slap in
the face, but really what did the girl expect? He had been
trapped in this house for five weeks, putting up with the pain of
his ruined legs regrowing from the inside. The boredom and
frustration was overwhelming, why would he be nice to her just
because she fed him every day? As always, the hurt look Cha tried
to hide made his frustration sting just a little bit less.
"Age makes no harm." Cha was avoiding his eyes. "The COR(*crystal
of light*) keeps us young and BEA(*pretty and attractive,
beautiful in body*), so what does it..."
"Well I don't know about the second, but it keeps you young at
least." Auspus leaned back and closed his eyes. He didn't have to
look to see what her face would look like at his words. Leaning
into the stream of sparks, he smiled slightly.
***
"You seem to be looking better, General." Ariel's voice brought
him out of his reverie with a small guilty start. He hadn't ever
noticed before, but his medic looked a bit like Cha had. Hair in
short curls, a comfortably plump frame.
"I am feeling much better, thank you. I...appreciate what you do
for me, Ariel."
Ariel gave him a curious look as she cleaned the medicinal
instruments with a clean white cloth.
"Of course General, it's sort of my job." She said.
"I just mean...I'm not sure what I mean." Auspus sighed. "Do you
think it's possible to make up for past mistakes Ariel? To cancel
out debts in a life the same way one cancels out monetary debt?"
"These drugs must be pretty strong, to get you so philosophical
General." Ariel stopped cleaning and looked at him closely.
"I get vaguely philosophical in the evenings." Auspus chuckled.
"Is a past mistake weighing on you? I could try to heal your soul
while I'm here healing your body." Ariel laughed. Auspus glanced
sharply at her. She was keeping her back to him, putting the
supplies away in their case, and she was clearly trying to keep
her tone light to make it sound as if she wasn't prying. He never
knew if it was due to the magic or to his own abilities, but
Auspus had a particular talent for reading people, and it was
clear to him that Ariel was searching for something.
He sighed, reaching into a second drawer of his desk. The same
wisdom that made him regret what he had done to Cha told him he
couldn't trust Ariel.
"I appreciate it, but I'm afraid some mistakes must remain in the
past. Chocolate?" He offered her the silver bowl, and Ariel took
a small handful and popped them in her mouth, giving him a smile
that would be adorable if it wasn't so clearly calculated. Auspus
paid close attention to how many she had grabbed.
*Five. So I have five questions to get to the bottom of it.*
"You know, General," Ariel closed the case with a sharp click,
turning back to him and leaning against his desk, "there are many
ways to heal a soul that don't require talking at all. Plenty of
ways for a woman to heal a man..."
"Oh, are there?" General Auspus kept himself from rolling his
eyes at the awkwardness of the line.
"Yes, there are." Ariel moved closer, until she stood just next
to his seat, leaning forward slightly.
*Oops. There's one question wasted.* Auspus mentally cursed. The
pellets of magic sealed within the chocolate would force a
truthful answer to any question, real or rhetorical. Still, it
wouldn't be too difficult to determine what the medic wanted.
"There are ways a girl can heal a man that heal her own soul as
well." Ariel breathed, and she was closer to him now, her eyes
closed, so close that he could spell the faint scent of fruit and
flowers.
Auspus was tempted. Her awkward attempts at seduction were cute
in a naive way, ironically more attractive than the type of
temptress she was trying to be. With a hint of regret he placed
his hands on her shoulders, stopping her inches away from him.
"Ariel," he said softly, "you don't want to sleep with me, do
you?"
"No." Ariel's eyes widened in horror as the word left her lips.
Auspus was used to this by now, how unnerved someone became when
they spoke the truth without knowing why.
"I appreciate the honesty very much. It means a lot to me that
our relationship means so much to you." He said quietly. If he
gave her a reason she could use, her brain would reconcile it,
deciding it was her own idea, not the effect of the
chocolate-coated spheres of magic. "Now why, if you do not want
to sleep with me, are you trying to seduce me?"
"I just...I need some of the political power that you have,
General." Ariel winced, stepping away from him. Auspus nodded
gravely, keeping serious so that she could at least keep some of
her dignity.
"And what would you use that power for?"
"My...my boyfriend, sir." There were tears in Ariel's eyes now,
and Auspus looked at his screen, embarrassed for her. "We just
found out he's got Cherenial Syndrome. I thought...I thought if I
could pretend he was a relative, I could convince you to transfer
him to Basura, where he could get treated. Please sir, it was
stupid, I just...may I be dismissed please?"
"You may go." General Auspus sighed. She had reached the door
before he realized he had one questions left.
"Ariel, what is your young man's name?"
"Adam Laughley, sir, he works in the Medhall on deck seven."
Ariel's eyes were wide, even as embarrassed tears still ran down
her face. "Sir this wasn't his fault, it was my idea-"
"That will be all, Ariel."
"But General, he didn't even know! And if he had, he would've
told me not to! Please don't-"
"That will be all." Auspus called up the rest of the day's
business on his screens as the door closed behind the sniffling
girl.
Before applying his newly renewed energy towards the waiting
items, he spoke to the computer system in the empty room.
"Send message to Tech Evans: I'm authorizing a chit transfer,
identified by auth-key. One medical chit, class B, to the account
of Adam Laughley. Two transport chits each to the accounts of
Adam Laughley and Ariel Robina. Move the chits from my account,
make them non-refundable. End message. Attach my authorization
key to that message." Auspus pulled up another screen, working on
a minor schema problem as he spoke. "Send second message to Medic
Pepperton: Please find replacements for Adam Laughley and Ariel
Robina for the next week. They will be taking a trip to Orbital
Basura and unable to come in to work."
The schema problem took up his attention for a few minutes before
an answering message pinged on his screen.
"Adam told me about his Cherenial Syndrome. Said he didn't have
the chits to get the treatment. You're a good man General Auspus.
~Medic Pepperton"
General Auspus stared at the message for a long time before he
flicked it off of his screen and returned to work.
***
"Why are you doing this to me, space boy?" Cha's voice was just
as weak as his had been the day they first met. In fact, Auspus
noted, the entire scene was rather similar. There they were,
surrounded by forest, flora and fauna. He was hunched over, arms
on his knees, and it was the Terran girl who lay on the grass,
injured and bloodied. The circumstances were different, but
Auspus felt like they had come full circle. It was satisfying, in
a way.
"It's funny." he stared off into the distance. The Orbital
Academy ground station had come down through the clouds a few
miles off, so it wasn't as if he could see the it through the
trees, but he looked anyways. "You asked me, when we first met,
what I wanted to do with my life. Do you remember?" Cha looked up
at him through strands of blood-matted lavender hair.
"And then I saved you." She groaned. "I saved your life, space
boy."
"Yes yes, I'm not talking about that." Auspus waved a hand
impatiently. "I just mean that it's interesting, you didn't
realize it at the time, but thanks to you, I don't just have the
chance to live, I'll have the chance to live that dream life."
"Yes, thanks to me. And some great thanks you gave. You're
a....a..." Cha faltered for words, and winced with a gasp.
"You can't charge a word Cha, I've left you completely drained
I'm afraid. Don't worry, I'm sure I can guess at whatever
horrible names you were about to call me. I regret how it
happened Cha, but did you really think I would just live here? On
the surface? With savages? Especially now that I have the power
of magic?"
"My...'poa'..." Cha grunted, unable to charge the word. Her voice
was weak, and she rolled to a side to lean her head against the
tree trunk. "My...'magi'."
"Not yours anymore, mine." Auspus barely paid her attention. "And
with it...just think about it, the magic of the Terrans mixed
with life in the Orbit. I can be faster and stronger, I can have
better reflexes than anyone else in the Academy. Smarter too, and
without sleep I'll have more time to study. I'll have a leg up on
everyone in my year...hell, I'll have a leg up on the Captains.
And the best part is that none of them even know about magic.
They think you Terrans have some kind of alternate technology.
Once they scan me and find no Terran technology, no one will
suspect a thing." He bent down and ran his hands along Cha's
body, and she whimpered and tried to move away from him. "Oh stop
whining, no one's trying to feel you up you moronic creature...I
just want this." He pulled the purple crystal from her pocket and
slipped it into his, where it rattled against his own crystal.
"But...gave...you...one." Cha seemed to struggled through each
word.
"Oh I know, but now I have a potential ally, you see? Someone I
can give your magic to, who will also be on the fast track to
success, and who will owe me." He stood, brushing his hands off.
"Now, I've got to go meet my future. You've helped me quite a lot
Cha, I'll always remember that."
If she said anything in response, he didn't hear it.
***
"General Auspus." The message came through his emergency line,
and it came from the hangar chief. General Auspus didn't need any
further information to determine the nature of the report, but he
opened the comm anyways.
"Go ahead Paul."
"We just had to let a transport land, sir. It's the Red Forces
from Basura. They didn't tell me where they were going, but I
thought you'd want to know they were on the Orbital."
