Scarlet Steel

Mechs are divided into four broad categories depending on weight. Scout mechs hover around 5 tons, medium mechs cap out at 10, and large mechs at 20. Behemoths are a rare sight, expensive and rarely practical, when deployed they tower over the battlefield. Measuring up to fifty tons, these mechs are truly a sight to behold. - An Idiot’s Guide to Mechs, 3rd edition.

I hurry through the warehouse and into the living room. Juno is off in the corner with Graff, the two of them lifting weights. Elara and Xenia are sitting together, quietly chatting. Exa is sitting alone in front of the windows, staring out at the stars. I forget my hunger and walk straight up to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just going through some stuff.” She says quietly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I sit down next to her.

She glances at me and forces a small smile before returning back to staring at the stars.

“Do you really want to talk about my problems? Sit here and use your two hour break listening to me bitch and moan?”

“It’s not my ideal break,” I admit. “But if it’ll help, yeah.”

“It’s nothing important. Just some memories and catching up on the years I missed.”

“Let’s get your mind off things then!” I hop off the couch and hold out my hand. She takes it, and I pull her to her feet. “Come on, what new parts do we have for Hoppy?”

“You’ve got a two hour break.” She reminds me.

“Then let’s burn it working.” I stop by the kitchen on my way. “You’ve got food bars here, right?”

“For now. If that’s all you’re going to eat, we’re going to have to restock soon.” Exa opens a cabinet and tosses me one.

I don’t even check the flavor, just pull back the wrapping and chow down.

“Scarlet!” Juno calls out, stopping me from heading back to my mech. She heads straight towards me. “Before you go, I’ve got a pill you need to take.”

“Why?” I ask.

“To avoid neutrino poisoning during FTL travel.”

“I- what?” One of the effects of antimatter obliteration is the eventual expulsion of neutrinos. Now, I haven’t researched a ton about them, but I do know that they rarely interact with matter. “How?”

“There’s an awful lot of space between stars, and even in our localized bubble while traveling, we still get hit by the radiation. Most forms can be blocked by a thick enough hull, but those little neutrino bastards don’t care. You’re going to get a small dose of radiation, and a large dose if we travel through the wrong part of the universe. If you want radiation burns and to be puking your guts out for a week, feel free to ignore it.”

“No no! I’ll take it!” I take the pill out of her hand, pop it in my mouth, and swallow.

“You’re going to want to finish your food quickly.” Juno warns. “We reach a safe distance from the sun in just a few minutes, and we’re going FTL as soon as we do.”

“Oh I want to see this!” I rush back to the couch.

“There’s not much to see.” Exa says, but follows regardless.

“So how does this work?” I ask.

“That’s the funny part, we don’t actually know. The exact mechanics are a closely guarded secret, to the point where there’s only a single company that produces the part necessary, Full House. What we do know is that it projects a bubble around the ship, altered space. It’s that bubble that lets us travel faster than light.”

“But how?” I ask.

“That’s the billion arc question. And just a warning, don’t try to measure anything outside the ship. Every ship that tries blows up.”

“What? Why?”

“Hell if I know.” Exa shrugs. “Research ships have a habit of doing so though.”

“You can see flashes of light in deep space sometimes.” Elara adds. “A ship will go missing, and then a few years later, we get a new star in the sky for a few minutes.”

“Which is why you won’t have anything to see.” Exa continues. “We turn off the outside sensors and just have a simulation of where we are in real space displayed on the windows.”

“How do we navigate then?” I ask. “Like, how do we avoid running into stuff?”

“Two ways. First is that space is big.” Juno explains. “There’s just not much to run into. Second, the local space generator does the navigation for us. It knows where it’s going. All we have to do is keep the thing powered. When you get close to an inhabited star, however, almost all of them have real space enforcers, preventing the creation of local space while you’re close enough to damage anything.”

“How’d you get by not knowing any of this?” Graff yells over. “The hell are they teaching you in school these days?”

“I don’t know, I stopped going to school when my dad died.” I say back, my voice flat. “The only thing I bothered to teach myself was engineering.”

“Eh.” He shrugs and returns to lifting.

“Do you have a problem?” I ask.

“I’m trying to avoid a problem, and you’re welcome for it.”

Exa gestures, warning me to let it go. Fine. I stay quiet.

It’s a minute of awkward silence before Juno starts saying orders.

“Janus, Andromeda, prepare the ship for local space.”

“Order confirmed.” Andromeda responds. “Switching cameras to simulation. EM shield activated. Exits sealed. All external sensors disabled. System checks green. Route prepared. Ready for launch command.”

“Secondary checks confirmed green.” Janus adds.

“Excllent. Scarlet, ensure you’re strapped in. Launch.”

“Wait!” I scramble, searching for any kind of belt or harness in the cracks of the seat. I freeze when the first laugh reaches my ears. Graff is howling with laughter in the corner, and the rest of them are trying to hold in their amusement. “You little bitch.” I mumble to myself.

That’s enough to break Exa’s concentration, who bursts out into laughter. That pushes Xenia into full-on laughter, while Juno and Janus just smile and shake their heads.

“So are we moving then?” I ask in a desperate attempt to distract myself from my embarrassment. Seemingly nothing has changed. I don’t feel any force and the screens haven’t changed.

“I warned you there’s not much to see.” Exa says. “Our simulation will change over the course of a week or so, but that’s it.”

“I thought I’d at least feel something.”

“Nope. Now come on, we’ve got a mech to fix up.” She stands up and pats me on the shoulder.

“Wait, where are we even going?” I ask.

