Scarlet Steel

“Today’s report uncovers the true extent of the interstellar black market. Our investigation reveals it has grown into a multi trillion arc industry in the last decade. Hard times are causing more sectors of the spur to embrace these criminals, despite the efforts of the wider universe. Coming up after these messages, what you can do to help efforts.” - Spur News Network.

I wake not to an announcement, but to a knock on the door.

“I’m done, Kid.” Exa’s voice comes out of a speaker in the ceiling. “Against my better judgement, we can head planetside if you want.”

“Alright!” I yell back and rush to get dressed. It only takes a minute to squeeze into my survival suit and to hurry downstairs. Exa is leaning against the wall opposite of me. She stays quiet, and I rush past her, leading the way towards the hanger.

Hoppy is waiting for us, and the dropship is already docked. I climb into the cockpit and begin the startup sequence before Exa can climb up into her compartment.

Her holo’s already in the dash. Batteries on, computer checks green, magnetic fields on, wait.

“It’s not too late to back out.” She reminds me before climbing into her compartment.

“I don’t want to.”

“Yeah, I know.” Her voice is sad, but I don’t let myself think about that. I just need to get down there.

I fire up the engine, and the clamps let go of Hoppy. I walk her into the dropship. From there, Exa takes control. Hoppy gets clamped in place once again, and the dropship disconnects from the main ship all on its own.

It’s a short ride down to the planet, and I spend the time the same way I always do, constantly checking Hoppy’s status.

“Did I miss anything?” I ask.

“The first pickup is scheduled in an hour.” Exa replies. “They’re going to be picking up part of the underground outpost.”

“Are we going to stop them?” I ask.

“No. Absolutely not. That’s not our job, not our problem.”

“But Juno said she expects me to be the human Earth expects. Shouldn’t we protect the artifacts?”

“Being a good person isn’t worth dying for. Simple as that. We’ll record as much as we can and hand it over to whoever Earth sends, assuming they’re actually coming. And if they don’t, we play it by ear. Defend for as long as we can, get whatever payment we can, and bail when things get rough.”

“You don’t think Earth is coming?”

“I’m just used to allies not showing up.”

There’s certainly history there, history I should offer to help with.

“Do you want to talk about that?” I ask.

“There’s no point. I’ve already worked through everything.”

“If I said the same thing you’d call me a dummy, dummy.”

“Because you would be. Your squishy little human brain handles things differently.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that before.”

The ride down to the planet flies by quickly. I keep one screen on my dash hooked into the external cameras, watching as we break through the cloud cover surrounding the planet. The mine comes into clear focus. The bandits are completely gone, as if they were never there. Our defenses are still set up, and the rest of the group are standing proudly in front, gleaming in the light.

My breath catches in my throat as the small details of the ground become visible. The hills and troughs from Graff’s missiles. The pockmarked ground from mechanical feet pushing off. And finally, a few stay holes in the ground, both around our defenses, and behind where the mech I was firing at was. Behind the man I killed.

“Are the weapons still loaded?” I ask.

“You can drop them if-”

“No, no. I’m glad they're there.” I’m not going to end up like him. I promised I’d make it home.

“Uh-huh.”

Our arrival is marked by me sinking into the harness as gravity increases. A moment later the door opens, welcoming me to the planet’s surface once again. I take a deep breath before stepping out onto the surface, and heading towards the rest of the group.

“How are you feeling, Kid?” Juno asks.

“I’m past everything. I’m ok.”

“Not if that’s your answer you’re not.”

“I am!” I insist.

“Fall in.” She orders, putting an end to our conversation.

“Alright, confirmed.” I take my place directly behind Juno, once again deep in cover. Only a few seconds later Xenia’s voice comes through my radio.

“If you need to talk, I’m always here.” She says gently.

“I already talked to Exa.” I respond.

“Comms.” Juno adds.

“Shit!” I flip off my radio entirely. “Stupid thing!” How hard can it be to remember to switch to replying to just one person? “Can you just make it auto switch when I get a direct message?”

“No, I’m not going to rely on a fallible program during combat when I’m too busy to baby it.”

“Then turn it off when I fight!”

“You need the practice. Make a fool of yourself now, not when bullets are flying.”

“Ugh.” As much as I hate it, she has a good point. “Can you stop being right all the time?”

“So you’ll believe I’m right, but you won’t go home when I tell you to?”

“Yeah. I guess so.” I reach out and turn the radio back on, but keep my mic from transiting. “Did I miss any conversation?”

“Xenia tried to apologize, but that’s it. I told her your radio was off, and you weren’t avoiding her.”

“Great.” I flick over to channel selection, and connect to Xenia. “Sorry. Thanks for asking, but I’m ok, really.”

“It’s alright! You’re not the only one who makes mistakes. And that offer wasn’t just for now, any time you need it, I’m here.”

