Chapter Twenty

  Condition Red

  For the first day, Nellie had fretted. For the second, she had worried. By the time the third day had come, she was in outright despair.

  After a week, she was seething, and now, a week and a half after losing contact with her people, Nellie was slipping more and more into the Nightmare Queen she was often painted as.

  “They are still alive in there,” Nellie said with finality as she crushed another datapad in irritation. “We can’t get the iris to open again. That means they are still alive.”

  “I know,” Lucy said as gently as possible. “We just have to trust that Cheape will get them through somehow.”

  “We still don’t even know why the feed cut out,” Nellie massaged her temples. “Or why we are being shown… this!” She spat at the floating screens showing the outside of the Outpost. It was ringed with Leapers and what Lucy called Floaters. The strange things looked a little like flying tanks to Nellie, but they just seemed to drop the Leapers rather than exist as weapons platforms.

  “Movement!” Lucy pointed as a set of Leapers activated suddenly. They collected together and started to fire on the sealed entrance to the Outpost. “Looks like they are done waiting.”

  “Ostie!” Nellie growled. “We can’t even help—”

  A large part of the fourth-floor wall opened, revealing a door similar to the main entrance. Fire poured down onto the attacking Leapers. There was a cluster of figures in the room beyond, but she didn’t recognize them in the slightest.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Lucy snapped, finally allowing her tension and worry to show. Nellie knew that she considered Cheape a bit of a personal project these days, so it had to have been tough to lose contact.

  With a crackle and hiss, the comm lines lit again, all at once.

  “Wardens of Haven!” Cheape’s voice was thick with anger and frustration, but Nellie caught the traces of excitement in there as well. It was a mix Nellie knew well. “Hammerfall!”

  Nellie gaped as the group shot up out of the Outpost before seeming to hang in the air for a split second. The moment passed, and they rolled, rocketing down toward the eggs below and impacting like meteors.

  “Fire at will! Fire at will!” Cheape’s voice came from within a cloud of dust and debris. It parted a moment later as the team appeared in a firing line, marching forward with sure steps as combined ammo shots tore apart the Leapers like they were confetti. Even as they fired their rifles, a pair of lasers on the shoulders of each suit shot at targets around them.

  A pair of the Floaters moved in, powerful shields turning aside the shots from below.

  “Scatter!” Gas Tank’s voice came, and the team broke off in all directions for a second before a glowing crystal dropped from the Floater drones. At first, Nellie couldn’t see any effect…, but then the nearby Leapers dropped like stones.

  “I need sensor—” Nellie started, and a wash of information was sent her way from the new suits. It was a lot clearer than the stuff the old rigs had used, even a tiny hair above what the Boost Suits could give her.

  “Keep away from the crystals,” Nellie confirmed as she saw energy draining from anything that came near enough to one of the things.

  “No shit?” Sparks cackled. “I was gonna try to hug one!”

  “Pack it in, Sparks!” Cheape ordered. “Form up, and let’s break these bastards!”

  The crystals shot by the Leapers might as well have been feathers for all they were doing to the new suits. Nellie really hoped there were more of those things in the Outpost because even she had to admit they looked like a significant upgrade in terms of tech.

  The Boost Suits and Rigs existed to allow those without nanite integration to keep up, but these were something else. It was actual armor. While the team fought, Nellie gathered information on the armor itself and was amazed to see it was Haven Steel, but more like an alloy of Haven Steel. More impressive, she noted it had internal shielding and reinforcement fields effectively tripling its inherent strength. No wonder the crystals weren’t leaving more than scratches. One of these things could probably take a hit from the laser array on a damn destroyer without being breached.

  “Lucy,” Nellie started.

  “Already building a model,” Lucy beamed. “She’s done it again.”

  “Yes,” Nellie laughed. “It looks like she has.”

  The team worked like a well-oiled machine, and Nellie noted that they had a new system working in those suits. One she had never seen before. Flicking a questioning look to Lucy and pointing, she saw the Silicate woman frown for a few seconds as she ran extra scans of it.

  “They have a new Squad Tactical Overlay,” Lucy explained after she was done. “The suits analyze movement and attack patterns, then suggest the next moves to each member of the squad. It is increasing their coordination significantly.”