"Thank you Paul." Auspus was surprised at how calm he remained as
he cut the connection.
*Haven't I been expecting it, in a way?* He thought, pulling
screens to him and working quickly. Finishing directions.
Wrapping up request tickets. Adding small notes here and there in
his work, making it easy for someone else to take up the tasks.
He pulled the crystal from his desk drawer and, after a moment's
hesitation, slipped it into his pocket.
*I wouldn't have expected it to be rookies who brought me down,
in the end.* He thought idly, looking around the large office.
*Hunter, maybe, but not the rookies.* Rather than sit down, he
paced up and down, arranging a small nicknack here, straightening
a framed work of art there.
It was the problem with keeping so many secrets, with having so
many plans. It was impossible to keep so many balls in the air at
once, to keep straight such a huge network of lies and
connections. He had known that sooner or later he would be
caught, sooner or later he would be punished. There was no
covenant about using magic, but the Marshal wouldn't allow Auspus
to hold a source of power over him. Auspus could only hope that
he would be imprisoned, rather than killed, for keeping that
source from the Marshal for...how long?
"Seventy years? Eighty?" General Auspus paused in his pacing,
looking across the room at the hanging mirror. His skin was still
smooth, his hair sleek and black. The effect would fool anyone,
although it had to be meticulously applied once or twice a month.
Any less frequently, and his shock of dark purple hair would
begin to show through. "What would I have looked like, if things
had gone differently? If I hadn't crashed on that mission?" He
murmured to himself. "Aged and wrinkled? Enjoying retirement? I
suppose that's what I'm about to do now, enjoy either a very long
or a very short retirement."
An old memory tickled at him, and he chuckled in spite of
himself. He turned to the mirror and spoke aloud at the
reflection, to the young-faced man with world-weary eyes that
looked back at him. "Whether you're twenty or ninety, you'll
always talk to yourself just before you die, won't you Jimmy?" he
smiled.
The door slid open despite the fact that he had locked it. Two
men and a woman stepped into the room, surveying it with
disinterest. They wore uniforms of muted grey and red, and though
they carried no visible weapons, a shiver went down Auspus'
spine.
"James Auspus." The man in the lead smiled, the expression just
as neutral as his nondescript appearance. "We are here to escort
you to Orbital Basura, to answer charges set against you."
"Has the Marshall decided on a set of charges then?" Auspus
suppressed his nerves with practiced ease.
"You are accused of attempting to break the Marshal's covenant.
If you will please come with us."
***
General Auspus privately thought to himself that one could learn
a lot about a leader by the way they arranged their main base of
operations. He had striven to make his office neat, severe, but
open. His was a room where business got done, where hierarchy was
respected, but where one of his could come for assistance. From
what he had seen, General Poulay's office felt like a classroom,
with herself at the head, holding court over rows of
subordinates. Generals Hunter and Buramis both had offices laid
out for efficiency, created to facilitate their work rather than
to give off an impression.
As he looked around him, Auspus could tell that for the Marshal,
the most important thing to remember was that the Marshal was the
most important. From the tiers in front of him to the throne the
Marshal sat on, every tiny aspect was designed to point out the
Marshal's own godhood.
"General Auspus, the Marshal does not enjoy the turmoil in the
Orbit. It makes the Marshal's tasks complicated." The Marshal
glared at his screens, not looking at Auspus but still making it
clear that he disapproved.
"I am sorry, Sir Marshal." Auspus bowed his head. In his youth,
after returning from the surface, he never could've swallowed his
pride like that. Age had given him wisdom and calmed his temper.
"It was my understanding that you were understanding about
General Hunter and my...situation."
"The war between Pivot and Academy matters little to the Marshal.
What matters are all of these accusations, flitting back and
forth like angry Drakes that must be dealt with." Said the
Marshal.
"I...don't know of any accusations, sir." General Auspus said.
*Hunter must've gone straight to the Marshal when the rookies
told him about the crystal. If I had just killed them outright,
this wouldn't have happened.* Auspus pushed the thought to the
back of his head.
"A synthetic stood before us, not two days ago, with one of
General Auspus' Captains." The Marshal's habit of looking back
and forth between his screens was annoying Auspus, it made it
hard to focus on what he was saying. "There were many issues
surrounding them, but in the end we decided to disassemble the
synthetic and release the Captain, with no punishment meted out
to any who were falsely accused. The synthetic escaped."
Auspus' eyebrows shot up. It must've been Chief Errisa that the
Marshal was talking about, but he was surprised that the woman
had been able to escape. Then again, he had been surprised when
she accepted his offer in the first place...
*The offer...* If she had been here, her memories would've been
scanned...
"Before she escaped, the Marshal's technicians were able to
download information from the synthetic's cores, which we have
since reviewed. Within her memory modules resides a message,
signed with your authorization codes, which promises to remove
the impedance placed upon all synthetics."
General Auspus threw his head back and laughed. The busy clerks
on the first tier stared at him with horror, and the men and
women on the second tier observed him with curiosity, but he
couldn't stop himself. Of all the balls he had in the air, this
was the one that would bring him to his knees? A single message
with an empty promise to an errant synthetic?
*Not trying to kill rookies, not shooting the engineer, not
starting a war. A single message to an artificial human.*
"The Marshal is curious why General Auspus finds this matter
amusing."
"My apologies, Sir Marshal. It just seemed so ludicrous that I
couldn't help but laugh. Of course General Hunter's synthetic
would create a false message to implicate me." There was no hope
that his lie would be accepted, of course, but it was ludicrous.
The entire situation was too absurd to gain a grasp on.
"The Marshal's technicians assured the Marshal that the message
could not be faked, not with General Auspus' authorization
codes."
"Of course, Sir Marshal. I meant that I did send the message, but
I would never actually remove a synthetic's bottleneck."
"The Marshal does not appreciate General Auspus' flippant
attitude. General Auspus knows that the Marshal's covenants are
crystal clear on this matter." As the Marshal spoke, Auspus' eyes
flicked around the room. Were there really only four security
guards here in the throne room? How many others were probably
outside? His mind raced. With security so lax, it was no wonder
the synthetic could escape. And if it was that easy...
*How much easier would it be for a man with magic? Of course, I'd
be exposing myself, but it's not as if I have anything to
lose...*
"For the crime of attempted removal of a synthetic's impediment,
the Marshal hereby strips General Auspus of his rank and file."
The Marshal sounded bored as he pronounced his sentence, and he
still looked at his fucking screens, as if ripping away Auspus'
life and dreams wasn't worthy of his full attention. "The Marshal
furthermore consigns Civilian Auspus to live the rest of his
natural days in confinement, in the prison cells of Orbital
Basura."
"What about my unnatural days?" Auspus muttered to himself,
smiling at his own joke. He had already turned and was walking
towards the door, and the guards were already moving towards him.
It was clearly not their first time subduing a prisoner.
*First time securing one like me.* Auspus thought, extending a
hand. They had scanned him for weapons before he entered, but how
could they know about the magic? The first guard simply slumped
over, in deep sleep before he even hit the ground. Another
dropped his gun to the floor, sucking his burnt fingers as the
metal pooled and melted into the tile. Auspus had already turned
to the third when he was yanked off of his feet, tumbling
backwards.
It caught him by surprise, so completely by surprise that he
couldn't brace himself before hitting the ground hard. The
General was pulled further, slamming onto his shoulder and then
flipping back and cracking his head on the ground at the foot of
the first tier.
*Why don't they look more surprised?* The strange thought passed
through Auspus' head as he looked upside-down at the faces of the
men and women. There was no one nearby, but Auspus found himself
lifted, pulled slowly into the air. He floated past the second
tier silently, drawn inexorably upwards. The men and women there
didn't seem surprised either, simply interested. Auspus reached
the bottom of the throne, and slowly the Marshal came into view,
arm extended, fist clenched in the air. The screens around the
man were dark, and he was looking at Auspus dead in the eye.
Auspus suddenly regretting catching the Marshal's attention.
"Did you honestly think you were the only one who had tasted
power?" The Marshal murmured, his voice so quiet and so low that
Auspus was only barely sure he had said them aloud. "Did you for
a moment believe that you were stronger than me? Stronger than
the Marshal?"
The Marshal made a dismissive motion, and Auspus was flung so
fast that the wind whistled past his ears as he shot far across
the room. He hit the column feet first, cracking marble, seeing
rather than feeling the bones in his legs splinter. Falling to
the ground was less painful, even though it must've been six
feet. His left arm hurt, and he must've cracked his head because
he was seeing double.
Auspus shook his head, despite the fact that his entire body was
shaking, his vision blurry. Was there blood everywhere, or just
in his eyes and nose and mouth? Was there too much pain in his
legs to process, or could he not feel his legs at all? The door
to the room was feet away, and the Marshal was so far behind him
on his golden throne. Surely he could drag himself to the door
before the Marshal caught him. Why the door? Why not?