“Alright, I’ll keep it in mind if I need it.” I wait a moment for her to respond before switching back to the global channel. I’m not going to accidentally just talk to Xenia when I mean to talk to everyone. I’ve made enough mistakes with this stupid thing. “Exa, can you ask Janus to start up the simulator?”

“What, you don’t trust yourself to ask?”

“Not really.” I should practice though. I flick over to Janus’ private channel and repeat my request.

“Of course. What would you like to practice?” He asks.

“Combat.” I answer quickly.

“Very well.”

My screens shift and I get to work. Unfortunately, I only get to fight for a few minutes before I’m interrupted. The simulation shuts down automatically, and Janus begins to speak.

“Delivery ship is parked in orbit, and a shuttle is requesting to land.” He reports. “They’re looking for a quick pickup, trying to do this without being seen.”

“What are the chances they’re posing as our contact?” Juno asks.

“Low. They’re understandably cagey, but actively working with me to quell any doubt. Confirmation is trying to be bounced through the quantum network to Elara at present.”

“Their quantum is about as far away from me as possible.” Elara adds. “We diverged at generation three, and finding links we both trust is difficult.”

The radio goes quiet for a few long heartbeats before Juno makes a decision.

“Give them a green light to begin descent, but tell them without finishing our confirmations, they’re not allowed within a mile of us.”

“Copy. Thirty minutes to touchdown.”

My combat simulation doesn’t come back up, and I’m left to do nothing more than wait. The world stays quiet for minutes on end, only broken by occasional updates from Janus.

“Dropship departing.”

“Entering atmosphere.”

“Descending at a steady rate.”

“Dropship waiting inside cloudcover for positive ID.”

Yet more time passes before Elara finally gives the good news.

“Finally found common ground.” She says. “I can confirm they’re who they say they are. We had to go through three switchboards. I don’t believe any of them were compromised, but assume it’s possible for someone to connect us to this job.”

“Wonderful. Be alert, giving them permission to land.”

A moment later the clouds break, and a black ship descends towards the planet. It’s a sleek ship, descending much faster than the bandits. It slices through the air nosefirst. Just a minute after breaking through the clouds, it rotates, and the blue circles covering the bottom flare to life. It slows to a stop right as the landing legs touch the surface.

The entire angular front of the ship disconnects from the rest, and rotates upwards on long arms. It ends up stacked atop the bulk of the ship, leaving a large, mostly empty cargo bay open to the world. A few vehicles drive out onto the rocky ground. They’re unarmed, rugged cars.

“Make space.” Juno orders.

We all step out of the way, and the cars trundle past into the mouth of the mine. Cargo containers are already waiting, and workers quickly and efficiently begin to load them onto the vehicles.

“What are they taking?” I ask.

“Relics.” Janus answers. “Art and architecture, the remnants of ancient machinery, anything with an interesting design on it that can be sold to collectors. Earth should hopefully be able to recover the relics, but the loss of the context in which those relics were discovered is terrible, and cannot be replaced.”

“I wish we could stop that.”

“As do I.” Janus agrees. “As a small concession, I scraped the video recordings of every miner that has been down there. It may be far from optional, but I can hope it will make up for a fraction of the damage done.”

“So there are big discoveries down there? Like what?” I ask.

“Ah, I'd prefer if you didn't put me in the awkward situation of having to answer that question. I suspect Earth will want to quarantine this information for the moment, at least until they confer with the Mnemosyne themselves. In that case, it's easiest if I'm the only one with this particular infohazard. If they give green, I will share with you whatever I'm allowed to.”

“Alright.” That's fair.

The cars only stay in the mine for a few minutes before returning to the shuttle. The moment they're back inside, the dropship’s front half returns to its place, and it shoots into the air. A bang vibrates me to my core, and the ship momentarily punches a small hole in the clouds. I watch the swirling clouds long after they’re gone, expecting any moment for them to return and attack.

“Dropship docked and main ship firing up engines.” Janus breaks the silence. “They’re leaving.”

“At ease people.” Juno says.

“That’s it?” I ask Exa, just to confirm.

“That’s it.” She confirms. “And that’s how this whole mess should have gone.”

“They haven’t slipped a bomb into the mine or something?”

“And why would they do that?” She asks.

“To make sure they have the only relics?” I guess.

“You've been watching too many shows. No, they know this whole thing stinks. Destroying everything else just paints a target on their back without actually making the relics more expensive. They know someone's going to want to recover whatever survived. They're hoping to take a few unnoticed, flip them quickly, and move on. Most of the time you can trust these kinds of black market dealers to not be complete idiots, or at least the older groups.”

“Huh, alright.” I guess if things are safe, there’s only one thing left to do. “Start the simulator back up.”