“Your predecessor claimed election fraud every time they beat him at the polls. As you’re well away, we have the expanded electoral college for a reason. If you lose this race, will you accept defeat graciously, or will you embrace Vadim Agoston’s unfounded claims?” – From the High Ministerial debates, three weeks prior to the election.

  “Anyone want to share with the class?” Jack asked the room full of soldiers as they donned their equipment, “I’m willing to take anything here: info on Galileo, what in the hell a Raak’Shee is, how we kill them, anything.”

  “If you want the textbook answers, you’ll have to drag them out of Hawkins. But if you’re just looking to kill the suckers, you’ve got the right folks.” A soldier said as he stepped into his armored exoskeleton. “Basically, they got real thick skin and are very tall, even taller than Johnson over there,” he described over the sound of his armor locking into place. “They’re thin for their size, but don’t let that fool you. If you get within melee range, you’re already dead.”

  “Gotta kill ‘em from far away. They can’t see worth a shit, and I’ve never seen one carry a gun,” Johnson chimed in.

  “Why wouldn’t they use guns? Melee isn’t always an option,” Dave stated, curious why a space-faring race wouldn’t carry firearms.

  “They don’t need it. Once, I saw one close a two-hundred-foot gap before Nicky could even get his barrel up. Just fill it with Light from a distance and hope it doesn’t get close,” the first soldier finished, collecting his weapons from the table beside him before walking out of the room.

  “Well, this sounds… fun?” Alec said with more than a little trepidation in his voice.

  “It is. Between you and the Aegis, you should have more than enough time to kill them before they kill you,” Johnson said, turning to finishing his gearing up.

  “Right,” Alec replied, looking at the weapons depot and suddenly feeling the need to carry many more guns. “I guess guns and ammo are the name of the game here. I wonder if 50 thousand rounds will be enough…”

  “The right answer is that there is never enough ammo. But load yourself down with as much as you can comfortably carry and you might not run out,” the Captain said, walking into the room. “Finish up and get down to the Gate room, we jump in five.”

  All talking ceased as the soldiers grabbed last-minute gear and exited the room with their helmets hanging from pauldrons.

  Standing in a now-empty armory, Captain Griffin took the moment to worry about her men. Should she don her armor? She knew Summers would, but he always did, just in case.

  If things went south, could she even make a difference?

  She often asked herself these questions before the company deployed, but she couldn’t shake the impression that something would go horribly wrong today.

  Staring into her reflection in the faceplate of her helmet, she came to a decision.

  If someone died, it wouldn’t be because she didn’t step up.

  ~~**~~

  “Spier squad,” Lieutenant Hawkins yelled, “Prepare to move!”

  The four platoons assembled in Charlie company’s gate room. The pre-battle tension was so thick, it was almost like Jack could cut with a knife. Every soldier had a thing that helped them get ready for a mission, usually formed from years of superstition that eventually morphed into tradition.

  Unfortunately, Jack’s squad was far too green to have built up beliefs of their own. Instead, they simply stood there, continuously feeding the unease that came before every mission.

  “Alright Monroe, I’ve watched your training enough to know how you fight,” Staff Sergeant Smith said, pulling a pistol off Jack’s armor and replaced it with another pair of hilts, “You prefer up close and personal, so I’m loading you down with two daggers, four sabers, and a polearm. If you decide you don’t like the feel of one or the other, let me know when you get back and we can try something different. As far as ranged weaponry is concerned, I’m equipping you with the standard LT-27 on your back and a sidearm in your hip compartment. You’ll also have several high-density magazines in your armor storage. With your squad, I don’t see the need for many grenades, but you’ve got the standard load out, anyway.”

  “Thanks,” Jack replied, shrugging his shoulders to let the equipment settle comfortably, “but if the mission is just to reclaim a factory, do you really think I’ll need all of this?”

  “Did you need all the firepower I gave you last time? The fact that you’re even asking proves to me you need it. The other squads are loaded down just as heavily, if not more so. You’re going to need every advantage you can get.”

  “Company, attention!” Summers yelled, calling the room to silence, “Support, Aerial Assault, Artillery, fall out.”

  Soldiers broke away from their squads and moved toward the back of the room.

  “Ready, Gate!”

  In the front of the chamber, four separate rings of twisted metal came to life, white Light spun through metallic seams before eventually shooting inward. The view of the wall shattered, each broken portion showing somewhere new as it locked in their destinations.