Civilian Auspus pulled himself across the cold tile on his one
good arm, ignoring the ragged tearing pain in the lower half of
his body at each movement.
"You should just give up, Jimmy." He muttered to himself,
spitting a mouthful of blood to the floor. "Where are you even
going Jimmy? Get to that door, and then what Jimmy?"

His last thought before the darkness closed around him was of
Cha.

*** Part 2 - General of Pivot ***
General Hunter woke up, and spent thirty minutes staring into the
ceiling. His screen pinged a few times, but he ignored it,
mustering the energy and motivation to get out of bed. When he
finally did it was with a heaviness, as if the soul that moved
him had been drained from him.
*Which it has.*
Grabbing the nearly empty bottle of caffehol from the nightstand,
Hunter shuffled to the closet, pulling out a uniform without
looking and throwing it to the bed.
*Don't open the door.* He ordered himself, even as he slid the
door next to his closet open and looked inside. Errisa's
bodyframe lay standing up in the small enclosure, still and
silent, eyes closed. Hunter found it easier to think of her as
'sleeping', rather than 'charging', but this bodyframe had no
consciousness inside it. If he turned it on it would simply stare
straight ahead, unthinking and motionless. This wasn't his wife's
sleeping body, the cold frame was her corpse.
Hunter threw the bottle across the room and marched into the
elevator. What did it matter whether he showered or not, whether
he changed or not? There were lives on this station worth getting
out of bed for, and he would take care of his station, but his
wasn't one of them. Without Errisa there was no point in caring
for himself.
"She's not even dead." He snarled to himself as the elevator
hummed in it's path down the decks. "She's out there somewhere,
with whoever was smart enough to give her what she needed. The
Marshal's covenants were more important to you than your own
wife, so you lost her." The elevator door opened, and Hunter
stumbled into his office. He stared at the dark screens in front
of him, brooding.
*And where are you now, Erissa? Was it Auspus himself, is that
why you broke things as you left? Or was freeing the Captains and
crippling the generators your own personal 'fuck you' to me? Did
you hate me that much for not giving you that one little thing?
Was the bottleneck all you really cared about? Was any of it
real?* The door pinged, and Hunter turned his screens on with a
wave before he answered.
"Come." Kathryn was busy on her screen even as she entered.
Hunter glowered at the messages scrawling across the display on
his screen without reading them, staring through them.
"You don't look too good sir." His Chief of Security said
bluntly, sitting on the other side of his desk.
"Didn't ask how I looked."
"You don't smell too good either."
"Did you need something Chief Kathryn?" Hunter snapped. "Do I
need to smell pretty to do my damn job? No? Then what's your
point?"
"My point, sir, is that you're in no state to be doing your job
right now." Kathryn didn't quail beneath his anger, as Hunter
knew she wouldn't. He sighed, passing his hand through his short
hair.
"I shouldn't take this out on you." He growled.
"You're under a lot of stress right now." Kathryn waved a hand.
"I understand, although it does make me think twice about giving
you this report." Hunter responded with a dark glare, and Kathryn
sighed.
"Chief of Information Errisa is back sir."
Hunter was moving before Kathryn had finished her sentence, and
she rose to follow him as he all but ran down the hallway.
"How long? Where?"
"She requested a landing clearance twenty minutes ago. She'll be
docking in a few minutes. Deck G."
They stepped into the elevator together, and Hunter pressed the
button several times in rapid succession before the doors slid
closed. Watching the deck letters slide by slowly, Hunter felt
the urge to pace the length of the elevator.
"Get an engineer on these elevators this week." He snapped.
"We're Orbital Fucking Pivot, there's no excuse for elevators
this slow."
"I'll make a note of it sir. More pertinently, Chief Errisa is in
a dart shuttle, no weapons, but we've been scanning her ship ever
since she transmitted her security codes. There isn't a sign of a
bomb, but we're not ruling out the possibility of a virus. Given
the havoc she caused in the generators, it's also possible that
she's just trying to get within close enough range to launch
another network attack."
Hunter was barely listening, launching from the elevator as soon
as the doors hissed open.
"Status." He barked as he entered the control room overlooking
the empty hangar. One of the techs swivelled in his chair to face
the General.
"Still scanning sir. Trying to hunt out potential biological
attacks is tricky, so we'll be another half hour-"
"Give clearance to land and open the hangar."
"Sir? Is that...is that wise?"
"Don't question me tech. I need to talk to her, give her
clearance."
"General, I need a word. In private?" Kathryn asked quietly.
Hunter made an impatient motion, but his Chief of Security
grabbed him by the arm. "Please?" The action was inappropriate,
so unlike her that it startled Hunter out of his single-minded
focus. He followed her out of the control room, into the empty
hallway outside.
"Sir, I apologize for overstepping my bounds." Kathryn spoke
quietly and respectfully. "But we both know that in this
situation you are emotionally compromised."
"I don't know what you-"
"Please, sir." Kathryn held up a hand. "Even if I hadn't known
about your relationship beforehand, your reaction to her betrayal
in the past forty-eight hours has shown your feelings, at least
to your Chiefs. If you were thinking more clearly, you would see
the danger of blindly accepting someone on board who actively
sabotaged Orbital Pivot's efforts."
"Very well, you're right. Chief Errisa is my wife." Any
reservation that Hunter had seemed to pale in the face of getting
into that hangar, of speaking to Errisa. "I don't care what
danger I'm blindly accepting. Since you seem to have forgotten
Kathryn, you are subordinate to me. You will follow my orders."
"General, I can't force you to do anything, but I'm the Chief of
Security and it is my duty to protect the men and women of this
Orbital. You're willing to risk your life for her, but I can't
let you risk everyone else's." Hunter stared at his Chief for
long moments, and she met his gaze, unwavering.
"You realize that by pressing this point you are risking your
career, Chief Kathryn."
"I realize sir."
Hunter's eyes narrowed.
"Well then, as long as you realize." He spun on his heel and
re-entered the control room.
"Keep scanning that ship." He snapped. "As soon as they land,
seal off the hangar bay. I'm going in through the airlock alone,
I want any air contaminated from the hangar vented into space.
What are the nearest wireless access points?"
"The hotsources on Decks F and I serve this deck sir."
"Shut them off and lock them down. No wireless access within a
hundred meters of this hangar. As far as physical security goes,
I'm sure our Chief of Security has a squadron of security forces
waiting outside of the main hangar doors-"
"Two squads." Kathryn murmured.
"-give them full access should she order it. If anything happens
to me that incapacitates me, I am officially transferring command
to Kathryn. Is that understood?" The mood in the control room was
so tense that Hunter could almost feel the air buzzing, but he
was distracted at the sight through the window, as on the other
side of the glass the hangar bay doors slid open. The techs were
smart enough to keep silent as the small ship slipped into the
bay.
Nicknamed after an ancient thrown weapon, the dart-class was the
fastest ship in the Orbit, and it took less than a second for it
to move into the middle of the wide deck and settle to the deck
floor. The faint noise of instruments ticking and pinging were
the only sounds that filled the small room, but to Hunter they
seemed too loud. Two people exited the ship before the hangar bay
doors had even closed, which meant both were synthetics for whom
the lack of oxygen wouldn't be a hindrance.
*Is that who she left me for?* The sight of Errisa felt like a
punch to the heart, but Hunter didn't recognize the man next to
her, a middle-aged man with wise creases at the corners of his
eyes. *Not wise creases, artificial creases.* He thought
bitterly, surprised at himself at how quickly the thought came to
him. Was he so petty that a betrayal from his wife would make him
prejudiced against all synthetics?
The two were standing in front of the ship now, and the hangar
doors had sealed shut.
"The bay is sealed off sir." One of the braver techs said
quietly. Hunter felt numb as he stepped down the stairs at the
bottom of the control room, entering the airlock. Behind him the
first door sealed, and in front of him the second opened. The
hangar seemed so much larger as he walked across it, but Hunter
barely noticed anything but his wife, standing there with her
companion next to the ship. Her head was tilted to one side, and
she was watching him with a strange smile on her face.
*Mocking? Pitying? I've been married to her for seventeen years,
but I swear I haven't seen that smile in my life.* It felt as if
the walk was taking forever. What would he even say to her? What
was there to ask? "Why" seemed so inadequate. He was only a few
feet from them now, and he opened his mouth awkwardly.
"Oh Hunter!" The middle-aged man cried, and he threw himself into
Hunter's arms.
*What.*
The General's eyes widened, and he tried to force the universe to
make some kind of sense again. The stranger was clasping him in
his arms so tightly, sobbing into his shoulder, and somehow, in
some way, there had to be an explanation that made that make
sense. In front of him, Errisa broke down into peals of laughter.
"Oh my god," she gasped in between giggles, "oh my god your
face!"
