Scarlet Steel

“What’s your plan when you die?”

“Throw me into the shield around Earth. Always wanted to see what a body would do to it.” - A fragment of an overheard conversation in a bar.

I settle back into a routine, practicing as much as I can, and sleeping when Exa forces me to. Everyone else sleeps in the dropship, but I’m comfortable enough to spend a few days in Hoppy. We watch over a few deliveries, and our presence prevents a few groups who decide to poke around from trying anything.

I’m in the simulator when the radio comes to life.

“Elara, have you heard anything from Earth?” Janus asks.

“No, nothing.” She responds.

“I’d hoped they’d have arrived by now. We have four ships capable of dropping mechs approaching the planet, transponders dark. We’re not scheduled for a shipment today.”

“No visual ID?” Juno asks.

“No markings at all.”

“Couldn’t it be Earth?” I ask.

“I doubt it.” Janus says. “Earth works in the public eye for the most part. On the few occasions that we suspect Earth has intervened, they’ve left little proof behind, and none of it is definitive. An approach like this, where anyone can catch them on short range radar? It’s unlikely.”

“Get comms open.” Juno orders. “Tell them we’re open to discussion before all hell breaks loose.”

“Making attempts. I’ll keep you updated, we have a little over an hour before they arrive.”

“Confirmed. Everyone else, stay alert. Scarlet, stay in the dropship until I order otherwise, or I’ll tear apart your mech myself.”

I climb out of the simulator and glance towards the door. Hoppy is sitting in her bay, just waiting for me to help. Exa catches the corner of my eye, leaning against the wall, just watching me. Waiting to see what I do.

“Confirmed.” I reluctantly tear my eyes away from the door. “I’ll stay here.”

“Ensure you do.” Juno’s voice comes out of the speakers in the ceiling.

“Is the radio off?” I ask Exa, who gives a nod in return. “If a fight breaks out-”

“Then they’re dead.” She flatly cuts me off. “Four is a standard squad. If they’ve got four dropships? You don’t win if you’re outnumbered, it doesn’t matter if the number is four or five to one. Your limits are set in steel, and that fight is well beyond anyone’s limits. You try to fight and the only thing that changes is the number of graves I have to dig.”

“You expect me to just watch them die?” My voice comes out as a yell.

“I expect you to trust Juno.” Exa says calmly. “Things aren’t going to come to blows. Chances are, we’re going to finally break contract, step to the side, and let them walk in.”

“And then what?”

“And then we leave, and we forget about this whole thing.” She says. “We did what we could. We kept a few bandits from getting to the miners, that’s good enough.”

“Why would they even let us go?” I ask.

“There’s honor among mercenaries, and we’re proved ourselves trustworthy over the years. We don’t break deals, and we don’t leak info. Silver’s got enough info to end a few groups, and we’ve kept that to ourselves.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing now? Breaking a deal and leaking info?” I argue. “What’s going to happen to the miners?”

“Everyone’s broken contracts. It’s a thing that happens, and we’re not doing it without a damn good reason. Nobody’s going to fault us. The AI Elara budded from is the only person in the universe who could pin the leak on us, and he’s trustworthy. We’re covered. And what happens to the miners isn’t our problem.”

I pace quickly from wall to wall in the cramped room, my mind racing.

“How long did our fight last?” I ask.

“Fourty five seconds. They rarely last more than a minute.”

That’s not long enough. It’d take longer to get to Hoppy and start her up.

“I should at least start up Hoppy.” I insist.

“I’m not unhooking her, and she’s not strong enough to break out. It’s not going to make a difference.”

“I have to do something.”

“No. You don’t. The three of them survived for years without us. That’s not going to change today. You’re not responsible for what happens. Accept that, or this job is going to consume you.”

“And what if something does happen?” I ask.

“Depends on if you recover the body or not.” Exa shrugs far too casually. “Most pilots want to be buried in the sun, to burn as brightly as they did in life. Some just want to drift between the stars for all eternity. A few have family to go back to. After that you drink to their memory, move on, and find another mission.”

I don’t respond. There has to be something I can do to help, even if I’m not in the mech. This ship has weapons, right? I drop into the pilot’s seat and start to poke around. I may not know how to use this thing, but how hard can it be?

Exa doesn’t lock me out of the computers, thankfully. I know she’s keeping a close eye on me, and that gives me the courage to poke around in places I shouldn't. The weapons systems are simple, familiar. Aiming is almost identical to Hoppy. Flying, on the other hand, seems difficult. I could maybe get us to orbit if I had to? How hard could it really be?

I only get a minute to investigate before Janus reports more news.

“I'm getting some slight discrepancies on the deep space sensors.” He reports. “Quantum buoys at the edge of the system are reporting signals suggesting FTL travel, even within the anti-FTL field.”

“Earth.” Juno breathes out a sigh of relief. “How long until they arrive?”

“Unsure. At a kilo c? 10 minutes. I can’t imagine them going that fast inside a star system, however.”

“Confirmed. Graff, in a defensive op, how long can you hold the line?”

