Platoon members turned to look at us as we staggered in. They stared at Amira, and I shook my head. Catching the signal, almost everyone found something else to pay attention to. The engineers did not. Their jaws dropped, unable to take their eyes off the blood-splattered Amira.
Ken thudded over. “Your armor’s in the corner,” he said. Shriek, helmet down, paced back and forth near one of the walls, raggedy feathers puffed and his head bobbing oddly.
“Shriek, there are people in the corridors who’re hurt. See if you can set up treatment, coordinate what you can,” I said.
Shriek paused, cocked his head. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you.”
He took off.
Amira brushed past him and headed right for her armor. I watched her nestling down into the gaping maw of opened armor, and then saw Ken’s expression. “What?”
“You’ve been offline for almost half an hour.” He leaned closer. “In the meantime, three Conglomerate ships came in at speed on a high angle of attack. Most of the carriers and human-operated ships did not return fire. Sabotage. Mutinies. Everyone had to scramble to figure out what was happening.”
“Situation now?” I beckoned him to follow me as I walked up to my armor.
“They were on an attack run. They’ve swept through, done the damage. Chatter says something on the order of four or five thousand CPF dead; they’re tallying things up.” Shit, I thought, as I turned around and backed into my armor. It made contact with the back of my neck, and the stinging sensation of neural synchronization passed as I closed my eyes and tried to pretend that alien technology wasn’t wriggling its way into my spinal cord. “We think there might be a slower, secondary-stage attack on the way to take the Trojans. But defenses are getting spun up. Rumor is that some Accordance assets are heading in. But that isn’t the big news we need to be worrying about right now.”
My armor folded itself around me. I opened my eyes and looked at Ken. “What more do we need to worry about?”
“Anais is coming in. With two platoons. They’re on the hull and getting ready to board.”
“Is he coming for us?”
“I don’t know,” Ken said. “I left Delta to be a welcoming party for them. Whatever kind of welcome we need. All he’s said to me was to wait for him to board.”
“No mention of . . .” I looked around at the engineers making calls and coordinating repairs. The Conglomeration had gotten several good hits in. Amira had routed us around unsafe corridors to get us to the core. I lowered my voice. “. . . our little problem back on the Trojans?”
“No.”
“Amira, can you help them with their ship?” That would get her focused on something besides the damn ghost she’d killed. Taking her along to meet Anais right now might not be the best move.
She nodded, a little distant. “Yes. I can do that.”
“Thank you.” I nodded at Ken. “Let’s go see what we need to do about Anais.”
“Okay.” Once more out into the mess of it all, I thought as Ken’s helmet snapped up.
+ + + +
Anais came through a service airlock with his platoons spreading out in front of him like a metallic shockwave. Once the bay was secure, the nervous engineers with their handmade weapons gently pushed back out into the corridors, I moved forward. A wall of crimson-painted armor parted to let me through.
“Hello, Hart,” Anais said, helmet down, looking me over. “You have the ship. Well done.”
“I’m not sure—” I started to say.
“Oh, you did well. The leadership of the carrier, who had been under the threat of a Conglomerate spy holding them hostage, contacted us once they were freed and worked to help get systems back online to try and help us fight the attack. Now we’re all gearing up for the second wave that’s on its way. Couldn’t have done it without you, Hart. Well done, soldier.”
We were face to face now.
Ken shook his head. “We were supposed to kill them all for you; now you’re saying they were never really a mutiny? What the hell is this?”
Anais leaned forward. Then, slowly, he repeated himself. “The leadership of the carrier helped get systems back online to fight the Conglomeration after the hero of the Darkside War killed a Conglomerate plot to take the carrier over. What do you not understand?”
“The fact that it is not true,” Ken gritted.
“But it is true,” Anais said. “And if you disagree, Ken, you put the lives of every single one of those engineers in here at risk. If they’re truly mutineers of their own design, then they’re to spend the rest of their lives in jail or face execution for treason against the Accordance. So, Ken, what happened here? Truly?”
“This is playing public relations; this isn’t about the war.” Ken folded his arms.
Anais leaned in close, grabbing Ken’s neck ring. “War is public relations, son. It’s about how to bring the coffins home. Triumphantly, or secretly. It’s about telling everyone at home the enemy is so evil that unless we throw all our might against them, all is lost. It’s about convincing ourselves we’re all on the same page or it all falls apart. There is no war without PR. Never has been.”