  “Ready, arms!”

  Jack pulled his helmet from a hook on his shoulder and slipped it over his head. With a quick command to his AI, it locked into place and completed the hermetic seal. Once the armor was fully engaged, his Vis-HUD deactivated, and the helm’s faceplate took over.

  Unlike basic training, they never handed a soldier an uncharged weapon in a combat unit. Quartermasters equipped each item in their kit with a fully charged Light Battery capable of performing at maximum capacity for twenty-four hours before needing to be recharged. While it wasn’t a perfect solution, it allowed the soldiers to use their abilities to the fullest instead of worrying about recharging gear.

  With a minor exertion of will, Jack forged a link with his squad, closing the circuit on himself so that he wasted no power maintaining the connection. While each set of armor included a radio, his communication was simpler to use and much more reliable.

  “Turaspeir Squad ready,” he said over the command channel.

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  “Copy that loud and clear, all units are go,” Summers said, replying over comms before addressing everyone, “Good luck and godspeed. You may proceed through the Gate.”

  The clatter of metallic boots on the steel deck easily drowned out all other sounds as the four squads ran. When Turaspeir charged through the portal, the unnatural feeling of being shattered into billions of particles didn’t faze them in the slightest as their bodies reformed on a snow-covered mountaintop.

  “Bob, give me a readout of each soldier’s vitals on the upper left-hand corner of my faceplate,” Jack said, running to the nearest rock and diving behind it for cover against the unknown.

  “As you wish, Master. It’s almost like we don’t talk unless you are on a mission anymore,” the AI complained as the requested information populated.

  “If you wouldn’t be so snippy all the time, perhaps I would talk to you more.”

  “How rude. It’s not like I flood your vision with distracting images while you’re trying to work. Did you ever think that I’m snippy because you ignore me?”

  “No, you’ve acted like this since the day I picked up your module,” he said distractedly, casting his senses toward the distant mountain.

  Through a security camera across the ridgeline, he pinpointed the location of the door and a pair of hulking, gray-skinned figures. Shifting his perspective, he groaned when he realized getting there would mean crossing two mountains and dealing with at least a three-hundred-foot climb.

  All while trying to avoid the view of the guards.

  Hopefully, that veteran wasn’t wrong about how bad their eyesight was.

  “Also, putting distracting things on my HUD is exactly what you do, and you know it. What is the status of the other squads?”

  “All squads have landed successfully at their drop point. Once your team is in place, you are to wait for confirmation.”

  “Got it,” Jack replied before switching to squad comms. “Guys, I need Neilson and Alexander to find a good place to establish a nest. The rest of you, find temporary cover and avoid being seen until we have the ok to proceed.”

  “Roger that,” Cecile said, climbing to the peak with Warren in tow.

  They waited for what felt like hours, the mountain snow covering them in a white blanket as they slowly became part of the landscape. Above, the two long-range soldiers took their task a step farther and submerged themselves in the snow, leaving only a small tunnel and a pair of rifle barrels visible.

  “I have a Vixen and a swarm of Wasps in the air now. They will be your aerial eyes,” Warren announced as the drones spread out to get a better view of the landscape.

  “And I’m going to have Crawlers with the assault group. Let me know how you want to use them,” Jenkins said as two spider-like drones detached from his kit and disappeared into the woods.

  “Understood. Warren, keep that Vixen high, but not out of firing range. Not sure how we can use the Wasps, but if you see a good use, do not hesitate. Jenkins, the same goes for you. Drones are not my expertise, so I’m relying on you to use your best judgment when we get into a fight.” Jack ordered.

  “You guys need a drone that can gate us out if things get too bad,” Alec said.

  “What, you want them to just swoop in and pull us out when shit hits the fan?” Nessa asked sarcastically.

  “Yeah, a little. At the very least, it could gate the enemy into a nearby star.”

  “That’s… both brilliant and brilliantly stupid in its simplicity.”

  “Spier squad, this is Command,” an unknown voice said, cutting off the banter, “All squads are in place and ready for action. Begin moving toward your objective. Once you’re within a hundred meters, hold for further instruction.”

  “Copy that, Command.” Jack answered, rising from the ground, and setting off along what he hoped was a decent path.

  Not long after, he realized the snow-covered landscape would spell disaster if even one misplaced step dislodged too much snow. “Bob, please plot the safest path and share it with the squad. There is no actual trail here and without some kind of guide, we will die horribly.”