"Errisa..." Hunter stood ramrod-straight, as if he could force
the world into order, while the man took a sudden step back,
looking embarrassed. "...what."
"No no I can't." Errisa was doubled over now, laughing so hard
that tears streamed down her face. "It's too funny, oh my god you
have to tell him Errisa, I can't."
"Hunter." The man spoke gently, as if soothing a confused child,
making a calming gesture that was intimately familiar. "We need
to talk."
***
Hunter entered the Chief's conference room in something of a
haze, both happy and distracted. He had cleaned and shaved, and
was wearing a fresh uniform, and as he sat down in his customary
seat he felt whole for the first time in days. The conflict
between Academy and Pivot seemed trivial now that he had his wife
back, even if there was the small matter of an extra personality
in the mix.
"Chiefs." He smiled at the assembled men and women, the best
minds on his Orbital. "I've just received a news ping, and by now
Generals Poulay and Buramis will have received it as well.
General Auspus has been removed from command of Orbital Academy."
The reactions were as dramatic as he had hoped. Chief Pepper
gasped aloud, his eyes bugging out, and even Chief Kathryn raised
a surprised eyebrow.
"Orbit save us!" Muttered Chief Mabel. "The Marshal has
interceded! What did Auspus do to change the Marshal's mind?"
"The bulletin didn't say." General Hunter leaned back in his
chair. "But needless to say, the new General of Academy is going
to be quite busy with his sudden responsibility. I am entirely
confident that this feud between us and the Academy-Techrider
alliance is drawing to an end."
"I'm glad to hear it." Chief Adamsly nodded. "Minera has been
hounding us for locitor spikes, but without new ones coming in
from Techrider we don't know that we can spare any of ours."
"Our security's weapon cores drain after about three weeks."
Chief Kathryn added quietly. "Their charging stations are large
enough that only Academy houses them; we have enough to last our
security's weaponry for another week before they need to swap
out."
"I didn't know that." Hunter said with surprise.
"Didn't see the need to trouble you with it until now sir."
"I also worry about our production lines." Chief Exla spoke up.
"With no shipments made, we're getting a little backed up down
in...assembly..." She trailed off as the middle-aged man entered.
"Chiefs, please welcome back Chief of Information Errisa." Hunter
said as Errisa sat down, a little clumsily, in the seat reserved
for her.
"Not quite myself." Errisa joked in the voice of the older man.
"But the information you've heard about my betrayal was false.
Strangely explainable."
"Sir, with all due respect we can't sit here and accept Chief
Errisa back in our ranks, not without a heavy inquiry, or at the
very least some proof of whatever excuse she's managed to come up
with." General Pepper huffed.
"Her....his....Chief Errisa's explanation was enough to satisfy
me." General Hunter said. *Confusing, but enough.* "There will be
an inquiry, and there will be explanation and proof, after a
sort. In the meantime, however, I'm afraid you're all going to
have to trust me, because there is a time-sensitive matter in
which I would like your opinions." Hunter met the eyes of each of
his Chiefs in turn, waiting until they either nodded their
compliance or looked away. He knew he was burning away much of
his capital with each of them, asking them to trust him, but he
had priorities. "Glad to hear it. Now, with ex-General Auspus
removed from command, I'm expecting a transmission from his
replacement at any minute. I'm surprised, in fact, that he's
taken this long to get in touch with us."
"It's most likely that he's meeting with General Poulay." Chief
Kathryn was checking stats on her screen as she spoke, but Hunter
didn't begrudge her that. She had proven that she could multitask
and still hold a conversation. "As the ally of Orbital Academy,
Techrider will want to be heavily involved with any deals they
make to stop the embargo. Auspus' replacement will probably want
to pick Poulay's brain on tips and tricks, since Poulay is his or
her one General-level contact."
"Typically a new General meets in open session with all of us."
Hunter growled. "I'm not quite sure I like that this kid's first
impression of dealing with Generals is going to be whatever
messages Auspus left behind and Poulay's manipulation."
"Can you blame him? We're at war General Hunter, I would hardly
consult with my enemies for tips of the trade."
"Point. So, what tack should we take with the newly minted
General when he finally does communicate with us?"
"I would suggest we make a bid for peace." Chief Pepper said at
once.
"I didn't think we had that many casualties, for the Chief of
Health to be so eager to end the embargo." Hunter raised an
eyebrow.
"There don't have to be casualties to see how this situation
doesn't help us sir. We may not have many injuries yet, but if we
keep up this stalemate it will slowly grind away at all of the
Orbitals but Basura in the Orbit. This is the best time to make a
bid, when we're faced with a green General who will be willing to
back down."
"Especially if we don't demand concessions." Hunter was unused to
the wise gravelly tone that Errisa now bore. "He would see it as
an out that let him save face without having to deal with a war
as his first order of the Orbital."
"Why not demand concessions? We're winning this fight." Chief
Mabel said. "Is that what you've come back to do, convince us to
back down?"
"The Chief of Information is right." Chief Pepper frowned. "I'd
much rather end this quickly. We don't-" His words were
interrupted by an emergency ping, the red light indicating a
General on the other end.
"Thank you for your input." General Hunter said, and the Chiefs
sat a little straighter, their expressions a little more severe.
General hunter watched the subtle transformation around the table
with pride. His Chiefs bickered and fought among themselves, they
challenged and questioned him, but against outsiders they would
back him up to the hilt. Hunter squared his shoulders and slid
his hand across the acceptance button.
In the center of the table, two holographic screens opened, the
first displaying General Poulay's severe face, glaring down over
her glasses with disapproval. On the other was a bright and
rugged face, grey hair matching a grey scar that ran the length
of his face and down across his throat.
"Congratulations on your promotion, General Winchest." General
Hunter nodded to the new General, ignoring Poulay.
"Nnnnot bad for someone who was sitting in your prison cell just
a few short days ago, eh Gen'ral Hunter?" Winchest's throat
augmentation took a second to kick on, and the first few words of
his sentence came out in a harsh rasp, but the man seemed in good
spirits.
"It's a messy business, this." Hunter nodded sagely. "I hope that
we can end this 'embargo' matter quickly, now that we don't have
stubborn hands at the helm."
"His was not the only stubborn hand at a helm, General." Poulay
spoke sharply.
"I'm just as eager to end this nastiness as you, General Hunter.
Fortunately for both of us, I fully expect this meeting to end
our differences." Winchest spoke much more confidently than
Hunter would've expected. During his first few meetings, Hunter
had stuttered and stammered over the most basic trade ratio
agreements; he wasn't sure how he would've handled a war meeting
back then. Out of the corner of his eye, Hunter watched small
messages scrolling across the top of the screen at his desk, sent
surreptitiously from his Chiefs.
"Seems too calm." ~Errisa
"Smooth as steel, this one. Expected jumpier." ~Mabel
"Too easy. Has ace-in-hole?" ~Kathryn
"Am I to take it you have a proposal?" Hunter cleared the
messages with a wave. Despite his Chief's misgivings, he was
calm. Hunter was prepared to end the war now, without concessions
on either side. If Winchest was about to make an offer, it could
hardly hurt to hear him out, and perhaps Pivot would come out
ahead in this little misadventure.
"I do." Winchest looked down at the screen in front of him,
invisible to General Hunter. "I am proposing that you step down
as General of Orbital Pivot." He would've gone on, but the Chiefs
around the table erupted into exclamations of shock and outrage.
Too calm. What are you holding? Hunter scrutinized General
Winchest in the screen, trying to read something in his face.
After a few moments, the din died down, and Winchest continued as
if he hadn't been interrupted.
"You will remain in Orbital Pivot as a Chief-level, in a position
of your choice. Control of Orbital Pivot will pass to me, to be
held in addition to my current post."
"You have to know my answer to this question, General Winchest."
Hunter felt more keyed up and tense the more relaxed and
comfortable Winchest seemed. "We're at a stalemate in this war,
and by our calculations you'll have to switch to half power in a
few days. You can't keep this up without the supplies from
General Buramis and Orbital Minera..." Hunter sighed and closed
his eyes at the realization. "...who has thrown her lot in and
joined you, hasn't she."
"Unfortunately not. General Buramis," General Poulay spoke the
name as if it had a distasteful flavor, "has for whatever reason
made it clear that she still wishes to back you in this childish
and dangerous midlife crisis."
"What then? I don't have time for this." Hunter slammed his hand
down on the table. "What have you got that makes you so
god-damned cocky?"
"General Hunter, the technicians of Orbital Techrider have made
note of activity on a vector towards Orbital Pivot." To his
credit, General Winchest didn't deliver the news with the
smugness that Auspus would've, although Poulay looked on with a
self-satisfied smile. "At this point there is enough resolution
to identify it through the fog. There is a Terran Shrike team on
a course for your Orbital."