“So, you’re saying the Conglomeration are not evil?” Ken shot back.
With a laugh, Anais let go of Ken. “Hell no, Awojobi. They’re evil as all fuck. What I’m asking is, do you want all these engineers here so we can pilot some of these carriers back to Titan, along with the rest of the CPF, and take back Titan? Or do you want to stand here and debate CPF operational tactics?”
Ken’s eyes widened. “We’re going back?”
“If your folks will lower their defense screens, I have an entire company waiting to jump out into the dark and over to the hull. We boogie out, but we leave enough hardware back here to keep fighting the next wave of Conglomeration coming for the Trojans. I’m here to retake Shangri-La and rescue more of our people. See the big picture, Awojobi?”
“And we’re coming with you?” I asked warily, waiting for some kind of trap to snap shut on us.
Anais turned his focus on me. “You hoping to stay behind, Hart? Or does all this sound too good to be true?”
“Seems like a very sudden reversal of fortune,” I said carefully. “All things considered.”
“Things like the very strange story that came out of your barracks?” Anais asked.
“What strange story would that be?” I projected nothing but puzzled curiosity. But inside, I felt like I was about to be tossed out of the bottom of a hopper dusting out on a fast drop.
“The unbelievable story of an Arvani officer who claims you disabled his suit and tied him to a bed frame, leaving him there during the attack.”
I looked at Anais and cleared my throat. “That’s—”
“Can you imagine that?” Anais interrupted. “The heroes of the Darkside War, who fought bitterly to the end on the plains of Shangri-La, the enders of the Trojan mutiny, tying an Arvani officer up like that? No one else could believe it either. His superiors felt a pack of mere humans couldn’t be capable of that. It was a tall tale to justify an officer hiding away in a closet during an attack. And the struthiform officers were a bit unimpressed that this Arvani claimed to have been trying to execute a multiply decorated struthiform medic as a defense. Sthenos is no longer a problem.”
“What happened?”
“Sthenos has been promoted,” Anais said. “A delightful and cushy position that takes our mutual friend back to the moon. No active control of any fighting force ever again. And out of our hair.”
“He gets promoted?” Ken hissed. “For incompetence?”
“Do anything like that to a remotely competent Arvani,” Anais warned, a blank expression on his face, “you’ll be executed within a day. And I’ll be the one to explain why you all were traitorous bastards undeserving of the tag ‘hero.’ Understand, Arvani care about Arvani. So, you got off easy, and mainly because I’m absolutely pleased to find that the Rockhoppers’ ability to do the right thing while still following orders is still in effect. That’s not always an easy finesse.”
“So glad to be there for you.” The sarcasm dripped from Ken in the empty space.
Anais continued, ignoring it. “So, you get to go back with me. I’m to take Shangri-La, and I want you in my landing team so that when we broadcast the retaking of Shangri-La, the heroes of the Darkside War are the first on the ground for our cameras. The CPF needs the boost. I need the story. I haven’t been putting my own ass on the line here with stunts like taking care of Sthenos because I like you. Got it?”
“We’ll be there with you,” I said.
“Fantastic,” Anais said enthusiastically. “I’m going to give the good news to the rest of your platoon and start bringing everyone aboard. Let’s get everyone here fired up to go take back what’s ours!”
He headed out to the corridor, surrounded by armor.
“Everything that man says is a lie wrapped in truths to get you to do something he needs,” Ken said, watching everyone file out.
“We have a chance to get back to Shangri-La and save people we had to leave behind.” I shook my head. “That has to be worth it. We came out the other side of a real mess, Ken.”
“We’re pawns. All he wants is our triumphant return to the ground. Your celebrity. To get more people to join the CPF.”
“They need recruits. We’re in a war.”
“Fucking Conglomeration,” Ken said wearily.
“It doesn’t matter how, or why, but we’re getting a chance to put a boot up their ass. Let’s take it.”
Ken nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go give Shriek the good news. We’re going back into the grinder. He’ll love a chance to tell us we’re all going to die.”
I snorted. “Our cheerful feathered friend owes us all drinks forever; I hope he realizes that.”