Ying had been exaggerating, but only a tiny bit. An event at House Yamado where all three High Houses were scheduled to attend had been targeted. There were a few pictures of smoking buildings, some pleas for help, a picture of what seemed like at least a battalion of soldiers, and then nothing.
Messages to Serenity went unanswered and the RCDF ships dispatched to check it out had not returned or sent any word. At least not any public word. The military reports from the RCDF to the House’s private network told a different story.
Four ships had been sent. Two were destroyed almost immediately by Earth’s ground-based defenses. The third became a shield for the fourth to get a message out, but the gate was unavailable—either powered down or destroyed, the message didn’t say. The fourth ship had just enough time to launch a com drone with a manually plotted jump point near Andromeda Prime before it was presumably lost as well.
Four large military vessels, destroyed in a blink.
RCDF was in an uproar, as they didn’t know who the attackers were or how many forces they had on the ground. They also didn’t know who was in charge, if any of the High Houses had lost their leaders, or if this was a coup attempt by one or more Houses.
It was chaos.
On top of that, reports were coming in of attacks in other areas, including one in Sedition. The holo image showed a smoking ruin where Rhys Sebastian’s home used to sit. I’d visited it once because it was also the home were my sister Ada lived.
Terror stabbed deep, and I prayed to any god who would listen that she’d made it out alive. Or better, that she hadn’t been there at all.
Despair and helplessness threatened to drown me, but I didn’t have time to break down. I needed a plan and I needed it now. I sent an emergency message to our sibling channel asking for status updates. Anyone with a signal would get an audible alert, no matter the time.
“This was a coordinated attack on the High Houses and all of their heirs. Ying, do you know the status of any of your family members?”
Her face was still too pale, but her voice was steady. “No. My parents and both of my brothers were on Earth. You?”
“My parents were on Earth, but my siblings were not. They also hit Ada’s house in Sedition, but I don’t know her status. Benedict is at war. Hannah, Ferdinand, and Bianca didn’t publicly disclose their locations, but they haven’t responded to my messages, either. Do we know anything about Rockhurst? As far as I know, Richard is in Antlia with Benedict. Anyone else?”
“I think Elizabeth was off-planet, but I don’t know for sure. Is it the lower houses?”
“Some of them, certainly. Riccardo Silva met with Lord and Lady James in their study tonight, so I would not be surprised if the Syndicate was also involved.”
“They have to know they can’t hold Earth. What is their plan?”
I wasn’t so sure about the first part. Earth was designed specifically to be a stronghold for the Consortium elite. It had the best orbital and ground-based space defense complex in existence, but a relatively small deployment of ground troops because no one expected a ground war. With a few carefully placed traitors, a battalion could take the command center, and if their info was good, then they knew about the backup location as well.
But if their information wasn’t good, then there might be a chance to turn the tide. Only a few people knew about the backup command center, and, aside from Ying and myself, they were all unaccounted for. Unfortunately, that meant I was my family’s best hope. I wished I had Ada’s confidence or Bianca’s intelligence. I would even take Benedict’s boisterous arrogance.
But all I had was me.
It wasn’t enough, but I was still a von Hasenberg—I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I had to get to Earth in order to help. And one tiny ship, fast and undetectable thanks to heavy stealth, might be able to slip through the defenses.
It was potentially suicide, but it was possible.
And then Benedict and the RCDF and anyone else who wanted in on the fun could come in to sweep up the ground forces.
I took a deep breath. “Presumably, they intended to wipe out the existing High Houses, and then use the power vacuum to divvy up the spoils and name some new High Houses. By surviving, we’ve thrown a bit of a wrench in that plan, but I have to get on-planet and get the defenses down before the lower houses decide that maybe the Syndicate isn’t so bad after all. We can’t afford a war with everyone.”
“Absolutely not,” Aoife said. At the same time, Ying asked, “Are you serious?”
“I am. But I’m happy to let you out wherever you’d like to go.”
Ying’s jaw firmed. “They have my parents and Tae. I will go with you.” Her oldest brother Hitoshi did not merit a mention.
“Neither one of you is going anywhere,” Aoife said. She stood and paced, glaring at us.
“I’m not asking you to go. I will drop you back in Honorius and pay for your starliner fare to wherever you like, Aoife, you and Alex both.”