  “AI?” Nellie asked.

  “No, something simpler,” Lucy said with a shrug. “Damn effective, either way.”

  “It sure is,” Nellie watched as another bunch of Leapers died to a pincer move executed perfectly in three dimensions by the team. “Think we will be able to adapt it to fleet maneuvers in space?”

  “I don’t see why not,” Lucy beamed. “Want to review the recordings I’m getting?”

  “They have those transmitting?” Nellie frowned. It was something that could have waited. Well, unless Cheape wasn’t confident they would survive the fight. So far, they were doing great. What was Nellie missing?

  “Just being careful, I assume,” Lucy said.

  “Send them over,” Nellie nodded, spinning up her speed of thought to process everything without missing a second of the battle going on now.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Cheape fired her thrusters, sending her blasting forward to catch the Leaper with a shield charge that shattered the thing in a single blow. Pings and clinks sounded constantly as the drones kept trying to breach the new Warden suits. They weren’t getting through, but each hit still drained the internal power a little.

  The Leaper's numbers were falling fast, but they still hadn’t managed to breach the shields on the flying ones yet, and they were dropping more Leapers even as her team killed them by the numbers.

  A mistake was inevitable, and when it happened, it was the ever-eager Mace again. He ignored the overlay and charged ahead into a tight group of Leapers. The move took seven of the little buggers out, but it put him directly below the floating drone above, and the crystal dropped like a stone, slamming down next to his suit.

  “Losing power!” Mace yelled in panic. “Mistress! Help!”

  “FUCK!” Cheape swore and wheeled, blitzing through the enemy to get there in time.

  “Shields offline!” Mace yelled in panic. “I can’t fucking move!”

  “Cover him!” Cheape ordered, and the team all tried to get back to the frozen Warden suit. The Leapers closed ranks, slowing them down. It was the first sign of swarm tactics, and Cheape felt her blood run cold at the sight. Something was controlling all of these creatures. Program, drone, or person, there was an intelligence of some sort behind that act.

  “Internal Shields are offline!” Mace yelled before Cheape saw a hailstorm of crystals slam into him. “Breach! Breach!”

  Cheape fired her thrusters and rocketed through, slamming into Mace and sending him flying as she crashed to the floor.

  Red lights flashed as her suit’s power was drained at a terrifying rate.

  “Get to the Boss! Gas Tank was yelling as Sparks screamed in frustration.

  “NO!” Cheape sent the order. “Haven Protocol. Now!”

  “You sure, Boss?” Sparks started, but then the skies rained crystals as the hovering drones figured they had a winning strategy.

  “NOW!” Cheape roared and activated their secret weapon.

  Well, it had been something she wanted to keep secret.

  So much for that…

  Haven Core coming online…

  /====<<<>>>====\

  Nellie saw the draining energy and winced. Cheape had sacrificed her for Mace, and it looked like it would be her end.

  “Haven protocol?” Lucy asked.

  “No idea,” Nellie admitted. “The recordings are a little messy and incomplete.”

  “She’s going to get breached any second,” Lucy said, lips set in a grim line. “That was brave.”

  “But stupid,” Nellie knew it was, after all, it was what she would have done to save one of her own. “They might not make it without her.”

  All conversation in the room died as the power readings from the team went nova.

  On the screen, Nellie saw Cheape climb to her feet, turning and slamming a fist into the crystal, shattering it. The resulting explosion sent her suit sliding back, but that was it. The overpowered shields didn’t even waver.

  “Wardens of Haven!” Cheape yelled. “Let’s take this segment!”

  Her team roared and began to tear apart the last Leapers. The Floaters were just too slow to replace them, and in no tim,e thick beams of laser energy were tearing apart the shields on the hovering drones before they were destroyed with concentrated fire from pairs of the new suits.

  “I know that energy signature,” Lucy said a little breathlessly. “They have Haven Cores in those suits.”

  “Those things can power destroyers!” Nellie shook her head. “Those suits won’t be able to take that kind of strain for long.”

  “No, but they are already dialing the cores back to a more manageable level,” Lucy said, still looking shocked. “Nell, they didn’t have those when they went in there. They must have built them on site.”