“Earth.” Juno answers. “No human or AI should live without seeing our home.”

“Wait, Exa, you said something about that once, right? I thought we couldn’t go there?”

“There’s a shield around it,” Exa says. “Doesn’t mean we can’t look at it from high orbit. Sure you could look at a picture, but I agree. Seeing it with your own eyes is something else.”

“I don’t really get why it’s so special, but alright.” I shrug. “Can we finally get to work?”

“Sure.”

That’s all I need to hurry to the warehouse, but I manage to go slowly until I’m out of sight of everyone but Exa. I don’t mind if she sees how excited I am..

“So what do we need to do?” I yell over my shoulder.

“Replace anything performing over or under spec.” She doesn’t bother to speak from her body, just uses speakers hidden in the walls. “We tend to work in contested zones, so we’re going to get your hopper running as well as we’re legally allowed.”

“Why?” I ask. “With actual parts, I could make something way better.”

“Yeah, so can a lot of people. We’re better off fighting where laws exist, relying on our skills on even ground, rather than fighting a bandit or illegal corporation that’s decided to see if they can make a one meter shell.”

“Ok, yeah, sure.” I can’t help but be a little disappointed.

“Look, if you want a project mech, you can put your income towards it. Graff and Janus both have one in cold storage and take them out to fight rings sometimes. But Hoppy? Your main mech? You can't risk your life with anything less than a textbook design.”

“Right, ok.” That's pretty convincing. “My engine output is within 5% of standard. We can leave that alone for now. The biggest thing that it needs is a flywheel and both hip motors replaced.”

“There’s more to an engine than just output. What’s its impact resistance look like? Heat management under extreme load? How much antimatter can the tubes handle before overloading?”

“It’s taken a few bad falls without breaking. Heat management is fine, even without working air conditioning. I haven’t been able to check once a photon lock shield is being powered, however. My simulations show the tubes are big enough to handle even a full load, the cell output will fail before my engine does.”

“She’s going to take bigger hits than just a fall.” Exa warns. “But fine. We’ll call it less important. How do you think you’ll handle zero-g?”

“Wait, you can turn off gravity?”

“Scarlet, you’re smarter than that.”

“Right, yeah.” Of course they can turn off gravity. All of this is already artificial. “Whatever, just turn it off!”

“Just keep this close.” Exa reaches up under her shirt and pulls out a small bag with a plastic ring around the opening.

“What is this?” I ask, taking it from her.

“A vomit bag.”

My stomach twists into knots as the ground disappears from under my feet. My arms fling backwards to arrest my fall. The ground passes by over my head, giving way to the ceiling once again. I slam my eyes shut and force myself to go still.

“Relax.” Exa orders. Hands grab my arms and quickly wrap around me. It does little to settle my stomach, but at least the world’s stopped spinning. “You're not about to vomit on me, are you?”

It's all I can do to shake my head, although that just makes things worse. Attempting to speak will absolutely paint Exa’s shirt with my lunch.

“Good.” One arm lets go of me, only to move into my vision, vomit bag in hand. She lets it go, leaving the bag floating just in front of me. “It’s here if you need it.”

“I’m ok.” I say quietly. “How are you-” I swallow hard and force myself to let out a deep breath. “You’re still standing.”

“Electromagnets in my feet. And small air jets in my torso to cancel out the reactive forces.” She answers. “I’ll keep you anchored, just relax. Don’t move, and just get used to it.”

“I thought I'd be fine.” I whine. “A spacie said it's just motion sickness, and I've flown my drone enough that I don't get that anymore.”

“I imagine it helps. You’re taking it better than some people I’ve seen.”

She keeps me anchored as time passes by, and slowly my nausea settles.

“I’m ok.” I push against her a little. She still keeps her arms around me, but lets me test moving around a tiny bit. “So where do I need to go?”

“Up.” Exa glances towards the ceiling, and I follow her line of sight. Directly above us, a large section of the… Do I still call it a roof? A large part of the floor above us has opened up, revealing a deep compartment behind it. “I’ve extended a ladder against the wall-”

“No, no. I've got this. I push fully out of her arms, ready to brace against the ground, only to find myself drifting parallel to the floor, just out of reach. “Uh, a little help?”

Exa laughs and walks over, her feet making a dull metal click with every step. She grabs me and helps me get my feet onto the ground.

“Don't push off too hard.” She warns. “You'll crack your head.”

“I won't.” I promise. The moment she lets go, I jump. I fly through the air, gracefully tumbling end over end once again. I throw my arms in wide circles, and actually slow down a little!

Exa catches me just a moment later, arresting my rotation.

“Lead with your arms. Don't try to flip over to land on your feet. You'll just bounce off.”

“Right.”

Exa hits the ceiling with a loud click, and helps me to the new ground. Handholds are common on the ceiling. She steps easily towards the new entrance, and I crawl behind her, constantly overshooting my movements. Exa steps into open air, and begins to slide downwards from some invisible force.

“Stupid thrusters.” I mumble as I throw myself over the edge.

Inside is a long compartment with endless parts lining the walls. I could build several brand new mechs with everything in here.

“Parts get damaged in the field.” Exa explains, reading my mind. “So we keep replacements on hand.” She floats down an open corridor, and I jump from part to part, following the best I can. She stops in front of a familiar motor.

It’s absolutely spotless. No rust, no dents, no wear and tear. Nothing but a perfect hip motor.

“It was this easy all along? I had to drag mine for miles!”

“Guess so.” She gives me a smile. “Let’s get to work.”