"You're lying." General Hunter spat. Across the table, Chief Exla
stood from her seat and made her way out of the room, and Chief
Kathryn slammed a few keystrokes into her personal screen. Hunter
nodded as emergency lights across the edges of the room glowed
with a steady blue. The same emergency warning lights would be
lighting in every room and hallway of the Orbital. Lying or not,
they couldn't afford to take chances.
"We knew you would assume as much." General Winchest said. "We
have a transmission packet waiting to send, containing the scan
data. You'll see that we aren't lying."
"The last Drake attack was two months ago, Winchest!" Hunter
shouted. "They can't rally a Shrike team that fast, they've never
been able to, we know that about the Terrans."
"And the Drake attack preceding it was only three months before
that, Hunter. Which, if you'll remember, had also never
happened." Winchest was too calm for such a disaster, Hunter was
so sure that he was lying...no matter what his gut was telling
him. Hunter rested his head on one hand, the energy and life that
had surged through him a mere hour ago suddenly drained.
"You son of a bitch." He snarled, staring at the table in front
of him. Around him, his Chiefs were frozen and staring back and
forth between them, all but Kathryn, who continued to throw
orders across her screen as fast as her fingers would let her.
"I assure you General, I'm not the one that brought them."
"You're the one who's fucking lying about it." Hunter snapped. "A
Shrike team, coming up off the surface less than ten weeks from
the last Drake attack? And of the five Orbitals to hit, they
just-so-happen to be headed for Pivot? Bullshit."
"He's having so much trouble accepting this, I almost don't want
to tell him the rest." General Poulay smirked.
"He deserves to know." Winchest said shortly, turning back to the
screen. "Hunter...they've got a Drake with them."
The silence stretched for long minutes, before Hunter gave off a
strangled laugh.
"A Shrike team and a Drake. Now you're just being transparent
Winchest. What else is there? Are they sending the fog at us like
a weapon? Perhaps tossing the planet at us with an oversized
slingshot?"
"Hunter, this isn't a joking matter."
"Oh no, I should think not, what with Shrikes and Drakes and the
kitchen sink flying in our face. It's about as serious as matters
can get." Hunter chuckled weakly. "And I suppose Orbital Academy
can convince them all to turn around and fly away if we give you
what you ask for?"
"I'm going to be honest with you, Hunter." General Winchest
leaned forward. "I'm not sure we can drive them off. Both at the
same time? I'm not sure at alll. But if we do, it will only be
because every damn ship, every damn trick, and every damn
resource in the entire Orbit is dedicated to it. Even with all
the firepower we can throw at them, it might not be enough."
"So I abdicate, you take over, and we just wait for this
convenient swarm to show up then shall we?" Hunter said
sarcastically. Kathryn had finally finished typing in her
commands, her men presumably moving through the station to
prepare.
"No." General Winchest shot a look at his other screen before
speaking. "What happens is that you give me your word, in front
of us Generals and your Chiefs, that you will abdicate. Then we
will collectively deal with the Shrike and the Drake."
"Are you a fool?" General Poulay looked surprised for the first
time in their conversation. "You're going to give away your one
bargaining chip on his word?"
"General Hunter is a man of his word." Winchest kept Hunter's
gaze. "And if we wait until the very end, it might be too late.
We mobilize now, and we do what needs to be done. I trust Hunter
to keep his promises."
"That's a very foolish trust to place on him." Poulay began, but
General Winchest cut her off sharply.
"You mentioned in our meeting that you would follow my lead in
the negotiations, General Poulay. This is my lead. I would ask
that you keep your own word and follow."
"It makes no difference." General Hunter stood up from his seat.
His blood was pounding in his ears. "I'm not going to be bullied
into stepping down from my place as General by whatever your plan
entails."
"General Hunter, I would urge you to reconsider." Winchest said
earnestly. "Do not risk the lives of the men and women aboard
Orbital Pivot, your men and women, over stubbornness."
"You're the one risking their lives." Hunter snarled. "Your
selfish bid for power is the only thing keeping you from your
duties. If Orbital Academy isn't willing to protect the Orbit
from this, what the damned hell are you good for?"
"Orbital Academy cannot protect the Orbit without the support of
the Orbit, Hunter. Your war has removed that support."
"This conversation is over."
"We are sending you a live stream of the scanning data from
Techrider, General." Poulay was keying in strokes even as she
spoke. "Much as I dislike you and yours, the men and women under
your command don't deserve to die because you're too stupid to
make good choices."
"I hope you reconsider, General Hunter." It seemed like General
Winchest had aged over the course of the conversation. "Every
last Academy flyer will be prepped and suited up and in the
Academy hangar bays, waiting to launch. All you need to do is say
the word, and I'll give the order."
"Tell them to sit tight while you go to hell." Hunter roared,
slamming his fist so hard into the disconnect button that
something crunched beneath his fingers. "Report."
"The live stream confirms what they're telling us." Errisa's new
rasp grated on Hunter's ears.
"Could it be a fake?"
"Could be. It'd be hard to fake, but if it's real it would take
me more time to prove than we have."
"They're not likely to give us a fake feed, sir." Chief Pepper
said quietly. "It's not as if we'd give our word and then give up
control if nothing comes out of that fog."
"How long have we got?" Hunter asked, not wanting to know the
answer.
"About an hour before they break the fog."
Hunter was right. He didn't want to know.
***
"I'm supposed to inform you that all of our flyers are going to
die." Chief Exla's voice crackled in Hunter's ear as he
wordlessly pointed out on a set of blueprints where the engineers
should be moving.
"That doesn't sound like our pilots. They're usually more cocky
than that." He muttered.
"It was one of the Academy rookies. I told him that I'd pass on
the message."
"Remind me again why we let them on the damned Orbital in the
first place?"
"Because you're a sucker for a sob story?" Hunter grinned. "At
least it's another nine ships we can get in the air."
"How many flyers does that give us in total?"
"Twenty ships. Not all of them are trained well, but they should
be able to fly at least."
"It's not enough."
"It's what we've got sir."
Hunter nodded, even though Exla couldn't see him. He turned to
Chief Adamsly to continue his conversation.
"Errisa's telling me we have eighty to a hundred minutes. Can you
get it built?"
"We'll push hard." Adamsly used his stylus to make a few marks on
the blueprints. "We can definitely make it if we don't include
this section." Hunter looked the changes over. As it was drawn,
the shielding could slam shut in a nanosecond, locking the
innermost handful of decks shut so tight that a Drake itself
couldn't tear them out.
"How long after this thing shuts do we have?"
"Run out of air in twenty-four hours. I suspect we'll cook alive
in twelve though."
"Encouraging."
"I didn't invent heat dissipation sir."
"Get your men on it. I'll take cooked and suffocated
over...whatever the Terrans want with us."
"Captain, we've got visitors." Chief Kathryn's voice sounded
strained, which actually frightened Hunter.
"FUCK," he shouted, "we were supposed to have longer! We were
supposed to have an hour!"
"It's not the Shrike team sir. It's a transport from Basura. The
Red Forces."
"Oh, I forgot. Thank you Kathryn. I was expecting them."
"I think that's for me." Errisa whispered through his earpiece,
as Hunter turned on his heel and marched toward his quarters'
elevator.
"Are you ready for them my love?" He muttered into the comms.
"Ready as one can be to die, my dear."
"Aren't you so fucking funny."
"Sorry. You're a little stressed right now, I guess."
"You think?"
"Goodnight my darling. Give 'em hell from me, and I'll see you on
the other side."
Hunter reached the elevator that led to his quarters, where two
covered gurneys lay. He could've had someone do this part, but it
seemed more appropriate for him to handle them himself.
***
He met the Red Forces halfway between the hangar and the
elevator, in a long carpeted hallway. Two men and a woman, all
dressed in neat red uniforms, their frank expressions curious and
bored at the same time.
"You tracked my chip, you could've seen I was coming." Hunter
snapped.
"We wanted to see more of the station, you ended up walking less.
No harm done." The woman at the head of the group stared frankly
at the two gurneys that Hunter dragged behind me. "Are those the
offending synthetics?"
"My Chief of Information and the other frame she brought with
her." Hunter glared at the three in red.
"Why'd she bring the frame? It was empty."
"She didn't say. Maybe she thought you'd only take one back."
"Hmm. Here's your replacement." The woman stepped aside,
revealing a figure Hunter hadn't seen hidden behind the Red
Forces.
She was small and short, her long hair falling down in braids to
her knees. Her skin was pale, and her hair was snow-white.
"The Marshal appreciates what a sacrifice this is to you."
"Seven years." Hunter couldn't help but interrupt. "The sacrifice
of a marriage of seven years."
"Indeed. As a concession, he's provided you with one of Basura's
very latest models."
"That's...considerate."
"A blank slate in physical appearance, her hair color and length
are adjustable, as is her skin tint." Hunter felt bad for the
girl. No one should depend on the Red Forces for an introduction.