  “They can do that?” Nellie asked. Building a generator core was no small feat. It was why she preferred to let nanites do it. Cheape and her people certainly didn’t have access to that kind of tech in the Red Segment.

  “Apparently,” Lucy nodded.

  “I think we might be underestimating the Haven people,” Nellie said quietly. “Maybe a lot.”

  “I know,” Lucy nodded. “We will correct that mistake going forward.”

  “We better,” Nellie chuckled. “How many people underestimated us and paid for it? Let’s not repeat their mistakes.”

  In life, it only takes a single mistake to ruin or even end your life. It was a lesson Nellie had always known. Her mother had made one mistake, and it had cost Nellie everything. She had never even known where she came from… all because of that one mistake.

  Mace had made two, and this one looked like it cost him everything. His suit had been breached before the Haven Protocol kicked in, and as the last of the Floaters was blown out of the air, he still wasn’t moving.

  Nellie could see the sensor readouts on his suit, and his vitals were falling fast.

  She could easily imagine how Cheape was feeling at the moment. Nellie had lost people, and it changed you in ways you could not quite explain. Losing someone fast was a shock, but that almost helped you deal with it. It was so much easier when it happened out of the blue because there was just nothing you could have done to prevent it. Sure, you wondered if there was something you could have changed, but the reality was that when it happened that fast… everyone was powerless. They were there one second and gone the next.

  When you had time to run there, to hold their hand and ask them to hold on a little longer, it hurt a hell of a lot more. It was the kind of thing that could rip the heart and soul from a person.

  All Nellie could do was watch and order the resuscitation team to wait by the Iris.

  Well, that and hope.

  Cheape arrived next to the critical man and scrambled out of her suit a fraction of a second ahead of the rest of her team.

  And all Nellie could do was watch…

  /====<<<>>>====\

  “Hang in there, Mace,” Cheape yelled as they peeled his suit off him. It was breached in several places, and blood was already pooling beneath him. “We’ll get you back to the Iris, and the Queens will get you all fixed up, okay?”

  “No,” Mace coughed, gasping for air as she dragged him upright. “No more, please.”

  “Mace!” Sparks yelped.

  “No.” Mace shook his head. “No. I die as me.”

  “Don’t be stubborn!” Cheape ordered. “Do as you're told and live!”

  “No,” Mace smiled, blood leaking from his mouth. “My Mistress, let me die as I lived—according to my own beliefs.”

  “Why?” Cheape asked, nearly begging as tears built in her eyes. “We can save you.”

  “No,” Mace said again. “I’m done. I’m ready to go. My whole life has been a struggle, and I just… I just want to rest now.”

  “You have to let us do something!” Cheape was begging now, and she didn’t care.

  “Stay with me,” Mace asked, having to get it out one word at a time. “Just stay with me.”

  “Okay, Mace,” Gas Tank knelt next to the young man and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’re here.”

  “We’ll stay right here, Mace,” Cheape said, taking his hand as she gave up fighting the tears and letting them fall.

  “Thank you,” Mace said, face scrunched up in pain.

  “I’m sorry,” Cheape said; it was all she could say.

  “Don’t be,” Mace smiled weakly, “It was my honor to serve the Mistress of Haven.” He closed his eyes, and the look of pain slowly eased as he slipped into unconsciousness.

  Cheape and Tank both stayed right there as he passed, his hand going limp in Cheape’s.

  “Seal him back into that armor, and we’ll take it back home,” Cheape said grimly as she laid the hand gently back onto his chest.

  “We’ll burn him beneath the skies of home,” Sparks said, sniffling. “He’d like that.”

  Cheape nodded mutely.

  “What now?” Gas Tank asked. “Do we go on?”

  “Of course we do,” Cheape said with absolute finality. “Haven paid in blood for this place, and we will take it all. In his name, I swear it!”

  Gas Tank nodded.

  “You heard the order, people! Let’s get our own safe and then tear this shit-hole a new one!” Sparks yelled, clapping her metal hands loudly. “Move it!”

  The team moved, and they did as she ordered, sealing Mace away for his final journey home. When they were done, and he was safe by the Iris, she ordered them to move out. Their response was a single unified ‘Yes. Mistress!’ and for the first time, it didn’t feel like an insult.

  It felt like both an honor and a responsibility.