“I’ve studied Earth’s defenses.” She slashed her hand through the air. “It’s suicide.”
“For a big ship, maybe. Chaos is small and nimble, with the best stealth technology money can buy. If any ship can break through, we can.” If I didn’t fuck it up. And that was a pretty big if.
“Or you can die like everyone else. Let’s say you get to the ground. Then what? Are you going to single-handedly take out that battalion I saw in the pictures?”
“If I have to.”
She laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “You sound just like your sister, but at least she had the good sense to have a plan and take backup.”
I flinched as the barb hit. Even if it wasn’t true—I did intend to have a plan and as much backup as I could manage—it drove home how everyone saw me. Stupid, worthless Catarina. Good for socializing and nothing else.
It was a mask I’d voluntarily donned, but sometimes it was unbearable. And sometimes, I wondered if it was a mask at all.
“What is going on?” Alex asked from the doorway.
“Catarina is planning a suicide mission. Maybe you can talk her out of it.” Aoife stormed from the flight deck.
Ying stood. “I’m going to go check on Cira. We will talk later, yes?” When I nodded, she, too, left the room.
To keep myself busy, I plotted a course for Sedition on APD Zero. I could get in the queue, drop Alex and Aoife off in Honorius with sufficient fare for a starliner anywhere, and then go check on Ada. But rather than giving me a place in the gate queue, I got back an error. Alex said something I didn’t catch. I waved him off while I frowned at my console and tried again.
Nothing.
The gate wasn’t responding. I looked at the time stamps on the news I’d been reading. The newest articles were from almost two hours ago. When I refreshed the feed, nothing new came up. I switched to a local news source and found I wasn’t alone.
No one could get jump coordinates or communications through the gate. Even HIVE was down. We were effectively cut off.
The attackers had instigated an emergency lockdown of every gate in the ’verse. Designed to be used in cases where quarantine or containment were necessary, individual gates could be remotely disabled from Serenity, but it hadn’t been used in my lifetime—at least, not that I knew of. And I’d never heard of a case where all of the gates were disabled at once.
It would’ve taken at least three high-ranking RCDF officers to authorize the lockdown and they shouldn’t have acted without a signed order from the Royal Consortium. We had traitors upon traitors.
A message popped up from Skout, who ran the gang of street kids in Honorius. They’d kept it infuriatingly brief: The Syndicate is in Honorius. Rumor has it, they’re looking for you. Watch your back. You can send my payment to the usual account.
The last line made me smile. Skout might not accept credits as charity, but they definitely wanted them as payment for a job well done. I sent the agreed upon payment. With the gates down it would take it a while to go through, but they’d see I paid.
Alex moved closer and caught my eye. “What’s wrong?”
“Serenity was attacked, my sister’s house in Sedition was attacked, and now the gates are down. All of the gates. And I heard from Skout. They caught wind that the Syndicate was looking for me in Honorius.”
“Your sister Ada?”
I glanced sharply at him. “You know Ada?”
“No, but I know Rhys Sebastian, and I believe she was living in his house. Is there any word from them?”
“The news didn’t mention any deaths, but I haven’t heard from Ada, so I don’t know. The pictures looked bad.”
“Damn.” Alex blew out a breath and gripped the back of his neck with one hand. “What did Aoife mean by a suicide mission?”
“I’m going to Earth.”
He chuckled, but it didn’t sound happy. “That would do it. How are you going to get there without a gate?”
“Chaos has an emergency jump point near Earth.” Normally, civilian ships didn’t get emergency jump points, but I was the daughter of a High House. Once I’d started investigating House James, I’d thought it prudent to have a backup.
Emergency jump points were only used when a ship was too far from a gate and needed to jump immediately because of imminent danger. They weren’t as reliable as the gates, so they were strictly used as a method of last resort.
I’d say this qualified.
But if I jumped to Earth, I’d be stuck. I could try jumping out blind, but that was a good way to end up in an unexpected asteroid. Many cocky captains who had decided to risk the small but significant odds had fallen victim to their own hubris.
So I had to gather all of the supplies I needed before I jumped. And see if I could hire a merc unit or two to serve as backup. I changed course for Honorius.
Alex broke me from my thoughts. “Why do you want to go to Earth?”