The Red Force woman was showing her off like the latest piece of
technology, which technically she was, but he could see the blush
rising on the girl's cheeks.
"Alright, I get the picture." He shifted from one foot to
another.
"You can even configure her pubic hair to match-"
"I get it!" Hunter growled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm a
little busy preparing for the Shrike Team."
"We heard about the incoming Shrike team. We understand you have
an option to get Orbital Academy to assist?" One of them men
asked, speaking for the first time.
"An option I won't take."
"That seems unwise. Perhaps you should reconsider."
"Are you taking this frames or what?"
"We were told to check them first."
Hunter winced as they removed the sheets from the gurneys. He
hadn't had time to grow used to the middle-aged man, but his
wife's Chief bodyframe laying cold and lifeless on the second
gurney made the pit in his stomach gnaw at him.
"Your third frame? The second your wife used?"
"I'd prefer to have my technicians transfer my new wife into that
frame. It might make the transition easier."
"Of course. We'll leave this one, and let you have use of both."
The awkwardness stretched as the Red Forces dragged the gurneys
away, leaving Hunter alone with the small woman, who stared
silently at her feet.
"Listen, um...what's your name?"
"They didn't give me one."
"I'm sorry to have to...wait, really?"
"They said you would give me one that pleased you." The woman
seemed close to tears.
They couldn't even do her the courtesy of being okay with it?
Hunter thought angrily. Instead of just forcing her out here to
be mine? He should be busying himself with preparation, but
instead he sighed and held out a hand.
"I'll take you to our room, there's someone there who can explain
things better than I can."
"Don't you have more important things to be doing?"
Hunter let his mind shift for a moment. A shrike, a drake, no
ships, no time, his wife in danger, his Orbital in danger, all of
the problems loomed around him. But here, in the girl who needed
comfort, there was at least was one tiny, insignificant problem
that he could overcome.
"Nothing comes to mind." He said kindly, and took her hand.

*** Part 3 - General of the Shrike ***
Gre lounged in his cushioned seat, idly twirling his finger
around a lock of hair of the woman who sat at his feet. She
leaned her head against his knee, subservient and compliant.
"Do nerves plague you, GEA(*great master and commander*)?" She
asked. Gre liked how she charged her words; hesitantly and
timidly, like a child. The meanings didn't spring into his mind
like a charged word normally would, instead they brushed against
it.
"Nerves?" Prince Gre chuckled at the suggestion. "I am the first
Prince to lead the ARA(*trained soldiers and warriors*) of all
three tribes to the stars, why would I waste my time with
nerves?"
"The first?" The girl looked at him with surprise. "We have sent
Shrikes to the stars 'fore now, no?" Gre smiled again. The way
she avoided long words was adorable, trying to escape the rasping
feeling of magic against one's throat. It was a harsh feeling to
get used to, but most adults had overcome their reluctance long
ago. The childlike innocent in one he slept with should have
turned him off, but although he would never admit it, her
naivette made her even more enjoyable to him.
 "The tribes have sent their Shrikes to the stars, yes." He
clarified. "But ALO(*separate and disjointed, weak and divided*).
But now we three tribes have at last been CONBI(*unified and
aligned in our purposes, united for one cause*). One tribe's
Shrikes had not touched the star-born, our Drak(*dracori) could
not pull them from the sky. Now...now we may yet break them. And
the HOI(*great gift and honor of leading*) has been made mine."
"Such a great gift is fair for one of your PEO(*strength and
power*)." The woman said, and Gre rolled his eyes. Her flattery
was as unsubtle and transparent as her burgeoning magic. "But
since when do the tribes work TSA(*alongside another*)?" Her brow
furrowed, as if she should know the answer but couldn't remember
it. "What could make them...us...let go of our DIF(*those things
which separate*)? Why don't I know what made us change?"
"You should be proud, Jia." Gre continued twisting the strand of
her blue hair around his finger, tugging affectionately. "You
were a part of that change."
"Me? How?"
"You were a gift, from the blue tribe to me. Well, to the green
tribe and thus to me. In that gift they showed that ALL(*an
alliance and joining together*) can help us both."
"I was a gift?" Jia furrowed her brow in deep thought.
"Then...did I come from the blue tribe? Why can't I remember?"
"RE(*remember and recall*)." Gre corrected, frowning. "Speak
PRI(*properly, with the decorum of a lady*)." She was still lost
in thought, and Gre tugged at the lock of hair still in his hand.
She looked up him with wide eyes, and his annoyance evaporated.
How could he be angry at the little vixen, with her innocent face
and hair that shone of blue? He tugged again, pulling her head a
little closer. When she realized what he wanted, his little pet
grinned.
"But sir! The Shrikes! Don't they need us soon?"
"They won't break through the clouds for an hour." Gre stroked
her hair, twisting his fingers through it as he pulled her head
closer to him. "Plenty of time for you to distract me."
Jia was already standing, and Gre leaned back against the
cushions as she straddled him. She had taken to wearing loose
clothes, easy to slip off of her, and Gre appreciated the ease of
access he had to her body. He pulled with a rough disregard, and
the top of her robes slipped off of her shoulders, revealing her
milky skin and large breasts. Her shining blue hair fell and
obscured the sight, and Gre impatiently flicked it aside.
"How do you wish me to be for you, my lord? How do you wish me to
act?" Jia leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck,
pulling his face in to press against her chest. Gre enjoyed the
feeling of smooth skin against his cheeks, thinking the question
over. She had shown herself to be quite the actress, able to give
him the shy and innocent, the vulgar and experienced, even, when
a dark mood took him, a play-acted reluctance. But today he was
impatient, already ready to take her. He yanked at her robes, and
she lifted to let him pull them off of her completely.
Leaning back, he took in the sight of the woman straddling him.
Jia leaned back, giving him a complete view of her whole body,
her long neck and slender arms, the new piercing in her navel,
the pouting lips of her sex. She hadn't been using the crystal
for long enough for the patch of hair between her legs to match
the blue of the hair on her head, so he had made her shave it
completely. Although he knew he would enjoy it when it grew back
in, she wore the shaved look well.
He reached down and ran a thumb over her bare mound, layering a
buzz of magic through the skin of his finger.
"Oh!" Jia gasped, and Gre smiled. The magic would be working
through her loins, exciting nerves and stimulating senses. "My
lord wants me soon, it would seem!"
"Your lord wants you *now*." Gre growled. He slid a finger
experimentally inside of her, and nodded approvingly when she
pushed her hips forward, moving it deeper. Her slit was already
accommodatingly wet, but he shot another surge of magic through
his fingertips, a lance of lust that would take her from the
inside, moving from toe to head. Jia shivered and wiggled her
hips, moving his finger around inside her.
"If my lord wants me now, then take me now." She said
breathlessly. "I am yours." Gre untied the lacings of his pants,
and she lifted obligingly to let him slip the fabric down his
legs. He watched her face as she looked down at his exposed
member, and the hungry look in her eyes was enough to erase
doubts he might have. The Dukes wouldn't like it if they knew he
was taking the girl's body, but at the moment he didn't
particularly care.
Jia was rubbing her shaved sex against his cock, but he didn't
have any patience for teasing at the moment. He grabbed her hips
and pulled her towards him, and taking his suggestion she reached
down and guided his member between her legs. Breathing heavily,
Jia lowered herself down on him, taking him inside her inch by
inch. Impatient as he was, Gre let her move at her own pace. She
was wet, but she was so tight that he didn't dare thrust like he
wanted to; he didn't want to risk actually hurting her. Her
snatch squeezed at his shaft with every motion, and her hands
were clenched into fists on his chest. It was nearly too much,
the expression on her face and the tightness of her cunt, her
willingness and her naked body on top of him.
"Oh fuck." Jia whimpered through clenched teeth. "Fuck, your cock
is too big for me." The dirty words in her sweet little mouth
almost sent him over the edge, and Gre pushed her away, grunting
as his length slipped out of her. The Dukes would only be
*displeased* if they knew he took her body, if he came in her and
got her with child they would have his head on a pike. Jia looked
worried as he held her at arm's length. "I didn't mean you had to
stop, my lord, I can try to take it all." She said.
"No need." Gre brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. "If
you are in pain, you can please me in other ways." He brushed his
thumb over her lips, and she smiled and slid down between his
legs.
She was awkward and inexperienced with her mouth, but her efforts
at riding him already had Gre hovering on the edge of orgasm.
When she took his dick between her lips and began to suck he
leaned back and breathed deeply. Her tongue slid back and forth
across its head, and the knowledge that she was licking up her
own juices made him even harder in her mouth. He grabbed a
handful of her beautiful blue hair and pulled her head further
down, thrusting his member deeper into her throat. She gagged,
but staunchly bobbed her head up and down, taking him in her
mouth all the way down to the root and then sliding him out to
take a breath again.