“Against sixteen? We’d be dead within a minute.”

“Do you have enough firepower to close off the entrance of the mine?”

“I do.” He confirms.

“Confirmed.” The radio goes silent for a few tense seconds.

“She can’t be serious, right?” I ask.

“If she wasn’t serious she wouldn’t ask.”

“Janus, begin an evacuation.” Juno orders. “Get everyone into the mines, deep as they can. Graff, go inside and set up missiles. Remote detonation, EM-shield them, close the entrance. Move quick, we’re going to be cutting it close. I’ll do my best to delay those approaching. Scarlet, keep the ship’s engines warm. Exa, set up cameras and a relay. I want visual confirmation from orbit."

“Confirmed.” Janus and Exa respond in unison. She takes a step towards the door at the same exact moment.

“Gladly.” Graff adds a moment later, and his mech rushes into the mine entrance.

I have to hold myself back from asking if any of this is safe. No, of course it’s not. This is a dumb plan. I can’t think of a better one though.

“Priming main engines.” I reach for the console. The startup sequence should be the same as any other antimatter engine. Our starter engine is already running. The lights flicker momentarily as I reroute power to the suspension fields. I’m not sure how long it takes to warm up an engine this big, but behemoth mechs can take up to ten minutes to complete their startup. That’s a good baseline I think.

Can I tap into the camera’s on everyone’s mech from here? It takes a moment, but I figure it out.

Graff and Xenia are both out of their mechs, unloading missiles and placing them seemingly randomly around the room. Both of them are fully armed, the rifles on their backs keeping the panicking miners at bay. They’re rushing to the cargo elevator quickly, packing in tightly before it begins to descend.

I don’t know what Janus said to get them moving, but I’m glad he managed.

Planting the missiles goes quickly. I don’t want to think about how much experience they obviously have. A few people try to stop and talk to the two of them, but I don’t have access to any audio. I can imagine how it goes though, Graff and Xenia are both big, and the miners are unarmed.

Exa is the first to finish with her job. I barely even notice when the door behind me opens and she steps inside.

“I’m amazed you didn’t try to break through the door.”

“You locked it.” I didn’t even have to check to know that. “How long is the warm up sequence?”

“Eight minutes.” She answers.

“Cool.” I flip on the main engine, and let the starter engine go quiet. “Dropship is on.” I report.

“Confirmed.” Elara responds instead of Juno. “Bring the ship over. I need you and Exa packing up defenses.”

“On it.” I glance at Exa, who just nods. Guess it’s time to learn.

Flying the ship is simple. I punch in a desired height, and the ship rises into the air. From there, just like Hoppy, I just have to push the accelerator forward. Landing is even easier, just a single button press.

“Nice job, Kid.” Exa steps towards the door, and I hop out of my seat to follow. “Photon Lock Projectors first.”

“Got it.” All the defenses go offline, and I get to work lugging them into the ship. I’m not even trying to keep things organized, just tossing whatever I can at Hoppy’s feet and trying not to let it spill into the other bays.

“Ten minutes to orbit.” Janus announces.

“Graff. Status.” Juno barks.

“Just a couple more.” He says.

“Currently at an 80% chance of complete collapse.” Xenia says, a little more excited than she should be. “Six minutes until completion.”

“Copy. Scarlet, get the Halberd into dock! Exa, keep working. All, consider an agreement unreachable. Bandits still hostile.”

“On it!” I drop the projector I’m carrying and rush for the mine. Graff’s mech has a hatch on the top that the pilot climbs into. I hop up onto the sloped armor and open it up.

“Watch the paint!” Graff yells. “And take it slow, it’s touchy.”

“Got it!” I slide into his seat. A row of screens surround the entirety of me, displaying my full surroundings. When I glance to the side, the chair swivels, following my head. A few extra screens are bolted onto the left arm of the chair with readouts on twenty missiles. Most are missing, naturally. The piloting mechanism is closer to a car than a mech, with pedals for my feet, and a single flight stick for directional movement. It leaves my left hand free to access the screens if needed.

I hit the accelerator and the mech lurches forward, throwing me back into my seat. I hit the accelerator a little gentler the second time.

“Feels weird to pilot sitting in a chair.” I say to the empty cockpit. Right, Exa’s not here.

It only takes a minute to bring the mech around and into the open bay opposite of Hoppy. I clamber out and return to helping Exa.

“Five minutes.” Janus warns us.

“That has to be enough.” Juno says. “All, return to ship.”

“Copy.” Janus begins to move.

“30 seconds.” Graff insists.

“Don’t keep me here.”

Every footstep of Janus’ mech shakes the earth as he makes for the dropship. It’s all I can do to stop from stumbling as I run back myself. Exa has no such issues, she has no problem sprinting ahead and making for the cockpit.

Juno and Elara don’t move until Graff and Xenia finally come out of the mine and break for the ship. Juno follows close behind them, offering cover if things go to shit. The second Juno steps onto the ship, even before her mech is locked into place, even before the doors have closed, the dropship rises into the air.