  “And yet you still do not recognize the number of times you’d already be dead if not for my guidance,” the AI remarked as a golden line showing the safest path appeared in the Sergeant’s vision.

  Jack walked across the deep snow, careful only to step where the AI instructed. While not an easy hike by any stretch of the imagination, having a trail plotted by a computer that could predict the snow density based on micro elevation changes made things significantly easier.

  “If we weren’t here to kill a bunch of people, this view would be breathtaking,” Thea said as they came to the first mountaintop. “But then again, if we didn’t need to kill a bunch of people, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

  “How romantic,” Heather said, staring out across the space between peaks.

  Upon closer inspection, the two rock formations weren’t separate mountains at all. While Jack certainly did not have the science to explain it, it seemed as if someone had split a single mountain in half with a cleaver and allowed them to drift apart for millions of years.

  “Any idea how we get across without having to scale two separate cliffs?” Jenkins said, staring at the gap with more than a little trepidation, “I mean… I can fly a vixen over, but it can’t carry anyone.”

  “Give me a second,” Jack said as a pulse of violet Light rippled out from his body, “The good news is there are no hostiles in the gorge nor on the other side. However, I agree that climbing all the way down and back up is a colossal waste of time and would suck… a lot. Any suggestion?”

  “I can send a few strands across the gap at an angle, and we can zipline across.” Candice offered, “If you tell your AI to take over, the gauntlets should be able to act like a sheave.”

  “I have a climbing strap and some anchors in my rappelling kit. I think we all do. Can we use those?” Jack asked.

  “We can try, but we may want to hold on with the gauntlet as well. If you move too fast, you’ll melt the eye and drop like a rock,” she explained, taking out the climbing gear and securing it to her armor.

  As they prepared, she activated three threads of power and twisted them together like a stranded cable before looping them through her carabiner. She knew a single string would be enough to hold both the soldiers and their gear, but being over-prepared never hurt.

  She wound the cable through the squad’s equipment, extending it across the gorge and anchoring it to a tree. Once secure, she stepped back and tested the angle before finally accepting that it was good as it was going to get.

  “Who’s up first?” She asked, not surprised in the slightest when Jack stepped up, “Alright then big boy, grab on to that line and tell your AI to regulate speed. Just like the drop pods, let it control your armor.”

  “Got it,” Jack replied, stomach-turning in fear from the sheer insanity of what he was about to do. “Bob, can you take over? Grab the rope and, for the love of the stars, don’t let go.”

  “Understood. But just for the record, I just told the other AIs that you want me to grab your rope and never let go. They laughed for a whole second… do you know how long that is for us?” Bob said, mirth clear in his voice.

  “Asshole,” Jack replied quietly, “Let’s do this.”

  The moment the words left his mouth, Candice lifted the cable high enough to force him to move. At first, it wasn’t so bad. It was almost like riding a Ferris Wheel, except it had no chair. Unfortunately, his speed quickly went from nice and smooth to fast and terrifying. In that moment, he understood why she called it a zipline, and he was not amused.

  A primal part of him wanted to wrap his arms around the cable and hold on with all his might. If he could get his legs up and onto the line, he would be safe. He knew, he KNEW, the carabiner would snap at any moment and his AI wouldn’t be able to hold on. If that happened, he’d be nothing but a smear on the rocks below.

  His heart raced, and his breathing quickened. He would die here, and he knew it.

  “Jack, calm down,” Thea said over the comms, “The more you move and thrash around like that, the worse it will be. Relax.”

  “Bite me!” he yelled. “Crazy ass binder is going to get me killed.”

  “Hey… don’t go threatening me with a good time. Oh, and in case you forgot… you volunteered to go first,” she replied, trying to distract him, “You won’t fall, but even if you do, I will put you back together. I made that promise long ago, remember?”

  He did remember, and somehow that knowledge helped him come to grips with what was happening.

  An outcropping of rock finally replaced the open air below. He’d been so worried about dying, he’d missed the entire experience. Yes, it was terrifying, but it was also exhilarating.

  “Can the rest of us have a pretty speech like that? I really liked that part about having a good time,” Alec said, stepping up to the edge and clamping on with his gauntlet.

  “Too bad. The only people that get to bite me are Jack and the alien that will eventually kill me,” she replied, shoving the dragoon with a smile as he cursed his way across the gorge.