After the pleasure of penetrating her, it took less than minutes
to push him to the edge once more, and Gre clenched the arms of
his chair and let out a sigh as he came. Jia moved her tongue
more slowly as he filled her mouth with his cum, and he forgot
his reservations as he enjoyed the feeling of suction and warmth
that she provided.
"Oh Jia! Gods JIA(*my darling gem, my little jewel*)." He charged
the word involuntarily, letting the orgasm get the better of him.
His cry turned into a moan as he slowly came down off of the high
of it. Jia looked up at him, her smiling mouth full but a
question in her eyes.
"Swallow it." Gre ordered. Jia made a face, as if she would stick
out her tongue at him, but she obediently gulped, then opened her
mouth to show him it was empty. "Good girl."
"Thank you, my lord. I am glad to have pleased you." Jia wiped
her mouth and reached for her robes, and Gre began adjusting his
own.
"You do please me. You were a fine gift."
"My lord..." Jia seemed pensive as she slide her robe back on.
"What was that you called me, just then? JIA(*my darling gem, my
little jewel*)?"
"What of it?" Gre began preparing for the Shrikes' assault, using
a tongue of magic to heat the container of water that stood on
the table nearby. "You may not have earned your NEA(*honorable
second name, charged name*) yet, but in times like that...well.."
He shrugged. It was no strange things to call out a lover's name
with a magical charge, in a moment of passion. Not that Jia would
know that, of course.
"It's just...I feel as if I have heard that name. But
DIF(*changed a tiny bit, the smallest fraction*). Not JIA(*my
darling gem, my little jewel*)...but JIA(*my darling gem, my
little Jule*)? Or JIA(*my darling gem, my little Julia*)? I don't
know..." Jia suddenly clutched her head in her hands, "...those
aren't even words. I don't understand what I'm feeling right
now."
"UN(*fully comprehend*)." Gre snapped the correction, startling
her out of her reverie. "You don't UN(*completely grasp all of
the details*) what you're FAE(*experiencing within your heart*),
Jia you are full grown, it is EMB(*makes you look childish, makes
me look foolish*) when you use such words. And as for what names
you have heard." His voice was cold, and his lip curled with
disdain. "I have no want to hear of your past bed mates and what
they called you."
"Oh gods, my lord I did not mean-"
"I know, you mean no harm, but guard your tongue Jia, else you
bring harm REG(*without intending to*)." Jia looked at her feet,
then went about preparing the rest of the tent, arranging a small
pillows on the floor of the warm tent, crushing herbs in a bowl
at the table. Gre almost felt guilty, steamrolling the poor girl
into ignoring her own memories, but the more he let her remember,
the longer it would take for the magic at work in her mind to
take effect.
It had smoothed over most of the wrinkles that the past had left,
but the work was fragile yet. Overt memories like family and
friends, lovers and home, had been locked away. Her name was more
primary to who she was, and it was foolish of him to call her by
something so similar.
"My Lord." One of his men called from outside the tent. "The
Shrikes will slip from the clouds soon."
"You may enter." Gre glanced at Jia, but she was decent and
covered, and had even pulled her long hair back into a ponytail
to hide how dishevelled it was. Of course, his men would know or
assume what he used her for, but Gre appreciated decorum. His
Linkers entered, all of them dressed in robes of deep green.
"I hope you are all PRE(*ready to witness and be a part*) of this
day." Gre said gravely, as Jia walked among the Linkers, handing
each a small clay cup of the tea. "The first day we win a Shrike,
the first day we set foot on the stars."
"So say all who lead a Shrike." One of the Linkers seemed weary,
although he met Gre's eyes steadily. "I have heard this speech
before."
"No more words then." Gre stepped over to his cushioned chair and
settled in it, letting the Linkers settle onto the cushions on
the ground and accepting his own cup of tea from Jia. "You have
heard the speech? Then let us live it."
***
Gre smacked his lips and grimaced. As usual, the tea had tasted
foul, but it had acted quickly. Though he could still faintly see
the walls of his tent, his ethereal visions was becoming stronger
by the second. He moved his head from side to side
experimentally, and although his physical body stayed still, his
vision swam as the view changed.
"I have SEA(*merged and slipped within the mind*) with my Drya."
He said casually, as if he wasn't proud about being the first.
*Just another reminder whose magics are the most powerful.*
"I have SEA(*dipped into the thoughts*), my lord."
"As have I."
One by one his Linkers around the room called out, and Gre
mentally counted them off. Seven minds, all connected with the
minds of the far-off animals. He turned his head, and thousands
of leagues away the previously-dumb Drya turned his in response,
looking back and forth through the fog at those around him. Gre
felt the creature's muscles shift like his own, he felt the heavy
weight of its scales on his back. He turned to watch the giant
Dracori that flew with them, and around it the rest of the Drya,
smaller versions of the same creature.
Gre watched the swarm around him carefully. It was easy to tell
the difference between a mindless Drya and one whose mind was
possessed of his Terran brethren, although he couldn't pinpoint
exactly what had changed. The way they moved, the way they looked
around them, every line of their scaled bodies seemed to speak of
intelligence. The riders on the back of each Drya could tell as
well, for they were whooping and cheering from their backs now.
Gre smiled even though the Drya he possessed could not mimic the
action.
"My lord," the Linker's voice sounded far away, "would it not
have been best if you took the Drak(*dracori*)?" The man's
implication was clear: wouldn't it be better for *anyone* to take
the Dracori instead of the untried and unconfident woman? In his
small Drya body, Gre glanced up at the magnificent creature just
beside him.
All Dracori were awe-inspiring, of course, but Gre had a special
place in his heart for a Dracori-of-the-Wave. Its scales were so
dark that they appeared black in the light of the surface, but
against the true dark of space their scales revealed the
beautiful deep blue within.
"Jia, have you SEA(*melded minds*) with the Drak yet?" Gre's own
voice sounded faint in his ears.
"I am TRI(*attempting something that is new, struggling with
something difficult*)."
"My lord, if I may-" one of the Linkers began, but Gre cut him
off sharply.
"I am not a fool. The girl will link to the DRA(*dracori*), and
you will hold your tongue." Even locked away under layers of
magic, the girl had knowledge that would help them make this the
most successful Shrike team, the only successful Shrike team, to
ever be sent to the Exiles' moons.
*That is assuming she can slip into his mind.* He thought
worriedly, glancing up at the Dracori again with the eyes of his
Drya. On the creature's back rode the green tribe's little gift,
her legs wrapped tight in the saddle that had been fashioned just
for her. She had no idea what an honor she had received; the
first human to ride on the back of a Dracori, and she hadn't even
been born a Terran. Even so, the girl on the dragon's back looked
around her with glee in her one good eye, the other hidden behind
a cloth patch and her short green hair.
Gre was startled out of his reverie when the Dracori suddenly
turned its head to look back at him, an intelligence in its eyes.
"I did it my lord!" Jia said excitedly.
"Good girl." Gre murmured approvingly. "Now we must-"
It was his third time in control of a creature who broke through
the green fog, but it still took his breath away each time. A
deep blackness speckled with points of light, the darkest void
punctuated by the brightest tiny lights.
"The torches in the emptiness." One of the Linkers said quietly.
It sounded as if he was crying, but there was no shame in that,
especially if it was his first time. Even Gre felt a tear slide
down his cheek.
"It somehow feels like home." Jia murmured, and Gre hurriedly got
them back on track.
"There is the Exiles' moon," he pointed with a scaled claw, "the
blemish that taints the beautiful darkness of space." The Dracori
and the smaller Drya, each controlled from within the tent,
turned and moved in the direction he had indicated. The Exiles'
moon sat like an ugly diamond in the sky, still some ways off.
"Where are the Exiles' small beasts?" One of the Linkers asked.
"Our riders are still gob-stuck at the sight of the stars." Gre
reassured. "They will soon give us sight." In a few moments he
was proven right, as the men and women who rode on the Drya began
casting spells. Something behind Gre's borrowed eyes clicked, and
suddenly he could see for leagues, his vision enhanced and
sharpened by the magic that coursed through the beast.
"What is this? A trick? A trap?" He looked around with his newly
enhanced vision, but his magical eyes revealed the same
information they had without magic; a paltry twenty of the metal
beasts circled the Exiles' moon. He wracked his memory for
stories of Shrikes in the past. Were the Exiles holding back?
Hiding in the moon? Why?
"Did we catch them UA(*with stealth and skill, catching them
unawares without even meaning to*)?"
"They know when we come." Gre dismissed the Linker's idea, and he
wrinkled his scaly brow in thought. "Yet here they fly, with just
the SCNU(*a trifling number, barely as many as they send for a
single Dracori*). Two tens of them? And not a beast more?"
"They fight each other." Jia spoke as if she was in a daze, or
trying to recall through the haze of memory. "The moon that gifts
the small beasts must be at war with the moon we fly to."