“My friends and family are there, and I think I can make a difference.” My parents had raised me from a distance, through a series of tutors and increasingly difficult training missions. I was a House asset and treated as such. Albrecht and Maria might be bastards the vast majority of the time, but they were still my parents. Filial loyalty demanded I at least find out what happened.
“How will your presence make a difference?”
I sighed. I didn’t begrudge him for doubting me. Hell, I doubted me. “I don’t know if my parents survived. If they didn’t, our House has no direction. With the gates down, none of my siblings will be able to step in, and even if they could, I’m uniquely suited to landing in hostile territory.” It was as close as I wanted to get to mentioning my abilities, but Alex seemed to understand what I meant.
“You can’t take out a battalion.”
“No, I can’t. I’m better suited to stealth. But I can gather up our forces and hit the backup location. It’s possible the attackers don’t know about it, or if they do, that it’s only lightly defended.”
“You’ve made up your mind.”
I smiled grimly. “I have. I don’t expect you or Aoife to accompany me. You’re welcome to stay here in the von Hasenberg building until the gates come back up.” I paused and considered it. “Actually, with all of the other attacks, that might not be safe. I’ll book you into whichever hotel you prefer.”
“Why not let the rebels take over? Bow out gracefully while you can?”
“Because I don’t think they are rebels, not really. I think it’s a few lower houses and the Syndicate. And while I know the current government has problems that Father and the others are reluctant to solve, the Syndicate will be far, far worse. If they get a foothold, they’ll rule the universe even more ruthlessly than the Royal Consortium. And the lower houses working with them are idiots not to see that.”
We were interrupted when my console lit up with warnings. An unknown ship was targeting us. The automatic defense prevented them from getting a lock, but they were closing the distance. I pulled up the information Chaos had gathered.
We were being hunted by an unflagged destroyer.
“Fuck!” My hands flew over the console. I dropped us into deep stealth to cut all signals from the ship and then ramped the engines to full power to give us maneuverability. I pressed the ship’s internal intercom button. “Secure yourselves. It’s about to get bumpy.” I followed my own advice and clipped in to the restraints in my chair.
Alex dropped into the navigation and tactical console and clipped in. He tapped on the console then scowled. “Give me access to the weapons’ systems.”
I unlocked his console but warned, “There’s a destroyer on our ass. Don’t get us in a firefight unless there is no other option. I’m running stealth.”
I pulled up the list of nearby destinations. Chaos could jump up to three thousand light years without the help of a gate, but all of the big occupied planets and stations were farther away than that. Dammit. I needed supplies before I jumped to Earth.
More warnings flashed on my console and the ship shuddered as the shield deflected a blast. A blast from in front of us. A second destroyer had joined the fight. And while their systems couldn’t lock on to us, their manual targeting seemed to be working just fine.
Chaos trembled as Alex fired on the destroyer behind us, but their shields deflected the shot. I could not take on two destroyers and win.
“We’re jumping local,” I said. “Keep them off of us until I find a destination.”
I frantically searched the jump list again for the most promising option and found a small station at the very edge of Chaos’s capability. This ship had the best internals in the ’verse. If the destroyers wanted to follow us, they would have to jump twice. By the time they waited out their FTL cooldown for the second jump, we’d be long gone.
I locked in the course and slapped the jump confirmation button just as the shield took another glancing hit.
The engine noise ramped up, then fell silent as my stomach dropped and we jumped. The view changed. There was no longer a pretty planet below us, just a vast expanse of empty space. In the far distance, lights from the space station flickered like a distant star.
“Where are we?”
“S2BAP8. A small station outside the destroyer’s jump radius. I’m going to take us in. We’ll wait out the FTL cooldown on the station.”
Alex nodded in acknowledgment.
Still in stealth, Chaos wasn’t transmitting any registration data. I hastily swapped the registration to backup data that showed the ship was registered to one of the many shell companies I owned. It would not be traceable back to me, or to House von Hasenberg.
Now to see if my gamble had paid off, I brought the ship out of stealth and requested a berth. I received provisional clearance to land in bay twelve, assuming I paid a truly staggering amount of credits.
I paid.
I approved the automated flight path and Chaos headed for our home for the next six hours while the FTL cooled down. The mandatory wait gave me a convenient deadline for getting supplies and backup—if this tiny station even had any to offer.
I wasn’t holding my breath.