The platoon took over a small hold as the carrier began shaking itself up to speed. We were back to Rockhopper discipline: cleaning off our armor and checking it over. Taking stock of our weapons and sending different squad members off to the other teams to see what we could get from supplies, or beg and borrow from the other platoons that had come aboard.
No one strayed more than a few feet from their armor. Most of us rolled out blankets nearby, ready to jump up and in if needed.
“If CPF are dropping in, what are the others going to be doing?” Amira asked, forty-eight hours after we broke orbit. She had her EPC-1 in her lap and was stenciling bugkiller onto it with spray paint.
“Anais won’t say,” I told her.
“And that should tell us all something,” Ken said.
“They are worried about leaks,” Shriek said, lying down near the wall. “Can you blame them? This entire carrier now knows a secret the Arvani have been trying to keep from everyone since the start of the war. Something even I didn’t know until Icarus Crater happened.”
Amira looked up at one of the slightly warped bulkheads creaking as the carrier continued its acceleration. “There’s a good chance this whole thing will fall apart before we even get to Titan. Problem solved.”
“These are all desperation moves,” Ken said in disgust. “Half-built ships taking hastily picked-up platoons, minimal supplies . . . Our first tactical move on the surface won’t be anything that makes sense militarily; it’ll be about securing ourselves a photo opportunity. Armed jumpships swooping in to drop off the heroes of the Darkside War. We’re ordered to jump out with our helmets transparent. One sniper, one random cricket: we die. For video.”
The platoon’s squads were eavesdropping, I realized. Slowly cleaning weapons or playing cards, with bodies half turned toward us.
“This is a good thing,” I said slowly. I’d been turning something over in my mind for a long time. Something Ken said. Something I kept coming back around to.
“Why do you say that?” Amira asked, eyebrow raised.
“Because it means they need us,” I said firmly, my voice conversational but carrying. “The Conglomeration, they’re using human forces. The Accordance is using us en masse. To reinvade Titan. Ken, you were right earlier. The only reason humans could have taken over these carriers and mutinied was because they were building them. We know how they work. Just a generation ago, under Arvani, we knew nothing about their technology. Now we build their ships and run them.”
“Under their thumb,” Amira said.
“For now. What happens after?” I said. “After the war is won? After we take all this knowledge back to Earth?”
“That’s a big if,” Ken said. “People like your parents are fighting for the independence movement. Arvani say we can explore home rule after the war, but if they won’t give it to us right now, when they need us the most, what makes you believe all that knowledge will be allowed back?”
“If we make sure it goes home,” I said. “If we’re hard as hell to stop. If we turn this war around. We’ll have the tools to demand a seat at the table from the Arvani.”
A loud chattering came from Shriek. He stood up and shook his wing hands, raising them up over his head. “I love your human enthusiasm,” he said, moving toward me. I pulled back slightly as the struthiform flapped wildly, blowing the air around me until grit from the floor stung my skin.
“Shriek!”
“It’ll be an amazing thing to die along with all of you,” Shriek said. “Defiant to the end! Well done.”
He left the room without his armor.
“Rockhoppers don’t shuck!” Zizi yelled after him. But Shriek ignored her.
“It will be a tough fight,” Ken said soberly. “Zeus is still down there. Waiting for us.”
I let out a deep breath. “He trained us. He knows our capabilities.”
“And we know his,” Amira said. “Another reason I think Anais is keen to have us in the first wave, and under his command.”
Ken stood up. “Captain Calamari is a walking corpse. A dead thing which just doesn’t know it’s dead yet.” He looked around the entire room. Anger was building inside him. “I used to think I understood the Arvani. I used to think I knew where and what was best for us all, what my training taught me. I’ve unlearned all this since the Darkside War. But I shall say this: No matter what happens in Shangri-La, I will have my revenge on Zeus. You all have heard this.”
Ken’s mood had bounced from despair through ennui and on into a general frustration at having his illusions about the Accordance refactored.
But now the old Ken was back.
“Damn squid’s going to regret the day it ever heard of the Rockhoppers,” Chaka shouted out.
“Hell, yeah.” Patel smiled.