"There is just one moon that gifts the beasts?" Gre asked,
surprised.
"Just one. Academy." Jia answered, and although Gre frowned, he
didn't reprimand her.
"There they are. To the west, far, far to the west." A Linker
said, and Gre looked out across the leagues and leagues of space
between them. Sure enough, the horrible metal beasts were
departing from the faroff moon.
*Too far away.* Gre realized with glee. *It will take them too
long to get here.*
"AYA(*attack without mercy, rend them apart*)."
It took only a few more minutes for them to close the distance
between the clouds and the Exiles' moon, and even before then the
riders began casting spells. The lights from the spells with
their fiery trials were like comets streaking across the heavens,
and although they were too far away to aim well, Gre knew that
they struck fear into the hearts of their enemies. The Exiles'
beasts left trails too as they hurtled towards them, and
excitement bubbled in Gre's chest as he watched the two groups
move closer.
"I know them!" Jia sounded excited too, as their enhanced vision
let them see the Exiles within the beasts. "I know how they
fight...I know what they'll do." Gre hoped she wouldn't think too
hard about how she knew them, but before he had time to worry
about it the two tiny armies met, and chaos reigned.
Gre had faced the Exiles in winged combat before, in the empty
reaches of space. Their beasts were nimble and they were
intelligent, but there were certain maneuvers that never failed
to confound their sense. He tried one right from the start,
spreading his wings and snapping to a halt in the air. The
Exile's beast in front of him was firing jets of flame, but it
had tried to lead him with the shots. His sudden stop had
confused his opponent, as it always did, and Gre smiled
predatorily as it floundered in the air, trying to make a wide
turn like a fish. He swept forward to take advantage of his
enemy's weakness, landing on the beast and tearing at its wings
with his claws. His rider raised a shield of ice to deflect the
bursts of flame fired by his enemy's comrades.
Gre would've liked to rip through to the helpless human Exile
within its dead beast, but instead he launched off of the metal
carcass and returned to the fray. Every tooth and claw was needed
in a Shrike, especially if they were to be the first to succeed.
To his right one of the Drya was pierced through the heart with a
gout of flame, and Gre's human ears on the planet heard the
Linker scream in pain.
"SIA(*still the mewling tongue in your cowardly head*)!" Gre
snapped, trying to focus on the scolding and the fighting at the
same time. "You lay here, hurt but safe. Your brave RIA(*the
steadfast, the courageous, the rider*) shall fall through space
till the end of time, thanks to your PIT(*horrifying lack of
skill*)." He vaguely heard the healers helping the Linker out,
but he dismissed all thought of him.
*The Linker will at least live.* He thought sadly, watching the
dead Drya and rider float off into the void while trying to dodge
blasts of fire himself.
"We bring more Drya than ever we have, and they bring less
beasts." Laughed one of the Linkers next to him in the tent. Gre
cast his gaze around and found him in space, a skinny Drya who
was chasing one of the Exile's beasts down. "Pso will be the last
of us lost in this fight." Though Gre privately agreed, he stole
another glance at the Exile beasts coming from the other moon,
Academy, still a long ways away. They flew as fast as he had ever
seen their beasts fly, but...he glanced around the battlefield
again.
*...They do not fly fast enough.*
"Eyes down." He snapped, and a few Drya dove to intercept Exiles'
beasts that were trying to sneak up from beneath them. "Do you
think me a fool, Exiles?" He muttered under his breath. "I fight
not as if I am on land, I know that a fight in the stars is as
one in the sea. We watch up and down." Even so, he *had* had to
warn the others, perhaps he should focus more on command and less
on fighting. As much as he wished to take part in the battle
himself, Gre flew a small ways away, watching the fight from a
wide view.
"One of you, go help Kon." He ordered. "The poor fool has three
beasts on his tail." Other than Kon, the rest of them were doing
well. Already the dead husks of metal beasts floated in the
field, and only one of his own had fallen. In the middle of the
battlefield, like a planet around whom the fight orbited, Jia and
Tes fought the Exiles. It was beautiful, in both concept and in
execution. They did not remember their old comrades, but they
instinctively knew how they thought. They had no memory of being
lovers, but their motions synced and complimented each other as
if they were one body, even with Jia in the body of a Dracori.
Tes was hurling out lances of magic, arcing from her fist into
space. It was wild and unkempt magic, and it rarely struck its
target, but when it did hit an Exile it would draw the beast in,
yanking it against its will and reeling it towards the center.
Try as they might, any ship so ensnared would soon come within
reach of Jia's claws, and she would pluck it from the air as
easily as a farmer might pluck a pomfruit.
*She's being very delicate with them.* Gre realized with worry.
The great beast was carefully raking her claws across the beasts
she captured, shearing off metal wings and destroying their
firing stings and then leaving them to drift in space, when she
could have been crushing them in her giant teeth or ripping them
apart to leave their human occupants drifting instead. Gre had
heard Exiles died in space, gasping for air like fishes out of
water. *Could it be that a part of Jia's mind is still one of
them?* He worried. *Is she concerned about hurting them?*
Jia unleashed her first breath, and all doubt left Gre's mind. On
the surface the Dracori-of-the-wave's breath would be powerful, a
stream of water that could crush houses into rubble. Out in the
depths of space, it was devastating. Shapeless globules of water
shot forth from her mouth, of such size and speed that they were
overwhelming to even look at. One globule hit a moving beast with
such force that the metal dented, slamming it backward. Although
the lights remained, the ship drifted, so its human must be dead
within. Another beast became trapped inside a sphere of water,
its tail flaring but unable to move.
"The beasts from Academy come soon." Jia murmured, and the
Dracori began moving. The Drya followed, Gre right behind.
Exiles' beasts buzzed around them like flies, but Jia crushed
them like flies as well; plucking some out of the air, blasting
waves of water at others. On her back, Tes flung lightning bolts
of magic across the skies, and the other riders had taken her
cues. Instead of the mix of spells that a Shrike team usually
used, the void between the stars was filled with arcing
lightning, and where they struck the beasts, their lights died.
Gre couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the display. Yes, the
Exiles inside still lived, he could see that, but within their
dead beasts they could do nothing to stop the Shrike. He had
heard the Princes speak of their attempts, attempts to burn, to
crush, to melt, to kill, but Jia and Tes knew exactly how to stop
them. For a moment Gre considered staying and waiting for the
Academy Exiles to reach them, but he shook his head.
Overconfidence would do him no favors, and it wasn't needed when
he was so close.
The Exiles' moon loomed before him, closer than he had ever seen
it before.
*Closer than anyone has seen it before.* He thought triumphantly.
*Closer than-*
"DIVE!" Jia suddenly screamed. Gre shot downward out of instinct,
as did most of the others. Less than a second after the girl had
screamed, the Exiles' moon fired.
It was as if someone had bottled the sun and now hurled it just
behind Gre's head. He wasn't looking at the beam, but the heat of
it burned his skin, even in the blank ether of space where heat
did not move as freely as in the air. Their riders must've been
confused and disoriented before, but they were screaming now,
shrieking in terror. Ahead of him Jia's Dracori was flying and
Gre blindly followed her as another bottled sun blazed past them.
"What is happening? How is this happening?" He could hear the
healers shrieking in the tent, but Gre couldn't focus on anything
but following the Dracori-of-the-waves in front of him. They were
so close now, so close to the very surface of the moon, it
*couldn't* end like this. Another bottled sun blinded him for
moment, and then his claws scrambled on a metal surface, his
scaly belly touched a warm and solid ground. Gre panted in his
comfortable chair, waiting long tense moments for sight to return
to his Drya.
Slowly, he began making out blurry shapes around him. After the
sudden screaming and panic, the silence seemed deafening, both to
his ears in space and his ears in the tent. He looked around,
blinking rapidly. Panting, dishevelled, but whole and alive,
three Drya and their riders looked back at him, as did Tes and
the Dracori. They stood on the smooth metal surface of the
Exiles' moon.
"They can't hurt us here. They risk harming their moon." Jia
said, breaking the silence.
"Healers, what happened to the others? What were you screaming
about?" One of the Linkers said shakily. Still in control of
their Drya, none of them could move their heads to look around
them in the tent.
"They died." One of the healers finally said. "They died right in
front of us. I...I didn't know they could die."
"And now-" Gre cleared his throat, shaken but determined not to
show it. "-now we give the Exiles back their death. Jia."
On his order, the Dracori flexed the muscles along its wide arms.
It sunk its claws into the surface of the moon, rending it and
sending huge shards of metal floating into the air.
"It is a great ACI(honor of exploration and conquest,
accomplishment that none have achieved), to make it in the moon."
He said, as the Dracori dug into the surface beneath them.
"The Exiles will try to push us out, of course. They will fall on
us in waves." Despite their success, the Linker's voice sounded
muted and downcast. Gre's answer was similarly grim.
"I hope so."