“Janus, status.” Juno calls.

“Two minutes.”

“Exa, don’t head to the ship. Stay below the clouds and run. Keep the shields down, let them scan.”

“Already done.” Exa calls back.

I hold onto Hoppy’s leg as the wind picks up. The closing doors slowly force the world to calm. Despite sealing us in, artificial gravity never kicks on. I can barely remain standing, and I shuffle my way to the cockpit.

I enter just as Exa is getting out of the pilot chair, and Juno takes her place. She remains next to the console, however, a thick wire running between it and her torso. Graff jumps into the other seat, pulling up an array of weapon systems.

“They’re scanning.” Janus reports.

“Through the fucking clouds.” Juno mumbles. She reaches up and hits a button on the console. “Apollo broadcasting. We’ve got no relics, nothing you want. Just saving our own skin.”

No response comes back from the radio.

“Descending.” Janus says. “Four ships.”

“Heading?”

“Hard to say.” He says. “If we detonate the mine-”

“I’m aware.” She cuts him off. “Keep me updated.”

“Copy.” He says.

The cockpit goes dead silent for a few minutes, and I’m left the only person with nothing to do.

“Full descent.” Janus breathes a sigh of relief.” They’re burning downwards, descending damn quickly.”

“They noticed the signals, know something’s coming.” Juno relaxes in her seat. “Elara, take us up. Graff, soon as they’re fully unloaded, hit the detonator. Don’t catch any of them in the blast.”

“Got it.” Why the hell is he disappointed by that? He reaches up and taps a few of the screens. A whole camera array gets displayed, watching over everything from where the ship was originally parked.

It’s only a minute before four dropships come screaming through the cloud cover.

“Fuck they’re fast.” Graff notes. “Janus! If they give chase, how much distance do we still need?”

“They’re going to suicide burn, I need to see the peak output before I know for sure. At best guess? Another few minutes.”

“Can I help?” I ask. “I could override the antimatter core’s safe limits? Get us some more power?”

“Already running redline, Kid.” Juno says. “This isn’t the first time we’ve done this.”

“What about the mechs? I could wire them into the ship, pump more power into the thrusters.”

“Already done.” Exa says. “Every drop of power is accounted for. Hell, I’m not even running life support right now. Just relax.”

I watch as the ships pierce through the atmosphere, a bright blue glow radiating out of the top of their ship. They flip around, same as the bandits, and in the space of just a few hundred feet come to a stop on the planet’s surface. The ships fold open completely, leaving sixteen pitch black mechs standing in the open. No right reflects off their chassis, they’re just an indistinct void. When they take a step forward, the mass shifts, but I can’t make out where their leg starts.

“Of course it’s the Shades.” Juno reaches up for the radio once again. “Hey Rachel! Fuck you!”

“Bad blood?” I quietly ask Exa.

“Professional differences.” Juno answers for herself.

Graff hovers his finger over a button and watches the cameras intently. He stares at the shadows approaching.

“Time?” He asks.

“Not enough.” Janus answers.

He just cocks his head momentarily and flexes his finger.

The mine entrance warps, gravity pushing out the supports and pulling in the roof and surrounding dirt. The entire thing collapses in a cloud of dust, blocking all vision.

The mechs continue rushing forward, into the cloud, disappearing from our cameras.

The radio comes to life, and a woman’s voice fills the room.

“Backstabbing sack of shit.” She tries to sound calm, but her voice has an edge that could cut through armor.

One of Juno’s screens splits in half, watching both the cloud, and the dropships.

“Come on.” She mumbles to herself. “Start digging.”

The mechs reappear from the cloud and head towards the ships. Juno closes her eyes for just a moment, takes a breath, and sits back.

“The shower doubles as an escape pod. She won’t come after you five. If they catch up, all of you, take it.”

“What about-”

“That’s an order.” She cuts me off. “Xenia and I have a backup plan, but… Janus, the company is yours while I’m gone. If I make it back, I’m resuming control. I expect all of you to stay alive in the meantime.”

“Copy.” He nods seriously. “I- Sensors!”

Every screen in the cockpit flips over to a camera in space. A small object hits the atmosphere, the entry flare alone blinding the cameras. The view from the ground watches the clouds glow a bright, brilliant white. It breaks through the clouds just seconds later. Just before it hits the ground its momentum is stopped, and it lowers gently to the ground.

A small pod sits on the surface of the planet. The door opens and a humanoid mech steps out, painted a brilliant blue. It’s small, about the same size as Hoppy. So much of it is decorative, armor shaped like clothes, short metal hair on its head. In one hand it carries a knife, and in the other a pistol.

“They made it.” Juno slumps back in her seat. “Ignore my last order.”

“Copy.” Janus says.

“They sent one mech?” I can’t believe it.

“They sent exactly what they needed to secure the place.” Juno answers. “You don’t fuck with Earth’s mechs. I’m sure they have more coming, a Mouse is always the first on site. Exa, give the engines a break. They’re not going to try anything today.”

The gravity decreases back to normal, and the ship slows down. “Taking us home.”